#what ifs and other alternate dimensions
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Note
Hi hi! Wow I was seeing your posts about the end of KMKY and the future Spin-Off and it makes me very happy, I really admire you for the wisdom of giving a "bad" ending to our KMKY!Billford. (Even though I created an entire AU just out of frustration that in KMKY they didn't have the special adventures together (cough cough)
Anyway! kMKY changed my brain chemistry and my view of them just like you wanted, and damn, I accepted the idea that: they are soulmates, they love each other more than anything, but they are not meant to be together It's their own fault.
Now the question! If this is at least one, about the Spin-offs, I didn't quite understand, will they be additions or "What if's"?
Anyway! Thank you for the chapter today, it was just the day I needed to take out my frustration on something because I had BROKEN MY GLASSES IN HALF, a tragedy.
Hi lovely! 🤗
The spin offs are at this point exploring what ifs, because the timeline of knowing me knowing you has a set direction.
The idea behind the spin off is for example "I know that Bill disappeared after Ford lashed out at him at the bibliosphere, but what would happen if rather than just burning up up and away, he grabbed Stanford and brought him back to the nightmare realm?" And then that storyline would play out.
Or "what would happen if rather than just leaving the Institute of Oddology Stanford stayed for longer and realised Alternate Bill was being used as a battery?" Or "what if after Lottocron 9 Stanford was willing to spend more time with Pyronica, would he go back with her to learn more about Bill at that point?" Or "what if Stanford managed to get through to Bill in his mindscape when the Pirahn Pirates attacked the Scrap Vandals, would Bill rescue him then and what would happen after?"
I want to pick points in the storyline where they don't suddenly depart from their existing characterisation, but instead the circumstances change very slightly to allow new events to play out.
I figure given the number of alternate dimensions out there in the multiverse, exploring things outside the doomed timeline of the fic might be fun, and will give ppl more kmky goodness without changing the directory of the story excessively.
I also really like the idea of, after all the high conflict dramatic what ifs play out, the last what if chapter is softer and back when things were good between them, and it's the what if of what if they could admit their feelings for each other sooner. That would be a what if I think would both break and heal the readers in fun ways.
Something to look forward to!
#i hope your glasses are easy to mend or replace bud#and im glad youre enjoying the fic so much#thank you for recommending it to your friends im delighted by that#knowing me knowing you#hope this has helped make sense of the spin off#it is not my priority as churning out chapters of the fic itself is my main focus#but im chipping away at the what ifs in the background#and having lots of fun with it
33 notes
·
View notes
Note
OKAY HI I'VE BEEN SHAMELESSLY SEARCHING THROUGH YOUR ACCOUNT DIGGING FOR ANSWERS I COULDNT FIND ANYWHERE ELSE (Ik I'm late asf but I hope you still answer questions related to wmmap seriously I'm desperate lmao) So I've read the entire novel and there wasn't any mention of their marriage (Lucas and Athy) 😭 IK THERE IS A BRIEF MENTION ABOUT "SOME" MARRIAGE In BOTB but all the translations I've read haven't specified who she decided marry at the end when she turned 26 💀 how is everyone so sure it was Lucas and did they decide whose gonna rule the empire in the end? I think from Hari's pov, it was yet to get decided later on, and a prince consort was chosen again, I wanted to clarify if it was really Lucas and I don't think there was any mention of her having kids except for in that one parallel dimension.
I mean, WMMAP and BOTB explicitly take place in the same world (they aren't parallel universes, there are no "what-ifs" or anything similar), Athy even meets Cabel and Hari (indirectly). Indeed, the marriage mention is in BOTB, not WMMAP, but it's pretty obvious the groom is Lucas, even if he isn't mentioned by name. Athy also isn't mentioned by name, Hari just says it's the wedding of "Obelia's princess". Considering the novel ends with Athy kissing Lucas, and that they keep dating during the side-stories, it would be very strange that she didn't marry him. As you say, LP! Lucas even sees their future daughter (granted, that could be a different world, but even so, he says that Athy is always with Lucas in all the worlds he visited except one).
I guess it's technically possible that the groom isn't Lucas, but considering that Athy was dating him and that she explicitly rejected Ijekiel, it's incredibly unlikely. What would be the other alternative, Athy marrying a random guy?
Regarding how they decided to rule the empire, there's no direct answer to that question, but Claude said that Athy would be the next empress and she knew that the day would come when she had to rule Obelia. BOTB's novel says that the prince consort (actually, there's no mention of the term "prince consort" as far as I remember, but I'll use it since that would be the title used for Athy's husband/husband-to-be) married into the royal family, not the other way around (naturally, since Athy is the powerful one of the two from a political standpoint), and that's about it. It isn't that the prince consort was going to be decided "later on" after the wedding, that's not how it works, Lucas (or whoever the mysterious guy is, but he is totally Lucas) most likely got that title after the wedding. I think it's safe to assume they rule together but Athy is the one with the most power and doing the most work (I can't see Lucas being very interested in ruling lol). This is the most logical explanation of post-canon's events, but the reference to Athy's wedding/future is pretty brief. Take a look at @lithi's translation.
#i remember a person on twt coping SO hard about Athy not choosing Lucas#(this is not @ you anon)#if people dont like lucathy thats cool /gen. as long as they aren't weird about it#but c'mon. you gotta be in denial to say that#we were never gonna get Lucas and Athy declaring their undying love for one another as they look into each other's eyes#wmmap is not that kind of story. but it is a VERY unsubtle story#Lucas and Athy kiss. Say that they are dating. Hug. Are affectionate with one another. Reject other love interests. Talk about marriage#their relationship isn't ambiguous at all#If it looks like a duck. swims like a duck and quacks like a duck. then...#wmmap#wmmap novel
38 notes
·
View notes
Text
[That Which Protects The Falling Rain] Pt.1
[A Sort of Synopsis, if you will]: Okay so the other day I was just faffing about and watching some videos discussing some of the Bleach Brave Soul character design choices as you do and then I got to thinking about how there were so few decently good fics featuring our good man Ishida and then that somehow led into wondering why there weren’t hardly any detailing the situations of how one would even come about to wear those alternate costumes in the first place and then that somehow devolved into contemplating time/dimension travel and fusion (as in literal fusion –not crossovers- although those are nice too…) fics and what-ifs involving rather creative semi-roll swaps and we all know that canon is basically just a suggestion at this point so anyway-
Here’s my-
“Through An Exceedingly Convoluted Series Of Events Spanning The Course Of About Roughly Two Weeks Uryū Ishida Gets Yeeted To An Alternate Timeline/Dimension Thing With An Imprint Of Ichigo Camping In His Soul As A Sort-Of Bastardized Zanpakutō And Now He Must Wage In Shadow Espionage Bullshit Because At This Point Aizen Is Still A Problem And Tipping Off The Quincy While Everyone’s Even Weaker Than The Timeline They Left Would Be Bad. (Also Having Two Instances Of The Almighty + Antithesis In The Same General Vicinity Is Apparently Bad For The Continued Existence Of Reality) And Somehow Not Potentially Fuck Everything Else Up Even Worse Than Last Time As Well As Try Not To Have A Complete Nervous Breakdown In The Mean Time.”
-AU…
But that’s kind of a mouthful so imma just call it [That Which Protects The Falling Rain] AU
So yeah…
As you can obviously tell from the prior blurb this is more or less canon divergent starting from the point that Ichigo got his powers back after the timeskip (which –in my completely honest opinion- was a bullshit arc anyway for a number of reasons that I refuse to go into at the moment) with the main kicker of it all being the things that happened with the whole Quincy ordeal went significantly worse off than in canon and basically a bad time was had by everyone.
[Unwind the World and Your Nightmare’s Gone]
Turns out that if you have a crumbling pillar that props up what is an already heavily destabilized world murked on top of everything else tends to accelerate the wholesale destruction of everything in existence. The first of this was quickly realized when Hueco Mundo, the Wandenreich, and the Soul Society all crashed and began to bleed into one another. This mockery of a union only served to further tip the scales to such an extreme that Hell itself –which at this point was still puttering along as the sole remaining pillar of reality- began to develop cracks in the framework before eventually just giving way entirely. And thus things started to bleed indiscriminately into the World of the Living.
Which, I don’t need to tell you, was bad news bears.
In the chaos and calamity people were dying in droves and –because the reincarnation cycle was wholly and utterly fucked- they were staying dead. The very few individuals that had been smart enough to dip when the water hit the wall or were (un)fortunate enough to dodge the first fires of the literal apocalypse managed to bunker down, sustaining themselves on the heavily overly-saturated reishi of the atmosphere as they waited for the inevitable end tailmarked on the hands of the three souls that still carried on. These three –the False King tainted with the spark of divinity, his Heir who sought to put an end to his reign, and the Hybrid who felled God Himself- who fought on even though everything and everyone they had once stood for having fallen ages before them; their hands grasping for that last pyrrhic victory because what else is there at this point?
But –much like the moon for which his blades were named- even the powers of god-slayers must wane and on the field of battle enemies will use any fault to their advantage. And so, with a decisive slice of the blade, the False King went Off With His Head and the prodigal son made his way back home like the rest of his children. But it was here that Yhwach, made a Mistake™.
For all that Ichigo Kurosaki was a hybrid of both Quincy and Soul Reaper, he was also part Hollow as well.
And Hollows are poisonous to Quincy.
But the imprudent ruler was past caring at this point -was confident he could weather the poisoning of his soul- that he just had to stop for a moment to allow the restless stubborn child to settle down and from there he could then adapt and adjust. But to do such a thing on a battlefield where there was still one other active combatant left (no matter how you have dismissed the other boy as being a non-threat at this point) was pure hubris in of itself.
Enter: Uryū Ishida.
Armed with a silver arrow crafted from the bodies of his kinsmen that he lifted from the corpse of his estranged father and the sheer and utter spite of someone who has seen every single last one of their friends and family be killed and subsequently has no more fucks to give decides in his exhausted state to pull an Ichigo and lets the fly.
It hits.
At long last, the Old King was dead.
But it wasn’t enough.
Because the being named Yhwach was a great number of things, however, unprepared was not one of them. Being able to see possibility after possibility was indeed a great boon when it came time to sketch out an action plan for such eventualities. Case in point, when faced with the surefire destruction of your own physical and spiritual being it is perhaps okay to latch on to and borrow another. And what better source than your treasonous Heir not a stone’s throw from where you currently were?
Long live the king.
Or so you thought bitch.
