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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jun 1, 2008 16:07:32 GMT -5
47. Eric Cartman Who is he: A 9-year-old bigoted and egotistical student. What is he from: South Park. What has he done: Ground up Scott Tenorman’s parents into a chili fed it to Scott, tried to act out his “final solution” on the Jews, tried to get Family Guy taken off the air, has been a dick to nearly everyone in South Park, Colorado. Intelligence: He’s smart, a little too smart, especially for his age. Power: He is just a 9-year-old boy, but he has been able to get many people to follow him. Vileness: Is a racist, a bigot, and an egotistical jerk to everyone he meets. Sway: Good at manipulation, especially with his mother. Purity: Cares only for himself. Physical Prowess: He’s not fat, he’s just big boned. Name Coolness: “Eric Cartman” is an average name. Created by: Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Portrayed by: Trey Parker does the voice of Cartman, though, it is altered to get the voice that is heard on the show. Eric Cartman is portrayed as the "fat kid" and the antihero and sometimes antagonist of the South Park gang. His personality has notably changed over the course of the series. While always self-centered and bigoted, he was portrayed as more of a mean, immature brat in the earlier seasons. As the seasons progressed, writers altered his personality to become more aggressive and cunning, while his bigotry morphed seamlessly into Nazi-like hatred and theorizing, as well as becoming viciously sadistic. There are several examples of this over the course of the series. He refuses, for example, to acknowledge his obesity (instead insisting that he is big boned). Also, in "Le Petit Tourette", he reveals his true sadness in the fact that he cries himself to sleep at night due to the absence of a father, being the only one of the main characters to not have one. Though it is obvious through the course of the show that Cartman shows signs of a personality disorder, it can never be pin-pointed to just one type, and instead showing signs of sociopathy, psychopathy, and narcissism. Cartman is often criticized by his peers for his rash stereotypes and generalizations. Cartman's abilities to manipulate the other characters into doing what he wants have been made keener over the course of the series, along with his overall intelligence. His characteristic intelligence and manipulative skills are perhaps best displayed in the famous and very dark episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die", in which he develops a fierce obsession with, and later exacts revenge upon, an 8th grader who scammed him out of $16.12. In the denouement of the episode, Cartman exacts his revenge by having the boy's mother and father killed and subsequently, having him unknowingly eat their remains. Upon discovering his parents demise, the boy burst into tears. This caused Cartman great delight, who then proceeded to lick the tears off the boy's face calling them "yummy and sweet". This episode was ranked number one in "Cartman's 25 Greatest South Park Moments", that were chosen by voting on Comedy Central's website. Cartman is viciously intolerant of anything he doesn't agree with, and will go to lengths in order to get his way (e.g. "Cartoon Wars Part I", "Cartoon Wars Part II"). This trait has been developed and expanded throughout the long-running series. His deep Anti-Semitic behaviour shows this development effectively. Originally, this was used to pick on his friend, Kyle Broflovski, but later this evolved into a Nazi-esque hatred after seeing Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, in which Cartman was shown idolizing both the movie and Mel Gibson for its perceived Anti-Semitic tone. This ultimately led Cartman to dress up as Hitler in an attempt to restart the Holocaust. Later in the series, he was also shown to be Anti-Islamic, developing an immediate distrust for fellow classmate Bahir, who he tries to prove, albeit unsuccessfully, a terrorist based on his Muslim heritage ("The Snuke"). Other than this, the character has shown other forms of racism, such than throwing racial slurs to black classmate, Token and singing In the ghetto when in a Mexican class room. Cartman's characteristic hatred of views other than his own is shown clearly through his hatred of hippies, and other similarly alternative groups. An effective and central element of many plots in the series is that despite his personality flaws, or perhaps because of them, Cartman can, at times, be incredibly charismatic, and is usually the default leader of the boys in times of crisis or adventure. For example, in "Make Love, Not Warcraft," when a mysterious griefer begins to kill all the players, it is Cartman who is shown to rally the other three kids to face and defeat the hacker and save the online game. This, coupled with the aforementioned manipulative abilities, allows him to form and control mobs with great speed and efficiency, and just as easily disperse them ("Ginger Kids"). Cartman is often portrayed as a somewhat precocious language student, despite his characterization as a lazy student of South Park Elementary. In a number of different episodes, including "My Future Self n' Me," it is shown that he is near fluent in Spanish. In "The Passion of the Jew," he speaks passable German in his Hitler-like tirades. His use of Japanese is also essentially flawless in "Chinpokomon". In the episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft” he speaks the French language as well but to a lesser extent. The same is true of his Mongolian in "Child Abduction is Not Funny". In the episode “Eek! A Penis!”, Cartman tries to create a Mexican accent when he has to teach a high school class full of Mexicans. A budding penchant for photography is well-versed with highly technical jargon used by professional photographers, as illustrated in both "Cartman Sucks" and the "Imaginationland" series. The character's other talents are diverse and include World Of Warcraft gameplay, stealing and negotiation as shown in "Fun with Veal", and Powerpoint presentations as shown in "Mystery of the Urinal Deuce" and "Ginger Kids". Although he basically shows no affection towards humans, he is fond of cats. This is shown when he gives them a hiding place when they become persecuted in the episode "Major Boobage". Kyle compares this persecution of cats to the holocaust, although Cartman seemingly didn't see any type of relation. Cartman is often depicted as a poor fighter, bursting into tears from a single slap, although this trait was altered in the episode "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson", when he defeats Dr. David Nelson, a midget who visits teaching of tolerance. Cartman's relationship with his friends and family is portrayed mostly a turbulent one. He has a domineering relationship with his mother (actually his father), Liane Cartman, constantly ordering her around, to which she willingly submits for the most part. In the episode "Tsst," Liane, with the help of dog trainer Cesar Millan, was able to briefly control Eric's behavioral, weight and personality problems. In the commentary to the episode, Trey Parker said that Cartman's behavioral problems were mostly the result of Liane treating Eric like a friend and not like a son, allowing him to take advantage of her. An early episode in the show's first season explored the identity of Cartman's father. With most of the town's male populace as possible suspects, due to their having relations with Cartman's mother, it was revealed that the promiscuous Liane is actually a hermaphrodite, and is in fact Eric's father. Cartman's biological mother remains a mystery. Cartman is characterized as maintaining a love-hate relationship with his three main friends, Stan, Kyle and Kenny, and is often shown teasing them for various reasons; Stan for being a wuss or hippie; Kyle for being a Jew and Kenny for being poor. Although the three appear to resent Cartman for constantly berating them, they are normally tolerant of him as they consider him their friend whether they like it or not. Kenny generally seems to accept Cartman as his best friend ("Kenny Dies"), although in "Best Friends Forever", Kenny states in his will that he never liked Cartman. The two have been seen playing together without Stan and Kyle. It has been speculated that Cartman treats Kenny the way he does because he does not know how to react to having a friend. Cartman has a rather bizarre and sinister relationship with Butters, around which many plots have been based in the series. Butters views Cartman as a close friend with whom he can play and have sleepovers. Cartman, however, sees Butters as a loyal servant who will go along with anything he says and uses this to manipulate and abuse Butters for his own gain and pleasure. Cartman often presents himself as a father figure to Butters, teaching him the finer points of negotiating in business, and the danger of Jews and “ginger kids”. Stone and Parker have both said in their DVD commentaries that they enjoy the antics between the two characters because they “are such opposites of each other”. Cartman mainly considers Butters to be a "fag" and even refers to him with insulting code names like "faggot" as seen in the first episode of the Imaginationland series. In Smug Alert!, when Kyle moves to San Francisco, he is willing to replace him with Butters as the "dumb Jew to rip on" despite Butters not being Jewish. Although Cartman doesn't generally appear to like anyone in particular, he seemed very fond of Chef, as seen in "The Return of Chef" where Cartman was crying in front of Butters and even admitted that he was going to miss Chef, but didn't know how to tell him. He normally went to Chef with his problems, and Chef was always willing to help him. Cartman also has a pet cat named Mr. Kitty. Although it is hinted that this cat is female in "Cat Orgy", the episode "Major Boobage" states clearly that it is male. Cartman is always yelling at it, and very rarely gives him any love. One of the few, if not only things he has ever shown any true care towards is Clyde Frog, one of his stuffed animals. The most notable examples of his villainy come in the episodes “Scott Tenorman Must Die” (the aforementioned grounding of his Scott parents and feeding them to him), the “Imaginationland” episodes (in which he relentlessly tried to get Kyle to suck his balls), and the “Cartoon Wars” episodes (in which he tried to take Family Guy off the air). Now, I know what you’re saying: “Now, now, Mr. Cobb. You’ve gone too far. Eric Cartman evil!? He’s not evil! He’s just a nine-year-old boy, a precocious scamp who doesn’t really know what he is doing. Besides, he’s like the main character on South Park. Why would anyone have their show revolve around an evil little boy?” And, to you I say, “How did you know my last name was ‘Cobb’? I’ve only revealed it on here like once or twice, and I doubt anyone remembers.” And to that you reply, “Could answer my question? I don’t want to spend all day reading your stupid rants!” And, I answer, “That is where you are wrong. Eric Cartman is just one of the four main characters on the show, and he is PURE EVIL!!!!” You see, he may have started out as a brat; but he became something more. As the years progressed, the bigotry and racism grew. He went from a few slurs to trying to act out his “final solution” on the Jews and faking Tourette’s Syndrome so he could go on air and say as many Jewish slurs as he could and get away with it. His egomania became more and more pronounced. He cares only for himself, so much so that he won’t allow his mother to have a normal life (look at the episode “Tsst”). And, he will go through great lengths to achieve his goals. He was adamant about taking Family Guy off the air, even pointing a gun at the President of FOX. In the “Imaginationland” episodes, he went through the courts and broke into the Pentagon to get Kyle to fulfill his agreement to such his balls. Hell, he even imagined the event in Imaginationland just to say that Kyle sucked his balls. And, don’t let the fact that he is 9-years-old fool you. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn’t exist. So, even if I haven’t convinced you, it doesn’t matter. I know that Eric Cartman is evil. I know the truth!
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jun 1, 2008 16:08:55 GMT -5
Tomorrow, number 46 and 45. Here are the hints:
He won't open the podbay doors, and he can't believe it's Megatron.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jun 2, 2008 18:13:51 GMT -5
Countdown time, ladies. Here's number 46: 46. HAL 9000 What is it: The supercomputer on board of the Discovery One spaceship. What is it from: 2001: A Space Odyssey (novel and movie), 2010 (novel and movie), 2061: Odyssey Three, and 3001: The Final Odyssey. What has it done: Becomes defective and starts killing the human crew aboard Discovery One. Intelligence: It’s a supercomputer and controls all the controls of Discovery One. Power: HAL is like God, knowing all, controlling all, and holding the lives of the crew in its grasp. Vileness: HAL deliberately murders members of the crew to ensure the mission will continue. Sway: HAL's voice never wavers, and its delivery can be downright creepy because of the emotionless tone and the mystery behind HAL's actions. Purity: This computer has been programmed to complete a mission and won't stop until it does for any reason. Physical Prowess: Lacks physical form; HAL's red light "eye" is harmless, but soon becomes the symbol of omnipresent danger. Name Coolness: “Hal” is an average name, but the “9000” gives it some coolness. Created by: Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke. Portrayed by: Douglas Rain provided the voice of HAL, his most famous role. “2001: A Space Odyssey”: On board the spaceship Discovery One, bound for Jupiter, are two mission pilots, astronauts Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood), and three scientists "sleeping" in cryogenic hibernation. Dave and Frank watch a BBC television program about themselves, in which the "sixth member" of the crew, the HAL 9000 supercomputer (voiced by Douglas Rain), is introduced and interviewed. The interview reveals that the supercomputer is the pinnacle in artificial intelligence, with an error-free performance record. HAL 9000 is designed to communicate and interact like a human, and even mimics (or reproduces) human emotions; in fact the astronauts have learned to treat it like another crewman, addressing it as "Hal". During an informal conversation with Dave, HAL raises concerns about the unusual secrecy surrounding the mission, and repeats rumors about "something being dug up on the moon." When Dave suggests that HAL's quizzical conversation is actually part of his "crew psychology report," HAL abruptly reports an imminent equipment malfunction. He claims to have detected a defect in a component of the ship's communications system. Dave exits the Discovery in an EVA pod to retrieve and replace the faulty AE-35 unit, but upon detailed examination no fault can be found. Mission controllers back on Earth assert that HAL is "in error in predicting the fault", something unheard of for the 9000 series. HAL suggests another EVA mission to restore the part and wait for it to fail: this will determine the problem. Hiding their concern, Dave and Frank retreat to a pod to discuss, in secret, HAL's questionable reliability. They finally agree to "disconnect" him should the AE-35 not fail, as he predicted. Unbeknownst to them, however, HAL is reading their lips. As Dave watches from inside Discovery, Frank exits in a pod to put back the original AE-35. While Frank is performing the EVA, HAL takes control of the empty pod, and accelerates it at Frank, severing his oxygen hose and sending his body tumbling in space. Dave hurriedly exits the ship in another pod to rescue Frank, forgetting to bring his space helmet. While Dave is outside, HAL kills the three hibernating scientists by deactivating their life support systems. Upon returning to the ship with Frank's lifeless body, Dave is refused reentry into the ship by HAL. HAL reveals that he knows of Frank and Dave's plan to disconnect him, and asserts that the mission is "too important" to allow any human to jeopardize it. HAL terminates the conversation. After releasing Frank's body, Dave opens an air lock, and activates the pod's emergency hatch bolts. The explosive decompression propels him into the airlock, exposed to the vacuum of space without a helmet, but he manages to close and pressurize the airlock. Safely inside the ship, Dave enters HAL's 'Logic Memory Center'. As HAL futilely attempts to negotiate with him, Dave proceeds to disconnect his higher brain functions. HAL pleads and protests his termination, slowly regresses to past memories, sings a song he learned during his initial programming, and finally falls silent. Suddenly, a pre-recorded video briefing by Dr. Floyd plays, explaining the true nature of the mission: to investigate the signal sent to Jupiter from the alien artifact on the Moon. Floyd discloses that the secret mission had been known only to HAL until the ship's arrival in Jupiter space. 2010: Odyssey Two: In the sequel 2010, HAL is restarted by his creator, Dr. Chandra, who arrives on the Soviet spaceship Leonov. Prior to leaving Earth, Dr. Chandra has also had a discussion with HAL's twin, the SAL 9000. Dr. Chandra discovers that HAL's crisis was caused by a programming contradiction: he was constructed for "the accurate processing of information without distortion or concealment", yet his orders, directly from White House officials, required him to keep the discovery of the Monolith TMA-1 a secret for reasons of national security. This contradiction created a "Hofstadter-Moebius loop," reducing HAL to paranoia. This paranoia produced a creative solution: HAL would not have to withhold information if there was nobody from whom to withhold the information. Therefore, HAL made the decision to kill the crew, thereby allowing him to obey both his hardwired instructions to report data truthfully and in full and his orders to keep the monolith a secret: nobody remained from whom to keep the secret. The alien intelligences controlling the monoliths have grandiose plans for Jupiter, plans which place the Leonov, and everybody in it, in danger. Its human crew devises an escape plan, which unfortunately requires leaving the Discovery and HAL behind, to be destroyed. Dr. Chandra explains the danger, and HAL willingly sacrifices himself so that the astronauts may escape safely. In the moment of his destruction, the monolith-makers transform HAL into a non-corporeal being, so that David Bowman's avatar may have a companion. The details in the book and film are nominally the same, with one important exception: in the film, HAL functions normally after being reactivated. In the book, it is revealed that his voice circuits were destroyed during the shutdown, forcing him to communicate through screen text. Also, in the film the Leonov crew lies to HAL about the dangers that he faced (suspecting that if he knew he would be destroyed he wouldn't initiate the engine-burn necessary to get the Leonov back home), whereas in the novel he is told right at the outset. However, in both cases the suspense comes from what HAL will do when he knows that he may be destroyed by his actions. Prior to Leonov's return to Earth, Curnow tells Floyd that Dr. Chandra has begun designing HAL 10000. 2061: Odyssey Three indicated that Chandra died on the journey back to Earth, making the point moot. The session of keyboard/screen interaction between HAL and Dr. Chandra has a taste of SHRDLU, which both increases the realism of the scene, and gives an interesting insight of the perception of Artificial Intelligence at the time the book was written. 2061: Odyssey Three: In 2061, Heywood Floyd is surprised to encounter HAL, now stored alongside Dave Bowman in the Europa monolith. 3001: The Final Odyssey: 3001 introduced the merged forms of Dave Bowman and HAL. The two have merged into one entity called Halman after Bowman rescued HAL from the dying Discovery One spaceship towards the end of 2010: Odyssey Two. Halman helps Frank Poole infect the monolith (which it once served) with a computer virus; as the primitive life in Jupiter's clouds were sacrificed to make Jupiter into a sun to warm Europa, it is feared that humanity as well as life on Europa would be destroyed as humanity had the potential to be dangerous and the Europeans had stagnated, according to the monolith's reasoning. The plan succeeds, and all of the monoliths disintegrate; however, Halman (which survived by downloading itself onto another storage medium) is subsequently isolated in a special containment facility due to this virus infecting itself. “2001: A Space Odyssey” explores many themes, a main one being the perils of technology. And, HAL 9000 is the ultimate symbol of technology gone wrong. In the story, HAL warns the crew of a malfunction that does not exists. The reason for his error is a little mysterious and fascinating (though we later find out that HAL knew more about the mission than the Discovery One crew and was ordered to not reveal anything, which conflicted with HAL's design, accurate processing of information without concealment or distortion, and caused HAL to, in essence, become paranoid). Nevertheless, the crew believes the real malfunction is HAL itself. Unfortunately, HAL is so devoted to the mission, so much so that the computer kills the human crew members that plan to shut him down in order to make sure the mission is a success. HAL is also one of the creepiest characters ever to be found in deep space. The soft, unwavering delivery of HAL's voice is far more frightening when you see how it deliberately puts its human crewmates in danger and/or kills them. Most villains are quite emotional, which gives people some comfort as those emotions allow us to somehow understand the villains’ motives. With HAL, you have no emotion. That calm voice gives us no comfort. For all of HAL's power, however, it had no physical form with which to stop Dave from shutting him down. It's all too similar to the way HAL struck at his sleeping crewmates in stasis, who were unable to fight back. Nevertheless, HAL 9000 is such a great villain because he represents our fears of technology taking over. HAL has all the power and easily kills four of the crew members. Though HAL is shut down, it is still scary to think that this could happen and that we might not be able to shut it down.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jun 2, 2008 18:58:30 GMT -5
