Magnificent Bastard Cleanup

Not sure if I am allowed to bring it up here, but another discussion I remember happening on the previous thread was an image for the Breaking Bad page. The thread leaned towards the image as a good one, but it was never added.

Image Pickin' Backlog

Go to image picking for that. Those are the new rules.

You can only write so much in your forum signature. It's not fair that I want to write a piece of writing yet it will cut me off in the mid

Bringing up an example from Hitman: Arthur Edwards. I'd brought him up before on the old thread, as his in-game profile explicitly states the following:

This strong ego and lapse in judgement is backed up by his in-universe actions: While the downfall of the Partners did go alright, his attempted recruitment of Diana is just plain stupid; almost everyone else knows that she's loyal to 47, even Tamara who doesn't dare question him, and Diana plays him like a fiddle so thoroughly that even he can't believe she betrayed him. This is also, like, the second time Diana's faked 47's death so far.

He also has a sincere lack of charisma: he tries to convince Diana to join Providence, but fails to convert her to the cause. His decision to let her join is also derided by several other Heralds (seemingly all of them aside from the super-loyal Tamara Vidal). During his time onscreen, he isn't able to truly convince anyone new to truly join his cause.

Even if he does count, his writeup doesn't showcase any of his charisma, alleged or otherwise, and will need to be commented out or cut until this is fixed.

TRS Wick Cleaning

I'd be fine with discussing cutting Edwards. As I recall many of the Hitman MBs were done by one troper with most of us unfamiliar with their specific material and your notes Golden, combined with mention of how a lot of these characters seem to almost impede on each other's planning, is enough for me to lean to get rid of him.

While we're on the topic would you be comfortable expanding the entry for Agent 47 himself? It's something we've discussed but no one has seemed to feel they've got a full grasp of the whole canon to properly rewrite him.

Oh, and FYI, I know Mir got a candidate from In Death approved, but he may have 1 more from the series, and I have 1 or 2 myself, whenever the proposal thread opens.

CM Dates; CM Pending; CM Drafts

He contacted me, he’ll be working on the writeup when he’s able to.

Cut Mikado Sannoji and Arthur Edwards.

Chop Mikado and Arthur.

NOISE IS CALLING, PICK UP PHONE

RE: 47. I'd be more than happy to rewrite him: he does have a lot of charm, effortlessly filling roles that require a lot of talking, convincing targets to be where they need to, and is even listed as The Charmer on his character page. Here's a quick one:

• Agent 47 himself is the iron-willed, stoic hitman of the series. Easily the greatest assassin in the world, 47 weaves through assignment after assignment, eliminating his targets and escaping with the world never becoming aware of his existence. He is an expert in the ways of disguise, being able to blend in as anyone, from a bodyguard to a celebrity chef, and uses these roles to corner targets alone or set up convenient "accidents". With multiple sinister conspiracies falling thanks to his skills, Agent 47 repeatedly shows why he is worthy of the title of the best hitman in the world.

How does this look?

TRS Wick Cleaning

Long-term(ish) lurker here and as much as I hate to say this but speaking as one of the few who has actually played the Hitman “World of Assassination” trilogy, I saw barely any evidence of Arthur Edwards’ so-called magnificent bastard(-ry).

In my opinion, all he seemed to do in all his cutscenes after assuming full control of the Illuminati , is to either react to any & all bad news with some ill-defined plan regarding Diana and/or 47 or try to promote Diana as his own successor within the own organisation.

So in short and giving me absolutely no pleasure in writing this, it’s a firm cut for Arthur Edwards from me.

’ed during writing this post, but if you’re think he deserves a keep and are happy and willing to overhaul his entry, then be my guest &will absolutely change my stance on him as a result.

Edited by The10thGeek on Dec 10th 2022 at 8:22:07 PM

It’s good but just so it’s not dwarfed by some of the single game entries is there a way to flesh out and elaborate on his specifics a bit more? I’ll leave it to you both if you’d like to collaborate.

10thGeek, GoldenCity agrees with cutting Athrur Edwards, I don't think you currently disagree on anything.

Anyway what I'm reading is making me leans towards a cut.

Edited by jjjj2 on Dec 10th 2022 at 3:35:21 PM

You can only write so much in your forum signature. It's not fair that I want to write a piece of writing yet it will cut me off in the mid

Cut Mikaido and Arthur

Absolute destiny... apeachalypse?

