#Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil

[acidxshark]

TODAY: We're starting our day by diving right back into Doom 3 with Resurrection of Evil. After that? Only The Wheel Can Decide. Hope to see you there!

Art by @teamcatple

[mysteamgrids]

Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil

[nebulousfishgills]

As much as I love playing embrace Dark Urge runs (discussion in therapy pending), there's something so narratively satisfying about how a Resist Durge playthrough can go once you get to the Bhaal Temple. Your character steps into the ring with Orin, it's intended to be a duel, but odds are you're getting eviscerated pretty quickly. You then switch to one of your other characters in your party and throw an attack, effectively breaking the duel and setting the whole temple upon you.

(Adding a cut because this ended up being longer than I thought)

But, I think it's a very satisfying way to play. Your party members have grown fond of your Durge, seeing them as a friend, a family member, even a lover. They've watched you and your pain over your Urge and what it makes you do or want to do. Maybe you've slipped up once or twice, but you've been trying so hard to be the hero they know you can be, that Faerûn needs. So, when it comes time to finally face your demons and you're getting so horribly hurt in the process, they can't help but rush to your defense. It'll put all of them in danger, but it doesn't matter because they want and need to help you, their ally and companion.

Bonus points if you select your character's romanced companion as the savior/duel interruptor to make it extra delicious. They've fallen in love with you, stayed with you when your Urge craved their blood the most, maybe by this point in the game you've helped put their demons down as well. They see you in pain, a final valiant effort to overcome your Urge against the power of Orin, a whole cult, a god of murder himself. They want to protect you, save you as you saved them.

I'm also fond of the extra beauty of Astarion being your Resist Durge romance since it puts the two of you in very similar situations. Fighting against the will of your masters, finally defeating your demons with your newfound companions' help and being offered the greatest power you could ever fathom... only to deny it, ignore power in favor of your party and your love.

This isn't even mentioning just how goddamn good the Withers resurrecting you cutscene is. This skeleton in your camp with unknown and unfathomable power (also apparently supposed to be Jergal himself if I've done my research properly?) is able to bring you back to life, free of your Urge. The line along the lines of "Bhaal could only destroy what of you that he knew, but because you've grown past your Urge and become your own person, he couldn't destroy that new growth" is just so weirdly powerful narratively. Tav may be a default character for you to create upon making a new save file, but Durge is the canon protagonist and I think that entire scene shows it the best. It's a beautiful secondary climax of the narrative (primary being battling the Netherbrain of course).

And, perhaps it's just an oversight on Larian's part or something that'd be a bit difficult to work into the cutscenes mechanically, but I think that it could only get more impactful if your companions could comfort each other during these moments. Everyone and their mother wishes you could hug Astarion after he kills Cazador, but also imagine your romanced companion cradling your body after Bhaal kills you. It seems just a little odd that they all (meaning your party) kinda just stand around staring at your corpse, especially with how close y'all have gotten.

Idk, I have a lot of thoughts about this section of the game in this particular type of playthrough and some of them are hard to articulate into words. It's just such a damn good narrative peak and can really make you feel things.

I've completed I think two resist Durge runs and just hit this point on my third and it really stuck out to me this time (then again my new antidepressants are kinda fucking with me so that might be playing a role). I left it as my last mission before dealing with the Netherbrain and I think it helped build the anticipation of that moment. Everyone else has been helped by you, and now it's your turn to come into your own. I really felt so connected to my character walking into the temple, feeling like everything has been building to this, that regardless of what happens our suffering will finally end. And you have your party there to help you in your time of greatest need as you've done for them.

There's a reason this game was Game of the Year, the narrative is just so powerful and the replay-ability is just insane. I've beaten this game ten times, heading for my eleventh and it truly just never gets old and never fails to make me feel so many things so strongly.

[doom-nerdo-666]

Realization: D3's Bruiser isn't the first time Doom mixed a head with a screen: D2 has that skull switch with computer screens in the eye sockets.

So.... yeah that's it.

I dunno, what if they're related in lore?

[gut-shoveler]

[mileena--kahnumm]

Me walking around my house during a power outage.

[hellman55]

Longplay of DOOM 3 - Resurrection of Evil

[h00ch2003]

My FULL GAME playthrough of #Doom3BFGEdition - Resurrection of Evil is now available on my YouTube channel.  Premiering now.  #h00ch2003 #YouTube #YouTuber #Gaming #PCGamer #Playthroughs #ContentCreator #NoCommentary #Doom3 #Doom

[guywithbeer]

If you have never played it, check out my short review of the DOOM 3, RESURRECTION OF EVIL expansion here.

