With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

Thank you, corrected.

 

Just a guess but is the Void person controlling Quinn Anti-Life itself we've seen Anti-life be conscious in this story before with Renegade and the Tantalbus. Maybe something similar happened and now it's on earth fucking with Quinn.

 

Okay, so I’m confused at what’s happening here.

Demon John is where OG John put all of the worst aspects of himself.

The Golden Boy is John’s brother from an alternate universe where the twin who died in the womb was switched around.

So what happened to original flavor Constantine? Also who is John Quinn? I thought they weren’t related to this. Wasn’t Constantine the one who got the Helmet of Fate?

 

Doesn't presently exist, due to having split himself into two people.

One of those people.

 

Huh.

Looking at the WTR jumpchain, ‘the Golden Boy’ was predicted to be... well... the cause of John’s bad luck with having friends. It described him as a hostile Cegorach, basically. I’ve never read Hellblazer, unfortunately, so I’ve been assuming that that was plucked from DC Comics lore, and I vaguely remember the wiki supporting the interpretation of ‘the Golden Boy is an arsehole.’

Looking at the selflessness and Life-emotion in his words in the past update... I want to say that that’s not the case? But on the other hand, John Constantine is very easy to hate, so...

Could someone explain Hellblazer lore to me, briefly?

 

The Golden Boy appears twice, and I'm fairly sure the two parts were by different authors.

My depiction here is based on the original appearence, where he's perfectly happy for John to kill him in revenge for his attempt to kill John, something he did without actually knowing that John was a) an actual person and b) his brother. John said no because it wouldn't solve anything, and it's not clear what happened next.

The second appearence completely contradicts that, so I'm ignoring it. That's the 'responsible for everything' one.

 

I would pick this up again but Ii have no idea where I stopped last tie

 

I looked up the issue in question.

John accuses Golden Boy of being the machiavellian schemer that made John's life shit.

Golden Boy however never admitted to it.

So either John was right and Golden Boy was a villain with good publicity that was trying to get control over John to turn reality into a Self Insert fanfic where he'd get to be a Mary Sue Overlord of the world....

Or John, being a paranoid asshole, pissed the world's chance at a golden age down the toilet when he refused the opportunity to merge with Golden Boy and become a better, healthier, happier individual whose legacy would be a better world.

Considering what I've read and heard of hellblazer, either interpretation is perfectly in tune with the edgelord cynicism of the series.

 

If you list off a few things you remember, I'm sure someone can point you in approximately the right place.

 

all I remember is that it's pretty early in this thread but that's it, The phone or whatever it was giving super powers depending on what you dialed arc was done a while ago

lets see what did grayven do lately... hmmm yeah I have no idea haha

wait... he attacked heaven? he had at least made an religious ally an angel demon hybrid or something

also he fought in hell but that feels like it was in a previous thread, even if he went there multipe times...

this story is so big lol

 

Well, tvtropes have a recap page that may be helpful.

 

You stopped at Z-E-R-O and actually that was the episode that brought us here from SV

 

Orange Lantern may not be the friend Constantine wants, and may or may not be the friend he needs, but is almost certainly the friend he deserves.


EDIT TO ADD:

Is Quinn not having any black quotes text indicative of Anti-life infection in error?

Pssh. A proper Brit would know there's a proper British term for this kind of not existing.
Constantine is currently in abeyance.

 

Black quotes don't represent anti-life infection. Black text indicates one's thoughts being overwhelmed by anti-life (or other similarly depressing things). Colored quotes indicate a level of fundamental alignment with that color -- Hades, for example, speaks with black quotes.

 

Cool. So, fixing John’s life would be more about getting him therapy/convincing him to make better choices, instead of just killing a Final Boss.

Yeah, I can see the advantages to this interpretation. I can respect that.

 

Fist.

 

Thank you, corrected.

 

Stuff is happening and I'm excited even though I have not idea what's going on!

 

When Demon Constantine says your plan is fucked up...

It might just, perhaps, maybe, possibly, be fucked up.

