What's your favorite headcanon?

[Lvl 2 Expert]

The image that comes to my mind when you say firing squad is a bunch a random citizens lined up against half a wall in some war torn village, sacrificed for the morale of the troops, because when they know bad guys are getting caught and executed they'll fight for the cause for another week. That's not exactly the image I would want to be associated with as an evil genius looking for a way to dispatch my spy nemesis. Buried in a concrete road like some mob victim, shot by me personally as if I'm some sort of tropical warlord, fed to my pet tigers, that's all still fine by me, a firing squad is near the bottom of the list.

Dr. Evil is furthermore a parody. He makes a point specifically of not watching while the trap works, because that's how things are done. I don't really expect him to go for any more direct method.

[McNum]

I got reminded of one little bit of headcanon I have for Fire Emblem Fates today, and well, I'm in a sharing mood. This is going to be a bit long and probably not make sense unless you played the game.

For those who don't know, the main gimmick of Fire Emblem Fates is that it's not one, but three Fire Emblem games in one. Birthright where you side with Hoshido, home of your birth family, Conquest, where you side with the family who raised you in Nohr, and Revelation where you side with no one and set out on your own. In the sixth chapter, you hit the Branch of Fate where you can pick which path of the game you'll take, but... what if all three happened? Or at least, Corrin, our main character, experienced all three?

If you pick Revelation, which is the DLC and golden path where you find the true villain and don't have to kill any of your siblings, Corrin's actions seem to come out of nowhere. She doesn't choose to go solo, but instead refuses to fight her siblings... on both sides! Further, if you pick the "Refuse to choose a side" option, you get a warning not to pick it unless you've played both Birthright and Conquest. So Corrin, who had so very recently unlocked her own dragon powers stands at a crossroad of fate. And that's when it kicks in, the world fades around her, and she weighs her choices...

Do I side with Hoshido?

Spoiler: Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright

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Visions of Xander accidentally killing Elise and Azura dissolving into a puddle of water.

Okay so that's out, but then side with Nohr?

Spoiler: Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest

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Vision of Ryoma taking his own life, and Takumi being possessed by an evil force. Azura, once again dies, too.

...again, no. But then, what do?

Well, the song of prophesy has three verses.

Spoiler: Lost in Thoughts All Alone main verses

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In the white light, a hand reaches through;
A double-edged blade cuts your heart in two
Waking dreams fade away,
Embrace the brand-new day.

Sing with me a song of birthrights and love
The light scatters to the sky above.
Dawn breaks through the gloom, white as a bone
Lost in thoughts all alone

That's the plot of Birthright right there.

Embrace the dark you call a home,
Gaze upon an empty, white throne
A legacy of lies,
A familiar disguise.

Sing with me a song of conquest and fate
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone
Lost in thoughts all alone.

That's Conquest.

A burdened heart sinks into the ground
A veil falls away without a sound
Not day nor night, wrong nor right
For truth and peace you fight.

Sing with me a song of silence and blood
The rain falls, but can't wash away the mud
Within my ancient heart dwells madness and pride
Can no one hear my cry?

But then what's this?

Spoiler: Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation

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And here comes the headcanon: Corrin is blessed, like her father before her, with the gift of foresight. Her father, the main antagonist, the Silent Dragon, Anankos wrote the lyrics for the game's main song, Lost in Thoughts All Alone. These lyrics are not just soundtrack, they're found in-game on an ancient stone. An ancient dragon seeing his own descent into madness coming wrote this song to his future child so he might be stopped when it happened. That part is not headcanon, by the way, it's in the DLC.

So Corrin, having seen that neither siding with Hoshido nor Nohr has an outcome she can accept, chooses the unthinkable. She spurns the two mightiest armies in the world and runs off, with Azura and Jakob (or Felicia) in tow. Three people against the world. Azura... basically can't believe her luck. This shouldn't happen, this is impossible! No one is that reckless! But, maybe that means... "Corrin, we need to jump into the Bottomless Canyon. I can't say why, but trust me!" Corrin does, kicking off the chain of events that against all odds unites Nohr and Hoshido against a common foe that was playing them both. Anankos, the Silent Dragon, King of Valla. Who had cursed his lands so no one could speak of them when not there.

