m-s-justice

[m-s-justice]

In a similar vein from my last post, Dempsey and narrative relevancy because holy shit I have lots of thoughts about this. This is mostly about Ultimis Dempsey, but some of it can be applied to Primis, too, probably.

Dempsey is, technically, the only Ultimis character that we formally "see" pre-corruption. We can hear Ult Richtofen before he was zapped by the MPD, but we play as Dempsey in Verruckt. This was probably retconned and the voicelines of the Marines in Verruckt are not likely representative of what Dempsey was like, but... isn't that just sort of insane to think about?

They so could've remastered Verruckt and have Dempsey, Smokey, Gunner, and John Banana actually be characters. We could've had a glimpse into who Dempsey was before being literally tortured and irrevocably changed.

Now, Verruckt and Nacht aren't really relevant to the overarching plot. Their consequences were, but nothing especially important happens with them, narratively speaking. (I love verruckt as a map, it's my favorite WAW map Der Riese can suck it.)

but I really hate to say it, but Dempsey does nothing and is important to nobody. Excepting McCain, but that was for one map and basically a backdrop for his motivations to be at Verruckt to get captured in the first place.

This is most prominent in DE. ZNS and GK both took place in their main character's respective country and dealt with issues specific to them, seen in their Ultimis counterpart. Takeo realizes his betrayal and Nikolai sees what he could become if he chooses to wallow in his grief.

Dempsey just fucking dies. He dies in a 935 base, still frozen by ultimis Richtofen. He's not allowed to have agency or growth. He't not allowed to have his problems taken seriously or explored in any capacity or to have any personal ties. Fucking Dr. Groph got more development in DE than the guy it was actually about.

And this is true of both Dempseys. Primis is jerked around by whoever is in charge at the time, doing what they say regardless of his own personal convictions, often because he feels like he has no choice but to. Ultimis fucks around and spits you in the eye. Bro does not give a shit about anything or anyone. Not in any real sense, anyways. He's american, but does that impact the story at all? Even when he's captured and held in custody by Broken Arrow, his status as an American and former affiliate of Pernell means nothing, it's not even brought up. He's a marine, but he doesn't really exemplify any of it's ideals or practices, other than surface level shit. Any friends or family he mentions are one off lines. They could be canon, but just as easily missed and irrelevant.

I know I've said it before, It's so sad to think about. Poor guy has so little. Probably intentionally so, at least to some degree, like with the deliberate withholding of his first name. Which drives me even more insane. This guy is such a hollow shell that he's denied everything that makes a real, dynamic character. No real connections, no deep motives, no inner conflict, not even a name. He has next to no affect on anything around him.

Everyday I wake up and thank god I'm not Dempsey.

#oooh youre so right #I was interacting with mr. dempsey on a more meta level #I was engaging with him as character in a story that was denied the ability to be dynamic or at least have some depth by his writers #youre engaging with him as man who was so severely tortured both before and after his capturing that he has effectively lost any hope of #ever being in control of his own life and actions #god thats another thing i can think about #mr. dempsey and the concept of control #something something Pernell giving him orders Richtofen forcing him to follow his plans Treyarch/the Player forcing him #to participate in the events of the story instead of rebelling which seems like something he would do since he hates richtofen #thank you for your perspective! #its always a joy to see :D

[m-s-justice]

In a similar vein from my last post, Dempsey and narrative relevancy because holy shit I have lots of thoughts about this. This is mostly about Ultimis Dempsey, but some of it can be applied to Primis, too, probably.

Dempsey is, technically, the only Ultimis character that we formally "see" pre-corruption. We can hear Ult Richtofen before he was zapped by the MPD, but we play as Dempsey in Verruckt. This was probably retconned and the voicelines of the Marines in Verruckt are not likely representative of what Dempsey was like, but... isn't that just sort of insane to think about?

They so could've remastered Verruckt and have Dempsey, Smokey, Gunner, and John Banana actually be characters. We could've had a glimpse into who Dempsey was before being literally tortured and irrevocably changed.

Now, Verruckt and Nacht aren't really relevant to the overarching plot. Their consequences were, but nothing especially important happens with them, narratively speaking. (I love verruckt as a map, it's my favorite WAW map Der Riese can suck it.)

but I really hate to say it, but Dempsey does nothing and is important to nobody. Excepting McCain, but that was for one map and basically a backdrop for his motivations to be at Verruckt to get captured in the first place.