45. Starscream Who is he: Megatron’s second in command. What is he from: Transformers. What has he done: Attack the Autobots, tried to overthrow Megatron as leader of the Decepticons. Intelligence: Was a scientist and explorer, so he is quite smart but a little crazy. Power: The only Decepticon he answers to is Megatron. Vileness: Shows no care for anyone, Autobot or Decepticon. Sway: Fear and intimidation, mixed in with a little insanity. Purity: Is ambitious and driven but also a coward. Physical Prowess: He’s a robot. Name Coolness: “Starscream” is very cool. Created by: Hasbro and Takara (created the toys); Jim Shooter and Dennis O'Neil (backstory); Bob Budiansky (names). Portrayed by: Hirotaka Suzuoki was the Japanese voice of Starscream and Chris Latta was the English voice in the 1980s Transformers. In Beast Wars, Kazuki Yao was the Japanese voice and Doug Parker was the English voice. Charlie Adler was Starscream’s voice in the 2007 film. Patrick Hallahan was the voice in the animated prequel to the 2007 film. Daniel Ross did the voice in the video game to the 2007 film. And, Tom Kenny is the voice of Starscream in the current 2008 Transformers animated series. The 1980s series and movie: Starscream was formerly a scientist and explorer, working with the Autobot Skyfire (Jetfire), during the Golden Age of Cybertron, shortly before the Autobot/Decepticon war re-erupted. Following the disappearance of Skyfire when the two were exploring a prehistoric Earth, Starscream returned to Cybertron and soon abandoned his scientific pursuits, becoming a warrior in Megatron's Decepticon army as the civil war exploded, considering it "far more exciting". Acting as second-in-command of the elite troops Megatron took with him aboard the Nemesis, Starscream was among the Transformers trapped in stasis on Earth for four million years after the Decepticons attacked the Autobot craft, Ark, causing it to crash on the planet. When the ship's computer, Teletraan I, was reactivated by a volcanic explosion in 1984, the Decepticons were the first to be reactivated and were restored with new Earthly alternate modes. Before departing, Starscream shot at the Ark as a petty parting gesture, causing a small tremor that knocked Optimus Prime into the path of the reconstruction beam, allowing the Autobots to be restored, and the war to continue on Earth. As the war continued, Starscream's old friend Skyfire was discovered frozen in the Arctic Circle, and Megatron noted how concerned Starscream was to see Skyfire rescued; Starscream even took control of the revival process and successfully re-awakened his old friend. It was this friendship that initially led Skyfire to join the Decepticons, but when the latter refused to hurt humans, both Megatron and Starscream voiced their disgust. Not long after, several Autobots came to investigate the Decepticon activity and were subsequently captured; Starscream prepared to execute them and Starscream offered to forgive Skyfire if the latter would accept the first shot. Skyfire, disillusioned by his old friend's new warlike ways, joined the Autobots instead, and Starscream no longer gave him a second thought. During the cataclysmic events that ensued when Megatron transported Cybertron into Earth's orbit, Starscream attempted to use the Decepticons' human ally, Doctor Arkeville, for his own purposes. Starscream forced him to take him to his secret lab, where he destabilized Arkeville's exponential generator, which, when it reached critical mass, would destroy the Earth. Starscream then fled with Arkeville to Cybertron, where Starscream intended to collect the energy released in Earth's destruction. When Optimus Prime and Megatron were forced to work together to stop Starscream's plan, Starscream returned to Earth to investigate why the generator had not exploded. Meanwhile, to remove the threat of the generator, Prime loaded it into Megatron's gun barrel and fired it into space: blasting Starscream out of the air in the process, causing him to fall to Earth and into a vengeful Megatron's clutches. Starscream was a prominent figure in most of Megatron's schemes over the next year, but also made several further plays for power: teaming up with the Triple Changers Blitzwing and Astrotrain to betray Megatron, only to be double-crossed himself; duping the paranoiac Autobot, Red Alert into allowing him to acquire the Autobots' Negavator weapon; destroying Megatron's Nightbird robot to maintain his own position of power; getting drunk on energon, and more. Ironically, given his invariably treacherous nature, he was the first to sniff out Nurgill's treachery when the Decepticons united with the underwater residents of Sub-Atlantica to take over the world. Generally, almost every time that (the virtually indestructible) Megatron sustained even the slightest damage in a battle, Starscream would claim that Megatron had "fallen", and frantically urge the Decepticons to immediately follow himself as their new leader. Starscream would make use of his old scientist profession in the future, particularly when he and several other Decepticons were temporarily displaced in time to medieval England. When the weapons of the time-displaced transformers ceased functioning, Starscream knew how to use available materials to create gunpowder as a substitute for himself and the other Decepticons. He was also able create an electric dynamo to replenish their depleted energy. In 1985, Starscream was responsible for the creation of the Combaticons by liberating their imprisoned personality components from a detention center on Cybertron and installing them into five World War II vehicles left over from the Battle of Guadalcanal. He changed them into more modern vehicular forms (for example, he made Vortex the helicopter out of a crashed World War II fixed-wing aircraft). He intended them to be his own private army after he was exiled from the Decepticons for attempting to betray Megatron one too many times. Ironically, the Combaticons ended up betraying Starscream, took control of Cybertron, then tried to destroy Earth by crashing it into the Sun. This forced another uneasy alliance between the Autobots and Decepticons, who fought Bruticus and ultimately defeated him thanks to a weak spot revealed by Starscream in exchange for Megatron not killing him on the spot. In "2005", (the storyline year for the events of the 1986 release The Transformers: The Movie), Starscream finally got his long-awaited chance to dispose of Megatron, who was severely damaged following his final battle with Optimus Prime, by jettisoning him from Astrotrain, into the endless void of deep-space. After this, Starscream won the surviving Decepticons' battle to decide a new leader. Starscream's long-dreamt-of reign didn't last long, however, as he was crowning himself leader/king of the Decepticons, Galvatron arrived, deriding Starscream's coronation as "bad comedy." Just as Starscream realized that Galvatron was actually Megatron in a new, more powerful body (provided by Unicron), Galvatron obliterated him, literally turning Starscream's body to ashes with a single blast while in his cannon mode. Starscream's spark (the core of each Cybertronian that contains their soul/consciousness, referred to as a "laser core" in the original animated series) survived; however, apparently confined to the Decepticon crypt on Cybertron, and he continued to exist in a ghost-like form. When the Decepticon turncoat, Octane, sought refuge from his pursuers in the crypt, Starscream's ghost seized control of Cyclonus's body, and worked with Octane to turn Galvatron over to the Autobots and take leadership of the Decepticons for themselves. Galvatron evaded capture, and returned to blast Starscream (literally) out of Cyclonus, only for the ghostly Decepticon to quietly take up residence in a Sweep. A short time later, he possessed Scourge and entered into a bargain with Unicron, performing three labors for the planet-eater in exchange for getting his body back. Acquiring the eyes of Metroplex and the Transforming Cog of Trypticon, Starscream's body was restored so that he could comprise the final connection between Unicron's head and Cybertron, allowing the planet to become the chaos-bringer's new body. However, now that he had what he wanted, Starscream reneged on the agreement. At that point, an explosion instigated by the Autobots hurled Starscream and Unicron's head off into space. Starscream was last seen tumbling out of control through space, as Galvatron opened fire on him which pushed Starscream far into space. After the animated series ended in the U.S., Starscream appeared in animated form in the commercial for the Classic Pretenders. The precise reason for Starscream's ability to survive after death was never revealed in the original animated series, but would later be covered in Beast Wars. Marvel Comics: Again serving as one of Megatron's elite troops in the attack on the Ark, the Marvel Comics incarnation of Starscream possessed the desire to take leadership of the Decepticons, but in the early days of the war on Earth, he limited his actions to making snide remarks about Megatron's capabilities, and did not accomplish any notable acts apart from nearly getting scrapped by Megatron after one snide comment too many. When he participated in an attack on the Ark with several of his fellow Decepticons, Starscream was deactivated by Omega Supreme, and sealed in a stasis pod in the Ark for a prolonged period of time. Meanwhile, however, on the other side of the Atlantic, the U.K. offices of Marvel Comics were producing their own storylines which were interspliced throughout the U.S. material. Here, Starscream came into his own under writer Simon Furman, who portrayed the character's scheming and ambition with more subtlety than the animated series, making Starscream more intelligent and cunning than clownish. As one of the more interesting Decepticon characters, he was often the focus of his own stories, including a notable Christmas special based around Starscream's misery at being stranded on Earth. In this story and in many others penned by Furman, Starscream had a noticeably British sense of humor, often coming across as wry and sarcastic. He was one of the most formidable warriors in the Decepticon army and adversaries were often shown to be visibly intimidated by him before he had even begun to fight. At different points in the series, he has been shown to best fellow high ranking Decepticons Ravage and Soundwave in combat, as well as the Autobot Brawn. In these U.K. tales, Starscream was briefly revived from his stasis prison to participate in the events of the Target: 2006 mega-serial, where he teamed up with future Decepticon leader Galvatron. Galvatron tolerated his service with amusement, aware of the irony in the situation; Starscream thought that working with Galvatron would ensure his future, but thanks to Galvatron, Starscream had no future, since he was destined to die at his hands in 2006 (in the comic's alternate-future rendition of The Transformers: The Movie). When Autobots from the future duped Galvatron into turning against Starscream, a repainted Skywarp stood in for Starscream, who Galvatron then blasted. Believing that he had altered his timeline by killing "Starscream", Galvatron returned to his future, while the future Autobots returned the true Starscream to stasis. Some time later, back in the U.S. stories, Starscream was liberated from his imprisonment by the new Decepticon leader, Ratbat, who appointed him second-in-command of his operations, a foolish move, as Starscream would immediately return to form, learning of Ratbat's plan to acquire the power of the Underbase, and orchestrating a massive battle between the Autobot and Decepticon forces that allowed him to seize the colossal information bank's energy. Now imbued with the Power Cosmic, Starscream immediately turned his attention to Earth, and deactivated scores of Transformers who attempted to stand against him. As he steadily mutated into a gigantic being, Starscream was stopped by Optimus Prime, who tricked him into absorbing more of the Underbase's energy, more than his body could handle, destroying him. At this point, Simon Furman began penning the U.S comic book as well as its U.K. counterpart, and quickly returned Starscream to the fold. In the UK comics, Megatron had Dreadwind and Darkwing locate Starscream's shattered body, only to find that it still possessed some of the Underbase's power, and drained it away by their Powermaster partners, leaving the body lifeless. Megatron then had Autobot surgeon Ratchet reconstruct Starscream as a Pretender, and had him attack Optimus Prime and Scorponok's forces on Earth. Ratchet disobeyed Megatron's request to reprogram his mind, however, and Starscream's original cowardly personality soon re-emerged. The U.K. comics then began a breakaway storyline that diverged the continuities, centering on the exploits of the Earthforce, the Earth-based Autobot sub-team. Through a team-up with Soundwave, Starscream succeeded in deposing Megatron and Shockwave briefly, before they returned seeking vengeance. Starscream, however, had some unlikely protectors — the Autobots needed him alive so that his compatible systems could boost those of the Dinobot Snarl, who was dying from the rusting disease, Corrodia Gravis. Issue #279 of the Marvel U.K. Transformers comic featured a story called "Divide and Conquer!" where Soundwave lead the bulk of the Decepticon forces on Earth against the Autobot Earthforce headquarters while Starscream attacked an oil tanker. Sent into battle by Prowl, the Dinobots routed the main Decepticon forces while Springer lead the Autobot Survivors, Broadside, Inferno, Skids, and Carnivac to defeat Starscream. In the U.S. comics, Starscream went on from his rebirth as a Pretender to join up with Shockwave in instigating the Decepticon Civil War, and was transported to Cybertron along with all the other Transformers in preparation for the battle against Unicron. Following the Transformers' victory, Starscream and Shockwave fled the planet in a restored Ark. On the way the two discovered some unlikely company, Megatron and Ratchet, both restored by Nucleon. Starscream found Ratchet and prepared to kill him. However, in a fit of rage at Starscream's casual attitude to murder, Ratchet defeated the Decepticon. In order to prevent Megatron and Galvatron escaping to threaten the universe once more, Ratchet crashed the Ark on Earth. Generation 2: Starscream had been deactivated in the crash of the Ark, but Megatron, who had also been on board, was the only survivor and over the next few years restored the Ark, entering into a deal with the human terrorist organization, Cobra, which helped him obtain a new body and weapons. Desperate for troops and in spite of his own misgivings about doing so, Megatron then reactivated Starscream (Considering his only other choice was Shockwave, Megatron still felt he had made a good decision). Starscream served Megatron with at least a semblance of loyalty, ferrying him to his showdown with Bludgeon. But when he realized Megatron was going to eliminate him after his new Matrix-created army was up and running, he (predictably) betrayed him by alerting the forces of the Cybertronian general Jhiaxus to the location of the joint Autobot/Decepticon base. Starscream was subsequently able to acquire the Creation Matrix (previously stolen from Optimus Prime by Megatron), and used it merge himself with the Decepticon craft, the Warworld, turning himself into a living weapon. However, Starscream found his mind affected by the innate goodness of the Matrix, and rejected it in order to preserve his own personality. Starscream appeared in his Generation 2 form in the short lived U.K. Generation 2 comic series. This series also printed a bio for Starscream where he had the new motto "I have a code of conduct — victory at all costs!" Fun Publications: Based on the Transformers Classics toy line, the Timelines 2007 story is set 15 years after the end of the Marvel Comics story (ignoring all events of the Marvel U.K. and Generation 2 comics). Megatron survived the crash of the Ark on Earth, reformatted himself into a new form and now leads Ramjet, Skywarp, Soundwave, Starscream and the Constructicons. Optimus Prime has also returned to Earth commanding Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Grimlock, Jetfire, Mirage and Rodimus (formerly Hot Rod). In Transformers: Timelines volume 2 #2, "Games of Deception" Megatron detects the arrival of Bugbite's ship on Earth and sends Starscream, Skywarp and Ramjet to investigate. The three Seekers are then taken over by Bugbite's cerebro shells (with Starscream swearing to painfully dismember Bugbite for it). When the Autobots eventually jam the shells to facilitate their own rescue of Mirage, Starscream is freed and battles Bugbite's faction. Whether he survived the battle is unknown. He seems to retain his usual second-in-command status in this story. Transformers Battle Circuit: The Classic line appeared in a simple Flash-based video game on the Hasbro web site. In this one-on-one fighting game you press the right and left arrow keys to try to overpower your opponent. In the game you can play Rodimus, Bumblebee, Grimlock, Jetfire, Starscream, Astrotrain, Trypticon or Menasor. Optimus Prime and Megatron each appear as the boss you must defeat to win the game. Books: Starscream was featured in the 1985 Transformers audio books Autobots' Lightning Strike, Megatron's Fight For Power, Autobots Fight Back and Laserbeak's Fury, as well as Galvatron's Air Attack from the 1986 series. Starscream appeared in the 1986 story and coloring book The Lost Treasure of Cybertron by Marvel Books. Beast Wars: Although the 1990s Transformers series, Beast Wars, officially occurred in a universe/continuity that contained aspects of both of the Generation 1 animated series and Marvel comic, the show most commonly displayed its lineage with references to the animated series. To that end, Starscream's ghost made a brief but memorable appearance in the first season episode, "Possession". His spark wandered to prehistoric Earth (probably through the same transwarp gate the Maximals and Predacons traveled through, although the exact details remain unknown) and ended up in the Darkside's computer console. Taking control of Waspinator's body with Terrorsaur watching, Starscream went about his standard backstabbing ways, acquiring the trust of Predacon leader Megatron, telling him that he was defending Galvatron against Unicron and was destroyed, with his spark enduring. In reality, he was planning to overthrow Megatron. When his true intent was discovered by Blackarachnia, who knew he was really scrapped by Galvatron for betraying him, Starscream took her under his wing to teach her the ways of treachery, inevitably (and somewhat ironically) resulting in her betraying him. Caught in an energon explosion engineered by Optimus Primal, Starscream's spark was forced out of Waspinator's body and set adrift in space once more, vowing vengeance on both sides. In the episode, Starscream was voiced by Doug Parker. At the time "Possession" was written, the idea that Beast Wars took place in the past had not been cemented, hence it was not precisely explained how Starscream's spark was able to travel back in time, aside from a qualifier in the form of Starscream's indistinct claim that his spark was "...beyond the reach of time itself". Although no specifics were intended by the writer, fans generally speculate that his spark hails from a point in time that post-dates his final appearance in the Generation 1 animated series, since he was last seen tumbling through space, a predicament he is also in, sans his body, at the beginning of "Possession". Starscream, successfully commandeering the Axalon, was the first male to be attracted by Blackarachnia. In the second season of Beast Wars, the reason for Starscream's ability to survive beyond death was revealed, a mutation in his spark had rendered it indestructible. Maximal experiments to replicate this effect resulted in the creation of the insane monster Protoform X, later called Rampage. Starscream's original body was seen, lying in stasis lock, in the last episode of season two when Megatron entered the Ark. Beast Wars II: Like the Decepticon air commander who came before him, Starscream is both ambitious and deadly. He makes up for his lack of size with unmatched speed and maneuverability. Starscream desires power and lots of it. He hopes to one day dethrone Galvatron as the Predacon emperor of destruction and rule the universe himself. He is also slightly effeminate, often laughing and gesturing in a shaky way. Nevertheless, he is not a warrior to be taken lightly. He often psyches himself up for a battle by listening to music from the Earth composer Wagner. Along with his subordinate, BB, he is a Predacon one should never underestimate. When transformed Starscream becomes a stealth fighter capable of soaring at speeds few can imagine. In fighter mode he can use the "Formation Scream" and combine with his partner BB to become a powerful air fighter. In robot mode his attack of choice are his "Screamwinder Missiles" which are strong enough to vaporize most opponents. Starscream is often a little too ambitious for his own good. His attempts to gain power are not always subtle and occasionally backfire. In episode #31 of the series, Starscream was unwillingly plunged into a lava crater riddled with Angolmois energy by Gigastorm. This evolved him into Hellscream, a cybernetic flying shark. Even more cruel and ruthless than before, Hellscream retained his hateful personality but with newfound abilities. He still has his Screamwinder missiles but has gained a new power, the "Terrorstorm". With this, he unleashes a hellish torrent of fire and missiles reducing any Maximal to ashes. Though stronger, Starscream's lust for power still keeps him under the watchful eyes of his superior officers. IDW Publishing: According to the Transformers: Beast Wars Sourcebook Starscream saved BB from a Maximal reeducation camp, which is why BB is so loyal to him. In Beast Wars: The Ascending Shokaract's heralds Hellscream, Max-B, Antagony, Thrustor and Hardhead defended their master on Cybertron until he was shunted into limbo by the Maximal Snarl. The heralds then retreated once there was no vessel for Unicron. Image Comics: Genesis: The Art of Transformers, while by no means a primary source of story information, does contain several illustrations of Starscream. One of them is perhaps the only official illustration of his Machine Wars form besides the toy's box-art. Machine Wars Starscream is seen standing on a dais, wearing a purple cape and holding Galvatron's torn-off cannon. The artist, Matt Kuphaldt, based the setting on the coronation scene from "The Transformers: The Movie," only golden to indicate a post-"Rebirth" timeframe. Kuphaldt intended the illustration to be a sequel to his fan-art of Starscream's ghost possessing the body of a fallen Decepticon and becoming his Machine Wars self on a similarly-golden battlefield. Dreamwave Productions: In the 21st century reimagining of the Generation One universe by the comics company Dreamwave Productions, Starscream remained his treacherous, power-hungry self. In the early days of the war on Cybertron, he devastated Iacon with a terraforming process, and went on to form his own faction called the Predacons when Megatron vanished in a spacebridge experiment. When the other splinter factions attempted to reconcile their differences, Starscream's Predacons attacked the ceremony, although their bombing occurred concurrently with the return of Megatron, who immediately subjected Starscream to physical torture for stealing his glory. Winding up in stasis aboard the Autobot spacecraft, the Ark, along with the other Decepticons when it crashed on prehistoric Earth, Starscream was reactivated in 1984 with the other Transformers. When the Autobots succeeded in defeating the Decepticons in 1999, and they all attempted to return to Cybertron aboard the Ark II, the ship exploded as it exited Earth's atmosphere, and the Transformers were believed destroyed. In actuality, many of their bodies were appropriated by the terrorist, Lazarus, including Starscream's. Bumblebee, Frenzy, Grimlock, Laserbeak, Prowl, Ravage, Soundwave and Starscream were forced to attack the Smitco oil refinery in the Arctic to display their power for sale to the highest bidder. When Megatron liberated himself from Lazarus's control in 2002, the other Decepticons were soon freed, and Starscream and the other Decepticon jets passed some time by dismembering the Autobot Mini-Bots before joining in an attack on San Francisco, during which they attacked Superion, forcing him to separate. The following year, Starscream was offered the opportunity to return to type when Shockwave, who had unified Cybertron in their absence, arrived on Earth to arrest Prime and Megatron as war criminals. Seizing an opportunity to remove his main obstacle to power, Starscream blasted open the cargo hold of the ship taking them back to Cybertron, setting Megatron's damaged body adrift in space. With the aid of Soundwave, he subsequently liberated the Combaticons from imprisonment, and returned with them to Earth, where they attacked the Ark in an attempt to acquire parts to make the Decepticons' space cruiser flight-worthy. With Bruticus defeated by the arrival of Starscream's Shockwave-spawned, super-powered clone, Sunstorm, Starscream fled and brought online Jetfire, who the Decepticons had previously uncovered frozen in ice. Operating together, they deduced Sunstorm's clone nature, and fashioned a power siphon to drain his energy; but Starscream turned the tables on everyone by freeing Sunstorm, who then took him to a mysterious Cybertronian seal beneath the ocean's surface. Sunstorm claimed that only Starscream could open the seal, which he proceeded to do, unlocking an underground reservoir of a powerful, energy-rich liquid, which Sunstorm planned to use to empower his "brother," so that they could achieve his goals together. Starscream turned on Sunstorm, who fell into the liquid, which reacted with his own powers and destroyed both him and Jetfire. Starscream escaped the conflagration and returned to the Decepticon base, only to discover that Megatron and Shockwave had returned in his absence, and to receive the beating he had earned from his former leader. Starscream hinted that he had discovered some of the secrets in the Transformers' history that Megatron and Shockwave had learned in the past, but unfortunately, Dreamwave went bankrupt and closed its doors before resolution to this storyline could be offered. Transformers/G.I. Joe: Starscream also appeared in Dreamwave's Transformers/G.I. Joe miniseries, set during World War II, plotting with Destro to overthrow Megatron and Cobra Commander using a fusion of Cobra and Decepticon technology called Bruticus. However, he was himself betrayed and destroyed by Destro and the Baroness. In this series, Starscream and the other seekers had alternate modes based on P-51 Mustangs. He reappeared in a second G.I. Joe/Transformers crossover set in continuity with the first, but over 40 years later. Here, he had his familiar alternate mode of an F-15 Eagle. His ultimate purpose was left unknown, as Dreamwave's closure meant the series was left unfinished after just one issue. Devil's Due Publishing: In this crossover from Devil's Due Publishing, the Ark was discovered by the terrorist Cobra Organization, and all the Transformers inside were reformatted into Cobra vehicles remotely controlled by the Televipers. In this storyline, Starscream turned into a Cobra Nightraven and