During the investigation of recent hollers in the Complete Monster thread, it's become apparent to the staff that an insular, unfriendly culture has evolved in the Complete Monster and Magnificent Bastard threads that is causing problems.
Specific issues include:
- Overzealous hollers on tropers who come into the threads without being familiar with all the rules and traditions of the tropes. And when they are familiar with said rules and traditions, they get accused (with little evidence) of being ban evaders.
- A few tropers in the thread habitually engage in snotty, impolite mini-modding. There are also regular complaints about excessive, offtopic "socializing" posts.
- Many many thread regulars barely post/edit anywhere else, making the threads look like they are divorced from the rest of TV Tropes.
- Following that, there are often complaints about the threads and their regulars violating wiki rules, such as on indexing, crosswicking, example context and example categorization. Some folks are working on resolving the issues, but...
- Often moderator action against thread regulars leads to a lot of participants suddenly showing up in the moderation threads to protest and speak on their behalf, like a clique.
It is not a super high level problem, but it has been going on for years and we cannot ignore it any longer. There will be a thread in Wiki Talk
to discuss the problem; in the meantime there is a moratorium on further Complete Monster and Magnificent Bastard example discussion until we have gotten this sorted out.
Update: The new threads have been made and can be found here:
for the earliest date a work can be discussed, (usually two weeks from the US release), as well as who's reserved discussion.
- Why do a cleanup?: This trope definitely exists and has a well documented history of use. That being said, it frequently gets misused to a character who meets one of the components, namely that they are smart, charming while not necessarily even being a villain, or create good plans. While these are components, there is also a certain personality required, not to mention that all of the above are required to be present for a character to be a true Magnificent Bastard. As the trope attracts interest, it unfortunately brings in a lot of misuse and I thought the best way to rectify this would be a Perpetual Cleanup Thread, as is being done and has seen success with Complete Monster.
- What makes a Magnificent Bastard: Below is a list of the individual components to make this character. Note that they must all be present, not just some, which has lead to frequent misuse:
- Must be intelligent: Goes without saying, to be a Magnificent Bastard, the character has to be smart in the first place and use their brain to work towards whatever their end goal may be;
- Must be a Bastard: While going overboard in how vile the character is can be detrimental, a key aspect is the Bastard part of the trope, whether the character is an out-and-out antagonist in the work, some manner of Villain Protagonist, or something in between, they at least have some unscrupulous qualities to qualify for this trope;
- Must not be too detestable: Again, there is a ceiling on how bad the character can be before they just become too nefarious, blocking out the Magnificent part of the trope. A genocidal racist or child-raping Sadist aren't going to make the cut;
- Think on their feet: In addition to being a Chessmaster, a Magnificent Bastard, if the character deals with situations in which their initial plan is ruined, has to be able to pull a Xanatos Speed Chess and at least come up with a competent strategy to make up for lost time, otherwise they fail for being unable to think in tough spots;
- Have charm: Even if they don't necessarily make every character they meet fall in love with them and can even be detested by others, the audience has to find an amicable social relation to the character, or they are failing to make the impact required for this trope.
- What to do if a character is listed on a page but has not been approved?: They need to be removed, all candidates need to come through the cleanup thread first. The character could well count but they need to be analyzed properly and voted on first.
- Do we list Playing With this trope?: No; as a YMMV trope, this cannot be Played With, so we only want examples that are Played Straight.
- What do I do if I want a character to be listed as a Magnificent Bastard?: The greatest success Complete Monster saw for its cleanup effort was from the invention of the effort post format, so, borrowing from that, a troper wishing to propose a Magnificent Bastard will create such a post in the following format:
- Begin by describing The work, this will help establish the setting the character is in and for the reader to understand what kind of a scenario they are in;
- Summarize The character's actions, this will provide a listing for readers to understand what they do and how it applies to this trope because charm and lack of smugness are so crucial, this is a good time to be incorporating exactly the flavor of how they operate to explain this;
- List circumstances in which the character must Think on their feet, these are times where a wrench might be thrown in their initial plan and they have to adapt on the spot or even come up with a new scheme all together, this is also a good time to explain how the villain reacts to defeat when they have to face it, a true Magnificent Bastard won't break down into tears at the thought of death, they should have known such a possibility could occur and be able to handle it with more dignity;
- The competition, similar to the Heinous Standard dealt with for a Complete Monster, this section is to deal with how successful the character is in carrying out their plans compared to other characters. While, as a villain, they probably are going to lose in the end, it is good to explain how other characters handle the same situation. There is no exceptionalism case to be made for this trope but explaining the variety helps the reader have a better understanding of the proposal.
