What's your favorite headcanon?

[LaZodiac]

Johnny Cage is descended from Kratos. In MKX, it is explained he gets his random god-clobbering powers from ancestors in a 'Mediterranean war cult'. Kratos was from the Mediterranean. Kratos was a war god. Kratos plausibly had a cult. Kratos clobbered gods.

I guess they had a lot of fun with Kratos' cameo in MK9.

This is really good but they're talking more about tropical island level mediterranean, not coastal.

Speaking of Mortal Kombat headkanons; We're the ancient gods that enforce the yearly death tournament.

[Wookieetank]

This is really good but they're talking more about tropical island level mediterranean, not coastal.

Speaking of Mortal Kombat headkanons; We're the ancient gods that enforce the yearly death tournament.

And if you go with that, Mortal Kombat takes place in the Cabin in the Woods universe.

[No brains]

This is really good but they're talking more about tropical island level mediterranean, not coastal.

Speaking of Mortal Kombat headkanons; We're the ancient gods that enforce the yearly death tournament.

I am always happy to generate contentious headcanons. Even over minor geographical quibbles.

And if you go with that, Mortal Kombat takes place in the Cabin in the Woods universe.

Who here's name Cetriond or Shinnok? Does this mean Kronika is the mom who keeps buying the games to indulge our bad habit?

That would make us/the MK Elder Gods/The Higher Powers in Madness Combat all the same... Mag Hank in MK11 confirmed!

[Lord Raziere]

another Naruto headcanon:

Why Dojutsu Are Powerful:
Looking at Naruto, one wonders why the various eyeballs, the sharingan, the byakugan, the rinnegan and getting into Boruto ones: tenseigan, Jogan, are all so powerful. Well while the Sharingan and Rinnegan have a bunch of ridiculous random abilities attached to them, this doesn't explain all of it. Why would all these eye jutsu be so ridiculously powerful in the world of Naruto? I posit instead, that they are so powerful because of something more basic and vital that every single dojutsu has:

The ability to see chakra.

Now, why is this so important? Well lets look at the rest of the Naruto world. Everyone else can't see chakra. Most of the time its invisible to them and they have to use hand seals or fuinjutsu to shape it specific ways to make anything happen. This is because they can only get results through trial and error, having to basically try out combinations of hand seals and hope they work while putting chakra through it. The jutsu that are successful and passed on have to be recorded and written down to make sure people know of the successful method, whether with ink or with hands. With not much room for flexibility.
But, someone can over time minimize and eliminate hand seals from the process. A jutsu normally requiring forty-four hand seals can be compressed down to one, and shinobi have learned to do only one-handed seals like Haku or Boruto-era Sasuke. Techniques like the Rasengan, Chidori, puppet jutsu, taijutsu in general, and similar jutsu don't even use them. For Rasengan the process of shaping the chakra is all that is needed, because its visible from so much gathering in a single place, while with taijutsu the chakra seems to naturally flow and mix with your physical strength. Furthermore, the use of chakra predates the use of hand seals- Indra invented the use of hand seals for ease of use, before then chakra was done entirely without them.

In short its entirely possible to use chakra without needing hand seals. Its just really difficult because its invisible to most people and thus for most, it will only ever occur after long years maybe even a lifetime of training and mastery. This is because they know how to shape the chakra without needing hand seal to do it. The more they shape the chakra without a hand seal, the less they need the seals themselves to do it.

Dojutsu users? Can see chakra, and therefore can see how it works and flows and is shaped personally and directly. They can directly observe and figure out through their sight what others can only guess and experiment with until they strike gold. Notice how dojutsu users tend to use hand seals less than others or not at all. The Hyuugas jutsu is entirely about blocking chakra points with their own use of chakra pulses into peoples systems, the Sharingan can just cast a genjutsu by looking into peoples eyes, and the Rinnegans many powers are done without hand seals being involved.
Dojutsu thus, in theory doesn't actually grant you new powers. What they grant is the ability to see how chakra is shaped much more easily in a visual medium, thus allowing one to figure out how to shape the chakra without a hand seal themselves much easier. Thus they learn how to shape it with their will alone faster and faster, the evolution of the eye being less acquiring some new power you never had before, and more acquiring understanding or insight from shaping chakra that theoretically anyone can do if they knew how.

