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#would it also kill you to add more characters to the roster instead of using the same ones used in the movie
licncourt · 6 months
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begin again COOKED as a post-qotd fix-it (fave fic! <3) but i need to know your thoughts on prince lestat/how you would re-do it in the correct way. to this day i still think LESTAT becoming prince monarch of all the vampires is one of the craziest decisions made during the novels. to me lestat is a prince in the same way that jack skellington was king of halloween (that includes the running away to cause delusional hijinks that ultimately jeapordize everyone)
Aaahhh thank you!! That fic is my child that I birthed so I appreciate it more than you know! It's actually BA's one year finished-iversary next week, my baby's all grown up.
I've talked about that before actually in this post about how I would rewrite the whole series, but I can expand a little here!
Firstly, this could've been two books instead of three. There was nothing going on in there that required three entire novels
Things that have to go entirely: aliens, test tube clone baby Viktor, Atlantis. Sorry, not salvageable
I think rather than the Amel thing, it would have been cool if the sacred core had started corrupting Lestat and altering his behavior as host, maybe changing him gradually into a animalistic, violent folklore-like vampire, making him slowly lose his mind like Mekare, or erasing his sense of self to become a blank host. Then it's a race against the clock and vampire magical biology to save him. This could be the first PL book
Ideally, I think this book should be narrated by Louis and focus a lot on his growth as a character as he finishes his personal. It would bring some happy ending closure to the IWTV version of him without being a jarring change. I also think having his POV for the best of his and Lestat's relationship would be a nice full circle moment from seeing him describe their worst. The idea of Lestat losing himself to the core and them potentially coming together too late would add good drama as well. Maybe this is Louis' follow-up memoir describing how they fixed things
The Rhoshamandes conflict can stay for the second PL and final VC book, but I think it could've been less boring if the drama between him and Lestat had been better fleshed out. They have a lot of similarities that weren't used to their full advantage. It would really highlight Lestat's growth to have him defeat what he could've become
When Lestat reunites with Louis, they would actually have some long, hard conversations about their past, ones that continue throughout the PL trilogy
Hopefully an explanation for why Lestat has made this 180 is included, even if it's just the crushing realization of his own loneliness and longing reaching critical mass after twenty years of who the fuck knows what
The cast is pared down to the strongest written and most interesting characters so the story isn't spread so thin, probably Lestat, Louis, Armand, Gabrielle, Marius, Pandora, and maybe a small handful of new characters with significance in the story. I think Seth, Fareed, Sevraine had the most potential to be good additions to the primary roster if she wanted to add on
Cool characters from the original like trilogy like Maharet and Khayman are expanded on rather than killed offscreen to make room for more Anne Rice NPCs. If we're going to kill someone from the trilogy, please God let it be David Talbot
This goes without saying I think, especially from me, but Louis would be restored to his former glory as a true main character alongside Lestat instead of relegated to lobotomized housewife. There was so much potential for him in an active consort role. We also don't get to see how he got to such a peaceful place at the end of PL, so I would like to see him work through some stuff on the page
I would either cut the Rhoshamandes/Benedict storyline because of how redundant it is with how it mirrors the Marius/Armand dynamic or do something to differentiate it as its own relationship. At the very least, maybe the similarity could be highlighted to become a character beat for Armand
As far as Armand in general, I would make him a much more prominent player. I think he's a great fit for a court setting and could create a lot of intrigue as well as adding coolness factor. I'm always torn about whether I like the reveal of his romantic feelings for Lestat, but in the interest of keeping SOME things intact, I would just play it differently. Primarily, I think he becomes way too agreeable (similar to Louis) in how he submits to and idolizes Lestat, so I would love to see him come into more conflict with Lestat in spite of those feelings. Maybe we can see him make some peace with their history and let go of that intense emotion for something healthier
If we're going to keep the sex injections (IVs, whatever), I think we should do more with it than have Lestat prematurely ejaculate into a random woman. I think there's potential for a very interesting new dynamic with Louis and Lestat. It would be cathartic and maybe an interesting part of their healing process and of becoming a real couple for the first time
That's what I can think of for now, but I might update later!
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redwizardofgay · 11 months
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I regret very much to inform all of you that I am still on my bullshit with dnd 4e, and that today I shall be ranting about one of its better ideas: sorting classes into set roles.
So! 4e had this pretty neat idea of actually staying outright, in the rulebooks, what role a specific class was suited for given their abilities. Given that dnd is allegedly a roleplaying game, this is, on the face of it, a good idea. It gives players a good idea of what they're supposed to do in combat beyond "kill the monster" and also gives party building a much more coherent direction than "we need a cleric". Especially with sources acting as a sort of qualifier for what sort of powers and abilities a character could have, this creates a gorgeous symmetry where you could say something like " I want to play a divine striker" and wouldn't you know it 4e has just such a class. As is characteristic for 4e, however, the execution flamed out hard, and doesn't really work as intended.
The game offered a total of four roles: controller, defender, leader and striker. Seems pretty straight forward, right? Well.... by 4e's reckoning "controller" is an area of effect blaster unit, defender is a battlefield manipulator, and leader is healer. Strikers alone actually do what they sound like they should do: single target damage. There are three problems here. Firstly, it's never a good thing when the meaning of a game term doesn't intuitively follow it's obvious meaning. At minimum this slows down acquisition of knowledge and makes communication more difficult than it otherwise needs to be, at worst it actively confuses players and renders the system useless. Secondly, 4e is balanced around there being 5 players at the table, and yet there are only 4 roles. Nothing about that makes sense to me, and I just have more questions than answers there; most notably why certain roles are just not present. Which leads me to point three: missing roles. Long term dnd fans will automatically notice that 4e's role roster leaves out a role for skill challenges (traditionally held by bards and rogues), and the idea of a controller --- something like a Mesmer is Guild Wars or an Enchanter in Everquest fits right in with what 4e is going for, so why isn't there a class to represent that archetype? While I've found a tonne of neat insights from the devs of 4e as to why they made the choices that they did, this is one that still evades me. Like, why would they add this really neat system and then half-ass it so badly? In any case, I want to present you all with an idea of how to fix it.
To begin with, we're going to change around what roles we have. I see no reason to keep the four that we've already got so I'll instead present my thesis of five roles: Controller, Defender, Expert, Striker, and Support.
Controllers are characters who control the flow of battle, most often by manipulating enemy creatures' behaviour (either through mind magic or through punishing effects like countermagic,) the position of friends and foes, and the battlefield itself. A druid's ability to transform the weather and terrain of the battlefield makes them an ideal controller, as does the illusionist's ability to manipulate the perceptions and ideas of their enemies.
Defenders are characters who protect others. While defenders can manipulate enemy behaviour through taunting (an ability common to all classes in this role,) they can also use reactions like opportunity attacks, parrying, and defending (shoving allies out of a space and taking an attack on their behalf) to protect. Fighters and paladins are the quintessential defenders. Fighters' ability to lay down zones of control around themselves and viciously punish anything that gets too close makes them an ideal defender, while the paladin's ability to heal and smite makes them a punishing protector of the weak.
Whenever a party is faced with a skill challenge, they'd best call in an Expert to help them. Experts are characters with oodles of skills like picking locks, recalling knowledge, and tracking monsters that add ample depth to the game experience. In a fight, experts help their friends along by using their skills to get into advantageous positions (in which case they usually serve as sub-strikers) or using their knowledge to ensure every strike is as deadly as it can be (allowing them to serve as sub-supports.) Rogues and bards are quintessential experts.
Strikers are damage dealers, and count both single target and area-of-effect damage dealers as part of their club. As a striker, your primary objective is to hit the enemy as hard as you can from one turn to the next. Wizards and warlocks are both strikers, with wizards being better at multi-target attacks and warlocks being masters of single-target damage. A wizard's ability to command the essences of reality to assault large swaths of the battlefield makes them slow, vulnerable engines of destruction. Warlocks, in contrast, are essentially magical snipers, striking at enemies with punishing accuracy and ferocity before vanishing into magical darkness.
Supports, finally, are the healers, buffers and debuffers of the D&D party. As a support, you are expected to make your allies be all that they can be --- either by patching them up when things go awry, by making them better at things than they usually would be, or by making rest of the world bend to your will. Clerics and warlords are supports. Clerics are powerful healers who magical ability to heal and raise the dead enables many adventurers to push themselves beyond the brink and make it home again. Warlords, in contrast, are tactical super-geniuses whose military know-how ensures that their allies move with the confidence of trained soldiers.
I would also like to introduce the concept of sub-roles that is, a position that a class can play in but doesn't manage to do as well as a proper member of that role would. Rogues, as mentioned above, are adept strikers, even if their primary use is as experts. Wizards, in contrast are primarily strikers but can fill-in for an expert with their vast knowledge of the arcane. With sub-roles also accounted for, classes get to be more than just the role they're meant for, while also making it more difficult for parties to build themselves poorly and suffer as a result.
And that's what I've got one roles so far. I think the idea of having explicit roles for a class can be a good thing, but of course that comes with the caveat that they should be evidently loose. As in, the affinity any class has for a role should be loose enough that only a fool would insist that a rogue cannot be a striker, or a wizard must also be a blaster. That's more for community management than anything else, but I still think it's worth putting down somewhere.
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fmpy2 · 1 year
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Thematic and Visual Research
Ability shooters
Ability shooters or hero shooters as they're more commonly know are shooters that use individual charcters with unique skills sets, abilities and waepons instead of the conventional self built loadout in games like COD
Overwatch
A 2016 game published and developed by Blizzard that rereleased itself in 2022 as Overwatch 2. This hero shooter operates itself into the objective side of FPSs and unlike many other titles in the genre also gives the hero their own weapons alongside the pre-existing skillset. This is what i want for my own game not ownly for the fact it gives the characters a more balanced playstyle but also fleshes out the theme for each character.
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Valorant
A 2019 First Person Shooter that copies the uniqueness of the early and mega popular 2011 Title CSGO Global Offensive and its shop system and combines that in to one with the newer Hero shooter trend of the late 10's to early 20's. Valorant has a vast range of 18 unique agents that you lock into (cannot change) for the entire game which is won by the team who wins 13 rounds first. The entire game is objective based, with the main game being a take on bomb defusal commonly seen in games like Rainbow Six Siege. Each team plays 12 rounds on with the sides switching after the first 12, the attackers rush to a plant site to plant the spike (bomb) that has a timer to go off and therefore defend of 45 seconds once it has exploded the attackers win and anyone in the vicinity dies. The defenders can win by defending these sites by defusing the spike when planted or killing all the opposing team (the attackers can also win like this) however if they managed to plant the spike AND the attackers are dead the round will persist until the spike is defused, which takes 7 seconds. My objective for my project is to not be it objective or shop oriented (which is how you buy your agents abilities) and rather it be cooldown and 1v1/Battle Royale.
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Rainbow Six Seige
The 2015 Game developed and published by Ubisoft is the 13th out of the 15 game line under the name "Tom Clancy's Rainbow", the famous 1998 book by famous action-espionage novelist Tom Clancy. The game is the highest grossing and most popular out of them all with $1.1 bn in sales.
The game itself combines some elements from both hero shooter and loadout customizers (i.e. cod) with each operator only having one ability but also a couple of weapons and attachments to choose from and customise.
The round and objective is identical to that of the spike in Valorant however it is first to 3 rounds instead of 13 making it a much more easily consumable and casual game to play.
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Apex Legends
Apex Legends is a 2018 Franchise battle royale game that is the 3rd game of Respawn's Titanfall legacy. The objective in this case is very standard to its genre, last team standing, however weapons system doesn't come with the skill sets like it does in Rainbow or overwatch they need to be looted from a variety of locations over a large map. The weapons can be modified with also loot able attachments that improve that statistics of your gun or add a visual scope. This idea appeals to me but feels a bit second nature as i feel if i may not have time to get the to work within the time frame but if have time i think the addition would be great.
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TF2
Team fortress 2 is a classical valve game released in 2007 a sequel to Quake mod made in 1996 it features a small roster of characters that stay very true to their abilities at core but have a vast amount of customisation with a lot of it being modifiable by the community. The game however while similar to a lot of hero shooter is nearly defunct with public servers being ravaged by cheaters and with developers continuing to not care. The game mode is very similar to that of overwatch with an assortment of objectives which have you stand at a point to capture a zone, payload escorting or Team deathmatch.
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Fortnite STW
Fortnite Save The World is the one of the 3 game modes incorporated under the "Fortnite" Franchise the tower defence game also includes operators or "Heroes" that have a selection of unique passive abilities that give you tactical advantages alongside a set 3 abilities that aren't unique but cycle in-between characters.
Its hard to explain so I'll show you in a video
League of Legends
League of Legends, commonly referred to as League, is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. There is currently 163 different champions that all have unique abilities to be able to fight each other and in the arena. The round system in comparison to other hero games is very different as it has you on a top down plane with you trying to destroy the enemies various objective points with the final one being the "Nexus".
Fight Fever
Fight Fever is a 1994 2D fighting game made for the Neo-Geo MVS System that models itself after the another fighting game made by the same company (SNK) , Fatal Fury 2, and contains 9 characters that are selectable to play from and have their own set of unique moves plus a punch and a kick but also a "Danger Move" which is basically an ultimate move. The game is very simple in nature to the games of the genre with no real innovation in comparison to its competitors like the street fighter franchise.
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Korean Mythology and Legend
Their Literary Mythology is mostly just hyperbolic stories about the first leaders and prominent figures in history like most cultures however their oral history is more interesting as they mostly consist of shamanic and sacred rituals that are meant to invoke gods.
The oral and shamanic ones are the ones I'm going to research more.
There are many regions of Korean that have a range of religious beliefs and songs that detail beautiful stories of very simple concepts like death and creations. I couldn't a lot of information to fit all of the regions however there is a constant them that across a lot of them, that being Life replacement narratives. These rituals, also known as life extension narrative, refer to 3 shamanic narratives that are chanted during religious rituals, all from different regional traditions of mythology but with a similar core story: the Menggam bon-puri of the Jeju tradition, the Jangja-puri of the Jeolla tradition and the Honswi-gut narrative of the South Hamgyong tradition.
In all three narratives, a man (or men) is forewarned of his impending death and makes offerings to the chasa, the gods of death who kill those whose time is due and take away their souls to the afterlife. The chasa unwittingly accept the offerings before realizing that they have accepted gifts from the man that they were supposed to kill. As they cannot ignore his gifts, they decide to spare his life and take the soul of another human or animal in his place. *
These myths are important in their religious context because they demonstrate the susceptibility of the gods to both gifts and human empathy.*
From the north a popular song is the: Song of Dorang-seonbi and Cheongjeong-gaksi which centres on a woman trying to find her husband after his death. It is a very popular funeral shamanic narrative ceremony of the South Hamgyong Province and recited in the Mangmuk-gut.
Several versions of the Song are known. In all versions, a man named "Dorang-seonbi" marries a woman named "Cheongjeong-gaksi", only to die almost instantly after the wedding. Distraught, Cheongjeong-gaksi weeps or prays until a Buddhist priest (or a disguised god) gives her a set of tasks by which she can meet her husband again. The most recurrent tasks are tearing out her hair and weaving the hair into a rope, boring holes into her palms and threading the rope into the holes, and either hanging on it, going back and forth on it, or both; repeatedly drenching her fingers in oil, then setting them on fire; and, finally, paving a difficult mountain road with only what remains of her bare hands. Having done all this, Cheongjeong-gaksi is briefly reunited with her husband before he dies or departs again. In the majority of versions, the woman ultimately commits suicide or otherwise dies to be reunited with her husband for good in the afterlife.*
Particles effects in games
Particle and special effects (such as screen shake to show impact or a force happening or blood and gore) in games are a crucial building block to making a successful and well polished game as they add an extra layer of detail and depth to something that could be dumbed down to something very simple.
[Jake's Cube Shooter Game For Research]
Sound in games
Sound is also a crucial element for game building as it can utilised in a massive amount of ways, firstly it can create diegetic (in universe sound) sounds that add life to things such as a gunshot or heavy breathing. This diegetic sound adds atmosphere and is meant to engross your audience into the project itself so it doesn't feel not dead or fake. Secondly non-diegetic sound (so a soundtrack) can add emotion and passion to your game with the soundtrack and music reflecting the world, themes and genre of your game to the audience for example for a game like "DOOM" you would want a fast based rock type soundtrack as the game you are playing will fit that musical tempo however for a game like "Animal Crossing" you would want a relaxed soundtrack as the actions you are doing is meant to be very relaxing. ALSO sound can be used in a way to make a game more accessible for people who are visually impaired by giving them auditory notes on surroundings.
*Copied from Wikipedia
What i took away from this not only do i want to use items you can pick up or loot for yourself in my game but also i can create a multitude of special setups in many genres with so much variation.
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First person Games research
Game 1:
MW2 2022
5 days ago COD MW2 2022 Released and i have... thoroughly researched it (50 hours in 4 days).
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In the newest edition to the cod franchise, they yet again don't make much different to the past ten editions, aside from working their graphic designers' fingers till the bone in order to sell battlepasses and anime tracer packs. aside from complaining, the game changed movement by reverting the meta to an older cod style, instead of the recent mechanics involving slide cancelling and strafing at the speed of light.
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in general, the gunplay and animations are great and something to be inspired by even if it isn't a movement shooter as i would like.
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When considering art style i certainly don't want to do realism because. first of all, no matter how hard i try it will never be 'real' and because of that I'm not going to spend a lot of time doing photorealistic art
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the game is made by activison and infinity ward, whilst a pretty unique part of the game that comes to mind is a specific scene from the story where you play as a character who is suspended upside down from a helicopter after they fell out and are only attached by a harness.
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im not really taking away anything as its pretty bog standard and uncreative when it comes to the mechanics and other games out there.
Game 2:
Titanfall2
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the futuristic movement shooter is a pinnacle of the genre. the game has a great focus on movement as in a world where metal behemoths roam swatting human players like fly's. this means the player must adapt to out pace the clunky nature of the titans and the roster of ability's such as stim speed boosts and grapple hooks compliment this.
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when looking at the game for inspiration a few features immediately jump out at me. using grenades to boost yourself forwards, wall running and boost jump mechanics aswell as bonus perks such as hovering/ slowing while aiming and mid-air.
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in general this game offers a lot mechanically and i will be taking inspiration.
Game 3:
Turbo Overkill
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yet another movement shooter yet this time its PvE with a heavier focus on movement and fun than Titanfall, the game is packed with mechanics to be used in conjunction to maximize movement potential, such as sliding, dashing, wall jumps, double jumping, and all of these tie together to create a fun game where slowing down is simply impractical, the guns compliment this by having less of a focus on your ability to aim, such as smart pistols, shotguns , explosives.
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im thinking i certainly need to adapt the gunplay to fit the movement aspect of the game. and in some ways im already doing this by having the time slow by 50% when front or backflipping, making the action less taxing on the player and continent and advantageous to do.
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Game 4:
Severed Steel
a stylish 'movement shooter' it takes alot of inspiration from action movies with its front flip, bullet time and visual style
when looking at features of it i certainly look to the dolphin diving, front flips, bullet time, kicking, throwing guns and much more that this game gives you in order to survive the onslaught of enemy's
Game 5:
Destiny 2
being a more tactical slower paced shooter than the others on this list its a game i have clocked almost a thousand hours on since its release a few years ago, it certainly is more of a looter shooter with movement aspects, kinda like borderlands.
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i personally like the sci fi setting and class system that offers different movement abilitys dependent on your class or element. one character could pick a hunter that triple jumps, dodge rolls to reload guns, and has a throwing knife that replenishes your roll on headshots. whilst a warlock could have a teleport like blink, and a mid air dash. or you could be an arc titan that's ultimate is literally just turns your character into a missiles that flies into enemy's killing anyone they make contact with in the process.
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the versatility of movement is a good aspect of destiny and is something to be inspired. this also adds replay value to a game when you can play in multiple completely different ways whilst still being able to do everything as all of those play styles.
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hakasims · 3 years
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The Most In-depth Analysis of Luca Marinelli’s Characters You’ll Ever Need
You’d think I was done with classifications, but I’m not! There’s so much more I can say about Luca Marinelli’s oeuvre and his magnificent roster of characters. And yes, I’ve made this post before where I highlighted specific tropes that show up in a lot of his movies, but that was surface-level shit. This is an actual exploration of what makes a Luca Marinelli character besides being a kinky little whore. And don’t worry, it’s still in that user-friendly question-answer format because I love you.
Here’s the thing: Luca is a chameleon but he also has a type, and this type is:
✨ a (likely) queer repressed addict with daddy issues ✨
That’s the skeleton. Let’s see how many of his major roles possess that skeleton at all and what flavors they add to the picture.
Disclaimer: I excluded characters with little screen time and Joseph from Mary of Nazareth because he doesn’t deserve rights. Also, instead of going in the boring chronological order, I’m gonna start with the least typical character for Luca and end with the crème de la crème. The results may not surprise you.
Nicky (The Old Guard)
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Is he queer? Undeniably.
Is he repressed? No.
Does he have an addiction? No.
Does he have daddy issues? I know we’re all deeply affected by our shitty father figures but I would genuinely question Nicky’s sanity if he were still on that shit at the ripe age of 951. A little tip for daddy-hating immortals out there: just do what Angel did and kill your shitty dad. Problem solved.
Is he violent? Despite doling out tons of violence, he doesn’t have a violent nature and seems uninterested in hating his enemy or delivering retribution.
Does he need a good night sleep? I’m sure nothing helps one sleep better than a Joe-shaped big spoon.
Does he need a good cry? Doesn’t seem like it.
Flavors: A perfect immortal warrior bean in a healthy relationship.
Conclusion: Ironically but unsurprisingly, Nicky is the least Luca-like character.
Guido (Tutti i santi giorni)
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Is he queer? I don’t believe so but who knows? If someone told me he’s demisexual, I’d believe it.
Is he repressed? The movie may disagree, but I say yes, obviously.
Does he have an addiction? Not unless you count his romantic relationship.
Does he have daddy issues? His family is so supportive and wholesome it’s almost parodic.
Is he violent? He’s the opposite of a toxic macho dude, but then he has a violent outburst out of nowhere because the movie is bad.
Does he need a good night sleep? He doesn’t like sleeping at night.
Does he need a good cry? Naturally.
Flavors: An adorkable awkward nerd with flowery speech.
Conclusion: I can forgive straightness and wholesomeness but I can’t forgive lack of complexity.
Martin (Martin Eden)
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Is he queer? I don’t believe so.
Is he repressed? Yes.
Does he have an addiction? No.
Does he have daddy issues? Not to my knowledge.
Is he violent? When he deems it necessary to be.
Does he need a good night sleep? Sure.
Does he need a good cry? Cry your little heart out, Martin!
Flavors: An arrogant, pretentious, politically confused writer.
Conclusion: A little too straight for your typical Luca, but he makes up for it with being complex and complicated.
Loris (Il mondo fino in fondo)
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Is he queer? I don’t believe so.
Is he repressed? So fucking repressed!
Does he have an addiction? Nothing beyond his savior complex.
Does he have daddy issues? He has a shitty dad he’s spent his whole life trying to please, and also his mommy left, so like yeah, obviously.
Is he violent? He has his straight dude moments.
Does he need a good night sleep? Definitely.
Does he need a good cry? Oh yeah, let him cry, it’s good for him.
Flavors: A casually homophobic mother hen.
Conclusion: Ruined by heterosexual agenda.
Lui (Ricordi?)
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Is he queer? I don’t believe so.
Is he repressed? Very.
Does he have an addiction? No.
Does he have daddy issues? A big sack of them.
Is he violent? No.
Does he need a good night sleep? Oh yes. To sleep, perchance to dream about anything other than his traumatic memories.
Does he need a good cry? So much.
Flavors: Up-his-butt and pensive.
Conclusion: Leave it to Luca to take a guy who would be an absolute nightmare in real life and turn him into someone I actually want to watch for two hours and see happy by the end.
Gabriele (Waves)
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Is he queer? There’s evidence he might be gay.
Is he repressed? I’d bet on it.
Does he have an addiction? Doesn’t seem like it.
Does he have daddy issues? Nobody knows.
Is he violent? No.
Does he need a good night sleep? He probably will with how the movie ended.
