#Imo Gregory is the best choice- Vanessa is the most likely choice- and Cassie would be nice but I think she needs a bit more time :]

[chipistrate]

Alright- been talking about Riri protag all day so I'm gonna throw my 2 cents out there about my opinions on the protags (while trying to not be biased towards any character)

I think Vanessa is the most plausible considering everything- putting aside the hand saga, I think there's a lot that points to her being the protag, a few examples being the wording in the trailers (Handunit saying 'welcome back' and the entire new trailer talking about being employed and trained at the Pizzaplex) and just the fact that this is a sequel to HW1, the game where Vanessa was first introduced as the protagonist. I wouldn't be against that- I just think we've gotten a lot of Vanessa content as of late (movie, HW1, SB, Ruin hints, her ending being confirmed canon which means she'll show up even more later)(all of which I love ofc) and it might be better to throw someone else in as the protag this time.

Cassie protag seems very unlikely imo- there's nothing in the trailer that really screams 'Cassie', all there is towards the theory iirc is the hand model change (which could be her or Gregory), and the first teaser for HW2 that kinda paralleled the elevator ending in Ruin. I don't think she'd be a bad choice- I'd love to see Cassie back as a protag and find out what happened post-Ruin! But I think that compared with Vanessa and Gregory, going off evidence, she'd be the most unlikely choice. Plus she just got her time in the spotlight a few months ago, so it'd be nice to focus on someone else for a second- give her cliffhanger a bit more time to breathe yknow?

Gregory protag, while definitely not as likely as Vanessa protag, still feels possible to me, and, putting aside character biases, would be the best choice imo. Gregory is a generally mysterious character, even though he has an entire game and book story (though a lot of people doubt how canon said book is), not a whole lot is known about him. Taking this game as a chance to finally explain more about Gregory after, at the point of HW2's release, almost 2 years since his introduction, would be great and very much needed for his character! Especially after the cliffhanger in Ruin- it could give more context as to why and if he really dropped the elevator. The boy needs more fleshing out and, if we're going with the events of HW1 where we watched Vanessa get glitchtrapped, HW2 would be the Perfect time to introduce GGY into the game canon, same way Ruin introduced Mimic, while paralleling the first game (either with Gregory getting glitchtrapped or Gregory freeing himself). But even discarding throwing book lore into the games- I still think Gregory is the character in the most need of the spotlight again.

TLDR;

-Vanessa is the most likely based on evidence. -Cassie is the least likely and needs a bit more time before we pick back up on her story. -Gregory is kinda likely and needs the spotlight the most.

I'm curious what others think though! ^^