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

...If I interpreted that correctly, the Grayvens tried to consume each others' powers. We are not shown what actually happened. We see the aftermath, which has the original Grayven(or Renegade thinking/pretending that he is original Grayven?).

 

... what did you absorb now, you great idiot.

You'd think Grayven would have a stronger hold on his identity.
You'd also think he'd be better in a brawl. Every time he goes up against anyone even vaguely in his weight-class in hand-to-hand, he gets stomped.
Despite being a lot more physical than Paragon-paul.

All Pauls have a strong tendency to overthink which doesn't help much in close combat but Grayven had the combination of that and choosing a large impractical sword as his 'main' melee weapon, so a lot of his fights devolved into trying to manoeuvre that with one hand while grabbing or punching with the other.

It was pretty telling when he chose not to even bother with it against the orange woman and just grappled her so Persuader could kill her.
He should get a decent mainstay melee weapon of his own. Maybe an axe or flanged mace. X-ionize it and learn to actually fight.

New Gods can and will turn off your power-ring or shut down your drones or prevent your allies from aiding you. Stop relying on exotic effects and just learn how to brawl with people in your own weight-class.

Edit: A curious lack of Godspeech in this update too. Only the one line that I saw.
Weird.

Also, it's clearly Renegade who survived. That's why his eyes are fine and why he knows Artemis's name.
But it seems to be original Grayven in the driving seat. Somehow.

 

But I think he's taking some joy in this.

'lucky'

You won't find much better weapons than that.

At least when it comes to killing magical beings.

'keep going'

'His eyes'

remove 'gets'

So it is the one from the New Guardians.

And it looks like Artemis joined the fight.

'I'd taken"

'I'd be more'

 

I think it's his inner Paul's reluctance and contempt for physical fighting.

There was actually a lot here.

 

Don't know how you only noticed one line of GodSpeech.

 

if I’d be taking/if I’d taken
be more scared

 

Well now, this will be fascinating to watch play out.

 

Weird. I highlit every line one by one but only one extra line of text appeared.
Maybe I got here too early and the invisitext was edited in afterwards?
It all seems to be there now, but I first opened the page within about 4 minutes of it being posted and didn't refresh until after making my response.

Edit: I used to have an addon that put a small border around invisitext to make it easier to see.
Maybe that only work on SV? Not sure.

 

So... What? Renegade got grabbed by the Violet Lanterns?

Grayven has a very strong hold on his identity...

Renegade on the other hand doesn't really have an identity, or any real fight training.

 

I'm assuming that he's 'punch-drunk' here, rather than the sentence being mistyped. The main reason I mention is because it's the only one really like this aside from the "knife knife knife" bit which doesn't quite match the circumstance.

So either Paulven absorbed Grayven, and needs to shake things out mentally/spiritually. Or he forced his way into Grayven which healed the latter but will soon be taking over from inside. Or they actually fused proper, and... well, I don't know what would happen then. Either way, the 'Grayven' in control at the moment, will likely be surprised should Artemis not submit, as she's the SI's ally rather than a servant. New God hierarchy powers won't be pressing on her as far as that's concerned.

Hmm... just a thought, but since Paulven has most likely survived, I'm going to guess that his and Artemis's jaunt into the future with the Sheeda probably helped by giving him enough experience to do so. Maybe not enough to outright 'win' the fusion/absorption here, but at least give him enough time to build up his mien that he wasn't wiped out . I'm not sure how old/powerful the two of them are comparatively (other than Grayven having the Omega Effect), but one of the main differences I see is that the SI invests in his followers/allies, while Grayven commands his own. That likely puts the latter as being better set up for direct, personal confrontation as just happened here, but hopefully means that he has no real means of support if he starts to falter, whereas Paulven can get such from Lynne, Artemis, possibly even Diana should she show up before whatever this is resolves.

 

And some of these, I don't know how I missed.