This is most prominent in DE. ZNS and GK both took place in their main character's respective country and dealt with issues specific to them, seen in their Ultimis counterpart. Takeo realizes his betrayal and Nikolai sees what he could become if he chooses to wallow in his grief.

Dempsey just fucking dies. He dies in a 935 base, still frozen by ultimis Richtofen. He's not allowed to have agency or growth. He't not allowed to have his problems taken seriously or explored in any capacity or to have any personal ties. Fucking Dr. Groph got more development in DE than the guy it was actually about.

And this is true of both Dempseys. Primis is jerked around by whoever is in charge at the time, doing what they say regardless of his own personal convictions, often because he feels like he has no choice but to. Ultimis fucks around and spits you in the eye. Bro does not give a shit about anything or anyone. Not in any real sense, anyways. He's american, but does that impact the story at all? Even when he's captured and held in custody by Broken Arrow, his status as an American and former affiliate of Pernell means nothing, it's not even brought up. He's a marine, but he doesn't really exemplify any of it's ideals or practices, other than surface level shit. Any friends or family he mentions are one off lines. They could be canon, but just as easily missed and irrelevant.

I know I've said it before, It's so sad to think about. Poor guy has so little. Probably intentionally so, at least to some degree, like with the deliberate withholding of his first name. Which drives me even more insane. This guy is such a hollow shell that he's denied everything that makes a real, dynamic character. No real connections, no deep motives, no inner conflict, not even a name. He has next to no affect on anything around him.

Everyday I wake up and thank god I'm not Dempsey.

#cod zombies #call of duty zombies #tank dempsey #codz #being dempsey is being in constant pain #thinking about him for more than a minute fills me with terror #ultimis dempsey #ANOTHER 500 WORDS #I DONT STOP I JUST KEEP GOING #I need to go the fuck to sleep. #oooh the rare double post

[m-s-justice]

thinking about the Richtofens again and their relation to the narrative.

Like you cannot deny that Ultimis Richtofen was the protagonist of early zombies. Protagonist, not hero. Important distinction. How BO1 was him literally all about him stealing narrative dominance from Samantha, who was arguably one of the most important and sympathetic character, not to mention incredibly relevant as she was the main antagonisy. Then BO2 came along and his power was contested, which was obviously the next step in the evolution of the story. Give a character power, and then have that power be tested. There we have the interesting route of Richtofen failing that test.

Of course, we know that's most likely because of Victis' reception at the time and the success of the Blundell maps, but in story is definitely represents a shift in narrative power, the person driving the plot. I think that is represented best by Monty's handling of the "Original" Maxis when he arrives in the house with Samantha, being that he wiped him from existence. Maxis was apparently strong enough to depose of Richtofen while he was in the MPD (the closest thing to god-like status we had see so far), swap out his soul (something Richtofen needed an entire meteorite and vril device to do), and ascend to Agartha. For Maxis to be erased like that means whoever did it was way more powerful than anything we've seen before. It was indicative of a shift in the narrative, both in terms of scale and character. No more Nazi experiments or Illuminati conspiracies, we're going magical multi-dimensional, boys!

But afterwards Ultimis never really got that dominance back. Going forward he was certainly a powerful personality and retained relevance (like communicating to Stulinger and serving as a parallel to Pernell), but he never got the narrative into a stranglehold like he had before.

Then we're introduced to primis. While Primis Ed never really "seized power", but he definitely drove the plot. He single-handedly kept that cycle perpetuated. He had all sorts of plots, even needing a tie-in comic to explain, which is insane. Primis Ed got his own side story. Boss bitch move. So basically complete dominance of the narrative is transferred to him, with Samantha not even contesting him, Monty being too passive, and the Shadowman busying himself by rooming with the rest of Ultimis in the Ball. But Primis has the unfortunate luck of having his story be a doomed one. No matter what he does, he will always end (and begin) the same way. And he cannot break free from that, because it's him that's causing it. It isn't until he gives up his role as leader that things get moving again. It's all very tragic and no doubt extremely frustrating for him.

And it's such a fascinating thing to pick up and look at. These guys are both such forces of nature, they make things happen, and they even succeed to varying degrees, but they will ultimately fail every time. They will try and try and try and try but never get what they want. They want to be important and powerful and respected and relevant. And for a while, their own drive and determination allows for that, but then that drives flips. It backfires on them in some way, always their own fault (Ultimis teleporting Maxis and Samantha fails to not only kill them but allows them to orchestrate his downfall, Primis knowingly locking himself and his team in a time loop that can only be broken by his own death.)

#cod zombies #edward richtofen #if this has any typos or grammar mistake its because im writing this late at night #please be gentle with me #RAAAH DONT KNOW WHAT TO TAG THIS #call of duty zombies #codz #justice long posting #like pumped out 500 words in 30 minutes #I hope this doesnt come across as pretentious as it sounds to me

[m-s-justice]

Blood of the Dead. I have so many questions. It's going to be rapid fire machine gun time like you're an Allied soldier in Normandy on June 6.

Ok so Nikolai gets the book and becomes leader but that happens in Alcatraz, but since the dimension collapsed, nobody remembers it, right?? So no one would remember Nikolai becoming leader right? How would that work from the character's perspective? Maybe I'm overthinking. Maybe I'm the crazy one.

Next, where did GW Richtofen come from? I mean, Post Revelations, obviously, but HOW did he get to Alcatraz? What is up with the fire staff gem? Is it even the fire staff gem? If it is, then wouldn't that conflict with Origins? The gems are in the Crazy Place. The staffs are replicas, but the gems aren't since they are what power the staffs, right? Also since when could the gems perform fucking Destroy Undead 5e style? Why couldn't they use that in Origins, if they are the same gem?

And then onto Richtofen after he dies and we leave Alcatraz. Which Richtofen is the one we play as in AO? Is it GW Richtofen and he just fucking changed his clothes? Is it another Richtofen from some different point in time? If it's the latter, then what about his team from that time?

the more i think the more insane i get

:

#codz #cod zombies #PLEASE #I'm ripping my shirt im pulling my hair im extracting my teeth #not really but u get the picture

[m-s-justice]

GOD I love her. I love Chun li with my entire heart

#chun li #street fighter #Chun-Li #reblogging for my friend that's not even on here #they're in my heart forever tho I love you #also because pretty woman :D!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[m-s-justice]

YESSSS YESSS THE KIDS!!!!! AOOUGH I MISS THEM EVEN THOUGH THEY ONLY HAD LIKE 5 SECONDS OF SCREEN TIME

I wanted more about these kids. They seem like they’d have vibrant personalities

#cod zombies #codz #tank dempsey #edward richtofen #eddie richtofen #nikolai belinski #takeo masaki #samantha maxis #the kiddies.... thet little guys.. #i love you so much this was so cool of you #do kid tak and kid nik still hate each other? #i hope so that sounds funny as hell #bros are 12 and have spent countless lifetimes with each other but also fuck that guy #auuugh I'm going to make flow charts now ugh I'm going crazy about this

[m-s-justice]

ANY THING WITH THE KIDS. PLEASE.

Great war??? anything Great War.

Ok really niche here but hear me out: The Fracture Versions of the Ultimis Crew hanging out.

Dempsey-Misty Interaction. (we were robbed)

Harvey. Harvey Yena. Mr. Yena. The most side character ever.

ok boys I’m so art blocked right now so give me some drawing ideas. i am shaking

#Sorry for late reply I was at a bookstore #It was so awesome #It has a cafe connected to it!!! #I hope you have a wonderful bookstore wherever you are

[m-s-justice]

Warning for Unpopular Opinion:

I kinda hate Primis Richtofen

As a character, he's fantastic. But if I were to ever cross paths with him, he would be on the receiving end of at least 28 stab wounds.

Strap in for another Long Fucking Textpost.

I have three main gripes with the guy.

1. How he treats Victis/The Rest of Primis

Richtofen manipulates Victis into doing his dirty work, actively putting their lives in danger by siccing Undead Ultimis Richtofen on them, and then puts them on ice in a parallel to his Ultimis self doing the same thing to his teammates. Not to mention Victis is frozen in a HELL POCKET DIMENSION. And EVEN THEN, he’s not even the one to wake them up; it’s Ultimis Richtofen, likely prompted by Primis Nikolai. 

