FacelessXChurch

I keep thinking how amazing it would be if it were a fully illustrated edition like they did for HP and Eragon. Eragon is getting a WraithMarked edition right now, and it looks soooo good! They got one of my favorite artists working on that (DominikMayerArt) and I've already seen so many good pieces of one of my fav characters, Durza (which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that he is one of my favs).

And I am already upset knowing we're not gonna get anything half as good for SP. Like, what do you reckon the "exclusive bonus content" will be? Probably the short story he was meant to do for the Instagram contest a while back. Hopefully not another interview; every interview now is about how he got the idea for SP, and if I hear the story one more time, I will flip a table. More chapters from the OG draft of the first book would be nice, but I'm not sure.

It's not only that the stuff from other IPs is better. It's also that the old SP stuff is better. Like, I went out of my way to hunt down the battlepack edition, and it's now the centerpiece of my SP collection.

I honestly would love a revamped edition of it because the art and stats are outdated, but Landy already said on Twitter ages ago that they would not redo it. While he is known to change his mind, he is also super cheap on art, so I'm not seeing it.

Some old edition of the first book also had these small character introductions:

I would also love to see a redone version of that (preferably including Nef and China); quite frankly, I would love to just see any extra art in it. Like, also, if the edition came with character-themed bookmarks or small art prints or something. But like I said, he's so cheap on art that I'm not seeing it, though I'm hoping I'm wrong.

I wish he would just rip the band-aid off so I can be disappointed about the real thing and don't have to be disappointed about a hypocritical thing. But he hasn't even revealed the covers for the Demon Road reprints, which I quite frankly don't care about. They are going to release them in September, so they are first. And they are also late, but that's nothing new... uuuugh I hope they aren't going to make us wait till Halloween, or worse, Christmas to reveal more about the anniversary edition :/

It's constantly said how he's an 'honorable man' but it's never really shown that much. He could have been one of the most interesting villains, where his honorable nature and the objectively speaking messed-up things he has to do for his faith, his gods, and his messiah clash with that, leading to inner conflict and hesitation.

It could have played so well against Serpine, who is just through and through a piece of work and delights in all the nasty things he gets to do for the Faceless Ones since he is a sadist and psychopath. The contrast between the two could have been great while they worked together, with their opposing nature and begrudging respect for each other's capabilities and a shared loyalty to the cause.

I would have loved for a moment where Serpine goes too far and Baron steps in like "That's enough, Nefarian.". Serpine isn't happy about it and very much wants to do more harm, but Baron is actually high-ranking and strong enough that Serpine can't force his will without it ending in the two of them fighting, which can easily end in death. He doesn't want to risk dying or getting seriously injured, nor does he want to kill one of his strongest allies, at least not over some petty sadism, so he relents with an eye roll and a snarky remark before the two of them retreat together.

Meet the new Baron:

BUT....

But I read someone's headcanon (dunno who anymore, sorry) that Serpine is the one that cut off Nye's nose and sew shut its eyes and mouth. Mev wouldn't allow Nef to attack another creature in his service and with that under his protection, unless perhaps Nye did something to displease Mev causing him to unleash Nef on it.

But what if...

...Nye is the only Crenga Serpine managed to capture, and this rare creature was a special treat for his sadistic appetites, and he was just tearing it apart using it as his study subject to find any weaknesses he could use against General Mantis, another crenga that unfortunately had just decided to become a problem for Nef in the name of the sanctuary. He sewed Nye's mouth shut when its shrill voice started to annoy him and sewed the eyes shut while whispering into its ears how pathetic that pleading look in them was, as if he didn't enjoy it.

But because Crenga are so rare, Nye's capture drew Mevolent's attention, and he ordered Serpine to cut the strings keeping its mouth shut so he could hear its case. Nye managed to convince Mevolent of its usefulness and ordered Serpine to release it into his service. Nef was remarkably pissed about losing his exotic toy, so he cut off Nye's nose in spite.

"He told me to hand you over alive and functional. He never said anything about 'in one piece'."

So the creature would always remember him and the 'quality time' they spend together.

And that's why Nye is loyal to Mevolent for the most part. Because it got thrown into a pit of vipers where one half, including Serpine, sees its cowardice and lack of fighting abilities. Weakness is a provocation to mages like them. While the other half, including Baron, dislike it for the nature of its experiments and would like to put a permanent end to it by taking its head. Naturally, both sides have quite a lot of people that see creatures, even humanoid ones, as lesser than mages and treat it accordingly.

And Nef has it out for it specifically bc his toy turned into a rival, and he didn't like that. Not at all.

[source]

This is the only part of the news I find to be enticing tbh.

Of course I'm hoping that since the first book is Serpine's book, he will be on the cover, but I'm not holding my breath. As for the 'exclusive bonus content', I'm hoping it will be more excerpts from the first draft because I would honestly kill to read it in full. I'm kind of tempted into wanting to buy it, which is a first since HBL, and we all know what a disappointment that turned out to be. At the same time I really don't want to buy it because I know the 'fixes' he did for the Matt Taylor cover editions made both the books and Serpine as a character worse. Apparently the most egregious thing he did was change the scene where Serpine offered Bliss wine into him offering him elephant-shit coffee along with an autism rant about it. Landy really is giving his best to ruin Nef because he just has to ruin it every time he has a good thing going because we can't have nice things. And I don't want to reward him for his BS by giving him money :/

When I heard 'special edition', my first thought was the battle card edition of the first book I successfully managed to hunt down. If the new special edition includes a special merch item like that again, I might buy it for that alone because we sure as hell are not getting any good merch from the actual merch store 💀

This random dark knight from the music I like to have on in the background is giving me massive Mevolent vibes. Specifically from the Matt Taylor SoW cover.

Source: "Black Flame - Epic Dark Choir Music - Dark Ambient Music"

Do you have any head canons on Skulduggerys wife and what their relationship would've been like?

I have a hot take.

You know how a bunch of people headcanon that Skul took Valkyrie as his partner because she reminded him of his daughter? (The child's gender is also part of their headcanon; it's still unrevealed at the point of writing this.)

And how Landy denies that and says Skul "was just looking for a friend". [Link]

I think Skul's dead wife is a lot like Valkyrie. We know Skul likes women that are badass and kick ass, given his previous canon love interests are China and Abyssinia. What they lack, at least at the time of dating him, is a good heart. Phase 1 Valkyrie was a flawed character, but she was good at heart. She makes him want to be a better person, and I think Skul's late wife shared that quality with Valkyrie.

In book 1 Val is described by Gordon and Skul as "Strong-willed, intelligent, sharp-tongued, doesn't suffer fools gladly[...]" and that would probably describe Skul's late wife well also.

Is this headcanon very Valduggery coded? Yes. Do I ship it? I see it in the way I see Ganith; it's not a ship I find appealing, but I'm not surprised it's canon/if it turned out to be canon. Because I know Landy ships it, and if you disagree, you are in denial.