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Badmovies.org Forum  |  Other Topics  |  Entertainment  |  Aaron and Bianchi's "Thanos Rising" Dissected « previous next »
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Author Topic: Aaron and Bianchi's "Thanos Rising" Dissected  (Read 14481 times)
BoyScoutKevin
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« on: September 20, 2014, 12:44:09 PM »

Just finished reading this in 5 parts, and I--for the most part--enjoyed it, so I thought I talk about it here.

We'll do a summary of the story.
A description of my favorite character from it + the 7 categories used for all of my favorite characters.
Audience rating of the graphic novel + the why.
What I liked about it.
What I disliked about it.
Questions raised by myself after I read it.
And a final timeline of events done by myself.
And, oh, yes. There will be spoilers through out the post.

Summary.
Thanos. Born to a mother who wants to kill him at birth and to a father who cannot kill him, even at the end.
From being unable to dissect a dead lizard to being able to dissect a couple of living teenagers.
From 18 self-confessed murders, including his own mother, before 20, to thousands, including whole planets, afterwards.

What follows is what I got from "Thanos Rising." Your opinion may defer. As for my favorite character in it . . .

Sogarth

The class virgin. The teenage boy who has never slept with anyone before, either boy or girl. The honest, but stupid one. "And he was good to the last drop of . . . his blood."

Adult or teen: teen
Hero, villain, or victim: victim
Nationality: Titian
Class: upper middle
Criminal or crime victim: crime victim
Injured or deceased: deceased
Sexual orientation: heterosexual

and his partner in sex and death . . .

Loktus.

The class slut. The girl who has slept with everyone, including the professor, in their class--both boy and girl, except for Sogarth and Thanos. The dishonest, but the smart one.

"Loktus, have you really slept with everyone, in our class, both the boys and the girls."--"Yes, Sogarth. Even our professor. Everyone, but you and Thanos, and as Thanos is not here, slip out of your thong, so I can make it over 90% of the class I have slept with."

Rated T+ for older teens and adults.

As to the why . . .?!

L(anguage): a couple of b******s. Other than that, pus is about as bad as it gets.
S(ex): alien sex. And a couple of underage (?) teens are seen by our hero, from the back, having sex with their clothes still on.
N(udity): alien boobs. Both man and child--girl and boy--seen wearing a skimpy thong.
V(iolence): women and children tortured and killed. Men killed. Animals killed. People dismembered and decapitated.

Next time: What I liked about it.

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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #1 on: September 29, 2014, 03:32:52 PM »

What I Like.

01. A story that is interesting.

02. A story that can be taken beyond what we are told by the writers.

03. An story that raises questions about myself, the story, etc.

04. A story set in the future, so we can provide what is not the present.

05. The writers' thought processes used to create the story. I do not always agree with them, but I do find their thought processes interesting.

To be continued . . .
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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2014, 06:03:27 PM »

Continuing "What I Like" from last post.

06. The characters. No, not Thanos. For except for Lex Luthor and Kingpin, I seldom like super villains. Maybe  because they are "super." My empathy, therefore, lies not with the chief villain in a story, but with the lesser villains or "hired help," as I like to call them. And this occurs about 75% of the time. No, for the more I think about Thanos in the 1st half of this story, the less interesting he becomes to me. It is the other characters, and we have already talked to some extent about the young lovers Sogarth and Loktus, but there is also . . .

Cythera: the prettiest girl in the class and Thanos' little girlfriend.
Argos: the most popular boy in the class and the leader on the playground.
"4 Eyes:" the 2nd smartest kid in the class next to Thanos.

And his fellow classmates, friends, family members, and professors. The more I think about them, the more interesting they become.

07.The way the characters are drawn. For like many graphic novels, I find the pictures to be better than the story. Though, the characters do sometimes vary in appearance from panel to panel on the same page, and I do wish I knew more about many of them

08. Trying to guess what the characters are thinking and what they might do and say.

09. That my empathy for the characters lies not with Thanos, but with his victims in the 1st half of the story. For it lies not with the person doing the killing, here Thanos, but with his victims. Those who are killed by him, and what they may have been thinking and feeling, as his victims.

