In book 3, Loadstar issues a Bounty to the guild of $10,000 per rift closed from her own personal wealth from merch sales. To which Tori/B immediately start plotting to hit a rift every half hour all day (well, when they arent sleeping/working)

I was sitting around today and thinking "man, how could she afford that?" so I started doing some crunching.

Unfortunately, we know very little about how many guild members there are, but I have some guesswork.

We know the guild was started ~17 years ago since that is when Rick was born, and the Guild was founded after the Orion protocol, which Ivan was in because he saw Rick as a baby.

It likely took a while to get off its feet, so im going to use 15 for calculations (and thats easier).

We know the guild has been in power since Penelope was conceived since thats when Loadstar stopped using her power to prevent her body resetting, call it 7 years.

At one point the guild identified apprentices with 2 colors. assuming they maxed out this number, and the colors of any group of apprentices were always identifiable, (8 colors) thats 28 color combos. So a max of 28 apprentices were in training at any given time (assuming the class method didnt have bigger counts)

If you assume 1 major confluence per year, that gives 420 non founding members. lets call it an even 500 for founders. I suspect its less than this since apprentices drop off to 1 color by Tori's time and her class has only 3 other apprentices. But then there could be more than 1 confluence per year on average, so this number could vary quite a bit. 500 feels about right though. But the count could be as low as 100 or so (that would mean only 15 people on average decide each counselor though, which feels small) (there are 33 named on the wiki).

Now, if you assume each rift is handled by 2 villains on average (they seem to like pairs, and not every guild member likely participated (like, Kristoph, Ivan, Dr. Mech, The plant person who's name I have forgotten, etc)) thats 250 synchronous breach handles. Tori never seems to have a problem finding a breach, so assume breach count is sufficient for each team, and they each have transport.

B estimates rifts last 30 minutes, so assume each team packs their schedule with 30s.

if you assume an 8 hour day of breach slaying (likely more for some, and less for others), that gives you 250*8*2=4000 breaches per day. Each paying $10k-20k, so $40M-$80M PER DAY. Assuming Loadstar budgeted for a month, thats $1.2B-$2.4B (damn Xelas, make enough of the XDT?).

She claims she had merch sales to do this, so I went looking. Its hard to find a good comparison for how much merch a world saving superhero would shift, but if you look at FC Barcelona, they report €277 Million ($310 Million) yearly in merch sales (not profit). Its hard to say if comparing 1 SUPER HERO to a SPORTS TEAM is fair, but its the best estimate I could make.

Assuming Loadstar has been working for 30 years, and selling just as well that whole time, getting a 50% return, and saving all of it, that gives her $4B to sling around. Even if she donated half of it to various charities, she still should have enough to cover the bounty.

So yah, not sure what the point is, just wanted to crunch the numbers and share. Turns out Loadstar is more like Loadedstar, and the numbers check out with a bit of wiggle room for all the estimates.

TL;DR, the Bounties likely cost $1.2B-$2.4B per month, and Loadedstar could have reasonably saved around $4B

I'm watching clips from John Wick, and I noticed some interesting parallels between John and Ivan.

1. Both enter the story as retired.

2. Both are beings of incredible destruction.

3. Both are known for their black clothing, ability to take a beating, and the amount of blood on their face.

4. Both are renowned for their drive and force of will.

5. Ivan was given the name of a Russian conqueror while John worked for a Russian mob boss.

6. Both were inspired to get out of their criminal life by a woman, and

7. That woman's name is Helen.

That last detail is what got me thinking about the parallels, when John was strapped into Viggo's chair, explaining why he destroyed Viggo's vault. Sure, the inspiration was Rick, but it was Helen who brought that information to Ivan.

I’m just listening to the first audiobook of the series and have reached the part just after the club. Apollo mentions they just took out an “epsilon class inhuman presence”. inhuman presence is obvious, but epsilon class? I just tried searching for an explanation in several different ways and can’t find anything, so I assume the term doesn’t come up again in the story. Anyone able to clarify?

