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starfallskitter · 3 years

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The Guardian Alya Theory

Hi! Didn't expect to be writing Miraculous theory again so quickly, but I have an idea in my head that I needed to get out there. So hear me out.

Warning: major spoilers for Season 4 all throughout this theory. Specifically Gang of Secrets, Optigami, Truth, Furious Fu, Mr Pigeon 72... just, most of them.

In short, the theory is this: Marinette will discover that she can't be both Ladybug and the Guardian at the same time, and will make Alya the Guardian. Marinette's memory will be wiped and she will spend a few episodes re-learning how to be Ladybug, and re-learning Chat Noir, which will obviously change their relationship.

This means Alya will know who Chat Noir is. And I think, for a brief time before her memory is wiped, Marinette will know as well. Meaning: temporary one-sided reveal!

Now, here's all the evidence, below the cut.

There's a fundamental problem with Ladybug and the Guardian being the same person. There's the stress it places on Marinette, sure, and the Guardian certainly can have a Miraculous and use it, but the problem is right here:

Someone has to be the link between civilian identities, and right now Plagg and Tikki are the only ones who know- and that's useless when both heros are transformed. The Guardian needs to know the identity of both Ladybug and Chat Noir. And if there's one thing that the show has absolutely beaten into us by now...

It's that they can't know each others.

So, there's a fundamental tension here. Marinette is currently putting all of her focus on being the Guardian, on working with the kwamis and figuring things out about the Miracle Box; and as her plans increasingly involve her role as Guardian, using kwamis or the fact that Alya knows her civilian identity, she's not quite being Ladybug properly. She's not doing right by Chat Noir, because now, as her plans are increasingly involving things she as Marinette and/or she as the Guardian have access to, and Chat Noir is not knowingly included in either of those, he is being ousted. It turns out she still needs him (or Plagg, in Mr Pigeon 72) for her plans, but her relationship with him is suffering.

He says in Truth that he doesn't mind her being the Guardian as long as it doesn't change things between them:

Except it is changing, and it has been bothering him. Just look at his face when he realises (or more accurately, assumes) the akuma has been defeated without him in Optigami:

He is not happy.

I'm sure I don't need to tell anyone at this point that Ladybug is ousting Chat Noir and he's upset by it. At this point in the series he's doing okay about it, still managing to keep up a front and hoping this is temporary. Which, according to this theory, it is. Honestly, no matter how this goes, it's not going to make Chat happy, because in this theory, the ending won't please him. We'll get to that.

So Marinette can't be Guardian and Ladybug at the same time. So, she has to give one up.

She may try to give up being Ladybug, but I'm not convinced this will happen. She may try to give over guardianship to Su Han, but I'm also not convinced by this- it's not narratively interesting and seems to contradict the conclusion of Furious Fu. So, what might she do?

Well, there's a clear answer. Someone who's already helping figure out important features of the Miraculouses, who was able to figure out a whole new power of the Ladybug Miraculous:

And who has good investigative powers to reveal more secrets? Who is already heavily invested in the superheros? Who already knows that Marinette is Ladybug and is already helping her?

And who has Marinette possibly already said she's training up to be Guardian?

Now, whether she's reffering to being Ladybug or being the Guardian here is unclear. I've seen most interpretations suggesting she means Ladybug, and from the wording in this case it honestly seems like both; but it could definitely be either. And in the context of this theory, if we assume she means Guardian, then it's clear that Marinette is already noticing that Alya would make a good Guardian.

So, let's put the pieces together.

Premise: Ladybug and Chat Noir cannot know each other's identity until this Hawkmoth is defeated. Premise: The Guardian must know both Ladybug and Chat Noir's identity. Conclusion: Ladybug and the Guardian cannot be the same person at this point in time. (Chat Noir can't be either).

Premise: Ladybug and the Guardian cannot be the same person at this point in time. Premise: Alya would be a good Guardian. Premise: Marinette either will not, or should not, give up being Ladybug. Conclusion: Marinette will make Alya the Guardian.

There are two complications with this plan. One is in Alya being the Guardian, and one is in Marinette giving it up.

The complication with Alya being the guardian is that Hawkmoth knows her identity. He knows she's Rena Rouge, and as of Optigami knows that Rena Rouge is special as opposed to the other holders. This appears to not be stopping Marinette giving her the Miraculous, but obviously, based on the events of late season 3, it's more of a complication in her being the Guardian. She has, like, parents, and can't hide like Master Fu could.

A possible solution is some kind of trickery, in which they make it look like Alya has lost her miraculous, and make it seem like Ladybug's still the Guardian. I mean, Alya's miraculous is illusion-based, and this could be interesting if it's post one-sided reveal discussed below. I'm sure there are other solutions as well, but off the top of my head I'd assume that would be the plan. Perhaps the Box is camoflaged such that finding out what of Alya's is the Miracle Box at all would be a challenge. There's a lot of possibility.

The other complication: Marinette would lose all memory of the Miraculouses.

Now, it's presumed here that the way the memory loss works is that it happens every time (and it's not like the appearance of the box, or kwamis being in/out of it, in that it's a factor of what the owner believes), and that the memory loss only applies to the Miraculouses and the kwamis and all of that, and doesn't affect other memories- which seems to be Fu's experience of it, after all. He doesn't remember Marinette because he only ever knew her as Ladybug, but he seemed to remember the unrelated Marianne fine.

This means that if Marinette loses guardianship, she'll remember Alya, Adrien, her family, etc... but nothing about Ladybug, Chat Noir, Hawkmoth, Tikki, any of that.

Which means:

-She'll have to spend some amount of time re-learning how to be Ladybug, who Chat Noir is, etc. all of that. Chat Noir will probably be able to fill her in on all of this, and so will Alya and Tikki, so it won't take so long.

-She gets a total reset on her relationship with Chat Noir. Which I highly doubt he'll be happy with- but it might change her view of him. I say it might change her view of him because mainly, while their relationship has been pretty consistent, she definitely is starting to like him more in this season, seeing him differently- and I largely think that that's due to a change in circumstance, as Marinette can only trust so many people in her life:

But I think an important part of Adrien's character recently is that we've seen less dichotomy between Adrien and Chat Noir. His true personality is a little of both, but he puts both on to play various roles; but honestly, I've noticed some more of Adrien in Chat Noir, and some more of Chat Noir in Adrien. He's being more honest with himself around some people, the self we only really see him being with Plagg, which he was trying to be with Kagami and is increasingly being with Marinette. It's hard to provide specific examples, though.

But if Marinette's first impressions of Chat Noir are just a touch more Adrien-like than they were, perhaps her feelings towards him will change- without losing that aspect of trust. I know I'm being very vague here, but there's a lot of potential and it'll take a lot more episodes of this season than we've seen to predict how this might go.

It's also possible that Marinette will remember Chat Noir when she met him as Marinette. Then we might get some great Marichat, or her only having knowledge of him as that boy who came to her ledge or she fake-dated. Which would be interesting. It's not totally clear how this will work if it occurs, so it's up to the writers really.

So that situation provides a lot of angst: Ladybug forgetting Chat Noir. But what comes before her forgetting Chat Noir could be something really interesting. After all, if the Guardian must know Chat Noir's identity, perhaps Marinette will try that first. Adrien will, of course, trust her completely.

Cue at least one episode where Marinette knows that Chat Noir and Adrien are the same person (while Adrien not knowing the reverse). Cue Ladrien. And, right after that, an episode that revolves around Ladybug erasing those memories. While Alya knows everything that just happened. And that Chat Noir is Adrien. And she can't tell Marinette this as she has to re-teach her how to be Ladybug. Honestly, if any character knows what we as the audience know about the Love Square, it makes perfect sense that it's Alya.

In conclusion: angsty season finale that ends with Alya knowing everything, Chat Noir Very Upset, Ladybug getting a memory reset, and just generally everything changing? It's more likely than you think.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug theory #miraculous ladybug analysis #miraculous ladybug spoilers #ml #ml spoilers #ml theory #ml analysis #alya cesaire #marinette dupain-cheng #ladybug #chat noir #adrien agreste #rena rogue #miraculous

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the-bat-collector · 3 years

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SUPERBAT Rec List!! AU NO POWERS ish PART 2

No Powers or No Capes (There are some minor exceptions but I think this still applies)

Soo it’s become harder to find these fics and I kept postponing making this list just in case I found moreeeee. After some time convincing myself I decided that If I find more I’ll just make a part 3.

Here is the link to Part 1 Post

So without further ado. Here you go!

Storge by ichikonohakko @ichikonohakko

G - 3,310

Storge (storgē, Greek: στοργή) is liking someone through the fondness of familiarity, family members or people who relate in familiar ways that have otherwise found themselves bonded by chance. An example is the natural love and affection of a parent for their child.

Or the story of how Clark Kent meets the Wayne family children.

So this was in my mark for later and I read it as I was making this list and it’s very cute and adorable and highly recommend it!

don't you know an apparition is a cheap date by knoxoursavior @clqrkkent

E - 39,385

Clark has been able to see ghosts since he was eight, just a few days before his Pa died in his sleep. Years later, after having moved to the city with Martha to pursue writing, Clark meets Bruce Wayne, who takes an interest in his work and Clark in particular. Not long after they meet, Bruce asks Clark to marry him and Clark moves into a mansion that has more ghosts than it has people.

So I couldn’t find more AUs for this list, I was about to quit looking and yesterday I ran into this one and it gave me so much hope that there might be more out there (part 3?maybe?) I think of this as Ghost Whisperer Clark

Stories for the Loved and Lost by MatchaMochi @renaimori

M - 9,681

The first chapter leads Clark to another, and another. He turns the pages, eating the words up hungrily and feeling them, pored over the story as if he was reading someone’s personal diary. And the thing was, he knows it, he knows this story. He remembers flashes of memory that aren’t his, thrown in yesterday’s weird dream or last night’s nightmare.

or in which Bruce is an author and Clark is his fanboy.

I WILL read every single SOULMATE AU FIC I CAN FIND CAUSE I’D DIE FOR THIS TROPE. This is beautifully written <3 <3

Ghastly Murders in the East End by dippkip @dippkip

T - 38,227

London, 1888. A vicious killer known as Jack the Ripper has begun haunting the district of Whitechapel. In light of Scotland Yard’s inability to solve the case, intrepid reporter Clark Kent has made it his mission to track down this fiend and bring them to justice, though he may find himself more deeply involved in the affair than he bargained for.

Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne, a seemingly irresponsible and eccentric duke, remains largely unconcerned about these atrocities. The Batman, however, has taken special interest, and spends his nights relentlessly hunting the new murderer at large. The paths of these men will converge as the body count begins to rise, and their investigations and growing affections will cement their bond, intertwining their fates with that of the most notorious murderer in all of England.

OKaaaay this is one of the exceptions, Bruce is Batman but it’s a different century and Clark is powerless, I think it compensates. Usually I prefer when they’re both “capeless” but this was such a fun read.

As You Grow by dnawhite76 & Prubbs @prubbs

M - 59,946

After the death of his wife and children, Clark returns to the United States after spending years abroad to reconnect with his friends and their families. And while trying to gather what little remains of his old life and possibly move forward in his grief, he ends up falling into old habits with his first love and best friend, Bruce Wayne.

A story about grief and acceptance.

So I want to point out how good this fic is. I hate sad and this story has a lot of grief and I felt it was very grounded on its depictions of feelings. I tend to avoid this type of fics buuuuut this was so good. I couldn’t stop reading even if the grief got to me. It’s very wholesome and does have a satisfying ending.

A good start by BlueAlmond @discretocincel

G - 1,253

Clark loves being an elementary school teacher, but it breaks his heart to see any of his students hurting. So, when he notices Jason waiting over forty minutes every day for someone to pick him up, he decides to have a word with his father.

Absolutely love Professor Trope!!! Sooo you could argue this is ficlet but doesn't feel like one to me so I’m not putting it in the ficlet section.

Engraved In Our Souls by Nixie_DeAngel @nixie-deangel

T - 9,004

It started with pain, with warm blood and bold, black letters. How was he to know it'd lead to a pair of gorgeous eyes, shimmering with the promise of life long happiness and love?

Or, after years of waiting, Bruce finds his soulmate in the least likely of places.

Little cute soulmate AU<3 AS I SAID I WILL READ EVERY SINGLE SOULMATE AU OUT THERE CAUSE I LOVE THEM

Ghosts by ren_makoto

T -3,067

Wayne Manor is haunted. Clark doesn't mind.

Here is another of the exceptions, this is neither No Powers/No Capes, but they’re not relevant to the plot or we don’t see them using them (I don’t think they are mentioned but its implied). The Fic’s whole focus is on the ghosts! and absolutely loved it I LOVE REN MAKOTO FICS

There is Little Danger by ren_makoto

T - 5,327

"It's tradition," he said, one inch from Clark's mouth. "Yes," Clark said. "Tradition."

Or, where Bruce and Clark are trapped in an elevator

another Ren Makoto cause I can’t help myself

Semi-Permanent Couplings by ren_makoto

E - 10,463

"So, Bruce, how do you feel about one-night stands?"

Ren Makoto <3 <3 <3 This fic contains Adultery soo Read the Author’s Notes

Hubris by ren_makoto

M - 20,197

"This is turning into a routine," Bruce said breathlessly. "What can I do for you, Clark?" "Please," Clark said hoarsely. "I just want to get some sleep."

I really like the writing on this fic, this is a 100% NO CAPES, Clark does have powers and he’s starting to process them. Ren Makoto stole my heart with this one.

Not so Perfect Afterall by tekowrites

E - 6,966

AU: High school, Senior year. Clark thinks his life is nearly, if not already perfect. Then he overhears a conversation that changes absolutely everything. Bruce is there to pick up the pieces.

Red, White and Blue by melmel_79

E - 3,639

He works for the Secret Service, and it's best that no one knows he is in a relationship with the president. At least he hoped no one would know...

He grips the envelope tighter and knocks on the door to the Oval Office.

This was a mistake.

Late Night Feelings by the_butler @the-butler-fanstuff

M - 9,283

It was a little past one in the morning, the phone the only light in his room. He glared at it, then threw it to his side on the bed, not caring to see where it landed. A few seconds after, he patted all along the side to find it and looked at it again. He pulled up the messaging app, scrolled down, and then sighed. He exited the app and threw the phone on the bed again. He repeated this several times until some minutes later the phone chimed and he hurriedly sat up and felt for it on his bed. He opened the messaging app again and finally breathed a sigh of relief when he read the reply he’d been waiting for the whole night.

“Be there in 30 mins.”

I LOVE CLARK HERE, GOOD FOR YOU. He’s such a good adult looking out for himself! self-loving and self-respecting Clark here everybody.

it took me by surprise (I know you felt it, too) by jessequicksters @jessequicksters

G - 1,124

In which Clark and Bruce fall in love in between study sessions, track races, grocery shopping at Whole Foods and romantic student dinner dates, burnt lasagna and all.

FLUFF, could argue this is a ficlet buuuuut dont care, it goes here.

Towards You by tekowrites

E - 22,607

AU where Clark is a new transfer student at an elite high school, and he encounters Bruce Wayne. Clark doesn't fit in, not anywhere it seems, and his crush on the star of the football team? Only serves to shows how much. Jealous girlfriends, misunderstandings, hormones and lurking trouble are just some of the challenges he's going to face.

I LOVE THIS , basically this fic made want to make a PART 2, just had to find 15+ other fics to add to the list.

Read the tags, this does contain some heavy topics towards the end

The Game (of Love) by KaizokuHime @kaizokunohime

E -12,288

In WayneTech VR Augmented Gaming, a guild of superheroes has arisen who volunteer to help police that reality. One of these superheroes, Superman, has had a crush on his fellow member, Batman, for many years, but thus far has had little success on asking him out, even as fellow guildmembers. How will their relationship progress? And how intimate can they truly become without knowing the other's identity offline?

A Game You Can't Win gave me hunger for gaming fics, then I found this one and I WANT MORE GAMING FICS

Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang by ShowMeAHero @andillwriteyouatragedy

E - 8,354

Clark Kent is a professor at the same university as Bruce Wayne. Not that it matters, because Bruce doesn't really speak with his co-workers - they're there to work with, not befriend. That is, until Clark and Bruce are assigned to teach a class together in the fall, and start spending more and more time together, and Bruce starts to realize, maybe, he just might need a friend - and maybe, he just might need something else, something Clark-specific.

YES YES PROFESSOR TROPE. They are the best together!

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SORTA KINDA MAYBE FITS THE CATEGORY

The Gift by tmelange

E - 5,564

University student Clark Kent is on a field trip to Gotham City where he meets a creature of the night.

