We Love Luce

“Truth is, I like Adolin. Those two are good for each other. Maybe I can hate that.”

Ohoho~? And why now would you hate that, dear Kaladin? Do you - perhaps - want them to both be lovey-dovey with you too?

My Poor Friend Ichabod

The party was excellent. I was so, so charmed by all that I saw that day. The guests - each and every one - was as dashing as any other in great Virginia... Save poor Ichabod. He arrived to the event looking like a man haunted. The poor sod had the manner of a mule who'd been working the mill for days without rest, but I *knew* he got the rest of any other man, and hardly lifted an arm to help the young men around town with physical labor. But still, a man didn't look that way with no reason. In those days, I'd considered him a friend. Our repour was a charming one. We played with each other in those days like young men do, pranks and soft jabs. He was perhaps my most favored man in the whole town. It was on that assumption that I approached him, teeth gleaming to perhaps shine some light on his dark demeanor.

He was always a grim man, so I thought to perhaps cheer him up with a tall tale. Some of the worker boys told me about some ghost or other earlier that day, so I related the story to him. He kept glancing around the party as I spoke, then suddenly, he began to walk off. It was with shock that I took his curt dismissal of my kindness. He stormed by with little more than a word, marching through the hall directly towards my Katrina. I wasn't so dense as to not know he held affection for my lady, but... Well I thought he'd known we'd been engaged since before he arrived in town. Perhaps I should have told him.

He proposed. She declined. He ran. The night was dark, but worse, I knew the weather was growing harsh. I couldn't allow him to simply ride through the woods of rural Virginia in the height of wolf season with a storm brewing, so I quickly got to my own steed and followed him. We raced through town like shades of the night, he was shouting curses and his manner was frantic. The poor man was delirious and so stricken with grief over his lost love.

Then we approached the great bridge. The rain began to fall and his horse galloped unto the paving stones. This I remember clearly: A shine of orange in the midst of the bridge. There was a pumpkin, obviously fallen from a nearby cart, in the middle of the highpoint of the stone arch. When Ichabod's equine steed's foot crunched into the plump vegetable, the crack sounded much like that of lightning. It reared to it's feet and it's rider - my dearest friend Ichabod - was flung from it's back! I could hardly believe my eyes. The horror of it all was so stunning. He flew through the rain, illuminated by the slivers of the moonlight, in suspended motion. I believe for an instant we saw each other's faces. He was so scared, terrified.

I could do little but scream as he sunk into the river, goaded by storm waters, and was swept away. For the remainer of that night and into the next week, I rode down that dreadful river... But I could never find my poor friend Ichabod.

Adolin, here and now, more than anyone else in the series, you are truly radiant.

WHAT THE FUCK

oh my gosh I love this random cobbler so much and I’ve known him for- maybe five minutes. I love him so much.

Sentry posting time!! I’ve read almost all of his appearances and will be giving my thoughts on most of it!

SO! Something I’ve come to enjoy is reading as many books as I can around a specific Marvel character or series (I’ve literally read every single Runaways appearance), and recently became a bit infatuated with the Sentry.

And he’s so neat, but ultimately gets… floundered. Like. His original run is one of the best character studies of a Silver Age-style character with some of the best stylistic expression I’ve seen. It’s a genuinely fantastic roughly 10-issue run of a self-contained story on the meaning of heroism, the importance of legacy, and the actual definition of sacrifice…

And then he gets brought back in New Avengers and it’s like… okay, fine. Sure we can see more of him. And the beginning of it is pretty good!! There’s some confusing retcons, but it works well and I liked it enough. Then you get to his second solo run and it’s peak again! The visual style is worse, but they keep the discordant retro aesthetics for poignant scenes and it works. While the central conflict remains the same Sentry vs Void, the story shifts from analyzing his archetype to analyzing him. It’s about “responsibility”.And-!!! YES!!! It’s powerful to see someone so strong struggle with, then accept that they aren’t the best person to have their gifts, or even a good person to have their gifts, but resolve to do the best they can with them despite that.

But then. But then you finish it. And you hit side-character. And Sentry… he- doesn’t… work. He just doesn’t work as a normal character here. He’s too far outside the power scale so all his interactions in fights just. Ugh. They’re so lifeless?? There’s a fun one in Thunderbolts, but I found New Avengers dreadfully boring and I could NOT care less about Civil War. But… Sentry works way better as a plot point than a character. His appearance in Doctor Strange is my favorite, I’d say, as it treats him as a plot point. He’s the plot device that allows Doctor Strange to go all God of Magic-y!! It’s fun!

but… it gets worse after that point, as Sentry Volume 3 is like- bafflingly bad. He’s mischaracterized to hell, ignores all his previous character growth, and ends with a truly baffling conclusion that gets immediately done away with because it was so stupid. I get wanting to change the status quo for a character, but please don’t make it bad. It seriously felt like they just went with the first idea that came to mind.

Annihilation - Scourge is awesome, go read it. It’s great. Doesn’t do much for Sentry other than revert him to his post Sentry Vol. 2 status quo, but also that status quo was fun and good, so whatever. It’s generally just a good event series I highly recommend it.

And then you hit King in Black. Spoilers, but he gets Piccoloed. It happens a lot with his side-character appearances, but he shows up to lose in order to make the big bad look super strong. It’s… annoying, but I guess effective? It just felt really self-aggrandizing. I am not the biggest fan of Knull. He feels like the edgy OC of a child no one in the friend group likes. “He’s actually the God of the Symbiotes and kills Celestials and made the All Black Necrosword and also could kill all the Beyonders and super easily beats Sentry because he’s so awesome and strong 😎” It retroactively degrades the excellent stories before it and the value of his sacrifices. Sentry doesn’t solve every problem not because he can’t, but because the Void would create that many more. So, because he doesn’t have the right to decide who lives or dies, Sentry chooses to abandon his legacy, his name, his power. He chooses to be one third of a man because it is right. He chooses to let people he could save die, because it would cause other, different innocents to die. Even though it tears him apart physically and mentally, he bears it.

Sentry is the best written "Superman clone" I've seen… in his own books, because in things like King in Black, it feels as if the writers didn't even read the original story. Luckily his appearance in King in Black: Return of the Valkyries I get to see Robert wax philosophical again. I’m not mad he died, I’m mostly just mad he didn’t get the respect or pomp in death he deserved.

And I think I refuse to read the current Sentry run. I am Not Enthused™️ about the concept. Robert was the interesting part of Sentry, not his powers. Oh! And don’t spoil The Thunderbolts* as I haven’t seen it! I’m excited as I’ve heard nothing but good things, however.

So anyways, I think Sentry’s wife was totally based for wanting to fuck that golden man, even if he’s kind of a wreck, I can look past a few (well, a lot of) mental illnesses. But Linda or I could never fucked the Sentry as hard as Marvel Comics.

Stormlight Archives Spoilers

Eshonai would have been an amazing Bondsmith, what the fuck. We missed out so badly with her it’s genuinely making me sad.

Aaahhhh, Eugenics. My least favorite part of this series.

EEESSSHHOOONNNAAAIIIIIIIIIIII

I love her so much

Shallan’s gang is so interesting. She girlbosses so hard she factory reset like 20 guy’s morality.