#dark warlord cale

[sagefearstudios]

Boys of Summer Round 2!

Oh snap! 2 more boys are showing up to the party! The blue-haired boys, Cale and Rowen! Cale is my all-time favorite from the series, so I had to put him in that top. If anyone is curious, he is holding his sword.

[starlitskvaderart]

Midori One Day One Page 358!

Finishing out Winter Week with the Lord of Winter himself!

Commissions | Ko-Fi | Etsy

[roninversary-brawl]

[eatgecom]

A cool design of Cale from Ronin Warriors.

[souloftheseasons]

Happy birthday to the Warlord/Mashou of Darkness!

Image sources:

https://twitter.com/sounans/status/1598321252820828161

https://twitter.com/agnes_tomokichi/status/1598957730165051394

https://twitter.com/youhei19770902/status/1598979487794106368

https://twitter.com/fuhkaryuna1/status/1598783569073418240

https://twitter.com/cobalt_claw/status/1561882409783926784

https://twitter.com/s_kawamata/status/1577348668889657344

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/94807626

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/90035227

https://twitter.com/koshima5540/status/1598699048630120448

https://twitter.com/s_kawamata/status/1593283907201675264

[ao3feed-roninwarriors]

Cursed Ronin

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/MzBtILp

by AnonymousTigress

Sequel from “Hidden Ronin.”

It’s been five years since the Dark Warlords took him hostage and turned him against his fellow ronins. Ryo thought he had found peace within himself, but the nightmares are back and he’s seeing things. Could Ryo do anything to stop the images and regain his sanity?

Words: 1717, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Yoroiden Samurai Troopers | Ronin Warriors

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con

Categories: M/M, Multi

Characters: Sanada Ryou | Ryo Sanada, Rajura | Dais (Yoroiden Samurai Troopers), Anubis | Cale (Yoroiden Samurai Troopers), Shutendouji | Anubis (Yoroiden Samurai Troopers), Naaza | Sekhmet (Yoroiden Samurai Troopers), Badamon (Yoroiden Samurai Troopers)

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/MzBtILp

[open-hearth-rpg]

Open Hearth Video Roundup - June 7, 2024

Welcome to the weekly Open Hearth Gaming video roundup!

These recorded sessions represent only a portion of the games we play every week, and anyone is welcome to join the fun! If you'd like to play in games like these, join our Playabl community and click on the "Calendar" tab to sign up for upcoming games. To browse our entire library of session videos, please visit our YouTube Playlists page. To hear our recorded sessions in audio-only form, please check out our Playing at the Hearth podcast.

Open Hearth Gaming Calendar

Fearful Symmetries: Arc Two (Session 12 of 12) Lowell Francis runs for Alun R., Paul Rivers, Sherri, and Will H The magicians finally move to face Lord Portmore. But they discover a darker secret at the heart of their enemy's estate-- a threat to Albion and England. To stop it, one of them will have to pay the ultimate price.

Godkiller (Session 4 of 12) Donogh runs for Madelancholy Newbridge is reeling from the revelations of Wal's actions, but when she wakes from her ordeal it seems that things are changing for the worse already in the town - will Wal cut and run again, or make a stand?

Hearts of Wulin: Three Mountains, One Heart (Session 5 of 5) Lowell Francis runs for Eliot, José Feito, Kevin M, and Sherri The group considers their next steps in dealing with Peerless Zhelan, as our Fox Spirit has a vision. Da Ming discovers a betrayal at the heart of his school while heartless lets loose not one but two dragons. It all leads to a deadly confrontation as the cultivator schools battle in the streets.

Imperium Maledictum: 3 Cycles from Retirement (Session 3) Lowell Francis runs for Alun R., Dom, and Sabine V. The town of cultists finally pulls back the curtain, threatening to strap the Tech Priest into their sacrificial device. With Octus out tracking down heretics, the other three have to take on mobs, a leader, and a psyker mutant.

