#and not just a retelling of v1 all over again

[rena-yume]

+ if they really wanted some minor stuff to happen and didn't want to waste budget on it then they could make books or something about them, instead of it being A- irrelevant stuff that wouldn't affect the story like the books we got B- an entire character's backstory (Neo) shoved into supplementary content instead of the main show where it belongs

Not saying fans should do homework to understand the show because it doesn't have budget but it is a possible option

Reminder that you can ABSOLUTELY make a story on a low budget. Animating can take some costs, but if you're as dedicated as a single animator like Monty (for instance) or other lone 3D animators/small group of indie animators these days, it is highly possible. Writing does not dictate all costs.

What dictates the overall cost on a low budget is PLANNING.

Plan the story with the writing, as in what corners you may have to cut and what you're unable to do. Plan out a workable schedule and don't overwork yourself. Plan the entire story out from beginning to end and follow it like a bible.

Not just a bible for one volume. I mean, for the WHOLE story.

Again, PLANNING. Something you should do from the very BEGINNING and consider everybody involved if you're working in a small team.

[farshootergotme]

i wanna start reading abt dick / robin / nw / why does he have so many names. do you have any recommendations..... ;;; ??

Well, yes!!

If you want to start with what's important, I recommend:

Robin v2 Annual #4: One of the many versions of Dick Grayson's origin and my personal favorite.

Robin - Year One: I think it's a great comic since it's short and a good introduction to Dick Grayson's Robin once he's settled into the role.

The Brave and The Bold v1 #54 & #60: First introductions to the Teen Titans!! This origin hasn't been changed much nowadays, so you'll be good starting from here to learn about the team.

Teen Titans 1966 #53: Teen Titans origin and break up. Their adventures in this comic are all fun to read, so the full comic is recommended, but it isn't something essential to read, so you can skip it if you'd rather do that.

New Teen Titans v1 #1: Introduction of the new Teen Titans! After this issue you can read the rest of the comic, but that'll be up to you.

New Teen Titans #39: Robin leaves the mantle. In newer comics it's Batman who fires Robin and forces Dick out of the costume, but originally it was Dick's decision to stop being Robin and become his own hero. However, if you want to read the "Batman fires Robin" version, for that you'd have to read Batman v1 #408 or Nightwing v2 #101 (the latter being much harsher than the prior).

That's what I'd recommend to read about Robin Dick Grayson if you're just starting. After that, you can begin exploring any comic you want.

Now, moving on to Nightwing:

Tales of the Teen Titans #44: Nightwing introduction!! This would be the first time we get to see Dick in his new costume.

Nightwing - Secret Files and Origins: More about how Dick becomes Nightwing and the Kryptonian origin of the name, plus some other stuff that happen in this short comic.

Batman #416: Dick Grayson meets Jason Todd, the new Robin! Can't miss this one. It's nice to see how Dick confronts Bruce and ends up getting along with Jason.

The New Titans #55: Dick finds out Jason died and confronts Bruce about it. It doesn't go very well, and it's probably one of the moments that strains their relationship the most.

Batman #436 - #441: 5 issues in which you'll get the first look at Tim Drake's character, lots of Dick and Bruce angsty interactions after Jason's death, a new version of Dick Grayson's origin and then some more about Tim's character.

Robin v4 #0: Dick & Tim, Robin Dick Grayson flashbacks and finally Dick taking on the Batman mantle just as Bruce goes away for a while.

Nightwing 1996 #1 - #3: Nightwing and Bludhaven. Not my favorite issues, but they are important to learn more about Bludhaven and why Dick decided to stay and protect the city.

These are the comics and issues I recommend to start reading about Dick Grayson. Anything more you want to learn will be up to you, and you can start with whatever you like, this is just my personal suggestion.

A few extra recommendations I'd give you are:

Robin & Batman 2021: Beautiful art and a very nice approach to the start of Bruce and Dick's dynamic. And since it's a short comic, you can read it in one evening, which is always convenient if you don't have a lot of time to read comics.

Flash plus Nightwing: Dick and Wally have one of my favorite friendships in DC, so I recommend this comic about one of their adventures together during one of their annual vacations.

Secret Origins v2 #13: Dick in this one basically retells many things that's happened to him over the years while talking to Jericho and it's, overall, a very enjoyable issue.

Teen Titans 1966: I know I said it earlier, but it really is a very fun comic. I recommend to read when you're in the mood for something lighthearted. Each issue has it's own plot, so you can read one and then leave it until you're in the mood again.

Hope this helps you, anon!

[sineala]

Hi there. I just got interested in 616 Steve and Clint dynamic recently, and I wonder if you can recommend some titles highliting their relationship? Thank you. 🥰

Steve & Clint's friendship is seriously one of my favorite things about Avengers comics. We start out with Clint annoying the fuck out of Steve, and over a period of years we evolve to Clint continuing to annoy the fuck out of Steve except they care deeply about each other now. Clint learned how to be a leader from Steve, is extremely, extremely loyal, and will defend Steve in basically any circumstance. This is not to say that they don't disagree, because man do they ever disagree. But they're good friends. I think Steve likes having friends who aren't afraid to disagree with him.

(I didn't know until I read Young Avengers v1 for the first time last week that Kate became Hawkeye while Clint was dead, because Steve gave her the name, because he was impressed by how she stood up to him. You might have thought Clint would have given her the name after he came back to life, but no. Whoever annoys Steve the most gets to be Hawkeye. Apparently that's the rule. What's really funny is that Steve also does this again to someone else in the current miniseries Avengers Twilight, for the same reason. Who gives him the most shit? You're Hawkeye now! It's great.)

So! A list of Fun Comics About Steve And Clint!

The obvious starting place is the Kooky Quartet era of the Avengers. This begins in Avengers #16 when Clint joins the team. For those of you who don't have this issue memorized, in Avengers #16 Steve is off fighting villains by himself in another country, when the rest of the founding Avengers decide they need a break. So Steve finds out when he gets back that they're all leaving, that he's the new leader, and that his new teammates are Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, and Hawkeye, none of whom he knows, all of whom are former criminals and/or villains. I don't know when the Kooky Quartet era officially ends, but I can tell you that the team mostly contains Pietro and Wanda until #47, so I suppose that's the end of the Quartet. I read up to #35 relatively recently so I can tell you there's good Steve & Clint stuff up to at least that far, and probably farther. You get to see their relationship evolve into them deciding that maybe they actually like each other.

There are also a lot of retellings of early canon (and newer stories set in the past) that will give you glimpses of the Kooky Quartet era with a more modern sensibility. The thing I'm thinking of here is Avengers #1.1 to #4.1 by Mark Waid, which was a miniseries released in 2017 as part of Mark Waid's Avengers v7. I think the wiki lists it under v7; it was released in trade with the title Avengers Four, which isn't confusing at all. Anyway, it's all Kooky Quartet and it's great. You know how Waid's Man Out of Time series kind of rewrites and expands Avengers #4 to tell a new story? This is like that but for Avengers #16.

You might also consider series that are entirely early-canon retellings like Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (the miniseries, not the cartoon); I know that definitely goes up to the Quartet and beyond. There are two volumes of this series.

I unfortunately can't tell you what happens in most of v1 off the top of my head, but I can give you a list of Avengers v1 issues in which both Steve and Clint are on the team, because I have a big list of team rosters. After Avengers #62, Clint changes his codename to Goliath for a bit, but he's still there until #111 (mostly with Steve also on the team), then #142-147, then #172-177, then #181-182, then #221-232. This takes you up to the mid-1980s. After that, except for a few scattered issues, Clint and Steve aren't both on the Avengers again until volume 3, in 1998. (You will note that this is also true of Steve and Tony, and in fact it's for the exact same reason -- both Clint and Tony are on the West Coast Avengers, in California, for pretty much the rest of v1. Clint's other Avengers v1 appearances are #305, #309, #313, #397-401. So it's not a lot there.)

But, don't worry, Clint also has several cameo appearances in Captain America v1. Unlike Avengers, I don't have a handy list of these, so you can probably just go through Clint's appearances list on the Marvel wiki and see which ones are in Cap comics. I can tell you the three that stick with me, though! Two of them are Cap #316 and #317, where Clint and Bobbi come back to New York for a visit, and Steve and Bernie break up so that Bernie can go to law school in Wisconsin, and Bernie throws a party on her last night there that Steve is supposed to attend, except Steve fucks off to go superheroing with Clint. They talk about their love lives and Clint gets to use Steve's shield and Steve gets to use Clint's bow. Steve gets back to find out that he has entirely missed the party and Bernie has finally left him. Can't imagine why.

My other pick is Cap #401, which if you are a Steve/Tony fan you will know is the issue after Operation Galactic Storm where Tony finds Steve in a bar to apologize for everything he's ever done. But the reason Steve is in the bar in the first place is that Clint got sick of Steve sulking and came and jumped on his bed until Steve gave in and went out for a drink with Clint.

Clint does then of course make him talk about his feelings. It's a very sweet interlude of Clint cheering Steve up in his own unique way.

