'On The Run' arc goes off the rails.

[Luminara]

This arc starts out well enough.  Missing person, Big Pharma possibly involved, okay, that works.  But, only five missions into the arc (which is seventeen missions in total), it just falls apart.  You discover that the missing woman had a criminal record, and supposedly died in Europe years ago, but the body returned to the woman's mother is discovered to be that of someone else, not the missing woman.  Janet Kellum concludes that the missing woman murdered the other woman and stole her identity.

 

And that's the problem with this arc.  This is the moment when it stops working.  The story portrays young Julianne Thompson as an idealist crusader seeking to unite heroes to combat a host of societal ills, rather than simply "fight crime", and then makes a massive U-turn in rush hour traffic (without using a turn signal!) with a single reference to a criminal history and a dubious conclusion that she must be a murderer and identity thief.

 

There isn't even a nod to whatever Julianne did to warrant a felony conviction.  For all we know, based on the narrative as it's presented, she was arrested for protesting, or rescuing animals from a testing facility, or marching in a Free The Nipple parade.  Not one word is spent explaining how a socially conscious, moral person could degenerate to ending someone else's life and stealing their identity.

 

Worse, though, is the accusation of murder.  Where's the evidence for that?  There isn't any mention of how Clarissa van Dorn died.  Nothing.  She could've died in her sleep.  She could've died in the middle of a socialite party after snorting too much blow and having a heart attack.  She could've gone swimming and drowned.  If she was murdered, there's no evidence presented to indicate that Julianne did it.  Nothing.  The narrative doesn't even specify that Clarissa was murdered, only Janet Kellum is saying that, and she offers absolutely no evidence to support her accusation.

 

So, based on Ms. Kellum's wild and unsubstantiated claims, you break into Crey buildings, assault Crey employees, eventually uncover some evidence of illegal activity... this isn't heroism, it's a grudge, a vendetta against someone you hate and want to see brought to her knees.  You're so determined to find some way to hurt Countess Crey that you break all of the laws you used to uphold.  And even if you were to try to use this to "clear" your name, which has only been tarnished because you slandered the Countess by accusing her of crimes of which you have neither proof of, nor even evidence they even occurred, no prosecutor in the world, not even in a pretend world, would ever consider allowing it in a trial.  It's fruit of the poison tree, it's evidence you obtained while conducting illegal activities and not only would that evidence be thrown out in any court, any evidence linked to it would also be inadmissible.  This is the kind of stuff that destroys your name permanently and ruins any chance of obtaining a conviction, not turns the case around and sets you free.

 

And then, instead of going to the police, you break more laws by entering Crey property illegally, destroying Crey property and corrupting Crey data... and the PPD pats you on the back, tells the press what a wonderful, upstanding citizen you are and offers you the opportunity to "bring in" the Countess?

FUCKING WHAT?  WHAT?

 

Nothing about this arc is heroic after the fifth mission.  It's potentially the best vigilante arc in the game, though, because this is exactly that kind of thing, vigilante justice.  You and Janet decide someone's bad and needs a beating, and you go on a one-person crusade to hand-deliver said beating.

 

I get the whole, "Big business is evil" mentality, but this arc just goes too far.  The logic is so specious, the conclusion jumping so powerful that it could be a travel power by itself, that it's just bad.  I'm actually sorry I stopped to read any of the text this time, because I rather enjoyed fighting Crey before.  I enjoyed the arc before.  Now... I just feel like a moron for blindly and blithely letting Janet Kellum use me for her personal vendetta against the Countess.

 

This arc is desperately in need of better writing if it's going to remain part of the game, because as it stands, it's just wrong.  Janet Kellum is a manipulative, lying asshole as far as I'm concerned.

[catsi563]

thats acutally a somewhat common story telling trope here and there. Random person with a good heart or convictions meets rich person whose not a good person but may or may not be having a change of heart. the two are similar in looks that they could not quite or almost be twins

 

the rich person ""dies"" and the other one takes their place on a lark or as part of a misunderstanding and the charade takes on a life of its own with the new person using the other ones identitiy to do good deeds and correct the other persons reputation as a ""bad guy""

 

eventually the scam is exposed by some well meaning hero and either the truth comes out with the other person being seen as a hero but the lesson of good deeds done based on a lie are tainted  or the hero keeps the secret to allow the good deeds to continue but with the caveat that theyre watching and if the person ever turns bad theyll come for them

[tidge]

Welcome to Blue side, Hero.

[Coyotedancer]

I've always felt as if that particular arc was like a mystery authored by someone who had never actually read one... They'd *heard* of these things called "mysteries", and kind-of sort-of got the gist of what they were usually about... But didn't quite understand it well enough to really pull it off.

 

It's like the Mystery-story version of one of those AI-generated inspirational quotes. 😝

 

 

 

Edited June 9, 2021 by Coyotedancer

[GraspingVileTerror]

Thank you so much for bringing this up, @Luminara!  It's one of the arcs that irks me most profoundly.  There are a few more which have similar issues, either from a narrative disjoint or just a totally "uh, that ain't kosher!" moment in the story.   (Speaking of . . . did anyone notice Piecemeal's new Hero arc establishes Paragon City as a Police State?  Whoops!  Whoopsie!)

 

Also, @Coyotedancer . . . that website makes me feeling incredibly seen!  Creepy!

Doesn't help that it was a big green HAL eye-ball while loading that image . . . 

[GastlyGibus]

I'm glad someone finally brought this up. I'd been meaning to, but I figured nobody really cared about a 17 year old legacy arc from when the game first launched.

My two biggest issues with it are, firstly, what you brought up: Janet Kellum provides absolutely no evidence whatsoever for her bold accusation that Julianne murdered Clarissa. Secondly, you're on a missing person's case, looking for some girl who disappeared ten years ago, and then when Night Fox mentions "I think she died" Janet just magically finds a body and gets it shipped to the US. I thought this girl was supposed to be missing? Yeah, I get that we're supposed to believe she faked her death and stole Clarissa's identity, but even with that being the case, how come nobody thought to inform her family? You find a body, you apparently know enough about it to guess that it's Julianne Thompson, but nobody thought to pass the news along to anybody???

Crey isn't necessarily a "big business is evil" mentality as much as they're this game's version of LexCorp. Countess Crey is similar to Lex Luthor in a lot of ways. The smart, talented, but also evil businesswoman who uses her public persona of philanthropy to hide her evil intentions. All of the contacts and missions that deal with Crey show that, no matter what kind of evil stuff they get caught doing, they always have some kind of convenient excuse or plausible deniability to prevent charges from sticking. It's a fine trope to use, and I'd really like to enjoy Janet Kellum's arc where you can finally stick it to Crey and expose them.

But, as you've accurately described, the entire arc is one hot mess. It really would be nice if the arc was handed to someone more experienced with writing murder mystery/conspiracy stories, since that's clearly what they were going for. But all of it just makes no sense, and flies directly in the face of not only heroism, but logic itself.

Edited June 10, 2021 by GastlyGibus

[Vulpoid]

Sort of a tangent, but I have always felt bad breaking up troll raves in caves in The Hollows.
They are literally just hanging out having drum circles. I would rather join them!