Does he need a good cry? At least one.
Flavors: A sweet introverted guy who loves boats.
Conclusion: While not particularly complex, Gabriele has layers and nuances. Also give him a big muscular daddy.
Fabrizio (Fabrizio de André - Principe libero)
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Is he queer? I don’t believe so.
Is he repressed? He was before music became his only career.
Does he have an addiction? Alcohol, cigarettes, sex, cheating - take your pick.
Does he have daddy issues? Not as bad as some of the other guys here but he’s heard his fair share of “I’m not mad, I’m disappointed” speeches.
Is he violent? He’s soft.
Does he need a good night sleep? He’s an artist, what do you think?
Does he need a good cry? He’s an artist, what do you think?
Flavors: Fabrizio de André is the flavor.
Conclusion: Even though it’s a biopic, there are still many Luca-isms there. He’s just that kind of actor.
Milton (Una questione privata)
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Is he queer? It could be argued that he is bisexual.
Is he repressed? Do you even need to ask?
Does he have an addiction? About half of the breaths he takes are filled with cigarette smoke.
Does he have daddy issues? He seems to have a good and loving relationship with both his parents.
Is he violent? Not by nature.
Does he need a good night sleep? Yep.
Does he need a good cry? He certainly does.
Flavors: A repressed bisexual feeling powerless in a horrible world.
Conclusion: This is proof that Luca can carry a whole entire movie on his sexy shoulders, alone. Also Milton needs a safe and loving triad.
Mattia (La solitudine dei numeri primi)
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Is he queer? I personally read him as asexual. Though assigning asexuality to characters who are traumatized is a dangerous path so don’t quote me on this, okay?
Is he repressed? Just the most repressed.
Does he have an addiction? It’s debatable whether self-harm and eating disorders can be considered addictions, but they’re part of his character, and I thought you should know.
Does he have daddy issues? His parents played their part in messing him up which then led to the big thing that really messed him up, though other than that his dad is barely a presence.
Is he violent? Not at all.
Does he need a good night sleep? At least 17 hours.
Does he need a good cry? Oh, so much. He needs all the cry.
Flavors: A quiet genius with lots of guilt.
Conclusion: Can you believe this was his first film role? Our boy is talented af!
Fabio (Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot)
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Is he queer? Undeniably.
Is he repressed? You could argue that he is repressed by being limited in his place in social hierarchy.
Does he have an addiction? Amazingly enough, no. He has fixations, though.
Does he have daddy issues? Thinking his father was a loser and not wanting to end up like him is textbook stuff.
Is he violent? Very.
Does he need a good night sleep? Yes please.
Does he need a good cry? He needs to purge his soul from all the bottled up stuff.
Flavors: A campy psycho.
Conclusion: Luca’s most iconic character, so of course he scored high on the list.
Paolo (Il padre d’Italia)
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Is he queer? Undeniably.
Is he repressed? I can’t even start listing all the ways in which he’s repressed.
Does he have an addiction? He smokes a lot.
Does he have daddy issues? His issues are more of a mommy variety.
Is he violent? Not in the slightest.
Does he need a good night sleep? He’s the poster boy for needing a good night sleep.
Does he need a good cry? A good cry, a good weep, a good sob, a good bawl, *googles more synonyms* a good wail, a good squall...
Flavors: A self-loathing gay orphan in need of some life goodness.
Conclusion: What can I say about Paolo that all of you aren’t already thinking? Decent film, great character, excellent portrayal.
Mickey (Die Pfeiler der Macht)
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Is he queer? Undeniably.
Is he repressed? It’s Victorian England, you guys.
Does he have an addiction? He smokes casually but other than that... eh. And don’t tell me he has sex addiction. He uses his body strategically.
Does he have daddy issues? If what he has isn’t daddy issues, I don’t know what is.
Is he violent? He’s got tons of bottled up aggression.
Does he need a good night sleep? It would be great if he could use the day’s darkest hours for sleeping.
Does he need a good cry? Undeniably.
Flavors: A conniving slut extraordinaire.
Conclusion: A major player in the book (says me who managed like 50 pages), Mickey Miranda was turned into such a nothing character in the miniseries that they needed a truly extraordinary actor to make him memorable. And guess what, Luca delivered.
Cesare (Non essere cattivo)
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Is he queer? Not explicitly, but come on.
Is he repressed? Lethally.
Does he have an addiction? He’s an addiction textbook.
Does he have daddy issues? *Jake Peralta voice* Yeah, the guy without a daddy is the one with daddy issues. Explain that logic.
Is he violent? Oh yeah, he’s a rabid little trash goblin.
Does he need a good night sleep? So much.
Does he need a good cry? He’s had his fair share of good cries, but he could always use more.
Flavors: A aimless junkie.
Conclusion: The quintessential Luca. Beautiful.
Primo (Trust)
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Is he queer? Listen, just because we don’t see him fuck a dude on screen it doesn’t mean he isn’t a motherfluffing queer icon. It’s not subtext; it’s TEXT.
Is he repressed? Where do I even fucking start?
Does he have an addiction? Oh yeah. And a coke nail to prove it.
Does he have daddy issues? I would need a whole separate post to unpack his daddy issues.
Is he violent? So very violent.
Does he need a good night sleep? Yes, please. On an actual bed in an actual bedroom.
Does he need a good cry? You can just tell.
Flavors: A ruthless criminal with a strong mafia boss potential.
Conclusion: The pièce de résistance of the Luca Marinelli filmography. Not only does he tick every box, he gets bonus points for the excellent wardrobe choices that emphasize Luca’s best features. Primo Nizzuto is everything great you want from Luca, except singing. (Though in my headcanon that whole white car in a snowstorm monologue was a musical number.)
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rawiswhore · 3 years
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Various WWF Wrestlers x Fem Reader- "Back That Ass Up"
The 1990's...a time when most rock bands and singers didn't sexually objectify women in their songs and music videos.
A time when popular female singers, from female singer-songwriters to lead singers of bands to R&B singers, barely ever showed their bodies off and used sex to sell themselves.
A time when it seemed like women who defined the decade were sarcastic, deadpan, nonsexualized alt girls like Janeane Garofalo, Juliana Hatfield and Daria from the titular MTV cartoon.
A time where you had riot grrrl bands like Bikini Kill angrily protesting rape and sexual assault.
A time when Gwen Stefani, who was then known for being the lead singer of a band, stating how she's "had it up to here" with sexism while she points to her forehead.
A time when Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon asked "Are you gonna liberate us girls with your male white corporate oppression?" and Queen Latifah making diss tracks towards misogynistic men.
But then...as the 1990's come to a close, just when you thought professional wrestling had dwindled in popularity when so many of their top stars during the 1980's left the World Wrestling Federation, pro wrestling made a comeback in 1996 and 1997 due to Hulk Hogan turning heel and a wrestling company known as WCW was beating the WWF (World Wrestling Federation, not World Wildlife Fund) in the ratings.
What was the WWF to do?
Instead of having a kid friendly product that seemed like a live action Saturday morning cartoon and had their faces of the company not using profanity or adult-like things despite having lots of charisma and being fan favorites with the audience, the WWF by the end of the 1990's became edgier, more violent, sexualized, shocking, trashier, vulgar and "adult like" than ever before.
You could say that the WWF was growing up with their audience who were kids watching the WWF when Hulk Hogan, Macho Man and even Bret Hart and Razor Ramon were the faces of the company that were now transitioning into teenagers who love sexualized women, middle fingers, sexual innuendo, violence and profanity.
Speaking of sexualized women, during the 1990's, when you had hardly any sexualized female recording artists save for a few and rock bands who barely sexually objectified women, by the end of the decade, the World Wrestling Federation would have their women's roster, be it from valets like Debra and Terri Runnels to legitimate wrestlers like Ivory and Jacqueline, participate in bikini contests where they'd be judged for their beauty and dressed in bikinis that left nothing to the imagination, and worse, the women's roster would participate in the infamous "bra & panties" and evening gown matches where women would tear each others clothes and dresses off in the ring until they were down to a bra and thong, or they'd wrestle in bikinis in pools of mud or pudding.
To add insult to injury, this was considered "women's wrestling" by the late 90's and some women would end up winning the World Championship belt for participating in matches involving them tearing their clothes off or "wrestling" in bikinis in pools of pudding or mud.
Plus, the World Wrestling Federation during the late 90's was also a time when you had wrestlers playing pimps that would have groups of prostitutes following them and men who would have half naked women cuddled with them.
And worse of all...some wrestlers played characters that would degrade women, from the Rock telling Chyna she "belongs on her knees", Jeff Jarrett being a misogynistic asshole who thinks men are better than women, some racially insensitive Asian men degrading his wife and someone drugging a woman and marrying her through a drive through wedding whilst unconscious.
After a time where you had feminist-esque female recording artists that almost never used sex to sell themselves, wrote their own music and played their own instruments who performed at those Lilith Fair concert tours (tours that featured all female recording artists), male rock bands and singers who didn't sexually objectify women, the NBA launching the Women's NBA playing legit basketball like men and not dressed in skimpy outfits, and the list goes on for days, the World Wrestling Federation now had most of their female roster participate in bikini contests where they were judged for their beauty and women were mostly there to be portrayed as sex objects and nothing else.
It was like this was a backlash towards Lilith Fair and nonsexualized, feminist female singer-songwriters, rock bands that didn't objectify women, and nonsexualized women in the 1990's in general.
Then again, the WWF's Attitude era as it was known as was a product of its time, popular around the same time other trashy pop culture like the Jerry Springer show, Jenny Jones and Ricki Lake's talk shows, Howard Stern, "South Park", Tom Green, Eminem at his most shocking and Marilyn Manson was at the height of his popularity.
Granted, the 1990's weren't completely wholesome, considering this was also the era of gangsta rap that sexually objectified and sometimes even degraded women, "Baywatch" was a popular show that was just an excuse to see beautiful women with silicone breast implants running on the beach in slow motion in tight red swimsuits, Playboy playmates like Pamela Anderson, Jenny McCarthy, and Anna Nicole Smith were popular sex symbols, Howard Stern was a pop culture icon infamous for sexually objectifying women, and there were even some female singers who used sex to sell themselves during the 90's like Madonna, Janet Jackson, Salt N Pepa, TLC, Adina Howard and more, and by the end of the decade we had the Spice Girls, Lil' Kim, Foxy Brown, Mariah Carey becoming more sexualized, Britney Spears, and Jennifer Lopez getting a record deal.
However, for every oversexualized Adina Howard, there was a Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston. For every oversexed Madonna, there was a Tori Amos. For every band that objectified women, there was a band that didn't objectify women.
Speaking of sexualization, you were one of the many bricks in the wall of the oversexualized women's roster during the WWF's Attitude era.
Not only did you participate in a few of those bikini contests, bra & panties and evening gown matches as well as those mud/pudding/gravy matches where you and another woman wrestled in a bikini, but your character you will always be remembered for playing was a scantily clad, nymphomaniac-like slut who was basically the wrestling equivalent to Madonna during her early 90's sex era and a female Val Venis.
From seducing wrestlers while you wore outfits that left little to the imagination, entering the ring wearing nothing but wrestling belts covering your bathing suit areas, cutting wrestling promos while being gangbanged (though your private parts weren't shown on television), rubbing cum on your body like it's lotion (though it wasn't really cum), wearing outfits that exposed your uncovered breasts not even being covered by pasties, wearing shirts that read "Pervert 69" on the back (parodying Janet Jackson's "Pervert" shirt she wore at the 1995 MTV VMA's), and Ministry Undertaker sacrificing you for being a whore, to roleplaying as a urinal while wrestlers jerk off in your mouth or on your face, becoming one of the Godfather's hoes (and you don't mean "The Godfather" as in the Francis Ford Coppola masterpiece), Triple H and Shawn Michaels undressing you until you lay in the ring wearing nothing but a thong and they pulled a bottle of lotion out and squeezed it to simulate ejaculation, and to top it all off, having actual sex in the ring with Val Venis while over 1000 people watched this in the audience and it was broadcast on television.
The WWF was nearly rated TV-MA almost because of you, and was getting boycotts and protests partially because of you.
However, despite many shocking moments that made headline news and caused controversy and nearly got you arrested for obscenity charges, this particular moment was slightly tame in comparison.
Almost near the end of 1998, during one of those "up next" vignettes that had the guitar riff to Slam Jam's "We're All Together Now" playing, you were on all fours on your knees on top of a bench in the locker room.
While you were on all fours on top of this bench, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Billy Gunn, Val Venis, Christian, Test, Jeff Hardy, Steven Regal and Kane were circled around you, standing on your sides.
Triple H had his long blond hair hanging down, not with a ponytail in the back, Shawn Michaels didn't have his hair tied back in a ponytail, and Billy had his hair hanging down, not tied back in a ponytail or in little braids.
You were wearing nothing but a bra and thong and being filmed from behind, and as you were being filmed, you rolled your ass backward and arched it up a few times.
Your thong was buried and snug in between your ass cheeks, your pantyline covering your vulva.
Thankfully, you were shaved down there, not a single bit of pubic hair peeking out from your panty line or your panties, and you didn't have any bumps on your bikini line and thighs.
These aforementioned wrestlers around you were just staring at your ass rolling back, they all smiled from ear to ear, nearly salivating at your mouths.
These wrestlers surrounding you were cheering for you, Shawn even put his fingers into his mouth and wolf whistled at you.
Jerry Lawler sitting at the commentary table was going nuts, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head.
Grown men and underage boys in the audience are getting a massive kick over seeing you roll your ass to the camera, cheering for you and a few of them wolf whistling at you.
Triple H put his hand in one of his jean pockets and pulled out a dollar, where he slipped that dollar in between one of your thong straps.
Shawn, too, put his hand down the pocket of his slacks, where he pulled out a few dollar bills and his other hand stretched out one of your thong straps, putting that money at your hip, only to let go of your thong strap afterward, letting your thong hold that money.
Val and Billy really wish they could have some money to pull out and make it rain on you, though Billy wears those Mr. Ass shorts and Val is known for wearing a Speedo and a towel over it, neither of their outfits have pockets.
"Is that money!?" Jim Ross asked at the commentary table.
"Somebody better get her a pole!" Jerry Lawler exclaimed, his voice shrill as usual.
Indeed, you could use a stripper pole for this moment, but there sadly aren't any poles in the locker room.
You pulled yourself up from the bench, placing your feet on the bench and standing up on top of the bench, but after you got yourself up, you still continued dancing and shaking your ass.
Somebody come get her, she's dancin' like a stripper...
Some of these wrestlers surrounding you pretended to be shocked by when you assembled yourself up from the bench, their eyes bugging out and their mouths dropping open as well as walking a few steps back as if to act like they're shocked, only for them to smile after their mouths were agape.
Once you stood on top of the bench, you placed your hands on your knees and stuck your ass out, rolling your ass backwards and sometimes even shaking and bouncing your ass, basically twerking.
You smiled and your head was slightly turned looking at your rear whilst you rolled your ass backwards, hands on your knees, shakin' ass on your thot shit.
Triple H, Billy, Shawn, and Val were looking at you, smiling from ear to ear, especially Billy Gunn who placed one of his hands on your ass cheeks and squeezed it.
Hey, his nickname is Mr. Ass, that's why he did that.
You turned your body around and gyrated your ass and hips around in a circle, rolling your hips to the beat of the guitar riff of that Slam Jam song, and as you did that, you lifted your hands off of your knees and grabbed one of your bra straps, where you slid that bra strap down on of your arms, teasing the audience.
You looked at the camera filming in front of you with this "come hither" expression on your face.
Just as it looked like you were gonna take your bra off, the camera then cut to commercial.
Bah.
You wanted to do so much during this moment; besides spin around a stripper pole, you also wanted lie on your back on the bench with your legs spread up and shaking your ass, squat down on the bench and spread your legs out with your hands on your knees, but this moment was short.
Y'know, since you were roleplaying as a stripper and some wrestlers were pulling money out and sticking it in your G-string, you're surprised Vince McMahon, the CEO and boss of the WWF and pretty much the Ted Debiase Sr. of the Attitude era (and Ted DeBiase Sr. was known for playing a millionaire in the 80's and early 90's) wasn't in this segment pulling dollar bills out on you.
Though, Vince McMahon is a snake, even when the cameras aren't rolling.
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allykakamatsu · 2 years
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Hypothetical P5A
Okay, gonna make this clear right up front, I wanted to make this post for a while but the main reason I decided to do it now is because the Atlus announcement thing is almost here, and also cause I saw a video on this topic by Thorgi’s Arcade (go watch it btw it’s good) and while I agree with a lot of what he said, there’s also some things I’d change, not just cause I disagree, but also cause I think it would be fun. Anyway enough beating around the bush, let’s do this
Gameplay
I’m a firm believer in the phrase, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and the Arena games are already really good so not much to change. That being said, I still wanna change some things. First off though, we are keeping this 1 vs 1, no tag team matches. The arena games already have a lot of Mechanics going on and trying to keep everything as well as some new stuff WHILE adding a tag team button, yeah no let’s not outside of maybe a bonus mode.
This means I can’t add Batton Pass in as a new mechanic to represent P5, but I have a solution, that being Technicals. Status ailments already exist in this game, so how about when you inflict one and do a specific combo you do more damage, also providing risk vs reward as the player with the status will have a better idea of what the opponent will do making them more predictable. Also as for Persona’s, mostly everyone’s will be fully evolved, minus Yu cause him getting a final boss persona normally is a tad to OP, meanwhile the P5 characters will have their starting Persona’s, but they will evolve for big moves, like awakened mode supers and instant kills
I’m also borrowing Thorgi’s Arcade idea of having supports giving a slight buff in battle, like if you pick Fuuka your meter can build faster for a bit, meanwhile if you pick Futaba you’ll get an attack and defence buff. It’s the fairest way to include them without having to make them playable. I know Rise is already playable but this roster is going to have to be small as it is, and being a support doesn’t mean you can’t be DLC later.
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Also, we’re not bringing back the Shadow Characters, just, we are not dealing with the likes of Shadow Naoto again.
:readmore:
Story
I am about to cop out a bit here, but Thorgi’s Arcade video had a really good idea for the story so I’ll just link it here https://youtu.be/yyB5rEM9UVU
youtube
To summarise for people who don’t want to watch, Nyarlathotep, the main villain from the Persona 2 games, has been gaining strength from all the suffering humanity has gone through due to 3, 4 and 5, and has gained enough strength to create a new Joker to try finish what he started and destroy the world. Mitsuru might think the Phantom Thieves are behind it cause this is clearly persona related and the fact that the leader of the PT’s is also named Joker is public knowledge, Naoto gets largely the same idea, Katsuya and Maya decide to have their own investigation, meanwhile the Phantom Thieves are trying to prove their innocence and help save the world. Nice excuse to bring everyone together, but who will the everyone be?
Base Roster
Okay, I know the dream is getting everyone from Ultimax back plus the new P5 characters, but given Arc System’s standard for small base rosters, I’m not holding my breath. The ideal would be everyone plus who I’m about to say for P2 and P5, but I’m keeping it… somewhat realistic. Anyway onto the actual size, 16 seems fair enough. One more than the most recent Guilty Gear game for a series that had pretty big success so that sound fair enough. Let’s get the obvious out of the way though, all the base 8 Phantom Thieves besides Futaba are making the cut
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Okay so that’s obvious but how will they play? Starting off with Ren/Joker, Smash Bros already laid a great foundation with him being very fast on the ground and in the air plus being great at combos, so I see no reason to change that. Also no need for him to be a Jack of all trades either cause spoilers, Yu is coming back and he already fills that role.
As for the others, Ryuji I can see being a slugger charge hybrid. Basically starting out he hits pretty hard but is a bit on the slow side to compensate, but just like any good athlete, give him a chance to warm up, ie do a charge input, and he becomes a lot faster and has better combo potential. Or we could make him a toned down version of Little Mac where he’s great on the ground but he’s in trouble the second aerial combat is involved. Then there’s Morgana who with his ability to turn into cars and the fact he introduces thief tools like smoke bombs, I can see him being a faster but frailer successor to Teddie.
Then there’s Ann who, no doubt, she’s a Zoner, and with her fire she’ll be Yukiko’s sort of successor. However instead of healing, I’d implement the fact that she learns concentrate and have it so the more she charges it up, the stronger her attacks get, but the Meter will gradually go down over the match. Yusuke, as tempting as it is to cop out and say ‘have him play like Vergil in Marvel vs Capcom’, I have a different idea. Namely, take advantage of the fact that Yusuke can learn counter by having him be the defensive specialist, set up ice traps to freeze the opponent, and if they get close, he can either counter or go for some combos.
Then there’s Makoto who would definitely be a grappler. I mean, she practices Aikido and is really strong, she can 100% pull it off. Finally Haru…… TANK! I mean come on, Haru wields an axe, has a grenade launcher, and Melady is literally a dancing tank in a pink dress, it just makes too much sense. I’d also give her a bit of armor cause if she’s slow she at least needs a chance to get her attacks in.
Okay so that’s 7 out of our 16 slots down, and given that one slot will have to be saved for the Evil Joker who would be the villain, we’re halfway done with 3 games to go, lord help me.
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Okay, starting this off with P4, I’m gonna give them more than the others purely because they were the focus of the originals and there’s less realistic cuts I can make compared to 2 and 3. To make things simple, every returning character would play the same, and as for the ones I’d bring back for the base roster, we’ve got Yu, Yosuke, Chie and Naoto. Why them specifically? Well Yu is the main character, Naoto being a detective would basically mean she’d be the one getting everyone involved in the first place, Chie is currently training to be a cop as confirmed in P5 so her getting called in makes sense, and Yosuke is the best investigator after Yu and Naoto, he’s always up for a mystery and the second he learns Yu is involved he’s joining in. I just couldn’t cut him.
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Now before the really painful cuts, Persona 2 is really easy. Out of Innocent Sin party members, by the end of the series Maya is the only one left with a Persona, and Katsuya is not only older brother of Innocent Sin’s protag Tatsuya, but he’s also pretty important and a detective so he’s definetly the one Maya’s dragging into this. As for how they play, they both use guns like Naoto, but how I’d mix them up is with Katsuya, I’d let him attack while moving (unlike Naoto who has so stay still to fire) at the cost of less combo potential, meanwhile Maya dual wields her guns so she’ll probably play like Noel Vermillion from BlazBlue where she’d more or less just use the guns to get longer reach melee attacks instead of shooting.
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Now, for the hard part. There’s only 2 slots left, one of them basically has to go to Mitsuru (not that I’m complaining I’d probably add her anyway) meaning now I have to choose between the rest of the Shadow Operatives/SEES for the last slot. I narrowed it down to the 3 that were in the original Arena cause they’re the most plot relevant, but that still meant I had to choose between Akihiko and Aigis. I ended up deciding on Aigis though cause A, with Labrys not making the base roster someone has to represent the robots of the series, and B, with Akihiko currently pulling a Ryu by travelling to get stronger, it makes more sense that Aigis would be closer and easier for Mitsuru to call up. Honestly I was tempted to bump the roster up to 17 so I could have both of them on the base roster, but this is ArcSystems, 16 is already kinda pushing it.
DLC
Given that this is a modern fighting game, DLC is inevitable. However since this DLC will likely be like Ultimax where the story acts to wrap up loose ends and have a new story, it’s going yo be big, especially since there’s going to be a fight with Nyaraloptep, so go big or go home in this case. Okay so first order of business, anyone who was in the previous arena games who wasn’t in the base roster is getting added back in, it’s only fair. That out of the way, the new faces I’d add are Futaba actually being playable now and the big 4 P5 characters I skipped, Akechi, Yoshizawa, and Sophie. Before anyone asks though, Sophie was added into a Dragalia Lost collab with Koei Techmo not being credited so she’s likely Atlus’s copyright so she's safe to add.
With that out of the way, how would they play? Starting with Futaba, I’d think she’d be the resident puppet fighter, sitting on top of Necinomicon and only occasionally adding in some of her own attacks like a projectile. Also she'd also probably act as a bit of a grappler cause her Persona has tentacles (no hentai jokes please) which have long reach so that'll be perfect for it. Next up is Akechi who I can see as semi being two characters in one. My basic idea is that at first Akechi will be fighting with Robin Hood and he'll be a solid jack of all trades with a slight focus on rush down. However once he goes into his awakened mode he'll gain Loki, which will increase his speed and attack strength, at the cost of his defence, turning him into a glass cannon.
