#Deathbird's child

[hardtrashheropaper]

The men of the Summers family (of which there are many) continuously losing their children one way or another generation after generation, may be my roman empire

Edit: why does the summers family produce so many men?????

[rei-ismyname]

X-Men: The End - Review

Book 1: Dreamers and Demons

In one of Chris Claremont's many ill-advised returns to the X-books, he set about writing a hypothetical and non-canon end to the series. Set about 15 years in the future, the story travels to every corner of the X universe - if briefly - so if nothing else everyone gets an answer for where their favourite character ends.

Greg Land did the cover. I hate Greg Land.

I praise it mostly on a conceptual level. Pretty much every long running corner of the MU received a 'The End' mini, but Claremont split it up into 3 separate miniseries. Captain America and Iron Man both got 5 issues, KISS (yes, the band) got 3, the X-Men got 18. As someone who always wanted characters to die, grow and retire but was often foiled or undone by fiat - I respect that he'd want to do it properly. However, more is not always better. It's fun, cringe, and nonsensical at times. A LOT of people die unceremoniously. Don't take it too seriously.

The first few pages sets up that that 15 years have seriously passed. People are dead and retired, some have kids that look exactly like them, the never aging kids grew up. The Shi'Ar are killing X-Men, like a lot of them, except they're doing it in disguise. Jean Grey has returned as the Phoenix and is hanging out with (kidnapped him while he was doing Letterman lol) Nightcrawler, Carol Danvers' hologram, and Aliyah - the child of Bishop and Deathbird.

Here she is going for an expository jog down memory lane.

We spend a little time getting to know her, as she's the closest thing to a viewpoint character. She's inexperienced and way out of her depth, but her heroic instincts are sharp. Interestingly she 'doesn't really care about the Shi'Ar.' Aliyah lives on the Starjammer with a pretty impressive holodeck, she's never met her dad, her mum is holding the Shi'Ar empire together and her best mate is holo Danvers. Lilandra is apparently 'mad.'

Immediately Kree slavers approach Chandilar and Claremont begins clearing the board. Madrox and Siryn die for real, Nocturne is a hound and Aliyah manages to knock her out and take her to the ship. Phoenix comes out of nowhere and begins wrecking shit and the Kree do the same.

Also, WarSkrulls.

If it sounds like confusing nonsense, that's because it is. The first third of the miniseries is about establishing Aliyah and checking in on various X-Men before killing most of them. Seriously, it's easier for me to list who lives rather than who dies. It's confusing but I think it works as front loading the deaths so books 2 and 3 have a more manageable cast of characters. If you plan to stick the landing, it's going to be easier to trim the decades of bloat/worldbuilding the X-books have received.

We get a brief overview of Earth stuff before they start to die, though everyone in these panels lives (mostly hehe). Kitty Pryde is running for president with Rachel as her campaign manager! Storm and Logan live together and he's her full time caretaker. Emma and Scott have two kids. Cable hunts terrorists apparently.

Here's the Summerses. A lot of people wear speed dealer sunnies in the future, with Cyclops even saying SPEED right there. Coincidence? Also their children are boring.

You'll note the daughter may as well be a clone of Emma (she isn't but you know what I mean.) The baby is called Alex after long dead Havok, definitely tempting fate there. I'd sooner call my child Omega Red, but I'm not a parent. Chuck pokes his big bald head in and Emma tells him to beat it. Scott checks in with folks all over the globe, many of whom die. He is concerned of course.

Told you. Rogue and Gambit live and they definitely saw The Matrix. This isn't plot relevant - this is just how they roll apparently.

Hank and Cecilia McCoy live and they do *something* in Africa. Doctor stuff I think? This book moves so damn quickly. They live but everyone around them dies. Hank is right about the mutant problem. The named X-Men body count is at 18 by book 3.

Hey Yukio! Come to homoerotically kill Ororo, huh? DW, she wins despite full paralysis. Don't fuck with Storm. At this point we find out ALL these assassins are WarSkrulls sent by the Shi'Ar. Storm's powers have wrecked her body btw to the point Logan feeds her and she kinda wants to die. 😭

Madeline Pryor, Stryfe, and some weirdo I don't know come for the X-Mansion. Dust dusts Maddie Pryor. That dude getting punched by Not!Stryfe is the son of Colossus and Polaris. Yeah he looks exactly like Colossus. Nice to get confirmation of Polaris' awful taste in men. She does have a dope butch short hair look that slaps, so it's not all bad choices and emotionally stunted communists.

Nearly everyone else not pictured is dead as a doornail, ash and bone at best. Claremont was pretty damn thorough - 90% of the X-Men and their allies dead. Apocalypse bit the dust too, in a pretty embarrassing way. Of course Sinister lives because he's working with the Shi'Ar but has his own agenda, as usual. They're starting to realise that the Shi'Ar sent the WarSkrulls, but the preemptive strikes were super effective. Book 1 ends on the Starjammer with the passengers realising Cassandra Nova has been Lilandra all this time.

I'm sorry, CHUCKY sends me. No cap. I could write an essay on this panel and invite speculation.

