Wow... This Made Me THINK

I can’t remember if I’ve said this before but I think that if you make a Batman 1920s AU then you have to take into account that Bertie Wooster often spent time living in New York and Gotham City is just New York Noir and Bruce Wayne would probably cultivate the acquaintance of Bertie Wooster because Bertie is exactly the sort of person Bruce wants people to think he is, so it’s both birds of a feather camouflage and because he wants to observe Bertie for behavioural ideas.

Bertie, ray of sunshine that he is, thinks Bruce is jolly good fun and really quite barmy, but he already has a friend called Barmy and he can’t manage two Barmies so he affectionately dubs him Batty.

Consequently Bruce exists in a state of nagging uncertainty as to whether Bertie is the golden-hearted silly ass he so transparently appears to be, or is in fact one of his villains, knowing who he is and taunting him.

Sigma interacting with his co-workers in talon (with his pills):

Sombra

Sigma: Unh? Oh Hello my friend! I haven't notice you there.

Sombra: Oh! Yes! I finaly made it work.

Sigma: I'm afraid i don't follow. What did you made work?

Sombra: It's a old device from the old times on Dorado. I found on a junkward with only It's hopes and dreams to keep it alive. It's a camouflage exo-skeleton that went missing after that accident of transportation to the moon.

Sigma: That was indeed a terrible incident. It's a queit a riddle of how in the many odds that could've happened.

Sombra: For the brigth side, i gain this little one. Look: It's filled with nano bots, they are soo tricky to control though, too many and too complex even with my current technology; imagine back then when i didn't had none of this! Needed like ten years just to hack 100 of them and on the stage that i found it i was already thinking that it was imposible to make it work. But oh man! Más vale manã que fuerza.

Sigma: Outstanding! And that's one marvel of engineering that Horizon was caring, and as you said: Complicated. I unfortunately had little to no contact with this kind of technology, i only saw when It's was being refined, years away from the current time. Seeing it on this stage shows how your handwork really improved after your studies.

Sombra: Learned with the best.

Sigma: Well, thank you but to be frank you're queit the prodigy yourself. I do not believe a admirer of the systematics of relativity is queit, eh, sharp to thought the control ofd sub atomic non-organic devices.

Sombra: It's true though. Without you, i wouldn't be capable of understand none of that right now, it took years just understand their basic composition. I own you alot, viejito.

Sigma: I appreciated.

Moira

Sigma: Could I go outside today, doctor?

Moira: I'm afraid i can't do that, you're under supervision after that surgery that we passed.

Sigma: Yes, yes, immune system weakend cannot be teased with a little clue of fresh air. But.... By the time that is passed here i don't feel stronger.

Moira: Your diagnoses said otherwise.

Sigma: I mean in pratice. My abilities seemed to increse and i showed more results while i was outside. Hitting the walls, going back in furth, this isn't a natural display of mines here.

Moira: We understand your struggle doctor, but for now you will be just the very thing that you are not craving right now, for the benefits of your health and the full sucess of the experiment. So we stay right here, yes?

Sigma: . . . I understand.

Doomfist

Doomfist: Doctor De Kuiper? The subject sigma, still... Instable? I see, i hope nothing unchracterist happens here.

Sigma: Hello mister Ogundimu! Never thought i would see you in flesh.

Doomfist: Unh hum... Charmed. (Takes a step back)

Sigma: i'm marveled for seeing you here. The doomfist! The title behind It's as heavy as It's sounds.

Doomfist: You know my title?

Sigma: And who doesn't? A man that in a battle killed his own master. Now, i know It's sounds harsh for but for pete's sake you are queit skilled, the cloath needed to be changed, in a way or another.

Doomfist: How do you know this?...

Sigma: Many events happens in many universes, universes that comes with mutiple choices of certain characters, and yours my friend, the universe singed your history and It's happens to be true in this variation. It happens time to time, i can't tell why!

Doomfist: Sure... It was good to see you, doctor de Kuiper. (Goes away)

Sombra: Got em'! Best actor ever.

Sigma: He looked very frigthen.

Sombra: That's what he get's for thinking he is high and mighty.

Sigma: You sure are happy with this.

Sombra: Yep! Oh man his face was priceless.

Sigma: Well, this could've got worst. But guess you handle pretty well.

Reaper

Reaper: Get off the way, doctor.

Sigma: How can one desmaterilize and still be asking for space?

