#dr v3 ff idea
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Not sure if I'm ever gonna make this a fic but it has been plaguing my mind lately. I mean I really wanted to turn it into a fanfic but I've spent weeks working on the snow white saiouma au so I think I'll postpone this idea for now.
Shuichi is your typical quiet guy who keeps to himself, who also goes to an all boys school. Miraculously, he is not bullied for being awkward. Simply because there are other more 'bullying-material' kids aside from him. Aside from that, he's unsure how else is he able to avoid the bullying.
He frequents a supermarket near his school. He goes to the supermarket almost everyday. One day, he walks in and finds himself surprised when the cashier cheerily greets him a 'good evening!' with a kind smile on her lips. She's new for sure - since usually Shuichi's presence is left ignored until he goes to pay for the things he picks up from the shelves.
While walking around the supermarket, Shuichi sneaks glances at the blonde behind the counter, noting how he feels quite at ease at seeing her bopping her head to the music playing through her earphones. She looks kind, and Shuichi notes to himself that maybe he could also give the cashier a kind smile in return.
When Shuichi goes to pay for his things, the cashier with a musical note hairpin tucked on a strand of her hair is quick to start small talks, her carefree aura making Shuichi feels comforted somehow.
That's how Shuichi ends up befriending Kaede, always dropping by the supermarket and at some point starts walking the girl to her house since her shift ends late into the night. At that point, they've known each other for a few months. Shuichi's told that Kaede is working to save up some money.
After Shuichi is finally comfortable enough to talk to Kaede and joke with her, he walks into the supermarket one day, a small, happy smile on his lips when it falters a little at seeing a student from his school talking to Kaede.
Shuichi obviously knows who Kokichi is - he's not really a bully, since he pranks literally everyone he wants. No discrimination whatsoever.
As it turns out, Kaede has been friends with Kokichi for a long time - childhood friends, she says. Shuichi and Kokichi somehow are only able to meet that day because Kokichi drops by on a weekday instead of the usual weekends. (Shuichi usually drops by on weekdays after school.)
The conversation that day is undeniably slightly awkward; Shuichi mostly listening in to Kaede's and Kokichi's banter. They're working pretty well together. Some part of Shuichi is envious.
The next day, when Shuichi goes to school, for the first time, Kokichi goes up to him and suddenly strikes a conversation.
Shuichi has never felt so anxious.
Ever since then, in some way or another, Shuichi is always being dragged into Kokichi's business.
Shuichi is confused how Kaede even gets along with Kokichi. Kokichi is a huge liar, a troublemaker, a prankster, loves to get on people's nerves, and, most of all, loves to run around in Shuichi's head all the time! He gives Shuichi riddles and too-vague hints, and then never speak of them again. Shuichi could always ignore these riddles and lies, but he finds himself itching to solve at least one of Kokichi's riddles just to gain some control over his life that is now filled with 'nishishi' laughs, stupidly low key cute mischievous grin, and barely-understandable riddles. At times, he finds himself only thinking of that guy.
Ever since meeting Kokichi at the supermarket, he keeps on seeing Kokichi and Kaede together at the supermarket - like Kokichi makes it his mission to run around in Shuichi's head. Kokichi keeps on saying horrendous things jokingly - like how he would send out assassins to assassinate the rude customers - while Kaede could laugh about it and just tells Kokichi that he's exaggerating. It's aa if she didn't care. But judging by how Kaede seems to understand the underlying meaning behind Kokichi's words, Shuichi believes that Kaede definitely could understand Kokichi.
Needless to say, some part of Shuichi is envious.
That's basically how the idea goes. I really want to write it out but yeah, like I mentioned at the beginning TT
#dr v3#danganronpa v3#dr v3 ff idea#danganronpa v3 ff idea#kokichi ouma#shuichi saihara#kaede akamatsu#saiouma#saimatsu#oumatsu#these three should talk it out and be friends or more idk#I just think they're neat#yuutsunaoi writes
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I wish Spike Chunsoft would just go full "Persona" with Danganronpa and milk it with tons of spinoffs.
I'd be there for every goddamn one of them on DAY ONE, you know. Pick your genre! The minute they figured out how to make a decent third-person DR action game with Ultra Despair Girls, that should've opened the floodgates wide IMO. In fact, if you take any given Persona spinoff, I can tell you how easily/naturally they could develop (and I could get super-hyped for) a Danganronpa equivalent.
Danganronpa Arena is SO obvious. It's the MOST obvious spinoff, and it has been sitting there waiting to be creating for seven goddamn years now. Ever since Kodaka said he wants a DR fighting game. Hey, remember that official DR3 Staff Book art that showed Nanami dreaming about it? Many of us have shared fan ideas for the story and/or for character moves. COME ON, y'all. What's the holdup?? DO IT! DO IT NOW!
Danganronpa: Dancing? FUCK YAS. I mean, there's already some wicked dance remixes of the game soundtracks in that Crypt of the Necrodancer DR content, so why the hell not?? And I recall that @dreamrlu did some great fanart (1) for how the (2) V3 crew could dress (3).
Danganronpa Q, a dungeon crawler? Despair Dungeon already exists, so it's COMPLETELY NATURAL. It's just a higher-quality production of that same concept! And if you haven't seen that fanmade version of the first "Persona Q" opening where it's the casts of DR1 and DR2 meeting up? It's AMAZING.
youtube
Danganronpa Tactica? Imagine leading squads from the Future Foundation (including DR1 and DR3 cast members) in missions against remaining Remnants of Despair. I've been playing a lot of tactical RPGs lately, and there's a lot of room to tell a ton of story in this format... plus it's not like you even have to make complex graphics to make it work, so SC doesn't have to worry about struggling with 3D renders if they don't want to. Just consider how Digimon Survive pulled this off with 2D sprite art!
Danganronpa Strikers is, uh, maybe the hardest to justify — but if you set it in the virtual world, that could make it easy! Since Danganronpa S already took place entirely in VR and contained a load of combat encounters, why the hell not do a similar setup for an action game? And if you prefer to keep in the real world, there are still a number of characters I could easily justify making playable in such a scenario — Genocide(r), Sakura, Asahina, Mondo, Nekomaru, Peko, Akane, Great Gozu, Seiko, Munakata, Maki, Gonta, etc. I can even picture some more-unlikely candidates such as Kimura slotting into the roster. I don't even like musou games that much, but ofc I'd play the SHIT out of this one.
