#kryptonian worldbuilding so.

[blorb-el]

1. ithe kandorians have been trapped in that bottle for who knows how long, they seem to have developed some interesting attitudes towards death and recycling. unless this is just a Kryptonian Thing

2. four hour workday extremely based

action 280, “trapped in kandor!” 1961, script jerry siegel, pencils and inks jim mooney

[nitewrighter]

Who do you think would be the best DC hero to appear in MAWS and why is it Wonder Woman?

...I think the best DC hero to show up in MAWS is Mister Miracle, actually.

-We already have hints at Apokolips as one of the factors which took down the Kryptonian Empire and Scott was raised on Apokolips.

-MAWS already has a major focus on technology as part of its worldbuilding and Mister Miracle is a very tech-y gadget-y superhero with the added benefit of also being from space like Superman. Also the fact that his flight is dependent on his Aero-discs would give him a noticeable visual contrast to Superman's style of flight.

-Scott's Mister Miracle definitely has an aspect of PERFORMANCE!! and SHOWMANSHIP!!! as part of his overall superhero persona which would be a fun contrast against Clark's more warm and gentle Superman.

-It would literally be so so so funny to see Scott nearly kill himself multiple times with his crazy Mister Miracle stunts and freak Clark the fuck out only for Scott to be perfectly fine.

-You have a very cool potential drama factor since Scott could be a refugee of both Apokolips's general suckiness and Krypton's attempts at conquest, so he could have a lot of potential interactions with Kara.

-Mister Miracle and Big Barda are basically a package deal, which means MAWS would have TWO wifeguys now, plus Scott and Barda also have a size difference like Clark and Lois but it's gender-swapped.

-Introducing the New Gods is a good way to HINT at Darkseid without immediately cramming Darkseid down everyone's throats.

-Introducing non-trinity Superheroes is a good way to significantly expand MAWS's universe without elbowing out Lois and Jimmy as Clark's primary co-stars.

-I love them.

BONUS: Basically since we see Clark be very conscientious about how much damage he can do as Superman, it would be very funny to have that contrasted against Scott and Barda, with Barda FUCKING WRECKING EVERYTHING and Scott cheering her on.

I love Diana, I do, but the heart and soul of her character is magic and mythology, and I feel it would be really difficult to introduce her to the MAWS-universe in a way that meshes with that show's worldbuilding without changing massive parts of her character. Again, I stress: I would prefer if other members of the Trinity got their own shows establishing them in their own rights rather than just being shoehorned into MAWS.

[vinelark]

ALL timkon recs I BEG

hello hi! here are some of my favs! it got long so putting some under the cut

💄 Lipstick on the glass by @cairoscene read for timkon being soft and goofy and disgustingly in love, set in vague future college-y years with amazing core four dynamics too. cair is one of the funniest people to ever exist and we are so blessed that they decided to write some timkon. (also read for my own greatest contribution to literature, the fictional “jerry the void nexus” meme)

🎢 been a number and a name by @wynterstars i had SO MUCH FUN reading this one, a 90s comics-divergent AU where robin and superboy become friends—and crushes—when superboy is pretty new on the scene. feat. lex luthor being terrible, tim staging a rescue operation that at one point involves platform shoes and a blonde wig, spice girls references, and fantastic action sequences. it’s also a series, with an installment focusing on kon & clark, and a currently updating longfic sequel with SO MANY timkon identity shenanigans (my beloved) and kon feelings (also my beloved).

📸 the surveillance series by @smilebackwards i feel like i rec this all the time but it’s because it’s THAT GOOD. a tim-centric AU where tim joins the family late, but is still involved in bat business without the bats realizing. there’s some fun timkon identity shenanigans at the top, and some of my all-time favorite tim characterization (ruthless! lonely! brilliant!) plus a great tim & bruce arc, too.

🦉 Detours by miyaji_08 this is part 2 of a series and i def recommend reading the whole thing! a reverse robins + joker jr au that has lots of trauma and lots of healing, and in part 2 there’s timkon identity shenanigans that’s simultaneously enemies to lovers + And They Were Roommates. tim sure does run a gauntlet of horrors in this series, but it has so much healing and also one of my fav reverse robins concepts i’ve read so far.

📱 unfurl by @burins tim and kon might be dating, and there’s no kryptonian sex ed handy. bruce, being bruce, makes it his business, which means talking to clark and Realizing some things about his own feelings. superbat are billed first here, but i think timkon steal the show—i laughed out loud like five different times reading this. hilarious and sweet on all sides. (and if you like this, check out their timkon road trip fic!)

🌾 A Saturday Evening by malcyon in which tim visits the kent farm for family dinner with kon, feat. very sweet established relationship timkon and fun superfamily dynamics, and it touches on tim’s past grief over kon’s death (and complicated feelings post-undeath).

🤼‍♂️ Sore Loser by @hearteyeshayley kon learns that tim always let him win while sparring, and has to process that. this was such a fun exploration of tim’s prowess as a fighter—one who regularly has to go up against superpowered friends and foes alike—and also tim as a person who is always doing mental calculations about the people around him (in an endearing way). kon, too, got his time to shine and grow, and the ending was so smart and sweet.

🔮 Ascension by Violet_Witch an AU longfic where tim is a witchling and kon is a fallen angel who has (oops) just lost his wings. tim sets out to help get kon’s wings back, and there’s a ticking clock because angel wings are dangerous in the wrong hands—and tim has a big, horrible secret that’s about to come due. the plot/worldbuilding of this was WILDLY cool, and there was a big ol misunderstanding in the middle that had me clawing my face off (in a good way).

🌌 straight on ’til morning by merils kon vs. the terrifying ordeal of growing up, feat. sweet friends-to-lovers timkon and really thoughtful exploration of some of kon’s canon past relationships and their abusive dynamics. i haven’t finished this one yet but it’s been rec’d multiple times and i’m excited to dive back in (and it's recently complete!)—and what i have read so far gave me an amazing sequence of kon and dick interacting and dick’s big brother mode activating in an instant, which is something i now desperately need more of.

📧 aaaand would it even be a reclist by me if i didn’t include send to all by @cairoscene the absolute moment i find myself feeling down i go reread this and boom. i am instantly laughing again. timkon are just one part of a bat grab-bag here but they are so so funny and cute and in-character. maybe one day i’ll compile the timkon-centric sequel that exists in my head but for now i’ll just go reread this for the zillionth time.

okay yeah!! i’m probably missing so many good fics here because i constantly have like a zillion tabs open that i plan to read someday. also i reserve the right to reblog later like OH I FORGOT— but in the meanwhile, happy timkon reading!

