Old Magnificent Bastard thread
Welcome to the Magnificent Bastard proposal thread! This is the thread where new Magnificent Bastard examples are vetted, approved, and written up. If you're looking for the general cleanup thread (for cuts, rewrites, expansions, and the like), please go here
Important: Before suggesting any new examples, please read the Frequently Asked Questions and Common Requests List; if you have any questions, the odds are high they are answered there. Additionally, please check here for the earliest date a work can be discussed (usually two weeks from the U.S. release date) and whether the work has already been reserved by another user.
Here is how the process works:
- If you have a candidate to propose, you can simply come right in and propose them! If the character's run is brief, such as a single issue of a comic book, then a simple summary of their actions and any potential mitigating features will be enough; for longer-running candidates, an effortpost (EP) might be helpful for organizing the proposal. An EP is not outright required, but please be mindful that if a post becomes too clunky and unorganized, it can be very hard for other people to follow.
- After the proposal, there will be a 72-hour discussion and voting period, where people may ask questions and vote on the candidate. The number of upvotes must outnumber the downvotes by at least five for the character to be considered "approved".
- Three days after the proposal has been made, if the character has been approved, you may post the writeup (the text to be posted on the trope page itself) on the thread and send it to the drafts page. Your candidate will soon be added to the MB subpage. If the work has a page, you should add your candidate to the relevant YMMV page. Voila! It's that simple!
Outside of this process, we do have a few ground rules:
- To keep the thread moving at a reasonable pace, there are some restrictions on when a proposal can be made. There should only be a maximum of four EPs posted both per page and per hour to ensure that nothing gets lost in the shuffle; additionally, each individual troper should only be proposing or writing up characters from a maximum of three works at a time (from initial proposals to end of their voting period). If your proposal would fall outside of either of these guidelines, we'd like to ask you to please wait until they would fit within; feel free to type them up on an outside document, and then when the time comes, you can just copy, paste, and post!
- No plagiarism of any kind. This is a very serious matter site-wide, as the website could get in actual legal trouble over this; as a result, this can very quickly lead to mod intervention. This can take many different forms:
- Direct plagiarism, i.e. wholesale copying. This is not only the easiest to find, but is also the most likely to warrant quick moderator intervention. To be clear, quoting in some places is perfectly acceptable, but it has to be very clear you're quoting from something else and it cannot be anything longer than a sentence or two - if you're quoting an entire work summary from Wikipedia, no one is going to believe you've actually consumed the work, so even if you cite your source, your candidate will be downvoted anyway.
- Self-plagiarism. Even if you can prove that you wrote the same text in both places, the site itself can't contain any of the duplicated text. If you already wrote something once before, it's not too hard to write it a second time.
- Using another site's work as a template for a proposal. Just because you don't copy and paste something directly doesn't mean it's any harder to detect if you're basing parts or all of your proposal on text someone else wrote. To be clear, this doesn't violate site rules and won't lead to mod intervention, but just like if you directly plagiarize, no one will believe you've consumed the work if you're clearly basing your proposal on something else. This thread largely operates on the honor system, and tweaking someone else's work to pass it off as your own is one of the fastest ways to lose trust.
- Votes must be for specific candidates, meaning no blanket voting (i.e. "yes to everyone I missed").
- If you are the first person to downvote a candidate, please provide an explanation of why when you do so. We're here for discussions above all, and a hit-and-run downvote doesn't facilitate anything.
- If a work is already reserved by another user, please don't comment on the work or any potential characters worth discussion before the discussion date. We know how exciting it is when a work has a keeper that you're waiting to talk about, but it's not fair to the person who reserved the work who is just as excited to lead the discussion to see the discussion getting spoiled before they get to do it. On the other hand, if the reservation only has one name attached, shoot them a PM - they may be down for a collaboration, which will get you in on the fun as well!