Look: I know I'm an insatiable fan who just wants more precious content with these characters. But you can't convince me that these things wouldn't also SELL. The brand reached new heights of awareness and sales with V3, and they haven't really capitalized on that at all aside from giving us "Danganronpa S." We haven't even gotten a new anime since DR3, FFS! And I'm confident that any one of the ideas listed above would sell far better than a weird digital board game with RPG combat set inside VR, frankly. :P
#danganronpa#dangnaronpa spinoffs#danganronpa q#danganronpa strikers#danganronpa dancing#danganronpa dancing all night#danganronpa arena#danganronpa fighting game#danganronpa tactica#Youtube
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me: we need to get more specific with the v3 kids ages cause right now we have: Shuichi, Kokichi, Kaede, Rantaro the same age, right now established to be about 4 years old when SDR2 & DR3 happen most of the non-dr parents having kids were probably born before Remnants were caught too. Kiibo could have been built as a toddler matching his peers in age. And then there's Himiko who, even if Sondam made her right after reuniting as a little happy accident would be near 5 years younger than that. Unless we change something she probably can't go to elementary with them even if FF try to force it, because she'd be 3 (if accounting for my idea, that they start at 8, and not 7, because of Naegi losing his leg when Shuichi is 7 & parents letting him stay at home to hang out with Naegi & ease off that anxiety, putting off school for a year, and FF frantically cancelling the scouting of Jabberwock kids to preserve their project)
firedemongaming: It's also possible that schooling on general was delayed by 2 years because it's still mid-tragedy, meaning Himiko would be 5. In which case they'd be able to get away with making her attend school
me: yeah, and it'd be framed as an opportunity for them, sending all of the island's kids to school at once, so they all travel to mainland at the same time, costs reduced etc etc, she can do things on her own pace, it'll be fineee
firedemongaming: It's also possible that she joined at the normal time but, for the sake of the project, FF made her skip a few grades at some point
you: I've actually been thinking about Himiko skipping a grade. I just think it'd be funny if she had like. ridiculously good grades even tho she sleeps all the way through class
firedemongaming: Did they use the fake memories to make her think she was the same age as the others for the killing game?
you: mmmmmmmmmaybe probably
firedemongaming: The alternative is she looked at Ryoma and thought 'oh, he must secretly be younger than the others as well'. Plot twist, Ryoma is actually a year older than everyone else
Yin: where DOES the shortness come from? like Gundam is 5'9 and Sonia is 5'7 where does 4'10 come in
you: maybe people in Novaselic are kinda short and Sonia is just a statistical outlier
me: the tiniest queen of Novoselic, but also consider: it's from Gundham's side, imagine him having a tiny and confused, but supportive mom that's nothing like him
firedemongaming: no, no, tiny dad, giant mum combo me: and the mom is goth? firedemongaming: Both are but not in the way Gundham is, Gundham is a chunnibyo, his parents are just normal but confused goths me: no, no, they're equivalent of Clark from Connecticut & Malfina, I see it clearly now
firedemongaming: Gundham took after his mom's height, Himiko took Gundham's dad's height. Himiko & Gundham's dad: Not fitting in the frame of family pictures with Gundham and his mum
me: a good reason to be picked up and held
you: someone walking around the 5th island when they hear a very small "nyeh" coming from one of the tanks lmao
Yin: every weird thing Himiko says that makes no sense is just a part of Novaselic culture lol
Teeniko in her tank what will she do
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can you tell me abt Sharon Ventura? I figure youre the gal to ask
Oh boy. I’m mostly familiar with Sharon through her Fantastic Four appearances, which are. Something. I haven’t read all her earlier appearances in The Thing and I believe she has some Captain America ones as well? But for her Fantastic Four arcs, I’ve got you covered. Normally I’d speed read the issues I haven’t read to answer a question like this but, uh, I don’t want to here.
Sharon “Ms. Marvel”/”She-Thing” Ventura initially met Ben while he was on the road avoiding the Fantastic Four following the revelation that Johnny and “Alicia” (really a Skrull named Lyja) had gotten together in his absence. Ben was attracted to her because she looked exactly like a dream woman he met in space following the original Secret Wars event. Sharon gained powers through a procedure by the Power Broker; she was later imprisoned by him, during which time she was sexually assaulted by a group of men, which is why I don’t really want to read it. The attack led to Sharon having a violent fear of men and a revulsion to their touch, with the exception of Ben – because of his Thing form, she didn’t “view him as a man”, which Ben didn’t particularly take very well.
Reed and Sue decided to quit the superhero game to focus on raising Franklin, leaving Ben in charge of the team. At least partly in order to try and ruin Johnny’s new marriage to Alicia, Ben brought Crystal back onto the team. He rounded things out with Sharon, who he was still attracted to, in an effort to help her. Sharon’s trauma quickly becomes a problem for the team dynamic, though, when she could’ve rescued a falling and unconscious Johnny but couldn’t bring herself to touch him in order to do so during one of the new team’s first outings.
(Fantastic Four #308)
The team splits up, with Johnny landing himself in the middle of Crystal and Alilyja fighting over him and Ben and Sharon actually doing their jobs. Ben and Sharon end up in a rocket where they’re bombarded with a dose of cosmic rays – Sharon’s first exposure, and Ben’s second. The rays mutate Ben into an even rockier version of his Thing form and mutate Sharon into a form that looks a lot like Ben’s initial cosmic rays transformation. (Like Ben, Sharon’s rocky skin would slowly become more defined over time.) Sharon was suicidal after the transformation, outright stating she wanted to die, but she soon grew to like her new body because she felt like in it she wasn’t perceived of as a woman by men. Ben and Sharon began a romance on the basis that, as two Things, they understood each other.
(Fantastic Four #317)
Sharon’s dynamic with the team greatly improves and her romance with Ben is steady, even after Ben loses his own powers and reverts back to his human form:
(Fantastic Four #337)
On an island that shorts out the Fantastic Four’s powers, Sharon transforms back into her previous form:
(Fantastic Four #345)
This turns into a bit of a cosmically irradiated missed connections drama when Ben attempts to transform himself back into his own Thing form so he and Sharon can continue being together – Ben does this a lot in his serious relationships, questioning whether his partner wants to be with Ben Grimm or if they really only love him as the Thing:
(Fantastic Four #350)
Sharon leaves the playing field for a bit and misses all the drama that happens when it’s revealed that the Alicia Masters Johnny married was Lyja the Skrull -- meaning that the real Alicia, who has been held in suspended animation and is still very much in love with Ben, missed the entirety of Ben and Sharon’s relationship until Sharon returns to New York and reveals it to her, thinking she’s talking to the same Alicia she knew. She reveals she was working with Dr. Doom and that he “cured” her of her Thing condition:
(FF #367) She was, in fact, spying on the Fantastic Four for Doom. When she betrays Doom, he remotely reverses the “cure”, transforming her into a hideous monster form far worse than the Thing. Reed put her in stasis until he could find a cure, but then he seemingly died in battle with Doom. (They were both fine.) Sharon was broken out of stasis and recruited by the Frightful Four, where she stayed for a while until Wyatt Wingfoot talked her down during a fight with the Fantastic Four and offered her a place to stay on the Keewazi reservation:
(Fantastic Four v3 #29) This is actually much better than she was looking when Doom first transformed her, so it’s possible that his work was always temporary, something that adds up because next time we see Sharon...
