#russ' hug brigade

[nighthaunting]

registering my prediction for the big warhammer ‘lion's back’ plot-twist right now so that if it happens i can be supremely vindicated and if not everyone can laugh:

"i think cypher has been luther all along and he escaped from gay baby space jail fell through a time portal and has been running around being mysterious"

why is he apparently a full marine now instead of just a augmented guy? chaos. don't think too hard about it.

why has he done any of the stuff he's done as cypher? he was in a wormhole and had some personal revelations and it's none of your business.

eventually cypher brings lion's sword back to him is revealed as luther this whole time secretly and then they kiss and make up or something idk

#warhammer 40k #russ' hug brigade #crack shit #lion el'jonson #luther

[otterlylla-archive]

Lylla Masterpost

It’s been almost 3 years since GotG came out and Rocket Raccoon became hugely popular and I still keep seeing people wondering: Who’s Lylla?

You probably all know her as Rocket’s (ex) girlfriend, who is also an otter. She’s  appeared in VERY few stories, even less so than Blackjack O’Hare or Wal Russ. According to official sources, she’s coming back in the upcoming Rocket solo comic. 

So, to refresh some people’s memories of the character, or if you don’t know who she is, here’s a post with EVERY time she’s appeared in since Rocket’s debut to this day.

Lylla’s first appearance was in Rocket’s first appearance as well (not counting the Marvel Preview where he was called Rocky). She’s presented as Rocket’s girlfriend and Wal Russ’ (honorary?) niece, who named his ship, and a distressed damsel who gets kidnapped to lure Rocket into a trap. Of course, Rocket saves her and all is good...for the time. In general, she’s shown to be a weak, helpless individual who never gets to do anything on her own. She’s less a character and more a walking plot device. She barely has any dialogue, at that (I’m not posting every panel where she appears, btw). 

When she reappeared in the limited 4-issue Rocket Raccoon series, in 1985, Lylla’s character was expanded. She’s introduced as stripping, jumping into a waterfall and fooling around with Rocket.

Here, she is the heiress of Mayhem Mekaniks, the biggest toy-making industry in planet Halfworld. The toys are used to entertain the mentally ill humanoids living in the planet. However, her parents were killed when she was very young and the company was taken over by the mole Judson Jakes (who was the one who had her parents killed). Supposedly he’s only the owner of the company until “she comes of age” (Lylla was underage here?), so he’s forcing Lylla to marry him and thus get her company. Lylla refuses, of course.At the same time, rival toy company owner Lord Dyvyne also wants to marry Lylla in order to get her fortune, and she refuses as well. 

So Dyvyne sends the Black Bunny Brigade (lead by Blackjack O’Hare) to kidnap her and send her to him. Blackjack captured her (JUUUUST when she was holding a gun and about to fight to retrieve the Gideon’s Bible on her own, because she’s apparently not allowed to do that), but then decided HE wanted to marry her and get her fortune. Again, she refuses. He hits her, as well (for getting distracted looking at a mural, at that).

When Rocket and Wal Russ go to save her, she gets to punch a few bad guys, but then goes back to being a doormat when Blackjack becomes forceful. 

When Rocket arrives, Lylla...scolds him, for not being brave enough, even though he was in a hurry at the moment. When Blackjack joins Rocket’s group and they escape, she’s wary of him and he wants to get rid of her (because she’s the one the villains want).

Later, the scientist turtle Pyko explains what is the true nature of the planet: It was always meant to be a mental asylum and the animals are there to look after and entertain the patients, and everything the animals did was because of the original robot caretakers. Lylla, like Rocket, is surprised, but nowhere near to Rocket’s extent. 

Blackjack betrays the group and attempts to stab Lylla, but she (finally) fights back.

When they get to the toy-making factory (apparently the “real” one operated by robots, which makes the Toy Wars completely moot) they make special helmets  that can “cure” the mentally ill people (I’m making a whole different post about the ableism in Rocket’s backstory). When one is used on Rocket, he “realizes the depth of his love for Lylla” and smooches her, to her surprise (?). Lylla is also the first one to realize how quiet the patients got when the helmets are used on them. 

