#and let villains be more than heartless evil robots

[silent-partner-412]

Seeing people in the Fire Emblem community be like “I’m sick of having interesting and morally grey characters in Fire Emblem, the fanbase can’t handle it. I just want good vs evil again” is concerning cuz this is how we ended up with Corrin and Garon who are both horrible examples of being completely morally black and white.

Heroes and villains are a lot more interesting when they aren’t 100% good or evil, and I don’t think interesting writing should be sacrificed just cuz some people who consume it have a hard time understanding that.

[i-am-lakuna]

[‼️TW: This post is not sexual content itself however it talks about asexuality and thus also discusses sex.‼️]

Before pride month ends I want to talk about Transformers characters that are on the aroace spectrum!!

I want to clarify that since Cybertonians don't reproduce sexually that makes them all asexual in cannon!

...However the fandom still has a lot of different interpretations and headcannons. Some of these include procreation while others are robots being sexual for the sake of "fun" rather than biology. I personally feel VERY uncomfortable with the idea of sexual reproduction in transformers but fandom is fandom and I am well aware of how it ignores the cannon so this list is made with that in mind.

As for the aromantic part of this post....

Sadly none of those are actually cannon since the creators haven't said anything about it and it's never said out loud in the media these characters are from HOWEVER I feel like most of these are very heavily implied. If you're confused about labels please look them up!

Sorry this post only contains three characters, I'm writing this literally last minute before going to the airport lol. I feel like there are maybe some more that I've missed so you're welcome to comment or reblog if you want to add to the list!

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Shockwave: aromantic, asexual, could be aplatonic in some continuities.

I HAD to start with him. Speaks for itself really, if you're in the fandom you're probably familiar with how little emotion Shockwave expresses in general. Sadly though most people either see him as a completely emotionless monster or make him the super ooc :( He has no interest in sex or romance and some versions of him do not care for platonic bonds either.

The fandom sadly does not understand this, I'm not completely against him being shipped with other characters I just wish it was written properly and with his sexual/romantic orientation in mind. I feel like there's some interesting queer platonic lab partner shipping potential here but again this fandom is terrible at not sexualising him for some reason.

He does show care for others in SOME continuities, in Cyberverse we see that he used to be friends with Wheeljack and possibly some other characters. He does have emotions, even in other shows/media, we see him get visibly angry in TFP and Earthspark. So just saying that he doesn't feel anything is a straight up lie. He follows logic although we do see him make non logical choices when influenced by emotions, it's rare but it has happened.

I'm planning to make more content about him and being aroace spec soon. I want to show people that just because you don't feel forms of attraction or love towards others doesn't mean you're completely heartless. And yes I know an extremely stereotypical evil robot probably isn't the best character to use to prove a point like this but I just need people to stop mischaracterising him.

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Shadowstriker: aromantic, asexual.

[most of this is refering to her in Cyberverse, thought I do mention IDW briefly]

What is it with clearly aroace female characters, usually villains, and being called masc lesbians? No offence to lesbians but please y'all let us have some representation. Sorry pooks she doesn't want a girl, she doesn't want anyone actually. Which doesn't mean she doesn't value friendship, just look at how she interacts with Soundwave and Lazerbeak! That's found family if I've ever seen it!

I think she's someone who struggles a lot with emotions and intimacy just in general, though we do actually see her emotions slipping through the "mask" more towards the end of the show, even being happy [thought it was quite bittersweet] and part of a group hug in the last episode. Well done her for actually accepting physical touch that isn't punching someone in the face! She's a very untrusting character who tends to assume the worst in everyone and is really aggressive for most of the show. She has absolutely no interest in romance or sex and is probably apothisexual/apothiromantic. But as previously stated I think platonic love is really important to her. She's the type of person who would kill for her found family, in fact considering she's a Decepticon she probably has.

She's one of those extremely interesting and emotionally complex characters and yet somehow she's always overlooked. I see people talking about wanting more well written female characters and HERE SHE IS! Honestly I'd recommend watching Cyberverse even if you're just doing it for her, it's worth it. I could write a whole essay all about her. Can y'all tell she's my favourite? Because she is.

As for shipping I do like the idea of her being in a queer platonic ship with Flamewar and Slipstream in the IDW comics they're in, though again, I don't think people know how to write qp relationships...

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TFP Soundwave: demiromantic, asexual.

This one is only specific to one continuity and that's Transformers Prime. Not saying other versions aren't on the spectrum, I have a quite couple headcannons, though I feel they might be a bit ooc/self indulgent so I'm not including them since I'm trying to keep this list as "likely to be cannon" as I can.

In the show he doesn't speak and doesn't really have a face so he doesn't really express himself a lot. Though he still definitely shows emotion, just, differently I guess? He is uninterested in sex, I think he could be in a romantic relationship but it would have to be someone he's already emotionally attached to. Platonic love is extremely important to him but specifically his cassettes, they're his family. Others however.... I feel like he doesn't really care for a lot of the characters in the show but then again he doesn't show emotions much so he could just be hiding it.

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[beevean]

Don't worry. I'm just as gobsmacked at the whole Erazor Djinn example as you are.

And that's unfortunate because he does make an interesting contrast to Chaos. You could argue that he was also a victim to an extent too because it's implied that he was set up to fail from the narrative in his world already being written/chosen for him. The difference is that he actively chose to target people who had nothing to do with it and be callous until the bitter end. Like, the fun thing about characterization him in me and my friend's AU is that Erazor really does believe that he is the "good guy" who was wronged by his world's creator and "the blue rat", and his burning hatred has only been solidified since then. In his mind he believes by forcing him to be his bride, he is "saving" Chris from his family name and the expectations of it he was born into, and getting his family "out of the way" was necessary. And no amount of "No means no"s will budge Erazor's convictions. It's still in character- at least I think so- and he's still very much a snake in the grass abuser. Only difference is that he moved on to a new victim, and found a new excuse to justify his God complex.

But nah. Sonic should have just put the evil bara genie in time-out!

Erazor had all the potential to be a tragic villain, but deliberately he chooses not to be.

He's a genie of the lamp in a written story he's aware of. He's doubly enslaved, and he wants to break free, which is more than understandable. In this, his main foil is Shahra, who is also a genie (and a lesser one, less powerful than him) and who is implied to have been trapped in her relationship with Erazor. And yes, he works as a foil for Chaos, who was also trapped in a magical object and developed burning hatred as a result.

But whoops, Erazor was imprisoned in his lamp as a punishment for his past evil deeds! Whoops, he actually wants to destroy the world and possibly Sonic's world as well! Whoops, he's a piece of shit towards Shahra - he tried to curse her with the Flame of Judgment, and that was in his first cutscene!

way to kill the sympathy bro

(hot take: another foil for him? The Deadly Six. They could have been sympathetic due to Eggman torturing them with the Magic Conch... but noooooo they just had to drain the world and get pissy against the one who saved them. nice job assholes)

But also. The thing is. I know that "it's not that deep" is a thought-terminating cliché, but... the Sonic series never meant to tackle these themes of who deserves redemption or to be spared. Sonic is a cartoon series where the protagonist can let the antagonist drown in fucking lava, and nothing bad happens! Am I supposed to think Sonic is a heartless sadistic murderer for the shit he put Eggman through in the Classics alone? Am I supposed to think that Sonic secretly cares about Eggman because he never dies, which means that Sonic always lets him go and never finishes the job? I don't know, and neither did the devs of the games! We don't know what Sonic wants to do with Eggman, because the games are rather self contained, and once the big bad robot is defeated, Sonic's job is done! Is Eggman lost into space, between timelines, vanished into thin air after his mech was destroyed? Who cares, he'll come back, it doesn't mean anything!

And this extends to all the other villains: is Sonic a horrible beast for killing Biolizard, letting Metal behind as he was angsting, erasing Solaris from the timeline? No, because the priority is saving the world, not applying morality to monsters!

Which more or less reminds me of something I said ages ago: Sonic's only "principle" is helping people in need. He has no principles regarding his enemies. He doesn't care. He only cares about doing good to those who need it.