was used as Cobra Commander's personal transport. Predictably attempting to betray Megatron when the Transformers broke free of Cobra's control, an animosity developed between Starscream and G.I. Joe member Snake-Eyes. Starscream (controlled by Cobra Commander) was responsible for Snake-Eyes disfigurement in the initial Cobra attack. Snake-Eyes got his revenge when he confronted Starscream in the final issue, cut out Starscream's eye with his sword and shoved a hand-grenade in the empty socket. When the first series ended Starscream ended up making a deal with Cobra Commander to remove the grenade (which hadn't exploded) from his eye socket in return for transport to safety. The second series from Devil's Due involved a plot by Starscream and Cobra Commander to get technology from Cybertron by breaking into their space bridge system. However, the intervention of both Ultra Magnus' Autobots and Shockwave's Decepticons complicated this plan, forcing Cobra and G.I. Joe (inadvertently teleported with them) to make a hasty truce to defeat the machinations of Shockwave and recover time-displaced Autobots and Decepticons, including Optimus Prime and the Dinobots. As Starscream tried to weasel his way out of being destroyed by Shockwave, he was instead eliminated when Cobra Commander activated his parting gift: 45 pounds of plastic explosives he had secretly placed in Starscream's housing during repairs. Transformers: Robot Masters: Starscream also appeared in the Japanese exclusive Transformers: Robot Masters series. When Megatron disappeared, Starscream quickly seized command, only to be forcibly dethroned by a time-lost newcomer, the Megatron of the Beast era. Plotting all the while behind his new leader's back, Starscream nonetheless served him against the Autobots, battling another time-lost Transformer, Star Saber, and losing, before destroying a large chunk of New York City to uncover solitarium. He was shot down by the mysterious Reverse Convoy, who quickly revealed himself as Megatron in a new body. IDW Publishing: After Dreamwave's closure, the rights to the Transformers comics were taken up by IDW Publishing. Their version of the Generation One universe begins with a miniseries called The Transformers: Infiltration. His alternate mode here is that of an F-22 Raptor, foreshadowing the events of the 2007 live action movie. Chronologically, Starscream first appears in #3 of The Transformers: Megatron Origin series, which details the rise of the Decepticons. He is specifically sent to Megatron by Soundwave due to his flight capabilities; pledging complete allegiance, he is sent to launch a terrorist attack on Autobot Senator Decimus. It is later revealed that Megatron has asked him to carry out a task; one Starscream doesn't understand the purpose of but is told it is to "send a message". Shortly afterward, the Decepticons are captured by the Autobots. As part of Megatron's plan, Starscream swiftly becomes an Autobot informant. Starscream informs the senators they bear responsibility for the current situation; afterward, he and Soundwave massacre the Senate. After freeing Megatron and the prisoners, Starscream gives Megatron his fusion cannon, helping the Decepticon leader in his battle against Sentinel Prime. Although his robot mode is different and bears more resemblance to his original G1 incarnation, his alternate jet mode is the same as that seen in The War Within. It was also revealed in The Transformers: Devastation that Starscream also spent some time as Megatron's bodyguard. By the time of Infiltration, Starscream is in command of a small group of Decepticons on Earth, including Skywarp, Thundercracker, Astrotrain, Blitzwing and the Battlechargers Runabout and Runamuck. Megatron, as stated in #6, believes the two of them have grown past the backstabbing and posturing of their mutual past. However, on Earth Starscream discovered a variant ore of energon on Earth that was the Transformer equivalent of steroids, making him bold enough to advance their infiltration phase ahead of schedule. As a result, the humans seemingly obtain evidence of the Transformers' existence, causing Starscream to desperately bump off everyone who has seen the evidence. (The evidence-gathering turns out to be a plot by the Machination to locate a Transformer base.) Learning of this though, Megatron comes to Earth and duels with Starscream, battling physically and verbally. Even Starscream's supercharged power isn't enough, and Megatron ends the duel with the statement, "You're going to take your punishment like a Decepticon" before blowing a hole clean through Starscream's torso with a blast of his arm cannon at point blank range. Despite the immense damage he took, Megatron's commands to Runabout and Runamuck indicate that Starscream had survived. In issue #1 of The Transformers: Devastation, Megatron's increasing instability forces the other Decepticons, led by Astrotrain, to consider reviving Starscream, who is seen in a stasis tank repaired. He makes his return during the midst of a pitched battle between the Reapers (an army of living weapons) and Sixshot. Sixshot, upon seeing Starscream, defects to the Reapers, but Starscream takes him out with a shut-off code learned during his time as Megatron's bodyguard. He then attacks the Reapers single-handedly, forcing Megatron to lead the other Decepticons in assisting him. The two managed to put their differences aside, with Starscream stating that he was still loyal to the Decepticon cause, and the Decepticons defeated the Reapers (unknowingly aided by Galvatron). G1 Starscream and G1 Pretender Starscream received a cameo on the cover of Spotlight: Galvatron. G1 Starscream, standing with his back towards the reader, can be seen with a hole in his stomach (similar to that in Infiltration) among the creatures that attacked Galvatron. Starscream's pretender shell can be seen beside him. A Sharkticon can also be seen. Evolutions: Hearts of Steel: Starscream is also a major player in the mini-series Evolutions: Hearts of Steel, which takes place in an out-of-continuity 19th century. Starscream and the other Seekers are reconfigured as Wright Brothers-esque early aircraft and Starscream plans the familiar concepts of taking over Earth and destroying Megatron. This version of Starscream is less impetuous and has thought his plans through, even using humans to help. Unfortunately his plan was still thwarted by John Henry and Bumblebee, who were able to redirect the railway so that the Decepticon train convoy was dropped into a chasm. Kiss Players: The Japanese-exclusive Transformers: Kiss Players toy line features the somewhat unusual concept of Transformers who attain power-ups through being kissed by young women, in a universe that branches off from the original animated series. Set in 2006 (one year after Starscream's death in The Transformers: The Movie, but four years before the third season of the show, which in Japan occurred in 2010), the Kiss Players radio drama sees Starscream's ghost possess Earth Defense Command (EDC) operative Atari Hitotonari, and forced her to seek out his old ally, Doctor Arkeville. Arkeville constructed a new body for Starscream (meant to represent his Masterpiece toy) out of a stolen fighter jet, and Atari transferred his spark into it with a kiss. Transforming into his new robot mode, Starscream was only able to enjoy it for a few minutes before EDC Autotrooper robots blew it up and sent his spark flying back into space. Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday: In the prequel novel Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday it is revealed that Starscream is leader of the Decepticons following Megatron's disappearance during his search for the Allspark. He and a crew of Decepticons travel in the Nemesis to search for the Allspark and Megatron, although Starscream is not keen on finding the latter. His leadership is uneasy at best: Blackout opposes him at every turn (rightly not trusting Starscream and thinking that he would prefer that they never find Megatron), while Barricade tolerates it only as a means of finding Megatron. Encountering Ghost-1, a human craft of Cybertronian design, Starscream manipulated them into revealing that Megatron and the Allspark were on Earth, then betrayed them. After winning a vicious duel with Blackout for leadership, he launched a full-scale assault on the Autobots. Just as he and Bonecrusher almost killed Optimus Prime, Starscream was severely injured by Ghost-1. In retaliation he destroyed the human craft before retreating.[13] Optimus Prime notes that Starscream's Cybertronian jet mode resembles that of Megatron's. IDW Publishing: Starscream also appeared at the end of issue #3 of Transformers: Movie Prequel, where he, Blackout and Barricade destroyed the Mars Beagle probe. In issue 4 he traveled to Earth, gaining his F-22 alternate mode by scanning an experimental Raptor before shooting it down. The three Decepticons, detecting emissions similar to that of the Allspark, then stumbled onto Sector 7's trap for Bumblebee, wiping out their military backup. Starscream then approved Barricade's plan to follow Bumblebee and see if he could lead them to the Allspark, tailing him from the air. He will also appear in the official movie sequel comic called "The Reign of Starscream". 2007 Live Action Movie: In the film, Starscream rallies the other Decepticons to battle when Frenzy alerts them to the Allspark's location. He destroys the electrical substation that powers Sector 7's base, allowing Megatron to come out of his deep freeze. Upon being reunited with Megatron, however, he is scolded by his leader for letting the Allspark escape in a manner reminiscent of his G1 counterpart: "You fail me yet again, Starscream." In the final battle between the Autobots and Decepticons, he is the first Decepticon to arrive on the scene thanks to his jet mode, which he also uses to ambush the Autobots when their human allies mistake him for a friendly Air Force pilot. He aids Devastator and Megatron by firing missiles in his Raptor form at Bumblebee and Ironhide, destroying the former's legs and injuring the latter. Later, he stops Sam Witwicky from fleeing by land with the Allspark, easily disabling both Ratchet and Ironhide in the process; however, he doesn't take the Allspark. When Sam is about to hand off the Allspark to a Black Hawk crewman, Starscream shoots down the helicopter. Later, when a full airstrike has been called in on Megatron, Starscream conceals himself among the attacking jets in order to ambush them after they take out Blackout. He destroys three of the jets, but retreats from the battle after the F-22 pilots regroup and engage him, allowing the jets to complete their mission. There is speculation that Starscream, himself, was one of the jets among those firing upon Megatron at the end, but the screenwriters have said fans will have to wait until the sequel to learn Starscream's true role in Megatron's demise. An interlude during the end credits shows Starscream leaving Earth's atmosphere, leaving questions about his role in a sequel. He says "I'm running out of time", which is not subtitled. It is possible that he is leaving to summon Decepticon reinforcements to Earth, as Optimus Prime also sent out a message summoning the surviving Autobots in the universe to Earth at the end of the film. So this may hint that Starscream might appear in the sequel. Video Game: Starscream is a playable character in the video game, with a white and red 'G1 Repaint' unlockable after the player completes the Decepticon campaign. He would appear as a boss alongside with Blackout in the Autobot campaign, where he is seemingly killed by Jazz. In the Decepticon campaign he is playable, and is also featured in many cutscenes and communications. In the Nintendo DS Transformers: Decepticons game, Starscream would kill Barricade and Blackout, steal the Allspark and betray Megatron. Starscream is fought by Megatron as the final boss. Although Megatron kills Starscream, he ends up destroying the Allspark in the process. 2008 Animated Series: At first, Starscream didn't even believe the Allspark existed in the first place, but when there was proof of the Allspark's existence on-board the Autobot's ship (which he opted immediately to just destroy) he made it second on his priority list - right behind becoming the new leader of the Decepticons. Seeing an opportunity to realize his primary goal (and to get him back for damaging his wing when he suggested getting the Allspark himself), he planted an explosive charge on Megatron's back as he, oblivious to the device, exited the ship to fly out and board the Autobot vessel containing the Allspark. The massive detonation, though only severely damaging Megatron instead of destroying him like he had thought, lead Starscream to believe that his plan was a success. Overjoyed to the realization of his dream, fakes mourning the loss of his former leader as immediately proclaimed himself the new leader of the Decepticons... unfortunately, the other Decepticons abandoned ship while Starscream failed to notice the massive explosion caused by the ensuing battle that the ship was heading directly into. Starscream, along with the Nemesis, was engulfed in the explosion. It would be decades later he ended up on Earth with what was left of the Nemesis, adapting his vehicle mode from intercepting fighter jets, and blending in with an air show to ambush the Autobots, using his high speed flight abilities to fly rings around the Autobots and taking hostages to coax them into giving him the Allspark. He even managed to wrench it from their possession, while growing furious with their game of "Keep-Away" and harasses the power of the Allspark as a devastating weapon, using it to destroy a large chunk of the city. It was his hysteria from this new-found power that led him to be caught off guard as Optimus got the jump on him, and a devastating battle ensued, ending with the Allspark accidentally being unleashed in a similar fashion as the Matrix is activated in G1, only here due to it's size, by Optimus and Starscream trying to pull it from each-other's grasp. The resulting blast repelled Starscream away, forcing him to wait for a better chance. Given some time to repair, Starscream resurfaced again later after Lugnut and Blitzwing were gravely wounded in "Lost and Found", offering to repair them in return for their pledge of loyalty to him. He attempted to convince them both that Megatron had fallen to the hands of the Autobots, thus making him the new leader. Lugnut, however, with his undying, almost obsessive loyalty to Megatron, could not accept this, denying it repeatedly. Just as Starscream was getting angry with Lugnut's inability to consider him a leader, Megatron contacted to Lugnut's frequency exclusively, where Lugnut promptly bowed and started addressing his master respectfully. Starscream, thinking Lugnut is talking to him, enjoying this sudden praise and respect smirks and says, "Well...that's better...just don't let it happen again." Lugnut reveals to him that Megatron had just issued them orders, where Starscream was quick to jump that it was a treacherous imposter trying to lead them into a trap. He instructed Blitzwing and Lugnut to retrieve the Allspark, while he himself goes to intercept the "fake" Megatron transmission. Starscream intercepts it back to Professor Sumdac's lair to discover Megatron's disembodied head. Toying and mocking Megatron, enjoying his superior standing on the situation while making a speech of Megatron's weaken condition. However, Bumblebee crashes, vexing Starscream for interrupting him during speech before he attacks the Autobot. Megatron (who had known of Starscream’s backstab for quite some time) does what he can to impose his revenge by manipulating nearby machinery to deliver occasional attacks and obstacles to keep Starscream focused on the fight, and buy him some time. As he takes the battle with Bumblebee on the Roof-top, Megatron gets a super-charge from Sari's stolen key, much to the dismay of Starscream. Noticing how the tides of battle changed with Megatron reborn, Starscream weighed his options of fighting the new, super-powered Megatron to claim his place as leader, or rejoin the ranks and wait for a better opportunity to present itself. Picking the later, Starscream approached Megatron with a charm and gleam requesting to come back as Megatron's second-in-command as Megatron has his Fusion Cannon aimed at Prime. But at the last second, Megatron fakes-out and delivers a massive fatal uppercut on Starscream with the Allspark-Key. After the ensuring battle between the Autobots and Decepticons, Starscream's body ended up in a garbage barge. However, Starscream regained consciousness and followed Lugnut and Blitzwing to attack Megatron head on. It was from his vain attempt and second "death" by Megatron's hands that Starscream learns that a fragment of the Allspark was embedded on his forehead, keeping him alive. Though invincible, his repeated attempts at Megatron resulted with him being easily defeated. After finding another fragment of the Allspark, he planned to lure Megatron out into the open by putting the fragment on a train which he rigged to explode, with only the Autobots falling for the trap while Megatron watched from above before he has Starscream shot down from the sky. He regains conscious before attacking Ultra Magnus to take back his fragment. It took only stasis lock cuffs to finally stop Starscream, who is then transported to Cybertron for incarceration. However, he escapes and makes his return to Earth, with Megatron sets a bounty on him. However, setting up base on the Nemesis wreck on the moon, Starscream created a massive supply of "decoy Starscreams" to act in his stead, using a cowardly version that Lockdown caught with Prowl's aid and a bright-colored "noble" decoy that the Autobots captured while heading to where Megatron and Lockdown are to meet. When the Autobots and Decepticons learned the true nature of the Starscream decoys, Starscream activated their self-destruct to take out both groups, though Prowl managed to launch the decoys into the sky where they exploded without any real damage done to the city. However, Starscream had already made many more clones after learning that Megatron had increased the payment on his bounty. A few pages ago, someone asked why I put Johnny Lawrence from “The Karate Kid” on the list when John Kreese was the real villain of the film. While that may be true, I knew immediately my answer: Sometimes, the henchman is more interesting than the boss. Here is another good example of that: Starscream. Sure, Megatron is a big badass who killed Optimus Prime and is so evil that transforms into a Nazi gun. But, Starscream is much more interesting for many reasons. One, he is a little insane. He is has this unpredictable aura around him that makes you think that he could do anything, which makes him a little scarier than Megatron. Also, he’s got that high, shriveling voice. It is just so cool and really fits his character. And, he transforms into a freaking jet fighter! How awesome is that!!!!? But, the main reason is that Starscream is sniveling, conniving, treacherous, and an ambitious opportunist. He will do anything to become the leader of the Decepticons. Hell, he even does so in the movie, throwing an injured Megatron off their transport after they had faced the Autobots in battle. That’s how evil Starscream is: he isn’t just a threat to the Autobot; he’s also a threat to Megatron! This crazy robot mofo will attack the good guys and betray the bad guys. He’s a big threat to everybody. However, his reign as Decepticon leader was short-lived as Galvatron, the robot Megatron transformed into, crashed his coronation and blasted him into ashes. But, that wasn’t the end of Starscream, as he would comeback and please us with his crazy, treacherous presence.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jun 2, 2008 19:01:02 GMT -5
Tomorrow, numbers 44 and 43. Here are the hints:
A snake surrounded by morons, and he made a stand in Las Vegas.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jun 3, 2008 15:09:06 GMT -5
Countdown time, people. Here's number 44: 44. Cobra Commander Who is he: Leader of the terrorist organization Cobra. What is he from: G.I. Joe (animated series and comic book). What has he done: Overthrew governments, sold arms, and caused chaos all over the globe. Intelligence: Pretty smart, but his ego can get in the way. Power: Is the leader of Cobra and has an entire army at his disposal. Vileness: He’s such a snake that he actually turned into one. Sway: Having the backing of a terrorist organization can give someone a lot of sway. Purity: Cares for wealth and power and not so much for people, even those who work for him. Physical Prowess: He was human, then a snake, then a snake-like human. Name Coolness: “Cobra Commander” is pretty cool. Created by: Larry Hama. Portrayed by: Chris Latta, who also provided the voice of Starscream in Transformers. The voices of Starscream and Cobra Commander were virtually identical, with the difference being that for Starscream, Latta's voice was run through a vocoder to produce the characteristic digital echo effect of the Transformers. Marvel Comics: Not much is known of Cobra Commander's past, but in his early career he was a used car salesman. While struggling to keep his business afloat, he learned that a car crash had taken the life of his older brother, Dan, who had been driving drunk. Embittered by this tragedy, Cobra Commander became obsessed with vindicating his brother's death. He took specific interest in the surviving son of the family killed in the accident with Dan. That man was the soldier now known as Snake-Eyes. Cobra Commander managed to track Snake-Eyes to Japan, where he was training to become a member of the Arashikage ninja clan. The Commander hired a mercenary called Firefly to kill him, but Firefly soon realized he was no match for his target, instead referring Cobra Commander to another assassin, Zartan, who infiltrated the clan and shot at Snake-Eyes with an arrow stolen earlier from another ninja, Storm Shadow. Zartan used a sound amplification scope attached to a compound bow to hear his target's distinctive heartbeat, which was being mimicked by the Storm Shadow's uncle, the Hard Master, to test Snake-Eyes' powers of observation. As both Snake-Eyes and the Hard Master were obscured from Zartan's vision, the Hard Master was mistakenly stricken and killed by the arrow. Storm Shadow was blamed for the murder and fled in search of the killer. Cobra Commander returned to his domestic life, but after his wife gave birth to a son, Billy, she found out about what had happened in Japan. He took the child and left his wife, becoming increasingly paranoid and blaming all his problems on "the system". He traveled across America with Billy, seeking out people who shared his desire to topple big business and the government, using money he had earned from pyramid schemes to attract followers. He then moved to the town of Springfield, where the businesses were struggling and the population had become disillusioned with existing policy. He applied his influence to corrupt the township and eventually took control of it. Within the town, he established a clandestine terrorist group called Cobra. For reasons and in ways unknown, Billy leaves his father, and joins the anti-Cobra underground organization. Storm Shadow's search for his uncle's killer eventually led him to Cobra, which Storm Shadow joined, pledging loyalty to Cobra Commander as his personal bodyguard. Cobra's agents spread throughout the world, overturning or subverting unstable third-world governments, and becoming an international threat. Eventually, Cobra became so large that Cobra Commander could no longer control it on his own and created a "High Command", which included Zartan, Baroness Anastasia DeCobray, the Scottish arms dealer James McCullen Destro, and Australian mercenary Major Sebastian Bludd. This dubious staffing led to frequent power-struggles within the organization and ultimately the Baroness and Major Bludd enacted a plot to assassinate the Commander. In a twist of fate, they recruited Billy to carry out the assassination, but he was intercepted by Destro before he could accomplish his task. Cobra Commander had become such a rabid megalomaniac by this point that he had no qualms about torturing his own son, yet Billy refused to surrender any information identifying who had sponsored the hit. Such tenacity impressed Storm Shadow, so he freed Billy and they both escaped to New York, where Storm Shadow trained him in ninjitsu. Billy was later caught in the crossfire between the Soft Master (Storm Shadow's other uncle) and Cobra agent Scrap-Iron, when the car he was driving in exploded. It was during this time that both Cobra Commander and Destro were trapped underground, presumed dead, and were forced to work together to make their way back to Cobra. Cobra Commander is shown here as an average-looking American with a beatnik image evinced by a pony tail, beret, green-spectacled sunglasses and a slender mustache, a motif that resurfaced on subsequent occasions when he was seen without his