#his name is dakota and his villain name is

[a-cat-in-toffee]

the giggler. post belltech smokescreen

[gilliontidestriderchampionoftheu]

one of my irls is watching pd and hes ALMOST met wavelength and im so excited. but its gonna take longer for him to meet mark, which im even more excited for

[harleychick91]

Where You Go, I Go (rated M)

Summary: After narrowly surviving an assassination attempt ordered by Lex, Lena seeks out help from old friends. The only way to stay alive is to leave National City and go into hiding with a new name and identity. Imagine her surprise when a certain Super decides to go with her. What does a small South Dakota town have in store for the two women?

https://archiveofourown.org/works/58656319

Chapter One: New Lives

Barely escaping Lex’s most recent attack, I held a cloth to my forehead. I need help. I can’t stop him on my own. Checking the gash above my eye, I winced. At least the cut on my nose and lip isn’t too deep. Sighing, I closed my eyes. There’s only one group of people who can help me now. I just hope they agree.

To stay under the radar, I took public transportation as close to the D.E.O. as I could and walked the rest of the way. Standing across the street from the entrance, I stared down at my Super watch. Should I activate it? Would she even come now? My chest ached remembering the betrayal in her eyes. She thinks I’m a villain. Putting my fear and pain into a little box, I pressed the red diamond and walked inside.

Instantly, I was surrounded by agents. “I come in peace,” I held my hands palms forward. “I need to speak with Alex.” J’onn, please! I need their help!

“What are you doing here?” Alex asked, her brows pinched. “And why are you bleeding?”

“Lex is trying to kill me. Yes, I worked with him but once I realized his ultimate plan, I tried to stop him. He wants to use Q-waves to brainwash the world into loving him. He’s going to use Obsidian North to do it.”

“Put your arms down.” I did as I was told. “Why should we help you?”

“You shouldn’t but you’re my only choice,” I paused. “I don’t want to die…and you’re the only ones who can stop him.”

“To live, you would have to go into hiding,” Brainy said as he came to stand by Alex. “I overheard what happened. From my calculations, you would need to go to Univille, South Dekota or Storybrooke, Maine,” he paused. “You couldn’t come back until one of us came for you. It could be weeks, months, or years even. Fake identity, low tech life, the list goes on. Depending on what happens, we might have to fake your death.”

My life as Lena Luthor could be over. I may never see any of these people again. I may never see Kara again. “What's the chance I live?”

Brainy thought for a moment, “47.32 percent.”

A familiar gust of air filled the room. “And if I go with her?” Turning, I saw Kara walking towards us. Did she come because of the watch or because of another alert?

Finish reading on AO3. Chapters will be posted Mondays and Fridays.

[intertexts]

OK HI. HELLO ROS <3 standing in ur doorway like this 🧍 listen i will read worm eventually i just have so much HAPPENING. ALL THE TIME RIGHT NOW. AND DONT HAVE THE TIME. and also jrwi has me in a chokehold u know how it b. ANYWAY. i need u 2 tell me as much about new haven wards as u can without like major insane spoilers for worm. little spoilers r ok. i watch/read everything with a few lil spoilers 2 look forward to anyway <3 i know nothing abt the universe of worm (<<has barely made a sizeable dent in it but god i will i prommy) but i wanna know what exactly nhw is about. how does the universe work. how do the powers work. what is the situation with the nhw how and why are they working together where did they all come from!! gimme the nhw lore!!! as much as u can!!!!! looking at u with the biggest saddest wettest eyes rn pls pls pls infodump abt nhw 2 me!!!!!!!! ros pls 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

HIII HI HI WHISKEY <333 UR INSANE FOR ASKING THIS. BTW. literally insane. grabbing u so hard by the shoulders there is a crazed look in my eye. anyway. FIRST i am tagging @stuck-in-the-ghost-zone here also!!!!!! bc it is his au as much as mine & i am NOT qualified 2 talk abt nhw mark n such. augh.

ok. ok. ok. new haven wards. putting the cut here.

so the basic movement of worm is that powers are from trauma. ridiculously simplified, but that's the base of it-- if you have superpowers, you have them because you went through traumatic events so severe to you specifically that it broke ur brain a little bit. the powers manifest in some way as a reaction to the traumatic scenario. (it is also more complicated than this. playing the spoiler card.) OR secret second option u put urself into indefinite debt to an extremely shadowy and ominous.... organization? person? shadow government branch? conspiracy? and get superpowers in a can, with like, a 10% chance they'll backfire and mutate u into some fucking terrible inhuman shit and then they'll completely memory wipe you and brand you and dump you off somewhere. not really relevant here. because the main way of getting superpowers is to be violently traumatized, cape society in worm tends to be grittier, more violent. there's more villains, the heroes are less shiny marvel or dc and more making whatever moral compromises they need to get the best outcome possible. at one point one of the main heroes in the city worm takes place in tells the sixteen-year-old protagonist "i don't care, there's a kill order out on them, just put a bullet in her brain if you see her, it's fine" and then a while later goes "yeah i'd vote for a kill order out on you guys too," directly to her face. worm is always going "hey, wouldn't it fucking suck if superheroes were real?". there are many horrifying and inhuman and violent threats. sexual and racial and physical violence aren't swept under the rug. these seventeen year olds are sent to crime scenes where flayed and gutted corpses are suspended from the ceilings because they're heroes! ^_^ but this aint about worm this is about the new haven wards!!!!! [wards are the child soldiers junior hero branch of the main syndicated/unionized hero organization, w/ placement in every major city alongside regional protectorate headquarters]

>key things for this au:

--william wisp changed his last name to bell when he moved to new haven (where his brother david lives :) and joined the wards, for another layer of anonymity ^_^ (he is. severely paranoid about his identity & privacy. <- also a Big and Heavy thing in worm/parahumans world. it's a Big Fucking Deal to unmask a cape regardless of their alignment)

-dakota never got the mechanical heart & biomedical augumentation so didn't meet mato cole at that time! he's still dakota damascus :]

-virion... idk why he's still virion & not vyncent actually. probably just because that was the name his parents gave him? we can't change it now though nhw virion & canon vyncent r two different guys to me...

