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honourablejester · 4 years

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Ideas for Dragons (D&D)

Or rather, thoughts on characters-who-are-dragons-in-(sort of)-disguise. Assuming that all ancient dragons have the ‘change shape’ option, metallic or otherwise, because it’s more fun that way. Sprinkle secret dragons everywhere! Why not? Also, bit lenient on the alignment here.

White

Keywords: feral, primal, vengeful, with long memories

Thoughts: Whites in disguise will be independent forces in the world. The wilderness dragons. They’ll have personal goals and points of pride. They’ll be your lone ranger seeking vengeance against a hated enemy. Your fearsome druid seeking to drive out invaders from their pristine wildernesses. Or, perhaps, your barbarians, warrior kings and queens, carving out their own territories. Quite likely to only nominally be ‘in disguise’, unless they’re really trying not to draw attention to their weakness/enemy. The pirate/whaler queen based in an iceberg shanty town, the proud spear-fisher challenging strangers to beat her, the capable outlander in a western. Heh.

Gold

Keywords: aloof, grim, reserved, dedicated foes of evil

Thoughts: Weirdly, I’m kind of liking gold dragons for rogues? Spies and spymasters. ‘Rarely does a gold dragon in disguise reveal its true form’. What I’m getting here is that golds in disguise are professional about it. They go undercover to hunt out evil. I know golds are usually seen as paladin material, and they definitely work as weary knights, but I’m liking the lawful rogue here. Add in aloof, grim, and you’ve a lovely set up for the stoic spymaster sending people to live and die in tyrannical empires and evil cults, or the grim spy going in themselves. Golds are the dragons you meet when you’re chained in a dungeon, or the one you’re taken to meet when you escape.

Green

Keywords: cunning, manipulative, ambitious, intelligent

Thoughts: I’m guessing it’s the association with envy that makes green always the cunning ambitious colour, but hey, we’ll work with it. Greens in disguise are your wizards, your courtiers, your merchant princes, your ‘legitimate businessmen’. Your Petyr Baelishes. Anyone in a position to pull strings and topple dominos and thrive on chaos. La Voisin. The courtesan, the poisoner, the palace physician. Also, greens feel like they’d have multiple disguises on the go at once. What people think are four separate NPCs are actually one, and she’s gently wheeling five or six factions into her grasp, for good or for ill. Honestly, greens are great.

Copper

Keywords: cautious, tricksy, miserly, hospitable

Thoughts: Couple of directions coppers can go, depending on whether this is a whim or if they have an enemy. They’ll either be the once-off, amusing-to-aggravating encounter, enough to tweak some noses and teach some lessons, in which case they’ll be much louder and more cheerful about things, OR they’ll be in much deeper cover and likely covering a long game with humour and a more subtle disguise. Bards and rogues. They can play spies as well as greens and golds. But I like the hospitality as a defining feature. A copper undercover as the most dangerous gang lord you ever saw will still have impeccable manners. (Coppers are basically fey)

Blue

Keywords: dramatic, patient, methodical, vain

Thoughts: Aristocrats to the core. Blues strike me as basically vampires? Lestat de Lioncourt. Patient, fond of the high life, dramatic as a thunderstorm when riled. When you look at a blue, you know there’s something off, something predatory, but not exactly what. Blues will be regal, noble, well-connected. Smart about alliances. Like whites, they’ll have a list of people who’ve ticked them off, and they’ll take their time returning the favour, but unlike whites blues will be indirect about it. Ambush predators, and dramatic ones. They’ll set up something truly notable. Patient and dramatic. The worst sort of enemies. But excellent friends if pointed at mutual foes.

Silver

Keywords: friendly, benign, fond of history, prone to attachment

Thoughts: Innkeepers. Back alley healers (the ‘helping the poor for free’ kind, not the ‘shady as hell’ kind, though you never know). The uncle or auntie in the village that everyone knows and no one is entirely sure of the age of. The lovely, nice, friendly old lady who would never hurt a fly but wicked people who come to the village tend to walk away rather thoughtful after sitting down to tea. Or, you know, don’t walk away at all. The librarians, teachers, bakers, healers. The most normal-seeming, right in the thick of it, but often slightly forgetful when it comes to how long their ‘disguises’ are supposed to be able to stay alive. Ah. Oops?

Black

Keywords: paranoid, brutal, survivalist, ‘do unto others before they do unto you’

Thoughts: Guerrilla warlords. We’re back out in the wilderness. Run and hide and strike where your enemies are weakest. Disguise yourself to find out where they’re weakest, who is your enemy now and who will be your enemy later. Rebels and outlaws. I like the link to crumbled civilisations. If you want a more ambiguous black, you can have them championing a dead kingdom against a foreign invader (for given values of ‘foreign’ depending on how many centuries on this is). Blacks are your outlanders, unwilling to accept any dominion but their own, hardened and vicious when maintaining their independence, paranoid about where the strike will come. Blacks are hard-edged, the allies you really need to work to keep good, the enemies you need to hit hard and hit now.

Bronze

Keywords: daring, warlike, nautical, rebels in search of a cause

Thoughts: Well. Rebels, to start with. Again. Consulting heroes. Les Amis from Les Miserables. Odysseus. Though bronzes can be patient and like to be fully sure who’s done what and when and why before they start swinging, they really don’t hesitate from that point. So, like whites, often they’ll only nominally be ‘disguised’. They’ll be bold and daring and in-your-face, unless they’re actively on a mission that needs secrecy. I feel like they tend to use whatever form is most useful for the moment, and don’t tend as much towards long-term covers. They’re good students of history, though, and effective at what they do. If a bronze is well-established, they’ll be a respected leader.

Red

Keywords: proud, territorial, explosive, obsessive

Thoughts: Reds are very … wizardy. Classic tower wizards, I mean. Isolated, explosive, unhappy about conversing with inferiors. Etc. But they’re also curious. They don’t want to be left behind, or become obsolete. So they’ll disguise themselves as something well-respected, important, unlikely to be challenged. Nobles, yes, but also academics, emissaries, foreign dignitaries. Historians. Treaty-makers. Archmages. Reds want to be the linch-pins, the fulcrums around which the world turns. They can be very valuable if you manoeuvre them into the right places, but don’t put them anywhere you wouldn’t be comfortable putting sweaty nitroglycerine. They will go boom eventually.

