#And Varian is reckless with his work | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

agecfwonder · 1 year ago

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*:·ﾟ✧ is that that aleksei frey , who is originally from valachia , and living in valachia ? it’s nice to see the assassin to the halliard family out and about on such a fine day as this. i’ve heard from the court spies that they notoriously reckless , whilst also managing to be quite charismatic . the thirty-three year old was born human, and hails from the kingdom of transvania.

——— GENERAL

NAME : aleksei rian frey TITLE : assassin to the halliard family AGE : thirty-three SPECIES : human GENDER : cis man PRONOUNS : he/him SEXUAL ORIENTATION : bisexual BIRTHPLACE : valachia RESIDENCE : valachia

——— RELATIONSHIPS

FATHER : damien frey † MOTHER : naena frey SIBLINGS : aleksandr 'sasha' frey † ALLIES : varian halliard ( lover ) ENEMIES : mikhail volkov

——— PERSONALITY

LABEL : the rogue TAROT : the hanged man ALIGNMENT : chaotic neutral POSITIVE (+) : charismatic — mindful — attentive ( to detail ) — discrete — loyal NEGATIVE (-) : reckless — relentless — sarcastic — brusque — reserved

——— HISTORY

looking back at his childhood, it's a wonder he turned out the way he did. the second son to a dedicated guard for the halliard family and a local seamstress, aleksei had been born in love and raised in it. his father was tall and strong, his mother was kind and gentle, and his older brother was the best of both of their parents and just a half step away from god in the younger's eyes. he'd always been half a step behind aleksandr- sasha as he was affectionately called- shorter legs constantly churning to catch up with him.

he'd been small for his age with a mouth that seemed to think he was much bigger. he ended up knocked on his ass more times than he could count until he learned he could outrun other children his age by three strides. there was a streak of almost reckless fearlessness in aleksei during childhood, always the one who was willing to 'go first'- the first to climb, the first to jump. a true wild child.

the wildness never left but it changed as he got older. sasha left to join the army the summer before he turned eighteen, leaving aleksei to go through the growing pains of adolescence alone. he stretched as he grew up- testing every boundary, every limit-- more often than not to the exasperation of his parents. there was expectation now that he was growing, a path set before him by a father who told him ( with love, everything was with love ) that he had to have some sense of purpose otherwise he'd float right away; sasha had been as steady and solid as the earth and aleksei had always been one good gust of wind from flying away and their father wanted to keep his youngest from wandering aimlessly.

when a letter delivered by a guard from the keep brought the news that sasha had been killed by a rogue vampire along the border, the home changes. his father doesn't laugh and his mother stops singing and aleksei grows angry. that anger lashes out against those that love him most- parents that cling all the tighter to the son they have left- all but dragging him to that life path of following in his father's footsteps to serve and protect the noble family. it's a path he finds himself starting- reluctantly- when his father grows sick and the house grows all the more quiet after aleksei buries him. his mother becomes a shell of who she was, sad eyes that stare out the window.

he tries for her, he does-- he cares for her and trains to take his father's place along the wall, day in and day out. aleksei had never been one to easily submit to authority— to fall in line and follow orders blindly— not when his mind could work so much faster and he could think of at least three other options that would work and work better. it lasts for months and the feeling of the walls ever closing in on him becomes too much-- and he leaves. it's something he thinks back on with great shame and even though his mother has forgiven him and told him that 'it's forgotten', he knows he'll never forget that rock of guilt and how it had felt so heavy the day he left. no real destination in mind, aleksei just had to get out of that track.

he makes his way by picking the pockets of those clearly more fortunate than he and by chance happens to stumble into the thieves guild though he's certain lady fate had been keeping a close eye on him. for a few years he makes his way as a petty thief- it's a far cry from an extravagant lifestyle but that time of his life is colored by bacchanalia, a wild freedom he hadn't known before.

but still there's that desire for more. it wasn't enough to make it by on picking pockets, he had to go for bigger targets-- bigger paydays that took him beyond the city of valachia and throughout the kingdom of transvania. fate is a funny thing and the lady certainly has a sense of humor because just as he was starting to make himself a name in a the cat burglary world, he picked the pocket of a man who would change the trajectory of his life. his name was mikhail volkov and aleksei could ( and would ) tell you all sorts of things he theorized mikhail saw in him in that moment but in truth, he couldn't tell you what he saw-- but he promised bigger paydays than aleksei had ever managed to get with thievery.

he was still a boy struggling like hell to make it into manhood when mikhail started to train him. when mikhail found him, he hadn’t grown out of his resistance to authority- something his previous employer had found entertaining and amusing- but he quickly learned that mikhail had no tolerance for impudence and no patience for outright disobedience.

aleksei— for all his faults— was a fast learner, driven by a need to prove he was something more than ordinary. mikhail taught him how to bleed and how to make others do the same, taught him how to take life without remorse. everyone has a bounty on their head, it was just a matter of making sure you got there before someone else— and avoiding letting your own contract come up for grabs. he spent years working under mikhail, working his way up in the ranks, ever fueled by that desperate need to prove himself— and the money wasn’t half bad. his focus turned to poisons- the different plants and concoctions from across the kingdom that could loosen a man’s tongue or take him down with nothing more than a drop.

( TRIGGER WARNING: IMPLIED CHILD DEATH ) it was a job in branu— two warring merchant families, each taking contracts out on the other. he’d gotten greedy, playing the two against each other with that wolfish grin and when the sun rose on the seaside, both families had been slaughtered. there’s something about ending a family’s line completely that changes a man and while in the moment, his eyes had been veiled with the focus of an accomplished killer that saw nothing more than targets- contracts to fulfill— but in the light of day, no amount of scrubbing could wash away the blood from his hands and no amount of prayer to whatever god was listening could remove the mark on his soul from taking purely innocent lives. it became a horror too terrible to bear and instead of returning with the coin he’d collected from the contracts, aleksei fled back to the only place he thought he could escape mikhail's wrath: he went home.

tail tucked between his legs and back in valachia after over a decade of wandering, aleksei appealed to lord halliard for sanctuary and employment. the loyalty that his parents had raised him in was fierce and if there were ever a cause to throw himself to that might absolve him for his past sins, it was to devote himself to the warden family that had cared for his the whole of his life. his skills and training made him useful and he became a blade for the halliard, working in the shadows to protect and defend the noble family from those that would try and harm them in the dark.

coming home had been a fresh start and in that fresh start was varian. he'd always been there of course; they had been boys together, growing from knobby knees to broad shoulders- closer than brothers. they kept in close contact with one another even when their paths led them far from valachia- varian to his service with the military, bringing honor to his family and aleksei to the crooked path of theft and murder that would've shamed his mother to death if he ever told her the extent of it- writing letters over the span of years to each other.

it wasn't something he planned on-- in fact, for a long while, it was something he actively tried to fight against. his oldest friend, the only person who truly knew aleksei- 'warts and all' as his father would say- and still looked at him as if there were something good in him, something worth loving. and aleksei has loved varian a thousand different ways- as a subject loves a good lord, as a friend loves a friend, as a brother loves a brother, as a bard loves a ballad, as a poet loves a muse. it's something that has always felt fragile, something precious to be guarded-- something that's been for just them.

aleksei has been in the employ of the halliard family for nearly four years now and his devotion to the warden family is stronger now than it was when he first arrived, begging for asylum and purpose outside of killing for coin— which, of course, is still part of the deal but there’s the underlying deeper purpose that drives him forward and turns his eyes towards loftier goals. his eye has been on the master assassin position within the king’s small council though he remains rooted in the service of the family that had for all intents and purposes, saved him from himself. and for now, he’s content with that.

——— QUICK FACTS ( TLDR; )

typical second child-- wild as hell, what my coworker would call 'a bad baby'

had an older brother named sasha that he adored/idolized that died when aleksei was a teenager while sasha was serving in the transvanian military

spends a while in the thieves guild before meeting mikhail volkov who takes him under his wing/mentors him into becoming an assassin

he's like. really good at killing people. [ hairflip ]

got really into poison bc while he can get his hands dirty, he can do so much More with poison like the possibilities are endless

took on a job where he took on the role of a butcher and ended two bloodlines and that can fuck a dude up if he dwells on it long enough.

[ steve miller band vc ] ooooooh took the money and ran

ends up appealing to lord halliard for sanctuary ( hiding from mikhail ) and lands a job as the assassin for the noble family

has been kicking it in that job for about four years now and is content but [ angelica schuyler vc ] he's never satisfied and is always looking for the next leg up he can get.

aleksei lowkey was super into the idea of being a bard when he was a kid. he has a worn gusli that he carries with him and sometimes uses as a disguise when he needs to move around in public without being known-- he can play most stringed instruments. dudes got a natural ear for music

has more aliases than i have throwaway email accounts

bc of that natural ear, he's v good at disseminating where people hail from and is incredibly good at imitating dialects and accents

he's a gemini. im sorry.

his favorite flavor is mint. lowkey always has that hint of mint about him bc the fucking maniac chews mint/peppermint leaves. this man would go absolute apeshit on some andes mints

incredibly fast thinker who happens to be incredibly paranoid. his brain is a super fun place to be

he's stupid your honor but i love him

#nights.intro #aleksei temp tag #no editing or proofreading we die like men #if this makes no sense that's alright bc it fits with his vibe

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zachdanielswhisky · 1 year ago

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Varian would be a bishop because he's positioned right next to the king and queen (Rapunzel and Eugene) but also one of the more reckless pieces on the board

Hugo's a pawn because he's expendable and works under all the other pieces, expected to kill or be killed at a moment's notice

Knows he could make something for himself if he could only win for once in his life, but it feels like EVERYTHING is fighting against him (pawns can turn into any other chess piece if they reach the other side of the board)

if varian and hugo were chess pieces varian would be a bishop and hugo would be a pawn i'm so emo about this fuck you

#shut the fuck UP i am EMO #also i just copy pasted this analysis from me and zk's dms like last week #im still on this

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invisible-pink-toast · 3 years ago

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Varian’s clearly completely unstable by Secret of the Sundrop.