Cur Mikado. Actually, yeah, cut Arthur too for now.

Good work on getting write-ups in, folks! Here's mine:

• A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night: The titular "Girl" is a skateboarding vampire who cruises Bad City seeking prey and life experiences galore. Having existed for decades and slaked her bloodthirst indiscriminately while skillfully avoiding any exposure, the Girl took a hiatus in the desert to reflect on her life before coming to the decision to direct her murderous ways towards those who truly deserve it. The Girl kills off a variety of distasteful characters throughout Bad City, manipulating the likes of pimps and women abusers into her crosshairs to be fed upon. Hiding her vigilantism as she grows close to kindred soul Arash, the Girl winds up teaming with Arash to leave Bad City behind to seek further prospects, having sunk her seductive wiles so deep into Arash that he loves her despite his father's death at the Girl's hands.

• Spider-Man: The Animated Series: Quentin Beck, Mysterio, was a brilliant stuntman and illusionist who turned to a life of crime after one of his stunts endangered innocents. Swearing vengeance on Spider-Man for being the one to expose him, Mysterio introduced himself to the webhead by framing him for robbery and stealing the spotlight as New York's greatest superhero for a time. Later allying with the Insidious Six and assisting them in a variety of schemes made possible only by his illusions, Mysterio's saga concludes when he brilliantly escapes the authorities and teams up with Spider-Man to take down Mysterio's spurned lover Miranda. Mysterio outsmarts Miranda's schemes and ultimately sacrifices his own life to save Mary Jane's, swearing his love for Miranda to the last moment they die together in an explosion.

• Spider-Man: Friend or Foe: Mysterio is the true mastermind behind the PHANTOM threat. Abducting several supervillains and brainwashing them all, Mysterio uses them and his developed PHANTOM soldiers to collect the symbiote shards scattered across Earth and duel Spider-Man. After Spider-Man manages to collect the shards himself, Mysterio lures him to Nepal and swipes the collected shards, revealing his plans to create an army of unstoppable PHANTOM troops with them. When Spider-Man is forced to don the black suit and confronts Mysterio, the villain fights Spidey to a near standstill, and faces defeat at the wall-crawler's hands by simply sneering the hypocrisy that Spider-Man had to weaponize the symbiotes to beat him.

Since it's been two weeks I could go over Andor and why no one counts for MB....but that would be a lie since I've got a lot to discuss from that, lol, so just be ready when approval thread opens for some talk!

Edited by Ravok on Dec 10th 2022 at 12:35:20 PM

Tonight I dine on monkey soup.

He was responding to Golden’s rewrite and got ninja’d [lol] And in the end, I was the one that was mixed up

Gonna say cut to Mikado and Arthur

Edited by STARCRUSHER99 on Dec 10th 2022 at 3:58:55 PM

I'd like to contest two of the Inscryption entries, as I think they exaggerate the characters' intelligence.

Leshy:

He's a good Dungeon Master, but never displays any exceptional intelligence: he kills the player by overpowering them physically, and then stealing their soul with his magic camera. Him not leaving the camera's film in when he's not using it isn't exactly an exceptional display of wit: "I don't leave a loaded gun lying around my house when I have an untied prisoner walking around in it" is just common sense. His DMing never involves any kind of psychological manipulation of the player or reacting/predicting their moves: he allows for a linear path forward and your only choices are binary ones with little consequence to the narrative he makes. He is, if anything, somewhat shortsighted, as his final boss battle can be very easily bested by exploits in the game system he created, which he himself admits. (Notably, other boss battles in the game cannot be cheesed this easily.)

As the plan to take down PO3 when he takes over in Act 3 is a joint one with Grimora and Magnificus, I don't think that should count in his favor since we don't know which of them actually made the plan, or to what degree they all contributed.

Magnificus:

He has barely any screen time, and much of the stuff the entry attributes to his plans is never actually confirmed to done or intended by him. All we know is that his eye allows Luke to see the smears of blood/paint that lead to the puzzles getting solved: it could just as easily have been Grimora or PO3 who actually left the clues. The only evidence presented for Magnificus having been the one to come up with the plan to free them is that if the player gets through the first act without solving the puzzles, he'll send the player a hint through a vision: that doesn't actually confirm he was the one that made the plan, just that he's aware it exists and wants to help it succeed.