-ashe is the unluckiest fucking guy in the world!!!

their powers are a little different from canon both bc of the ways powers work just being different frm how they do in pd & also because of the "they're always a reflection of the worst moment of ur life that you're just dragging around with you reminding you of it" thing. <333

wibby / whisperer is a breaker/shaker (<- power classifications meaning he has another form he shifts into, and also an area of effect] in his breaker form (crackling white-blue energy) he 1) can control how corporeal he is, or *how* corporeal he is, from "walks into the brick wall" to "doesnt notice there's a brick wall and goes straight through it", to "goes incorporeal to stick his hand in a guy's chest then resolidifies to instakill him" w/ some tradeoffs. & 2) shape/control energy manifestations in a fairly wide radius around him, where the power of the shaped energy is in proportion to the amount of recent death in the area-- if there's a ton of casualties in the area, he can do a lot more than he could in a peaceful small town in the middle of nowhere. the situation with his trigger event was him. growing up socially isolated and half convinced he was going crazy and everyone else Also thought he was fucking insane (deadwood is still haunted!! more haunted :]) for years & years + the loneliness + frustration + unsureness if he's actually the one just. losing it or if it's all really real + the constant feeling of being in danger, that the town is bad and malicious and out to Get you. anyway. he fell, take that as ambiguously as u do for that in canon, didn't die, but was severely injured & couldn't move. just laid there for maybe a day or so in the woods that wanted to kill him. anyway he triggered when he was found! the catalyst was not "the place that's been out to get me my entire life finally succeeded" but the helpless incandescent frustration of "actually nothing i ever do is going to make you understand. i've been trying for so fucking long to make you See It but you won't!!! you never will and you just think i'm crazy or stupid or making it up for attention even though it has such obvious fucking consequences and is manifestly Real!!" he was recruited to the wards by miss g herself, who was like hahahhahaa this kid could be a Really Fucking Big Problem if he doesn't have an eye on him!! ^_^ he never wanted to be a hero, and still doesn't, really, but he's terrified of accidentally hurting people & deadwood is like a weight around his neck and maybe things will be better if he just gets out of here. for a while they're not, of course. he just feels like. y'know. he's another sick thing that crawled out of deadwood, and his powers make that obvious. the way they interact with recently dead shit makes him sick!! living with david is awful-- a big, lovely, lonely high rise apartment, an older brother who barely bothers to speak to him, calls to their mom through the walls going "why is he here? why would you send him here? can he like, go anywhere else?"

virion sol / imprint is a trump (meaning his powers interact With other capes powers.) he can copy powers by touching other parahumans-- the copied power is just as strong as the original, whatever the original is, but he doesn't have an innate sense of how to use it; he can easily be overwhelmed or overstimulated by powers that involve a ton of sensory input, or accidentally loose cannon something he wasn't expecting and can't easily control. regardless, this is a fucking insane power to have. it's so cracked. like within the parahumans-- world, this is something so rare, especially being able to copy the full strength of the power. the very few examples in canon of something similar, the copied power is always inferior. his situation was similar to canon-- the greats were a team of independent heroes, & were like, extended family to virion. he grew up unpowered, but in the cape world-- so many aunts and uncles teaching him security, standard protocols, how to fight capes, how to run cape business and independent team business, how to handle guns and tasers and safely run background checks. y'know. a family's worth of professional knowledge. he never really wanted to be a cape, anyway, he was more than happy to do all the unpowered stuff at home that needed to be done. occasionally he came with them on patrol n stuff or snuck out to watch them. the greats' long term goal was prying out the lich, an extremely heavyweight warlord who had control over most of the city. virion's father struck a deal with the lich-- virion knows as little what the deal was For as he does in canon, but he double crossed the entire team. virion snuck along to the confrontation with the lich (setup) & watched his father turn & murder all of them. still not sure if he did it all himself or just watched as the lich's minions did it, but the way they knew all their weaknesses, how efficient and brutal and unexpected it was-- it was his dad feeding the information. virion stays frozen in shock and horror & hidden during all of this. can't do anything to help. is fucking useless, despite all he knows and has done. for the first time in his life, he wished he had powers, that ram and min and everyone could have taught him how to have and use their powers like they taught him everything else. he triggered watching it all happen. after this, he went on the run, terrified that someone would Know that he saw, that they'd be coming for the loose ends, that his dad would come back for him. all he has of his family is a couple piecemeal things he could grab before he ran-- ram's favorite revolvers, a holy medal of alphonz's, some of his mom's sturdy jewelry. anyway, he ran, moved to a different city, new haven. started figuring out his powers, started targeting specifically other capes who were up to bad shit-- minor to mid league villains, the occasional local hero who would Look squeaky clean, but after their sudden death dirty secrets would come out, etc. all very low-key, very subtle. none of the disappearances or deaths looked related. during this period he is SO fucked up. he is so fucked in the head. he's incredibly hypervigilant and paranoid and jumpy (good at looking unbothered and still clocking every single sound and movement and always facing doors and windows), mired in the grief and guilt and horror at. watching his entire family slaughtered and life shattered in a night. sleeps for no more than two hours or so at a time. even on top of the lich and his dad... what he's been doing puts an even bigger target on his back. doesn't have time or heart for anything but the dirty work. is dissociating through the periods of time where he's not actively hunting someone down or on the job. silhouette is the one who puts the pieces together-- of course he's on the protectorate (hero organization) radar. sure he's only been targeting bad guys, but how clean each one was? how well covered they all are? how whoever this is has allegedly killed at least almost two hands' worth of capes in cold blood by now? sets off alarms, if you're looking!!

anyway, silhouette tracks him down, says hey, i know who you are, i know what happened. you're just a kid. you join us, and you'll gain the resources and skill to be able to get revenge. aren't you tired of running? now... virion took to this fast and well when he did, but. before it all, he was just a teenager. despite the family business, he was just some guy! he helped his mom cook and got help with schoolwork at the kitchen table and his cool aunts took him out for lunch. he never wanted this or expected it. and of course he doesn't trust the heroes farther than he can spit, but... it's something. it's better than this. anything has to be better than the way he's driving himself into the ground. & also, of course. if silhouette can find him. anyone else who's looking for him can too. (i don't think he's even registered on the radar of anyone. his dad didn't actually survive the lich, obviously, & he was the only other one who really knew abt virion + nobody knew he triggered. he's just. so fucking paranoid.)

dakota damascus / failsafe is a thinker/mover. he 1) has a precognitive sense of any pain that anyone in a radius around him will feel in the next short amount of time. this is-- varyingly difficult to block. he can't just Choose not to feel it, although the intensity of the feeling, again, varies. mostly proportionally to how severe the pain actually is, or how many people are hurt, but, with time, he can dull or sharpen it + follow the threads of it to discern Who exactly is in pain, rather than just an ambient sensation. 2) is VERY fast & has matching enhanced cognitive speed. these two abilities work SO good together, both in combat situations & also just day to day patrolling. man. i love dakota. anyway, he triggered young-- he was out with his parents (maybe 7/8) and they got caught in an attack by siberian-- a genuinely indestructible, incredibly powerful villain who can just,,, run her hand through a concrete foundation like it's butter & collapse buildings, or scoop out peoples insides in a heartbeat. and also likes to eat people, like, raw and bloody after dismembering them. whatever level of ultraviolent shocking horror u are imagining. double it. anyway. they got caught in the scene of this attack, dakota got separated from his parents in the panic and stampede and rush to get out-- he's seven! it's terrifying levels of panic and claustrophobia and people shoving and trampling and he's not gonna leave without his parents!! of course not!! he triggers from the fear and the disorientation and the panic & he can't find them & he's trying to fight the crowd but he barely comes up past their knees & there's awful sounds of fighting & he's close enough to see her... things are doubly disorienting with the echo of the agony from everyone who gets Fucking Siberianed. he sees most of the fight. um. a while after she's driven away and it's finally finished he finds what's left of his parents. there's a beat in worm, during an encounter with siberian and the Big Heroes, the prime force equivalent, where they just.. give her a victim to chew on because it makes her happier and less of a nightmare to fight. which is something i think about frequently. anyway, after this things are kind of loose, similar to canon. he does the same shit. it's also quieter and you can feel less people hurting the higher up u are. yk? OH GOD. YEAH. at some point after this we still have not hammered it out. he confronts the slaughterhouse 9 (the supervillain group that attacked/siberian is part of) about it & gets his face slit open (half chelsea smile style) & makes a deal to either kill a guy in [n years] or that guy will kill him & several hundred other people!!!!!!!!!!!! dakota damascus killing a man baked into the bones of nhw!!!

