Decided to make a tumblr account because I'm tired of my daily haunting of the Jaykyle and Cosmic Mistakes tags daily bearing no fruit. Figured I should try being the change I wish to see in the world or whatever.
I'm also the fic writer, loose_leafs on ao3, and I would love for the people of tumblr to send me asks with fic requests/prompts related to the Cosmic Mistakes or Jaykyle. I really like writing short pieces that I can bang out in one session, and it'd be motivating to know there's at least one person out there that desperately wants to read it.
My Absolute favorite DC characters I will not be shutting up about: Jason Todd, Kyle Rayner, Stephanie Brown, and Jo Mullein
People who will probably make regular appearances: Donna Troy, Artemis of the Bana-Mighdall, Barbara + the Birds of Prey, Batfam, Arrowfam, Wonder Woman, Zatanna, the Earth-based Green Lanterns (minus Keli Quintela, I'm sure she's lovely, but I like my GLC child free thank you very much)
i don't think we as a fandom talk enough about how lonely jo must have been in far sector, cut off from literally everybody she had known and then literally unable to emotionally connect with literally anybody around her. and dare i say loneliness is a motif in her character at large
One of my favorite parts of jaykyle fics is the sheer variety of second meetings authors design for them post-Countdown, and I think I've cooked up possibly the funniest scenario: blind date.
I'm pretty sure the Countdown Trio's adventures have been mentioned once or twice to other superheroes, but let's pretend that it hasn't come up or flashpoint/rebirth shenanigans mean that only they remember it. Now imagine a Jason Todd and Kyle Rayner who are coming to terms with their homosexual attraction after realizing that they were clearly into each other during countdown ("only in a sexual way though, hate that guy" - both of them), and they're constantly complaining to other Titans about how hard it is to find guys to date in the superhero community, considering people are already cagey with their civilian identities let alone their sexual orientations. Some well meaning Titan is like I know we can just set them up with each other.
So Jason and Kyle walk into this date, see each other, and contemplate immediately walking out, except also they were each other's gay awakenings, so both decide to go through with the date to get to the sex part. On the date, they discover that hanging out with each other in a low-stakes environment is actually really fun, and hey maybe we should try this whole dating thing. Meanwhile the Titans want to know how their date went, so they ambush them at the end only to see Jason and Kyle bickering like an old married couple and they're like you guys just met? Tonight???? Except Donna who learned about the whole plot to set up Jason and Kyle late, was prepared for disaster, but just goes "oh, OH," and then proceeds to give the rest of the Titans the highlights of jaykyle's flirt-fighting during the Countdown trip.
when i think about the lost potential of the zamarons i literally want to kill myself. itās stated so many times, the zamarons are just the female version of the guardians. they are simply an unqualified group of immortals that band together to create a ridiculous cult-like task force that you can never escape from. carolās loss of autonomy brings up several uncanny parallels to the treatment of hal, john, and especially katma. but dc can never actually criticize the guardians in any way that matters, so instead of these parallels meaning anything the arc has to end with: women are crazy and weaker than men so the guardians can rule but the zamarons canāt ig. and then they disappear into a portal to make babies for those disgusting blue freaks and are never seen again. this is not an exaggeration btw. i am being dead serious
Many peopleās negative feelings towards Terry Long lead them to wanting him to be removed completely from Donnaās history. I understand why. He was a good decade older than her, and she was freshly an adult when they began dating. He didnāt respect her career as a hero, often complaining about it despite having known beforehand what he was getting into. He took her child from her in their divorce. Etc.Ā
Terry was not a good partner for Donna, but I donāt believe canon should just erase him. For better or for worse, Terry played a major role in Donnaās life, and removing him would change who she has become as a character/person.
The problem with Terryās portrayal, especially prior to his and Donnaās divorce, was that the source material presented their relationship as healthy and tried to convince the readers of that. Clearly their relationship was not actually healthy.
When the age gap is brought up in the comics, itās never for negative reasons. Sometimes itās just a jab at Terry for being old, but often these references are used to show how mature Donna is. Wolfman has even said that he created Terry as Donnaās love interest because she needed somebody more mature like her. For him that meant she needed to date a man ten years her senior.
Only after their separation and divorce does their relationship start to be shown a bit negatively. However, even when it is, itās not doing anything to show that the relationship was unhealthy when they were together. The negative things brought up and referenced about Terry are just that he was the one who initiated the divorce and left Donna and that he took Robbie away from Donna.
The ideal way, in my opinion, for what writers should do with their relationship is not to look back on it in a positive way, nor do I think they should completely ignore it ever happened. It should be acknowledged as something unhealthy that Donna didnāt seen at the time since she was young and naive. Something that took time/needs to take time for her to fully grasp.
However, this doesnāt mean I want for Donna to suddenly just completely hate him. I know many people enjoy revenge fantasies, and I know there are people that use Terry for those, and if thatās how you cope with things, thatās fine. I just personally don't see that as in character for Donna, nor do I really find it compelling.