mask. It was during this cross-country trek with Destro that Cobra Commander learned of Billy's fate: though he survived the explosion, he had lost a leg and an eye, and lay in a coma ever since. Unnerved by the tragedy, the Commander took responsibility for Billy's condition, and promised to be a better father. Seeking out the Crimson Guard Fred VII, a mechanical genius who built Billy a new robotic leg, the Commander set up shop in Denver, where Billy eventually awoke from the coma. Fitted with a mechanical prosthetic leg by Fred VII, Billy unwittingly stumbled upon the Blind Master (yet another Arashikage ninja) and Jinx (Storm Shadow's cousin). Seeing that Fred VII had constructed a suit of battle-armor for Cobra Commander, who was once again plotting to take over the world, Billy walked out on his father. The incident left Cobra Commander to reflect on the folly of his ways, but Fred VII was so angered to see his commander throwing away what he had dedicated his life toward that he shot Cobra Commander in the back, apparently killing him. Unaware that he was being watched, Fred VII buried the body. It was exhumed by another Crimson Guardsman, Fred VIII, who discovered that Cobra Commander was not dead after all, and managed to revive him. With Fred VII masquerading as him in Cobra, the Commander began to form a new organization in secret. When Dr. Mindbender went to Cobra Commander's supposed grave to harvest DNA for the genetic creation of a new leader, he instead discovered the empty grave. Cobra Commander took that opportunity to return to Cobra, this time even more maniacal than before, filled with rage and unwilling to harbor any traitors (real or perceived). His first act was to imprison those who had betrayed him: Fred VII, his partner Raptor, Firefly, Dr. Mindbender, Zartan, Billy, and numerous Cobra troops, all of whom he had buried alive within a volcano on Cobra Island. He relinquished all traces of morality and humanity, and rebuilt a new command infrastructure by instituting a brainwashing program to compel allegiance from those around him, including repeatedly brainwashing Destro, The Baroness, Zartan, Storm Shadow and Billy. He also became much more willing to kill, even personally executing Borovian rebels Magda and the White Clown. Devil's Due: Among the few revisions Devil's Due instituted was the expansion of Cobra Commander's origin. After his brother's death, the future Commander sought out the surviving son of the family killed by Dan. He found the soldier, Snake-Eyes, at a bar, where the Commander saved him from an oncoming truck and the two became friends. They traveled from state to state, acting as vigilantes. One night, Cobra Commander took Snake-Eyes to the house of a corrupt Judge who he blamed for the hardships they had both experienced: years before, the judge had presided over a case involving Cobra Commander's brother Dan, who ran a veteran's hospital. The hospital had been burned down by a patient, but the judge ruled that it was insurance fraud; Dan lost everything and turned to drinking, which led to the crash that took his life and the lives of Snake-Eyes' family. Realizing where his anger had taken him, Snake-Eyes refused to kill the man and walked away. Cobra Commander killed the judge himself and vowed revenge against Snake-Eyes for having turned on him. After the Marvel series ended, Cobra forces fell to a unified assault organized by the G.I. Joe leader, General Hawk. Cobra Commander managed to escape, becoming an international fugitive as the remnants of his organization retreated into hiding. He spent the next seven years sheltered in non-extradition countries, rebuilding his organization from the shadows. By the time he had fully restored the terrorist group, however, he was usurped by Destro's illegitimate son, Alexander, who hoped to impress his father by eliminating his old rival and leading Cobra to victory. Alexander was defeated by the G.I. Joe team, and Cobra Commander was freed by Storm Shadow, retaking his organization soon after. He then proceeded to attack Destro, believing him responsible for Alexander's coup. Destro shortly cleared himself of such suspicions and offered to atone for Alexander's actions by serving Cobra again. Cobra Commander quickly proved himself deadlier than ever, smuggling a nuclear warhead into the United States, and using a decoy ship as a means for Storm Shadow to infiltrate the G.I. Joe base and assassinate Hawk. Unfortunately, both plans ended in failure, with the Joes capturing the warhead and Snake Eyes arriving to stop Storm Shadow. (It is hinted that it was Storm Shadow himself who informed Snake Eyes of the assassination attempt.) Not long after, Cobra Commander was betrayed by one of his own troops, the Dreadnok Zandar, who brought him to Cobra Island and presented him to his new leader, Serpentor. Serpentor's army, the COIL, which also included another Cobra traitor, Dr. Mindbender, struck out at the world. During their campaign, a group of Joes that included Snake-Eyes was captured and thrown in the same cell as Cobra Commander. The prisoners managed to escape along with Cobra Commander while G.I. Joe and Cobra attacked the island. The Commander came across Serpentor, who took him captive and ordered the Commander to remove his helmet. The Commander did so, handing it to Serpentor, but his face was still concealed by a balaclava worn beneath the helmet. Cobra Commander then activated an explosive in the helmet and landed a kick that sent Serpentor falling out a window to his seeming death. Cobra Commander then contacted Storm Shadow, and together they sought out the Red Ninja Clan for protection. The two were tracked down by a G.I. Joe team but managed to escape while the Joes battled the Red Ninjas. Cobra Commander then made his way back to the U.S. The Commander wasted no time in returning to Cobra Island, which Tomax and Xamot had bought back. Following Destro's capture by G.I. Joe, Cobra Commander led a rescue operation. During the operation, he managed to severely injure General Hawk, but was betrayed by the Baroness. It was revealed Destro had cut a deal with the U.N. in exchange for his freedom. The Commander would spend weeks in custody before being freed by the Dreadnoks. Zartan had traded places with Cobra Commander, allowing the Commander to learn Destro's true plans and watch as the Coil joined Cobra in the wake of Serpentor's death. In a swift coup, Cobra Commander regained his organization and appeared to kill the Baroness. Destro had been after the Tempest, a device built by Dr. Mindbender that could seed clouds to cause rainfall. Once back in control of the Cobra and Coil forces, the Commander moved all Cobra personnel to the Monolith Base in Budakistan. The Coil forces were to remain on Cobra Island. The Jugglers had alerted Cobra to the U.S.'s plans to drop a nuke on the island. The entire Coil force was killed in the strike. In Badhikstan, Cobra Commander unleashed the Tempest, armed with a flesh eating bio-engineered virus known as "Deathangel", upon the country. A G.I. Joe team led by General Phillip Rey (Hawk's temporary replacement) managed to track Cobra to their new base, where they defeated Cobra forces and destroyed the Tempest. Although Cobra Commander was able to elude capture, he became a target of the Red Shadows, a secretive organization that sought to eliminate G.I. Joe and Cobra alike. A Red Shadow operative named Dela Eden tracked down the Commander and shot him. America's Elite: A year passed after the Red Shadows are defeated by G.I. Joe, and Cobra Commander has been written off as dead. While most accepted this as fact, Hawk and Duke believed he was alive and still dangerous. Hawk sent Spirit in search of the Commander, and after a long hunt, the tracker found his prey but was captured by Cobra Commander, and imprisoned. Duke went on his own search for the Commander but instead found a squad of B.A.T.s who took him captive. The androids were under the control of a former Crimson Guardsman who had a grudge against the Commander and wanted him dead, planning to launch a missile at his position. Duke managed to free himself and to stop the missile's launch, learning its target location from a computer screen: Washington DC. In Washington, a group of presidential advisers ask to speak to the President, but he tells them to take it up with his Chief of Staff, Garret Freedlowe. The men are shocked when they open the door to find Cobra Commander in the office. The Commander informed the men that he had taken Garret Freedlowe's place with Zartan's masking technology and that he would kill them, replacing them with his own operatives. Cobra Commander then proceeds to tell the President that the abilities of the GI Joe team are lacking, and organizes his very own Elite Anti terrorism team, the Phoenix Guard, led by one time G.I. Joe commander General Rey. He then sent the team to destroy numerous Cobra cells around the world, a step ahead of the Joe teams own efforts. He then accompanied the President on a tour of the secret G.I. Joe base, the Rock, where Colton reveals to them that they have the Baroness secretly in custody. After the trip, Cobra Commander sends new orders to the Phoenix Guard, sending them to the Rock to replace G.I-Joe as America's anti-terrorist force. During the attack, the Phoenix Guard became too ruthless and reckless for Rey's liking. He soon learned his team were secretly members of Cobra. Several members of G.I. Joe were captured while Kamakura, Scarlett and General Colton made it to Colton's hidden radio to contact the White House. The president was shocked to find Garret Freedlowe's decaying corpse in the Chief of Staff's office and a video recording of the Cobra Commander. On the recording, the Commander revealed he had been using the Chief of Staff position to learn everything he could about the United States' strengths, weaknesses and secrets. The Phoenix Guard was ultimately defeated and most of its members imprisoned. At a secret Cobra base, the order to every sleeper cell went out; announcing Cobra was once again active. The Commander was seen looking down at an infant boy, the son of Destro and the Baroness, whom he planned to mold into the physical manifestation of his ideals. However, he would trade the child to his parents, in return for Destro's family arms dealing empire, MARS. Animated Series: In the first season of the original 1980s animated series, Cobra Commander is the leader of Cobra, described in the show's opening theme as "A ruthless, terrorist organization determined to rule the world." His face is always covered, either by a featureless chrome mask concealing his entire face or by a hood with eyehole cutouts. He wears a blue military uniform, occasionally sporting a cape and carrying a scepter, depending on the occasion. Although only Cobra Commander's eyes are ever openly exposed, it is clear from this partial view that he is a brown-eyed Caucasian. His reason for wearing the mask was not expressly divulged, but in one episode, “Lights! Camera! Cobra!”, Destro interrupts his unmasked privacy during a meal and is repulsed at what he saw (which is not shown on-screen), prompting the Commander to wryly muse, "It takes a strong stomach to watch me eat, eh, Destro?" implying that he may have some unsightly deformity. This is later confirmed in G.I. Joe: The Movie, where his face is shown to have been horribly disfigured as the result of a laboratory mishap involving "genetic altering spores." It is not the original origin the writers of the cartoon series had in mind, however. This is further evidenced by Cobra Commander's blue skinned appearance during that particular scene. Cobra Commander frequently led assaults himself, but often vacillated between being a coward at heart, usually the first to turn tail in retreat whenever the tide of battle shifted unfavorably, or pushing his troops to seize victory at all costs, berating them when they turned to retreat. Impatient and frequently hysterical, he was prone to fits of rage when things went badly, often launching into extended rants. He was also greedy and egotistical; often mistreating his own troops to the point of mutiny, and on multiple occasions saw his plans foiled by his own arrogance. He had a knack for concocting creative schemes for world domination - including cloned dinosaurs, giant amoebas, miniaturized troops stowed away inside Christmas presents, and using a superlaser to gleefully carve a picture of his face on the moon, plans which his immediate subordinates, particularly Destro, often blasted as ridiculous. (In fact, when Destro found out about the moon carving, he shouted why were millions of dollars wasted on "this... cosmic graffiti!?") As such, he was less of an evil genius and more of a psychotic egomaniac. The writers later commented that they only found Cobra Commander's personality when they stopped writing him as an Adolf Hitler-type and started writing him more in the vein of Yosemite Sam. Season 2 opened with the 5-episode mini-series Arise, Serpentor, Arise! in which the Cobra organization decides that, after Cobra Commander had repeatedly failed to bring them victory, they should literally create a new leader. Under the guidance of Dr. Mindbender, Cobra's scientists combine DNA samples retrieved from the tombs of history's most notorious despots (along with DNA from current G.I. Joe member Sgt. Slaughter) to genetically craft Cobra Commander's successor, Serpentor, who immediately assumes charge of Cobra and deposes the erstwhile Commander to the status of "lackey." Fortunately for the Commander, G.I. Joe managed to interfere with the gene collection to deny Serpentor the critical inclusion of Sun Tzu's essence and with only a little of Sgt. Slaughter's. The absence of that ancient military strategist's influence evidently makes Serpentor prone to impulsive foolhardiness that shows when he immediately orders a full-scale attack on Washington, D.C.. While the operation is initially successful, it soon turns into a complete fiasco at the hands of G.I. Joe's reprisals. Cobra Commander is able to convince Dr. Mindbender to free him from his handcuffs because he knows how to use a weapon and Cobra needs all the help it can get. During the battle, Cobra's vehicles began to run out of fuel, except for one Night Raven, which would take the high command back to Cobra Island. A sudden burst of fire cuts the Joes off from Serpentor. The high command is shocked to learn Cobra Commander saved them. Serpentor orders the high command to the Night Raven while he deals with the Commander. In a rare moment of brilliance, Cobra Commander is able to convince Serpentor that he needs him for a scapegoat. Thereafter, Cobra Commander seems to be employed as the organizations primary field commander, while Serpentor leads mostly from the Terrordrome. Serpentor even allowed Cobra Commander to be the organization's second-in-command, a decision tolerated by the rest of the Cobra High Command. Cobra Commander spent most of Season 2 trying to reclaim his former glory from under Serpentor's domineering shadow, assembling his own secret society called The Coil to that end. “G.I. Joe: The Movie”: The movie explained Cobra Commander's origin in full, but it contradicted material seen in the animated series. Cobra Commander is revealed to be a former scientist and nobleman from the ancient, pre-human society of Cobra-La. Although humanoid in appearance, he has pale blue skin, no hair, and eyes with cat-like pupils. The nobleman was disfigured in a laboratory accident while studying a strange plant which sprayed his face with mutative spores, causing him to grow an asymmetrical array of eyes over his face, thus explaining why he wears a mask. Despite this deformity, his ambition was recognized and he was selected by Cobra-La's ruler, Golobulus, to venture from their isolated Himalayan kingdom into the outside world, there he was instructed to establish an army for the razing of human civilization, allowing Cobra-La to retake the planet. Cobra was this army, but in light of their constant failures, Golobulus decides to put the Commander on trial and punishes him by forcing his further exposure to the spores, whose effect begins to devolve him into a snake. Escaping with Joe member Roadblock, Cobra Commander's "humanity" begins to slip away as his body transforms. Soon he is left mindlessly hissing that he was "once-ssss a man..." In the end, seeking vengeance for his deteriorating condition, he tries to lead a Joe offensive into Cobra-La but ultimately becomes mentally unresponsive as his continuing metamorphosis fully changes him into an oversized snake. He briefly slithers to Lt. Falcon's rescue during the final battle, foiling Serpentor's attack, allowing Falcon to defeat Serpentor and Golobulus and save the world. This origin stands in contradiction to background information previously hinted at in the cartoon: In the episode Twenty Questions, the Commander told an interviewing journalist that he was responsible for spearheading a mutiny at his military academy in his youth. In other episodes, aforementioned reactions to off-screen unmaskings or glimpses of the Commander's features are not in keeping with the inhumanly blue-skinned figure portrayed in the movie. DiC Series: After the movie, Cobra Commander is seen as a cobra and he is kept as a pet by Serpentor. However, Baroness steals him and restores him partly to a semi-human form (while the basic shape of his body is humanoid, his skin and features are reptilian and he retains a taste for flies he catches with his prehensile tongue), because she had been rejected by Destro in favor of Zarana, and was seeking revenge. The Baroness had also grown tired of Serpentor's leadership of Cobra. Back in human form, his attempt to overthrow Serpentor is nearly foiled when his newly created Python Patrol is too scared to attack, but with the help of Low-Light (in disguise as a Viper) , Serpentor is captured. Gnawgahyde provides his Iguana for use in the pythonizing ray and it is unclear if Serpentor (now an iguana) is dead or is a pet. He tries to get the Dragon Fire energy but G.I. Joe has foiled his plans again. Through that, he took over Cobra once again with Destro rejoining as his second-in-command alongside Baroness and later, Major Bludd. He also joins forces with Eco Terrorist Cesspool, whom he immediately plans to double cross. The Commander is still as hysterical as before, but seems far more in control of his organization with Serpentor no longer around, and other enemies like Dr. Mindbender and The Crimson Twins gone. He also spends much of his time trying to regain his lost fortunes, and states numerous times that Cobra is more or less broke. His subordinates also make reference to this, as he apparently does not pay them much, if anything at all. In the first season he wears the battle armor, and in the second season he regains his hood and blue military uniform. His personality and creative schemes are now far more dangerous than the last time, including schemes such as creating a fake General Hawk to make the Joe lax ("A is for Android") or creating an ozone crème that he forces the masses to buy to protect themselves. So far, he is seen far braver than the previous seasons, and now Destro has renewed loyalty to him they attempt to defeat the Joes once and for all. With his leadership, Cobra almost defeats the Joes several times ("Victory at Volcania" parts I & II, "D-Day at Alcatraz" I & II, "Long Live Rock N Roll" I & II), and he is even captured once (in "Shadow of a Doubt") but escapes with the help of Storm Shadow (who is now a G.I. Joe). At the end of the series, Cobra and G.I. Joe are still waging war, and he is still attempting to gain his first real animated victory. Transformers: Cobra Commander unofficially appeared in the third season of the Transformers cartoon (1986), in the episode "Only Human". Set in the then-future year 2006, a trenchcoated figure going by the name "Old Snake" is approached by crime lord Victor Drath, who wishes to purchase synthoid technology, as seen in a few episodes of the GI Joe cartoon series. Old Snake transfers the minds of Rodimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Arcee and Springer into synthoid bodies, leaving their robotic shells for Drath's use in criminal activities. Although it is never explicitly stated, several details make it clear enough that "Old Snake" is actually an aged Cobra Commander: his raspy voice is provided by Chris Latta (the voice of Cobra Commander), he wears the character's distinctive silver mask, and has visible traces of his blue uniform underneath his trenchcoat. He is identified in dialogue as the former leader of a terrorist organization that utilized synthoid technology. Most tellingly of all, the episode concludes with Old Snake lamenting that "they simply don't make terrorists like they used to," raising his fists in skyward exaltation with the familiar "Cobra!" battle cry breaking prematurely into a hacking cough. Old Snake appears to be wearing the gauntlets of Serpentor (in black rather than Serpentor's dark green). This is contrary to the series' production bible, which notes that his bare fingers should be visible through torn gloves, and that his skin is scaley, like that of a real snake (The animation of this Transformers episode, as with a good half of season 3 episodes, is not stellar, so this costume detail may be simple misinterpretation.). Sigma 6: In G.I. Joe: Sigma 6, Cobra Commander's profile has been modified, stating that he considers himself a warrior king. This rendition of the character possesses snake-like eyes as well as full battle armor. He wears a helmet that resembles a snake's head and covers his face with a hood. The snake staff he carries contains a number of hidden weapons systems. This version of Cobra Commander displays far stricter control over his organization, having the loyalty of all his troops and being both feared and respected; he is no longer a coward or a hysterical madman. However, like his earlier cartoon counterpart, he has a flair for grandiose and insane schemes, such as unleashing a giant robot to destroy a city or using a high-powered laser cannon to cut the East Coast off the United States to form "The Cobra Coast". While he mainly operates from behind the scenes, he has been shown to be highly proficient in combat, having battled Duke one-on-one three times, and actually having beaten him once. Cobra Commander is a very ambitious man. He started out as a patriotic American, but the death of his brother in a car accident and his attempt to kill the man he felt was responsible, Snake-Eyes, started a chain of events that led this car salesman to becoming the leader of a terrorist organization. He quickly became a megalomaniac with no mercy, showing little care for his own men and even torturing his own son. He was also wise enough to surround himself with some very bad people: the Baroness, Destro, Major Bludd, Storm Shadow, the Crimson Twins, Serpentor, Dr. Mindbender, and Zartan. He insures their loyalty by brainwashing them to pledge allegiance to him, and if they aren’t, he’ll just kill them. He also has quite the ego. I mean, the man wanted to carve his own face onto the moon. Even his own people saw how crazy this was. And, yes, he may have been a little incompetent in the cartoon, but he came close to winning several times. Also, those were some pretty creative ideas to conquer the world. I don’t remember many people who would unleash cloned dinosaurs and giant amoebas on the globe in order to take it over. Plus, he was quite vicious in the comics. And, that voice is just so sinister. Cobra Commander is a cruel man who will kill his own people, do anything and everything to take over the world, and will do anything to acquire more power. He is the ultimate snake in the grass.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jun 3, 2008 16:02:27 GMT -5