Brass

Keywords: curious, gregarious, conversationalist, craving stimulation

Thoughts: Merchants. Straight away. Peddlers, merchants, coffee house proprietors. Innkeepers, too. Anywhere that’s gossip central. Anywhere that sees objects and curiosities from around the world. Certain stripes of academics as well. Brasses won’t be spies like greens or golds, even coppers or blacks, they won’t be collecting things for a cause, but they might sell information afterwards for their own amusement. Collecting whatever’s shiny, passing it on to whoever’s interested. Might play cheerful games of one-upmanship with other information brokers. Assets to everyone, but beholden to no one. Reactive if tricked or feel like they’ve been used badly, though. Brasses make good neutral, independent, ambiguous contractors.

Just … throw in lots of dragons. Dragons are always a fun surprise! Ancient, wily serpents steering the world or local events in varying directions. Have a world where anyone you meet could be a dragon! Dignified nobles, fearsome rebels, motherly innkeepers, travelling merchants, tired functionaries, annoying children, proud survivalists, touchy emissaries, old soldiers, cunning brothel keepers, the gossipy old biddy on the corner …

What is life without the idea that just about any of them could suddenly sprout wings and breath weapons and a lot of teeth very suddenly in your face? Heh.

#d&d #dnd #dragons #disguises #long post #secret dragons #or not so secret #what is fantasy without lots of surprise dragons?

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edh-a-to-z · 5 years

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Modern Horizons - White

Ah, a new take on Modern Masters.

And you know what that means! New toys and reprints for EDH!

Gotta grind these before the next set spoilers come out...next week.

Force of Virtue

Grade: B+

Home: Go-Wide, Token Decks, MonoWhite

Range: Wide

Another Enchantment always help Go-Wide decks, and the ability do flash it in and not pay anything is even better. A solid Anthem, even paying the casting cost for, is always worth it.

Generous Gift

Grade: C+

Home: Any White Deck

Range: Very Wide

Never look a gift elephant in the mouth, eh?

A color-shifted Beast Within is always is welcome here. Removal of any permanent at instant speed is fantastic.

Giver of Runes

Grade: B

Home: Voltron

Range:

Mother of Runes that can also protect against colorless.

Yes it is Patrick, no matter what Maro tells use.

Unlike Mom, she can’t protect herself, so no chump block > tap to protect self.

On Thin Ice

Grade: B-

Home: Constructed Snow Decks

Range: Average

Hey, it’s Chained to the Rocks, but not Boros colored! Make all your Basic Lands snow lands, and it’s 1 Mana Sorc removal with no downside, and easy to use.

Ranger-Captain of Eos

Grade: C

Home: Niche decks that need a specific tutor

Range: Narrow

Good Blink Target, and there’s almost 800 creatures you can tutor with this, so there’s always something you can use. Locking out removal and other noncreature spells is also very useful. Anything from Mikeus to Kid-eon to the new Giver of Runes makes a great tutor target, and that’s just in White.

Solid stats and a good creature type round out a good creature.

Serra the Benevolent

Grade: A

Home: Angel Tribal, Flyers, Any White Deck

Range: Wide

My absolute fave of White. It can make a Serra Angel the second it comes down, or when Doubling Season hits with it, it can get it’s Worship Emblem.

She draws removal like a champ, hence the good protection the Angel provides.

Sisay, Weatherlight Captain

Grade: B

Home: Legendaries

Range: All over the place

It can tutor any sort of Legendary permanent - artifacts, creatures, planeswalkers - all good stuff. Sisay has a max size of 7/7, which is pretty good for a 3 drop.

Vesperlark

Grade: B

Home: Blink Decks, Rez Decks

Range: Narrow

The Lesser Reveillark, getting back one creature with power 1 or less, which is still surprisingly good. Much easier to get into play on turn 1 that the Rev and then abuse.

Pulling the new Deep Forest Hermit and flickering Vesperlark or the hermit it the tip of the iceberg when it comes to shenanigans.

Winds of Abandon

Grade: B-

Home: Any White Deck

Range: Wide

What’s better than a Board Wipe? A one-sided board wipe!

A good removal effect for 2 mana Sorc, the Overloaded version dodges any type of protection, and getting “compensated” with a basic land is harsh - especially when multicolored decks might not even run many Basic lands, so they can fail to find, making it even more one-sided.

On the Maybe List

Ephemerate - Double blink is pretty decent at instant.

Face of Divinity - Cheap abilities especially as you stack on Auras onto your Voltron creatures

First Sliver’s Chosen - Maybe if you want one big creature attacking, but I think Slivers like attacking more in a swarm.

Imposter of the Sixth Pride - Tribal options may be this card’s salvation

King of the Pride - Solid Cat Lord

Lancer Sliver - Decent

Martyr’s Soul - I think a 5/4 for 3 mana is interesting, but possibly not right for EDH. The mana rocks and Convoke can help, but I’m not sure yet

Recruit the Worthy - White’s worse Sprout Swarm for 1 less

Reprobation - Nice alternate to Pacifism

Rhox Veteran - Battle Cry and targeted tap down are a potent mix, letting you whale on a target

Segovian Angel - Ah, finally the White Angel one drop the tribe’s needed forever. Nominally interesting, but probably out of the league of being competitive

Splicer’s Skill - Not sure how well Splice works outside of the Arcane family, so this is probably worth checking out for cheap casting Jeskai decks maybe

Valiant Changeling - Possibly nice as a WW 3/3 Double Strike

Wing Shards - You can usually kill 2-3 things if you do it well, which is more than you need to kill Unblockable Souped up Voltron creatures with Protection from X

Not for EDH

Answered Prayers - Might be cute for the LG or Opal decks, but I feel it’s underpowered

Astral Drift - While it’s had it’s time in the sun in cycling decks, it’s not for EDH

Battle Screech - More for pauper than EDH

Dismantling Blow - Disenchant and Divination at this cost? No way!