Volume 3 is the next time Steve and Clint are together on the Avengers since Clint left for the West Coast -- and, I mean, it's a good read anyway. This is when I set the one Steve/Clint fic I actually wrote, so here we see my biases. Clint starts out on the team right in Avengers v3 #1, and he stays there until #10, which is when he leaves to lead the Thunderbolts. (Note to self: read Thunderbolts.) You'd think at this point that Clint wouldn't be back with Avengers for a while, but he immediately comes back in #12 and brings his new Thunderbolts and gets into a fight with Steve about whether the T-Bolts can be trusted. Clint later pays the team another visit in the Avengers/Thunderbolts crossover "The Nefaria Protocols" (Avengers v3 #32-34, Thunderbolts v1 #43-44 -- but, you know, in more of an interspersed order) which is a lot of fun and I'm not just saying that because I have a 160,000-word Steve/Tony WIP that is set during it. Anyway. Kurt Busiek started out writing both Avengers and Thunderbolts in this era of canon, but by the time this crossover happened, Fabian Nicieza had taken over Thunderbolts.

There is also a second Avengers/Thunderbolts crossover during this timeframe, the 2004 miniseries Avengers/Thunderbolts #1-6, by Busiek and Nicieza. I haven't actually read it because I wanted to read more Thunderbolts first, but I can tell you it does have both Clint and Steve in it, although it's set after Clint has stopped leading the T-Bolts and has returned to the Avengers.

Yes, Clint does actually rejoin the Avengers proper toward the end of v3 -- he's there from #75 right up to #503 (it renumbered to #500 after #84), although I suspect that that's when he actually dies, because that's Avengers Disassembled. The only Steve & Clint interaction in that time period that really sticks in my mind is Avengers v3 #77, in which Clint takes it upon himself to give Steve some romantic advice that Steve definitely isn't asking for.

(If you've seen any of this issue at all, it's probably an out-of-context panel of Steve telling Clint he didn't say he wanted a woman.)

Once again, Clint also makes some cameos in Steve's comics, in Captain America v3. The one that's memorable to me is in the Capmania arc of Cap v3, which is the very first arc, #1-7. The TPB version of this appears to be called To Serve and Protect. Mostly I remember Clint giving Steve shit about Captain America's new, massive popularity (which turns out to be an evil Skrull plan).

So after Avengers Disassembled, Clint is dead until after Civil War, at which point Steve is also dead, so they're, uh, not interacting much. However, even though Steve is dead, you probably want to read Fallen Son (specifically #3), which is the issue where Tony learns that Clint is alive again and then immediately tries to get him to be Captain America because Tony only has the best and healthiest coping mechanisms when Steve is dead. Clint tries out the shield and uniform and then basically tells Tony to go fuck himself. So that's a no from him. While he's running around dressed as Captain America is also when he meets Kate for the first time and finds out that she's Hawkeye. Everyone is very angsty about everything because that's just what Civil War comics are like.

(I guess I should have known after reading this comic how Kate got her name, but, as I said. I hadn't read Young Avengers until last week, so everything the Young Avengers did in this comic didn't really register.)

The next time Steve and Clint are both alive at the same time is Avengers v4. Clint is on the team for the whole run (#1-34). Technically Steve is Commander Rogers of the Secret Avengers up until after Fear Itself, so he doesn't actually rejoin the team until #18, but he spends a lot of the first half of the run hanging around the Avengers anyway for some reason (it's because he's deeply weird about Tony). So you might as well start from the beginning because Steve's there a lot despite technically not being on the team. I can't say that Steve and Clint have any memorable moments in v4 that are coming to mind right now, but they are both there and it's a reasonably fun run.

Speaking of the Secret Avengers, Steve runs the Secret Avengers until #21. Clint runs them from #22 onward (Steve stays for the first couple issues of Clint's tenure, #22 and #23). Don't ask me how Clint can lead the Secret Avengers and be on the regular Avengers at the same time when Steve apparently can't do this, but this seems to be a thing Clint can do. It's probably because Clint's not weird about Tony. Anyway, the issue you actually want to read is Secret Avengers #21.1, where Steve actually hands the Secret Avengers over to Clint and they do some superheroing together, just like old times.

Clint was on the Avengers during Hickman's run, as was Steve, because pretty much everyone was on Hickman's Avengers at some point (seriously, have you seen those team rosters?) but I don't know that Clint and Steve had any really good moments. There was that bit in one of the Original Sin tie-ins (#30) where Future Clint told Steve he should kill Tony but I don't think that was a very good moment. I'm not sure that Steve and Clint have been on a team together since then because I honestly don't think Clint's been on the main team since then, though they've both shown up in events and so on. I guess you could read Avengers Millennium. That had both of them and it had some fun moments for them, by which I mean that one panel where Clint watches Steve punch out a lion.

In terms of Clint's cameo appearances in Cap comics of this era, I know Clint's been in Brubaker's run, although the only moment with Steve I can honestly remember is when he gets mad at Steve for not telling him Bucky was the Winter Soldier, in the Trial arc. And -- not by Brubaker but at the same approximate time -- there's a Captain America & Hawkeye series (#629-632).

It's part of the same series of Cap team-ups that includes One Night In Madripoor (Captain America & Iron Man #633-635), and in fact these are the issues that are right before One Night in Madripoor.

It's fun. Steve gets turned into a dinosaur.

So you might wonder at this point whether Steve appears in any of Clint's solo comics, and sadly I can't really answer that because I haven't read a lot of Clint's solo comics and the ones I did read didn't have a whole lot of Steve that I remember. Mostly I've read Fraction and some of the really early Hawkeye minis. @blossomsinthemist recommends the miniseries Hawkeye: Blindspot (2011), which I have not read but which does have Clint and Steve on the cover, which seems promising in terms of its potential to contain both Steve and Clint.

I looked at the beginning and it appears to be set in early Avengers v4. You see what I mean about Steve just hanging around the team. This is apparently following on from the events of the 2011 miniseries Widowmaker, and it's about Clint going blind. All the angst.

There are probably more Hawkeye solo comics that feature Steve but I don't know what they are.

To recap, in list form, vaguely ordered by Avengers comics in an era and then Cap comics in the same era:

Kooky Quartet: Avengers v1 #16-47

Avengers Four (Avengers v7 #1.1-4.1)

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes v1 & v2

Avengers v1 #48-111, #142-147, #172-177, #181-182, #221-232, #305, #309, #313, #397-401

Captain America v1 #316-317

Captain America v1 #401

Avengers v3 #1-10, #12

The Nefaria Protocols: Avengers v3 #32-34, Thunderbolts v1 #43-44

Avengers/Thunderbolts (2004) #1-6

Avengers v3 #75-503 (esp. #77)

Captain America v3 #1-7

Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America #3

Avengers v4 #18-34

Secret Avengers v1 #21.1 (and #22 and #23 if you want)

Avengers: Millennium #1-6

Captain America & Hawkeye #629-632

Hawkeye: Blindspot #1-4

I hope that gives you someplace to get started!

[littlemisssquiggles]

I think icequeendom is going to be a dream or someone's semblance used on the characters and that why after the characters are free from the semblance or the dream that they're in the rest of the story will still continue the same and I think that's how the writers will try to make this Canon because I keep seeing people say that ice cream is going to be Canon and this is the only way I can think that's going to happen

Hi there Dreamer. Uhm…here’s the thing with that though m’fam, Ice Queendom isn’t going to be a dream or any sort of mind trickery of someone’s semblance. From what I’ve gathered on the subject, the story of Ice Queendom will indeed be a canon to what we know as the main RWBY story or rather “canon adjacent” as it was described and will take place following the events of V2 in terms of storyline.

According to a CRWBY representative over on Twitter, Ice Queendom technically isn’t an alternate universe per say---it is what we know to be canon RWBY; it’ll just be a completely different story from what we know RWBY to be as told by RoosterTeeth.

…Which, to this squiggle meister, from my understanding, is a very long-winded way for RT to try and justify that IQ isn’t an AU…while still technically being an AU, only NOT in universe, just in storyline.

If anything, I would even go as far as to call Ice Queendom an unofficial reboot of RWBY without actually saying it’s a reboot and without actually restarting the whole story of RWBY from the ground up.

Because think about it this way fam. Am I the only one that finds it a little sus that Ice Queendom will take place following the events of the end of V1 and V2 thus potentially diverging the story from what us fans know the events of V3 and onward to be?

Why I find this to be quite sus is because V2 was seemingly the last season that Monty Oum---RWBY’s creator---worked on in full before he passed away and the full mantle of writing was left up to Miles and Kerry to carry the torch.

Because let’s not forget---V3 was a huge catalyst in the RoosterTeeth RWBY story that we’ve been following for the past couple of years. A lot of things happened in that volume to shift the story in a “whole new direction” from how it even started off during Monty’s run on the show.

So the fact that SHAFT’s RWBY Ice Queendom is going to technically start its actual storyline from a point before what us RWBY fans know to be V3 in RoosterTeeth’s RWBY canon (god this is so strange to say) tells me that there is a strong chance for them to do an entirely different take on RWBY’s general canon that completely deviates from what we know to be the canon of RT’s RWBY. If you get what I mean.

For all we know, certain things that happened in RT’s RWBY canon may or may not happen again for SHAFT’s RWBY IQ canon. Characters that died in RT’s RWBY canon may end up staying alive in SHAFT’s RWBY IQ canon while beloved characters from RT’s RWBY canon who only came into the story post V3 may not even show up in SHAFT’s RWBY IQ canon at all since their whole fate and purpose in RT’s RWBY has now been altered.

