To Pro:
About The Raptor
Simply put, you are right. Durendal, Thunderbird's sword, it is overkill. It became obvious to me the moment I had Euro unleashing it for the forst time in story during the current issue.
probaly, I would't give it to Euro, at last for now, if I would rewrite the "origin" sequence for the new "incarnation" of Euro.
Just, I want to explain my reasons.
When I started to write Euro, in the very first post of the HR Universe, I wanted to do my version of Flash. Then, the very second post, saw the return of Tobias Christopher, and inevitably he was going to play Flash.
So, I decided to try another of my favourite DC characters, Hawkman. To do that credibly, I took the very long course, recapping in a twisted manner all the transformations of the old Universe Euro: from speedster to ghost to superhuman (when he had the Colony exoskeleton) to angel.
So I turned the HR Euro into a phasing man (the Ghost), then superhuman (the short lived EPS agent) and finally I gave him wings (angel).
Just, again I did a little mistake: I gave him feathers on the arms. That made him the perfect element for bad descriptions: so we had Euro using the sword while flying (an impossible thing) or carrying people (another impossible task, unless that people kept himself embraced to Euro's legs). Sometime I did those mistakes myself. And more than else, people were keeping to give a mace to him.
But there was an aspect that made him very similar to Hawkman, something I first explored with Nemo in TOMB, and that came from one of may favourite heroes, Elric of Melinibonè : the Eternal Champion concept.
Hawkman has memories of his past incarnations; Nemo had memories of his own ancestors. I gave Euro the "curse" of seeing fights trough the eyes of mythological heroes of the past: a thing I found cool, and TTT also, but that was evidently difficult for the others, as, me apart, only TTT played with the concept once, if I remember correctly.
So, I have thrown away also that thing, keeping just the "memories". Now he is very like Hawkman, with memories of past "incarnations", a "wife" and sons. I also want to give him an arsenal of ancient weapons, and the mace and the sword are just the beginning.
There is more: one of the central aspect of the most part of heroes (and gods) from mythologies from all over the world is the fight with the dragon: Marduck and Tiamat, Heracles and the Hydra, Beowulf, Siegfrid, Saint George and the dragon, Zeus and Typhoon, even the Jewish god had to fight the Leviathan and other monsters. With a sword.
The sword is central to the figure of the hero slayers of dragon. And Euro has been destined to be an hero fighting (and one day, I hope) killing (maybe figuratively) the dragon long before I though of making him an incarnation of the recurring figure of the HERO, without me being aware. Who is the worst enemy of Euro, since page one of the fist HR story? Who kept him separated from his "son"? Doctor Knell. The Leviathan. A dragon-man.
So, I understand the duplicity of Euro and Mason/Rama, and of their sword. And that, too, had a strange and unwanted origin. Mason was originally (I can reveal it, right, TTT, now that is an abandoned plot?) an evil character. One that was to enlist into Vanguard for evil schemes. Caliburn would have been his for some time, until he was revealed to be a villain, and then it could have been given to Euro, once freed from Ladnikia. Caliburn would have been THE sword. The sword of all the dragon slayers.
Then Mason came out so good that TTT, rightfully, wanted to keep him as a good guy (remember, it was Axel destined, until then, to be TTT's hero). He was very kind to ask me to take Caliburn for Euro, but I refused, as it was rightfully in the hand of Mason. And if you read the Christmas special, you'll see that Euro has vivid memories of when Caliburn (or Excalibur) was his own.
So, because every Dragon-slayer hero needs a sword (and, thinking about it, Excaliburn was NOT a dragon-killing sword), I gave Euro the sword of Italian tradition, Durlindana, the sword of Orlando, or, in the original Ancient French language, Durendal of Roland.
But agreeing with Pro's arguments, I will put Durendal in the Vanguard museum on the top floor of Euro's home/restaurant, and I will take it out only when the time for the last battle with the Leviathan will come (Chewy's allowing it, obviously
).
By the way, I am still even not sure that the dragon Euro one day will have to kill is Knell. There is another serpent-blooded metas around in the HR Universe, and having him as the nemesis of Euro will make him an even, way more, tragic figure. But it will take years to accomplish that.
As for Euro's family, there is a reason for its existence, but they are my characters. If one wants to write them, they are usable, if one don't want, it's perfectly fine. They are not Vanguard, they are Euro's family. But they make's Euro happier, for example, making him less gloom and doom (thinks Robin, for comparison). They could be plot devices, or simply exist somewhere on the island.
They are like Leslie for Phil, Axel for Rama, Jake's place for Bruteforce, Brandon for Brianna, the company for Grissom... the normal life to which to return when the adventure has ended.
There is no absolute reason for which you, or anyone, should feel obliged to write them. I never wrote a line about the B-team, for example, and I think no one complined or ever even noticed it.
One last thing about ED: his role of dragon-slayer incarnation is something that put him on opposition to Drake, that is the dragon-master. We have played with it in the Dark World story, but I hope to delve more in that, obviously if and when NotWedge will return.
Ah, another last thing: the mace has no name. The Chineses never gave it one.