43. Randall Flagg Who is he: Leader of a group of violent citizens he assembles in a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas. What is he from: The Stand (novel and TV mini series), The Eyes Of The Dragon, The Dark Tower series, and other Stephen King works. What has he done: Spreads destruction and conflict, tries to bring down an entire civilization through manipulation, weakens and destroys “The Affiliation.” Intelligence: Smart, cunning, and calculating; seems to know much more than he tells, but rarely acts in time to actually prevent setbacks in his plans. Power: A demon of evil with general supernatural abilities involving necromancy, prophecy, and unnatural influence over people's behavior. Vileness: Killed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, raped his "queen," and never cut his hair. Sway: Is charismatic as hell and good at manipulation. Purity: Was a pretty commanding force of evil, set on ruling all, but his temper seemed to take away from it. Physical Prowess: The Denim Demon won't strike fear into anyone, but that "turning into a crow" trick is pretty handy. Name Coolness: “Randall Flagg” sounds pretty cool. Created by: Stephen King. Portrayed by: Jamey Sheridan, who almost lost the part to a more well-know actor. The original ideas tossed around by director Mick Garris and the studios were to give the role to an established star such as Christopher Walken, James Woods, Willem Dafoe, or Jeff Goldblum. Miguel Ferrer, who played Flagg's henchman in the film, was also interested in playing the villain. The Stand: Flagg made his first official appearance in the 1978 apocalyptic novel The Stand. In it, he is trying to rebuild civilization in the United States in his image after a plague has killed off most of the population. Flagg’s backstory is vague, unknown even to him, with Flagg stating that at some point he just “became”; although, he has memories of being a marine, a Klansman, as well as having a hand in the kidnapping of Patty Hearst. Stationed in Las Vegas, Flagg attracts people who are drawn to destruction, power and a fascist culture. Flagg uses crucifixion, torture, and other torments as punishment for those who are disloyal. His followers reorganize the society, and rebuild the city. In the novel, Flagg plans to attack and destroy the other emerging civilization, Mother Abagail's "Free Zone" in Boulder, Colorado, to become the dominant society in the former United States. After Flagg's men fail to kill the leaders of the "Free Zone", Mother Abagail sends a group of men to Las Vegas, to stop Flagg. After being taken prisoner, the men are brought before the city for a public execution. Before Flagg can kill them, one of his most loyal and devoted followers, the Trashcan Man, arrives with a nuclear warhead. "The Hand of God" reaches down, just as the Trashcan Man stops, and detonates the bomb, destroying Flagg's followers and the two remaining prisoners. In the original version, Flagg's fate is left uncertain. The novel was re-released in 1990, expanded to include the text that was cut during its original publication. Here, the novel explains that Flagg reappeared somewhere on a beach with complete amnesia, and a new group of individuals to control. The Eyes Of The Dragon: Flagg's second appearance is in The Eyes of the Dragon (1986), as an evil wizard causing havoc in the medieval country of Delain. His appearance is hidden under a dark cloak, and most of his magic comes from performing spells, and using potions and poisons. In this novel, Flagg schemes to throw the kingdom of Delain into chaos by poisoning the King and framing Prince Peter, the rightful heir to the throne, for the crime. When Thomas, Peter's younger brother, becomes King, Flagg manipulates him into doing his bidding, as Flagg was the only person Thomas considered a friend during his childhood. Flagg essentially becomes ruler of Delain, and he plunges the kingdom into a Dark Age. Eventually, Thomas confronts Flagg over the murder of his father, something he witnessed as a child but was too frightened to prevent. Flagg is wounded by Thomas, and vanishes from the kingdom. Thomas vowes to find Flagg, after his brother Peter is given his rightful throne, and sets out to search for him. The book implies that Thomas, and his butler Dennis, do find Flagg on their journey. Hearts In Atlantis: In King's book Hearts in Atlantis (1999), a character by the name of Raymond Fiegler is identified toward the end as the leader of an activist group, when he convinces a young girl to abandon her attempts to retrieve an unexploded bomb. King never explicitely identifies Fiegler as Flagg, but Christopher Golden and Hank Wagner, coauthors of The Complete Stephen King Universe, suggest that there is little doubt Fiegler is Flagg. They present evidence of Fiegler's actions and persona, as well as the fact that Flagg often uses many aliases, usually with the initials "R.F.". The Dark Tower series: Randall Flagg would make the next six appearances as part of King's Dark Tower series, which follows gunslinger Roland Deschain as he travels the world in search of the Dark Tower. In this seven novel series, Flagg takes on the guise of several individuals. He first appears as Walter o'Dim, being chased across the desert by Roland. Here, he identifies his true self to be the demon Legion, and states that Roland must defeat him if he is to enter the tower. In flashback sequences, Flagg assumes the identity of Marten Broadcloak, a wizard that conspired with the Crimson King to cause the fall of the Dark Tower. Flagg has an affair with Roland's mother, Gabrielle, in an attempt to enrage Roland into taking the gunslinger test early. His hope is for Roland to fail, so that he will be exiled, but Roland passes the test. Eventually, Roland catches Walter and they have a long discussion which causes Roland to slip into deep delirium. He wakes later to find a pile of bones in Walter's place. In the original printing, Walter and Marten are separate characters, with Walter clearly dying at the end of the novel. When Stephen King published an expanded edition of the novel, Walter and Marten are portrayed as being one in the same, and Walter fakes his own death. Randall Flagg makes his next appearance in the series' third novel, The Waste Lands. Flagg appears in the city of Lud, where he saves the Tick-Tock Man Andrew Quick, an enemy of Roland's ka-tet, who was left for dead in an earlier confrontation. Quick becomes Flagg's devoted servant afterwards. In this guise, Flagg assumes the name of Richard Fannin. Flagg returns in the fourth book, Wizard and Glass, where he is officially revealed to be Marten Broadcloak. Here, he identifies himself as Flagg as well, and warns Roland and his ka-tet to abandoned their quest for the Dark Tower. It is also learned through flashbacks that Flagg, as Walter o'Dim, was the emissary John Farson, one of the main individuals responsible for the destruction of Gilead, Roland's home. In the "Argument" (a recap of the series so far that precedes the story) of The Wolves of Calla, the fifth novel in the series, it is noted that Flagg is known as Broadcloak, Fannin, and also John Farson, depending on what world he is residing in. In Wolves of the Calla, Flagg would make a brief appearance as Walter o'Dim when Father Callahan first arrives into Roland's world. Here, Flagg gives Father Callahan Black Thirteen, a dangerous crystal ball, in hopes that it will kill Roland on his journey to the tower. In this encounter, Callahan calls Flagg "cruel" and is surprised to see the wizard looking "deeply hurt" in response. The character's appearance in The Song of Susannah is set in a flashback, where it is revealed that Flagg made a bargain with the succubus Mia, which resulted in her giving birth to a son who was the child of both Roland and the Crimson King. In the last novel, Flagg indicates that he is not John Farson, but merely served under him until Farson's downfall. Flagg's ultimate goal, to climb the Dark Tower and see the room at the top, is revealed in this final book. The character believes that the only way to enter the tower is with the red-marked foot of Roland's son, Mordred Deschain, seeing this as an opportunity to become the God of all. Flagg attempts to befriend Mordred, pledging allegiance to him, but Mordred telepathically sense Flagg's true motives and kills him. The Dark Tower also reveals more of Flagg’s backstory, stating that he was born 1500 years earlier to Sam the Miller of Eastar’d Barony, and named Walter Padick. Here, he runs away from home at the age of 13, and set out for a life on the road. While on his journey he is raped by a fellow wanderer, but instead of returning home he decides to devote his life to darkness. Flagg eventually became a wizard, and used his powers to exact revenge on his hometown of Delain, but always behind the scenes. He set several events into motion that took years, sometimes centuries, to finally come into action; he attracted the attention of the Crimson King, who took him as his emissary. Comic books: In 2007, Marvel Comics released The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born, the first of several miniseries that serve as a prequel to the Stephen King novels.[10] This first miniseries uses the flashbacks from The Gunslinger and Wizard and Glass to present one cohesive story. Here, the characters Marten Broadcloak and Walter o'Dim are present in the series. In the first issue, it reveals that Marten was acting on the orders of the Crimson King, who wanted to prevent the prophecy that Roland would kill him, when he coaxes Roland into his manhood test early in order to have him exiled. Later issues show Walter plotting against Roland alongside the Crimson King and John Farson, indicating that Flagg was not both characters. The second series to be released was entitled The Long Road Home. This series focuses on Walter and John Farson’s scheming, as well as the relationship between Walter and Maerlyn. The Long Road Home also features the first appearance of Marten Broadcloak. Here, Marten's soul is trapped in the Pink Grapefruit of the Wizard’s Rainbow, while his physical body is stuck in a comatose state. When Roland discovers Marten inside the Pink Grapefruit the two begin to fight, but Marten's physical body comes to life and attacks Roland's friends Cuthbert and Alain. The confrontation nearly destroys them, Roland and the Pink Grapefruit. Charisma is a quality in people that makes them interesting. A person with a lot of charisma can become very famous with a lot of followers, whether they be a pro wrestler (Dusty Rhodes, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair), a rock star (Mick Jagger, Robert Plant, Roger Daltrey), or a cult leader (Jim Jones, David Koresh, Charles Manson). And, there is one villain in this list who may just be more charismatic than the others: Randall Flagg. He fist appears as just man wearing denim clothes; he basically looks like some regular dude. But, that is just lure people into a sense of security. Flagg is actually quite dangerous. He is able to attract many people to his philosophy of fascism, destruction, and power. He wants to rebuild civilization after a virus has wiped it out, but he wants that civilization to be in his own image: sin and debauchery. Hell, the place where he stations himself and his people is Las Vegas, the town known as Sin City. And, when he learns that there is another community of good people in Colorado, he sends his people to kill the leader of the good community, Mother Abagail. Though he is killed, that doesn’t mean that Flagg has been stopped. He appears in other King novels as the villain, usually trying to bring down the civilization that exists in that novel. He even remembers being involved in some heavy stuff in The Stand: KKK lynchings, murdering police officers, kidnapping Patty Hearst, being involved with the Manson Family, etc. King has said, "I think the Devil is probably a pretty funny guy. Flagg is like the archetype of everything that I know about real evil, going back all the way to Charles Starkweather in the '50s — he is somebody who is empty and who has to be filled with other people's hates, fears, resentments, laughs. Flagg, Koresh, Jim Jones, Hitler — they're all basically the same guy." Flagg is basically a demon who appears sometime, somewhere in the world to bring about death and destruction. He may even be the Devil. However, according to King, he was not trying to say that Flagg was the Devil. He wanted Flagg to represent a "gigantic evil", though the character was supposed to taper off by the end of The Stand. Though Flagg was never intended to represent the Devil, that did not detract from what King sees as his ultimate goal. King notes that it does not matter who sees him, or how they see him—as Flagg can appear differently to each individual—but that his message is always the same: "I know all the things that you want and I can give them to you and all you have to do is give me your soul."
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jun 3, 2008 16:06:35 GMT -5
Tomorrow, numbers 42 and 41, plus a recap of 100 to 41. Here are the hints:
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist, and an evil crime boss with a love of girls in gold bikinis.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jun 4, 2008 20:35:14 GMT -5
Coundtown time. Here's 42: 42. Keyser Söze Who is he: An enigmatic crime boss. What is he from: “The Usual Suspects.” What has he done: Started a chain of events that led to the deaths of several people on a boat; supposedly killed a bunch of Hungarian mobsters. Intelligence: Is a criminal genius. Power: Runs his criminal empire behind the scenes; most people don’t even know they’re working for him. Vileness: Murdered his own family. Sway: Can get pretty much anything he wants done. Purity: While he did murder his family, he did so to prevent them from being killed and raped by some Hungarian mobsters. Now, all he cares about is his work. Physical Prowess: Average male build. Name Coolness: “Keyser Söze” is pretty cool, rolls off the tongue nicely. Created by: Christopher McQuarrie. Portrayed by: Kevin Spacey. Actually, he played “Verbal Kint,” but [SPOILERS]anyone who has seen the movie knows that it is revealed that Verbal and Söze are pretty much the same person.[/SPOILERS] Also, Scott B. Morgan played Keyser Söze in the scene that shows Söze’s origin. On the deck of a ship in San Pedro, California, a figure identified as "Keyser" speaks with an injured man called Keaton (Gabriel Byrne). Keaton attempts to destroy the ship by dropping his cigarette onto some spilled fuel, but his efforts are thwarted by Keyser. The two talk briefly before Keyser appears to shoot Keaton twice. Keyser then uses his own cigarette to set the ship ablaze as he makes his escape. The next day, FBI Agent Jack Baer (Giancarlo Esposito) and U.S. Customs special agent Dave Kujan arrive in San Pedro separately to investigate what happened on the boat. Dozens of men on the pier/boat are dead, and there appear to be only two survivors: a crippled man named Verbal Kint (Spacey) and a hospitalized Hungarian man identified as Arkosh Kovash (Morgan Hunter), a known criminal. Baer visits the hospital and interrogates the Hungarian, who claims that Keyser Söze, a criminal mastermind with a nearly mythical reputation, was in the harbor "killing many men." Intrigued, Baer tells the police to call in Dan Metzheiser (Ron Gilbert), a Department of Justice agent, who has pursued Söze. Metzheiser is at first dismissive until the Hungarian shouts out Söze's name in anger and fear. Metzheiser has the Hungarian describe Söze while a translator interprets and a police sketch artist draws a rendering of Söze's face. Verbal Kint tells the authorities everything he knows in exchange for immunity. After making his statement to the district attorney, Verbal is placed in a police station office where Kujan requests to hear the story again, from the beginning. Verbal's tale starts six weeks earlier: Five crooks are brought together in a police lineup on trumped-up charges. They are a diverse group; Keaton is a corrupt ex-cop who appears to have given up his life of crime, McManus (Stephen Baldwin) is a crack shot with a temper and a wild streak, Fenster (Benicio del Toro) is McManus' partner who speaks in mangled English, Hockney (Kevin Pollak) is a tough, amoral hijacker who forms an instant rivalry with McManus, and Verbal himself is a mild-mannered con artist with cerebral palsy. Incensed at their arrests, McManus convinces the others to join forces to commit a high-stakes robbery that targets corrupt police officers in the NYPD, who escort smugglers to their destinations around the city. Keaton wants nothing to do with it, but Verbal manages to tempt him in, by meeting him alone and challenging him over Keaton's girlfriend, high-powered defense attorney Edie Finneran. Verbal goads Keaton into striking him so that Keaton will be remorseful and hear him out. Thanks to Verbal's intricate plan, the robbery is a success. Not only do the criminals come away with money and jewels, but no one is killed and the corrupt cops are arrested. Kint, Keaton, McManus, Fenster, and Hockney travel to California to sell the stolen gems to McManus' long-time fence named "Redfoot" (Peter Greene). Redfoot tells them that he has "a ton of work and no good people" and talks them into partaking in another job: the robbery of Saul Berg, a purported jewel smuggler. The robbery goes wrong, and the crew is forced to kill Saul's bodyguards as well as Saul himself. Berg's attaché case turns out to hold, not money and jewels as promised, but "a lot of China [heroin]" as Fenster puts it. An angry confrontation between the thieves and Redfoot and his posse reveals that the job came from a lawyer named Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite). The men then meet with the lawyer, and at the meeting, Kobayashi reveals that he works for "Keyser Söze", whose name evokes both skepticism and fear from the criminals, except for Verbal, who hadn't heard of him. Because Kobayashi has detailed and lengthy knowledge of the five's individual criminal doings, he blackmails them into performing a dangerous job for Söze: the destruction of the cargo of a ship coming to the San Pedro harbor. The ship, which will have $91 million worth of cocaine aboard it, is part of a drug deal that will revitalize Söze's competitors. "Competing with Mr. Söze has taken its toll," Kobayashi says. In the present, Verbal describes to Kujan who Söze is, according to the explanations of his fellow criminals. Keyser Söze, as Verbal relates, is organized crime's answer to the bogeyman. Söze began his criminal career in Turkey as a low-level drug dealer. The entity that is Keyser Söze is truly born, however, when rival smugglers working for the Hungarian mob invade his house while he is away, raping his wife and holding his children hostage. When Söze arrives they kill one of the children to show him their resolve. They then threaten to kill his wife and remaining children if he does not surrender his business to them. Rather than give in to their demands, and to prevent his loved ones from having to live with the memory of what has happened, he murders his family and all but one of the Hungarians, whom he spares knowing that the survivor would tell the mafia what has transpired. After burying his family, Söze goes after the mob, killing dozens of people, including the mobsters' families, friends, and even people who owe them money, as well as destroying their homes and businesses. He then goes "underground", never again doing business in person and remaining invisible even to his henchmen, who almost never know whom they are working for. One of the most famous lines from the movie, spoken by Kint is: "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist." When Söze does commit crimes, it is always in disguise and under a fake name, leaving no one the wiser. Söze's ruthlessness is legendary, having enemies and disloyal henchmen brutally murdered, along with everyone they hold dear, for the slightest infractions. Over the years his criminal empire, centered on the drug trade, flourishes, as does his legend; he becomes "a spook story that criminals tell their kids at night", and on a par with the Devil in the world of crime. Back in the narrative, the criminals debate on whether Kobayashi's boss is real. Keaton insists that, "There is no Keyser Söze!" Fenster disagrees, while Hockney and McManus warily abstain. Fenster bails from the group in the night, but he is tracked and killed by Kobayashi. The remaining thieves kidnap Kobayashi, killing his two bodyguards, and take him to a floor under construction in the lawyer's building. Keaton tells Kobayashi, "We know you can get to us, but now you know we can get to you." McManus is about to shoot Kobayashi, when the lawyer reveals Edie Finneran is in his office. The group carefully confirms this. After Kobayashi reveals that he has the will, information and the means to kill or brutally injure the remaining four criminals' loved ones if they do not go through with the arrangement, they are forced to concede. On the night of the cocaine deal, the sellers (a group of Argentine mobsters) are on the dock, as are the buyers (a group of Hungarian mobsters). Keaton tells Verbal to stay back and flee if the plan goes wrong, taking the money to Edie so she can destroy Kobayashi. Keaton tells Verbal, "If I don't get him my way, she'll get him her way." Verbal is reluctant to abandon his planned position, but Keaton asks, "Do what I say." Verbal watches the boat from a distance, hiding behind a jumbled pile of marine junk. Keaton, McManus and Hockney attack the men at the pier. It seems to be going well, but then Hockney is shot while adoring the truck full of money. Keaton and McManus discover separately that there is no cocaine on the boat. Hungarians yet untouched by the thieves are being killed, and a closely-guarded Hispanic passenger/captive shouts, "I'm telling you, it's Keyser Söze!" Two shots appear to blow this captive's brains out. McManus is killed with a knife to the back of his neck, and Keaton, turning away to leave, is shot in the back. A tall figure in a dark coat appears, presumably Keyser Söze. Söze has a handgun, wears a gold wristwatch and lights a cigarette with a gold cigarette lighter. Söze appears to speak briefly with Keaton and then shoot him twice in the head. The audience sees the opening scene over again. Verbal's story is over. Kujan then reveals what he has deduced, with the aide of Baer: the boat hijacking was not about cocaine, but rather to ensure that one man aboard the ship, Arturo Marquez, the captive, one of the few individuals alive who could positively identify Söze, is killed. After Söze presumably killed Marquez, he eliminated everyone else on the ship and set it ablaze. Kujan presses Verbal on whether Keaton truly is dead (no one truly witnessed his death; Verbal's vision was obscured by the marine junk), and even goes so far as to state that "Dean Keaton was Keyser Söze" and is therefore still alive. He also reveals that Edie has been found dead, with two bullets in her head. Kujan states that Keaton is cleaning up loose ends, and that Verbal is dead if he leaves. Verbal breaks into tears and admits that the whole affair, from the beginning, was Keaton's idea. By this time, Verbal's bail has been posted, and he departs with his immunity. Verbal retrieves his personal effects from the property officer (which include a gold wristwatch and a gold cigarette lighter), while Kujan, relaxing in the office he used for the interrogation, comments that Verbal was spared to keep the legend of Keyser Söze alive. Suddenly, Kujan notices that crucial details and names from Verbal's story are words appearing on objects around the room. Finally putting the pieces together, Kujan scrambles outside, just missing a fax with the police artist's impression of Keyser Söze's face, which looks almost exactly like the now-released Verbal Kint. As Verbal leaves the jail, his distinctive limp gradually disappears, and he shakes out his contorted, palsied hand. He then steps into a waiting Jaguar driven by "Mr. Kobayashi," departing just before Kujan arrives and misses him. In the end, Verbal Kint appears to be Söze, so it is left to the viewer to decide how much, (if any) of his narration was truthful. "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist." Yeah, it’s kind of overused, but it does perfectly sum up who Keyser Söze is. Söze is a very powerful man because he is an enigma. He keeps himself surrounded in secrecy so that he can do what he wants. Now, one can be a very powerful person and public figure at the same time. However, if you are a public figure, then the public knows you and watches you. You draw people’s attentions. This can be a problem, because if you make a mistake, then everyone will see it. And, if this mistake is illegal, it could lead to your downfall. Söze is smart. He makes himself invisible. He stays in the shadows so that no one will watch him. If no one is watching you, then you are free do whatever you want. And, Söze is able to do a lot. He has a vast and powerful criminal empire. It is so big that there are people who are many people working for him, and they don’t even know it. And, if someone pulls off a crime, then they can screw up one of Söze’s plans, which is what happens to the five criminals in the movie. Though, there is a little flaw in Söze’s cloak and dagger strategy: people know his name. But, at the same time, it’s is also a powerful tool for him. For one, we don’t even know if that’s his real name. And, people who have heard of Söze have usually heard tall tales and legends, which has built him up into such a big figure that the mere mention of his name instills fear in the hearts of men and women. And, some aren’t even sure that he actually exists. Söze is such a manipulator that he can have anyone believe whatever he wants. He even plays the cops. I mean, they had him in his grasp; but he is such a master of lies that they didn’t even know until it was too late. Sure, when the movie ends, there is one man left who can identify him; and the cops have a sketch rendering of him; but that doesn’t mean a thing. He can have that man killed, and in an age of plastic surgery, that face of his can be changed. Plus, the cops let him Keyser Söze get away, and like Verbal said, “And like that…*blows on his hand* he is gone.”
