#gene was freaking out about the end of the world thing earlier like the bombs and stuff

[gnu-paint]

...

so i guess gene's date didn't work out

[imasoftieuwu]

"It's all gonna be alright, I'm here"

YangYang X Reader

Genre: Zombie Apocalypse AU, Fluff, Angst?

Warnings: Blood, Gore, Swearing, Mentions of abuse

"Shit" you yelled as body came in contact with the ground results from the force of the bomb exploding. "They are really ready to roast this city huh." you thought, the government doesn't seem to mind the fact that people still exist in the city alongside with the zombies. Which are the product of a so called experiment to modify human genes, just to satisfy scientists' curiosity. The thirst that lead to soon destruction of not just hummanity but this whole earth, they only ever asked if they could do it but never stopped to think if they should and that leads to this. A zom freaking bie apocalypse, yes you heard that right what was once harmless fiction is now a nightmare people have to face on a daily basis.

"Oh lord! Y/N what the fuck just happened jesus" Kun ran to you hurriedly, his face contorted with worries. "Really, can't you tell? I just survived another bomb attack from our almighty government." Kun eyes traveled to your right leg where the flesh was ripped opened deep enough to show your bone. "What the hell happened to your leg?" Kun winced, and you flashed him a shit eating grin saying "Oh come on, you've seen my bones enough times to not be shock." Kun shaked his head disappointingly pulling out his first aid kid from his backpack. After bandaging your messed up leg and leading you back to an abandoned house, which is going to be your shed for some times, a day that is. You can't just stop, you have to be constantly moving from place to place picking up food and supplies on your way. Kun layed you down onto a couch and made sure that you were in a comfortable position before heading out. You drifted to sleep under the moonlight illuminating through the crevices of the boarded-up windows, wishing this is just a nightmare and you will wake up to the normal world before all of this resuming your carefree life. Your eyes fluttered shut as memories played in your mind like a movie.

"YangYang you scared me!" You gasped dramatically placing a hand on your chest as you twisted the door knob to close the front door. YangYang pulled you into a tight hug, you can't help but notice all the bruises and cuts littered all over his face and arms. "Did they hurt you again?" You asked, brows knitting you already know the answer and have seen him like this countless of times before but it still hurts you to see him battered up by his own family, people who are supposed to protect him not hurt him. "Well, that's why I'm here." He grinned scratching the back of his head nervously. "But it's ok, I'm fine. We're here now so do you wanna go?" He raised an eyebrow. You nodded firmly taking his outstretched hand, everytime you were with him it's as if time had stopped and all the worries faded away because in that moment in your own world it's only you and YangYang holding each other, drowning in love.

You picked up your pace as the rain is starting to fall, drops after drops of rain fell relentlessly onto your skin. The prickling sting of each drops of rain, the way the cold pierced through your skin, the way dampened clothes stick onto your skin is so vivid. It was freezing but you felt so warm as long as your hand is still in his, his grinning face as he turns around holding you tight running down the empty street etched into your mind.

YangYang pulled you into a playground, you crouched inside the small playhouse still soaking wet from the heavy rain. You sat there for a while, hands still intertwined staring out at the pouring rain. As time passed, the rain starts to calm little by little until it reduced to nothing. "The rain stopped!" You said smiling at YangYang, the rain had stopped but the wind grew larger and larger causing you to shivered as the cold intensified. YangYang pulled you into a tight warm embrace "But it's still cold, we should stay in here for a while." You nodded softly burrying your face into the crook of his neck.

The wind have dried your drenched self and its starting to get warmer, you took a deep breathe taking in his scent "I wish we can stay like this forever." he whispered. You whispered back a "Me too." before pulling away, he looks so ethereal under the moonlight you can't help but cup his face in your hands. "You look unreal." the words left your lips before you can even process what's happening, your cheeks turned bright red at the relisation of what you just said as his matches the shade of yours. His eyes widened as he whispers a small thanks, he quickly composed himself and pulled you out of the playhouse.

You adored the moon shining above, swinging your legs while sitting on a tree branch beside YangYang who was still holding your hand. You squeezed his hand turning to face him and said "It's all gonna be alright, I'm here" giving him a reassuring smile before resuming your gaze back onto the moon. He picked a flower from the tree and tucked it under your left ear, "You look prettier than the flower and even more with the flower!" YangYang exclaimed smilling widely at you. Your heart swelled up at his words and a smile stretched across your face, you gave him a tiny punch to his chest "Your such a sweet talker." you pouted. You sat and laughed on the tree fingers never leaving each other's reminiscing the nights where you would sneak out just like this and watch the sunrise. This night was like any others but little did you know it would be the last before the outbreak. As the sun slowly started to rise from the horizon, "Y/N." YangYang called you softly and looked at you with adoring eyes before he spoke again "Y/N, I love..." His voice faded away before he could complete the sentence, YangYang endearing smile is replaced by a scowling Kun.

Kun was restlessly pancing back and forth, contemplating on whether to wake you up or not. You were badly injured yesterday and needed to rest but the zombies won't rest. You opened your eyes to Kun face hovering over yours, his knitting brows relaxed. "We gotta get moving Y/N, the zombies were bombed yesterday but more is coming." Kun sighed, handing you your bag filled with water and canned food he had scavenged last night. You lifted up your shotgun to check if it's loaded, of course it is Kun is the most cautious person you've ever known, he probably checked the guns at least 3 times.

You swinged the bag over your shoulder as you stood up completely forgetting about your right leg. "Ouch!" you yelped as the pain from your leg shoots up to your head. Kun rushed over to your side settling you back down to the couch. The force from standing up abruptly must have opened up the wound as your leg is bleeding through the bandage. "The bandage needed to be change either ways." Kun said wrapping up your leg with new bandage, "Done!" he exclaimed, you replied with a "Thank you." and Kun waved it off with a smile.

"How are we going to run out of this city with this?" you gestured to your injured leg, "Ah, about that no worries. YangYang will pick us up." your heart skipped a beat at the mention of his name, the image of his warm smile and outstretched hand flowed into your mind. "YangYang?" you questioned, you haven't seen each other for months since your team splitted up to scavenge for supplies since it was running low and YangYang group ended up getting trapped in Minnesota. "They got out of Minnesota somehow, Xiaojun called me yesterday." Kun explained, "But how, didn't they closed the border?" you asked confused, "They probably blew up the border or something." he half joked, "That's a very YangYang and Hendery thing to do." you laughed.

The all too familiar growl and banging on the front door replaced the smile on your face with a serious expression. "Shit they must have smelt the blood" Kun clicked his toungue, but something is off. The zombies shouldn't be here right now, there is no way they could travelled such distance in just one night. Yesterday's explosion was large enough to cook all of the zombies in this city and possibly the one next to it. Based on the look on Kun's face you figured he must have known that this is not just those normal zombies that you are going to deal with, and normal zombies were enough to sends shivers down your spine. All the hairs on your body stood up, just the thought of evolved zombies knocked the air out of your lungs. "When did these little shits became pokemons?" you joked, cracking a smile from Kun, "Pokemons or not we still need to kick those little shits' asses don't we."

A swarm of mutant zombies barged in at the moment Kun twisted the doorknob, he stood behind the door and started to fire at the creatures with his riffle. They were much faster, more brutal and harder to kill that's for sure, confirming your earlier thoughts. It took not only one but double or triple shot right in the head to make the horrid creature crumble into a goey, bloody mess under Kun's feet. He was able to took down most of the zombies before they dashed to you at an inhuman pace, you aimed your shotgun right in front of the zombie's head before pulling the trigger and blasting it's head open. Kun reloaded his riffle and continued to shoot at the zombies at a relentless pace, a zombie managed to grab a hold of your right arm. You swiftly pulled out a knife from your pocket and stabbed right through it's skull as Kun blew up the last zombie's head that were heading towards you.

"Well, that was a workout." Kun huffed wiping the sweats on his forehead smearing the blood from his hand onto his head without even noticing. "You got something on your face Kun." you bursted out laughing, Kun's confused face didn't help as you were laughing so hard tears escaped your eyes. "Oh!" he gasped before pulling out a pack of wet tissue and wiped the blood of his face, hands and gun. He handed you the pack of wet tissues, you stifled out a "Thank you." still laughing and clutching your stomachache. "Oh come on, Y/N." Kun groaned, "I'm sorry." you huffed trying to stop the laugh but it's almost impossible.