[aroaceconfessions]

say we also deserve rep then watch and hype it as much as you hype allo-queer reps;

respect the shallow representation on media we have, but be aware of what you're implying when you say that villain is heartless or has never loved and that's why they are evil;

headcanon that robot as aspec but also the main character of that cliche romance who has "never been attracted to anyone before";

mention us making that side character aspec, but vaguely mention us to your medical professionals if you get the chance too;

admit that you are still learning about the community but don't be afraid to ask an aspec how to explain to those who know even less than you;

do tell young Aspec they are valid but also tell older people that we exist so their children won't hear what we hear;

make inclusive pride merch but make sure the group you are donating your money to is inclusive as well;

add a little arrow to your pride art while also questioning when you hear people saying "just friends";

say it's okay to not feel sexual attraction and quit telling jokes that treats someone (aspec or not) as lesser for not having sex;

call yourself ally and question yourself what can you say instead of love is love to be inclusive to aspec (and trans people);

promote that not all love is romantic and understand that some people don't feel any kind of love at all and that's never wrong;

respect aspecs who experience some sort of repulsion and those who doesn't but don't treat those who feel as if they are some kind of killjoy or a bother and don't treat those who doesn't as if they "don't look aro/ace" nor "forget" they are;

accept the more specific and less well-known labels of the spectrum and understand that "straight" is heteroromantic-heterosexual, which Aspecs are not;

call out those who say demis are "just like everybody" and remind people of what they said when they get lust/love at first sight;

support strict aros and don't slutshame or treat as evil someone (aspec or not) who wants sex and only sex;

support strict aces and don't guilt trip or embarrass someone (aspec or not) who isn't comfortable with explicit stuff;

add that A letter to the word LGBT but mean us as well when you say queer;

use our the vocabulary including to explain your own experience and teach yourself loveless is not an insult nor a negative trait;

report aphobes online while educating your irls;

don't give aphobes the platform but don't let us deal alone with the people who are out to hurt us;

help normalize the fact that we exist.

[strangeandforlornbooks]

best books with morally ambiguous narrators!

all y’all’s problematic faves and villains! :) also included are third person narrators but in books with morally ambiguous leads/themes 

Sci-fi

Scythe by Neal Shusterman: in a future free from pain, disease, and war, people can live forever. ‘scythes’ are given the power to decide who lives and who dies to preserve the balance. sad and kinda gives of hunger games vibes, if you like that.

Neuromancer by William Gibson: basically invented the cyberpunk genre. strange and removed protagonists. (a team of computer hackers have to face off against an evil AI). you kind of dislike everyone and suddenly you’re crying over them. one of those trippy sci-fi classics.

The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut: very beautiful and very very sad (same author as slaughterhouse five). the richest man in america has to face a martian invasion. more about free will and bad people doing good things than a plot that makes any kind of sense.

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick: set in an alternate universe where the germans and japanese won world war two. not really like the tv show at all- it’s not an action story, and there’s not really the hope to somehow fix the world that drives a lot of dystopia stories. instead its about how people survive and connect to one another in a hopeless society.

The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow: a supercomputer convinces the leaders of the world to keep the peace for hundreds of years by taking their children hostage and obliterating any city that disobeys. what happens to the hostage protagonists when war seems inevitable? lots of morally fraught decisions and characters slowly losing their identity. (plus a fun lesbian romance)

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson: a brilliant mathematician and a dedicated marine fight to keep the ultra secret in world war two. fifty years later,  a tech company discovers what remains of their story. one of the most memorable sequences in the book is a japanese soldier slowly becoming disillusioned with his nation and horrified by the war even as he continues to fight.

Blade Runner by Philip K. Dick: another one of those sci-fi classics that’s not at all like the movie. there is a bounty hunter for robots, though, as well as a weird religion that probably is referencing catholicism and a decaying society with a shortage of pets. kind of a trip.

Wilder Girls by Rory Power: girls trapped in a boarding school on an isolated island must face a creeping rot that affects the animals and plants on the island as well as their own bodies. the protagonists will do anything to survive and keep each other safe. very tense (and bonus lesbian romance whoo)

The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin: three women are gifted with the ability to control the earth’s energy in a world where those who can do so are forced into hiding or slavery. some veryyyy dark choices here but lots of strong female characters.

Historical Fiction

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters: two victorian lesbians fall in love as they plot to betray each other in horrific ways. lots of plot twists, plucky thieves, gothic settings, and a great romance.

Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiwicz: a powerful roman soldier in the time of Nero plots to kidnap a young woman after he falls in love with her, only to learn more about the mysterious christian religion she follows. very melodramatic but some terrific prose. 

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr: a blind girl in France and a brilliant German boy recruited by the military struggle through the chaos of the second world war. ends with a bang (iykyk.) very sad, reads like poetry.

Boxers by Gene Luen Yang: graphic novel reveals the story of a young boy fighting in the boxer rebellion in early twentieth century china. the sequel, saints, is also excellent. beautifully and sympathetically shows the protagonist’s descent into evil- the reader really understands each step along the way.

Fantasy

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake: three triplets separated at birth, each with their own magical powers, have to fight to the death to gain the throne. lots of fun honestly

Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo: everyone in these books is highly problematic but you love them all anyway. a ragtag game of criminals plan a heist on a magical fortress. some terrific tragic back stories, repressed feelings, and revenge schemes.

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King: idk how to describe these frankly but if you can put up with King’s appalling writing of female characters they’re pretty interesting. fantasy epic about saving the world/universe, sort of. cowboys and prophecies and overlapping dimensions and drug addicts galore.

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud: lots of fun! a twelve year old decides to summon a demon for his cute lil revenge scheme. sarcastic demon narrator. lighthearted until s*** gets real suddenly.

Elegy and Swansong by Vale Aida: fantasy epic with machiavellian lesbians and enemies to lovers to enemies to ??? to lovers. charming and exciting and lovely characters.

The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen: an orphan boy must compete with a few others for the chance to impersonate a dead prince. really dark but very tense and exciting and good twists.

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu: fantasy epic. heroes overthrow an evil empire and then struggle as the revolution dissolves into warring factions. interesting world building and three dimensional characters, even if they only have a small part.

Circe by Madeline Miller: the story behind the witch who turns men into pigs in the odyssey. madeline miller really said, i just used my classics degree to write a beautiful gay love story and now im going to write a powerful feminist retelling because i can. queen. an amazing and satisfying book that kills me a lil bit because of the two lines referencing the song of achilles.

Heartless by Marissa Meyer: the tragic backstory for the queen of hearts in alice in wonderland. a little predictable but very fun with a compelling protagonist

A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) by George RR Martin: ok I know we all hate GRRM and rightfully so but admittedly these books do have some great characters and great scenes. they deserve better than GRRM though. also he will probably never finish the books anyway....

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket: not really fantasy but not really anything else either. plucky, intelligent, and kind children fight off evil plots for thirteen books until suddenly you realize the world is not nearly as black and white as you thought. 

Classics

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier: gothic romance!! a new wife is curious about the mysterious death of her predecessor in a creepy old house in the British countryside...good twists and lovely prose.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles: not really morally ambiguous but one awful decision suddenly has awful consequences and certain people are haunted by guilt forever.... really really really beautiful and really really really sad. boys in a boarding school grow up together under the shadow of world war two.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: while imperial russia slowly decays a beautiful young woman begins a destructive affair. a long book. very russian. the ending is incredibly tense and well written.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding: I think you know the plot to this one. the prose is better than you remember and the last scene is always exciting.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie: one by one, the guests on an island are slowly picked off. one of Christie’s darkest mysteries- no happy ending here! very tense and great twists.

Contemporary

The Secret History by Donna Tartt: inspired the whole dark academia aesthetic. college students get a little too into ancient greece and it does not end very well. lovely prose but I found the characters unlikable.

Honorable Mentions

The Dublin Saga by Edward Rutherford: has literally a billion protagonists, but some of them are morally ambiguous ig? follows a few families stories’ from the 400s ad to irish independence in the 20s. beautifully captures the weight and movement of irish history.

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer: how morally ambiguous can you be if you’re, like, eleven? a lot if you’re a criminal genius who wants to kidnap a fairy for your evil-ish plan apparently!

Redemption by Leon Uris: literally my favorite novel ever. the sequel to Trinity but can stand alone. various irish families struggle through the horrors of world war one. the hero isn’t really morally ambiguous, but the main theme of the novel is extremely bad people suddenly questioning their choices and eventually redeeming themselves. sweeping themes of love, screwed up families, redemption, and patriotism.

The Lymond Chronicles and House of Niccolo by Dorothy Dunnett: heroes redeem themselves/try to get rich/try to save their country in early renaissance Europe. if I actually knew what happened in these books I'm sure it would be morally ambiguous but its too confusing for me. in each book you spend at least a third convinced the protagonist is evil, though. lots of exciting sword fights, tragic romances, plot twists, and kicking english butt.

Bonus: Protagonist is less morally ambiguous and more very screwed up and sad all the time

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt: you know this one bc its quoted in all those quote compilations. basically the story of how one horrible event traumatizes a young man and how he develops a connection to a painting. really really really good.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro: hard to describe but strange... not an action novel or a dystopia really but sort of along those lines. very hopeless.

[howtofightwrite]

ree-fireparrot said to howtofightwrite: Tips on how to maximize the shock and heartbreak of a betrayal (emphasis on the latter)? Specifics: the sympathetic character (a dead person’s consciousness uploaded into an artificial body) finds out that his love interest doesn’t even see him as a person; at best he’s something to amuse herself with until she gets bored or she can’t find any more uses for him. She drops the pretense of caring about him the moment he calls her on it, but what else?

