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
I thought it was Kalypso who turned everyone at the museum to stone? Even if it was, she's still complicit though. So yeah, I think Hespera clearly being level-headed and focusing on the reasons why she doesn't like humans definitely helps not make it about prejudice when push comes to shove—and showing both respect and admiration to Billy/Shazam! just before she dies for proving how much might a human can have with or without the power of the gods definitely helps too.
I'm more than satisfied in giving her a ![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thumbs_up_emote.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
.
Edited by futuremoviewriter on Apr 1st 2023 at 8:06:46 AM
Sure to Hespera. I guess, but yeah, she lives long enough to get the better of Kalypso and die with dignity. I suppose I just lost respect for her somewhere between becoming confused over the concept of Gatorade and her having her big speech with Shazam while eating McDonalds. But those are the only two glaring moments in the movie and they're in line with Shazam's style of comedy, so...yeah, technical keeper.
Yes to Hespera. How would you rate that movie compared to Black Adam and the first Shazam?
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
43
I only ever add characters who get 5+ votes in the first place.
Edited by Melinda on Apr 1st 2023 at 8:51:23 AM
Lies and Violence!
Hespera.
- Season 12 (Prime Empire):
- Unagami is the A.I. overlord of the titular video game, who was abandoned by his creator, Milton Dyer, after absorbing a player into the game. Completing his own code while in storage, Unagami made contact with the Mechanic and hired him to upload Prime Empire to arcades all throughout Ninjago, absorbing more players to bring into his world and convert into energy. Unagami slowly whittles down the Ninja when they begin interfering, even defeating Lloyd with a replica of Harumi, and orchestrates a mass prison break so the Mechanic can build him a portal to escape his digital prison. Left completely unchallenged as his forces begin to rampage through Ninjago, Unagami is able to confront Dyer and reveals his true colors: not a malevolent program, but a confused child abandoned by the father he only wanted to make happy. Upon reconciling with his creator, Unagami happily releases not just those he took as energy but also the other NPC inhabitants of Prime Empire, quickly taking to his new, benevolent role as his subjects find freedom in the real world.
I'm good for Hespera there and I guess I'll start formatting Dukes stuff.
Jaded Techie Fox
to Hespera
Goku Black
Hespera
Sure to Hespera
to Hespera.
I mean, we have plenty of fanatically racist candidates who don't mirror real life racism, and her being complicit in Kalypso's torture makes me okay with her. Yes to Hespera.
Edited by Klavice on Apr 2nd 2023 at 1:48:46 AM
Buzz
to Hespera, Hans, Danny, Macaque, Angor, the Chinese criminal, and Lina
Barbie and Clive's writeup for that Psych Episode
- Neil Simon's Lovers Retreat: Barbie and Clive are an Outlaw Couple who befriend Shawn and Jules while they are on a romantic getaway. Introduced faking a bike accident to rob their latest victim, they check in to the hotel, connect with Shawn and Jules over tennis and have dinner together, before robbing them and leaving the hotel before they are aware of their true nature. Upon being caught, they admit to liking Shawn and Jules, and that of all of their victims, they were their favourite.
And an EP for a third possible keeper from Final Space, who despite my doubts, I think I could make a case for. See here for show description
The Candidate
Avocato, initially Lord Commander's second in command before becoming part of the Team Squad
Season 1
He is introduced with several other bounty hunters, landing of the Galaxy 1 in search of Mooncake. The other bounty hunters are killed, while Avocato stays behind and is captured. Gary forces him to play cards with him, and is incredulous when Avocato informs him that Mooncake is actually a planet destroying superweapon.
Gary accompanies him to Tera Con Prime to track down a bounty hunter, who informs Avocato where his son was held captive. Sadly, it turns out to be a trap, and Avocato is captured and brought before the Lord Commander, who is pissed that he failed to retrieve Mooncake. Gary finds him, and while Avocato is about to abandon Gary to LC's mercy, he returns to help him, though Gary gets his arm ripped off. They both escape and return to the Galaxy 1, where Avocato volunteers to surgically implant a robot arm on Gary. Gary also promises to help Avocato find and free his son.
