I've always gotten the impression Bob was going for a kind of Spider-Man thing with Doug. He's actually a very intelligent, cerebral, tactically-minded guy. He's a highly-trained and deeply experienced senior officer in a military organisation. It's just that his persona in the field is this wacky unpredictable wise-cracking devil-may-care comic relief thing.
It isn't an act, precisely. But there are multiple levels to it. It's different from writing...Deadpool or something, where randomness is truly random.
There probably is a genuine reckless streak to Doug, since he admits in his narration that when he was younger, he REALLY behaved like he appears to. He also ends up stubbornly butting heads with people in many of the DW stories to date... well, I guess maybe Peter Parker isn't the only comparison you could make. Maybe Tony Stark is a better comparison.
But anyway...the older Doug, the guy in Drunkard's Walk, is pulling his comic routine, his Looney Toons battle shtick, while also being fully Colonel Douglas Sangnoir. Which probably means a lot of what he says and does, crazy as it may seem, is calculated. That's how it comes across in the battle scenes Bob's written in the DW stories.
Separately, in a Worm context...I'm interested in how you see Doug reacting to the whole Protectorate/PRT part of the setting. I mean, on the one hand, he's a law enforcement, peacekeeper, military type himself. He's not just a superhero, he's spent years as part of a team with a United Nations mandate. He commands non-powered troops - his rank isn't just for show. That could either make him sympathetic to the local team in setting, or he could also be incredibly critical about how the Protectorate/PRT handles things. Because it offends his sense of professionalism.
It's probably also worth noting that the way Bob's written the Warriors in Drunkard's Walk, and drawing from his IST GURPS sourcebook which is a variation of the setting... the Warriors are technically a mercenary organisation that's under contract with the UN, not a governmental organisation. It might mean Doug isn't inclined to think favourably about national government superteams to begin with - with all their bureaucracy, PR, politics, and so on. I don't know if Bob's ever been clear on what Doug feels about that sort of thing.
-- Acyl
It isn't an act, precisely. But there are multiple levels to it. It's different from writing...Deadpool or something, where randomness is truly random.
There probably is a genuine reckless streak to Doug, since he admits in his narration that when he was younger, he REALLY behaved like he appears to. He also ends up stubbornly butting heads with people in many of the DW stories to date... well, I guess maybe Peter Parker isn't the only comparison you could make. Maybe Tony Stark is a better comparison.
But anyway...the older Doug, the guy in Drunkard's Walk, is pulling his comic routine, his Looney Toons battle shtick, while also being fully Colonel Douglas Sangnoir. Which probably means a lot of what he says and does, crazy as it may seem, is calculated. That's how it comes across in the battle scenes Bob's written in the DW stories.
Separately, in a Worm context...I'm interested in how you see Doug reacting to the whole Protectorate/PRT part of the setting. I mean, on the one hand, he's a law enforcement, peacekeeper, military type himself. He's not just a superhero, he's spent years as part of a team with a United Nations mandate. He commands non-powered troops - his rank isn't just for show. That could either make him sympathetic to the local team in setting, or he could also be incredibly critical about how the Protectorate/PRT handles things. Because it offends his sense of professionalism.
It's probably also worth noting that the way Bob's written the Warriors in Drunkard's Walk, and drawing from his IST GURPS sourcebook which is a variation of the setting... the Warriors are technically a mercenary organisation that's under contract with the UN, not a governmental organisation. It might mean Doug isn't inclined to think favourably about national government superteams to begin with - with all their bureaucracy, PR, politics, and so on. I don't know if Bob's ever been clear on what Doug feels about that sort of thing.
-- Acyl