My One Change To Star Trek (2009)

Fandom Complaint

I really hate the Marvel Superfamily trope for a number of reasons, mostly centering on the infantilization of Peter Parker and the erasure of his actual family in favor of Steve and Tony which makes me sick, I actually like that pairing but just give them their own kid, Peter’s characters is so OOC in all those stories anyway, just go all the way and make an actual OC.

But whatever, right now the thing that pisses me off the most about Marvel Superfamily is that they’ve stolen the term “Superfamily” from Superman and his actual family. How am I supposed to look up content about Chris, Conner, Jon, Kara and various related family members if Superfamily isn’t about the actual Superman Family?

Naruto Fic Idea

There are a lot of time travel fix it fic, and even a few time travel nothing was wrong fic, and it occurs to me that both perspectives could happen depending on when in the Naruto timeline the person travels back from. So, Obito is dying at the end of the fourth shinobi war and pulls some crazy something or other and travels back in time along with everyone else from Team Minato at the point of their deaths. So Rin and Minato are obviously on board with this, Rin just committed suicide after the Sanbi sealing and Minato just turned his son into a junchuuriki, they both think Obito died at Kanabi and it takes a while for everyone to figure things out. So three out of four are thrilled with the chance to make things right, but then you have Kakashi. Kakashi has lived through all the wars to see all of the hidden villages find real genuine peace and see the end of the shinobi era. As far as he’s concerned despite his regrets and all the pain it took to get there, the word ended up as good as it was going to get big picture, he just died in his sleep, at peace with his incredibly long life, he was probably like 90 something which is an insane age for a shinobi to be, let alone dying of natural causes. Then he wakes up as a ten year old in the middle of war and he is absolutely pissed. Minato and Rin have no idea what’s going on because as far as they know Obito gave them a huge chance but Kakashi is so done with everything, he’s an old man, the word isn’t his responsibility anymore but now it is, and he’s the only one who knows how good it could be if a very particular set of events take place, the peace is strong and sturdy when he dies but it’s beginning is so so fragile, and now it’s all on him to make sure it happens. So, of course, he just wants to rip Obito a new one, the incredibly selfish bastard. No one has any concept of the type of peace Kakashi knows, for Minato and Rin, peace is just Konoha not in active war and Obito doesn’t really care about anything except screwing over Madara and Kaguya. It’s all on Kakashi to make sure they get to what he got to live, but he’s really fricken old and is just so tired.

The idea is that I’ll talk about my day here plus whatever tangents I go off on as I do so. No idea how well I’ll keep up with it but I try.

DCU

It’s probably my Superman bias, but I get really bothered by the trope that has all of the Supers being scared of the Bats. Like, sure, Batman and his kids are cool, but come on, it’s SUPERMAN, he’s the strongest superhero in the world and the rest of them are almost as strong. Superboy I, Superboy II, Supergirl, Power Girl, all of them, it’s just not happening. They respect the Bat Clan, they are incredibly intelligent and well trained heroes, but they aren’t going to seriously be able to beat the Supers, nor would they actually want to. They’re friends, they trust each other. I get that it’s short hand to show a character is bad ass by having their allies be scared of them, but I’ve never really understood why genuine friends who cared about each other would act that way. So yeah, that’s just me.

Naruto AU

So, I have this idea for an epic Naruto sequel that I absolutely don't have the ability to actually write. But I was thinking of the politics of the Naruto world and what the actual fallout of the Fourth Shinobi War would be like.

So, the thing is, the politics are an absolute mess, apparently the countries are ruled by the Daimyo, but I don't understand how that could possibly work when all of the military power is centered on the Hidden Villages with the Kage as their overall dictators. The Shinobi Wars were conducted between the villages, there's no mention of the countries themselves actually being involved. Having your entire military act on a mercenary basis from a virtually independent city-state within your country just...cannot possibly work. The Daimyo has to have their own forces, but they're clearly not enough to be fully relied on considering how much power the Hidden Villages seem to have.

The way I see it, during the Warring Clans era, the Daimyo were properly in charge with their own Samurai soldiers and everything while the respective shinobi clans ruled over their own territory and acted as basically feudal lords with mercenary services being offered so long as they didn't go against the Daimyo. The time period was pretty awful for the clans, but the government was solid. Then the Hidden Villages started popping up, which complicated things.

We really didn't get all that much information on how the villages in the other countries ended up happening, but the story of Konoha is pretty clear. The formation of Konoha was probably permitted by the Daimyo because with the clans moving to the village, their respective territories were left basically to be returned to the ruling power, since they weren't there to govern it, the Daimyo could do what they wanted, and start handing it out to new nobles for connections and power. Plus, they no longer had to be careful in picking out which clans they went to for missions and keeping in mind their respective relations, not becoming overly reliant on one and snubbing another, they were all together.

The other villages were almost certainly formed as a reaction to Konoha, maybe for some the villages were the clans themselves coming together like in Fire while with others, maybe the Daimyo themselves formed them out of fear that the Fire Daimyo was consolidating military power with the clans forming a truly fearful army without them fighting each other anymore. Whatever you want to say happened, it led to the Great Hidden Villages forming and the rise to power of the Kage.

This is when things started backfiring on the Daimyo, because suddenly you had these giant, super powerful armies of all their shinobi clans giving their loyalty to a single leader...who isn't them. This led to a century of a very precarious balance of power between the nominal ruler in the Daimyo and the military power of the Kage. Things were largely kept in line due to the Shinobi Wars and the continued reliance on mercenary work on the part of the shinobi. I know that Zetsu is considered to blame for all the blood and violence, or whatever, but I would say that it worked in the Daimyo's favor to have the Shinobi fighting each other, it used to be the squabbling of the clans, but now it was the larger scale wars between the Hidden Villages. Which brings me to my story idea.

