Ep 45 of The Letters Page discussion- Biomancer

Biomancer, necromancer or belly dancer?

Listen here to find out!

I’m hoping for belly dancer just for a more a light hearted episode

There were lots of cool meta things, like the Widow's Walk connection. I had no idea Christopher contributed to that.

We also have an explantation for why -> (white text) We haven't gotten a Tempest Episode yet I doubt it is the only reason, but good to know.

And I like how it sounds like many of Biomancers plots are finally coming together so he can be a much bigger threat in the RPG. Actually, from their comment of him coming "really soon" makes me wonder if he isn't connected to stuff that happens in the Starter Kit. It kind of fits if he's the guy behind what is going on.

I'm fifty/fifty on this episode some nice reveals both in the comics and Biomancer backstory but no real description of his beef with the scholar and why he couldn't get the philosophers stone to work.

We already know why he has beef with the Scholar.  He accomplished what Biomancer couldn’t which is forming a true Philosopher’s Stone.  When you’re a guy whose catchphrase is “All According to Plan” mistakes like that don’t sit well. 

Fair enough but between this episode and the Scholars there is seemingly no major interaction between Biomancer and the Scholar. I would have liked more on their relationship . The Scholar is his nemesis but his name doesn't even come up ... Like I said thumbs solidly in the middle not down

Finding out who Biomancer really is does put the answer of why he couldn't get the Philosopher's Stone to work into even more of a curiosity, though.

Aside: Bolnerap shared the Widow's Walk info with me not too long ago, and my reaction at Biomancer's real name was basically "Man that is such a cheesy name, it sounds exactly like the sort of thing a pompous magitek supervillain would call himself." So finding out it's actually a real person's name gave me sort of a bemused "reality is apparently way stranger than fiction" kind of moment.

I feel a little sad about those of my questions I sent in that didn't get answered, but on the whole I really enjoyed the episode. A creepy-as-heck villain who goes around doing weird creepy mad science and magic things just because he wants to know everything and wants to turn everything into his big master plan is exactly the sort of villain I find entertaining.

I also liked the philosophical asides (the question "what exactly qualifies as being alive in the Sentinels universe" continues to constantly produce fascinating considerations), not to mention the gigantic "buh what?" reveal.

I just... good luck to them when they get to the Tempest episode, i have sent in SOOOO many questions about him. Like, i've had questions sort of about tempest answered in Other Peoples episodes i can only guess how many Tempest questions they get... 

This is the first episode that I was disappointed with.

The major reveal touted in the text is nothing of the kind, it's just more story- and this, one that was never hinted. It's not a special reveal when you don't there's anything to reveal in the first place.

Why is Biomancer doing what he is doing? There's no reason given for him to be doing the things he does.

Yeah, one of the questions I asked that I was disappointed didn't get answered was explicitly "Where is Biomancer going with all this? [blah blah blah summary of stuff he's done] …what's his end goal? And how do all these things get him there?"

(The other was asking what other non-fleshy stuff he's dabbled in besides the Philosopher's Stone and if any of his other oddball non-fleshy creations have affected anything major in the Multiverse.)

I'm guessing that delving any further into his plans would be telling, possibly spoiling any plans they might have for future products.

As for any further talk about the Scholar, that can be a topic brought up in an upcoming Editor's note. You gotta specifically ask about things if you wanna hear about them, especially in the current layout of '15 minutes of basic framework, the rest filled out in the questions' they have going on.

Perhaps, but it seems like people submitted questions that didn’t get answered in this episode (myself included). While that’s certainly to be expected, this episode also had one of the shortest run times in quite some time, so it’s not like they didn’t have “room” to answer them.

The logical explanation is that they’re either keeping some cards close to the chest, or because of the hectic recording schedule they didn’t have time to record a 1.5+ hour episode.

But I think that the REAL reason is that C&A have already been replaced by flesh children copies, and they avoided questions that they didn’t know the answers to, in order to keep their identities secret…

@Phantom5613: Thing is, that means while Biomancer is still a pretty entertaining villain, he's also an incredibly flat villain. That stands out in a world where often even many of the minor villains have well-realized motivations.

And I feel like the overview should really cover all the major stuff about the character.

Weirdly, I was disappointed by it being only a hour. I've kind of come to rely on that to fill my Tuesday morning. c.c

I feel sorry for the people who are way tired of the podcast meta-plot though. :V

I agree with Matchstickman's sentinement about the episode. Like, it filled time, but nothing super special came from it that was of note and made me feel, "Yeah, I'm glad this got an episode." Biomancer doesn't even feel like an important actor in the multiverse, 'cause the episode made him sound more aloof than menacing through most of his history, and none of his contributions felt like they impacted the story of the multiverse any meaningful way.