He is again mostly off-screen in act 2. The puzzles in his realm are no more complex than the ones in the other realms, and his deck's gimmick is pretty much universally agreed to be the least interesting to use.

As stated above in Leshy's section, the plan to take down PO3 when he takes over in Act 3 is a joint one with Grimora and Leshy, so I don't think that should count in his favor since we don't know which of them actually made the plan, or to what degree they all contributed.

Sorry folks, I saw GoldenCity’s post and quickly skimmed through it and as a result, thought he was referring to Arthur Edwards rather than 47.

As a result of my foolish actions, I’d go for a hard cut and will now carefully read all post’s concerning characters I vote for from now on.

Edited by The10thGeek on Dec 10th 2022 at 8:58:26 PM

All good 10th, you were greatly appreciated in the old thread and a welcome face back, don't feel you need to reprimand yourself, we've all misread a post

Not familiar with Inscryption and as I recall that's a complicated one, lemme see the discussion a bit first.

We do allowe characters with little screen time to count if thay show suficient Intelligence and charm, that being said Leshy and Magnificus sound like cuts.

@ Ravok, REALLY looking forward to it!

Edited by EmperorGeode on Dec 10th 2022 at 1:17:46 AM

@Agent

Great job going over Arrowfell!

So uh, to give a quick rundown on Dark Revival sense I talked on it over at CM.

Joey was a monsterous scumbag during his time as a bastard, and he and his ink self are too heroic afterwards. The Ink demon is a sadist with little plotting. Susie Campbell is...is Susie Campbell. Wilson has scheming down pat but he is a petty egomaniac who had a child-like being tortured, and is literally one line about his mom away from CM.

But uh, the true MB of the franchise returns! Sammy Lawrence! Who uh....gets the most hilarious Back for the Dead ever. As he shows up for like 20 seconds ranting about how 'its time to believe!' before getting shot and falling off a ledge, while making a Wilhelm scream.

Yeah no one keeps. Great game tho, highly recommend.

Edited by Snoketrope on Dec 10th 2022 at 1:07:51 AM

The First man

Thanks 43110, much appreciated mate!! While I’m sure glad to be back following the closure of the old threads by our Mighty Overlords, since then I’ve just been either mostly lurking / observing the Start-up thread with great interest or constantly updating my User-page to better reflect my future self.

Edited by The10thGeek on Dec 10th 2022 at 9:15:57 AM

Leaning to cut for Leshy, they don't sound particularly intelligent or magnificent.

Also Magnificus sounds like they could be as well. But I am also unfamiliar with Inscryption, so will also see how the discussion proceeds.

Edwards seems like a cut given the new info, though I'd hear out argument otherwise. Unsure on Leshy and Magnificus at the moment.

Great writeups Rav!

"For a second there, I mistook ya for a threat... but you're just a dirty little man!"

I'll have to look back on Leshy, but a lot of his deeds some down to tricking and trapping the others scribes in the first place and his magnificence comes from how well put together and flavorful his game section is.

As for Magnificus, dialogue between the scribes outright confirms the plan with the eye, clock, and fil roll were entirely his idea and the first half of the acts puzzles revolve arounf helping P03 and Grimora free Magnificus since they don't have a plan to escape Leshy. Note P03 is the stoat and Magnicifus is the wolf in the dialogue below.

Stoat: "Look. There's a third talking card somewhere around here. Personally I hate the guy. Biggest killjoy ever. But he's the only one of us with a plan to get things... back to normal..." —- Stunted Wolf: "I ought to thank you. How has it been?"

Stoat: "It has been quite bad. I am trapped in the body of a stoat in the paper of a card."

Stunted Wolf: "I see that. And I have of course set up a way to reset once more.

"Stoat: "...Go on...

"Stunted Wolf: "Our player friend here... they already hold the key..." —- Stunted Wolf: "You took the film roll...is that correct? My plan nears its moment of truth. But you must defeat him first."

Think you're tough because you made it through Lord of the Rings? Real men survive The Silmarillion.

I'll concede on him being the one to plan to use film roll to take down Leshy, but disagree that the conversation confirms more than that. PO3 says that Magnificus is the only one to have a plan to get them back to normal, not that he was the one who planned his own escape or that of Grimora.