#heir of apocalypse spoilers

[jounouchis]

these are really messy but yo ??? actually the last issue of heir of apocalypse??? shit had everything characters concepts themes cycles literary foils damn

bonus image :

[kermit-coded]

every version of me dead and buried in the yard outside

ramblings beneath the cut

hoa issue 2 murdered me and i am manifesting horseman rictor... realistically he'd probably be pestilence however he has a unique relationship with death and so i went with that here! in that same vein, i did a modified version of his excalibur costume (plus the cloak) because of the vibes and the fact that that's what he was wearing when he reconnected with his powers.

i also went with dani and cable because they're the closest to ric out of the main cast, along with star because a guy can dream.

i used these as references for the color scheme for death!ric

[iconuk01]

So Apocalypse has chosen his heir and it's... Doug Ramsey... the most unlikely possibility of the twelve chosen candidates (And therefor the most obvious winner for a cynical reader).

I have... feelings about this as an idea as you might imagine, and regrettably few of them are especially positive, but in an effort to hold on to optimism at some level, I shall wait and see where this goes.

I mean, I like the reasons Apocalypse chose Forge, Dani and Doug as possible heirs: those with not the greatest power levels, but a new way of looking at things which might proves useful.

Dani in particular is interesting in her reason for accepting a candidacy, given her vested interest in training future mutants.

And she turns him down because she doesn't need his help.

Forge he chose because of what he could offer the wrold, and what the world had thrown away in destroying Krakoa, but knowing that Forge also invented the mutant power neutraliser weapon makes unsuitable

The final narrative decision to take a mutant whose whole point was how low key his powers were and how otherwise close to baseline human he was and amping them up into... Revelation... It's going to take a lot of very good writing to make me invested in this. I hope there is plenty of that at least.

The fact he also gets the ugliest physical upgrade imaginable doesn't help. Doug managed to avoid the worst of 90's retoolings at the time by conveniently being dead, but this looks like the 90's slammed him with the subtlety of a frying pan to the face.

I might have expected this to be the end of part four of a five part story, and Doug turns it down in the finale because that's not how he operates, but, well, this is a new post-Krakoan age.

Oh well, let's see what comes next.

[kenidoru]

I was reading Heir of Apocalypse #2 and...

Top hottest kill

[azurecoffin]

Finally read Heirs of Apocalypse #4 I was terrified but....

I guess a part of it is I wanted Ric to be center stage since I don't think he'll be on any books atm? (RicStar Pride Special when!!!) I AM GLAD HE'S NOT IN COMIC BOOK LIMBO

WHAT DOES "NO NEVER WITHOUT PURPOSE" EVEN MEAN! WHAT DOES IT MEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!

Now do I still ship him and Apocalpyse?

Yeah...I do.

Sigh BUT HE HAS A LOT OF MAKING UP TO DO

also what's shatterstar doing?

I think Doug is qualified? But idk like Rictor has been training his butt off his "resume" is kinda more impressive? like talk about white privilege but i still feel Rictor should have had more content throughout the whole thing...

[where-dreams-dwell]

Viserys: this is a secret passed down only from the King to their Heir.

Rhaenerya: *suspiciously eyes the family tree, in which Jahaerys (the third son) only became the heir after the death of his father and his two elder brothers * sure…

Viserys: I am only telling you now as it is clear you will be my heir

Rhaenerya: *considers the 15-ish years she has been the presumed heir while her father ‘awaits’ the birth of a son, while at the same time Daemon was his actual legal heir* okay…

Viserys: I have told no other about this until now, not even your uncle Daemon

Rhaenerya: *remembers the 10 children of Jahaerys who died unexpectedly, considers that Viserys’ father and uncle both died suddenly at about the age he is now, imagines if Viserys had died at any time before now having told 0 heirs about this secret* solid plan dad

[rosedubh]

so I was catching up on comics earlier, and uh

one minorish and two fairly major i think characters just got completely unceremoniously killed off in heir of apocalypse

now I know that apocalypse is all about survival of the fittest but right now I’m really hoping it’s like a simulation or something because Steve foxe If you kill my husband I swear to god—

[peachphilosophy]

twink death 😔😔

[hersheysmcboom]

I submit for your approval, and hopefully peace of mind, mutant poof shielding

My case: two of the smartest people are Tony stark and reed Richards and they could come up with flying armor, narcotech and shooting the hulk into space, and yet they could never work together to create something to protect both humans and mutants

Case 2; how this will benefit both human and mutantkind

[thehollowprince]

What did they do to my boy, Cypher?

[majingojira]

Whelp, that confirms it: "Heirs of Apocalypse" is for the "Avengers Arena" Crowd.

