PocketfulofDoses

Welcome to my miscellaneous sideblog! My main is ringaroundaroses.tumblr.com. Still won't do much here. Have a nice day!

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My 'why is Beelzebub's design an older man' thoughts have Occam's Razor explanations of:

Helps to visually distinguish him from the rest of the Sins.

The title 'Lord of the Flies' inherently brings to mind at least an adult figure.

If he was as baby-faced as Satan and Belphegor his depowered form would barely look any different.

And more actualized explanations of:

An older, larger body is easier to eat large amounts of food with. He can be a baby and chomp on people but that stomach is small and he'll fill fast.

The look of an older gentleman fits his want to seem like a connoisseur. This one is I think the big one, since Beelzebub wants to look like he's experienced.

It also fascinates me how much Verge's magic is candy-associated, since as a Witch of Gluttony-- candy's the epitome of gluttony. It's a sweet treat that doesn't have nutritional value, it's eating for the sake of eating, and the childishness motif that follows through from Beelzebub manipulating Leah follows through on there. Kids love gluttony, really. They eat junk food and want junk food, and isn't junk food just a great example of stuffing yourself without purpose? Maybe that's why Beelzebub goes near the young.

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Y'know, with the way the current arc is going, I kinda hope they cycle back to how Beelzebub knew the original (?) Baba Yaga, or at least one of her main hosts.

The Wiki seems to think the meat contract from the current chapter was a previous contract with Baba Yaga (I was assuming Lisa herself made a separate one, to be seen which interpretation is right), but if so, that would be a weird contract to essentially go: - I want your finger. - Give me your nephilim if I kill enough people to put meat on the world. - Also if you go to Germany I will nuke you (metaphorically).

Like, he clearly remembers her. He forgot Leah and Dante despite devastating their lives such a short time before the series began. Beelzebub is the one contracting the witch cult, too, and Baba Yaga is the Witch of Wrath, the first one, Satan's witch. Considering she tricked him, I'm surprised he'd be out and out so willing to contract so many other witches.

I assume the Finger was some sort of safety measure that Baba Yaga used to keep him 'out' of Europe? Or pretend to hold it until their contract was fulfilled (which she never intended to do)? Beelzebub desecrated Mother Rosa's corpse upon his return, he seems to remember people who do him wrong, but again-- that doesn't really match with him associating with the Witch Cult. I feel like there's something to peel away at here, I just don't know what.

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After doing a re-read it's struck me it's appropriate Verge wanted to take control of Baba Yaga, considering he has some parallels to the incarnation that met with Beelzebub.

Beel sounds vaguely fond of the Baba Yaga he knew, in a 'hah, they got me there' way, and of course, they both stole his pinky finger. I dare say it feels like destiny-- but Verge was probably meant to join Baba Yaga, not hijack them outright.

Anyway my reread also reminded me how demon contracts work, so, uh, enjoy my joke theory as to how the finger severing even happened.

[pocketfulofdoses]

Y'know, with the way the current arc is going, I kinda hope they cycle back to how Beelzebub knew the original (?) Baba Yaga, or at least one of her main hosts.

The Wiki seems to think the meat contract from the current chapter was a previous contract with Baba Yaga (I was assuming Lisa herself made a separate one, to be seen which interpretation is right), but if so, that would be a weird contract to essentially go: - I want your finger. - Give me your nephilim if I kill enough people to put meat on the world. - Also if you go to Germany I will nuke you (metaphorically).

Like, he clearly remembers her. He forgot Leah and Dante despite devastating their lives such a short time before the series began. Beelzebub is the one contracting the witch cult, too, and Baba Yaga is the Witch of Wrath, the first one, Satan's witch. Considering she tricked him, I'm surprised he'd be out and out so willing to contract so many other witches.

I assume the Finger was some sort of safety measure that Baba Yaga used to keep him 'out' of Europe? Or pretend to hold it until their contract was fulfilled (which she never intended to do)? Beelzebub desecrated Mother Rosa's corpse upon his return, he seems to remember people who do him wrong, but again-- that doesn't really match with him associating with the Witch Cult. I feel like there's something to peel away at here, I just don't know what.

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Batroc: the slightly unorthodox kicker. (Real alias Terry Savatte-- yes, seriously-- from Mr. Terrific Terry Sloane version. He appeared in Sensation Comics #13).

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In DC, homoerotic nemesis tension is the norm. In Marvel the tension ramps up to making an entire terrorist group to oppose your ex-partner. What would this possibly mean?

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Hath-Set’s love life is weird. He wants Hawkgirl. He has slept with Hawkgirl’s mom. He (she?) slept with Hawkgirl and Hawkman’s son. He/she then slept with a senator that resembled the Hawks’ son.

