star, I'm actually obsessed with your post-crisis reinterpretation of rhato with the post-crisis characterisations. I'm less familiar with kory's timeline than you, so do you have any thoughts about what would be making her crash out hard enough that dick would try to finagle her onto a team with the others? 👀👀
the sun eater consuming new tamaran, which is way too early in the timeline (1996) for lian to die (2005). still, between this and karna (and i mix up exactly what happened to each planet and when sometimes sorry) this should have been a way bigger deal and absolutely swallowed her up in grief in canon until she was a fragment of her old self for a while. this was honestly what i had in mind because its just such a huge loss. kory lost her husband and parents and presumably her sister. only ryand'r survived. then karna is where they settle after, and it's blown up in 2001.
donna's death. if this was the timing, then instead of outsiders being what roy assembles for dick, rhato is what dick assembles for roy and kory. i kind of like this idea tbh? and it lets dick isolate to his hearts content to get worse <3 but i especially like donna's death being like... the survivors of tamaran have had their planet blown up for a 3rd time by now (karna was destroyed in 2001, 2 years before donna's death in 2003)
if i move up lian's death a few years to have it happen before donna dies, or maybe move donna's death a year or two, this is a perfect recipe for a roy harper who is also crashing out. and if i move up the utrh scenario (2005), then jason can have his crashout too. everyone wins!
basically if we go with 2 or 3, donna is dead and she was basically the last person other than dick that kory was EXTREMELY close to. i imagine vic and raven are reaching out but like... it was donna. kory's devastated. what is the point of reaching out if everyone she loves dies. so dick basicall says "hey girl! noticed you were on an olympic level crashout. and while your solo event is great i think we could improve it by making it a team sport! anyway i want to keep an eye on you with my other loved ones who are also one step away from the ledge. xoxo. dick" anyway he wants them to trauma bond to start looking out for each other. also theyre all kind of okay with killing people and while he's not psyched about that, its less friction to have them all on a team together. funny enough dick's own crashout actually happens in like 2004 which... sounds kind of perfect for this to get even messier. so.
i think if none of these work (i know the timelines not perfect), then if the citadel or the psions tried to invade earth, especially after her other homeworlds were destroyed, kory would be a furious Wreck. she'd be cold and angry and be burning herself out fighting every minute to save the last home she has left. like yeah shes useful but she reeks of desperation and desperate people are dangerous to have on any team. so dick puts her with some other people on similar mental health spirals.
thank you for asking!!!!!! i really want to like this teamup and it couldve worked on so many levels! the potential was just kind of wasted. 3 heroes poised and ready to kill. grieving. angrier than theyve ever been. i want them to commit so much arson together. also my ideal overarching storyline is that theyre fighting traffickers on earth together and starfire in particular is losing her mind about it.
also - instead of amnesia at the start for her, i do still want an amnesia arc but i want it mid-way through for maximum pain. after theyve become friendly with one another. something kory sees is too much and opens up wounds she thought had healed and in order to keep fighting, she does another way of the warrior stint and, like before, it wipes her mind of everything but tamaran and being a good warrior. she comes out of it because her team and/or dick hold her and gently pull her back to herself. "you only remember tamaran, not the seven years since you've freed yourself and come to earth. but remembering only tamaran wont be what helps you. i think some part of you knows that tamaran is already gone, kory. you cant suppress it or you'll never actually heal. it's going to hurt, i know it's going to hurt. but the wound is already there. pretending it never happened won't bring tamaran back, and it wont save you. you're strong enough to heal. so come back to us. come back to me." and if it's dick id like him to be what restores her memory this time.
(id like to think that if a kiss from dick had restored her memory in the original way of the warrior storyline, the two of them would probably still be together.)
anyway. i want to write or read a fic about this but recently i feel very uninspired unmotivated and untalented so im not sure how to pull this off. but the vision is there.