Psychologically-speaking, I actually would understand Lisa spamming Beelzebub out of her contracts. Satan got her into this mess, he's the one who plotted her assault, the other Baba Yaga souls probably have similar stories.
Asmodeus perpetuates Lust. She may not prefer the overt sexualization side of lust, but she still exists in it. She has no problem with rape, which is likely a trigger button for Lisa (a personal one, not so much that Lisa wouldn't tolerate it for her plans, she was clearly aiming for it to happen during Hell on Earth) and whatever contracted power she offers most likely would play to this carnal lust that I could see Lisa having some apprehensions towards wielding.
Beelzebub is... well, he's pretty dining table themed. He fries people, he flies, he skewers them. Certainly gory, but nothing I could see Lisa having a personal skin-crawl moment for (except maybe burning, but Lisa didn't seem that bothered at the stake anyhow).
If anything he's the only contract where Lisa was really using the demons back, if they used her, like she said they would. He got his refresh during her plans, she took a fragment from him and kicked him out of eastern Europe for whatever reason. She's the traumatizer in that relationship, the one where she's closest to an equal.
Not really comforting so much as just on better grounds than the others.
It's just very funny that Lisa's options for contracts are rapist, rape-planner, and cannibal groomer, and it's far and away the cannibal groomer that she may be the least personally turned off from.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Batroc: the slightly unorthodox kicker.
(Real alias Terry Savatte-- yes, seriously-- from Mr. Terrific Terry Sloane version. He appeared in Sensation Comics #13).
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?
Hath-Setâs love life is weird. He wants Hawkgirl. He has slept with Hawkgirlâs mom. He (she?) slept with Hawkgirl and Hawkmanâs son. He/she then slept with a senator that resembled the Hawksâ son.
Just when you think he/she/they might be Hawksexual to add more fuel to the creepy villainous crush subtext, out goes Roderic whoâs only known love life is⌠Satanna.
Who doesnât really resemble Hawkgirl at all.
Nowâ technically, this could be a business thing. It might be beneficial to⌠sleep with your⌠gene splicing animal-human-maker scientist⌠but, itâs been shown Satanna at least has some boundaries. Sheâs 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 donât get this pairing. I bet the Hath-Sets donât get it either. Congrats Kristoph Roderic for being the only Hath-Set to so far be neither an incel nor a Hawk assaulter.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