[suzukiblu]

listen listen i know we are so pleased with this match is pretty much just a setup for some fun porn later on but i'm over here getting hyped for the worldbuilding and seeing your take on betas. i love how you've interpreted them as the ones who make sure things get done when the alphas and omegas are too drunk on hormones to think straight. it's very funny to me as a concept lol. I'd love some more for wip wednesday if you're not swamped, otherwise this is just some appreciation for that au <3

The omega has their same face and same build, but his hair is bone-white and his skin is much, much paler than theirs, and his eyes don’t have any visible sign of pupils or irises, which makes for a slightly off-putting look on both Kryptonians and humans. His clothes are unsurprisingly Earthling-styled, if a little off-putting too, and he’s wearing loose-fit white boots and gloves and a fitted electric yellow bodysuit with the Agenda’s insignia–the Agenda’s logo–where his family crest should be. 

Kara doesn’t like the sight of that. Not the Earthling-cut clothes on one of the only people left in the universe who should be wearing Kryptonian-cut ones, but especially not the damn logo.

[stars-obsession-pit]

Since my brain has continued to rotate my alternate take on kryptonite being made of ectoplasm (here) I’ve decided to give the idea a name:

Souls of Kryptonite AU

I still don’t have any big or solid plans with it or whatever but. Yeah.

Anyway, I started thinking a bit about some worldbuilding possibilities around the thing. Nothing is too concrete but I wanted to write them out:

So, firstly:

Krypton’s destruction in some way involved ectoplasmic contamination of the planet (to justify why its bits got weird)

But then I had two ideas on how to take it:

1. Kryptonite flat-out is ectoplasm

When Krypton exploded, the energy output of the blast caused the souls of the dying Kryptonians to crystalize

Thus Kryptonite technically isn’t the shards of the planet - it’s the shards of the people

Because the souls crystalized in this way, they never fully formed ghosts. Instead, they’re just trapped in essentially the moment of their death

Kryptonite can hurt ghosts to touch because of the emotions contained within leaking through

I don’t have any fancy explanation for the Kryptonian power sapping part. Maybe the nature of it being their souls cause some sort of magic effect? Or maybe it’s literally just still radioactive in whatever special way. There are options.

Using it as a power source may or may not harm the souls - I’d think it probably would, but depending on how the energy effects work it might be arguable that the souls wouldn’t take much damage

Probably would require fancy ghost magic or ecto-technology to free the souls

You might be able to get a power boost by eating it but you really shouldn’t because that’d be like, soul cannibalism.

2. Kryptonite interacts with ectoplasm

Kryptonite is less “solidified ectoplasm” and more of a sponge that draws in ectoplasm from around it

Thus when any ghosts formed during the planet’s destruction, they were immediately pulled into it and trapped

And if any other ghost touches it later, it will start to drain or even capture them too

The ectoplasm stored in Kryptonite gradually leaks out as a different form of radiation - this is what allows it to interfere with Kryptonian powers

Generally, the more charged with ectoplasm a piece is, the stronger the radiation it releases is (this just feels like a logical rule)

The souls/cores/whatever-you-want-to-call-it of the trapped ghosts aren’t deconstructed (maybe because the ectoplasmic makeup of that part is different enough to hold it together)

Though maybe using it as an active power source could gradually damage them, to add extra angst to the usage of it in tech

However, any new ectoplasm the ghost forms while trying to heal gets torn away and spread throughout the rock

Thus keeping the ghosts stuck in a barely-formed state (essentially trapping them in the moment of their death)

Also this continuous drawing on the trapped ghosts’ ectoplasm allows for the Kryptonite to remain powered indefinitely

Kryptonite can’t hold an infinite amount of ectoplasm at once - it eventually becomes saturated and stops taking in any more (beyond replenishing what is loses to radiation)

At that point, it’s harmless for ghosts to touch (and can even give them a power boost if they consume it)

Yep i’m keeping the possibility of eating the rocks. Just make sure it’s filled with only non-sentient ambient ectoplasm and not souls and you’re good to dig in!

That saturated state could be used as a way to free the ghosts - continuously flood the Kryptonite with enough ectoplasm to keep it saturated, and the ghost will be able to reform without being drawn back in

Carefully breaking the stone might also work, but I’d probably add some sort of complication with that - maybe in regards to the stored ectoplasm being released suddenly or it potentially damaging the souls within

I feel like the latter option allows for some interesting concepts, but it’s a bit less faithful to the original “kryptonite is ectoplasm” idea

[frownyalfred]

hello! I’ve read different omegaverse fics and most of them seem to have different worldbuilding so I was curious about yours. In ASOH, do mated alpha and omega couple’s heats and ruts line up? Also how often do heats and ruts hit? I would also love to know if you have any thoughts on if any of this is different for Kryptonians. I hope you have a great day, I love your writing!

I actually think they start to sync up even before mating. The longer you spend near your alpha/omega, the closer your ruts/heats get to each other. Gradually at first, until they start to overlap and then sync. Mating would automatically cause them to sync, I imagine. And a shock heat/rut could cause a sync if it was strong enough, even while unmated.

In my head, ruts/heats come cyclically around 4-6 times a year. Some people have fewer, some more.

Some things I think are different for Kryptonians: fewer annual heats/ruts (possibly leading to repopulation issues back on Krypton), longer knots during ruts/heats, more likely to experience mini ruts/heats during pregnancy to encourage healthy progression. Just a lot of adaptive instincts and physical changes to try and address fewer pregnancies in the last few generations on Krypton.

[tossawary]

I've been thinking a lot about DCU stuff and Ace Attorney thoughts got mixed in by accident, because it's got a lot of the same themed, colorful character designs and silly pun names. So, of course, I started immediately daydreaming about a DCU-style Superhero AU for Ace Attorney. (I often do not fully control what I think about.)

And then I was like, "I think I just finally have to play Ace Attorney at this point, before I get stuck in a weird daydream loop because I don't know enough about the plot to worldbuild properly. I will let this be the final push to just start these games."

Based on my extremely limited knowledge (I have only actually played 2 episodes of the first game), here are my Superhero AU thoughts so far. I don't like 1-1 character role match-ups in general when I fuse worlds, so none of these AA characters are fully aligned with any particular DCU character.

Phoenix Wright would make a good speedster, I think. This is partially because of the spiky hair, but also because there's a terrible irony to being the fastest man in the world who keeps being too late to stop certain tragedies. It also suits the way he's apparently never properly prepared for anything but also quickly manages to pull through. He's probably still a defense attorney in his civilian identity. (In accordance with later games, he has to stop being a superhero for several years when he's framed for a crime.)

Besides Phoenix's mentor Mia, who is also both a superhero and a lawyer, ordinary civilian Larry Butz is the only person who initially knows that Phoenix has superpowers. He honestly hasn't told anyone Phoenix's secret identity! But Larry also somehow gets into more scrapes and "damsel in distress" situations than Lois Lane and he's not even an investigative reporter.

