#and kon and the arc of having to accept that he can ask for help sometimes actually

[mamawasatesttube]

thinking abt kon getting hurt/upset about something big and clark bundling him up in his cape... ouuhhhhh souperfam save me...

[youngjusticeslut]

Saw your post about fanfics and if you take requests can you do a fic right after Conner's death where someone, anyone from M'gann's family or Gar try their best to comfort her. Heck maybe even involve Superman somehow if you can. Please?

She's been crying underneath the arc for hours. No matter what anyone does, or tries, M'gann won't move. She stays there, clutching Conner's shirt in her fists, desperately trying to sense his mind touch.

Garfield stays by her a while and holds her. He rocks his sister in his arms that feel too small to hold both their grief, his sniffles intermingling with hers. At some point it becomes too much. The energy on Mars has always felt off to him, but today it feels rancid, choking him and making it hard to breathe. He has to get out. Garfield makes an excuse, any excuse, to get out of there.

Em'ree and J'ann trade off with the remaining shifts, but M'gann remains unchanged. Help is beyond her now. Her person, her anchor has been cut off, and now she's left floating in an abyss she doesn't have the first clue how to navigate. J'onn comes by after the eight hour mark. He attempts to reason with her, sneaks into her mind and tries providing calming waves of reassurance and support, but M'gann locks him out. She can't hear anyone. Doesn't want to hear anyone. She needs to keep an open mind for Conner.

When she hasn't moved for twelve hours, one last person tries. He floats down, rests a careful hand on her shoulder. "M'gann."

The voice snaps her out of her mental hole. She lifts her head, but it's only Superman. Kon-El. Not her Conner in the slightest.

"You have to get up," he says, his voice soft.

M'gann shakes her head. She can't. She needs to stay here, she has to be here, under the arch. The spirit of Ma'ayava'ana will help her find him, she's sure of it.

Superman bends down, takes a set beside her. He's careful not to move too fast, he doesn't want to scare her off. "It's a beautiful arch," he muses, touching one of the crystals. "Did Conner help build it?"

Another shake 'no'. The words are lodged in her throat, and she doesn't have the mental energy to form a link. She has to save her energy for Conner.

"I see." He sighs, wishing he knew some way to help the broken girl before him. Maybe his presence is only making things worse. He looks like Conner, and his voice is the same too. Why did he think he had any right to even be near her? His brow furrows. Conner was his brother. He’d hate him if he didn’t try. “Your friends can help you, M’gann. Kaldur, Artemis, Dick... they’d want to know. From you.” 

M’gann hiccups. “How?” she asks, her voice coming through soft through the mind link. “How on earth can I... am I supposed to tell them..” She balls her fist. “I can’t go. I can’t leave.” She clutches Conner’s shift tighter in her palms. “We were supposed to be married...” 

It’s instinctive, how quickly Superman gets down to her level and wraps his arms around her. M’gann doesn’t fight him, she accepts the embrace as she’s accepted all the others. “He’s really gone, isn’t he?” she chokes, speaking out loud for the first time since finding the news. 

The older man sighs. He knows loss. Both in the field, and out of it. The news never gets easier, whether it’s being delivered, or hearing it firsthand. He tightens his arms around the broken girl and nods. “We’re here for you M’gann. All of us. Always.”

[our-happygirl500-fan]

I think about the Young Justice comic that DC had plans for a lot because even just looking at the team and the cover I can already tell what the dynamics and maybe a few storylines would have been and it would have been so good!

There would have been three 'squads' within the team: First there would be Kara and Steph (Steph and Kara had become quite close before the reboot Kara helping out Steph multiple times in her Batgirl run and they even hung out in their civilian identities Steph showing Kara around her college campus, taking her to the movies and the two of them having pillow fights telling each other that they were each others BFF Kara for a brief time was Steph's super the same way that Clark is Bruce's or Kon is Tim's or Jon is Damian's).

