#all the corpses of the artworks that he's constantly surrounded by

[dnangelic]

can't stop scratching at these sets of dialogue lines. i dont have the raws on hand rn so i'm using the official + a fantranslation, which i assume is somewhat more word for word faithful to the original. dark begrudging the very artworks that he's been stealing and hoarding up since the beginning is kind of interesting. canon generally guides that dark steals the hikari artworks in order to either seal or protect them so as to protect humans (in the case of their being sealed) or so as to protect the artworks themselves, so that they don't end up destroyed by their very own creators or krad. the caveat is that a) dark is still very, very picky and selfish with who and what he chooses to protect and become possessive over (ie, he really didn't want insomnia from the start, calling it outright annoying and treating it pretty mercilessly,) and he has no issue behaving in just as destructive ways as krad often does, violently willing to completely annihilate anything that oversteps its boundaries and causes trouble for him or others he cares about.

there's this trait of dark loathing the hikari for being cruel creators and merciless destroyers, for making (quite literally) 'heartless' works yet ultimately being just as 'heartless' himself without daisuke, (minus, again, the fact that he desires 'coexistence.') i don't think that dark isn't aware of these things; if anything i think the guy willing to call himself a meddler and has all this subtle but enormous guilt and distaste over his own birth and creation makes him almost too self aware, and the same part that holds a somewhat buried grudge against the artworks for making trouble and being 'dangerous' to ordinary human beings is probably the same grudge that he holds against hikari and humans for creating his (miserable) existence, then deciding him 'dangerous' and mercilessly destroying things even more. what i'm saying is the same negative pressure of daisuke's 'can i help?' that turns into a self-brutalizing 'what good am i if i can't do anything?!' is nearly a parallel sentiment here, only in dark's case his actions go from an esoteric chaotic good 'i'm stealing, ultimately, for the sake of protecting something,' to a much worse 'i'm going to destroy you because i despise you and because i can.'

[morrowzoranov]

I wasn’t expecting my shitpost to get any traction but I guess there’s an audience for everything, even if it’s just like five people on tumblr.

anyways more BTD x HS shit it is! I drew the three best boys in godhoods the other day and I will now give my explanations for their classpects because I put genuine thought into this and I have no one to talk to about it because no one I know is as deep into both fandoms as me.

Anyways, first off we have everyone’s favorite greasy german as a Knight of Rage. Rage, as an aspect, is associated with themes of anarchy, performance, chaos, and the destruction of lies. With Mister Strudel being not only a literal full-blown anarchist but also quite a fan of putting on a show, it was a pretty easy fit. Rage is also the most violent aspect, often associated with cruelty and emotional outbursts. Knights are an active class (at least in my interpretation, as we have very little solid canon surrounding the classes) that serves their aspect or serve through it for their own gain. They’re very skilled with their aspect but also quite blind to the flaws that come with it. It’s not unusual for them to get way too worked up, obsessive, even. They can get carried away very easily. Who does that remind you of? I also thought that his snuff streams fit into this quite well, since he’s literally killing and raping people so others would give him money. He’s serving people chaos for his own gain. The “Strade stabbed you back“ ending is a great example of when a Knight of Rage goes a bit off the shits, not just because he gets mad and pulls your eye out but also because who else but a Rage player would leave drawers full of knives unlocked? That’s a very easy way to get murdered.

My fave out of all the BTD boyfriends, Lawrence, took me quite a while to pin down. I kept switching between a couple different titles before settling on Maid of Doom. Doom is, as the name suggests, death. But also decay, suffering, and the concept of inevitability. Our corpse-fucker embodies the more negative sides of the Doom aspect with his tendency to be quite “bitter, resentful, and fatalistic”, to quote the extended zodiac entry. Maids are known for two things: The punny way they encompass their aspect (being made of it in some way), and the fact that, just like Sylphs, they refuse to fucking die. Law is made of death since he’s constantly rotting and he repeatedly comes back from the dead. Even though I would’ve liked to give him a more passive class, Maid was too perfect in my eyes. And, though an active class in my view, Maids are quite low-key and take a while to learn how to properly deal with their aspect. “Lawrence stopped holding back“ is what you get when any Maid is done with everybody’s bullshit. And, as a Maid, he’d create and repair doom or through doom. He creates Doom by, ya know, killing people from time to time. And he creates through Doom with his artwork. The “repair“ part is more so with the metaphorical parts of Doom, helping MC in the “You both know the truth“ ending. He will presumably be there for them to talk about what they’ve both experienced, highlighting the sympathy common in Doom players, one of the few positive traits of the aspect our blonde baby represents. I was considering making him a Bard of Doom, due to him allowing the destruction of Doom by refusing to die, but he doesn’t have as many traits associated with Bards as he does with Maids. Though it would be hilarious to see him in the Bard godhood, codpiece and all. Also, he shares a class with Aradia. The two Maids can go out into the wilderness and watch something decompose in complete silence. Absolutely vibing.

Ren also almost became a different classpect, a Page of Rage (passive counterpart to Knight of Rage, mirroring his connection to Strade, it seemed perfect), but I decided to go with Witch of Heart. The Heart aspect is represented by the concept of soul, identity, and masks. Heart players are often very imaginative. They like costumes and roleplaying and the like. Combined with their overbearing and inflexible nature, we got a pretty close match to our favorite furry fuckass. The aspect is also often associated with passion and romance for obvious reasons, which I think goes well with Ren’s anime levels of thirst and excitement. Witches are, first and foremost, manipulators. Not necessarily always in a bad way... Just this time. They’re often considered to break the rules of their aspect, bending it to their own will. They’re also very high energy and cheerful, as well as confident. A Witch will often think they know what they’re doing, that they’re using their abilities in a smart way, and they will often be wrong. Ren is great at lying and drawing people into a false sense of security, he also has the amazing ability to switch between attitudes depending on his situation. He drops his desire to be kind very quickly if the MC isn’t kind back, becoming cruel and vicious. He manipulates his identity, often in an attempt to be more like Strade, which is what originally drew me towards the Page of Rage interpretation for him. Also, a few more things. These aren’t really reasons as to why I made him a Witch of Heart, they’re more so just interesting coincidences. Nepeta is a Rogue of Heart and Jade is a Witch of Space. Both are fucking furries and if Ren knew what homestuck was they’d probably be two of his favorite characters. Also also, though the Heart aspect color scheme is mostly shades of pink and magenta, its accent color is green. Even in a different fandom, Strudel Man leaves his imprint on our foxy boy. Speaking of the two of them, a Rage player taking advantage of a Heart player who they’ve also been in a romantic/sexual relationship with and the Heart player is heavily associated with an animal... Kurloz and Meulin, that’s all I’m gonna say.

I hope the god awful art didn’t ruin this uninvited rant for y’all. Lawrence, Strade, and Ren belong to @gatobob Homestuck belongs to Andrew Hussie

[sockori]

oh god ryu’s rambling about ninjas again- quick, batten down the hatches

 (Episode 1 Season 1: Sasori’s Transformation Interpretations + Brief Reason Why It’s Canonically Written This Way)

‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵  a popular ‘headcanon’, or interpretation really, for Sasori I’ve seen pop up a couple of times is: his entire body is quite literally a corpse and not simply just his core. As we know, it’s essentially already been canonically confirmed that this isn’t the deal- but, we all love to disrespect canon rules completely, whether we admit it or not, so let’s roll with it: say we don’t know what Sasori is yet, other then that he isn’t necessarily human, so some propose he’s a human corpse, or another organic material. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, at least to me, so I tend to disagree with this whole idea. But I can see both sides of the situation on why people implement this overall change or interpretation. 

