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Abecassis

Abecassis

Right then. Time to finally tick something off of my To-Do List:

What Is the Work?

The Immortal Game is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic written by AestheticB. Long ago, in the magical land of Equestria, there lived a powerful King and his dark Queen. Immortal and ignorant, their end came at the hooves of their daughters, Celestia and Luna, who sought to build a better future for ponykind.

Now ponykind's old gods have returned, and I'm about to discuss one of them.

Who Is Titan?

The father of Celestia and Luna and former ruler of Equestria, Titan was once known as Order. But after being at war with Discord for so long, he went under a new name and ruled over Equestria as a tyrant.

What has he done?

We first see Titan as he stands in the dining hall with his wife, Terra, when Celestia and Luna make their way in, along with the corpses of some of the royal guards. When Celestia asks Titan what has he done with Twilight and Esteem, Titan responds by telling her she shouldn't ask him questions but will give her the courtesy of answering the most obvious one by saying " a unicorn of considerable talent was all it took to tip the scales and allow me to break our bonds". He then rather callously informs her that Twilight, who had been corrupted by the Sliver of Darkness, will break her and that he will use Celestia's power to create a son that he will appoint as the new prince of Equestria and will force Luna to marry him. When Celestia orders Luna to run, Titan orders Terra to chase after her and then engaged Celestia in a duel.

Later on, Luna tells the Mane 6 (sans Twilight and Rainbow Dash) about how Terra created life and Titan ordered them and gave them names, she mentions how Titan did not care for Terra's creations and ordered her to wipe them out when they rebelled. Another flashback showed Titan ordered Terra to stop creating new life, to which she refused, which sparked a war between the two of them until Celestia and Luna, both tired from the war, tricked them into personally attacking each other, with Titan winning the conflict. After defeating his wife, Titan asked her to give up the Sliver of Darkness, which then reduced her power in the process, and boasted to her about how Luna (who was on Terra's side) wanted to be on the winning side. But being unaware of Celestia and Luna's deception until it was too late, he and Terra became imprisoned deep beneath the earth by the two sisters.

That is until General Esteem freed him, which then leads to the current events of the fic. Assuming direct control of a puppet, he orders Esteem to not kill as many loyalists so, as the war continues on and as his son, Empyrean, grows older, the populace would be less sympathetic to the loyalists and more welcoming to their regime. That, of course means the economy would be in ruins and thousands of ponies would starve as a result of the conflict. In a later chapter, still using a puppet, he casually slaughters a few loyalists while duelling Luna. And the ones that didn't immediately die were left to bleed out among the ruins of their surroundings.

Visiting Celestia, after he had Terra torture for a while that is, Titan commands Celestia to do what he tells her to or he will kill Twilight Sparkle (who had been freed from being Nihilus at this point). A threat that he was willing to carry out the moment he entered a battle through one of his puppets. But, after a bit of running away, Twilight managed to kick the puppet's ass.

After Twilight had depowered Empyrean and killed Esteem, Titan arrives in person. Seeing his depowered son, Titan labels him "pathetic" and snaps his neck with his magic. And when Twilight and her friends tried to use the Elements of Harmony against him, he rips Twilight's horn off and effortlessly defeated her friends. But before he could finish them off, Discord (keep in mind that this fic was written before his Heel–Face Turn) shows up to save Twilight. Forming a temporary alliance with Discord, Celestia engages in one more duel with Titan and Terra (who is revealed to also be Titan's daughter as well as his wife). During this duel, Terra reveals that Titan arranged a "very bad" marriage for her past self and once ordered her to wipe out every pony under nine years of age.

A flashback reveals that Titan had killed his first wife, Harmony, not long after he declared himself ruler of all things. But before that, he had what was supposed to be his last battle with Discord and ended it by torturing him and promising him a Fate Worse than Death. After defeating Discord and killing Harmony, Titan pins Terra to the ground and casts the Insanity on her, turning her into the insane sadist she is in the present.

Anyway, after one final battle in the present, Twilight (who has become a god at this point after inheriting Harmony's powers) strips away Titan's magic and finishes the tyrant off once and for all.

Redeeming or Mitigating Qualities?

According to Terra, Titan used to be good back when he was known as Order. But even in the past, he was something of a Control Freak that was willing to exterminate entire species to preserve his idea of order.

And as for any care he had for his first-born son, the first Empyrean? It merely amounted to thanking Terra for mercy-killing him as he could not have done it himself, as well as blaming Harmony for their son's death. In fact, he doesn't even seem that fussed about his son's death, considering he coldly responds with "You think that you can hurt me. You think that you can taunt me with my dead son. You cannot." when Discord tries to rub it in his face in the present. To say nothing of how he simply made a new Empyrean that he callously murdered.

Heinousness?

Given how he's the Big Bad, I'd say he sets the standard. What with the endless wars (the titular "immortal game", if you will) and committing mass murder just because the ponies refuse to submit to his will.

While his cohorts, General Esteem and Nihilus are vile in their own rights, Esteem genuinely cared for Rarity (despite being an Abusive Parent who gave her Training from Hell) since he nearly disfigured Blueblood over the latter's comments about her and threatened to kill Nihilus if she ever used the Insanity on Rarity, while Nihilus herself is Made of Evil and thus lacks agency. Really, the only competition Titan has is his rival, Discord (who I might EP soon).

While this fic is dark (and very bloody), I can assure you it does have a plot and, in case it isn't obvious, it's separate enough from canon to be its own thing.

Conclusion?

Personally, I'd say he's a keeper.

