Sanity? Coherance? Grammar? They just get in the way of the Immortal K!
Sunday, 27 September 2015
Friday, 25 September 2015
Top Ten Villains round 2 #2 Scarecrow
Spoilers for Arkham knight and possibly some other batman related stuff as well.
So....I started this countdown again because enough time had passed and between the first one and now that My opinions had changed fairly drastically and quite a few new villains had popped up. And of course one of the first things I did was mention how some of my choices from the first one were perhaps iffy compared to how I saw things then. One of those things was....Well trying to recall strictly from memory I think my words were
"Scarecrow? Really?"
Yeah rocksteady games decided to remind me why this villain has and still kicks a lot of ass.
First and foremost I thought arkham knight was pretty damn good but not without problems. I'd say second best in the series next to city myself but one of the highlights in the game was by a long shot the new portrayal of scarecrow who was last seen in the series being dragged into the sewers by killer croc. Suffice it to say...
He took a few dings on the way down...and yes that IS his face.
So for those not in the know Scarecrow Aka Johnathan Crane is a former Psychologist who specializes in the field of fear. He became obsessed with fear to the point of bringing a gun into a classroom he was doing a lecture at to see people's reactions. People reacted badly. Suffice to say after that stunt money came hard and he decided to use his knowledge to commit robberies and a few years of fear toxin later he's bananas.
This version of scarecrow has more of a purpose. After his short lived hobby of crocodile wrestling he came back with a much different purpose. This time he's out to reveal batman's identity and show to the world he's just a person. Not some symbol. I honestly think the scarecrow teaser does the best possible job of really putting how at least I think they intended him to come out.
Think about what he just said.
"How many bones will you crush?
How many lives will you destroy in search of what you call justice?
You are the product of everything you fear.
Violence, Darkness, Helplessness"
Between his desire to Prove batman is a hoax and that line there is why I think this villain and this version is interesting. Hell even his design is interesting. Batman himself has his ethics but uses violence and let's be honest beating the tar out of people to make them stop being dicks. Scarecrow's design in this I really hope sticks. He's not only missing god knows how much of his skin from croc but even his bones are in bad shape. His leg has a harness with metal bracers. He couldn't hit someone if he tried. A nonviolent criminal and a violent hero.
I think this version of Scarecrow is intended to be the exact polar opposite of batman. Even more then The joker who in this series seems to represent his weakness. This is why I always say I prefer scarecrow to joker and always will. But there is one more reason. His Mission in Arkham Knight was to reveal batman's identity to the world. and he did.
The end of the game has batman seeing no other option but to give himself to scarecrow to see both Gordon and robin released and in doing so he is unmasked on live television. Scarecrow Won. Even if batman did end up using his own toxin to at least for the time turn crane into a man doing an impression of a rock (Ya know cause he's curled up in an assball....cause of the toxin and fear.....ya know..yeah) The toxin will more then likely wear off eventually and the world will still know batman is just a man. The story does end on a downer note with a massive ray of hope kind of deal but that's still something huge for the villain.
While I may not dislike the joker and in fact rather like him as a villain I still kinda think that Scarecrow can be better and Arkham Knight proves this to me.
Well that brings us to the number 1 spot. I've made a lot of changes to this list since I started it but there was always one thing constant. Number 1. There was always one thing I had to put at one. One certainty. The Ultimate Villain.
Sunday, 20 September 2015
Friday, 11 September 2015
Top Ten Villains Round 2 #3: The Master
I'd say spoilers but it's a little late for that....plus it's close to a year screw you.
I had to bring at least one massive villain from Doctor Who and while I adore the daleks one massive thing has changed since the last list. The Master came back and dear sweet Christmas do I realize why They should have been number 1 last time.
Now don't get me wrong the daleks are incredible villains but the master has one thing above them and that's the ability to change and reform via regeneration to keep things fresh and while we haven't had much information about the role she'll play in season 9 if it's anything like she was in 8 I will gladly take it.
First off let's go through the basics about the master for those who don't know. The master is the literal opposition of the Doctor. The Doctor chose his name as the one who helps, heals, makes people better. The Master or in the case of this Incarnation The mistress or missy took the name as someone who controls, Who Takes, and Who rules. There are also some interesting concepts to taking the name "The Mistress" But I'm not touching that with a ten foot clown pole.