Girl By Moonlight: Divine Engines (Session 13) Lowell Francis runs for Ethan Harvey, Patrick Knowles, Sherri, and Tyler Lominack The penultimate session and the final mission. The fate of the Bastion will be decided.

Girl by Moonlight: Danger! Unexploded Spell Lowell Francis runs for Clarisse, Dom, Sherri, and Vertin Session Zero- series setup and character creation for Girl by Moonlight using the Danger! Unexploded Spell series playset. It is a campaign of magical defenders and a city under siege. In DUXS drafted unacceptable mages protect their city from arcane air raids and bombings while trying to survive and create a community.

Urban Shadows 2E Cale P runs for Brandon Brylawski, David Miessler-Kubanek, Jesse A., and Kae

Imperium Maledictum: Plausible Deniability (Session 3) Lowell Francis runs for Cody Eastlick, Keith Stetson, MadJay Brown, and Rich Rogers The group returns to their patron and receives their rewards. They take some time to regroup following their endeavor. Then van Grunt assigns them a challenging mission: disrupt the archeological expedition of a rival, without killing them or revealing van Grunt's involvement. As an added wrinkle, they must recruit persons from the Leagues of Votann. But the situation on planet is more complicated than they thought with maybe Orks, a definite Psyker hunter, and rumors of weird killings.

Star Wars Saturday

Fellowship (Session 13 of 13) Rich Rogers runs for Greg G., Kae, Steven Watkins, and Tyler Lominack After 13 sessions, the fellowship faces Warlord Zsinj.

Silent Falls

Bump in the Dark (Session 3 of 3) Donogh runs for Mark and Puckett Another wreck washes up on the beach, but this one has a chilling reminder clinging to it. To get to the bottom of this mystery Jemma & Shanna must brave the hospitality of a strangely avuncular lighthouse keeper, and join the pilgrimage trail themselves.

Off-Calendar Highlights

Hearts of Camelot: Prince's Bride (Session 4 of 7) Madelancholy runs for Alex C, Jazy, Jonn, and Noctua Lore drops galore with finding out about lost tribes and Gauter's past. Gauter and Riesling search for clues among Perin's captors' campsite, finding a possible connection to Alacritus's order. Sir Roderick and Sir Bart deal with the latter's dereliction of duty, then Sir Roderick has a sibling heart-to-heart with Brother Perin. Llurywenn bears guilt about those who died protecting her, but she takes the group to task for harboring suspicions of a possible traitor.

Hearts of Camelot: Prince's Bride (Session 5 of 7) Madelancholy runs for Alex C, Jazy, Jonn, and Noctua A few heart-to-heart discussions, then...Ambush! A mercenary group seeks to delay the escort's party from reaching Spirit Hawk Peak in time, and a betrayal is revealed.

The Between: Stars and Suns, Season Two (Session 14) Madelancholy runs for Jack, Mike, Sarah W., and Steph "Masks and a Show" - Incredible Masks narrated. Sir Atticus makes breakfast. Liat holds a smoky salon. Ernest and Dr. Weiss head to Bethlem to visit Ernest's old friend. Liat's servant is attacked - and Liat is next. The King in Shadows' influence changes reality as Intermission is called. Sir Atticus tries to track down Patrick Figg, and runs into someone who demands reparations from the Wellington-Hughes.

The Between: Stars and Suns, Season Two (Session 15) Madelancholy runs for Jack, Sarah W., and Steph "All in the Details" - Ernest delves deeper into surreality as he speaks with Bethlem inmates who have seen the King in Shadows play. Dr. Weiss investigates the last place the play was performed, with odd results. Liat humiliates D.I. Pettigrew in front of his men, then invites Mrs. Vardhana to tea at Hargrave House.

[souloftheseasons]

Niiice.

More Progress on the (bootleg) Anubis/Cale Figure

I’m liking the paint-job on the armor! No news on price or delivery dates.

images from the Yoroiden Samurai Troopers - Armor Plus - (BANDAI) facebook page.

