#meta legion

[co-mixed]

Supurbia: Superhero Picket Fences

When you see a Controversy section on the writer’s wiki page, you shudder. Especially if you happened to already love their work. But sometimes it’s not a massive issue at all as was the case with Grace Randolph. Let’s get this out of the way – I only know her through her work, so that’s exactly what I’m going to talk about. 

Supurbia. 

This story is all about what happens between the sheets after your classic save-the-day team of superheroes takes off their tights and capes. A more interesting part is, it’s not even their story – it’s the days of those who wait for them at home and those who pick up the pieces when they fly full speed to yet another battle. Which right away makes it an interesting take. 

What do you think got me interested in the first place? More spoilers below. Honestly, not that many. Even if you read them, you'd still find plenty of new info in the book.

It’s a character-focused book, so it would be impossible to discuss it without dissecting the faces on the cover. 

Meta-Legion is the Justice League of this world. They even follow the pattern: the all-powerful stone-faced hero, the billionaire with gadgets, the warrior-princess, the boy scout leader, the guy with unexplained space powers, and Nightwing. Fine, maybe that’s more of a character salad, who cares. It’s not even them I really want to talk about. 

The All-Powerful Sovereign is your typical domestic tyrant and he picks the perfect victim too, a reformed villain Hella Heart. Her life’s absolute nightmare and that is exactly what makes her interesting. Sovereign has less in common with Superman and more with Dr. Manhattan. While Hella needs attention and understanding. She doesn’t get it from him, and she doesn’t get it from her Wisteria Lane neighbors. Even if they attempt to connect, it always comes down to their own agenda. Is it even surprising that she eventually slips? 

To be fair, I was rooting for her not to. She gives this victim-of-the-circumstances vibe and still tries to do the right thing. Kinda like Harley Quinn if she was locked in a house with laundry and dishes. Most of Supurbia characters are like that, you know who they’re based upon but they are still different enough for you to ignore it. 

We only get to see the beginning of Hella’s full arc before the run gets canceled. So I imagine, she had miles to go. 

Meanwhile Sovereign himself remains a distant figure. By the end, he’s just starting to get in touch with any emotions. So again, canceled too soon. 

The billionaire Night Fox is having an affair with Nightwing I mean Agent Twilight (not that Twilight and not the other one). Night Fox’s wife and business partner Alexis finds out and it’s your typical betrayal story that hurts a whole bunch of people. While the unhappily married couple decides what to do and how to be, Agent Twilight becomes one of the most sympathetic and interesting characters. His love is all bruised and tortured, and he is almost ready to give it up even though he doesn’t want to. Not only I would still like to see how the whole story plays out, I��d like to see way more of his friendship with Tia. 

Tia is the wife of Cosmic Champion (unexplained space powers) and a former superhero. Reminds you of anyone? Yeah, Jessica Jones. She gives up patrolling and fighting crime to raise her daughter. But unlike Jess, Tia misses it and she isn’t afraid to fight about that with her husband Dion. She manages to get her way too, and she ends up in an awesome costume speaking in tricky rhymes. She even saves the day when she goes after Batu.

The Warrior-princess Batu has two kids and a husband, and believe it or not, their lives are far from perfect. So far, in fact, it gets better before it gets worse, not the other way around. Batu is not a Diana-type, she’s quite the opposite and reminds more of Sovereign. If you look closely, most of these heroes lack empathy which is the reason for their domestic troubles. Batu is no exception – her issues with her kids are a good example. She ignores her son when she believes her daughter is the one with the inherited power, but as soon as she finds out otherwise, she forgets all about her. I like how this story in particular developed with a balance of a caring father and a powerful but absentee mother. This is what drives Sara to evil. If only we got a little more of this evil child and could see her grow from a rebellious teen to a real threat… 

And then there is the person through whose eyes you are supposed to be looking at all of it, the newbie on the block – Eve. She’s a superhero fangirl and the wife of new Marine Omega who arrives to the neighborhood with her husband just before the old one passes away. 

Out of all the characters I liked her the least. She had this optimistic desire to get involved that, for the most part, is a foreign concept to a millennial. She wants to help, she’s a nurse, she’s nosy for good reasons. She also saves the day and becomes a hero. But that was still not enough for me to like her. Matter of taste, I suppose.

