Moon Knight - SPOILERS

[Paul Farquhar]

So, Ammit was cool, and surprisingly honest about everything. Didn't seem to be any underhanded interpretations. That was...unexpected. Khonshu's talk about freewill is kinda moot if Ammit can 100% know if someone is going to do evil. I figured there would be a "people can change their fate" or "see, you were wrong" moment, and there wasn't.

I was rather disappointed by the lack of twists. However, she is shown to be a hypocrite for not eating Harrow.

 

[MarkB]

That's the kind of stuff I was waiting for, but instead we get "we know they are going to commit the evil, but we have to wait until they do it to punish them". We never hear that Ammit's judgment is wrong, only that it's prophylactic instead of retribution.

Yeah, we do. We see Marc and Steven's hearts out of balance, the scales unable to judge them - they could go either way, and eventually Marc does achieve balance. His fate wasn't predetermined.

And the fact that Ammit chooses an imbalanced soul as her avatar is a strong indication that she knows that what she's doing is wrong. A balanced avatar would come to oppose her - she needs a Harrow for what she intends to do.

 

[pukunui]

Or maybe the memory acquired the dead bird after Marc met Khonshu? Memory isn't a video camera, our experiences change it.

Well, sure. But then Steven comments to Marc that Khonshu had been manipulating him right from the start, which I took to be a reference to the dead bird outside the cave.

A balanced avatar would come to oppose her

Precisely. Which is why, as she said herself, she ended up entombed for thousands of years.

As an aside, was Alexander the Great meant to be her previous avatar, or was his mummified corpse just a convenient place for her previous avatar to hide her ushabti in?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Well, sure. But then Steven comments to Marc that Khonshu had been manipulating him right from the start, which I took to be a reference to the dead bird outside the cave.

We don't know that that is true though. Deliberately engineering the death of an innocent would be out of character for Khonshu.

As an aside, was Alexander the Great meant to be her previous avatar, or was his mummified corpse just a convenient place for her previous avatar to hide her ushabti in?

Steven concludes that Alexander was her avatar. Presumably the one who imprisoned her, although that would mean she was imprisoned for 2350 years, rather than 1000. Maybe she lost count?

 

[pukunui]

We don't know that that is true though. Deliberately engineering the death of an innocent would be out of character for Khonshu.

Fair enough. He is a pretty big jerk, but maybe not that big of one. What do you think the bird skeleton was meant to represent?

Steven concludes that Alexander was her avatar. Presumably the one who imprisoned her, although that would mean she was imprisoned for 2350 years, rather than 1000. Maybe she lost count?

Steven might have come to the wrong conclusion. I mean, Alexander wouldn't have put the ushabti in his own throat before he died, right? I mean, he could have left instructions to do that after he died, and perhaps there's some hint of an implication that he died on purpose rather than being killed in battle far from Egypt. It's all a bit murky, and I doubt we'll ever get a definitive answer now that Harrow is dead. If we get a season 2, it will focus on some other villain and may not even involve any of the other Egyptian gods.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Fair enough. He is a pretty big jerk, but maybe not that big of one. What do you think the bird skeleton was meant to represent?

It's Khonshu, but it wasn't part of the original event. All memories have an unreliable narrator, even your own.

Steven might have come to the wrong conclusion. I mean, Alexander wouldn't have put the ushabti in his own throat before he died, right?

Perhaps, but he is the closest to an expert in these things available. And the ushabti must have been placed inside the mummy during the mummification process. Why bother if it was nothing to do with him? I think the point is, Alexander's deeds could be considered superheroic. That's because he was a super, at least in the MCU.

 

[pukunui]

It's Khonshu, but it wasn't part of the original event. All memories have an unreliable narrator, even your own.

Fair enough. Again, we'll probably never know for sure.

Perhaps, but he is the closest to an expert in these things available. And the ushabti must have been placed inside the mummy during the mummification process. Why bother if it was nothing to do with him? I think the point is, Alexander's deeds could be considered superheroic. That's because he was a super, at least in the MCU.

Works for me.


On a completely different note, I've said it already in this thread, but I think this show does a great job illustrating the relationship between a warlock and their patron. Yes, Khonshu is technically a god, but I think you could probably argue that, in D&D terms at least, he's more akin to the god-like beings that grant warlock powers. For one thing, he doesn't appear to need active worshippers in order to exist, unlike most D&D gods.

The reason this is interesting for me is that I've been trying to build a homebrew D&D setting in which the "gods" are really (secretly or openly) greatwyrm dragons. As such, they don't have clerics. Instead, they might produce divine soul sorcerers and celestial pact warlocks as their servants and prophets. I think that a D&D setting loosely inspired by Moon Knight's take on things could be unique and rather fun.

(Apologies if that's not all that coherent. Still trying to hash things out in my head.)

 

[MarkB]

Fair enough. Again, we'll probably never know for sure.


Works for me.


On a completely different note, I've said it already in this thread, but I think this show does a great job illustrating the relationship between a warlock and their patron. Yes, Khonshu is technically a god, but I think you could probably argue that, in D&D terms at least, he's more akin to the god-like beings that grant warlock powers. For one thing, he doesn't appear to need active worshippers in order to exist, unlike most D&D gods.

The reason this is interesting for me is that I've been trying to build a homebrew D&D setting in which the "gods" are really (secretly or openly) greatwyrm dragons. As such, they don't have clerics. Instead, they might produce divine soul sorcerers and celestial pact warlocks as their servants and prophets. I think that a D&D setting loosely inspired by Moon Knight's take on things could be unique and rather fun.

(Apologies if that's not all that coherent. Still trying to hash things out in my head.)

I've considered gods to be valid warlock patrons since back in 3.5e. To me, it's just about them having different relationships - some serve through fervent belief, but for others it's more of a business arrangement.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

For one thing, he doesn't appear to need active worshippers in order to exist, unlike most D&D gods.

It was implied in the last episode that Khonshu is weak because of his lack of worshipers. Ammit has Harrow's cult empowering her.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I've considered gods to be valid warlock patrons since back in 3.5e. To me, it's just about them having different relationships - some serve through fervent belief, but for others it's more of a business arrangement.

Explorer's Guide to Wildemount has a table of "Lesser Idols", most of whom are suggested for both clerics and warlocks.