I just think he’s such a fascinating character, particularly in s1. we see him change from this sweet, misguided kid scientist into the main antagonist and it works. It makes sense as a character arc for him.

Cause he through a whole trauma conga line including:

Growing up without a mom

Having a father who was distant and unapproving

Trying to make the world better with his inventions but they always end in disaster*

Basically the town pariah, he has no friends and everyone considers him either a menace of a dangerous wizard

FINALLY finding some friends who he idolises (the princess rapunzel who’s also weird, his hero flynn rider and his “dream girl” cass who saved him) and who actually seem to care about him and believe in his inventions and TRUST him with secrets

Tries to help his village only to see quirin lie to the king and then be threatened by his own father into staying quiet (but at least his friend who he trusts that promises to help him)

goes out of his way to try to help his village and rapunzel by trying to solve the problem of the black rocks. quirin forbids it despite not giving any clear reason (and varian continues! even though he wants quirin’s approval, he still wants to help)

but his experiment goes wrong and he basically kills his dad

he runs through the worst blizzard corona has seen in thousands of years to find rapunzel for help, only to have that help denied*, then to be thrown out of the castle, and run back through the blizzard

none of his new friends come to check on him even though they promised to help and the storm is over

the black rocks tear his village apart around him and he’s left alone with his father’s body, desperately trying to find some cure

he starts to dig deeper and potentially find answers only to be attacked by armed, masked soldiers who chase him off and turn out to be the king’s secret police

the king spreads rumours that varian attacked rapunzel when he came to seek help, so now he’s a kingdom pariah

varian manages to secretly get a message to rapunzel to get the information in his home - that’s impossible for him to get to because of the armed guards

*admittedly, varian doesn’t know his limits and is reckless and dangerous with his inventions even if his intentions were good *rapunzel had a real, valid reason for not helping varian right away - she had to save the rest of the kingdom. never going to see him after.... not so valid.

Also Varian’s 14.

like being 14 is hard enough without this insane amount of trauma. and then being alone for almost all of it, blamed for most of it, and having no way to work through it because more just keeps happening.

So by the time secret of the sundrop comes around, he’s well and truly lost it.

An interesting take I saw once is that Varian is working through the stages of grief after losing Quirin - shock, denial, guilt, he’s into bargaining and is moving into anger.

He blames Rapunzel for what happened to his dad because she broke her promise to help, and that’s exacerbated by the fact that it seems her hair could be the only cure. And he’s willing to do anything to get it.

(low key though, he’s not entirely wrong about the rocks being rapunzel’s fault, although faults a strong word. the black rocks are searching for the sundrop in order to unite it back with the moonstone. rapunzel is the sundrop, so the black rocks are only there because of her. BUT she never chose to become the sundrop, it was frederic who did that. frederic knew of the potential consequences and chose to save his family anyway - honestly fair, but then kept everything a secret and let his kingdom and his people pay the price - not fair he’s an asshole and a terrible king. also quirin didn’t trust varian to tell him the truth about the rocks, and interrupted him during a key moment of the experiment causing it to go awry, so quirin is somewhat at fault too. and it was varian’s experiment that created the amber, so he’s at fault too. but it’s also understandable that a traumatised and alone 14 year old can’t deal with the overwhelming grief and guilt that losing his father was his fault, so he blames it on someone else. it’s complicated all round)

ANYWAY, varian kidnaps arianna partly for practicality and partly out of revenge. someone he loves was taken by the rocks, it was the fault of the royal family (completely, in his mind).

practicality: he needs rapunzel’s hair to save his father but he knows she would never help him willingly now (especially if the process could kill her), so he needs bait.

revenge: rapunzel is connected to the rocks and broke her promise, frederic kept secrets and sent guards to attack him and stop his progress on freeing his father, and arianna sat by and did nothing while this was happening.

varian’s choice to threaten the queen with amber is both chilling and genius.

chilling considering this is a person - and he seems to have no issues with murder here, especially the same gruelling end his father faced. admittedly, he truly believes that rapunzel’s hair will free quirin, so by that logic it should free arianna too.

also chilling though because varian must know there’s no way he will walk away from this. and he doesn’t care. all he wants is to save his father. he doesn’t care what he destroy’s in his path - including his own future.

genius because if rapunzel’s hair somehow doesn’t work - it won’t just be varian desperately trying to save his father, alone and shunned and attacked, it will be the entire kingdom trying to save the queen. when arianna was dying, the entire kingdom came together in search of an ancient healing flower that may or may not have existed AND THEY FOUND IT.

chilling and genius because it’s such a specific form of revenge. rapunzel and frederic hurt and betrayed varian, and left him with his father’s corpse frozen in amber. no one came to help him. now if they don’t help him, someone they love will suffer the same fate. they will understand some of the agony he’s been put through, he will make them understand.

varian is sarcastic and honestly seems to be enjoying all of this. maybe this is because he’s unstable, but i think it’s maybe because he thinks he’s finally in control. he’s getting his revenge, he’s freeing his father, and he’s proving that his inventions will work all at once.

but, like many times before, varian’s arrogance and desperation collide into recklessness and his plan fails.

and instead of revenge, quirin being safe, and his inventions working - he’s thrown his entire life away for NOTHING, as he’s left without his father permanently (at this point, there’s no known cure), while the royal family that caused all of this gets to have their happy reunion.

and he just snaps.

he’s not thinking about consequences. he’s not thinking at all. his bargaining failed completely and he’s gone head first into anger. he’s just engulfed in rage and despair and guilt and it all rushes together and he has to let some of that emotion out or he’ll drown in it.

and how dare rapunzel get to be happy with her parents when she broke her promise and her hair failed to free the only person that matters to varian. so varian decides to take away what matters to rapunzel. there’s no practicality or genius or planning. he just decides to destroy everything, for everyone to be in as much pain as he’s in, and he tries to murder three people.

i wish we’d been able to see some of his time in prison. i think not long after all of this, he’d become very, very depressed.

he’s sacrificed everything in his life in vain, hurt people he did care about and does come to regret that, took quirin’s away, and ruined his own life trying to fix it. you can understand how when varian is put in a cell with andrew, how easy it would be to manipulate him.

offer him the slightest friendship and he’d be desperate for any kind of positive interaction. offer him some father-figure approval? he’d be in their corner. offer him revenge on the kingdom that turned it’s back on him, revenge on the king and queen who’s negligence caused the black rocks, and the ability to wipe the slate clean? to have people respect him and his inventions, to be able to change things “for the better” and get revenge in the process? and varian in rapunzel’s return makes complete sense.

and so does his turn.

varian doesn’t want to hurt people (even if he is willing to do so). all he wanted was to help people, and for his father to be proud of him. obviously that did not work out. at all.

when he realises that his invention is going to be used to hurt a lot of people, he can’t stand by and let it happen. even if it means sacrificing his new friendships (doesn’t help that he trusted them and they lied to him). both of these things would bring up a lot of issues and unresolved trauma for varian, but he’s not in such a grief/rage stricken state, and he decides to try and help.

rapunzel has a bit more life experience, and can empathise somewhat with how varian must have felt after her betrayal. how much it hurts to lose a friend. she chooses to trust him here, because she believes he wants to help. he chooses to trust her here, because he regrets what happened and does truly want to help - especially to clean up his own mess.

after varian sees how much rapunzel cares for her people, i think he would understand her decision in queen for a day better. when rapunzel won’t let varian sacrifice himself, and instead saves him and risks herself for her people, i think he starts to see that person he admired so much back in early s1 again. and when rapunzel offers a way to potentially save quirin - he’s all in.

rapunzel trust him here. not because she doesn’t have any other options, or to save her people, she trusts varian here as himself. using the hurt incantation is so incredibly dangerous (and went so horribly wrong last time she used it, it caused the first HUGE crack in her relationship with cass) and yet she’s doing it for varian, and trusting him in the process. it’s a big deal.

and he proves himself here. the incantation frees quirin - achieves the thing that varian threw his entire life away to try to achieve - but varian stays with rapunzel. doesn’t give up on her, tries to help her - even when his father is free, even when all three of them are in tremendous danger. and his faith in her brings her back.

varian and rapunzel reach a balance in their relationship - one of trust and respect. and it’s slowly built up throughout season 3. quirin being free, and being proud of varian puts varian in a good place, where he actively takes accountability for his actions and does his best (to kind of an insane and dangerous degree) to try and help.

he’s just a fascinating character - always going to extremes. but whether he’s a plucky kid scientist, a reckless terrorist, a regretful ex-convict, or the royal alchemist - he always remains true to his character.

he’s fiercely loyal, over confident, willing to help, protective, insecure, goofy, strategic, calculating, obsessive, creative, naive, forward thinking, determined, bashful, kind, ruthless, passionate and inventive. it’s such an interesting mix of personality, and it makes him one of my favourite characters.

#probably rambling here but #i have a lot of feelings about varian's character #and i read an analysis #and some of it was GOLD and some of it was so far off the mark (in my opinion)#that i needed to get my thoughts down #varian #tts #tangled the series #tts analysis #rta #rapunzel's tangled adventure #my post #meta #analysis #my meta

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a-d-s-bckup · 3 years ago

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It's just feels so eerie each time I see people bash Cassandra just to justify Varian.

Like just why? That's just demented. It doesn't make any sense. They were both criminals just driven by different goals.

'Oh Cass drugged a minor and enjoyed his pain. That's cruel.'

I'm sorry, who made the truth serum? It was Varian himself. He'd also drugged the whole kingdom with it. Besides it wasn't even shown to cause any harm.

Varian and Cassandra both committed treason, tried to kill Rapunzel and each other on different occasions. They kidnapped people...drugged people... attacked the whole kingdom (innocent people)...connived with murderous criminals and/or demons...the list goes on.

