#The Teenage Superhero Society

[fungicidecarhorn64ad]

Here's something I written please read if you want! Thanks to @lordstormageddidnt for help with the punctuation.This is like a passion project of mine so please be nice

TSS One flew over the Parrot's nest

Parrot Man bursts through the museum window. A crowd of rich patrons scream in terror as the figure covered in a costume of brightly coloured feathers crashed through the window.

" hello gentlefolk of Dublin make way for the king of phantom thieves THE PARROT man"

A distant caw can be heard as he says his name

"now hand me the........."

"Are you okay?"

a finely curled mustached gentleman says in worry as the feathered fiend draws a blank

"I never really get this far what am I supposed to steal?"

A giddy museum worker raises their voice and says

"I know where all the cool stuff you can steal is"

they said excitedly this was going to get their favourite artifact in the news they thought,

"yeah sure please show it to me I guess--"

he's cut short by the sound of a person jumping in from the broken glass.

"never fear for I the Gunslinger am here to protect all of you from this fiend"

The wind flows through Triggers makeshift jacket cape, she flips her black ponytail to the back of her head.

"Damn I look badass"

She whispers to herself as she draws Bullet from her pocket who's in her pistol form.

"Woah, easy there we don't want to ruffle any feathers" says Parrot man nervously

"relax they're non lethal bullets" Trigger replies as she steps closer.

"damn you really threw away your chance to bluff like that?" Bullet says.

"oh, yeah I just did" Trigger says

"you just did nut case!"

Parrot man's wings retract and spread as he thrusts into the air colourful feathers launch from the wings straight towards Trigger, she jumps out of the way and keeps dodging as the feathers fly past her. She returns fire and dashes around the upstairs of the museum, she dodges the feathers as the sound of glass exhibits shatter behind her. A grappling hook flies out from the talons attached to Parrot man's feet to hit Trigger but she backflips out of the way, the claw grabs a bronze statue of a walrus, the talons retract and smack Parrot man in the face dissoriating him, Bullet shifts into a long rifle that Trigger blasts launching him back into a wall.

"talk about shooting a bird while he's down"

"well like" Trigger paused thinking of a comeback

"JUST CONTINUE BEATING WHILE HE'S DOWN!" Bullet shouts

"right right"

Trigger fires more, as Parrot man covers himself using his wings as shields.

Parrot man gets back up, his mighty thrusters roaring as he rises back into the air as a ,red and green, megaphone like apparatus rises from his chest to his mouth. He shouts releasing a large sonar blast knocking down everyone in the museum, the sound pins down Trigger as she struggles to aim at the feathered fiend, she fire's three shots missing each, until the fourth one hits Parrot man's Thruster™ causing him to crash into the ground.

"See citizens you shouldn't have feared, hope you didn't cause that would be dumb"

Trigger stops as she hears the sound of a car pull up outside and a familiar voice shouts,

"Chief Justice is here to save the day"

*fuck*, Trigger thought.

"corpos"

Bullet whispers as the two make their escape through the shattered window into the night.

[kimberlyannharts]

“I’ve treated you as a soldier Billy”

I’m biting through steel why are we still doing this

Can I take this opportunity to say that The Return commented on the whole "child soldier" thing in a way that was subtle and nuanced without completely demonizing the entire concept of the show

[kidrat]

having feelings about trans Gwen,,, like there's the 'superhero leading a double life' allegory for being closeted, which ppl have noted, but there's plenty I haven't seen anyone mention yet! like, the fact her dad has a trans patch in support of her means she's out.

She's a young trans *girl* (as opposed to a trans woman) living as her authentic gender in a loving home. she went to her school dance in a dress. she did ballet! which of course boys can do too, but often times when people are assigned male they don't get the chance to explore feminine hobbies. It's really lovely that someone, likely Gwen's dad, supported her enough to let her have those girly experiences and memories, whether she was living as a girl when she took dance up or as a gnc boy.

While it's subtle rep, I still think it's awesome to imply a character like Gwen is trans. Trans girls don't always get to have a childhood. Transmisogyny fetishizes transfems and presents them as always victimisers, never victims. They're barred from girlhood and it's connotations of innocence, vulnerability, lovableness.

Not that Gwen isn't a hashtag strong female character! And not that she hasn't had to grow up fast in other ways. She Is Literally Spiderwoman and she plays the drums and has agency and expresses negative emotions. But she's also a teenager, and she gets to be hugged and comforted, and to be set up for a soft friends to lovers relationship with another teenager, a cis boy who respects her and only knows her as a girl and thinks she's amazing and draws her in his sketchbook. That is not a role the media often lets trans girls have!!! It's lovely to think young transfems might be able to see themselves in a character consistently shown as worthy of affection.

Of course, the fact that Gwen is in the closet about being spider-woman is even sadder knowing this is her second rodeo. Lots of us have hesitated to come out a second time because our parents were supportive about the first thing and well, putting something else on them feels like taking the piss or hoping for too much.

Something else I wanted to talk about is how Gwen being trans effects a reading of her Peter's death, especially taking into account the new information this film gave us about this. There's this gendered switch happening, where Peter passes on his usual role to a woman. What's more, he has to die for her story to happen. She loves him, and never wanted him to die, but she's blamed for it anyway. Her father talks affectionately about the dead Peter, calling him his daughter's best friend. He talks about him like a son. He vows revenge on Gwen for killing him. It's a fantastic allegory for how some transphobic parents hate their out trans children for 'killing' the kid they had before.

I think with the above in mind, maybe we can see the subtext of Gwen's arc with her dad in this film as that of a supportive parent who's nevertheless got some biases left that hurt his trans daughter, who doesn't speak up for fear his acceptance is conditional.

I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that protecting a trans daughter is this Captain Stacy's motivation while he's working as a cop. Obviously there's the text that he wants to be a 'good cop' to work against the institution's bigotry, and he displays the trans flag on his work jacket. His quitting the police is a fantastic story beat because it makes a point about the real world while also serving a lot of the analogies going on.

Good cops quit. They realise you can't be a well intentioned cog in a bigoted machine. It doesn't matter if you're a bigot or just taking actions a bigot might because you're working within parameters set by bigots. It's an important message. Within a trans reading of the film, I'd also see this plot moment as Stacy realising he can't protect his trans daughter if he's still playing by the rules of a society that see her as threatening and duplicitous. He's then able to stop seeing her on some level as having killed his son.

They're able to be close again because he has completely rejected the cis culture he was a part of, rather than just decrying the worst parts and slotting Gwen in. She no longer has to worry that he'll rescind his acceptance if she's too trans, and so he gets to know all of her because she can let him into her world without self-editing.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on Gwen after watching Across The Spiderverse two hours ago lmao.

[fandomnerd9602]

The One I Want

Laura Kinney x Spiderpool!Reader

For @deafeningsharkslimeempath

Do you know that one moment where you just feel like you screwed everything up spectacularly? well that happened to me rather recently. Oh sorry where are my manners? my name is (Y/N) (L/N) and on my world I’m known as the spectacularly annoying Spider-Pool. The spectacularly annoying part is debatable.

You see it all started when the TVA zapped me into the void, something about being an anomaly, a profane and unholy combination of both Spider-Man and Deadpool. Honestly, it’s just the best of both worlds in my book or it would be a book if I wasn’t more than just one panel in comic book of the spider verse. True story look it up.

Or it could’ve been the fact that I killed Jared Leto, oh not Morbius. I’m saying I literally killed Jared Leto. It was an accident. I thought I was going after Morbius but oh well.

To make a long story short, I was forced to team up with X-23 or Laura as she likes to be called. One of my all time favorite X-Men characters by the way!

Anyway we found ourselves at an agreement, if I got her back to her timeline and out of the Void she would help me do the same. A good deal all things considered. The only downside is the TVA is so flip floppy. I mean one show it’s the villain the next show it’s good? Fiege, please make up your mind about what the TVA is?!

“You’re sure this plan of ours will work?” Laura told me as we drove thru the woods towards the reported base of the resistance found in the Void.

“If it works, I’ll be happily back in my world by this time tomorrow, Fun Size” Laura’s eyes went wide and she slammed on the brakes, nearly sending me flying into the windshield.

“If?! What do you mean if?!” She was screaming at me. My mind could only formulate the truth. I thought truth telling was Captain America's problem?!

"The TVA are hunting me and I need to get back home to save my world." Oh yeah it all came out like a big old truth salad. A truth salad that you order from Pizza Hut and immediately regret.

