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jesncin · 4 months

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A Failure of Asian Lois Lane: Pt 2: My Adventures with Superman, an honest discussion

If I had to pinpoint the fundamental problem with My Adventures with Superman's depiction of Asian Lois Lane it's in their attempt to subvert the classic two person love triangle: Lois loves Superman but is indifferent to Clark Kent. In MAWS, Lois insta-crushes on Clark Kent and hates Superman. In the show's attempt to make sense of this dynamic, Lois' Asian identity becomes at odds with a story meant to touch on xenophobia and immigrant themes.

Let's have an honest discussion about a show that made fandom cheer as an Asian character removed the one thing that made her most visibly Asian.

Disclaimer: While I am of East Asian descent, I am not Korean. I'll be discussing general Asian diasporic experiences but the specifics of Korean culture are outside of my knowledge (as usual I can't and don't speak for every Asian person ever, I am 1 opinion). Secondly, I'll be pulling from my personal experiences every now and then particularly pertaining to being a butch Asian person watching this show. It'll be a mix of formal analysis and personal anecdotes. Thirdly, this isn't an exhaustive analysis of MAWS Lois' character. We'll be sticking to what I consider is relevant to themes of Asian identity and immigration. Lastly once more, I do not believe the MAWS crew had malicious intent in any (of what I consider) poor writing decisions. We're here to analyze and challenge these writing decisions.

Please read Pt 1 of Asian Lois analysis that covers the comics, as it provides the groundwork for the ideas expanded on in this essay.

We need to talk about Lois' design. In the follow up to MAWS' release, people have been speculating on Lois' ethnicity. CBR writes that the show has "some fans believing that she's at least part Asian" and other articles have the show crew confirm Lois Korean heritage via her hanbok outfit in episode 4. The existence of these articles, my own anecdotal experience of streaming MAWS with Asian friends, and comments I receive from people asserting Lois' Asian identity was never explored in the show ("you'd only know she was Asian if you searched up articles about it"), tells me we have a case of an ambiguously designed Asian woman. Tangentially many people had no idea Livewire, the white haired and blue eyed woman, was meant to be South Asian.

There's a lot to be said about art styles that don't properly stylize ethnic features, but for the purposes of our analysis that means the writing has to deliver the heavy lifting where the design fails. This is the opposite case of American Alien: a comic that relied on the art to portray Asian Lois.

Let's start at episode 3. In it, Lois finally manages to conduct a private interview with the elusive Superman. When she asks where Superman comes from, how his powers work, etc- Superman comes up empty. In this version, Superman can't talk to his Kryptonian father (Jor-El)'s hologram because of a language barrier, so he knows very little about his alien heritage. He leaves Lois, assuring her he's here to help the people of Metropolis. When Clark Kent congratulates her for interviewing Superman, Lois rebuffs him. "Oh, he's [Superman's] a liar." smirking as she says it. This is the start of the Lois Hates Superman For Being a Liar arc.

I'd like you to consider the optics of an Asian American woman interviewing an alien immigrant who honestly told her he doesn't know where he comes from and is still figuring out who he is, only for her to think he's lying. Because she didn't get the answers she wanted. I can't help but think about my own experiences, where I was asked "but where do you really come from?" or "okay but what's your real name?" I think of my Asian American peers who would honestly say they're from Texas or Atlanta and get a vindictive "you're lying" as a response. People want to hear you're from China. They want their biases confirmed. I think about how I honestly can't tell you where my elders hailed from, because of cultural genocide and language barriers. This scene makes me uncomfortable, but let's press on.

Episode 4 is where Lois is most visibly Korean. In this episode the trio of Lois, Clark, and Jimmy are tasked with interviewing rich techbro Prof. Ivo of Amazo tech at an investor event. It's a prom episode. Lois wears a "hanbok inspired gala outfit" designed by Dou Hong and Jane Bak in a deliberate move to showcase Lois' Korean heritage. Bak comments "I remember feeling strongly about wanting to inject some aspect of her Korean heritage without disrupting her characteristic as a spunky and resourceful intern/reporter." while the wording poorly implies that Korean heritage is at odds with Lois' spunky personality- I do want to challenge a couple of the decisions that went into this design.

I want to acknowledge as an Asian butch that there are many ways to sport traditional garments and it's okay to mix and match to figure out what reclaiming culture (and your comfort) mean to you. However we're talking about the opportunity to showcase culture in an episode of a fictional animated show. I also encourage cultural gender expression that thinks outside of western white people's idea of gender (in both fiction and real life).

Whenever artists try to do a non-conforming spin on a cultural outfit, I always have to ask: "what standard of masculinity are we basing this on?" It's clear that MAWS is pushing for a "tomboy" Lois, and this gala outfit is an extension of that. But what's the standards of masculinity in a Korean lens? Men wear hanbok too, so why can't Lois imitate how Korean men wear hanbok, by traditionally accompanying her look with baji (baggy and loose pants)? This design notably has tight pants that hug the form, instead. I know the hanbok look has been modernized in and out of Korea in many ways, but in a show where you have the opportunity to showcase cultural non-conformity, I feel more thought should be put into the outfit outside of a potentially western lens- or the idea that cultural heritage of any sort "disrupts" a character's personality.

Now that we've discussed the design of the outfit, let's look into the narrative role it plays in episode 4. While we can celebrate cultural representation in media, I consider it important to ask "what is this media's relationship with the cultures it represents?" and the answer for Lois' hanbok in this episode is: nothing! It's an aesthetic acknowledgement of culture. "Hanbok" or "Korea" are not terms explicitly mentioned in the show. When Prof Ivo offers beautiful women as compensation for Clark to keep quiet about his company's corruption, Ivo looks over to Lois- who spills food on her clothes, and remarks that she's unclassy. She's not judged for wearing othering cultural clothes- which would have tied nicely into Clark choosing to be silent on issues of Ivo displacing a neighborhood, making Clark realize his complacency actively hurts marginalized people. Despite wearing cultural outfits being a political statement in America, nobody reacts to it. It's clear what the actual goal of this scene is: Clark looks cool for defending his "tomboy" crush.

In a scene blatantly made for fanservice, Lois offers to sew up Clark's ripped tuxedo by undressing her hanbok so she can reach her little sewing kit. Lois never wears her hanbok again afterwards. This scene haunts me. It's a scene that tells you that fanservice is more important than cultural representation. It's a scene meant to set up that Clark gives his tuxedo to Lois later on for warmth. Lois removing her hanbok is meant for not one, but two fanservice scenes.

Lois talks to Clark at the stairwell. She opens up about her estranged relationship with her father, how her mom has passed away, and how she's been an intern at the Daily Planet for a year with no sign of being hired. This makes the narrative decision for Lois to lose her hanbok far more tragic. Lois being a diasporic child with so few familial ties to her culture would mean garments like her hanbok would hold a lot of sentimental value! It's hard enough finding a cultural outfit that fits with your butchess (many of my cultural outfits are hand made to fit my form and gender expression), and yet Lois unceremoniously loses her hanbok. You would think in Lois opening up about being distant from her parents that Clark would be able to culturally relate with the distance he has with his Kryptonian parents. But the narrative opportunity to link their immigrant experiences is not taken, because the show simply doesn't recognize the parallel between the two.

Instead MAWS pushes for the Lois Thinks Superman is A Liar thing again. A far less narratively substantial and fundamentally flawed arc. This episode starts with Lois calling Superman a liar and has Lois ranting about him "dodging her questions" (remember, he was honest with her about not knowing his heritage) thereby rendering her interview unpublishable. She resorts to conspiracy tabloids giddily provided by Jimmy for information. She rather cruelly says "nobody normal believes in aliens". We are uncomfortably seeing the build up of Lois being allegorically xenophobic towards alien immigrants- a Lois on a quest to out an alien before he's ready. This is their justification for flipping the love triangle. Lois loves cuteboy Clark from work, and hates Superman for not confirming her biases that would help her publish an interview that would promote her at work. What a love story.

To wrap this episode up: Prof Ivo ends up challenging Superman to a fight so he can flex his Parasite suit to investors, only for it to backfire, destroy his reputation, and greatly damage the Amazo building (remember this it'll come back later). The episode ends with Lois discovering Superman is Clark Kent. Anecdotally, I was so frustrated with the treatment of Lois' hanbok in this episode, that I went online to search if anyone else felt similarly. All I was met with was fandom thirsting over the stairwell scene where Clark and Lois were undressing. Consider the optics of an Asian character who removed the most visible signifier of her heritage (the outfit far more culturally specific where her character design was racially ambiguous) and how people cheered because that meant they could see her in her undergarments. They can happily thirst over the body they desired now that the othering cultural garment was out of the way. It's just clothes after all. Diversity clothes. This show continues to be very uncomfortable, and a little too real.

In episode 5 Lois is passive aggressive to Clark and Superman, trying to get Clark to admit he's Superman and vice versa. She eventually confronts Clark by jumping off the roof of the Daily Planet, causing Clark to fly down and save her. She proclaims she doesn't want to be friends with him anymore for "lying" to her. This episode caused a huge ruckus online as people were divisive over Lois' actions. Some defended Lois, saying that "women should be messy" and "it's not Lois Lane if she doesn't do something crazy for journalism!". Ignoring that opinion's very flandarized view of Lois' character for a second, let's thoroughly discuss how this relates to themes of immigration and Asian identity.

By this episode, Lois had known Clark for 5 days. In that time she's entitled and angry to the point of friend-breaking-up with him because he wouldn't disclose his marginalized identity to her within less than a week. "A secret is another type of lie!" Lois says, regardless of her lying on sight to both Jimmy and Clark upon meeting them at work, and continued to lie in episode 3 (after promising not to in ep 1) about her intentions to interview Superman. Only Lois gets to lie in this relationship. The hypocrisy of her character is never recognized. Clark calls out Lois for having previously admitted to him that she wanted to dox Superman and "publish all his secrets. MY secrets!". Keep in mind that when Clark brings up Superman feeling uncomfortable about his secrets being published by Lois in episode 3, Lois' response was "yeah, but HE doesn't know that's my plan!". She explicitly admits that she would publish private information about Superman without his permission. But when she's confronted by Clark in episode 5 about that, her response is "I would never do that to you, I didn't know it was you until after the gala. How could you think that?" It's only through conflict of interest that Lois spares Superman of being doxed. He's supposed to magically know this. Extremely cool of Asian American Lois to be entitled to an alien immigrant's identity within four business days.