Mia Fey, Maya Fey, and Pearl Fey have a Shazam situation, I think, in which they transform into a "Mystic Champion" magically empowered by the ghosts of their ancestors. Like a Shazam & Danny Phantom fusion. Mia Fey was the first in her family to become a publicly known superhero. A lot of people don't know that it's not the original Mystic Champion (same face and same superpowered form as Mia, which breaks Phoenix's heart a little every time) until Maya or Pearl transforms back into a regular girl after the fight is over.

I think Miles Edgeworth is a Batman type hero, but one still partially ensnared by Manfred von Karma, who is his Ra's al Ghul. (This makes Franziska into Talia, but there is definitely nothing romantic there.) Maybe he does have superpowers of some kind, maybe not, and he could still potentially be a prosecutor. He doesn't have a Brucie persona, though. Phoenix is not impressed by Edgeworth's harsh and even cruel approach to vigilante work. (Steel Samurai was Miles' Gray Ghost or Zorro hero inspiration, I'm guessing.)

Gumshoe is Miles' Commissioner Gordon figure and doesn't know his secret identity yet. He's either going to learn in the middle of a really bad situation or he's just going to straight-up figure it out himself one day and scare the hell out of Miles.

I'm still thinking about characters like Kristoph and Klavier Gavin, Apollo Justice, and Trucy Wright, but I don't know enough about them to fully flesh these thoughts out yet. I think the Gavins would make good Kryptonian equivalents (a cold and calculating Superman and a rockstar Supergirl), Apollo might make a good Wonder Girl equivalent (his bracelet becomes a Lasso of Truth) as the lost son of an Amazon, and Trucy would obviously be fun as a Zatanna type of hero.

[jesncin]

How do the Green Lanterns and the Guardians feel about martians (and kryptonians for that matter) hanging around Earth?

I don't know enough about Green Lantern/Guardians internal worldbuilding to know how they'd react to essentially undocumented alien immigrants on Earth. I know they're all about order, I just don't know how far that goes. From what I've seen, they seem chill about Kal and J'onn.

I know also in the comics that the Guardians have a whole history with the Martians in JLA Trial By Fire, where it's revealed that the Guardians "performed mass genetic manipulation on the martian race" to make Martians afraid of fire because "as a species, they were barbaric, ruthless, brilliant, and constantly battling among themselves" and "they exist to cause suffering and burn and breed. Nothing more". They basically took burning martians (what the whole martian race originally were) and split them into white and green martians. I don't like this backstory at all. It makes martian lore too tied to Green Lanterns and characterizes Martians in a needlessly bio-essentialist way. "This race is inherently evil, they don't have internal thoughts and opinions, they're just made that way." And the whole plot where J'onn overcomes fire by breaking the Guardian's genetic block and therefore becomes evil like it's just an off and on switch really reduces J'onn's actions and choices to a species' behavior. It's racial essentialism in fantasy form.

So instead I have it so Burning Martians are an ancient variety of martian long lost to martian history. Ma'al is a rare genetic occurrence- and technically a very powerful martian because of it. He's not fully aware of what being a Burning Martian entails and just wants to live a peaceful (slutty) life on Earth. I think for that reason, the Green Lanterns would leave them alone. The Guardians would raise an eyebrow but some GL friends would back J'onn and Ma'al up. I do think that despite Mars being an isolationist and cloaked planet, the Green Lanterns do know about them.

[thatonebirdwrites]

DEO: Department of Extra-normal Operations

This will be an essay that looks into the ethical problems of the DEO. For the purpose of this essay, I am not concerned about the showrunners reasons for their decisions for how the show presents the DEO. I care only about examining the worldbuilding and stories inherent within the world created. So let's dig into some philosophy and theory. Whee! [Minor spoilers]

To start, this department was first created within the Superman/Supergirl universe in order to analyze alien activities after Superman reveals himself on Earth. It's made in retaliation to the appearance of powerful aliens that those in power deem possible threats. Already, the DEO's beginnings are rooted not in true protection but in stopping and eradicating what those in power deem a threat. It's roots start with dubious ethics.

Let's examine it's history:

It was led by Hank Henshaw, who is vehemently anti-alien. Henshaw is also slated to have ties to Cadmus, which experimented on aliens and attempted several rather horrific and genocidal attacks on aliens. (Note that in Supergirl: Season 2, Kara and Lena thwart Cadmus' activities. Lena Luthor saves the day by modifying an alien killing virus to be harmless to all living creatures. Bits and pieces of the worldbuilding around Cadmus showed that the aliens experimented on came from DEO facilities.)

Henshaw dies when Jeremiah Danvers "kills" him when saving J'onn J'ozz, who then takes Henshaw's place until exposed. He recruits Alex sometime before his exposure (Season 1). After J'onn is exposed in Season 1, Lucy Lane takes control. Then after J'onn helps Supergirl defeat the murderous Kryptonian Non, J'onn received a presidential pardon and was reinstated as director. He kept Henshaw's guise for publicity sake.

The show makes it clear that J'onn choses to be the Director to change the DEO. Yet, what evidence is there that this actually happens?

So that's the basic history.

We have a clandestine agency that has unethical procedures that doesn't change under a new director.

The DEO picks up aliens and throws them in a cell to never be seen or heard from again. This would likely terrorize the alien neighborhoods. This is never truly address in any meaningful manner by the Superfriends or Kara.

In fact, if anything, the show positions the DEO as being Good if Alex, J'onn, or Lucy are in charge (Kara, ironically is not in charge of the DEO at any point). However, the DEO becomes Bad if Lex Luthor or Lauren Haley or the real Hank Henshaw are in charge.

This creates a rather large ethical problem.

First of all, the worldbuilding builds up the argument that certain people are good and certain people are bad. The person we see skirting between those two extremes, and living in a morally grey area the most, is Lena Luhor. For the purposes of this essay, I'll put a pin into Lena's characterization and focus only on the DEO.

Secondly, we are told again and again what Kara/Supergirl's ethics are: justice and truth. Yet when we examine Kara's actions within the context of her DEO Supergirl duties, we are confronted with the following:

She must hide her identity, even from her best friend Lena, and thus deceives regularly. Her reasons for not telling Lena are rooted in the pressure from those at the DEO to not tell Lena but also in Kara's intense fear of loss. However, Kara will demand truth from others despite her hypocritical actions. This doesn't seem to fit solidly in the "good" category.

Her "justice" is defeating criminals. Humans go to the police to eventually have a fair trial. However, aliens are not afforded that same right. Her justice for aliens becomes judge and jury. Since she professes to "not kill," she at least doesn't extend that to executioner. This again doesn't fit solidly in the "good" category.

