Having been introduced to the goofy brawler “God Hand” recently, I realized that main character Gene plays a lot like the Bull: consummate fighter with a small circle of meaningful relationships.
But this got me thinking… I figured the Bull plays best with a demeanor of either abrasive gruffness or stoic detatchment with most people outside of the Love and Rival. I wonder if the Bull can even function with the goofball action hero persona that characters like RE4 Leon, DMC1 Dante, Gene, and the rest of the early 00s Capcom stable make use of?
Thoughts, anyone?
The particular persona outside of the Rival and Love can be anything you want. Love this connection
One of my PCs is The Bull. The other PCs treat her like a capable, dangerous person who always knows what she’s doing. But they’re kind of fooled by the fact she is large and strong (and headstrong). She’s certainly just as much of kid making things up as she goes along as the other PCs. Personality-wise, she’s not gruff or stoic by default—though she does have a lot of disdain for any villains that seem insecure or trying-to-hard. A lot of her character arc has had to do with the fact that she really wants affirmation, and her feelings are hurt by the fact the shadowy organization that gave her her powers doesn’t seem interested in coming for her after her escape.
I play the Bull in Alexi’s campaign (we wrote these independently, to see how they’d match).
I definitely don’t do her with either abrasive gruffness or stoic detachment. I think a lot of what I do with her is make all of her choices all in.
So when she’s enjoying herself, she does it in a pretty openhearted way. She also tends to overestimate what she can take, so she’s prone to take risks (physical and emotional) assuming she can weather them (with great story consequences if she’s wrong).
I think her teammates have definitely bought into her incomplete image of herself, to the point of them not worrying too much when she walked into an obvious trap and got captured because “Sonia probably has a plan. I’m sure she can handle it.”
Her Love has most often been the 10 year old she rescued from the Forge (the group that gave her her powers), but her Rival has been a lot of people. Another Forge escapee, one of the Forge scientists, a member of her team, the new leader of the country sheltering the Forge, etc.
She’s wound up allied with a fair share of those Rivals, because the more she engages with them (esp with the Listener move) the more likely she is to find some common ground, even if she’s not looking for it.
Great analysis…I find the Bull provides fodder for a rich internal emotional life.
More than any of the other archetypes, the Bull is about passion and emotion. The way I see them, they are the ones who wear their heart on a sleeve; the concept of an introvert Bull seems almost contradictory. They may have just one Love or Rival at one time, but everyone is seen as belonging into one or the other.
That’s just my personal take, though. If it works and you have fun with it, you do you. 😉
I agree with all of the above.
Wanted to thank everyone for the great analysis and advice. Look out, villains, cuz there’s plenty of dumb puns and jokes coming with the beatdown!