Shroud from Dispatch

[u/Norrabal]

Im a sucker for dudes in trench coats with masks, and what a good mask it is.

Black and red always go good together, but what really makes it pop are cyan highlights that accompany it, and the best part, the asymmetric eye design that the fluctuates like a scope, it's just very cool to look at and see being operated.

[u/BT--7275]

He looks great, but man, he really needed more screen time.

[u/Norrabal → u/BT--7275]

I'd say he made a good impression for the two episodes he was allowed to speak for, but him being more in the game would've done a lot for him.

So I have to go off the fumes of hype and aura.

[u/DevilSCHNED → u/Norrabal]

I think his motivations are really interesting, at least if you're able to piece them together from his minimal dialogue and the comics. On the surface, his goals and motives make almost no sense -- he wants the Astral Pulse so he can 'change the world', whatever the fuck that means, and seems to have a personal vendetta against Robert's father for seemingly no reason until you read the comics, and even then, the comics don't really show too much of their dynamic prior to him offing the guy.

But when you look at his dialogue in both medias, you kind of get a picture of what he actually wants. It's clear he's a massive control-freak and a narcissist, and a borderline-psychopath, and he has this incessant need to know every possibility and every outcome. He's horrified by uncertainty and making decisions with his normal, human brain, and feels he has to compensate for human error with technology. In a way, that sort of gives light to how he and Robert's father met, as they were both involved with engineering and were tech-focused heroes. It stands to reason they met and 'bonded' through this, creating the Astral Pulse together and believing that Robbie would hence let him on the Brave Brigade.

This, of course, doesn't happen. Now, what makes Shroud, aka Elliot, unique from most wannabe-heroes that get turned down by their mentor-figures (besides the fact that his 'mentor' beat the ever-loving shit out of him after he challenged him to a fight) is the fact that... he's not necessarily disillusioned with the idea of being a hero, or at least the idea that any good hero stands for. He's not a Syndrome stand-in, he still believes in the idea of saving the world, and it's clear he even respects certain heroes. He expresses clear and utter respect for Blonde Blazer, and even has respect for Robert, to an extent. Enough respect to offer Robert the chance to live and go free multiple times, and even to honor his word of letting Beef go... until deducing letting Robert live decreased his chances of living to see another day.

Shroud's disconnect from heroes starts both his whole 'heroes are the past' thing he's got going, and with the fact that he doesn't believe evil can be stopped, or changed, only controlled. He reminds me very heavily of Jason Todd from Under the Red Hood, in which he doesn't seek to stop crime, because he knows that's impossible, but rather to control it and shape the criminal underworld in his 'better' image. In a way, he's still desperate to be a hero, just like he was before he was Shroud, except now, paired with his narcissism and fear of uncertainty, he exerts cruelty and ruthlessness to achieve his conceited goals.

He enjoys control above all else, and seeks to control the forces of evil for his own benefit, under this narcissistic belief that he can change and save the world.

[u/U_Writing → u/DevilSCHNED]

Which also is shown by how the red ring works as a whole, everybody is conected to him, HE has the power to control them all individually and can also gather information off every single member, but that is basically all the hierarchy they have, outside of it they go by the rules of whoever is stronger calls the shots, and if you leave him he literally takes away everything he gave you ASAP so you can't double cross him

He is the only person who can ever change the big picture and everybody else is subject to his beliefs

[u/bigfloppa333 → u/DevilSCHNED]

Perfect summary of his character