Episode 6 wraps up the Lois Hates Superman For Being A Liar arc, so let's quickly summarize what happens. Lois and Clark set aside their fight to find Jimmy in an abandoned scientific facility (he's being cared for by Mallah and the Brain). Jimmy admits (very smugly) to having known Clark was Superman all along because he kept breaking stuff. As the trio are chased by killer robots, they emotionally confront Clark for not trusting them with his alien secret- despite neither Lois or Jimmy creating a safe environment for Clark to come out to either of them (Jimmy outed Superman as an alien on his video channel). The moral of the story is Clark should have trusted his friends anyway, because lying is bad. Not once does the narrative hold Jimmy or Lois accountable.

We have Black Jimmy Olsen and Asian American Lois Lane being entitled to their white passing friend Clark Kent's marginalized alien identity. A joke is made at Jimmy's expense that he doesn't understand bigotry, and Lois clearly doesn't understand why an immigrant wouldn't be forthcoming about his identity to his hostile friends at work. This is how that arc ends.

I'd like to quickly compare this Lois Hates Superman For Being A Liar arc to my favorite scene in Superman Smashes the Klan. In this story, Superman debuts as a strongman superhero instead of an alien, suppressing his more othering powers to pass as human. He jumps instead of flying. Roberta, the Chinese American girl targeted by the Klan, calls Superman out for not using his full abilities to save people who could've gotten hurt. Yet, as she's calling him out, Roberta understands Superman's fear of not wanting to be othered. She sees the way her father dresses up to pass as an accomplished scientist, how he tells her mom to speak in English, how her brother makes racist jokes at their family's expense to fit in. She's not mad at Superman, she's mad at the world that would be scared of Superman if he flew.

"I wish it were okay for you to fly!" Roberta yells. This is a beautifully empathetic scene that shows a marginalized person frustrated at a systemic problem, instead of blaming the marginalized for being marginalized. It's the empathy and perspective we're missing from MAWS.

Episode 7 is a metatextual episode where MAWS addresses how their Lois isn't like the other Loises you've seen before. Lois and Jimmy are brought on to a team of alternate dimension Loises to find interdimensional troublemaker Mxy. In seeing the other more accomplished Loises in the multiverses, Lois ends up feeling inadequate about her self worth...in connection to being Superman's girlfriend, of course. Because Superman only loves Lois Lane after she wins a couple of Pulitzers, right?

I'm open to a version of Lois Lane that isn't as accomplished as she's historically known to be. I can like a Lois that's young and idealistic, like in Girl Taking Over. It's hard not to compare this episode to 2022's Everything Everywhere All At Once, another multiverse story about an Asian American woman who is the "greatest failure" version of all the parallel iterations of herself. But while that movie talks in depth about themes of generational trauma, expectations, and self potential within Asian immigrant families, MAWS uses the multiverse to say that while their Lois is less accomplished, she's still a good girlfriend to Superman! Why should I bother giving grace to a different take on Lois only to get such a superficial story out of it. This is metatextual-ly frustrating.

Why is it, the minute we get an adaptation of an Asian Lois in something as prominent as an animated show, we get "the worst Lois in the multiverse"? Lois is historically depicted as excelling in her field. She's an award winning journalist, jaded and mean from having to work her way to the top. She owns her sexuality, she's the experienced city girl. Instead of taking the opportunity to inform Lois' jadedness and excellence with her Asian American identity like in Girl Taking Over, instead we have an Asian Lois that's simply incompetent at her job. Why are we now adapting historically accomplished women into adorkable quirky screw ups? She went from being sexually confident to being insecure over sending a text to Clark. Is it more relateable to see an Asian woman that way? Is it too intimidating to see a butch Asian woman who excels at her job? Who's romantically confident? This is what MAWS would rather do than humanize her excellence or her failures.

Are you tired of an ambiguously designed Asian American woman reporter being xenophobic to Superman in MAWS? Well too bad because episode 8 introduces us to Vicki Vale, voiced by Andromeda Dunker (an Asian actress), with explicit notes in leaked concept art to design this character as "Indian American or Asian American" (as if those are mutually exclusive...) inspired off of real Asian reporter Connie Chung. Vicki wants to write a hit piece on Superman and interviews Prof Ivo's assistant, Alex, for a negative biased opinion on Superman (to Lois and Jimmy's dismay).

This episode is where it's abundantly clear the writers don't know how to talk about xenophobia. They'll make nods to xenophobic rhetoric, but they don't know what the rhetoric means. In response to Alex's derisive opinion on Superman destroying Amazo tower thereby bankrupting the company and putting "thousands out of work", Vicki responds "Superman wiped out good American jobs". This is a misplaced nod to Replacement Theory: the fear white people have over people of color, but particularly immigrants, coming to "their" country to "steal" jobs they're entitled to, ultimately becoming demographically replaced by non-white cultures and people. This rhetoric is also commonly applied to Jewish people.

The problem is, that's not what Superman did in the show. Amazo tech was going to go bankrupt because of Prof Ivo's poor business decisions. Prof Ivo made the mistake of antagonizing Superman and ruining his own image. Superman damaging the building came from his fight with Prof Ivo, not a deliberate attempt to get hired (if anything don't the building repair people have new jobs now?). No one's job is tangibly being taken by Superman. None of this is called out by Lois or Jimmy, who know the full story and were even the ones to attack Alex for helping Prof Ivo (let's be real the writers forgot this happened). In fact, Lois and Jimmy don't react to Vicki's Replacement Theory remark at all! It's like they don't even recognize she said something with racist implications!

Jimmy and Lois meet up with Superman who learns the people of Metropolis are becoming scared of him (from causing some recent property damage in an attempt to hunt a criminal down) and writing mean comments on social media. A user writes "he should go back to where he came from." This is a transparently xenophobic comment. It doesn't work in the context of the show because of a huge plot hole: Superman never publicly came out as an alien to Metropolis. No verified newspaper has explicitly made this fact known. The only source that mentions this is Jimmy's conspiracy channel, which the citizens of Metropolis are apparently treating as fact- therefore (if we're to believe this is how people knew) this means Jimmy absolutely outed Superman as an alien without Clark's consent.

So how does Asian American Lois respond to seeing her alien boyfriend go through xenophobia? She says "Take a break from being Superman and just try being normal." To be fair, the narrative does portray Lois saying the word "normal" as charged (only here at least, not in episode 4), and when she tells Superman to "take a break" it's because he had been overworking himself after suddenly unlocking the ability to hear when someone's in trouble. But was this really the response Asian American Lois thought to say? To her boyfriend going through such explicit xenophobia? At this point it's abundantly clear that racism doesn't exist in the world of MAWS. Being "normal" is to be human. And to be marginalized- or as the show likes to call it "different" is only reserved for white passing alien man Clark (along with gorilla and robot that was once a white man). Any hope of an immigrant parallel between Asian American Lois and Superman should be fully discarded at this point.

After the events of the previous episode where Superman is kidnapped by Task Force X, in episode 9 Lois regrets being allegorically xenophobic to Clark. At least I think that's what's happening. I often describe MAWS as a show that's extremely squeamish with getting political- and I believe the vagueness of Lois' Dark Night of the Soul moment reflects that. "I said awful things to Clark. I doubted him when he needed us most. I was wrong and now he's gone..." Lois says as she cries to Jimmy. Is this dialogue implying she shouldn't have told a sleep deprived Superman to take a break? What did she doubt about him? This dialogue is purposefully vague about Lois being xenophobic. They've universalized Clark's immigrant identity to such a point that they can't keep their argument consistent. Was Lois in the wrong for telling her overworked superhero boyfriend to take a break? Or was she being xenophobic for telling him to lay low for a while? Or is she regretful for hating Superman for Being A Liar? How is that possible when the narrative sided with her and Jimmy in episode 6? It's woefully non-committal. Regardless, the intent of this scene is to pay off in the climax of the episode.

In the end Superman has a showdown with Prof Ivo Parasite, who has grown into a large godzilla-esque kaiju creature. In typical MAWS fashion, the show is more interested in a surface level nod to Asian media instead of engaging with the specific themes of nature and post-war trauma kaijus and godzilla serve in Japanese culture. I digress. Using Jimmy's massive social media platform, Lois delivers a hope speech that instantly heals Metropolis of its xenophobia towards Superman.

Lois says to the people of Metropolis.: "People have told you to fear Superman because he's different from us. But we humans are capable of causing hurt and pain too. [...] Because we want to punish those who don't look or act like us." I mean this in the most polite way possible, but who on Earth thought this line was a good idea for Asian American Lois Lane to deliver when talking about white passing man Superman?? Why did the writers feel the need to specify Superman not looking like us. I simply don't understand how nobody considered the terrible optics of this.

After Superman defeats Parasite, episode 10 is about Clark, Lois, and Jimmy celebrating Thanksgiving at the Kents' house. At the Daily Planet, the trio of interns are promoted to finally being reporters. It only took Clark and Jimmy a few weeks while it took Lois a whole year! Now feels like a good time to remind you that Lois as a character was historically frustrated at sexism in the industry and despised how men were treated better than her (including Clark Kent). Well in MAWS episode 4, Lois has no idea why she isn't getting picked up to be a reporter. According to the narrative, and Perry White's dialogue ("you're terrible interns, so the only thing to do was to make you reporters")- she simply didn't break enough rules yet! Thank goodness she had the help of two men to show her how it's done! This is a pretty clear case of character regression. Keep in mind that in American Alien, at the very least that Asian Lois still underwent sexism, and I gave it the grace that the story could eventually expand to talking about both sexism and racism if it were to continue. But in MAWS? I don't think even sexism exists, let alone racism. Somehow Thanksgiving does, though.