- How do you know when the character's arc is done so they can be proposed? When their tenure as a villain or antagonist finishes. This could happen in a single Story Arc in an entire work, a single work of a franchise, or the whole series in general. We'll show lenience to Long-Runners with constantly recurring candidates or series with outstanding continuities (ex. comic books), and it's entirely possible to count in a work or two but not in general for a reason like Depending on the Writer.
- What about candidates evil because of external sources? Those Made of Evil can qualify if they show enough individuality and tactical acumen — in other words, they have the personality to fulfill the magnificence requirement. Conversely, those brainwashed, especially if they're a better person without it, may fail the individuality aspect and cannot count.
- What if they are under orders from a higher-up? Depends. If the boss created the plans down to the letter and the candidate is just following them, sounds like we should discuss the boss instead. However, if the candidate takes creative liberties with the orders, adds their own charm and flair to them, fills in holes in the orders, and/or actively deals with obstacles their boss did not talk about, the candidate shows enough individual thinking to qualify.
- What about Character Development? An MB is something a character can develop into... a nice person who plots well might become more morally gray as the work goes on and hits the "Bastard" criteria, thus making them viable. Likewise, a Smug Snake might shed their ego, become more understanding of the threat others pose and gain the personality or "Magnificent" criteria, likewise making them viable. Conversely, a character who looks like this trope might suffer from a Sanity Slippage or just get outed as not being as smart as they thought they were and become incompatible with MB.
- Can an MB be a good guy? Not in the conventional sense... it is required they have at least some dubious traits lest they fail the "Bastard" criteria. That being said, a character who pulls a Heel–Face Turn or eventually stops taking villainous actions is still fair game: as there was a point in time where they were both "Magnificent" and a "Bastard" at the same time and they've merely adapted as time goes on. Now... if such a character begins showing other issues (i.e.: becomes prone to freak outs or starts getting outwitted) then they're compromising their Magnificence and will probably be deemed a cut. What's important is stylishly operating while at least for some time being willing to take at best underhanded methods to see a job done. A Heel–Face Turn in itself isn't a disqualifier but they do have to have been "Magnificent" and a "Bastard" at the same time and afterwards can't start slipping on the former front.
- What about characters whose stories can take different routes?: When proposing a character in a form of media that has them in multiple story routes. Said character must be consistent with their characteristics in all routes. (ex.: Can't have an example who shows promise on one route yet fails in another.) The only exception is if a later installment of the series confirms the character's actions which made them worth proposing are the canon route.
- Is there a timeframe rule like with Complete Monster?: Yes, please wait two weeks until after the work has concluded before proposing a character (again, usually using the North American air date). As is the case with CM, we want to give a reasonable time frame so that everyone interested in seeing the work has done so and can participate in the discussion without having anything spoiled.
- What about groups like with Complete Monster?: This is a point of divergence between the two tropes. While CM does not allow for a single entry encompassing more than three characters lest their heinousness for crimes becomes too watered down, with MB as long as they are treated as one "unit" it is acceptable to lump all characters provided they share acts of charm and intelligence.
- Can I propose my own work's character as a Magnificent Bastard?: No, this is a YMMV subject and the creator of a content is way too biased to be able to evaluate the criteria we're looking for without a second opinion taking over. That being said, you are more than welcome to encourage someone to consume your creation and if they feel a character counts, are more than welcome to suggest them.
- My example/edit has been approved, but the example subpage is locked! How do I get it added?: The moderators do not add examples to locked example subpages in the MagnificentBastard/ namespace directly. Rather, you need to do the edit to a sandbox page that follows the format Sandbox.MagnificentBastard<Name of the example subpage> (e.g for MagnificentBastard.Fullmetal Alchemist it's Sandbox.Magnificent Bastard Fullmetal Alchemist) and on a Friday, ask in the locked pages edit requests thread for the content to be swapped in.
