#except not at all but i don't count the comics as canon to the games anyway

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

I’ve come to terms that twdg is most likely over but seeing aj wearing clem’s hat in road to survival.. I’m getting my hopes up over nothing but at least I can dream about aj getting developed further :)

I haven't played Road to Survival sooo I can't comment on AJ wearing Clementine's hat there, the only instance of that I can comment on is the 12-page Clementine comic that came out before Book One.... and the comment isn't great so I won't bore you with it.

And while I wanna say, "Oh, I'd love more AJ development," I've become far too pessimistic about any continuation of TWDG that instead I'm like, "Nope, don't want it, leave AJ alone. Leave them all alone. I don't trust you. Everything ended with TFS, everything else after that is separate."

Honestly if anyone wants any further development on any of the characters, that's where fanfiction comes in handy. It's not canon and it's free to read. It's usually written by people who actually give a shit about the series, they aren't doing it for profit, they don't have to rush to meet deadlines, they have nothing to gain or lose, and are free to expand upon characters and concepts in interesting ways. And if you don't like one, just pick up another. No harm done.

[dailycass-cain]

2023 was another big stepping stone with Cass. The character was featured in A LOT of stuff this year amongst a few negative antics.

But unlike prior years the good really outweighed the bad. BY A LOT.

So let's take a look back one final time #CAINAISSANCE2023...

The year started STRONG with the release of Batgirls #14 aka the BEST solo story that involved the character this year.

I've gone in LENGTH on how AMAZING this tale was. If you haven't read it DO SO. You don't need any context but to just take in the masterpiece given.

Writers Becky Cloonan and Michael Conrad gave artist Jonathan Case just this canvas of an issue to tell AN EPIC mostly silent issue.

If there's a tale Batgirls will be remembered for it'll BE THIS ISSUE.

I've lost count to just taking in the gorgeous art Case delivers here and just letting the actions and emotions tell the tale.

The only regret is well no full payoff to what is fully learned within this issue.

It just hits EVERY mark and is something any Cass fan CRAVED, but never got in Batgirl Vol. 1. Batgirls #14 was a worthy issue that should be talked about amongst fans of Cass for quite some time.

February gave us Cass's grand entrance to Ram V's Detective Comics run (#1069) and what an entrance it was! Literally, I can't let it go of how AMAZING it was.

And the run itself? It just keeps delivering as THE Batman book out currently.

It's a slow burn and when the run lays the payoffs IT HITS THOSE PAYOFFS. The series just ended an exceptional bi-weekly event that featured Cass and well, I'm extremely curious where this run goes with the character.

If anything, I just want MOAR from Ram V or a smaller secondary story involving Cass. But given the various characters he's been rotating and given next year is 2024 (more on that later) I'm keeping my fingers crossed for ALL OF THIS.

This run does work in trade but I digress you'd be missing the GORGEOUS covers this series has been shelling out. If anything BUY the single issues and read the run this way until you get to the present.

Or reread them like I've been doing. 😋

The early half of 2023 marked Cass's surprise return to an actual role in mega crossovers. She took part in the final issue of Batman vs. Robin being one of the random factors to stall the possessed Batman until ALL of DC's magical users came to cast it out of him.

The weakest of the crossovers the character was involved in I have to say was Gotham War. It was a nothing burger that made me swear off the Chip Zdarsky run of Batman completely.

Honestly, I feel more rewarded reading Tec more. Unless Chip pulls off a miracle turnaround in 2024.

But I digress Zdarsky was only half of the problems with the other being Tini Howard and yeah, if you were a Bat Family member who wasn't Jason Todd (how did that mini turn out to be more entertaining then the ENTIRE event?!)?

This story SUUUUUUUUCKED. Quite possibly the worst Batman event story since War Games/Crimes for me.

Sadly, the most disappointing stories I'd have to say are on equal ground in Beast World and Knight Terrors. As there was interesting concepts with Cass involving them, and both stories just go NOWHERE.

I feel more so robbed with Knight Terrors as the design for Cass within it went hard. It's just that you give us THIS design and tease us with this little nugget and give us NOTHING?

COME ON!

Beast World was a whole nothing burger as well, save the pretty art and a full confirmation that Cass's old NML is now canonically her defacto one again.

Even if we had it mentioned earlier last year and again in the best crossover event involving Cass...

WHICH WAS IN LAZARUS PLANET: DARK FATE #1. It gave us Alyssa Wong returning for a THIRD time to write Cass and they were joined by Haining on art which introduced us to the world of Xanthe.

That in itself led to a spinoff mini-series that had Cass in it with SPIRIT WORLD. It did more with the new character Xanthe and laid out their origins and powerset nicely while also laying some seeds for MAYBE future Cass stories.

Again, I feel like a repeating record on how GOOD this series was. Like, I can't wait for the trade next year to take it all in again. But besides the creative team delivering it gave us Dustin Nguyen AND Marcio Takara drawing Cass again OFFICIALLY AS BATGIRL!!

Even when this series ended, I STILL WANT MOAR!! Like what memories did Cass lose? What the heck happened with Spirit World twisting her memories of Batgirl Vol. 1 #72?! How will Xanthe be with the Jade Court?

SO MANY QUESTIONS!!

Something else that left me with MANY questions was DCeased universe as even though the story ended back in April.

I still crave more starring Cass, because let's face it STEPH/TALIA DESERVE CLOSURE!! Cass could be the gateway to that.

Doing so would tie up the final loose ends as well. Let's see how Rose is raising her kid with Jason. Silent Olsen. Harley/Ivy. Ollie/Dinah. Jim Gordon.

But I digress. It gives us more Cazzam. We need more Cazzam.

But an alternate universe Cass just didn't pop up there we had a Cass show up in various other comics. Knights of Steel which also had me hankering for MOAR and Harley Quinn & the Legion of Bats.

I know some didn't like it, but me? I think it was LEAPS and BOUNDS better than what we got in the actual season of HQ.

Let us never talk about that season again…

Now something we SHOULD talk about more is the first actual appearance of Cass in a DC ANIMATED MOVIE!! Yes, Kai Li Cain from Batman: The Doom that Came to Gotham.

I was blown away at the extended role they gave the character in the film (to the, "Oh right Tim is here and alive." role in the books).

Kai Li voiced perfectly by Tati Gabrielle gave a balance of innocence and reason with the batshit craziness this film throws at us.

Like, I really REALLY want a sequel. Just to see what she'd do now given full access to Bruce's fortune? Will she follow his path? I mean yeah we want steampunk Bat!

Speaking of which artists we need designs for this stat still!

It just adds that anchor where you want to see more of this universe and the characters that inhabit it. I mean that's the sign of a REALLY good Elseworlds. Where you want more and sometimes you get just that.

But with all this good came the sad, and that was the canceling of Batgirls. I know many were against the series (especially after #7-8), but the series found its footing with #9 and ran into something I hope more positively can be talked about it.

It's true failing wasn't the creators behind the series, more just elements outside that just slotted it's end (Batgirl movie getting canned making #7-8 more wasteful), Evil Oracle #4 aka the pitch, and just being something it couldn't be).

I'm grateful for each and every creator who worked on this book because it was a GIFT that I'll always be appreciative of.

I'll say it again, THANK YOU TO ALL! 🙏

And its spirit lived on in the Nightwing back up a few months ago. It was something that was TRULY needed after the garbage fire that was Gotham War. It gave us this Cass/Dick sibling stuff and GIVE ME MOAR!!!

Unlike the past where we'd be done, DC brought us back up giving us the current BIRDS OF PREY ongoing which has Cass in it.

Really the series is a revelation of giving us things I always wanted that I'd never thought we get. Cass with Dinah? CHECK.

Cass meeting Big Barda and the two having a bond? HELLS YEAH CHECK! Anytime that bond grows I squee even more.

Just give writer Kelly Thompson ALL the time and ideas she has to churn this out to the proper conclusion she has envisioned. Just give me fifty-plus issues of her, Leonardo Romero, and Jordie Bellaire.

Finally of course there was Batman: Wayne Family Adventures which gave us THREE banger Cass stories. One where she and Steph are a MENANCE (as they should), Cass scaring the crapbaskets out of EVERYONE and of course...

Season 2 gave us A LOT of things I wanted in general (her interacting with Damian) and just showing the world why I really really love this character. Why I talk about her daily.

Really as 2023 closes and 2024 is about to begin... Well, it's the character's TWENTIETH-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY. 25 years of kicking ass and ripping our hearts out.

It's been a journey for sure.

really REALLY hope DC honors this anniversary and continues to mend the bridges burned all those years ago.

Give us that Omnibus. Give us a mini or SOMETHING to celebrate this character. If not, I'll take whatever Ram V and Thompson give us.

#CAINAISSANCE2023 may be over, but #CAINAISSANCE2024 will be the most important year yet.

