#i just really like hero villain teamups

[hurtmyfavsthanks]

Febuwhump day 24: Bloody Clothes

“Ugh, I can feel you bleeding all over me.”

Hero was focused on moving. Their body ached, every bruise and cut pulsing with pain. They could feel their wounds bleeding slowly, no doubt staining their already ruined uniform. They were running on empty, not having had a decent meal since their capture nearly two weeks ago. But they needed to keep moving. They couldn’t let either of them be captured.

“I mean, yeah, I know how to get blood outta my suit. You kinda have to know that if you’re a villain. But still, it’s super—Hey, are you even listening to me?”

Hero hadn’t expected their rescue to come in the form of their nemesis. When they’d seen Villain, dressed in a guard uniform alongside Super Villain’s other goons, they’d thought their nemesis had come to mock them. They hadn’t expected Villain to sneak into their cell in the dead of night, guards lying unconscious at the entrance, grinning with that mischievous smirk of theirs.

And now they were stumbling through the dark, Hero wrapping their arm over Villain’s shoulder for support.

It took Hero a long moment to realize Villain had asked them a question. “What?”

“Gasp!” Villain literally gasped the word, clutching their chest like an insulted noble. “You weren’t listening! How could you treat your nemesis like this!?”

Hero wanted to ask Villain the very same thing, but they didn’t. “Very easily apparently,” they grumbled instead. 

They walked in silence for a while. Or at least, as silent as things ever were with Villain. Villain seemed incapable of allowing the quiet to stretch on for long, occasionally bringing some inane topic up to break the silence. It was annoying, but the annoyance was better than the terror Hero felt at the thought of recapture. It was better than listening to their heart pound in their ears.

Hero felt themself stumble, only barely stopping themselves from collapsing. Beside them, they felt Villain stumble forward as well, dragged down by Hero’s weight. They refocused on moving forward.

“Hey, don’t pass out on me. I’m not gonna carry you.” Villain said, shifting their hold on Hero’s side.

Hero decided not to mention that Villain practically was already. Hero was only standing by Villain's support, their legs too weak to hold their weight. Their captivity left them exhausted, each step draining what little energy they had left. They could feel how Villain's muscles were straining, heart pounding as they forced the two of them forward. And yet, for all their whining, Villain didn't abandon them.

Hero decided not to mention that either. "Yeah, as if you could carry me," they snarked instead.

Villain huffed, but kept walking.

[merrysithmas]

continuing my DP, Wolverine, Spidey teamup movie ideas I live for a situation where Spiderman offhandedly mentions he is going through this subplot in his own 'verse where he has this really evil villain. Like this is a vile, inhuman, violent fcker with no regard for life, no hope of seeing the light, just a downright scumbag fascist.

We see it's weighing on him because Spiderman always strives to help "villains" who have lost their way or at least lead them to redemption if possible, but in this situation it's just... impossible. There is only continued violence in the face of which an impotent Peter always fails make a difference. Spiderman - hero or menace? Deep down he feels like he has blood on his hands because he doesn't have the "guts" to do what it takes.

But we know, since he's PG-13, Spiderman can't ever actually technically unalive villains himself. So he's just being tormented by this ahole for longer than anyone can imagine, and the Villain himself knows he can't die - bc of the moral & writerly strictures on Peter - which just emboldens said Villain further to do more and more heinous shit. This, of course, just destroys Peter who we know has lost so many people and carries a heavy guilt complex. He knows he can never actually stop the Villain good.

So at one point we have Wade, bedecked in the completely ill-fitting Spiderman costume that he lifted off screen, looking significantly more sinister than usual, striding into said Villain's lair and lethally taking out every goon with next to no effort. It looks jarring because he has none of Spidey's grace and fluid aerobatics, just some cold hard heat.

And upon seeing "Spiderman" again the Villain is delighted, ready for another twisted moustache-twirly convo in which he can destroy Peter's self-esteem but before he can pop off with his Mocking Villainous Monologue, Wade just lays into him with every weapon in the book, leaving him a bleeding husk in his chair.

That's all she wrote.

Meanwhile, there's some serious shit going down and Peter cannot find his Spiderman suit so has to resort to throwing on Deadpool's too-big costume - he's like hurling about it ("Does he ever wash this!?"), but swings into action with the katanas on his back (falling and slipping several times because of the strange weight distribution) - rounding up a few DP villains with a lot more Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman than Merc with a Mouth.

Everyone's like wtf because he's doing acrobatics and looks absolutely possessed in the too-big suit. And they're just generally so afraid by the appearance of it and what they perceive to be Wade's new skills they just lay down their weapons peacefully, shaking in fear.

Meanwhile Peter is trying to impersonate Wade while talking to them and they're all soooo confused. The costume looks like a creepy, deflating balloon on Peter. Okay whatever you do just don't hurt us, Deadpool! Meanwhile Peter is like, What? Why would I hurt you? And they're all getting more and more terrified by the second lmao, volunteering for community service, screaming and promising to donate all their spoils to the poor, throwing money at him.

So in the end it results in some really good press for both of them and a moment of Justin Timberlake "Mirror" realization when Wade walks in wearing the Spiderman suit covered in like 6 gallons of blood and Peter walks in wearing the DP suit carrying like 12 bouquets of flowers and covered in kiss marks from the thankful public.

Then Wolverine comes in from a completely unrelated errand and the music stops and he's like, ??? and Peter starts to explain everything and Wolvie just stands there arms crossed listening with the most disgruntled expression. And when Peter is done Wolvie is like - Not surprised, I could never tell you apart anyway.

And we find out he could never tell the difference between the two of them while they're in their suits in the first place. Peter and Wade are sooo offended, they're like we sound totally different and we are completely different heights! We've been on like 5 missions together!

and Logan is just like, studying them, we can see from the shot they look totally different. Peter is shook, "Well?"

Logan's squinting at them, no recognition, and then rolls his eyes, grunting,

"Whatever, Murdock. I need a beer."

[the-overanalyzer]

Got another one for you. Ok so you're very old and know you have to retire in a few years, five years tops. You've finally climbed up the ladder at DC and are offered to have complete authority over any one character for the rest of your career. What you say goes. You get to define how that character can be used in other books too. BUT you know that for any beloved other characters you bring in for teamups or as supporting cast, you won't be able to make any significant changes or improvements to their characterization, stories, etc without their writers or editors calling foul. You'll never get to switch to a different project. Which character do you choose to write for?

...you're going right for the throat, I see.

The easiest answer would be to pick someone obscure, who doesn't have much a of a supporting cast of their own. One of the alien Green Lanterns maybe. But that's really simple, and therefore no fun, is it? So...

In thirty years, Cassie Sandsmark has never had an ongoing solo title to call her own, and if I've got carte blanche to right one wrong in this unjust and uncaring world, it's goddamn gonna be this one.

She has so much potential to carry a series! She's a powerhouse, she's a leader, she's even a bit of a detective. Her relation to the gods offers any number of dramatic possibilities, and she's got well-established ties to almost every major Earth-based superhero family. She's got a juicy set of character flaws (overconfidence, short temper, just a touch self-centered, all the classic Greek Hero shortcomings). She can absolutely carry a title, and it drives me insane that the most she's ever gotten to headline is a Countdown tie-in miniseries of all things (god, it always comes back to Countdown in the end, doesn't it?)

First order of business: A new name. I'm fond of "Olympiad" myself. If DC gave half a crap about their third-gen legacy characters, she'd have stopped being Wonder Girl when Yara showed up and they insisted on calling her that. Wonder Woman writers have only very inconsistently wanted to use her in a sidekick role since Byrne left anyway, might as well formally graduate her out and free the slot up for the next poor underutilized soul.

Secondly: Establish a niche. Cassie can do the same superhero stuff Diana can, but Diana's role in the DCU is too much that of the outsider for born-and-raised American Cassie to really emulate, and she's not really a diplomat regardless. I'm not sure exactly what that would look like, but you could easily lean into that Greek Hero archetype and make her, more or less, a DnD-style Professional Adventurer.