Thread rules
When voting a troper must specify the effort post they're voting on and cannot merely vote on "Everything I missed" as in the past it has indicated the poster didn't read the effort post and is guessing instead of analyzing.
Resolved items
In general, a character listed on this trope is considered "settled". This means they should not be challenged unless information used to list them was incorrect or information was missed in the initial discussion.
However, when re-litigating a candidate, the same rules apply for when they were originally proposed. If they do not have five or more upvotes than downvotes for approval upon a re-litigation, including votes from the initial discussion if they do not change, then they are a cut.
This especially applies to the characters listed below, who have been discussed excessively and repeated attempts to get them listed/cut may result in punitive action for bogging down the thread.
Definitely an MB
- Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers: Any sadism Darkrai displays is limited in effect thanks to the game's nature and any cowardice which can be inferred about him is Alternative Character Interpretation about his tactical retreats.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: Azula's Villainous Breakdown is undone in the sequel comic Smoke & Shadow where she regains her composure and ends up stable and in control enough to count.
Definitely not an MB
- South Park: The show's frequent use of vulgar comedy and mean-spirited humor leaves any potential candidates devoid of the dignity or charm to qualify.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Aug 31st 2023 at 4:15:22 AM
What ![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
said.
Got an EP for the thread. From a series that has several CMs, but no MBs as of yet, so I figured I might as well propose a candidate who I'm not 100% sure on, but figured is worth discussing.
What's the work?
Monk is a detetective dramedy about Adrian Monk, former San Francisco police detective who now acts as a consultant due to a huge amount of phobias and crippling obssessive compulsiveness as a result of the murder of his wife. The episode Mr Monk And The Red Headed Stranger is about his and his late wife's favorite singer, Willie Nelson, being framed for murdering his mannager in an alleyway. As you probably guessed, the candidate I'm proposing is the true murderer.
Who is she? What does she do?
Wendy Mass is a blind woman who, when she was 16, had her parents killed in a car accident due to Jason "Sonny" Cross, the aforementioned mannager of Willie Nelson. Going blind due to the incident, Wendy had her vision partially restored about a year prior to the episode due to an accident in a grocery store, where she fell on the floor and got a concussion. Being able to see again, Wendy hid this bit of info about her in order to plot revenge against Cross.
Waiting for Willie Nelson to arrive in San Francisco for a tour, when the band arrives, Wendy puts a note on the radio station before Cross arrives stating to meet in the back alley. There, she confronts Cross and shoots him twice, making sure the second shot is when he ran about twenty feet, impossible for a blind person to make the shot from where the shooter was standing. However, Willie arrives on the scene right as Wendy was about to flee, so Wendy simply acts as a witness, claiming to have only heard the killer's voice. In a lineup, she says that Willie had the killer's voice. With Willie being the only other person to be in the alleyway due to surveillance footage noting who entered (but not what happened in the alley, as Wendy planned), and Willie's own conflict with Cross, this makes Willie the prime suspect.
For most of the episode, Adrian is completely stumped on who the killer is. His bias as a fan of Willie's makes the police more hesitant to listen to him. And Wendy herself succesfully avoided leaving any evidence as well as making everyone think it was impossible for her to kill Cross. However, Monk eventually exposes that she isn't truly blind by bailing out a jailed streaker (long story) to run past Wendy while they all hide. Wendy, is surpsied and amused at the streaker, which tells the group how she's not truly blind. There, Monk reveals he found out Wendy wasn't really blind due to her instinctively shaking Stottlemeyer's uninjured arm, something a blind person wouldn't have known.
Wendy not only takes defeat with dignity, but outright thanks Adrian for solving the crime. While Wendy had no regrets about the murder, she was remorseful about framing an innocent person fro it. Feeling sympathy for her, Stottlemeyer suggests talking with the D.A about extenuating circumstances, Wendy saying her only request is a window for her prison cell in order to make use out of her regained sight.
How do her actions show her to be a Magnificent Bastard?