[decidedlyaccurateroninwarriors]

Cale vs Door pt2

Cale: 1111

Computer voice: access denied

Cale: 1112

Computer voice: access denied

Cale: 1113

Computer voice: access denied

Cale: 1114!

Computer: access denied.

Cale: this door is a bitch!

[stillness-in-green]

Yuletide 2018 (and other updates)

I return from the traditional end-of-year hiatus with fic!  

Foreign Atlases: From Mars to Earth and back again, the process of building Derma's prosthetic, and the longer process of getting him to accept it.

The requisite Yuletide IBO fic.  It's by no small measure the longest fic I've written for an assignment in the seven years I've been doing Yuletide, but I guess that's to be expected when someone asks for fic about one of the Human Debris cast!  The ending on this one gave me some fits--balancing an OC doctor for lack of any good fits for the role in the canon--but on the whole I'm pretty pleased with it.  It's got some worldbuilding and talk about the setting's spirituality, a load of material between Dante and Derma, and what I thought was a nicely tidy folding of Yamagi's feelings for Shino into his feelings on Derma's situation and what to do about it.  I had a little exchange between Merribit and Yukinojo that it killed me to cut; I may throw it up on my Kofi in a few days.  Keep an eye out!

Composing Our Collapse:  Character by character, line by line, the four youths who will become the warlords write their relationship together before writing it apart.

The apparently-now-a-requisite Yuletide Ronin fic, this time in the form of a Soulmate AU set back during the warlords’ mortal days.  This is one that could have been much longer if I'd pressed on into their lives after being recruited by Talpa, but I didn't have a neat ending in mind for that and it would have ballooned the length hugely; it was also already unbalancing towards favoring Cale more than I had initially intended.  I like some of the scenes I wrote, though; they may likewise find their way to Kofi posting eventually.  

A Short Peace: Winter in Tokyo is a misery, especially when a certain someone hasn't been answering his e-mail.

CANIS: The Speaker is an extremely good, vividly rendered BL manga with a canonical poly relationship between its three protagonists, who all skew older than the norm.  It engages in some of the genre's more melodramatic elements (organized crime, prostitution), but is somewhat unique in that has a lot more time for politics and a lot less time for rape-as-love than many of its peers who share those elements.  It's a bit of an odd duck in that it's a spin-off/prequel of a much more normal BL series in which The Speaker's protags are peripheral antagonist figures, but you don't particularly need to read the other CANIS installments (Hello Mr. Hatter and Hello Mr. Rain) to follow The Speaker.  (Though FWIW those installments are also quite fine in their own regard and the Speaker trio's material is all excellent).       Anyway, as you can see by my shilling, I like the series a lot, and I also like canonical poly relationships, so I knew I wanted to write something for the series when I saw the request go up.  This is not a long fic, just a bit of dabbling with where they are shortly after the upheaval the most recently-available chapters are headed for.  Not quite dark, not quite fluffy, it's as ambiguous as its leads, who are all kind of worried about the future but fiercely determined to protect the present they've just regained.

In other news, I’m so, so close to having the next chapter of the IBO wedding fic done; I just need to sit down and hammer it out.  I’ve also been trying to knead a (highly id-ficcy) Hugtto Precure story about Listor and George into existence, because Hugtto’s Hamster Family Drama is annihilating my soul right now and I need to memorialize my feelings about Listor’s terrible coping mechanisms.  Of all things, I’ve also started poking very hesitantly at that enormous Fate/Zero fanfic again, though I am skeptical that an update will come of that in anything like short order.  I also have a huge pile of ask-memes and the like that may get posted on my still-pretty-barren Pillowfort account at some point.

[starlitskvaderart]

Anubis Time!

[roninversary-brawl]

A tie within 5% moves on as a team! Vote for your favorite or seek the balance!

[eatgecom]

The Four Dark Warlords from Ronin Warriors: Anubis, Cale, Sekhmet, Dais.