It's actually a little dumber and even less well balanced, but it's also shown its hand and the pattern is already clear.

I expected Lin Lei to die. Marvel shat the bed with X-Men Green real bad, so her death was expected. But every character to get a flashback this issue died -- Monet and Exodus. It's trite and hollow. The deaths don't click as deserved or well done -- mostly because Sinister backstab 2 of them (not Monet, that was just dumb). Will the deaths stick? I don't know, and I don't really care. The book has signed itself off as basically trash at this point. And not entertaining trash either. I expect Monet at least to be back in about... 5 years. 10 tops. Exodus? Maybe 3 or 7. Easy Bad Guy thing. Nature Girl? Mettle will come back before she does. Assuming the series doesn't end with "--AND HERE ARE MY NEW HORSEMEN!" revival. Which it probably will. It's comics like this that make me cynical about comics. Edit: I compare it to Avengers Arena because it has the same sort of wantonness and haphazardness that undermined its book. I'd say Arena handled it better, because the creators ignorance of the formula helped buck it. "Let's give 3 panels of flashback! That'll up the pathos!" -- No, that's just bad pacing. And it misunderstands how the whole 'death tournament' thing actually hooks people! Arena's creators HATED this genre and still figured it out!

[rei-ismyname]

What the hell was that? Heir of Apocalypse #2 feels like it's taking the piss. Exodus wouldn't say or do that, full stop.

I'm getting this foul feeling that there's a mandate to not just ignore Krakoa, but to undo as much of it as possible. Wack characterisation, fake out deaths, I don't even know what to say rn. Don't think I missed the two women of colour and the gay dude getting fridged either.

I can forgive the characters being off model and awkward looking, but if you're doing a book that is inherently a meditation on the legacy of Krakoa you should be familiar with the journey these characters have been on, the relationships they have with each other.

I'll do a full review in a few days once I've reread but my initial thoughts are that it's a disrespectful mess. A speedrun back to pre-covid characterisation.

[kermit-coded]

IF GOD HATES GAYS WHY DO WE KEEP WINNING!!

[peppertoastuniverse]

pep reads: gojo satoru – long fics (pt.1)

Part 2

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☆ the way you love me by @peachsayshi [AO3/tumblr] [status: ongoing ◦ 29/? chapters] [smut!] [fwb!gojo] #pep's first fic she was OBSESSED with #real good good smut WITH FEELINGS

“We can stop anytime. If either one of us feels like... this ...might be too much. We stop, no questions .” “We can stop anytime,” Gojo repeated “... and nothing changes between us .” You swallowed hard at his last statement. You may not be able to read his eyes but you could hear it in his voice that he needed reassurance. “No matter what happens, we’ll still be friends...” you replied softly, “now kiss me before I change my mind.”

☆ you and me by tomodachi [AO3: ] [status: completed ◦ 5/5 chapters] [tear jerker] [eventual smut!] #pep cried #gojo just kinda loves you real hard

“Prisoners say the most comical things when their judgment comes,” you tilt your head, lifting a finger before him, “Who are you?"

--- History is written by the winners, Satoru knew this well. It was only when he lost and got sealed inside the Prison Realm he learned how to be weak and find out a long buried truth.

☆ ito by @peekamatcha [AO3] [status: ongoing ◦ 48/? chapters] [super slow burn] [shinto elements] #pep DIES with every update #the TWIST in that one chapter omg

You, a former sorcerer now working as a university lecturer, were hoping to maintain your distance with the sorcerer world for an eternity to come. However, with the reappearance of an upperclassmen from a decade ago, you are forced to go on a journey which you would rather sit out of. But somebody must save humanity from the impending apocalypse and apparently the job falls on the shoulders of you two.

It would have been alright had he not been everything you didn’t want to be reminded of. And the sacrifices to be made may be more than what had been bargained for. ☆moonlight by @septembersummer [AO3/tumblr:] [status: completed ◦ 10/10 chapters] [smut!] #pep loves this AU #pep SCREAMED

Gojo Satoru is dying. And no, it's not his fault this time.

The curse which is withering Satoru into an early grave is actually the product of his great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather, who had a couple of sons that refused to procreate. And what does a proud, powerful man do when his sons refuse to fuck, and there won't be another heir to the clan?

He curses his own bloodline, of course.

It's only natural that he forces them through some twisted form of sorcery to become uncontrollably, violently attracted to the person they're most genetically compatible with.

It's even better that the curse creates a permanent, unbreakable bond between the two unwilling lovers. That's right, it usually takes more than one fuck to make a baby-- so, why not force them to have twelve?