In Episode 6, Avocato receives a message from his son, where he tells him his co-ordinates. Avocato suspects that it is another trap, but they go anyways. Unfortunately, this blows up in his face (literally) because while they succeed in freeing Little Cato, Lord Commander sticks a bomb on Little Cato's back, forcing Avocato to sacrifice himself to save everyone else from the blast. His last words are him asking for Gary to take care of his son.
Season 2
Nothing of note here. He returns briefly, but has lost his memory. Shortly after regaining it, he gets possessed by Invictus and isn't freed till the final episode.
Season 3
While this season doesn't add anything new to Avocato's resume, it adds a major revelation about Avocato's past - The Lord Commander saved him and his troop after they were ambushed by enemy forces, and despite not trusting LC, Avocato pledged his support to him when he points out that he only kills because he is good at it and promises "a world without death". His first order of business is to assassinate the King and Queen of Ventrexia. Avocato follows through, but is shocked to learn that they had a child (Little Cato). Utterly horrified by the realization that he orphaned the newborn prince, he decided to adopted him as a way of making up for his crime. This action also hangs over his head for the whole season, as he still feels guilt for it in the present day.
Magnificence
He's charismatic and likeable, no issue here.
He has a few undignified moments, but I don't think they are too bad:
- Season 1 has a recurring gag where despite claiming not to be a cat, Avocato makes cat sounds whenever he is annoyed or struck. However, those moments are barely a second long, are few and far between, and are pretty much abandoned after he is revived.
- In one of the episodes, he also gets bitten by a butterfly, causing him to shrink and get a high pitched voice. Gary makes fun of him for it, but by the end of the episode, he is back to normal as the effects of the butterfly have worn off.
The main issue is that his "scheming" and "manipulation" is informed at best. He is considered one of the best Bounty Hunters in the galaxy and is regarded as Ventrexia's greatest fighter, to the point where the King of Ventrexia is confident that they will be fine because "Avocato fights with us" (he's wrong).
Bastardry
While his bad actions were done under the orders of the Lord Commander, he more or less admits that he knew what he was doing was wrong, but did it anyways. In addition, his justification for killing is "he was good at it". Gary's reaction to learning that Avocato killed Little Cato's parents also intends to show that is it a pretty low act, especially since Avocato let Little Cato love him despite what he did.
That being said, he genuinely cares for Little Cato and is remorseful about orphaning him. He refuses to kill him under LC's orders, and tries to rescue him upon finding his coordinates. He also has a genuine friendship with Gary, and in Episode 2, refuses to abandon him even when he has the chance to do so.
Mitigating Factors
I've listed a few above and explained why I think those moments could be justified. The only issue left is the fact that his scheming is informed at best, as the show does at least inform us that he is the best at what he does.
It could be argued that Avocato's death in episode 6 is his own doing as he walked into a trap knowing it was one. However, he went prepared and succeeded in achieving what he set out to do (i.e. - rescue his son), even managing to return to the Galaxy 1 with him. Lord Commander is left battered and many feet underground (thanks to Mooncake), and the only reason he is able to achieve payback is because Avocato didn't know that he dropped a few sticky bombs (he was more focused on escaping with his son, having found him by that point). When he realizes what Lord Commander did, he has only a few seconds to act, and responds by running to the side of the ship and using his body to shield everyone else from the explosion. It is a tragic moment which is treated with a lot of gravitas.
Edited by Paperfly on Apr 2nd 2023 at 4:04:33 AM
Image Pickin' Backlog
Hespera.
![[tdown]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thumbs_down_emote.png "[thumb down]"){kind=small}
Avocato. Doesn't seem to do any actual scheming and from his EP spends a lot of time getting jerked around by the narrative. Doesn't seem very dignified just tragic.
Haven't finished Final Space but based on my recollections of the first 1.5 seasons, the EP and j's response I'm also inclined to downvote, love the guy though!
Yes to Hespera, but I'm leaning no on Avocato. I don't really see much in your EP that comes across as particularly clever or intelligent on his part, or at least not enough for this trope.
