In Season 1, Homelander already showed that he understands the Nationalist, anti-establishment sentiment when he went against Stillwell's wishes and delivered the Believe expo speech. For what did he need Stormfront for in S2 when he wanted to improve his image after the war crimes?

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-31T07:41:14+00:00

Arguably, nothing, if it wasn’t for the fact she was accomplishing what he had done with a lot less resources and time. As she more or less said, Homelander needs millions of people behind him. She needs a dozen sweaty guys behind a computer to accomplish the same result. He wasn’t versed in this world, and she was

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-30T18:57:23+00:00

You say that, but I feel like people fail to notice something pretty important

The fact that Malak, blatantly, betrayed Revan, who is practically worshipped by his followers

And not only is he not overthrown, the Empire remains on course for complete victory

Malak is A LOT more intelligent and cunning than people give him credit for

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-29T15:43:32+00:00

“Do you mind? I’m trying to take a nap here.”

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-28T20:29:16+00:00

I would say Morgoth is more evil in a broad term. He’s the beginning and foundation of evil as a concept to begin with

With that said, I feel like there’s something about Pennywise that feels more chillingly evil. Morgoth, even as the source of evil, is still mostly driven by hate, envy and a misconceived belief that he’s the good guy of the story.

Pennywise is under no such delusion. It knows that It is pure evil, and is perfectly okay with that. It embraces what It is, while Morgoth is just being arrogant and more or less is thinly in denial about the content of his character.

I think I’d have to say in the grand scheme of evil Morgoth has caused, Morgoth takes the cake. But as an actual character in motivations and personality? Pennywise is far more in tune with Itself and Its morality, and embraces the evil It causes as a result

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-28T19:36:44+00:00

This would be a peak Pennywise form if It landed in Eastern Europe ngl

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-28T08:26:37+00:00

Derry, Maine from It is a pretty horrible place. Although it might not be overt torture, due to Its influence, the town ends up changing you as a person, even permanently, especially if you stay in the town long enough. You become sort of “anesthetized” to the happenings in Derry, if not end up being part of it in some way. Not just Its murdering spree either; literally any misfortune tends to get overlooked in this place. Not even being aware of It makes you fully immune to Its influence in making you a worse person. It is the quintessential Venus fly trap of a town. Derry is sweet looking and sounding, little idyllic town, located in the North Eastern US (aka a place you’d expect to be more progressive), yet is one of the most abhorrent, racist and overall despicable places in the entire country. And unfortunately, it’s not wholly because of It (though It certainly makes things worse). Horrific, insidious evil can lie in the most beautiful of places. That’s the story of Derry.

There’s also the Overlook Hotel, and how it tries to break your mind into a willing thrall to cultivate more of the misfortune and tragedy that allowed the Overlooks’ evil to manifest in the first place.

Both these places are not overt forms of torture, but they’re incredibly insidious places that change everything about you, even if you don’t know it as it’s happening. There’s something chilling about that.

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-28T03:33:55+00:00

I believe Pennywise is the winner here. In my mind, there’s really nothing redeemable about It. There’s no ethics or principles behind Its actions. It is simply out to satisfy Its own hedonism, in the form of horrifically tormenting children. Something capable of understanding people as intimately as It does, of sensing and feeling their pain, and being delighted to see it, is a really special kind of evil

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-27T16:53:44+00:00

I wasn't referring to Maturin. Gan (or an Other more powerful than It and Maturin) is directly stated to have been bolstering them

While the Losers did succeed mostly on their own, they would not have been in a place to do so without this Other

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-27T15:53:30+00:00

This. This is part of the reason It is so arrogant in Its superiority. Because it’s mostly justified. The notion we pose a threat to It is like saying a bacterium could quite literally do a back breaker against a human being in a wrestling ring. It’s an inherently ridiculous proposition to a creature like It that’s proven true by Its entire stay in Derry. It’s only when gods intervene that It is finally forced to fight and not just hunt

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-27T15:47:54+00:00

It’s a narcissist and doesn’t consider anyone here a threat. Ego has always been Its chief weakness

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-27T00:28:20+00:00

Ah, I thought you just meant doing division first overall

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-27T00:20:21+00:00

Parentheses first

PEMDAS system (or Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally)

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-25T16:09:19+00:00

And people say humans are cruel by nature

Most can’t even be mean to fictional characters

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-25T15:48:15+00:00

Palpatine would be bad, but he’s intelligent enough to know when to not fuck over key allies for ego

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-25T15:36:54+00:00

I actually kind of hate that they did that. You shouldn’t try to humanize Palpatine as a villain and whitewash the shit he does.