Enduring Sliver - Slow, slow, slow. A decent bear, but I feel slivers can do better, even for a card slot

Gilded Light - Cycling is fine, but self protection could be found better with True Believer

Irregular Cohort - Does fair work, but unless you can really abuse the Changeling or ETB, not really worth it. Even when you can, there are other options.

Knight of Old Benalia - Decent ETB, but not enough

Settle Beyond Reality - I wanna remove something at Instant speed, for much less mana

Shelter - Other options make for better card slots

Soul-Strike Technique - Weak aura with replacement is disappointing.

Stirring Address - Hey, Overload in White! Still trash combat trick though

Trustworthy Scout - Functionally a bear with an ability that doesn’t work in EDH

Wall of One Thousand Cuts - I hate paying for mediocre things to be less mediocre

Zhalfirin Decoy - Tapping and weird antics does not make for good EDH creatures.

Stay tuned for Blue and more campers!

Let me know what y’all think!

#mtg #edh #edhatoz #modern horizons #commander #new set picks #Set Picks #set review

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machimachilegends · 5 years

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Disclaimer: Duelists within the anime severely lack in Spell-based Monster Removal, Spell/Trap Destruction, Effect Negation and Continuous Spell/Trap cards that prevent the opponent from performing certain actions since cards are notably more difficult to obtain and faith/morale play a bigger role than luck/deck-building with an abnormal Battle Phase fetish.

Therefore, this list ranking the strongest antagonists in Yu-Gi-Oh! Anime so far will sparsely discuss the flaws of each character's Deck. If you have any questions about my list or want my personal thoughts on anything Yu-Gi-Oh!, feel free to ask. I have nothing but time!

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Z-ONE

Has Level 10 Fairy-Type monsters he can normal summon regularly that are impervious to destruction by battle and card effects by normal means with minimal chances of being damaged.

The effects his Timelords possess range from shuffling your opponent's entire GY back to the Deck, dealing 2000+ effect damage instant Life Point recovery should he take damage. The only issue with Deck is the reliance on attacking and average use of one Timelord at a time. While his Continuous Traps over time will eventually disable the opponent from targeting his Timelords and allow him to exceed 20,000 ATK in a flash, his best play is his biggest weakness.

I could go all day explaining the other effects he has after a successful battle, but just know it's essentially a lot of shuffling cards back, returning cards back and burn. He only has one monster that can deal battle damage and that's about it.

And since he still needs to attack, akin to everybody else lower on the list, this is nothing each protagonist and most rivals can't get over, especially in their respective series, despite popular belief saying otherwise -- when Judai can equip Neos with Rainbow Veil or Light Laser to wall you, you know you messed up somewhere.

Zarc / Z-ARC

Fusion, Synchro, Xyz- and to a lesser extent Pendulum barely mean nothing to this guy and his stupendously powerful dragons. Having access to arguably the best Monster Type in the game both in anime and real life, with the added benefit of being Pendulum-based, many fans have very good reasons to hype him up as unbeatable prior to Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V's end.

His ultimate monster Z-ARC boasts and grants immunity to the monster effects of the aforementioned Extra Deck Monsters, in addition to the inability to leave the field by normal means similarly to Z-ONE with a whopping 4000 ATK minus the Battle damage immunity.

It may seem underwhelming at first, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. While Zarc cannot mend the course of a Duel through the Battle Phase, he does possess various ways of demoralizing his foes:

His opponents cannot add cards to their hand outside of the Draw Phase or else their effects will be negated and destroyed.

He can negate the effects of Fusion, Synchro and Xyz Monsters and drain them of their attack by performing the same summon on their Turn, with some of them capable of inflicting effect damage, and each dragon that resides in his Extra Deck has other effects ranging between dramatically exceeding their original ATK or mass removal.

His Supreme King Gates translate battle damage and effect damage into Life Points, while the servants in his Main Deck can protect Z-ARC from attacks and act as an unnecessary extra piece of armor amongst other cards.

And did I forget to mention through Astrograph Sorcerer Z-ARC's summon cannot be negated, which almost guarantees the defeat of his opponents with massage effect damage?

I know it all sounds amazing, but truth be told other than the initial summon of Z-ARC, his Deck is very very fragile in the grand scheme due to how susceptible his Deck is to common Monsters, Spells and Traps' targeting and non-targeting effects that have debut throughout the series.

Recall, since most of his cards only work so long as he controls Z-ARC, while someone like Z-ONE may get trolled by Harpie's Pet Phantasmal Dragon or The Regulation of Tribe once in a blue moon, just call-in Dark Necrofear or Destiny HERO Plasma and it all goes downhill from here.

Dartz

As the practical incarnate of the Orichalcos, Dartz features a Deck revolving around its use. Monsters, Spells, Traps: The whole damn Deck.

While most people would like to focus on the Great Leviathan's lack of built in resistances, despite being an INFINITE ATK point monster that essentially prevents you from losing to any form of damage, this slithery-fuck that required countless souls for its revival planned to be summoned with all three layers/forms of the Orichalcos to be in effect. How else did you expect to acquire 10,000+ Life Points to get the dark thing out? Soul Absorption?

To put sum things up, layer one cannot be destroyed (possibly can't be negated, activation-wise), grants all monsters you control 500 extra ATK, practically enables you to treat your Spell/Trap Zones as extra Main Monster Zones and any monsters summoned there cannot be attacked so long as you have a Monster Zone filled, and if-need-be you can move monsters from the Main Monster Zone to the back, although those last two effects go underused.

Layer two takes all the effects of layer one and stacks it with a 500 Life Points gain for every monster you control once per turn and the ability to Tribute a monster you control to destroy an opposing monster.

Still not convinced these layers do much, well how about layer three? Once again it all stacks with the bonus on straight up telling your opponent "No" when they try to affect any of your monsters with a Spell/Trap Effect instantly negating and destroying them on a whim.