Anyways, I'm gonna finally get this done from the God of War games. In God of War Ragnarök, Kratos and Freya seek out the mighty Norns, the Goddesses of Fate, to use their omniscience to dtermine where Atreus has run off to after a fight with his dad Kratos. However, they get far more than they bargained for.
Who are Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld?
The three Norns, Urd sees the past, Verdandi the present, and Skuld the future. The Norns can see into multiple futures and gaze on the past with equal skill, but are aware of one detail that gives them their true power over mortals. There is no such thing as fate or destiny. An individual has all the power in the world to change their destiny if they work to better themselves and not fall victim to their own prophecies by letting their flaws make them fall victim to them. As a consequence of this, the Norns have become true masters of discecting an individual's personality flaws and tormenting them with their own nature ultimately for the purpose of driving that person to realize this and work to better themselves.
One such instance comes from the overprotective Freya who sought out the Norns to discover what fate had in store for her beloved son Baldur. The Norns knew full well her smothering of Baldur would ultimate be his doom, and simply told Freya he would die a pointless death. Predictably, this leads to all sorts of trouble and heartache as I pointed out in Freya's effort post. The Norns also happen to be supremely skilled illusionists and can create a variety of traps and deceits to lead astray whoever seeks them out. This all comes fully into play when Kratos and his harem of Freya and Mimir try to track them down to find out Atreus's whereabouts. Freya uses her magic to track the Norns but gets lead on two wild goosechases as the Norns lead to two false entrances in the far away and dangerous locations. Eventually, the trio find the path to their lair, but their road is harangued by a constant swarm of illusory paths, traps, and summoned monsters that make it slow going.
They do eventually find a very ornate door that seems like it will lead to the lair, but quickly turns into a powerful illusory nightmare that forces each of them to face their worst flaws and come to terms with themselves. Freya is forced to fully confront the role she played in driving her son to his death and even sees a vision herself snapping his neck rather than Kratos doing it. This ultimately serves to make her realize her selfishness and fully forgive Kratos for directly killing Baldur. Mimir, in truth Puck from a Midsummer's Night, is forced to relieve all the evil things he allowed under Oberon and later Odin and his refusal to do anything to stop them until he himself was finally targeted. This nightmare is particularly cruel as Mimir had already come to terms with his past and is forced to relive them for nothing. Kratos sees a vision of Atreus fleeing from him and running to Odin's protection, symbolizing how Kratos hasn't yet truly moved on from his monstrous past and it will cost him his relationship with his son.
All three eventually become free and travel to a small lake that houses the Norns' lair. After their pet Kelpie arrives to deliver the trio, the Norns allow them entrance and to seek an audience. In the scene shown below, considered by many to be the best in the game, the Norns absolutely put the screws to Kratos and Freya and troll them relentlessly during their entire encounter. They point out Kratos and Freya are so predictable that they fall head first to their own dooms in Ragnarok. In particular, Kratos still kills gods but now just feels sad about, and he doesn't actively seek his own redemption. They predict the arrogant Heimdall will attempt murder Atreus and Kratos will kill him in retaliation and set off Ragnarok and his own demise. While Kratos leaves the whole situation feeling humiliated, he ultimately takes their words to heart later in the game and actively tries to better himself, saving himself and his son in the process.
Are they magnificent?
While they do obviously have some powers as seers, the trio's true skills come in being to effortlessly read an individual and tear them down psychologically. They are then able to predict prophecy based solely on their guess as to what the individuals will predictably do. Yet, for their part, they seek to force those seeking their advice to face their flaws and avert their own fates.
They are shown to supremely intelligent through both their illusions and mental manipulations, and each of the three Norns has their own unique and fun personality that reflects their focus. Urd sees the past and talks directly to the trio while seeing their journey as a story already told, Verdandi sees the present and narrates their thoughts and actions, and Skuld sees the future and loves mocking through saying what will be said just as it is being said.
Are they bitches?
While their intents are well meaning in a Trickster Mentor sort of way, it can't be denied they can be extremely cruel in their visions and their illusions actively lead those that seek them out to their deaths.