Donnaās feelings towards Terry should be complicated. It should be something she struggles with at first that she later comes to terms with. There were some comics during and after the divorce that started to do this, but, again, her negative feelings were about the divorce itself and Terry taking Robbie away and not the relationship prior to these events.
During and after the divorce, despite everything Terry has been putting Donna through since he left her, she continues to believe she still loves him and thinks he must feel the same way about her. It ties a bit in with her issues with perfectionism. What they had was the perfect family she wanted, and she canāt fathom that sheās losing it.Ā
She believes that despite everything he is still a good person. She has occasional moments of anger towards him, but she still feels positively about him a lot of the time. Itās heartbreaking seeing these moments.
New Titans #117
New Titans #128
Even after his death her feelings remain complicated. She grieves for him along with Robbie. After everything he put her through. It would be so easy for her to be angry at him for Robbieās death regardless of how much at fault he is. But she doesnāt. Instead she continues to feel love for him.Ā He took her son from her in more ways than one, and she still loves him.
Girlfrenzy! Wonder Woman: Donna Troy
This display of complicated feelings, where she continues to love somebody she has every right to be mad at, isnāt just something she does with Terry. Sheās done this with the Titans of Myth as well. They messed with her memories and manipulated her, but she still feels love for them.Ā
Return of Donna Troy #4
To me itās just a lot more compelling for her to struggle with the fact that she still loves these people who she has every right to hate. Even as she comes to terms with how poorly they treated her. She loves Terry. He was an important part of her life. But he hurt her. From the start their relationship was unhealthy.Ā
A story arc for Donna where it finally hits her how bad things were the whole time could be so much fun if handled correctly. And this is why I would prefer this over him being removed or just having Donna suddenly switch to just full on hating him. For her character it makes a lot more sense for things to be a bit more complex than that.
Not exactly sure how Connor ended up in this situation and right now he doesn't quite seem like the character I've encountered in Morrison's JLA or the crossovers with Kyle Rayner, but the Jason Todd parallels are calling to me. Might have to go reread the jayconnorkyle and jayconnor works on ao3
Because I'm incapable of not immediately fixating on an idea, I've already figured out exactly how the jayconnorkyle version of Lazarus tournament arc would go. In this AU Jason seeks out and enters the tournament after overhearing Rose's fight and subsequent invitation on the phone, filling the last spot before Damian can enter.
He's been friends with Roy long enough to recognize Connor Hawke as part of the arrow family, and confronts him much like Damian. But after getting the response above tries to approach him with the "hey, I've been there too angle", which results in an emotional conversation and prompts Connor to tell him about the real reason he's fighting for the League (defeating the demon) and they become tentative allies in stopping the rise of the Lazarus demon. While they work together it's clear they have chemistry, but also Jason is busy helping Rose investigate her mystery around Respawn and trying to keep the children in the tournament safe-er even if no one can be safe on this island, so their relationship doesn't go anywhere until after they leave the island.
Cut to 6 months later, Jason and Connor are splitting their time between Gotham and Star City. Their relationship is based on mutual-support and companionship with no sexual interaction because Connor is asexual of the sex-repulsed variety and Jason is grayace. Then Kyle comes back from an extended stay in space, learns about their relationship, and immediately comes to the conclusion that Jason initiated it just to spite Kyle because Jason knows how much his flirting with Donna (that only happened in Kyle's imagination) had gotten on Kyle's nerves. Anyone he tells this to decides that Kyle must have been into Connor and is jealous (this is part of it), and tells him that while its okay to be jealous he's created an unreasonable narrative surrounding their relationship, and that Jason was probably not even aware of how close Kyle and Connor were when he initiated their relationship. Anyone except Donna, who has had to listen to hundreds of what-do-you-think-Jason-Todd-is-up-to-sexually rants from Kyle since their multiverse trip and is ready to snap. She tells him, "I can't believe your dumbass has never realized you have a crush on Jason Todd."
That causes Kyle to realize that he has crushes on both Jason and Connor, which he decides to deal with by avoiding the couple like a plague. This causes tension in Jason and Connor's relationship, which at first Connor wants to ignore because he suspects Kyle is trying to make him choose between their friendship and his relationship with Jason, but eventually Jason convinces him to go talk to Kyle about it. He confronts Kyle, telling him how fucked it up it is to be pulling this him-or-me-bullshit, and during Kyle's explanation about how that's not what I'm doing doing Kyle confesses the feelings he has for both of them. Connor's never really thought of Kyle like that, but now he's thinking maybe he could plus he knows that Kyle was Jason's gay awakening, so he calls Jason and is like "what would you think about us dating Kyle Rayner?" and Jason is like "hell yeah" and bam jayconnorkyle achieved
Not exactly sure how Connor ended up in this situation and right now he doesn't quite seem like the character I've encountered in Morrison's JLA or the crossovers with Kyle Rayner, but the Jason Todd parallels are calling to me. Might have to go reread the jayconnorkyle and jayconnor works on ao3