Art and overall thoughts

The art in this book is vibrant. That’s the best word for it. It’s not my favorite style but the more you get into the story, the less you mind it. In this case, the art fits the story well. It’s a little… mischievous would be the right word. And it sort of lightens the whole mood of the book. It works in harmony with lettering, colors, and really, the more I think about it, the more I like it. 

These days Russell Dauterman is mostly associated with a very specific X-men look, so it’s easy to simply not recognize his work. I didn’t, he certainly grew and changed a lot. 

Covers are another part that’s hard to ignore. They immediately make you think “Desperate Housewives”. And it’s probably very intentional because this story certainly has similar vibes. Less than let’s say, Vision, but more than nearly anything else. 

Supurbia is a good read. It’s emotional as hell if you let it sink in. And you should. It has great characters, complex heroes, and scary villains. Villains might not be the driving force here but they’re formidable and by no means easy to defeat. Supurbia can give you tons of enjoyable content and hours of fun, but I won’t recommend it to you unless you can live with an unfinished story. It has a conclusion, but it’s certainly not over. 

[illusivesoul]

That line that Corypheus says after being released in the Legacy dlc while he's all confused "Be these some dream I wake from? Am I in dwarven lands? Why seem their roads so empty?" highlights how in his time, the Deep Roads really were the commercial and trade arteries of Thedas, and how they must have been constantly bursting full of people and merchants trading and going from one corner of Thedas to the other.

Tevinter controlled most of Thedas, but below the surface, the dwarven empire was what truly connected it, all the distant Thaigs and cities bringing lyrium and other things all over the continent, and even trading with the Chasind and the Avvar as far south as Ferelden (and according to Bianca, its possible the Deep Roads might have gone beyond Thedas itself)

And then Corypheus wakes up a thousand years later and assumes he's on the Deep Roads and is puzzled as to why it all seems so empty and lifeless. And the irony is that, even though he doesn't know it yet, thats what the Deep Roads and all the dwarven lands except for Orzammar and Kal'Sharok have become. A dead, lifeless carcass filled with darkspawn, with decaying statues, crumbling Thaigs and a few squads of the Legion of the Dead representing the fading memories of the glory of the past that once was and will never be again, and slowly fading into history like the dwarves themselves.

[duriens]

so we all agree that kirkwall is both horrifying and fascinating and i wish they'd delved more into its bloody history beyond the snippets we get from the codexes of the band of three. like hello?? three seekers of truth - among which a dalish mage - scurrying about the sewers and lower passages of the city, discovering that kirkwall was designed as some sort of magical symbol, has grooves in the sewers allowing the flood of blood downward for blood magic purposes, and last but not least realizing that its circle of magi had a much higher number of failed harrowings & episodes of blood magic hysteria than basically any other circle in existence??? you cant leave me hanging like that. why was the veil so thin there even before tevinter came? why were they weakening it further?? what was tevinter doing with all those disappeared slaves every year and the huge blood magic ritual involving thousands of slaves and the city itself being a magic symbol??? did the band ever find out if the Forbidden Ones are the same Forgotten Ones of dalish lore??? why was xebenkeck called 'forgotten one'??? hello????? what the fuck is up in kirkwall??????

[artbyblastweave]

One interesting thing about Caesar which I basically never see anybody talk about, right, is that his father was killed by raiders. I understand why nobody talks about it, because he's the world's biggest asshole, and the game itself only addresses it in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it line. But it's notable to me because it's basically the textbook example of a Freudian excuse, and in a lesser game likely would have been played up as such. His father gets killed by raiders in the NCR heartland, and fifty years later he's built an empire standing opposite the NCR that's noted for having basically eliminated raiding as a concept within its borders (part-and-parcel with the rest of the oppression.)

This is never directly presented as a contributing factor to Why He's Like That. It isn't presented as the fulfilment of some oath he swore on his murdered father's grave. In fact, it's almost the inverse- you only find out about this when he briefly mentions it as part of the extremely curated, self-aggrandizing backstory that he's giving you as part of an extended sales pitch. It's a curt mention- something that happened, an explanatory factor in how he and his mother wound up in the care of the Followers. A figure he has to account for in telling you his life story, because as an outsider you aren't going to fall for the "Son of Mars" routine. But not something terribly important besides that. Not something with a place in the mythology. Definitely not a loss or absence that's meaningfully impacted him in any way going forward, because the Mighty Caeser is of course totally above such petty concerns.

