#Villains International League of Evil

[carmenscarnations]

I'm a bit slow and only just realized Carmen's zip resembles an upside down V, as if she's rejecting VILE. Like she deliberately has it pointing up because "up" is generally associated with being good and "down" is associated with being bad.

[carmensandiegosupremacy]

Please tell me I'm not the only one who is more afraid of the cleaners than the VILE faculty itself

[yeahimcal]

Okay I have been thinking about Jean-Paul and Antonio and their casual acts of intimacy both in the show but also in my mind

Like. When they get the first relic for VILE they take a selfie so casually and hold each other so close? And Antonio says, very brightly, ‘that’s a keeper!’ It’s so clear that this is something they do all the time!!!! They must take pictures after every successful caper and I bet Jean-Paul keeps them all in a folder on his phone. I bet he makes photo books for their anniversaries. I bet Antonio kisses him breathless every time he gets them.

Also when they defect from VILE they start a food truck?’)):!3$-??2 It makes me CRAZY!!!! They must use food as a love language!!! They must cook for each other all the time!!!!! I bet they learned how to make each other’s favorite foods when they were still in the academy and snuck into the kitchen for midnight snacks giggling like fools and sneaking gentle kisses. I bet they made picnics and ate them on the beach.

I bet Antonio dug in the sand to make small pools for them to lay in on their off days (pools just big enough for the two of them, room for Black Sheep if she squeezed in) while the rest of their class played on the beach. I bet Jean-Paul was so good at volleyball. I think Antonio would’ve been a good libero. I bet that’s when they started realizing that they only ever wanted to work together. A team. High and low. They must have had to get special permission from The Faculty. I bet it was terrifying to ask.

I think it would’ve been Shadowsan who allowed it. Cleo and Bellum were all for it (I bet they were the same way in their agent days). Brunt and Maelstrom probably thought the teamwork made them weak. I think when Shadowsan raised his hand to allow them to work together Jean-Paul cried.

Jean-Paul is the only one of the two we see that does drop offs or pickups. I bet it was a compromise- he does solo work or he does it with Antonio.

Also. While I’m talking about them. They love Carmen. They love her so much. She’s like their little sister. She speaks French with Jean-Paul when he’s feeling lonely and she makes food with Antonio when he’s worried. She painted Antonio’s nails all the time and she was the one who helped Jean-Paul with his buzz cut the first time. When he had to buzz it the first time after she left he cried. Antonio had to do it. Then they both cried because they felt like something was just missing. When they learned she had run away they were devastated. They took any assignment as an excuse to look for her. I bet Carmen visits their food truck a lot. I bet she stays to talk until they close and then hugs them so tight and says goodnight, off to her next adventure.

Sorry for being crazy. They make me insane. Drive me bonkers, even

[thefastestelementalmasteralive]

I know I've never mentioned my interest in carmen sandiego or the show before, but I love her and the show <3

Anyway this is sort of a swap au

But to lay the basis, Sheena wasn't signed up for a one year course, but three. The first was the year before Graham, Antonio, and Jean-paul.

And the last was the year Black Sheep was held back to.

(Black sheep demanded to have someone called in to do her exams the second year so Shadowsan couldn't fail her)

Black sheep turns in the phone Sheena's first year and due to a rivalry brewing Sheena steals it from bellum's desk.

It's all downhill from there

[pawprintsonpavements]

I came on Tumblr in the middle of my Carmen Sandiego obsession and how the hell are none of you shipping el topo and le chevre like they're obviously very very gay for each other in like a super soft way-

[vileoperativeamaryllis]

Sup broski

I heard you need a ask

I'll give you one

I'm gonna need every single thought that amaryllis has one the rest of VILE's Operatives

Yes including jeantonio, my precious gay broskis

“Let’s get this over with.”

FLYTRAP AND SPINKICK.

“There’s a reason why we all work together the best, It’s why most of my— OUR capers are excelling.. Although, they’re both really really nosy and frequently taken by anger. Seriously though, I don’t care about them that much..” (translation : “they’re family.”)

PAPER STAR

“She’s quite creepy even for someone like me, but she’s..haunting in the best way possible. I quite like her a little bit.”

MIME BOMB

“Come on, he really needs to get his communication better. Luckily, I love charades!…It just takes too much time in our capers.”

CRACKLE

“He…will be useful.”