Lucas poked his head out from the opened door, "Long time no see man!" he squealed running to you and Kun almost tripping on a zombie's blown-up brain. "That was close!" he yelped, staring wide-eyed at the pile of zombies, their guts and skull scattering everywhere on the floor. The scene earned a gag from Ten standing right behind Lucas, "Jesus you two did that? Alone?" Ten praised still gagging, Ten is ruthless in the battlefield and is one of the most skilled shooter in the State, chances of him dying from gagging at zombies corspes are even higher than being eaten by one. Lucas pouted shooting you a thumbs up with a big grin across his face, "Good job man!" he gave Kun and you each a pat on the back. "Um... are we going?" WinWin called from the van, "Yep!" Kun shouted and gestured to Lucas to lend him a hand. Kun and Lucas carried you into the van and settled you down into the back row. "Thank you!" you gave them a shining smile, "No problem." Lucas smiled back.

Your eyes lit up, your lips curled up into a smile as you threw your arms around YangYang's neck, his eyes crinkled into a crescent and the image of the outstretched grin on his face that is always on your mind now is staring right at you. YangYang gave a peck on your cheek, and pulled you into a suffocating hug "Ugh, get a room wouldn't you." Xiaojun shot you a disgusting look and dramatically gagged. "Are you jealous?" WinWin looked at Xiaojun suspiciously. YangYang reluctantly pulled away from the hug to let you breathe, the laughter grew louder and louder as everyone was making fun of Xiaojun's lonely status. Xiaojun would always say he just doesn't want to and if he did he would have 5 girlfriends at a time, no one believed in such a blatant lie of course. Sometimes you do feel bad for him, he's always known as the lonely nerd and girls wouldn't spare him a glance but it's always fun to tease Xiaojun.

YangYang snaked his arm through your back and pulled you to close the tiny distance between your bodies, smiling sweetly at you and tapped his shoulder instructing you to lean your head on his broad shoulder. You swear you could get diabetes someday because of his smile, you plugged in your earphone handing him to the other piece and played your favorite song. The song that you and YangYang would hum together sitting by the river with your feet dipped into the cool water and hands intertwined. The tune that the little boy with disheveled hair, bruised body, and the brightest smile would sing softly in a field of cattails by the flowing stream. The tune that led you to the little boy that is now holding you close and humming that same tune into your ear, patting your head softly and running his long fingers through your lushes locks. He intertwined his hand that was wrapped around your waist with yours, leaning onto your head and whispered "I love you" three words the left your heart hammered in your chest and joy to rush throughout your body. You closed your eyes and whispered an "I love you too." to YangYang, you can feel his smile with your eyes closed, he squeezed your hand reassuringly "It's gonna be alright, I'm here." were the last words you heard before drifting off into a deep slumber.

[savage-rhi]

Sky of Atoms: Death Stranding Fanfic-Ch. 4

HIGGS 2.0

After punching the lights out of the MULE who snuck up behind Gene, Higgs held the unconscious gal in his arms. He made an offhand remark about she could take a hit before blacking out entirely. Furrowing his brows, he wasn’t sure what to do now as he looked up seeing the bodies piled around them as the fog drifted away from their location and moved into the valley. Now that no one had to worry about necrosis anymore from a corpse and causing a void out, assholes like MULE’s were fair game as far as Higgs was concerned. Same with David, who was groaning still.

Higgs gently lied Gene down then went over to his former comrade. He looked at David’s body up and down briefly taking out a small gun he had on his person, aimed right for the middle of the head, and took the shot. There was no sound, only a quick whoosh of air before it was over for David. Higgs had a moment of silence for his former comrade, recalling a brief memory of the two helping each other out with a bomb delivery before he pushed the thought aside. There was no point lingering in the past, especially when it came to Homo Demens. It was kill or be killed now.

Higgs went back to Gene then bent down to scoop her up in his arms. When he rose, Higgs could feel the toll of using his abilities coming to bite him in the form of spasms in his legs.

“Damn girl, I swear you’re gonna get me killed.” Higgs said towards the unconscious Gene as he adjusted her, letting Gene’s head sway into his shoulder. Higgs knew he used up too much of his juice on the MULE’s so teleportation was out of the question. With how much stamina the fight took out of him, he knew realistically he couldn’t make the climb with Gene the way she was. Higgs sighed defeated as he shook his head and began a new trek, back around where they had come from but he kept close to where the valley floor met the cliffs. Scaling rocks and climbing wasn’t something he could stomach.

Occasionally, Higgs would put two fingers to Gene’s neck to check her pulse. It was faint but strong. Not enough for him to worry about. Her breathing appeared to be normal too as far as he was concerned. It was strange, going out on a limb like this to help someone he didn’t know much about. Higgs couldn’t remember the last time he had done this for anyone, save for when he was younger and was an up and coming porter trying to prove himself. Maybe the years of isolation were beginning to rub out the edges, like the waves of the ocean smoothing out rocks over time. Higgs didn’t like becoming sentimental, and he was quick to dismiss the thought. He was doing great on his own, and getting involved with people was nothing but trouble. Today with Gene, that proved his point.

Higgs was an hour and a half away from his base, having found an easy path to get out of the valley and far enough from the carnage he and Gene left behind. He was growing tired by the minute, and eventually found shelter in the form of a large tree and four giant rocks, one slanted to where it could protect him from the elements. The first thing he did was set Gene down, leaning her against the tree as the sun began to shine through the branches. He figured she needed the sunlight more so than him as he went for the shadows of the rock formation. Higgs collapsed and exhaled a deep breath as he slouched. His body was beginning to betray him again as more convulsions started in his legs and worked their way up. He could imagine it being akin to a tapeworm squirming around in the stomach with how uncomfortable it felt. Part of his DOOM’s withdrawal was that every time he expended the little bit of power he had left from Amelie, his body would freak out. It was unnatural to have such strength, to be able to teleport and at one point in life, control BTs. The human body was never meant for such a thing, and it was only because of Amelie that Higgs didn’t fall apart from it. Now that his connection was severed, he felt the brunt of it all.

Higgs allowed himself a nap once the convulsions subsided, decreasing his risk of having another DOOMs withdrawal nightmare for the day. It was much needed, not to mention being out in the world, it was peaceful. There was a point where he used to be afraid of the wind, because he’d know that BTs were nearby and he’d start crying from being too close but now the sky was gentle. There was no malice that tainted the moment. He slept peacefully for the first time in a long while.

Waking up later on, Higgs left Gene behind and took care of his monthly routine of taking supplies from MULE’s to stock up on survival necessities. He had found another gang of them not too far from the valley floor and was quick to not get caught. Higgs was gonna be set for another month and a half and wouldn’t have to go out of his base often save for when he wanted to catch some fresh air.

Upon returning to where he left Gene, Higgs began to contemplate his options as to what to do with her. The smart thing would be to kill her off and make it look like the MULE’s had done it say if her employer Brisk HARPY ever came looking for her corpse. Old him would have done that long ago with no hesitation. Higgs took into account the stupid stunt she pulled earlier, saving him from being shot by David at point blank by falling from the ladder onto the Homo Demens member and beating the crap out of him despite having a wounded foot. The whole thing was ridiculous, very much so in the grand scheme of things when it came to survival, but Higgs had to admire the guts Gene had to pull something like this off. She had grit, which was why she probably became a porter in the first place as far as Higgs was concerned.

Higgs was stuck in a conundrum of sorts mentally. A part of him wanted to do things the old fashioned way, while another was yearning for--something. He wasn’t sure what to make of it. He had to admit it was nice talking to her. Having been isolated from the world for three years, Higgs never had much company except on a rare occasion. The fact that Gene reminded him of his younger self didn’t help things on his end. He was drawn to that vitality. He also knew that it was unwise to put that much faith into another person, especially one whom he just met. He was still UCA’s most wanted, and if she put the dots together and figured out he was once upon a time the leader of Homo Demens and tried to end the world, eventually she’d find out and would hand him over to the Inquisitors.

Stumped, Higgs began to pace around the area. Occasionally rubbing the back of his neck and looking over towards the unconscious Gene. Finally, he made his decision to stick to what he knew best, and to move on. It was better this way, not to form any attachments. It wasn’t like he was the touchy feely type save for when he wanted to intimidate somebody or assert his dominance.

Higgs bent down towards Gene’s body, taking a canteen from one of his belts, popped the cap open and began to pour some water down her face to wake her up. It didn’t take too long for the woman to stifle, groaning a bit as the cold water cascaded down her chin and neck. Higgs smiled as Gene began to cough a few times and gained consciousness. He stopped pouring the water on her, putting the canteen back on his belt as he smiled at Gene while she opened her eyes.

“Rise and shine sleeping beauty. You’re safe.” He said as she glanced around, seemingly trying to figure out where they ended up almost like a newborn trying to figure out where they were once escaping the womb.