That digression aside, the point is this- it's comically easy to imagine the version of this story that leveraged these exact backstory details, unchanged, to paint a picture of Caesar as a brooding antihero, making the both-sidesing rampant in the fandom textual. There's probably some Conan-style grim-and-gritty sword-and-sorcery rise-of-a-king epics out there you could seamlessly slot him in as the protagonist of (the man himself reads Grognak comics.) There are the bones of an unironic self-satisfied ultramasculine power fantasy rattling around in there, the shrewd modern man who uses strength, guile and modernity to dominate his lessers, a hard-man-making-hard-choices, the whole process a masturbatory tract in favor of whatever ideology the infallible Great Man Protagonist chooses to embody. This is a kind of story, in science fiction, more often than not a grotesque one. And it's clearly the kind of story Caeser thinks he's the protagonist of. But Hank Morgan this fucker is not. And I'm intensely grateful that the narrative refuses to let him get away with pretending that he is. At the end of the day his army is wearing football gear.

[crapula-estatutario-nobinario]

Legate Malpais. Some little concept which is part of the sketchdump

Cw: burning fella underneath the cut,

Hhhh crispy

[edenprime]

In my mind, Tali's parents were in a sort of... lavender marriage*, and their true partners were Shala'Raan and Han'Gerrel.

I mean - Raan was the one who was with Tali's mother when she was born. They synced their suits with each other. It's implied that she was like a second parent to Tali, that she spent more time with her and her mother than Rael during her childhood.

On the other hand, Gerrel speaks of Rael'Zorah as being his partner in crime since they were teenagers. He tells their story with a fondness that speaks of years of partnership. He's the only one who notices that Shepard was deflecting when defending Tali, but let's be real - he doesn't know Shepard. He knew Rael. He's also the only one you're allowed to confide in when it comes to the secret geth experiments.

*Not because I believe the quarians are homophobic, I just think it could be a practice they used to mantain their population. After all, Tali explains in ME1 that sometimes they had to put in laws to make sure the population remained sustainable. Added to the quarian's inherent loyalty to each other... well, this way, they had a child as expected, but could keep their preferred partners.

[rei-ismyname]

X-Men/Mutant Dynasties

Something I've always felt uneasy about is when offspring of Marvel mutants basically inherit their mutant gift 1:1. The X Gene (though I don't love that either) is supposed to be a naturally but randomly occurring thing in humans that causes them to develop a strong mutation. In many cases, a superpower as opposed to six toes. I'm sure people experience such minor mutations as well but it's not due to the X Gene.

A character that exemplifies the my dislike of this is Raze, the alternate reality/'future' child of Wolverine and Mystique. Them existing in a pretty ridiculous era with a constant nostalgia recycling is a factor too.

This idiot. He literally just has both parents gifts - shapeshifting, claws, and a healing factor. Keep in mind those are metal claws too - something Logan doesn't have biologically. Maybe it's a Mystique thing and she's like a ditto in Pokémon breeding because her kid with Xavier is this chump.

It's just Charles Xavier again! I'll admit part of the dislike is them featuring in such mediocre, unimaginative stories, and they're pretty transparent Nostalgia bait. Has it lead to good stories? I don't think so, not as a critical element. Could you honestly tell me what either of these idiots' motivation is without looking it up?

Also, I think taking the randomness out of it just leads to eugenics and bioessentialism - a place the x books should not go, or at least not have nominal heroes doing it. Leave it to Mr Sinister.

Mutant trait inheritance has been around since almost the beginning. Polaris has Magneto's powers but weaker, Siryn has *similar* powers to Banshee, Nightcrawler looks like Mystique (though that makes sense through retcon. Shit, maybe she IS a Ditto.) On the flip side, there's even more Mutants that inherited none of their parents' mutation.

IRL Mutation is supposed to be, well not random per se, but the result of damage to genes. In our universe it's neither a good thing nor bad thing. In 616 it's pretty muddled tbh. I'm not a scientist - I'm a writer, so I'm not going deep on something that doesn't have internal consistency. I'm always going to dislike thin characters trying to evoke familiarity through mashing two iconic ones together, but it's more than that. What's the source of my discomfort then?

