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I heard someone complain how MCU Peter doesn't have the typical dead uncle backstory and it got me thinking...

See, the mcu and the comics are inherently different on a story telling level because of the differences between movies and comics as a medium, so changes obviously have to be made. With that in mind, I think Peter not having that backstory actually works in his favour. See, in this story, Peter isn't just a typical vigilante - he's a much bigger deal as he works with the avengers and is at some of this universe's largest scale fights. He still retains that more down to earth vibe by being more of a daily occurrences sort of hero unlike the avengers who deal mostly with big threats, but its different. Different in a way I like since, in this world, Peter would have grown up around heroes. The avengers assembled when he was still very little and that changed the world he grew up in. Of course he'd be more ready to do what he does when he has people he grew up around and looked up to doing the same thing.

Also, he still retains that whole "with great power comes great responsibility" thing, just less explicitly. when Tony asks about why he does what he does, he says he has these powers so he has to. In the comics, he has his powers but doesn't do anything at first which is fitting with him being an intentionally relatable character with more normal problems as well as being a hero since the average person isn't going to have an easy time stepping up like that, but, for the universe, I think him choosing to go out without being forced makes more sense. I also think it gives Peter a certain air of maturity so that, even with him being relatively inexperienced at the beginning, it is countered by that maturity.

in the comics, he was 15 and, amongst all the other batshit insane stuff that happens in the comics, that doesn't feel weird. but, when put amongst a group of heroes, all of whom are so much older, It feels like it balances the playing field in a way.

This isn't to argue that MCU Spiderman is the best Spiderman. Honestly, I don't know which version I'd argue for (even if this universe's irondad and spiderson is absolutely my guilty pleasure) but, in the context of this universe, I like this change a lot. Peter obviously still lost his uncle (he's not Italian but his aunt is so that much is obvious) but, yeah, now it just doesn't have as much of a focus. Also, as an added point, Spiderman has been around 60 years, so changing up his origin feels sorta refreshing.

(Just a quick note that I'm writing this at 4am and am very tired, so sorry if something doesn't quite make sense)

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...I think you might be stupid. Like, genuinely stupid.

"because Neptune rapes her in Athena's temple" - wrong.

Do you know why Neptune rapes Medusa and not Poseidon? Because Poseidon is greek and Neptune is roman. Ovid is roman, so he was writing about the roman gods. Athena is greek. Minerva is roman. It was Minerva who punished Medusa.

Also, great job attempting to shut down actual facts by calling me a rape apologist but, as it stands, you are so unbelievably wrong that I literally could not care less.

Greek - Medusa was always a monster. Athena is a goddess of war, strategy and weaving and Poseidon is the god of the sea.

Roman - Medusa was a mortal woman turned into a monster after being raped by Neptune in Minerva's temple so Minerva punished her.

Neither of those stories are more wrong or more right than another. But they are still different stories with different cultural origins. Athena has basically nothing to do with Medusa while Minerva did. But they are separate deities and separate people.

Instead of using Medusa as a symbol of women's suffering in a Greek context, why not use Athena. The woman blamed for a crime against Medusa she never committed, made out to be pick-me for saving Arachne after Athena rightfully called her out for making a rude tapestry designed to insult Athena. The woman who is called a pick-me for being her father favourite (something she has no control over) and for assisting men with their battles because why would a woman ever help a man with HER VERY DOMAIN OVER WAR AND STRATEGY for any other reason than because she is misogynistic and wants male approval :/

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****Minerva. Minerva did that. Not Athena. Greek Medusa was always a monster. And Athena is.... (wait for it) Greek!

