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all-regarding-dogs · 2 years ago

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Are Dogs Stronger Than Humans? Debunking the Myth and Uncovering the Truth

Have you ever wondered if dogs possess a hidden strength that surpasses our own? It's a fascinating question that has captured the curiosity of many. While dogs are renowned for their agility, power, and loyalty, the notion of them being more robust than humans often sparks debate and intrigue. In this article, we delve into this fascinating topic, aiming to debunk the myth and uncover the truth behind the perception of canine strength. The question "Are dogs stronger than humans?" leads us on a quest to explore the comparative strength of these two species. By examining various aspects of strength and dispelling common misconceptions, we aim to provide you with an enlightening and engaging perspective on the subject. So, fasten your seatbelts as we embark on this journey to unravel the truth about the strength of dogs versus humans. Prepare to challenge your preconceived notions and gain a deeper understanding of both species' unique abilities. Let's dive in and explore the captivating world of canine strength!

Unveiling Canine Strength: The Power Behind Those Paws

Unveiling Canine Strength: The Power Behind Those Paws Regarding physical strength, dogs possess remarkable attributes that set them apart from humans. One key factor contributing to their strength is their unique muscle structure. Dogs have a higher muscle mass-to-body weight ratio than humans, allowing them to generate impressive force and power in their movements. But it's not just about muscle mass. Dogs also excel in endurance, thanks to their superior cardiovascular systems. They can sustain physical activity for extended periods, making them ideal companions for running, herding, and even search and rescue operations. One fascinating aspect of canine strength is their specialized features. For instance, dogs have powerful jaws equipped with sharp teeth, which allows them to exert tremendous biting force. Certain dog breeds, like the German Shepherd or the Rottweiler, are known for their bite strength, making them valuable in roles such as police or guard dogs. When comparing the strength-to-size ratio, dogs often appear relatively stronger than humans. Consider a scenario where a small-sized dog effortlessly pulls a person during a game of tug-of-war. This visual spectacle can lead to the misconception that dogs are inherently stronger. However, it's essential to note that the size and weight of the individual dog, as well as their specific breed characteristics, contribute to these instances of apparent strength. Speaking of breeds, there are certain dog breeds renowned for their impressive strength and working capabilities. Take the Siberian Husky, known for its ability to pull heavy sleds across vast distances in harsh winter conditions. The muscular build and endurance of these dogs are awe-inspiring. Similarly, Saint Bernard, famous for their rescue efforts in the snowy Alps, showcases remarkable strength and stamina. So, while dogs possess unique physical attributes and can exhibit relative strength, it's crucial to remember that human strength lies in different areas. Our ability to reason, use tools, and adapt to complex situations sets us apart. Dogs and humans excel in different domains, each harnessing their strengths in their respective roles. In the next section, we will explore strength's mental and emotional aspects, shedding light on the remarkable bond between dogs and humans. Stay tuned as we unveil the incredible depths of canine strength beyond the physical realm.

Human Advantages: Unleashing the Power of the Human Mind

Human Advantages: Unleashing the Power of the Human Mind While dogs possess impressive physical strength, humans have their own set of advantages that make us unique and formidable beings. Our greatest strength lies in the power of our minds. The human brain is a marvel of complexity, enabling us to surpass dogs in various aspects. Cognitive Abilities Humans have an exceptional capacity for cognition, including advanced thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving skills. Our ability to analyze complex situations, think critically, and develop innovative solutions is unparalleled. On the other hand, dogs rely more on instinct and basic problem-solving abilities. Adaptability Humans possess remarkable adaptability, allowing us to thrive in diverse environments and situations. Our ability to learn and adapt to new challenges gives us an edge over dogs, whose behavior and capabilities are more limited by their genetic traits and training. Language and Communication Humans have developed sophisticated language systems that enable us to communicate complex ideas, emotions, and experiences. This linguistic prowess allows us to collaborate, share knowledge, and coordinate efforts on a large scale. While dogs can understand commands and communicate through body language, their communication abilities are limited compared to the richness and depth of human language. Technological Advancements Humans have harnessed their cognitive abilities to create groundbreaking technologies that have transformed the world. Our capacity for innovation and technological advancement is unparalleled, from inventing tools and machines to developing advanced medical treatments and exploring space. Despite their remarkable abilities, dogs cannot match the ingenuity and progress human civilization achieves. Achievements and Accomplishments Throughout history, humans have achieved extraordinary feats demonstrating superior strength in various fields. From scientific discoveries and artistic creations to athletic accomplishments and intellectual breakthroughs, humans have pushed the boundaries of what is possible. These achievements highlight the incredible potential and limitless possibilities that arise from the power of the human mind. While dogs possess physical strength and specific specialized skills, humans harness the strength of our intellect, adaptability, and accomplishments to shape the world around us. Our ability to innovate, create, and collaborate sets us apart. It propels us forward in our quest for progress and excellence. In the following section, we will delve into the unique bond between humans and dogs, exploring this special connection's emotional and relational strengths. Brace yourself for heartwarming tales and fascinating insights into the power of companionship and loyalty.

The Bond between Dogs and Humans: An Unbreakable Connection

Beyond physical strength, the bond between humans and dogs is a testament to the power of emotional connection and partnership. Dogs have woven themselves into the fabric of human society, becoming our loyal companions and indispensable partners in various aspects of life. Loyalty and Devotion Dogs are renowned for their unwavering loyalty and unconditional love. They form deep attachments to their human counterparts, forging a bond that transcends words. Whether through wagging tails, comforting cuddles, or vigilant guardianship, dogs have an innate ability to provide emotional support and companionship. Also Read: Can Dogs Eat Oatmeal Cream Pies? Exploring the Safety and Risks Companionship and Emotional Well-being Dogs have an incredible knack for brightening our lives and lifting our spirits. Their presence alone can bring joy, alleviate stress, and provide comfort during difficult times. The simple act of petting a dog has been scientifically proven to release endorphins and reduce anxiety. Dogs often serve as trusted confidants, offering a listening ear without judgment. Assistance and Service Dogs have an extraordinary capacity to assist humans in various activities. From guide dogs aiding individuals with visual impairments to service dogs supporting those with physical disabilities, these remarkable animals enhance our quality of life. They can be trained to perform specific tasks, provide emotional support, and even detect life-threatening conditions such as seizures or allergies. Working Dogs Dogs are not only our beloved companions but also valuable contributors to society. Their innate abilities and specialized training make them indispensable in search and rescue, law enforcement, and therapy work. Whether a search dog locating missing persons or a therapy dog comforting hospital patients, these four-legged heroes showcase their unique strengths in serving humanity. Sports and Recreation Dogs have become enthusiastic participants in various sports and recreational activities, showcasing their agility, speed, and intelligence. From competitive dog shows to canine sports like agility, obedience, and flyball, these events celebrate our canine friends' incredible skills and abilities. The synchronized movements and shared triumphs show the bond between human handlers and their dogs. Complementary Strengths The partnership between humans and dogs is a remarkable synergy, where each species complements the strengths and weaknesses of the other. While dogs offer unwavering loyalty, heightened senses, and remarkable physical capabilities, humans provide love, care, and intellectual stimulation. Together, we form a dynamic duo, relying on each other's unique qualities to navigate life's journey. In the final section, we will explore fascinating anecdotes and incredible tales that highlight the extraordinary lengths dogs go to protect, serve, and bring joy to the lives of their human companions. Prepare to be amazed by the stories showcasing our beloved canine friends' indomitable spirits and incredible hearts.

Are dogs stronger than humans? - Debunking the Myth: Exploring the Truth

Throughout this article, we have delved into the fascinating world of canine and human strength, debunking misconceptions and shedding light on the unique qualities each possesses. Let's address the burning question: "Are dogs stronger than humans?" While it may seem that dogs possess impressive physical strength in certain aspects, it is essential to understand that comparing the strength of dogs and humans is like comparing apples and oranges. Dogs have specialized features, muscular structures, and endurance to excel in specific areas. On the other hand, humans have cognitive abilities, problem-solving skills, and adaptability that set us apart. Dogs exhibit tremendous strength-to-size ratios and have been known to accomplish incredible feats. They can pull heavy loads, display remarkable agility, and demonstrate exceptional senses. However, humans hold an advantage regarding overall strength and abilities. Our cognitive prowess and adaptability have enabled us to conquer challenges, build civilizations, and achieve remarkable feats in various fields. From technological advancements to intellectual and creative endeavors shaping our world, humans continue to push boundaries and exceed expectations. But let's not forget the true essence of this discussion—the unbreakable bond between dogs and humans. While strength is necessary, it is just one piece of the puzzle. Dogs offer loyalty, companionship, and emotional support that cannot be measured in physical terms alone. They bring us immeasurable joy and comfort, reminding us of the power of love and connection. In conclusion, whether dogs are stronger than humans can be answered with a resounding "No." Humans possess unique strengths beyond physicality, while dogs bring their remarkable qualities to the table. Instead of comparing and contrasting, let us appreciate the beauty of the symbiotic relationship between dogs and humans, celebrating how we complement and uplift one another. So, the next time you marvel at a dog's strength or witness the incredible achievements of humanity, remember that true strength lies not just in physicality but in the bonds we forge, the love we share, and the unyielding spirit that drives us forward. Also Read: Why does my dog lick my Armpit? Is it safe for him?

Conclusion: Celebrating Strength in Unity

In this captivating journey, we have explored whether dogs are stronger than humans, unraveling the truth behind the perception. Let's take a moment to recap the main points we've discovered. We began by unveiling the physical attributes contributing to a dog's strength, highlighting its muscle structure, endurance, and specialized features. We marveled at their strength-to-size ratio and explored specific dog breeds known for their impressive power. Yet, we also acknowledged humans' unique advantages, including cognitive abilities, problem-solving skills, and adaptability, that surpass those of dogs. Shifting gears, we delved into the emotional realm, where the true essence of strength emerged—the bond between dogs and humans. We celebrated the loyalty, companionship, and unwavering support dogs offer. From service dogs aiding those in need to furry companions brightening our everyday lives, dogs have a unique role in our world. As we conclude our exploration, let us embrace a broader perspective. Instead of pitting dogs against humans in a contest of strength, let us appreciate the distinct qualities and strengths each brings. Dogs exhibit physical prowess that awes us, while humans possess the ingenuity and achievements that shape our world. In the grand tapestry of life, the unity of our strengths truly shines. The bond shared between humans and dogs transcends mere physical strength. It is a connection built on trust, companionship, and love. Together, we create a harmonious symphony where the qualities of one species enhance and elevate the other. So, dear reader, as you ponder who is stronger, dogs or humans, remember that true strength lies not solely in muscle but in our capacity to care, protect, and inspire. Let us celebrate the incredible partnership between dogs and humans, cherishing the extraordinary bond that unites us in a world where strength finds its fullest expression through unity. Read the full article

#dogs #dogsvshuman

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araminakilla · 2 years ago

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Day 23: ALERT! ALERT! ⚠️📣 ⚠️ A TSUNAMI OF NEW INFORMATION INCOMING!

This is not a drill! And btw, no... this is not a leak to one of the books of the third movie nor major spoilers from the film. This is information I found exclusively on the internet. The first one is from a portuguese page talking about the characters in a way nobody has done before, with more information we could have ever imagine. The second one is an spanish interview about many things.

This is the link to the first one:

This is about the voices in portugues and it explains about the characters:

João Paulo Rodrigues once again lends his voice to Tadeo Jones, better known as Tad the Explorer.

Tad's biggest dream is to be accepted by his archeology colleagues, but he always manages to complicate things. However, Tad had several surprising discoveries: the Lost City of Paititi and The Necklace of King Midas, which have remained secret because revealing the truth can cause unknown dangers. Therefore, Tad's abilities remain unknown. He dreams of being accepted by the archaeological community, which leads him to his next adventure to discover where the Emerald Tablet is hidden.

Mafalda Luís de Castro is the voice of Ramona, the Egyptian mummy hidden in the Louvre Museum who turns out to be Ra-Amon-Ah, a lost queen of the 18th dynasty, advisor to Queen Nefertiti and Tutankhamun's aunt. Her period in her power only lasted 3 days and as a result no one recognized her reign. Therefore, her greatest desire is to be rediscovered and exposed in a museum to receive all the historical attention she deserves.

Rui Oliveira is the voice of the Mummy, who after 500 years as a guardian of the Lost City of Paititi, was expelled when Tad made the archaeological discovery. Now the hilarious Inca mummy has become Tad's sidekick. The Mummy unleashes an ancient spell on himself, and Tad will have to find the Emerald Tablet to stop the Mummy's curse.

Ana Vieira lends her voice to Victoria, the Queen of paranormal television shows. Victoria Moon was Sara's close friend, but paths parted when her obsession with ghosts and spirits was exaggerated. Loucatoria, as she is known by the scientific community, now has a new goal: to find the Emerald Tablet of Hermes… and Sara and Tad are the only ones who can help her.

Márcia Correia gives the voice to determined and courageous Sara, a world-famous archaeologist. She specializes in pre-Columbian cultures and now leads an international archaeological team in Mexico to find the location of King Pakal's Tomb. Sara invited Tad on her expedition, unaware of his clumsy ways and the trouble he's about to unleash. She will have to team up with Tad to fight the evil forces of the underworld.

Carlos Macedo lends the voice to Ryu , José Nobre to Brian and Daniela Viçoso to Ann, the most brilliant archaeologists in the world. But Tad's antics do not help these young, intelligent and well-prepared archaeologists to accept him on their team.

Luís Mascarenhas and Helena Mota lend their voices to Pickles and Ramirez, respectively.

Special Agent Sam Pickle is an old-fashioned police officer obsessed with missions. Agent Ramirez is an investigator who never thought having Pickle as a partner would be her hardest task. They are willing to travel to the end of the world to find out what is behind Tad's actions. Ramirez will add common sense and effectiveness to Pickle's quest whenever necessary.

Emilia Ermelinda Duarte lends her voice to Mrs. Wolfstrom (the old lady who thinks Tad is a criminal for the shenanigans happening in his apartment)

Tad also has the company of Jeff, his faithful canine companion. He's a free-spirited, loving dog, but Jeff isn't the most obedient.

And with Belzoni, Sara's mute and moody parrot. Although he can't speak, he finds many ways to express himself.

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This is the link to the second article:

It is very informative and long, thus I only put here the bits that were the most interesting to me, but I recommend to read the whole article, it's worth it:

CURIOSITIES OF THE THIRD ADVENTURE OF TADEO JONES...

To develop a third part of Tadeo Jones, they (the crew) searched for almost two years for an interesting concept to add to the franchise. Several stories that weren't interesting enough were discarded until they came up with a great concept: what would happen if our Inca Mummy was affected by an Egyptian curse? That concept triggered the minds of all of us who were involved in the project and marked the definitive start of Tadeo Jones 3.

If the Egyptian curse drives the entire adventure, the concept that internally articulates the entire film is Tadeo's desperation to be recognized (finally) as an archaeologist. And the fact that the more he tries to get that recognition, the further he ends up from being accepted.

The approach from the beginning was to achieve a feature film that would penetrate deeper into the adult audience without neglecting the children's audience for a moment. This has resulted in the richest and most ambitious film of the entire saga.

The initial moment in which an Egyptian sarcophagus is located in a Mayan pyramid is inspired by all the existing theories that the Egyptian and pre-Columbian cultures were somehow connected in ancient times. Despite being separated by 9,000 km, both worshiped the sun, built pyramids, had hieroglyphic writing, mummified their dead...

Tadeo Jones 3 is the first film in the saga in which there is no traditional villain and The Great Antagonist ends up being the Emerald Tablet, an object desired by all, but whose power no one manages to dominate.

The Ammit, the monster that Mummy becomes, is a being from Egyptian mythology that appears in ancient hieroglyphics. He was a mix of crocodile (head), lion (torso), and hippopotamus (legs).

In the car that Tadeo drives in the final credits you can see the license plate number 281009. It corresponds to 10/28/2009, the date of birth of Enrique Gato's son.

NOTES FROM THE DIRECTOR...

In each film I want to be sure that there are new ingredients with which to surprise, unexpected, that keep the audience glued to the seat waiting for the next scene.

When you are facing a third party, this task becomes very complicated and it was clear to me that it was not going to be a path of roses to find a new adventure for our hero.

It took about two years of script writing to put together that new story that would guarantee that Tadeo would have a well-deserved sequel. A sequel that does not simply take advantage of the inertia of the previous ones, but rather elevated this saga several rungs higher.

Today I can say that the decision I made years ago to marry a third party has been worth it and I cannot be more proud of all the fellow travelers who have made it possible. Between all of us we have managed to take Tadeo to new heights of emotion, comedy and, of course, adventure. An adventure made for the public, to be enjoyed in its purest form: in front of a movie screen.

NOTES FROM THE SCREENWRITERS...

(I'm putting all of this part because everything is very interesting)

The saying that second parts were never good is NOT true with Tadeo. If the first installment was a critical and public success, the second part not only kept the bar, but also expanded Tadeo's universe both emotionally with the characters of Sara and Mummy, and technically in terms of animation quality and visual effects.

Therefore, the commission of a third part has been a huge challenge for the whole team and, especially, for us as writers when it comes to creating a new story that continues to improve the franchise, that maintains its spirit and that does not fall into formulas that may sound topical or predictable.

When they called us to write the script, Enrique Gato told us: “we have to go up a notch and make the best film in the saga”.

It was our first animated film and we had been dreaming of this moment all our lives: we had to measure up. We set three goals. First we needed to lay the foundations well by finding a theme that would give more depth to the story and at the same time touch the emotions of the public, both children and adults.

But we couldn't forget that we were making an adventure film: we had to make it even more exciting than in previous installments. And finally, the comedy. You can't make a Tadeo Jones movie without ensuring a good number of hilarious moments. So we decided to raise the decibels of risk and madness.

The theme we have chosen is recognition and the dangers involved in seeking fame at all costs and forgetting what is truly important: friends, family, the team that accompanies us along the way. In this installment, we start from a Tadeo who has discovered Paititi and the Midas necklace, but who has never been able to tell about it. Tadeo should be the most famous archaeologist of all time, but his discoveries are too dangerous and he must hide them. So in the eyes of the world, Tadeo is still a worker who loves to find treasures. But he is dying to be an archaeologist, to be accepted as one more by the community of adventurers.

Now, thanks to a clue about a very ancient and magical Egyptian artifact, The Emerald Tablet, he will have the opportunity to achieve his goal... although he must be careful not to let that ambition slip out of his hands and end up like the previous owners. of the table: dominated by his magical powers and what is worse, alone. In this film, Tadeo risks everything. Fortunately, he is not alone in this adventure. Beyond his desire to find the tablet and become the famous archaeologist he always dreamed of, Tadeo will learn that the most important thing is not the treasure you find, the most important treasure is the people who accompany you on the adventure.

As for comedy, with Mummy we were already on the safe side. There is no better character to get carried away towards the absurd and enjoy. But we wanted him to be accompanied by more crazy characters.

That's why we created the Egyptian mummy Ra Amon Ah, aka "Ramona", and caused the mixture of Jeff and Belzoni into a single animal with the head of a parrot and the body of a dog or vice versa depending on whether he sneezes (Jeffzoni or Beljeff). Tadeo will suffer with everyone's craziness and the public will enjoy it.

We couldn't be more proud of the result. We are like children screaming with illusion because the dream has come true.

NOTES FROM THE SOUNDTRACK COMPOSER...

The leitmotifs are fundamental in each film and are linked to certain moments and especially to the characters. The first leitmotiv were created with the Tadeo short. In each film we have been adding new ones as in this third installment; to the leitmotiv of Tadeo, Mummy and Sara, created for the first two films, we add the leitmotif of Ra Amon Ah (Ramona?), the new Egyptian mummy, and the leitmotif that accompanies the narration of the legend of Hermenegildo Trismegisto and the table emerald.

In the case of Egypt, harmonies or instruments consistent with this locality have not been sought, but the inspiration has been more Hollywood-like, narratively, the sound did not need to be too ethnic.

The first sequence of Tadeo shows us a hero in the middle of an adventure, we enter the film and find ourselves in the same situation as our hero Tadeo. In that sequence I wanted to pay a new tribute to John Williams, just like the previous installments.

NOTES FROM TELECINCO CINEMA...

This third installment of Tadeo Jones is, without a doubt, the most ambitious of the saga, and surely one of the most anticipated films on the billboard.