Yeah, it's the eugenics. HoxPoX actually took it further, revealing that Moira and Charles intentionally sought to breed reality warpers, to the point of researching partners that would give the desired result. They were successful too, resulting in Proteus and Legion, two of the most powerful mutants alive. The ethics of these actions aren't editorialised but I think they're meant to be read as horrifying - especially when you consider the context of the 'pairings' and the lives these poor kids have had. Maybe it's not so surprising Xavier views David as a weapon and Moira seems to hate Kevin. It makes Chuck and Moira look terrible.

Pic unrelated, I just wanted to break up the text and what better than Beatnik Namor?

The superbaby schemes never come to light and they're not really punished for being shit parents. Certainly not socially. I'd love a book where they were, but the time has kinda passed. Maybe the fairy tale morality of big two comics doesn't have the framework or the desire to explore it, though I think that if you're going to put eugenics in your fiction you probably should.

I've been sitting on this draft for months because I feel like I don't have the knowledge or vocabulary to explore it properly. I'm probably missing something. I've decided it's been edited and rewritten enough and I'm posting it as is, so if you have any thoughts on this I'd love to hear them. Join the conversation!

[bloggingthefamily]

Mouseover Text + Creator Commentary:

I appreciate how vague this one is.

[mephestopheles]

Welcome to the brainrot, have we considered Geth naming conventions?

Geth are autonomous small running programs stacked on top of each other in a "mobile platform" that generally becomes more intelligent the more there are. Even post Rannoch and with the upload Reaper code their sense of individuality is going to be very different than humans or other organic species.

Legion was content with being given a name in ME2 but that's because to them* naming the part that speaks is weird, it would be like naming a toe. At least in a Geth, their toe would also be part of the consensus so to speak.

This got long, the rest is under the cut

Post Rannoch, (and leaving aside that the sudden and faulty storytelling of trying to repeat Mordin's sacrifice) we see Legion not only say "I" instead of "We", they sacrifice themselves to complete the upload, spreading their many programs amongst the rest. The other Geth that comes over does note that Legion's sacrifice will be remembered, which suggests that instead of individual programs creating a higher intelligence based on numbers, they're unified in each mobile platform.

Does this mean that the individual smaller programs are now considered individuals, or is it still many smaller programs that inhabit a mobile platform? Only becoming a single being as they evolve together to develop personality quirks and preferences as time goes on?

From a writing standpoint, it was definitely easier for them to basically hand wave the "there they're intelligent now and understand the difference between I and we. But the hand wave doesn't work for me. If they're essentially software and can go anywhere, do they "die" when they leave their platform to rejoin a hub?

If that was the case before the upload, what happens now? Are they locked into specific platforms now and can't bounce from one to another? Does that frighten them because that locks them out from the way they used to understand and know each other? If they're not locked out from rejoining hubs or becoming part of a ship or space station, do they retain who they are when they return to their mobile platform?

Legion's sacrifice suggests they can't, but given that's to complete the upgrades, it stands to reason the Geth would either find a way to maintain cohesion while changing spaces, or would remain in one platform.

Now granted this is a very limited viewpoint. It assumes that the Geth's response to individuality would align with other organic responses to it, and with a sense of "self" would begin to understand self preservation.

They understand preservation of their species as a whole, as we see with them willing to forgo freedom and autonomy for base survival. But individual freedom and individual self preservation is going to be very new, they might even as a species refuse to participate in that kind of individualism even if they have to work harder to maintain the community they are used to.

All of this so I figure out naming conventions among Geth.

I can't see them suddenly developing names as organic species understand them, although they might start using a similar convention as the Quarians use. They might also prefer numbers or codes. Shepard was inside the consensus for a while, it's unclear how long, but when I species measures in nanoseconds even a few minutes would be a lifetime. Would that impact any human-like characteristics upon the Geth? Do we think that Shepard has that much influence even as he's removing the virus from the Geth?

I think Legion believes so. I think that Legion has felt and responded to Shepard's influence even when they were speaking across a gulf of disparate understanding. Shepard's willingness to give Legion a chance, willingness to help Legion, and treat them as an equal in the latter half of ME2 and when you meet him again in Me3 make me believe they fully believe that Shepard is enough to change things.

So a new Geth, someone joining the Alliance to help but doesn't have a name, or designation that humans would understand. Would they accept a name given by a human, or an Asari? I'm not even sure the Asari would try to impose a name on a Geth.

