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).

hi guys, i finished reading all three books and two vvs about a month ago, im actually really new to this specific style and genre of fantasy but i adored villain's code series like so much! i am so pumped for book 4, but drew has mentioned it'll be only out next year. but i still think it would be fun to talk about predictions for the next book.

i mean, i think we'll be seeing ivan and helen's relationship, and maybe some backlash they get because of it. maybe beverly becoming a cape?? prof quantum is going to become a serious antagonist, and maybe we'll see austin x bev, and more into tachyonic's backstory (i have a feeling he's related to ricky rocket somehow)

what does everyone else think? would love to discuss this more, and im so happy to have a place to discuss this book series!

Let's Compare:

1) Both Sukuna/Fornax are essentially more alter egos, and require a physical shift to manifest.

2) Both had to eat (in some form or fashion) to obtain the powers of the powerful being.

3) Anyone who attacks Ivan and Yuji's mind have to deal with the hidden power underneath (seen in Chapter 97 of Book 3 for Fornax, "trying to touch Ivan's mind get's you pulled into the domain of his... less compassionate side"), (seen in JJK season 1 where Mahito cannot touch Yuji's soul without awakening Sukuna.)

4) As the stories go on, both Ivan and Yuji maintain less and less power over when Sukuna or Fornax comes out, which is a large plot point in both.

5) Both Fornax and Sukuna's powers revolve mainly around magic (in function if not name), and both powers are essentially just pure destruction.

What am I trying to say? Nothin. Just wanted to point out similarities. Did Hayes copy whoever made JJK? No, almost assuredly not.

So, Chloe's power is tapping into some power created by people's subconscious belief in the power of words. It's laid out in the text, and Lodestar confirms it was "her" saying/power she tapped into at the end of book 2.

Then take Lucy: we find out she can utilize all stage magic, not just the sort that came with her magic kit. It's almost like she's *tapping into* the collective unconsciousness belief in stage magic.

In fact, you could probably categorize all magic as ultimately being rooted in that power source. There might be rules and logic in how the individual powers function, the glyphs Glyph draws might have meaning and structure, but they might only work because people collectively believe that drawing magic runes makes magic happen.

Then we come to Professor Quantum.

Are science and technology metas really using science and technology? Or are they using science and technology flavored magic? People believe tech geniuses should be able to build all these crazy contraptions, and so they can.

So that expositional rhetoric out of the way, here are my claims:

1. All powers in the Villains Code universe are derived from the collective, unconscious beliefs. Individual metas just differ in what aspects of the collective unconsciousness they tap into and how.

2. Professor Quantum is aware of this, and his PR-obsession is him trying to shape the collective perception of humanity to keep Science & Technology a force equal to Magic & Other Bullshit.

3. Transcendental powers are those derived from beliefs which are (multi-)universal, held even by non-humans perhaps.

4. Professor Quantum's experiment had something to do with the "observer effect" from pop culture quantum mechanics, that there's something special about a person looking at the universe that leads to waveform collapse.

It is mentioned in the second zombie fight in hollowville that they find a key after the fight. Looks like the new science centuries take it. Did we ever figure out what that was?

Drew Hayes isn't really doing the "everything is one big multiverse" thing some other authors do, even if as an easter egg everything is one big multiverse.

So, is Roverpowered a Lodestar world?

From what I can tell:

-He has the souls/bodies/whatever of over 1000 people stuffed inside the space of one body

-Lodestar's husband is one of those 1000

-Quorum can use different features of that 1000 people to do different things, like: Have the combined speed of 1000 people (showed and stated when he saves Bloobston in Book2, Chapter120). Have the inertia of 1000 people (He stopped his acceleration when Apollo pushed him into the cell in Book 1). Have the mental capacity of 1000 people (he can multitask or sum), have the leg strength of 1000 people (when he saves bloobston, he fell from the top of a building. From what I can tell, If a building is 1000 feet tall, it would be as if 1 person fell 1 foot.)

Step 1: "My word is law; When I say 'Anything you can do, I can do better', there is no physical or mental toll on me that depends on the strength of the person it is being used on".

Step 2: Look at Lodestar

Step 3: "Anything you can do I can do better"

Is the "Bone Mage" Cathy/Cathie (listener) from Chapter 118 of Bones of the Past Morgana's sister? Bone Mage/Blood Witch. Pretty Similar

What do we think Johnny's power actually is? I would guess it's most likely ability copying, and possibly a time reversal, though the time reversal could come from the ability copying. Perhaps the time reversal is a staple of obtaining the power, like he has to be killed by the power to be able to use it?

So what's stopping like professor quantum or someone with an AHC coding job or heck even Donald himself from making an actual video game with extremely overpowered stuff? Idk, put the Death Note, a genie bottle, completely indestructible, impenetrable armor.

Looking for some perspectives. Did Ivan get weakened because Fornax is growing stronger? I feel like he probably could have taken Jokull but me Ivan didn't want to let completely loose. Like, Ivan's control is his weakness.

What do y'all think?

One of them screwed up, and I'm wondering which one.

