Para Ventura Fan Art
Posted April 28th, 2008 by Howard TaylerSo… I’ve gotten a lot (and I do mean a LOT) of hate-mail regarding Ensign Para Ventura. Fortunately none of you are hating me. You’re hating HER.
That’s fine. A lot of us are hard-wired to resent whiney, prima-donna, child-prodigy types, whether or not they’re actually anywhere near the age they appear to be (yes, Ventura appears to be somewhere between 13 and 16 years old. Yes, she’s drawn that way on purpose. No, I’m not telling you her real age. Yes, it’s more fun for ME that way. No, your own fun quotient was not entered into this particular equation.)
Anyway, in the raft of hate-mail I’ve also gotten a little fan mail, including two pieces of Para Ventura Fan Art. The first came from Thomas Thetford and features a rather more heroically proportioned Ensign Ventura in a ‘botyard of sorts (click on the image for a full picture.)
The secnd comes from Andy Odendahl, and features Ensign Ventura preparing to modify poor Ennesby. Again, click the picture for the full version.
Enjoy!
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April 28th, 2008 at 8:34 am
That first piece looks like a Robot Mastermind from City of Villians.
April 28th, 2008 at 9:48 am
It was CoH-generated artwork, I believe. Or maybe CoV. Not sure which.
April 28th, 2008 at 10:18 am
She does tend to give off a strong “Wesley Crusher” vibe. And not in a cool, Wil Wheaton tech-blogging way. :/
April 28th, 2008 at 11:01 am
As of right now, I think the following equation applies:
Ensign Para Ventura – spacesuit + open airlock = fan service!
Fortunately, we all know that Howard is taking this someplace interesting, amusing, and less annoying.
We’re together on this, right?
Anyone?
Hello?
*tap* *tap*
Is this thing on?
April 28th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Actually, I really like her. Yes, she’s annoying and whiny, but she also brings a whole bunch of new comic opportunities with her. She *is* competent, too, don’t forget. And she has at least the beginnings of a sense of humor. Also, she’s one of the few new faces who is introduced as a complex character – a lot of new characters, like Legs and Andy, started off as background and moved into their personas over time. I’d rather have her than that annoying elephant.
Elf evolved from being a secondary character and a one-dimensional running gag; Para can evolve out of her whiny side, too.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I like her too, anybody whose mere presence causes the shipyard bots to run screaming to neaten up their work has comic opportunity writ large upon her forehead.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
It’s City of Villains, not that there’s much difference to separate the two games with. The costume creator is pretty flexible. Still, given its limitations, it’s impressive to get something as reasonably close as that.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I like Para. Kevyn has needed a nerdy protege for awhile now. Plus we get to see more cool inventions pop out of the fabber, and that’s always fun.
April 28th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
I think Para’s personality promises some great entertainment. My complaint is with the character-who-looks-13-in-a-skintight-shirt ick factor. I’m hoping Howard reveals her to be a 130-year-old who has had recent face transplant surgery.
April 28th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Para seems like the kind of character who will grow gradually (or not so gradually) less annoying as she gets rid of the precocious wunderkind aura and gets used to dealing with people who are either as smart as her (but more experienced)* or have a different skill set entirely**. Which I usually like.
* read: Kevyn
** read: the rest of the cast.
(Anime killed my ability to tell ages of characters — all I got was ‘looks younger than the rest of the cast’)
April 28th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
We *are* talking about a society where total body reconstruction is a relatively common occurance, if not inexpensive. [What is 'expense' in a fabber society? Why insurance covering procedures the doc is capable of doing shipboard? I digress.]
Ventura could be any age or (original-issue) gender. Hell, it’s probably an assumption to consider her “baseline human.”
April 28th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I like Ventura, frankly. I’ve noticed where the name has appeared previously in the strip, of course, so I’ve been expecting great things of her eventually, but she *is* a complex character who is quite distinct for the rest.
April 28th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
*searches archives for ‘Ventura’*
Huh… iiiinteresting. So Kevyn’s heard her name before, but isn’t putting two and two together. Of course, I’m assuming that’s actually her, and not a relative, but either way, I’m pretty sure that it’s not a coincidence.
April 28th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Where has the name appeared previously?
And I LIKE the pachysent.
April 28th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Who cares, Para’s just one more piece of schockilicous fun. The fan art is tasty too.
Thanks for the ongoing delight, Howard.
D.
April 28th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
I thought Ventura already had heroic proportions.
(Or, at least, extraordinary proportions for her height.)
April 28th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
As in Henke-Ventura scale.