Half the final episode is spent on Thanksgiving shenanigans where everyone's trying to be polite but they dislike Lois' stoic dad (Sam Lane)- who Clark recognizes as the Asian American xenophobic man who tortured him in Task Force X's government bunkers. A parallel is pulled between Sam and Jor-El, two fathers with different ideals when it comes to protecting their kids. There's a huge missed opportunity to have Lois and Sam speak in Korean with each other, to create a parallel in the language barrier between Clark and Jor-El. Maybe Lois isn't as fluent in Korean as Sam is depending on how culturally connected she is. Oh, but the existence of non-English human languages would imply some sort of minority, who would be marginalized, and we can't have anyone outside of aliens and a gorilla be marginalized in MAWS. Non-English languages in America are political, after all. Oh, but they also got a Filipino actor to voice Sam. Generously Lois could be Filipino-Korean but if we're being truly honest it's clear the MAWS crew think Asians are interchangeable.

Let's talk about Sam. In terms of optics, it's already not great that the main villains who represent the face of America's secret government xenophobia are Amanda Waller and Sam Lane- a Black woman and an Asian man. What's doubly notable is that of the antagonistic villains, Sam and Vicki are the most xenophobic. When Sam tortures Superman, he shouts "When is the invasion? How many of your kind will come through this time?" without a hint of irony. Reminder that historically, Asian immigrants were (and still are) considered invaders in America. They are the perpetual foreigner. MAWS loves making nods to Superman being an immigrant allegory, and yet they can't fathom the human beings that allegory is inspired by.

It's not impossible to portray people of color or even Asian American characters specifically being xenophobic. In Superman Smashes the Klan, Dr. Lee is initially antagonistic towards Superman but we understand why. We see him trying desperately to assimilate into whiteness, to the point he rejects assistance from his Black neighbors who help put out a fire in their backyard (that the Klan started as a threat). We understand why he's a character who would turn on fellow people of color, or fellow immigrants, in order to fit in. For MAWS, if we had a flashback scene where Sam was serving in the military and fought against Asian soldiers, showcasing his loyalty to America over his own people- that would narratively explain why an Asian American character would be xenophobic. Writing bigotry from within marginalized communities requires specificity. Otherwise, you've just got a diverse villain. In the end, Lois defends her immigrant alien boyfriend from her xenophobic Asian American dad.

Whenever I bring up how MAWS fails its characters of color but especially Asian Lois, I'm met with people telling me that "hopefully they'll make Lois more Asian in S2" or "they'll just retcon the bad writing in S1" and I hope this thorough analysis on the treatment of Lois' Asian American identity can help enlighten why I personally think that's impossible. The entire concept is flawed from the very beginning. The story MAWS wants to tell is at odds with Lois' Asian identity. In trying to justify an Asian Lois that loves Clark but hates Superman, they never considered what it means to hate Superman. To hate the alien immigrant. The alien other. What it means for an Asian American character to do all that. MAWS is a show that wants to have its cake and eat it too, they want a diverse world without racism or sexism but still want to reap the clout of lightly portraying Superman as "different".

They'll make the most surface level nods to Lois' Korean heritage- but remove all of the cultural context from them. They can't be bothered to acknowledge the inherit political identity being a person of color means in America, they're too busy doing that with Clark. I'm told "MAWS didn't have the time to go over Lois' Asian identity, it's a 10-episode series that focuses on Clark's alienation", and to that I say the potential of an immigrant love story and time frame was there, they simply chose to go another direction.

When I bring up things like Superman Smashes the Klan, Girl Taking Over, and Everything Everywhere All At Once, it's not to say MAWS should have used those stories as reference when crafting their allegory. All of those specific media were released while MAWS was deep in production already. Girl Taking Over was released the same year MAWS premiered. What I am saying is that we, as the audience, should have higher standards. Because better media portraying Asian American characters already exist. Better media portraying Asian characters relating to Superman mythos already exists. What we're doing when we celebrate the breadcrumbs of representation that is MAWS, is allowing mediocrity to exist uncritically.

Shows like Wednesday are known in the discourse for their portrayal of Black characters as being functionally white, yet that kind of scrutiny doesn't seem known for MAWS. The diverse reimagining of Lois and Jimmy is so poorly handled in MAWS that it would honestly make more sense if Jimmy and Lois were white here. The joke made at Jimmy's expense that he doesn't understand bigotry would be actually funny if it was calling out his white privilege. If, for whatever reason, the writers are compelled to write a xenophobic Lois that unlearns her bigotry and falls for Superman, I'd rather she be white for that kind of story. I wouldn't personally root for that kind of couple, but at least it'd make sense. It's a common joke among DCAU fans of color that we like to headcanon Lex Luthor as Black, or Lois Lane and Terry Mcginnis as Asian. It's a cruel irony that the one time we finally have a canonized Asian Lois in an animated show, she honestly feels and acts whiter than actual white Lois ever was.

I mentioned in Pt 1 of my essay that Asian Lois and Superman has the potential to be a definitive love story. One that considers both their backgrounds as immigrants, othered in different ways by American society. The story of a jaded but accomplished Asian city girl who finds hope to be herself again in an alien immigrant superhero. One where she gets the courage to wear traditional clothes again, to practice languages she once suppressed. The story of Superman, an alien immigrant, finding hope in someone with a painfully similar experience.

As of writing, we have yet to see this dynamic in any canon DC media. A second season of MAWS will not give us that story.

#ramblings #media criticism #jesncin talks maws #lois lane #warning LONG LONG POST #this is a 30 minute read for reference. read it in chunks if u like but this is a big lad fellas #as always please be kind!#jesncin dc meta

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goldenvulpine · 9 months

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ok here is a helpful guide for Superman fans in Tumblr when referring to different eras of Superman:

Golden Age Superman: Kal-L. The Original. Very cocky. Very charismatic. Couldn’t fly as a kid. Has no solid code against killing. Chaotic Good. Can actually fly now. Has a disturbingly high kill count. Loves Toxic Women (Lois Literally Drugged him one time). Literal WW2 veteran. Not from Kansas. Smallville, East Coast (likely New York). Is now married to Lois. Head of the Daily Star (not Planet). Is Power Girl’s cousin. Is very aggressive. Still saved people from suicide canonically. Canonically religious (Married Lois in a Kryptonian Ceremony). “What trauma?” Seen everyone he loves die.

Silver Age Superman: Kal-El. The Most Popular. Speaks fluent Kryptonese. Total “50’s Dad”. The Strongest. Also the most conformist. Strict Code against killing. Lawful Good. From Smallville. Is canonically Religious (For Rao, his culture’s God). Has multiple cousins. From Smallville, East Coast (likely Maryland this time). Says he wouldn’t hit a woman. Probably has. Sneezed a Solar System Away. Somehow the WEIRDEST one. Also the biggest Prankster. Was Superboy. Was part of the Legion. Saw Pa die. Refuses to acknowledge his trauma. Needs a hug but won’t say it. Works for the Daily Planet. Alan Moore loves him.

Bronze Age Superman: Kal El. Actually just Silver Age Superman but “weaker”. Still the Strongest. Your favorite writer’s favorite Superman. Neutral Good. Originator of the Clex Drama. Met God. Is a pure scientist. Has Three Canon Endings. All of them are literal tragic endings. Is best bros with Batman. Is the Original Nightwing. His cousin is the Second Nightwing. Dick is actually the Third Nightwing. Loves his bro Jimmy Olsen. Smarter than Batman. Made a vow to protect life. Newscaster. Grant Morrison and Mark Waid love him.

Dark Age/Byrne Superman: Clark Kent (Kal El). Still moody. Weakest Superman. Thinks he’s Neutral Good, still Lawful Good. Doesn’t like Krypton. Designer Baby. Best Journalist. Canonically a Porn Star. Died. Came back. Most insecure Superman. Loves ‘Murica. Killed like three people one time. Strict code against killing. “Superman is what I do, Clark is who I am”. Legion who? Superboy who? Supergirl who? Football Star. Pure Sarcasm. Agnostic. People say they hate him but is the reason Smallville, Man of Steel and STAS exist. Literally wants to fuck Jimmy’s Mom. Triangle Era (90’s) Superman: Clark Kent (Kal-El). Is less moody now. Makes more Jokes. Still a drama queen. Smarter. Stronger. Wants to write a Novel. Married Lois. Jimmy is the Best Man. Good Leader. True Lawful Good. The Superman you probably think of the Most. Coolest guy. 90’s Superboy (the best) 90’s Supergirl (Matrix). Was once Gangbuster (Chaotic Neutral). Mind so strong, he killed a psychic in his sleep without knowing it. Christian (Married Lois in a Church). Still knows Kryptonian Kung Fu (Torquasm Vo/Rao). Dick Grayson’s 3rd Dad. Tim Drake’s 4th Dad. Slept with a Mermaid in Collage. Is fun.

Post-Crisis/2000’s Superman: Clark Kent (Kal El) Retcons out the ass. Kara comes back. Knows Boxing now. Knows Kung Fu. Held a Black Hole in his hand. Destroyed Moons. Agnostic. Still Lawful Good. Loves his wife. Loves his adopted son. Chris Kent. His son is Nightwing. His other son is also Nightwing. Walked the earth one time because of war crimes. Saves people from suicide again. Was a Kryptonian general one time. Literal Genius. Smarter than Batman. Is the GOAT. Hates the President.

New 52 Superman: Clark Kent (Kal-El) Very cocky. Very charismatic. Couldn’t fly as a kid. Has no solid code against killing. Chaotic Good to Neutral Good. Lower kill count than Post-Crisis. Loves Toxic Women (Loves the craziest version of Diana). Had a Mid-Life Crisis in his Mid-20’s. Was a Wrestler. Talks like Jason Todd/Wally West/Nightwing/Peter Parker/every mid-20’s white boi in the 90’s-00’s. Everyone hated him. Wasn’t as bad as they say. Is the Andrew Garfield/Spider-Man of Supermen. Killed off without good reason.

