What do u mean unfit for duty? He was never fit to begin with. Now it’s time to see who worst at leading
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Yes, but before he was IDEOLOGICALLY unfit for duty, and now he’s MEDICALLY unfit for duty.
Counterpoint: I’m betting yes, he is, he’s just going about establishing his rule as such in a less obvious manner than some other people I could mention. I mean, the man just used a bunch of unknowing innocent civilians as bait for a terrorist attack. He sent an armed military operation into a neutral sovereign country without authorisation.
It’s literally not. It’s repeatedly said that the League is under the authority of the Senate, not the president (and by “authority” I mean in the same way the Queen of England is the head of state of Canada - we agree to do whatever they tell us to do, provided they never tells us to do something we don’t want to, because if we say no, what are they going to do?).
Also, he snaps his fingers at me again and I’m breaking them off.
I wish that part of the game had an option to pretend we didn’t understand what the fingersnapping was for, though not as much as I wish that when he tried to hand us the folder we could’ve said “you can carry your own goddamn folder, I’m here to be your bodyguard, not your secretary.” Actually, I’m tagging @Jjcb on this paragraph.
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Awww…poor cutie. 
But Mars is a cutie who has done no wrong. And way I see it making the best out of a bad situation regarding their superpowers is something he and my do seem to have in common.
I’m sure governor Maia would make a competent president as well, or at least my mc does.
Maybe another of the DeSantis Orban-esque illiberal democrat types…we’ll likely never fully, conclusively know in-game because unlike old school Fascism and a putsch…“illiberal democracy” is a slowly creeping form of authoritarianism…meaning it would probably take Gloria the better part of two terms to build it.
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That’s not how the US Government works. You’re under the oversight of the Senate. That means the Senate has the right to subpoena and question the Government and you. The Senate has no executive privilege but holds you account through the lens of public perception and the ability to legislate you into the ground or cut funding.
The President is allowed to do everything you said he is. Trump wiped out an Iranian General without telling Congress. Biden killed the leader of Al-Qaeda without telling Congress. The POTUS has the right to act swiftly and decisively if he feels national security is threatened.
Yelling or getting annoyed doesn’t change that fact.
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It’s how the US government works with respect to the League, as we’re told like twice during the game. As it turns out, the real-world US government doesn’t have legislation regarding who gets to ask superhero teams to do things, because, well.
The president is allowed to do everything they can get away with, just like everybody else, because as it turns out rules that aren’t enforced aren’t actual rules. Trump is allowed to incite insurrection and not get impeached, because he wasn’t. Jackson was allowed to do the Trail of Tears, but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have been shot three times in the face and fed to coyotes over it.
And this is a nice little blanket statement that lets him do whatever he wants, because “you didn’t actually feel that” is not actually provable.
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Yeah, just telling you that they enacted legislation and formed a house and senate committee to oversee. That’s not the same thing as you think it is.
Also food for thought, the G7 has national security teams of their own. We all share real-time intelligence with them. Not to mention, as far as they know without outside knowledge Forlorn, Seeker, and Ignis are the strongest heroes in the world.
The Broken King might still exist, just like how everyone thought the Russian Army was the second most powerful army in the world. If they genuinely thought they were in danger we wouldn’t have risked it.
If something smacks Forlorn, Seeker, and Ignis around as well as a bunch of powerful hero teams. Then that’s a genuine problem- but at least we know about it.
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Except the Broken King isn’t involved with the cult. Like, this is a cult to the Broken King (who I’m about 92.76% sure is still around) but the Broken King spent the last thousand years being a nothingburger who SPECIFICALLY does not give a crap about people chanting his name and trying to get him to do stuff.
Doing stuff about the Broken King is like dumping trash into the Mariana Trench for fear somebody will trip and fall in.
But this doesn’t matter, because Gloria isn’t baiting the King (because there’s only one thing that works as bait for the King, and it ain’t the G7), he’s baiting the cult.
They totally do. You know who doesn’t? The hotel staff. The people who live around the hotel. All people Gloria is actively endangering. He baited a trap to try to catch something that he knew would have effects that require the words “blast radius” to describe, and left innocent civilians smack in the middle of it.
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I think you dislike Gloria so you’re willing to make logical leaps to reinforce your dislike. As in, you want to see malice where there is none. Every time the G7 meets it’s a potential target. This doesn’t change- it’s why these events are always so secure.
He doesn’t know the Cult has people stronger than the Big 3, Japan’s team, and the EU team. Nobody does, not even the Big 3.
This isn’t meant to disqualify your dislike of the man, but it’s to provide you with context for his decision making. Gloria thinks he has sufficient security measures in place. He is being proven wrong which is unfortunate for everyone involved but it’s important to know that he lacks the high-cards he thought he had.
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But (part of) my point is that this doesn’t matter. Because you don’t need people to match the security details to turn the place into a warzone. And this is even not counting the possibility that the cult might include somebody that can mindcontrol supers, a possibility that is literally brought up in-game (jury’s still out on whether this is what’s going on with Forlorn).
There’s a major difference between the usual threat level and this meeting’s threat level.
