#and like todd doesnt know dirk well enough to know somethings off

[clockworkcheetah]

still wanna know wtf dirk made and why amanda kept eating it

[actualbird]

i just relistened to doctor horrible’s sing along blog and got inspired so. dghda superhero/supervillain au where todd is an up and coming hero vigilante and dirk is the world’s worst villain

now hear me out

okay so dirk’s life is actually very depressing, as per usual. unfortunately, he was adopted by riggins as a child along with other children and trained and brought up to be villains for his supervillain team, Project Blackwing. fortunately, nearly all of the children are terrible at being villains. bart was trained to be a killing machine, but she only ever seems to kill bad guys. the rowdy 3 were trained to be robbers and chaos makers, but they always do robin hood-esque deeds of good. mona is a shapeshifter and riggins makes her transform into giant monsters to attack the city, but usually all she does is curl up on the roads as a giant rabbit and cause traffic. francis didnt like being a villain so when he was ten he just fucked off into an alternate dimension of his creation. dirk was....

dirk didnt have any immediately noticeable powers, but riggins noticed his propensity to see the innerworkings of the universe. he had no idea how to weaponize that though, so he just made dirk learn. learn a lot. dirk becomes the supervillain who makes wacky inventions and ray guns and -inators ala dr. doofenshmirtz from phineas and ferb. riggins wants him to make some really deadly stuff, but dirk always says the universe wants him to make an -inator that makes frogs sing, this will set the universe right this week!!!!

riggins and dirk have a very bad bad relationship where riggins forces dirk to do a lot of things he doesnt want to do and dirk finds a way to do them but ducking under causing any real harm. really, all dirk is is an incredible nuisance, a big enough nuisance that he gets to save himself from riggins’ manipulation for a while. sometimes.

anyway, dirk is known by the city as Icarus (segue to talk about dirk’s supervillain outfit which is absolutely inspired by dr. horrible. colored coats and huge black gloves. dorky looking goggles that are on his face whenever hes out being a villain. he changes color of his coat every appearance) thanks to his first invention which was a pair of mechanical wings he made to help aid the Incubus and Marzanna rob a bank. he very famously fell out of the sky and into a dumpster while holding a gigantic bag of money because his wings failed. he got arrested, but like all of Project Blackwing, theyre easily out of jail in like 3 to 4 days tops, much to the irritation of Detective Farah Black.

speaking of! let’s check out our roster of heroes!!!!

farah is a cop by day but the magnificent Athena at night!! Athena is the city’s most popular and well known superhero. she has super strength and even if shes wearing a mask face mask and a visor, everybody just knows she is beautiful. she fights crime at night to make up for the fact that bad guys keep getting away at her job. she got her power from her last job, being the bodyguard of patrick spring, a retired superhero inventor. one of his experiments went wrong and blasted her with a ray that granted her super strength. okay half the reason i gave farah super strength is because i cannot stop thinking about farah effortlessly lifting a truck.

tina!!!! tina isnt a superhero but she comes from a family of empaths. she works alongside farah as a detective and the empath thing means she can basically tell when somebody is lying or not. tina thus knows that farah is athena and farah knows tina is an empath and tina thinks farah is the coolest thing EVER. tina wants to be farah’s sidekick SO BAAAAD but farah never lets her. tina follows her anyway when farah goes nightwatching as covert backup.

now todd and amanda are complicated. pararibulitis exists in this universe the same way it does in canon, todd lied about it, amanda got it, and hes been wracked with guilt ever since and says he’s been cured. it is a terrible terrible condition until both of them learn, independently, that it’s actually a power. nobody else in the family ever learned this. with enough practice, they can make whatever their hallucinations are real and direct them and lengthen them. getting electrocuted? congrats, you have electricity powers for 20 minutes. however, the downside is that it hurts until you control it. amanda also has cool seer powers, and her discovery of these powers leads her to going out more and meeting the rowdy 3 and realizing theyre pretty cool people!!!

meanwhile todd develops pararibulitis for real and realizes it’s a power and decides the Only Way to make amends for his sins is to become a vigilante superhero. it’s so todd. be a superhero by using a power that deliberately hurts him in the process. hoo boy.