TIGRESS/SHEENA

“Heh. Scaredy cat. She’s everything a cat can be…except keeping calm and landing on her feet.”

EL TOPO/ANTONIO & LE CHEVRE/JEAN PAUL

“Look, they defected from VILE, but they never hurt VILE doing it..I guess they’re fine, plus, they’re cute. I just..hate that they never told me THEY WERE DATING—”

NEAL THE EEL

“Fun to talk to, but HEAVILY FRUSTRATING to work with! TOO slippery.”

THE TROLL

“We’re friends and we just regained contact with eachother. He’s quite arrogant and we both get on eachother’s nerves, but in the end, everything is…quite great between us.” 

DASH HABER

“I don’t know him that much, but his girlfriend’s a pain.”

LADY DOKUSO

“Quite an amazing woman. She was a great use for my skills.”

COOKIE BOOKER

“Stylish, but she scares me..”

MARTA CONTRERAS

“Thanks to her and her deceptions…She got me where I belong.”

doesn’t know : moose boy, otter man, the mechanic, the driver madame goldlove and hugo.

[zoedog51]

Thinking about how they introduce V.I.L.E as valuable imports lavish exports "traffic stolen goods across the world" as if that's not already a major criminal organization like why did you need to be villains international league of evil? Truly all of your evil is exactly as stated in the fake name.. stealing and what comes with that. Like oh noooo the criminal organization I joined told me they were about stealing and now I've found out that.. they're still about stealing but with an edgier name 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

[d1nosaurparty]

Oh no! Someone call Carmen Sandiego!!!

The doorway is real, the rest is airbrushed graffiti. 

@vile_graffiti

[itsbenedict]

How would you make mario a villain?

Huh! Tricky one. I mean, there's tons of Newgrounds parodies about how fucked up it is that Mario goes around crushing turts all day, and there's the obvious "silent scary henchman of the image-conscious dictator" angle. Tricky to cast him as the villain rather than the muscle, though...

There's only one thing that notably motivates Mario, and that's Princess Peach. Extreme devotion, there. For him to have agency, she needs to be removed from the picture- and I think that neatly answers the motive thing, too. Peach hasn't been kidnapped, this time- there's something more permanent. But what? "She's been killed and he's out for revenge" is a little 3edgy5me, and also if Mario sets out to get revenge I think he just gets it. His antagonists have rarely put up the kind of fight that would require him to concoct a villainous scheme.

Who's the protagonist, if not Mario? What is Mario doing that requires someone else to go on an adventure opposing him? How do we make this something that Nintendo would actually consider releasing?

...Okay, what's Mario's usual M.O.? How do we make that villainous? He... goes to dangerous places, nimbly circumvents all obstacles in his way, and claims powerful, usually star-shaped magical objects, in order to rescue the princess. This time... he isn't really concerning himself with who the rightful owners of said magical objects are.

It's a Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego situation. There's been a rash of heists committed by a strange masked phantom thief, and the protagonist's job is to find out how the relics were stolen and where the culprit hid them, and get them back before their clients suffer dire consequences as a result of missing-magic-item-itis. You investigate crime scenes, pick up the phantom thief's trail, chase him down, and bop him one but good to recover the relic and save the day.

This is complicated somewhat because this phantom thief is in league with Bowser, who keeps causing trouble in ways that the phantom thief takes advantage of to get past security. The Koopa Troop often assists the phantom thief in his getaways. Why are they working together???

Flash back. Mario standard plot- Bowser has kidnapped the princess. This time, he's done it using some magic item or invention doohickey whose provenance he doesn't quite understand, which has turned Princess Peach to stone. True to form, Mario goes through several another castles and thrashes Bowser and breaks his evil doohickey, and... uh. This fails to rescue the princess. She is still a statue.

Bowser doesn't know why she's still a statue, and both of them panic. How do they fix this?! They need to try something- find some new magic thing that'll bring her back! They've heard of the Sacred Star of Healing in one of the neighboring Kingdoms (which exist in infinite supply in the Mario universe to be adventured through precisely once and then forgotten about forever), and agree to work together to steal it and use it to restore Peach.

It doesn't work. They ditch it somewhere. They follow up on another rumor- the Golden Coin Spirit in the Treasure Kingdom or whatever, and that's a bust too. And after a couple of these, the international community is forced to call in an expert to catch this thief and bring him to justice.