[souloftheseasons]

Happy birthday to the Warlord/Mashou of Darkness Cale aka Anubisu aka Kujuurou Sasaki was born today in 1550.

Image sources: 

1.  仲良し山犬組3 by ドバイ

2.  闇魔将 by あゆみつ

3. Twitter -  草臥れひひこ

4. Twitter -  あやめ

[ao3feed-roninwarriors]

Taken Ronin

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/KJFT97U

by AnonymousTigress

Spin-off from “Hidden Ronin” found on FF.net. What if the Warlords didn’t turn the Ronin Warriors to the dark? What if they were interested in only taking one ronin? A story of how things would have gone a little differently for Ryo.

Words: 3927, Chapters: 2/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Yoroiden Samurai Troopers | Ronin Warriors

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con

Categories: M/M, Multi

Characters: Sanada Ryou | Ryo Sanada, Hashiba Touma | Rowen Hashiba, Date Seiji | Sage Date, Mouri Shin | Cye Mouri, Shuu Rei Fuan | Kento Rei Fang, Anubis | Cale (Yoroiden Samurai Troopers), Shutendouji | Anubis (Yoroiden Samurai Troopers), Rajura | Dais (Yoroiden Samurai Troopers), Naaza | Sekhmet (Yoroiden Samurai Troopers), Original Characters

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/KJFT97U

[themyskira]

THAT Wonder Woman script, part 2 of oh shit it got worse

Previously on Wonder Woman, we met our hero -- brave, selfless, moral, willing to go to bat for perfect strangers without a thought for personal safety, but uneasy with emotional vulnerability, preferring to rebuff intimacy with snark and condescension.

I’m talking, of course, about Steve Trevor. Wait, who did you think the hero of this movie was?

Anyway, Steve crashed in plane on an island of Nasty Women, proved his moral superiority and won a convert in the form of a luminous-elemental-natural-curvaceous-waterfall-girl, who beat up her mother to save his life, then decided to follow him home. Just because.

Now Steve and The Girl are flying into a war zone, where Steve is overdue to deliver much-needed supplies to sick, starving refugees.

Alright, so they reach their destination, and there’s trouble on the ground. The runway is crawling with soldiers, and Steve’s crew — Ben Mzamane, Dr Moira “Sully” Sullivan and Griffin Thiele — are looking distinctly worried.

Steve admonishes Diana to keep herself hidden and not cause any trouble, before exiting the plane to greet the soldiers’ leader, a “petty warlord” called Goshnak. He’s the one they had to bribe to get supplies in for the refugees, and he’s demanding extra compensation on account of Steve’s delayed arrival.

BEN We are grateful for everything you have done—

GOSHNAK And what is your gratitude? A few paltry bribes!?

STEVE They’re not paltry. These are quality bribes—

Things are getting dire. They’re surrounded by men with guns and Goshnak is threatening to take the whole damn plane. Then Diana emerges from the plane and suddenly everyone is staring.

SULLY My god. That is a quality bribe.

Hahaha!! What hilarity! I don’t know why more writers don’t exploit the rich comedic vein that is human sex trafficking!!

There’s some mystical nonsense where the camera closes tight on Diana’s foot as it touches the ground and sends a wind whistling through the trees, across the mountains, over the sea and into a darkened room where an ominous figure raises its head.  Nobody on the airstrip notices, mostly because Goshnak is still threatening to shoot everybody and Diana is Not Helping.

GOSHNAK All the goods on that plane are mine.

DIANA No they’re not.

GOSHNAK Do you dare to question my authority?

DIANA Authority that cannot be questioned should look for a different name.

wow great very helpful Diana, lecturing the man with the gun on semantics.

GOSHNAK You bring this whore to insult me?

DIANA What did you say?

STEVE Diana, shut up.

Okay, on the one hand, in the context of this scene Diana is making a bad situation worse and, as she’s being written, this character kind of needs to be told to shut up. On the other hand, I don’t need to see Steve Trevor telling Wonder Woman to shut up, especially right after another man has called her a whore.