#doom3 #review #survivalhorrorgaming #videogames #gaming #idsoftware #activision #doom #survivalhorror #horror #fps #singleplayer #multiplayer

[bau-drabbles]

a/n: inspired from all the prev posts!

your insta but you're dating aaron hotchner part 2 :")

part 1, 3, 4

liked by kate.callahan, the.davidrossi and 497 others

y/n_xo: look at my faves 🫶🥹.... and then there's aaron

view all 211 comments

its.emilyp: jumpscare warning next time 😨

d.morgan: nah he looks like he's concocting some evil plan

penny.garcia: he looks like he's going to steal christmas

reid.gram: he looks like he kidnapped my mom and held her hostage somewhere 😦

itsjj: just smile and wave, kids. smile and wave 🥲

d.morgan: crop him out next time fr 🙏

a.hotch: i'll crop you out of the team

d.morgan: say less 😍😮‍💨 least ion have an ugly smile

a.hotch: what smile? you just bare your teeth

y/n_xo: oh 😭

liked by penny.garcia, reid.gram and 489 others

y/n_xo: meme jack really quickly 🫣

view all 278 comments

reid.gram: jack is me when hotch is asking me to get to the point even though my point was the whole theory 🙂

penny.garcia: omg me when he tells me to search something more quickly even though i'm already working high speed 🙂

itsjj: me when he plants more files on my desk even though i'm drowning in the last ones 🙂

its.emilyp: he's me that one time hotch did "team building" and then proceeded to complain the whole time 🙂

d.morgan: me when i made one mistake and he held it against me for months but goes on about forgiving and how its important to move on 🙂

the.davidrossi: me looking at him ogling @/y/n_xo for months and then passionately disagreeing he was in love

y/n_xo: so i'm sensing some of you need therapy 🧍‍♀️

a.hotch: all of you are dead to me

liked by its.emilyp, itsjj and 524 others

y/n_xo: i really got replaced 💔

view all 200 comments

the.davidrossi: WHERE are you finding these???

itsjj: so... who's the wife in the relationship? 🤔

its.emilyp: it's rossi for sure

reid.gram: i would say hotch. the angle of the selfie says it all

d.morgan: nah it gotta be rossi, he types and cooks like a mom. sometimes he even be smelling like one

the.davidrossi: all of you are out of my will

d.morgan: i complimented your cooking and this is the attitude i get? choke

its.emilyp: you're probably immortal at this point, poisoning and sucking the life out of other people so you can drive us to insanity which would inevitably lead us to our doom. but i see right through you 😒

itsjj: sweetheart we need to stop watching horror movies at night time, okay?

a.hotch: it's not what it looks like!

y/n_xo: i don't know if i should cry or be disgusted >:(

a.hotch: baby, i haven't cheated. i promise you ❤

y/n_xo: omg could you imagine if you did with rossi? 💀

the.davidrossi: what is that supposed to mean? 🤨

reid.gram: she means you're old and embarrassing. and maybe even disgusting 🤷‍♂️

y/n_xo: i will physically mutilate you and feed you to wild dogs

itsjj: thanks for that, my kids are crying

liked by the.davidrossi, a.hotch and 478 others

y/n_xo: my bae 😍

view all 234 comments

reid.gram: we literally have a pending case right now y/n

y/n_xo: okay? he's still a bae 😍

reid.gram: awww really? hope you guys find out you're related 😍🤞

penny.garcia: well... at least we know those frown lines are removable 😌

reid.gram: in a time like this, his frown lines are what matters to you? imagine if he was dead

itsjj: omg imagine he was and you guys were discussing his frown lines. i'd resurrect and haunt everyone on this thread

reid.gram: don't worry, your cheeto breath would give you away instantly 🤢

penny.garcia: all i'm saying is i'd want to make sure our boss got a nice makeover one last time in the coffin. and you can't do that if you have bad indentations on your forehead 💗💗

itsjj: this alone should give you employee of the year 😍

a.hotch: i think we need to have a serious talk

d.morgan: seeing hotch not angry makes me feel deeply uncomfortable

its.emilyp: no cause same. someone poke him and see if he's alive

y/n_xo: you'd think i'd kill him? 😡

its.emilyp: if you did, there'd be no one between us would there? 😏

y/n_xo: 😳

a.hotch: i'm wide awake, thank you 😠

its.emilyp: its like he's still with us 😢 i can almost feel his presence 💔

[acidxshark]

From July 16th to the 22nd, I'll be running the Sharkstream Mid-Aughts Shooter-thon to raise money for my wife Natalie's bills and medical expenses. For each donation of $20 or more, a new game will be added to the queue to be played from beginning to end. If we hit whatever our donation goal at the time is, I will also add Duke Nukem Forever to that queue, also to be played from beginning to end.

