DC Fic Trope Question

Yugioh! 5Ds Headcannon

Yusei, Crow and Jack learned to turbo duel on regular motorcycles using old duel disks. Duel runners actually have quite a few modifications to them in order to use them in dueling, autopilot and connected duel disks are part of that. Yusei has to jerry rig a separate device that lets them add speed counters and had to hack their disks to allow for speed spells so the boys could learn to play.

Star Wars Thoughts

I feel like, since Obi-Wan is such a beloved character, he kind of gets put on this pedestal by a lot of the fan base and, as a result, Anakin tends to get shafted. People don’t seem to understand how Anakin’s fall really works, there always seems to be just the most superficial understanding of how his Turn happened. No one seems to want to think about it, but Obi-Wan had a pretty big role in Anakin’s Fall, actually.

Because, here’s the thing, Obi-Wan is a good Jedi, and a good friend, it’s clear he loves Anakin, but he is not a good teacher. And Anakin suffered for it.

Anakin is exceptionally skilled at the physical aspects of using the Force and being a Jedi, but when it comes to understanding their core tenants and philosophies, he’s detached. Obi-Wan failed to make Anakin feel at home with the Jedi, likely imitating his own training and that of others with limited thought to how Anakin’s background as a slave might change his perspective on these teachings.

Of course, part of the problem is that the Jedi Code is terribly flawed but that just exacerbates the problem. Obi-Wan is a negative enforcement type of teacher, he critiques Anakin’s actions and scolds him far more than he gives positive feedback and validation that Anakin desperately needs. So Anakin has to get that validation elsewhere, namely from Palpatine. Who on top of the regular kind of grooming and gaslighting, also has probably been spreading a miasma of Darkness around him, encouraging Anakin’s worse thoughts and feelings.

Then, of course, there’s what happened with Shmi, I’m of the opinion that Anakin’s visions, both with Shmi and then Padme, were planted by Palpatine. He showed no other signs of having any kind of prophetic abilities outside those two situations. Actually Palpatine is probably behind Shmi’s death all together, it’s just a little too convenient.

But those machinations don’t change how Obi-Wan was completely dismissive of Anakin’s fears and that led to drastic consequences. Obi-Wan as Anakin’s teacher was a terrible idea, why the Council though a recently knighted and traumatized young man would be the perfect caretaker for a recently freed slave kid is beyond me. It’s like they were setting him up to fail.

As for the actual Fall itself, another headcannon of mine is that Anakin was probably exhausted, he’d been on nonstop campaigns in the war for who knows how long, had been having constant nightmares that left him unable to sleep through the night, had most of his support base taken away except the corrupt one and another who had her own issues keeping her busy, and on top of that was under a ton of stress from being torn between Palpatine and the Jedi Council, Palpatine timed the whole thing just right to get the results he wanted. Unsurprising seeing as he managed to play both sides of the War. By the end Anakin was probably clinging to the Light by his fingertips.

Problem with tagging

One of the best things about archive of our own is it’s tags, it really helps sort through the frankly ridiculous number of stories on the sight for the content you’re actually looking for, mostly. The problem, of course is that some writers seem to add them all over the place even when they don’t actually apply to the story. Like, why would you tag a relationship for a fic where the two characters don’t even actually appear? It’s really frustrating if that’s the pairing you’re looking for but the tag is used where they aren’t even really the content.

Also, there is absolutely a thing as too many tags, some people could really benefit from a little more restraint.

Fanfic Complaint

Why is Peter Parker infantelized so often in fanfic? When has he ever acted like any of those portrayals in the comics? And I don’t count obvious pandering like certain stories in the post Raimi era.

Peter Parker is a sarcastic asshole who gives ridiculous nicknames to his friends and doesn’t know the meaning of minding your own business. He loves his friends and family deeply and is incredibly overprotective of them. He’s also insanely overpowered with most of the people he’s facing. Spidey isn’t an Avenger who faces galactic wide cosmic threats, though he’ll help out if they need him. Spidey does the every day stuff, street crime and weird criminals with powers who like to dress up and make a show of it all.

And Peter Parker certainly is in no need of Avenger parental figures, he has Aunt May and Robbie Robertson and Curt Connors and even J Jonah Jameson. The entire idea of the gross Dad!Tony and Son!Peter and Superfamily stories make me want to scream.

Superman - a thought

So Lex Luthor is just the worst but you can kind of get where he comes from if you assume Superman hasn’t told anyone he came to Earth as a baby. Like, it’s always been my assumption that he let everyone think he came not long before he made his hero debut so no one has any reason to think he has a secret identity. I mean, he tells everyone his name is Kal-El and that he came from Krypton, which is true, so why would anyone think he has a third name? But this idea also leads people to think he excaped Krypton as an adult, which for someone with Superman’s ideals and moral code doesn’t make sense. Clark would never abandon his friends and family willingly. So if you’re Lex, you see this ultra powerful alien being who left his own planet without trying to save anyone else and came to a different one that gave him superpowers and is worshipped for doing things that, with his abilities aren’t all that hard to do. The hero thing is easy when you don’t have to give anything up to do it. It absolutely makes sense not to trust him, the whole situation is super suspicious and that worst case scenario is basically Omniman from Invincible. Of course Lex is also a narcissist with a god complex, so there’s that dynamic coming into play but it was just a thought I had after watching the show.