April 28th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
I’m just curious; for the CoV art, how did she end up with the gold collar and cuffs? I tried (in CoH) a few months ago to make a nice-looking Tagon to take a pic of for Howard, but there was no way to get the collar or cuffs to be gold.
And the pic is definitely from CoV. There are no robot masterminds in CoH.
April 28th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Of course, now looking more closely at the pic, I see there are 4 of the green bots, and that can only happen with more than 1 Mastermind, which does bring up the possibility that she is something other than that, and is simply posing with some other folks’ robots. So she could be from CoV or CoH. But my money is still on CoV.
And I think she’s great! Best line so far regarding her?
“Mother of chrome… it’s VENTURA.”
:-D
April 28th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
So… I’ve gotten a lot (and I do mean a LOT) of hate-mail regarding Ensign Para Ventura. Fortunately none of you are hating me. You’re hating HER.
If the troops aren’t bitching, then you know morale is low. Heh.
Seriously, unhappy people complain and write letters. Happy people don’t.
Myself, I like Ensign Ventura.
April 28th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
I like Ensign Ventura. From a narrative perspective. She brings interesting things to the story. It makes sense that folks working for a mercenary company might not always be easy to get along with.
I like the idea of a character who isn’t a professional mercenary – she’s a professional who works for mercenaries*. I like how her method of working contrasts with Kevyn’s and Elf’s.
And I like the elephant.
You’ve got someone who’s used to being the biggest person in the room, and someone who’s used to being the smartest person in the room, which makes the integrating-into-a-team process much more interesting. I dig their flaws, the interpersonal conflict they bring, and how Kevyn and Tagon react to it.
So, yes. You’re doing a good job.
*: Yes, there are a few of these already, like Ch’vort’q or Massey. They’re just people who happen to be working for mercenaries, but it’s different without the “because otherwise, a common enemy will kill me”.
April 28th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
And the fan art looks pretty cool, too.
April 29th, 2008 at 12:20 am
She’s a great character (as is the Elephant, by the way!), and I think she’s a worthy addition to Schlock Mercenary. But she gives me post-traumatic stress syndrome, because she’s (even physically!) the spitting image of one of my former year 10 students.
* Must – control – fist – of – death! *
April 29th, 2008 at 12:31 am
The current redeeming feature of Ensign
Crusher^H^H^H^H^H^H^HVentura* is that, unlike most other
Annoying Child Prodigy characters, at the moment she is being
Regularly Humiliated.
Speaking of which: In re the “Tagon vs. Pocking Great Sapient
Pachyderm”, did I call it? Tagon after 37 seconds in Round 1.**
[*: :) ]
[**: See Note *.]
April 29th, 2008 at 2:10 am
I suspect Ventura’s life depends on her undergoing some character development fairly quickly.
tjhairball and Falyne: There doesn’t have to be a connection. Take the first two-name eponymous thing that sprung to my mind for example: the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. I don’t think Henry Norris Russel was closely related to Bertrand Russel, or John Scott Russell (who discovered solitons), or the new-ager Walter Russell.
Of course, in a work of fiction one generally expects that surnames other than Smith are subject to a surname version of the One Steve Limit, and, in a case like this, also Chekhov’s Gun. On the other hand, George Lucas rightly regretted the decision to reveal, in The Phantom Menace, that Darth Vader built C-3PO because it made the galaxy seem too small.
Terrence Marks: Bunni doesn’t seem to be running from anything either.
April 29th, 2008 at 2:10 am
Well, I don’t hate her. The History Propagandist that she’s (and a good chunk of her demographic have) been reading, that person I hate.
In fact, having the repare bots get terrorized at the site of her, and Tagon relized, is A Good Thing. ;)
As for the FanArt, the robots in the first pic reminded me of one of the Pindar’s from ‘A Miracle of Science’.
April 29th, 2008 at 6:51 am
I agree with everyone.
Gosh, way to differentiate myself.
April 29th, 2008 at 8:16 am
That picture is definitely taken Villainside, because I don’t see how a hero could get into Cap Au Diable to get a picture with a PTS sign.
Just out of curiosity, on which server does Ventura run? I’ve got a clone of Head Alien from It’s Walky running on Virtue. That’d be an interesting meeting, for sure.
April 29th, 2008 at 10:10 am
A new character has to carve out a place for him and/or herself. This is an important milestone for Schlock mercenary to reach: where the “one big happy family” gets a couple of black sheep to rock the boat. If we look back on the addition of other new characters, it’s always been a relatively seamless expansion to the family.
These new characters simply need to elbow themseleves out a little space. There isn’t any to be freely had anymore.
Ventura para Ventura adds depth just by being her diminutive, whiny self. She’ll change as experience changes her. Hell, she’ll chance as she finds her niche.