Kara was stated that she would be the team leader most likely because she is the most respected of the heroes there having the 'S' and the immediate respect being a Super inspires. However in Kara and Steph's team ups Steph was often shown more tactical minded than Kara often coming up with the plans or what they needed to defeat whoever they were fighting while Kara had the abilities to actually do what Steph asked.

Typical Bat Super dynamic really.

So with Kara as the leader of the team Steph most likely would have been the teams strategist often giving advice and helping direct the team.

However I believe the major arc for Steph would have been actually ending up as team leader herself, (similar to how in the YJ cartoon Aqualad was leader before Robin took over), Steph is just as skilled as any Bat having trained with Babs, Bruce, Black Canary, Cass, Catwoman ect but the main obstacle for most of her hero career is that no one gave her respect, Steph has been a hero since she was 14 but she was a teen hero without a mentor or powers which was the reason for other heroes brushing her off. As Batgirl she was only just starting to get recognition for her skills and on this team I think Steph would have really established herself in the hero world especially since she rarely worked outside of Gotham.

Then there would be Miss Martian, Static, and Blue Beetle.

Miss Martian and Blue Beetle were both on the Teen Titans together so they have a pre existing dynamic and friendship (before MM left the Teen Titans after the fallout of the Titans of Tomorrow arc)

Static rarely left his own city yet teamed up with the Teen Titans a few times during which Miss Martian and him showed romantic interest with each other so if this comic had been made they would have probably ended up in a relationship together.

Blue Beetle and Static as the only 'guys' on the team the same age would have probably ended up in a close friendship.

Then there would be Damian and Irey as the two 'kids' of the team who would probably be forced together quite a bit.

  I have a feeling that Kara got Steph to join her team and when Dick heard that Steph was joining a team he made her take Damian along to teach him teamwork something he tried before by having Damian work with the Teen Titans but that generation of Teen Titans had a lot of a 'club' mentality and wouldn't accept any Robin who wasn't Tim Drake.

Irey might have ended up on the team similarly with Dick convincing Wally because he wants Damian to have friends closer to his age.

Irey and Damian's dynamic would have been mostly bickering (I am convinced that Damian would pull Irey’s pigtails at least once) but it would be really interesting to see them eventually move past that and become close friends. Especially considering Dick and Wally’s own friendship.

Especially when you consider that Damian didn't have much of a childhood due to the way he was raised and though Irey and Jai had parents who tried to give them as much of a childhood as possible they aged through most of their life until Irey stabilised the speedforce by breaking Jai's connection to it but Irey didn't 'grow up' in a normal sense that differentiates her from other kids which would have been really interesting to explore with Damian's own loss of childhood.

You could have also explored a bit on how Irey took the speed powers for herself leaving her brother powerless and while she did it to save his life maybe we could explore Jai missing his speed or Irey feeling guilty about it sometimes or maybe even Irey feeling jealous of Jai wishing she had the chance to be normal instead.

Lots of fun things to explore here.

There's also the fact that Steph would be closer with Damian and Irey than the rest of the team because 1. she's protective of Damian (and kids in general) and is trying to show Damian what a normal childhood is but 2. As mentioned before she's only started getting respect as a hero so while most heroes from her generation have been respected for years Steph has been fighting for just a chance to stand on that stage and only just got on around the same time Damian and Irey's generation have so she's sort of making a name for herself the same time they are making her more likely to respect them and treat them nicely than the rest of the team.

Steph as a super hero baby sitter is my biggest headcanon due to this as she's the one that respects the kids most. Steph and Static would also be the sort of level headed ones on the team since they rarely acted outside their own cities so they'd notice how bonkers things can get more than Kara or Jaime or Meg'an do.

Steph has also teamed up with Miss Martian before along with several other female heroes thanks to Kara's help and she also helped train Tracy 13 (Jaime's girlfriend) in hand to hand when Tim and Jaime brought them both to Titans Tower.

There's a lot of good story arcs and personal dynamics just waiting to happen by looking at this team and it's a huge shame that we never got to see them in action.

