#btw the cartoon is fully on youtube apparently

[the-sprog]

Talking about Batman always makes me remember the cartoon "Sidekick".

I remember very little in terms of the episodes but the premise is something that I would love to see with Batman. I mean the premise is something that we have seen in Batman comics, I just want to see it in the early years of the first Robin.

The plot of the cartoon is that MaxusMan (iirc the name) adopts a young boy and makes him his sidekick (now. In this universe, if I remember correctly, this is common practice. There is a literal school that the protagonists go to to learn how to be sidekicks for superheroes. Although, I don't remember if they already have superheroes and that's the reason why they're going to the school or if that's like their career goals? And they will be assigned a superhero to be a sidekick to in the future?) only to disappear basically immediately after.

No one knows where he is and no one knows that he disappeared. Except for the protagonist orphan boy and his friends (do not ask me names I do not know) who are working to make sure that no one discovers that the superhero disappeared and are also simultaneously trying to find him. I think the reason why you're keeping the disappearance of secret is because he is the strongest superhero kind of like Metro Man in MegaMind and so if super villains discovered that he wasn't there anymore it would upset the balance and villains would go rampant.

I want to see young boy Dick Grayson Robin discovering that Batman has disappeared and that not even Alfred knows where he is, but they are certain he is not dead, and working with the Titans to make sure no one discovers that Batman is gone, while trying to figure out where he is. A young Dick Grayson, who loathed the idea of becoming Batman, forced in the position of filling the suit, lest Gotham fall into utter chaos and destruction.

You can also add little tiny Jason Todd and Tim Drake discovering that Batman isn't in Gotham anymore if you want to make it more batfam.

[supercasey]

Villainous Fan Theory: Flug's Been Brainwashed/Has Stockholm Syndrome

Okay, hear me out here... I know I've been one to spout some shitposts, but I've had this theory in mind for a bit now. I feel like this could be honest to God legitimate in Villainous and I'd like to see what others think.

I’mma put this under a readmore because I’m a merciful bastard

MY THEORY

Dr. Flug, before being forced into Black Hat's servitude, was a famous scientist of some sort (possibly worked for superheroes), but while either riding in/flying a plane, was shot down and held captive by Black Hat, who's brainwashed him into becoming his own personal inventor. Flug is completely unaware of who he was prior to this (save for childhood memories, hinting at short term memory loss but I’m not knowledgeable enough in memory loss to diagnose him) and therefore doesn't know that he's been kidnapped.

MY REASONING

Flug Slys, as far as we know, apparently came to the mansion “by plane". So far, no one knows how this happened, and more importantly, no one knows who he was beforehand (as cute as the name Flug Slys is, it literally means "flight accident" in German (although Google Translate told me it’s Icelandic)). I recently saw a video by Cartoon Universe on YouTube about Villainous that showed hidden lore from the training videos (would highly recommend it, as it's very interesting)!

To sum up the video; an organization (likely a branch of a currently unknown government) seems to be trying to infiltrate Black Hat's organization, but Black Hat is aware of them and has (reportedly) already "taken out" three of them, leaving only two left (that we know of). I could see people saying that Flug could be one of the people he's "taken out", but seeing as Flug was already an established character in the videos when they were all alive/active, I'mma say that theory is busted.

Then why did I mention it? Because if a shadow government organization is looking into Black Hat, that clearly means the guy isn't all talk; he's a lot more vicious than he looks, and he definitely has a hidden agenda.

So how does this fit with Flug? I think Flug is pretty valuable to Black Hat, and could very well be an essential character for his hidden agenda. Black Hat will never admit it, but he needs Flug for a variety of reasons, the biggest being that Flug seems to be the mastermind behind almost all of Black Hat's inventions.

Which begs the question; why does Flug even work for Black Hat? It seems a bit strange that Flug does all the work while Black Hat gets most if not all of the credit. This makes it seem more and more likely that Black Hat has somehow either A), blackmailed Flug into working for him, or B), is holding Flug hostage. I'm about to debunk both of those, because there's a third option.

Option A isn't too hard to debunk (at least through obvious behaviors that we’ve seen from Flug). See, Flug seems... Incredibly excited about his job. I don't imagine most people who have been blackmailed would like torturing others, not to mention that he's really eager to please Black Hat. This, in turn, also eliminates option B. So why is Flug working for Black Hat? Simple; he doesn't realize he's been kidnapped, and wholeheartedly believes he's a super villain/mad scientist.

But why??? Well, I personally think (and this is gonna get a bit into headcanon territory) that Black Hat does have the know-how to create his own inventions, he just hates putting time and effort into it. With this in mind, I believe he usually just kidnaps/hires inventors to work under him and pump out evil devices that he’s already designed (although I wouldn’t be surprised if Flug’s started making his own in recent times).

I'm guessing at some point, he either got sick of hiring people legitimately/paying his employees or he killed his last inventor and set his sights on someone more famous/well known for their authenticity and results: enter Flug!

I'll be 100% honest, I have no idea who Flug was before he was... well, Flug. Again, I really don't think he's any of the secret agents (save maybe for the two that are still alive, which wouldn’t be too surprising) so I think that, before he was Black Hat's inventor, he either worked for superheroes or was just a famous scientist of some kind.

Obviously, seeing how smart he was, Black Hat wanted the kid! But alas, either Flug rejected his original offer or, ya know, he may have very well been working for superheroes and therefore wouldn’t have wanted to work for Black Hat. So what's a guy to do... well, if you're Black Hat, you shoot the guy you want to hire out of the sky while he's out having fun, drag him home, traumatize him to the point of Stockholm Syndrome, then lock him in the basement and leave him to invent things.

Again, I'm thinking we'll have to wait until the show's creator comes out and says how Flug came to live with Black Hat before there's anything concrete, but I feel like it makes sense. I've seen a few people pointing out screenshots with posters in the lab ordering Flug to not try and run away, and compared to Demencia- who we've seen is allowed to run off and fuck around- Flug doesn't seem to have much freedom (Hell, at the end of the Q&A, Flug fearfully screamed "But I live here!" when Black Hat snapped at the villains for being in his house.

This all comes off pretty nonsensical, but I think it might be true! I mean, come on; I wouldn't be surprised if Flug had Stockholm Syndrome considering how obsessive he is about gaining Black Hat's approval, especially seeing how obvious it should be that he'll never get that from him.

Also!!! Almost forgot; I think Flug's situation could also explain how 505 came to be! Even if he was just a "happy accident" according to the canon, perhaps he wasn't as much of an accident as we think? Perhaps, while unknowingly longing to return home, Flug made himself something to care for and love, which would in turn love him back.

And why hasn't Black Hat destroyed 505? Because his very existence is keeping Flug from running away. Even on the off chance that Flug realizes what’s happened to him, he loves his big bear son, and he'll do anything to protect him... even live in an abusive and messed up situation to keep him alive. ((BTW I have no idea if Demencia is aware of any of this... I feel like she knows Flug doesn't have as many "rights" as her, so she picks on him a lot, but I don't think she's fully in on the kidnapping situation)).

I dunno, it's a lot, and again I really recommend watching the video I mentioned, but I think this could be something big. Thanks for sticking around and reading this nonsense!