Just when you think he/she/they might be Hawksexual to add more fuel to the creepy villainous crush subtext, out goes Roderic who’s only known love life is… Satanna.

Who doesn’t really resemble Hawkgirl at all.

Now— technically, this could be a business thing. It might be beneficial to… sleep with your… gene splicing animal-human-maker scientist… but, it’s been shown Satanna at least has some boundaries. She’s not flinging herself at people.

In Power Girl she was only getting with Humanite, who she knew already, and turned down Sivana until she really wanted revenge. Roderic… seems to have been giving her valuable music material and tips about underground criminal interests?

I mean, props for engaging her interests, but all this feels really bizarre when you compare it to the behavior of all the other Hath-Sets (who border on outright assault or just remembering-your-conquests-by-proxy).

It even feels more bizarre when you compare it to how Fadeaway Man just left the room once he got his payment, Satanna just seems interested in Roderic (literally tells him to run away from the Hawk attack?)

I don’t get this pairing. I bet the Hath-Sets don’t get it either. Congrats Kristoph Roderic for being the only Hath-Set to so far be neither an incel nor a Hawk assaulter.

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I think it's fascinating in comic books how I can like one villain for the whole of their major appearances and personality, vs. how I only fixate on another villain because of the vague outline of what might've worked in a more interesting version. I don't think it's uncommon to have a "but they could've been" character by itself, just look at clusters in fandoms, but-- it's not even that I like them. It's not that I make actual headcanons about them, or lament the fact that the author is giving them the short stick end, I just-- remember them because comically wasted potential is more striking than a generically designed henchmen. They emerge like a writing exercise, a fill-in-the-blank.

They skirt just competently enough to where I feel they could've done something, or been thought-provoking, but then they tumble off a canyon once the author approaches the shallows, and they completely miss the depths they could've entered.

I'm talking about Hath-Set in Hawkman.

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Batroc's first appearance, Tales of Suspense #75, came out December 1965. It's been just over 60 years of him-- and I highly recommend checking out his old appearances because I verbatim see it as 'oh he was always like that.' Seriously. Guy is French, kicks people, and his accent gets more and more absurd until someone in editorial presumably demands it to stop. He's not the best dressed, but he's the funniest Marvel villain in my heart.

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“Do you think Grampa would’ve left if Petey looked like Grace?” says my random scrolling thoughts, at 3 in the morning.

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I have a specific mix of comic canons in my head where Silver Age Calendar Man and Calendar Girl from BTAS operate at the same time, solely for something like this: Calendar Man: "Paige! Want to join me and Tockman on our next minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, time-themed heist? We're leaving at the crack of dawn for national concussion awareness day!" Calendar Girl: "I have clinical depression." Calendar Man:

Calendar Man: "Okay, but that doesn't stop you--"

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The Shipping of Blake Manor

There is barely any Tumblr content for Seance of Blake Manor, so in lieu of seeing everyone else's posts, here's a crack/sorta-canon-based shipping ramble, based off of what I've seen in-games and imagined.

D'Arcy and Dupre - Literal first one ever seen in-game, thanks to Skerrit. They apparently spend a questionable amount of time with each other, were in the pitch demo together based on what devs said, and livestreams sure love to think they'll make out directly after Day Two breakfast.

Two things I took note of: Murphy says that she was pouring tea for them when D'Arcy was reading Dupre some of her stories. If D'Arcy's key isn't stolen at breakfast, Dupre seems outright joyful about going to the courtyard with her.

Ward and Touissant - Look, there is zero in-canon basis for this beyond that Touissant roped him into investigating Erickson, but come on. Please. I want them together in zany investigations and for Ward to have overheard Touissant, McLeod, and Lau's ballroom conversation just to pull out a bisexual flag. Something to take note of: Touissant corrected a lot of D'Arcy's work when she was writing a novel based off Blake Manor's events. Recent Steam post says that D'Arcy was into writing gothic romances (though I suspect this info is outdated because I swore she was into writing mystery novels?). My unfounded joke theory is that she was shipping them in her novels and he had to go on a denial run.