Thus, by examining Kara/Supergirl's actions, we see a disconnect with what the show claims is "good:" truth and justice. Yet, there is no true justice for the aliens fought and captured; their rights are rescinded (if they had any at all).

This is why the show must tell us who is "good" and who is "bad," because people's actions do not fit the show's claims of what "goodness" is versus what "badness" is. Thus the worldbuilding ends up defining Kara's actions as always "good" even if those actions cause harm to those around her.

[Side note: This isn't to say that Kara is "bad." It is to say that the binary within the show's worldbuilding lacks nuance for the complexity within Kara's understanding of the world and how she acts within that understanding. This binary simply cannot allow for such a complex examination as there is no room for it.

Because of this binary, the show actually butchers Kara's character to make her past "not good" actions as somehow "right" and "good" in the end. We see this with how Kara's harmful actions toward Lena (the lying, duplicity, deception etc) is turned into "I did just one mistake" when it wasn't one mistake. It was years of harm, but because the show paints Kara as "good," Kara is not allowed growth.

This binary of good versus bad is already nonsensical in the worldbuilding since Lena Luthor's very existence throws this entire frame out the window. Her actions, always with the intention to do the least harm and try to improve the world, don't fit neatly into the binary. The story often punishes her for this. (She breaks the binary too much I suppose.)

Yet when other people's actions fail to fit neatly into the binary, the show whispers: "Hush, don't look or think, believe us when we say this person is good and this person is bad.']

To reiterate: It's okay to capture aliens and disappear them without any right to trial If the Superfriends are doing it. This good/bad definition collapses ethics into meaningless words since the activities and procedures of both the "good" people and "bad" people don't differ in terms of impact on alien communities. This lack of differentiation is why we must be told who is good. Otherwise, how would we know?

To dig a little deeper, in Season 4, when Kara is on the most wanted list, she learns very little about the true plight of aliens. During this time, the DEO becomes "bad" under the control of Lauren Haley. Lena Luthor and Alex Danvers, who are both working with the DEO still, also work against the DEO but only to clear Kara's name. So justice is done for Kara's sake but not for the other impacted alien communities.

Once Kara's reputation is restored and she's no longer deemed an "enemy of the state," Kara returns to working with the DEO, as it is now labeled as "good" again because Alex is back in charge.

Ironically, the only person in Kara's friendgroup that questions the DEO is Lena Luthor. (Who in Season 5 will have her 'villain arc' only to be redeemed to the good side again at the end of Season 5. She's the only character, who is labeled a villain at one point, that is allowed true redemption.)

We learn very little about what alien communities actually think about the DEO and about Supergirl in particular. The most we get is the Children of Liberty plot line of Season 4; however, this plot line doesn't ever give us a solid viewpoint from impacted alien communities. Instead, we are confronted with:

We are told what alien communities are like and how lacking in rights they are. Very little of this is shown directly outside of "criminal aliens." Or the brief glimpses within Manchester's arc. However, Manchester is viewed as 'in need of redemption' despite having very real grievances with the state of things. The show then tells us that Manchester is 'bad' and the 'good' J'onn and friends must stop him.

The second time we see alien daily lives is Nia's return to her hometown, which is attacked by supercharged humans. This blended town of aliens and humans serve as an outlier. Nia actually admits that the town is unique and not representative to most aliens' experiences. So again, we don't see a direct experience of alien life in National City or other major cities.

Aliens either have significant powers that humans can justifiably find scary or they are human-like with little to no powers. Both are treated the same for the sake of the Children of Liberty plot line, which serves as an immigrant allegory. @fazedlight and @sideguitars did excellent analysis on this and the problems of these allegories based on the worldbuilding and story itself. (Note: thank you to fazedlight for finding the post in question! Click here o read their analysis.)

This makes it easier for the show to pretend that the DEO is "good" when the Superfriends are in charge. Since we don't meet alien families harmed by the DEO's actions, we never truly get an alternate perspective. Even Lena Luthor's critique of DEO is spat upon by the story, where her alien friends fail to truly counter her valid points. Instead, it's presented in the good/bad binary, which erases all nuance and ethical considerations.

Let's also consider the start of the Supergirl career. Kara is captured by the DEO 12 years after her initial appearance on Earth. However, prior to this moment, we had learned that Kara had nearly been taken by the government -- specifically Henshaw's control of the DEO. Jeremiah Danvers agrees to work for the government in exchange for Kara's freedom from being a government asset.

However, her saving Alex's flight puts her in the crosshairs of DEO, and eventually she is captured. Upon which she learns J'onn is in charge (not the original Henshaw), and J'onn's goals are revealed. He allows Kara to fight her first alien fights as Supergirl. Here we see that J'onn's methods have not actually changed anything about the DEO. The alien fight results in that alien being captured. Supergirl/Kara never hears what happens to the alien she fought and captured. No thought is given to the rights of that alien or if a fair trial will be given. Instead, we are told the alien is a "criminal' as if that somehow justifies the brutal treatment.

After Alex reveals she's an agent with the DEO, Kara fully trusts the agency.

So Jeremiah gave up his life to make sure Kara wasn't being used by the government, only for Kara later on working for the DEO, which is part of the government. Thus Kara ends up used by the government after all. The irony here.

Kara's blind spot here is:

she's privileged. A white-passing, human-passing alien. It's easier for her to hide as a human and not be clocked as an alien. Also, she's white, so less likely to deal with the complications of racism. The most she has to deal with is sexism and the DEO's procedures. This means she doesn't experience the worst the DEO and the systems that uphold it dish out to aliens.

Kara hasn't really interacted with aliens outside her friend group. She's relatively sheltered since coming to Earth due to Kal placing her with the Danvers and having to hide herself. She has no real knowledge of how aliens survive on Earth. This means she has nothing in which to compare the DEO's claims.

She blindly trusts Alex when it comes to DEO.

We don't see Kara questioning what happens to aliens until Season 3 (if it happens in season 1, I apologize as that season is a bit hazy for me). Here Psi saves Kara's life during a perilous mission. Kara then asks about her accommodations and finds out she has no window in her cell. She then demands Psi be given a cell with a window.

However, notice who Kara takes with her on that Season 3 mission: LiveWire (human but due to an accident became Livewire, so she's not an alien but a meta-human) and Psi (who is labeled a meta-human). So the two incarcerated people that Kara chooses are meta-humans and not actual aliens.

So again, we never see Kara interact with aliens outside her friend group unless she is interrogating them. Once the DEO is done with interrogations and the case "closed," those aliens disappear into these windowless cells. Which, need I remind that solitary confinement is labeled as torture for a reason?

Yet that is where aliens that are dubbed "too dangerous" end up by those with power. No rights given; left trapped in solitary confinement with (likely) no windows to never see the light of day again. Of course, because we are told the "good" people do this, it is thus "okay," despite it not differing in methodology with what the "bad" people did.