(Marvel Knights 4 #21) She’s all Thing’d out again. I like her bolo tie, it’s cute.
Then sometime after this she goes to prison. She’s in Ryker’s at the same time Ben was -- Ben having been framed for the murder of the Puppet Master, Alicia’s father -- and she did not make things very pleasant for him, although she does later help him break out and joins in the final battle against the Quiet Man at the end of Robinson’s run.
(FF v5 #10) Two things -- first is that this implies a romantic relationship between Sharon and Wyatt, which is never suggested again either before or after, so it’s hard to say whether that actually happened or whether it’s wishful thinking/exaggeration on Sharon’s part. The second is that Sharon’s Thing form seems to be moving backward. In Marvel Knights 4, she had defined rocks like Ben, and here she has the more lumpy Thing look of both herself and Ben when they were first affected by the cosmic rays. The Marvel wiki is also telling me that after this she appeared in Sam Wilson: Captain America and that she’s either reverted back to her original human appearance or she’s learned to switch between it and her Thing form, which lends some credence to the idea that she was slowly going backwards towards her original form after her Doom transformation.
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Bad Things Happen Bingo! The event where you send me I give myself self-indulgent requests according to this marvelous card!
47-Survivor AU DR stuff in 2019?? More likely than I’ve ever thought. For those who never heard from it before, it’s an AU of mine (originally co-created with someone, though) where everyone but Junko survived out of the DR casts for DR1, 2 and V3, whom after escape Hope’s Peak began working for the Future Foundation as the 14th Branch (directed by Hajime). This fic takes place during their FF days and is, like my first prompt fill for this bingo Corrupted Flower, Maki-centric. (I dunno why, I really wanted to write about Maki. I still want to lmao).
Also, phew, can you believe we’re more than halfway done through this card? It’s weird to mostly have filled spots lmao.
Crimson Eyes
Summary: Trapped in an ambush by Despair supporters, what is a former hirewoman going to do to protect her life and the integrity of her companion?
Fandom: Danganronpa (Almost Everyone Lives AU - V3 cast-centric) Characters: Maki, Shuichi (background), Kaede (background)
Wordcount: 1.1K words
Event hosted by @badthingshappenbingo
AO3 version available here.
“Squad Alpha, HQ here! Do you copy?!”
Maki could have recognized this voice among a thousand others: Kaede, panicked and screaming into her microphone. Usually, she’d have minded: she hated irritated, agitated voices when she was supposed to be investigating on the field. There was nothing more aggravating than trying to be stealthy and have someone scream at you with no concern for how discredited they made you to sneak on people.
As it stood, she was closer to being reassured than pissed about Kaede contacting them with that high-pitched, urgency-filled, yelling voice of hers.
“Squad Alpha here,” she said into her ear microphone, hidden behind her hair and her helmet over it.
“Ah, Maki, I’m relieved to hear you! (Kaede lacked professionalism, when she was concerned). How many are you, down here? Who’s with you?”
“We’re two. We split with Mukuro before that happened. Shuichi’s with me.”
Maki glanced over her shoulder, making sure the bear-masked psychos didn’t start attacking them while she was seemingly looking away. Sure enough, Shuichi was still there, hands trembling from fear but trying to maintain his composure in the face of danger.
“Yeah, Mukuro contacted us back, she told us about the situation. Be careful, we’re sending backup asap!”
Yeah, that was good and all, but they were still trapped among the crazies. Shuichi had no training, as he had tagged along for an investigation in what they thought was a Despair-controlled research facility having long been abandoned. They had been wrong or, more exactly, she had seen it coming: Despairs weren’t the kind to simply flee away from any place they had partially destroyed and inhabited, relishing in the desperation to have destroyed one’s last home and staying there with a bunch of other junkies of the sort.
There was only disgust and contempt in her to seeing it all, the glass shards on the floor, the dried puddles of blood, the browned splashes on the walls, the Monokuma masks torn apart and hung from the ceiling, the beheaded Monokub plushies and those who had had their heads swapped out. It was like looking right into the eyes of a mass-disaster that had claimed the lives of thousands; which was the case, because they were right inside a physical representation of humanity’s worst.
To that, Maki only wanted to spit her hatred and want to destroy them all back, but she had to keep quiet and stay sharp.
She lifter her eyes to make them understand she knew they were all gathered around here, in the shadows, as she forced Shuichi to hold onto her arm. It wasn’t a sign of affection, at least not more than platonically for them: it was just her way to tell he was there, by her side, unharmed and alive. Only living people with uninjured limbs could do that, that was a thing she had been taught about in case she ever had to escort threatened figures to some places while avoiding as much as possible to see everything go up in flames and finish in a flow of blood.
There was nothing weird to make sure a friend was alive, after all.
While most of them had generic masks, one of them had this golden Monokuma head in lieu of their face, a sure sign she was directly facing their leader. It was a battle of stares, to see whom would attack the other first and who’d survive the fight. Maki and Shuichi were a measly force compared to the dozen of Enoshima followers circled around them from the broken parts remaining of other floors above. In any other situation, she’d have sneaked her way out of it and found another way out of the delicate situation to get her bounty from shitty people.
However, she had to do with what she had. She had military-level training in killing and spying, but Shuichi didn’t, having mostly detective experience and very little physical skills in. She couldn’t just give up on him despite the desperate situation, now when she was still convincing herself she was deserving redemption like Kaito was always insisting on (what an idiot…). A new plan, quick, quick…
Perhaps because of all the rotten surprises she had had in her previous years of life, Maki always had some urgency weapons on her. As she watched the followers glare at them with appetized, swirly eyes filled with a will to kill and pulverize anything going their way, yet strangely relishing in the idea that they could be busted and die on the spot from a well-targeted pull of a trigger, she put her fingers on some leftover kunai from an old, old mission. Truth be told, she had never given them back and the blood of the guilty must have still been on some of them, drier than the puddles serving as this wretched place’s décor.
Keen-eyed, trained to murder on sight and on orders, Maki gave herself her own orders now. Kaede had stopped talking, Shuichi’s breath kept hitching behind her shoulder. She was going to go to end up in Hell anyway, so better keep herself and an innocent soul out of a bloodbath and throw her weapons to escape the predicament they had gotten themselves trapped inside of. Calculating a way for six of them to eat the entire pack wasn’t difficult, more like a task she had already had to complete in more stressful conditions.
Reflexes were engrained inside her brain. First, check for their weapons: metal bats. Lethal if used violently against the skull to cast death by blunt force trauma. Second, check for their stances: all crouched and looking upon them. Unpractical to move and run away fast, exposes the back of the neck for some of them and throat for all the pack. Third, check for expressions: the masks hid everything away apart from their thirst to kill, visible in their uncovered eyes.
