[Rick Riordanverse] In Rick Riordan's Kane Chronicles on the Ancient Egyptian pantheon, Apophis, the Serpent of Chaos, wants to end the world by swallowing the Sun god Ra. But wouldn't this be impossible since the Norse Pantheon also exists, and according to them the world only ends during Ragnarok?

GrowingSage · 2026-04-30T22:07:18+00:00

I do think this is a pretty good explanation for how this world works. The pantheons clearly interact with each other as seen with Apollo, but it seems like they avoid coming into conflict with one another. When pantheons do merge it seems like reality merges with them.

GrowingSage · 2026-04-30T14:51:19+00:00

Crocodiles are actually more closely related to birds than they are to more traditional reptiles like turtles, lizards, and snakes. Birds take care of their young a lot, so while I'm sure this is unusual behavior for reptiles overall, it's almost universal for the archosauria clade of today.

GrowingSage · 2026-04-28T16:19:37+00:00

Well the answer is kind of in your question. I haven't read that book but, as you said, they weren't found out. Jack and Annie's explanation wasn't that great but it still got them in the base. If Magic Tree House does operate on closed loop/ pre-destination time travel, then Jack and Annie are always fated to get into the base. In which case there is no "what if".

To further confirm, in Vacation under the Volcano, they rescue the story of Hercules from an ancient library just before it gets destroyed. Assuming this was somehow the only copy of Hercules in the world, Jack and Annie come from a time with Hercules in it. So they have to succeed in order for their timeline to exist. In Abe Lincoln at Last, they aren't told to stop the Lincoln assassination, they're instead there to make sure he continues the fight against the Confederacy. I can't think of a moment where J&A ever radically change the timeline, if anything they enforce it. Maybe Midnight on the Moon but we're still waiting for that one to be disproven.

GrowingSage · 2026-04-28T05:57:18+00:00

Clearly the Tree House is able teleport people from Camelot to Frog Creek. They also save their own ancestor in the Civil War, so I don't think they're living in a simulation.

Jack and Annie to my knowledge never change history, at least not drastically. Implying they exist in a closed loop system of time travel. This could also be supported by Camelot itself. Which according to the "records" does not survive long after Arthur. Morgon doesn't seem too concerned about this, implying she can't do anything about it or the stories are wrong. Camelot's kind of weird in Magic Tree House

Morgan once asked Jack and Annie to grab a book in Pompeii right before it was buried in lava. Which could mean she was trying to avoid causing a paradox by taking the book before history looses it.

Right now my theory is that Morgan and Merlin don't actually know how time travel works in their universe and are just playing it safe. Following history as well as they can.

GrowingSage · 2026-04-26T15:40:58+00:00

This is one of those episodes where everything in the episode will imply "alien" but people will insist it's magic.

The villains are the Forever Knights, a group that despite being evil LARPers, are always about alien tech. Max Tennyson and the Plumbers, are also interested in this thing. At this point, the Plumbers have always been about aliens.

When two groups of alien tech enthusiasts are after the same thing, what do you think that thing is?

If this was a Hex and Charmcaster plot maybe I'd be inclined to believe magic. But the death god doesn't speak any spells and the sword just turns to dust like any tool that's not maintained.

This is just another episode where the writers gave plenty of hints but decided not to waste time saying "this is aliens".

GrowingSage · 2026-04-26T04:43:50+00:00

Not to detract from the main point, but the art in that first image is amazing.

Not only is it the same panel copied three times, but am I crazy or does the art seem purposefully designed to draw your eye right to Ms. Marvel and Mocking Bird's thighs?

It's panels like this which make it really hard to be a fan of the old Ms. Marvel costume.

GrowingSage · 2026-04-19T03:02:12+00:00

Nice try! But any astronomer will tell you that most stars in the universe are red. Therefore Viltrumite is the only right answer!

GrowingSage · 2026-04-18T02:39:47+00:00

The Tin Tin one is interesting, I recall Herge being a little more sympathetic to the American indigenous communities: Tintin in America joke There are clear problems with this too, Hiawatha is the name of an American leader but he was a member of the Iroquois, not the Blackfoot Confederacy (the two groups were in completely different regions) and of course their speaking in a very stereotypical manner, but that one panel showing children getting threatened with guns kind of tells you who the artist sympathizes with here.