Rebirth Superman: Clark Kent (Kal-El). Is literally just Triangle Era Superman. With kids. No Chris tho. Still Lawful Good. Strongest of the Post-Crisis versions. Tries to be a good dad. Is a decent dad. Except for the time where he left Jon alone. So he’s a bad dad. I’m still not over that. Bendis loves him. Says please alot. Watches Anime. Kind of a dead beat. I miss Chris.

if you want summations of other Supermen I didn’t cover you are welcome to ask.

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i-am-purplexed · 7 months

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Everybody Wants to Be Us - A Supercorp fic, with emphasis on the Corp

Kara was the daughter of scientists and leaders, the family of generals and the descendant of kings; thousands of generations past, when Krypton was ruled by a monarchy and not a council. She hadn’t come all this way, lost this much, spent decades trapped in that tiny pod just to smile meekly and fit in. She was the last daughter of Krypton, and she would not do her mother, her father, her aunt, her uncles, her friends, classmates, grandparents, her people the disrespect of forgetting where she had come from.

Kara is three months and twenty four years away from a tragedy when she is asked to forget her family. She is one of two remaining Kryptonians alive when she is told to put her upbringing behind her; she is the last living follower of ehnai'Rao to exist in the galaxy when she is told to smile and fake at humanity.

She is thirteen and twenty seven; alone and surrounded by people who want the best for her; responsible for the wellbeing of a man twice her age. She is the first and last and only person who knows what it means to bear the name Zor-El.

Kara is told to become human.

She tells them no.

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Hooo boy, this is my first real dive into Supercorp stuff and it's going to be one doozy of a fic. It's going to shape up to be 4-500k words long at minimum, and I have it mostly planned out. Very excited for it!

Summary: Kara decides that hiding her heritage is the last thing she wants to do, and spends her life as an out-and-proud Kryptonian. This changes things, but not always for the better. Featuring:

Sassy-but-still-cinnamon-roll-Kara

Alien technology and what it does to the tech sector

Deep-dives into an expanded Kryptonian culture

A close look at what it means to be Alien

A story that doesn't end with the girls getting together

Lena being unable to change the name of her company because El-Corp was already taken

A Kara who is deeply religious

Strained relationships

Science!

Please feel free to give me a kudo or comment! Positive attention sustains me and will add to my work ethic.

#supercorp #supergirl #kara danvers #lena luthor #supergirl fanfiction #supergirl fandom #EWTBU Fanfic

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zorilleerrant · 9 months

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has anyone been thinking about how the design choices in MAWS are so opposite Smallville? in Smallville they had this very normal looking guy, they tried to pick a body type that wouldn't stand out against the rest of their actors: tall but not weirdly tall, muscled but not broad or bulky, handsome but not striking, normal hair, normal clothes, doing his best to blend in. and then in MAWS they have most of the characters be relatively normal looking people, without a huge stylistic difference between men and women, without a bunch of massive dudes hanging around, but Clark is your classic anime protagonist: super tall, huge chest, giant muscles - and then clearly trying to make himself look smaller, odd clothes to try to hide his bulk and look like everyone else.

I think both of those fit with comics Superman, in different directions (in a dynamic medium, you need to make really different design choices, so it has to go in one direction or another) and it's compelling how opposite they are. on the one hand, you have a Superman who looks like everyone else and only feels different on the inside, trying to be true to his heritage while keeping it safe from prying eyes. and on the other hand you have a Superman who does look different, but he doesn't feel so different, and he has to minimize those differences to try to fit in with people who might not understand. and both of those really underscore the out of place feeling of mixed heritage and especially heritage that's not necessarily respected or treated well.

but I think they both fit thematic elements better, too. in Smallville, Clark was really successfully learning a lot about where he came from and, despite having to hide it, connecting with it, and then maintaining outward appearances that would let him keep it private. in MAWS, Clark is so obviously different, especially to himself, but he doesn't really know how to find those differences or learn about them, and there's a very real and even physical disconnect with his heritage, because the culture he grew up in is different from the one he would've grown up in with Jor and Lara, and this show wants to concentrate on that aspect of it - he has so many things in common with humans but will still always have ties to something else. people don't know mostly because they're not looking, the kind of alienation of people just regularly forgetting another possibility exists. (which, I think, is why they're bringing in the Lois intimacy so quickly; she considers the possibility because she's actually looking at Clark.)

I think there's something with the suits, too. Smallville Clark doesn't have a suit at first, because he's already done a lot of work to figure out what it means to be Kryptonian, but he doesn't know how to integrate that into his life. whereas MAWS Clark already has an idea how to integrate his Kryptonian heritage into his life, ideally, he just doesn't know what that means for him. (that's getting back to the difference between having abilities and knowing what they could do then deciding how best to use them, versus deciding how to live life and then integrating newfound talents into that.) Smallville Superman knows the similarities and needs to work out the differences, but MAWS Superman knows the differences and needs to work out the similarities. the Clark and Superman angles for figuring things out are flipped.

#look i said something #my adventures with superman

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mamawasatesttube · 8 months

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aoejznajwuzgVw. OKAY SO

This is gonna be such a ramble, I apologize in advance, but first off, yes Nightwing Kara does indeed pair with Flamebird Kon (or Supernova. You’ve converted me wjejshwhs)

So the idea is literally born from just like, her and Karen’s brief time as the Flamebird and Nightwing of Kandor, and it got me thinking about what it would be like for that concept to have been more expanded upon. And the ways that it could keep in theme with the Superfam and the immigration story, especially with Kara and Clark as first generation, and then Kon as second gen.

Then that got me thinking (as always) about Kryptonian culture and what it means to Kara and Kon. Like, Kara does struggle with keeping her Kryptonian heritage alive and staying true to it atop of assimilation, and how she just can’t blend in with humans in the way that Clark and even Kon can. And then there’s Kon who doesn’t always have a reason to want anything to do with Krypton, despite being Kryptonian himself. Like, the way the three of them are so so interesting to me in the ways that they just never fully feel like they belong. Also like, parallels! While some of Kon and Kara’s story’s are obviously meant to be throwbacks to Clark, it means that they (Kara and Kon) end up paralleling each other in ways that are so delicious, but completely accidental. For all their differences, they’re also so similar in a lot of ways that are completely different from Clark , namely their tempers.

Which brings me back to Nightwing and Flamebird! It would be such an interesting way to like, really explore Kon and Kara’s dynamic, and what they mean to each other. Like, Kara is a nonbeliever. She doesn’t believe in the Kryptonian gods (which is funny af considering Thara became the Flamebird vessel in canon), and I like to think that after crash landing on Earth and seeing that gods to in fact exist, there’s more than a bit of bitterness on her part. I think it would be such a good opportunity to have Kara, technological prodigy of the science guild, be the vessel of one of the gods and really confront what that means.

I have more, but I’m already making this message so long qoejzbwhehehw

ARTHUR THIS IS SO GOOD. WAIT A MINUTE IM YELLING I LOVE THIS CONCEPT SO MUCH ?!?!?!?!???

firstly i do still think its so funny re: kara and flamebird/thara like. no gods arent real dont be silly. yeah thats my bestie theres a god using her as a vessel but like. its probably nothing. something here along the lines of that joke about edward elric meeting god and then deciding he's an atheist anyway.

but also YES......... science guild kara vs the idea of faith and also like, the way gods can and do exist in the dc universe, but not as the untouchable and lofty ideals that a lot of real-world religions tend to posit godly figures as (which is not in any means saying all real world religions do that, as i primarily have experience with only 3 out of A Lot of those, but. yknow.) i think that adds a different flavor to that kind of conflict. like, they're immensely powerful but also just as flawed as anyone else, oftentimes. interesting and fun potential to toy with there (ofc id come at it from a specific angle personally bc haha religious trauma but. lol!)

but kara and wanting to keep her culture alive and then doing so in this very literal way while still grappling with what facets of that culture she wants to represent and support. that's FUN. very real immigrant story in that.

#answers #clarkkent-irons #YESSS SUPERNOVA KON ALSO. HEHE #the kara vs clark vs kon immigrant story is so compelling augh #like. clark is technically first gen but has no memories of krypton. everything he knows is secondhandish info he got from the fortress etc #he's too alien to be fully human but too human to be fully kryptonian #and then there's kara who keenly feels too kryptonian to be human (but questions kryptonian culture after living on earth some too)#and kon who keenly feels too human to be kryptonian. (ofc he also feels too alien still but ykwim)#<- culturally. i do not mean any sort of 50/50 bs to be clear. entirely culturally speaking skjdhadjk #and clark is just like. straddling that line so finely. he's literally in both camps at any given time #the immigrant metaphors are fuckimg tasty. augh #kara #kon

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halfagone · 11 months

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if you're answering questions about WIPs I read the summary for your *escape* one and holyshit that sounds good. "The ghost zone haunts Danny right back" is such a baller concept. It's listed as Horror and I'm not much for that genre but I'm hella intrigued and I'd love to hear more. (Especially like. How do the aliens know about halfas?)

Fun fact about this story, the title is originally meant to be escape with the last e flipped upside down but it looked funky on the Tumblr post, so it's only that way for my WIP doc XD

I'll admit I'm not super into horror either, but if you've read one of my current WIPs called bones and all, it's a little similar in that regards that it has horror elements and for escape I'm definitely trying for the soft horror. But it's mainly a psychological thriller on Danny's side of things.

There is a lot of worldbuilding to this fic, which is part of the reason why it remains as an unreleased WIP and I haven't uploaded the first chapter yet. But something that I strongly headcanon, and I try to make a point of when I can, is that humans are not the only ghosts that exist. You'll know this, you were very passionate in replying to my newest one-shot Lament for the Soul. But humans are not the only ghosts, and that's why I try to stray away from calling Danny's civilian form "human" because even as a ghost he's still human he's just dead- but enough about that.