25 YEARS OF CASS!! LET THE CELEBRATION BEGIN ON JANUARY 1st!

[spoilthevines]

i might have gotten brain rot from @girlgerard but foundations of decay legit seems like a song about gender struggles to me - specifically about contemplating some sort of transitioning as an older amab person

i've been trying to figure out what this song is about since the release date, and the more obvious explanations about e.g. the band reunion mostly make sense except none of them explains the "he gets to die a saint // but she will always be a whore" lines. i've seen this being explained as some sort of social commentary on misogyny / slutshaming, but:

it's clearly an autobiographical song (with all the towers mentions etc), it gotta be something much more personal that that

we get into the solo / breakdown part right after this, so it's not a throwaway line - it's something that's triggering a strong emotional response (=the breakdown)

the female character appears out of nowhere - there is a generic "we" , there is a male protagonist, but that's it. like, who tf introduces a character like that? not someone who wrote an eisner-award winning comic book

so, what if there is no female character as a separate person? what if "she" also refers to the protagonist, specifically their feminine side / self?

imo this tiny detail makes the whole song just ✨make sense✨, so let's dig into it (cw: mentions of transphobia)

See the man who stands upon the hill

the very first thing we are being told about the protagonist is that they are a man

He dreams of all the battles won But fate had left its scars upon his face With all the damage they had done

they've done important things in his life but sacrifices were made for it, and it wasn't easy (a stretch - they've struggled to keep up the appearances)

And so tired with age, he turns the page

the protagonist isn't young anymore and is moving towards the next stage in their life, whatever that is:

Let the flesh submit itself to gravity

oh, that's the next stage? it could be just a fancy way to say "you are tired, get some rest" or "give up" but consider this - i know a fair amount of trans and non-binary people (myself included) who talk about their bodies in a somewhat derogatory manner, like it's a flesh prison of sorts, so could this be about giving up on the said uncomfortable flesh prison? masculine flesh prison as we've been told right in the very first line

Let our bodies lay while our hearts will stay Let our blood invade if I die in pain

literally saying that yeah, whatever, bodies don't matter that much, it's whatever you feel inside that counts - which means that the previous line is indeed about the body as opposed to the whole self, the masculine body

Now, if your convictions were a passing phase May your ashes feed the river in the morning rays And as the vermin crawls, we lay in the foundations of decay

some contemplation about whether or not you still believe in things you believed in when you were younger, or if it was just a phase (tm) that you grew out of - if i had a dollar for every time i've heard this said about a kid who thinks they might not be cis...

He was there the day the towers fell And so he wandered down the road And we would all build towers of our own Only to watch the rooms corrode

some autobiographical stuff that tbh i'm not sure how to get into properly (the jump from he to we is interesting though) so let's just skip

But it's much too late, you're in the race So we'll press and press 'til you can't take it anymore

ohhh yeah. you are already a person with an established public persona, you can't just go around changing things about yourself that late in the game, right? well, yeah, maybe you can't, but not doing it will get more and more unbearable with every passing day until you just ✨snap✨

Let our bodies lay while our hearts will stay Let our blood invade if I die in pain

nothing new here, just drilling down the dissociation or, dare i say, dysphoria

And if, by his own hand, his spirit flies Take his body as a relic to be canonized

so what happens if the protagonist decides to free their spirit from the masculine body? one option is public outcry, all the transphobic "oh but he was such a good-looking guy, it's a shame". a lot of people will miss the public persona, or even literally the protagonist's appearance they were obsessed with, thus "canonized"

And so he gets to die a saint But she will always be a whore

it often feels like for transgender celebrities who come out publicly there is this before and after persona split in the public conscience, as if their assigned at birth gender presenting self was perfect and has just been killed by a disgusting transgender person. it's arguably worse for trans women, because then there is also the misogyny and slut shaming and just plain old judgement in places where it weren't before

protagonist think it will happen to them too once let go of their public masculine persona

an alternative interpretation - protagonist has a fair amount of internalised misogyny and transmisogyny, and actually judges themselves for their femininity harshly sometimes, and maybe even would rather just stay that perfect man person they could, but...

Against faith (antihero) Against all odds (as if it must be pure) Against change (we wander through the ruins) We are free (the guiltiness is yours)

seems like they can't do it anymore, even if it seems like it's doable practically ("against all odds"). they got tired of things as they are, and they want to do what they feel is right for them at this moment, even if they aren't 100% sure ("as if it must be pure"), even if it ruins someone else's idea of them ("antihero")

You must fix your heart And you must build an altar where it rests

trust yourself, trust how you feel about yourself, literally build a new body for yourself ("an altar") that you can love, a body that you deserve to have and that feels right

When the storm decays and the sky, it rains Let it flood, let it flood, let it wash away

let the old body, that masculine persona go ("let it wash away")

And as we stumble through your last crusade Will you welcome your extinction in the morning rays? And as the swarming calls, we lay in the foundations

this might be something about the last public appearances before the change? sort of sounds like the change is inevitable already ("as the swarming calls we [will] lay")

Yes, it comforts me much more Yes, it comforts me much more To lay in the foundations of decay

yeah, it is much easier to get out of the public eye, change a few smaller things here and there in private but nothing major, and just live the rest of your life in this state, but...

Get up, coward

the protagonist feels like they need to do much more than just that

this lines up quite well i think and generally makes sense, except i now might be going to hell for borderline speculating on someone else's gender identity - so please let it be known that i'm not trying to predict anything like gerard making a public announcement about their gender after this tour or some other bullshit like that, i'm just having fun with the lyrics

[true-blue-sonic]

Neat ask game:

😳🙈💡

😳 Hottest Sonic Take?

That's a tough one! I don't think I have that many very hot takes, but I can certainly try, so... I'm quite certain that I am not fond of how Silver is being handled right now, especially in IDW. To me it truly feels as if they're leaning too much into his uwu cinnamon roll side, and are not paying enough attention to the fact he's 100% down for murder and can be quite blunt and brutal. But then on the other hand, some minor gripes aside he was tackled very well in the Metal Virus arc imo. However, I am truly not feeling too certain about issues 63 and 64 and how he is going to be presented there. And I also don't like how in Team Sonic Racing they switched a much more heartfelt conversation between Sonic and Silver in Japanese towards what it became in the English version, with all the trash talk stuff going on. I truly wonder if Silver really is that naive, and if there perhaps was a way to present it better.

And I also don't like the Freedom Fighters from Archie (or Archie as a whole except for one (1) arc, really). Like, I absolutely don't hate them, but I don't want to see them come back in the games or the comics or whatever. I think that is because I didn't grow up with them, SatAM, or the Archie comics, so when I came into the franchise in 2014 there was this WHOLE universe with all sorts of oddities and weirdnesses in it that I couldn't make a lick of sense of. If I remember correctly, that was around the time of the first reboot, which added yet another layer of confusion to it all. In short, I think the roles the Freedom Fighters could potentially fill are already tackled by the canon cast and introducing them therefore would be quite redundant.

🙈 Least favorite Sonic game?

*grumbling* Mean Bean Machine thoroughly kicked my ass, if it counts.... As did Sonic Spinball... I can't be mad at Sonic Boom, as Shattered Chrystal is the first Sonic game I ever played and Fire and Ice was quite neat also, but the whole franchise around it lost my interest soon enough and I've hardly replayed those two games.

💡 Spinoff you’d like to see?

SILVER GAME I NEED A SILVER GAME

Would that count as a spinoff? Maybe? More visual novels would also be nice, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog was so much fun!! And they'd also be allowed to revisit the Storybook games from me, because I quite like the different setting of those.