Because no one is stupid or reckless enough to deliberately jump into a bottomless pit just to have a conversation, right? Well, desperate times call for desperate measures...

But essentially, it explains whys why Corrin can choose that option. She basically lived the other two already, but rejected them. Time to do something completely unexpected instead, and maybe, just maybe, pull off a miracle. All or nothing.

[Bohandas]

Ok, challenge for y'all. Anyone have a theory on why so few of Batman's villains have the word "Doctor" in their supervillain names considering that so many of them actually do have advanced degrees (including Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and most egregiously of all Mister Freeze, whose entire pseudonym consists entirely of changing "Doctor" to "Mister" in what is otherwise actually his name (EDIT: actually I think his name is technically spelled slightly different, "Freis" or "Freze" or the like but it's still pronounced the same))

[Keltest]

Ok, challenge for y'all. Anyone have a theory on why so few of Batman's villains have the word "Doctor" in their supervillain names considering that so many of them actually do have advanced degrees (including Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and most egregiously of all Mister Freeze, whose entire pseudonym consists entirely of changing "Doctor" to "Mister" in what is otherwise actually his name (EDIT: actually I think his name is technically spelled slightly different, "Freis" or "Freze" or the like but it's still pronounced the same))

Outside of academics, most people associate the Doctor title with medicine. Unless someone was going for a hospital gimmick or something, it wouldn't evoke the right associations.

[Bohandas]

Outside of academics, most people associate the Doctor title with medicine. Unless someone was going for a hospital gimmick or something, it wouldn't evoke the right associations.

Yeah, but it's an otherwise common trope for supervillains, especially of the mad scientist variety, to have academic titles like "Doctor" or "Professor". (Plus, Harley Quinn really is a medical doctor)

[Keltest]

Yeah, but it's an otherwise common trope for supervillains, especially of the mad scientist variety, to have academic titles like "Doctor" or "Professor". (Plus, Harley Quinn really is a medical doctor)

And how many of Batman's villains have "mad science" as their gimmick?

[Bohandas]

And how many of Batman's villains have "mad science" as their gimmick?

Poison Ivy and Mister Freeze to name two. It's field specific mad science but it's still mad science

[hamishspence]

Yeah, but it's an otherwise common trope for supervillains, especially of the mad scientist variety, to have academic titles like "Doctor" or "Professor".

Yup:

Morally Ambiguous Doctorate

[golentan]

Having just played XCOM 2 for the first time, and loved it, I have one for that.

The greater threat the ethereals warn of is just death. They call it the thing that comes for all, and it's not as if having lost a war to humanity, including having lost in a direct psychic battle of wills they can legitimately make the claim that humanity is less prepared to face a physical adversary than they are. The AVATAR project was to build a body that they could survive in, because they were dying, that's unambiguous. They keep making the claim that if it ends now, all the sacrifice will be for not, and ask the AVATAR commander to "rejoin them."

I think they're just afraid of mortality. They kept pursuing power in the form of enslaving other races, to the point that their means of control in psionic and biological domination became unsustainable, they had to confront their own mortality, and they refused to accept it. They're willing to spend billions of lives to sustain half a dozen of themselves.

That's why the strategic and the tactical implications of XCOM are important. Soldiers can die, but they die because they believe in their cause enough to risk it. And in the final level of XCOM 2, when the player is represented on the field, the player can die, ending the campaign in failure. They have the same power as the would be gods, but are willing to throw it away for the cause they've striven so hard for. From the opening moments of the tutorial, where Bradford goes in with the troops, and multiple characters knowingly lay down their lives to let the mission succeed. In the next cutscene, it's all about the risks of surgery. The commander flatlines on the table, represented by a vision of an Ethereal. Tygan is willing to risk violent death and performed brain surgery on himself because he decided freedom was worth dying for. Shen's character is early defined by her relationship with her dead father, saying his sacrifice made something that will live on, and she tells ROV-R if she could risk death with the codex portal in his place, she would. The Informant, as his final act, broadcasts in the clear to get out vital information, and without even a quaiver in his voice turns to face the firing squad kicking down his door with a simple "It seems I am out of time."