“Where--how the hell did you get us away?” Gene asked, coughing once more.

“Now, now, a magician never reveals his secrets. I think you’re old enough to figure as much.” Higgs said as his lips pulled into a small smirk, which seemed to nerve Gene a little as she composed herself and leaned up from the tree.

“I can’t be that much younger than you.” Gene said in a disgruntled fashion.

Higgs laughed it off. “Given how young you are for a porter, and given the stupid shit you pulled to get that Homo Demens member off my tail, I’d say you sure act like a child.”

“Is that really the thanks I’m going to get for nearly taking a bullet for you?”

“You’re forgetting that I carried you not only on my back but also in my arms. Regardless of you coming to the rescue, it was very stupid to not have your guard up. It’s why the MULE shocked you to death in the first place. Not to mention earlier on I checked your pack. You didn’t take anything of value that would have helped in this part of the West. Either you’re really naive or just plain stupid.” Higgs said as a matter of fact, earning a glare from Gene who was beginning to turn red in the face. Higgs even observed her nostrils giving a small, almost unnoticeable flare. It humored him to say the least.

“Man, you are a fucking prick I never asked for your help you came to me, and you looked through my belongings?” Gene asked bitterly. Whatever good vibes she had towards Higgs seemed to go out the window, and he was appeased by that. It would make leaving her behind all the more easy.

“I sure did. It’s the least you owe me for saving your tail.” Higgs said as he got up, digging through his own pack now as he took out a decent med kit and tossed it towards Gene in a casual fashion. The medium size box made her jump as it thud to the ground, causing Higgs to chuckle at her reaction.

“I think it’s time we go our separate ways. There’s enough medicine in there to help that foot problem of yours until you make it back to your employer. Keep going West from here, and you’ll make it back in no time chickadee.”

“Wait,” Gene nearly shouted as Higgs began to walk away from her, swinging his pack behind him. “Are you really just going to leave me out here like this?”

“Yup!” Higgs said in a chipper voice as he turned around, walking backwards as he gestured to her and then himself. “The dynamic duo is now the dynamic uno. Sides’ I don’t need a porter getting up in my business.”

“You know that’s a really shitty thing to do to someone right?” Gene shouted towards him as Higgs began to put more distance between them. He laughed before replying.

“I’m fully aware it’s a shitty thing, but it's how I live my life sweetheart.” Higgs never looked back, but he could hear the limping steps of Gene trailing behind him like a stray dog taking comfort in a random stranger for throwing a bone. It had been ten minutes of this nonsense. He stopped and turned around, looking a little irritated now as he sighed.

“You stalking me now?” Higgs asked as Gene, out of breath and in obvious pain, held up a finger to him to shush up.

“I wouldn’t give you the satisfaction, but the truth is I owe you for the help. You saved my ass and I gotta give credit where it’s due. I’m not gonna let up until I at least cover my part of the debt or I’m gonna feel guilt tripped for a while.”

“Nah, the only thing you owe me is turning around and going the other way.” Higgs said as he pointed back to where the tree and rock formation was at, earning an irritated sigh from Gene as she looked at him firmly.

“Look, I’m a porter and you’re a Lone Dog. There’s gotta be something I can deliver to you that you need.” Gene pleaded. “I met a lot of loners in my time, and I know you guys got your own thing going on with whatever it is that knocks your socks off, but everyone needs help. I bet you get really tired of having to pick off scraps from MULE’s just to make it out here.”

“You know, you’re one terrible snake oil salesman.” Higgs said with a huff as he shook his head and turned around. “I think we’re done here. You don’t owe me squat.”

“When was the last time you had a decent meal, or were able to take care of your bristly beard?” Gene asked, obviously trying to find some sort of sweet spot to get him to stop walking away. “You look like a fucking side burned neanderthal I hope you know.”

“You shouldn’t be biting the hand that fed you just now.” Higgs said coldly as he turned around. He could see Gene’s throat bob as she swallowed and gave a shrug. No doubt nervous and probably feeling as if she might have pushed his buttons too far.

“I got your attention at the very least, didn’t I?” She said.

“Point taken.”

Higgs gave a nod, letting out a sigh as he thought her offer over. Besides for the offhand remark about him being compared to a caveman, the food bit did get Higg’s head spinning. He contemplated, rubbing the scruff under his chin in thought before he walked up, approaching Gene and getting somewhat into her personal bubble. She took a step back, earning a smirk from him as he spoke.

“Maybe there is something you can get for me after all.”

“Name it.” Gene said, a trickle of enthusiasm showing in her hoarse voice. Higgs could tell from that much she really must’ve enjoyed the porter life. He could remember a time where he got excited as to what he would be delivering next.

“A large pizza and some alcohol sounds great. Could you do that for me?”

Higgs could see the gears turning in Gene’s head. No doubt she looked taken aback from the request as if it was the strangest thing she ever heard of.

“Is that it?” Gene asked.

“Yup. Would there be any trouble doing this under the table, no log books or any bullshit like that?”

Gene seemed hesitant and Higgs was nearly ready to give up and keep moving until she nodded to him in affirmation.

“I’m sure I could work out something so that I still get my numbers for Brisk HARPY. There anything particular you want on it?”

Higgs smiled, feeling the anticipation growing in his stomach at the thought of having one of his favorite meals in three years. His tongue darted out, licking his lips at the thought. He wasn’t trying to be creepy this time around, but it didn’t seem to help as he could tell from Gene’s facial expression that she looked a bit uncomfortable. Since Higgs was already on a roll, he decided to tie it in a knot.

“Get me whatever you’re into. I’m sure you won’t disappoint me.” He said cooly and raised a finger, giving a playful boop to Gene’s nose and caused her to jump back. She seemed nerved by his interaction and it made Higgs laugh as he began walking back home with his supplies.

“How will I contact you? What about your location?” Gene hollered, watching as Higgs began to leave once again, leaving her out in the middle of nowhere.

“You got one of those damn cuff links so don’t worry about it! I’ll let you know when I’m ready to receive! Might want to get moving chickadee, more MULE’s will be swarming this area once they find the bodies.”

He could hear Gene booking it upon mentioning the previous situation they were under. Higgs felt some relief at that, she’d get out of the way of being endangered and now she would no longer be his problem. He was very much looking forward to the delivery, finding it amusing all the while. The possibilities began to channel through his mind: maybe there was a good reason he bumped into this porter today. He wasn’t one to believe in fate, not ever since he tried enacting the sixth extinction, but ideas began to arise. Gene made a good argument, that loners needed help and that they got tired of living the grind smuggling scraps. Maybe she wasn’t as big of a nuisance after all but would be useful to him in the long term. Having a personal porter and not getting caught by the UCA among other things sounded too tempting to pass off.

Tagging: 

@kusooi​

[mobius-prime]

192. Sonic the Hedgehog #124

Sonic Adventure 2.5: Λlphλ

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: J. Axer and Steven Butler Colors: Jason Jensen

All right everyone, we've finally made it to the "Endgame" of the fourth era! While it's not quite as epic and game-changing, this story, spanning this issue and the next, alters the setting and the plot quite a bit, and also sees the return of Shadow the Hedgehog, whom we only got to see a quick cameo of back in Sonic Adventure 2. Also, amusingly, the word "Alpha" in the title is actually spelled with the Greek letter Lambda, not the actual letter Alpha. I know it's for the Aesthetic™ and all, but it's still funny. But anyway, let's jump in and see what this era's finale has in store for us!

So first, we learn the story of how Shadow survived his fall from orbit. Turns out, he didn't actually fall at all! Before he entered the atmosphere, he was caught in a beam from an alien spaceship, and brought aboard.

Well now, isn't this interesting! These are the same aliens that transformed Eggman and Snively back to their organic forms a few issues ago. It seems they're quite interested in meddling in the affairs of the planet, for whatever reason, and now they're using Shadow as a method of escaping from a second spaceship full of different aliens who appear to be quite aggressive. Shadow tries to fight back against them, but the ship hits him with an energy beam, and he begins to lose consciousness once again, falling back towards the atmosphere just as before. Meanwhile back in Knothole, Sonic wakes up, seemingly excited about something big today. He races to Knothole Castle where he kisses Sally hello, the two now openly dating now that they've admitted their true feelings for each other. She asks him if he's ready to "pop the question," to which he says he… is… wait, what question is this, Sally?! You can't mean…

At the same time, in Station Square, the president finds himself contacted by Eggman, who tries to make him a deal to become allies in exchange for advanced technology and protection. Of course, he's trying to propose an alliance to the same people who literally nuked his city because they didn't like him, so this goes about as well as you expect. Naturally, Eggman doesn't like this response one bit.