You’re picking sides here. You’ve got to let both characters be sympathetic. You’ll sabotage the scene if you don’t find a way to understand the situation from the love interest’s perspective. Which is to say, why she fell out of love with him. Or, if they never had a relationship prior to his death, why she’s using him to begin with.

As it stands, you’re engaged in toxic tropes to villainize one character at the expense of the other. He’s The Sympathetic One and she’s The Bitch. (You’ve dropped into some seriously toxic tropes for female characters just off the cuff in this question. So, wow.)

I’ll make this one simple: “He’s dead, Jim. “

He is a dead person’s consciousness uploaded into an artificial body, the product of cyber-necromancy. He’s a ghost. While there’s an entire discussion to be had about whether or not he’s still human, there isn’t a debate about whether or not he’s the same person. He’s been through a traumatic event (his death), he is now, at best, a cyborg. At worst, he’s an android. He’s living an entirely different life than the one he had previously. The advanced nature of his body is an important question. The ease other humans have in connecting with him emotionally is going to depend on how well he simulates expression.

The situation you’ve described sounds like someone who’s having a rebound relationship with their dead ex.

Now, you’ve taken away everything that would let her body recognize he’s human and are blaming her for the fact she doesn’t have feelings for him. The irony is that in his current state, she’d have a stronger emotional reaction to a dog. I’m dead serious. When a human stares into a dog’s eyes, they experience similar bonding triggers to the ones they feel when looking at their child or their mate. We’ve programmed this one into our brain chemistry. You won’t have the same experience from a robot, no matter how much you tell yourself you love them.

I’m not saying she’s justified in the way she treats him, but there’s a genuine explanation for her behavior beyond, “she’s a cold, heartless bitch who is abusing him because she can.”

The genuine explanation is the more heartbreaking one because it comes from the realm of real human experience. It’s out of their control, and there’s no way to fix it. It’s also a rejection which is much more difficult to overcome.

Alice: “I love you. I mean, I loved you. You’re just not yourself anymore, Jack. You haven’t been since…”

Jack: “Don’t say it.”

Alice: “I’m sorry. No matter how hard I try, I don’t feel the way I used to. You’re dead. We need to accept we can’t be what we were to each other.”

Jack: “You don’t have to do this! I’m still the same person I used to be! And, if I’m not, well, I’ll try! I’ll change! Alice, I love you!”

Alice: “No, you’re not. You can’t.”

Jack: “I came back for you. Together forever, remember? Through thick and thin? Don’t leave me, Alice.”

Alice: “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

The part that tugs on your heartstrings isn’t the part where she’s evil, if she’s evil then it’s just a relief for the audience to get him away from her. On the other hand, if this female character is ending the relationship because she can’t emotionally handle it anymore and needs to break it off for her own well-being then that’s both a legit human response and incredibly sad.

Society has taught us to treat women who put themselves and their own emotional well-being first as sociopathic bitches. The Good Woman response mandated by society is for her to stay with him and provide him with what he wants even though she’s unhappy. She is expected to sacrifice her well-being for his, even though loving him is difficult to the point where its become toxic for her and she’s lashing out. She probably doesn’t know how to break up with him in a way that’s not uncomfortable, unacceptable, or in which she will be cast as the bad guy. Any woman who’s been in a caregiver situation and had to get out understands. Hell, most women who’ve broken up with a guy who wasn’t a flaming douche nozzle understand. (Even those who do break up with the douche still get blamed.)

You’re already out here calling her a bad person, and you’re writing her.

Most people aren’t evil, but it’s easier to carry that narrative. It is easier to make someone the villain, and give the hero someone to blame.

Sometimes, people cheat because they’re dicks. Most of the time, they cheat because they’re unhappy or they feel unfulfilled in the relationship they have. They don’t want to hurt the person that they loved, but they don’t have the courage to leave them either. Someone who’s married with kids or someone who is a caregiver, they struggle with what to do when a relationship is over but you can’t leave. Caregivers, especially, are demonized by the general population for putting themselves first.

If the dead consciousness can’t support himself in his new existence then she is his caregiver. She is, quite possibly, doing a lot of emotional labor without getting anything in return.

The answer to your question is that a narrative becomes most heartbreaking when there is no easy point of blame, because both characters have their own struggles, both are sympathetic. Their situation is tragic. Tragedy is the inevitable crash built on the decisions of multiple characters, what they do and what they don’t, what they can handle and what they can’t. You know it’s going to fall apart but you can’t look away from the trainwreck.

The shock is not that she doesn’t care. The shock is she does, but did it anyway. The heartbreak isn’t that she doesn’t really care, the heartbreak is that she does but his new existence can’t fulfill her emotional needs. She didn’t feel she could tell him the truth, and ended up hurting him more while trying to hurt him less.

Otherwise, she’s the bitch who was fucking with him for no reason and that just makes it easier for him to move on.

-Michi

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was originally published on How to Fight Write.

[sebastianshaw]

Fic idea where its a swap and Shaw had a demon in his (titts) chest and Haven is the partner of Emma for the hellfire club. Bonus points if Haven has Shaw's mutation?

(Ok so firstly this is a wild concept and I LOVE IT! I’m sorry this took AGES to do because honestly this is so cool? But Bill happened, and, y’know...anyway! Also please take note this would be 80s villain Emma so she’s a bit more evil/heartless than you might be used to.) Radha Dastoor was a bit of a mystery to her White Queen counterpart, and it was in ways the latter’s telepathy could not help her with. For instance, she truly was not involved in the Inner Circle for her own gain. And though she had achieved the title of Black Queen, she did not wear it half so proudly as she did her nickname from those children she spoke of from years ago---Haven. And how had she even become Black Queen anyway?! She wasn’t ruthless or cutthroat or cruel, she did not politic or power-monger or manipulate. She just got here because it seemed everyone liked her just that much. How in the world did that work?! No one in the Hellfire Club liked ANYONE else! And no woman ever got anywhere by being likeable! ”And tell me again why I should care about this, darling?” ”Sebastian Shaw is an American industrialist on a scale rivaling a modern Rockefeller or Forbes--” ”Yes, I’ve heard of him, his wife drags him here sometimes.” ”---but we have evidence of his companies turning to most...uncharacteristic activities for him.” Haven spread out papers from a folder beneath her elegant gold-ringed fingers, ”Funding terrorist groups of all kinds, with no apparent commonality to their causes, only to the degree of chaos and violence they commit. Orchestrating civil unrest and environmental disasters across multiple countries. The death toll has hit the millions.” ”Again, explain to me the part where this concerns me enough to offer my aid.” Haven was trying to appeal to her morality, which Emma found hilarious. Would this poor dear never learn? It seemed she would, for she sighed and gave Emma a good answer at last, “Because the holdings of the Hellfire Club are taking a beating as well, Emma.” ”Then we either kill him, or find a way to profit from this.” Really, what was Haven expecting her to say? This was so tiresome.  And knowing Haven, she’d hate either option. Not that it would stop Emma from doing it. She’d probably do both! ”And, Emma---it’s not just his money doing this.” Emma arched an eyebrow, and Haven continued, “He’s manifested...incredible powers. Powers beyond...description. The reports suggest teleportation, reality warping, just...wiping people out. Into nothingness. Rewriting them from existence.” ”A mutant.” ”Perhaps. He’s in his 40s and I have it on good authority he never showed such abilities before.” ”Good authority?” ”His wife. Lourdes. She’s a mutant herself, and she---she brought this to my attention. She is terrified, Emma. Terrified of her husband. Of what he is doing. Of...who he is now. She says he is not himself.” ”Darling, none of us are who we pretend to be UNTIL we get the power to show it without risk,” Emma smirked. So many people, she knew as a fact, seemed good only because they did not have the POWER to afford to be what the world considered evil. This Sebastian was likely not a different man at all, but only showing who he had truly been all along beneath the surface. But Haven was right, this late-age manifestation was unusual, and perhaps he was not a mutant---but if he was this powerful, as Emma now perused with interest from the sheets, then he should be harnessed as any other asset. ”Very well,” she acquiesced primly, crossing one boot-clad ankle, “When can we leave?” ”Right now,” Haven replied, “Lourdes is a teleporter.” ***