2. DEO's procedures don't match law. This is especially true when alien amnesty is put into law.

DEO changes NOTHING about their procedures after alien amnesty is put into law. This means that although aliens now have a legal right to a trial, the DEO does not provide this for them. No captured alien is given this right.

This means the DEO doesn't operate within the law.

So if the DEO can disregard laws if they so desire, then what is to stop them from terrorizing any citizen regardless of whether that citizen or alien or human?

What exactly is the ethics of the DEO?

Is the ethics dependent on who is in charge? But if one compares the tenure of the directors: Henshaw, J'onn, Lucy, Alex, Lauren, and Lex -- we see no difference in how the DEO acts.

They all target aliens and give them no rights. The aliens vanish into the cells never to be seen again. This includes some meta-aliens.

Some will claim that while the Superfriends are in charge only criminal aliens are thrown into solitary cells with no hope of release.

But that begs the question: Why do the Superfriends get to be judge and jury and/or executioner? What makes their decisions good but Lauren Haley's or Lex's or the original Hank Henshaw's decisions bad?

Why do the Superfriends get to decide that criminals get no right to a fair trial? Why do they not interrogate what is causing the criminal behaviors in order to change the conditions to avoid aliens resorting to "criminality" as defined by them?

In the end, it does not matter why an alien or meta-human engages in what the state has deemed "criminal" behavior; the methods used in capture and the end result is the same regardless.

The families of captured aliens see the same results regardless of whether "good" people or "bad" people are in charge of the DEO.

While alien amnesty is in law, the DEO, who is under Superfriend control at the time, does not alter their procedures to give the aliens they capture any rights. We never see the aliens or meta-humans captured ever given a fair trial. Nor do we see any programs to reform "criminals" or give them any chance at parole or redemption.

The only method for dealing with aliens and meta-humans uses a carceral prison system that is based in solitary confinement torture. Even the interrogation procedures used have elements of torture to them. In fact, many of the "interrogation" procedures use leading questions to entrap and force a confession under duress. None of these methods are conducive toward reform or fixing a system that deprives those captured of all rights.

Alternate systems for dealing with criminals are never explored. We never see transformative or restorative justice utilized. Both systems would require extensive dialogue with the communities harmed by the "criminals," and if there is one thing the DEO fail at consistently is dialogue with the impacted communities. Instead, their approach is top down, where their ideas of what is right and best is pushed down upon the communities they claim to serve.

Part of this lies with the fact the Superfriends can't engage in dialogue as long as they adhere to the oppressive methodology and practices of the DEO. Reform has failed to alter the ethical violations within the DEO. Alex Vidale wrote an excellent book called The End of Policing, which digs into the attempted reforms for police and how they have consistently failed. Vidale writes:

“At root, they [reformers] fail to appreciate that the basic nature of the law and the police, since its earliest origins, is to be a tool for managing inequality and maintaining the status quo. Police reforms that fail to directly address this reality are doomed to reproduce it.”

The DEO at its root was created to manage the inequality inherent between human rights and the lack of any rights for aliens. It was also created to control aliens and maintain a human status quo. The Superfriends attempt at reform fails to address this reality, and thus were doomed to repeat it.

Vidale continues:

“Police argue that residents in high-crime communities often demand police action. What is left out is that these communities also ask for better schools, parks, libraries, and jobs, but these services are rarely provided.”

Services to better the conditions of so-called "high-crime" communities are not shown to be rendered in the Supergirl world, while the Superfriends are in control of the DEO. It is not more policing that is needed, but more services which do not get provided for most of the show's story and worldbuilding. Thus, the communities that struggle with survival, who often must resort to "illegal" or "criminal" ways end up with only punitive measures that continue the cycle.

It's only in Season 6 when the Superfriends are no longer with the DEO that we start to see them engage in dialogue with the community in general (Kelly's arcs in particular touch on this for the lower income area that she tries to help, which is shown to be a mixture of nonwhite humans and some aliens).

If J'onn and others truly are seeking to reform the DEO, then that requires them to be in dialogue with the affected communities and to put forth new procedures that provide rights to those impacted. This is never done.

3. The DEO suffers no consequences for its actions.

The "Bad things" that happen under the "Bad" directors -- original Henshaw, Lauren Haley, Lex -- aren't ever addressed. Nothing really changes; instead the "Good" guys get back in control and things continue.

Was any reparations made for those harmed by the bad actors? Are the families impacted ever given compensation? We see some aliens rescued from Cadmus in Season 2 and Lex's Power Plant in Season 4, but what of the families of those murdered by Lex and Henshaw? The show fails to address this.

Instead, we are told that the "good" people are now in charge again and only "criminals" are being taken and incarcerated with no rights.

The concept of "criminality" depends entirely on who is in a position of power to dictate what constitutes "criminal" acts. One of the biggest problems with "criminality" as a concept is that it fails to interrogate the why these behaviors happen. What led to the "criminal act?" Are the people engaging in the act just "bad" people?

Often when basic needs are not being met, people may engage in acts of desperation to meet those needs. These actions may fall under what that society deems as "criminal." However, if the people's needs were met, then they wouldn't need to engage in desperate acts to meet their needs.

Another reason for "criminal" behavior stems from people who lack rights in a society. The oppressed will often fight against their oppressors using a mixture of methods (sometimes nonviolent, sometimes violent) in order to win their rights and transform society for the better. Until they win that fight, their actions are labeled as "criminal" by those in power.

Some rarer individuals may engage in acts of harm because they enjoy it such as Lex. However, this is actually very rare. Property crime and burglary is far, far more common. Yet, even those engaging in horrific violent crimes are still afforded a fair trial. Something aliens in the Supergirl universe are never given.

There's quite a few scenes where the aliens fought by Supergirl are engaging in robberies/burglaries or other property crimes. Those that seek to violently mass murder is actually rarer, and often the big villain of the season. At no point does anyone in the show reckon with the reasons someone may choose to engage in "criminal" behavior. Instead, all "criminals" are painted as "bad" regardless.

J'onn professes to be "reforming" the DEO to stop its reign of terror among alien communities. Yet, the most crucial components in changing an oppressive system? We don't really see him utilize them until Season 4, but by then the DEO is in the hands of Alex, who continues the procedures put into place by J'onn,

Paulo Freire writes in Pedagogy of the Oppressed concerning the "radical" as in the person seeking to end an oppressive system:

"The radical, committed to [human] liberation, does not become the prisoner of a 'circle of certainty' within which reality is also imprisoned. On the contrary, the more radical the person is, the more fully he or she enters into reality so that, knowing it better, he or she can transform it. This individual is not afraid to confront, to listen, to see the world unveiled. This person is not afraid to meet the people or to enter into a dialogue with them."