anyway he & cat still fell. he underwent a second trigger event when this happened, actually-- the panic and desperation of that situation + the way it echoed his first trigger, etc. this is also super fucking rare, btw. there are very few second triggers & it is almost Never good. (u cannot trigger more than twice + a second trigger is always a refining or an improving of the intent of the original trigger) so that's where the speed etc. came from. tide found him, gave him. a better support system (low bar!!) + a real purpose in joining the wards. i have a lot of feelings abt this.

ashe / auxiliary / muse is also a shaker/breaker!!!!! his backstory i cannot talk too much about because it is Big Spoilers. but he is a fucking powerful telekinetic (around when he joins the wards, having not really used his power in years, he has an upper weight limit of a couple times his body weight & a fairly large radius of effect). he also has a breaker form that only triggers in certain situations & if he really really pushes himself to breaking w/ his powers-- when he enters it, he loses lucidity, for the most part, & starts warping and stretching and breaking space-time in strange, dreamlike ways-- the pavement melts, or everything gets bouncy, or cars and concrete chunks and things with no business moving float slowly around like balloons, or he pulls and crumples reality to move without really moving.... it gets Real fucking bad, real fast. ANYWAY. he eventually sneaks out one night, walks to a gas station to get. snacks. it-- okay, i'm fucking linking mac's post, i CANNOT summarize all of this concisely. go read that. so. that's ashe's deal!!!!!!!!!

THERE'S ALSO. MARK. ASK MAC ABOUT MARK i have typed this entire thing out on myfucking phone keyboard i literally Cannot keep going. help. and also their mark stuff is so fucking good its so. auuuhhgh. AND ALSO DAVID BELL. WHO WORKS FOR THE ORGANIZATION THAT SELLS U SUPERPOWERS IN A CAN W A CHANCE OF GETTING TURNED INTO AN UNRECOGNIZABLE MONSTER AND DOES HUMAN ABDUCTION AND EXPERIMENTATION. AND JADE AND X AND ALLEN ARE THE FREEDOM CITY WARDS AND GRAYSCALE SHAKES OUT EVEN FUCKING WORSE THAN IT DID IN CANON. YEAH.

SO. YEAHG. THATS. THATS THE MOST OF IT. um. yeah. theyre a dreadful little polycule they are. So fucking clingy they r traumabonded. like little trembling chihuahua puppies. separation anxiety and all. virion and dakota share a comfy old victorian house in a suburban neighborhood maybe a fifteen minute walk from the protectorate hq. wibby starts out living w/ david and eventually just... all his stuff moves over to their place. their clothes r all mixed up they know each others blood types they're all sleeping together on the couch. eventually their house gets blown up. they all get various flavors of nightmare & are 1 million shades of debilitatingly mentally ill but like-- it works. they r good for each other. theyre good together. do not separate them. etc. i'm not even gonna fucking START talking abt their dynamics other than that but like. i mean. if you want a repeat of THIS u can always ask!!!!!!!

[docgold13]

Heroes & Villains The DC Animated Universe - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles

Anansi

The golden spider of Kwaku Anansi was passed on for several generations, each of its bearers tasked with protecting the treasures of the Ashanti people. It passed down to a man who, like his predecessors, bore the name of his power source: Anansi the Spider. 

The modern era Anansi had become friends and allies with the historian named Dr. Anokye.  The pair worked together to preserve the Ashanti culture and protect the valuable artifacts that were of great importance to the people of Ghana.  

The villainous Osebo devised a plan to blow up a dam that would flood a sacred valley, killing dozens.  Virgil Hawkins and his family happened to be on a vacation in Ghana.  Donning his guise as Static, Virgil aided Anansi in thwarting the diabolical scheme of Osebo.  

Osebo would later travel to Dakota in search of a powerful relic that was being displayed at a museum.  Anansi followed and once more he and Static teamed up to defeat the villain.  

Actor Carl Lumbly provided the voice for Anansi with the hero first appearing in the third episode of the third season of Static Shock, ‘Static in Africa.’  

[sketchthetofu]

I got an angsty tidbit about Rabbit with all of these au shenanigans going on >:D.

Rabbit Dakota actually has a really negative connections with being called Rabbit, Bunny, Prey, etc. bc of the times he’s been hunted down (I PROMISE ILL GET TO TALKING ABOUT HOW HE LOOSES HIS FOOT-) and taunted by villains. They immediately see his animalistic traits and will go for the kill with taunting him and calling him anything except his name.

So it’s kinda tragic thinking about Rabbit Dakota being called Rabbit by the other alternate universe versions of him and his friends ;)

[pink-wysteria]

Mark x Tide????? I'm becoming more and more convinced

*spoilers ep 22*

Tide: Is Wavelength there with you?

Vyncent: Yeah.

Dakota: You mean Mark? Don't call him his villain name.

Vyncent: Yeah, we call him Mark now, thank you.

Tide: Hahaha, Mark.

Mark: Hey. Cut that shit, water boy.

Tell me you see it, because I see it

[stitched-mouth]

Madame Web Production BS

Just to be clear, I love this movie. But I love talking about what a dumpster fire it was behind the scenes so let me point everything wrong with my favourite of the year so far. SPOILERS!

• Cass’s personality is not fleshed out… that’s a major problem. I feel like they just told Dakota Johnson to do what she wants the whole movie BUT then right at they end they decide to give Cass a personality completely ripped from the comics. And it doesn’t work with the way Dakota was playing her the whole movie and these no character development over the course of the movie, so it’s actually a little scary seeing her switch at the end.

• None of the characters have a personality actually. The villain was the worst to be fair because I still don’t really understand his motives. Like… you tricked and murdered a pregnant woman and a few others because your family was poor? And you think Spidey strength will fix that? Um, ok. So is mine but I don’t know.. wouldn’t kill anybody over it though.