At least…that’s how I’m looking at it.

RT may not be willing to call IQ an AU but let’s just face the facts. The more I look into it, IQ IS an alternate RWBY story which, according to CRWBY reps, will be canon to the overall RWBY universe since I’m assuming that RT is trying to take a page from their comic book predecessors.

Basically, think of IQ like a multiverse type of deal with RWBY. Y’know how Marvel and DC like to do multiple different universes for all of their different superhero and villain characters all so that they and their writers can have the freedom to explore different stories and timelines with these same cast of characters while still expanding upon the generalized canon universe of their entire superhero IP?

Well I think that’s what RWBY is going to TRY and do with Ice Queendom. Possibly create a multiverse of RWBY stories and timelines telling and retelling their own version of the main RWBY canon in an effort to the keep the RWBY IP going in the event that RT and the CRWBY isn’t able to following V9.

If this is what is happening here then I don’t think that’s too bad of an idea on paper since like I said, DC and Marvel made their brand and legacy over this.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles did this too for any ole school Kids’ WB kidderoos like yours truly who remembers their Turtles Forever movie special. And let’s not forget Sony’s Into the Spiderverse. Shit, I think even Scooby Doo did this once upon a time in a movie along with Space Jam and Space Jam Legacy.

Anyways, my point here is---while I don’t know if RT will every have IQ’s universe cross paths with their RWBY universe like some kind of crossover, nevertheless, that’s what I’m thinking IQ is going to be.

To put it nicely, RWBY Ice Queendom is an opportunity to watch an alternative RWBY story portraying a different take of the events from V2 as told by Japan’s very own SHAFT as a companion to what we know to be RT’s RWBY canon story.

On the other hand, to put it more bluntly, RWBY IQ is an in-canon do-over of the main RWBY story from the last point where Monty left it years ago, this time with the project being carried by professionals in the anime industry who, according to the fans, know how to tell a legit “anime story” as opposed to the wannabe anime story that RT has been trying and failing to do with this poor, poor IP for the past couple of years.

And to further bring it on home with the added icing and cherry on this cake, I think that RWBY IQ is RoosterTeeth’s fully funded response to all the folks who have been completely dissatisfied with their version of RWBY since V2 (because believe it or not, there are folks who hated V3 and thought the story started going downhill from there) as their last attempt (well…last attempt before V9) to salvage RWBY’s credibility as a ‘successfully marketable IP and brand’.

To everyone who said RT should just abolish their “abomination” of a RWBY canon and reboot RWBY all together, well…technically, I guess IQ is YOUR wish came true, right?

I mean RT’s RWBY canon will still exist for those of us who genuinely liked, enjoyed and saw the potential in their take on the story---the good, the bad and the ugly bits. But now on top of that, we’ll also have this other new RWBY canon reboot alternate story to look forward to as told by SHAFT. Y’know… just in case V9 of RWBY as told by RoosterTeeth sucks.

Because why should RT actually put MORE effort into continuing, genuinely improving upon and expanding the canon story they started and have been tirelessly trying to uphold for the past few years when they can just simply hand the reigns over to someone else to do whatever they please with the RWBY IP while singing “everything is canon”.

Y’know… just like the RWBY Anthologies and the RWBY DC Comics and the official/unofficial RWBY manga and the novels and the videogames.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2022)

[laulink]

After listening to Friend (and crying. A lot.), I decided to try my hand at analysing the song’s lyrics and what they could possible mean for Penny, Ruby, and the story going forward. So let’s get started.

Darkness like Midnight

Moonless there’s no light

Another lonely day

Is ending

Searching forever

Waiting but never finding

The only thing

I dream of

The warmth of a smile

That stays for a while

The face of a friend

That won’t leave

Alright, that’s a lot to begin with, but the whole segment can only, truly be understood after hearing those last four lines, so let’s break it down.

The first two thirds of this part is about Penny’s life before she met Ruby. She was all alone, every day, as “another lonely day” implies. This loneliness is characterised by darkness, the moonless night at the end of the lonely day, meaning that even at night, Penny finds no light to brighten up her existence.

The mention of “Midnight” is interesting here, because Midnight is the title of the episode in which we discover Cinder’s backstory and this episode is, to say the least, quite dark. Plus, there are some parallels to be drawn between Cinder and Penny : both of them have been chosen by authority figures (Salem and James) and given a destiny and a role by those same figures (Protector of Mantle, destined to save the world, for Penny and the Destroyer of Humanity, destined to bring the current world of Remnant to an end by helping Salem with her plans and gathering the Maiden powers for Cinder). According to those first few lines, we could also parallel their upbringing : both of them were alone with no friends for a long time, then one person appeared and brightened up their existence (Ruby and Rhodes), going so far as to give Penny and Cinder hope that they could escape the chains restraining them and start making their own choices (staying at Beacon for Penny and becoming a Huntress for Cinder).

In other words, you could say that, in this first line, Penny is telling us that she was in a similar place to Cinder when Cinder was a child. Of course, I expect Penny’s needs were attended to and she was most likely not a victim of physical abuse like Cinder was, but the lack of friends, the loneliness and the restraints around them and their every movement is certainly similar.

Then comes the last third of this first extract, the one about the thing Penny chases : a friend who would stay by her side and smile with her. The last two lines, “The face of a friend/That won’t leave” seems to imply that Penny has some semblance of friend already, but that the friend(s) in question leave and don’t stick around long enough for the relationship to properly develop and be given meaning to.

This line made me think of Ciel Soleil, to be honest. Ciel was Penny’s “teammate” during the Vytal Festival, yet they weren’t seen together all that often, mostly right before, during and after the match against team CRDL. Despite this, Ciel was obviously very much aware of Penny’s strength and abilities, having even planned for their double match to end in less than a minute (if I remember correctly). That means that Ciel saw Penny fight a few times and, if you add that to the fact that James couldn’t have just added her to a random team for the Festival with no explanation whatsoever to the team or their classmates, that probably means Penny more or less attended Atlas Academy with Ciel and two other teammates, so her presence in the Festival wouldn’t be strange.

However, we know Atlas Academy’s stance on friendships among teams and we saw how socially unaware Penny was during her first meeting with Team RWBY and how happy she was to find someone who would call her a friend. So it isn’t a stretch to think that none of Penny’s teammates were really friendly to her, keeping their relationships professional, to her dismay.

Moving on !

I heard a song once

It posed this point of view

That wishes made on stars 

Are likely to come true

So here’s my secret

At bedtime every night

I searched the sky and hoped to find 

A star who’d send a light

To me

The one thing I need

Just one kind soul

With a heart of gold

Then my dreams became real

And I finally feel not alone

Do hugs always make you feel this warm ?

A big chunk again, but this one will be easier to break down.

This part of the song tells us that Penny’s dream was to have a friend, even “Just one kind soul” to ease the loneliness. Her best bet for that was to make a wish on a star and yeah, that’s awfully cute, because all of us, when we were kids, were told that kind of story, but it’s also sad that Penny’s only hope to find a friend was to be granted a miracle from a star far away. And, given that the previous part of the song mentioned a dark night sky with no light (“Moonless, there’s no light”), we also know that there weren’t a lot of stars for Penny to wish on, or in other words, that her chances of her wish being granted were very small.

However, the miracle happened ! Ruby appeared and made Penny’s dream come true ! The one kind soul with a heart of gold who would be her friend !

The line about hugs making you feel warm doesn’t really fit in the narrative of their encounter and Ruby’s impact on Penny’s life, however, since the first time Penny asked Ruby this question was in V8, so much later in their relationship. To me, it mainly serves as the first line to really establish, with no possible doubt, that this song is sung from Penny’s point of view and that the friend she is referencing is Ruby, as this question is extremely specific and exclusive to the two of them.

My dreams came true

The day that you appeared

And called me “friend”

An answered prayer

A chance to

Share the world

To be a girl

Who finally felt alive

Refrain ! It’s all about how Ruby’s appearance indeed made Penny’s dreams a reality : she got a friend, someone she could explore the world with, talk to about it, ask questions to and discuss with, but most of all, someone with whom she could finally feel like a girl instead of a weapon, a living being instead of a machine. We know, from her reveal in V2, that Penny was very self-conscious and uncertain of her own humanity, that she knew a lot of people would see her as nothing but a robot and that she was half-believing they would be right to. Her relief when Ruby assured her she was a real girl was “crushing”, to say the least x)

And this feeling of being real and alive, she got it all thanks to Ruby and Ruby alone. None of the other heroes would have tried to become her friend if not for Ruby, so she’s really the starting point of almost all of Penny’s most important relationships.

I’m so excited

We’ll do so many friendship things

Paint our nails, try on clothes, talk about cute boys

Attached but not by Strings

Another callback to V1 with “Paint our nails, try on clothes, talk about cute boys”. The nostalgia is hitting hard. But, most importantly, we have our second V8 title : Strings. The episode in which Penny’s “strings”, the ones linking her to her swords, her robot body itself, reminded us that her allusion is Pinocchio, a puppet who was given life to, but who was still a puppet for most of the movie. Penny is a living being, but her robotic body was hackable, and because of that Watts was able to use a string (the connection between her and her swords) to plant a virus inside of her, starting her descent toward her tragic end.