10. That in the "thong controversy" here on Earth,  there is a society out there in space, where everyone--young and old, male and female--is pictured wearing a thong, either as underwear or as a swim suit. I think it says something for a society, where again everyone is comfortable enough to wear a thong.

Next time: what I like concluded
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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2014, 02:43:29 PM »

Continuing . . .

11. I am always on the prowl for some great put downs, and there are a couple in this story.

When Thanos' girlfriend peels back the sheet, covering the bodies of the two buck naked teen lovers, Loktus and Sogarth, she remarks to Thanos: "Heavens! You have been a rather ZEALOUS little boy, haven't you?"

There is an even better one earlier in the story.

When Sogarth starts reciting a bad love poem to Loktus, she snaps: "Shut up an kiss me, ere you say something too stupid for me to ignore!" ROTFL!

12. A stereotype ignored.
Normally, in this type of story, our hero is rejected because of the way he looks, or because of his race, or his religion, but here our hero, Thanos, is not not only not rejected by his peers and fellow classmates, but is accepted on the playground, even if he looks different from them, and is even admired in the classroom because of his intelligence.

13. The logic of it all.
As illogical as the story may be at times, there is a certain logic to some of the events. You need a scalpel to kill your baby, before it becomes an adult killer, grab the scalpel that was just used to cut the umbilical cord.

14. A sex scene
The scenes between Thanos, and his captives Loktus and Sogarth. There is a welcome sexual frisson in those scenes, which you seldom find in such scenes.

15. The scene works.
Most of the time, a murder of a child by the hero, in a book, in a film, on TV, just does not work, but it works here. It may be the empathy I have for the victims, the sexual frisson in the scenes, or for some reason other, but Thanos' murder of the girl Loktus and the boy Sogarth works.

16. The children.
Normally, outside of human children, one does not find alien children depicted in a graphic novel, but they are depicted here, and the way the artist draws them, makes them look good and interesting.
Of course, that might because you think of them as an elite of the elite in a very elite society, but, for that reason, or for some other reason, I will talk more about them later. But . . .?!

Next time: What I dislike?
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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #4 on: October 26, 2014, 01:39:16 PM »

We talked about what I liked about it. Now we'll talk about what I disliked about it.

What I dislike.

01. Confusing storytelling.
a. Some of it from the author.
b. Some of it from the artist.
c. Some of it from the format.
d. And some of it from the readers, including myself.

02. That the readers find the story confusing.
a. Well, that explains that. That the girl Loktus and the boy Sogarth were having sex, when Thanos sneaked up on them. I thought so, but it is still a point of confusion.
b. The two victims were not stripped stark naked, before they were strapped to the dissection tables, but retained what they were wearing under their street clothes.
c. "Two weeks later" refers to the burying of Loktus and Sogarth, not the burying of any new victims.
d. Cythera is the name of Thanos' girlfriend, the one he had as a tween. The one who died in the caves with Argos and the other boy. Not the one that Thanos had later.
e. The 3 friends of Thanos who died in the caves were not killed by insects nor wild dogs, and that they were killed by lizards is questionable. What or who killed them, we will get to later.
f. The girl Loktus and the boy Sogarth were not buried than dug up 2 weeks later.
g. Does the word "world" mean just the moon Titan, or does the word "world" mean the entire universe, as we know it?
h. "To make friends, he invites friends [to go with him into the forbidden caves.]" Even Marvel's employees find the story confusing. For the 3 who died in the caves are already his made friends. Look at the panels before the caving expedition, and the girl and the 2 boys are already the ones he's always hanging around with.

03. If the girl Loktus and the boy Sogarth were having sex, as Thanos sneaked up on them, the writers being too coy about it.

04. The writers never explain anything that might be confusing to the readers, as they, apparently, expect the reader to understand everything that is happening, even if it might be confusing.

05. The writers contradict themselves, then provide no explanation for the contradiction, even if the contradiction creates confusion.

To be continued . . .
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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #5 on: November 02, 2014, 03:27:40 PM »

Continuing what I dislike

06. Time frame is not given or given inconsistently for when the story occurs. Just creating confusion.

07. Character ages not given or given inconsistently. Just creating confusion.

08.  Even when a character is suppose to be the same age from page to page, from the way they are drawn, their ages appear to vary. Even on the same page, a character's age can vary from panel to panel.