So who's our protagonist? Who in the Mario universe is a famous detective who specializes in guarding star-shaped magical relics from would-be burglars? WHAT IMPROBABLY LARGE-BRAINED PENGUIN COULD POSSIBLY THWART THIS MASTER CRIMINAL?!?

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

The League idea of helps is so........ .

Was this the childhood house where my friend was abused, neglected and kicked out from being just a little girl with a weird quirk? I'll set it on fire.

Does my friend hate this big ass mountain and all it represents? Then why not turn it to dust?!

Hmmm, you killed our friend, I need to ruin your entire life because an eye for an eye is not even enough. Our friend was worth more than just one of your people.

I'd surely cut my own internal organs to give you a chance to escape and become the world's worst nightmare, no problem.

There's nothing this rich and evil CEO can offer me that I'd like to have, except maybe that sushi my friend wanted. Yeah, I can't kill the CEO. My friend really wanted that sushi after all.

Would I go through painful and dehumanizing body modifications to become a monster capable of supporting my evil best friend? Why are you even asking me that? Of course I would.

Would I die for them? Have my arms broken for them? Lose my fingers for them? Lose my arm for them? Burn myself alive for them? Put myself at risk for them? Yes. A million times yes.

AND YET

Dabi asks Toga to smile. Compress asks Spinner to protect Tomura from them on, no matter what. Twice asks them to live. On and on and on and on, the League of Villains love leaks.

I hope they can learn how to properly help each other without causing more damage. I know it'd make them very happy.

[kismetconstellations]

I found this Reddit thread, the other day, and got a good chuckle out of this particular response:

And, while Shiro having this sort of raw, incontestable, and unmatched power makes him a True Underappreciated Icon, it also stands as the loudest, most glaring testament to the Voltron: Legendary Defender showrunners not knowing what they were doing.

Basic Writing 101 would suggest that, if you intend to kill an important character off, you don't not only open your series on them, but continue to spotlight them as completely intrinsic to, and inextricable from your still ongoing narrative.

Obi-Wan Kenobi's death impacts Luke Skywalker, but doesn't cause the entire story of the original Star Wars trilogy to fall apart.

When Gandalf appears to die in The Fellowship of the Ring, his absence is felt, and impossible to ignore, but the journey of the other main characters continues, nevertheless, and his revival in The Two Towers only aids the narrative's progression, rather than derailing it.

This is due both to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Gandalf not being the central characters of these stories, and George Lucas and J.R.R. Tolkien knowing exactly what stories they intended to tell. And, not just competently tell them, but tell them in ways that have touched and continue to inspire generations of storytellers and story-enjoyers, alike.

The crew behind Voltron: Legendary Defender, however, seemed to have no idea what story they were trying to tell, to begin with, let alone how to tell it.

On its surface, this is a mecha cartoon series about four teenagers and one adult from Earth who find themselves jetted into space to, under the guidance of an alien princess and her quirky advisor, pilot giant robot lions that combine into an even bigger humanoid robot, and fight to free the universe from the tyranny of an evil alien empire. It's packaged as an ensemble show, in the vein of Teen Titans, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Justice League, most X-Men cartoon series, and so on. Thus, it can be presumed that no one character on the team is more important than any of the others.

While an attempt is, indeed, made to give each of the seven members of Team Voltron their own internal and external conflicts and days in the sun (with the exception of poor Coran, who exists primarily for comic relief, and viewers are scarcely given insight into anything beyond his quirky anecdotes, eccentric mannerisms, and fear of losing Allura), Shiro is overwhelmingly given the most emotional pathos and narrative significance.

The series opens on his abduction and imprisonment.

His escape from Zarkon's ship and recapture by the Galaxy Garrison is the impetus that launches the plot, and brings the five pilots of Voltron together.

He's specifically singled out as the de facto leader of Voltron, and given the most significant role of Paladin of its largest lion, and decisive head.

He has personal ties to all three of the major villains of the first two seasons as a direct victim of their cruelty, and as the series continues, this remains a trait exclusive to Shiro, and Shiro alone.

Sendak is Shiro's personal tormentor, something implied as early as the pilot,

and that continues to be emphasized in Sendak's subsequent appearances.

Haggar was responsible for the experiments conducted on Shiro that lead to the amputation of his right arm and its replacement with a weapon, and feels a sense of entitlement to Shiro's body.