[makiswirl]

📔

SEND A BOOK AND I'LL GIVE YOU A FIC CONCEPT I'VE DAYDREAMED ABOUT --

okay so i don't know if this necessarily counts in full per say, i made a comic about the concept like a year ago and i think i've deleted it everywhere (maybe except my old deviantart that i never use by now) and i wrote a good bit of the start, but i had a concept for a parental roy cult fic (which is very not original of me lmfao)

and it's actually VERY funny in some aspects because i actually used the town (syrell) again in when the bough breaks, and it's actually a canon location on the fma map (at least the one released for the mobile game)

anyways (from skimming the original doc): the general gist was ed al and roy doing a town inspection in syrell together, but the thing with the town itself is that it is HEAVILY religious. it's like liore in the sense that they worship a more-recent and kind of baseless god, except the main issue is that ed looks... a lot like their god and acts similar in the sense of making miracles through alchemy which leads to a bit of an obsession

the reason ed looks this way, and unbeknownst to the townspeople, is because the man that founded the religion had committed human transmutation to try and bring back his daughter who had looked remarkably similar; and toying around with the concept brotherhood did (and to a lesser extent, the manga, but specifically brotherhood in the rain op) where the truth can be seen as a flexible being either being perceived as a specific person or the alchemist, the founder of the religion saw his daughter (who had been, at least to his interpretation, 'god') and had kind of gone a little bit off-the-rails afterwards after losing/damaging his prefrontal cortex in the process (which people are shockingly able to live without! your fun fact of the day sponsored by macchi ^_^)

anyways after all of that had happened and the religion was officially founded through repeated public speeches and interest, heavy doubt had been instilled in the town after the phasing out of the worshiping of their moon god (which they had been primarily focusing on prior) as a sort of foil to leto; in the original founder's wife especially, since she was more reasonable in thinking that their dead daughter was quite literally just a normal little girl that had died tragically instead

so instead the founder just ends up killing her in a sacrifice to the new god and it becomes a tradition over time lol. they end up somehow viewing ed as the second-coming of it and when he continues vehemently denying it and discredits it entirely, things start going farther south (which is essentially where my ideas had originally run out if you couldn't tell :^))

i really just thought i was beating a dead horse with this concept and i didn't have enough ideas for roy or al in the story for it to be worthwhile so i never did it since there's a lot of fics of the same caliber out there even though i eat every single one up SFVJKSDBNKABVFNJ

[opalescentorchidaceae]

Fic Writer Tag Game

tagged by @autisticwriterblog! (technically it was my tv blog that was tagged, hopefully it's cool that I'm answering it here instead)

1. How many fics do you have on AO3?

17, plus one that I published anonymously. Apparently those don't count towards the total even though they still show up on the stats page.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

120,644. That's honestly a lot more than I thought it would be!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Well, the fandoms listed on my stats page are:

Guardians of the Galaxy (Comics)

Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (Video Game)

Nova (Comics)

Our Flag Means Death (TV)

Right now I'm not really interested in writing for any of those, although I have been thinking about replaying the GOTG game and that might get me back into writing for it. I've also been drafting a few fics for Skyrim, so I might be able to add that soon.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

#1: The Rise and Fall of Rocket Raccoon and the Dumbass from Earth, my first fic and also by far my longest.

#2 and #3: I'd Rather Sleep Alone and I'd Rather Sleep on the Floor, respectively, a two-part series (that was supposed to be a trilogy oops).

#4: Night Moves, my first attempt at writing smut. I've been too afraid to go back and read it since I first put it up lol.

#5: An Improper Little Seductress, my most recent fic and the only OFMD fic in the top five.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Sometimes. I always try to find something more to say than just "thanks," but if I can't then I'll usually end up forgetting about it and never replying. I do love getting comments though, so I'm trying to be better about that.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I generally don't do angsty endings, but the one exception to that is Sometimes Love Is Not Enough, the anonymous fic I mentioned earlier.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I love a disgustingly saccharine ending so it's hard to choose, but I guess I'd go with The Rise and Fall of Rocket Raccoon and the Dumbass from Earth.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No; I was expecting it on Sometimes Love Is Not Enough, which is why I put it up anonymously, but all the comments on it have been positive.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I tried it once and it wasn't really for me. I will still occasionally write sex scenes, but they always end up being more comedic than erotic.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I guess technically I have a few GOTG (movies) / GOTG (2021 video game) crossovers, in that I'm just kind of picking and choosing bits of setting and characterization from each and mashing them together, but I've never done a proper crossover between two completely different canons.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I've never actually checked any other sites to see, but I really doubt it.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, although I would be totally open to it if anyone wanted to.

13: Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

No, and I don't think I ever could. I'm both an incredibly slow writer and a total control freak so I would be such a nightmare to work with lol.

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

That's tough; my first ship was roquill (Rocket Raccoon/Peter Quill, from GOTG), the ship I've felt the most passionate about was cjizzy (Calico Jack/Izzy Hands, from OFMD), and I don't really have a ship I'm that into at the moment.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I don't have any; once I've committed to writing a fic I will drag myself kicking and screaming until I'm done with it.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue for sure. I like to think I do a good job portraying what characters would say and how they would say it.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Action scenes are really tough for me; if I'm not careful I tend to fall into just writing "character A did x, then y. Character B did z" over and over again, which isn't very interesting. I also struggle with describing the setting of a scene, so I guess it's just narration in general that I'm not great at.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I have one single word in Spanish in Billy, and that took all my vague memories of high school Spanish, a dictionary, an online translator, and a few language-learner forum posts to make sure it was the right word in that context. And I'm absolutely not going to go to all that effort for anything longer than one word lol.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Guardians of the Galaxy (the movies, I didn't get into the comics until later).

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Probably REAL GHOST ENCOUNTER (NOT CLICKBAIT). Writing is usually torture for me, like I'm taking a pickaxe to my skull to mine the words out of my brain one by one, but this one just flowed right out of me. I was so inspired that I wrote the whole thing over the span of one evening, and I think that ease comes across in the final product.

[mashounen1945]

No, I'm not hyped for Tails in the Sonic 2 movie

I’m already calling it: in the upcoming Sonic 2 live-action movie, Tails isn’t gonna have a major role at all, we're not gonna get Tails hilariously getting fed up and pulling out a literal gun [EDIT: I ended up being wrong about that one little detail, he used a laser handgun for a while during the final battle, but still...], Tails isn't gonna do anything awesome... and that shouldn't really surprise anyone. I’m not saying it because of what SEGA did with him in Sonic Forces, nor because of Paramount turning the inevitable "Sonic vs Knuckles" fight (which should have been reserved for Sonic 3, instead of shoehorning both Tails’s and Knux’s 1st appearances into Sonic 2) into the cornerstone of the movie’s entire ad campaign.

In this post, I'll share some meditations I did on the Sonic 2 movie -and the Sonic series' future in general- and the state of the Sonic fandom over the last few months. It's a bit messy and I wrote it down without planning it properly in advance, but I hope that won't be too much of a problem.

The Sonic 06 fiasco started the Sonic fandom's well-known tendency to despise "Sonic's shitty friends". We've all seen that in action at least once, right? Sonic 4 was even made partly in response to that, with SEGA using "Sonic is the only playable character" as a selling point.

Back then, if all Sonic characters except Sonic and Eggman had been erased from canon overnight, half the fandom would have celebrated and the other half wouldn't have even cared.

This hatred for the Sonic expanded cast is pretty much gone now: everyone at least appreciates all the characters (at least the ones from the games) and recognizes their roles and potential. However, a huge portion of the Sonic fandom likes those characters only when they stay in these very specific roles; if they develop and get out of there as a result, they lose their charm, they're just not the same anymore, they're no longer the characters people became Sonic fans for

[There are a few exceptions, of course. SEGA's been very eager to portray Shadow like the Saiyan Saga's version of Vegeta in the last dozen years (no, 2010s SEGA Shadow doesn't feel like a flanderized Sasuke to me); meanwhile, fans and the Archie comics (yeah, crazy, I know) imagined a more caring, altruistic, undoubtedly heroic Shadow, more in line with his portrayal in Sonic Adventure 2 or Sonic Battle or his story in Sonic 06.]

One of the cases where this is more evident is Tails.

After 2006, and especially after Ken Pontac & Warren Graff became the Sonic games' writers, there'd be a lot of nostalgic Adventure/2000s Sonic fans (me included, I must admit) longing for the halcyon days when characters other than Sonic had their own arcs and development. Now, I have to be brutally honest about this: in hindsight, not much was done with them in the actual canon and official material in those few years right after the Adventure saga, or even in both Adventure titles (but hey, at least they were still playable, that had to count for something... Right?).

But now? In 2022? New fans see all those characters, in much less prominent roles... and still feel inspired by them, exactly the way they're officially portrayed nowadays.

Moreover, as an unexpected result of the way SEGA recently handled the Sonic series, younger fans don't necessarily see Sonic as a series with compelling, engaging, deep stories with lots of stakes; instead, they see Sonic as something more akin to what JRR Tolkien sought to create with Lord of the Rings (and I guess I could include the Chronicles of Narnia books and movies here, though they were written by someone else entirely): an escape from today's real world, increasingly chaotic, cruel and nonsensical, and the younger fans' personal lives, usually plagued with uncertainty or even some form of family abuse and bigotry. But for this entire thing to work, all the characters need to remain static, it's imperative that they stay in their assigned roles forever; otherwise, the illusion would be broken, the story's morals and any uplifting message would be lost, its magic would be wasted, it'd be no longer an escape, it'd all become too painfully real (too "edgy", if you will).

What does this mean regarding Tails? Well... People love Tails! Fans see his brotherly friendship with Sonic as the most beautiful, wholesome thing ever (truth be told, I dunno if they're right on the "the most" part, but they're right on everything else). The way Tails is always trying his best is inspiring; when using his intelligence & his talent with machinery to help his friends, Tails still inspires specifically kids with that same kind of tastes & affinities; "Believe In Myself" and all that (it certainly had that effect on me). However, this can be interpreted in many ways, and Tails staying in the background, not participating in the action itself, only using his smarts & not being badass at all but still being happy in that place, fits the currently most popular interpretation of that message:

"You can always help in whatever way feels best to you. You only need to trust in what you can do without worrying about the way others perceive you. You don't need to be typically badass in order to do what you want & be worthy of your friends' love."