ANYWAYYY. todd becomes a masked vigilante known as Spectrum, dubbed by the public because to an outsider’s perspective, it just look like todd has completely random powers (trending twitter hashtag #SpectrumsPowerOfTheDay. is it gonna be electricity? fire? making wasps appear out of nowhere? pulling knives from thin air?? WHO KNOWS!!!)

todd is SHIT at fighting with any finesse and soon meets Athena who begrudgingly teaches him the ropes. they both dont know their secret identities until todd gets hurt and farah has to drag him to his apartment.

ANYWAY MY WHOLE POINT WITH THIS AU IS THAT ICARUS AND SPECTRUM BECOME RIVALS. icarus is DELIGHTED with spectrum because athena isnt too big on fight banter, but spectrum is SO FUN TO RILE UP. please please please imagine icarus and spectrum just squabbling while fighting on top of a building that has icarus’s new useless ray gun, or something.

icarus and spectrum both become quite attached to each other, and if they werent on different sides, theyd consider each other friends!!! icarus uses a healing ray gun to heal spectrum’s wounds when he gets injured. spectrum protects icarus from a falling telephone pole. their fight banter slowly turns into thinly veiled flirting, and they both can feel the tension. because it is....a Lot.

meanwhile, todd in his normal life, suddenly meets dirk gently at a laundromat. he gets a crush on him immediately. dirk gets a crush on todd too. both of them have a crisis about having a crush on “two different people.”

okay okay im done

[clockworkcheetah]

not me coming here with an analysis on the 2x07 brotzly arguement that nobody wants. this kinda fell into me going and aNOTHER THING, but i'll try and keep it vaguely coherent

also these are just interpretations/theorising- they're just ideas to chew on. obviously i'm coming to todds defense a little bit here (lbr he gets the most flack for a scene where i dont think anyones to blame) and at the end of the day its just a bit of fun innit

firstly and the main take here:

dirk did not want to be comforted right then and there. sounds a little odd, right? when you're upset you expect someone to hug you and tell you everything's fine. well... not always. especially when you're angry. especially when you're someone who needs time to process everything. he didn't want to be touched- throughout s2 he flinches away from todd (2x03) and he often uses something to shield himself- a cushion/the filing cabinet (2x03 and 2x04). he also distances himself from everyone when obviously upset. aka he wants space. the point is, todd picked up on that. he isnt gonna try and give dirk a comfort hug because how well would that go down, really? also i will point out in that scene todd never does try and touch dirk- when he notices dirk's upset, he kneels down close and speaks softly, but doesn't go further. it's similar to other times- close, but doesn't touch- dirk actually puts the distance between them. compared to how beast is with dirk, how BW treats dirk too, and how miserable he is the entire time with unwanted touching.

what todd normally does- and what seems to have worked before, is words of encouragement- they inspire him! except... he didnt want todd's words of encouragement or pep talks this time. at that point they would be just empty words, completely meaningless. he very clearly wasn't in the state of mind where any of that would've helped to me, i think dirk just really needed to vent and rage and eventually cool off and be in a better enough mental state to actually talk it through. but it's entirely possible even then he wouldn't wanna talk to todd- he clearly has a lot of self-blame to what has happened to him, even if todd doesnt blame him for that. and thats not todd's fault for not knowing that (todd not knowing will come up alot). hes not a mind reader, he has other priorities, and todd's own mental state isn't exactly great in s2, either. (another reason that occured to me why dirk might not talk to todd even afer he had time to process is the simple fact that todd was there. he spoke to francis and beast about the events of either the spring or cardenas case. hell! he even unloaded onto hobbs within knowing him a few hours. yet with todd, he doesn't... he could've told todd about the timeloop, the spring case, ect, but he knew todd was going to be there. maybe i'm reaching but its interesting- and falls back onto dirk keeps todd at arm's length (this will also come up alot). might make another post on that specifically)