It was Zarkon's ship that Shiro was held prisoner on after losing his crew, Zarkon was the previous Black Paladin, and Zarkon's persisting connection to the Black Lion is a conflict that Shiro ultimately elects to resolve on his own, even if it means a hand-to-hand fight to the death.

There are several episodes (Across The Universe, Space Mall) where the younger Paladins, Allura, and Coran are engaged in comedic shenanigans while Shiro is fighting for his life in explicitly high stakes situations.

Shiro's leadership, compassion, selflessness, and heroism are illustrated over and over again for Shiro's sake, and to it drive home for the audience just how incontrovertibly vital he is in the fight to overthrow Zarkon, and restore peace and liberty to the universe.

"Why are you helping me?"

"As a fighter, and a leader, you give hope."

Instead of writing Shiro as one component of a larger story, making his removal from it possible in the right hands, he was written as the heart of that story. Which rendered excising him from it an exercise in futility, as he is integral to every poignant narrative beat. I.E., his bond with Pidge/Katie being one of the major reasons she chooses to stay with the team instead of venturing out on her own to look for her father and brother.

Shiro is, in essence, Voltron: Legendary Defender's equivalent of Leonardo from the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series--The emotionally beleaguered, self-sacrificing and scarred (as of the end of the third season and entirety of the fourth, in Leonardo's case) leader, who is by far, the most skilled and experienced fighter, and spiritually advanced member of the team.

Leonardo, too, had personal connections to several of his series's most powerful and imposing recurring villains, with two of them (Karai and the Daimyo's son) hellbent on destroying him, specifically.

There are instances (The Shredder Strikes Back Part 1, and the episodes covering the Battle Nexus Tournament) where Leonardo faces higher stakes in juxtaposition to his brothers' lighter-hearted, more comedic exploits, and he underwent the most intensive character arc; battling feelings of anger, guilt, self-loathing, and PTSD before finally achieving inner piece and returning to his family as a more mature, composed, and even greater leader than he was, before.

What the staff behind Voltron: Legendary Defender effectively did is kill their show's Leonardo and replace him with Raphael (Keith). Then, aggressively backtrack on that decision by bringing in a clone of Leonardo who much, much (roughly four seasons) later turns out to have been an infiltrator created by a character with direct relation (Karai/Haggar) to the Turtles and Splinter's greatest enemy (Shredder/Zarkon) brainwashed to attempt to kill the real Leonardo's loved ones. Only for the clone to be taken out of commission during an emotionally-charged confrontation with Raphael, after which his consciousness is overwritten as the Real Leonardo's lifeforce is magically transferred into his body... Just so the newly resurrected and sorely missed Real Leonardo can mostly stand silently around, be disrespected, and do nothing of significance for the rest of the show.

Anyone with any knowledge of the Ninja Turtles franchise, this particular iteration of it, decent storytelling, or even a lick of common sense would tell you that this move is ill-advised, at best, and a terrible idea destined to crash and burn, at worst. But, these showrunners were, evidently, oblivious to their own poor decision-making and ineptitude, and chose to rip out the stitch that held their messily woven tapestry together, causing it to irreparably unravel right in front of their and their audience's eyes.

And, blaming Shiro for that blind incompetence is exactly like blaming that deliberately torn stitch.

[selenestarmoon]

Honestly, the people who say Ryan is irredeemable are the same people who said the League of Villains from My Hero Academia were evil because of circumstances beyond their control and because they didn't react in an "acceptable" way to their traumas.

All the members of The League ended up being villains because of the injustices and dehumanization by everyone, because they were born with quirks they didn't ask for and also because of the unhealthy expectations that were imposed on them within their respective families and that they didn't receive any help: literally all of them hate themselves and see themselves as monsters that hurt people because everyone else is constantly telling them that they are monsters to the point that they genuinely came to believe that the only option they had was to die because they believed that otherwise they would be in prison all their lives and would have no future. And that is exactly what is happening with Ryan.

You have to remember that Ryan is a 12-YEAR-OLD BOY whose biological father spends very little time with him and the few times they spend time together that father ends up ruining those moments, he accidentally killed his mother because he couldn't control his powers and his other father figure loves him but at the same time he's testing if Ryan is trustworthy. Also, Ryan has horrible things revealed about his biological father and on top of that he is asked to kill that biological father who is the only living relative left to him and who has powers like him and on top of that he was threatened with sedation and locking him up, it was obvious that Ryan was not going to react well, that's too much for a kid to process.

