Why is every "leader" in this campaign a cringey little ball of angst?

[Enderoth]

Look, I'm having a modicum of fun. I'd give the game as a whole a 7/10. But know what makes me groan louder than when the AI makes one of my lancemates (or starmates, w/e) rush into my lasers like a moth yoloing into a bug zapper?

The cringe-ass dialogue. Seriously. Why are these clowns always so irrationally angry? I have never in my life heard such useless dialogue both in combat and cutscenes, and always condescending and angry. Is there... a lore reason? I'm not a fanboy (outside of loving mechwarrior in general since MW2), but maybe someone can tell me why this dialogue is pulled from the pages of a teenage sophomore's creative writing fanfic. There's got to be a reason.

It's wild. Their behavior doesn't make sense. Who is the writer? Who do I have to call in order to take their job? They literally did mocap for this dialogue.

Edit: Updated to a 7/10 after one specific mission, but man... I sure wish the characters were more compelling. 10/10 for clanners having the best dental plans in the galaxy!

[Johnny]

Clanners are basically cloned teenagers used as cannon fodder in their respective religious cults led by other clones that just got lucky and managed not to die long enough, think of them as like...space republicans or something

[Last Seraph]

It's actually pretty lore-accurate in terms of how the coughing kitties are, to be honest. The Clans are the *bad guys* in a setting where the "good guy" factions would be at best neutral in other franchises.

They're meant to be angsty and angry, over the top barbarians. Unless they're Clan Wolf, because they're the settings Mary Sues.

[Geeves]

Yep, unless they wanted to make a completely different game, they kinda had to make everyone on the clan side angsty backstabbing divas.

Have to blame the lore on that one.

[HuffingJenkem]

Originally posted by Last Seraph:

It's actually pretty lore-accurate in terms of how the coughing kitties are, to be honest. The Clans are the *bad guys* in a setting where the "good guy" factions would be at best neutral in other franchises.

They're meant to be angsty and angry, over the top barbarians. Unless they're Clan Wolf, because they're the settings Mary Sues.

And the oddly egalitarian and pragmatic Diamond Shark, who manage to almost constantly outperform and manipulate everyone in this supposedly hypercompetitive culture without anyone even considering learning from them.

[Last Seraph]

Originally posted by HuffingJenkem:

And the oddly egalitarian and pragmatic Diamond Shark, who manage to almost constantly outperform and manipulate everyone in this supposedly hypercompetitive culture without anyone even considering learning from them.

Yeah, but they're not in this game. :(

[HuffingJenkem]

Originally posted by Last Seraph:

Originally posted by HuffingJenkem:

And the oddly egalitarian and pragmatic Diamond Shark, who manage to almost constantly outperform and manipulate everyone in this supposedly hypercompetitive culture without anyone even considering learning from them.

Yeah, but they're not in this game. :(

Yeah, but a Diamond Shark game would be you flying around in a trading ship seeing how much dual use technology you can slip to the Inner Sphere under the table without the Crusaders noticing.

[FlyingTorcensoredWhale]

Pretty much lore accurate CSJ. I'm getting exactly what I've expected from this campaign lore-wise and character-wise. It's a blast. Could be a bit jarring if you've expected sane, normal human people, I reckon. But they are anything but.

[Wrayday]

I think the problem isn't the angry leadership.... it's everyone else. No one seems to be jacked or motivated to do anything. Your Star just complains the entire time.

These guys should be amped up rocking the heaviest of metal doing all of the meth.... instead they are damn near reciting poetry while listening to Emo music trying to figure out how to cut themselves.

Supposed to be bred for battle, got picked over everyone else.... crying about rain...... fk me.

[Chef0Death88]

Originally posted by Chef0Death88:

The Angsty Aggro Fist Waving is exactly why they get the luck of the draw in being systematically erased from the galaxy in the near future.
Not even the Egalitarian warlike Major houses can put up with their crap forever.

[The First Furry Descendant]

Originally posted by Enderoth:

Look, I'm having a modicum of fun. I'd give the game as a whole a 6/10. But know what makes me groan louder than when the AI makes one of my lancemates (or starmates, w/e) rush into my lasers like a moth yoloing into a bug zapper?

The cringe-ass dialogue. Seriously. Why are these clowns always so irrationally angry? I have never in my life heard such useless dialogue both in combat and cutscenes, and always condescending and angry. Is there... a lore reason? I'm not a fanboy (outside of loving mechwarrior in general since MW2), but maybe someone can tell me why this dialogue is pulled from the pages of a teenage sophomore's creative writing fanfic. There's got to be a reason.

It's wild. Their behavior doesn't make sense. Who is the writer? Who do I have to call in order to take their job? They literally did mocap for this dialogue.