For dpxdc crossover fics, we tend to include headcanons/fanon that there are natural portals that appear on Earth. This headcanon, coupled with the idea that there have been previous, natural halfas in the world, led me to thinking that there could have been other halfas that were not human. So there could have been Kryptonian halfas or Martian halfas, as just a few examples. Obviously their stories have either been lost to time, they were never known to have existed, or they were mistaken as something else. (Which would be understandable, in the case of Martians since ghosts have a very similar skill set, but I digress.)

This then led me into thinking that, hey, if other halfas existed, then it's entirely possible that other worlds and species could have known about them and made it a cultural phenomenon or gave it religious significance.

In the case of escape, the alien species mentioned in this summary has a very deep connection to their deceased ancestors. The biological ecosystem of their planet is closely tied to the Infinite Realms, so when the planet starts failing, and crops don't grow, and the weather turns turbulent, they begin to suspect that something is wrong in the Infinite Realms. They hold seances to their ancestors and ask them for advice on what needs to be done, and their ancestors tell them of the only living halfa (aka Danny) who could help them. They say he comes from a planet called Earth, and thus, the aliens go there looking for his help.

The "Ghost Zone haunts Danny right back" is essentially Danny dealing with the problems within the Infinite Realms that has been affecting this alien species. Although, of course, he has no idea that these two things are connected. This AU specifically also does lean into my beloved medium!Danny headcanons, so Danny has vision/nightmares and other things I'll save for later.

This story has a lot of worldbuilding, like I said. So... Hopefully it will eventually see the light of day. XD

#halfagone replies #halfagone's fics

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bonebrokebuddy · 2 years

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-Alright I’ve been tagged by @stealingyourbones to do the WIP Challenge. Rules Here!

Feel free to ask me about any of them and I’ll be happy to let u know what it’s about! :D (please i need encouragement to write about them and I don’t want them to be left in WIP hell forever)

Most of these didn’t previously have titles so I’m going to make them up as I go with some having brief summaries.

As I have chronic carpal tunnel so many (but definitely not all) of these are generally short prompts or fic outlines I need to iron out but many have surpassed 3k so I can safely declare some as fics. And there’s a Lot of stuff here so sorry that this is super fucking long but I’m still not including a shit ton of ideas so I can keep it under 100 for now.

I focus a lot on world building and ideas just keeps expanding to the point where I feel like I can’t write it out without having to explain everything else & so I tried splitting them into the smaller ideas & hopefully that’ll help!

@die-erlkonigin6083 ur being tagged now:

Ok so my written ones:

- Stuck In An Adventure: (Wally West getting stuck in a The Adventures of Superman reminiscent universe (radio show that ran from 1940-1951)).

1) Fawcett City: Through A Child’s Eye:

1.a) Sovereign Nation

1.b) Child Logic: A Brief Rundown of How Things Work in Fawcett City In This AU.

1.c) F’s in Math: Fawcett City Education Standards

1.d) Childlike Misconceptions (x40 I have so many ideas about this)

1.e) Fawcett City Food Culture

1.f) Plan to get Captain Marvel back into continuity in a way that's entertaining, makes sense, and would keep it relevant in the DCU while being able to keep more of it’s original Golden Age tone and make the worldbuilding so much cooler.

1.g) Currency of an allowance

1.h) Robbing Bank Customs

1.i) Issues With The Education System

1.j) Magic Taught In Fawcett Educational Programs

1.k) Medicine & Injury Differences In Fawcett Citizens

1.l) Ambient Knowledge of the Radio & Past Lives: Billy Batson

2.a) Booster Gold. An Exploration into a Modern Version Adaptation of His Online Rise to Fame and His Downfall

2.b) Booster Gold: TikTok Sensation (this is kinda fused with the one above but is more lighthearted in tone)

3) Booster Gold: The Backstory and Rant About an Underappreciated and Massively Relatable Hero.

4) Billy Theorizing Back.

5) Linda Finding Out She Had Twins (but retold based on a real story)

6) The Daily Planet’s Gossip Mill

7) The Worries of the Daily Planet Employees over the one & only Clark Kent/ The Daily Planet thinks Clark’s a Meta but for Different Reasons Than You Might Think.

8) Jimmy Olsen Needs Therapy

9) The Softness Behind A Mask

10) Office Gossip

11) An Electric Charge: All Powered Up

12) Psychic/telepathic Clark (apparently this was a fairly uncommon but still very much existing fan theory that I just thought of independently. But once I found out that it already existed, I lost hope and stopped writing it but it's Very much a theory I enjoy and love that explains literally most if not all of Clark’s abilities.

13) “You mean, you Don’t actually look human?!

14) SO MANY KRYPTONIAN BIOLOGY IDEAS:

14.a) FUN (x so many just give me a number and I’ll give you a certain amount of short prompts for kryptonian biology ideas)

14.b) Inconvenience for the Kents

14.c) Braces

14.d) Biology Discussion

14.e) Different Nutritional Needs. Turns Out Invulnerable Teeth Mean You Can Eat A Lot Of Weird Shit

14.f) Humans stood on two legs to punch things. Why the fuck did kryptonians have the same

14.g) Eyes: Windows To The Soul The Size Of An Orange

15) Man of Steel, Unable to Feel: The issue of Clark’s the association of pain with touch.

16) A brief complaint on the lack of depictions of Batman’s Diet and Workout Regimine in fics because there’s so much comedy potential

17) A Meal Even The Flash Won’t Eat: Bruce’s Protein Shakes

18) Inside-out Space and Time (Dissecting the rock of eternity & it’s ability to travel time without the Speed Force)

DP X DC:

18) Critique on DP x DC twin AU

19) Guide on realism in twin interactions for twin au fics & how twins actually work.

20) Jason Todd’s Fenton Family Reunion

21) Discussion of Theme Similarity of 90’s Superboy and the Danny Phantom Cartoon.

22) A Summoning Going Dead Wrong (an ask commandeered from @stealingyourbones that got stuck in WIP hell and is FINALLY nearly done. I just need someone to unfuck my formatting & it’s all set.)

23) Wait What Do You Mean There’s Two Of You?

24) DP x DC What Do You Mean You Thought This Was A Nuclear Blast Zone?: Explaining the Metagene’s Existence in Amity Park, How Amity Park Was Hidden from the DC World, and the Discovery of It Not Being A Wasteland.

25) A Brief Reminder of Death and Revival: Blood Blossoms in Gotham

Based off of this post (which I am making a reply to but i gotta generate more ideas that fit with the theme first. Got the lore part done tho which is nice)

26.a) Wally West trips into the Backrooms.. wait why’s it all floating and green?

26.b) Speedsters can get healed by GZ

26.c) Speedsters get hurt by GZ contact

26.d) Speedsters gain extra powers when in contact with GZ

26.e) Too Much Of A Good Thing: Ectoplasm Overload (Flash Family)

26.f) How The Fuck Is This Working: Bafflement of the Fenton’s Building Conventions (Flash)

26.g) Lichtenberg AU Flash x DC (x2)

27) Familiar Branching Scars: Lichtenberg AU Captain Marvel x DP where I go way into specifics of magical theory and magical lab procedure than I should’ve

28) Danny’s Not Alive: The Issues That Come With Collecting a Ghost’s DNA

29) Ambient Ectoplasm Quality Warning: Health effects can be immediately felt by sensative groups. Healthy individuals may experience difficulty breathing and throat irritation; consider staying indoors and rescheduling outdoor activities. Please retreat to the GZ for your own safety.

30) tired TA Peter Parker who works a job at a university sponsored lab doing microfluidics

31) College Wally West complaining to his friends about his lab job & the difficulties trying to be a “real scientist”

32) They didn’t tell you being a Clone would come with an inferiority complex and the necessity to tell everyone around you that Not The Same Person Don’t Compare Us (yet I still I want to stand by their side and not in their shadow). (Kon-El)

Brainworms i need to write but have them recorded in my audio app & not transcribed yet:

33) Dash & Booster Gold, Ex-Star Quarterbacks

34) Frozen in Time (DP and the Flash Family)

35) I’m Not the Black Flash!

36) Ghosts In Space (do x dc)

37) The Contrast of Life and Death (Flash Family x dp)

38) Inhuman amounts of Speed. (Flash)

39) Opposing Forces: Same Energy (flash family x dp)

40) Metagene: How the Activation of an Integrated Virus Changes That Much Shit if it Activates

41) A Ghost and An Alien Walk Into A Bar…ow

42) A Ghost from the Future: A Mentor in the Past (Bart Allen)

43) Billy Batson: learning magic theory

44) Jimmy Olsen: Traumatized Beyond Belief (Taos discussion about how the character is handled)

45) Jimmy Olsen: A Neglected Superfamily Core Member By The Fans

46) A Parental Bond and Parental Worry: Clark Kent & Jimmy Olson

47) Trust and Betrayal: Clark Kent Losing a Child’s Trust

48) Help I Think I Accidentally Adopted A College Student What Do I Do

49) A Brief Dissection of the Broad Symbols the DC Hero’s Stand For and Goals they Want: Personal Characterization Help

50) Anger Feels The Same As Happiness (The Feeling Is Just As Intense) (Bart Allen)

51) Shadows of the Future, Traces of the Past: Bart Allen is Not Okay (YJ cartoon)

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obsidianstrawberrymilk · 2 years

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Okay so idk as much about the Superfam (I’ve read like, a single comic with a Super as a main character and it was a YJ one, and I’ve watched most animated shows and the CW Lois and Clark one) but tbh, their whole thing is SUCH a good allegory for immigrants, esp like people escaping from places of violence. Like obviously there’s Kal-El/Clark Kent, who’s like a second gen immigrant, bc he has this whole other culture and home he never will get to know and he still has parts of it in him he doesn’t understand and he knows it scares other people or makes them disgusted (and especially growing up in Midwestern USA - not the most accepting place ever, even if Ma and Pa kent were awesome, as they were) so he learns to only show the parts people are comfortable with while still not really understanding them himself right?

