The Watchtower/Archetypes
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
When you give a group an idea, you run the risk they interpret it in very similar ways. This section explores possible reasons that your character could have for being a member of the group, which gives us an easy field of reference, and which lets the other characters get a better handle on you.
As this page will illustrate, there are a number of characters who fit these archetypes. Provided are some links and discussions of these characters to hopefully give you ideas, and we've tried to draw upon as many and as diverse sources as we can. After all, there's no real reason to limit ourselves to just reinterpretations of the classic archetypes represented in Thunderbolts, is there?
Contents |
The Soldier
You just want someone to tell you what to do. You don't want to think much about the morality of what you do. You may feel good, or bad about things in your private moments, but you seek someone to abdicate responsibility to. Characters of this archetype might have some incident - or incidents - in their past where their attempts to take responsibility ended badly. Note that this is different from not wanting responsibility - those characters who are free-spirited are not likely to fit well in a Soldier's role because they don't want to have to obey someone else's authority.
In the end, a Soldier will do what they're told, even if they disagree with it.
Examples
The Obssessive:
You don't care much about the con, or heroics or villainy, even. What you care about is your personal project, some aspect of your life that drives you and drags you onward. As long as the greater goals of the group let you pursue that unfettered, good. If the goals of the group let you expand on it, or even improve upon your project, even better! In the end, other people aren't as important to you as what it is you're fiddling with.
Obssessives are defined by their obssession. Sometimes it's the pursuit of Mad Science, sometimes it's about exploring their own powers. For some people, it's to bring happiness to a single person they know, and for others, it can be about revenging themselves on an opponent.
Obssessives can be dangerous and unstable but at the same time, utterly predictable. Try to deflect them from their obssession and face their wrath: give them some, even superfluous direction that benefits their obssession and they'll work at it tirelessly.
Examples
- Techno from Thunderbolts
- Mayuri Kurotsuchi from Bleach
- Bernard Black from Black Books
- Meltdown/Prometheus Black, from Transformers Animated
- Mr Freeze from Batman: The Animated Series
The Con Artist
This - the con - is a great opportunity. Provided you keep your nose clean and play the game carefully, you can make a great deal of hay while the sun shines. The goal of the group works out just fine for you and you'll work with it, hell, you'll work to make it excellent, because it's useful to you. However, you're not just going along with it - you're running your own scams alongside it.
Con Artists are interested in stasis. They want to keep the con going, and this means they're likely to be well-behaved. A Con artist wants to keep things as stable as they can be so they can operate their own cons. Con artists, more than anyone else, want to smooth over public image and are willing to take dire - ableit private - measures to ensure that the con can perpetuate.
Examples
- Moonstone from Thunderbolts
- Lord Vetinari from the Discworld
The Operator
There's a job to be done. Do it. Get it done. Then, get paid, get out, and spend the winnings. You're doing this for a reward, and you intend to do it well. In the end, if things go wrong, you're after ways to get out and stay out - you don't stick your neck out into dangerous scenarios, but you just as much don't want to run the risk of not getting paid. You're goal-oriented.
An Operator is harder to motivate to things they're uncertain. An operator is going to do the absolute best job they can do but no more. Don't expect an operator to get himself killed for the job, and don't expect them to do things unless you can substantiate their reward. Unlike the obssessive, who'll follow their obssession off a cliff, an operator will follow it to the edge of the cliff and no further.
The Operator differs from the Con Man in that he sees this whole con as having a definitive end, that one day he will set down the disguises and go about his life spending, in theory, the gigantic, gigantic pile of cash he's made. The Operator might not even be particularly savvy about this plan - the kind of person who'll score twenty-seven million dollars, then blow it all on a really, really expensive hat.
The Con Man wants to keep the big con going forever, an ultimate and impressive misdirection while he manages his own profits and milks smaller cons for rewards. The Con Man wants to take it all and run - the Operator wants to take enough, and walk.
Examples
- Jayne from Firefly
- Handsome Bob from The Italian Job
- Turkish from Snatch
- Frank Martin from The Transporter
- Pretty much everyone Jason Statham has ever played, really
The Machinist
- "I'm a dog chasing cars, I don't know what I'd do if I caught one."
- The Joker, Dark Knight
The Machinist is almost the opposite paradigm to the Operator. The machinist is engaging in this con because the actual scope of it impresses him. You're task-oriented, and the idea of doing it and doing it well is the real reward for you.
Machinists are different from Obssessives in that a Machinist views the whole of a con as his interest. To a machinist, cons are a type of job, and he wants to see it done well. A machinist, in the end, doesn't really plan as much as they execute.
Examples
- The Joker from Dark Knight
- Moist Von Lipwig from the Discworld
The Actor
Actors tend to lose themselves in the con. Unlike a Redeemer or an innocence, you don't really have quite the same strength of character, and find yourself continually drawn into the idea. You like the character you play, the hero you are and almost wish you could leave behind who you are for who you could be. More important than that, however, is that the Redeemer is willing to admit what he did wrong, and stay away from it, and the Innocent simply never did anything wrong, you wish to simply ignore your bad deeds when they are inconvenient.
Actors are ultimately dualistic. They don't want to handle the responsibilities for their earlier actions, and they're just as willing to recommit bad deeds in the name of maintaining their act. Consider it a Jekyll and Hide situation, where the person has one role for performing some acts, and another role for performing others.
Examples
- Professor Princess, from Transformers Animated
- Songbird from Thunderbolts
- Dexter from Dexter
The Usurper
Oh, the ambitions of that fool Ridger are so small! You'll be in a position to instigate your OWN plan, and then, you'll RULE THE WORLD!
The Usurper ultimately doubts the supposed wisdom of the theoretical leader. He's either been manipulated into position, or presented a chance to further his ambitions. An Usurper differs from a con man in that the Usurper wants to take over the con and turn it to his own, grander goal. Of course, the Usurper might be unwittingly being part of the con, in a Xanatos Gambit.
RP Note
Usurpers have every chance to play out badly. If you don't eventually take over the world, you're technically going to be considered a failure. So anyone who steps into this role has to realise they're going to wind up being at odds with some members of the group, perhaps eventually, even with Ridger. This is not necessarily a bad thing - after all, conflict can drive RP - but it's not necessary.
If you intend to play an usurper, you'd best consider ways in which you can be beaten and ways in which you can win, and what outcomes you expect for that. Sometimes an usurper, beaten and bested, can find their ambition destroyed, and instead fall into the role of the Actor or the Soldier.
Examples
- Baron Zemo from Thunderbolts
- Starscream from Transformers
The Innocent
You're not a bad guy at all! You've bought into the con and you're hanging with this group of respectable, if perhaps rough or unproven heroes, completely happy with what you see around you. You might see things in a favourable light, or pass off some oddities as just the way people are. But you're also someone the rest of the group keeps an eye on - after all, you legitimize them as long as they don't destroy your faith in them.
Examples
- Jolt from Thunderbolts
The Redeemer
You know you did bad things and you want to make amends. You want to use your power for the best ends you can, and this group seems like the best way to do it. Of course, you might be blind to what's going on. Perhaps you think that the others are just as much interested in redemption as you are, or you're unaware of the villainous direction of the others in the group. Whatever it is, you really do, honestly and sincerely, quest for the day when you can be called a hero.
Examples
- Wolverine from Every Goddamn Marvel Comic Line Ever