Rouge swoops in to save the president and his driver as the car careens into a river, but just as they think they've escaped danger, the entire false sky above the city shatters under the attack from a mysterious foe… But before we find out who has done this, it's time to find out what question Sonic is supposed to be asking.

…okay, honestly, this is just bizarre to me. I get that absolute monarchies tend to want to marry their heirs off young to secure alliances, but really? These two haven't even properly dated yet, beyond a little these past months (as at least a couple months are implied to have passed since Sally's kidnapping), and now at the age of sixteen they're planning a future wedding? This entire bit seems so weirdly out of character for both Sally and Sonic, if you ask me. The comic has flirted with the idea of marriage between the two in the past, but that was mostly during the earlier issues when each story was only focused on being silly and telling a funny, self-contained story. Obviously, these two have had a deep crush on each other for years now, and have a lot of chemistry in their own way, but a de facto engagement between the two of them is just strange. Sally is much more pragmatic than that, having broken off a potential relationship once before in favor of focusing on her official duties, and as for Sonic, we've been directly shown before that he's flighty, afraid of commitment, and generally prefers casual friendships to heavily romantic relationships. Now, this might make more sense if you instead view it as an announcement of convenience, a plot concocted by the both of them to get Sally's parents off her back about being married off to a "suitable partner" as the future ruler of the kingdom. If it were portrayed this way, then maybe I could give this a pass. But we're given no such inkling that it's anything other than exactly what it appears to be. And that, to me, makes this plot point a completely bizarre departure from the usual attitudes of both these characters to romance and relationships. Even weirder, as we'll see, this doesn't even affect the plot of the comic at all in future issues - while there's a reference to it here and there, it's nothing plot-important and could have easily been written out without much trouble.

Anyway, Sonic runs out to investigate the boom only to find Shadow lying in a crater outside the castle. Man, lucky for him that he just so happened to land here instead of literally anywhere else, huh? Sonic approaches him and Shadow lashes out in confusion, knocking Sonic aside, before coming to and apologizing. All this does is rile Sonic up and he tries to attack Shadow in retaliation. Really, Sonic? You thought Shadow was freaking dead, and the moment you see him again you try to punch his lights out? Sally, luckily, steps in to reprimand him for his behavior, and Nicole contacts her, telling her there's an emergency message for them back at the castle. The Freedom Fighters, along with Shadow, follow her back in, where both Eggman and Rouge contact the royal family simultaneously, each claiming their cities have been attacked by an overwhelmingly strong foe. Shadow confirms that this is likely an attack from the same vessel he had just been fighting, but then… something happens. A telepathic message spreads out across the globe, echoing in the minds of every single sentient being on the planet, demanding the attention of the "inhabitants of planet Earth…"

Well, this is bad. And now, they're back to finish what they started… Eggman panics and tries to immediately get King Max to agree to an alliance of convenience, but Max cuts him off without another word, justifying his actions to his shocked onlookers as making sure Eggman is good and ready to accept a truce on his terms by making him sweat a bit first. Sonic expresses confusion that the aliens seem to be confusing Mobius with another planet called Earth, but they get a call from Angel Island at that moment where Locke offers his assistance. Of course the Freedom Fighters ask about Knuckles, and he sorrowfully informs them that he's dead. They're shocked and saddened, but don't have time to mourn, as they have to prove the Xorda wrong about their planet. Sally begins some research into the history of the planet, but Hope unexpectedly steps forward, offering her own insight into how the Xorda ended up here in the first place.

Oh boy, Shadow, I sense we're going to have some emotional turmoil over Hope in our future. Also, I just wanna note that this issue claims that the Xorda were last here three thousand years ago, but future issues retcon this into twelve thousand years. Anyway, Sally soon discovers something shocking in her research… Mobius and Earth are, in fact, the same planet!

This. Is. It! This is the big reveal that I've been so carefully dancing around for almost two hundred issues! I have been meticulously wording every reference to Mobius being an "Earth-like planet" to be spoiler-free but also totally accurate in the light of this reveal. Yes, ladies, gents and enbies, the Archie Sonic preboot takes place twelve thousand years into our own future. The first Xorda invasion was, in fact, the first recorded Day of Fury, which is why it's recorded as having wiped out nearly all life on the planet. And this is also the origin of the split between five fingered humans, and four fingered Overlanders. The humans survived underground, unaffected by the gene bombs dropped by the Xorda, while the Overlanders are the result of, essentially, re-evolved humans that were affected by the gene bombs. And as for Mobians? Well, we are talking about a weapon called a gene bomb, so Mobians obviously came about through severe mutations caused by said bombs, eventually becoming the dominant species of the planet! This is why the planet's continents look very similar to those of Earth, with the differences easily explained by not only twelve thousand years of continental drift, but the massive geographical alterations that such a dramatic cataclysm would have caused on the planet. All those old references to previous Earth civilizations exist because those things actually happened, even if the people making said references no longer know what the Confederate States were, or who the Aborigines were. I know this reveal wasn't particularly liked by a lot of readers, and certainly without the context of the previous two hundred issues it sounds downright absurd (hell, even with the context it kind of does), but in the end my personal opinion is that this was a bit of a masterstroke on Karl's part. It's a great way to tie a lot of old plot threads together and develop a more cohesive and solid history for Mobius as a planet, and ultimately provides us with a more clear timeline of events for the various races and civilizations of the world. And it's all thanks to a species of creepy vengeful Mother Brain octopus alien things deciding to commit genocide!

Afterlife (Part Four)

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Art Mawhinney Colors: J. Jensen

So, Kenders. With the big milestone issue fast approaching, is there anything you wanna add in this next installment of Afterlife? Like, perhaps, finally addressing what exactly is supposed to, y'know, happen in the afterlife? Knuckles certainly wants to know, having spent the last two issues doing nothing but reliving his entire previous life verbatim. Aurora explains that though he feels it's unfair that he died, it was unavoidable, as he simply came into his power too quickly and couldn't temper it or learn to control it quickly enough to pull off his saving-Dimitri stunt without essentially going supernova.

This part actually does interest me, because Knuckles' reaction implies that until now, the fact of his death hasn't fully sunken in. He seems to be under the impression that he can come back from it and just resume his life where he left off, instead of traveling onward into the next phase of life. Aurora apologizes and explains that everyone only gets one chance at life, and beckons him toward the mystical portal to the Chaos Force. Knuckles requests only one more thing, to become his normal red self once more, and when Aurora gently corrects him that he doesn't need her help for that, he finds himself instantly back to his old color scheme with a mere thought, which raises the minor question of whether he would have been able to revert back to red all along, or whether it's due to the malleable nature of existence in the afterlife that he's able to do so now. Regardless, the reign of Green Knuckles over the comic's B-stories has finally ended, and Rad Red steps into the portal, ready to claim his destiny. And thus, we get ready to say goodbye to our favorite echidna once and for all, as he takes his place amongst the… wait, hang on a second…

Good old Athair! I missed you, buddy. Aurora tries to argue that Knuckles should still advance forward into the Chaos Force, but Athair merely frowns and crosses his arms, leaving the ending of this story ambiguous… and ripe for a true conclusion next issue, as we hit another major milestone in the history of the comic!

[pixelgrotto]

RIP Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog comic (1992-2017)  After 25 years and nearly 300 issues, Archie’s long-running Sonic the Hedgehog comic was officially cancelled earlier this week. The writing’s been on the wall for a while now, since the comic went on a forced hiatus several months ago and none of the creators were allowed to publicly discuss it due to ongoing negotiations between Archie and Sega. But this Thursday, the book’s final fate was declared, and it looks like the Freedom Fighters - who once announced that they could handle anything - couldn’t quite beat the threat of cancellation. A lot of people dunk on the Archie Sonic comic for being overly convoluted, going through some pretty low points or appealing primarily to furries, and all of these things are kinda true, except for maybe the furry one. But warts and all, Archie Sonic is a glorious beast of monstrously complex proportions. First of all, let the fact that Sonic holds the record for having the longest-running North American comic for a licensed character sink in. Seriously, this series ran from 1992 to 2017 and nearly reached 300 freaking issues. In a time when most comics from Marvel and DC can barely reach double digits before either being renumbered to generate a temporary boost in sales or flat-out cancelled, Sonic the Hedgehog kept chugging along, stealthily reinventing itself from its original status as a slapdash funny book to an ongoing saga that manifested lore so deep that it warranted the release of an entire encyclopedia to help people keep everything straight. 

