#((Yes Smasher lore))

[a-gay-little-cat]

walking in to rephrase my thoughts from discord but i was just thinking about tiger getting checked up by his ripper n yknow one could consider tiger a 'borg in cyberpunks terms sure hes not super insane looking like smasher, he likes looking human and theres almost an art to having all these enhacements and reinforcements all neatly tucked away for no one to see yes you have the obvious visible cyberware on his face, his body, the tail but its nowhere near as extreme as you see elsewhere at times, hell, look at someone from maelstrom

all in all he looks.. tame, very stylized sure but you might not exactly expect this all going on in there

[deisbookofdemons]

I'm aware...and I'm still not sure how to stop it or what happens if it's stopped.

"And those that see or witness the machine usually end up going crazy." He showed a visual of Hank... and Smasher when he was the Disquieted One.

"And we met face to face for the first time in a long time when he was like this."

[prototypelq]

The Most Unreliable Narrator I Have Ever Seen

soooooo I had a Cyberpunk-obsessed phase pass recently, and this time Johhny Silverhand's character caught my eye. His story, more specifically, and how... inconsistent he seems, depending on each source.

In the game, Johhny acts like a bastard for most of the game. He panic-rages on his first meeting with V, throws many threats around, but is later beaten into the background with the blocker pills Misty gave to V. Even Johnny's friends' are well, they react Loudly to his return. Y'know, make it known his presence alone provokes a lot of anger from them.

Even during his first appearance, when V gets thrown into Silverhand's memories of his SAMURAI concert, the only real thing V recalls is the all-consuming rage that he felt, which he tried to shout out through the microphone, but it never felt like enough.

And doesn't this sound weird then, that the only thing Johnny does throughout the game after that first meeting is help V out? He learns about the Smasher guy hideout at the docks (he does that through dubious means but that's Johnny for you), he helps V out when the seizures become worse, he calmly agrees to Any decision V makes, despite V clearly Not being in any real state to oppose him in the finale of the game, he plans the whole thing with "Alt" so V can get his body back at Johnny's own expense, from the beginning, and he doubles down on that claim at the end of the game.

Do you see the dissonance? The egoist rockerboy that admitted to using his friends to getting what he wants, and the downright self-sacrificing hero and a friend that is Johnny at the end of the game? People change, sure, but this divide is very massive and too sudden, so I wanted to dig into that. And what I've stumbled upon, with the help of canon Cyberpunk materials like the Red sourcebook (or, more specifically, LayedBackGamers' reading of the canon books and his lore videos on different topics), is that

Johhny Silverhand from Cyberpunk 2077 is the Most Unreliable Narrator I've Ever Seen.

Count with me here:

Johhny's personality in general. No matter what your interpretation of him his, it's impossible to ignore that Johhny is very much a people person and he exploits that knowledge and charisma to suit his own goals. If you choose to trust him, then you might have already been played.

2) Johhny has been alone, only his lovely self for 50+ years inside the Arasaka chip. Don't ask me how he is still even remotely sane, I haven't got a clue (hopefully the time as a construct without outside stimulation flies differently and he hasn't felt those 50 years in real time). The thing to mention here, however, is that, being alone with your thoughts and emotions for a long time, having nothing else for entertainment, is a great opportunity to rewrite your own memory of events or emotions you've felt.

3) Lack of a body. The aforementioned constant rage, that was the dominant emotion is Johnny's life (before Alt, at least, if Never Fade Away is anything to go by, and I mean, that's literally a love ballad), is a symptom of his PTSD from his too-young years serving in the corpo war, same as his signature silver hand. I'm not a specialist here, but I do know PTSD, especially for war veterans, is a physiological illness just as much as it is a mental one. Johnny's body literally had trouble living normally after that experience, and knowing this bastard - he never managed to treat that. Existing as a personality construct frees him from the many bonuses of being corporeal, but it also free him from the physiological side of PTSD. His day-to-day existence is fundamentally different from that of the Johnny Silverhand that the world knew 50 years ago, so yes, as a 'time traveler' or a source of information and comparison about the 70's and 20's of cyberpunk world Johhny is not a good source.

4) The chip with Johnny is literary inside the head of another person. The characters in game question, multiple times, just which decisions is V making on his own, and which of them might be Johnny's doing. Not consciously, no, but V and Johnny are clearly not your simple neighbours. They are not your 'close friends that start subconsciously copying each other' too. It is quite possible that the chip with Johhny is adapting to the 'hardware' it is running on, so it is specifically implementing parts of V's personality into Johnny, to minimize the 'friction' between the personality and the body it is supposed to inhabit. Everyone say hi to existential horror)

5) How does Soulkiller ever work? Is there data on how much the resulting engram actually resembles the person it tried to copy? How did the process of copying Johnny go? I can answer the last one - very badly.