- Please keep the thread on-topic. While discussing the trope is fun and we encourage people to enjoy it, questions like "who's your favorite MB" are off-topic and can lead to thumps. That's the kind of question to take to people's PMs if they're willing. Similarly, while we encourage friendliness and familiarity with other users, posts should always have some kind of thread-relevant purpose; for instance, if you want to wish someone a happy birthday, feel free to, but if it's the only thing in the post, it's off-topic and needs something else alongside it. Again, though, while we strive for a friendly atmosphere, this is not Facebook; life updates are fun, but unless they have some kind of impact on your thread participation, please do not bring it here - we have Yack Fest for that.
- Please refrain from asking anything along the lines of "How Did We Miss This One?" In almost every case, the answer is simply "No one thought about it before". This Is a Wiki where everyone has different interests, and the fact that people missed a particular candidate, even one that seems like a textbook example of a trope or a character who is particularly iconic in pop culture, means absolutely nothing. The question is disruptive, has a simple and consistent answer, and provides nothing to any discussion.
- If you are suspended from other parts of the website, it is still possible to participate!
- For users who are suspended from editing the wiki, you still have full access to this thread. You can propose candidates and write them up with no issues whatsoever; while you will have to ask someone else to post the entry to the relevant pages once it is done, all write-ups are considered thread-approved - as in, done by consensus - and thus doing so does not violate any rules regarding meatpuppeting.
- If you are suspended from the forums, your participation is limited but not impossible. It is still possible for a forum-suspended user to assist in creating the write-up for a character who has already been approved; as previously mentioned, write-ups are inherently considered a consensus-based edit and thus not tied to any one particular user. However, you can not assist in the proposal of a character; as a proposal is based around the forum rather than the wiki, doing so with a forum suspension qualifies as meatpuppeting.
- Please keep all discussions "in-house".
- What other wikis use for MB equivalents is irrelevant here.
- Please be wary of using other wikis, Fandom or otherwise, as sources of information. They are just as fallible as a site like Wikipedia in regards to accuracy because they can be edited by any user, just as this site can.
- Do not attempt to force a communication with an author in an attempt to gather evidence or settle a debate; besides the fact that this is a YMMV trope and thus author intent has variable weight depending on the circumstance, doing so may cross the line into drama exportation, which is prohibited site-wide.
If you would like to use an EP for your candidate, here's the general format. This format does not have to be followed exactly, but these are the main topics that need to be covered:
What is the work?
This is a brief summary of the work you're going to discuss. We don't need a full plot summary here, just however much we need to understand going into the discussion — it can even be as simple as quoting the summary on the work's page.
Who is the candidate and what have they done?
This is essentially the character's biography — who they are, their story, their goals and methodology, and, preferably (though not required), what happens to the candidate at the end. It does not have to include every single thing they ever do — for some characters, we'd be here all day if that was the case — but it should include the highlights of their journey.
How are they Magnificent?
This is the point where you highlight the character's brilliance. How to they convey their intelligence and charm to the audience? What makes them stand out among the crowd? What are their goals and how do they go about accomplishing them? This part welcomes a lot of creative thinking — not everyone has to be a Machiavellian Diabolical Mastermind to be worth considering here! This is also the time to showcase how the character can think on their feet if it's necessary.
How are they a Bastard? How are they not too bad?
What kinds of moral lines is this character willing to cross for the sake of their goal? Are they willing to let innocents die? Start wars? Commit crimes? The character has to show some kind of unscrupulousness in order to count as a "Bastard". Notably, this character does not necessarily have to be the villain, and an Anti-Hero can cross the line if they're immoral enough, but they have to be immoral somehow.
This is also the section where you then state your case for why they're not too bad. Perhaps their good intentions help mitigate their crimes. Perhaps others are shown to be much worse than them. Perhaps they're prone to Pet the Dog moments or are even fighting on behalf of loved ones. Whatever the case, there are certain lines that an MB can't cross, but as long as their villainy is reasonable for their goal, they can be considered.
Final verdict?
This is where you post your final conclusion on the character in question. You can continue elaborating on your reasons or even just say a simple "yes" or "no"; at this point, we've heard everything we need to hear.
And that's everything you need to know. Welcome to the thread!