What’s even more interesting is that Archie Sonic became the one place where you could still see characters carried over from the DiC Saturday morning Sonic cartoon show, which was produced in 1993. The show, affectionately dubbed SatAM by everyone who watched it back in the day, frankly doesn’t hold up that well and is a good example of nostalgia goggles at work. It had an incredible theme song, though (SONIC! HE CAN REALLY MOVE! SONIC! HE’S GOT AN ATTITUDE! SONIC! HE’S THE FAAAASTEST THING ALIVE), and the show did do an admirable job of developing a backstory for a mascot who, at the time, had no characterization other than the fact that he was fast and collected rings. SatAM fixed this by putting Sonic in the surprisingly dark world of Mobius, a place ruled by Dr. Robotnik, a dictator who had “roboticized” the population by turning them into droids. It also gave the hedgepig a variety of characters to play off of, like Princess Sally, Antoine the cowardly French fox, Bunnie the half-roboticized rabbit and Rotor the walrus. Along with Tails, this lot was collectively referred to as the Knothole Freedom Fighters.  Archie Sonic got its start telling stories with the Freedom Fighters while they were still on air, and even after the show was cancelled, the comic continued using them, essentially turning itself into season three of the cartoon. As the decades passed, the SatAM characters and story threads evolved and changed in wondrously unexpected ways - Sonic and Sally fell in love, the original Dr. Robotnik was killed and replaced with a robotic version of himself from an alternate dimension, Bunnie and Antoine got married and Mobius was revealed to be a future version of Earth that was attacked by the Xorda, aliens who had unleashed gene bombs on the planet, mutating the wildlife into anthropomorphic animals. (This was my goddamn favorite batshit crazy bit of Sonic comic lore ever.) Furthermore, the comic increasingly began introducing more elements from the actual Sonic video games, which had finally developed deeper stories of their own thanks to the advancement of technology. So you had stuff like Sonic and the Freedom Fighters teaming up to fight Perfect Chaos and meeting Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat. It was an unusual, unique combination of Western and Eastern concepts melding together in one pictorial arena, and it made Archie Sonic feel special. 

Speaking of the games, the book was also special because it damn well carried Sonic’s presence in North America during the years when the blue guy wasn’t starring in many video games (the Sega Saturn era) and couldn’t star in any decent video games (the Sonic ‘06 era). Even when Sega was releasing shovelware that damaged the brand, Archie Sonic kept pumping out issues, and its sheer determination to keep going won it legions of dedicated fans. Many of these people, including myself, got stuck on the comic at a young age and stayed long-term. I personally started picking up issues in 1994 or 1995, so basically only three or so years after the book was out. I think I was seven years old. A few years later, I got a subscription and had the comic delivered to my mailbox every month. (I still remember my first issue - it was number 41, when Sonic, Sally and that douchebag skunk Geoffrey St. John went to the Zone of Silence to rescue King Acorn.) The subscription continued until I was in college, and only ended around my junior year, when I forgot to renew it because I was too busy applying to go abroad after graduation. 

In short, I subscribed to a periodical about a damn blue hedgehog for a large majority of my life. Even when I stopped regularly reading around issue 180, I always kept abreast of the book’s developments (like that crossover with MEGAMAN!) and told myself that I’d eventually catch up on the stories I missed, likely in the excellent Sonic Select and Sonic Archives trade paperbacks that Archie was publishing. And there were tons of others like me. The Archie Sonic community is such a vibrant one, filled with 90s kids who grew up on this book and even older folks like the crazy Dan Drazen, a 60-something librarian who wrote the most detailed (and overly picky) online reviews of every issue. Many of these fans went on to work for the comic at one point or another, like the incredible Dawn Best and fan favorite Ian Flynn, who swooped in as a writer in the late 2000s and saved the book when it was suffering from a spell of plodding stories. For a lot of us, Archie Sonic was the preferred Sonic canon, and we got pissed when Sega pulled awful jump the shark moments outta their butts - like having Sonic hook up with human princesses in his broken 2006 game - when there was a wealth of solid lore in this weird little comic coming out in America that they always seemed content to ignore.

In fact, the only time Sega really paid close attention to the book was when Ken Penders launched a lawsuit against it, which may have been a contributor to its eventual cancellation. People better than me have already scripted lengthy writeups about Mr. Penders, and I encourage you to read this extremely in-depth take on the whole fiasco, which is a bizarre tale of copyright arguments and delusions of grandeur worthy of any John Grisham novel. But in a nutshell, Ken was a former writer who helped guide Archie Sonic away from simple gag strips and into the realm of full-on adventure tales. His control over the book was major until he was fired, and a few years later, he went on a vehement quest to prove that he owned all characters he had created while working for Archie, including series mainstays like Julie-Su, Knuckles the Echidna’s girlfriend. He ended up suing Archie multiple times and won on legal loopholes, which prompted him to start attacking the book’s current team while declaring that a buttload of barely-related story concepts were his. He also tried suing Sega when Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood came out, claiming that the enemies in the game were too similar to ones he had whipped up. Archie eventually had to come up with a plot device to kill off (trap in another dimension, really) all of the characters he had created during his tenure, and eventually they instituted a full reboot to wipe continuity clean and remove all traces of the lawsuit from history. Unfortunately, the legal issues did some pretty heavy damage to Archie’s relationship with Sega, who were reportedly pissed that the American comic company had let things get so screwed up. And I don’t blame them. To the Sonic fan community, Ken Penders is largely loathed as a megalomaniac who sabotaged a long-running comic for personal gain. But he doesn’t deserve all of the blame, and he did put out some good stories in the day before going bonkers. Archie’s also at fault, both due to their not-so-great freelancer deals as well as their incompetence at handling lawsuits. (At one point the company even fired their entire legal team and hired new attorneys, yeesh.) In recent years, Archie also seems to be terrible at handling their finances, even though they’re currently spearheading Riverdale, a successful show on the CW that’s made all of their high school characters into hot, emo Millennials. (I call it the “Archie Sex Show” in my head.) I’ve heard rumors that company management wants to streamline their output to ONLY focus on Riverdale-related stuff, and seeing as how the Ken Penders business was a tremendous waste of time that ripped some large holes in their relationship with Sega, it only makes sense that both companies would decide to part ways.  So where do we go from here? Well, it was suddenly announced today that IDW Publishing would be the ones picking up the Sonic license for a relaunch of the book in 2018. IDW’s a fit place for Sonic, since they currently publish the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…which Archie once owned the license for. (Funny how these things go in circles, eh?) Unfortunately, I have a feeling that the current arc that was going on in the Archie books - a charming retelling of the Sonic CD story - is going to go unfinished, and I’m also fearful that we’ll be saying goodbye to the DiC Freedom Fighters. I’d LOVE to be proven wrong, and it would warm my heart to see Princess Sally, Bunnie Rabbot, Antoine, Rotor and Nicole survive a change in publishers. But since Sega’s never “officially” acknowledged those characters in a game (except for Sonic Spinball, which was made by an American studio and doesn’t really count) they’re likely going to be classified as expendable cannon fodder that are no longer relevant. There is some hope, though. Perhaps a miracle will occur and IDW will have the good sense to re-hire guys like Ian Flynn or maintain some semblance of the continuity that an entire generation knows and loves. Until the day we know for sure arrives, I’ll just have to re-read my old issues, revel in the glory of covers drawn by SPAZ, laugh at insane crossovers like the time Sonic met Spawn, and remember an era when a hedgehog with attitude and his Knothole friends kicked Dr. Robotnik’s butt and brought me twenty plus years of wonderful adventures.  For Mobius! For freedom!

The header image of the Archie Sonic cast was drawn by darkspeeds and found on Deviantart. The cover images are just a few of my favorites from the days when I was subscribed to the book, and were taken from Comic Vine and Cover Browser.

[newstechreviews]

Angela eats the egg. We should have seen it coming: After all, we first met Angela cracking an egg into the shape of the iconic Watchmen smiley face. Little did we know in the opening minutes of the first episode that eggs would show up repeatedly in the series, and that the final one, which Angela would consume, might contain god-like powers and possibly make her a deity.

Whether we’re supposed to applaud Angela’s decision to eat the egg or worry over the second coming of Doctor Manhattan is a complicated question.

Even though Watchmen is, in theory, a superhero series, only one character on creator Damon Lindelof’s show has real superpowers: Doctor Manhattan. Doctor Manhattan dies in the final episode of the show, which has become a quiet hit for HBO, but Angela divines that he has transferred his powers to an egg, based on a series of clues he gave her earlier in their relationship.

