Vader: Dark Visions #3

[cyberghostface]

Comments

[mazway_75]

I had very weird Feathersmith/Herr Starr vibes in this....

[kirayoshi]

Really? I was thinking more like "What if Harley Quinn had fallen for Ra's Al Ghul instead of the Joker."

[cainofdreaming]

Good for Vader getting her before she transformed to her final form.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

I don't get the reference?

[cainofdreaming]

Oh, just poking fun at her face becoming progressively creepier.

[jeyl]

Was the lightsaber really necessary?

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

You would never say those words if you owned a lightsaber

[cainofdreaming]

Or, as I like to call them, the laser-corkscrew/screwdriver/skeleton key/hammer/etc.

They don't really work as hammers, but it's fun trying.

[locuatico]

This implies there are situations in which lightsabers are not necessary

[super_fly]

It feels like they're going "Hey fangirls, you wan't some Vader deep inside you, well here you go!"

[coldfury]

I love the look on unmasked Vader's face. It just has this "Oh, this shit again" look on it, like every week some groupie sneaks into his chamber and he has to kill them.

[owlbrigade1]

I feel that that ended for her about as well as it could have.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I thought she might be into being choked, but I guess we'll never know now.

[cyberghostface]

[thanekos]

Chuck Wendig, today, on what issue #3 of his cancelled five-issue " Shadow of Vader " would've been.

Fruit for comparison.

[cyberghostface]

Idk how much Hopeless copied but it’s not a unique concept (someone idolizing/romanticizing the villain and getting killed for it). I posted a Friday the 13th comic last year a similar premise and exact same punchline.

[mastermahan]

Hmmm. I think I prefer the toxic fanboy version. After all, bad fanboy behavior is a serious problem for Star Wars, whereas the Fatal Attraction version is, what, a Reylo shipper? Idealizing an unhealthy relationship isn't great, but it's loads better than online harassment campaigns.

[crinos]

I think its meant to be one of those "Draco in Leather pants" types who fetishizes "bad boy" characters to the point they gloss over the fact they are horrible monsters.

That was kind of a thing in the Harry Potter fandom I think, with both Draco (hence the trope name) and Snape (Although in that case I think it was more people were into the late Alan Rickman as Snape which, yeah I can totally get that.)

I saw on Tumblr that this was causing an uproar with some fans, but honestly it doesn't seem that bad to me. (Of course we also had heroes in Crisis this week, so my bar for what's not terrible might have been lowered a bit).

[cyberghostface]

Well I wouldn't call Snape at least a horrible monster. He was probably one of the most heroic characters in the series.

But yeah it seems a few readers tried finding the worst possible interpretation and saw it as a personal attack on them.

[crinos]

He was also a horribly abusive bully of a teacher who deliberately sabotaged his students, played favorites to favor his house, and had a hate on for Harry Potter because of his dad.

The fact he went out on a heroic note doesn't automatically erase the fact he was a piece of shit 90% of the time.

But I will grant you he had his good moments. There are plenty of examples of much more consistently terrible guys in fiction that can be used as an example. Like Kylo Ren, and Ulquiorra from Bleach.

[cyberghostface]

Well it’s not just going out on a good note, he was actively working to help Harry the entire time at Hogwarts behind the scenes even while being an asshole to his face.

[starwolf_oakley]

As I have mentioned before, my Snape problem is he joined the Death-Eaters because Lily Evans friend-zoned him.

I thought part of the "hook" for the Harry Potter series would be the Redemption of Draco Malfoy. Especially how Snape and Dumbledore did so much to try and protect Draco. So I was surprised we didn't get "Draco becomes a good guy, sort of" in Deathly Hallows.

Even something like "Draco doesn't want to rule the muggles because they aren't worth the effort."

[janegray]

That's not what happened. Snape joined the (about to become) Death Eaters, then Lily broke up their friendship. Then, Snape blamed himself and his own mistakes for it, fully acknowledging that Lily had been well within her rights to ditch somebody who called her a slur. The memory of calling her a slur became his Worst Memory, not the memory where she tells him that she never wants to see him again, because he was fully aware that it had been 100% his fault.

Snape was many things, including a bully, but Nice Guy is most definitely not one of them. If anything, he is a subversion of the Nice Guy.