• I hate Sydney Sweeney’s image. And it’s not her or her marketing teams fault. It’s her fans’ and her directors. She’s constantly purposely dressed sexy in movies (even when dressed down like a nerd, she’s still sexualised) but then is playing a child. Like wtf. They did it to her in Euphoria and they’ve done it to her again in Madame Web. And how Sydney dresses for press also is clearly influenced by directors and fans’, like the look isn’t just what they want for her characters but also how she’s expected to be irl too. It’s kind of sick and related to how paedophilic things are still normalised in our society today, I’ll have to say that rant for another day though.

• Why does it feel like nobody cared about this movie? The script feels like the first draft that was supposed to have rewrites but nobody was bothered. Same with the editing, everything but especially the dialogue and music feels so placeholder, why was it in the finished project? Like even the Google cast page is not finished, only the leads have their character names on there. Zosia Mament (the villain’s assistant) is credited as fucking ‘Actress’.

• Why was Cassie able to fly to Peru when she’s a wanted criminal? Why is she flying to Peru when talking about laying low because she’s a WANTED CRIMINAL??!

• The writers constantly forgetting what year it is was hilarious and the editors just throwing one Brittney Spears song in and a few Beyonce billboards in to cover up their mistake is also hilarious.

• ACTUALLY, apparently the whole reason the movie was set in 2003 was because the director really wanted to use Toxic in the movie. Because apparently you can’t play a song in a movie if the movie doesn’t take place in the same year the song was released 🤡

• BUT Toxic was released in 2004 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

• The writers taking the time setting as a opportunity to reference Garfield’s Spider-Man but then also forgetting that that SM was born in 1995 🤡🤡🤡🤡

• Yes I checked, they specifically wanted to reference Garfield’s Spidey, but through editing they realised their mistake and started trying to make it look like they were talking about Tom Holland’s SM instead, which risks breaking some rules with Marvel… AND THAT SPIDEY WAS BORN IN 2001 SO THEY STILL FUCKED UP. The fact that a simple Google and common sense (like they must of know Garfield’s fist SM movie took place in 2012 and if he was born in 2003, he would of been only 9 years old in 2012 😑) would of fixed this problem is again hilarious.

• Obviously the biggest goof was Dakota Johnson not realising she’s not in a Marvel movie and firing her agent the same day the trailer got dropped 🤡

• She also might be in trouble for posting the teaser on her Instagram and tagging Marvel before the trailer dropped (so before she found out), but I don’t think Dakota manages her own socials tbh. That post was removed then put back up without a Marvel tag.

• The press tour is amazingly bad, I love it.

• Not seeing the girls turn or become heroes was probably the worst part about this movie but I knew that going in so didn’t mind too much. But the real issue is with how Sony keeps straight up lying to their audience with their trailers. Obviously some studios add somethings into their trailer to create more interest for the audience but that’s not what Sony is doing, they are straight up LYING. And they do it so often now I want to fight whoever is in charge of that, they are the reason this movie flopped.

• Them and the writers… and whoever decided to hire the Morbius writers again, everyone there deserves to lose their jobs.

• The only reason I want this movie to do well is because I want Madame Web to have more movies with Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Adam Scott, Isabella Mercer, Emma Roberts and Celeste O’Connor all returning. But I really don’t see that happening now, I can’t see Dakota signing another contract with Sony or doing everything to get out of this contract if it’s not over yet.

• The fact that they had to dub the villain’s lines makes me so confused to why he was hired? He didn’t even give a good performance, not saying he’s a bad actor (I’ve heard he’s great on other movies), but he really didn’t do anything in MW.

• And the part with the FBI agent and the villain had me so confused too. Like, did she seduce him to find out information about him? Because it makes sense that the FBI would be suspicious of this guy. But then did he see through her act and decide to at least get laid before killing her and stealing her passcode? But everyone is saying he seduce her for her passcodes and yeah I’m confused.

• The problem is the pacing and how everything that needs explaining isn’t, but everything that doesn’t need an explanation IS explained. And too much.

“He worked with my Mom in this place looking for this spider right before she died”

That’s not the exact quote but it’s pretty close to and that’s less than 5 minutes in. Ok thanks spoiling the whole movie to me. I really didn’t know a movie could spoil the movie to me.

• I’ll add more to this post when I remember more bs this movie endured or forced me to endure, feel free to add to this list in the comments or reposts.

[xoangel-dust]

Yet another Total Drama Controversy Meme: SLIGHT SPOILERS FOR SEASON TWO OF THE REBOOT

Favorite Character: Dawn - I’ve been a fan of hers even before the season aired back in the day (I was able to watch the French version that leaked). She’s probably considered “overrated” today but she’s still a decent character.

Despised Character: Chase - he’s funny but…then he opens his mouth and how he treats Emma irritates me.

Favorite Season: Total Drama Island (2007/2008)- I can rewatch this season many times over it still holds up to this day .

Despised Season: Total Drama Action - this season just makes me mad. It broke both Duncney and Gwent up, derailed the four of them and it dragged way too much for having a smaller cast.

Most Overrated Character: Julia - I feel like they tried way too hard to get people to like her and every “villainous” act she’s done as been OFF SCREEN! Then they made her the villain for season two of the reboot which just made her worse. I never saw the appeal and genuinely didn’t like her from the beginning.

Most Underrated Character: Dakota - she was done SO dirty during revenge of the island and did not deserve being exposed to radiation.

Favorite Couple: Alejandro x Heather - their chemistry is UNMATCHED, they’re made for one another and I genuinely cannot see them not being together and married.

Despised Character: Gwourtney - don’t hate me y’all but I’ve always found them to be so fake. They were “friends” for maybe one episode during world tour then Gwen kissed Duncan. Not to mention them probably voting for one another in said season. Then all stars happened with Gwen saying,”oh Duncan and Courtney weren’t together when I kissed Duncan!1!1!” Then we have Courtney’s list being exposed showing that she didn’t actually want to take Gwen to the final 2 or whatever. Nothing but backstabbing. (Plus I ship Gwen with Leshawna!!)

Favorite Song: Her real name isn’t Blaineley - Blaineley deserved it. It’s a hilarious and catchy song.

Despised Song: Shearing Sheep - horribly off beat which makes it hard to listen to.

Favorite Episode: If You Can’t Take The Heat - easily top 5 of my favorite episodes of the series. Entertaining from start to finish, Heather getting locked in the freezer after getting her eyebrows burned off HILARIOUS! Beth being the reason her team was on a losing streak.

Despised Episode: Sunday Muddy Sundae - looking back I think action derailed her the most of this episode just…stress…the way Mal just MAGICALLY found her list pisses me off to this day. The way everyone turned on Courtney simply for playing the game.