Reaper: The very one is thinking in fill you with bullets. So, Get. Back.

Sigma: If a cologne of protozoa makes It's way for the mind of a fish. This means the fish is now passing for a evolutive process or devoluteve process?

Reaper: What?

Sigma: Has a ant ever thought that the universe that it got It's actually just another particle on the grand scheme of things?

Reaper: Have you lost your goddamn mind?

Sigma: purpose has purpose?

Reaper: (grunts) just get away from me. (He dissapers.)

Sigma: Finally peace. (Smiles.)

Widowmaker

Sigma: (singing)

Widowmaker: Could you please shut up?

Sigma: Oh! Why? It's beautiful day today.

Widowmaker: We wipped out a battalion of soldiers.

Sigma: Oh... So you still knows what compasion is?

Widowmaker: Nothing beyond a distraction.

Sigma: So Gerard was in the wrong since the start?

Widowmaker: What did you say? Did sombra made you say this?

Sigma: No, i just heard about it. Did you miss him?

Widowmaker: It's none of your bussines.

Sigma: If you do, Doctor O'Deorain could've failed on her experiment, if you don't that means she is good on her work, and i will trust her. Which is it?

Widowmaker: ... Don't cross my line of sight again, doctor.

Sigma: I know my answer now.

Why is Count Dooku's characterization vastly different in The Clone Wars then Attack of the Clones? In AOTC he's all like, "I'm sorry old friend" and "Back down", in TCW he seems to take pleasure in killing Jedi. What happened?

Okay, so I lightly touched on this back in this post where I compare the Dooku we see in the Legends continuity to the Dooku we see in Canon and in this video. George Lucas quotes used as sources can be found at the end.

To start with: there's a dichotomy to Dooku.

On the one hand... he makes good points. His concerns are the same that many Jedi share: the Senate is corrupt, and its representatives are abusing their power for their own selfish needs, sometimes even using Jedi to do so.

On the other hand... Dooku's a Sith. Which means he - like the Senators - is also after power, if not moreso. He's greedy, selfish and ambitious. Sure, he makes good points but he’s part of the problem; he knows it, but he doesn’t care.

More importantly, like Maul and Grievous, the primary purpose of Dooku, as a character, is to show us who Anakin is going to turn into:

An evil, corrupted old man. A prodigal son of the Jedi Order (with closet fascist-leanings) who, in his unquenchable thirst for power, was reduced to being a slave of Darth Sidious.

One of the big differences between Dooku and Anakin, however, is that Dooku was always more politically savvy.

Count Dooku has a public image.

He uses his past as a Jedi to cultivate this persona of a wise intellectual, a rational man with fair and just demands, one who fights for the little guy.

He is the head of the Separatist movement, a charismatic figure known throughout the galaxy for his political idealism, even giving lectures at universities.

But it is just a persona.

I mean, that's probably how he started out, sure, but by the time we see him in Attack of the Clones, Dooku is a Sith Lord, and he's been one for over 10 years, because we know he was going by "Tyranus" while ordering Sifo-Dyas' death and hiring Jango Fett a few months before the invasion of Naboo.

QUICK NOTE: In Canon, Dooku left the Jedi Order 10 years before Qui-Gon’s death. So chances are, he's actually been a Sith for almost 20 years, as we know he was already a darksider 8 years prior to The Phantom Menace because he tried to recruit Rael Averross at the end of the book Master & Apprentice.

Which means he's pure evil.

Deep down, Dooku's the guy we see in The Clone Wars: Darth Tyranus, a ruthless, sadistic killer whose only goal is to destroy the Jedi Order and bend the galaxy to his will.

But the galaxy can't know this, right? They think he's Count Dooku, a kind-hearted man whose beliefs are controversial but ultimately altruistic. Hell, even the Jedi remember him fondly.

So, like Palpatine, he keeps up the facade.

He does this with Obi-Wan, as he secretly tries to recruit him to overthrow Sidious (who Lucas compares to Vader trying to do with Luke in Empire Strikes Back):

He does this with the Jedi, calling Mace "old friend", telling him he's sorry he's about to have them executed.

He plays this charade up to the very end...

... but when Obi-Wan still won't back down, he is left with no choice but to kill him the fastest way he can: with a lightsaber.

A red-bladed lightsaber, in signature Sith fashion. One he’s been careful to keep a secret.

But Obi-Wan's seen it, he's seen the Force Lightning... he's been given a peek behind the curtains, so now he has to die. 

