When sequels DISRESPECT the previous protagonist

[Eyestabber]

There's an unspoken rule about sequels that they shouldn't treat the previous character as a ******* goober. Yet surprisingly many games go out of their way to take a big fat dump on the previous protagonist's head, making the player feel like he wasted his time with that character. Some examples I can think of:

FEAR 3: you find Sgt. Beckett, FEAR 2's protagonist, in a cell and Paxton Fettel just unceremoniously explodes him. FEAR 2 is a bad game, but ******** on its protagonist is just stupid.
STALKER: Call of Pripyat: Strelok (Shadow of Chernobyl's protag) shows up in a quest and you have to escort him like he is some random mook. He is also using garbage tier gear, like he just took all that sweet loot and gave it away as child support to multiple whores or something. Very distasteful. And that ****** keeps dying and forcing a reload.

Initially I was "inspired" by Age of Wonders 4 ******** on Edward Portsmith, but after playing the DLC I realized it wasn't as bad as I initially thought. I'm obviously not saying games should avoid having bad things happen to previous characters and instead suck their dicks for eternity. What I am saying is there are right ways to do it. An example is Uther Lightbringer. WC 3 doesn't treat him like a goober, despite killing him after he was a major hero for the humans in WC 2. Uther's death is a pivotal moment and he is firmly established as an uncompromising force of Good. Also, this thread isn't about inexplicable loss of power between sequels with the same character like "why isn't Geralt a GOD of War and Destruction at the start of Witcher 3?". It might irk nerds, but it's not really "disrespectful". I'm talking the kind of disrespect that if you hear a spoiler on the story you might reconsider even bothering to play the character in the first place.

Thoughts?

[Oyster Sauce]

Red Faction Guerrilla Easter Egg: Parker the Miner

I like it though

[J1M]

Will list Diablo 2 here, but I don't think the way they handled it was disrespectful. (Blood Raven, Summoner, Wanderer)

[Oyster Sauce]

Dishonoured 2 makes Corvo horrible but probably not in the way you're looking for.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Final Fantasy X-2: Yuna goes from being a highly respected summoner and priestess and mage to being a pop idol.
Final Fantasy X-3 audio drama: Tidus comes back but then kicks a blitzball that contained a bomb, which blows him up and sends his head flying. This was written by Kazushige Nojima, who was one of the lead writers for X and X-2.



Not quite what the OP was looking for since the writers are not intending to disrespect a prior game protagonist. But there is a certain Trails protagonist - Lloyd Bannings - who made two absolutely atrocious decisions that causes the mass suffering that we see in the sequels. With every sequel after, the writers simultaneously try to make out Lloyd to be a hero for his actions, while simultaneously showing how worse and worse those actions were and how far reaching their impact was. That has caused increasing derision towards Lloyd from the fandom.

Trails (full series spoilers)

► Show Spoiler

Last chance

► Show Spoiler

In Trails to Azure, the shared province of Crossbell launches a bloody first strike against both superpowers, Erebonia Empire and the Calvard Republic. Crossbell lords weapons of mass destruction over the world, provoking an invasion and escalating the cold war into a hot one as both superpowers advance towards each other. Eventually Crossbell's wonder weapons malfunction and soon they will be overrun by approaching forces, and Crossbell will likely become a war torn battlefield in the impending world war. At the end of the game, the protagonist Lloyd Bannings is offered a golden opportunity to remake the timeline/reality so that Crossbell was always an independent country, and there is no cold war.

But he refuses on the fake righteousness that "it would be unfair to use magick to cheat and improve our lives. It would be disrespectful to the dead. We have to keep on going and suffer!". Even though it is revealed that Lloyd actually died in the original timeline and was brought back via remaking the timeline/reality so he lived. If he was going to put his money where his mouth is, then he should have asked for that to be undone and returned to the dead.




Because of his actions, Crossbell is invaded and occupied for the next four games, and a world war comes about that involves villages being bombed, battles on multiple fronts, airships crashing from the sky, etc. Even more funny is Lloyd complaining about Crossbell being occupied and how his people have suffered.






Lloyd does the exact same thing AGAIN five games later. At the end of Trails into Reverie, Lloyd runs into the grizzled lone survivor, future Rean. Future Rean tries to warn Lloyd about an impending apoclaypse, but Lloyd shuts him down and says no worries, they will power of friendship through.




Lo and behold three games later, the apocalypse that Future Rean tried to warn Lloyd about comes to pass as a giant cube sics a robot army onto the planet, razing civilization, and then death stars the planet and wipes out all life. This all happened because Calvard launched the first manned rocket into space, provoking the automated giant cube. Hmmmm sure would have been nice to have known that beforehand so we could have warned Calvard not to do that! Thanks Lloyd! All of the war and armageddons could have been avoided if you had just said "yes please make everything better" to the reality remaking demigod, or by not rebuffing the dying future man's attempt to warn us.