Laura began screaming and banging her fists against the steering wheel, "Are you fucking kidding me?! Out of all the spider totems to get stuck in the Void with and I end up with you!"

Oh I knew exactly where this was heading. A teenage superhero such as myself could only baton down the hatches and listen as this beautiful teenage fighting machine chewed me out. How is this both the most embarrassing and fulfilling moment of my life?

"I end up with the biggest fuck up in the multiverse! A spider-deadpool equivalent that couldn't save his Aunt May or Uncle Ben. Twice!"

It's true. I even somehow got my universe's Sean Bean killed. Yes. That Sean Bean. He wasn't even playing my Uncle Ben or anything!

Laura continued her little tirade, "No wonder the Spider Society turned you down! And the Avengers too! You can't save anyone or anything. Your world hates you! The girls you were supposed to love hate you! Mary Jane couldn't stand you. Gwen probably enjoyed death more than you!"

I could feel the anger rising up in the pit of my heart.

"The greatest joke is that no matter how much you wish for death to be with Gwen, you can't die! And it's one of God's greatest jokes on us instead of you!!!"

I was left in stone cold utter silence. I could feel my vision beginning to turn as red as my outfit.

"What?! No witty comeback?!"

"I'm going to fight you now" was all that left my mouth. And you know what? I meant it. Every. Last. Fucking. Word.

"Oh are you-?" THWIP! I shot one of my web guns, a web flew right over her mouth. The anger immediately flared in her eyes. Next thing I knew she lunged at me, claws out.

She grabbed my head and slammed it several times against the car radio. I grabbed her and gently pushed her against the driver seat. Hey I may be in a fight for my life but I’d still never hurt a woman.

Laura took one of her claws and ran it over the web, cutting it. I really should have taken Fictional Chemistry to understand that admantium is stronger than webs.

“This is ridiculous! I can’t hurt a girl!”

“A girl can hurt you!” She retorted before driving her claws in my lungs.

I kicked her straight thru the windshield of the Odyssey and into the forest in front of us. She simply smirked and dove right back thru. I had to admire her tenacity and endurance.

That admiration was interrupted with the familiar feeling of Adamantium being driven straight thru me, over and over.

She began muttering something in Spanish. Sadly I didn’t have the subtitles on so I couldn’t exactly know what she was saying. My Spanish only goes as far as my name: la piscina de aranas.

I pinned her to the second row seats, which were flattened like my heart was after the dog’s death in John Wick.

Laura simply laughed and kicked me straight thru the roof of the Honda. I landed on the roof with a sickening thud and rolled off, hitting the forest floor.

Laura, ever the tease, looked at me thru the window and gave me a come at me signal. “I am a teenage superhero,” I found myself wondering, “how am I terrified and yet so turned on?”

I pulled out my punch daggers and dived right thru the side window.

We traded blows and slashes. She let out a few huffs and groans. She straddled me and begins driving her claws repeatedly, coating the interior with a lovely shade of my blood.

She paused and looked at me in concern, “is that a Glock in your pocket?!”

“I never keep a Glock in there” I laughed before pulling out another gun, “I keep a Desert Eagle!”

Blam! Blam! I fired off several shots at her, one of which hit her rib and the other hit one of her claws.

“That all you got?” She asked me thru gritted teeth.

I grabbed my web gun and shot off several shots, encasing one of her arms in a giant web. She cut right thru it and lunges at me again. She forced us into the remaining back third row. Yeah the Odyssey has three rows. Three rows of get your freak on.

Next thing I knew Laura was looking at me with those brown eyes of hers. It had a mixture of anger and... Wait what was that? Is that lust?!

Well I guess it was. Because the next thing I knew she was driving her claws into the sides of the seats to my left and my right and then she kissed me full on lip lock with teeth hitting mine lip lock. Holy Stan Lee!

Each little growl that escaped her mouth was like a bit of heaven, a symphony to my ears, and quite possibly a fear of hell.

“I…uhh…” my brain tried to comprehend the exact situation that I was going through. It was something so great and yet so terrifying and couldn’t help it intrigue me even more.

“You talk too much” was her only response before she continued her onslaught of kisses. And boy was she right.

She shoved me down onto the remaining back seat, her lips never leaving mine. I began rubbing little circles into her back as the Honda continued rocking back and forth.

It was night by the time we had worked thru all of our differences…and no we did not go any farther than a PG-13 would allow.

Laura nuzzled me, laying against my chest. We shared a bottle of Coke that we found earlier. I gotta admit, besides the whole trying to kill me thing, I could really see a long partnership with her. Both crime fighting and in private.

“I’m sorry” she whispered. “It’s not your fault. The TVA is just the worst.”

“Yeah” I agreed, “sorry I shot you with a Desert Eagle”

Laura simply smirked and held up the bullet before dropping it on the Honda’s floor. “I’ll help you get back home”

“I’ll make sure you have a home to get back to.” I smiled at her and gave her forehead a little kiss.

“Aww” a new voice broke the silence. Laura and I turned to see Deadpool and Wolverine staring at us from outside the Honda.

“Young love” Deadpool chimed in.

OK, so not exactly how I was expecting this whole date to go, but I gotta say turn out better than I thought it would. And what can I say the Honda Odyssey really fucks.

[luffyrose]

We're back with another dc x dp, coming to you this time on my phone while hang in off the back of my couch. Is blood rushing to my head? Yes.

Either way, I had a random thought about how personally as a child, I was a little monkey, like if my parents had actually had the thought to put me in gymnastics I would probably be a menace to society. And so my thought was, what if Danny was like that too?

Danny had always been very hyper, like, bounce of the walls, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON THE FRIDGE-" kind of hyper. When he started to climb, hang, flip, and just about break something just to have some fun, Jazz finally tried to get their parents to sign him up for gymnastics.

They didn't.

Both had been very happy at the idea, but when it came down to it, they just forgot. And one time without actually paying attention to the two, said gymnastics was for girls, ultimately shattering Danny's budding hobby. Jazz of course didn't just let that dream go, instead finding anything she could to let him learn on his own, at the very least, she made sure he was capable enough to pick it up in his teenage years should he finally get a chance to take classes.

That didn't end up happened either.

He'd died, become Phantom, accidentally become Crown Prince of the Infinite realms, and now had to deal with superheroes realizing that something was up in Amity. More specifically, a credible news reporter finally came to the town and settled the real or not debate in one swift "WTF IS THAT-" upon seeing a giant robot hunter thing(it was Skulker).

Along with all that, his parents, or more specifically his mother, was finally noticing something was wrong. Almost two years after he died, she finally took a second to look at him, and was disturbed. So Danny, being optimistic as he can be, tries to tell them, which goes horribly wrong and ends in a lab explosion and Danny 'stuck' in the Ghost Zone. Really Jazz blew the portal up after reaching her own breaking point and immediately called CPS on her parents since Danny was never gonna come back to them.

Danny all ouchy, there goes my parents because the two destroyed their blood bond by intentionally aiming to harm him instead of the weird loophole they'd been in before. Clockwork being Clockwork yeets him over to Gotham, giving Jazz a note about it.

Over in Gotham, he's actually thrown right from a portal in the aky hurdling down toward one of the city's rogues. Whoever it is, the Batfam are like "wtf-" at the clearly confused child that suspiciously looks like they're one of the Waynes, and so they just take him back. Doesn't help that they're worried since he just got thrown from who knows where and definitely did not take that fall well- also doesn't help that he's clearly bleeding and severely injured.

Danny, after Alfred forces him to rest from injuries, is so hyper. His hyperness had gone into his vigilantism, so now with nothing to deter it, he was going crazy and he felt so stiff.

Cue one of the sibkings walking in to find the kid hanging dangerously off something and just going "hi". Dick has a new favorite(not really he still loves all his siblings the same...maybe Damian and new kid are a smidge higher, but they're younger so it doesn't count).

When he takes the kid to the gym in their house, he is literally running around and getting onto everything. Now Dick has accidentally acquired little acrobatic brother that he's determined to help out with getting better.

Best part, Danny doesn't even realize the others are like "welp he's family now" and is just thinking they're very nice for being rich. He doesn't trust Bruce too much though, sure rich people's mids could be chill(take Sam for example) but parents themselves were iffy.

No one knows how to react to the truth bombs he randomly drops without even realizing it either.

Dick, watching Danny haning upside down from a bar for the last like 10 minutes: whatcha doin buddy?