Produced entirely in Spain with the direction of Enrique Gato and the screenplay by Manuel Burque and Josep Gatell, the film opens in Spanish theaters on August 26 and at the same time will begin its international tour through several countries in Europe, America and Oceania. We are confident that the public will return to theaters to enjoy one of the most beloved characters in Spanish animation.

NOTES FROM IKIRU FILMS...

Of all the films I have produced, Tadeo is undoubtedly the most beloved and popular. People of all ages have grown up with Tadeo and made him a part of their environment. That is why we now had the responsibility to take another step forward and, hand in hand with its creator Enrique Gato, accept the challenge of overcoming everything we had done. With a script by Gatell and Burque, with new characters and the extraordinary talent of the team at Lightbox Animation, we are proud to see that Tadeo has not only come of age, but that he does so with the best, most ingenious and funniest of his adventures, to prove once again that there is nothing better for a whole family than a good movie session.

We are tremendously proud to be part of this wonderful feat. After thousands of hours of work by hundreds of people during the last four years, Tadeo travels from the pyramids of Mexico to arrive in Egypt for the first time. In addition, he brings back our favorite moment: that of putting on our hats, meeting with Sara, Mummy, Jeff and Belzoni, and preparing to live unrepeatable adventures. We are ready. The fun is back. Tadeo in action!

LIGHTBOX NOTES...

With Tadeo's first feature film we just wanted to make an honest film, one that we would go see. In it, the only thing that was clear to us was that we wanted there to be mummies because we had already seen in the first short that they had pull and worked, so in order not to repeat ourselves, we decided that, instead of Egyptian, they would be Inca. Given the success of Tadeo's first feature film, we had the difficult challenge of overcoming ourselves for the second part of it. How could we do it? We decided to play the game at home, more specifically in Granada and "Mortadelizar" Mummy with his costumes and there are still spectators who are still in love with our "Mummy Flores" and his anthological zapateado in Tadeo Jones 2, the Secret of the King Midas.

So the challenge before Tadeo Jones 3 was enormous, and we decided to resort to common sense: What is better than a mummy? 2 mummies, and even better if one is cursed and they are of different nationalities and social classes. Thus was born Ra Amon Ah, our Egyptian mummy, Queen of the 18th dynasty, advisor to Nefertiti and aunt of Tutankhamun, in front of… ahem, Mummy.

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So many things, but this is what I have to say for the moment:

- Victoria is Sara's ex friend AND a victim of the Emerald Tablet. VINDICATION!

- Although that still doesn't explain Tad grabbing the emerald tablet and being fine in that screenshot.

- Btw does that mean Sara stopped being Victoria's friend because the latter started to follow the paranormal?

- Then I wonder what passed through Sara's head when meeting the living mummies from Paititi the first time?

- It's like I'm besties with someone but stop seeing her when she starts to worship the giant flying spaghetti.

- Years later I have an encounter with Lord Spaghetti and the first two things that would cross my head are "WTF!???" and "Damn, I really should said to X that I'm so sorry I called her a loony"

- Really, what happened betweent Sara and Victoria that ended on bad terms?

- But you know what this means? We got Sara lore! Yay!

- The agents and the mean trio are antagonists, but the true Big Bad is THE EMERALD TABLE. It was in the title of the movie all along! Clever Spaniards...

- I have to aplaud that, really. The two last objects were awful but at least they didn't make you its eternal slave.

- By the way, it looks like the little guy and sorcerer's name is Hermes or Hermegildo Trismegisto which I found it weird because Hermes is the name of a greek god and the latter is more like the spaniard long name. Really interesting.

- Ramirez has all the braincells of the two agents (make that statement before but I had to write it again)

- Agent Pickles' full name is Sam Pickles. I wonder if we will get to know Agent Ramirez's full name too.

- Love that they made the connection with Pre-columbian and Ancient Egyptian cultures canon. But all the things they listed that the Mayans had in common with Egypt... you know the Incas also did those things too, right?

- What is this implying? Ra-Amon-Ah & Mummy are not so different after all?

- Spain really loves mummies. They are awesome monsters and very underrated.

- Ramona was advisor of Queen Nefertiti and the aunt of Tutankhamun. She is linked to famous egyptian royalty and it shows. Girl just wants their fame too.

- Also she only was queen for 3 days. Did something happen that she no longer could rule? Does it had to do with Hermes and his cursed tablet?

- The thing about the mummies being from different nationalities is something very well-know by this point. What surprised me is that they are, indeed, from different social classes too.

- We know she was a Pharaoh/Queen, the Dynasty she belonged and some of titles and connection to famous ancient egyptian people (we could assume two of Tutankhamun's grandparents were Ra-Amon-Ah's parents)

- And what we know about Inca Mummy is that... he is a mummy... ex-guardian of Paititi... died 500 years ago. That's it.

- We so far don't have the canon confirmation that he is royalty or connected to the royal Incan Family. It was stated that he acted like was royalty and was special among his clan.

- Which again makes me question: How was this guy put in charge in the first place? Was it only because of charisma and the fact he is a fast learner?

- Will Mummy try to present himself as someone important to Incan Society in front of Ramona or is he just going to say he was from Paititi and now he is Tad's best friend and an influencer?

- Which would mean we wouldn't get nothing of Mummy's lore... again (for all I know, they could be keeping that for later, maybe a series or his spin-off)

- Which would mean that of course Queeny is going to see him as a lesser, to the point of calling him a slave, since all that she will know is that he was a guardian that lost his job and is a fool.

- Add the fact he isn't even egyptian. To Ramona, her most competent soldiers were far more superior than Mummy.

- I wonder how Mummy is going to take all this "lesser" rant from Ramona. Something tells me that this is were their rivalty is born. And Tad will suffer the consequences of their hilarous fight to see whose culture is the superior one.

- It's Peru by the way 🇵🇪

There's also this tik tok of Mummy and Tad dancing. Ra-Amon-Ah is confused.

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hope-grace-serenity · 4 years ago

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In Defense of the Deputy: Morals and Ethics in Far Cry 5

The narratives of recent Far Cry installments have been framed in a way that make the player question whether or not they’re truly playing as the “good guy.” In Far Cry 3, Jason slowly embraces the violent lifestyle on Rook Island, gradually finding the killing to be a fun power trip instead of the horrifying reality that it is. In Far Cry 4, Ajay topples a ruthless dictator, only to replace him with a revolutionary that is either a religious extremist or a person who has children kidnapped in order to make them into soldiers/slaves. In Far Cry 5, the Deputy goes up against a professed prophet in an attempt to subdue him and his cult, only to find in the end that the prophet was right about the end of the world. It is logical to think that if the Deputy would have just left the cult well enough alone, then that would have been the right choice, as it would have avoided the war between Eden’s Gate and the rest of Hope County, as possibly the Collapse itself. However, there is a different way to view it.

The purpose of this post is to convey that Joseph being accurate regarding the Collapse does not necessarily mean that avoiding confrontation with Eden’s Gate or joining them would have been the “right” thing to do. In fact, it will suggest the opposite: that the Deputy has a moral and ethical obligation to fight *against* Eden’s Gate and that the actions of the cult are firmly wrong despite the Collapse happening. While we as players can certainly feel empathy for the Seeds, their actions within the game make them the clear villains in this scenario, in my opinion. The Deputy deserves no blame for attempting to subdue the cult, and I will explain why by focusing on both in-universe rationale and looking at the narrative from a broader perspective.

The Warrant

First, we need to examine the idea of morality and ethics. Morality refers to a person’s principles of right and wrong--this is something that can be influenced by a person’s culture, religion, family, experiences, etc. Ethics refers to rules of conduct given by some kind of external source. In Far Cry 5, the protagonist is a law enforcement official with an ethical obligation to uphold the law and confront those who break it. Furthermore, from the perspective of a 21st century American--which we can assume the Deputy is, based on the setting of the game--Eden’s Gate commits several acts that cause harm and remove the personal agency of others, which provides the Deputy with a moral motivation for stopping them, as opposed to solely an ethical one.

An arrest warrant is made for Joseph Seed due to suspicion of kidnapping with an intent to harm. The Deputy choosing not to go through with the arrest would be bad from both a moral and ethical perspective. “Kidnapping with an intent to harm” is a serious charge, and can be a matter of life or death for the victim. Imagine if you were the parent or sibling of the kidnapping victim, and you found out that the law enforcement officials chose not to go through with the arrest of the suspect because they were afraid of rocking the boat. If that information was made public, the law enforcement officials would be rightly criticized for not doing their jobs, and for prioritizing their own desire for convenience over bringing justice to the victim. By arresting Joseph Seed, the Deputy made the moral and ethical decision.

As we see from the main game, the “suspicions” listed in the arrest warrant are later proven to be correct. Alex is killed, and his body is mutilated and put on public display as a warning. Hannah is tortured physically and psychologically, and is also killed due to her forced participation in Jacob’s trials. Joseph and several members of Eden’s Gate knew that they kidnapped the film crew. They knew in advance that Law Enforcement was coming. So, how do they decide to handle this? In a way befitting for characters who are meant to be viewed as villains.

Before the Reaping

Before we get into what the Deputy actually sees in-game, one thing needs to be made clear: Eden’s Gate always had an underlying darkness surrounding them. Regardless of what they looked like on the surface, they were never some peaceful hippie commune that was minding its own business before the Deputy came along. They’ve been committing crimes and getting away with them for years. They didn’t suddenly snap once the Deputy arrived--the Deputy’s arrival simply peeled back and revealed what was already there.

We know from the “Grieving Note” that Angels have been with Eden’s Gate for several years, longer than the current Faith has been with the group. Angels are humans who are exposed to an extreme amount of the Bliss drug, which causes them to lose their capacity for human thought and essentially act as a literal mindless follower. Their loss of identity and individuality is furthered by Eden’s Gate shaving the heads of the Angels and surgically removing their ability to speak. They act as slave labor--described as "beasts of burden"--and are fed dog food and garbage. The idea of becoming an angel is used as a threat to fellow cultists in the “Cult Note” in the King’s Hot Springs Hotel. The fact that Eden's Gate creates and condones the existence of these Angels is truly disturbing from a moral perspective, due to the inherent exploitation and dehumanization. When Angels die, their bodies are tossed in a pit of “boiling muck” in Horned Serpent Cave to disintegrate.

Angels aren’t the only ones thrown in the pit to disintegrate: Joseph threw the body of Lana, a previous Faith, in there as well, despite being told by him that she was “special.” There is a reason the writers chose to highlight that the bodies were disposed of in here, as opposed to the cult simply burying them. Bodies are disintegrated if you want to hide evidence, and by tossing the bodies in a location with properties dangerous enough to require a bio-hazard sign, any crimes are easily covered up. We don’t find the bodies of Selena or the other previous Faiths who were "used up and thrown away" by Joseph, but considering there are hints that point to foul play (disintegration of Lana’s body, Megan leaving out of fear of what Joseph could do after seeing that there was a new Faith, the way the position itself is dehumanized, the fact that Joseph has a designated corpse disposal spot in the first place, etc.) and absolutely zero evidence towards any kind of alternate fate for the previous Faiths, it’s easy to put two and two together and conclude that the previous Faiths met a grisly fate that was covered up as well.

Eden’s Gate was also involved in animal abuse through the creation of Judges, which were unleashed after the reaping. These animals were kidnapped and forcibly exposed to an obscene amount of the Bliss drug, which purposely causes them to act like rabid killers in the service of Eden’s Gate. According to NPCs, they were trained to hunt humans.

Let’s also not forget that Joseph personally gorged a guy’s eyes out for being a traitor. If the developers didn’t want us to view Joseph as someone who was capable of doing that, then they would have removed it from the introductory video, but they didn’t. Also, the fact that Eden’s Gate has been planning for the Reaping for a while now shows that this group had the intent to launch a large-scale attack from before the Deputy even arrived at the compound.

And last but certainly not least, YEARS before the events of FC5, Jacob sent the Cook to kidnap Jess’s family. The Cook starved the family for days before torturing the parents and children by playing sick mind games and feeding the parents' flesh to their children. After all their toes were cut off, the parents were set on fire in front of their kids. The fact that this happened years ago, and this Cook is still with the group, is quite telling and reveals a lot about the morality and priorities of Eden’s Gate. If they wanted to get rid of him, they would have.

So as we can see, Eden’s Gate has no moral high ground to stand on at the start of the game. Not only is Joseph guilty of the crime he is accused of, but he and his organization are guilty of so much more, and have been for years. These actions committed by Eden’s Gate violate numerous laws and are morally wrong, as they bring severe harm to others and/or forcibly remove another’s personal agency for the convenience of the cult. The Deputy uncovers all of this throughout the course of the game.

During the Reaping

Knowledge of Eden’s Gate’s past crimes would be reason enough to take down this cult, but the Deputy also sees the current horrors firsthand. During the Reaping, cultists kidnap, torture, mutilate, and murder numerous unwilling participants. They steal supplies and were willing to kidnap a beloved pet dog in order to perform experiments on him and turn the poor dog into a savage killer, after killing his owners. Defaced corpses are decorated and strung up as warnings. Some citizens of Hope County are fed to Judges, while others are turned into Angels or are forced to leap off a giant statue. If someone doesn’t convert to the religion of Eden’s Gate, then they are either tortured or drugged until they give in, or murdered.

The Deputy has zero incentive to walk away from this conflict. Why would they? As a deputy of Hope County, they have a moral and ethical obligation to protect the county’s citizens, and those citizens are under attack by Eden’s Gate. Eden’s Gate are the aggressors in this scenario. *They* are the ones who are kidnapping, murdering, torturing, and brainwashing the Hope County citizens. As far as the Deputy is aware at the beginning of the game, they are the only remaining police officer and only person in a position of authority to fight against the cult. It is their responsibility to fight against the people causing grievous harm to the county.

Throughout the game, the Deputy’s personal encounters with the heralds further reinforce the idea that Eden’s Gate is dangerous and beyond reason. While confessions can and should be voluntary, John does not approach it in that way. John kidnaps, terrorizes, and tortures the hardened Joey Hudson to the point of tears, and brings the Deputy to his torture dungeon where he once pried confessions under duress from prior individuals of the county. He kidnapped the Deputy in order to forcibly baptize them to the point where they might have drowned without Joseph’s interference, and captures them in order to make them confess, using the presence of Hudson as leverage (Hudson’s misery was also used as incentive on the video to draw the Deputy to the Holland region). He lures the Deputy to the church in the same way (by kidnapping their friends) and then permanently modifies their body against their will. Despite his proclaimed desire to have the Deputy atone, John also expresses desire to see the Deputy dead on occasion, such as after they destroy his sign.

While it might be easier for the player to sympathize with John due to his backstory and dynamic with Joseph, from the Deputy’s in-universe perspective, his instability represents a very real, tangible threat not only to them, but to the people of Hope County as a whole. At every turn, John has either imposed his will onto the Deputy by removing opportunities for agency and/or harming others. The Deputy owes John nothing. Any "choice" he gives of saying "Yes" is undermined by the massive amount of strings attached. It is difficult to envision a reason why the Deputy would decide to give into John’s philosophy, aside from faking it in order to protect their allies. This is a failing on John's part, not the Deputy.

Like John, Faith also expresses a desire for the Deputy to give in to Eden's Gate. But unlike John, she initially appears to the Deputy in a more pacifistic, less confrontational way. Despite this, the Deputy is still able to see her darker side due to her views on the Angels and fate of the unfortunate souls who walk the path whipping themselves and take a literal leap off of the statue of Joseph. Furthermore, she overrides the Deputy’s agency through the use of Bliss, which drastically warps one’s perception of reality. The Bliss that she now controls makes the horrific creation of Angels possible, and this Bliss is also used during baptisms, which muddles the issue of personal agency and consent to John’s process in addition to her own conversion process. The dangers of the Bliss and how it affects one’s thought process become highlighted in the Henbane region, and letters, voicemails, and NPC chatter show that Faith is not one to be trifled with. This comes to a head when Faith brainwashes the Sheriff and manipulates the Marshall into killing Virgil before killing himself. While it’s easy to have sympathy for Faith and her experiences, from the Deputy’s perspective, Faith is still a potential danger, which is why they step back when she leaned toward them during her death scene.

Jacob too removes the Deputy’s personal agency by literally brainwashing them and turning them into a tool that he can command, which eventually results in the Deputy being forced to kill a friend. He forced captives into competing against each other in life or death trials. He keeps the Deputy in a cage with a dead body and feeds them “mystery meat” after seven days of starving them while telling them a story about how he cannibalized his friend. The Judges are his brainchild that he sends to attack and kill others. Like John, Jacob also kidnapped and tortured a fellow police officer, to the point where they act like a slave to Jacob’s whims. Jacob has not done anything other than convincing the Deputy that he is a threat.

It is not the Deputy's job to fix the Seeds' personal issues--it's their job to protect Hope County. Throughout their journey, the Deputy sees various atrocities being committed, both to strangers and to themselves and the people they care about. There is zero reason for the Deputy to genuinely give in to the Seeds and join Eden's Gate, considering the horrible way they were treated and how they saw others being treated.

Joseph and the Voice

The Deputy’s presence did not *force* Eden’s Gate to start the Reaping. *Joseph* was the one to initiate it as a reaction to the Deputy’s presence, and all of Eden’s Gate followed him lockstep. When given the opportunity to finally confront and arrest the man responsible or walk away, it almost feels laughable that it’s even a choice at this point.

As leader of Eden’s Gate, Joseph oversees all parts of the Project. The buck stops with him. If he had any issues with Faith’s Angels, or Jacob’s trials, or John’s torture, he could have and would have said something--such as when he intervenes during the baptism--but he doesn’t. Because it furthers the goal of the Project, he doesn’t see any issue with these actions and feels they are justified.

Joseph’s vision of the Collapse coming true doesn’t mean that his actions throughout the game have greater inherent morality than the Deputy. It just means that he’s right about the Collapse. Regarding the Reaping, I do not believe that Joseph was motivated by a sense of cruelty, but that doesn’t change how many of the actions he participated in and oversaw *were* cruel. In real life, we see various examples of some people (not just in religious institutions, but in positions of authority in general) who commit harmful acts for the sake of a perceived “greater good.” And many of those people genuinely believe in what they are doing, believe they are in the right. But that doesn’t mean they actually are.

Which brings us to the elephant in the room: the Voice. If the Voice of God supports Joseph, then surely the deputy is automatically the “bad guy” for opposing him, right?

Wrong.

First, we have to be willing to admit that we know next to nothing about the Voice. The only things we know about it is what is conveyed to us by Joseph. We do not know the exact wording of what the Voice says, the level of detail it gives him regarding expectations (if any), or even what it is. Is it the voice of God? Satan? A real angel? Some kind of eldritch entity from another dimension? How accurate is Joseph's reiteration or interpretation? Sometimes it seems to directly tell Joseph things (hence the title, “the Voice”), other times it shows him visions. Clearly, there is some kind of supernatural component, as it allows Joseph to see the future, but since we don’t know much about it specifically, we can’t automatically assume or attribute inherent benevolence or morality to it.

Second, it’s entirely possible for a genuine prophet of God (assuming the Voice does indeed belong to a benevolent creator), or those who have/had God’s favor, to engage in morally questionable behavior, both in the eyes of God and/or in the eyes of 21st century readers. While the Project at Eden’s Gate is its own distinct religion, it takes most of its cues from Christianity, both in terms of practices and beliefs. In the Bible, King David had a man murdered so he could sleep with that man’s wife. Jonah wanted the entire population of a city to be killed off instead of having them repent. Jacob (the Biblical figure) deceives his father into giving him a birthright that belonged to his brother, and shows blatant favoritism to one son which ends up causing a lot of internal strife within the family. It’s fully within the realm of possibility that Joseph’s actions are not meant to be endorsed, either by the Voice itself or by the narrative in a broader sense.

In New Dawn, Joseph alludes to his own personal failings by saying, “My soul has become a cancer. I am a monster. I only spread suffering and death in the name of God.” The death of his son and the destruction of New Eden act as a moment of awakening for Joseph, as he finally realizes the harsh reality of his actions and how they affect others. He then expresses a desire for death and says, “There is only the justice of God’s hand.” The implication of “justice” being done indicates that the Voice (“God”) would not be happy with some of the actions that Joseph did. So while Joseph’s actions in FC5 were done with the intent of serving the Voice, his execution of these ideas was something that Joseph feels God would not like, as his actions spread death and suffering.