Next is Yoshizawa, or 'Sumi as I like to call her, and her thing will be she's the mobility focused fighter, namely constantly moving around the stage and poking at her opponent while doing it, at the cost of being frail. Finally there’s Sophie who would be a combo focused zoner, as in her standard projectiles (the yo-yo’s) wouldn’t hurt that much on their own, but she can string them together into the fancy yo-yo tricks to potentially do big damage. As for how much this DLC would cost, it’s going to be very big, so €25 to €30 sounds fair
I think that more or less covers my thoughts. I could keep going on about this for a while, but I think this is a good place to stop. Hope you like my idea!
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dappersheep · 3 years
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Food Fantasy: An Analysis on what killed a Golden Goose (1/3)
So first things first, disclaimers! I do not claim nor pretend to know every nook and cranny, ins and outs of the history of FooFan's conception, existence and uncertain future. I do not own the game nor its characters, only the opinions and thoughts stated hereon out.
This was born to vent out my frustrations with how a game like this was abused poorly by its own developer and publisher instead of being nurtured to become its full potential that could have overshadowed and remained better than the likes of Tencent's Tales of Food --I could dream, but it honestly had the potential to be.
Out of respect for the main tag, I personally will not be tagging this post and the following two with the main tag. If you want to tag it yourself with it, that's your choice. Only followers of my blog will see this.
This analysis is divided into three parts: Funtoy, Elex, and the Community. It starts under the cut. Well let's get started.
Funtoy
Ah yes, the creator. The developer. You'd think that with their sudden rise to fame during their global launch, they'd have used the massive profits they earned within the first quarter of 2018 to improve certain things about the game and then trickled it down as quickly as possible towards Global, right? Yeah, I thought so too.
After playing the game since launch, I've seen and experienced way too many things that just hammer in the fact that this is one of the most unfair gacha I've played in years. Some reasons being the following:
(Note: These are experiences ONLY on Global's version, it may also apply to CN being the original server)
⦁ The game's gacha model is aimed towards maximum predation on its players. F2p are forced to either spend some money (and thus tempt them to keep spending after getting a taste of it), or risk not even getting a good ascension of the unit to be useful at all. Paying for the event packs also doesn't guarantee that you would be able to secure a spot in the ranks. In fact, if you can't comprehend how the battle mechanics work, you could even de-rank. Fun way to burn that 800$, huh? At least you have the skin from rebates.
⦁ A little less known thing and probably theoretical at worst, the long joked about spaghetti coding of the game along with an outdated spine technology for the sprites could very well be the reason why a 2D game like this experiences the shittiest lags. Also how easy it is to hack this game with the right know-how.
⦁ Speaking of bad gameplay mechanics, did you know you could spend over fifty Mirrors and not get that final enhancement from +9 to +10 simply because there's absolutely no tangible safety net before +10?
⦁ If you're F2P, this game is terrible in giving you resources to stockpile. Because Funtoy certainly doesn't have a lot of weekly/monthly or even friendly events wherein you can get resources without spending another kind of resource. The Hawthorne event's rewards are lackluster at best, Bingo is severely limited in what it gives, and Recall also doesn't give much for a big event that only happens (supposedly) every 6 months. Did I also mention that daily resource rewards also kinda suck compared to how much you burn in just one event?
⦁ Monthly subs are a scam. Yes, you heard that right. My point of comparison here is Arknights. A monthly in AK allows you to have enough to 10-pull after 30 days, on top of a bit of stamina to help you. In FooFan? You have two monthly subs that do different things and even then, you won't have enough to 10-pull by the end of 30 days, nor is the stamina you get enough to even stockpile and ease the pressure of your need to save for the Gates or that stamina event that suddenly popped up.
⦁ A conga line of 'Must procure this unit at a high ascension to do well in the following events!'. You missed the first Pizza event? Missed the first Turkey event? God forbid, you weren't able to 5* your Beer on his debut? Well sorry, that 5* Black Tea of yours isn't gonna do squat to give you good damage. No, your 2* B-52 also isn't going to do much of anything with his lackluster damage capabilities. If you want a chance to get those event URs again, you have to wait for their pool with laughably limited pulls... and a bloated price to even pull.
⦁ The events starting after the first iteration of Turkey event get even more paywalled. As far as I remember, by the time Minestrone rolled around, an F2P with ample crystal resources can only get 2* at best. 3* and above are paywalled.
⦁ The game has incompetent balancing. The devs themselves likely have little experience in gameplay design and balancing, especially for a game with a growing roster of characters . A prime example of them launching a character not knowing it would pretty much unbalance the game? Look no further than Beer. The guy had to have a couple of nerfs done to him because he was just too meta. You know what's sadder? Before the 'switch' to Brave meta, almost all meta units was built to benefit off the Beer meta.
⦁ Artifacts. Do I even have to explain how the introduction of such a game feature so early into the lifespan of this game essentially fucked over the balance even more? Not to mention, all the more reason you'd be crying with the Gates of Trials demanding so much out of your stamina and crystal resources. F2Ps are again, the ones that suffer in this part. What's their reason? Profit, of course.
⦁ The nerf of resto chests. This was the primary source for people who were saving up stamina for the Gates... until Funtoy decided they were being too generous to their playerbase and dropped the stamina probability rate to 1% or less.
⦁ Terrible UI layout and design. Come on, be honest now, you've lost several thousand of your hard earned crystals buying screws in the fishing shop because you didn't notice that shiny warning in small text and a green button with the crystal image slapped on it, didn't you?
⦁ Look at all these SRs! All of them! Wow, they even outnumber the Rs by at least 80! What's that? There's more URs now too compared to Rs and Ms combined? That can't be real. But seriously, you'd think Funtoy could make some of these SRs into Rs and add them to the perm pool/shard fusion so people aren't stuck pulling Macaron or Dorayaki every time. They could have also populated the Team Up rewards with SRs instead of Rs. But you know... that won't bring them profit. Haha... haha.... Oh and I haven't even told you about the SP class...!
⦁ Lore. Yes, I'm sure by now you're aware that the in-game lore is different from the ones in the non-SP Food Soul bios, in the SP Food Soul bios that sort of ties in with the New World story (that global will never be getting btw). At this point, Funtoy handwaves the confusion away by saying, 'they're all different timelines'. Yes yes, an easy and cliche move to explain how shitty the writing direction went after a while. I don't know what happened, all I know is that lore got weird(er) when they introduced SP Rice.
⦁ They. Keep. Adding. More. Characters! They fail to see that a lot of their earlier players have imprinted on the first few waves of Food Souls and they sadly also fail to properly give some of them more story expansion... or skins. At the moment, they're shelling out so many JP-centric Food Souls because... as I see it? They're pandering to the last bastion of whales they have.
⦁ Merchandise. And I mean a variety of merchandise that isn't using the same official art every time. Like they couldn't afford to commission a couple of artists one or two times to make unique merchandise that would sell. They started too late on that train, and they even made it too hard for anyone not in CN or JP to even procure what already exists. Not to mention, they keep using the same 'popular' set of characters for their merchandise and never really expanding out to making merch for other characters.
These are all the things I can list off at the top of my head why Funtoy as a developer sucks ass. They could sweeten their words all they want, it won't change the fact that they've certainly made way too many bad decisions and found out about it too late, and now they're desperate to keep Food Fantasy alive to keep their profits coming in to make whatever that cat girl game they have and that supposedly 'side-game' FF2 they announced.
There may have been problems out of their control that I or you do not see, but one thing is for sure, they were blinded by greed for the money they were raking in on all their servers at the start, and never actually bothered to invest in more manpower in the right places to improve the game, both gameplay-wise and worldbuilding wise. It's actually saddening that this game could have been so much more with several QoLs and a more fleshed out lore, perhaps even spacing out the number of new units they keep introducing while going back to giving their old units more attention.
That's it for Funtoy. We're moving onto Elex in the next part and boy is that also a trip.
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northstarfan · 3 years
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Alpha Flight #42 - (Bill Mantlo and David Ross, January 1987)
So we get two terrible bits of writing this time around, one in full bloom and one just seeded.
Let’s start with the immediate bullshit, Heather’s response to Northstar after he manages to shake off Kara’s conditioning again. 
So, as I’ve noted before, most of the early indications we have of Northstar’s sexuality are varying degrees of snark and homophobia from his teammates. And that’s a whole lot of not great. But this one is really beyond the pale. Northstar was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by the person they’re debating letting onto the team, and Heather completely dismisses it as a joke. Not only that, she does so even as she acknowledges that it would have been worse for Northstar because Kara was a woman - an indication that she knows that the assault would potentially be more traumatic for him as a gay man. And she just doesn’t care.
That’s not just “quit the team” territory, that’s “quit the team and put your leader’s head through the wall on the way out”. Scenes like this are one more reason why I maintain that anyone who gives Northstar shit about his attitude toward Alpha Flight has never actually read Alpha Flight.
Then there’s the more infamous element - the cough that marks the start of the aborted storyline that was supposed to culminate in Northstar dying of AIDS. For the sake of redundancy, I’m not going to cover every panel that had Northstar sniffle, cough, and stagger his way to Alpha Flight #50, but since this is the issue where it first rears its head, I am going to give a general overview.
So this goes all the way back to Bill Mantlo taking over the title. Mantlo, who was on The Incredible Hulk at the time, was enthusiastic about taking over the book when John Byrne offered to swap titles. As Mantlo told Amazing Heroes: “I was bowled over [when Byrne called], because this was John’s creation and I’ve had nothing but admiration for the way he’s been handling it. So I said ‘My God, yes!’ And that’s how we decided to switch.” (Amazing Heroes #76, 1985). This enthusiasm also seemed to include a plan to out Northstar. As John Byrne put it in that same interview: “[Bill] is going to try and say the unsayable about Northstar in no uncertain terms; I wish him luck.” 
Outside of that particular point, however, Mantlo seemed to have little interest in the Beaubier twins and had no real direction for them outside of Aurora’s fluctuating powers. From AH #76: 
“So far the least interesting to me are Aurora and Northstar. John played them up the most, and really went heavily into their origins, but he made so many changes to them that it’s almost impossible for me to say what the norm is any more. I’m just giving them a chance to relax and recuperate while I concentrate on the others.” 
Ultimately, Mantlo’s plans to out Northstar were blocked by editorial, and he found writing Jean-Paul under the same limitations Byrne had dealt with to be quite frustrating:
“I always felt Northstar had possibilities if his background could be developed as a logical extension of his character. But I was prevented from doing that because of creative restrictions. Therefore, I had to look at the character as a viable superhero with the reality of his gayness kept largely in the dark. And as a character, his flying and running fast just didn’t make him and integral part of the team without his uniqueness - being gay.” (The Advocate #479, 1987)
 This lead to Mantlo’s decision to reveal Northstar as HIV+ and kill him off. From the same interview: 
“Northstar… could have been made to just vanish or even quit the team, but Mantlo wanted to be true to the character’s integrity. He decided, instead, that Northstar would die of AIDS. It seemed, [Mantlo] says, plausible given the fact that there had been allusions to numerous relationships during his years in the book. ‘It would give me the opportunity to deal with a frightening, sad, controversial topic in a comic book - which I had always understood Marvel was all about,’ he adds.”
Alpha Flight’s editor, Carl Potts, was not on board with this. From the same interview with The Advocate: “We had never openly declared that Northstar was gay. Now we had the only fairly popular Marvel character generally acknowledged as being gay and he was dying of AIDS. You shouldn’t equate one with the other.”
The two came to a compromise on the storyline, wherein Alpha Flight’s foe, Pestilence, would sicken Northstar by quickening the “corruption” in his body, with the disease remaining unnamed and the intent being that Northstar would never realize he had contracted HIV, even as his illness progressed.
Said Mantlo: “It was really AIDS in another guise, and there were still complaints about it being too similar.”
The storyline was ultimately resolved by Mantlo having Loki tell the Beaubier twins that their respective ailments (Jean-Paul’s wasting disease and Jeanne-Marie’s increasing mental instability) were the result of them being half-elves unsuited to life in the mortal realm. Jeanne-Marie used her powers to heal her brother, Jean-Paul got sent off to Asgard to live with the elves, and both were written out of the series for about two years worth of issues. (The twins were eventually brought back by other writers via the expedient explanation of Loki being a lying liar who lies.)
Mantlo was displeased with the compromised ending:
“It’s really a fallback position, since we were precluded from doing anything else… Quite honestly, I think it’s hypocritical and pointless, but that’s comics. You can’t do anything controversial, even if it has integrity, even if it’s honest, even if it’s an attempt to deal with a serious issue affecting thousands of people and likely to affect millions more.” (The Advocate #479, 1987)
Though there were apparently plans to revisit the twins at some point, Mantlo left Alpha Flight before this came about.
So, there’s a bit to unpack here, the biggest point being Mantlo’s reasoning behind trying to kill Northstar off. This was a writer who was plainly frustrated by the limitations being imposed on him, but, at the same time, he also sounds very much like he’d limited himself by reducing Northstar’s character to the sum of his sexuality. Aside from a brief aside in Marvel Fanfare #28, it seemed Northstar’s jam-packed past of childhood trauma, circus life, professional disgrace, and political terrorism held no interest for Mantlo as something that could be used to open the character to wider exploration, nor did even his own ideas for Northstar and Aurora’s otherworldly origins. No, if Northstar couldn’t be outed, he had to die. And if he couldn’t die, he still had to leave the book.
I’ve said before that I admire Mantlo’s integrity in not dropping the subtext related to Northstar’s sexuality, and I hold to that. As a writer, he could have saved himself a massive headache by simply making Northstar straight or immediately dropping him from the roster. So I do believe that Mantlo was in some part sincere in his desire to do something authentic and emotional with his planned storyline for Northstar; he’d stated that Jean-Paul’s sexuality was a unique quality in the comics landscape and seemed to want to make that an open part of the book by whatever means he could. There’s even a case to be made that, for better or for worse, linking Northstar to AIDS and the scrutiny that storyline brought made it that much more difficult to downplay the queer subtext surrounding the character, in turn making it easier for a later writer to make a case for making his homosexuality canon.
However, I have a real hard time scraping up much patience for a straight writer who decided that portraying a semi-closeted character was just too hard, when that very life experience would have been authentic to any number of queer readers, particularly in the middle of the AIDS crisis. I’ve even less patience with the apparent conclusion that the way to remedy that frustration was to kill Northstar instead of finding more subtle ways to advance the character, as Byrne had managed, or even just having him leave the team. The notion that it would have been out of character for Northstar to leave Alpha Flight is absolutely absurd; this is a character who only ever stayed with the team for the sake of his sister. All that would have been required for Jean-Paul to plausibly leave would have been for the writer to stop torturing Jeanne-Marie for an issue or two, or to have her take a bad enough turn that he took her off the team for her own safety and that of others.
Finally, I can’t say I have much faith that Mantlo would have been able to execute his plotline at all well, particularly given how little sympathy he seems to have had for Northstar as a character or how little interest he had in him beyond the controversy of his sexuality. Whatever Mantlo’s intent, it’s hard to believe that we’d have gotten any deathbed emotion that rang true to Northstar as a character or was particularly honest as commentary on society’s treatment of AIDS victims from the same writer who had Northstar’s teammates blow off sexual assault as delivery for a truly nasty homophobic joke and who thought a gay character possibly having had two romantic relationships in his life (I’m assuming this was in reference to Raymonde and Maurice) made him so promiscuous that it was plausible he’d have AIDS. And on top of that, regardless of other motivation, the decision to get rid of Northstar seems to have come as much from Mantlo’s frustration with his editors as any desire for meaningful character development. 
In conclusion, for whatever good I might be able to say about Mantlo, I’m not the least bit sorry that his plans were derailed. He seems to have been, at best, a writer with better intentions than capability when it came to the sensitive subject matter he’d decided to tackle, and it seems for the best that other writers were able to give Northstar the development he couldn’t.
Next Time: The Man You Were
Previous installments of the series can be found here and at AO3.
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danwhobrowses · 3 years
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AEW - Best and Worst Booking Decisions from Double or Nothing 2020 to 2021
As I promised back in my WWE Post Reviewing the Booking of Mania 35-36 it is time for me to run down AEW's booking over the last year.
Double or Nothing 2020 was AEW's first PPV of the Empty Arena Era, which they pulled off with the inaugural TNT champion being Cody'd, Brian Cage's debut and murder of Darby Allin, Hikaru Shida began her mammoth title reign, Moxley and Brodie Lee put on a fantastic show with their short build and we finished off with the wacky Stadium Stampede. But since then, it's had some ups and downs.
As I said with the WWE one, these are my opinions: some of which will act within hindsight rather than within the moment.
There will also be spoilers from the Dynamite after DoN 2020 to the end of DoN 2021, you have been warned
May 2020 Best - FTR They told us one day they would wrestle the Bucks and the world shall rejoice, and after several teases on BTE following The Revival's release from the E, FTR arrived and the division got even more stacked because of it.
Worst - Mike Tyson loses to his shirt AEW did try with Tyson, pushing for some shared history with Jericho as they began to stand off with one another. But his struggle to cleanly tear off his shirt really made the confrontation awkward and it wouldn't go anywhere.
Best - Baker becomes the Roll Model Baker's injury was a huge blow given how she was finally getting over thanks to her heel turn and bloody battle with Shida. It would've very easily killed her momentum to be off TV, but AEW instead played into Baker's injury by making her flaunt her heelish hilarity, starting with her being a wheelchair-riding 'roll model', this would begin Baker's time entertaining in spite of injury.
Worst - Allie and QT begin What was this huh? Now Allie in a red dress was a sight to behold but the whole romance angle where a very married Allie had a brief period as a babyface and pairing with the also very married QT Marshall. We all knew it was gonna lead to Butcher and Blade jumping the Natural Nightmares, but it really overstayed its welcome.
Best - The TNT Open Challenge We will get more on this but Cody's win of the TNT title was met with concern given the monster push of Lance Archer - not to mention the dismal design of the championship itself. But Cody did his best to add prestige via the weekly Open Challenge, which would showcase a lot of talent in a similar way to Cena's US title Open Challenge.
June 2020 Best - Brodie goes on the Recruitment Prowl Being the leader of the Dark Order, Mr. Brodie Lee needed a new direction after being felled by Jon Moxley. What he decided was to add to his ranks; bringing in Dark Standout Alan Angels, enticing Colt Cabana and extending a hand to Anna Jay. These choices bolstered the Dark Order's ranks to last much longer, especially with their segments in BTE showing all their comedic flair.
Worst - Sammy Guevara eats his words The Speaking Out movement affected AEW just as it did most of wrestling, leading to the release of Jimmy Havoc. But Sammy Guevara also got done in by his egregiously vulgar comments he made regarding his attraction WWE's Sasha Banks in an old interview that had now surfaced. While this isn't a booking decision per se, it was the fault of AEW to have not caught this on their background check. Sammy would rightfully be suspended with a full apology, seminars taken and a direct conversation with Banks herself to make amends.
Best - Red Velvet stirs in Red Velvet would debut on Dark in June, showcasing talent which would later be enhanced and explored later in the year, adding Red Velvet did indeed bolster the women's division a bit more, showing AEW's dedication towards building new stars was still alive.
Best - Wardlow vs Luchasaurus rocks the house Lumberjack matches are more miss than hit, but the long-awaited match between Wardlow and Luchasaurus was a sleeper hit for the month. Big time spots of athletic hosses slapping meat and flipping feet continued to showcase Wardlow's dominance with a big win over the Dino-man, just a good wrestling match worth the wait.
July 2020
Best - Open Challenge Opens Doors Cody's open challenges started with the AEW roster, but they soon expanded to being for indy talent and cross-promotional challengers too: Enter Eddie Kingston. The Mad King made an instant impact in his hardcore challenge against Cody, which quickly earned him a contract with the company. Also among the challengers was Ricky Starks - who would also get a contract - and Warhorse, who had rallied the fans into giving him a shot - and AEW did play into his popularity, having an answer for a lot of Cody's offense until he hurt his leg for the finish. It was smart booking even if Cody was bound to win.
Worst - Cardona's time is Radio Silence You gotta feel bad for Matt Cardona, he has all the makings to be a great star, but he just suffers from either company disinterest, injury or poor timing. The latter was the case for his AEW time, since AEW were having to deal with WWE's COVID outbreak by extension of any partners, Cardona only had a rare appearance backing up Cody a few times and while he did find himself in Impact, it's sadly not as green as the other side.
Best - Sue is Over The Best Friends as babyfaces walk the line perfectly of being a group of goofball man-children but also legitimate and talented wrestlers. The cherry on the top though was the Friends' entrance to Fyter Fest in Trent's mom Sue's mini-van for their tag title match, immediately getting Sue over with fans. Sue would also be a cult figure for BTE in her skits with the Dark Order, being the only person ever to make Brodie Lee break character and corpse.
Worst - Cody cannot elevate Hager Cody's defenses led to Hager (and his wife) looking for a title match, the sale of it being a more legitimate bout with the weigh in and packages didn't pull off in the match though, being quite slow and simplistic. Hager still remains a wrestler who lacks any more potential than what he has now but knows the right people.
Best - Taz promos around Mox's COVID absence Due to the aforementioned outbreak, AEW were forced to reschedule their main event when Renee Young had contracted the virus, exposing their world champion Jon Moxley by extension. This meant that Brian Cage would have to wait longer for their match (though not as long as UK fans are waiting for AEW to come overseas), so AEW decided to let Taz carry them over this predicament, which he did marvelously by reviving his FTW title and handing it to Cage. It added some extra heat and something for Cage to carry around as if he had won the personal victory over Moxley already, and it would lead us into the following week's rescheduled Main Event at Fight for the Fallen.
August 2020 Best - Brodie Destroys Cody After a lot of defenses and Cody getting the 'finished product' TNT title, fans wondered how Cody's defense against Mr. Brodie Lee would go. And boy did we get a spectacle, the Exalted One demolished Cody, Anna Jay then choked out Brandi as the rest of the Dark Order held the Nightmare Family at bay, and we were left with the visual of Brodie on top and Cody and Brandi at their feet, covered in the shredded remains of the old TNT title that Cody had reigned with. It was great storytelling and a great way to elevate Brodie as well as finally putting the Dark Order over, the stable rode the highest they had been since their debut while Cody disappeared to film for the Go Big Show.
Worst - Bea and Sadie get released, Mel stays AEW did their best to keep as many people they could during the Pandemic, but due to the travel restrictions Bea Priestley was very much land locked and Sadie Gibbs was not getting a second chance at her botched debut. It was a shame because of how talented both women were, Bea especially since rumor has it she might be en route to the E. What was baffling was that Mel, of the failed Nightmare Collective, remains on AEW's payroll despite not having appeared for over a year, hard to add that up.
Best - Thunder Rosa makes her challenge Before the Forbidden Door, NWA opened their doors to AEW while the pandemic prevented them from filming shows. With champion Hikaru Shida lacking a built-up challenger, fans were interested in Thunder Rosa's intrigue about Shida's challenge, and would be pleased to see AEW roll with it too. Rosa and Shida made for a great cross-promotional feud which'd lead to a great match in the following month. To this very day, Thunder Rosa's appearance on AEW is one of the brand's most vital steps in terms of strengthening their women's division.
Worst - The Deadly Draw is on Youtube Speaking of the Women's Division, AEW had also decided to have an all-women's tournament called the Deadly Draw. 'Random' tag teams would be forged in a tag tournament that'd give women some time to show their stuff. Unfortunately, this would mostly be on Youtube - save for the Finals - and be dominated by Fans' disdain that Allie and Brandi were making the finals. The method of picking was not handled well since we didn't really get any mismatch teams aside from Nyla, and the amount of women we got were not all spectacular with Rache Chanel and the former Cameron being a part of it. While Ivelisse and Diamante would win too they only got some crappy medals, all of which leaves a bitter taste following Ivelisse's release.
