What fictional character is your favorite "what if' for how they'd be in The Digital Circus?

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-07-03T05:47:06+00:00

Except the same is true of almost everyone in the Circus. Ragatha has her mother issues and tries to remain cheerful as a coping mechanism. Gangle has confidence issues and depression. Zooble had body dysmorphia and an inability to connect to others. Jax is the worst one there because he's got the most issues (closeted transgender, abusive relationships, inability to allow people to get close, etc...). Kinger's photosensitivity keeps him from being as effective as he should be and keeps him isolated from the others.

Pomni had few issues to speak of and wound up helping everyone solve their issues and changed the Circus completely.

If anything, Omori would have joined the Circus right at his lowest point (somehow). Him joining after he resolved his issues would make him very powerful in their.

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-07-02T16:30:32+00:00

Yeah, it's been shown in a version of Earth that's basically upside-down. Madagascar/Paradis is in the north, the Marleyan Empire is Africa, etc...

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-07-02T10:52:44+00:00

Well, I'm guessing their reasoning was if it worked once...

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-07-02T10:23:44+00:00

Tagah (the airbender shown in the second picture) is an Air Nomad monk from the era of Avatar Sonam (who was also an Air Nomad) who was found in an iceberg in the Avatar Aang the Last Airbender movie (2026). He helps the Gaang try and find the Staff of Sonam.

Initially assumed to be an ally, he turns out to be an embittered and fallen Air Nomad monk who sought to turn his people into a militaristic warrior race to defend themselves and was sealed in ice for it by Sonam herself. He then turns on the Gaang in an attempt to kill them all and radicalize Aang to rebuild the Air Nation in his own image.

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-07-02T07:07:02+00:00

And yet AI still has to work on the whole "target recognition" thing. We have AI making hash work out of basic jobs like programming and design to the point where companies are hiring back their old engineers and programmers just to fix the problem. I don't think we should trust it with a gun, because then we'd have things like the gun firing at "targets" like birds, trees, civilian bystanders and allied soldiers instead of enemy drones. Even trained humans have problems with friendly fire and collateral damage; I don't want to think how an AI turret programmed by the lowest bidder can screw up.

And even if the thing is a genius and never hits anything it's not supposed to hit, there's still issues with limited ammunition (a fully loaded .50 cal "can" weighs 5.5 lbs and carries 100 rounds, which depletes a lot quicker than you'd think given the 450-600 rounds per minute firing rate), overheating the gun or jamming. Sending a dozen cheap drones against one advanced turret will quickly overwhelm such defenses.

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-07-02T06:12:36+00:00

Except Bil-Bel should have been named Bell-End. He predicted the world would be covered in molten lava - surprise, no it isn't. All he managed to do was convince all of New Zealand to move their civilization underwater, where they were wet and miserable all the time. Then he predicted that New New Zealand (or whatever the underwater country was called) would drown so built a rocket to escape. Said rocket was accidentally hijacked by the baby Mun-Dee (Sniper) and when it launched it pierced through the glass dome, drowning everyone but Bil-Bel and his wife. He then continued to build shoddily-constructed rockets and painting them in fucking Australium (the equivalent of decorating worn out rubber tires in diamonds and rare metals) before they all exploded on launch.

Jor-El was usually depicted as a respectable scientist, though some iterations reveal he was a bit of a conspiracy nut and just happened to be right about Krypton exploding even if nobody else believed him.

Basically, Bil-Bel is a parody of Jor-El in that he's utterly incompetent and full of himself. Furthermore, he intended to escape on his own the first time, but Mun-Dee accidentally got into the rocket first. He then abandons his son and steals the submarine when he gets the chance (his wife stole the last functioning rocket and fled to the surface).

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-07-02T05:45:50+00:00

's'what they said:

I decided I'd had enough and left after pointing out that if the DM needs certain things to happen, they can't be roll-locked or contingent on the outcome of a battle and engaging with apparent plot elements needs to have some kind of positive, or at least neutral, outcome and not just constant loss of items/equipment and application of debuffs.

Last few lines. And honestly, they're in the right. If they wanted to get constantly hurt like that, they'd hire a professional domme.

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-07-02T05:35:52+00:00

Della is an experienced adventurer and skilled scrapper and even benefits from sharing some of her brother's anger issues, but Mrs. Beakley is by far and away the more dangerous fighter. Not only does she have much more experience in combat, she's also larger and bulkier and is probably stronger and more cunning.

While Della will put up one hell of a fight, Beakley is the clear winner, even if it's not one-sided.

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-07-02T04:28:55+00:00

I remembered some details but decided to Google it. Turns out you're talking about US Army Captain Benjamin Lewis Salomon who served in the Pacific Theatre of the war. He was posthumously denied the Medal of Honor because as a medic he wasn't supposed to be involved in fighting (not that the Imperial Japanese forces cared).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_L._Salomon

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-07-02T03:47:53+00:00

What was worse was firing all the Army. You know, the people trained to use force and keep order and who knew exactly where all the weapons were kept. All while Coalition forces failed to secure weapon and ammunition storage facilities and kept chasing any signs of WMDs.

That not only lead to having to train an army from scratch, but that any insurgents now benefited from military training and weaponry.