I know humans will. We can't help it. We fucking named a roomba Stabby. We name snow plows. I know humans on some level are nervous of artificial intelligence, but let's face it, the Geth arrive to give us a hand, we will adopt them, even if they don't understand why.

So, that leaves me with a couple of possibilities, the Geth that stick around Rannoch and decide to help the Quarians rebuild will likely take their naming conventions after the Quarians at first before developing their own names over time. The Geth that interact with humans more are probably going to develop human naming patterns, if not outright named by humans to the point that maybe some Geth develop a culture that your name is bestowed by your favourite human.

Maybe that is a piece of code that's left over from Legion, a small program replicated many times that is within all of the Geth, but cultivated in those that stick around humans, that being named by a friend becomes a coming of age so to speak.

*they being used as the collective noun, and not the singular personal pronoun. I'm not even getting into Geth genders or if they even have a concept of gender. They're just figuring out person hood, nevermind gender roles.

[valenteal]

Part 1 of Val’s History of the Jedi

Ok so @dr-stxrk has asked for more information about the early history of the Jedi Order.

I will start with the precursor to the Jedi, the Je’daii Order as you can’t understand the Jedi without the backstory of how the Order was founded. I won’t go into detail about how the Je’daii Order came to be because it convoluted and mysterious but just know that due to unexplained Force Shenanigans an entire generation of a lot the force sensitives in the galaxy ended up on the deep core planet of Tython and had to band together to survive. The planet of Tython is largely inaccessible to the wider galaxy as the closer to the core you get the harder it is to navigate and the more unstable hyperlanes are. The core in this case being the actual center of the galaxy, not the political and economical core near Coruscant and Corellia. (Can you tell which planets came up with the term?)

So. The thing about Tython is that it’s a planet with an incredibly deep connection to the Force. The planet’s weather is completely dependent upon the balance of the Force within the three body system of Tython and its two moons, Ashla and Bogan. To survive all of the inhabitants of Tython had to maintain balance between the light side of the force and the dark, those who were unbalanced, towards either the light or the dark, were exiled to the moons until they could once again find balance, with the dark siders sent to Bogan and the light siders to Ashla. There’s a whole lot of history I’m gonna skip over cause it isn’t super connected with the Jedi, but know that there were issues with non force sensitives being born and Tython being too dangerous for them and a couple more planets nearby being colonized by the non force sensitives and war and oh yeah a Rakata invasion. Was not a stable system. Its inevitable collapse could be seen a mile away.

I’m sure you can guess what happened next. Extremists from both sides, light and dark, eventually grew in number and the ensuing war completely devastated the surface of Tython, not because they had weapons of mass destruction but because the imbalance caused Force storms that tore through the landscape, making the planet uninhabitable. The surviving Je’daii were followers of Ashla (at this point the names of the moons are synonymous with the different aspects of the force) and they relocated to the planet Ossus where they founded the Jedi Order.

In the beginning the Jedi were glorified librarians. They still had their force techniques and weapons (Force imbued blades, light sabers haven’t been invented depending on which version you believe. Personally I say they don’t exist yet) but their mission was the preservation of knowledge. They were explorers, historians, and record keepers who staunchly preserved all the history and knowledge that they could. Honestly I really like this incarnation of the Order. They had their priorities straight, at least in the beginning. It wasn’t until they made contact with the Republic that things really started going downhill and getting political.

The Jedi make contact with the fledgling Republic around 25,000 BBY. Twenty five thousand years before the original trilogy! The timeline of the Star Wars universe is so massive! I mean the recorded history of Earth and humanity started five thousand years ago! The scale is insane! Anyway I’m off track.

So, the Republic makes first contact with the Jedi on Ossus and the nearby Tion Cluster. The Jedi pledge their services to the Republic and set up on Coruscant, Ossus still being their main stronghold, and integrated themselves into the Republic. I don’t have a ton of information on how they operated at that time, but 500 years later an event known as The First Great Schism erupted. A Jedi named Xendor asked the council for permission to set up an Academy for the study of the Dark side after becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the Order’s close minded views on the Force and the “correct�� way of using it. When the Council denied his request he went a head and did it anyway, incorporating not only dark side force techniques but also many others that never gained galactic prominence such as the Dai Bendu, an early influence of Je’daii beliefs as one of the founders was already a practitioner, the traditions of the Followers of Palawa, and more. He established his academy on the planet Lettow and named himself and his followers the Legions of Lettow.