Yes to Abecassis and Titan sounds like a yes too

So... I wanted to talk about Tantalus for a moment (side note, I'm taking a bomb ass class on it right now, so tying these together is fun) because do not get me wrong, he's one damn piece of work... but I think he might be too outheinoused by Atreus. Here's his entry:

• Tantalus, a Greek king who was a favorite guest and host of Zeus's, proved that familiarity breeds contempt. Deciding that the gods were fools rather then omniscient beings, Tantalus set out to show that they could not even tell what they were being served for dinner, let alone comprehend the secrets of the cosmos. Murdering his own son, Pelops, Tantalus had him boiled, and served to the gods as the main course at dinner. By tricking the Olympians into eating their host's child, he sought to demonstrate that the gods were utter imbeciles. Instead, he proved that he was a relentlessly vile person and that even Olympian gods have standards. When his ploy was uncovered, Zeus both resurrected Pelops and trapped Tantalus in an Ironic Hell, cementing cannibalism, the slaying of one's own children, and the violation of xenia as major taboos in Greek culture.

To break it down, Tantalus' crime is killing his son, cooking him, and feeding him to the gods (and I can't believe I'm seriously suggesting he's outheinoused). Atreus, his grandson, maybe killed his half brother, plus killed his two nephews, cooked them, and fed them to their father, then exiled him over it, as well as killing his wife and then having a seven year old kill his brother. Like, Tantalus earned his memorability in Greek mythology, but it was largely because he dared stand up to the gods, not because of the kinslaying - Atreus matches Tantalus' crime of kinslaying (and cooking and cannibalizing them) on top of a laundry list of other heinous acts, and even the cannibalism is worse since he feeds the victims to their own father instead of the gods. They're even working with the same amount of resources - they're both kings. The only thing that might make him worth staying is that Tantalus came first and his victim is his son while Atreus' is his nephews, but even then Atreus has five or six times the amount of victims, all of whom are family.

Of course, like I said, he did come first and he's certainly memorable even by Greek mythology standards, but given how bad Atreus is and that I see no evidence that this has ever been discussed before, I wonder if this is worth talking about. If nothing else, the entry could use a rewrite, since as it is now, only one of the six sentences in it actually deals with his crime and the rest focus on his intentions and punishment. Thoughts everyone?

Edited by STARCRUSHER99 on Jun 9th 2021 at 4:39:50 AM

to Abecassis.

Also abstain on the Afton rewrite, considering just how many times you requested his main game version to be edited. At the very least, I don’t think the bit at the end about him slapping his kid is necessary.

Ok, this is kind of an obscure one but has anyone suggested Buddy From the Point Horror book Beach House? Said book was written by R. L. Stine, but is a stand-alone book and not part of a series. I ask mainly because I'm thinking about doing him, but would need to buy and re-read the book so I figure I shouldn't waste my time if he's already been rejected.

Abecassis.

Echoing Doodslayer.

And conquering with Atreus outdoing his grandfather. It seems to me that Tantalus was just the more infamous of the two.

Edited by Beast on Jun 9th 2021 at 1:36:22 AM

Jeffers, Afton, Abecassis

Sure to Titan. Guess everyone's going to just ignore the EP

Titan.

Sure to Titan and Abe.

Abe & Titan

@STAR I could be wrong here, but I think we did discuss Tantalus when Atreus was EP'd.

It seems that Tantalus was briefly discussed when Atreus was EP'd, but I really do mean briefly - he was originally used to keep Atreus off the list, but when Georgie pointed out that Atreus matches him, everyone just voted him up without discussing the points on Tantalus further. As far as I can see, he got on the list at all by being grandfathered in back in 2012.

Edited by STARCRUSHER99 on Jun 9th 2021 at 4:53:43 AM

to Titan.

Eh, sure to Titan.

to Jeffers, Abecassis and Titan. Itou.
Abstain on Afton.

Yes to titan I don't think Novel!Afton needs a rewrite and I'm honestly really annoyed with the constant attempts to change his write ups

Edited by papyru30 on Jun 9th 2021 at 2:54:58 AM

Honestly, I think Tantalus still keeps. Yeah sure he only committed one vile deed compared to the others, but the thing that makes Tantalus a keeper is how utterly atrocious it is. Ancient Greece has some pretty messed up standards back then but there were three crimes that they all agreed you should never commit: violating guest right, murdering a family member, and believing yourself to be on the level of the Gods. All three actions Tantalus committed simultaneously which is why he is treated as one of the most vile figures in Greek mythology, to the point that even motherfuckin' Zeus, Jerkass God extraordinaire, finds him revolting and immediately condemns him to Tartarus.

Yes to Abecassis and Titan

to Abecassis and Titan

Edited by WatTambor on Jun 9th 2021 at 12:22:14 PM

for Andromelek, the Carrols brothers, Lether, Praxas, Afton (tentative), Jeffers, Abecassis, and Titan.

for Horrid Night and Itou.

Yes to Titan.

to Abecassis and Titan

Abecassis

Titan

I am not sure about Tantalus but there is another Greek keeper who also commits similar crimes:

Reading Lycaon's entry, he is a bit more heinous than Tantalus (because he himself ate some of the flesh before serving it and that he plotted to murder Zeus). He also has the same resources as Tantalus seeing how they are both kings. However, there isn't a very big difference between their actions overall.

I am not a huge expert at Greek mythology but if we are going to discuss Tantalus maybe we should also take into account the fact that Lycaon commits similar crimes and he is still listed as a keeper.

Yes to Abecassis. I read the novel and considered proposing him but I relented because I was wary of the HS considering it's freaking berserk.