Topic: Gambit Watch 2022

[Nekobaghira]

I am confused as to what 'tarot' cards would be used for, yes, I read magic surrounding but getting rid of deck is not good mojo, thus ... there should be a way to destroy them. Not sure why they would use them. I did read the 'magical' used Gambit would be able to deal. Once he charges them, does't he need another deck with those specific cards?


Other than use for readings and things and didn't seem in his wheel-well with the one exception when he was blinded. Weird.
edit: I noticed in a later post that TH loves tarot. That's all we got.

[Zoks]

Having all those cards without any limitations would make him overpowered, but making them run out would be a bit boring. If Tini goes the DnD route, the fun thing would be to make Gambit a"mutant wizard". He can use a specific number of cards every day, based off a reading he does in the morning. He won't know how they will be used, only that those are the ones he'll get to use for the day.

[NicoPony]

He charges them and then whatever happens is largely up to the interpretation of the reader. Like the 4 of swords gets charged and turn into four spikes. You can look for deeper meaning in it if you’re into tarot and enjoy cross-referencing your comic book reading with Wikipedia. I like tarot stuff but I don’t like Howard’s writing. She just slaps powers randomly on characters depending on her plot. Either the cards are magic or gambit is tapping into mutant magic or his powers work magically in Otherworld. Shrugs.


As far as I can tell it’s a one card/one time use only. But he’s only played 4 cards so who knows.

[DonPriceTag]

This is more than telling a story. This essentially changes how the character works. It's a departure for a character with little to nothing to do with the occult. This is why you use magical characters for long-form magical stories. Non-magic users don't fare well against magic for a reason. You can't just learn it overnight without natural talent. It's a whole discipline. I suppose there was the one time he went blind and saw something in a charged card and then was never discussed again - but I doubt she's done a deep dive into Gambit. Please - someone, get these characters away from this woman. She's hellbent on treating these stories like D&D campaign.

[NicoPony]

tbf, captain britain is the main character focus for 26 issues and we still don't know what her powers are either. it's more like a D&D guidebook than a story. seems like everything is randomly decided by rolling dice. if you read Excalibur and Excalibur v.1.2 like that, it makes more sense! one criticism i saw of the book was that Otherworld is the main character, which is what makes it so dull. howard is the dungeon master who set up the world and the characters are random LARPers playing D&D.


love fantasy genre, longtime reader. i wish after excalibur was staged, howard had exited and let someone else with a better handle on character motivations and relationships play in the world she made. i think it would be awesome for gambit to take over the crooked market and be the kingpin of the otherworld.

[Zoks]

Gambit figuring out how the cards work isn't too big of a stretch. He did tell Laura's fortune with regular cards in X-23, and his connections with the Thieves Guild will have him a source on how these things work. What we need is clarification on how his powers actually work. What happens when he decides he doesn't want to throw a card he already charged? Can he uncharge them? Where does that uncharged energy go?  This is where that "mutant energy" might come in handy. We could get some actual mechanics behind how his "charging" actually works. Unfortunately Tini has way too big of a cast to focus on this, not to mention she doesn't explain things in the first place. Maybe we'll get some exposition in his upcoming series.

[DonPriceTag]

Gambit figuring out how the cards work isn't too big of a stretch. He did tell Laura's fortune with regular cards in X-23, and his connections with the Thieves Guild will have him a source on how these things work. What we need is clarification on how his powers actually work. What happens when he decides he doesn't want to throw a card he already charged? Can he uncharge them? Where does that uncharged energy go?  This is where that "mutant energy" might come in handy. We could get some actual mechanics behind how his "charging" actually works. Unfortunately Tini has way too big of a cast to focus on this, not to mention she doesn't explain things in the first place. Maybe we'll get some exposition in his upcoming series.

That's all well and good. The problem comes when this book eventually ends or he leaves the roster. What then? The character's base function is altered. Now the next person is going to come in and do one or two things - ignore like any of this nonsense happened, or continue to build on it. By the next rotation - this may not be close to the same character. Look what she's done to poor Rictor and Betsy. Without a clean wipe, the characters are forever altered. Thankfully Rictor is a C-lister and Betsy's most famous iteration as Psylocke is protected by Kwannon continuing on. Gambit's not so lucky. He doesn't have a clone out there and he's far from a 3rd tier character. He's a top 10 x-men character that will continue to be in the rotation despite how badly current-day writers try to bury him.

[DonPriceTag]

Tini randomly came up with the idea of using 10 characters in her book to go along with the "X". I'm pretty sure if Jordan White had some sense he'd throw every last magical character at her - just to avoid drastic changes that probably wont carry over. I think I can scrounge up 10 magic x-men - good and "bad" that were available at the time of relaunch (not now - heck Selene is dead now and at least 3 are on rosters...):

• Pixie
• Magik
• Forge
• Selene
• Emplate
• Tapestry
• Betsy (Cap Britain)
• Rictor (let him stay - he's tainted with magic now)
• Bei (new enough character)
• Madelyn Pryor
• Colossus (armor is naturally anti-magic)
• Kylun
• Penance

If I push myself, I think I can keep going... see. No need to forever warp non-magic using characters for dungeon-crawling nonsense.