J'onn recognizes that the DEO's methods are wrong and unethical. When he takes over and poses as Henshaw, he wishes to transform the system. Except, this is where he fails, because he justifies his changes by claiming that now the DEO only locks away forever criminal aliens.

No thought is given as to why these aliens are making these decisions. What pushed them to rob a store? What pushed them to attack? Did they feel like they had no other choice? Was there no opportunities other than to rob for what they needed? Or to fight against a system that they deem is harming them and their communities?

These questions are not analyzed at all by J'onn or the Superfriends. They do not listen to those most impacted by the DEO. The only time we see J'onn seem to listen is when he is trying to work with Manchester in Season 4, but that results in Manchester being presented as bad in the end, while J'onn is shown to be good. Where he tried to redeem Manchester.

Yet Manchester had valid points about the treatment of aliens. His methodology in fighting back against what he saw as oppressive system is problematic, but he listens far more than Kara and the Superfriends to those being harmed by the systems that created the DEO.

So J'onn and the other Superfriends are failing to engage in dialogue with those harmed by the DEO. They fail to unveil what is truly horrifying with the DEO: incarcerating aliens in solitary confinement with no fair trial and no hope of ever seeing the light of day again.

The justification that because they are "criminals" this is somehow okay erases all the contributing factors that may make up the circumstances that lead to the "criminal" behavior. Nothing is truly done to remedy the situations that may drive someone to what the state labels as "criminal" behavior. It also unveils a horrible truth. Any alien (or meta-human or even human) can be marked an "enemy of the state" and thus a "criminal," where all rights they had prior be rescinded. We see this happen to Supergirl in Season 4. The only reason she isn't locked away in a cell with no windows is because Alex and Lena don't allow it. Unlike most aliens the DEO fights to find and capture, Kara has people fighting for her. But what about every other alien? Who is actually fighting for them?

J'onn's attempt to reform the DEO falls into the biggest trap for all radical liberators: it is all too easy to become complicit with the system at be and justify this than it is to actually change it from within.

As Paulo Freire puts so succinctly:

“Oppression is domesticating. The gravest obstacle to the achievement of liberation is that oppressive reality absorbs those within it, and thereby acts to submerge human beings' consciousness.”

Thus the DEO fails to be reformed. It's reign of terror in alien communities is not truly diminished. Nor does those fighting to "reform" the DEO engage in any dialogue with those communities to determine their needs or ways to improve conditions to decrease the need to resort to "criminal" activities.

In the end, the DEO stays an oppressive, clandestine agency that has no transparency, answers to apparently no one, takes away the rights of those they catch, and disregards laws as they please.

What the Superfriends have failed to learn and understand is that oppression cannot be defeated by reforming the system that causes the oppression. In other words, liberation cannot be achieved be reform alone.

This is why the destruction of the DEO in Season 6 is perhaps the best result at least within the rules of the Supergirl world. The Superfriends could not reform it from the inside, and by trying to do so, they ended up complicit to a harmful system. As long as they were tied to the DEO, the Superfriends would never be able to live out justice and uplift the rights of aliens and humans alike.

ADDENDUM: However, the Superfriends decision to go full vigilante is a whole other can of worms. They do attempt to be transparent in their actions for the communities they serve, but is there a way for people to hold them accountable? That isn't fully addressed. However, that would require a full essay, and this essay is only about the DEO.

[gnomewithalaptop]

do you have an all-time favourite fic (or multiple)?

Oh hey lbb! Hope you're feeling a bit better! But YEAH man it's hard to pick a favorite, but I'm always happy to scroll through my bookmarks for recs (I will, however, limit myself to three for propriety's sake)

Okay, so, first things first: this one won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I'm lowkey obsessed with something just broke by BeatriceEagle. It's definitely not a lighthearted read, and I'm putting an obligatory trigger warning for discussions of sexual assault, but I love the epistolary format the author used, and the no-kid-gloves examination of how abuse gets reinforced + propagated within tight-knit communities is honestly really well done. Lots of tough questions in this one, and not a lot of easy answers

Next up is I wanna save that light by suzukiblu. BRO. Cannot recommend this fic enough. It's basically a look at what would've happened if Kara arrived on time, with some really interesting worldbuilding on Kryptonian cultural and language differences. I actually can't get enough of it

Finally, I really vibed with In This or Any Other Universe by wildsofmarch -- it's basically a mainline DC comics/Battinson dimensional smashup, where Comics!Dick-as-Batman ends up in the Battinson universe. Excellent prose style, wonderful dynamic between Dick and Bruce -- it's just glorious

[blorb-el]

Psssst does the au superbat fic exist bc I waaaaaaaaant it

I want it too 😭 tragically it only exists in about........4.5k scattered scenes which I try to poke at in between working on my main project rn!

misc worldbuilding scraps that are currently rotating on the back burner:

(omegaverse) human instinct relies on scent > hearing > taste > sight to find compatible partners, kryptonian instincts lean on sight > hearing > scent > taste, hence the mating markings

omegaverse humans have a much higher degree of face blindness than we normal humans do lmao

helps clark pass, the more he pulls his scent back the more it fades away, clark kent smells so dull/insignificant/mild that it seems like he's got a medical condition (hypomyrodia). jonathan kent had this. when jonathan and martha found bby kal, he was scared and tried to match scents to the two humans who found him, which caused his kryptonian scent to quickly fade. a hypomyrodic pup would probably face high abandonment rates and low adoption rates, so it was probably a relief that two willing parents brought the pup in

kryptonians all pretty much exist along a relatively smooth spectrum of sexual characteristics and can transition somewhat like clownfish if there's a hormonal imbalance in their community. having zero (0) other kryptonians around does things to clark before he grows the fortress and is able to synthesize hormone stabilizers

humans meanwhile have ten major sexes because betas can be true beta, alpha-leaning, or omega-leaning depending on their recessive genes

poison ivy is x100 more horrifying in any omegaverse world. she only manages to zop clark though bc the pollen is enchanted. however it's enchanted to induce primal alpha hindbrain, which means something very different to lone kryptonians than packbonded humans

it would have been the norm on krypton to have one's facial markings out. kryptonians would pull them back if they were sick, or perhaps terrified... primal hindbrain clark looking around and seeing nothing but non-glowing faces, and it coming across as everyone around him fucking terrified of him

for the first few months of their acquaintance clark is like. im not sure what gender batman is and at this point i'm not sure its ok to ask (he can smell past the concealing patches to bruce's strong omega scent but the patches could also be doubling as, like, the equivalent of binders, could be that batman's gender is null, but he mixes in diluted alpha cologne, but that could just be for concealment/intimidation....???)