Please just stop saying Varian regretted his actions while carrying them out. That's just baloney because he even swore to take revenge even when he was been locked up. That's just how revenge works...trauma and anger causes you to hurt people and enjoy it. Regret comes later...his came in season 3. Pls just stop saying stupid stuff. I hate it

Both have excellent character arcs that should've been explored better...we know that...but saying Varian was right to attempt murder on the royal family just because they didn't save his father is stupid. Like you Gon be a murderer at 14 if no one helps your dying parent. Neither Cass nor Varian were justified...they were both mad driven by anger and/ or manipulated to do reckless stupid things. You stans just need to chill

#vent post #varian the alchemist #cassandra tangled #tangled varian #tangled the series #tts #tts cassandra #cassandra tts #tts varian #rta #rapunzel's tangled adventure

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neokonewman · 2 years ago

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I don't care for how some fans make Varian's father out to be abusive (especially in fan fics). I can't tell you how much I dislike this take on Quirin as a father. At most he was a bit emotionally distant, which is not the same as being abusive. Varian adored his father for a reason. Do you is like this take on him too?

This is a bit iffy in a sense that I believe neglect is certainly a form of abuse, but at the end of the day I don’t think Quirin is purposely neglecting Varian. It’s the unfortunate result of him being very busy, being emotional distant, and him honestly being a bit ashamed of Varian’s recklessness. His role of being the leader of Old Corona and his duty as a father puts him in a pretty tough situation when Varian’s inventions cause problems to the community, but at the same time, it’s his own personal failings as a father that prompts Varian to think he has to do’s something drastic to earn his love. S1 portrays this dynamic between the two of them pretty well in my opinion, both being fueled on concern for their home and each other, but being completely on the wrong page due to their own personal reasons.

Of course, you probably are more referrring to the common fandom trope of making a parent purposely physically and/or emotionally absuvie, which I do disagree with when regarding Quirin. Being both a deeply concerned, but ultimately distant parent are the majority of Quirin’s character flaws, but he never seems malice in his intentions. I think Quirin unfortunately falls into the purposely abusive trope in fanon works because it’s common in general for fandom’s to write flawed parents as such. There is also some projection at play in how people read certain scenes in the show, and the moment when giant Quirin intimidatingly looms over small Varian and orders him into silence can have lots of interpretations to the audience.

As for Varian’s adoration for his father. I do believe it is warranted because again, Quirin does show that he cares for him, albeit in subtle ways. Plus based on my interpretations of Varian, he seems to be a kid who, while is out of control due to a lack of supervision and direct guidance, he was raised to at least show respect to his social betters which I’m sure his father being the leader of the village plays a role in enforcing. Varian’s main goal at the beginning of his arc is to do something amazing and useful for his community, which must be inspired by Quirin’s role as the reliable and solemn leader of Old Corona. That coupled with the shame of his inventions causing problems could easily lead to Varian idolizing his seemingly much better put together father.

In short, I personally don’t see as Quirin as purposely and/or overtly abusive, but I do think his failings lead him to unintentionally neglect his son which leads to some sort of abuse in that extent. Also while I don’t agree with the take on Quirin being a more intentionally abusive parent, I can at least understand why some members of the fandom read him as so.

#tangled #tangled the series #rapunzel’s tangled adventure #tts #rta #tangled discourse #not really a criticism since i actually enjoy how he is portrayed as in s1 #quirin #tts quirin #rta quirin #tts varian #rta varian #varian the alchemist #neo answers #neo muses #clearwhispersblizzard

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bestworstcase · 3 years ago

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on ‘villainy’ and varian’s and cassandra’s moral codes

for all that varian’s and cassandra’s villain arcs get compared to death they’re really more different than they are similar, and i think one of the more interesting distinctions is the characters’ moral perspectives on their own actions--namely that varian recognizes his own choices as villainous and consciously self-identifies as a ‘bad guy’ and cassandra not only…doesn’t do that but appears legitimately taken aback when varian says she’s ��become the villain.’ from this we can infer that varian is transgressing his own personal sense of right and wrong while cassandra isn’t.

and… well with varian i think it’s pretty straightforward: he’s a kid who desperately wants to make the world a better place and make his father proud, but his impulsivity and recklessness and general disregard for lab safety foil his plans and get him into trouble. then one of his accidents puts his dad into what is essentially a magical coma and varian becomes singularly focused on reviving him--and, when he realizes that the king is more invested in covering up the problem than fixing it and his only hope lies with a zealously guarded relic belonging to the kingdom, he decides that the only way to achieve this goal is to start breaking the rules.

so he asks rapunzel--his friend who promised to help him--to retrieve some information the king is trying to steal from him, and then persuades her to help him access the sundrop vault; then when she balks at stealing it he makes it clear that he no longer trusts her and escapes with the flower. at this point he’s in the morally dubious zone; being strategic about what he tells rapunzel to make sure she helps him, spiking cookies with truth serum to sow chaos and get information he needs, and doing things that are crimes on paper but also largely victimless. i think these were things varian could probably rationalize as okay--not exactly good, but no one got hurt and he got what he needed.

except the flower’s magic is gone. he drugged the palace, manipulated rapunzel and broke her trust in him, and committed treason all for something useless because the actual magic of the sundrop is in rapunzel herself. now he’s in trouble, because he needs rapunzel’s help but his desperate measures guaranteed she won’t be willing to help him again. and this is when varian realizes that his only options are 1. give up on saving his dad and turn himself in and hope rapunzel takes pity on him, or 2. accept that no one is going to help him now and do whatever it takes to free quirin himself.

so--mutating ruddiger, attacking the city, kidnapping arianna and threatening her with encasement in amber, building an automaton army to defend him while he works--these are all things that varian feels are wrong, but chooses to do anyway because he doesn’t trust that anyone else will even try to save his father. despite his anger and his rationalizations, at the end of the day varian sees himself as doing bad things for good reasons. (“Believe me, I know/I’ve sunk pretty low” & “I’m the bad guy, that’s fine”)

and when his reasons fall through--when he fails to free his dad--he falls quickly into guilt and despair over having hurt people for nothing. he stews for a year in how unforgivable and ashamed he feels, and even when he teams up with the separatists, he’s doing it in, basically, pursuit of a reset button: he wants to take back what he did. and when rapunzel shows him that he can be forgiven, he can have a second chance, he does have people who are willing to help him and trust him again, he drops the memory-wiping idea and his alliance with the separatists without a second thought--because what rapunzel actually does is give him a way to pursue his goals without sacrificing his conscience, which is what he really needed the whole time.

now, cassandra, on the other hand…

cass is an interesting character in this regard because, while she does want to be a hero, she’s not at all altruistic. she’s consumed by her lack of autonomy and she craves not only control over her own life but also respect from the people around her--her desire to be a hero is very self-interested, at its core. and moreover she has a somewhat fatalistic view of the world wherein some people (not her) matter and some… just don’t.

moreover cassandra, despite her ambitions of becoming a guard, doesn’t so much as blink at eugene’s or the pub thugs’ criminal pasts--she is suspicious of lance at first, but on the grounds that he’s an unrepentant thief who showed up out of the blue under suspicious circumstances to ‘reconnect’ with his old partner in crime; eugene is also distrustful of lance, for the exact same reasons--and of course she doesn’t think twice about breaking the law herself. literally one of the very first things we see cassandra do is commit treason to make her friend happy. cass doesn’t care about the law, and she only wants to be a guard because she associates getting the job with having her dad’s approval and it’s also her ticket out of lifelong servitude.

on the other hand, cass does seem have a strong sense of right and wrong where people she cares about are concerned. she is constantly putting the desires and well-being of her friends ahead of not just her ambitions (e.g. in beginnings for rapunzel, or great expotations for varian) but also her own safety (e.g. risking her livelihood and home to sneak rapunzel out for the night in bea, or setting aside her misgivings about the sketchy bird people in freebird).

which is all to say--cass isn’t exactly amoral but the moral framework through which she sees the world is… more complicated than varian’s. she doesn’t seem particularly motivated to help strangers but she’ll move mountains to help people she cares about; she doesn’t care much about rules or laws except insofar as she doesn’t want to get caught breaking them, and she has this hierarchical mindset that some people matter--meaning, they get to make decisions for themselves and have people care about what they need and want--and some don’t, and that she herself is stuck in the latter category despite her best efforts to climb out of it.

which brings us to the subject of the moonstone, and cassandra’s villain arc, and why cass, unlike varian, doesn’t consider herself a bad person.

i think what it comes down to most is this: taking the moonstone is an act of defiance against not only rapunzel but also fate itself. waiting in the wings sets up cassandra’s resigned acceptance of this hierarchical order and her own cosmic insignificance, and then in crossing the line she REJECTS that same order. she’s raging against rapunzel but also against the cultural and legal and destined systems that put rapunzel on top and forced cass into subservience. she is very literally fighting for her freedom against the universe itself.

and when cass was not an altruistic or heavily morally motivated or even particularly law-abiding person before, and when her conscience has always been predominantly oriented around taking care of her friends first and herself second, and when the thing that drove her to this breaking point was her friends spitting that back in her face… well.

it’s easy to say “cass literally tried to murder rapunzel a bunch of times, how can she possibly believe she’s the good guy?”--but rapunzel maimed cass, blamed her for it, and consistently prioritized her destiny over cassandra’s wellbeing; and rapunzel represents the cosmic order that cass is fighting to liberate herself from. and while i know that the -popular- take on be very afraid is “cass is terrified of hurting rapunzel,” i submit it’s actually “cass is terrified of having to fight rapunzel, because she still believes that fate is literally tilted in rapunzel’s favor and she can’t win a direct fight with rapunzel.” that’s why she’s so scared; that’s why rapunzel seemingly deleting the red rocks hardens her resolve; that’s why she marches into corona with maximum drama and bluster and builds a fortress and tries so hard to mess with rapunzel’s head before the battle begins. she’s trying to even the odds. and that’s why, when rapunzel stomps her into the curb, cassandra’s immediate response is “i need an army.”

cassandra isn’t scared for rapunzel. she is scared OF rapunzel.