so lets talk about todd now. a lot of flack he gets is that he shouldn't have left dirk, his words were harsh and his frustration came out of nowhere

i've already dived into the leaving thing (although he didn't abandon dirk. i kind of hate that narrative- he didn't tie dirk to a tree in the middle of the woods and drive off) dirk didn't want to go, wasn't in the state of mind to go and todd had a motivation to go. todd didnt force dirk to come with- even though he very much wanted him to- and dirk didn't force todd to stay. (and amanda at this point was still his main priority- was this a good priority? no! his arc was learning to let her go. dirk wasn't todd's main focus throughout s2 and this isn't a revelation. dirk still mattered- todd didn't stop caring for dirk just because he went off on his own.) and yes maybe he should've indicated he was coming back more clearly, because like todd, dirk isn't a mind reader either (but i'll come back to the communication thing)

todd's words were harsh. they were, i'm not pretending they weren't and they're supposed to be, because the brotzmans tend to be harsh when angry. i'm not justifying, but i can think of reasons: 1. self-projection. pretty much all of todd's really angry moments (directed at patrick and dirk in 1x07 and also suzie in 2x10) you can tell he's talking about himself at the core of it. with 2x07, i'll admit this falls into fanon speculation, but this line: 'Friendship isn't just about someone being there for you. It about you being there for them too.' there's weight there. there's no way this was just said on a whim, imo. todd is friendless at the start of the show, and yeah his selfish choices fucked them all up- but i think people tried to be there for him, and he pushed them all away (and probably hates himself for that.) I don't think dirk's being selfish, but todd had a point in indicating people have been trying to help and dirk wasn't accepting it. from the audience's pov yeah, we know why. todd's pov? he's given speeches, coaxed dirk into talking to him, or to engage with the case (dirk's indicated plenty of times he's a detective and wants to do cases). he is trying in the friendship, but dirk keeps him at arms length. for todd this would eventually become frustrating. (once again, i'll come back to this) 2. the blackwing line. hoo boy. 'I'm sorry they didn't teach you that at Blackwing' like i said, i doubt this was suppose to be favourable to todd here. but, a thing to consider: he doesn't know how bad blackwing is. '"Blackwing," it's a defunct CIA program that's after Dirk.' (1x06) 'Well, they don't exactly let us just wander around the halls' (2x02) 'I was in a government prison for psychics.' (2x02) todd was def given a watered down version of BW. todd wouldn't have known dirk was small in there- he says he hasnt seen mona in 15 years, we dont know dirk's exact age, probably early-mid 30s, though. todd is likely imagining dirk to be late teens-early 20s- and no context to how long he was in there the first time. another thing is, dirk talks about BW in a particular way- with humour, he downplays the trauma, and plays up that ~he was in a psychic prison~ to impress people. so in todd's pov, BW almost sounds like a very strict school (like how teens describe school as a prison). of course dirk doesn't- and shouldn't- have to traumadump anything, but todd has a specific idea of BW that he's been holding to for two months with no corrections to it and no real context provided. to add to that, todd is woefully optimistic. all throughout s2 he was desperately holding onto hope for things to be what they were. at the end of s1 he seemed ok(ish) with letting amanda go, then he got her phonecall and he spiralled- to a near delusional degree, basically in denial with the idea things can never go back to what he wants- until amanda tells him that is reality. self-improvement isn't smooth and linear, so him reverting isn't too shocking nor is it ooc of him. he needed to be called out and he was.

his frustration came out of nowhere. no it didn't. won't lie i'm not entirely sure how to word this one without being really blunt, but it very much was building up, dirk wasn't making it easy. ultimately i think there was some compassion fatigue- he had been trying to motivate and encourage dirk throughout s2- this wasn't a one-off time, at some point it was going to wear thin. todd has finite patience- but he did try. not to mention, todd never got openly angry with dirk in that scene, he stays relatively calm. the only time the frustration really came out was at the end, when he realised dirk wasn't coming with. also the whole yet again, dirk keeping todd at a distance thing. eventually that distrust is also going to wear todd out.