McLeod and Lau - An actually canon one to throw a wrench into things. They're quite sweet overall considering their... circumstances... might Miss Deane be homophobic, or just opportunistic?, desperate times call for desperate measures. I can't say they're my favorite, as they're mostly just stable in a bad situation, but when the alternative is O'Meara trying to hook up with them (which apparently was more prominent in earlier game drafts), I'd absolutely keep them together and not apart. Ruairi and Barbosa - Probably more of a personal ship for me, but I think it'd be cute. Callaghan's about the only person in Barbosa's questline that's just helpful with no strings attached instead of 'hey wanna take all my money' or 'hey i'm gonna confront you over stuff you already know, what do you have to say about that!?' Barbosa just walks in, meets a bunch of strangers who help her discover everything she was after, and settles her whole life. To take note: I swear she spends a lot of time on Day 3 out with Ruairi near the stables, but it's been a while since I played through that save, so I'm not sure if that was triggered by something else. Quinn and Barbosa - Ah, the archetypal 'we are from feuding families and must resolve this by kissing.' I can see it, really, they'd make good friends and are both quite down-to-earth, could see it evolve... ...I just don't know if Barbosa's grandma would accept it. 'I can excuse pansexuality, but I draw the line at it being with a Quinn!' To take note: Devs on Discord said that they intended it to be more clear that Quinn and Barbosa would keep in touch. Barbosa also says she's made some people who might be friends in her reflection, so they seem to be keeping in touch. Darragh and Joyce? - I think Joyce implies she finds Darragh good-looking in her dialogue about him, but I might've been reading it wrong. Dupre and Joyce - Based mostly off of their ending epilogue. I'm personally meh on it, but it's funny to me that he's closer to her as an age peer than D'Arcy.

Doyle and Deane - Canon-supported but even in canon it seems like more of a fling. At least he was happy? Hisham and Vases - I am just amazed at how disconnected her plot was from the overall storyline, this ship is my way of coping.

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Replaying Seance of Blake Manor is super funny, because upon seeing the Day Two opening cutscene again, you realize Mister Skerritt’s a shipper.

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He's also not the only one getting in on it (though I'm fairly sure it's judgmental god-fearing, more than it is shipping), Coventry and Joyce also throw themselves into the ring. If I could make a nightmare relationship chart I would.

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Replaying Seance of Blake Manor is super funny, because upon seeing the Day Two opening cutscene again, you realize Mister Skerritt’s a shipper.

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An observation of Captain America villains.

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Nobody told me Red Tornado got divorced from his wife, this is probably the only time I have legitimately just struck something as immediately noncanon in my head. Kind of funny that Will Magnus is the one dating Kathy Sutton now, though, because this would put T.O. Morrow in the very weird position of his sort-of son's ex-wife getting together with his other sort-of-but-human-this-time son.

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I've had this inexplicable want for Dr. Cyber to team up with T.O. Morrow. I have nothing else on this subject besides the idea of them meeting and drinking together at a bar after Cyber fails her latest plot against Wonder Woman. Morrow spends about half the chit-chat trying to show Cyber how far he can tilt his bar stool.

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Tannarak and Allura feel. Right. Not in a shippy way, not at all, but they feel like they know each other, even if it's not confirmed. It's probably because I've been reading some of Tannarak's appearances with him and Tala, and Tala and Allura feel 'similar' in that they're power-hungry dark sorceresses with a lot of hands in mortal dealings. Allura's obviously less complex about things, but on the surface she's got a lot of the same maniacal charm. I could see Tannarak liking that if just for predictability. Allura's a parasite. It's easy to figure what her end goal is: eat more, become more. She's stagnant, a leech, but her parasitic nature makes her paradoxically less threatening. With magic, chaos is the real concern. In addition, Allura needs to connect to people to scheme, so she still has to maintain a veneer of likeability. That's more than some people ever achieve. Thus, in Tannarak's eyes, she's all business. And he can handle business. He's been doing exchange for over 200 years. This leads to a potentially interesting dynamic. Allura, knowing full well that Tanny's never going to fall for her old deal shtick, still frequenting Bewitched, because there are plenty of patrons there that will. Tannarak, meanwhile, tolerates it, because bad old deals with the devil are still deals, and they still drive business, the business of curses needing cures and fake cures driving curses. He can tolerate shenanigans. He just doesn't want it to affect his own business. That's the nature of the dark side of magic. Person-to-person, it's some weird mix of cordial and buddy-buddy. Allura and Tannarak can't really name personal traits they like about each other. That big, blazing 'BUSINESS' just circles back: they appreciate each others' power. They like that they don't get in each others' way. They like some of the charm, sure, but they're people doing the devil's work, they see through that kind of thing. At the end of the day, it's business. Fun business, gossipy business, but business all the same. Allura isn't human. She's pure negativity. She can't make connections that way (maaayyyybe). Meanwhile, Tannarak reserves his affections for Tala and his dead wife and possibly the Phantom Stranger, he doesn't have room in his life for another on-and-off dark sorceress relationship. Some things are just casual. And that's just how it goes.