Instead of using Medusa as a symbol of women's suffering in a Greek context, why not use Athena. The woman blamed for a crime against Medusa she never committed, made out to be pick-me for saving Arachne after Athena rightfully called her out for making a rude tapestry designed to insult Athena. The woman who is called a pick-me for being her father favourite (something she has no control over) and for assisting men with their battles because why would a woman ever help a man with HER VERY DOMAIN OVER WAR AND STRATEGY for any other reason than because she is misogynistic and wants male approval :/

[alneedssleep]

Instead of using Medusa as a symbol of women's suffering in a Greek context, why not use Athena. The woman blamed for a crime against Medusa she never committed, made out to be pick-me for saving Arachne after Athena rightfully called her out for making a rude tapestry designed to insult Athena. The woman who is called a pick-me for being her father favourite (something she has no control over) and for assisting men with their battles because why would a woman ever help a man with HER VERY DOMAIN OVER WAR AND STRATEGY for any other reason than because she is misogynistic and wants male approval :/

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Bruce is 8 when he sits in an alleyway with his parents' cold corpses for what feels like hours, alone and grieving. He is 8 when he begins to pull away from any friends he might have had, spending hours at a time in an empty manor too big for only two people. He is 8 when he realises Alfred will not seek him out and give him a hug - that his duty as a butler takes precedence over his duty as Bruce’s only family, that, more often than not, he will be in the same house but never the same room.

Bruce is 10 when the grief has consumed him, unable to articulate to the only adult who truly loves him that he needs him and that adult not looking for it in him. He is 10 when he begins to investigate his parent’s deaths - learning to program to hack the security cameras, calling in favours and throwing around money until he has a name.

Bruce is 11 when he gets an answer, a name. He is 11 when he hunts the man down and learns he is a pathetic nobody. He is 11 when he shoots the man with his own gun in the dead of night and sneaks back home without anyone ever knowing what he has done. He is 11 when he stops off at a 24 hour shop on his way back and bribes the teller for a pack of cigarettes to help with the shaking of his hands. He is 11 when he realises that taking a life doesn’t help and that he cannot ever kill again.

Bruce is 13 when his knuckles are permanently bloody from boxing for hours at a time each day and his hair is patchy from how often he tugs at it. He is 13 when he comforts himself and Alfred with the knowledge that ‘it’s not self harm if it's not cutting’.

Bruce is 15 when he puts on a black mask to fight crime and creates the persona of batman. He is 15 when he shaves his hair off and begins to grow it out again. He is 15 when he reenters the socialite scene. He is 15 when he cries himself to sleep and screams at Alfred when all he wants is a hug.

Bruce is 18 when he has been feeling a little better, when he begins to see people he saved flourish. He is 18 when he watches the flying Graysons fall to their death. He is 18 when he gives their orphaned son the comfort he didn’t get and listens to him as he recounts how it had been purposeful. He is 18 when he recognises the look in Dick’s eyes as the same Bruce had at his age.

Bruce is 18 when he adopts a boy so much like him. He is 18 when he forgives Alfred for never being what he needed and doesn’t think about how he had waited until he was an adult so he wouldn’t have to be disappointed. He is 18 when he packs away the screaming and the crying to be there for his son. He is 18 when he learns that the only way to be acceptable to the people around him, to be loved and to love in turn, is to hide away every negative emotion and devote himself entirely to others.

When Bruce is 35 and Dick is 27, Dick will say that Bruce had been exactly what he had needed. Bruce will never be able to forget how the very things he had done to raise Dick to be the brilliant man he is were the very things that doomed his later children.

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Here is the updated version with the changes.

Bruce is 16 when he adopted an 8 year old dick (entirely because I think him gaslighting everyone into believing he didn’t kidnap a 8 year old is funny. But 18 and 10/19 and 11 works too).

