Complete Monster Cleanup

CM Dates; CM Pending; CM Drafts

Cut Blackthorne.

No power in the ‘verse can stop me.

Hi, I would like to do a rewrite on an effortpost I made as well as explaining some context why my candidate still keeps since the new information could make people question the validity of the candidate:

• Old World Blues (Hearts of Iron IV Game Mod using Fallout): The Putrescent Mother is an extradimensional horror brought forward into the material plane due to experiments carried out by American science before the Great War on a young girl named V. Taking advantage of V's immortality and powers developed through these experiments, the Mother promises her power if she will create a body for her. If V does not resist the Mother's influence, she and the Psykers of the Chained Choir will subject the inhabitants of post-apocalyptic Oklahoma to either mind control, zombiefication, or having themselves killed and their bodies and souls stitched together to form a new body for the Mother. Those who get zombiefied will be sent to work as slave labour indefinitely without rest and be used as fodder for the Psykers. Once the Mother awakens in her new body, she gruesomely disposes of V and the Choir and seeks to consume the entirety of the American wasteland, and eventually humanity itself.

I've kinda got her backstory wrong. The Putrescent Mother was actually the first victim of experiments carried out in Oklaholma by American scientists. Her spirit however continued to persist, existing through pure hatred.

Now onto why I don't think her being experimented on and kept alive by hate is not a disqualifier.

In addition to nothing in the mod showing that being "kept alive by hatred" demonstrates agency issues(In fact, she actually relishes in spreading hatred and suffering rather than any indication that she needs to do this to continue existing), the mod constantly emphasizes her malevolent nature and her being an manipulative abuser to V, over painting her with any sort of pathos. Her Omnicidal Maniac nature is more to do with wanting to be extremely cruel and sadistic over genuine revenge at what was done to her; contrast with say Myrrah or pre-Dawn of the Future Ardyn where their actions at least were consistent with their FE. There is also the fact that she immediately goes to exterminate humanity or brainwash them into her slaves after her resurrection rather than say go after the remnants of the Enclave or Vault-Tec.

I think the way this "excuse" is handled has more in common with Kefka or Lord Vholran or Bask Om in that whatever "Freudian Excuse" she seemingly has is barely an Informed Attribute at most and does zilch to justify their current evil actions. Also we don't see her backstory at all—unlike Vecna whom we cut for having their backstory clearly shown, we see any backstory with the Mother with the narrative emphasizing her more as a threat rather than a victim of Vault-Tec(moreso West-Tec if any of the new canon is drawn upon given what Leon wants to do) in her own right.

If the Mother's ending hinted at her going to the Midwest or going after the Enclave's presence in Montana first, the case for her being disqualified might be stronger as she'd be more hinted to go after those that made her suffer(meaning going after the far-right offshoot of the US government that worked with Vault-Tec on their experiments; we should note that the game draws on pre-2024 series canon where its' implied the experiments were primarily Enclave and Vault-Tec's responsibility vs. the current canon where it is more Vault-Tec and a bunch of corporations dividing up the experiments themselves as they rule over the ashes they've reduced the world to), and her FE could be seen as holding up. However, she plans to start consuming post-apocalyptic Mexico first and then torment the rest of the wasteland before consuming humanity, and there is no practical reason why she'd do this first.

So overall, nothing here holds up as to any tangible Freudian Excuse, to keeping the Mother and a rewrite:

• Old World Blues (Hearts of Iron IV Game Mod using Fallout): The Putrescent Mother was the first person to be experimented on in Oklaholma by American scientists before the Great War. Surviving their corporal death as a spirit through raw hatred and relishing in the spread of hatred and fear, the Mother would reach out to another survivor of the experiments, a young girl named V. Taking advantage of V's immortality and powers developed through these experiments, the Mother promises her power if she will create a body for her. If V does not resist the Mother's influence, she and the Psykers of the Chained Choir will subject the inhabitants of post-apocalyptic Oklahoma to either mind control, zombiefication, or having themselves killed and their bodies and souls stitched together to form a new body for the Mother. Those who get zombiefied will be sent to work as slave labour indefinitely without rest and be used as fodder for the Psykers. Once the Mother awakens in her new body, she gruesomely disposes of V and the Choir and seeks to consume the entirety of the American wasteland, and eventually humanity itself.