The last page has the Xavier Institute's singularity power core exploding after that lot end up also being WarSkrulls sent by the Shi'Ar - looks like having the school be built mostly from Shi'Ar tech backfired. The school is definitely gone - along with at least the state of New York but I suspect much more - then a smash cut to this masterpiece. Callisto with fucking tentacles for arms saying 'Chucky?' as Chuck is overwhelmed by grief. I'm assuming they're in a polycule with Mags over here, but it must gall him to be the third most dramatic person in a scene. It's just too much to respond without some kind of levity, but if it wasn't clear by now - the stage is being cleared ruthlessly. Northstar was at the school, so maybe some people survived but Claremont is not half arsing it. This is definitely a whole arse situation, maybe even more.

DUN DUN DUN 🫠

Wait what? Chuck's evil twin, the Mummudrai? Hectic! So we know we've just seen Cassandra Nova send many WarSkrull strike teams after X-Men in the form of people that will hurt them psychologically and it was very successful. Hmm... it's 15 years in the future - does that mean she's been leading Bird Gang this whole time? No Xandra in this timeline but the X-Men interact with the Shi'Ar a lot. That's some wild patience for Cassandra Nova, and the notion that she's been preparing all this time is terrifying. My God, all the X-Men are going to die aren't they? Maybe, though I can't stop thinking about how Lilandra Nova would have handled a booty call from Chucky. Ughh gross.

I think it's worth saying that the high amount of action is a YMMV sitch - I personally can do without no punching at all in a book, and get frustrated when a mandated and arbitrary fight happens just because that's what cape comics do. Just because action has to be special to wow me doesn't mean I don't recognise its value, mainly I believe we can demand more from our comics - as an evolved art form instead of the pulp it began as. What I said earlier about front loading the death applies to the action too. I suspect your enjoyment of this book will come down to your feelings on action or ability to appreciate it ironically/unseriously.

I'll leave part one there, though I want to point out that Sunspot is whitewashed so badly he looks like Shawn Mullins. At least he dies - I love Bobby Da Costa but I'd prefer no Sunspot to dorky white guy Sunspot. Stay tuned for part 2 and thank fuck that's over. Spinning a coherent narrative from a book without one is a challenge, especially with only 10 pictures to work with. I considered counting and listing all the deaths, but I got to 30 and realised I wasn't enjoying it and doubted anyone else would. I'm not a wiki, and hopefully I've done my job while leaving some meat on the bones for folks who still want to read it. Don't worry, Kitty's presidential run is still live and it's implied she won the primaries. Independent? As if. Definitely a democrat, because the X-Men are mostly centrist bitches. Still, I hope she wins and First Lady Rachel and her achieve something.

I haven't been doing much long form lately so I welcome any feedback you might have. ����💜❤️

[fairymousse]

Why we thought the Eclipse was a big deal, and what it might be instead

I don't want to call people out, or ruin any fun, but looking back, the Eclipse that everyone was theorising about seems so obvious to me, that I'm feeling like I must be missing something. Because, I feel that the DLC gave us the exact confirmation I needed to be satisfied with it.

First up, I fully thought the Eclipse would be a big deal going in, because it seemed so important, especially with all the Godwyn theories going around. When I found the Death Knight, I was excited especially because of one small thing :

That halo, to me, looked so much like the eclipse symbol, I thought that's what it had to be, to tie up a loose thread from the base game. But it wasn't. The description of it reads:

The decayed golden wheel that adorns it represents their unbroken loyalty to Godwyn, he who became Prince of Death.

Which drew a connection in my head, but the Death Knight Armour confirmed it.

These knights, once Godwyn's personal guard, quested to find their transfigured master's cadaver surrogate—for the coming age of the Duskborn.

The sigil on the helmet was the Cursemark of Death, or the Mending Rune of the Death Price. But I instantly thought of the Eclipse. So, that got me thinking���

The Eclipse is probably just the Age of The Duskborn, right?

Like the signs are all there. The eclipse is “the protective star of the soulless demigods”, and The Age of the Duskborn is about integrating Death into the current Order. Eclipses seem to cause an artificial dusk, of sorts. Castle Sol is surrounded by Those who Live in Death, Tibia Mariners and Deathbirds, all of whom are linked to Death, and the Age of Duskborn particularly.

But then theirs the issue of Godwyn himself. The point of the Eclipse was to bring him back to life, but it failed. Well, then I remembered some obscure Fia dialogue:

"I will soon lay with Godwyn. And it will surely stir within me the new life of the golden prince, and first Dead of the demigods, as the rune of Those Who Live in Death. Please, do one thing for me. Brandish this child, my rune, and take for yourself the throne. Stay the persecution of Those Who Live in Death.”

So, yeah. Godwyn’s life is restored in the Age of the Duskborn. And that feels, well, satisfying, but also obvious. The big revelation here is that Miquella wanted to restore Godwyn’s soul, with some iteration of the Age of the Duskborn, but it failed. Maybe he didn’t have the two cursemarks, maybe it was to do with it not having a rune. But, the important thing is that the Eclipse never worked. And, I feel as if, there should be more here. But, then again, why?

A lot of the theories about the Eclipse came in the context of awaiting the DLC, where we were all looking for any stray plot thread, looking for anything of importance. We found one, and wanted it to be more. And that is actually what is so good about the theory community. We sometimes do just miss the forest for the trees.

