Originally Posted by
godisawesome
Okay, this is maybe being too ambitious... but:
Ares.../Mars
A much more withdrawn and restrained version of the character; he’s very rarely actually fought, and in fact his heart usually doesn’t seem in it, contrary to his usual depictions. He’s also a mix of the classic “dark hoplite” look and the old man with bloody feet version from Azzarello’s run, with the latter being his usual appearance, and the former a rarely seen but nigh-unstoppable aspect of him.
Here’s how it goes:
- When the age of classical Greece ended, there was a war in Olympus... again. Zeus, blamed for the fall of Greece to the Romans and their pantheon, was deposed by Athena, making good on the fear he had long ago that any child born of his union with Metis would overthrow him. To depose Zeus, Athena made a bargain with Ares, granting him some of her wisdom and strategy aspects in exchange for his support.
- Athena then brought war to the Roman pantheon, wherein the conquering gods would absorb their counterparts. Ares did so, reveling in this greatest of victories against his counterpart, Mars... but this also meant that he acquired even more knowledge - Mars is a soldier’s god, not a warrior’s.
- These accumulated perspectives and wisdom slowly gnawed away at Ares’s usual personality, as he completely merged opposing aspects of himself and Mars with a bit of Athena’s wisdom to become something painful... introspective. Ares now understands the sheer, wearying nature of war, the sometimes nihilistic and meaningless side of it, even as he continues to revel in the bloodshed and murder.
-This results in a colder, more philosophical version of Ares; he knows that any conflict feeds him, but no longer desires to play favorites, is significantly more mature, and every once in a while actually has pangs of existential discontent with his purpose in godhood. So... he begins playing great “games” against himself, spreading his favor to any who fight, and giving his children greater autonomy, and struggling to fight off boredom and find some greater meaning behind conflict than conflict itself.
-This is why modern Ares appears in the War guise, similar to Azzarello’s Verizon, and why he’s perfectly willing to tutor and train Diana as a potential successor. He doesn’t let her know who he is at first; she begins thinking he must be Zeus in disguise, and he doesn’t dissuade her.
-She discovers who he is, and what his ultimate goal is - to encourage internecine conflict between the gods and demigods until one finally gets powerful enough too challenge him and take his job and his immortal life. His armored form only appears whenever one of the “competitors” has broken the “rules” of his game: whenever his sons and daughters try to gang up on a superior opponent, or when Athena tries to end the game with her godlike power (yes, he’s trying to draw her into it as well)... or whenever Diana tries to end the conflict without death.
-Because Diana is the most spirited and determined of his “gladiators,” he begins to show some favoritism towards her, as he did towards some of his older champions... but it is a poison chalice; he also seeks to turn her sisters and her students against her, and is all about encouraging her worst impulses. And the fact he’s aggravating Athena means that he may very well succeed some day in pitting Athena against Diana...