Now, we know the glaring hole in all this is the fact Monster Effects can still put in work, but if it's destruction based, you'll be putting all your time into the monsters leading up to the Great Leviathan.

A little sucker (Kyutora) that absorbs that would be inflicted at any time to fuel a stronger golem-like figure (not Gigas but Shunoros) in the Deck should it ever die with a base ATK of whatever was absorbed and two arms that will always be 300+ in ATK or DEF against an opponent's monster (Aristeros & Dexia), a jerk flame gargoyle that will force one of your opponent's monster back in Attack Position and motherfucking Timeater.

Generally speaking, he comes off very mediocre until you realize all he really needs is Mirror Knight Calling to dominate. With those Mirror Knights in conjunction with the Orichalcos he instantly assembles an army of tokens that can battle any monster and come out victorious, since their strength will always match the opposition and survive destruction by removing a single mirror counter that is generated by Mirror Knight Calling at the end of every Turn.

Simply put, he's someone that only gets better with time, unless he has Geh (The Great Leviathan) out. Then he has a solid chance to lose instantly, then again, if he didn't win on the Turn he summoned it, he deserves to lose seeing how he is milling 10 cards per attack from his Infinite ATK monster.

In many ways Zarc is just a better Dartz. For a guy like this, one Gemini Summoned Magical Reflect Slime + protection is all you need.

Don Thousand

Similarly to Z-ONE he comes off very unfair, except he's an offensive behemoth with control over the Overlay Network, opposed to defensive paragon with relative one-shot capabilities like the others. His Deck can be summed up without much need to go into effects, especially with how little we actually see.

Bluntly put, he will start his Turn spitting out 1 through 4 Number Monsters with the same gimmick of doubling their ATK after each attack, easily allowing him to exceed 8000 points of potential battle damage with a built-in Rank-Up play that deals even more lethal damage, essentially making him the true FTK antagonist looming in the back.

Should both attempts fail, he will fall on Number C1000, but that monster really means nothing to any character that possesses no "C" monsters. Rather Number iC1000 is what you really wanted to see. A walking win condition that basically tells your opponent, if you don't attack me, a 100,000 ATK monster you instantly lose the Duel. The only problem here is it can't negate two attacks, and the effect only applies so long as it stands.

Unlike some of the powerhouses higher on the ladder, he at least has Counter Traps, so there's at least some merit why you rarely see YouTubers try to script any Duels with him. Linear af.

I would say the true problem with his Deck/power as a Duelist is the fact he uses a Field Spell to kickstart his FTK's which means any bro like Bastion Misawa could play Curse of the Forbidden Spell and he's a goner. Like, here me out, at least Dartz can still play the game without the Orichalcos.

Bohman

Now, at first I thought Bohman was going to end up stronger than Z-ONE with the blanket Monster Effect negation he had on his Hydradrives when Dueling Blue Maiden, but that turned out to become more nothing more than a dream.

Bohman lacks proper negation for LIGHT & DARK Attributes essentially made Bohman's Deck a very unfocused beatdown strategy like many of the Duelists of the week characters in Link Swarming form, basically trading Majesty's Fiend for Five-Headed Dragon + Wind-Up Rabbit on crack playing dice.

Ignoring his use of Master Storm Access, it's not so much his Hydradrives suck or OTK/FTK potential isn't there- because it is, it's more so everything he does against Playmaker outside of switching dragon heads or rolling some dice (which only sucks irl) can be done better by everyone on the list:

Over 5000 ATK just cause? Check.

Can dominate Battle Phase procedures more than normal? Check.

Inherently prevents adversaries from dealing with monsters via built-in effects? Check.

Can summon more than one powerful monster per turn/Duel if need be? Check.

Safe from most damaging effects? Check.

Counters most of his generation? Check.

Benefits from his opponents' plays somehow? Check.

He's a jack of all trades and master of none but making attributes change with a die. Why he doesn't run DNA Transplant but Half Shut will forever be a mystery in the same world Revolver acquires Imperial Order for the sole purpose of stopping Judgment Arrows.

It sure is a good thing most protagonists/rivals use LIGHT & DARK Attributes over EARTH, WIND, WATER & FIRE or this man would be at the mercy of so many characters. Poor Yusei though.

Nightshroud

Nightshroud's strategies are the utmost straightforward with how it plans to win. Activate Darkness, Set Darkness 1 through 3 + Zero & Infinity, use various Darkness monsters to peep at your Set cards and/or organize them however you like before activating everything between Zero & Infinity.

Darkness 1 destroys up to 3 card your opponent controls based on face-up Darkness traps.

Darkness 2 increase the ATK of one monster you control 1000 to 3000 based on face-up Darkness traps.

Darkness 3 deal 1000 to 3000 per activation based on face-up Darkness traps.

Each of these are Set and randomized in the zones via Darkness (Field Spell) after activation between Zero & Infinity, which means in 2 Turns if the correct Darkness monster is on the field, that's a clean ceiling of 6000 effect damage if Darkness Neosphere is present.

Through these various Darkness Traps controlling the cards present on the field at a time makes it easy to disrupt characters from summoning their strongest monsters via Contact Fusion, Synchro, Xyz and Link Summoning, making the monsters he pumps up through Darkness 2 like Darkness Destroyer game enders via Battle Damage, which would make many come to the conclusion he should rank higher on the list. The main problem with Darkness is he doesn't showcase any further Spells/Traps and anything like Denko Sekka can shut him down in an instant.

Nightshroud's combo is highly susceptible to card destruction, despite boasting some of the finest at his best and other than that poor RNG styled Field Spell.

To cut things short, anything that can't be destroyed by Traps or benefits from destruction will only have to worry about effect damage or higher ATK. And considering how badly Nightshroud needs to go first, he's not only the slowest boss character but has the worst matchup potential, especially against other bosses.

Please don't tell him about Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En or Naturia Rosewhip OR Mister Alister's hmm... I don't know... Oh yeah! ROYAL DECREE!!!

