In order to not be behind on this show/game story analysis I did a special Sunday post to remain caught up. Then I came back from Christmas break…and the show didn’t. In other words, I could have reviewed the previous episode without worry since they didn’t posted a new episode in the next TWO weeks. Well, they finally dropped episode six, or episode 4 part one, “Broken Fate” part one.
I’m starting to think this multipart thing is for the game. Maybe it later gets reposted as a full episode without the unused paths, or the numbering system YouTube is going by and the fact that these titles usually only describe the first episode of two makes no sense. I’m using the Tubi posting for the numbers because they’re more accurate to how I’m posting and reviewing this series, with the untaken paths.
When we last left our heroes, Black Canary was dead, Circe had convinced Barbara Minerva to become Cheetah and her flunky, and Cheetah was about to attack Doctor Fate during his battle with Circe. What choices are made this time, and what choices from previous episodes matter? And by “matter” I mean “changes something so slight I’m not sure it was worth the trouble. Yeah, the choices really aren’t affecting the show for the most part, just minor character interactions, and I see no evidence that the EveryHero Project sub-game matters at all. Still, there is interesting story to analyze. Technically.
I’m going to get the currently most useless choice out of the way now, and it would be the biggest disappointment if I didn’t see it coming. Whichever plan you use to go after Circe with the Fatebreaker–Wonder Woman’s, Superman, or the Batman choice players went with–doesn’t matter as to the last episode’s cliffhanger since the result is undone almost immediately as Doctor Fate just undoes whoever dies. It’s kind of a false drama and unless later episodes and deleted scenes show an impact to the character, like we keep seeing with Superman’s decision during the interview with Lois, it doesn’t matter at all. The choices only affect how the characters react to each other. The scenes and events should be seeing some change, but to do so would heavily alter the story, which is beyond the scope of this project to create a proper narrative. It gives me another reason not to compete. I’ve heard complains about this in Mass Effect 3, that a large group of players of all three games weren’t happy with what they considered a weak payoff, and frankly that’s what I’m seeing here. The choices just don’t really matter much.
In fact, let’s just jump to the choices because they kind of dominate this particular episode. Then we’ll get back to the story.
How will Wonder Woman react to the Cheetah attacking Doctor Fate?
- Shield Doctor Fate: This is the most heroic decision in theory. Barbara is her friend and Diana doesn’t realise the cheetah form/Mafdet has helped her fall even more for Circe’s manipulations. She has to protect Doctor Fate, but she can’t hurt her friend. This is not a ruthless enough Diana, which is why I like her. So far the players are leading away from the New 52 Lady Kratos decisions. They seem to understand heroes better than DC’s current comic writers.
- Attack the Cheetah: If Diana knows this is Barbara I don’t see this version treating her friend like an enemy. I’m not sure any choice at this stage will make it easier to reach her friend and break her from Circe’s influence down the line, but it’s a question of what the character would do, and this isn’t the choice I see, though we do see Barbara fight Mafdet’s influence a bit more here. Odd that it’s getting her butt kicked by her hero rather than her pleas to snap out of it that does this. It’s also the path where Superman ends up helping in the fight, though I’m not sure why.
- Attack Circe: This actually might have been the better choice in hindsight. While I like that Wonder Woman’s first response is to protect both Fate and Barbara, this leads to Batman not hitting a woman, Doctor Fate being saved by Superman in a way that doesn’t hurt Superman, and ends the battle faster, meaning everyone comes out of it with less injuries. Well, minus one injury since it leads to the resurrection of the dead sidekick, but still…Either choice does lead to one of the best fights in the episode, and is my favorite scene as a result.
How will Superman respond to Clark not being there when Lois interviews him?
You know, I’m not going to do a separate bullet point for each path because there isn’t enough to say. Superman tells Lois the truth and there’s an opening after to rekindle their relationship. Play along with the secret identity a bit longer, and he ends up breaking up with Lois to protect her, which is kind of in keeping with why pre-Crisis Superman never married Lois during the Silver Age, but it’s the worst ending for their relationship. When Lois figures it out on her own after the slip during the interview, she’s the one who calls it quits but at least we do see she understands why and maybe there’s still hope if they talk after all this. Either way, she does realize that right now this can’t matter. The world needs Superman to help stop Circe. I’m hoping for a full reconciliation though the chosen path still sees to be the best chance for that.