Our first stream will be on Sunday, July 16th at around 6:30 PM CST on https://www.twitch.tv/acidxshark

Hope to see you there!!

[wjbs-aus]

Sorry for the two Doom 3 posts in a row earlier, but I unironically love all the demon designs they did for it. They're that special type of 2000s sci-fi/horror monster design that I can't get enough of.

Anyway this is now an alphabetical-order Doom 3 monster design appreciation/thoughts/interesting facts post (images from Doomwiki), followed by enemies that only appear in the Resurrection of Evil expansion. Be warned that most of these designs involve heavy amounts of body-horror and gore, and at least two of them might trigger arachnophobia and/or entomophobia in some people.

Regular enemies

Archvile - Basically just a 3D adaptation of its Doom 2 design, with the only differences being the colour, the weird tumorous hands, the smoother head, and the smaller cheekbones. Nothing else to say.

Cacodemon - Due to the original Caco's sprite being traced from a DnD monster, every redesign has tried to make it look different, but I personally think Doom 3's is the furthest from the original design, though it's still recognisably Cacoesque (with the wide mouth and lower "feelers" that people often seem to ignore). Amazing redesign, and I can definitely see some of it in the 2016/Eternal design (specifically the "tentacles", which became the modern!Caco's dangling "legs").

Cherub - I remember, during the leadup to Doom Eternal's release, the Fandom Doom Wiki claimed it would feature Cherubs and used what was clearly a close-up of the Carcass enemy as "proof". As for my actual thoughts on its design, it's very cool, and honestly I really wish it did show up in Eternal, especially if it got redesigned and was a Maykr instead of a Demon.

Commandos - I think it's neat that Doom 3 doesn't just remake the Former Humans in HD, but instead gives them unique twists. In this case, rather than the Chaingunner equivalent being a big dude in red armour carrying a chaingun, Commandos are slightly less bulky, don't wear shirts, and come in two flavours; the one on the left uses its nasty tentacle to do long-range melee attacks, while the one on the right is more "classic" and carries a chaingun. While they are cool, I personally feel like they should have either merged them (like how they work in Metadoom) or had a more traditional Chaingunner and left the tentacle form as it is.

Demon - Much like the Cacodemon, the Pinky got a unique design for 3, with its front half being almost entirely organic, while its back legs are mechanical, and it does that thing I like (for several reasons) where it has a prominent mouth and no eyes. Unlike the Cacodemon, this design was actually used elsewhere, namely in the 2005 Doom movie (which uses designs from Doom 3 for its monsters, which are mutants rather than demons for some reason) where the character "Pinky" gets mutated into one by a virus or something, with his prosthetic lower-half becoming the monster's back legs (albeit with wheels instead of feet).

Hell Knight - When they were first introduced in Doom II, Hell Knights were just palette-swapped versions of the Baron of Hell, so for Doom 3, Id decided to give it a redesign, despite the Baron not appearing in Doom 3. While I think the Hell Knights and Barons looking similar was kinda interesting, this design is really cool and I love it a lot more than the original, especially the alternate texture used in the Hell levels. The Hell Knight is also the only demon to retain its Doom 3 design all the way into the modern games, albeit with minor changes to its design, mostly in regards to its face and palette.

Imp - The first demon encountered in every Doom game, the Imp has varied drastically in design in each game, and much like most of Doom 3's returning demons, is probably the most divergent from the original. Instead of a spiky humanoid with glowing red eyes, this imp is more like an insect, with chitinous grey skin and 14 eyes. Like the Demon and Hell Knight, the Imp appears frequently throughout the Doom movie.

Lost Soul - In the first 3 Doom games (1, II and 64), Lost Souls were giant human skulls with horns, which were inexplicably on fire. For Doom 3, Id got a bit creative with things and instead made them into hideous-looking, sharp-toothed disembodied heads attached to rockets, and there's even a sequence where one flies out of a scientist's head, killing her in the process (though the way the cutscene's set up makes it look like the Lost Soul is her head). Very interesting, though the mechanical details kinda make it fit in more with the later-released Quake IV (which used the same engine and artstyle, but with more of a focus on cybernetic body-horror).