Death of Johnny is told in excruciating detail in the Cyberpunk sourcebooks. Johnny died on the floor of Arasaka tower, torn in two by a shotgun blast from Smasher. There is no information on how much time it takes Soulkiller to create the engram from the brain, but it better have finished doing that before Johnny's brain started dying from a lack of blood and oxygen, and he clearly didn't have much time either, considering bisection is not the best for bodily fluid preservation, so it's a wonder the engram even works properly. Plus, during the initial heist to steal the chip with Johnny, the chip was damaged further before the idiots decided to stick an unknown harddrive into their heads to preserve it. Basically, it's nothing short of a miracle, that engram-Johnny is actually a whole damn person, that he can function, think and feel properly (well, as much as Johnny can do those things)

It is very sad that V can't talk to Johnny about this, as the man does blame himself over things he hasn't even done, and he had done enough emotional damage to himself and people around him without that kind of burden on top of it.

6) Johnny's memories are literally false. The attentive reader had to pick this up in my previous point - didn't Johnny die in the hands of Arasaka after they interrogated him? Nope. Nope, and I can say that confidently because,

(drumroll please)

Cyberpunk tabletop sourcebooks! Mike Pondsmith, the creator of the Cyberpunk universe and the TTRP series of games, has worked closely with CDPR writers during the production of the 2077. He oversaw everything, and he says that 2077 is in the same cyberpunk universe too, it's not an 'alternate reality' or anything.

Johnny Silverhand died while trying to buy time for his friends to escape, from a shotgun shot from Adam Smasher. That's it, he died on that floor, there was noone to interrogate, no rooftop helicopter he ran for.

The sequence of 'memories' we see from Johnny's POV in the game is a mishmash of two different assaults on the Arasaka towers, yes towers there were two of them. There is a great video explaining all the small and Major details Johnny's version of events got wrong, because we have the sourcebooks and the text inside. You may accuse me of holding a 'holy canon' argument ... and well, yeah, this is kind of holy knowledge, as it was written for gamemasters.

Still, some of the things in Johnny's version are Major, and while the media certainly covered the whole story extensively with corpo propaganda (oh, btw, Johnny didn't bomb anything, he probably didn't even know there was a nuke involved, he is literally just a scapegoat), there are some holes that a citizen of this world might know and wish to poke. The aforementioned Two Arasaka towers, or the absence of the legendary solo Morgan Blackhand from Johnny's story. Interestingly enough, there is a radiostation of Maximum Mike in-game, who is actually just pretty much Mike Pondsmith, and he does propose a couple of questions the 'official' version of the attack doesn't cover (like, where would a rockerboy even get a nuke, he might have been popular, but that's not just something you find without military contracts, and that means corporations). Another thing is that since Arasaka owns Soulkiller and has had the engram for a couple of decades, it is quite possible they are the ones responsible for messing with Johnny's memories.

So uh, yeah, Johnny is the Most Unrealible Narrator I have ever seen. Johnny of 2077 is most certainly not the Johnny of 2020's, but this might be a good thing. Maybe the 'real' 2020's Silverhand could never have made the progress the engram did, or become such a good friend and companion for V, or maybe he could have done those things too. We'll never know. I really love this story anyway.

[vole-mon-amour]

Why does every resource tell us that Johnny died at the Arasaka tower as a result of a bomb and Smasher's attack when we know that

a) Johnny's brain has been fried in order to "record" his consciousness on an engram? And when he was grabbed by Saburo Arasaka's team and unloaded out of the van, it was clearly stated that "yes, he's still alive" and we could see Johnny's pov, being carried on the stretcher?

b) they didn't even check if his physical body was dead after copying his consciousness, just shoved him into cryo? So technically it can be found again and resurrected, especially with modern technology and synthetic organs?

Even without the B option, he didn't die at the Tower? Maybe that's the info that was fed to the public, but I'm talking about the fan sites and the lore there?

This is literally Johnny's view before his end? THAT tower, not THIS tower, because the 'Saka tower seems to be quite far and is burning away. Plus, his optics are no longer glitching, which to me implies that he could've easily survived if given a chance.

The real question is, where IS it? Where does he (or his brain) die?