[superman86to99]

Superman: The Man of Steel #36 (August 1994)

"WORLDS COLLIDE" continues! Somewhat out of order, due to the way we're covering this crossover, but let's face it: if you were reading this in the '90s, you probably would have read the issues in some weird order, too (or, more likely, skipped some and been just as confused). So, in a way, we're being faithful to the original reading experience.

Previously in Worlds Collide #1: Rift, a god-like being who thinks the DC Universe and Milestone Media's Dakotaverse are parts of his imagination (meaning he's taking credit for the work of Siegel/Shuster/McDuffie/etc.), grabbed an island populated by thousands of people and just dropped it into the ocean, causing a tsunami that threatened Metropolis. The tsunami has been dealt with (spoilers for Superboy #7, which we haven't covered yet), but now Superman has to break it to his new allies at Milestone's Blood Syndicate that everyone they loved drowned pretty gruesomely. Luckily, Rift emerges from the ocean and saves Superman from that awkward conversation... while musing about destroying Metropolis, too. Well, destroying it even more.

Superman doesn't like that idea, obviously, so he tries to fight Rift, but Rift thinks that a fight scene between a god-like being and a mere superpowered mortal would be pretty boring. So, he summons Superman's closest analogue in the Dakotaverse, Icon, and tells him and Superman they have to fight each other if they don't want Metropolis to go down the toilet too. Rift even blows up the midtown part of Metropolis to prove he means business (but I'm not sure anyone there noticed, considering Metropolis' current state).

So, Superman and Icon start punching each other as hard as they can...

...while trying to direct the fight towards Rift without him realizing it. Meanwhile, Rift sees Lois Lane on a boat and grabs her to tell her he used to be her mailman, Fred Bentson, and compliment himself on doing such a great job creating her. Superman attacks Rift, causing him to drop Lois from a dangerous height (nothing she isn't used to by now, though). Lois is saved by Icon, but Rift realizes he was worried about her, which means she must be real.

Rift reasons that Superman has to be real too... but he doesn't give a crap about who's real or fake anymore. They're all his puppets anyway, and he announces he's gonna "up the ante" on their fight as he transports Superman and Icon to the latter's city, Dakota. TO BE CONTINUED! IN ANOTHER UNIVERSE!

Plotline-Watch:

This issue also features appearances by Superboy, Static, Rocket, Steel, and Hardware. We'll go into more detail on their storylines once we cover their issues, but I want you to know three important things: 1) turns out some scientific knowledge did rub off on Superboy while he was growing up (or being grown) at Cadmus...

...2) Static's full name is Virgil "Electromagnetic" Hawkins, and 3) Steel, like his main inspiration, is also a boxers man (you'll have to wait until another post to find out why he's in his boxers, sorry).

Rift forcing Superman and Icon to fight so their cities don't get destroyed is like a lower-stakes version of the main plot from the DC vs. Marvel crossover (though the stakes are about to get higher). More evidence that they should have included Rift in that crossover, as we were saying in another post's comments.

Jeb-Watch: Rift isn't the biggest villain in this issue, since it also features the return of Jeb Friedman, the ponytailed douchebag who kissed Lois when everyone thought Clark Kent was dead. Don Sparrow says: "God bless Jimmy for giving Jeb the side-eye all readers want to give that loathsome character."

Jeb says he's organizing a charity concert for the homeless people of Metropolis (so, pretty much everyone in Metropolis right now), featuring Jimmy's old would-be rocker friend Babe, whose band Shredding Metal apparently hit the big time. Last time we saw Babe, she had a centuries-old vampire living inside of her. That must have done wonders for her metal singing voice.

The Daily Planet's publisher, Franklin Stern, thinks they should suspend publication because of the "everyone's homeless" thing (plus, their building blew up and stuff), but Perry White refuses to stop putting out the dang paper. Don says: "I like seeing Perry’s commitment to informing the people of Metropolis, even at the risk of financial profit, but it might also explain why the Planet always seems to be on the brink of bankruptcy. Weird to see Lois swearing in that scene."

Whit cameo up there! Also: wonder if that's Alice the intern sleeping in the temporary office, for old time's sake.

Speaking of which, the other Alice in Perry's life (his wife) is volunteering at a medical center in Metropolis. There, she meets Superman's pal Keith the Unlucky (Probably) Orphan, who's trying to reunite another kid with his mom. Keith recently lost his second mother figure, Myra the Orphanage Lady, while Mrs. White lost her son Jerry Luth-- uhh, White some years ago. Hmmm...

The fact that Rift blows up part of Metropolis isn't really acknowledged by the other characters, probably because we all know that, like Paris Island's gruesome fate, it's gonna be undone by the end of the crossover. That makes me think they might as well have gone ahead and made Rift undo Luthor's damage on Metropolis, while at it -- it'd still be kind of a cop out, but I think it would have been a bit more organic than what we actually got.

Shout Outs-Watch:

Rift-sized shout outs to our supporters, Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, Bol, Dave Shevlin, and welcome aboard Dave Blosser! Join them (and get extra articles; we have a Byrne Superman-related one coming next week) via Patreon or our newsletter’s “pay what you want” mode!

Also, have you checked out our friends at @fortressofbaileytude recently? They haven't updated their Tumblr in a bit (9 years) but there's some seriously awesome stuff going on at their other sites, like a whole week of fascinating articles about Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey (including the action figures) and holy crap a podcast interview with Mike Carlin! Like us, they're also in BlueSky.

And now, more from the great @donsparrow.bsky.social...

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

We start with the cover, and it’s a good one, another piece in the puzzle that makes up this crossover with the Milestone characters.  Our heroes are slightly crowded by all the trade dress graphics, but not excessively so, as the DC and Milestone heroes fly out of a rift.  I always love yellow rim lighting, so it’s a winner for me.

For the most part I’ve found this crossover a bit hard to follow, especially since it has, in certain chapters, barely touched on the already seismic events of the destruction of Metropolis, so it can be hard to know how much we’re supposed to care about it.  While the story has been something of a letdown for me, the art in this issue is not, as Bogdanove and Janke are bringing their best work to this chapter.  Right from the opening splash, with Superman running ahead of various Milestone heroes, we’re off to a dynamic start.

We are so used to seeing Superman flying, it’s a pleasing change to see him running, especially when he’s drawn so well, in all his Shuster/Fleischer studios looking glory.  Only a couple pages later, we get another poster-worthy image, also a full page splash, of Superman soaring through the clouds toward the reader.  I especially like the white halo effect around Superman’s edges, defining his torso in front of his cape.  It may not be realistic, but man, does it pop.  As Superman surveys the damage on Paris Island, there’s a treasure trove of Easter eggs, that are worth the research.  Under the water, Superman finds himself at the cross-streets of Vesey Avenue and Prosser Boulevard.  These are references to real-life former slaves Denmark Vesey, and Gabriel Prosser, who both separately raised insurrections against slavery with deadly consequences.  [Max: I did not know that! In my ignorance, I kinda wondered if they were the names for Milestone creators...]