Best - Deadly Draw gives us Conti, Diamante and Savoy That being said, the Deadly Draw had its saving graces. For one the use of Veda Scott on commentary, Madusa as the host and Shaul Guerrero as the announcer were nice touches, we also got to see Tay Conti, Diamante, Ivelisse and Nicole Savoy wrestle - the middle two win. Conti would turn out to be the most important of the lot with her team and friendship with Dark Order's Anna Jay, getting over because of their chemistry and making it to the semi-finals.
Worst - Conti to Dark Order doesn't develop Conti and Anna's friendship meant that soon after, Jay had extended an offer for her friend to join the stable. For weeks we saw Conti carry around this invitation but then: nothing. Conti never joined Dark Order and this didn't beget any friction between the friends either - in the end it became a missed opportunity as Conti dances on the edge of being supported by the Dark Order but not a part of the Dark Order.
Best - Jericho and Cassidy Debate With Mike Tyson unable to appear more to feud with Jericho, AEW slotted over-as-fuck Orange Cassidy to face Jericho. While Jericho got the win in the first match, we were graced with a fun 'debate' hosted by Schiavone and with a guest appearance of Eric Bischoff. Cassidy's monologue during the debate was great too.
Worst - Cassidy's first win over Jericho isn't as big as it should be Unfortunately, when Cassidy did get the win over Jericho was not as good as the first, getting clunky at times with some miscommunication and slow pacing. They would have their rubber match in the gimmicky Mimosa Mayhem which would also be a bit of a mixed bag.
Best - Hardy and the Mad King Squad Up Despite solid starts, Private Party, Lucha Bros and Butcher & the Blade had struggled a little to find success in AEW, but they would gain some benefit by associating with Matt Hardy and Eddie Kingston. Hardy worked well as a mentor to the similar styled tag team to his younger years, while Kingston's evil grin to the camera did signal that Kingston's new squad would be up to no good.
Best - Moxley and Allin make another classic Allin and Moxley somehow just click, they click so well that you could put them in a match every week and people wouldn't complain, hell there's fanart of Moxley essentially adopting Allin in the same vein as Shota 'Shooter' Umino. Anyway, Allin vs Moxley is always fantastic, and it made sense for the feud that was growing.
Best - You're Out of the Elite! Hangman's slow burn storytelling has been sublime, and it was at a new height when FTR started sniffing around Hangman like lions around a wounded gazelle. Feeding into Hangman's alcoholism - established since his inability to beat Jericho or PAC in his hunt to be world champion - FTR exposed doubt within Page that the Bucks were ousting him out and would soon turn on him. All of which were mind games to sow discontent between him and Omega in their bid for the tag titles. The cherry on the top came with Hangman's removal from the Elite, after a stellar feud in Revolution being brought up, Hangman impulsively screwed out the Bucks from getting another title match, after a dressing down and being kicked out of the group we pan to a shot of Hangman staring into a mirror cracked - perfect storytelling.
Best - MJF campaigns against Moxley MJF had been undefeated and fans have wondered when rather than if he would get his shot. And when he set his eyes on Moxley it is spectacular. The faux presidential campaign was right up MJF's alley as he looked to write out Moxley's go-to finish of the Paradigm Shift, this also had great easter eggs like MJF emulating Samoa Joe's shove on him to one of his entourage, as well as his lawyer Sterling being a good addition for the feud.
September 2020 Best - Allin/Starks, Johnson/Carter are bangers September came out with some very impressive matches, for Dynamite it was the culmination of Allin and Starks' feuding but on Dark we got unsigned Lee Johnson and Ben Carter blow the roof off, immediately both names were a topic of scouting and it remains a top level match.
Worst - Billy Mitchell's cameo Early into Miro's debut we got some vignettes of 'The Best Man' enjoying his other past-time as a gamer. While this wasn't the right way to go in hindsight, the cameo of Billy Mitchell - a controversial figure in Arcade Gaming - was quite out of place for AEW as well, many having to look up who the dude was anyway and why many gamers were disgruntled about it. 'Celebrity' Cameos can only really work if you know who they are.
Best - Kingston stories a weird finish into a Title Match It would've been a Worst moment on this list when Eddie Kingston lost a battle royale for a title shot by being pushed off the turnbuckle despite leaving to the apron via the middle rope. However, when winner Archer came down with COVID, AEW was put in a reverse Fyter Fest scenario, a champion but no opponent. This allowed Kingston an in to use the fact that he never technically went over the top rope to barter a title match, which he used to impressive effect.
Worst - Sydal Slips The Shooting Star Press is a difficult move to pull off, and dangerous to botch. It had also been the staple of Matt Sydal, who was the Joker in the Casino Battle Royale of All Out, but when he did his Shooting Star he slipped and faceplanted. While it's not a booking decision it is a sore spot, Sydal has partly recovered as a full time worker and a mini-feud with Nakazawa to save face on the botch, but he has only once tried the move again.
Best - Will Hobbs impresses When Sydal botched and hit the floor though, Will Hobbs was the one you saw roll over inconspicuously to check he wasn't hurt. The youngster had already been impressing on AEW Dark on a regular basis and his appearance alone in the Battle Royale was an encouraging sign. Hobbs would also put on a strong performance in that match, which would lean in on being more utilized on Dynamite, his momentum would also carry to Double or Nothing with another strong run in a Battle Royale mostly pitted against Christian Cage.
Worst - The Matt Hardy incident Perhaps the lowest point of All Out was the Broken Rules Match. Hardy and Sydal had overshot their spear spot from a forklift to a table and Hardy hit his head hard. Hardy wobbled with signs of concussion as the match to and fro'd about being called off, Hardy though was having none of it - since the stipulation would have him retire had he lost - he would continue for a scaffolding spot for the finish but it did put a lot of heat on Guevara and AEW for allowing the match to continue. Matt would make a recovery and have a cinematic match with Sammy to finish the tainted feud, but from there BROKEN Matt Hardy was seldom seen.
Best - Deeb arrives Serena Deeb is one of the most technically gifted women on wrestling. Someone so grossly underutilized by WWE that it's baffling that the best thing they would do with her on the main roster is shave her head for the admittedly great Straight Edge Society but then release her for not keeping up kayfabe in her personal life. This was the month though that the current NWA Women's Champion debuted on AEW Dark and would later get signed, Deeb adds veteran experience and technical mastery to AEW's women's roster and she is a cert to be AEW Women's Champion someday.
Worst - Fans fight Tooth and Nail but Swole/Baker doesn't deliver Despite Britt Baker's rise to superstardom, her return feud with Big Swole became a bit of a mishit. The build was fine with Swole often getting the better of the wheelchair-bound Baker, so for Baker's return AEW had set a cinematic match in her dentist's office. The match was placed on the Buy-In, which pissed a lot of fans off and had them strong-arm Khan into putting it as the opener, and it didn't pay off. The match was par at best, ending with Baker losing as well, while the quickly-put-together match of Private Party vs Silver & Reynolds shone brightly on the Buy In in the spot this match should've taken. Listening to fans is of course good but AEW had the hindsight to judge whether the match was worth it in the eyes of the fans and they picked wrong.
Best - Parking Lot Brawl But for every par match AEW has they always sneak in a blinder, and it was Best Friends' 5-Star Parking Lot Brawl against Santana & Ortiz that pulled it off. With Orange Cassidy coming out of the boot of the car, Santana & Ortiz's Dead Presidents' appearance and Sue getting a brand new minivan and flipping off the Inner Circle duo at the end, the match was a fantastic closer for the night.
October 2020 Best - Brandon Cutler gets the W Brandon Cutler had AEW's longest losing streak, and they loved to ham it up, except Peter Avalon also had AEW's longest losing streak too. They had tried working together but couldn't find the common ground, so when Avalon turned on Cutler we were set for one of these men to get the win. After two no contests due to double count outs and double disqualifications, Cutler and Avalon had a no rules rubber match on Dark and it was great. Cutler got his win in probably AEW Dark's best feud storytelling - though it probably should've been on Dynamite or even the Buy In of the PPV - giving a payoff years in the making.
Worst - Nyla/Shida II is built on Dark Hikaru Shida had gone through the majority of the Women's Roster, so with new manager Vickie Guerrero, Nyla Rose wanted her title back. The problem however was that all of Vickie's calling out of Shida after a Nyla squash was on Dark, so the match was poorly built. You feel bad for Tony Khan because he tried this so more eyes would go on Dark but it was also a reminder that title matches should be built on the Main Show.
Best - MJF and Jericho get musical MJF had decided once again to try and get in with the Inner Circle, only this time he was faring better thanks to his chemistry with Chris Jericho. What we got was Le Dinner Debonair, a pompous, broadway-esque musical scene that fit the larger than life and delusional heel aura of both men's ego. While some people called it 'too goofy', it was also named one of the best TV moments of the year.
Worst - Miro feuds over an Arcade Machine Fans wanted one thing from Miro: the beast, but AEW did not lead with that. Instead they had him feud with Best Friends because they were thrown into an Arcade Machine he was playing. While it's not the level of feuding over shampoo, it was still rather dumb and contrived given how the rest of this weak feud was telegraphed leading up to Kip and Penelope's wedding - despite Miro's attempts to subvert Wrestling Wedding Tropes.
Best - Leyla legitimately impresses In October, 'Legit' Leyla Hirsch came out of nowhere and made the best of her moment. A non-title debut against champion Hikaru Shida on Dark proved an extremely entertaining affair as Hirsch got to showcase her physicality, and then that was followed instantly by a NWA Women's Title shot against Deeb on Dynamite - which she also really impressed in. While it took a while for AEW to announce Leyla as a signing, it was a definite plus to see Olympic qualities in the Women's Division.
Worst - Jericho can't get Luther over When Jericho got a whole Dynamite to celebrate 30 years in the business he had a lot on his plate, several cameos from Slash and Hiroshi Tanahashi made it a special moment but the Main Event didn't work. Luther is sadly another one of those Brutus Beefcake cases of knowing the right people, and while Luther could probably go when he was younger, currently he isn't the best. People wondered if Jericho could carry Luther in his match with Chaos Project but unfortunately it didn't land, Luther after all has his place on the undercard throwing Serpentico around, he doesn't need any more than that.
Best - The Cleaner shows signs of returning After an Anniversary Show meant that Moxley had gone through another opponent in his mammoth title reign, AEW had set up a tournament to name the new Number 1 Contender. At this time as well FTR had already dealt with Hangman and Omega but their post-match embrace was not reciprocated by Omega, who had more or less washed his hands with his partner. The two were in different places, Page had descended further into the bottom of a drink without any of his friends while Kenny had become focused upon being a singles competitor again. Metaphorically winking to the hard cam, Omega would enter in an over the top fashion with cheerleaders of the Jacksonville Jaguars dancing with brooms to hark the slow arrival of the Cleaner. His disgruntled face after squashing Sonny Kiss was also meme quality.
Worst - Brodie's Reign is cut short Brodie Lee's TNT title reign was great, it had put the Dark Order on top and his segments on BTE were extremely entertaining too. An emphatic return of the dark haired Cody Rhodes did invite a rematch which would be a more brutal affair than Cody's prior squashing, but sadly Brodie would not retain. His reign only lasted a month and in hindsight that would be the only time Brodie held gold, while he stated he had no regrets on how short his reign was it was not great booking to put it immediately back on Cody as if Brodie only held it because Cody had another show to record.
Best - Dog Collar Match was great Result notwithstanding though, the Dog Collar match proved as brutal as it was entertaining. Another match that elevated the TNT title's prestige, Lee and Cody tore into each other in a match that could've easily screamed Vince Russo late-WCW failure. But the men pulled it off with their raw talent and nobody looked bad out of it.
November 2020 Best - Kenny vs Hangman I Since AEW's inception, Hangman Page has been on a slow course to squaring off against Kenny Omega. This came to a head in the finals of the No.1 Contendership Tournament, the confident Kenny vs the angsty Page proved an effective opener which further spiralled Hangman into depression while Kenny would return to the top of the card.
Worst - Hornswoggle in a nappy? The Inner Circle's Vegas skit was probably too much, it had some good moments like Hager and Wardlow continually staring at each other as they beat up people in the club, also the appearance of an Elvis Impersonator and Konnan. But the bit finished on a weird note trying to homage The Hangover by having WWE's former Hornswoggle appear in a baby's nappy, it was just weird no ways around it.
Best - Cargill and Top Flight make an impression November saw the debuts of new members of the Women's and Tag Division. The Martin brothers impressed as the new vibrant and athletic tag team, putting on a wild show against The Bucks. Jade Cargill would start AEW by confronting Cody with the tease of one Shaquille O'Neal, but the moment the camera panned to Cargill she had one word printed on her and it was 'Star'. While Top Flight are halved by injury, Cargill has continued to show her growth.
Worst - Shida vs Abadon has a short build When Abadon debuted on AEW Dark she put on an impressive match with then-not-champion Hikaru Shida, the story being that Shida was weirded out by the Living Dead Girl. Since then, Abadon had been undefeated in her sporadic appearances - partly delayed by injury - so she was put on a course to reignite this storyline with Shida. However, they didn't get enough time, only a couple segments of Shida trying to prove herself not scared and an AEW Dark segment when Abadon jumped Shida and hit a Cemetery Drive on her. A decent match would follow, but we could've done a lot more.
Best - Hobbs turns to FTW Will Hobbs had grown more and more impressive with each appearance, put over as well in promo by Jon Moxley too gave him a lot of credit. During Darby's feud with Team Taz, Hobbs had often come to make the save to prevent Darby from being injured, however he did have a habit of arriving a little late. This proved to be intentional when Hobbs turned heel, aligning with Team Taz to learn under the ECW Legend. While Hobbs has yet to taste gold, he has of recent found himself elevated by the feud with Christian Cage and should Brian Cage move away from Team Taz, he would clearly be the top choice to take the FTW belt from him.
Worst - Cody Hogan's his title loss When it was time for Cody to drop the TNT belt again, fans would hope that it would be a similar case of Cody putting someone over red hot like he did Brodie. However, instead Darby defeated Cody with a series of roll ups which Cody kicked out in 3.1, a very Hogan vs Warrior title change with Cody also having to keep the spotlight on him by handing the belt to Darby before Darby's moment was further interrupted by Team Taz's attack.
Best - Darby has gold At the very least, Darby being crowned TNT champion after finally beating Cody was a perfect narrative for the talented and albeit batshit crazy masochist Emo Skater Boy. Darby's reign would also be consistently good and maintain Allin's star aura against opponents of all shapes and sizes.
Best - PAC is BAC Due to COVID, several of AEW's international talents were land-locked and unable to appear, but when the UK's borders loosened slightly The Bastard PAC made an emphatic return to reestablish Death Triangle. This had also come off the heels of Eddie Kingston trying to sway Penta away from his brother and kick Fénix out of his group. PAC's mini-feud with Kingston would remind the world that AEW had some world class talent to put in against Kenny Omega as well as reminding the world that PAC is just amazing as a wrestler.
Best - Bunkhouse match blows the roof off Dustin Rhodes seems to have carved an interesting spot for himself as the 'Obscure Gimmick Match Master'. Currently teasing a Bullrope match with Nick Comoroto, he shone brightly in the culmination of the long-winded QT/Allie storyline which lead to a Bunkhouse Match against the Butcher and the Blade. It had old school qualities with amazing spots that continued a long chain of AEW pulling off impressive gimmick matches even if the feud wasn't as impressive itself.
Best - Mox and Kingston, Feud of the Year 2020 You know what was an impressive feud though? Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston. Imagine winning feud of the year for something set up in September to November? And most of it was promo, but these were two of the best promo guys in the world, touching on their roots, their former friendship, the lengths either would go and all coming to a head in an I Quit Match. Kingston made you believe every word he said when he declared that he would never quit and he wouldn't stop until he was champion but come the match Moxley proved more resilient than words can be. Getting Feud of the Year is not bad going for what originally started as a one-off title match because Archer got COVID.
December 2020 Best - Brodie Lee Memorial Show Near the end of December the wrestling world was shocked by the death of Brodie Lee, the Exalted One was someone fans really wanted to see be a major world champion someday, but he had tragically succumbed to a Lung condition. At this time too AEW were promoting a 2-part special of New Year's Dash, but delayed the shows a week to put on a memorial show for Brodie. With matches picked by Brodie's eldest son, AEW did perhaps the perfect tribute show, with a perfect blend of clips and tributes paired with matches that honored the Big Rig. Brodie's influence was shown with Silver emulating Brodie's outfit, Eric Redbeard appearing, FTR renaming their Goodnight Express to the Big Rig, and the TNT title being handed to Brodie Lee Jr. - who became AEW's youngest signing - and a special t-shirt being the highest selling t-shirt of 2020, with proceeds going to Brodie's wife, Amanda. Brodie's influence still reigns in AEW as the Dark Order have become somewhat gatekeepers to the TNT title and the quote 'It's [day], and you know what that means' being frequently used or displayed via signs to start off an AEW show.
Worst - Ben Carter slips through their fingers Ben Carter had proven a sensational talent on his AEW showings, quickly having rose to having a match on Dynamite. However, AEW did not get his signature on the dotted line, and the E came a-callin'. The loss of the now-Nathan Frazer was a rough blow for AEW business since it showed that WWE could still outbid them if they wanted someone enough, and AEW made the mistake of not signing him before other companies started sniffing around.
Best - IT'S STIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING! The 'Winter is Coming' special had many big things happen, but one of the biggest of all was the return of Sting. Instantly Sting's T-Shirt sales broke records in AEW (until the Brodie shirt would break Sting's) as the WCW legend had made his return to TNT in a veil of snow staring down Darby Allin, nostalgia was high on this moment.
Worst - STIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING does nothing for a month But. There was a problem with Sting's arrival on AEW, he wasn't exactly spry in his 60s and AEW were cautious in wanting him to come back into the ring despite being classed as an active talent. AEW did miss a mark by promoting Sting to just do the same interview over and over, more than once in fact, you gotta do something with Sting to get the fans excited.
Best - Taz chokes out Cody While feuding with Darby, Cody became involved when he dropped the TNT title to Darby and got attacked by Team Taz all the same. When this led to a verbose conflict between Cody and Taz over the legitimacy of the FTW championship, Cody made the mistake of turning his back on Taz after diminishing his philosophy because Taz's son Hook was training under his factory rather than his father. Jake the Snake did warn him not to turn your back on someone you respect, but maybe he should've warned him to not turn your back on a Human Suplex Machine, because Taz immediately put him in the Tazmission - to a huge pop from fans - choking out the younger Rhodes to further personalize their feud.
Worst - Dynamite Diamond Ring doesn't change MJF had used the Dynamite Diamond Ring sporadically as a weapon to cheat in matches, but it anything it was a glorified brass knuckles that had limited prestige. When AEW had the chance to give it new prestige by having it fought over a year after MJF won it, they decided to simply keep it on MJF's pinky finger. As a result we had a battle royale and a match that kinda went nowhere narratively, and AEW should've really just made the ring a one-off or given it to someone else to signify a young up-and-coming talent getting a rub.
Best - The Acclaimed prove they're not all talk Not to be outdone by Top Flight, who they seem destined to have an eternal rivalry with, The Acclaimed put on an impressive showing in their title match with the Bucks too. Max Caster's diss tracks continue to slowly win fans over but this was the moment the Acclaimed turned into a mainstay of AEW's tag division.
Worst - TNT ask for no more surprises While reported months later, fans were alerted that after Sting's debut, TNT had asked AEW to not do any more surprises. Business-wise it made sense since they wanted to promote any big moments on the show for a greater viewership, but Wrestling-wise eliminating the shock factor would be a detriment to the business as a whole. AEW have managed to work their way around such things by promoting 'mystery entrants' or debuting surprise characters between other promoted segments but it is still a questionable decision by TNT to request such a thing.
Best - This is Bear Country Next on the 'XX impress on Dark, get signed up' is the tag team of Bear Country. Different to Top Flight's flippy talent and the Acclaimed's knack for mind games and more technical wrestling was two big hoss men running roughshot War Machine-style, there's not much else you need to sell with that, Bear Country was just good stuff and provided another style AEW's tag division could use.
January 2021 Best - Negative One With Brodie Lee Jr. now signed to AEW, he started to make appearances as Dark Order's new leader 'Negative One'. And instantly, Brodie Jr had become an excellent presence. With great understanding of the business for such a young age, Negative One would delight audiences on Dark and Elevation be it on commentary or simply being the feral prince that often accompanied Preston Vance, Anna Jay and/or Tay Conti. The kid was having the time of his life too.
Worst - TNT title doesn't get revamped enough With the original finished product of the TNT title handed to Brodie Jr, there was an opening to make a new TNT title which learned from the criticisms that the original had. Unfortunately we did not have this, we mostly just got a Black strap. Granted COVID would've been a part of that but given how long Darby's reign was, we could've put work towards giving us a better looking TNT championship.
Best - Dark Order turn face, help the Hangman On BTE Dark Order found their feet with their flair for comedy, one of the segments that began this was Evil Uno's selling of Brodie's throwing of papers, the bit originated from Lee discovering that Hangman had once reached out to the Dark Order website sometime at the beginning of his depression spiral. Because of the rejection, the Dark Order had fostered an animosity against Page with frequent 'Fuck Hangman' chants, and yet Hangman would sporadically appear in their hangout, starting his own 'Fuck Hangman' chant when kicked out of the Elite in a brutal show of Page's self-loathing. From there though the Dark Order had softened to the Anxious Millennial Cowboy and after a face turn they had grown to become AEW's most popular faction and a much-needed friend for Page. While Hangman wouldn't officially join the Dark Order, it definitely proved to be an entertaining chapter in Page's story from an unlikely source.
Worst - Team Taz will jump Darby, but not Sting During their feud, Team Taz were seen to jump Darby Allin whenever they could, didn't matter if he had Cody or Moxley on his side they would still try to get the upper hand on the TNT champion. But now that Sting has arrived, Team Taz decided to stop doing that. As much as it was AEW protecting Sting from bumps, it really diminished Team Taz as well because five men that included Ricky Starks, Powerhouse Hobbs and Brian Cage were scurrying away from a lone 60 year old with a baseball bat.
Best - Bullet Club in AEW Tama Tonga might refute it, but the appearance of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson in AEW was big, and their arrival to aid Kenny and then to two sweet him with the Bucks was an image definitely worthy of closing the night. From Gallows and Anderson's arrival to AEW led to Impact's doors being opened, which has recently led to Omega being the Belt Collector.
Worst - Callis' feud with the Bucks is gimmicky When Kenny won the AEW World Title at Winter is Coming, he had began a full on chaotic turn with Don Callis as his manager of sorts. The Young Bucks however were still firm babyfaces and were perturbed by Callis' actions that were ousting the Jackson brothers out of Kenny's social circles. Some bits were good, Callis really laying in thick the fact that he felt the Bucks had lost their edge, but the majority of it was a bit too much soap opera for my liking, the fake shiner was probably where it jumped the shark.
Best - Tay Conti shows her improvement against Deeb Tay Conti had grown a lot as a wrestler since her debut, and when set to challenge Serena Deeb for the NWA Women's Championship we had the story of 'Jack of All Trades vs Master of One'. Leaning more into her Judo and martial arts background, Tay Conti showed the wrestling world that she had arrived as a wrestler thanks to the AEW machine. WWE's loss had officially become AEW's gain as Tay Conti continues her rise to perhaps being one of the biggest female stars in the company.
Worst - Archer can't win a feud Having lost to Cody in May and then Moxley on the Anniversary episode, Archer was put in a no-win situation by feuding with Eddie Kingston. Now Kingston is great, but the problem was that both men desperately needed to win a feud for credibility, and Archer was the one who lost. Archer continues to be sold as a monster but also someone who will lose all his major feuds. Suffice to say, more can be done with the Murderhawk Monster.
Best - MJF sows seeds of discontent Having officially gotten in with the Inner Circle, MJF now had Chris Jericho's ear and he was ready to spread his poison. This started with the ousting of Sammy Guevara - Jericho's protege of sorts - before moving on to sowing tension between Jericho and Santana & Ortiz. This would be the beginnings of an excellent swerve by AEW, which we will get to later.
Worst - Santana and Ortiz aren't even the Inner Circle's tag team? Because of MJF's sowing though, we had a weird scenario where the Inner Circle were debating who was their official tag team? Debating between Jericho and MJF the singles competitors, Sammy and Hager the singles competitors or Santana & Ortiz the tag team. In this as well MJF and Jericho won, which was more sowing on MJF's part but it does still leave the worrying sense that AEW's tag division is perhaps too big as Tony Khan waits for the right moment to introduce a Trios title.
