Thursday, July 13, 2023

Baron Bones Gets Ahead of DEATH BATTLE!

            

Baron Bones, the Young Witch Doctor

Vibe was created by Dan Ciurczak it can be read on its own website


Welcome back to the blog! I've covered some series that have been cancelled or entered a long hiatus before, such as the last blog on Chuck & Clark. But out of the many halted series I've read, Vibe is one I feel had a LOT of potential. It has sufficient enough content, as it completed a six chapter-long volume back in 2016 full of twists and turns. But given that the author has stated that they have quit comics entirely, I highly doubt this will ever continue as a webcomic. It would be hype as fuck if it were an animated series, but I doubt even that's possible. Regardless, I'm here to show you why I vibe with Vibe so much. I actually wanted to make a blog post on another character in Vibe, Furio Mumbasa, but flutterguy123 made a great respect thread on r/respectthreads on him I'd definitely recommend checking out either after you finish this blog, or the webcomic! Even though the series is unlikely to continue, the plot is thick enough for me to warrant a BIG SPOILER WARNING.

Background

"Cleansing one's emotions… turning the negatives into positives… everyone does this on their own internally. But with voodoo it's different. I externalize that conflict and face it head on — that's what it means to be a witch doctor."


Much of pop culture has portrayed the practices of the voodoo religion as nothing more than inflicting curses on people, human sacrifice, and raising the dead. However, those are stigmas that taint what the belief's image. According to the voodoo high priestess Sally Ann Glassman, voodoo is a religion about healing one's self and life.

Many believers of voodoo practice medicine and worship various spirits known as loas that are responsible for numerous global concepts. Several of the ideas and traditions explored in voodoo can be found within the practices of a young witch doctor named Baron Bones. In a world where there are so many aspects of life that cause stress, sadness, and anger, monsters form from negative emotions within people that feed on their souls. These creatures are known as bad vibes, and it's Baron's duty to extract the bad vibes from their hosts and defeat them. He mainly relies on his three loa companions Agau, Ogoun, and Jean to help him defeat these manifestations of negative emotions. For allowing him to use their powers, Baron lets them consume the bad vibes from the monster they beat.

Outside his witch doctor duties, Baron acts a lot like your average fifteen year-old. He's brash, energetic, cares little for school, and thinks he's old enough to look out for himself when he still has much to learn. He and his sister Bree were trained in voodoo by their aunt after their parents died in a car accident. But many years ago, his sister vanished without a trace, so it's been Baron's duty to locate and destroy bad vibes. He's even been holding onto her loa Agau in her absence. His loas have been good company, but he distances himself too much from his peers to have any real friends and he often dismisses the loas' advice. Since her disappearance, he's been having recurring nightmares about her and his parents. He tries keeping the nightmares to himself, but they become impossible to ignore when a Jamaican voodoo master named Furio Mumbasa enters his life.

Furio lures Baron to him to find out where Bree is. He's been trying to track her down after she stole something incredibly dangerous from him, and apparently she's back in town. His only lead is Baron, so he interrogates him for her location. Baron is dumbstruck, as his sister is no thief and if she were back in town, he would've expected her to visit her and their aunt first! Furio doesn't believe Baron doesn't know where she is, so he literally beats the answer out of the young doctor—leaving him alone when he knows he's telling the truth.

Since his pathetic defeat, Baron started pushing himself to become stronger in order to overcome Furio. He completely stops listening to the advice of his more rational loas, where instead of asking his overprotective aunt for help, he seeks out the bad vibe of a girl named Syvlia and practices new techniques against it. Unfortunately Baron fails, the bad vibe eats his extraction tool and retreats into Sylvia's body.

As Baron desperately tries to find a solution to bring out Sylvia's bad vibe without his aunt knowing she has one, Furio returns to him in a much different state than before. Rather than the brooding aggressor, Furio is pleading for Baron to help him. He had a run-in with Bree and he now knows what she's really up to. He needs all the help he can get, and wants to put their squabbles aside to deal with a threat that's much bigger than both of them. Instead of listening to reason, Baron assumes the worst of him and that he's a threat to his innocent sister. Still hung over about being defeated by him earlier, Baron puts his all into fighting him. While their fight finally gives Furio a challenge, it's ultimately crashed by Bree, who gravely injured him, forced him to flee.

Despite Bree rescuing him and Baron returning Agau to her, she tells him she needs to leave. After her missing for so long and being barraged by nightmares of her in her absence, Baron demands answers and refuses to let her leave him again. Bree… isn't the same empathetic girl he knew before. She's grown cold and sees no meaning in life. She stole a powerful loa from Furio known as Ghede and it's become tethered to her arm. After the death of their parents, she found solidarity in that their death had a purpose because "God had a plan for them." But after learning voodoo from their aunt and learning about the finality of death, she refused to accept that was the case. She questioned all she learned in her pursuit of whatever truly comes after death. Now, she's found her answer, and using this all-powerful spirit, she will give all of humanity the meaning they truly deserve by creating heaven and becoming a god.

While the news is shocking, it only fuels Baron further to save Bree from herself and stop her from continuing this conquest. He tries to stop her as she walks away, but as soon as he reaches her—

Off goes his head.

Bree has departed to continue her quest to create heaven. Furio's fate is left unknown as he lays bleeding against a wall. Ogoun and Jean drag Baron's lifeless body away to bring him back to his aunt, hoping she can do something to bring him back to life. And with no one to help Sylvia, her bad vibes grow out of control…

Wait… THIS is where the series goes on an indefinite hiatus?