And you see the change in Dooku’s behavior. He starts to taunt Obi-Wan, he’s grinning, there’s a sadistic glimmer in his eye. For a brief moment, he drops the mask and goes to town.

Oh and Anakin joins in, whatever the more the merrier. But then Yoda joins in... and Dooku can't beat Yoda. Crap, he's gonna tell everyone. 

The secret of him being a Sith Lord is gonna get out...!

But this is Palpatine and Dooku we're talking about. Political geniuses, masters of spin and flipping the story. If the secret got out... who cares?

Seriously, who cares if the Jedi know he’s a Sith, now? The war's already started, Order 66 is right around the corner. He won't even bother pretending he's a good guy, with the Jedi.

Him playing the role of the "villain" when facing the Republic also makes it so that the Senate will want to keep the war going until he's captured or dead.

And because they're at war, he can simply wave the fiendish acts the Republic lays at his feet as "slanderous propaganda" in front of the Separatists, they'll just eat it up.

Furthermore, Dooku being his true, ruthless self when engaging with the Republic also has a second perk: it'll make the Jedi look bad.

'Cause the galaxy doesn't really get what a Sith Lord is, they think it's just some Jedi variant. So that's still a Jedi, right?

As such, Dooku's cruel actions and cruelty then feed into the anti-Jedi conspiracy theories about them "starting the war" and the growing distrust that'll make it so that - when the Jedi are eventually wiped out - the general public will just go "good riddance".

Which was the main goal of the entire Clone War conflict.

TLDR:

The guy we see in most of Attack of the Clones is Count Dooku, political idealist, AKA who he presents himself to be.

The characterization we see at the end of Attack of the Clones, in The Clone Wars and in Revenge of the Sith is that of Darth Tyranus, Sith Lord, AKA his true self.

George Lucas Quotes:

About Dooku’s valid points:

“I wanted a more sophisticated kind of villain. Dooku’s disenchantment with the corruption in the [Republic] is actually valid. It’s all valid. So, Chris plays it as, “Is he really a villain or is he just someone who is disenchanted and trying to make things right?”” - Starlog Magazine #300, 2002

“The confrontation between Obi-Wan and Dooku originally was a confrontation between Padmé and Dooku, and it was a political thing. I decided, after seeing the movie, that I didn’t need that scene with Padmé and Dooku, it was in the wrong part of the picture, and this one, with Obi-Wan, would be more appropriate. It would work better if Dooku would actually tell the truth about what’s going on and then create a situation where nobody believed him. And it also allows you to kinda have some sympathy for Dooku in that he carries the sympathies of most of the Jedi which is that the Senate is corrupt and is incapable of carrying out any meaningful actions because they argue about everything all the time.” - Attack of the Clones, Director’s Commentary, 2002

About the similarities between Anakin and Dooku:

“[In the garage scene, Anakin] sort of lays out his ambition and you’ll see later on his ambition and his dialogue here is the same as Dooku’s. He says “I will become more powerful than every Jedi.” And you’ll hear later on Dooku will say “I have become more powerful than any Jedi.” [...] And Dooku is, kind of, the fallen Jedi who was converted to the Dark Side because the other Sith Lord didn’t have time to start from scratch, and so we can see that that’s where this is going to lead which is that it is possible for a Jedi to be converted. It is possible for a Jedi to want to become more powerful.” - Attack of the Clones, Director’s Commentary, 2002

“I needed to get across the point that Jedi can leave the Order, to set up what happens with Anakin later on. Also, in the end when you realize that Dooku is Darth Tyranus, it explains what Darth Sidious did after Darth Maul was killed: he seduce a Jedi who had become disenchanted with the Republic. He preyed on that disenchantment and converted him to the dark side, which is also a setup for what happens with Anakin.” - Mythmaking: Behind the Scenes of Attack of the Clones, 2002

About Dooku’s true nature:

“If you put two Sith together, they try to get others to join them to get rid of the other Sith. Dooku's ambition here is really to get rid of Darth Sidious. He's trying to get Obi-Wan's assistance in that [...] so that he and Obi-Wan could overthrow Sidious and take over. And it's exactly the same scene as when Darth Vader does it with Luke to try to get rid of Sidious.” - Attack of the Clones, Commentary Track 2, 2002