[strejdaking]

It's obviously suppposed to be that. The thing is, isn't that kinda hypocritical for the franchise? At least from what I've seen, her fantasy wasn't to kill rebels with him, it's the "oh he's actually nice deep down and wants love". Which... Is basically what happens in canon. Luke seeks out his inner good, redeems him and we are confirmed that Vader goes to Jedi heaven.

[flint_marko]

No, she supports him. In another fantasy she praises him for stomping the rebel scum into paste.

[reveen]

Hypocritical for the franchise nothing. This is hypocritical as hell within the context of the same comic series.

If you haven't read Dark Visions #1 it goes like this: A tribe on a primitive alien world is being menaced by the giant monster. They try to fight the giant monster and fail. Then the Empire and Vader show up. Vader slays the giant monster and incidentally saves them because the Empire also wants the monster dead, gives a quip to the POV character and leaves. The last bit of the comic is the tribe around a campfire and celebrating the awesome Black Knight who saves everything.

That's how it ends. There's no dark twist where the Empire needs the space crystals under their village and kills or enslaves them all.

So basically in the first issue the comic says: Framing Vader as a power fantasy of a super cool manly badass is totally cool and valid, thumbs up! Then this issue says: framing Vader as a fantasy of a feminine dark romance figure is creepy and stupid and you're stupid for thinking that. Fuck you.

So, yeah. I pretty much agree with the shade that's been cast on this book.

[liliaeth]

it's a problem in more fandoms than just in HP or Star Wars. The love for characters like Kylo Ren, Loki, or even chars like Lucifer on spn, or Peter Hale on Teen Wolf, where their fans excuse any and all of their sins, and treat them as if they're poor woobies, no matter how many innocent people they murder.

[donnblake]

Yeah. One does occasionally see something in real life like the high school girl who was kidnapped/went on the run with a teacher, with a history of posting things like "Every Beauty Needs a Beast to keep her safe from everything but him."

But even then, it leaves a bit of a sour taste in the mouth to treat that as, like, entirely a problem with the girl where the punchline being "And then the monster kills her. Because monster."

[seisachtheia]

I have to admit that this left a bad taste in my mouth too, mostly because of just the way the contempt just drips off of it. There's a lot of stories about men (generally men) who are drawn to something they shouldn't be, or that get like...enamored of something dark and dangerous and corrupt, and even when it ends badly for them, there seems to be a degree of sympathy. It's rarely "ew, look at the creepy deluded weirdo, ew"

[strejdaking]

Honestly, this just seems like a lame punchline to me. She thinks Vader is a misunderstood bad boy and he kills her. Kay.

[super_fly]

Thanks, I hate it

some good twitter threads on the subject

https://twitter.com/JennyENicholson/status/1121324482998624257
https://twitter.com/PoeHotDameron/status/1121154475173933056

[cyberghostface]

Yeah the latter is what I was referring to when I mentioned people dissecting it piece by piece and trying to find the worst possible interpretation. (The Dexter comparison is absurd.) I also don't get people acting like the ending is grotesque torture porn. A lightsaber through the chest is quick and humane by Vader standards. It's not like we had him throwing her into a rancor pit.

[reveen]

They're not dissecting it piece by piece. They're talking about the story as a whole and how it's imagery to directly reference feminine romantic fantasy stories while framing the character like a wild-eyed crazy person.

[cyberghostface]

They're comparing stuff like someone collecting used bloody medical equipment of someone they're infatuated with to Dexter collecting blood slides. It's a two different characters completely different context. Of course one is going to get a different reaction. They've also never bothered to consider that the story is aiming for different reactions -- that it's possible to empathize with the main character over the fascists she comes into conflict with while also recognizing the black humor of the ending.

[thehood]

Plus it makes sense. Vader only ever had eyes for Padme. He was never going to entertain this Nurse's crush.

fangirl hate

[7dialsmystery]

Thanks. Those threads broke it down really well why this is sexist hypocritical BS.

Re: fangirl hate

[thehood]

Not really. Vader killed people for less, this was always going to end with her death, even if she wasn't a stalker. Padme was the only woman he loved romantically.

He's also the guy that killed a bunch of Children.

At the very least i thought Vader was perfectly in character for that point in time.