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Emma Barnes, Princess (Worm/Princess the Hopeful Quest)

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The Laurent said:
I don't accept the implication that every story arc other than Storms is clearly not interesting.
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Well, it just matter of taste. Really.
The Laurent said:
The thing is, though, I don't think Hearts is the 'fix everything in chargen.' It's hopeful, sure, and optimistic, but that just means that we can set up Emma to be further disappointed. I find that just as interesting a character arc, someone trying to fix the world, and having to learn to compromise, or use different methods.
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What's important is that it is not 'fix everything in chargen' and more 'chargen with intention to fix things*'. Just because someone woke up as a radiant princess does not mean her problems got fixed just like that. There is still a journey to be had.


About this Redemption arc plan, well, firstly I find it just tad contradictory for deriding the Hearts/Swords for being based on intention to fix things, because isn't that plan, having Emma realizing her faults, maintaning friendship with Taylor, directing Sophia's aggresiveness in more constructive ways, etc, are just as 'fixfic'?

Secondly, that's rather unreliable. Despite what you guys said about not planning to make Emma become Storms extremist, climbing up, etc there's no guarantee because that's depends on what how the vote goes in the game proper. Well, some or even all of you probably would be fine even if Emma keep going into darker path, though.

Thirdly, It feels rather wishy-washy to me. Especially, because of the second point above, I rather generate a character that in line with what I want to do from the start rather having a character that directed certain way and hoping she will veer the other way later.


Well, even though I said all that, there's probably no point in further debate at this point. With no Storm voter changing to Swords and in fact what happened is the other way around, suffice to say, that's racnor proposal has failed.

@racnor @Broken25 @1986ctcel
I'm switching back to Hearts.

[X] Grace
-[X] Presence
[X] Hearts
 
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Broken25 said:
Taylor is way too inocent and sweet to join our crusade anyway. We need her to remain normal to be our morality pet.
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For that matter, what was the benefits to becoming a Sworn?

From what I remember all they get is the ability to understand the Royal Tongue, and the ability to use princess enchanted objects.
 
Personally, I'd love to be a Troubadour or the like, but that vote was long since decided, effectively, so the real contest is between Hearts and Storms.
 
Damn it fine, since people aren't willing to take a chance and COMPROMISE then back to tactical voting it is :rolleyes:

[X] Grace
-[X] Presence
[X] Hearts
 
Broken25 said:
Taylor is way too inocent and sweet to join our crusade anyway. We need her to remain normal to be our morality pet.
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The idea of Taylor being the voice of restraint remains amusing.
Salbazier said:
Well, even though I said all that, there's probably no point in further debate at this point. With no Storm voter changing to Swords and in fact what happened is the other way around, suffice to say, that's racnor proposal has failed.

@racnor @Broken25 @1986ctcel
I'm switching back to Hearts.
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So the compromise is over? Darn.

[X] Grace
-[X] Presence
[X] Storms
Xyzarach said:
For that matter, what was the benefits to becoming a Sworn?

From what I remember all they get is the ability to understand the Royal Tongue, and the ability to use princess enchanted objects.
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They can also use their invocation to gain willpower and use the practical magic of their queen. They are limited in that their wisp pools can only be refilled by interacting with princesses...

Unless they are stormwracked sworn, in which case they can regain wisps from fighting the darkness instead, learn to sense darkness or receive dreams about tainted locations, and benefit from Royal Favor, which is when the storm casts a generic or tempesta charm through you, except instead of rolling for it the storm inflicts as much lethal damage on you as it wants and the charm gets one success per damage (and yes, you can die this way.)

Finally, they suffer from sensitivity.
 
racnor said:
They can also use their invocation to gain willpower and use the practical magic of their queen. They are limited in that their wisp pools can only be refilled by interacting with princesses..

Unless they are stormwracked sworn, in which case they regain wisps from fighting the darkness instead, learn to sense darkness or receive dreams about tainted locations, and benefit from Royal Favor, which is when the storm casts a generic or tempesta charm through you, except instead of rolling for it the storm inflicts as much lethal damage on you as it wants and the charm gets one success per damage (and yes, you can die this way.)

