The scale is garbage derived from imagining +11 actions going +12 different ways. But sometimes when I'm bored I like making tables in excel. Maybe a better way of defining chance of upsetting would be the likelihood of 1 bad day collapsing the house of cards? I'm not giving this as much thought as is probably warranted.
Yeah, but the problem is that you've rated a whole lot of characters as "1s" who aren't on remotely the same level of "willingness to turn against us," and who don't have the same thresholds of "what would it take to turn them against us."
And, of course, the part where there's no clear metric.
Like, if you wanted to do this, you'd systematize it. Make a rubric. Let's see...
Chance of Antagonization
This assesses the likelihood that a hero will adopt a negative view of DEI, Dr. Doof, or both, such that they would be motivated to leave DEI or to attack us in some way-
which of these things they would do would be a function of other numbers. CoA is determined by evaluating the following parameters on a 0-2 point scale and adding the results:
- Possession of dangerous secrets (on either side) that would undermine trust.
- Likelihood of us taking courses of action that would antagonize them.
- Likelihood of reconciliation if
plausible secrets are revealed or
likely courses of action are pursued.
- Likelihood that the hero will respond to broken trust by leaving or by attacking.
- Possession of a 'Plan B' for what to do after leaving the company
- Lack of special ties to Dr. Doofenshmirtz
...
For example, no secrets we possess or are likely to possess are likely to antagonize Ghengis Khan, and we're fairly sure he has no secrets that would remotely justify
us firing
him. ZERO. We are vanishingly unlikely to do anything that would specifically antagonize him. ZERO. Genghis Khan is relatively likely to at least consider talking things out with us in the event that we do something that upsets him. ONE. Genghis Khan has a long history of responding to betrayal with maximum overkill; ask Jamukha and the Khwarazam Shah how that turned out. TWO. Ghengis Khan has no obvious "Plan B" for what to do with his life if he weren't working for us, but he's an atomic-powered low level superhero, a tactical genius, and naturally gifted at wilderness survival, so he could probably figure something out. ONE. Genghis Khan feels closer personal ties to Dr. Doofenshmirtz than to any other man living. ZERO lack of special ties.
Total: 4/12. This is about as low as "likelihood of antagonism" can be without the character being a total milquetoast or a totally abject and fanatical follower.
...
Janus Lee has dangerous secrets in that he is apparently plotting to replace humanity with reptiloids of some kind. TWO. It is very unlikely that we will specifically start shit with him, but if Plan Reptiloid ever achieves fruition in the long term, we're gonna be trying to stop him, which would in turn antagonize him,
technically... eventually. ONE, because it's a long term issue. It is vanishingly unlikely that Janus would forgive us or reconcile with us, unless we peacefully talked him out of the whole Reptiloid plan, which is not inconceivable I suppose? ONE. If Janus decides we are an enemy, he's gonna start gunning for us if he has the resources to do so, and if he doesn't, he'll leave. He's not gonna stand around waiting. TWO. He probably
doesn't have much of a Plan B, because singlehandedly pursuing a massive genetics program to replace humanity is not the kind of thing you can do without resources. On the other hand, Janus has some very marketable skills. ONE. Janus feels no special ties to Dr. Doof that I know of. TWO.
Total: 9/12. This is so high that we should probably treat a clash with him as inevitable, once his own mad science schemes come to fruition.
...
Phineas and Ferb- well, they have no secrets that would offend
us, but we killed Perry the Platypus and they'd be very hurt if they found out about that. TWO. It is moderately likely that we'll do something
new that they're just not okay with, but Doof is actually a pretty good guy so it's far from certain. ONE. It is very likely that Phineas and Ferb would at least be willing to talk to us if we did something they don't like or if they found out about Perry, and Doof feels genuine grief and remorse about killing Perry, and P&F are naturally quite forgiving people ready to believe the best of others, so we'd have a good chance of talking them into forgiving us. ZERO. If we
did break their trust, and they couldn't get over it, they'd definitely leave. TWO. They have no trouble figuring out how to make their own fun or find something else to do with their time. TWO. And they frankly have no special ties to us other than the Mysterious Force, so TWO.
Total: 9/12. This is for very different reasons... but we should probably treat a
confrontation with Phineas and Ferb over Perry's death as dramatically inevitable, sooner or later.
...
Wendy Wower- We have no villainous secrets that would
necessarily drive her away, but she's not entirely unscrupulous and we've done some shit now and then. ONE. We're very unlikely to do anything that would seriously offend her, and we've already taken the precaution of giving her credit for a major advance instead of stealing it, and we're likely to keep giving credit in the future. ZERO. If we do offend Wendy, she'll probably at least be open to giving us a chance to make amends. ONE. If we offend her, she's very likely to respond by leaving the toxic work environment, much as she did at the end of her partnership with Trengrove. TWO. She has no clear 'Plan B,' though her reputation as an AI researcher would probably carry her into
some kind of employment. ONE. She feels real gratitude to Dr. Doof for having her genius appreciated. ONE.
Total: 6/12. Wendy is unlikely to turn against us, but isn't what you'd call
super-loyal.