Bruce is 20 and Dick is 12 when Babs is 16 and she becomes batgirl

Bruce is 25 and Dick is 17 and Babs is 21 when Damian is born without anyone’s knowledge

Bruce is 26 and Dick is 18 and Babs is 22 when Jason is 13 and adopted by Bruce

Bruce is 28 and Dick is 20 and Babs is 24 and Jason is 15 when he dies and Tim is 13 when he becomes robin

Bruce is 30 and Dick is 22 and Babs is 26 and Jason is 17 and Tim is 15 when Cass is 17 and adopted by Bruce and Steph is 16 when she becomes robin, then spoiler

Bruce is 32 and Dick is 24 and Babs is 28 and Jason is 19 and Tim is 17 and Cass is 19 and Steph is 18 when Jason returns to Gotham (Cass is in Bludhaven or looking for her mum) and Steph starts going to university

Bruce is 35 and Dick is 27 and Babs is 31 and Jason is 22 and Tim is 20 and Cass is 22 and Steph is 21 when Damian is 10 joins the family

Bruce is 36 and Dick is 28 and Babs is 32 and Jason is 23 and Tim is 21 and Cass is 23 and Steph is 22 and Damian is 11 when Duke is 16 and fostered by Bruce

My attempt at a batfam timeline that makes things makes sense to me. (like Babs being old enough to be maternal with Steph and Cass and Bruce being a vigilante for decades without showing signs of aging, etc).

Bruce is 16 when he adopted an 8 year old dick (entirely because I think him gaslighting everyone into believing he didn’t kidnap a 8 year old is funny. But 18 and 10/19 and 11 works too).

Bruce is 20 and Dick is 12 when Babs is 16 and she becomes batgirl

Bruce is 25 and Dick is 17 and Babs is 21 when Damian is born without anyone’s knowledge

Bruce is 26 and Dick is 18 and Babs is 22 when Jason is 13 and adopted by Bruce

Bruce is 28 and Dick is 20 and Babs is 24 and Jason is 15 when he dies

Bruce is 29 and Dick is 21 and Babs is 25 and Jason is 16 (resurrected) when Tim is 12 and becomes robin

Bruce is 30 and Dick is 22 and Babs is 26 and Jason is 17 and Tim is 13 when Cass is 17 and adopted by Bruce

Bruce is 32 and Dick is 24 and Babs is 28 and Jason is 19 and Tim is 15 and Cass is 19 when Jason returns to Gotham (Cass is off-country at the time to explain why she isn’t there???)

Bruce is 33 and Dick is 25 and Babs is 29 and Jason is 20 and Tim is 16 and Cass is 20 when Steph is 16 and becomes robin, then spoiler

Bruce is 35 and Dick is 27 and Babs is 31 and Jason is 22 and Tim is 18 and Cass is 22 and Steph is 18 when Damian is 10 joins the family and Steph starts going to university

Bruce is 36 and Dick is 28 and Babs is 32 and Jason is 23 and Tim is 19 and Cass is 23 and Steph is 19 and Damian is 11 when Duke is 16 and fostered by Bruce

Please tell me if anything is off and add anything you think is relevant :D

[alneedssleep]

The who writes the Moriarty Harry Potter crossover fanfiction Magic of the Pure blood?

Yep.

[alneedssleep]

My attempt at a batfam timeline that makes things makes sense to me. (like Babs being old enough to be maternal with Steph and Cass and Bruce being a vigilante for decades without showing signs of aging, etc).

Bruce is 16 when he adopted an 8 year old dick (entirely because I think him gaslighting everyone into believing he didn’t kidnap a 8 year old is funny. But 18 and 10/19 and 11 works too).

Bruce is 20 and Dick is 12 when Babs is 16 and she becomes batgirl

Bruce is 25 and Dick is 17 and Babs is 21 when Damian is born without anyone’s knowledge

Bruce is 26 and Dick is 18 and Babs is 22 when Jason is 13 and adopted by Bruce

Bruce is 28 and Dick is 20 and Babs is 24 and Jason is 15 when he dies

Bruce is 29 and Dick is 21 and Babs is 25 and Jason is 16 (resurrected) when Tim is 12 and becomes robin

Bruce is 30 and Dick is 22 and Babs is 26 and Jason is 17 and Tim is 13 when Cass is 17 and adopted by Bruce

Bruce is 32 and Dick is 24 and Babs is 28 and Jason is 19 and Tim is 15 and Cass is 19 when Jason returns to Gotham (Cass is off-country at the time to explain why she isn’t there???)