But there’s always gonna be this part of him that needs to be the ideal, to fit everyone’s perception of him, like, and that causes sm friction w the other Superfam members?? Like Kara and Karen (they’re the same person but from different universes right- am I just dumb or) GREW UP on Krypton, they’re first gen immigrants, forced to leave somewhere they knew and come somewhere that no one knows their culture and even Clark is called ‘the last son of Krypton’ even when he’s not Kryptonian ENOUGH bc he didn’t grow up there, to them at least, and bc stuff like ‘the S means hope’ when it’s not an S at all?? But Clark has learned to say and sue stuff like that to make people more comfortable with him, and like, HOW does that not cause friction??

And then obviously there’s like, Chris and Jon and Kon and even Jordan if we include him, and Mia, like so many superkids, but the ones ik most are Kon, Jon, and Jordan. So like Jon and Jordan are really also second gen/third gen, right, like they both want to learn more about who they are and where they came form but there’s only so much they can use to connect to it with and they still feel all distant from it and stuff. Like Jordan has powers, so there’s him trying to connect with a place he wasn’t born in, that has never even EXISTED at the same time as him, but he still has such obvious markers he isn’t ‘normal’ aka like everyone else (ahem immigrants) but he can’t link himself to the place they come from fully. That applies to Jon in the comics. And Jon in CW is even more that - he’s like, he doesn’t even have the same connection Jordan does, he doesn’t even have that ability to connect to such a vital part of who he is, and he seems like he could be ‘normal’ but he’s still not fully human and has this whole other part of himself he doesn’t know how to deal with because no one’s there to tell him about it, he doesn’t know it.

And like, they’re all SO repressed. Repression is literally a key part of all their characters. They’re all, esp Clark, so desperate to keep up the image they’re ‘just like everyone else’ and they go from small Midwestern US town to Metropolis, which my best description of the vibes I’ve always gotten is like, yk those gentrified neighborhoods? The ones where they tear down usually POC lower income neighborhoods and kick people out and build overly glossy, minimalist homes on the backs of all those people with so much below the surface of bleached white countertops etc?? Yeah, that’s what Metropolis reminds me of - there’s so much cruelty and stuff (Lex Luthor lmao) below the shining surface it seems to want to present. And don’t even get me started on small Midwestern USA towns - I’m an immigrant, my cousin is second gen and lives in a Small Midwestern Town, and it is SO bad. “Out of the ordinary” isn’t really a thing people like there.

And SUPERMAN IS A REFLECTION OF THAT, and of IMMIGRANTS. He’s so obsessed with making sure he seems like ‘everyone else’, he and the rest of the superfam just... repress. Like aside from how violating it probably is to have you’re DNA used to make a... whole other being... without your KNOWLEDGE (and the um... comparisons to certain things that could be made), I like to think there’s 100% and element of that Kon is something out of this ‘ordinary’ Clark has forced himself to keep, and that like, scares him, right? He’s spent so long hiding who he is, not really trusting anyone (HIS BASE IS CALLED THE FORTRESS OF S O L I T U D E CMON-), trying to be ‘normal’, and Kon is some random kid who was made in such a violating manner and how can he explain where he came from, how can he make sure he hides everyone that makes him ‘alien’, how can he be sure Kon won’t mess it up- YOU GET IT?

Like everyone in the superfam is so lonely and repressed and none of them talk about it because they have to be shining beacons, paragons, there’s so many complicated dynamics behind the scenes. It’s a story of hiding parts of yourself because you’re never sure what parts will be welcomed at this point. A story about longing for a place you’ve never known, will never know, will never understand, because you aren’t of there, really, but you’re not of where you were raised either, because there’s parts of you that will never mesh with the ‘normal’ they have here. It’s a story about missing a place you had to leave, and feeling alienated and like everything is so DIFFERENT yet everyone acts like you’re abnormal, even when the things that have always been normal to you are shunned even by your own family. It’s a story about trying to connect with parts of yourself you can barely understand, can barely see, about being rejected out of fear of what will happen if you ‘mess up the image’. It’s a story about repressing all your trauma and expectations and keep smiling and being a hero, because they need to want us here, they need to trust us, because you know on some level you’re never really welcome and they need to keep wanting you and that’s what matters.

It’s an immigrant story and I want to see more angst about it please.

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loisinherlane · 5 months

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timkon 7. you thought i was gonna say 69 didnt you.

didn't i???? you played yourself

history of man / maisie peters

i've seen it in the poems and the sands i've pleaded with the powers and their plans i tried to rewrite it, but i can't it's the history, the history of man

Kon always loved being Kryptonian. There were so many things he knows he'd have never experienced if he were human--flight and the way the winds felt in his hair, TTK and the way objects exist in their essence, never mind the culture and his family. There were so many good things to revel in. It was almost enough to forget the bad.

He should have known when he'd noticed with Clark. Clark had skated back for years on an excuse of aging gracefully. Lois had laughed off the comments about dating a younger man. At some point, they'd all seen the truth: Kryptonians didn't age like humans. Not exactly.

Kara had known. She only pressed her lips together when the subject was broached. What was she meant to say? What else were they to do? They all watched Lois age and pass, and they pretended it wouldn't hurt to do the same over and over again.

By that time, Kon had already seen the gray in Tim's hair. Salt and pepper, he always teased, stroking his husband's silky straight strands until he could move his hands down his neck and shoulders. He wasn't a young man, but he was still Kon's. And he would be, until the day he--

Kon had tried. He wasn't as smart as Tim, but he knew science pretty well. He understood Cadmus's experiments. He needed a chance. The universe was big. There were so many possibilities. Things could always change.

Tim continued to age. He was still handsome He was still Kon's. And when he was gone, Kon wondered why none of them ever learned their lesson.

#megan writes #for the record kon saying he isn't as smart as tim is not ACCURATE it's just kon. i want that clear. kon says this. not me

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fazedlight · 6 months

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Borrowed Time (S1 canon-compliant angsty character study)

Fort Rozz was heavy.

Heavier than Kara anticipated, as she struggled to lift it above her head, as she shot into the sky with shaking arms and panting breaths. Fort Rozz was heavy, and it was the last thing she would ever lift.

She couldn’t cry. Not now. There wasn’t time, with Myriad’s vibrations getting closer and closer to destroying humanity. If she started crying, if she broke her concentration, she wouldn’t be able to complete her mission to throw Fort Rozz into space. Everyone was counting on her - Alex and Eliza and Winn and James and Cat Grant and all the others that she once cared about and all the people she had never met.

Her muscles ached, and yet she was reaching space so quickly. The air became thinner and thinner until Kara was gasping for air that would never reach her burning lungs. She watched as the edges of her sight narrowed, as her vision began to tunnel from the lack of oxygen. And all she could think about was how she was the last - how Aunt Astra and Uncle Non were dead, how the remaining kryptonians were in stasis on Fort Rozz, how she would share with them the same grave in the expanse of space.

It had always been borrowed time - she was a mistake, an aberration, a fluke to have survived the destruction of her planet. Last daughter of Krypton, they had called her. She supposed Kal would still be the last son, of a culture he never knew. He was a beginning, not an end. Not the last vestige of a dead world. Not like her. Rao, make my journey bright.

There had never been a certainty about afterlife. Her people whispered the words we will remember you in every dawn, and await the night we join you in the sky as though it meant something, and yet she couldn’t be certain if it was literal or not, or if existence in the afterlife would involve any meaningful level of consciousness.

But it didn’t matter - far more important was may Rao protect us, so that we might protect others.

She never set out to be a vigilante. That was Kal’s purpose - until it wasn’t. Until happenstance clawed out at her, and she felt with growing certainty that this was the way to honor the lost. And so it only became the greatest irony of her life that she would have to thrust her remaining kin to their deaths, to save the found family who had given her refuge.

She wondered what death would be like, and baffled at the fact that she would be experiencing it soon, as she finally breached the atmosphere and noted the gentle curvature of the Earth into darkness. She had learned so much about the planet’s customs, learning to camouflage in one of its many cultures. Her traumatized 13-year-old self never imagined that vigilante or martyr could be in her future.

She had dreams. Some that died on Krypton. Some that were born on Earth. She found herself enamored with the thought of disregarding algorithmic mandates, to find a companion by turning oneself over to the whims of fate. She wasn’t the type to imagine a wedding - kryptonian weddings were beautiful, but they weren’t about the consecration of love, and she never grew attached to Earthian wedding customs. But love? She found herself hoping, assuming that there was someone out there for her, waiting on Earth. Now she hoped there wasn't.

She let go of Fort Rozz, her strength finally faltering, as she drifted above the planet that had served as her home. The stars blanketed her, a sense of calm washing over her as she began to slip away. They are safe, she thought, as her eyes slowly drifted shut. Safe.

#this hurt so much to write so I hope it hurts to read I guess??#remember this is canon compliant so she's gonna be fine!!!#I promise my next ficlet will be not-depressing!!!#character study #supergirl #supergirl ficlet #mel writes ficlets #fazedlight #fazedlightgif #kara zor-el #fort rozz

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howhow326 · 1 year

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Omg guys it's my first oc who has never existed outside of my head before: Hunter Bluecoin

I wonder how he got here?

Oh well, I guess I'll just be on my merry- wait a minute, my 9 year old self is behind me and holding a knife to my spine because I promised to post his backstory into writing!!! Ok then.

IRL BACKSTORY

Me and twin brother used to do RP games for all of the shows we watched togather before we knew what RP was lol. During these very early formative years (when I was like 7) I slowly began forming a character who was an amalgamation of all of the different self inserts I used in the RP. However, I first gave a name (kind of, it was still me) to this character during a Winx Club RP; Bloom was at a ball dancing with her new ice boyfriend/husband (don't ask, also it was me, also I don't even like Bloom it was my brother's suggestion lol) when the Ice-iums suddenly attack. Then when Bloom jumps to the obvious conclusion, I pull the dumb plot twist that Hunter/Howard (he had my name at this point) was from a different magic ice planet: Sticeterraria (Ice - uh - terria, the St is silent. To this day, I still don't know why I imagined the spelling like that). And from that moment forward, the path of me accidentally creating my first oc was set... [oh um, the reason why my oc is an Finn recolor is because I first thought of a visual apperance of him by thinking of finn with black hair and going "yep, that's me!"]

