#spoiler1001

D

GRUE, MY BELOVED 😭

favorite thing about them

My favorite thing about Grue would have to be that in a world comprised of people with corrupt morals and beliefs, he’s a good person whose determined to hang onto his ethics for as long as he possibly can. He has every reason to hold a grudge against Tony, as their coworkers don’t really treat Grue with much respect due to their perception that he’s “scrounging”, but he doesn’t. In fact, they’re actually close friends and he frequently looks after Tony in his own subtle way, going as far as to offer Tony shelter despite the risk.

Additionally, when he had that assassination job, despite the target being an obviously shitty kid (he was selling major drugs) - Grue genuinely felt bad for having to go through with killing him. He’s just... a really good person, and the bar being named in his honor by his daughters more than 20 years after his death shows just how much he was loved.

least favorite thing about them

That he didn’t get enough screen time. It’s understandable given that he’s a novel-only character and what happens to him during the events of the story, but I would’ve loved to have learned more about how he and Tony became friends in the first place. He even mentions that he owes Tony a life debt during their final conversation, though I’m unsure if that was referring to when Tony absolutely demolished all those zombies towards the beginning of the book.

favorite line

“Grue returned Gilver’s dispassionate stare, seeing his own reflection in his captor’s eyes. He bit his cheek to stifle the pain from his damaged right arm, which was now inching toward the pin of a grenade that hung from his munitions belt.

Grue let his mind flicker back over his beautiful daughters’ faces and Tony’s brilliant smile.

Goodbye.

A moment passed.

And then an inferno raged through the abattoir. The courageous last stand of a washed-up mercenary was commemorated in flame” - page 121

Not exactly something he says, but this very specific scene was absolutely phenomenal and probably one of my favorites throughout the entire novel. Despite being so short and simple, it’s heartbreaking to see Grue die - especially after his and Tony’s earlier conversation, which ended on not quite very good terms. 

In spite of the tragedy occurring, it’s also one of the outright ballsiest moves anyone besides Dante has made against Gilver. Grue refuses to let Gilver have the satisfaction of killing him, and instead decides to put a wrench in his plans by blowing himself and everything up in the area to smithereens. It’s awful that it doesn’t completely succeed, but I have my suspicions that Gilver had to go into hiding for a few days after that confrontation to recover from a face full of grenade. People say that ‘you should fear older men in a field of work where people die young’ for a good reason, and Gilver learned the hard way.

Also, I will never not be emotionally destroyed by the information that one of the last things Grue wanted to see before he died was Tony’s smile. Just mess me UP.

BROTP

Grue & Tony

Despite the novel trying to initially tell us otherwise (literally saying that the two tried to not hang out together), Tony and Grue have a really close friendship that I find immensely endearing. We’re never told about how they became friends in the first place or when they started working together, only that it’s been long enough that they’re considered a package deal. Grue clearly trusts Tony enough that he frequently invites him over to his home, which is saying something considering how protective he seems to be of his family. Grue is also the one person that Tony will listen to, no matter what. It’s sweet.

OTP

Grue & Happiness

That man was clearly dealt not a nice hand in life, but still found the strength within himself to be kind to others nonetheless. Grue deserved so much more than the ending he received, and I’m sure that Dante thought the same.

NOTP

With the retcon in mind, probably Grue/Tony since Tony's confirmed to be in his teenage years during the events of the novel, and Grue is old enough to be his father. Aside from that, definitely Gilver/Grue, because I seriously suspect that Gilver set-up that entire situation (including Jessica’s hospitalization) in the first place to get rid of Grue so he could have easier access to Tony.

random headcanon

As a consequence of a difficult childhood and early adulthood doing nothing but mercenary work, Grue doesn’t have the proper credentials or experience to do any high-paying work outside of the mercenary world. When he and his wife got married and started to settle down, they agreed that Grue would stay at home to take care of the kids partially because of this, and partially because it was just the best option for them. He would still take a job on very rare occasion, but they were almost always very easy with low risk.

After his wife got sick during her third pregnancy, Grue started to take back up mercenary work because he couldn’t really support their family and pay for her hospital bills on a measly cashier’s budget. 

unpopular opinion

Grue isn’t a very well known character, so I don’t think I have anything that can be considered an unpopular opinion. The closest I can come up with is that I interpret his avoidance of Tony after Jessica gets sick, to be something more about pride than it is about safety. He’s an incredibly proud person, and he’s fallen rock bottom to the extent that he’s been forced to resort to taking the kind of jobs that both he and Dante despise.

song I associate with them

Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked - Cage The Elephant

favorite picture of them

Alice strikes me as someone who has deadly presicion with melee weapons. And I mean she know every single tiny fatal spot by heart. So that is a yes from me.

I'm guessing Vergil, or Lady, would try to take it away from her? Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Which begs the question...

Weeeeellllll......

Sure!

Breakquest Club is a lot like Oxventure actually, a chaotic group of friends with the same DM, they’re still in Geth so the possibility of a crossover is there

Side note: I’m pretty sure the reason Breakquest Club isn’t continuing during the pandemic like Oxventure is that the costumes are left in the office

You can learn the characters’ stats and little bit of their backstories with these little cards that were in the corner when they were first introducing the characters

In Ultimate Spider-Man, not only is Johnny there when Peter dies, but Peter literally dies underneath him:

(Ultimate Spider-Man #160)

He takes it extremely badly -- Ultimate Johnny really admired Peter and had been living with May and Peter for a while at that point, and he also accidentally made the Green Goblin stronger in Peter’s fight with him when Johnny didn’t realize that his fire would make Norman stronger. The day of the funeral finds him literally exploding with grief:

(Ultimate Fallout #1)

Johnny also later accuses Kitty Pryde, who briefly dated Peter in Ultimate Marvel, of not being there when Peter died: