idonttakethislightly

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Nobody noticing Magus’s “Dev-elopment”, even after the Superpowers have known each other for years, is pretty tragic. It makes me think— the earliest four all seemed pretty close for a while. At the very least, they trusted each other with deeper conversations. (Valentina telling Magus about that one thing the Queen said, Etienne telling Heavy about his lack of a sex life, etc.) Maybe Jacky, despite his surface abrasiveness, was the social glue holding the group together in a way nobody else can manage?

I binged the entirety of The Power Fantasy yesterday and my god it has me in a chokehold. I don't usually like comics but this is so so good, I can't wait to read more. (spoilers below)

My favorite character is definitely Etienne Lux, with his 'ethical' decisions and the way he's trying so hard to keep all the plates spinning at the expense of his humanity. My bets are on him being knocked off the board somehow (incapacitated or dead?) towards the end (maybe issue 12?) and everything crashing down because he made himself too integral to the balance of power

I also love Jacky Magus - or should I say Dev? Well honestly, I don't like Dev much, he's kind of a jerk. But everything I've seen of the real Jacky is very compelling, all the ways he's a contradiction in himself, and there's something so sad about nobody noticing that he was replaced.

And everyone else too - Valentina and the way she holds onto her morality (and I do love the fact that she and Etienne form what seems to be the only remaining genuine friendship of the Superpowers, strained though it is); Eliza's pride and guild and delusions of grandeur; Heavy trying to hold everything together in his own way and yet poised to destroy the fragile balance with his son; and poor poor Masumi and the way that she's so tragic and yet also kind of a selfish asshole. The characters are so strong and everyone is allowed to be complex, both sympathetic and DEEPLY flawed, in a situation that is slowly destroying the best parts of them.

Anyways, read it. I'm going insane waiting to see what happens next; I'm assuming that issue 10 will give more of the real Jacky Magus and what happened to the pyramid, which is super exciting to me.

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"Two male friends, frequently Author Avatars of the artist and writer of the series, play computer games and have hijinks, mixing in political ideas and unexplained or explainable phenomena that surround their lives. Hilarity Ensues." - Two Gamers on a Couch (TV Tropes link)

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"We know what they're thinking: "Fuckkkkk"."

The Power Fantasy MS Paint Portraits #3: Heavy

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I'm a little astounded that Ray "Heavy" "Fuck The Government" Harris seems to think being a Superpower is about paperwork, and also astounded that Tonya seems to just buy into it. I had this idea in my head, based on her being so excited to interview Etienne and her knowing that one study, that she had an interest in Atomic rights and so on. This makes me think that she hasn't actually thought that deeply beyond the PR-line definition of "a Superpower is as strong as the US nuclear arsenal". Really, it's that a Superpower is anyone too strong for any other Superpower (or the US) to kill without massive collateral damage. Heavy should know that by now (although, at this point I shouldn't be surprised by Heavy not knowing things he should totally be aware of), and if Tonya's going to keep her head above water much longer, she needs to figure that out too.

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Jacky: You married that toerag? Why didn't you at least invite me to the wedding?

Eliza: It was an unexpected Dev-elopement

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I'm going to be eating my words next issue. Actually, I'm eating my words now.

In Dev and Eliza's last conversation, he apologizes to her for being too scared to start a family with her… and she replies with a sex joke. Talking about it ten years later, she frames the moment as a heartwarming microcosm of a loving relationship: she'd always wanted to make him laugh. I read it differently though. I feel like Eliza was the one part of Dev's life that he took seriously, while Eliza never fully respected or committed to him.

In 1986, Magus promotes Dev to Fucking Arsehole, instead of Eliza as she'd hoped, and she breaks off their eight year long relationship because it's too big an insult to her pride. Telling the story later, she says, "…for all his many flaws, he fought for us," in reference to how Dev told Magus's top tier secrets to win back his wife's devotion. Eliza was worth that to him, but for her part, she only returned to him because he shared those secrets and the power they offered.

Years later, also in that last conversation, Dev tries to be gentle about it as he tells Eliza he'll have to die to save the world, "You? You're going to sacrifice yourself?" as if she doesn't think he really would. He admits he's really going to, as if he doesn't believe it either, and she pulls off both their masks so they can kiss. That's when he brings up kids and his death and his fears, and she replies with joking obscenity.