All of the ethereal propaganda is about their medical care, about how gene therapy clinics will cure disease and aging for ADVENT citizens. Counter attack missions are always aimed primarily at gunning down civilians, making fear of death the cornerstone in both supporting them and opposing them. The Chosen are hybrids who were elevated by the Ethereals and granted resurrective immortality, and promised dominion and unending life for service. They're obsessed with it.

The whole game is about how some things are worth dying for, and accepting that, embracing it, having the courage to accept that your life may need to end for something meaningful to you is the heart of heroism and the human spirit.

There's no greater threat, apart from the lies the ethereals tell themselves to comfort themselves, that death is escapable, that power alone is safety. There may be other hostile forces in the universe, but that's not remotely what is going on in the war of words at the end. In war of the chosen, you can even fight alongside characters who express their humanity in choosing to fight, and die, for what they believe is right in the form of the Skirmishers, whose initial leader refers to his time fighting for ADVENT by saying that version of himself is dead. Over and over again, humanity is associated with accepting mortality, while the ethereals use angelic imagery and are associated with the heavens because they represent the lie of escaping it.

Edit: Also, I choose to believe that vipers enjoy having the bridge of their nose scratched and are open to human-alien outreach in the post-ethereal world.

[acheter]

By way of comparison: Superman fans seem to be relatively fond of Clark Kent, even though the latter's capacity for effecting positive outcomes is pretty feeble by comparison. Curious.

[gomipile]

Spoiler: Futurama series finale

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I like the idea that in Futurama's finale "Meanwhile," Professor Farnsworth invented his time button the morning after Fry decided to propose to Leela. Then, if everything works out more or less how the professor intended, Fry would still propose, but without the button. And hopefully without the clam too, lol.

[Vogie]

Ok, challenge for y'all. Anyone have a theory on why so few of Batman's villains have the word "Doctor" in their supervillain names considering that so many of them actually do have advanced degrees (including Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and most egregiously of all Mister Freeze, whose entire pseudonym consists entirely of changing "Doctor" to "Mister" in what is otherwise actually his name (EDIT: actually I think his name is technically spelled slightly different, "Freis" or "Freze" or the like but it's still pronounced the same))

I've heard that Batman stories would be based on a broken Bruce Wayne, confined to an asylum, due to what happened to his parents. The reason there are so many seemingly contradictory stories, and an overabundance of academics who are actually broken villains, is that the entire Batman universe is invented in the broken Bruce Wayne's mind, Tommy-Westfall-style. He has built the world as a projection of what happens, removing the word "Doctor" in their fictitious villains' names to disassociate the reality that these *are* mostly doctors - and thus projecting that it's *them* who need to be sent to the asylum, not him. In his mind, Bruce is a rich, awesome, charming, and the ultimate uber-man that there's definitely nothing wrong with.

[Gnoman]

That's a fan theory, and an absurdly terrible one.

[Sapphire Guard]

It's unlikely that they picked their own names, probably their names are chosen by the Gotham media that don't know the full story. 'Guy freezes people-Mr Freeze' They don't know or care whether he has a doctorate or not, at least when he first shows up.

[The Glyphstone]

It's unlikely that they picked their own names, probably their names are chosen by the Gotham media that don't know the full story. 'Guy freezes people-Mr Freeze' They don't know or care whether he has a doctorate or not, at least when he first shows up.

More like karma. Dr. Victor Frieze became Mister Freeze. Pamela Ivy became Poison Ivy. I'm surprised the Penguin's real name is as generic as Cobblepot instead of something like Steven Spheniscida. So maybe the headcanon is that they legally change their names to fit their supervillain monikers, instead of the other way round?

[khadgar567]

this is why we have cisco ramon from flash series either confirming the damn name or giving them some thing they agree with.

[Velaryon]

More like karma. Dr. Victor Frieze became Mister Freeze. Pamela Ivy became Poison Ivy. I'm surprised the Penguin's real name is as generic as Cobblepot instead of something like Steven Spheniscida. So maybe the headcanon is that they legally change their names to fit their supervillain monikers, instead of the other way round?

Poison Ivy's real last name is Isley, not Ivy. And according to Wikipedia, Mr. Freeze's surname is evidently spelled Fries (which I've never understood why that's pronounced "freeze" rather than "frys").

None of which takes away from the greater point that comic books, particularly back in the day, tended to make many of their characters' names really cheesy. Victor Von Doom is my favorite example.

