Editor’s Note #72

The spooky month continues

Upcoming schedule:

• Tuesday, November 7th: Episode #266: GloomWeaver vs. Æternus
• Tuesday, November 14th: Episode #267: Prime Wardens in the Egyptian Underworld
• Tuesday, November 21st: Editor’s Note #73
• Tuesday, November 28th: Episode #268: Grimm: Lord of the Harvest

Expected Recording Schedule:

• Friday, November 3rd: Episode #266: GloomWeaver vs. Æternus
• Friday, November 10th: Episode #267: Prime Wardens in the Egyptian Underworld
• Friday, November 17th: Editor’s Note #73
• Friday, November 24th: Episode #268: Grimm: Lord of the Harvest

Six players and a GM is about my limit, and might be a bit much for people new to the game. Going with a GM, a co-GM to help manage combat and NPC interactions, and five players is a lot easier, but requires two someones to GM, which might or might not be doable depending on the group. Rotating GM(s) occasionally is also a good idea, even if it’s just someone coming up with a one-shot they’re willing to run now and then and the usual GM running a recurring guest hero.

Oh yeah, one of the most important Editor’s Notes to listen to after seeing it live, because not only did I miss the first half hour, but Trevor will be there!

Best cover is Gary Jules’ “Mad World”. The original song just sounds like they had no idea what they were doing, it’s so weird.

“That’s a drawring!” The childlike wonder in Adam’s voice.

goat ambassador or riot

Time to swamp them with letters about the Makeoutverse XD

Imagine me coming into the video at “it no longer looks like a butt” and wondering just what the hecky was going on. That is why chat was talking about butts.

oh man, C&A did this bit with Trevor so well XD

Excellent outro bit as well.

If people want a whole genre thing of “covers that transform the originals” there’s bardcore, with Algal the Bard and Hildegard von Blingin probably being the two most prominent ones.

My favorite bit of this ep was honestly Christopher showing that trolling us with shipping is his new favorite pastime, and the whole thing with Adam realizing the line between fanfic and canon is blurred strongly when it’s the sole creator(s) writing the fanfic.

I’m actually going to extend my fan theory and say it’s the child of Baron Blade that a few of us hypothesize to exist.

The Batman fan in me is trying really hard to not think of that somehow being Wraith’s kid.

Our theory is the mother is Aislin Allen (Glamour) based on a few pieces of circumstantial evidence. We know that she and Blade had a relationship, for one. There are a few other things that point to it, but one is a spoiler for something.

There’s that writeup I made once on the LP server if you wanted to pull it up for everyone.

From the Shipping Episode: One of the stories told is that of the Shrieker and how she’s kind of just forgotten by the Freedom Five. She eventually turns to Baron Blade, who is more than willing to help her get set back up. They have something of a “business transaction of a relationship” where he helps her with technology and Glamour stuff, but also a relationship. She eventually leaves given his Baron Blade-ness and he is fine with it as these things come and go, but there you have it - he had a relationship.

From the Madame Mittermeier’s section of the Supernatural Settings episode: As the story progresses, he’s losing control of her and so he goes back into the carnival to gain more of its power and he is lost there. Whoops. As all this has been happening, there’s been a shadowy figure who, from silhouette, is obviously a young person. At this point at the end of the issue this figure makes a deal with the carnival (which is probably not going to ever be a problem) to get Blade back and for it to leave. It does, so Blade is returned, Young Legacy is herself again, and the shadowy figure is left unexplained.

From the video game: Wraith ends up having to retrieve files FILTER stole from Mordengrad that Baron Blade considers potentially damaging to be out there. One of them is a medical record for Aislin Allen.

That’s the one. I still appreciate that we came up with the same thing independently, lol.

I’m just gonna quote this.

Also pretty sure there was a question asked once if the Carnival person was the Baron’s daughter or maybe one of the Glamours, and the answer was “No to both, but you’re not far off” - sooo I am like 99% sure at this point that the Baron, in fact, has a son.

That I am going to ship with Felicia so hard.

Yeah, I had been told you were a third in our Brain Siblings group on this but I didn’t want to step on your toes.

Exty years from now when we finally get to this in the timeline/content there’s just going to be a small pile of letters either going WE KNEW IT or OH COME ON, lol.

Oh and while you’re here: Your arts were the bomb! I love it! Will we get more Faralis arts? Perhaps with the bribe of some monies?

There’s actually another small thing that might or might not matter. The Archives entry for Glamour in the SCRPG core book says that

Opportunity knocked in the form of Baron Blade, who gave her tech that worked with the
remnants of her vocal powers to create illusions and manipulate the senses. All in exchange for a simple favor for the Baron.

This may be nothing, but it may also be something. That’s the fun part about speculating!

Also, thank you so much for your kind words. Sentinels has been such an inspiration for me that there will certainly be more art without any need to bribe. It is definitely a matter of time, not motivation, so “bigger” projects like the stuff I prepared for Essen are out of the question for now, but my mind can only hold so many images before they need to get out and be put somewhere.

the world where Legacy and Baron Blade are friends makes me think of Alan Moore’s Tom Strong and the alternate Tom that made friends with his enemies that looked like a better world than the base universe until the betrayals and everything falling apart.
Sasha from Casually Comics did a video on the episode but no link since it is too unconnected from the discussion.

That Tom Strong story’s more about his mother (who’s considerably less deceased and much happier than usual for a good while) than either iteration of Tom. She’s certainly the hero of the piece in the end.

Ironically, we sort of have a world where Legacy and Baron Blade are both friends and making out - the world of Weekly One-Shot #270, in which Young Legacy and Heroic Luminary were out on a double date with Expatriette and Setback, only to be attacked by Ambuscade!