Turns out neither did the Quincy child nor the rebellious echo of the hybrid boy much care for his attempt at bodyjacking. So unanimously they decided to say –fuck that- and pull off their own sort of deus ex machina using Uryū’s Shrift in conjunction with Ichigo’s kind of admittedly bullshit hybridity powers to throw a wrench in things and swap the Fate of not only himself the other late teen’s echo as well so that in the end it was Ywhach who would be the one subsumed.
And by some fucking miracle, it worked.
They successfully managed to topple the Quincy King from his position to allow for Uryū to then supplant himself on the vacant throne as the King as the remainder of Ichigo’s unique spiritual signature securely subsumed the rest of Yhwach’s essence and then somehow used it to stabilize the burgeoning fuckery that was now his (and apparently Ishida’s???) soul.
Long live the King (and his new and only somewhat unwilling headmate) indeed.
Just in time for reality to start falling apart.
With the weight of the final battle having finally given way to bone-deep exhaustion he –(or, rather, was it they now? Truth be told, neither boy was entirely sure what to make of their current situation and the sheer number of existential issues that simply arose from their paradoxical state of being. But then again that sort of thing wasn’t exactly a new thing when it came to his whole impossible existence now was it? Hell, he’d had so many ‘impossibles’ tossed at him that at this point the very word was starting to lose all meaning, honestly. And this current bit of what-the-fuckery was just another layer to the botched clusterfuck of a cake now wasn’t it? ‘…Good god Kurosaki do you think you could save your little existential crisis for later? Neither of us have the energy for it and I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’m pretty sure that at least one of us currently has a fucking concussion.’ No, fuck you man, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but the world’s fucking ending. This is a good as time as any, man. ‘I just want somewhere we can get a chance to rest.’)- leveraged their worn body up on unstable legs in search of an unbroken spot where they could do just that.
Sometime along the way he had noted the larger of the orange-haired hybrid’s blades among the debris and stopped to examine it. (Or rather, having sensed the echo of their wielder contained within, it had lowered itself to allow him a chance to look upon its glory. At least, that was the impression that it seemed to be giving off anyway. Yeah, like a pair of stray cats you rescued from out behind the dumpster on trash day, his Zangetsu was. But even to the end they tried to help in their own way… ‘‘Slaying Moon’ huh? What an apt name for such a blade.’ Blades. There’s two of them. Ah, that was right. But if so then where…?)
Even now, their wicked sharp edge gleamed obsidian in the light as he subconsciously let the blade rest behind in the crook of his back. Feeling the small clasp as sword seemed to latch onto his presence as if magnetic. Readjusting his glasses he glanced around and let out a soft noise when their eyes alit upon their prize.
(He did not look at the body sprawled out upon the ground as they knelt down and gently pried the shorter blade from stiff fingers. He did not look at the severed head with too blank eyes as he slid the other half of his blade carefully into the waistband of his belt.He did not look at his own corpse resting at his feet-)
He stood.
Continuing on, he trudged along aimlessly, stumbling from wreck to wreck in an attempt to avoid the ever encroaching void that slowly but surely ate at what was left of their worlds. (They decidedly ignored the shadows that lapped at their feet. The way they danced inexplicably without a clear source of light. Twisting and writhing along the rolling dark as if they were but a thousand –familiar- eyes held back behind closed lids –theirshisoursmine- as they waited there. Dreaming.)
He stumbled.
They walked on until eventually they happened upon a surprisingly stable section of what appeared the Royal Realm and what was even more astonishing was the fact that out of everyone who could’ve somehow managed to dodge the apocalypse they had the misfortune to run into Aizen of all people. And it seemed that the ex-captain was just as enthused to see them.
(Wow, yeah, no. Not surprised that you survived because you’re pretty much a damned cockroach at this point. But I am genuinely kind of surprised that you decided to stick around instead of –I don’t know- having the good sense to bail when everything started going to shit? You’d think he would. Like, scurry away to lick the wounds and that sort of shit, right? ‘Right, absolutely riveting commentary Kurosaki. Such a shame that I’m the only one who’s forced to listen to it.’ Grimace. Urgh what god did I piss off to get stuck with you assholes? ‘Probably the two we just killed.’…Ah. Right.)
“Hm, that’s certainly a pleasant expression.”
(…I wanna kick his fucking ass. ‘What? No!’ Just a single boot shoved right in his smug bondage-wrapped face. ‘No.’)
Thoroughly exasperated and just utterly done with everything and everyone at this point Uryū decided this was as good as they were going to get and sort of collapsed at the foot of the broken throne with an undignified grunt, shifting the massive knife from his back to a more comfortable spot upon his lap as to allow himself to prop their body up against a slab of rubble. The youth let out a groaning-sigh.
Aizen –having meandered over to join him- watched with a keen interest.
(The subtle shade of black bleeding into the much younger man’s sclera, the downright monstrous inferno of tainted Quincy-Reaper-Hollow reiatsu coupled with the unnatural way that the writhing shadows almost seemed to linger protectively around the bloodied child before him, and while truthfully he was rather near-sighted ((destroying his last pair of glasses in a spur of dramatic theatricality had genuinely been one of his sole regrets, especially considering later when it became wholly apparent that the hōgokyu refused to let itself be used for something as banal as correcting one’s eyesight)) he’d have to have been blinder than Kaname to miss the ease at which the other had hefted that particular blade around. Also, the singular horn was kind of conspicuous and worthy enough for him to lift a brow.)
“Your feats never cease to push the realm of possibility, why I’m honestly starting to think you don’t know the meaning of the word Kurosaki.” He watched with sharp eyes, observing how even the shadows surrounding the youth seemed to freeze. Fascinating. “Or perhaps you would prefer some other form of address more suited to the body you’re currently occupying?” A dark eye crinkled with wry amusement, “Maybe even something more befitting to that of royalty?”
(He’s not going to let this go is he? ‘Ugh, no.’ …Fuck it.)
And so the one-who-was-once-many resigned themself to a litany of awkward conversation as they waited for the world to end.
And what a back and forth it was. Some of the more notable highlights included: In depth discussions on one’s particular choice of eyewear – {“So, wait, hold on. You’re saying you actually needed those glasses and that the whole debacle with the Winter War you were essentially fighting half-blind the whole time?!”
“In the barest sense of the term, yes. Why do you seem so surprised? Did you perhaps forget that one of my compatriots was blind? It is a perfectly reasonable method to use one’s spiritual sense as a sort of complement to innate abilities during combat, as I am sure that one of your newer parts is undoubtedly already aware.”
“…Newer parts?”
“The misguided Quincy child that you once called your comrade and presumably the original owner of the patchwork monstrosity that you now call a form.”
(‘…Okay, yes, while losing your glasses during a fight does fucking suck I’m far-sighted and also mainly focused on archery so it’s not so bad but “patchwork monstrosity?” Rude, much?’)
“My, what a frightening expression.”
They flipped him off.}
–To the eventual reluctant admittance of what had occurred during their final battle versus the late Quincy King-
{it was in general agreement that the whole thing was a collective load of bullshit, however Aizen did find some note of ironic humour in the new fusion’s predicament much to said being’s annoyance.}
–To why the traitorous ex-captain was even there in the first place-
{“And where exactly would you have intended me to have gone, hm?” The man gestured broadly at the wanton destruction that surrounded them.
“Should I have squirrelled myself away like the scarce few remaining beings that tried to do so before everything fell to ruin? Don’t make me laugh. Why, I would even dare to say those poor unfortunate souls have been all but eliminated when the world pillars sang their swan song and even if they managed to survive that don’t you think the void would have consumed them much like everything else at this point?” Sōsuke leveled a dry look, letting his head fall back against the remains of a broken pillar wearily.
“So I figured this was as good as a time as any to try my hand at usurping the throne, you know, seeing as the current Soul King was indisposed.” A flicker of genuine consternation flashed across the man’s face. “But, it seems that crossing into the realm of transcendence is still not enough just so long as you’re still missing a fundamental piece of the equation.”
“Wow. So even after going through all of that you still weren’t –what- Quincy enough to take the crown? Heh, sucks to be you I guess. Wh-hey! We already have a concussion you didn’t have to throw a rock at me you ass.” With a huff, they rubbed at the new welt on their head. “Geez…”
“But seriously, I can’t believe with all that bullshit you pulled trying to get the magic death marble to make you god it couldn’t even manage it in the end.” As the hand dropped to the blade in their lap, they gave a faint scowl and then turned to face the other. “And really, what’d it even matter at this point? Figure we could use it to prop up reality –or at least what’s left of it anyway- and keep it from imploding or something?”
Aizen let out a somewhat undignified snort, “The Quincy have finally brought around your inclinations of royalty, I see. You’ve even started using the royal we. But yeah, sure, why not. Go ahead and take a stab at being the Soul King for a bit, I mean I’d say you can’t possibly be worse that what’s going on right now but somehow I think you would manage it just to spite me.”
The young being let out a snort of his own as they rolled with the bit, “No, we’d totally be an awesome Soul King. Way better than the last one and Not Unstable At All. Heck, we wouldn’t even abuse whatever the bullshit powers we had on top of everything else so we could –I don’t know- turn back time and fucking unmurder everyone. Oh! While we’re at it why don’t we try taking a crack completely unknotting that clusterfuck you guys call a politics around here. Because, honestly? Responding to every new thing that shows up on your doorstep with ‘treat it like shit’ and/or ‘try to kill it with extreme prejudice’ tends to piss people off and is probably why y’all had so many enemies.”
They nodded, sarcasm just oozing from their tone. “Yeah, all of that would be just so fun. Don’t you think?”}
Who could have foreseen that such a benignly one-off comment could have could spurred such further chaos?
(Well they probably could have. But –in their defence- they weren’t exactly firing on all cylinders at the time; what with the existential fuckery that they were still coming to terms with alongside the previously mentioned concussion that made it so when Aizen ((who had went suspiciously quiet after his little haha-funny-but-not-really joke)) proceeded to pitch the Idea™ to them it didn’t really seem to tack on as being anything worse than what the apocalypse that they were already were going through was.
But as now they found themselves trying not to squirm with a hand splayed awkwardly over the violet gem embedded in the other man’s bare chest as the other looked on with what seemed to be deep-set amusement they could not help but think to themselves: they really should’ve known better.)
(‘This is so stupid.’ There’s no way this would ever work-) Astonishingly, the gem beneath their hand began to glow.
(…Are you kidding me?)
“Huh, it seems like the hōgokyu was actually able to grant my wish after all.” The other murmured, ripping the fusion’s attention away from the entrancing glow only for them to watch as the man before them slowly began to crumble to dust before their very eyes. “Rather roundabout way of doing it though, if you ask me.” Sōsuke snorted, dark eye flicking up to meet the other’s disbelief. “Listen well Ichigo Kurosaki and Uryū Ishida, this will be the last time we meet one another as things are. Don’t squander the opportunity you’ve been given as it’s highly unlikely you will get another one.”