A powerful message indeed, especially in these trying times...

But what if Tails develops out of his role? What if he actively fights & specifically believes in his skills to fight? What if he finally overcomes his fears once and for all, instead of staying on this endless "overcome & relapse" cycle? What if he's playable again? Then the message would lose all its meaning: Tails would become just Nerd Sonic; their friendship would no longer include the complementarity between them, the exquisite balance, the finesse... Essentially, what made many fans love both characters.

That's why, if you propose the characters be portrayed and develop like in the Adventure saga, most Sonic fans don't take that very well and even suspect your intentions: it's an age everyone had agreed to forget, an age when some portrayals & relationships went far from what they were supposed to be.

Now, Sonic Forces is heavily criticized for Tails's role in its story, or more precisely, for that one scene at the beginning where he cowers at Chaos 0's appearance even though he had fought Chaos 4 and had also overcome his fears time and time again. But then we revisit Forces, look at what Tails did after that one scene, and...

Yeah, something's not right here.

(Seriously, go read this. I still don't like Forces as a whole, but I must give credit to @randomthefox for doing such a damn good job and being so detailed and examining dozens upon dozens of dialogue lines on all cutscenes.)

It turns out Tails cowering at Chaos 0 was actually him "regressing" after thinking Sonic was dead for six months, and right after that, Tails's role was vital to the entire story and he got his confidence back without him ever fighting directly. This fits perfectly with the message the fandom at large currently interprets from Tails's role.

[This crap is still not perfect, though. First of all: before Forces, Tails had already taken Sonic for dead once in Sonic Adventure 2, he had visibly felt guilty for falling into Eggman's mind games and revealing the Chaos Emerald was fake, and yet Tails had got his s*** together and fought Eggman right then and there (I mean, it's obvious there's always some wacky shōnen anime logic going on in every Sonic story and that may or may not include the flow of time acting strange or the story having weird pacing, but how long did it take for Tails to react and missile the f*** out of Eggman after he locked Sonic in the pod and ejected him into space?); if we're gonna recognize SA1 as canon by involving Chaos in any capacity, then we have to recognize SA2 as canon as well; besides, I'd really like to know whether this "regression" thing could actually work like that in real life. Secondly: I'm sure that, after 7 years and 3 games, Pontac & Graff finally learned what Sonic was about and how to write Sonic stories (after all, Sonic's and Eggman's personalities and Sonic's & Tails's friendship were okay in Sonic Lost World), so they totally knew what they were doing with that Chaos 0 scene at the beginning, and they still added that scene just for the f***ing lolz and its meme potential. But... baby steps.]

Nostalgic Adventure saga fans immediately reacted by pointing out that infamous Chaos 0 scene, not even trying to watch any other cutscene after that point or listening to any line of the dialogues between Tails and Eggman during boss fights. That reaction, such a level of intransigence, crushed what was left of the reputation of any early 2000s Sonic fan.

Do you see those "Gohan fans" in the Dragon Ball community? You know which Dragon Ball fans I'm talking about: the ones who think Gohan was shafted by Akira Toriyama, was stagnant right after the Cell Games, should have kept fighting and growing stronger afterwards, and was made dirty during the second half of Dragon Ball Z and all of the Dragon Ball Super anime; the people who despise Gohan having a stable, normal family life and happily following his vocation as a scholar, even though this is what Gohan always wanted; the fans who think Gohan was actually better in the DBSuper manga where Toyotarō "made him great again", even though Toyotarō's work narratively makes no sense, his version of Gohan was slowly turning into Vegeta (who also sucks in Toyotarō's manga), and Gohan also "stopped being relevant" after a while in the DBSuper manga anyway.

Well, now the early 2000s Sonic fandom has become the equivalent of those obsessive "Gohan fans", even behaving precisely the same as them sometimes, adding fuel to the fire and making the 2010s Sonic games' stories criticism-proof in the process. From most Sonic fans' perspective, this is an "Us vs Them" thing: "Us, the appreciative and tolerant fans who truly care for the story and its messages on a deeper level, appreciate modern Sonic official content because of that and care for the characters, their portrayals' consistency and the allegories they represent" versus "Them, the nostalgics who overthink trivial details, obsess over power scaling and making their own favourite characters the new protagonists, are easily fooled by flashy battles, bright colours, blatant wish-fulfilment or power fantasies for nerds, and only see Sonic and its cast as hollow entities or cardboard cut-outs to project themselves on".

And if you suggest ways for the franchise to give Tails a little more attention or you hint at anything even vaguely akin to a "badass Tails", a sizable chunk of the rest of the Sonic fandom outside of that niche group of Sonic Adventure nostalgics reacts like this:

"Tails being a more active fighter? That's silly! He's useful for his brains, that's his entire raison d'être."

"Sonic depending on Tails and even admitting it out loud? Don't be such a baby-boomer! Sonic would never grovel and give away his freedom like that."

"Tails switching roles with Sonic, defending Sonic, unleashing his own anger and fighting for Sonic because they're such good friends for each other? Tails is the cutie here! He's too good for that. Go back to your Zack Snyder crap and its grimdork 'serious' 'realistic' heroes."

"Tails being known as a hero by everyone else? The other characters coming out and listing reasons why he's such an awesome person? Tails is supposed to be humble and modest, it'd not feel right! Go back to write your sloppy Tails-centred harem fanfiction, you insecure neckbeard."

"Tails starring his own game? Where he outright kills everyone in his path? That can't be true! I'm sure it was some Chinese bootleg. Here, have 6 batteries for your dirty Game Gear, go play Sonic Blast or some other s*** and stop being an annoying brat."

*sigh* The moral of this long-ass rant I've just thrown up? Uhh...

Don't expect Tails to do anything awesome, or have any "badass moment", either on the Sonic 2 movie or any piece of official Sonic content on any media after that. Badass Tails is outdated already, no one likes it now, and no one wanna pay money -or even pirate official content- for that anymore.

[PS: Colleen O'Shaughnessey deserves better.]

[ben-the-hyena]

If no one else has... Hatbox or Ghosthost.

Why not both !

Hatbox Ghost :

OTP for them: EMILY. FOREVER EMILY. WE MAY HAVE NOTHING MORE THAN A PIN OF THEM STANDING NEXT TO EACH OTHER AND HER TO BE CANONICALLY HIS BRIDE, IT IS ENOUGH FOR ME TO ENVISION THEM AS WHOLESOME, LOVEY DOVEY, CONNIVING AND PASSIONATE. I DON'T CARE IF THEY ORIGINALLY INTENDED HER TO HAVE BEEN EVIL AND HAVING KILLED HIM, OR IT TO HAVE BEEN AN ARRANGED MARRIAGE SINCE HE LOOKS OLDER, MY FANON, MY RULES. Love to imagine her as the faceless bright eyed one, not only because she is the one on the pin with him but also because she was one of the earliest and stayed quite long therefore is iconic, and I find her design the coolest that should never have been replaced

BROTP for them: Constance aside whom he despises, I love to see him get along more or less well with the other attic brides. He really has a fun energetic joking and sarcastic friendship with the Corpse Bride made of games and challenges, his friendship with Millie is kind of tender and protective because she is precious and very young compared to him as well as shy and innocent, he does like the Blue Spinster even if he finds her annoying and too loud and is sometimes embarrassed by how shameless she is, he does kind of like and sometimes has fun with the Tokyo bride even if he can be very creeped put by her and is not at all a fan if her tastes and morals NOTABLY the ones close to Constance like black widowing, and since he meets her in one of my episodes has a lot of sympathy and tenderness towards Mélanie and feels very bad for her and is protective of her against the Phantom he hates for that and did his best to be a moral support the time he hanged out with her and has since then been wondering what had become of her and where is she now. In short all his friends are women, let us say he was a feminist for the time period, part of why Emily fell for him since he respected her

Other ships: nope, none lol

What kind of fic I’d write about them: the fact I would write about his origins and death aside I would also write plots from episodes I wanted to direct one day, like the one he takes Emily on a very special anniversary vacations in Hollywood Tower Hotel but while they are away shit happens in the attic only he could remedy but he keeps refusing to return and minimilizes things, the one he and Emily have a big fight that almost drags them apart or rather what they think crying and getting support on their respective sides but events have them return to each other closer than ever, an episode where he would get dragged with the Hitcchiking Ghosts' shit far from the mansion after Ezra gambled but lied on his name passing as him since they both look corpse-like, one he and Emily are so desperate for a child on Mother's Day that they want to adopt a blind wandering orphan but struggle because the ghosts oppose not out of evil but out of ethic and they have to choose what would be better for him livikg with the dead or the living, or one he would confess to the brides that back in 1992 when he had been determined to go to a new haunged place that would want him and take Emily with him once he would have found he had actually returned because he had had a very haunting, bad and evil experience in a place called Phantom Manor with another, poor bride in it tortured by her evil father even himself, an undead, feared

A favorite canon moment: he doesn't have any, except standing there lol does the Marvel comics continuity where he is like a sort of mentor for Danny telling him about the magic behind that house counts because it's cool to see him as indeed a good guy ?