INSANELY AWSOME KOOL OC BACKSTORY!!!

The result of me seriously thinking about what this guys background would look like after using him as a dimension hopping self insert, circa 2013

Howard Hunter is the second in line of the throne of the Royal Bluecoin family of the planet Sticeterraria.

Note: Sticeterraria isn't the real name of the planet he comes from, it's the name that his culture (Sticeterrarians) gave to it. Sticeterraria has other cultures on the planet that have been at either war or peace with the Sticeterrarians.

Also, Sticeterraria is like really cold because it's the fourth planet from it's sun and 90% of it's surface area is water. That last part isn't relevant to the planet being cold but I put that in there just because.

Back to Hunter: he's a master of magic despite being [insert teenage age here]. His abilities include: Ice magic, superhuman physical capabilities natural to Sticeterrarians (peak human stuff) that Hunter enhances using his magic (super strength, durability, etc), flight, intangability (because Big Chill was my favorite Ben 10 alien), and a lot more powers from spells but what's listed are his go to powers. Hunter also has a magic Trident that's a family heirloom that normally goes to the oldest child, but Hunter has it because it choose him/he stole it/he just has it (???)

More on Ice Magic: my original idea was that it's just something that all Sticeterrarians can do but then 15 year old me retconed it to being a power that only 1/3 of Sticeterrarians can do without learning magic first. The reason why Sticeterrarians can do this is because they are blessed by their patron goddess, Ice (i think it's a very creative name actually), to have protection and dominion over the cold environment they live in.

Ice is also the goddess of love because 7 year old me was tired of ice powers always going to bad guys. The justification he gave for this is that "the cold winter forces people to value and treasure their loved ones more". Because of this association, the name of Sticeterraria's capital city is Amour.

Ice is also the goddess of the Moon because I used Hunter in DC comics RP and thought it would be good contrast to Kryptonians getting charged by the Sun. Hunter get's charged by the Moon!

Ice fell in love with the sun god, Fire, but their love is forbidden and the wind god, Air, keeps them apart from not only each other but also from their only child, the sea god Water. Yes.

Ok, back to Hunter. He's kind of quirked up and goated in the sauce because he's autistic not like the other boys. He despises the warrior culture he comes from (oh yeah, Sticeterrarians are basically Vikings but with 60% less pillaging) and studies the more female aligned art of magic (Norse rules of magic being feminine. Also, Sticeterrarians are lowkey sexist but like 80% less outright hostile to women compared to Americans) despite his dad telling him no. Hunter's what you might call a rebel even!

Also, Hunter is like a straight up dark wizard that has no qualms with performing dark riturals as long as he can control their power. And he may or may not be a a fugitive for stealing his family's royal jewel that transforms into his trident depending on canon this week.

Hunter's mom is ok with it (the learning magic part, not the dark magic stuff).

Hunter's older sister (who is my other Winx Club oc) Icealina get used to it, is kind of pissed at her younger brother for causing so much trouble and not taking royalty seriously.

Also, Icealina wants to abolish the royal family and start a democracy when she comes of age because she too is quirked up and woke actually everyone should be like her and king charles needs to be stopped.

Sticeterraria have female warriors that look just like Chesire's design from Teen Titans because...

Hunter also has a magic talking Huskey that follows him on his fandom hopping adventures. Ironically, not inspired by Jake.

Hunter is cursed to melt into a puddle of water when he is near fire. There's really no reason for it and im just mentioning it here because I like this weakness better that that one time I went "Hunter is a gary stu, better nerf his magic into the ground and make him incapable of fighting despite being a trained warrior!".

Hunter is not White its more likely than you think

And that's all(ish)! Oh look, 9 year old me has vanished to his final rest within the confines of my mind. Good, now I can go d literally anything else.

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thevindicativevordan · 2 years

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Third: Would you make Kandor have a bigger role on the modern myth of Superman? There is not too much done with them in several years, outside Superman '78.

Kandor is a tricky beast. The problem is that Superman having access to an entire city of Kryptonians who still practice Kryptonian culture takes all the punch out of Krypton blowing up in a way not even Kara or Krypto or the Phantom Zone prisoners surviving does.

Having those small bands of survivors works because 1. There still isn't enough of them to recreate Krypton by themselves, and 2. Kara was a member of a noble House and the Phantom Zone criminals were the worst that Krypton had to offer. They can't really help Kal know what it was like to live on Krypton any more than the holographic simulations he has access to in the Fortress can. They can't encompass the whole of Krypton given the vastness of Kryptonian society, and Kal wants to know everything about his birth planet. Kara's memories will be colored by nostalgia and homesickness, the memories of the prisoners by hatred and despair. But an entire city of Kryptonians? Well that pretty much let's you reconstruct at least one large part of Kryptonian life, and that robs the sting of Krypton's loss for Superman.

I think the best way to use Kandor is actually the current status quo for Kandor: Kal has access to Kandor and it's libraries, but the people are trapped in stasis. They can't interact with him, they aren't even conscious right now. He can walk through an intact Kryptonian city but it's like walking through a mausoleum, only ghosts exist in Kandor for the moment. Much as Kal appreciates having access to the Kandorian archives, which are a treasure trove of Kryptonian culture and technology, he'd give those up in exchange for being able to revive the Kandorians. To be able to have a conversation with one of them is the impetus for his experiments in freeing them from Brainiac's imprisonment.

Williamson actually had a great idea for using them in his Batman/Superman run: Make reviving them be Zod's main quest.

Building a New Krypton is Zod's goal in life. When he learns that Kal has an entire city's worth of Kryptonians, easily enough for them to actually rebuild the Kryptonian race, Zod is going to make their restoration his main priority in life. Zod doesn't share Kal's morals, he's going to pursue any potential lead that offers the hope of reviving Kandor. You could get a lot of stories out of Zod trying various methods to revive the Kandorians, with Kal having to mitigate the worst of Zod's risky experiments. Eventually if the Kandorians were revived they could join Zod's New Krypton and potentially cause problems within the United Planets down the road. Even could do a second attempt at having Kal or Kara joining New Krypton and trying to guide them into becoming better than the denizens of Old Krypton.

#superman #bottled city of kandor #general zod

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i-am-purplexed · 7 months

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Scene Break Teaser for next chapter of Everybody Wants to Be Us

An Otherworldly Style - an exclusive interview with CEO, Kara Zor-El

Article by Rachel Morrigan, Catco Global Media

August 15th, 2014

---

By now, we’ve probably all heard the name ‘Kara Zor-El.’ The up-and-coming businesswoman is the head of House El-Incorporated, more commonly known as ‘Elco,’ a rising tech giant specializing in bringing technology from beyond the starts to our little blue speck. Kara is also the leading figurehead in the rising Alien-rights movement, using her fame and fortune to found charities, protests, and spurring on legal action. Kara is an alien herself; a refugee from a planet that no longer exists. She often speaks about her world to raise awareness, and carries a bit of home with her everywhere. Kara is rarely seen in any outfit other than the traditional wear of her people; a constant reminder of a home lost. You may have heard of her planet. It was called Krypton. We managed to get an interview with the Woman of Tomorrow herself; Kara was happy to reach out on the phone to speak with us about her daring outfits, what they mean to her, and what they meant on her home planet.

Rachel Morrigan: Very happy to talk to you, Kara. I must say; I’ve been loving your outfits for a long time. It’s always such a joy to see your newest clothing - and I hear you were excited to talk about them!

Kara Zor-El: Happy to meet you too, Rachel! I - oh, well. I don’t know if excited is the right word, honestly; I’m always happy to talk about Krypton. People have been talking about my ghozh for years now. I will say I’m excited to put my own opinion out there.

RM: Kryptonian clothing trends to be longer and flowing, at least as far as I’ve noticed. Lots of draping sleeves and swishing skirts; but there will often be sections of it removed. You wore a beautiful - ghozh? Is that right?

KZE: Ghohz means clothing; an ughohz would be a full outfit.

RM: - a beautiful ughozh to that Edge Global charity gala last month. It was remarkably different from your other outfits - any reason behind that?

[Image one: Kara Zor-El at the NCH Gala. She has her hair up in an elaborate braid, a necklace displayed on her collar. She is wearing an outfit made of burgundy red; the bottom has a skirt with a short(maybe two foot) train, slit up the left leg to the upper thigh. The top has long, wide sleeves that drape down nearly a foot, embroidered with gold thread. The top ends just under her chest with a belt, leaving her midriff bare down to the hips, at the start of the skirt.]

[Image two: KZE in the same outfit, but from behind. From this angle, the only piece of the top visible is the back of the sleeves. Her back is entirely exposed, with a net of golden chain draping over her shoulders to form the pattern of her house crest]

KZE: [laughing] Gosh, I’m still getting used to people keeping track of all my outfits. Yes, the outfit I wore to the National City Hospital gala is what would be called a ughozh’:dhoia; literally, that would mean ‘beautiful outfit’ if you were to translate it. It has a more formal connotation than just ‘nice clothes?’ It would be like - a cute outfit could be :dhoia, but a ughozh’:dhoia specifically means a suit or robes for formal wear. It has to be flashier than usual, and really stand out from daily wear.

RM: That certainly fits, because - wow. I wish I had the back to pull that off. You certainly got a lot of attention. Does that outfit have any particular meaning to your culture?

KZE: Yes, actually, but - I don’t know how long you have. I’d have to do a lot of explaining to get to the point.

RM: Please, ramble away! I’d love to hear anything you have to say about your clothing. Really, we know so little - the only examples of Kryptonian clothing we had until these last few years was your cousin’s costume.

KZE: God, I love my cousin, but that is not Kryptonian clothing. Seriously, Kal - put your damn underpants on the inside, you’re embarrassing me.

RM: Not a very high opinion, then. I take it you’re not going to be throwing on a similar costume at any point, then? No plans to run around as, ah, Superwoman or something like that?

KZE: No, not at all. Kal does good work, but I don’t think I’ll ever follow in his footsteps. I’m far too busy to run around punching all my problems, Rachel. There’s just no time for superhero work in the agenda.

