The Great Mainstay Detective

I am going to try and connect some weird pieces here.

Whipacorn from The Dreamers deck mentions Mainstay in its flavor text. Ra asks why a unicorn would have a whip for a horn, and Mainstay says "For Whipping!" This joke has more context to it.

Iron Legacy's Iron-Fist Strike card shows him kindney punching a rather large biker dude complete with mom tattoo and chains. What does that dude have chains for? Well, I think maybe for whipping.

The definition of mainstay from the Merriam-Webster dictionary

1: a ship's stay extending from the maintop forward usually to the foot of the foremast

2: a cheif support

In ships with more than 3 masts (the tallest one being the main mast), the biggest strongest cable that is attached to the main mast is called the mainstay. We do have a villain with a pirate ship. The plot thickens!

La Capitan's nemisis icon has some weird stuff going on, but if theres one thing I can say for certain about it, it's that there is a chain in that icon. What does that icon have chains for? Whipping! I think I like where this is going.

 

Some other quick thoughts about this dude.

The mainstay on a ship runs forward from the main mast (the one runing behind is the backstay go figure). If our Mainstay turns out to be a nemisis of La Capitans, I do not think it would be a stretch to think that he was a part of the crew at one point. Runing away from the old crew, being in front of them so to speak? Maybe he was even first mate given the context of his name.

Going back to Iron-Fist Strike for a moment, it does not seem like Mainstay is holding his chains does it? Possible he dropped them with the force of ILs punch, but the positioning would seem odd if that were the case. They are kind of going around his arms, almost as if it were restraining him to something. Look closer. It seems like there is something being shattered behind Mainstay. Metephor for IL breaking his will to fight back, or something more? My mind is picturing that he is always bound to some psycic mast for whatever happened between him and the rest of the La Capitans crew, though that is not based on anything.

Could I be on to something or am I like way off the mark here?

 

You're on to SOME things.

You're always way off on others.

But strong work! You've definitely picked some stuff up here!

I hate you. and your tantalizing hints…

:stuck_out_tongue: jk!

Yeah, I think most of us love to hate Christopher… :wink:

Interesting analysis Foote (and thanks for responding, Christopher)!

Ugh :blush: . Its never a good sign when a creator tells you that you suck at his game haha

Oh, don't feel bad, Foote! There are a lot of secrets that none of us have figured out. Christopher posts things like that as a friendly tease - it's all good.

Sorry, Foote! I didn't mean to sound negative! I really like your post (and I LOVE your avatar, but that's a separate thing), and I just wanted to let you know that you hit enough things correctly that I sat up and took notice! You definitely got some things I didn't expect anyone to, yet. 

Keep up the good work!

There's also this:

http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/05/24

Haha no worries. I totally got what you ment. Glad you take the time to interact with the community!

I was convinced Mainstay was the guy in red and gold with the atomic symbol on his chest, but with all the threads you've connected I think you may be right about this guy being a former member of the crew who turned against them for some reason. I think you might be wrong about the psychic mast thing, just because that doesn't fit La Capitain's style, but I defifently think he has mental control of the chains

I have to agree with Chaosmanser on this, you've definitly tied your theory together well. :slightly_smiling_face:

I am going to give this a bump because I am confident that we have found another break in the case. 

Lets go back to Iron-Fist Strike for a moment. Look at Mainstay. Look at him real close.

Take out your Argent Adepts deck. Look for Silver Shadow, the card with the 5 members of the Prime Wardens depicted. That guy, in the red and gold. That hair looks awfully similar. So does that facial hair and color. I have seen that mask before too! Its...its Mainstays?!

Nah. No way. There is no way that big biker dude with the MOM tattoo is the same red/yellow guy from Silver Shadows art? Right?

The biggest piece of evidence tieing the biker to Mainstay is the Nemisis Icon for La Capitain. Lets revisit that Icon for a moment. The chains are obvious and they cement the connection to the biker. Look at the color as well. Purple. On Iron-Fist Strike, remember I was talking about something "shattering" behind him? Its a sort of clearish purple isnt it? Interesting to note.

The other elements of that Icon are a Green light, Darkness (this could be a separate element OR it could be the absence of a separate element, no way to tell just yet), and...a yellow light. Yellow light? 

Back to Silver Shadow. A HA! What is the power our mystery man is weilding? Could it be? A yellow light? I think I just created more questions than answers.

 

Lets unpack this a little. In my original post, I provided the definition of mainstay. The first entry led me to connect the dots to La Capitain initially and was part of my reasoning for speculating that Mainstay might have been a crew member at one point. This made a lot of sense at first, as I could totally see that biker as a former crew member. But the guy on Silver Shadow? Not so much. So, lets re-evaluate that. I did include the 2ndary definition even though it was not important to my initial speculation. Lets go back to it.

