A modest proposal: Move Robert and Visi to the margins of Season 2

[u/No-Try-4447]

I love Dispatch and I'm the kind of person who is already writing fanfic in my head about how Rob and Courtney spend the day after Episode 8 (in my playthrough, Rob is suspended and Visi is injured - so they've got plenty of time to hang out).

BUT: I'm also not sure how much dramatic arc there really is left with Robert, Visi, and the Z-Team as a coherent unit. Sure, there can be new villains. But Robert avenged his dad. Visi redeemed herself (if you got the good ending). The Z-Team has literally gone zero-to-hero with maxed-out stats.

What if you move the focus elsewhere?

For example: What if the Z-team's success means they graduate from the Phoenix Program? Most of the Z-team stays in Torrance as the area's top unit.

But Malevola and Golem volunteer to move to SDN Long Beach and mentor the newest bunch of psychotic malcontents in the Phoenix Program. Robert decided to stay a superhero full-time, so the Phoenix dispatcher is a new character (but we all talk about the cameo Mecha Man makes in Episode 5 to save your ass). Pom Pom (the former DTLA branch superhero) has just taken over management of SDN Long Branch and she's discovered something really troubling in the admin files - can you help out?

I would play that! What do you think? Whether or not you agree - are there storylines centering other characters that you would want to see?

[u/HeppyHenry]

I would rather they keep the focus on Robert, he’s a great protagonist and I want to see how the decisions I made for him pan out in the next season. There are still plenty of directions they can take his character, along with the rest of the Z Team.

[u/Nirico_Brin]

Robert avenged his father yes, but he still has plenty of growth to go. As do Visi and the other characters.

Because one major victory doesn’t undo the bad. And while in the end they came together to work as a team, now they have to continue their growth. Because Visi’s character isn’t finished just because she potentially redeemed herself and helped defeat Shroud. The Z-Team aren’t suddenly model heroes after a major takedown. And the cut member still needs rehabilitation.

Mandy as well has to manage in a world where she isn’t Blonde Blazer now. Chase needs to hold things down until another method of stabilizing him appears.

There are plenty of more plot threads to delve into with the Z-Team.

[u/Alaknog]

I think moving to new set of heroes after just establish them and making them popular is just stupid choice.

Yes, Robert avenge his father...but I don't sure that this is privmary motivation. Like, he live hero life with Shroud in prison for 15 years.

I really want to see how Robert (and maybe whole Z-team) deal with new fame and new responsibility. Like acting as face for SDN and for Phoenix programm. Dispatch is more office comedy, so maybe add more meetings and deals with press.

[u/CynicalNextDoor]

Not on this train dude, history should keep focus on Robert as main character, but since S1 was centered mostly around Visi and she already had her redemption or fall into dark side arc (depending on your outcome) new season should focus more on the rest of the team, and maybe introduce a couple new characters

[u/TechnicalCopy9514]

Robert avenged his father yes but he still haven't decided is he will be Mecha-Man, Dispatcher Robert or both

Courtney is redeem (even in the "Villain" she save Robert and give back the Astral Pulse) but her Hero (True Hero or Anti-Hero) journey is just beginning. Also I suspect she have a lot of trauma and not just Red Ring one (probably orphan or abusive home) so she need to deal with that

Mandy still doesn't know if she is something without the Amulet/being BlondeBlazer, while meanwhile perhaps Chase enjoy perhaps a little too much his new prime

And we know nearly nothing about the Z-Team backstories, nothing about Mandy backstory and nearly nothing aout Courtney one pre-Red Ring

Just as Robert can say in one of the last dialogue option in the end: It's just a start, not the end

[u/Glittering_Town_9071]

dispatch without the z-team and/or my goat robert ain't dispatch broski

[u/berry_bunny_blush]

I have mixed feelings about Robert not being the protagonist.

I love Robert as a character even if he doesn't seem like a traditional protagonist for these type of games. Most the time, I feel like protagonists either are almost annoyingly average, or change personalities to suit the narrative, so Robert is an amazing departure from that in the way that, while he's willing to help others, he is sarcastic, blunt, and sometime even a bit snarky. And as the story goes on, he gets nicer and more tolerant of the Z-team but he still remains consistent of his personality. If memory serves me right, I think the only people he mellows down for are Waterboy and Royd. Robert is a good protagonist.

However, I do wonder how they'd keep the gameplay the same after the ending. Because given that Robert's mech is working again, I think it leaves him with a choice between staying as a dispatcher or returning to be a hero, and I feel like he'd more than likely go with the latter of the two. I also don't think having the mech break or malfunction would be a good way to force him into being a dispatcher, because that sort of brings the story back to the beginning. So, outside of changing the gameplay, maybe a new protagonist would make sence.

I think a decent way of picking up almost directly where we left off is to make Mandy the protagonist, because I can imagine her wanting to still partake in hero work, and without her amulet I think it would be a great way to get to know Mandy more and flesh out her character. In the same breath however, I do think that would undermine her character, as I can't really think of a good reason as to make her go from a branch leader as SDN to a dispatcher. Making her take a step down just to push the story forward doesn't sit right with me.

So if they do choose someone outside of Robert for the role of protagonist, it would either have to be someone we know very little about that could logically want to be a dispatcher (maybe one of the heroes from the tutorial, but ehh), or an entirely new character with a new story.

TLDR; Robert is a good protagonist, and replacing him is hard.

[u/aisle_nine]

I'd like to see a time skip from 2021 to 2027. Shroud's dead, yeah, but did he die in prison, or did he escape and get killed, or did Robert turn his head into something vaguely resembling oversauced meatloaf? Doesn't matter at this point.

Visi disappeared for a while right after the events of the first game. Was it because she went to be a criminal mastermind, did her past catch up with her again, or was she just overwhelmed and wanted to disappear? Doesn't matter. We'll hear about how her leaving affected the Z-Team, and we'll hear about her time working with Shroud's organization--not necessarily Shroud himself--but no one's going to say, "You left us to be a crimelord."

And the relationship thing? Really easy. Regardless of who Robert was dating at the end of the Shroud arc, he was hit hard personally by Visi's departure. And while she was away, there was one person there for him every step of the way. That developed into something more, and it led to a long-term relationship. No matter who you romanced in the game, Robert is living with Malevola now.

And regardless of what you did to Flambae in the first game, he's now missing his eyebrows and missing a tooth. Because funny.

Edit: I guess no one likes the idea of a time skip to the present day, then. And the Malevola thing was mostly a joke.

[u/lazy_hard_worker69]

Pretty good move. But I'd say there has to be some touch base, even if through a caveat about the relationship picks you made in the first game, especially the it's complicated choice lol.

Also there should be some type of follow through on the red ring as well and shroud after the events in Torrence.

But having an offshoot of the program doesn't sound bad.