The villains strike back, and Lylla uses a gun alongside the main characters. She doesn’t fight directly though, and mainly hugs Rocket and swoons over his bravery. 

In the end, Rocket defeats the villains and Lylla leaves the planet with Rocket and the other animals in a giant spaceship, since they’re “no longer needed”. 

Something I noticed: thorough the story, Lylla NEVER does any work for her company at all. In fact, Jakes and Dyvyne fully believe that she’ll only manage the company with Rocket and then give all the toys away. This could be a good chance for a “villains underestimating a woman and then being proven wrong”, except that she NEVER does anything about it. She doesn’t even care about Rocket wanting to decipher the mysteries of Halfworld; she just wants to swim and have fun with her boyfriend. 

So basically: Lylla is a very passive, caring and sweet lady who nevertheless can fight and use a gun, doesn’t like working, has no authority over anybody, no ambitions and would rather have fun all day with no worries. That is, until Annihilators happened.

In this story, the entire “Toy Wars” thing got retconned into a holographic projection inserted in Rocket’s brain to keep him from going back to his planet. Here, Halfworld is portrayed as a maximum security psychiatric hospital/prison for the “incurably insane” (eeeeuuugh) attended by uplifted animals, and Rocket left to keep a powerful evil psychic from escaping by turning himself into the “key” that kept him prisoner (long story).

As for Lylla, she’s the head nurse and helps Rocket regain her memories using a special helmet (of course). She also used to be in a relationship with Rocket, but after he left, got married with Blackjack (who, in this version, was always a good guy and never hurt or kidnapped her). Rocket takes it all VERY well and wishes them for prosperity.

In this series, Lylla narrates what “truly” happened to Rocket and his planet, but NEVER does anything on her own, outside of shooting Rocket with a paralyzing gun when he got scared. Once the action starts, she gets shoved into the background, because she’s a woman or something. She also barely changes her expression and seems much more distant than how she was before.

it’s worth mentioning that here, none of the animals CHOSE to work in the hospital. They were just made to do so and nobody says anything about it. Rocket is the only one showing any interest of working in a completely different field. 

In the Free Comic Book Day 2014 comic, Rocket is accompanied by Wal Russ and fights against Blackjack (who is a mercenary again....?) and Dyvyne (who is alive...?!), and Pyko gets an appearance, but Lylla is nowhere to be found. Then there are the Skottie Young Rocket comics, which apparently negate Annihilators happened (and Lylla gets no mention at all, which I feel is for the better given the awful “Angry ex girlfriends” storyline). She doesn’t show up in the animated series episode involving Halfworld, either, even though most of the original characters appeared.

Ever since Annihilators, Lylla hasn’t appeared in ANYTHING, outside of getting her name dropped in a freeze-frame bonus in the GotG movie. Her name is included as one of Rocket’s allies along with Groot. Where is she and what did she do? Hasn’t been shown yet, and probably never will. 

According to official sources though, she IS coming back in the upcoming Rocket solo series, but given what happened with Blackjack O’Hare and how Rocket’s character has been getting increasingly more violent, self-centered, obnoxious, smarmy and petty, it wouldn’t be out of place for her to be completely derailed, turned evil, attempt to kill Rocket and/or get killed off. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

UPDATE: On May 2017, the latest Rocket solo series came out. One important character was Rocket’s “old flame” Otta Spice, an otter-like alien femme fatale who’s very clearly a stand-in for Lylla with a different personality. Lylla herself was alluded to during the story but didn’t show up until the last issue, in the form of a dream/hallucination. 

In this continuity, the events of the older comics happened BUT they kept the “Lylla married Blackjack” bit from Annihilators. Huh. Gotta keep her out of the way.

But the most notable reappareance of Lylla was on the Telltale GotG videogame, where she’s part of Rocket’s backstory. She’s voiced by Fryda Wolff and has a sweet, calm and playful personality, helping Rocket escape from Halfworld while gently teasing him. She’s also a skilled engineer and inventor. Unfortunately she dies to further Rocket’s angst, but she can be revived at the very end of the game.

So, after all this, I gotta ask: how would YOU save Lylla (from her narrative)?