next thing, priest. todd's not stupid i mean he is but sometimes he's smart he would've picked up that priest did something to dirk- nobody knows what specifically, but there's obviously something. the only info we get (from todd's pov) is:

'-that man, Mr. Priest, I've met him before, Todd. He kills people.'

couple things to take from this: - 'i've met him before' suggests they didn't interact all that often- it sounds like they met once and a lot can happen in one meeting, of course. could be dirk downplaying his trauma again, pretending priest wasn't his childhood monster, or that he's in denial that priest did something really bad to him. but we don't know! todd isn't going to know that either - the 'he kills people' line doesn't really hold much weight for todd. how many people does he know who kill people? quite a lot at this point. priest is just another guy on the long list of guys who kill people- he doesn't know much more than that.

something else i picked up on is this scene parallels quite well with 1x01. aka dirk givig a motivational speech and todd responds with: 'No. You know what, no, I don't want to hear all that from you right now.' whilst dirk never directly says he doesn't want to hear what todd had to say in 2x07, it certainly read like he didn't want to. maybe todd recognised that (the whole self-projection thing) and decided to back-off. yeah, he was bitchy about it, but giving breathing room isn't bad and honestly? seemed like the smartest move in the heat of the moment- the whole dirk wants space when upset. not too mention, todd 100% knew what dirk was doing- pushing people away, trying to make todd hate him- see him as a bad person who hurts people, because todd does the same thing. tbh that's probably why todd got bitchy with his response- he likely saw through it and the brotzmans when they sense shit aren't gonna be that soft in their replies

i think that's all the main things i noticed about that scene. but i have a few smaller ones that link back to previous points:

dirk is dismissive, keeping todd at arm's length- he is in s1 (brushing away todd's questions) and moreso in s2 (the wet circles, not wanting todd to be in the house within a house with him,ect). the constant dismissal is going to start becoming discouraging. how is todd supposed to help someone who wants help but also doesn't want help? plus todd wants to help dirk! finding amanda is his main priority, yes. but he is down to be his assistant

todd knows dirk cares for him- doesn't know just how much- but being told that to dirk 'he's just a guy whose life he ruined' we can 1. add a big old dose of guilt on todd's end, and 2. that probably feels like a slap to the face, even if todd likely knows dirk did that on purpose. (also a smaller detail, that admittedly might be reaching a bit, during dirk's rant he mentions that '-And then I end up alone!' despite the fact todd hadn't actually left yet, hadn't given any indication that he has given up on dirk. but it reads as dirk rejecting todd already)

they don't actually know eachother that well. one week, then a two month gap, then s2 was around a week long. they absolutely haven't worked their footing out yet.

to add to that- their communication sucks. especially dirk tbh. he probably was keeping todd at arm's length in a misguided way of protecting him. and tbh i don't think dirk was ready to let todd in yet. this is nobody's fault- todd wanting to be let in, and dirk shutting him out. this could be a sperate post but i think the 2x08 rescue, and the 'don't spin out' in 2x09 was dirk finally letting todd in.

self-recognition through the other. or todd seeing himself in dirk (but not in the sexy way) the way dirk was talking, even the words he was saying, his attitude, his anger... todd's been there. and who does todd hate most of all?

todd put all his faith in dirk. granted, this is todd's own undoing and nothing dirk could've done. but dirk quitting being a detective maybe have been a reason why todd got mean. at this point todd's got no money, no job, no home, no purpose. dirk gave him a purpose that he threw away right in front of him. however, to consider- todd didn't lose faith in dirk. despite the anger and the words said, todd had total faith dirk will work it out. and he did. (this comes back to my thoughts on 2x08/2x09, so i won't delve into them here)

that's all i got for now. it's very easy to fall down a rabbit hole with this scene and these characters. and i can easily do a follow-up on this because i've def missed things. but this is getting so long. ultimately, i don't think either was in the right headspace in that scene- they had differing motivations. and neither was the villain for that.

tldr: messy situation between two messy people is messy on both ends

[actualbird]

Reverse fake dating... brotzly.....