Xendor had no lust for power that is usually associated with fallen Jedi, his war with the Jedi Order was based entirely upon philosophy and a genuine belief that the Jedi were wrong about the Force and how it was used. A quote from him that I like is “There are as many truths to the Force as there are hearts within which the Force manifests itself.” He didn’t believe there was a right or wrong way to use the Force and he wanted to keep the Jedi from squashing all schools of thought other than their own. Needless to say he didn’t succeed and the Legions of Lettow were defeated and Xendor’s philosophy was scrubbed from the Jedi and Republic records.

The First Great Schism marked the first joint Jedi and Republic Military effort as well as the first (but definitely not the last) time the Jedi showed their true fanatical colors by committing genocide against anyone who disagreed with them. If you want me to continue talking about Jedi history and the many wars between light and dark such as the Second Great Schism, the Hundred Year Darkness, The Great Hyperspace War, the Third Great Schism, the Great Sith War, the Krath Holy Crusade, the Jedi Civil War, the Great Galactic War, the Fourth Great Schism, the New Sith Wars, what I consider to be the Fifth Great Schism though it isn’t technically called that, the unnamed war with the Brotherhood of Darkness… well you’ll have to tell me you want to hear about it and wait because a lot happens between the defeat of Xendor and the ascension of Darth Bane (which marked the end of open conflict between Jedi and Sith until Phantom Menace as far as I’m aware) and I can’t talk about all of it in one day.

Next part ➡️

[stadam]

adam rocking up to angelic meetings in which no one wants to hear his opinion:

[honourablejester]

On the topic of Fallout, I was watching a video that asked who the strongest raider gang across the franchise might be. And my instinctive first reaction was: Caesar’s Legion. But no, he meant which gang classified by the games as raiders was the strongest.

(Functionally speaking, I would argue, in terms of tactics, organisation and aesthetics, literally the only difference between the Legion and a raider gang is pure size).

Of the groups classified as raiders, the video gave the title to the Nuka World raiders. He discounted the Khans because of the state you meet them in in F:NV, and the Pitt because … I’m not actually sure.

The Pitt raiders are who I’d actually vote for, myself. Partly for practical reasons, in that they control a full city rather than just a theme park, as well as having actual industry and means of production, and then also for vibe reasons in that, during Open Season, soloing the whole of Nuka World and slaughtering every raider in it seemed tough but doable, but the thought of doing that in the Pitt feels … not quite so doable. Like. I (or rather my sister) can solo Nuka World in an afternoon. Doing the same to the Pitt seems … daunting.

I think his argument was that the Pitt raiders are doomed by the TDC, making their long-term viability significantly weaker? Which is a fair point. I think I’ll still give to them on pure vibes, though.

I will also give some points to the Rust Devils, in terms of more traditional gangs, because any gang that can field assaultrons and sentry bots is a tough-ass gang. They just don’t control the numbers and territory that some other gangs do. Yet.

I’m not sure of his argument regarding the Khans either. Yes, they’re in a pitiful state in New Vegas, but they’re in a pitiful state after taking on a nation state and its army, and they’re still not wiped out, they’re hanging in there, and if you get them their good ending they can go on to take over most of Wyoming. The Khans controlled enough territory to have a town, and their encampment in Red Rock is entrenched enough the NCR can’t afford to try taking it on while also holding off the Legion. In terms of gangs, the Khans were big enough to control enough territory that it took an army to drive them out, and even then they’re not dead yet. So. I think they also get points.

But. Overall? If the Legion is discounted on classification grounds, I think I will give this to the Pitt raiders. But I would argue that the Legion very much is a raider gang writ extremely large.

[radioactive-earthshine]

Hello

Could you explain what you mean by Bart and Brainaic's friendship? I admit I never read any bit of LOSH and the only thing I remember of them interacting is when Brian told Bart he drank to forget him. It doesn't seem like they are friends but IDK

Teen Titans/Legion Special (2004)

This is actually something fairly on brand for Querl to say given his crassness inherited from the long line of Dox-Bitchiness. Querl is one of those great examples of a character who is a good person but he's not necessarily polite and nice all of the time. Although in more recent comics and media he has gotten significantly nicer.