I would say he has it the worse, but it's understandable since he- outside of helping others mend the darkness in their hearts never created/announced anything notably new mid Duel. Very respectable for a skeleton man.

#ooc #outofgata #yugioh dm #yugioh gx #yugioh 5ds #yugioh zexal #yugioh arc v #yugioh vrains

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longforgottenunofficial · 7 years

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The Decapitated Knight

As we slowly wend our way through the graveyard, we continue to stop and to dig here and there, looking for the cultural roots or original inspirations buried beneath the various specters presented to us. We've just finished looking at the band and the hearse tea party, and earlier we looked at the mummy and the operatic pair. So what's say we wander over and take a look at the decapitated knight? Let's see, in our last post we were standing in front of the tea party, so if we cut across, the knight should be easy to find. See him? A head, over on the right hand.

Some might think that the idea of a ghost carrying his head around is an original idea, or if not absolutely original, then an adaptation of the Headless Horseman from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a character thoroughly disney-fied in the 1949 film, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. But actually, these kinds of ghosts are quite traditional. There's a little lane in Wortley, England (near Leeds), where the ghost of a Yorkshire nobleman executed during the English Civil War is reportedly seen once or twice a year, carrying his head beneath his arm. In 1760, it was reported that a headless priest was busily haunting a small village outside of Paris. The Christian martyr St. Denis reportedly scared the hell out of his persecutors by appearing as a ghost with his head in his hands and giving it the old boogity boogity boogity. Here's an 18th c. illustration.

Wow. He looks ready to join the lineup at the Haunted Mansion (except that he's a clergyman, but we'll talk about that in a future post). There is actually a lively tradition of beheaded martyrs behaving in this way (they're called Cephalophores; a big hat tip to ttintagel for drawing my attention to these). Between these firmly attested traditions of headless ghosts and the Sleepy Hollow connection, it's no surprise that both Ken Anderson and Marc Davis created a number of some-assembly-required spirits for inclusion in what became the Haunted Mansion. In fact, Anderson was going to make the Headless Horseman himself the star of the show in one version of his Ghost House.

That looks like it could be concept art for the 1949 film, but in fact it's Anderson's sketch of the Ghost House version. The old pumpkin chucker wasn't going to have a monopoly on the gag, however. Anderson also wanted ghosts based on historical characters, and in one script he had Anne Boleyn running around screaming and falling down at the top of the stairs as her wailing head rolled on down toward us. Bumpity bump. (How cool is that.) In other scripts it was a bride character who had a hard time keeping her noggin in place. He also sketched what looks like a decapitated pirate.

When Marc Davis took charge of things, he apparently liked the Boleyn character and dreamed up a changing portrait in which her husband Henry VIII is haunted by an understandably crabby Anne.

In time it was decided not to populate the Mansion with historical or literary ghosts. There were still plenty of decapitated spooks left in the suggestion box, however. Why not? They're creepy enough even without a famous name attached to them. For his part, Davis thought it would be fun if the afterlife featured topless women:

Then there's the Hat Box Ghost, and maybe Madame Leota. After all this, you might conclude that the decapitated knight was just another twist on the same gag. If Anderson could have a pirate; Davis could have a knight, right? No significance to the figure itself, right? I wouldn't be too sure about that. If you start probing for the origins of the "decapitated knight" figure, you strike paydirt right away. He goes back to Celtic mythology and shows up in medieval literature, most famously Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which was written about 1350. When I was an English major in college (which was also in the middle ages), everyone was expected to read Gawain at some point. It was like Beowulf; like it or not, you couldn't avoid it. Nowadays I don't know if Gawain is still a regular on the college reading lists. Here's an illustration of the beheaded Green Knight found on the original manuscript of Gawain, probably the most direct ancestor of our DL version. Note that he's holding it on his outstretched hand.

What's weird about the decapitated knight is that he isn't a ghostly figure by any stretch. He's part of a literary motif called the "Beheading Game." Basically, it goes like this: A stranger shows up at the court and challenges them to behead him, on the condition that he be allowed to do the same at some future point in his own court. The hero of the tale accepts the challenge and beheads the stranger, who does not die but returns home. Later, the hero keeps his promise and goes to the foreign court, encountering numerous tests and trials in the process, opportunities for him to prove his chivalry, loyalty, honesty, etc. The stranger either lets him off the hook or goes ahead and beheads him, after which he cheerfully returns home, none the worse for wear. The most bizarre thing about this bizarre motif is how popular it was. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the most famous example, but the same motif is used in other medieval poems and romances going back to the 8th century—which is basically the same thing as saying that no one knows how old it is, since we start running out of literary sources about that point. Since the beheadings don't kill anybody in these stories, the presence of the beheading game immediately signals that the literature you're reading is fantasy or myth. Like I said, a popular interpretation is that it goes back to pagan Celtic mythology, probably something about the turning of the year, as the new year slays the old year, only to be slain himself after the passing of a year. Naturally, Freud has his own ideas what this head chopping is all about, and there is no lack of other interpretations. Sir Gawain is amenable to a Christian reading, for example. Point is, the decapitated knight as a fixture in Western consciousness is not rooted in ghost tales at all but in myth and fantasy. In his origins, he was not a frightening figure. Marc Davis and the Decapitated Knight Maybe it's the fact that the knight is not just another random candidate for the "decapitated ghost" gag but the tip of a much bigger and older cultural iceberg that explains Marc Davis's unusual attachment to the character. One might even say stubborn attachment, for when you see the knight in his current graveyard setting you are seeing Marc's fourth attempt to get him into the Mansion. I'm not sure of the order of the other three attempts, so the following account is a little arbitrary as far as sequence is concerned, although there are a few flimsy clues. In what may be the original concept, Marc presented the knight as a very fierce, stand-alone character. Notice the dead guy in the background. Don't be that guy.

Tender is the knight—NOT. After it was decided that the graveyard scene should be a jumpin' jamboree and not a horror show (in no small measure due to Davis's own influence), it must have been plain that this scary dude was not going to be invited. They put this artwork on a postcard eventually, and the caption writer practically admits that this portrait is out of step:

(If I were you I wouldn't put too much weight on that "1964" date. Postcard captions are not too reliable.) Steeerike One!