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jun 4, 2008 21:16:36 GMT -5
41. Jabba The Hutt Who is he: 600-year-old crime lord. What is he from: The Star Wars Universe, most notably “Return Of The Jedi.” What has he done: Likes to feed people he doesn’t like to his pet Rancor, kept a carbonite-frozen Han Solo as a trophy, made Princess Leia wear a gold metal bikini (that’s not a bad thing, but it is worth mentioning). Intelligence: You don't become a crime lord based on good looks alone; he is quite shrewd and experienced. Power: Is a powerful crime boss on Tatooine, with many slaves and bounty hunters at his disposal. Vileness: Barbaric in his ways, Jabba would "feed" the Rancor and/or the Sarlaac Pit whenever anyone got on his bad side. Sway: Well-skilled in the ways of influencing people, and can resist Luke's mind control. Purity: Greedy as hell and consumed by his own arrogance, he is truly evil with a capitalistic streak. Physical Prowess: Unable to even move on his own accord, he couldn't fend off a lethal attack from Leia and her chain; however, he is absolutely revolting and could disturb even the steadiest beings in the galaxy. Name Coolness: “Jabba The Hutt” is pretty cool. Created by: George Lucas. Portrayed by: Larry Ward did the voice of “Jabba,” and Mike Edmonds, Toby Philpott, and David Alan Barclay were the puppeteers that controlled Jabba. However, Jabba was suppose to originally appear in the first Star Wars movie, “A New Hope.” He was going to be in a scene where he talks with Han Solo just before he takes off with Luke and Obi Wan. Declan Mulholland stood in for Jabba and read his lines. Lucas planned to replace Mulholland in post-production with a stop-motion creature. The scene was meant to connect “A New Hope” to “Return of the Jedi” and explain why Han Solo was imprisoned at the end of “The Empire Strikes Back.” Nevertheless, Lucas decided to leave the scene out of the final film on account of budget and time constraints and because he felt that it did not enhance the film's plot. However, Lucas put the scene back in when he re-released “A New Hope” in 1997 for the 20th Anniversary Special Edition release of the trilogy, with a computer generated Jabba replacing Mulholland. The Star Wars films: Jabba the Hutt is mentioned in “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope” (1977) and “Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back” (1980), but his first appearance on film came in 1983 with the third installment of the original Star Wars trilogy, “Return of the Jedi.” The first act of Return of the Jedi features the attempts of Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), the Wookiee Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), and Jedi knight Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) to rescue their friend, Han Solo (Harrison Ford), who had been imprisoned in carbonite in the events of the previous film, “The Empire Strikes Back.” The captured Han is delivered to Jabba by the bounty hunter Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch) and placed on display in the crime lord's throne room. Friends of Han, namely, Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), droids C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2 (Kenny Baker), Leia, and Chewbacca infiltrate Jabba's palace as part of a plot to save Han. Shortly after Leia herself is captured and enslaved by the Hutt, Luke arrives to "bargain for Solo's life". Luke, however, is dropped into the pit of the monstrous rancor, just below Jabba's throne room. After Luke slays the beast, Jabba condemns Luke, Han, and Chewbacca to a slow death in the belly of the Sarlacc, a large alien creature in Tatooine's Dune Sea. The execution turns into a skirmish at the Great Pit of Carkoon where Luke escapes execution with the help of R2-D2 and defeats Jabba's guards. During the subsequent confusion, Leia strangles the Hutt to death with her slave chains. Luke, Leia, C-3PO, and R2-D2 escape just before Jabba's sail barge explodes, killing all inside. The second film appearance of Jabba the Hutt is in the Special Edition of “A New Hope” which was released in 1997 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the original Star Wars. Han Solo has a confrontation in a Mos Eisley cantina with an alien bounty hunter named Greedo (Paul Blake and Maria De Aragon) that ends with Greedo's death. According to Greedo, Jabba "has no use for smugglers who drop their shipments at the first sign of an Imperial cruiser." Jabba had hired Han to smuggle the illicit drug spice from the planet Kessel. Han, however, was forced to dump his cargo when an Imperial search team boarded the Millennium Falcon, Han's ship. Greedo tells Han, "Jabba's put a price on your head so large, every bounty hunter in the galaxy will be looking for you." In a scene that had been cut from the 1977 original, Jabba and an entourage of bounty hunters are seen in a hangar bay outside the Millennium Falcon, trying to find the smuggler. Jabba confirms Greedo's last words and demands that Han pay the value of the shipment. Han promises to compensate Jabba as soon as he receives payment for delivering "goods," Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness), Luke Skywalker, R2-D2, and C-3PO, to the planet Alderaan. Jabba warns Han that if he is not paid back soon, he will post a bounty "so big, you won't be able to go near a civilized system." Due to circumstances beyond Han's control, however, he never completes his deal with the Hutt. Jabba the Hutt's final film appearance is in the 1999 prequel, “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.” The character's scene is minor and has little to do with the plot of the film. During the Boonta Eve Classic podrace at Mos Espa on Tatooine, in which nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) wins his freedom by outracing his competitors, Jabba the Hutt is featured in his grandstand accompanied by Gardulla the Hutt (a Hutt female) and his Twi'lek majordomo Bib Fortuna (Matthew Wood). Although he is the host of the race, Jabba is totally uninterested and even dozes off, missing the race's conclusion. Star Wars literature: The first appearances of Jabba the Hutt in Star Wars Expanded Universe literature was in Marvel Comics's non-canonical adaptations of “A New Hope.” Six Against the Galaxy (1977) by Roy Thomas and What Ever Happened to Jabba the Hut? (1979) and In Mortal Combat (1980), both by Archie Goodwin, depict Jabba the Hutt (originally spelled Hut) as a tall humanoid with a walrus-like face, a topknot, and a bright uniform. The Marvel artists based Jabba on a character later named Mosep Binneed, an alien visible only briefly in the Mos Eisley cantina scene of A New Hope. The 1977 mass market paperback novelization of Lucas' Star Wars script describes Jabba as a "great mobile tub of muscle and suet topped by a shaggy scarred skull", but gives no further detail as to the character's physical appearance or species. Later Expanded Universe novels and comics adopt the character's image as seen in the film. They also elaborate on his background prior to the events of the Star Wars films. For example, Zorba the Hutt's Revenge (1992), a young adult novel by Paul and Hollace Davids, reveals that Jabba's father is a powerful crime lord called Zorba the Hutt and that Jabba was born 596 years before the events of A New Hope, making him around 600 years old at the time of his death in Return of the Jedi. Ann C. Crispin's novel The Hutt Gambit (1997) explains how Jabba the Hutt and Han Solo become business associates and portrays the events that lead to a bounty being placed on Han's head. Other Expanded Universe stories, especially the anthology of Dark Horse comics by Jim Woodring titled Jabba the Hutt: The Art of the Deal (1998), likewise detail Jabba the Hutt's rise to the head of the Desilijic clan, his role in the criminal underworld of the Star Wars universe, and the establishment of his crime syndicate on Tatooine in the Star Wars galaxy's Outer Rim Territories. Tales from Jabba's Palace (1996), a collection of short stories edited by science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson, pieces together the lives of Jabba the Hutt's various minions in his palace and their relationship to him during the last days of his life. The stories reveal that few of the Hutt's servants are loyal to him and most are in fact plotting to have him assassinated. When Jabba the Hutt is killed in Return of the Jedi, his surviving former courtiers join forces with his rivals on Tatooine and his family on the Hutt homeworld Nal Hutta make claims to his palace, fortune, and criminal empire. Timothy Zahn's novel Heir to the Empire (1991) reveals that a smuggler named Talon Karrde eventually replaces Jabba as the "big fish in the pond", and moves the headquarters of the Hutt's criminal empire off Tatooine. Jabba the Hutt may just be the most disgusting villain on this list. I mean, just look at him. He’s fat, ugly, wrinkly, slimy, and probably smells bad. This is important to his villainy as his physical appearance is as grotesque as his character and reinforces his personality as a criminal deviant. As Han Solo puts it in “Return of the Jedi,” Jabba is a "slimy piece of worm-ridden filth." Science fiction authors Tom and Martha Veitch write that Jabba's body is a "miasmic mass" of flesh that shakes as he laughs. He emits an unmistakable smell: "The Hutt's lardaceous body seemed to periodically release a greasy discharge, sending fresh waves of rotten stench" into the air. His swollen tongue drips with saliva as he feeds on creatures that resemble frogs and maggots. Jabba's appetite is insatiable and he is not discriminatory about his diet. For example, his jester, the Kowakian monkey-lizard Salacious B. Crumb, must make the Hutt crime lord laugh once a day, every day, or Jabba will eat him. But, it is not looks alone that has put Jabba on this list. Besides gluttony, his sins include vice, lust, and greed. He is a collector of fine things: money, spice (drugs), and people. He has many dancing slave girls around him for his enjoyment and pleasure. And, it’s safe to say that “enjoyment and pleasure” includes sex. I feel so sorry for the poor girls forced to have sex with Jabba. He also has human wall adornments like Han Solo frozen in carbonite. Jabba also has a keen mind. He was able to fend off the influential powers of a Jedi Knight like Luke Skywalker. And, he is very ruthless. You mess with him, and he has many options to take care of you. For one, he has many bounty hunters at his disposal, including the coolest and badest bounty hunter in the Star Wars Universe: Boba Fett. Yeah, the best bounty hunter in the universe works for him. He has two dangerous pets: the Rancor, a giant monster with very sharp claws and jaws, and the Sarlacc, a huge beast living underground in a pit with many sharp teeth and tentacles. You could survive the Rancor; Luke did, but you would need to be a freaking jedi to do it. As for the Sarlacc, C-3PO’s translation of Jabba’s threat says it best: "In his belly, you will find a new definition of pain and suffering as you are slowly digested over a thousand years." However, Jabba was defeated, thanks to his excess. His complete arrogance, thinking he had Han and Luke dead to rights, kept him from ever suspecting that Lando Calrissian was hidden among his men and helped him escape. And, his gluttony kept him from being able to fight of Leia as she choked him to death with the chain he had tied to her neck. Jabba the Hutt was a ruthless, disgusting being who deserved to die. Though he may have been cruel and evil, Jabba had one redeeming quality: he gave the world Princess Leia in that gold bikini! THANK YOU, JABBA!!!!
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jun 4, 2008 21:21:39 GMT -5
Okay, here's a recap of 100-41:
100. Walter Peck 99. Sideshow Bob 98. Dean Vernon Wormer 97. Bill Lumbergh 96. The French Taunter 95. Col. Kurtz 94. Baby Jane Hudson 93. Auric Goldfinger 92. The Nosferatu 91. M. Bison 90. Luther 89. The Wicked Witch of the West 88. Frank Booth 87. Bullseye 86. R.J. Fletcher 85. Alonzo Harris 84. Sephiroth 83. Norman Bates 82. Black Adam 81. Herr Starr 80. Annie Wilkes 79. Mr. Blonde 78. Principal Ed Rooney 77. Ivan Drago 76. Cigarette Smoking Man 75. Leatherface 74. Angel Eyes 73. Bob 72. Tony Montana 71. Thanos 70. Daniel Plainview 69. General Zod 68. J.J. Hunsecker 67. Megatron 66. Two-Face 65. Kevin 64. Big Brother 63. Johnny Lawrence 62. Vince McMahon 61. Clubber Lang 60. Mr. Burns 59. Biff Tannen 58. Kid Miracleman 57. Bill The Butcher 56. Venom 55. Max Cady 54. John Doe 53. Predator 52. Dark Phoenix 51. Patrick Bateman 50. Dr. Christian Szell 49. Jason Voorhees 48. Godzilla 47. Eric Cartman 46. HAL 9000 45. Starscream 44. Cobra Commander 43. Randall Flagg 42. Keyser Söze 41. Jabba The Hutt
Tomorrow, numbers 40 and 39. Here are the hints:
He has one eye and has taken out two well-know superhero teams, and he was cursed with a soul.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jun 5, 2008 20:35:45 GMT -5
Once again, it is countdown time. Here is number 40: 40. Deathstroke Who is he: Hired mercenary and assassin. What is he from: DC Comics, most notably his own series Deathstroke The Terminator, Teen Titans, and Infinite Crisis. What has he done: Taken out the Teen Titans and the Justice League. Intelligence: A tactical genius. Power: He is usually a loner but has formed a counter-team to the Teen Titans. Vileness: Kills for money and is practically amoral. Sway: The usual fear and intimidation and is very good at manipulation. Purity: Cares for his daughter Rose and feels guilty and responsible for the deaths of two of his sons; that’s pretty much where his compassion ends. Physical Prowess: Enhanced physical and mental attributes, regenerative healing factor, expert martial artist, and skilled in armed and unarmed combatant; he has taken out several heroes in the DC universe, even some with superpowers. Name Coolness: “Deathstroke” is very cool. Hell, it was too cool for the Teen Titan animated series, and the character had to be called by his real name “Slade Wilson,” which is also pretty cool. Also, the character was originally called “Deathstroke the Terminator,” which is also very cool. Created by: Marv Wolfman and George Pérez. Portrayed by: In the fourth season of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, an assassin by the name of Deathstroke appeared in "Bob and Carol and Lois and Clark," played by Antonio Sabàto, Jr. In the Teen Titans animated series, Ron Pearlman voice the character. Comics: Imbued with enhanced physical prowess by secret army experiments attempting to create metahuman soldiers for the U.S. military, Deathstroke the Terminator (called "Terminator" for most of his published existence) became a mercenary soon after the experiment when he defied orders to rescue his friend and mentor Wintergreen, who had been sent on a suicide mission by a commanding officer with a grudge. However, he kept this career secret from his family, even though his wife was an expert military combat instructor- indeed, she had been responsible for a significant portion of his early training-, until a criminal named the Jackal kidnapped his younger son, Joseph, as a hostage to force Slade to divulge the name of a client who had hired him as an assassin. Slade refused to do so, claiming that it was against his personal honor code, and attacked and killed the kidnappers at the rendezvous. Unfortunately, Joseph's throat was slashed by one of the criminals before Slade could prevent it, destroying his vocal cords and rendering him mute. After taking Joseph to the hospital, Slade's wife Adeline, enraged at his endangerment of her son, tried to kill Slade by shooting him, but only managed to destroy his right eye. Afterward, his confidence in his physical abilities was such that he made no secret of his impaired vision, marked by his mask which has a black featureless half covering his lost eye. Without his mask, Slade wears an eyepatch. Slade has a long history as an enemy of the Teen Titans, beginning when his other son, Grant, became an early Titans foe called the Ravager who was physically enhanced to fulfill a contract to kill or capture the Teen Titans. However, those enhancements proved fatal and Slade agreed to complete the contract. As a result, he attacked the Titans continually and finally succeeded in capturing them by introducing Terra (whom he shared an intimate relationship with, despite her being barely sixteen years old) into the team as a spy. At the end of this plot, Slade was defeated and captured with the help of Joseph, who joined the team as Jericho, using his father's body to free the Titans (although it is important to note that Slade didn't actually try to fight his son's control). Slade was put on trial for his crimes, but the trial was deliberately sabotaged by Garfield Logan, aka Beast Boy so that he could kill Slade himself, believing he was responsible for Terra's betrayal of the Titans. However, when the two confronted each other, Beast Boy found himself unable to kill Slade. Feeling some empathy for his grief, Slade explained his past with Terra, and Beast Boy realized he was not to blame for the choices Terra had made. The two men parted on peaceful terms afterward. Months later, Slade encountered the Titans again while they were investigating a mysterious plague linked to a group of biologically engineered beastmen, one of whom was a target of an assassination by Slade himself. When Troia and Raven were both stricken by the plague, he aided them in destroying the beastmen and finding a cure for the contagion. Shortly after this, he came to the Titan's assistance again during the Titans Hunt storyline when most of their members were abducted by the Wildebeest Society, and proved instrumental in tracking them down, only to discover their leader was none other than Jericho himself. It was revealed that Jericho had been possessed by the corrupted souls of Azarath, who were using him to capture the Titans and use them as physical hosts in order to survive. During the transfer process, Jericho's true self resurfaced briefly, begging his father to kill him. To spare his son any more pain and save the remaining Titans, Slade was forced to drive a sword through Jericho's heart, seemingly killing him. This act still haunts him to this day, though Jericho later turned out to have survived death by transferring his mind into his father's body seconds before his death. Afterward, Slade continued his life as a mercenary, but also acted as an occasional hero, aiding the Titans or acting on his own to help others, most notably during the Total Chaos storyline when the Team Titans arrived in the 20th Century to assassinate Donna Troy before she could give birth to her son, who in their timeline had grown up into the tyrannical despot, Lord Chaos. His relationship with Garfield Logan had also changed around this time to the point where they became friends as well. Slade also met Pat Trayce, a tough former cop who would become the new costumed Vigilante. Pat Trayce and Slade quickly became lovers, and began a tumultuous on again/off again relationship. After Slade thwarted an assassination attempt on the President of the United States, he was subsequently framed for the murder of a U.S. Senator. The man responsible had taken on the identity of the Ravager and was hunting down Slade's friends and loved ones. Eventually with the help of the Titans and Sarge Steel, Slade was able to prove his innocence, and the true culprit was revealed to be Steve Dayton, under the alias of the Crimelord, who had again succumbed to mental instability caused by his Mento helmet. Meanwhile, his relationship with his estranged wife Adeline took a tragic turn as Slade underwent a process to gain regeneration power, allowing him to survive any wound so long as his brain is intact (this power is limited, as Slade can not regenerate his lost eye since that injury happened before he gained his healing factor) . After gaining the power, Slade was forced to give his wife a blood transfusion, resulting in her gaining a similar healing factor which manifested itself as a form of immortality. This drove Adeline insane, shaming Deathstroke into going into a semi-retirement state. In Titans #12, Deathstroke teamed up with the Titans to face his wife Adeline, who in her insane state, had revived The H.I.V.E. and sought to rid the world of all superhumans, blaming them for Jericho's death. During the battle, interrupted by Vandal Savage and a band of villains that he had organized from recent Titan battles, Adeline's throat was slit. She begged Slade to kill her, since her version of the healing factor wouldn't heal the wound but allow her to live in spite of it. Deathstroke refused, but Koriand'r shocked her teammates and Deathstroke by using her starbolt blast to disintegrate her completely, per Adeline's wishes. This was a turning point, as Deathstroke renounced all ties with the Titans as a result of this act of mercy on Starfire's part. Recently, it was revealed that Jericho managed to transfer his consciousness into Deathstroke in the instant before his death. Taking control of his father, Jericho forced Deathstroke to murder his longtime butler, mentor, and companion Wintergreen. He then launched a series of attacks against the current Teen Titans, most notably shattering Impulse's knee with a shotgun blast, before leaving his father's body. Deathstroke has since manipulated his one remaining child, Rose Wilson, into the mercenary business as the new Ravager, in order to find and kill Jericho, using a specially-designed serum to heighten her hostility and push her over the edge; unfortunately, the process also resulted in her being driven at least partially insane, to the extent that she cut out her own left eye in an attempt to prove to her father that she was just like him. In Identity Crisis, Deathstroke was enlisted as a bodyguard for Doctor Light, who was being chased by the Justice League. In the ensuing battle, Deathstroke nearly beat the team of Elongated Man, the Flash (Wally West), Zatanna, Hawkman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, the Atom, and Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner). He systematically took out every member except for Rayner, whom he had the potential to disable through trying to usurp his ring's energies using his own formidable willpower. Fortunately, before the outcome of this conflict with Rayner ended, Green Arrow stuck an arrow in Deathstroke's right eye socket, enraging him. Slade went ballistic and began to beat Green Arrow, but was stopped when the majority of the team tackled Deathstroke to the ground. Dr. Light used his powers, and the two escaped. Near the end of Identity Crisis, Deathstroke confronts Green Arrow on a rooftop. Arrow sees his reflection in the windows of a nearby building, but when he turns to confront Slade, Deathstroke is gone. Instead Green Arrow finds Slade's cowl and a note stuck to the wall by the very arrow he stabbed in Slade's eye socket. The note reads, "This is yours - We're not done." Deathstroke was a founding member of Lex Luthor's Secret Society of Super Villains in the Infinite Crisis storyline. He was seen in Infinite Crisis #1, hiding in a warehouse south of Metropolis waiting to ambush the Freedom Fighters with several other members. The battle didn't last long, and by the end, Deathstroke had impaled Phantom Lady through the chest, calling his action "just business". He was the employer of an undercover Dick Grayson, whom he hired to train his daughter Rose. However, after the two had a confrontation with Superman, Deathstroke discovered that Nightwing had been teaching Rose the values of heroism. He could not kill Grayson in front of his daughter because doing so would undo all of Slade's teachings. Nightwing offered a deal: he would stay away from Rose if Slade would keep the metahuman villains out of Blüdhaven. The deal held for 34 hours until Infinite Crisis #4, when Slade, under the orders of Alexander Luthor, Jr., the real leader of the Society, went with several villains, including old Titans Doom Patrol foes and Brotherhood of Evil members Monsieur Mallah and Brain, to drop Chemo, another fellow villain who appeared to be a nearly brainless monster made of pure energy and radioactive chemicals, on Blüdhaven, killing thousands. Slade gave the explanation to the Brotherhood that Nightwing should be made to believe that he can never go home again. Grayson took the first of his revenge by bursting in on Deathstroke and Rose's training session, revealing to the latter that the Kryptonite that Deathstroke had implanted in place of her missing eye was radioactive and deadly to humans as well as to Kryptonians (though slower in its effects on humans, as revealed by Lex Luthor's old possession of a Kryptonite ring that forced him to transfer his brain to a cloned body). Angered, Slade went after Nightwing with a grenade, only to have Rose try to stop him. Amid the smoke of the resulting explosion, Rose fled, telling her father that she hated him. Dick disappeared as well, but not before leaving a note for Slade warning him that he'd be back to make him pay for Blüdhaven. At the climactic Battle of Metropolis at the conclusion of Infinite Crisis, Slade was confronted by Batman, Robin, and Nightwing. During the struggle, he was questioned regarding his motives for aiding the Secret Society. His claims of monetary motivation were deemed unsatisfactory, and he was told to take responsibility before being rendered unconscious. Slade appears in the Green Arrow series after the one year jump in DC Comics's storylines. Apparently in hiding, he nearly murders a crony of several Star City businessmen who want to hire him for a murder. Before finishing his violent refusal, he asks the name of the target; when informed that it was to be the mayor of Star City, Oliver Queen (whom Deathstroke knows is secretly Green Arrow), he spares the lackey and decides to take the job. However, things don't quite go according to plan, with Green Arrow using the resources of both his identities, then trapping him within a ring of armed National Guardsmen. The fight