Thus this explains pretty much how all dojutsu work and why their abilities can be so varied, strange and broken: their users have basically been given advanced understanding of the force that all of them wield, and the abilities they use are just tricks they have a specialized understanding of. In theory, if one invented chakra goggles to see chakra through some lens one could replicate the dojutsu abilities with enough time and observation. As well as see the shape of chakra to figure out other jutsu and use them without hand seals faster.

Thus the most powerful ability in all of Naruto, is the simple power to see chakra itself and observe how it works. The Uchiha were simply the bloodline that recognized this and exploited it best, while the Hyuuga grew complacent with seeing the internal chakra networks and didn't realize that they could do far more with their sight than just be Kenshiro, and all these dojutsu are one goggles-based invention away from becoming obsolete.

[Avilan the Grey]

Quick one:

Nora in FO4 is a JAG, not a "normal" civilian lawyer.

[Mith]

another Naruto headcanon:

Why Dojutsu Are Powerful:
Looking at Naruto, one wonders why the various eyeballs, the sharingan, the byakugan, the rinnegan and getting into Boruto ones: tenseigan, Jogan, are all so powerful. Well while the Sharingan and Rinnegan have a bunch of ridiculous random abilities attached to them, this doesn't explain all of it. Why would all these eye jutsu be so ridiculously powerful in the world of Naruto? I posit instead, that they are so powerful because of something more basic and vital that every single dojutsu has:

The ability to see chakra.

Now, why is this so important? Well lets look at the rest of the Naruto world. Everyone else can't see chakra. Most of the time its invisible to them and they have to use hand seals or fuinjutsu to shape it specific ways to make anything happen. This is because they can only get results through trial and error, having to basically try out combinations of hand seals and hope they work while putting chakra through it. The jutsu that are successful and passed on have to be recorded and written down to make sure people know of the successful method, whether with ink or with hands. With not much room for flexibility.
But, someone can over time minimize and eliminate hand seals from the process. A jutsu normally requiring forty-four hand seals can be compressed down to one, and shinobi have learned to do only one-handed seals like Haku or Boruto-era Sasuke. Techniques like the Rasengan, Chidori, puppet jutsu, taijutsu in general, and similar jutsu don't even use them. For Rasengan the process of shaping the chakra is all that is needed, because its visible from so much gathering in a single place, while with taijutsu the chakra seems to naturally flow and mix with your physical strength. Furthermore, the use of chakra predates the use of hand seals- Indra invented the use of hand seals for ease of use, before then chakra was done entirely without them.

In short its entirely possible to use chakra without needing hand seals. Its just really difficult because its invisible to most people and thus for most, it will only ever occur after long years maybe even a lifetime of training and mastery. This is because they know how to shape the chakra without needing hand seal to do it. The more they shape the chakra without a hand seal, the less they need the seals themselves to do it.

Dojutsu users? Can see chakra, and therefore can see how it works and flows and is shaped personally and directly. They can directly observe and figure out through their sight what others can only guess and experiment with until they strike gold. Notice how dojutsu users tend to use hand seals less than others or not at all. The Hyuugas jutsu is entirely about blocking chakra points with their own use of chakra pulses into peoples systems, the Sharingan can just cast a genjutsu by looking into peoples eyes, and the Rinnegans many powers are done without hand seals being involved.
Dojutsu thus, in theory doesn't actually grant you new powers. What they grant is the ability to see how chakra is shaped much more easily in a visual medium, thus allowing one to figure out how to shape the chakra without a hand seal themselves much easier. Thus they learn how to shape it with their will alone faster and faster, the evolution of the eye being less acquiring some new power you never had before, and more acquiring understanding or insight from shaping chakra that theoretically anyone can do if they knew how.