In all, it was a safe situation to be throwing kunai around, as long as she steadied her aim and knew exactly what to do. All that was left, once she had planned her course of action, was to make sure she wouldn’t hurt Shuichi in the process. Murder the rotten, spare the good: her humanity had survived by repeating herself that motto. She maybe believed sometimes you could save the Despairs, bring them back to normalcy, but there was no way around the issue without killing someone and getting killed if you didn’t act first. A shame, really.
“Shuichi, crouch down.”
“H-huh?”
“I said, crouch down!”
She threw the first kunai.
#bad things happen bingo#danganronpa#maki harukawa#shuichi saihara#kaede akamatsu#ambush#ndrv3#it's neither whump nor a sickfic#shocking i know#also yes i am still a dr fanfic writer apparently lmao#bthb 1#au: 47 survivors
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Bumblebee: A Comprehensive Guide to Your Favorite Ship
Hey, I ended up finishing this about a week back and was going to post it then, but I noticed that Bmblb week was upcoming and thought this might be a nice way to start it off.
To be clear: the purpose of this post is to be comprehensive. Every small detail I’ve noticed will be here, so like if you see something and you think “that’s not necessarily indicative of anything romantic”, you might be right, but don’t let that small detail detract from the larger picture. Unfortunately, though I’d like it to be completely comprehensive, I’m only human and no doubt will have forgotten and/or missed some details.
Speaking of small details, in the past I’ve been told that this is all too subtle and RWBY doesn’t do subtlety. To answer that, I invite you to look at Qrow’s semblance, or Raven being the Spring Maiden, or Ilia’s feelings for Blake. I don’t think this is out of line with any of those, and if anything it (particularly Yang’s feelings) is considerably more blatant than Qrow’s semblance and Ilia’s feelings were prior to their reveals.
Finally, I want to defend myself and other bees like me for a second because I realize that taking several hours to research and write this to argue in favor of a fictional (potential) romance, a ship, can be seen as a tad weird… but that’s not really how I view what I’m doing. I think of it more along the lines of a theory, because it’s actually not really different at all: I’m using evidence from the show to support a conclusion. It’s exactly what I did when making basically every other analysis I’ve done on the show. It’s just what the subject of this theory/analysis is. Ok let’s go.
Supplementary reading because I’m not the only person who’s written essays about bumblebee and I’ve used the first two as reference points:
The classic Masterpost by Allisonbw. Unfortunately, it’s two volumes behind, which is a big reason why I’m doing this.
A relatively shorter post by y8ay8a talking about why she thinks it’ll happen. Again, it’s two volumes behind, but still a very good read. Also her art is top notch so check that out.
I’m not as familiar with them, but rwby-analysis has also done several posts about bumblebee.
chained-prometheus has several posts I’ll be referencing, but just the blog in general has many fantastic analyses on why it’s going to happen.
The tl;dr is obviously Yang is gay for Blake, which I’m 95% sure of, and Bumblebee has a pretty good chance of happening.
There’s 4 sections. Yang’s feelings, Blake’s feelings, Parallels, and Eclipse.
#1. Hints of Yang’s Feelings
Volume 1:
There’s not much to say here, really.
Lowkey joking, but like, the only time we see Yang express any interest in boys (even though it was in an overly comedic tone) is in V1C3, and that’s immediately prior to when she meets Blake. After that, she has nothing but disinterest towards boys, like tfw Yang meets Blake. I don’t mean to be offensive because this is actually a thing, adolescents not realizing how they feel until they meet someone that’s their… type I think would be the correct word. Hell, Monty says something about this later on, which I’ll get to. And I’ll expand more on this scene, in a more serious manner, at the end of this section.
It’s worth noting that Blake and Yang have absolutely no relationship issues once they become partners, which - alongside Renora - is an interesting contrast to Weiss/Ruby and Pyrrha/Jaune.
Yang’s concern for Blake during V1C16 is in stark contrast to Weiss, and even though she just heard that Blake was literally a terrorist who seemingly defended all the horrible things that happened to Weiss, she’s more concerned about her safety and finding her.
Really there was very little on Yang and Blake’s relationship in this volume, which is a shame, but what can you do? I’ll tell you what you can do, you can go to the Director’s Commentary and see what Miles has to say about it! Which is what I did. The context of this quote is that it’s talking about when Blake elbows Yang when they meet Penny in V1C15.
That, that is really what I do love about Team RWBY, is that, we have these two pairs of girls, each pair is completely contrasting characters. Ruby and Weiss that causes them to butt heads, Blake and Yang? They get along, flawlessly most of the time.
To put it in my friend’s words: “This is particularly important as there are people that like to say that Yang and Blake have horribly clashing personalities and get along like ‘gasoline and fire’. That they have no chemistry and are absolutely horrible for each other. The idea has been around for awhile, but here’s actual proof that it’s been wrong from the very beginning.”
I also think it’s important because it sets a precedent that even little things like this are being taken seriously by the writers. They didn’t get a lot of time to show off Blake and Yang’s friendship this volume, but what they did show has meaning.
Finally, I wanted to mention Wings. Wings is either sung from Yang to Blake, or from RWY to Blake. But Weiss as the singer (which, I believe, has been the traditional interpretation) doesn’t make any sense, she simply doesn’t fit the singer’s very understanding, nurturing attitude towards Blake. Yang, on the other hand, is definitely characterized as nurturing, such as in Gold. I could see it being all of RWY, but again it’s not Weiss’s style, nor is it Ruby’s when she’s two years younger and she herself gets Yang’s nurturing side. Oh, and an instrumental of it played when Yang and Blake saw each other again for the first time since V3. So yeah, it’s probably Yang to Blake. Also Stray sounded like Straight the first 20 times I listened to this
Volume 2:
So it begins.
V2C1: “Whatcha doin’?” This is noteworthy for two reasons: 1. Yang, Blake’s new partner and future lover (don’t @ me), is interrupting her rumination on her old partner and former lover. Out with the old, in with the new. 2. This phrase is classic flirting, most notably seen in literally every Phineas and Ferb episode.
V2C2: “Yes! I love it when you’re feisty!” More flirting, not much else to say.
I mean obviously, we have the V2C6 scene: most of it isn’t inherently romantic, just a friend comforting another, excepting the rather infamous, “If you feel like coming out tomorrow, I’ll save you a dance.” wink? I shouldn’t have to explain this, it’s pretty blatantly flirting and a double entendre.
V2C6: My friend: “This is the most vulnerable Yang has ever intentionally allowed anyone else to see her. With Ruby in V3 she was too hurt to really guard herself, and even then she tried to deny caring about Blake. The only time Yang has ever let anyone see herself as vulnerable as in Burning the Candle is during her talk with Weiss about Blake.” Because Blake gets to her like no one else. See later when Yang keeps it together with Raven until she makes a snide comment about Blake.
