Yo, Holy Shit, Elantris Is Referenced In The Ars Arcanum. Yeeeaassssss Let’s Go!!!

“I am death itself, Defeated One, and I have finally caught up to you.”

Kaladin the MAN that you are. You are so angsty in the best possible way. You make me feel like a middle school girl obsessed with Sasuke and I am NOT ASHAMED

AAAAA!!!! I love the way Bridge Four sticks up for Shen while getting their tattoos!!!!! They’re so awesome and I love them!!!

Sentry posting time!! I’ve read almost all of his appearances and will be giving my thoughts on most of it!

SO! Something I’ve come to enjoy is reading as many books as I can around a specific Marvel character or series (I’ve literally read every single Runaways appearance), and recently became a bit infatuated with the Sentry.

And he’s so neat, but ultimately gets… floundered. Like. His original run is one of the best character studies of a Silver Age-style character with some of the best stylistic expression I’ve seen. It’s a genuinely fantastic roughly 10-issue run of a self-contained story on the meaning of heroism, the importance of legacy, and the actual definition of sacrifice…

And then he gets brought back in New Avengers and it’s like… okay, fine. Sure we can see more of him. And the beginning of it is pretty good!! There’s some confusing retcons, but it works well and I liked it enough. Then you get to his second solo run and it’s peak again! The visual style is worse, but they keep the discordant retro aesthetics for poignant scenes and it works. While the central conflict remains the same Sentry vs Void, the story shifts from analyzing his archetype to analyzing him. It’s about “responsibility”.And-!!! YES!!! It’s powerful to see someone so strong struggle with, then accept that they aren’t the best person to have their gifts, or even a good person to have their gifts, but resolve to do the best they can with them despite that.

But then. But then you finish it. And you hit side-character. And Sentry… he- doesn’t… work. He just doesn’t work as a normal character here. He’s too far outside the power scale so all his interactions in fights just. Ugh. They’re so lifeless?? There’s a fun one in Thunderbolts, but I found New Avengers dreadfully boring and I could NOT care less about Civil War. But… Sentry works way better as a plot point than a character. His appearance in Doctor Strange is my favorite, I’d say, as it treats him as a plot point. He’s the plot device that allows Doctor Strange to go all God of Magic-y!! It’s fun!

but… it gets worse after that point, as Sentry Volume 3 is like- bafflingly bad. He’s mischaracterized to hell, ignores all his previous character growth, and ends with a truly baffling conclusion that gets immediately done away with because it was so stupid. I get wanting to change the status quo for a character, but please don’t make it bad. It seriously felt like they just went with the first idea that came to mind.

Annihilation - Scourge is awesome, go read it. It’s great. Doesn’t do much for Sentry other than revert him to his post Sentry Vol. 2 status quo, but also that status quo was fun and good, so whatever. It’s generally just a good event series I highly recommend it.

And then you hit King in Black. Spoilers, but he gets Piccoloed. It happens a lot with his side-character appearances, but he shows up to lose in order to make the big bad look super strong. It’s… annoying, but I guess effective? It just felt really self-aggrandizing. I am not the biggest fan of Knull. He feels like the edgy OC of a child no one in the friend group likes. “He’s actually the God of the Symbiotes and kills Celestials and made the All Black Necrosword and also could kill all the Beyonders and super easily beats Sentry because he’s so awesome and strong 😎” It retroactively degrades the excellent stories before it and the value of his sacrifices. Sentry doesn’t solve every problem not because he can’t, but because the Void would create that many more. So, because he doesn’t have the right to decide who lives or dies, Sentry chooses to abandon his legacy, his name, his power. He chooses to be one third of a man because it is right. He chooses to let people he could save die, because it would cause other, different innocents to die. Even though it tears him apart physically and mentally, he bears it.

Sentry is the best written "Superman clone" I've seen… in his own books, because in things like King in Black, it feels as if the writers didn't even read the original story. Luckily his appearance in King in Black: Return of the Valkyries I get to see Robert wax philosophical again. I’m not mad he died, I’m mostly just mad he didn’t get the respect or pomp in death he deserved.

And I think I refuse to read the current Sentry run. I am Not Enthused™️ about the concept. Robert was the interesting part of Sentry, not his powers. Oh! And don’t spoil The Thunderbolts* as I haven’t seen it! I’m excited as I’ve heard nothing but good things, however.

So anyways, I think Sentry’s wife was totally based for wanting to fuck that golden man, even if he’s kind of a wreck, I can look past a few (well, a lot of) mental illnesses. But Linda or I could never fucked the Sentry as hard as Marvel Comics.