[medtech-mara]

Work in Progress(es)

I won't go on the spill, you know what day it is, and I do things when I want.

Lets start with DOGTOWN SAFE HOUSE. I'm working on making things a bit more homey for V3AH. It's a slow progress. Also if someone could help me figure out how to move the sleep icon up from the bed thats there, that would be great. Right now she clips thru the bed to sleep on that dirty ass mattress.

How the apartment pod even got up there is a mystery to us all, but its gonna stay. I already have some changes to it i'm wanting to do. maybe i'll release the preset when im done.

MOVING ON--

I've been working on some Lore for the 2077 timeline, still working on the name of it.. I've been..... Scheming.... if you will with @fly-amanitaa about some of the directions I plan to take. WHAT I CAN INDULGE, is public knowledge.... and by that i mean it's been posted in my Delusional corner for a week, so my besties already got first dibs.

Kang Tao reigns as the Apex of Night City with the help of Shin Chae-Rin joining the Engineering department. Gong-Ji and the Cheol Family have taken over after the construct of Jung Ho-Seok aka Jago (Jay-Go) was ripped out of him to prevent certain Terror on the city if reunited with his Wife, Panthera, who has been missing for nearly 10 years now. The Night Jackie and V3AH break into Konpeki Tower and preform the Heist, instead of being greeted with Arasaka family, it's the Cheol patriarch being murdered by Gong-Ji.

This storyline, plays directly off the second AU. Where Mara and Jago get married and at the end you see both borg’d out Jago and Mara closing in on an AV to Kang Tao tower, the plan is to destroy Gong-Ji and the rest of the Cheol family, rip it root and stem from the garden. They killed Jago’s whole family and have been in an active manhunt for him since the news doxxed his real identity.

Then, when Jago and Chae-rin split, Gong-Ji moves in with villian intentions to use her to kill her former lover, while keeping her for his own. Knowing how Jago really feels about Chae-Rin, when all else failed to get Chae-rin to Willingly come, Gong-Ji forced her to join Kang Tao and refuses to let her go unless Jago is killed. Chae-Rin, refuses to do it. She won’t be the one to give the command to kill someone she loves so much.

When Jago hears about her Capture, him and Mara fight for a while. The moment her name gets brought up, he always wants to run to her. It’s clear his feelings for her never left him, and Mara is sick of it. She agrees to do it, but she’s doing it to get back for taking his family. Not Chae-rin, and she will not extract her. He would have to do that himself. She’s sick of being second in his heart. The mission fails (still working on how that happened), Jago is captured and assumed to be dead. Mara narrowly escapes and is nearly dead when she calls Titus to evac her. She was already fading in and out of consciousness when Odessa shows to grab her. She was left in a recovery tank while they figured out what happened to Jago. No matter what they tried, Odessa nor Azimuth could find out what happened to Jago. All attempts ended the same, countless dying. Titus, knowing that Mara is basically Azimuths Adam smasher at this point, knows that she will go Berserk and kill everyone. Odessa had already made plans to leave earth and head to Europa where colonies were starting up. They loaded the Cryotank up with Mara inside and decided to keep her subdued until she got to Europa. Which is why Mara hasn’t been seen in 10 years and no one knows what happened to her. THUS explains as to how Mara ends up on Jupiter's moon with the rest of Night Raid Which bridges our lore from cyberpunk to Barotrauma.

LASTLY...

I mentioned I would talk about the unknown cutie that ya'll have been going crazy for!!!!! BABABABABABABAABAAAADAAAAAAAA!!!!!!\

It's Joi! Yes, in the main storyline she was the Clinic A.I, but in the new AU, Water on Mars, i decided to make her human, and she is Mara's Rival for Jack's attention... one of them at least.

Let me tell you it was a struggle to make someone that might make Mara jealous, but honestly, I think this cutie will make Mara run for her eddies.

Joi (I dont have her last name yet I might have Joi as her handle....) is 29, she's a techie/netrunner who specializes in drones. Think of a hivemother, but with drones. That's her. She will join Mara's merc team when they cross paths, so now its a question.... Will Mara and Jack make it to the end or will Mara be replaced with the girl she hired to work with Jack?