VAMPIRE AU, soooo Clark has powers but he is not superman so NO CAPES on his part. Bruce is a Vampire and I’m not really sure if he’s Batman but he’s some sort of vigilante. This felt very AU and sorta? fit the category, so I decided to add it anyways but it’s worth to mention this is an outlier on this list.

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SPECIAL MENTION CAUSE I HAVENT READ THIS ONE BUT IT WAS RECOMMEND TO ME by @just-add-butter

Spoils of War by littlechinesedoll @cumdumpsterbrucie

“If I go with you as a spoil of this pointless war, will you leave?” Bruce stands his ground, terrified and shaking, but he keeps eye contact with the warlord.

“Excuse me?” Kal must be hearing things.

“If I go with you, if I serve you, will you let my people live? Will you let my brother live?”

This is not finished buuuut it’s a Medieval AU. I just need to get myself in the right mindset to read an unfinished fic but will get to it! love what llittlechinesedoll writes.

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FICLETS

This section was accidental. I like my fics long and rarely read ficlets but here are a few that came across my way when I forgot to set word count filters.

Snapping the Chats by littlechinesedoll @cumdumpsterbrucie

G - 2,278

Clark tries to use the Snapchat filters on Bruce.

General Check-up by littlechinesedoll @cumdumpsterbrucie

T - 906

One where Brucie is getting a check-up from Thomas Elliot and he touches Bruce more cause Clark is obviously jealous

Subway Providence by the butler @the-butler-fanstuff

G - 400

A short drabble about art I did of Clark and Bruce waiting for the train on a subway platform.

So my first list was me coming across and realizing I love this kind of AUs and this second list is me carefully looking for them! Even tho my 1st list has some of my favorites, I hold this one closer to my heart. Hope you Enjoy it.

Also if you know of any that I haven’t included on these lists, please I beg you send them my way <3

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bh7theseriesblog · 4 years

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The Origins of Big Hero 7

Big Hero 7: The Series

Origins

*A flicker of black and white starts up for a while, static noises barely blocks out a voice*

Umm…Hello? Can you hear me?

*the flickering and static stops as it shows a 14 year old girl with dyed blue hair and purple eye contacts*

Can you hear me? Oh it's working!

*The girl sits on the chair in front of the camera. She smooths out her sea green skirt as she clears her throat*

Hi! So…after some thinking I decided to make a video diary so I can remember what I said. After all, who knows when it'll come in handy right? Oh right! I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Cora Mizichio.

*Cora chuckles slightly before continuing*

So I guess I should start with my life and such. Let me warn you though, it's kind of a long and wild story.

*she pulls out a phone and starts showing pictures*

I have lived in San Fransokyo for my whole life with my Dad, Mizuchi and Grandmama, Kaguya. My mom, Akemi passed away when I was a baby.

*image of a blonde hair woman smiled warmly before switching to Cora and her family. Her father being Goliath in stature and her grandmother dressed in a kimono with a cane*

Then my family found out that I'm incredibly intelligent for my age. I suppose hacking into your father's computer to send a birthday card at the age of 4 does that. My Dad is very sweet and an old softie, but is very protective of me and wasn't sure that I should go to school. So I was homeschooled, it was fun being taught by Grandmama and such about Marine biology, but…I felt kind of lonely…

After all my studies, I actually made a habit of bot fighting disguised as an unknown cat-masked competitor under the name 'Nekodomo'. It earned good money since at the time Dad hadn't gotten any luck with jobs due to his height. But it was my very first night of bot fighting that I met him…Hiro Hamada

*she flips the photo to a young Asian boy her age, with messy raven hair, large almond brown eyes and a tooth gap in his smile.*

I've never had very much luck when it came to making or having friends, so if I someone told me that I would end up dating this guy I would had laughed. But yeah we did. I was paired up with Hiro in one of those special bot fighting events like the duo duel. We won, but than the cops were coming and I was so scared of getting caught that I couldn't move. But then the next thing I know Hiro grabs my hand and we were running like crazy before the cops even spot us! I have no idea how long we had been running, but to be honest I didn't really care because I was still awe-struck by the fact that Hiro had save me from getting arrested and we didn't even know each other at the time. But that was all about to change, because as we were finally approaching a safe distance from the cops, it was at that moment where I tripped and fell flat on my face, and at the same time broke my mask. Thankfully Hiro picked me back up and we started running again, with me leaving my broken mask behind. Once we finally stopped and knew we were safe, that was when Hiro and I actually first met face-to-face. Now I have to be honest with you, I've never really known if the whole 'Love at first sight' thing was actually real or not, but it's the only thing I can describe how I felt when I first looked into Hiro's eyes. It was there when we properly introduced ourselves to each other and after that, we started seeing each other more. And it was only after 4 months of hanging out together, that I finally got to meet his family, and he got to meet mine.

*The picture now showed Hiro with a woman holding a calico japanese bobtail cat and a young man on either side of him.*

The woman on his left is his Aunt Cass, she runs a coffee shop called the Lucky Cat Cafe. The young man on his right is his older brother Tadashi. And the adorably cute kitty-cat Aunt Cass is holding is Mochi, their family pet. They are really cool people, and they always asked how I was doing and such, and Mochi is such a sweet kitty that he always tries to cuddle up to me whenever I come over. Hiro and I actually became an official thing one night when I saved his butt from Yama's minions. And boy were they surprised! Aunt Cass actually bounced when Hiro told them that I'm his girlfriend! Dad and Grandmama met them that night too, while dad wasn't too happy at first about me dating, Grandmama convinced him…after hitting him on the head with her cane.

*Cora giggled at the memory*

Anyway, After a slight misadventure where Hiro and Tadashi landed in jail and Cass had to bail them out, Tadashi actually took Hiro to SFIT, San Fransokyo institute of Technology that same night. Hiro told me that he met Tadashi's friends. There's Gogo: the cool biker chick, Honey Lemon: the stylish Chem genius, Wasabi: Laser neat freak, and Fred: the secret Billionaire super hero geek. Afterwards Hiro and I actually applied to SFIT by entering the showcase! Hiro made these miniature robots he called Microbots which he can control via head transmitter, I on the other hand did super strength suction cup shoes that can stick on any surface. We both won and we…were gonna celebrate until…a huge fire broke out in the showcase building and Tadashi ran back inside to help Callaghan, a teacher at the school….he didn't make it…

*Cora turned quiet, looking at her hands as she takes a deep breath*

Hiro wasn't himself for a while. I visited him a lot since the fire, and I mostly talked and tried to comfort and be there for him. Then came the day Hiro stubbed his toe and Baymax came along.

*A picture of a white inflated figure came to the picture*

Baymax was Tadashi's project, a robotic nurse to be more specific. He heard Hiro say ow and activated to help him. Then one of Hiro's microbots started acting weird, and Baymax followed the direction it went! It was then we found a guy in a kabuki mask controlling the Microbots. But they were destroyed at the fire right? Once Hiro pieced together that it was the kabuki-masked man that started the fire to steal them, which in turned killed Tadashi…Hiro decided to build Baymax some armor which…well

*the next picture showed Baymax in protective gear*

We traveled down to the port where we saw him take some type of machine out of the ocean. But then it turns out Baymax called the gang to help us, but sadly the guy in the mask saw us. We barely escaped with our lives that night! Thankfully Baymax being a walking marshmallow, also makes him an inflatable raft too. Afterwards we got to Fred's mansion and discussed over what to do next. Side note: it was weird to see that Fred is a billionaire.

*shows portrait of a young Fred and his parents in classy attire*

Hiro and I then built ourselves armor to fight the guy in the mask. Honey lemon got this cute chemistry purse to pull out what she needed, Gogo got some sick skates to zoom past us, Fred got a killer Kaiju costume that breaths fire, Wasabi got awesome laser blades on the backs of his hands, and I got my aquatic camouflage suit with squid strength suction cup shoes! And learning back from his previous work, Hiro turned Baymax from a stay puff marshmallow with bicycle gear to an awesome superhero!

*the next photo shows Baymax in his red armor*

After training and flying around the city we got down to business. We flew to Akuma island where the masked guy was, and it was there we learned something interesting. Krei and some government officials had something called 'Project Silent Sparrow'. It backfired when the portal sucked everything in, and the pilot was stuck. But then the masked guy attacked us! We tried to fight back but….

*a small clip showed Fred jumping only to be punched away *

We bombed, big time.

Hiro and I got lucky to get the mask…but the person was not who we thought….

Turns out Callaghan grabbed the transmitter and used it and the Microbots to protect himself in the fire…leaving Tadashi to die….

It was then that Hiro took out Baymax's health care chip and ordered him to kill Callaghan…

*Cora took a deep breathe before standing up and leaving the room, she returned back with a glass of water and started drinking it. Once she was done She then continued.*

Thankfully the gang got Baymax back to normal but Hiro was furious. He just left with Baymax…but we eventually met up with Hiro at his place, with a video of Tadashi…it was also when we showed him what we discovered. The pilot was no random person Krei hired. She was Callaghan's daughter, and Callaghan was out for blood.

We got to Krei Tech where Callaghan got his portal running. Hiro then learned what we needed to do to beat him; instead of the mask, we take out the Microbots, then he'd be powerless. But despite that, the portal was still open, and ready to tear itself to pieces. Then Baymax dropped the biggest bomb on us, Callaghan's daughter was still alive in there.

Hiro and I got on Baymax to rescue her. We found her pod but Baymax's thrusters were wrecked from the debris…

Baymax…he got us out by rocket punch…but stayed behind in the portal…

It's been weeks since then…

Krei agreed to keep our identities a secret, Callaghan is in prison, and his daughter is making a steady recovery at the hospital. And the news had been exploding over 'the mysterious group of heroes' that saved the city.

Hiro and I had been doing good, we talked to the gang a lot and we actually reapplied to SFIT again.

*Cora then looks at the clock beside her and gasped*

Oh man it's almost midnight! And first day of class is tomorrow! Anyway, thank you for listening! And…Baymax…I don't know if you can hear me..but Hiro has been doing good. We all miss you…especially me and Hiro...wish us good luck, cause who knows what happens tomorrow.

*Cora smiles at the camera before turning it off.*

A.N: This is an updated look for the prolouge chapter of Big Hero 7: The Series!

Liking the new visuals? ;3

This chapter has been edited by WolfWitchHuntress1318 at Fanfiction.net! Thank you for being my patient editor! Thank you for following and reading Big Hero 7! Love ya!

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thefilmsimps · 3 years

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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (dir. Destin Daniel Cretton)

-Jere Pilapil-

I feel like I should start with a little bit about the “representation” angle that Marvel and Disney have been pushing with regards to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Marvel has finally done it and made a movie starring a mostly Chinese cast. I’m Filipino-American, and I’m pretty sure that specific movie isn’t coming any time soon, so I gotta live vicariously through movies like this and Crazy Rich Asians. I’m not going to lie, though - on a pure representation level, it seems to me that it’s not that progressive that the first Asian Marvel Cinematic Superhero’s power is “He is good at martial arts”. I’m sure this is deeply meaningful for some people who wish to “see themselves” standing shoulder to shoulder with Captains America or Marvel or whoever (eventually, one assumes), and I wouldn’t want to take away from that.

But it feels at least a little unimaginative, no? Like Marvel’s creative endeavors aren’t really creating a new definition of Chinese or Asian identities; they’re just absorbing existing imagery and ideas, polishing them up and selling them back to us. I can’t think of a better example of the limits of big-budget spectacle as a vehicle for representation. Marvel and Disney have thousands of characters, ideas and stories that they could choose to adapt, and yet, they apparently find themselves limited to updating hoary tropes, tweeting “We did a progress!” and calling it a day.

The biggest challenge in adapting Shang-Chi for a movie would be the source material. Sure, it’s been well-covered how the Shang-Chi comics are insanely orientalist. They’re not “racist” in a cruel way, but every, say, 2 pages you think “Right, yes, this was created by white guys in the 1970s”. The more insidious issue is that Shang-Chi is… not much of a character. Partly as a result of the cultural blind spots of its creators, most Shang-Chi stories are either “Shang-Chi must stop his father’s evil plans” or “Shang-Chi’s father has sent assassins to kill him” (we get a little of both in the movie). The narration provided by Shang-Chi tend to be goal oriented (gotta stop dad), or pseudo-philosophical riddles. There’s just not much personality there.

The core concept has a stench of rot to it, but Marvel went ahead with it anyway, retrofitting some of the central idea to something palatable to a modern audience. They come away with a movie that at least fixes the Orientalist sins of the past. As for the hollow innards of the titular character, well, they’re smart enough to surround him by heaps of supporting characters. Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) floats through his own movie, not as goofy as his BFF Katy (Awkwafina), nor possessing the gravitas or emotional arc of his father (Tony Leung), nor as interesting a backstory as his sister Xialing (Meng’er Zhang). I can’t really tell you much about this iteration of the character other than, well, he must stop his dad’s evil plans.

Simu Liu is very likable in the role, though. His chemistry with Awkwafina and Meng’er Zhang is solid. It just feels like large chunks of the movie are big setpieces meant to distract from the character being thin. That said, the setpieces are mostly knockouts. And as seen in other action movies (shout out to The Night Comes for Us), character depth can be overrated if the action is cool enough. The strength of the old Shang-Chi comics is true of the movie, too: the action scenes are very well-realized. The choreography is tight and creative. A fight scene on a bus featured in the trailer is fantastic. A fight between Shang-Chi’s parents is deeply romantic. Shang-Chi deserves credit for understanding that martial arts movies treat fighting as its own language. This manages to still be true on the very Marvel climax, which is high on CGI bullshit but manages to at least do some almost subtle nonverbal communication between its main characters.

This is especially thanks to Tony Leung’s Wenwu, who steals the movie as the most fully realized character (probably true of the recent MCU movie characters stretching back to at least Spider-Man: Far From Home). I’ve said before that Marvel’s spectacles might function better as award shows than as movies, where the best actors get to sleepwalk through roles with a big stack of money at the end of the road. Leung’s sad eyes do more work than most villains’ monologues can, letting us in on the emotions of a man who has lived with infinite power for thousands of years and has finally found something he can’t have. There’s more than a little Neon Genesis Evangelion influence to his character, but given more humanity. It’s beautifully realized performance.

Ultimately, this is a Disney/Marvel production. Several of the normal flaws apply. The darkest stuff happens off screen. The action can sometimes be too reliant on CGI (disappointingly obvious CGI, considering this studio has infinite resources). But the action on the whole is stronger than the average Marvel movie, echoing and aping the martial arts greats in equal measure. As with all of these, it’s at least partially an ad for more adventures with some of these characters, and it succeeds on that level and as its own standalone film. And hey, now that we’ve ripped the bandage off the “First Asian-led MCU movie”, maybe we can finally get somewhere more interesting next time.

7.5/10

#movie review #marvel #MCU #Shang-chi #martial arts

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terramythos · 5 years

Text

Review: Vengeful by V. E. Schwab (Villains #2)

Length: 567 pages

Genre/Tags: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction, Found Family, Revenge Narrative, Superpowers, Dark, Time Jumps, Perspective Shifts, Third-Person, LGBT+ Protagonist, Female Protagonist, Duology

Warning(s): Pretty much every previous warning applies here (violence, gore, genocidal thinking, etc). In addition, there is a VERY graphic medical torture scene, physical abuse, references to rape, implied hard drug abuse, and somewhat graphic sexual content. To reiterate: NO ONE in this story is a good person.

My Rating: 7/10

My Summary:

Five years have passed since Victor and Eli’s fateful encounter, when Victor enacted his perfect revenge. He finds himself in an unusual position; with other people to care for. There’s just one problem— his pain-manipulation powers have started to backfire on him. Every few weeks, they kill him. He comes back, but the intervals between episodes are growing shorter, and his amount of time without oxygen to the brain are growing longer. Thus Victor, Sydney, and Mitch enter a desperate race against the clock to find a cure— by any means necessary. Meanwhile, a new force rises in the city of Merit. When Marcella Riggins, wife to one of the most powerful mob bosses in the city, catches her husband cheating, he burns her alive to solve the problem. What he doesn’t count on is for her to come back as an EO with a terrifying power in her grasp. Now she’s out to take revenge and all the power of Merit for herself. As Marcella’s ascension to power progresses, she inevitably pulls Victor and Eli back into their deadly conflict.