Color that reminds me of them: no matter how he has been blue and green since 2015, I am forever faithful to his original palette aka monochromic like an old picture minus his golden tooth. Therefore old black and white, as in not just black and white but when it looks like it's a filter from an old picture or movie

Song that reminds me of them: I will be honest, none unfortunately

A headcanon about them: he was banished from 1969 to 2015 because the Ghost Host and Master Gracey had FINALLY found a Gracey descendant and even better knew paranormal therefore could be spoken with and they were eager to know more about him and make him visit the family mansion when they invited him in. In the meantime, Hattie was doing a show a for the brides in the attic, upon a bet with the Corpse Bride to prove them and especially her he could juggle with anything. His cane, his hat, a ball, a candle... a hatchet. The cane fall, he tripped on it and rolled it, fell over and everything he was holding sprang everywhere, the hatchet ending RIGHT into Gracey's skull as the Ghost Host opened the door for him. And he didn't return as a ghost and had no children yet. The last Gracey was forever gone. That was the last straw for the Gravey masters who already hated him and kicked him out of the mansion, not pf the property since they did know Emily was married to him and she still could see him in the graveyard but NEVER ever again in the mansion for never pulling this kind of shit again as they thought. Now in 2015 he returned for reasons I had not thought of until TODAY : they found out upon deeper searches that his name was Gracey but he was just a homonyme and had nothing to do with their own Gracey branch that did end with Emily like they had thought for decades, therefore rightfully. They HATED having to do that since they remember the horror and anger they felt and did find the guy attaching family or not, they had no real reason to keep him out anymore and reluctantly allowed him back in. Needless to say, he rubbed it at their faces for weeks and celebrated with the brides (minus Constance) especially HIS bride now he could finally be back in bed with her

A random AU I think up on the spot for them: like it is for a lot of characters in franchise, how things would have been if he and his wife had not been murdered on their wedding night and had lived on. He and Emily would be happily married for decades til a later death would do them part (not since they would reunite as ghosts here too but very old looking and fulfilled with a long untragical life behind them and a descendance striving) with a lot of children like they always wanted

Anything else: THE BEST PROOF FANBASES CAN BE STRONG ENOUGH IF UNITED : IT TOOK 46 YEARS, BUT HE WAS FINALLY PUT BACK IN THE RIDE ! LET THAT BE AN EXAMPLE FOR ALL FANBASES AND A MESSAGE OF HOPE

Ghost Host :

OTP for them: none really. Just that in my headcanon he and my fanon Elizabeth Henshaw loved each other as teenagers but due to racism it was impossible and her family moved. He never saw her again and never loved romantically again

BROTP for them: as a trio with Master Gracey and Constance Hatchaway since I headcanon they are siblings, he the eldest. They do have lots of differences now they all are reunited and comfortable in their deaths and that it was found she was a black widow the whole time and that he has to lead 998 other ghosts with their contradicting opinions, but they were still very close as children and he was deeply devasted each time one died, so much findinf out Constance and Emily whom he had raised since Master Gracey's death had died on the same night had him hang himself

Other ships: none at all lol

What kind of fic I’d write about them: I would either write his origins and how he was before dying or like other haunts like Hatbox Ghost plots of episodes I had in mind like having to deal with a human who now sticks around, or lose his mind and needing a pause after years and years of leading nonstop or some fluff about his family, his siblings and his niece notably, either alive or dead already

A favorite canon moment: "There's no turning back now. Of course, there is always MY way~" thundercrack and you see his hung corpse. CHILLS

Color that reminds me of them: green and purplish blue

Song that reminds me of them: the mansion's theme when he speaks of course

A headcanon about them: he has a hatchet and so does Constance (and in my HC Master Gracey) because their mother was the heiress of a big woodcutting company and she gifted them on her deathbed to teach them things could start as low as a lumberjack having to do his work himself and be able to be both beneficial and dangerous, in short to teach responsibilities one last time (CONSTANCE DIDN'T REALLY GET THE CONCEPT...). They would sometimes have fun doing a choregraphy with it singing the company's motto as their secret handshake ; with one voice less after Master Gracey died. At least they were all reunited to do again after they all died and met again !

A random AU I think up on the spot for them: other than how he would have been as a granduncle in the previous Hatbox Ghost AU, nothing

Anything else: his voice HMMMMMMMM sooooo bad it contrasts with his looks

[hjbender]

Hi it's that Donald Blake au anon, and I agree I don't like Donald in general it's weird and sometimes in the comics he has a stick that he's always holding onto then he bangs it and somehow becomes Thor, idk. But the au is something that really interested me cuz it has so much potential, like is Thor an Avenger in this au, does he have to wait til Loki is not looking to go and save the world? Or is he not worthy yet and somehow choosing to reveal himself to Loki the real way to be worthy?

OH HAI AGAIN, ANON. THANK YOU FOR RETURNING

Yeah, I’m kind of glad the writers and directors decided to leave out the whole “mild-mannered human alias” from the Thor franchise. Really, so many superheroes already have alter egos—Peter Parker is Spider-Man, Ryan Reynolds is Deadpool, literally every single one of the OG Avengers except Thor has another name—that for once it’s nice to just have Thor be Thor.

But as far as that brilliant idea you pitched, in the first couple drafts of my answer, I actually started to rewrite Thor (2011) to make your idea fit with canon. However, after getting stuck a couple times, I started thinking it might work better away from canon (specifically Earth 616), more like a true alternate universe, no Avengers or Thanos or anything. Or, to make things simpler, it could just be a Porn With Feelings deal where the story is driven by characters and drama (and, of course, porn).

For the PWP approach, Thor masquerades as an MD on Earth because he genuinely likes to help people and having a human form helps him escape detection, or possibly keep his powerful electromagnetic radiation field from harming humans. In any case, Loki is unaware of his brothers super-secret human identity.

Somehow Loki bites off more than he can chew or pisses off the wrong supervillain—it’s practically his hobby, isn’t it?—and ends up getting his ass beaten and thrown to Earth. Miraculously, Thor (as Don Blake) is there to help him, and Thor can’t risk getting his cover blown, so he just plays along while Loki regains use of his limbs and/or powers (a perfect opportunity for some hurt/comfort whump sickfic type tags). Thor brings Loki to his apartment until he can fully recover, and in that time, Loki finds himself bonding with this disabled and good-natured human man who reminds him so much of his brother… and thus begins the forbidden romance and angst-ridden relationship drama.

...okay, so the PWP setup actually has a lot more plot than your average smutfic. (But just think of all the opportunities for medical kink in this one. Like Loki pretending he feels hot and achy and insisting that Blake give him a thorough, private exam… on the kitchen table… with stethoscopes and tongue depressors and lots of poking and prodding and pelvic exams. Anyone? No? Just me?)

The actual canon setup is the one I tried (unsuccessfully) to write out, but here’s a bullet list of the basic plot (get comfortable, this gets kind of long):

After defeating the frost giants in Norway in 900-something, Odin secretly makes a deal with Laufey to raise Loki as his own son, then marry him off to Thor so they can establish everlasting peace with Jötunheim (just like Odin and Frigga did to stop the Æsir-Vanir war). Thor and Loki’s children will be heirs to both royal houses. Upon Thor’s ascension to the throne, Odin will then return the Casket of Ancient Winters to its rightful place, and Jötunheim will flourish again with Asgard as its protector/ally

Loki is a lot more autonomous and independent than his original cinematic depiction, traveling the realms to learn seiðr and be an ambassador (and cause mischief, naturally, but nothing that can’t be fixed or used to his advantage). He’s always held a secret torch for his brother but knows there’s little/no hope of it ever being reciprocated, thus he stays away from Asgard as much as possible

Thor loves and misses his brother (perhaps too much). Their parents would surely disapprove of their relationship, gods or not, and besides, Loki is too much of a free spirit, a wanderer, content with his own company. Asking anything more of him (like a grounded, committed relationship) is something Thor could never do

Loki returns to Asgard on the eve of Thor’s coronation with gifts and smiles, and Thor embraces him with deep affection. They almost confess their feelings to one another, but shy away at the last moment (damn!)