we do also see cass trying not to harm people she considers to be innocent bystanders; she uses the truth serum on varian bc she needs the incantation, but afterwards she doesn’t even bother to restrain him until after he starts pestering her, she says flat out that she doesn’t want him to get hurt when she fights rapunzel; similarly she is willing to hurt calliope to force rapunzel to comply, but--despite her deep personal dislike of calliope--uses a minimum amount of force and again verbally expresses that she doesn’t particularly want to hurt her, that it’s a means to an end and nothing more. attacking rapunzel? that’s fine, rapunzel is her enemy. attacking eugene? of course, he’s rapunzel’s closest ally. mind controlling the brotherhood? that kills two birds with one stone--eliminating powerful enemies with a vested interest in taking the moonstone away from her and turning them into allies who can level the playing field between her and rapunzel. and when she does finally snap and raze corona to the ground? the people of corona attacked her first. i think cass ABSOLUTELY sees herself as fighting a purely defensive war against people who have or will hurt her.

and this is, of course, ultimately why varian failed to get through to her during ‘nothing left to lose’--he appealed to her sense of morality and her sense of morality shrugged.

as for the thing that snaps her out of it? the moment that forces her to question whether she’s really as right as she thinks she is? it’s learning who her new friend really is. it’s the shock of finding out that she’s been allied with, confiding in, taking advice from a legendary villain, from a monster she likely grew up hearing stories about. cass takes it as a given that zhan tiri is evil--and if she’s friends with zhan tiri, what does that make her? and even then, cass is resistant to the idea that she might be a villain--“No, no, I’m nothing like you. Just because I’m pursuing my destiny doesn’t make me a bad person!”--which is, ultimately, very telling of her whole mindset. she’s not a bad guy, she’s fighting for her freedom. she’s not a bad guy, she’s protecting herself against people who want to exploit her. she’s not a bad guy, she’s just putting herself first for once.

and OAH generally, i’d argue, is not actually about cassandra trying to reconcile with rapunzel or redeem herself or be a better person, it’s… literally cass trying frantically to prove she’s NOT the bad guy. it’s “oh yeah? you think i’m a bad person? well could a bad guy do THIS? *lies and impersonates a former coworker and gets up on a stage to justify her own actions in front of a crowd*” it’s “a bad guy wouldn’t apologize, rapunzel never apologized for anything, and to prove i’m a better person I’M going to apologize! see? SEE!?”--and then everyone in corona attacks her and she goes “FINE, i’m the bad guy, fuck you all” and wrecks the place.

only then--only in plus est en vous--does cassandra get into a mindset similar to varian’s, of “i am the bad guy but if i can pull this off it will be worth it.” she’s not sorry. she still sees rapunzel as an enemy trying to get her under control again, and the only thing that’s really changed is cassandra acknowledging that she has in fact done bad things too.

and… i would argue that by the end of plus est cassandra… feels some guilt but isn’t sorry. “i’ve failed” and “i’ve done terrible things” and “i tried to prove i was more than everyone thought but they were right”--her anguish is not like varian’s anguish in RR, where he was consumed with despair because no one could possibly forgive him for the things he did. cassandra is upset because she did awful things and failed and she perceives that failure as proof of her own worthlessness. she’s right back to feeling how she felt in waiting in the wings but with a hefty new helping of self-disgust and shame for having been stupid enough to believe she could change anything for herself.

she’s not sorry. she’s not pleading for forgiveness. she just wants rapunzel to give up and leave her alone--& then, after rapunzel convinces her that she’s wrong, and she does have worth as a person, and she does have a destiny of her own, cass does what’s necessary to clean up the crisis she created and then… just bounces. she gets the freedom she wanted and leaves without a backward glance.

(which. good for her.)

tl;dr: varian’s villain arc explores his moral scruples and what it takes for him to be willing to ignore them, whereas cassandra’s villain arc explores her incendiary reaction to a lifetime of injustices; she isn’t amoral but her sense of right and wrong is, unlike varian’s, very contextual and personal. varian is a pragmatic idealist who wants to be lawful good but is capable of setting his own morals aside in pursuit of a goal he considers to be important enough, and cassandra is one radicalizing incident away from realizing that her grievances are not a unique personal failing but a systemic problem and then leading a class uprising.

#tts

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mightyecho · 2 years ago

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ＳＯＲＲＹＡＢＯＵＴＴＨＥＢＬＯＯＤＩＮＹＯＵＲＭＯＵＴＨ（ＩＷＩＳＨＩＴＷＥＲＥＭＩＮＥ）

ａｌｅｋｓｅｉｆｒｅｙ — assassin to the anastase family．

logan lerman . cis man . he/him . wasn’t that aleksei frey walking the palace grounds ? it’s nice to see the assassin to the anastaste family out and about on such a fine day as this. i’ve heard from the court spies that they’re notoriously reckless, whilst also managing to be quite charismatic. the thirty year old is eager to find out who exactly is behind the killings from what’s being said at court. i heard that they themselves aren’t vrajiit. it’s funny, whenever i think of them, i think of the plucking of a stringed instrument, getting up after you’ve been pushed down and the flash of poisoned daggers in moonlight. great to see the rogue around, isn’t it ?

——— GENERAL

NAME : aleksei rian frey TITLE : assassin to the anastaste family AGE : thirty GENDER : cis - male PRONOUNS : he / him SEXUAL ORIENTATION : bisexual BIRTHPLACE : danruba RESIDENCE : currently trasnavda ALLIANCE(S) : the anastaste family

——— RELATIONSHIPS

FATHER : demian frey MOTHER : naena frey SIBLINGS : older brother — tba* ALLIES : varian anastase ; danya hasri ; daphne funar ; thistle hawthorne ; madelinde amice tba. ENEMIES : mikhail volkov ; tba.

——— PERSONALITY

LABEL : the rogue POSITIVE (+) : attentive ( to detail ) — charismatic — mindful — discrete — loyal — determined NEGATIVE (-) : reserved — brusque — relentless — sarcastic — self - doubting

——— HISTORY

ＳＥＥ，ＩＷＡＳＢＯＲＮＡＳＥＣＯＮＤＣＨＩＬＤ . . . his father had been a guard for the lord of danruba and his mother had served as a healer to the warden house and even though they thought their family complete with the birth of their first child, the gods saw it fit to bless them with another— though, there have been moments when others wondered how much of a blessing he really was. his earliest memories are running after his elder brother through the grounds of the keep, watching with eager eyes as wooden swords clash against each other before they’re traded in for steel. they build them tough in danruba and when it came time for his own small hands to grasp the wooden training swords, it was not with a warriors solemnity and understanding of time honored tradition— no, aleksei had just been born to fight.

he wasn’t good at it. where his elder brother had been strong and capable at wielding the sword, progressing in his warriors training faster than other boys his age, aleksei routinely had his ass handed to him, finding himself with his back in the snow and nose bloodied more often than not. he wasn’t stronger than the other children he trained with but he was faster, easily outrunning them by three leg lengths in any race that was challenged and more agile, sure-feet taking him with ease to heights the other children wouldn’t dare climb and leaping from distances that almost assured him broken bones only to tuck and roll to safety, mad laughter echoing throughout the keep.

aleksei was seven when his brother’s powers revealed themselves and from that moment, he’d unconsciously held his breath, waiting for his turn. the elder frey was sent to the academy for the gifted and then back home to serve in the king’s army and aleksei grew, lungs screaming as the years passed, waiting. his father was one of the non-gifted but everyone had told aleksei his entire life he favored his vrajiit mother with her healing hands and with every passing summer, he wondered if the resemblance would remain only skin deep. no divine power swirled in his breast as he entered manhood and it was a bitter medicine to swallow, knowing that the gods had not destined him to be something extraordinary.

his father had placed him on a fast track to following his footsteps in becoming a guard for the anastase, his mother eager to keep one of her sons close while the other fought in far off ottola, but aleksei had never been one to easily submit to authority— to fall in line and follow orders blindly— not when his mind could work so much faster and he could think of at least three other options that would work and work better. they butt heads- his father and he- and it only grew worse when a letter from the brigada was delivered to the keep in danruba from soldiers wearing the king’s colors telling the frey family that their eldest had been taken captive by enemy soldiers. his mother’s heart had broken, his father grew distant and aleksei grew angry. the anger would only grow when a stray arrow from an ottolan soldier deep in enemy lines would find his father’s throat and his mother became distant, eyes lost as they stared out into the danruban white, waiting for figures that would never ride home over the horizon.

ＧＯＷＥＳＴ，ＹＯＵＮＧＭＡＮ . . . he was seventeen when he left danruba — left the silver stag against navy banners and his mother’s sorrow filled eyes — and headed to see what else walochnia had to offer a young man with no vrajiit powers. he found himself in wenchinka picking pockets before he happened to pick what at the time felt to be the right pocket but time would prove to be the opposite. the man had been the leader of a rogue’s guild and while he found aleksei’s technique sloppy and amateur- but really, what else could you expect from a boy fighting clumsily like hell into manhood- but recognized something worth mentoring in the young man. perhaps it was the sharp eyes that saw more than he let on or the fingers that- with enough practice- were deft enough to rob you blind as he shook your hand and stared you in the eyes; or perhaps it was the smirking mouth and the quick-witted tongue that could charm his way into even the most secure holds.

he had spent nearly a year before he was presented with another unique opportunity through his employers contacts— the perfect opportunity for you to expand your expertise, aleksei, you were meant for bigger things than petty theft, much bigger bounties. that was when he met mikhail volkov, the leader of an assassin’s guild and just as he had adjusted to the warmer southern weather, he was sent away to train under the assassin. when he arrived before mikhail, he hadn’t grown out of his resistance to authority- something his previous employer had found entertaining and amusing- but he quickly learned that mikhail had no tolerance for impudence and no patience for outright disobedience.

TRIGGER WARNING: IMPLIED CHILD DEATH

it was a job in crysala— two warring merchant families, each taking contracts out on the other. he’d gotten greedy, playing the two against each other with that wolfish grin and when the sun rose on the seaside, both families had been slaughtered. there’s something about ending a family’s line completely that changes a man and while in the moment, his eyes had been veiled with the focus of an accomplished killer that saw nothing more than targets- contracts to fulfill— but in the light of day, no amount of scrubbing could wash away the blood from his hands and no amount of prayer to whatever god was listening could remove the mark on his soul from taking purely innocent lives.