Edited by Twiddler on Jan 17th 2024 at 5:40:56 AM
Jaded Techie Fox
![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Thumbs_up_emoticon_3268.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
for Fantos
Not the Eye
to Etricia and Gale
Edited by EmperorGeode on Mar 14th 2023 at 5:35:00 AM
Fantos and Gale
Edited by Melinda on Mar 14th 2023 at 5:26:48 AM
Yes to Gale (Welcome Kosha!) and Fantos.
to Fantos
Edited by G-Editor on Mar 14th 2023 at 8:41:14 AM
Gotta love Jaws!
RIP Toriyama
Yes to Fantos and Gale!
- Ratchet & Clank: Slim Cognito is a slick black market dealer who specializes in illegal weapon and ship modifications. Running ads and kiosks across the galaxy to serve criminals far and wide, Slim performs his job "quickly, cheaply, and quietly" while offering discounts to loyal patrons. Slim evades law enforcement for years, even when directly pursued managing to hide away on backwater planets until the heat dies down. Though Slim is eventually caught, he continues to run his operation from prison and uses Ratchet to eliminate his rivals in the joint, never missing a step along the way.
Edited by Ravok on Mar 14th 2023 at 8:44:54 AM
Tonight I dine on monkey soup.
RIP Toriyama
Got a couple candidates from a series to talk next...
What's the work?
Slow Horses is an excellent Apple TV+ series starring Gary Oldman and based off the series of novels of the same name by Mick Herron. The series follows agents of MI 5, but no James Bond are these misfits. Relegated to working out of the "Slough House", the "Slow Horses" are a group of flunkie secret agents whose personal flaws and failings have resulted in them being stuck at the bottom of the barrel of MI 5, used only for the most boring missions or as scapegoats when the big boys make mistakes. But even losers can save the day, as the series sees this band of failures work together to take down threats inside MI 5 and out, even if half the time through clumsily stupid luck.
Now, the show is only 2 seasons in out of a planned, at least, 4, but this guy can absolutely go up right now without issue:
Who is Jackson Lamb? What makes him a candidate?
Played by Oldman, Jackson Lamb is the slovenly, lazy head of Slough House who at first seems to be nothing but a farting, insult-spouting Pointy-Haired Boss, but is quickly shown to be a highly dangerous, tactical, efficient secret agent who's simply Brilliant, but Lazy. And though he's tough on those in his employ, Lamb will go out of his way to protect and avenge his "joes".
- Having served MI 5 for decades as a top agent, Lamb chose to downgrade himself to "just" the head of Slough House after he murdered one of his own joes, Charles Partner. Lamb had discovered years before that Partner was a mole for the Soviets, fed him bullshit until he was cut off from his Russian contacts, then worked with a fellow agent to assassinate Partner and frame it as a suicide to punish him for betraying Lamb's trust. Lamb found the situation so sobering that he preferred to be "demoted" to Slough House so as to avoid such high-stakes in the future.
- Throughout Season 1, Lamb comes to realize that Slough House is being set up as the patsies for an MI 5-led False Flag Operation gone wrong. Lamb ain't having that.
- After overpowering and taking down far younger, seemingly more in-shape MI 5 agents to save one of his from capture, Lamb advises his team to go on the run when they are framed for being part of the false flag. He personally buys plane tickets all over the city in his name to distract MI 5, and even when temporarily caught by MI 5 alongside his right-hand woman Standish, Lamb uses "allergies" to ask Standish for a tissue; Lamb had snuck a gun into her purse, knew MI 5 would overlook her as a frail older woman, and had her pull the gun to enable their escape.
- Tying the false flag back to prominent MI 5 operator Diana Taverner, Lamb drives right up to MI 5 headquarters—blaring "The Proclaimers"—and seemingly surrenders himself. In truth, he snuck a fake bomb in on the car, uses it to distract security long enough for his ally Cartwright to infiltrate the place, and finds dirt on Taverner that forces her to cancel the frame-up on Slough House.
- Lamb then leads Slough House in saving the victim of the false flag—a young Muslim man named Hassan, kidnapped by extremist racists—and tracks Hassan down through a combination of his team and his own deduction. Once Hassan is rescued and Lamb ensures Slough House is safe, he helps Taverner cover up MI 5's staging of the false flag, figuring the truth is far more dangerous to public safety than the simple lie.
