Heartwarming / Hunter: The Vigil

• The whole premise of the game. Sure, it's dark and depressing, but the message of this game is simple: the reason humanity hasn't fallen to the countless horrors of the universe over the centuries, the reason ordinary people sleep soundly in their beds, the reason the protagonists of the other game lines (with a couple of exceptions, like Promethean and Geist) will NEVER win is because ordinary men and women step into the darkness and take up the Vigil. Many go insane. Most die. But for every candle that goes out, another ignites and the Vigil remains.
• You spend a lot of the core rulebook reading how We ARE Struggling Together. But, then...
  Such a combination of conflicting ideologies existed in a single cell — the famous (and possibly apocryphal) Greenwich Village Irregulars, who operated in New York City during the late 1970s. Though constantly pressured by their superiors in the organizations they served, these hunters refused to let their individual beliefs trump the friendship they had for one another. For many years, their activities were a symbol of unity for New York’s embattled hunter community, and survivors of that period credit the Irregulars with keeping the Vigil alive at a time when many were willing to surrender the city to the monsters.
• So many Hunters appear to have gone from bad to worse on entering the hunting business. Then there's one of the Task Force: VALKYRIE agents:
  You're a veteran of Special Forces. One time in Kabul, you saw things that they frankly hadn't trained you for. You dealt with it, though, and kept the details from your CO. But somehow TFV knew about it. You were back in the US within a week and working in the field in the mainland US in a black suit and tie. It's good to be home.
• In an universe where Fantastic Racism and He Who Fights Monsters are disturbingly common, Spirit Slayers gives us an instance from Bronx in the 70s, where a small Union Cell known as the Ironmongers managed to find an agreement with the local werewolf pack in the face of gang violence, giving them no trouble as long as they would focus their hunts on muggers and drug dealers. Not only did they actually maintain this arrangement for almost five years, but it never was technically broken by any of the two sides- it just stopped because the Cell was disbanded after the death of two of their members in a completely unrelated event.
• Despite being misguided like most of the Hunters, the Talbot Group has a surprisingly optimistic side to it compared to the other Compacts and Conspiracies. They approach werewolves as people who need help and medical attention rather than monsters who have to be put down. While they are incorrect on that point, this results in them having a surprisingly human treatment of them: the "wolf-children" they keep as patients are willing subjects who cooperate to the best of their abilities with them. And while they still have yet to figure out the true nature and purpose of werewolves, a specific group among them, the Counciliators, has started to put two and two together.
• Mortal Remains actually has a surprisingly large number of stories showing hunters collaborating peacefully with supernaturals:
  • The Promethean section features a sweet story depicting the birth of a Promethean as seen by a member of the Long Night. After the corpse of a recently dead neighbour has been recently stolen, the hunter and his comrades start to investigate, only to find the lab in the aftermath of the Promethean's creation, with only traces of blood, pictures of the dead man and remains of a ritual. The next day, the hunter sees the missing dead man resurrected (actually the Promethean) about to leave the town... and, not sure of what has happened, decides to just let him go and waves him goodbye. Obviously delighted by such kindness, the Promethean smiles and waves back before departing.
  • The Sin-Eaters section combines it with a Moment of Awesome with a story featuring a hunter cell trying to take down an especially dangerous ghost named Amelia, who gives them insane trouble and almost kills them multiple times... until a Sin-Eater Krewe shows up to help them. Using their abilities, the Sin-Eaters are able to restore Amelia to sanity, revealing in the process she actually had been killed while investigating dark rituals performed by a woman named Norma, who then enslaved her as a ghost and used her to guard her hideout. What follows is a team-up between the hunters, the Sin-Eaters and Amelia against Norma, who they eventually defeat by working together, with the lead hunter admitting being excited about how monsters are on their side for once. Once Norma is killed, the Sin-Eaters use a ceremony to help Amelia move to the afterlife, before warmly saying goodbye to the hunters and advising them to be careful.
  • The Lost section reveals that, for the most part, Task Force: VALKYRIE's interaction with Changelings is positive. They've figured out that Changelings as a whole don't pose a threat to humanity, Project TWILIGHT has agents assigned to monitor various Lost freeholds, which they usually do by providing them with needed supplies and various services (like helping them get fake IDs or find jobs), Operation FORT focuses more on understanding fae magic and dealing with non-sentient creatures of the hedge than on dealing with Changelings, and Radio Free Fae and Project ADAMSKI often (unknowingly) work together to cover up evidence of fae magic, with the former providing "proof" that said evidence is "fake", and the latter making sure said "proof" is well publicized in the appropriate sources. It's nice to see that, for all the times the Hunters misunderstand the supernatural and target the innocent by accident (especially the Changelings), one of the major conspiracies has actually figured out that the Changelings usually aren't evil, and actually have a beneficial relationship with them.
• Tooth and Nail introduces Yuri's Group, a support group created to help former victims of the supernatural cope with their trauma. Not only that, but they also try to rehabilitate monsters with similar methods, and in fact have created an entire Tactic dedicated to helping supernaturals (especially vampires and Beasts), offering them someone to talk to about their guilt and remorse and encouragements to restrain their Horror Hunger. In a setting filled with Knight Templars and Noble Bigots, it's pretty nice to see a Compact trying to solve the problem by treating supernaturals like people for a change.
• The core book mentions coexistence as a legitimate possibility for hunter Cells and monsters. The section about it opens with three examples, of which one in particular fits best. A monster that had used its singing as a Compelling Voice to lure in prey changes gears entirely, now using its song to uplift and buoy the spirits of its audience. All the hunters do is have one of their number sit in the audience at every performance, just to make sure it stays that way.