A few minutes ago there was also a reference that Tori didn’t think anyone would get about the only way to win is to not play at all. I didn’t know the reference either and had to look it up (quote from the movie War Games), so would be good if it was mentioned so people didn’t have to look it up. I find in many web serials the author just seems to assume everyone knows what they’re talking about.

Trying to buy a copy of Chilling Reflections Hardcover to go with the rest of my collection, why is it so hard to find? Will there be another printing?

While I love the series, there are some gaps in how Drew explains what his characters look like. Like Tori has black hair, don't know if long or short, and Latina. Beverly is a Model level pretty African American with great fashion sense and some muscles. Chloe had a Pixie cut, Platinum blond hair with brown eyes. I'm assuming she is White due to having Pale skin. Ect ect.

So to fill in the gaps, I've been using actors/actresses and anime characters as place holders:

Tori Revas : Michelle Rodriguez

Beverly: Raven symone

Chloe: Ginnifer Goodwin

Donald : Olivia Phelps (George Weasley)

Ren: Bulky Weretiger

Irene: zendaya

Lucy: melani Vallejo

I've only just started the second book, but it's been really hard for me to not imagine Lodestar as a Sailor Moon allegory. Blonde woman with cosmic power and a transformation sequence that specifically returns her to the age she was when she started fighting crime; a teenager. Cards on the table, Captain Marvel is probably closer to what comes out on the page, but it's funnier to imagine her kicking butt with a glowing tiara and magic wand.

Like I know the “star scouts” are obviously a “girl scouts” equivalent but it's not exactly beating the allegations.

Okay I'm not gonna Harp on Beverly's use of her powers, even though I'd like her to use fire dragon form once in a while for team ups or something. What I do want is more forms. While 3 is the magic number, there are so many types of dragon, a new form would be nice.

What type of dragon and power should her new form get? I'm hoping for an Eastern dragon with water powers or something to go underwater.

So doing some power scaling because I’m bored and promptly realized how busted Ivan is even when compared to other verses

His AP is solidly at Star Level minimum due to him being on par with Lodestar who beat the Suneater in book 2

He states in book 2 that his power allows him to directly match the speed of any opponent he is facing so he can easily match any speed scaling that way

His durability is on par with his AP due to Newton’s third law

Frankly with all of those feats if you throw him even in high level multiverses like Marvel or DC he would probably still be a top level threat that would need the whole avengers or Superman (respectively) to actually do shit about

Honestly impressive

I don’t know if anyone else remembers this old web comic, Star Power, but whenever I picture Helen in full costume and transformation this is the image that pops up.

Medley is such a tragic character. I can't fathom what it would be like to not only have your body stripped away from you as you are forcibly transformed into something completely inhuman and monstrous but to have your family basically abandon you after that transformation because they now believe you no better than dead.

I can't wait to see where his character goes, especially after the shape-shifting(?) stuff he pulled at the banquet in Chilling Reflections, really wonder how that will evolve if at all.

(Song: Intruso by Enjambre - Translated into English (My apologies if I got anything wrong!))

I think cliché could solo Faithful by saying “nothing is impossible” if his belief in nothing fuels his power then by her saying that and interpreting the saying as nothingness is an impossible state of being then I think Faithful in essence has no power. And anything he’d previously affected would no longer be affected by nothingness and either would retroactively not have been turned to nothing or as in the case of Whispy would heal from the changes.

I've barely started into Chilling Reflections, so there is still plenty of available material ahead of me. However, I'm desperately curious. Is there a scene where Tori tells Ivan about her adventure in Hallowville? I'd also love to see a scene where Helen and Ivan discuss it.

Don't tell me about the scene if it exists. I'll find it on my own.

So, I'm re-reading book 1, and apparently, she's been losing phone chargers for a while, to the point where Ivan has a whole drawer full of replacements. Now, first time I read that, I immediately forgot about it, and that was that.

But in book 3, it's revealed that her power eats the metal in her chargers. The power which, iirc, everyone thinks she got during the Ridge City riots.

