#ch: felix faust

[doe-earth-n]

Richie recovers from his ordeal and finally reveals to Duncan and Tori about his inner demons in regards to the Dark Quickening ordeal; Duncan then opts to patch things up with Joe; Constantine and his crew talk to Jason Blood about a close call situation and go to track down Felix Faust.

[alrighty-vigilante]

Felix Faust: I can't mansplain manipulate manslut my way out of this one, boys.

[doe-earth-n]

Mandrake, Lothar, and Amy, along with Constantine, Zatanna, Jason Blood, and Deadman calls forth Swamp Thing's help and they duke it out with Felix Faust before realizing Ritchie Simpson is responsible along with his cult, Cult X and Ritchie turns into Destiny. Meanwhile, Richie Ryan attacks Duncan while they and Tori look for Haresh Clay.

[alrighty-vigilante]

Even if they tried lying about being related, it's impossible to hide it

(Challenge of the Super Sons (2021) || The Outsiders (1993) )

[alrighty-vigilante]

The Pied Piper: I wish I had a super tight-knit group of friends that I could fight crime with.

The Fiddler: I wish I had a super tight-knit group of friends that I could commit crime with.

Count Vertigo: I wish I had a super tight-knit group of friends.

Felix Faust: I wish I had friends.

Black Adam: I wish I could knit.

[alrighty-vigilante]

Sir, this is my emotional support sorcerer

[alrighty-vigilante]

Felix Faust and his one braincelled offspring – an epitome of DC's lost potential; a himbo,a dumbass and a fucking rat

It's not like any of you asked but it's the thing that wakes me up at night. DC created a lot of great characters: good, evil and morally grey.

And just like that... They abandoned them. Not like "stopped using them in their stories" – stopped caring.

Let me show you what made me so obsessed with DC's Faustfamily: the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good

Sebastian, the firstborn of Felix, Abraham to his Isaac, is constantly haunted by the sins of his father and bashed for them. Around him heroes are not heroes anymore, too distrustful to treat him with decency, always suspecting scheming.

The Bad

Since every magic user pays some price for their skills I feel like his price is not being able to experience love or not for long. In Outsiders (1993) it was stated, or so I believe, that he has a hard time experiencing feelings because of his lack of soul. Even if not: since Halo was reborn many times, she doesn't even remember Sebastian. June Moon was completely apathetic after Enchantress persona was ripped out of her. Zatanna is Zatanna, I think their relationship was only mentioned in Mystik U so it's thankfully not anywhere near canon. In totally awful Suicide Squad: Black Files it's told Sebastian's wife is dying (and pregnant) so he enchanted her until he finds a cure. Even motherly love he cannot experience – no matter the author's approach, his mother is not around him for long and he feels responsible for her death which may have be the reason why she tried to look after his sister for as long as it was possible. Sorry I need a moment...

I'd have to be naïve to even hope for anyone in DC being so competent to show Sebastian as aromantic/demiromantic without showing people on this spectrum as soulless.

Fauna lived to be "lesser than Sebastian". Suffered the same fate as her brother but was neglected by her father from the start, unlike Sebastian who was taught by him some time. I don't think she and her father nor she and her brother ever bonded in any way. For me Fauna is the embodiment of the anger only an abused abandoned teenager can feel. Raw blinding rage not directed at anything in particular but everything and everyone including herself because she is not sure what and who should she hate the most. And in the end, it is she who suffers the most. It drives her a path of evil. All her attempts at being better than everyone and most of all – better than her father, are in real just attempts to get his approval.

The only time she felt free was when she got with Syonide (yeah folks she's lesbian) but, well, it didn't last long.

One thing about her that especially wakes me up at night is how in Raven she mentions her ancestors but stops, saying she's better than them anyway. Well, there are no such characters in whole DC. No Majica the Magnificent or whoever. Let's pretend it's not just a hole in the universe because probably it is just that: it leads to conclusion that Fauna made it up herself to back up her narcissistic attitude and the right to do what she want and take what she want OR her father made that up, and that leads us to Felix Faust himself.

The Ugly

WHERE DO I EVEN START, if I start to lost what's wrong with him you'll be reading this to the end of your life.

The most prominent personality trait of his is that Dumb bitch hours are 24 hours. Second: he is full of opposites. Is he intelligent? As hell. Is he still a gullible idiot? Oh yeah. Is he doing bad things? Yes. Is he a villain? No, he had his time of being neutral/good. He is driven by the need for power. What would he do if he gets it? The most probable scenario: nothing. What would he need it for, then? I can bet all my money, which are around 5$ and a bagel, that what he really want is respect (and that ties neatly with making up his genealogy tree). Now, his background varies depending on the author, of course they couldn't develop consistency, but many things are common nonetheless. So, if we just generally look at him, we see a man who, before being possessed by 5000 years young ghost, was nothing more but street magician – guess how much respect he got. This old sorceress that eventually took over his body also was humiliated in a great defeat. In the 70s he was called the greatest foe of the Justice League. Nowadays, even some drunk warlock junkie rat (yeah, I mean Constantine lol) makes fun of him. What could he crave more than some basic "this is Felix Faust, the greatest sorcerer alive who hoards all the knowledge"?

I would say it doesn't matter whether he sacrificed his son to help his dying wife or to get more power (he later sacrificed his daughter just for the latter reason. He just never learns). Generally sacrificing your children is shitty thing to do so there's no justification for his actions. He doesn't know when to stop and even if he feels regret for things he has done, he just keeps going in an everlasting chase.

Damn, in a way he is quite relatable: despite the efforts, he fails every time. Despite the education in three majors, he is so gullible. Making him not talented enough to match his knowledge truly is tragic.