“In the midst of this turmoil, a separatist movement was formed under the leadership of the charismatic former Jedi Count Dooku. By promising an alternative to the corruption and greed that was rotting the Republic from within, Dooku was able to persuade thousands of star systems to secede from the Republic. Unbeknownst to most of his followers, Dooku was himself a Dark Lord of the Sith, acting in collusion with his master, Darth Sidious, who, over the years, had struck an unholy alliance with the greater forces of commerce and their private droid armies.” - Shatterpoint, Prologue, 2004

I've seen so many takes that portray Silco as having bribed Marcus in Act 1, but I think this detracts from Marcus's corruption as well as Silco's intelligence and have some ice cold, rigor mortis takes for you under the cut:

_

Silco invites Marcus to the cannery to offer him information, and the audience can naturally assume that from the money Silco tosses at Marcus after Grayson's murder, there's been a transaction between the two of them.

Marcus, though, has little reason to be interested in money with a position like his. He's in a senior role despite his youth and his personal grooming is off the charts well-maintained, not to mention tasteless almost to the point of opulence. Depending on Ren's age and the timing of his wife's death, he may have a family to support, but he's still Piltovian. He's still a presumably wealthy man.

Indeed, Silco has his own resources behind the scenes, however, he does need to lean into the stereotype Marcus places on fissure folk in order to get what he wants.

Marcus doesn't believe people of the Undercity to be altruistic; he sees them as greedy criminals, and by playing into that bias, Silco is able to secure a higher degree of trust in him. In eliciting a bribe from Marcus rather than simply passing information along for no good reason other than an old grudge, Silco is leading Marcus to consider himself smarter than Silco. He instils false confidence that Marcus is ahead of the game, and in doing so gives him the extra push he needs to challenge Vander without Grayson's authorisation.

When it comes to Vander's arrest, Silco's gang pursues and ambushes the arrest party as a means of killing two birds with one stone. Vander and Benzo have been drawn out into the open, but so has a demoralised Grayson. Attacking this particular group at this particular time secures Silco a victory over both cities, but it also acts as a dialogue with Marcus in that he has been duped — that Marcus is not any more intelligent than a trencher, and that his own prejudice hasn't only allowed Silco to use him — he now owns him.

Failing to honour Marcus's deal is an attack of its own. Marcus's intellect, his ego, his beliefs come under fire when Silco throws his own money back at him and declares a change of plan. All this tragedy came about because Marcus's bias prevented him from ever considering that Silco might be playing him.

All Marcus is left with once Silco gets his way is his own fat tits and the knowledge that this particular moment is entirely his fault, and Silco drives this point home by returning Marcus's bribe.

Vi's kidnapping occurs not only as a last-ditch effort on Marcus's part to do right in a disaster he played a massive role in causing, but also because he himself has just learned how dangerous a man Silco is. Also like idk kind of poetic justice for both of them that the one barely-righteous thing Marcus does in his career before Silco has him 100% under his thumb eventually leads to Silco's total undoing.

“I am aware that this request is fundamentally selfish. I can offer no justification for it, no argument in its favor. It is simply the outcome I desire to see the most.”

@discordantwords tagged me to post a passage I’m especially proud of. Thank you!

I’ve only written once in Mycroft’s voice, but I loved doing it:

“We did not comprehend our agemates. We did not know why. They were loud and physical and contemptuous of theory; their minds were rooted in the immediate. There was a language of childhood between them which we could not speak. I am given to understand child prodigies are often isolated. Lonely, they say. I taught him how to analyze them, observe and catalogue behavior, comprehend their motivations. It was a game, at first, a way for us to try to understand. Then it became a question of survival–if he could predict them, he could escape them–my little brother; emotive, passionate and sensitive; pirate, dancer, lover of fairy tales; consumed with the unusual, the fantastical and eccentric, the romantic and the macabre, with Saint-Saens and Ravel and Stevenson and Baryshnikov and Nicola Tesla. Drawn to men, not women, in time. He does not simply stand, or pace; to this day, he moves when relaxed or absorbed as though still dancing, spins, shifts heels and hips, flutters his hands. His voice was expressive, sibilant and soft, though he has not spoken in his natural tone to me in years, but drops it to the depths he reserves for concealing his emotions and unnerving those he does not trust. Sherlock is explosive in his element. He is brilliant. He could be anything, except ordinary; that was and is impossible. He fit no one’s conception of the well-developed British child. No public school boy’s idea of a friend. They did try, but there was very little our parents could do, I think, to draw us out of the world we made for ourselves. After all, there were two of us.” – The Two of Us

Tagging @watsonshoneybee, @chriscalledmesweetie, @doomsteady,  @educatedinyellow, @blueink3, @artemisastarte, @ggaypilot, @suitesamba, @doctornerdington, @a-different-equation or anyone who wants to!