09. Like "Broad church," a good story, but a good story that could be better told.

10. The story is sometimes illogical, so that the story telling and logic conflict. Just creating confusing.

To be continued . . .
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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #6 on: November 12, 2014, 03:23:35 PM »

Continuing what I dislike.

11. That Thanos starts out as a serial thrill killer of teens. Carving up horny teenagers that are naked or nearly naked for the sexual thrill of it.

One thing does come out of this. A realization of what a sick s.o.b. Jason from "Friday the 13th" was, who did the same thing as Thanos.


12. The amount of violence in the story against children and animals, and the other controversies involving children.


13. Too little is personal. Too much is impersonal. That lack of personal touch between the characters.


14, The gaps/plot holes in the story. Here are a couple of examples.

(1st) The sequence of events in the caves. Some of which are missing.

(2nd) The sequence of events between Thanos, Loktus, and Sogarth.
(a) How did Thanos subdue them?
(b) How did he get them into his secret lab?
(c) How did he get their clothes off?


15. We hear of Thanos' brother Eros. We hear his brother Eros. But we never see Eros, even though Eros makes a good contrast not only to Thanos, but to the rest of the family.
(a) Grandfather does not know what is going on, but wants to do something.
(b) Father does not know what is going on, but wants to do nothing.
(c) Mother knows what is going on, but wants to do nothing.
(d) Which leaves Eros as the only one, who knows what is going on and wants to do something.

Next time: to be continued . . .
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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #7 on: November 18, 2014, 03:56:34 PM »

Continuing what I dislike

16. While motivations are given for much of what happens in the story, they are often weak and/or wrong.

Weak
The motivation for the murder of Thanos' mother I find to be weak. We'll find a stronger motivation, when we do the timeline.

Wrong
A man will give up the wishes of his father for his wife, fiancee, mistress, etc., but that is later in his life. At the age of Thanos in the 1st half of the story, he'd be seeking to please his father not some mysterious woman, so we'll have another motivation for the rest of his murders, when we do the timeline.


17. That we do not know more about the relationships in the story. Not only between Thanos and the rest of the characters, but between the rest of the characters themselves.

At least there are relationships. In the 2nd half of the story, the only relationship seems to  between Thanos and his mysterious lady, which (IMHO) does not really work.


18, Only in "Kick Ass" have I seen so much violence directed against children. At least, unlike that violence, some effort is made to generate some empathy for the 1st two teenage victims.


19. That they dropped the ball. While the murder of the 1st two teen lovers works. Though, some more detail would be nice. After that we only get the number of victims without any detail at  all, and that does not work and is thus a shortcoming in the story.


20. That the story is told in the wrong manner. We see everyone else through Thanos' eyes, when the story would work better if we saw Thanos through everyone else's eyes.

And the story should have been shortened to fit into the 5-part format, or there should have been more parts to the story. As 5-parts does not give enough infomration.


21. Too many unanswered questions.


Next time: Ali Baba and the 50 Questions (More or Less)
 

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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #8 on: November 24, 2014, 05:38:48 PM »

Ali Baba and the 50 Questions (More or Less)
Not all questions have answers, but if there is a possible answer, I have included it with the question.

01. Q: Thanos. Nature or nurture?
A: Here. Both. But probably nature being stronger, as he's born bad! Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad to the bone!


02. Q: Since Eternals are apparently not born eternal, but naturally age, when do they stop aging and become eternal?


03. Q: And why are they called Eternals, when they appear to be so easy to kill?
A: Actually, this one was answered by someone else. While the Eternals can be killed and die violently, they are immune from death by aging, disease, or sickness.


04. Q: What is the age of majority among the Eternals on Titan? Since they are not born fully formed, but seemingly grow and age to a certain age, when they apparently stop aging and growing.