Dev might have been a cool dad, if he'd had the chance. Yeah, he's a jerk to Magus and he's apparently used magic to cheat at gambling. But he's also funny, brave, and fiercely loyal to people he really loves. I just don't know if Eliza would have been a good mom, or if their relationship would have withstood the additional stress of kids.

We'll never know, though. Dev died with the rest of the Pyramid, and Eliza descended so that their sacrifices would not be in vain. It's not clear, though… how much of her choice was for the world, how much for her pride, and how much for him?

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So, how would you have matched up tarot cards and characters? (The rest of the Superpowers, and a few minor characters, coming soon!)

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...so these are probably not how Etienne and Heavy's first meeting went, but we've been having fun on the Discord making stuff up! I can only take credit for the art, here- the original version was written by Note (not on tumblr) and the second version by @meserach.

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Great work! I've also been thinking about that first page of #2, for an art project of my own... but it won't be ready to show anyone for a while.

Brother Ray

The first page of #2 has been living in my head for a couple days now. I also spent some time looking at Motor City 5 art and promo materials.

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I have some thoughts on this, but I'm still kind of pulling them together into something coherent. I do want to point out that Etienne's powers seem to be more about mind-as-neurology than mind-as-soul, considering he can explode people's optic nerves.

However, on the topic of world languages: TPF follows the Translation Convention trope, meaning that from the reader's perspective, all dialogue is in standard English whether that makes any in-universe sense or not. See the flashback scenes to Valentina's early life in Brazil, which should logically be entirely in Portuguese, or the flashback to Isabella saying goodbye to her mother, which should be entirely in Italian. See also Masumi complaining about Magus's accent, which isn't phonetically represented. All those differences in language are conveyed by names- "mamãe", "mia bella", "ducky"- and otherwise ignored. And that's probably for the best- it doesn't make much sense, but it also spares us all a lot of headaches.

Bit behind on The Power Fantasy, so sorry if this is answered later - Etienne can read people's minds, and I'm curious as to how that works with different languages?

Do we all think in "the same language" / a form that's more fundamental than language and thus doesn't need translation? Does he know all languages too?

From what I remember people differ on if they think explicit words as thoughts, as images, etc. so it's got me wondering.

I suspect Etienne would explain how he does this kind of thing in comic. The "he can learn skills by reading minds" is the traditional comic one to do it, so there's an "standard" explanation.

But. there are others.

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This is exactly the style of graphic design that Etienne would be into, and I would also totally believe that he's written books. Tonya most likely has a full collection of his works. Magus would like to pretend he couldn't care less what Etienne does, but he's also got a full collection, annotated with the weak points and misconceptions he sees in Etienne's arguments.

An Ethical Man

I can’t help wondering if Etienne has a series of nonfiction books in the world of TPF that he uses to burnish his reputation as a public intellectual.

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@rei-ismyname made some great points in the comments of my recent post! Here's some excerpts, with my responses to them:

"I read Etienne's comment [about Eliza selling her soul] theorising more than believing. Without exaggeration, he more or less knows everything there is to know about the material world, with a few obvious exemptions."

It's a subjective tone-of-voice thing, but Etienne sounds pretty certain of himself to me. Also, this is maybe semantics and not really what you meant, but I'd also argue that Etienne's domain is the psychological world and Heavy has a better grasp on the material workings of things. For instance, Etienne's got access to all of human knowledge (at least, outside the heads of the other Superpowers) but I don't think any human besides Heavy could put a body back together by intuitive feel...

...which is interesting to me, because Etienne's powers are right up against "what does it mean to have a mind?" He's exploded people's optic nerves, implying that his powers are about neurological wiring more than souls... and that plays real weird with a lot of other things in TPF's world. Like, on a scale from Valium and cigarettes having realistic effects on biochemistry, to Faustian bargains actually dooming your immortal soul to Hell, where do Etienne's abilities lie?

"I keep thinking about how Magus must have been working on theory for some time before inventing the mask/telepathy blocker in the early days, which would give Etienne some understanding of "magic." Unless he 'emerged' with full/advanced knowledge of it and made the mask immediately."

I hadn't thought of that... but yeah, how did Magus pull that off? Maybe Etienne isn't actually able to pay attention to everyone at once, and has to pick and choose who he's watching.

"I wonder if Lux doesn't distrust or even disbelieve Magic to some degree. After all, how much of it has he seen first hand/telepathically? Almost none. His comments to Tonya reducing Magus' work to 'making artifacts' many of which are fake supports this."