There’s also a reference to “Big Otto’s”, a Polish soul food restaurant.  At first I thought this was a shout out to famed comic writer Otto Binder, but Wikipedia informs me Binder was of Austrian descent, not Polish.  So maybe it’s just a gag, as it’s hard to imagine the Polish form of Soul Food.

Our first look at Rift, the villain of the piece, is a real showcase for the colouring techniques of this age, with very little of his form defined by the black lines of the rest of these pages, giving a bright, glowing look to his shape.

With Icon’s flowing cape, Bogdanove seems born to draw the character, and it’s hard to think of a time the character looked better.  Hardware also looks great in these pages, but he’s overshadowed artwise by the great penumbra image of Steel on page 16, which is just a terrific drawing.

The image of Superman and Icon speeding toward Rift, who is menacing Lois Lane is a good one, and it’s fun to see her caught by someone other than Superman for a change as Icon is the one who makes the grab here.

SPEEDING BULLETS:

Nice to hear Babe Tanaka and Shredding Metal mentioned, if not shown here.

Speaking of “shown here��� it’s odd that they have Ron Troupe in this scene without him speaking at any time. [Max: He hates Jeb so much that he can't even speak. I sympathize.]

Is Jimmy being sarcastic, or does he think that a concert is really a good idea?  I’m betting on the latter, but I’d say a concert would be pretty low on the priority list at that present moment.

Static and Superboy make a very dynamic teen team, and wouldn’t be out of place on a Saturday morning cartoon together.  [Max: Superboy and His Amazing Friends, co-starring Static and Rocket! I believe they did appear together in Young Justice, but that show doesn't sound very Saturday morning-ish...]

It’s interesting that Superman’s Milestone counterpart is named Icon, since, many years later, Ra’s Al Ghul adopts that nickname for Superman himself, the Man of Steel version of Ra’s’ insistence on calling Batman exclusively “Detective”.  “Icon” is an absolutely terrible fit to describe Superman, essentially meaningless, but that issue is beyond the '86 to '99 timeline, and handled by a writer whose work on Superman I hated, so the less said the better. 

Is the Alice who is washing dishes, and who meets Keith and Lucan the same Alice that works at the Planet?  It’s hard to tell without her glasses, but she has a similar body shape. [Max: C'mon, Don, that's Alice White! How could you forget such a memorable character... who, based on our tags, hasn't appeared since 1992?]

I can’t find much information on Lucan.  His name seems so unusual that I wondered if he’s a regular character or something from the Milestone stories, but I haven’t unearthed much.  His design looks similar to a character from the cartoon, Richie Foley, but under the name Lucan I can only find references to Shining Knight or a character in Image’s Invincible. [Max: The DC wiki doesn't even list him in this issue, so I'm gonna assume he was a one-time character and an excuse for Keith to talk to Alice... but then again, the wiki doesn't list Keith or Alice either.]

I still can’t believe the cosmic power behind this storyline is a nebbishy mailman.  

[bizlybebo]

Because its on my mind Im sending this as a "Ramble about it here when you get to X episode" ask. When you finish the episodes titled black, white and grey please rant about them here. They are great and I want to see your opinions

hahaha. hi endy.

the staring at the wall evolved into falling asleep and randomly waking up at 4am, still processing these episodes.

i wrote down. some of my thoughts now having experienced the full thing and got kind of carried away with um. 1.4k words of rambling :3

it’s not even all i want to say but i. ough. fuck these episodes were so good but so. auugggh.

it’s like 5am now im posting this and gonna try to go back to sleep but. holy fucking SHIT when i get you bizly.

(i don’t at all expect you to read this behemoth of a ramble!! just. need to put this somewhere as well because my brain’s still exploding after these episodes)

When season two started I thought it marked a lot of stuff for, y’know, how the show was gonna get darker. I mean, episode one, people were getting killed by a chaos demon in that prison.

I was entirely expecting all the ugly, gory bits of season two to be… external shit. Stuff that other guys, the actual antagonists, did.

But William felt pressured in Black. And suddenly it sets off this chain reaction, and suddenly one of our protagonists is no longer doing heroic things. Suddenly William is effectively torturing a guy psychologically in an attempt to save thousands more with David’s medical research.

He fell into the crux of a lot of villains: “It’s for the greater good”.

There was no going back after he stabbed Tide with the syringe. Tide, who never even had his guard up around William because despite everything, he trusted him and had immeasurable faith in his boys.

White is probably my favorite and least favorite episode, simultaneously, to ever come out of jrwi. The emotional, symbolic, and hell, even cinematic effect it has is insane.

I could fucking scream forever about Willian’s actions in White. About Vyncent’s inactions and the way he was torn about everything— about the fact that in season one, Vyncent was the “violent” one.

But Mark and Dakota fucking hit me in the heart to an insane amount.

Dakota. MOTHERFUCKING. Cole.

I said this before, but:

It’s the fact that Dakota still has optimism. He still has hope, at the very least, that Mark can change; turn over a new leaf for his kid.

“I think he should turn over a new leaf, like, with a new hero name, like— Soundwave, or something.”

He still thinks, or at least thought, that Mark can change. This was after he saw what he did to Lightspeed. He saw the worst of Mark’s actions but he still had faith and hope that there was a good person in there.

This shows so much fucking growth for Dakota’s character. The entire development of his morals, especially over season 2, is insane.

But Mark tries to kill Dakota. Several times.

He shoots at him, unleashes hundreds of bullets, and even tries to stab him. He couldn’t predict that Dakota would be incorporeal, and yeah, sure, you could say that he didn’t know Dakota forfeited his powers (and even without him he’s still significantly stronger than other kids his age). But even with his powers, Dakota would still have taken significant damage from the attacks.

Dakota and Mark’s rivalry is something I could pick apart and think about every little piece of forever.

They both have overwhelming love for Ashe, but it manifests in different ways.

Mark says it himself, “I am what I have to be.” He’s bringing home his kid by any means necessary. Ashe doesn’t have to like him, she just has to be safe and alive.

Dakota’s entire screaming match with Mark is engraved into my brain forever. It felt so real to witness, and the emotion in it was insane.

Dakota’s entire proclamation gets me. He’s so well spoken throughout despite shaking with how angry he is.

“I have been killing myself trying to train hard enough to save her.”

“If you were doing this for Ashe you wouldn’t do things that she’d hate you for.” But Mark is what he has to be.

Dakota never stands down. He keeps getting back up, and back up, and back. Up. Okehrjwjr I’m actually going to start crying thinking about this again.

When he was searching for Lightspeed and following Wavelength’s tracks, he kept asking himself: What would William do? Because he had faith in William’s decision making and investigation.

But at the very same time, William was wondering what Dakota would think about what he’s done.

And GOD don’t get me started on William and his brother.