She deceives literally everybody who knows her for over a year about still being blind to patiently wait for the opportunity to murder Cross and get away with it. And when an unexpected snag happens, Willie's sudden arrival, Wendy manages to pin the blame on him. But she shows to be a polite, friendly old woman to everyone she meets, even letting herself be interviewed by Sharona's son Benjy for her homework.
Any mitigating factors?
Now, the YMMV page does list her as Unintentionally Unsympathetic for comitting murder for a man's accident, and framing an innocent for it. Which is fair and all. But like...she's the villain of the episode. She's gonna do immoral acts. And seeing as how she feels guilty about what she did to Willie and happily admits to the crime when Monk exposed her (even though Monk didn't actually show evidence that she actually did the shooting, just that she faked the dissability) along with how the main reason she killed Cross was because the justice system gave him a slap on the wrist for him killing her parents, I wouldn't hold that against her.
Only real issue is whether or not her scheming stands out. While her plan itself is simple, it proves to be very effective. Unlike the norm, where Monk figures out who did it fairly early, but just needs to prove how, Monk doesn't start suspecting Wendy until about 3/4ths into the episode, and even then, isn't certain until he realizes she's faking her blindness. But I haven't seen most of the episodes of Monk, so like I said, not 100% if she truly stands out.
Final Thoughts?
Your call.
Edited by Awesomekid42 on Sep 26th 2022 at 9:32:22 AM
Can't quite tell one way or another. Ravok, I think it's a fav of yours, any take there?
The wifi here sucks
Based on the EP, I'll give Wendy a yes
Hope your prepared for an unforgettable luncheon
Classy, Refined, Unstable
![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Thumbs_up_emoticon_3268.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
Wendy
Been slacking in the E Ps for this thread, apologies, so here's an EP? I don't think he's scraping it but hey it's YMMV for a reason.
What is the work? Skyrim is a game I think you lot need little introduction to since I'm sure most of you have played or seen it. For the final DLC of the game, called "Dragonborn", The Dragonborn heads to the island of Solstheim, a land comprised of both ash and ice. One of the major locations is the dark elf town Raven Rock, a settlement on the ashy coastline. Doing the two major quests for the town (Stopping the Ash Spawn attacks and discovering the secret of Raven Rock mine) has the commander of the guard, Captain Veleth approach you and says that the Second Councillor Adril wants to speak to you about something private, starting a new quest that involves a conspiracy of an assassination. And who's behind the conspiracy? Our candidate, Vendil Severin.
Who is Vendil Severin?
Vendil Severin is a wealthy dark elf who came to Raven Rock a few years ago with his wife and daughter, Tilisu and Mirri, and helped the community by sharing their wealth to improve it and actually help to rebuild any damage caused to the town (it's mentioned.) However Vendil has a hidden agenda, to kill the leader of Raven Rock, Councillor Morvayn to avenge his ancestor who Morvayn had executed. Due to Vendil and his accomplices appearing benevolent to the people of Raven Rock, no suspects a thing.
Starting the quest after speaking to Adril, The Dragonborn will eventually discover Tirisu in the ancestral tomb for Vendil's ancestor showing respect to the deceased. When the Dragonborn delivers that information to Adril, he asks the Dragonborn to sneak into Vendil's home to find any evidence giving them permission to kill if their life is threatened. Exploring Vendil's home, killing Tirisu and Mirri in the process, The Dragonborn will find Vendil's safe with a letter about his plan: To use a group of assassins he's had trained in an abandoned fort to strike Councillor Morvayn while the guards are distracted by the Ash Spawn attacks.
Giving Adril the note, he will ask you to stop Vendil and the cutthroats by storming their fort-also sending two of his most elite soldiers as help... except they get killed while trying to scout the place before the Dragonborn gets there by Vendil's cutthroats. Storming the fort, killing the assasins, The Dragonborn will eventually reach Vendil at the end after you get through his defences and initiate a fight (Mirri and Tirisu will also be there if you sneaked past them in the house.) With Vendil's demise, Councillor Morvayn will give you a fuck load of money and Vendil's house as a reward.
Is he magnificent?
It's another case of playing the long game waiting for his opportunity to enact his revenge. Vendil's smart enough to pull a Villain with Good Publicity by helping the citizens of Raven Rock, even evading detection from Adril who's shown to be very paranoid out of concern for the safety of Raven Rock. Vendil's scheme being detected by the Dragonborn hiding in the ancestral tomb isn't pulling a Villain Ball since Adril notes that whenever they go to check, they always managed to escape. When cornered he goes Defiant to the End and dies remarking:""I join you in death, father..."
Is he a bastard?
Is he avenging someone that Morvayn executed? Yes. Was the ancestor innocent? No. The game tells you that Vendil's ancestor was a scheming type who attempted the life on Morvayn. There's no petty cruelty from him though and he at least has the decency to be polite to the Dragonborn when talking to him in Raven Rock as an NPC.
Major issue
Now he has no competition (apart from the Dragonborn, the protagonist) but my issue is that his actions are only contained to one quest unlike the other Skyrim candidates who have story arcs behind them so I'm too sure if he "stands" out and that's all that can be showcased for him.
Final Verdict?
Hey the trope's YMMV for a reason so I'll leave it to you guys.
Edited by WetFlannels on Aug 25th 2022 at 5:04:17 PM
Oh, Mr. Kennedy, you entertain me. To show my appreciation, I will help you awaken from your world of clichés.
Gotta love Jaws!
to Alt, Elie and Vendil.
I'll wait to hear further thoughts on Wendy.
"For a second there, I mistook ya for a threat... but you're just a dirty little man!"
Will read Vendil later, but
Tentative Wendy
Shiori/Aya, Elie.
Question about Alt and cyberpunks heinousness standard, how bad is dropping a space station? Like what's the death toll from that? I get that there are horrible mega corporations, but that seems like a huge deal.
Edited by jjjj2 on Aug 25th 2022 at 12:22:17 PM
You can only write so much in your forum signature. It's not fair that I want to write a piece of writing yet it will cut me off in the mid
The MILF Virus
So I got a few more Fire Emblem candidates, took a bit of a break to tackle some other characters I had pending which is now over so heading back to the series. And were returning to Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones once more and discuss one more minor candidate who has a strong case for himself. I present you the Starter Villain of the game, Tirado.
Who is Tirado and what does he do"
The final boss of the first arc of the game, Tirado is a subordinate of Valter and the one who runs Renais after it has been conquered by Grado. A dangerous and cunning general. Tirado shows that similar to his leader he's as ruthless as his leader, with a surprise wit hidden in his sleeves. First appearing in the bonus chapter of Chapter 5 which stars Ephraim and his unit of knights trying to reclaim Renais castle from the enemy, Tirado is put in charge by his master to capture the prince and does so by placing a number of hired mercernaries in the castle instead of his own soldiers as bait for Ephraim to weaken him. And due to their limited resources, Orson's "injury", and the number of mercernaries waiting for them, ultimately the group was weaken incredibly by the time they manage to defeat Zonta. Because of this, Tirado launch his ambush to Ephraim's legion with the Grado army to capture him, and while Ephraim does escape by breakign through, the player is left unknown about this since the scene cuts before his attempt.
With Ephraim escaping his grasp, Tirado decided to adapt his strategy and instead try capturing his sister Eirika instead. Taking advantage that Ephraim's unit has to hide out due to the battle they went through, Tirado used the kingdom's people to spread rumors of Ephraim's capture, making it more belieavable by including details of their skirmishes. This does end up in the ears of Eirika who with her new unit decided to return to Renais castle to rescue him, which Tirado lays his lieutenant Murray and a set of ballistas to guard the the castle's grounds and weaken the group when they do manage to defeat him, fooling his subordinate by pretending he'll send reinforcements.
