Another theory, it might be related to what the people of Mordengrad call him. Part of Blade's story is growing up in a desperately poor Eastern European City where the people are starving around him. Who did this? Legacy's father to be sure, but it was the Allies and America who gave him his orders which destroyed the facility and drove the people into extreme poverty.
To those people, Blade is a hero. He brought back wealth and status to the city, fights those who wronged them, and really is their savior.
Blade is a hard man, ice-cold, but what if during his trial after the Vengeance arc, his people still supported him? We know he is free, what if it is because of them? It might be much harder for him to turn his back on these people who call him their hero, and they might have given him the name Luminary, as the their brilliant leader.
Also, it occurs to me that the Fort Adamant arc has revealed deep-seated corruption in the US military. Greatest Legacy was responsible for the death of Blade's father and the destruction of his home, but if it turned out that Legacy was just a pawn of a secret miliatry plot, it might help Blade set aside his hatred at least a little bit. Nothing like knowing that your enemy was playing the fool to cheer you up and make you feel generous.
I do find it interesting that Blade's father was working on a shrink ray, and now Luminary is helping Sky-Scraper shrink (and grow)
Other possible names I thought of, inspired by this thread:
Kommander Kris
Duke Dagger
Excellent Edge
Most kidding aside, as much as the "L_________Y" connection is cute, I also kinda doubt the guy who named his personal guard the "Blade Brigade" would give up his brand management that easily. However, too me, the point is largely mute, since in my group's ongoing continuity, Blade II is dead, and Blade I is otherwise accounted for. In that sense, Luminary is ideal for us, since it's easier to attach to a different character without causing confusion.
I've been uhming and ahhing about the Luminary hero deck since the first update and the concept just feels really weird given that Blade goes back to being a bad guy in Tactics - and even weirder to think about using that hero deck in some other games. The story is the story, so I'll take it as it comes, but it just feels more right for Blade's daughter to be Luminary and for him to be a promo card, as in "oh yeah, she came through the rift between multiverses and then there was this one time that her father stood alongside the heroes to save the planet from destruction".
Anyways, I like the parrallel it has to the Legacy decks, all we need now is a prom card for "Lithuania's greatest Luminary" and then we're all set
I've been thinking about it, it sounds like the major conflict is going to be at Fort Adamant, where a ton of military secrets are held. What better way for Blade to get access to all those secrets then to help fight the villian who is going to be there anyway? He gets more info about the heroes he wants to destroy, perhaps steals some secret tech and just has to prevent the destruction of the world he technically lives in from being destroyed sounds like plan to me.
I like the idea that Baron Blade thinks he is really fooling Legacy, and that everyone will actually believe he is a hero, because he doesn't actually know them and thinks they are all inferior and stupid.
I imagine a lot of internal maniacal gloating that he thinks the others don't notice.
Yes, even during a vicious battle to save existance as they know it.
I agree with this… in my mind its like a Fanatic thing where even though all her cards say Fanatic thats not what she calls herself or what others call her (to her face anyway). For me this is Baron Blade helping the heroes and sharing a deck with the alternate timeline hero Luminary. The deck takes that name for game mechanics reasons.
It's fine in my head that Baron Blade is a hero. He wouldn't be the first villain to go back and forth. It makes sense at this to point that he would consider helping out and I honestly seeing him trying to one up Legacy through out.
Same here. Though I think he won't hesitate to turn things in his advantage while helping. I'd bet that in the official story, he ends up stealing oblivion shards right under the nose of the heroes : "Yes, my allies, I can, with my unmatched scientific genius, use these shards for our cause. I'll take them to my laboratory, and make a weapon against our ennemy. No need to keep an eye on them - they are safe with the Ba… Luminary !"
As someone else mentioned (can't for the life of me find it right now), Blade isn't so much becoming a Hero as he is saying to OblivAeon, "You don't get to kill Legacy and destroy the world, **I** get to kill Legacy and destroy the world."
So naturally, as soon as the crisis is averted, he goes back to being his typical evil genius.
As to the name, I'm guessing he was aware of Ivana since the initial shattering of the timelines and took her heroic name to mock her.
And, yes, I agree, outside of the OblivAeon battle, I'll probably only use the Ivana Luminary card, treating BB Luminary as an event-based promo.
It's kind of like the ending to Turtles Forever, where after 80s Shredder and Krang help the turtles preserve their multiverse, he's promising to come at them with some devious scheme even as he's giving them a ride back to their own dimension.
I guess I am wondering what happens after OblivAeon. Does everybody remember it? Does it revert back to some previous point before it happens (with only the survivors)? That could be why Blade is still bad, since he never turned good, or why Matty has a different name (would have turned good anyways, but a different sequence of ecents led up to it). shrug I guess we will find out!
Another thing to consider, last time we saw Blade was Vengeance. It was stated in Vengeance that the super serum blade took to increse his power wrecked his body.
So here's Blade, cooling his heels in jail, severely limited by the damage he did to his own body. The FV, particularly Tachyon and Legacy show up for a chat. They need help, they know it, Blade knows it. They negotiate. Tachyon will help fix Blade, Legacy will use his influence (and the pending extinction of reality) to get Blade out, maybe Wraith throws in the cash. The condition, you get to fight an unstoppable being bent on destroying everything in existence, and we probably won't make it out alive anyways.
Makes sense to everyone involved, but the FV aren't a private group, they are funded by the Government. The public doesn't like, trust, or even care about Blade, so the heroes need a way to calm the public. OvlivAeon hasn't hit a major metropolitan area, he could be gov't BS, but he could also be real, not a big enough push and not enough to get Blade out, so Blade re-brands. Waxes on about how the American Justice system and his time in a cell made him turn over a new leaf. All of it is completely false, but it is enough to quell the public and not cause them to be a distraction from the main event.
