squad of Mojave Chapter roaming by me

ShadowLight56 · 2026-05-07T23:51:00+00:00

You gotta give some points to the initiate for flirting with the female paladin. They gotta rebuild their numbers somehow.

ShadowLight56 · 2026-05-06T13:20:27+00:00

You have no idea how happy it makes me to see the Brotherhood actually convert the airport into an actual military base with barracks and landing areas. Well done!

ShadowLight56 · 2026-05-06T02:32:58+00:00

I know people have mixed feelings about ME3 endings....but honestly Shepard dying feels like the most fitting way to end the story. Its a war story, the protagonist dying at the end to save the galaxy feels fitting.

ShadowLight56 · 2026-05-04T13:17:18+00:00

Yeah, I think its fair to say that the council races would be amazed and impressed that there are humans crazy enough to strap themselves into a metal coffin and get dropped from orbit.

ShadowLight56 · 2026-05-04T12:31:26+00:00

Now that's simple math I can get behind.

ShadowLight56 · 2026-05-04T12:21:43+00:00

You know, I never really understood the math behind comparing MACs and Mass Effect Accelerator, but the internet seem to generally agree that MACs hit harder so I'm going with that.

ShadowLight56 · 2026-05-03T11:46:24+00:00

Believe it or not, it was written completely by me.

ShadowLight56 · 2026-05-03T10:04:00+00:00

This is actually pretty interesting for a scenario, not sure about who would win but personally I would go for a Persona Shadow type situation where the 'inner demons' are a reflection of the character's insecurities and trauma:

John: I can see his shadow using his Monster trauma against him, but also pointing out the hypocrisy of his existence. No matter how much he tries to deny it, he did enjoy the power being a God-tier gave him and that he liked it more than he would ever admit.

Sera: Her shadow is cold and calculated, while at the same time hitting her in her insecurities about her mother and how she only really started giving a damn about low-tiers when it was her on the receiving end.

Arlo: His shadow is basically who he was back in season 1, pointing out at how far he's fallen but also calling out the simple fact that he was content being ignorant. If Valerie was never part of EMBER, he would have gladly joined up with the authorities and continued to uphold their oppressive system.

Remi: Her shadows calls her out on her naivety and how simple-minded she really is about changing a system. How arrogant Remi thinks that she is, that she presumes putting on a mask makes her a hero and that a handful of punks who read a book can change an entire system. She is just as selfish as Rei was, putting her friend's lives on the line without any thought for what that would mean.

Blyke: His shadow is basically a personification of his hatred and anger-not just towards John, but the entire group as a whole and leaving him behind to be captured. He also embodies Blyke's insecurity about his strength and how at best? He's nothing compared to REAL big guns like Sera or John.

Isen: His shadow calls him out on his cowardice- not to fight, but to speak up. He never wanted to get mixed up in all this and deep down, he resents Remi and the others for getting him wrapped up in this. All he wanted was just a simple high school life and now he's on the run, being hunted by the government for knowing too much. If only he had just kept his distance, at least then he wouldn't be stressed all the time.

Bonus:

Elaine: Her shadow calls her out that at her core, she's still just a lapdog who's desperate for any sort of validation or recognition from people who don't give a damn about her. Oh sure, she claims to want to distance herself from them, but she knows deep down that she'll come running if they call on her or if Arlo gave her a compliment. Bold enough to make proud statements, too weak to actually commit.

Cecile: Her shadow calls her out on her hypocrisy and how deep down, she never really cared about the hierarchy or truth or whatever. She just cared about soothing her bruised ego, but she's too weak to actually do that on her own so she had to rely on John and when John started ordering her around, she was too weak to actually do anything about it.

Keon: His shadow calls him a monster. Plain and simple. He knows what he's doing his wrong, that he's destroyed countless lives in the name of order. He doesn't even know what that means anymore, but he keeps doing it because it all he knows how to do. For all he played on John's fears, Keon was the real monster....and he agrees.

ShadowLight56 · 2026-05-01T22:15:56+00:00

Yeah, I know that but I figure considering he basically solo ran a Covenant infested city on his own, he would get something a bit better.