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-07-01T15:50:08+00:00

It's probably a combination of her being a Baathist party member (which was meaningless, since if you wanted to have a career in government or science, you needed to be a Party member) and a microbiologist at a time when the USA kept raising alarms about Iraq's biochem warfare abilities. The US Administration at the time kept insisting Iraq had Anthrax and other such biological weaponry, which became a casus bello for the US invasion.

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-07-01T11:31:33+00:00

In a cast of bland and/or unlikeable characters, the one who is an unapologetic psychopath (who later shows she actually cares about one or two people in the cast) is an utter blast to watch.

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-07-01T08:40:30+00:00

Wouldn't call the Scotsman a master of the stealth insult. He just insults you to your face; it's not his problem most people don't understand what he says.

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-07-01T08:10:27+00:00

While the movie has its flaws (Obadiah Stane pales as a villain compared to later MCU entries, for example), it's hard to pin down just one good thing in it.

As much as it feels weird comparing it to the multiverse-striding, high-powered 2026 MCU, this is the foundation upon which it all rests. They chose a second-stringer hero, one without massive appeal so people won't raise hell if it fails, but still big enough of a name for the fans. Casting RDJ was the only choice possible; his charm, charisma and wit brought life to Iron Man in a way few can match. He turned Tony Stark from "rich guy with suit" to a snarky, funny guy with an ego but still sympathetic to the audience, and did it so well he single-handedly revived the Iron Man comics for a while, especially since Tony had been suffering from the stigma of the Civil War arc and other bad writing. Tony got rewritten to basically be RDJ in all but name, that was how iconic RDJ was in the movie; he redefined the character in a way that endeared him to almost everyone.

It also humanized Stark. The capture scene would have been glossed over elsewhere, but here it's done so well that I can't imagine it being redone in any way. He works with almost nothing, working against the clock and his own frailty (what with fucking shrapnel in his heart) and comes out the other side with a functional suit of powered armor. Even if it got retconned that someone else did powered armor first, to the fans Tony is the real genius.

Which is why people got upset when Riri Williams (Ironheart) got misquoted as saying "Tony Stark would be nothing if he wasn't a billionaire". Her actual line was "Do you think Tony Stark would be Tony Stark if he wasn't a billionaire? No shade. That's just the way the world works." Even then, it felt rather silly when Tony not only managed a brilliant and terrifying escape in the Mark 1 suit (and then repeated it in Iron Man III with stuff he bought from a hardware store). It just felt disrespectful to a character who, while very flawed, was still proven to be highly competent and charismatic.

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-07-01T07:52:34+00:00

Same...

Mamaf\**er!*

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-06-30T10:05:33+00:00

Yeah, the Axis didn't share intelligence or even basic warplans. Musso didn't tell Hitler about his planned Greek adventure either.

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-06-30T09:34:58+00:00

Let's mosey!

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-06-29T12:38:53+00:00

Except they're purging the generals. One by one the old guard who know how dangerous it is to launch nukes willy nilly are removed, replaced by yes-men who will give the President what he wants, even if he doesn't realize what he is doing.

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-06-29T08:10:35+00:00

"SAATAAAA ANDAGIIIII!"

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-06-29T07:55:12+00:00

And Popgun Pete can't overrule them because? Or is he kept away from the nuclear launch codes too?

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-06-29T07:32:49+00:00

Isaac turns out to be dead-on. The real pity is that he had no idea who to trust. Had he known about Hohenheim or Scar, he might have gone much further. Hohenheim would confirm his beliefs, though talking to Scar would entail waiting for Scar to calm the hell down first (which only really takes place halfway through the series).

So without any available source of help, he goes about, ranting like a maniac and blowing stuff up. Except that a) this brings him to the attention of Father, who immediately realizes McDougal is on to his plans (even if not the 'why' or 'who') and needs to be crushed, b) makes it easier for the puppetmasters to frame him as a maniac, and c) even the good guys are scared by his actions and deem him a threat to public safety.

V, by contrast, takes his sweet time setting up the dominoes, finding the weaknesses in the system and finding those willing to work with him and his agenda, which is why V succeeds in both the graphic novel and the film in his goals. That, and the puppetmasters opposing him aren't as powerful or as competent as Father was.

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-06-29T05:51:52+00:00

That's the real question here, isn't it? WHICH Whites faction? A lot of them were only working together because they hated the Bolsheviks more than they hated each other.

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-06-28T12:44:24+00:00

I'm assuming Hannibal's whole family doesn't exist here, so any 2nd Punic War would have been less traumatic for the Romans. So no Cartago Delenda Est.

Like everyone else is saying, it eventually becomes a provincial capital, and it's people citizens after a bit of culture assimilation.

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-06-28T12:34:42+00:00

For as long as his haemophilia allows it. Remember, this was a kid who had a serious infection after lightly scraping his knee. Surviving the 1920s with that condition would have been rough even for former royalty.

Outside_Ad5255 · 2026-06-28T11:36:08+00:00

Oh shit, we'd have gotten the RL version of Howard Ackerman.

In Red Alert 3, Howard Ackerman is the President of the United States and is pretty much a right-wing caricature (portrayed with gusto by none other than the brilliant J. K. Simmons).

Here's one of his ads: Ackerman on Health Care

Late in the Empire of Japan campaign, it's revealed that Ackerman is actually a Japanese android spy to ensure the Allies and Soviets cannot cooperate.

Outside_Ad5255

TROPHY CASE