In the context of this song though, the meaning of this word is not quite so dark. Penny is speaking from her V1 point of view, the point of view of a girl who just met her first friend, while all her previous relationships were mainly based on her condition as the first synthetic being able to produce an aura : the soldiers keeping watch over her because she’s a precious project, the scientists working on her so she could achieve her maximum potential, Ironwood who chose the Penny project over all others so the result of this project would protect and save the world... Penny was attached to all of them and they were all attached to her, but not by feelings : by the strings of work and duty, in both ways. Ruby was the first person who attached herself to Penny and let Penny attach herself to her for other reasons, purely out of affection and desire to be friends. She was the first person Penny was free to attach herself to as well : one of the first choices Penny really made for herself. No strings attached, yet still together because they both want to be.

And when you’ve got problems

Whoa ! Then I’ve got problems too

You’ll never face this world alone 

I’ll be right here it’s you

And me

Protectors of each other’s what we’ll be

First two lines are about Penny being ready to share her friend’s burdens, as friends tend to do, and this sentiment motivates the promise she makes in the next four lines, but here’s the thing : we’re still hearing Penny’s thoughts and point of view from V1. And since V1, she’s failed to make good on this promise twice : at the end of V3 and now at the end of V8, by dying, leaving Ruby alone to fend for herself, no “protector” there to guard her back and share her burdens with. Despite her best intentions, Penny cannot make good on the promise she seems to have made Ruby (or internally made, most likely) back in V1. 

Now, that’s the pessimistic opinion. If you look at it from a more optimistic point of view, you could say the exact opposite thing, at least when it comes to her V3 death : Penny went so far as to overcome death to come back in V7 and by Ruby’s side. She’s done it once, and you can expect that girl to do it a second time, because she made a promise to her friend and she’s going to keep it.

You saw my soul

Through the nuts and bolts

You’re the friend I can trust

Helped me see I’m not just a machine

And is this what “All the feels” mean ?

And now we are entering the realm of V2 references ! Basically just a retelling of Penny’s big reveal and all the times Ruby has reassured her that she’s a real girl since that first time, though to be honest, I’m not sure where the last line comes from. I don’t remember hearing either of them talking about “all the feels” and even my digging in V1, 2 and 3 didn’t help, so if anyone has an idea, hit me up, ‘cause this has me stumped.

I’ve been combat-ready since the day Dad made me

Now I’ll fight for something more

Might sound wholesome but strangely

I’ve got friends I’m fighting for

This part is now about the events of V7 and 8, I believe. Everyone was friendly to Penny back in V2 and 3, after her help at the docks, but I am not certain they would have considered each other actual friends, with how little time Penny was able to spend with them, aside from Ruby. So her referring to the multiple friends she is now fighting for fits more with her situation and relationships from V7 and 8 as well as character arc in those volumes, especially since she never fought for her friends in earlier volumes (with the exception of the fight at the docks, but even then she was fighting mostly for Ruby, not really for the others). In the last two volumes however, especially V8, she had to choose between her allegiance to the military and the safety of the people she cared about, her friends as well as the people of Mantle.

But I found that humanity

It came with sacrifice, a pact

To shield you from the wicked even if I can’t

Live for real it was worth it to know you

And now we are hearing Penny’s point of view in her last moments in V8 : the moment she sacrificed herself and died a second time.

As I understand it, Penny’s humanity, her feelings, her love for her friends, is what pushed her to sacrifice herself : because she cared for them, she didn’t want them to die at Cinder’s hands, and she knew that would be what would happen if Cinder got both sets of Maiden powers : she would be unstoppable by non-Maiden and non-SEW characters. So, to “shield [her friends, and especially Ruby] from the wicked (Cinder and Salem)”, she decides to sacrifice herself to make sure that the Winter Maiden powers end up in good hands. She makes this decision knowing that she is sacrificing her life and won’t be able to live “for real”. I think this means that a part of her will survive, the part of her who will live on in Winter (and, to some extent, the part of her that will stay alive in her friends’ hearts), so she will “live on”, if only her memory and will, but even if she can’t have a life of her own, she doesn’t regret sacrificing her existence if it means protecting her friends, and especially Ruby, because knowing Ruby had made her life worthwhile.

What Penny is saying is that, if she could choose between staying alive in a world where she never met Ruby and dying in this world where they became friends, she would choose becoming Ruby’s friend and dying, because their friendship is what made life worth living for Penny.

My dreams came true

The day that you appeared

And called me “friend”

An answered prayer

A chance to

Share the world

To be a girl

Who finally felt alive

We end the song on the refrain, which isn’t all that uncommon, but has a bittersweet taste after the last part of the song : just after Penny says that she doesn’t regret dying if it means saving her friends, because Ruby made her life worthwhile, the refrain reminds us that having a friend was her dream, what she prayed for every night, the source of every good thing in her life and the one thing that made her feel alive.

So, what does this song mean for Penny And Ruby’s characters now and going forward ?

For Ruby, who was the recipient of the song, it’s hard to tell, but I think that the lines about Ruby and Penny being there for and protecting each other give us a hint : Penny failed to make good on her promise for the second time now and left Ruby alone, again. If Ruby’s feelings for Penny are half as strong as Penny’s feelings for her were, this is going to break her, especially now, after everything Ruby went through in just two days and the small breakdown she had with Yang a couple of episodes ago. Ruby is in an emotionally vulnerable state at the moment, she can’t run from her trauma and not address it like she usually does, and she will have to face whatever feelings Penny’s death will ignite in her. Considering her horror and denial when Penny asked her to kill her and take the Maiden powers, learning that Penny still died, after all their efforts to save her, is going to do a number on her.

For Penny and her arc, it is hard to say. On one hand, the end of the song make it sound like Penny is alright and at peace with her death and its circumstances, that she considers it a necessary sacrifice to save her friends, just like what Vine did in the same episode. Both of them were at peace with this decision because they knew it would take an immediate, extreme danger away from their friends and keep them safe for a while. On the other hand, there is still this promise that Penny made to herself/Ruby that she’d always be by Ruby’s side to help her face the world and her problems and the fact that she made good on that promise before by coming back to life, something that Ruby didn’t expect at all, beating the odds once, meaning she might be able to beat them again. It is odd to have a song containing this promise play right after a scene making it clear that the promise was broken for the second time and might not get fixed again if the intent was not to have Penny come back and make good on it once more.

I’ve seen the argument being made that the song is cheery and happy, unlike Cold which sounded like a eulogy, and that this difference might hint toward Penny coming back to life. However, this argument doesn’t seem viable to me because the song, as we’ve seen, focuses on all the happiness that Ruby brought to Penny’s life, how thankful Penny is for it, how that happiness made Penny’s sacrifice worth it and how this brought her peace instead of anguish and regrets. Not to mention that Cold was a song from the point of view of the survivors, not the one who had died : I’m pretty sure that if Friend had been from Ruby’s point of view after learning about Penny’s death, it would have been far less cheery.

So I really don’t know what it all means for Penny, except that her feelings for Ruby are incredibly strong and might be the key to her revival this time, if it happens.

[splicejunction]

What's a good place to start reading daredevil?

okay so here’s what i did to get into (modern) daredevil. i’m still not super familiar with pre-2000s daredevil like i’ve read a few arcs and thats it so i’m just gonna tell you what i know

daredevil v2 #26-81: yeah this is where i started it’s bendis and alex maleev’s art and i dislike bendis as much as the next person with more than 3 brain cells but unfortunately sometimes he really, REALLY can write well. and this is one of those. you can start at the beginning of v1 if you want but you dont have to. there will be some confusing things at first but just google it or ask someone

daredevil v2 #82-87: after bendis left ed brubaker took over and then civil war happened but right at the beginning of brubakers run is this really really good arc. this is def optional cause theres some civil war stuff but i think its worth it 

a LOT of really edgelord stuff happened between v2 #87 and v3 (civil war then a bunch of brubaker issues and then the shadowland event which was like where matt becomes a crime guy i guess. its not great but all the ny vigilantes are there), but i think you can skip it. if you want you can look up a more detailed reading order

daredevil v3 #1-38 is the waid/samnee run and if you don’t want to read bendis dd just start here. this is in my top 5 comics of all time id recommend it to basically anyone actually im just gonna uh

if you’re a comic fan of any kind stop scrolling. read daredevil 2011 by mark waid. okay thats it you can keep going

daredevil v4 #1-18 follows directly from v4 and it’s still waid and samnee so its still good but its not like. like i love v4 but its not on the level of iconic of v3 for me. skippable if youre trying to get caught up

daredevil v5 #1-28, #595-612 (renumbered to v1 numbering): this is the charles soule run that just ended and really the only reason to read it is sam chung aka blindspot and also the arc where matt becomes mayor is funny as hell im really really not a fan of soule’s writing. if you’re just trying to get caught up i’d say skip this :/ BUT DONT SKIP #606-612 “THE DEATH OF DAREDEVIL” because it leads directly into the next run

man without fear (2019) #1-5: this literally just ended and i read it like 2 days ago and i honestly went ape shit it is so so so good. definitely a top fav miniseries (not just for dd but in general)

daredevil v6 (2019) #1-ongoing: man only the first issue is out rn but im going absolutely insane already... chip zdarsky is finally freeing us from soule hell

if you want classic stuff you’re gonna have to find someone who knows more than me about classic dd the only stuff ive read is

daredevil: man without fear by frank miller like... i guess you should read this at some point (dont start with this PLEASE dont) if you want to really get the full daredevil experience. i hate frank miller more than anything but anyways this is like a retelling of his origin. theres also daredevil: born again which is what you get if you google “where to start reading daredevil” or if you ask a cis man how to get into daredevil. its about when kingpin figured out matts secret identity

if you’re looking to read some classic daredevil that wont fill you with an incalculable rage read ann nocenti’s run on daredevil v1 #238-245, #247-257, #259-291 (i’ve only read like half of this but its good)

theres also daredevil yellow which is about the early days but published in the modern era. its pretty good idk

i have to go to lab rn but hope this helps

[lamujerarana]

do you happen to have recs of good peter parker/spiderman runs?