If there’s something I missed, feel free to let me know, more than happy to be corrected.

[astarab1aze]

➥ Deathbird

O' mother, o' mother, sing me a song, for the twilight has set and night has followed, and I shan't survive alone. O' mother, o' mother, look upon me with thine eyes of light, look upon me favorably and stitch mine soul into the fabric of life. O' mother, o' mother, why hast thou voice gone silent, thine eyes gone dim? O' mother, o' mother... why hast though forsaken me?

She is of death as she is of life; Of tooth and of talon, drenched in all-devouring shadow and bless'd by sightless eyes and song of lacuna. Shackled by offerings of flesh and divine will, servant of the Outer Gods - of the Fates - and through her, they punish the wicked, their discenters, the blood of Sanguinach, influence destiny as abyssal calamity; She is their sacred hunter, one of many, their strongest, their most beloved. She is a queen without her crown, dead and rotted upon her throne of boughs, soul rended from bone; She is the knife in the dark, a hunger for the light, the decay of sinew, and the spilling of blood - ever to serve, ever to march to the tune of a thousand hymns, to the beaten wings of a thousand crows.

O' Herald of Death! Daughter of the First and the Last, Lady of the Land of Storms, Mother of the Golden Child, She who was to be Our Hero, Our Queen - Lo, why hast thou forsaken us?

She listens with wounded heart and pride as she diminishes, as the Voidsong eats and eats and eats at her mind, as the Sightless Eye pierces her soul - It is she who bears the weight of a thousand deaths, a thousand lives. It is she who bears the guilt, who bears the blame, who acts in the name of cosmic wills, and it is she who must suffer a thousand screams, bathe in the blood of her men as consequence and reward. Choice, an illusion; Love, a betrayal; Fate, a lie.

What trickery of the Crones, what falsehoods spouted by the Witch and the Hollow Priestess of violet and gold? Widow-spun webs and tattered banners, promises made and broken - divine power stolen in place of starlight, what great sacrifice she has made, now compulsed purveyor of the end. Harbinger of Destiny's Flight, disallowed of her own. What have they taken, oh, what have they taken from her that she must do forever as they say?

Woe to harpy-kind, woe to the Outer Gods, woe to the Heavens and woe to the Hells, for they have taken all, and it shall never again be returned. For it is duty, it is diligence, it is chivalry, it is faith, it is truest love to serve eternal, to serve in deathly chains and shadow unending - to walk among the living a spectre and die in the twilight mourn in absolution tarnished, to never again know love nor trust, safety nor esteem, doomed in fell reward ever to fight on the battlefield of Fate until at last bless'd, borrowed un-life is robbed of her and she is no more.

In our darkest hour, why hast thou abandoned us? Are we not worthy of thy labors of love? Hast we dishonored thee so, that our fate deserv'd be? O' mother, o' mother, we beg of thee - forgive us our trespasses, save us, save us!

[yellowfingcr]

You, yes you. Tell me 4 unknown little facts about our nowhere woman. I want the nerdiest you have.

// I can try! the goldfinch is though a bit of a monastic creature, and she doesn’t have the oceans of very useless very nerd facts other verses could offer

heysel, chivalrously romantic at heart, loves, you guessed it, romances. she prefers anything with a happy ending (and oh the knightess married the princess! after saving each other from the deathbird!) rather than doomed tales of love, but regardless she’s been an avid listener and reader since a child, and the honestly ridiculous amount of money she had made as a professional taker of lives had allowed her the chance to own some written romances herself. catch her giggling and kicking her feet while reading the same one for the 13672 time

eternal appreciator of Creatures, Heysel has kept poison dart frogs as pets at one point. since they weren’t eating the nutrients that made them toxic, they were just really colorful little guys. would keep again.

while she’s never shied away from doing things less than well, she’s definitely a touch worse at some of her hobbies than usual in this verse. you thought her whittled figurines were bad? now they’re even worse. absolutely bloblike things. straight up abstract. 

she pierced her ears herself, in her early teens, before her training as assassin. just because she felt it would have been super cool. 

[maastrichtiana]

Cal’syee’s living an episode of Shameless, Xandra’s living her TNG dreams, Vulcan’s on the set of HBO’s Rome, gloating about historical accuracy while still workshopping a quip about the world’s smallest violin.

First I was just squee about the new Summers baby, because I’m a sucker like that. The Krakoa era is a goldmine for wish list character interactions, everything and the kitchen sink. Soap opera and spectacle. Another stitch in a dangling plot thread, from I think 2013?

Ewing, you mad genius. Im obsessed with this page. Infinite room of parallels. I could write a 30,000 words easy.

“Safe from us, Gabriel.” Guffawed at Deathbird’s self-awareness. And the imagine of Gabriel suing for monthly monitored visitation as a matter of asshole principle and getting exactly what he wanted, cut away gag from an action shot, someone yelling where Scott is, cue panel of him halfway across the galaxy in dad mode.