- In Season 2, Lamb learns of the death of an old colleague, Richard Bough, and immediately sees through the apparent "heart attack" he suffered to begin investigating.
- After disguising himself as Bough's brother and using sympathy + charm to get into the crime scene, Lamb finds Bough's cell phone and uses it to gleam information and discover that Bough was killed by a "Cicada"—aka, a Russian sleeper agent.
- Realizing that a Russian spymaster has a big plan coming, Lamb dispatches Cartwright to go undercover in the small town of Upshott to lure out a Cicada assassin, and in the meantime does his own investigations and digging. When one of his "joes", Min Harper, is killed in a "car accident", Lamb doesn't believe the shoddy police work for a second, ambushing and threatening the witness to the "accident" to reveal that Harper was actually murdered by Russians, Lamb promising her witness protection if she tells him the truth. Lamb gives her a number to call and tells her to request a "number 7" to find her salvation... it's actually just the number for a restaurant and Lamb's favorite dish.
![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]")
- Discovering through his own research that the Russian spymaster is an old MI 5 suspect Katinsky, Lamb and Katinsky engage in a cat-and-mouse game that culminates in Lamb challenging Katinsky to a final meet-up. Katinsky reveals he has been working against Slough House all season to eventually kill Lamb and his old partner for the murder of Charles Partner—Partner having been a close ally of Katinsky's—and though Katinsky seems to have the upper hand as he reveals he has discovered the identity of Lamb's old partner and sent a Cicada after him, Lamb reveals he deduced Katinsky's motives and sent warnings + armed security ahead of time, saving his old partner's life and ruining Katinsky's plans.
- Leaving Katinsky a gun with one round in it, knowing the cancer-ridden Russian has nothing to live for anymore with his revenge foiled, Lamb nonetheless expresses genuine admiration for how Katinsky conducted himself, his last words to Katinsky being "If it's any consolation...you were really fuckin' good."
- With Katinsky and the Cicada plot all tied up, Lamb ends the season sneaking Slough House into the "prestigious" St. Leonard's church to secretly place a plaque honoring Min Harper inside—MI 5 had refused to sanction Slough House or Min the honor of such because of their bad reputation—which Lamb hides behind the church piano so that it won't be discovered by MI 5 for a long, long time, ensuring their lost ally's name will remain on the honored wall where it belongs.
Is he magnificent?
Yeah, Lamb is fucking great. In a show meant to display super spies who aren't that great at their job, Lamb is the exception in Slough House. He's a genuinely badass, intelligent agent who is deliberately underselling himself because he doesn't want to endanger his team with high-risk missions, but when the chips are down? No one can beat Lamb. Even though Katinsky plays Lamb and his team for a good chunk of Season 2, Lamb ultimately deduces his identity, outdoes him, and has a final Worthy Opponent battle of verbal bars with him with Lamb the victor.
Lamb's also f'in hilarious, regarded by those around him as a gross, obnoxious man but one who is fully able and willing to get deadly serious, and for all his belittling of the Slough House team? Lamb considers them his "joes" and will go out of his way to do his best for them.
Is he a bastard?
Lamb is not a good man, by any stretch. He murders enemies when they're unarmed and defenseless, he helps cover up MI 5's False Flag Operation for the good of himself and the general public (Season 1 flat out ends on a heavily bitter note because the real villains get away scot-free in heavy part thanks to Lamb), he puts his team in very risky situations on the regular, and he's very much portrayed as an Anti-Hero who can and will break all kinds of ethical boundaries to get what he wants.
Final Verdict?
Very easy Yes to Lamb
Edited by Ravok on Mar 15th 2023 at 12:43:06 PM
Tonight I dine on monkey soup.
Happy yes to Lamb!
Yes to Lamb. I have waited most of the three days before posting but Percy and Hector have still been ignored. Am I supposed to repost them at another point or is those conscious abstentions for the characters?
The Yggdrasil Cretin
to Fantos, and thanks for the welcome, Vicious Cowboy Bebop!
Ultimate Moral Compass
Lamb
So, yes there and I got a funny, unconventional keeper. Be warned: HEAVY spoilers to follow for one of the seminal film works of its genre.
