Oh my crap! It looks like what would happen if you crossed a leopard seal with a great white shark!
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That’s what I meant. If a writer gives in to fan requests without their heart being with it, it usually turns a disaster.
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It honestly wouldn’t have been so bad if it was handled better. I love Jury as a character and would love for him to get more attention in the books and more development…
But how the games did it just felt so bad… Just a little “oh, it’s okay, he’s not dating the MC anymore” all after the fact like a tiny bandage on a huge third degree burn?
Though, I do get the feeling that Sergi just never liked Aaron and I honestly think that Baron Airon in Versus was his attempt to make him “right” as in as unlikable as possible but, I do wonder which I would’ve been more upset with: not getting to romance him at all and then seeing him with someone else, or what we got.
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Heroes Rise is his first series. Some things worked, some things failed to work initially and some things broke after tinkering with later. The way I see it, what there is right now is a hot mess and the only way out of it is to end it. The new multiple alternative endings, more then likely will be more experimentation, mixed with a bit of fan service in it.
This type of series works best with a continuous protagonist and whether you considered Jury or Prodigy such, once the father was taken out, neither was there to continue the good fight the way he retcon the romances.
I’ve seen this evolution in comic books before - Wolverine comes to my mind easily, so I expect there to be an evolutionary wave with a more “modern” take on the whole storyverse.
I haven’t seen a jumping the shark moment yet because I have not seen something written that was designed solely to draw fans back into the series or something that was outside the original scope of his writing.
I’ll leave the critique of book two until after I read it … the producer character that transferred from season one into season two is the only character I think I am interested in seeing developed more currently on the roster. I wonder if the sister will be retconned at all; my bet is she will be.
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Sidenote: And here I thought I’m the only one who gets Portugal’s name wrong.
Edit: also, looking at his twitter and seeing him talk about ‘writing a darker and grittier superhero story’… All I can say is:
Dude, you missed and are missing a platinum opportunity for a real unsettling and bizarre dystopia with HR, I don’t think you yet have the skills at worldbuilding for that… 
Could it be debated that Heroes Rise: The Hero Project was perhaps this moment? A crime-fighting superhero series suddenly turns into… USA Reality TV Simulator? I know it was very popular with the fans, but in terms of maintaining the integrity of the narrative, it certainly was a vast and unexpected shift in tone, atmosphere, setting and context.
Debatable if the shark wasn’t jumped already when you could not decline having sex with BlackMagic.
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That wasn’t great true. I think it got fixed though didn’t it?
Well,… apparently if your relationship is above…25% or 40%? the ‘no’ doesn’t mean ‘no’… which is… WTH
Oh. I played it before the update and thought it had been changed so it was optional. I know the whole magic thing, but for something like that, an option out regardless of the relationship stat would be ideal.
Yeah. I mean, even if you are in a relationship: No means No. End of discussion, no sex, put on netflix but cut out the ‘and chill’
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I remember playing back when “no” was flat out not an option, regardless of your opinion on Black Magic. I need a shower now.
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But, verily, the fact that Jury is a ‘smug creep’ is enough to make him not RO at all.
WTH (sorry, but abusing disabled people for your own ends and pretending you do something good for them is lightyears worse than ‘your dad threw my parents into jail after they killed someone and also he’s a meanie’. Honestly, how is ‘I understand’ even a bloody option after you discovered that atrocity? You should be able to waltz right into Victon’s office and go 'Dude, I have the feeling yer planning something big against powered peeps. Want a shortcut? BlackMagic’s going all Elizabeth Bathory on disabled people and thinks that’s a good thing. There you go. Now if you excuse me, I’ll grab your kid and we’ll move to the East Coast to open a seafood restaurant together. Bye.")
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Perhaps my perception of the first series has been tainted but I always felt that these stories were Survivor: Superhero Edition - I just felt the first series explored the concept from the perspective of being one of the “beauties” and the second from the perspective of being one of the “beasts” …
If you don’t consider the first series in the vein of our Dutch-Euro reality programing heritage imported to the US, then I guess you can argue it that the second series was an entire “jump-the-shark” moment. Although I would say such a “moment” is normally defined by a scene or a vignette at most.
