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Ship of Fools: A Taylor Varga Omake (Complete)

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Ship of Fools: A Taylor Varga Omake (Complete) Demons and Angels Seven Days to Skitter
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mp3.1415player said:
Bruce Wayne himself is basically a high-functioning sociopath. The key thing is that he knows this, and works very very hard to stay (more or less) on the side of 'good.' Mostly successfully, but he does have his blind spots and faults as does anyone.
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Yeah, one of the explanations for his unwillingness to kill that I'm actually okay with is because he is ultimately terrified that if he can justify killing one person, then he can justify killing another, and he just doesn't have the necessary moral compass to navigate that slippery slope.

So he just refuses to take the risk out of the very real fear that he could well end up becoming a monster, purely because once he starts killing he might not know when to stop.
 
Neruz said:
Yeah, one of the explanations for his unwillingness to kill that I'm actually okay with is because he is ultimately terrified that if he can justify killing one person, then he can justify killing another, and he just doesn't have the necessary moral compass to navigate that slippery slope.

So he just refuses to take the risk out of the very real fear that he could well end up becoming a monster, purely because once he starts killing he might not know when to stop.
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The psychopath version of an alcoholic in recovery...

One day at a time, and knowing you're only ever one drink from disaster.

Makes more sense than most explanations.
 
As he tells Jason Todd during the Red Hood storyline, he doesn't kill because killing is easy. And in the end he would be no better then those like the Joker.

That said, the golden age Batman did in fact kill. And he carried a gun. For the first 10 Batman stories he would regularly swing by and kick a thug in the head as they look out a window, snapping the thugs neck and likely killing them. This would get called out in the text box that the neck is broken with a sickening snap. He trapped a man claiming to be Dracula in a vat of acid. Note that this probably wasn't actually a vampire. And other lethal tactics got employed too. Then for the 11th Batman story he got his own book, and a sidekick in Robin. Suddenly the gun is a no-show, and Batman doesn't kill. The previous 10 storylines are pretended to not have occurred and Batman has never killed or carried a gun.
 
mp3.1415player said:
And I would also suggest that neither Taylor or the Varga are foolish. It's very possible that there is a method of tracking the Joker left behind, just in case. The Family, after all, tends to think ahead and prepare for whatever might happen in plenty of time...
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I suspect that Bishop and Ramoth would both be clued into the fact that the Joker was dumped in that universe and would be aware if he should turn up like a bad penny somewhere else. I also suspect both the magic compound in Bolivia and the facilities at LV-426 would be made aware. The only safe way for Joker/Ba'al to escape would be to jump to an entirely different reality without ever appearing in public on a world connected to the datasphere. That would be very hard to do...it would take luck, cunning and a great deal of savvy technical skill to do that. It's probably never going to come up... :p
 
Derek M said:
By the way, doing background research on Batman inevitably leads to a discussion of Batman: Odyssey.

This article describes some of the first six issues of that...experience: Deconstructing the Complete and Utter Insanity of 'Batman: Odyssey'

I particularly like it when they speculate about what a comic called, Batman: Hobo would be like.

The best way I can describe Odyssey is...what would happen if Joker wrote a Batman story?
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That is hilarious, in a sort of very disturbing way... :)

Never come across it before. This might be a good thing!
 
Maybe... it is a Batman story written by The Joker. Or maybe it's the Joker curse trying to take over Batman?

EDIT: And if you've played it, Batman Arkham VR is a fantastic game that takes place between Arkham City and Arkham Knight, while setting up events in Arkham Knight nicely. Yes, it's a Virtual Reality game. And it loses a lot if you just watch a let's play of it. But holy crap.
 
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mp3.1415player said:
Bruce Wayne himself is basically a high-functioning sociopath. The key thing is that he knows this, and works very very hard to stay (more or less) on the side of 'good.' Mostly successfully, but he does have his blind spots and faults as does anyone.
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Which is why he has his rules... with 'No Killing' at the top of the list. He knows that it'd be easier to do a second time, if he broke that. Slippery slope and all that. ( Imped by the Banana... )

As an aside, I think it's hilarious that when Batman first appeared, he had a pistol on his utility belt. ( Imped by the Fae )




 
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Yeah, you notice the editer's note about him never carrying or killing with a gun occurs after Robin joins him. And yet he's shown to be a crack shot.
 
Derek M said:
3) Ba'al is severely under rated in my opinion. He was never the "Hulk Smash" kind of Goa'uld, leaving that to cretins like Apophis and Sokar. He is the guy that figured out how to use clones to get around the annoying Tau'ri ability to ferret out plots. He is the guy who used astronomy, computing, and a Stargate to create a freaking time machine, and almost pulled it off if he hadn't over-estimated the reasonableness of his fellow Goa'uld. (He even appointed Teal'c as his First Prime in that alternate timeline, knowing that the dude was hella competent and would be happy to not have to work for a nutjob like Apophis.) He worked with the Tok'ra to figure out how to make the Ancient "kill everything" machine work on the replicators. He even appreciates how comfortable living as a 1%er on Earth is, and had no desire to destroy it -- just to conquer it (he is still a Goa'uld). He's evil as hell, but far more reasonable than most Goa'uld, and astute in a strategic, scientific and social sense.

So...take an insane genius who is smart enough to realize he's being possessed, and to use that as an advantage rather than get crushed by it. Give him a possessor who knows about Ancient tech and is used to thinking outside the box from a Goa'uld perspective. If I were to write a sequel, I can see that combination serving as a primary antagonist.
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For some reason, this makes me think Ba'al is the Lex Luthor or Dr. Doom of the Goa'uld. I'm not sure why that thought came to mind.
 