The security was child’s play. Emma simply turned off the minds of the human ones-- “You didn’t KILL them did you Emma?” “No, darling, sadly that might prompt a police investigation and then it gets to be such an irritation wiping EVERYONE’S mind who knows about it”--- and as for the mechanical ones, well... ”Not that I ever understand you, Haven, but your mercy towards machines is truly ridiculous,” Emma commented, hanging back as Haven tore through the massive mech guards with her bare hands as though they were paper...paper that she was really very careful with, all things considered. Haven, too, was a mutant, but her powers, unlike Emma’s own, were physical. The other woman could absorb the physical force of any blow, and not only be unharmed by it, but channel it into strength. In other words, the harder she was hit, the more powerful she became. A most ironic power for a pacifist. And a pacifist she was. She never used these powers for anything worse than a gentle restraint on others when she could have crushed their bones into gelatin. And she ALMOST did the same with these machines, taking them out yet in the way that would cause the least damage. ”It’s reflex, really,” Haven admitted as she tossed a robot the size and weight of a car aside from her, “I logically KNOW they’re not alive, of course, and cannot feel pain, but my body just...automatically halts itself from doing all I could.” ”It’s called muscle memory, dear,” Emma side-stepped a bit of gravel that had been projected her way when the ‘bot crashed into the pavement of Shaw Industries’s now very battered private parking garage. She didn’t want dust on her shoes! ”You’re so used to reining yourself in you do it, as you say, automatically. Even with automatons!” ”Why, Emma, that’s quite a clever wordplay!” ”Also automatic, darling.” Once the droids were all dispatched, they continued, until they reached Shaw’s office and found him---not there. ”The roof,” said Emma, “I scanned for his mind, and he...I think he’s one the roof but Haven...” For the first time Haven had ever seen, Emma Grace Frost looked afraid. ”Haven, there is something else there in him. And it isn’t human.” *** He was one of the biggest men that Haven had ever seen. Photos had not done him justice, particularly since those photos had been taken of him while in the confines of a restraining business suit that disguised his massive physical. Now he stood before them in the middle of the roof, missing the top half of said suit, hirsute chest bared. But more remarkable than how a 40-something man stayed in a shape akin to an Olympic powerlifter, was that even from a distance, his eyes were solid black, like oil filling his sockets. And the fact that he was levitating before them as golden energy crackled in the air around him, the sky dark above, a strange vast symbol beneath his feet. ”Hello Dastoor, Frost” he said calmly, “I felt you poking around in here...he told me. So there’s really no point in lying, I suppose. A relief, really---I was getting tired of keeping things under wraps.” ”Under wraps? You’ve been making a bloody mess of the entire planet!” Emma said, but Haven heard the shakiness under her typical posh indignance. Haven didn’t blame her. The very air around them was...wrong. There was an ENERGY in it, a presence, something horrible that seemed to crawl under her skin and nest in her cells like a toxic infection of the soul. Every breath felt like an anathema against nature, every hair on her body seemed to simultaneously be standing up and trying to invert at the same time, her skin wanted to do the same, her stomach wanted to void itself--- ”I’m making the ideal world, you understand,” Shaw said, still very calmly, ”All of this destruction, it has a purpose---to give man something to rise above. The strong will prosper from it, the weak eliminated by it or crushed under the heel of the worthy. The world has become too soft, too gentle, and the parasites have flourished, feasting on the work of the deserving, miring the great in mediocrity. You and your kind, Emma, Haven, you understand that, do you not? The Hellfire Club has sought power, control, has always used its influence to push things as it pleases...and our goals are not dissimilar. He has told me of your powers, and I make you this offer: Be my angels, my acolytes, and you may live.” ”No!” both women erupted, but for different reasons. Haven because the idea was repulsive to her, immoral, evil. Emma because she had seen what was steering Shaw, what was only TELLING him that this man-made apocalypse would create his ideal world as it pushed him forward towards its own agenda...and what that agenda REALLY was. ”Shaw, you are being used!” Emma shouted, afraid to go back in his head again, ”It is NOT remaking the world for YOU, you are merely--” Emma vanished. As though she had never existed. Haven looked at where she had been, then back at Shaw, just before she too disappeared. ”No!” Lourdes emerged from her hiding place in the shadows, “Sebastian, what did you do?!” ”Lourdes?” Sebastian blinked his obsidian eyes. Up close, one could see they were not EXACTLY solid black---they were dotted with stars. And right now, flaming suns supernovaed within their centers. ”Lourdes, I had to, these women came here to--” ”Sebastian, I brought them here to save you!” she wailed, “Can’t you see you’ve gone mad?!” Shaw blinked down at her. And after a moment, he said, ”No.” But Lourdes sensed he was not speaking to her. ”No, I won’t. Not her. Let her go. She can do no harm.” ”Sebastian, what...who are you talking to?” Lourdes eyes widened. He really HAD gone mad. ”Lourdes,” he raised his hand, outstretched to her, ”Those women...they don’t exist anymore. Because I decided they did not. And I could decide the same of you, but---” I can’t ”---I shall let you live as a punishment instead. You will live with the knowledge you brought DEATH to these women who COULD have lived in the world I created---where YOU could have lived with me. Go--” Go, get away, save yourself “---and rue this day the rest of your miserable, wasted existence in the great plan to come.” “Sebastian--” Lourdes began to plead, tears welling in her dark eyes as she looked up at what had once been her husband. “Go!” he roared, and Lourdes vanished, not erased but teleported far away, not by her own power, but by his.

And Sebastian Shaw looked out at to the world he---W̴͈̔̌̏̄̅̃͆̂̌͗E̶̢͍̻͂́́̑̋̌̉̊͊̽͌̿͝ͅͅ

̸̢̡͈͇̯̪͖̬̳̼̬̈͆́̈́̍̆̎ ---would conquer-----D̸̖͎̜̣̱̈́̿͐̎̈͂͌̈́̈̕͜͝ͅE̴͕̥̣̖̋̽̈̉̈́͒̊̚S̷̳̦͉͚̲̭̱̤͌̃̈̈͋̑͑̈́̈̎̀̕T̶̳̹̆̆̈̈̃̐̍͋̈́̈́͒̀͘R̷̡͔͓̝̞̳͉̟̱̤͌̎̈̆̓̒͜O̷̢̢͇̥̯̻̝̠̦̫̲̝͕̣̒͊͋͂̋̽͂̏̂̄̆̉́̈́̑Y̸͓̓̂̉̽̈́̓̂̍̈̈́̇̽̕͝--and reshape in his---M̸̛̳͖͐̓̍̽̔̎̍̈́̈́̏̿͠Ÿ̷͖̰͎̯́̐̈̚--image

[drunkin-kong-donic]

Zavazz: A GUIDE

HEY, so I promised I’d make a ‘tutorial’ on the new OTP that’s swept me by storm since others seem to want to get into it too. This is a helpful guide diving into Zavok x Zazz and why i like it! Two of the Deadly Six from the game Sonic Lost World. If you’re here, you are already interested in what these two murder zeets can offer. So I’m not going to get into how underrated the zeti are. That will be for another time, so I won’t get into the zeti’s lore very much in this guide because I’m assuming anyone reading this already know the basics. Anyway, LET’S INTRODUCE the two of them. I predict this is going to get kind of long, so the rest will be under the cut. I’ll be using mostly canon evidence for the ship’s dynamics in this thread. I’ll make one that incorporates more of my headcanons later down the road otherwise this would be even LONGER than it already is. Note that this OTP ain’t exactly your sunshine and daisies kind of ship. They’re both evil and sadists so keep that in mind, and if that ain’t your cup of tea there are plenty of other OTPs the sonic fandom has to offer. Now then, without further ado...

Zavok, is a 148 year old zeti and current leader of the Deadly Six, who live on the hidden world of the Lost Hex. 

and Zazz, is 127 year old zeti that presides over the Windy Hill Zone on the Lost Hex, the first area Sonic enters in the beginning of the game which makes Zazz the first boss.

So let’s get right into it shall we? If you aren’t aware of the plot in Sonic Lost World, basically Eggman invades this hidden mini-world that is floating in the atmosphere called The Lost Hex that Sonic and Tails happen to crash land on after Eggman shoots them out of the sky. Eggman has enslaved the natives there (the zeti) to do his bidding which a mystical shell called the Cacophonic Conch and set them to collect animals for his robots and destroy Sonic. 

After Sonic starts showing his presence on the Lost Hex, Eggman tells Zavok to take care of him before he can start messing with his plans.  And before Zavok can even go beyond contemplating what to do or which of the Deadly Six to send out, Zazz jumps at the chance to volunteer. Now this is where we get into the meat and bones of Zavazz. Because we see it from Zazz’s first appearance and it continues throughout the rest of the game and other media that features Zazz.  And that is that Zazz will do absolutely anything for a chance to impress Zavok. And Zavok KNOWS THIS.

Look at how Zazz’s expression changes during the course of this exchange with Zavok when he’s being complimented by his leader. Going from ‘aw yeah im ready to kick some Sonic ass’

Straight to genuine excitement like a puppy dog who did something good. 