But then you think about it. Vulcan was never a baby, he got ripped out of his mother by his future BiL and tossed in an age accelerator, it’s why he’s so messed up. All of which he blames his father for. For being too weak. His own kid was born after War of Kings, Cal’syee was imprisoned and experimented on by space evolutionaries, because the kid had “unique genes,” (still need to read that New Mutants run, and Xandra’s debut in Mr and Mrs X). Both happy parents are the Cains to their siblings Abels. Cal’syee was exiled for matricide and sororicide, Gabriel roasted Corsair AND D’ken, Corsair got better, The third parent more or less, symbolically and thematically. “Mr. Summers was my father/I… am Emperor Vulcan.”

Kudos to the X-Books forum for guessing the kid is actually a girl, Gibby’s “my son” versus Cal’syee’s “our child…” I thought Mom was diplomatically pointing out Gabriel’s sudden parental entitlement, but Cal’syee being jaded by a lifetime of Shi’ar Succession Shenanigans is funnier.

[bigskydreaming]

thehollowprince

I'm liking the first theory, but I think someone pointed him out as a background character in a former issue of X-Men Red.  Haven't gone back to check yet

stone-monkey

I'm not reading it, but my money is on a Summer's family complication.

Ewing said he was a new creation so I’d be really surprised if they just reused an existing design but its not out of the realm of possibility. And lol when in doubt, assume its a Summers.

No, the way I see it, the evidence for:

Jon Ironfire as the unrevealed Vulcan/Deathbird child and Shi’ar prince:

1) Visually he fits, same hair color and general features as Gabe.

2) The missing heir has been heavily lampshaded the entire run. Vulcan brought up their child when facing off against Deathbird a couple issues ago, and with all the drama around the Shi’ar throne and Xandra, the question of where is Deathbird’s kid is a big one that needs addressing at some point. Especially since the thread where Lifeguard and Slipstream were alleged to be Deathbird’s hidden-away children seems to have been abandoned at least for now. 

(That said, back during this conversation Ewing made a point to not have Deathbird respond to Vulcan using pronouns to refer to their child. Gabe’s only assumed the child is a boy, because well, Misogynist King. Literally. But Ewing definitely made a point to have Deathbird NOT confirm that their child is a boy, or at least doesn’t identify as such...however whether this was written this way as a hint that Gabe’s assumptions are off-base or simply because at that point Ewing hadn’t decided for sure yet on what he wanted the character of Deathbird and Vulcan’s child to be like....could go either way). 

3) The name Ironfire seems to be a clear nod to Vulcan, who of course is named for the Roman god of fire and the forge.

4) Jon’s powerset includes transmuting his blood into any metal he can imagine, presumably including mysterium, and shaping it into weapons, armor, anything else....frequently manifesting it as sharp spikes he grows from his skin and hurls like projectiles. This not only mirrors Deathbird’s iconic javelin-quills she grows and uses as weapons, it also calls back to the blood-burning powerset of Adam Neramani, who according to this theory would be both Jon’s paternal uncle AND one of his rivals for the Shi’ar throne.

5) Given how much Gabe hates Ororo, having his son and heir have zero interest in the throne daddy dearest ‘acquired for him’ as well as being one hundred percent devoted to Storm would be HILARIOUS.

6) The fight between Jon and Mystique implied that Jon theoretically COULD be an omega, like Vulcan, but it could also be just typical fight talk and hyping himself up in front of his opponent. Ewing does like making weird abilities that don’t seem on the surface like they should be omega, however.

Vs....

Jon Ironfire as an unrevealed brother or son of Lodus Logos:

1) His powerset much more directly mirrors Lodus’ than it does Gabe’s.

2) Ewing and other writers have explicitly referred to Jon as being Arakkii in interviews. (That said, we’ve seen with characters like Craig, Beto and Ororo herself that the Arakkii take a very clear view of things: if you consider yourself of Arakko and fight for Arakko, then you are Arakkii, no matter where else you originated. And given Gabe blatantly didn’t care about Arakko other than as another potential conquest of his, this could be a lead-in to having his son reject all that and identify as being OF Arakko, much like Storm herself has rejected all desire to rule and simply wants to be of the land as much as anyone else. ‘No thrones on Arakko,’ round two. This time with the sentiment embraced by the son and heir of her chief rival on Arakko, after Isca herself).

3) Lodus is hands down Ororo’s biggest supporter and friend on the Great Ring, and has been since his very first appearance in SWORD, long before she even started making connections with Lactuca. In turn, she also gave up the Seat of All-Around-Us and the second vote that comes with it, calling him a better fit for it while she took the Seat of Loss in honor of Magneto’s death. They’re very close and while it would be FUNNY for Jon to be Vulcan’s son, with how devoted he is to Storm, thematically and character-wise I think his attitude around her makes a lot more sense if he’s Lodus’ son, and in the wake of his father and most of the rest of his peers on the Great Ring dying in the early days of the Red Diamond Empire....he’s naturally gravitated to one of his father’s closest friends and allies: Ororo.

4) We’ve seen that Jon will live to Year 1000, aging extremely slowly....which is more a staple of Arakkii mutants than Earthborn ones. Most of them possess some degree of longevity, whereas Earth mutants require that longevity be a specific part of their powerset to mirror that. (That said, if any Earth mutant were to live a thousand years without resurrection, it would make sense for it to be Gabe’s son, as many omegas DO have ways to extend their lifespan and Gabe in particular has brought himself back from death or the brink of it before).