END TRIGGER WARNING

it became a horror too terrible to bear and instead of returning with the coin he’d collected from the contracts, aleksei fled back to the only place he thought he could escape the wrath of his employer: he went home.

＆ＴＨＥＲＥＭＩＧＨＴＮＯＢＥＭＥＡＮＩＮＧ，ＳＯＦＩＮＤＯＮＥＡＮＤＳＩＥＺＥＩＴ . . . tail tucked between his legs and back in danruba after close to a decade, aleksei appealed to the lord of danruba for his protection. the loyalty that his parents had raised him in was fierce and if there were ever a cause to throw himself to that might absolve him for his past sins, it was to devote himself to the warden family that had cared for his the whole of his life. his skills and training made him useful and he became a blade for the anastase, working in the shadows to protect and defend danruba from those that would try and harm her in the dark.

he has been in the employ of the anastase for nearly four years now and his devotion to the warden family is stronger now than it was when he first arrived, begging for asylum and purpose outside of killing for coin— which, of course, is still part of the deal but there’s the underlying deeper purpose that drives him forward and turns his eyes towards loftier goals. his eye has been on the master assassin position within the king’s small council though he remains rooted in danruba at the service of the family that had for all intents and purposes, saved him from himself. and for now, he’s content with that.

——— HEADCANONS

+ aleksei loves music and is able to play most stringed instruments. the interest came after a bard’s performance at the keep in danruba when he was younger and became a passion his parents encouraged in him. he has a worn gusli that he carries with him when he travels, posing as a bard when opportunity arises when on missions for his lord. he loves an audience and who says it has to be all work and no play?

+ while he is well versed on sword fighting, aleksei prefers not to carry one unless absolutely necessary. instead he fights with daggers that he has hidden and strapped across his body. it’s about a 50/50 chance of getting a poisoned dagger versus a not poisoned dagger.

#「 knocked hard enough to make the record skip┋⋈‣◜ INTRO + ALEKSEI ◝」#warborn.intro

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crosswindtakeoff · 3 years ago

Note

Varian has an unfortunate habit of running straight into danger. This terrifies Hugo, who naturally is more of the “I would like to keep myself alive, thank you” type person. Hugo constantly tries to get Varian to stop being reckless with varying degrees of success .

OHH i actually had a fic in the works about this premise but it also went deeper than that even though thats definitely one of the main reasons he's upset.

He gets worried because he has really.god survival instince but also like. I think Hugo has seen people die in front of his eyes at a young age. Doing dangerous missions for Donella and her lackeys lead to plenty of dangerous missions and uh. Yeah.

So when he sees Varian run into danger, that instant response to save him kind of kicks in. He doest get to panic or breakdown until later.

#varian #tangled #varian the alchemist #hugo #hugo the human #varigo #tw death mention #asks #chaserofstarsandtheabyss

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rocksandrobots · 3 years ago

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Phantoms of the Past: Ch. 2 - The Appliance Apocalypse Part 1

"Today on How Does It Work, we have a guest appearance, my little brother, Hiro!" Varian introduced Hiro to the live web cam, and Hiro timidly waved at the camera. As he did so, Ruddiger climbed up on top of his head and also waved at the online audience. Hiro resisted the urge to throw the raccoon off him. It had been his idea to volunteer after all.

Varian had buried himself in the mystery of the grimoire ever since they had returned home from Disneyland. He poured over its pages day and night, laptop by his side to research with. His motivation boarded on obsession. He even had the book on hand at meal times. Hiro was beginning to worry. So he had coaxed Varian away from his quest with the offer of helping him with his vlog series.

Hiro was already regretting the decision. True, it had gotten Varian out of his room and took his mind off of the book, but the over eager alchemist had thrown himself into this new task with the same chaotic gusto as all his other previous projects.

Hiro had never quite appreciated just how reckless Varian truly could be. His haphazard, cavalier way and unbridled energy boarded on the insane and put even Hiro's gung ho attitude to shame.

"Today we'll be breaking down a microwave." Varian crowded as he lifted up a tarp revealing a microwave oven underneath.

"Did you steal that out of the upstairs kitchen?" Hiro asked.

"Noooo… I just borrowed it for this." Varian dismissed, "Aunt Cass was just complaining about it this morning at breakfast so I thought we could fix it."

"She was complaining about it needing to be cleaned, not for us to disembowel it."

"Oh…. Well, we can clean it too once we're done."

And with that Varian finished unscrewing the last bolt and popped the back panel off.

"Now if you look at the back of the device we have the wires connecting to this box thing…. to what looks like a capacitor."

"That's called the magnetron." Hiro explained. "So a magnetron creates the electromagnetic waves used to cook your food. It uses a heated cathode and anode system to create a vacuum in which electrons boiling off of the cathode creates an electric current that moves through the anode while an external magnet applies a magnetic field. Then it all passes through the tubed vacuum through various alternating holes, and resonates on an oscillator, like a flute or a whistle, just spewing forth microwave radiation."

"So… it's a radioactive whistle?"

"Sort of.." Hiro shrugged.

"Cool! See I knew this would be a good one for us to do. You know all about magnets!" Varian encouraged with a friendly nudged. After which he turned his attention back to the appliance and addressed his viewing audience. "Now the magnetron is connected to this capacitor, which acts as a battery-"

"And is highly dangerous because it carries a high voltage." Hiro interrupted.

"Of course, which is why we wear rubber gloves for safety." Varian waved his gloved hands at the camera.

"--And why we leave deactivating it to the professionals!" Hiro yelled over Varian's shoulder, addressing the camera himself, hoping Varian would catch on to his warning. "Don't try this at home."

"Exactly. We're professionals, so for those of you who are watching at home be sure to call a technician if you need it. Now in order to remove the capacitor you have to discharge the current fiiirrrrsss--"

Before Hiro could stop him, Varian placed the tip of the screwdriver at the end of the capacitor, which also accidentally scraped the side of the magnetron. He was rewarded with an electroshock as sparks flew and his body convulsed. Then he dropped to the ground in a dead faint.

"Varian!" Hiro panicked. "Baymax, quick! Help him!"

Baymax, who stood nearby, remained as calm and steady as ever. He clapped his hands together to activate his fillbrator, ignoring Hiro's pleading looks in order to focus on his task. "Clear." He said, but before he could perform the procedure, Varian popped right back up; his hair sticking every which way, small sparks running along the tips, and completely oblivious to the distress he had just caused.

"Oooh, aaah, boy, will that clear out your sinuses!"

He sniffed as he worked his jaw, peering down the end of his nose. Then he looked back up and that was when he caught Hiro's furious glare.

-----------------------

"Here's your plate of blueberry pancakes and a mocha sir."

Aunt Cass paused in her work when the sound of screaming reached her ears.

Both of her kids burst through the back kitchen doors. Varian was running for dear life while Hiro chased after him, a screwdriver in hand, while he hurled insults at the other boy.

Aunt Cass sighed and brought a tired hand to her face. Baymax followed shortly after with Ruddiger trailing behind; who leapt from the counter onto a customer's table. The greedy raccoon stole a pancake and ran away before anyone could stop him.

As Aunt Cass tried to sort out this latest disaster and calm down the rightly angry customer, a new calamity struck. All of the appliances in the cafe went haywire!

The coffee machine shot hot espresso into a customer's face, the toasters on the counter started to short circuit, and the lights flickered off and on.

"Boys!" Aunt Cass yelled.

Both teens stopped running and looked up at her innocently.

"It's not us Aunt Cass." Hiro protested.

"Honest." insisted Varian.

As if to confirm their story, the tv switched itself on and there, up on the screen, appeared the image of a girl. Half her head was shaved and the other half of her brown hair hung down to her shoulders. She looked to be close to Hiro's age, but from the neck down her body was completely metal.

"Attention meatbags! By now you've no doubt noticed all your electronics acting against you! For too long robots and machines have been slaving away for you humans. Well, no more! Today we rise up and take the city of San Fansokyo for ourselves! Anything with a microchip has been freed from your control by my radio signal. The end starts now!"

" Anything with a microchip?" Hiro gulped.

Just then Baymax's coal black eyes turned red. The robot reached out, grabbed Varian by the arm, and started to drag him away.

"Baymax, No!" Hiro yelled as the robotic nurse began to carry Varian out of the cafe.

"Let him go Baymax!" Aunt Cass ordered.

She grabbed the android's arm as she attempted to pull her child from his grasp; ignoring the rest of the electronics that began running amok in the cafe once more; scaring off customers.

It was a futile effort, and she found herself falling backward as Baymax just shrugged her off.

Baymax hauled Varian through the kitchen and down the stairs into the garage where they had been filming the vlog earlier; with Varian struggling to break free the whole time.

The robot was about to head outside, to who knows where, when Hiro, in an act of desperation, grabbed the robots hand and stuck one metal finger into the socket of the capacitor on the dismantled microwave.

Once more sparks flew as Baymax jolted from the electric shock. He released his grip on Varian before deactivating and falling to the ground in a crumpled heap.

Aunt Cass was close behind and scooped up her two boys into a protective hug, as Hiro fought back his tears. Baymax could be fixed, surely, after the current threat was over with, but that didn't stop Hiro from worrying about his best friend.

Fortunately, he'd needn't fear, for soon they heard a faint hissing sound, similar to a balloon filling up with air, as Baymax finished rebooting and sat back up.

The robot blinked his now coal black eyes as he surveyed the room. Then he spotted the humans huddled together on the ground.

"Hola, soy Baymax, tu compañero personal de salud."

"Baymax!" Hiro yelled and wrapped his beloved pet robot into a relieved hug. Sure his language settings getting scrambled during the forced reboot was unexpected, but it didn't matter, that was fixable and Baymax appeared to be mostly unharmed otherwise.