Now, Zavok is a total bastard, and this shouldn’t come to anyone’s surprise. He’s a villain after all, and he is EVIL, as are the rest of the zeti. And Zavok is shown countless times manipulating and using the other Deadly Six (besides Master Zik) for his own gain. And for Zazz, it’s mostly using him as battle fodder to gain information on his enemies so he can better learn on how to defeat them. This is seen more than once, as Zavok boosts Zazz’s confidence by showering him in compliments and then sending him off into death traps which Zazz eagerly jumps into. (anything to please the boss) It’s in Sonic Lost World AND in Sonic Runners, a mobile app that had several Zazz Raid Events.

A quick summary of the Sonic Runners 2nd Zazz Raid event (which you can watch yourself here)  Is that Zazz is trying to get back at Sonic and his friends for defeating him during the first Raid event. And after each time you defeat him, he goes and consoles each member of the Deadly Six to get advice on ways to get more powerful, thus upping the difficulty of his boss fights every time you face him as a player. It’s actually really cool because it had cutscenes of all the Deadly Six interacting with one another! And they’re all so good. But when I was watching it, I noticed the stark difference between the way Zazz behaved around the other zeti compared to Zavok. When he was talking to Zomom, Zeena, Zor, and even Master Zik, he was his usual chompin’-at-the-bit, ready-to-let-lose-and-kill ragey self. Even with Master Zik, who was trying to get Zazz to calm the fuck down and meditate. (seriously, he ends up absorbing the power of the power rings by punching them LOL) 

I don’t want to clog up this thread with screenshots, but I’ll post the transcript below between Zavok and Zazz, in which Zavok convinces Zazz that he’d please him more to die for him in battle than to run away from the fight which Zazz eagerly agrees to after getting gassed up by Zavok. 

Zazz: "I don't believe it! I just... I just don't believe it! All these power ups, and I still can't beat that rodent!"

Zavok: “Sonic seems to be giving you some trouble, Zazz...”

Zazz: "He ain't givin' me trouble, it's just... I can't seem to beat him, that's all."

Zavok: "Really, Zazz? That little hedgehog is too much for you...?"

Zazz: "No! It's not that! It's just... Next time! I'll get him next time!" 

Zavok: "You know that we consider defeat to be unacceptable, Zazz... But there's no shame in being wiped out in battle."

Zavok: “The only shame is in running away! Hiding from reality! Refusing to fight on!"

Zazz: "Fightin' on, huh... But... It's just..."

Zavok: "I know how determined you are to win, Zazz... I wouldn't have you in the Deadly Six otherwise..."

Zavok: "Now come on... Show me. Show me your determination... Show me how much you want to win..."

Zazz: "HyaaaAAARGH! Yeah... Yeah, this is it! I'd forgotten about this feelin'!"

Zazz: "Hyaaah hah hah! That was my problem all along! I didn't want to win bad enough! Well now that's changed - now I want it really bad!"

Zazz: "I'm gonna show you what I'm really made of, Sonic! I'm gonna drag you down to the very depths of hell!"

Also note that Zazz is his most powerful after his exchange with Zavok. :) But even so, right after Zavok has the following exchange with Master Zik. Once again showing that Zavok will have no problem sending off Zazz into a fight he know’s he’s going to lose.  Zik: "Are you sure it was wise, telling him all that, Zavok? I mean, it doesn't matter how much he wants it. He's not going to beat Sonic..."

Zavok: "I am well aware of that, Master Zik. I know poor Zazz doesn't stand a chance..."

Zavok: "However, he WILL allow us to collect all sorts of useful data that may lead to us beating the rodent one day."

Zavok: "After all, the Deadly Six always win in the end, don't we..." Zik: "Yes. And success is our only source of pride... Don't worry, I haven't forgotten." 

Zavok: "Heh heh... Sonic may think he's got the better of us, but we're just biding our time. When the Deadly Six finally strike, that rat is done for!"

I can see how this seems like Zavok doesn’t give a single shit about Zazz or what happens to him, but evidence within context states that even though Zavok’s aware that Zazz can’t stand up against Sonic, he knows that he’ll be fine in the end because Zazz can handle it. After all, Zazz seems to be indifferent to pain. 

Because it’s curious to note that out of all the Deadly Six, Zazz is the only one during boss fights in Lost World that won’t run away or return to his mech once he’s knocked down. (Excluding zomom who’s cornered rather than confronted) Instead he rushes at Sonic full force, uninhibited by the fear of getting the crap kicked outta him.  However, saying this, it’s also interesting to notice that despite Zazz having no qualm to physical injury. He does indeed have a fear of disappointing Zavok and getting beat by him instead which you can see from the quote  "The boss is gonna beat me!"—Zazz after being defeated for the last time. (taken from Zazz’s wiki page) Now, there’s no evidence that Zavok actually does this. In fact, I tend to lean more towards that it’s just self-inflicted fear that Zazz has if Zavok ever finds out because that would disappoint Zavok. And that would just be the absolute worst thing that could ever happen to him. But I could be wrong, after all the zeti are extremely sadistic creatures and take pleasure in inflicting all kinds of violence. I’m just not sure if they do it to each other.

And I'm like 90% sure Zazz the only one who has dialogue referring to Zavok when Sonic is fighting him. So as scatterbrained as Zazz is, he’s still worried and has in mind about what Zavok’s and the others are gonna think. Zazz’s desperation for impressing Zavok is well... Impressive, and he actually seems to be the only zeti in the Deadly Six obsessed with the notion of it. After accidentally capturing Tails instead of Sonic, Zavok berates the others for a hot second. And I noticed that Zazz is the only one who visibly cringes from being yelled at by Zavok. (it’s very slight, but you can also notice him reel his tongue in as an added reaction)

HOWEVER, despite Zavok being a total bastard most of the time, (don’t forget! he’s evil!) I can also prove that he isn’t entirely heartless. Zavok has shown many times within the games to care about the Deadly Six above anything else. (I’d say the only thing he’d put above his fellow zeti is himself and whatever ulterior motives he has hidden up his sleeve.) The first thing he commands the Deadly Six to do after breaking free from Eggman’s control is revenge. After this, he spends the rest of the game fucking with Sonic and Eggman before ultimately trying to destroy the entire world. All because Eggman and Sonic thought they could fuck with his Deadly Six.   

Also back to Zavazz dynamics; Zazz ONLY cares about impressing Zavok. When under the command of Eggman, Eggman was openly berating their performance and how disappointed he was in them being unable to defeat Sonic, and the only thing Zazz does is yawn. So even with another ‘boss’, Zazz only cares about Zavok’s approval and is loyal only to him. 

Even this small little detail, when Zavok is standing up for himself and the other Deadly Six, Zazz is shown behind the safety of Zavok making faces at Eggman. (this screenshot is from the japanese dub since Zazz actually makes little noises during this cutscene and makes his teasing more evident)

Anyway, I really do think that Zazz is Zavok’s right hand, yes man, and is most definitely his most loyal member of the Deadly Six. (This excludes Master Zik, since he’s the former leader of the Deadly Six and is in a semi-retirement phase and kinda acts as advisor for the bunch of them) Zazz is the only one who doesn’t need to be convinced to follow orders and is even seen with Zavok in the Frozen Factory Zone when they’re gloating to Sonic and Eggman about destroying their world, 

even laughing together after Zavok steps back and allows Zazz to have some fun tormenting them too.

Zavok loves carnage and destruction, relishing in others having the same nature as well. He’s a lot more cool headed than Eggman and other villains, showing respect to those who impress him with their viciousness. This is very evident in his dialogue from Team Sonic Racing, where he frequently seems to compliment other racers when they attack him. Here are a few as examples:

“Vicious, Amy... I approve!” 

“You’re a savage competitor, Blaze.”

In Lost World he states he would respect Sonic if he didn’t hate him so much, given the frustration of trying to defeat him the entire game.

"Tenacious little hedgehog. I'd respect you if I didn't hate you so much."—Zavok taunting Sonic during Sky Road Zone 4.

Also if you defeat him in boxing in the Mario & Sonic 2016 Rio Games he actually shows the player a decent amount of respect for being stronger, welcoming the challenge.

Speaking of the Mario & Sonic Olympics and other Sonic spinoff games that feature the zeti, Zavok and Zazz are ALWAYS together. Thus proving more that Zazz is totally Zavok’s first go-to in terms of the other zeti. They are BOTH the only zeti featured in Rio 2016, the mobile app Sonic Forces Speed Battle as the Kings of Carnage, and now the new Mario & Sonic Olympics 2020 Tokyo Games.

And shown in the Mario & Sonic Olympics 2020 Tokyo trivia section, Zavok cannonly sees and trusts Zazz as a brave and powerful warrior.

This also leads me into my next point, which are Zavok’s feelings towards Zazz since we mostly just covered Zazz’s side of the sweet sweet Zavazz.