Bruce is 33 and Dick is 25 and Babs is 29 and Jason is 20 and Tim is 16 and Cass is 20 when Steph is 16 and becomes robin, then spoiler

Bruce is 35 and Dick is 27 and Babs is 31 and Jason is 22 and Tim is 18 and Cass is 22 and Steph is 18 when Damian is 10 joins the family and Steph starts going to university

Bruce is 36 and Dick is 28 and Babs is 32 and Jason is 23 and Tim is 19 and Cass is 23 and Steph is 19 and Damian is 11 when Duke is 16 and fostered by Bruce

Please tell me if anything is off and add anything you think is relevant :D

[alneedssleep]

Are you Al needs sleep on ao3?

Yep! That would be me.

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Pets I want added to Damian Wayne's menagerie

A snake

A gecko (can be a bunch of the the Itty-bitty ones or one big one idc)

Button quail (because I have them and they are fucking adorable)

A spider

A mini sheep

A goat

A crow or raven

A savannah cat (serval/house cat hybrid)

(These are all pets I want but can't have? I have no idea what your talking about?)

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Batman 2004 S4 ending has villain/hero team ups. My life is complete.

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I was not expecting for 'The Batman' 2004 to be my favourite iteration of batman, but here we are. Something about this au itches something in my brain.

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I have a personal gripe with stories that have their main character have no friends. I’m not talking about loner characters who open up or when that is an explicit aspect of the story/their character, but when a (typically adult) character has no friends from before the story for seemingly no reason. Like, they are an adult? Do they not socialise? Do they not have a single friend from high school/uni? Often, these characters will have parents and siblings and maybe a partner or kids, but no friends unless that friend is a love interest.

Like, I read a 70k fanfiction that was really, really good but the happy ending didn't feel like one because the two MCs (who were love interests) literally did not have a single friend whatsoever. One had one other friend who they spoke to once and that was it and it ended up weakening the ending.

I have this on my mind at the moment cuz I’ve just gotten into DCU stuff and it’s everywhere. Superman, for example, is a very friendly character but the only people he is close with at all are Lois Lane (love interest) and his parents. Does he have no friends back home? What about where he works? Sure, he’s friendly with many of them, but that’s not the same thing.

Another example is Bruce Wayne. He starts off with, at most, Alfred and 1 kid. He is supposedly a socialite who is very well liked but has no friends??? Not even from before Batman??? And even throughout his own story (not including stuff where he is explicitly working with other heroes like JL) he only has his kids, Alfred, a couple of lovers and technically Harvey (who becomes one of his rogues and we basically never see them as friends so I’m not counting it). It is why I am so attached to Oliver and Bruce being good friends in their civilian IDs - without it, he feels basically friendless. And yes, I get that Bruce is probably not going to be getting close to people because he’s a vigilante, but still, not even friendly acquaintances who are named???.

It’s not just Bruce and Clark, but a lot of other characters I notice this with. It's a thing with basically every dc hero and often pops up in a lot of other pieces of media with adult protagonists. Lover? Yep. Kids? Sure. Friends? Ew, no.

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Loki Children Headcannons

Disclaimer: probably obvious from the fact I am talking about his children, but this is myth Loki, not Marvel’s bastardisation. 

Sleipnir 

Sleipnir is the eldest and is non-binary (he/they). 

They are capable of taking on a human form and, when they do, they act like a diva who drinks way too much and complains about Odin using him as a steed. 

If they existed in the modern day, they would absolutely dress like a young woman in the 30s – shawl and all. 

Out of all the siblings, he is somehow the one with the highest alcohol tolerance. 