Formally a best friend of the doctor They became deranged after a rite of passage; staring into a rift in the time vortex gave them a permanent sound of drumming in their head. It drove them berserk and eventually after finding out the time lords were keeping an eye on them they went rogue and spent the rest of their existence trying to conquer everything in existence and make the doctor's life a living hell. Until the end of time where the master (at the time John simm) ended up trapped on gallifrey during the time war.
And then Missy happened.
At the end of the first episode of series 8 we met a character who seemed like some kind of guardian of heaven. She welcomed a dead character into what she called heaven and called herself missy. Also she referred to the doctor as her boyfriend.....again not getting into that cause it just feels very fanfictiony to me.
But throughout the season we got glimpses of her and theories went from a guardian of the underworld, to a robot, to yes a time lord. But when the episode finally dropped where her identity was revealed as the master most people pooed themselves.
To quote myself "When I find myself in times of trouble. Steven Moffatt fucks with me" followed by about twenty idiotic sounding "WHAT THE FUCK!?" 'S
But after that episode we had one week to realize something. How is this master going to compare to the others? Let me put it this way. This is my favourite version of the master and that is saying a LOT. Missy very quickly proved herself to be both exceptionally funny but damn scary at times.
I think there is one moment we all recall being just incredible and goddamn just terrifying. The death of Osgood.
One of the main things that came out of The 50 year anniversary special "The day of the doctor" was more Information about the new UNIT group; Namely a doctor fangirl named Osgood. In the movie she wore a 4th doctor scarf, and when dealing with missy she wore a bow tie. Like I said Fangirl. She was dorky, Had an inhaler, Whole nine yards. And She was also a pretty charming character so when thinking of ways to make The returning master more threatening and well nuts Osgood's death was number 1 on the list.
The Scene is a perfect example of why missy is such a great villain. She starts off singing "Hey Mickey" then goading Osgood into coming close to whisper "I'm going to kill you in a minute" and having the most giddy smile on her face afterwards. After slipping out of her cuffs and somehow getting them into Osgood's pocket she practically teleports behind her, Kills any guards in the room and after Osgood points out how missy could use her to get to the doctor to stall for time. Missy agrees....and then kills her anyway and grinds her glasses into the ground. THAT was the moment I knew that this may well be my favourite version of the master.
She may have only been in really one episode as the master but need I remind you this is still the master. Everything, Every act the master has committed missy is guilty of. At the time of me writing this series 9 of doctor who starts in exactly 8 days and it's confirmed that missy is returning. This was exactly what I needed to get pumped for this season. Not that I was excited after series 8 but that especially for me was exactly what I needed to hear.
Now last time I did one of these lists the master was at number 2. And The daleks aren't on this list so who the hell managed to hit number 2? Well let's just say I owe someone an apology.
Formally a best friend of the doctor They became deranged after a rite of passage; staring into a rift in the time vortex gave them a permanent sound of drumming in their head. It drove them berserk and eventually after finding out the time lords were keeping an eye on them they went rogue and spent the rest of their existence trying to conquer everything in existence and make the doctor's life a living hell. Until the end of time where the master (at the time John simm) ended up trapped on gallifrey during the time war.
And then Missy happened.
At the end of the first episode of series 8 we met a character who seemed like some kind of guardian of heaven. She welcomed a dead character into what she called heaven and called herself missy. Also she referred to the doctor as her boyfriend.....again not getting into that cause it just feels very fanfictiony to me.
But throughout the season we got glimpses of her and theories went from a guardian of the underworld, to a robot, to yes a time lord. But when the episode finally dropped where her identity was revealed as the master most people pooed themselves.
To quote myself "When I find myself in times of trouble. Steven Moffatt fucks with me" followed by about twenty idiotic sounding "WHAT THE FUCK!?" 'S
But after that episode we had one week to realize something. How is this master going to compare to the others? Let me put it this way. This is my favourite version of the master and that is saying a LOT. Missy very quickly proved herself to be both exceptionally funny but damn scary at times.
I think there is one moment we all recall being just incredible and goddamn just terrifying. The death of Osgood.