Now, Zavok is a villain, and like all villains, he’s tied with an incredible ego even if he doesn’t outwardly show it as often as someone like Eggman would. 

Zavok admires Zazz because he is always just so eager to jump at a chance to fight whenever Zavok wants him to, and Zazz just generally wanting to do anything for him. A RIDE OR DIE...LITERALLY. I think Zazz being so eager to please him DEFINITELY strokes that ego in him, even if he’s not aware. Like getting blind loyalty and determination from Zazz compared to the other Deadly’s Six general lack of interest definitely allows Zavok to take more notice in Zazz. And it's probably what would attract him the most to Zazz and why he keeps going back to him. Zazz has Zavok’s respect, and it’s so mutual it hurts. Not only that, but Zazz is the most intense zeti out of all of them in terms of ferality, wrecking violence, and havoc. It is stated that even by zeti standards, Zazz is “the meanest and most psychopathic of his entire race”,[3][6]  And Zavok is someone who revels in destruction and savagery, admiring it in general even when it isn’t from himself. So, to have the most destructive and violent of the zeti at his complete command? Zazz lives to destroy, and he’s basically Zavok’s attack dog. What wouldn’t he love about that.  I also think that Zavok finds Zazz entirely endearing, and trusts him the most out of the rest of the Deadly Six. Zavok could be rough with him if he wanted to, and he knows that Zazz would be able to handle it no problem, given their size and strength differences. And you know Zazz would love any bit of attention Zavok shows towards him.  Now, I’m starting to get into headcanon territory so I’ll end this thread here. I think I covered everything. And if not, guess I’ll have to make a part two. I didn’t even get into the comics, so we’ll see what happens. THANK YOU FOR READING THIS ALL IF YOU MADE IT THIS FAR, it makes me incredibly happy that ya’ll have shown interest in this sleeper of an OTP. Now go enjoy some Zavazz! 

[swapauanon]

MMO AU Concept: Friend Request Shenanigans

In Toontown Online, there was a button on the Player’s “Friends List”, that allowed them to send Friend Requests to someone just by clicking on their name. Players could click on the names of other Toons to see their “Toon Detail Panel”, which Doodles and Cogs also had, allowing the Player to send Friend Requests to their pets and the evil robots trying to take over the town! Now, you can’t actually befriend non player characters and enemies (though your Doodle would automatically be at the top of your friends list), but this gave me a bit of an idea, if that last post I made for this AU, didn’t tip you off to that.

Sending a Friend Request to a Heartless: Heartless aren’t interested in friendship.

Sending a Friend Request to a Player from a Different Union (prior to clearing Ephemer’s arc): You can’t befriend enemy wielders! It’s against the rules!

Sending a Friend Request to a Player from a Different Union who hasn’t Cleared Ephemer’s arc after Clearing Ephemer’s Arc Yourself: [playername] isn’t interested in having a friend from another Union.

Sending a Friend Request to a Darkling: The Heartless doesn’t seem to recognize you. I’m afraid your friend is long gone.

Sending a Friend Request to a Foreteller: I don’t think [Foreteller name] wants your friendship.

Sending a Friend Request to a Villain: [Villain Name] doesn’t look like a friend you’d want to make.

Sending a Friend Request to a Nightmare: Nightmares enjoy tormenting you too much to consider making friends with you.

Sending a Friend Request to Nightmare Chirithy: Just because that monster came from you doesn’t mean you have to be pals!

Sending a Friend Request to Ven (while he’s a miniboss): He literally said that friends aren’t his power. I don’t think he’s interested.

Sending a Friend Request to Lauriam (during the interludes in his boss fight): What is wrong with you?

Sending a Friend Request to a Player Currently in Battle: Now isn’t the best time for that.

Sending a Friend Request to a Player Who’s Friends List is Full: They have about as many friends as you can possibly have.

Sending a Friend Request When Your Friends List is Full: Dial it back there buddy! Your Friends List is at full!

Sending a Friend Request to Your Own Pet: [Pet Name] is already your friend silly!

Sending a Friend Request to Someone Else’s Pet: [Pet Name] doesn’t seem to understand what you’re saying.

Sending a Friend Request to Ephemer When He’s a Boss: Ephemer’s beyond reasoning at this point. Hopefully he’ll come to his senses before Maleficent enslaves everyone.

Sending a Friend Request to Skuld When She’s a Boss: Skuld doesn’t want to do this any more than you do. Sadly, you have no choice.

Sending a Friend Request to Brain When He’s a Boss: If Brain could have things his way, he’d let you go without a fight. Unfortunately, he can’t.

[taiblogcomics]

The Day Evil Won

Hey there, that trend of penguin movies in the mid 2000s. Well, while we wait for a future shipment to build up so we can get them last couple MLP comics, let's turn our attention back to the New 52. No, wait, come back, this one's only an event miniseries! I promise! This one will be actually interesting. I hope, I haven't read this since it came out~

Anyways, here's the cover:

Yeah, we're doing Forever Evil. What's fun about that is that a number of these guys later did heel-face turns. Poison Ivy, Bizarro, Harley Quinn, all good guys. Debatable whether Catwoman was ever a bad guy. Black Adam is also ambiguous at worst. Also, like, half this crowd is Batman villains. Including White Rabbit in the back there. You remember her, she was around for, like, five issues and then was never referred to again. I dunno who the fat guy behind Sinestro is. Other than that, not much to say. I do want to make fun of Captain Cold for a bit, though. Like, sure, the fur-lined parka was goofy-looking, but it was more practical than going sleeveless when you have ice powers~

So if you couldn't guess from his prominence on the cover, the comic opens with a heck of a lot of dialogue from Lex Luthor. I had to skim it a bit, but it turns out Lex is doing a business deal. The fellow he's dealing with is Thomas Kord, who's refusing to sell his company. So Lex starts threatening not only him but his family. Said family includes his son Ted, who is also known as the Blue Beetle. While Thomas is sweating it out, suddenly the city loses all power and the helicopter pilot starts losing control. It plows into a building and explodes. Lex manages to pull himself from the wreckage as a message is beamed across the world.

As the robotic figure of who I presume to be Brainiac targets Gotham City next, we cut over to Nightwing. Nightwing's New 52 design also sucked. Like, it wasn't outlandishly bad or anything, but changing the blue on his outfit makes him look both more tryhard edgy and like Chris O'Donnell in Batman & Robin. Two bad things that go worse together! Nightwing's back in town to drop off Mr. Zsasz at Arkham. But as he arrives, someone else shows up, ripping the doors off Arkham. Nightwing radios for backup, but is then tagged from behind and abducted.

We cut back over to Metropolis, where we find Thomas Kord dangling from the wreck. He calls for help, and after a moment's hesitation, Lex gets up to start maneuvering closer to grab the guy. I like this bit, because you know Lex is just doing it to A) make himself look good and 2) pressure the guy into accepting his deal. But it also makes Lex more human. He's evil, but not heartless. He could just let the guy fall. But he's not playing the asshole card, and I appreciate that. Shame, though, because the guy falls anyway. And why does he fall?

No, no, not that. The actual reason is because a red-and-blue-clad figure flies past and steps into the wrecked building. After a moment, he reaches in and pulls out what he's looking for: a particular glowing green shard of crystal. He's not the only one committing theft at the moment either, as the Rogues are trying to break into a facility of some kind and spring the Trickster from lockup. They're grousing because in this continuity, the Rogues now have naturally implanted powers instead of relying on technology. They like the way they used to be better, which is kind of a shared sentiment on the New 52 as a whole~

Before they can get past the electric fence, though, suddenly something speeds by in a red blur, smashing into the facility and using his speed to reduce the guard to a skeleton. Captain Cold notes aloud that this doesn't seem like the Flash. Really? You don't say?? And then we cut over to another facility, where Amanda Waller is trying to negotiate with Black Manta for a spot on her Suicide Squad. But Black Manta can't be bought, because the only thing he cares about is killing Aquaman. Lucky for him, then, that in a burst of green light, a couple figures smash into the building to offer him this.

Speaking of smashes of green, the red-and-blue figure then crushes the green crystal in his palms, then snorts the resulting powder. Oh no, is this going to be a PSA comic about drug use? Fortunately, no. Because the figure turns around, and we see he's Ultraman. Not the tokusatsu hero, but the evil version of Superman from Earth-3/the Antimatter Universe/whatever the explanation is this time. He flies off, requesting "Grid" to search for more deposits of Kryptonite. (Grid, I believe, is the evil counterpart of Cyborg, since they retconned Cyborg into being a founding Justice League member.) And off he goes.

Several of the baddies left in Arkham are discussing the situation. Every superhuman prison facility on Earth has been broken open. They've accepted a coin, which also doubles as a communication device. If they activate it, that means they're in. Scarecrow is way into it, and he persuades Riddler, Two-Face, and Poison Ivy to all activate it with them. And the villains who agree show up at the old JLA base in Happy Harbor. And the comic here unfolds into a four-page centerfold showing a massive group shot of all the villains. Just all the villains. All of them.