Satoru wished his ancestor would be resurrected from the grave, just so that he could kill him again. That is, before Satoru inevitably dies.

He's had a good run, he thinks. Now, all he has to do is make sure you don't find out that you can fuck him back to life and try to very stupidly save him from himself.

(here's a spoiler: you do).

☆ a typical family by @literalia [AO3/tumblr] [status: completed? ◦ 32/32 chapters] [non liner narrative] [dad!gojo] #pep absolutely MELTED #slice of life #pep's gojo comfort fic

"satoru. where did you get these kids?"

or

after a six month absence, satoru shows up at your door two little kids following behind. chaos ensues.

☆ and if i cant see by hollowdonut [AO3: ] [status: unknown ◦ 26/? chapters] [slowburn] [eventual smut!] [tw: ptsd] #pep loves the reader's dynamics with gojo!

They say eyes are the window to the soul, but Gojo’s eyes are almost always hidden behind a blindfold. Even when they aren’t, you can never tell what he’s thinking.

You wonder if you should’ve taken that teaching job in Kyoto instead.

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bonus!

☆ all hail the empress! by @chuluoyi [tumblr/AO3: ] [status: unknown ◦ 1/? chapters] [smut!] #pep loves this AU #but THE END THO? OMGGG you are an empress perfect in every way... until your husband suddenly casts you aside for his expecting mistress. but you won't be dethroned just like that, because the newly coronated western emperor, gojo satoru, sets his sights on you, and thus your revenge against your ex-husband begins...

[nessacousland]

can i ask what was ur problem with treviso? i actually found treviso and the crows to be the most interesting faction out of all of them so maybe im just biased LOL

Okay, full disclosure: I was on vacation and didn’t get to play Veilguard until the 8th of November. Couldn’t take the potential spoilers everywhere, so I've been cramming these past few days to finish the game asap (I still did every side quest, had all factions at max strength and got the “best” ending etc. but didn’t do every chests/stats puzzle). By the time the Treviso questline concluded, I'd been fully marinating in the sauce of all the other criminally stupid quests, is what I’m trying to say, and Treviso was emblematic of every problem I already had with this game. It was my breaking point.

To start with, the questline is offensively generic and an actual insult to the players’ intellect. Painfully linear, cartoon villains abound and nothing of any substance was ever said during its run.

The moment Caterina told us about Lucanis’ non-death, I called Illario being the traitor. There were no clever misdirects, there were no other leads, nope, they showed us his hand *immediately*. Grandma First Talon of the murder guild has a clear favorite and didn’t tell the ‘spare’ heir about her suspicions? Yeah, okay. Repeat FAMILY as often as you want, you piss-poor Godfather knockoff of a questline, I ain't buying.

So, from the start, all tension is gone, I'm just sitting there waiting for the rest of these “capable” assassins who “rule Antiva from the shadows” to catch on to this incredibly obvious plot twist. Meanwhile, the quests had absolutely nothing interesting to say - about the Crows or Treviso. The first bad guy was, predictably, an evil evil Venatori, super more evil than the evil evil Venatori you've seen before, guys, she literally BATHES IN BLOOD. Omg, right? 🙄 (I found Tevinter infinitely more compelling when their entire ruling class were power-hungry tyrants out of self-interest instead of being hit over the head with the mustache-twirling villain/crazed cultist stick).

Mr. “totally not the traitor” kills Zara before she can tell us anything of substance, she dies,clearly shocked, calling him “Amatus”...AND NO ONE CATCHES ON. You can have Neve on the team, Bellara regularly reads Tevinter serials (the whole team has a fucking book club in the middle of an apocalypse), you can play a freaking Shadow Dragon Rook, but nah, nothing. We don’t even get to ask “Uh, what was that?”. Instead, we get to sit through more pointless missives/quests while the ever capable Crows are totally investigating the traitor.

Now, you could argue that the “Amatus” was a reward to tip off those of us who’ve played the previous games and know what the term means. But with a plot this threadbare and obvious…did the writers think they’re Agatha Christie here? Did they really think I was at the edge of my seat, desperate to find out “whodunit” and grateful for any crumbs thrown my way?

Well, anyway, we are told a million times over that super charming (where?) Illario is just “like that” every time he acts super freaking suspicious. (The funeral thing with Caterina's ashes was especially funny.)

You'd think those instances would start to add up and prompt someone - anyone - to start using their brains (don't we have a goddamn detective on our team?!), but NOPE. We have to corpse-whisper to progress this questline. One of the biggest ass-pulls they've introduced via this game in general, in my opinion (is this Forbidden Realms and we just unlocked the Speak with the Dead spell?) - and it acts as the deus ex machina here to finally give us a clue. Wow, thanks.