The dance in V2C6-7. Out of our ten students (RWBYJNPRSN), 8 of them end up with someone here. The two who don’t? Ruby, who 1. is two years younger than everyone else 2. “is not really focused on romance” - Lindsay and 3. ends up with Cinder for most of the night and Yang. Yang, the one described as a “party girl” by the back of V1’s steelbook cover, doesn’t end up going with anyone to the dance. Take a second and think on how that’s pretty weird, especially when she says “I’ll be turning heads tomorrow night”. She does, however, dance with Blake, and then seemingly spends the rest of the night just chilling out and watching Blake be happy. To put it in Allison’s words, “Yang went and played wallflower for fuck’s sake.” Oh, and while doing that, Yang turns Blake’s head while she’s dancing with Sun. That shot is focused on ffs.
Something that should be noted: Yang is not a flirty person. She flirts with two sets of people: cute cat girl partners, and enemies. Or to put it another way, she flirts with Blake, and she flirts with enemies (Junior, Random WF Mook #294, Mercury sorta before their match I guess). So let’s not pretend that flirting with people is just a Yang thing.
Volume 3:
Let’s fast-forward to V3C8. Yang has to deal with being vilified in front of literally the entire world, thinking maybe she’s going crazy, getting her team kicked out of the tournament, and guilt over breaking Merc’s leg. What brings her to tears? Blake not believing her. Like this can’t be overstated. Yang is brought to tears like 6 times in series proper. 3 are due to Blake, 1 is her reunion with Ruby, and the other 2 are due to Raven. This relationship is just so important to her and her character, way beyond what you’d expect from a normal, platonic partnership (contrast it with Weiss and Ruby). And it’s not like they have a “sisterly relationship” (something I’ve heard too often) either, because again this is portrayed as different from Yang and Ruby.
Blake and Yang are always on the scroll together btw V3C10 proves this
In V3C11 she’s again brought to tears, and again it’s due to Blake. She’s more emotional in that moment than nearly at any other point in the series so far. And before that, she chooses to go after Blake over Ruby. This is Ruby, who has been missing for like an hour and who she called Blake about last episode because she was so concerned, as opposed to Blake, who was okay last Weiss saw her. And she goes after Blake.
In V3C12, Yang has to deal with everything she did before in V3C8 except now she’s short one arm, two people she knew are dead, her school is in ruins, Weiss is gone, her sister was in a coma for weeks, and you know what actually gets her to break and raise her voice at Ruby? Blake. Yang is more torn up about Blake leaving her than she is about any of the other shit, including her arm. She’s heartbroken.
There’s also a lot of shit about parallels here that I’ll get into later.
Volume 4:
Yang doesn’t mention Blake at all this Volume so we don’t exactly have a lot to work with.
There is, however, one useful quote from Sun in V4C11 that helps confirm what I said a little ways up: “That chameleon friend of yours got me pretty good, but I’d do it all again if it meant protecting you. And I can promise Yang would say the same… so stop pushing us out. It hurts more than anything the bad guys could ever do to us.” So in case you were doubting that Yang is indeed more hurt by Blake than by her arm, doubt no longer. Also parallels between Sun and Yang, which again we’ll get to later.
In Armed and Ready, Yang states she has nightmares every night about how she tries to save Blake (because “There’s nothing that I won’t do for her”). Not necessarily romantic, but telling.
Bmblb speaks for itself and deserves a mention here, regardless of everything that’s happened. I should also note that, in response to what Arryn said about songs not being in the show not being consulted over, Boop wasn’t in the show either until an instrumental or two in V4 and no one doubted its canonicity. And also this is important and relevant. I thought about expanding on this section more, but ultimately I don’t think it’s worth it.
Volume 5:
Not really a hint towards anything romantic but I thought this exchange in V5C6 was interesting: “Listen to your friend, Yang. Your teammates never let you down before.” - Raven, vaguely sarcastically. “You don’t know the first thing about my teammates! About me! You were never there! You left us! Why?” - Yang, her voice breaking by the end; Yang manages to keep it together until Raven makes a quip about Blake leaving her.
V5C8: Yang snaps at Ruby over Blake. Her scenes this episode portray actual heartbreak. I’m having trouble explaining it any other way, really. “What if I needed her here for me?” Like hello? + Yang/Ilia parallels which I will get to later. + This connecting it back with Sun and Blake’s talk in V4C11. Also this is a good time to mention Fre/ezerburn. People were/have been hyping it up, particularly because of this episode, but in my opinion, this episode does the opposite of supporting it. Yang and Weiss are given a private heart-to-heart together - pretty rare for RWBY characters… and they spend the entire time talking about Yang’s feelings about/for Blake. That’s not really what I’d expect from two characters interested in each other. Nothing against the ship itself, just doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen in canon.
V5C13: this is gay. No but seriously this girl gets paralyzed in the middle of a battle of life and death just from seeing Blake again. I have to emphasize again that this is so much more emotional and intense than how a normal friendship is and is portrayed in this show.
General stuff:
This is more about Yang’s sexuality than Blake specifically. When talking about it, people generally point to the scene in V1C3 where she… purrs I guess would be the sound at shirtless men as evidence that she likes men. Makes sense, but I don’t completely buy it. 1. It’s just a joke, both in a meta context and to Yang. She’s clearly just joking with Ruby and as soon as one of the guys (albeit Jaune in a onesie) takes notice of her, she gags. 2. She’s still a 17 year old fresh out of their equivalent of high school, it’s not uncommon for LGBT people to realize they’re LGBT around then. 3. This is still very early in the show and since that point (starting with V2 specifically) RT could’ve decided which way they wanted to go with the character. Ultimately it’s sort of irrelevant as it doesn’t matter much if she’s bi or lesbian, but I’ve always thought of her as a lesbian for reasons right below.
Historically Yang has not really liked men. Junior in the Yellow trailer, Jaune in V1C3, Port in V1C9, Neptune in V2C4, and Shay in V5C1. Unlike Ruby, she’s not a fan of Qrow’s story in V3C4. Unlike literally everyone else in RWBYJNPRSN, she doesn’t have any notable positive relationships with a member of the opposite sex, excepting those related to her.
Her reactions to Blake are far beyond what you’d consider normal for a friend, even a best friend. She gets angrier than we’ve ever seen her when Blake gets stabbed. She isn’t that angry when Ruby gets knocked out or when Weiss gets stabbed or anything, but she absolutely fucking loses it with Blake. And this is after going after Blake when as far as she knows she’s fine but Ruby’s been missing for a long time. Pyrrha and Penny died, Weiss left too, but what got Yang to crack and lose her temper with Ruby in the V3 finale is Blake. A reminder that Blake’s abandoning actually hurt her more than losing her arm did - Sun says as much in V4 and that again, she loses her temper at Ruby when Blake is brought up in V5C8. She actually goes still from shock when she sees Blake, p different from when she first sees Raven and Ruby, two people who she also reunited with this volume after being abandoned previously.