Danny: thinking about my parents.

Damian, who's also been watching the whole tome but would never admit it: Your parents?

Danny, yeeting himself off the bar with no sense of self preservation: yeah, they told me they'd sign me up for gymnastics. Never did. Claimed it was only for girls. Although I think that was the same day our oven came alive on accident and almost set me on fire so...they were pretty distracted.

Dick, staring in actual horror for many reasons: What?!

Damian, also horrified but not showing it as much: Your oven came alive...?

Danny, who still isn't paying attention and already having forgotten what he said: how do you do that thing you showed me earlier?

[byers-bowlcut]

Mike’s love for El being platonic, and not romantic, and realizing it over the course of season 3 reconciles nearly every contradiction with his behaviour.

He stands like a gay scarecrow as she kisses him in front of Will’s closet. That's him realizing that when he blurted out "I love her and I can't lose her again!" he meant it platonically. But her saying "ily too” WAS CLEARLY NOT PLATONIC, so now he’s left very confused (If he was simply shocked by the fact that she overheard him, he would’ve been surprised initially, and then kissed her back, and been all emotional and happy. But he wasnt.) 

In fact he probably realized his heart fluttered when Will said “not possible” to him in the scene literally 1 minute prior, but NOT when his gf was attempting to make out with him? That’s clearly a problem! lol

This leads flawlessly into season 4.

Mike has apparently been refusing to even write the word 'love’ in his letters for 6 whole months. Why? Cause he didn't want them to look like love letters.

Meanwhile, he’s jealous of Will painting something for a girl. So he argues with Will about growing apart.

El argues with him about not saying ily. In the fight, he deflects romantic connotations with words like “care” and superhero idolization that he seems suuuper into this season.

He NODS when Will says “What if they don’t like the truth?”. That’s him thinking “Yeah, El won’t like the truth that I don't return her romantic feelings.”

In the van, he says their meeting was dumb luck and anyone could've been there for her that night. That’s hinting that he was just being a decent human. Not that it was a fated love at first sight meeting.

Then Will says, “You’re afraid of losing her”. And THAT is the true issue here.

This whole concept of ‘losing El’ (be it in relationship/daily life, or in death), is scary to Mike, because of what he went through seasons 1-2. At 12 years old, he saw another kid that he developed a bond with, die right in front of his freaking eyes. But they didn’t have a body or anything. So Mike kept getting signs and intuitive feelings that she was still alive. So he questioned his own sanity. For a WHOLE YEAR. Can you imagine how traumatic that is? And then for a kid that age?? That’s exactly why he develops an unhealthy codependency with her in Season 3. And we see it have a negative impact on the unity of the party, and on Will.

But a traumatic response doesn’t change the fact that Season 3 transitions us through the party’s puberty and growth into teenage hood. 

And because of said puberty, Mike starts to realize what actual attraction towards someone is, or in this case… isnt.

Like if we think about the first two seasons, for a 12-13 year old living in that type of society, era, and a picture perfect white suburban American family, it would’ve been really really hard to figure it out back then! Like simply becoming very close friends with the opposite gender caused everyone (cough Nancy cough Lucas) to tell him that “ooooh you must like her”. So yeah, he thinks “I really must like her”. Because he does! He just can’t separate it from actual romantic attraction at that point due to age, and strong heteronormative standards, and no role models like Jonathan telling him “it’s okay to stray from the norm bro”. So of course he acts on it? That’s the NORM. He’s like, “You’re supposed to take a girl you like to the ball”, “We're supposed like girls now”, “This is what growing up means”, “This what old people do”. Like HELLO? Mike says stuff similar to that constantly. Dustin and Lucas do not. So yeah, it can be easily be read as heteronormativity. Not romantic attraction!

And so despite wanting to spend every day in the summer with El because of copious amounts of trauma from S1-2, he can’t continue believing its romantic attraction when his hormones say otherwise. 

Like just look at their kissing scenes S3-4:

Seasons 3 starts with him pulling her hands OFF of him when kissing. He’s voluntarily kissing her instead of spending time with his friends, cause he thinks that’s what he’s supposed to do as he’s “not a kid anymore!”, yet he’s evidently not even enjoying it if he’s taking her hands off lol. Then by the end of the season he doesn’t even kiss back, and has his eyes wide open. Then six months later, when he’s way more self aware of his own feelings, this dude wears SUNGLASSES to the airport. We (and all the characters there) can’t even see his true expression when kissing her. And what’s more, he puts the bouquet of flowers between their bodies, to SEPARATE FASTER. When he could’ve very easily put that hand/arm around her, not between them (that's what he does with his other hand holding the bags).  

And all of this: all this repression, the contradictions, the unsaid things... it all culminates to the monologue. Will told Mike in the van that El really needed him. And then Will reminds him of this again when El is in the piggyback, cause Will is annoying! (jokes lol). So of course, all rationality, all of Mike's realizations or progression, goes out the window. After all, he is THE HEART. He is needed by her. He can’t go through what he went through in season 1-2 again! It doesn’t matter if it’s not totally true. He needs to tell her what she wants to hear so she won’t DIE. The stakes are extremely high. So he delivers. He even takes all his knowledge of mediocre romance stories, and blurts out that it was love at first sight. It's silly to us the audience, cause if you actually go back and watch season 1 you can see that it's not even fucking true. 

So why would he lie? Well because he doesn’t KNOW when he fell in love with El. Because he never fell in love with her. So yeah. It’s PLATONIC with a capital P.

(And to add a cherry on top, he gives his sister’s ring to her jfc) 

[pikahlua]

I don’t agree with everything said here but: [link removed]

For context, someone sent me a link to a post about elements of fascism and copaganda they feel are present in MHA. I've removed the link for anonymity purposes.

I have no interest in responding to this essay point-by-point. As a brief, BRIEF, BRIEF summary, the linked post makes claims such as:

MHA is pro-authoritarian

MHA is pro-cop

MHA doesn't have these elements promoting fascism on purpose but the elements are there regardless

MHA's ending endorses philosophies it previously criticized

MHA readers who don't pick up on these things lack critical thinking

MHA's hero system is comparable to the fascistic element described in Umberto Eco's "Ur-Fascism" that "everybody is educated to become a hero"

Nothing in MHA's hero society changes

They say a lot of stuff I really don't see as relevant at all, a lot of nonspecific platitudes and philosophical nothings. They frame the story in MHA as if it says a lot of stuff or does a lot of things that I personally don't see or agree that it does. It also goes on to talk about elements in the story it fails to explore like themes of child soldiers and punishment before crime.

I appreciate that the post acknowledges they see these elements in MHA as unintentional. That makes it easier for me to consider their POV and understand where they're coming from.

That said, my response can only be: it's not that deep.

If I want to, I can read elements of ANYTHING into any story. It's very easy to do. There are whole arms of literature study basically dedicated to reading certain philosophical angles into stories that they know are not intended elements in said stories. But there needs to be some self-awareness here before we take anything that far. Equating heroism in MHA to Humberto Eco's concept of a cult of heroism that equals a cult of death is just another version of the same take I've debunked before. I don't agree with the essay's interpretation of this theme at all. My impression is THEY had a certain reading on MHA in its earlier arcs that conflicts with later arcs, but I have a reading that reads the arcs as harmonious. We are at too many odds here.

But because I acknowledge that the major difference between me and this essayist is that we have VERY different readings of MHA in the first place, I don't really wanna take the time to answer all of their points. They all clearly come from a logical place based on their own interpretation, and I don't see anything wrong with that. If that's their reading, they are welcome to it. It's a little obnoxious to claim the rest of us lack critical thinking just because we don't point out these elements they see as fascistic. To me, the stuff they identify that fuels their branching criticisms is stuff hopefully everyone has to acknowledge before they even start reading the shounen genre. I have to suspend my disbelief in the first place when I'm reading about superheroes as a social system. I have to suspend my disbelief in a shounen action manga where the fate of the world is at stake. These are things we all have to understand going in. Not every story aimed at young teenage boys is going to have the space to explore the nuance in all these social systems. It's just not that deep.