“…Understood.”
“Good.” The other seemed…actually kind of relieved? That was all they had time to think before his body was gone and it was their fingers clutched around the hōgokyu as it then took their wish (to fix this oh god don’t you dare drop something like this on us and then leave us aloneyou utter bastardplease I don’t want to be the last one left after everything I don’t want to be aloneand just like that there went another person that he failed to protect just like everyone elseplease I just want to fix this make it like it never happened!) and moulded it and then unwound the world from its crumbling spool, unwound them, unmade him and now he-
-Was-
F
a
l
l
i
n
g
but only for an instant before world reformed around himself and he was forcefully slammed into (his/their/whose?) body.
He blacked out.
#DS7's Log#[That Which Protects The Falling Rain]#Bleach Fanfiction#-carefully adds to the archive-#Ichigo Kurosaki#Uryu Ishida#Sosuke Aizen#In which the author continuously makes poor life choices and is even worse at knowing how to tag and work shit so this is your only warning#Wait so Tumblr can make strikethroughs but not underline stuff? Ugh that sucks.#Fuck it y'all are getting colours then I guess.#How the fuck did this turn into a story halfway through?#It was only supposed to be a meme drabble idea jfc... OTL#Also like lowkey Yhwach with those shadow eye-things deadass looks like a older and scruffier version of Pride from the FMA manga fr...
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
thinking about the jrwhat-ifs with dakota cole and chip,,,,, their dynamic is. unparalleled.
plus i like trying to figure out how it all makes sense with canon.
(spoiler warning for the what-ifs, obviously, and minor spoiler warning for both riptide and prime defenders. not much though)
now, officially, it’s just alternate versions of them or whatever. which is fine. but that’s less fun for me specifically, so i’m gonna come up with an explanation for both oneshots. (not including zeroes to heroes bc dakota was barely in that one)
heroes to zeroes
superheroes in mana! meeting some weird loser who thinks he’s the coolest! but it won’t be the last time.
from dakota’s perspective, this was just a really weird dream. (both what-ifs were dreams from his perspective, actually). he woke up afterward as if nothing had happened. but for chip, this was just straight up a thing that happened. there’s nothing about this oneshot to suggest that this isnt just. a thing that happened to him before the start of riptide.
and timeline-wise, it actually fits in quite snugly. after leaving reuben’s gang, chip was on the sea for a WHILE before meeting jay and gillion. it wasn’t said how long exactly, but the night he left the gang was said to be (i’m not directly quoting here but my memory was refreshed a couple days ago so) “a few months, or a few years ago”. which leaves a pretty solid gap between events where he was on the ocean, with no real mention of WHAT he was doing. so it makes sense that sure, he was jumping between ships as a stowaway for a while. that seems like something he’d do.
and if it was in fact a few years rather than a few months, this puts him at about the same age as the prime defenders, somewhere between 16 and 18 if i had to guess.
otherworldly summoning
i really like this one. just two buddies screwing around and going on a little quest together, fun times. but a key thing is that they REMEMBER each other. from their last run-in, even though dakota is much younger than he was when heroes to zeroes ended, which is what leads me to believe that the first was a dream for him. and in this one, it literally WAS a dream.
and as for chip, well, i think otherworldly summoning was a dream for him, too. cause he used the love potion during the oneshot but still has it in the current campaign. now it’s not entirely canon, but there’s a kind of jokey implication in riptide episode… either #64 or #65, that while passed out he was dreaming this very what-if.
boom. explained. they’re from different dimensions but they’re friends anyways because they met in their dreams twice. well, it wasn’t a dream for chip the first time, but it was the second time. and if they were to meet AGAIN, for some reason, they’d recognize each other for sure. and that’s all my reasoning for why it WASNT alternate versions of them in the what-ifs.
#jrwi#just roll what if#just roll with it#jrwi riptide#jrwi prime defenders#jrwi pd#chip jrwi#dakota cole#things i said
22 notes
·
View notes
Text
What If...? (Big Hero 6 Edition)
So the next Marvel series set to release is What If...?, a series of nine episodes that will focus on alternate events and timelines that occur within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The series, based off of the comic series of the same name, will premiere on August 11th, running straight through October 6th. The show was suppose to have ten episodes in both Season 1 and 2 (which is already being worked on), but producer Brad Winderbaum mentions in an interview that they had to push an episode back because of, you guessed it, the pandemic:
"We had to push an episode into Season 2. It was just, honestly, like everything else, that was a COVID impact," Winderbaum told Collider. "There was an episode that just wouldn't hit the completion date, but luckily we do get to see it in the second season of the show."
youtube
Judging by both the poster and the trailer, we know of a few scenarios: Peggy Carter becoming Captain America, an alternate Avengers lineup battling at New York, Black Panther as Star Lord, Marvel Zombies (of course there’s zombies), and Spider-Man as the Sorcerer Supreme. Inverse has an article breaking all of the possibilities down.
A lot of the actors who portray their characters in live action will reprise their roles for the animated series, including the late Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther/Star Lord. Star...Panther? Black Lord? That last one sounds wrong. Among those not coming back are Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, and Dave Bautista as Drax. Bautista was, according to the man himself, wasn’t even asked to come back to voice Drax. Others include Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, Tom Holland as Spider-Man, James Spader as Ultron, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Elizabeth Olson as the Scarlet Witch, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Gweneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, and various members of the Dora Milaje. They have all apparently been confirmed to be appearing in What If...? in some form or another, but voiced by different people.
It will certainly be an interesting show, but I hope you can see where I’m going with this.
The Big Hero 6 fanbase has a lot of burning questions for the show and movie, and it’s not all just unanswered ones about what happens after the show ended. I think collectively there are a few common “what-ifs” that we have in our minds about the team. I think the most obvious one involves one of the Hamada brothers, and that branches off into other what-ifs as well.
Granted, not all of these are reality-altering hypotheticals like there are in the show or comics, but they can still change the course of the movie or show in a huge way.
1.) What if...Tadashi had survived the fire?
Tadashi being a survivor of the fire that takes down the exhibition hall brings up a few interesting conundrums. Would he be scarred for life? Would he even be able to complete school?
And if Hiro still made the team, would he end up becoming Sunfire like a lot of fans theorize?
The thing is that Callaghan knows that Tadashi died in the fire. If he knew that he didn’t, would that change his motivations? Would he still be using the Microbots knowing that the person that was trying to “stop” him was still alive? Alternatively, you also have...
2.) What if...Hiro had died instead of Tadashi?
Hiro was probably about two seconds away from being fully engulfed in that giant fireball. It’s entirely plausible that he (or possibly both Hamadas) could have perished in the fire instead of his brother, which sort of leads to the same circumstances as the first question, just with different powersets. Tadashi would no longer be tied to fire-based powers but the magnetic equipment that that Hiro currently uses.
But one has to think about whether Tadashi would be in the right state of mind to be a hero long term. Seeing his kid brother perish in the accident would probably cause him to go insane, and perhaps the rest of the team would have to reel him in.
3.) What if...Baymax had killed Callaghan?
It’s worth noting that if Honey Lemon had been about three seconds later on getting the healthcare chip back into Baymax, this wouldn’t have been a “What If?” question.
And sure, the team would have saved the day, but at what cost? The permanent scarring of a fourteen-year-old? And what would have come of the major revelations after that fight concerning Project Silent Sparrow and Abigail?
Maybe they would have been the ones to build the portal to the other dimension to try to save her. That would similar to what happened in the original manga (where Tadashi actually helps with the construction of the original portal and got sucked in as a result). 4.) What if...Baymax had saved Obake in “Countdown to Catastrophe”?
Obake dismissed Baymax after his hideout started collapsing near the end of Part 2, and you could tell that Baymax was seriously considering rescuing him before leaving him in his chair amongst the rubble. Ultimately, however, he did leave him behind after Obake’s insistence.
Imagine what would have happened if he had gone against his programming and saved his life.
The relieved group hug on the beach would have been replaced with a disheveled (and probably a little damp) Obake. Hiro would have been staring hiim down in disbelief. Perhaps there would even be another fight, or at least the makings of one.
And then Obake would give himself up for arrest.
Maybe that’s where Chief Cruz could have been introduced. It would have given a good lead into the next season, and it would give Megan’s meeting with Hiro in Season 2 a little bit more meaning.
And finally, because I’m a shipper and we have to go there:
5.) What if...Karmi had never left SFIT at the end of “City of Monsters”?
We know from the boards that Bob Schooley posted that “City of Monsters” was originally going to end very differently than what actually made the final cut. It seemed that Karmi, in addition to getting a nonsensical boyfriend named “Flammarion”, was not suppose to leave SFIT in the early draft.
So what if Hiro had shown up to her lab, and instead of seeing this...
He saw this?
Or...something a little less dramatic? Maybe just her packing up stuff because she’s in the process of leaving? And Hiro had to say something in order for her to stop what she was doing? And how exactly would you achieve that? See, if that scenario happened, I think that this particular point would be where Hiro told her about being in Big Hero 6. And of course Karmi wouldn’t believe him, even though she’s now in love with him crushing on him.
Then, he takes her to the base.
And she turns back to him with an incredulous look.
And roll credits. What a cliffhanger to go into Season 3 with. I vaguely remember fanart depicting that exact scene (Hiro taking Karmi to the base), but I don’t remember who did it. I would like to give them the proper credit. Season 3 would have looked totally different if that took place. Maybe it would have been an actual season and not a bunch of mini stories. Also...perhaps Karmi would have joined the team proper.
And maybe we would have finally had a giant canonical Karmiro moment.
...Now that is a big “What if?”.
(Marvel’s What If...? premieres on Wednesday, August 11th on Disney+.)