This game features a DEI-influenced narrator, which is evident in the cinematics—a woman of color with cringeworthy dialogue demanding reparations.

[Chef0Death88]

Originally posted by The First Furry Descendant:

Originally posted by Enderoth:

Look, I'm having a modicum of fun. I'd give the game as a whole a 6/10. But know what makes me groan louder than when the AI makes one of my lancemates (or starmates, w/e) rush into my lasers like a moth yoloing into a bug zapper?

The cringe-ass dialogue. Seriously. Why are these clowns always so irrationally angry? I have never in my life heard such useless dialogue both in combat and cutscenes, and always condescending and angry. Is there... a lore reason? I'm not a fanboy (outside of loving mechwarrior in general since MW2), but maybe someone can tell me why this dialogue is pulled from the pages of a teenage sophomore's creative writing fanfic. There's got to be a reason.

It's wild. Their behavior doesn't make sense. Who is the writer? Who do I have to call in order to take their job? They literally did mocap for this dialogue.

This game features a DEI-influenced narrator, which is evident in the cinematics—a woman of color with cringeworthy dialogue demanding reparations.

No it doesnt, no one cares, go away. You are the only one bringing up DEI. Bend ya straws somewhere else.
We demand reparations for being exposed to your repetitive ragebaiting.

[Inverted Polarity]

It is lore accurate. Clan society was created by a megalomaniac psychopath.

[swordsman422]

The cringy dialogue gets a pass, especially from the leadership, because the Clan leaders were all people in their mid 30's with the Clan rod shoved 96% of the way up their rectums. They talk like that because they're just regurgitating the same fluff they were spoonfed from infancy, and with varying degrees of conviction based almost entirely on how firmly glued their lips are to Lincoln Osis's firm, manly glutes.

Seriously, though, it's interesting to see the varying personalities in action. Sarah Weaver was generally a good leader, but prideful and temperamental. If, IF, she had won Khan of Smoke Jaguar, the Jags would likely not have been quite so awful, as her grey morals entirely begin and end with Nicholas Kerensky's warrior code (for what that's worth), but she had to bow to that self-serving, narcissistic, glory-hounding, cowardly, pretentious, arrogant dumpster fire that was Osis. Even so, she was one of the few people that could control Cordera Perez, who was little more than an angsty, tantrum-throwing monster that possibly leapt whole and mature from the gunge in Osis's navel.

I'm loving hating on Perez, who gives me the feeling like he practices talking in a mirror when he's not leaving bitemarks on the scenery. I am on Turtle Bay now, and I cannot wait to witness his censure after bombarding Edo.

The currently constructed lore (if Forever Faithful is to be accepted) around the Smoke Jaguars is that most of the individual Jags were well-meaning, fierce, and patriotic soldiers out doing what they truly believed in, which is saving the people of the Inner Sphere from an endless war fought at the behest of fat, rich nobles only interested in their own power and authority. These "good" people, however, were at the mercy of their leadership and Clan politics, in which the worst of them were in position to see their worst impulses given breath and life. And a few of the warriors on the front line had some of those same rash impulses to shoot first, ask questions later, and regret actions never, while the rest of them, in order to provide a unified front, just accept what happens and hope it doesn't happen again.

I'm just a few missions into the campaign, but I hope we come across some of the more admirable, conscientious Jags, like Trent, Russou, Brandon Howell, Benjamen Howell (why are all the good Jags Howells?) and more like them, to contrast with the atrocious leaders. But because the bad people are in positions of leadership and tend to drive the lore, we'll probably get more of them instead.

[ppRogue1]

Smoke Jaguar are a "corrupted" Clan and a whiny sense of self-entitlement is one of their defining traits. By this point in the timeline, their leadership is riddled with politics and most of those senior leaders are in place through political machinations rather than the usual Clan methods of advancement. They're not all awful - there are some good people at the lower ranks - but their ethos has drifted a long way from the Clan ideals, even as they proclaim themselves the "Clanniest" of the Clans.

Their downfall eventually comes about because of a defector to the Inner Sphere (pretty much unthinkable for a Clan warrior), who gives away the location of their homeworld. That defector isn't motivated by any high-flying ideals - he's just angry that he lost out on the chance to compete for a bloodname due to being on the wrong side of a political struggle.

I'm only half a dozen or so missions into this game so far, but it actually seems to be doing a very good job of capturing the essence of Smoke Jaguar - some potentially good people stuck in a rotten system where the worst rise to the top. A strong sense of entitlement is part of the Clan's character. Their anger is often because the world around them doesn't play ball with that entitlement.

[rubyismycat]

Bad writing infused with DEI nonesense