We don’t know anything else about this setting, and also Christopher and Adam did not write the summary and had no input into its existence and I believe someone asked them a question about it once and they were utterly baffled, but it’s still canon because every Sentinels game is canon!

Every game of Sentinels takes place in the universe, but is not canon in the Meta-comics.

I am aware that I am super biased, but even though I really like Ivanna, she just does not read as Baron Blade to me.

I honestly don’t know if it’s the genderbend thing or the fact that she’s referred to as a princess who still lives with her parents or what it is. Also I don’t understand why she gets to be called Heroic Luminary when clearly the original version is already heroic?

The ship is weird to me, too, but people can have their fun with it if they want of course.

Oh, and back on the topic of the episode. I found it funny that both of the episodes they mentioned for being the worst for starting with the podcast (SouthWest Sentinels and OblivAeon pt. II) were exactly those I regularly go back to for a relisten.

Plus even if it was in a canon canon issue, Felicia and Ivana being allies of any type is a much different dynamic than Ivan and Paul being allies would be.

I personally call her Princess Luminary, lol.

I think it’s that, frankly, people are shaped by their experiences. Baron Blade is Baron Blade because of his backstory, because his father died in battle with Legacy, because he single-handedly seized control of Mordengrad and forged into into a technological powerhouse, and because of his eternal burning desire for vengeance against the Legacy line.

Him and Ivana have the same genes, parents, and — almost — names, but they’re very different people. They have roughly the same origins, but their differing life experiences made them into different characters. Their only similarities are being technological geniuses, rulers of Mordengrad, and enemies of Legacy — but beyond that, I think their personalities are rather distinct.

I don’t think the genderbending thing is the main source of difference, although it could be a contributing factor. I can definitely imagine a Baroness Blade that is much closer to Universe 1 Blade than to Princess Luminary, and has the same dynamics with a female Paul that our Blade has with our Legacy.

I’m in agreement that the backstories involved likely matter way more than the gender swap.

IIRC our other genderbends are Flashbulb and Ermine who don’t sound much alike from the former’s brief sketch, Argent and the Ashen Heir who are only vaguely alike, and Haka and Arataki who are probably the best comparison in that Arataki has a higher ratio of boisterous bruiser to wise mentor so far but otherwise doesn’t seem dramatically different from our Haka (they even seem to share a thing for redheads *amusedcough*).

I think of her as just Luminary. The real one, as I see it. Blade was just a imitation.

That’s what of the odd things that comes with viewing all of these characters through the lens of the card game, as opposed to the lens of comic books. Heroic Luminary was a Disparation character (I don’t think even a very big one?). Baron Blade was one of the most central characters in all of Sentinels, who had a whole book in which he became Luminary (and played an extremely pivotal role as Luminary).

She was the protagonist of the very first Inversiverse story and had at least one prominent story after that one (I’m not sure to what extent she would have featured in the era where the Inversiverse had a regular slot as backup stories in the title). While a Disparation character, she was a noteworthy one.

That being said, she was the only Luminary from April '88 through when Ivan walked through the door of Freedom Tower in January 2016. His use of the name would have been a reference for readers in-the-know. Sure, he’s the important character that everybody knows rather than just Disparation fans and so probably supplanted her overall in popular consciousness, but you probably got a lot of people in the Metaverse well-actually-ing whenever somebody tried to put a qualifier like “Heroic” or “Princess” on her.

My guess? She’ll be Inversiverse Luminary since we already have precedent.

My understanding is even a noteworthy Disparation character is still a lesser known/smaller character within the Sentinels world, is that off-base? Exceptions, of course, are the Disparation characters who manage to make it into main-line stories.

Oh, definitely. My point was mainly addressing the “I don’t think even a very big one?” in that as far as Disparation characters (that aren’t crossovers into the main continuity) go, she is a big one. That’s all relative, of course.

I mean, the Inversiverse is probably the single most-explored alternate reality because of its time featured in every issue of Disparation (from vol. 2 #75 through #122) in addition to main-focus issues. It’s just that because it isn’t a specific crossover reality like Iron Legacy’s how big it can get is constrained.

Not terribly surprising really, as any media franchise with a Mirror Universe is probably going to have it be a well the fans and writers keep wanting to dip into. There’s just something inherently fascinating about it.

(This makes me realize that I don’t think Marvel actually has one, though. It certainly has universes that have scattered reversed elements, but no real “everything is reversed” universe.)

Yeah, I think it’s safe to say that the Inversiverse is the biggest alternate universe, Ivana’s the biggest character within it, and that she’s probably the biggest alternate reality character who hasn’t had any major interactions with Universe 1. (So, she’s right after Iron Legacy, Miss Information, the Visionary, Dark Visionary, and KNYFE.)

The Inversiverse also has genderbent Fright Train.

We don’t have any art of her. So I’m imagining Michelle Rodriguez in Honor Among Thieves with another two feet of height.

Presumably with a cowcatcher mask, of course.

You know, you’d think I’d have remembered Express after remembering Flashbulb and all. Maybe I just need to join Wombat in the “obsessed with pretty boys” corner. (I wasn’t even a fan of pretty boys much before Sentinels, what did Adam wrought.)

And I want art of all the Inversiverse peeps, you don’t even know. We need an Inversitober one of these years to go with Swaptober and Sentinels of the Night, lol.

There’s lots of [theme]-tobers that would be cool to have, but for some reason Adam prefers to spend his time doing arts for games that make money.

I know, the nerve, right?

Not that I would be adverse to paying him, it worked for getting Mangaverse Anthony and Hippo after all.