In a sick, twisted way, I loved their dynamic. I loved what it meant for William narratively when David congratulated his work of defeating Xavier, even calling him “little brother” as a term of endearment. I was on the edge of my seat for their entire conversation in the meeting room.

David gave William his first drink, like older brothers do. William tortured a man because of his brother. David had apple juice sitting on hand because their mother told him to, just in case William ever showed up. William wanted apple juice. He killed somebody.

Cantrip’s been FUCKING me up. I couldn’t even write the word “death” after her name. It doesn’t feel real.

This can’t be the same show in which Jade was sitting on Xavier’s shoulders during mario kart, nonchalantly offering no help as he fought for his life to win like. Second place.

I mean, Jade was such a candid and real character. She was a teenager, just like the rest of the Prime Defenders, and she tried to take a turn for better things after leaving the fighting ring. She went from villainy to vigilantism, and sure, her morals were kind of skewed with how she seemed pretty okay with Alan killing the Bell Tech employees, but her motives were good, in a sense.

(“It’s all for the greater good”. It’s the same thing William was thinking, except William was directly dirtying his hands by torturing Xavier, while Cantrip was just accepting that Alan killed some people.)

I think there’s something to say for how William creates a vision of Cantrip out of smoke, distorting her into some monster, and how that’s the last time we see her image at all before learning of the fact that she’s. Gone.

The last time we see the real Jade, she’s just trying to escape. She doesn’t even talk, if I remember correctly. She just tries to get out. She gets shot in the arm but still persists.

And William ends up being the one who pulls the trigger; who injects the memory loss shit into her blood.

He’s the one who kills her, despite not knowing it at the time.

And David still masquerades as an innocent man, going as far as to relax at his apartment with him and William’s parents as though the events of the previous night never happened.

It fucks me up how the last words that Will and David exchanged before the confrontation in the apartment was:

“Don’t turn into a supervillain while I’m gone.”

“You either.”

William was starting to believe that David was a guy with awful methods, but good intentions— and William felt as though he was the same way. He saw himself becoming David, but David manipulated him into thinking that, hey, it’s awful, but at least he wouldn’t be… alone, I guess, in being a horrible person.

William and David finally saw eye to eye on the worst thing.

And David. Still. Lied.

Lied by omission.

And Jade was the one who took the fall for William’s actions. Jade, the girl who made fun of William for his crush on Vyncent. Jade, who had a sister she cared about, even if she scoffed about her love of heroes— despite the implication that their parents died because of them (likely caught in crossfire or casualties of battle). Jade, who painted her nails and placed bets on William kissing Vyncent, saying he’d be too pussy to do so. Jade, who found herself in a fucking fighting arena of all places but still found friends through it.

Jade, who was the first one to trust William with her actual name instead of Cantrip.

William, who killed her.

And. Fucking Christ.

Vyncent’s monologue at the end of episode 33 just. Fucks me up.

For the entire greyscale series, he finds himself suspended in inaction, too scared to do the right thing and too scared to stop the wrong thing.

But he finally faces it. He looks at William, certainly with fear after knowing all that he’s done, and even still, Vyncent dances around the morality of the subject. He accepts if William wants to flat-out lie to Dakota’s face about what happened at Bell Tech, though he does warn him of the significant damage it’ll do to their friendship.

And when William asks Vyncent to leave the room at the end of the episode, Vyncent finally takes a leap and becomes no longer caught by his indecision between apathy and guilt.

He looks at William, thinking he’s on the edge of something he won’t come back from, and he takes his hand, and pulls Wlliam back from the metaphorical cliff’s edge. If William does fall, then they’re falling together.

His entire proclamation, starting with “I’ve had so many opportunities to do the right thing”, fucking guts me.

God I’ve been typing for like. An hour now but the greyscale series really fucked me up holy shit.

tldr: AAAAUUUUIGGHHHHKEKGKKSKVMEMGOOCU:$)&2’ynkejvjk4&3&582$2!:$?82&;&/&(929@,@2&(&2&&?EVIL EVIL EVIL GOD IS DEADDDDJGKRMHKSKKKKLLEKCKSJGJKSICIWKFMSKGIWIIIAI&383&5&?&?@39(92@?&&/8:7;&,£,]*+\+<*]¥<**]+<+¥sfkwkfkkwjfkI HATE EVERYTHING AOUUGGGHHHHHH OUUUUUUEHEHRHRHRJKGHRHRHRRRRRRR

i am emotionally attached to this media a normal amount

[a-cat-in-toffee]

Hiiiiiii Im so insane about ur Belltech Villain au (I have no clue if that’s it’s correct name- D:) Dakota- I saw that you said the experiments he went through were connected to his mechanical heart but I wanna know more about it & if he was in any other experiments as well :D! Also his background & such, how he got caught, why, etc. (sorry if I’m being not specific enough- I’m very much tiirreeddd, might fall asleep tbh)

HI HI yes thats the right name :D

ALSO I LOVE ANY OPPORTUNITY TO TALK ABT ANY DAKOTA COLE SO LETS GO

so the general vibe for dakota is. fell. got his heart replaced. belltech found out about this and was like 👀👀👀 and since dakota doesnt really. have anyone else! to notice he went missing! my boy got unethically experimented on. his brain and memory are kind of clouded by some of the shit so hes got memory issues.

[gilliontidestriderchampionoftheu]

i really truly do love how pd refuse to call mark by anything other than his first name from the second they learn it. how they dont go back to calling him wavelength even when things are fucking dire. learning his name humanized him to them ("oh hes not just a villain. hes a dad. and a fucking LOSER LOL") and they dont let it go. even in ep 32, where hes very explicitly trying to kill dakota, dakota calls out to him using his name, reminding everyone (mark, the audience, himself) that hes human. hes a person and hes hurting and hes wrong, but that doesnt change the first two things.

[the-broken-truth]

I love ❤️ the letter that Bruce sent to Dakota. It makes me think of what kind of letter Damien would write to her? Maybe to reaffirm his belief that Marissa kept Dakota out of spite and that her Uncle Tobias isn’t her father. And maybe a brief mention of the Hunter of Artemis stopping him from eliminating him. As Damian would say, to get rid of a few pests.

Broken Truth (Sitting on a boulder with arms folded): A Letter from Damian Wayne to Dakota Blake? I should have known you would be the one who requested this time - you did make a comment about it. Considering Damian's Relationship with Dakota, more like lack thereof... Very well, I can weave these words. Let's get started.

Annoyed was not fit enough word to describe how Dakota Blake felt as a result of dealing with the Wayne Family for the past few weeks; she was completely exhausted and she just wanted to take one of her arrows and shoot both Bruce and his scion in the knees. Damn, she was starting to sound like a Whiterun Guard when the Dragonborn passes him. For the past few weeks, Dakota has been attempting to go about her life ever since she received that letter from Bruce telling her about all the plans he was putting into place to make her take his name and live under his room - sure, he was rich and she did share DNA with him, however she didn't need him before and she didn't need him now that her life was together; hell, she didn't even want him to interfere with her life - this was getting out of hand and she didn't know what to do.