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUCK.


Equipment


Loas

Out of all the voodoo tools and trinkets at his disposal, the loas are waaaay too fun for him to use over anything else. Pictured left to right—Ogoun, Jean Petro, and Agau are all immortal spirits whose true forms are stored within totems Baron carries around. In exchange for feeding them the bad vibes he defeats, each loa lets him use their powers by "mounting" them. When mounted, the loa turns into a set of armor and a weapon for Baron to use during battle. The mounted loa is still able to communicate with him while mounted. While all three are extremely powerful, Baron relies on them waaaaay too much compared to his other tools. Constantly switching between mounts drains Baron's mojo quickly, which makes him more vulnerable to voodoo powers like Furio's.
  • Ogoun: The relaxed wisecracking jokester Loa of Magma. When mounted, Ogoun turns into armor that covers his upper body, and Baron can pull out a magma sword from his chest to wield. On his back is a miniature volcano that spews lava
  • Jean Petro: The stern and mature Loa of Ice, who is the most concerned of Baron's well being. When mounted, Jean turns into clawed boots that let Baron skate around with a speed boost. He can also push himself into the air with ice clouds and freeze small areas of his target.
  • Agau: The impressionable and eager Loa of Storms. When mounted, Baron grows wings and gains powerful gauntlets that can sprout blades. He can also control electricity, using his powers to fire electric spheres balls or create electricity tornadoes to wield like a massive club. When mounted with Agau, absorbing lightning makes him stronger.

Knockout Gas

Stored inside small bags he keeps on his person, unzipping them lets out purple gas that puts anyone nearby to sleep. Anyone skilled in voodoo is immune to its effects, so when using it against other voodoo practitioners, he uses it like a smoke bomb to mask his movements and get the jump on his opponent.

Pin Needle

The pin needle is used to extract the bad vibe from its host. It doesn’t hurt because of voodoo magic… unless the pin is used on someone that isn't inhabited by a bad vibe. They just get stabbed. Being able to remove a manifestation of negative emotions should give the pin emotion manipulation. He lost the needle after failing to defeat Sylvia's bad vibe, and given the unlikely state of the series continuing, it's unknown if he'll ever get a new one.


Necklace

The necklace he wears helps him locate any bad vibes he needs to remove.


Mixture

It's unknown what this blend is supposed to do exactly, but it seemed to have a comforting effect on Sylvia


Abilities


Voodoo Mastery

Baron would never have been able to use any of his tools and loas effectively had he not been incredibly skilled in voodoo. Sure, compared to someone like Furio Baron is a novice, especially since he focuses way more on using his loas than everything else voodoo has to offer, but he's really honed his craft in mounting.


Vine Generation

Baron can grow vines from the ground to ensnare people with them. Baron can't remove them after they're grown. The only way for them to be removed is when they wilt after an hour.

Electricity Absorption

When Baron needs to recharge his mojo, he can use Agau to absorb electricity to replenish it so he can mount again. Absorbing electricity also strengthens Agau himself.


Techniques


Triple Mount

During the series, he hones his skills enough to be able to mount all three of his loas at the same time. Before then, he's been able to fuse with two at once, but they've always resulted in unbalanced forms that were hard to control.  But here, he's able to balance all three of his loas' abilities, resulting in full-body armor. He channels each of the loas' powers through a lightning rod-like sword, which switches from being able to wield electricity, fire, and ice. While extremely powerful, the triple mount burns through his mojo like a motherfucker, so it doesn't last for too long. Thankfully, he's able to easily recharge his mojo with electricity. Since objects powered by electricity can be found all over the city, he uses the city as his battery to make sure he never runs out of mojo.


Feats


Overall


  • Defeated a large bad vibe that was hiding inside a hooligan
  • Was quickly able to master the triple mount while confronting Sylvia's vibe
  • Held his own against Furio Mumbasa despite being far outclassed by him in knowledge and skill in voodoo
  • Has been practicing and learning voodoo ever since he moved in with his aunt

Strength


Speed


Durability


Weaknesses

  • Especially strong attacks can unmount Baron from his loa
  • Constantly swapping loas can drain his mojo, leaving him open to voodoo hoodoo
  • He can be carless at times
  • Can be easily telegraphed
  • Triple mount burns through mojo like crazy, rendering his loas unresponsive and stuck in their totems
  • He wants to be treated independently so badly that he avoids asking others for help, even when he really needs it
  • Frequently focuses on one thing during combat, missing the bigger picture when his opponent is planting traps behind his back
  • Values using his loa more than his other voodoo tools
  • He can be easily manipulated—even his vibe necklace can be used against him when Furio lured him to him by intentionally harboring a bad vibe

Matchup Potential



Damn, a Baron episode would go insanely hard. His loa mounts and situational voodoo items makes for smooth fight progression, and the visuals of each of his transformations would be absolutely stunning. I'd imagine his banter potential would be quite fun too, especially when factoring in his interactions with his loas (though given DB's treatment of Senketsu, I'm unsure if the DB team would do Agau, Jean, and Ogoun justice).

For the kind of matchup I'd want him to have, I'd want him to be paired against another modern urban healer that gets rid of monsters spawned from negative emotions. It's a tough theme to search for, but I have my hopes I'll find something fitting for him. While I haven't found anything I really like for him yet, I plan on looking into Sorey from Tales of Zestiria, as it sounded like they have similar professions from the little I skimmed from him.

NEXT TIME ON WCAB… whenever I feel like it

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