As for how he treats his team, holy shit. He deceives them the entire cycle. Sure, he didn’t technically lie to them, but omission of information is just as bad. The other three had no idea what they were walking into. They didn’t expect to have to kill themselves. And that’s the fucking thing. They didn’t sign up for this. Richtofen clearly never asked if the other three wanted to live in Agartha with him. Richtofen never considered that they have lives of their own, outside of the cycle. Richtofen considered his own goals above the lives of his team. In ZnS one of his opening lines is “Do you trust me, [whichever of the three he is talking to]?”, to which both Dempsey and Takeo respond that they feel like they have no choice but to and Nikolai who basically says no. And yet, RIchtofen keeps charging ahead, doing “what he has to”. Sure, he ensured that they didn’t get wiped from existence, nevermind the fact that they wouldn’t have even been in danger of that without Richtofen leading them there. Instead, Richtofen leads them in a fucking circle. They’re going to do the same song and dance, forever. Now, no matter how much personal beef I have with BO4’s writing, it’s implied that the only way peace could ever be achieved is through the Motherfuckers’ deaths. Accepting his own death is something Richtofen could never do, we even see it happen. When he dies in Blood, it’s not graceful. Rather than subject himself to death, he instead has everyone go through something arguably worse, a never-ending loop of suicide by proxy. What the actual fuck.

2. Dimensional collapse

Richtofen lets Dimension 63 (Morg City [SoE]) get eaten by Apothicons. To give him some credit, there’s probably not a lot he could’ve done by himself. Apothicons are known for gobbling down dimensions like rednecks at a pie eating contest. But also. There was Keeper intervention. Maybe let the Keeper use the Incredibly Powerful, yet Loosely Defined MacGuffin #52 to save the dimension before swooping in, stealing the Key, and then dipping? I don’t know man, the general lack of remorse in his actions, the whole “I have a universe to set right” line before dooming the entire place just rubs me the wrong way.

3. General Assholery

Richtofen is a bit of an arrogant prick. The apparent reason the others can’t peek at the Big Book of Plot Convenience is because they’re too stupid. He also refuses to answer any of their questions. No wonder the other three don’t trust him, what with his complete and utter lack of transparency and his compulsive need to beat around every goddamn bush in the Forest of Equivocation.

On a slightly different note, there’s one quote of his that stood out to me. It’s a start of session conversation with Takeo.

Takeo: “I fear that denying Dempsey the chance to better understand himself may have… consequences.”

Richtofen: “Even had he been conscious before his death, I do not believe that Dempsey had any… great knowledge to impart.”

What the hell. My Brother in CoD, you made him that way. An alternate you literally experimented on and tortured him and then froze him taking away all autonomy from him. Not only that, you selected that dimension. You chose that specific Dempsey. If you wanted a "smart” Dempsey, then literally go anywhere else and murder him instead. Holy fucking shit. And Primis Dempsey is also there. Mourning himself. And you’re out here insulting a dead man that you murdered behind his back. Richtofen did murder him; Dempsey was coerced into doing it. Even fucking worse, is that Dempsey confesses to Nikolai that he’s starting to trust Richtofen. The one thing Richtofen wants most and he doesn’t deserve it.

However, the actual worst part is that nothing comes from Dempsey not being able to properly meet with his other self. Dempsey pulls himself together by himself, which is very admirable, but does have the unfortunate outcome of confirming Richtofen’s position. There were no ramifications. That Dempsey was simply an idiot who had nothing of worth to contribute, other than his death.

PART 4: END OF POST WHERE I SAY MORE RANDOM BULLSHIT IN A SLIGHTLY INCREASED INCOHERENT WAY AS A MOCKERY OF A CONCLUSION

Ok now to preface this I’m not attacking anybody who interprets Primis Richtofen differently.  He's a fictional character and other people viewing art in a different way than me will not cramp my style.

I do think that he genuinely loved his friends and wanted the best for all of them. The way he goes about it is just one of the worst ways possible. Comedically terrible, falling on his face, fucking Looney Tunes-ing it up. 

Simultaneously, however, I think at his core, Richtofen is a selfish character. And that’s shown in both version’s actions. Ultimis is pretty blatant in his egoistic pursuits. I spent the entire post pretty much draggin Primis in the mud, so I’m not going to repeat myself.