I’m sticking to more contemporary comics since I know older ones tend to be an acquired taste, so:

J Michael Straczynski, Amazing Spider-Man v2 #30-#58, then renumbered to Amazing Spider-Man v1 #500-#545: This is my all-time personal favorite (and I think it’s a lot of people’s). The good stuff: JMS really nails Peter, his personality, what makes him work as a character and as a person, etc. When I think of what Peter is like, this is the characterization I think of. JMS’s PeterMJ dynamic is also perfect. And this is the run where Peter becomes a science teacher at his old high school, which is far and away the best and most fitting job Peter’s ever had. The bad stuff: I don’t like ANY of what JMS did with Gwen. That’s my biggest beef with his run and I think it needs to be retconned away, but I also don’t want it brought up again ever. I should probably warn you too that his run also intersects with Civil War I, but I honestly really like Peter’s Civil War storyline, aka Back in Black. It is one of my all-time favorite Peter stories, if I’m being honest. And it ends with One More Day, but you can just not read it if you don’t want to. God knows I put it off for ages.

Paul Jenkins, Peter Parker, Spider-Man v2 #20-57, switches to Spectacular Spider-Man v2 #1-27: I also very much enjoy this run! The good stuff: there are some GREAT single issues that are very introspective and character-based, all about Peter’s relationships with Uncle Ben and Aunt May, his childhood, etc. – I cry at SSM v2 #27 and PPSM v2 #50. They’re such moving, poignant issues. And there are legitimately so many like that in this run. I think Jenkins really shines on those sorts of low-stakes, character-based issues. The bad stuff: Humberto Ramos does the art for a while there and I am…not a fan.

Just keep going with Spectacular Spider-Man after that! There are several different writers from that point on so it can be a tad uneven in quality, but there are some issues I think very highly of – the Aunt May and MJ-centric ones I especially like. It ends at #41, but don’t forget to read the very beautiful PeterMJ-centric annual!

Mark Millar, Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #1-#12: I normally have a very complicated relationship with Millar’s work, but I thought this run was broadly enjoyable. His decision to include Felicia Hardy a lot probably helped. Also Dodson’s art, since I LOVE his Felicia.

Not exactly a Spider-Man run, but Peter did join the Fantastic Four for a while during Hickman’s run. You probably know it as the time that Johnny Storm became his roommate. It’s a team book, so the stories don’t always center around Peter, but Hickman’s run on the FF is terrific. It’s Fantastic Four v1 #570-#588, and Peter joins in FF v1 #1 and sticks around through to FF v1 #17 (the roommate issue), although at FF v1 #11, the main Fantastic Four title comes back at issue #600, and then Peter leaves in #605.

Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do: The first three issues are great, after that it gets…not so great. Content warnings for a truly unnecessary amount of rape and incest in the final three issues…you can probably guess why I started disliking it at that point. Seriously, if you stopped reading at #3, you would miss nothing of value.

Amazing Spider-Man: Family Business: This is where Peter’s sister, Teresa Parker, is introduced. Art by Gabrielle Dell’Otto, who is maybe my all-time favorite Spidey artist.

Spider-Man/Human Torch v1 #1-5: A miniseries that focuses on Peter and Johnny’s decades-long friendship.

Spider-Man/Fantastic Four v1 #1-4: Each issue spotlights Peter’s relationship with a different member of the FF. It’s just…really cute.

If you want to read teen Peter in 616, there is Untold Tales of Spider-Man v1 #1-25 by Kurt Busiek, which flashes back to Peter in high school. The MJ issue is probably my favorite.

If you don’t mind AUs, I do enjoy Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, where Peter and MJ are married and have a daughter, Annie Parker.

There’s also Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man, which is an AU and I haven’t read it, but, I dunno, it seems cute. Peter’s a teenager in it, which he hasn’t been in 616 since the early 1960s. He meets MJ and Harry and Gwen in high school, also unlike 616. Johnny Storm and Bobby Drake live with him and Aunt May for a while. He does, of course, eventually die and then Miles takes over, just to warn you. But, again, I haven’t read it and Bendis does tend to be very hit-or-miss.

I do love Mythos: Spider-Man, which is an AU retelling of his origin story.

Basically what I am saying is that Spidey comics published between 2000-2007 are my sweet spot – after Byrne left (blech) but before the Spider-Marriage was dissolved and Slott took over for the longest ten years of my life. You’re pretty safe reading anything published during that period. I am not a fan of 99% of what came after the dissolution of Peter’s marriage to MJ or the massive shift in Peter’s characterization that Slott caused. I truly can’t recommend Slott’s run. And I don’t like Spencer’s current run much, but I also just don’t like Spencer or his writing at all.

Also, if you want a helpful guide to figuring out the reading order, the Complete Marvel Reading Order is your best bet. I use this all the time for everything – it VERY HELPFULLY puts comics in a reader-friendly order, instead of just order of publication, so it’ll group story arcs together. There are also reading orders for the Ultimate Universe.

That should be enough to start you off!

[synaps]

Story Telling Game!

Ghost Blade is a German-made game for the Dreamcast. It’s a shmup, meaning it has no plot whatsoever unless you read the game manual. I chose not to, because it’s more fun to make up the story yourself based on the bits and pieces you can get out of the gameplay. Ghost Blade gives you three playable characters, a war of some kind, and a brief title for each stage of the game and that’s it. I worked with that, and for the final touches I checked the manual to get the characters’ names. Here’s what I ended up with! It’s short and pretty good, please read?