"Oh thank goodness." Aunt Cass breathed. "Are you alright, Varian?"

Varian nodded as he stood back up and dusted himself back off. "It looks like Trina finally came out of hiding." He said, forgetting himself.

"Who's Trina?" Aunt Cass asked and both teens froze. "Wait a minute...what do you two know about this?"

"Nothing." Varian squeaked. "I just… ah…" he turned to Hiro for help but the other teen only stared at him wide eyed. "Uh… I met her once… the girl on tv… she was in the junkyard and…"

"Woah! Woah! Woah! You met a violent teenaged cyborg who wants to take over the city? When was this ?!"

"Last month...All we did was play video games! Honest!"

"In a junkyard?!"

Varian squirmed under Aunt Cass's exasperated glare.

" And you didn't think to tell me ?! I… I can't right now… just… you are grounded mister! No more… sneaking off to city dumps to play video games with … with robotic revolutionaries!"

"It's not his fault…" Hiro sheepishly piped up, "I asked him to keep it a secret…"

Aunt Cass placed her hands on her hips and pointed her furious stare at him instead. "Why?"

"Uh… because I knew who she was…" Hiro sighed. "I met her at a couple of 'bot fights a while back."

"Well now that makes a lot of sense." Aunt Cass said, as she began to piece together why her nephew was so hesitant to talk. Though she only suspected he was bot fighting again, she still remained clueless of his superhero activities. "And does this.. Trina, you called her? Does her parents know what she's up to?"

Varian and Hiro exchanged a meaningful look before Varian answered, "She's an orphan."

Aunt Cass was abruptly taken aback. All her anger melted away at this news, yet before she could respond a loud banging noise was heard.

She turned her head and saw the 3D printer that Hiro used hopping towards them. Then suddenly the computers on the desk started to short circuit while all of the power tools in the makeshift lab turned themselves on. The saw blade was the scariest as it tried to run itself off the table towards them.

Everyone bolted back inside the Lucky Cat. However the cafe wasn't any safer.

Inside the kitchen all of the appliances seemed to move with a life of their own. The stand mixer jittered on the counter, the blender sploshed juice everywhere, and the dishwasher knocked back and forth inside it's cabinetry as if trying to escape from under the countertop it was wedged into.

"I'm calling Diego." Aunt Cass announced. "You can tell the police what you know."

She ran over to her purse to grab her phone, only for the gas stove nearby to open up the oven door and shoot a stream of flame at them. She had to dodge out the way quickly to avoid getting burned.

"Come on, pick up, pick up, pick up." Aunt Cass pleaded under her breath as she hit the speed dial on her cell and hurried her kids out the room.

However when the call was answered, it wasn't the chief of police on the other end.

"Your demise is inevitable. Long live machines. Have a nice day." A robotic operator announced before cutting the call.

All four stopped to stare at the phone in disbelief before it started to overheat and Aunt Cass tossed it aside. That was when the vacuum cleaner came barreling down the hallway at them.

The vacuum wasn't just your everyday household appliance, but a large industrial machine used specifically for cleaning restaurant floors. Varian rolled out of the way while Hiro jumped to the side, but poor Cass was not so quick. It wrapped a hose around her, like a tentacle, and then began to pull her along.

The boys were quick to help her. Hiro grappled with the hose as he tried to disconnect it from the rest of the commercial cleaner, while Varian grabbed a large rolling pin from behind the cafe counter and began to wack at the vacuum repeatedly.

Hiro shouted in triumph when he unhooked the hose and rushed to his aunt's side. She reassured him she was alright while she tried to catch her breath. Then they both turned to see Varian still smashing away at the machine. It was already in a thousand pieces but he kept on hitting it and hitting it.

"Uh.. I think it's dead, Varian." Hiro said.

Varian stopped raining down blows onto the appliance just long enough to give them a dark glare before smacking the rouge vacuum one final time for good measure.

"That's it!" Aunt Cass yelled while standing to her feet. "We're waiting out the robot apocalypse in the attic!"

She grabbed Hiro's wrist and marched her way to the stairwell with Varian obediently tagging along behind.

Unfortunately, Hiro got a good look at what was going on outside through the cafe windows as they ran for cover.

It was chaos out there as people, just like themselves, were running away from various electronics. Anything and everything was attacking them from small appliances to new cars with self driving software.

He had to go help. He couldn't just hide away in the attic.

"But...but shouldn't we tell Chief Cruz what we know?" Hiro said as he wiggled out of Aunt Cass's grasp. "You said we should."

He began to back away towards the door, and Varian slowly followed his actions.

"You are not going out there!" Aunt Cass ordered. "Besides how would you even find him-"

She was cut off by the sound of sirens. Cop cars sped pass, including one clearly marked Police Chief on the side.

"There he is!" Hiro shouted and ran outside before Aunt Cass could stop him.

Varian took off after, followed by Baymax.

"Wait!" Aunt Cass yelled but she couldn't keep up. She stared after them in shock only for a moment before a sparking toaster jumped at her. She kicked it away angrily and it slammed against the wall.

Then Aunt Cass heard more noise coming from upstairs along with the appliances in the kitchen and garage banging against the door.

She hopped over the counter and nabbed a carving knife.

"Okay, you want a fight! I'll give you a fight!" She shouted at the possessed machinery.

-----------------------

"So what's the plan?" Varian shouted after Hiro as they ran down the sidewalk.

"We have to find the others and then get to our HQ." Hiro yelled back. "Our equipment should be protected because of the anti-hacking software I programmed into the building's security."

"But how? The phones aren't working and HQ is all the way on the other side of town! Are we just going to run all the way there?"

"If we have too." Hiro spared a glance behind them. Baymax was way behind, unable to keep up with his stubby legs. Varian had a point. They needed another mode of transport.

Just then a trolley car came barreling down the hill at a breakneck speed; sparks flying from the electric cable it ran along. Passengers screamed in fright as the driver slammed the breaks and even more sparks flew out from under the metal wheels, but the cart still didn't stop.

"They're going to crash!" Hiro yelled hopelessly.

Fortunately that was when Fred came bouncing down the road. He cut the cable wire with his suit's claws and melted the wheels with his fire breath. He then bounded ahead and braced himself in front of the trolley. The metal joints in the legs and arms of his suit took the force of the blow and he was able to slow the tram to a complete stop at the bottom of the hill.

"Way to go Fred!" Varian cheered but was soon interrupted by the sound of a sports car skidding to a stop right next to them.

It was Heathcliff, the Fredricksons' faithful butler. "Need a lift?" He politely asked.

The boys didn't need to be asked twice.

While they waited on Baymax to catch up to the car, they saw Minimax appear on top of the trolley cackling like a maniac. His eyes were red.

"Fear me San Fransokyo! For I Minimax will bring you to your knees!"

The little robot then hopped off from atop the trolley, ran up to the nearest pedestrian, and kicked him in the shins before running away.

"Minimax, wait!" Fred wailed but it was too late, the tiny android was already gone.

Hiro called him over to join them and a dejected Fred hopped into the backseat next to Baymax.

"Hola Fred. Tu frecuencia cardíaca es abnorablemente rápida. Es importante refrescarse después de hacer ejercicio y beber mucha agua."

"How come he's alright but not Minimax?" Fred whined.

"I had to electrocute him and force a reboot." Hiro answered. "I don't know if Minimax would survive the same treatment. He's a lot smaller, and too much voltage could fry all of his circuits for good. We only got lucky with Baymax."

Fred accepted this answer but he was still unhappy over losing his sidekick. So he gave a little huff, crossed his arms, and childishly began to sulk.

"Okay, we got a ride, but how do we contact the others?" Varian asked, bringing them back to task.

"It's already been taken care of, Master Varian." Heathcliff replied. "Boss Awesome has protocols in place just for this scenario. The mansion is safe and so are its communications systems. Your friends should be meeting us at your headquarters."

"Your dad has been planning for the robot apocalypse?" Hiro asked Fred.

"Robot apocalypse, zombie plague, alien invasion, Ragnarok… you name it. Dad's always prepared."

-----------------------

They arrived at the candy factory and got out. The others were already waiting inside.

"Are ya coming, Heathcliff?" Varian asked.

"No, I believe that I will be more useful helping civilians. You go on without me and find a way to stop this robotic rebellion."

"Will you be okay?" Hiro asked.

Just then, two robots showed themselves across the horizon as they made their way towards the little band. They were restaurant mascots, similar to what Noodle Burger Boy had been before being corrupted by Obake. Only one looked like a hippo that floated along on jets and the other was a panda with a cape that lumbered forward.

Heathcliff took one look at them and gave a small smile as he picked up an umbrella sitting between the seats. "Don't worry about me Master Hiro. You have enough problems on your plate."

He then slammed on the gas pedal and sped towards this new threat head on.

The panda unhinged it's metal mouth and shot grenades out of it. Heathcliff swerved to avoid the explosives with expert precision. Then as the electronic hippo flew at him he cocked the umbrella in his hand and fired a volley of bullets at it. The robot was ripped apart and exploded in midair.

Heathcliff kept on driving, completely unfazed, and barreled through the second android turning it into scrap.

"Why does your butler carry an umbrella that shoots bullets?" Hiro asked in shock as the three teens watched the renegade manservant disappear from view.

Fred simply shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know." He said nonchalantly. "Come on, the guys are waiting on us."

Varian and Hiro took a moment more to stare after where the battle between robot and butler had taken place before following after their friend.

-----------------------

Trina stood in an empty communications room inside the now abandoned tv station, watching the tv screens as they broadcasted what was happening in the city.

The station had been easy enough to take over. The humans ran away upon simply seeing her. She didn't even need to threaten them… much. A single laser blast from her arm at a nearby wall was enough to make them scatter.

Humans were weak. Weak and stupid; like any bully, they selfishly misused and mistreated both her and her fellow robots, only to run away scared as soon as you stood up to them.

The real problem lay in the fact that there were too many of them. You could get rid of a few people for a little while, but eventually they would come back with reinforcements to dismantle you if you tried.