#big hero 6#big hero 6 the series#big hero 6 season 3#hiro hamada#tadashi hamada#big hero 6 movie#karmi#karmiro#marvel's what if#obake#liv amara#countdown to catastrophe#city of monsters#baymax#yokai#professor callaghan
149 notes
·
View notes
Note
enha for the ask game 🕺🕺🕺
🕺🕺🕺🕺
first bias:
sunghoon!
current bias(es):
sunoo <33 (and also jungwon 🐈)
album/era ranking:
title track only ranking: blessed-cursed -> drunk-dazed -> given-taken -> tamed-dashed -> future perfect (pass the mic)
full album/era ranking:
DIMENSION : ANSWER (+ DILEMMA) | tamed-dashed definitely isn't my favorite enha title ever, but blessed-cursed definitely is (or its one of them anyway), and since these albums both have some of my favorite ever enha b-sides (and enha songs in general) with answer being a repackage, i figured i could just join them! attention, please and go big or go home are two of my top songs off any enha album ever, and THEN answer added polaroid love, my top ever soft enha song, into the mix-- so yes, answer is definitely favorite album material! (i would have felt a little guilty putting dilemma lower JUST because of t-d when several of my favorite tracks would not exist without it KSGDJFH). the actual song aside, though, the CONCEPT of tamed-dashed and all the promotions, teasers, concept photos and etc before it were absolutely stunning (and i do still like tamed-dashed a lot-- it just ranks fairly low among the other enha titles)
BORDER : CARNIVAL | ABSOLUTE queen. not only does this album have drunk-dazed (my other top enha tt) as a title track, it has fever, not for sale, mixed up, AND one of the sickest enha concepts to date (that mv??? PLEASE.). this is a particularly potent one for me as it's when i really got into enhypen-- when i was really active in the community, when everyone was coming up with so many crazy theories about the lore and writing out equally-crazy "what-ifs".
BORDER : DAY ONE | honestly just a really gorgeous debut. i loved given-taken, and i loved let me in, 10 months, and flicker just as much. i feel like this era has gotten king of forgotten/overshadowed with everything enhypen has come out since then (which. valid), but it was such a nice intro to enhypen's whole deal (spoken affectionately)!
MANIFESTO : DAY 1 | still a fairly new era, so i might feel a bit different after letting it marinate a bit. this is, similar to something i mentioned in a previous ask for this ask game, yet another instance of me adoring literally every track in an album except for the title track. kpop. why. LDHFJFB i didnt hate future perfect or anything, but it felt significantly less... enhypen-y than usual. the b-sides, however? NOT SO. tfw and shout out very quickly climbed their way into my list of favorite ever enhypen songs along with foreshadow, and paradoxxx invasion, while less dramatically alternating to my life and mindset, was absolutely a bop. points deducted for not having shout out as the promoted bside tho (/j)
how i got into them:
i was on tumblr when, somehow, i followed one person who was in the "eggie family" (people watching i-land; called ourselves eggies because that entrance dome thing was shaped like an egg LMAO) and suddenly i was friends with like all of them. i wanted to be in on the i-land fun and i thought sunghoon was incredibly pretty so i downloaded viki and started watching it HDJFHFJ (altho i never got passed episode 8 because my phone died </3). i watched them debut as enhypen with given-taken, which slapped, then stuck around kind of casually until border: carnival came around, at which point i did the engene equivalent of falling into the ocean and drowning when previously id sort of just been sitting on the peer with my feet in the water. i fell irreversibly in love with sunoo and have been stuck here ever since!
who would be my best friend:
sunoo probably, or maybe jungwon (i chose my biases in this group according to how friend-shaped they were apparently). jay and/or jake also seem like pretty good bestie material!
things i associate with them:
vampires (and also just supernatural stuff in general) because of their lore, for sure. theres also a good number of songs i associate with their lore counterparts due to the abundance of theorizing and writing that happened circa border: carnival HSJFHFJ
9 notes
·
View notes
Note
16 and 20 for Lor?
16. Dark secrets/’skeletons in the closet’
Lor doesn’t really have any that apply to current situations, but the main event that finally led to her being put in the volcano definitely isn’t something she’d talk about willingly or openly… were she to remember. On a mission into Another Dimension, with the last fleet she would formally be a part of, she was being a little shit and kept breaking formation out of spite and because she felt like it. Because of the hole she’d left by not staying where she was supposed to, there was a huge weak spot. Ultimately a group of Sphere Doomers attacked, and it resulted in one of the Starcutters and their pilot being killed due to the Doomers and panic causing friendly fire. On top of the deaths, several others were damaged, but Lor herself was unharmed, as was her current pilot. Though she’s basically hidden the memory from herself, meaning she’d have to manually open several buried files to access it, Lor basically had survivor’s guilt, and blamed herself up until the point that she hid it.
20. What-ifs/Alternate Timelines
This is a bit too vague for me to write/think of anything for, sorry.
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
There’s a multitude of other dudes, who look like me but do not do the exact same thing or have a matching attitude;
Parallels played out in lyrical fashion, as I sit napping. I hear them yapping passing something unseen as strange beings from different realities.
It’s not mimicry, or fancy imagery that I see but endless possibilities of what ifs that will never be.
An athlete, teacher, painter, preacher, dancer, fittest novelist, world traveler who volunteers to help the suffering.
Such strange daydreams that sometimes even leans towards more fantastic things, like a superhero or an eager young training cadet trying to be in Starfleet on Star Trek, trying to make first contact, and get to spaces we haven’t even imagined yet.
Of all the alternate dimensions, that float out and in by miles, light years or even mere inches,
the one that never fails to stir my strange inner self, is the one where I get my wish meeting that finest fairytale figure, that most beautiful myth.
Looking in the eyes of my truest companion after struggling for so long to find them, and finally settling down with my soulmate.
-2021
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
► agree.
date(s): july 2020 - february 2021 mentions of: champion members, unity members (samsoo, yul & sunghee mentioned by name but like... blink and you’ll miss it) word count: +/- 2.3k words (870w lyrics/660 words composition/740 words production) warnings: mentions of anxiety, panic attacks and car accidents details: full lyrics and full composition verification for agree, 3/3 verifications for jaewon’s upcoming album escapism. jaewon doesn’t only know how to write sad boi music, he also writes angry boi music, the only two emotions he’s ever experienced rlly. (a/n: i lost my braincells within the first 100 words and still haven’t retrieved them, read at your own discretion)
the song is born out of frustration, anger blocking up his throat to the point it feels hard to breathe.
it’s the kick-off point of champion’s world tour, a concept that has jaewon disgruntled enough as it is, snatching him away from unity and dropping him in the states like he is supposed to care about this group, like he doesn’t have better things to worry about.
but alas that’s beside his point, as much as he detests the idea behind champion, it’s not his main source of frustration.
traveling out to the states, that part is hell. now jaewon has never been a huge fan of traveling, suffering from a crippling fear of flying ever since predebut that somehow has not gotten any less severe with the sheer amount of flying all over the place unity has been doing. jaewon also absolutely hates airports, they’re too crowded, too hectic and far too stressful to not immediately put him in a godawful mood.
the cameras shoved right into his face both prior to departure and directly after arrival definitely didn't help.
comparatively, champion’s trip to the states this time hadn’t been that bad. jaewon just happens to be in an extra foul mood today but rationally, he has to admit that he’s seen far worse throughout the years.
but maybe that’s exactly the problem, how common these things have become, that getting pushed and pulled at while trying to get on flight was considered to be mild.
jaewon’s frustration isn’t solely aimed at an isolated instance, it’s at the ridiculous standard that’s been set for idols, the things they have to accept like they are normal.
normally he would call soo to complain about whatever was bothering him but with the time difference, jaewon knew his boyfriend was ought to be asleep at this hour and he definitely wasn’t waking him up for something this minor.
he even humors the thought of perhaps finding sunghee or yul to complain to but with most of champion out for the night doing whatever (admittedly, jaewon didn’t listen when they were making plans, he wasn’t gonna tag along anyway) that isn’t really in the cards either. perhaps that’s for the best, jaewon isn’t the biggest fan of actually talking to the younger unity members about what was on his mind.
either way, jaewon is stuck in a hotelroom by himself, no one around to really vent his frustration too so instead, he might just as well write it all down.
and that’s exactly what he does, settling down at the desk in his hotelroom, scribbling on a notepad randomly found laying around.
on the plane the person in the seat next to me that’s not my fan apparently buying info off the airplane company
it’s not entirely relevant to what happened at the airport earlier but jaewon feels angry all over just thinking about it. unity has had it’s fair share of experiences with saesangs, seemingly only increasing the more popular they keep getting. sure, that makes sense but it doesn’t mean it’s okay, contrary to what dimensions seem to believe with how easily the company brushes it off under the pretense of it just being another part of the job.
at the airplane lounge there’s a war between the 200 mm guns privacy, panic disorder, they barter with one another...
in the first place, jaewon’s main concern is unity, it always is. he’s willing to put up with a lot if it means the younger members are left off the hook. but he has to admit, since the panic attacks have started to become more prevalent, it’s a lot harder to take that stance. it’s hard to take care of others when he fails to take care of himself.
jaewon tries not to think about what that means for his position as a leader.
from early morning put on a mask and fight on in short, call it being a puppet...
jaewon knows he’s not an ideal idol, he’s never been and he never will be. maybe in retrospect, he would have done things differently but there is no use in considering those what-ifs now. there is, however, no denying that all of it is just a bigger struggle with him, it will never go as easily as with people who were made to stand in front of the camera’s. why shouldn’t he get to be open and honest about that? he’s not the perfect idol they want him to be, he will never fit that mold.
i know, that’s right that’s right that’s right that’s right that’s right that’s right i know that’s right that’s right that’s right
written out, the chorus feels a bit silly, but jaewon feels justified in his creative choices. not that the song is ever going to be used for anything, it’s just an attest to his frustration. jaewon knows he’s ought to sit down and silently accept whatever is expected of him.
it’s been years since he’s been his own person. these days, he’s dimensions’ property first and that of the general public second, there is no use in fighting that, no space for his voice.
so sure, whatever, he agrees, what else can he do?
