Any thoughts on my Zaroff quote?

I'm not feeling it.

Hope your prepared for an unforgettable luncheon

to the General Zaroff quote. Feels like it could fit better as a quote for The Social Darwinist.

I think he already said it was from The Social Darwinist page, but I agree that it's better suited there.

• Blank*

Edited by Moroaica on Aug 10th 2020 at 7:12:48 AM

How long ago was the episode that showed this released because we don't talk about that kind of stuff until two weeks have passes since release to avoid spoilers. If it hasn't been two weeks please blank your post.

Edited by papyru30 on Aug 10th 2020 at 8:02:53 AM

Hope your prepared for an unforgettable luncheon

No to the Zaroff quote.

Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup thread

to keeping Driscoll. It’s the personal nastiness that makes him stand out all the more.

to Jacquio and Unlife. Keep Driscoll.

As for Talbot... I don't know. On the one hand, I understand the heinousness concerns others have raised; on the other... trying to kill your own niece while she's a baby is pretty goddamn vile.

to Driscoll, Jacquio and Unlife. to Talbot. I haven't seen that movie for quite a while but I don't remember considering him heinous enough to count as a CM.

On the other hand though, is it possible for a Villain with Good Publicity to be counted as a CM? I was a bit on the fence on counting this one, or not... this being the villain of the Heroic Bloodshed movie, Heaven and Earth or Tian Di.

The villain in question is Paul Tai, a drug baron and billionaire who controls the drug trade in 1940s Shanghai, who bribed the corrupt military and law enforcement to allow his drug supplies to enter the city. The villain here clearly doesn't bat an eye that his drugs are destroying the lives of multiple innocents, as long as he can remain rich and powerful throughout. In his first scene, Paul had his henchmen execute an old man and a child in an Offing the Annoyance moment, and later framed the hero who tried fighting against him into imprisonment. In the climax of the film, after an Engineered Public Confession moment, Paul decides to order his minions to massacre an entire theater full of 300-odd people to cover himself.

But on the other hand, Paul is also the city's leading philanthropist, who runs multiple charities. He had built orphanages, hospitals, contributes to construction of roads and bridges, funds the local church, and was explicitly referred by the film as "Shanghai's No. 1 philanthropist"... granted, his good deeds are a cover for his actions as a drug dealer, but still...

So the question is, does that qualify Paul enough to be a CM? On one hand, he's a mass-murdering drug lord; on the other hand, he's a philanthropist who contributes plenty to charity and development of the city.

Just throwing out some thoughts here. Wouldn't want to do a long-ass write-up before getting rejected completely...

Edited by RobertTYL on Aug 10th 2020 at 11:17:34 PM

Yes a Villain with Good Publicity can count, if there good deeds are just to keep up an image.

Things are really about to get Fun around here

If his good deeds are indeed a cover, then sure- we have PLENTY of Villain with Good Publicity CMs.

One of these days, all of you will accept me as your supreme overlord.

A they said above? Easily so. CM's can cultivate good images. We have a lot of them who do that. GO for it.

Moving on...

What is the work?

Moving On is a Crime and Romance Fanfic for Sherlock Holmes by ultraviolet128 which explores Holmes' activities after Watson's untimely death.

Holmes takes on an attractive woman, Anne Chantrey, as a client, and follows the trail of a stalker while grappling with infatuation.

After discovering that Anne's cousin (actually half sister) and her beau were behind the murder of their father, Holmes is drawn into several new cases. The final case involves a Serial Killer.

Who is the Barnslake Killer, and what has he done?

Robin Chapman has successfully killed eleven people over the span of a month in an effort to stave off boredom.

Chapman eventually finds himself seeking notoriety for his crimes, targeting Sherlock Holmes himself by spiking his tea with morphine, only to be thwarted by Holmes using the poisoned beverage in an experiment.

When Holmes and Anne Chantrey go to confront him, Chapman takes Anne hostage, threatening to shoot Anne unless Holmes shoots himself.

However, before either possibility can be carried out, Mark Collingwood, the romantic false lead, shoots Chapman and saves our protagonists.

Heinousness?

William, the beau to Anne's sister Elsie, is also an offpage serial killer, in addition to having Anne abducted and attempting to kill Holmes, but he has more resources than Chapman, having hired goons do some of his dirty work, as well as a gambling addiction.

In contrast, Chapman appears to have next to no resources, and he works alone, with an explicit body count of eleven (with one corpse displayed on page), and tries to kill two more.

Additionally, if we take the other literary villains into account, Chapman appears to be above the baseline given his resources, even taking someone like Jack Stapleton into account.

Mitigating factors?

Chapman claims that he will release Anne if Holmes kills himself. Anne tries to convince Sherlock to save himself, citing the likelihood that Chapman will just kill her regardless, and Chapman is killed before he can either prove or disprove this theory. However, given that Chapman, in the few moments we interact with him directly, is a sadistic prick, there is little case to take him at his word when he promises to release Anne if Holmes kills himself.