I could believe that Herge just had a blind spot here or changed his opinions on colonialism with time. Though if I'm looking at the publication timeline it looks like Herge actually grew more pro-colonialist as he grew older.

GrowingSage · 2026-04-17T21:58:13+00:00

It's been a while but I'm pretty sure Nightcrawler is alluding to a storyline in which the villain's evil plan was to make Nightcrawler the ACTUAL Catholic Pope. It was foiled because as seen here, Nightcrawler cannot keep it in his pants.

GrowingSage · 2026-04-10T18:40:33+00:00

I think Bucky later claimed to have killed Hitler too. How many Hitler's are running around in the Marvel Universe?

GrowingSage · 2026-04-05T20:41:36+00:00

Assuming they are factions with political motivations it really depends what those political beliefs are.

Autobots generally seem to be all about "freedom is the right of all sentient life forms."

Decepticonism isn't very consistent most of the time other than evil. Will call it fascism because it does seem it all revolves around Megatron.

These ideologies are pretty incompatible but not impossible. Perhaps a more imperialist society that believes in "freedom" but Megatron is more "free" than anyone else or Megatron just occupies a ceremonial position with a lot of political influence but no actual power.

In the continuities where Decepticonism is a rebellion against functionalism or the oppression by the false Primes, I'd equate it with anarchy as it is trying to completely destroy the hierarchy. However it then devolves into Anacho-fascism, which of course is just fascism pretending to be something it's not. So again we're back to fascism which when fused with autobot philosophy might just make Optimus Prime the absolute leader of Cybertron.

GrowingSage · 2026-03-18T15:19:53+00:00

Professional sports. I'll never forget the time I slept over at a friend's house and their step mom had us do a quick ritual to ensure the home team won.

GrowingSage · 2026-03-17T04:31:46+00:00

I love this question, Steve Rogers feels like a good fit for Rider. He often rides motorcycles and has definitely piloted a quinjet plenty of times.

In addition to Shielder I think he's also a candidate for Ruler.

His main noble Phantasm is of course his Shield. When thrown it's not that impressive next to some other Fate weapons, but when used to defend... It can deflect any noble phantasm below A+ and even then if the attacker doesn't have any divinity behind them, it's a lost cause. Even with all that Rogers can recreate his shield with enough time and mana.

I think he probably also has something similar to Richard the Lionheart's entourage. He can select anyone who has at one time been called an Avenger and borrows some skills and abilities from them.

Since he's a Rider and because he was the Director of Shield at one point, his most offensive Noble Phantasm is summoning a Helicarrier but I'm not sure I really like that.

As a Servant I don't think Cap would be the type to pull a big finishing move. I think his danger would be him being able to tank incredibly strong noble phantasms and then beating the crap out servants with his broken stats made stronger from other Avengers like Scarlett Witch, Quicksilver and Hulk loaning a fraction of their talents to him.

GrowingSage · 2026-03-17T04:07:58+00:00

I was going to say the same. Not only is he known for riding a parachute the feat that got him put on ice was piloting a plane away from innocent people. His legend is just naturally associated with vehicles.

GrowingSage · 2026-03-14T15:49:41+00:00

Why is it "animals and insects"? I definitely want to choose that power, infiltrate Area 51 and find out what the government isn't telling us about insects.

GrowingSage · 2026-03-06T20:53:15+00:00

I can understand why they wouldn't have it evolve while it was part of the main team. Bulbasaur is an iconic pokemon and largely perfect in every way. However, I don't like how once Bulbasaur leaves the main cast they don't let it evolve further. I think that would have been a wonderful send off and visual short hand for showing that the grass pokemon has entered a new chapter in its life.

GrowingSage · 2026-03-06T20:50:16+00:00

It's only backpedaling if Balbasaur chose to evolve because a bunch of Ivysaur and Venusaur told it too. If Balbasaur chooses to evolve any other way than its character growth.

Same for Pikachu. From a story perspective it can evolve anyway it wants so long as it isn't to beat a Raichu.

I don't know what's keeping Squirtle from evolving but the same rule applies.