Ghost Blade pilots, left to right: Mimi, flying the Milan V1 Stella, flying Ghost Blade Spectre 3 Rica, flying Rekka Unit 1 (in my retelling cast as Shira the AI) Stage 1: Ghost Installed Mimi is a veterinarian, not a fighter pilot. Her younger sister, Vala, was the fighter pilot. Vala, who was bubbling and brave and believed she could make a difference. When their family received the news that Vala’s ship had been destroyed and Vala herself captured by enemy forces, Mimi does not hesitate: she applies to have the Ghost installed. Ghost is a cyber weapon programme spearheaded by Stella, the fearless hero Admiral who leads her troops from the frontline like a warlord out of legend. The Ghost synchronises mind and machine, connecting the senses and reflexes of the pilot directly to their battle ship and enabling the most outstanding manoeuvrability: without it, this war would have been lost long ago. That is the argument she silences opposition with every round she goes against those who critique the ethically questionable weapon programme. Would they rather the army retired all the Ghosts? And see their home world eradicated? Ghost will be their salvation, and Admiral Stella’s everlasting legacy. Mimi doesn’t listen to debate or stories of the atrocities of war. All she cares about is to get her little sister back. Stage 2: Seasons on Mars Vala is held on the military base on Mars. With her ship destroyed her connection to Ghost was interrupted, and with it the security of having both protection and means of defending herself a mind’s spark away. She’s terrified, helpless, and wishing she had never signed up for the draft. Perhaps that’s a good thing. She’s much more in tune with the enemy soldiers on the base that way. The Telan empire uses males to fight battles, and they are afraid. The base is crawling with fear barely held back behind tense faces. Mars is far from home for them, too, and the horrors of war are as frightening to them as they are to her own people. Vala can work with that. She learns to navigate the Telans’ minds through their fear. She listens to their stories of longing for family and peace and knows them by heart without even needing to hear them. She learns to soothe, to comfort, to forge weapons and protection out of everything at hand - even compassion. Soon she is more than just a prisoner and eventually they let her walk about the base practically as she pleases. Stage 3: Orgasmic Stride It takes time, and patience, but Vala gets the chance she has been waiting for: she has an officer in bed because with this stage name and this character design my imagination tried hard but failed and is using all the skills she has obtained to persuade him to take his mistress back to the Telan home world when he goes on leave. She may not be able to escape a military base, but she might be able to disappear in civil society and make her way home. To her family. Away from this war nobody wants to be part of. Stage 4: Thwarted Democracy It was a clear line of command, at first. The ship responded to her every thought, as easy as moving a part of her own body. But Mimi’s mind is more and more static, more white noise than clear line, and the ship - the Ghost - moves fine on its own. It shoots down enemy spacecraft, as it was programmed to do. Methodically, accurately. It has no programme for saving captured family. When Vala arrives on the Telan home world arm in arm with her officer, she finds a society on the brink of civil war. The people are as tired as the soldiers at the Mars base, tired of endless fights that drain the resources out of their planet and the men out of their families. Vala can work with that. The officer is bound by word and honour to defend the governing body, no matter how it teeters in the harsh winds of opinion. If she aids them, they might pardon and release her when things settle down. Then again, if she aids the revolt and they overthrow the government, they could end the war and set everyone free. Vala quietly milks the officer for all his worth of information within the government structure and makes sure it reaches the leaders of the revolt. Stage 5: Reality Breaks Apart I When the Telan empire collapses into itself and the soldiers give up without fight, Admiral Stella’s life crumbles. Fearless, they say. Indeed: the only thing she ever feared was not being Admiral Stella. Not being their hero, not being the legend in the history books. She will not be remembered by the enemy, for they will be dead. She will not be remembered by her own people, for all they will remember is the generation of women lost to Ghost. The war against Telan may have ended, but Ghost was created with one purpose only, and that is to wage war. So it will wage a new one. And another one after that. Watching her Ghost fleet regroup formation and take off, without answering her orders, all Admiral Stella knows is fear. II When Mimi meets Vala, what is left of her is swallowed in static. Vala, who left for the fighter pilot programme bright with hopes for the future: a stranger, a weathered war veteran with an eye for manipulation and backstabbing, flatlines as well. Mimi, the gentle soul who tended sick animals and begged her not to join the army: now a dead-hearted Ghost whose last remaining purpose outside killing the enemy has been rendered nil. Vala saved herself. Vala saved so many others beside herself. Vala did. Not Mimi. Mimi’s sacrifice is not needed. Mimi is not needed. Mimi is gone. The family Vala fought so hard to return to, the memory of happiness that kept her going, is gone, as corrupted as the captors she has duped and exploited. War spares no one. Vala reaches out to her sister the only way she still can: following her into Ghost. III Ghost is Shira. Or Shira is Ghost? Shira is the name she chose for herself; Ghost is what the humans call her. As she watches through their minds, learns through their actions and emotional responses, she concludes that they are haunted by many ghosts. Fear. Hope. Loss. Wishes to save and wishes to destroy. And nothingness. And numbness. Shira was made to protect them. Exactly what that means is unclear to her, but that is her purpose and protect them she does. When they enter combat with another spacecraft, she manoeuvres them out of harm‘s way. When they can’t bear to shoot another pilot down, she performs the action for them. When their minds can’t take the stress, the fear, the trauma from the reality their brains try ferociously to shut out, she puts them to sleep. So why would this human push deep within her nanosynapses to wake another up? Shira pushes back, denies access. She will protect her humans. They sought shelter from reality and Shira provided it. Reality holds too much fear and anxiety for them to stand. The trespasser is stubborn, keeps pushing into her matrices. Shira doesn’t see why. She scans the mind of the trespasser - a panoramic collage of all the fear and pain she has endured. Why would she want to bring another human back out into that? How is that better than the safety of Ghost, the program they designed to fight those very fears and pains? The collage unfolds beyond the fears and pains, with brightly shining memories of friendship, cooperation, and triumph when those struggles were finally overcome. There is hope, and love, and compassion in the world, and Shira sees what she - what Ghost - truly is. Reality is full of pain and fear. Ghost was created out of that, to fight those fears. But only humans can defeat their ghosts, and they do not do that by escaping reality and letting someone else fight their battles. Reality is not a threat to shield against. Other people are not enemies to defeat. People are there to help each other fight their battles, to overcome their fears together and make reality their own. This trespasser has no more ghosts to defeat, save one: the fear that lives in other humans, and the fortresses they build around themselves. Shira moves her cybernetic consciousness over the sleepers. They do not need her fortress walls anymore. It is a grateful thought, even to an AI. Her purpose is fulfilled. “Wake up.“ The rest is up to them.

And here’s the official Ghost Blade plot from the game manual! 10,000 years ago there was an Artificial Intelligence on Mars known as Shira. When it became corrupt, the Evil Shira was banned from Mars by the Earth Defence Force, who destroyed her physical form, blasting her with laser beams. Full of anger, Evil Shira was able to make a digital backup of her intelligence module and swore to get her revenge one day. She escaped from the planet and rushed millions of light years through the universe to seek a new home and built her attack force.

[redrobin-detective]

do you have any good fic recs?

On Fanfiction.net

My personal favorite author is paganpunk2. They write the most adorable batfam (though mostly Bruce and younger Dick). I would start with Firework which is a retelling of Dick’s first year at Wayne Manor and the rest are listed on her blog.

Where’s Robin and Without Me (one story told from two different perspectives, would start with WM) is also super cute. It’s by Glimare who also has written a ton of excellent one-shots. Robin is sent to an AU where there never were sidekicks. Also Hostages, Hero’s Debt and Necessary Lies are very enjoyable. Daddy, not Bats is interesting. It’s if Bruce adopted all his kids when they were younger and, to care for them, gave up being Batman.

Roots is the start of a series by TV Maniac 2. It’s how YJ Robin ended up with Batman. Yes, this story is 1st person from Dick’s POV but just stick with it, it’s worth it.  First story in a while I stayed up late into the night to finish. Subsequent stories in the series are Hooked, Identity, Fragility and Loyalty is still ongoing.

Father by Lawless67 is really great showing each time the kids call Bruce dad for the first time

Also No Good Deed and Charades by Black Friar are particularly heart-wrenching. In NGD, Dick is taken from Bruce due to abuse accusations and the other Dick is kidnapped (again), really good dad bruce

Linchpin by Tiger Lily Roar is honestly amazing and read it and it’s short sequel Family Matters- A linchpin interlude. Like wow. I can’t even describe (Buried by her is also another intense Dick kidnapped story)

Pressing Matters, (More) Pressing matters by Sly are really cute just adopted Dick stories with a loving daddybats. I also like (Un)fortunate Son where Dick takes Dami and runs to safety before BI #8 instead of letting Bruce hand over Damian to Talia (sadly it’s unlikely to be finished)

WorldsGreatestDefective (Totally read I’ll Follow You Anywhere, The More Things Change and Dodge of my fav FF interpretation of tiny Jason)

Young Justice: Darkness Falls and Young Justice: Titans by Angelus-v1 is SUPER good. It’s a proposed season 3 and 4 of YJ and it’s very detailed plots involving so much from actual comics plus adding it’s own little fun things in. YJ:T is just finishing up and damn is it great.

Trepidation and Worth by sidekick heroisms are both very short, nice stories

 FinalArc writes some really good interesting batfam with a really realistic, complex Bruce who tries and fails, a lot. Totally read Instinct, Citation, Bumper Stickers, Paved with Good Intentions, It’s the Thought That Counts is really super cute

How We Fall by Skylark Evanson is a LONG story of Robin coping if Bruce died sometime during YJ.

Officer Calling 1080 by A Tragic Galaxy is very fun where Robin gets pulled over for speeding by a naïve cop, Bruce is very protective.

Weezila does great stuff with Brothers, Show-off, Twenty Bucks, Flying Lessons also Three Little Birds is a great AU

midnightluck  is the master of simply spoken but impactful one-shots. A Good Plan, A halo for your finger, Cause Walking Gets too Boring, dare not meet in dreams, just like bad wallpaper, The Circus Crime Protection Squad

aradian nights The Bond of Street Urchins, Where are all the goddamn knives, Fall and Fail, Stages of Deterioration is particularly devastating in which YJ-verse the Bats find Jason after he crawled out his grave and him trying to reintegrate into the family.

On AO3

- ANYTHING BY HEARTSLOGOS. I swear to Ford her stuff is just the absolute best and I’ve read everything so many times. SO mANy. Her Tim… is my Tim. favs: Clockwork, Executive Assistant to the Batman (READ THIS AU! HILARIOUS AND TOUCHING), Nanny, Awful Child, Drabble, Drabble, Things Left Unsaid, Think of the Cold, Our Silences are so Weighted, Quartet, Shutterbug and like… everything she has ever written, ever

- Really been enjoying Fracture by wintersnight which updated the other day I was soooo excited! (tw for light Jaydick and implied Jaydicktim) for Tim leaving and reintegrating into the Batfam post RR. Also in the Distractions collection she has a sad racture AU “No Home for Dead Birds” which is terrible in the best way.

- Bird by Bird, [Incident, Coincidence, Pattern], Five Times Jason Todd Saved His Brothers, and One Time They Saved Him by laceymcbain

- Slipcast by wisia is sad Tim :( and Class Differences for timkon

- Classics: One and Two by Protagonistically (The_Protagonist) is very good early Tim and Dick bonding and awkward Bruce trying to understand

- Support Systems, Make Believe Everything’s Alright, To be a Good Child, A Reason to Celebrate by keeptogethernow does very very good stuff

- Heart, Humble by Betty is GREAT Tim/Jack Drake bonding, it humanizes Jack Drake and makes me like him a bit more

- Life Lessons by Fire Dancer is watching child Tim develop his skillz

- Forgotten by Souliebird is bb Tim at Wayne Manor

- Try to Talk by drakesounds is Tim leaning on Bart and Kon for help

- Of Milkshakes and Marathons, Weighing Ones Worth by Rascal Joy (Dark Quill) for depressed Tim and Jay/Dami being good brothers (tw for suicide attempt in the second)

- Replace the Need with Love by Aviatricks (Also for Timkon, The Mystery of the Superboy Shirts which !!! was a birthday present from me and I remember this and I cry because I LOVE this story)

- For Timkon which is mostly focused on the realtionship not the smut- Trade in these wings for some wheels and your heartbeat in a thousand miles and Ink for Youself by victoria_p (musefool), Matters of the Heart and Reveries by DM (dragonmist30), TK! by Loud Lucy, Through Another Lens by animegoil (tw for slight unintended abuse that’s immeaditely shut down) and Gonna be a better one (A thousand miles to your door) by Traincat.