---

You'll be able to find the full article between the scenes of my next chapter! Starting from now on, I'll be releasing little hints of what the next scene-break theme is going to be ahead of time.

I have so much fun writing/making these things, you have no idea how excited I am to share them all with you.

#supercorp #supergirl fanfiction #kara danvers #kara zor el #EWTBU Fanfic #like seriously I am *ecstatic* about sharing these little hints into the media

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urwelcomeforthis · 3 years

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Alex’s tattoo shows up the day after she punches Marcus Hinkle.

He had been picking on Kara in the hallway, dangling her math book above her head, taking advantage of his summer growth spurt.

Kara still doesn’t know what possessed Alex – Marcus Hinkle had been a thorn in her side since she had landed on Earth and started school a year ago, but whatever the reason, today was the day Alex couldn’t take anymore.

Eliza had been furious. Jeremiah had been (not so) silently proud.

Kara didn’t know what she had felt, really. Especially not when she asked Alex why, and the older girl had just shrugged and said “You’re my sister. It’s what we do.”

Up until this point being sisters meant fights in the hallway over the bathroom and ignoring each other at the dinner table.

Apparently, things were changing.

Kara is just waking up when she hears Alex’s hushed “What the hell?”

“What is it?” She asks, groggily sitting up and wiping at the sleep in her eyes.

Her sister is holding her forearm up, frantically scrubbing at a spot right in the middle, her eyes frantic.

“I don’t…. I don’t know! It’s like a tattoo but I didn’t get a tattoo! Fuck, Mom is going to kill me.” Alex sounds panicked as she continues scrubbing at the spot, and Kara feels her heartbeat speed up.

“You had a tattoo just appear on your skin?” Kara asks slowly, her mind suddenly far away on a planet that doesn’t exist anymore, in a culture she had been forced to leave behind.

Alex stops scrubbing and looks at Kara with a piercing gaze. “Yeah. It’s some funny symbol too, like the way you used to write before you learned English. Did you do this to me?”

Alex leaps off the bed and crosses the room in two quick strides, arm held out like an accusation.

Kara shrinks in on herself a little but nods. “I think so. I didn’t know it was possible here, but well, on Krypton when your soul mate reveals themselves, a tattoo linking you appears. I should have one too, somewhere, if you do.”

Alex stops dead in her tracks, her eyes wide. “Soul mates? But we’re sisters! That’s so gross!”

Jumping up from the bed, hands held up in surrender Kara hastens to explain further. “No! Not like that, I promise! Back home, people had different kinds of soul mates. Sometimes it was the romantic kind like you talk about here on Earth, but other times it could just be a compatible soul, someone who was meant to be a part of you.”

Alex still looks wary, if not relieved, as she tentatively holds out her arm. “So, what does this mean? What kind of soul mates are we?”

Stepping forward Kara delicately traces the symbols on Alex’s forearm. “It literally means “sister of the soul.” Je shesur. The symbol after it is unique, the way we would know we were linked. If this had happened on Krypton it would mean we were soul sisters. Not from the same parents but family just the same.”

Alex nods. “And here on Earth? What does it mean here?”

“The same thing. At least that’s what it means to me.” Kara refuses to meet Alex’s eyes, not sure she wants to see what waits for her there.

There’s a long minute of silence after Alex takes her arm back. The clearing of her throat brings Kara’s eyes up from their place on the ground.

“Where’s yours?” Alex asks, eyes burning with curiosity.

Kara shrugs. “I don’t know. It’s not on my arms like yours is. It must be hidden. Can you look on my back?”

“Sure.” Alex nods. “Lift up your shirt.”

Kara turns and tugs her shirt up and over her head. It takes a moment, but she hears her sister gasp followed by the feel of fingertips against her left shoulder blade.

“It’s the same as mine.” Alex says reverently, and Kara closes her eyes against the emotion welling up there.

Who would have thought she would get to have this piece of home?

“So, I guess I’m stuck with you. For like, ever, huh?” Alex smiles once Kara has turned back around.

Kara grins back. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Alex shrugs. “Could be worse. But you have to tell Mom about this, because she’ll never believe me, and she is going to be pissed that I have a tattoo.”

“Sure, I can tell Mom.” Kara grins, a piece of her heart settling in place. She hasn’t felt at home on Earth, not really, but at this moment she feels like it isn’t all that bad.

The next person to get a tattoo is, interestingly enough, James.

It doesn’t come when they’re dating, or whatever it was that they were doing, no.

It comes after he has revealed himself to be Guardian, and he and Kara have the biggest fight of their friendship.

Kara wakes up the morning after tired, groggy, and more than a little cranky. Its as she’s stripping down to get in the shower that she notices it – the Kryptonese scrawled along the inside of her right bicep.

Throniv Shesur. Protector of the soul.

Kara heaves a deep, deep, sigh and grabs her phone.

She meets James at the DEO, both tentative around each other after the yelling match of the day before.

“So. I woke up with a tattoo. Kryptonese. Any idea what that’s about?” James looks smug, like he’s won some kind of battle with Kara and god, at that moment she wishes they were in the training room and she could just punch him.

“Yeah. I did too. It means “protector of the soul.” She crosses her arms against her chest, desperately trying to hold onto her anger from yesterday but the wide grin on James’ face is making it hard.

“I know. I asked Clark first thing since I figured you’re still pissed at me. He was a little surprised, but he translated it for me.”

“Where’s it at?” Kara asks, still pretending to be upset but truthfully it was hard given the glaring message from home telling her that James was meant to be Guardian. That they were meant to protect each other. Protect others together.

“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” James says with a waggle of his eyebrows and that’s what finally breaks Kara, a laugh ringing out across the room.

It wasn’t who she expected to have a tattoo, not in this way at least, but if it had to be anyone, she’s glad it’s James.

Mon-El doesn’t get a tattoo. Kara wishes she were more disappointed.

The last person to get a tattoo is someone Kara had desperately hoped both would and would not get a tattoo.

For a long time, she feared what that tattoo would be, if it were to happen. She feared having to explain it, having to explain herself.

She had checked with Clark a few times, when paranoia would get the better of her.

No, he always told her. Lex did not have a tattoo. They were enemies, yes, but it hadn’t been decided by destiny or fate. It just was.

That mollified Kara because she couldn’t stand it if she and Lena were to become Clark and Lex. She would fight against it, fight against fate to keep it from happening.

And then, well. It kind of happens anyways.

They aren’t enemies, not really. Lena just hates Kara and aims a few Kryptonite cannons at her and tries to mind control the entire planet, but really everyone is allowed a brief lapse of their sensibility, right?

And what matters is she came around, in the end.

It did take time, however, for them to build back to what they once had. It was different now, but in the way that things once broken and fixed usually are.

It was better, if anything.

They were back to shared lunches and dinners, quick breakfasts and coffee breaks. They were back to game nights as partners and movie nights as friends, and the occasional sleepovers as best friends.

Things were finally back to normal, so of course Kara had to go and absolutely, irrevocably, mess it up.

It was Alex’s fault, really.

If she hadn’t said anything, if she hadn’t asked Kara what was up between her and Lena lately, Kara probably never would have stopped to think about it.

She never would have stopped to think about the way her heart sped up when Lena entered a room, or the way her palms got sweaty when they hugged, or the way she just could not stop staring at Lena when she laughed at game nights.

But now she had thought of it and had come to the very scary conclusion that she was in love with her best friend.

Her best friend who didn’t have a tattoo.

She would, after all this time, have a tattoo, the tattoo, if they were meant to be together, right?

Kara mulls it over for weeks. It haunts her. She asks Lena about tattoos, and if she has any.

She learns that yes, in fact Lena does have tattoos and boy howdy one of them is on her lower back and it is seared into the back of her eyes now that she has seen it.

But she doesn’t have any kryptonian tattoos, which is really what Kara was aiming for.

Much like it was Alex’s fault that Kara even realized she was in love, it’s also Alex who reminds Kara of one important detail.

“Well I didn’t get my tattoo until after I punched what’s his face. Maybe you have to tell Lena how you feel and then she’ll get the tattoo.”

Kara feels dumb struck, right there on her own couch, because of course, Alex is right.

The tattoos always come after the person has already revealed themselves.

Then of course comes the true fear: what if she tells Lena and she still doesn’t get a tattoo?

That’s the question she’s mulling over the next night as she and Lena sit on her couch watching some documentary that had been put on Netflix.

Lena looks beautiful, face bare of makeup, hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun, glasses slipping down her nose.

She’s eating a piece of pizza, a rare treat after a long week of work, and Kara decides that it doesn’t matter if Lena doesn’t get a tattoo.

She’s hopelessly, desperately in love with the woman and she can’t let a tattoo that may or may not come dictate her life.

“I’m in love with you, you know.” Kara blurts out, like this isn’t a life changing moment, like it’s the easiest thing in the world to say. (It is.)

Lena chokes a little on the bite she was swallowing, her hand coming up to her chest as she sets down the slice.

“Excuse me?”

Kara laughs. She’s never felt more free than in this moment. “I’m in love with you. I just thought you should know.”

Lena looks at her, shock written all over her face. “Oh. I guess that’s good.”

“Just good?” Kara nudges Lena’s thigh with her knee.

Lena shakes her head. “I mean it’s more than good, considering I’m in love with you too.”

“Yeah?” Kara could float up to the moon, she thinks.

Lena smiles, nose crinkled. “Yeah.”

It’s the next morning that Lena calls and asks if Kara can stop by. She has this tattoo she didn’t have yesterday, right on her ribcage, and it looks like it’s Kryptonian.

Kara frantically searches her own body, finding the script on her hip, on the left side.

Zhao Shesur. Love of the soul.

It took them five years to get to this point, but Kara knows, this moment was more than worth the wait.

#i took some liberties with kryptonese #here have a drabble #supercorp #lena luthor x kara danvers #lena luthor #supergirl #just some ideas on different kinds of soul mates and soul mates in general #not fully formed but this is as good as its going to get #i promise this has supercorp

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