Maggot - The most horrific-looking demon in Doom 3 by far, with two heads, five legs, and what appear to be exposed lungs. I love it. Interestingly, they appear to have influenced the modern Imp design, as they also have gross fleshy back parts that look kinda similar, although the similarity ends there. I also feel like this is the most representative of the Doom 3 design philosophy.

Mancubus - Hell yeah. The Doom 3 Mancubus feels like an update to its classic design rather than an overhaul, with its more cartoonish ogre-like face being swapped out for a disturbing mouth-tube and pair of facial tentacles that evoke an elephant's trunk and tusks, respectively (although apparently it's meant to resemble Cthulhu). Its cannons also look delightfully 2000s.

Revenant - Much like the Mancubus, the Revenant also feels like an update to the original, removing the original's "shorts" (which are actually blood) and replacing them with a translucent, gelatinous mass resembling a human, while also 2000s-ing its chestplate and shoulder-cannons. I haven't encountered them yet in my current playthrough, so I don't know if they still do the silly walk, but I doubt they do, which is sad.

Tick - While Doom's original spider-related demons (the Spider Mastermind and the Arachotron) don't appear in Doom 3, there's still room for spiders. The Tick features a humanoid face incorporated into the front of its carapace, and has 6 legs, meaning it's actually more of a bug, but I honestly don't care.

Trite - The Trite is much fleshier than the Tick, and functions very similarly. Its face kinda reminds me of the Hell Knight, with the Imp's eyes and a disturbingly humanoid nose; in fact, what the whole thing makes me think of is, well, The Thing, namely its upside-down head-spider form.

Wraith - Wraiths are interesting in that they appear to have gone on to inspire two modern Doom monsters, coincedentally both from Eternal; their faces slightly resemble the structure of the Doomhunter's skull, while their body-shape and pose resembles the Gargoyle. Overall it's very cool, especially the avian leg-scales, but weirdly it doesn't seem capable of flight.

Zombie - Unlike Doom 1, II or 64, Doom 3 has human NPCs as part of its attempt at something closer to Half-Life's structure (in fact, Doom 3 released only a few months before Half-Life 2); as a result, there are also zombified versions of them, which are the bottom of the game's enemy heirarchy. They filled a niche that, until this game, the Doom series lacked, namely a weak melee enemy; however, I find their designs kinda uninteresting, mostly because they're just generic zombies, albeit with slightly futuristic-looking clothing. Doom 2016 and Eternal would later introduce more visually-interesting zombies which fill a similar role however, so that's neat!

Z-Sec - The Z-Sec are basically Doom 3's equivalents of the Zombieman and Shotgunner, with two new variants, one with a machine-gun and another with a shield; these two probably inspired 2016's Possessed Soldier and Security respectively. Again, they're not the most inspired designs, though I really like their cool helmets and extremely mid-2000s sci-fi armour designs.

Bosses

Vagary - All I'll say about this one is that the part in The Making Of Doom 3 (a book I have read about half of I think?) where they say that "Sexy + Gross = Creepy" is absolutely correct, and also the Vagary's abdomen contains a Mancubus fetus so that's cool. Still think the Whiplash from Doom Eternal does the whole "feminine torso on a non-humanoid lower-half" thing in a better and more tonally-consistent way.

Guardian - This is the closest Doom 3 gets to having a Baron of Hell, I guess. Apparently it's meant to look like a dinosaur's idea of what a demon would look like, so that's neat!

Sabaoth - I'm pretty sure this one was meant to be a call-back to Quake II's final boss, which is also a giant cyborg with an organic upper-half that uses its game's BFG variant. But this one is different, because it's, like, a mass of meat rather than a weird skeleton, so that's cool, and the guy it's made of is the player's mission-control for the first few sections of the game. I don't know why the three "main" Idtech 4 games (Doom 3, Quake IV and Prey (2006)) all have a boss that consists of a major side-character grafted onto a big (bio)mechanical thing, but I expect to see that return if we ever get a 2000s FPS revival. Also something something "it looks a bit like the Doomhunter from Doom Eternal".