Third: Love interest! By which I mean "CissieCassie is now canon, and oh boy is it a trainwreck". At this point in their lives, there's absolutely no way it would go well, and I fully intend to play that for all it's worth. There's a slight chance the Green Arrow office might be using Cissie at the time, but frankly, any Green Arrow creative team worth their salt would be down for some messy dyke drama, we'll work something out.

As far as secondary cast goes, Cassie's only real consistent supporting character is her mother. Her relationships with her closest friends (i.e. the rest of YJ) are all well defined, and it's not like they need development in her book. There are some more obscure Wonderfam characters you can use that are unlikely to cause conflicts with other writers. Ares has quite a few kids running around that could offer up some interesting dynamics. I'd love to bring back Lyta Milton, or maybe one of the creepy little crow boys from Gail Simone's run. She's got the Steph problem of not many villains specific to her, but there's a deep well of mythological monsters to draw from both directly and as inspiration (the Percy Jackson method, if you will).

So yeah. That's my dictatorial agenda. Justice for Cassie 2k-for-fucking-ever.

[accirax]

Disventure Camp All Stars Power Ranking (Round 13)

After last week's results, I feel like I could finally be getting into the rhythm of these post merge episodes. However, I'm not sure if this episode's elimination will wind up being something my rankings like...

In case you haven't seen my previous power rankings ( 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 ), the Power Ranking Format is essentially a way of ranking how well each player is doing in the game. So, in essence, this is a long form way of predicting who I think will be eliminated from the competition in the next episode. There will be spoilers for last week's episode (obviously) and its power ranking, so make sure to read that first if you don't want to be spoiled on how I ranked our last boot. If you want more clarification on the rules, that first post will help you out as well. Furthermore, I'm going to be spoiling the preview for next episode, so if you want to go in TOTALLY blind, save this for later. Let's go!

Recap - Yul's Elimination

Current Score: 58 acquired/82 total

(Points versus @venus-is-thinking: 9 acquired/9 total)

I FINALLY DID IT!!! I FINALLY GOT A PERFECT ELIMINATION SCORE!!!! It's about damn time. I was so right to not gaslight myself into thinking that Yul wasn't about to be eliminated anymore.

I think that Yul had essentially worn out his welcome in this season. He worked really well at the beginning, in definite part to being part of the plotline with Emily which pushed extra bullying onto him. But, once that ended, he wound up in a neutral/power position again, which made him way less likeable. Grett was obviously going to get her revenge on Yul at some point during the season, and while I initially thought it might be via sabotaging him in the finale, I think it was a good choice to get him out sooner rather than later. Not to mention, having the villains overpower the heroes three times in a row might have been stale in the short term.

Trailer Analysis

Oh, is that Riya/Ally thing actually going to be relevant? I thought I was overstating things again. I guess now that Riya has been... sort of? separated from her number one, she might need to look into other alliance options to get her further. Ally doesn't have anyone else, and Riya already laid the seeds for a teamup with her, so it makes sense!

Alec and Connor are on speaking terms again (for now). And fishing terms.

This is probably either Aiden struggling to keep the secret of Alec and Riya's kiss in, or him regretting telling it to everyone after he does.

Grett and Gabby are continuing to hang out, and hopefully getting along.

Alec is losing it. I wonder if he sees the burgeoning alliance between Riya and Ally, and is trying to stop it.

Oh, I see! The challenge will be about retrieving a flag from a hidden location behind super dangerous obstacles like sharks and bears!

Yeah, and they have phones that can GPS lead them to the flag, and maybe provide some puzzles along the way!

... Or it's a TikTok challenge? I guess? Seems like the challenge might be more about doing viral dances in dangerous locations, although I have no idea what the flag means in that case. Maybe you can only get the flag once you do all the dances? Or, could it be an immunity totem?

I would imagine that Aiden would have somewhat of an advantage here, given his TikToker boyfriend. Grett also knows a lot about social media, but I don't get the sense that she does many challenges like this. Yul would've known...

Relevantly, this seems like a team challenge, which will probably grant double immunity. Pairs who appear together frequently in the trailer seem to be Alec and Connor, Grett and Gabby, Jake and Ally, and Riya and Aiden. If Riya and Aiden are together, then the pairs are definitely staff-assigned.

"... The things we do for money."

Nothing too serious here, as I imagine this is just about Alec being embarrassed to do viral dances. It did get a laugh out of me, though.

Power Ranking

#1: Ally

From what it looks like, Ally has wound up in a really nice position in the game. (Such is the way of the gamer girl.) She has a working relationship with all of the heroes, and after last episode, might be considered Connor's number one. I suspect that this episode will bring Ally and Jake closer together as opposed to further apart. And, it looks like Riya might be trying to hit her up as well. I don't see any particular reasons why Grett, Gabby, or even Alec would be particularly interested in getting her out.

So... truly, which people would be the ones to want to cast their votes on Ally? Or, even further, who's the one pitching her name in the first place? Pair this with the fact that she's still the only female hero (although that status is more dubious given Grett and Gabby's recent actions) and I would be pretty surprised if Ally went home this episode. It's true that she doesn't really have any plot lines going on right now, but I find it more likely that she's about to be swept up into a new one than that they've left her alone for this long just stalling out before randomly pulling together an elimination.

#2: Grett

and

#3: Gabby

I truly did not know which one of these two to place first, because I find it pretty unlikely that either of them will be eliminated, for a couple of reasons. First of all, they could totally win dual immunity here. Like I said earlier, Grett does have extensive experience with social media, and, just on the surface, Grett and Gabby are the only pair that don't currently have some level of beef with each other. If the moral of the episode is "people who are actually friends work better together," then I could totally see Grett and Gabby winning by virtue of actually being a functional pair.

Secondly-- and this is ultimately the reason why I placed Grett slightly above Gabby-- I don't think they would want to eliminate Grett or Gabby immediately after they eliminated Yul. I felt the same about Jake and Aiden last episode following the Tom boot. I think the writers will want Grett and Gabby to have at least one episode of peace post-Yul before either of them are eliminated. I believe it more strongly for Grett, just because I think it would be awkward for Grett to finally triumph over Yul and then be tossed straight into the Loser's Motel with him again just one episode later. But, in either case, they need some room to breathe.

From a gameplay perspective, they're also in somewhat of a swing position together. To the extent that the heroes versus villains rivalry is still a thing (which, granted, I think that phase will be fading out), Alec and Riya will want to win them back, while the heroes would want to solidly win them over. In either case, no one wants them out.

And, finally, back to meta stuff, I think either of them could be plausible and deserving finalists. I'm sure there are plenty of reasons to justify either of them going home, but I find the reasons to keep them here more compelling.

#4: Connor

Well. Connor goes here because he is still, hypothetically, the villains' number one target. So, in the theoretical case that this vote is still a plain and simple heroes versus villains vote-- I guess one that ends in a tiebreaker?-- Connor could at least be eligible for elimination, assuming he loses the challenge. The villains could also try to entice... I don't know, Aiden over to their side? Yeah, I don't find this argument particularly strong either. Unlike Connor's superpower.

Another big reason why I don't think Connor will be eliminated yet is what I said before: that the narrative will want him to triumph over Riya this time after losing twice before. Or, at the very least, they'd want him to go out in a more dramatic fashion than "I guess Grett and Gabby are totally working with the villains again, along with random person C."

He also still hasn't done anything that critical since returning to the game, in the sense that he hasn't done anything particularly Connor-centric. He did definitely unite the heroes in the Tom boot episode, but Ashley, Lake, James, or even Hunter probably could have done the same. Why bring back Connor specifically? Well, to expand upon his relationships with Riya and Alec. He's definitely going to interact with Alec this episode, but talking with Riya seems like it may not yet be in the cards. For those reasons, I think Connor will survive this episode... even if his ass is NOT winning this challenge.

#5: Jake

RIP Jake, I think this is the lowest I've put him in a while. Although, I still don't have him that close to the bottom, obviously. He's still my current winner pick of the season.

Actually, let me take a quick moment to diverge and share a theory I've been cooking on, as inspired by Venus putting some full-game theories at the end of her last rankings. I think that, to commemorate this large-cast series of All Stars, the finale will have each finalist choose not one, but two assistants. Assuming Jake is there, I think he'll pick Ashley first, and be convinced to take Tom second (given how established it is that Miriam has had medical issues). And, assuming Jake wins, I think he'll split the shiny new prize of three million dollars between the three people on the winning team. After all, the show has already made a point to tell us that Ashley will use the money to rebuild her farm, and that Tom will fund schools in his neighborhood. If either of those virtuous causes went unfunded, it'd be pretty sad.