Part of that is the actor who portrayed Ba'al. The man did a excellent job of making the character smooth and competent like all the best of the Bond villains. Just my 2 cents.
 
Batman has got SOMETHING extra, whether it's being a meta, or following the Bat totem.
Intellect, fast learning, and skill retention (in humans non-used skills degrade without practice)

The fast learning is evident in the fact that he picked up ALL those skills before the age of 50. (And to do that, a person would have to learn all the physical skill up front while their bodies are still in their prime)
 
Troy Guffey said:
Batman has got SOMETHING extra, whether it's being a meta, or following the Bat totem.
Intellect, fast learning, and skill retention (in humans non-used skills degrade without practice)

The fast learning is evident in the fact that he picked up ALL those skills before the age of 50. (And to do that, a person would have to learn all the physical skill up front while their bodies are still in their prime)
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Worse, he picked up and mastered all the skills within just ten years. At most. Original canon is that he started his training journey at the age of 20, and became Batman at the age of 30. That's been retconned a few times. One of those retcons has him going on his training journey at the age of 18, and becoming Batman at the age of 25. Considering he is suppose to have mastered how many martial arts to the extent he has, each of which should have taken decades to reach that level (at least)? Plus mastering forensic science, engineering, escapology, and everything else... All while roaming the world as a vagabond? Yeah, Batman is not a normal human.
 
FaerieKnight79 said:
Worse, he picked up and mastered all the skills within just ten years. At most. Original canon is that he started his training journey at the age of 20, and became Batman at the age of 30. That's been retconned a few times. One of those retcons has him going on his training journey at the age of 18, and becoming Batman at the age of 25. Considering he is suppose to have mastered how many martial arts to the extent he has, each of which should have taken decades to reach that level (at least)? Plus mastering forensic science, engineering, escapology, and everything else... All while roaming the world as a vagabond? Yeah, Batman is not a normal human.
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He's basically a dark version of Über :)
 
Jacen1 said:
..... And suddenly, despite his reputation as a joke villain, Über seems a LOT scarier now then he did before I read that.....
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In my opinion Über is potentially one of the most dangerous canon capes, if he ever decided to use his powers for causing serious damage rather than basically fucking around for shits and giggles.

Leet is another one. His abilities could have been turned to devastating effect even with his limitations.

Quite a few capes seem to not leverage their abilities as much as they could do. Taylor is one of the few who seem to work out all the options available to them and make use of them. A villain team that took it seriously made up of her, Über, Leet, Panacea, Tattletale, and a few others that are normally considered to be fairly harmless could be remarkable effective if they really tried... :)

Add Vista to that and you'd have something terrifying.
 
Hell, in Marvel one of the most dangerous supervillains is Taskmaster. What's his power? The ability to learn physical skills by watching others do them.
 
FaerieKnight79 said:
Hell, in Marvel one of the most dangerous supervillains is Taskmaster. What's his power? The ability to learn physical skills by watching others do them.
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Hopefully that ability doesn't extend to getting real Martial Arts from movies. Otherwise, what happens when he watches Dragonball (Z,Y,X,etc), Ranma 1/2, or even Equilibrium.
 
Troy Guffey said:
Hopefully that ability doesn't extend to getting real Martial Arts from movies. Otherwise, what happens when he watches Dragonball (Z,Y,X,etc), Ranma 1/2, or even Equilibrium.
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It doesn't quite work on Dragonball and the like but canonically, yes he copied Jet Li from movies and if he watches sped up footage, he can match that speed.

So Equilibrium is totally a thing he probably shouldn't be exposed to.

Also, a couple of versions of Taskmaster have a phobia of water from when he managed to mimic a perfect swan dive... without ever learning to swim first.
 
mp3.1415player said:
In my opinion Über is potentially one of the most dangerous canon capes, if he ever decided to use his powers for causing serious damage rather than basically fucking around for shits and giggles.
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Wildbow's WoG that his power gives him shortcuts that aren't as good as the full real knowledge. So he can learn to throw a punch incredibly well, but can not learn an entire martial art to the same degree.
 
Troy Guffey said:
Hopefully that ability doesn't extend to getting real Martial Arts from movies. Otherwise, what happens when he watches Dragonball (Z,Y,X,etc), Ranma 1/2, or even Equilibrium.
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He can match the physical motions, and usually predict what actions his opponent is about to make. However, he is limited to what his body can actually do, and is not super-humanly strong, fast or tough. So, no Ki attacks, no mystic abilities, no movement beyond his range of motion (which rules almost all anime martial arts out) and no matching the speed or strength of actual superhumans. He might be able to match Spidey's motions, but lacks the strength, speed and danger sense that makes Spidey as effective as he is, for example.

Don't get me wrong; he's trained to near peak human ability, and can match the likes of Captain America and Hawkeye in their respective skills, but he tends to do poorly against those who's powers let them do things he can't. He also lacks the experience that comes with the abilities of others, so Cap has a slight edge in close combat and Hawkeye is a slightly more effective archer; that his gear is made up of comparatively low quality knockoffs doesn't exactly help, either.

Back in the day, Taskmaster was best known as a teacher for up and coming badguys; he's actually able to not only copy other people's moves, but can then teach others how to do them as well. True, he can't speed up the learning process any more then any other skilled teacher, but given time he can indeed teach someone to fight like any movie martial artist (provided they aren't relying too much on wires and special effects, of course. Think less Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and more the bulk of Jacky Chan's movie career.)
 
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