My conclusions:

I think I WANT Jon to be related to Lodus Logos, but I’m more inclined to think he’s probably the Vulcan/Deathbird heir. I do think there’s a strong case to be made for either, and thus neither route would surprise me, but the missing heir plotline is too central to a lot of the book’s plots for it not to be coming up soon, and this sorta consolidates plots. Ewing does like to be efficient in his seeding of storylines. And like I said, the heir is of course an as yet unrevealed Summers too, and when in doubt....its safe to assume whatever’s going on has something to do with a Summers, lol.

(Plus, even if Ewing seems disinclined to follow up on it, that dangling plot-thread about Heather and Davis being Deathbird’s kids she stashed away to hide from D’Ken is still out there and someone else could pick it up eventually.....and that would make Jon their younger half-brother and idk why but Slipstream being Ironfire’s older brother is also hilarious to me. Especially when you factor in HIS epic crush on Ororo, back in the day.) 

[escherenigma]

I don't know which is funnier. That I'm just taking this on faith because it's not that weird, or that this isn't even the weirdest way that Magneto is in the Summer's family tree.

Okay, so Scott Summers (aka Cyclops) has a brother, Alex Summers (aka Havok). Alex Summers had a kid with Janet Van Dyne (aka the Wasp). I don't know the name of their kid, last time I read anything about her she was being held hostage by Kang in a comic that ended shortly thereafter and summarily forgotten by the writers and her parents both.

Back to Janet, and the weakest link in this particular connection. Janet's brainwaves were used to create Jocasta, and traditionally this kind of brainwave copy thing has been treated as siblings (see: the Vision and Wonder Man).

Jocasta was created by Ultron, another relationship that is normally treated as parent/child, which then makes her a sibling to Vision.

Vision was married to Wanda Maximoff (aka the Scarlet Witch) and has had a narratively significant number of kids with her. I think they settled on two, but depending on how you want to count it could be four. Probably two though. And there was another two between Vision and the brain-copy of Wanda (who was also made by Vision), but they aren't necessary for this chain.

Okay, back to Wanda. She's tied-in to the family tree via Vision. Which of course brings in Ultron, as Ultron is Vision's daddy (and Wonder Man, as Vision is his brain-clone, which --again-- is treated as a sibling relationship).

Also from Wanda you can go straight up to Erik Lehnserr (aka Magneto), unless they've retconned *that* again.

Oh yeah, I guess you could also have skipped all that by going from Alex Summers to Lorna Dane (aka Polaris) (they almost married), and then Lorna to Magneto (unless they've retconned *that* again, again), then down to Ultron via Scarlet Witch/Vision.

Honestly, assuming that Ultron and Cable's Arm being cousins is relatively simple (relative to the Summers family tree giving wide latitude, of course), it's one of the simpler ways to tie the Summers to Magneto.

And don't forget, the Summers family tree already includes Charles Xavier (aka Professor X), by way of Gabriel Summers (aka Vulcan) getting married to Deathbird, who is the sister to Lilandra, who has been in a decades long its-complicated with Charles (but in comics where the relationship is acknowledged, it's often treated as similar to husband/wife, or at least queen/concubine).

Anyway, remember that time Scott Summers† canonically kissed Wolverine‡?

________

†Time-displaced young Scott Summers, but canonically the same Scott Summers you all know and love.

‡Laura Kinsey, who at the time was a female-clone of James of Howlett and going by the codename Wolverine as James Howlett was dead at the time, but would later be retconned to actually be James Howlett's daughter.

Lines that will cause Marvel Fans to take psychic damage: "Did you know Cables Robot Arm and Ultron were cousins?"

If they've only seen the movies, maybe. For a comic reader that doesn't even rank in the top ten weirdest things that have happened to Cable in particular, much less overall.

[deathbirdsgf]

It's always "Scott Summers did this and here's why we should cancel him!!" but never "Gabriel Summers hasn't told his ex wife/girlfriend, he's still alive!!" It's time we talk about it don't y'all think?

[yournextflame]

Hi , I don't know if you answered this yet but what do you think about the theories circulating in the english lore community about Marika being behind the Night of the Black Knives? Maliketh's Remembrance and Black Knife armor are often brought as proof. I find this theory to have no basis in the lore, but it would be nice to hear your opinion.

(If red-black particle in Marika’s body is a stolen fragment of Rune of Death it means that Marika/Radagon had their hands in Night of Black Knives)

So far my main theory is that Marika was behind Night of Black Knives, but the outcome was not what she wanted. My main evidence is how おお、永遠の女王マリカよ。貴女の、醜い落とし子を抱いてcertain ghost speaks about Marika's unwanted children. 落とし子 is a prime example of usage of keywords in JP script.