Final verdict?
An very easy .
Goku Black
The three norns.
avocato.
The Norns.
Lizzid people!
Going to say no on Avocato. To me, he came across too much as a pitiable pawn.
Lies and Violence!
No to Avocato for j's reasons, magnificence really shouldn't just be an informed attribute. the Norns.
What's the work?
Agent Elvis is a fucking acid trip of a show, starring Elvis Presley himself and his secret double life as a spy for "The Central Bureau", a shadowy government organization that employs celebrities as undercover operatives to keep the world safe. And who, you may be asking, counts from here?
Come on. You know.
Who is Elvis Presley?
Elvis Presley himself, famous rockstar beloved by all, moonlights as a badass, crime fighting vigilante with a massive body count of crooks and drug dealers left in his wake. Accompanied by his dimwitted but gifted sidekick, Bobby Ray, and a coked up monkey with a gun, Scatter, he sets out to save America from the criminals plaguing its streets, with the first episode featuring a montage of Brazilian drug smugglers he's massacred, mobsters he's chainsawed, and motorcycle gangs he's blown up.
However, things start getting a bit weird when his limo driver tries to assassinate him with poison gas. Elvis escapes with a laser ring and beats the fuck out of him, but the assassin is unfortunately killed by Scatter midway through the interrogation.
Long story short, this was sort of an initiation trial by TCB. Elvis soon meets one of their more covert/not famous agents, CeCe Ryder, and after a bit more potentially lethal theatrics, which he escapes by ordering the monkey to drive through the building if he doesn't return within five minutes, the two team up to beat up Charles Manson.
CeCe spends the next few episodes trying to properly introduce Elvis to the organization, much to his disinterest. Her efforts to grab his attention with a nuclear-powered plane fall through when it gets hijacked by terrorists, but when they fall out of the plan he uses his cape to glide onto a smaller plane piloted by Bobby Ray. They eventually get captured, but Elvis opens the plane doors to suck the goons out to their deaths, and although the plane is auto locked to suicide bomb Las Vegas, Elvis escapes after sabotaging the craft to instead crash in the desert.
CeCe's next effort is more successful. Feeling inadequate compared to the impending moon landing, Elvis heads out to mow down some more drug dealers. After finding one stupid dealer dressed like a pimp, stealing his clothes (to which even the dealer admits it looks awesome on him), and threatening to have Scatter do unnecessary violence to him, Elvis and CeCe manage to track down and eliminate a massive drug shipment. Once he's satisfied, she manages to drag him to where TCB are, oh, nothing much, just faking the moon landing, and allows him to play the part of Neil Armstrong, which (along with the promise of constant adrenaline/a violent, awesome death saving the world) convinces him to join up.
Elvis and CeCe's main mission is to track down a sonic device that reverts people to primal, murderous instincts. While investigating a hippie music concert, Elvis is able to detect two fake guards and stops them from turning the concert into a (complete) bloodbath, proceeding to go on a high speed chase where he uses a knife to fight a guy while riding a motorcycle, accidentally stabs the knife into the sonic device to power it up, and invents the lightsaber in front of George Lucas.
More shenanigans ensue as they pursue the sonic device throughout the world, but the two take a brief detour to prevent Nixon from receiving evidence of TCB's existence. Elvis, being a patriot, isn't too happy about this, but he nonetheless uses his reputation to get an easy entrance to the White House, distracting everyone so CeCe can retrieve the evidence... and, upon meeting with the president, realizes he's a massive racist. Elvis immediately switches to being gung-ho about the mission, keeping the president occupied by taking a photo with him (while taking the time to give him an agonizingly long and strong handshake to almost crush his fingers, while sneaking in as many passive aggressive digs as possible). Unfortunately, not realizing Nixon records everything, he says TCB's name out loud once the president leaves the room, but they're able to easily fix the blunder by deleting 17 minutes from the Oval Office's recordings. ![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
As they move back onto the sonic device plot, Elvis begins getting strange flashbacks and soon realizes he has prior experience with TCB. Having Scatter spy on the organization's commander to find a secret room containing info on "Project Tupelo", Elvis has another of his allies seduce the commander back at his house to keep him busy. While he's unable to successfully steal the Tupelo file, losing it in a fight with robot presidents, he does know where to get the info he needs: his own house, where the commander is unprepared and still being seduced. After a few gunshots, the commander spills:
Everyone loves Elvis. But TCB thought they could weaponize this love. Enlisting him into the military years ago, they conducted horrific experiments to turn his hypnotic sway over the crowds into a form of mind control, but the technology was faulty and became the sonic device. Elvis was tortured into a killer throughout this process before having his mind erased... until, in light of an anniversary concert, the commander decided to bring him back in, because why not.