 

Thank God that we don't have parallel John Constantine appearing. Enough with 1 dividing itself by mitosis

 

Did... did Demon Constantine just figure out how to dual-wield order and chaos magic?

 

I think that's a sign that the merger worked- So he's Golden Demon Constantine now, and since Demon and Golden Boy were being used as proxies for chaos and order in that separation spell, that Golden Demon Constantine has access to both Order and Chaos.

 

Og shit, he can use Chaos.

"little, all Sanderson"

Maybe a man?

"Faust, Quinn"

"Buddha, I find"

Okay, you need to study and replicate that.

You've hit a new low when someone that's both a demon and a Constantine tells you you're messed up.

 

It's these one liners that make me miss the funny reaction so goddamn much. Understatement of the year, golden demon John.

 

Well, there goes the Quin is being controlled by Anti-Life theory.

 

Well, that's just rude, now. I see he's playing up the high intelligence Wizard trope to the hilt, with counters prepared for everything he knows OL can do. A pity OL hasn't shown off everything he has in his bag of tricks. Which should make for a nasty surprise.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Yeah, he's been mind-whammied hard. I'm guessing Quinn poured the whole bottle of Anti-Life Flava-Aid down his metaphysical throat...

Ooh, pulling a cut and paste on Quinn's desire network? Pity he expected that, and made sure you couldn't disable him that way...

Oh, boy, the Doctor is pissed. And he knows how to break Chaos-based defences, I see.

I see Quinn's gotten the hang of lightly mixing Order and Chaos, at least, so this won't be a complete waste of time for John.

One Wizard of Order and Chaos versus an angry Life-fuelled Wizard and two Lanterns? Not the best odds, but I get the feeling Quinn won't go down that easily.

For all we know, some lingering part of Nabu's thoughts are still lurking in the helmet, and that's what's driving him batty.

Oh, that's bad. I'm betting that's almost a weaponised form of the Dream Storm...

...Ow. Looks like it's just as effective as the wild version.

You've really got to learn how to make your own anti-magic rounds, OL. I suppose you'll manage it someday.

To quote Captain America: "I can do this all day." Not great when you're on the opposite side of that, though.

Problem is, that kind of thing burns a lot of charge quickly, no matter how hopeful you are. He can't keep that up, and the second he stops...

...Quinn's uber-hax will steamroll him into a wall... This is probably going to be a puzzle boss, not a stomp.

Morpheus' blessing may well prove vital to solving this riddle. How lucky...

Well, shit. Looks like he's pulled too much aggro. And now Quinn's focused on him.

Well, at least you're tasteful enough not to piss on one of the pillars, like Sun Wukong, Great Sage Equal to Heaven, did.

"Phenomenal Cosmic Power! ...Itty-bitty living space." Good thing OL's not as easy to pin down.

Right, something metaphysical is happening. Looks like Quinn went right past the meaty outer shell for the sweet orange-flavoured soul inside.

On the other hand, that's a good thing in some respects. At least it's harder to keep you dead.

Eating the cage from the inside out. That's a clever trick.

Just be careful. You might be able to swallow it, but too much rich food might still give you a gut-ache.

Nice, turning his own power back on him, with a little orange zest added in.

Oooh, do I see a weak point? I bet that sceptre's helping him hold things in balance.

Ah, good, he's up and about. Let's see what he can contribute.

...Huh. Wonder why he's immune. Because he's a broken wreck of half a Constantine? Or something to do with the Helmet, perhaps.

In more ways than one...

Well, Quinn is neck-deep in it now. I have the feeling this may be the tipping point that they needed to set him on the back foot. Hopefully, he sees how fucked he is and chooses to go down easy. But I get the feeling this will get much trippier before it's done. Because they've still got to re-merge before we get John-Classic back.

 

Anti-Life-Groupy!John reminds me of a Revisor from the Discworld.

All life is chaotic so absolute order means soul-death for everyone.

Dumbass.

 

Maybe the fact that he's a Constantine means that he's so miserable deep down that not even Anti-Life can make him worse.

 

Maybe he split himself in a way that shoved all the bits vulnerable to anti life infection into the demon?