I found terribly annoying, I hate over protection people i feel like he want to jail pc or something. I understand people could consider that a good trait somehow. I find it like a over jealous husband that doesn’t get the clues of a terrible stat in relationship. I am coming from a character is not even friends with him and has not being flirty with him ever. His reaction is normal for a friend or for a ex lover but not in my opinion for someone that doesn’t care and doesn’t want anything and never wanted anything or is not even interested in that genre to begin with. Somehow is fitting with the whole theme of unhealthy feelings and people trapped in unhealthy relationships and being frustrated. However my pc will jump and swear at him if he interrupts Herald and Doom future. lol Poor Mara trying to hang Rangers to see herald and all it gets is moustache man creepy trying flirting 
your MC has history with Ortega . In Book 1 , you can choose if it was just innocent flirting or much more . And you can choose to continue the past relationship or not in the demo of book 2 .
if you didn’t pick the flirt (relationship) , I’m guessing the game consider your MC as a friend and an ally . And Ortega is reacting to your death which He (Or she) think is their fault . Hence being overprotective . They believe , back then when they were Marshall , leader of the group…they screw up big time . 2 peoples died on their watch .
So it’s mostly guilt . And Ortega is a hero . Have been a hero…kinda come with the job describtion to poke you and be a naggy grand Ma or (Pa) and be worried about you .
now…no bad mouthing Ortega…cose she is Life lol .
I am talking with a female Ortega and a heterosexual cis female Mara there is no flirtation due this concrete Mara is not into girls. As I said eith my other characters friendly and or in love has lot of sense. But with a hetero stuff when She just was my boss the reaction is not logical. Except she is into Mara and poor Ortega can’t end well as she is not interested at all and is gigglin to Herald muscles. I hope duno find her a girlfriend or something?
I gladlly volunteer…
I can come and steal Ortega for you! as long as you come and take Herrrald away 
Double Herald and doom ?!!! Where Have i to sign lol? 
why did you pick herald anyway ? You just complained above about ‘overprotectiveness’ , where Herald…is a stalker .
why not pick STeel ? he has a puppie…everyone love those lol
Lol YOU DON’T KNOW HOW SEXY HE IS IN MY HEAD CANON OH MY GOD LIKE A GREEK STATUE. 
I am rhe one going to ranger base to look at him lol not other way
Just allow me this tiny line: Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
Hi Mara! I think its been like years since we last talked, nice to see you!!
was playing the demo…and saw this : Death. Rebirth. Revenge. Anger. Love.
do you think , these are the theme of next books?
…Herald is a stalker?
As far as the game goes, nope! An excited guy and a devoted fan in his youth, but not veering into creepy
I think it’s more of the central theme of the entire story.
Well, since we’re in the Retribution demo thread, yeah. For my MC, he followed her after she left the Rangers HQ, grabbed her off the street and trapped her high up on a rooftop where she couldn’t escape. She fucking clocked him and isn’t super fond of him at the moment. (She has the suicide scar which was triggered due to the height, and I rolled with the RP).
I think in general there is a double way to understanding Herald and Ortega. Both are same level however one is consider protection and other stalker for most people. Ortega is creeping my character who is not into her sex and running around like a over jealous husband in a insane relationship where my character give a shit Ortega . However my character is trying flirt Herald each second she has so for me the creepy is Ortega.
I think both reactions are exactly similar all depends in character perception of the actions So I agree Herald can be perceived as a stalker same as i firmly believe Ortega can be perceived as such.
I think unhealthy relationship dependency depression and obsession will be themes of the series and is something I love the deepness and the different perspectives.
In my playthrough if there is someone stalking is Doom to Herald not the other way … i even grab his ass so as i said all depends perspective
Well tbf, both of them are stalkers and Argent and Steel are the only sane ones.
Absolutely nope both are also unhealthy dependence relationship with a similar dinamic. Steel feels guilty is also in denial of his personal situation and in a severe stress. And Madame hardcore Argent is in a destructive phase that doesn’t know what feels anymore and severe stress also denial of her own desires and her own condition.
As I said with Herald and Ortega is a theme in series a very mature theme that deep in fear, guilty depression need of affection and the fear of it same time. It also deals with a problem i had in real life so it touches me deeply. After i suffered the rape attempt even if I was successful in my defence I have big problem to left a man outside my dad or my best friend touches me My body and nerves reaction with extremely anxiety and nearby aggressive it was something I could not control. Therapy and group therapy with other victims helped role-playing therapy helped still is something i would carry in less grade all my life. So when I see pc reactions in a way I see the teen i was and the anxieties and fear. So this game is in a way therapeutic to me and scary. And reason why I am so sensitive with other people commentaries this game plays near home.
Whereas my mc starts out loathing the kid and seeing him as a cheap replacement for the old SideStep and in general everything he once though he wanted to but never could be. But in the end my mc does gradually end up slowly falling for the kid more and more. He still doesn’t exactly regret the vicious beat-down he handed the kid tho as that seems to be what both motivated Herald to try harder, which my mc grudgingly admires and Herald’s slight new limp is really sexy to my mc because with it he has now marked Herald as “his” even if the poor kid doesn’t know it.
He’ll never do it again, but he can’t deny he’s secretly pleased with the results.
Same for my mc really, they even desire to take similar measures to get rid of the denial. As both Argent and my mc want to get rid of their unique conditions in order to move on with their lives.
Still, I agree that even if she was the right gender a romance between those two would not really be a healthy thing and it probably wouldn’t last all that long.
Seems your experiences with it have been much better than mine as I refuse to ever go near a quack “psychiatrist” ever again, no matter what! But then most of my psych issues turned out to be simply comorbid symptoms of my celiac’s, yet they were all the medical establishment ever seemed to show a hint of interest in during my youth and of course it only got to be that way because some asshole once wrote in my medical files that everything was “in my head” and I had an overprotective mother.
Turns out I did not have anorexia, nor most of the other stuff they tried to push on me and although the depressions certainly were real they were simply symptoms that have gone away and have not returned ever since I’ve lived gluten-free.
Anyway coming back to the game, I think given his experiences with the Farm’s “doctors” it is the same for my mc, not only for mental health care but even for regular doctors as well. My mc here really does not like the medical profession. Fortunately visiting the shrink or not is totally optional in this game.
many of my mates in therapy had really bad experiences with old school psychological healthcare. I was very thankful due I was part of a modern centre focused in minor problens as abuse rape and anorexia is was a center to pass certain hours each day and you could have a normal life in home also I had a very supportive family not like others surrounding me . So my experience with therapy support it was realy positive however i know i was really lucky both my country healthcare due no way my family could pay that level of care is what in Usa be a suer wealthy clinic that cost a fortune. See the best thing my country has the healthcare system.
This also reflected in game for me the fact there is no universal healthcare and people die without calling an ambulance or have a treatment due is expensive… For me is mind blowing.
My objective with this series is make a character that overcomes the illness and is a proud person and happy. It is a powerful way of exorcism my inner demons. Here power or evil or anything else is secondary.
Yeah, our mental health system used to be a public-private mess before the rest of it, so I don’t think I got the best standard of care.
Anyway back to the game my mc here has even more reasons than real life me to dislike the medical establishment and not limited to mainly the mental healthcare “professionals” but all of them due to his experiences at the farm.
Which is why it would be a delightful irony if the regeneration tech works and he might commercialize it and turn his current shell company into an actual medical technology and pharmaceutical one.
In the US system and even more so here that’s basically a free license to fleece the medical establishment. 