Like I say, Davis evidently liked the character and re-submitted him as a possible hitchhiking ghost.

But the HHG gag that they ended up using plays off of the many urban legends about hitchhiking ghosts, who are never terribly distant in time from the unlucky folk who pick them up. You never hear about ghostly hitchhikers who are Roman soldiers or medieval monks, do you? For one thing, you wouldn't understand their language. The three HHG's in the HM are ambiguous: they are certainly a little old-fashioned looking, but not figures from remote antiquity. The decapitated knight wouldn't work as a HHG. Steeerike Two! Well, goshdang it, how about the decapitated knight as an opera singer? Yeah, that's it, an opera singer.

This 1968 drawing is labeled as an opera scene. Get it? "a knight at the opera." Oh, that Marc! This one may be his third attempt since it seems like it got a little further in the process: there's a maquette figure of the knight.

The problem, of course, is that a much funnier opera pair also emerged from Marc's pencil, and there was no doubt who would get the gig.

Steeerike Three! But Marc was not going to give up on the DK. Come on, think. There must be some way to get him in there. What to do, what to do.... *lightbulb* Hey, wait a sec. Somewhere in that thick pile of HM ideas there's this concept of a pair of ghosts, the Jailer and the Prisoner...

The jailer is already implicitly an executioner as well, what with that mask and all. Well, why not make him specifically a headsman? He could hold a keyring in one hand, and an axe in the other. That's it: make the duo a trio, with the central character relating to the one character as his jailer and to the other character as his executioner. And so it was.

By the way, can someone explain to me why he's always called the "headless knight"? What's that thing he's got in his hand?

Originally Posted: Wednesday, July 7, 2010 Original Link: [x]

#long forgotten #haunted mansion #decapitated knight

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iky92791 · 8 years

Photo

So FINALLY I get to show these two pieces off.

The originals can be found on my DeviantART here and here:

http://fav.me/dau0alj

http://fav.me/dau0fpy

After doing a lot of the art for Renegade Rhetoric and Echoes and Fragments, I was on a GoBots high…probably mostly because before all this I knew little to nothing about GoBots, so it was fun breaking into something new and being a part of breathing new life into this underdog franchise. I had expressed to Jim Sorenson my overly ambitious goal to eventually draw and redesign every GoBots character, if for no other reason, just for fun. Eventually Jim approached me with just the opportunity, except for something actually canon…so that was a huge plus. He told me that Andrew Hall was interested in a huge poster of literally everybody from GoBots…so I was down.

While it still wasn’t exactly clear WHAT the poster would be used for, the project evolved into a set of two posters: one for all the Guardians and one for all the Renegades. And more specifically, they were to homage the “Goodbye Convoy” and “Goodbye Megatron” posters that came with the respective gift sets.

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/attachments/10-jpg.27332166/

So my mission was to complete both of these posters, include every GoBots character, and makes them all recolors/retools of existing Transformers designs so as to avoid any copyright/trademark fiascos. (Actually, any Hasbro-owned design was at my disposal, though I was able to manage sufficiently within the realm of Transformers.) Oh, and the amount of time I originally had to complete the posters decreased significantly, offering me only two months to complete them both. (And having a family, full-time job, and not being an amazingly quick/efficient artist made this quite the challenge.) But I sold my soul, and got to work…and HOO BOY did I work, but - dear fragging Primus - I actually did it! Finished each one in exactly a month…and I must say that these posters have been my most grandiose artistic undertakings, and I was quite astounded and impressed with myself for actually completing something so damn huge AND doing it on time (OK, well…each one went like a day over my deadline, but whatevs :P) Drained as I was at the end of it all, I was also at the same time super invigorated to start doing some more art to help out with Beast Wars: Uprising, and my confidence in myself as an artist had increased drastically. Also, with the enormity of these projects, everything after that seemed thoroughly achievable. (Oh, and I later found out these posters would actually be used in the Spatiotemporal Challengers finale…so that was really exciting…and then literally 10 minutes before the story went live, they were apparently cut from the story. But Jim was still so kind to use them for Renegade Rhetoric. So either way, I’m still quite enthused!)

But I won’t get into everything else regarding my adventures doing Fun Pub art right now. The focus of this post is on the GoBots posters and some things I’d like to share about them.

So I did a ton of research and did my best to include every (or nearly every) GoBots character in these two posters. I made sure to include every Guardian and Renegade from the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon (including show-exclusive characters) as well as every toy-exclusive character as well - and not just the ones from the “main” toy line, but the obscure, miscellaneous ones as well. I specifically begged Jim to include Scooter Bot (which he fortunately supported), so I threw in the other weirdos like “AM Radio”, “Laser Gun”, “Trans AM”, and the other non-RoGun Arco GoBots. Considering these guys were factionless, Jim and I had to group them accordingly…so they’ve now been sorted onto their appropriate for these posters. We also agreed that the model kit character “Turbo Teen” was TOO weird to justifiably include, so he’s been left out.

Jim said I didn’t HAVE to include Rock Lords, Jewel Lords, and Fossil Lords, but I was feeling REALLY ambitious (and I’m a self-destructive completionist at heart), so I did my best to include them. In the end though, due to time restraints and the fact that it would visually be very difficult to include THAT many additional characters that weren’t even GoBots proper, only the major ones made the cut. Boulder, Nuggit, and Magmar were the most significant Rock Lords, so they got to squeeze their way into this cacophony, and Solitaire was the representative Jewel Lord. Sadly, none of the Fossil Lords or Narlies made it.

Regrettably, its been several months since I’ve finished these posters, and I’ve very recently discovered some more super obscure characters from play sets and other merchandise that I would’ve included had I known about them previously. There’s A-Tak from the HO Train Set, the little dude from the Mystery Tunnel Roller Coaster, the four different colored Bubble Blowers, the 3-in-1 Communication System, and some little guy that literally turns into the GoBots logo. (OK, so that one would probably have been too weird to use too…but still.) I’m sure one day I’ll draw them, though.