---------------
jaewon forgets about the lyrics he’s written down after that.
in the moment there had been no intention to turn them into a full-fledged song, a haphazard combination of lyrics that in their raw form, probably held very little meaning, too much filler between the few parts that he did properly think through.
so jaewon forgets all about it before he even sets foot back in korea again. unity is busy enough, the release of neo zone lurking around the corner and with multiple schedules of his own, jaewon can’t even think about the song if he wants to.
it only comes drifting back into his consciousness at least a month of two having passed since champion’s american tour dates.
the day in itself isn’t anything special, if there is anything remarkable about it it’s the fact jaewon isn’t working for once. he’s just hanging around his and samsoo’s apartment, scrolling through whatever app on his phone keeps his attention for long enough.
until an article pops up.
it’s a news post about a rookie group he’s never heard of from a company he doesn’t know the name of, it has nothing to do with him, but he finds himself reading through it anyway. apparently, they got into an accident on their way home from schedules as they were being followed by saesangs. no one got injured and truly, it’s not the first time jaewon has read news like this but it does fill him with the same sense of anger as what he had experienced that first day in the states with champion.
because this type of news shouldn’t be common, for how long are people gonna pretend it is?
maybe he should finish that damn song.
wait does he even still have the lyrics?
jaewon vaguely remembers at the very least putting the sheet of paper in his backpack after the concert as he had been packing up to move to the next city of their tour but after that, he can’t say he recalls having seen it lay around.
he’s really ought to get more orderly with his drafts.
luckily for him, jaewon does find the sheet of paper, not in his bag but shoved in between the pages of a notebook and with the draft of his lyrics obtained he makes a beeline for his home studio. normally he’d do this stuff at the company headquarters but truly, that sounds like far too much work in the moment.
obviously, the song is meant to have an angry undertone to it, supposed to convey the same anger and frustration that swallowed jaewon whole as he had written the lyrics.
the deep, resonating boom of low brass sounds for the opening of the song are a no brainer, the sound gives a bombastic, ominous vibe, immediately setting the song off on the right note. it’s supposed to sound grande and honestly a little bit intimidating, a dark feeling creeping around the corners.
of course, the sound is far too theatrical to be underlaying to the entire song so jaewon alternates it with a deep, booming bassline, the brass only reappearing right before the chorus other than in the opening section as if to give off a warning. to fill up the verses and the parts in between, jaewon adds rumbling, deep drums in the background, making them feel less empty.
what really makes the song however is the rapidly-cycling electronic stuttering a rhythmic pattern across almost all parts of the song. it feels a little distracting at first before jaewon decides that really, that’s exactly what he’s going for. the melody feels just a little too fast, uncomfortably so and in a song reflecting so much stress and strain, that only feels fair, reflectives of the way his chest tightens up when he can’t breathe, when his hands tremble and his heart beats so fast it might as well make him sick.
jaewon thinks it conveys his frustrations pretty damn well.
---------------
it doesn’t seem in the books for the song to ever be released until the process of selecting songs for escapism comes along. while jaewon regains some of his creative freedom, most of it had been under dimensions terms, leaving it up to them to shape the album in a way they prefer over his creative vision.
until somewhere near the end of completing the track list, the head producer asks jaewon if he has any songs laying around that could fit in with the rest of the album.
‘agree’ is the first thing to come to mind.
the head producer seems to like the songs, enough to approve it at least and jaewon can’t help but feel a flare of pride. the producer seems intent on leaving the creative process in his hands, letting him handle the production.
it makes ‘agree’ the first song ever that’s entirely his own that he gets to release, it feels like a milestone to jaewon.
he does get a little list of suggestions, mainly pertaining to the lyrics. the producer leaves a few remarks here and there about where lines could be stronger, what he would do differently but all of it are very loose recommendations, jaewon isn’t actually under an obligation to do anything with them.
in the end, he does anyway, shuffles some lyrics around, dares to be a bit more assertive in his wording, right onto the border of what he would consider too gloat-y for himself. but the producer is right, it gets to pack a punch, it gets to be a little bit self-important. somehow having the external confirmation makes it easier to write those lyrics without feeling like a fraud. it’s still his, his writing, his song.
with the last tweaks done they’re quick to get to recording. they’re still on a time crunch as jaewon’s manager reminds him (jaewon likes the man well enough but dear lord would he never let him forget). it's one of the last songs on the album to be recorded after all and at this point, they are cutting it close.
with everything else he needs done, all jaewon has left to do is fine tune the song, the last tweaks and sounds to be added like missing puzzle pieces now he has the bigger picture pretty much laid out in front of him, polishing and detailing it to elevate the song worth of something to be released on an album.
the instrumental is already pretty hectic, fully intentional of course, but with a proper, clear recording it’s easier to spot the empty gaps, spaces to add the last finishing touches. he adds more brass, less grande and dramatic than the ones in the pre-chorus, curling around the edges of the chorus to round them up neatly and as if to scale down again for the verses, still fast paced but somewhat a breath of fresh air between one chorus and the other.
he delays the part at the opening before the brass and bass kick in, a silence before the storm feels even if the hyperactive stuttering beat is already there, he considers taking that out at first too but the point kind of is that it is more or less omnipresent, it’s always there even when there is nothing else much, like the anxiety that feels permanently stuck to his head.
there is also the addition of an extra melodic line, lingering behind that main, slightly headache inducing electronic synth. it doesn’t really stand out, especially not compared to it’s main competitor but it does remain prevalent in the few parts the main instrumental motif is nowhere to be found, giving it small moments to shine. it serves a clear function, or to jaewon listening ear at least (maybe he’s overanalyzing at this point). the little bounces of the electronic beat all over the place keep up the pace of the song, making sure its explosive nature prevails over the dark dreary undertones of the bassline and brass sections, giving it an overall dynamic feel.
it takes some fiddling, jaewon pulls something close to an all-nighter to finish up the song with the sheer amount of detail he ends up focussing on but by the time he sends it in, he has a good feeling about it at least.
when he presents the final product to the head producer, there are no more suggestions. it’s good, and it’s all his own work.
#fmdverification#*:・゚♛– «filled with all these empty moments» // solos.#«escapism // era.»#//SCREAMS INTO THE VOID#//finally... im freed from verification hell#panic attack tw#anxiety tw#car crash tw
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Dimension/Universe Travel | Alternate Universe
Progressive Displacement by GatewayGirl
English | 20k
Harry didn't mean the wish that way. From his point of view, it hadn't even worked.
◈◈◈
Turn by Saras_Girl
English | 307k
One good turn always deserves another. Apparently.
◈◈◈
A Slytherin in Gryffindor Clothing by mahaliem
English | 43k
Draco hits his head and wakes up in a world where he's a Gyffindor and Harry is a Slytherin.
◈◈◈
Another Dimension by dracopotter
German | 120k
Nach einem Unfall erlebt Harry etwas, was sein ganzes Leben verändert und komplett auf den Kopf stellt.
◈◈◈
Parallelwelten by Juli Hoernchen
German | 55k
Durch einen Zauber Voldemorts werden das Trio und Draco Malfoy in eine andere Dimension katapultiert... nie hätten sie sich träumen lassen, auf wen sie dort stoßen! unkontrollierbare Gefühle, Ängste, die harte realität und ein wenig Sarkasmus prägen nun ihr dasein... doch... wie kommen sie wieder zurück? Darauf hat nur eine Person eine Antwort und die heißt nicht Voldemort!!!
◈◈◈
Your World is our World by Juli Hoernchen
German | 107k
Nach einem verunglückten Zauber seitens Harry und Draco tauchen plötzlich zehn Schauspieler der Harry Potter – Filme in Hogwarts auf. Klar, dass die alles mehr als durcheinander bringen und nichts mehr so ist, wie es von J.K. Rowling mal geplant war.
◈◈◈
Hermione Granger's Hogwarts Crammer for Delinquents on the Run by waspabi
English | 93k
'You're a wizard, Harry' is easier to hear from a half-giant when you're eleven, rather than from some kids on a tube platform when you're seventeen and late for work.
◈◈◈
AO3 tags
#alternate reality ◈ dimension travel ◈ multiverse
◈◈◈
other lists with that topic
by @snowgall ◈ #what ifs
by @mxlfoydraco ◈ #timeline/universe hopping
#fanfiction#fanfic#fic rec#drarry fic rec#alternate universe#alternate#universe#travel#draco malfoy#harry potter#drarry#different sorting#hopping
24 notes
·
View notes
Text
Sasha: Dead or Alive?
So I know I’m not a big figure of TMA theories, not even close, but I’d like to put my thoughts in one place and if you feel like reading a bit of narrative analysis of a very well written series then please, suit yourself. And of course, Spoilers ahead.
So, Sasha. With all that’s been happening in this season one gets the feeling that not only is her memory that is getting a lot of narrative attention but also her position. Now, I’m aware and even participated in theories regarding the possibility of characters in our story coming and going, knowingly or not, in and out of different universes and I’m sure that will have it’s own narrative pay off. But I want to focus a bit more on what we have right here and now. So I’m going to name all the points I think the story and narrative has given us thus far to believe our dear Almost Archivist could be either dead or alive. Bear in mind I am not that good at checking the many little details and much of this could be more gut feeling than precise data, but I’m listening to the podcast for the third time now and I feel like I have enough points to make a statement(pun very much intended) on the case. But if you want to provide more evidence feel free to do so! I am very much inviting discourse on the matter. Without further adieu, let's get to the point/s.
Alive:
Sasha’s initial role was a bit more heavy in the story. However given that her VA couldn’t keep working due to her own schedule they resorted to giving said role to Tim. You can see this change in narrative in the fact that Tim’s VA had to adapt a bit. Not only is he a producer of the show but now a very important character who was originally going to be the first tragic Death of the series, and now has to adapt his acting to a character that is scarred by the events that haunt him. Which he did marvelously btw. And with the tape presented in the second episode of this season you can see how they're adjusting the narrative to fit his tragic past and Sasha’s importance to the Archive. Hell when I was listening to S1 ending I was convinced Tim or Martin were going to be the victims of the attack. Narratively it all pointed to Sasha being the powerhose of the group. Which made it all the more hurtful when she was taken.
Speaking of said tape, in there she talks about how who you are is what you do and what you show to other people. She specially mentions Masks. Which if you paid attention to MAG 165 is kind of the whole theme. Faces being changed and with that memories, people, personalities. Maybe, as it’s been pointed out, she was not killed but was robbed of her face and she’s been wondering about, without even knowing who she is.
And on THAT regard we can look at what Not!Sasha said. She took her life. If you were to take this at face value (again, pun intended) it would mean literally killing her. But let’s think about that for a second. What the Not!Them does is take the lives of the people they attack. They put themselves in their place and change enough of R E A L I TY to fit themselves in. Photographs, memories, clothes, everything adapts to them, save for a few things, enough to make someone paranoid and afraid of them. Even Gertrude herself mentions how it is that they always seem to miss someone but I think it is rather the point that they do. If no one is aware of this supernatural identity theft then who is left to scare? Going back to our original point, what if Not!Them doesn’t kill their victims but instead take their lives? As in, everything else except killing them. There is also this proposal that every entity or at least many of them have their own dimension or pocket dimension. The Lonely has its misty shore, The Vast literally just casts you into an endless sky or the void of space, The Spiral has The Distortion trapping people inside of their halls, you get it. This leads to our next point.