And thirdly, we have to remember that the Deputy and the player are viewing the idea of morality from the perspective of a 21st century human. Let’s say that, hypothetically, the Voice specifically instructed and condoned the erasure of free will/murders/kidnappings/etc. for whatever reason, and by enacting them, Joseph and Eden’s Gate were “just following orders.” Does this absolve Joseph and Eden's Gate of responsibility? No. Willing participation in the crimes committed, even if it wasn’t “their idea,” can still have legal consequences and can still be viewed as “bad” from a moral perspective because of the results of those actions.

The Collapse

It has been discussed elsewhere (on this site and in outside articles/discussions about the game) that the actions of the deputy correspond with the role of the Lamb in Revelations, and by breaking the seals, the Deputy’s actions supernaturally trigger the Collapse. This interpretation is fairly popular, and is one I personally support. However, I do not feel as though this interpretation lessens the morality of the Deputy's actions. Their decision to fight the Seeds is still the right one, regardless of whether or not their actions resulted in some kind of cosmic game of dominos.

First off, when the Deputy is attempting to take down the Seeds and protect the people of Hope County, they are not doing this with the intent of playing a role in a cosmic prophecy that will result in the death of millions. They’re looking at the situation from a human perspective, and acting accordingly and sensibly. The Seeds, on the other hand, were willingly harming innocents both before and during the Reaping.

Second, if there's a need to assign blame to a human for starting the Collapse (and I personally don't think there needs to be), it would be the Seeds, not the Deputy. The Sheriff and the deputies wouldn’t have arrived with the arrest warrant if the Seeds were not kidnapping and doing other illegal actions.

And thirdly, if one does attribute blame of the Collapse to the Deputy, then one also must attribute the birth of the new world to them as well. Following along with the idea that the events of FC5 are a fulfillment of Revelations, then the Collapse is ultimately viewed as a Good Thing within in the context of the Book of Revelations, even if the player might not personally share the sentiment. The Book of Revelations describes how the new world that is supposed to emerge from the ashes of the old is meant to be much better than the one before. And if we look at the world of New Dawn--and I’m going to copy and paste something I wrote previously here---Nature is allowed to flourish, people work together and support each other in a tight community, all the social ills mentioned in the Book of Joseph (and by the characters in-game) no longer exist. The only “snakes in the garden” would be the Highwaymen, and they are abolished by the Captain, who Joseph prophesizes to be some kind of Messiah-like figure. The final scene of New Dawn is one of hope, where the characters talk about building a better future. The way Joseph and Ethan’s storyline ends also connects to the whole idea of breaking away from the past and moving forward. If one believes that the Deputy is responsible for the Collapse, then this new world shown in New Dawn and the context of Revelations complicates the idea of viewing the Deputy's actions as being inherently bad.

Some might also argue that the Deputy has responsibility for not taking Joseph's warnings more seriously. Why though? Why should the Deputy attribute more credibility to Joseph's claims than, say, those of Marshall Applewhite or David Koresh? As players who know the ending, it’s easy for us to say that the Deputy should have listened to Joseph's warning about the Collapse, but there’s no in-universe rationale for the Deputy to do so. Issues of belief aside, Eden’s Gate’s actions alone are enough to paint an extremely negative picture of the group and would be enough to make any regular person not want to associate with them.

Under the framework of the Revelations prophecy being the intended interpretation of the game events though, I personally don't feel that any character "deserves" blame for the Collapse happening, not even the Seeds. I blame the Seeds for what they do to people within the game and before the events of FC5. And my perception of the Deputy is based on what we see in the game as well. But again, the Revelations prophecy idea is simply one way to view the game. Regardless of whether or not this interpretation is the correct one, the deputy still has the moral high ground in their fight against the Seeds.

Conclusion

Joseph being right about the Collapse does not mean that his (and by extension, Eden’s Gate’s) actions during FC5 were justified, and the Deputy should not be blamed for fighting against them. Just as the Deputy made a choice to arrest Joseph, Joseph made the choice to react in the worst way possible with the Reaping. Eden’s Gate were the aggressors who were kidnapping, torturing, and murdering people throughout the county. The Deputy fights against Eden’s Gate as a direct result of *Eden's Gate's* actions. The Deputy deserves no blame or guilt for killing the Seeds and destroying their bases of operations, as they reacted in a logical way based on the quality of information they had at the time.

In New Dawn, the Deputy expresses an extreme amount of guilt, which transforms them into the Judge. This guilt is misplaced and should be attributed to the other resident of the bunker, which is something Joseph himself even alludes to during his final speech in New Dawn when he criticizes his own actions. If Eden’s Gate did not start attacking the people of Hope County, the bunkers would still be standing, and the Seeds and many other cultists would still be alive. But they did, so they’re not.

While I adore all four of the Seeds as characters and have varying degrees of sympathy for them, they are firmly villains within the context of the story due to their actions. The deputy is not a bad guy for trying to stop them. The fact the Seeds sided with a guy who kidnapped and starved a family, then fed the parents' flesh to their children while playing “this little piggy” with the parents’ toes, and then murdered said parents in front of their children should speak for itself.

TL;DR: The deputy’s decision to confront Joseph instead of walking away was the right one.

#far cry 5 #fc5 #joseph seed #jacob seed #faith seed #john seed #the junior deputy #long post #tw: canon typical violence #far cry 5 meta #fc5 meta #far cry #i do love all these characters #just to be perfectly clear lol #far cry meta

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onebadwinter · 4 years ago

Text

The Joker Tropes

Taken from Here

0% Approval Rating: Apart from Harley (and even then, only when their on-off relationship is "on"), Gaggy and Punchline, no one likes or supports the Joker. In any way, whatsoever. Damn near every other member of Batman's Rogues Gallery hates his guts, mostly because not only is he completely sociopathic and unpredictable, but also they are all scared shitless by him. The only reason why he's even allowed in teams such as the Legion of Doom is because of that fear: if they exclude him from the lineup, then chances are that dead bodies will be lining the streets in their name. Trickster spells it out in "Underworld Unleashed." Trickster: Great going, Neron, bring in the one guy no one wants to be in the same room with. When super-villains want to scare each other, they tell Joker stories.

Abusive Parents: One common tactic for the Joker to garner sympathy is claiming he was ill-treated by his parents. Given his propensity to spew out different and sometimes contradictory backstories, nobody knows if they're true.Harley Quinn: Joker told me things, secret things he never told anyone... Batman: What did he tell you, Harley? Was it the line about the abusive father, or the one about the alcoholic mom? Of course, the runaway orphan story is particularly moving, too. He's gained a lot of sympathy with that one. What was it he told that one parole officer? Oh, yes... 'There was only one time I ever saw dad really happy. He took me to the ice show when I was seven...' Harley: (crying) Circus... He told me it was the circus. Batman: He's got a million of them, Harley.

Acquired Poison Immunity: In many continuities, he's immune to his trademark Joker Venom/Smilex. In a crossover comic with Captain America, he also proves to be immune to Red Skull's "Dust of Death", as their trademark poisons are too similar to each other.

Ambiguous Disorder: He's undeniably insane and Ax-Crazy, but has no official diagnosis. If anything, he can just be diagnosed with "Being the Joker". However, it’s possible he’s perfectly sane and just The Sociopath, and is using his manipulation abilities to continue his reign of terror.

Ambiguous Start of Darkness: Related to his Multiple-Choice Past; the only thing consistent is that he was a low-level crook who got dunked in chemicals to become the Joker. C While some origins (most notably The Killing Joke) have him being forced into crime, others have him as already a sinister criminal beforehand. Batman (1989) and Batman: The Animated Series choose the Evil All Along interpretation.

Appropriated Appellation:

Arch-Enemy: A classic example to the Batman, and not just in the comics - they are pretty much the iconic gold standard when it comes to this trope. The two of them are the page image for a reason.

Attention Whore: A big part of his motivation in various continuities. He even admits as such at one point, while denying he's not behind one particular crime.Joker: Do you really think I would stir up so much trouble and not make sure you knew it was me?

Ax-Crazy: One of his main characteristics is his willingness to psycho on anyone, including his own henchmen.

Bad Boss: Willing to casually kill his own henchmen for any reason, be it part of a plan, for amusement, or simply on a whim.

Bad People Abuse Animals: Defied by The Joker in at least one story (Emperor Joker). Evil Jimmy Olson kills Superman, who has been turned into a dog, by crushing him underneath a fire hydrant. The Joker is simply annoyed, because he doesn't know how to make something as pointless as beating a dumb animal funny. Jimmy Olson is then beaten to death by two giant robots who appear out of nowhere.

Believing Their Own Lies: He sometimes believes his Multiple-Choice Past, Depending on the Writer of course. One issue of the Robin Series had the Joker actually in tears as he told the psychiatrist of his abusive childhood, only for the psychiatrist to coldly point out that it's the seventh story he's told now.

Berserk Button:

Black Comedy: This is one of Joker’s specialties. To normal people, killing would be a terrible thing, but to Joker, it’s hilarious, especially if he does it in a way that amuses him.

Bond Villain Stupidity: In a "Detective Comics" story written by Paul Dini, the Joker (while impersonating a stage magician he had previously murdered) shot Zatanna in the throat so she couldn't recite a spell to save herself, then locked her in a tank of water while strapping Batman in an electric chair. He didn't shoot her in the head because he wanted Batman to watch helplessly as she died. This didn't go so well because first, he's BATMAN! and second, Zatanna was able to write a healing incantation on the lid of the tank using her own blood, which made the spell even more powerful.

Boring Insult: While the Joker has used it a few times on others, he mostly does it to hear the sound of his own voice as the people he usually slings this insult at don't really care whether or not they're boring. On the other hand, this is Joker's Berserk Button when others use it against him. Most notably, he reacts poorly when Terry deliberately exploits this flaw with glee and even rubs it in his face in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. After all, the natural enemy of a comedian is The Heckler.

Breakout Villain: The Trope Codifier for comics. DC's initial intention was to kill him off in his second appearance. Fortunately, editor Whitney Ellsworth convinced DC to spare him, a panel was hastily added to show that he'd survived, and the Joker rapidly became not only Batman's Arch-Enemy, but arguably the most iconic example of an Arch-Enemy in all of fiction.

Break the Comedian: A sure way to determined if things have gotten real, even for the Joker, is if he isn't laughing or joking. A famous example involved the Joker being frightened during the events of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run, when he was horrified by Arcane's actions.

Clear My Name: The Brave and the Bold has him framed for several murders and he must use Batman's help.

Collective Identity: As revealed in Darkseid War and DC Rebirth, the Joker has been used by three people, though Batman: Three Jokers clarified it as this: The Criminal (the original "Golden Age" Joker from the character's debut in Batman #1), The Clown (the "Silver Age" Joker, strongly implied to be the one who killed Jason Todd), and The Comedian (the current "Modern Age" Joker, who kidnapped and tormented Jim Gordon).

Combat Pragmatist : While his fighting prowess varies from remarkably proficient to extremely weak Depending on the Writer, the Joker is a consistently dirty fighter, striking enemies when and where they are most vulnerable. Besides his myriad of gag gadgets, he often carries concealed weapons, gases and acids on his person, and won't hesitate to brandish a wrench or smash a chair over your head in a pinch. He is usually adept with knives and, unlike Batman, rarely has any reservations about firearms. He has no qualms kicking an opponent when they're down, and will employ deception, feigning surrender or defeat to get Batman to lower his guard.

Comic-Book Fantasy Casting:

Confusion Fu: This is often his last line of defense when Batman corners him, especially in the animated television shows. Effectiveness varies.

Cop Killer: Sometimes police officers are among the Joker's victims:

Create Your Own Villain: Most stories posit he was chased by Batman through a factory with No OSHA Compliance, which caused him to be exposed to acid, discoloring his skin and hair and driving him insane when he sees his reflection. Often he claims Batman is responsible for turning him into The Joker.

Creepy High-Pitched Voice: In voiced roles, he usually has a high-pitched voice to contrast Batman's Badass Baritone.

Crossover Villain-in-Chief: In DC's Crisis Crossover events that involve a lot of villains, like Salvation Run and Forever Evil, The Joker usually fills this role along with Lex Luthor.

Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Insanity aside, sometimes the Joker's plans and methods are so out there they just seem stupid. Despite appearances, he's usually very cunning, and always very dangerous. In fact, part and parcel of what makes the Joker's plans devastating is that he knows how to hide the punchline for lack of a better word. The plans are so innocuous, so disheveled and so utterly random that they usually have no sane MO, which makes it hard to see the bigger picture of the plan unless Batman pieces it together quickly.

Critical Psychoanalysis Failure: Happens frequently, though this may be an indication of the competence of the staff at Arkham. One such time was with Dr. Harleen Quinzel, who bought his story hook, line and sinker and declared him sane, then broke him out of Arkham and started dating him (of course, her exact analysis was that he was utilizing Obfuscating Insanity and it's implied that she was actually right, so perhaps she was the only good doctor at Arkham after all...)

Deadly Prank: He generally considers murdering someone for a joke to be morally no different than putting a whoopie cushion on their chair.

Depending on the Artist: His depiction varies a lot between eras and between different artists in the same period. Major differences are whether he can form facial expressions other than a grin, and whether he is average-sized or freakishly tall and thin.

Depending on the Writer: There are many huge variations, the most common and glaring being:

Depraved Homosexual: Not above invoking this deliberately to get under Batman's skin. Whether he means all his flirting and feel-copping varies slightly Depending on the Writer and heavily depending on one's own interpretation.

Diplomatic Impunity: In A Death in the Family, Ayatollah Khomeini appoints him the UN ambassador to Iran, giving him diplomatic immunity. This was later retconned to the fictional Syraq due to reasons of taste.

Dirty Coward: There is a common misconception that Joker has no regard for his own life and doesn't care if he dies or not. In actuality he does care, and the reason he keeps taunting morally good characters into killing him is because he's confident that they don't have the guts to off him. When he comes across someone who is willing to kill him, he shows his true colors as a sniveling little coward where he starts pleading for his life.The Punisher: I got all the therapy you need right here, comedian.The Joker: You're really going to do it.

Disproportionate Retribution: Has been known to try to kill people for minor slights, such as welshing on a bet on a sporting event for trivial stakes.

Domestic Abuse: This characterizes his relationship with his "henchwench" Harley Quinn to a T. Joker frequently yells at her, puts her down, humiliates her, and exposes her to all manner of violence ranging from "merely" slapping or punching her to outright trying to murder her. Such is her Mad Love that she ignored his abuse for most of her existence in comic history, with the two only separating in the late 2010s.

The Dreaded: Easily one of the most feared villains in the entire DC universe. Other villains are afraid of him; it's been said that when criminals want to scare each other, they tell Joker stories.

Driven to Madness: Doing this to others has become part of his MO. What triggered his own insanity and belief in nihilism remains unknown.

Early Installment Weirdness: Just take a gander at his earliest appearances:

Electric Joybuzzer: One of his signature weapons, a lethal variation, most memorably used in Batman (1989). He ended up Hoist by His Own Petard when trying to use it on Static.Static: That was fun. Let me try! (BZZZZT!) (Batman approves.)

Enemy Mine:

Even Evil Has Standards: Oddly enough, this trope does occasionally apply to him.

Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Completely averted with Harley. He physically and emotionally abuses her and tried to kill her on numerous occasions. They eventually break up in the New 52 continuity.

Evil All Along: Some versions, such as the DC Animated Universe and Batman (1989), go with the interpretation that the Joker was evil, if not outright Ax-Crazy, even before his fateful transformation, with the chemicals just making him worse.

Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: The Joker is Nihilism Incarnate: he believes that life is pointless and insane, and the only thing anyone can do is give into the madness. Life is a joke, and once he got the joke he never stopped laughing at it. One of the reasons he's obsessed with Batman is because Batman is The Anti-Nihilist: Batman also thinks, to some degree at least, that life is meaningless. But rather than embrace the madness, Batman fights against it, trying to bring order to chaos through his heroic actions. So Batman got the joke too, but he's not laughing, and the Joker doesn't understand why.

Evil Genius: Though rarely the focus of his character, Joker is usually an extremely gifted chemist, constantly creating new and better versions of his signature laughing gas. He's also (unsurprisingly) a skilled planner on par with Batman himself, in addition to being extremely charismatic and manipulative when he wants to be.

Evil Is Petty: Joker truly sees no difference between throwing cream pies, robbing a museum, and brutal, torturous mass-murder. To him, it's all just part of the joke.

Evil Sounds Deep: Jack Nicholson in Batman (1989) and Kevin Michael Richardson in The Batman both give the Joker a deep, sinister voice, contrasting his usual higher-pitched depictions in other works.

Facial Horror: His iconic "perma-clown" appearance (the green hair, chalk-white skin, and most of the time, red lips) is the result of being submerged in a tank of chemicals. However, there was times this has gotten worse.

Fame Through Infamy: He's practically built a career on crimes designed more to spread his infamy than anything else. Perhaps his true illness is that he is an Attention Whore through and through...

Faux Affably Evil: Often addresses others in a polite and friendly way before he unleashes merry hell on them.

Flanderization: Over the years, his actions have become almost exclusively focused on causing as much carnage and chaos as possible or harassing Batman and his allies rather than performing any non-lethal mischief or practical crime.

Foe Romance Subtext: Sometimes will mess with Batman's mind by calling him by pet names or using innuendo. Or outright groping him. According to later writers, Joker regards their hero/villain dynamic as a very special relationship, and resents anyone or thing that gets in the way of it (like all those family members Bruce enjoys hanging out with), which is disturbingly like a jealous lover.

Foil: To Batman in several ways. If the origin offered in Killing Joke is to be believed, both Batman and Joker had one bad day that put them on very different paths.

For the Evulz: The usual motives of the Joker. Many of his crimes always involve sowing chaos and the schadenfreude of other people's misery.

Freudian Excuse: Even he isn't sure of his own history and will crop up multiple reasons for his insanity. The most accepted version is that he was a thug named the Red Hood who gets disfigured falling into a vat while trying to escape Batman. His backstory still remains a mystery.

Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Best displayed in The Killing Joke: Joker's "one bad day" is just an excuse, as he neither knows nor cares if it actually happened that way, and Batman confronts him on how his attempt to similarly break Commissioner Gordon failed.Batman: Despite all your sick, vicious little games, he's as sane as he ever was! So maybe ordinary people don't always crack. Maybe there isn't any need to crawl under a rock with all the other slimey things when trouble hits. Maybe it was just you, all the time!

The Friend Nobody Likes: Often plays this role among villain team-ups. It's implied that the only reason the other DC villains ever invite him to things is because they're terrified of what he'll do to them if he's not. Alexander Luthor Jr.'s death at the end of Infinite Crisis is brought about because, as Lex Luthor puts it:Luthor: You made one big mistake. You didn't let the Joker play.

From Nobody to Nightmare: The key thing about his Multiple-Choice Past is that nobody really knows who he was before he put on the Red Hood and fell into a vat of acid. As such, Joker was literally a nobody... who turned into the DC Universe's scariest villain, and who at times has upstaged even Brainiac or Darkseid.

Frozen Face: Most depictions have his face as such, with his massive rictus grin being something he can't really stop doing.

Gadgeteer Genius: While he seems to be a chemist first and foremost, the Joker has no trouble coming up with a range of tools and weapons of his own design and is easily as smart as Batman in this area. Other stories show that he has a solid enough understanding of such varied fields as engineering, computers and even robotics that he can at least hijack the sophisticated inventions of others and use them for his own ends with no difficulty whatsoever, and he is generally implied (though rarely outright stated) to have had a scientific background prior to becoming the Clown Prince of Crime.

Glasgow Grin: Heath Ledger's portrayal features very noticeable scarring from such wounds and tells two conflicting stories of how he got them. Sometimes, Depending on the Artist, the Joker has one in the comics, usually in out-of-continuity stories.

Gonk: Depending on the Artist, he varies from "disfigured, but still fairly handsome" to "barely passes for human", the latter cases usually feature him with a really long and narrow nose and a huge, exaggerated mouth with a permanent Slasher Smile.

Guest Fighter: After making appearances in the previous crossover and being a major player in NetherRealm's other big series, Joker shows up in Mortal Kombat 11 all on his own, freed from the restrictions of a Teen rating and able to showcase the true depths of his depraved bloodlust.