What's the work?
The Great Silence is an infamous Western, considered one of the greatest ever made. Directed by Sergio Corbucci the film stars Jean-Louis Trintignant as "Silence," a mute gunfighter. Years ago, Silence watched the death of his family and his throat was cut to keep him from talking. Silence years later is a gunfighter and hunts bounty killers to kill them in legal self defense. When a blizzard traps the town of Snow Hill, civilians are forced to thievery to survive and corrupt banker Pollicut puts a bounty on their heads. Polliut happens to be the man who killed Silence's family, and this attracts the attention of the monstrous Loco, a bounty killer who murdered the husband of a local rancher named Pauline who falls for Silence...
The film is infamous for its brutal, sudden, horrific downer ending. I won't mince words: Silence dies pointlessly. His heroism avails him nothing. Loco kills him, kills Pauline when she tries to avenge him, then murders the outlaws and sets out to claim the reward. Goodness does not triumph, the bad guys win, and the world is left a worse place.
But because there were concerns that such a thing was too bleak to film, the producers forced Corbucci to film a second, alternate ending, and that's from where we'll be discussing this because it's too funny not to.
Who is Silence?
A mute gunslinger who operates by the code of going after bounty killers. Silence's MO is to provoke them into drawing on him, whereupon he pulls his gun and blows 'em away. Silence is good at his job, and manages to ally with the local outlaws to wage a private war on the vicious Pollicut. Using the outlaws, Silence is methodical in cutting down Pollicut's support and actually manages to challenge and defeat Loco, leaving him in jail at the authority of the heroic, but bumbling Sheriff Burnett.
So, I'll make this brief...Pollicut ultimately tries to rape Pauline and Silence is badly wounded with his hands burnt. He fights back and kills Pollicut, but Loco has set a trap with the captive outlaws, having escaped and sunk Burnett in a frozen river. Silence, knowing it's a trap, goes to confront Loco to save the day and do the right thing...
In the original, this avails him nothing. The trap works. Silence dies. BUT IN THIS ENDING....
Sheriff Burnett is alive, charges out and shoots Loco in the face, and Silence reveals....he was the one trapping them! He was faking his injuries, he's wearing a metal gauntlet under bandages (for when they try to shoot his hands) and he goes on a full on invincible hero gun spree to take out Loco's gang. He gets the girl, the outlaws are saved (but put in jail to await pardon from the governor) and Burnett cheerfully asks Silence to be his deputy...
And Silence responds with a smile that makes this whole schmaltzy mess seem worth it
Mitigating issues?
Oh, boy. this is a funny, if unusual, piece of cinema. Now, Silence had the smarts and the ruthlessness: he basically provokes bounty hunters to challenge him so he can kill them guilt free. He's a heroic guy, but he's got a ruthless streak to him.
And factor in the ending where he turns out to be fooling the bounty killers? I think this hits so well. It's honestly kind of hilarious how out of place it is.
Conclusion?
Yes.
Ultimate Moral Compass
Alt Ending!Silence
to Lamb and Silence
Well it looks Blazer was close 6 and 2 ![[tdown]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Thumbs_down_emoticon_3571.png "[thumb down]"){kind=small}
so I guess I'll put him to rest (Here's Blazer's EP but I doubt it's going to make a difference)
Edited by G-Editor on Mar 15th 2023 at 10:24:11 AM
Not the Eye
to Lamb and Silence .
Lies and Violence!
![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thumbs_up_emote.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
Gale, Fantos, Lamb, and Silence.
What's the work?
Ninjago is one of LEGO's longest running toylines, having just wrapped up the fifteenth season of its accompanying show. The series stars ninja with elemental powers, who strive to protect the titular realm of Ninjago from all sorts of threats. It starts out with basic fantasy factions, taking on skeleton legions and armies made of living stone. It then... uh, escalates in a very, very weird way, moving on to biker gang cultists, mermen, and living video game characters.