Thus this explains pretty much how all dojutsu work and why their abilities can be so varied, strange and broken: their users have basically been given advanced understanding of the force that all of them wield, and the abilities they use are just tricks they have a specialized understanding of. In theory, if one invented chakra goggles to see chakra through some lens one could replicate the dojutsu abilities with enough time and observation. As well as see the shape of chakra to figure out other jutsu and use them without hand seals faster.

Thus the most powerful ability in all of Naruto, is the simple power to see chakra itself and observe how it works. The Uchiha were simply the bloodline that recognized this and exploited it best, while the Hyuuga grew complacent with seeing the internal chakra networks and didn't realize that they could do far more with their sight than just be Kenshiro, and all these dojutsu are one goggles-based invention away from becoming obsolete.

So I am not a Narauto fan, but from what I heard about the series, I would assume your theory to be a part of the world-building. If not, it cleanly fills in the world.

[Lord Raziere]

So I am not a Narauto fan, but from what I heard about the series, I would assume your theory to be a part of the world-building. If not, it cleanly fills in the world.

Thanks.

the reason I think its headcanon is because I've been looking at naruto more to figure it out for a roleplay I'm doing, and while its canon that all the eyes see chakra, its ambiguous whether the other abilities granted to the users are truly the result of increased knowledge of over chakra, or because the eyes just have those powers like a program embedded into the eye and no one else does, and I've seen many people assume that eyes just have the powers in them rather than it being increased understanding, as well as the fact that a big part of the mangekyo sharingan is that you gain unique powers depending on the person that gains it and how the tragedy that triggered it unfolded, with different uchihas gaining different abilities, which poses a problem: if the mangekyo sharingan grants insight, why would they grant insight into only a specific ability? or why would the rinnegan grant insight into its six specific abilities over others?

I'm thinking it MIGHT be something like different wavelengths of light and that different dojutsu see different wavelengths of chakra, and thus different eyes in reaction to different triggers switch to different frequencies on the light spectrum and the more powerful the eye, the wider the chakra-light spectrum they can see so they can figure out different shapes easier that give rise to different techniques, but there is no confirmation of that? its weird.

[Mightymosy]

He also talks about the thousand tales of Scheherazade and its hard to tell what point he is going for with it. He might be talking about what made Ali baba and Scheherazade famous and how aladdin has a genie to do that for him. So its not that ali baba commanded 40 thieves, its that he is known for his adventures dealing with them, like madam long name is known for her thousand tales.

Speaking of Sheherazade, I have recently came to think about during a Wikipedia delve.
Does anyone but me notice what kind of a mess the ending actually is? If it is supposed to be a happy ending, anyway.

"And then the hero got married to the serial rapist and murderer guy, but he *decided* to not murder her (anytime soon..... He still has the power to, should he decide he wants to at a different point).
Hooray!


Maybe fairytales like this one are reasons many girls have such severely-messed up ideologies how life and "being happy" is supposed to work?

"But I can change him!"
Yes, right
*headbangagainstwall*

I want this story genderswapped to see the outcry =)

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Speaking of Sheherazade, I have recently came to think about during a Wikipedia delve.
Does anyone but me notice what kind of a mess the ending actually is? If it is supposed to be a happy ending, anyway.

"And then the hero got married to the serial rapist and murderer guy, but he *decided* to not murder her (anytime soon..... He still has the power to, should he decide he wants to at a different point).
Hooray!


Maybe fairytales like this one are reasons many girls have such severely-messed up ideologies how life and "being happy" is supposed to work?

"But I can change him!"
Yes, right
*headbangagainstwall*

I want this story genderswapped to see the outcry =)

That's... a very fair point.

I guess the king often gets read as a force of nature, a problem to be overcome. The heroine deals with that problem very elegantly, and in a non-violent manner*. But yeah, as a character, that king is messed up. Being in pain over a lost love is no excuse for genocide**. No matter how unapproachable your position makes you. And if you think that's appropriate behavior you should not be in charge if anything. This is a story about an elegant non-violent solution to a problem where the fast dirty violent solution might actually have been a better fix, drawn out civil war and resulting military dictatorship or not.