“How many of us do you think there are?” “EOs?” June hesitated. “Who knows? More than you’d think. We don’t exactly go around advertising.” “But you can find them.” The glass was halfway to June’s mouth. Now it stopped. “What?” “Your power,” said Marcella. “You said when you touch someone, you can take their appearance, but only if they’re human. Doesn’t that man you can tell when they’re not?” June’s smile flickered, and returned twice as bright. “You’re awfully sharp.” “So I’ve been told.” June stretched on her stool. “Sure, I can tell. Why? You looking to find more of us?” “Maybe.” “Why?” June shot her a sideways glance. “Trying to eliminate the competition?” “Hardly.” She finished her drink and set the empty glass down, running a gold nail around the rim. “Men look at anyone with power and see only a threat, an obstacle in their path. They never have the sense to see the power for what it really is.” “And what’s that?” asked June. “Potential.” Marcella tightened her fingers around the stem of her glass. “This ability of mine,” she said as her hand glowed red, “is a weapon.” As she spoke, the glass dissolved to sand, slipping through her fingers. “But why settle for one weapon when you can have an arsenal?”

For my review of Vicious, the first book in this series, please click here.

Full review under the cut.

I really wanted to give Vengeful a higher score. After all, the first 90% of the book is a solid 9/10, addressing most of the criticisms I had with Vicious and containing much of what I had hoped to see in a sequel. It features deeper exploration of the characters, develops intriguing themes I had wanted to see more of, and expands upon the setting and premise in interesting ways. In essence, it’s a bigger and better version of Vicious… for the most part. However, it falls apart in the ending, to such an extent that it dragged down the whole experience for me. I’ll get into the whys later. But first I think it’s worth discussing the novel in general and which parts of it did click for me. After all, I’m not lying when I say most of it is very enjoyable.

Vengeful is written and takes place 5 years after Vicious. It’s roughly twice the length of the previous entry and features an expanded cast. Three main leads from the previous novel— Victor, Sydney, and Eli— all reprise leading roles. Joining them are Detective Stell (a minor antagonist from Vicious) and two newcomers— June and Marcella, the latter of whom shows up on the cover and in most of the promotional material. I was struck immediately by the writing improvements in Vengeful— including more detailed, imaginative, and interesting descriptions. Schwab obviously improved a lot on the 5-year span between this book and its predecessor.

Basically, Vengeful focuses on where the characters have come over the last 5 years— for better or worse— and how the world adjusts and changes in the presence of EOs— superpowered humans.

Like before, the story is told in an anachronistic fashion. There is an overarching plot, but it hops around the timeline showing different parts of each character’s lives. That could be confusing, but it’s well-executed here, as it was in Vicious. Unlike in Vicious, however, this entry dedicates entire chunks of the book to individual characters. For example, the story opens up with Victor and explores him for a while, then switches over to Sydney, then onwards through the six members of the main cast. Occasionally we get guest chapters starring minor characters or “check-in” chapters with others, but for the most part it follows this pattern. I really liked this approach, because it's a deep dive into each character and their complexities and motivations. There were times I had to backtrack and remind myself what happened in previous sections, but that’s probably more on me than the book itself.

The characters themselves are interesting, and probably the strongest point of the novel. I enjoyed each to some extent. It’s fun to read a story where nobody is a good person, yet what that actually means varies quite a bit. Sydney and Eli had the most compelling stories and arcs; both dealt with identity and one’s place in life and the universe, but explored different facets of the concept. Both characters have changed a lot from their introductions, and it’s been interesting to see. Victor’s struggles and desperation are a far cry from where he finished in Vicious, so that was interesting as well. I thought June was a creative take on a shapeshifter character (more on that later), and her level of obsession with Sydney and its development over time was alarmingly relatable. While I don’t find Stell particularly interesting, I do think he was an essential perspective for the story, and he does expand the world quite a bit with his ties to EON (again, more on that later).

The (somewhat twisted) found family between Victor, Sydney, and Mitch was a big high point of the story for me; there are some indications of it in the first book, but this one goes all-in. I really enjoyed seeing these messed up people genuinely bond with each other and form a ragtag family.

There’s also some good LGBT+ representation in the novel. The relationship between Sydney and June, while ultimately pretty screwed up, is flirty and romantic in nature (and again, uh, alarmingly relatable). Victor is canonically confirmed to be asexual as well. I’m of the opinion that LGBT+ characters should hold a variety of roles, heroic and otherwise, since we’re people. I’m glad to see Vengeful make it happen.

Marcella is probably where I struggled the most (outside of the ending in general). She was initially one of my favorite characters— imagine an ambitious femme fatale turned up to eleven and literally given the power to destroy anything she touches. Her chapters are certainly fun based on that premise. However, I spent most of the novel waiting for there to be something else to her. Possibly a secondary motivation, or some kind of personal moral struggle— anything. But there really isn’t. She is just straight up a character who wants to seize power at all costs because she thinks she deserves it. Marcella is a pretty flat character, which is disappointing when she’s (1) the face of the novel and (2) in a series that focuses on moral complexity and shades of gray.

Vengeful improves upon the worldbuilding in Vicious. Before, Merit was just a generic city setting. But this entry expands upon it— especially its criminal underbelly. It also develops some setting-specific concepts. New to the story is EON, a clandestine paramilitary organization that hunts down EOs and eliminates or imprisons them. Led by Stell and built with the best of intentions, there is nevertheless a sense of dehumanization and genocidal parallels as he struggles to control the expanding organization. It’s key to both Stell and Eli’s character arcs, and there is certainly enough material to expand upon in the future.

This may sound like an odd thing to praise, but Vengeful abandons the whole superhero motif present in Vicious. Yeah, it was an interesting moral dilemma in the first novel— who’s the hero and who’s the villain— but it’s played out by now. Having a setting which features superpowers but isn’t tied down by superhero tropes is a good call and allows for more creative plot and writing decisions.

One thing I really enjoyed about this novel is how it expands upon the superpowers in creative ways. Even established characters have new and interesting developments to their powers that are still in line with previous canon. For example, Victor— whose power is manipulating pain in others— discovers he can manipulate nerves in general, and develops the ability to control others’ movements. June is a shapeshifter, but it’s a unique take I haven’t seen before. Basically, she takes on key memories of anyone she touches, which gives her enough background to convincingly mimic them. In addition, she’s a living voodoo doll. If she sustains injury while disguised as someone else, they’re the one who gets injured, not her. This is used to interesting and creative effect several times in the story.

Overall, this has the makings of a really entertaining novel with some deep character arcs and interesting themes. I should be overjoyed this even got a sequel, and for most of the novel I was. So what’s up with the ending? How could it have so strongly impacted my experience with Vengeful?

My problem with the ending isn’t that I disagree with it, or didn’t like it on a personal level. I’ve dealt with plenty of endings that didn’t go where I wanted (hell, I’ve read some by this author). But I can justify and even appreciate just about any ending as long as it makes sense with what’s been established before. Does it make sense for the characters to end up here, based on their development throughout the story? Does the ending fully realize the premise? If so, it’s an acceptable ending. Even if it’s one I didn’t picture, I can understand and even learn to like it.

That’s not the case with Vengeful. I mentioned characterization as a strong point, but out of the six members of the main cast, I’d say maybe two of them end up in places that even make sense (not even in satisfying ways, just… make sense). That means that four members of the main cast have unsatisfying or nonsensical endings to their character arcs. Considering this, is it much of a surprise the ending impacts the score so much? I finished the novel scratching my head like wow, that’s really it?

And I’ve tried to figure it out, believe me. I finished this book weeks ago and am only now posting the review. I’ve gone back and forth, tried to justify certain endings, went back to see if I missed something, but… nope. And at the end of the day, I shouldn’t need to bend over backwards to justify an ending. It should justify itself. It should make sense in and of itself.

I’ll give an example of one character, because I think it exemplifies the root of the problem. (Obviously this will be vague to avoid Mega Spoilers, but it should be obvious who I’m talking about if you’ve read the book).

There’s one character whose main conflict is they NEED to find a solution to their problem. Throughout the story they seek out and find various people who might be able to help. But nothing is working. They grow increasingly desperate and resort to more and more extreme methods to find the solution. Eventually, they find what seems to be the answer, but their hopes are dashed once again. In a moment of personal growth, this character realizes that there is no miracle coming. Since they are the cause of the problem, the only one who can solve it is THEM. They resolve to find the solution themselves or die trying.

How does this arc end? I’m not even joking— they just straight up find a miracle solution. There is some setup for it… but that setup is tied to a completely different character. And regardless, it still feels like a deus ex machina; it destroys initiative. It’s even worse because this character’s arc peaks when they realize they must SOLVE THEIR OWN PROBLEMS, then the ending hands over the solution with no strings attached. Sure, they technically find it due to their own actions, but it’s because someone unrelated to them or their arc did something. Even then, there were ways to make it work— Schwab could have drawn parallels between characters, or played up the dramatic irony. It would still be weak, but at least it would show some self-awareness. But we don’t even get that.

That’s just the clearest example. There are multiple characters whose key moments are just ignored in the ending. It would be one thing if they realized certain things weren’t that important to them, or in a moment of dramatic irony fell short of where they were meant to go. Those things make sense. But that’s not what happens— the character arcs just end with zero solution to the problems and ideas the rest of the novel spends developing. It’s very unsatisfying, and I found myself wondering what the point of the novel even was. It honestly feels like the first 90% of the book is hand crafted and polished to a mirror shine, while the ending is a first draft with minimal edits and zero continuity with the rest of the story.

It’s possible, and even likely, that there’s more to the Villains story. Nothing has been officially announced, but certain aspects of the novel just scream it to me. One of the few characters who ends in a decent place has a very “the end… or is it?” outro. There’s a 4-page short story after the epilogue that focuses on a seemingly minor character and her origins. And some aspects of the worldbuilding, such as EON, could be explored more. In short, Vengeful sets up for a book three, or even a spinoff of some sort. But even then, the character arcs still need to make sense in the context of this novel, and they simply don’t. When the main strength and focus of the novel is characterization, the ending HAS to realize that potential. Vengeful doesn’t, and we’re left with a confusing and disappointing conclusion.

Feel free to take this review with a grain of salt— from what I can tell, Vengeful was critically well-received and a lot of people enjoyed it. Perhaps there really is just something I’m missing. But the ending was enough of a disappointment that it affected the whole experience. It was especially disappointing to me coming from an author I really enjoy. Perhaps there is more to the story, but it’s going to take a lot to win me back on this one.

#7/10 #taylor reads #taylor reviews #this was a tough one...

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insanely-creative-things · 6 years

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Chapter 1: The Origins of Big Hero 7

m.fanfiction.net

Big Hero 7

Origins

*A flicker of black and white starts up for a while, static noises barely blocks out a voice*

Umm…Hello? Can you hear me?

*the flickering and static stops as it shows a 14 year old girl with dyed blue hair and purple eye contacts*

Can you hear me? Oh it's working!

*The girl sits on the chair in front of the camera. She smooths out her sea green skirt as she clears her throat,*

*Cora chuckles slightly before continuing*

So I guess I should start with my life and such. Let me warn you though, it's kind of a long and wild story.

*she pulls out a phone and starts showing pictures*

I have lived in San Fransokyo for my whole life with my Dad, Mizuchi and Grandmama, Kaguya. My mom, Akemi passed away when I was a baby.

*image of a blonde hair woman smiled warmly before switching to Cora and her family. Her father being Goliath in stature and her grandmother dressed in a kimono with a cane*

*she flips the photo to a young Asian boy her age, with messy raven hair, large almond brown eyes and a tooth gap in his smile.*

*The picture now showed Hiro with a woman holding a calico japanese bobtail cat and a young man on either side of him.*

*Cora giggled at the memory*

*Cora turned quiet, looking at her hands as she takes a deep breath*

Hiro wasn't himself for a while. I visited him a lot since the fire, and I mostly talked and tried to comfort and be there for him. Then came the day Hiro stubbed his toe and Baymax came along.

*A picture of a white inflated figure came to the picture*

*the next picture showed Baymax in protective gear*

*shows portrait of a young Fred and his parents in classy attire*

*the next photo shows Baymax in his red armor*

*a small clip showed Fred jumping only to be punched away *

We bombed, big time.

Hiro and I got lucky to get the mask…but the person was not who we thought….

Turns out Callaghan grabbed the transmitter and used it and the Microbots to protect himself in the fire…leaving Tadashi to die….

It was then that Hiro took out Baymax's health care chip and ordered him to kill Callaghan…

*Cora took a deep breathe before standing up and leaving the room, she returned back with a glass of water and started drinking it. Once she was done She then continued.*

Hiro and I got on Baymax to rescue her. We found her pod but Baymax's thrusters were wrecked from the debris…

Baymax…he got us out by rocket punch…but stayed behind in the portal…

It's been weeks since then…

Hiro and I had been doing good, we talked to the gang a lot and we actually reapplied to SFIT again.

*Cora then looks at the clock beside her and gasped*

*Cora smiles at the camera before turning it off.*

A.N: After some thinking I decided to post my fanfic of Big Hero 7 over here. My editor is Wolfwitchhuntress. I hope you enjoy this story just as much as Fanfiction.Net. Love you guys!

#Big Hero 7 #Big hero 6 fanfic #BH6 OC #Cora Mizichio #Origin story

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buildridernews · 6 years

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Expectations for Be The One

I thought it was kind of a fun idea to do a sort of prediction/expectation post, like I did with Heisei Generations FINAL. It’s just kinda fun to look back and see where my mind was and what I got right/wrong. With that said, let’s talk about this movie.

Right off the bat, the movie is confusing in its intent. Kamen Rider Ex-Aid had a summer movie titled “True Ending”, so until the show’s debut there was just this expectation that it was an alternate ending to the show. Then the episode that tied into it just kinda kept going with no clean cutoff point. It wasn’t until after the show ended that Toei finally said it took place after the finale.

Similar weirdness is happening here. Be The One was originally described as a movie that took place “after the war for Pandora’s Box” which, and I made this joke before, I thought was some wording that could technically apply to the show at any point after Pandora’s Box stopped being a major plot point.

And now we know it takes place between episodes 45 and 46, with the show dancing very cleanly around giving spoilers. Japan was unified under Evolt’s facade, that’s all we needed to know.

So we have 3 people in charge of Japan now, who I understand are specifically labeled as members of Evolt’s race? Maybe? If that’s the case then it makes sense why he chose them to rule Japan.

I don’t really expect us to get too attached to them - I think the two who become Lost Smash are probably just gonna be brawlers with cocky personalities like the typical movie henchmen. Our main villain, Kamen Rider Blood, might offer some interesting characterization at least.

I think the main premise of the movie is going to follow the “Kamen Riders are Japan’s enemy” subplot that would otherwise be sorta pointless in the show, and if that’s the case then that’s clever to plant that idea earlier on.

Build and the others are gonna be hunted by people, and naturally they can’t fight back - they’re just civilians! And I imagine they see through the insidious intent of the new leaders.

This is when we get the introduction of Kamen Rider Blood, to the applause of the people. like they’ve seen the birth of a new savior. They probably don’t even care the other two are basically monsters.

In a way that's an interesting premise! It's a fight for the right to carry the title of Kamen Rider, not unlike how the Drive/Gaim movie was about the phantom thief Lupin stealing the title of Kamen Rider and dealing with a cop who believes in using that title for justice.

Oh yes, and we have the movie form, Cross-ZBuild Form. This is... an interesting situation, because while we have a hint that Sento is using the form (a very brief shot of him holding what looks like the transformation item), the promotional material wants to suggest that the identity of the user is a secret.

So-- first off, let's assume that Sento's going to use the form for the final battle. Sure. But I think there might be something to the idea that it's not who we think it is.

You know who's making a cameo in this movie? Kamen Rider Zi-O, the next hero. You know what his gimmick is? Time travel. So there's one of two things that could be going on there.

1. Sento is at one point completely incapacitated, or even outright killed, or hey maybe SEEMINGLY killed. Then this Build shows up and it's miraculously revealed to be Sento from another time period or something. Less likely.

2. It's Sento's dad, pulled from the past and given the chance to do one last heroic deed. Sento gets closure and he's returned to the past to continue where the show left him. It also makes sense here because he recognized the fact that the silver and gold bottles (which are used for this form) are special.

3. I'm also considering the possibility that it's Kamen Rider Decade, because Superhero Taisen has shown us that they aren't afraid to pull some "Also the belt he's wearing isn't the DecaDriver" shenanigans.

This, to me, is the most interesting element of the movie, and I will be just a tad disappointed if it ends up being nothing special.

All in all I am pretty curious how the movie will turn out, and will see about getting some info on it from people who see it.

#kamen rider build #reviews #feed

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davidmann95 · 7 years

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This Superman guy's pretty great, huh?