Some of those clues: The first night they met, Doctor Manhattan told Angela he could transfer his powers into organic matter while holding an egg. When the white supremacists tracked down Doctor Manhattan and Angela woke him up from her husband Cal’s body, Doctor Manhattan immediately moved to the kitchen and removed eggs from the refrigerator. He told Angela to “watch the eggs,” and she smashed them on the ground. Really, it had been a clue. Later, she goes back and realizes that one egg didn’t crack — the egg that, presumably, contains his powers.

The egg was always going to be an important symbol of life throughout the show. Angela cracks eggs in the shape of the iconic smiley face that appears on the cover of the graphic novel when demonstrating how to bake to her children and their classmates in the first episode. Later, Hooded Justice reaches into a boiling pot of water to retrieve an egg with his hand. And in the penultimate episode, Doctor Manhattan discusses the “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” paradox with Angela, explaining that both came to be at the same time.

The series seems decidedly mixed on whether anyone should be endowed with god-like abilities. In the final episode, many characters justifiably point out that Doctor Manhattan should have used his powers to stop global warming or destroy all the nuclear weapons in the world. (Doctor Manhattan’s reasons for not doing so have to do with his ability to see all time, including the future, at once, and can be summed up as: “He doesn’t save the world from evil because in the future he won’t save the world from evil.” His path is predetermined, which is frustrating from a narrative perspective.)

And every character who seeks to steal Doctor Manhattan’s power is ultimately shown to be evil, which complicates the message of the final scene when Angela consumes the egg into which Doctor Manhattan transferred his powers and tests whether she has gained superpowers by preparing to walk on water. (Another clue from Doctor Manhattan: When the two are fighting as the white supremacists approach their house, Doctor Manhattan tells Angela that it’s important “for later” that she see him walk on water now.) Notably, we never see her actually accomplish the Jesus-like feat, suggesting that the egg could have just been a normal egg.

The series certainly seems to believe that those who crave god-like powers do not deserve them, as it punishes them for their hubris. Ozymandias, Lady Trieu and Senator Joe Keane all prove themselves to be egomaniacs who want to rule over others. Ozymandias wants to be worshipped as a god on a planet that Doctor Manhattan created. But he soon finds the place to be a hell and gets his comeuppance by being forced to spend years on a planet with no intellectual equal — and later he’s arrested by Laurie and the FBI for trying to play God during the Cold War and kill millions of people “to save humanity.”

The white supremacists are unceremoniously murdered by Lady Trieu when they try to take Doctor Manhattan’s powers. Senator Keane, specifically, is turned into bloody mush. It’s hard to feel particularly sorry for them, given their belief system and the fact that they were literally trying to leach powers from a black man’s body in order to empower a white man, a plot that played like a sci-fi twist on Get Out.

Lady Trieu, Ozymandias’ daughter, seems to have inherited his megalomaniacal gene. She brings her father back from space to witness her successfully stealing Doctor Manhattan’s powers only to be killed by his inferior technology.

By contrast, the characters who have power foisted upon them seem to do the right thing with that responsibility. Doctor Manhattan, who escaped the Holocaust, is caught up in a horrific scientific accident that imbues him with powers he uses responsibly. Yes, he allows Nixon to use him to win the Vietnam War — and set off a series of events that will lead to horrible consequences, including the death of Angela’s parents. He tells Angela he regrets these actions — again using the “I always did it” explanation as a rationale for his decision to go to Vietnam. But he also has opted out of playing America’s nuclear device since then — for better or worse. Ultimately, he works to save Angela, stop white supremacy and prevent anyone who might not be worthy of holding his power from gaining it. Hooded Justice, perhaps the most noble masked vigilante on the show, deems him “a good man” — or as good as this series may offer.

While he doesn’t gain superpowers, Hooded Justice is pushed to become a masked hero after suffering terrible injustice at the hands of white supremacists, first as a child in Tulsa and then as a cop in New York. And even Laurie, whose mother pushed her to become a masked hero and who must overcome the horrifying revelation that her father sexually assaulted her mother, is made a hero through suffering. Both characters make morally complicated decisions, from killing Judd Crawford — illegally, but again, he was an influential white supremacist — to hiding a mass murderer’s secret for several decades before finally arresting him. Ultimately, though, they make complicated decisions not as a means to seek personal reward or recognition, but to protect their communities.

The unwilling hero isn’t a new concept. In fact, it’s a core tenet of stories like Spider-Man, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and Harry Potter where orphans, castaways and seemingly powerless people understand and appreciate the value of their power when it’s unexpectedly forced on them. Think of the difference between a hero constantly dragged, resisting to take on the burden of power like Jon Snow, and those who seek to conquer, like Daenerys. Contrast their fates. (Or, to quote Dumbledore, “Perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.”)

Watchmen certainly seems to want audiences to cheer Angela on when she eats the egg. But does Angela fit the mold of an unlikely or unwilling hero? Angela has certainly suffered. She watched as her parents were killed in a bombing. She lost her partner in the police force, and almost lost her own life, on the White Night, the coordinated attack on Tulsa cops. But arguably all the Tulsa cops sought out outsized power after that night by donning masks. They use unethical means to interrogate suspects and gain information. It’s not ambiguous how we’re meant to feel about the white supremacists whose doors they knock down. And increasingly, the show moved from morally gray territory — with cops using questionable methods — to clearer black-and-white terms: White supremacists: bad. People who try to stop them: good. The greater the threat — and the further back their terror reached in Angela’s family tree — the more justified Angela’s methods to stop them seemed to be.

But even if we deem Angela a noble character, she chooses to consume the egg. She is not caught in a freak scientific accident nor does she decide to swallow the egg’s contents in a moment of panic and bravery, like when her children are being threatened. She simply realizes the egg’s potential and seizes the moment to eat it. What she will do with Doctor Manhattan’s powers is unclear. Lindelof does not, as of yet, plan to write a second season of Watchmen, so we may have to live with that question.

[itsfinancethings]

Angela eats the egg. We should have seen it coming: After all, we first met Angela cracking an egg into the shape of the iconic Watchmen smiley face. Little did we know in the opening minutes of the first episode that eggs would show up repeatedly in the series, and that the final one, which Angela would consume, might contain god-like powers and possibly make her a deity.

Whether we’re supposed to applaud Angela’s decision to eat the egg or worry over the second coming of Doctor Manhattan is a complicated question.

Even though Watchmen is, in theory, a superhero series, only one character on creator Damon Lindelof’s show has real superpowers: Doctor Manhattan. Doctor Manhattan dies in the final episode of the show, which has become a quiet hit for HBO, but Angela divines that he has transferred his powers to an egg, based on a series of clues he gave her earlier in their relationship.

Some of those clues: The first night they met, Doctor Manhattan told Angela he could transfer his powers into organic matter while holding an egg. When the white supremacists tracked down Doctor Manhattan and Angela woke him up from her husband Cal’s body, Doctor Manhattan immediately moved to the kitchen and removed eggs from the refrigerator. He told Angela to “watch the eggs,” and she smashed them on the ground. Really, it had been a clue. Later, she goes back and realizes that one egg didn’t crack — the egg that, presumably, contains his powers.

The egg was always going to be an important symbol of life throughout the show. Angela cracks eggs in the shape of the iconic smiley face that appears on the cover of the graphic novel when demonstrating how to bake to her children and their classmates in the first episode. Later, Hooded Justice reaches into a boiling pot of water to retrieve an egg with his hand. And in the penultimate episode, Doctor Manhattan discusses the “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” paradox with Angela, explaining that both came to be at the same time.

The series seems decidedly mixed on whether anyone should be endowed with god-like abilities. In the final episode, many characters justifiably point out that Doctor Manhattan should have used his powers to stop global warming or destroy all the nuclear weapons in the world. (Doctor Manhattan’s reasons for not doing so have to do with his ability to see all time, including the future, at once, and can be summed up as: “He doesn’t save the world from evil because in the future he won’t save the world from evil.” His path is predetermined, which is frustrating from a narrative perspective.)

And every character who seeks to steal Doctor Manhattan’s power is ultimately shown to be evil, which complicates the message of the final scene when Angela consumes the egg into which Doctor Manhattan transferred his powers and tests whether she has gained superpowers by preparing to walk on water. (Another clue from Doctor Manhattan: When the two are fighting as the white supremacists approach their house, Doctor Manhattan tells Angela that it’s important “for later” that she see him walk on water now.) Notably, we never see her actually accomplish the Jesus-like feat, suggesting that the egg could have just been a normal egg.

The series certainly seems to believe that those who crave god-like powers do not deserve them, as it punishes them for their hubris. Ozymandias, Lady Trieu and Senator Joe Keane all prove themselves to be egomaniacs who want to rule over others. Ozymandias wants to be worshipped as a god on a planet that Doctor Manhattan created. But he soon finds the place to be a hell and gets his comeuppance by being forced to spend years on a planet with no intellectual equal — and later he’s arrested by Laurie and the FBI for trying to play God during the Cold War and kill millions of people “to save humanity.”