Handshake of Doom: Often kills unsuspecting victims by offering a handshake. When the other person grabs his hand, their palm is pricked by a device that resembles a joy buzzer, which injects deadly venom into their blood stream.

Hate Sink: Posthumously, his Injustice-verse incarnation is the primary target for audience scorn and gets saddled with this role by everyone in the game, its sequel, and the tie-in comics — the version from the Injustice-verse itself, at least. This is because he tricked Superman into killing his own wife Lois Lane and nuking Metropolis, then pulling a Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred on the poor guy who that set him on the path to becoming a tyrant, all for the sake of doing it, and because he was tired of losing to Batman, so he decided to go after an easier target. His role as The Corrupter to Harley is explained to make her redemption feel more plausible, as even she has come to despise him for his actions. In particular, while Superman does terrible things, he is portrayed as a Tragic Villain due to the losses he suffered before becoming a bad guy, and as such, his killing of the Joker is always played for maximum pathos. Even villains as despicable as Brainiac, Darkseid and Gorilla Grodd openly despise him. This even continues into his Guest Fighter appearance in Mortal Kombat 11note , where even the likes of Kano, Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn can't stand him.

Human Head on the Wall: There's a rather famous piece of comic book artwork◊ drawn by Brian Bolland featuring The Joker lounging in a chair in front of a trophy wall mounted with the decapitated heads of various DC heroes and villains, all of them painted white and their faces distorted into a smile like the Joker himself. It's even been parodied a bunch of times with other comic supervillains sitting in Joker's place.

Iconic Outfit:

I'm a Humanitarian: There have been a few times when the Joker engaged in cannibalism, such as an issue of Grant Morrison's JLAnote after Day Of Judgment, where upon the reveal that the Martian Manhunter took the League and the now Hal Jordan hosted-Spectre into the Joker's head, the Joker lamented eating a man's tongue raw. Additionally, an infamous bit in Emperor Joker has the Joker eat all of China while he had Mr. Mxyzptlk's powers.

Insane No More: Is cured by Batman forcing unknown pills down his throat in the non-canon Batman: White Knight, causing him go back to his real name, Jack Napier, make a Heel–Face Turn and accuse Batman of being part of the problem (he's also considerably better than the usual Joker, being closer to the earlier trickster personality).

I've Come Too Far: At the end of The Killing Joke, Batman tries to reason with the Joker, insisting that they've got to stop before one of them kills the other and offering to help rehabilitate him. Joker briefly considers the offer before solemnly turning it down.Joker: No. I'm sorry, but... no. It's too late for that. Far too late.

It Amused Me: His raison d'etre. Why kill people in horrific ways, ruin their lives, and generally make the entire universe a worse place than he left it? Because it's funny.

Jekyll & Hyde: Inverted in the case of Batman: White Knight, where taking pills cures Joker of his insanity and brings back his original Jack Napier persona. However, if he fails to take the pills, the Joker resurfaces, which is exactly what happens in Batman: Curse of the White Knight, and he's much worse than before.

Jerkass: Though that is a total understatement, Joker still more or less counts as one. When he isn't killing or torturing people for his own amusement, he's taunting them and trying get under other people's skin.

Joker Immunity: The trope namer. He was originally conceived as a one-off villain but proved too interesting a character to be killed off so quickly, and a last-minute edit had him survive instead. He's so famous for this that most works that kill him off, the audience doesn't buy it, and it serves as an effective twist the rare times when he is Killed Off for Real. But even those rare occasions may continue to feature him in flashbacks or hallucinations as a Posthumous Character.

Knife Nut: In many appearances, knives are his Weapon of Choice, either to disfigure his victims or kill his foes. Often both.The Joker: Do you want to know why I use a knife? Guns are too... quick. You can't savor all the little emotions. You see, in their last moments, people show you who you really are.

Large Ham: Holy shit, yes. He has an enormous sense of showmanship and is seen cracking Black Comedy jokes every minute, and it's a nigh-guarantee that whoever is portraying him will be munching the scenery to the very structure. Most especially the case if it happens to be Mark Hamill.

Laser-Guided Broadcast: In comic books as well in most of the media, when The Joker takes the control of TV and makes one of his menaces to threat and/or destroy Gotham City, good part of his message goes directly to Batman by tempting him to stop his plans, where usually destroy the city is just a secondary plan, getting/trapping/killing Batman as his real main plan.

Legacy Character: The idea of multiple Jokers is used in Gotham. There are two Jokers - Jerome Valeska, and his twin brother Jeremiah Valeska. The former is a deranged mass murderer who spread madness through Gotham. The latter is the actual Joker who becomes Batman's Arch-Enemy, and is even more dangerous than his predecessor.

Lethal Joke Character: In-Universe. Those unfamiliar with him tend to write him off as just some fool dressed as a clown, only to realize very quickly why they should keep their guard up around him. He's still one of the most dangerous characters in the DC Universe, despite existing in a world filled with super-humans and gods.

Master of Disguise: A talent he possesses even in his earliest stories. Joker is an expert with make-up, costumes and impersonations and has posed as everything from police officers to doctors to even Batman himself. He can go to extremely elaborate lengths to pull off his deceptions too, fabricating entire backstories and staying in-character for months at a time to see his plans through.

Mirthless Laughter: The Joker's constantly laughing, either at the pain and misery of others, the pain and misery he inflicts on others, or even his own pain. However, as describe by many and offered by the reader based on his scenes and what he does, there is NEVER any joy in his laughter. Never any real happiness. Just cruelty and mockery of pain and sorrow. If he does indeed have a tragic backstory that caused his madness, then this makes sense as he has chosen to laugh instead of cry. His statement about how the universe should end "so there won't be anymore people like me" during the Emperor Joker storyline lends weight to him being a Sad Clown.

Misanthrope Supreme: While it's not evident given Joker's Laughing Mad demeanor and his penchant for macabre jokes usually at the life and limb expense of someone else, Joker is actually absolutely full of hatred and spite towards basically everyone and the entire world. Several stories have gone into this and it's implied that the Joker finds it so easy to kill everyone around him, not because he feels nothing for them, but in fact because he loathes everyone aside from his twisted relationship with Batman.

Moment of Lucidity: There've been a few times when outside forces have sent him into a fit of temporary sanity over the years.

Monster Clown: One of the classic examples.

Multiple-Choice Past: Practically the poster child and possible trope namer. Even he isn't sure of his own history. The most accepted version introduced in Detective Comic #168 (1951) has him as a thug named the Red Hood who jumps into a vat of chemicals to escape Batman, disfiguring him and inspiring him to adopt the name Joker. Why he went by the name the Red Hood has changed over the years: The Killing Joke claims he was a failed comedian pressured into becoming a criminal to support his pregnant wife. The trauma of his disfigurement from jumping in the acid and his wife's earlier accidental death drove him insane. However, even this backstory is questionable, as the Joker himself calls it "multiple choice".

My God, What Have I Done?: Whenever he is made temporarily sane, most notably by a Lazarus pit after Ra's Al Ghul killed him after a Villain Team-Up and in JLA #15 during the Rock of Ages storyline, Joker usually expresses deep remorse for his crimes. Unfortunately it never lasts.

The Nicknamer: He's prone to giving nicknames to allies and enemies alike. Sometimes affectionate, sometimes snarky, but always undesired. Calling Batman "Batsy" or "Bats" and Robin "boy blunder" are probably his most iconic.

No Celebrities Were Harmed: Some of the Joker's victims fall into this.

No Name Given: The Joker is the only Batman villain who doesn't have an official real identity. However, there are three occasions where names have been used. The Jack Nicholson version used the name "Jack Napier", which was briefly mentioned in the Animated Series episode "Dreams In Darkness" since the series was partially based on the movie, albeit the doctors list it as one of his aliases. The Gotham version played by Cameron Monaghan gives him the name Jeremiah Valeska. The Joaquin Phoenix version used the name "Arthur Fleck", though the movie raises the question that he doesn't know who his father is, so 'Fleck' might not even be his surname. The Telltale series plays with this by 'naming' him 'John Doe' - which is just a stand-in name police/hospitals use when they don't know someone's identity. While he still has no official name to this day, it's general fan consensus that it's either Jack Napier or just Jack.

Not a Mask: Sometimes he pretends to wear makeup, but it ain't makeup. Jack Nicholson's version wore flesh-tone makeup over his pale skin several times after his transformation. Though, this is Depending on the Writer, as Heath Ledger's depiction does wear makeup. It's unclear if this is the case for Caesar Romero's depiction, as Romero's mustache is visible at times (he refused to shave for the part).

Not Me This Time: Though he certainly wouldn't mind committing them, he's been framed for murders he didn't commit several times, such as by James Gordon Jr.

Obfuscating Insanity: Zig Zagged Trope / Depending on the Writer. Some stories claims The Joker is actually sane, but pretends to be otherwise to avoid the death penalty. Others says he is genuinely crazy. It must be noted that Joker, like other Batman villains, was only identified as insane from the 70s onwards by various writers.note

Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Despite the Joker's infamous reputation and violent instability he never has any issues finding new henchmen for his schemes nor does he ever has any issues finding the resources needed to pull off his often convoluted plans and he's often able to do it all without attracting the attention of Batman or the authorities until he's ready for them.

OOC Is Serious Business: A general rule of thumb: If the Joker isn't smiling, something very bad is about to happen.

The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Pretty much sums up his feelings towards Batman. He often flies into a rage whenever someone else attempts to kill Batman when in his company, and whenever Batman (seemingly) dies he has a tendency to completely snap and turn sane. This actually goes the other direction as well: the Joker feels that Batman is the only one allowed to defeat him, and it's shown he's terrified of someone else doing him in in some continuities.

Outside-Context Problem: A recurring theme of Joker's "first appearance" stories in various adaptations is that nobody in Gotham is prepared for a guy who's only in it For the Evulz. Also, the Joker himself likes to find these, and exploit them.

Phrase Catcher: Back in his prankster phase during the Silver Age, whenever one of Joker's capers got foiled, someone would inevitably trot out the line "The joke's on you, Joker!" For obvious reasons, his current Monster Clown incarnation doesn't get this nearly as often.

Pimp Duds: He sometimes accessorizes his purple suit with a very wide-brimmed hat, which makes the ensemble look like a stereotypical pimp costume. Jared Leto's turn in Suicide Squad (2016) runs with this in his dynamic with Harley Quinn.

Pre-Insanity Reveal: The Joker, depending on the version, may have been an ordinary comedian before he went crazy and became a super-villain.

Purple Is Powerful: Purple is one of Joker's three colors (along with white and green) and he is powerful.

Psychopathic Manchild: For starters, when Batman is telling Joker to stay away from the Gordons after he apparently hurt Gordon's wife (it was actually his son, Gordon Jr. who did the deed), Joker commented that he didn't do anything to "the old bitch", and starts commenting to Batman that he misses the old Batman, and commented that he "doesn't want to go to bed yet" and that he "wants to play."

Redemption Rejection: In The Killing Joke, Batman defeats the Joker once again and then desparately pleads with him to accept help recovering from his madness before they eventually kill each other. In one of his rare, completely serious moments, the Joker sincerely apologizes and tells Batman that it's far too late for that.

The Resenter: Joker has often shown resentment towards people in many ways in different stories. The best example is him being resentful of anyone who garners more attention from Batman than him and anyone he sees as "stealing his act", i.e. being a laughing mad, jokey maniac cramping his style (The Creeper in Batman TAS). Regardless, many of his crimes and attitudes often carry an undercurrent or resentment be it towards to Bat-family because he resents sharing Batman with anyone or normal people for living their mundane lives free of care. Given how much spite seems to fuel his rampages, Joker's probably got a mountain of resentment inside of him.

Restoration of Sanity: On occasion, Joker's sanity will suddenly return to him, usually in stories where Batman retires or is believed to have died. His reactions tend to vary - sometimes we don't see how he reacts to what he did, but other times he actually shows genuine regret for his actions. Of course, these never tend to stick.

The Reveal: When Batman sat in Metron's chair in Darkseid War, one of the questions he asked was who the Joker was and the answer freaked him out. In DC Rebirth, it's revealed why: The Joker is a Legacy Character: the Joker responsible for Death of the Family and Batman: Endgame is not the same man who crippled Barbara Gordon—and neither of them are the original Joker.

Riddle for the Ages: Being the Trope Namer for Multiple-Choice Past, it's unknown who he was before falling into an acid tank and whether he was nuts even before being dunked. He even believes his origins, Depending on the Writer of course.Joker: They throw me out, and I had a wife and an unborn child… or it was two cows and a goat? Sometimes it's so confusing…

Rule of Funny: One of his primary themes (alongside insanity), as explained in Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?: "Kid. I'm the Joker. I don't just randomly kill people. I kill people when it's funny. What would conceivably be funny about killing you?"

Secret Identity Apathy: In most continuities, he simply doesn't care about Batman's Secret Identity, understanding that Batman is the true face and not the man behind the mask. It's shown sometimes that the Joker will actually be upset if someone outs Batman's identity to him, usually because it spoils their dynamic in some way. When Scarecrow pulls off Bruce's mask in Harley Quinn, it practically triggers a Villainous Breakdown.Joker: Half the fun of our relationship was the mystery! Now I know Batman is just some boring, rich asshole with parental issues!

Self-Made Orphan: In The Brave and the Bold #31, Atom reads his mind and sees The Joker burning his parents alive after they catch him killing animals.

Slasher Smile: He wears one almost by default. Reportedly, it was inspired by this photo◊ of Conrad Veidt in character as Gwynplaine (a man with a disfigured face, causing him to have a perpetual grin) in The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo.

The Sociopath: A skilled and gleeful manipulator, a vicious butcher who brutally tortures and murders others simply because he thinks it’s funny, extraordinarily impulsive given that he’s prone to turning his murderous urges on his own men on a whim or because one upset him in some way, shape or form, and has not even the vaguest notion of empathy, neither for his men or his victims.

The Spook: His backstory is an eternal Riddle for the Ages. DC Comics refuses to take an official stance on this.

Start of Darkness: Detective Comics #168 posits he was a laboratory worker who becomes the Red Hood in order to steal a million dollars from his employers and retire. In The Killing Joke he quits his job to become a comedian, but fails and is coerced by mobsters to commit a robbery, becoming the Red Hood. His disfigurement and (in The Killing Joke) his wife's death earlier in the story destroy what little was left of his sanity and he becomes The Joker. Maybe.

Stealing the Handicapped Spot: He doesn't do this. Rather, he hates it when other people do it and finds it hilarious to horrifically cripple them so they can legitimately park in handicapped spots.

Straw Nihilist: Provides the trope image and is the poster child for this. He claims that everything in life is just "one big joke" and death is the ultimate punchline. Joker also believes that "a bad day" is more than enough for anyone to turn out like him. This is shown notably in Injustice: Gods Among Us, The Killing Joke, and The Dark Knight. The Red Lantern Atrocitus even wonders what drove Joker to nihilism during an intro banter with the clown in Injustice 2.

Strong as They Need to Be: His fighting skills fluctuate wildly. Sometimes, Joker is an excellent fighter who can actually defeat Batman in a straight-up fight, whereas most writers prefer to present him as so weak that he can be knocked out cold with one punch.

Stupid Evil: Depending on the writer, The Joker can sometimes fall under this, where his cruelty and sadism tend to lead to his own death at the hands of all the people he's wronged.

To Create a Playground for Evil: His motivation in stories like Emperor Joker.

Too Kinky to Torture: The Joker has shown a proclivity for this over the years. At one point, the Joker berated a man who'd captured him for only hitting him in the face and The Dark Knight similarly sees the Joker berate Batman during the the latter's beating of him. He also enjoyed his and Bruce's final fight in The Dark Knight Returns. Salvation Run had established the Joker's been in constant pain since he took his fateful dive into the vat of chemicals that altered his appearance and not only had gotten used to it, but grew to enjoy it. This quote from The Dark Knight sums it up perfectly: Stephens: I can tell the difference between punks who need a little lesson in manners, and the freaks like you who would just enjoy it.

Tombstone Teeth: He is often drawn with too many too-long teeth as part of his trademark rictus grin, highlighting his nature as a psychotic and sadistic killer.

Troll: Most incarnations of the Joker dress themselves as being a lethal one of these. The best example is his DC Animated Universe version, who tailored each of his schemes as a joke or a prank, and sometimes even lectured his underlings on the importance of proper buildup and delivery when telling a joke. Batman in particular is the Joker's preferred victim, and many a Joker has refused to kill or unmask a Batman dead to rights, simply because it would spoil the fun of trolling him. But when others upstage or taunt him, he really goes nuts, as it's one of his Berserk Buttons.

Unreliable Narrator: Even he isn't sure of his own history, so anything he claims is suspect at best.

Villain Has a Point: Given his devotion to Rule of Funny, he's quite knowledgeable on what makes successful comedy, as seen with the featured image on Don't Explain the Joke.

Villain Song: There's no other villain who has belted out as many memorable music moments, not even the Music Meister. Three of them incidentally were sung by Mark Hamill behind the mic:

Villainous Aromantic Asexual: He is shown to be more interested in his schemes and mayhem rather than sex. He has had sex with Harley, but it is implied that it's more for her rather than his own enjoyment. He has actively ignored her when he simply wants to work on his schemes, even when she's in the translucent red night dress.

Villainous Friendship: No matter how bad things turned out last time, Lex Luthor and Joker will always work together again. Played With, as it isn’t just because of friendship. As Luthor himself notes in the ending of Infinite Crisis, you always "let the Joker play," lest he come after you for revenge later on for leaving him out.

Villainous Harlequin: He was this during the Silver Age. He is also this in Batman (1966) and Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

Villainous Rescue: In Dark Nights: Metal, The Joker pulls this off by teaming up with Batman to defeat the Batman Who Laughs, Batman knowing that a jokerized Batman would have the upper hand teams up with the Joker. It is so unexpected that the Batman Who Laughs, who is still prepared for anything Batman would conceivably think of, is unable to counter it let alone even consider it a possibility.

Villain Protagonist: He was the star of his own nine issue self-titled series from 1975 to 1976. In order to adhere to the Comics Code Authority, The Bad Guy Wins was never in effect - while he usually managed to get one over on other villains, each issue would end the Joker being apprehended for his crimes. He also got his own movie in which Batman didn't even exist yet, delving deep into what someone would have to go through to become the Joker.

Weapon of Choice: The acid-spitting flower, Smilex/Joker Venom... and simple crowbars, established by how he killed Jason Todd.

You Gotta Have Blue Hair: He has neon green hair caused by the chemicals he fell into.

#TheJokerInformation

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billiesbeat-blog · 4 years ago

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I Can’t Breathe

I Can't Breathe/8:46

The fact that George Floyd's now tragic final words were not the first time we have heard them in a similar situation from another black man he didn't know, is not the irony of this story.

It's the fact that here again was yet another black man having life choked out of him, by yet another white police officer, for allegedly committing another innocuous “crime”.

Selling illegal cigarettes, failing to signal a lane change, reaching for ID as requested, buying skittles, sleeping in her bed...Living While Black.

On this day we watch America erupt in frustration and anger at a system. A system that so casually took a life, while grotesquely telling George to get up, all the time deliberately applying as much pressure as possible to the throat of a man, a human being, for committing the crime of “suspected forgery'. Listening with a look of boredom and his hand in his pocket, while this human being went from saying he couldn't breathe to crying out for his mother. A 44-year-old son, father, brother, uncle, friend cried out for mercy where there was none to feel or give.

As it has played out so many heartbreaking frustrating times across America, this is just another one of these times. Because it's not the first video we've seen of a black man or person of color being brutalized or killed by law enforcement.

So why is this different?

Is it the fact that they knew they were being filmed and didn't care or feel pressured to stop? 4 cops, 3 of whom could have stopped the murder and instead stood by again casually, while their partner took the life of an unarmed human who was on his face, in handcuffs no threat. Protect and serve.

People have been filming these brutalities more since the advent of cell phone video - like Philando Castile, Eric Garner and many others. Others like Sandra Bland have been pieced together from dash or body cam footage when released. And the Floyd murder comes a week after people were already reeling from the footage released of Ahmaud Aubery being hunted down and lynched, while the act was filmed by an accomplice.

Trying to make statements on social media with pointed hashtags, seem to fall on deaf ears of those who need to understand what it's truly like to be #LivingWhileBlack.