Relevantly, in response to someone asking about LGBT characters, Monty said (and this is at the beginning of V2) “Sure, absolutely. The best part about that is maybe they are there now, because they’re kids and we’re on a path to help them discover themselves. I don’t think we even need to make that decision right away because we learn more about these characters as we write them. So we’re definitely not opposed to it, a lot of us are for it, I have some cast members and some crew members who are like “This would be really cool”. But the thing is we can’t just shove it out there, it has to be earned, which is the better way to do it. And a lot of these characters we try to look at outside of their gender so we just want to do what’s natural for them.” I think this is important because it’s pretty much what I think happened with them and Yang. At first, they didn’t think about it much and that’s why we didn’t get anything about it in Volume 1. But by the time Volume 2 starts, we get Yang flirting with Blake and all that. She may not have (in Monty’s words) discovered it herself then or even now, but we’re getting to that point.
#2. Hint’s of Blake’s feelings
There’s not nearly as much about Blake, but the moments she does have tend to be pretty significant.
Volume 1:
V1C6: Blake chooses Yang. She follows her in the Emerald Forest and deliberately makes eye contact with her. Obviously not specifically romantic, but the other two people who chose their partner had feelings for them.
gay
Volume 2: I personally can’t find anything that would indicate Blake has non-platonic feelings towards Yang. However note that she does tilt her head in a smile when Yang says “I love it when you’re feisty” in V2C2, so… it’s not just Sun whose flirting she responds to positively (V3C2 is what I’m referring to).
Volume 3:
In V3C8, Blake, unlike Ruby or Weiss, doesn’t immediately believe Yang. Why? Yang reminds her of Adam. Not in the sense that they have very similar personalities - they don’t, besides a few striking parallels - but in the sense that Blake thinks of them along very similar lines. She let love blind her once and doesn’t want that to happen again.
V3C11: A post on the Kuleshov Effect in use here by Chained Prometheus. In addition, Adam, who probably knows how to read Blake better than most, having known and/or dated her for 4+ years, can immediately tell she loves Yang just from a single look of hers. That’s something.
V3C12: Besides the obvious implication of this shot and what Sun is thinking about here (more on that here), what other relationship saw hand-holding in an intensely emotional scene this volume???
Volume 4:
In the opening, Blake glances away, leading into a scene with Yang, indicating that she’s thinking about her.
In V4C11, her voice breaks when she says Yang, a stark contrast to the other two she mentions. She also says, “I loved them like I never thought I could love anybody!” Wait… what? Was her friendship with Ilia - a 4+ year affair - somehow lesser than a friendship with them that lasted less than a year? That makes absolutely no sense! What about Sun, what about her parents?? Did she really love all of RWY differently and more intensely than everyone else she knows/knew? No. Just one of them.
Volume 5:
When she’s talking about her team in V5C5, her ears perk up and her tone changes when she talks about Yang. Again, it’s made exceedingly clear with small things like this that Blake and Yang care about each other differently than they care about the rest, and that this isn’t just a partner thing - once again look at Ruby and Weiss - it’s far more comparable to JNPR’s partner relationships than it is to WR (the difference btw between JP/RN and WR is that JNPR’s partner relationships are/were both romantic).
V5C13: “Yang?”<- her first thought when there’s a giant fucking ethereal lancer (huh wonder if the giant bee that’s there right as they see each other again means anything it probably doesn’t)(oh also that’s the whole reason she went in there in the first place bc Hazel got stabbed and she saw that and was checking it out, yet she still ignores it in favor of Yang) behind Weiss who has a peculiar stab hole in her shirt and also Mercury and Emerald are there for some reason fighting her team and somehow her team is back together and all this and yet her first reaction is “Yang?" Hammertime does a nice post on this.
Oh hey look it’s Hammertime again. Seriously, watch that, it’s only like 40 seconds long and relevant. Besides that V5C14 doesn’t have much beyond some smiles but those smiles are, in my completely objective opinion, pretty fucking gay.
#3. Parallels
The most important shit, in my opinion. Yang and being compared with Blake’s past and present love interests, name a more iconic duo.
Yang and Tai, Raven and Blake:
Raven and Blake: mysterious ninja (well Raven’s clothing is more samurai-esque I think, but I digress) girls with bloody pasts who use katana-esque swords and also incorporate their sheathes into their fighting, who have long black hair, and who have clear affinities to animals.
Tai and Yang: (I mean they’re father and daughter so the similarities/parallels should be obvious). Both obviously deal with some severe abandonment issues due to Raven and later Summer/Blake. Or how about this? Tai and Yang are both reminded of their former teammate/lover in a talk (Tai in V4C11 talking with Yang before she leaves, though this gif is from V4C12) and then go look at the photograph with them in it.
Raven/Blake leave their teammate/partner/person-who-is-in-love-with-them after a life changing event, which leaves Tai/Yang broken and shut down.- Raven and Blake are pretty clearly contrasted in their relationships to Yang. Raven leaves for (probably) selfish reasons, never bothers to give an explanation as to why (true for Blake atm, but Weiss at least explained it), and Yang is forced to find her. Blake leaves for selfless reasons and chooses to go back to and stay with Yang.
And, as per my friend:
Yang and Blake both seem to be succeeding where Tai and Raven failed. Tai suffered heartbreak and broke down. For a long time. He wasn’t a deadbeat who only just started working, because as Yang says to Weiss, Tai was always at work. But he threw himself into work instead of facing his issues. Yang had to deal with so much [ex: her arm and everything else I mentioned in the V3C12 blurb] on top of losing Blake. And yet, she still got back on her feet in under a year. And while she may not be better, she’s still moving to take care of those she loves. She’s working to heal.
As for Raven, she also had a problem with running away. While Blake just runs away, Raven runs and hides behind others. Which shows in her Semblance [A point I didn’t get, Blake and Raven even have sort of similar semblances], she can teleport to people she cares about. People who would protect her [And Blake ran away to protect Yang. Raven ran away to protect herself].
But where as Raven never overcame this, Blake decides to stop running and face her problem. Instead of getting revenge, she seeks to stop the source of the problems. And yeah, she didn’t go to Haven for Yang. But she decided to stay [And she willingly decided to face Yang in the first place]. Something Raven also didn’t do.
Yang and Adam:
I mean Blake herself compares them. This fact alone is huge: she’s directly comparing Yang to her former love-interest, she thinks of them in similar ways, even if she doesn’t realize it herself. Which is actually a thing people do.
Their semblances. Both are essentially absorbing and redirecting damage, and the writers themselves have said that’s a purposeful comparison, except Yang uses her pain to become stronger while Adam just bottles it up, not feeling it, before releasing it all in one hateful blow.
Both are forced to deal with Blake leaving them unexpectedly, except Blake left Yang because she loved her, while she left Adam because she no longer could.
Both have anger issues that worry Blake at some point, but Blake chooses to believe in Yang, unlike what happened with Adam.
