lopoddity
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git gud bitch boi
🕑 Added 2021-06-13 21:06:35 +0000 UTCThe phrase “bad guy” is very relative. To Montezuma and his minions, Smokescreen is very much a bad guy.
As we’ve seen before, the relationship between Smoky and Montezuma was absolutely ruthless at the start. As Monty quickly gets the hang of villainy and starts recruiting some minions, Smoky’s animosity becomes directed at them as well. Smoky figures that if these ponies are foolish and greedy enough to let Montezuma use them as pawns in his schemes, then there is no issue with hurting or terrorizing them as needed.
While they do eventually get to the point where seeing Smoky is just an average Wednesday for them, I imagine that for a long while, most of Montezuma’s minions (especially the newbies) are terrified of Smokescreen. Like Montezuma, Smoke is fond of “theatrics”, which means disabling alarm systems, cutting electrical power to kill the lights, and laying motionless up on the ceiling, waiting for the perfect moment to reveal himself and incite the most panic possible. He’s also pretty fond of making spooky sounds in the dark, rotating his head backwards, tossing the minions about like toys, selecting an individual to puppet with mind control, and on occasion, ripping the love from their bodies and leaving them in a catatonic stupor. It’s kinda like if you worked a retail job, and every day there was about a 20% chance an invisible murder-leopard would drop down on your head.
Monty’s minions fear “The Beast” or “The One Who Watches”, and Smoky’s pretty tickled whenever he hears them whispering hushed warnings about him…. not knowing he’s already inside the building, close enough to tap their shoulder. After a couple instances of watching his minions get thrashed, Montezuma orders them to leave Smokescreen to him and never engage with the agent unless absolutely necessary.
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As time goes by, and Smoky and Monty move from being murderous nemeses into almost-playful rivals, the relationship between Smoky and the minions relaxes from pants-shitting terror into the sort of casual vibe between co-workers. More from Colbyr:
I 1000000% agree that Smokescreen would eventually start having issues with beating the minions up. I mean, Chicahua is always down for a game of foosball in the breakroom when Smoky finds himself there, and Sesasi just had a kid, and he’s seen how much Monte’s employees love and care about him. How can he beat them up when he knows them as people? So he kind of tries to just. Not engage with them. The minions are under the assumption that it’s because they all know who’d win if they fought (and it’s Smokescreen, of course), but it’s actually because he hates how guilty it makes him feel.
Comments
This is so very well drawn with the lighting and shadows.
Biscuit
The first mistake of every parent-author is making the character in the first place. They live to suffer even when they aren’t. Poor Oma 😔
Colbyr
Omaaaaa my poor babyyyy
Lopoddity
All changelings can leech love, or at least I'm assuming they can. We see Chrysalis do it a couple times in later seasons, she pulls what looks like a pink ribbon of magic out of her victims and into her mouth. In the comics, she literally sucks victims dry, with them looking like emaciated corpses afterward. Pharynx also mentions wanting to "feast" on a pony's love. So I'm assuming all changelings can do it, and that Smoky didn't need anyone to show him how. Chrysalis likes to drain love slowly so she can savor it, while Smoky rips it out in one go for speed and efficiency. This method is especially traumatic and takes longer for a victim to recover from.
Lopoddity
Thank you very much. :)
Bigsmile
How did Smoky learn to yank love out of people? Did Chrysalis or Pharynx teach him some brutal changeling abilities?
DragonCookies
Holy Smokes (pun intended) this boyo knows how to dish it out. I love the choice to keep the colors monochromatic, I think that makes the green magic really pop against a dark background I am also once again loving how framing really is everything in a story like this, and that how everyone can the hero of their own stories and the villain in someone else’s. In a different context I feel like this pic could’ve looked like Smokey taking a heroic stance against a lowlife criminal, but instead it looks terrifying and much more like what a bystander on the side would see.