#JoggingWhileBlack #DrivingWhileBlack #BarbecuingWhileBlack #SleepingWhileBlack

Listening to the anguished pleadings of black mothers and fathers who fear for their sons' lives, begging society to stop killing them.

These are modern day slave times, where the color of your skin determines not just your rights but your fate. And there are different rules for the perpetrators of your fate. Time and time again we see a white person brandishing a weapon at police or having just killed people and he is taken in peacefully. There is no being thrown to the ground and having an officer sit on your throat, choking the life out of you. A man swings a machete at police telling them to leave and is allowed to retreat into his home. And at each telling come the comments “if he was black, he'd be dead.”

It's tempting to say that this has all just happened in the last 3 years, since the election of an openly racist President and many other unapologetically racist elected officials. But they didn't invent racism and intolerance, they merely made it fashionable to express it openly. This pre-existing bigotry has found a home on social media and while people say how could this be happening in 2020, I say how could it not?

The people who killed Ahmaud Arbery, said he wouldn't stop and explain why he was running in the neighborhood. There are now endless stories and videos of white people demanding that a black person explain who they are or what their business is in the building, to calling the police when challenged about their unleashed dog. The young man laying on the front lawn spread eagled while 5 police officers train their guns on him from behind their cars, as if he was a mass murderer. His crime? Rolling through a stop sign. Family screaming at him to not move, while his 90-year-old grandmother went to his aid in her bathrobe. Only to be thrown to ground by the same officers.

This is Living While Black.

During slavery, white citizens were deputized to be able to detain, question and ultimately punish blacks as they saw fit. It could be for a suspected crime or for just walking down the street. This continued into the Jim Crow era and exists today albeit in a slightly different form. This belief has clearly been passed along generationally to the present time. How else do you explain the casual way in which whites feel they have the right to detain, question and ultimately punish black people today? I don't mean that it is taught verbally but clearly learned by the 2 systems at play when it comes to enforcing the law both minor and major crimes.

The numbers in health care show the depth to which this racist behavior has gone. Black patients getting substandard treatment by doctors. Black women are 3 - 4 times more likely to die from pregnancy related causes than white women. Black babies die at twice the rate of white babies in their first year.

Certain racist practices set up decades ago still affect black people today-such as red lining. Black people deliberately blocked from getting loans, mortgages or being able to buy homes in certain neighborhoods continues in 2020.

All of this combined with the capricious abuse of authority by the police leads us to where we are today, in the streets demanding change.

It's not the Klan we have to fear. It's the white person walking their dog who by her words, threatens the possibility of death, knowing full well the power her words hold.

Look to yourself white America.

There are too many funerals to be this innocent because this is not new. 1968, 1992, 2020

Stop saying: Well what was he doing to bring this on himself? Why was he in that neighborhood? Oh he had drugs in his system. He must have been resisting. Why was she sitting in her car?

And please stop saying “I don't see color”. You must see color to see the inequities and naked brutality of life, that a lot of people of color live every day.

This President is a morally bankrupt fascist, who has long advocated for violence against African American citizens, going back to 1989 when he called for the execution of the Central Park 5. He put a bounty on their heads by publishing the names, addresses and phone numbers of the exonerated boys. To this day he maintains their guilt. In Minneapolis, the head of the police union spoke at a Trump rally, wearing “Cops For Trump” shirt along with white supremacist badges. A cop in New York can be seen laughingly flashing the white power sign during the protests. Just as white people need to call out racism as they see it, police need to call it out on their own. The now endless videos coming out of wanton police brutality in the face of peaceful compliant protesters must not stand.

They-whoever they are- talk of “a few bad apples” in the force and more training is required. Reality check: You can't train or teach someone to be empathetic or compassion where there is none. Where someone has been raised and conditioned to see people of color as inferior, their lives not having the same worth. Whether it's equal access to medical care, education or available housing. Or equal access to fair treatment under the law.

Talk. Listen. Learn.

A few thoughts that would be good t-shirt slogans provided they are backed up with action. We can all be keyboard warriors. For some that's all they can do but for the rest we need you to show up.

Fascism is like a boa; inhale an inch and you'll never get it back.

Don't Stand By When You Can Stand Up

Times change but the color has not.

It's not Black vs white. It's everyone vs racists.

Justice delayed is Justice denied- MLK

As Angela Davis said “It's not enough to be non-racist, you must be anti-racist.”

#blm #georgefloyd #saytheirnames #racisim #socialactivism #media #change #nojusticenopeace #police reform #police brutality #whitepriv

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positivlyfocused · 4 years ago

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Sometimes I Gotta Seethe In Rage

Three weeks ago I wrote how every negative situation is positive. Well this week brought such a crazy-ass example of that, I shared it with all my clients. Now I want to share it with you.

This story is hilarious. I almost wrote "unflattering", but you'll see at the end that this story flatters me in the sense that I saw how this infuriating situation was also a massive blessing.

Summer's sun, blue skies and Oregon's hot breezy air called me out again last weekend. I love working outside along the Willamette River shores. I enjoy Ospreys above and salmon jumping skyward likely avoiding sea lions and their chisel like teeth.

I decided I wanted more of that, so I packed my bike. I packed light, my portable chair, my iPad and nothing more. I planned to finish reading Ross Douthat's The Decadent Society, its insightful take on current reality had my attention for weeks now. I anticipated exploring Douthat's take while enjoying the Oregon summer.

^^The usual spot I work from on summer Oregon days...by the Willamette's beautiful shores...

That's not what happened though

Oregon's governor recently eased lockdown mandates. With her decree, all of Oregon made similar plans. I expected a few people riverside, but wasn't prepared for crowds that showed up.

A forty minute bike ride turned into an hour while I tried finding suitable, solitary rest stop. I finally decided on a rocky shore devoid of human for lack of any sand. But I had my chair. I didn't need sand.

I parked my bike, set up my chair then settled into Douthat's narrative. Thirty minutes later, a couple with two dogs showed up. The young, tattooed Portlanders led their dogs to the water's edge, unleashed them and threw tennis balls into the river. The larger of the two dogs, a pit-bull, leapt into the water while its smaller puppy companion barked in envy. Then the puppy eased into the water, found it agreeable and went for a swim. I smiled then turned back to Douthat.

Minutes later, the puppy was licking at my bare legs. I'm not a dog person, but I can appreciate a cute pooch. On this day though, I just wanted to read in quiet on a beautiful day. It annoyed me that this dog suddenly was licking my leg. But what annoyed me more was the fact that its owner hadn't done his legal duty of keeping his dog under control.

I lifted my legs away from the pooch, clearly annoyed, which the owner saw. He came bounding to my rescue, scooped up his dog with an apology and returned to his spot. There, he put it on a leash. His partner too re-leashed the Pit-bull.

All that was nice. But it was too late.

I got hooked in frustration-momentum

Momentum is a powerful thing. Especially negative momentum born of oft-told stories. I've harbored negative stories about dog owners who don't keep their dogs leashed and therefore under control as leash laws mandate. So much so it's one of my "pet peeves" (oh god! no pun intended!).

Recently when I read about a "Karen" from Central Park Manhattan who made a racist false police report against a fellow New Yorker who politely asked her to leash her dog in an area where a leash law was in force. The fellow New Yorker, a board member of the New York City Audubon Society who happens to be African American, recorded the whole incident. The recording went viral and popular outrage caused the woman to lose her job and her dog. Reportedly, New York is considering banning her permanently from Central Park and the District Attorney is considering pressing charges against her for making a false police report.

This story came to mind as that puppy slimed me. When its owner grabbed it and apologized, I mused whether he also thought about that Central Park incident.

The problem was, I didn't shake the association, which would have been in my best interest. Comparing my experience to what happened to the Audubon Board Member wasn't really fair. But old stories about my pet peeve combined with that viral Central Park experience in my head creating momentum that swept me up.

For the next half hour I couldn't focus on my reading. My mind swirled around the association, my indignation, my annoyance and frustration....

^^I don't hate dogs. Dogs love me as much as I love them...sometimes...🤣

What happened next was no surprise

The couple decided to pack up and leave, having I suppose, had enough time at the water's edge. As they walked to the bike path, I heard the woman say to someone I couldn't see "Sir, would you mind leashing your dog?"

The irony didn't escape me. "Cosmic Justice" I thought. Little did I know said justice was just getting started...

I couldn't hear the what the person she addressed said, but I heard what she was saying. I also got the annoyance in her tone:

"Why aren't you willing to put your dog on a leash sir?" She asked. I turned, hoping to see who she addressed. I couldn't see that person. She continued.

"My dog isn't friendly," she said. The person said something I didn't hear.

"How many years have you been around my dog sir?" She replied. "I'm telling you my dog is not friendly."

Apparently whoever she addressed had done nothing, so she reached down, picked up what looked like a 40 pound pit-bull and scrambled over rocks the rest of the way to the bike path with her male companion in tow.

I was thinking about karmic kickback, wondering how the couple felt now since they themselves hadn't controlled their (little) dog. Which is why I hadn't noticed that not seconds later another dog was sniffing at my leg!

It's my turn...

I turned in surprise, saw the Husky, then darted around looking for the owner. Presumably this was the same person the young woman spoke with earlier. Finally I saw him sitting in a chair he set up behind me on the bike path's edge.

My indignance increased. "Really?" I thought. "Twice in a row?" What did I expect? I create my reality. Here was the Universe serving me a big pile of pet peeve....a second helping if you will, this time via a Husky and yet another irresponsible owner.

But wait...it gets worse. Or rather, I got worse.

I should have known trying to get the owner to do anything about his scofflaw dog would be futile. After all I saw that play out just seconds ago. Never the less:

"Sir, would you please come get your dog!" I said with force ten annoyance.

The owner looked down at me, at his dog and said "he's alright."

"I'm not!" I said.

The owner said nothing.

At that, I'd had it!

Now I was fully in rage. That's right, I was so angry, I was shaking. I wanted to strangle that damn dog and murder the owner. But I also knew it wasn't the dog's fault. So I directed all my rage (in my mind) at the owner. I wanted to first strangle him, then murder him!

I should mention I had the presence of mind at this moment to see the ironic humor here. A part of me knew what I was doing was ridiculous. It's just a dog. But the principle folks, and the momentum of my pet peeve had me firm in its grip.

Clearly this guy wasn't going to do anything about his dog. There was no way I could recover my state of calm at this point, not to mention focusing on Douthat's prose. I decided then to gather my things and head home in a huff, which took all but a couple minutes.

But I couldn't let it end that way. Noooo.

As I pushed my bike up to the bike trail, I made my "offender" clearly: white male in his 40s, beer in hand, listening to a transistor radio, minding his own business and cool as a 🥒. Perfect contrast to my seething rage, which at this point, boiled over and out my mouth:

"YOU'RE EXACTLY THE KIND OF PERSON WHO GIVES DOG OWNERS A BAD NAME!" I yelled in his general direction. I hopped on my bike and peeled away on the momentum of my righteous indignation. 😂🤣😊

That wasn't the end of it.

A half-mile into my return trip, it struck me. What happened here? Why am I letting this situation shape how I feel? How I feel is more important than how I'm treated. In fact, I know by choosing how I interpret what happens in my life, I can create reality. Here I was doing what a noob at all this "you create your reality" business would do...

At this point, I should stop and say I know sometimes I'm going to get pissed. It's just part of what happens when an eternal being comes into physical reality.

Thinking an enlightened person doesn't get mad sometimes indicates misunderstanding about how physical reality works. Physical reality intentionally offers variety: things I want and things I don't want. After all, how am I to know what I want if I don't know what I don't want?

How am I to know what thoughts feel better than others, if I don't have a negative experience every now and then?

That's what I thought one half mile into my return ride. And that's when I decided I had the power here. I had choice.

So instead of continuing to seethe, I decided to put my attention on something else. Something more pleasing. So I noticed the blue sky. I noticed the green trees. I noticed how much I like riding my bike, how good the sun felt on my bare legs and arms, how good it feels on a Oregon summer day. In seconds I felt better. My feelings reminded me how wonderful it is working from Oregon's riversides:

youtube

That's when something amazing happened

The more I thought these thoughts, the better I felt. Then...

Ever had an experience where something happens, you react in a less than ideal way, then, later, you get a thought, an idea, an alternative way you could have responded that might have been more effective?

Well that's what happened. In my increasing happiness I received an alternative scenario that played out in my mind. Rather than throwing a tantrum at the guy, I saw my self calmly rise, gather my things and my chair, walk up to the guy and set up my chair right next to him. So close our chairs touched side by side. Then I sat down, looked at him and began politely talking his ear off.

That's when I burst out laughing, a belly laugh so strong it obliterated my anger. I let this alternative reality play through my mind, adding humorous bits here and there – I saw him looking at me surprised, then trying to ignore me, then suddenly packing up his things and stomping off, dog in tow off leash. I imagined him and I actually having a friendly conversation, chatting away like best friends. I imagined him and I sitting there, me chatting away and he trying to ignore my chatting tsunami in quiet annoyance...

And you know what happened next? The entire situation changed for me. No longer did I see him as the idiot epitome of bad dog ownership. Instead he became a shining example of what I could be.

Consider this:

This guy was doing his own thing, oblivious to what others thought and said about him

This guy was in his own reality, enjoying his life with his dog. So was the dog!

This guy had presence of mind, a centeredness so powerful, he appeared unphased by not only one, but two verbal aggressors trying to knock him off his rocker

As much as I want to vilify him, he demonstrated to me vibrational mastery. And at that point he went from villain to teacher.

I want to be like that. I want to be calm in the face of storms.

And, in fact I am, nearly all the time.

Which is another thing he taught me: that I am that nearly all the time. When I'm not, there's always something great in the experience I learn about myself and about my Positively Focused practice.

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berniedette · 4 years ago

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after seeing the national outrage and protests, politicians right now are like “I know right? we shouldn’t let police get away with excessive force and stuff. yeah black lives do matter. y’all have a point.” and then do NOTHING about it. politicians are people WE voted into leadership positions to represent OUR wellbeing. if they’re not doing shit, they’re not doing their jobs. if they’re just making placating speeches, they’re not doing their jobs. they are the people the police force listens to. politicians have the power to leash and unleash the police. handle your dogs better.

#society #politics #black lives matter #I’m tired of watching press conferences where the mayors and governors say NOTHING #no solutions #I’m angry

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goffilolo · 5 years ago

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Revival of Midoriya Izuku part 2

Well well well, its been 84 years hasn’t it? as always you can find the fic under the the same name on ao3. looking forward to the comments and notes

“I can’t believe you dragged me out before I could put on some of my best moves” whined Izuku as he fell into step with the doctor.

“See, the issue here is that there is no difference between your best and your worst moves” deadpanned Shin. “I was saving you from yourself” he added as an afterthought, while mentally praying (to whichever God that has yet to be killed by Izuku) for the safety and sanity of Izuku’s new crush.

It’s been a long day for both of them to say the least. What started off as a casual meet up for breakfast ended up becoming another one of Izuku’s shenanigans that got them both arrested. While that in itself is nothing new, this time they’ve been held up for much longer than usual, because of course they were.

The duo (or trio if you were to count the alleged dog) were currently on their way to Izuku’s house, as the doctor insisted on walking him home from the police station while his mom went in the opposite direction to buy some groceries for tonight’s dinner.

“Saving me?” scoffed Izuku “I think it’s a bit too late for that. But it doesn’t matter, I still have a chance.”

“How so?” asked Shin, with about 80% of disbelievement and 20% curiosity.

The question above has unfortunately unleashed Izuku’s Rant ™ mode.

“That guy mentioned coming back from an entrance exam. If we take into account all the schools that are within a relatively short distance from the police station, as well as the time he arrived, the only logical conclusion would be the UA exam that we KNOW took place today. Also he’s Tensei’s brother, which means he has to have a pretty good quirk so I don’t doubt he passed the entrance exam with flying colours. Do you know what that means Shin?!” asked the teen, with an excitement of a squirrel on 23 red bulls.

“It means that your stalker tendencies are making a comeback?” which apparently was the wrong answer as the doctor’s kneecaps soon found themselves becoming victims of Trash Bandit’s headbutting.

“NO!- I mean, yeah but-” stammered the boy “-the point IS that I know where to find him! Once the new school year starts I can just go to UA to see him whenever!”

“Uh-huh, and what about that teeny-tiny detail of, oh I dunno, YOU NOT ATTENDING UA, IN FACT YOU NOT ATTENDING SCHOOL AT ALL?!”

“First of all, don’t you fuckin use that tone with me Doc, you’re making it sound like I’m a drop-out” pointed Izuku “And second of all, how dare you assume that something as simple as a security system can come in the way of me getting laid.” Not to mention he has technically enrolled into a high school, whether or not he will actually attend is a different story.

“Why do I even bother?” lamented the doctor “I should’ve just kept you locked at the psych ward when I had the chance.”

“But ya didn’t!”

The two continued their usual banter, until they finally reached Izuku’s neighbourhood, at which point the boy took the pity on the bespectacled man and told him to go home, knowing that the man haven’t slept in the last 36 hours and that another 12 hour shift was awaiting him tomorrow morning.

“Oh shit, I do need to go home” mumbled Shin. “I didn’t get to call my wife when we were at the station.”

“What do you mean you didn’t get to call her?” asked Izuku, while trying to hide his surprise and disappointment at the doctor’s marital status, as it puts his matchmaking plans to an end before they would truly begin “Didn’t they give you one call to make?”

“Well yes, but it was a long day and I got hungry, so I ended up calling a takeaway instead.”

“You know Shin, I never thought I would say this about you, but BIG MOOD.”

It was only after they bid each other farewell and went their separate ways that Izuku has noticed something strange. He felt like he was being followed, and for once it wasn’t a quil induced paranoia (or maybe it was? kinda hard to tell these days), looking over to Bandit, he noticed that the sheep also seemed to be on guard. So it’s not just me then .

He made a subtle turn, trying to see if there there were any people behind him. In doing so he failed to notice the the sudden appearance of a tall figure in front of him and was thus more than unprepared for the incoming “ I AM HE-! ”

“BANDIT! ATTACK!”

What followed was a litany of confused screams and vengeful sheep noises enveloped in a spontaneous cloud of smoke, which Izuku threw his axe at, because that is now his go-to solution for any problem. If he wasn’t already so startled by the whole situation he probably would’ve noticed that said cloud of smoke was vaguely All-Might shaped, at least before the sheep was added to the equation. As the smoke began to dissipate it revealed a tall, skeletal figure of a man who looked like if one of those ugly ragdolls you find at goodwill stores came to life. The man in question barely managed to stop the incoming axe using his bare hands, keeping the blade in a karate chop like hold, which would’ve been impressive if it wasn’t for the fact that Trash Bandit was hanging off the man, chewing on his blond his hair. So to say that the current situation was confusing would be a big understatement.

“Who the fuck are you?!” asked Izuku, playing up his ‘good cop/bad cop’ act, except the good cop went and killed himself 9 months prior by smashing his head open against a koi pond, because that’s how it always is within the world of criminal justice; the good ones die too young. Doesn’t matter, Bandit can play a cop, whether he’d be good is questionable, but he’d still a better job than like 90% of the police force he dealt with so far. Except Tsukauchi, he’s a good bitch, far to overworked and underpaid for his job. He’s perfect. Him and Shin would be perfect together, if the doctor wasn’t married that is. Wait, what was he saying?

Oh yeah.

“I asked who the fuck are you” he repeated while pulling out his backup axe out of his yellow backpack “And I don’t like to repeat myself, especially to some old, creepy guys who seem to think it’s ok to go around following underage boys” he explained as he waved his weapon in an unspoken threat.

Which seemed to do the trick as the stranger started to fumble around looking for an excuse and a way to pull the sheep off his hair.

“Aah, sorry about the misunderstanding! We’ve met briefly during the villain attack earlier today. What you did back there was incredible young man!”

“Yeah yeah, pretty sure I would remember meeting a guy who looks like he’s one step away from dropping dead, now answer my question. WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?”

The man seemed to hesitate as he looked around to make sure no other people were around, which was dumb given that they were still very much in a public place “It’s kinda complicated” he said eventually, like the bullshitter he probably was.

“Look bitch, my whole life is ‘complicated’ ” exclaimed Izuku using obnoxious air quotes “So out with it!”