The Marvel Problem

So I know that the big thing with Marvel that differentiates it from DC was having it exist in the “real world” and not a bunch of made up cities and since the guys writing the characters were all from New York City, that’s where they put them because they knew it best. But I feel like things have grown to the point of ridiculousness, NYC is a big city but it’s not that big. I was watching a YouTube video about how it doesn’t make sense for Miles Morales to not have Peter Parker around to help him out and his points carry over to the overall hero community. Besides that, aside from Spider-Man, it really wouldn’t be a big deal to move most of the heroes out of New York, give them their own space. I know Daredevil was in California for a while, let him move back there, or maybe keep him in New York, he’s pretty small scale so it wouldn’t be a big deal to have both him and Spidey around. But I feel like the Avengers should definitely move to the west coast, and I mean the proper Avengers, not a separate team. I think Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Danny Rand could probably set up shop in, like, Chicago or something, that seems a good fit for them, maybe Felicia Hardy too. The Fantastic Four could move to, like, Albany or something, keep them in New York but give some distance. I don’t know where everyone should go but I really feel Marvel would benefit from putting distance between their heroes, give them space to act. Just a thought.

The Odyssey

I’ve been seeing this trend in modern takes of the Odyssey that want to focus on Penelope where they have it as her not really knowing her husband. Like, they have Penelope and Odysseus getting married and him having to go off to Troy after only, like, a year in or something. I love the idea of focusing on Penelope but I hate this particular take. In some tellings, Odysseus and Penelope were married for 8 years before he left and Homer made a point of describing them as being like-minded. I’ve always thought Penelope was supposed to really understand her husband and his mind because she works the same way. I just would like there to be some basis for the reunion we get between them in the original poem, that’s not a couple who doesn’t know each other.

Green Arrow

If I had a nickel for every time the CW made Oliver Queen’s love interest their tech support OC instead of his canonical girlfriend from the comics I would have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.

Naruto Fic Idea

This is just a fluffy thought for a world where nobody died and everything is happy. Sakura has a massive crush on Ino so when Ino comes to her and tells her she likes Sasuke because he’s cool and strong Sakura sees it as a challenge. She then proceeds to give it her all to best Sasuke at everything and prove to Ino that she’s the one who’s cool and strong. Thus the SasuSaku rivalry commences for Ino’s affections.

Ino catches on pretty quickly to Sakura’s intent and falls head over heels but being a little girl, instead of just telling Sakura her feelings, she goads her on, gushing over Sasuke to her so Sakura will go after whatever skill he’s mastering, challenging him. Sasuke has no idea what’s going on, there’s this little pink monster who keeps antagonizing him and their respective blond best friends just goad the whole thing on (in this world Kushina and Mikoto were teammates and made sure their sons had plenty of play dates growing up).

The adults naturally figure the whole thing out and find it suitably adorable. I picture the story being teeth rottingly sweet, like a long one shot going over their whole lives with Sakura and Ino eventually figuring things out and falling in love. I know with this pairing it’s the norm to then pair off the boys but honestly, I adore NaruHina, so we’ll say Karin was brought to Konoha by Kushina as a fellow Uzumaki and raised as a sister to Naruto, so Sasuke can still nab himself an Uzumaki there. Honestly, though, ship the boys however you like or don’t at all, this is about SakuIno at the end of the day.

It’s just a fun thought I had, I just really like the idea of Sakura and Sasuke as rivals, I’ve always thought that if you get rid of her infatuation of him Sakura would find Sasuke really annoying and that a rivalry would come naturally to them. Also the idea of Naruto as the peacemaker of Team 7 is hilarious because we know his temper would get the better of him and he’d fail miserably, poor Kakashi would have just the worst group of little monsters to wrangle.

Kakashi’s Sharingan

So for some reason most of the fandom seems to think Kakashi was stronger with the Sharingan, and yeah, without it there’s no more Kamui or Chidori, but I still feel like not having a constant chakra drain would be vastly superior to those two techniques. Like, it always seemed to me that the Sharingan kind of crippled him, with it he had to constantly be careful of his stamina and chakra reserves, which are the two most important parts of being a shinobi. I feel it was made pretty clear that the main reason Naruto was able to do most of his most impressive feats was because he could throw around chakra like nothing else and just, never got tired really. I always imagined Kakashi having to hold back in fights because he never knew when he’d run out of chakra. That would have limited his ability to practice too, because he had to be careful to not overdo it all the time, which would be a lot shorter of a period for him than other people. Even in taijutsu, pretty much everyone uses chakra to enhance their speed and strength, not to the degree of Sakura and Tsunade, but they all still did it. Kakashi always seemed to be fainting from chakra exhaustion, just, imagine if Kakashi had, instead of adjusting to the Sharingan for the past 16 years, spent that time improving himself overall. The kid was a genius and had started to figure out how to add nature change to the rasengan when he was 10, what would he have been able to do if he could rely on his chakra reserves. I just picture Kakashi being seriously stronger after the fourth war without a Sharingan crippling him anymore.