One of the earliest villainous factions were the Serpentine, a race of snake people who were locked away in underground tombs years ago. At least, until they were released by Lloyd Garmadon (young wannabe-supervillain son of series Big Bad Lord Garmadon), who, through a strange series of events involving time travel, fighting evil clones in an evil boarding school, and stealing candy from babies, would end up becoming the main protagonist of the series.
Like I said, it gets weird.
- Skales is one of the earliest antagonists introduced in the series, The Dragon to General Slithraa of the Hypnobrai—one of the five subspecies of Serpentine, who have the ability to hypnotize their opponents. Seeing the chance for a promotion when Slithraa accidentally hypnotizes himself into Lloyd's service and involves the Hypnobrai with his childishly evil schemes, Skales begins laying the groundwork for a coup. He hypnotizes one of the ninja, Cole, when they come to stop their schemes, while Slithraa loses his staff of leadership in the middle of the fighting. When the ninja return for a rematch, Skales turns Cole against them as a distraction while his forces raid their base, take back the staff, and burn it all down. With the staff in his possession, Skales publicly denounces Slithraa for his failures (and for reducing the mighty Serpentine to minions of a literal child), challenging him to single combat and winning to become the new general.
- Due to shenanigans, the other Serpentine tribes get loose. The general (by default) of one, Pythor, has ambitions of revenge on humanity for their imprisonment, planning to unite the tribes under his leadership and release the Great Devourer—a giant snake god that will eat everything. While the other generals are ambivalent, Skales decides to ally himself with Pythor and help him take power; when the ninja try to sabotage a rally he's holding to give his pitch for leadership, Skales easily and efficiently captures all except one, who... *checks notes* conveniently got his whites mixed in with reds that day and was able to blend in with a pink subway sign, escaping the notice of Skales' minions and freeing his friends.
- When the time comes for Pythor to officially take power, Skales helps him cheat in the trial by combat with the other generals, secretly passing him a magic flute he uses to charm them into compliance. He doesn't have too big of a role during Pythor's stint as main antagonist, mostly just hanging out in the background and throwing in a piece of advice now and then on how to keep the rest of the Serpentine in line. They eventually manage to claim all the keys needed to free the Devourer, only for the ninja to steal them. Pythor invisibly follows them on their flying ship and steals the keys back, escaping when he notices Skales was also following them in a helicopter. Realizing they still wouldn't be fast enough to reach the Devourer's prison before the ninja, Skales preemptively had his forces hijack a bus, allowing Pythor to reach the tomb in time and free their god.
- ...Unfortunately, none of them realized the Devourer wanting to eat everything means it would want to eat the Serpentine as well. Skales leads them back underground after Pythor is eaten, intent on taking over once the Devourer is slain by the ninja... only for Lord Garmadon to show up and bully the Serpentine into submission, leaving Skales and the three remaining generals out to dry. Still, Skales doesn't quit that easily, formulating a plan to take back control of their people from the dark lord. For all of his evil, Garmadon still loves his son. He has the other generals rob a bank to distract the ninja while he attacks their new base to kidnap Lloyd, only failing because the ninjas' sensei conveniently returns from his trip out of town at that exact moment and defeats him offscreen.
- Biding his time until the other generals break him out of jail, their subsequent high-speed chase with the police just so happens to put them in the middle of a giant race that half the city is participating in. Both Skales and the police kind of just go with it, but Skales sees another opportunity upon noticing one of the participants is Garmadon. Long story short, Garmadon... hasn't been doing well, falling more and more into idiotic Skewed Priorities. Such as winning this race, which leaves his flying fortress wrecked, his powers temporarily depleted, and police surrounding him at the finish line. Fortunately for him, Skales swerves in at the last moment to offer an escape, allowing the generals back into positions of power with him.
- After maybe two episodes of putting up with Garmadon's idiotic schemes, Skales decides on another coup. Garmadon is searching for a mythical Dark Island, so Skales and the generals accompany him on a helicopter ride to the middle of the sea, and... just push him out. That easy. Skales crowns himself the new Serpentine King and leads the full might of their forces in their greatest scheme for revenge against humanity yet: snakes can dig, right? They have entire tunnel networks under Ninjago. So... just dig under Ninjago City. take out supports, and bury everyone underground like the Serpentine were buried before.