Best - Wardlow vs Hager was surprisingly good Another recurring narrative of MJF joining the Inner Circle was Jake Hager and Wardlow staring each other off whenever they could. In order to 'bury the hatchet', Hager challenged the War Dog to a match, and surprisingly this was Hager's best match in an AEW ring so far, big men slapping meat with the right conclusion of Wardlow winning.
Worst - The Waiting Room fades out While Britt Baker was injured but not Wheelchair bound she had started an interview show on Dark called 'The Waiting Room', it had a few flaws here and there but eventually it showed on Dynamite to decent effect. But after that it was gone, which is a shame because it could've easily been a longstanding segment for either of AEW's shows at the time to give some promo segments or interviews to AEW's talent.
Best - Private Party are leeched After working under the wing of 'Big Money' Matt Hardy, Private Party turned heel to compliment Hardy's newfound persona as the Company Leech. The heel turn has somewhat revitalized the once-promising tag team and proved they can play either side, it even got them an Impact Tag Title shot and an impressive match on the PPV.
Worst - Whatever Snoop Dogg was doing Snoop Dogg made an AEW appearance where he was insistent on doing a spot, but it didn't really work - much like it didn't really work when he tried it in WWE. Snoop as a guest wasn't the worst idea in the world and it is good that he's willing to bump on the show, but could does not always mean should.
Best - Jungle Boy and Dax put on a masterclass In the middle of FTR's midcard feud with Jurassic Express - the one that'd involve Marko Stunt being kidnapped - Dax Harwood and Jungle Boy crossed paths in an excellently technical match. The match received high praise that'd further put Jungle Boy over while also giving worthy praise for Harwood's wrestling ability.
Best - Jungle Boy gets some Baltimora While on the subject of Jungle Jack Perry, Tony Khan had decided that he had a library of songs he owned or could own and use as entrance themes for some of AEW's more earmarked talent. This would begin with Jungle Boy, who was given Baltimora's 'Tarzan Boy' per the suggestion of Joey Janela. Immediately Jungle Boy had something the fans could use to rally behind, a chantable song that embraced all that Jungle Boy's character was.
February 2021 Best - JD Drake makes an impression JD Drake does not look like AEW's typical wrestler, but that's the point. On his debut on Dark he surprised many with his great offense and agility, even able to pull off a moonsault. Quickly Drake was signed and becomes the odd one out but also the oft-ignored voice of common sense in the Wingmen faction of prettyboys. He's having a lot of fun with it too and has put on good matches, recently against Rocky Romero.
Worst - Women's Eliminator Tournament partly goes on Youtube The Women's Eliminator Tournament opened up the Women's Division in a big way, but COVID meant that not all of it could be filmed in Jacksonville. So like the Deadly Draw, the tournament had to spend some of its time on Youtube. Now I have no problem with Youtube being used, it's a wider medium that can be accessed at any time, but it did mimic the downsides of the Deadly Draw and alienate the TNT-only audience, especially since Dynamite rarely showed highlights of the tournament progress.
Best - Women's Eliminator Tournament exceeds expectations That is however, the only criticism with hindsight one can give the Eliminator Tournament. Because not only did it give us the return of Riho, Yuka Sakazaki, Ryo Mizunami, Emi Sakura and Aja Kong, but it also graced us with the talented debuts of Maki Itoh, VENY (aka Asuka, who also wore Hana Kimura's robe) and Mei Suruga. In addition Shida provided Japanese commentary for the Joshi matches sporting a strikingly beautiful white suit. The tournament did not have a bad match at all; with VENY vs Sakura, Suruga vs Sakazaki, Sakazaki vs Sakura (which had Sakura perform a fantastic entrance), Serena Deeb vs Riho, Leyla Hirsch vs Thunder Rosa, Riho vs Rosa, Baker vs Nyla, Conti vs Nyla and the finals were all great and unique matches. The non-tournament 6-woman joshi tag match was also excellent and so was the surprise winner of Ryo Mizunami and her title shot against Shida at Revolution.
Best - Moxley brings the IWGP US Championship Jon Moxley may've lost the AEW World Championship, he still had a title on hand he could use: the IWGP US Championship. While NJPW had intended to keep it mainly on NJPW Strong during COVID, New Japan also allowed Moxley to bring his title on rare occasions to AEW, later to the point where he could defend it. It was definite good business and the next thing is why it was such a big deal.
Best - THE FORBIDDEN DOOR OPENS! 'New Japan will not work with AEW' - that was what we were told in the early stages of AEW, but we held out hope. We got more hope when Harold Meij stepped down from NJPW but still the 'Forbidden Door' remained shut, all the way until Beach Break when a hooded figure came up to Jon Moxley, hit a GTS and revealed himself. KENTA, the holder of the IWGP US Championship Briefcase he won in the inaugural New Japan Cup USA tournament. The internet went wild, the forbidden door was open and there was no way fans will let it close again.
March 2021 Best - Sting debuts cinematically Team Taz's feud with Darby came to a head with a Tag Team Street Fight. It was Sting's first AEW match and fans were concerned on how many bumps he could take - memory of his 'career-ending' match with Rollins echoing in the mind. AEW though would not make that mistake, deciding to go cinematic to protect Sting and give him time to recover from any bumps caused - as well as win the match like one HHH refused to do - the match itself was fantastic with Team Taz and Darby fitting in a ton of extreme spots and Brian Cage just flexing all over the place.
Worst - Archer feuds(?) with Sting After said Street Fight though, Sting continued said momentum with: Interviews. Worse yet these interviews started being interrupted by Lance Archer, who wanted to take Sting's TV time from him. This amounted to nothing as well because after Sting put an endorsement on Archer, the Murderhawk Monster would decide not to fight for a spot and come in to save Sting and Darby from time to time. If we were gonna establish this alliance we could've done more with it, sadly AEW keep on following up Sting wrestling with a ton of Sting talking.
Best - The Pinnacle debut MJF's snaking in on the Inner Circle was paying off dividends, but after an unsuccessful challenge for the tag titles, the Inner Circle had announced a 'War Council' to discuss their future. It looked as though MJF was gonna completely oust out Jericho from his own group, but out came Sammy Guevara. Absent since leaving the group, Guevara had unraveled MJF, revealing that the Inner Circle was wise to MJF's plot all along: except they weren't. MJF had played 5 steps ahead of the Inner Circle, because he wasn't trying to steal his faction, he was setting up his own. FTR, Spears, Wardlow and MJF swarmed the Inner Circle for an epic debut which would be known as the Pinnacle.
Worst - Cody beats Penta despite a shoulder injury At this point fans were beginning to wonder how Cody Rhodes would write himself off of TV. His wife Brandi was halfway through pregnancy and the Rhodes had announced a Miz & Mrs-esque reality show too. So when Cody was kayfabing a shoulder injury and pitted against Penta El 0M, fans were hoping that this time Cody could not finagle his way into defeating a charismatic and popular member of the roster who could use the rub and has a history of kayfabe breaking arms, and yet he did. The feud set up ended up being a one-off that harmed Penta more than it did good, he had done the arm breaker but Cody just shrugged it off and won anyway. It was growing all too apparent that clean Cody losses will remain to be few and far between.
Best - Penta Says that Alex is a Great Hype Man There is one saving grace to the Penta/Cody mini feud though and it's that pseudo-Dark Order member, Spanish announcer and interviewer Alex Abrahantes had been paired with Penta as his translator/hype man. Sporting some Rollins-esque outfitting of gloves and jackets, Abrahantes added extra venom to his translations which of course gave Penta a lot more vibrance. Alex as well seems to be having a whale of a time doing so.
Worst - Team Taz Dissension starts, but will pause for 2 months In the aftermath of their Street Fight defeat, Cage had drawn the ire of his Team Taz comrades by showing Sting some respect. This led to some light tension between Cage and the rest of the team, especially Ricky Starks. While this could've worked towards a Cage face turn, the tension fizzled out, only reigniting recently.
Best - Jade, Velvet and Shaq impress at a Crossroads The special episode 'The Crossroads' had been set up to promote a mixed tag match which served as Jade Cargill and Shaq's AEW wrestling debut. Competing against Cody and Red Velvet, the match did put fan minds at ease by keeping Shaq's spots simple but classic, while Velvet and Cargill ran the show in the ring. Shaq took a table bump as well which was cool and the match started Jade's star-level momentum on a high.
Worst - Shaq just, disappears In the aftermath of the table spot Shaq was put on a stretcher and into an ambulance, but when we went backstage to get some comments from Shaq before being sent off we found that the ambulance was empty. A weird thing considering that in a few days Shaq would be back on TNT anyway like that had no continuity, it was a strange decision nonetheless.
Best - Exploding. Barbed Wire. Deathmatch! AEW and their penchant for gimmick matches is an interesting relationship, but the moment this match was announced it had garnered a lot of hype. I mean it's not every day you see an Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch, and Kenny and Mox had already tore into each other in Full Gear to the point where they legitimately broke state laws. The match was every bit as brutal as promised, homaging Onita many a time through Mox but also with the wired up baseball bat, 99% of the match was freaking awesome.
Worst - Fizzling. Barbed Wire. Deathmatch. Sadly, that 1% that wasn't would be the final visual of the PPV. Moxley is defeated and the whole ring is gonna blow, Kenny and co have scurried and Mox is handcuffed and KO'd in the middle of the ring. Disregarding the warnings of the Butcher, Blade and Bunny, Eddie Kingston rushes in to help his former friend, past enmity be damned, he cannot free Mox in time and in a narratively pivotal act of self-sacrifice drapes himself over Moxley to take the blow. And all we got was a fizzle, a few sparklers and fireworks would end the night unfulfilled, undoing all the good the match had delivered. It would be AEW's most unsatisfying moment caused by a botched ending that could never be undone.
Best - Mox and Kingston reunite to rule the promos Although they could not take back the botched finish, the storyline still allowed a new dynamic of Moxley and Kingston reuniting as chaotic street brothers eyeing up the Elite for a fight. One King of Promo would be enough but two was just fantastic, you could watch Kingston and Moxley bounce off of each other all day and still remain thoroughly entertained.
Worst - Kingston doesn't get a crack at Kenny It was however a shame that draping your body over your friend to protect him from an intended explosion was not enough to validate a feud between said person and the creator of the explosive device. Kingston looked all but set to try and avenge his friend by facing Kenny, but it would not turn out to be. The closest we got was a jump and a One Winged Angel, which is a shame because Kingston vs Kenny would've been fantastic - but alas, Mox and Kingston jumped over Kenny and just went for the tag teams instead.
Best - AEW support Cezar Bononi and his wife Cezar Bononi was doing fine as part of the Undercard faction of the Wingmen with Pretty Peter Avalon, Ryan Nemeth and JD Drake. Behind the curtain though Bononi's wife Camila was suffering from Leukemia and needed a Bone Marrow transplant, her sister was a match but she was in Brazil so they needed an emergency visa so to do the transplant on time. Thanks to the collective efforts of fans and the continued exposure AEW provided for Bononi, Camila's sister would make it in time and Camila herself got her transplant and seems to be doing well.
Worst - Big Money Matt loses his quarter, but it doesn't go anywhere In the conclusion of the chapter where Matt Hardy tried to leech his way into Hangman Page's profits, Hangman had defeated Hardy in a 'Big Money' match which meant that Page had won all of Hardy's money over the last quarter. This opened an avenue to see what Big Money Matt could be like with No Money, but it amounted to very little. In fact the worst we got from Matt was eating olives, a missed opportunity for sure, we could've even had Matt be hounded by loan sharks and debt collectors but alas, it didn't dent his money in the end, at the very least Hangman got his lawnmower.
Best - Elevation elevates Mizunami, Leyla and Limelight In March, AEW debuted a more canonized version of Dark called Elevation, which'd be used to show off a bit of the undercard and allow more opportunity to climb the rankings. In the first month of Elevation, we were graced with several good matches, usually including one of three Elevation Regulars. The Eliminator Tournament Winner Ryo Mizunami would go on a series of bouts with female talent such as Tesha Price and KiLynn King where she effortlessly fit into the role of AEW's women's division gatekeeper, meaning that whoever beat her would get a solid rub - and Abadon did. When Mizunami returned to Japan, one of the people she felled took over from her duties and that was Leyla Hirsch, Hirsch had teamed successfully with Mizunami a couple of times as well and has effectively used her spot to get some wins in. On the men's side, NJPW Strong regular Danny Limelight was given his namesake with some high profile matches including Jungle Boy, Frankie Kazarian and Dark Order's 10, not to mention Takeshita, Omega, Kingston and Moxley in later months, the Team Filthy member definitely taking the show's name to heart.
Best - Cassidy wonders where his mind is Not long after Jungle Boy had obtained Baltimora, plans had been made to give Orange Cassidy a new theme too. The pick was an inspired one with The Pixies' 'Where is My Mind?' - which many would be familiar with as the ending song to Fight Club - the song suited Cassidy really well, and after positive testing on Dark it was used for the next Dynamite to close off the night.
Best - Arcade Anarchy delivers in spite of a weak feud It should probably be a word of caution to not face the Best Friends in a gimmick match in AEW, because they hit a new gear whenever they do. The feud with Miro and Kip was poor, and fans were more than happy for it to end on the PPV when Miro got his win, but AEW insisted on one more match: Arcade Anarchy - agreed to by Kip. In spite of fears this match ruled: Trent's return with Sue was great, Kris Statlander's return was a huge surprise, it took all 3 Best Friends to keep Miro down and we finished the night with Where is My Mind playing us off. Despite the weak feud, AEW had finished strongly which made reheating Miro a lot easier.
Best - Tully Blanchard wrestles in 2021 The culmination of Jurassic Express vs FTR came in the Crossroads in a 6-Man tag match. Made extra bonkers because Tully Blanchard was FTR's third man in the match. They of course limited his spots and a Shawn Spears return would prove the difference, but it's an entertainingly ridiculous thing that Tully Blanchard both wrestled in 2021 and won: wrestling is just crazy.
Best - Final 4 of Casino Tag Royale put on a Show AEW have played around with the 'Casino' concept for a few stipulations; regular battle royale for men and women, ladder match, and then tag royale. This royale finished strongly though with the final 4; John Silver, Fénix, PAC and Jungle Boy. Four absolutely over stars brawling out in mini-matches that left fans salivating for more, after Silver and PAC were eliminated Fénix and JB put on an absolute treat of a finale, which ended with Fénix getting the win for Death Triangle to face the Bucks.
Best - Silver earns Sting's respect with a Dislocated Shoulder John Silver was voted by Dark Order to take Darby Allin's open challenge for the TNT title - offered because it was the anniversary of Brodie's debut. Silver vs Allin became a great match, made even more impressive since Silver dislocated his shoulder early in the match and kept going. While Silver couldn't bring the title home to the Dark Order, he got a show of respect from Sting - which in turn would lead to the Dark Order coming to Darby and Sting's aid at times.
Best - Maki Itoh breaks America Fans of TJPW or twitter's tdegifs were very familiar with the charismatic foul-mouthed hard-headed former idol Maki Itoh, and seeing her in the Women's Eliminator tournament paid dividends despite her first round elimination. Itoh's popularity skyrocketed, she had an It factor which pissed off Jim Cornette for extra adulation, and come Revolution's Buy-In, Maki Itoh had arrived in Jacksonville for one of the biggest pops of the night. Itoh proved charming and entertaining even though she was aligned with the heels, to the point where she even main evented the inaugural Elevation against Riho. Sadly Itoh would have to return to Japan and unsuccessfully challenge for Rika Tatsumi's TJPW Princess of Princess Championship (her tag partner/former longstanding rival/sauce boss/Pink Striker Miyu Yamashita would however win), have her twitter hacked and set up a new division of her faction 'Saitama Itoh Respect Army 2021' with Yuki Kamifuku and Marika Kobashi, but she had made her mark and then some, the world was a simp for Maki Itoh, and she allowed it because she needed the monies.
Best - Rosa/Baker break the ceiling Itoh vs Riho wasn't the only cross-promotional women's main event AEW gave us, because 2 days later on St. Patrick's Day Smash, Britt Baker and Thunder Rosa's unsanctioned match would deliver on one of the highest rated matches in modern women's wrestling. A bloody and fantastic affair instantly rose Baker and Rosa's stakes in a fitting end to their rivalry, but one that also didn't cost Baker any standing because it technically 'didn't count'. It remains to this day AEW's best match in the women's division.
April 2021 Best - Miro ditches Kip After months of hanging with Kip Sabian and Penelope Ford, Miro had become fed up with Superbad. The acceptance against his wishes to fight the Arcade Anarchy proved the last straw as Miro set his focus on capturing any and every title within his reach, with or without Kip. After a few weeks of not seeing Sabian, Miro attacked him, writing Sabian out of action with a legitimate wrist injury while Ford was dealing with an allergic reaction to her eyelashes, with Kip gone Miro could finally be who we were waiting for: at freaking last.
Worst - Interference finishes beget questions of Faction Bloat Although not as bad as WWE, many matches on AEW seemed to end one way or another with factions fighting one another, clean finish or not. This did of course grind on fans and cause questions to arise that perhaps there are too many factions in AEW, they have a point, though easily fixable without splitting any factions up.
Best - Bucks descend to heeldom Don Callis had been a thorn in the Bucks' side for a while, but his words had got in their head, they were indeed the most successful when they were cocky assholes. Although they did save Moxley from being swarmed one time, the six-man tag proved too much for them: they didn't want to see the feral Moxley take out their old and storied friend and so they chose Kenny over morality. No longer annoyed by Callis, the Bucks became absolute shiteating heels again, which benefits the climate of the tag division.
Best - Jade is elevated by being sought out While Jade Cargill would only sporadically appear for squashes, AEW have done well to slow burn her star power by having managers try to get her as a client. It's simple storytelling but effective, because people want Jade it means that Jade is desirable and that makes her more important as a talent.
Best - Baker DeManDs her title shot Because the Unsanctioned Match 'didn't count' Britt Baker had carried the acclaim of that match even in defeat. Baker had stopped dossing around too, legitimately rising up the ranks to the Number 1 spot like a looming shadow to have her crack at Shida's title. It could've been easy to give her a shot by virtue of her performance but AEW did it right - and gave Tay Conti her shot in the process - which made Baker much more valued in her title hunt.
Best - Cage upsets the Hangman At the Number 1 Spot, Hangman Page looked like he was on course to fight Kenny Omega, but when asked about this prospect Page dodged the subject entirely. The thought though would weigh on his mind in his match against Cage, where he was practically squashed in an upset fashion, it was a surprising plot twist and delays Page's clash with Kenny while also adds to Cage's reputation.
May 2021 Best - Varsity Blonds add some Hart The Varsity Blonds had done well considering that they started as being an undercard pair-up and grew into a talented young combo homaging Brian Pillman and Steve Austin's team of the Hollywood Blonds. But adding Nightmare Factory upstart Julia Hart just added the missing piece for the blonds, as a trio they look the part, and their rise feels earned as they put on a great showing against the Bucks.
Worst - QT loses to Cody after all that Cody's Ace Problem had transitioned to the point where QT Marshall was picked to turn on him next, collecting a small portion of the Nightmare Factory who felt that the students were secondary to Cody's ego. When it came to the exhibition Cody won by DQ, but got assaulted by the Factory, so when they had a proper match we had a choice: elevate this new faction or have their leader lose, guess which they chose? QT tapped out to the Figure Four and Cody prevailed.
Best - SCU put it on the line For several months, SCU had put a challenge on themselves that if they lost in tag competition (not singles or battle royales) they would split up. It had worked well because they were undefeated since, but being at the top of the rankings with a heel Young Bucks signalled the inevitable clash between the two teams. The question would be could the Bucks really end the team they welcomed to AEW on Day 1, their friends, the first World Tag Champions of their company, and the answer was yes. A bloodied affair of near falls and the Bucks hamming up any emotional bonds they once had led to a fantastic match that has put a tragic end to SCU.
Worst - SCU's embrace is cut short But immediately after that we cut to Mox and Eddie trashing their locker room. AEW would return to show SCU's final embrace but a 'previously on' is not as effective as seeing it when the wound is fresh, it was the end of a partnership that had spanned a decade, all the way back to Fortune, Bad Influence and then The Addiction, it deserved the time to linger.
Best - Blood and Guts! Last year it was planned that the Elite would face the Inner Circle in a WarGames-esque match called Blood and Guts. But COVID had prevented this, so we changed to Stadium Stampede. With the Inner Circle feuding with the newfly formed Pinnacle, AEW made the right call in bringing Blood and Guts back a year later to clash the two factions against one another. And it truly did live up to its names, a brutish match which cemented the Pinnacle as one of AEW's top factions.
Worst - Blood and Guts (nor Stadium Stampede II) doesn't finish the feud Big gimmick matches like these should be feud enders, but AEW wanted to put the two factions at odds again. With the threat of disbanding, the Inner Circle got a rematch for Double or Nothing for Stadium Stampede and while it wasn't bad fans did feel that the feud should've ended at Blood and Guts. In addition, Stadium Stampede wouldn't even finish their beef as they look to divide into 3 mini-feuds again.
Best - Miro crushes Darby Without Kip, Miro was a monster and he immediately went for gold. A perfect usurper for Darby Allin's TNT title reign, Miro destroyed the fearless and near-indestructible daredevil - who was protected from the squash because Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky had thrown him down some stairs last week - his look over to Sting as they both accepted that they were likely losing this match was a great moment between Miro's destructive force. And as TNT champion Miro is great, his thanking of God for various things are both charming and hilarious but he also manages to pair it with psychotic menace, long may the Best Man reign.
Worst - Cody's American Dream wins over Ogogo's valid points After submitting QT in his match, Cody's celebrations were cut off by Anthony Ogogo, the Olympic Bronze Medallist and former Boxer in QT's Factory, who KO'd Cody and covered him with the UK flag. A feud with Ogogo could've been the saving face moment for the Factory but instead Cody opted to zone in on the flag thing. Painting Ogogo as the 'Anti-American Foreign Heel' did not sit well for anyone who wasn't an uber-American 'Patriot' since the concept was heavily outdated, in addition Ogogo was making real valid points about why he disliked America: pointing out the gross flaws in the country's healthcare system and Cody would reply with how his pregnant wife and unborn daughter were black, choking up his words to garner sympathy. This all falls flat given how Ogogo is also black and never once implied that Cody was a racist. With the chance to put over the Factory with a charismatic young competitor, Cody instead decided to win without even using a finisher - because it was Memorial Day Weekend and America always wins, at this point the Factory remain pretty tainted now since Cody has beaten every member he's faced (and Dustin beat the other one). Saying things worked out on 'Focus Groups' didn't help Cody's defense as to why the feud went the way it did either, it was an outdated narrative with a result that all but screws over the Factory.
Best - The Forbidden Door opens again While none have risen the heights of KENTA's shocking arrival, the Forbidden Door did remain open for some more appearances from NJPW's personnel. Yuji Nagata made a big return to TNT to fight Moxley for the IWGP US Championship but also Ren Narita and Rocky Romero made appearances, the latter having a mini Roppongi Vice reunion with Trent. AEW had also extended the forbidden door to DDT with Konosuke Takeshita impressing on AEW's first house show and on Elevation, and recently a Joker Card appearance for Lio Rush.
Best - Shida gets recognized, and a revamped title After a year of holding the AEW Women's Championship Hikaru Shida had been the subject of criticism from neckbeards acting like she was the 'female Brock Lesnar'. Some were annoyed that Shida's title reign had lasted so long and were blind to the fact that this was clearly intended so Baker could win in front of a crowd. The Dynamite before Double or Nothing though AEW did right by recognizing Shida's work ethic and title reign and by presenting her with a new and larger Women's Championship. While people may complain that they could've unveiled this new title at the PPV I felt it was right to at least let Shida enter the PPV with this title considering how long she had held the Women's Division down. Some poor builds aside, Shida had carried the division with strong matches and worked behind the scenes as well for improving the division, as well as producing the Women's Eliminator Tournament. In this house we do not disrespect Hikaru Shida.