Cyberdemon - Unlike the '90s Doom games, where the Cyberdemon was an end-of-episode boss that eventually became a recurring level hazard/miniboss, Doom 3 made it the final boss that can only be harmed with the game's situational utility weapon, the Soul Cube; this probably lead to the modern!Cyberdemons both being bosses (the one in 2016 is fought midway through the game, while the one in VFR is the final boss) before Eternal replaced them with the Tyrants, which are literally just classic Cyberdemons in 3D with more interesting attacks. This design is... interesting, removing most of the more iconic details of the original Cyberdemon (its asymmetrical legs, the mass of wires in its abdomen, the arm-cannon being smaller and on its right arm, and the small, wide-set eyes) in place of a design that, again, fits more into Quake IV than Doom, but also it kinda makes it fit Doom 3's world more, and it's actually more "cyber" than the original Cyberdemon (the only cybernetic parts of which are its right leg, left hand, torso and some parts of its right arm).

Resurrection of Evil

Biosuit Zombie - Apparently this has some gameplay use in the non-BFG Edition versions of RoE (dropping a useful item), but otherwise it's just a single-level gimmick version of the regular Zombie enemy. Still, I love hazmat suits in general, and this one makes the look cooler by adding that delicious mid-2000sness.

Bruiser - The Bruiser is another candidate for being Doom 3's equivalent of the Baron of Hell (since Barons are sometimes referred to as "Bruisers", and the pair fought as Doom 1's first end-of-episode boss are known as "The Bruiser Brothers"), but with a design that's closer to both the Mancubus and the classic!Cyberdemon, but with the extra detail of having a TV screen for a mouth, which is extremely cool, and its arm-cannons look more industrial than the Mancubus's, which helps differentiate them physically. Apparently they were originally going to appear in Doom 3's main campaign and blend in with the environment before attacking, but this was scrapped, and Nerve (who developed Resurrection of Evil) ended up reusing the model in the DLC.

Forgotten One - According to the Doom Wiki (which is where I'm getting most of my information, since I'm not particularly far into Doom 3 at time of writing and I haven't even touched the DLC yet), these are just reskins of regular Lost Souls, but closer to their original appearance, which is. Fine, I guess? Honestly I prefer the regular Lost Souls over the Forgotten Ones.

Vulgar - Another case of Nerve recycling cut content, the Vulgar's model was used for the Arch-Vile in early versions of Doom 3, before being replaced with the more sprite-accurate design used for the final, and honestly I can see why. This design doesn't fit well with the Arch-Vile's whole "demonic wizard" thing, but what it does work well as is a fast enemy, and apparently the Vulgar is, being the DLC's equivalent of the Imp. I really like the little crustacean legs and the very Xenomorph-like body-plan, and I wish they did something like this again in the modern games. The closest is the Prowler in Eternal (which is essentially a stronger Imp).

The Hunters (Helltime, Berserk, Invulnerability) - I'm grouping these three together as they are all just modified Hell Knights, but as bosses rather than regular enemies, and each unlocks a new ability for the Resurrection of Evil-exclusive Soul Cube equivalent, the Artifact. The Helltime Hunter is really cool and honestly looks more like the 2016 Hell Knight design than the standard Doom 3 one does, the Berserk Hunter is genuinely kinda unnerving and feels like something from a 2000s horror movie, and the Invulnerability Hunter has a really neat armoured design that's kinda hard to make out through the particle-effects it's surrounded by.

Maledict - The final boss of RoE is a giant skull-bat I guess, with a human face inside its mouth. This is a reference to the ending cutscene of Doom 3's main campaign, in which its antagonist, Dr. Betruger, is shown transformed into the Maledict; you only get to fight it in Resurrection of Evil. This design is kinda generic but also very Doom-y, and works really well as the final boss of the entire Doom 3 subseries (after Doom 4 was cancelled and then revived as Doom 2016, which is set in a different timeline).

[silverwhittlingknife]

Dick resurrecting Bruce via Lazarus Pit and his reasons for doing so left a bad taste in my mouth. Especially when Dick tried to talk Tim out of it. I don't like it. I wish Tim found out about it and... Had a serious discussion with him? Hit him? Left? I dunno.

Oh man, it's hard for me to talk about this one without the Doylist approach. I'm gonna come back to these panels, but I just want to leave them here as a contrast between how Dick is written in his solo vs. how he's written in Batman and Robin:

Dick: Tim... I ... where does it stop, right? What about your mom, then? My mom and dad? Bruce's...? (Nightwing 139)

Dick: This isn't just "loved ones," Alfie. It's Bruce Wayne, the Batman. He saved our lives, he saved the city and the world how many times? (Batman and Robin 9)

I have SUCH complicated feelings about the Morrison Batman and Robin run? I like a lot of the Dick-Damian-Alfred dynamics, and I love the idea of villain!Jason as a major antagonist for DickBats, and I love what I think is the concept of the Lazarus Pit arc, which is that Dick's slowly crumbling under the pressure of being Batman and Jason's taunting is the last straw that finally pushes him to make a terrible mistake.

