Just finished reading Chaos War

[olympic_lion]

...Why in MIGHTY ZEUS' NAME is it that when I finally get an Event of my own, it must suck so abominably!? The art was vile, unsuited to more than a bare few of these icon-pictures, the plot was nonsensical, the execution atrocious, the tie-ins utterly, utterly useless...

And the only thing left affected in the end was ME! E'en your 'House of M' and your 'Civil War' and YES, your 'World War Hulk' and onward managed to change the rest of the world for at least some degree of time. So what if Thor's 'Fear Itself' barely managed more? It remains a travesty to the good name of Hercules!

Don't you DARE start replacing all your icons with parts from that foolish cut-short series which followed, either. I vastly prefer keeping my canon-point enjoyably vague.

Comments

[just2hands]

*slightly alarmed look*
I take it that, whatever happened um, things did not go the way you'd planned?

[olympic_lion]

...

[Easy now, calm down, don't frighten the little mortal.]

It's not just a matter of disliking the results, you see. These things come and these things go, and the Earth-shaking events that will change everything always get corrected soon or late. But this was my story, and it was told with no grace or style in the slightest.

And in such things, it doesn't matter what is done so much as how well we do it.

[just2hands]

So can you get a re-write? An alternate ending perhaps? After all, if it worked with that spider man, perhaps someone can help you as well?

And yes, I think you are right. In the end, you may fall in the battle, but it's not as important as how you fought the battle in the first place. Or, at least it's how it feels to me.

[olympic_lion]

Not in this case, no. Besides, while the ending may be inconvenient I should hardly dispute the value of remaking all the universe. The homewrecker Spider-Man holds a rather different post, sad to say.

[Hmm, mortal wisdom. She is an interesting one, then.] 'It matters not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game?' Is that what you're saying? In many a case I could disagree, but here it seems all too accurate.

[thecardmaster]

[Hey Hercules, how do you feel about a gypsy snickering at you.]

Calm down, now. Ah think yer gonna pop a vein.

[just2hands]

Maybe the universe could use a little remaking. I don't know what it would be like however.

It is how you play the game though. Or in this case, it's how you carry yourself. Do you remain true to you or do you lower yourself to the standards and behaviors of your opponents?

[olympic_lion]

Betimes it's been twisted out of shape and needs to be returned to true. But then, if you could change anything, everything. What would you choose to make different?

The sad part is where you may not even have a choice in the matter. Still, I did have a good run before this.

[olympic_lion]

[That depends. Who's up for a game of Gypsy Javelin?]

Were your finest hopes so desecrated, man, I doubt you'd 'keep your cool' either.

[just2hands]

*lowers her head and thinks, then raises her head back up*

I'd make it so that the heroes had more of a fighting chance against the villains. And villains can mean people, or governments, or even, *hand gesture* even injustice. Maybe even disease.

It's like, no matter how hard you fight against the, um, the dark? Evil? There's never enough people fighting with you, and always a lot more fighting against you. I'd change things so that there was more balance to the equation. *shrug* That's what I'd change, if I could.

[olympic_lion]

Have you truly found it so unbalanced, that you think good to be both outnumbered and outclassed? I can understand something of what you mean, but must admit to seeing it rather differently; in my eyes, matters are the way they are not due to people being fundamentally good, or people being fundamentally evil, but people being fundamentally people.

Human nature is a bizarre and many-faceted thing, yet still I would say that folk spend more time trying to do good in their own little way than trying to enact evil.

[Wait, she said 'disease'...] But then, those who find themselves spending their time dealing with the worst of folk tend to gain a rather different perspective. Are you a doctor, by any chance?

[just2hands]

We see it from different places then, I think. Outclassed? Perhaps not. Outnumbered? Lots of times I would have to say yes. And to fight the evil, a lot of times you have to lower yourself to fighting with their tools, with their methods, and doing that can change a person. It can change them and *voice drops* And they lose a part of themselves in the winning. Or the loss. Again, it comes back to 'how you play the game' even when the game is rigged against you. Do you go down fighting with the core of your humanity intact, your honor, your ethics? Or do you use your opponents method against them and... *her eyes are distant, crowded with memories*

*startled, her eyes blink and refocus* Why yes. Actually I am. And I'm just running on, and on aren't I?