Best - Double or Nothing 2021 And we end on the crescendo, and what a crescendo. The full-time return of fans were graced with an excellently feel-good PPV - aside from Cody beating Ogogo - which had all the competitors perform at a high level. Starting hot, giving Jungle Boy a big unexpected win, Mark Henry debuting and topping it off with Stadium Stampede signed off a big and entertaining year for AEW and closing off with the returning crowd chanting Judas: masterful chef kiss level idea.
The aftermath of DoN while mentioned will probably not be touched on next year because damn were these posts long, but at the very least I did it for WWE and AEW as I said I would. Let's hope that both companies can rise to higher heights and avoid lower lows in the next year when we retread these ppvs again.
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popculturebuffet · 3 years
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The Legion of Super Heroes Reviews: The Legion of Substitute Heroes or Unsung Heroes
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Happy 29th Birthday to Me! Yes it’s my birthday which means it’s time for reflection, griping about getting older and cake. And after an exausting weekend of grappling with a growth, i’m not going to go into anymore detail, I can finally, relax celebrate and get back to reviewing. And since i’ts my big day, that means I decided to dedicate today’s reviews to things that mean a hell of a lot to me and in one way or another shaped me as a person. A self indulgant way to reflect on my past, look to the future and show y’all some stuff I really like. So with that out of the way let’s talk about the Legion of Super Heroes.. and their oddball sub team I love dearly. 
This is also my first chance to talk about DC Comics on my blog. I’m honestly shocked that in the year i’ve been reviewing stuff regularly, the other half of the big two superhero comic publishers hasn’t come up. While I do tend to lean towards marvel, in part because Marvel is simply better at collecting their stuff and putting it on sale more often, it’s still the home of some of my faviorite properties: Justice League International, The Green Lanterns (Minus Hal), Teen Titans, Wonder Woman, Oracle, Batgirl (All of them, particularly Steph and Cass), Young Justice, Supergirl, my personal boy The Martian Manhunter.. the list dosen’t go on by much but it indeed goes on. I”ve been reading dc comics since I was in middle school, and I haven’t stopped since and don’t intend to stop now and maybe in the next year I can get around to tackling some of their awesome cartoons and comics more eh? But yeah among these titans, including the actual titans, are the Legion, one of the most unique and awesome super team concepts in my humble opinon and , even for DC, one of the teams with the most tangled up histories. 
First created in the Silver Age by writer Otto Binder and Artist Al Plastino, The Legion of Superheroes is DC”s first successful teen superhero team, predating the titans by a few years, though I dearly love both wildly diffrent teams. The Legion is defined by their high concept: A thousand years into the future, three super teens from diffrent worlds who happened to be on the same ship with billionare RJ Brande, saved Brande from some goons hired by his crooked buisness partner. 
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And exposed him. Inspirired by their courage, heart and skill, Brande latter called the three together to form them into a super team, one inspiried by the legends of teen hero Superboy. 
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No not Conner though it was nice to get to show off my poster of him. While he was part of the second continuities legion, we’ll get to that, he’s not the superboy we’re looking for. He is damn great though and it’s good to have you back bud. 
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Not Jon either, though I do miss this kid’s pre-bendis version and he was the inspiration.. for another version of the legion. (SIGH). Try. AGAIN IMAGE SEARCH. 
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...... 
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No not the cool bad boy turned troubled good boy, not the child who was inexpciably aged up by that bald smeghead, and not the great idea turned into a editiorial mouthpiece. I”m talking about THIS superboy. 
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This is where the name came from: From the silver age till crisis on infinite earths, Clark Kent was active as a kid in smallville, and thus was Superboy, superman when he was a boy. He dealt with similar stories just with Lana replacing Lois, and Luthor as a ginger teenager. And it was these deeds as a teen hero on his own, one of the first honestly, that inspiried the legion and brande and forged the team. 
And it was naturally a super boy story where they were first introduced as the legion’s founders went back to recruit Superboy after putting him through some trials, and were intended as just one of many silver age one off concepts.. but caught on with the readers so much they were brought back, and had their ranks expanded and eventually not only added supergirl, yes the one your thinking of this time, to their ranks, and yes sometimes she and superboy were in the same place at the same time, Clark willingly had founding member and telepath Saturn Girl put a mental block in his head for any info he’s not supposed to know yet so it’s cool . But yeah not only that but they eventually became their own feature in Adventure Comics, where Superboy’s stories were published, but overtook him in popularity with time.  Over time a number of distinct aspects were established: The roster eventually got as large as 20 plus legionarres, almost all from diffrent worlds, and they eventually set up bilaws. Some are silly and dated such as “Legionarres marrying means they retire” which was eventually done away with in the 70′s, but others were simple logic: each member must have a unique power, no using weapons and such which rather than be super power snobbery is so said tech dosen’t fail and the legion later fully allowed Karate Kid, a martial artist, to join, no killing.. just common sense stuff that adds to it. And one of those is the centerpiece to today’s story, which we’ll get to in a moment.  Obviously given they’ve been around since 1958, there is a LOT more to the Legion’s history I will dig into at a later date: The short version is that Crisis on Infinite Earths, Dc’s first big reboot, fucked the team up badly by retconning superboy out of existance and dc editorial made it worse by shooting down EVERY solution the team came up with to fix the issue. So eventually things got so messy they nuked the whole thing during the event Zero Hour and rebooted fresh with Mark Waid taking the helm and updating the concept for the 90′s and being a more lighthearted, if still not without weight, comic in the sea of 90′s edge. Waid would reboot the team again due to sagging sales, a far weaker reason this time, with a more rebllion slant, the original team would be reinstated, and then ended for a while before recently being rebooted by Brian Micheal Bendis... who sadly is long past his creative prime from books like Ultimate Spider-man and alias and is instead stewing in his own toilet dinner these days and thus it’s not pretty.. well okay art wise i’ts VERY pretty, it’s just story wise it sucks dirty ass in thunder storms. There was also an awesome cartoon that sadly lasted only two seasons that I will DEFINTELY be digging into, especially since unlike x-men evolution, it’s not you know 50 some episodes and me biting off way more than I can chew but a slim 26 that still has fans to this day. I”ll get into ALL OF THIS, some ohter time hopefullly and I mostly outlined it since some of you might be familiar with another version or “Sigh” the reboot and this helps clear things up.  So yeah with all that out of the way we’re going back to the silver age and the first story I ever read of hte team, how I met them with “The Legion of Substitute Heroes” and a later subs story I genuinely love. I first read this story in one dc’s old expensive archives collections I got from the library. Oh how I miss the library. Your probably wondering who the legion of susbstite heroes are.. but since the first story covers that we can jump right in after the break!
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So we open with a teen in a parka uniform disembarking from a spaceship from another planet, which a passerby notes is just like the airplanes people used to ride from country to country. 
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But we meet our hero, Polar Boy, whose in a winter themed outfit and has come to try out. This is the tradition I was saving for now: The Legion Tryouts. Like a club or sports team would, but I like it because it makes sense: The Legion NEEDS to be as big as it is because while their headquartered on earth, their mission scope is anywhere in the united planets which spans GALAXIES. They could be called on any time and need their full force or need to have severa l members on a smaller mission and frequently having members away on a mission was cleverly used to reduce the cast to whoever was needed for the story. 
So it only makes sense to frequently look for new membbers to help strengthen their ranks... but given their teens and are recurting teens they need to be careful and need a logical way to reduce crowd flow. I mean you saw how many people used to line up for american idol before that died a justified death, people will do anything to be famous and they need to weed out those whose powers and skill just aren’t up to snuff yet, or those who are just dicks as, unsuprisingly, several stories have been built on assholes who applied and were rejected turning evil and attacking.. even though the Legion wasn’t even paticuarlly harsh. They also are more than fair as applicants CAN try again or if they prove themselves in other ways can be let in, as Bouncing Boy, my favoirite legionarre, was intially rejected for his power of .. well...
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Yeah.. on paper inflating like a ball and bouncing around is kind of silly. In practice he can ricochet off enemies, walls, and obstacles and is fairly durable in that state. It’s why I don’t really brook mocking the guys power: yes it’s goofy.. but say that again when he hands you his ass. It’s the same with matter eater lad who yes is an actual character: While being able to eat anything is gloriously goofy.. it means he can chew through ANY substance and digest ANYTHING. Hell in the cartoon episode intorducing the subs they used both of these guys to great efffect: Bouncing Boy, who in the cartoon had to try out multiple times in his backstory, encouraged the future subs while Matter Eater Lad got in by EATING A FUCKING BOMB. He also had shades which I dind’t know he was missing but now I do. My point is the process is fair and well thought out and leads to some really fun scenes. 
But yeah joining the legion is naturally Polar Boy’s dream, as he walks down the avenue of heroes, basically a series of statues honoring the legion and hopes all his hard work paid off. We then cut to the auditions, where he apparently waited all night. What I like about this story is that unusually for the silver age legion where it was mostly a sea of powers attached to a bunch of cardboard, really the dc silver age in a nutshell and why marvel broke out so much for having more dynamic and realistic characters, Polar Boy has more of a personality. It’s not MUCH but he’s a dedicated, hard working kid who just wants to join his heroes and seems really in awe of htem, a feeling we can all relate to. We’ve all had people we’ve looked up to, admired, and we’ve all had groups we wanted to join as kids, teens or what have you. And of course.. we all know what it’s like to be rejected by someone or something you badly wanted to be a part of.  And that’s what happens to poor polar boy, who comes from a world with an intense sun thus his people developed super cold powers.. but he can’t control them well so while their impressive, they also freeze the legion. HIs powers are good... but due to their strength and radius he’s also a liablility. They give him an consolation anti-gravity belt.. they had these before eventually compressing them into the much cooler flight rings.. which I still desperatly want one of. I have the flash’s costume ring and a green lantern corps ring, but still no legion ring. 
Naturally this devistates the poor boy and he wonders around dispondent till nightfall, convinced he’ll never be one of them. He soon meets Night Girl, a fellow reject with super strength given to her by her dad’s formula.. but only in darkness as she’s from a world without sunlight. She also faces a “hopeless future” but it’s then Polar Boy’s true strength reveals itself: he decides screw giving up on their dream and if they can’t be in the legion they’ll start their own Legion. 
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Though not to compete but to serve as a subtistute, in case the legion is ever incapacitated. So Night Girl gathers the other rejects the next morning. Cleverly one of them, Chlorophyll Kid was seen with Night Girl herslef at the tryouts behind Polar Boy. We soon learn about them and each of their origins: Stone Boy can turn himself into an immobile stone statue, as his world has half a year long nights and thus his people hybernate, Fire Lad who can spit hot fire literally and set anything combustable on fire and Chlorphyll Kid who can make plants grow rapidly. Each were rejected for resonable powers: Stone Boys powers too static, Fire Lad’s is too dangerous and Chorlpyl Kids toos pecific. But upon seeing all of this Polar Boy says they STILL have fantastic powers and still can help people and the legion. 
Thus the Legion of Substittue Heroes is born. And I love them as much as the originals. As a bit of a misfit myself I relate to these guys: They have strange specific powers, got rejected by the big team.. while that trope is nothing new at the time it was unique and even now it’s a nice and inspiring message. Instead of giving up they form their OWN team to do what htey can anyway. They might not be the best like the legion but they can still help and still do what’s right even if not on their scale. It’s a great concept and really makes them endearing. Again I have a thing for the underdogs but I still really like these guys. It’s why it annoys me they got kind of spat on with time: While I love Keith Giffen and Paul Levitz run on the legion, and feel it’s the best of that contnuinty it’s not without fault and the two basically spent a full issue mocking the team and split polar boy off from them before making their own subs with only ONE of the originals. It just felt.. disrspectful. And so far no continuity has used them again until the recent bendis run, which has them announced for the Future Slate special. It took BENDIS, who dosen’t get how to use the team properly and is up his own ass, to bring them back in a new continuity and I find that obnoxious. The subs are a great concept and deserve to be honored as such and as such are one of my favorite superhero teams. 
But their careers don’t start well as they doubt themslves, except for Polar Boy who boisters them along, and constnatly just end up going to missions the legion already has covered and when the legion go to fight some robot ships, they refuse the subs help.. which is fair though, as Brainy puts it they can’t risk putting untrained volunteers in harms way. Their about to just quit, in a really sad moment.. when CK, because I can’t spell cholophill and hate having to use spell check notices some odd seeds spread about.. and when he grows one a horrifying tree man shows up. They struggle with it till the setting son finishes it’s job, meaning Night Girl is at full power and whollops it and the subs spend the night destroying the seeds.  They  find out the next day the seeds came from the same planet as the robot ships, meaning the ships are a distraction for whoevers doing this and since they can’t just call earth, as the full force of the legion is needed with the robots and all it’d do is cause a panic, it’s down to them. Night Girl however is scared.. and I like that. It shows that while their regaining their confidence.. it’s sitll risky. Their a bunch of barely trained fanboys, and girl, going up against an alien invasion, with it down to them. They CAN save the world but it’s alright to be entirely terrified when your thrust into it this fast. 
They make their way to the planet, having built a ship earlier and lie low, finding out what’s going on: The plant men are fully intellegent, and grow themselves..though how they know to attack and go to the bathrom and what not out of the seed I don’t know but I assume it’s a genetic thing or they might be some form of hive mind. point is the seed plan is to grow troops all over the world via rockets for an invasion, and it’s a brilliant concept for one too. Aliens who simply GROW the troops right into battle, born with the knowledge to do so, and right where they can ambush them. It’s down to our heroes and Stone Boy, whose been the most pesemistic, valiantly dives in to provide a distraction so they can destroy the factory and the seeds. Turns out he is useful as the most the treeple have is a space lead pipe.. yes really. I love the silver age. But they’ll bring ray guns soon, so Stone BOy knows it’s a suicide mission and now our heroes have a timer. But luckily.. our heroes are stronger than they think. Night Girl punches a way in till Night passes, while Polar Boy and Flame Lad use their powers in concert to make an opneing.. but with time running out Polar Boy finishes things by having CK grow all the seeds now they have acess.. thus exploding the planets population, destroying several cities from the number of bodies, and thu discourguing the treeple from trying again. Stone boy is able to flee with the rest of our heroes and the day is saved. 
The heroes opt not to tell the public, as to take away glory for the Legion. It’s a noble gesture.. they do DESERVE credit, but they choose not to take it, preferring to let the legion get theres for stil lsaving the world from the robots. They stand firm, now confident they may someday make it to the big leagues.And it’s this that really makes me love them: Thier not the strongest or best, but they try anyway for the reasons a hero should: to help people, and not for the glory. THey remain unsung heroes and are fine with that.  Eventually the Legion WOULD find out about them, but naturally instead of being dickheads about it, fully accepted them, even offering them some contests for membership, but that’s a story for another day. THey’d remain stalwart allies and valuable backup in crisis situations for years to come until the bollocks outlined above. But they’d never leave my heart and thanks to them.. the legion never left either. 
Final Thoughts:  While I do love the story for it’s personal signifigance to me, It’s stilll a really good story for the time. A bit stilted as was the style, but still good, well paced and with an endaring cast of underdogs who prove themselves in the end. It’s something diffrent from the usual clean cut ahead in life wasps these stories usually followed at the time. While the team’s still all white and all that, their outcasts and misfits who just want to help and have trouble beliving in themselves. Their a good standard to live up to.. and a good inspiration for me and my constnatly self hating self doutbing self. And I hope you enjoyed htem too.  If you’d like to comission your own review, just dm me. It’s 5 bucks for individual issues. Later days. 
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aion-rsa · 3 years
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Mortal Kombat: 15 Most Powerful Characters
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At the end of the day, Mortal Kombat is about a bunch of characters beating the crap out of each other for supremacy. Sure, they toss in stories about tournaments to protect Earth and wars against invading realms, but it all boils down to martial artists brutally punching the hell out of each other until one explodes into a pile of viscera and five ribcages.
Being a fighting game, you expect all the fighters to be on the same level. Even forgettable losers like Hsu Hao and Kai should stand a chance against gods and otherworldly overlords. A nigh-invincible megalomaniac villain can lose to one of their bumbling underlings just as easily as they can lose to the game’s main hero. At least, that’s ideally how fighting games should be balanced.
Storywise, it’s different. Certain characters are straight-up in their own leagues compared to others. Does Jarek really stand a chance against Shinnok? Would Li Mei last five seconds against Blaze? Does Kobra have what it takes to take down Raiden? Not on paper, no.
So here’s a list of the top 15 most powerful characters in the Mortal Kombat series. With this list, there are two main rules:
1) I’m going with the characters at their most powerful, not how powerful they are most of the time.
2) I’m going with the canon storyline. Otherwise, the list would just be made up of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon endings. No DC Universe crossover stuff and no guest characters in general. Sorry, Spawn.
Now let’s see who has the most juice in all the realms.
15. GERAS
This guy is so frightening that his power is more of a curse than a blessing. Geras has near endless experience, having lived through countless timelines over and over again, and is skilled enough to fight off Liu Kang and Kung Lao at the same time. He is also be completely unkillable, as his mastery over time reversal will undo whatever wounds befall him. Granted, Shao Kahn beat him into a blob of red pulp and Geras hasn’t been heard from since, but I’m sure he’ll be back to his old self soon enough.
The rough truth regarding Geras is that being unkillable doesn’t mean he’s unstoppable. In the initial Mortal Kombat 11 timeline, Raiden knocked Geras into an endless ocean of blood in which where Geras was doomed to sink for eternity. Yeah, I’ll be fine over here with my mortality.
14. SINDEL
In the early days, Sindel didn’t seem so tough. She was just a plot device in desperate need of pants. Then Mortal Kombat 9 happened and we got that scene where Shao Kahn empowered her with Shang Tsung’s soul and set her loose. Suddenly, Sindel turned into an Edenian John Cena and cut through most of the heroes like a hot knife through butter. Sub-Zero, Jax, Smoke, Kabal, Stryker, Jade, and Kitana all died by her hand in mere moments while Nightwolf had to sacrifice himself to take her off the board.
This is why Shang Tsung aimed to resurrect her in Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath. Who else was going to help him get past Cetrion? And while Sindel did win one-on-one against Cetrion, the scene itself looked more like she stunned Cetrion enough for Fujin and Shang Tsung to capitalize and put her on the shelf. Had they not been there, I feel like Sindel would have eventually been overwhelmed. At least, that’s my interpretation.
13. CETRION
Cetrion is Mother Nature. That alone tells you what you need to know. Shinnok’s virtuous (yet still kind of evil) sister would be considered his equal if only she had a final form like him. Regardless, Cetrion is such a threat that Jax and Jacqui Briggs can only stand up to her for a limited time by wearing Kronika’s crown at a detriment to their own health. She also wiped out the rest of the Elder Gods, although that happened completely off-screen.
12. SHINNOK
Here we have Mortal Kombat’s version of Satan. Shao Kahn would later talk shit about Shinnok’s fighting skills, but he’s an Elder God and rules this reality’s version of Hell. He’s an absolute heavy hitter.
He also looks like a total dork when he’s in his base form, but thankfully his Corrupted Shinnok form makes up for that. Corrupted Shinnok is no joke, especially in Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, where you’re better off cheesing it back to Earthrealm than fighting him head-on.
11. RAIDEN
Raiden was the guy so jacked up that they had to make up a reason for why he couldn’t take part in the first couple games’ tournaments. He was just there to give advice and moral support. What else would you expect from a god among men? He also thwarted Shinnok back in the day to save Earthrealm, meaning he was already a major piece of work by the start of the first game.
Raiden’s apex form is triggered whenever he wields Shinnok’s amulet. It doesn’t make him unbeatable, but it does put an extra pep in his step. The drawback is that it turns his eyes red and he becomes a total dick. Still a step up from him constantly tripping over his own feet on his way to consult the Elder Gods.
10. CASSIE CAGE
Cassie’s is one of the most powerful Mortal Kombat characters but there’s an asterisk. Seemingly more competent and driven than her father, Cassie is so skilled at using her green glow to the point that she was able to defeat Corrupted Shinnok. That’s because the Cage bloodline was bred and trained for the sole purpose of creating mortals who could slay gods. Her DNA is like kryptonite to the likes of Shinnok.
She does have some other impressive wins, like taking down revenant versions of Sindel and Liu Kang. Her Mortal Kombat X ending (which isn’t explicitly canon, but I have no reason to think it isn’t) has her kill Shujinko. Many fans consider that to be a bit on the bullshit side, but this Shujinko would have been 20 years older than the one from the previous continuity and wouldn’t have been powered up by the events of Mortal Kombat: Deception, so it’s not a big stretch (or a big enough deal) that Cassie could take out a martial artist Mr. Burns.
9. QUAN CHI
This sorcerer doesn’t have the raw power of the other main villains, and he gets completely clowned in Mortal Kombat X, but he is smart and sneaky enough to get what he wants most of the time. While overshadowed by Onaga, you also can’t forget that in the conclusion of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Quan Chi and Shang Tsung took down a handful of Earthrealm’s strongest warriors, defeated Raiden, then turned on each other with Quan claiming ultimate victory.
Various endings show that while he is working under Shinnok, he has the means to overthrow him if need be. This is especially apparent in Mortal Kombat 9, where Quan Chi has the rights to use necromancy on all of those slain during Shao Kahn’s invasion. He has a whole army of revenants at his disposal, and there are some serious heavy hitters mixed in there.
8. ONAGA
The Dragon King’s introduction came with so much hype that you could almost hear the other characters soil themselves in unison when he stomped onto the scene. On his own, Onaga was a wrecking machine, but in Mortal Kombat: Deception, he had the Kamidogu pieces, which made him completely unstoppable. Unstoppable enough that he shrugged off attacks from the united forces of Raiden, Shang Tsung, and Quan Chi. Add to that his ability to resurrect the dead and mind-control them and you had the ultimate threat.
EXCEPT…those Kamidogu pieces weren’t exactly unbreakable. I don’t know how hard those things are supposed to be, but in-game they would shatter just by walking into them. Either way, Shujinko was able to shatter them all himself and that depleted Onaga’s power enough to to end him. Being a reptilian juggernaut means only so much when you have such an overt off switch.
7. SHUJINKO
The most gullible hero of the Mortal Kombat franchise spent his entire life questing and fighting for what ended up being Onaga’s resurrection. In return, Onaga blessed him with Taskmaster powers. Shujinko can copy fighting styles from other warriors and has been doing so for decades.
That ended up being Onaga’s undoing, as Shujinko absorbed the abilities and fighting skills of just about every playable character in Mortal Kombat: Deception. After shattering the Kamidogu artifacts and removing Onaga’s invulnerability, Shujinko had no problem thrashing him. While experience was his ultimate weapon, the only thing really weighing him down was his aging and human mortality.
6. BLAZE
Blaze, by design, is a top tier beast. He’s the final boss in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, a game that brings back every Mortal Kombat character in one massive roster. When guys like Onaga and Goro are playable and they’re working their way up to take on Blaze, it really says something about what this guy’s about. Not to mention he’s the catalyst for ultimate power, turning whoever can slay him into an enhanced, godly version of his or herself.
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Mortal Kombat: Sub-Zero and Scorpion’s Rivalry Explained
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While it seemed at first that new hero character Taven would be the one to end Blaze, Taven was instead slayed and the real winner was Shao Kahn. Unfortunately, this is where things get a little hairy because we don’t know if Kahn would have truly been able to defeat Blaze one-on-one or if, say, Taven wounded Blaze and Kahn took advantage. Either way, it looks like Blaze straight-up took the L and wasn’t the be-all/end-all after all.
5. SHAO KAHN
Shao Kahn has always been the go-to villain of Mortal Kombat, and as the recurring villain, he’s taken his lumps. He’s suffered defeats at the hands of Liu Kang, Raiden, and Kitana. When he took over Outworld, he killed Onaga by poisoning him because battle was too risky. So yes, Base Shao Kahn may be tougher than most, but he’s not invincible.
But then you have Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, which was Kahn’s real showcase. After dominating the free-for-all, Kahn was grabbed and taken away by Onaga. As foreboding as that would seem for Kahn, he not only bounded back from that, but he also ended up being the last man standing after slaying Blaze. That enhanced Shao Kahn’s strength even more and turned him into a multiversal threat, thwarted only because of Raiden’s desperate use of time travel.
