#even ao3's tagging and filters aren't perfect

[zahri-melitor]

Babs for the ask meme, 7, 17, 25 \o/

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

I am fond of the parts of the fandom that have spent a lot of time working out ways to portray Babs' disability as ongoing and variable, given the chip. Also fond of the fight to restore Oracle, which honestly I think most people who are still complaining about are now being pretty picky about. It's not perfect but what we have is a pretty good compromise.

17. What's a ship for this character you don't hate but it's not your favorite that you're fine with?

Do you know, I just opened Babs' AO3 page to try and get a vibe for what ships people write that aren't Dick/Babs or Dinah/Babs (both of which are precious to me) and of the ten relationships listed as top in the sidebar, only TWO actually list Barbara? And they're both the / and & relationships with Dick. (Jason is involved in THREE of the top five ffs) I had to filter out TWENTY FIVE relationships until I finally got a set of 10 all featuring Babs, and most of THEM are still &s.

Okay, I finally got a set of ships to look at, and I think I'm going to say Barbara/Kara Zor-El. It's...fine. Largely dependent on being set in Bronze Age or flashback stories generally, given how far Kara's been deaged compared to Barbara. Superior to Barbara/Kara Zor-L imo.

In terms of actual ships for Babs in canon, I'm probably going to say Barbara/Jason Bard. Look, n52 tried its hardest to make this toxic, but it's...fine. I like them best as exes who have moved on, but of all the 'Barbara ends up dating someone like her father' ships, Jason Bard's probably the one with the most depth and complications to it.

(somehow I managed to make AO3 spit out Barbara/Helena Kyle ahead of Barbara/Helena Bertinelli or even Barbara/Helena Wayne, and I'm now gritting my teeth and not being brave enough to investigate if anyone using that tag is aware Helena Kyle is a TODDLER, and even if they do mean Helena Wayne, she better have time travelled/world hopped. ... Oh wait. It's the BOP TV show, so it's just TV Helena B. Thank god for that)

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

Babs is my girl and the reason I'm in this fandom to begin with. I think the first thing I ever saw her in was the Batman & Robin movie, when it originally came out? So, hmmm, probably not the most comics canonical portrayal ever.

I still love her, in all her complexities and stubbornness and issues and the way that the narrative is often written around her not for her.

[stashandtell]

Breaking Through a Plunnie-Justification Block

I've been trying to problem solve a compelling baby plot bunny I can't get rid of and I just had a breakthrough that I need to tell someone about.

I've been trying to figure out a time travel story that has Hermione going back to be at Hogwarts with Charlie and Bill-- but where she can't/doesn't have a ton of responsibility for changing the future much. I've been struggling with the following things: 1) What happens that she's thrown back in time to be in the same year as Charlie or the year between Charlie and Bill? Since I don't want to write something where she has to destroy all the horcruxes and she's reasonably school-aged, this means she needs to be sent back mid-canon. With Tonks in the mix, I'm guessing it takes place during OOTP but I need to plot out some things before I commit to that. Might be better to do it between OOTP and HBP. 2) What kind of drama does she get into other than a possible love triangle or two? I mean, of course there's a good chance she's going to catch the interest of Charlie and Bill...but also young Tonks? I always want to read a pairing about Charlie/Tonks or Bill/Tonks but Hermione/Tonks is very compelling. One of my top three all-time faves, Amends, or Truth and Reconciliation by Vera Rozalsky on fanfiction.net has a truly genius and heartbreaking sub-plotline of Hermione's secret/unrequited crush on the deceased Tonks. (This fic is a Hermione/Draco/Neville, Nevmione, Dramione work and it's can be a bit challenging-- but has my absolute favorite Augusta Longbottom characterization.) The more I think about this fic, the more Hermione's crush on Tonks is my headcanon. Hermione may need to deal with things that come before her time-travel trip like the diary (hopefully), the Chamber of Secrets (potentially), and Sirius Blacks imprisonment (definitely.) But, can she do it alone? What if she doesn't have to? I had been trying to figure out if it was worth sending her back with someone, possibly Theo (maybe an Unspeakables accident?), but I have some big Theomione pieces in the works and didn't want to muddy up the love connections. I'm so hard-pressed to not create some kind of romantic tension between Hermione and Theo when I can. The Breakthrough? WELL. IT'S TONKS. HERMIONE AND TONKS GO BACK IN TIME and Tonks has to metamorphmagus-ize into someone else of appropriate age. Probably Hermione's sibling. OF COURSE young Tonks gets a crush on the adult version of Tonks disguised as a kid and OF COURSE Tonks has to play all of the other roles-- appearing as the parents who enroll them in school, the former school headmaster, etc. I AM SO EXCITED AT THIS BREAKTHROUGH! I love a Charmione and a Billmione and I adore reading and writing sentimental teenage stories. I find it challenging to enjoy these pairings when Hermione is in school and the age-gaps aren't thoroughly justified; it takes me out of the story most times. I've been wanting to read stories where Hermione is developmentally well-matched with Charlie or Bill or even outpaces them and living in the world of their younger selves seems perfect. I just want this to be teenage coming-of-age fluff and angst that isn't war-focused where Charlie, Bill, young Tonks, and Hermione get to enjoy being young during relative peacetime. This has completely side-tracked me today and I am SO CHUFFED that my weekend plans for writing are now locked in. If you know of any solid time-travel or other works that lead characters back to teenage Charlie and Bill years, can you leave a comment-rec? I've looked casually but probably don't have the right filters. I've read some, mostly in the Charlie/Tonks or Bill/Tonks tag on AO3 but recommendations are always more fruitful for the good stuff. I will update to the link(s) for this fic when it's posted.

[takaraphoenix]

(Jalec fics ask anon) Hey, now that you said there are names you are happy to see, you should spill the beans :P and wings!fics? I really agree with you, there aren't a lot of them in the fandom (despite the perfect setting!). I think I've only seen like two or three, including your own... Soulmates!AU are great too, but it's true they're really rare. Do you check the tag regularly or only every now and then?

*laughs* I mean, I totally already “spilled the beans” when I did an ask about my favorite authors. xD

Mia_Zeklos, shirasade and MorganD. I suck at remembering names of authors. But yeah, them’s the ones I came to appreciate when I see them pop up in the Jalec tag. Also working hard on trying to make Kimmy’s name pop up more often, but she always gets distracted by the shiny, new rareships, which I can not fault her for.

Wing!fics are like... natural for this fandom. I mean. They are literally half-angels. How... How did Clare not give them wings? What do they even get for being Shadowhunters? Runes. Magic. Which, really weird considering their general hatred for Warlocks... you morons literally use magic all the fucking time, gimme a break. Giving them something that is, you know, actually angelic... would have made more sense. *shakes head*

I check the Jalec tag like twice a day. Because I’m a loser. *snorts* But not just the Jalec tag, to be fair. I got four “pre-faced” searches (that is to say, filtering out all my big-giant no-no tags, because I know how AO3 searches work *glaring pointedly at all the pissy whiny brats who seem incapable of filtering*) saved in my favos and I check them like... twice a day (because time-zones are whacky), to see if I’ll get something new to read that day.