Here’s one idea. I would like to believe that Sasori is not entirely impatient. Rather, he values his patience in relation to others much differently to how he views patience in means to his collection/craftsmanship. For example, spending little time on a co-worker, whether it be feelings, personality and wants, yet very much willing to spend large amounts of time with his puppets. And a thought that comes to mind is, well, that’s because of many factors (ex. Sasori hates the trivial matters of humanity, instead retreating to puppets who won’t argue with him, which is true), and make the point that they’re artworks not necessarily co-workers, which is also true, but I think this can also illustrate where Sasori’s channeling his overall energy to in the big picture- that being he’s focusing much more his work and himself. So where in the world am I dragging this whole almost off-topic mess to? And, right here, is my other hand on the matter.

Embalming (looking at the modern example of the Russian scientists who work(ed) on both the corpses of Vladimir Lenin and various North Korean leaders) is a tedious process that is, overall, time consuming. One body alone requires a whole slew of careful monitoring, regular re-embalming, and scheduled cleaning, which can go from many hours, to multiple days at a time. Realizing just how much work is inserted into fighting the grim reaper that is decomposition, one can imagine that Sasori has quite a lot of work on his hands already. If he constantly has to dedicate his focus to the preservation of multiple puppets at once on a regular basis, how would he have any time for his own body?

And, in an counterargument, the believer of the headcanon probably has this to say: what if his suspected ‘kinjutsu’ surrounding the creation of human puppets pretty much eliminates this whole process to begin with? such as, the chakra channeled into this technique possibly making the conversation of organic material a self-sustaining process- thus, no need to keep up with the whole collection (at least not incessantly) and, in turn, have more time to focus on their functionality as puppets. If that is the reason one would want to propose to fill the void of ‘famously ambiguous human puppetry’, then Sasori’s body can, indeed, perhaps be a preserved version of himself, and provide a reason as to how he can take care of his work.

However, there’s a whole side of the coin we haven’t flipped yet- and that’s the subjective purpose. The reason behind Sasori’s wanted transformation to mechanics- philosophically and psychologically. Why go through all the trouble with such a complex, complicated metamorphosis if one wants a quick, easy escape from weakness? Or, in much simpler terms, why even turn yourself into a puppet(-like form) to start? Based on all the inner tribulations with see with gross puppet man, here’s the potential/general reasons that we know (not all of them, but the most important).

For the sake of “Eternal Beauty”, or an artistic reason: that being to exist long into the future while still pertaining an ‘attractive’ physical form.

To bypass the process of decomposition, or to gain the ability to do the opposite (synthesize- be able to be re-assembled after deconstruction).

Potentially eliminate physical human processes altogether, such as eating, drinking, sleeping/resting, among other steps.

Eliminate weaknesses in combat, such as fatigue/pain, blood loss, being mortally wounded, or wounded altogether (at least, when you disregard getting stabbed in the core)- in relation to being rid of physical human processes.

To destroy emotional connections, such as ties to people or memories (big clue: eliminating the ability to literally grieve).

To hinder the control that emotions and feelings have over the mind; to tear down impulses; to level the physical sense of feeling.

The list, at a glance, seems to portray: Sasori has transformed to separate himself from the concept of humanity or a “mortal lifespan”- to create distance between him and the fragility and ‘weaknesses’ of organic life by, in a rebellious way, converting to an inorganic form.

It’s obvious that the puppeteer has had bad experiences with being a human being- anguish from death, lack of appreciation/affection, lack of encouraging stimuli, unsatisfactory higher authority, and mental disturbance due to all these factors. It would make sense for Sasori, in response, to generate quite a lot of distrust, if not all out hatred, for the concept of a human body, and to go against its principles (and to take it out on others, but the complications of that could be another post entirely). Looking at Sasori’s canon descriptions of himself, he very much emphasizes that his inorganic form and his organic part (the core) are two separate entities (”   My heart… is just like this body…“ or his most famous “I am an unfinished puppet, whose lifeless frame still contains a beating heart at its core. I am neither dead, nor am I alive.“). I mean, seriously, in one of these situations, he looks down upon Sakura and Chiyo because they’re being human, describing helping each other as pointless, speaking of his inability to feel, such as the possibility of his grandmother’s death, as a higher-ranking trait in comparison. The divide is right there.

So, if THAT’S the case- why persist to be a preserved human life form and go against that goal entirely? If one believes Sasori thinks puppets are superior to human beings, and/or himself being superior to his puppets, wouldn’t it make more sense for him to push past merely being a hollowed out dead body, and further pursue being an actual puppet?- Not only for the emotional reasons, like the distance, but to emphasize his dominance over humanity itself by simply not being apart of it? Wouldn’t him being an inorganic form better portray his ability to manipulate mortality (being different from his human puppets)? Wasn’t all the effort he put into, canonically, for the attempt to push himself away from mortality as much as possible?

And THAT’S why I disagree with this concept.

So In conclusion, I think our puppet man staying a preserved corpse could work physically and scientifically, but not subjectively. The possibility is there, certainly, with the right factors, but the overall purpose of it is unreasonable, particularly to the definition of his role as an antagonist. With all Sasori’s personal opinions about preservation, eternity, puppetry, humanity, etc. I think him wanting to stay human would be pretty ‘ooc’ of him.

What I’m trying to say is, Sasori in canon right now- turning his body into an incomplete puppet, containing the ‘beating heart’ at its core- is incredibly crucial to his overall character. Very much symbolically. Again, keep in mind, Sasori does have organic life residing within him still- that already portrays the hypocrisy (or at least some form of oxymoron) of his beliefs and his actions. It does a phenomenal job of that alone, and should stay that way. ‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵ ‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵ ok ryu are you done yet

I just wrote this entire “rant but an analysis but an argument but also a rant analysis post” for no reason at all other then impulse and I hope and pray that an explanation about some skinny mannequin guy does not lead to any potential discourse within the much s̶u̶r̶p̶e̶r̶i̶o̶r̶  sophisticated sasori stan community cause i know some folks in the naruto world really can’t handle even the slightest disagreement

oh and there’s probably a lot of weird phrasing in this because i typed it all without thinking, so if there’s any inconsistencies i am sorry

 yes I’m aware this is a Wendy’s drive thru    

[cinlat]

can you tell us more about fynta's robotic(?) leg

Ohh, this is a fun one, because I love Fynta’s prosthetic. It played such a huge part in shaping her. So, I guess I need to give a little history on her first. I have a feeling this will get pretty long, so I’ll stick some under the cut. Fynta. HATES. Implants. They weird her out to no end, and she always swore that she’d rather be a corpse than turn herself into a “wet droid”. Over her time with the SIS, she’d seen Theron’s get him into all kinds of trouble, and heard reports of agent’s implants being sliced and turned against them. To Fynta, nothing could be worse. 

Fast forward a decade to Havoc Squad and the search for Rakton. Fynta want’s blood for the lives of the soldiers he’s killed, and the constant attempts to destroy her squad, who is her family. Once they had him pinned down in the Bastion, Fynta chose to press the assault rather than to risk losing him. Someone got in a lucky shot that shattered the socket that the hip sits in, and destroyed the surrounding bone and tissue of her left leg. She lost the entire thing. (The gory details can be found in chapters 32-34 of Family is more than Blood)

Fynta huffed about a bit, feeling sorry for herself, until Jorgan told her to get off her ass and do something about it. Little did Fynta know that her brother Verin (Bounty Hunter) had been networking throughout the Empire for someone willing to take on a stubborn Mando woman who hates technology and will absolutely abuse whatever they build for her. Likewise, Cormac and Elara were searching for prospects on the Republic side. It hasn’t made it completely into the story yet, but eventually, Fynta will learn that the two men who designed and attached her leg were Dr. Lokin and Doc Kimble.