sun-powered kryptonians have a strong, distinctively alien but somewhat alpha-smelling scent (when they're not pulling it back) but barely leave any on people they try to scent with, and scents barely stick to them. when clark politely explains this to bb dickie hes just like well i guess ill just have to scent you for longer! and clark goes 🥺

at this early point in the timeline barry is the only known omega superhero so the tabloids are huge into superflash

anyway all that's just kind of fluff/details... the core theme i've been rotating around is overcoming real and genuine barriers to intimacy. the loneliness of knowing you're a square peg in a world of round holes, the necessary compromises of sanding away your corners, the joy of meeting someone who will stretch to meet you where you are. there's a fair few excellent fics of bruce uncomfortable in an omega's role and body, i want to come at it from a perspective where a xenomegaverse clark has to define what gender means to him, in the heightened roles of the omegaverse. we are looking also at layers of passing. when parts of your closet become your armor that protects but encumbers you, and other parts become your exoskeleton, which grow into who you are. we are looking at that comic about the orchid that has the pattern on it meant to appeal to an extinct species of bee. we are looking at compromise made of love and compromise made of fear. and we are looking at tentacles baby.................

[artbyblastweave]

Currently on episode 3 (2?) of MAWS. A few notes: One interesting thing about S:TAS is that you got an excellent sense of what the post-Superman status-quo was displacing. The first episode after the pilot involved Bruno Manheim, a conventional mob boss, running afoul of the Toyman, one of the first of the new crop of supercriminals, in a way that reminds me of The Long Halloween. Whenever Bruno Manheim shows up for the rest of the series, it's in the context of his struggle to remain relevant until he's killed while trying to be a cats paw for Darkseid. In the S:TAS pilot, Lex Luthor's big plan was an under-the-table attempt to evade an arms embargo and sell the combat robots to a post-soviet state; a very ripped-from-the-headlines plot for the 1990s, interrupted only by the abrupt injection of an out-of-context problem in the form of a Superhero. The show had a lot of nods like that, to the way in which Superman and company were beginning to upend a world that was, in terms of its economy and geopolitics, at least a little like our own. Justice League took it further- demonstrating that Superman has a positive impact on nuclear disarmament policy, but then further demonstrating the government's antsiness about the overall shift in the balance of power towards the Justice League, with their secret killsat and so on. However. The series was aware of how the world was changing, but didn't advance a precise mechanism for why all the disparate weirdness happened to kick off all at once, in time for Superman to encounter and fight it. Because that was pure Doylism- Now that Superman exists, wacky stuff needs to start happening so he can have something to fight each week. MAWS patches this from a watsonian perspective- there's a common (Kryptonian) origin of most of the supervillians Superman is going up against. However, there's a level on which this has made (all two episodes) feel siloed away from the world at large, in a way that the first two (four?) episodes of S:TAS didn't. Intergang goes from an established Mafia-style crime syndicate desperately using alien tech to remain competitive in a post-Superman world, to three comically-incompetent crooks who could barely knock over a convenience store. The robots go from a human technology built for war profiteering reasons to (implicitly) salvaged Braniac-tech. The arms-dealing plot is still present but it's a bit less clear on the face of it who's bankrolling this and who was supposed to be buying it. Cadmus is the strongest tie that this show has to the sense of realpolitik or the balance of power or whatever it is you want to call it, which was threaded through the older shows at a pretty deep level.

There's a level on which I'm being extremely unfair, because I'm comparing 60 mins of worldbuilding to a continuity that ran 15 years and probably close to a hundred hours- this could plausibly go anywhere. Indeed. One aesthetic criticism I had of the show, which I'm walking back before having even made a post about it, is that with the kryptonian tech meta-origin, I thought they were getting dangerously close to doing the MCU thing of villains who show up in costumes-that-are-barely-costumes, street-clothes or military-wear augmented by a few gadgets, with some aesthetic signifiers referring to the more costume-like costumes they had in the comics. Then I did a quick scan of S:TAS and noticed that very few villains in that are actually wearing costume-costumes- instead, it's altered physiologies, experimental bodysuits that look like skintight spandex in the abstracted artstyle of S:TAS, or clothing that's just the style in the alien society that they're from. Villains who are clearly wearing considered costumes are much more prominent in Justice League- set years after S:TAS, when the precedent for costumed villainy has had time to solidify. This last paragraph was what this post was originally going to be about, incidentally.

[nitewrighter]

So like... I'm reading Superman: The Man of Steel Issue #62 and initially I was kind of shrugging the Hamilton+Krypton parallel off because at first it just seemed like, "Oh, you're just juxtaposing Jor-El's dread at the impending loss of Krypton against Superman fighting against the impending total-death-of-earth-because-our-Sun-Got-Eaten." You have Superman's loss of power without sunlight juxtaposed with Jor-El's scientific mastery being ultimately helpless in the face of this existential threat. But then midway through it pancake flips the despair of the whole thing because Superman has what Jor-El doesn't--not heat vision or super strength because he's a yellow star-irradiated mutant of his species--but rather a planet that trusts him and is willing to work with him to save themselves. And like, this isn't even played in such a way as 'ough it's Krypton's fault this happened to them' but rather it's a thesis of "Interpersonal connection is our ultimate salvation, and it is so easy to lose that. Even if you're the smartest, most powerful people in the world. Especially if you're the smartest, most powerful people in the world."

You'll remember that "Kryptonians aren't even mammals" commenter i was talking about like... a week back. Like, they pretty much were operating from this position of, "If you posit any headcanons on Krypton that it was flawed or that there were cultural factors contributing to the totality of its destruction, then you're undermining Superman's immigrant narrative because you're making him quote unquote 'One of the good ones.'" But like...this is also where the line of speculative fiction vs societal narrative gets blurred. Speculative fiction is supposed to take certain worldbuilding elements to various extremes to illustrate how those elements operate within our society--and like, the crazy thing about Krypton is, that though there's a lot of aspects of it that were meant to be portrayed as extremes in the silver, bronze, and modern comic book ages, I feel like we have more in common with this fictional planet than ever. Like, is it really less relatable when you talk about it as a cold and alienating society when we're literally dealing with that right now?

[halfagone]

if you're answering questions about WIPs I read the summary for your *escape* one and holyshit that sounds good. "The ghost zone haunts Danny right back" is such a baller concept. It's listed as Horror and I'm not much for that genre but I'm hella intrigued and I'd love to hear more. (Especially like. How do the aliens know about halfas?)

Fun fact about this story, the title is originally meant to be escape with the last e flipped upside down but it looked funky on the Tumblr post, so it's only that way for my WIP doc XD

I'll admit I'm not super into horror either, but if you've read one of my current WIPs called bones and all, it's a little similar in that regards that it has horror elements and for escape I'm definitely trying for the soft horror. But it's mainly a psychological thriller on Danny's side of things.