To end this: I hate him so much I want to rip him to pieces. But I also really like him as a character, so I would sitch him back together. And then his insufferable face would send me into an irrepressible rage and I’d shred him again. Rinse and repeat.

#cod zombies #codz #call of duty zombies #edward richtofen #should probably specify #primis richtofen #tank dempsey #takeo masaki #nikolai belinski #1027 words baby #Anyways Primis Richtofen is such an interesting guy #He loves his friends but he's a horrible person and a total loser #loses at every possible turn #*makes it to Agartha* *gets punted to medieval France* #*finally breaks the cycle* *has to die in order to do it* #*gets to have a party with his friends :)* *dies again lmao* #Also half of this was written at Late o'clock and it probably shows

[m-s-justice]

He tucks in his jeans.... like a freak...... director justified in hating this guy....

I have an awful lot of free time this week so here’s three of tomaz’s tattoos and his requiem uniform

#cod zombies #cold war zombies #tomaz dempsey #tank dempsey #HE'S STILL TRANS LETS GOOOOOO #my boy rocking the blue he's so handsome #you're so right #transmasc demp my beloved

[m-s-justice]

you're so right. These bitches are so fucking petty. would the director even know how to sign or cue speech? Or can Tomaz just effectively KO any conversation?

etc etc

#they are terrible communicators ♥️

[m-s-justice]

when tank gets annoyed at the Director he just turns off his hearing aid.

(if he has one idk)

etc etc

#cod zombies #codz #edward richtofen #eddie richtofen #tank dempsey #tomaz dempsey #I fucking love the name Tomaz

[m-s-justice]

here’s my Cold War tank Dempsey design for my personal want! he’s Irish and Colombian in my depictions of him so I decided to give him a Colombian modeled name in this verse.

The text(if you can’t read it) says:

Tomaz Alvaro Dempsey Jurado “Tank

5’7

Deaf (due to mine impact in Vietnam)

hope you like him! if you don’t it doesn’t really impact me cos I love him lol

[m-s-justice]

Peter McCain is such an interesting character as he in practice is essentially a living plot hook, despite in text being a real nifty guy.

He was a spy in Group 935, alongside Harvey Yena, for the Americans. That's already a pretty cool backstory, except by the time we, the players and therefore the audience, come in he's already been outed and needs to be extracted. He serves as Dempsey's plot hook, his "damsel in distress". He directly leads to Dempsey's capture by hitting him with the ol' Your Princess is in Another Castle. Though, by the time of his [Dempsey's] formal introduction in Shi no Numa, Peter is already dead. After that, he no longer has much effect on the narrative other than set up and set dressing. In BO1 he is almost entirely forgotten about, with the most influence he has being Richthofen's paranoia about spies in 935, which Yena uses to his advantage to get Maxis to babysit him.

(and maybe the one recording in Call of the Dead where Richthofen refers to Dempsey as a spy, perhaps implying that he has confused him for McCain.)

I'm not even going to dwell on his BO3 cameo. Just know that I don't like it.

BO4, for all its narrative flaws, was SO RIGHT in bringing McCain back, even if it was kind of an asspull. [pretty much all the writing in BO4 was an asspull but hnnngrh] Now, he's alive and is interacting with the narrative.

He gets ress'd with *visions* of the Great War [but they subside for some reason?? Despite him being pretty much the only dude to be directly affected by the Elemental Shard :/] and joins Broken Arrow to work alongside his former handler, Cornelius Pernell. Peter gets to witness his descent into madness and even pulls an intervention as he calls the Department of Defense to remove Pernell when Peter believes that he's become too unstable to lead. Which is AWESOME! Peter is almost directly responsible for Pernell's immediate ascension into the Avogadro and his confrontation with the DoD, and the presumed reason for why Camp Edward is in disarray. HUGE ramifications for my boy Peter.

Of course, he doesn't get to see it, as he is promptly locked in solitary confinement and then booted into an ADAM Unit before all that happens. His narrative influence is understandably minimal, until the events of Alpha Omega.

To be entirely honest here, I could write an entire different post about Peter in AO, but to be as succinct as possible, he essentially just gives Rushmore the thumbs up about the Gaggle of Idiots, gives Ultimis Dempsey some character depth if he's present, and then ponders the orb. I mean, becomes the orb and then fucks off into who knows where.