Yang and Ilia, Yang and Sun:
Look no further than Alone Together for Yang and Ilia. They’re paralleled in the episode pretty heavily, with both getting pinkish eyes over her, both showing how they’ve handled her abandoning them, and both getting extremely real with their confessions over how Blake makes/made them feel.
Sun himself talks about how they feel the same way in regards to protecting Blake. Sun - who we know 100% has romantic feelings for Blake - says this: "I’d do it all again if it meant protecting you. And I can promise Yang would say the same.” He knows they feel the same way about her. Besides that they’re both blonde brawlers who show some chest, have gloves/bracers/whatever, are/can be pretty laid back, and are associated with the sun. Again, similarities should be clear.
Bumblebee and Arkos:
Honestly, I had never seen this myself until it was pointed out to me, so it’s much more fitting that I just quote Allison.
From her post (I once again encourage you to read the whole thing, it’s very relevant):
You remember how I mentioned that Blake and Yang’s relationship is not like the other relationships in Team RWBY (Ruby and Weiss’s relationship included)? Because there’s another relationship in this show it’s a lot like. A relationship with confirmed romantic interest that gets a fair bit of on-screen development in the first three volumes, even. I’m going to show as much as possible as opposed to a bunch of telling, because this shit must be seen to be believed.
Going in chronological order, and also weaker to stronger, on dialogue parallels:
Bumbleby and then Arkos in the Emerald Forest.
Arkos, in a scene with an intimate setting with romantic lighting in which Jaune discloses a shameful personal secret to Pyrrha.
Bumbleby, in a scene with an intimate setting with romantic lighting in which Yang discloses a shameful personal secret to Blake.
Bumbleby, in a scene where Yang tries to reassure Blake.
Arkos, in a scene where Jaune tries to reassure Pyrrha.
And some parallels that aren’t dialogue per se: In what relationship in the V2 dance arc do we see a blond hunter having a heart-to-heart with their partner (one, two, one partner making a deniable expression of interest in going to the dance with the other (one, two), and then the blonde cheering up their partner by donning a white dress and dancing with her despite not officially being her date (one, two)?
Depicted: the answer. Both of them.
I also had a Blcksn shipper tell me once that Yang can’t be interested in Blake because she let Blcksn happen right in front of her at the dance (I like the way she stomps off in those heels). And I’m thinking, “You mean like how if Pyrrha were interested in Jaune, she totally wouldn’t have coached him on how to ask Weiss out?”
And then of course there’s this blatant juxtaposition in 3.11, which I dare you to unsee now.
Seriously though, the big moments for Arkos/Bees come at the same times. It starts with V2C6/C7, then the first half of V3C8, the end of V3C11, and the beginning of V3C12. Jaunedice is the only odd moment out here, otherwise it’s consistent. Pyrrha and Blake both deliberately hunt down and choose their partner in Volume 1, both believe they find the relic at the same time… etc. The similarities are hard to ignore.
Yang and Blake, Beauty and the Beast:
'Beauty’ and 'Beast’ can be used interchangeably with Blake and Yang. Blake has labels assigned to her from birth (her last name, Belladonna and the fact that she’s a faunus) while Yang has physical traits (she’s a beauty and referred to as such in RLR, and her semblance is essentially beast mode) that signify both of them as both characters. And Adam fits in neatly as Gaston.
Here’s a link to Chained Prometheus’s post on the matter. He’s legitimately very well-versed on Beauty and the Beast, his opinion here is very worthwhile.
From Allison:
Yang, who’s loathed worldwide as of 3.6 and misshapen as of the end of this very scene and generally paid out the nose for her short temper this volume, introduces herself with a roar, attacks a white-fanged enemy in defence of Belle/Blake, gets her right arm fucked up, passes out from shock, and has to be rescued and hauled to safety by Belle/Blake at the end of the scene.
#4. Ecl/ipse
So I’ve gone back and forth on Ecl/ipse (which is Sun/Blake, to be clear, I just come from a part of the fndm where Ecl/ipse is the dominant name) a lot in the last two years. From “It’s definitely going to happen” to “It’s never going to happen” to somewhere in the middle, to where I am now (No hate btw, and I mean that seriously. This is just something I have to address, because for Bumblebee to happen, Ecl/ipse can’t).
Which is… it’s probably not going to happen. I think it’s pretty simple as to why:
If it were going to happen, it already would have. Blake and Sun had two volumes where they spent the majority of their time together; from a storytelling standpoint this is the ideal time to develop their dynamic into a relationship. There’s no better opportunity, really. Especially since Sun has always been a stand-in for her team, a way to push her back towards them, and he’s never been relevant when that’s not necessary. If you don’t believe me, look at how he’s first introduced when she runs away in V1 and how he’s barely a presence in V2 (excepting the one episode where she’s apart from her team, of course) or especially V3. In V6, she (and the show) most likely just doesn’t have time for him, the same way she (and the show) didn’t have time for him in V2/V3. She’s back with her team, what further purpose does he serve? The answer is no purpose, really, because it’s not like he’s going to Atlas (because why would he), so he’ll likely be out of the story for the next few years. Basically they had their chance to make it happen and they didn’t. They had their chance to set it up more explicitly in V5 and they instead focused primarily on Blake’s and Ilia’s relationship.
Look at V4 and V5. In V4 (specifically Chapter 3), Sun is obtrusive and flirty and Blake really doesn’t like it. She’s impatient with him, she even slaps him three times, and generally she’s just not having it. But he gets the hint, he actually backs off in V5. And their interactions are far more positive accordingly. I think Sun realizes by V5 that it’s not going to happen, so he doesn’t end up flirting - at all - in V5, which is unique when compared to literally every other volume. In fact, I think he realized it back in the V3 finale, he was just sort of in denial for most of V4 before coming to accept it in the latter half. And that’s why he pushed Blake towards Yang in the V5 finale. He knows (this is admittedly speculative, but yeah Sun is low-key a bee shipper imo).
y8ay8a also explains the actual faults of the ship pretty well.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is a lot of evidence towards Bumblebee. Even if you’re not looking for it, you’ll see signs of it. I did. Allison did, too. Both of us weren’t really into shipping in general or bees specifically until we saw Volume 3 Chapter 11. And once I started looking for it… there’s just much pointing to it. Which is why I wrote this post. As a guide for anyone who wants to know whether this ship is actually realistic.
#bumbleby#bumbleby rwby#bmblb#yang xiao long#blake belladonna#Ok but seriously I spent so much time on this
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I sent an ask ages ago and I don’t know if it ever went through, so I’m sending it again! Do you have any recs for Dr. Doom content? I feel like everything I see with him features the exact kind of ridiculous drama I’d love to read, but I don’t know where to start.