alright LET’S DO THIS

dirk and todd, for some convoluted reason, have to pretend theyre rival detectives. maybe the case involves some really sneaky kinda espionage that entails getting information/gaining the trust of somebody and they can only do that if theyre not seen as a team? or seen as somebody other than themselves? honestly, a motive for this is blurry at best in my head, i just want them pretending to be rival detectives because IMAGINE

dirk voice: IMAGINE!!!

todd voice: i dont have to, youre already set on us doing it

what to imagine? well first off theres the whole fun of making cover identities and cover stories which dirk would have a blast with. plus, he’s always wanted to do a cool acting sorta shtick. then he can say he was a spy and technically not be lying!!! and todd goes with it because there isnt really any other plan, and, well, how hard could it be?

anyway, once the whole thing is a go, they both realize their mistake because the whole undercover as rivals means they cant be seen holding hands or kissing or any of the little pda things todd has grown to love. hell, they logically shouldnt even be seen together very much, which is excruciating for both of them. all throughout the case, when theyre doing theyre own investigations, dirk will send todd texts of pictures of things that remind him of todd, as if dirk is in another continent and not in the same area. todd texts him at some point “miss you” and sends it before he can groan about how stupid it must sound before dirk texts back “miss you too”

when they start making contact with the mark, they start respectively planting information about how they Hate each other, how theyve been rivals for years, how you shouldnt give that guy info, instead give it to me. please imagine the plot makes sense, im just in it for the reverse fake dating. 

anyway, this eventually leads to them having to Interact in front of this person who thinks they hate each other, and they vastly underestimated how hard this whole pretend thing was gonna be. todd thought it would be somewhat easy cuz all he had to do was channel his energy when he first met dirk. dirk thought maybe the universe would guide him through it.

they are both Wrong. todd gets this subtle Look in his eyes whenever he looks at dirk, and it’s a look nobody would be able to place or recognize unless that person had also been ridiculously in love. and dirk is just downright hopeless. not even the universe could help dirk not love todd brotzman

the mark: oh shit, look, it’s that other detective you hate

dirk: ah yes, he’s the scum of the earth

the mark: why are you smiling?

dirk, panicking: because i cant stand him

dirk and todd actually talking to each other and keeping up the front is even Worse because their words say “i despise you stop bothering me” but their Energy has this Palpable Romantic Tension that is SO OBVIOUS that it gets to the point that when the mark asks dirk about it, dirk just blurts the first thing that comes into his head, which just so happens to be “HE’S MY EX”

and now i guess i introduce a new tangential trope: FAKE EXES

todd: you told him WHAT

dirk: I DIDNT KNOW WHAT ELSE TO SAY

so theyll have to pretend that too which is at least a little bit easier because they can do shit like bring up habits that annoy them as past dating history. “he doesnt like tea, any tea, can you believe that??” “he broke into my apartment and cant drive for shit.” 

it’s a whole mess, but maybe it works. who knows.

i like to think that on this case, they still stay in the same hotel room, or something. theyre both very careful not to be seen coming in or out at the same time, but when they get back every night, theyre back to their usual unadulterated love-y selves. 

when todd leaves every morning, an hour or so before dirk does, he kisses dirk before he’s out the door. 

“Love you,” Todd calls out. It’s become a habit for him that Dirk can’t get enough of.

“I think you mean ‘hate you’,” Dirk says, jokingly. A little. He and Todd have been together for a while now, and he’s sure of so many things now, Todd’s feelings one of them, but insecurity is a hard thing to shake off completely, especially with the whole annoying habits warfare thing they’re playing vicariously through their mark.

Todd stops for a second and looks back. “No, I don’t. I really don’t.”

“Oh.” Insecurity can take a hike. Dirk knows when Todd means something, and this is something he means with all his heart. “I love you too.”

(if dirk is a little bit more lovestruck towards his ~rival/ex~ on that day, wellllll he can just blame it on some kinda old anniversary he’ll make up on the spot)

so theres my ridiculous take on reverse fake dating brotzly sjdksjhksd