As far as the technology goes, both men were given the green light (after much fussing and moping from Fynta) to use her as a guinea pig for a new design. While muted, Fynta’s prosthetic can register pressure and temperature, and relate that to her brain through some fancy wiring done through her spine. I’m just going to magic that into being because though I researched the hell out of it, I still don’t understand most of what I read. Let’s just say that it works. It’s a permanent appendage, one that Elara fussed at her constantly over during recovery because if Fynta knocked it out of place, surgery would be required to fix it. If it didn’t cause permanent damage to her still healing body. 

It took months of down time, physical therapy, and a lot of cursing for Fynta’s leg to finally work properly. She fought the addition from the beginning, elongating her recovery period. Learning how to walk again was a major source of contention between her and Jorgan, and only got better when he took Fynta to a training course on Coruscant and basically fired dummy bolts at her until she learned how to “let her leg be a leg”. (That sounds strange, but it works because Fynta is a pain in everyone’s ass, and Jorgan hasn’t given up on her yet.) It took almost a year before she would let him touch it without feeling self-conscious. When she finally gave in, it was a surreal moment.

*artwork by @dingoat

After Fynta was finally cleared for duty again, she threw herself back into the fight (this time against Revan) and learned that having a metal leg could be fun when it came to kicking, stomping, and sometimes deflecting things. Running took longer to master, and she ate a lot of dirt while the rest of Havoc looked the other way. Elara might have cringed a little.

Jumping forward a few more years...being trapped in carbonite seriously screwed Fynta’s leg up. Lana did more dragging during their escape than anything. The frigid temperatures damaged the circuitry, and sent it into a constant boot loop. Fynta would get a few minutes out of it before the leg would shut down for 30 seconds while it tried to realign all the neural pathways required to function properly. Since it couldn’t be removed, they had to make do. She found a shady tech on Asylum who was able to stabilize it enough to let her walk without the risk of falling over, but Fynta still got little jolts up her spine whenever it tried to reset. Luckily, Dr. Lokin joined the Alliance not long after Fynta’s arrival, and was able to open it up and replace the damaged components. As of now, Fynta’s leg works like it was intended, and she’s still abusing it.

*art by @chubbyooo

[anchoredtether]

Title: Cruel Awakening

Author: AnchoredTether

Rating: M [graphic depictions of violence, dark/disturbing themes]

Series: Avatar: The Elements of Chaos

Chapter: 3/?

Summary:  Nearly 200 years has passed since Avatar Aang saved the world, and although he restored peace among the nations it did not stay for long. After Aang’s death, the new Avatar born into the water tribe was quickly killed while in the avatar state.

Since the Avatar cycle was broken, the world fell apart. The nations became filled with hatred and nature itself perished. Because the Avatar died when from the water tribe, representing the season of winter, the world has been stuck in seasonal dissonance where winter lasts nearly the whole year.

With the imbalance of the four seasons and the four nations, devastation constantly lies upon the horizon. Zavital and Yasu, two young air and firebenders, are slaves of project Kanora, a military of benders trained to control the chaos of the world. Zavital encounters the spirit of Avatar Aang who claims to know a way to restore the Avatar cycle. Through his help, Zavital and Yasu strive to bring back the Avatar so the world may once more be restored to full balance.

][ -- music -- ][

The camp was overturn with a restless urgency. As the siren continued to wail out its alarm, prisoners and guards alike ran to their posts, orders shouting above the chaos. Yasu ran ahead, leading Zavital towards his regiment.

"Kiet, what's going on?" Yasu asked a fellow firebender as they reached the group of soon-to-be twenty-one year olds. Zavital noticed Keeshi among the group and couldn't help the burning sensation in her chest.

"Attack on Republic City." The firebender named Kiet said. "Sounds like there's multiple organizations this time." His bright amber eyes turned to look at Zavital. "Hey. Welcome to our regiment. I'm Kiet."

"Zavital. Pleasure." There wasn't time for formalities as they were shoved onto a train car and given further instructions from an officer as they sped away on the rails.

"Intel says there's attacks from Ziran's followers, the Anaki, and Bluebloods. Ziran's followers and the Anaki have been known to work together before, but why the Bluebloods have joined is uncertain." The officer announced. "You are to treat each affiliation in the same manner - use force, but take prisoners, not corpses. We will break out into three teams. There needs to be at least one waterbender for every firebender in each team. Waterbenders! Your job is to make sure Bluebloods don't kill your firebender teammates." He assigned five people as leaders to form themselves a team. An earthbender girl quickly snatched up Zavital and Kiet to be on her team, as well as a male waterbender and earthbender.

"Zavital!" The male earthbender greeted her with a grin. "You really kicked my butt yesterday."

She blinked a few times rapidly. "Umm… thanks? You're welcome? I don't know what to say to that."

"I'm excited to see how you do out in the field." The leader earthbender girl said.

"I actually have no idea what to expect." She found herself looking for Yasu, wondering how he would hold up fighting against the organization that killed his parents. He was easy to find with his height, and her stomach churned when she saw how pale he looked, his icy hues staring off into the distance as if he were in a trance. She brought herself back to the task at hand, looking at the leader earthbender. "I know we're supposed to avoid killing anyone. But is there a limit to what we can and cannot bend?"

The girl smiled, her green eyes mysterious. "No. What you would normally be disqualified for at camp, you can use on the field. You can only use extreme measures if the situation calls for it, however."

"Right." Zavital gave a nod. It had been ages since she was able to fight without holding back, and even though she was itching to get out there and wreak some havoc, a part of her was also hesitant. She clutched her hands into fists to keep them from trembling. She regretted the question as soon as it left her mouth, but she couldn't stop herself. "How many people usually die during these kind of attacks?"

"Nervous, airbender?" The waterbender finally spoke.

"Curious." She countered.

"It all depends." Kiet said. "We're pretty good at keeping the casualties to zero on both sides, but this time it's a massive attack. There's already Kanoran regiments out battling the three organizations. We're the backup."

Kanoran soldiers needing backup? Zavital had never heard of such a thing. As Kiet said, it was three organizations working together this time, and the Bluebloods were infamous for their skill in bloodbending… she had no idea what kind of chaos would rage on the battlefield, and the uncertainty set her nerves on fire.

She had grave expectations on the ride to Republic City, but nothing could prepare her for the mayhem within its walls. The train was nearing its stop in the heart of the city but they were expected. She turned her head just in time to see the erecting walls of ice and heard a chorus of shouts before the train completely crashed and derailed.

Zavital awoke with a ringing in her ears, her vision blurry. Everything felt heavy, her movements slow. As her senses came to, she realized she was flung several feet away from the remains of the train. The area was covered in ice and blood, dead and unconscious bodies scattered all over in a haunting stillness. She was bleeding in several places from scrapes and abrasions and she could feel her old wound along her jaw had broken open again beneath the bandages. She slowly stood up just in time to fend off a Blueblood who sent daggers of ice in her direction.