When Eirika's group does reach the castle, they end up encountering Orson who Eirika nearly believes to be an ally and led to a trap, but Seth was able to sus out Orson being a traitor. With Orson unable to lure Eirika out, Tirado reveals himself with his army, ready to face hers, trapping them in a corner by blowing up the bridge they came in. With numbers and the cramp spaces of the castle in his favor, Tirado is able to push Eirika's group into a corner and would've likely won had Ephraim not end up returning to save them. With no choice but to face them, Tirado fights them in the throne room of Renais with his bulky armoy and his array of spears giving him multiple options to battle, making him a very tough enemy to defeat especially for first timers since even the paladin Seth will have a hard time dealing heavy damage on him. However in the end Tirado is defeated, who dies being impress by the group's strength, before warning them that compared to his commander Valter, he's far more merciful.
Is he Magnificent?
Yes for a starter villain where in the series most of his type would be walking brutes or arrogant incompetent military leaders, Tirado absolutely annihiliates them when it comes to both strategy and tactics, using the betrayal of Orson to lure Ephraim into a death trap that nearly got them killed had Ephraim's out of the ordinary combat skills didn't get them to breakthrough his army, to adapting the plan into pretending Ephraim was actually captured and using heresay with the local people to lure out Eirika instead. It would've worked as well had Seth not caught on Orson's betrayal, which isn't really Tirado's fault and even then he had them cornered by destroying their only escape route after using his subordinate as bait.
And ultimately he does serve as a great Wake-Up Call Boss as the first ever pre-promoted boss in the game, and his claustrophobic castle battleground becoming a challenging test for any first-timers of this level.
Too Much of a Bastard?
Tirado is a backstabber, he'll use his mercernaries as disposable pawns in order to further his plans without a sweat leaving them horrified when they learn how he just used them. However despite this, Tirado still shows a sense of honor when you do manage to take him down, impress with you defeating him and warning you of his master's own ruthlessness in comparison to him, especially contrasting his master's defeat where he screams in agony when he's taken down.
Overall Tirado is a bad man, but a bad man with a sense of dignity and restraint especially compared to some of the even worse folks here, from both major baddies to even other single chapter bosses.
Final Verdict:
I'll say he keeps and with that got one more Fire Emblem candidate who I think with a proper re-evaluation honestly is a strong keeper especially with out current standards.
"Are you the devil?" "Don't compare to me to those small fry" - Mir
Vendil and Tirado sound like keeps.
As for the above question, space station might not be quite the right word. It was an Arasaka communications satellite that Alt knocked out of the sky. The game never states whether it was manned or not, but it wasn't large enough to have a ton of people on it since it was small enough to burn up in the atmosphere. So, technically no one might have died since it was likely unmanned and didn't make it through the atmosphere, but Alt and my next candidate Rogue set it up without really caring about potential casualties. Speaking of which...
- Alt Cunningham is a skilled Netrunner who created the Soulkiller software to transfer minds into a digital form, and was kidnapped by Arasaka to turn it into a weapon. Placed in Soulkiller herself, Alt was lost to the net when her lover Johnny Silverhand disconnected her too early and her consciousness eventually developed into a powerful A.I. over the decades. Later coming into contact with V and Johnny after he too fell victim to Soulkiller, she plays off their desperation and agrees to separate his mind from V's in exchange for getting her access to the Mikoshi digital prison housing all the minds trapped by Arasaka. In most endings, Alt will take over the security in Arasaka Tower and slaughter all its employees, many of whom are innocent, and use Soulkiller without V's consent to separate their mind from Johnny before fusing with Mikoshi to become all powerful.
Since the majority voted for Chad Atkins from Blood Moon, with a few undecided and none voting against, here's the writeup for him.
- "The Killer", real name Chad Atkins, was a former kung fu champion who was disqualified from the Tournament of the Champions for injuring a contestant. After faking his death in a car crash, he reemerged three years later as a theatrical serial killer of martial arts champions, starting with his fellow tournament contestants. His modus operandi is to duel his victims to the death in disguise and in private areas with little to no witnesses while leaving minimal evidence that could be used to trace his real identity. Any witnesses that do come up are used to entice the victim into fighting him and quickly knocked out. When he decides to broadcast the murder of one of his victims live on the internet, he rigs the building he's in to explode the moment anyone steps foot in it and escapes before the police can track his location down. Continuing to evade the police while sending them cryptic messages, he finds a Worthy Opponent in Detective Ken O'Hara after a chance encounter with him during one of his attempted murders. He soon kidnaps O'Hara's wife and child and straps a timed bomb to them, forcing O'Hara to kill him so he can save his family. When the timer goes off before O'Hara can get to his family, the bomb turns out to be fake, and a connected tape recorder plays a post-mortem message saying "no slaughter of the innocents".