落とし子 in Elden Ring describes (failed) children which were born or created from rituals or magic. I've been already touching this subject in a post about Omens. A good example of "unwanted" child is Sellen's graven-mass. She aimed for the creation of "starry" child, merged herself with Azur and Lusat (ritual), failed it and the result was a meatball (unwanted bastard child). Interesting, that Zorayas, another 落とし子 created from Rykard's experiments, complains that she was "born not from grace", which is true for the rest of known 落とし子 - Astel, Bastard of the Void, and Kindred of Rot. Maybe there is a connection or maybe there is not, even though we know about existance of the graceless royalty (Roderika), it's hard to believe that Godwyn, the most famous victim and Marika's son was graceless too.

However, before jumping on the idea that demigods, who died during NoBK were hideous abominations born from weird magic, let's consider that the core part of Night of Black Knives is a ritual.

I stole a fragment of the Rune of Death, and used it to forge the godslaying black knives through fearsome rite (Ranni)

A ritual performed on the oddly misshapen blade imbued it with the power of the stolen Rune of Death (Black Knife)

Maybe Marika for some godforsaken reason decided to kill Godwyn for good (I strongly suspect that worship of ancient dragons, a race that previously owned Elden Ring, is what costed Godwyn his life; you aren't estabilishing your little cute cult around your scalie friends, when your mom is one and only god) and collaborated with Ranni, who forged godslaying Black Knives. But Ranni hijacked her plan and broke cursemark in half, therefore Godwyn and demigods weren't killed properly and became 落とし子

However, it raises obvious question: why would Marika, a giant perfectionist, collaborate with a daughter of woman, who lost her mind after divorce, and, to no ones surprise, betrayed her?

I mean, even if we go with popular "Marika wanted to destroy Golden Order from within and help Ranni" it doesn't explain why Black Knives became enemies of Ranni's group in the main game.

Description of NoBK from official bamco site also provides some interesting info:

One grim night in the depths of winter, a flock of unknown assassins stole across the Lands Between. In a coetaneous attack, this foul covenant snuffed out the lives of many of the God-Queen’s kin throughout the empire, too numerous and too scattered for her godly protection to save.

I mean, I can theorize why Godwyn was chosen as target, but what about the rest? Or maybe there was no target at all and Black Knives attacked chaotically and Godwyn was a collateral damage?

After all, I don't deny the possibility that Ranni "did it all". I even have a crack theory that she collaborated with Radagon and maybe one day I will post it, but I need to post my general write ups about him first. Another wild idea is Ranni's alliance with the outer god of deathbirds or its followers, considering how NoBK restored lost sorcery of death. Honestly, along with Marika/Radagon's motivations it's the most lore convoluted event in entire game.

[dragon-communion]

This is honestly just me dipping a toe into some rough characterization. The Unalloyed and a lone frost dragon have a chat on an icy lake.

⚜️❄️🦋❄️⚜️

Naicwyl pulled back thin, pale lips over ice-needle teeth, crouched low and bristling against the pale of the snowfield. He made a good show of it, but the little demigod before them kept having to focus, and refocus again, when the frost-fern distortion of Naicwyl’s feathers blurred them into the storm.

“Noble dragon,” murmured a voice that cut the winds like a scythe, “I have come far to see thee, and thou dost not strike. Might we converse?”

“I do not strike,” they rasped, “because one does not strike first at a predator.”

The little golden figure seemed to pause, interested. “Predator? I mean you no harm.”

“So saith your mother, your father, and your brothers, no doubt,” they growled, “before they fell on eachother like wolves. Perhaps not a predator— but madmen all. Leave this place.”

The child walked barefoot in the snow, straight-backed and golden as the Erdtree. Naicwyl shuffled backwards like a graceless wyrm, snorting mist. The boy did not take the warning, but tilted his head in birdlike fascination, shining like the snowblind sun.

“Thou art alone, here, without nest or kin. Art thou fed? I have never met a dragon, but I would see my neighbor in good health.”

“Neighbor...?” There was no use looking for the horizon in this slow, churning snow, and no point dragging their gaze from even a small predator when his unmarked flesh reeked thickly of amber and blood. “You are no giant, little demigod, nor deathbird nor corpse. Neither are you my dead kin come back to me. What new insult is this, barefoot upon my lake?”

“Miquella, Lord of the Haligtree, and those who shelter there.” Mortal expressions were hard to decipher, but something about him was... irrepressibly cheerful, and he spread his arms up in greeting. “I come to bid you welcome! The pilgrims say you are a terror, and my knights call you a ghost. But the Haligtree is a beacon to those living and yet lost, as the Helphen guides the dead. If not there, I would at least give you comforts here. What do dragons like?”

“Solitude,” came the frigid snarl, “And a death to Marika’s hungry knights, that crawl like dogs for our blood.” Tail lashing, the dragon began to circle ever so slowly, wing joints crushing the drifts. “We love the sky in all her forms, the scent of blood, the diving kill, and we love our nests with claw and fang. We love the fight, and we love the storm, and we love our homes- and you, little godling, are claiming to root here as your upstart Mother did centuries ago. She rooted, that woman.” The dragon leaned in, slow as frost, and let the boy get a good long look at ice-needle teeth. “And then she choked all other life out.”

There was no answer, and the dragon hissed softly, neck arching up to properly look at the little yearling framed by the lake. “Neighbor, was it? Little lord with your little knights, you reek of blood. You shall not have mine, and if you do may it be a curse upon your new-won lands. I am Naicwyl, and I will proudly be terror and phantom to your little crawling hive.”