His loose "blink and you miss it" friendship with Bart in the 90s comics comes as a little bit of a surprise considering the types of characters they are but it works as their dynamic evolves around mutually started chaos and working to get out of said chaos. The start of their connection also shows a surprising side of Post-Zero Hour Querl when he elects to show Bart some compassion after he had a very bad day.

This is not to say that their friendship was without a lot of frustrations as Bart did inflict himself upon the Legionnaires in ways that left... an impact.

Bart's first encounter with Querl can be found in his own comic when recently stranded Legionnaires specifically sought Bart out for help in getting back to their own time.

It ended disastrously when Bart while in the midst of an extreme case of the zoomies attempted to use the Cosmic Treadmill to take them home, but he had absolutely no ability to control it, and instead just flung everyone around through varying intervals of time (and gave Imra a migraine and Querl, Koko).

Impulse #21

Bart was even more hyper-active in this issue than normal, and I think it had something to do with the Slurpee he was drinking at the start of it.

Regardless if the zoomies were a result of Mark Waid deciding to go full ham for the chaos in this issue, or if the slurpee did something, the day did not end well and the Legionnaires left hoping to find another way home.

Querl did not expect to see Bart again for a long, long time, if ever.

They were all wrong.

Because like the One Ring he resurfaced as he inflicted himself upon them again about a day later at S.T.A.R. Labs in Legion of Super-Heroes (1989) Issue #88.

But not before the issue opens up reminding everyone that while Bart does have his chaotic moments, Querl is no less guilty of chaos and is his own unique brand of mayhem.

They are in fact, kindred.

LMFAO @ Rokk's "I've asked him NOT to." in regards to blowing up S.T.A.R. Labs because Rokk has about as much control over Querl as Max or any authority figure over Bart when he has an inkling.

S.T.A.R. Labs' solution to dealing with Querl was to put him under watch and surveillance, much to his extreme foul-mouthed displeasure, another trait he shares with Bart.

"What could possibly go awry?" is early Bart Allen's famous summoning incantation.

With Bart back in proximity of the Legionnaires things begin to unfold again chaotically, this time however it is Querl's fault for trying coopt Bart into helping him operate under the radar put on him.

This is their first instance working together, and it is the incident that brings them together and what likely prompts Querl to drink.

With the telepathic ear plugs, Querl directs Bart and gives him what he believes are clear instructions, but he didn't count on Bart's own brand of logic and instead helps initiate a countdown towards nuclear meltdown.

Fortunately, everyone is able to work together to stop catastrophe and all it takes is a Coluan finger subjected to speed force.

"Well. THAT went all right, then, didn't it?" you're a grenade in a barrel full of oatmeal, sir.

The day's events leads to the Legionnaires being kicked out of S.T.A.R. Labs, and out of a home, until they can find a solution to get back to their time.

It also leads to the heartbreaking scene at the diner where Bart is very bluntly and firmly told that he was absolutely not accepted as a Legionnaire. But not only that, he was the first ever hero to be turned down. Superboy at this time is an honorary member so it's a poignant gut-punch and it's hard to read.

Querl lurks outside for reasons unknown.

In true Bart Allen fashion all he wanted to do was help and he did act earnestly it just was not a good day. Six to One rejected him and the comics do not reveal who voted to allow him in.

It is likely that Querl voted to allow him membership, but we never find out, but it is my personal interpretation due to how the final page goes and this is where we see Querl lean into compassion for someone kindred. Maybe he saw a little bit of himself in him.

Querl opens up to Bart literal direct communication and this is the start of a positive friendship between them. Bart has this link with Querl for an impressively long time in comic continuity, at least 11 issues, however the comics do not show them actively communicating until later when Bart is needed to help save the world from C.O.M.P.U.T.O.

We see them again in Legion of Super-Heroes (1989) #99 when Querl reveals to his team that he shares a link with Bart and summons him. Much to the Legionnaires' bemoaning.

Querl isn't wrong, they really are up against time and a threat that is literally world-ending. He trusts Bart is capable and reliable enough to efficiently help them at this point and Bart does.

We also get a humorous snippet showing Querl trying to translate Bart's pictograms. If anything, communicating with Bart sometimes had to have been a mental exercise that he either appreciated or attained a migraine from.