[Traab]

Poison Ivy's real last name is Isley, not Ivy. And according to Wikipedia, Mr. Freeze's surname is evidently spelled Fries (which I've never understood why that's pronounced "freeze" rather than "frys").

None of which takes away from the greater point that comic books, particularly back in the day, tended to make many of their characters' names really cheesy. Victor Von Doom is my favorite example.

When they werent abusing the ever loving HECK out of the same letter first and last naming convention. Lex Luthor, lois lane, peter parker, susan storm, stephen strange, etc etc etc. Oh god, back to the von dooms, dont forget about lance alvers aka avalanche. Its like, some of the names are a stretch but you can still see the connection. It makes you wonder how their parents knew. It would be like if professor x had been named Brian Reedor. Or how his brother CAIN wants to kill him. Thats a little on the nose, dont you think?

[lunaticfringe]

Da Emprah is a Chaos God. (Search your feelings, you know it to be true!)

[Lord Raziere]

Da Emprah is a Chaos God. (Search your feelings, you know it to be true!)

The Doctor is a space elf (Search your feelings, you know it to be true.)

[golentan]

I've heard that Batman stories would be based on a broken Bruce Wayne, confined to an asylum, due to what happened to his parents. The reason there are so many seemingly contradictory stories, and an overabundance of academics who are actually broken villains, is that the entire Batman universe is invented in the broken Bruce Wayne's mind, Tommy-Westfall-style. He has built the world as a projection of what happens, removing the word "Doctor" in their fictitious villains' names to disassociate the reality that these *are* mostly doctors - and thus projecting that it's *them* who need to be sent to the asylum, not him. In his mind, Bruce is a rich, awesome, charming, and the ultimate uber-man that there's definitely nothing wrong with.

My favorite messed up batman theory is that Bruce Wayne is the joker. Plenty of ways in the DC universe to time travel. The theory goes that Bruce finds himself in a certain alley on a specific night, and looking around for the man who killed his parents... Nobody there. Just him, and... is that a gun, lying on the ground? He thinks, as he sees three people approaching, about all of the things that batman has accomplished, all of the ways earth depends on his future, and... almost sleepwalking, makes the decision. He can't change his past. Fleeing the scene, he breaks down, sobbing, then laughing... It's all a sick joke. A cosmic farce. And damn it, if this is what fate has in store for him, he's gonna make the whole WORLD learn the lesson that it's funny when the screaming stops.

Obviously only possible in versions of the story where the Joker's origins aren't otherwise explained and the murderer of Thomas and Martha Wayne isn't Joe Chilled (or someone else). Comic book chronology is a MESS.

[Lurkmoar]

Da Emprah is a Chaos God. (Search your feelings, you know it to be true!)

Wouldn't he be Malal?

[lunaticfringe]

Wouldn't he be Malal?

Malal/Malice does make the most sense & is/was a popular fan theory. His symbol is a skull (a lot of skull motifs floating around the imperium) & he wants to destroy the other Chaos Gods. It's mostly my favorite because I used to play Chaos & Orks and I like trolling Imperial lovers while playing 40k RPGs. Doesn't have to be Malice but it's fun when you can pull evidence from the web to support your trolling.

[Silver Swift]

Star Wars: There is no such thing as the "will of the Force." There is no dark side or light side. The Force is simply, as Obi-Wan described it, an energy field created by all living things. People who use its power for evil are doing so because they chose to, not because they've been corrupted by some supernatural force.

There is no light side, the force is inherently evil.

Spoiler: Spoilered for length

Show

Anakin is walking two steps behind Palpatine. They enter into a room filled with sculptures and devices, all with a similar look, metallic shades of red.

ANAKIN: What are these?

PALPATINE: You don't recognize this style, the crimson and bronze? Truly, the Jedi have been... unbalanced, in their education of you. Reach out into the Force. What does it tell you?

Anakin stands motionless, then suddenly whirls on Palpatine. His lightsaber ignites in his hand, a beam of solid blue, held steady.

ANAKIN: These are Sith artifacts! Then you - you're the -

Palpatine raises his own hands to show them empty.

PALPATINE: Calm yourself, Jedi. I am not the Sith Lord they are looking for, only a... collector, of old knowledge. I brought you here to show you the truth. The truth that will allow you to save Padme.