Normally, Joi is my Android or A.I character, i normally only play her on Barotrauma, but I needed someone to make Mara sweat, and clearly the Media from Wellsprings Tells things, was too intimidated by Mara. (for good reason too, after Mara threatened her, she smashed in Gorge's mom's head in. Gorge is a 13 year old boy who was hired and looked after by Jack and Mara. I will tell ya'll why later.)

okay... so those are my WIPs for whenever. I have been tagged by so many people i can't even keep up with, but most recently: @glitchinginthegarden

tagging: @imaginarycyberpunk2023 @nananarc @juststayquiete @aggravateddurian @ghostoffuturespast @pacificaisstillpacifica @gloryride @streetkid-named-desire @cyberpsychotic-purgatory

no pressure. i tagged anyone whose interacted with me recently. so sorry if you already done one this week and tagged me, im fr lizard brain most the time.

[ask-serial-designation-s]

Random S concepts I had.

The Sentinel King

Gender: Male Worker drone or Disassembly Drone?: Neither Theme song: My Enemy

Abilities: This S would have been an experimental type of drone called "Security Drone", he would have been MUCH bigger than even disassembly drones, he would have a taser for a tail and claws. He would have had command over the sentinels. Generally more tanky than the glass canons that are Disassembly Drones.

Personality/voice: Practically just Adam Smasher

Lore: Same as the S that I used, but he would have had a cracked visor from Nori (no healing factor), would have been a LOT more pissed

Scrap Sanity

Gender: Yes Worker drone or disassembly drone?: Several Disassembly Drones Theme song: Hungry For Another One

Abilities: Think of a regular Disassembly Drone X5, would have had "control" of the eldritch form.

Personality/voice: Mangle from fnaf, would have had 5 personalities.

Lore: The 5 personalities had letter names, but they gave them up for nicknames, Smart, Scared, Sadist, Sad, and the original personality Sane. Sadist would have control over the body most of the time. Sadist would often fight with Sane.

[thebrothersgeekoutpodcast]

Black Adam - Round Table Interviews Cast & Producers

Black Adam - Round Table Interviews

 Pierce Brosnan – Doctor Fate (Kent Nelson) & Aldis Hodge – Hawkman (Carter Hall)

Me: Hi Guys I am deeply grateful that you play these characters on the big screen. As fan its overwhelming to see. You guys are both artist if you were to get the chance to draw or paint a comic book cover for DC Comics? Which characters would it be?

Aldis Hodge: Me and Pierce just had a conversation over lunch about painting. It would absolutely be all the characters you see in this movie. Black Adam, Doctor Fate, Cyclone, Atom Smasher and Hawkman but also the other superheroes in the film that don’t have super powers, Sarah Shahi, Mo Amer who is hilarious. I’d paint a sequence that represents the true theory of what the film is about. The question it poses which for me is what is justice? Black Adam has his own form of justice, JSA have their own version of justice they kind of clash as you’ve seen. It would kind of be a theatrical imprint of that it would be all the characters that really make this film beautiful.

Pierce Brosnan: I don’t if you could paint all the characters on one canvas but certainly start with Hawkman

Aldis Hodge: Your skilled Sir, skilled

Pierce Brosnan: I know, I know yes but there’s skill that discipline in the skill that we talked about. It’s all in the doing and acting, acting is about doing. You can talk about acting until the cows come home. But then you got to get up and do the performance. The joy of making this film is really becoming more and more glorious in the last week. Sharing it with the public tomorrow night in Leicester Square, my mother will be there who is 90 years of age. Mamma your mamma is here

Aldis Hodge: My Mumma is here

Pierce Brosnan: Your brother your family it’s a family affair so to speak. I want you all to know Jaume Collet-Serra is a superhero watching that man every day and many other superheroes behind the camera we were truly blessed to have these moments with each other and create this film.

Aldis Hodge: Ya true

Noah Centineo - Al Rothstein (Atom Smasher) & Quintessa Swindell – Maxine Hunkel (Cyclone)

Me: I just want to say you guys should be so proud the movie it is awesome you guys smashed it.

Quintessa and Noah: Thank You

Me: My question was you guys have characters which have deep rich DC lore to them, did you guys feel the responsibilities when making the movie with these characters and bringing them to life and the pressures of it.

Noah Centineo: the responsibility absolutely, I felt very supported by Dwayne and the script and by everyone involved so the pressure wasn’t there. But a deep feeling of responsibility absolutely. Personally, with Atom Smasher in the comic books he is fully realised character right. A superhero who has a dark personality as an adult. In this movie this is really the beginning of his journey. I wanted to create the very beginning version of him so that we can grow into that character that we all recognise in the comic books and build into to his phycological profile and of course his father and grandfather pasts with their powers, and how that informs him when walking into a room. He is really trying and prove to himself even knowing he has s lack of experience.