One of the main things that came out of The 50 year anniversary special "The day of the doctor" was more Information about the new UNIT group; Namely a doctor fangirl named Osgood. In the movie she wore a 4th doctor scarf, and when dealing with missy she wore a bow tie. Like I said Fangirl. She was dorky, Had an inhaler, Whole nine yards. And She was also a pretty charming character so when thinking of ways to make The returning master more threatening and well nuts Osgood's death was number 1 on the list.
The Scene is a perfect example of why missy is such a great villain. She starts off singing "Hey Mickey" then goading Osgood into coming close to whisper "I'm going to kill you in a minute" and having the most giddy smile on her face afterwards. After slipping out of her cuffs and somehow getting them into Osgood's pocket she practically teleports behind her, Kills any guards in the room and after Osgood points out how missy could use her to get to the doctor to stall for time. Missy agrees....and then kills her anyway and grinds her glasses into the ground. THAT was the moment I knew that this may well be my favourite version of the master.
She may have only been in really one episode as the master but need I remind you this is still the master. Everything, Every act the master has committed missy is guilty of. At the time of me writing this series 9 of doctor who starts in exactly 8 days and it's confirmed that missy is returning. This was exactly what I needed to get pumped for this season. Not that I was excited after series 8 but that especially for me was exactly what I needed to hear.
Now last time I did one of these lists the master was at number 2. And The daleks aren't on this list so who the hell managed to hit number 2? Well let's just say I owe someone an apology.
Thursday, 20 August 2015
Tuesday, 4 August 2015
Top Ten Villains Round 2 #4: Ultron
SPOILERS!!
Yeah I wasn't kidding when I said that I'd have to defend this being over thanos but I stand by my choice here.
As I have said before This is my list. I'm aware that Thanos is more powerful and a bigger villain for the avengers (though that is debatable) but I just like Ultron more but I'll get more into that after I introduce you.
Henry Pym Or Ant Man ( or like twenty other names for that matter ) Created Ultron years ago and then things got kind of confusing. Ultron made him forget he made him and then Ultron wore a red cloak and made tony stark's butler evil but not really. Ultron has a weird past is my point.
_creating_Ultron.jpg)
One of his past lives was also a hot water heater.
After that it's your basic AI created to protect the world decides it's easier if humans just kinda go away forever. It's fairly cliché now but back when he was created in 1968 it wasn't nearly as big of a cliché first and foremost and second he may have been one of the bigger influences to bring this idea to the mainstream. Much like Cybermen; Ultron is a huge influence on science fiction at least in my opinion.
But There are three main stories I want to quickly go over. Age of ultron,Rage of Ultron and Well....Age of ultron....the movie.
The Comic Book Age of Ultron is itself a pretty good read though slightly offput by one too many time shenanigans and would have been solved WAY earlier if wolverine wasn't a bloodthirsty dumbass but I digress.
There is one point I do want to take away from this comic though. Ultron Took over the world. That's the plot. Ultron Wins at the beginning of the book and is only really reversed by again time travel shenanigans. Now I don't know how many times or who else may have done something similar but from my admittedly minor knowledge of comics this is the only time I can think where an enemy wins and again only is reversed by time travel hoo haa. Well one other but I'll get to that later.
Well okay I'm sure that's happened lots of times in comics I mean I'm sure more psychotic stuff then that's happened.Need I say more then twin clones of hitler?
OF COURSE! Don't you know anything about obvious references to people who know more about comics then I do!?
The second again is rage of ultron. A more recent comic where Ultron is tricked and glued to a rocket and sent to Jupiter's moon titan. And we never saw him again.
Oh.....Right.
Yeah He took over the moon's tech systems or whatever was left after Number 5 had his fun. He then Decided he wanted to head back to earth since Ant-Man still owes him five bucks. Also the whole sending him to space thing. Also Evil.
I won't spoil the story but His dialogue as well as again Bringing an enormous moon and an even bigger army to earth is dedication to a whole new level and you tell me looking up and seeing that Jack o' lantern Grin coming from a moon that is barreling down on you in pretty damn impressive.
And third we have the more recent movie Avengers: Age of Ultron.
It's no secret that the marvel cinematic universe while just has some great movies, could never really get the hang of the villains. I mean loki in the thor films was pretty damn good at times but he kinda borked it when it came to the avengers movie being more of a joke. Red skull was very well acted by Hugo Weaving and could be very threatening at times but he never really did THAT much really. Then the first age of ultron trailer hit and in the first twenty seconds with one sentence I was sold.