And speaking of stupid out-of-character behaviour—

DIANA (moving toward Goshnak) If you want to challenge me, then be man enough to—

I cannot think of a character less likely to use the expression “man enough” than fucking Wonder Woman.

Anyway, that’s the point where Goshnak shoots her in the chest.

She puts a hand to her chest, confused. Blood runs over her hand. […] Diana is on her hands and knees, an unlovely gurgle in her breath. She pushes hard on the (unseen) wound. A few moments, and she wrenches her hand from her chest, rearing back onto her knees.

In her bloody hand, she holds a bullet.

She stares at it, standing shakily up. Goshnak backs off a step, freaked. She holds the bullet up to him, furious confusion in her eyes. She looks at Steve…

DIANA Are you people insane?

And then she faints.

Such heroics.

We cut to Gateway City, where the Spearhead Technologies building dominates the skyline, resembling the head of a spear. Track down through the more run-down neighbourhoods, down into an empty subway station and deep into the old sewerage tunnels beneath the city.

An older homeless man leads a younger female reporter through the tunnels. Their destination:

…a half graffiti/half American-primitive MURAL, depicting a figure in armour on a horse stabbing a giant dragon. Behind them, towers crumble and burn. It’s eerie and awkward, and very beautiful.

It also apparently means something to reporter-lady, but we don’t get to find out what, because that’s when Strife appears.

GINNY (continuing) My God…

The white, deformed face with the bright red teeth and the carved metal skull-cap appears right next to hers, grinning horrifically.

STRIFE No. Not yours.

And then he kills them both. Yes, “he”. For some reason Whedon has decided to make Eris/Strife — a goddess in Greek mythology — into a dude.

Back Our Hero, waiting outside a tent at base camp. Sully is inside tending to Diana. His mate Griffin is particularly concerned for Diana.

GRIFFIN […] I can’t believe Goshnak. Who the hell shoots an unarmed, tasty looking girl?

Okay, so really he’s more concerned for Diana’s rack.

Sully steps out, clearly unhappy, and announces there’s nothing more she can do. This sounds ominous until Diana strides out afterwards, completely healed; turns out Sully didn’t need to do anything.

Diana heads urgently for the plane and Steve hurries after her. He’s stunned that she’s up and about with barely a scar after only six hours; Diana is aghast that it took so long.

STEVE […] You’re healed.

DIANA Yes, after hours. It’s degrading… to be felled by a tiny piece of metal. (quietly) I didn’t know something could hurt that much.

STEVE (not unkindly) Welcome to the world.

THIS WORLD IS SO FUCKED, MAN, I HAD TO WAIT SIX WHOLE HOURS FOR MY NEAR-FATAL GUNSHOT WOUND TO BE MIRACULOUSLY HEALED. SO DEGRADING, I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO OFFENDED IN MY LIFE.

Diana picks up the pace. Goshnak’s men took the supplies to their camp in the hills, and she intends to get them back. There’s a guard at the plane; she knocks him flat without breaking a sweat. As she changes into her armour, Steve lectures her again. He’s a dick about it, but he does have a point: none of Diana’s behaviour has been helpful so far, and now she’s planning on walking into a warlord’s camp and starting a firefight.

Not killing, though. She is prepared to kill a warrior on a battlefield, she says, but nobody who “hides behind” a gun can be called a warrior. Which— look, I’m as pro-gun-control as they come, but that is a bizarrely political statement to put in the mouth of a character who barely even understands what firearms are, let alone the currents of debate going on in America and around the world. Sure, she’s just experienced being shot, and the intense pain of it shocked her, but I’m pretty sure getting disembowelled with a sword is super painful as well.

Basically, Diana’s deep and immediate disgust at guns specifically reads like Whedon trying to shoehorn his own politics into the script, and it does not work.