This strange carrousel that appears as the Nightmare of many people fearing The Stranger gave us three very interesting bits of information to chew on: One, it shows what many people have theorized would be The Stranger’s or at least Not!Them's dimension. People who do not know who they are and are desperately trying to find out, even stealing other peoples faces, memories, names...their lives. Two, not only that but the creature that is controlling this IS Not!Them, Martin even calls them “It’s Goddess”, and mentions how it must have full control over it. Third, Jon rode one of these a few years ago. No this is not important to our conversation (I think) but I WILL chew on it because I love this adorable man and I wish I was as brave as him to get on a carousel at my age (25) because I’d love it. Anyway, going back to our second bit of info: Not!Them is dead. In a delicious moment of revenge Jon destroyed them and Martin asks what would happen to this place without them? Well, maybe the people that were inside were freed, at least for a moment, maybe with enough time to remember or search for who they were?
This all could mean that not only is Sasha alive, granted having been in a horrifying Nightmare for YEARS now but it may also mean that she is also finally free. There’s still the theory of other universes and I like to play with it because not only would resolve some stuff that looks to be narratively incoherent(tho nothing definitive there) but it would also explain a lot regarding Jon’s shifting memories of the events of the series. Again I am not that versed in this topic to bring it into question.
Finally it would seem that the story is focusing a lot on Sasha as an important entity(yes, still intended) not just as a deceased character with a potential role but as one that still can and will bring change to the story.
So, we seem to have a lot of reasons given to us by the story and how it is being told to believe that yes, Sasha is alive and important to the story. And here comes the dreaded buts/s.
Dead:
The most important fact that I want to point out in this regard is that The Magnus Archives takes death very seriously. Not only death in the real world, brought by cruel beings and people, supernatural creatures and evil systems that send people to die and be killed by the interest of others. But as probably many of you know the writers and producers of the show want death to be important, to have weight in the story. Both Jon and Alex have said so in QAs and you can tell just by listening to the show. When a character dies, they stay dead. Death is final and even people that “cheat death” must pay a high price, usually living miserable ��lives” killing other people or regretting their so called luck in avoiding their final destination. Death makes every character aware of the danger they are in and when it is granted so easily it is shown as the result of corrupted, sadistic people and monsters (cough police cough acab cough). Therefore, bringing back a character from the dead would feel cheap, it would take the weight out of the story. That is not to say they haven’t faked deaths before, Trevor is a good example, and you have an Avatar of The End very much alive-ish after having a Satellite dropped on him (Man I love this podcast) but the key difference, to me at least, is that Sasha was The First. The important character that we were sure either wouldn’t die because of plot armor or the aforementioned narrative importance she was given. But no, everybody can die, and that makes everyone afraid and wary of their actions.
It would also make Not!Them less scary, less imposing which would rob them of their position as a horrifying monster. We either knew or suspected that they had killed and surely replaced Sasha, now we feared for what might happen to the rest of the team. In the end, they were not only very much dangerous but also yes, they killed Sasha in a gruesome way, now maybe even do the same to Jon. You could argue that being trapped in that hellscape of The Stranger is an equally fearsome destiny, but at this point we´ve seen Jon disregard said dangers and literally rescue TWO people from TWO different nightmarish dimensions. Yes it is stated as the almost miracle that it is and it is important to show Jon’s improvement and growth but it also robs them of their weight. Not completely of course, but as long as Jon is around they aren’t that scary anymore, and given that he is our protagonist well, he is always around. There is also that beautiful scene in which he gets a very much earned revenge. If Sasha was not dead then it kind of loses its value.
Now I am going to cheat a little bit because here I am going to take our previous points and turn them on their heads inserting an “Alive” point here. You could argue that of course it still has value. They don’t know that Sasha is alive and technically neither do we, killing Sasha or not this monster definitely tortured our crew and this is a well earned punishment. Plus it is very well written and presented. You could even make a point that, with the death of Not!Sasha comes the revival of Actual!Sasha. And getting this far after so many real deaths it could even make sense to have one narrative rebirth of a character that was robbed of her chance of glory. Which can fit in this established narrative of:”She could have been The Archivist! The Protagonist”.
And here comes the but: What if this is not about Sasha but instead Other!Sasha? Remember when I said I wasn’t going to take into consideration theories regarding parallel universes? Well I might have lied a little bit. You see, from the moment Jon played Gertrude’s tape regarding her successor I began to have this thought:”This is a theme of what ifs, of potential possibilities and different timelines”. Now, I have to say again that I’m not an expert on this topic, this is more of an analysis of what I think or feel I’m seeing the narrative of this season is heading towards. Maybe there is an alternative reality, with a different crew. One that might sound like our dear Archival Buddies but are actually very much different. On the surface, their masks if you will, they are our Sasha, our Tim, our Martin, but once we get to know them, to know about them, they are different people. There is this theory that the house cleaner that got trapped by the house on Hilltop Road is an alternative version of the nurse that worked close to said house. She mentions how her friends are different, how they almost don’t recognize her. But I mean, they didn’t reject her, they even helped her and recommended her that she make a statement at The Magnus Institute. What if there is another Sasha, but not quite the one we’d want. And even if Sasha was alive, if we disregarded all of this, what kind of person would she be after everything that's happened to her?
I’m not sure I can give you a conclusion here. We are after all barely in episode five of this 40 episode season and this might all be proven wrong next chapter, or the next, or all 35 that come after that, but I’ve seen many people talking about how they are completely sure that Sasha is definitely alive and kicking, and while I agree in many points I also have seen a lot of evidence, especially when it comes to the narrative, that would point to the contrary. It honestly crushes my heart to think that we have more than thirty weeks of content ahead of us and many people will keep the hope that this amazing character is still alive but would end up having said hopes utterly crushed by the end of it. But I can also see where you’re all coming from and can see why you would think that way, so I wanted to present what evidence and conjectures of my own I had on the topic. If you’ve gotten this far I want to thank you for joining me in this attempt at a presentation or...expose? Feel free to add any other points that you think or believe would favor one end or the other and I hope you had a good time while reading this. Love you all <3
#the magnus archives#the magnus pod#tma#TMA podcast#tma s5#tma s5 pr#tma s5 theories#tma s5 theory#tma spoiler#tma spoilers#the magnus archives spoilers#theory crafting#sorry if this is a bit or a lot of a mess I'm still learning how to use...this#also sorry that my english is not the best#I really hope I got my point across#longpost#long post#sasha#sasha james#not!sasha#jonathan sims#the stranger#the web
22 notes
·
View notes
Text
The 15 Craziest Episodes of Supergirl
„Crazy“ is an ever changing measure, especially in the Arrowverse. When Time Travel and Parallel Universes were introduced it was a heavy leap from the norm. A couple of seasons later it was pretty much normal. So this list reflects changes in the norm, episodes that pushed the crazy and unusual. What is crazy for on show is not crazy for another one.
So let’s get right into it:
15. Back from the Future Part 2 (Episode 5.12/99, Written by: Rob Wright, J. Holtman, Directed by: Alexis Ostrander)
Toyman is essentially a computer virus in this and has to be stopped with the help of the other virus aka the Earth 38-Toyman. Plus we learn that Winns Legion Name was Computer Lad (I mean, come on!) and a lot of shit goes down.
14. The House of L (Episode 4.16/81, Written by: Dana Horgan, Eric Carrasco, Directed by: Carl Seaton)
This episode belongs to Red Daughter and Lex and it’s basically “Supergirls” take on “Red Son”. It’s very different from both the comic and what “Supergirl” is normally like.
13. Man of Steel (Episode 4.3/68, Written by: Rob Wright, Derek Simon, Directed by: Jesse Warn)
This episode revisits the events of the first three seasons through the eyes of Ben Lockwood, who has his supervillain origin in this one. It’s an unusual episode because it turns a lot of stuff we knew and thought we know about the show on its head and has very little of Kara in it, which a first at that time.
12. Battles Lost and Won (Episode 3.23/65, Written by: Jessica Queller, Robert Rovner, Directed by: Jesse Warn)
The season finale of Season 3 is a mess, but maybe that’s mainly because a lot of comic book crazyness is happening in it. Including Time Travel, Do-Overs, multiple Hero Deaths, other dimensions, a terra formed earth, and a lot more like this.
11. Supergirl Lives (Episode 2.9/29, Written by: Andrew Kreisberg, Eric Carrasco, Jess Kardos, Directed by: Kevin Smith)
This is the first and sadly still only time “Supergirl” visited an alien planet. She freed a bunch of slaves and brought them back home. It’s “Supergirl” but in space and on a wider scale. If the show had more budget, a different directive, and more daring writers we could have gotten a lot more episodes like this one, which also took elements from Kevin Smiths unfilmed Superman Movie “Superman Lives” and included it in this episode, which the man himself directed.
10. Crisis on Earth-X Part 1 (Episode 3.8/50, Written by: Robert Rovner, Jessica Queller, Andrew Kreisberg, Marc Guggenheim, Directed by: Larry Teng)
This is the first big crossover in “Supergirl” and given it features the West-Allen-Wedding it’s actually more of a “Flash”-Episode than a “Supergirl”-Episode, but we get an Kryptonian Nazi (we know which one that is, don’t we?) and a lot of jokes and shenigans .. oh and Alex hooks up with Sara, so the one and only time for: Crossover Romance!
9. Welcome to Earth (Episode 2.3/23, Written by: Jessica Queller, Derek Simon, Directed by: Rachel Talalay)
The first season was all about fighting Aliens. This one makes a sudden turn left and introduces us to the very active Alien Community on Earth aka in National City, which is a surprising but welcome change of direction for the show. Also: Maggie Sawyer!! And the first real action for Mon-El. So yeah, that one was more than important and set the stage for everything that came later.
8. Worlds Finest (Episode 1.18/18, Written by: Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Michael Grassi, Directed by: Nick Gomez)
Speaking of the first season. This was the Crossover we always wanted, but never believed we would get, because back then “Supergirl” was on another network. But we got it anyway. Barry gets stranded on Karas Earth, which leads to a lot of chaos, many nice moment and fine jokes. An episode that was very very different from the rest of Season 1.
7. Legion of Super-Heroes (Episode 3.10/52, Written by: Derek Simon, Eric Carrasco, Directed by: Jesse Warn)
Here The Legion of Super-Heroes is introduced or rather Brainy is, who plays psychiatrist for Kara, to get her out of her Reign induced Coma. Also the Legion assists the DEO to the soundtrack of the one of the biggest poets of this world: Jon Bon Jovi, who was introduced to the future by Mon-El.
6. Mr. And Mrs. Mxyptlk (Episode 2.13/33, Written by: Jessica Queller, Sterling Gates, Directed by: Stefan Pleszczynski)
Do not listen to the haters. This is basically the “Supergirl”-Version of the 90s Trek-Episodes with Q in it. The Imp turns up, wrecks havoc, and thinks he is very funny, which our heroes don’t think. This one is probably the most comic book-y episode “Supergirl” ever did, too sad it was the only one they ever dared to do.
5. Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 1 (Episode 5.9/96, Written by: Robert Rovner, Marc Guggenheim, Derek Simon, Jay Faerber, Directed by: Jesse Warn)
In the first part of TVs Biggest Crossover Ever our heroes band together to save Karas earth and … fail. Yep. Earth 38 get’s destroyed in this. We never thought we would live to see this ever, didn’t we? Also Oliver dies. So yeah, a lot of bad news, but somehow this episode is still a lot of fun with all the delicious crossover moments.
4. Back from the Future Part 1 (Episode 5.11/98, Written by: Dana Horgan, Katie Rose Rogers, Directed by: David Harewood)
An evil Winn from another earth turns up, which brings back our Winn and we get a Winn-Off, so to speak, and Winn with Clark Kent glasses so he wouldn’t be recognized. While “Arrow” and “Flash” did their doppelganger, different earths shenigangs before Crisis, “Supergirl” did its own after Crisis and they were glorious.
3. The Bottle Episode (Episode 5.10/97, Written by: Derek Simon, Directed by: Tawnia McKiernan)
The real Post Crisis Carzyness lived in this episode though. We got a lot of doppelgangers, most of them Brainys, and a lot of chaos, I mean more chaos then most other shows usually have, except for „Legends“. So I guess this episode was „Supergirl“ trying to do an episode of „Legends“. Also Brainy evolves in this one, so it wasn’t just for the laughs.
2 It’s a Super Life (Episode 5.13/100, Written by: Robert Rovner, Jessica Queller, Derek Simon, Nicki Holcomb, Directed by: Jesse Warn)
The 100the episode watches videos of the show and comments on them, then inserts Kara into the past and let her change things and create alternate timelines, what ifs, so of how things would have turned out if she had made different choices. This is as crazy as “Supergirl” can get. Well almost.
1. Elseworlds Part 3 (Episode 4.9/74, Written by: Mac Guggenheim, Derek Simon und Rob Rovner, Directed by: Jesse Warn)
Unless it’s a Crossver induced parallel reality with another Alex, another James, and another not-quite Superman. This is the world according to John Deegan, and while Oliver and Barry are on the trip of their lives, Kara needs to get free and recruit her sisters doppelganger for it. Oh, and Gary is in it. Which is always a great thing. We also get a Superman Face Off, and a couple of really crazy moments.
4 notes
·
View notes
Note
how many relationships has Johnny had? did they /all/ end badly or does he, like, actually have some good ones in there
I wouldn’t say all of Johnny’s relationships are bad. He has some bad ones, some real bad ones, some good ones, some utterly forgettable ones, and some weird ones. I sometimes think a character’s first relationship kind of sets the tone for their future relationship history, like Peter Parker being in the middle of two love triangles and being the hot item in both of them. In Johnny’s case, his first relationship involved his girlfriend lamenting that he wasn’t more like other boys and saying she wished he wasn’t so flaming all the time. It’s a metaphor. But Johnny Storm’s relationship history, the quick and dirty version. For the sake of simplicity, I won’t be including one off mentions of celebrity dates and only addressing on page relationships.
Dorrie Evans: Johnny’s high school girlfriend who, as noted above, hated his flaming on and often compared him unfavorably to other boys, such as Peter Parker. Their relationship ended when Johnny ghosted her until she broke up with him, although they apparently remained on good enough terms for Dorrie to lend Johnny her car shortly afterward. When Johnny and Crystal broke up, Johnny tried to get back together with Dorrie only to find out she was married with kids. And that’s why we have Facebook now.
Valeria of the 5th Dimension: A beautiful blue girl who developed a crush on Johnny when he briefly ended up in her dimension during his Strange Tales days, Johnny mostly seemed awkward around Valeria. They kissed once later after Johnny broke up with Crystal (you may notice Johnny has a habit of revisiting past relationships, usually unsuccessfully) and then nothing ever happened with them again, and it’s unlikely to come back up seeing as Johnny now has a niece named Valeria (after a third totally unrelated Fantastic Four Valeria).
Crystal Amaquelin: Probably the most popular and well known of Johnny’s relationships, and for a good reason. Johnny and Crystal started their relationship as star-crossed teen lovers from different worlds yearning to be with each other, a superhero Romeo and Juliet without the murder-suicide, and once they are together, they’re honestly pretty cute.

(FF #67) They’re cute! That it’s probably Johnny’s happiest, most stable relationship is probably the reason it gets revisited a lot in AUs and future What Ifs, although I personally think the charm of it is in the teenage puppy love and that returning to it isn’t the best move for either character. The relationship falls apart when Crystal, who can’t tolerate the outside world’s polluted atmosphere, returns to the Inhumans and falls in love with Quicksilver, who she later married. Johnny took the break up hard, and he and Crystal later had an emotional affair when Crystal was on the Fantastic Four after leaving Pietro and when Johnny had only just gotten married, but things never progressed to a physical level mostly because Johnny refused to cheat.
Frankie Raye: Originally created by Roy Thomas, Frankie Raye was a beautiful redheaded girl with a deep-seated fear of fire who seemed tormented by Johnny’s status as a superhero. Thomas originally intended for her to be the daughter of Toro Raymond, the sidekick of the original Human Torch, but Frankie dropped off the pages before that could be revealed. Johnny briefly dated a girl named Lorrie Melton who he met while racing, but Lorrie broke up with him when it became apparent he was more interested in a serious relationship than she was. Frankie Raye resurfaced in Byrne’s run, where Byrne reworked her backstory so that, instead of Toro’s daughter, Frankie was the step-daughter of Phineas Horton, the man who created the original android Human Torch. As a child, Frankie suffered an accident that gave her flame powers. Horton hypnotized her to give her flame powers and to make her dress in a golden leotard to help control her powers. Frankie’s powers reawakened and for a time she joined the Fantastic Four, but her deep yearning to be wild and free -- an interesting contrast with how tightly under control Johnny keeps his powers -- led to her making the decision to become Galactus’ new Herald, a decision that left Johnny near suicidal when she left the planet.

(FF #244)
I don’t think there was anything wrong with Johnny and Frankie’s relationship during the duration of it, although I will note that it does the opposite of heat up, so to speak, once Frankie gets her powers, and that they had certain ideological differences that didn’t speak to a great future together. (Frankie occasionally displayed a violent side that on at least one occasion worried Johnny.) Much later, an alternate universe Frankie Raye who expressed feelings for Johnny violently assaulted him in the middle of battle, kissing him before throwing him to the ground, though.
Julie Angel and Sharon Selleck: Julie Angel was Frankie Raye’s roommate who, after Frankie disappeared with Galactus, Johnny developed a crush on, attending the same acting classes as her, although she didn’t seem to reciprocate his feelings. Her friend, Sharon Selleck, developed a crush on Johnny but when she made a move on him he rebuffed her:
(FF #259) If you read Fantastic Four, Johnny will occasionally say he used to date Julie, but it’s simply not true -- Julie does kiss him once, but he doesn’t reciprocate the embrace, and laments afterwards that he’s over her anyway, so. Mark those down at not relationships.
Zsaji: An alien Johnny shared a flirtation and a few kisses with during the original Secret Wars event. Johnny wasn’t very emotionally invested in the relationship, which is odd for him given he usually goes from 0 to 60 on the “now we’re in love” meter. Colossus was very emotionally invested, though. Very, very emotionally invested.
“Alicia Masters”/Lyja: Retroactively revealed to be the Skrull Lyja, Johnny and Alicia started dating in secret after Ben remained in space after Secret Wars. While Lyja would later admit that she got close to Johnny specifically for her mission, she claimed she only originally meant to be a confidante before falling in love with him, but it’s hard to tell with Lyja what you can and can’t take at face value when the character frequently lies. Johnny and Alicia officially get together in Fantastic Four #275, which marks Johnny’s first “sex scene” in the form of a morning after scene where he appears regretful about the night and might even be trying to break off the relationship before Alicia convinces him to continue it:

For reference, Peter’s first published “after the deed” scene is in Amazing Spider-Man #150, published 10 years before this. Though it caused problems with Ben when he returned from space, Johnny and Alicia got married in Fantastic Four #300, although pretty immediately there were relationship problems, including a lack of chemistry. Johnny had 1.5 emotional affairs, the first with Crystal. Later, when he was bodyjacked by Ravonna Ravenslayer in guise of Nebula, who used his powers to kill people and hit on Gladiator because I don’t know, she thought he was into blond twinks, I guess. Though the bodyjacking by Nebula is depicted to be both physically painful and emotionally traumatizing, with it being specifically compared to an incident where Johnny loses control of his powers, and overall a not so subtle rape metaphor, Johnny laments afterwards that he can’t stop thinking about how beautiful Nebula was and is guilty over the fact that he’s more attracted to her than Alicia. (I think the attempt was to make the original story both consensual and straight when it was neither.)
Shortly after this, “Alicia” is revealed by Ben and Alicia’s father to be a Skrull impostor and it comes out that Johnny never was with the real Alicia at all, her having been switched out when he was off planet. I have a couple of long posts unpacking The Lyja Story -- it’s a long, long story -- linked in this post but I think it’s important to note that Johnny thought he was consenting to a romantic and sexual relationship with a friend he trusted and not with an alien spy who had a mission to harm his family. Not only that, but after the Skrull reveal, Lyja attempts to murder Johnny, lies to him twice about a baby, once in an incident that could’ve led to the deaths of him and his family, and when Johnny specifically told her he didn’t want to see her anymore she invented a new identity -- Laura Green -- so she could continue to be with him without his knowledge, explicitly stating that she knows if Johnny knew it was her he wouldn’t want to be with her. She also used the Laura identity to insult and belittle him, calling him “trite and simple” and “pedestrian.” So when you want to talk about bad relationships Johnny’s been in, I think it’s hard to beat the one where he was raped, gaslit, abused, and stalked. A lot of writers tend to refer to this genuinely as a romance but I think it’s important to talk about what actually went on in the relationship and how it’s a pretty horrifying violation of Johnny on every level.
Alysande “Caledonia” Stuart: After Lyja disappeared from the pages following Heroes Reborn, Johnny rescued a woman from another Earth named Alysande Stuart and essentially hid her from the family in the basement. (They all knew.) Though Johnny implied he had feelings for Alysande and Alysande swore a deep loyalty to him, nothing physical ever happens between them, and the relationship never evolved beyond the platonic. They did go to Comic Con together once.