SHE DIDN’T GO INSANE SHE JUST FELL IN LOVE

KILL ME

Shadows of Self Spoilers

She’s wearing Lessie’s face… and knew in intricate detail how she “died”. She was either Bloody Tan… or Lessie herself. I am. I am confident Lessie was a Kandra the whole time. It fits her hatred of being manipulated by Harmony… maybe she actually loved him? Maybe she didn’t want to lose the life they lived at the time. Maybe she was forced to go along with Sazed’s plans and lost her favorite face… and that broke her. Fuck, please if I’m right I’m going to be irreparable.

“The Lord Mistborn” makes me think Elend… but no, he and Vin didn’t have any kids, neither did Kelsier. Mmmmm…. I have no idea what the hell this could be in reference to.

gasp!!!!!

I’m on early Rhythm of War, no one spoil future stuff!!!

I’m genuinely baffled what the hell Shallan is suppressing that could possibly be worse than what she already remembers. Like. What. What the fuck. How.

MeLaan is absolutely incredible and I love her so much. She and Wayne are a phenomenal pair. Every dynamic in this book is amazing. I honestly haven’t even met a single character I’ve disliked or even found boring yet.

(Also you guys better send me MeLaan x Wayne art in the reblogs, I’m begging. They’re perfect. If anyone can pull a shapeshifting, immortal demigod it’s Wayne.)

So we have multiple statements by Jorge Rivera-Herrans that he was inspired by video games in the creation of Epic the Musical. This is pretty plainly seen in the multiple “boss battles” that cap off most albums in the musical.

Two of the most important examples of “boss battles” come from the characters recognized as “monsters” in the canon of the story: Polyphemus and Scylla. These two are important, because they are the only two characters with songs named after them. This sets them apart as unique and special, which is substantiated even further by the impact they have on the wider story of Epic.

“…but wait” you may be asking. “Odysseus has a song named after him as well, no?” That is correct! This is because, like Polyphemus and Scylla, Odysseus is a monster. So much so that there’s an entire song in the Underworld Sage.

Okay so- what does this mean effectively? Well… the final boss of the musical isn’t the suitors. It’s Ody. The song Odysseus has a lot of parallels to Polyphemus and Scylla (the line “keep your head down he’s aiming for the torches!” Being a direct callback to Scylla), but the one I’d like to focus on is the narrative framework of the song.

He’s the antagonist. The song’s narrative is carried by the disparate Suitors as they are hunted by our old king and try to survive. (heh. See what I did there?) The background chanting of Odysseus’s name is even in the same style of how Polyphemus is sung in Survive!!! He’s the FINAL BOSS. (and tbh. He’s a LOT better at murdering everyone who wronged him than anyone else in the story. Polyphemus should take notes.)

So… what does this mean? He kills every suitor. And like- as he should. They sucked. So what? The final boss isn’t defeated in Epic?

…well no. He is firmly defeated in the end. By Penelope. Something very important in the story from No Longer You onward is this division between the “Old Odysseus” and the “New Odysseus”. It’s this Old Odysseus who is a monster, and it’s THIS man who Penelope defeats.

Her defeat of Odysseus is shown in two parts: Lyrically and Musically. The first is very clear. Odysseus argues that he is no longer the man who married Penelope, and she disagrees. She is the only one to effectively trick Penelope, responding to his rhetorical statement of “I am no longer the man you fell in love with” with a trap that ends with Odysseus confirming beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is, in fact, her husband. Furthermore If you payed any attention at all while listening to Epic, Jorge’s love for motif is very clear, and this is relevant in understanding the emotional “defeat” of the Monster Odysseus.

Ody has two key instruments: a soft guitar and a harsh, electric one. These correlate to the two unique Odysseus’s we’ve established. We hear inklings of the soft guitar when Odysseus and Penelope first reunite, but it quickly fades to that harsh electric guitar as they begin to “fight.”

But. Here’s. Where. It. Gets. Fun. Because after he’s deceived and defeated, the soft guitar returns. He is finally, after twenty years, being allowed to return to the kind man he once was. He’s finally, *finally* home.

And that, my friends, is why I conclude, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Penelope tops Odysseus after Epic.

Wax just shotgun jumped. 10/10. I fear Brandon Sanderson may have peaked.

I was right but fuck man does that not help The Agonies™️

Stormlight Archives Spoilers

Hmmm… the Fourth Ideal, something Kaladin cannot say… if we look at the themes of his story so far, it’s probably something like “I will protect only those I can”. Kaladin has always struggled with accepting that he can’t save EVERYONE, because he is just… too compassionate, but it’s gotten to the point where it’s crippling his ability to act, to save anyone. I expect Rhythm of War is gonna have a lot of Kaladin brooding