Edited by xie323 on Apr 30th 2024 at 8:00:50 AM

"Then I'm in your hands. Completely. You hold all the cards. But I hope to God that my dismissal doesn't come before your decision to hand back those guns. And I say this for your sake, because if I were to be fired and it were your fault, I would do things that would shame the Devil. My fury is a thing to behold. On my last day in power, for example, I would see to it that you and your scum brothers have your heads stoved in with mallets and spades. And your sister too. That baby inside her would be of no consequence to me. The only one to be spared would be your little brother Finn. He would however be lifted as a juvenile and dumped into that part of the adult prison where men have the most appetite for boys like him. Oh, that would be a dark day indeed, Mr. Shelby, if my dismissal becomes before your decision." — Inspector Chester Campbell to Tommy Shelby, Peaky Blinders, Season 1 Episode 4

Slight spelling error here. Change it to:

"Then I'm in your hands. Completely. You hold all the cards. But I hope to God that my dismissal doesn't come before your decision to hand back those guns. And I say this for your sake, because if I were to be fired and it were your fault, I would do things that would shame the Devil. My fury is a thing to behold. On my last day in power, for example, I would see to it that you and your scum brothers have your heads stoved in with mallets and spades. And your sister too. That baby inside her would be of no consequence to me. The only one to be spared would be your little brother Finn. He would however be lifted as a juvenile and dumped into that part of the adult prison where men have the most appetite for boys like him. Oh, that would be a dark day indeed, Mr. Shelby, if my dismissal comes before your decision." — Inspector Chester Campbell to Tommy Shelby, Peaky Blinders, Season 1 Episode 4

Keep the appropriate italics and bold and links, of course.

She can keep.

What specifically changed?

CM Dates; CM Pending; CM Drafts

Edited by Kookosbanaani on Apr 30th 2024 at 9:54:57 AM

Um, this is thread where we handle cuts and other edits, you should go to proposal thread for that.

Ah, sorry. Forgot about there being two threads now as I'm not on the threads very often.

Hey, I was thinking about switching the current image for the Metroid page with this one:

It's much simpler and, more importantly, it actually shows a CM crossing the Moral Event Horizon. We see Raven Beak standing over the corpses of Thoha Tribe and ordering his army. Very clear, very heinous, all in a single image.

Also, I take issue with the current quote:

While, on the surface, wiping out a third of a crew and brainwashing the rest sounds bad, considering the victims in this scenario are the Space Pirates, that actually makes this one of the least evil things Dark Samus does throughout the trilogy. I’m not sure what to replace it with, but there’s gotta be something better.

Balls idk

I have concerns over King Abimelech from The Bible (his EP, and the actual story for those that don't know it):

The concern I have here is that massacres of similar scale to the massacre of Shechem are common in the Bible. I know I'm not supposed to cite any of the atrocities that the narrative portrays as benevolent, so I'll stick with those committed by antagonists:

• Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus committed genocide against the Israelites by ordering that all their newborn infants be thrown in the Nile to drown or be eaten by crocodiles.
• The Amalekites ravaged the Israelites while they were in the desert and mutilated every Israelite who fell into their hands to mock the rite of circumcision.
• In the Book of Judges, the same book in which Abimelech appears, the Midianites ravaged Israel for seven years and went out of their way to destroy as many Israelite farms and crops as possible "till thou come unto Gaza [i.e. the entire breadth of Israel], and left no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass", with the apparent intention of starving the Israelites to death.
• Judges also gives us a rare example of atrocities by the Israelites which are intended to be seen as wrong, as the war on the Benjaminites ended with the Israelites rampaging through the nation of Benjamin razing every settlement to the ground and salting the earth and killing every inhabitant of the land until they eventually had a Heel Realization and stopped, by which time only 600 survived in the entire nation.
• Saul and Doeg the Edomite in the Books of Samuel razed the city of Nob, slaughtered every single inhabitant of the city bar one and salted the earth because they thought David might be hiding there, a crime almost identical in scale to the massacre of Shechem.
• Hazael in the Books of Kings waged war against Israel during which he is said to have committed horrible massacres against them including dashing their infants against the rocks and ripping open the stomachs of pregnant women.
• The same book has King Menahem, one of the many kings of Israel who the narrative treats as evil, who exterminated the entire city of Tiphsah and the surrounding coastline and ripped open the stomachs of every pregnant woman in the city because they refused to open their gates to him.
• Yet another from Kings, Manasseh of Judah, is said to have slaughtered so many people for not bowing to his idols that innocent blood filled Jerusalem from one end to the other.
• Haman the Agagite of the Book of Esther ordered that every Jew in the Babylonian Empire be put to death out of spite for Mordecai not bowing to him.