Anyways, that's the main endgame I'm imagining now, but I obviously don't want to be such a slave to it that I fully disregard the possibility that Jake could be eliminated prior to the finale. It is definitely possible he could be nearing the end of his run soon. He's come a long way in his character journey, so if he got eliminated now, we could be satisfied that he truly grew from this experience.

However, I don't really know who would be voting for him. The villains don't have the power to just executively eliminate whoever they want anymore, so they would have to crowdfund additional votes to (presumably) get up to a dominant five. I think the most plausible scenario is Alec/Riya/Gabby/Grett/Ally votes for Jake, in the case that Ally and Jake grow to hate each other even more over the course of this challenge.

Overall, though, I don't really see why the folks in-game would want to eliminate Jake instead of Aiden. Riya still hates Aiden way more, and that'll probably only increase if Aiden shares the secret of Alec and Riya's kiss. I'll elaborate more on my thoughts on that in Aiden's section, though, so just know that that logic partially contributes to Jake winding up at #5.

#6: Riya

Despite putting Riya this low on the list, I think she'd have to fuck up pretty badly over the course of this episode to be the one getting the axe. She does potentially have negative momentum going for her, though, with the truth bomb that Aiden's about to drop. If that causes Connor to truly, fully lose faith in Riya, it could lead him to strongly push getting Riya out now.

The problem is, I don't know who the fifth is. Possibly Alec, if he were trying to escape his shame, but that seems kinda counterintuitive if he likes her and likes spending time with her. Grett probably has an overall favorable view of Riya, given how she helped her with the Yul situation. I guess the fifth would be Gabby, then-- maybe if Riya goes on to insult Gabby and/or Grett and/or Ellie (somehow?), Gabby would feel okay turning on her? Seems a tad random, though.

A big part of the reason why I put Riya this low is because, as I said in Connor's part, I'm expecting Riya to be eliminated before Connor, so I kinda feel obligated to put her below him. But things are happening with Riya this episode, which could plausibly lead to her elimination. I get the sense that she'll be sticking around for a bit longer yet, but we'll see. Maybe she'll be victimized by a kiss of death.

#7: Aiden

For all those who read my initial thoughts on last episode, you know how confused I was by how revealing the secret of Alec and Riya's kiss was meant to benefit Aiden in any way beyond "get revenge on Riya by blowing up her relationships." It really seems like it could backfire, and, backfire it may.

I could see it as sort of a cautionary tale. While Riya robbing Rosa and sharing James' private messages didn't directly get Riya eliminated, it did make her worse, and ruined the end of the game for her. If Aiden starts exhibiting similar behavior-- being cruel to others on a personal level to "help his game" by really stirring up drama-- I could see it (and an elimination along with it) being a wake-up call and moment of growth for him.

Granted, it's not a moment of growth that's been particularly foreshadowed throughout the season. We saw how strongly the writers chose to demonstrate Disventure Camp worsening Ellie before that was the reason why she was eliminated. If Aiden was eliminated for similar reasons, especially after starting on the same tribe as Ellie, I would imagine that would have been more strongly highlighted.

I also don't really know who the fifth vote would be, again. I could see all the (former?) villains being on board if they want to protect Riya, but... would Connor really be so mad as to fully flip on Aiden? Jake and Aiden seem to be friends now, so I don't think it'd be him. I guess that leaves Ally, if she felt more aligned to Riya now than she does to Aiden? Props to Riya's acting skills if true.

It definitely feels like Aiden's story will be coming to an end soon, but I'm not sure if the cards are in place just yet. Still, I wouldn't be too surprised if this is Aiden's last dance.

#8: Alec

Okay, this time I think it might finally be Alec's time to go. As you can probably tell, I've been operating under the assumption that we won't be heading into a tiebreaker again, and therefore have been trying to figure out how various people would be able to manage receiving five votes this episode. This is not a problem for Alec, because I can genuinely imagine everyone voting for him.

Jake, Aiden, and Ally would certainly jump at the chance to get out a villain, especially their crafty leader who's won a bazillion immunities. Connor would have that rationale as well, even furthered by the fact that Alec has betrayed him twice now (voting him out and kissing his "it's complicated"). It'd be pretty easy to see how Alec is dragging Riya's game down now with his awkward behavior, and given how quick she was to cut Connor for that conduct before, I'm sure she could be ruthless again. As for Grett and Gabby... well.

Here's another theory of mine: with the potential death of the heroes vs villains alliances, I think we're about to see the dawn of the classic women's alliance. Riya already approached Ally over the fact that they were both women who needed to look out for each other. She also inspired Grett to break up with Yul by telling her that she was a strong, independent woman. I think a secret women's alliance could start as early as this episode, and once Jake, Aiden, and Connor have been lulled into voting out their fourth man, it'll already be too late, and the women will have the majority. If this is the case, don't be surprised to see Aiden at the bottom of my next power ranking.

(By the way, I do have issues with the concept of a "women's alliance" in shows like Survivor, because it's unfair how people are always worried about the idea of a women's alliance when no one would call what would be a "men's alliance" by that name. However, the "women's alliance" is a classic trope in Survivor, so I could totally see them wanting to bring that in for DCAS.)

Alec was at his peak, and it seems like he may now be set up to fall. He no longer has numbers nor power. He doesn't even have his backstory to share anymore! All he has is his personal skills and challenge prowess to save him... but god knows Alec and Connor are not winning the fucking TikTok challenge. If this is your final episode, Alec, know it was a pleasure.

And, that's it! Who would have thought that I'd name drop Ellie twice in this power ranking...? Despite the uncertain state of the game, I feel fairly confident about my women's alliance idea. Then again, I've felt that way about other stuff before, and been totally wrong. Should I really have such confidence that I'll get a perfect score for two weeks in a row?

I can't believe that the next episode is only three days away. See you then!

[sergeant-angels-trashcan]

DC crossover anon: OKAY OKAY SO CONSIDER… Kate and Dick Grayson. The PARALLELS. Dick knows what it’s like to just be a normal guy on a team full of powered people, to feel like you need to earn your seat at the table. Dick fought for respect as Robin, as Nightwing… Kate did it as Hawkeye. She went toe to toe with Steve for this right. Dick struck out in a new town like Kate did in taking off for the west coast. They understand the hero worship, only to be struck with how human your mentor really is. And listen, if Kate had a nickel for every time she wound up running with a former circus performer who pretends to be a himbo but is actually really fuckin smart…? Well, she’d only have two nickels, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice.

A/N: I am so sorry this has been languishing in my drafts for months and even though i have more thoughts i want to post it because hi i am IN LOVE with them ilu dc nonny

Oh my godddd ohhhhhmy goddddddddddd

I am seeing them getting ready for (superhero) work and realizing they picked up the wrong batons which is so DUMB and so CUTE or maybe they even got as far as superheroing and Kate is like HUH well THAT wasn't supposed to happen as she's standing over some twitching goon and calling Dick like "Hey babe I think we need to label the batons better just a thought" and Dick who is FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE because Kate doesn't have tasers is like YA THINK???? (I am so sorry for yelling babe I wasn't mad at you I was mad at the situation and also the literal clown I was fighting)

Do they meet at a rich person gala and Kate is trying to figure out if Bruce is Tony Stark rich dude or Justin Hammer rich dude and realizes what better way to infiltrate this sus billionaire than by getting tight with his kids? They both absolutely know how to ballroom dance. Do they meet because Kate decides to take some aerial classes??? DUO ACRO ROUTINE MY BELOVED?!?!?! (OH my goddddddd Dick teaching circus classes? Kate and Clint taking circus classes and he critiques Dick the whole time but they bond over how the Joker is a bad clown. Not like evil, but like, bad at being a clown. The fucking audacity of him.)