“What I’m about to tell you is extremely confidential” replied the man, with the grave seriousness of someone who’s about to reveal to their own son after ten years of absence that they’re a mercenary, and yes he is getting personal, fuck you “Under no circumstances are you allowed to tell anyone about my identity-”

“Your fuckin’ secret is safe with my indifference” deadpanned the boy.

The man sighed and took a tentative step back. Once again a cloud of smoke enveloped him. It disappeared almost as soon it came, revealing a figure of no-other than motherfuckin’ All Might.

“I suppose this form is more memorable , isn’t that right young Midoriya?” asked the man, as if he wasn’t a goddamn living legend revealing his secret identity to a kid whose hobbies include committing felony, ravaging through junkyards; and being gay.

“JESUS FUCK! You can’t just DO THAT! Revealing your secret to a random civilian? What the hell All Might, you had too much dumb bitch juice or what?” screamed Izuku, or rather ‘whisper screamed’ as he was trying to juggle scolding his ‘used-to-be role model’ and having an internal meltdown over scolding his ‘used-to-be role model’! To say that the situation he found himself in was bizzare would’ve been an understatement.

After all, it’s not everyday that you meet a man whose very face was a reminder of all the things you could not have, and the person you never got to be. He felt wronged, like the universe has robbed him of an opportunity, except that is not the case as there was nothing to steal to begin with. Still, that vicious little voice inside his head that always whispered ‘you can’t do this’, ‘you can’t have this’ in a poor imitation of Kacchan became almost bearable over time. Almost , being the key word. It became less of an insistent, self-deprecating chant it once was, and slowly morphed into something akin to a static noise from those old TVs; quiet and ever so slightly inconvenient at best, but otherwise unnoticeable unless one deliberately thought about it. And now, being forced to face All Might, Izuku could hear that voice louder than ever before, reminding him of what a failure he used to be, how naive he used to be and ‘did you really believe you could ever compare yourself to him? ’

“Actually, you know what? Nevermind” he continued, hoping to carry the conversation enough to distract him from his own thoughts “Just...why did you want to talk to me? After what happened?”

“Ah, yes! What you did during that villain attack was incredible my boy, reckless but incredible” exclaimed All Might, with the casualness of someone remarking on unusually nice weather despite his overly enthusiastic tone “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such honest bravery, especially from someone as young as yourself. Even when faced with a villain that other heroes did not dare to go up against, you still ran head first towards the danger, despite lacking any power yourse-” and his inspirational ramble got interrupted by a bloody cough and YET ANOTHER cloud of smoke, reverting him back to his skeletal form.

“Ok yeah- I get it! I’m awesome, the baddest bitch in the town and whatever the fuck, but CAN YOU PLEASE stop coughing up blood?”

All Might continued to wheeze for another minute or so, while Izuku and by extension Bandit were fretting over him.

“I apologise, my health is not what it used to be”

“I can tell”

“You see, 6 years ago I was fighting this one villain-”

“No, stop- don’t care” interrupted Izuku as he waved his hands in a dismissive manner “Please spare me the unnecessary narrative exposition, everyone already knows the story.”

“Who is ‘everyone’? And what are you talking about?” asked All Might in utter bewilderment.

“ Oh, you know ” says Izuku, addressing the reader more so than answering All Might.

That answer explained exactly nothing, but All Might was willing to let it drop and move onto the actual reason for his sudden presence, which if he was being honest with himself he was already regretting.

“Midoriya my boy” he said instead “The reason I wanted to speak to you is because I have a proposition for you...”

“Goddamnit! I knew it!” exclaimed Izuku in a sarcastic, yet over dramatic manner not unlike the characters from Shin’s favourite telenovelas “I knew you were a dirty bastard all along, picking up boys off the streets, using your hero persona to gain their trust-”

“I beg your pardon?!” shouted All Might, ever so scandalised as he did not catch onto Izuku’s joke.

“Then beg” deadpanned Izuku.

Making fun of the number one hero was all nice and good in Izuku’s opinion, but the man did seek him out for a particular reason and they’ve been loitering around the neighbourhood long enough. It was about the time to stop the jokes and get to the point.

“Ok ok, jokes aside, what do you want?”

“I want you to be a hero”

Ouch, too fuckin’ soon.

“Uhm, I don’t know how to tell you this you All Mighty fool but that’s not gonna happen” replied Izuku, utterly unimpressed and very much ready to start crying at any point now “I’m a ‘quirkless nobody’ remember?”

“That can be changed” announced the man, with such conviction that Izuku was almost willing to believe it, despite the ridiculousness of the statement.

“I don’t think it can”

“My quirk is rather unusual, in a way that it can be passed onto another person. I was also quirkless before it was passed onto me and so-”

Oh, no, no no - no fuckin’ way, this is not happening! He knows where this shit is going-

“-due to my health it’s about time for me to find a successor”

“All Might” said Izuku, his voice trembling in fear of what was coming “Don’t, please don’t ask me that question” because he couldn’t bear to hear it, the possibility that was all but wasted, that came far too late, that he let go off before it even presented itself-

“I want you to be a hero” repeated the man.

Instead of an answer, All Might received a pitiful wail.

Because it wasn't fair, wasn’t fair at all. Izuku knew that life wasn’t fair, the fact learnt and ingrained deep within his soul since the day he received the diagnosis. And yet THIS was a new height of cruelty all together, it made Kacchan’s remarks seem like light teasing in comparison. It took everything he once deeply desired, but couldn’t have. Everything he had to give up on that rainy afternoon 9 months ago in order to put himself back together after falling apart for something he could never have; it took all of that and dangled it in front of him like a cheap bait. It was pure mockery. It made his blood boil. So much so that he could do nothing but cry and fall on his knees.

“You know -sob- if you made that offer a year ago, I probably would’ve said yes”

“And now?”

“And now” he whispered in between the sobs “And now I’m gonna ask you to fuck off!”

“Why?” asked All Might, completely stunned by the boy’s reaction.

“BECAUSE I CAN’T DO IT!” screamed Izuku, like a wounded animal that he very much looked like “ I CAN’T BE A HERO, NOR DO I WANT TO BE ONE, NEVER AGAIN!”

It was all too much, far too much, he needed to leave, leave this conversation, leave this man, leave this thought and never look back.

He slowly stood back up, Bandit ever so faithfully waiting at his side holding one of his axes in his mouth like a dog who proudly brings the morning newspaper to their human. Still, it felt wrong to leave without saying anything else, especially considering All Might’s bewilderment.

“I-” and he wasn’t even sure how to explain himself “I always wanted to be a good person and help people, don’t get me wrong, but-”

“But?”

“-but I’ve learnt that being a hero and doing the right thing are two very different things” he stated, remembering the words of his father; words far too powerful, presence far too brief. “Being a ‘hero’ no longer stands for the bravery, nobility and selflessness. It used to, but now it’s merely a job title; a dangerous job yes, but it’s just a job. Originally all real heroes were vigilantes, weren’t they? They took the risk for the sake of doing the right thing, regardless of what the law said, and now heroes are just glorified cops” he ranted.

For a moment Izuku thought he said enough, but there was another thing; a personal thing , even more personal than the whole ‘failed dream’ and ‘existential crisis’ business.

“You said you used to be quirkelss as well, didn’t ya?”

The man in question nodded, not sure where this is going.

“So tell me, the great All Might” exclaimed Izuku as he approached the hero, spitting his name like it was a curse “Why did you accept that quirk?”

The man stood still, staring at Izuku, as if looking long enough will tell his the correct answer.

“Did you want to be a hero? Or did you want to do the right thing?”

“I-”

Ok, so maybe abruptly leaving All Might in the middle of the empty street wasn’t the smartest thing he’s ever done, but Izuku never denied being a dumbass so fuck him sideways. He was far too worked up for all of this bullshit. The day already turned to shit with the whole sludge fiasco and now the universe decided to test his patience and sanity (which he did not have much of anyway). Although he is a little glad that he left before he could dish out some of the more vicious things he had in stock, like calling All Might a ‘quirkless sellout’, or anything else of that variety as long as it got the point across. Sure he promised to keep the man’s secret, but he never promised to be nice about it, because fuck him, he can still do good things and help people, even without a quirk.

The point was that he was bitter, which ok, nothing new, but he was particularly bitter about the whole quirkless thing. It wasn’t so much that he thought of himself as worthless, those days were long over for the most part thanks to months of therapy. It was All Might’s offer that felt like a slap to the face.

Regardless of his current views on heroism he had potential , and isn’t that how the whole thing started? All Might approached him because he saw potential…

A potential that couldn’t be of much use without a quirk.

And didn’t that fuckin hurt.

He suddenly regretted burning the entirely of his All Might merch right after being discharged from the hospital, because now he had nothing left to destroy.

Nevertheless he dropped Bandit off at home - his mother already there, working on tonight’s dinner - and made his way to the Dagobah beach, or what was left of it anyways. During the past 9 months he became more restless; even with homeschooling he had far too much free time than he knew what to do with, which partially resulted in his shenanigans, but it also resulted in looking for a place where he could just be . His mother, bless her soul, was far too overbearing at times despite her good intentions and Izuku was a bit more than fed up with hearing “Are you ok?” every twenty minutes like a goddamn clockwork.

And so he started visiting the local beach, which hasn’t looked like a beach in a long time, as people began to dump their junk there years ago. Bad for the environment, great for Izuku’s need for solitude.

As he entered the beach grounds and began to stumble through the usual mountains of trash he greeted the few people who usually hanged around the place, one of them being the ‘Florida woman’.

Florida woman was not her actual name, but he never asked and she never told him. All he knew was that she was from Florida and that she frequented the trash beach grounds, because it was the only place empty enough where she could take her pet crocodile out on a walk without people screaming in terror at the giant reptile. The crocodile in question, named Cracksaw was lovely and much more obedient than Bandit, he couldn’t understand why people made such a big deal about it.

Another beach regular was Hitoshi, who Izuku met in a cat cafe last year. The guy looked like a lovechild of a zombie and one of those tiny troll dolls from the early 2000s, although Izuku’s hair is just as much of a mess, so he probably can’t judge. Hitoshi was also applying to UA’s hero course and so they originally agreed to meet up this morning so that Izuku could give him some words of ‘encouragement’ or whatever the fuck it is friends are supposed to say. However, since Izuku got caught up in an impromptu fight with a villain he wasn’t able to meet him in the morning.

“Where have you been this morning?” asked Hitoshi.

“Fighting a villain” replied Izuku, ever so casually.

“I can’t tell whether you’re joking or not”

“It’s better if you don’t”

Which is how most of their exchanges went anyway. The less they know about you the better afterall, at least according to the Florida woman. Nevertheless he got caught up in a bit of a smalltalk with Hitoshi, asking about how he did at the exam and so on.

“And so we’re all sitting here, the presentation is just about to start and suddenly the door slams open and some guys runs in-” remarks Hitoshi, more excited than Izuku has seen him in a long time, which to be fair doesn’t say much, because he still looks like he has a serious case of a tired bitch face “- foaming out of his mouth and muttering about fighting a sheep. For a moment I thought you had something to do with it, but the guy looked like he had rabies”

“It’s not rabies, that’s just his personality” replied Izuku, fully aware that he did in fact had everything to do with this, but was not willing to give out anymore details.

“All right, then. Keep your secrets.”

“Oh buddy, I sure will.”

#demise!au #bnha #boku no hero academia #fanfic #revival of midoriya izuku #midoriya izuku #All Might #shinsou hitoshi #iyashi shin #the florida woman

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newstfionline · 5 years ago

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Headlines

The sinking price of oil (Eurointelligence, The New York Times) The Covid-19 crisis acted as a trigger for an oil price war that has seen benchmarks drop to a third of where they were three months ago, from the $60-75/bbl range to the low twenties. The prospect of $10 oil is not far-fetched. Those with storage capacity are taking advantage of increased Saudi oil production and lower prices to build up inventories, and that is actually keeping up demand and so propping up prices. But inventories will max out soon and then demand for oil will fall as people are still not driving or flying due to lock-downs, and so the price of oil could drop further.

Soldiers around the world get a new mission: Enforcing coronavirus lockdowns (Washington Post) Around the world, as a consensus has formed around the need for quarantine and social distancing to fight the coronavirus, a more delicate question has emerged: How do you enforce those new rules? In every region, under all kinds of political systems, governments are turning to increasingly stringent measures--and deploying their armed forces to back them up. Countries as varied as China, Jordan, El Salvador and Italy have sent service members into the streets. Guatemala has detained more than 1,000 people. In Peru, those who flout government restrictions can be jailed for up to three years. In Saudi Arabia, it’s five. Deploying troops is a startling but often effective way to keep people indoors, but its impact could ripple well beyond the end of the coronavirus, as countries decide when--and if--to cede the powers endowed by a global pandemic.

Flushing money down the drain (Bloomberg) New toilets onboard the U.S. Navy aircraft carriers USS Gerald R. Ford and USS George H. W. Bush reportedly clog so often that a cleaning service using specialized acid is required to unclog them. The process costs around $400,000 per clog, according to a new congressional audit.

Good news for dogs (Foreign Policy) A surge in applications from homebound New Yorkers has led to a shortage in dogs to adopt and foster. A similar trend has emerged in Los Angeles, where the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals noted a 70 percent increase in animals entering foster care. “For the moment we definitely don’t have any dogs left to match” with foster homes, said Anna Lai, of Muddy Paws Rescue, “Which is a great problem to have.”

3.3 million seek US jobless aid (AP) Nearly 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week--almost five times the previous record set in 1982--amid a widespread economic shutdown caused by the coronavirus. The surge in weekly applications was a stunning reflection of the damage the viral outbreak is inflicting on the economy. Filings for unemployment aid generally reflect the pace of layoffs. Revenue has collapsed at restaurants, hotels, movie theaters, gyms and airlines. Auto sales are plummeting, and car makers have closed factories. Most such employers face loan payments and other fixed costs, so they’re cutting jobs to save money.

Coping with virus through humor (AP) Neil Diamond posts a fireside rendition of “Sweet Caroline” with its familiar lyrics tweaked to say, “Hands ... washing hands.” A news anchor asks when social distancing will end because “my husband keeps trying to get into the house.” And a sign outside a neighborhood church reads: “Had not planned on giving up quite this much for Lent.” Laughter can be the best medicine, and in a crisis, it can be a powerful coping mechanism.

Funerals Are Another Thing That Now Must Wait (NYT) The rituals of honoring and saying goodbye to the dead run deep. Reaching out to touch in sympathy and condolence feels instinctive. But the coronavirus, in its confounding and confining effects--stay-at-home orders, bans on large gatherings and fears of travel and exposure--is blowing those traditions apart, no matter the cause of death. Postponement and uncertainty, and for many families a painful triage of who can physically attend a service and who cannot, are becoming part of the language of obituaries and family discussions even as people grieve.

U.S. indicts Venezuela’s Maduro on narcoterrorism charges, offers $15 million reward for his capture (Washington Post) The Trump administration unsealed sweeping indictments against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and members of his inner circle on narcoterrorism charges on Thursday, a dramatic escalation in the U.S. campaign to force the authoritarian socialist from power that effectively turns the embattled leader into an internationally wanted man. The administration offered a $15 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s capture or conviction, an extraordinary bounty for a man still recognized by the Russians, Chinese and others as Venezuela’s rightful leader.

Europe’s Leaders Ditch Austerity and Fight Pandemic With Cash (NYT) A British prime minister from the party of Margaret Thatcher has effectively nationalized the national railway system, while forsaking budget austerity in favor of aggressive public spending. Germany has set aside its traditional detestation for debt to unleash emergency spending, while enabling the rest of the European Union to breach limits on deficits. The coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe with lethal and wealth-destroying consequences has proved so jarring to the powers-that-be on the European side of the Atlantic that they have discarded deep-set taboos to forge atypically swift and pragmatic responses. “This pandemic is really like a war,” said Maria Demertzis, an economist and deputy director of Bruegel, a research institution in Brussels. “In a war, you do what you have to do.”

Coronavirus leaves Paris street in 1940s time warp (Reuters) A Parisian neighbourhood has been left stuck in a World War Two time-warp after the makers of a 1940s-era film had to abandon their set before France went into a lockdown. War propaganda and Socialist posters are plastered on walls along the cobbled Rue Androuet, in the Montmartre district, now lined by a mock jeweller’s store, tailor and off-licence in war-time decor. German road signs point towards medical facilities. “Just in case quarantined Paris wasn’t disorienting enough: my neighbourhood was being used as a film set when the lockdown hit. Now the whole block has been frozen in 1941,” resident Tim McInerney wrote on Twitter.

France pulls out of Iraq (Foreign Policy) The coronavirus is causing knock-on effects for Western counterterrorism efforts. On Wednesday, the chief of staff of the France’s armed forces in Iraq announced that it was suspending its anti-terrorism operations in the country and would withdraw its troops to combat the coronavirus at home. France will maintain its presence in Kuwait and Qatar, as well as air operations in Syria. The decision comes as French President Emmanuel Macron initiated a special military operation in France to assist in the response to the pandemic.

Crisis in Spanish health care (Bloomberg News) In the emergency room at one of Madrid’s biggest hospitals, Daniel Bernabeu signed the death certificate for one patient and immediately turned to help another who was choking. People are dying in waiting rooms before they can even be admitted as the coronavirus pandemic overpowers medical staff. With some funeral services halted in the Spanish capital and no space left in the morgues, corpses are being stored at the main ice rink. Intensive-care wards overflowing and new rules dictate that older patients miss out to younger people with a better shot at surviving, Bernabeu said by telephone. “That grandpa, in any other situation, would have had a chance,” he said. “But there’s so many of them, all dying at the same time.” (Foreign Policy) Spain has recorded just under 50,000 cases, 27,000 of which are undergoing hospital care. Spain has recorded 3,647 deaths from COVID-19.

China orders sharp cuts in flights in, out of country to curb coronavirus risk (Reuters) China has ordered airlines to sharply cut the number of flights in and out of the country out of concern that travelers from overseas could reignite the coronavirus outbreak that paralyzed the country for two months.

Boko Haram attacks in Chad (Foreign Policy) Nearly 100 Chadian soldiers were killed yesterday in an ambush staged by Boko Haram militants in the village of Boma in the country’s west. “I have taken part in many operations … but never in our history have we lost so many men at one time,” President Idriss Deby said on a visit to the attack site. It’s the second Islamist attack in the region this week after militants killed 70 Nigerian soldiers on Tuesday.

South Africa on the eve of lockdown (AP) South Africa on the eve of a three-week lockdown announced its coronavirus cases are nearing 1,000, while the president urged police to have compassion as they ensure that most of the country’s 57 million people stay at home. “Our people are terrified right now and we should not do anything to make their situation worse,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said. “Psychologically they are already scared that they could get the virus, lose income, lose jobs, get sick without medication.”

#headlines #news

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awake-not-today · 5 years ago

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NamKook The Gifted Hands / Psychometry AU:

Detective Kim Namjoon is investigating the case of a child disappearance. When the child's body is found, Namjoon finds himself trailing a murderer.

During his investigation he remembers a run in he'd had with a graffiti artist one night, and the artwork he'd done depicting the scene in which the child's body was found.

The graffiti which had been painted a month before the discovery of the child's body.

Jeon Jungkook is a small time graffiti artist with a secret, the power to see the memories of any living thing he touches. He hides himself away from the world, ashamed of who he is, that is until he's thrown head first into a murder investigation and becomes the prime suspect.

Part 10 of ?

Chapter masterlist

Fic begins under the cut

Tag list: @yoongi-bearr @triheartedhero @doriadoo @rosybabytae @spookidema

“Joon-ah, please let me come with you.”

The bile rose in Namjoon's throat, burning as he stumbled through the streets. He slapped a hand over his mouth, tripping over himself as he tried to make it home. He threw up in an alleyway near his apartment, his heavy sobs causing his body to lurch and making him retch. Unsteadily he walked back as soon as his heaving turned dry and sank down to his knees, trying to calm himself down.

The voice, the cries of Geun that day, echoed in his mind over and over. Haunting him like the ghosts of his past he'd tried to run from. He couldn’t regain control, no matter how hard he tried. His chest ached and his nails dug crescents into his palms as he clenched his fists to steady his breathing. It was useless, of course. The door in his mind that he’d kept locked for so long being opened again.