I really don't mean this as derogitory to the community or anyone else, but I almost feel like the meta stuff has escalated Biomancer to a higher level of importance than the guy ever actually had. The fans really like him, and they keep getting letters from Fleshchildren, so let's give him an episode...but not have much to say about the guy. 

@bobbertoriley: Basically I liked Biomancer for being stylishly creepy and apparently having his hands in just about everything, so I was looking forward to the episode for more details and for the why... and we only got a few of the former and none of the latter. Even though I know some of us asked questions looking for both things...

That catchphrase had me thinking of Schmeath Schmote

Yeah, color me disappointed as well.  We learned a little bit about his history, but even the big story reveal was sort of, "This thing happened!  And then it was resolved and everyone lived happily every after."  Very little about his motivation or his methodology.  I was hoping for some hint about how he might handle himself in the Cosmic Contest, but it sounds like he'd be totally useless there--plopped down in person, without months to prepare fleshchildren and a nice safe place to hide his real body, it's seems like he'd be 100% helpless.  I also asked for some stories about the specific encounters with specific Fleshchildren, especially the Carbon Adept, and didn't get them.  And nothing about The Scholar--we know why Biomancer is irritated at Scholar for succeeding where he failed, but nothing about any conflicts between them or where that whole rivalry goes, if anywhere.

We don't know that, though. We don't know the impact on Tempest, and won't until his episode.

If nothing else, this has me even more excited for Tempest's episode.

And hey, Editor's Note tomorrow!

In fairness to C&A, they did mention way back near the beginning that Biomancer was more Interlude than full episode material.

But still, lots of unanswered questions here. And some new ones. Like, what has he actually been DOING for the past 1800 years? As for his “plans”, is it just “cause minor annoyances to allieve my boredom while I simply wait to outlive my enemies”?

My guess is that either there just isn’t much story for Boimancer, or there’s important story in the RPG starter kit, and C&A were trying to avoid that.

Then again, after listening to the episode like 4/5 times, I’m convinced of my original post’s theory that this episode was relatively light on info because C&A have already been replaced by flesh children copies. That hilarious little bit at the end was just a ruse to fool us…

I feel like someone who's been around for 1800 years in the Sentinels Universe should have a fair bit of story about them...

Alot of it was probably just waiting and sceeming, but I understand the frustration.

I asked a question that went unanswered about how he actually makes the fleshchildren -- mainly, does he need a sample of the target's flesh first, or can he just make them on his own?

@mwc146: Yeah, that was another one of the questions I asked, too. Along with being curious if he can manipulate flesh while someone's currently still using it, as it were.

It was stated he's using necromancy to create the fleshchildren, so I'd hazard a guess that he needs dead flesh to make the magic happen. That does make me wonder the extent of his necromantic abilities though, especially considering that no one who comes back to life in Sentinels Comics has a very good time of it.

I know in one of the past episodes C&A explicitly said Biomancer doesn't raise the dead, so I don't think that particular factor comes up. (Whether he can or would want to I don't think was addressed, though.)

Since I've mentioned all the others already, the last question I asked that didn't come up elsewhere was why the term "fleshchildren" exactly, and what that says about Biomancer in terms of intended connotations.

It occurs to me that Biomancer is also a foil to Unity in some ways, in addition to the Scholar. She has her army of metallic "friends" to keep her company made from manipulating metal that she sometimes uses to mimic and tease people and he has his cadre of "children" to keep him company made from manipulating flesh that he sometimes uses to mimic and mock people.

Wait I thought that in the Tacyon episode they said that Tempest took her out when she turned on him? And even though she lost that encounter she was given her title.

You're right, that's what it says in Tachyon's quicknotes.

Someone should ask that for Tempest's episode.

I think that may be an error in the Quick Notes, I specifically remember Tempest had hard feelings for Tachyon because she took him out in the Coliesium and got the Title Chaos Lord. He didn't win that particular exchage.

Then again, I haven't gome back and re-listened to the episode, so I could be wrong.

I seem to remember Christopher and Adam saying Tachyon was running much more slowly than she usually did to please the crowd and because of that Tempest was able to catch her with a blast of lightning and defeat her.

In any case, I sent in the question, if only to get a final clarification.

I just went and listened to it.

In the Tachyon episode, they say that Tempest knocks out Tachyon.

You can start listening about 18:00, but if you just want to skip straight to it, go to 18:40.