2015-10-06 12:59![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wouldcatchit
wouldcatchitDisclaimer: I don't own Drax or anything related to Guardians of the Galaxy; I'm just compiling information to improve my rp of the character.
Information confirmed by the trailer, film, or film-makers will be written in red.
Information extrapolated from canon will be written in blue.
Some blue information is from wikis, while some is from my headcanon and others' headcanons. Not saying which is which, because, let's face it, any of this blue information could be uploaded to wiki with a simple edit. Wikipedia is headcanon, unless it's not.
Basic Information
Some notable marks (according to art book): Drax has a mark above his heart for the birth of Kamaria, the one time in his life he said he cried. On his upper right arm, there's one for his soul-union with Hovat on Mt. Kylos. On his stomach, there's an image of his Dad's last day alive and giving Drax a chain of R'sani bones. On his left arm, there's something with him and Kamaria swimming in the Forgotten Lake. No mention how his people forgot about a lake.
Space Politics
Two empires dominate the Guardians' sector of the galaxy: the Kree Empire and the Nova Empire. Drax's home is on one of the planets under the Nova Empire's rule and was struck by Ronan the Accuser's forces. Considering how his species is identified by the Nova Corps as 'unknown', his kind is probably looked down on by the rest of the Nova Empire.
His culture, like alien cultures of many sci-fi stories, could possess similarities to many cultures on Earth. Quill's implanted translator shows that the Earth-English equivalent of Drax's language is sometimes antiquated and formal, even if "dumb" and "whore" may not be insults in his culture. It's not explicitly said that he speaks his native language or not, but it's more likely that he doesn't because his species is identified as unknown by the Nova Empire and, thus, his language would be more obscure and less humanoids in the film would understand him. His culture does not have metaphors, thesauruses, video-messaging communication, or an equivalent to alcohol. His people possibly live in tribes and thrive by hunting. Hunting and fighting could be social activities that build camaraderie and tribal cohesion, as would the subsequent gathering around a roaring fire and feasting on their prey (Drax does identify raccoon-like creatures as a delicious fauna that his species roasts on a flame-pit and eats). Warriors in his particular tribe probably rely on blades and hand-to-hand combat (that utilizes maneuvers similar to Earth wrestling moves). Showy, but effective tactics are most likely prized, as are the warriors able to pull them off. It is possible that both the men and women hunt and fight from an early age. (But the gender-roles are still possibly old-fashioned in other senses.) Instead of a currency, Drax's people could possibly operate on a system of debts (similar to the Maori "Utu", that is sometimes translated as "revenge"). As a side-note, the old Maori culture also used face tattoos and flame-pits. To paraphrase the Ministry of Justice, like Utu, when a gift is freely given, it must be paid back with something of higher value; conversely, when an insult is dealt, a stronger retaliation must also be provided. (Btw, that red link is the only red text not confirmed by the creators and such, that's just the hyperlink style for this journal.) His people are perhaps a highly social group and their history is passed down orally. Most habits that are considered taboo in other cultures (i.e. murder, religion, extramarital sex) are not frowned upon and are discussed very openly and casually. Tattoos are not merely decoration, but are biographical accounts of the wearer (Big Dave says, in fact, that Drax never refers to his tattoos as 'tattoos' but as the story of his life). Perhaps the way that Drax's people apply tattoos results in keloid scarring, but, because his species has high durability and accelerated cell regeneration (unless it's only Drax that has them due to some modifications from who knows where), the scarring is tolerable. Everyone may have these tattoos and continually add to them, to document each big event in their life. These tattoos could show who they are, where they are from, what they do for a living, what tribe they run with, and what family they are a part of. His people do have a concept of the afterlife; because his species is registered as 'unknown' by the Nova Corps,, it is possible that his species began falling into obscurity. Drax is probably not the last of his kind, or he would be busy avenging more than just his wife and kid.
Drax
is not simply a 'proud warrior race guy' and , in fact, doesn't even mention the name of his species or planet; it's entirely possible that Drax rejected the few, living members of his species, but not his culture, as the Destroyer more or less tells the Guardians that it had been a long time since he last had friends. Big Dave approached Drax as a father and husband before being a warrior (see the interview above related to Drax's tattoos for the citation). Simply put, the Destroyer is a grieving family-man turned criminal, adjusting and navigating into a larger culture of the galaxy through the lens of his past and his upbringing; Drax may consider himself eternally indebted to the other Guardians, but will forever fight to repay the death of his family.
A further disclaimer: I don't write a dumb!Drax, I find dumb!Drax dull; I also don't think he's actually dumb in canon, he just does dumb things and then realizes his mistakes. The Destroyer is very impulsive, aggressive, utilitarian, prone to getting carried away by his bloodlust, and continually humbled by his experiences and interactions. That isn't dumb.
Now, I want to end this by thanking the anonymous on rpanons; I asked for rp advice from them, and walked away with a better understanding of this character because of their generous input.
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Comic Canon:
First things first: Drax has never been Arthur Douglas, and he isn't a sentient pile of dirt; this guy has always been Drax the Destroyer. His family was murdered, and this dude's new purpose in life was to kill his wife and daughter's murderer. This purpose was pursued with a monomaniacal obsession, to the point of alienating everybody and anybody that would want to be his friend or become closer to him. These last two things are comic-stuff that appear in the film.