To Diana’s credit, she proves slightly more competent at dealing with Goshnak’s men. She picks off the sentries in the dark, takes the sleeping soldiers by surprise, and this time when Goshnak shoots, she’s ready to deflect the bullets with her bracelets.

She could use some work on her patter, though.

…she grabs his throat.

DIANA Stop. Shooting. Me.

The gun hits the ground and Diana brings her heel down on it with enough force to break it.

DIANA (continuing) This land is not safe for you. The people here are under my protection and if you even approach them, your death will be appalling. Remember that, when you awake.

She headbutts him, her tiara ringing off his forehead like a blunted bell.

“your death will be appalling”? really?

She changed her mind quick on the whole non-killing thing.

Later, in the refugee camp, the food has been distributed and the doc is tending to the sick. Diana watches as a young boy eats hungrily from a can, only for a man — maybe his father — see him and snatched the food for himself.

STEVE (appearing) Yeah, starvation doesn’t seem to make people nicer. It’s weird.

URGH GO AWAY STEVEN YOU ABSOLUTE TOSSER.

DIANA How could the gods allow this?

STEVE Your gods are dead, Diana. World hasn’t been theirs for a long while.

HAHA, BOOM! Take that, Diana! Shame on you for trying to come to grips with a world you’ve known for all of twelve hours!

Steve walks off, and Ben approaches to reassure Diana that Our Hero is just super prickly because of his Tragic Backstory. See, he used to be in the Air Force, flying combat missions, and once got downed behind enemy lines. He left the military with “a health distrust of anyone with too much power” and “[d]ecided to drop something more productive than bombs” — that’s why he set up this operation with Sully.

Diana asks whether Steve and Sully are “mates” because let us remember that the Amazons are a DEEPLY AND EXCLUSIVELY HETEROSEXUAL CULTURE and naturally it would never enter her mind that Steve might be in a relationship with Ben or Griffin, or for that matter more than one person. Anyway. AWKWARDNESS ENSUES.

BEN Mates?

DIANA Do they… mate? Or…

BEN (smiles) Sully would never put up with him. I don’t believe Steve’s seeing anyone right now.

DIANA (awkward) Oh. That’s of no import. To me. I don’t care about that.

URGH STOP.

Ben asks Diana what she intends to do next, and she says “to help”. Because as we’ve seen she has zero plans outside of taking a gap year in Man’s World so she can ‘find herself’. “I need to know more,” she elaborates unhelpfully. “I need to see… everything.” Apparently unfazed, Ben invites her to “stick with us”. Next stop, Gateway City.

What is Gateway, Diana asks?

We’re answered by a voiceover as we cut back to the Spearhead building.

CALLAS (V.O.) The greatest city in the world. The symbol of American ingenuity, prosperity, and cultural diversity. […] Literally, our gateway to the world.

The speaker is Spearhead’s CEO, Arabella Callas, who appears to be a low-budget Veronica Cale. She is, Joss tells us, “[v]ery blonde, very patrician, unflappable and icy smooth. As lovely as she is untouchable.”

She’s talking to a seemingly mundane meeting of executives and city councilmen, about zoning issues. We learn that Spearhead deals in military technology and is one of the city’s biggest investors. The councillors are keen to accommodate them.

Of course, the moment everyone leaves, Callas flips from zero to cartoon fucking villain. She touches a painting behind her desk, which glows briefly. A tapestry lifts to reveal a giant steel door, which slides open. And with that, Callas strolls on into her evil lair.

INT. SPEARHEAD WAR ROOM - CONTINUING

A cross between a Wall Street trading bullpen and Houston Ground Control, this is where Spearhead monitors the world. There are screens with maps and satellite feeds, dozens of employees with headsets tracking troop movements, high-level government communications, even weather patterns. These employees don’t wear suits. They wear black.