Okay. Figured I’d write this at somepoint, seems like as good a place as any to do it.

Yes: Superman is pretty great. The character’s great,the costume’s great, the cast is great, the powers are great, the scope of thekind of adventures you can tell with him is great, the mythology’s great, thepower he has to inspire on the page and in the real world is great. I’ve known that since I was…I dunno,three? Two? I’m told he was my first three-syllable word. I’m not sure what myfirst exposure would have been; Supermanthe Animated Series was airing when I was a kid, my dad had the Fleischercartoons on tape, we’d watch reruns of TheAdventures of Superman whenever they aired, I had some odd issues of Superman Adventures, I had picture bookslike The True Story of Superman, Superman: Slippery When Bad and I Hate Superman!, I even had an abridgedversion of John Byrne’s Man of Steel manyyears before I would change my tune on it. It was well past the whole nineyards of lunchboxes and Superman-themed birthday parties - mom and dad wereLois-Mom and Jimmy-Dad for a bit, who got a call one time from a teacher inpreschool that I had dramatically taken off my shirt to show the temporaryS-Shield tattoo I’d gotten on my chest. My dad ended up having to drive toevery Burger King in the area asking for any spare Superman toys because Icouldn’t stand that they had been discontinued before I could get them all andI was making life hell for everyone in the process. I couldn’t play Supermanwith other kids on the playground, because I’d demand we recreate the scriptsof adventures verbatim.

Around seven or thereabouts though,while I never developed any of the disdain towards him that so many seem tohave, I drifted away for a while towards Batman and Spider-Man. Purely bycoincidence, this is also the age I was diagnosed with Asperger’s.

It’s not something I talk about agreat deal these days. Not because of some sense of shame, to be as clear aspossible about that right upfront. It isn’t even a matter of my especiallybeing able to pass as neurotypical - take me out of my comfort zone into anynumber of common social circumstances and that illusion falls by the wayside.But I’ve carved out I feel a pretty decent niche where I’m typically fairlysatisfied and able to function at a level that meets my own standards, and as aresult it’s usually background radiation of my life, not something that comesup unbidden until a situation demands I start thinking about it again. Even when I do, thinking about it much often leaves me feeling self-conscious and self-indulgent, and convinced I’m either being stupidly self-aggrandizing or stupidly self-pitying about it.

So naturally, even once I reallystarted to get back into Superman in earnest at 13 alongsidecomics in general and he became my favorite character in earnest, there are some associations it took me awhile to make.

I’m not quite certain when Istarted to think about it, but the structure of how I thought about it I know came about thanks to @postcardsfromspace‘s (excellent) article I See Your Value Now on learningabout their own Asperger’s. I doubt it’s an association any creators for thecharacter have given any thought (aside from maybe Mark Waid, given that in an interview on Birthright he specifically noted how his idea for Martha Kentbecoming a UFO buff in response to her son was meant as a parallel to parentsof kids with autism having to become self-taught experts on the subject), andall a Google search immediately turns up is comparing a young Clark’s troubleswith his X-Ray vision in Man of Steelto sensory overload in children with autism. It’s not something that would havelikely even occurred to me if it wasn’t for that…well, that I have Asperger’s,and Superman’s a special interest, and as a default I’m always ready on somelevel to connect any input I get back to him.

Obviously, there’s Clark himself.He screams it, right? Likely just because of a general conflation of ‘nerd’traits with ‘Aspie’ traits, but it’s all there right on the surface: shy,awkward, naïve, can’t read a room to save his life, unaware of some generalsocial conventions given his penchant for drab suits, horn-rimmed glasses andfedoras well into the 21st century, either without many friends orlocked into a rigid and small social circle, by all appearances more alivebehind a screen than he ever is to anyone’s face. Even the more confident takeson him, such as in the Reeves TV show or the New 52 Action Comics, seem to lack a social grace or two, seem to grate onthe people around him. Precision-constructed by the greatest man to ever liveto be beneath the notice of his peers in every way imaginable, of course you end up with that guy.

…except even when Clark’s purely apost-Smallville construct on Superman’s part, he’s not made out of nothing, ishe? The Kansas boy who grew up reading ATale of Two Cities as a toddler and obsessively pouring over astronomytextbooks for clues can hazard a guess of what it feels like to be a nerd. Theguy who grew up on a farm who flies and can accidentally shatter steel in hisgrip is entirely familiar with how it feels to awkwardly maneuver around in acrowded city. The square who grew up in the middle of nowhere constantlygetting accused of not knowing how the world really works can probably express a little doubt over his ownself-awareness and naiveté if he absolutely has to. Clark Kent is historicallybuilt on Superman’s own worst image of himself.

(This incidentally, along withplenty of other storytelling-based reasons, is why I intensely dislikeit when Clark’s the ‘real guy’, and therefore confident and charming and on topof things; it’s Kryptonite to the ideas in play there.)

And the shyness? The sense of beingout of place? The - let’s get right to the heart of it - alien-ness?

Superman’s pretty cool. He’sfriendly; he’s understanding; he’s clever and kind and determined. He’s alsosomething of a loner who’s often surprisingly loathe to open up to people,and even once he’s married he still needs plenty of time to himself to thinkthings through. He’s someone who when he puts on the costume always engageswith the world in a very specific context: where his natural talents are mostobviously geared towards being helpful, where so long as he can pull off Sweetand Composed and make some speeches when he has to people will accept him withopen arms. Being Superman puts him in a situation where he can show his bestself, personally and socially and morally, and be accepted for his goodness ina way nerdy, quiet Clark Kent never can.

And god, does he need thatacceptance.

That’s often applied to painfullymaudlin stories of him hand-wringing over his social impact on humanity andwhether he can save all the little children of the world from cancer orwhatever, but it’s still something else that seems to be pretty consistentacross the various interpretations. Unless he’s barreling ahead with a degreeof self-confidence bordering on flat-out arrogance, he’s always worried abouthow he seems in the eyes of the world. Whether that means Red Kryptoniteexternalizing anxieties of old age or powerlessness or throwing him intodreamworlds of hate or irrelevance, or wondering whether he can justify one ofhis two identities, or pondering his alien nature, or questioning what Supermanmeans as a symbol to the world, or being flat-out replaced, or even protectinghis secret, it’s always the same question refracted through endless prisms: Can I belong here? Am I doing well enough,being useful enough, to deserve what I’ve been given? Will they find me out?Would they ever accept me if theyknew the truth?

For all the joy that comes with who he is, that’s his life too: it’s growing up inSmallville knowing there’s no one else who’ll ever know the distinct timbre ofair-pressure changes when a hummingbird slows down its wingbeat a fraction, noone he could talk about the sight of snowflakes assembling themselves out offreezing raindrops to without sounding as if he’s out of his mind, no one whocould fully empathize with having to practice normal human reactions to theworld. It’s spending half his life trying to be a normal guy among normalpeople and failing because of his own insecurities, the other half really beingable to do his best in his own element and being the person he wants to be, butnever being sure if it’s enough for those around him. It’s finally meeting other Kryptonians orsuperheroes but realizing even their own experiences diverge so sharply thatthe communication gap remains, that as a matter of circumstance he is and will alwaysremain fundamentally other in someways, no matter how deeply he connects with other people.

His relationships seem to fit the mold too - it works pretty dang well that histwo best friends are a coworker who’s simultaneously the cool dude who takeshim under his wing and the kid whouncritically looks up to him, and someone with the same ‘hobby’ who’s himselfpretty well-known for having issues opening up to people. Or that his wifefalling in love with him is framed in terms of her looking past him at his mostvulnerable and awkward and unable to fit in to see the person he actually iswhen no one else can, while a major part of his love for her is her being thekind of person who’s pushy enough to force him out of his shell and some of hismore self-defeating behaviors.

And that his worst enemy, in spite ofhis aura of smug self-regard, doesn’t seem able to relate to other people on afundamental level or manage to work with them very well when he’s not in fullcontrol of the situation, even as he needs them to accept and validate him. Lexfails because he’ll never work to bridge that gap in the same way as Superman,seeing that as a ridiculous and unrealistic imposition, and Superman as anintruder into his personal universe trying to force his unrealistic standardsof “acknowledge other people and whatthey think about things” on him while at the same time agonizingly,bafflingly succeeding where Lex fails. He’s the embodiment in that regard ofthe frustrated, shamed instinct of the isolated that you’re already great, sopeople should already love and understand you and it’s their fault for notgetting it (hence for instance how in All-Starhe overtly sees the world and the relationships that make it up in a coldly material manner where people naturally flock to only the most outwardly great aroundthem - colored by a sexist streak that’s taken on a whole new degree of toxic prominencewhen it comes to the socially awkward in the near-decade since the book’sconclusion).

(It also works that Superman’scharacter in All-Star is defined byhis disconnect from humanity, and that his big character arc is having tobecome emotionally honest enough to talk with the people who love him aboutwhat he’s going through.)

Again, clearly none of this is theintent on the part of those who’ve worked with him over the years. This is byno means the bedrock or secret key to what makes him tick; it’s at best a componentin a much larger machine. I’m sure if you dug into it enough you could find somethingproblematic in the proposition, and I won’t pretend there couldn’t becharacters closer in every sense to my own experiences.

But none of them would be Superman.

Sure, it helps that I grew up withhim, and that he’s a character with enough detail and weird ideas and characterwork that I can delve into the minutia of him in a way I can’t with anyone elseto the same extent other than Batman, but beyond all that, he’s Superman. He’s TheGuy, the best, and that I can see myself in him in *any* way means more than itever could with any other character, because that makes him being a role modelmean something else.

For all I talked about how lonelyhe is above he’s still an idealist, still has friends and a job and weirdpersonal hobbies at his personal ice-cave and a way to express his highest,best self in a way that’s loved by the people around him. The way he seesthings differently can be accepted and shared even as he understands and caresfor the people around him. He’s happy. And that he can start from a place of being the onlyone of his kind and end up a good person, the best person, in part because he knows better than anyone what it isto be alone and why others matter so much? That has more weight to people, andto me, than can be expressed.

I mentioned before I’m not wildabout Clark being the exclusive true identity in part because of how much itmesses with this. I’ve also said elsewhere that while both Clark and Supermanare inseparable and true parts of his identity that can’t be denied as importantaspects of who he is, if I absolutely had to choose one as being the ‘real’ one I’dgo with Superman. And I can pick apart any number of storytelling reasons forthat, but thinking about how I relate to Superman in the way I do made merealize something else. I have to see Superman as the truest self becauseSuperman’s who he is at his best, when he’s not afraid or ashamed and can showhimself in all his alienness to everyone and be accepted for it. That’s thedream, right? I’m no Superman, but I’ve gottabelieve in him, ‘cause I’ve gotta believe in me.

I’m pretty sure some of you canrelate.

#Superman #Asperger's #Autism #Clark Kent #Lex Luthor #Lois Lane #All Star Superman #Analysis #Opinion #Me

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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How Helstrom Became One of Marvel Television’s Last Shows Standing

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Hell hasn’t quite frozen over on the Vancouver set of Marvel’s Helstrom but it’s close. A chill can be felt even inside the fabricated walls of St. Teresa’s Church as Tom Austen, who plays the titular Daimon Helstrom, sits down to talk with the press. It’s February and the show is months from its release date but Austen is already wearing the classic “Marvel leading man undercover” look, with a logo-less black hat atop his head. He’s prepared to discuss many aspects of Marvel’s first horror series, chief among them: just how much fun it is to set things on fire.

“I love the stuff with fire. I would say like over 90 percent of the fire-work that we’ve done has been practical. If there’s fire and Daimon’s standing by it then I’m standing by it. Which has been quite nice shooting outdoors because it’s cold here.”

Helstrom represents plenty of firsts for the Marvel TV universe. It will be the first time a Marvel series has shot in Canada and the first time a Marvel show has been chiefly classified as horror. It’s also set to be the last in many regards. For starters, Austen just might be the last actor to ever set stuff on fire for Marvel Television…and that’s because the entity known as Marvel Television no longer exists.

Last year, Marvel czar Kevin Feige consolidated Marvel’s TV offerings under the Marvel Studios banner, creating a new TV-producing entity known as Marvel TV Studios that could create TV content that fits within the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the newly-arrived Disney+. As part of the transition, Marvel Television (known for Netflix’s The Defenders, Hulu’s Runaways, and ABC’s Agents of SHIELD) was shuttered.

With one stroke of the pen, a half-dozen Marvel Television-produced shows were left in the lurch. Howard the Duck, Tigra & Dazzler, Hit Monkey, and Ghost Rider, which were all in active development for Hulu (which has been controlled by Disney since the Disney-21st Century Fox merger in 2019) were killed. In the end, Marvel decided to move forward with only animated series M.O.D.O.K. and live-action horror drama Helstrom and even then the latter show lost its “Marvel’s Helstrom” original title. Nor has the word “Marvel” appeared anywhere in the show’s advertising campaign. How then did Daimon Helstrom even become one of the last heroes standing for a Marvel era of television that no longer exists?

For starters, the character is used to being an underdog. Though Marvel has historically been willing to mine some lesser-known titles, like Guardians of the Galaxy or The Eternals, for its adaptation purposes, Daimon Helstrom is particularly obscure. The character was created in the ‘70s when Marvel (perhaps wisely) vetoed Stan Lee’s desire to make none other than Satan himself a Marvel superhero. The character was revised to be the son of Satan, known as Daimon Hellstrom (the Hulu series drops the extra “l” in “Hellstrom”), and made his debut in 1973’s Ghost Rider #1. Daimon would go on to get his own brief “Son of Satan” arc in Marvel Spotlight issues 12 through 24. Since then, Daimon has popped up in a couple more runs but never fully took off as a character.

To most, Daimon Hellstrom is best known as the moody magic-user with a Pentagram on his chest and a chariot of three-winged demon horses at his disposal. Despite the Son of Satan’s relatively limited comic history, however, one comic book page was all Helstrom producers needed to be convinced the character had a second life waiting on television.

That one page, from issue 13, captures everything one would need to know about the Helstrom family, as Daimon reads his mother’s diary and discovers that he is the product of a union built on lies and treachery. He has his father’s abilities but no guidance. He is charged with creating his own identity all the while marked with the sign of the devil plainly visible on his chest.

“Look at the building blocks of what (Daimon) is,” co-executive producer Megan Thomas Bradner says. “He’s a demon who has an incredible guilt over his history, over who he is. Maybe the different writers and artists chose not to go down that path, but it all starts with the stuff that they gave us.”

Helstrom is a more grounded and realistic take on the character that delves deeper into his sense of isolation and pain. This Helstrom is the son of a serial killer father (according to the show’s synopsis at least) and a mother (Elizabeth Marvel’s Victoria) who lost her mind and now lives, restrained, in a padded cell inside St. Teresa’s hospital wing. As an adult, Helstrom now lives in Portland and works as an exorcist of sorts, all the while dealing with the trauma of an interrupted family life. There are no tights, no magical tridents, and no demonic horses… probably… maybe…

“They’re going to be ponies actually,” Austen quips.

He does have a physical scar, in addition to his emotional ones. And that scar just may or may not resemble a Pentagram but it’s hard to say. Daimon keeps getting a tattoo over it but the tattoos quickly fade away. Makeup Artist Cindy L. Barlow says she knows where to place the scar on Austen’s back by tracing his freckles before applying the adhesive in a 10-15 minute process. Austen likes to peel it off at the end of each work day.

“You’re supposed to gently remove it but that’s not as fun,” Barlow says.

Daimon’s life has reached a fragile equilibrium as the series begins. Though he chiefly works as an Ethics Teacher at Gateway University (which makes a brief appearance in the comics), he also uses his supernatural abilities gleaned from “The Shadow Side” to assist St. Teresa’s and other interested parties in demon removal. To aid in that mission, he is supported by Dr. Louise Hastings (June Carryl), head of the psychiatric hospital within St. Teresa’s where Daimon’s mother Victoria is committed.

“(Dr. Hastings) acts as a kind of surrogate mom for Daimon,” Austen says. “She’s one of the first people to become aware of his abilities and tries to channel those for him to do some good.”

“There is a practicality to Louise that I think gets a workout,” Carryl adds of her character. “Walking that line is interesting. When something kind of goes off the rails and into another realm there’s a ‘huh, okay. I’m going to have to put that in the hopper. And it’s going to pop for a minute and we’ll deal with it later.’”

Another one of Daimon’s allies is Gabriella Rossetti (Ariana Guerra), a young agent sent by the Vatican to assist Daimon with his demonic issues. While everyone involved in Helstrom has old source material to sort through, Guerra decided to check out some even older texts to prepare to be an agent of the Church.