Now more specifically regarding everyone I did draw, I’ve compiled a guide to who’s who and what bodies they’re modeled after. Also to note, in order to resemble the original GoBots characters as much as I could beyond just a paint job, I chose different heads from OTHER Transformers characters that most resembled the original heads of the GoBots characters…or at least the ones that most readily came to mind when I referenced the GoBots characters’ original designs.

So here’s a list of everybody (with numbers matching the above images):

Guardians

1. Command Center - CW Sky Lynx (with the legs out) 2. Flip Top - CW Alpha Bravo 3. Guide Star - Generations Payload with G1 Beachcomber’s head 4. Bent Wing - CW Powerglide 5. Ace - DotM Powerglide 6. Bolt - TF 2010 Highbrow with Armada Oval’s head 7. Bullseye - G1 Windsweeper with G2 Hooligan’s head 8. Sky Fly - Armada Ramjet 9. Steamer - Go-Bots Randy with G1 Bumper’s head 10. Blaster - Armada Wreckage 11. Baron/Professor Von Joy - Alternators Camshaft (modified so the top of the car becomes his head) 12. Solitaire - Armada Thunderwing with Animated Red Alert’s head 13. Bullet - G1 Shouki 14. Night Ranger - Cybertron Lugnutz 15. Boulder - BW Under-3 with Infiltration Ratchet’s head (specifically Guido Guidi’s cover for issue #2) 16. Nuggit - BW Eggbot with MTMTE Fulcrum’s head 17. Good Knight - TF 2010 Hubcap with Armada Incinerator’s head 18. Small Foot - G1 Gears 19. Dive-Dive - Cybertron Deepdive 20. Shotgun - WFC/FoC Shockwave with MTMTE Rung’s head 21. Rifle - TR Galvatron (modified to have G1 Sentinel “guard” head) 22. Scope - Universe 08 Nightstick 23. Squirt - CW Shockwave with Armada Stormcloud’s head 24. Pistol - AM O.P. 25. Tic Toc - Movie Meantime 26. Scooter Bot - Generations Metroplex (with a modified face) 27. Spay-C - OC Raker with TF 2010 Sea Spray’s head 28. Path Finder - G1 Cosmos 29. Royal-T - CW Quickslinger with Prime Vehicon head 30. Treds - G1 Warpath 31. Man-O-War - G1 Seaspray 32. Beamer - G1 Windcharger 33. Dart - RotF Knock Out 34. Raizor - G1 Rotorstorm with Armada Gunbarrel’s head 35. Road Ranger - G1 Huffer 36. Motosan/Mr. Moto - Armada Sureshock 37. Defendor - Movie Brawl with Classics Jetfire’s battle mask head 38. Dumper - CW Long Haul 39. Dozer - CW Bonecrusher with CW Scrapper’s head 40. Tri-Trak - DotM Backfire with Cybertron Ransack’s head (with an added mouthplate) 41. Jack Attack - Classics Bumblebee with Armada Iceberg’s head 42. Rest-Q - G1 Hubcap 43. Leader-1 - CW Air Raid with CW Quickslinger’s head 44. Twister - Energon Bulkhead with CW Onslaught’s head 45. Hitch Hiker - G1 Omega Spreem 46. Courageous - OC Sky Sweeper 47. Mach-3 - CW Fireflight 48. Wrong Way - G1 Spinister 49. Space Hawk - Prime Star Hammer 50. Major Mo - Universe 08 Prowl with his head from Echoes and Fragments 51. Super Couper - TF 2010 Hubcap 52. Rumble - BM Blastcharge 53. Tail Pipe - Masterpiece Sideswipe with Cybertron Red Alert’s head (with an added mouthplate) 54. Zeemon - G1 Firecracker (modified so the top of the car becomes his head) 55. Turbo - CW Breakdown 56. Scratch - G1 Trailbreaker with G1 Arcee’s head 57. Throttle - Cybertron Offshoot with CW Counterpunch’s head 58. Hi-Way - modified TF vs. G.I. Joe “Bus Decepticon” 59. Scooter - CW Groove 60. Hans-Cuff - CW Streetwise 61. Van Guard - G1 Skids 62. Sparky - G1 Runamuck with Universe Roulette/Universe Shadow Striker’s head 63. Street Heat - Universe 08 Sunstreaker with MP Ironhide’s head 64. Trans AM - G1 Roadhandler with RID01 Hot Shot’s head 65. Wrecks - Armada Scavenger with Timelines Strika’s head 66. Ridge Runner - Spittor’s Cybertronian form from BW: The Gathering 67. Heat Seeker - G1 Dreadwind 68. Spy-Eye - Classics Jetfire with G1 Whirl’s head 69. Apollo - Armada Sky Blast 70. Pumper - CW Hot Spot with CW Hook’s head 71. Staks - CW Optimus Prime with his head tucked in 72. AM Radio (who I’m calling Radio-Head) - Spychanger Prowl 2 (modified so the top of the car becomes his head) 73. Tork - Cybertron Dirt Boss with Armada Spiral’s head

Renegades:

1. Thruster - Victory Thunder Arrow 2. Twin Spin - PCC Searchlight 3. Quick-Step - Hero Mashers Grimlock 4. Traitor - Animated Waspinator with G1 Ransack’s head 5. Geeper-Creeper - Energon Strongarm 6. Grungy - OC Sky Sweeper 7. Bad Boy - G1 Powerglide 8. Bug Bite - Classics Bumblebee 9. Nemesis - Prime Bumblebee Battle Suit 10. Chaos - G1 Flywheels with Armada Jetstorm’s head 11. Decker Decker - Bendy-Bus Prime 12. Scales BM Thrust (modified so the cycle-mode’s head becomes the robot mode’s head too…except it’s G1 Rippersnapper’s head) 13. Slicks - G2 Double Clutch with Cybertron Hardtop’s head 14. Pow Wow - G1 Crankcase with Armada Blurr’s head (with the “side wings” removed) 15. Psycho - TR Blurr (modified so his cockpit becomes his head) 16. Magmar - Protoform Optimus Prime with LSotW Impactor’s head 17. Stinger - Masterpiece Tracks with G1 Searchlight’s head 18. Destroyer - Classics Broadside (with his turret turned around so he has a cannon for a face) 19. Fly Trap - RB Salvage 20. Herr Feind/Doctor Go - G2 Blowout (modified so the top of the car becomes his head…and added a monocle) 21. Fitor - Classics Ramjet 22. BuggyMan - G1 Beachcomber 23. R-Navi (BM Technorganic Waspinator) 24. Laser Gun - Masterpiece Shockwave with G1 Onslaught’s head 25. Crasher - Classics Mirage 26. Cy-Kill - Generations Wreck-Gar with CW Dragstrip’s head 27. Monsterous - IDW Monstructor with BW Tripredacus’ head (specifically based on Don Figueroa’s design): — Fright Face - Slog — South Claw - Wildfly — Weird Wing - Bristleback — Heart Attack - Birdbrain — Gore Jaw - Scowl — Fangs - Icepick (They’d probably all have different heads, but obviously I didn’t need to figure them out for this project.) 28. Sky-Jack - G1 Talon with Armada Jolt’s head (with no mouthplate…as per his appearance in the PS2 game and pack-in comic) 29. Zero - RotF Ransack with SotW Ostaros’ head 30. Breez - PCC Searchlight with G1 Pipes’ head 31. Puzzler - modified CW-styled Combiner with RB Chase’s head: — Tic Tac - TF 2010 Tracks (modified to transform into a Combiner body) — Pocket - CW Breakdown — Crossword - CW Dead End — Zig Zag - CW Streetwise — Rube - CW Wheeljack — Jigsaw - CW Blackjack (They, also, would probably have been given different heads had it been necessary.) 32. Water Walk - CW Powerglide (with modified “sunglasses-styled” eyes/visor) 33. Stallion - G1 Trip-Up with BW Manta Ray’s head 34. Gunnyr - Armada Jetstorm 35. Evil One - RotF The Fallen 36. Tank - BM Tankor with MTMTE Trailbreaker’s head 37. Destroyer (the other one) - RotF Depthcharge 38. Clutch - Movie Dropkick 39. Cop-Tur - Energon Bulkhead with Universe 08 Jolt’s head 40. Vain Train - G1 Yukikaze 41. Crane Brain - CW Hook 42. Screw Head - UW Nosecone (modified so his drill becomes his head but with G1 Soundwave’s face 43. Binoc - Movie Longview 44. Odd Ball - RB High Tide with Armada Thrust’s head 45. Tux/Stretch - Animated Stretch (without the mustache) 46. Spoons - RoTF Dirt Boss with G1 Hook’s head (with an added mouthplate) 47. Gong - Movie Meantime 48. Re-Volt - G1 Doubledealer with Action Master Treadshot’s head 49. Blast - BM Blastcharge 50. Night Fright/Blades - TF 2010 Tomahawk with Armada Dune Runner’s head 51. Snoop - Armada Terradive with MTMTE Nautica’s head (without the antenna) 52. Zod - G1 Trypticon 53. Warpath - Classics Divebomb 54. Rogue Star - Prime Sky Claw 55. Spoiler - G1 Freewheeler 56. Dactyl - Armada Laserbeak 57. Loco - RoC D-Go 58. Block Head - CW Mixmaster 59. Bladez - Cybertron Unicron (slightly modified so his claws extend on the side of his hands and not over them) with BM Thrust’s head 60. Hornet - Animated Slapper (with added wings) 61. Scorp - Energon Scorponok (with a slightly modified head design) 62. Pincher - Energon Slugslinger with BW Manterror’s head (specifically based on his design from The Gathering) 63. Klaws - Energon Sharkticon with G1 Venom’s head 64. Vamp - Cybertron Megatron with G1 Chop Shop’s head 65. Bugsie - BM Scavenger with BW Retrax’s head 66. Creepy - Cybertron Scrapmetal with BW Tarantulas’ head

Additional notes:

Anyone who had already been given a design in Spatiotemporal Challengers kept it.

With Courageous, Grungy, and Nemesis…due to the fact that they’re really just combining battle suits rather than the characters themselves actually combining, it wouldn’t have really carried over properly to represent them as recolored Transformers Combiners. But instead, since they all have vehicles modes as well, we found some TF molds that fit the bill decently enough. And since the Sky Sweeper is made up of Combiner kibble, the design still hints at the notion of combining. And using the Bumblebee Battle Suit for Nemesis carried the whole…well, battle suit theme. So I think those worked out pretty well.

While it it’s PRETTY difficult to tell in the poster, Scales in actually in Thrust’s “3-wheeled robot mode”…since that would be more fitting for Scales than having legs. In a similar vein, Rumble and Blast are in Blastcharge’s “wheels-for-legs” robot mode.

Tic Toc and Gong display a little Easter egg. Tic Toc diplays 10:29 1984, which (after Jim and I did some digging to make sure it was actually accurate despite other reported information) is the original air date of the first episode of the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon. Also his pose is lifted from the 12th Doctor’s iconic stock pose. Gong’s display date of 10:27 1986 is (according to Vector Prime) the air date of “season 2” of Challenge of the GoBots, as recounted by Cy-Kill himself in Renegade Rhetoric. To parallel Tic Toc’s pose, I wanted to give Gong an iconic pose of The Master…but there doesn’t really seem to be one. But I did kind of use this as reference:

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/themasterthumbsup_8908.jpg

Oh, also I’m an idiot and just noticed a couple days ago that I didn’t color Geeper-Creeper’s right arm all the way. I’ll fix that eventually.

But I guess that’s about everything I can think of currently that worth mentioning about this project. It was quite a momentous undertaking, but it was a blast to do, and I’m super grateful to Jim, Andrew, and Fun Pub for giving me the opportunity to do it!

- IKY

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