Which brings me to consider:
Which meets the criteria of being a “moment” but not (imo) the criteria that this was designed to bring in or shore up the audience back into the series.
I also feel it is totally within the scope of the first series because Sergi has normally pre-defined the MC’s relationships to the major NPC … from the parents and the letters written by Grandmother to Jury’s availability for romance, there is very little true choice on the relationship front.
ymmv. This is why I don’t see a “Jump the Shark” or “bottoming out” moment for the series. It has been at the level it began from the beginning.
I guess the whole Jury retcon can be called a “jump the shark moment” because it was a designed gimick to bring fans back - yet it fails here because this is still totally within the scope and style that he writes. There is no sense of it being totally alien from anything else done.
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That is most beautiful backhanded compliment I ever had the honour reading 
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A bit off-topic, but isn’t it ironic that for as long as I’ve been alive our most popular (television) entertainment has always been imported, scripted US television shows. Even your silly soaps are more popular over here then their domestically produced counterparts. 
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Good point, I wasn’t taking the ‘jump the shark’ thing very literally - just meant, the first book sets you up as a crime-fighting superhero, and then (for me at least) dashes your expectations of a kickass story about vigilante super-powered justice.
To reiterate: the second book isn’t bad or anything, but it subverted my expectations severely which put a dampener on the whole experience. Still seems weird to me that after all this time we don’t have a solid superhero IF series available on CoG / HG.
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First of all
Thank you for those nightmares.
I used to think otters were cute but now… now I’m thinking that they’re planning to become the next world dictator.
Anyway, I have to say I am fairly surprised. I honestly don’t remember that much of The Hero Project but I remember that at the end it definitely felt like there was a lot more that had to be addressed/done. Then I heard about the old MCs chapters and I’m… not really sure how I feel about that? I guess the one situation I could see it having a place would be with the whole Jury thing but since I’ve never romances Jury I guess I couldn’t help but wonder ‘Why?’ The old HR felt like a complete story with a complete ending for the MC so… yeah, I just kinda wondered what else there is for the MC to say/do.
But now with that inclusion and the fact that this is supposed to be the last book I can’t help but wonder just how much is going to be in it. Sergi is a very experienced writer from what I understand and have read so that gives me some faith but I’m always hesitant with stories that try to tell, well, too many stories. Of course, I also have no idea how long it’s supposed to be so if it’s long enough to give each story the space it needs to breathe then I suppose there’s nothing to worry about.
I dunno, I guess this news will make me approach it a bit more cautiously when it comes out.
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See. That also kind of bugged me. On one hand, for the people who did a romance that was a bit underwhelming (Jury or Prodigal) it’s would be nice for there to be a bit more content if those are what the chapters are focused on. The other hand is what about the people who romanced BM or Lucky or Jenny. I’m sure the chapters could still get a bit more attention to those romances but I think when it comes to ROs each one should get roughly the same amount of content so the player doesn’t feel like “Well, this one is more focused on so this must be the right one.”
I was happy to hear about the chapters about the old MC at first. Sergi had already set up that we will get go see other people’s perspectives in RS (though if that was a good or bad thing for that book is another thing) so it’s not like it wouldn’t fit in with RS’s style. Plus when I thought that there was going to be another book after this I was thinking “oh. We get to see what our MC is doing and maybe get a little RO content. Maybe even set up that we could fix things with Jury in the next game.” But cramming everything into one book? Hmm.
Plus… If I recall correctly didn’t the end of RS kind of hint towards there being aliens or something? On one hand, I am always up for aliens and I think HR and Versus take place in the same Universe so it wouldn’t be totally out of left field… but I don’t want the two series to completely converge either. I know Sergi said something about the future of the HS series “being bright” and I’m pretty curious what he meant.
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“Being bright”
Maybe you get to stand under an extra big spotlight on the show? 
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