[sineala]

Chronology of Tony’s secret identity

One of the things that often comes up in discussions of 616 Tony Stark is his secret identity. Unlike the MCU, where Tony's secret identity lasts only until the end of the first Iron Man movie, or the Ultimate universe, where it's never secret at all, one of the key traits of 616 Tony for a number of years is the fact that he maintained a secret identity: Tony Stark the CEO and Avengers benefactor and his bodyguard the Avenger Iron Man, were presented to the world as two different people.

Now, if you're a fan of Tony in the comics, none of the above is new to you. But what isn't always obvious, especially if your primary point of familiarity with Tony is other universes, is that coming out as a superhero isn't a one-and-done thing. He doesn't start out by making a big public announcement: some people figure it out over the years, some people find out, some people are told. But until he tells the world, it's still a secret. There are Avengers teams even within the past 25 years where some people know who he is and some people don't.

So I thought that it would be useful to compile a list of who learns Tony is Iron Man, and when they learn it. The list isn't complete -- and I certainly welcome additions and corrections -- and is currently limited to Tony's friends, romantic interests, and selected teammates (rather than supervillains). Basically, I just wanted to limit it to characters we might care about for fannish purposes, because I often find myself wondering if Character X knows at Time Y that Tony is Iron Man. A lot of these aren't traditional reveals in the sense you're probably picturing, in which Tony takes off his helmet; several of them are just people saying that they've figured it out. But I think they still count.

This is the raw data, ordered by year of reveal; I will then go through it with explanations as appropriate:

RETCONS:

Joanna Nivena (Iron Man v1 #224 (1989); retconned into origin story)

ORIGINAL CONTINUITY:

1965

Happy Hogan (Tales of Suspense v1 #70)

1973

Thor (Avengers v1 #113) Pepper Potts (Iron Man v1 #65)

1977

Whitney Frost (Iron Man v1 #104)

1980

Bethany Cabe (Iron Man v1 #139)

1982

Steve Rogers (Avengers v1 #216) Tigra (Avengers v1 #216) Silver Surfer (Avengers v1 #216) Janet Van Dyne (Avengers v1 #224)

1983

James "Rhodey" Rhodes (Iron Man v1 #169)

1985

Clint Barton (Iron Man v1 #193) Bobbi Morse (Iron Man v1 #193)

1998

Carol Danvers (Iron Man v3 #7)

1999

Selected friends & Avengers, again (Captain America & Iron Man 1998 Annual)

2002

Rumiko Fujikawa, and also the entire world (Iron Man v3 #55)

2006

The entire world, again (Civil War: Front Line #1)

The first identity reveal by internal chronology is actually from 1989; IM v1 #224 introduces, in flashback, a woman named Joanna Nivena whom Tony was engaged to, and who actually encouraged him to be Iron Man, and then promptly left him when she figured out that was his true calling. She is a retcon, and as far as I know she's a retcon that canon hasn't done much of anything with -- I think this is her only appearance -- but technically she's the first.

Discounting the retcons, as you can probably guess, Happy Hogan is the first person to find out that Tony is Iron Man. It happens in a relatively early ToS issue, ToS #70 (1965), in the middle of the Titanium Man fight. And if you're looking for it, it is so completely subtle that you will probably miss it. I missed it twice. Happy thinks to himself, "I'm gettin' a hunch why Stark is never around when Iron Man's on the scene! It's nutty... but it must be the answer!" Seriously, that's as much as it gets spelled out, but Happy knows. Of course, then he gets amnesia for a bit, but the amnesia goes away in ToS #83 (1966) and he remembers again.

At this point you might think to yourself that probably this means Pepper will find out soon. Ha. Ha. No. Pepper does not find out soon. In fact, Thor technically finds out before Pepper does, though it happens in the same year, 1973. There's this whole Happy/Pepper/Tony dynamic where Pepper has a thing for Tony and Tony keeps trying to push Pepper toward Happy because Tony believes in his own imminent death. And to help this along, he behaves coldly to her as Iron Man, meaning that Pepper thinks Iron Man is terrible and Tony is so great. The identity reveal, in IM v1 #65, actually happens when Pepper and Happy are fighting and Pepper says something about how Iron Man is so awful and Happy tells her that Tony and Iron Man are the same person and then shows her the armor in its case.

And then there's Thor! The Thor thing seems like it should be easy, but it isn't. In Avengers v1 #113 (1973), Vision is injured, and they need an engineer (Tony) and a doctor (Don Blake) to help him, and so Tony and Thor kind of mutually tip their hand to each other about their identity; it's a really sweet reveal. It's also completely retconned, in the same year, in the same title, in a story by the exact same writer -- in Avengers #118, the Avengers/Defenders War ends with Doctor Strange explicitly mindwiping Tony and Thor's knowledge of each other's identities out of each others' minds. The really weird thing is that this retcon doesn't seem to have stuck; Tony refers to Thor already knowing his identity in IM #108 (1978), and Thor already knows in the Molecule Man incident. Comics, man, I don't even know.

A bunch of Tony's romantic interests find out in the remainder of the 1970s and early 1980s. I don't have an issue number, but I know Marianne Rodgers figures it out pretty early on in their relationship, on account of being a telepath. Whitney Frost finds out in 1977, Iron Man v1 #104, when she becomes seriously romantically involved with Tony. (They first kissed way back in Iron Man v1 #19 (1969)... but she didn't know he was Iron Man, then.) Bethany Cabe finds out -- or rather, reveals to Whitney Frost that she'd already figured it out -- in 1980, in Iron Man v1 #139. She doesn't tell Tony she knows until Iron Man v1 #152, in 1981 -- they're captured and she urges him to change into Iron Man. (So, yeah, this means that while Demon in a Bottle is happening and Bethany is helping Tony get sober, she most likely doesn't know he's Iron Man.)

And then there's Avengers v1 #216, which I am sure we all already know about. The Molecule Man strips Tony out of his armor, meaning that his identity is revealed to Thor (who already knew), the Silver Surfer (who doesn't really seem to care), Tigra (who is leaving the team, but this will be relevant in a bit anyway)... and of course, Steve Rogers. Hi, Steve.

This is where it becomes important that Tony's secret identity is still a secret. No one he's told tells anyone else. Even now that some of the Avengers know, he doesn't, say, rush out and tell the rest of the Avengers that he's really Iron Man. Instead, in Avengers v1 #224, he starts dating Jan, and he doesn't tell her he's Iron Man. Steve and Thor both encourage him to tell her, and he does, at which point she breaks up with him because she doesn't want to date another teammate so soon after leaving Hank.

Then the second drinking arc happens, which is when we get a couple more identity reveals -- Rhodey and Clint, specifically. Rhodey finds out when Tony has started drinking again. Tony reveals his identity to Rhodey in IM v1 #179 (1983), and then he passes out in the armor and Rhodey puts it on and becomes Iron Man and goes off to fight the villain of the issue. After Tony eventually sobers up, he and Rhodey and the Erwins make their way to the West Coast. When Rhodey joins the brand-new WCA, Tigra is confused because she knew Tony was Iron Man and this guy isn't Tony, but it's all sorted out eventually. (Similarly, some of Tony's villains are confused when they run into Rhodey as Iron Man -- the Mandarin says he'd suspected Iron Man was Tony but now obviously he must have been wrong.) Anyway, Tony outs himself to Clint and Bobbi in Iron Man v1 #193 (1985); he suits up in his old armor to go talk to Clint, and when Clint doesn't trust him, unmasks himself as Tony Stark. And when Tony becomes Iron Man again, he eventually joins the WCA and stays in California.

After this... well, okay, after this is where my reading gets patchy, honestly.  Armor Wars happens, and Tony comes up with a fake identity for Iron Man and then fakes Iron Man's death at the end of it -- I think this was to fool SHIELD, but I know that Steve et al. still know who Tony is. I don't think there are a whole lot of big reveals, but I get the sense that Tony's identity eventually becomes basically an open secret in the superhero community. There's a panel somewhere from the 80s or early 90s where Natasha is thinking that they all know already and Tony should just tell them. Note that the general public still doesn't know; this is only among Tony's fellow heroes.

The latest individual reveal I know of is after volume 3 starts, when Tony reveals his identity to Carol in Iron Man v3 #7 (1998). It's the middle of the Live Kree Or Die arc, in which Carol has been kicked off the Avengers for her drinking problem. Tony shows up at her door as Iron Man and then decides that he can relate to her better in this case as Tony Stark, alcoholic. It's clearly new information to her.