The Fourth Shinobi War led to a definite peace between the villages and the creation of a Shinobi Alliance as well as a movement towards ending the shinobi era as it was, especially the child solider aspect. There is no way the Daimyo would have been happy about that; things would have either had to fall apart or the governance of the countries would have to change.

So, the story idea is that the Daimyo start strengthening their samurai armies, who they've allowed to weaken through their reliance on the shinobi, with the intention of making the hidden villages fall in line beneath their command. Maybe the Daimyo of the Great Nations even joined together against their own shinobi. However, you want to play it out, there is a war brewing between the hidden villages and their Daimyo for the power of the country. Now, the Kage are not particularly interested in ruling their entire nations, well, most of them aren’t, Kakashi certainly isn’t, but they are not about the let their way of life be destroyed by selfish, paranoid Daimyo either.

Suna is especially in favor of ousting their Daimyo, relations in Wind have been particularly bad for a while now. The entire Suna invasion is a result of them losing missions from their Daimyo to outside sources, making them desperate. Kiri is probably in favor of making Terumi Mei in charge of everything too after all she did to end the era of the Bloody Mist, no thanks to their own Daimyo. In any case, the main story is a big epic about the shinobi trying to change things in a huge way and the Daimyo trying to stop it, leading to the confrontation that at the end of it means the Kage are going to have to take charge of their actual countries.

The story would follow the conflict, the end of the power of the Daimyo, the rise of the Kage to actual monarchs and the massive societal changes where they end the mercenary work of the shinobi and turn them into genuine military and the like. It would really be a huge undertaking of a story to bounce around the varied politics of the Five Great Nations and the fallout from the other, smaller countries.

There is something kind of hilarious about Kakashi, who doesn’t even want to be the Hokage, having to become the ruler of the entire Land of Fire. I don’t have the understanding of politics, Japanese history, or the world of Naruto to even begin to write something like this, I also don’t have the patience to write actual stories and make sure the characterization of everybody actually works. I just think it’d be a fascinating idea.

I have a few various headcanons that if I could write something like this I would want to include. For one, the Hatake clan isn't actually gone, they're a nomadic clan that acts in packs, every now and again a group will break off and settle down somewhere, which is what happened in Konoha, leading to Kakashi being the last of that group. The greater Hatake come around every few years to try and convince Kakashi to leave a village that has done very little for him, to no avail, then this conflict starts and a new pack breaking off happens, with them deciding to throw their weight behind Kakashi, acting as personal guards since they don't actually trust Konoha.

Of course, the ANBU and jounin corps are all completely loyal to Kakashi, but the Hatake don't know that. I think that would lead to some fun conflict since both parties want what's best for Kakashi, as a fellow Hatake or as their Hokage, but they have different ideas on what that means.

I have another idea where Kakashi and Shizune get married, solely in this context because I think she would make a fantastic Wife and Lady for the Land of Fire. I don't know, I just think she and Kakashi would work really well as a power couple when it comes to the role of Hokage and the politics involved. I normally think Kakashi works best with Yamato/Tenzo, but he would probably hate that kind of role. This kind of story would also really let Hinata shine, I think, with her training as the Hyuuga princess, she and Naruto make their own kind of power couple with international politics.

My thoughts are kind of scattered. Kishimoto created this really interesting world with all sorts of potential that really didn’t get fully explored. That’s why fanfic is so much fun.

Comic book Geography

One of the things I like more about DC over Marvel is that every hero has their own city and they’re all spread out. It gives them plenty of space to do their own thing and they have the technology and superpowers to be in easy reach of one another if they need back up. I thought it was a really neat idea to have the Justice League in Young Justice be connected with the UN, though I also think they work as an NGO.

I’ve always found it frustrating having Marvel crammed into New York City. I understand the original appeal to have the heroes in a place where the writers were familiar, to make them more down to earth. But they’ve outgrown that, Marvel has spread them out a little but they could do more. It looks like the X-Men are going to be all over the place in their new titles, which I’m really happy about, can’t wait to read about the team that’ll be in Chicago. Aside from a handful of heroes, like Spider-Man and Daredevil, who really embody New York City, most of the Marvel heroes don’t really need to be there, Move the Fantastic Four to Pittsburg or something, have the Avengers in California or Washington, the real team not the West Coast Avengers, just somewhere that isn’t New York. It might seem a shame to separate Spidey from his friends in the FF, but Reed easily has the ability to make instant teleporters and Johnny can fly. Whatever, it’s not a big deal, just give them some space.

Star Wars Thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

OUAT Opinion

I hate the idea that Hook went to Neverland because of Emma, in fact I don’t really like how their entire relationship was established. They had way too little screen time to show anything properly building, the entire thing felt way too rushed. Which is unfortunate because I do actually like their dynamic as a couple. Anyway, Neverland, Hook didn’t go because of Emma, he went because of Neal/Baelfire and Milan. Henry is Milah’s grandson! Of course Hook wanted to save him, he’s a part of the woman Hook loved for three hundred years!

I don’t even know why I still care about this, I stopped watching OUAT after all the Frozen bullshit and it’s seriously problematic on a lot of levels, I’m not even sure I like any of it anymore.

Hetalia - Hogwarts

I don’t actually have much interest in the Harry Potter fandom, not anymore. I think the entire series is overrated and that there are way too many Hogwarts AUs out there.

That being said, America would absolutely be sorted into Slytherin no matter what he likes to say about him being the Hero.

Maxie-kitty