Anakin holds his lightsaber steady. His feet carry him to one side as Palpatine turns, Anakin keeping Palpatine'S face within his view.

PALPATINE: A question, young Skywalker. Is the Dark Side of the Force more powerful than the Light Side?

ANAKIN: No. The Dark Side is easier, faster. Not more powerful.

PALPATINE: So they've told you. And yet Count Dooku was able to fight evenly with Master Yoda. The most powerful Jedi, eight hundred years trained in his art... could not overcome one Sith Lord.

ANAKIN: Master Yoda grows old.

PALPATINE: Sith Lords, never more than two in number, have repeatedly troubled the entire Jedi Order and the galaxy itself. And another thing. Tell me why it is that Jedi fall to the Dark Side. Does a boy become a master criminal the moment he steals a loaf of bread? I think not. But a Jedi... let them slip, let them strike one innocent in a moment of passion... and they will begin slaughtering children within the hour. Sith Lords make elaborate plans to lure Jedi to strike once in hate, and then take them as apprentices upon the spot, in a way that defies all sense. Why is your kind so peculiarly... vulnerable?

Anakin's lightsaber wavers, then steadies itself.

ANAKIN: The Dark Side feeds upon itself.

PALPATINE: And so the Jedi are trained almost from birth never to feel too strongly, never to let passion to rule them, never to... love. If such caution is needed, some might wonder if the galaxy would be better off without any Jedi. It is fallen Jedi who rebirth the Sith after their suppression, over, and over again. Oh, you're fine fighters and diplomats, but one might wonder... are you Jedi worth the price the galaxy pays in convulsion after convulsion?

ANAKIN: If there were no Jedi Order, Chancellor, there would be no one at all to stop anyone who learned to use the Dark Side!

Palpatine appears unperturbed.

PALPATINE: Mm. Perhaps.

Palpatine runs his fingers lightly over one of the red-and-bronze artifacts.

PALPATINE: Let us consider another question. There is a saying: zero, one, and infinity are the only numbers that need no justification. If we found that there seemed to be one other universe parallel to our own, wouldn't we look for others? Zero universes would make sense, one universe would make sense, a continuous spectrum would be unsurprising, but it would be strange for there to be exactly two universes. So tell me, Anakin. Why does the Force have two sides?

Anakin seems increasingly disturbed.

ANAKIN: Are you saying there is more than just the Dark Side and the Light Side?

PALPATINE: What is the Force, where does it come from? Not from Midichlorians, certainly. So vast a power, clearly of a mental nature - being generated by one species of bacteria with no interconnection among its cells, no ability to think? It seems... unlikely. Midichlorians are attracted to Force users, perhaps they feed somehow on the Force, but they are not its origin. Is the Force generated by all living creatures, connecting all of us? Then why is there no Side of the Force for the passions that so many sapient races feel, to which neither the Light Side nor Dark Side lay claim?

Palpatine takes a step toward Anakin, seeming careless of the blue lightsaber pointing at him. Palpatine'S voice begins to drop into a dark, whispering growl.

PALPATINE: What is the Dark Side, Anakin? Answer me. Answer!

Anakin takes a deep breath, exhales, and steadies himself.

PALPATINE: No. Do not ask the Force. Not this question. Use logic instead, Anakin. Don't feel the answer. Think it! You already know all you need to know. The discipline with which Jedi are trained almost from birth, never to feel too much emotion. The speed with which they fall after they slip even once. The power they gain after their fall. Their similarity of goals, speech, the same black hooded cloak worn by every Sith Lord. All because -

Anakin (whispers): There is no Light Side of the Force.

Palpatine gestures at the Sith artifacts.

PALPATINE: There is only a single psychic phenomenon that pervades the galaxy. The dying scream of some ancient race that destroyed itself, echoing through a mental dimension? A species whose faces were inset within natural hoods, who had a gliding wing resembling a black cloak? A race that hunted in pairs, and saw in shades of crimson and bronze? Whose name was a sound like a hiss, ssthhh? Now that you know the truth, your guess is as good as mine.

Palpatine takes another step toward Anakin, almost touching the lightsaber's beam.