If you want ridiculous drama, Doom is definitely where it’s at. He’s my favorite Marvel villain and one of my favorite characters because the sheer drama of him is so fun – and also because he can be a really compelling character in his own right. That being said, I’m not sure exactly where I’d recommend someone start reading Doom content. Luckily, I don’t think you need to start in one particular place to start enjoying Doom content; while he has a very compelling origin story, he’s one of those characters who is just easy to get into, especially if you’re looking for the The Drama. He’s a very fun and engaging character to read, and it’s easy to get immersed in his stories.
First off, I can tell what I would personally recommend against. A lot of people will tell you to read Brubaker’s Books of Doom, which is a six issue miniseries detailing Doom’s life from childhood, his meeting Reed at college, and so on. It’s very … Brubaker. Which I understand is a plus for some people, but not really for me, and his take on Doom is blunter and less elegant than I prefer. It’s definitely more of a book grounded in “supervillain is definitely a supervillain” than elegant but ridiculous Doom-y drama, so if you’re about the theatrics of it all, I’d give it a pass. (There’s also some violence against women in it that for me feels like it wobbles along that line of “we’re showing you this bad guy doing bad things to illustrate what a bad guy he is” and “author really wanted to write this scene so he could write some violence against women” and falls down on the latter.)
But okay! Some Doctor Doom recs, the more dramatic, the better! For starts, I really like some of Doom’s earliest appearances from the Silver Age.
Doctor Doom’s very first appearance is in Fantastic Four #5, when he kidnaps Sue and sends Reed, Ben, and Johnny back in time to capture a pirate treasure for him. Because that’s what you do if you have a time machine: you make your college rival go get pirate treasure. In Fantastic Four #6, Doom attempts to manipulate Namor into doing his bidding. In Fantastic Four #16, Doctor Doom returns, shrinking the Fantastic Four down to miniature size to demonstrate to them how he conquered Sub-Atomica. I’m mostly including this one for this panel, which is one of my Silver Age Doom favorites:
This is also how I feel at parties, Doom. And in Fantastic Four #17, he kidnaps Alicia Masters to use as a hostage against the Fantastic Four. Doom did a lot of kidnapping back in the day.
To skip ahead a few years, in Fantastic Four #142-144, Reed and Medusa attend an alumni meeting at Reed’s college, only to encounter the surprise host:
(In the Before the Fantastic Four: Reed Richards three issue miniseries, Doom offers a similar sentiment when he catches Reed and socialite/fellow genius adventurer Alyssa Moy spying on him from his… nemesis portrait?
“A college reunion.” Truly no one outdramas Victor von Doom.)
I’m not sure it’s worth reading Fantastic Four #196-200 when I’m about to show you the best panel, but if you want context for this, that’s what you should read:
“Why was I FORCED to slay my own clone?” Find out inside!
In Fantastic Four vs X-Men, a four issue miniseries, following an incident with the X-Men, journals materialize that imply Reed knowingly staged the accident with the cosmic rays to experiment on himself – and on the other three without their knowledge. Meanwhile, Kitty Pryde’s fate may lie in Doom’s hands.
To fast forward to more modern comics, if you’re interested in Doom and Valeria Richards interaction, I’d first start with Claremont’s Fantastic Four run, which is a great run all on its own, but Doom comes into play in the picture starting with Fantastic Four v3 #20 with the appearance of teenaged time-traveler Valeria von Doom, who claims to be the daughter of Sue and Doom. In subsequent issues of the run, Reed would end up trapped in Doom’s armor, with dangerous consequences for his personality. Claremont wrote both this and the above Fantastic Four vs X-Men and has a very interesting take on Doom and Reed as two sides of a coin.
In Fantastic Four v3 #54, with Reed trapped by an enemy, Sue goes into labor with baby Val and it quickly turns dangerous to both mother and child. Johnny recruits Doom to save their lives and in return Doom names baby Valeria after his childhood love and appoints himself her royal protector. This is the beginning of Doom and Val’s honestly usually very sweet murder uncle and goddaughter bond. (He does kidnap her and torture her entire family in Waid’s run, but murder uncles be like that sometimes. It’s like when a family member ruins Thanksgiving.)
In Hickman’s Fantastic Four run (Fantastic Four #570-588, renumbering to FF volume 1 #1-12, then continuing on simultaneously with Fantastic Four #600-611 and FF #13-23), there’s quite a bit of Doom, including a flashback to Doom, Reed, and Ben’s college days in Fantastic Four #581 and a meeting between Doom and Val in Fantastic Four #583:
Doom’s involvement in Hickman’s run continues in FF #1-12, when Val strikes a deal with him. Reeling after Johnny’s apparent death in the Negative Zone, the newly renamed Future Foundation has to deal with a threat Doom is uniquely equipped to handle: how do you defeat Reed Richards?
Val and Doom’s interactions continue in Robinson’s Fantastic Four run (Fantastic Four v5 #1-14, renumbers to #642-645) when, angry at her parents after the events of the previous run (which is very light on the Doom content), Valeria runs away to Latveria to live with Uncle Doom.
(Fantastic Four v5 #5) Sometimes you end up co-parenting your nemesis’ daughter, and also sometimes your own adopted son is your nemesis’ half-brother, not that anyone involved knows that. (The comic period where this revelation comes out is really not that worth reading, but the fact that Doom accidentally adopted Reed’s half-brother does crack me up every time.) The Fantastic Four family tree is really something.
After Robinson’s run, we hit Secret Wars (2015), which is technically a Doom comic, but it’s also a pretty major Marvel event. Still, if Doom being the God King of the cobbled together remains of multiple realities in the shattered multiverse is of interest to you, it might be worth checking out. After that, there’s Bendis’ Infamous Iron Man series, which is – well, it’s very Bendis, but I do really like the first 10 issues of it. (It has 12 issues total. The last two issues are a major letdown considering everything that had been set up before that point.) Back on his native freshly restored Earth, Doctor Doom contemplates his history – as both a villain and a God – and decides he might as well try being a superhero. Ben Grimm has some other ideas.
(Infamous Iron Man #3)
My most recent rec is for Zdarsky’s Marvel Two-In-One (2017) series, which, like Infamous Iron Man, does fall down at the end, especially in regards to its Doom plot. (If all you’re reading for is Doom, he vanishes from the book as of issue #7.) But the Doom content before that is good, and it’s an interesting look at Doom’s interactions with both Ben and Johnny -- especially since, up until this point, Doom and Johnny have had very little in the ways of conversations with each other without Reed or Sue around. When Ben takes Johnny on an as far as he knows futile trip through the multiverse to try and keep Johnny from hurting himself in his grief, Doom decides to follow them.
(Marvel Two-In-One (2017) #7)
A more lighthearted rec -- although it’s not entirely Doom-focused as a series -- is for Superior Foes of Spider-Man, a series dedicated to a gang of D-List Spider-Man villains who band together to pull of the ultimate heist.
(Superior Foes of Spider-Man #5)
That being said, these recs are all very Fantastic Four focused -- I’m going to point you @rizahmad‘s way for more variety!
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