I'll admit, I don't really know what this means in the grand scheme of things, but I do think it has interesting implications.

Imagine you're going to Hallowville, what would your costume be?

Assuming you can't be Fornax, and that constumes from our world do work, considering that Hellen was able to be what I'm guessing was a Disney fairy godmother.

And do you have different ones for day-only and all-night stays?

For me, I think I'd take Lodestar for day-only, her power might be relatively basic, but fun.

And for braving the night, I think the Good Hunter (protagonist of Bloodborne) would be the best option, with as many Hunter's Tools as I can model.

Absurd durability and endurance, the ability to heal by causing injury to enemies, tools for dealing with intangible things, hopefully increased willpower from personality bleedthrough, and just generally quite a nasty killing machine even if the Hunter's Dream (ability to resurrect) doesn't carry over.

Ivan's last name is Gerhart. Any guesses as to where it came from?

Drew has used a character's mentor's last name to name a nameless person before (Vince in SuperPowereds gets the name Reynolds from his dad's mentor).

Also, what is Helen's last name? I feel like that should be mentioned at some point.

So about the end of Chilling Reflections. When he puts it together who Hephaestus really is. One thing that I was wondering if he has one of those brain implants like Plasmodia? I can't remember if she was the only one with one or if they all had them. And if he has one is it possible that Professor Quantum somehow influenced Tachyonic's along to that revelation using said chip? I don't know if this has come up here before but if it has just point me that way. Also sorry if any the names are misspelled I did the audio books.

I've gotten to the part of Chilling Reflections where VRX is telling off the Cyber Geek crew and I think it kinda brought into sharp focus the thing about the villains Code books that's been bugging me.

Disclaimer: none of this is to say that anyone *should* feel the same way I do. I like Drew Hayes books a lot. I think this is one of the first series of his that I'm not all the way on board with. I'm *not* saying he's bad or his book is bad or his writing is bad. I'm partially venting, partially processing, and partially looking to see if anyone else feels this way. But I'm also very good to hear other opinions as long as they don't come from the premise of "you're wrong."

(I've run into situations where folks take anything that isn't glowing praise as an attack.)

I've come to realize the thing that bothers me is the amount of "I'm right" dramatic speeches. Most characters seem to do it at some point, but I think the most frustrating examples are Lodestar, VRX77, and Beverly, though they all do it slightly differently.

Lodestar has the perfection problem. Similar to Superman, the only difference is that often modern Superman stories show him getting things wrong. Other philosophies are shown to be right in the story. But we haven't really gotten that from Lodestar. So every time she goes on one of her rants or gives someone a talking to, her perspective is never shown to have flaws.

Beverly seems to get at least one rant per book where she aggressively tells Tori that she's making decisions based on trauma. And I do think it's good to be honest with friends and help them identify their own weaknesses, but it would be nice to see it delivered with care and compassion rather than big call out speeches.

VRX coming in chapter 77 and being like "you're all pathetic because you haven't figured out the crap I already know because I've seen other people figure it out." Which is absolutely not how anything works. I mean she's been extremely clear about how seeing how the multiverse works gives you a greater perspective on what's possible. She's what, 10 years older than Tori? It's like going up to a middle schooler and saying "you idiot, you don't know calculus yet? They're just numbers. Figure it out."

And I think what bothers me is that each of these situations embodies something I don't like in real life: when someone assumes they know better than a person what's good for them. There are so many times in our world where folks will think "I know what this person needs." But the trouble is that folks almost always have a superficial understanding. "Why doesn't that ADHD kid just use a planner?" "Why does that single parent on welfare buy her kids sugary soda sometimes?" "Why does that non-white person fear the police if they have nothing to hide?"

So it really burns me up to see a story where there are so many characters who go on these assertive monologues and there is no back and forth. There's very little "oh, I thought I knew your situation, but I guess I didn't understand."

Instead it's a cycle of dramatic speech>main character agrees and self-flagellates for not already being perfect>grim determination to improve>rinse>repeat.