In conclusion:

[bigskydreaming]

Also friendly reminder that Dick never thought that Tim was crazy for refusing to believe Bruce was dead, he thought Tim was stressed and exhausted and not coping well and needed to take a fucking break, and this is all very understandable when you keep in mind that Dick ISN’T an asshole who never pays attention to anyone but himself. That in fact, its the exact opposite, and its BECAUSE Dick pays attention to Tim and worries about stuff like, oh, his mental health and wellbeing, that he was probably thinking about the fact that the LAST time Tim refused to accept a loved one’s death.....

HE TRIED TO CLONE HIS DEAD BFF IN HIS BASEMENT.

Tim, historically, DOES NOT COPE WELL, with loss. Dick, historically, IS VERY AWARE OF THIS.

Dick being concerned about Tim when Tim starts spouting off about how corpse or no corpse, Bruce isn’t really dead, just lost in the timestream (without offering up any evidence at the time of these confrontations).....

like....it is not the betrayal and abandonment of trust that fandom makes it out to be.

Its like, a grieving, stressed and overworked older brother simply being very fucking worried about his little brother and how he’s dealing or NOT dealing with all the things Dick himself is struggling with at the moment.

Also, really wish people would provide context for the ‘Dick suggested Tim go to ARKHAM and Dick locked Jason up in Arkham where he could’ve been right next to the Joker and Dick just walked away and didn’t even care’ shit.

No. That’s not remotely what happened. Arkham BLEW UP in Battle for the Cowl. And one of the first things Dick did as acting CEO of Wayne Enterprises was BUY the contract for the Arkham remodel, because due to being painfully aware of how bad and shitty and totally ineffective it was since he was like, eight....Dick wanted to try and use his new position and resources to make Arkham an ACTUAL working and effective mental health facility. Dick literally went ON SITE in multiple issues, to oversee the remodel in person? He had supervisory access? 

So when he suggested things IN THOSE SAME ISSUES like Tim going to Arkham to take a break, or PULLING STRINGS to make sure that when the GCPD arrested Jason, he was transferred to Arkham instead of Blackgate.....what Dick was ACTUALLY doing was looking out for his little brothers as best he could, DESPITE the fact that they both actively hated him at the moment, by trying to get them help/keep them safe in a location HE COULD ENSURE WAS ACTUALLY SAFE AT THE MOMENT. 

Sanctuary didn’t exist back then, there was no superhero facility for vigilantes who were dealing with enormous shit that would give ANYONE a breakdown, and it wasn’t like a public figure like Tim, well known in BOTH his superhero identity AND his civilian one, could just wander into any mental health facility and say hi, I need a place to have a total meltdown in peace and quiet, thanks. The only real option for that was like....the one mental health facility Dick was pouring his time and resources into MAKING USEFUL and had enough pull at to like....keep him off the books.

Same thing with Jason? Because of the whole...Arkham just BLEW UP last year, all the big name Gotham Rogues....weren’t at Arkham at the time. Joker was NOWHERE NEAR the place the entire time Jason was there, which Dick was very aware of since like....HE WAS THERE. Constantly. It was literally just Dick’s way of keeping Jason locked up where he wouldn’t KEEP TRYING TO KILL THEIR LITTLE BROTHERS, since asking him to stop (something Dick had literally tried multiple times lol) was not effective at all....while at the same time, it kept Jason out of prison population AND didn’t require keeping him in some kinda fucked up isolation cell in a prison just for safekeeping. In fact, after Bruce came back and took over from Dick again, and BRUCE went to visit Jason in Arkham...Jason’s biggest CANON complaint was that he was BORED. He wanted to be transferred to an actual prison because all he was doing here was being giving weekly psych evaluations that he passed in flying colors (again, no forcible drugging or treatment or electroshock therapy or any other Jason whump people have written and blamed Dick for). 

