I Dont Know What This Is Lol

I don’t know what this is lol

Darksiders: War

So, I may once again reference real world disorders as a launching pad for discussion about behaviors and actions. I will reference both games and book. Thank you!

To begin, let's talk about War's baseline characteristics.

War is certainly more, shall we say, heroic of the Four. He is loyal, lawful, and regularly tries to be by the book, methodical, and overall tries to be good. Maintaining Balance in the universe is his main goal, the thing he strives for. He wants things to maintain order, regardless of who's messing it up. Admittedly he had a bias against demons, but that's not to say he likes angels.

In his efforts to be a lawful individual, he also strives to be a better person overall by trying to be kinder than other Nephalim where he can. He seeks connection and even affection, with Strife in particular.

Throughout Genesis, War and Strife can stop and talk and often these conversations drift towards the emotional and hard to discuss. Charged topics that Strife has genuine difficulty addressing.

But War helps him work through these emotions and topics, giving him his own perspective and trying to ease his mind, even if it fails or they disagree. No matter what, War seems incredibly willing to stay by Strife's side.

This loyalty and desire to help and seek connection is also present in Abomination Vault, when he goes to help Death handle the crisis, despite being told no and even threatened. He is eager to help the eldest Horseman, and he is even angry at himself for nearly dying/dying, thinking he's failed Death some how. He doesn't even question it when he's brought back by Death, he just rambles about his failures and saying Death should have let him die.

And with Fury, he shows he cares for her. When Fury is summoned to handle the Seven Sins, War is already bound by the Council. She's surprised by his state and the accusations, but ultimately is dismissive for the moment. War, on the other hand, speaks to her. He tries to warn her to be cautious, tell her something is acting against them and trying to hurt them, showing he very much cares about her well-being and safety.

War is repeatedly shown to be caring, in his own way, with his brothers. He worries about their safety, tries to assist them as needed, and tries to comfort them in their grief or anger. He is exceptionally loyal to them and doesn't seem eager to betray or harm them.

Loyalty, while being a fantastic virtue, is ultimately one of his biggest flaws too.

From Genesis and a good bit into the first game (canon's timeline wise), we hear him constantly say that he doesn't think he or the others should question the Council. He's the biggest believer in the Balance and is the most eager to maintain it. He is unwaveringly and unquestioningly loyal to the Council, which is ultimately why he doesn't suspect them directly of screwing him over until much much later on in game one. His loyalty blinds him to the notion of betrayal from the Council.

However, whenever he finds out his loyalty has been betrayed, he is far from afraid of going scorched Earth and enacting revenge. He, with Uriel's assistance, kills the Watcher for his treatment and for being a pawn in the clearly corrupt Council's machinations against the Horsemen.

And revenge/vengeance is apparently something War isn't unknown for. He's clearly displayed enough "eye for an eye" behavior over the centuries for the Council to note its a perfect motivator for him. Thus, he became their scapegoat and was thrown to Earth to prove his innocence. And Samael later points out that he "knows a quest for vengeance when he sees one". Samael's semi-Omniscience aside, he isn't wrong in just making the assumption. War was absolutely aiming to make Abbadon, Straga, and anyone else in his way pay for their actions. I do find it interesting that, ultimately, he chooses to spare Ulthane and Azrael.

Granted, Ulthane does help him more than hinder him despite being antagonistic. And in the case of Azrael, War realized he needed the angel's help, then also saw the immense regret within him. Of course, War is also fully aware that Azrael is a powerful archangel, adept in illusions. He also likely wouldn't have risked a fight with Azrael lest he die, or he actually kill the angel and lose out on valuable information. All this to say, War's intelligent and isn't a stranger to variables, despite often acting on emotions.

Despite popular belief, War is not hot headed or temperamental. War is actually extremely level headed and calm. He thinks through his actions and possible causes. He tries to account for all outcomes, and the consequences of his actions. If he can gain a tactical advantage.

Because he is an embodiment of war itself.

Wars are brutal, bloody, violent... But it's not about whos weapon is better that wins. There's strategy, planning, and a lot of luck.

War himself strategizes a fair bit when it comes to who he can keep alive and who he can get away with killing. Who can be his ally and who he can sacrifice as a foe. He measures who he can take on and who's not worth it.

Its why Samael and Vulgrim don't die, despite War's bias against demons.

Samael, even in a weakened state, is too powerful for War to take on alone. Samael, though, offers assistance if he himself is helped first. War isn't stupid enough to reject help from someone he a, can't kill, and b, is offering their powerful assistance.

Vulgrim had the benefit of Council endorsement at first, but War certainly realized the value he got from dealing with the merchant. Vulgrim offers him health shards, weapon and magic upgrades, and of course, Serpent Holes.