Quintessa Swindell: the pressure from the production absolutely not. But I feel like in the beginning there was this moment of people not happy with how we looked. I think Aldis and me got this, a lot of people were like you don’t look like these characters that are represented in the comics so there a lot of criticism over that. For me when I first saw that I wanted to be different and want to be as committed to this character and see the essence of who the character is and embrace what that feeling is and what she’s trying to say which goes across gender, identity, race all of that and really give myself whole to showcasing what I believed and what she means to be and the beautiful aspects that she represents.

Hiram Garcia & Beau Flynn Producers

ME: Hi guys I just wanted to say congratulations you guys should be really proud of this it was absolutely awesome.

Hiram Garcia: Thank you so much,

Beau Flynn: That’s what it’s all about.

Me: When the guys came out on stage what was your favourite costume?

Hiram Garcia: The first time Black Adam walked on set for the camera test was Awesome, Jaume is not only a great director he used to be a music video director from back in the day, so he had a special playlist set up special lighting on, it was awesome, and it was acombination of year and years, years of work to get to that point. And to see him walk on set all the costumes were great. For me it was a standout moment of like we finally here now it really time to get to work.

Beau Flynn: I mean Hawkman was special to see for the first time. Also, Cyclone was really satisfying because that was one, we worked on really hard for a long time. That was such a specific costume to get right. We really wanted to service Quintessa and really give her the energy and elements that character deserved. But I must tell you to make 5 costumes from scratch took exactly a year and many iterations, it’s such a great feeling, and to have Jaume being happy with it and Dwayne, also the rest of the cast. When the fans were responding well you know the jobs done. One cool thing is that Doctor Fate costume is 100% CG that is also something we were excited about also very nervous about as we know it can go pear shape very fast.

Hiram Garcia: We also got to say Noah as Atom smashers costume is also awesome, and Noah looked awesome. It's him in it the whole time, you know in a lot of movies they do a swaparoo when the mask on, Noah rocked that thing through the whole time we was on set, when that mask was on it was him.

Beau Flynn: it’s a real testament to him and that character

Me: That’s amazing guys absolutely awesome.

Hiram Garcia/Beau Flynn: Thank you.

Photo Credits from Paul Edwards of DCWorld.

Massive thank you to Warner Brothers UK & DCUK Comcis

#BlackAdam #TheRock #DCComics #WarnerBrothersUK

[foulserpent]

@zalazzle submitted

queen moment

[parviocula]

adding this here too form my twitter but..

My edgerunner & Adam Smasher breakdowns and theories!

“Some know him as a War Hero from the 4th corporate war” 

 Smasher was the heavily armed Soldier of Arasaka during the fourth corp war. The great weapon you could call him. When arasaka needed entire Militech CLCs wiped out they called on Adam Smasher to lead the team for his “unique” mindset, of course Arasaka would cover this up and make Smasher look like a hero. That’s enough to brainwash plenty of average civilians and seeing as NC would have a low educated community this easily gave Arasaka followers a pure permanent mindset.  

 Other edgerunners themselves might even believe he’s a hero for everything he has done since he is simply a veteran. MANY believe metal is better than meat simply by the fact that well.. look at night city. Where does meat really take you? Not very far.

Here’s a throwback to Smashers “death”

Adam Is also... Not as inhuman as people make him out to be. He respects those who fight for themselves, are SURVIVORS. He gives David a good true clean end after a well deserves battle. Gotta respect a man who went full metal.

I do like that it showed they trust Smasher in Arasaka to send him off and that he used as a "last resort". They know he is a casualty guy. NOBODY gets off clean. Both sides die and that is all Smasher asks for. He also has his little LMG!!!

The Skeleton being originally designed for him is.. Interesting... I do think there were already cases of them trying to sabotage Smasher and he rejected this skeleton for a reason beside it being a "crutch". He found the metal itself weak... Says something dont you think?

I love that they also added Smasher favorite execution style! Point Blank!

I could be wrong but this looks like a little easter egg for Evangelion!

I would also like to talk about Netrunning/Hacking and Smasher Cyber form!

At fist I thought maybe this could be "Liche" but then I read "Evl Twin" which is an protection/Anti-System however none of it matched up, although it could be them as I am not super advanced into netrunning lore.

HOWEVER there's also a Netrunning "form" people can take. When Spider Murphy is in Cyberspace she looks like a "well-endowed" japanimation-style

I will say that this is more than likely the ICON he chooses to wear. He is nothing more than "the boogeyman" a "demon" if you will. Very fitting for ADAM Smasher yes? With his many other religious easter eggs, I would say this is very fitting.