PALPATINE: What the galaxy calls a Jedi is just a Dark Side user who has been trained to deny themselves, not to feel strong emotions... to ignore the whisperings of the power they invoke. And make no mistake, the senior Jedi know this. That is why the Jedi Council has resisted every attempt to spread knowledge of the Force more widely. Why the Force cannot be used by day laborers to load a shuttlecraft, why we do not see Force healers in hospitals. Instead there is a tiny Order that kidnaps every naturally awakening Force user as soon as they are old enough to have a Midichlorian count. And then... why then, the Jedi Order forbids you to breed. It has nothing to do with avoiding passion. The Jedi could sustain their numbers using uterine replicators... if any of the important people wished for more Jedi. Already the number of Jedi is a hundredth part of what it was a millennium earlier. In time, it is hoped by those who are in the know, the Galaxy will have solved the... problem, of the Force.

Anakin is shaking. He shuts off the lightsaber and sheathes it at his belt in a practiced motion.

ANAKIN: Thank you for telling me this, Chancellor. How does knowing this help me save Padme?

Palpatine puts a comforting arm around Anakin's shoulder, and guides him toward a bench on the wall, sitting down together with him.

PALPATINE: Anakin, listen to me. If the other knowledge that I've collected is correct... then there have been Sith Lords whose power grew so great that they could sustain or even create life itself. Prevent themselves, or a few favored others, from dying. Darth Plagueis, to name a recent instance.

ANAKIN: I will never join the Sith! Even less now that I know what they are!

PALPATINE: Your Midichlorian count is unheard-of, and you have already overcome Count Dooku, a full Sith Lord. I believe you can become strong enough to use Darth Plagueis's technique without falling yourself. All you need to do... is loosen your Jedi strictures, just a little further, and then you will have power enough to save Padme. The Jedi are... conservative, in the rules they demand. They leave safety margin.

ANAKIN: Do... do you really think that would be all it took? That I could do that and remain myself?

PALPATINE: In older times there were Force users who went beyond what today's Order allows, without submerging into that alien whisper. Their knowledge has not been entirely lost to collectors like me.

ANAKIN: But why... why would you help me that much? You'd be taking a grave risk... no, I see. After I save Padme... you'd want me to extend your own life as well, I suppose.

Palpatine chuckles lowly.

PALPATINE: It's frustrating, to have learned of so many possibilities, and yet be unable to wield them myself. I have waited long to find a Jedi with your power and your... reasonable outlook on the morality of life extension. So I'll help you, Anakin, and you'll help me, and we'll keep each other's secrets afterwards.

ANAKIN: I understand. Then, tell me all you know of the older Force users and their ways.

Palpatine smiles benevolently, gently, like a great and powerful grandfather.

PALPATINE: I'll do my best to guide you in that path, Anakin Skywalker.

Note: This story is not mine and I don't actually subscribe to this theory. I just thought it was interesting so I saved it.

[Bohandas]

In the music of Insane Clown Posse "In My Room" and "Cemetery Girl" are about the same girl.

[Aedilred]

Malal/Malice does make the most sense & is/was a popular fan theory. His symbol is a skull (a lot of skull motifs floating around the imperium) & he wants to destroy the other Chaos Gods. It's mostly my favorite because I used to play Chaos & Orks and I like trolling Imperial lovers while playing 40k RPGs. Doesn't have to be Malice but it's fun when you can pull evidence from the web to support your trolling.

Crackpot, but I always had the idea that the Emperor was 40K's version of Drachenfels. Back in the early days when the settings were more explicitly multiversal, the Dark Future novels featured a big bad named Nguyen Seth, who at one point had a vision of himself-as-Drachenfels which all but confirmed that they were counterparts across settings. That left a big Drachenfels-shaped hole in 40K, but one which the Emperor fit almost perfectly. Dark Future also had the Ancient Adversary opposed to the Chaos powers who might have been intended as more of an Emperor analogue, but it was also crocodilian, and more overtly divine, rather than a mortal with godlike powers (as with the Emperor and the big D); that functionally plugs the Malal gap in that setting.

Sadly Drachenfels was effectively left out of the setting for twenty years and then suffered from a bad case of villain decay in the End Times stuff, although it was nice to see that he was remembered at least.