The value of these two cannot be understated in the first game, especially since War is utterly alone otherwise. They're who we spend most of the game with, aside from the Watcher.

Now onto my favorite topic! Symbology!

Similar to Death's mask, War's got a hood obscuring most of his face, particularly his eyes. In fact, he often has to adjust how he's looking around to properly see sometimes.

In terms of symbology we can infer this to be representative of his own clouded and obscured view of things. He has to shift the facts into just the right order and perspective to see the truth of what's happening to him and what happened to cause the apocalypse.

Another piece of symbology is which arm of his his prosthetic.

The left.

Biblically speaking there's a few things to address, as Darksiders is heavily based in Christian and Jewish mythology. I am wildly unfamiliar with Judaism and their symbology, despite lengthy research attempts, and thus am uncomfortable addressing the possible symbology on that side if things. However, I am familiar with Christianity.

In the Bible, the hands are referenced a few times, but the right hand is referenced about 100 times, where as the left hand is mentioned maybe 25, all negatively. However I wish to focus on one particular passage.

Matthew 6 says, "Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. [3] But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: [4] That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly."

This essentially says, "don't tell everyone when you're being generous. Don't brag about generosity or your righteous deeds, for that's not righteous or virtuous. That needs to stay between you and God".

In the case of War, he doesn't often hide what he's doing when he's been told to do it by the Council, often announcing it to those he deems allies. He's not exactly subtle or easy to miss. Nor is his prosthetic.

He's obviously a Horseman, he's obviously on a mission when he's seen out places he's not normally. Everyone knows something has happened, or going to happen, when War shows up. War isn't keeping his service to the Creator secret in any way.

Outside of Christianity, and into more occult and spiritual circles, the left hand is symbolic of dark magic, darkness, and weakness.

War's left arm is the one he was wielding Chaoseater with when Death cut his arm off.

Since that, hes worn a almost demonic looking, magical prosthetic that basically has a pocket dimension I think.

When his arm was cut off, it was in a moment of emotional weakness, and he just so happened to run Death through, a far stronger opponent. So his weakness was cut from him in a way and replaced with the stronger, and useful, prosthetic gauntlet.

Bad segway: War's also not taken as seriously by the other Horsemen. He's the baby of them, likely the last of an entire generation of young Nephalem. Often it seems the other three don't take him seriously until he proves them right. Strife though seems more willing to hear him out, but that could be because they're pretty close, even able to laugh together.

Tl;Dr: War is intelligent and loyal, even kind, but lacks the ability to see passed his ambition or goals until its almost too late. He's also surprisingly impulsive.

some more dead cells fan characters/concepts i made, this time based off of the 3 power scrolls (brutality , tactics, survival) and the idea of having minibosses to embody the scrolls.

if you play dead cells you might recognize parts of their design! (wink)

Theatre Knight! (Actually older art, I need to redraw @ some point)

Ace Attorney X Darksiders crossover sketch thing

The crossover no one asked for and Im proud to provide as a fan of both the series XD

Monkey Wrench Ep. 1 Thoughts

It’s not bad but not great either. It’s very mediocre. It’s nothing special. It is enjoyable.

Shrike looks like the bastard child of Osmosis Jones and Scud the Disposable Assassin. As wells as sounds and acts like Sheen from Jimmy Neutron trying to imitate Deadpool. I only mean these somewhat jokingly.

Beardy, or whatever his name is, has a literal blockhead and a body that’s just a generic strongman body. And his personality isn’t anything that people who like science fiction haven’t seen before. He’s the chill older guy, that’s about it.

Nobert is terrible, and I don’t care if it’s by design. Scritch and Scratch are just space cats, they’re overdramatic and can talk, that’s it. Kara is bloodthirsty and has an alright twist, I guess. Whatever her name is and Ricket aren’t all that interesting either, just some rival schmucks.

To speak on the animation, as someone who only has heard of how it works and is not an animator, it’s just alright, it is nothing special. The story is nothing all that new or original either. Guys who make a living off doing some odd-jobs, and they just so happen to take a job where they have to escort a very annoying person across the galaxy, one just rolls with it while the other wants to kill the annoyance. Monkey Wrench seems to be a passion project for the creator and likely the crew as well, but the product doesn’t got anything that really makes it stand out compared to so many other sci-fi media.

I’ll probably give the second episode a watch and after a bit post my thoughts. Honestly, when I started writing this I was intending to shit on Monkey Wrench just to see what reactions I could get, all because I’ve not been in a great mood lately. I decided to try doing an actual review-like thing because I’d rather not be a complete douchebag.