She flung the ice away with a gust of wind, but quickly realized that some of them would harm other Kanoran soldiers still lying on the ground. Her quick reflexes bent the wind to will the ice daggers away from her comrades, but in her distraction she found her hands suddenly stopped. With a gasp of horror as she saw the ice daggers wound several soldiers, some of them screaming as they woke to consciousness, Zavital realized she was being controlled.

A wild snicker of amusement sounded over her shoulder as she trained her golden hues upon the waterbender. "I've never bloodbended an airbender before! I'm curious as to what I can make you do."

Kiet was up on his feet and running towards the Blueblood, sending waves of fire his way. The Blueblood simply bloodbended Zavital to fight for him and she saw the hesitation cross Kiet's face. As he tried to weave around her to attack their enemy, Zavital kept blocking his attacks and sending furious strikes of wind towards her ally. It wasn't as if she had never been bloodbended before - Keeshi had done that just yesterday - but this was different. Instead of simply feeling forced to do something, as if some invisible hand were pulling her to move a certain way, Zavital felt like she was no longer herself, that her body was not her own and she was merely a spectral watcher of the events happening before her. She wondered if that was just a manifestation of greater bloodbending skill. It made her sick to her stomach.

She was powerless. No matter how hard she fought, she couldn't break from the bloodbender's will. At the rate she was being controlled, she was going to severely harm her teammates. A gasp left her lips as her arm lifted, her hand twisted into a very specific bending move. The air around Kiet dissipated, leaving him gasping for breath as she sucked his lifeforce from his very lungs.

Zavital's eyes widened in horror as she saw him fall to his knees and ultimately collapse upon the ground. A sickening crash and scream sounded behind her and instantly she could feel her blood flowing hotly through her veins as her control returned. She whipped her head around to find the earthbender leader of her group had slammed a wall of rock into the Blueblood, pinning him against a building which now displayed an artwork of crimson. Before she could be sickened by the image of death, she ran toward Kiet and fell on her knees to check his vitals.

"He's alive…" She whispered in a sigh of relief, carefully bending the air to gently fill his lungs. "He's alive!" She called over to her leader, but when no response came she turned around to see the girl lying on the ground. A scarlet ribbon cut across her throat, pooling about her lifeless face. Zavital's heart pounded in fear. She wanted to scream at the top of her lungs and run from this nightmare of a battlefield, but she was frozen in place with an unconscious firebender at her knees and a stealth assassin nearby.

Her leader was dead. She didn't know her commanding officer. She was just recently thrown into her regiment without any proper transfer. She didn't know anyone's names aside from the unconscious Kiet, and Yasu. She grabbed Kiet by the arms, stood up, and started pulling him towards an alleyway and leaned him up against the wall. She ran back out into the open, her fingers twitching in fear and uncertainty. She could bend air against the three other elements, but how was she supposed to bend against an assassin's blade? As she stayed alert of her surroundings, she realized how quiet it was. Dead or unconscious bodies littered the battlefield, the metallic stench of blood mixed with the crisp cool air. The longer she stood in the silence, the greater her apprehension grew. The killer has to be nearby. They wouldn't just kill her and leave. The assassin was playing tricks with her, as was her fear.

"YASU!" She screamed his name into the air, hoping with her entire being that he wasn't dead. She couldn't fight an aggressor and protect Kiet all on her own, especially if more than one enemy showed up.

Before her voice could finish echoing, she felt a shift in the air around her. Whirling around to meet her fate, she was caught off guard with the slice of a knife against her arm before she could even see her enemy's face. As fast as they came, they were gone, and Zavital had no idea if it was a man or a woman, a bender or non-bender. She wished she could harness the earthbending skill of seismic sense to detect the assassin's location, but not even her heightened airbending abilities could detect someone so stealthy.

Summoning her concentrated needles of air, she was able to strike one towards her enemy just before his blade reached her. Precision, but no accuracy. The miniscule tornado tore through the assassin's shoulder, rending flesh and ribbons of blood through the air in grotesque arcs, her remaining needles dissipating into gusts of wind. Hot blood splattered all over her as shock coursed through her body, the adrenaline causing her to barely register the dagger penetrating between her ribs. Only did she understand with widened honey eyes as the blade was removed with a scream, rearing back like a snake ready to strike the fatal blow.

The snake never killed its prey.

Blood splattered her once more, a familiar pair of blue eyes meeting her horrified gaze. The firebender retreated his fiery hand from the cavity of the assassin's chest, allowing the corpse to fall. Zavital stared at the gaping hole, the loosely hanging arm, the scattered sinew, the mess of blood. Her breaths came in quick and heavy, her world spinning out of control as she grasped her open wound and trembled. Warm hands grasped the sides of her face and forced her to look up instead of whipping her head around in a panic. All her frenzied mind could think of was whether his hands were warm from the fire that encased them moments ago, or from the beating heart of the assassin he just rent in two.

"Zavital. Breathe." Yasu's words cut fierce, clearing the fog in her mind. "Focus. You can't lose consciousness. We need to find a safe house so we can heal your wounds before you lose too much blood, do you understand? Can you be strong for just a little longer?"

Her breaths came in faster, her hands trembled at the hot cascade of her wound, her head shaking against Yasu's hands since she couldn't find the voice to reply 'no.' His expression was unreadable, as if his face were chiseled from stone. After a moment of thought, he simply gave a brief nod and replied, "Okay."

The last thing Zavital could remember before her vision blacked out was being scooped up into the firebender's arms.

[nelu-chan]

Ok I am currently riding the energetic high of two cups of English breakfast tea with oat milk so let's get this started:

First museum I visited in Stockholm: the vasa museum

And anyone who thinks vasa is a type of flatbread, like me, doesn't know that it is spelled wasa.

However, vasa was the first double gun deck of the royal navy of Sweden in 1628. And because it was the first time anyone build something like that in Sweden they fucked up royally. I so love that. So the king of Sweden was like 'we are at war (religion as always) and we need something like that because England has it and I want it too!'. So they dish out one hell of a big ass ship in two and a half years. During that time the master architect dies and the king is in Poland fighting his war. So the big as Vasa has its maiden voyage. It is build in Stockholm which is connected to the baltic sea with an archipelago. So it drives out and cruises along the canal. After like 10 minutes the wind freshens up a little. Like a tiny bit. The ship immediately tilts but is able to steady again. Wind direction changes. Ship tilts again now far enough that the lower gun deck fills with water and the ship sinks. Isn't that awesome? Like you just spend god knows how much money on a ship. 1000 oaks, kilometers of ropes tons of meat and fish and peas and beer and grains and water now all gone. Approximately 30 people on the lower decks die. And the Kings ministers are like 'well fuck. Who's gonna tell the king? We need a scapegoat first!' So they search for someone to blame. But as I said chief architect died. And mainly it was the Kings fault because he pressed them for this exact double deck ship and such short time frame even though his navy minister was given a demonstration on land on how the ship can be rocked by just 30 men walking from one side to the other. Nobody is blamed, ship was too narrow on the belly and not filled with enough stones to keep it low enough, which was not possible with he design of the first ship because the lower decks would have been flooded immediately.

So, awesome backstory aside. We get to the recovery part.

In the 1950s someone found the ship again. And because Stockholm is surrounded by archipelago, the sea salt levels were not enough to destroy the ship but conserved it instead. I absolutely love that. So they get the ship out of the water which was an absolute pain in the ass. And transport it to a sluice. So now you can't just take something out of the water after 333 years and wait for it to dry. So while they were cleaning the ship from mud and made more than 40000 findings they constantly sprayed it with sea water to keep it from drying out. Also the artwork found on the ship was washed and then rested in brine to conserve it until they knew how to conserve it properly.