- This actually begins working, with no one the wiser as to how to stop these sudden earthquakes... until Skales comes across a mysterious tomb they can't burrow through. Opening it up, they find an army of stone warriors, who quickly come to life and attack—though despite being invincible, the Serpentine honestly do a pretty good job holding them at bay. Inevitably, though, the stone warriors escape the tomb, closing it behind them to forever lock the Serpentine away once more...
- Until they manage to pry the door open a season later. What dastardly new scheme are they cooking? What evil plans are they brewing for revenge? The ninja go down to confront them, finding Skales returning from the surface...
- With groceries. And a newspaper. He likes the crosswords. After their revenge schemes kept backfiring on them, Skales got tired of the whole evil thing and decided to help his race turn over a new leaf. While the ninja are visiting, he decides to tell them about the legend of the Golden Master, an Antichrist the Serpentine tried to warn humanity about, only to be misinterpreted as attackers and be sealed underground. While the whole Devourer thing was partially for revenge for their imprisonment, their true intentions with releasing the beast were to scare humanity underground, to save them from the Golden Master's wrath. Skales parts amicably with them, informing them that Pythor has most likely survived and joined up with the Golden Master, but remains adamant that he will not join in the conflict, prioritizing the safety of his people and their children.
- ...Until he changes his mind in the middle of the battle with the Golden Master, helping civilians evacuate into the sewers underground as the battle consumes the streets. After that's dealt with, Skales pops up sporadically every once in a while to help out the ninja, providing exposition on new Serpentine-related threats and even fighting the returned Golden Master in the latest season.
Mitigating qualities?
Honestly, Skales was not the first character who came to mind when looking at this show for candidates. He's a textbook Starscream with a screechy voice and everything, constantly looking to undermine his bosses and having comical reactions of fear/anger to failure or bigger threats.
But honestly? Skales is easily one of the smartest early villains. His betrayals often work out perfectly—he only fails to kidnap Lloyd because, again, their uber-powerful sensei just so happened to return to town that exact second, and his subsequent defeat isn't even onscreen. Everything else—the coup against Slithraa, disposing of Garmadon—goes off without a hitch, and while he's strangely loyal to Pythor, his advice is incredibly useful in maintaining their control over the other tribes. His plans are also the most pragmatic—rather than release a giant snake god, or any of Gamradon's hairbrained schemes, he just... makes use of the Serpentine's natural ability to dig good to dig under the city. It's brutally efficient and comes the closest to victory than any of his previous masters' plans, only failing to the unexpected presence of an invincible army he nonetheless does an admirable job standing against. The biggest mark against him is not realizing the Devourer's omnicidal hunger, but I'm more willing to blame that on him trusting Pythor to know what he's doing.
As for the "comical reactions", his cowardice is often in response to perfectly reasonable things like, say, a giant tank about to shoot a missile at him, or an encroaching giant buzzsaw, while he's such a Large Ham when angry that I honestly can't hold it against him. His response to losing the Serpentine to Garmadon is to angrily stamp his foot tail and go "Ooh, drat!" Meanwhile, getting locked in the stone warriors' tomb provokes 15 whole seconds of this gem:
It's often so over the top that I'm fully willing to forgive it, especially when his Heel–Face Turn—specifically brought about by what he admits was a much-needed "humbling scrap"—has him seriously mellow out into a wise and calm leader.
Edited by EmeraldEmperor on Feb 11th 2024 at 4:40:09 AM
Not the Eye
to Skales. Definetely not one to come to mind when thinking MB.
Jaded Techie Fox
to Lamb, Silence, and Scales
Yes to S Ilence and Skales.
to Skales
Ultimate Moral Compass
Skales
Gale, Fantos, Lamb, Alt Ending!Silence.
Not sure on Skales... can't tell how much of that indignity is too undignified or not.
I'm abstaining.
Edited by jjjj2 on Mar 15th 2023 at 1:10:40 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
So a webcomic I've been reading just concluded last Thursday, and since I'm the only one who's read it, and since I just found out its undergoing an indefinite hiatus, I figured why not? I'll propose it on here.