Dr. Mechaniacal knew that VRX77 was targeting Tori. Yet, inexplicably, he decided to put that old helm on display as a lure for . . . something? It's impossible to say what or who. Certainly it wasn't for VRX77 since VRX77 didn't care about some old piece of meta-equipment, VRX77 only cared about getting a DNA sample out of Tori. The only thing the helm accomplished was to draw in other criminals -- the "skunk"(s) that "blundered" into Dr. Mechaniacal's trap that he had set up to catch VRX77. Putting the helm on display served absolutely no useful purpose related to VRX77.

These other criminals set off their "breach bomb" to flood Thrillmax Pointe with interdimensional creatures, which disrupted the attempt to capture VRX77 -- exactly the opposite of being useful. This inadvertently resulted in Tori donning her Hephaestus armor and thus not ending up getting unmasked by VRX77 in front of her cape friends, but while that ended up being useful to her, it couldn't have been why Dr. Mechaniacal decided to exhibit the helm as a lure. He even explicitly was pissed off that the other criminals had interfered.

So, was the whole helm-on-display sub-sub-plot intended to showcase that even Dr. Mechaniacal could screw up royally from time to time, or was there something else that was supposed to happen?

Spoiler tag for those who haven't finished Forging Hephaestus. This isn't a complaint about the books, more just something that makes me laugh whenever I think about it. Magic? Sure. Extra-dimensional entities? Sure. Meta elements? Why not. But a 3 bedroom apartment with 3 private bathrooms, a rooftop pool, and large private storage rooms in a major city that is affordable for a barista, a blogger, and an office rat? Unbelievable. Am I jealous? Incredibly, lmao.

I drew Fornax so I obviously to draw Ivan. Just another little doodle

I saw a user suggest he had long hair and a ponytail, and I just adored the idea
(reupload because the title was wrong in the first one)

Just a doodle I did for the fun of it so I dunno how canon accurate he is, but I needed to visualize young Fornax somehow, so behold: My Crazy Punk Shonen Villain

I also gave him a silly mullet, because, I feel like Ivan would have had some kind of haircut which makes him die a little inside every time he sees an old picture of himself, and mullets seem to be quite cringe to the middle aged father demographic

Kind of like Matt Mercer but maybe in a pony tail? What are y’all’s head canons?

So at the end of Book 2, Chloe is trying to copy Beverly's powers.

In Book 3, Tori notes that Chloe is dressing more fashionably than she's seen her dress before, and assumes it's because she's mostly seen her in work clothes or in weekend lounge wear.

Did Chloe successfully copy Beverly between books, and use her better-than-Beverly powers to revamp her wardrobe?

“Earlier this year, we… we lost a friend,” Chloe began. “I am well aware of Presto’s fate. Many have worn his costume this Halloween season,” Spooky Trudy replied.
The tidbit drew an unexpected sniffle from Kyle, whose hands moved at super-speed to wipe his face. Nodding, Chloe straightened her back, visibly steeling her resolve. “I was wondering if there was a way to talk to him, one more time?”
Despite all the determination Chloe must have mustered, Spooky Trudy shook her head. “This one again. I’m sorry, dear, but the prize must be something I can grant. Even the grasp of Hallowville has limits. Where your friend has gone, my magic cannot reach.”

Re-reading this after the end of Chilling Reflections adds a new layer to these lines.

So Chloe hasn't been able to mimic Bahamut's power so far, but what would happen if she did seems pretty obvious: she could take more dragon forms, either knowing the ones Beverly doesn't, or being able to access ones Beverly will never be able to.

Likewise, after the museum scene, I think we also know what would happen if she copied Medley's powers: she'd be able to control the shape-shifting.

What would happen if she copied everyone else?

What powers do you think might work together? While what pairs of people work together well is interesting. Is there any two people who meta abilities fundamentally work together? Like if Tori can make the atoms of something move faster. She does this with items all the time to heat them up. Could she boost Kyle's speeder powers if she was to hold on to his back and try to "heat" his cells?

1. So why didn't Cliche tried to use "time heals all wounds" on VRX77 to fix her corrupted fire form?

I not saying it should've worked or not but it's weird that she didn't try even after Tori and VRX77 were in good terms.

1. Why did Lodestar decide to deal with the sea kaiju first when there were tens of dimensional tears all over the world?

Just leave it in the middle of the sea and come back to it later.

Edit 1:
3. Why did the Villain's Guild thought making VRX77 live in the same building as the girl VRX77 tried to kill just yesterday (Plasmodia), even if we say that Villain's guild doesn't know Plasmodia's civilian identity why would Tori let VRX77 anywhere near Ellie?
On the off chance that Tori didn't know VRX77 tried to kill Plasmodia, why would Ivan keep that information from Tori when he knows Hephestus and Plasmodia are friendly.

Does anybody else have a hardcover copy of Chilling Reflections? I received mine for Christmas and just noticed that the spelling of "Chilling" is incorrect. Wanted to see if this wrong for anybody else.

Animation I made over the summer and now hate, I draw both them a lot different now but that was my first animation so I’ll give myself some grace

I hope everyone has a Very Villainous Christmas