I wouldn’t qualify it as malice. Malice would require Gloria to actively want people hurt. I’m qualifying it as rampant callousness and wilfull endangerment of innocents. Because Gloria WANTS this attack to happen. This attack happening is his PLAN. And that’s not me saying it, it’s Mars, the lappiest lapdog that ever lapped.
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Reminder that nobody is a perfect narrator. Characters can posit information and be wrong. It’s natural instinct to buy into things that you hear from NPCs that help reinforce your dislike.
If Gloria said that, then sure he’s dumb. But, it can also just be Mars projecting and making an informed assumption based on what he thinks Gloria would do.
The only perfect narrator is the author. Nobody else is.
@JBento he just got out maneuvered. He thought he had a Royal Flush until the River card was turned over and he realized. “Oh I only have a Four of a Kind- FUCK.”
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I’d be right there with you if this were Seeker, Forlorn, or Nova, who are S-class cynics. Even from Ignis. But Mars entire shtick so far is being a lapdog pushover. I’m not sure he’s capable of doing that, and if he is I’m really not seeing him sharing his suspicions unprompted with somebody his boss hasn’t already brought in on the plan.
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Honestly, you’d be surprised. He’s a player in the game- is his loyalty to Gloria or Stratton? There’s a very important distinction there. You can support a party but dislike other wings inside it. Just look at British Labour.
Here’s my simple take, Gloria got it wrong and he needs to own up to it. Which I think he will- the main thing is. The US has no early election mechanic- so the real way he’ll get punished is by becoming a lame-duck or impeached.
Which means it goes to the Speaker of the House. Not to mention, I’m sure Nova can get the actual logistical planning and documents detailing their thinking with contingencies. Which I’m sure he’ll be interested in getting since all of the NSC documents would have included threat assessments and risk assessments.
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I vote “neither”. I think his loyalty is to the JOB. I think you could put a literal hotdog in the presidential chair and Mars would still follow its orders to a T.
I think Nova’s super brain power is specifically for technology, though? This feels more like a Seeker/Forlorn thing.
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It’s all stored on secure databases that this man probably developed for the Feds. Trust me, if he thinks that Gloria set up the G7 as a sacrificial lamb do you think he’d just sit by and not do some digging.
Also I think Forlorn, Seeker, and Ignis are going to be in a bit of a funk there. Namely- “Oh shit we lost- and badly.”
Also, you can like your job and hate your boss. I’m pretty sure that’s a very important part of being a worker. He essentially did tell Mars he’s out.
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I mean, they haven’t LOST (not the path I went down, anyway, unless some more content was added since I last played, which ended at you convincing Aki to try and stop Forlorn), but they’re certainly being given a run for their money. Forlorn is probably definitely gonna go on a spiral, considering… y’know.
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Yeah, I get that- but I think for the plot to advance they have to get clapped. They’ve been coasting for too long and need to get knocked down a few pegs.
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Something that I think we may be failing to take into account is what the situation ‘on the ground’ is, or at least, what it looks like to the actors in the game. Consider this:
A terrorist attack has happened in the US, one including hundreds of civilians, many wounded, and (depending on your choices) perhaps even dozens killed. This is the biggest attack on America since 9/11.
It’s been over a month since that happened.
And Gloria has squat. No leads, no peope of interest, nothing. The best intelligence agency in the world, helped by a mind-reader and the most world-traveled man in the planet, and Gloria knows nothing more than he did the day the Mind Controller cultist showed up on TV.
Then consider Crete. The one nation that could maybe shine a light on something closed its doors and told Gloria to go pound sand. When he tried to get the information anyway, his team got savaged by something they couldn’t even perceive.
Gloria has nothing with which to plan a response. At best, he can keep the League on high-alert and be on the lookout for the next attack, but not only does that leave him on the backfoot, it shows the world that you can attack American soil with impunity.
Using the G7 is a pretty callous idea in some ways, but look at it like this:
- Gloria now knows the BC has weaponry capable of standing up to powered beings.
-Gloria now knows the BC is willing to target the leaders of the Western World and think they’ll get away with it. - Gloria now (or once he gets the footage, anyway) has some inkling of how the Hero teams of the rest of the G7 stack up to the League itself (a bit poorly, but that’s still good info).
- If things go well enough Gloria may capture a high-ranking commander of the BC.
- Assuming this attack fails, Gloria restores at least some prestige to… Not the League, maybe, but the President at least. America’s might. A terrorist attack to completely cripple the United States, with machinery never seen before (right?) and the biggest thing they accomplish was to give Gloria a few cuts and dislocate his arm for a while.
The attack on the G7 may end up costing innocent lives now, but if the treasure trove of information he stands to gain allows him to save thousands of American lives in the future, is that not a gamble he should be willing to take?
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Also, America has the strongest team.
Imagine if they target Paris?
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…
Imagine?
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Doesn’t he already know this? The cult DID have Stratton jump off a building, after all. Though, to be fair, I guess the number of people who wanted Stratton to jump off a building wasn’t exactly small.
No. Are we supposed to be ok with Tuskegee stuff now? Because man did I miss that memo.
But mostly what I want is for him to get raked over the coals by everyone else over it.
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