* = Which can help make characters relatable because so many stories do contain large helpings of a violent solution, and this goes double for female characters as the average female audience member has less violent fantasies than the average male audience member.

** = It feels weird to call this genocide at a rate of one victim a day. But keep that up for a few years and it definitely sits on the genocide scale.

[Mightymosy]

That's... a very fair point.

I guess the king often gets read as a force of nature, a problem to be overcome. The heroine deals with that problem very elegantly, and in a non-violent manner*. But yeah, as a character, that king is messed up. Being in pain over a lost love is no excuse for genocide**. No matter how unapproachable your position makes you. And if you think that's appropriate behavior you should not be in charge if anything. This is a story about an elegant non-violent solution to a problem where the fast dirty violent solution might actually have been a better fix, drawn out civil war and resulting military dictatorship or not.

* = Which can help make characters relatable because so many stories do contain large helpings of a violent solution, and this goes double for female characters as the average female audience member has less violent fantasies than the average male audience member.

** = It feels weird to call this genocide at a rate of one victim a day. But keep that up for a few years and it definitely sits on the genocide scale.

I think you read this veeeeery favorably.
Honestly, the more probable reading to me is that this story simply shows the atrocious gender concepts of the society that made and enjoyed the story :-(

Even with your reading, did she really "overcome the force of nature"???


So she volunteered to get raped and eventually murdered by the king.
Buuuuuuut due to her cunning plan she eventually persuaded the king no to kill, but instead rape her for as long as they lived happily ever after!

HOOORAAYY!!!

(you know, because she liked it.
... Because he was king?
... Because women love to be married no matter to whom?
... Because women like to have children regardless how they get pregnant?
... Because he was pretty?
.... Because he was rich?
...)

No, selling this as a win is a hard sell. But interestingly it flies reasonably well, which shows just how hardly engrained even into our society certain concepts are!


By the way, wasn't her father like the king's Vizier or something?
Huge thumbs downs for that guy :-(

[Lvl 2 Expert]

It feels like I didn't disagree with you. I probably didn't explain myself well enough. Let's just say I'm not disagreeing with you.

[Mith]

Speaking of Sheherazade, I have recently came to think about during a Wikipedia delve.
Does anyone but me notice what kind of a mess the ending actually is? If it is supposed to be a happy ending, anyway.

"And then the hero got married to the serial rapist and murderer guy, but he *decided* to not murder her (anytime soon..... He still has the power to, should he decide he wants to at a different point).
Hooray!


Maybe fairytales like this one are reasons many girls have such severely-messed up ideologies how life and "being happy" is supposed to work?

"But I can change him!"
Yes, right
*headbangagainstwall*

I want this story genderswapped to see the outcry =)

Hell, that's been the nature of most human societies since the dawn of time. It's just made palatable by dressing it up as a "choice". It's really only carving out the best of a terrible, terrible situation that really isn't all that uncommon in the perspective of human experience.

[Traab]

Keep in mind the fairy tales we know today via disney are incredibly distorted, far happier versions, of older, darker tales, which themselves are often reimaginings of darker tales. I havent actually read the full story of madam storyteller and how she avoided getting killed so i cant speak for what it was meant to say, but often there wasnt supposed to be a happy ending, just an ending. Greek tragedies were how things commonly went. Meaning no, hercules doesnt triumph over evil and become one big happy family with songbirds singing on his shoulders, no, orpheus doesnt get his wife back, etc etc etc. In this case marrying the guy and not being killed the next day was about as happy as the ending could be in that scenario.