So is MHA copaganda? Setting aside the dissonance of comparing western forms of copaganda to Japanese shounen manga forms, sure, fine--so far as the story depicts an organization, particularly one with law enforcement powers, as not wholly incompetent or corrupt goes. But like, the story itself does pose the question of whether the existence of this organization (the heroes) is necessary, which is posing the fundamental question of anti-copaganda at the narrative too. The question is, what answer to this question do we get from the ending? You can read the ending as, "Everyone needs to be heroes (cops)," or you can read it as, "Everyone needs to be good to each other and then the hero system becomes unnecessary," but no matter what, the ending still says, "The hero institution as it is is not the answer." This is what I mean about gradualism and collectivism easily being co-opted by fascism or by socialism. MHA does basically say, "The current system sucks, so we have to change it," and then changes it. It's just not a satisfying change for anyone who wanted a radical revolution. Gradualism is a position that has MANY critics for this exact reason.

But even on the topic of gradualism, I think it would be a mistake to say that MHA teaches us, "Only incremental change is possible." The way I read its themes are that it's saying "Trying is important; even when all you can achieve turns out to be incremental, it's still worth trying."

As for the themes of collectivism in MHA, collectivism can easily read like paternalism to a western (white) audience, which is a whole other issue. This is why there's so much debate about whether or not people are coming from a place of good faith when their criticisms don't seem to acknowledge the eastern philosophies at play in MHA. In truth, I would be hard-pressed to name an anime that doesn't have an ending that feels weird to me. Every single anime ending I know has an element I find confusing or disquieting or off, and my conclusion has been to acknowledge that anime isn't made with me in mind as its audience. Oftentimes, stuff happens in anime that just doesn't jive with my upbringing, but I recognize it is coming from a different worldview that my upbringing has often caricatured as evil and oppressive and wrong without any nuance. It highlights for me how the media from my general worldview must also look ridiculous at times to others not in the know. So while I think it's perfectly acceptable to point out elements that do seem fascistic in any media and to stay vigilant about them, I do also take care to be open-minded about learning what other things may be going into these stories that could provide a completely different perspective.

As @siflshonen would say, sometimes all I can do is say, "I'm too western for this," and move on.

[mirrored-movements]

Home Pt.1

(Yandere!Miguel O'Hara x F!Reader)

Synopsis: You've always had the ability to travel through universes, there was never a reason as to why and you never paused to question it. However, there was someone else who began to question it.

Warnings: Idk None?

Part 2 Here

“Stop running! It’ll make things a lot easier!”

“Well stop chasing me!”

Brightly coloured portals opened one after another, only allowing you a second to peer around the surrounding dimension before another took its place quickly after entering another portal.

Your heart thundered from within your chest; shoes skidding across the cement sidewalk of the Renaissance-type dimension you’d ended up in. The painted civilians quickly moved out of the way- now whether it was because of you or your pursuer you didn’t know.

How in the hell did you even end up in this situation you may ask?

Easily actually. (Not really though- buckle up because its a long story)

Since the day you were born and since every day after that you were blessed with an ability that nobody else seemed to have. The ability to traverse the multiverse. It was an accident at first, back when you were a teenager you’d accidentally opened up a portal; the brightly colored tunnel nearly calling to you.

And, like an idiot- you dove in. The need for an adventure nagging at the back of your mind despite not knowing what would become of it.

The multiverse was vast, full of things you’d never seen and people you’d never met.

Talking animals, flying cars, dinosaurs, and the ones that seem to enamor you the most? Superheroes. You never thought they’d actually exist however in the amount of time you’d spend traveling around you’d come across your fair share of them.

Few spared you merely a wave as though you were one of their many adoring fans while others- others weren’t as friendly as you’d hoped. It seemed like a few people were aware of the multiverse, the categories of aliens, sorcerers, and a collection of arachnid-themed heroes namely- your experiences with them remain mixed as it seemed some particularly didn’t like the thought of someone from another universe stepping into theirs.

You did, however, end up meeting a particularly friendly individual. He was hesitant at first which was a given when you appeared out of nowhere, however, he seemed to understand the multiverse more than those you’ve met previously- the reason being he himself had traveled through it.

Albeit accidentally but the man couldn’t help but mention how there was a society of others who did the same.

Spider-people is what you learned the “club” was formed up of; a general ‘I was bitten by a spider and have powers now’ group of people who each protected their fair shares of dimensions.

“What I do wonder though is how you travel around?” He couldn’t help but inquire on that, the spider-sense he possessed hadn’t quite tingled in the way it normally did around other spider-like individuals, leading him to question you. It wasn’t like you had a watch like he did either.

“Oh, I can just-” Raising a hand you waved it through the air, a brightly coloured tunnel popping up quickly before closing just as fast as it opened. “Make them appear.”

This spurred on a list of questions, all of which the man openly asked before groaning as his phone had seemingly gone off. “Sorry about that. I have to pick up Mayday from daycare.” 

Recalling how he excitedly told you about his daughter you nodded your head in understanding, hand waving. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll see you around Peter.” Upon raising your hand another portal had opened, and you jogged towards it with a smile disappearing with a flash.

You thought Peter was a good person, and thought his daughter was cute- however he on the other hand wasn’t sure what to think about you. You seemed nice, no malice could be detected however he wasn’t sure about the ability you possessed.

During his time working in the multiverse, he thought something like that was impossible for an individual to have- even more so that you could just freely move back and forth without glitching.

Did that mean anything? He wasn’t sure.

He wasn’t sure at all.

--

“She can- What?”

Absentmindedly following after his escapee of a daughter Peter spoke once again, his tone nonchalant. “Yeah, so she can just wave her hand around and open up portals to wherever- Mayday! Come back here.” The aforementioned baby had quickly begun crawling up a pillar as he tried to explain.

Rolling back his shoulders from where he stood among an elevated platform the tall man let out an exasperated breath, red and blue clad hand raising to pinch the bridge of his nose. “This doesn’t make sense, surely there was som-”

“There was no device Miguel, nothing at all. Nope, nada, zip, just a wave and boom portal. Wasn’t even like how those wizards open them either- I don’t think they can access the multiverse with those rings.”

“Sorcerers, and if there's no device then there has to be something else, a normal person can’t do that.” Miguel emphasized his words trying to show that this should be something they should worry about. Someone with the capability to jump from world to world could inevitably lead to the whole thing potentially collapsing.

And he couldn’t have that.

“Lyla,” At the mention of her name the AI quickly popped in, her hands laced behind her back awaiting what he was going to ask. “Scan for any anomalies, narrow it to ten-second intervals nothing larger than that.”

“I don’t really see a probl-” “You know what the problem is.” Cutting Peter off Miguel stared down at the man, lips pursed into a fine like before his shoulders relaxed a little and he sucked in a breath. “Better safe than sorry.”

Turning his attention back to the holographic screens before him, Miguel clenched his jaw a little at the lack of data, a short glare being sent to the floating AI who merely shrugged. “Doesn’t seem like anything showing up.”

Leaning onto the keyboard he thought for a second, eyes glancing back to Peter who had finally rangled Mayday back into her carrier. “She was in your dimension, right?” Calling out he watched the man give a nod, attention quickly moving back to Lyla. “Check anything on Earth-616B.”

“There is one signature. Looks like,” Moving her hands across the air Lyla enlarged the small red dot. “She’s on Earth-199999.” At the mention of that specific place, both men seemed to let out a groan, Miguel right away pointing a hand toward Peter. “Since you found this out you go.”

“What? But I hate that place, they’re so- Patriotic.” Receiving a quick glare his complaining stopped, hands raising in surrender. “Fine. Fine. But you’re watching Mayday.”

“I didn’t agree to tha-” “I’ll be back!”

--

Having been wandering around for a while you couldn’t help but yawn, this universe seemed to have its fair share of action however it didn’t quite strike you as interesting- maybe a little overcrowded by heroes but you digress.

With your hands laced behind your back, you followed the park's pathway only stopping as someone had run over to you, the appearance of Peter caused you to smile and it seemed as though things were getting interesting as the man quickly explained that the leader of the aforementioned spider society would like to meet with you.

Scary yet exciting, you were inclined to accept the invite wanting to know what this whole thing was about as well as craving a little more excitement.

More than just traversing dimensions.

This time around you let Peter open up a portal, the spider suit-clad man using what seemed to have been a futuristic watch in order to do so quickly motioning for you to follow.

Upon stepping foot into the HQ building, you couldn’t help but stare in awe. As briefly mentioned all types of spider-people littered the building, and by littered you meant they were everywhere; on the ceiling, walls, swinging around on webs- everything.

“Oh, before we go see Miguel I’ll just pass you this.” Digging into the pocket of his robe Peter passed you a small blue wristband, a look of ‘I know I know’ passing over his face at the questioning look you’d given him. “It’s a day pass. Usually, we use it for other reasons but in this case, it’s so everyone knows you’re a guest here.”