I'll do a proposal for RRR (2022) next.
Edited by despoa on Aug 26th 2022 at 3:22:39 PM
Aya, Shiori, Elie, Wendy, Vendible and Tirado
![[tdown]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Thumbs_down_emoticon_3571.png "[thumb down]"){kind=small}
Joker
vendil, tirado
Goku Black
Wendy, Vendible and Tirado
to Alt with that clarified.
Tirado.
I'm not sure on Vendil, but it feels like his plan goes wrong the minute the dragonborn figures it out. I'm not seeing much change of plans there. To be fair that isn't really required if nothing goes wrong with the plan in the first place, but again the dragonborn figures it out and is on to him. I'm feeling iffy... Maybe I'm being too nitpicky, but for now I'll abstain.
You can only write so much in your forum signature. It's not fair that I want to write a piece of writing yet it will cut me off in the mid
Yes to Alt and Tirado.
Got a potential pair of quote from Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW):
Edited by Riley1sCool on Aug 26th 2022 at 7:51:26 AM
Yes to Tirado, love the quotes Riley and can the killer get a trimmy?
Also to my fine folks with LoL stuff pending, please post here!
Edited by 43110 on Aug 26th 2022 at 1:54:06 PM
Lies and Violence!
Wendy, Vendil, Tirado, and the quotes.
Anyone interested in getting invested in a long-term project? Pale Lights, the next serial by the author of A Practical Guide to Evil, just started today—it's set in a "Lovecraftian Renaissance", starring two kids who are on the run from independent conspiracies and sign up to become professional god-killers for survival. I got almost thirty from the Guide so I have high expectations, but it would be nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of/lighten the work load once it eventually ends in who knows how many years.
Edited by EmeraldEmperor on Aug 26th 2022 at 2:07:27 PM
Goku Black
Now. My ep from Day Shift
What's the work?
Day Shift follows a Vampire Hunter Bud on a mission to get enough money for his daughters tuition. And of course our candidate is?
Who is Bud Jablonski?
A member of the vampire hunters union, Bud was kicked out due to his uh extreme disregard for collateral damage and possible civilian issues which also led to one of his fellow hunters being a casualty. Bud now works freelance, hunting vampires and selling their teeth on the black market. We are introduced to the guy expertly stalking an elderly vampire woman and taking her down through the use of his surroundings and tactics. When her lackey comes to help, he revealed he had set a trap to decapitate any vampires whoo came in with silver impossible to see string across the door.
Anyway, Bud learns his ex-wife and daughter are going to have to move to Florida if they can't get the money for her tuition in a week. He at first tries to get it from a douchey pawn store owner by selling the teeth he gets but is shot down. So he asks his friend Big John to help him get back into the union. He's let in on a probationary period at the Day shift with a ref named Seth
Bud shows how focused and intelligent the guy is. He has carefully created methods to kill vampires to retrieve their teeth as he demonstrates to Seth. Later saving his life with quick tactics against zompires.
Bud shows off how cool he is against a nest of vampires. Such as throwing his gun to catch it and take them down with the Nazarin brothers. You know just watch.
Anyway after the elder vampire Audrey comes against revenge for Bud for killing her daughter. Bud gets his daughter out of a party and identifies and takes out one of her goons. They than race against her motorbike minions as Bud tricks them on the race into colliding with various obstacles and the pavement and signs etc. When they reach a bridge to low hanging to go through. He deinflates his tiers to drive them through and hence the chasing truck cant go after them.
Their at home, he's surprised by Audrey who has his neighbour heather turned into a mole. She kidnaps his wife and daughter planning to turn his daughter and kill his wife as payback for taking away her daughter. She leaves him with a vampirised Seth. Bud tricks and decapitates Seth who uh lives since his teeth haven't been removed. After calming down, the two set off and team up with Heather (she was under her mind control. Why is she out of it and helping them now? Uh look this is a goofy B movie. Don't think about it now). They lay seige to Audrey's headquarters with Seth bringing in Big John to help. They gun down even helpless and fleeing vampire goons and make their way to the boss.