The white supremacists are unceremoniously murdered by Lady Trieu when they try to take Doctor Manhattan’s powers. Senator Keane, specifically, is turned into bloody mush. It’s hard to feel particularly sorry for them, given their belief system and the fact that they were literally trying to leach powers from a black man’s body in order to empower a white man, a plot that played like a sci-fi twist on Get Out.

Lady Trieu, Ozymandias’ daughter, seems to have inherited his megalomaniacal gene. She brings her father back from space to witness her successfully stealing Doctor Manhattan’s powers only to be killed by his inferior technology.

By contrast, the characters who have power foisted upon them seem to do the right thing with that responsibility. Doctor Manhattan, who escaped the Holocaust, is caught up in a horrific scientific accident that imbues him with powers he uses responsibly. Yes, he allows Nixon to use him to win the Vietnam War — and set off a series of events that will lead to horrible consequences, including the death of Angela’s parents. He tells Angela he regrets these actions — again using the “I always did it” explanation as a rationale for his decision to go to Vietnam. But he also has opted out of playing America’s nuclear device since then — for better or worse. Ultimately, he works to save Angela, stop white supremacy and prevent anyone who might not be worthy of holding his power from gaining it. Hooded Justice, perhaps the most noble masked vigilante on the show, deems him “a good man” — or as good as this series may offer.

While he doesn’t gain superpowers, Hooded Justice is pushed to become a masked hero after suffering terrible injustice at the hands of white supremacists, first as a child in Tulsa and then as a cop in New York. And even Laurie, whose mother pushed her to become a masked hero and who must overcome the horrifying revelation that her father sexually assaulted her mother, is made a hero through suffering. Both characters make morally complicated decisions, from killing Judd Crawford — illegally, but again, he was an influential white supremacist — to hiding a mass murderer’s secret for several decades before finally arresting him. Ultimately, though, they make complicated decisions not as a means to seek personal reward or recognition, but to protect their communities.

The unwilling hero isn’t a new concept. In fact, it’s a core tenet of stories like Spider-Man, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and Harry Potter where orphans, castaways and seemingly powerless people understand and appreciate the value of their power when it’s unexpectedly forced on them. Think of the difference between a hero constantly dragged, resisting to take on the burden of power like Jon Snow, and those who seek to conquer, like Daenerys. Contrast their fates. (Or, to quote Dumbledore, “Perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.”)

Watchmen certainly seems to want audiences to cheer Angela on when she eats the egg. But does Angela fit the mold of an unlikely or unwilling hero? Angela has certainly suffered. She watched as her parents were killed in a bombing. She lost her partner in the police force, and almost lost her own life, on the White Night, the coordinated attack on Tulsa cops. But arguably all the Tulsa cops sought out outsized power after that night by donning masks. They use unethical means to interrogate suspects and gain information. It’s not ambiguous how we’re meant to feel about the white supremacists whose doors they knock down. And increasingly, the show moved from morally gray territory — with cops using questionable methods — to clearer black-and-white terms: White supremacists: bad. People who try to stop them: good. The greater the threat — and the further back their terror reached in Angela’s family tree — the more justified Angela’s methods to stop them seemed to be.

But even if we deem Angela a noble character, she chooses to consume the egg. She is not caught in a freak scientific accident nor does she decide to swallow the egg’s contents in a moment of panic and bravery, like when her children are being threatened. She simply realizes the egg’s potential and seizes the moment to eat it. What she will do with Doctor Manhattan’s powers is unclear. Lindelof does not, as of yet, plan to write a second season of Watchmen, so we may have to live with that question.

[cutsliceddiced]

New top story from Time: Let’s Talk About Morality and Superpowers in the Ending of Watchmen

Angela eats the egg. We should have seen it coming: After all, we first met Angela cracking an egg into the shape of the iconic Watchmen smiley face. Little did we know in the opening minutes of the first episode that eggs would show up repeatedly in the series, and that the final one, which Angela would consume, might contain god-like powers and possibly make her a deity.

Whether we’re supposed to applaud Angela’s decision to eat the egg or worry over the second coming of Doctor Manhattan is a complicated question.

Even though Watchmen is, in theory, a superhero series, only one character on creator Damon Lindelof’s show has real superpowers: Doctor Manhattan. Doctor Manhattan dies in the final episode of the show, which has become a quiet hit for HBO, but Angela divines that he has transferred his powers to an egg, based on a series of clues he gave her earlier in their relationship.

Some of those clues: The first night they met, Doctor Manhattan told Angela he could transfer his powers into organic matter while holding an egg. When the white supremacists tracked down Doctor Manhattan and Angela woke him up from her husband Cal’s body, Doctor Manhattan immediately moved to the kitchen and removed eggs from the refrigerator. He told Angela to “watch the eggs,” and she smashed them on the ground. Really, it had been a clue. Later, she goes back and realizes that one egg didn’t crack — the egg that, presumably, contains his powers.

The egg was always going to be an important symbol of life throughout the show. Angela cracks eggs in the shape of the iconic smiley face that appears on the cover of the graphic novel when demonstrating how to bake to her children and their classmates in the first episode. Later, Hooded Justice reaches into a boiling pot of water to retrieve an egg with his hand. And in the penultimate episode, Doctor Manhattan discusses the “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” paradox with Angela, explaining that both came to be at the same time.

The series seems decidedly mixed on whether anyone should be endowed with god-like abilities. In the final episode, many characters justifiably point out that Doctor Manhattan should have used his powers to stop global warming or destroy all the nuclear weapons in the world. (Doctor Manhattan’s reasons for not doing so have to do with his ability to see all time, including the future, at once, and can be summed up as: “He doesn’t save the world from evil because in the future he won’t save the world from evil.” His path is predetermined, which is frustrating from a narrative perspective.)

And every character who seeks to steal Doctor Manhattan’s power is ultimately shown to be evil, which complicates the message of the final scene when Angela consumes the egg into which Doctor Manhattan transferred his powers and tests whether she has gained superpowers by preparing to walk on water. (Another clue from Doctor Manhattan: When the two are fighting as the white supremacists approach their house, Doctor Manhattan tells Angela that it’s important “for later” that she see him walk on water now.) Notably, we never see her actually accomplish the Jesus-like feat, suggesting that the egg could have just been a normal egg.

The series certainly seems to believe that those who crave god-like powers do not deserve them, as it punishes them for their hubris. Ozymandias, Lady Trieu and Senator Joe Keane all prove themselves to be egomaniacs who want to rule over others. Ozymandias wants to be worshipped as a god on a planet that Doctor Manhattan created. But he soon finds the place to be a hell and gets his comeuppance by being forced to spend years on a planet with no intellectual equal — and later he’s arrested by Laurie and the FBI for trying to play God during the Cold War and kill millions of people “to save humanity.”

The white supremacists are unceremoniously murdered by Lady Trieu when they try to take Doctor Manhattan’s powers. Senator Keane, specifically, is turned into bloody mush. It’s hard to feel particularly sorry for them, given their belief system and the fact that they were literally trying to leach powers from a black man’s body in order to empower a white man, a plot that played like a sci-fi twist on Get Out.

Lady Trieu, Ozymandias’ daughter, seems to have inherited his megalomaniacal gene. She brings her father back from space to witness her successfully stealing Doctor Manhattan’s powers only to be killed by his inferior technology.

By contrast, the characters who have power foisted upon them seem to do the right thing with that responsibility. Doctor Manhattan, who escaped the Holocaust, is caught up in a horrific scientific accident that imbues him with powers he uses responsibly. Yes, he allows Nixon to use him to win the Vietnam War — and set off a series of events that will lead to horrible consequences, including the death of Angela’s parents. He tells Angela he regrets these actions — again using the “I always did it” explanation as a rationale for his decision to go to Vietnam. But he also has opted out of playing America’s nuclear device since then — for better or worse. Ultimately, he works to save Angela, stop white supremacy and prevent anyone who might not be worthy of holding his power from gaining it. Hooded Justice, perhaps the most noble masked vigilante on the show, deems him “a good man” — or as good as this series may offer.

While he doesn’t gain superpowers, Hooded Justice is pushed to become a masked hero after suffering terrible injustice at the hands of white supremacists, first as a child in Tulsa and then as a cop in New York. And even Laurie, whose mother pushed her to become a masked hero and who must overcome the horrifying revelation that her father sexually assaulted her mother, is made a hero through suffering. Both characters make morally complicated decisions, from killing Judd Crawford — illegally, but again, he was an influential white supremacist — to hiding a mass murderer’s secret for several decades before finally arresting him. Ultimately, though, they make complicated decisions not as a means to seek personal reward or recognition, but to protect their communities.