Universe mash up where the Avengers et al and the Justice League et al come together for some reason and Nightwing and Hawkeye are impressed with one another in a professional way and then Bruce(Wayne) and Steve(Rogers) decide to set them up by sending them on fake missions together only because Kate is Kate it keeps backfiring and the fake missions all become real missions. It's OK though because they all come together to defeat an interdimensional villain and then there's a frantic makeout session

Kate and Dick would be able to pull off one of my favorite tropes "we've been dating for 3 1/2 years but everyone thinks we just team up to fight crime." Everyone thinks the teamups are because their teamup name is NightHawk. Obvi. Whatever version of them getting together, a total of three people know. One of them is Damian who Does Not Care Thank You Very Much (he does. He cares SO MUCH. when is the wedding he wants to know he had BETTER be a GROOMSMAN, RICHARD. He's already training Lucky to be the ringbearer. But he super mega doesn't care he thinks they're idiots.)

UGH SECRET IDENTITY SHENANIGANS (assuming a crossover where Kate can maintain a secret identity for more than 30 seconds) does the general public think that Dick is dating Hawkeye? That Kate is dating Nightwing? DO THE BUTTS MATCH????

How long before she gives up and starts calling him Dick? She absolutely can't at first, stop LAUGHING, Tommy, and at first the Batfam thinks she's kind of posh and weird like Damian because she's calling him "Richard" does he even actually want to be called Dick she doesn't know!

How into it is Dick when they go to some super shitty bar in Bludhaven and she kicks his ass at pool? He is so super into it its not even funny, honestly any time Kate kicks his ass he is VERY into it.

Kate is out here a small business owner where she is LITERALLY a detective and then at night saving the world? Dick why does that weirdly sound like Bruce? Dick? Do you call Kate daddy Dick WHY ARE YOU RUNNING AWAY ITS A SERIOUS QUESTION

Also I was looking at this on my phone and my eye caught the phrase "struck out" and I am obSESSed with Dick striking out with Kate (trying to date her to get intel on her dad?) while Jason actually gets her to agree to dinner and obviously Jason will never let Dick forget this ever. After dinner--during dinner?--something happens and that's when they realize that Hawkeye (who has been flirting with Nightwing and they're sort of crime fighting dating) just went on a date with Red Hood (they shoot at each other once a week) and that Kate TURNED DOWN the guy she has actually sort of BEEN DATING FOR TWO MONTHS???

Tim texts the entire Batfam about this. Babs steals Kate's phone and texts her entire team. It's terribly embarrassing for Dick and Kate but really brings their teams together.

DICK ADVISING KATE ON GETTING A SIDEKICK?!?!? Damian trying to convince kid!Loki to be Kate's sidekick? DAMIAN AND KATE TEAMUP WHEN DICK IS SICK!?!?! And just. The amount the Batfam would adore Kate. Because she's Kate, because of how happy Dick is when he's with her, because she shares interests with like all of them, Kate and Damian SWORDFIGHTING

I can't decide if Dick's acrobatic training is the only reason he can beat Kate in a fight, or if it's the only reason Kate can beat Dick in a fight (I think they're pretty evenly matched.) On the one hand, Dick's use of acrobatics in his fighting style is pretty unusual and even trained fighters are going to be unprepared for some of his moves. On the other hand, I can see Clint either showing Kate some tricksy moves from his circus days, or Kate just picking it up by observing him. Idk it would be very funny because the acrobatics thing is unique, it gives Dick's moves an edge and he's honestly not used to losing fights and then Kate just. Fucking clotheslines him.

Now that I think about it,

Okay. okay. For Kate, fighting Dick is a lot like fighting Clint. They're built similar and have the acrobatics background. Kate is used to fighting people like Dick. Dick is less used to fighting people like Kate. You remember that picture of an eagle sitting next to a housecat, where it was captioned "I eat things like you, but not your size/I eat things your size but not like you"? That's them.

They also do yoga together after a long night of fighting crime. Also Kate is so protective of Dick it's kind of funny, Dick is ABSOLUTELY capable of taking care of himself but he is SO OKAY with Kate taking care of him, of her being a little feral about him in public, he wants the title of Boytoy. Tim says that Dick is Kate's poor little meow meow and look. points were made. Dick is just SO GOOPY about her in private but if you so much as look at Hawkeye in that tone of voice Nightwing will wreck your shit.

[roseworth]

If you got to write an ongoing for Rose, what major arcs would you do? Would you have her ice Slade? Would she team up with Jason's Outsiders, end up with Tatsu or Babs, or be her own free agent occasionally punching other heroes?

oh my god yes. im just kinda gonna start dumping thoughts here with no organization im so sorry but here we go

so first of all i know i will never get this but my ideal rose ongoing would be her working mostly alone but sometimes teaming up with people bc she doesnt like to stay with anyone for long but she DOES work with other people when she needs them

shes been in gotham for a while so id prob keep her there and have her team up with other ppl in gotham every once in a while bc. i want her to. i just think gotham is a good place for her because it is a city of the most stubborn people in the world so she would fit right in

id prob have her do kind of the same thing she was up to in Fresh Hell and taking down various crime rings bc i dont really see her caring much about the costumed villains, not to mention there are a hundred other vigilantes in gotham for the Big Bads

also having her in gotham kind of opens up so many roads SO. gotham vigilante teamups <3 first things first i feel the need to say her and bruce would not have any need to interact and i dont think either of them would really want to fhdkjfhdsf like rose is trained and mostly doesnt kill people so i dont think batman would really care what shes doing until she does something bad, and rose wouldnt really like batman (for various reasons that i wont go into rn) so they would kinda just be doing their own thing

ANYWAYS in general i think that the idea of rose teaming up with bats is sooooo funny bc most of the bats are very meticulous planners and make whole schemes for everything they do. while 90% of the time roses plan is "im gonna go in and start punching people and see what happens" so i think she would give whoever shes working with an aneurysm and thats kind of hilarious to me

i want her to team up with steph and cass for homoerotic reasons because they all have so many narrative parallels, ESPECIALLY with cass so i need them to team up again <3 idk what they would be up to besides getting on each others nerves but i need it so bad

also rose & jason Now.. they r besties to me. i feel like they get into a lot of the same shit so they would also team up fairly often :) not to mention both of them have abandonment issues so they would have the most toxic friendship that constantly shifts between codependency and disappearing whenever something bad happens <3 besties<3333333

honorable mention teamups are babs who im pretty sure ive already talked about a babs&rose teamup before so i wont go into it, helena who i honestly have only read in bop so idk a lot about her but from what i do know i think she and rose would get along, harley who i would only want her to team up with because it would be a fucking mess, dick who i want her to team up with because it would also be a fucking mess but in a different way (renegade arc part 2 but this time theyre both heroes so rose can annoy him even more), duke who i want to include just because i love him even though i cant imagine any reason for him and rose to interact, young justice who arent all gotham heroes but i want them to be around to temporarily absorb rose just for fun, and the entire arrowfam who have no reason to be in gotham but i just want rose to fuck around with them as a treat to ME

as for slade. i think that their relationship is best written when it is really complicated for her :) so i need her to fall back into the cycle of going to him and looking for his approval and being constantly disappointed and angry when he refuses to give it to her :)

anyways ARCS. i dont have a lot of specific ideas for arcs besides another arc of rose giving up the name ravager (bc it didnt fucking stick last time), an arc making her a lesbian (stop booing me im right) and maybe an arc of rose killing slade then immediately spiraling about it bc :))))) yippee :))))))))))

okay this is already embarrassingly long so im gonna stop but i just have so many rose thoughts dc hire me

[mountainsideturnip]

Ignore literally every typo n stuff. I wrote this up as a summary of a 3hr convo I had w a buddy not long after the Jason Fear Augmentaion issue dropped 👍

(Below cut bc I'm insane👍👍)

Opening with Tim at Jason’s funeral, just going through the motions. It passes quickly. It’s only been a couple days and it was a small funeral of close family and friends. Everyone is a little wary of Bruce being there since it is kind of his fault. Tim goes home and continues to monologue to himself about how Jason can’t be dead, and the story begins taking a similar route to Bruce being lost in the timestream during RedRobin 2009, including Dick coming by to check on him.