“I was reading the Bible every day,” Guerra says. “I was going to church maybe like two or three times a week, just to kind of feel connected and to appreciate the rigidness of it and not see it as a chore. For a while I was like, ‘Mom, I think I’m going to convert.’ But then all of a sudden I started having a lot of Catholic guilt. So I had to just step away.”

The presence of the Catholic Church in Helstrom indicates just how big, old, and elemental the forces at play are. And if this is all starting to sound a little like The Exorcist, that’s by design.

“I think there’s fun stuff in there for Marvel fans, whether you are a comic fan or a TV fan. But if you also are just a fan of horror, you can come to this too,” Bradner says.

This is the kind of production where (disturbingly anatomically correct) rubber corpses lie haphazardly on stretchers outside of offices. It’s the kind of production where the props team likes to note that they’re working on “human meat cubes” and that they’ve got a “bin full of thumbs.” It’s horror through and through.

All that horror is a lot for any one Son of Satan and his Vatican agent buddy to deal with. And that’s where Ana Helstrom comes in.

For as little Daimon Helstrom source material that the show has to work with, there is even less to go off of for his superpowered sister—the sultry Satana. In the comics, Satana’s key features are a profound love for her father and an even more profound distaste for modest clothing.

“I said, ‘Oh, okay. So we’re going to be using wigs and prosthetic body parts apparently.’ That was an overwhelming sight,” Ana actress Sydney Lemmon says of seeing the comic version of her character.

“My Ana Helstrom is a little different though,” she adds.

For one, Satana is now simply Ana. Ana Helstrom works as an art and antiquities dealer at her own San Francisco auction house who uses the selling of swords owned by Napoleon Bonaparte and ancient Sumerian daggers as a jumping off point for her own brand of demonic justice. Lemmon (who is Jack Lemmon’s granddaughter and was recently seen in a crucial arc on Fear the Walking Dead) appreciates the role that legacy plays in crafting Ana’s psyche.

“I was really, really drawn in by the intense family dynamics happening between all of the Helstrom family members,” Lemmon says. “It’s fraught and turbulent and then when you add in the element of superpowers, it’s a done deal.”

Just as Daimon has his own helpers in the form of Gabriella and Hastings, Ana too has her allies. One is Chris Yen (Alain Uy), Ana’s business partner and surrogate brother figure in Daimon’s absence.

“Chris is a very in-control type of person and likes things in this specific way,” Uy says. “In some ways that is the yin to Ana’s yang. It literally feels like a brother-sister relationship. Listen: I don’t know if you’ve got brothers or sisters, but I do and there’s definitely like a rivalry there, but it’s a healthy rivalry.”

Like many a Marvel sidekick, Chris Yen will become embroiled in some of the more intense and interesting aspects of Ana’s life, bringing the pair into contact with another one of Ana’s friends, Caretaker (played by The Wire’s Robert Wisdom).

As the name implies, Caretaker has close ties to the dead and all manner of dark magic. The character is one of the few Helstrom supporting figures who has a comic book presence and has previously been played by none other than Sam Elliott in the 2007 Ghost Rider film.

“If you’re familiar with New York, you know about the third rail on the subway. In the sense, Caretaker is working in two dimensions,” Wisdom says. “He’s up on the platform and he’s holding the third rail. He’s one of the few that can conduct that energy without snapping. That’s the tensile strength that I’ve given him.”

Wisdom describes Caretaker as a Nick Fury type, and also as a father-figure and guardian for Ana.

Daimon and Ana Helstrom clearly aren’t hurting for paternal and maternal figures in their life, which is fortunate given the fate of their real parents. Though the siblings’ father is understandably not an announced part of the cast yet, Victoria Helstrom is set to play a big role haunting the pair’s lives, even from within the dismal confines of her padded prison.

Elizabeth Marvel (no relation to…well, Marvel) took on the role of Victoria in part due to her teenage son being deeply steeped in the Marvel entertainment universe. Though she quickly found other aspects of her character and the show at large to appreciate.

“It’s incredibly satisfying and creatively wonderful. It’s just actor candy all the time,” she says. “We work through a lot of issues, a lot of pain on this show. There’s a lot of dealing with the past and childhood trauma, and where, as a parent, your responsibility is, and how can you control and care for your children when circumstances are overwhelming?”

Victoria’s circumstances couldn’t possibly be more overwhelming. As indicated in the series’ first trailer, there’s a pretty compelling, pretty demonic reason that Victoria has been institutionalized for 20 years. As such, the character’s environs are as bleak as they come in the Helstrom world, though it comes with some actorly benefits

“We love going to visit, because the entire room is padded. So we all lie down,” Austen says.

“Yes. We do a little yoga while they set up lights,” Marvel adds.

Downtime for family yoga is few and far between on set but the Helstroms have done their best to create a familial environment amid all the blood, fire, and severed thumbs. And they’re hoping that chemistry and those themes of family and trauma appeal to Marvel fans looking for something new.

“I don’t think that anything that Marvel’s put out is quite like what we’re making,” Lemmon says. “I cannot wait for people to get to see this grounded, fantastical story that we’ve crafted. It looks so much like life, but has such magical elements. It feels like new ground for Marvel, and it’s such an honor to be a part of.”

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Who knows what the future holds for Helstrom as Marvel casts its eye towards Loki, WandaVision, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, and more. For now, however, Daimon, Ana, and a whole cadre of demons are prepared to liven up Hulu’s October. Perhaps that’s why Daimon Helstrom was the last hero standing for Marvel Television. Somebody had to bring a spooky edge to the proceedings before the lights went out for good…and it might as well be the Son of Satan.

The post How Helstrom Became One of Marvel Television’s Last Shows Standing appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2GBfwlh

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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lostinthewinterwood · 4 years

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Hetswap 2020

Hey there friend! Thanks for creating for me.

Sorry this letter’s late—it includes the general likes and fandom-specific notes that my signup is tragically lacking.

My other exchange letters can be found here, and all the fandoms I’ve linked have fandom-specific request tags too. I’d be happy to get treats in any medium.

General DNW non/dub-con; non-canonical major character death; heavy angst; hurt no comfort; on-page deliberate self-harm*; on-page suicide; smut; gore; grimdark; complete downer endings; character bashing; incest; cringe comedy; a/b/o; mpreg; graphic eye trauma; graphic hand trauma; issuefic; unrequested full-setting aus; unrequested identity headcanons; a focus on unrequested romantic relationships**. *I don’t include things like, say, punching a wall in a fit of emotion under this. however, something like cutting would not be appreciated. **canonical levels of canonical ships are perfectly fine; background non-canon ships that I haven’t dnw’d are okay too.

General Likes

– I really like plotty fics

– Secret identity and disguise shenanigans, the more layers to them and more absurdity the better.

– Crossdressing for whatever reason and gender disguises, also for whatever reason, though not as a kink—that I enjoy less.

– A focus on family and/or friendship, especially characters realizing they’re not nearly as alone as they think they are, and just generally characters who like each other and enjoy spending time together

– Found family; families of choice

– Character studies

– Worldbuilding

– Canon-divergence AUs and missing scenes; things set pre- or post-canon; wriggling into canon and poking at it to see what it spits back at you, if that description makes any sense at all.

Art Things(??)

I’ll be real here, I’ve never requested art before; I don’t really know how best to prompt for it. I like a lot of different styles, though, so—if you matched on art or want to make art, just, do your style? I’m sure I’ll like it! For the visual media, definitely don’t feel pressured to stick to the canonical art style if you don’t want to. Seriously—digital, traditional, some combination—you do you.

As I, again, don’t really know how to prompt well for art, I haven’t given art prompts even where I’ve requested art. Don’t feel pressured to try to work any of the proposed scenarios into your art, though if you feel inspired by them that’s great; just give me the characters together, however you think best—that will be enough.

Podfic

My only podfic-specific comment is that I do generally appreciate not having very sudden volume shifts, especially from quiet to loud, as I like to listen on headphones. Apart from that, again, go with your style :D

Original Work

· Male reforester who's planted thousands of trees/Female dryad of the new forest

· Male Student Mage Disguised as a Girl/Female Student Warrior Disiguised as a Boy

· Male Student Mage Disguised as a Girl/Female Fellow Student Mage

· Runaway Princess/King of Thieves

· Sheltered Prince/Roguish Female Thief

· Teen Girl Medium/Ghost of a Murdered Detective Helping her Solve the Case (OW)

· Teenage Supervillainess with a Secret Identity/Teenage Superhero with a Secret Identity

· Teenage Supervillain with a Secret Identity/Teenage Superheroine with a Secret Identity

· Fanfiction

This isn't a hard-and-fast rule, but I'd rather all the human characters in relationships be at least fifteen, and I'd rather not have a very large age gap (say, >5 years) if one of the characters is underage. (For the medium/ghost, you don't need to keep it that small; just maybe don't draw too much attention to it and/or make her an older teenager lol).

fandom-specific dnw: predatory manipulation between characters in the relationship in service of the relationship--if, for example, the superheroes/villains are manipulating each other for non-relationship things and such that's okay, but i'd rather both parties in any of the ships be interested in the romance of their own accord. Additionally—this isn’t in my signup—please don’t have characters react to any gender-disguised characters (or characters in general, but it’s most relevant to them) in transphobic or transphobic-adjacent ways (i.e. none of the characters are requested as trans, but I still wouldn’t want to see the kinds of comments people make about trans people aimed at them).

Reforester/Dryad—I really like, idk, the vibe I get off this one—it’s got a very nice atmosphere? I don’t really know how better to say it, I’m sorry.

Student Mage/Student Warrior; Student Mage/Student Mage—obviously I love identity and disguise shenanigans; it always struck me as tragic when I was younger that there were all these stories about girls disguised as boys, but no one ever seemed to do the reverse? Hence prompts such as these. I’d love an identity/gender reveal, or maybe a post-reveal setting; I’d really rather not see them engage in any kind of serious romance without both of their genders being accurately known to the other, though flirting is definitely okay, as would be a date or two. It’d be fun to go with some variety of mutual pining pre-reveal though, that could make the reveal all the sweeter.

Runaway Princess/King of Thieves; Sheltered Prince/Roguish Thief—these seem to be mirrors of each other, somewhat at least; how does a royal meet a thief? Does our princess find herself in the criminal underworld when she runs away? Does our prince have a burglar appear on his balcony, or does he perhaps meet a girl at a masquerade who’s no noble and instead a thief?

Medium/Ghost—lots of fun shenanigans you can go into here! What kind of case are they working on? How does a relationship work, when one of you is alive and the other isn’t?

Supervillain(ess)/Superhero(ine)—love me some superhero identity shenanigans. Do they know each other in their normal lives? Are their identities secret from each other, or only the world? How do they first fall for each other—were they friends in their normal lives and enemies in masks? Is this enemies-to-lovers, friends-to-lovers, or maybe something in-between? How do they reconcile a romantic relationship with one being a hero and the other a villain?

Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure

· Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel (Cartoon)

· Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Stalyan (Cartoon)

· Fanfiction

Eugene/Rapunzel—they’re adorable. I love them. Give me more—a moment in their lives? Something in the year before the series starts; something post-canon? Or maybe glimpses of them on the road?

Eugene/Stalyan—I will admit that this certainly isn’t my endgame ship for this canon, but I’d really love something pre-canon, when they were engaged or dating—what was their relationship like? How did they interact with each other and the world? Maybe a heist fic; that could be fun. My interpretation from what we get in canon is that their relationship wasn’t necessarily the healthiest (healthy relationships don’t usually lead to one getting left at the altar, after all) but it didn’t seem to me that it was necessarily abusive; I’d appreciate it if it was kept out of the actually abusive zone.

Hanging Out with a Gamer Girl (Manga)

· Terazaki Kaoru/Takekawa Izumi (HOwaGG)

· Terazaki Kaoru/Ousaka Nanami (HOwaGG)

· Fanart

· Fanfiction

· Podfic

Fandom-specific dnw: sexualization of Kaoru’s crossdressing, full justification of Kaoru’s fears re: Nanami’s dad

Kaoru/Izumi—they’re both cute; they have cute interactions; give me more of that?

Kaoru/Nanami—I, admittedly, don’t usually ship these two—but I love their friendship. Give me more of that, show me how it becomes a romance?

My typical DNW for unrequested setting aus does not apply here; if you want to write an au and want some ideas, I requested several in my AUEx letter.

Tortall – Tamora Pierce

· Stiloit Tasikhe/Varice Kingsford

· Kaddar Iliniat/Kalasin of Conté

· Roald II of Conté/Shinkokami of Conté

· Fanfiction

fandom-specific dnw: characters in the political marriages hating being married to their spouse throughout the fic--they can start off with reservations or not liking it but i'd really rather end with them at the very least liking their spouse.

Stiloit/Varice—they had quite interesting interactions, the few times they got the chance; Varice is a bit young for him in Tempests and Slaughter, but say he didn’t die—say he was alive still when she grew up a bit more—what does their relationship look like? What changes in the wider story, if Stiloit doesn’t die, if Ozorne doesn’t become quite so close to the throne as young as he does?

Kaddar/Kalasin; Roald/Shinko—these are both political marriages between characters who either seem to like each other or like they’d have a reasonable chance to like each other; what does marriage look like when you came into it as a diplomatic thing rather than falling in love? How do they learn about and come to care for each other?

Revolutionary Arc – kitsunerei88

· Aldon Rosier/Francesca Lam (Revolutionary Arc)

· Aleksandr Willoughby Dragic/Fei Long Lin (Revolutionary Arc)

· Fanart

· Fanfiction

Aldon/Chess—they do not have enough fluff or gentleness in the story right now; I’d like some more, please. Maybe post-war, with Chess off at muggle university—how does Aldon do with living properly in the muggle world? What do Chess’s classmates/friends think of him? I would also happily accept fluff/soft things set in the universe of Blake.

Alex/Fei—they haven’t ah, interacted ever in canon that I recall, but they seem like they’d fit together well, if only for a little while—is this a wartime friends-with-benefits? Maybe post-war? If you go with the friends-with-benefits take here I wouldn’t necessarily mind a bit of smut, as long as it’s not only smut—please no PWP.

Rigel Black Chronicles – murkybluematter

· Arcturus Rigel Black/Pansy Parkinson (Rigel Black Series)

· Remus Lupin/Rispah Cooper (Rigel Black Series)

· Fanart

· Fanfiction

Archie/Pansy—so. Archie’s quite attached to Hermione right now; but he’s also fourteen. Not all romantic interests people have at age fourteen stay strong; I’d rather not have a hard break or too many hard feelings between him and Hermione, and I think he’d be interesting to see with Pansy. As for Pansy herself—she seems to be too close to Rigel as a friend to seriously consider him as a partner, but she did seem potentially interested in Harry at the Gala—perhaps she’d also be interested in Archie, when she gets to meet him properly. Maybe this is a post-reveal thing; perhaps in trying to get to know the real Black heir she falls for him? I don’t know.

Remus/Rispah—this is admittedly partly my inner Song of the Lioness fan coming out, but I’d love to see Remus learning more about the Lower Alleys and what goes on there, and conversely bringing Rispah more into his world too.

#hetswap #exchange letters #requested: art #requested: podfic #requested: fic #requested: original work #requested: rapunzel's tangled adventure #requested: hanging out with a gamer girl #requested: tortall #requested: revolutionary arc #requested: rigel black chronicles

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straykatfish · 5 years

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The Dynamite Gallery Trafalgar Street, Brighton

This unique exhibition was the result of a suggestion, an idea, an almost passing thought – just trainers, by invitation, what if only one artist applied? In the end they had hundreds from all over the world

I thought at first that this piece was by @Spacegooose who uses everyday objects as the base form for spacecraft, satellites, and other intergalactic transports, but apparently not, it’s @Vincent Cooke who is an illustrator from the Netherlands. It shows the same approach to the work as Spacegooose (yes, that is a triple ‘o’) – take an everyday object and turn it into something far from ordinary – but it seems not to be his signature style.

I liked the thinking behind this one; there’s something not quite inanimate about trainers, especially the very well designed ones (see Tinker Hatfield, Abstract: the art of design; Netflix season one) , and this scorpion doesn’t seem much of a stretch.

This piece made me think of Playdoh or very vibrant chewing gum. Nice, chunky, bold pieces slotted into their places like soft bricks.

Incidentally, while the origins of the four word phrase isn’t clear, the hashtag #HelloMyNameIs began as a campaign by Dr Kate Granger, an NHS doctor with terminal cancer who observed that, during a period of hospitalisation, very few of the staff who came to see her introduced themselves. Now it’s on many of the name badges of NHS staff as a reminder to do that. Kate died in 2016.