And now to my favourite part: they proceeded to spray the whole ship with polyethylene glycol. And if I say spray I don't mean like once. They showered the whole ship for months to replace the water with PEG. Good idea at first later they noticed that they also distributed iron oxide through the whole ship which was very bad for the wood and bolts. So now they replace every bolt with stainless steel bolts. Oh I forgot that there were almost perfectly conserved corpses down there. With parts of brain, clothing and belongings intact. The corpses are also exhibited in the museum (that was my favourite part) and they used facial reconstruction on them.

Here, have some photos:

Look at the size if that ship??! 2.5 years are you kidding?

The different pigments used in the paint for the ship because it was fashionable at that time. How the ship looked like painted is shown with a 1:10 model.

I am absolutely in love with the fuck ups of humankind. And then they build a museum on top of it? Take. My. Money.

I feel like I won't get shit done learning wise in Sweden. Buuuuut this means tumblr gets a whole fancy set of fancy photos I took in the museums!!!

[reivenesque]

Skam Fairytale AU: Cindereva CH1

Eva is a young girl - orphaned by the death of both her parents, who lives in a cottage by the woods with her two dogs, her two cats and a variety of animals that she calls family. She doesn't live a terrible life, only a lonely one, until one dark, stormy night, she stumbles across a mysterious, seriously injured man; a soldier from the enemy nation, and brings him home to care for him. She didn't know then how irrevocably her life was about to change.

Maybe through it all, she might even find - love?

Chapter 1: The Soldier in the Woods

♦ [AO3] ♦

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, across the ocean and through the fields and the forests expanding far into the horizon, there were two kingdoms that lived through a constant state of war. People who lived in the two kingdoms could not remember a time of peace, before their nations started the battle that unrolled through decades and cost families fathers, sons, husbands and brothers.

It was the battle between the peaceful kingdom of the North, where the people fished for their trade and grew crops to keep their children fed and clothes on their backs and a roof over their heads, against the battle hardened kingdom of the South, where their soldiers were bred from young and taught to fight as children. Their king was a tyrant and a dictator and rejected all notions and requests from the North Kingdom for armistice and peace. The king only wanted war, he only wanted blood and all the people in the North knew about the Southern soldiers growing up was that they were blood thirsty killers who pillaged and plundered defenseless villages; destroyed their livelihoods and raped their women and bathed in the blood of their enemies and left their corpses out to be devoured by animals.

They were always immediately identifiable by their deep black uniform and blood red lining, and the menacing Wolf emblem on their chest piece.

It was the tale mothers would tell to their children to keep them from misbehaving: “Don’t be naughty, or the Penetrators will come to steal you from your beds as you sleep at night.”

It was the stories a little girl named Eva used to hear growing up, told to her by her mother when it was just the two of them curled up on the carpet, watching the crackle of the cinder burning in the fireplace.

Young Eva used to live in a big house with a large compound alongside her mother and her father and an array of animals that used to scurry around the household; dogs and cats and rabbits and mice and birds sitting perched on the windowsill singing their sweet songs.

But death and tragedy found Eva young even though she and her family lived on the outskirts of the kingdom, away from the town and the castles and so far away from the fighting often times it actually felt like it was nothing more than the fairytale her mother used to tell to her when she put her to bed.

She lost her mother to sickness and her father to heartbreak and lost her fortune and her house and her beautiful clothes over time to the debt collectors and money grubbing relatives, but Eva didn’t mind. She still had her animals and that was all that mattered to her.

She now lived in a ramshackle little hut at the edge of the clearing where the grassy plain met the mouth of the forest. It wasn’t a very big house but it was homely and it was cozy and it was hers and that was the only thing that mattered in the end. She planted flowers and vegetables in the small garden that surrounded her hut like a fence, the vines creeping up the outer walls and little purple flower blooming like Mother Nature’s own gift of artwork to her.

Her dogs and cats slept on the bed with her, the chickens and the birds perched on the arm rest of her worn sofa. The little mice and the squirrels in the potted plants hanging from the ceiling and the rabbits bunched up together at the foot of her bed.

It wasn’t a very big family, but it was hers.

She supported herself by working for a wealthy family, a Count and Countess and their daughters, that lived a few minutes’ walk up the cobblestone path after she’d trekked through the bushes away from her hut and away from the peaceful and comforting embrace it provided her. It was a beautiful life but it was also very lonely.

The family she worked for was very rich, and they were not friendly but they were also not cruel, with two daughters who were of similar age to Eva: Sara and Ingrid. Sara and Ingrid lived the life Eva once did, but she never begrudged them for what they had; for all the pretty clothes they wore and all the fine jewelry that glinted on their bodice; for the parents they still had who smiled at them and told them constantly how much they were loved. They were not friends by any definition of the word, and both the girls could be very callous with their words and very rude with their actions, but they were not bad people.

Sometimes when they had dresses that had perhaps ripped slightly at the seams, or had been stained in some way or had otherwise become unwearable to them, they would give them to Eva to fix and to keep, and even though some people may scoff at the idea, Eve was appreciative and joyful to receive every single one. She’d bring them back home and sew back the small tears or scrub the stains out when she washed her clothes by the edge of the sparkling river that streamed through the canopy of trees in the forest a few minutes’ walk away from her house, and every single dress would once again be almost brand new.

Eva lived a simple and lonely life, but it wasn’t unfulfilling. She’d wake up happy and go through her day; finish her work, and take a walk into town, greeting the bread makers and the fish sellers, and the kindly old lady who sold flowers off her cart. Every time they would meet, she would gift Eva a single blue flower to put in her hair as she continued on her walk, always smiling and always appreciative, greeting the townspeople and receiving cheery greetings in return.

Eva did have friends in town, the girls her age who would always be so happy to see her and whose company she was always so happy to be in as well.

There was Christina; she was also an orphan like Eva, but her father left her in ownership of a tavern before he died, and she’d brought it up to be one of the most well off and booming business in the kingdom, and Vilde, she was Christina’s friend long before she became Eva’s. She was a doll maker who would help out at Christina’s tavern whenever she was free. Then there was Sana, who was the daughter of a merchant from a faraway land who had immigrated to the town and started a business selling trinkets and odds and ends from various corners of the world. Her father and mother were always away on his travels so Sana and her brothers were usually left in charge of their shop.

Then there was Eva’s closest and dearest friend, Noora. Noora was a school teacher who was at the same time also studying to become a scholar and she was engaged to the second son of the town's wealthiest family, the Magnusson’s. Eva liked Noora from the very first moment they met, when Noora had defended her from a few of the snooty townswomen who were speaking badly of her and her deceased parents.

Spending the evening with Noora or any of the girls would always leave Eva in a good mood, and she’d return home to her house and for a while, everything would stop feeling so lonely. She’d finish up all her chores, wash her clothes and clean up; feed all her animals and water her garden and she would end up going to bed happy, only to then wake up the next morning to restart the same cycle all over again.

The youngest daughter of the Count, Ingrid, was engaged to be wed to the son of one of the Duke of the kingdom. His name was Jonas, and Eva would see him over at the house sometimes when she was busy cleaning the kitchen, or washing the clothes. He was a very handsome man, Eva used to think; the way he smiled at Ingrid and the way they laughed together, often times when Jonas’s eyes would find hers from across the room where she was passing through.