Verdict?

An elementary contender, but a possible contender nonetheless. In any case (heh heh, case), pretty impressive for a light crime and romance fanfic villain.

Edited by SkyCat32 on Aug 10th 2020 at 1:38:47 PM

Chapman (when I looked at the title for the work, all I could think about was this)

Also I said this before, but would anyone be willing to take over Tiger Mask from me? don't know where to find it online (don't want to spend money since), and none of my local libraries of bookstores have it.

Probably back in the early days, but I think that she really doesn't do much besides be an absolute bitch to Cinderella, which kinda pales when Disney has magical child traffickers, murderous uncles who are also insane, & pedophilic and genocidal religious figures. Cinderella 3 was the closest to this, but her actions aren't enough to propel her here. Hate Sink for sure, but not a CM

Edited by nwotyzal on Aug 10th 2020 at 10:46:38 AM

Has Animated!Lady Tremaine from Cinderella been discussed already? Because she's comparable to Frollo in that she's a surprisingly realistic Disney villain perfectly willing to commit murder on top of being an abusive parent. (If she hasn't, and does count, she'd probably be the only Disney CM to be one in the animated canon and not be one in the live-action remakes—IIRC the inverse is true with Jafar from Aladdin.)

Edited by ryanasaurus0077 on Aug 10th 2020 at 1:39:52 PM

Not heinous enough.

Not even close to baseline heinousness.

One of these days, all of you will accept me as your supreme overlord.

Ry, Search function turned up nothing, but I assume she has been discussed already.

Anyone else care to vote on my effortpost?

Edited by SkyCat32 on Aug 10th 2020 at 1:47:20 PM

Pretty sure she has. Still doesn't pass baseline, and I don't know how you can compare her to Frollo who has attempted genocide on his rapsheet, among other things.

Well, anyway... Chapman. Man, what a creep for a setting like that!

Not too familiar with Holmes, but he seems like a keeper, so Chapman.

One of these days, all of you will accept me as your supreme overlord.

Y'know what? Got some time before I need to get to bed; decided to just bite the bullet and EP my character from Devils & Thieves; Darek Delacroix.

What's the work?

Devils and Thieves is a 2017 fantasy novel about...magical biker gangs. Seriously; it takes place in a world where groups of magic users, called Kindled, live among ordinary muggles, or in this story, Drecks. They populate certain communities and have biker gangs, and meet up once a year for the Kindled Festival. There's multiple types of magic in the setting, and they range from things like Barrier Magic to having a Compelling Voice.

One character who has that Compelling Voice magic? That would be Darek Delacroix, the secret son of a man named Henry Delacroix, who was plotting to steal other people's magic and become the most powerful Kindled in the world.

Who is Darek? What's he do?

When the story begins, Darek is introduced as one of two love interests for protagonist Jemmie. He basically plays the Betty to Crowe Medici's Veronica; being portrayed as a kind-hearted, optimistic guy who, unlike the super powerful Crowe, wasn't born with magic (making him this story's equivalent of a Squib). This allows him to relate to Jemmie, who does have magic, but also has such an extreme sensitivity to magic that she can barely use it. At this point, we know Darek is a Delacroix and that he's a member of the Deathstalkers gang, a rival to Crowe's gang, the Devil's League, but it's played off as him just being a distant relative to Henry.

While the festival is happening, weird things occur. A girl from a rival gang starts throwing curses around at Crowe and Jemmie. An old, future-seeing kindled woman predicts that not only will something big happen, but that someone is going to die, and that Jemmie will be heavily involved. But most ominously, people go missing- such as Crowe's sister and Jemmie's best friend, Alex...and Darek himself, which stands out because unlike the other missing characters, he's got no magic, and people at the festival thought he was so unremarkable they couldn't even remember his name. He was also the last person to be seen with Alex.

Jemmie, Crowe, and the Devil's League suspect that this is the work of Killian Delacroix, Henry's brother, and the leader of the Deathstalkers. Chaos ensues as they try and find their friends. Jemmie eventually runs into an injured Darek, who tells her that Crowe attacked him after he led a drunk Alex out of the festival, beating him up with Body Horror magic for liking Jemmie. Crowe denies this happened, however.

After this, Jemmie runs into Killian, and he tells her that Crowe can't be trusted. However, as she's running off, he suddenly begs her not to listen to him, and panicked, Jemmie calls Darek, who is already at her house. They get inside, chased by members of the Devil's League, who Jemmie believes is going to try and hurt Darek, and...

Jemmie's Barrier Warrior power is activated. She creates a force-field around herself and Darek, something only she is able to deactivate. Suddenly though, she starts feeling like she's suffocating, and is in a lot of pain. Crowe bursts into the room, and Darek chooses this time to reveal his true colors.