4. KRONIKA
After years of telling us that Elder Gods were the ultimate beings, NetherRealm decided to reveal another tier of beings called Titans who rank even higher. So far we only know Kronika, the Keeper of Time, who is so overpowered that nearly everyone on the roster should have absolutely zero shot against her. She controls time like it’s nothing. Overcoming that isn’t like dodging a fireball.
Thankfully, Kronika has one major weakness: while she can rewrite history, she can’t omit the gods. She can’t create a world without Raiden. Raiden still can’t beat her one-on-one, but it’s through that loophole that Kronika ultimately meets her downfall.
2. LIU KANG (TIE)
The series’ initial protagonist was always fighting above his weight class. He spent the first four games taking down Goro, Shang Tsung, Shao Kahn, and Shinnok. His canon deaths came in the form of an ambush perpetrated by Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, and later an accidental frying from Raiden’s hand. In fact, he spent multiple continuities clashing with Raiden.
That was nothing compared to what he became at the end of Mortal Kombat 11. Two Liu Kangs from different parts of history merged together into one being, with Raiden handing over his godly power, giving us an incarnation of Liu Kang that was not only a god but had control over both electricity and fire. This was the upgrade needed to destroy Kronika and put Liu Kang in control of time itself.
2. SHANG TSUNG (TIE)
As it turned out, Fire God Liu Kang wasn’t equipped to wield Kronika’s magical hourglass for long without her crown, or else time would eventually collapse. Shang Tsung popped in to explain all this, making it clear that he was reality’s only choice. Liu Kang and Fujin realized that they had to give into Shang’s obvious trickery to save everyone.
By the end of his adventure, Shang Tsung had re-killed Kronika and wore her crown while empowered by the souls of Kronika, Raiden, Fujin, Shao Kahn, and Sindel.
Then Fire God Liu Kang popped in to take over. The two rivals faced off and the player was given the choice of which character they wanted to play as. As it is right now, we don’t know who won the epic battle in official canon, so consider Liu Kang and Shang Tsung to be tied until further notice.
1. THE ONE BEING
The most powerful being in Mortal Kombat is not playable in any of the games, nor has it appeared as a boss. In fact, the One Being is presumably too powerful to be portrayed in humanoid form at all. It’s the Galactus of the Mortal Kombat universe, though honestly even more threatening.
The One Being existed at the beginning of time, along with the Elder Gods, and initially fed off of them. The Elder Gods struck back and were able to break the One Being apart into the various realms. If the realms were to be merged back together, it would awaken the One Being once more and destroy all of existence. Despite their desire to be top dog, guys like Shao Kahn, Onaga, Shinnok, and Shang Tsung are unknowingly being influenced by this ominous force.
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tsukikoayanosuke · 4 years
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Letting Out All My Feelings About Leona's Extended Arc (The Rebel of the Wilderness and Break & Gosh)
I think I'm going to think hard and reflect on why Break & Gosh is way harder to write than Jonah Argentum's Declassified Boarding School Survival Guide.
I blame Leona for this.
(I'll be referring the canon plot as Heartslabyul Arc and Savanaclaw Arc while the fanfic adaptation as The Crimson Tyrant and The Rebel of the Wilderness)
Because this is long, I’ll be cutting it here.
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WHY FILLER ARC?
I guess we can start with why I write filler arc. In the beginning, it served as a bridge between two canon arcs and a way to even my chapter count so it can end at 5 and starts with 6, or end with 0 and start with 1. It actually helps me in editing.
The Crimson Tyrant has 20 episodes (the arc ended in chapter 35), so technically I don't need a filler Arc, but I need to write something to bridge it with The Rebel of the Wilderness, thus 5 episodes of JADBSSG was made.
The Rebel of the Wilderness has 22 episodes (ending in chapter 62), so I have to make 3 or 8 filler chapters to even everything out. That was the original plan. However, B&G ended up having 15 chapters. So, I could either add another 3 chapters or take away 2. Unfortunately, I can't. Which brings us to the next point. 
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THAT ONE OVERBLOT PROBLEM
I've complained many times how I dislike the pacing of The Rebel of the Wilderness and I have issues with Savanaclaw Arc, especially during the ending. I know some people think, especially after Scarabia Arc, that Ruggie should've been the one who overblotted. During the story, it was Ruggie who used magic the most, not Leona. But instead, it was Leona, who only used his magic once a time in the whole arc, who overblotted.
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Let's look at the other victim overusing their magic before their overblot:
Riddle: We've seen him using [Off With Your Head] a lot across three arcs (prologue, Heartslabyul, and Savanaclaw). We've seen him collared Grim, Ace, Deuce, and nearly all the entire students.
Azul: He made deals with more than 200 students in Octavinelle Arc alone, including MC themselves. And during his breakdown he overused his magic to steal all the student's power without his contract, implying that he extend his power even more.
Jamil: Counting how many times Kalim's mood swings went and how he hypnotized MC, Azul, and Scarabia students. While we don't see this much, but it's safe to say that Jamil overused his power too.
Can I also added that these three characters had been doing this for a long time, way before the canon story start?
As a bonus, let's look at Ruggie:
We were shown how the incidents happened, we knew how many victims, we saw the stampede, we saw Ruggie drank an amplifier to raised his magic. It's safe to say that Ruggie used his magic a lot.
Compare all four with Leona, who only uses his [King’s Roar] once in the whole arc. You can see how disappointed some fans are for the lack of magic usage.
You can argue that his power is a One Turn Kill type, but that would imply that he overused his magic in one turn. Leona, being one of the oldest students in the student roster, can't control his magic in one attack? Sounds unlikely.
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But, I remember I had a conversation with that negative emotion also causes overblot. And I agree with this. However, I added that negative emotion and overusing power go hand-in-hand.
Riddle anger at Ace's speech and protest of not following the rule. What happened after that was Riddle collating every Heartslabyul student.
Azul, who is frustrated when Leona ruined his contract, in a desperate measure, stole every power of the students there.
Jamil and his jealousy with Kalim and how kept holding back his true potential before breaking down and hypnotized everyone into his slave.
Leona had been frustrated with being compared to Farena and his failed plan to eliminate Diasomnia, leading him to unleash his unique magic for the first time.
Even Ruggie. He had the potential to fell into despair. Leona kept raising his hope that this Magishift might be his chance to go to the big league, only for that hope to be crushed when Leona gave up. If the creator wants, they could make Ruggie suddenly unleash his power and attacking everyone for being betrayed.
While, yes, I do feel Leona's negative emotions have stronger reasoning, but Ruggie also had a reason to fall into despair and had high usage of magic than Leona. He was the perfect candidate for overblot.
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Why am I explaining this thing that all of you probably had known? Because, during The Rebel of the Wilderness, I kept trying to slip in every little chance for Leona to use his unique magic. Which mean, The Rebel of the Wilderness has more battle scene than The Crimson Tyrant.
In the end, I managed to slip in [King's Roar] in four accidents:
The sudden sandstorm during the flight practice (not a battle scene)
Jonah vs Leona one-sided Magishift
The stampede
Pre-Overblot battle
This is still considered little compare to what Ruggie did offscreen, but this is enough for the reader to know at least Leona uses his magic before the big overblot battle.
I'm not done yet!
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EARN YOUR "HAPPY" ENDING
Once we're done with that overblot problem, we have to talk about the whole aftermath. Because this ending is the main reason we have pacing issues.
First, let's look at Heartslabyul Arc. After Riddle's overblot and Ace demanded a Revenge Unbirthday, Riddle was shown to be taken to the infirmary by Trey. A few days later, the Revenge Birthday Party happened.
See this? There's a small few days gap between the overblot incident and the finale for the kids to recover and to think about his action, even have time for Riddle making that salty tart.
Now let's see Savanaclaw Arc. After Leona overblot, Crowley wanted to disqualify Savanaclaw from the match, but the Victim Club requested to keep the team. The Magishift then happened, Yuu got hit with a disk, wine up in the infirmary, and met Cheka.
You see something? The ending of Savanaclaw Arc happened on the same day of the overblot sequence. Which means, these kids didn't get a chance to rest. Leona never had a chance to think about the action. Ruggie didn't get help for his scar from Leona's power. And overall you basically overworked these kids!
You can argue that these kids are tough, but are you also saying that it's okay for Ruggie, who was threatened to turn into sand, to not get help? For Leona to take a break after overbloting?
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Can I also add that Leona flashback felt so rushed? Let's see the others' overblot flashback:
Riddle's flashback has five scenes in between monologues (1-28):
His birthday
Him studying with his mother
Meeting Trey and Chenya
Little kids’ strawberry tart discussion
His mom got angry.
Azul's flashback has four scenes in between monologues (3-34):
Two bullying scenes
First meeting with Floyd and Jade
Azul revealing his unique magic for the first time.
Jamil has the most with six scenes and probably more if you count every Kalim’s appearance in there (4-36):
Jamil got scolded for denying Kalim's request
Jamil's parent telling him to purposely hold back
Kamil kept "winning" in a few scenes
Kalim being chosen as the Scarabia Prefect and Jamil discussing this with Crowley
Two scenes of Kalim trusting Jamil
As for Leona (2-27):
The servant talking behind his back
Leona and Farena's argument.
Two. Leona has two flashback scenes. Leona flashback has more "tell" than "show"! Not to mention, this flashback only happens half of the episode! The other half was the overblot aftermath when Crowley was about to disqualify Savanaclaw Team. Why are they holding back? Why they only give so little about Leona's childhood?
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THE REBEL OF THE WILDERNESS PACING ISSUE
Because of me trying to add more of Leona using the power and fixing the ending, The Rebel of the Wilderness experienced more changes in its structure. I kept on cutting chapter into two and adding battles in the middle of the plot, and, for those who read my adaptation, the ending of The Rebel of the Wilderness is completely different from Savanaclaw Arc. Compare to Savanaclaw Arc's happy ending, The Rebel of the Wilderness can be considered as a bad ending. Leona wasn't able to join in the Magishift because he was unconscious post-overblot, so he could only watch the match from TV/magic mirror. Ruggie, who was spared from disintegrating, lead the team but still lose. And this is the last time we see Jonah with both of his real hand. Also, instead of Cheka, Farena was the one who talked to Leona, and it ended up with both of them arguing. Overall, it was a downer ending.
Another reason why this was hard to adapt was that I kept messing around the scenes to make the plot flow better.
This is the order of event in Savanaclaw Arc:
Cafeteria incident with Ruggie stealing Grim's sandwich
Overblot + Magishift explanation
Prefect Meeting regarding Magishift + first incidents
The Ramshackle Ghost introducing to Grim on how to play Magishift
Crowley asking Grim and MC on investigating the incidents
Heartslabyul + Pomefiore interview
Visiting Trey + teaming up with Heartslbyul squad
Scouting Rook, the Leech twin, and Jack
Magishift mock battle versus Leona
Malleus' first introduction
Interviewing Jamil and Kalim
Ruggie chase
Teamed up with Jack
The stampede
Pre-overblot battle
Overblot battle + Leona's flashback
The Victim Club stopping Crowley from disqualifying Savanaclaw
Magishift battle
Cheka’s appearance in the infirmary
Grim eating more rock
Mickey’s appearance
And these are the exact scenes what happened in The Rebel of the Wilderness (also in JADBSSG and B&G):
Overblot + Magishift explanation (Chapter 36 & 39 of JADBSSG)
Prefect Meeting regarding Magishift + first incidents (the first chapter in The Rebel of the Wilderness)
Cafeteria incident with Ruggie stealing Grim's sandwich
Visiting Trey + teaming up with Heartslbyul squad
Crowley asking Grim and MC on investigating the incidents
Heartslabyul + Pomefiore interview
Scouting Rook, the Leech twin, and Jack
Magishift mock battle vs Leona
Malleus' first introduction
Interviewing Jamil and Kalim
Ruggie chase
Teamed up with Jack
The Victim Club stopping Crowley from disqualifying Savanaclaw
The stampede
Pre-overblot battle
Overblot battle + Leona's flashback
Cheka’s appearance in the infirmary (last chapter in The Rebel of the Wilderness)
Mickey’s appearance (Chapter 64 of B&G)
Grim eating more rock (Chapter 67 of B&G)
The Ramshackle Ghost introducing to Grim on how to play Magishift (CHapter 74 chapter of B&G)
Magishift battle (last chapter in B&G)
This also doesn't count the small changes in them, like how the Magishift mock battle happened or Farena's appearance.
However, with me changing these scene order, plus the built-up relationship in previous chapters, many reasoning that happened in this Arc change from canon:
Crowley's explanation about the overblot came way earlier than canon because I feel like this is a very important thing so he could delay from telling them. We don't know how long between Heartslabyul Arc and Savanaclaw Arc, but I assume it was weeks after the Heartslabyul Finale. What's the delay Crowley
Instead of hearing this from Crowley, Jonah hears about the Magishift from Riddle to further their relationship post-oveblot. Not only that, here Jonah was invited to the Prefect Meeting unlike in the canon.
Speaking of Prefect Meeting, I have two instead of one. The first one to establish Jonah equal position as Prefect with the others and to set up of Azul being the Magishift head committee, while the second went just like canon but with Jonah/MC attending that.
In Savanaclaw Arc, Crowley asked the MC to investigate. MC and Grim interviewed the Heartslabyul and Pomefiore victims first before hearing that Trey got injured and teamed up with the Heartslabyul squad. However, in the fanfic adaptation, Jonah and Grim heard about Trey's fall first then meeting Crowley about the investigation along with Riddle. By switching these, it felt like Riddle was the one having the idea to do the investigation instead if Crowley thrusting the responsibility to MC. I just want to show how Riddle had grown into a more caring good friend since he's taking the matter more personally as Trey's childhood friend first before his prefect responsibilities.
Not technically a change in scene orders, but because Jonah has a closer relationship to the Octavinelle Trio rather than the MC, the way the trio acts here were different from canon. Most notably, was the Azul declined to help Leona, forcing Leona to use his Unique Magic to caused confusion in the parade and letting Ruggie control fewer people without an amplifier.
The appearance of the Victim Club to Crowley happened off-screen but presented in a flashback instead of at the end of the Overblot battle because you know how much changes happen beyond that.
Both the Magishift practice and the actual match happens in the filler Arc instead of in the main arc, mostly because I want this to happen when everything is more stable between Leona and Jonah.
So many reasoning, but all of them are connected to Break & Gosh
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WHEN YOU REALIZED YOUR FILLER ARC IS NOT TECHNICALLY A FILLER
According to TV Trope (my source of knowledge), filler episodes are entries in a generally continuous serial that are unrelated to the main plot, don't significantly alter the relations between the characters, and generally serve only to take up space. This could be considered Padding (the addition of scenes to lengthen a story) applied to a whole franchise by creating a brand new episode.
I call JADBSSG and B&G as 'filler arc' is because it's original from me to fill the time gap between the main arc for a reasonable pace. However, I also realized that nearly all of my filler episodes have some purpose for the plot with important plot points that it's impossible to take them out.
This includes:
Overblot explanation (36)
Magishift explanation (39)
Monstro Lounge's 'Sunday Supreme' program (40)
Jonah's new arm (63-64)
Jonah's inability to drink potions (63)
Jonah's birthday (70)
An explanation for Ruggie's loyalty (65)
Leona's therapy (72-73)
Leona's past (72-73)
Ruggie's past (65, 73)
Magic System explanation (75)
Magishift gameplay (74)
Hints about whatever Crowley had been doing with the overblot news (65, 66, 74)
Ramshackle lore (74)
Disney movies dreams (64, 66)
Not only that, some filler episode Mark's the first time characters ever interact with each other:
Jonah and Epel (38)
The Board Game Club (37, 69, 70)
Ace-Deuce and Silver-Lilia (63)
Lilia with the Golden Trio (63, 67)
Heartslabyul and Octavinelle (75, 76)
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However, this is even harder during B&G rather than JADBSSG and not only because B&G is trice the length of JADBSSG.
In JADBSSG, while it may be just a collection of one-shots, but there are some chapters that are connected with each other, which are 37, 39, and 40. Meanwhile, chapter 36 and 38 can stand on their own. So, I can actually change those two chapters in whatever order I can or even slip it in between the three-chapters, but I can't rearrange those three main.
However, you can't do this with B&G. You can't take away a chapter in B&G without making it awkward in the flow. Each chapter in B&G is connected in that certain order. You can't have Leona's Therapy (72-73) at the beginning of the Arc, because we need to address the Overblot aftermath damage (63-66) The Halloween chapters (67-71) can't happen after the Magishift Rematch (74-77), because we need Jonah and Leona to mend their relationship first in the therapy. You see, what I mean?
Heck, I can even consider B&G is part of The Rebel of the Wilderness because we haven't got that therapy and Magishift match until the end of the filler arc.
But in the end, I can't delete both filler arc because both of them have important plot points that will affect the main arc.
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END OF RAMBLING
Writing Break & Gosh was an experience. It was my first time writing sports scenes, but you can also call this the first time writing a full-fledge Arc. I'm still salty about my update schedule and how I kept changing the arc length, but it was certainly something. And despite all my rambling and nitpicking, I still like Break & Gosh.
The next filler arc is probably more lighthearted than Break & Gosh, probably in the same tone as Jonah Argentum's Declassified Boarding School Survival Guide, since it will be a Christmas special but also mark the point where I fully diverge in canon (related to Scarabia Arc, Happy Beans Day, and Fairy Gala). The Merchant of the Deep Sea will be the last time I'll follow canon in terms of the timeline.
I also want to say thank you to all who still sticking around after that mess of an arc. I tried my best to give Leona the therapy he deserved, but I'm still not sure whether I succeed or not. I'll let you decide whether this is a good arc or not.
Also while you at it, with filler arc you like better? Jonah Argentum's Declassified Boarding School Survival Guide or Break & Gosh? And which episode from the arc you like the best?
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rainbowwing251 · 3 years
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Yo! How’ve you been? If it ain’t too much trouble, could you spare some headcanons for Pit, Dark Pit, and Palutena?
I’m hanging in there! I got frustrated with two of my current college classes yesterday, but other than that, I’ve been doing well!
I really need to watch Chuggaaconroy’s LP of Kid Icarus: Uprising... Or better yet, I should get the game and play it myself.
But at the same time, I think these three have personalities that are relatively easy to figure out and understand. Nonetheless, I did some research, just to make sure that these headcanons were as accurate to the characters as possible.
Just in case this is necessary, there may be spoilers for Kid Icarus: Uprising. I’m not sure if anything that I have written here is a blatant spoiler, but I will still be cautious about that.
My posts have probably hinted at this, but in case they didn’t, I think that Pit would be a lee. In fact, he is the second biggest lee in the entire Smash roster. Or at least, that’s what I like to think.
Pit gets into lee moods quite often, so much so that if he doesn’t experience a lee mood at any point in a single day, people will either think that he had a ler mood instead, or that something made him upset.
On some occasions, the above theories are true. Pit has lee moods quite often, but that doesn’t mean that he will always be in one. Sometimes, he’s just not in the mood. Other times, he is genuinely upset about something, and it kills his lee mood. And on some occasions, his lee mood will be replaced by a ler mood. This is a rare occurrence in his world, but it is a bit more common in Smash.
After the incident with the Ring of Chaos, the Chaos Kin, and the scorching of his wings, Pit nearly lost his lee side due to trauma. However, it would gradually recover until it finally came back in full force after an approximate time period of two years. This time period was the time that took place between the ending of Kid Icarus: Uprising, and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.
He used to be the biggest lee in the entire Smash roster back in the Brawl days, but he lost this title to Shulk when he got invited to Smash, though Pit didn’t know about this until a few months had passed after the events of World of Light.
Was he mad about this? Absolutely not! He didn’t have a fellow lee until Shulk told him about his lee moods, so he’s very happy to have a friend who understands his feelings about tickling!
His worst spots are his feet, underarms, and wings. While all three of these spots are equally as ticklish as the other two, his wings tend to be even more sensitive than his feet or underarms. However, this is only the case if you target the base of his wings. Why? Because this spot isn’t just a worst spot, it is a death spot.
PIt is a squirmer, and he will constantly wiggle around while he laughs his head off. He’ll flap his wings, too, so be sure to watch out for that while you are tickling him, because he might hit you in the face by accident. If that happens, he will be very upset with himself for hurting you.
The best way to avoid being hit in the face by Pit’s wings is to pin him down on his back. That way, he won’t be able to flap them very well, and this will decrease your chances of being hit in the face. This does not guarantee that he won’t hit you in the face accidentally, though, so remain cautious.
While you’re tickling him, you might notice that despite all of the squirming, Pit will try to resist fighting back against you. Why is that? Well, it’s simple really: he loves being tickled! It brings happiness to both him and his ler, so he doesn’t want it stop!
Of course, there are a few situations in which he will have to ask for the tickling to stop, but this isn’t a common occurrence.
He tends to wander around the Smash Colosseum and tickle people as they walk by. Sure, that might result in him being tickled to death, but he thinks that it’s worth it.
Almost all of the story-relevant characters of Kid Icarus: Uprising target Pit, but out of all of them, Palutena, Dark Pit, Viridi, and Phosphora will target him far more often than any of the other characters. Dark Pit and Palutena will continue to target him once they get into Smash, but on rare occasions, Cloud and Shulk will target him too. If they do decide to go after him, they’ll either target him separately, or tag team him. No matter who the ler is, Pit is fucked. But does that matter to him? No!
As a ler, Pit is very playful! He’ll sometimes get in the mood to sneak up on another member of the Smash roster and pounce on them, before tickling them to pieces.
Pit tends to tickle his lees in whatever way he pleases. He doesn’t come up with a plan for any of his lees. However, he will take advantage of a person’s weakness towards a specific type of teasing (which I will get to in a second), or feathers.
He tends to tease his lees by using baby talk. Dark Pit is the primary target of this type of teasing, since he knows that he hates it. If Dark Pit isn’t around, he’ll use this type of teasing on Shulk instead, since he is very weak to it.
As I implied a few sentences ago, Pit likes to use the feathers from his wings as a tickle tool. Unfortunately for him, he is also weak to feathers, so if you want to turn the tables on him while he’s tickling you with a feather, try to take the feather from him and use it against him.
When it comes to Pit being a ler, his only has one problem: he can’t remain that way for long. He is far too ticklish for his own good, and people can use his ticklishness against him to punish him for his mischief.
In his world, his main lee is Dark Pit. Sure, he may get obliterated by him afterwards, but he is the only person from his world that he can stand a lick of a chance against. This doesn’t change when Dark Pit gets into Smash, but Pit will eventually get another lee: Shulk. Shulk is even more ticklish and even more of a lee than he is, and that’s saying a lot.
Moving on to Dark Pit, he doesn’t like the idea of tickling at all (or at least, that’s what he tells himself). However, he will occasionally become a ler if someone refuses to stop tickling him (I’m looking at you, Pit and Palutena).
Dark Pit is a lot more violent when he’s the lee. He will trash about to try and throw you off of him. He will try to grab your wrists and force your hands away from his body. He’ll flap his wings, much like the real Pit, and if he hits you in the face with them, he will not apologize for it.
Despite all of this, there is something that you should know about Dark Pit: He secretly likes the positive attention that he gets from a ler. He is a bit insecure about his existance as a clone of Pit, but he will never admit to it. However, after tickling him, you might notice a more positive change in his behavior. It is a slight change, but if you look hard enough, you’ll see it.
Dark Pit’s worst spots are exactly the same as Pit’s worst spots.
In his world, his main lers are Pit, Palutena, and Viridi. In Smash, Pit and Palutena retain this role, but he doesn’t get any new lers. Everyone is too scared of him punching them in the face outside of battle.
As a ler, Dark Pit is similar to Pit, except that he is a lot more merciless.
Like Pit, he doesn’t come up with plans for dealing with a specific lee, but he does display his preference towards heavier tickling. If you are weak to that, then good luck with surviving that.
For the most part, he doesn’t show his lees any mercy when he tickles them. However, he will never tickle someone into unconsciousness, because even he’s not that cruel.
Teasing? Nope, Dark Pit doesn’t like to do that while he’s tickling someone, unless Pit is the one being tickled. If that’s the case, then he will taunt him. Some of the taunts he uses include, “Pft, you’re so ticklish. How could someone as weak as you win against me?”, and, “Lady Palutena can’t save you now. If anything, she would join in. Would you still love your goddess if she did that to you?”
He tends to not use the feathers on his wings as a tickle tool, but on some occasions, he’ll take a feather from one of his wings and tickle his lee with it. Much like his counterpart, he will use this to his advantage if he finds out that his lee is weak to feathers.
Dark Pit is capable of being the ler for a longer period of time, due to his ability to fight back against counterattacks. However, he is just as ticklish as the real Pit is, so he is somewhat easy to take down.
In his world, Pit is the only one that Dark Pit will target. In Smash, this still stands, but thanks to his counterpart, he begins to target Shulk as well.
And now, Palutena. If there were to be a top ten list of the most dangerous lers in Smash, she would be on there. As for her position, she would probably be at number 5 or number 6.
Tickling her is incredibly difficult. She knows that you’re thinking about it, and she knows that you will try to sneak up on her. If you somehow manage to tickle her while her guard is down, she is rather ticklish for a goddess.
Her worst spots are her ears and her hips. If she has her Goddess Wings out, then she will expose another worst spot: the wings themselves.
You can’t pin her down that easily, but at the very least, you can make her squirm. Try to make her squirm to the point that she will fall over on accident, because that is one of the few opportunities that you will have to pin her down and go to town. Watch out, though. She will try to retaliate against you by reaching her hands up and tickling you when you least expect it.
I really should be making headcanons on what a character’s laughter would sound like, but I tend to have a bit of trouble with that. However, with Palutena, I think I can describe her laughter pretty easily, and I’m pretty sure that I will only need these two words: light and carefree. Actually, add heart-melting to that list.
In her world, Palutena’s main lers are Pit and Dark Pit (though they have a hard time staying in that position). This doesn’t change when all three of them get to Smash. However, Smash did give her a third ler: Bayonetta.
When Palutena is the ler, she is just as playful as Pit, if not more playful.
She prefers to keep her tickling light, but if she knows that you have a weakness to heavier tickling, then she will go for that instead.
Similar to Sephiroth, Palutena knows every technique that she can use to tickle her lees, and she is very observational when it comes to a person’s weaknesses. There is a difference between these two, however: Palutena will tease her lees by using a wide variety of tones. Sephiroth doesn’t do this.
In her home world, her main lees are Pit and Dark Pit. In Smash, these two are still her main less, but she tends to target Shulk as well.
She’ll occasionally go after two of those three people at the same time. I’m aware that this statement is a bit confusing, so allow me to rephrase it.
On some occasions, Palutena will tickle two lees at the same time. With the above list of lees, there are three possible combinations:
Pit and Dark PIt
Pit and Shulk
Shulk and Dark Pit
Sometimes, Palutena likes to make two people laugh at the same time, and tickling is the best way for her to accomplish this.
As one final note, Palutena is the best person to go to if you want to reveal your love for tickling. She is always happy to hear these admissions, knowing that it takes a lot of bravery for someone to admit something like this to another person.
I might think of more headcanons for these three, but for now, this is what I got for Pit, Dark Pit, and Palutena! I apologize for making you wait a few days. I wasn’t ignoring your ask, I just lost some of my motivation after a particularly frustrating day of classes, as I mentioned at the beginning of the post.
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warriorsides · 3 years
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Chapter 2
Notes: I'm super sorry this illustration has no background or shading... It had already been too long without a chapter and I didn't have time to do a background with school and other things in my life. I also have an allegiance list of all the characters in the Clans and their designs. I may add to the roster and change some things up! If you click on the characters, you'll be able to see their refs. This is also posted on Archive of Our Own! 
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Thomas stood on the fence again, his gaze set on the forest.
The sun had reached its peak in the sky. 
“Thomas!” The brown and white patched cat had called out when he arrived back to his housefolk’s den. “You’re back! Thought you’d never return.”
Thomas looked up to meet his friend’s gaze. “I met some wild cats.” He said, admittedly. 
“What?” The cat jumped down, and closely examined his friend. “Did you get into a fight? You don’t look hurt. What happened?” They interrogated.
“They just warned me to stay off their territory,” Thomas explained, pushing Joan away with his tail. “Then they asked me to join their Clan.”
Joan looked unconvinced. “Why would they do that?”
Thomas shrugged. “Not sure. I guess they needed extra paws.” 
“Well, I wouldn’t trust ‘em.” Joan declared. “Wild cats ain’t friendly.”
Thomas wanted to protest, but he knew better than to argue with Joan. He watched the cat give a small wave before scurrying off into the night. 
“But… I do trust them.” Thomas said to himself. He looked behind him, as if imaging Joan coming along to object. But they didn’t come. “Sorry, Joan.” He said, before turning back to the forest. “I’ve made up my mind. I’m going to join them.”
Thomas leaped off the fence post, once again journeying into the forest. 
The forest felt so much more alive now then the night before. The sounds of bird calls filled the air and the sun filled the forest with light. A gentle wind rustled the leaves of the trees as light danced around the branches. It was beautifully overwhelming compared to his old backyard. This was freedom.
“I see you’ve made your choice.” 
Thomas spun around, happy to know that he recognised this cat. “Sootflower!” He greeted. Another cat stood beside them, and he stiffened.
The cat nodded. “I’ll be taking you to ThunderClan camp. This is Thicketbranch, one of ThunderClan’s greatest warriors.”
The tom nodded his head to Thomas. “It is a pleasure to meet you.” 
Sootflower beckoned then with their tail. “Let’s be off. I’m sure the Clan will be excited to see a new apprentice around camp- one that isn’t as loud as Tigerpaw.” They mused.
Thomas chuckled politely, and followed the two warriors as they navigated through the thick forest back to their camp.
The two warriors were fast, which Thomas expected from two fully grown cats. But he found himself tripping over his paws just to keep up, and his paw pads were growing sore. He didn’t bother them with asking for a break though, almost imagining Thicketbranch barking at him for such a kittypet-like request. 
They wove through winding trees, over fallen trees, and got their paws tainted with mud. They had found themselves faced with a gully that was too wide to jump over and that reeked with foul-smelling and murky looking water. The two Clan cats barely hesitated for a moment before dipping their paws into the water and wading through. Thomas dipped a paw in, as if to test the waters, and slowly followed. He was determined to not complain about the terrain, but the water that had seeped into his belly fur was undeniably uncomfortable. 
Sootflower and Thicketbranch had paused just on the other side. Thomas quickly caught up, fearful that they might leave him behind if he was too slow. He took a moment to breathe, finding his chest burning. 
I should probably exercise more… Thomas thought, watching the two warriors step onto a rock that rested on the edge of a small hollow as he desperately tried to catch his breath. 
“We are very close to our camp now,” meowed Sootflower.
Thomas expected to see a sign of life by now- moving leaves, a flash of fur among the bushes below, but he couldn’t see anything except the same undergrowth that covered the rest of the forest floor.
“Use your nose. You must be able to scent it.” Thicketbranch hissed impatiently. 
Thomas felt his pelt prickle with embarrassment, and he closed his eyes to concentrate on sniffing. Thicketbranch was correct. The scents were different from the cats he was used to. The smell was strong, which indicated that there were many cats.
“I can smell cats!” Thomas exclaimed.
Sootflower looked to Thicketbranch with an amused expression, but Thicketbranch’s expression barely changed. 
“If you are accepted into the Clan, you will learn to recognise each cat-scent by name.” Sootflower meowed. “Follow me.” They led the way down the boulders to the bottom of the hollow. They pushed their way through a thorn tunnel and Thomas followed quickly after, with Thicketbranch trailing close behind.
Thomas found that beyond the thorn tunnel, a clearing had opened up. The ground at the center was bare, hard earth. This camp must have been here for many generations. The clearing was lit by sunshine and he could smell the droplets of fresh morning dew. 
Thomas felt awe-struck by the amount of cats in the camp. Some sat alone, but others huddled in groups, sharing food or purring as they groomed eachother.
“Just after sunhigh, when the day is hottest, it is a time for sharing tongues.” Thicketbranch explained.
“Sharing tongues?” Thomas said, confused. Were these cats actually licking eachother’s tongues, or was that a metaphor for something else?
“Clan cats groom eachother while sharing the news of the day.” Sootflower cut in. “We call it sharing tongues. It lets the Clan members bond together.”
Thomas had noticed that now, the cats had redirected their attention to him. He shouldn’t be so surprised- they must have smelled his foreign scent and sensed danger. But their eyes held only curiosity for him rather than hostility. Was it because of his collar? Or maybe had they softened because Sootflower stood next to him. 
Anxiety clawed at him, and he looked around the hollow. It was shielded by large rock walls, which were topped with brambles and bushes. Trees also surrounded the hollow on either side.
“Over there,” Thicketbranch flicked his tail towards a thick bramble bush, “is the nursery, where the kits are cared for.” 
Thomas’ ears flicked towards the bushes. He couldn’t see through the bushes, which were re-enforced with thick roots, but he could hear the small mews of kittens. As he stared at the bush, a cat slipped out from under a small gap in the front. That must be one of the mothers, Thomas thought.
The she-cat had patchy, dark brown fur and long legs. A dark black tom approached her and nodded, entering the nursery in her stead. Thomas wondered if he was a father visiting his kits.
“All queens share the role of caring for the kits.” Sootflower said. “Echohawk and Ripplestorm are our queens here in ThunderClan. All cats serve the Clan. Loyalty to the Clan is the first law in our warrior code. You must learn it quickly if you are going to become a ThunderClan warrior.”
“Sweetstar is coming.” Thicketbranch said, his ears raising as he lifted his chin to sniff the air. 
Thomas raised his chin, too, and felt encouraged that he could recognise the dark brown tabby tom’s scent a moment before she appeared from the rocks above.
The leader jumped down the rocks as if it was second nature, and Thomas felt a sudden wave of anxiety crash over him as he imagined him doing that. He’d surely fall- and it’d probably be fatal, from that height. 
“He actually came.” Sweetstar said, surprised. 
Thomas was unsure if he should be offended by that.
Sootflower chuckled. “Thicketbranch thought he wouldn’t, either. ‘A kittypet- in the Clan?’” They mocked, nudging the tom forward. 
Sweetstar flicked his tail dismissively, turning instead to Thicketbranch. “What do you think of him?” He asked.
Thicketbranch peered at Thomas for a second. “He can keep up.” He said. “He hesitated once or twice, but it’s only natural.” 
Sweetstar nodded. “So it’s agreed?”
The two warriors nodded.
“Then I’ll announce his arrival to the Clan,” Sweetstar said, weaving through the cats. He climbed up on the rock that had the pile of fresh-kill at the base, and his voice thundered throughout the clearing. “Let all those old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the Highledge for a Clan meeting.” 
Thomas stood still, not knowing what to do. While Thicketbranch and Sootflower stood still, many cats found their way at the base of the Highledge, all looking up at their leader expectantly. 
Through the sea of pelts, Thomas could see Tigerpaw’s dark red pelt. Beside him was a cream tabby she-cat with white paws. Another cat, a golden shaded tom, sat to his left. 
When the cats had stopped moving, Sweetstar spoke. “ThunderClan needs more warriors,” He began. “It has been decided that we will take another outsider to train as an apprentice.” Thomas could hear muttering erupt within the Clan, but Sweetstar lashed his tail and cut them off."He may be an outsider but he is willing, and strong enough."
“The other Clans will think we’re weak if we take in another outsider…” A grey and white she-cat muttered.
Sweetstar ignored the warrior and addressed his Clan. “Thicketbranch and Sootflower agree that this young cat should train with ThunderClan.” 
Thomas looked up to Thicketbranch. He wondered if the tom even liked him, or if he had just said that because he wanted to get on Sweetstar’s good side. He looked away, only to find that most of the Clan’s eyes had fallen on him. His fur prickled with embarrassment, and he wondered if it was too late to turn tail and go back to his housefolk. To ball up in his bed felt like a much better idea than being here right now.
“Where is he from?”
“Is he a spy from ShadowClan?”
“He doesn’t smell like any other Clan.”
The grey and white she-cat from before’s voice rose above them all.
“Look at his collar!” She shrieked. “He’s a kittypet! We need wildborn cats in our Clan- not soft twoleg toys.”
Sootflower leaned over to Thomas. “That’s Rowanheather. She can smell your fear- they all can. You need to prove that your fear won’t hold you back.”
But what if it will? He wondered silently. And how do I prove that I’m not just a kittypet?
“Your collar is just proof that you’re nothing more than a Twoleg pet.” She said. “That bell will cause all sorts of noise and drive out the prey in our territory.”
Some cats murmured in agreement, while others hissed at the she-cat’s statements. Rowanheather began to approach, her ego inflating.
“And it’ll alert other Clans that we’re coming, even if your stench doesn’t.” 
Thomas took a breath, and stood up. The she-cat was only slightly larger than him, leading him to believe that she wasn't much older than him. 
Her stance lowered, and her claws unsheathed. Thomas stared at the claws that shimmered in the sunlight, and he shook his head. He didn’t want to fight her.
Raising a paw, he hooked it behind his collar, squeezing it between his neck and the strap. He unsheathed his claws, and pushed it away from him. His claws tore on the material, and there was a loud snap. With that, the collar had fallen off and sat on the ground. 
He had only ever felt what it was like without a collar once, when he was very young. But he realised how free he felt. The wind blew in his fur, and he could actually feel it on his neck. He breathed in fresh air, having a revelation. 
Being wild wasn’t about where you were born, or who’s kin you were. It was about being free. And he had never felt more free in his life.
“You wont fight?” Rowanheather said at last. “Pathetic. A real warrior will fight to the death if she has to.” She leapt towards Thomas, he claws unsheathed.
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Before Thomas could duck or scramble away, a flash of dark grey fur shielded him. 
Thicketbranch had leaped in front of him. He had protected him. 
Thomas’ nose stung with the realisation that a new scent was in the air. One that smelled cold and tangy. It was blood. 
“Are you happy? You got your bloodshed for the day.” Thicketbranch said in a low hiss.
“Thicketbranch, I’m-,”
“Don’t talk to me. Not right now.”
Rowanheather shut her muzzle, and retreated back into the crowd. 
Thicketbranch turned around, and Thomas could see clearly now that he had a large scar across his muzzle. But Thomas could tell that his pain came more from the action of Rowanheather’s attack rather than the wound. 
“Enough.” Sweetstar called from the Highledge. “A real warrior does not seek bloodshed for no benefit. A real warrior finds another solution instead of causing unnecessary fights. Thomas has shown that he is willing to join the Clan by removing his Twoleg collar- but he has also shown that he is more than capable of having the true heart of a warrior.”
Many cats that had had their doubts before were now murmuring in agreement. Thomas found Tigerpaw’s gaze, and he seemed excited. 
“From this day forward, until he has earned his warrior name, he will be known as-”
“Wait!” A voice called.
Thomas had wanted to protest the name change as well, but he guessed someone else had gotten to it first. 
“What is it, Brightpool?” Sweetstar flicked his tail impatiently. “Have you had a vision?”
Thomas’ gaze followed back to the cream tabby by Tigerpaw’s side, who he now knew was named Brightpool/
The she-cat hesitated, “No.” She said at last. “But I have a feeling. A strong one.”
“What is your feeling?” Sweetstar asked. 
“...He doesn’t belong here.”
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thanksjro · 4 years
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Last Stand of the Wreckers PsyOps records- Can we PLEASE Hire Some More Mental Health Specialists?
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Rung gets a lot of play in the Last Stand of the Wreckers bonus materials. He was still more of a play-on-words as opposed to an actual character at the time, so I suppose it makes sense.
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Rotorstorm walked into his appointment with Rung and immediately started hyping himself up. That’s very telling. When Rung asked about his time at Simanzi, he sort of shut down and wasn’t able to hide behind his defense mechanism of being the funniest, coolest, bravest, all-around-bestest guy in the room.
Rotorstorm was basically born, then thrown into the Aerial Program, where all that awful stuff with Jetstream happened. Dude was beating up an infant.
Motherfucker’s got some trauma, obviously, but apparently that’s not enough to disqualify him from Wrecker duty. Wrecker duty that he didn’t even want, I should add.
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You gotta sign up for the Wrecker roster; he’d been on it before, but had dropped out to teach instead. Either someone set this poor guy up to die, or Jetstream was wrong this whole time and he really just is that good. Not that it mattered much- the damage is done. Rotorstorm has crippling self-doubt, and is also dead.
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Pyro suffers from a programming disorder known as primus apotheosis, identified by the sufferer’s need to emulate the great Optimus Prime. Many Autobots are afflicted with this disorder, and even a few Decepticons have been known to have it. The fact that Pyro had primus apotheosis makes panels like this:
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-all the more sad. This is a guy who’s had his own personality overwritten- by his own hero worship- in an attempt to be greater than himself. Pyro is by no means a slouch when it comes to saving the day- he saved an entire platoon of Autobots as a member of the Resistance.
Then Simanzi happened.
There isn’t a ton known about the Simanzi Massacre, only that it was so bad, the Cybertronian population was halved by the time it was over. Pyro would have been just another statistic, had it not been for Optimus Prime’s intervention. Does survivor’s guilt have some part in his disorder? It’s certainly possible. All that can be said for sure is that nobody got out of Simanzi unscathed.
Pyro was approved for the Wreckers with reservations, seeing as primus apotheosis sufferers can and will sacrifice themselves for others if given any wiggle room in which to do so. The Wreckers were just lucky that Pyro wanted to go out in style. It didn’t really work for him, but points for trying.
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Guzzle isn’t his legal name. Much like Chromedome, he’s called what he’s called due to meddling with the war. Originally Pneumatix, and a forklift of all things- the name being a play on the word “Pneumatic”, because forklifts work by using compressed air to lift things- he entered the Body Augmentation Program. This turned him into something called a ruination tank. That’s why his turret accounts for nearly half of his height- they basically turned a Mini Cooper into a weapon of mass destruction. Because he’s meant to be actually very tiny, his body compensates for the added stress by being so insanely fuel-inefficient, he has to constantly eat. Thus the nickname.
Guzzle didn’t exactly impress Rung at his appointment, coming across as a rather cold, distant individual when it came to his own emotions, describing his own near-death experience at the hands of the Decepticons in terms of what weaponry was used to try to kill him. Still, he was approved for the Garrus-9 mission.
It’s at this point that you have to wonder just how many people are actually on the waiting list for this group.
First Aid about had a panic attack when he thought Springer was inviting him to join the Wreckers, so it’s obviously a known thing that members don’t last terribly long, or at least, it’s something that can be inferred through reading about them.
Looking at past members, it’s rather telling what sort of person is attracted to the Wrecker lifestyle; Whirl is an emotional powder keg that’s constantly trying to light his own fuse, Impactor defied wartime sanctions to murder the his rivals, Roadbuster is a hardcore drug abuser who ripped someone’s spine out, and Kup can only function in polite society if he’s smoking medicinal marijuana at all times. These are not stable individuals. Springer is the odd exception, and I’m counting Perceptor as a borderline case, because he went through a massive personality shift that led him to where he was within the group. He may appear “normal” when compared to the others, but that guy’s for sure got some issues that he keeps close to his chest.
Given all of this, it’s not really much of a leap to say that Rotorstorm got thrown back on the list because they didn’t have anyone else who wanted in on this madness. It’s also not much of a leap to say that the only reason any of these guys got approved to join was because there weren’t any other options. The psych-screenings were probably just done as a professional obligation at that point. Rung, for all his faults, was likely working with what he’d been given.
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I’m not exactly sure where these profiles were meant to reside within Last Stand’s timeline, given that Rotorstorm and Pyro are classified as being probably alive, whereas Ironfist is not.
Ironfist spends a good portion of his appointment with Rung fanboying over the Wreckers, as he is wont to do. When he actually gets around to talking about himself, he’s not nearly as eloquent or organized. Rung did not approve Ironfist for the mission, based solely on his lack of experience in the field of busting heads. He only got on the team due to Prowl’s interference, as has been established before.
Fisitron is revealed to have been a writer of many talents, publishing articles for all ages and reading levels. He was an author you could grow up on.
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Impactor’s profile was written at the time of his probationary hearing, and it seems to imply that Rung may be a bit of an idiot. He had dismissed the guard who was present, in an attempt to get Impactor to be more open with him. This went about as well as that sort of thing usually goes for the only mental health specialist on all of Cybertron.
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Looks like someone’s got a fear of mnemosurgery. With this little event in his past, it’s very surprising that Rung tried to offer it to Fortress Maximus in MTMTE #6.
Maybe Rung accidentally stuck a really big magnet to the side of his head at some point, thus erasing his memory files, because I know that I sure wouldn’t be offering that sort of thing if this was the average reaction to it.
After Impactor had had his moment, he shared some of his war stories with Rung- apparently his lack of a right hand was inspired by meeting Death’s Head.
Though Death’s Head isn’t directly named, it’s pretty obvious that’s who it’s intended to be, given that he’s mentioned as “ricocheting from universe to universe after leaping through an exploding time portal.” This is in reference to the events that took place in the Marvel UK storyline “The Legacy of Unicron!” This is also what happened to him prior to the events of Eugenesis.
Rung is aware of these events due to having read Wreckers: Declassified. I’m not sure how I feel about Wreckers: Declassified being a valid resource for Rung to pull from, considering Fisitron self-described with the word “dramatist” in “Bullets”.
The session had to be ended when Rung tried to psychoanalyze Impactor in a way he wasn’t ready for, as the man threatened to crush his brain like a grape between his fingers.
Lot of Eugenesis vibes in this entry.
We don’t get any history on Impactor, as it’s been scrubbed from the record at someone’s request. Is it related to his relationship with Megatron? The events that would eventually be revealed in Sins of the Wreckers? Maybe it’s just left like that to create intrigue for the eventual sequel series, Sins of the Wreckers. Who knows? I certainly don’t.
That’s the end of Rung’s reports, but we still have a couple more characters to get through.
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Rotorstorm, Snare, and Swindle must go to the same body shop, because they’re the only guys who have eyes/visors that aren’t a primary color. It’s an interesting little character design choice, and I can’t help but wonder if there was some sort of reason for it.
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…I genuinely wasn’t expecting an answer for that. Neat!
Snare’s kind of a loner, which works out pretty well for him, since he’s usually on surveillance duty. He’s also a sadist, having developed some nasty ways to keep prisoners in line. “Morphcore stimulation” is mentioned, and it’s less fun than it sounds, not that it sounds terribly fun in the first place. The fact that even Snare thought Overlord was a bit much is very telling.
If you’re unfamiliar with the term “morphcore”, don’t feel bad about it, because it’s only ever been used in one piece of media up until this point. Morphcores were a small bundle of nerves at the base of the Cybertronian brain that controlled transformation, as explained in Eugenesis. This term would quickly be switched out for the more well-known “transformation cog” for brand cohesion. The really funny thing is that that this section is attributed to Nick Roche. It would seem that TMUK is a hard state of mind to shake off.
This won’t be the only time Roche and Roberts team-up to completely miss the mark on how the IDW continuity functions- the Dire Wraith in The Revolution oneshot they wrote together was running off of the Marvel UK iteration of the species.
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Overlord doesn’t have a profile, per se, but rather a transcript of a correspondence between Megatron and a guy named Gorelock.
Gorelock apologizes for not getting in contact sooner, explaining that the reason he’s been radio silent is because Overlord fucking showed up out of nowhere, after cutting and running from the Decepticause years prior. Whether Megatron had actually heard Overlord’s message or just figured it out from context clues isn’t clarified.
Gorelock super-duper promises that he and his guys didn’t just stand there pissing themselves in fear as Overlord strolled through their ranks, and they super-duper totally fought him until Gorelock decided to hear the guy out. For sure. Absolutely.
It turns out, Overlord was never actually dismissed from the rank of the Decepticons, which means that he outranks Gorelock, and Gorelock was therefore compelled to grant him a favor.
The favor is wrecking an entire empire’s shop. Gorelock complies with this request, purely due to being outranked. Absolutely. For sure.
Once the contract was completed in full, Overlord fucked off into space.
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You know, not enjoying your hobbies anymore can be a sign of depression.
And that’s why Gorelock hasn’t kept in touch! I’m sure Megtron will be very understanding about this whole thing.
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Or not!
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