Loki struggled at first to bond with Sleipnir because they were born out of r*pe (depending on how you interpret the only source we actually have on his conception, it could be seen as consensual or not. I personally think it was supposed to be non-consensual but, because the author was Christian, was vague about it). 

Hel 

Her dead side is only mildly blue and bruised looking like a fresh corpse when she is happy. It becomes more grotesque the angrier she gets. She becomes a full-on skeleton on that side when she is furious.  

Hel is a lesbian and occasionally dates some of the women who die and come to Helheim but doesn’t have a consistent partner. 

She is the youngest of all her siblings but ends up acting like the eldest because the only place they can reunite is in Helheim after Ragnarök where she is queen. 

Loki, Sigyn and Angrboda still baby her though. She will never admit to secretly liking it. At least, not in front of her siblings. 

Narfi 

He is trans. I don’t know why, it's just vibes. 

He is the elder of him and Vali.

He is studious and generally much softer and nicer compared to Vali. 

He is a user of seidr (Norse magic) which he learnt from Loki and even Sigyn a bit. This made him a target of teasing as a child since seidr is a girl's thing. 

He has his mother’s dark hair and darker skin with Loki’s green eyes. 

Vali 

He is gay but started off with a lot of internalised homophobia because he was teased for being the child of Loki, a notorious genderfluid in a culture that saw feminine men as a bad thing, and became unwilling to accept what could make him seem like a girl. 

He is a warrior and is prone to rash decisions, making him a lot like Loki. 

Vali and Loki have a bit of a difficult relationship since Vali is a mama’s boy but he is so similar to Loki in many ways (which a large part of him hates but the rest of him can’t help but love). 

He is very muscular with Loki’s red hair and Sigyn’s black eyes. He has a long beard with he braids and decorates with Narfi’s help. 

Jörmungandr 

His first word was “Ssssssnack!” 

He used to either curl up in front of the fire, against Fenrir or in Hel or Loki’s laps. Those memories are the only thing staving off his pain from being a land serpent in the cold depths of the ocean. 

He and Fenrir used to get into play fights all the time as a pup and hatchling and someone would always end up having to break them up before they broke something. 

He can speak in human tongue, but not nearly as well as Fenrir. He is also the only non-human child of Loki who can’t take a human form. 

Fenrir 

He is a cuddly teddy bear and used to sleep curled up in bed with one of his siblings or Loki, Angrboda or Sigyn. 

He was the gentlest of his siblings before being chained up. Even after that, he remained shockingly kind but became very protective over his family as a result. 

He has black fur with an almost purplish tinge and bright yellow eyes. 

He is able to change his size, going from normal wolf to “able to eat the sun and moon” big. 

He has a human form with long, thick black hair, sideburns and the same eerie yellow eyes. 

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Some Natlan 5.0 archon quest thoughts (SPOILERS)

So I just finished playing through the new Genshin archon quest and I have some (badly organised) thoughts. This isn’t a theory so much as it is a bunch of interconnected ideas which I feel will be relevant in the future but have no idea how. 

Mondstadt / Venti is referenced three times – once when seeing one of the dragons and comparing it to Dvalin, once just after breaking the device thingy saying they wish Venti was here to fix it and, of course, the traveller getting a flash back to Mondstadt and the purification ability they have. This is notable when no other character or nation is mentioned outside of Natlan / Natlan characters the ENTIRE quest. 

Natlan / pyro also has a lot of resurrection stuff going on. some examples are: 

Some Natlan natives can be resurrected. 

The archon was revealed to have basically been resurrected. 

The Natlan section of the story is literally called ‘Incandescent Ode of Resurrection’. 

Signora’s backstory involves her being reborn through her flames. 

Arlecchino is able to cause a memory wipe (which she likens to a form of death and rebirth). 

Just as Natlan and pyro are connected to resurrection, Venti and anemo are connected to death. Some examples are: 

Venti is inspired by / connected to Orpheus who was known for going into and leaving the underworld alive in Greek mythology. He also shares a lot of similarities with Hermes who was, amongst other things, a guide of the dead. 