[rainyearning]

okajibana​:

Raphael notes the longing look at his hands, quietly piecing together what might be going on in Kaidan’s head. He will say nothing about it right now, but he will test a few things when he has the chance. At the mention of horror again, he actually whines like a child about watching scary movies.

“Eeeeeh? I don’t want to! I don’t like horror movies.” His face sells the cute pout but that muscular physique of his just makes him look ridiculous as he tries to shrink himself to look smaller for more pity. He’s quite satisfied with the smile he gets in return though, and brightens right after.

“Action it is, then! You should get the blanket anyway. It’s also a necessity unless it’s summertime.” He’s on his feet now and follows Kaidan into the kitchen. “You mean popcorn kernels, right? How can you eat those? They’re extremely hard on the teeth. I hope you haven’t broken any…”

Glancing around, he accepts the pan and sets it over a high fire. Popping would be easy enough. controlling where the kernels fly is another. He can do it, but he isn’t going to make things that easy. Where is the fun in that?

“Butter or sugar is fine, but I think just butter today is best. We’ll be popping the seeds in it. Please drop a few squares into the pan, then toss in the seeds. I’ll show you how to pop them,” he nods. “I don’t make it myself often or on the stovetop, but it’s not too difficult. Oh– but make sure you have something to catch the popcorn with.”

Raphael takes his place before the wide pan, arms folded over his chest as he waits for the butter to melt before Kaidan adds the seeds.

“It’s going to smell wonderful if we’re doing it correctly. Next time I’ll just bring some different flavors for you to try. Don’t make a habit of eating too much of them though because there’s way too much sugar in them. I’ll have to roll you everywhere you need to go,” he laughs.

Raphael could be considered weird, at least, that fitted the situation right now. How he was standing there, tall and muscular, but then, he was making these whiny noises, scrunching his face up in the weirdest and forcefully cute way. It was a harsh contrast. But he let Raphael do it, amused, he liked the way Raphael seemed to be so cheerful and easy going. If one twas kind and polite, there was just immense happiness and kindness radiating from him. Like now. He was no longer mad at the deathbird which also put Kaidan in a better mood. When he was back in the kitchen, getting the ingredients they needed for a decent portion of popcorn, Kaidan found himself slightly surprised that he was actually asked to make the popcorn. “I mean, I am a bird.. I guess I can just eat all kind of seeds without thinking about it.” The butter was melting and he soon was just enjoying the scent. Oh melting butter.. how lovely. Once the butter was melted properly, Kaidan would toss in a hand full of seeds, looking back at Raphael for approval. “Or more? Should I toss in all of them?” He had never made popcorn like this. He had done some in his microwave but never traditionally in a pan. “I generally eat lots of vegetables, salads, seeds, I think some popcorn won’t do harm. I appreciate trying more flavors.” He moved the pan to have the kennels move in the melted butter, lips slightly pursing. “When.. when does the popping start? And won’t they just.. fly out of the pan?” He looked over at Raphael, a brow raised. And after he said that, one popped corn would fly past his head, dropping to the floor. “Like.. like how do we not have that happening? Should I catch each?” Another one popped and Kaidan caught it with his hand, giving Raphael a puzzled look.

[jayaorgana]

Here is my pitch for a series: Aliyah and The X-kids (aka Marvel please bring Aliyah to the 616,)

Aliyah Bishop is twelve years old and on earth for the first time ever

Not to mention with her dad for the first time ever, up until two months ago, he didn't even know she existed

But things are going good, they're getting close and Aliyah like earth even if it is confusing sometimes. Enter School

And! Cue Gabby!

Gabby is a year older than Aliyah but they're in the same grade so naturally social butterfly Gabby offers to show Aliyah around.

Aliyah has fairly good social skills but kids her age is kind of where she falters (only child problems... And living on a spaceship with your only contact being Carol Danvers problems)

Luckily Gabby helps her meet a few people, like Luna Maximoff and Artie and Leech

Then Ruby comes falling from the sky

Like literally, she falls from the sky on their lunch break, a little worse for wear, but mostly okay, and definitely not in the right dimension

So now you have, a deep space princess, a moon princess, a clone kid, Artie and Leech, and girl from another dimension

Who just gave the Shi'ar an exact ping on the location of the planet that had been "mysteriously wiped from their system" right before the disappearance of deathbird ten years prior

Cue chaos!

[daisyachain]

The Jonathan Hickman mental gymnastics: Sam Guthrie met Izzy Kane…they started banging because southerners as a species are mutually attracted…their relationship developed off screen because I am very important writer and you know I could have developed it if I wanted to…the reason Sam and Berto AND Sam and Dani get tenfold more relationship development than Sam and his til-death-do-us-part wife is because women make me uncomfortable…they also got married off screen and gave birth to a child…their baby is supergestated so I could fit the entire marriage and pregnancy subplot into the time skip…they are married with a kid but Izzy works for a galactic empire and Sam hangs out on Earth with his buddies…Roberto moves to Chandrilar because he is infatuated with Deathbird

The comic reader sensible logic: Sam Guthrie got shotgun married to his summer fling because she didn’t want to terminate the pregnancy and he wanted to be a parent. He’s apprehensive about romancing either of the two great love interests of his life because of how his precious relationships have flared and fizzled, so he holds off on pursuing anything until Joshie’s older and he and Izzy have figured out their coparenting scheme.