But I don't like the execution of the Lazarus Pit arc, and the disregard for big chunks of post-Crisis continuity and characterization is sooo frustrating. ("I don't like to plan"/pro-Lazarus-Pit!Dick, cartoonishly-evil!Talia, redhead!Jason, etc.)

And yet. AND YET. So many of the concepts are so good! The execution is so messy, but the concepts are so good! I want to tear it all up and then put it lovingly back together but different sdfdsfs

I had a lot of thoughts, so below the cut:

Why characterizations in B&R are a huge departure from previous continuity (Doylist version)

Why the Lazarus Pit arc COULD BE SO GOOD though (and how we can make it work with Watsonian reasoning)

Finally getting back to your question - how would Tim react? (tl;dr probably with concern and worry?)

Characterization Changes

Just to give you a bit of an idea of how abrupt a departure B&R is from Dick's solo, here are some panels showing some major changes.

1) Dick on Lazarus Pits: Pro or Against?

Here's Dick arguing against using the Lazarus Pit and telling Tim it won't bring back the soul in Nightwing 139:

Here's Dick doubling down on the evilness of the Lazarus Pit when Ra's taunts him with it post-Bruce's death in Nightwing 152:

But here's Dick arguing that the Lazarus Pit will be fine and that he doesn't believe in "prophecies of doom" in Batman and Robin 7 (and indeed, also in B&R, he'll kill and resurrect Kate with zero consequences - convenient!):

2) Talia: protective or cruel?

Here's Talia worrying about Damian's safety and teaming up with the Batfamily to try to save him from Ra's in Resurrection:

But here's Talia smirking after telling Damian they're enemies now and she's going to replace him with a clone in Batman and Robin 12:

3) Dick and planning

Here's Dick-the-planner in Nightwing 142:

Tim: That's a lotta ordnance. Dick: Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

But here's Dick the impulsive leap-before-you-look guy in Batman and Robin 9:

Dick: ... Okay, I'm sorry - I don't like to plan, I work without a net... I'm not Bruce.

4) Resurrection: the right choice or the wrong choice (part 2)

Here's Dick telling Tim he made the right choice (not trying to resurrect anyone) in Nightwing 139:

But here's Dick insisting that resurrecting Bruce would've been the right choice in Batman and Robin 9:

This is one of those "clearly some people were writing angry letters to the editor" moments sdfdsfds, because it's awkwardly attempting to address Dick's abrupt about-face but the writer still hasn't read the issues in question because

a) Alfred has no way of knowing Dick's previous stance and it's incredibly weird that he would, b) "cautioned against" the Pit is a lot milder than "had a fist-fight with Tim about it," c) Dick's argument has shifted from "the Pit is an eldritch evil that's untrustworthy and probably soulless" to "look, resurrection is a special thing, and not all loved ones are important enough for resurrection," which, uh, okayyyy, and d) Dick is still full-naming "Tim Drake" as if he's a business associate and they had an argument about how to properly file paperwork and now it looks like Tim Drake was right after all, as opposed to Dick's little brother that he had a huge fight with and who subsequently ran away from home insisting that their dad was alive and that he was gonna prove it and now it turns out their dad is alive

Why This Arc Could Be Great Though

Listen, Dick-driven-to-the-Lazarus-Pits is a great concept. I love narrative foils. I love Dick ending up in the exact same place that Tim was in Resurrection, and even though he knows better. I love Dick being that desperate. Here's the setup:

Damian's back gets broken, Alfred takes him to get emergency treatment from Talia but it's not clear if he'll recover,

villain!Jason taunts Dick about not caring about Bruce,

Dick's been slowly crumbling under the pressure of being Batman and between the guilt of Damian being injured and the blow of Jason's accusations (not to mention having to fight villain!Jason and get him arrested), this is the last straw,

he decides to resurrect Bruce even though he knows perfectly well this is a terrible idea because he was the one who talked Tim out of it

he heads off to do this incredibly stupid thing and nobody stops him because normally on the rare occasions Dick's out-of-control Tim shows up and stops him (Hugo Strange, the Joker) but Tim isn't here and actually the strain of that ongoing estrangement is probably also contributing to Dick's isolation and terrible decision-making

the attempted resurrection goes horribly and Dick has to fight a grotesque parody of his tragically-dead father

I love this idea!! I love it when characters make stupid emotional decisions with terrible consequences!! I love the ways Dick and Tim's arcs intersect and parallel each other!!