From Callas’ interactions with the operatives, we basically learn that Spearhead are secretly puppetmasters of chaos; no exaggeration. Talks between two warring nations have broken down thanks to an interpreter on Spearhead’s payroll; Callas instructs an employee to “keep our reps on point; I don’t want a bullet fired that wasn’t bought from us”. There’s a hurricane off the Carolina coast, and Spearhead is preparing to seed mass panic in the media. Some dictator wants to get his hands on Spearhead’s new bombers before the Pentagon — Callas is willing to deal for “12 per cent”. A 12 per cent mark-up, the employee asks? No, says Callas: 12 per cent of his county.

Basically, Callas and Spearhead are a caricature of corporate villainy and Joss could not be less subtle if he tried. But wait! There’s more!

Callas announces that she’s going to pray and exits into a dark room lit by torches and dominated by a statue of Ares.

I know, guys. I’m shocked, too. Who would’ve ever thought that Spearhead Enterprises, a weapons manufacturing company that secretly stokes war from inside a building shaped like a spear, would actually be a front for a cult of the god of war?! This is entirely unexpected. I mean, gosh, next you’ll be telling me that Gateway City is sitting on top of a gateway to something ominous and supernatural! Crazy stuff!!

As Callas prays, Strife materialises and tells her he’s gotten rid of the reporter. Callas presses; was he discreet about it?

CALLAS […] The eyes of the world cannot be on Gateway. Not right now. The world is won—

STRIFE (along with her) —won in silence. I know. There was a time when the God of War made war.

CALLAS You want war, you need armies. You need an acceptable level of poverty and ignorance. (looking up at the statue) Despair, rage, religious fervour and above all fear.

Honestly, Marston wrote villains that were more nuanced than this. Whedon literally named her Callous, ffs.

They talk about some reports of a woman taking out a rebel brigade in Africa singlehandedly, then they discuss a planned test of “the Khimaera” as they step into a large silo. The technology inside has a distinctly magical edge. What’s the Khimaera, you ask?

CALLAS The Age of Monsters is over.

STRIFE Is it. Is it really.

As he says it the camera pulls back to reveal the head of the Khimaera — we see little more than a metal shape, the top of which resembles a cross between a lion’s head and a massive rock-drill. Clearly filling the entire silo, the thing writhes and spews fire. Maintenance machines arm out from the wall or crawl over it, insectlike.

groan.

Back to Our Hero and The Girl, who have arrived in the city. Diana is eager to see everything at once; Steve isn’t so sure it’s a good idea to let her go wandering on her own. “I’ll be fine,” she says. “No, I’m kind of afraid for the city,” he deadpans.

Diana enters the throng of the city — “looking at everything and everyone intently, more sociologist than sightseer”. We pan through various sights — extreme wealth and extreme poverty, toy stores and strip clubs. Someone shoves a “LIVE NUDE GIRLS” flyer into her hands; appalled, she looks around to give it back. Which makes sense, because obviously living all her life on an island of Extremely Heterosexual Women, Diana is going to be extremely prudish about the female body.

Then,

—a hooker in an outfit skimpier than Diana’s who stares at Diana, asking:

HOOKER Who are you supposed to be?

Hahaha!! It’s funny because the sex worker thought Diana, also, was a sex worker, which as we all know is a Gross and Shameful thing to be! Oh, the comedy!

Diana steps into the street, forcing a guy in a convertible to swerve around her. He calls her a bitch, she stops the car dead with her bare hands and asks him to repeat that, but then the confrontation is cut short by a cry from across the street. A fourteen-year-old boy is being shaken down by a drug dealer.

Diana whips the dealer with her lasso; he pulls out his gun and starts firing. She deflects the bullets easily, knocks away the gun and lectures him about how she doesn’t like firearms. Then she whips the lasso around his neck and demands to know what he’s doing.

THE DEALER I’m just standing here minding my own crack dealing! (he stops, shaken) No, no, I sell crack! And guns. I also run whores sometimes— or, no! I mean… (deflated) That’s what I mean.

Diana ascertains that the major drug kingpin in the city is a dude called Kleen. We will be spending a stupid amount of time following up on him later, despite his having no relevance to the broader plot.