There is a lot of worldbuilding to this fic, which is part of the reason why it remains as an unreleased WIP and I haven't uploaded the first chapter yet. But something that I strongly headcanon, and I try to make a point of when I can, is that humans are not the only ghosts that exist. You'll know this, you were very passionate in replying to my newest one-shot Lament for the Soul. But humans are not the only ghosts, and that's why I try to stray away from calling Danny's civilian form "human" because even as a ghost he's still human he's just dead- but enough about that.

For dpxdc crossover fics, we tend to include headcanons/fanon that there are natural portals that appear on Earth. This headcanon, coupled with the idea that there have been previous, natural halfas in the world, led me to thinking that there could have been other halfas that were not human. So there could have been Kryptonian halfas or Martian halfas, as just a few examples. Obviously their stories have either been lost to time, they were never known to have existed, or they were mistaken as something else. (Which would be understandable, in the case of Martians since ghosts have a very similar skill set, but I digress.)

This then led me into thinking that, hey, if other halfas existed, then it's entirely possible that other worlds and species could have known about them and made it a cultural phenomenon or gave it religious significance.

In the case of escape, the alien species mentioned in this summary has a very deep connection to their deceased ancestors. The biological ecosystem of their planet is closely tied to the Infinite Realms, so when the planet starts failing, and crops don't grow, and the weather turns turbulent, they begin to suspect that something is wrong in the Infinite Realms. They hold seances to their ancestors and ask them for advice on what needs to be done, and their ancestors tell them of the only living halfa (aka Danny) who could help them. They say he comes from a planet called Earth, and thus, the aliens go there looking for his help.

The "Ghost Zone haunts Danny right back" is essentially Danny dealing with the problems within the Infinite Realms that has been affecting this alien species. Although, of course, he has no idea that these two things are connected. This AU specifically also does lean into my beloved medium!Danny headcanons, so Danny has vision/nightmares and other things I'll save for later.

This story has a lot of worldbuilding, like I said. So... Hopefully it will eventually see the light of day. XD

[suzukiblu]

Haha! I’ve really been enjoying ‘We are so please with this Match’ - Kara’s perspective really is brilliant for this whole Situation. Also in the back of my head I’m thinking about your Kryptonian worldbuilding for the sorrowverse and wondering if Kara’s pov is maybe just a little bit skewed by the House of El already being Really Goddamn Weird by Kryptonian Standards. Probably not, since you have a lot of different and equally good ideas in your head, but I’m always cackling just a little whenever I read anything of yours about Krypton and think about sorrowverse Jor-El for more than 30 seconds.

Thanks for sharing!!

Thank you, I've been having a lot of fun writing it! ❤️ I wanted to focus on a beta perspective for a heat/rut fic for once, and ideally work out some more biological/social role stuff to use for betas in general in the process. I've been trying to use them more and get more into them as a gender of interest for omegaverse, I've just never quiiiiite gotten as deep into them as I wanted to.

I'm not sure what you're referencing with "sorrowverse" so you might have the wrong person for that, but also I genuinely can't definitively say I DON'T have a WIP that I've called that at this point, hahaha. 😅 I have, uh, too many WIPs. That's it. That's all. That's the issue. Hahahaha self why. Why are we like this.

( it's the ADHD. it's very much the ADHD. )

[beatrice-otter]

Sedoretu Exchange recs

I have finally, over a month after the collection was revealed, had both the time AND the brain space to read through the entire collection. If it weren't sedoretuex, I would probably have given up, but there aren't that many sedoretu fic out there so I wanted to savor what was just written.

First, I received an amazing DS9 fic by violet_pencil that does SUCH interesting worldbuilding.

Bread and Roses (19535 words) by violet_pencil Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Kira Nerys/Miles O'Brien, Keiko O'Brien & Miles O'Brien, Bareil Antos & Kira Nerys, Bareil Antos/Keiko O'Brien, Bareil Antos/Kira Nerys/Keiko O'Brien/Miles O'Brien, Kira Nerys/Keiko O'Brien/Miles O'Brien Additional Tags: Episode: s01e01-02 Emissary, Bajoran Culture (Star Trek), Canon Rewrite, Episode: s01e13 Battle Lines (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Episode: s01e20 In the Hands of the Prophets, Culture Shock, POV Kira Nerys, Season/Series 01, Kira Nerys has PTSD, Alien Cultural Differences, Worldbuilding, Marriage, Alternate Universe - Sedoretu Marriage Series: Part 2 of violet's star trek fusions & crossovers Summary:

"Marriage is the greatest adventure of them all. It's filled with pitfalls and setbacks and mistakes, but it's a journey worth taking." — Miles O'Brien, "Armageddon Game"

Hearts starve as well as bodies: Give us Bread, but give us Roses. — James Oppenheim, "Bread and Roses"

Other fics I loved:

Any Four Walls (11952 words) by tielan Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Steve Rogers, Maria Hill/Steve Rogers, Maria Hill/Pepper Potts, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Maria Hill & Tony Stark, Maria Hill/Pepper Potts/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark Additional Tags: Sedoretu, Developing Relationship, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-ish Summary:

“I thought we should probably have a discussion,” Tony says blithely. “About futures and pasts and all that.” As always, tielan does an amazing job of handling the characters with insight and grace.  

A Kryptonian Marriage (2493 words) by Chromatographic Fandom: DCU (Comics) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Clark Kent/Selina Kyle/Lois Lane/Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent/Lois Lane Characters: Lois Lane, Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle Additional Tags: Sedoretu, Pre-Relationship, but it's gonna happen, Lois Lane-centric, on screen Clark/Lois, Kryptonian World Building, For funsies, Krypton had moieties, and sedoretus, but Earth does not, Timeline What Timeline Summary:

Lois loves Clark - all of Clark, and she'll show it to him in every way that she can.

Or: Earth doesn't have moieties, and sedoretus - but Krypton did.

Interesting worldbuilding, and I love Lois' care for Clark and his culture

Four, for Four Decades (9624 words) by blueyeti Fandom: James Bond (Craig Movies), The Old Guard (Movie 2020) Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: James Bond/M | Olivia Mansfield, Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Booker | Sebastien le Livre, Andy | Andromache of Scythia/James Bond/Booker | Sebastien le Livre/M | Olivia Mansfield Characters: M | Olivia Mansfield, James Bond, Andy | Andromache of Scythia, Booker | Sebastien le Livre Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-Typical Behavior, Sedoretu, Sedoretu politics, Historical, Immortality, Immortal James Bond, Worldbuilding Series: Part 1 of Bond & The Old Guard Sedoretu Summary:

In November, 1950, James Bond died on M's orders. He came back.

Great explanation for why James Bond has kept going on for so long ...