At the explanation, you gave him a nod slipping on the flimsy wristband, trailing alongside the brunette as he pointed here and there practically giving you a tour all the while heading towards where you’d assumed this boss was.

“Is Miguel this guys name or..” 

Noting how you trailed off he nodded right away. “Oh yeah Miguels his name, pretty scary at first but I assure you he’s just secretly a big teddy bear- kinda.”

Reassuring.

“Comforting.” Musing that out with an eye roll the two of you entered into a large room, the vast majority of it was dark in colour save for some royal blue highlights a dimly lit orange screens. Your eyes followed where Peter looked seeing a platform sitting within the center of the room, the large piece beginning to drift down. “So why am I here again.” Keeping your tone low and hoping for some light to be shed on the situation another voice other than Peters had answered.

The tone of it was gruff but clear enough to call out from the descending platform. “You’re here so we can find out if you are a threat or not.”

“A threat?” Taken aback at the implication you gestured to yourself for a moment despite the platform still lowering and despite this Miguel still making what you’d call a ‘grand appearance.’ Throughout your years of dimension jumping you had yet to actually do something illegal. “I’d like to think I’m the least threatening person you’ll meet.”

Finally, the platform had lowered enough for you to see the man standing among it. His tall stature right away shouted ‘authority’ as muscle clearly rippled beneath his neon red and dark blue suit. His face was stoic, chiseled features were framed by moderately messy brown locks all the while dark brown hues nearly stared through you, an off-red tint to the colour.

Despite how intimidating he seemed your gaze couldn’t help but drift down towards his hands seeing them holding a familiar small red-haired child like how someone would pick up a cat. The little girl's gaze lit up almost instantly upon seeing Peter, who in turn right away moved to step onto the platform once it had almost merged with the floor. Coos left the man as he right away scooped up his daughter from the other man.

“Look who it is! Look it’s your friend! Yay!” Pointing towards where you stood Peter began to rile Mayday up, the small baby giggling while they neared, her small hand inevitably reaching out to you.

Forgetting the whole purpose of the visit for a second you and Peter were only brought back when Miguel loudly cleared his throat, a disapproving look quickly crossing his face as he’d crossed his arms unamused.

Waiting for the two of you to quiet down he stepped off his platform, the souls of his suit padding against the ground as he moved to loom before you. “Back to what I was saying.” Pausing to make sure you were listening he continued. “We need to make sure you’re not an anomaly. Something that could cause a disruption in the multiverse.”

“One wrong step and you could cause it to collapse.”

Taking in what he’d said you swallowed thickly, you hadn’t really thought much of your dimension jumping, however with what he was saying you supposed they had a right to be worried.

“And how do you make sure that doesn’t happen?”

Uncrossing his arms he rested them on his hips, eyes regarding you with a mix of interest and caution. “We do some tests. Either way you’ll be here for awhile.”

This had you raising a brow in question. “What? Why?”

“Because if you decline to do some tests we’ll have to assume you are an anomaly and would have to be locked up whereas if you comply to do them we can figure out the actual answer to your…ability.” Explaining that he quirked his head to the side, gaze intently focused on you as if expecting you to decline to take the harsher route.

Glancing towards Peter as if for reassurance the man have a quick shrug followed by a short nod, his mouth forming the words ‘you’ll be fine’ as though that would persuade you.

Weighing your options your gaze moved back towards the looming man before you, lips pursed together in thought.

It wouldn’t hurt to know more about your ability…however, if it did come up that you were an ‘anomaly’ who’s to say you wouldn’t be imprisoned anyways.

“Alright,” Noting how Miguel opened his mouth to speak you cut in right away. “But I have a question.”

As if amused by your current state Miguel hummed, hand gesturing loosely in the air. “Ask away.”

“What if you do these tests and I don’t come out as an anomaly? What happens then?”

Pursing his lips at this his hands fell to his sides, mind pondering over the seemingly simple question before producing an almost equally simple answer.

“We send you home.”

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

<Unedited>

If you can't tell reader's ability is heavily inspired by America from MOM (Multiverse of Madness). Low key wondered what Miguel would think of it but also- I literally need more yandere Miguel fics like PLEASE HE HAS FANGS AND CLAWS DAMN IT

[beyondthisdarkhouse]

Feeling really nostalgic about July 17-18, 2008, the last time I believed in Joss Whedon

It was just cool, you know? Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog dropped in three separate pieces over the course of the week. We'd get 15 minutes of story, and then two days to froth over the whys and wherefores in Livejournal comments before the next piece came out. And those days were so good.

Buffy fans are so fucking smart, y'all. They could combine academic rigor with unselfconscious fangirl squee. Squee was a hermeneutical method, a mode of interrogating the text--one we often dismiss and diminish, because if there's anything grosser than teenage girls getting goopy over a vampire they like, it's 30 or 50 or 70-year-old women getting goopy over a vampire they like. But it's similar to what I've seen called a "redemptive reading". You approach a piece of media specifically looking for its best parts, the pieces you love the best, and you allow yourself to fully embody the joy of liking something and caroling your joy to other people who like it too. In a perpetually burned-out time, squee can be like a desert oasis.

So the people who liked Buffy and Angel and Firefly watched Doctor Horrible in a manner both squeeful and intersectionally feminist, and saw all the amazing interesting things it was doing, showing how insecure geek masculinity fundamentally self-sabotages the main character, Billy, because the relationship he wants has been there in reach for months, and it's his own perception that he needs to be an alpha male warrior that has kept him from it. It interrogated the entire genre of costumed heroes, with two men thumping their chests and comparing their dick sizes, and none of them doing anything as direct and helpful for their society as Penny, the woman who stands on sidewalks collecting signatures to help a homeless shelter.

Part II came out on July 17, and the series would end with Part III on July 19. So on July 18, I spent most of the day reading Livejournal comments about it. There were all these theories: Maybe Penny was secretly Bad Horse, the archvillain whose approval Billy has craved since the beginning. Maybe she will collapse the love triangle with Billy's rival, Captain Hammer, by acting on her clearly-demonstrated discomfort and dumping him. Maybe Billy will learn that relationships are based on intimacy, not being The Best. Maybe Penny will become a superhero and replace Captain Hammer as Billy's nemesis. Maybe Billy will succeed and rule the world and give Penny Australia.

And then... none of those things happened. Joss Whedon ended the series in a way less progressive, less imaginative, less cool, than even the most half-baked fan theory out there. The story opened up possibilities to break out of an old, tired, toxic set of stories around men and women and sex and heroics, and then hid under a rock rather than change a single one of them.

July 19 was the day I concluded that while Joss Whedon might have his own baggage to work through about toxic masculinity, and artists have the right to make work meaningful to them, he wasn't making art that was meaningful to me. And I basically stopped expecting anything of him.

And then, for years, Buffy fans, educated and squeeful feminists and sharp pop culture critics, got told they were crazy histrionic SJWs for thinking Whedon didn't shit solid gold. For years. (I recently saw a video essay that included the line, "If you have the phrase 'mewling quim' branded onto your memory, you probably need some Metamucil" and, ouch, rude.)

There was so much excitement! A lot of us actually believed in the guy (although even then, there was enough evidence for many people to suspect what we now know to be 100% true about him.)

We wanted it to be good. We wanted to enjoy it.

I miss that feeling.

[yellowocaballero]

One of the many things that I've been doing instead of writing are these damn manwha binges and Villain To Kill is literally so funny. The comic premise is straightforward action, think Tokyo Ghoul meets Solo Leveling - local Genetically Superpowered Superhero Cop working for corrupt Hero Organization gets #betrayed and #murdered and is reincarnated into the body of a Genetically Superpowered Villain Teenager so now he has to join up with all the other villain superpower people to get justice.

It's so 5/10. Cassian is extremely OP and the story isn't well-written enough to pull that off well. The worldbuilding is so incredibly nonsensical and weak that it falls apart if you think about it for more than five minutes (tried to write fic for it and failed because I would have had to rework the entire world - which, I could have, but that's a lot of effort for Villain to Kill). The plot is mostly any OP action hero plot where guy gets increasingly powerful by fighting increasingly powerful guys. Cassian himself has almost nothing going on internally, to the point of elegance. And it is somehow the gayest manwha I've ever read.