However, as they speak, Diana realises that dozens of rats are scurrying up from the basement grating of the old building behind them. They’re afraid of something.

Cut to the Spearhead war room, where the Khimaera test — whatever that is — is underway. An employee tells Callas that they have structural engineers ready to feed the media some story about a seismic tremor and a building not built to code. But there’s a problem — the cameras are showing somebody unexpected on the test site.

Because gosh darn it, wouldn’t you just know, first day in the city and Wonder Woman has managed to blunder onto the very site on which Evil Incorporated is testing their doomsday device!

Back to Diana, who’s now urgently shoving people out of the building, racing up the stairs to usher people out of the upper floors as the walls begin to lurch and buckle. She’s barely managed to get everyone out when Strife jumps her. They fight, Diana just holding her own, and Strife warns her to stay out of the city as he teleports away, leaving the building to collapse on her.

Later, in Steve’s bedroom, Diana lies face-down and topless on the bed as Steve cleans her wounds. She explains that Strife the the cruellest god and the servant of his uncle, Ares, because Joss isn’t even trying. FYI, Eris — the Greek personification of strife — is Ares’ brother (and/or first-cousin-twice-removed, Greek divine family trees are complicated) and she works for her own dang self.

Steve immediately leaps to the conclusion that Strife’s appearance is Diana’s fault, because Steve is a dick.

DIANA Do you think it’s all coincidence? Truly? The signs are all around us. You don’t think I’m here for a reason?

STEVE I think you’re dangerous. I think you mean well but you’re looking for trouble and you’re wildly adept at finding it. I think you’ve got delusions of grandeur and some actual grandeur, which is confusing. I don’t like confusing. I hate the fact that I’m so attracted to you, just touching you is overwhelming and I keep hoping you’ll turn around so I can see more of you naked.

He stops, even more confused than she is. His jaw sets and he reaches down, pulls the lasso out from under his butt. She tries not to show her smile.

you are the worst joss.

Diana talks a bit about how despite the violence and inequality and selfishness she’s seen, she believes the people of this world have the capacity for good — they just need to be reminded to look up. Steve makes a guess — that’s her mission, right? Diana corrects him: “Our mission.” This… is actually sounding almost like Diana for once. She doesn’t just want to beat the big bads, she wants to inspire, empower and work together with those around her to build a better world.

Naturally, Steve has to spoil it by being a wanker again.

STEVE […] What if you lose?

DIANA As long as there’s life in me, I don’t quit.

STEVE Nyeah, but I didn’t say ‘quit’. I said ‘lose’. Any idiot can win. Doesn’t mean jack till you’ve done the other thing.

Aaaaaand we’re back to the old “you can’t be a hero because you haven’t suffered enough”.

A series of short scenes follows; Diana interrupting drug shipments, taking down thugs, rescuing women from human traffickers, saving people from collapsing buildings and so on. We see that Steve and his people are working with her to give medical treatment to victims and map out Kleen’s criminal empire.

Joss still has time for some casual dickishness, though.

GIRL Lady? (points up) My cat is stuck in that tree.

Diana looks up, sees the cat on a branch, looks back at the girl with dismissive incomprehension.

DIANA Climb it.

but waitwaitwait. You know what we haven’t had in a good couple of scenes? Some good ol’-fashioned slut-shaming!

NEWSCASTER [female] Reports have come in from all over the city. Descriptions vary, but all describe her as female, impossibly strong and scantily clad. […]

NEWSCASTER #2 [male] So, what do you think? Publicity stunt?

NEWSCASTER (sourly) Probably. The last time I checked, heroes didn’t run around in bustiers.

Strife and Callas complain about how the meddling kids are spoiling their evil plans. Callas has a solution in mind, though — the one thing that “for an Amazon, is worse than death”.

OH GOOD WE’RE ALMOST AT THE DEPOWERING, DEGRADATION AND LIVE BURIAL PART OF THE SCRIPT THIS CAN’T POSSIBLY GO POORLY