And when Bruce agreed, what did Jason do? He poisoned the prison cafeteria and killed like eighty people with no regard for their level of criminal behavior or whatever, which is shitty Jason writing, and was of course just part of Jason’s plan to escape, which he did with Scarlet’s help, AND Dick and Damian’s when Jason’s escape plans were hijacked by some other bad guys who then kidnapped him. And the second Jason prioritized running away with Scarlet over trying to kill Dick and Damian again, Dick held Damian back from going after them, because ALL HE HAD WANTED ALL ALONG was just a SIGN that Jason might eventually find other things more important than like...trying to kill their little brothers at every opportunity.

LOLOLOL so to recap: Bruce pays no attention to how Tim handles his grief, Tim tries to clone Kon in a basement. Dick worries about how Tim handles his grief and tries to convince him to take a break somewhere safe and private that Dick can make sure nobody knows about....OMG WHAT AN AWFUL HUMAN BEING.

Bruce literally cuts Jason’s throat with a batarang rather than let him kill the Joker, does absolutely nothing to search for Jason as Jason runs around for a couple years occasionally trying to kill his siblings. Dick locks Jason up in a safe and private facility where he can’t kill his siblings but also is safe from people with an axe to grind against the Red Hood, or like, corrupt police brutality.....OMG WHAT AN AWFUL HUMAN BEING.

Like....c’mon people.

(Oh another thing that REALLY bugs me about people not having any context for the Arkham stuff, is the last arc before Bruce’s death, Batman RIP - literally had DICK locked up in Arkham, in a straitjacket, drugged to the gills and foaming at the mouth while the group that kidnapped him to get to Bruce planned to lobotomize him. All those whump stories people write about all the terrible things that might have happened to Jason and/or Tim in Arkham because of Dick....and that were NEVER a possibility...BECAUSE of Dick....yeah, those actually more accurately describe.....what actually happened to Dick. Himself. Like, two months before all of this. I mean, how much do you have to hate Dick Grayson and be convinced he’s just an awful human being in order to believe that after going through that HIMSELF, one of his first acts as Batman would be to thoughtlessly inflict similar treatment on his own brothers, who....he’s literally shown prioritizing at every other turn, to the extent that he’s actively begging Jason to let him help him during Battle for the Cowl even WHILE Jason’s in the process of trying to kill him).

[saranel]

Do you think UraYoru has lil parallelism with IchiRuki bond and chemistry ???? 😊😆🐕🎩 🐇🍓✨

Tagging @cocosy who asked the same question

I think they have some big differences in terms of dynamic, seeing as how the personalities and combinations involved are quite dissimilar, but I can definitely see ways in which they are alike.

Fights against Yammy are pretty romantic, I guess?

(more under the cut)

1. Chemistry

Okay, let’s start with the obvious one! There’s a reason both are such popular pairings (the most popular for each character by far), and chemistry has a lot to do with it.

Anyone who’s ever done any creative writing can attest to this, but certain characters simply take over and do the work for you, so to speak, once you become familiar enough with them.  I’ve only ever written the one IchiRuki fic, but when I tried to write dialogue for them, it just… flowed.  Same with Kisuke and Yoruichi.  I may have to tweak and polish to get the final result feeling as IC as I can make it, but the way they interact with each other feels natural and easy to replicate on paper.

And it’s all due to the fact that these two pairs have been set up in canon to work so well together.  Both Ichigo and Kisuke interact with plenty of other characters in the story with fun results, but when they interact with Rukia and Yoruichi respectively?  That’s when we get sparks. 

2. Bond

As a pair with such a long history, Kisuke and Yoruichi have an understandably deep connection.  There’s little doubt in my mind that they ‘clicked’ from the start, whenever that may have been, but there’s no denying that their centuries-spanning relationship contributes to their intimacy (both platonic and romantic).

For earlier adopters of the manga, I imagine the wait from the moment Yoruichi first gave the audience a glimpse of her shared past with Kisuke, to seeing them share panel time again must’ve built a lot of hype.  Kubo went on to be a tease for years concerning those two.  The nature of their relationship was even brought up in Kisuke’s Radio Kon interview, so this was obviously something the readers were wondering about from early on.  