[Mightymosy]

Keep in mind the fairy tales we know today via disney are incredibly distorted, far happier versions, of older, darker tales, which themselves are often reimaginings of darker tales. I havent actually read the full story of madam storyteller and how she avoided getting killed so i cant speak for what it was meant to say, but often there wasnt supposed to be a happy ending, just an ending. Greek tragedies were how things commonly went. Meaning no, hercules doesnt triumph over evil and become one big happy family with songbirds singing on his shoulders, no, orpheus doesnt get his wife back, etc etc etc. In this case marrying the guy and not being killed the next day was about as happy as the ending could be in that scenario.

Huge difference to Greek myths here.

Greek tragedy went to show how you can't escape your fate because Mankind itself can't, since there are higher powers in the cosmos that determine mankind's and each man's and woman's fate.
For example, the gods. You don't mess with a God because they will always win, and usually their revenge is awful.

As far as I know, the Sheherazade story is 100% natural with no supernatural theme - so she is a human among human made misery.

But I might be wrong. It's been awhile, I read better stuff now :-)

[LaZodiac]

I was under the impression 1001 Nights was Saherazade bull****ting for so long that the king, enraptured by her stories, never had a chance to do anything until she just outlasted him age wise.

[Fyraltari]

Fairy tales, not conforming to our modern standards of morality?
*visible shock*

I was under the impression 1001 Nights was Saherazade bull****ting for so long that the king, enraptured by her stories, never had a chance to do anything until she just outlasted him age wise.

No, the conclusion is that he comes to love her (and they had a couple kids) and, being over his paranoia about women (his first wife cheated on him which is why he married and killed one woman a night) marry her for realsies.

Note that 1001 nights is not even three years' worth of stories.

[Mith]

I was under the impression 1001 Nights was Saherazade bull****ting for so long that the king, enraptured by her stories, never had a chance to do anything until she just outlasted him age wise.

That is the better story by far, and the version I'll now tell.

However, 1,001 nights is just under 2.75 years (~33 months). The old king must have been pretty old at the start of the story.

[Fyraltari]

That is the better story by far, and the version I'll now tell.

However, 1,001 nights is just under 2.75 years (~33 months). The old king must have been pretty old at the start of the story.

I’ve said the same thing but it should be said that in ancient times ‘1,000’ was often used as a shorthand for ‘a whole lot’ and the number of ‘1,001’ is probably not intended to be precise but as a poetic of saying ‘Even more than a whole lot’.

[Mith]

I’ve said the same thing but it should be said that in ancient times ‘1,000’ was often used as a shorthand for ‘a whole lot’ and the number of ‘1,001’ is probably not intended to be precise but as a poetic of saying ‘Even more than a whole lot’.

Very good point. I think the version I originally read took that as literal, so it was the 33 months of storytelling versus "wait for the old bastard to croak."

[The Glyphstone]

Very good point. I think the version I originally read took that as literal, so it was the 33 months of storytelling versus "wait for the old bastard to croak."

That would fit in with the 'Teach a horse to sing' parable, since it's a similar train of thought.

[Fyraltari]

Very good point. I think the version I originally read took that as literal, so it was the 33 months of storytelling versus "wait for the old bastard to croak."

I don't think there's any version where she waits for the king to die.

[Traab]

Huge difference to Greek myths here.

Greek tragedy went to show how you can't escape your fate because Mankind itself can't, since there are higher powers in the cosmos that determine mankind's and each man's and woman's fate.
For example, the gods. You don't mess with a God because they will always win, and usually their revenge is awful.

As far as I know, the Sheherazade story is 100% natural with no supernatural theme - so she is a human among human made misery.

But I might be wrong. It's been awhile, I read better stuff now :-)

And instead of the gods she was struggling against the ultimate ruler who had total control over whether she lived or died. In fact, the way she went about it was very similar to other stories of greek myth where they manage to trick the gods, even if only briefly, in order to attain whatever they are after. It may not end well, for varying definitions of the term well, but for a time it works. Like Sisyphus and Thanatos. He tricked thanatos and was able to chain him up, making his escape, but it didnt last for long.