No, he wasn't attacked by Crowe; he used an illusion charm to make it look like he was. No, he's not a distant relative of Henry, he's his son. Yes, he actually does have magic- the same magic his father does. He was the one who kidnapped people like Alex, he forced Killian to lie to Jemmie, he used magic to obscure his identity, and he used magic to hide his powers from the extremely-sensitive Jemmie. In this scene, he both declares his love for Jemmie and threatens to murder her if she doesn't go along with what he wants. Then he leaves, and the characters realize that he's not only kidnapped Jemmie's mother, but also her father.

Crowe and Jemmie go to stop him, but he has another trick up his sleeve and uses his magic in a cruel way. Handing both of them a weapon, he orders them to kneel on the ground facing each other, and demands they both sit perfectly still- whoever moves gets murdered by the other. He leaves them like this, confident that one of them would end up getting killed. However, thanks to the power of Blood Magic, the two survive and go to stop him. He continues tormenting Crowe by showing him a nightmarish illusion, making him think he murdered everyone he cares about.

This act is what spurs Jemmie into action. She attacks him, slicing him with a knife and activating more Blood Magic. Binding the two of them together, she throws herself and him into the ocean below. Luckily, Jemmie is rescued, but Darek drowns.

Mitigating Factors?

I'll admit that there's two possible ones here; one of them is his apparent love for Jemmie, the other is his relationship with his father.

We don't know much about him and Henry, except that he's his equally power-hungry psychopath of a son and is seeking revenge; part of why he targets Crowe is that it was Crowe's father who killed his dad. He was, in fact, the one who killed Crowe's father a year before the story began. But like I said, we don't really know anything about him and Henry. I searched for any obvious hint that he genuinely loved his father, but with how power-hungry and manipulative he is, a lot of it comes off as him just taking on his father's old goal and using it as an excuse to do evil. Notably, Killian Delacroix himself is appalled by his actions, and his love for his brother and nephew is why he took care of Darek in the first place. There's a contrast there, for sure. Oh, and how did he treat his own uncle? He hid his powers from him, made it look like he was the one causing trouble, and then attacked and spat on him in the climax, calling him a fake Delacroix.

As for Jemmie, Darek repeatedly claims to love Jemmie, but he says these things while threatening to kill her, manipulating her into working with him, kidnapping her family and friends, torturing her other love interest, and accusing her of using him. It's extremely clear that any "love" he has for her is selfish or corrupted; he borders on being a yandere, except that he's also pretty abusive once he drops the nice guy act and is just as willing to murder her violently as he is keep her alive out of "love".

Yeah, I wouldn't say any of these are really redeeming. He's really selfish and power-hungry, and seems more concerned with himself than the people he supposedly "loves".

Heinous Standard?

Besides from his already-deceased father, Darek is the most evil character in the story, bar none. He's the Big Bad, in charge of everything that goes wrong, including the girl who cursed Crowe at the festival. He kidnaps, threatens and actually commits murder and torture, is horrendous to Jemmie despite supposedly "loving" her, etc. His end goal is to become the most powerful Kindled in existence by absorbing everyone else's power (which would kill those involved), and even something as simple as killing Michael Medici is met with disgust- from his own uncle, even.

Conclusion?

I think he fits.

Edited by WarJay77 on Aug 11th 2020 at 3:02:30 PM

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

Sure to Chapman.

She's below baseline, but to be fair, she DOES try murder in the third movie apparently.

Slight re-potholing:

• Father is a being from beyond the Gate given form as the "Dwarf in the Flask" and named Homunculus by the nameless slave who would become van Hohenheim in the Xerxes empire. Desiring to escape the flask, Homunculus would trick the king of Xerxes into a ritual that slaughtered multiple people to initiate an alchemy ritual that killed everyone in Xerxes and split their souls between Hohenheim and Homunculus, to the former's horror. Later founding the nation of Amestris and creating the Homunculi, he took the name of "Father", guiding Amestris to become a military dictatorship that initiated military conflicts to provide bloodshed for an even greater ritual, including the genocide of the Ishvalan people. Intending to kill and steal the souls of tens of millions so that he could devour God, or Truth itself to absorb its power, Father demonstrates cold sadism when he faces Hohenheim and the latter's children Edward and Alphonse Elric, mentally torturing them as he also abandons or tries to absorb his own Homunculi children. While he sees himself as an existence above humans, this is simply a reflection of Father's arrogance and pride, desiring to ascend ever higher, no matter who or what he has to destroy to gain ultimate knowledge and power.

Edited by ACW on Aug 11th 2020 at 3:09:44 PM

CM Dates; CM Pending; CM Drafts

Lady Tremaine isnt even evil, just an especially nasty Jerkass. She commits zero actual crimes the entire movie (when does she ever attempt murder? I'm pretty confident that's not in the original movie) Absolutely not, not even close.

Are the sequels even canon? I thought Disney likes to pretend they dont exist now

Edited by WaryHoglet on Aug 11th 2020 at 8:36:31 AM