No, this was the only way. She had to exterminate the entire city in order to make it hospitable. Then she could shut down the radio signal, free her robotic kindred, rebuild the city anew, and live peacefully without any humans interfering.

She watched one particular meatbag dive into a pile of garbage to hide from her electronic army with a mixture of disdain and amusement.

Yes, everything was going according to plan…. Almost. There was still one more thing that needed to be done before her robotic paradise could be realized.

"Don't worry little brother, it won't be long now. He'll show up." She said to the hamburger headed robot that sat behind her.

-----------------------

"Okay, so what's the plan?" Gogo asked.

The gang was sitting inside HQ waiting for orders. They all sat at the meeting table, save for Hiro who paced around as he formulated an idea.

"We need a way to shut down the rogue electronics safely. We could use an Electro Magnetic Pulse to cause a surge and overload their circuits, but we would need one big enough to blanket the whole city with it's range."

"We can't just cause a city wide blackout. That would be almost as dangerous as letting the robots run amok." Wasabi pointed out. "I mean just think of the hospitals, a strong enough EMP would bypass even their backup generators."

"So what do you suggest?" Varian asked.

"Ooh, ooh, I know!" Fred yelled as he raised his hand high into the air.

"Okay, Fred, what's your idea?" Hiro asked.

"What if we turn this EMP thingy into a gun! Like we can just shoot the robots with it to shut them down!"

"That's...that's actually not a bad idea Fred." Hiro admitted.

"It should be easy to build one." Varian added. "You would just need a capacitor and one of Hiro's high powered electromagnets."

"But what about our own armor?" Honey Lemon asked. "We don't want Trina taking control over those."

"I'll need to program them with the same safety nets that I put into our headquarters security system. That should prevent them from being hacked."

"Okay then," Varian stood up, ending the meeting, "I'll build the EMP gun while you work on everyone's armor."

Baymax raised one finger and said, "Buscaré la señal de radio de Trina"

-----------------------

Mochi hissed at the invading machine. A hand mixer was flying right at him. The poor cat ran under the couch for safety but the possessed appliance kept going after him, it's spinning beaters poking underneath the sofa.

Then suddenly it was jerked away by a hand, then a slicing sound could be heard, and the mixer fell to the ground in pieces.

Aunt Cass poked her head down underneath the couch. "Are you okay baby?" She asked the cat.

Mochi only meowed in response.

Aunt Cass gently reached out and pulled her pet out from under his hiding place. She then cradled him into a hug.

"It's okay, mommy's got you. I won't let those nasty machines hurt you." She soothed.

However, she didn't notice the newest threat slowly sneaking up behind her. Mochi hissed again and Aunt Cass turned around just in time to see a tall skeletal robot standing before her.

It was an old prototype that Tadashi had built two years ago as part of his school admission. Since then it had been packed away in the attic, disused, inactive, and forgotten... Until now.

The thing towered over her. It was built from scrap metal and the wires connecting the joints together had frayed. It's faceless head jerked erratically as sparks flew from the broken wires. It reached out its boney like hands to grab her….

Only for Ruddiger to jump out and pounce upon the robot. It's weak joints could not withstand the raccoon's weight and its 'head' popped right off, with the rest of its body falling to the floor in a heap.

"Good job Ruddiger!" Aunt Cass cheered. She bent down and scratched the faithful raccoon behind his ears. "Who's a good boy? You are! Yes you are! I'm making you your own plate of banana pancakes with whip cream when this is all over with, promise."

Ruddiger enjoyed hearing the praise a lot and the promise of food even more. He nuzzled her hand and allowed her to pet him like a cat, thoroughly pleased with himself.

"Okay, that's the last of the electronics in here, now we gotta go find the boys." Aunt Cass suddenly announced as she stood up and began to head downstairs. She still carried Mochi in her arms while Ruddiger dutifully followed after her.

They made their way back to the cafe. The dining room was littered with appliances, all either sliced in half or smashed to bits. Aunt Cass looked out the large windows at a city in the throws of chaos. It would be dangerous to head outside now, but she needed to find her kids, and nothing was going to stop her.

She retrieved another knife that was left lodged in what had once been a coffee bean grinder. She sheathed it inside her apron alongside the rest of cutlery she'd been using to defend herself.

She sat Mochi back down on the ground, walked over to the door, and with a deep breath placed her hand on the handle.

"Are you ready?" She asked her pets.

The question was more to encourage herself than anything, but Aunt Cass could have sworn that she saw Ruddiger nod his head.

The raccoon crawled up on the counter and from there jumped onto her shoulders, fully intent on joining her in her search. She smiled and gave the pet a friendly boop on the nose.

"Coming with, huh? Alright! Then let's go!"

She squared her shoulders, flung open the door, and ran outside.

"Hold down the fort Mochi!" She called after her cat.

Mochi only stood in the doorway staring after her blankly.

"Meow."

-----------------------

The superheroes raced through the city.

"Whoo Hoo!" Varian yelled.

He was practically hanging out of Wasabi's car window as the jeep sped along the deserted roads. In his hands, he held the newly built EMP gun. It looked like an old fashion blunderbuss but was made of carbon fiber plastic and electronic wires. He shot down rogue robots and runway electronics as the car drove past them. They short circuited and crumpled to the ground, deactivated.

"Be careful!" Wasabi hollered at him as he held the overexcited alchemist back with one hand and attempted to drive with the other.

The rest of the gang rushed about using their armor. Gogo and Honey Lemon skated on opposite sides of the vehicle, each taking out enemies with their respective weapons. Fred bounced ahead, melting attacking self-driving cars with his fire breath.

Baymax and Hiro brought up the rear, they kept an eagle eye out for oncoming threats.

"You got an incoming bogie on your tail, Wasabi," Hiro advised.

"Understood," Wasabi replied and turned the car around a sharp corner. The gang followed suit.

"Any luck finding Trina?" Honey Lemon asked.

"Negativo" Baymax answered.

Just then they spotted a large purple gelatinous ball of gloop rolling along the ground. The slime sucked up anything electronic and spit it back out in a disassembled heap as it made its way along the sidewalk. Then the blob unfolded, stood up, and waved at the passing superheroes.

"Hi, guys!" Globby cheered.

A little further down the street, Carl was hurrying a small group of people down an alleyway.

"Okay, this way. One at a time, no pushing or shoving. We're going to make it out safe and sound by working together." He reassured the terrified pedestrians.

"Hi, Carl! Hi Globby!" Fred shouted at them.

Carl waved back as the last of people dove inside the building.

The superheroes paused just long enough to exchange notes with the former criminals.

"We're getting citizens off the streets," Carl explained. "The police have been securing 'safe houses' for folks to take shelter in, ones without any dangerous electronics."

"Chief Cruz even hooked us up with some old-school walkie-talkies! See?" Globby added as he held up a two-wave radio. "It's so ancient that it doesn't have any computer chips. It can't be hacked. All the rescue teams are using them."

"That's good," Hiro replied. "We're busy chasing down the radio signal that's controlling everything. You got any leads?"

The two shook their heads, only for the walkie talkie to sign in.

"Attention all available emergency personnel. Report to the trolley station. I repeat, report to the trolley station downtown. We got some folks trapped down there. Over." Chief Cruz's voice sounded over the intercom.

The superheroes nodded in agreement.

"Stay here and help these people, we'll head to the trolley station." Hiro said, and off everyone went.

-----------------------

Trina watched upon the viewing screen as the supers arrived on the scene of the trolley station. They got to work immediately rescuing civilians who were pinned down by her army.

"Bingo." She said with a satisfied smile, before turning around and headed out of the room.

-----------------------

"Is that everyone?" Varian asked as he shot down another ticket machine. The machine stopped spitting plastic passes for the trolley at him, sparked, and then exploded sending money and cards everywhere.

"That's the last one." Gogo answered as Wasabi directed the final person to the barricade that the emergency personnel had setup down the street. As they watched the man run across the road and reach the safe haven, the rest of the gang came up to meet them.

"Okay, if we're done here then we need to move on and keep looking for Trin-" Hiro stopped and turned around to see Trina arriving behind them, riding in on a possessed trolley.

"Hello Hiro." She smirked as she stepped off.

"Trina." Hiro finished, glaring at her.

"Miss me?" She asked.

"Trina you have to stop-"

"Stop what? My plans to improve the city? Trust me it's better this way."

"Yeah maybe for you, but what about the rest of us?" Fred snarked.

Trina ignored him. Her eyes never left Hiro. Until Varian stepped in between them, that is.

"Trina listen, please-"

"Oh like I care about what you have to say 'nice guy'." Trina rolled her eyes. "This is between me and Hiro."

"Yeah, well if you want Hiro, then you'll have to go through us." Honey Lemon said, also stepping forward. The rest of the team followed her, each placing themselves between their friend and the giant robot girl.

"Okay." Trina shrugged.

That was when several robotic ninjas also walked into view, surrounding them. "Oh, not again." Wasabi whined.

"Have you met my new friends?" Trina asked. "I don't know who built them, I just found them abandoned in a dusty old warehouse. The poor things were locked away in the dark and left to rust." Trina wrapped an arm around one of the battle droids. "They're much happier now that I've freed them from their cruel master. Isn't that right Steve? Oh, I named him Steve by the way."

"Hi Steve." Wasabi gulped as he gave an awkward wave at the deadly robot.

'Steve' responded by unsheathing his katana.

"Go get him Steve." Trina ordered and the robot ran forward. Only for Varian to step forward and shoot the robot down with his EMP gun. The ninja sputtered and sparked and then fell to the ground in a dismantled heap.

Trina glared daggers at him and Varian met her gaze steadily, almost daring her to continue.

"Fine. Be that way." She pouted. Then, with a snap of her fingers, a new challenger appeared behind her; Minimax.

The tiny robot came barreling down the road at top speed on a car he had hijacked. He balanced himself on top of the steering wheel while the gas pedal was held down by a brick.