Eva wasn’t jealous of what Ingrid had, and she wasn’t jealous that she had it with Jonas. But once in a while, she couldn’t help but wonder whether there would come a time that she’d find someone who would look at her the way Jonas looked at Ingrid. Or even the way Jonas would sometimes look at her.

Eva never forgot the stories her mother used to tell to her about the Southern nation and their soldiers; little children used to call them the Penetrators because of stories of their kills, the way they would run their enemies through with their swords and watch them bleed to death in slow, terrible agony if the initial wound didn’t kill them instantly. But through the years, the tales of the South and the battle between the warmongering nation and their quaint little fishing nation, the fighting that went on—was still going on near the borders, through the years they became not much more than fairytales, especially in that area of the kingdom, almost on the opposite end of where the fighting was actually taking place.

Sometimes, Eva wondered whether it wasn’t just that: a story, told to children to keep them in line, told to young boys and teenagers to keep them away from trouble and told to young girls to keep them away from the bad sort of men. Sometimes Eva wondered where there was an actual battle actually going on.

One night, Eva wished that she hadn’t wondered any of those things.

She had just returned home from town; the old baker’s mill had broken down and Eva had volunteered to help him prepare his dough for tomorrow’s selling day. She’d left the shop with a whole bag of leftover bread and some muffins and a very appreciative old man still yelling his thank yous to her receding back. When she arrived home, she’d realized that she still had some many chores to finish, so after feeding her dogs and her cats and putting the feed out for the chickens and the birds and giving the rabbits and the mice their food, Eva reached for her basket of unwashed clothes and got ready to set out to the river edge.

The full moon was out high, casting an ethereal glow over the treetops and across the plains. She decided to finish the washing that night and hang the clothes out in preparation for the next day’s sunlight; at least she wouldn’t have to rush to get it done in the morning before she started work.

One of her dogs accompanied her, the younger one; the one who barked the loudest and the one with the overprotective streak when it came to her.  Eva welcomed his presence, not that she felt in anyway unsafe—the forest was her home after all, there was nowhere she felt safer—but it was nice to have company, even if the company had black fur and four legs.

The forest was never absent of sound, whether it was the sounds of the crickets chittering in the bushes, or the sound of a lone wolf howling somewhere in the distance, or just the sound of the breeze rustling the leaves and the branches of the trees. They were never sounds that scared Eva, she’d gotten used to it over time, though it used to startle her something bad when she was younger and had just moved into the small cottage after her parents passed. But nowadays she found those sounds comforting, soothing even, like the presence of old friend that would always be there for her.

She was so used to the different sounds that made up the music of the forest that one out of place snap of a rogue twig and the crackle of dried leaves that weren’t under her own feet didn’t even jar her senses. A sudden whistling gust of wind came blowing through the underbrush, rustling the leaves and sending her hair billowing into her face, and as he reached up to brush her hair back behind her shoulder, her dog started barking at a shadow among the bushes.

She looked in the direction her dog was growling at, her eyes trying to adjust to the darkness to find the source of his distress, but finding nothing but the eerie realization that a shadow in one particular spot seemed almost darker, and it wasn’t moving the same as all the other shadows cast by the light of the moon hanging in the sky behind it.

The fact that the shadow was moving at all.

Eva felt her heart start thundering inside her chest. Her basket of laundry still clutched against her side and Faen, her dog, still barking aggressively at the dark; though he was backed up against Eva’s legs, acting as a protector between her and whatever it was lurking in the dark.

It felt like ages passed before Eva heard the snapping sound she’d missed before, and the sound of footsteps walking towards her from out of the darkness, and the indistinct shadow slowly morphed into a more defined shape of a person; their body outlined against the only light source in the distance. Eva could make out broad shoulders and short hair and she could tell that it was a man; and that fact immediately chilled her to the bones.

The second thing she noticed was that he’s wearing armour, something that made him almost completely invisible in the darkness of the forest because it was pitch black; the monochrome colour broken only by the eye catching red of the lining on his shoulders and down the side of his legs. But what made Eva’s heart nearly still in her chest after the rigorous way it had been beating not a moment ago, was the emblem that she’d only heard of in stories her mother told her as a child.

The wolf on the chest piece; its snarling face and teeth dripping blood, and eyes that were two sparkling green jewels, staring menacingly back at her.

The person was coming closer to where Eva was standing, frozen, unable to move. Unable to even think of moving. Even Faen’s barking had stopped and the dog seemed torn between staying between Eva and this new person, and running behind Eva to hide. She didn’t know what could have instilled such fear in her dog, Faen was the most fearless of all her animals.

But the closer the figure came to her, the most details she started to notice, like the fact that it wasn’t the wolf emblem on his chest that was dripping blood, it was blood dripping from his chest; blood trickling down his hand hanging limply at his side and blood caking almost half of his face.

He came within ten feet of Eva’s breathless figure, tears prickling the back of her eyes and her words dead in her throat, unable to move or breathe or think. But his eyes were unseeing, he wasn’t even looking at her as he stepped closer and closer and closer.

Until he finally collapsed in an unmoving heap on the ground right at her feet.

Only then did Eva finally remember how to breathe.

Tbc.

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Dedicated to: All the the Forever Bitter Squad members, @imyourliquor-youremypoison @giishere @ganseysjane @wowdamnn @whyjulieandemhatesevamohn @yousefxsana and everyone who’s ever read/commented/liked/reblogged my Chriseva fics. 

Also special shout out to my awesome beta-reader, or should I saw, meta-reader, @hikaru9

[aion-rsa]

Violence is Golden: 16 Bloodthirsty Superheroes

Two things can usually be expected when reading a comic book story: a hero and a villain. Of course, when we think of villains, we generally assume they want to cause death and destruction, to commit atrocious acts of violence. Meanwhile, we think the hero does the other thing: saves the day with non-violent righteousness. But that isn’t always the case.

RELATED: 15 Superheroes Who Are Total Jerks

We forget that comic book heroes are just as capable of violence as their opposite numbers, and sometimes come across as even hungrier for bloodshed than their infamous villains. Just take a look at the list below; these cases-in-point are heroes whose taste for justice have twisted, turned and soured into a lust for bloody vengeance.

WOLVERINE

Being the best he is at what he does, the most obviously bloodthirsty hero is Marvel’s one and only Wolverine. He first appeared in “Incredible Hulk” #180, bearing his claws and boldly snarling at the Hulk, so a little violent streak was to be expected. While the next issue didn’t actually contain an epic fight, Wolverine would more than make up for that lacklustre appearance over the next few years.

With Logan’s uncontrolled rage, several powerful villains and some heroes have met their violent deaths and/or dismemberments at the end of his deadly adamantium claws. The “Old Man Logan” story arc, for example, saw him burst out of a tyrannical Hulk, and also showed us how he could completely eviscerate the X-Men. He’s certainly no stranger to violence, but where others like Captain America might show a little restraint, you’ll get no such mercy from Wolverine. Considering he’s more than a hundred years old, it’s been speculated that he’s killed thousands throughout his time on this earth, on top of the multitudes he’s killed in the pages of comics.

ELEKTRA

She swings around two Okinawan sai, she’s mastered a wide variety of weapons and she’s a trained ninja assassin, so she’s bound to have some blood on her hands. Of course, you might have guessed that after hearing that she was created by Frank Miller, known for graphic novels like “Sin City” and “300,” both of which are violent as hell.