It's the fucking character designs. And like its narrative but it's the fucking 100/10 character designs. The entire cast's design and characters slam. There's not that much depth but we don't care. You know if we don't like somebody if they look vaguely straight, and you know that we like somebody if they look like they were set to tumble dry in the queerness washing machine. The (great!) women are high femme or hard butch. The corrupt institution assassinated a man Cassian loved and framed & murdered him, at which point he was adopted by a rag-tag bunch of flamboyant homosexuals deemed unacceptable and undesired by society who all teamed up and decided to villainize society in exclusively funny ways and spend most of their time gossiping or hacking the Pentagon. An AFAB character dresses as a man and goes by he/him pronouns half the time for no good reason. Cassian is physiologically incapable of thinking about anything but violence so the heartwarming found family scenario's going over his head, but his Painfully Het Hero Foil Indoctrinated Into Homophobia caught the found family ball and now he's dancing in their gay bars and dressing in drag. There's only a few characters who are explicitly gay but this is gayer than that.

I talked a while back about how important a decent supporting cast is to a good story, and this is yet again good proof. Looking at this, I think I'd go further and say - it's an action manwha, we're reading it for a reason, we don't need character-driven story arcs or really complex characters. I think it's just charisma. A story can go really far on characters with charisma.

TV Shows that are carried on the lead actor (Columbo I love you) - it's because the actor has charisma. You watch it to see the actor hang out being himself. That's way way harder to do in fiction, but I think that "a complex character" isn't necessarily a "charismatic character". I'd rather have a cast of only charismatic characters rather than only complex ones. A story of any genre needs a strong cast of charismatic characters. They can be deep or they can just be chaotic lesbians. Charisma invests the reader in the story and the characters. It's simple but it's really powerful. And it is fucking hilarious how sometimes all you need to do on that front is "Rupaul this shit".

I can't genuinely recommend Villain to Kill and this is not a recommendation. But random stuff always interests me like this, and I really had no idea that I would read 120ch of a manwha bc the designs fuck so hard. Also, like, this is queerest manwha I've ever read. Somehow. Fucking somehow.

[fungicidecarhorn64ad]

The Gallow's Diary

Greetings intrepid readers, if you are reading this I am either dead, proof reading this or have misplaced my diary. If it's the third scenario please return it to where you found it, if you're in the same location you found this as you read this I'm probably in close proximity so please scream as loud as possible to get my attention.

Now onto the meat of this meat pie of a diary, btw meat pie very underrated currently eating one as I write. Now to the topic at hand!

My name is Martyn, code name: The Gallows, for it represents my goal to be a martyr like the freedom fighters of our great country (which is Ireland). It also connects to something I recently discovered about myself, I learned that I have the power to manipulate ropes with my mind, I'm thankful that my name matches up to the powerset I possess.

I know my goal for (motive pending will add later) I can't do it alone, so I gathered a group, nah a society of fellow teens who want to help my crusade for (put motive here).

First we have Clayton, code name: Mud Man, he is my second in command the Sheriff Nottingham to my Prince John he was one of the biggest players in forming my team. His ability to summon mud and substances of the like (ex: rocks, dirt) prove surprisingly useful! He seems to be even able to conjure the materials out of nothing, which granted not much use but is still highly useful in certain circumstances.

Next is Oran, code name: Ouroboros, he seems to be the more technical brains of the group (sometimes he does get a bit annoying) and was able to befriend some extra dimensional snake who can contort itself and the space inside it, the two seem to be in tandem with each other I don't know much of what is going on with it but as they say, never look a gift horse in the mouth or gift snake.

Who's next, oh.... Lance. gonna be brutally honest, he's here to bulk up our numbers. He's not a bad fighter in fact his kicks are extremely deadly, but I feel his love for women might drag us down, but only time will tell. Oh I forgot to say his code name is Chivalry.

Now let's move onto Love, code name: Shoggoth. Love is a recent addition to our school originally from, okay I'm not going to try to write that, anyway she's a being not exactly of our reality (heck I can't even look into her eyes without my sanity shattering) she's quite the punk barely respecting those around her so we obviously added her to the team.

Vespi, code name: The Fig. A shy nerd who I didn't even realise was in this school before she joined this team (turns out we were on the school bowling team together). She possesses the ability to explode (?) Into a wasp and turn back also by exploding, I don't exactly know how that works and hopefully I never do, Love seems to like her and they seem to be getting along.

The final member Annie, code name: Brown Bear. Annie is well to say it nicely off her fing rocker, she's a master engineer designing a bear animatronic mech suit that can destroy most things that stand in it's way and yet I think it's safer for her to be inside it then outside it, she maybe a ball of anger hellbent on getting the world to care about something idk I wasn't paying attention but it's better for her to be on our side then anyone else's.

Anyway so now we need a name and I purpose we call ourselves the Teenage Supervillain Society or the TSS for short hopefully no one is already using this acronym.

Anyway goodnight.

[punkeropercyjackson]

Danny Fenton was such a weak ass protagonist,he was all quips and 'boys will be boys' with the occasional drama llama that happened like twice a season for 8 minutes meanwhile:

Percy Jackson was an autistic kid who felt worthless at 12 already and became suicidal at 16 but was also a bully beater and took direct action against the gods and did activism in the greco-roman myths world by helping out the less privileged sectors of it and is STILL an anarchist in current canon like in the 1st book

Zak Saturday was a black softboy on a show about cryptids and his love interest was a muslim girl that was potrayed as just minor puppy love instead of cosmic soulmates

Kim Possible was a perfect prep but also a girls girl instead of a pick me and a legit superhero even with all the silliness in her plots

Juniper Lee was a brownskin half chinese girl who was as cool and dorky as white male protagonists with her usual character beats do instead of a stereotype

Virgil Hawkins was deadass the FIRST EVER BLACK SUPERHERO CARTOON PROTAGONIST and such a sweet gentle boy but still had major attitude and they didn't soften up african-american experiences at all

Alex from Totally Spies was the baby of her same age team instead of the mom and wasn't masculanized at all and had just as much depth as the other girls

Ichigo Kurosaki was a goth punk traumatized teenage boy of color who actually acted like one instead of just an edgy douchebag and was obsessed with Orihime for being a pastel autistic kindhearted weirdgirl and treated her like the princess she is 24/7 and said fuck the Soul Society's cop ass over and over again and STUCK BY IT

Aang was a tibetan who's show adressed the cleansing the irl ones go through in it's TITLE ALONE and he was potrayed as a ray of hope for his optimism and gender noncormity instead of ridiculed for them and wasn't a fence sitter like wack ass westernizers in the fandom think he is because literally the only reason he didn't Ozai is that homeboy was not only a buddhist but THE LAST SURVIVING IN-UNIVERSE ONE

And you expect to me to care about Danny's boring deadass.Hell Jake Long is just him but not white and with real character development and lore and that's why i'll never fw Danny,boys of color and girls and especially girls of color and actual outcasts did what he did but infinity times better and i don't celebrate his mediocrity because they gave me standards.Danny Phantom was never a good show,he was just 14 and you haven't shut the fuck up since

[hobiebrownismygod]

The Ghost of You Hobie Brown x Fem!Reader

That if I can't be close to you, I'll settle for the ghost of you. I miss you more than life, I miss you more than life.

Synopsis: If he was the reason for your death, not just in his universe, but every other one, weren't you better off without him? A world where you were the Gwen Stacy to Hobie Brown's Spider-man, dead in every universe except for one.

WC: 1.8k

TW: Angst, mentions of loss/death

A/N: Since Hobie doesn't have a specified love interest in the movies, I think it's interesting to think that his Gwen or Mary-Jane might have died. That's why I decided to kind of delve into how he'd react to that, while also stringing along the whole Gwen Stacy is dead in every universe except one concept. Also happy new years!

Taglist: @therealloopylupin2099 @spiderrinn @l0starl @daydreaming-en-pointe @itsparis-07 @vileviale @puff-hugs @lauryn2558 @sunasslut69

Taglist link & Masterlist

It had been exactly two years, seven months, one week and six days since Hobie Brown lost you. Only a couple months ago, had he been accepted into the Spider Society, with hope that he'd be able to see you, or at least a variant of you. Except he never did.

In every other universe, you were dead. It was like he'd lost you in every single way possible, by falling, disease, murder, old age, every single goddamn way.

He must've spent hours and hours poring over the dimensional maps in Miguel's office, searching through his computer for any sign of you, any version of you from any universe. He couldn't find any.

Except for one.