Everyone sees Ryan as an object, and even Butcher and Homelander who genuinely love Ryan also dehumanize him; Butcher sees him as a weapon that can defeat Homelander, Homelander treats Ryan as his possession and can't stand anyone else having his son's attention.

And what about the little smile that Ryan lets out after seeing how the crowd cheered Homelander after seeing him kill someone? Like I said, Ryan is a kid and kids are blank slates and if the kid witnesses violence being perceived as something positive obviously the child will think that it is good to be violent. It's like when in Berserk, Farnese participated in a burning of heretics and burned people when she was a kid and instead of being told that what she did was wrong, people cheered her on which made Farnese internalize that burning people was something good.

And despite that, Ryan is still HORRIFIED by the idea of killing people. When he accidentally killed both Becca and Koy, Ryan felt horrible about it, he clearly doesn't want to kill Homelander or anyone else and the reason he doesn't react to Grace's death is because he was in a situation of high stress so he couldn't process what he did to Grace. Everyone is horrified by Ryan's accidental deaths but no one teaches him how to use and control his powers nor does anyone help him deal with guilt in a healthy way and the only person who does all this is Homelander but he does it in the worst way possible.

If everyone keeps treating Ryan in a dehumanizing way he will end up in two ways: either he becomes like Homelander or he decides to commit suicide to redeem himself because he believes he is a monster who hurts others and has no future.

All Ryan wants is to have a family and live like a normal boy his age and, honestly, I feel pity for him.

[nishayuro]

I have an ask! Supervillain Sukuna + UA Student Child!

It’s hard to be a hero in an evil household……and keep your dear old dad’s “career” as secret.

Supervillain! Sukuna with UA Student! Reader who is his child

A/N: Thank you so much for this request! This is an interesting prompt! I really love MHA x JJK crossover series LMAOO Also I’m so sorry for not answering this sooner, I was really conflicted with how I wanted this to go lmao

Genre: Angst-ish

GN!Reader (Your hero name is Cleave)

Since you were small, you’ve always dreamt of becoming a hero. You found out about it from seeing heroes such as All Might on TV.

You had a strong quirk, so your chances of becoming a hero is strong

What’s stopping you, you ask? Well…

Your father, Ryomen Sukuna, is a well known supervillain in Japan… Although no one really knows what he looks like nor his real name. 

He goes by the name “king of curses” and has never shown his face

Ironic, isn’t it? It’s not your fault that you don’t know that your beloved dad is one of Japan’s most wanted. He never told you and you never found out, all you know is that he is a normal father with a normal job.

And with a dream of being a hero, asking your dad to let you go to UA highschool

At first he refused, you don’t know why, he only said for your safety

But then he allowed you because he thought it would benefit him.

When you got into UA, Sukuna congratulated you!

After the USJ attack happened, when your father found out, he was pissed. 

He might be a villain, but you are still his child and no one dares hurt his child

Let's just say the League of Villains was greeted by your father’s wrath for a while.  

You began to suspect your dad after a few encounters with villains, memories of when you were a child and he’d have to leave late at night and the conversations he’s been having on the phone have started making sense. 

You decided to do a little digging, and to your luck, your hero work had a meeting about an important mission, and got like, a good chunk of Japan’s heroes in a conference along with their student interns. 

It turns out they have information on the “King of curses”, and a debriefing was in order for the next move.

The hero in front started with a recap about the villains involved, and finally, they revealed that they got a photo of the king of curses.

They flashed a slightly blurred, yet still recognizable photo…

To your horror, a side profile photo of you dad was on the screen, you can’t mistake it. You’ve known this man all your life to know him even if it was just his back. 

You stared at the photo in horror. Is your father… really the king of curses? One of Japan’s most wanted villains who has escaped even All Might himself? You thought about all the stories you’ve told your dad about U.A. About the teachers, your friends, the staff. To think that he could potentially use them against your peers. You spaced out during the meeting, inner turmoil eating at you. 

“Cleave, you alright?” You were pulled out of your trance by Edgeshot, the hero you were interning with. “Oh, yeah, sorry. It was just too much information I got mentally blocked.” You lied. “We’ll definitely have to work on your concentration then” He commented. 