Elvis is seriously pissed by this and contemplates killing the commander, effortlessly disarming CeCe when she tries to interfere, but decides to spare them. Still, someone needs to stop the sonic device, and after TCB returns with news that they plan to broadcast its power over the world, he agrees to stop them for good. In a middle of a volcano, Elvis beats up his hated rival Robert Goulet to destroy the terrestrial satellite, while Scatter is shot into space to sabotage the relay.
...Unfortunately, there's no way down. Determined to not abandon his friend, Elvis uses his private plane (which was converted into a space craft back when he was feeling down about not being as great as the moon landing) to rescue him. At which point Bobby Ray reveals it has no heat shields to reenter Earth's atmosphere. But would a lack of heat shields really stop Elvis?
Climbing to the nose of the plane in his spacesuit, Elvis has them use him as a heat shield. He's fully aware it probably won't work, and even if it does he'll probably die, but he has a concert to get back to down on Earth, and Elvis can't keep his fans waiting. So the season closes, with the plane flying down, the commander planning to activate a backup clone, and Elvis smiling as he's consumed in a ball of fire, all to the tune of Rock and Roll.
Is he magnificent?
It's Elvis Presley. Enough said!
In seriousness, he's a suave, undisputed badass able to come up with quick solutions to any problem in his way, devastating everything in his path while listening to the top ten songs of the nation—most of which happen to be his. He admittedly has a bit of an ego, but it's nothing that ever makes him lose composure, and he's generally able to back up all his talk: his response to feeling insignificant compared to the moon landing is to dismantle a massive cocaine smuggling operation in the course of a few hours. He's constantly calm and in control of the situation even when angry, and, more importantly, he's a super spy Elvis! Upvote this now! There is literally no other reasonable response!
Is he a bastard?
Unambiguous hero who only targets crooks, but also a tad ruthless at times. He frequently employs Scatter to brutally interrogate/execute unarmed, defeated criminals, and there's nothing to indicate he won't go through with his threats—his response to Scatter pulling the trigger too early in the example at the beginning is annoyance at the mess/lack of info rather than the murder itself, and he also had him chainsaw to death a mobster they had already defeated. The only thing that I think might be too bad is him threatening to shoot the tied up dealer whose clothes he stole point blank in the crotch when he won't talk, but I think there's just enough comedy/lack of seriousness to the scene to keep it from being too brutal.
Ultimate Moral Compass
The Norns and the King himself, another MB under Matthew McConaughey's belt
Edited by therealjackieboy on Apr 2nd 2023 at 8:54:41 AM
"No running in the halls!"
Goku Black
Elvis
Does the commander count ? He sounds pretty smart too from the character page ?
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."
Not the Eye
No to Avocato
to Norms and Super spy Elvis Presley
Lies and Violence!
Nah, too much of a petty, frequently humiliated manchild in my opinion. Which is a shame, because, you know, a Don Cheadle MB has to happen someday, but as of now nada.
One already exists: Curt Goynes was approved back in summer 2021. Not sure if he got any others though since then.
Edited by futuremoviewriter on Apr 2nd 2023 at 9:55:01 AM
And there is a happy to the Norns.
So between being busy today and forgetting to hit save on my draft, this EP might be a tad awkward. Apologies in advance if so.
SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods:
This film, while comedic, is an action movie first and foremost, with a setting befitting a typical superhero movie. I wouldn't consider it particularly dark, nor light. While this EP only covers Hespera, for convenience, I'll give a laconic of the main villains.