Namorita: Johnny briefly dated Namor’s cousin Namorita after they discovered they were a hit with the paparazzi, in the first of Johnny’s “celebrity” relationships that seem more based on their respective profiles than any honest attraction. Namorita and Johnny never spend much time together, something Fantastic Four itself remarks on. They break up off-screen. The comic itself doesn’t make the link that Johnny might’ve been targeted because of his former connection to her, but after Namorita dies in the Stanford Incident that incites comics’ Civil War, an angry mob beats Johnny into a coma.
Kourtney: A model Johnny briefly dated. This is another celebrity relationship -- and one where they don’t even seem to like each other very much. Kourtney complains about attending Franklin’s birthday party and breaks up with Johnny when the Fantastic Four lose their fortune, although they later briefly get back together. Nothing much to write home about here.
(Marvel Knights 4 #2)
Psionics: A bad girl bank robber Johnny briefly had a sexual relationship with -- before she helped a future version of Sue abduct him to use him as a power source in a move that might have killed him. Psionics later kisses Johnny, but the art suggests he doesn’t reciprocate before departing for a new planet. When they next see each other, Psionics attempts to kidnap Val and kills Alyssa Moy, a family friend of the Fantastic Four, in front of Johnny, before she’s murdered, also in front of Johnny.
Daken: This one is a doozy in part because the actual relationship is in a bit of a canonical grey area -- it’s only ever implied, although the implications are not at all subtle, that Johnny had a romantic and/or sexual relationship with Daken, Wolverine’s 70 pansexual son.
(Daken #4) Like I said: the implications aren’t subtle. Daken ingratiates himself with the Fantastic Four mostly through Johnny, including engineering his meeting with them by shooting Johnny through the thigh with an arrow. (Johnny doesn’t know Daken shot him, but also, holy penetration metaphor, Batman.) Daken later tricks Johnny into thinking he’s dead, fakes an attack on Franklin so he can stage it to seem like he rescued him, and then mostly likely, going by the above panels, had sex with Johnny right after, though again, that’s just an implication. I say this is a canon grey area because, while Marvel the conglomerate hasn’t acknowledged any canonical attraction to men on Johnny’s part, Marjorie Liu did say in a tweet that the subtext was intentional and readers were meant to sense something was up. After this encounter, Daken steals from Reed’s lab, and the next time Johnny sees him (which is after Johnny’s stint in the Negative Zone) Daken tells him that “real people stay dead.” Then Daken tries to murder Reed. I do hope that if/when Johnny comes out it’s revealed he’s head other relationships with men because this is a hell of a first one if otherwise.
Darla Deerling: Another Johnny celebrity relationship. Johnny dated pop star Darla Deering for a hot minute before getting her to take his place on an emergency replacement Fantastic Four, where Darla met and fell in love with Scott Lang. On his return, Johnny wasn’t too broken up about it, telling Wyatt Wingfoot that he was more attracted to Darla’s rock star lifestyle than to Darla herself. Lot to unpack there.
Rogue: Rogue and Johnny dated, allegedly, during the time skip after the 2015 Secret Wars, but we never see it on the actual page, and it’s acknowledged by most canon that Johnny is a huge mess during this point in time, grieving very badly for the family he thinks is lost. They flirt a little bit after their alleged break up during their time together on the Uncanny Avengers team but I have to admit, it can very easily be read as friendly.
(Avengers #689)
Medusa: Yes, as in, Crystal’s older sister, Medusa. This one’s a mess largely in part to the fact that the writer didn’t do the research and backread the Fantastic Four issues where Medusa was on the team with Johnny, where they were actually quite close although not romantically involved. Medusa and Johnny keep their relationship secret, which of course blows up in their faces when Crystal inevitably finds out and is furious with them. I think it’s easy to read this relationship as Johnny trying to latch onto what family he has left -- Ben is in space and not talking to him at this point in time, Reed and Sue and the kids are presumed dead -- in an effort not to self-destruct in a way that doesn’t quite work. The relationship ends with a whimper and not a bang when Medusa leaves Johnny.
So there you have it! The relationship history of Johnny Storm.
138 notes
·
View notes
Text
thoughts from a long-time superstan re: supergirl 100 :)
i'll be real with y'all... i enjoyed the bottle episode.
i loved seeing how entwined kara and lena's fates are no matter the reality they're in. i loved seeing kara acknowledge, over and over, all the mistakes she made in the past regarding her relationship with lena. i loved seeing kara so committed to loving saving lena that she would have literally rather died in agonizing pain than raise a hand against her, even if they were in an alternate dimension and logically, kara could've fought back while mxy was off trying to do his thing and get them back to the original version of reality.
i also loved seeing sam return as both her adorable, amazing human self and her badass (admittedly evil) alter ego. i loved seeing mon-el return and take the time to give kara good and surprisingly considerate advice regarding lena when, from his perspective, they were literally in the middle of a life or death situation and a little pressed for time just then. i loved how mxy has grown into a more compassionate fifth dimensional being and hope he continues on this path of self-discovery while remaining friends with the supersquad. (i mean, he even went out and apologized on his own in the dark alt-earth instead of letting kara explain the situation. growth? we love to see it.)
and while i didn't enjoy how kara's final conversation with our lena went... i understood it. (i hope she one day tells lena why she came there so abruptly though- lena didn't get the benefit of having a reality-warping alien show her all the what-ifs and could-have-beens.)
kara's words still came from a place of love. (and hey, we can't exactly expect kryptonians to be shakespeares. he was human, after all.) it was just a dose of tough love. kara knows now that moping about her mistakes won't change them, and handling lena with kid gloves has only made her even more determined to go down this dark road. i think she's hoping her little speech will be enough to give lena the jolt she needs to realize no, this is not who i am or who i want to be. i don't want to be on this side of the line in the sand.
kara and lena's relationship can't always be sunshine and rainbows all the time, no matter how much we wish it was. it would have been disingenuous to see this episode magically heal all the broken trust between them. remember what mxy said. what mon-el said. what winn said. these things take time.
as satisfying as it would have been to see them kiss and make up right away- i'll admit it, part of me would have enjoyed that immensely- both of them need to work together in order to repair the damage that's been done to their relationship, and that needs to take time or it won't feel- or even be- real.
and besides, close friends, real friends? they call each other out when one or the other has done something wrong. lena's had her turn, as we all had to watch again with mxy and alex, and now kara's had her turn as well. when lena called kara out, kara made an effort to change. now that kara's called lena out, i'm hopeful we'll see lena change too.
supercorp endgame? i think we're getting there.
17 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Devil’s Advocate
Chapter 1: What Ifs & Why Nots
Link:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/23402635
————
She bit her lip. Looked at the fried piece of equipment. Then looked at the marvelous man before her.
“... Ok,” she agreed, placing the headset in his hand. “You’re right. It makes the most sense.”
He felt for the port, and hooked up the cord. “I must admit; I share your hesitations. But, this is our wisest course of action with the factors considered. Thank you for allowing me this experiment.”
Leaning in to see the screen, Mira wrinkled her nose. “Well, I share your want to know what’s on here, too. I’m a little nervous, but… this could be life-changing. Now that we’re this far? I gotta know.”
Demiurge beamed, wrapping an arm around her as the other hovered over the laptop. With a ding, it announced that it recognized a new driver to be installed. “I fear occasionally that I have indoctrinated you in the conniving path of mischief.”
“I was a trickster long before you were made, Demiurge the Arch-Devil,” she returned, eyes glued to the screen. “Now come on, if we’re gonna do this let’s do it!”
A laugh rattled his throat, and he nuzzled her head as his mouse navigated the prompts. “As you wish, My Lady Zoba.”
She rolled her eyes and reached out to cradle the arm around her, the one still holding the gear. Cuddling to it, she watched as he sorted through code and solved various roadblocks. It was impressive; while Mira knew enough to navigate more technical issues than the average person, she was by no means an expert. Demiurge had put a bit of work into understanding how the building blocks of this world operated, and a portion of that had been placed into the field of technical issues. He had now and then at the office proven that it was a rare need to call for IT when he was nearby. But, there was still that occasional need.
“...Hmm.”
“What? What’s wrong?” Mira gripped her devil’s arm a little tighter.
“An error. It appears there was some sort of interference with this particular function that is proving troublesome to resolve. The interface from this method won’t allow for further utilization.”
Mira looked at the headset. She looked to Demiurge. He looked back.
“No,” he said.
————
C’mon Demi, just a little playing around with the dive gear? Just a teeny, tiny bit? Nothing bad will happen! Probably. I mean, what are the odds of getting sucked into another alternate dimension, really??
Y’all, I’ve gone crazy and made a branch-off au of RLotSF! It’s gonna be fuuuuuun~ Some crazy stuff is gonna happen to these two, and I’m pretty excited to write it all!
12 notes
·
View notes
Photo

A UNIVERSE OF WHAT-IFS: or what overthinking can do to a person.
Again Again by E. Lockhart
First published June 2nd, 2020 by Delacorte Press
Summary: Adelaide is a girl with a very discouraging summer ahead of her. Her boyfriend just broke up with her and she's heartbroken, her relationship with her brother is delicate, her studies are going downhill, and all she has is her summer job walking dogs in campus. Then she meets Jack and everything changes, in many ways, in many different universes.
My personal opinion: Lockhart has a very personal style of writing, a style that makes her stories completely recognizable as hers but that, at times, can be a tad confusing for the reader. She mixes present and past in a very subtle way that allows you to paint a more complete mental picture of the story. In this book it goes ever further, as we have not only present and past, but also the present of other alternate universes.
I think this is a very clever representation of overthinking. We can see all throughout the story how doubt and overthinking can affect the outcome of our actions. The more Adelaide ponders about what to do or what to say, the worse it gets for her. This is even more evident by the end, when we get to see an alternate universe in which she acts without doubting herself. Even if it's not a happy ending as such, we see how she ends up happier than in any other universe, with better relationships with friends and family and a reencountered confidence. This is such an intersecting way of portraying a life lesson for the reader.
Another thing Lockhart does very well is creating characters with dimension, flawed and real, as well as relatable stories, full of twists and endings that are not necessarily fairytale happy endings. In this book you never know what you are going to get. Alternate universes aside, there are many elements in this story you just don't expect and that's what makes it so captivating as well as confusing. For me, that's the magic of it and the appeal of Lockhart's writing style. In real life you also get surprised, positively and negatively alike, by people, circumstances, turns of events... sometimes things don't turn out as you wanted them to. She manages to really show that arbitrariness of life in her stories.
Rating: ★ 3.75/5
Related to this book: Another great book I recommend from E. Lockhart is We Were Liars.

#review#book review#again again#E. Lockhart#romance#ya#ya book#young adult#rg2u#rg2universe#readers guide to the universe#goodreads#love#Alicia
3 notes
·
View notes