After this point, we do not see them interact much except for in the Teen Titans/Legion Special, and then the next time they are seen even in the same proximity is during Final Crisis when another Brainiac 5 entirely bottles Bart's 'youth' and leads to his resurrection.

They had an interesting and unexpected dynamic/friendship and it is one I feel people generally neglect to notice or consider unless you happen to be a fan of both comics.

We do see some hints in other media that is a throw-back to this old friendship and dynamic such as in The Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century Issue #15 when an alternative history to Bart Allen lands him working with Querl in his birth time.

In this particular version of Bart he has not evacuated to the past (if he ever does) and he is still in VR, however he still works with Querl in harmony and manages to impress them enough to get an invite to the team immediately. The entire issue is like a little love-letter to Bart and is a delight to read and stands on its own.

So there's Bart's interesting relationship/friendship to Earth 247's Brainiac 5 that maybe some in the Flashfam fandom or LOSH fandom may have overlooked.

It's fun, it's unexpected and it's interesting, and it would have been nice to see it a little more fleshed out but 1000 years of time displacement just makes this impossible.

[datura-tea]

also i want to expound on the tags i left on this post:

#the fascism and imperialism of the legion begets violence and turns its victims into perpetrators and vice versa and so on the cycle goes...#in this system you would think violence and tragedy is inherent and inevitable but! it's really not!! people choose it. it's a decision tha#hinges on what kind of person you are#and ulysses is the kind of person that's just strong and beat down and aware enough to want to end the cycle - in a very convoluted way obv#we love a complex king<3

ulysses wants to end the cycle, but his interpretation of letting go and beginning again is to clear the board. so he plans to keep the ncr and the legion stuck inside the mojave to bite each other's dicks off and take the local populace with them. BUT - and this is very important - he puts this enactment of this plan in the hands of another. someone whom he believes has the power to kill or birth a nation without even knowing: courier six.

so he aims the bombs at the ncr and the legion, and gives courier six the trigger. that is, after they confront each other. which happens only after a slog through the divide where he takes the courier to task, asking them to account for their actions, as well as show them how the legion has shaped him personally, breaking him down and abusing him and doing violence unto him, making him do violence to others in its name, basically showing the cycle of violence and its consequences. asking the courier - and you, the player - now armed with this knowledge and these weapons, what will you do? will you end the cycle or continue it?

[artbyblastweave]

One of the light-touch worldbuilding/storytelling/dramatic irony moments I really enjoy in Fallout: New Vegas is everything to do with Aurelius of Phoenix, the Legion Slavemaster operating Cottonwood Cove. Nested bit here, right? On first glance it seems like psuedo-Latin gibberish, something grandiose but divorced from meaning, like a lot of the Legion guys- but then you do the double take and realize it's a cognomen, a nickname Romans would receive based on great achievements or conquests-e.g. Scipio Africanus- and that implicitly this is the guy who helped sack the actual former city of Phoenix in Arizona. Stealth Future-imperfect trope, disguised at first glance because "Phoenix" is already a kind of grandiose mythologic-sounding word. And when you realize that, right, it's suddenly very funny, for the same basic reason The Republic of Dave is funny- grandiose terminology juxtaposed with a mundane name from the world we recognize. If it were Aurelius of Boise, Aurelius of Cincinnati, right, there are cities you could use in the pairing that would cause it to parse as much more of an explicit gag. So now it's silly in the way everything about the Legion is silly. But then it wraps back around to actually kind of unnerving, because first off, basically it's an offhand implication of something very nasty having gone down in Phoenix, A City From Real Life That We Recognize, in order for him to have gotten a whole Cognomen out of it. And second, it's obviously not a coincidence that his name doesn't sound dumb. Caesar isn't gonna let a subordinate quote-unquote "earn" a cognomen unless it's useful to him, unless it enhances the brand somehow, and having a guy named "Aurelius of Phoenix" walking around, well, it does do that! It feels calculated. It's not the kind of name that's downstream of cultural decay and half-remembered information. It's another example of how Caesar micromanages his slave army down to their very names, and how he lifts random superficial elements of Roman culture on an ad-hoc basis without integrating any of it on a deeper level. A lot going on, with this one guy's goofy name!

[crapula-estatutario-nobinario]

"Make the first shot count. You won't get a second."

Aw fuck, another serious piece. Living for curly haired Joshua ngl