Debating on if/when I would want to resurrect Ives or Lonnie. Ives would be decently early on, before Tim has gotten the chance to leave Gotham and start looking for Jason/processing death. So that Ives ends up dragged in because he’ll know he died. Versus Lonnie being resurected after Tim has ran rampant for a while and mostly overcome denial of Jason’s death. (Either way) This leads Tim into a mode of, “well, if you came back, he can. He has before.” Which is a very in-your-face Bargaining Metaphor. I’m thinking Lonnie returns because of Darkseid stuff during Tim’s world-tour. He ends up acting as a moral compass but moreso in the sense that he’ll ask why Tim chose to do/not do certain things. (They’ll get some degree of philosophical about it all. Morality Napkin will be mentioned). It’s after Lonnie’s return that Tim starts to privately get necromantically dubious to potential bring Jason back. This inevitably gets used on local civillians and teammates. He’s insane. Continuously through this bargaining arc, he’s mulling over how and why Jason “”died”” (double quotations because Tim thinks it’s not real) and where he might really be. It’s important that the reader also thinks Jason can/will come back. We gotta tie the audience to Reader-Insert Tim Drake, lol. Have flashbacks to Jason having a “civillian” life and being a discount personal Oracle to Tim and just general brother bonding, since Tim had more recently leaned back into properly balancing his work/vigilante life with civilian life. And not once else was really checking in and hanging out with Jason anyways, since they’re so busy and he’s clearly so capable. Maybe Tim was already actively working on a backout for the brain alteration, but couldn’t work it out before Jason had a lethal reaction or offed himself. I think Tim should have some kind of grudge and/or animosity towards Bruce before storming off. I think Tim should blow up at Bruce in the back during Jason’s funeral yelling that Jason’s “”death”” was Bruce’s fault.

As for running rampant, I’d like to bring Pru back into light, she’s fun(and whenever he gets back to Gotham, before(/if?) Jason comes back, bring Tam in again. I really want him dealing with villains other than the usual Gotham crowd, because there’s monotony in throwing the same guys in jail/asylum over and over again. You know what they’re going to do and how. It’s easy to not kill them or even want to. Other villains, though. Other states or countries.. Yikes. It gives perspective. At some point, I want him to grieve over a villain that dies while he and his crew are fighting them. He doesn’t kill. This is his fault. Maybe a member of a temporary teamup(someone local to the area) dies. He should’ve been able to save them. It’s his fault. Again. There’s a villain that continues to let Tim percievably get close to winning, but continuously kills some other hero and/or civillian. TIm doesn’t kill this villain, but a teammate does. “Tim/[“hero” name]. You don’t kill.” “And I didn’t.” “You let me.” Some degree of shock and satisfaction, but mostly worry. Maybe “It’s equally my fault I let you off [villain] as it is my fault that it’s my fault [causalties] died.” “But [villain] killed them. How is that your fault?” “Then how is it my fault you killed [villain]?” It’d be so morally fucked up if he resurected villains because at least if he did it wrong, they were already dead, right? Kill ‘em again. 99 pile up. I’m making him resurect 99 things. I feel evil. I can’t let him resurect Ives, though… I can’t. I think if, during his necromancy era, he did think of resurrecting Ives, he’d think about it way harder than other subject. He’s a civilian, he’s been dead for a while, he had/has cancer, he has family, he doesn’t know about the reality of heroes and stuff. I think Tim choosing not to resurrect Ives would be a key shift to move on from bargaining.

Enter in depression about his friends and family and civillians and villains, even, dying. I think he’s still being morally dubious, but again, another key turning point of him choosing whether he’d choose a heroic or villainous path. He’s good at acting as a villain, he might’ve even enjoyed it for a while. Maybe even notice that he can get away with more, knowing that his foil heroes aren’t going to kill him… He gets perspective. He flips back and forth, uncertain of his place in the world. Stuff about him taking the Renegade mantle and Slade popping up a couple times during that. Whatever, I’ll need to read Stuff to understand better( or maybe Druid& will dump on me 🥺). Slade dies, I guess. Joey, Rose and Tim grieve together. Rose and Joey have done it before, and Tim’s mostly through his Jason Journey already. It’s nice.

Tim comes home. And, I don’t know what order/if I want to do all of this, but.. Is Jason back already, or does that happen after Tim’s settled back into routine(choosing to balance civvie and vigilante life)? Tim gets a new gifted vigilante name, but from who? Pru&co? Once Again Risen Jason(new bread type)? Joey/Rose? Slade? Fuck, man. 

Fuck, grief that Jason’s back? I don’t even want to bring Jason back at this point, actually. Keep him dead. Would be funny if Tim’s recent necromancy just let’s him called the beyond dead to catch up over the phone, lol. He won’t bring him back, that’s an established agreement between them both. But the concept of secondly resurrected Jason having to cope with his own death and moving on from his own death. The coming to terms with being your own person(Tim) and coming to terms with being a new person(Jason)... They’re fundamentally different than they used to be. They’re different together. Blah, blah. Either way it’s a probably nice ending.

[marcfrenchie]

DO YOU WANT TO READ MOON KNIGHT?

are you a show fan who's learned about how terrible the MCU did moon knight and you want to check out the comics? did you see him in a teamup book and want to know more about him? are you just looking for more comic recs? are you just interested in the character? then you're in the right place!

okay, to begin, i want to say that this is a character that has had a... varying history. there are no moon knight comics you can enjoy without extensive criticism. critisizing the things that you enjoy is good and gives you a better understanding of the work. please do not idolize any of these comics and please work to be kind to the many minorities (jewish people and systems, primarily, but classism, racism, xenophobia, and homophobia are all explored throughout MK's publishing history) that these comics represent. anyway.

MOON KNIGHT 1980 -

tws - doylist racism (racist villainous charactictures, mostly. a lot of this), ableism (outdated terminology for systemhood, occasional slurs), and sexism. extensive discussion of anti-semitism, specifically neo-nazism, in issues 37 and 38.

what happens - moon knight 1980 is a 38 issue comic book centering on the ex-mercenary and now hero moon knight. almost entirely episodic but there are occasionally multi-issue stories.

moon knight, in the day, is the millionare socialite steven grant, and, at night, the hero moon knight- moon knight also "uses" jake lockley as an informant. marc spector was the mercenary moon knight ran away from. doug moench was NOT intending to write a system at this point- steven and marcs relationship is meant to represent one mans struggle with guilt- but its really really easy to gel this with their current situation of being alters in a system and also some of the specifics of their whole thing make me fucking insane. jake is also there and i love him even if he isnt really a major part of the moral conflict

please dont read all 38 issues- attatched is a list of my personal ratings. everything later calls back to this so its best practice to read it first but its very much a slog if you arent already attatched to this character so make your own choice

nothing from 1980 to 2014 is particularly good (you can read it if you want but i havent) but knowing what happened is pretty important to understanding the later modern runs so a runthrough. throughout the 90s mk continued in the 80s status quo but in 2006 he 1. cut off bushmans (remember that guy from 1980?) face 2. was given a tendency for violence and and 3. became significantly more tense with marlene and frenchie. by 2014 they had completely fallen out. thats all we can continue with the recs now

[Image ID: A list of Moon Knight 1980 issues colored based on their quality. Issues 4, 7-11, 15, 17-20, and 28 are marked as "not good." Issue 27 is marked as "not good makes me insane though." Issues 3, 5, 6, 13, 16, 21, 34, and 35 are marked as "fun." Issues 2, 12, 14, 22 to 26, and 29 to 33, are marked as "good writing." 37 and 38 are marked as "genuinely essential." 1 and 36 are not marked. 29 is denoted as "slightly weird about his DID" and issues 6, 21, and 22, are denoted as "racist." End ID.]

WHAT HAPPENS IN BETWEEN -

MOON KNIGHT 2014 -

tws - graphic violence. do not buy the book new, warren ellis is an awful person. brief (doylist) ableism.

what happens in it - the first six issues are the warren ellis/declan shalvey run, which is what im reccomending. read the rest if you want, its mediocre but i like it

moon knight 2014 is 6 episodic issues centering on a now alone marc spector. steven and jake only show up twice, both lineless appearances in the back of panels. most of the issues are significantly more violent, dark, callbacks to old 1980 issues. most of the run is silent violence from marc but all of the stories are really good and the art is breathtaking.