Elektra’s violent nature stems from quite a dark past. In Marvel’s “Elektra: Assassin” #1 (written by Miller), it was revealed that she’d been self-harming as a means to cope with haunting voices and doubts over vague memories of abuse. She also witnessed her father’s death, she’s been killed multiple times and there’s doubt as to whether the psychotherapy that was supposed to give her some sense of stability ever actually worked. That anger and turmoil manifests in the violence, blood and gore she leaves behind her in her comic series, like the slew of S.H.I.E.L.D agents she slaughtered (though had no memory of), for example, before killing a hitwoman and the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who put a bounty on her head in “Dark Reign: Elektra” #5 (written by Zeb Wells and illustrated by Clay Mann, Mark Pennington and Matt Hollingsworth).

HIT GIRL

Don’t be fooled by the eleven year old girl you see before you. From an even early age, Mindy McCready was trained to be a lethal assassin with a heart of stone. Since her first appearance in Icon’s “Kick-Ass” #3 (written by Mark Millar and illustrated by John Romita Jr.), we’ve come to know Mindy as a foul-mouthed violent little superhero, the yin to Kick-Ass’ yang. Where she teaches David Lizewski to live up to the name of his alter-ego, David tries to teach her how to just be a “10 and ¼” year old girl. Because of her violent nature, that’s not always easy.

In “Hit-Girl” #3 (written by Millar with artwork by John Romita Jr.), we see Mindy taze her bully, Debbie Foreman, before dangling her over the edge of a recycling facility and allowing the terrified Debbie to fall straight into a passing garbage truck. That’s actually the least violent thing Hit Girl has done to an enemy, so it’s no wonder the character has stirred controversy in both her comic books and subsequent film adaptations, though controversy for the latter was more focused on her constant cursing and not the trail of broken corpses she left behind, weirdly enough.

HAWKMAN

Next on the list is the Thanagarian with an ancient soul, bashing his way through his enemies with his Nth metal armor and various medieval weapons. He first appeared in “Flash Comics” #1 (written by Gardner Fox and illustrated by Harry Lampert) and while over the years the DC universe has changed quite a lot, Hawkman’s terrible violent streak hasn’t. He’s got quite a temper and it shows in the mess he leaves behind. Even in his appearance in 1940’s “All Star Comics” #1, he was seen defeating the sorcerer Trygg by destroying his lair with an explosion while the sorcerer and his assistant Beldame were still inside.

This is one superhero any villain definitely wouldn’t want to cross, because unlike most heroes, there’s a huge chance villains will not walk away. It’s undeniable that Hawkman has little to no regard for human life, which often puts him into conflict with members of the Justice League, at one point battling Green Arrow due to differing views on how best to handle villains.

BLACK ADAM

If you thought that was harsh, just take a look at this next DC superhuman claiming to fight for justice. Son of Rameses II, this ancient Egyptian dictator was imbued with the powers of the gods by the high priest, Shazam. Betrayed and corrupted by the high priest’s own daughter, Teth-Adam became Black Adam and was buried, only to be discovered and unleashed upon the world a thousand years later by the unknowing archaeologist, Theo Adam.

Black Adam does not shy away from violence; in fact, he constantly uses it to intimidate his foes or make a point. That earned him the distrust of almost every superhero in the “52” series, after he very literally tore the villain Terra Man in half in front of the press as an example of his stance (and by association his country, Kahndaq’s position) on crime. That’s not even the worst of it. While enraged by the death of his beloved wife, Isis and her brother, Osiris, he massacred the nation of Bialya, just for being associated with the forces that stole the lives of his family. In doing so, he single-handedly began World War III.

MIDNIGHTER

Like all superheroes, Midnighter fights for justice and peace. What sets him apart from the rest is that he genuinely enjoys the violence and bloodshed in fighting crime. He was first introduced in “Stormwatch Vol.2” #4 (written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Brian Hitch), along with his partner in heroism and romance, Apollo. He has limited precognitive abilities (a computer in his brain analyzes every fight he gets into, telling him all the different ways to win), he’s incredibly fast and strong. He also has regenerative abilities, which come in handy, since he never shies away from dangerous situations and always seems to have everything under control. Many have said that he’s basically Batman, but with superpowers… and a great love of killing.

The best example of just how violent Midnighter can comfortably get can be found in “The Authority” #16 (written by Mark Millar and illustrated by Frank Quitely, Trevor Scott and David Baron). After the implied assault and sodomy committed against Apollo by The Commander, Apollo and Midnighter take down The Americans in the most brutal way possible. At one point, he smashes someone’s head clean off with a stick and the whole thing ends with Midnighter standing over The Commander with a jackhammer to inflict a terrible retribution. If you’re not crossing him, however, he’s actually quite compassionate and has a very soft and sweet side. So don’t cross him.

RED HOOD (JASON TODD)

Within the realm of DC’s Batman-esque characters without the limit of his one rule, we find Red Hood with Jason Todd beneath the crimson helmet. Even when he was Robin, Jason was angry and lived in a moral grey area. He fought for justice, certainly, but his kind differed greatly from that of his mentor, Batman. This was most notable in “Batman” #422 (written by Jim Starlin and illustrated by Mark Bright, Steve Mitchell and Anthony Tollin), wherein Robin hunts down and sees the murder of a serial rapist who had diplomatic immunity. We never really find out whether or not Todd actually did push him off that balcony, but given all he’s done to date, we can make an educated guess in the affirmative.

In other comics, he’s seen wielding guns and trying to hunt down the Bat-family, essentially because Bruce never avenged Todd’s death, his return from which drove him insane. Generally, though, having taken advice and resources from Talia Al Ghul, Todd’s aim is to strike a more adamant fear into the hearts of Gotham’s underworld, and he has rejoined Batman’s most-trusted ranks as an ally. With his tendency to solve problems with blood, though, he’s best described by Ra’s Al Ghul who called him a curse upon the world.

RORSCHACH

As we’ve seen, sometimes wearing a mask can bring out the more savage side of a crime-fighter. The mask and all its anonymity might engulf the person beneath it, making him or her all the more fierce (sort of like a Twitter handle). That’s essentially what happened to Rorschach, as we can see when he refers to the ever changing ink blots as his real face in Alan Moore’s “Watchmen” series, published by DC.

Rorschach sees the world around him in black and white, which leads him to do some extremely brutal things to decidedly evil people. The best evidence of his extremely violent streak is when he’s locked in prison, surrounded by people he put away and every single one of them wants to kill him. One of them tries and immediately gets hot oil thrown in his face, while another is outright murdered. Then we’re given his interview with the prison psychiatrist to whom he admits incinerating dogs and their murderer/kidnapper owner, going into detail and revealing that he watched the fire for hours. That’s the crazy kind of vengeance you can’t just wave away.

THE COMEDIAN

Rorschach wasn’t the only ultra-violent superhero in the “Watchmen” series. Eddie Blake, also known as The Comedian, is guilty of quite a lot, some of which wasn’t done in the name of justice or doing the right thing. He just had a temper and didn’t value human life, which is what led to him shooting a Vietnamese woman he’d impregnated after she scratches him in the face.

In fact, in “Before Watchmen: Minutemen” #1, it was revealed that before becoming a costumed vigilante, Blake had a long record of criminal activity, none of which he seems to be trying to make up for. Then there’s the reason he was kicked out of the Minutemen group: after a photo shoot, he tries to get Sally Jupiter to sleep with him. When she rejects his advances, he violently assaults her, though he’s stopped and beaten by Hooded Justice. This vile character isn’t part of superhero team because he believes in it, but because he loves the violence that goes with it. This is one ‘hero’ who needed to die.