So Moira’s eyes have always been a very fun but seemingly random detail about her. But it turns out there might be a myth to explain it.

The whole myth is weird and long but basically- there was a fae lady named Pressyne who married the king of Scotland. She had a very specific rule about not being seen while bathing. At her daughter(s)’s birth, he breaks this. So, she runs back to the otherworld with her daughters. When her eldest daughter (Melusine) learns he did this, she goes back and kills him.

Her mother still held some love for him, so she curses her to become a mermaid like creature on Saturdays and that, if any man sees this, she will become a full serpent. She ends up falling for a king herself and she has kids with him, all odd in some way but healthy. With the eldest having one blue eye, and one red. But he breaks the rule (because of course he does) and she becomes a great serpent-like dragon. But she still loves her children, so she returns for them. Much like the banshee, she still comes to their ancestors to warn them of tragedies.

Which means that:

Moira has A LOT of references to ancestral spirits who warn of tragedies.

Also betrayal. Lots of backstabbing.

She has more mythological justification to summon a dragon then Genji or Hanzo combined.

The most striking thing about Papyrus (aside from his limitless positivity) is the fact that it is literally impossible to die in a fight against him. Even Toriel, who starts purposefully missing you once your health gets low enough, can accidentally kill you, but Papyrus? It is literally impossible. Papyrus has incredible control over his power! Wow, what a great and impressive skeleton. And, even though he could probably deal some legit damage to you on the murder run, his only action is to spare you, because he’s heckin worried about this little emotionless murder child.

A lot of people like swap aus where Sans is the one that dies and Papyrus is forced to shed his naivete and face you going all-out, which makes sense, but also, Papyrus is just so. Papyrus. I feel like if Papyrus had to be the final murder-run boss, it’d be more like, “After losing Sans, the world seems like a different place. I can’t imagine what you must’ve gone through for you to see the world the way you do.”

He only has one attack, but it’s a really long one and powerful one (kind of like Sans’ before his ‘special attack’), plus he talks during it, which would be pretty distracting. whenever he gets your hp down to 1, combat automatically stops and you’re ejected back into the judgement room. if you try to talk to him without healing, he’ll just say you’re too hurt - a gust of wind could knock you over! after you heal at the conveniently placed save point and go back to fight him, he has stuff to say about how you don’t have to be alone, you don’t have to do this, you might think there isn’t any good in you and it’s too late to change, but there is and it isn’t! After a few of those, he’ll talk about Undyne and Sans, and they always tried to help him, even when they thought he wouldn’t notice. He’s got a ton of stories about that. After he says his piece there’s an option to either fight or don’t fight, and every time you pick fight he looks disappointed, but he goes all out. He’s always able to be spared.

if you survive his attack, he goes down in one hit. his last words would probably be an apology, even though he tried really hard he still couldn’t show you a better path

🔥sans?

everyone likes to quote the lines "do you wanna have a bad time" and "you dirty brother killer" as badass but they 100% rest on your emotional engagement with the ambience/story to land because when they don't have that to back them up they sound. kinda stupid gjsjfk.

i mean his whole badass schtick comes from how emotionally distant he tries to be towards everything that happens in your journey (even though he has his limits, both in a negative sense, like how he disappears completely if you kill his brother, and a positive sense, such as how he clearly sympathizes with you when you're relatively harmless). the moment he's forced to care though? when he can't not engage? he is NOT cool, oh my god. don't get me wrong, he has his moments, but whenever he's trying to one-line you it's a very hit or miss situation. and usually it's a miss (lmao). "but soon... you’ll need a cool mutant hand to count all of your deaths" i mean COME ON. that sounds ridiculous.

and you could say that's all just part of him trolling you, but personally i like to think that deep down? he's just as much of a tryhard as papyrus

its very nice hc

Otto canonically makes really bad jokes. So he would definitely love dad jokes. Like you know these videos where people film themselves telling their mom a bad joke and then you just hear the dad laughing about it like it's the best joke they've heard in years? That's Otto. Norman would be the confused mom. Also Norman is the kind of old person who'd just try to imitate teenage slang in order to relate with today's youth.