Eventually he gathered himself and got to his feet, using the wall to brace his hand against as he made his way home. He wanted to be alone, wanted to sleep. Wanted to forget. God, how he wished he could forget. Finally he reached his apartment, clumsily fumbling with his keys to get the door open. The second the lock clicked he collapsed to his knees again, crawling inside to curl up on the floor. He felt weak. Exhausted. Completely drained.

“Namjoon, hyung?” Namjoon registered Taehyung’s voice, but didn’t move to acknowledge him, instead curling further in on himself. Warm hands cupped his face, thumbs swiping his cheeks gently. “Shit. Seokjin hyung! Hoseok!”

“What’s going on?” Seokjin called out as his footsteps approached, quickening at the sight of Namjoon on the floor. Suddenly he was there, pulling Namjoon up and into his arms to stroke soothing fingers through his hair as Namjoon shook against him pathetically. “Joonie? What happened?”

“I left him there, hyung.” Namjoon managed on a sob, clinging to Seokjin like a lifeline. “I left him. It was all my fault.”

“Who? Namjoon, I don’t understand?” Namjoon just cried harder, burying his face in Seokjin's shoulder. His sobs were violent, his whole body moving with the force of each one. Hoseok crouched, placing soft hands on Namjoon’s back.

“Hyung, let’s get him inside properly and calm him down.”

“I left him, hyungie.” Namjoon's hands scrabbled on the front of Seokjin's shirt as he was pulled up to his feet, being guided unsteadily to the front room.

It took a long while to calm Namjoon down, Seokjin rocking him gently until his sobs became hiccups and he slowly cried himself to slumber. Seokjin sighed, running a shaking hand through his hair as he turned to Hoseok and Taehyung across from him, keeping a reassuring hand combing through Namjoon's sweat damp hair.

“Can someone tell me what the fuck that was about?” Seokjin hissed, glancing between the two men. Taehyung shrugged, an utterly bewildered look on his face. Hoseok however got to his feet, moving over to the kitchen area so pour himself a Soju, downing it. The two other men watched him curiously, Hoseok sighed.

“I think I know.” He shook his head and closed his eyes for a brief moment, before grabbing the bottle and a couple more glasses and carrying them back to the living room. “But it isn’t my place to say. He told me something one night when we were wasted and I never brought it up again. I don’t think he remembers.”

“Tell me, Seokie. Right now.”

“I can’t.” Hoseok shook his head, making Seokjin huff. He gazed at Namjoon, the man who'd taken a chance on him and had turned his life around, with sad eyes. “Ask him when he wakes up. You'll understand why it’s not my place.”

One night a little after Hoseok had moved in, Namjoon and Hoseok had gotten wine drunk and had gotten to know each other a little more. Namjoon had asked Hoseok about his life and how he'd ended up on the path he was on, and in return Namjoon had spilled his guts, and his tears, talking about what led him to become a detective. They hadn’t talked about it again, and Hoseok wouldn’t pry. He had already witnessed how devastating it was for Namjoon to talk about.

Seokjin seemed to accept that Hoseok was respecting Namjoon’s boundaries, turning his body to run his fingers through Namjoon's hair again. He’d wait all night if he had to.

Blinking awake, Namjoon groaned. His mouth felt dry and tasted disgusting, the distinct taste of bile on his tongue. A soft hand clung to his own and he forced himself to sit up, ignoring the pounding in his head, to find Seokjin watching him carefully.

“Hyung?”

“How are you feeling, Joonie?” Seokjin's voice was gentle, as if Namjoon was fragile and he'd break at any second. He furrowed his brow, turning to see Hoseok and Taehyung watching him too.

“Like I got hit by a semi.”

“You scared me, Namjoon hyung.”

Everything suddenly came rushing back to Namjoon then, and he tore his hand from Seokjin's, gripping his stomach as he covered his mouth. He fought the urge to cry again, shaking his head and curling his legs under himself. Hoseok stood, crossing the small space between them to sit beside Namjoon and grip his knee.

“Joon-ah.” He sighed, making Namjoon turn his head to face him. “You need to tell them.”

“Tell them?” Namjoon glanced between Hoseok and Seokjin, shifting in his seat a little.

“About Geun.”

Just hearing the name was like a bullet point blank to Namjoon's brain, unleashing an outpouring of memories and pain he had worked so hard to bury over the years. He leaned back, his head resting against the back of the sofa as he remembered confessing to Hoseok when he was drunk and emotional.

“Do you remember when you told me about him?”

“Geun?” Seokjin raised an eyebrow, turning his body to fully face them. “Who’s Geun?”

“My brother.”

That day was the worst of Namjoon's life, changing his future forever. His entire world caved in around him and all he could do was watch, blaming himself for the domino effect causing his life to crumble to the ground.

Eight years old. That’s how old Namjoon was. Eight years old. His brother, Geun, was six. Namjoon had reached the age of trying to be one of the cooler kids in the neighbourhood, finding it difficult to achieve with his little brother clinging to him every second of the day.

It was a sort of hero worship, the way Geun would want to be apart of everything Namjoon did. He wanted to be just like Namjoon. To play the same games, have the same friends, following Namjoon around like a little loyal puppy dog. Namjoon wished he could go back, wished he could hold his brother's hand forever and take him wherever he went always. He wished he could change everything.

Some local boys had invited Namjoon to play basketball, and Namjoon had agreed happily, running down the road after them after telling his parents where he was going. He'd only made it about nine feet away from his home when he felt a tiny hand gripping his wrist, and Namjoon had snatched his arm away to face his brother.

“Go home, Geun.”

“Joon-ah, let me come!”

“No. Go home.”

“Joon-ah, please.” Geun had begun to cry, bottom lip wobbling miserably as he pleaded. “Joon-ah, please let me come.”

“Leave me alone.” Namjoon had snapped with his voice raised, turning on his heel and running after the boys again, leaving Geun to sob alone on the street.

Nine feet. Still visible from the front door of their home, and yet somewhere between where he left Geun standing and their front door, his baby brother disappeared into thin air.

Search parties gathered and hunted day and night, combing the streets and surrounding areas for any sign of the little boy. The town was in chaos, everybody gossiping and hunting for the small boy. Namjoon's parents had assured Namjoon that he wasn’t at fault, that he couldn’t be blamed for what had happened, but the sinking feeling in Namjoon's gut had told him they were wrong. It was all his fault. He was the one who had walked away and left the child alone.

Three days later, Geun was discovered.

Namjoon had heard it on a police radio in his kitchen, the officer there to inform his parents that there had been no progress in the case. Namjoon had taken off running, tiny feet pounding the pavement as he headed to the location that the radio had said. Nothing in the world could have prepared him for what he would see when he got there.

He can’t remember much about what happened that day, just the feeling of a detectives arms wrapping around his tiny body to hold him back as he tried to run to his baby brother. Geun lay face down, arms and legs bound together behind his back, angry purple and blue bruises around his neck as he lay face down in a pool of water. His skin was a sickening blue grey, blotched and cold. Namjoon was young but he knew that Geun was gone.

Namjoon remembered screaming, and then nothing at all. He had passed out in the arms of the detective. His next memory being when he awoke in his bed to his elderly neighbour pressing a cool cloth to his face as he listened to his mother's devastated wails. A little over two weeks later he was watching Geun's coffin being lowered into the ground.

Things were never the same after that. His father kept his distance from Namjoon, only speaking to him to reassure him when Namjoon broke down again. He didn’t touch him, though. He couldn’t, Namjoon supposed. It only served to convince a young Namjoon that the blame was in fact his own. A year later Namjoon was shipped off to live with his grandparents, only seeing his mother and father on holidays. He hadn’t seen them in over five years.

“Joonie.” Seokjin's voice quivered, his fingers coming up to wipe away the tears he'd cried as Namjoon told them of his secret. “Why didn't you ever tell me? I could have helped.”

“I didn’t want to hear from you what everyone else had already told me.” Namjoon sighed, leaning heavily on his hyung. “Everyone told me I became a detective for the wrong reasons. I couldn’t bear to hear that from you.”

“Why did you become a detective?” Taehyung piped up quietly from where he'd curled himself small into the armchair, clutching a throw pillow to his chest.

“I wanted to save people from the same fate that Geun suffered.” Namjoon laughed bitterly then, shaking his head. “I’ve done a pretty terrible fucking job of that so far. But I promised him, the day we buried him, I swore I would find his killer and stop it from happening to anyone else. A naive dream, I know.”

“Not naive. Understandable. Justified.” Seokjin smiled, leaning in to rest his chin on Namjoon's shoulder. “Any of us would have done the same. So what triggered the, umm, the attack you had earlier.”

Looking down at his hands, Namjoon wracked his brain for an excuse. He couldn’t exactly tell Seokjin the truth, he'd be admitting to working on the case. He looked to Hoseok, finding a knowing look in his eyes, and smiled weakly. Namjoon sighed, turning back to Seokjin.

“I guess this case just has a lot of similarities to Geun's and it just got to be too much to think about.” Seokjin accepted the answer with a nod, squeezing Namjoon's arm gently. He looked at his watch, before meeting Namjoon's eyes again.

“We should go.” He looked to Hoseok, “you make sure he rests.”

“Sir, yes sir!” Seokjin rolled his eyes, getting to his feet and heading for the door. Taehyung followed, Namjoon getting up to see them out.

“I'll call-“ Seokjin’s phone rang, stopping him mid sentence as he fished it from his pocket. He gave Namjoon an apologetic smile as he swiped his thumb across the screen and held it to his ear.

“Chief Seokjin.” Seokjin's face dropped as he listened to the caller, his hand reaching for the door handle to open it quickly. “Is there any evidence? Witnesses? I’m on my way.”

“What's going on, hyung?” Namjoon grabbed his wrist before Seokjin could leave, holding him in place. Seokjin looked conflicted for a moment and then sighed heavily.

“There's been another kidnapping.”

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thechroniclesofdaraliss · 5 years ago

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100 Mutants & Masterminds Session Ideas (Part III)

It has been some time since I made one of these lists. But when you fight crime with your best friends every few weeks from the comfort of your DM chair, you have some stories you want to share. That’s right, another 100 ideas for all your superhero adventures! Whether you defend a small neighborhood or the entire planet, there should be something here for everyone. If you like what I do, please like, comment, or reblog. So let’s grab our utility belts and bend our morals like iron bars, and take to the skies for another day of heroism!

A mercenary from the last war has developed psychic powers, and is targeting the rich. Forcing them to see the war through his eyes, to endure what he did behind enemy lines.

An underground community is revealed that has people forced into acting out the master’s wishes.

An anonymous Hero is stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.

The world’s smartest computer strays from winning chess matches and desires to conquer humanity.

A miraculous medical treatment has the whole world excited. Strange insects can apparently heal any wound or cure any illness. But the origin of these bugs is horrifying. They are mingled with vampiric blood, and perform these procedures to cure patients and eat them once they’re made whole. They cure meat, not disease.

A mysterious figure (robot, knight, etc) waits at the same location for a worthy opponent to defeat him. No matter who approaches, they remain undefeated.

The villain has infused the next rainfall/snowfall/hailstorm with a deadly substance (acid, micro-explosives, a carnivorous liquid species). They will hold the city to ransom, or let loose with the deadly drops.

A skilled hypnotist is bending people to their will. They don’t appear to have designs of conquering the world or even the city, but they are still ruining lives.

A fiendish union has formed in the criminal underworld. Four of the most powerful syndicates have joined forces for their biggest operation ever (super-heist, massacring heroes, expanding influence to another major city, etc).

The most powerful figures in the city are committing acts that open them up to scandal and criminal punishment. Acts they wouldn’t perform in a million years. They seem to have no will of their own, like puppets. You must find out who’s pulling the strings.

The sewers of the city are overrun with monstrous creatures at the call of a villain (hidden foe who’s resurfaced, new alien presence, mad science gone wrong).

A young con artist is being hunted by the mob and the FBI. He plans to ruin both his pursuers in one big sting before skipping town. You have been tasked with taking him down.

You discover that a young individual is absorbing demons to fuel their power. But they aren’t trying to cause harm. They’re doing this to arm themselves for an onslaught against an archdemon. To fight fire with fire.

Royalty from the Far East has arrived to demolish agents of an organization dedicated to tearing their family and throne apart. They have requested that you and your team assist in defeating them.

A rogue religious leader is performing miracles of biblical proportions. You must get to the bottom of this before he garners too strong a following. His human flock could become an army and his meta-human acolytes could become powerful villains.

The Police department’s golden boy/girl has been shot in cold blood. While they are recovering in the hospital, their would-be murderer is still on the loose. You need to track them down before they try to kill them again.

Someone is using Transmutation to turn all of the scrap metal into military-grade weapons.

A monster is running across the city, absorbing people’s bodies almost instantly by touch. Is he a dog on someone’s leash, acting on his own, or part of a larger operation?

Energy-absorbing entities are fighting to reach earth’s surface so they can harness the power of the planet’s core. Earth will shatter and die, but they will continue their conquest among the starts. That is, unless you stop them.

A scientist is attempting to perfect the technology to steal superpowers. But when his latest attempt goes sour, he is an amalgamation of all his subjects. A screaming mass of bodies, personalities, and super-capabilities.

A demented and extravagantly wealthy cyborg has designs on taking political office. While the press and voters adore him, there’s evidence suggesting he’s in league with the underworld.

A collection of stone tablets have been discovered at different sites across the globe. But when they are unveiled at a museum opening, they summon giants made up of the four elements, all in order to summon “the Fifth Element.”

Men are turning up in hospitals wounded and completely unaware of who they are. It turns out that a psychic has been taking to the streets. One with the ability make people forget who they are the more they make you look into their eyes.

When a team of arcane champions dies, the ancient order they represent go for the next best candidate, your team. They need you to defeat an Elder Evil.

A villain has been released from prison. Their crime was forgiven too easily, and they seem to be immune to the law when they get out.

A convention for heroes is being held in your city. All of the heroes gather for panels, signings, and interaction with fans. It’s the perfect place to recount your adventures, or for your enemies to set a trap.

After a public execution, a practitioner of black magic has risen from the grave. You must discover the truth behind how it was done, as their return is the beginning of a “grand design.”

A meta-human child has emerged with incredible powers. But they don’t want anything other than to find their mother, who has gone missing.

A legendary hero has issued you a challenge. If you complete all of his trials, he will share the secret to expanding meta-human abilities.

In wake of the solstice, a supernatural force demands an audience with you and your team. The twist? The villains have intercepted this message and want to destroy the contact point before you get there.

A band of young rebels aid your team in the fight against crime. But their methods entail terrorism, wanton destruction, and interrogation of civilians.

As you engage in superpower practice, you discover that anomalies are forming in your DNA. Is it the next stage in your development as a hero, or could this spell disaster for you and your team?

You discover that the world will be destroyed in a few years time (alien invasion, super-virus, magic-induced apocalypse) unless you destroy the pillars of the plan. While some prove to be simple, others demand you to do the unthinkable.

A movie star comes to the city, and their arrival coincides with the theft of government property. Is the star responsible, or is there more to the story?

An Android has become obsessed with creating “the master race” of humanoid automatons. They will stop at nothing until the human race has been corrected to fit his picture of perfection.

You discover an artifact that forced you to delve inside yourself and confront your psyche, both the good and the bad.

Your team has been forced into different bodies. You must find a way to get them back before the villain uses them for his own ends, and cuts you off from getting them back forever.

You investigate the theft of cargo on vehicles coming into your city. You soon discover that a race of animalistic humanoids (shark-folk attacking ships, mole-folk attacking trucks, etc) are stealing weapons that will be used to slaughter their people.

A young and inexperienced meta-human hopes to join your team. Is this a trick, or an earnest attempt to right wrongs in your city?

A vain perfectionist of a meta-human has kidnapped your entire team and forced them to run a deadly obstacle course.

A malicious presence haunts your home base and starts taking your team away one by one.

You and your teammates decide to crash a gathering of villains, only to find that they are trying to start over. All they want is to lead normal lives.

A killer is running rampant in the city, and he’s donning a Battlesuit to ensure he can fight off heroes. But how does a serial killer get access to such technology?

A contract killer has been murdering heroes so he can cover them in the press. It’s a scam worthy of the underworld’s foremost assassin.

A series of artifacts must be gathered, or a sorcerer will leave your loved ones in a permanent state of petrification. The catch? They plan on killing them anyway and unleashing a demonic entity onto your world.

One of the most powerful individuals in the city is funding both heroes and villains. They plan to start an all-out war and to get rich from the ensuing chaos.

You battle a Necromancer in the local cemetery. However, you discover that the graveyard is the ritual circle for the most elaborate mass-summoning in history.

A series of giant robots have threatened to destroy the city if the heroes don’t willingly surrender themselves. When captured, the villains reveal their plan to use your team as batteries for their most ruthless collection of weapons ever: The Dominators.

The heroes uncover a conspiracy that is nearly a century old, and the agents are finalizing the plot to demolish the country (cold-war tensions, remnant Nazi Regime, etc)

A twisted sorcerer intends to revive his deceased patsies and take over the world with their help.

Someone is kidnapping women and sending them off to an unknown location.

The most powerful and famous heroes from across the world gather in your city. Soon after, you receive word that someone has intercepted the location and intends to kill them all.

A host of powerful villains declare war on the heroes, using their mobile fortress and demand the heroes surrender. You and your team fight back with everything you have from your headquarters to each other.

A villain has set out to poison the city’s water supply.

A call for help has come from the local jail/asylum. But when you arrive, it turns out that the villains want to test your morals and put you on trial for your deeds as a hero.

A small group of aliens crash-land on earth, hoping to find one of their missing brothers/sisters. But when they find them, the individual wants to stay on earth, the result is a fight that could endanger the whole city.

Artifacts with diverse and terrifying sets of capabilities have fallen in and around your city. A villain hopes to gather them all, and use them to become invincible.

People are going missing across the city, and resurfacing the next day, completely drained of energy and reduced to shriveled husks. Find the killer before they strike again.

The Triad has entered your city and is muscling in on every criminal operation.

A mischievous meta-human has set out to use their abilities for their own ends. While they start out a hero, they discover that consequences don’t meet them, and they elect to use their abilities for more selfish reasons. If left unchecked, this potential ally could become a formidable enemy.

A new technology has been developed that has the capability of stealing data from a computer and/or demolishing it.

Miniature menaces (robots, aliens, goblins, etc) are attacking all over the city. In order to stop them at their source, you need to keep fighting and capturing them. Once you clear the area, the villain will reveal themselves and there will be an all-out battle.

A shroud of darkness falls over the city, and you have been touched by a malevolent presence within it. Since you are tougher than the average human, you’ve gotten hit with influence of this being, with only some of the drawbacks. Use this new power to fight back!

You tamper with the timeline, and suddenly your city is prehistoric, Bronze Age, colonial, modern, and futuristic, all in one!

All of the natural aspects of your city (trees, water, animals) are dying. The source appears to be a center of rot in one of the last vestiges of natural life in your city. Delve into it, and discover an entire lair, home to a Lord of Rot.

A massive crevice has formed below your city, and upon further investigation, it’s a hub of hostile reptilian creatures. You must fight them back, or the city’s will be overrun with an ancient, and overwhelming species.

Oceanic creatures take to the shore of your city and demand that you give up the surface world to the “superior regime.”

A Necromancer poses a challenge, saying he will meet you at the point between life and death. You follow his clues, and arrive at a mausoleum, only to find that you must fight a house of the dead to capture this man.

A tower shoots out in the center of the city, and it appears to be from another time (far past or far future). Approaching it from any angle makes it fire a horrible death-ray. You approach it, and suffer damages, but lose your powers. You must find a way to get them back and to stop the death ray from holding the entire city hostage.

The local police are planning a raid on the local crime boss’ lair.

A villain has approached a member of your ranks with the intent to turn them to the side of evil.

A psychic investigator falls comatose at the scene of a crime, and you swear you can hear their voice asking you to perform tasks to get them back in their body.

A trickster is zooming across the city, causing mayhem wherever he goes. The heroes intervening only convinces him to stick around.

Dark versions of your team emerge and commit the crimes. But when you try to defeat them, they know your every move before you even do it.

You have been chosen to represent earth in a series of intergalactic games that will test your intelligence, athleticism, and combat capabilities. The losers all have their planets destroyed.

A series of crystals are discovered within your city. When touched, they transport you to a dark version of your own world.

A sorcerer has inherited their master’s spellbook. But when they use it, they accidentally unleash powers they are helpless to control.

Someone is combining alien technology with human devices.