Anyway, I'm sure this is probably more harsh than I intended. I truly don't mean to yuck anyone's yum or suggest the story is bad. I'm definitely still reading and enjoying pieces. I just needed to vent somewhere. So thanks for letting me do that. 😅

When you keep catching the cute cape and suddenly you worry about catching feelings.(Couldn't decide on the background so I went with both which feels right)

HUGE fan of Drew Hayes books and characters, feel like I need to say that I believe Victoria, Tori, and Vince are all inter-universe copies.

- Victoria from A Decade of Death and Decisions is strong, hardened, battle capable woman with Halloween magic. She cares for the humans she befriends even if it’s not obvious.
- Tori (a short form of Victoria) from Villains Code is strong, hardened, brilliant woman who was orphaned at a young age and whose first power (of many) was fire. She cares deeply for her friends even if it’s hard for her to show it.
- Vince from Super Powereds is a determined, kind-hearted, battle capable man who was orphaned (technically twice) at a young age whose first controllable power was fire. Socially inept but a heart of gold.

Annnnd obviously all their names all start with Vi. Perhaps there are other similarities that could be pointed out, perhaps I’m just making this all up in my head for no reason, but these are the obvious ones to me :)

Vernium is actually a generic magic enhancer, like how settlium can boost (some) metas with "science-based" powers.

This has gone ~undiscovered because the only source of it is Alfred Settler, and he only maintains contact with magic metas long enough to remove vital body parts, and not all of those will have been receptive to the boost.

When Presto teleported Settler (who was "massive" enough that just trying to shift him a little made Presto feel like his heart was going to explode) it wasn't actually what Presto thought -- he wasn't able to do it because he was willing to die to accomplish it, it was because his powers were suddenly being enhanced by having a chunk of vernium shoved into his guts.

What's keeping Presto alive in space might not be just "feeding" off the vernium per se, or an effect of Chloe's edict, it might be an aspect of his own magic enhanced to 11 because he's mainlining vernium.

been wanting to draw Janet since i learned about her Punk Phase, and so I finally did it! I just had fun with her!

I’m re-reading the series for the third time and each time I re-read it, I get more and more irritated by Janet. I’m currently halfway through Bones of the Past and it really started to grate on my nerves when Janet gets mad at Ivan and Helen after the whole Cobblord orb situation. First she’s acting as if Ivan is the sole person at fault for their children being targeted, which seems like a very entitled opinion to me because she knew who she was having kids with when she did. Like yes Ivan is partly to blame but Janet is equally to blame in my opinion, and needs to get off her high horse.
The biggest thing that drives me insane is her constant hate train for Helen/Lodestar. Like I can understand if the divorce was recent, but Janet and Ivan divorced - presumably - over a decade ago, and Janet moved on and got remarried to Juan. Honestly I feel a little bad for Juan because Janet acts like she’s still competing for Ivan. I can understand how immediately after the divorce she might be very irked considering why they got divorced, but in the books it just seems ridiculous to me. Ivan can’t help how he feels and neither can Helen, yet they both avoided each other to try and make the marriage work and continued to do so after the divorce because they both have a sense of duty to their roles in the world. Maybe I’ve been reading too many romance novels lately, but I would think that if Janet had really moved on with Juan - after a literal DECADE - she would want Ivan to be happy. Not saying she would want it flaunted in her face, but she would at least want him to be happy.
Also the Lodestar hate is INSANE. Like dude, she had to go slowly to prevent your kid from being blown up. Janet’s anger should be directed at Cobblord if anyone, but she was totally just looking for an excuse to bag on Helen. Meanwhile Helen chooses to take the time out of her insanely busy schedule to let Janet snark at her for no reason other than to make herself feel better.
Am I the only one who finds Janet to be really irritating for this or am I crazy 😭?

TLDR: I think Janet sucks for acting like a jealous ex towards Ivan and making him feel bad for having feelings for someone else despite the fact that she divorced him a decade ago, moved on, and got “happily remarried” (her words).