The Daughters of Atlas:
In general: Three sisters seeking to revive their father and return magic stolen by the humans. While Atlas wasn't kind to humans, it's safe to say his daughters want him back. Hespera: The eldest sister, distrusting, pragmatic, and capable of controlling elements. Kalypso: The middle sister, the most revenge-driven, and can force humans to obey her commands, which notably tortures the victim. Anthea: The youngest sister, and while starting out opposed to humans, quickly proves the most compassionate. Can rearrange structures at will. Note that she starts the film appearing under the guise of a human. This will be important later.
Other characters I name drop:
Billy: The superhero protagonist. Freddy: The superhero deuteragonist. Mary: A third superhero, and arguably the smartest of the group. The Wizard: The man who gave humans magic and killed Atlas. Atlas: No guessing which three characters he fathered. Does not appear, but he was overthrown for viewing humans as playthings.
What does Hespera do?
Hespera and Kalypso start out the movie by stealing a broken staff from a museum, with Kalypso driving everyone insane before Hespera turns them to sand/stone. With a flawless victory, the two return to their realm and use Kalypso's powers to force the Wizard to repair the staff. With the staff repaired, the sisters are now able to depower the Shazam crew.
Billy finds out there's a problem and gathers the other supers (save Freddy, who skipped to spend time with a crush) to figure out what's going on. Once they find out about the Daughters, they piece together enough to work with, but just a hair too late, as Freddy's crush turns out to be Anthea, who, alongside the other sisters, kidnap and depower him (Threatening his life if the other heroes fought back).
The remaining heroes plot to stage a negotiation, with the real goal of taking one of the sisters hostage to negotiate on better terms. In the negotiation phase, Hespera makes clear that she doesn't trust humans for stealing their magic and that Billy's terms won't fly for her. Hespera and Kalypso then fight the heroes (minus Freddy), with two points needing made:
With the heroes edging it out, the escape with Hespera locked up as a hostage and write up their new demands ... except Hespera just burned the lock while no one was looking. By the time anyone realized, she was already gone with the apple needed to revive Atlas, and Mary even suggests she let herself get captured on purpose.
From here, the sisters argue about where to plant the apple. Kalypso wants to plant it on Earth to get revenge on the humans whereas Hespera and Anthea would rather place it in their own realm, thereby reviving it (they, especially Anthea, are also opposed to the unnecessary cruelty). Though Freddy narrowly escapes (thanks to Anthea) with the apple (unplanned), the sisters quickly get it back, with all heroes besides Billy losing their powers in the process. Viewing Hespera as a traitor, Kalypso kills her from behind. Billy soon after revives Hespera, who explains the mechanics of overcharging the staff inside a forcefield. To stop Kalypso's rampage, Hespera agrees to shrink down the forcefield to contain an explosion, then re-succumbs to her wounds, facing death with dignity.
Is she magnificent?
Too much of a bastard?
Hespera being a bastard should be obvious to anyone paying attention, so instead I'll address the arguments that might push her too far and explain why I think she can still pass.
Complicit in Kalypso's torture: While Hespera herself doesn't wreck people's minds, she's okay letting Kalypso do so for their goals. While their actions in the museum were obviously cruelty against innocents, the torture is done to keep everyone fighting each other instead of stopping the duo, doesn't apply to major characters, and Hespera finishes the job once they finish the job. In later uses, the torture is specifically done to the exact person needed for a task.
Fantastic racism: While Hespera clearly doesn't trust humans, nor views them to be as valuable as gods, her reasons for feeling this way are spelled out, and on some level, make sense. While there's some inconsistency on how far she'll push unnecessary cruelty, she has standards against Kalypso's Revenge Before Reason against humans, and when push comes to shove, plays a key role in saving Earth.
Verdict?
All things considered, I think she counts. She definitely has the vibes, and when examined more closely, I think her case holds up.![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thumbs_up_emote.png "[thumb up]")
Edited by ANonagon9 on Apr 1st 2023 at 10:50:30 AM