Finally, they suffer from sensitivity.
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Most of these sound like good reasons to NEVER draft our best friend into a war against the unending darkness (unless she Blossoms on her own merit).
 
racnor said:
So the compromise is over? Darn.
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Seems that way. Unfortunate, would've preferred to have Swords as my rival compared to Hearts.

I would like to point out that it was the Hearts voters who broke away from the compromise first. Proving that they lack the dedication neccesary to properly battle the forces of darkness!
That there were almost no Storm compromisers to begin with is entirely a coincidence that has nothing to do with this.
 
Xyzarach said:
Most of these sound like good reasons to NEVER draft our best friend into a war against the unending darkness (unless she Blossoms on her own merit).
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Indeed, making Taylor into a stormwracked is a bad idea. Maybe if we get terra or Aria up to 3 we could give that to her, but storms is right out.

Also, I forgot to mention this before, but stormwracked don't need princesses or even knowledge of storms to be created. Anyone who already holds Tempesta's mindset and swears an oath to destroy the darkness no matter the cost can spontaneously develop a dot of tempesta.
 
racnor said:
They can also use their invocation to gain willpower and use the practical magic of their queen. They are limited in that their wisp pools can only be refilled by interacting with princesses...

Unless they are stormwracked sworn, in which case they can regain wisps from fighting the darkness instead, learn to sense darkness or receive dreams about tainted locations, and benefit from Royal Favor, which is when the storm casts a generic or tempesta charm through you, except instead of rolling for it the storm inflicts as much lethal damage on you as it wants and the charm gets one success per damage (and yes, you can die this way.)

Finally, they suffer from sensitivity.
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Then why the hell would anyone want to involve Taylor if we pick Storms? Not only would we be forcing her into danger we'd also risk her getting killed with our magic (and possibly becoming a tattered ghost) ANYTHING is better than Storms if we're involving her?
racnor said:
Indeed, making Taylor into a stormwracked is a bad idea. Maybe if we get terra or Aria up to 3 we could give that to her, but storms is right out.

Also, I forgot to mention this before, but stormwracked don't need princesses or even knowledge of storms to be created. Anyone who already holds Tempesta's mindset and swears an oath to destroy the darkness no matter the cost can spontaneously develop a dot of tempesta.
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And Taylor would just so happen to have a best friend with the proper mindset to potentially influence her if Storms wins.........great.
Omegahugger said:
Seems that way. Unfortunate, would've preferred to have Swords as my rival compared to Hearts.

I would like to point out that it was the Hearts voters who broke away from the compromise first. Proving that they lack the dedication neccesary to properly battle the forces of darkness!
That there were almost no Storm compromisers to begin with is entirely a coincidence that has nothing to do with this.
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More like the Storm voters not having the dedication to do WHATEVER IT TAKES including compromise voting to fight the Darkness :p
 
1986ctcel said:
Then why the hell would anyone want to involve Taylor if we pick Storms? Not only would we be forcing her into danger we'd also risk her getting killed with our magic (and possibly becoming a tattered ghost) ANYTHING is better than Storms if we're involving her?


And Taylor would just so happen to have a best friend with the proper mindset to potentially influence her if Storms wins.........great.
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I don't want to involve her. That's what I'm saying. There'll be plenty of better candidates for vigilante-ism, and some of them might even be stormwracked already.
 
No compromise. Even in the face of Armageddon.

:V

Anyway, I still haven't seen any real argument for how Hearts plays into Emma and her recent experience. She suffered at the hands of criminals, and was saved, not by a failing society, not by police or absent friends or ineffectual family, but by violence, an anonymous murderer in grey.

Why would she believe in, and I quote:
  • Hearts: The Queen of Hearts believes in politeness, responsibility, trust and duty. Her Princesses believe that building and leading social institutions is key to making a better world. Heart's chief philosophies are to bring people together in community, to honour traditions and that authority must be earned. Heart's signature emotions are trust and duty.
It feels forced.
 
Broken25 said:
Taylor is way too inocent and sweet to join our crusade anyway. We need her to remain normal to be our morality pet.
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Precisely. Especially when she's still chibi-Taylor, lacking the hardened and conditioned responses to threats.