05. Q: Besides the Eternals, what else is eternal on Titan among the Titans?
A.: Apparently, their fertility, as Thanos' father had lived around 5000 years, before he conceived Thanos, but what if the man who is thought to be Thanos' father was not his real father, but Thanos' father was another man, who had an affair with Thanos' mother? Which man we will get to, when we do our Timeline of events among the Eternals on Titan.


Next time: to be continued . . .
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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #9 on: December 02, 2014, 04:41:32 PM »

Continuing . . .

o6. Q: Why are all the Eternals on Titan heterosexual, when . . .
           a. Babies are genetically predisposed to be born cute. Both the boys and the girls.
           b. It is sometimes hard to tell a boy from a girl and a girl from a boy.
           c. The choice of most Eternals on Titan for underwear and/or swim suits is the thong.
A.: You would think bisexuality would run rampant.
      And homosexuality.
      And lesbianism.
      Using Earth's standards, the only thing that would seem to be forbidden is sex between an Eternal adult and an Eternal child.

07. Q: The 3 most likely ways the children died in that cave are from least likeliest to most likeliest . . .
           a. by a rock fall
           b. by the green tail lizards
           c. by Thanos
      The reasons for which will be taken up, when we do a timeline of events on Titan.

08. Q: Why is there any question as to how the three children died in the caves, when even today, given just a skeleton, we can determine to some extent how a  person died, and by the time the story takes place,  forensics should be even more advanced than that?

09. Q: What is the education system like on Titan?
      A: What if all the children born in the same year and on the same day, started school at the same time, were enrolled in the same class, attended all the same classes, and all graduated at the same time? The one exception would be Eros, Thanos' younger brother, who would get a dispensation to attend school with his older brother Thanos? And that gives us 15 fellow classmates, remember that number, we'll get to it later, when we do the timeline, of Thanos.

10. Q: Why is the death of the two lovers--Loktus and Sogarth--in Thanos' secret lab be not more personal than being in the wrong place at the same time? We'll do a more personal motive, when we do the timeline.

To be continued . . .       
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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #10 on: December 10, 2014, 01:09:01 PM »

Continuing . . .

So many of these questions will be answered, when we do a timeline of the events on Titan.

11. Q: What about the final exam?
A: Timeline

12. Q: Where is the secret lab located?
A: Actually, we get a hint of its location from the graphic novel. It's not in the city of the Eternals, but somewhere out in the country. And so far from the city that one cannot walk there, but need transportation to reach it. What bothers me is the vehicle Thanos apparently uses to reach it. Too conspicuous for me, something along the equivalent of the Titan dirt bike would seem to be a less conspicuous mode of transportation.

!3. Q: What is the lab
A: Was it a building that had to be equipped by Thanos, or was it already equipped, but then abandoned till it was rediscovered by Thanos? The latter would seem to be the better of the two hypotheses.

14. Q: And what is everyone doing in that area?
A: Timeline

15. Q: How does Thanos subdue his two victims?
A: Timeline

To be continued . . .
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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #11 on: December 20, 2014, 06:26:16 PM »

If anyone is wondering, all questions will be answered, if not now, then later. Those will be remarked with the word "Timeline," for the timeline I am going to do of the events that happened on Titan. I thought those would be best answered in a timeline of events, and I also wanted to get all my questionable ducks in a row before answering them.

16. Q: How did Thanos get the boy (Sogarth) and the girl (Loktus) to his secret lab?
A: Timeline

17. Q: Were the boy (Sogarth) and the girl (Loktus)
a. stark naked
b. semi-nude
c. completely dressed
when Thanos came upon them?
A: Timeline

18. Q:  Why has the secret lab site yet to be discovered?
A: No answer for that. It is not in an area that is seemingly inhabited, but from the story, it does seem to be an area that is used by some of your teen Titans as a "lovers' lane," so it is not completely deserted and unknown to people.

19. Q: Why are they strapped own to their tables with so many straps?
A: Unknown, but it would seem to make the vivisection harder, especially if done right, one would seem to need only 5 or 6 straps: 1 around the neck to control the head, 1 around each wrist to control each arm and hand, 1 around each ankle to control each foot and leg, and maybe 1 around the middle to control everything else. Not the 12 or so seen in the picture.