[cykelops]

I was rereading X-Men(the one with Storm's all-female team) and there's a storyline where Deathbird is being hunted because she's pregnant with Vulcan's child and in New Mutant's Izzy Kane told Roberto that Deathbird had a kid so I think it's still canon but does Gabriel know he (possibly) has a kid now that he's back from the dead?

It hasn’t been addressed on Gabriel’s end yet :^(

[sweetvixen1996]

FUN WAYS THE MCU CAN START INTRODUCING X-MEN ELEMENTS (NOT INCLUDING WANDA VISION):

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3

Mentions of the Starjammers- a team of space pirates led by Corsair AKA Christopher Summers who is the father of Scott Summers/Cyclops, Alex Summers/Havok, and Gabriel Summers/Vulcan. 

Introducing the Shi’ar, a very importance alien race in the X-Men mythos. In fact, Professor Charles Xavier actually has a daughter (kind of), Xandra Nermani, with a member of the Shi-ar royal family, Lilandra. Lilandra’s sister, Deathbird, was is married Vulcan and pregnant with his child. 

Black Panther 2

Ororo Munroe/Storm- An omega-level mutant once worshiped as goddess, Storm and T’Challa were once childhood sweet-hearts and were actually married for sometime -making Storm queen consort of Wakanda- in the comics before divorcing due to a number of factors including working long hours and the Avengers being dicks to the X-Men. Storm was the first major female character of African descent in comics and is regarded by many as being Marvel Comics' most important female superhero so even a mention or allusion to her would be awesome. 

Namor- There have been a lot of talk about Namor showing up in, or even being a villain, in BP2 and that would be an excellent introduction of King of Atlantis into the MCU. Namor is half-mutant and half-atlantian so he tends to have an interesting relationship with the X-Men which can best be summed up as -he doesn’t hate them as much as he hates other surface dwellers. In fact, Namor even developed quite the endearing relationship with the Young X-Men member Loa, whose grandmother he was friends with. It was even hinted that Loa herself was actually Namor’s granddaughter. 

Adamantium- Most famous as the unbreakable substance that coats the Wolverine’s bones, adamantium was created in a lab by Dr. Myron MacLain for the government in an attempt to reproduce the vibranium alloy he had made for Captain America's shield. It is stronger than vibranium but not nearly as versatile. Considering Shuri’s own genius, it would make sense for this metal to be metaled. 

Gentle- Nezhno Abidemi was the son of a Wakandan woman and a Russian man. All his life Nezhno was persecuted and rejected, even by his own mother, because his father was an outsider, and it was from him whom Nezhno inherited his X-Gene. Nezhno was raised at the Royal Court of Wakanda. When his mutant powers manifested, Ororo Munroe, the new queen of Wakanda, advised her husband King T'Challa to send Nezhno to the Xavier Institute learn how to control his powers. It would be kind of neat for the one of the first mutants in the MCU to come from Wakanda. 

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Weapon Plus Program- Within the MCU, the Weapon Plus Program is an attempt by the US Government to recreate the super solider serum the created Captain America that eventually led to the creation of the Hulk and the Abomination. However, this program would go through several iterations with Weapon X is the tenth iteration of the Weapon Plus program. Weapon X’s most (in)famous creation would be the Wolverine. 

Bucky’s Flashbacks- Logan AKA the Wolverine is an OLD man and fought in many wars, including WWII. On several occasions, Logan fought alongside Captain America and Bucky... sometimes they even rescued a young Magneto from the concentration camp he was trapped in. 

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

America Chavez- While not confirmed, it is suspected that America Chavez AKA Miss America will be in Doctor Strange 2. One of Chavez powers is the ability to open doorways to other dimensions so perhaps, with these powers we can see dimensions such as Limbo (a hell-like dimension ruled my New Mutant character Illyana Rasputin/Magik) or even the infamous ‘Punch Dimension,’ from which (according to some sources) Cyclops optic beams come from.

The Eternals

Origins- LOOOOOONG story short, the experimentation on primitive humans that created the Eternals also gave humans the capacity to become mutants, meaning that the two groups of characters are definitively linked by a shared creator. Specifically, the X-Gene was engineered by Oneg the Prober (whose name I really hope they change). 

Black Knight- The Black Knight that will be appearing in the film, Dane Whitman, is the latest in a long line of warriors to wield the cursed Ebony Blade and one of the previous Black Knights was a man named Eobar Garrington who was various close friends with the omega-level mutant Bennet du Paris/Exodus, who would grow to become one of Apocalypse’s greatest servants. Perhaps a family story or two would make mention of this fearsome creature. 

Apocalypse- Speaking of the Mutant Immortal, the Externals are likely some of the only beings old enough and strong enough to have met old En Sabah Nur and can still talk about it. Also, part of what makes the Big A such a threat is his access to Celestial technology, including a snazzy set of armor. Oh the stories they could tell...