She may well never learn the way of the Escalation, and wind up a much better human being who winds up as a first-life Blossoming as a Clubs who doesn't like violence. :p
 
NonSequtur said:
No compromise. Even in the face of Armageddon.

:V

Anyway, I still haven't seen any real argument for how Hearts plays into Emma and her recent experience. She suffered at the hands of criminals, and was saved, not by a failing society, not by police or absent friends or ineffectual family, but by violence, an anonymous murderer in grey.

Why would she believe in, and I quote:
  • Hearts: The Queen of Hearts believes in politeness, responsibility, trust and duty. Her Princesses believe that building and leading social institutions is key to making a better world. Heart's chief philosophies are to bring people together in community, to honour traditions and that authority must be earned. Heart's signature emotions are trust and duty.
It feels forced.
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Because since people don't want to compromise and quite a lot REALLY don't want Storms we're stuck with rallying behind Hearts (unless a sudden surge of people choose to switch to Swords or one of the other options)
 
NonSequtur said:
No compromise. Even in the face of Armageddon.

:V

Anyway, I still haven't seen any real argument for how Hearts plays into Emma and her recent experience. She suffered at the hands of criminals, and was saved, not by a failing society, not by police or absent friends or ineffectual family, but by violence, an anonymous murderer in grey.

Why would she believe in, and I quote:
  • Hearts: The Queen of Hearts believes in politeness, responsibility, trust and duty. Her Princesses believe that building and leading social institutions is key to making a better world. Heart's chief philosophies are to bring people together in community, to honour traditions and that authority must be earned. Heart's signature emotions are trust and duty.
It feels forced.
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Well, I actually could see it as a representation of who she was before the attack. She is ambitions and social focused, and we know that she had a wide spread of friends and enough influence to totally close Taylor off. It's currently my main choice for secondary invocation, actually.
 
More seriously, I don't see why Hearts cannot be in response to what she experience.

Bring people together in community - because the society as it is now is falling.
Authority must be earned - The current authority is flawed

Some things may hard to fit, like honour traditions, but hey, It was ES who said that your court doesn't have to completely overwrite yourself and that characters can have powerset that doesn't fully aligned to their want and desires.
 
Salbazier said:
Some things may hard to fit, like honour traditions, but hey, It was ES who said that your court doesn't have to completely overwrite yourself and that characters can have powerset that doesn't fully aligned to their want and desires.
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"Honour Tradition" could also be twisted in favour of "Honour the traditional image of a hero, one who inspires hope and protects the weak".
 
[X] Grace
-[X] Presence
[X] Storms

Emma's father is a divorce lawyer who brags that winning in court is just about having the most money in front of children. She isn't going to view institutions as something that brings them together, quite the opposite in fact.
 
cyberswordsmen said:
[X] Grace
-[X] Presence
[X] Storms

Emma's father is a divorce lawyer who brags that winning in court is just about having the most money in front of children. She isn't going to view institutions as something that brings them together, quite the opposite in fact.
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Didn't you vote that already?

If you did, I won't count either of them.
 
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Rereading her interlude, one thing that stands out is her complete lack of faith that there is anything good about brockton bay, or the world in general.

pre attack
"Everything's falling apart. It's like… show me any house, and I can point out ten things that are wrong with it."

before meeting sophia
"The world was an ugly place, filled with ugly scenes, and unlike before, she couldn't shut it out, couldn't shake the idea that something horrible was happening around every corner. Thousands of people suffering every second, around the world.

What got her, the nebulous idea that haunted her, was the impact those scenes had. There were so many defining moments, so many crises, big and small, that shaped the people they touched. The biggest and most critical moments were the sorts that wiped the slate clean, that ignored or invalidated the person who had existed before, only to create another."

I can't see anyone that cynical or apathetic picking any of the radiant queens on her own. And I defiantly don't see hearts with the level of jerkassery her dad exhibits
 
Personally i think Tears resonates much better with Emma's mental state that storms, but nobody seems interested in that. She doesn't feel rage or
hate, only depresion and fear. The promise of safety of tears fits much better than the promise of revenge of storms.
 
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