Meanwhile, Malekith the Accursed (comics version Malekith, who is a lot sexier and generally more interesting/diabolical than his MCU counterpart) doesn’t like that Laufey is planning to make peace with Asgard and sever his alliance with Svartalfheim, and somehow breaks into the Vault on Thor’s coronation day just so he can frame Laufey and sour the arrangement with Odin

Odin decides not to act, sure that something else must be going on. Loki decides to take the intellectual route and do some investigating while Thor and his warrior companions sneak into Jötunheim to kick some ass

Thor accuses Laufey of wrongdoing, just as Malekith wanted, and almost incites a war with the frost giants. Odin banishes him to earth to live as a disabled human man until he can learn some humility

After much screaming at the sky and manly weeping, Thor finally accepts his fate and his new human identity

Enough time passes (months? A year?) that Thor eventually learns to be humble and considerate, helping other humans physically and emotionally in the medical field (I imagine him becoming an orderly at a local hospital since being a doctor requires years of education and money. Also, being thrown to Earth without a penny to his name will help Thor work through some of his entitlement and privilege issues. I headcanon he was aided by some good-hearted humans who were able to find employment for him and a place to stay, help him get on his feet, basically)

With Thor out of the way and the royal family torn apart, Malekith begins preparing for his attack on Asgard

Loki doesn’t know that Thor is trapped in a human form, only that he was banished and all contact forbidden. Loki is suspicious of the frost giants and goes to Jötunheim alone, where Laufey reveals everything to him—including Loki’s betrothal to Thor

Loki is stunned at first, unable to believe that the thing he’s wanted most was always meant to be his, and he hurriedly leaves Jötunheim

He tries to sneak to Midgard without using the Bifrost, but Malekith catches him en route and they fight. He throws a binding spell on Loki to render him powerless and then beats the living daylights out of him

Loki crash lands on Earth not far from where his brother was banished (he had been following the last known path from Asgard to Midgard), and is rendered temporarily powerless and amnesiac, not remembering anything about his fight with Malekith, Thor’s banishment, or why he was on his way to Midgard

Loki wakes up in a hospital bed with a kind human man looking after him. After an unsuccessful escape attempt, he settles in and finds himself comforted by Donald Blake’s presence. It’s… soothing, somehow familiar…(maybe it’s the drugs talking)

Thor instantly recognizes his brother but he cannot reveal himself, either because he’ll look insane/lose his job or maybe Odin made it so he’s unable to even speak the name “Thor” until he’s worthy again. In any case, Thor decides it won’t hurt to beat Loki at his own game just this once (Loki has played this prank on him more times than Thor can count). He ends up taking Loki back home with him once he’s discharged from the hospital

As his memories and powers slowly return, Loki is surprised that Blake listens to and believes everything he claims to be, and soon grows to trust and even like the man. He’s never really had a true friend before… except for his brother, Thor, of course. Blake reminds him so much of Thor…

While things gradually heat up between Loki and Blake-Thor, Malekith disguises himself as Loki (just as he did in the War of the Realms comic arc) and returns to Asgard. Odin and Frigga learn that Loki had indeed traveled to Jötunheim and confront their “son” about what he might have learned there

Not knowing it’s actually Malekith they are speaking to, they reveal the truth about Loki’s parentage and upbringing, and the reasons for his betrothal. Malekith is shocked, then amused at his good fortune. He decides to use this information to his own advantage

Malekith plots to bring Thor back to Asgard and insist that they be married at once. Thor will be crowned king, and when Thor finishes swearing his oaths, Malekith will steal Gungnir and kill Thor with it (and the entire royal family of Asgard). He will then steal the Casket of Ancient Winters, return to Jötunheim, kill Laufey and all the rest of his clan, and then head to Midgard to finish off the last of that bloodline: Loki. Then, with the power of Gungnir, Mjölnir, and the Casket of Ancient Winters, nothing will be able to stop him from bringing war and chaos to the Nine Realms

My brain is smoking and on its last cylinder right now, and I know this post is already decades long, so I’m gonna cheat and skip the whole part where Thor and Loki somehow learn about Malekith’s plot (maybe the Warriors Four come to Earth to warn them), and Thor becomes worthy again, revealing himself to a stunned Loki, and they all go flying back to Asgard, beat Malekith in an epic battle, and save the day

Once the dust has cleared, Thor is crowned king to an audience of Æsir and Jötnar, followed immediately by his and Loki’s wedding. Everyone cheers, Volstagg weeps and uses Fandral as a handkerchief, and Malekith gets a tiny slice of the wedding cake down in the dungeons

The end 🍰

[dynamic-duo-deposit]

I recently read Infinite Crisis. I love the exchange of words between Batman and Superman on Dick Grayson in IC #3. Is there any info about the "others" Dick? I read somewhere that one had died, or gone bad, but I don't remember well.

Believe me I love that exchange as well.  Bruce standing up to Earth-2 Superman because he absolutely refuses to believe that the Dick Grayson he knows is corrupted or inferior hits me in all the feelings about those two.

(Infinite Crisis #3)

Earth-2 Superman has his reasons, but I think Bruce understands that because they’re part of his own motivations. “To save someone that he loves.”

(Infinite Crisis #4)

As for the “others”– it’s a big multiverse.  Or at least it became one again after Superboy Prime got done with it, plus everything else that has come since.

There’s the “official” alternate Earths (Evil Earth-3, Earth-2 of the JSA, YJ’s Earth-16, etc) but there’s also the various cartoons, video games, elseworld stories, and original graphic novels which are in their own canon.

The thing with Elseworld Robins though, or some of these other appearances, is that they tend to be an amalgam or general archetype of a Robin rather than a specific character interpretation of Dick Grayson (Or Jason, Tim etc).  So unless they’re specifically named it can be hard to tell who they are “supposed” to be and if they count for these conversations.

And then there’s the alternate futures (Batman Beyond, Kingdom Come, New Order, etc) and it’s a whole mess.

Here’s a wiki list of a lot of them.  And you can check my #elseworld tag for some of those stories if you want.  

Dick has never gone bad in the main earth (not counting undercover missions, mind control or amnesia) but there’s the evil Earth-3 version, who knows what might be going on with Deathwing in a given canon, and there’s vampire!Dick from Red Rain and I guess The Dark Knight Strikes Again unfortunately exists. That’s without even touching a whole host of dead versions.

Really though, returning to Infinite Crisis, it’s less about the “other” versions and more that Earth-2 Superman is mostly being used as a mouthpiece to comment on the darkening of superhero comics and giving that debate a physical form, which is something we can discuss until the cows come home as well as the pros and cons of Infinite Crisis as a story in general.

But specifically using Dick as part of this debate is interesting, even if it was primarily building up to Dick’s possible death.  As much as superhero comics are stuck in a tragic circular loop, I do think that Dick represents a triumph of the medium as a character who got to grow up and evolve into something new, past the golden age/Earth-2 concept of the character.  (Not to throw Earth-2 Robin under the bus here.  Except for his fashion sense.)

In any case, I also think that Dick Grayson/Nightwing is definitely something worth saving. :)

[smallhatlogan]

do you have any theories about what pandora was like before it became populated by humans/taken over by corporations/etc.? i think all the giant skeletons scattered throughout the world and dried up areas that were once oceans are super cool but we don't have much info on pandora's history which makes me :/

Oh boy, I actually think about this all the time? I love natural history topics and speculating about the Eridians.

(I accidentally wrote a small essay and I’m putting it under a cut and I didn’t edit at all so hopefully this is remotely readable) 

Okay so Sanctuary has apparently been in the ground for a few centuries so people have apparently been on Pandora for quite some time? Pandora has some wacky shit going on with seasons and rapidly changing environments, which would explain a lot of those giant skeletons. Places like Oasis seem to have only dried up a relatively short period ago (Judging by the Pierfest signs it’s probably been less than a hundred years? It seems implied that it was surrounded by ocean only few years ago, but it also could have been dry for much longer and they just had another water source that gave out?), and the Southern Shelf is confirmed to have frozen less than 5 earth years before BL2. 

I think it’s pretty likely that over the course of Pandora seasons (idk if it’s still canon but I think in the first game it was said that a Pandoran year lasts 10 Earth years?) the environment just rapidly changes and this is the main cause of the death for these giant fish, skags, and lizard-looking things. 

That said, I feel like those giant skeletons are pretty old partially because that supports my “Decomposition is broken on Pandora” theory (I know a lot of video games tend to just occasionally just ignore logical decomposition, but Borderlands does it SO MUCH and to such a extreme degree? Plus I think it makes for interesting world-building if on Pandora the organisms that facilitate faster decomposition don’t survive well or the eridium in the atmosphere acts as a preservative, and bodies instead are mainly broken down by larger scavengers. I hold this theory so close to my heart). 

Maybe they age from a time similar to back when earth had dinosaurs? Like the biggest modern skags we see are skagzilla and Dukino’s mom and they’re still smaller than some of these skags. Or maybe even now there’s just occasionally Skags that big, and they just grown indefinitely provided they have enough food. There’s probably still some massive fucking fish in Pandora’s oceans because I think the ocean needs to be at least 10 times scarier than the land as a rule.