What’s the Work
The White Wraith is a spin-off webcomic set in the world of Danger Zone One.
Etricia Fantos is the White Wraith, a criminal who often steals whatever she can from criminals. Hired by her handler Farah Crest to steal a bunch of snow diamonds from a ship run by terrorist group Red Wolf, Fantos finds out that the ship has been hijacked by the Omega Cult, a group of deadly Luddites who seek to rid the world of technology. Didn't I write a short story with these kinds of villains once?
Anyway, Fantos must navigate the ship, defeat the cult, and escape with the diamonds in hand.
Who is She?
Etricia Fantos, aka the titular "White Wraith," is a famous thief best known for her determination, expertise in stealing, and willingness to persist when things go awry.
What does she do?
Behind some of the most impressive heists in Pallad City, Fantos primarily steals from criminals and syndicates, with necklaces, paintings, diamonds, and other treasures unsafe from her, Fantos is regarded as a ghost amongst Pallad City, her elusiveness allowing her to remain unseen by anyone to this day. Hell, she had stolen a costume from Syren Industries that allowed her to remain invisible, along with a bunch of gear that would help her in her heists.
Working with her cowardly tech partner Farah Crest in her heists, Fantos had previously dealt with a heist that went wrong all by herself when Farah skipped town at the first sign of trouble, leaving Fantos to clean up everything, which she was able to do without a scratch, but now with a grudge against Farah.
Given a mission by Farah with the promise of a huge payday, Fantos is tasked to steal snow diamonds from the NANDA cargo ship belonging to the terrorist group Red Wolf. Negotiating a 60/40 split to participate in the mission, Fantos gets onboard the ship, but gets knocked out and tied up, though she’s able to escape by sliding a Micro-EMP from her fingernail to disable her electronic handcuffs. But once she’s freed, she dons her signature costume and getting to work.
Tracking the snow diamonds down via their radiation signature, Fantos uses her suits camouflage feature to take down two Omega Cult members, managing to acquire the hidden snow diamonds and escape... well, if she didn’t have to deal with the Omega Cult getting in her way. Despite Farah warning her to stay away from them, after hearing about their plan to use the Night Fang EMP to cause some citywide destruction, Fantos decides to go against Farah’s warnings and play hero.
Though her outfit malfunctions due to the sprinkler system going off (it’s not water resistant), Fantos is still able to make an escape with the EMP in hand, even when the last surviving Red Wolf soldier activates a series of explosions to destroy the ship and everyone on it. Cornered by the Church’s brute Vostak on the railing, Fantos drops the EMP near her submarine, tricking him into charging at her, only to have him fall through the ship’s weakening floorboards. Fantos hopes over the rail into her sub and makes an escape.
Except she lost all the snow diamonds. Calmly telling Farah about the heist's failure, Fantos is nevertheless promised by Farah more jobs if she wants, with Fantos ending their conversation... then pulling out a single snow diamond, declaring that a snow diamond makes a better gift than anything Farah’s given her, keeping it for herself and thus making the heist a success for her.
Is she charming? Intelligent? Able to think on her feet?
Fantos is a quick-thinking thief capable of using her suit to the best of its capabilities, able to steal countless objects and make a name for herself in the criminal underworld. Even when caught in a jam, Fantos uses her environment to make an escape, and ultimately ends the story coming out on top over not only the Omega Cult, but also Farah.
Is she a bitch? Too much of one?
Fantos is a thief who has alluded the cops and several other criminals as she pulls off countless thefts. She's a criminal, not even treating her own partner Farah with much respect, willing to not only go against her, but also swindle her of the treasure she so desired.
But Fantos has standards. She steals from criminals, and her treatment toward Farah is justifiable since not only does Farah sometimes screw up, she literally left her for dead in their previous mission out of cowardice. So Fantos getting one over her at the end is pretty satisfying.
And before anybody asks to just wait it out on proposing Fantos in case there's another chapter, like I said earlier, the series is on indefinite hiatus, and will sadly remain a one-off.
Verdict?
A nice keep
Edited by therealjackieboy on Mar 14th 2023 at 4:39:38 AM
"No running in the halls!"