I didn’t really see her as a Wesley Crisher character because the tooth-gritting hallmark of Wesley Crusher is that he could do no wrong. He was perfect and idealized at all times. He was better than trained perofessionals at *their* jobs. Ventuea by comparison is good at her job and is a good technoogist in general but don’ be fooled into thinking she’s better than Kevyn just because she’s not awed by his accomplishments.
If Ventura=Crusher, it would be the unioc flying out of the ring.
If anything Ventura is used to other people worshipping at *her* feet so the first thing she’s going to want to do is try to establish a pecking order with her at the top of the food chain (to mix methaphors).
Oh and the bots are City of Villains Mastermind bots, though the Ventura in the foreground may not be. There are places in CoH/CoV where villains and heroes could work side by side. One player might have the costume and just need to find the bots for set-dressing. Or it could just be a female mastermind over 28th level and just have built a Ventura for the occasion, which is also possible given that the figure is a little tall for Ventura.
Or both.
April 29th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Doesn’t the screwdriver need a dangly glowing ball coming off the handle? It’s not Taylertech without the dangly glowing ball.
April 29th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
SteveW:
(Psst!) It’s called a fiddly bit…
April 29th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
vorlonagent: The “Wesley Crusher can do no wrong” thing is particularly irritating when you consider how many times his experiments endangered the ship (or in one case, just his mother). Did he ever get chewed out for his recklessness after any of those?
April 30th, 2008 at 1:17 am
Funny thing – We’re all (myself included) tending to think of her as a real person rather than a fictional character. Guess that means Tayler is doing his job! :)
April 30th, 2008 at 4:00 am
I like her.
But I suspect she reminds me of… me.
You’re not going to kill her, are you? :looks worried:
;)
April 30th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Ryan: That and the extremely minor detail that Heroes don’t have Masterminds :)
April 30th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Hephaestus: Unless they took the picture in Pocket D, Recluse’s Victory, Bloody Bay, Warburg, Rikti Crash Site… No one said that the robots were hers. Do we really operate on the assumption that Ventura wouldn’t tamper with robots that didn’t belong to her?
April 30th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
I like Ventura.
However, I have to wonder: Is she Admiral Emm’s daughter/granddaughter? She certainly looks it!
May 1st, 2008 at 9:52 am
It couldn’t have been taken in Bloody Bay because nobody can summon the big bot in BB. Looking at the full-size pic, I don’t know that the PTS logo occurs anywhere else than in Cape au Diable, and this looks like the PTS site back in the mountains behind the city. That place isn’t just a map used in missions, it exists in Cape, too.
Therefore Occam’s razor cuts toward Cape as the site of the pic.
The full pic shows way more bots than a single MM can bring to the table. At least some aren’t hers and it’s possible none are.
I think the collar and cuffs were photoshopped, BTW. I’d venture that the collar was originally the “spiked collar” with the spikes removed after the fact.
May 1st, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Well, it’s one thing to have, say, the name Oppenheimer. But to be a physicist with the name Oppenheimer, well, I start asking if there’s a connection.
Ventura is a crack roboticist, meaning that she is an expert on AIs. Moreover, she’s a specialist who considers Kevyn to be a dabbler; that means I expect her to have the 31st century equivalent of a Ph. D.
The Henke-Ventura scale measures how smart an AI is – in other words, it’s right in Para’s specialty. If she’s not at least related, she should be used to being asked if she is.
Third, she’s not just a Ph. D. who was on contract with the UNS – she’s [i]famous.[/i]
Maybe it is just a coincidence, but maybe it isn’t.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:00 pm
“Infamous” or “notorious” might be better words than “famous”, based on what we’ve seen so far, but yes, it may or may not be a coincidence.
One other thing – the name “Henke-Ventura scale” suggests (but doesn’t prove) that that Ventura works well with others.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:24 am
I don’t know that the collar is ’shopped, it could just have yellow spikes on a yellow collar. Tough to tell from the picture.
That there isn’t a Schlock themed SG worries me. Then again, the Toughs aren’t heroes OR villains. NC^2 needs to create “mercenary” characters that aren’t good, or evil, but neutral. That would be interesting.
May 3rd, 2008 at 9:18 am
The spikes don’t change color. I checked.
Since most villain missions are phrased as mercenary missions, a Tagon’s Toughs SG/VG would be most at home in the Rogue Isles.
August 5th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
I’m actually betting that Para is in her early to mid twenties, though I have know at least one Phillapino lady who looked like she was twelve when she was almost forty. She entered a bridal shop looking for a wedding dress and was asked if she was a bridesmaid for her bridesmaid who was actually twelve looked like she was twenty.
Ona