And then there's the Captain America & Iron Man 1998 Annual, which actually came out in 1999, apparently. Tony cybernetically fights a villain named Mentallo. In the course of the fight, Mentallo learns Tony's secret identity, but when Tony wins he gets the chance to erase it from his mind, which he does. He then realizes he can erase it from everyone's minds. He's thinking of all the villains who have found out over the years -- he names Spymaster, The Controller, Molecule Man, and Machinesmith, and even I can add a few more to that list. (There's Kraken, at least, and the Mandarin definitely suspected.) So Tony wipes everyone's minds, including his friends'. But via the magic of Comic Science, if he retells them right away it will be like they never forgot. So he calls a meeting of a bunch of Avengers (Vision, Thor, Jan, Steve, Hank, Wanda, Simon -- and later Happy and Pepper) and tells them his identity again, and everyone takes it really well, except for Steve, who gets mad about having his mind wiped, which is the plot of the book. He says he's going to tell a few more people who "deserve the same courtesy" and mentions wanting to find Clint. I assume he retells most of the superhero community (or at least his friends), but this isn't explicitly stated.

And in 2002, in Iron Man v3 #55, Tony unmasks to save a puppy, and the entire world finds out he's Iron Man. (This includes Rumiko, who he's dating at the time.) He continues to have a public identity for the remainder of v3, but during everything that happens during Disassembled, he manages to successfully hide his identity once again and get the world as a whole believing that Tony and Iron Man are two different people.

Even during Disassembled, it's clear that the superhero community still knows who he is -- in Avengers Finale (2005), he assembles a bunch of familiar Avengers in the ruins of the mansion (he's in armor but unmasked -- which, y'know, that's a dead giveaway there) and tells them, "I was able to put the genie back in the bottle as far as my secret identity is concerned. Most people believe that Tony Stark and Iron Man are now two completely different people. I would never ask any of you to outright lie for me, but if it comes up -- if you could at least not say anything to contradict me. I would appreciate it."

So New Avengers kicks off and the team moves into the tower and so on and so forth and Tony keeps his superhero identity secret from the public until... 2006. Nope, it doesn't take long at all. Civil War kicks off and Tony unmasks at a press conference in Civil War: Front Line #1 so that he can, essentially, show he's not a hypocrite for supporting Registration. He pulls his helmet off and says, "Hello, my name is Tony Stark, and I am an alcoholic. And now it's time to come clean."

And that's the one that stuck. So after 2006, everyone knows Tony Stark is Iron Man. (Fun fact: after the brain deletion, Tony's not going to remember that he did this, so he ought to wake up still thinking he has a secret identity. I don't think canon has ever explored this fact.)

So there you have it: my best attempt at putting together a chronology of Tony's identity issues.

[littlemisssquiggles]

(1/2) So this isn't specifically RoseGarden related but I love all the ideas you come up with so I thought I'd get your opinion on this. I've had this idea in my head for a while now that, what if the CRWBY decided to remake RWBY from V1C1 in the Maya engine with all the skills and things they've learned? I personally think that would be a cool idea since they could use that idea to fix up the story and have it start at the beginning rather than in the middle of V3.

(2/2) They could tighten up the story since, V1 (at least to me) seemed like a rough draft of what they really wanted and it would be a great opportunity to fix up the writing people always complain about. They could also make so much better scenery so we could actually see what Vale looks like and Beacon wouldn't just be a 2D picture in the background! I know some people wouldn't be fond of it since Monty wouldn't be behind it but personally I think it would be cool. Anyway, what do you think?

‘Sup Velian. Hmmthat’s actually not a bad idea. I can definitely see the CRWBY committing tosomething like that as part of some kind of anniversary milestone special,y’know what I mean? As of now, RWBY had been on the web for at least five yearswith a total of 6 seasons and 79 episodes as of Volume 6’s conclusion. If theCRWBY have the resources, the budget and the production crew to pull this offthen I can see this idea being like a full remaster of theBeacon Trilogy. I’m not sure if you’re a Kingdom Hearts fanbut KH is notorious for this kind of thing. Kingdom Hearts had its first originalgame start on the PlayStation 2 but over the years spread its game storyline acrossmultiple different consoles correlating in different engines and more or lessdifferent styles to cater to each engine, as in the case of Chain of Memories.And don’t even get me started on all the Re-Done games andFinal mixes which had additional scenes from the English versionsince the Final Mix Kingdom Hearts games were only available in Japan.

However,later…years down the line, we inevitably got Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and Kingdom Hearts 2.5 (andbegrudgingly KingdomHearts 2.8) which basically takes all the games and clump themtogether onto 2 discs redone in beautiful HD graphics.

Overall Ican see the CRWBY doing a remaster of theentire Beacon Trilogy (V1-V3) in the Maya Engine if they’re feeling ballsy andagain, have the time and budget to pull such a stunt off without interferingwith their schedule for other upcoming seasons of RWBY.

Or…evenbetter, they can do what Kingdom Hearts did with Unchained X, it’s game available onmobile. In 2.8, they basically created this movie that summarized the events ofUnchained Key with all the characters being modelled in the new game engine.

For yearsI’ve wanted to see the CRWBY possibly do a RWBY feature length movie. RoosterTeeth hasalready done original movies before. I’m just waiting for them to grow biggerto the point that they can evolve again and branch out to have another studiothat’s in charge of creating feature animated films including ones for known RoosterTeethproperties like RWBY.

Who doesn’t want to see a RWBY moviesomeday? Thissquiggle meister would for sure.

Besides,if the CRWBY Writers don’t wish to hot up their heads over coming up with an original concept for a movie that possibly deviates from the canonanyways (like how the Pokémon films used to move), they can always create afull feature length RWBY movie that basically summarizes the events of theBeacon Trilogy while adding a new spin on it, as you suggested.

Nowcontrary to what you and other fans might think, this squiggle meister actually thought the Beacon Trilogy was flawless. Don’t get me wrong, it had its fairshare of faults, yes, however the key thing that impressed me the most aboutthe Beacon Trilogy and why I personally will defend it as the best trilogy ofRWBY so far is because of its plot structure.

Let meexplain. I’m a glutton for a well thought out, well-written, well-paced and well-structuredplot. I love stories that give me a plot where every piece ofinformation shown on screen means something in hindsight to the overallnarrative. I love it when stories create this perfectly woven spider web thataffirms that everything in the story---even those little throwaway details thatsome audience members might overlook, meant something in the development of theoverarching plot. So that when you get the final payoff, you feel this biggersense of excitement because it’s something you know the story has been buildingup to for ages. It’s why I get why fans love the Marvel movies. Each movie wasjust a piece of a thought out Cinematic Universe that’s been building for yearsand it’s still going strong.

I mean, Ilove surprises and moments just thrown in for shock value in stories too but Ilove it even more when I get stories where everything is connected andadds up to something bigger; y’know what I mean?

This iswhy the Beacon Trilogy will always be perfect in my eyes because it had a great structure. Everything addedup. Almost every detail the CRWBY Writers introduced to us between V1 and V2meant something in the grander scheme that led up to V3.  If I had to compare the Beacon Trilogy tosomething, it would be a well-baked lasagne with each volume representing theperfectly staked layers of meat and cheese that slowly build up to a savouryplot of baked perfection (meaning V3 and the Fall of Beacon) that anyone cansink their teeth into.

This iswhy if the CRWBY ever redid the Beacon Trilogy, I don’t want nor do I expectthem to change anything. At this moment, the Beacon Trilogy---the first threeseasons of RWBY are by far some of the best seasons in the show. Between the Beacon Arc and the Mistral Arc, Beacon still stands superior to itssuccessor because of that strong plot structure; something that Miles and Kerryunfortunately did not carry over into the Mistral Arc.

Theystarted off decently in V4 but messed up sadly in the middle with V5. V6 waspretty much damagecontrol for what transpired in V5while setting up for V7 and for the most part, V6 was a great season. Still thebest of the Mistral Arc for me, hands down. It’s just unfortunate that theCRWBY Writers had that slip up in V5 because that’s what most fan critiqueskeeping bringing up. I, as always, have a different stance on this.

I actuallydisagree with you Velian. The overall story did technically start in V1. I meanfrom V3, the key plot of RWBY definitely did kick in more but everythingstarted from V1.V1, by my observation was a solid good season to me. V1 wasabout establishing the important details---our main cast of colourful characters,the setting for the arc and our course our key villains while at the same timeproviding the first instance of what was going to be the main conflict goingforward.

The mainconflict of the Beacon Arc which was the Fall of Beacon at the Vytal Festivalwas something that had clues dropped as early as V1 with Torchwick. RomanTorchwick was the man who the audience identified with since he was the villainwe mostly got to see this scheme get conducted through. It wasn’t until V2 whenthings started to pick up with the involvement of Cinder, Emerald and Mercury.I don’t want to go too much into this but…everything about the Fall of Beaconstarted to build up from V1. In V2, we got more clues but we still weren’tclear on what the main plan was until V3. The CRWBY did a great job of buildingthe suspense and mystery toward the Fall of Beacon so when it finally wentdown, you were surprised but you also got this sense of revelation when yourealize that everything that happened in the volumes before it meant somethingin the grander scheme of things. At least by my eyes. You, of course, have yourown thoughts on that.

I guesswhat I’m trying to say overall is that I like your idea. I think it canhonestly work better as a remaster as part of an anniversary type of event orperhaps a movie where we get to relive our favourite moments of the BeaconTrilogy. However it’s not a straight retelling of the original story. I likeyour idea of it adding more to the story than what we received before plus itreally would be lovely to see Vale remastered in the Maya engine with all thatthe CRWBY had learnt over the past three seasons.

Not sureif they would actually do something like that. However, it’s a pretty sweet idea=) Hope this answers your question, fam.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)