MOON KNIGHT 2016 -

tws - unreality. mental hospitals. both doylist and watsonian ableism.

what happens - i am reccomending the lemire/smallwood + co run, the 15 issues before the numbers shoot up. i have not read the bemis run.

moon knight 2016 is 15 issues situated in a hallucinatory version of NYC, following moon knight as he struggles against khonshu's attempts to possess him. the thing is a lot of things in 2016 piss me off so i cant exactly sing its praises but its super important to modern moon knight so just. slog through it. highly reccomend reading after 1980 because it refrences A Lot.

MOON KNIGHT 2021 -

tws - violence, discussion of anti-semitism in issue 5.

what happens - i am reccomending the first 16 issues. the annual sort of triggered a falling off for the series and so i have not read after #16. read the later issues at your own risk

moon knight 2021 follows moon knight as he opens the midnight mission, gains multiple new side characters, and reckons with the consequences of the age of khonshu (an event in jason aarons avengers which is explained fine in 2021 so you dont have to read it). most of the series is typical action juxtaposed with MK's SHEILD-ordered therapy sessions. issues 14 and 15 are possibly the first time jake and steven have been written well since 1980. unfortunately, the annual is deeply xenophobic (villianizing the only romanian hero in marvel) and i have stopped reading the series due to this. the first 16 issues are really good though

MOON KNIGHT BLACK WHITE AND BLOOD -

tws - violence.

what happens - mkbwb is 4 issues consisting of 12 noncanon moon knight stories, as is typical for bwb series. most of them are pretty good and fun and also really pretty.

OTHER MOON KNIGHT STUFF -

- ms. marvel and moon knight

- devils reign: moon knight - tw violence, prisons

- west coast avengers 1985, issues 25-41

- hulk 1978 issues 11-20 (not #16), b stories.

- moon knight 2006 issue 3 - for frenchies coming out scene, which is good. not anything else

- heroes for hire 2011 - hes only in a few issues but im not saying which ones because i want you to read the whole thing. because its good

- defenders 1972 issues 47-51 - its Very 70s but its cute and i like it :)

- werewolf by night 32 and 33 - his first appearance!

ENDING THOUGHTS - please god listen to and make a point to be kind to systems and jewish people when you talk about MK.

[minijenn]

Jen Tortures Herself With Every Dreamworks Animated Movie Ever: Flushed Away

So I think there's a reason why Aardman is best known for claymation above all else. Because when they try their hand at CGI, it turns out weird and uncanny, like Flushed Away here is.

But more on the animation in a bit, what's the story? Roddy is a pet rat who ends up, well, flushed away into the sewer, where he gets tangled up with Rita, a scavanger who is being hunted by a toad who plan on flooding the entire sewer city to get rid of the rats (So basically, to commit a Genocide). It's a.... mildly simple story with few surprises in it; bunch of action scenes, Roddy and Rita fall in love because of fucking course they do, bad guy is boring bad guy and our heroes save the day and learn the meaning of family or something idk I wasn't really paying that much attention.

Flushed Away, in its very nature, is kind of focused on that gross out toilet humor, so it immediately lost me with a lot of that. The rest of the humor that isn't that is just very bland and unfunny, and along the same lines, its action scenes don't really do a whole lot for me either and just tend to drag on way too long. I get the vibe that this, way more than the other Aardman/Dreamworks productions I've seen, is by and large the most focused at kids. Which hey, guess we're on a trend with that because so was Over the Hedge.

The characters are, fine I guess, not too stand out. Roddy is your typical protagonist who starts off all high-strung and stuck up until he realizes how lonely his previous life was and decides the sewer ain't half bad after all. Rita is ok, the usual Dreamworks scrappy "tough girl" love interest that we've seen before and will see again in this rewatch (I forgot to mention this in my previous list but so many of Dreamworks ladies are like this, Tzippoah, Chel, Marina, Fiona, hell even Astrid imo). As for the rest of the characters, they're very one note. Our villain doesn't even have an actual name, he's just called The Toad, and he's about as boring as you'd expect any power-hungry antagonist to be.

And finally, the animation. It is... weird. I respected Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit for how technically impressive they were, because claymation is very difficult and takes so much work to perfect. But this movie is CG animated, yet still utilizes Aardman's usual signature style. As a result, you get weird character models, with bizarre lighting and textures that look unfinished almost. The movement of the characters is smooth enough, I suppose, but this style just... doesn't lend itself well to anything other than claymation. It's just ugly man, idk what else to say.

So yeah, like I said in the Over the Hedge review, we're deep into Dreamworks' first "mid" era now. Kind of a shame the Dreamworks/Aardman teamup streak ends here because I don't actually hate Aardman's work, even if I do find their character models a little... uggo. Unfortunately, this is definitely the worst of the lot when it comes to the Aardman trilogy. No wonder that most people forget it exists because even after just one viewing, that's what I intend to do too.

Overall Rating: 4/10

Verdict: Flush these uggo rats into hell where they belong

Previous Review (Over the Hedge)

Next Review (Shrek the Third)

[virovac]

Ultraman noble-villain ideas

I think a Non-genre-savvy villain would be a great way to shake things up. And allow for easy exposition as their faction tries to study and understand the Ultra opposing them.

And by lacking genre savvy, i mean not being used to sudden violation of conservation of mass or someone being willing to destroy a life bearing planet when they are a rare and irreplaceable resources ( think like how poisoning a desert oasis gets you on everyone’s bad side)

They could either gradually become more sure the universe is mostly madness and be seduced by an evil promising to help them bring order...or have a redemption arc where start their own intergalactic heroe force to counter the biases of the Ultras.

But honestly I just really want to see an Ultra about to use their finisher after a hero-villain teamup and then being restrained against their will and stopped and told “No, that would be over too quick. This execution must be slow so as to serve as an example.”

[tabslabs]

Tbh Virgo and Jack are early kinda similar in that they’re both just REALLY into playing their parts. Like for Iris the hero mascot thing is mostly an amusing and fun job, and for Joe it’s pretty much just “ok guess this is what we’re doing now” Everyone on Virgo’s crew is invested, but you can’t deny that they’re mostly in it cause Virgo makes it fun due to how utterly into playing the goofy villain that can’t really do villainy right they are. Jack likewise is so down to play the part of a hero beyond just acting. Virgo & Jack are so invested in this improv performance thing they’ve got going on, making the whole city a stage for these idiot bad guys to be stopped by these equally idiot good guys and the whole city knows it’s all an act (they just don’t know VK’s crew isn’t actually hired) This is partially why I find it so difficult to rework Edwina into the story again. Her whole deal is just fundamentally darker than all of this, she genuinely wants to take over the world and destroy non SBs which is like… dude everyone in town is a goofball playing a game I know the obvious answer is tone it down and make her more like “I’ll take over the world!!” And not get close but she’s not… she’s not a lil chaotic bastard she’s an openly manipulative, kidnaps kids to start an army, and torture people to get my way person which is… It’s not what THE is anymore and I’m really not sure how to cut back on all that without just making her not herself anymore… she wasn’t a good person at any point and I’m not sure how to make her like… less evil

If I wasn’t opposed to doing some serialized stuff Edwina nearly takes over Lambertown and is stopped by the VK’s Crew THE teamup is good but I don’t wanna do that I wanna be able to just do 5-8 page comics that are enjoyable on their own

[random-movie-ideas]

Flash Villain Movie Ideas, Part II: Gorilla Grodd

For the longest time, Gorilla Grodd as a Flash villain specifically baffled me. Like, we have "police scientist with super speed," with a rogues gallery otherwise made up of local colorful criminals from around the city he operates and a handful of rival speedsters, and then we just have this random super intelligent gorilla who rules a secret gorilla society out in Africa. I just . . . where is the overlap? Or at least, enough overlap to be constant recurring adversaries and not just a random one-off weird adventure? Now, I get that specifically it was Grodd's contemporary Solovar who reached out to Flash, begging his help against him (likely because he was most likely to reach their society in time), and since it has been more of a vendetta on Grodd's part, seeking revenge against the Flash for ruining his plans. I can work with that.

Origin Movie: I think there is just too wide of a gap between Barry and Grodd's origins for an origin movie featuring them both to ever really work without being convoluted. At best, I could see a Grodd origin story that only makes reference to the Flash.

