Any effects positive energy field may have had are purely theoretical since we lack a lot of information about that fight in particular and about Blade's actions following said fight.
Plus we're looking at a massive change from someone willing to wipe out humanity entirely to someone willing to fight for humanity's survival. That's a huge shift in perspective and I can see the positive energy field causing that kind of shift, if it caused anything at all.
Characters change and evolve. They develop. I don't see what's so unbelievable about blade having an interesting character arc
I guess what I am saying is that there's no overt sign of it. I agree with you that something could have changed his outlook, just that whatever did is not explicitly in evidence.
And the change is a fairly big one.
Speaking strictly for myself, it's mostly that I nevre found him to be an interesting character. I might go so far as to call what we do know of him the least interesting character (TOG et a Character Card, at least) in all of SotM. Which should make me view nay changes in a positive light, but the face turn which we already know won't last just isn't enough change to get my attention. The problem with seeing the future, I suppose.
In reply to everyone talking about my view on Tactics' future in general: yes, from an in-universe point of view, any price would be worth stopping OblivAeon. But I don't assess stories from an in-universe viewpoint - I exist in reality, as do the writers who created this narrative. I was remarking that I fount it a surprising decision to have their "Big Event" end Tolkein-style with a scarred and diminished world, rather than with a sense of new beginnings such as we see at the end of Crisis On Infinite Earths - or even the "everything is different now" approach with Marvel events like House of M or Civil War push towards.
Whilst it is assuredly interesting to learn that Progeny's attack turned Rook City into Broken City, I see that as secondary to the choice for there to be a Broken City - a former fixture of the setting and home to many major heroes, now made into a post-apocalyptic wasteland ruled by the insane degeneration of a formerly-suave villain and an army of twisted clones of a despised psychopath. That's a deliberate tonal choice, and a pretty strong one.
And for some poeple, it works really well! But to me it is, if not the darkest timeline (surely Iron Legacy has a lock on that), still a timeline so dark it makes me less enthused about the official developments of the story's future - even as I eagerly seek out all the new characters and beautiful art which are entwined with that future.
Ironic: yes, definitely an interesting choice. It made me think of post-LotR Middle Earth as well. (Hey, at least it's not post-Quenta Silmarillion Middle Earth, right?)
I'm not sure whether Moonfall is before or after FFA #1, but since they seem to both be early appearances of Blade and thus near to each other we know that Moonfall and OblivAeon are around thirty years apart. Thirty years is an INCREDIBLY LONG TIME. I can completely and utterly see Blade, initially incredibly angry and driven by burning passion, attempting to take down the world just to defeat Legacy (and, as others have pointed out before me, he was safe in Atlantis at the time), but that doesn't mean he has to remain that way for the next thirty years. And after all, look at Mad Bomber Blade, or Vengeance Blade, and Tactics Blade - they all want to take down Legacy, but none of them are gunning for the world any more.
And not to belabor the point, but Blade never tried to kill himself. Read his bio, if you've not already; Ivan Ramonat is determined to survive. He is not going to take kindly to someone trying to end the multiverse he's currently living in.
I would argue that if you're crashing the moon into the Earth there is no such thing as being safe on Earth. Hiding in Atlantis is great, but it wouldn't have saved him. He'd be completely aware of that.
Which as smart as Blade is means he knew he would survive from there.
There's no way to survive a lunar impact. Baron Blade might have believed he'd survive, but I give him credit for understanding E=MC^2. But okay, say he has a super heavy duty bunker from which to survive. Now he's ruler of a lava-covered Earth with no other life on it. Except maybe Legacy, because Legacy can be immune to environment damage.
Well that leaves him alone to take care of Legacy.
Yesterday I was able to talk to Christopher about Baron Blade and his becoming of Luminary.
For starters, Baron Blade wants enough people on Earth to survive so they can witness his brilliance. While Baron Blade is a genius, he doesn't tend to think out his plans entirely, due to his hatred of Legacy. He comes up with a plan to kill Legacy, not really thinking out the consequences of his plans outside of that. It's not that he wants to die by pulling the moon into the Earth, it's that he hasn't thought that he would die by pulling the moon to the Earth. In the FFA#1, he tries to drill to the center of the Earth, he's smart enough to do so, but once again didn't factor in the length of time that's going to actually take. In Vengeance, he injects himself with all kinds of serums to make him stronger, ignoring what it could do to him just for the sake of trying to kill Legacy.
On him becoming Luminary, Christopher confirmed that Baron Blade is helping the heroes because he says OblivAeon as something that could kill Legacy. He is not willing to let someone else succeed where he has previously failed. So he's going to help defeat OblivAeon, ensuring that he'll have more chances down the line to kill Legacy. I also asked what would be the justification to have Baron Blade versus Luminary. It would be because Luminary sees the other as an imposter and cannot let him kill Legacy, because that's what Luminary will do.
Summary: Baron Blade doesn't want global destruction, only to kill Legacy but fails to think of all the repercussions of his plans. He'll fight any villain if they are a threat to killing Legacy.
Ronway, thank you for posting that. It makes a lot of sense.
Thanks Ronway. What you got from Christopher follows what the theory we've has on why he became a hero for now. It also goes along with my thought that even if pulling the moon into the planet is a bad idea Baron Blade thought he would nevertheless but that may not have been the case if succeeded.
Maybe it pulled the moon into the Earth really gently.
Superman made his debut more than 75 years ago, and for that entire time, he's been about 29 years old. If he deviates from that age, it's (1) a time skip or alternate universe rather than actual aging, and (2) more often to get younger than older.
Comic book time is strange.
I assume that Sentinel Comics works like the Big Two American comic book companies, and that long periods of time don't really result in aging. They might still result in character development, of course -but there's no gaurentee. Based on what Ronway learned from Christopher (thanks, Ronway!), Blade is one of those non-development cases.
However Sentinels Comics does have a few time skips here and there. The biggest one being where Ra was defeated by The Ennead and disappeared for a few years before coming back and beating them. Overall I think time works the same as real life comics but there have been moments where time shifts or there are noticable differences.
True story: DC comics once had a one year timeskip during a three-year period where (as far as I could tell), about a week of time passed across the Green Lantern family of books.
Do not look directly at Happy Fun Comicbook Time.
Superman has also changed a lot during that time. He may not age, but he changes.
Look at the difference between, say, Lex Luthor 30 years ago (mad scientist bent on killing Superman/taking over the world) to today (Calculating businessman bent on killing Superman/making money, but still doesn't want the world to end).
30 years ago, in 1986, we juuuuuuust had post-Crisis Luthor, the calculating businessman. That's not character development which happened to the cackling joke which Blade is inspired by, it's a revamping of the character which happened by restarting the universe.
Genuine, over-time changes to superhero characters aren't unheard of (look at Jean Grey, or Dick Grayson), but they're (1) not exactly the norm, either, and (2) not something can map to real-world time, let alone the fictional "real-world" time we're discussing here.
But, hey, assume whatever works for your game. My group's versions of the SotM characters are wildly different from the canon ones by now, and I certainly wouldn't push anyone to use either of those versions in lieu of their own preferences. I was just saying that, if Blade is really just the same Legacy-hating madman, as he is being portrayed (and as Christopher has confirmed he is intended to be), I don't get the name change. To me, that would bespeak a change in outlook which Blade is explicitly not feeling, and apparently not even feigning. If you like the name enough to think Blade would be tickled by it as well, or your Blade really is having a change of heart (temporary or otherwise), or for any other reason that argument doesn't work for you, that's fine.
Certainly, I don't think any of us will change our outlook on the philosophy of comic-book characterization over this as-yet unreleased hero.