So in my opinion, Abimelech murdering 69 people, brothers or otherwise, and massacring one city for rising up against him (of note, God incited them to do this with the specific intention that Abimelech would massacre them, as they were wicked and had supported Abimelech's murder of his brothers) is pretty standard in Biblical terms, with plenty of other antagonistic characters and groups committing atrocities on a similar scale.

Edited by SW1008 on Apr 30th 2024 at 8:05:40 PM

The fact he murdered around 69 of his siblings to me adds a bit of flair to his atrocities.

Yeah I feel like killing 69 of his half siblings is a unique enough niche to stand out.

In honor of Akira Toriyama

Keep King Abimelech

Keep the king

IPP Wick Check created.

Keep Abimelech

Honestly I would rather show the image of Ridley crushing the heads of Samus' parents in a nightmare followed by the line of him taunting Samus about possiblily eating her mom would fit better

I like Raven Beak.

Raven Beak picture and keep Mother.

Keep Abimelech

My issue with the Raven Beak image is that it's kind of unclear what's happening at a glance (which is also true of the current image to a lesser extent). Idk if it's just small on the thread but I have to lean in to even see the dead bodies. I'm pretty firmly in favor of keeping the current quote up, it's very evocative of Dark Samus' evil even if the context makes it slightly less impactful.

Edited by papyru30 on Apr 30th 2024 at 3:09:43 AM

Hope your prepared for an unforgettable luncheon

Right I whilst this wasn't the reason I abstained on the guy, I do have a question about Odin (and I checked his EP to make sure I didn't miss this bit)

After he reveals himself to be "Tyr" and stabs Brok we get this exchange.

Scene here.

Now this is the guy who when he confronts Kratos at the start of the second norse game, just matter-of-factly states it was self defence for Kratos killing his grandsons and his annoyance at Baldur's death is because he lost his best tracker. Fuck this is the same guy who murdered his own son for daring to defy him.

I don't wanna just say "Oh confirmed redeeming issue, cut cut." Because with the callous disregard Odin has for his allies, it can easily be just him being annoyed that his ultimate watchman got murdered and if it was just based on his query to Atreus when he returns to him prior to getting the final mask piece, I'd happily base it as him just trying to put Atreus under pressure (since he knows Kratos killed Heimdall as Kratos shows proof to the heroes and Odin disguised as Tyr.)

As far as I'm aware however though, Odin doesn't mention a line about Heimdall's death being unfortunate to his usefulness.

Oh, Mr. Kennedy, you entertain me. To show my appreciation, I will help you awaken from your world of clichés.

I don't think that's mitigating. The attack on Brok wasn't to avenge Heimdall, Odin (in his Tyr disguise) was originally just trying to slip away with the mask, but he snapped when a suspicious Brok started questioning him because his ego can't stand being challenged. He only mentions Heimdall afterwards as a justification when Freya confronts him.

Which is perfectly in character for how Odin is portrayed throughout the game, he always has a justification ready for how his actions aren't his fault. Even when he murders Thor, he immediately goes into damage control mode and starts protesting that he "didn't want this". Him bringing up Heimdall here is rattled off like another one of his excuses, I don't think there's anything else to suggest he cared about Heimdall when he was alive.

There remains a foothold out of this mire — now climb.

Yeah tbh good point, Odins consistent deflecting of his own actions is probably what it is.

When the final fight against him occurs he then blames Kratos and Atreus for Thors death and claims he saved Thrud (after throwing Mjolnr at her)

Oh, Mr. Kennedy, you entertain me. To show my appreciation, I will help you awaken from your world of clichés.

Found this unapproved entry on YMMV.Fatal Attractions Marvel Comics.

• Complete Monster: Continuing the tradition from his first appearance, Fabian Cortez is this. He's the mastermind of the horrifying hospice attack mentioned below, and also finds the time to infect Valerie Cooper with a mind-controlling Puppeteer Parasite before Exodus shows up to give him the thrashing he deserves.

Then remove it.

Edit: Bottompaged. F...

Edited by RobertTYL on May 1st 2024 at 5:28:08 PM