What else will Lloyd be responsible for? Find out in Trails game #14! After the writers figure out how to un-kill everybody. Who knows. Maybe that's why they are stalling with remakes.

There is a moment in Trails into Reverie where a prior game protagonist, Lloyd, gets 1KOed by a boss that another protagonist had defeated. Upon release, there was some consternation amongst Lloyd's fans. But due to building audience frustration from the above, it is now common for people to cheer at this scene because of how much they dislike the character.

[Bhaalspawn Jr]

Final Fantasy X-2: Yuna goes from being a highly respected summoner and priestess and mage to being a pop idol.
Final Fantasy X-3 audio drama: Tidus comes back but then kicks a blitzball that contained a bomb, which blows him up and sends his head flying. This was written by Kazushige Nojima, who was one of the lead writers for X and X-2.



Not quite what the OP was looking for since the writers are not intending to disrespect a prior game protagonist. But there is a certain Trails protagonist - Lloyd Bannings - who made two absolutely atrocious decisions that causes the mass suffering that we see in the sequels. With every sequel after, the writers simultaneously try to make out Lloyd to be a hero for his actions, while simultaneously showing how worse and worse those actions were and how far reaching their impact was. That has caused increasing derision towards Lloyd from the fandom.

Trails (full series spoilers)

► Show Spoiler

Last chance

► Show Spoiler

In Trails to Azure, the shared province of Crossbell launches a bloody first strike against both superpowers, Erebonia Empire and the Calvard Republic. Crossbell lords weapons of mass destruction over the world, provoking an invasion and escalating the cold war into a hot one as both superpowers advance towards each other. Eventually Crossbell's wonder weapons malfunction and soon they will be overrun by approaching forces, and Crossbell will likely become a war torn battlefield in the impending world war. At the end of the game, the protagonist Lloyd Bannings is offered a golden opportunity to remake the timeline/reality so that Crossbell was always an independent country, and there is no cold war.

But he refuses on the fake righteousness that "it would be unfair to use magick to cheat and improve our lives. It would be disrespectful to the dead. We have to keep on going and suffer!". Even though it is revealed that Lloyd actually died in the original timeline and was brought back via remaking the timeline/reality so he lived. If he was going to put his money where his mouth is, then he should have asked for that to be undone and returned to the dead.




Because of his actions, Crossbell is invaded and occupied for the next four games, and a world war comes about that involves villages being bombed, battles on multiple fronts, airships crashing from the sky, etc. Even more funny is Lloyd complaining about Crossbell being occupied and how his people have suffered.






Lloyd does the exact same thing AGAIN five games later. At the end of Trails into Reverie, Lloyd runs into the grizzled lone survivor, future Rean. Future Rean tries to warn Lloyd about an impending apoclaypse, but Lloyd shuts him down and says no worries, they will power of friendship through.




Lo and behold three games later, the apocalypse that Future Rean tried to warn Lloyd about comes to pass as a giant cube sics a robot army onto the planet, razing civilization, and then death stars the planet and wipes out all life. This all happened because Calvard launched the first manned rocket into space, provoking the automated giant cube. Hmmmm sure would have been nice to have known that beforehand so we could have warned Calvard not to do that! Thanks Lloyd! All of the war and armageddons could have been avoided if you had just said "yes please make everything better" to the reality remaking demigod, or by not rebuffing the dying future man's attempt to warn us.










What else will Lloyd be responsible for? Find out in Trails game #14! After the writers figure out how to un-kill everybody. Who knows. Maybe that's why they are stalling with remakes.

There is a moment in Trails into Reverie where a prior game protagonist, Lloyd, gets 1KOed by a boss that another protagonist had defeated. Upon release, there was some consternation amongst Lloyd's fans. But due to building audience frustration from the above, it is now common for people to cheer at this scene because of how much they dislike the character.

Bro, that FF X-3 audio drama might be the WORST thing Square has ever released.

Ultimate TRASH

[Bhaalspawn Jr]

IIRC, they unceremoniously kill off one of the protagonists from GTA IV's DLC in GTA V.

[Manny V]

The God of War reboot by turning him into a soyboy

[Tweed]

There was a freebie minigame released before Dead Space 2 where the protagonist has to find Isaac Clarke. He recuses him and is the first one to die in Dead Space 2.

The protagonist from Shin Megami Tensei 1 was petrified for disobeying God, his death was covered up by the archangels. You can find his statue in the second game.

Gothic 4: Arcana turns the nameless hero into an insane tyrant. Or it would if there was actually a Gothic 4, but there isn't.

The Agent from Daggerfall dies from being crushed by the Numidium no matter what because all of the endings are canon.