What strategy will Batman encourage Black Canary to use on her mission to stop Bane?
This one feels like there’s more result, but as far as discussing it there isn’t a lot to say. We only get two choices this time, though I see a third option. What we get is the whole team goes in, and while Black Canary’s mistake leads to Blue Beetle getting hit, his armor can take the punishment more than Canary’s unarmored body or even Cyborg’s half-robotic one, though the second option only leads to Canary getting hurt by needing to be rescued while fighting all the baddies. In the end it is the right choice, though making it Batman’s decision puts the “go alone” option on him rather than Canary’s error in the proper team-up. Take out the goons and isolate Bane, and if not for poor aim it might have been successful. Plus on the character side the idea is that Canary, for all her talk to Batman about taking on a partner, still isn’t used to being a team player herself. She just has some unresolved issue with Bane for reasons we haven’t been given and wants in on taking him down. It’s more alteration than whose plan to use with Circe, but only by a little. Ultimately the best decision is to take out the goons, then go after Bane as a trio, but that wouldn’t play into Canary’s arc. For what we’re given, players went with the best option.
As we transition back to the story discussion, I do like that Batman’s response in the chosen path to Canary saying “so I should be more like you” is “I wouldn’t wish that on anyone”. That feels like Batman to me. He does what he does to keep anyone from going through what he did, becoming who he is. That’s why he helped Dick become Robin, to have the positive outlet Bruce was denied when he turned himself into Batman at the cost of a normal life. Additionally, when Black Canary gives her orders, Cyborg doesn’t compare her to Batman, but to Waller, who also gives orders and expects them to be followed. We also get to see Cyborg in action, and he and Jaime make a good team.
Amanda Waller is showing the mission comes first, but we still don’t have the control freak we’re used to making an appearance. I actually understand her point of view. Her priority is protecting the world from Circe’s plans, but she believes only ARGUS should be doing that. She’s working with Batman, Superman, and Black Lex out of necessity for the moment. Of course we want the heroes to hit all the victories: restore friends, learn to be a friend, get the girl, but we aren’t in control of ARGUS, just the decisions of the heroes, and even that isn’t true because there are people all over the internet making decisions. So far the classic heroes have been winning out over the “Batman should be a loner” and “let’s choose the hardest core decision this game will allow” types, and I hope that continues because of why I enjoy the DC universe’s take on heroes. She’s only wrong from the perspective of what the heroes would do and what fans of those heroes would like to see. Realistically, Waller isn’t wrong in what she’s prioritizing, but it does come off cold and jerkish as a result.
We can also see why Circe needs Cheetah. Bane was on her side but he clearly hasn’t been enough, and Circe can’t leave the Tower or Doctor Fate can regain control and foil her whole plan. So she’s using minions. She’s also a rather famous misandrist (the lady version of a misogynist…I looked it up) with a history of turning dudes into animals for making her mad. Now she sees Black Lex as potential to also be tempted. Indications in promoting this game was that we could somehow affect Lex’s decisions despite all the decisions, even Canary’s being performed through Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. The choices don’t come from any of the other characters. They might as well be NPCs (non-player characters) as far as the game goes, and so I don’t know how we’re supposed to stop him from switching sides. None of the paths would stop Barbara, so she’s always going to end up becoming Cheetah. Maybe there will be ways to reach her. Cheetah even reformed pre-52 and started dating Snapper Carr, if memory serves.
Overall, is it just me or are episodes feeling shorter to make room for the deleted scenes? I wouldn’t mind seeing if they do re-release these as full episodes minus those and the game-related graphics, but the weaknesses of this format are starting to show more and more. It might have been better to just tell the story, but I do like seeing how the gamers are making better decisions than DC writers, even if they are limited to what the show writers are creating. These are gamers, not writers, so that’s a necessity, but the fans still make the better choices. We’ll see next time (if they don’t take another break) how many of these trends continue.
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