[Fyraltari]

And instead of the gods she was struggling against the ultimate ruler who had total control over whether she lived or died. In fact, the way she went about it was very similar to other stories of greek myth where they manage to trick the gods, even if only briefly, in order to attain whatever they are after. It may not end well, for varying definitions of the term well, but for a time it works. Like Sisyphus and Thanatos. He tricked thanatos and was able to chain him up, making his escape, but it didnt last for long.

Considering that Sysyphus is caracterized as a murderer (of guests) and an oath-breaker and is very much meant as the villain of the tale, I'm pretty sure both tales are supposed to have a happy ending.

[LaZodiac]

Given that some of her stories actually end up incomplete because they segway into stories within stories within stories, I think it's safe to say she had way more than exactly 1001 stories, and it's a metaphor for "girl knew how to improv real good."

[Fyraltari]

I mean, it's 1,001 nights, not 1,001 stories. And the whole tale is "girl knows how to improv real good".

[Mightymosy]

And instead of the gods she was struggling against the ultimate ruler who had total control over whether she lived or died. In fact, the way she went about it was very similar to other stories of greek myth where they manage to trick the gods, even if only briefly, in order to attain whatever they are after. It may not end well, for varying definitions of the term well, but for a time it works. Like Sisyphus and Thanatos. He tricked thanatos and was able to chain him up, making his escape, but it didnt last for long.

The difference is important in the message.

In Greek myths, you have to accept your fate. Mankind has to except its fate.
Because superior forces have already decided what is going to happen and you cannot avert it.


In 1001 nights there is no greater power. King is king as long as people do what he says.
Sheherazade's father could have tried a revolution, just off the top of my hat.

Or, Sheherezade could have tried to poison the king and run away.
Doomed to die?
Quite *probably*, but not 100%.
Humans get away with all sorts of things - occasionally - when it's a human VS humans story.
With Greek? No point in trying because fate is 100/100.

As such, if you WANT to read a lesson into 1001 nights it would be something like "Sacrificing virgins to the king is something everyone can agree to, because"

[Fyraltari]

The difference is important in the message.

In Greek myths, you have to accept your fate. Mankind has to except its fate.
Because superior forces have already decided what is going to happen and you cannot avert it.


In 1001 nights there is no greater power. King is king as long as people do what he says.
Sheherazade's father could have tried a revolution, just off the top of my hat.

Or, Sheherezade could have tried to poison the king and run away.

Not in that culture, no. Kings weren’t seen as purely human institutions.

And you could bet your last dime that whichever fool would go around telling a tale whose moral was ‘it’s totally okay to kill the king’ would get executed faster than you could say ‘treason’.

[Mightymosy]

Not in that culture, no. Kings weren’t seen as purely human institutions.

And you could bet your last dime that whichever fool would go around telling a tale whose moral was ‘it’s totally okay to kill the king’ would get executed faster than you could say ‘treason’.

Not sure about that entirely, actually.
I try to remember the actual stories, you know, the stories from 1001 nights: Was there at NO point a story where a king got overthrown?

Anyway, my point is that it is human made misery, and not universal fate you cannot escape.
I don't remember any part in the story where it was said that the king was king because of God's will or whatever, and nothing could ever change that.
In fact, even kings who WERE king of God's will often were toppled, for good or for worse...

I don't wish to talk this to extremes, since it's not the topic of the thread. My point is just that injustices, in this case Greek myths and 1001 nights, have important difference, and send different messages regarding human suffering.


ETA: By the way, I'd bet against your bet in your sig. I don't think the Vector Legion will be the new IFCC pawns. The IFCC wants stupid bumbling pawns, and there's way too few of these in the Vector Legion as presented.

Sabine, yes (but then she is no new pawn). But Tarquin, Laurin & friends? Somehow feels wrong to me, so I bet against it

[No brains]

These headcanons are having a shootout.

[Rogar Demonblud]

One detail of correction: in the original, the king was only remarrying once a month. He'd get married, enjoy the honeymoon, then execute the bride before she could betray him. At some point a transcriptionist compressed the time frame to daily.

Also, the king is a blind idiot if he couldn't notice his wife was pregnant despite sitting next to her every night.