"I'm gonna show you something beautiful....everyone screaming...for mercy."
And Immediately I was intrigued and by god he was amazing in that movie. The movie itself was damn good. Had problems but still damn good and one of the biggest reasons being Ultron. James Spader did an incredible job of making both a very funny and threatening villain. Being made by Stark and not Hank Pym this time around he's got much more of a sense of humor but is still great with his threatening....er..ness. One particular scene where he claws a man's hand off and immediately starts to apologize. I honestly wasn't sure if this was meant for laughs, to be intimidating or both.
"I'm gonna show you something beautiful....everyone screaming...for mercy."
And Immediately I was intrigued and by god he was amazing in that movie. The movie itself was damn good. Had problems but still damn good and one of the biggest reasons being Ultron. James Spader did an incredible job of making both a very funny and threatening villain. Being made by Stark and not Hank Pym this time around he's got much more of a sense of humor but is still great with his threatening....er..ness. One particular scene where he claws a man's hand off and immediately starts to apologize. I honestly wasn't sure if this was meant for laughs, to be intimidating or both.
There is one point I want to get across with this villain you don't need to be the most powerful thing in existence to be a great villain. Granted I say this like ultron is weak he's gone toe to toe with the AVENGERS Dozens of times. My point is the power of a god isn't everything. Sometimes it's the mind as we'll see with the next villain....as come to think of it are the other two.
Monday, 1 June 2015
Top ten villains round 2: #5 Thanos
Here we see Thanos doing what he does best. Shitting on your couch.....also SPOILERS!
How in the world am I going to quickly sum up and explain how good of a villain Thanos is?
Well first of all if you've read comics I don't even need to explain either and you know why this guy is on the list. He's arguably the most powerful being in anything as long as he has the infinity gauntlet and even without he's insanely powerful and a genius as well. I'll mention two stories here to explain why thanos not only deserves a spot on this list but why he's one of my favourite comic book villains.
First off I'll start with his origins because it just makes sense. Thanos was born on Jupiter's moon Titan. He's a deviant which would take me forever to explain what that is so either look it up Here. Or just trust me that it's kind of like mutants or some kind of thing like that to keep it short. Thanos' Mother took one look at her son and attempted to commit the first case of murder on titan in millennia Either because she knew he would become the avatar of death or because THIS is what he looked like
Yeah the term "BURN IT WITH FIRE" came to my mind too.
She was immediately put into an asylum and Thanos' father looked after him. However his father A'Lars was always too busy with work and with his mother bat squeak insane he mostly grew up dependant on the other kids in school for human interaction. It's no surprise that due to his appearance he was shunned by the......wait...the other kids really liked him? Huh.....lost that bet. Go figure yeah he had no problem hanging out with the other kids despite his appearance and the fact he was a bookworm. Man This titan place sounds like paradise. No murders, Everyone gets along. why don't more people go visit this place?
Oh....Ultron became it.....well. Shit.
That was long after the planet died out though and I'll get to why it did a bit later.
So absent family and lots of friends. Doesn't sound awful. Well one of his friends a girl with black hair and white marks on her face started talking to him and she convinced him to take him and his friends to a nearby cave where all except thanos and her were murdered by lizards. Well that's an unfortunate accident (cough). Afterwards the same girl when thanos was talking to a lizard of the same species convinced him to go to the cave and slaughter the whole group of the lizards for revenge. Something very unheard of on the planet. Suffice to say this girl Is a wee bit demented because yes she did plan this and she did plan for him to become one of the greatest psychopaths. She led him to not only experiment on animals and eventually people but she kept leading him until he killed his own mother and long story short would basically destroy titan after becoming the leader of a group of raiders as an adult.
Also I should mention Thanos was the only one who could see her and her name...
May have been death.
Thanos became the avatar of death as he fell in love with her. This is one of the main reasons I love this guy. He has kind of an odd Shakespearean thing going on with him being one of the most horrible and destructive villains in comics but he's doing it because of love....eh kind of. In "Thanos Rising" It's implied now it's less love and more because he has nothing else to really shoot for and he himself can't die at least not easily so he just kinda ran with it.