The entire sequence of Lucanis confronting Illario in front of the assembled mafia felt like something out of an Antivan play. So goddamn goofy. I thought that vibe was charming in Josephine's romance quest - Antivans live for the drama - but they wanted us to take this moment seriously. This is Lucanis confronting his “all he has left” (don't get me started on the Fade sequence - apparently we the players can’t grasp anyone's motivations without having them spelled out for us over and over again) for putting him through hell and changing his entire being forever. Should I be laughing right now?

To make matters worse,we're told that the Crows are the perfect killers who never leave a contract unfinished - and then Lucanis spares Illario because the humiliation is the biggest punishment??? Like, I'm fine with him faltering here, that’s human. But this should have had consequences. This is the murder guild we're talking about here. Lucanis’ parents were literally killed in a different house’s coup attempt. He was just made the head mobster, immediately showed weakness in front of the entire mafia and everything is just dandy fine??? Because FAMILY?

Another personal gripe with this is that - as always - Rook had zero agency. No matter what you do, Lucanis will forgive or spare Illario. Imagine if we had the option to convince him to kill him instead. Imagine the resulting resentment tainting our bond with him and having us actively engage with fixing or breaking it. Imagine us going along with his mercy but hashing out the painful consequences for his house with him. But that’s not the game Veilguard is.

Anyway, the quest then becomes even more ridiculous. We've long learned that a human traitor helped the Antaam claim Treviso overnight. Someone with great knowledge of the city and the necessary power to make it happen. Gee, I'm sure the human GOVERNOR regularly hanging out in the Crow headquarters or the market bitching about the Crows’ interference 24/7 - the ONLY town official we get to see - had nothing to do with it. Five scarves fluttered in shock out of five, great job, guys.

The Butcher thing was just…weird. Like, we get to hear and build him up as this totally different antaam leader, cruel but cunning and calculating, someone who will be difficult to dethrone. Only for him to show up out of nowhere and serve no other purpose than to move the main plot forward asap and die. Lol, thanks for your service, I guess.

Then Ivenci, for no fucking reason, decides that they, like any good cartoon villain, should reveal themselves to us just in order to gloat. Um, why don’t they simply order the Antaam to murder us dead right then and there? If Rook and their plucky team of friends are too powerful for that, why haven’t we taken Treviso by force already? But nah, lol, our plot armor doesn’t have any cracks yet, so they literally tell us to go away and try to disturb the gods’ plans, because those guys will totally kill us for them.

Now, we wait again. Excuse me, isn’t this a questline about assassins? Why aren’t we trying to, y'know, assassinate Ivenci? Cut off the snakes's head, how often have we heard this phrase otherwise? Nah, let's wait till we get another letter that shit is going down that the Crows totally didn’t anticipate and THEN let's confront them. (Ofc, the Crows’ investigation of the qamek stalled forever. Cause they’re incompetent.)

But the thing that really broke me…we KNOW Ivenci stole a bunch of special qamek. We run at them THROUGH A GREEN POISON CLOUD. And my Rooks's just like “Huhhh? Is something possibly messing with my mind right now?”. YOU STUPID POS.

And then, ofc, we end the questline and Jacobus pops outta nowhere to spare Ivenci because a good pirate never steals and a good assassin never kills, I guess. Jacobus founds his new house to basically become a big mafia family for orphans like him which everyone is super proud of, because, if the previous installments of the game have taught us anything, it's that the Crows are deeply concerned with the well-being of orphans. Whoop dee doo, the end.

Okay, more notes. It’s been mentioned plenty already that this game has completely neutered the Crows and turned them into edgy found family freedom fighters. Personally, I'm not okay with the explanation that this is simply a different house than House Arainai. Because what the actual fuck, game. Why is Ivenci the bad guy when they're literally right about everything?! Where's my option to agree with them that a fucking murder mafia shouldn’t be the ruling force of a town, let alone the entire country? Why is the municipal government the enemy while my non-Crow Rook keeps shouting “Viva the Crows”??? Are you really telling me that the Crows are the good guy mafia and House Arainai was the bad outlier? Is that what this is?

Look, I'm fine with allying with the Crows if that’s what necessity dictates. We're trying to stop the SUPER BLIGHT here. But don’t sugarcoat that this is us joining forces with the mob. The way Veilguard presents them makes me cringe cause they're basically just leather-clad incompetent fools larping as birds. Show us the reality of this alliance. Get into the nitty-gritty. Make this world feel real. God.