What DC never explored, and never will, is he was a single parent, who didn't know how to carry on without his wife, how to bring their children up. Too focused on his "career" he neglected his children. Having Sebastian to grow up to be a better person and better sorcerer than he ever will be visibly drives him up the wall. At the same time he struggles, trying to get close with his son a bit – these clumsy attempts to scold him are actually meant to be compliments. (No such scenes with him and Fauna because apparently writers forgot about her completely smh).

I don't enjoy New52 events but I think a lot about how Faust was trapped in the Tower of Fate with Neron, the ruler of hell and also his abuser. He kinda had it coming but it's traumatic nonetheless

Another thing that could be explored by DC more is that in a way, heroes are pretty much the guardians of the status quo. Not only Sebastian takes the blame for everything and is not trusted by them, but they also haven't done much to keep Felix on the good side, never thanked him for his service nor did they tried not to push him into villainy. But such behaviour also affect other characters so I won't be focusing on this.

To sum it up nicely: just because this is about fictional magicians doesn't mean their story is unrelatable. People out there are emotionally absent in their family's life sometimes because of tragedy they went through or because they were not ready, or because something else. People may hate their abusers, love their abusers, be children of abusers. Parents put their children through harmful situations. Family are not always bonded and happy. Family members may long for contact but don't know how to get it. Etc etc, you probably got it.

Not only these characters suffers from lost potential but many, many more. Instead of seeing same characters like Batman or Wonder Woman over and over again, I'd prefer creators to go back and develop what they already have.

[alrighty-vigilante]

Felix Faust: Sorry for psychologically scarring you.

Sebastian Faust: Which time?

[alrighty-vigilante]

[at Felix Faust's funeral]

Sebastian Faust: Can I have a moment alone with him?

Fiddler: Of course.

Fiddler: *leaves*

Sebastian, leaning over Felix's coffin: Listen here, I know you're not dead.

Felix Faust: Yeah, no shit.

[alrighty-vigilante]

General& random headcanons about Faustfamily because yes

I'm tired of referring to the woman that married into this family as "Felix's wife" or "mother". Her name is Linda. Don't ask me why, I just think it was popular name in that time and I generally like it.

In the 90s it was stated Sebastian and Fauna are British. Since Felix is surely an American (or at least his body is), that could mean Linda was British or they just lived in Great Britain, then moved to USA again. I like the first option more and think Linda was often making jokes about the differences between American English and British English.

Also because for some reason I'm keen on thinking of fictional characters' zodiac signs: Felix is Pisces/Virgo/Pisces, Linda's sun sign's Cancer, Fauna is Libra/Virgo/Leo and Sebastian is a fucking mystery which the best indicates his sun sign is Sagittarius. "You just... Know them when you see them" ~random internet user on Sags (and yes, they insult each other based on that)

Fauna's real name is Fawn. Her mother was a hippie and the idea for such name really stuck with her since Woodstock.

Fauna "inherited" some of her mother's vinyls and tapes. Fleetwood Mac was her favourite but also Janis Joplin. Felix noticed how Fauna doesn't want to share any of his interests and her mother's possessions are the only tie to her so he never mentioned Joplin's vinyls were actually his.

Sebastian is aromantic/demiromantic.

Felix was many things but he was never homophobic towards any of his children (or friends for that matter) so Fauna probably casually said "I'm lesbian" mid-breakfast to which he responded "better than me being sleep deprived"

After Linda's death the only people who took care of the Faustbabies were, in a way, school teachers and the Fiddler (they still refer to him as "uncle")

[alrighty-vigilante]

*in Hell*

Felix Faust: Sometimes I feel like I failed as a father.

Neron: SOMETIMES?

[alrighty-vigilante]

Felix Faust: you should value your children. Sebastian: 5$ and a pretzel, Fauna: 3$

Icicle: I mean, my children are priceless.

Felix Faust: Mine are roughly 10$

[alrighty-vigilante]

Sebastian Faust: What have I told you about comparing our pops to the devil?

Fauna Faust: That it's offensive to the devil?

[alrighty-vigilante]

Wizard: We're playing scrabble.

Fiddler: Scrabble? Scrabble is great!

Wizard: Not when you're playing with Felix, it's not. He puts the words like "ephemeral". And I put "dog".

[alrighty-vigilante]

Some people are like "how can you read old comic books? Weak plot, dry humour"

Dunno bruh maybe that's on me but I will never think of anything as funny as this

[the-brave-and-the-dumb]

Some random headcanons for Faustfamily because if I won't do this I will probably die lmfao

Felix Faust:

Pisces Sun Virgo Moon Pisces Rising, fucking crybaby

He still drives the car he stole in the 80s and refuses to buy new one ("IT STILL WORKS. I HAVE A LOT OF MEMORIES WITH THIS CAR")

Very passionate about self-care: face masks, bubble baths. Fixated on his looks because very often he had to sacrifice his youth for the power.

Never made a dad joke but when being a single father he was on "no one ever helps me" mode 24/7

Sebastian Faust:

Sagittarius Sun Aries Moon Taurus Rising

I totally love the thought that Klarion once saw him riding motorcycle without helmet, thought he was cool af and tried to act like him. Hence the extremely similar hairstyle. (Sebastian himself copied it from The Prodigy lead singer)

Seems edgy but is very very thoughtful

Guilty of saying "super duper cereal" at least few times

Fauna Faust:

Libra Sun Virgo Moon Leo Rising

Afraid of the dark

"I'm a lesbian and a hippie. Of course I adore Misty Day from AHS, you dumbfuck"

Doesn't seem edgy, is edgy