Gallery staff walking the walk.

This is Swamp Thing made of felt and with eyes used normally for models of wolves. There was something about the material that completely negated any associations with swamps and gave him a warmth that seems to be consistent with the character itself. It had been part of an earlier exhibition that featured superheroes which, given I’ve only seen Black Panther, made picking them out a bit of a challenge. Just to be clear, the gallery owner, Henry Gomez, in shot behind isn’t making an unwelcome gesture, just caught in the act of pointing something out!

Daniel Laurence – decorative art. Kings Road arches, lower seafront, Brighton.

I’ve visited this shop/gallery several times, usually coming out with a metal crab or some other artefact. This time is was a stag beetle. The gallery is yards from the sea; the beach almost on the doorstep and seagulls patrolling the pathway. I’ve always liked the sense of unassuming originality, the idea that these are artefacts, not pieces of art to be interpreted. This is a 3D piece, the fish projected out of the support on small nails. Apparently there is one ‘in Windsor’ but the co-owner would not be specific.

The Naughty Pirates gallery, Kings road arches, lower seafront.

Although some of these seafront galleries were closed, summer having been packed up and put in storage for the next few months, this one was open and showing some remarkable threadwork. As a person having no skill with a needle at all, anything beyond blanket stitch is a miracle to me, but the idea of making art work in this way elevated the practice in my mind considerably. I’ve seen some on one of the Sky Arts programmes but close up is a different matter. I’d thought at first these pieces were made in wet inks and sharp pen lines, which is how I would tackle them.

Art Republic, Bond street, Brighton.

Always worth a visit and a re-visit, this place has originals by Banksy, Damien Hirst, Patrick Caulfield, and Peter Blake, amongst others. This time it was a couple of similar techniques that drew my eye. The moth [The Messenger by Richard Berner] is made up of many tiny drawings of tormented faces, the two largest being the skeletal figures in the centre. While the image of George Michael [Mike Edwards] comprises coloured text (typographical) drawn from the lyrics of several of his songs, which seems to be Edwards’s specialty. The technique isn’t new to me but seeing the very different ways in which it has been applied here has given me an idea for the final project of my first OCA module.

I’m noticing now an apparent increase in prints that have been ‘hand finished’, which seems to mean small applications of medium post printing. This would seem to have the effect of rendering each piece more unique than it would otherwise be, and at very little cost to the artist. What do I think of this? Is it like signing a book, even though that would only add value if the author were famous (and probably dead)? Is it the idea of the possible uniqueness that makes the difference? The idea that, unlike an unmodified print, this piece has been touched directly by the artist? Do artists who do this, make slightly different marks on identical prints or are they always the same? Does anyone buy three copies of the same piece to see if they can spot the differences?

***

There are more galleries to see and, thanks to my friend Annie who seems to hold a mental catalogue of them, I expect we’ll get to visit many of them. I must add that, with just one exception (not mentioned here), everyone I’ve asked about their photography policy, everyone I’ve approached about pieces of work, and everyone who has still been standing there minutes before closing time has been knowledgeable, interested, keen to talk about the work on show, and utterly without artifice.

Gallery visits, October 2019 The Dynamite Gallery Trafalgar Street, Brighton This unique exhibition was the result of a suggestion, an idea, an almost passing thought - just trainers, by invitation, what if only one artist applied?

#Art Republic #brighton #Daniel Laurence #Dynamite gallery #Galleries #Henry Gomez #MeiMei #Mike Edwards #Mozart Circus #Naughty Pirates gallery #Richard Berner #Spacegooose #Vincent Cooke #Yoni Alter

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docfuture · 7 years

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Sparring Match, Part 3

[This story tried really hard to expand to novella or novel length, but I’m already in the middle of one of those 8-). It takes place between Chapter 30 and Chapter 32 of The Maker’s Ark. The most recent regular chapter is here, links to my other work here. Planning a return to Maker’s Ark in two weeks, but might end up with another short work instead. There will be other stories involving Jumping Spider and Breakpoint at some point. I plan to put up a progress update regardless.]

Previous: Part 2

"The Seer's Madness, eh?" said Jumping Spider. "That fits with a lot of the little clues I've been picking up, and one big one. Interesting that it's common enough in the Nine Worlds that they came up with a generic term for it. I thought Seers were rare." Yiskah smiled grimly. "They're rare because the 'Madness' is common, chronic, and often lethal. Suicide is by far the most frequent cause of death. And that's for adult extradimensional beings who have already made it over some pretty severe hurdles. I know from personal experience that staying alive and sane through childhood and adolescence as a human with any kind of extrasensory ability is very hard. Neither of the two previous controllers of this body managed it." "I see." Jumping Spider leaned back in her chair and sipped her coffee. "But 'Seer's Madness' is a description based on symptoms, not a diagnosis. By itself, it tells you nothing useful about causes or cures. Osk knew someone named Hrothgar who had powers similar to Breakpoint. Loss of self, and their struggles against it, seemed to be key issues for them both. So he's listening to her." "Well, I've known that Breakpoint's danger sense was protecting his self-identity, not just his life, for a while. And it might trigger if you tried to help him. But he's in more trouble than I thought if he'd rather die than let you do that mind probe. Are you sure that's really what's going on?" "No," said Yiskah. "His self-identity and life are so intertwined, there's no safe way for me check. That's why I agreed to let Osk handle him. I wouldn't try mind alteration without a damned good reason. But my good reasons and his might not match. If he lost self-control and lashed out using his weakness detection while I was inside his mind, I'd probably be hurt, but survive--but it would trigger my mind trap, and kill him. That could be what his danger sense is picking up." Jumping Spider stared at her coffee cup. "And he can't tell. And even if he's on track to die without help, he'd rather die as who he is now than lose his identity too." "Yes. But Osk thinks she can get him to the point where he will accept help--your help, if not mine." "Yeah. Problem with that. I'm not a nurturing type. I mess with minds, I don't heal them." "Neither do I. I did what I could. Telepathy can help a lot with diagnosis--if it's a problem I understand. And I have some experience. But there's no manual for telepathic treatment of mental disorders, and even if there were, what he did wouldn't be in it." Yiskah spread her hands. "Everyone thinks of me as the 'mind healer' because I brought Doc out of his coma. I got him from 'dying' to 'not dying'. I did not heal him--what healing he's done has been on his own. And best not get me started on trying to find an ethical way to practice mind surgery." Jumping Spider looked up and smiled. "Oh, someday I'd like to. But not today. So. Where do you want me to start our story?" "From when you first started working together, but focus on the personal and emotional, and differences between Breakpoint's reactions and what you expected. Anything you found surprising is a potential clue to helping him." "All right." She set down her cup, put her hands behind her head and looked thoughtful. "I've worked with quite a few people over the years, but I've never had a regular partner for field work. I got a heads up that Breakpoint was interested and a skimpy dossier from Doc a few years back. I did a little digging of my own. Two things stood out. "The IC agencies didn't have anything on Breakpoint's personal background. They assumed the synthetic ID Doc gave him was fake, but you can usually get some indirect stuff. But the nothing they had told me Breakpoint was good at deep cover. It piqued my interest. The other thing I found was that he was really good at adjusting to new surroundings and making surface contacts, but he never cultivated anything long-term. He always moved around." "Did that make you suspicious?" asked Yiskah. "A bit. I double-checked my alien under-cover agent theory after the good impression he made at our first meeting, but it didn't hold up. He's human, and after a bit of oblique questioning, I had an answer to his secrecy and his desire to be my partner. Not a complete one, but enough." "Oh?" "After the initial shine of being a superhero wore off, he did some hard thinking about root causes and how he could best apply his abilities. And he didn't trust the end of the Lost Years. He observed that it didn't matter that his power wasn't genetic--if the wrong people decided to find out if it was. I knew what that meant. He still had living family. And he might be dead to them, but he was never ever going to let anyone know who or where they were. So they didn't end up dead, period." "Did he know about your part in the demise of the Superagent program?" "He guessed. 'Professionally done, no useful clues, never solved, world is a better place now' has been circumstantial evidence pointing to me for a while now. I got a hint at a bit of well-hidden PTSD, and an obvious subtext that if any nation-state or organization started going after families again--of anyone, hero or villain--he'd be more than willing to help me take them out." "So you accepted him then?" "Oh, hell no. That just meant I didn't reject him automatically. There are good reasons I usually work alone, so I put him through the wringer first. I figured the most likely difficulties would be either the frequent lack of closure that comes with the territory, or him turning into Overprotective Man trying to cover me with his danger sense. Neither of those turned out to be a problem." Jumping Spider took another sip of coffee. "Then there were the potential coordination and psychological issues caused by my personal style. He surprised me there. He's good at picking up on cues and following my lead as needed, and it took me quite a while to find any way to fluster him or make him angry--and I'm very good at that." "I'm sure he researched you." "I can research, too. But about the only thing that seemed to bother him was calling his mental tricks 'Zen'; he said it was inaccurate and somewhat disrespectful, even if no one else was ever likely to say so. He was quite willing to lecture me on the finer points of the distinction for longer than I ever managed to keep listening. I stopped trying to wind him up that way after he changed tacks once, waited for me to notice, and got me with 'That was Zen; this is Tao.'" "Heh." "That was typical of how he handled my tests--deflection, humor, or turning them into a mutual game. I eventually took him on a trial mission and everything went fine. He was also right about just how much time his danger sense could save me. Infiltration and setup got way quicker with his help." "When did the personal attraction start?" "The physical attraction was pretty quick. I wanted to see how he handled frustration, so I told him I was going to push a few things as part of testing him. And that 'I'll tell you if you start to bother me' wasn't good enough--he needed to be clear about any boundaries that were important to him." "And was he?" "Technically, yes. I hit my own boundaries first. That's when I said the hell with it and called him good enough, even though I still had a few reservations." "Such as?" "You know how Doc won't take personal time? He knows it's important, but he's bad at it, thinks other things are more important, and won't listen when you try to tell him otherwise? And acts like he's trying to work off bad karma from destroying the world in a past life?" "Too well." Jumping Spider frowned. "Breakpoint is socially perceptive and skilled--but social connections are for work and cover. He won't take personal time because he doesn't think it's important for him. Which makes him sound like a sociopath, but he's not. He knows it's important for other people, he's considerate, and he listens. Which doesn't fit." "It fits with how most people see The Volunteer. And Breakpoint used that image as his model. But the Volunteer is asexual, and Breakpoint isn't." Jumping Spider snorted. "Damned right he isn't. Which made it interesting that I had so much trouble reading him. It set off a few alarm bells. But he was an excellent partner. Then things started getting personal for me." "Was there a specific trigger?" "Oh yeah. I needed some time off after a long mission. Beach time in the Med. I knew he needed time too, he'd gotten hit by several big false alarms while we were together." "Do you know what caused them?" "One was Flicker; I'm not sure about the others. I asked him how he was going to unwind, and he gave me some BS about putting in some martial arts practice time. I told him that wasn't healthy; he should come with me. He pointed out we needed a cover. So I told him we'd be NIA agents, a married couple on our anniversary, with secondary cover as contractors." Jumping Spider snapped her fingers. "And like that, I had a Stepford husband." Yiskah considered what she was picking up from her mind scan. "That has a lot of implications. Could you give an example?" "Sure. We attracted a fair amount of attention--that's why we needed a cover if we were going to relax--and I lost count of the number of times strangers told me how lucky I was, or, more often, how lucky we were. And then came the boots." "The boots?" Jumping spider nodded to where her jump boots were leaning against the wall. "Boots matter a lot to me. I need both ankle and knee support for safe landings. That's why I wear thigh-highs. I'd been thinking of changing my look for a while, and I saw a nice pair in a shop with a design that might be compatible with the right kind of reinforcement, so I bought them to see if they were comfortable enough to wear for very long." She laughed. "They weren't. I ended up back at the hotel with sore feet. Breakpoint helped me take the boots off. Then started to rub my feet. I told him he didn't have to do that. And do you know what he said?" "What?" "'Your husband would rub your feet.'" Vivid imagery went with that memory. "Ah," said Yiskah. "It wasn't--" "That wasn't cover." Jumping Spider smiled. "Cover was his excuse. And then he rubbed my feet--using his power." "Was that as good as--" "Better." "Oh." "When he finally finished, I didn't say anything or move for a little bit. Then I told him that my husband would also make love to me. And I very much wanted him to." Jumping Spider sighed. "And his danger sense went off." "How did he handle it? He mentioned to me that you were frustrated." "He handled it with good humor, and I was fine--I was more frustrated after our second try. And it wasn't just sexual frustration, it was intel analysis frustration. I couldn't figure out what it meant, and he didn't know." "And you're expert at extracting information from sexual reactions." "Yep. They're like a canary in a coal mine for a lot of things people try to hide. But his trigger wouldn't be warning away from starting a relationship--we already had one. I didn't think it was a specific sexual problem of his, but I couldn't completely rule it out until you did. But the real puzzler was why his danger sense didn't go off before he started to rub my feet--it was inevitable I was going to ask at that point." Yiskah leaned back. "It's possible it was an early warning to you, precisely because it was your expertise. He's good at extracting signal from the noise of his danger sense, but it's limited for long-term dangers. He triggers off some boundaries because they're the only obvious point for a warning." "Yeah. We talked about that. It can work like a warning sign at the top of a ridge. It's not because the ridge is dangerous; it's for something on the other side. The ridge is just the easiest place to see the sign." Jumping Spider waved a hand. "But he couldn't read the sign. And neither could I. He said he'd work on it, so I was willing to wait. Then." Yiskah frowned. "He was reluctant to reveal he can see signs like that at all. And he downplayed how much the false alarms and noise wear at him. Flicker seems to be a frequent source, and he doesn't want her to know. Is that why he resisted coming here?" "Unless she was gone or busy, yes. All her Database snooping didn't help, either. Neither of us know exactly why his danger sense warns him away from her--there are so many possible good reasons. But Breakpoint wanted to keep a connection, and stay on good terms with her, no matter what. Two words paid for it all, he said. I was there when he yanked out his phone, hit the emergency call, and said them, so I can't argue." "What were they?" "'Earthquake. Japan.'" "Ah." "So he definitely didn't want Flicker to find out how badly he got wrecked during her battle with the Xelian fleet." "That was a difficult time for many of us," said Yiskah dryly. Jumping Spider shook her head. "Most of it didn't faze him. Not the Volunteer, not the bombardment starting, not Flicker setting the sky on fire with her rocks. But for about five minutes in the middle, she started ending the world, at least for him. Over and over. Every few seconds. Breakpoint could feel it coming every time, and he lost it. Started babbling, and was completely helpless. We were on stakeout together, waiting to catch that assassin, and I had to hold him--I was worried he might hurt himself." "I got only a hint from my mind scan, of something he was hiding well." "He doesn't remember most of it. Post-traumatic amnesia. He didn't even remember the big power transformer next door blowing up, and we were about thirty feet away--pieces of it came flying through the window. The only part he does remember is the end, when he was crying and babbling how the world kept ending, but only he could hear the echoes. And everything was dangerous, because everyone was dying anyway, so he was useless. I just held him and made soothing noises. Then, a little bit after everything else stopped, so did he. He got this stricken look of embarrassment, pulled himself together, and said he was okay. I took a little convincing." "Understandable." "Turns out his babbling was triggering him, too, but he couldn't tell until afterwards because he was overloaded. He was lying when he said he was okay, but he got his act together, said I'd kept him alive, and he was ready. We had to move--the transformer blowing meant our spot wasn't inconspicuous anymore. But his danger sense was working again, and we caught the fellow with the virus sprayer just before he got to Donner. You know the rest of that story." "And there was no way you were going to let things go after that." "No. Besides whatever that cost him, Breakpoint had at least one long term problem he didn't understand, we'd already had a clear warning, and he could no longer pretend--to me--that his danger sense would necessarily protect him. He needed help. My problem was arranging the logistics without setting him off. Can I just say that trying to get someone with danger sense to stop stalling is a royal pain?" "Yes." Yiskah smiled. "You managed, though." "But you can't help him." "I've already helped him--I just can't directly fix his problems. But I don't trigger his danger sense for boundary crossings, because of my mind trap. I have to do something specific. That's what let me find out what I did, bring in Osk, and get him to the point he was willing to listen. He'd never have trusted her enough, otherwise. You still don't." Jumping Spider smiled. "I'm still alive because I'm a nasty, suspicious person. Flicker's Choosers are old, smart survivors. I don't forget who they worked for and with, and for how long--and how much Flicker, DASI, and you don't know about their history." "She hasn't set off Breakpoint's danger sense, and she's not even trying to evade it." "Oh, I believe she'll help him if she can. That's not the same thing as trusting her." "Fair enough. But I need to update her. Are you okay with that?" A half-smile. "To help him? I said I was. Go ahead." "Done," Yiskah said, after a short bit of mental communing. "And now we wait." ***** Jumping Spider waved at the display. They'd been talking for about an hour. "No, it was easy to see why she needed to be at least two people. DASI and Black Swan. Good Cop and Bad Cop. Omnipresent but trustworthy, if mostly invisible and incomprehensible, versus performance personified, scary and dangerous. The 'parking ticket' plan worries me, though." "Why?" said Yiskah. "Because of how it will be perceived by authoritarian regimes. I think she's trying to get someone to make a mistake, probably Russia, but they aren't stupid enough to try to nuke her without a lot more provocation that she's given so far." "If you accepted Stella's offer, you'd know." "A human director of EDU Intelligence would be mostly a figurehead. And it's a desk job. Hell no. Not unless my knees go, and I can probably talk Doc into building me new ones if they do. I'm more useful--" "Hang on. Update from Osk." ***** Breakpoint had changed back into his coverall and carried his crowbar. He also wore a pack; he was clearly planning a trip. Osk had accompanied him, then left to give them privacy. "It's no quick fix, but I didn't expect one, and there's no point in delaying anymore," he said. "I've done too much of that already." He nodded to Jumping Spider, who snorted. "We got here," she said. "Thanks to you. But I owe you both a full explanation first." "I'm a bit curious about why you think Osk knows enough to guide you through this." He nodded. "Putting minds together from pieces that don't always fit is part of what Choosers do. That's where einherjar came from. It's tricky, but Osk is good at it. Some other Choosers weren't as good--and their einherjar struggled. Osk has been helping those for more than a hundred years. The key is to take things slowly. My first step is a trip to the Nine Worlds." "Where will you go?" asked Yiskah. "A place called Ending Falls, to start." "Ominous name," said Jumping Spider. "It's called Beginning Falls, too," he said. "The name for it means both. The stream from Flicker's pool joins several others, and the Falls are where it meets the sea." Yiskah frowned. "I think Journeyman once got into trouble there." "Osk mentioned that. It dispels illusions and concealment--and someone saw him. But it won't directly harm a human, and it weakens the hold of obsessions and false visions. It's a traditional first stop for beings with power who have screwed something up and are trying to start fresh. And it helps with the Seer's Madness. Lif uses it." "Sounds reasonable," said Yiskah. "Then what?" "I can't work continuously on what I need to do. I'll need to recover after each incremental change. And what I do during the recovery time is pretty important. I'm going to work with Osk to help out in the Nine Worlds. There are a lot of places that are filled with the magical equivalent of old landmines and unexploded bombs. And people live in them. They farm in them. Do you know how dangerous it is to be a farmer there? And they look out for each other, but my danger sense could be a big help. And there are these things called void worms that--" "You miss helping people," said Jumping Spider. "Yes," he said. "Helping them, and not having to worry afterwards." "Ah. Occupational therapy." "Sort of. DASI says the sessions with Osk sound more like cognitive behavioral therapy for seers. I'll be gone for a week or two, and probably make regular trips for a while after that. We'll see how things go." He paused. "Do you think you'll be working here when I get back?" Jumping Spider met his eyes. "Depends. Plenty I want to learn about, but times are changing fast. Might need to move in a hurry. But you have my number. Call." "Do you still--" "Yes." "Ah, there's more than one--" "Still yes. I pushed you because you needed the push and I could not fool you. Not because I wanted you gone." Another pause. "I don't--" "How many times do I have to say yes before you'll listen?" Breakpoint looked down and swallowed. "The Falls will help. I'm not better yet--but I believe better is possible now. That's a big change already. Thank you." He looked up again, at Yiskah. "And thank you for finding the right way to trick me." Yiskah smiled. "Would that my other work were half as pleasant." "Now. Osk said this would help but it had to be my initiative. My choice." He took a deep breath. "Two truths. Not so much what I've been hiding, but why. You've both already picked up that my fear reactions aren't quite normal." "Yes," said Yiskah. "I assumed you changed them as part of your reshaping, to better adapt to your danger sense. Which seemed a bit risky. But the whole thing was risky." "It was. But I didn't have a lot of choice. I didn't start studying martial arts and meditation just because I thought they were cool. And I didn't pick the Volunteer as a role model just because he was a hero. Here's a riddle for you: How do you tell the difference between danger sense with a lot of false positives and panic disorder?" "Oh. Shit." "Yeah. I don't know how bad my anxiety would have been without my danger sense, but it doesn't really matter. With it, I had a severe problem. I didn't even have the luxury of being able to tell myself that it was all in my mind. Because some of it wasn't. I was afraid all the time. Either I was triggered, trying to tell if it was for something real, or worrying about the next trigger." "Ouch." "And I quickly discovered that every medication available made it worse--because they damped my ability to distinguish true signals more than they helped with the false." "Is that the full reason it's dangerous for you to drink alcohol?" asked Jumping Spider. "Yep." Another deep breath. "And now you probably have enough information to track down my family through medical records." "There was a classic fear spike," said Yiskah. "Not associated with danger, though." "An old friend. Going to have to let some of them back out as I adjust." He turned to Jumping Spider. "And some of them will probably be about you. That happened for family and anyone I got close to. And even the true triggers... well, for someone else, I often got nothing but the spike. I couldn't tell whether they were about to be hit by a car or their dog was about to spill their drink by wagging its tail." Jumping Spider smiled. "DANGERINT has always been noisy. Still beats most SIGINT. I'll deal like I always have. And minor dangers for me are rare--they get crowded out by the competition." "I know," he said softly. "That's one reason I picked you. I couldn't tell you the full story because I'd never have passed your tests if I had." "Whoops. Sorry about that. Paranoia is a bitch sometimes, even if there are people out to get you. Doesn't matter now." Breakpoint closed his eyes and took another breath. "You do too deserve her," said Yiskah. "And she deserves you." "I was getting there," he said. "I know. But breaking negative ideation loops is something I can help with, when you aren't trying to hide them." "But you won't always--" "Be on Earth after you get back? Not always, but often. Distance isn't an obstacle to telepathy, and you have my number, too." She smiled. "Call." "All right. I better go." Jumping Spider stepped forward and gave him a long hug. "Don't kill any dragons I wouldn't." "I won't. You take care." Breakpoint finally stepped back and raised his crowbar in a salute. "Thank you again, Yiskah, for one hell of a sparring match." "My pleasure," said Yiskah. He smiled at that, then turned and went out the door.