Also here in Happy Harbor, just to compound the JLA bases, the old Satellite Era base is crashed on top of the old Happy Harbor base. The villains are all milling about, not sure who called them. They're comparing notes and being a bunch of villains all together, they're starting to get antsy and scuffle a bit. Then suddenly somebody starts throwing merch out into the crowd: Aquaman's trident, Superman's cape, Wonder Woman's lasso. And while the villains squabble over the prizes, the ones who called them there show up and tell them to settle the fuck down.

Here they are: the Crime Syndicate. They've got your standard members of Ultraman, Superwoman, Owlman, Power Ring, and Johnny Quick. And some new additions for this incarnation. In addition to Grid, there's Atomica, an evil female version of the Atom, and Deathstorm, who is the Black Lantern version of Firestorm, because that design was too cool not to use again. And what grand pronouncement do these villains have to make? Why, that the world is now theirs. No one stands in the way of their conquest. The Justice League is dead.

A small-time Hawkman villain (and when you're a Hawkman villain, small-time is saying something) called the Monocle calls their bluff. The Justice League isn't dead, he's looking right at them. Ultraman dissuades his claim by killing Monocle with his heat vision. No one else is really willing to argue with him after that. And to further show their power, Superwoman brings out their captive: Nightwing. Or, as she removes his mask in front of the assembled crowd and various broadcasting devices, should she say Richard Grayson~?

As both regular people, the Teen Titans, and Lex Luthor all watch this unfold, the Crime Syndicate continues to promise the villains their chance to stand at their side and take over the world. It's their time to shine. Which, ironically, the sun is just coming up, weakening Ultraman. So he flies into space and moves the moon to cause a permanent eclipse. And as the comic ends with Lex Luthor watching this display, he mutters to himself that this whole thing? This... is a job for Superman. So where the hell is he~?

I’ll admit: That’s quite a start to your event! They’re not beating around the bush with setup on this one. And while the “all the villains take over” thing is a bit cliche, it at least does something a little interesting with it by having the heroes taken out ahead of time. That sets up an interesting mystery. No one’s buying for a second that they’re dead, so what’s holding them up? And all this, with having Lex Luthor as our protagonist? Now that’s something worth looking forward to seeing the next issue of~

[the-desolated-quill]

Mummy On The Orient Express - Doctor Who blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

Here I go, stepping into the unknown. I’ve never seen any episodes past Kill The Moon and I really didn’t know what to expect. It couldn’t possibly get any worse than that surely?

So this came as a rather pleasant surprise.

You’d think an episode titled Mummy On The Orient Express would be destined for failure. It just sounds too gimmicky for words. There’s a mummy on the Orient Express... in space! And yet somehow it works. It fact it works better than the majority of Series 8 has done until now. So kudos to Jamie Mathieson for doing such a stellar job.

Okay, so it’s set on the Orient Express... in space, and there’s a mummy onboard called the Foretold that only certain people can see, and when you clap eyes on it, you only have 66 seconds left to live. That’s an immensely creepy idea and they use it to great effect. Whoever designed that mummy deserves a fucking pay rise. It’s without a doubt the scariest thing ever to come out of New Who. When it first showed up, I actually screamed! The attention to detail is extraordinary, from the old bandages to the rotting, decomposing flesh. The gangly height of the actor playing him helps too. A lot of the shots are from a first person perspective, so when it reached out to the camera, I found myself instinctively leaning away from my TV. Even the Orient Express setting contributes to the horror. The tight, claustrophobic corridors of the train really bumps up the fear factor even further.

A lot of Mummy On The Orient Express has quite a classic series vibe to it. Obviously there’s the whole base under siege stuff, which has been a staple of Doctor Who since the beginning of recorded time, but there’s other things too like the mystery angle, the Doctor and the companion splitting up so that the story ends up becoming a two pronged narrative, the Doctor being suspected of being behind the killings (although thankfully it doesn’t last long), and the episode actually jumping straight to the heart of the action rather than wasting time on angsty ruminating like previous episode have done this series. There’s even a moment where the Doctor offers jelly babies. There are a few elements of New Who in here too, most notably the Evil Capitalist villain who wants to control the monster, but this really feels like a well executed homage to Classic Who. I could imagine Tom Baker’s Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith feeling right at home here.

But we don’t have Tom Baker. We have Peter Capaldi. How does he do?

I feel what’s really been letting Capaldi down is the scripts. The writers just can’t seem to make up their minds what direction they want to take this Doctor. Moffat keeps saying he’s darker and more serious, but then we get episodes like Robot Of Sherwood and The Caretaker where they try to incorporate quirky humour that just doesn’t suit this type of Doctor at all. It’s like putting a party hat on top of a skeleton. Thankfully Jamie Mathieson seems to have a better grip on what kind of Doctor he’s writing for here. The humour is a lot better here and while the Doctor is still eccentric, it’s been toned down quite a bit. For instance the way he offers the jelly babies is more casual and nonchalant. It’s noticeably strange, but at the same time it’s not so goofy it’s distracting. And there are some genuinely funny lines, which Capaldi delivers perfectly. My favourite is probably when he confronts the mummy at the end:

“Hello! I’m the Doctor and I’ll be your victim for this evening. Are you my mummy?”

I also got a kick out of the whole mystery shopper scene:

“I could do with an extra pillow and I’m very disappointed with your breakfast bar, and all the dying.”

It’s quirky, but it’s not too quirky. It’s pitched at just the right level so that it works for this particular Doctor.

But what I especially like is the callousness of this Doctor. When characters are being picked off one by one by the mummy, the Doctor is more concerned with getting more information about the Foretold rather than helping or comforting the victims. He’s not in the least bit apologetic like Nine or Ten would be. He just wants to find out as much about the mummy as he can from this death in the hopes that he can prevent the next one. At one point he even goes as far as to get Clara to trick Maisie into coming to the carriage so that he can seemingly sacrifice her to the mummy for more information (later we learn this was just a ruse, but it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility. I could imagine this Doctor doing something like that). It’s very dark indeed and Clara is clearly appalled by this, accusing him of being heartless, but that’s not really true. If the Doctor really was heartless and uncaring, then yeah, this would just be horrible, but the reason it works is because of Peter Capaldi’s performance. Just look at the scene where the kitchen staff are flushed out into space by GUS. The subtle frown on Capaldi’s face speaks volumes I think. The Doctor does care about the deaths. He’s just internalising it, choosing instead to focus on the problem at hand, which comes off as callousness, but as the Doctor himself says, there’s no time to mourn. Standing there wringing your hands isn’t going to do any good. So the Doctor just gets on with what he has to do rather than get bogged down in sentimentality.

Are there any problems with the episode? Well... the ending is a bit of an anti-climax. I suppose it can’t be helped really, but the mummy is sort of thrown away at the end (I read some reviews and people seemed really confused by the ending. Why did the mummy salute the Doctor if he surrendered? How did it die? It seemed perfectly clear to me. The alien tech was controlling the mummy, absorbing the life force of people to keep it alive, the Doctor’s surrender deactivated it and the mummy saluted the Doctor as a way of expressing gratitude before collapsing into dust). The characters are a bit limp too. They’re not bad. They serve their purpose and the actors give decent performances. They’re just not very interesting. The engineer Perkins is probably the weakest. He just felt a bit bland and nothing-y to me and I’ve never been particularly fond of Frank Skinner.

And then there’s Clara. It was a little bit jarring seeing her again and seemingly getting on with the Doctor after Kill The Moon, but the episode quickly explains this is their ‘last hurrah.’ I really have mixed feelings about all of this. I had no problem with Clara calling the Doctor out for his supposed callousness, but it’s the context that bothers me. Clearly she’s still reacting to what happened at the end of Kill The Moon, which as I’ve said before is utter bollocks because the Doctor didn’t actually do anything wrong, and yet Moffat clearly expects you to be on her side... which I’m not... because she’s chatting shit. Later she realises, in a very clunky exchange with Maisie, that she’s not ready to give up her adventures with the Doctor and is prepared to overlook his faults (which begs the question what was the fucking point of the last episode then). But then it gets even weirder toward the end when she not only lies to Danny about ending her travels with the Doctor, but also lies to the Doctor, saying that Danny was the one that said she should give it all up. I’ve never liked Clara and I’ve completely resisted any attempt of Moffat’s to convince me she’s somehow the perfect companion, but here I’m utterly confused by what I’m supposed to think of her at this point. Why is she lying? She’s got no reason to lie as far as I can see. Why can’t she just be upfront and say she wants to keep travelling? It certainly demonstrates how fucking dysfunctional her relationship with Danny is, but is that intentional or is Moffat once again being an utter twit?