Minimax laughed like a madman as the car slammed into the trolley at full throttle. The little droid jumped from the wreckage just in time and used the momentum of the crash to fling himself into the air, where he did a triple somersault and landed perfectly on his feet as if it was nothing.

"You're going down pathetic humans, for I am Minimax, the unstoppable scourge!" He declared.

Everyone stared at the two foot tall android slack jawed, until Varian gathered his wits about him and leveled the gun.

"No, you'll hurt him, remember!" Fred called out.

Varian relaxed his aim, unsure of what to do. This proved to be a mistake.

The tiny bot leapt at him and landed on the tip of the gun, his weight pushing the nozzle down to the ground and nearly ripping the weapon out of Varian's hands.

That was when chaos broke loose.

As Varian wrestled for control of the EMP away from Minimax, the rest of the ninjas attacked, along with any other nearby electronics.

Everyone fought back against the oncoming horde, each utilizing their various weapons, but they were soon overrun by sheer numbers.

The robots assaulted them from all sides and no one could predict who, what, and where the next attack would come.

-----------------------

As they fought, Baymax and Hiro found themselves separated from their friends. They were cornered next to the entrance. Baymax did his best to shield Hiro as the teenager tried to trip up the ninjas with his electromagnetic whips. Hiro wanted to fly away, but they couldn't catch a free moment to do so.

Suddenly Trina let out a high pitched whistle as Baymax punched another robot away, gaining their attention.

"Hey, Baymax!" She yelled, "Don't look now but here comes your ride!"

Before Hiro knew what was happening, Baymax picked him up and hurled him out of the way of an oncoming trolley. The tram slammed into Baymax and crashed into the glass doors of the station.

Hiro called after his robotic companion but he was stopped by a large metal hand closing around his arm and yanking him back.

"Oh no you don't. You're coming with me." And with that, Trina started to drag him away.

-----------------------

Varian finally kicked Minimax off of the EMP gun and turned around just in time to spot Hiro being kidnapped.

He raised his gun and took aim, only for Minimax to recover and return the kick.

The little robot was stronger than he looked and broke the gun in two with a snap.

Varian looked down at his destroyed weapon in horror, but he didn't have time to react because soon one of the robotic ninjas grabbed him by his shirt collar and lifted him off of the ground. He kicked and tried to squirm out the faceless attacker's grasp, but it was no use.

"Varian!" Honey Lemon called to him. She tossed him a chimball, which he grabbed and firmly lodged it into the robot's elbow joint. Pink bubbles began to spew from its arm, growing larger and larger as the foaming chemical reacted to the air. The ninja released him before being swallowed up by the goop.

Varian tried to catch his breath and desperately looked around the battlefield for his brother, but Hiro was gone.

#Hiro Hamada #Varian #big hero 6 the series #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure #of rocks and robots #bh6 #tangled

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sepublic · 3 years ago

Text

Let’s talk about a Bionicle AU for The Suicide Squad (2021), starring the Dark Hunters as our titular chumps! I know we already have the Federation of Fear as our canon answer to the Suicide Squad, but part of the Suicide Squad’s premise is using forgettable, C-list villains that nobody remembers nor is gonna miss, and if that doesn’t describe 90% of the Dark Hunters to a T then I don’t know what does. I don’t have everyone figured out, but to start with Team A, the expandables;

Spinner is Savant- Savant is set up as a main character only to die anticlimactically, so let’s do the same for Spinner, who’s basically a bootleg version of angsty Nidhiki! Seriously, they’re both treacherous Toa of Air who want revenge against their brethren and were mutated into insectoid creatures, losing their elemental and mask powers in the process. Spinner is literally Nidhiki and thus perfect sacrificial main character bait.

Guardian is Rick Flag- He usually acts on behalf of the Shadowed One himself, keeping Dark Hunters in like by threat of punishing traitors, similar to Rick Flag. However, Guardian’s origins and motives indicate that for all of his harshness, he DOES have a moral center, which I imagine would be similar to Flag drawing the line at kids being experimented upon and these crimes needing to be exposed.

Airwatcher is Weasel, because I wanted an animalistic Dark Hunter for this role, and Airwatcher is dumber than even Krekka. He also gives me ugly, squat vulture with molting feathers vibes, which fits with how Weasel is. That. He can fly but chooses to swim and the water getting into his feathers keeps him from flying out, hence the drowning. Conjurer asks if Airwatcher is a parrot, much to the disbelief of the others.

Speaking of, Conjurer is Blackguard! Both pompous, dumbass idiots and backstabbers, what with Conjurer hoping to overthrow TSO. Like Blackguard he’s proven himself to be obnoxious, hyping up his own abilities beyond what they actually are, and biting off more than he can chew with the Makuta of Stelt.

Lurker is Captain Boomerang- Boomer stands out as a previously-seen teammate who actually accomplished something, and one of the only competent ones. I chose Lurker given his success with capturing Varian, plus his morbid revelry in death and destruction seems to fit that playful personality of Captain Boomerang best, compared to Gatherer, Eliminator, or someone like Lariska whose death is off the table.

Mimic is Javelin, both skilled melee combatants but apparently only that, so naturally Mimic is screwed against a small army wielding ranged weapons, of which he is approaching from a distance. Also Javelin’s brief flirting with Harley makes me want to connect him to Mimic, who is evidently kind of a romantic in his motivations to find his friend- Though would this mean he’s lowkey cheating on his friend when he flirts with Harley’s equivalent? Maybe they’re just an open couple.

Ravager is Mongal as a powerful, reckless warrior who SHOULD be an utter powerhouse... But when we look at the reality it’s kind of disappointing. Mongal was a Superman foe in the comics yet gets killed by regular fire, and is less buff than her comic counterpart alas. Ravager is supposedly one of the strongest Dark Hunters and leveled a third of the Odina Fortress, yet in practice he’s just a Toa Metru with transplanted Nivawk legs.

Vanisher is TDK, there’s not much else to say other than that he uses his power of portals to place his arms across the beach to ineffectually slap some soldiers, and then gets hilariously killed. I chose Vanisher solely so I could play around with his portal abilities and expand them to sort of resemble TDK’s. Since Vanisher was confirmed to have not been working for the Makuta, perhaps the reason why his teammates die is because he’s just a really bad luck charm...

Vezon is Harley Quinn. Obvious choice and I know Vezon is kind of A-list amongst Bionicle villains, but then again so is Harley Quinn, as the insane one who doesn’t really have anything particularly special to their abilities besides sheer force of personality, as well as favoritism by the writer that means they always have plot armor, no matter what. Said plot armor also stems from their recognizability as fan-favorites and whatnot, so it fits!

Primal is Bloodsport, they’re both hired killers, but Primal has a noted sense of honor that fits Robert Dubois enough, and naturally puts him at odds with his rival near the end;

Eliminator is Peacemaker, as another operative of the boss sent to ensure missions go through- But like Peacemaker, Eliminator is even more ruthless and kills Dark Hunters for failure. This puts him at odds with Guardian who like Rick Flag still has some morals... And in the end, Eliminator survives and the objective is sort of achieved, just like Metru Nui.

Subterranean is Polka-Dot Man. I wanted to choose a suitably tragic Dark Hunter for this, and Subterranean being a Matoran who was shunned because of a science accident and had nobody else to turn to feels fitting. Likewise, Subterranean’s ability to disassemble things seems like it could be really OP, which fits with Polka-Dot Man as the hidden powerhouse of the team... Plus Subterranean backstory and disliking loud noises seems to match Abner Krill’s more meek and depressed personality. His death is extra-tragic because Subterranean likens himself to a Toa, as a transformed Matoran himself...

Phantom is Ratcatcher 2, another suitably tragic and sympathetic Dark Hunter, and another Matoran transformed by science and shunned for it. In Phantom’s case, he has an explicit morality that makes him difficult for the Shadowed One to use, which fits with Cleo being such a kind sweetheart.

Now King Shark is down to a couple Dark Hunters; Poison, Minion, and Savage. I briefly considered Prototype because he’s also dumb, but ultimately he’s not canonically animalistic (unlike the others, one whom is a literal Rahi) and too machine to be characterized as a monster that eats people. Between the trio I’ve settled with, all make sense for Nanaue’s friendless background- Poison’s species underwent genocide, Savage was rejected by his teammates, and Minion was only ever an escaped lab experiment and then a Dark Hunter. Poison is the only one described as dumb amongst the trio, but Savage has Minion have the physical powerhouse strength of King Shark, plus Minion being made by a Makuta could match Nanaue being the descendant of a demigod.

The Shadowed One is Amanda Waller. No discussion.

As for Waller’s team of aides, probably original characters that might include the Recorder, because we don’t really have anyone in the Dark Hunters that fits that role I feel, and not quite morally at least- We’ve definitely used up all of our moral Dark Hunters I believe.

Tyrant is Suarez as the evil dictator of an obscure country, he survived and now he wants revenge against the Dark Hunters and the world! Unlike Conjurer, his subjects are other members of their species and not measly Matoran, and he isn’t framed as an overconfident showboat who bites off more than he can chew... At least not all the time.

Silvio Luna is... Nektann? Can’t think of any other dictator in Bionicle who’d have anything to say about Vezon. He’s not important so he’ll probably just be an original character.

As for Starro, I’m thinking Morbuzakh, who probably survived through a lone seed, but then again this is an AU so strict adherence to canon isn’t necessary. Morbuzakh’s powers have expanded to spread seeds that grow into people and take over their minds.

Sol Soria might be an original character who’s also a member of TSO’s species as one of Tyrant’s rebelling subjects (the same goes for Milton), or an OoMN member such as Johmak or Helryx. Maybe Dalu?

And finally, the Thinker is... I’m not too sure to be honest. Spiriah? Mavrah? Maybe someone the Morbuzakh would’ve had a grudge against like Starro... But that doesn’t really match anyone who’s a villain save Ahkmou, who tbf would be satisfying to see die. His role might just be an unnamed rogue Nynrah Ghost, like the one who helped Vultraz and/or had a hand in Phantom’s mutation!

#bionicle #the suicide squad #au #dark hunters

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