And I think this could absolutely be in-character for Dick. He knows it's wrong and a bad idea, but he's desperate and pushed to his limits and grasping at straws? Yeah. I can see it.

BUT yeah, not in love with the execution. My conclusion is that more people should write about this arc in fanfic. <3

How Would Tim React?

I think it depends on where you put Tim in the story?

Options that come to mind:

Tim finds out mid-adventure: Tim's semi-teaming-up with Ra's and underground in a League base - and suddenly he stumbles on Dick sneaking in with (apparently) Bruce's dead body! In this case, I think Tim's first reaction is defensiveness about his own behavior and assuming he's being spied on, and it only slowly dawns on him that Dick's up to something. I'd really want to somehow maneuver a physical fight where Tim tries to stop him, so you get a direct reversal of Resurrection, but mmmm I'm a little stuck on how to get there since Tim's working theory is that the body isn't Bruce's body, so I don't see why he'd be opposed to Dick dumping it in? But anyway, they should have a physical fight and a direct parallel where Tim realizes he needs to back off and let Dick decide, and then they hug ;_; I feel like to make this one work you need Tim really invested in stopping Dick, so uhhhhh maybe for some reason Tim's "rescue Bruce from time" plan requires the body of the clone? So Dick CAN'T put it in the Lazarus Pit, or Bruce will be LOST FOREVER?

Tim gets told about it after the fact: So uhhh for example, Ra's finds out about Dick's botched resurrection attempt and tells Tim about it in an attempt to paint Dick as a hypocrite/ entice Tim into using the Lazarus Pit. I feel like Tim would just straight-up not believe him? But let's say that Tim finds out for sure - either Dick admits it to him, or he sees some League recording, or whatever. I'm not really sure how Tim would react? Worried, probably, because it's out-of-character, and I feel like Tim might wonder if it's really him or if he's under magical influence or something? And uhhhh then ideally Tim realizes that no, it was because he was having a really hard time ;_; and then Tim is worried about him and comforting and/or apologetic and probably Dick is probably also apologetic and then they hug <3.

Alternate third terrible possibility: it is Bruce's body, he was dead and Tim was just in denial, Dick resurrects him but there are some kind of eldritch evil consequences, and then Dick has to call Tim back and they have to fight undead!Bruce together. I like this one >:D

[doom-nerdo-666]

Another thing about the QC D3 armor i didn't bring up: It using gloves.

Because i saw a video of someone playing D3 RoE and using a mod with that skin.

The gloves get in the way of the hands decomposing when the Artifact is in use.

[purpleajisai]

Madara Week Day 2 - Christ/Antichrist

The Saviour of this World and the Christ: A comparative analysis of Madara Uchiha and Jesus Christ

It’s Christmas time. Christians all over the world are preparing themselves for what they consider one of the most joyful holidays in the year: the birth of the Messiah, He who came to redeem the world. Meanwhile, the Madara enthusiasts are making a countdown for the birthday of the man who tried to save the ninja world by sacrificing his very self. In this meta, I intend to explain the connections, similarities and differences between Madara Uchiha and Jesus Christ that I’ve found over the years. I would also recommend to read “Is Madara our Lord and Saviour?” by @al-hekima-madara-blog for another very interesting meta on the topic. This is my contribution to day 2 of Madara Week, hosted by @uchiha-event.

A quick note before I start my rambling: I will be using the Douay-Rheims translation of the Bible (Roman Catholic translation), but there shouldn’t be any problem for readers of Protestant background as the difference between the Bibles used by both denominations are in the Old Testament and our focus will be the New Testament.

“I am here to save the world”

Naruto Shippuden, chapter 677

For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by him.

John 3:17

What is the purpose of Madara in this story? One would be tempted to say “because every shonen needs a villain”, but I think his purpose as a character was to expose the flaws within the shinobi system that ultimately corrupted a man who desired peace into someone whose sense of reality became so warped by the situations in his life that he started a war to achieve said peace. Madara didn’t make the Eye of the Moon plan to be evil and act dramatic, he made it with the final objective of launching an eternal dream that would guarantee no more conflict and the ideal life for anyone within it. He’s already been past judging the world, he wants to save it at the expense of himself. This is similar to how God is presented in the Old Testament compared to the New Testament: we first see a God who insists that his law is followed and that chastises those who trespass and disobey in several ocassions. But once we reach the New Testament, he becomes a loving figure that intends to save people from eternal doom in hell (”reality is hell”, anyone?). The point is that we have a man whose purpose in the world is to cleanse all forms of evil thorugh his being and who wants to bring salvation to anyone, regardless if the world agrees or not.