And I think that one of the earliest events of the Arrancar arc was basically Kubo’s response to the audience’s rising curiosity:

Kisuke and Yoruichi were a big mystery to us at that point (NOT TO MENTION ELEVEN YEARS LATER), and Kubo displays some tremendous, economical storytelling here by giving us a succinct, yet rich answer as to what exactly Kisuke and Yoruichi are to each other:

Partners.

In every sense of the word.

I’ve often seen fans talk about the shadier aspects of Kisuke’s character and exclaim, aghast, “Does Yoruichi even know about this?!!!” and it always makes me laugh.  Because honestly, does anyone truly believe there is a single thing Yoruichi doesn’t know about him by this point?

Yoruichi knows exactly who this man is and she accepts him, warts and all. And vice versa. 

They know each other well enough that words are hardly ever needed:

And this is why it astounds me that Ichigo and Rukia reach such a level of understanding in only a few short months.  

Like I said, I firmly believe that Kisuke and Yoruichi were also a pair that developed a deep bond very fast, but given their long-standing relationship, they serve as an example of an unbreakable bond in the manga.  No one in their right mind is going to dispute those two are close, so when it becomes easy to draw a comparison between them and other pairs in the manga, that’s when you know it’s real:

^^^ What she actually says is more along the lines of: “Well I thought I might as well use this piece of crap you made so you wouldn’t whine, but without it, I would’ve dodged just fine!”  which is a tsundere’s way of saying ‘I love you’

And now you know why Kisuke wears that little half-smile in that panel ;)

3. Personalities

A few months ago, I made this super long post about the bond between mentor and student, and in writing it, I was surprised to discover ways in which Kisuke and Ichigo are alike that I hadn’t considered before. 

I like to think that this is one of the reasons Kisuke chose to mentor Ichigo: because he sees everything good about himself in his student, but none of his worse qualities. He sees a version of himself that was once more optimistic and a little less pragmatic, fiercely protective in a way that bordered on carelessness. 

Kisuke was a lot like Ichigo before the events of TBTP and his exile, and though he learned to trust in his subordinates and colleagues, his more sentimental side always shines through when someone he loves is in danger, façade and common sense be damned.  He couldn’t stop himself from following Hiyori, and he couldn’t stop himself from rushing to Yoruichi’s aid, either, instead of joining Ichigo against Yhwach.  

Similarly, Ichigo is the ‘softie’ of the pair to contrast Rukia’s stricter, more militaristic personality.  It’s Ichigo who found a little ‘sister�� to protect in the middle of the damn Hueco Mundo desert, Ichigo who will fiercely defend and show concern for people who were once his enemies:

It’s Kisuke and Ichigo who will drive away even the people they love in order to protect them (it’s worth noting that Rukia also does this at a certain point, but the circumstances are different and I’ll get to why shortly):

And it’s a similarity Kisuke himself remarks upon:

That’s not to say that Rukia and Yoruichi are cold in comparison, or not just as protective; not by a long shot.  But perhaps because they were both raised as nobility, they often fight a visible war with their own feelings:

In Yoruichi’s case, this is far more pronounced, to the point that she appears borderline emotionally stunted at times (see: tsundere).  Yoruichi was most likely taught that emotions are a weakness since she was a child (see: Byakuya, too).  I have this headcanon (last section) that Yoruichi must’ve been a very lonely child before she met Kisuke, carrying the immense weight of a legacy on her shoulders from a very young age.  And if, as I suspect, she had to compete with other candidates to earn the title of Clan Head, she was forced to sacrifice many things about herself in the altar of duty.    