[Doorhandle]

Having just played XCOM 2 for the first time, and loved it, I have one for that.

The greater threat the ethereals warn of is just death. They call it the thing that comes for all, and it's not as if having lost a war to humanity, including having lost in a direct psychic battle of wills they can legitimately make the claim that humanity is less prepared to face a physical adversary than they are. The AVATAR project was to build a body that they could survive in, because they were dying, that's unambiguous. They keep making the claim that if it ends now, all the sacrifice will be for not, and ask the AVATAR commander to "rejoin them."

I think they're just afraid of mortality. They kept pursuing power in the form of enslaving other races, to the point that their means of control in psionic and biological domination became unsustainable, they had to confront their own mortality, and they refused to accept it. They're willing to spend billions of lives to sustain half a dozen of themselves.

That's why the strategic and the tactical implications of XCOM are important. Soldiers can die, but they die because they believe in their cause enough to risk it. And in the final level of XCOM 2, when the player is represented on the field, the player can die, ending the campaign in failure. They have the same power as the would be gods, but are willing to throw it away for the cause they've striven so hard for. From the opening moments of the tutorial, where Bradford goes in with the troops, and multiple characters knowingly lay down their lives to let the mission succeed. In the next cutscene, it's all about the risks of surgery. The commander flatlines on the table, represented by a vision of an Ethereal. Tygan is willing to risk violent death and performed brain surgery on himself because he decided freedom was worth dying for. Shen's character is early defined by her relationship with her dead father, saying his sacrifice made something that will live on, and she tells ROV-R if she could risk death with the codex portal in his place, she would. The Informant, as his final act, broadcasts in the clear to get out vital information, and without even a quaiver in his voice turns to face the firing squad kicking down his door with a simple "It seems I am out of time."

All of the ethereal propaganda is about their medical care, about how gene therapy clinics will cure disease and aging for ADVENT citizens. Counter attack missions are always aimed primarily at gunning down civilians, making fear of death the cornerstone in both supporting them and opposing them. The Chosen are hybrids who were elevated by the Ethereals and granted resurrective immortality, and promised dominion and unending life for service. They're obsessed with it.

The whole game is about how some things are worth dying for, and accepting that, embracing it, having the courage to accept that your life may need to end for something meaningful to you is the heart of heroism and the human spirit.

There's no greater threat, apart from the lies the ethereals tell themselves to comfort themselves, that death is escapable, that power alone is safety. There may be other hostile forces in the universe, but that's not remotely what is going on in the war of words at the end. In war of the chosen, you can even fight alongside characters who express their humanity in choosing to fight, and die, for what they believe is right in the form of the Skirmishers, whose initial leader refers to his time fighting for ADVENT by saying that version of himself is dead. Over and over again, humanity is associated with accepting mortality, while the ethereals use angelic imagery and are associated with the heavens because they represent the lie of escaping it.

Edit: Also, I choose to believe that vipers enjoy having the bridge of their nose scratched and are open to human-alien outreach in the post-ethereal world.

Spoiler: spoilers for Wrath of the Chosen

Show

Considering the Templars look over an opening in the sea with a truly massive amount of psionic energy spewing out of it, I'm going to say no, there is a new threat.
Sadly, because it's otherwise a great theory.

[Bohandas]

The Cenobites of the Gash from Hellraiser are somehow linked to the Kandarian demons and Naturon Demonto from The Evil Dead. In Hellraiser 3 there's a diagram of Lemanchand's Box that is drawn in what appears to be the same style and hand as the Necronomicon Ex Mortis.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

In the music of Insane Clown Posse "In My Room" and "Cemetery Girl" are about the same girl.

On a similar note: Britney Spears' Oops I did it again and Bon Jovi's You give love a bad name are about the same relationship.

Oops indeed.

(And yes, Britney was five or something when that second song came out. Her mother actually wrote it or something, don't think too hard about it.)

[Sapphire Guard]

Danganronpa V3

Spoiler: Entire Series Spoilers

Show

V3 is just taking place in an area of the world still controlled by the Despairs, there was no Ark, no meteors, it's just how some of the Remnants of despair are keeping control of their territory by kidnapping random people and having Killing Games. Team Danganronpa is a tin pot dictatorship, they don't have influence beyond their territory.