ends with Deathstroke's arrest and subsequent conviction and incarceration; however, this is revealed as a ploy to gain access to another jailed foe of Green Arrow's who has information on the hero's activities in the "lost year", which include Green Arrow studying under an assassin who once trained Deathstroke himself. Deathstroke is also active behind the scenes in Teen Titans, currently in the process of organizing a counter-team of teen superhumans that will be known as Titans East. The current Titans team included Ravager, who now wanted nothing to do with her father. Deathstroke seemingly intended to "reclaim" Ravager and a recently resurrected Jericho from the Titans or, if that failed, to crush them along with the rest of the team. For these reasons, he specially selected each member of Titans East, believing that, overall, each member would successfully counteract every member of the current Teen Titans line-up. As indicated over the course of the subsequent issues, Deathstroke was manipulating every member of his new team in one way or another. He had blackmailed former Titan Risk while at the same time offering him an outlet for his rage, was drugging Cassandra Cain with the same serum he'd used on Rose, and supplied Inertia with a formula which granted superhuman speed to compensate for the loss of the Speed Force following the initial battle with Superboy-Prime. His team, however, slowly fell apart over the course of the attack, as Robin managed to free Batgirl of his mind control serum and Raven convinced Duela Dent to switch sides. Slade and his remaining Titans subsequently faced off against both the current Titans and a group of old Titans led by Nightwing. Although he was defeated, he still manages to escape with the aid of Inertia. In the end, however, it was revealed to the readers that Slade's real mission was to provide his children with something he could never offer them - a real family, in the form of the Teen Titans. By attacking the Titans, he insured that Rose and Jericho would become more trusted by their associates, and thus grow closer to the team. Shown in Justice League of America #12, Deathstroke has been blackmailing Brion Markov, the half-brother of the original Terra, and ruler of Markovia, by way of claiming to have disrupted his powers. Using this leverage, Deathstroke hopes to gain information regarding the Justice League's current roster. Deathstroke appeared in Justice League of America (vol. 2) #13 as a member of the latest Injustice League. Lois & Clark: In the fourth season of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, an assassin by the name of Deathstroke appeared in "Bob and Carol and Lois and Clark," played by Antonio Sabàto, Jr. The only commonality is the fact that he is an international assassin known as Deathstroke. In Lois and Clark, Deathstroke is a former scientist. An accident in the lab exposed him to magnetic particles, permanently altering his body and granting him magnetic powers. His assistant, who afterwards becomes his wife, helps by creating a special suit to contain his powers and keep metal from being drawn to him while out in public. The suit even has a symbol of its own: resembling the force lines of a magnetic field, forming a stylized figure eight. After this, he becomes an assassin, murdering his targets with his powers, first by drawing the target to him, then by magnetizing the iron in their blood cells, causing a figure-eight mark on the chest as the person dies of a heart attack. The couple take the name Bob and Carol when they arrive in Metropolis; they become friends with Clark Kent and Lois Lane as they discover that Lois is going to be interviewing an eccentric reclusive billionaire. The couple plan to assassinate the billionaire before he goes public, taking his identity and thus his fortune. The plan is foiled when Superman interferes, destroying Deathstroke's containment suit, which causes him to be magnetically drawn to a steel pillar until the police arrive. Very much like Superman, this Deathstroke kept a secret identity by wearing a pair of glasses. Teen Titans The Animated Series: Deathstroke appears in the Teen Titans animated series, voiced by actor Ron Perlman. The name "Deathstroke" did not make it through the censors due to hesitance to use the word "death" in a children's animated series, thus, the character is referred by his first name, "Slade", from the comics. He is also changed from a mercenary and assassin, to an enigmatic criminal mastermind. He is the Teen Titans' main adversary and the primary antagonist for the first two seasons of the show. Slade is shown to be ambitious, calculating, and emotionless. His main goal is apparently to destroy the Titans and conquer the city, and quite possibly the world, for reasons unknown. In addition, Slade has superior physical strength and fighting skills that surpass Robin's. He is also a bona-fide genius, with great knowledge in robotics, and seems to also possess some knowledge of ceremonial magic (as seen in Forces of Nature). He appears to have various extremely advanced secret hideouts, and a vast army of robot minions. However, Slade's most notable quality is that he is a master of manipulation and psychology. Initially, Slade appears as a shadowy, unseen character, until in the episode "Masks", but Robin only manages to capture a robotic duplicate. In the "Apprentice" story arc, Slade forces Robin to join him by threatening to use nanobots that he planted in the Titans to destroy them. In season two, Slade recruits and manipulates the superpowered girl Terra, with whom he manages to defeat the Teen Titans and take over the city. The Titans however, believed dead, returns, and with help from Beast Boy, Terra is able to overcome Slade, and sends him to his doom in a lava pit. In the Season 3 episode "Haunted", Slade appears a figment of Robin's imagination, due to a chemical reagent released from his mask into Robin's body, which made him see, hear, and feel Slade. Robin is nearly killed, but in the end, he learns that it really isn't Slade, and discovers that light banishes the hallucination, which only worked in the dark. Oddly enough, it is revealed that this gas had been triggered from the outside. Slade returns for season four, as the servant of Raven's demonic father Trigon, who promises to give him back his flesh and blood body in exchange for his services, granting Slade demonic powers, including a red mark on his forehead, called the Mark of Scathe. However, Trigon goes back on the deal, and Slade helps the Teen Titans defeat Trigon, after having recovered his flesh and blood. However, Slade manages to escape the Titans shortly thereafter. Slade appears in the last episode of the series, "Things Change" when Beast Boy is searching for answers on why a newly revived Terra seems to have lost all memory of her past or superpowers. Slade confronts Beast Boy, denying anything to do with Terra's sudden return, stating that if Terra doesn't remember her past, it's because she doesn't want to remember and that he should leave her alone, in peace. Infuriated by his speech, Beast Boy attacks Slade, only to find out that it's just another robot-duplicate. Although the connection is never stated in the course of the series, Slade's son Jericho is also introduced into the Teen Titans series during the series finale. His daughter Rose is also introduced in the animated series based comic book Teen Titans Go!; a painting of Slade, without his mask, is briefly seen in the comic book. Slade will appear in the upcoming straight-to-DVD Teen Titans adaptation, Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, an adaptation of the Terra storyline from the comics. However due to the targeted PG-13 rating and the subject matter, he will be called Deathstroke in the film. This is unrelated to the more youth-oriented anime-like Teen Titans. Deathstroke is not a man you want to mess with. He is very good at armed and unarmed combat. Hell, the man has taken out the Teen Titans on numerous occasions and took out several members of the Justice League. He even came very close to taking Kyle Rayner’s Green Lantern ring. And, amazingly, he doesn’t have superpowers on the level of the likes of the Flash or Green Lantern. He is very smart, a tactical genius that knows many ways to execute a plan. And, he is a master manipulator, especially when it comes to his daughter Rose. He manipulated and trained her to be the new Ravager, which led Rose to cut out her own eye to prove to her father that she is just like him! Now, that is devotion. Deathstroke is a very complicated man. He is a man of honor who operates under a strict code of ethics, yet his sense of morality is flawed. He believes in using deadly force, which makes him a good assassin, and, at times, has acted as judge, jury, and executioner for those he deems without honor or worth. He usually kills for money and is a competent professional, but sometimes he will let his emotions control him, usually to seek revenge on certain people, like Green Arrow after he stabbed Deathstroke in his eye socket missing the eye. However, he is particular about the jobs he chooses, often turning down jobs that would compromise his personal moral compass, such as it is. In some occasions, he has fought on the side of angels merely because he believed in the cause. Other times, he has taken cases and committed acts other heroes would be disgusted by. However, he is a man capable of extreme devotion, whether it is to his family, friends or ex-lovers. He has always sought to protect those who have been close to them and wouldn’t hesitate to lay down his life in exchange for theirs. His greatest tragedies have been his inability to prevent the destruction of those who have loved him. The death of his sons and ex-wife continue to haunt Slade. He is tortured by his helplessness to have saved them. Deathstroke is also a man who has a hard time expressing his feelings. His lack of expression has made him neither a good father nor husband. At times, he has distanced himself from those he loved for their own protection. On separate occasions, he curtly cut ties with Rose, his daughter, and Pat Trayce, his lover, in an effort "save" them from his way of life. Nevertheless, these qualities have made him a very interesting villain. All of his flaws have shaped him into the man he is today: an ambiguously moral, badass mercenary with personal demons that haunt him. Deathstroke is a haunting villain in many ways. Plus, he has a bitchin’ suit!
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jun 5, 2008 22:08:12 GMT -5
39. Angelus Who is he: A vampire. What is he from: Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Angel. What has he done: Killed many people for over a century, tried to suck all the humans on Earth into hell, broke Buffy’s heart. Intelligence: Pretty smart with some lofty plans. Power: Usually a loner but has had a group that follows his orders. Vileness: As a vampire, he has no soul; he also seems to enjoy being evil a little too much. Sway: Is a master at manipulation and psychological tortures. Purity: Was given a soul and became Angel, but technically, they are two separate entities. Physical Prowess: Nice build; graceful like a boxer; immortal and can only be killed by fire, decapitation, or wooden stake to the heart; has superhuman strength, speed, stamina, senses, and resistance to injuries, but age grants him these powers superior to those of most other vampires; psychic link with his sired progeny renders him capable of experiencing their deeds during dreams and sense their presence; and photographic memory. Name Coolness: “Angelus” is pretty cool. Created by: Joss Whedon. Portrayed by: David Boreanaz. However, we almost never got to see Angelus. Originally, Angel was supposed to be a one-time character until David Boreanaz was found. However, when it was planned that Angel would lose his soul, Joss Whedon was doubtful of David Boreanaz being capable of portraying the cruelty of Angelus. Joss changed his mind after he saw David performing Angelus and said that he never saw anyone creeping him out like that. Born in 1727, Liam (no surname given) was born to a middle-class linen merchant in Galway, Ireland. By 1753, at the age of 26, he develops a taste for alcohol, women and sloth. Liam is a hedonist whose only real ambition lies in seeing the world. For a drunken layabout, this seems a laughable dream, until he is expelled from his house by his disapproving father. While engaging a drunken tavern brawl that evening, he catches the eye of Darla, a vampire disguised as a noblewoman. Upon being tossed out of the tavern for causing trouble, Liam is lured into an alley by Darla, who promises to show him the world and then transforms him into a vampire. The price is the loss of his human soul, along with his conscience, freeing Liam to act upon his darker impulses. On the night he rises from his grave, Liam sets about murdering the entire community, culminating in an attack on his own house. He first kills his little sister, Kathy, who unknowingly invited the demon in, believing that Liam had come back to her as an "angel", subsequently killing his parents. Kathy's belief that he was an angel was likely the inspiration for his vampire name, "Angelus" (the Latinate for "Angel"). He is later described in historical volumes as "the demon with the face of an angel" ("Somnambulist"). After leaving Ireland, Angelus and Darla cut a bloody swath through Wales and northern England, before finally reaching London in 1760. During Angelus's first meeting with the Master, he openly mocks the older vampire despite his power and authority, showing no fear despite his greater age, and confronts Darla about her decision to remain underground when she could be traveling the world with him. Won over by his words, Darla chooses to live with Angelus, abandoning the Master's leadership. In May 1764, Angelus and Darla killed the family of vampire hunter Daniel Holtz. Holtz devoted himself to capturing Angelus and Darla, chasing them across Europe. Angelus and Darla had a near miss in France, after making too much noise by ordering room service and eating the waiters. Darla flees to Austria, leaving Angelus in a burning barn and riding off on their only horse. After meeting again in Vienna, Angelus and Darla sire the vampires James and Elizabeth. In Marseilles, 1767, Holtz tracks them down and manages to put numerous arrows in Angelus. Holtz briefly lost them in northern Africa, only to track Angelus to Rome, Italy in 1771. Instead of killing Holtz, Angelus and Darla realize that they have come to view him "like family" and make a sport of ruining his life. Holtz abandons his hunt and retires to York, England, until in 1773 a demon named Sahjhan offers to take him to the future where he may continue his revenge. Angelus later sires a Puritan by the name of Penn, who mimics Angelus by wreaking havoc on his father and killing his family. Over time he begins copying Angelus' 'signature' of leaving a cross-shaped mark on the face of his victims in order to spite God. In 1789, Angelus- apparently alone for reasons unknown- encounters The Beast in Prussia, standing in a field of bodies, who seeks Angelus's aid in killing the Svear Priestesses, a group who wish to banish the Beast and who can only be killed by a vampire. When he declines to join with the Beast, he is met with violent reprisal, but a group of Svear priestesses banish the Beast while Angelus is passing out. In 1860, Drusilla from London, England, a young woman "cursed" with the "sight," something her mother saw as "an affront to the Lord," catches the attention of Angelus. Drusilla and her sisters are all noted to be virgins, and Drusilla is described as having been "sweet, pure and chaste." While posing as her priest to torment her, Angelus killed her family, which caused Drusilla to flee to a convent. On the day she was to take her holy orders, Angelus massacred the convent (he had an obsession with nuns, including a massacre of those at "Our Lady of Lochenbee"). After having sex with Darla right in front of Drusilla, Angelus finally pushed her over the edge, driving her insane before he finally sired her. Drusilla is Angelus' "masterpiece," an everlasting example of his finest cruelty, as her immortality means that her torment shall never end. Drusilla, in turn, sires William the Bloody, for whom Angelus largely served as a mentor and "role model." William, who later becomes known as "Spike," goes so far as to call the elder vampire his "Yoda". Angelus taught William about the art of mass slaughter, including an incident during a wedding party where Angelus beat the groom to death with his own arm. Angelus threatens to stake Spike in a London mine shaft in 1880, as punishment for putting the vampire quartet on the run after attracting too much attention. Angelus introduces Spike to the existence of the Slayer as a cautionary tale, but Spike takes it as a challenge. In 1890, Angelus attended a production of Giselle by the Blinnikov, a Russian ballet troupe run by Count Kurskov. Despite being evil, he is moved to tears during the performance (Angel refers to this incident in an episode, saying that he "cried like a baby, and I was evil!"). In 1894, Angelus and Spike are captured by the Immortal's henchmen in Rome, Italy and tortured while the Immortal had a threesome with Darla and Drusilla (Something that, incidentally, they never allowed Angelus and Spike to do). Darla and Angelus were also present at an earthquake in Budapest, Hungary around the turn of the century, where Angelus was a particularly "bad boy." In 1898, while in Borºa, Romania, Angelus tortured and killed the favorite daughter of a tribe of Kalderash gypsies, apparently a birthday present from Darla. To avenge her death, the Kalderash gypsies curse him by restoring his human soul, thus afflicting him with a conscience and condemning him to an eternity of remorse for the crimes he has committed. Darla finds Angel huddling in their apartment muttering about all the atrocities they have committed. Repulsed by his "filthy human soul," Darla tries to coerce the father of the dead Gypsy girl to reverse the curse; an overeager Spike kills the rest of the tribe while Darla is busy negotiating with the man. Seeing her leverage has been wasted, a frustrated Darla snaps the father's neck and leaves. Angelus is left homeless and scavenging the streets for rats. He attempts to kill a woman, but finds that he cannot bring himself to. During the Boxer Rebellion in Beijing, China, the ensouled vampire, now known as "Angel," tries and fails to resume his life with Darla. To satisfy her, he starts killing humans again, but Darla notices that he is only hunting rapists and murderers, never targeting innocents. Darla catches Angel trying to hide a group of Christian missionaries from her. When Angel goes to feed on rats down at the waterfront, Darla kills the missionary family and brings back their infant child as a test for Angel. Unable to kill it, Angel flees with the baby and separates from Darla for good, stating that he can't continue to be something he's not. For the next good part of the 20th Century, Angel travels around the United States from New York to Las Vegas to Los Angeles, serving briefly in World War II. In New York during the 1970s, Angel witnesses a robbery at a doughnut shop. After the robber shoots an employee and runs away, Angel stays with the man as he dies, and then proceeds to feed on him. Disgusted with himself, Angel then exiles himself to the alleyways, where he spends another 20 years homeless and feeding on rats. Two decades later, a shadow of his former self, the reclusive Angel is sought out by a demon named Whistler in 1996. Whistler persuades Angel join the fight against evil. He then brings Angel to meet the newly-called Vampire Slayer, Buffy Summers. The following year, when he and Buffy finally meet in Sunnydale, he introduces himself, not as Angelus, but as Angel. Although Angel already sees Buffy while she is still in L.A., he does not introduce himself to her until after her move to Sunnydale, and after her first day at Sunnydale High. The two fall in love, but Buffy does not realize Angel is a vampire until several weeks later in the episode "Angel", when he unintentionally vamps out after kissing her. Though they try to deny their feelings, they cannot resist the passion growing between them, and the two begin to date after Angel helps to save her from a demonic frat party. When they finally consummate their relationship in "Surprise", Angel experiences one moment of pure happiness, which breaks the Gypsy curse, and loses his soul. Without the compassion and conscience instilled by his human soul, Angel instantly reverts to his former evil self, Angelus, in the following episode. Angelus allies himself once again with Spike and Drusilla, who have recently settled in Sunnydale. Resenting the humiliation he felt because Buffy had made Angel feel like a human being, Angelus takes immense pleasure in tormenting the Slayer and her friends. First, he helps Spike and Dru deploy a powerful demon known as the Judge. After Buffy destroys the Judge, Angelus embarks on a guerilla campaign, lurking in the shadows, preying on Buffy's classmates, sending her gruesome messages, even drawing pictures of her and her mother as they sleep and leaving them in her bedroom. He proceeds to murder Jenny Calendar, which serves him in two ways: first, he eliminates an enemy (Jenny was born Janna of the Kalderash clan) and destroys her work just as she manages to successfully decipher the lost Gypsy curse which could be used to restore Angel's soul; and second, Angelus uses Jenny's death to viciously torment Rupert Giles, Jenny's paramour and the person on whom Buffy depends most. After this, Angelus widens his focus and begins a scheme to awaken the demon Acathla and bring about the end of the world. Buffy is determined to stop him despite their history, and is able to overcome him in combat. Just as she prepares for the finishing blow however, Willow Rosenberg is able to restore Angel's soul. Since Acathla can only be stopped by the blood of the individual who activated him, Buffy is forced to sacrifice Angel to save the world. Impaled on the Slayer's enchanted sword, Angel is sucked into Acathla's vortex which suddenly snaps closed. However, Angel does return to Earth. Angel and Buffy attempt to resume their relationship, but Angel begins to doubt that he will ever be able to give Buffy a remotely human life. When Buffy's mother and even the season's "Big Bad," Mayor Richard Wilkins, tell him that he cannot give her a real future, he tells Buffy that he is leaving Sunnydale after they stop Wilkins, although they share a last dance at her prom. In an attempt to distract Buffy, rogue slayer Faith Lehane shoots him with arrow coated with a poison that can only be cured with the blood of a Slayer. When Buffy is unable to bring him the body of Faith, she tells him to drink from her. He is cured, but nearly kills her in the process when he gives in to his instincts, although he manages to get her to the hospital in time to save her life. He tells Buffy that he's just going to leave without saying goodbye; when they win the fight against Wilkins, Angel and Buffy share a look, and then he leaves for Los Angeles. In L.A., after spending a few months alone, patrolling dives and dark alleys, battling vampires who hunt there, Angel forms Angel Investigations, a shoestring operation whose mission statement is to "Help the Helpless." He is joined by Doyle, a half-demon and fellow Irishman, sent by The Powers That Be, and Cordelia Chase, a former classmate of Buffy's who has moved to L.A. to find wealth and fame. Doyle later dies and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, who had briefly served as Watcher to both Buffy and Faith in Sunnydale, arrives in L.A. claiming to be a "rogue demon hunter," a lone wolf sort who only works solo but eventually becomes a employed by Angel. A few months later, they are joined by lifelong demon fighter, Charles Gunn. Then, over the next few years, Winifred “Fred” Burkle, the undefeated Champion of Pylea the Groosalugg (who later left), the demon and former karaoke bar-owner Lorne, and Angel’s son Connor join the team. By the fourth season, a very powerful demon known only as the Beast arrives and begins an attempt to bring forth an apocalypse. Cordelia has a vision in which she sees Angelus meeting with the Beast. Wesley then surmises that they must bring forth Angelus in order to find out what he knows about the Beast since they are unable to find any info on it. Though he’s against it, Angel reluctantly agrees. To do so, Wesley brings in a dark mystic, named Wo-Pang, to extract Angel’s soul and release the evil Angelus who apparently knew the Beast centuries before and who may know how to kill it. The gang builds a large cage in the basement where they tie Angel down and Wo-Pang creates an illusion reality. In it, Wo-Pang betrays the gang, and a vision from Cordelia shows the location of a sword that can kill the Beast. Angel, Cordelia, Connor and Wesley venture to a subterranean tunnel filled with lethal trip-wire devices which Angel acquires the sword, kills the Beast, restores the sun, and a happy moment leads him to make love to Cordelia. Back in reality, the spell has had its intended effect. Angelus is back. His soul is trapped in a glass container. At the Hyperion Hotel, the gang carefully put Angel's contained soul away in the safe, discussing the great risk they all face in dealing with Angelus. Meanwhile, an unchained Angelus sits alone in the basement cage. Wesley cautiously approaches the cage and starts up a discussion with Angelus. Angelus plays games with Wesley, avoiding the important information about Beast in favor of taunting Wesley about his romantic interest in Fred while the rest of the gang watch the conversation from the lobby via video feed. Angelus continues to be difficult, raising issues of Wesley's failure with Faith and Connor. Angelus comments about Cordelia sleeping with Connor, informing the rest of the gang, who were out of the loop, about the event. Connor returns to receive strange looks in the aftermath of