Etienne's got to know that at least some Numinous tech does otherwise-impossible things... but yeah, potentially he could believe in the tech's effects without buying the magical/heavenly explanations. Thing is, Valentina and Magus pretty much agree on this stuff whenever it comes up, and Etienne seems to trust Valentina.

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Okay, so there's a lot of nonverbal subtext with hands in TPF. Visual choices that never get said out loud, but keep getting shown off prominently enough that they seem important.

1999 Magus wears a clawed glove on his right hand to work with Numinous tech, and has geometric markings on his skin. Earlier on, he's most often in fingerless gloves, and in 1981 with the Major, we get this one close-up look at this ring. (For the record, that's the finger you traditionally wear a wedding ring on, though usually it would be further from the fingertip.)

1999 Eliza has a right-hand glove similar to Magus's, implying that she also works with Numinous tech, and a left hand that's human-shaped but has red fingertips. Or- she seems to be wearing a glove, considering she can take it off to pray. But then, consider how when she fights the Queen, it looks like her clawed hand is part of her arm, and her arm is also weirdly shaped. Maybe she can shapeshift?

Heavy's got the hand wraps, which are purely decorative for someone who can kill without touching. When we see them in 1981, they're plausibly suitable for a fistfight, but later, they're wrapped less for protective reinforcement, more so he can use his hands normally.

Heavy also occasionally does the fingerless gloves- early on in 1969, and later in 1999, when he's color-coordinated those gloves with his shoes and with Tonya's dress...

Oh yeah. Right. Tonya, Ms. Lightshow Fingers. The reporter who Etienne talks to because she's an Atomic, who gets to take refuge on Atomics-only Haven, whose only Atomic power is apparently that her fingernails light up.

Has anyone else noticed that after issue 1, we basically never see her fingernails?

We get this one really good look at her nails in the single panel where she talks about them. We get a few smaller glances elsewhere in issue one, and this single glance early on in issue 2, and we have not seen her fingertips in detail ever since.

Earlier in that scene, she's got her nails tucked into her fists. Every time after, she's so close up that we only see her head and shoulders, or she's so far away it makes sense not to draw such a tiny little detail (although arguably, in that last image we see a bit of her nail beds and should be able to make out colored nails!)

And then sometimes we get this close to seeing what color her nails are, except they're just barely off-panel, or there's a monochrome lighting effect, so that we wouldn't know either way.

I feel like this is being done intentionally, is what I'm saying. Narrative attention is being diverted away from why Tonya is actually here in the story at all...

So of course I'm being a contrary smartass and drawing the attention right back. I don't know what it means yet, but I think it means something. If anyone has ideas, I'm all ears.

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So, Valentina doesn't remember Heaven, but she's confident she knows her purpose- which is to protect the timeline. From nuclear war, from the Queen collapsing reality by drilling a hole to hell, from Etienne using his powers to take over the world. That last one has interesting implications. Does Valentina think Etienne's plans would literally lead to everyone's death, or does she just think total subjugation would be as bad as death?

But also, even without remembering Heaven, she's sure she knows why she's here. It's the first thing she says, seconds after being born: "I'm here to save you all." And it's one of the most recent things she's said, as of the end of issue 8: "It's not like that. I just have the mission."

She still hasn't elaborated on why she thinks that. Who decided that was her job? The powers that be up in Heaven, or her? Based on what she says to Eliza, that "your big guy doesn't speak to me," it doesn't seem like she's particularly committed to a belief in God (or at least, not the specific Christian God that Eliza has faith in.) But based on the way she's constantly torn between wanting to protect this world, versus wanting to make a better one, it seems like she has doubts about a mission she's obligated to. Maybe it's her own desires versus someone else's command, although it could also be her emotional impulses versus her rational sense of what's right.

She's torn, I guess, between the "perfection" she describes Heaven as, and the value of "all that truly lives," which is within the timeline. The timeline is "a candle flame", and "sparkling", even though it's her angelic self (and also the "voice of God") that have the shiny-bright white and gold aesthetic.

...maybe this is related, and maybe it isn't- but I think it's interesting how the artistic medium Valentina attaches hard to is music, specifically. The obvious out-of-universe reason is that Kieron Gillen is also really big on music. But in-universe, one possible reading is that music, as a medium, relies particularly hard on pattern and repetition? Like, I'd say it splits the difference between Heaven as "the higher realms of order" and the timeline as a world of change, causality, and living unpredictability.

Valentina's here to save everyone... we'll see if she succeeds.