Sequel Movie: This works much more. Establish the Flash in an origin, put him up against one of the villains with a more direct connection to him, and then have Solovar reach out to the Flash in the sequel for help, specifically because he's started proving himself such a great hero.

Finale Movie: A full-on Planet of the Apes-style war of conquest led by Grodd against humanity is certainly a way to end a series, for sure.

Supporting Villain: He also works very well in large-scale teamups between villains, like the Secret Society of Villains and the Legion of Doom. He is certainly a villain that could be used in those contexts.

Here are my rankings of them:

Sequel Movie: The best way to do it.

Finale Movie: Could be cool, maybe derivative.

Supporting Villain: Always a natural pick for those kind of things.

Origin Movie: No.

What do you think? Who should I cover next?

[mountainsideturnip]

[This is my sideblog for organization later lol] This is like. Direct copy&paste of a ramble I had back in October. Do with it what you will (Under read more bc there's a lot)

Opening with Tim at Jason’s funeral, just going through the motions. It passes quickly. It’s only been a couple days and it was a small funeral of close family and friends. Everyone is a little wary of Bruce being there since it is kind of his fault. Tim goes home and continues to monologue to himself about how Jason can’t be dead, and the story begins taking a similar route to Bruce being lost in the timestream during RedRobin 2009, including Dick coming by to check on him.

Debating on if/when I would want to resurrect Ives or Lonnie. Ives would be decently early on, before Tim has gotten the chance to leave Gotham and start looking for Jason/processing death. So that Ives ends up dragged in because he’ll know he died. Versus Lonnie being resurected after Tim has ran rampant for a while and mostly overcome denial of Jason’s death. (Either way) This leads Tim into a mode of, “well, if you came back, he can. He has before.” Which is a very in-your-face Bargaining Metaphor. I’m thinking Lonnie returns because of Darkseid stuff during Tim’s world-tour. He ends up acting as a moral compass but moreso in the sense that he’ll ask why Tim chose to do/not do certain things. (They’ll get some degree of philosophical about it all. Morality Napkin will be mentioned). It’s after Lonnie’s return that Tim starts to privately get necromantically dubious to potential bring Jason back. This inevitably gets used on local civillians and teammates. He’s insane. Continuously through this bargaining arc, he’s mulling over how and why Jason “”died”” (double quotations because Tim thinks it’s not real) and where he might really be. It’s important that the reader also thinks Jason can/will come back. We gotta tie the audience to Reader-Insert Tim Drake, lol. Have flashbacks to Jason having a “civillian” life and being a discount personal Oracle to Tim and just general brother bonding, since Tim had more recently leaned back into properly balancing his work/vigilante life with civilian life. And not once else was really checking in and hanging out with Jason anyways, since they’re so busy and he’s clearly so capable. Maybe Tim was already actively working on a backout for the brain alteration, but couldn’t work it out before Jason had a lethal reaction or offed himself. I think Tim should have some kind of grudge and/or animosity towards Bruce before storming off. I think Tim should blow up at Bruce in the back during Jason’s funeral yelling that Jason’s “”death”” was Bruce’s fault.

As for running rampant, I’d like to bring Pru back into light, she’s fun(and whenever he gets back to Gotham, before(/if?) Jason comes back, bring Tam in again. I really want him dealing with villains other than the usual Gotham crowd, because there’s monotony in throwing the same guys in jail/asylum over and over again. You know what they’re going to do and how. It’s easy to not kill them or even want to. Other villains, though. Other states or countries.. Yikes. It gives perspective. At some point, I want him to grieve over a villain that dies while he and his crew are fighting them. He doesn’t kill. This is his fault. Maybe a member of a temporary teamup(someone local to the area) dies. He should’ve been able to save them. It’s his fault. Again. There’s a villain that continues to let Tim percievably get close to winning, but continuously kills some other hero and/or civillian. TIm doesn’t kill this villain, but a teammate does. “Tim/[“hero” name]. You don’t kill.” “And I didn’t.” “You let me.” Some degree of shock and satisfaction, but mostly worry. Maybe “It’s equally my fault I let you off [villain] as it is my fault that it’s my fault [causalties] died.” “But [villain] killed them. How is that your fault?” “Then how is it my fault you killed [villain]?” It’d be so morally fucked up if he resurected villains because at least if he did it wrong, they were already dead, right? Kill ‘em again. 99 pile up. I’m making him resurect 99 things. I feel evil. I can’t let him resurect Ives, though… I can’t. I think if, during his necromancy era, he did think of resurrecting Ives, he’d think about it way harder than other subject. He’s a civilian, he’s been dead for a while, he had/has cancer, he has family, he doesn’t know about the reality of heroes and stuff. I think Tim choosing not to resurrect Ives would be a key shift to move on from bargaining.

Enter in depression about his friends and family and civillians and villains, even, dying. I think he’s still being morally dubious, but again, another key turning point of him choosing whether he’d choose a heroic or villainous path. He’s good at acting as a villain, he might’ve even enjoyed it for a while. Maybe even notice that he can get away with more, knowing that his foil heroes aren’t going to kill him… He gets perspective. He flips back and forth, uncertain of his place in the world. Stuff about him taking the Renegade mantle and Slade popping up a couple times during that. Whatever, I’ll need to read Stuff to understand better( or maybe Druid& will dump on me 🥺). Slade dies, I guess. Joey, Rose and Tim grieve together. Rose and Joey have done it before, and Tim’s mostly through his Jason Journey already. It’s nice.

Tim comes home. And, I don’t know what order/if I want to do all of this, but.. Is Jason back already, or does that happen after Tim’s settled back into routine(choosing to balance civvie and vigilante life)? Tim gets a new gifted vigilante name, but from who? Pru&co? Once Again Risen Jason(new bread type)? Joey/Rose? Slade? Fuck, man. 

Fuck, grief that Jason’s back? I don’t even want to bring Jason back at this point, actually. Keep him dead. Would be funny if Tim’s recent necromancy just let’s him called the beyond dead to catch up over the phone, lol. He won’t bring him back, that’s an established agreement between them both. But the concept of secondly resurrected Jason having to cope with his own death and moving on from his own death. The coming to terms with being your own person(Tim) and coming to terms with being a new person(Jason)... They’re fundamentally different than they used to be. They’re different together. Blah, blah. Either way it’s a probably nice ending.

———

I did not reread this ramble before post btw

Also I'm p sure I posted it somewhere before but couldn't find it. I'd love to make a fic outta this ngl.

Also p sure somewhere in ramble it reference's Druid? That's my buddy :3

Sometimes I think about how my current ideal run for Tim is just. Putting him back in The Horrors(Kill someone important ish and have him have to process grief while like. Everyone's either unavailable or he's unwilling to listen to because, like... Ot's not like they're *dead* dead, right?)

[shoudesuka-mechadork]

🎁 for the ask game!

OH BOY!!!!

🎁 Have a piece of a WIP you want to share?

Uhhh let's see....WIPs? There's this one I've had writer's block on for a while, but it's going to require a bit of context.

So, as you may know I am quite the tokusatsu fan. Kaiju eiga, henshin heroes, special effects dramas (EG Keitai Sousakan 7, GARO, Shi15ya etc), I like all of them. And, like most American fans of the artform, I got into it through Power Rangers...as did a lot of my friends.

During 2020 we were all sitting around discussing the in-show history and it occurred to us that...there wasn't actually a team on Earth in 1999. Lost Galaxy, the season that aired (and was also set during) that year took place on a traveling space colony that eventually settled on a far planet.

Sooo....we went about making one ourselves, using a villain team that never was adapted in any way.

These are the Hanaranger from Ninja Sentai Kakuranger. They were introduced as a major threat and have some pretty great episodes where they isolate the red ranger and then hunt him Most Dangerous Game style, but eventually they were just relegated to the role of glorified mooks. Which sucks, because they were really cool villains.

And since they're very Ranger-like...you can see where this is going. Thus we made our own season, a 'lost tale' kind of deal called Power Rangers Floral Fighters. We did a whole freakin' season of it, from start to finish. We love them so much sometimes we forget they're not real lol

So, in the great tradition of Power Rangers it's not uncommon for two seasons to have a crossover teamup episode. These have become less frequent as time has gone on but there was a time where they happened about once a season.