Rukia’s upbringing for the first few years of her life was radically different, but we know for a fact that she was forced to grow up fast, in order to survive on her own in the Rukongai.  When she lost every single friend but Renji, she was the one who kept on pressing forward, the one who suggested entering the Academy.  And in a perfect storm of terrible events, her own feelings of inadequacy were only exacerbated when she was adopted by the Kuchiki Clan and treated so abysmally by Byakuya.  Rukia has been swallowing her own feelings since she could crawl: she swallowed the pain of being alone for a big part of her childhood so she could toughen up and survive, she swallowed the pain of losing her friends, the pain of under-performing in the academy, of being so blatantly ignored by Byakuya, the tremendous guilt over what happened with Kaien. 

What’s fascinating to me is that despite all this pressure, despite their loyalty and recorded sense of duty to the Gotei, both these women are in possession of a heart that always steers them in the right direction when it matters:

At this point, even Rukia has resigned herself to the fact that Ichigo is going to die.  She doesn’t think there’s any chance of survival, and yet instead of begging and pleading for forgiveness, for mercy, she doesn’t hesitate to make matters even worse for herself. She is literally throwing her life away just so she can be there for him in his final moments.

And then, of course, there’s this:

Do I even need to say anything here?

Yoruichi was a woman who had everything: beauty, wealth, status, respect, power, a family, friends, apprentices, and she left it all behind without a moment’s hesitation, when she didn’t even have to.

Both these women seem to struggle with expressing affection at times, but their actions always speak louder than words.  And when it comes to giving their men a swift kick up the ass when they desperately need it, they don’t hesitate even for a second:

4. Bonus: Design

It’s a well-known fact that Kubo’s original concept art for Bleach (then ‘Snipe’) had Ichigo in glasses, with black hair, but he famously changed the design specifically so it would match Rukia’s:

“Before the story was decided a Shingami uniform popped up into my mind. Unlike the design we have now it was like a uniform from Catholic school where they wore a black jacket over a white blouse with a black bowtie… and they carried a huge scissors. I thought that was what Shinigami was like. After that, to match Rukia’s design I changed Ichigo’s character design. Like Rukia had black hair so it’s best if Ichigo didn’t have black hair.”  

– Tite Kubo

And I just… I live for this kind of crap in fiction, because when it’s applied to a pair that already works well on so many different levels, it becomes the icing on the cake:

THEY LOOK SO DAMN GOOD TOGETHER.  

I love that they’re opposites in many ways, but still similar in plenty of others.  There’s always a great deal of love for pairs that are completely opposite, but from personal experience, these kinds of relationships aren’t built to last.  Give me pairs that complement each other, not pairs that are always in disagreement.  Pairs that challenge each other, but can still coexist harmoniously.  Ichigo and Rukia have their moments of tension, there’s spark, there’s passion, but they’re on the same wavelength where it counts.

And I can’t help but feel this also applies to Kisuke and Yoruichi to a T.

Kubo never made a similar declaration about Kisuke and Yoruichi’s design, but looking at this panel*** makes me think that he applied the same design philosophy here as well.

Black hair, fair hair; dark skin, pale skin; black uniform with white obi, white uniform with black obi; black turtleneck, white undershirt.

Even in their color versions, they are created to look harmonious: the pale yellow of Kisuke’s hair is complementary (i.e. opposite on the color wheel) to the purple undertones in Yoruichi’s; her golden eyes are similarly complementary to his bluish grey eyes; green, purple and orange form a color triad:

Yoruichi shows up early enough in the manga (albeit in her cat form) to make me think that Kubo conceived of Kisuke and Yoruichi as a pair from the beginning.  They were designed to look good together, and they do.  

*** Not to mention that in the manga, this panel is framed in black, making it a memory.  And since it’s Yoruichi speaking, this is her memory.  Notice how Kisuke looks on ahead, looking happy and lively, while Yoruichi is the one who’s looking at him, showcasing a gentle, affectionate smile we’ve never seen before or since in the manga.  

She’s always been a happy, laid-back person, but expressions of open, genuine affection are extremely rare from her, and the fact that she looks at him with such pride, smiles at him so softly, is really all the proof I need, tbh.