Nevertheless, I really enjoyed Mummy On The Orient Express. It’s a great throwback to the classic series with a truly creepy monster at its centre. I’d say this is my favourite episode of the series so far. Please let the rest of Series 8 be as good as this.

[theriverpersonshadow]

(Dis)Belief Chapter 2

Me rediscovering that I am best at writing dialogue and thoughts rather than action. Oh, there’s also a murder child and a surprisingly upbeat skeleton too. Those two are pretty fun, or at least the skeleton is, you should read about them. 

Previous (Thank you @maxladcomics for teaching me how to link things properly)

           He notices immediately when they start to stir. Of course he does, he never could sleep without a bed time story from Sans, and it’s not like he had anywhere better to be… or anyone better to be with. Somehow reading Fluffy Bunny to himself under these circumstances just seemed… wrong. He grabbed his puzzle construction book and has been working on that instead. Not that the puzzles proved remotely effective… then again maybe they’ll work better on an actual human!

           They look up at him with a look of sleepy incomprehension as he looks back at them.

           “HELLO THERE! YOU ARE LOOKING QUITE AWAKE! WELL SORT OF! I DO HOPE YOU ARE ENJOYING MY PATENTED HUMAN CAPTURING AREA! I KNOW YOU ARE NOT A HUMAN, BUT WHATEVER KIND OF BEING YOU ARE I HOPE YOU FIND THIS TO BE SATISFACTORY! I KNOW WE HAVE MET BEFORE, BUT NOT ON GOOD TERMS. I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS!

               “NOW THAT YOU ARE SAFELY CAPTURED AND HOPEFULLY NO LONGER ABLE TO KILL ME, MAYBE WE CAN JUST TALK?”

           They stare at him like he just grew a second head. “Why am I not dead?”

             “I DECIDED NOT TO KILL YOU. AFTER ALL, KILLING YOU WOULDN’T BRING BACK ALL THOSE MONSTERS, IT’D JUST MAKE ONE MORE DEAD PERSON. CONTAINING YOU ALSO HAS THE DESIRED EFFECT OF RENDERING YOU INCAPABLE OF MASS MURDER.”

           “I… I don’t understand.”

           “DO YOU NEED ANOTHER EXPLANATION? YOU SEE, EVEN IF I KILLED YOU, THOSE MONSTERS WOULD STAY DE-”

           “I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU MORON! I don’t understand why you’d spare me! After all I did! I’m just as bad as any other selfish, useless, rotten human! We all deserve to die! I am you enemy. You don’t spare your enemies!”

               “WELL WHY NOT? MAYBE IF YOU SPARE THEM, THEY’LL AGREE TO BECOME YOUR FRIENDS!”

           “Why would?! Heh, is that your game? Do you think that if you treat me all nice that I’ll just stop being evil? Humans are inherently evil, all of us. We aren’t like monsters!

           “Heh, or maybe you all are like us. Willing to kill a child, over and over and over. Is it any surprise Frisk eventually killed back? That rush of numbers increasing, growing stronger and colder, that’s me. Every time you kill, that is me, urging you on. I can’t make them do anything.”

           “BUT YOU SEEM TO BE DOING THAT RIGHT NOW.”

           “Of course. At this point, the numbers, the power and the kills, those are all that matter, so I’m the only one that matters.”

           “WELL THAT IS INCREDIBLY WRONG BECAUSE I ALSO MATTER! AND ALL THOSE MONSTERS MATTERED, AND ALL THE REMAINING MONSTERS MATTER TOO! ALL THE TEACHERS AND WORKERS AND CHILDREN, AND OF COURSE ALL THE PEOPLE THAT HELPED THE OTHERS EVACUATE! THEY ALL MATTER, AND I’M SURE THAT HUMANS MATTER TOO, EVEN THE APPARENT CHILD YOU ARE IN!”

           They stare at him in utter bafflement, not comprehending any of their current situation.

           “AND I’M SURE YOU ARE MORE THAN JUST NUMBERS! NUMBERS DO NOT TALK, EXCEPT IN THAT CONFUSING ‘LEET SPEAK’ BUT EVEN THEN THEY DO NOT TALK WELL! YOU TALK VERY WELL.”

           “Thank you? I…

           “What are you even trying to accomplish here? Are you trying to make me believe there is something actually worth saving in this world? This world deserves to be destroyed! Humans are evil, and monsters aren’t any better!

           “How can you defend someone who’d murder a child? I couldn’t tell you how many times I died to that utter asshole whose coat you’re wearing. And okay maybe I deserved those few hundred deaths, BUT STILL! And he offered to spare me and… didn’t. I thought maybe we could go back, but I learned better. But not well enough to beat him. I had to abort all of my plans, reset the entire world, and do everything all over again because of him!”

           “WAIT WHAT? I AM VERY CONFUSED.”

           They don’t stop to explain, “And don’t even get me started on that fish! Even if Frisk didn’t kill anyone, she just hunted us down like we were some kind of criminals even if we didn’t do anything wrong! Even if Frisk didn’t do anything wrong and I was just a ghost following them around narrating because I don’t know! She hunted them down and killed them over and over and over… we never got past her without killing her.

           “Don’t even get me started on that narcissistic robot freak. Honestly he’s the most self-centered, nasty person I’ve ever met. Abandoning his only family to live alone and be miserable, and then stabbing his friend in the back and beating up a child on live TV! And this run? He didn’t even try to hit me! He just looked cool and then died!

           “And Mo- Toriel? She replaced me like I was nothing! Like Asriel was nothing!”

           “WAIT ISN’T THAT THE LATE PRINCE? UM???”

           “Then she pretends to care about these children she picks up, but then she does nothing to actually stop them from walking straight to their deaths! Just like us! How many children does she plan on letting die! And then she attacked us! Do you know how much fire hurts? It burns, and she just,” they pause, hands moving about as they search for a word, “she just stares at you aloofly, saying this is for your own good while looking at you like you’re scum on the bottom of her shoe.

           “And Asgore? He decided to eradicate all humans. That’s a few billion lives! Are you trying to tell me he’s a good guy too? And he got the entirety of the Underground in on it.”

           “WELL NOT ALL OF IT…”

           Their rant continues, eyes bubbling up with black-stained tears cutting tracks through the dust, “And so many random monsters willing to kill a child who did nothing wrong yet like it was nothing!

           “And Asriel… he never deserved any of this, he was so sweet and gullible and kind, I was the one who was twisted. I tried to bring him into my schemes, tried to play the hero, but I was always meant to be the villain. It’s human nature. Now he’s just a soulless abomination who has his memories! I killed him. Maybe not directly, but I led him to his death. The Underground has been in a loop of destruction and hate by that miserable, heartless mockery of my brother and THIS IS ALL MY FAULT!” They burst into sobs, curling into a little ball. Dust drips off of them with each track of tears, but they couldn’t hope to cry enough to completely clean themselves.

           “WELL, I CAN’T SAY THAT I UNDERSTOOD MUCH OF THAT, AND A LOT OF THINGS YOU SAID WERE VERY CONTRADICTORY, SO I AM GUESSING THAT LIKE SANS CAN… SANS COULD BREAK SPACE AND TIME FOR PRANKS, MAYBE SO CAN YOU? JUST…

               “THIS PRANK IS NOT VERY FUNNY. PLEASE END IT.”

           Muffled by their knees, they spit out, “I could do it all again. I could go back to the fight right now and keep trying until I kill you.”

           “BUT YOU WON’T. OTHERWISE YOU WOULD HAVE DONE IT BY NOW, RIGHT?”

           They have nothing to say to that, just crawling over to the dog bed, curling up, and continuing to cry. Not sure what to do, Papyrus just awkwardly attempts to read.

           “Don’t you have anything better to do?”

           “NO, I DON’T. EVERYONE IS EITHER EVACUATED OR DEAD. IT’S JUST YOU AND ME.”        

           There’s a long pause and they sigh. “I should’ve known you wouldn’t do it. In all the resets, you’re the only one brave enough to fight who hasn’t killed me once. Do you still believe in me?”

           “I THINK ANYONE COULD BE A BETTER PERSON IF THEY TRIED. THE QUESTION IS IF YOU WANT TO BE ANY BETTER.”

           Another long silence, both just staring at the wood of the shed. “My name is Chara, I am the demon who comes when you call their name.

           “And you said something about stories, right? Will you read me, read us one? I don’t think Frisk has ever gotten a bed time story. Their life was also not very fun.” For only the moment, they actually sound like the child they’re claiming to be.

           “Oh! I have Fluffy Bunny memorized, but… that one is kind of special between me and Sans. Wait here, I’ll get more!”

           And so begins days of story-telling between the skeleton and the fallen humans.