[incorrectsmashbrosquotes]

Lore question for the ISBQ multiverse, how does interaction fare between universes? Is there trade between universes? Culture mixing? Are there certain restrictions or has it been a free for all?

Yes, but it's very limited.

Basically, after the defeat of Galeem and Dharkon, the governments of the different universes suddenly had to tackle the fact that not only were they not alone but they were now irrevocably connected to other worlds.

This is where the Smashers and other Heroes came in, acting as beacons of hope and stability in chaotic times.

In the end, it was a mixed bag all around. Some worlds fared better than others. Some insulated themselves with very limited access. Some worlds forged trade agreements and even opened themselves up to tourism.

The Persona, Tekken, and Street Fighter worlds are ones who fared better, with nearly free travel between them and a few others.

[kideternity]

Rory Regan!

YAAAAAY my mans rorys !!!!!!! ^_^ under a readmore once again

Sexuality headcanon: Gay LOL though I do think it took him like a really really long time to come to that conclusion and he's spent like most of his life dealing w internalised homophobia. But yes he kisses men

Gender headcanon: transgender man, transitioned, he got top and bottom surgery after his time in the military when he returned home

A ship I have with said character: Bluerags 💚💚💚💙💙💙 danny and rory should have made out got married and had a honeymoon in Shadowpact im just saying, bill willingham fuckin missed out on a great opportunity

A BROTP I have with said character: already mentioned it but Zauriel also really hardcore heavily w Eve Eden ^_^ they're sapphic/gay solidaritys. I think rory is in general bffs w the entire Shadowpact and I think he'd also get along rly well w other jewish heroes like Atom Smasher or Kate Kane, they celebrate Hanukkah together and stuffs

A NOTP I have with said character: If theres an off chance someone shipped Kate and Rory together from that one nu52 crossover they had I will find you and I will hunt you for sport you fucking freak. Other then that i dont rly see ppl ship anyone w rory, so I guess i'll just go w Rory x any woman but especially that romance they tried implying in Shadowpact w Eve, mister writer afte willingham they're not straight :/

A random headcanon: Rory is an incomprehensible typer. All of his text messages are a garble of keysmashing typos and emojis and nobody knows what the fuck he's saying ever unless they get him on a phone call or video chat.

Idea for a story: If dc wasn’t a coward I think you could do a really awesome horror comic book w Rory????? Like a comic book where it’s split up in two narratives- Rory's pov usually in the guise of his everyday life, and then his activities as ragman, as shown through the eyes of the ppl he's stopping, like the criminals and villains and stuff. In his later appearances they like took him more lighthearted but rorys whole thing is rly scary??? He literally ABSORBS your souls leaving you in this like purgatory hell its TERRIFYING. I would also like to include a lot of scenes though of how Rory as ragman does still often and consistently help ppl out, bc yannow hero and stuff, but yea dc hmu already

Unpopular: I have no idea if ppl still actually like that comic but the reboot they tried doing w ragman in 2017 was SOOOOOOOOOOO antisemitic and evil.... it was a garbage nonsensical comic book and whoever was writing it was a clear fucking antisemite, imagine having a character whose entire thing is that his rag suit was created by rabbis under a time of oppression to fight for the disenfranchised and turning it into “ITS AN EVIL HAUNTED SUIT LOOTED BY A TEMPLE MADE BY DEMOOOOONS HEHE”..... AWFUL also the redesign was fugly too

Favourite moment: theres a scene in his solo like the 90s one where hes sleeping peacefully and then his friend walks in and he goes super serious “if you try to wake me up i will break your legs” and then he goes back to sleeping peacefully as the friend walks away angrily JWJSJAJW

First impression: The 70s version was really weird, 90s comics good but the second one is like bordering on super racist, and he's great in shadowpacts era

Impression now/General opinion over the character: not super different I adore him and I wish more people acknowledged he exists >_< he's such a fun inchresting character and its always nice to see a character whose so focused on Judaism in his lore and character and its not done badly in a medium began by jewish men

[the-foxwolf]

Story through Supplements

Despite however much we love the characters, the game, or the inclusivity of the company, at the end of the day, Wizards is in the business to make money. Supplemental sets are a great way for them to squeeze out those extra dollars we might have been holding back. Either by printing powerful or otherwise hard to acquire rares and mythics (such as the Masters sets), or by making the set format specific (such as the Commander and Conspiracy), or entirely unique (such as Archenemy and Planechase). We get to enjoy the new stuff and they get to literally reap the rewards.