I started writing a crossover of that kind with Floral Fighters and the Ranger team from Lightspeed Rescue, which, incidentally, is one of my favorite seasons ever. Rescue worker themed Ranger team backed by the government that was made to fight demons. AWESOME.

I started writing it late last year but didn't make a lot of headway before realizing I didn't like that draft and threw it out. The second draft was started on last Spring or so and I'm currently sitting at about 9k words give or take some. I've had to do some finagling to make the casts match each other in terms of size and I'm having some trouble with logistics (IE when does X character show up, etc) and that's stalled me for a while. But I'm quite proud of what I've got because it's a great tribute to the OCs our friend group made and an awesome sendup to my favorite season, too.

Thanks for the ask :)

[comicaurora]

I just finished rewatching inuyasha, are there any anime or cartoon recommendations you have? And yes, I have already seen reboot, it’s pretty great.

always nice to have my tastes validated, thank you 💖

In no particular order:

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes - recommended several times before, but it really is one of the best versions of the avengers I've ever seen. Fun ensemble cast with excellent dynamics means every main character has fun chemistry with every other main character, leading to teamups that feel like they shouldn't work but do, like Thor and Wasp having a lengthy conversation about how horrifying MODOK's giant weird head is, Hawkeye and Hulk developing an utterly bizarre friendship, etc. It's also got one of the least bland versions of Captain America who, despite being 100% rock-solid paragon, still manages to have a personality of his own well-written enough that when they do the Secret Invasion plotline the audience can actually tell that Skrull-Cap is a pale imitation of the real version.

Transformers Prime - the only Transformers cartoon I've ever watched, so I can't speak for how it measures up to the others, but it's very solid. Another show that nails a paragon's characterization, this has a really solid version of Optimus Prime, fitting his core characterization of "strong enough to be gentle" - and the rest of the cast is just as well-written, if somewhat less deep. There's a trio of human protagonists that are nominally the focus, but they're really only there to justify focusing on the more interesting robots, and get some focus but are more effectively utilized to communicate the somewhat terrifying scale of the bots and how scary it'd be to be human-sized in that context. The villains are also really solidly written - they manage to retain the Megatron-Starscream dynamic of "Starscream is always trying to backstab Megatron" without making Megatron seem like an idiot for putting up with him. This is probably one of the most intimidating versions of both Megatron and Starscream.

The Owl House - currently airing and not yet finished, but this show is really cute. Human protagonist stumbles through a portal into a magical otherworld that's literally hell with the serial numbers filed off and starts learning witchcraft from an extremely hilarious mentor figure. The first episode is deceptively basic and kids-show-y, but after that things start delving into more serious implications. The main character is written with an extremely on-the-nose portrayal of ADHD and some corresponding RSD (and has a romantic subplot that is both explicitly gay and getting more and more focus as the show goes on, which fuckin rules) and the show delves into some other fairly serious real-world concepts through fantasy coding (for instance, the mentor struggles with a curse that's treated like a progressing chronic illness, and an episode puts focus on how her mother keeps obsessively pursuing magical "cures" that'll theoretically "fix" the problem rather than helping her manage it or improve her quality of life) and doesn't shy away from the real psychological consequences of character traits that might originally seem like jokes, like how a character has comedic delusions of grandeur and reacts extremely badly when they eventually find out everyone around them has just been humoring them. There's also a lot of casual queer representation, which I find very refreshing.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power - I mean obviously this was making my list. Goofy 80s reboot of a toy commercial turns out to be an exploration of love, family, trauma and the cycle of abuse. She-Ra operates on the Rule Of Cool and its corollary, the Rule Of Maximum Emotional Impact. It's not not tropey, but that just kind of makes it comfortable, you know? Villains you like get redeemed, villains you hate get punished, downtrodden characters learn to stand up for themselves, heroes making mistakes realize they've messed up and work to make up for it, the power of love saves the day several times, etcetera etcetera. Also extremely gay. I still can't believe this show really happened sometimes.

Batman Beyond - a show I have described before as "it really, really shouldn't have worked, but somehow it did." A fifty-years-later sequel to Batman TAS focusing on a new kid becoming Batman under the mentorship of an old and cranky Bruce Wayne. Somewhat dystopian cyberpunk future setting, new Batman is basically just Spider-Man, eschewing stoic menace for quips and flips. The similarity extends down to a one-for-one correspondence between their respective rogues' galleries. And somehow it's really solid. Episodic with an open-ended "the adventure continues" wrapup, it's good to watch in one go but it also works for sporadic viewing, even out of order. There's some drift in the status quo, but after a while things get pretty firmly established and the episode order stops mattering.

Tales of Arcadia (Trollhunters, 3Below, Wizards) - Caveat that the finale movie just came out (Rise of the Titans) and I'm not recommending that. The experience of the series is better if you pretend it had an open ending when Wizards wrapped up. Anyway, Guillermo Del Toro loves him some urban fantasy and Netflix likes enabling him, so we got a great set of interconnected series (six seasons total) about an ensemble cast of weirdos dealing with crazy magic urban fantasy stuff. Starts off with a fairly standard unprepared chosen one protagonist navigating an unfamiliar secret world, but the scope quickly broadens and it becomes clear that the core message of this story is that "the lone chosen one must save the world with zero help" is total bunk and emotionally deeply unhealthy, and it's much easier to save the world with a bunch of other cool people who are also good at saving the world. 3D animation is very pretty but takes a little getting used to - all the human characters are a bit distractingly noodly proportion-wise. Has some fun twists and fakeouts and routinely went in directions I was fully not expecting.

Gargoyles - 90s Disney urban fantasy about a clan of gargoyles who end up frozen for a thousand years and wake up in 90s NYC. Don't watch season 3, but everything else is really fun, if extremely 90s. The voice cast is incredibly solid and I honestly recommend it just for the auditory experience (protagonist is Keith David doing his rumbliest baritone, major antagonists are Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis bringing more personality to their respective roles than Riker and Troi collectively had in the entire run of TNG, etc) but it's also just fun overall with lots of cool literary and historical references - the actual historical Macbeth is a recurring antagonist, as are Puck, Oberon and Titania. Fun fact, major romantic subplot between gargoyle protagonist and hard-boiled human cop is documented to have awakened an entire generation of monsterfuckers.

Ducktales (2017) - no, really. Aggressively cute, adventurous and funny 95% of the time so when it wallops you with the really intense scary tragic family feelings the other 5% of the time it's way more impactful. David Tennant gets to do his natural scottish accent as Scrooge. They weren't legally allowed to put Mickey Mouse in the show, so they just get his voice actor to play like five other characters. Sometimes the animation goes really hard for no reason. Surprise, the show that looks like it's about wacky adventures in disney properties is actually about family and togetherness and love and stuff. All this and more might explain why I like the show so much, but I still don't really know.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - old news, I know, I've recommended this show a hundred times and probably will a hundred more. Incredibly well-crafted, well-paced, a really solid 64-episode mystery/political intrigue series that only gets better on rewatches as more details and hints pop up. Vocal performances are excellent in both dub and sub, though the names fit a little better in the dub since they're mostly english words. I sometimes describe this show as the best anime I've ever seen, which is admittedly highly subjective, but overall what I mean is it's the best put-together overall - tightly paced, clearly planned out from the start, characters behave like real people and develop naturally as the story progresses, overall a show with very little wrong with it.

[deadwriter16]

my predictions for 326 are that we either get more into the todoroki and endeavor vs dabi fight, since that hasn’t been visited since the war arc, OR we’ll get one or two transition chapters for deku to talk with the class, teachers, and maybe (hopefully), bakugou, and for UA teachers and students to strategize about game plans for defeating AFO and the LOV.

also i have this hopeful feeling that bakugou is going to get some kind of leadership role, maybe in planning how to defeat the villains. what i would really want is for bakugou to be like the main UA student who’s helping the teachers and heroes come up with a plan against AFO since he’s targeting deku and bakugou literally said he knows deku the best.

and the desperate part of me wants some kind of bakugou/uraraka teamup. but that’s just because i love them and they deserve it.

also 325 was so sweet. my heart.