#FallofDocFuture #FallMisc #Maker's Ark

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sage-the-mage · 7 years

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Okay so like a month/month and a half ago I was bored at work and let my mind wander while cleaning (as I frequently do, my brain constantly jumps from thing to thing when I'm bored) and accidentally created an AU I've been obsessing over since. It started out as me wondering what would happen if Miraculous Ladybug was in the same universe as DC (specifically the "takes bits and pieces from different things because the actual comics usually have me screaming no because of the bullshit they do to my babies and anyway I like Teen Titans (2003) and Young Justice and the animated movies so I'm gonna amalgamate them a bit" verseI made with Mal that's constantly going in my head). But nothing really changed so I kept doing things and wound up combining two things that didn't need to be put together and made Marinette not exist in the verse and- That was when I realized I had a problem but really didn't care. Sooo since I'm not doing great today I decided I'm just making a long probably rambling post for this verse because maybe it'll make me feel better. -Chara and Mal came to earth when they were nine and got adopted by Bruceman almost instantly -Dickiebird is two years older than them but Chara will always claim "oldest" when coming up with plans and is questioned on who put her in charge and he really doesn't fight her on it because she's definitely the most responsible -Idk the actual age differences between everyone in the batfam so I'm making up my own -Ironically enough, when Mal and Chara first got into the heroing thing, Chara's chosen alias was Ladybug. Because she liked ladybugs -Mal and Chara spent their first four years on earth trying to find their father, then never actually went to see him once they did because they were both nervous -Plus Jason had just been taken in and they wanted to get to know their new little bro -Jay's a year younger than them -Another year after that, when Mal and Chara were thirteen, Chara almost died -Mal and Dickie had already decided to move to Jump for awhile and try being heros without The Bat, and Chara decided to let Ladybug die (since the villains already thought she was) for awhile so she could see what a normal life was like -She then sought out her father to actually meet him -Who lived in Paris with his wife -They own a bakery -You have to see where this is going -The girls' mother Miranda visited earth at one point (for science) and wound up "dating" (it was like a week lmao so I'm not sure it counts as dating) Tom Dupain while she was there -Then after she left she found out she was pregnant and he wound up meeting Sabine Cheng -Also Miranda seemed to have a thing for accidentally having half human kids after visiting earth -Because that had happened before with some other human -Except the father of those ones knew about it -So she kept one (Valerie) and let the father keep one on earth -And there we have Slade -Because I just like torturing my babies by having him related to them too damn much -Anyway -So Chara goes and surprises her dad with her existence -But he and Sabine are both more than happy to let her live with them -Chara had already thought of Bruceman as her dad (and Selina as a mom tbh) and now she has another mom and dad and it was great -Mal came by to meet them and it was great -I should write that tbh -French is one of the languages Chara hadn't picked up working in the batfam so she had to learn there -This leads to slip-ups and uncertain stuttering that Chloe makes fun of her for relentlessly -Chloe still a bitch -She manages to have a normal life for a full year!!! -Then mysteriously gets these earrings that turn her into a superhero themed like- get this- a ladybug -Oh the irony -I feel I've gotten more sarcastic as this post goes on -Also she gets her first crush on a sweet cinnamon roll model boy and made friends with a girl who really likes superheros -In case you couldn't tell that's Adrien and Alya -Chara can talk to Adrien better than Marinette can in the show -She still stammeres a lot but it's not nearly as bad and it's usually blamed on her not knowing the language confidently yet -She pretty quickly settles into her role as Ladybug again -She even likes Chat Noir's stupid puns -Not that she'd tell him while they're battling akumas -Then Jay dies -And she's sadder than normal but no one knows why exactly -Because she's pretty private about her life and family back in Gotham -Anyway over the next few years she becomes pretty good friends with Alya and Nino and Adrien while doing the hero thing with Chat -Because I have a soft spot for the MariChat branch, that is definitely a thing -Chat likes to see what "Purrrincess" is up to because she's less stuttery and more jokey for some reason when he's Chat instead of Adrien??? -The reason being Chara knows Chat won't make fun of her for her language slip-ups because he hadn't while she's LB -Either way Chat likes seeing her like that -And Chara comes to appreciate his jokes and just him in general -And she kinda gives up on Adrien because surely if it was meant to be it would be easier -And Chat's accepted LB doesn't want to be anything more than friends -So one day while they're hanging in Chara's room Chat kisses her -And then they're making out on her bed -And it becomes a thing -And a couple weeks later Chara shows up one day covered in hiccies -So does Adrien -Neither offers an explanation and Chara doesn't seem to be upset by seeing hiccies by the collar of his shirt so everyone assumes they hooked up, which is truer than Chara realizes -Chara winds up telling Alya it was actually Chat and holy hell Alya totally flips -"GIRL HOW THE HELL HAVE YOU WOUND UP WITH CHAT FREAKING NOIR!!!" -Chara shushes her and tells her it's not like that -Really they're just friends with benefits because surely Chat, who seemed to flirt with everyone (though if she payed attention, she'd see it was only her as Chara and LB) wouldn't want to actually DATE her -Jump to a few months later, LB and Chat finally defeated Hawkmoth -They agreed to not reveal Gabriel's identity, as long as he gave up the moth miraculous -LB was very reluctant to do this, which confused Chat -Chat, after finding out HM was Gabe and his reason for wanting the cat and ladybug miraculouses was to bring his mom back bc he's even worse with Emotions (tm) than Bats, wanted to give him a second chance, and was confused why LB (not knowing she was trained by Bats and lived in Gotham) is so reluctant to give a second chance -After they leave Chara decides to reveal herself to Chat because without HM as a problem anymore that shouldn't be an issue and really it's been nearly four years and she really REALLY likes him so -Chat is just stunned because shit his lady and his purrincess are one and the same and wait he kissed Ladybug and she actually was interested in him just not while they were fighting and fuck his father was the guy they've been up against for the last four years she DEFINITELY wouldn't be in him now -Chara sees the shock on his face and, because she's pretty confident in herself, assumes he wasn't as ready for a reveal and tells him not to tell him who he is yet, he clearly isn't ready -Chat just kisses her and detransforms anyway and Chara's the one who's shocked -Jump again to a few weeks later when Chara goes on a visit to Gotham as she does every few months -She's kept up well with the growing Batfamily and keeps a good relationship with all of them -She acts as a mother to all of them, including Dick -She's pretty protective of Timmy -Damian wouldn't admit it, but she's actually his favorite -She's not judgmental of the fact he grew up an assassin or telling him constantly to not kill people, and actually gives him tips on how to adapt (which she'd used herself after coming to earth), and she's not always around so he doesn't have to deal with constant hugs, only when she's visiting, so it's a manageable amount -Jay's the only one she hasn't kept up with, and that's only because no one told her he came back -So Chara comes for one of her visits and brings Adrien and Alya and Nino (who've been informed of their secret identities) -Almost immediately there's an attack at the coffee shop they stop in by a fairly weak villain -Probably Riddler or smthn -Chara Ladybugs up and kicks his ass within two minutes -Cue people cheering and being excited at seeing Ladybug again -AGAIN -Chara goes back to Chara and Alya just -"GIRL YOU GOT SOME 'SPLAININ' TO DO" -Chara hesitates then takes the distraction of noticing someone -That someone winds up being Jay -He'd heard what was going off then sprinted off when he saw it was taken care of -Chara chases -Confused af when she sees it's Jay -But also excited because her first little brother is ALIVE -And she's just chattering and hugging him -And then he starts bawling and she's not sure why -But she's rocking him and muttering soothing nonsense and petting his hair -And he's curled in her lap like a little kid and just sobbing and holding onto her and he's just so happy someone's loving him and caring about him -Once he calms down he tells her that he had come back and the whole story with that and how after he hadn't followed the no kill rule a few times and the rest of the family was weary at best towards him -Mal was nice enough to him at least but still it wasn't great -Chara just keeps holding him and rocking him and assuring him that he's still part of the family and more importantly he's still her little brother and she'll always be his big sister -She reminds him how before she moved to Paris she promised she'd be there for him whenever he needed and says that still applies -The others finally find where she'd went and she tells them everything -Bruceman might be mad but shhhh he can deal she trusts them with her life -They finally make it to Wayne Manor and they all get along pretty damn well -Even Jay -I should write that too -Aaaand that's all for now

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sueboohscorner · 7 years

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#Supergirl Ep. 221 Recap & Review "Resist"

Episode grade: 9

Lena Luthor awakens in a luxurious bed, totally gothed out. I realize fashion is pretty low on her list right now, but I still imagine she would rather not be seen like this in public. Rhea must have always wanted a daughter to dress up like a doll.

Lena's appropriately pissed at being abducted, and Rhea's reaction is that peculiar variety of sociopathic that can also be described as "mother knows best." Rhea's whole way of dealing with the world comes across as a weary frustration that people don't always immediately do what she says, that's she occasionally required to apply pressure to make them fall in line. (This parenting style is familiar to Lena, of course, because Lillian Luthor is a nightmare.)

Even Lillian, however, looks like a good mom now that you've got Rhea for comparison...Rhea plans to force Lena and Mon-El into a marriage that will symbolically unite Daxam and Earth. I bet Mon-El regrets being too heroic to shoot her last week!

Rhea's message of "Welcome to New Daxam; I will be your queen" is being projected all over National City, and her Daxamite army is raining down terror and destruction to bring the people to heel. Our heroes are mostly out there fighting back, except J'onn, who remains in a coma after last week's fight.

The DEO HQ has fallen to the Daxamite army, so our team has set up shop in the alien bar with whatever equipment they could get their hands on. They're all there trying to decide on a plan when Lillian waltzes in. She offers a limited alliance to fight their common enemy, but our friends aren't that desperate...yet.

Guardian and Maggie feel it's their duty to get back out on the street and protect people. For some reason, Supergirl doesn't leave the bar. That is one of the strange aspects of this episode. I get it, narratively, because she needs to be there for specific moments...but still, it's weird that the city is under siege, and its primary hero is hanging out in the bar, looking at computer monitors.