One universe where it said you were alive.

One chance to see you again. And maybe...even go a little further than that.

One reason to gain Miguel's trust and get his own dimensional watch.

You.

And that was the reason that fueled his motivation for months, forcing himself to comply to the Society's standards, forcing himself to conform and smile and be the perfect little superhero the rest wanted. And eventually, he did it.

He got his own watch.

"This is for missions and anomalies only." Miguel had repeatedly told him, obviously still a little suspicious of Hobie's true intentions behind his sudden change of personality.

He'd only nodded in response, a fake smile plastered across his face. He'd snatched the watch without a word, inspecting it and turning it over in his hands as the possibilities flooded his mind.

That night, when Miguel had retreated to his office and the rest of the Spider-people had either gone home or gone to sleep, he'd stayed awake. He'd inputted the location into his watch, coded it to take him to you, and he'd opened up that orange portal that he could only hope would give him back what he'd lost.

He'd quickly been thrown into a dimension that looked like most others, the same old New York most Peter Parkers lived in, with the abundance of traffic and the thousands of people walking and biking through the streets.

The watch had taken him to Central Park, specifically a place where there were tens of little kids playing around, throwing sand at each other and laughing at childish jokes.

Hobie swung his head around furiously, eyes scanning over the entirety of his surroundings to see if he could catch a trace of you, anything that let him know that you were here.

But he didn't see anything. Not a single glimpse.

What?

He'd programmed the watch to take him to you, Y/N L/N, you had to be here. But then of course...just because you were alive, didn't mean you were you. It didn't mean you were the same teenager he'd loved and lost those months ago. You could've been five years old, or fifty, you could've been a superhero or a supervillain, he had no idea who you were.

All he had was hope.

But even that was slowly slipping out of his grasp as he continued to look around wildly, feeling his stomach drop and his throat start to hurt as he swallowed lumps of loss and pain. Maybe...he was wrong.

You weren't there.

And then, someone caught his eye. Hobie watched as a little boy, no more than two or three years old, ran past him, looking strikingly familiar for some reason. When he took a closer look, he noticed the boy's eyes. They looked just like yours. He noticed the boy's smile as he nearly tripped on a rock and continued to toddle along. The smile that belonged to the girl he'd fallen in love with.

Hobie's gaze followed the child as he ran towards the figure of a young woman, sitting on a bench, her face buried in a thick book. When the boy pulled on the hem of her jeans, trying to grab her attention, she looked up. Hobie's breath was knocked away.

Those gentle eyes. That lovely smile. The sparkling laugh that left your lips as you picked the boy up, kissing him on the forehead. Hobie never again saw someone quite like you. To him, you were an angel on earth. An angel's who's wings had been clipped, an angel who'd been sent back to heaven far too early for him to handle.

He couldn't help but stare, mouth slightly agape as the boy squirmed out of your grasp before running back to the playground. Hobie watched as you smiled to yourself, shaking your head slightly before picking the book back up. And then, he looked away when your gaze met his.

He could feel your eyes scanning over the back of his head for a moment, his spider sense tingling his spine, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up as he waited for you to turn back to your book. When you did, he slowly looked back at you, trying to catch his breath.

You weren't the same. You looked older, no longer a teenager, but maybe in your mid-20s. Your hair was longer, your gaze was sharper and your smile had left light lines tracing your mouth. But even then, you looked so similar, Hobie just had to get a closer look.

It'd been so long since he'd seen that face he loved so much.

He quietly walked towards the bench you were sitting at, avoiding your eyes as he sat down a little away from you, keeping his distance. He felt you look at him for a moment before you set your book down. "Are one of them yours?"

He froze as your voice broke the silence, his chest rising up and down rapidly as he slowly turned to look at you, glancing at your hands that were gesturing towards the playground, his eyes wide open. "N-no." He cleared his throat, his voice turning slightly deeper. "No. I just came to...enjoy the weather." He kept his voice quiet, knowing he'd risk ruining the moment if he let the thoughts in his mind leave.

"It's a nice day, isn't it?" You said with a sigh, smiling at him before looking back towards the playground. Hobie continued to watch you, his hands clasped in his lap as he leaned forward slightly, his back no longer touching the bench. He took in your skin, your hair, your hands, every single feature, feeling the knot in his stomach grow and grow with every stolen glance.

"Are one of them yours?" He asked softly, trying to keep a slight smile on his face for your benefit. "Yeah, actually. The little boy in the blue." You pointed towards the swingset, pride flickering through your expression as the child, the one that'd ran past Hobie before, noticed you, waving before continuing to play with his other friends.

"He looks just like you." Hobie murmured, glancing back towards the little boy, who had started running back towards the bench, arms open. "Mommy!" He exclaimed.

You laughed as you picked up the child and pulled him into your lap, the sight sending a warm feeling through Hobie's body. You'd always been so good with kids. The two of you had been young, but he'd always imagined what a life with you would've been like. Having a child together, having a home together, a world Hobie never experienced growing up.

You were his world. He never quite forgave himself for losing you, and that was probably why he was getting so worked up over seeing you with a child right now.

If he'd been just a little faster that day, just a little stronger, would you still be alive? Could there have been a little boy running around with his hair and your smile instead of this one right here? Could he have spent his days kissing, hugging and talking about a life with you instead of simply being left holding his pillow at night, dreaming about it?

Hobie felt you look back towards him and he was snapped out of his trance as he looked back up at you, a half-smile on his face. "You know, you look so familiar but I just can't put my finger on it. Have I met you before?" You asked curiously, pulling the squirming child on your lap a little closer.

"I don't think so." He said, shaking his head. "Maybe in some other universe." He smiled, gaze softening slightly as he swallowed back the lump in his throat again, trying his best to stop himself from letting the tears fall just yet.

"Maybe." You chuckled back, looking down at your son and stroking his hair gently. Hobie squeezed his eyes shut and looked away, unable to take the sight of you anymore. If he stayed any longer, he just might break down.

It was hard seeing you again.

And...you hadn't met him in this universe before. At least if you did, you didn't seem to remember it.

It was ironic, wasn't it? The only world where you were alive, where you were truly happy, was a world where you weren't with him. A universe where he'd never been there to get you hurt, to get you killed, to lose you.

You were happy here.

And he had to accept that. He had to accept that you were better off without him.

He heard someone call your name and he turned his head to look in the direction of where it'd come from, while you did the same. "Oh, my husband's here. I guess it's time for us to go." You said with a smile, waving at the tall man who'd gotten out of his car to wave back at you.

"Yeah, of course." he said quickly, standing up when you did, smiling slightly at your son who was babbling at him, incoherent sentences leaving his mouth in the way most toddlers spoke.

"It was nice meeting you, uh...?" You extended your hand towards him, balancing your son on your hip with the other. He looked down at your hand for a moment, hesitating before he accepted the handshake. "Hobie. Hobie Brown."

You gave him a smile, and his heart broke a little. "It was nice to meet you, Hobie Brown. I'll see you around, maybe?" You suggested. Although you were just being polite, Hobie's heart wrenched and he cleared his throat again, trying to keep his voice from breaking. "I hope so."

"Bye."

Hobie watched you walk away, heading towards the car your husband was standing outside of. He felt his eyes well up slightly and he forced himself to tear his gaze from your retreating back, breathing heavily as he looked back towards the playground.

"Bye, dove." He whispered under his breath before shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his vest, and heading in the opposite direction, searching for a safe space to portal back to HQ and finally leave you behind. For real this time.

"I'll miss you."

[random-conspiracy]

Ok, I'm entering my villain (& heroes!) arch aajshashasa. This stupid fixation of superpowers and fiction comic stories.

WELL, HOT TAKE OF THE DAY:

The majority of superpowers in fiction and oc's are boring because they're straightforward. Picture it, there's aaaaaaaaaaaaaaalways someone with the power of:

Mimic someone's power

Invisivility

Steel skin

Puppeteer or any variation of body and mind manipulation (because *wink wink* we're all edgys and saw creepypastas a lot hashas)

Perhaps fly

Ultra speed

And shit like that ajshashasa. Don't get me wrong, those are amazing superpowers. Even just one person in a normal-esque world is a fucking anomaly and represents a game changer.

HOWEVER it's quite boring and honestly quite lazy. Because oh yes! The evil twisted villain of the wee has the power of... mind control. OH BOY! I fucking wonder what is gonna happen! (sacarsm). Or shadow control powers or super force and you know the rest. WHAT a twist! (/s).