#lylla #rocket raccoon #meta #marvel #blackjack o'hare #wal russ

[flunkyofmalcador]

There is s new charter school that opened here in Marana today-the Leman Academy. Make of that what you will.

#russ' hug brigade

[nighthaunting]

You ever have a moment where you reconsider something you thought a lot about in the past but then sort of turned your attention away from for a while, and your new perspective just blows the whole thing open?

Me thinking about russ and magnus during ATS/PB today after years of taking a break from HH/40K lore yielded one such series of revelations.

I was thinking about Betrayer and Russ' attempt to give Angron a lesson via the Night of the Wolf. I was thinking about Prospero Burns and Russ' belief that he's had a direct line to Magnus this whole time via Kaspar. I was thinking about that 'please'. And.

I know this is pretty much canon to the text but I've never before really Considered that one of Russ' motives in keeping this guy alive and sending him out on compliances with his Legion was (Russ believed at least) letting Magnus see the SW in action and hoping that this might influence him into trying to Avoid doing anything that might cause Russ to be sent after him.

In the past I've talked a lot about the SW keeping Kaspar around to see what would happen in terms of thinking the TS were up to something or going to do something to the Legion, which is very much the assumption the Chaos entity wanted them to make, but looking back I tbh think i slept on the concept of Russ, who canonically has taken out at least one of the Lost Primarchs in an event which is prefers not to speak (or at least the codex Strongly Implies that Russ has been used against another primarch before), and who also canonically went into the Night of the Wolf fully willing to die to make his point to Angron if only Angron could understand what he was doing.

I'm sort of compelled by the concept because in a sense Russ was letting (what he thought was) Magnus take a peek behind the barbarian mask he likes to put on, to see into a more genuine heart of his legion, letting his guard down a bit by allowing this obviously-compromised spy in. Much the same way he let the mask drop when he went to try and talk some sense into Angron, bringing up philosophy and reading and ideals that Russ' ignorant-but-noble barbarian persona would never admit to being interested in let alone reading.

And both times the gambit failed, in Magnus' case because it wasn't Magnus on the other end of the line, and in Angron's case because he was too far gone to really get what Russ was illustrating for him.

The whole thing was orchestrated so well, ironically giving the "proof" that Magnus was up to something via this sleeper agent spy that the SW were toting around with them, playing on Russ being curious enough to keep this guy around and connect the dots on the (false) links between this guy and the TS. I have this headcanon that Russ and Lorgar were actually fairly close, with Russ actually talking to Lorgar about Lorgar's writings, because he didn't seem surprised that Russ had read them and had thoughts on them in Betrayer, so I actually sort of like the idea that he had a hand in setting up the fall of Prospero? I like the tragedy of the idea that he at least had some input on the idea, being familiar enough with Russ to know he'd take the bait.

Which would make that a third time Russ got genuine with someone and had it either fail or be used against him...

#i'm sorry i love to torment him #russ' whole deal is that he's trapped in the mask he constructed for himself #and yet also unwilling to unmask himself and be genuine until its too late #he desperately doesn't want to kill another brother so he keeps trying to engineer shit to steer them away from situations #where he'd have to kill them #unfortunately that being the Only time he's genuine means it never fucking works #russ being Canonically Dionysian coded in the Apollonian-Dionysian duality truly coming back to bite him in the ass every time #sorry buddy but you're 'futility of fighting fate' chaotic unjust nature coded and all your angst about the role you were created to play #is entirely apt but also completely a self-fulfilling prophesy in terms of your ability to forge the relationships that would have saved yo #something something and this is why valdor tops but that's a whoooooole other essay #leman russ #warhammer 40k #russ’ hug brigade

[nighthaunting]

the only official or necessary primarch rankings @absurdfact and i will ever do apparently

#warhmmer 40k #the primarchs #russ' hug brigade

[nighthaunting]

I recently finished the Night Lords trilogy and oohhh gooddd that was such a ride. Definitely understand why it's so recommended! My love for the 8th only grows. RIP First Claw, you died as you lived, in midnight clad. (Btw, if you've read it, who's your favorite character from the books?)

Hey! I’m glad you liked it! The NL trilogy is really fun, and up there with Lord of the Night for like, really formative NL books that established their modern aesthetic and general mood. 