But yeah I guess that’s what I’ve got for the environmental side of things. 

Eridian side, though, oh boy.

Eridians were so stupidly technologically advanced that they very well could have created the entire damned planet and bio-engineered all the life on it (perhaps experimentally, to play god for the fun of it, or maybe the life itself acts as some kind of power source?). Which makes sense, for one, the inside of Elpis is pretty chock full of Eridian stuff, maybe it wasn’t built in there, but instead built along with the rest of Elpis? And secondly why the heck else would there be so much goddamn Eridium- their power source- in Pandora? I honestly don’t think eridium is naturally occurring. An idea that also lends itself to the idea that the Eridians were SUPER FUCKED UP? 

 Okay like we’re really not given a lot to go off of regarding their society or pretty much, anything about them? So I’m using literary parallels to come up with my own, possibly completely wild theories. 

By literary parallels, I mean that racist piece of shit, HP Lovecraft (who, admittedly, has a lot to draw on when it comes to sci fi, and tbh it’s always nice to see his works taken and reshaped into something better, with messages he would have hated):

-Ancient advanced alien race. Mysteriously wiped out without a trace (except maybe not) (also I did not mean for that to rhyme)

-Eridium drives people insane. IMO I don’t think this is mental illness or from damage to the brain (partially wishful thinking because, obviously, making the mentally ill folk the ones running around with buzzaxes screaming about murder and attacking people is just bad). I think there’s something sinister behind eridium. Those voices you hear when Krieg goes into Release the Beast might not all be from his brain? Maybe Eridium has a life of its own? Maybe this is some “soylent green is people” shit except with eridians?

-Eridians were very clearly warlike. Most of what remains of their civilization besides the ruins are weapons. Either they fought among themselves or against another alien species? If the latter, they really obliterated them to the point we have no evidence of them, (but tbh it seems fitting). It seems to me they were conquerers, and the now human-inhabited planets were once their empire.

-Also okay the Destroyer just looks like a lot of depictions of Yog-Sothoth

-They seem to have been religious? All of their ruins resemble temples or shrines. Heck, there’s even an element of blood sacrifice, considering the Vault in Badass Crater?

-This isn’t necessarily canon, but I think it’s an interesting thing to consider: In the Tannis comic she mentions they had some real fucked up math system where they could “count in six directions” and stuff. And they’re language has no word for “year” or “time”. 

-Heck, Tannis, the one who knows the most about this stuff, is also insane. That’s pretty thematically in-line with Lovecraft. 

There’s two of Lovecraft’s creations that I feel like it’s easy to draw parallels to with the Eridians? 

-Elder Things: Alien creatures who resided on earth long before humans. They were ridiculously technologically advanced, warred against other aliens, and capable of creating other lifeforms via bioengineering. One such lifeform was the Shoggoth, an originally nonsentient creature intended to serve the Elder Things. Over time this creature evolved and rebelled against their former masters, playing a huge role in their extinction. The Eridians also could have easily been wiped out by their own creations, whether the Guardians, or a Vault monster? 

-The Great Race of Yith: Also extremely technologically advanced alien creatures that inhabited earth a longass time ago. These guys are continuously traveling through time via swapping their consciousnesses with beings from other time periods, in an effort to escape their doom. Now, I don’t think the Eridians had that ability (though hey, maybe they did and instead of the Guardians only being creations they were formerly host to Eridian minds? They’re so goddamned mysterious I’m willing to entertain anything), but it seems entirely possible (Maybe even probable, considering The Watcher’s warnings) that they’re capable of time travel and could have not gone extinct at all, just fled through time. Maybe the human race is finally catching up to their point of re-entry into the time stream, or they’re about to encounter whatever it was the Eridians were fleeing. 

Heck maybe the Eridians themselves are what the Watcher is warning them about, and the Watcher is betraying their own race (or maybe they’re not actually an Eridian at all, and maybe everything we think we know about how they look is wrong. Like I said, we super don’t have a lot of concrete information and also I love to speculate on everything). 

Actually, I could probably write an entire other list of theories based on greek mythology parallels. I won’t but the name “Eridian” presumably comes from I won’t, but I’ll mention the name “Eridian” presumably comes from “Eris” (fittingly, what with all the bloodshed surrounding the Vaults). 

TL:DR I feel like the Eridians were probably super bad dudes and/or pulled an Icarus and wiped themselves out with their own creations. They also probably have some sinister Eldritch god shit going on. 

They may have built Pandora and Elpis, partially just as a place to keep their superweapons? 

[utopianparadoxist]

man I don't think you can really say bro is brainwashed but gamzee's just evil when you can argue that gamzee's also possessed by cal. they even have really similar relationships to how he's formed, ie part of their souls exist inside lil cal already. which is probably a good explanation for how lil cal is able to brainwash them when he doesn't brainwash, like, dave, who is around him his whole childhood. idk, I just think gamzee's more complicated than "evil ass hole"

As it happens, Gamzee has a line I never gave much weight to before noticing Bro’s SAW interest that I’m more inclined to take seriously now, that suggests Gamzee and Bro’s relationship to Cal WAS intrinsically different:

But even if Bro is kind of a noble captor figure holding Cal back, I still wouldn’t think it excuses any of what he put Dave through. He’s still an awful dude.

As for Gamzee, here’s the main problem with reading him as “just” brainwashed.

Gamzee doesn’t require Lil Cal’s presence to go evil. In fact, Gamzee doesn’t seem to require ANYTHING to turn evil. But even if like, Doc Scratch ALWAYS teleports Lil Cal into Gamzee’s presence to trigger his personality shift, I don’t think it would matter.The weight of the sheer SCALE of Gamzee’s devotion cements his place as an ultimately willing accomplice/acolyte to Caliborn’s Dark Carnival. 

And it kind of makes Gamzee fucking terrifying and a fantastic villain.

I’ll explain my reasoning here.

We know for a fact that Gamzee snaps and kills all his friends in at least one Doomed timeline. This is the source for half the code used in the creation of Doc Scratch. There’s no implication that Lil Cal is involved here at all. 

But again, let’s assume Lil Cal was here again. It doesn’t matter.

Because there is canonically, explicitly, no timeline in the history of Gamzee where Gamzee ever, ever, EVER chooses to rebel. Gamzee Makara simply does not ever choose his friends over Lord English.  In any timeline. Ever.How do I know?

Lets talk about Ghosts for a minute. The fandom has historically kind of taken these guys for granted, and loose fandom consensus is that they aren’t coherent/who has what ghosts is arbitrary. This is incorrect!

Pretty much everybody in the Bubbles that should have alt!ghosts does, including Meenah and Aranea, the two characters who’s alt!ghosts are typically presumed “Missing”. 

This is important. The Ghosts kind of give us very low-key character development, and contextualize the characters for us. For example, Eridan is an absolute irredeemable bastard in the Alpha timeline. But in a God Tier iteration of themselves, Eridan and Feferi seemingly come to friendlier terms. In another, there’s suggestions Eridan makes up with Feferi and Sollux. In yet another, he seems to be Trans or exploring femininity at least.

The point is, there’s a certain fluidity to Eridan’s potential. Still terrible in the comic, but it’s important to remember that Eridan didn’t CHOOSE to be trapped in the meteor with Jack, or to be born to Alternia’s power system, or to be trapped in the Alpha Timeline. 

It’s important to remember these things because in Homestuck, someone with power–Lord English–deliberately and willfully chose those things FOR him. Eridan’s lives are lived in response to that imposed power structure.These factors don’t redeem him completely necessarily

But anyway, the fact that the rest of the cast have coherent quantum expressions means there are only three real exceptions–three characters who either don’t have any ghosts at all, or should have more ghosts than they do. 

The first is Caliborn, who’s timeline has exactly one deviation from the Alpha–apparently caused by John’s retcon. This riddle’s solved easily enough:Predomination doesn’t leave a ghost to appear in the bubbles at all. When Calliope says she ate his soul, she means that literally. Caliborn’s cheating in the Alpha Timeline is indeed the only reason Calliope exists in the bubbles at all.

(This, by the way, explains a lot about the relationship between Caliborn’s soul and Gamzee/Arquis’ in the Lord English. He predominated over them, too.)

The second is Vriska, who only has a single ghost in (Vriska). This is really weird, because we literally know for a fact she dies in more than one doomed timeline! As with the two Calliopes, I think this is down to John’s retcon doing some weird entanglement nonsense to Vriska’s quantum existence.The point is: Where others have a palette of possibility, Vriska has two extremely polarized halves. Schrodinger’s Vriska. 