“I come here to bring you light and joy in a life that’s beyond this reality”

Naruto Shippuden, chapter 626

Jesus said to her: I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live.

John 11:25

What does Madara mean when he says that “you can’t see it”? After following the storyline we conclude that he’s talking about the Eye of the Moon plan. Let’s add some tangents here, the people who were directly involved in the plan and helped Madara one way or another. They had no clue about what would happen exactly but they were convinced by the prospect of a peaceful life free of their struggles. In a certain way, they believed in Madara. The exact same thing can be seen with Jesus, who promises eternal life beyond the death of the physical body. Nobody knows how Heaven looks like but the believers trust him on that promise.

“I bring peace”

Naruto Shippuden, chapter 661

These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world

John 16:33

Notice how Madara refers to the current state of the shinobi world as “Hashirama’s world”? In Christianity and the Bible, it is a common practice to separate “the world” and “the believers” as entities with entirely different mindsets and values. Madara sees the world as direct consequence of his nemesis, Hashirama, just as Christians see the evil in the world as the direct consequence of the sins of Lucifer. To “overcome the world”, when applied to Madara, refers to how he intends to use a power whose source is unknown (the power of the Sage of Six Paths) in order to end the paradox of Hashirama’s world. He is going to achieve peace to overwrite the current world and install his own world where the paradox is solved.

“I intend for you to acquire new identity within me”

Naruto Shippuden, chapter 665

If then any be in Christ a new creature, the old things are passed away, behold all things are made new.

2 Corinthians 5:17

And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me. And that I live now in the flesh: I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

I picked two of the letters in the New Testament in purpose, you may have noticed that the previous quotes come from the Gospel of John. Because the Gospel of John is a retelling of what Jesus did and said, whereas the letters (mostly from the apostle Paul) are reflections of the lives of the apostles after Jesus was gone. Similarly, Obito becomes Madara once Madara dies in the cave and walks in his shoes. Yesterday, I wrote a bit more about how Madara decomposed his humanity for the sake of his dream of peace. Here, we have Madara giving up his identity to anyone who embraces his goal, similarly to how Jesus signifies a brotherhood of believers. Madara also never writes down his autobiography or gets a space to present his POV, just as how all of what we know from Jesus is from the people close to him, not by his own word. In a sense, both become an entity for like-minded people to work towards a certain goal.

Thank you for reading this far, if you have any questions please use the ask box. It’s always a pleasure to have discussions and to talk about my favourite anime emo man.

[roskii]

Blaming you for having me revisit my own LoZ AU. But tell me more about yours cause honestly AUs are the best. What’s something you’re proud with this AU? What’s your favorite part of it? What’s a silly detail that makes you go “yeah this is it”?

Oh I'm glad to hear, and I wanna know about your au too!! I love zelda aus so much (I can recommend many too)

Oh I'm proud of all 3 I have currently..one was an old au I'm resurrecting from the dead. (It's like 2016 old?)

I'll just give snippets of each.

Divine au I'm proud of the characters. Especially Link cause this story is mostly them trying to be a hero during a turbulent time in hyrule, fighting an evil Queen but struggling with ...well the trauma of saving this stupid land. I'm excited to finally draw this comic (it's probably gonna be so long..)

The doomed kingdom au is much smaller than the divine au but..that's okay. It's mostly about Ganondorf struggling with ptsd while running away from the gray maiden that wants to destroy him..and him finding a friend even in the darkest time and learning to trust. It's all about learning to care and let others care for you kinda deal. The world is shit but atleast I got you.

The time gate au? This is an OLD au but I completely scrapped it for a while..now I'm rebuilding it. This one would also be rather big (not AS big as the Divine vessel au but ya know) I think I like Zelda and Link's dynamic in this au cause...spoiler alert in both aus above but zelink is not Canon there, but is in the time gate au, but sadly link is centuries in the future and Zelda is centuries in the past so this romance isn't gonna last.

My favorite aspect of this au really though is Ganondorf being a goofy ass villain who's got a serious motivation but is..such a bitch and more flamboyant than his other incarnations.