 

Well, he wasn't wrong. In fact, I was quite amused by the True Grayven beating the shit out of our Imposter while telling him to learn self-reliance. Because, you know, it's pretty true that despite all his self-enhancements he's kind of a wet fart without the rings to use as a crutch. Or the Sword of the Fallen to use as a back-up crutch.

Anyways . . . They probably merged together into a single being if the fact he knows Artemis' name is any indication. True Grayven is likely dominant because he has actual millennia of memories and experiences to smother Fake Grayven's 30-something years with, but I'm sure that somehow Fake Grayven is going to end up arbitrarily having a stronger will or something. That's usually how these things work.

Though I guess it'd be one hell of a goddamn twist if, after all this time, Zoat seriously went with "And then the Renegade died forever." and ended the Renegade side of the story.

 

The Renegade is also old here, like centuries old.

He spent around 500 years in the Sheeda land before coming back, so I'd say he has a decent chance of taking over.

Actually Grayven may be stronger and more experienced, but that doesn't mean the Renegade is an inexperienced weakling.

 

So, it comes down to two men beating each other with their fists and Egos. Funny how often that seems to happen to the Renegade these days. At least he's well equipped for this.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Yeah, the joy of facing someone in your weight class. Hits hard enough to beat your damage reduction, tough enough to tank your hits in kind.

Grayven forcing this into a 'fair' fight, eh? Bet he's broadcasting this across Vega, too, for the psychological value.

Focus, Renegade. Stop relying on your tools and get your hands dirty. Grayven clearly plans to.

Oh, he's probably enjoying this. Letting his blunt nature smash down your spiritual defences... Like besieging a fortress.

Come on, Renegade. Surely you learned something in those centuries in the Land of Summer's End?

And that's where the Renegade is weak. He builds teams, groups, alliances... But when it comes down to mano a mano, he usually has the deck stacked in his favour. ...Not today...

Geez, I bet Vaermina's enjoying this... Haven't seen the Renegade take this much damage this fast in ages.

And every time he tries to 'cheat', the Renegade's lessening his own Narrative power.

A potential trump card, but you're in no shape to use it successfully. At best, you're going to have to hope he doesn't take it and use it against you. The last thing you need is to respawn completely depowered out here.

And it looks like he's likely to lose here. Unless this is a 'meant to lose' boss fight, where they can just stomp you flat no matter what you unleash. Poor coding on the Dev's part...

Pray his Ego is too aroused to simply put you out of his misery....

Phew, he's not a Good Man. If he were, you'd be waking up somewhere else as a normal person right now... But because he's a villain, he wants to enjoy the power he has over you, to make you suffer for the affront against him...

Pity Ringnestro is a Qwardian Ring. The kind fuelled by the fear of those around you. And right now? I don't think he's afraid of you at all.

Well, at least he can't simply erase you...

You got lucky, Renegade. Let's see if you can capitalise on it.

OW. At least your Radion blast did some damage. I don't think he'll be trying the Omega Blasts anytime soon.

Well, at least Ringnestro is still functional. So once the fight is done, it can aid the winner...

Fuck, he's good. He's not even looking through his eyes right now, is he? He's sensing you solely via meta-physicque...

Others have tried, Grayven. And yet the Renegade still stands...

And the whole time, Grayven's just taking it. Presumably he's suffered worse from his Apokaliptian-style upbringing..

Probably caught between the bones of the forearm. That's got to sting something fierce.

Ah, Artemis has joined the fight, but is wisely avoiding Grayven, as ordered. That would probably weaken the Renegade's Narrative position, anyway.

Oh, that's not good. Better make this quick, Renegade.

Time for a desperate play, then. Think fast...

Yeah, few too many shots to the head there. Even a New God can be concussed, if briefly...

I suppose burning his eyes out of his head is worth the killing blow, then.

Oh-ho! Avarice unleashed. Is he going to...

Looks like something's getting assimilated. Grayven? The Omega Effect in him? The Renegade? Who knows?

...Yeah, something trippy definitely happened... The next episode is going to be bizarre, i think.

Grayven is in for a shock, I think.