I *wanted* to like this questline. Out of every country in Northern Thedas, I've always been most interested in Antiva. The whole medievalesque guilds system and merchant princes, the mediterranean romance and drama, pirates and Crows, the snazzy outfits and Spanish accents, god, normally, I'm eating that shit UP. I didn’t even think twice about which city to save. Partially because Minrathous was better fortified and Venatori seemed like the lesser evil vs. blighted water, of course, but mostly because Treviso is absolutely gorgeous and Zevran and Josephine instilled a lot of love for Antiva in me that I just don’t feel for Tevinter. I also thought that the setup was very interesting - professional assassins turned into freedom fighters of their occupied turf. And it *would* have been if they had let them remain, y'know, the actual murder mafia they always were.

But aside from my gripes about the Crows’ portrayal, the entire questline was just a total nothing burger. This is the first time ever that we're actually in Antiva, our introduction, so to speak, and what do we learn about the place? That there’s strife and betrayal among the Crows? Um, yeah, Zevran covered that fifteen years ago. There’s nothing new whatsoever. Imagine if our primary goal had actually been to help the Crows free Treviso. That we're working to loosen the Butcher's grasp on the town via strategic assassinations (i.e. actual Crow missions) that also introduce us to Treviso's people/Antivan culture (taking out someone during a theatre play, for example! The drama!), the internal politics of the Merchant princes and the municipal government's struggle to keep this occupied city from imploding. Imagine us getting caught up in this web of intrigue as we get closer and closer to the Butcher and then suddenly, we're being played. And only *then* do we start to suspect a traitor among the Crows’ ranks and the whole thing unravels. Spitballing even further, why repeat the Crow/Venatori romance in a random side quest with random people? Why not have Zara and Illario be actually in love, but he kills her for his ambition anyway? And instead of taking responsibility for his actions, he blames Lucanis for forcing his hand? Or maybe, they both thought they were playing the other and as another power hungry asshole, Zara almost respects Illario for the hussle as she dies? *Some* messiness and drama? (Cause Varric’s initial narration sequence made Zara seem like this blood-soaked femme fatale but the actual narrative gave zero fucks about that vibe. Discount Countess Bathory wannabe).

That might just be what I would have wanted and nobody else, but I still maintain that anything would have been better than this cookie-cutter, baby’s first mafia story that is beat for beat exactly what you'd expect and have seen before.

Well, this was a long rant. I don’t intend to make a habit of shitting on things others enjoy on here, but my emotions are still running high after finishing the game yesterday and you did ask. Sorry.

[heckcareoxytwit]

The final four flashbacks show why Apocalypse chose the mutants on who could become his successor.

The first flashback shows that Cable was chosen because Apocalypse admired his tenacity and his hardened approach to stopping his bad future. Cable grudgingly accepts Apocalypse's invitation so he can have every weapon in his arsenal to stop his future from coming to pass. Even if that means he fight fire with fire by becoming the new Apocalypse, so be it.

The second flashback shows Apocalypse approaching Forge telling what his "city of tomorrow" could have been, the planned project Forge created to solve world hunger and housing crises. Apocalypse points out that the greedy and ungrateful humans rejected it in their haste to hate mutants. But he says maybe Forge didn't deserve to see his cities built because he was the one who made the neutralizer gun. Maybe Forge can do better and work to be deserving once again.

The third flashback has Apocalypse approaching Dani Moonstar saying she has never risen to her full potential, that she was always in the shadow of greatness. Dani was walking the grounds of the mansion watching some of the X-Men hanging out. She walks the halls looking into rooms where the New Mutants, Generation X, and Academy X generations. Dani makes her way to the headmaster's office saying she accepted his invite to make sure no other power hungry immortal exceeds their reach. She sits in the headmaster's chair saying all she sees is possibility.

And the final flashback shows Apocalypse approaching Doug Ramsey and takes him back to Krakoa. He says Doug was the only one that actually spoke to Krakoa, that he lost so much when Krakoa fell. Doug Ramsey mentioned that he was one of the first mutants to walk on Krakoa, lived alone for almost a year developing their way of life on the island. Doug was left shaken when he experiences an illusion of the Sentinels destroying Krakoa. Apocalypse says maybe he needs an heir whose weapon is his words. Diplomacy and delicate lies.

X-Men: Heir of Apocalypse #4, 2024

In case you wonder who is the successor, click on Keep Reading for the Spoiler....

SPOILER WARNING

Everyone are alive and well as they woke up from the Stasis Tubes. Some of them (Mister Sinister, Nature Girl, Exodus and Gorgon) had left the lab off-panel while the others had remained and were left wondering who is the successor.

It turns out that the "Winner" of Apocalypse's deadly tests is...Doug Ramsey? Now he is renamed as Revelation.