The unwilling hero isn’t a new concept. In fact, it’s a core tenet of stories like Spider-Man, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and Harry Potter where orphans, castaways and seemingly powerless people understand and appreciate the value of their power when it’s unexpectedly forced on them. Think of the difference between a hero constantly dragged, resisting to take on the burden of power like Jon Snow, and those who seek to conquer, like Daenerys. Contrast their fates. (Or, to quote Dumbledore, “Perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.”)

Watchmen certainly seems to want audiences to cheer Angela on when she eats the egg. But does Angela fit the mold of an unlikely or unwilling hero? Angela has certainly suffered. She watched as her parents were killed in a bombing. She lost her partner in the police force, and almost lost her own life, on the White Night, the coordinated attack on Tulsa cops. But arguably all the Tulsa cops sought out outsized power after that night by donning masks. They use unethical means to interrogate suspects and gain information. It’s not ambiguous how we’re meant to feel about the white supremacists whose doors they knock down. And increasingly, the show moved from morally gray territory — with cops using questionable methods — to clearer black-and-white terms: White supremacists: bad. People who try to stop them: good. The greater the threat — and the further back their terror reached in Angela’s family tree — the more justified Angela’s methods to stop them seemed to be.

But even if we deem Angela a noble character, she chooses to consume the egg. She is not caught in a freak scientific accident nor does she decide to swallow the egg’s contents in a moment of panic and bravery, like when her children are being threatened. She simply realizes the egg’s potential and seizes the moment to eat it. What she will do with Doctor Manhattan’s powers is unclear. Lindelof does not, as of yet, plan to write a second season of Watchmen, so we may have to live with that question.

via https://cutslicedanddiced.wordpress.com/2018/01/24/how-to-prevent-food-from-going-to-waste

[itsfinancethings]

December 15, 2019 at 10:18PM

Angela eats the egg. We should have seen it coming: After all, we first met Angela cracking an egg into the shape of the iconic Watchmen smiley face. Little did we know in the opening minutes of the first episode that eggs would show up repeatedly in the series, and that the final one, which Angela would consume, might contain god-like powers and possibly make her a deity.

Whether we’re supposed to applaud Angela’s decision to eat the egg or worry over the second coming of Doctor Manhattan is a complicated question.

Even though Watchmen is, in theory, a superhero series, only one character on creator Damon Lindelof’s show has real superpowers: Doctor Manhattan. Doctor Manhattan dies in the final episode of the show, which has become a quiet hit for HBO, but Angela divines that he has transferred his powers to an egg, based on a series of clues he gave her earlier in their relationship.

Some of those clues: The first night they met, Doctor Manhattan told Angela he could transfer his powers into organic matter while holding an egg. When the white supremacists tracked down Doctor Manhattan and Angela woke him up from her husband Cal’s body, Doctor Manhattan immediately moved to the kitchen and removed eggs from the refrigerator. He told Angela to “watch the eggs,” and she smashed them on the ground. Really, it had been a clue. Later, she goes back and realizes that one egg didn’t crack — the egg that, presumably, contains his powers.

The egg was always going to be an important symbol of life throughout the show. Angela cracks eggs in the shape of the iconic smiley face that appears on the cover of the graphic novel when demonstrating how to bake to her children and their classmates in the first episode. Later, Hooded Justice reaches into a boiling pot of water to retrieve an egg with his hand. And in the penultimate episode, Doctor Manhattan discusses the “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” paradox with Angela, explaining that both came to be at the same time.

The series seems decidedly mixed on whether anyone should be endowed with god-like abilities. In the final episode, many characters justifiably point out that Doctor Manhattan should have used his powers to stop global warming or destroy all the nuclear weapons in the world. (Doctor Manhattan’s reasons for not doing so have to do with his ability to see all time, including the future, at once, and can be summed up as: “He doesn’t save the world from evil because in the future he won’t save the world from evil.” His path is predetermined, which is frustrating from a narrative perspective.)

And every character who seeks to steal Doctor Manhattan’s power is ultimately shown to be evil, which complicates the message of the final scene when Angela consumes the egg into which Doctor Manhattan transferred his powers and tests whether she has gained superpowers by preparing to walk on water. (Another clue from Doctor Manhattan: When the two are fighting as the white supremacists approach their house, Doctor Manhattan tells Angela that it’s important “for later” that she see him walk on water now.) Notably, we never see her actually accomplish the Jesus-like feat, suggesting that the egg could have just been a normal egg.

The series certainly seems to believe that those who crave god-like powers do not deserve them, as it punishes them for their hubris. Ozymandias, Lady Trieu and Senator Joe Keane all prove themselves to be egomaniacs who want to rule over others. Ozymandias wants to be worshipped as a god on a planet that Doctor Manhattan created. But he soon finds the place to be a hell and gets his comeuppance by being forced to spend years on a planet with no intellectual equal — and later he’s arrested by Laurie and the FBI for trying to play God during the Cold War and kill millions of people “to save humanity.”

The white supremacists are unceremoniously murdered by Lady Trieu when they try to take Doctor Manhattan’s powers. Senator Keane, specifically, is turned into bloody mush. It’s hard to feel particularly sorry for them, given their belief system and the fact that they were literally trying to leach powers from a black man’s body in order to empower a white man, a plot that played like a sci-fi twist on Get Out.

Lady Trieu, Ozymandias’ daughter, seems to have inherited his megalomaniacal gene. She brings her father back from space to witness her successfully stealing Doctor Manhattan’s powers only to be killed by his inferior technology.

By contrast, the characters who have power foisted upon them seem to do the right thing with that responsibility. Doctor Manhattan, who escaped the Holocaust, is caught up in a horrific scientific accident that imbues him with powers he uses responsibly. Yes, he allows Nixon to use him to win the Vietnam War — and set off a series of events that will lead to horrible consequences, including the death of Angela’s parents. He tells Angela he regrets these actions — again using the “I always did it” explanation as a rationale for his decision to go to Vietnam. But he also has opted out of playing America’s nuclear device since then — for better or worse. Ultimately, he works to save Angela, stop white supremacy and prevent anyone who might not be worthy of holding his power from gaining it. Hooded Justice, perhaps the most noble masked vigilante on the show, deems him “a good man” — or as good as this series may offer.

While he doesn’t gain superpowers, Hooded Justice is pushed to become a masked hero after suffering terrible injustice at the hands of white supremacists, first as a child in Tulsa and then as a cop in New York. And even Laurie, whose mother pushed her to become a masked hero and who must overcome the horrifying revelation that her father sexually assaulted her mother, is made a hero through suffering. Both characters make morally complicated decisions, from killing Judd Crawford — illegally, but again, he was an influential white supremacist — to hiding a mass murderer’s secret for several decades before finally arresting him. Ultimately, though, they make complicated decisions not as a means to seek personal reward or recognition, but to protect their communities.

The unwilling hero isn’t a new concept. In fact, it’s a core tenet of stories like Spider-Man, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and Harry Potter where orphans, castaways and seemingly powerless people understand and appreciate the value of their power when it’s unexpectedly forced on them. Think of the difference between a hero constantly dragged, resisting to take on the burden of power like Jon Snow, and those who seek to conquer, like Daenerys. Contrast their fates. (Or, to quote Dumbledore, “Perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.”)

Watchmen certainly seems to want audiences to cheer Angela on when she eats the egg. But does Angela fit the mold of an unlikely or unwilling hero? Angela has certainly suffered. She watched as her parents were killed in a bombing. She lost her partner in the police force, and almost lost her own life, on the White Night, the coordinated attack on Tulsa cops. But arguably all the Tulsa cops sought out outsized power after that night by donning masks. They use unethical means to interrogate suspects and gain information. It’s not ambiguous how we’re meant to feel about the white supremacists whose doors they knock down. And increasingly, the show moved from morally gray territory — with cops using questionable methods — to clearer black-and-white terms: White supremacists: bad. People who try to stop them: good. The greater the threat — and the further back their terror reached in Angela’s family tree — the more justified Angela’s methods to stop them seemed to be.

But even if we deem Angela a noble character, she chooses to consume the egg. She is not caught in a freak scientific accident nor does she decide to swallow the egg’s contents in a moment of panic and bravery, like when her children are being threatened. She simply realizes the egg’s potential and seizes the moment to eat it. What she will do with Doctor Manhattan’s powers is unclear. Lindelof does not, as of yet, plan to write a second season of Watchmen, so we may have to live with that question.