Personally I like Talos but in terms of ‘favorite character from the NL trilogy’ its a tie between Malcharion the War Sage and Xarl. Out of ALL the NLs tho, the favs are absolutely our Night-Haunting Lord Konrad Curze, and King Bastard Himself Sevatar

#night lords #replies #warhammer 40k #russ' hug brigade #Anonymous

[nighthaunting]

What's your take on Russ's interest in the Lectitio Divinatus? Do you think it was just an interesting book to him, or did he maybe actually put any stock in it?

This is a really great ask, thank you! 

My take on Russ’ feelings about the Lectitio Divinitatus are really interesting, are are part of the broader series of very tantalizing hints about his relationship with Lorgar. 

To put the TL;DR at the top: Russ did actually put some stock in the philosophical ideas that Lorgar espoused, but the Lectitio’s overarching concept of ‘proving’ the Emperor’s divinity was not something Russ agreed with. 

We know that Russ has a complex relationship with the Emperor, but he doesn’t believe the Emperor is Divine. A very powerful being, yes, but Russ personally doesn’t put the Emperor on the level of a god. However, Russ doesn’t entirely agree with the Imperial Truth either, both because he himself is a psyker and Knows that the Imperial Truth is incorrect, and also because he might dislike the concept of worshiping the Emperor but he doesn’t see it as being too terrible a crime. 

Russ disagreed with the sanction of Monarchia, which is notable for being pretty much the only thing he and Magnus ever agreed on, but also, if we want to infer from Russ’ known ‘job’ within the Imperium, then his disapproval of the Emperor’s plans for Monarchia is possibly why Roboute was given the job. In Vengeful Spirit the Emperor very directly states that Russ has his confidence and that if Russ feels that a sanction is needed the Emperor isn’t going to doubt him, by that same coin, then if Russ were to refuse to do something then its easy to believe the Emperor would allow him to choose not to obey and find someone else to do what he wants. This is speculation, however, because I haven’t read First Heretic in years and characterization has evolved since the early Heresy novels. 

Now, getting to Russ and Lorgar’s relationship, its sort of surprising considering Russ’ very aggressively pretending to be a barbarian, but they were friendly. Not super close by any means, but friendly enough that when Russ talks about Lorgar’s writing, he says “shared with me” rather than “gave to me” which lets us conclude that rather than just sending everyone a copy and hoping they’d read it, Lorgar specifically sent his writings to Russ and we can assume they had a conversation about it. It could be argued that this was within the time-frame where Lorgar had already converted to Chaos worship and had begun to feel out the other primarchs to see who was most likely to be useful to his plans, but it doesn’t change that they had positive interactions over Lorgar’s writings. 

The clearest illustration of Russ’ engagement with Lorgar’s philosophical ideas comes to us from Betrayer, and while not explicitly from the Lectitio, it does show what I think is the general stance Russ takes on Lorgar’s writings: he read them, and then took what he thought were the most relevant and important ideas. Russ is a surprisingly principled person when you peel back his various facades and personas, and its Lorgar’s writing on morality that he quotes from. 

The wind pulled at Russ’ wolfskin cloak. ‘Lorgar wrote something several years ago that has nourished my thoughts each day and night since he shared it with me.’

The World Eater snorted, showing just what he thought of his pious, scrivener brother’s musings, but Russ was unfazed.

‘It is not enough that corruption is recognized,’ Russ quoted. ‘It must be opposed. It is not enough that ignorance is acknowledged. It must be defied. Win or lose, what matters is making a stand for the virtues we will bequeath to the human race. When this galaxy is finally ours, we’ll hold a worthless prize if we plant the last aquila, on the last day, on the last world, having led humanity into moral darkness.’

‘Lorgar wages war with a quill,’ he said, ‘but the galaxy will not be brought to heel by crude philosophy. Your ideals are meaningless.’

‘Ideals are what we fight for, brother.’ There was something colder in Russ’ tone, then.

Here, Russ is talking to Angron in the prelude to the Night of the Wolf. He’s in the process of trying to show Angron that he’s destroyed his legion with the Butcher’s Nails. 