The POINT I'm trying to illustrate here is that Peter McCain was a character best described as missed potential. He is either killed off or otherwise incapacitated before he can really do anything of major importance. He was an on-the-run spy who could've been a running side character the way 935 personnel were, but instead he is killed parachuting. Now, Peter was likely retconned into being the dead body and Treyarch didn't expect to have the sprawling narrative they ended up with. This is still WaW story-telling. I can cut some reasonable slack.

The BO4 treatment, however, is entirely inexcusable. Now, I have a bit of a bone to pick with BO4's writing that deserves a series of posts, but it was glaringly obvious that Peter was being set up for something important, some "unfinished business". Hell, Rushmore refers to him as "someone very important to humanity's future". And then the very next map, Tag der Toten, ends the entire storyline. Of course, he could always come back through the Dark Aether, with a possible explanation being his interaction with both the Elemental Shard and his soul residing within the Elemental Orb at the time of the universe's destruction allowed him to withstand the Agarthan Device's erasure. It's still somewhat of an asspull, but it has some logical and narrative backing, so I think this outcome could slide.

Will that happen? Probably not. Do I hope so? Absolutely. My call to action for this essay? make Peter McCain content my boy deserves it.

#call of duty zombies #codz #cod zombies #peter mccain #tank dempsey #he was mentioned enough to warrant a tag methinks #another justice essay goddamn it #717 words and that's AFTER I cut it down 😭 #I need to learn how to shut the fuck up #Anyways I think Peter and Tank deserved a kiss on screen and to be happy forever

[m-s-justice]

Ok I LOVE trans head canons as much as any other based person, BUT Tank Dempsey can only be queer if it's in the funniest way possible.

Like Dempsey getting captured and sent to Group 935 and Richtofen's like "oh get a load of THIS guy." and then Dempsey's on the operating table and Richtofen is fucking flabbergasted. He gives him ★evil★ gender affirming surgery, 115 memory wipes him, and then gaslights him into thinking he's cis. Dempsey shows off his scars to the others and is like "yeah I don't know where these are from but it must've been fucking gnarly" and Richtofen is sitting there going "fuck. fuck. fuck."

i will serve yaoi before I serve this country

#tank dempsey #cod zombies #codz #ultimis dempsey #trans tank dempsey #why would I argue if the wall is objectively correct? #sorry for hijacking your post you were too based for me to be silent #also pretty art gwah #blond dempsey propaganda

[m-s-justice]

Bro got the whole squad laughing

Funniest image on the codz wiki is all of primis looking at richtofen like that party meme

#cod zombies #nikolai belinski #takeo masaki #codz #tank dempsey #blond dempsey propaganda #edward richtofen

[m-s-justice]

mmmm i really like the shadows on him. looks like dried ink stains and it really scratches the itch in my brain. also mmm stained glass so yummy

This piece doesn't quite fit

#call of duty zombies #tank dempsey #(prettiest man alive) #AAAOUGH what does it mean

[m-s-justice]

never getting over the fact that we never got a Great War map. Such wasted potential all around. We could've had a cool boss fight with one of the big Apothocons, got to use the staffs again but they have cool new abilities since the ones used in Origins are only replicas. We could've seen Pablo bros. Pablo in action, the Wolf King in action, Arthur (from Buried) in action. It would've been so awesome.

But bros. Bros the absolute angst. The crushing dread as the guys realize that they are in a loop. That maybe there will be peace and paradise for the kids, but not them. That the kids are at the mercy of Monty, who mere moments after Primis took down the greatest "threat" to Agartha, was fully intent on wiping them from existence.

That doesn't even touch on one of the ciphers in Revalations where Dempsey says that he's the last one alive and will also die soon.

( I always thought that Blood of the Dead's reveal of GWRichtofen was weird, since that would imply that he just left at least Dempsey to die in the loop, even though that would go against everything he did to end up there. ).

Also Dempsey should be given a sword. Not because he deserves one or that he'll be good with one, but because he will fuck up shit (inculding himself) with it. Takeo trying to teach Dempsey how to use it but Dempsey just fucks around and somehow doesn't die.

#cod zombies #call of duty zombies #edward richtofen #tank dempsey #takeo masaki #nikolai belinski #me screaming into the void #ignore the long pause in posts Im a bit of a dumb bitch