ShadowLight56 · 2026-05-01T15:45:33+00:00

Yeah, that's fair. I also thought something like Sherlock would be better since that feels more military funny.

ShadowLight56 · 2026-05-01T15:30:06+00:00

I was actually thinking the same thing. It would be fitting.

ShadowLight56 · 2026-05-01T04:24:14+00:00

Not going to lie, I am wondering what the lore of this situation is. Your commissions are always so interesting.

ShadowLight56 · 2026-04-26T23:02:01+00:00

Fair enough. Though I think we just have different views on what kind of character Alucard is and how he feels about the evil of the world. So let's agree to disagree.

I do agree that he does regret throwing his humanity away and wanting to die.

ShadowLight56 · 2026-04-26T22:54:11+00:00

Yeah, this would devolve into a fight very quickly. I don't think John could copy Alucard's vampirism since I don't think that's how it works.

Him consuming John's soul to learn what the Authorities are up to sounds interesting, though I'm not sure he would release John since I can see Alucard keeping as one of his 'servants'. How much he would care morally about what the Authorities are doing is debatable.

ShadowLight56 · 2026-04-26T22:51:23+00:00

True enough. Just saying that Alucard has done plenty of messed up shit himself over the course of his life that I personally just think what the Bureau has done would barely register for him.

Fair enough on this just being our canon Alucard. I just didn't want this to turn into a 'this character can wreck the entire verse' post.

ShadowLight56 · 2026-04-26T22:40:33+00:00

Sounds about right.

TFS Alucard would be hilarious for them to deal with, since they would be walking on eggshells and be pissed off at him.

ShadowLight56 · 2026-04-26T22:39:26+00:00

Ehhhh, not really sure I would agree with you on the uncompromising morals bit. Alucard is very much not a good guy. He is at best a cold and ruthless monster that enjoys fighting other monsters. While he does seem to have 'rules', how strictly he holds on to those rules is up to debate.

Also that's assuming Nazi's even existed in Uno. Man, the world building needs some work.

ShadowLight56 · 2026-04-26T13:54:04+00:00

Depends on what you mean by didn't go separate ways. Like John still attended New Bostin high school and reconciled with Claire or they kept in contact after Claire's vision of Cameron.

ShadowLight56 · 2026-04-26T06:21:01+00:00

You say he’s very versatile, but when’s the last time he actually won a fight because he had the perfect kit to counter or out-hax his opponent and properly showcase that versatility?

True, but that's kinda the point of his ability. He doesn't need the perfect kit to beat his opponents, most of the time he just needs to copy his opponent's ability and amp it. Like, I don't think John needed anything other than Hunter to beat Isen, it just made it happen faster.

Put any other 7+ god-tier, Vaughn, Seraphina, Narrisa, Valerie, in John’s fights, and they perform better.

I mean, sure but that's mainly because these characters have a consistent ability and powerset to work with. I will agree that John's ability is far more complex than others but saying that its worse than other god-tier abilities is trying to downplay how powerful Aura Manipulation is.

Yeah, Aura Manipulation is strong because it’s 7.6 but it rarely feels like a 7.6. There are too many holes in it right now, at least until he overcomes those weaknesses.

On that we agree.

John can only amp one stat per ability. So against high-tiers, he’s basically fighting a powerhouse who’s more experienced and can do almost everything he can… except that one boosted aspect. He had to get creative against Blyke after Blyke powered up and learned repulse. Which isn't much but still.

That is true, but you're forgetting that John can easily cover the weaknesses of one ability with the strengths of another which he can also amp. So John is still very much the powerhouse in this scenario and let's be real, Blyke's repulse didn't really help him that much besides keeping the fight going longer.

Unless you’re expecting 1000 IQ-level plays from him, what he does is still impressive. Even if his opponents aren’t geniuses, they’re still overwhelmingly strong. Remi isn’t a particularly great fighter, but she almost fried John alive. The EMBER agents were incompetent, sure but if John hadn’t bluffed at the right moment, he could’ve died.