The briefing lasted another hour, with the heroes planning what action to take. They also revealed that they were aware of one of the King of curses’ hideouts, which they found by spying on him. They decided for an ambush next week. You knew your father will be on a “business trip” next week, so the dates check out. You knew, you knew information. You knew some things and a few from whenever you’d overhear your dad in calls. Suddenly all his gibberish made sense in context. 

And yet even when you knew, you still kept quiet. Feigning ignorance, unable to provide the team with crucial evidence that could help this whole mission ten fold. 

You’re conflicted, your moral values are in shambles. And as the meeting ended, and you were dismissed to go home, with the promise of no information getting out. You arrived home, where your father greeted you. Asking about your day.

‘Family… or the citizen’s safety…?’ you thought, eyes cast downwards, unable to look your dad in the eyes. However, you’ve already made your choice on the way home. 

“It was okay, just did some patrolling and handled a few robberies. Nothing special today” 

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[lalalafemmerouge]

Evil Carmen idk what to put here

So imagine you're Shadowsan for a second. You devoted practically 20 years of your life to get Carmen away from VILE, but they finally caught her and rewired her brain. So now, she doesn't care about anyone and she hate hate hates you.

Imagine the pain that Shadowsan had, someone who was like a daughter to you, has to turn away from the only family she knows and join the Villains International League of Evil.

I can't find the original post about Zack's trauma from being thrown out of the carriage so consider this credits but I think that this is also relevant.

Shadowsan didn't tell Carmen about Dexter Wolfe because he thought she might turn to VILE, so after everything they went through, Carmen went evil, and no one knew if she was ever coming back, if she ever could, and how in the world the fix her.

In conclusion, VILE bad, Shadowsan Sad.

[swordandscytheandpen]

Breaking into book five and ANAXARES IS BACK BABEY! And physically described for what I think is the first time.

Tanned in the way of the Free Cities, he was dressed like a beggar in worn robes too loose on his frame. Which was thin, though not the thinness of the heathy. He looked like he’d had too many lean meals, or perhaps like the fire in those grey eyes had eaten away at his body from the inside. The Hierarch of the League of Free Cities, for this could not be anyone else, was middle-aged and balding. His eyebrows were thick and bushy, both they and his sparse beard warring between white streaks and dark brown. One of his boots, I could not help but notice, had been so poorly sown back on the sole was coming off at the front. I looked at him, saw him scribbling on a clay tablet while intently following the proceedings, and felt the slightest bit of fear. He looked like no one, I thought. But coming from his body like an invisible current was some deep and terrible power the touch of which could be felt over all of Rochelant. It was not reaching into my mind, not yet, but it felt as if raising my hand would allow me to feel the unseen ripples.

"He looked like no one, I thought." Ohh yes yes yes, that's not insignificant. Names are reflected in their holders' appearances, and this is a very different kind of "looking like no one" than you get with, say, Scribe. Anaxares' appearance reflects the fact that he sees himself as an ordinary everyman, as part of the People. This is another point of evidence to my other post: Amadeus is mad at the gods because they're unfair to villains; Anaxares is mad because they're unfair to everyone.

Now, while I of course fully expected Hierarch to be behind the mobs — it was pretty heavily implied, though that might admittedly have been my own wishes — I'm fascinated by how powerful the effect seems to be:

“That’s an aspect,” Indrani said, voice hushed. “Gods, how can that be an aspect?” “Andronike?” I asked. The crow-goddess did not reply for a long moment, until I turned my head to look at her. If a bird could look uncomfortable, I saw, it would be something like this. “This is… difficult,” Andronike said, voice tight. “The pull is strong.” My fingers clenched. “You’re having a hard time fighting him,” I croaked. “What the Hells is this, Andronike? He’s Named, not…” “Faith,” the crow got out. “This is faith, Catherine Foundling. Pure unadulterated belief, untainted by doubt or hesitation. It sings, and the world sings back.” “Faith in what?” I asked. “Nothing,” Andronike hissed. “A snake eating its own tail. It is bleak madness screamed by endless throats, and it would stand tribunal over the Gods themselves.”

... I really was expecting Anaxares to be... subtler, I guess. Raw power and supernatural influence certainly weren't what I thought I'd see, at any rate, though the display might seem subtler to ordinary folk. Clearly there have been some internal developments since his run-in with the Bard. What's the aspect, I wonder? Incite? Instigate? It clearly relies on others — I wonder if it could be deployed against an army, or even the Dead King's forces? The latter I doubt, but the former could be a fascinating challenge for Catherine if applied to her own forces.