[dusk_and_dawn]

[Oh hey, it's that guy who slugged him for no reason.]

It always could have gone worse. It is a blessing simply to survive these noxious events intact.

[olympic_lion]

[...Which time? They've known each other for so very long.

Though if this is for the time he was laying a long-overdue smackdown on the Council of Do-Nothing Jackasses All-Fathers, he's got no regrets.]

'Intact' would be rather a dubious claim on my part. And in the case of my family's character development, entirely false. [Seriously, there was no call for Zeus to revert back to divine douchebaggery- and the rest were hardly better.]

1/2

[olympic_lion]

I daresay we do. Countless times I have been amazed at the depth, the power and remarkable nobility in the human spirit. I see it in those I battle alongside, and in those who seek to build; I see it in those who act to help others, and its lack in those who try to bend the world toward themselves alone.

True, the citadel of civilization ever has the darkened hordes trying to tear it down, howling that it must fall, that it deserves to fall. There are always countless writhing worms eating away at its foundations, weakening it for their own pleasure and gain...

And yet nonetheless, it stands. It stands oh, so very tall!

2/2

[olympic_lion]

[Go ahead, have a bit of a smile.] Think nothing of it. Oratory is oft a weakness of mine, as well.

[dusk_and_dawn]

Anything you may walk away from counts at this point. They seem to feel it is simply not a story if there are not a few--or a many--to die.

[olympic_lion]

Considering that they supposedly killed me off not four months before that particular event, and how much of Creation I had to resurrect at the end of it? As the mortals say, you're preaching to the choir.

...Wait. Don't tell me they've killed you off again, Balder!

[dusk_and_dawn]

I'm afraid so. I'm sure I'll be back before long, of course, but it is a nuisance. I do not like to know that Asgard is suffering without me.

I understand you and yours have been through quite the upheaval as well.

[olympic_lion]

How did it happen this time? Wait, nevermind; it's a pointless inconvenience that need not trouble you all the time. What of this? I'll stand you a round of the finest wine from the slopes of Olympus once you're back, and we can wash away all this nonsense and get on with living. [...And that'll call us square for the random facepunching, right? Not that he feels even a little guilty, it's just appropriate to make amends.]

I' truth, dear Balder, things seem to have shifted all the way back to the status quo before the Chaos King did assault us the first time. Zeus sits atop the throne of the world and leers down at its women, Hera punishes him for his wandering ways, none of the gods seem to care more for human lives than they do the falling leaves- I had thought myself better at shaping than this, but my only conclusion is that I brought them back the way I knew them longest. And that is a disservice to all the world, as well as they themselves.

[Turning mortal would doubtless pay for all sins, but considering his mundane hasn't decided whether or not to just ignore the entire thing yet...]

[dusk_and_dawn]

It is not quite pointless in that I was at least favored to die in battle this time, a nice reprieve from Loki's bad habits. I shall take you up on that offer, though. [Frankly, Balder forgave him the second it happened.]

You seem to have the same trouble we have. Although we no longer live in Asgard, we strive to live the same lives. Perhaps no one can blame gods for being stuck in their ways. I am certainly a touch nostalgic for the days when my life was as simple as the next quest.

[olympic_lion]

An improvement, I suppose... depending on your definition of the term, at least. [Oh, like Balder never wanted to unleash a frenzy of righteous whupass on all the others.]

Aye, that's something I'd discussed with my friend Cho; we gods tend to get all too cyclical, and stuck in our ways. After all, what power in the world can stop us from making the same mistakes over and over again?

[dusk_and_dawn]

One simply starts with low standards. [Well. Who can say no to unleashing righteous whupass?]

[He nods.] And I cannot claim to be any different. But you are doing better than most, I feel.