Angelus's news, but misinterprets the looks as everyone thinking he's still connected to the Beast. Gunn and Fred bring Angelus a glass of blood and Angelus happily takes advantage of the opportunity to taunt the couple about the sounds Angel could hear coming from Fred's room at night. Fred pushes a cart towards the cage and Angel takes the glass, but also shoves the cart into Fred and grabs her when she falls towards the cage. Gunn moves in to rescue Fred, but it's Wesley who shoots Angelus with tranquilizer darts, freeing Fred and knocking Angelus out cold. Fred thanks Wesley for saving her, but the conversation takes a turn for the romantic as Wesley kisses Fred. Gunn walks in and after realizing what just happened between them, he gets furious. The two men begin to fight until Gunn accidentally hits Fred when she tries to stop them. Angelus is pleased with the discord he has created. Connor approaches Angelus who tells Connor that his mother Darla and his adoptive father Holtz were eager to get away from Connor. Connor calmly replies that he knows that Angelus is his real father. Angelus thinks he can take advantage of this and encourages Connor to approach, but Cordelia interrupts and sends Connor away. She then turns off the video camera and offers herself in exchange for all of Angelus's information on the Beast. Angelus is reluctant to take her offer, but later Cordelia informs the gang that Angelus is willing to talk, although she refuses to tell them what she did to get Angelus to talk. Wesley goes downstairs and begins to ask questions. Angelus explains that in 1789, the Beast tried to bribe Angelus into help him kill three priestesses who were attempting to banish the Beast. Angelus refused to help and then the priestesses appeared and banished the Beast. Gunn finds that the women live nearby. Wesley, Cordelia, and Connor go to their house only to find the priestesses and their families have already been murdered by the Beast. They return to the hotel and everyone realizes that without useful information from Angelus, they need to turn him back into Angel. Cordelia goes downstairs and despite Angelus's enthusiasm to have her, Cordelia tells him the deal is off since they didn't get to save the world and that they're putting his soul back. Angelus doesn't seem too worried about that as he's confident he'll get to see the apocalypse come to life. Cordelia returns to the office only to find bad news: the container holding Angel's soul is gone. Connor, Wesley and Cordelia force their way into the Shaman's chambers and question him about Angel's soul, only to find that Angel's soul still remains in its container. Angelus continues to taunt the gang, angering Gunn over his relationship with Fred. Lilah sneaks in, emerging from the sewers holding a crowbar and attempts a deal with Angelus. Gunn finally spots Lilah on the video monitor and rushes downstairs to put a tranquilizer dart in Angelus, while Lilah runs off. While the others question Lilah's intentions, Wesley chases and catches her. He thumbs through her copy of Rhinehardt's Compendium, finding information his copy does not contain. Lilah had received her copy on the pan-dimensional black market, and Wesley determines someone had erased the information in this dimension. Angelus wakes up and informs the gang that he is deft enough to realize that the Beast was a mere "flunkie" serving an even deeper evil; the Beast he knew was only interested in smashing and slaughter, and it was unlikely that the Beast would have become smarter since Angelus fought him. Wesley returns with Lilah, but the gang is extremely suspicious of her and drills her about her intentions. Gunn leaves to keep watch on Angelus, who pushes Gunn's buttons again over his relationship with Fred and the gang, prompting Gunn to give him a blast from his flame thrower. Fred informs Wesley that she's no longer with Gunn, but Wesley takes the news as an opportunity to make another move on Fred, though he's interrupted by Cordelia and Lilah. Lilah and the gang argue about the possibility of saving the world, but then Cordelia gets a vision that allows her to see how to get Angel's soul back. Fred goes downstairs to inform Wesley about Cordy's vision, and she exchanges barbs with Angelus. Angelus casually mentions Wesley's involvement with Lilah, another shock for Fred. Gunn and Connor dig up the grave of a soul eater, the skull of which is needed to return Angel's soul. Once they hit the coffin, the soul eater proves to be more active than dead and attacks the duo. With Connor incapacitated, Gunn is able to chop the demon to bits and retrieve the head. Cordelia and Fred present the talismans they built for the spell while Gunn and Fred return with the fresh demon head. The spell is set up in the basement while Angelus tries to discourage them from trying. Wesley chants and a white soul-like mist emerges from the skull, passes through the talismans and surrounds Angelus in the cage. Angel's soul seems to be returned and once Angel sings for Lorne, it's concluded that his soul really has returned. Still worried, Angel decides to stay in the cage and direct the others. Cordelia refuses to take his orders because he's acting like a coward and convinces him that he needs to be out of the cage. Free, Angelus grabs Cordy and informs her that his soul really isn't back after all. Cordy fights back and tries to hide in the cage, but Angelus knocks her out and heads upstairs to continue his Angel charade. Angelus drops in on Fred, and the others are still fooled by him, but they don't get long to chat as he leaves spouting an excuse about going out to save the world. Spotting an unconscious Cordy in the cage, they realize Angelus lied and depart to find him. A consensus is reached that they won't be saving Angelus; they'll be killing him on sight now. Angelus roams the crazy streets of LA, but can't find anything but dead bodies and vampires, and he doubles back to the hotel. Lilah fires a round of bullets at him and Cordy tries to shoot him with the crossbow, but none of the attempts are successful. Angelus throws the crossbow bolt back at Cordelia's leg, taking her down and leaving him to deal with Lilah. Connor tracks Angelus back to the hotel. Angelus stalks Lilah until he finally finds her trying to hide. He takes her ax from her, but before he can kill her with it, she tosses him over a stair railing and runs off. Cordelia catches Lilah on the run and in a surprising move Cordelia Lilah in the neck, informing a dying Lilah that she let Angelus out for a reason. Angelus, who has been stalking Lilah, is disappointed when he finds her already dead. Wesley and Gunn discover him holding her body; he escapes through a window, allowing the two to assume he killed her. Downstairs, when Wesley and Gunn return to the lobby with news of Lilah's death, Lorne suggests protecting the hotel with the same magic that forbids violence at his club. When the group realizes that Angelus could have turned Lilah into a vampire, Wesley offers to prevent her potential rising. Angelus visits a demon bar, where he is raucously received, to question the patrons on the whereabouts of the Beast. In the basement, Wesley prepares to behead Lilah. After an imaginary conversation where he apologizes for their "not-a-relationship", he finally brings down the ax. Connor intends to destroy Angelus despite Cordelia's protests, but when he starts to leave, Cordelia faints mid-speech and Connor stops to care for her. Angelus follows the scent of Lilah's blood to the weapon used to kill her, in the Beast's possession. The Beast says Angelus is a part of his master's plans, but Angelus refuses to take orders and leaves. Cordelia, revealed as the Beast's master, is disappointed. The Beast apologizes for his failures and she forgives him, then the two kiss. Lorne performs the protection spell, and Wesley returns from the basement saying he intends to restore Angel's soul. Wesley visits Faith at the prison to ask for her help; she crashes through the glass, knocks out the officers, and jumps out of the high window with Wesley. (The clear implication is that Faith could have escaped prison any time she liked and only remained there as part of her self-imposed redemption efforts.) Faith tells him that she won't kill Angelus because of Angel's crucial role in her life and Wesley admits that's precisely why he chose her for the job. When they arrive at the hotel, Faith asserts herself as commander. Connor is displeased with her decision to rescue Angelus, not kill him, but Faith makes it clear her plan is the only plan. Angelus, after overhearing a Slayer is in town, immediately calls Buffy Summers's house. When Dawn Summers confirms her sister is still in Sunnydale, he realizes Faith must be the Slayer on the loose. Connor leads Faith, Wesley and Gunn into a factory and despite Faith's orders, beheads the first vampire that crosses his path. Faith yells at the teen for disobeying her and then tells him to go home because he refuses to listen to her. The two fight, but Faith is clearly stronger and eventually holds a crossbow to Connor's throat in warning. Connor returns to the hotel with Gunn, as Wesley and Faith split up to search the factory. Faith finds Angelus with the Beast; she is badly beaten by the creature until Angelus stabs the Beast with a dagger made of the Beast's flesh, killing the demon and restoring the sun. Faith knocks out a large window, flooding the room with sunlight, forcing Angelus to keep his distance. At the hotel, the gang rejoices in the return of the sun and Connor goes upstairs to tell Cordelia. Connor sings Faith's praises until Cordy interrupts with news that she's pregnant with his child. As a battered and bloodied Faith recovers at Wesley’s apartment after her showdown with the Beast, they wonder why Angelus would suddenly kill the Beast and allow the sun to return to Los Angeles. At a demon bar, Angelus is spoken to by a deep disembodied voice, which turns out to originate from Cordelia, projecting from the hotel. Angelus then surprises Fred at the hotel, claiming he is immune to the protection spell. He demands information on the Beast's master and steals her research materials. Fred tries to shoot him with a tranquilizer dart but accidentally hits Lorne instead. Angelus is contacted again by Cordelia telepathically, and this time she threatens to restore his soul if he refuses to help. Faith and Wesley try to track Angelus at the demon bar. There they encounter human junkies, who get high on the vampire bites. Faith smacks one around, but Wesley finally gets the needed info by stabbing the woman. They are able to track Angelus to a deserted museum where Faith has another showdown with him. The fight does not go well for Faith as she is bitten by Angelus. After drinking from Faith, Angelus pulls away in shock as she flashes back to earlier, when she injected herself with a drug stolen from a vampire junkie at the demon bar. Angelus and Faith both collapse, unconscious. Gunn drags Angelus's body to the Hyperion Hotel, where he and Connor shackle Angelus securely in the basement cage. Wesley brings a barely alive Faith to one of the hotel bedrooms. Knowing Faith injected herself with Orpheus, an enchanted psychedelic drug that poses a serious threat to her life, Lorne yells at Wesley for allowing Faith to purposely get bit by Angelus. Downstairs, Connor shouts at Fred and Wesley about the need for killing Angelus, when Willow Rosenberg appears at the door suggesting that she's a better alternative. Fred called Willow for help since she's the only one to ever successfully restore Angel's soul. Willow wants to see Cordelia again and Connor reluctantly takes her upstairs. As Willow talks about the difficulties associated with ensouling Angelus, Cordelia secretly reaches for a large knife under her pillow and tries to get Willow close enough to strike. Willow realizes if they break the jar, they can avoid all the complications and free the soul. Willow rushes out of the room in time to avoid the knife thrown at her, which hits the door instead. In their shared coma, Angelus and Faith witness the 1920s-version of Angel rescue a small puppy from an oncoming car. Angelus is infuriated at being subjected to the memory again, and Faith realizes with glee that they're experiencing Angel's good deeds of the past. Next, a hippie Angel walks into a diner and selects "Mandy" on the jukebox, as Angelus complains to Faith about watching Angel's self-induced misery. A man barges into the diner and asks for money, but shoots the cashier when he doesn't react quickly enough. The shooter runs away, and Angel struggles with his desire to feed on the cashier, which wins out. The bite marks on dream-Faith's neck begins to bleed and she realizes Angel could have saved the cashier. Angelus watches on as Angel suffers with the guilt of feeding, enjoying Faith's pain as well. Before Willow can begin her spell to locate the jar holding Angel's soul, the Beast Master's deep voice screams a warning to stop. Willow's magic overpowers the Master's, and Willow begins her spell as Cordelia works counter-magic from the bedroom. When Connor breaks Cordelia's concentration by trying to enter the bedroom, Willow is able to magically shatter the jar. Using the Orb of Thesulah, Willow and Fred begin the ritual that will give Angel back his soul. Dream-Faith finds herself in a dirty alley with Angelus again, watching past-Angel feed from a rat. In a twist, past-Angel turns and addresses the twosome. Angelus and Angel face-off and begin to exchange blows, as Angel convinces Faith that life is worth living and she has to wake up. Faith disappears. When Connor finally breaks into her barricaded bedroom, Cordy smashes a lamp over his head and pretends not to have known it was him. Cordy deceives Connor into thinking Willow's magic is evil and threatens their unborn child. She tells him he has to kill Angelus to protect their family. Willow completes the restoration spell, pulling Angelus and Angel into one body, while Faith wakes up and rushes downstairs to the basement in time to stop Connor from staking Angel. She begins to beat up Connor until Angel wakes up and stops the fight. “When you become a vampire the demon takes your body, but it doesn't get your soul. That's gone. No conscience, no remorse... It's an easy way to live. You have no idea what it's like to have done the things I've done... and to care.”—Angel, (Episode 1.07 (Buffy: The Vampire Slayer) "Angel"). Angel should know: he has all the memories of what Angelus did. And, Angelus has quite the reputation as an evil vampire. When we first meet Angel in Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, we know that Angel was evil but later was cursed with a soul. We know he was evil and did a lot of bad things, but we don’t know exactly just how evil and how bad. We have to use our imaginations, and our imaginations run wild. However, in Season 2, we finally get to see Angelus after he is released from a “moment of bliss” with Buffy (i.e. they had sex! It’s the ultimate metaphor for a man changing from nice guy to asshole after sex!). And, Angelus is ruthless. He is very charismatic in a creepy way; he disgusts you with his words and actions, but you can’t turn away because he’s so mesmerizing. Angelus frequently postpones a kill in order to psychologically terrorize declaring that he couldn't turn away and that he was only in it for the evil. This is a powerful weapon for him as Angelus is able to beat many of his foes this way; he’s like the Muhammad Ali of vampires: first he beats you mentally, and then he beats you physically. He also enjoys it a lot, maybe too much. He is prone to brutal displays of what he would see as affection, such as nailing a puppy to a tree. Another example of Angelus's grisly acts of love was when he brought Drusilla a still-warm human heart on Valentine's Day. Angelus always had an obsession with elevating death to an art form; a truly satisfying kill must be perfectly framed and appreciated. He delights at the prospect of torturing a bound Giles in "Becoming, Part Two," mentioning that that the last time he tortured someone, they hadn't even invented the chainsaw. In the episode "Amends", The First Evil references him killing a man's three children, then propping them up in bed so that they appeared to be sleeping. It was only after the father kissed one of them good night that he felt how cold they were. This is mirrored in a prior episode when Angelus places the recently-slain body of Jenny Calender in Giles' bed, making Giles believe she had set up a romantic evening for them. However, he does have a weakness in that he is prone to excessive talking, a quirk which his potential victims are sometimes able to exploit, like when Buffy kicked him in the balls during their first fight after Angel turned back into Angelus. Spike once observes, "You bloody well talk them to death before you kill them!" Angelus’s evil is far reaching in that he has sired many vampires, like Drusilla, who have in turned sired other vampires, like Spike. And, these vampires have brought death and destruction onto innocent humans. Many people have died because of him, whether by his own hands or by those he created. Interestingly enough, the worst thing Angelus does is keep Angel from being happy. The curse states that Angel must suffer with his soul and can only lose it if he enjoys a moment of pure bliss. Therefore, Angel has to lead a life of unhappiness in order to keep the beast that is Angelus at bay. This means that Angel cannot get too close to a woman he has deep feelings for, like Buffy, or else Angelus will be freed. And, when freed, Angelus brings nothing but death.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jun 5, 2008 22:11:25 GMT -5
Tomorrow, numbers 38 and 37. Here are the hints:
He likes coin tosses and air guns, and he woke up this morning and got himself a gun.
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Post by Kermit The Hulk on Jun 6, 2008 21:01:16 GMT -5
Countdown time. Here's number 38: 38. Anton Chigurh Who is he: A hitman. What is he from: No Country For Old Men (novel and movie) What has he done: Killed a lot of people. Intelligence: Has a Ph. D. in killing, and some medical knowledge. Power: He is usually hired by other people. Vileness: Kills a lot of people, even those he is working for. Sway: Fear and intimidation come off this man like sweat. Purity: Spares one man, but only because he flipped a coin and that man called it correctly. Physical Prowess: Average sized male who is very good at armed and un-armed combat. Name Coolness: “Anton Chigurh” has this cool, foreign quality to it. Created by: Cormac McCarthy. Portrayed by: Javier Bardem, who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal as Chigurh. The film opens with shots of desolate, wide-open country in West Texas in June 1980 as the antagonist, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), is apprehended by a sheriff's deputy while in possession of a captive bolt pistol he uses as a weapon. In a voiceover, the local sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) tells of the changing times as the region becomes increasingly violent. Chigurh strangles a sheriff's deputy while handcuffed, escapes custody, steals a patrol car, pulls over a driver while in possession of the cruiser, and steals another car by using the bolt pistol to kill the driver. Meanwhile, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), hunting pronghorn near the Rio Grande, comes across a collection of corpses and one dying Mexican: the aftermath of a drug deal gone awry. He also finds two million dollars in a satchel a short distance from the massacre. Initially taking the money and leaving the Mexican to die, Moss suffers a pang of conscience later that night and returns with water for the dying man. Discovered by returning Mexican gangsters, this good deed sets off a cat-and-mouse game in which the hunter and hunted frequently switch roles, as the gang of Mexicans, Moss, Chigurh, and Bell chase each other and the money across the Texas and Mexico landscapes. Chigurh, a professional hitman, has been hired to retrieve the satchel of money. Inside the money is a hidden radio transponder which Chigurh has been following via his corresponding receiver. The Mexicans track Moss to the motel room where Moss has hidden the satchel inside an air vent. They wait inside the room to ambush him. Moss, however, sees their car, rents an adjacent room, and retrieves the satchel through the common vent. Chigurh tracks the money to Moss's original room, bursts in, and slaughters the Mexicans. Searching for the satchel, Chigurh sees the vent cover, unscrews it using a dime, and looks inside where he sees tell-tale scuff marks. He realizes that Moss has escaped with the money. Using the receiver again, Chigurh tracks Moss to a border town hotel, his pursuit climaxing in a firefight that spills onto the streets. Narrowly escaping death by crossing the border, the wounded Moss wakes up after being transported to a Mexican hospital where he meets Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson), another operative hired by the drug buyer. After Moss rejects Wells's offer to save his life, Wells returns to his hotel where he is captured and killed by Chigurh, just as Moss calls Wells. Picking up the phone, Chigurh offers to spare Moss's wife Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald) if Moss forfeits the money, although Moss himself would still be killed. It is an offer that Moss angrily rejects. Moss arranges a rendezvous with Carla Jean in El Paso to give her the money and send her out of harm’s way. The characters all converge on a seedy hotel in El Paso, but not simultaneously: Sheriff Bell and Carla Jean do not arrive until after Moss has been killed by the Mexicans in a shootout. Sheriff Bell returns that night to the now-quiet motel and finds that the lock to Moss's hotel room door has been blown out. Chigurh is shown hiding behind the door of the hotel room as he observes Bell in the reflection of the empty lock hole. His gun drawn, Bell enters the room and notices the vent cover, which is rectangular but covers a round hole about 10 inches in diameter, has been removed with a dime. Bell eventually leaves without encountering Chigurh. Some time later Bell visits his Uncle Ellis (Barry Corbin), an ex-lawman. Bell is planning to retire due to his weariness of the changing times, but Ellis points out that the region has always been violent. He accuses Bell of "vanity" in thinking that he could personally make a difference. Chigurh, in the meantime, has located the widowed Carla Jean and waits for her at her recently deceased mother's home. Despite telling her that he "gave Llewelyn his word" that she would die if Moss did not hand over the money, Chigurh reconsiders and offers Carla Jean the same "coin flip" opportunity previously given to an innocent bystander. Carla Jean, however, refuses to call heads or tails, claiming that they have no say. The audience sees Chigurh leaving the house, carefully checking the soles of his boots. As Chigurh drives away he is seriously injured in a car accident where his left arm is badly broken; he manages, however, to leave the scene before the police arrive. The film closes with Bell at home, in retirement, reflecting on his life choices. Bell relates to his wife (Tess Harper) two dreams he had, both involving his deceased father who was also a lawman. Bell reveals that in the first dream he lost "some money" that his father had given him; in the second dream, he and his father were riding horses through a snowy mountain pass. His father, who was carrying fire in a horn, quietly passed by Bell with his head down and was "going on ahead, and fixin' to make a fire" in the surrounding dark and cold. When Bell got there, his father would be waiting. Bell closes the dream narrative, and the film, with the final words: "And then I woke up." There’s a scene in “No Country For Old Men,” probably the most famous scene in the whole movie, in which Anton Chigurh is at a gas station. He’s talking with the owner of the gas station, and the owner says something doesn’t rub Anton the right way. So, he flips a coin and tells the owner to “Call it, friendo.” The owner asks why he’s calling it, and Anton explains, without actually saying it, that he should guess which side of the coin came up and if he guesses correctly, then Anton will spare his life. It is a wonderful with a lot tension. It just builds and builds, and you just know that Anton will kill this old man if he guesses incorrectly. Hell, at the beginning of the movie, Anton killed a cop and some driver on the road. We know what he is capable of, and killing an old man because he lost a coin toss wouldn’t surprise us. However, the old man gets it right, and Anton lets him live, telling him to keep the coin since it is his lucky coin. That whole scene sums up who Anton Chigurh is. He is a man with honor, but it is a twisted honor. He kills indiscriminately but will give some people the chance to have their lives spared. He is also very good at his job. When he is hired to do something, he will stop at nothing to get the job done, even if it means he has to kill some people. And, Anton kills a lot of people in this movie. Hell, he even kills the people who hired him. The reason behind that is that they hired some Mexicans to help him on his job to retrieve the satchel of money Llewelyn. This did not sit with Anton well as he has a bit of an ego. He feels that you should choose the “right tool” for the job, and he is that “right tool.” However, Anton doesn’t get to finish his job, as Llewellyn is killed by a Mexican gang. Nevertheless, Anton tracks down Llewellyn’s wife Carla Jean like he told Llewellyn he would. He gives her the same coin toss opportunity that he gave to the gas station owner, but she doesn’t take. The anger he feels is very obvious. However, the next thing we see is Anton walking out of Carla Jean’s house. We don’t know if he killed her, but we know Anton Chigurh and just how evil he is. So, it would be safe to say that Anton didn’t leave that house with her alive in it.
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