So... That happened. I'm not sure what, but something happened. Did they merge spirits? Merge bodies? Hell, Rings have done crazier things. Hopefully, the resulting Grayven is inclined to be merciful to the Renegade's forces... Though I suspect he'll still be facing a hell of a lot of pushback. After all, the Renegade doesn't really rule all that much in truth. And that's what's going to prove his undoing, methinks...

 

Renegade spent most of that time sitting on his ass doing nothing of nothing of note.

 

The Orrery that Darko mentioned was a Vega System all hooked up and turned into a spaceship, complete with equivalents of the Vegan species on them.

Like the Tamaranean equivalent had horns/bone spikes thing going on.

Honestly, I suspect the only reason Zoat named it the Orrery and made it Invictus's invention is that the people who made the Crown Imperial artifact, M'ntorr's people, are unnamed and Zoat didn't feel like making up a species name.

 

Zoat, the link for chapter 16 in Over Reaching doesn't seem to work.

It just sends you to a page after the chapter.

 

You do have to wonder how Renegade knew what it was then since it would have been impossible for him to have meta knowledge of this Zoat created version...

 

So I'm guessing the two fused and either Renegade will take control or some combination of the two will emerge. The latter could be beneficial as we just witnessed Renegade is shit at hand to hand.

 

This chapter is a perfect example of why Renegade Paul is a fucking failure and should just fucking die. Taking out Grayven in the process if we're lucky, and then we can move on to something far more interesting like Paul in Warhammer.

 

Plus if Renegade's forces see him losing they may be depressed enough that it affects his power.

He lost a lot of that power when he came back but may have still had some tricks.

Though I think he may be suffering the same way Astarte was suffering.

He fought Sheeda without rings, but he was still much, much more powerful than them so he didn't receive that much of a challenge.

When he fights someone of equal or greater power he usually outwits them or he gets lucky.

In this case he hadn't had time to plan against Actually Grayven and luck isn't on his side.

Or his other senses.

I'm betting Apokaliptian childhood makes Spartan childhood seem warm and cuddly.

There are at least two more chapters of this episode, so we may get a resolution tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

 

Oh yes because power ring + I’m a real person = i stomp the entire setting without any legitimate challenge or threat is so interesting

 

I am liking the Peacehammer chapters and our brief looks into Fallout, but Renegade is still interesting to me because the version of OL that didn't actively seek out enhancements like the Venom Buster or becoming a New God is now, in a bizarre twist, less human (in the sense of being someone you can relate to) than the one who did.

Like, Paragon is teetering over an Orange and Blue Morality event horizon right now because his actions are... vastly outside the realm of what an Earth system of ethics is prepared to cope with. Meanwhile Renegade might call himself a conquerer but by all accounts he acts like a reasonable person 75% of the time and views any territory claimed as his as a responsibility, not just a possession.

 

I mean, Renegade beat the Anti Life at least partially. I'm thinking he'll be fine and likely come out with the Omega Effect or at least a version of the Omega Effect with Elements of Harmony warping ("Love Love Love Me Beam!")

 

Thank you, corrected.

I think that one is correct.

To be fair, he has been hit in the head alot.

Thank you, corrected.

 

Thank you, corrected.

 

Hmmm, I think I'm missing why Grayven's omega beam backfired only once, when the eyes were damaged the whole time. Unless I misread the part where his *face* glowed purple instead, and it seemed like it blew out his eyesockets.

 

On that part is was really on Real Grayven side, Renegade really need to learn self reliance, he had the right idea by upgrading his body using the Cobra-Venom at the very start but since then he didn’t seem to have the same spark.

 

Yeah, Renegade seems to have kinda grown lax in the self-improvement/obtaining-more-firepower department after a while. I guess with two power rings, New God-hood, and a bunch of other panoplies, he just doesn't feel the same pressing need for more power.

If he survives this, he should at least consider getting the genomorphs to cram several million hours of CQC training into his noggin' to shore up that weakness of his.

 

Real-Grayven said it.