As for the other story that would be "Infinity Quest" Where he learns of and gathers the infinity gems and becomes the most powerful being in existence. He hunts down each of these powerful cosmic entities and manages to trick them into getting their gem. The final gem he needed was held by a man named the grand master he was an expert on games of chance and skill and had a set up so that if Thanos either lost or tried to kill the grandmaster he would teleport the last gem into the middle of a wormhole. If he won the gem was Thanos' to keep. He competed in a virtual combat game. ( You can't say you didn't just picture him playing call of duty and getting whomped by an 8 year old.) When Thanos would lose due to the Grandmaster cheating and purposely giving thanos worse weapons and the Grandmaster would vaporize him. But Thanos made sure a clone played and thanos took the teleport device and killed him taking the gem.
Thanos is a genius. He is ruthless and unstoppable....except for the times he was stopped. Much like Lucifer the only reason he's this low on the list is really due to personal preference of the 4 ahead of him. And Believe me Once number 4 is unveiled Believe me that Is going into full effect.
Well first of all if you've read comics I don't even need to explain either and you know why this guy is on the list. He's arguably the most powerful being in anything as long as he has the infinity gauntlet and even without he's insanely powerful and a genius as well. I'll mention two stories here to explain why thanos not only deserves a spot on this list but why he's one of my favourite comic book villains.
First off I'll start with his origins because it just makes sense. Thanos was born on Jupiter's moon Titan. He's a deviant which would take me forever to explain what that is so either look it up Here. Or just trust me that it's kind of like mutants or some kind of thing like that to keep it short. Thanos' Mother took one look at her son and attempted to commit the first case of murder on titan in millennia Either because she knew he would become the avatar of death or because THIS is what he looked like
She was immediately put into an asylum and Thanos' father looked after him. However his father A'Lars was always too busy with work and with his mother bat squeak insane he mostly grew up dependant on the other kids in school for human interaction. It's no surprise that due to his appearance he was shunned by the......wait...the other kids really liked him? Huh.....lost that bet. Go figure yeah he had no problem hanging out with the other kids despite his appearance and the fact he was a bookworm. Man This titan place sounds like paradise. No murders, Everyone gets along. why don't more people go visit this place?
That was long after the planet died out though and I'll get to why it did a bit later.
So absent family and lots of friends. Doesn't sound awful. Well one of his friends a girl with black hair and white marks on her face started talking to him and she convinced him to take him and his friends to a nearby cave where all except thanos and her were murdered by lizards. Well that's an unfortunate accident (cough). Afterwards the same girl when thanos was talking to a lizard of the same species convinced him to go to the cave and slaughter the whole group of the lizards for revenge. Something very unheard of on the planet. Suffice to say this girl Is a wee bit demented because yes she did plan this and she did plan for him to become one of the greatest psychopaths. She led him to not only experiment on animals and eventually people but she kept leading him until he killed his own mother and long story short would basically destroy titan after becoming the leader of a group of raiders as an adult.
Also I should mention Thanos was the only one who could see her and her name...
May have been death.
Thanos became the avatar of death as he fell in love with her. This is one of the main reasons I love this guy. He has kind of an odd Shakespearean thing going on with him being one of the most horrible and destructive villains in comics but he's doing it because of love....eh kind of. In "Thanos Rising" It's implied now it's less love and more because he has nothing else to really shoot for and he himself can't die at least not easily so he just kinda ran with it.
As for the other story that would be "Infinity Quest" Where he learns of and gathers the infinity gems and becomes the most powerful being in existence. He hunts down each of these powerful cosmic entities and manages to trick them into getting their gem. The final gem he needed was held by a man named the grand master he was an expert on games of chance and skill and had a set up so that if Thanos either lost or tried to kill the grandmaster he would teleport the last gem into the middle of a wormhole. If he won the gem was Thanos' to keep. He competed in a virtual combat game. ( You can't say you didn't just picture him playing call of duty and getting whomped by an 8 year old.) When Thanos would lose due to the Grandmaster cheating and purposely giving thanos worse weapons and the Grandmaster would vaporize him. But Thanos made sure a clone played and thanos took the teleport device and killed him taking the gem.
Thanos is a genius. He is ruthless and unstoppable....except for the times he was stopped. Much like Lucifer the only reason he's this low on the list is really due to personal preference of the 4 ahead of him. And Believe me Once number 4 is unveiled Believe me that Is going into full effect.
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