[Zoks]

That's all well and good. The problem comes when this book eventually ends or he leaves the roster. What then? The character's base function is altered. Now the next person is going to come in and do one or two things - ignore like any of this nonsense happened, or continue to build on it. By the next rotation - this may not be close to the same character. Look what she's done to poor Rictor and Betsy. Without a clean wipe, the characters are forever altered. Thankfully Rictor is a C-lister and Betsy's most famous iteration as Psylocke is protected by Kwannon continuing on. Gambit's not so lucky. He doesn't have a clone out there and he's far from a 3rd tier character. He's a top 10 x-men character that will continue to be in the rotation despite how badly current-day writers try to bury him.

If Tini actually gives Gambit's power some definition, I'm ok with it. The whole "turns potential energy into kinetic energy" is kind of vague. Potential energy as we know it for our application is basically the energy applied by the Earth's gravity on an object relative to its position. (There is another definition involving elastic force but that has nothing to do with what he does.) So if he's fighting in Denver he should theoretically be much more powerful than if he's fighting in New Orleans.  But what happens when he is in space? Is he converting energy based off the sun? If the energy conversion happens when he releases an object, then it should have no gravity applied on it and frankly would be impossible to aim. That leaves me with the conclusion the conversion doesn't happen until after the impact. All this has me asking: What exactly is his power?

[DonPriceTag]

If Tini actually gives Gambit's power some definition, I'm ok with it. The whole "turns potential energy into kinetic energy" is kind of vague. Potential energy as we know it for our application is basically the energy applied by the Earth's gravity on an object relative to its position. (There is another definition involving elastic force but that has nothing to do with what he does.) So if he's fighting in Denver he should theoretically be much more powerful than if he's fighting in New Orleans.  But what happens when he is in space? Is he converting energy based off the sun? If the energy conversion happens when he releases an object, then it should have no gravity applied on it and frankly would be impossible to aim. That leaves me with the conclusion the conversion doesn't happen until after the impact. All this has me asking: What exactly is his power?

...that's an odd question. Where did you read "turns potential energy into kinetic energy"? Gambit's had his powers described in several ways but that sounds more like Bishop. Gambit powers have always revolved around the manipulation of kinetic energy. Either he pushes his own power into an object and excites its molecules causing it to burn out, explode or just increase its overall impact, or something more akin to telekinesis where he releases an object's potential in the form of kinetic energy.

Did Tini tell you that? Did she tell you he can just manipulate ambient energy? It's ok... you can tell me. What did she do?

[Zoks]

His powers were described that way on Trading cards and the wikis. I'd link it but I don't know how on this forum.


I hope this link works:


https://www.tcdb.com/ViewCard.cfm/sid/74959/cid/5576626/1991-Impel-Marvel-Universe-II-17-Gambit

[NicoPony]

I’ve always understood Gambit’s powers as tapping into of potential energy of an object and converting it to explosive kinetic energy. I mean it’s pretty ambiguous but that’s what I’ve thought it was for the last 30 years.


I can also convert the potential energy of any object into kinetic energy…by throwing it, but I’ve yet to make anything explode.

[Zoks]

I’ve always understood Gambit’s powers as tapping into of potential energy of an object and converting it to explosive kinetic energy. I mean it’s pretty ambiguous but that’s what I’ve thought it was for the last 30 years.


I can also convert the potential energy of any object into kinetic energy…by throwing it, but I’ve yet to make anything explode.

See this is where the confusion lies. We were told in various media formats his power was tapping into potential energy, and assumed to be so by various publications on comics, but in actual application it's more like how Don described his powers. But if it's based on potential energy he's actually messing with gravitational forces, and his power theoretically can have other applications, assuming what he charges can withstand the newly converted energy without exploding.

[DonPriceTag]

If we think too much about it... we will hurt ourselves. Let's just settle with "he makes things go boom".

[Zoks]

It just occurred to me that gravity would still apply on whatever he charges because gravity is a constant force. So the potential to kinetic energy explanation still works, since theoretically he could charge something for an infinite amount of time or until it blows up in his hand. There is still the problem of which gravitational force he is using for his potential energy source, seeing how he still use his powers in space.


That said I checked X-Men #1 and that only mentions the Kinetic Energy part. I think it's best to pretend that everybody in media and the trading cards are wrong if we don't have Marvel officially use the Potential Energy explanation.


Update: AvX #2 uses the Potential Energy to Kinetic Energy explanation. So it's in the printed comics.