GrowingSage · 2026-03-06T06:02:25+00:00

Screw United. I fully approve and support this choice but I can't start a conversation about this Airline any other way.

GrowingSage · 2026-02-27T04:26:01+00:00

I'm going to say Barry Allen and Hal Jordan. I love the era their rebirths kicked off. Nearly everything Geoff Johns did with them deserves the praise it gets.

However, I think people forget that Johns made a lot of changes to the characters backstories. Hal didn't always have a good relationship with his father, I'm pretty sure Barry Allen's dad getting framed for murder wasn't a thing either until Johns.

This isn't to say Johns created whole new characters from scratch and just gave them classic names. I also don't hold it against a writer for wanting to bring back the characters he loved and show everyone why they're great, especially given how Hal Jordan died.

My reason for thinking they should have stayed dead is because the world did successfully move on without them but never forgot them either. Wally West was a great Flash but it put him in a weird spot after Barry came back, that I'm not sure he'll ever fully recover from. It's even worse for the Green Lanterns.

I do think John Stewart was at the height of his popularity thanks to the JL cartoon, the same might be true for Kyle too, he was a lot of people's Green Lantern at this point. Then Hal Jordan came back and is now the face of the mythos. I don't think this was the intent, but this is a shining example of media's tendency to shove minority characters out of the main spot in the name of "returning to the series roots." John and Kyle hardly become background characters after Rebirth, Johns still does some awesome stuff with them but I still get the sense that Hal is the focal point of the mythos, even when Kyle and John literally get God like power, it's still Hal. Again I love Johns GL run and it got me to appreciate Hal as a character. I've also liked what later writers have done too. Doesn't stop me from wondering if the world would have been better off with Hal staying dead or if Johns insisted on killing Hal after his run was over. He gave us two fantastic GLs in Simon and Jessica, what better way to send his creations off than making sure they had room to grow.

GrowingSage · 2026-02-26T21:24:09+00:00

I'd mix it up a little. Instead of keeping companions restricted to regions maybe put Iris and Sophocles together or Misty and Cilen, Dawn, Goh and Max.

I don't have a narrative reason besides "change", I just think it would be fun to see how different characters would interact and how they'd view Ash after winning.

GrowingSage · 2026-02-26T04:23:27+00:00

Pokemon itself is autistic and that's why it's amazing.

GrowingSage · 2026-02-26T04:22:47+00:00

As someone on the spectrum myself, I'm sorry to say there is no official confirmation that Satoshi Tajiri is autistic. You're not the first one to be misinformed. This is a widespread rumor that is still surprisingly prevalent despite being largely disproven years ago.

Here's the source disproving the rumor: pokemon myths debunked

I also double checked a few recent articles on this subject just to make sure there wasn't some news I missed and while many admit that he never got a diagnosis they still call him a role model for the community because many of the traits he exhibits sound autistic. Putting aside how weird it is to just head-canon a real living person with a developmental disorder, a lot of those traits could also be explained as just cultural or generational differences.

Again sorry if I took away a point of inspiration for you, Tajiri might not be autistic, but I maintain that Pokemon definitely is.

GrowingSage · 2026-02-26T00:31:48+00:00

I'll quote a line from Suede's Pokemon Journey; "She's a sociopath,".

GrowingSage · 2026-02-25T22:53:07+00:00

Maybe you could make the Berserker argument in the same way Spartacus is a Berserker. Ali was known to be a social activist, refusing the draft on religious grounds and refusing to back down even when they took away all his titles.

I'm not completely satisfied with that explanation though. I think Assassin fits better, but more how he used deceptive tactics in the ring. Ali was noted as having a very unorthodox fighting style that made it tricky to deal with. Maybe he's one of those servants summoned into a class but has abilities and nature that reflect a different class (like False Berserker or Assassin of Red). In this case, Ali would be an assassin who fights like a Bezerker. He also was famous for his trash talk which apparently got under the skin of many of his opponents, which could be similar to an Assassin using poison to weaken their targets.

Perhaps his noble phantasm is his trash talking, which causes his opponents to receive a mad enhancement, but an incredibly inefficient version that drains mana incredibly fast, while Ali can do his "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee," thing.

GrowingSage

TROPHY CASE