Officially Unofficial Weekly Discussion #39: The Council at War

[UltraAlt]

On 8/3/2023 at 9:21 AM, Scarlet Shocker said:

I interviewed War Witch in 2008 at the CoH Mini-Con at Omega Sektor in Birmingham. She is adamant that the 5th Column do not represent Nazis. Both Council and 5th are fascists. Given that she was lead dev at the time, I consider that lore but I know why people assume otherwise. Either way, it does feel exceptionally good to put a fascist out of my misery in any universe.

 

Took forever, but knew I saw something about this somewhere.

 

This is from the original City of Heroes Game Manual that came with the original release of the game.

 

 

So I guess they aren't "Nazis" but more like "Neo-Nazis" as "they share the same abhorrent philosophy".

 

But I can fully understand why the game developers releasing the game in Europe would say that there was no connection between the 5th Column and the Nazis.

The DEVs also purged all their posts about banning accounts of players that exploited the AE or used it for farming.

 

 

Edited September 5, 2023 by UltraAlt

[Scarlet Shocker]

Good find.

 

Personally I don't always hate when the Devs retcon stuff to make new stories fit. I completely get why they changed the 5th Column into the Council with the launch in the EU. IT made sense and showed sensitivity. We have enough flexibility that we can consider them thing in any way we feel appropriate and I'm good with that.

[Vic Raiden]

True, but since the 5th Column has later been brought back, we now have two enemy organizations which are nigh-identical save for the logo, unit names and soldier uniforms. Sure, the Council eventually got these Nictus-infused Galaxy troops, but that does little to help the feeling that one of these two factions is kinda redundant.
 

Either way, I appreciate how much variety in enemy types they have - almost on par with Arachnos, just what a big powerful force of evil should be.

[A Cat]

5th Column have more flavor imo. Their costumes look more interesting and being related to Nazis make them seem more credible of a threat compared to a group related to the Italian facists. Let's be real, deserved or not, the Italians have the reputation of being the bumbling sidekick in that alliance. Any (re-merger?) merger would have to occur in a relatively later timeline/level arc. The conflict between the rivals is at least explicitly part of the Laura Lockhart arc. I hope any future arc uses their bases sparingly (like Laura Lockhart's arc come to think of it) since their complexity and narrowness, as I mentioned before, is pure torture. 

[Go0gleplex]

It seems the 5th Column wins in 90%+ of the confrontations I encounter in IP, SC, and Boom. With the losses the Council are taking in those fights...it's a wonder they've not been wiped out by now. 

[High_Beam]

First off I know that both groups are Facists and that the 5th column now are not the original 5th Column who were agents of the Nazis (Ubelman the Unknown).

 

It doesn't matter when I am heading for Paragon University, see that 5th Column span there right along the fence by Wentworth's.  I always stop to defeat them all then shout "Stupid Nazi's".  Its my thing and it makes me feel good because in large part, at least to me, anyone who spouts hate without reason, is a NAZI.