[rusty_shackleford]

Depends on how far you're willing to stretch protagonist but many returning playable characters from BG1 get **** on in BG2. Really disliked that.

[Tweed]

Depends on how far you're willing to stretch protagonist but many returning playable characters from BG1 get **** on in BG2. Really disliked that.

Oh yeah, that was great. Most of them end up getting murdered.

[Maledict]

Depends on how far you're willing to stretch protagonist but many returning playable characters from BG1 get **** on in BG2. Really disliked that.

BG1 and BG2 looks really woke, so I decided to skip them. I bet they shat on BG1 for not being woke enough.

[Sinfield]

I agree with pretty much everything you said but its boring to talk about it.
We all know most modern writers are dogshit. Why is that they do the exact same thing of disrespecting the previous protagonist? Maybe its a easy path to take, thus they are naturally routed into it. Maybe its some kind of weird insecurity going into the work. I don't actually know, But there's not much productive to be said about it, because it really boils down to someone making a dumb mistake.

[Kolgrim]

IIRC, they unceremoniously kill off one of the protagonists from GTA IV's DLC in GTA V.

That's based though because Johnny was Jewish and Trevor kicks his head in.

[logincrash]

IIRC, they unceremoniously kill off one of the protagonists from GTA IV's DLC in GTA V.

That's based though because Johnny was Jewish and Trevor kicks his head in.

Trevor is Canadian and an actual man-raping homosexual.

[Maledict]

Trevor is Canadian and an actual man-raping homosexual.

Happy pride month

[Kolgrim]

IIRC, they unceremoniously kill off one of the protagonists from GTA IV's DLC in GTA V.

That's based though because Johnny was Jewish and Trevor kicks his head in.

Trevor is Canadian and an actual man-raping homosexual.

Seems like an even more fitting death for Johnny then.

Seriously though I forgot he was a homosexual rapist. I don't really remember much of GTA V at all besides the main characters being unlikable.

[Maledict]

I can't even buy any GTA because they removed all the versions without rockfag accounts

[Roguey]

I wouldn't say he's disrespected, but all the androids in Nier Automata hate the protagonist in Nier because his actions destroyed their reason for being. They eternally bully the two droid models who were responsible for keeping him from doing that.

[Maledict]

I wouldn't say he's disrespected, but all the androids in Nier Automata hate the protagonist in Nier because his actions destroyed their reason for being. They eternally bully the two droid models who were responsible for keeping him from doing that.

Can you elaborate? I don't want to play a game with a female protagonist, but the premise seems interesting.

[Roguey]

I wouldn't say he's disrespected, but all the androids in Nier Automata hate the protagonist in Nier because his actions destroyed their reason for being. They eternally bully the two droid models who were responsible for keeping him from doing that.

Can you elaborate? I don't want to play a game with a female protagonist, but the premise seems interesting.

► Show Spoiler

Nier's ultimate goal in the first game is to get his sister back. Unfortunately doing so results in the eventual destruction of all humanity. Androids were built with a single purpose to serve humans and this sends them into such despair that they create a lie that humans are still perfectly fine on the moon and will come back eventually one day.

[Havitner]

Lilith, one of the playable characters from Borderlands 1, burns coal in Borderlands 2.

[Eyestabber]

Lilith, one of the playable characters from Borderlands 1, burns coal in Borderlands 2.

Imagine looking at a femoid full of ugly tattoos and an even uglier attitude and thinking "wow, m'lady would never commit bestiality".

[TND]

They made Henry of Skalitz a flaming homosexual in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2.

[flecktarn]

Max Payne 3 shits all over Max's character, but that's probably different from what OP means, since he's still the PC in the third game. Doesn't Gothic Arcania take a dump on the Nameless hero with him becoming an evil king?

[Oyster Sauce]

Max Payne 3 shits all over Max's character, but that's probably different from what OP means, since he's still the PC in the third game. Doesn't Gothic Arcania take a dump on the Nameless hero with him becoming an evil king?

Does Gothicman ever do anything morally upstanding at any point in the first 2 games?

[flecktarn]

Max Payne 3 shits all over Max's character, but that's probably different from what OP means, since he's still the PC in the third game. Doesn't Gothic Arcania take a dump on the Nameless hero with him becoming an evil king?

Does Gothicman ever do anything morally upstanding at any point in the first 2 games?

He opposes the plot of Beliar on the large scale of things?

[Oyster Sauce]

Max Payne 3 shits all over Max's character, but that's probably different from what OP means, since he's still the PC in the third game. Doesn't Gothic Arcania take a dump on the Nameless hero with him becoming an evil king?

Does Gothicman ever do anything morally upstanding at any point in the first 2 games?

He opposes the plot of Beliar on the large scale of things?

He's beliar's champion with his cool sword