However. These supplemental sets serve an additional function for us. Join me as I discuss how Supplemental Sets help tell Magic’s Story.

(Learn from the Past: Dragons of Tarkir) (Art by Chase Stone)

Gather `Round! It’s Story Telling Time!

Introduction

As much as I despise the man, Urza’s entire story is fascinating. Unfortunately, the tale of his struggle against Phyrexia is one that is well beyond most player’s knowledge. I don’t fault Wizards for their manner of story distribution. Those were different times. 

(Urza: Vanguard) (Art by Mark Tedin)

Even I, who love sharing stories with people, find it difficult to tell the summarize the tale of of Urza  Planeswalker because it’s such a rich story with so much detail and depth. I never feel like I do the story justice. Most of Magic’s novels have now been translated into e-books. (And I strongly recommend them throughout the Urza story and up until the Time Spiral cycle. I emphasize The Brother’s War, Planeswalker, and the Kamigawa series.) But even so, Urza’s story isn’t something the majority of the MTG players know. A great loss indeed. An understandable loss, though. 

One of the best ways of Story Telling available to wizards is through the use of Supplemental Sets. Let's get started.

Recalling Characters

This is the most obvious purpose of Supplemental Sets is to recall old characters. Freylaise and Teferi are excellent examples of old, well known, beloved characters finally given a card. These are fascinating, powerful, characters who would have normally been impossible to reprint as the Old Walkers that they were. Commander has given us the chance to see these people as they were, the chance to reminisce on the stories of old, and the chance to connect younger audiences to the past. Other examples include Ramos and Sidar Kondo.

(Ramos, Dragon Engine: Commander 2017 Edition)  (Art by Joseph Meehan)

Some characters definitely need a new card. The best example? Gerrard Capashen. Sweet Sigharda did they mess that one up. The star of the show for many blocks and when they finally print him, he’s utter garbage. He definitely needs a new card. 

Whenever old characters are given new cards, it always sparks interest among the younger crowd. This gives people such as @vorthosjay and I, among others, the chance to answer questions and introduce people to stories they would otherwise never have cared to learn about. But now, with these old characters having a card, players will be casting their Commander often. Eventually, people are going to want to know who it is that they’ve been relying on for so long.

Meeting Old Friends

People like Bruce Tarl and Ludevic have existed in the lore for a while now. They, like many others, have been referenced in flavor text, card names, or even mentioned in the Magic Story, but never given a card. Which is fine. Perfectly makes sense. There will always be more names than space for characters.

Among the many characters that can be pulled from to make new cards in Supplemental Sets, Hal and Alena of Kessig are among the most demanded cards- as far as my experience has been. People like that are hard, if not impossible to get a card in any other way. Without Supplemental Sets, we would have to wait until we visited Innistrad again, there would have to be space for them as a card in the sets, and there would need to be a development hole they can fix. Even if we went back, there would be no guarantee we’d see them.

(Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist) (Art by Aaron Miller)

I consider the facet of Supplemental Sets different than Recalling Characters in that the presentation of these old friends is that we know of the character, but don’t actually know the character. We know plenty about AND we know Teferi. In contrast, we’ve heard about Ludevic, but we don’t know who he is. For all intents and purposes, Ludevic was essentially a new character to us. We just happened to have heard many things about the man, but we’ve never actually met him.

Presenting New Friends

Supplemental sets have given us the opportunity to retroactively introduce story elements. Nahiri, the Lithomancer and Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath are two examples. Unlike Meeting Old Friends, Presenting New Friends allows Wizards to give us a character on whom we know little to nothing about. From someone like Vial Smasher, we expect something explosive. We’ve actually met her in a story. Which would make her fall under the category of Recalling Characters. However, with Nahiri, all we knew of her could be summarized in a couple of sentences. Supplemental Sets gave us the chance to meet this mysterious, yet vital, character.

(Nahiri, the Lithomancer: Commander 2014 Edition) (Art by Eric Deschamps)

What makes Supplemental Sets particularly useful is that they provide a seamless outlet to introduce the characters. Trying to incorporate an old character into the modern story would be a challenge to do elegantly.  However, with Supplemental Sets, a quick biographical summary can resolve the situation. 

Clarify Misconceptions

Another utility of supplemental products is the value of retconning and clarification. Let’s look at Atraxa, for example. With a single card, the misconception many players had about Elesh Norn having killed Urabrask and Sheoldred was clarified. The Grand Cenobite took over their territory. But she didn’t kill them. With a single card, they helped clarify things. 