And the same goes for the heroes that GOD forbid they're not teenagers or young adults in well shaped bodies BECAUSE UUUUUUFFFFFFFFFF. Call me crazy but if you can fly I doubt you're using at all your muscles the same way a common person does ahshasa. But why fucking not, we can never have enough twinks and women in spandex, can we? ahshahsa.

There's no twist and creative work in a superheroe or a villain or whatever that has JUST that exact power that conveniently works.

I'm a slut for the characters with random and incoherent powers!

That's where this shit goes hard. Beacuse it's so easy to be a superhero whn you can walk through walls or move at high speed. But what happens when you have the power to deconstruct objetcs? Fly just 50 cm off the groud? Exact knowledge of the pupulation in Taiwan (while you live in Argentina)?

What happens to them??? I wanna see the shenanigans, the creative solutions to abnormal problems! And what happens to the powers that become a burden or that straight up are incompatible with the common society. What happens if you're born without bones? If TV signals sometimes cross without way to evade it into your mind?

I wanna see creative villains. With powers like super healing and bubblegum madness. Concidental induction and urbomancy. Hhahshahsas

The thing is not actually that the pwoers are common or simple, the thing is for me that the weaponization in battle is the number one thought. Like, yeah, I bet turning sound waves into lethal blades is powerful but out of battle, does it matter? It means somethig? Can you cut a frozen pizza for dinner or you destroy your whole kitchen?

(Tbf, a story a bout a character struggling to see beyond his powers shapped to battle could be interesting BUT that's another story ahsahsas).

And I'm also bored of the god-like powers. You can fly and you can control minds! For free I guess and with no real consequences. Bceause let's be serious, Spidermand and Superman as archetypes of the hero had their own limitation (not precisely linked to their powers by themselves BUT WHATEVER). They're more or less the exception to this.

I Wanna See Limits

LIMITS. I care 0 if the character can eat the fucking Sun. What I want to see is that power in personal impact and relativity. Sometimes the right (or wrong!) word has more power that destroying the Earth. And a lot of it comes from the limitations. How easy is everything when you have all the power, but the limitations are what shape the plausibility, the humanity and the imagination around it. For example Magneto. It's because of his clear limitations that he scaping from the plastic underground prison in the movies is so fantastic. He uses a creative solution to work around his limits. Amazing!

Idk man, Brandon Sanderson said this shit already. Go see him go see him.

[lila-pitts-apologist]

Not to rise from the dead and post on here after months, but I wanted to touch on an aspect of the show that I feel is misunderstood by the fandom, especially in season 3.

I hate to bring it up at all, but I’m talking about Luther and Allison’s relationship(?). I know it’s a part of the series that most of us ignore or joke about, but in actuality it sheds light on how the siblings were raised, especially Allison, in a sadly realistic way.

While I obviously see Allison and Luther’s relationship as troublesome and unhealthy/weird, I don’t think I have the same ‘gawk in disgust’ reaction other people in the fandom seem to have when the complexity of the relationship is brought up.

This isn’t because I think incest (what I would label the relationship, even if it was more emotional than physical!) is acceptable, but because I think it makes total sense within the show, especially within the character dynamics of Allison and Luther.

Even though it’s a hard thing to bring up, sibling incest is more common than we think. It’s not always full-out or malicious, but it does occur way more often than most of us would assume. Specifically, it’s more likely to occur amongst siblings that are not properly socialized as youths, or ones who are full on isolated.

When we think of isolation we think of olden time families living on a farm cut off from any other societies, and I feel like that makes people underestimate how much the Hargreeves siblings were isolated from their peers and just other people.

I mean, we’ve seen Reginald’s parenting! The kids make their superhero debut at age 11, and by the way it’s described who knows if the kids ever even properly went outside before then. Growing up the Hargreeves had only the seven of them (6 if we account for Viktor’s separation).

All of the personal growth, all of the curiosity about the outside world, all of the teenage melancholia and growing pains, all of it has to occur within the bounds of the seven siblings because there’s literally no one else.

So of course this is going to make for oddly bonded children! Of course they’re going to blur the lines of what siblings should act like, because they know no objective standards! We see this in their competitiveness stemming from being pitted against each other, we see it in their ‘ride or die’ mindset even when they don’t like each other, and we see it in Allison and Luther.

I see the fandom spin it into Allison and Luther being freaks, especially as the other siblings find it odd as well. While I agree it’s weird, I think it’s unfair to paint it simply as ‘grown adults have a thing for their own sibling’ because we’re then ignoring their unique upbringing.

I mean, i find it hard to even treat the siblings as adults on an emotional level, because they were never truly allowed the development needed to grow into stable, mature adults.

You have one sibling who is reared to crave attention and validation, who didn’t see much kindness or empathy due to his envy-inducing status as Number 1. And you have another sibling who is purposely left devoid of proper morals, who is used to getting everything she wants and being wanted by everyone in the way she wants them to, by charm or by force.

Is it really hard to see what those siblings would find in each other, the validation that they surely would’ve found in non-relatives had they been allowed to grow up normally?

One of my favorite parts of TUA is that it’s not afraid to give us a fucked up family, exploring how such an unorthodox childhood allows for ugliness to rear its head in the craziest places. To me, the too-intimate bond of Allison and Luther isn’t something to just be written off as an awkward writing choice, it’s another very real and sad example of how the Hargreeves’ morals and minds were doomed from the start.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Apparently Astruc went out of his way to make Lila unlovable. Comparison to characters we're meant to sympathize with:

Gabriel started the entire mess because he couldn't try and just ask for help to the guy he knew could help (and this is before using a Miraculous selfishly for months fried his morals and basic decency). He later manipulated two teenage girls, one of which he knew since she was a child, into terrorism, destroyed Hong Kong by accident, and pulled a stunt that brainwashed the President of the United States into firing the nukes (and once the order is given it cannot be countermandered) AND the world's strongest woman into shattering the Moon (and while it's vaguely possible humanity could survive a nuclear exchange, the loss of the Moon would spell the end of all life on Earth).

Tomoe was infertile... So rather than adopt a heir (a rather common occurrence in Japanese society) she borrowed a magical jewel that manipulates one of the concepts that make the universe work to clone herself.

Emilie was also infertile, so she used the above jewel to make a gender-inverted clone of herself, and somehow BROKE said jewel in the process, sentencing herself to a slow death. She then proceeded to be an abusive parent and used her husband as scapegoat, and let her brother in law borrow the jewel to make himself a son (though this could count as a good deed given the jackass).

Colt Phatom had an infertile wife, so rather than adopt he borrowed his sister-in-law magic brooch and made a gender-inverted clone OF HIS WIFE, and was an abusive parent to said clone. I'm feeling ill...

Felix discovered his uncle is a terrorist wielding two jewels that manipulates two concepts that make the universe work... And rather than tell the squadron of superheroes about it, he robbed said superheroes of their magic jewels and traded them for the one that made him and could unmake him (and I'm still surprised Gabriel didn't just Thanos Snap him and steal everything. He then tried to wipe out humanity to protect beings like himself. Though he get something of a justification in that he's a teenager AND raised by Colt Phatom (for all their flaws, Gabriel, Emilie and Tomoe didn't mess their magic children nearly as bad).

Audrey is just plain mean, and so petty she got Akumatized from getting a spot in the second row (I'm willing to forgive Gabriel this one for the sheer hilarity. Plus he had been obviously waiting for years to get avenge all the victims of that bitch).

But the one meant to be unlovable is Lila. Ok.

So like.

This is honestly a point I brought up before, though it was more on a 'why are people more willing to give other characters redemption arcs instead of Lila?'

But yeah for as absolutely fucking awful as these other characters can be, they do have some very basic good traits and someone they care about! Chloé has the toxic af family and genuinely cares about Adrien and Sabrina and her parents. Gabe may be all kinds of fuck, but there was a point in Season 1-3 where we believed he cared about Adrien and he's doing all this because he loves his wife(even if that love is also toxic af). Felix is also a 'he was abused which explains his mindset' and he's shown genuine love for his mother. Tomoe has been shown to care about Kagami, despite everything. Emilie is up in the air but she's presented as loving.

Lila..... has absolutely nothing. Nothing that can be pointed at as some explanation for why she's like this, or proof that there's any hope for her to be 'good'. We don't know her real backstory or what she wants. Every character she's interacted with is just a mark for her cons that she doesn't have any care about, even her 'mothers'.