I have two guesses for how this could be employed in the story: number one, the Serenity. Nobody seems to have any real thoughts on how to deal with the Dead King's personal Hell yet, and this seems like one of the few things that could make a dent without causing mass death. That said, it feels, narratively, more like the Serenity will eventually be some kind of big challenge for Cat. Having to choose between slaughtering a huge group of mostly innocents (Evil But Effective Choice) and trying in vain to convince them to turn against Neshamah (Good But Useless Choice) seems like the sort of story beat that would fit better for her. I guess I can also see that happening and then deploying the Hierarch as a sort of compromise, cheating the story yet again, but I dunno, it doesn't click for me quite.

The second possibility, which I see as more narratively plausible, is that the Hierarch will end up killing some big-name hero who publicly oversteps. This would probably take the form of: some hero (probably Hanno, Judgment is his whole thing) makes the unilateral decision of killing a villain, maybe Black or Kairos, who has recently done something helpful and/or proven themself useful. The hero commits this murder in a public setting, the general public is pissed about it, and Anaxares' aspect incites or empowers the People to tear the hero limb from limb. But this prediction has its own problems, in that it denies Anaxares the chance to actually transcend the games of Names. This scenario would suborn the People into a weapon in the contest between Named, and unless I've misread Anaxares' Role, that doesn't really fit either.

So I suppose what I mean to say is, I have no idea what might happen with this aspect, and the above two paragraphs were basically short-form fanfic.

As for the faith part, this brings to mind the idea of "true faith" some modern vampire media like VTM uses, where faith in anything has a material effect, so long as it's faith. (Was it Doctor Who that had the vampires repelled by the faithful Communist?) Has there been any previous indication that Creation runs on belief-rules? There's Sve Noc, at least, brought to power by constant implicit sacrifice. But I don't recollect any other use of faith as a material force. We haven't been enlightened as to the intricacies of priestly powers, so it could be that the Lanterns get their juice from their own faith... but it could also be gifts from the Gods. We don't have a ton of evidence either way here, as far as I remember.

Still, "standing tribunal over the Gods themselves" is exactly what I was hoping for, and it's what I sensed a whiff of in my post on Anaxares' confrontation with the Wandering Bard. Anaxares is similar to Amadeus in that he opposes the Gods and what they have deemed for the world, but the details of his view are vastly different.

Black, though he might kill me for saying so, operates off of spite. I don't remember the passage, but he has said that he seeks victory for Evil "to prove it can be done," or something along those lines. He's so furious at the state of Creation that he wants to invert it. Anaxares doesn't. He believes in a different authority entirely.

“You are Cordelia Hasenbach,” the man stated, half-questioningly. A moment passed, while I was genuinely at a loss for words. Ah, I thought. So this is why the Tyrant thinks he can make a pawn of you. For a heartbeat I debated actually pretending I was the First Prince just to see if I could make some trouble for her, but discarded the notion just as quick. Best not to roll dice when they had teeth and a noted fondness for biting. “Catherine Foundling,” I replied. “Queen of Callow.” If he felt embarrassed about the mistake, he didn’t show it in the slightest. “There’s no such thing,” he told me sternly. “Queens or Catherine Foundling?” I said. “Because one of those debates is a lot more philosophical than I’m equipped to handle.”

Hee hee. But it is fascinating just how divorced Anaxares is becoming from worldly affairs. He started as a diplomat, remember — originally, he may have been wholly subordinate to the First and Greatest of the Free Cities, but he was still very involved in foreign affairs. He's changed a ton since the start, and some fraction of this change was since his run-in with the Bard. Names tend to do this to people, it seems, separate them from reality in favor of their ideals, but they don't do that without personal development and/or a story behind the shift.