Winn picks up a signal being transmitted between the Daxamite mothership and...Air Force One, zooming right this way! He hacks into this communication (...but two weeks ago, he couldn't trace a signal relay set up by some guy Alex and Kara grew up with? Sorry, I'll try to never mention that crappy episode again), and our team gets to be a fly on the wall for the first contact between President Olivia Marsden, Queen Rhea, and Cat Grant!

Cat is her usual awesome self, trying to play the girl power aspect of this situation. Of course, she's a person with a soul, so she can't comprehend a sociopath like Rhea. There's no negotiating with this bitch. Rhea starts shooting down the presidential escort jets, then Air Force One.

Supergirl gets there just in time to catch Cat Grant, but the plane goes down. This isn't a fatal event for Madame President, though, because she's a Durlan! (We've known since her first appearance that she was an alien, but now we get a confirmation on her species; Durla is the homeworld of a race with shape-shifting abilities. Their most famous citizen is Chameleon, of the Legion of Super-Heroes.)

Back at the bar, the president instructs our team to retake the DEO facility and gain control of the positron cannon, then immediately use it to destroy the mothership. Supergirl and Alex beg her to reconsider, as Mon-El and Lena are hostages on that ship, but the president stands firm that defeating this invasion force is more important than saving any individual lives. (Fair point, and I can't help but note Supergirl's failure to shed tears for the pilot or crew of Air Force One. Not that I think she should beat herself up about their deaths, but she saved Cat and then expressed horror at the thought that she'd failed to save the president...no concern about the others?)

Supergirl's deeply conflicted about carrying out these orders, and Cat gives her the pep talk she needs to make a hard decision; she goes to find Lillian (and Hank Henshaw/Cyborg-Superman!) and agrees to their short-term alliance.

For their part in the adapted plan, Alex and Maggie are carrying out the president's orders (desperately hoping Supergirl's mission succeeds before theirs!), and Winn is helping Cat commandeer the airwaves to send a message of hope and rebellion to the citizens of National City. She gives a beautiful speech to inspire the city to resist Rhea, this thug "who claims she will make our world great again."

When Daxamite soldiers show up at Catco to stop Cat's transmission, Guardian saves the day! He uses lead dust to trigger the Daxamites' "space asthma," which is an awesome use of their one known weakness.

Cat looks right at Guardian and says, "Thanks, James." He and Winn stammer, but she just points out that his eyes are visible through the slit in his mask. (And unlike with Kara, no shape-shifter is on hand to prove her suspicion wrong!)

Lillian's plan involves the Phantom Zone projector in the Fortress of Solitude. They will hack its frequency to get it to beam them behind the shields around the mothership, so they can rescue Lena and Mon-El. Kara asks why Lillian hasn't outed her to Lena, since Lillian knows her secret identity. She sneers that she's waiting for Lena to figure it out, because then she'll see that Kara has been lying to her, proving that aliens can't be trusted, after which Lena will finally become a full Luthor.

Now, I just have to say one thing: I call BS on Lena still not figuring out Kara is Supergirl. I will accept that she can interact with Kara and Supergirl closely without knowing they're the same person, because I'm a comic book fan, and we accept that sort of thing as part of the deal. But now, Lena has met Mon-El both as Kara's boyfriend AND as the superhero who showed up with Supergirl to fight Lena's alien mentor, Rhea, who turned out to be Mon-El's mom, who talks a lot about her son dating the wrong girl and who has a beef with Supergirl...there is no excuse for her not putting two and two together at this point.

In fact, here's the rescue team: Supergirl barely restrains herself from kissing Mon-El, then says that Kara Danvers sent her. If Lena comes out of this without a full awareness of this secret identity, they better have a major explanation...or maybe they'll just have J'onn mindwipe her, so when she figures it all out the second time she can feel even more betrayed.

Lillian tries to screw Supergirl over, of course, leaving her and Mon-El behind on the ship. Winn had rigged a backup plan, because Lillian can't be trusted, but Kara sends Mon-El to safety alone! She says she wants to offer Rhea a peaceful surrender. I hate this. I get that it's meant to be the heroic choice, but it's so naive, and dude, you know that if you're not out of there soon, your sister will wind up shooting you out of the sky! Right now, I feel like Kara's greater allegiance should have been to Alex; she should have gotten off the ship to prevent her sister from having to make an awful decision that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

(If you read my recaps of The Originals, you know I'm always bitching about how dishonorable the Mikaelsons are, so believe me, I recognize there's irony in my bitching about how honorable Supergirl is being. I like a happy medium, I guess, where you stand by your word and respect your allies, but you accept that sometimes the bad guy has to die, and you don't risk your life to offer redemption to someone who has shown no interest in it.)

Down on the ground, Alex has her finger on the positron cannon trigger, and the president is ordering her to proceed, but she knows Kara is still on the ship. She hesitates just long enough that we should probably assume she's going to be fired, especially because her hesitation gives the Daxamites time to destroy the cannon. Oops.

Up on the ship, Rhea laughs at Kara's offer to surrender, then introduces another secret weapon...she's got Superman under her control!

This week had a couple of minor flaws, but the return of Cat Grant makes everything better. I love this character, and I could watch Calista Flockhart's gracefully formidable performance all day.

What was your favorite Cat moment?

Next week, Supergirl vs. Superman!

#supergirl #The CW #comic book shows #DC Comics #DC Universe #DC Entertainment #DCU #Calista Flockhart #Teri Hatcher #Chris Wood #Lynda Carter

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briangroth27 · 7 years

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Power Rangers 2 Wish List

I loved the new Power Rangers and even though it didn’t do great at the box office, I’m hopeful for a sequel! I think the proposed 5 sequels/prequels plan will be pared down a bit in light of the box office take, but that’s just an opportunity for Saban and Lionsgate to focus on delivering a tight, fun, and entertaining follow-up built on the excellent foundation of the first movie. I was impressed that, even with modern teen struggles and a more grounded take, the movie never felt ashamed to be Power Rangers, and that should definitely continue. Here are a few things I’d love to see in the sequel!

More Trini and Zack! I liked what we got from the team in the first movie, but Zack and especially Trini felt underutilized and underdeveloped. Hopefully that’s remedied in the sequel. Billy trying to increase/stay in his morphed state permanently to protect himself was an idea I had a while back (which also briefly appeared in the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers comic), but maybe it could apply to Trini or Zack instead. Trini had big walls set up because of her parents and Zack’s fun persona is a shield against the impending death of his mother, so either one of them could feel like they need a little extra power to get through their lives for a bit. It’d be interesting to discover how much of Zack’s bravado is real and how much is a mask. How will the inevitable loss of his mother affect him, and how will that affect his performance as a Ranger? Billy lost a parent too, but it seems like Zack is primed to delve into the “I have all these amazing abilities but still couldn’t save this important person” trope, and investigating the Rangers’ inability to save everyone (especially after reviving Billy in the first movie) through the eyes of their most jovial member would be a new angle. They could also explore what his potential could be if he weren’t spending all his time ditching school.

Like I suggested in my review, Trini’s helicopter parents provide the perfect setup to play with her trying to sneak out of the house using her superpowers or to subvert the “keep your identity secret” superhero trope with her sarcasm. Another way to go is to establish she’s got an aptitude for science, so she and Billy can team up on that like on the show. Since Trini is the first LGBTQ superhero in a movie, exploring those romantic relationships in detail would be groundbreaking. Whatever they do with them, Trini and Zack definitely need equal focus in the next movie.

Explore How Being Rangers Affects Their Lives Will the team being forced to open up to each other for their powers to work create awkward situations where they have to talk to continue being an effective team? Will they have any privacy or secrets from each other from here on out? Since they’re teenagers, exploring that aspect of their bond is a great way to inject some comedy and drama to the Rangers as a unit.

How were the kid’s pre-Rangers dreams changed by becoming superheroes? What did they want to be? Do they even have those kinds of options now that they’re heroes? Can they hold down an afterschool job if the city is overrun with monsters? Kimberly’s aspirations were dealt with in her exit from the series, but not all the Rangers got that chance and looking at that kind of thing would be great character development here too.

Billy Adds to the Ranger Arsenal In the original show, Billy invented the team’s wristwatch communicators and tied them into the Morphing Grid, allowing for teleportation to and from the Command Center at will. Something similar would be cool here, especially if the writers don’t want to spend time sending the kids through that complicated cave/underwater sequence every time they need to speak to Zordon. I’d also love to see the other Ranger-specific weapons make an appearance (Zack’s ax, Billy’s lance, Trini’s daggers, and Kimberly’s bow) since Jason got to use his Power Sword in the first movie. Maybe Billy could figure out how to manifest those other weapons for each of the Rangers. I wouldn’t mind his tinkering smoothing out the Ranger uniforms either: I prefer the more simplistic designs from 1995’s MMPR movie (I don’t hate the new ones, I just found them over-designed and too busy).

One aspect of the Rangers mythos that was missing from the movie was a true “It’s Morphin Time!” moment, since the kids’ bond opened the Morphing Grid to do it for them. While the kids are already superpowered out of costume and don’t have morphers, perhaps Billy could build mobile devices that connect directly to the Grid in the event of an emergency without needing to depend on the unity of the team. This could create drama by accidentally disrupting their connection, since they’ll no longer always have to be fully connected, which could then turn around and save them if Tommy Oliver betrays them, totally shattering their bond for a time.

The Teens Do Martial Arts I didn’t mind the Power Coins granting the kids superpowers when not fully morphed (the villains were scaled up enough to necessitate this), but I’d like the team to learn some finesse to go along with their brute force. Each of them could develop their own style of fighting like on the show, which would add variety to fight scenes. Kimberly’s past as a cheerleader, for instance, could include a heavy emphasis on gymnastics. Zack could develop his capoeira-like hip hop kido, or something similar. The first time Zack sees Trini, it looks like she’s practicing Kung Fu or Tai Chi, so perhaps she could teach the team members who don’t know martial arts already. While Jason was a former football star, it’d be a fun switch to make the girls the most athletically proficient.

The Teens Become Socially Conscious Pitching in on the Angel Grove rebuilding efforts would be a good start, but I’d love to see the kids arcing back toward their community-minded do-gooder selves from the show. They don’t have to be perfect boy and girl scouts, but it wouldn’t hurt to show them teaching kids sports or science—and not because of court mandated community service. Outside of Green Arrow and the X-men, the Power Rangers are among the most social justice-minded of all superheroes, and it’d be good to get to that aspect.

Tommy (or Tommi) Oliver The first movie’s post-credit scene lays out the arrival of Tommy Oliver, the Green Ranger, though I wouldn’t have minded one more film with just the original five Rangers to explore their dynamic before it’s changed completely. Still, I’m definitely excited for the prospect of a traitor Ranger, especially with the emphasis on the team’s need for unity and trust to morph. Someone who can get past their defenses and the stab them in the back would be a perfect adversary! Plus, it’d be a case of history repeating itself after Rita went bad, which works well thematically: maybe Zordon argues not to trust Oliver but the Rangers don’t listen and fight to save Tommy’s soul instead of outright killing him. If Tommy and Kimberly have a romantic relationship, his betrayer status and her scandalous selfie-sharing would give them fairly complimentary redemption arcs.

The cast wants a female Tommy (Tommi?) to change things up and give the team an even boy/girl ratio for once. I wouldn’t mind that; making Tommi a girl would subvert expectations that whatever guy stepping into Jason David Frank’s green and white boots would have to bear. Since Tommy’s arguably the most popular and iconic Ranger, that’s a huge bar to clear that could be sidestepped by going in an entirely different direction (JDF doesn’t seem opposed to it either). That’s not to say, of course, that Tommi Oliver couldn’t be every bit as badass, evil, and compelling in her redemption arc as JDF was; just that the monumental expectations might be done away with. Plus, it would be good to have gender balance. Maybe Tommi dates Trini and they play out the Tommy/Kimberly romance with her instead. Tommi and Jason dating would add an entirely different layer to their rivalry from the original show, while Tommi/Billy would probably be heartbreaking. Tommi could also be twisted literally in Rita’s image, though that may be a strike against this idea since we’ve just had an evil female Green Ranger in the first movie. Whatever they do with Tommy/Tommi, I hope they keep the character’s Native American roots; the diversity in the first film was fantastic and that should continue as the series progresses (everyone deserves to see themselves as heroes!).

If Tommy/Tommi does become the eventual leader, that’d provoke a great change in the dynamic of the team. Where does Jason fit if he’s not the leader, especially as rising to that challenge was so key to his arc in the first movie? The show couldn’t answer that question due to contract disputes leading Austin St. John to stop filming for Jason’s final episodes, so I’d like the movies to go there. How do the other Rangers feel about being led by a total newcomer when they’ve all put in the time and were never evil?

More Monsters! We got the Putty Patrol and Goldar in the first movie, but I hope the sequel goes all-out with a horde of monsters unleashed on Angel Grove all at once. It doesn’t look like we’ll get Finster and his Monster-Matic here, but the way Rita’s powers manifested monsters felt similar to Lord Zedd’s penchant for turning everyday objects into beasts. I think Zedd—definitely the show’s coolest enemy—feels more like an endgame villain than appearing in the first sequel (he probably corrupted Rita in the first place), but nothing says he can’t give Rita a new source of magic (and the show has plenty of them) to create monsters and retake the Zeo Crystal (Zedd’s goal in the original series). Elizabeth Banks was a blast in this film, and I wouldn’t mind bringing her back for revenge.

Was the very conspicuous scorpion on the boulder in the Pit a nod to Scorpina (one of Rita’s best flunkies!)? Could it be mutated into Scorpina by some damage to the ship/Morphing Grid over the course of the battle? Could she be Zedd’s new champion in addition to Tommy? Or maybe she mutates by accident and has her own agenda entirely.

Amy Jo Johnson said she’d like to come back as a villain; she was great fun as one in Power Rangers Turbo, so I say bring it on!

A Vast Universe Perhaps this is why there were four sequels and a prequel planned; the Power Rangers universe is huge, even just contained to the MMPR-In Space Zordon era. Space, other dimensions, magic, science fiction, horror elements, and different time periods are all on the table in the Power Rangers world. I’d love for these movies to go big and not feel constrained by the bounds of Earth. I don’t think this needs to happen in the next movie, but it’s something I hope they keep in mind if there are more (though things like the Dark Dimension could be fun, weird challenges to throw at the team next time).

Bulk and Skull Jason’s prank buddy Damo, possibly feeling rejected after Jason found new friends, and the “Bully of Detention” could’ve easily been these Power Rangers mainstays in their nascent stages. Maybe Damo’s full name is Eugene Damo Skullovitch and the Bully of Detention is named Farkas Bulkmeier (he seems more Bulk than Skull). Mirroring the Rangers’ superhero battles with everyday bullying would draw another smart line from their superhero lives to more relatable ones (just as understanding each other and working together grants them the power to be heroes and protects them with literal armor). Contrasting with the epic nature of the Ranger adventures, Bulk and Skull provide comic relief and represent grounded problems they can’t just morph and fight against (even though Jason did slap a bully).

Series Stars in Cameos/Supporting Roles Amy Jo Johnson and Jason David Frank are always welcome back, and it’d be great to have Austin St. John, David Yost, and Walter Jones back onscreen to complete the original (living) Ranger team. Jason Narvy and Paul Schrier absolutely deserve to be included too, since they’re the series’ longest-running characters. Something similar to the Harold Ramis bust in 2016’s Ghostbusters would be a great way to include and honor Thuy Trang as well. Later Rangers like Johnny Yong Bosch, Nakia Burrise, Karan Ashley, Catherine Sutherland, and Steve Cardenas would also be welcome. Rose McIver is very talented and was once a Ranger; having her do something in these films would be fantastic!

Two Things I Don’t Want As a kid, I thought the team getting new zords each season was cool, but as an adult I realize later seasons’ vehicles never lived up to the original Dinozords. They’re the coolest to this day and I hope the movies don’t ditch them anytime soon (if at all). Some refining of their appearance would be fine, but the films would be hard-pressed to outdo the Dinozords.

Along those same lines, I hope we don’t see the rapid cast changeover of later Rangers seasons. I’d be fine never getting a second generation of Power Rangers in the movies, but I wouldn’t want to explore more than one additional set of replacements. I believe the original Rangers are rich enough to spend several movies on without worrying about them feeling overdone.

Whatever they do, I can’t wait to see what they’ve got in store for us and the first movie has bought a lot of good will with me for this franchise. After a long hiatus from the fandom for me, “It’s Morphin’ Time!” all over again!

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