About one week after receiving the letter from Bruce, Dakota was going to work when an unknown man jogged up to her, pulled out a microphone, and started asking her personal questions: How does it feel to be related to Bruce Wayne? Why won't you accept Bruce as her only father figure? Why was she refusing to take up the Wayne Name as her surname? Dakota was confused as to how this strange man knew so much about her when she got a call from her best friend who informed her that the day Bruce first appeared before Dakota, someone from the Gotham Globe followed him and took a picture of them and someone called Bruce and asked about his relationship to Dakota - instead of refusing to tell them anything, Bruce offered an interview where all questions would be answered. Dakota then opened the link her friend had sent her regarding the interview and her blood boiled once again.

Bruce sat across from the interviewer who repersented the Gotham Globe and introduced Bruce to the audience and listeners before thanking Bruce for doing this interview before asking the first question: Who is the girl in the photo and what connection did she have to Bruce? Bruce inhaled and exhaled before he presented his answer: "That girl is Dakota Blake & she happens to be my daughter, my only biological daughter and she happens to be older than my son, Damian Wayne.". Dakota's blood began boiling over as she continued to watch the interview - Bruce was working everything that made her mother and family look like they were villains; acussing them of keeping Dakota away from him on purpose and telling them that Dakota refused to acknowledge him as her father. Dakota couldn't watch anymore and turned off the interview before going to work. Everything was weird there too because it would have seemed that everyone knew who she really was now and they were trying to kiss up to her in order to get closer to the father she never wanted. She needed a break.

During her break, Dakota went to the break room when she noticed she forgot to charge her phone that night - she was far too tired after dealing with her other job to remember to put it on its charger; good thing she remembered she brought her power bank with it and it was in her satchel which was in her locker. She opened her locker and looked wide eyed at the sight of a letter placed neatly on her satchel - where the hell did that letter come from? Who wrote it and how did they get into her locker in the first place to put it there? Dakota placed her phone in her pocket and picked up the letter and opened it before reading it - the first word gave the identity of the responsible party instantly. She sneered.

Sister,

You are too stubborn for your own good, but then again, you are the Eldest of the Wayne Heirs and we are indeed a rather stubborn collection, therefore, I suppose it's just how we are made; I cannot blame you for acting upon your genetic code. However, you are beings tubborn for all the wrong reasons and you know this well, Sister. You're defending the family that kept you away from your real father and kept you from experiencing a life of wealth and happiness. The family you dare to defend made you call your Eldest Uncle 'Dada' when that was meant to be Father's Right; they had not right to take that away from him.

Your mother, your aunts, and your uncles are doing nothing to defend you - they are hindering your progress by refusing to hand you over to your father, where you truly belong, and you are making it no better by standing with them. Just as you did in the court case. I don't know what that judge was thinking allowing you to speak when have clearly been indoctrinated to believe your family knows what is best for you - if they truly did, you would have been here already. Not to mention, they deal with criminals.

You thought we wouldn't find out about that? About the Hunters of Artemis - those thugs that are apparently sworn to protect your family for some reason. Gotham belongs to the Bat Family and this is commonly knowledge, just why do those imposters think they are standing against them? I tried to get rid of your Uncle's Influence on you and I was stopped by one of the Hunters - the pest got away from me but that won't stop me, Dakota. You are going to come home to us if it's the last thing I do.

You need to release a few things, Dakota: You are a Wayne Heir - those with that fate usually reside at Wane Manor. Tobias Blake is not your father, he is merely a man who took that mantle for himself after keeping you away from our father. You are not supposed to defend them - come to your sense and awaken from the dream you find yourself in or I shall be the alarm clock to awaken you myself. The next court case is coming up and I am going to be there - you will renouce your ties to the Blake Family and come home with us. Should you continue to be stubborn... well... you shall see the side of my I inherited from my mother.

Make the right choice, Elder Sister. Until next time we meet.

~Signed, Damian Wayne - Your Younger Sibling

[suckinitup]

steeples my fingers. 🙏 points them both at dakota cole 🫱 i think he’s Really good at scripts. like social scripts. if this headcanon is still good when im bot on five hours of sleep ill build on it but for now im thinking about how he was THE popular sunshine fuck of the group while they were still going to school. everyone liked him. but he didnt really have attachments to anyone. he didnt even remember the name of the girl he fell with. that suggests a lot of automatic action while he was busy thinking about superheroes. hes GOOD at scripts and building scripts but he does rely on them. like trh fight with mark during greyscale, when he was the one who understood mark the most on a fundamental level (hes a dad before a supervillain) but he kept falling back to the “youre always running away” script. like i dont think script is the right word here but hes got different modes for talking to different people and i think that for school stuff in particular he could be capable of running thru a whole convo with pre-villain doug without engaging his brain even once

[stormsandskies]

i just want to talk about Dakota so badly

i love ranting about my favorite characters this is a trend on my blog but i just have so many thoughts that i need to scream out

Dakota is just such an interesting character because despite all the weird shit he has going on he really was just a normal kid who wanted nothing more to be a hero

it’s all he’s wanted since he was a kid, since he lost his parents. I believe it was brought up that it’s implied his parents died when the Prime Force came back.

He is moved in with his Aunt who is clearly not doing well, struggling with addiction and Dakota who is just a kid steps up and he saves her, he gets her the help she needs. And then he’s lost yet another.

Then he loses his best friend, he couldn’t save her. He tried so hard but neither of them would have survived that fall, he shouldn’t have survived that fall. yet there he was with a heart that beat too fast, and a body that was destroying itself.

Training with Master Cole and how he changed his name to keep those he loves safe, because above all else he just wants to save people.

Then he joins the Prime Defenders and meets two other dumbasses, who also don’t belong, who technically don’t have powers and are just victims of circumstances. He would do anything for the two of them, he would do anything for Tide, anything for Ashe.

and then he couldn’t save him

he left and trained and trained and trained so he could, so he could fix this.

he’s so selfless

A particular moment that really sticks out to me in season 2 is when he hugs Will and Vynce after the villain arc. the way he communicated that he’s angry, he’s angry and confused but that right now he sees his best friends, his family in pain snd struggling and that come first. he will not let another person in his life fall again.

grizz plays dakota in just such an amazing way, he is a kid who grew up way too fast. He acts like a kid, he backtalks Mark, he goes out with his friends and eats entirely too much, pulls pranks. But he also acts so grown up, when he talks about keeping those he loves safe, when he yells at Mark and tells him to think of Ashe, when he leads an army of hero’s who have been in the business way longer then him into battle.

He is a true hero and I know for a fact that when he’s a full grown adult, he will be the best damn hero Prime has ever seen.