“Is this why the League has gone to war?” I asked. “To end crowns?” There wasn’t a single thing that changed about him, I thought. He was still a skeleton of a man in ill-fitting robes, a scarecrow with a scowl. Not a single thing had changed, and yet… If I strained the ear, I could hear the chorus. The howls of the mob. Chains ripped apart, palaces toppled and bones being crushed. Torches starting a fire that would spread across the world. A song of revolt, of rebellion. I could feel it, like warm wine running through my veins. It was harsh and unforgiving, but oh how glorious it was. How easy it would have been to partake of it and let that warmth swallow me whole. “We are all of us free or we are none of us free,” the Hierarch of the League of Free Cities said, voice like steel. “There is no middle ground. And for the lashes struck at our back, all will be called to account – if gallows must be raised for devils and angels alike, so be it.” I almost, out of sheer contrariness, pointed out that devils did not die but only disperse. But would they really, if it was this man passing the sentence? Suddenly I was not so certain. My mistake, I thought, had been trying to think of him as either a terror or a fool. Fear had dogged me, wading through his aspect, but it had retreated as we spoke. As the man proved to be so uninterested in his surrounding as to be lost. I’d allowed the cadenced little phrases, the obvious mistakes and ignorance, to lull me into believing him… adrift. Living in his own world. But Black had warned me about people like this, hadn’t he? About Named who did not see Creation as it was but how it should be. Men and women who embraced their vision so deeply they bent the world around them to match it. My mistake, I thought once more, had been to believe he must be only one of the two. He was not. The Tyrant of Helike had not sharpened this blade so carefully to cut a mortal empire, I decided. There was a broader game unfolding.

So where's Kairos aiming? The Heavens and Hells don't seem like the kind of entites capable of rising in revolt, even with an effect this strong. The Bard is a clear and obvious enemy of the Tyrant's, and one shared by Anaxares at that, but this isn't the kind of weapon that can hurt her. She doesn't have cities or armies, she's pretty much as divorced from that as possible. Hell, she could be excommunicated from every society on Calernia and still be almost as effective. I can't see the broader picture here, and it's frustrating. As much as I love him, this story does not end with Anaxares victorious; that's not how this works. He isn't going to liberate everyone.

But it's conceivable that he carves out a larger republic somewhere, and that republic works as an engine of... whatever this is all on its own. That sounds plausible, albeit not likely. It fulfills the "fire that would spread across the world" Cat hears, and surely Anaxares understands that he can't just go to every single city on Calernia and start riots. We don't even know what this place is going to look like after he leaves. But of course Anaxares has an answer to the "how are you going to win" question:

“War against Calernia,” he said amusedly. “As if tearing down masters was the same thing as warring on their slaves. You betray yourself, tyrant. You think I wage war on them?” The stylus flicked at the crowd of Procerans. The axe went up, the axe went down. Another dead man, dragged into the alley. “The old faceless thing bade me to choose a side,” the Hierarch said. “And at long last, I have.” My eyes narrowed. The old faceless thing. There weren’t a lot of entities out there that would fit that epithet. Anaxares of Bellerophon smiled, crooked teeth bared. “You think us outnumbered?” he said. “How many of us are there, tyrant, and how many of you?”

Again, he was a diplomat. Anaxares may not be so very smart, but his understanding isn't that shallow. He's got to know that it'll take more than a few loose sparks for the world to go up in flame. Which means he's not being entirely forthright with Cat, he's mostly antagonizing her, like in his letters. His only real goal can be to strike a blow against the Gods, or more likely, their proxy — though that is difficult for reasons stated above.

But there's something else I want to talk about. See, I got a fair few chapters into Book Five while I sat on this post.

Okay, fine, I got to chapter 72. What do you want from me.

But the point is that, having come back to this post fresh off the coup attempt in Salia, I see a parallel. Anaxares views his chosen mortal ideology as above even the Gods, and is strongly implied to have the power to enforce that. Cordelia is exactly the same. She sees the rule of Proceran law as superior to the law of Above, and is able to exercise that power to such extent that she forces a Name back down. It's not the same ideology, sure, but it's mortal. That's the important part. This is the start of a pattern, and we know how those work in the Guide.

And it's no coincidence that these two cases — Cordelia and Anaxares exercising their very human ideologies — are the only two times we've actually seen the Wandering Bard upset, angry, and even surprised. I think I'm starting to see the shape of this story, mortal beliefs triumphing over Above and Below, and if it's followed through on it could be very impressive.

[millieduboisart]

Carmen Week Day 4: VILE OC

As a newly graduated fashion design student, The Stylist was struggling to find a job. That is, until she was contacted by a woman named Cleo who was seeking a costume designer. Now she spends her days crafting iconic looks for the operatives of the Villains International League of Evil!