Important to mention that just like Eridan, the structure of the Alpha Timeline that limits potential Vriskas is IMPOSED ONTO HER. Vriska didn’t want anything about the way she was raised or where she was born. She didn’t ask John and Terezi to retcon her into this bizarre state. Both Vriskas, like the rest of the cast, are rolling with the punches LE has seen fit to give. 

Except for Gamzee.

Hussie literally tells us Gamzee never dies. His single non-Alpha Timeline death in [S] Game Over is retconned by John, and Hussie suggests it straight up doesn’t count. But that presents a problem.

There are thousands upon thousands of Doomed troll timelines. How is it that Gamzee specifically never ever EVER dies? Well, there’s only one real way that a Non-Time player can survive a Doomed timeline, that we know of:

Dream self merger. By going to sleep as the last player present in Sburb, the Doomed Rose from Davesprite’s timeline triggers a game mechanic that ends her timeline completely and merges her consciousness with that of Alpha Rose through their dreamselves. 

If Gamzee survives his doomed timelines, this is the only possible way how. And collapsing all of his potential instances into a single Alpha identity certainly sounds like the reduction of possibility commonly attributed to the Rage aspect.But what that means is that to move on to the Alpha, every Doomed Gamzee must inevitably either snap and kill all the other trolls, or somehow outlast them. And it means that if any Gamzee had EVER, in the entire spectrum of plausibility the Alpha timeline affords, EVER been inclined to rebel against LE–then we would know. Because somewhere out there, that at least Hussie could see, there would be a Ghost to show for it.

But there isn’t. Similar in this respect only to Caliborn, Gamzee simply has no alternate deviations because he doesn’t want them. He chooses the path that leads to Lord English freely and willingly, over and over and over again. 

And like Caliborn…

Gamzee does this because he wants to. 

Gamzee doesn’t BELIEVE he’s going to become his own God–he knows it for a fact. He sees it in Lil Cal’s mangled soul. And he embraces that truth wholeheartedly, throwing himself into the acolyte role from then onwards and presumably following instructions Doc Scratch gives him throughout Act 6. 

Which we can talk about some other time. The point is: Gamzee chooses all this. Whether or not Lil Cal causes him to is beside the point, because there is not and never will be any timeline where Gamzee chooses to resist. 

Gamzee is the ultimate in shitty cosmic nazi religious zealots, and devoted to the very power structure that causes every other character to suffer so. There are no mitigating factors for him as there are for everyone else but Caliborn. At the end of the day, he’s evil.Bad clown. Worst enemy. 

[i-wakeupstrange]

Dormagus/DarkDevil for the Ship Breakdown Meme er if you don't mind that is ^_^;

Of course not! I love talking about these dorks. This got longggggg, though, so it’s under a cut.

How did they they meet?

We’ve seen it! They “met” when Doc Magus (and Doctor Strange) had to take a trip into Darkdevil’s mind. But in the real world, so to speak, I see Dormagus showing up on Reilly’s doorstep about a week after the Venom thing. He insists it’s a “follow up” and he just wants to make sure Hornhead is still okay, but really, he just wants answers to what the hell he saw in that dude’s brain.

(That and even he can tell the guy’s dealing with a lot, and Doc Magus doesn’t mind offering an ear to someone who needs it. Even an infamous loner like Darkdevil. It’s mostly to sate his own curiosity, though. At first.)

Who developed romantic feelings first?

Reilly. He’s terrified. Not because he has feelings for a guy, no, but because he has feelings for his only friend.

Who is their biggest “shipper?”

MAYDAY. Of course. She’s already a shipper in canon – just look at her with Courtney and Moose! So I think the second she realizes there’s someone out there who can make her grumpy cousin smile sometimes? She’s making plans.

(Stephen also approves. Not that he’d ever say so. He learned a long time ago that his son doesn’t listen to his advice.)

When did they have their first kiss and under what circumstances?

Reilly kissed Dormagus after some big, almost-life-ending and maybe almost-world-ending super battle.

Who confessed their feelings first?

See above.

What was their first official date?

An awkward disaster. They’re been hanging out and fighting crime for months, at least, but when they try to put a label on it? They’re totally thrown off. Sitting in a coffee shop, in nicer clothes than normal, in total silence. Luckily, some evildoer throws a car through their window, and the ensuing fight snaps them out of it.

How do they feel about double dates/group dates?

They’re not double dates! It’s just that Reilly wouldn’t stop staring when Wes and his tall, brunette amazonian girlfriend came in to Deacon’s Den for Game Night. And Dormagus had to ask if they could join, because the face Reilly made was hilarious, and the way he spent the entire evening stammering was even more so. And so he started asking every month. Because he’s a terrible friend sometimes. But they’re not double dates!

What do they do in their down time?

They were exhausted after their first patrol together. So they ordered takeout and played video games. This is still what they do most nights. Sometimes they read instead – Dormagus with his nose in a comic, Reilly with his in a textbook. Or watch terrible TV. They’re homebodies at heart.

What was the first meeting of parents as an official couple like?

hahaaaaaaaa not an issue on Reilly’s side, excuse me while I sob forever

As for Doc Magus: his Dad “met” Darkdevil at the same time he did! Because Doctor Strange is so obviously his father, come on, even if they never actually use those words because DeFalco loves teasing plot points.

Clea meets Reilly when he and Dormagus have to travel to the Dark Dimension for some reason. They’re still in the denial stage at this point so she just grins and makes a lot of sly remarks. 

What was their first fight over and how did they get past it?

Related to the above. Sometimes, Dormagus just has to leave Earth! Supernatural threats don’t exactly limit themselves to just one plane of existence. Plus, half his family is from another world, so that’s a thing too. The point is, it doesn’t really occur to him to tell anyone when he has to go. Dad and Deacon knows what’s up. Zane might miss him, maybe, but that kid’s got all the other Avengers looking after him. He’ll be fine.

What he doesn’t account for is Reilly. Who is freaking out and furious because his best friend dropped off the face of the earth for a month and didn’t even call.

Which one is more easily made jealous?

They both have their moments, but Dormagus wins this one, mostly because Reilly is just as oblivious to advances as Mayday. If not more.

What is their favourite thing to get to eat?

Reilly lives off coffee. Dormagus lives off fast food. It is a miracle they’ve lived this long.

Who’s the cuddly one? What their favourite cuddling position?

Reilly is a secret cuddler. Even he doesn’t know, at first, but when he’s tired his defenses are down. And there’s a lot of held back affection to make up for. This isn’t just in a romantic sense – May will definitely be shocked by a sudden hug someday. 

Are they hand holders?

Not normally. Reilly doesn’t like to be touched, except by people he trusts, and even then it takes time. Dormagus doesn’t push him. The closer they get, the more it happens, but it’s still a rare thing.

How long do they wait before sleeping together for the first time? What’s the circumstances?

They wait quite a while. Dormagus doesn’t mind, but it’s different than what he’s used to with the girls/guys/vaguely humanoid beings he dates. Then there was one of those “I thought I lost you” nights and, well, things happened.

Who tops?

eh, if you don’t mind, I’m going to skip this one.

What’s the worst fight they’ve ever gotten into?

See above. They bicker all the time, but when Magus “disappeared”, it was the first time they fought.

Who does the shopping and the cooking?

Reilly, without a doubt. He’s been feeding himself since childhood. Sometimes even the kids he fostered with. So over time he just… starts doing it for Dormagus too. He doesn’t even realize it until Kaine asks him why his fridge is fuller these days.

Which one is more organized and prone to tidiness?

Surprise, surprise. It’s Reilly. Dormagus has kind of a… loose understanding of time sometimes. And while he insists his place is an “organized mess”, that’s… arguable. This is ninety percent of the reason Deacon sticks around, honestly, and he’s relieved there’s someone to take some of the workload off his shoulders.

Who proposes?

You know… I was going to say Reilly, because while I see them both being skeptical about the concept of marriage, he would like to believe in the idea of someone sticking around. On second thought, though, I think that’s why it would have to be Dormagus. He’d want to prove he can be that person. 

Do they have joined Bachelor/Bachelorette parties or separate?

Oh, separate for sure. There’s some crossover in their friend groups, because superheroes, but Dormagus had a big bash with every friend he could contact on Earth and elsewhere. Reilly probably didn’t even have a party.

Who is the best man/maid of honour? Any other groomsmen or bridesmaids?

If you think Reilly would pick anyone other than May, you’re wrong. Deacon for Dormagus. Gerry, Zane, and Normie are also there.

Big Ceremony or Small?

Between the two of them, a “small” gathering of family and friends turns out to be huge. So a bit of both.

Do they have a honeymoon? If so, where?

Multi-dimensional road trip! Despite all he’s been through, Reilly’s never left New York, and his husband enjoys taking him around all the various worlds in the universe.

Do they have children? How many?

They adopted Benjy in Endverse. That’s my eternal headcanon. If that doesn’t count, however, then at some point they’ll have a little girl with amazingly unpredictable powers. Her name, of course, is May.