Later on, Angron relates the story of the Night of the Wolf to Lorgar, and Lorgar very deftly sums up not only the lesson Russ was trying to teach, but also spells out what I think is the stance that he and Russ share on the nature of the primarchs.

‘How can you not see it?’ Lorgar steepled his fingers, trying to rein in his own temper. ‘They won a victory worthy of engraving on their armour for all time. While you were glorying in your strength, Russ’s sons were loyal enough to come to him, to surround you both, to threaten your life while you stood at the vanguard of your own Legion. That may be the most comprehensive moment of outmanoeuvring in the history of the Legiones Astartes. It’s almost poetic in its elegance and emotional resonance. He proves his sons’ loyalty, while yours leave you to die. He proves the damage the Nails are doing to your Legion. He proves the tactical strength of taking an objective rather than fighting purely to kill. He spares your life in the hope you’ll see all of this, in a lesson it cost him heavily to teach you, and your reaction is to grin and claim yourself the victor.’

Angron didn’t chuckle that time. Lorgar could see it in his brother’s tensed muscles – some cognitive switch had clicked somewhere in his consciousness, and Angron’s rage was rising again. ‘Only one of us ran away that night. He’s weak.’

‘Gods’ blood.’ Lorgar was still managing, barely, to speak calmly. ‘The primarchs are the bridge between the Emperor and the species he leads. We are all weak, for we are all equal. All of us. We are humanity magnified: its virtues and its flaws.’

There’s never any explicit confirmation that Lorgar and Russ share in their views on the primarchs, but I find it telling that Russ is concerned with the ‘virtues’ they’ll leave to humanity when the Imperium has finished its conquest, while Lorgar states that the primarchs are the magnified virtues and vices of humanity. 

So while Russ has definitely read the Lectitio (unlike Roboute), I think it can be said that it didn’t have a profound effect on him, so much as it was another of Lorgar’s writings. As a book that was ostensibly persuasive in tone in regards to convincing people of the Emperor’s divinity, I think we can even say fairly conclusively that it wasn’t even the most interesting of Lorgar’s writings are far as Russ was concerned, compared to the various essays and dialetics about the nature of the great crusade Lorgar doubtlessly wrote over the years. 

#leman russ #lorgar #warhammer 40k #russ' hug brigade #this is a really interesting question #thank you #me banging out another essay on russ at one am #betrayer was very good to me #Anonymous

[nighthaunting]

#space wolves #wolf priests #russ' hug brigade #warhammer 40k

[nighthaunting]

#space wolves #the burning of prospero #the horus heresy #leman russ #russ' hug brigade #warhammer 40k

[nighthaunting]

Leman Russ from the Burning of Prospero gamebook

#leman russ #the burning of prospero #the horus heresy #warhammer 40k #russ' hug brigade #he's so beautiful i love him

[nighthaunting]

#space wolves #the burning of prospero #the horus heresy #warhammer 40k #russ' hug brigade

[nighthaunting]

my second favorite part of the Inferno book is that leman russes started to be called leman russes while leman russ was alive bc leman russ re-discovered leman russes

now say that five times fast

#leman russ #russ' hug brigade #warhammer 40k #inferno

[nighthaunting]

wow so i finally got ahold of Horus Heresy VII - Inferno, and hot damn are there about a million details that i need to spam everyone with so expect that to happen this weekend maybe. or just, me straightup posting like all the space wolf pages bc warhammer lore is such ridiculous nonsense funtimes and i love it especially where my precious son leman russ is concerned.

@adepta-astarte i sent you about half a dozen asks re: this as well so kick your inbox open at some point soon!

#leman russ #space wolves #russ' hug brigade #warhammer 40k #adepta-astarte

[nighthaunting]

#space wolves #leman russ #the emperor of mankind #the burning of prospero #the horus heresy #russ' hug brigade

[nighthaunting]

starting my first comb-through + screenshot of Inferno with this neat timeline. was sort of surprised at first to see that prospero took a whole year, but it makes sense in terms of the time it’d take to muster forces and get there.

#the burning of prospero #the horus heresy #leman russ #magnus the red #warhammer 40k #russ' hug brigade

[nighthaunting]

On Playmoss

#leman russ #russ' hug brigade #warhammer 40k #audio #playlist #entirely werewolf memes