20. Q: Why were the boy (Sogarth) and the girl (Loktus), when strapped down on their separate tables, not placed in a position so that they could see each other, which would be directly facing each other?
A: The way they are pictured in the picture is probably due to the limits of picturing this in a graphic novel.

To be continued . . .

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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #12 on: December 29, 2014, 07:34:49 PM »

Continuing . . .

21. Q: How did the boy (Sogarth) and the girl (Loktus) get out to that area?
A: Timeline

22. Q: Why were the boy (Sogarth) and the girl (Loktus) not gagged with a mask, like Thanos' mother later in the story, since they'd have screamed the lab down otherwise?
A: I know I would have.

23. Q: The boy (Sogarth) or the girl (Loktus)? Who should be worked on first? Who should die first?
A: Timeline

24. Q: Would the boy (Sogarth), out of fear, have wet himself, when Thanos picked up that scalpel from the surgical tray, the boy knowing what was going to happen?
A: I know I would have.

25: Q: Would the boy (Sogarth) tent out his thong, at the first glimpse of the girl (Loktus), his girlfriend, strapped down to the operating table? And if the boy had done so, what would be everyone's reaction to this, especially Thanos' reaction?

To be continued . . .


 
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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #13 on: January 06, 2015, 01:43:53 PM »

Continuing . . .

26. Q: Now that Thanos is finished with them, how does he kill them?
a.) Stabbing? Too messy.
b.) Drowning? Water too far away.
c.) Acid? Too dangerous.
d.) Poisoning or gassing? Too impersonal
e.) Shooting? Same.
f.) Strangling? Too much work.

A: Timeline.

27. Q: More questions about the boy (Sogarth) and the girl (Loktus.)
a.) How long have they been boyfriend and girlfriend?
b.) How old were they, when she wanted to make love to him? 17 or 18, as the writer thinks? Or, 14 or 15, as I think?
c.) And how old do they appear to be in the illustrations?
d.) And why picture them strapped down to the tables in their skimpy swimsuits or skimpy underwear or whatever they were wearing on the tables, when that would only make their vivisection harder?
e.) Why not just strip them naked and picture him wearing one more strap and her two more straps?
f.)  Was that a compromise between picturing them fully naked or fully clothed?
g.) Earthlings now have laptops, but they appear--as do all of Titan's schoolchildren-- to have only pen and paper and pencil? Why?
h.) What did Thanos do to their bare bodies or nearly nude bodies, to make his little girlfriend proclaim his "Zealousness!"

A: No guesses to any of these questions.

28. Q: How old was Thanos, when he started killing and making his friends and classmates disappear?
A: Timeline

29. Q: And what about that final exam?
A: We see two of them. Both involving green-tailed lizards. But, there is something called an ice rat on Titan, why don't we see more of them during the final exam? I can presume, one partners up with one's lab partner, during the final exam, and that one gets a shorter and a shorter period of time to complete each final exam, as one gets older and progresses through school. More at Timeline.

30. Q: And going back to Thanos' 1st or 2nd set of killings, why wait so long--2 weeks apparently--to bury the boy (Sogarth) and the girl (Loktus) and just increase the chance of discovery, instead of burying them a week later or even 2 days later?
A: No guesses as to the answer.

To be continued . . .

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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #14 on: January 20, 2015, 12:52:53 PM »

Two final questions, and then a timeline.

No . . .?! Actually . . .?! There will be more questions, but I think it is time to do a timeline of Thanos' time on Titan. From the time he was born to the time he 1st fled from Titan. After these questions.

31.  Q: What happened to all the clothing that the boy (Sogarth) and the girl (Loktus) was wearing?

 A: After Thanos had stripped them naked, before, during, or after the vivisection, he burnt everything associated with them in the waste incinerator in the lab. Except what he kept back as a souvenir to remind him of their murder.

32. Q: Were their bodies ever recovered and returned to their parents?

A: Yes, I'd like to think so, as a 5- to 6-year flood, a burst pipe, a sandstorm, something, anything, uncovered enough of their gravesite, including the gravesite of the 6 victims that followed, that were in the same area, that their remains were discovered and returned to their parents, who no longer had to worry about whether their offspring were dead or living.

Next time: Timeline
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