Seth and Heather take on Audrey's dragon while Bud fights Audrey. She gets the best of him for most of it. Till he pulls a trick after she has to turn her back to him after Bud's wife shoots her. He makes her lunge after him....right into a silver wire decaptiator he set up. Bud than later is able to get out of this causing any problems for him by using the rule book. And moves into the sunset.
'Magnificent?
He's charismatic, funny and pretty cool as played by Jaime Foxx. He's a cunnning trap master, a master tactician and able to come up withh wickedly cool moves on the fly?
Bastard?'
Bud has a long history as noted of reckless endangerment of civilians and you know the death of a previous hunter (that part is played for laughs but hey it still happened ). He also guns down even running vampire mooks. Now you may respond well aren't they always chaotic evil but well Seth kinda disapproves that. So this is way more ruthless and hardcore. But well hes a good friend and family man and all that other stuff.
Conclusion?
Happy yes.
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."
Yes to Bud.
Classy, Refined, Unstable
Got a vote for Vendil? I think you may have missed it.
Tirado, Bud, Riley's quotes
Lies and Violence!
Ultimate Moral Compass
Definite to Bud
Now for my part in the Day Shift collab.
Who is She?
Audrey San Fernando, the Big Bad, is a real estate agent and secret uber-vampire who hopes to sell every house in L.A. to vampires so that they can wipe out every human in the city and reclaim the land as theirs.
What does she do?
A harsh mistress who punishes vampires who don’t pay her, such as one poor sap who was stripped shirtless, laid to rot in the sun, and his body covered with cement while he’s still alive, Audrey hopes to own every house in the city in order to take back what was once a land for vampire worship. But after finding out Bud killed her daughter, shit gets personal.
Killing Bud’s friend Tony for purchasing and collecting vampire teeth, Audrey has Bud’s new nextdoor neighbor Heather turned into a vampire so that she can have her spy on Bud to find out his weaknesses. Audrey also has a special type of sunscreen secretly created that allows vampires to go out into the sunlight without being harmed. Later kidnapping Bud’s wife and daughter with intent to turn them into vampires just to make him suffer, Audrey has also turned Bud’s new protege Seth into a vampire as well.
Bud, after going through a gauntlet of vampires to make his way to Audrey’s lair, initiates the final battle. Able to match Bud in hand to hand combat and shrug off whatever bullets Bud shoots at her, it takes Bud’s hidden wire trap to finally do Audrey in, but not before getting calling him a “fucking pool boy” before she dies.
Is she charming? Intelligent? Able to think on her feet?
Audrey disguises her vampire origins to pose as a successful human realtor, able to hide her vampire criminal enterprise from the public and even find a way to get her vampires to walk in the sun without harm. Her revenge scheme is also clever, using various tricks to get information on Bud’s homelife and waiting for the right time to strike when he’s at his weakest point: when he’s around his family.
And even though she dies by falling for Bud’s trap, she still gets out one final insult. And even before that, it takes a lot to kill her, the wire being Bud’s last resort.
Is she a bitch? Too much of one?
Audrey’s the Big Bad for a reason. She plans to have everyone in L.A. slaughtered to make way for her vampire brethren, is willing to kill vampires who cross her, and wants Bud to suffer as she kills his family.
But, Audrey genuinely cares for her vampires, hoping to rid the city of humans to reclaim what was once a more welcoming place for vampires. And her daughter’s murder at the hands of Bud is her sole motivation to get back at him; an eye for an eye type of punishment.
Verdict?
I think she keeps. I have one more candidate from the movie whom mir allowed me to discuss.
"No running in the halls!"
Ah, apologies, I did indeed Wet. Yes there and yes to Audrey!
The Unknown Unknown
Wendy, Vendil, Tirado, Bud, & Audrey.
@Riley: Ooh, those quotes are great. That first one especially.
A cruel, sick joke is still a joke, and sometimes all you can do is laugh.
For the main subpages, it’s less examples and more byte count