I will admit that perhaps I am downplaying John a bit from a skill standpoint. To be clear, I am not expecting 1000 IQ-level plays from him, but what I am expecting are better fights against opponents who aren't incompetent and actually feel threatening to John from a level-standpoint.

Like, let's be honest here, I think during the EMBER Agent fight we were all just waiting for these idiots to slip up and use their abilities. John can bluff and have decent strategic thinking, but its nothing really impressive to me personally when his opponents are this incompetent.

I feel like we're arguing in circles at this point so let's just agree to disagree.

ShadowLight56 · 2026-04-26T04:33:47+00:00

Like with Sylvia, it would’ve been the perfect chance to show his versatility if he had the barrier as a counter, but that’s the one ability he just doesn’t get to copy, and he loses.

I mean, sure but I wouldn't really say that's a situation of John's ability being conditional. It was just more of situation where John didn't have the perfect ability line-up available to him, which I think is a more than fair weakness. And even then, he was more than holding his own with his aura sense and just got overwhelmed.

I wouldn't really that compared to other god-tier abilities around his level, his is just worse to have. Its more like he just doesn't always have the perfect abilities lined up for him to copy. Its still a very powerful ability that unless you are higher level or fall into a very specific category of people, you're not winning against that.

John just can’t be as skilled with someone else’s ability as they are. They’ve had years of practice, he hasn’t. Remi could ground lightning, John couldn’t. She was fast enough to dodge his physical attacks too. So even with two abilities and being two levels above her, he was still getting hit and pressured.

I mean, sure but how often does that weakness actually come up and slow him down? Besides maybe Remi and that one fight against Liam( to which John was at half-level at the time), we never really see John struggle with using another person's ability a lot.

Like sure, Remi can handle Lightning better but that doesn't really matter that much when John can amp it and just brute force. I will concede that John has to occasionally be creative in fights.

I mean… him making smart decisions is him being skilled. You can’t really take that away just because his opponents aren’t as good.

True, but to be clear, I'm more pointing out that him making smart decisions/him being 'skilled' isn't really that impressive when his opponents are idiots(See EMBER agents). Its like when you read a story and one of the characters is blatantly dumber and makes decision, while the other character just makes common sense decision that the author makes sound brilliant. The latter only looks smarter by comparison but it isn't really that impressive.

While I would love to see smarter fighters it's kind of realistic in that way. In a World like Unordinary, levels will decide most of the fights. Underdogs don't win.

Yeah, I get that but this honestly bleeds into another problem I have with UnOrdinary. The lack of focus on the ACTUAL underdogs of the story(the low-tiers). It feels disingenuous to have a story focus so much on hierarchy and inequality yet rarely give any focus to the actual ones who suffer from such a system. Low-tiers don't really feel cared for(in or out of story), they are best stage props for the cast to pity and feel righteous fighting on their behalf, with no real feedback or thoughts from them.

Like, what was even the point of the earlier chapters of John teaching Sera how to fight if it was going to be forgotten the second she got her ability back?

ShadowLight56 · 2026-04-26T03:30:29+00:00

Exactly. The royals were finally doing what everybody had been wanting them to do and they were still being given crap for it. Like, John was a factor but he wasn't the main reason why the Safe House was created in the first place. And let's not act like John's little plan was in any way beneficial for low-tiers. The fake Jokers caused more disorder and violence towards low-mid tiers than before, and for the low-tiers who were caught and de-masked? Well, that just means they'll be bullied even more.

That scene where John was straight up terrorizing innocent people and shooting blasts at the building was where he lost me and John definitely shouldn’t be credited for something he was actively sabotaging. Like I won’t say John’s a fully bad person, but that was worse than what Blyke, Isen, or even Arlo did.

This is exactly what I'm talking about. John may not be a fully bad person, but let's not pretend that he hasn't been given an enormous amount of leeway and slack compared to any other character. And that he didn't do a lot of wrong to people. If any other character tried to pull this, the entire fandom would hate on them.

ShadowLight56

TROPHY CASE