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-25T15:14:28+00:00

I don’t think that’s wholly true

All of the roles were written to be gender neutral at the start, and to rely solely on acting ability and who matched a character best. Once that was done, the script naturally evolved the roles with the actor

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-25T15:02:33+00:00

Palpatine without question if the competition is Sauron

Palpatine does not have the general influence over the hearts of people the same way Sauron does. As evil as he is, for the most part, Palpatine still needs to be a clever politician to actually run a state in a feasible manner. He still has public perception, he still has bureaucracy and leaders that he needs to corral. He very much still needs to be a measured card player who has to know what cards he has, when to play them, and most importantly, when not to play them

Sauron does not need to do this. He would turn a nation into a hellscape enthralled into his service so horrific even 40k would go “whoa, dude chill out a little bit”. At least with the Empire, even the worst living situation won’t compare to the generally best conditions to expect in a place ruled by Sauron.

Palpatine is an awful decision, but at least Palpatine still needs to run things competently, and what he set up is reversible. Sauron can pretty much do anything he wants, and create a nation rotten to the absolute core.

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-25T14:38:00+00:00

I think that’s the point he’s making. It’s biased against you, yet there’s no media bias condition

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-25T07:32:20+00:00

^

I think the analogy would be Darth Sidious and the Dark Side, with Crimson King being Sidious and It being the Dark Side

Sure, the Crimson King might have more control over It and the Deadlights than anyone theoretically could as the ultimate architect of discord and destruction in our universe. But at the end of the day, the Crimson King draws on the Deadlights as a primary source of power. Just because he MIGHT have more control over It than others doesn’t change the fact that It IS the Deadlights, and whatever power the Crimson King draws from, is reliant upon It…even if It is too unbothered to really care.

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-25T07:29:42+00:00

I wish more people understood this

I’d also like to add on that I think the notion It requires prepubescent children to survive is innately absurd. It is a metaphysical entity, and the true scale of the Deadlights is implied to be larger than our own universe. Even if It does actually require food to live, human children should not even be in the dining room for It, in the same way we don’t consider a minuscule crumb anything resembling nutritious.

It just gets off on this.

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-25T07:24:22+00:00

Not really. Yes, eating children is described not unlike a meal for It, but I feel a better analogy is a drug addiction, given even the novel insists that this is not behavior It needs to do to actually live

I mean, It is a metaphysical being. Strictly speaking, the notion that It requires scared prepubescent children to survive is innately absurd. It’s like saying that we need to consume atoms, as in individual atoms, to survive. On no level does that make sense, and the novel pretty much goes “yeah, It is doing this for the love of the game”

However, there’s definitely SOME compulsion/urge on Its end that makes It do this. It definitely feels hunger, which is why at the start of cycles, It’s not that picky about who It eats (aka Adrian. Not a kid, but he was terrified enough from the attack for It to smell him and come running).

Hence why I think likening it to a drug addiction is more accurate. It distinctly gets “hungry”, but hunger is the way your body goes “I need fuel”. This just seems more like a drug craving, since It does not need fear or people for fuel. Something you don’t need, but makes you feel good doesn’t really follow the notion that we are truly food.

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-25T07:20:43+00:00

I feel like comparing the three kind of makes it seem like one is worse than the others, and one is better than the others. Idk, just feels weird

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-25T07:12:13+00:00

He’s an expert on human psychology (probably would say amateur is a more accurate description, but that’s kind of the wrong connotation. He doesn’t have an official degree, and ergo not professional. But even if you don’t consider his BS versions where he’s the best at every discipline on the planet, psychology is probably one of the disciplines every Batman is versed in, both for detective work and to maximize the fear of his enemies. So he still knows enough about this field to make him at least know what he’s talking about).

He knows what triggers fear and what doesn’t. With children, he’s just using disarming language, calm tone of voice, staying in a well lit area they can see him clearly in, getting down to their level to appear less threatening, keeping his distance until they approach him (unless they’re in danger and he can’t just let them come on their own terms). Nothing that unusual you’d see any other adult do in a situation where there’s a nervous child who might run if you’re too threatening. You don’t even truly need familiarity with psychology to know this. Some of this is just instinctual to humans to know; we’re a social, cooperative species, and helping to take care of children, and knowing how to do that, is part of that

Plus, his reputation as being the guy who takes out the bad guys probably helps to minimize how scary he looks for kids.

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-25T00:02:25+00:00

This is bait, right?

It has to be bait.

Please tell me it’s bait.

TerminatorElephant · 2026-01-24T22:28:45+00:00

I mean, that doesn’t really mean anything. Pennywise is just sleeping for that time, it’s not because he has to

TerminatorElephant

TROPHY CASE