Comic Canon that I use, that isn't explicitly in the film, pertains to an extrapolated trajectory of his post-film development. In the comics, Drax the Destroyer (not Arthur) survived two deaths and, with each death, had huge shifts in personality:
His first incarnation was a pretentious-sounding asshole, who took his job as the cosmically assigned Destroyer of Thanos like way too seriously; he was killed by his daughter, Moondragon, after she took over a planet with her mind-control and he called the Avengers on her. Thanos' father, Mentor, and this god stand-in called Kronos originally made this dude's form out of dirt and, right after Arthur and his family were killed by Thanos, took his soul and bound it to this golem. Even after memories of his old life came back, the Destroyer didn't get too fazed; he was just like, "oh, Mentor hid this from me because he didn't want me to get too traumatized, how nice, back to destroying Thanos," because he cared very little about anything outside of killing the Mad Titan.
The second was a muscle-bound idiot, who forgave his daughter for killing him; he had this thing, in the mini that had his second death, where he became a bit smarter while fighting. Kronos brought this second incarnation to life, but Drax's mind was really damaged from the telepathic assassination job that Moondragon performed. People call this version space!Hulk, because he was really strong and spoke simply; truthfully, this guy made Hulk (not Banner) look like a genius. Moondragon had developed a conscience and felt really bad, like she had an existentialist crisis and worried that there wasn't anything left of her old Dad in him; eventually, she helped him get his mind back by petitioning with Kronos. IDK why it sort of wore off.
The third regained his intelligence and became a hardened man-thing (yes, he was a metaphorical dick); he was manipulative and often cold, but also metaphorically strove to reconnect with his lost humanity. Paternity had always been like a big thing in this dude's character, and a struggle to return to this role was really emphasized in this incarnation. The first incarnation was a little too focused on killing Thanos to care, whereas the second was too childish to have trouble with being incredibly affectionate. The third had to deal with Moondragon's death, getting her back, and growing enough of a conscience and self-awareness to give a shit about putting effort into returning to this role; this dude not only tried to be a better father for Moondragon, but also served as a paternal-figure to Cammi and sort of Phyla-Vell (daughter of the first Captain Marvel, who was his first incarnation's enemy).
The one I write is a selective combination of these three (namely the personalities and arcs, not the convoluted history), in addition to the dude from the movie. The biggest difference between the dude from the movie and the other three a-holes, aside from the 'maybe-tribal alien who doesn't get metaphors' stuff, is that the movie guy is legitimately loyal to the Guardians. The third was the only one to have been a Guardian, but, after finding out that his Peter Quill pretty much had Mantis brainwash the team into cooperating, he left with Phyla and probably only returned to give himself a purpose outside of destroying Thanos (who was temporarily dead, because Drax tore his heart out). Drax's second incarnation had been a part of another team, prior to the Guardians, called "Infinity Watch". This group was assembled to look after the Infinity Stones. Even though this dude had been a part of teams, he was usually more of a solo act; even while on a team, he'd leave and do his own thing. Although the Drax I write is very fond of the Guardians, he'll still be prone to doing his own stuff. Like, finding ways to take down Thanos.
Whenever he also thinks about his daughter or describes her, his kid was like Moondragon. To a lesser degree, his kid would have also been a little bit like Cammi (if only for the slight similarity in names). Both girls were haughty, manipulative, and a little awful; they were also really compelling characters and fascinating.
LINK TO THAT ONE INFAMOUS DELETED SCENE
TATTOOSLIFE!This Thing:
CHARACTER SERIES: GOTG
[OOC]
Backtagging: Hell, yeah.
Threadhopping: Sure.
Fourthwalling: Go ahead. (Just expect him to ask what a movie is. If anyone talked to him about wrestling, I'd love them. Automatically and unconditionally.)
Misc. Preferences: I can prose, but not regularly tl;dr with this character; generally, I prefer short-to-medium stuff in past-tense and in brackets. If it's been two days or more, I might make a long tag. But you, as the tagging partner, are not required to match the length. Like EVER.
Cross-canon, cross-medium, and AU's are also awesome. The crackier the plots, the better.
PM's are preferred, for communication.
Offensive subjects: None, except abrupt smut. PM first, if you want to try something. I like exploring bizarre alien biology and the ramifications of Drax's abilities (plus, y'know, I don't think he has a lot of sex on a regular basis). Shippy over/undertones, without smut stuff, are fine to pull w/out asking first. In honor of Moondragon, I'd play M/F and M/M.
Although Batista had said that Drax has a man-crush on Peter Quill, I'd prefer to play that out platonically. In fact, this goes for anybody on the Milano. The Drax I write has a dichotomous mind, and he wouldn't want to make his friendships into anything beyond that.
Gore and psychological stuff I can deal with.
[IC]
Hugging this character: Unless we've threaded before or assumed some CR, expect Drax to get weirded out; or, mostly regardless of CR, he'd still get weirded out. (I also don't mind sensible assumed CR. Like 'met once or a couple of times' is cool. 'So totes dating' is not.)
Kissing this character: Same as above.
Flirting with this character: Unless it's really straight-forward, he's not going to get it; if he does, expect the above-result.
Fighting with this character: Yeah. If you PM with an idea for a fight, I might even be willing to make the starter.
Injuring this character: Drax has a healing factor, and he'd probably survive a lot; he lived through being nearly beaten to death, drowning, and being hit by a ship. Just don't vaporize or dismember him, because I don't want to write him dealing with that kind of pain. It'd metaphorically suck to write.
Killing this character: IDK what can do this. Maybe mind control?
Using telepathy/mind reading abilities on this character: Considering the history of his comic-counterpart, I'd be cool with this. Just inform ahead of time, so that I could make his thoughts weirder.
Warnings: This dude's been called a muscled whackjob, and I do reference some of his madness and ultra-violence; he was also in prison and lost his family, so expect those to come up.
GOTG is a cheesy, 80's throwback space-adventure comedy with torture, warlords, experimentation, genocide, talking trees and talking raccoons. Expect mentions of all that to come up, too.
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