An army of aliens is bound for earth with the sole purpose of enslaving every human.

An anonymous terrorist is keeping the entire city on edge, forcing the everyman to perform services for him in exchange for keeping their darkest secrets.

Heroes have become split on the issue of siding with the government, or remaining independent.

You and your team have been outfitted with the battlesuits that will enhance your powers to fight an immense evil force. While they work at first, the drawbacks are crippling.

You and your arch nemesis are forced to work together in order to survive an onslaught against someone who is trying to kill you both.

A new hero emerges, stopping crime as soon as it appears. But it’s revealed that these supposed criminals are staging the crimes because the new hero is paying them to do it. They are actually playing their boss for a fool, and are using this leeway to actually pull off the crime and pin everything on him. He wanted glory, and will instead get jail time unless you intervene.

One of the most powerful crime families has had a coup. Anyone who was part of the uprising will be killed, along with anyone that can be affiliated. The last few survivors come to you for help escaping.

A contest has been announced where all of the most powerful meta-humans will be asked to fight, race, and compete to get the title of “Ultimate Hero.” But those who lose go missing.

A tribe of small creatures have been expelled from their home, and they ask for your help getting it back.

A gargantuan mutant has been terrorizing a small community, and they are helpless to stop him, as he has hostages. You must defeat this creature and rescue the captives.

You and your team elect to take a vacation, but trouble follows you more than ever. Little do you know that all the crimes and accidents are the attempts of a reporter trying uncover proof of your secret identity.

You investigate a set of “mystery spots,” only to find that they are connected by a strange alien presence that bends the laws of physics.

The heist of the century has begun as the villain(s) plan to kidnap all world leaders at a secret meeting.

Children are going missing, and you soon discover the Faye are involved.

A gang war threatens to tear the city apart. All of the most powerful members have meta-human capabilities.

You have been captured by a tribal meta-human society that refuses to acknowledge humanity. However, if you beat them in their challenges, they will determine you as worthy and let you go.

You discover an island in the sky, and must override its weapon system from becoming a threat to the entire world

A mysterious entity is defeating heroes across the globe and freezing them before teleporting away. The assumption is they are gathering these fallen heroes as trophies, but villains soon go missing too.

A mage has been using her influence to summon her most powerful rivals to her, and is stealing their powers. One of them comes to see your team, and says in time, she will try to do the same to you.

Your archrival challenges you to a duel to see who is the best, once and for all. Whoever wins gets to unmask the other. The loser will go into witness protection.

The resurrection of a villain goes horribly wrong, and it’s discovered living humans are required to restore them to their former glory.

You discover a portal that leads to alternate dimensions/parallel earths.

#the chronicles of daraliss #Mutants and Masterminds #rpg #session ideas #campaign ideas #rpg world #story inspiration #tabletop rpgs

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thedcdunce · 5 years ago

Text

Commissioner Gordon

“The people need to believe someone's out there who still answers that call. Or else the city falls and never gets up again.” - Commissioner Gordon

Real Name: James Worthington "Jim" Gordon

Aliases:

Batman

Bat-Cop

Gender: Male

Height: 5′ 9″

Weight: 168 lbs (76 kg)

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Red

Abilities:

Criminology

Martial Arts

Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced)

Interrogation

Intimidation

Investigation

Leadership

Marksmanship

Military Protocol

Equipment:

Batsuit

Rookie

Universe: Prime Earth

Base of Operations: Gotham City

Citizenship: American

Marital Status: Divorced (Barbara Eileen Gordon; wife)

Occupation:

Detective

Police Commissioner

First Appearance: Batgirl Vol 4 #1 (November, 2011)

Abilities

Criminology

Martial Arts

Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced)

Interrogation

Intimidation

Investigation

Leadership

Marksmanship

Military Protocol: Gordon is a former Marine, and has received standard training.

Equipment

Batsuit: During his period as Batman, Gordon used a black and yellow version of Batman's suit.

Invisibility: Gordon's batsuit possessed digital camouflage capable of making him invisible.

Rookie: During his period as Batman, Gordon was given a powered suit that he called Rookie, this suit was capable of superhuman feats and following simple orders in order to fight beside Gordon.

Superhuman Strength

Superhuman Durability

Flight

Weaponry: Rookie possessed rocket launchers on his shoulders.

Enhanced Vision: Rookie possessed X-Ray vision.

History

Jim Gordon is the commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department and an ally to Batman. He is the father of Barbara Gordon and James Gordon Jr.

Before Batman

Chicago-born James Gordon was a former marine and officer in the Chicago Police Department. After his wife divorced him, Jim left his hometown with his daughter and headed east to Gotham City, where he hoped crime would be more manageable.

Three weeks after transferring, Gordon and his partner Dan Corrigan were sent to pick up a young boy named Bruce Wayne, who had skipped school to watch a movie. With Bruce in the police car, Jim received a free trench coat from a local shopkeeper, not realizing it had been a bribe. Figuring out his mistake later that night, Jim returned to the shop to find a group of corrupt police officers and petty criminals betting on dog fights, with Corrigan, his partner, leading the bets. Gordon threatened to turn all of them in but was forced to back down when Corrigan, in response, threatened Jim's daughter. After leaving the shop defeated, James heard two gunshots down a nearby alley and was the first officer to arrive at the crime scene where Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered.

Zero Year

When the mysterious vigilante known as the "Batman" started to appear in Gotham, Gordon, now a lieutenant, reacquainted himself with Wayne, only to discover that the man held a grudge against him, believing Gordon was as corrupt as everyone else on the police force.

Later, Lieutenant Gordon, investigating the crimes of the Red Hood Gang, was tipped off to the gang's plans by Wayne, rushing into apprehend the criminals at Ace Chemical Processing Plant. Discovering Batman there, Gordon attempted to put the vigilante under arrest, but Batman escaped. Gordon, sympathetic to Batman's cause, ordered his men to apprehend the real criminals - the Red Hood Gang - instead.

With the Red Hood Gang stopped, the Riddler finally stepped into the spotlight and enacted his plan for "the Zero Year". Challenging Batman and forcing Gotham into a blackout only hours before a major hurricane, Gordon attempted to organize the police force, despite opposition from its corrupt commissioner Gillian Loeb. With Loeb seemingly killed as Riddler's plan continually escalated, Gordon took an even more managerial position as he worked directly alongside Batman to take Gotham back from the Riddler's control.

After Nygma was finally defeated by the two heroes' teamwork, Gordon was promoted to police commissioner in Loeb's absence, his goals including rooting out corruption and working closer with Gotham's protector. Soon after his promotion, Gordon had the Bat-Signal installed on the roof of GCPD Headquarters.

Later Adventures with Batman

Years after, Jim worked with Batman to investigate the mystery of the Joker having his face cut off. Gordon was then captured by the villain Dollmaker as revenge for him killing his father many years ago. He was rescued by Batman before Dollmaker had a chance to kill him.

After Batman dove into an investigation into the mysterious Court of Owls, the organization unleashed their assassin Talon army on Gotham to purge the city of those deemed unworthy; Gordon and the police department were pushed to their limits to save as many civilians as they could. The commissioner, having ignored the Court's threats to hold back the police, was targeted by a Talon but was thankfully saved by Batgirl. In time, the Court was defeated, and the city was reclaimed by the Bats.

A year having passed since the disappearance of the Joker, Gordon was attacked by the clown in GCPD Headquarters when the Joker came to retrieve his severed face skin from police lock-up. Gordon was later hospitalized after it became apparent the Joker had poisoned his possessions with Joker gas. Gordon eventually recovered but was deeply scarred by the villain.

When the Crime Syndicate apparently killed the Justice League and condoned all criminals to walk free, Gordon found himself caught in the middle of a war between villains in Gotham City. Later called "the Arkham War", Gordon was forced to survive on the streets as a refugee when the freaks of Arkham and Blackgate fought each other for control of the city. Though he attempted to be a hero when he could, Gordon was no match for the warfare until Batman finally returned and took back the city from the villains.

Batman Eternal

After a mysterious benefactor began a yearlong plan against Batman, Gordon became one of the first pawn's in the grand scheme. Commissioner Gordon, after chasing Professor Pyg and his cronies into a Gotham subway station, ordered one of the thugs to lower his gun, despite the criminal claiming not to have one. Taking the shot at the criminal's weapon, the bullet phased right through the weapon and hit a vital transformer behind it, causing two train cars to collide and kill a group of civilians inside. Upon reviewing the security tapes, it was revealed there really was no gun, and Gordon was arrested and sent to Blackgate Penitentiary for the innocent deaths he had accidentally caused.

While in Blackgate, Gordon was reunited with his estranged son who volunteered to help his father breakout, but Jim refused his offer. Soon after, mob boss rivals Carmine Falcone and the Penguin were captured and also sent to Blackgate and continued their gang war in the prison, causing a major riot. In the chaos, Gordon worked to save as many prison guards as he could and learned that his cellmate Leo was actually the former crime boss Rex "the Lion" Calabrese.

With the investigation into the plot against Batman intensifying, Batman and his allies found evidence to suggest that Gordon had been framed for the deaths and that he was brainwashed into thinking there was really a gun. The new commissioner Jason Bard, secretly a pawn in the real villain's plot, destroyed the evidence that would clear Gordon.

Near the conclusion of his year in imprisonment, Gordon found himself caught in another riot orchestrated by the Penguin, but, this time, the criminal made Gordon the prime target. Saved only by Det. Harvey Bullock and Jason Bard, who had a change of heart, the three escaped into the streets of Gotham as the city went up in flames - the yearlong plot had reached its climax, and Gordon organized all the civilians he could in support of Batman as the hero faced the mastermind behind everything.

Endgame

With the city back to normal, Jim Gordon was restored to his rightful place as police commissioner but was immediately surprised by the initiation of the Joker's endgame. The Joker, having returned to Gotham intending to finally kill Batman, surprised Gordon in his apartment, but the commissioner managed to shoot him several times before he could get too close. Though he thought he had finally killed the Joker, Dionesium in the clown's bloodstream caused him to survive and plunge an ax into Gordon's chest, simultaneously infecting him with Joker Venom. Jokerized Gordon attempted to kill Batman but was subdued by Julia Pennyworth long enough for them to escape.

In their final confrontation, Batman and the Joker killed each in the caves beneath Gotham and the remaining Bat family managed to spread the cure to Joker's toxin throughout Gotham, healing Gordon.

Superheavy

In the wake of Batman's apparent death against the Joker, plans for a new Batman were discussed, with Powers International laying the groundwork for a Batman-inspired task force. Their first candidate chosen to model the program was Jim Gordon, who was initially hesitant to fill Batman's shoes but eventually agreed. Going through intense government training and getting surgical muscle implants, Gordon was given the first model of the new Batman robot-armor, which he nicknamed "Rookie", and took to the streets as the new Batman. By complete chance, he finds Bruce Wayne and informs him he has taken up the reigns as Batman.

Fun Facts

Jim is right-handed.

#commissioner gordon #james worthington jim gordon #james worthington gordon #james gordon #jim gordon #jim worthington gordon #gotham city police department #united states marine corps #dc #DC comics #thedcdunce

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thecomicsnexus · 6 years ago

Photo

WORLD’S FINEST #285-288 NOVEMBER 1982 - FEBRUARY 1983 BY MARV WOLFMAN, MIKE W. BARR, CARY BURKETT, RICH BUCKLER, SAM DE LA ROSA, TREVOR VON EEDEN, ADRIAN GONZALES, LYNN VARLEY, GENE D’ANGELO, CARL GAFFORD

SYNOPSIS (FROM DC DATABASE)

On their way back home after defeating Amalgamax, Superman takes Batman flying back to Gotham City and the experience gives Batman a new perspective on things. However, as they descend on the city, they spot a man being attacked by a tiger and the heroes immediately help. While Superman takes out the tiger, Batman makes sure the victim is alive. When Superman approaches the animal to know more about it, a dense black cloud transports him into another dimension, leaving Batman alone in the street, where several wild animals appear out of nowhere. Batman is taken to the limit of his physical abilities to defeat the animals, but in the end he collapses from exhaustion.

When Bruce recovers, he finds himself back at Wayne Manor, with Superman watching over him. The Man of Steel explains that he was eventually released from the cloud dimension and when he returned, he found Batman unconscious and the animals gone. Bruce then asks Superman to stay for a moment and talk about his past in Smallville and his stories soothe Batman's mind, always tortured about a lost childhood. When Bruce falls asleep, Superman returns to Metropolis, where he tries to get a few hours of sleep, but he has a horrible nightmare involving Batman's death and the Zodiac Idol, which was stolen from Superman not so long ago.

Superman goes to Gotham to warn Bruce about his dream and he finds that Bruce is currently with Dr. Dundee, discussing the theft of his medical records. Bruce realizes that only someone who knows Batman's secret identity must be interested in such information, but since there is nobody who knows about it on the loose, Bruce ignores the event. Superman finally tells Bruce about his dream and he also informs Batman that the zodiac coins that were given to the Museum are fake. When Bruce examines the coin in his own collection, he also finds that it is fake and the heroes realize that whoever has gotten the real coins, must be planning to use them with the Zodiac Idol.

In the meantime, Dr. Zodiac and his lover, Marissa are waiting for their master's instructions after they have successfully stolen Bruce Wayne's medical records and proven that he is the perfect test subject when he defeated their animals. The crooks know that Batman is Bruce Wayne.

Without nobody else to turn to, Batman and Superman ask Zatanna for assistance and she tries to decipher the mystery of the fake coins, but as soon as she touches them, she becomes possessed and attacks her friends. Batman and Superman fight Zatanna's magic and using a well aimed Batarang, Batman forces Zatanna to drop the enchanted coins. Zatanna is free from the possession, but she faints, muttering something about a terrible being and the heroes realize that their troubles have just begun.

Batman and Superman have taken Zatanna to the Justice League Satellite after the incident with the fake zodiac coins. Wonder Woman tries to heal Zatanna, but the sorceress doesn't seem to recover. Wonder Woman decides to take Zatanna to Paradise Island, where she will use the Purple Healing Ray to cure Zatanna. Batman and Superman return to their cities and Zatanna starts a slow recovery with the healing ray, although the damage caused by the evil dark cloud is still too great.

In the meantime, Dr. Zodiac ponders about his current situation and remembers how he was sprung out of prison by Madame Zodiac. Once outside, she revealed that she needed the Zodiac Idol he had previously used in order to get revenge against Batman and Superman, which is exactly what Dr. Zodiac wanted. Dr. Zodiac retrieved the Zodiac Idol and Madame Zodiac used magic to recover all the zodiac power coins, changing them for fake ones. In the process, Dr. Zodiac had fallen in love with Marissa, but she seemed only determined to use the power of the zodiac idol to fulfill the wishes of the evil dark cloud. Finally, Dr. Zodiac is forced to stop remembering as Madame Zodiac needs him to release the powers of the Zodiac Idol and energize the dark cloud.

At that moment, Bruce Wayne had returned home and after a training session with Dick Grayson, he decides to slow down his efforts against crime, much to everyone's surprise. In the meantime, the dark cloud starts moving again and creates havoc wherever it goes. The cloud's powers seem to unleash people's darkest impulses and turns people against each other using hate as the fuel.

When Clark Kent returns to his apartment, he notices that his neighbor's dog is missing and using his x-ray vision, he finds the puppy at the mercy of a satanic cult and about to be sacrificed. Superman stops the senseless murder and attacks the maniacs. However, he is once again attacked by the dark cloud and is temporarily incapacitated. Moments later in Gotham City, Lucius Fox returns home only to find a large faction of the Ku Klux Klan waiting for him outside his house.

Batman and Robin are out on patrol when they hear the police radio report about the attack on Lucius' home and they go to the place to stop the monsters of hate from killing Lucius. They succeed with small help from Superman, who arrives in time to assist them. With the criminals restrained, Superman explains his experience in Metropolis, which leaves the heroes baffled.

Later, the dark cloud has gained all the powers required from Dr. Zodiac and Madame Zodiac and a new wave of monsters start plaguing the cities of America. Many members of the Justice League have to fight Werewolves and Vampires. In Gotham City, Batman, Robin and Superman have to deal with a horde of Zombies, but after successfully dealing with the monsters, Batman is possessed by the dark cloud.

Superman, Batman and Robin have taken care of the undead situation in Gotham City, but Batman's body has being possessed by the Dark Cloud. His friends are unaware of this and when they are informed about a fire nearby, Superman takes them to the place and he starts working to save the people and put out the fire. However, Batman doesn't move or speak as he is struggling against the dark entity that wants to take full control of his body. When Superman is finished, he joins Batman and the Dark Knight attacks Robin before he starts hitting Superman, damaging his own hands. In his frantic madness, Batman is restrained by Superman and the Dark Cloud is forced to leave Batman's body.

The whole event is witnessed by Madame Zodiac and Dr. Zodiac, but the latter starts having second thoughts about his involvement with the dark entity. Madame Zodiac punishes him for doubting the power of their lord and Dr. Zodiac leaves the room, without a clear path of what to do next.

With Batman unconscious, Robin takes him back home and Superman goes to the Justice League Satellite I, where he is informed about the waves of crimes around the world. He contacts Wonder Woman and asks her about Zatanna, but he learns that she still hasn't recovered. With nobody else who can explain what is happening, Superman returns to Earth.

The next night, Bruce has recovered and is willing to go to his friend, Dan Hunter's party. During the event, Bruce is introduced to Dan's future wife, Andrea Dune. After spending some time with the guests, Bruce goes out looking for some air and he spots a dark presence moving close near the building. Bruce leaves the party and after a quick change, he investigates as Batman in the Gotham Park. From the shadows come a number of Demons, summoned by Madame Zodiad, that attack Batman. At that moment, Superman gets a mental warning about danger and he goes to Gotham City, where he tries to help Batman against the Demons, but the magic used against him makes his efforts futile as he watches the spawns from hell take his friend away.

Moments later, Batman is taken to Madame Zodiac's hideout, where they prepare his body for the possession.

Superman continues searching for Batman after he was snatched away by some Demons. When Superman goes to the Justice League Satellite I, he loses his temper, but when he learns that Zatanna has recovered, he goes to ask her about her experience with the dark magic, but she is barely aware of whatever happened.

In the meantime, Madame Zodiac and her dark master have prepared Batman's body for the possession and the dark cloud takes hold of Batman. The dark entity then claims that he will take over the world using several clones of the Batman's body, which will serve all his purposes.

Meanwhile, Superman is trying to find Batman, when his attention is drawn to a monster prowling Metropolis. Superman follows the beast and when he captures it, he is soon transported to a dark place, where there is a small mausoleum in the middle of nowhere. Superman breaks into the place and confronts the dark being in Batman's body. Using hypnosis, Superman forces Batman to fight the evil inside him by making him recall the past tragedy that shaped him.

With Batman fighting for control of his body, Superman can focus on defeating Madame Zodiac and after she is taken care of, Superman gets help from Dr. Zodiac, who informs Superman about a secret door that will unlock someone who can help them against the dark entity. Superman breaks the door and they find Madame Zodiac inside, trapped and powerless. When they free her, she explains that the dark entity manifested to her while she was practicing occult arts and it used the Zodiac Idol to separate her in two parts. Her evil part allied with the dark entity and they locked her in the room.

Once free, the good Madame Zodiac confronts her evil counterpart and after the struggle, a single person comes out. Madame Zodiac's evil personality takes control and Dr. Zodiac fights her, but Both of them are knocked unconscious by the dark entity, who has been defeated by Batman and has returned to the globe, where it commands all the Batman clones to fight Batman and Superman. The heroes work together to destroy the clones and after dealing with all of them, they use the Zodiac Idol to destroy the dark entity's globe and send it back to its own dimension.

With the threat under control, Batman and Superman return to their normal lives, even though, they have just experienced something hard to understand.

REVIEW

Wolfman is doing some changes in this title, but there is little consistency. The plots are dragging from before, the writers are changing too often (in the middle of the story), and the issue drawn by Trevor Von Eeden looks too different and way more dark than the others (it should have been the tone of the whole story).

It does feel, however, that these stories at least matter and that World’s Finest isn’t just an anthology team-up title. Not enough, though.

I give this story a score of 6

#frank miller #ed hannigan #dick giordano #rich buckler #romeo tanghal #superman #batman #world's finest #dc comics #robin #dick grayson #comics #review #1982 #1983 #bronze age

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