(Atraxa, Praetor’s Voice: Commander 2016 Edition) (Art by Victor Adame Minguez)

I can’t think of any instances in which Supplemental Sets have directly retconned anything. But the existence of Supplemental Sets provides an avenue for them in case they ever needed to.

Peek at other Planes

One of my favorite things that supplemental products provide for me is the opportunity to peek into what’s been happening on other worlds. We recently had the chance to peek back in Ravnica and see the Orzhov and the Golgari storylines develop through stories related to Mazirek and Karlov. It gave us the chance to see more of Vrazka, of Teysa, and of Tajic. The amount of conversation the simple introduction of these stories provided was wonderful. 

(Ezuri, Claw of Progress: Commander 2016 Edition) (Art by James Ryman)

In addition to allowing Wizards to give us bits of storyline that will inevitably converge, it also gives us the chance to remember things we might have forgotten. In Conspiracy 2, we saw Koth is still alive and fighting. In Commander, we are reminded how tremendously, how hopelessly, the Mirrans were defeated by the Phyrexians. We cannot forgot how terrible the Phyrexians are, or let their memory fade. Make no mistake. These things are a terrible force. One of the Big Three Villainous Entities of Magic if you were to ask me.

But also, it lets us see things that need to happen over time. Ezuri, Claw of Progress is an excellent example. We are reminded how oppressive the defeat of the Mirrans was. We see in the Conspiracy product that Koth is still somehow miraculously alive and kicking. 

Tease New Worlds

And one last function Supplemental Sets serve with respect to Story Telling is the ability of it to tease us with new worlds. People such as Sashika and Licia and Tana. When they presented Licia, people started speculating about her relation to Sashika. Worlds teased, yes. Certainly worlds to come. 

(Licia, Sanguine Tribune: Commander 2017 Edition) (Art by: Magali Villanueve)

Another place we’ve seen worlds teased is in Planechase. Places like Vyrn and Kephalai for example. Some are placed that were teased hinted at what may yet come in the future, and others of things we know for certain are coming, and some that have shout-outs to planes in older stories- such as Equilor. The oldest plane in recorded history.

Conclusion

Magic’s Story is rich and vast and had so much potential. But Standard Sets can only provide so much at a time. Those Vorthoses, like me, who crave more story can find ourselves satisfied by enjoying the supplemental sets. And, of course, Wizards gets to squeak out the few remaining dollars our pockets have after spending what we have after they squeeze us with the Standard Sets. Like the addicts we are. We hungrily consume.

That’s all I have for today. Thanks for reading. If you liked what you read, hit that “Reblog” button. For more articles and short stories from me at “Story Telling Time” hit that “Follow” button. See ya next time!

[foulserpent]

@incrediblysincere​ submitted:

fan art for Milady

[parviocula]

I’m going to die on this hill but here are my theories with the games DLC n expansions. If you can call them that...

Okay so many of you know.. well maybe not (derogatory) but WAY BACK THEn .. Like a year or 2 ago. G from RTAL was posting a countdown with lore bits & I fully believe that the SPECIFIC ONES HE POSTED will actually turn up ingame. Yes yes am I reaching? AM I REACHING?! 100% and y’know they’d laugh at me BUT MAYBE juuuuuust maybe, I could be correct.

I fully believe during the Crystal Palace we WILL meet the Angels, now if they’ll be friend or foe it is completely undecided. I think they will start off as Foes and eventually become friends (V is a badass SOLO, they could very well deem V worthy). As if we will meet ALL 12 probably not.

Cyberanimals are going to be a thing soon & I believe that the RELIC abilities will let Johnny control/override them and fight by our side. 

Brainiacs and Inquisitors will show up in the Gang DLC as enemies and we will need to take then down. Cannot join them but can bring them down with the help of rival gang members.

Maybe we will see the last 2 remaining badass cyborgs too that r not shaitan n smasher pretty please

A proper flashback/Night City Legends history dlc maybe? Might be the only way we can see Morgan Blackhand if they decide to not add him in the Crystal Palace expansion (Assuming Mr Blue Eyes is affiliated with him!). Let’s you see wtf really happened during the towers if they decide to off branch from TT (but probably not). 

Okay that tis all buh bye

[foulserpent]

can i pay you to draw more of mickey’s dick smasher the lore friendly khajiit just doin whatever

if you mean actually pay as in commission me then yes but theyre a joke character and drawing them brings me no joy rn