RED HULK

Marvel’s Hulk is the embodiment of pure rage. However, he just wants to be left alone. Red Hulk on the other hand, isn’t as simple. Thaddeus Ross first appeared as the Red Hulk in 2008’s “Hulk” #1 (written by Jeph Loeb with artwork by Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines and Jason Keith), though his true identity wasn’t revealed until later. We find that he became Red Hulk with the aid of A.I.M and Intelligencia in order to fight Hulk. Unlike Hulk, Ross maintains his mind, although that doesn’t seem to help. Thaddeus Ross is generally just a violent person.

When his daughter was getting married to Bruce Banner, seemingly cured of the Hulk in “Incredible Hulk” #319 (written by John Byrne with artwork by Byrne, Keith Williams and Andy Yanchus), he entered the venue wielding guns and making threats. When Rick Jones attempted to stop him, Ross shot Jones (don’t worry, there’s a happy ending there). As Red Hulk, Ross has destroyed an entire S.H.I.E.L.D helicarrier with everyone on board; he’s even punched Uatu the Watcher in the face, just for trying to watch his fight against the original Hulk! Yes, he’s an Avenger, but a hero? Not exactly.

VENOM

Though he was introduced to us as Spider-Man’s greatest foe in “Amazing Spider-Man” #300, Venom was more crazed and misguided, rather than actually evil. Aside from fighting the wall-crawler, Eddie Brock used the power of the symbiote to become a lethal protector of the innocent. It was something the symbiote continued to do even after forcibly leaving Eddie Brock. As an anti-hero, the monstrous symbiote found a way to save people and sate its appetite for blood. During Flash Thompson’s brief period as Venom, the symbiote devoured Flag Smasher’s arm during the rescue of Yusuf Kassim in “Amazing Spider-Man” #654.1. There was also the murder of Angelo Fortunato, an act committed by the symbiote which allowed Angelo to fall to his death, just because it saw him as being weak.

While Venom has worked with many superheroes to save lives, it’s pretty safe to say that Venom has destroyed or ended more lives than he’s saved. Interestingly, the symbiote’s species — the Klyntar — were recently revealed as being not just non-violent, but actual protectors in space, though easily manipulated once attached to the destructive power of the human ego. So you have to ask, who was the true bad influence in Venom’s various relationships?

LOBO

Considering this character was DC’s reply to Marvel’s Wolverine and Punisher, it would be silly to expect anything other than the most ridiculous displays of violence and bloodlust from Lobo: The Main man. Being a galactic bounty hunter, this Czarnian really only has one rule: he keeps his promises to the letter. That’s exactly as confining as it sounds… which is to say, not at all. He’s free to indulge his sadistic nature by carving a path of destruction through his enemies and contracts.

Lobo is the last of the Czarnians. That might sound tragic, but in “Lobo” #0 it was revealed Lobo unleashed a host of flying scorpions upon Czarnia and single-handedly annihilated the population of the planet. Why? For fun! If that somehow doesn’t persuade you of how bloodthirsty he is, remember that when he died and went to heaven (yes, that heaven) “Lobo’s Back” #4 (written by Keith Giffen and Alan Grant, illustrated by Christian Alamy and Daniel Vozzo), he massacred everyone there and was subsequently banished. Hell didn’t want him so he’s essentially trapped on Earth forever, unable to die even if his incredible regenerative abilities fail him.

DEADPOOL

Speaking of regenerative abilities, our beloved Deadpool actually began as a supervillain in “New Mutants” #98 (written by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicienza, illustrated by Liefeld and Steve Buccellato). Over the years, he’s grown far more over the top and violent (and as a result, more popular). He’s immortal and is really neither a hero nor a villain, meaning he’s free to indulge himself in violence, especially since he’s completely aware that he’s a fictional character and none of the blood and gore really matters. That applies even when that blood and gore is his own, like in “Deadpool Kills Deadpool” #1 (written by Cullen Bunn with artwork by Salva Espin and Veronica Gandini), when he killed alternate universe versions of himself violently and on a whim.

Of course, there’s that time he killed everyone in the Marvel Universe, too, in “Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe” (written by Cullen Bunn, illustrated by Dalibor Talajic and Lee Loughridge). Heads are separated from shoulders, bodies impaled on street signs and what was it all for? The voice in his head told him to. That’s one way to end crime.

SPAWN

From the depths of hell and the imagination of Todd McFarlane (which incidentally may be the same place) comes a hero unlike any other. Arguably more powerful than most comic book superheroes, Spawn’s power does have a certain usage limit, but his rage doesn’t seem to be so restrained. He’s been to hell and back, and been caught in a war between its forces and the forces of Heaven. Generally, he doesn’t really take a side and can usually be found in dark alleys and dangerous situations. Sometimes he does good things and helps people, but most of the time he’s just venting his anger. Seeing as how he lost everything and everyone he loves, he’s got a lot of anger to vent. As you might expect of someone given the power of hell, it’s made him pretty violent.

Take, for instance, his battle against Thamuz, grand master of torture and someone who now probably regrets torturing Al. During the “Armageddon” storyline, a more angelic Spawn encounters Thamuz as the latter is rampaging on Earth, as part of Satan and Mammon’s apocalyptic plot. Spawn swiftly defeats Thamuz by punching his face clean off, killing the demon. He just wasn’t cut out for being an angelic being, we guess. Though afterwards, his face was pretty… holy.

PUNISHER

Marvel’s Frank Castle lost his family in an ill-fated visit to the park where a gangland war took place. That moment birthed the Punisher, a ruthless anti-hero who will use any means necessary to ensure that bad guys stay down. That’s what makes him bloodthirsty: his philosophy. Essentially, he believes that if he lets some murderer get away, he’s responsible for the next life they take. It has made him deeply cynical and dark, putting him at odds with other superheroes in the Marvel Universe.

For example, in “Civil War” #6 (written by Mark Millar, illustrated by Steve McNiven, Dexter Vines and Morry Hollowell), when Goldbug and the Plunderer humbly offer their aid for Anti-Reg forces, the supervillains are immediately gunned down in cold blood by Punisher, who seems confused by the angered reaction he receives. But the best example of his need for violence is in “Secret Wars” #1 when he visits a room full of villains and promises to rain bullets upon them, even though the world around them all was about to end. There was no point to it, but he was going to kill them anyway; not because it was necessary, but because he had to.

BLADE

Marvel’s half-vampire vampire hunter is probably the most literally bloodthirsty hero on this list, even if his victims are generally vampires, the immortal lives of which Blade clearly does not value very highly. It all began with his hunt for Dracula. Sure, he was always pretty dark, having killed vampire children in “Marvel Preview” #8 (written by Doug Moench with artwork by Sonny Trinidad). Over time, he grew even more ruthless in his methods, and you’ll often see him depicted wielding various weaponry drenched in blood, reflecting how he’s also grown to care less about saving lives, and more about killing.

We can’t forget that he even spends Christmas surrounded by death, like that time he went toe to toe with Santa Claus! Okay, it wasn’t really Santa, but it did end with some jolly-looking demon losing a lot of blood in “Blade” #4 (written by Marc Guggenheim with art by Howard Chaykin), as he stood atop a pile of dead bodies, the only one still standing.

Who do you think is the most bloodthirsty hero? Let us know in the comments!

The post Violence is Golden: 16 Bloodthirsty Superheroes appeared first on CBR.com.

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