2. A cheif support

Not very helpful. Hey internet, can you find another way to say that?

2. A central cohesive source of support and stability

Ooooohhhh. I think the picture is starting to clear up...kinda

We have seen two forms for Mainstay so far, his "purple" biker form, and his "yellow" spandex form. There will no doubt be a "green" form due to La Capitains Nemisis icon. "Black" form as well possibly? Are they different bodies with one shared mind? Different minds with a shared body? If he is not an old part of her crew, what is their connection?

 

 

 

 

What if his multiple forms aren't him changing form, but are actually separate bodies as well?  Maybe all of these forms were in him at one time, but they are now separated out into their own entities, or he can create multiples of himself, but each one takes on different traits?

Different bodies with a shared mind is not likely, I don't think; if they're all one person, then why is only Red'n'Gold on Silver Shadow? Ditto for a team with matching costumes; it's possible in that case that only one would be a Prime Warden, but still very unlikely.

So, one body with several minds then? How does that work? Well, we have a Timeship; maybe several of La Capitan's crew were made to walk the plank after a failed mutiny, and while they escaped the sea of time and washed up on solid ground, they did so as one individual, all of them mashed together. Maybe with practice they were able to seperate themselves out so that one body and mind was in the driving seat at a time, and wanting revenge on their old captain they aligned themselves with those most likely to oppose her.

I see one obvious problem with this: Red'n'Gold. A biker might well be the kind of ruffian La Capitan would recruit to her cause, but a spandex-clad light-wielding superhero? Perhaps the look came after they allied with the heroes, but as a former villain with revenge as his only motive for a heel face turn, it's a bit of a big jump. Also, consider the name: Mainstay, which means - as you so helpfully found -'A central cohesive source of support and stability'.

Then it all starts to fall into place, or a possible place at least. We have a hero, Red'n'Gold. He has light-based powers, probably, or maybe his powers are something more temporal, wielding the power of the sea of time against his enemies. The former idea matches the picture of him a little more, but the latter could still fit it. Maybe he's a Prime Warden at this point, maybe not (I think so, because the dysfunctional image I have of Mainstay is less likely to be recruited by the team, but it's irrelevant really). Then the biker and his coconspirators are cast into the sea of time, and maybe Red'n'Gold is in the wrong place at the wrong time or maybe his temporal powers find them and try to pull them out, but either way they end up merged with him, two or three violent, vengeful souls chained to a Mainstay.

This explanation gives Mainstay a reason to be a hero ratheer than just an enemy of a villain - Red'n'Gold is already a hero, and the others are dragged along for the ride (probably willingly, after a while, though in it for the action rather than any altruistic reasons). Further, the background of the chain on La Capitan's nemesis icon is purple, yes, but a very different purple to the shards on Iron Fist Strike. So perhaps that's not something innate to the biker, but the link to the biker being shattered, after which Mainstay reverts to Red'n'Gold. The way I see it, Mainstay's character card would be Red'n'Gold, with biker and the others being ongoings in his deck. And what does Iron-Fist Strike do? It destroys ongoings.

One last thing which was bothering me was the placement of this hero, expansion-wise. It's a temporal mess, the kind of thing that could easily be - should have been, maybe - in Shattered Timelines. But on the other hand, where is it going to be instead?

Vengeance. How very apt.

Spirits fused together... biker motif... vengeance theme. ..

Nope, that's jut ridiculous... I don't see it. What's next? Is his head gonna catch fire? ;P

 

 

AWWWWWWW YEAH!!! The pieces are all starting to fall into place.

The yellow glow makes me think its going to be radiant/light damage, but I could see it being energy as well. The Purple makes me think the chains are controled by psychic power. Green throws me. It could be toxic sure, but it might be related to sonic damage as well judging by the design of the Capitains nemisis icon. At this point, I think the black is not a seperate design element but if it turns out to be a 4th entity, then it would probably be related to infernal damage.

My main issue with this theory is that the guy on Iron Fist Strike is about twice the size of the guy on Silver Shadow, and seems to have significantly darker skin (though that could be a lighting issue).

He can't be a Hulk/ Dr. Jeckel/ Mr. Hyde Type guy? That's what I've always thought. There hasn't been a form-changing hero in SotM before, why not now? 

When I thought of the 4-in-1 hero possibility on my speculation thread, granted, I to thought this hero would have fit better in Shattered Timelines. But Blue brought a very useful thought of three entities being villains joining up with one hero, and therefore his possibility of being in Vengeance.

In katsue's defense, it's a form change and costume change. I can see that being a tough sell for some. I have my own doubts to, but lighting aside they have the same face and wear the same mask and they both have obvious elements of Captains rather unique icon. 

We may be off on the details, but all the clues point to them being connected, if not the same person outright