There is a belief in Mondstadt that the wind carries the souls of the dead which is partly confirmed by Venti’s story quest. 

Venti’s entire story quest is focused on death instead of freedom, unlike all the other archon’s first story quests which are about their domain. (Do I think Venti is a death god? Yes, anyways.) 

The fact death and freedom are connected both in and out of game. 

Istaroth, the thousand winds, may very well be the god of death. (see theory here cuz it’s super interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AajyhNchuRI) 

Even that meme about all anemo users having dead friends. 

While I love Genshin lore, I am no theorist so I honestly have no idea what all of this might mean beyond anemo=death and pyro=resurrection aka life. 

The only thing i can say is that the Aranara basically call the abyss death. And Venti is the only one of the gods that looks angelic. And *points to the upside-down world theory*. Venti = abyss somehow??? 

Honestly I have no idea. Second Venti story quest when??? 

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Headcannons about Apollo pt.1 

PSA: This is mythology Apollo stuff but most of this applies to Percy Jackson Apollo as well. 

Apollo loves no sibling more than Artemis, but he is closer to Athena. They bonded over being the favourite siblings, gods of knowledge/wisdom and the fact Athena was somewhat in charge of teaching/raising him when he first came to Olympus. 

Apollo is the only other god besides Zeus to have the epithet ‘Moiragetes’ meaning ‘Leader of the Fates’. There are also only two moments of fate being averted in the entire mythos – once when Zeus swallows Metis and then again when Apollo tricks/convinces the Fates to extend Admetus’s lifespan. I imagine this means they are both capable of altering fate, it is just usually not worth the trouble. 

Adding on to the previous hc, I also imagine Apollo has pure white eyes. As in, no pupils or irises. This is a trait I imagine the Fates share as well. Zeus would as well if he had gift of prophecy, but he doesn’t. 

Apollo has the epithet ‘Lycegenes’ meaning ‘born of wolf’ or ‘born of Lycia’. Both work since his mother spent some time in a form of a wolf while pregnant in some versions and she is also a prominent goddess in Lycia. Lycia is in modern day Turkey, so I imagine Leto, Apollo and Artemis have some Turkish features. Specifically, they all have an aquiline nose (though you also see that in Greece), darker skin and (in the PJ universe aka the modern day) all three occasionally wear head scarfs. Not hijabs obviously since those are religious, but sheer fabric with a bunch of different designs relating to their sacred symbols wrapped around their head and hair. 

Apollo was less of an older brother and more of a parent to Hermes, Dionysus and even Hebe when they were young. It was only once they were much older that Apollo started treating than more like siblings but will occasionally fall back into old habits. 

Hera and Apollo have a better relationship than expected. They, along with Athena, mostly bonded over their shared woes of dealing with Zeus (who is not as bad as PJ Zeus but is still, you know, a king. And kings are rarely great.) 

Apollo is the most all-knowing of the non-primordial gods. He has the domains of truth, prophecy and knowledge and, once he gains the sun in roman times, can also see anything that happens during the day. This makes him stupidly well informed. Even his cousin Hecate, Aunt Asteria, Grandmother Phoebe and Grandfather Koios are not as well informed since they only have the domain of prophecy and, even then, only have a specific kind while Apollo, seemingly, has access to every kind of prophecy. 

Apollo (and Artemis) are Gods of Youth and, in Apollo’s case, he even has an epithet explicitly denoting him as an eternal child: ‘Acersecomes’ meaning one with unshorn hair. Boys in ancient Greece grew out their hair and generally cut and dedicated their hair to Apollo after reaching adulthood. As a result, Apollo not only has long curly golden hair, but is also unable to age any older than 15 since 16 was the age of adulthood back then. I imagine this would be the same for Artemis as well. (If we are including the PJ universe here, then they would be able to age up to 17).