Hey there! First time running into your account, and by God! I love your Starfire content! One burning question - since we know Starfire is a model under the alias Kory Anders, what do you think that life as a model would be for her based on her character? How would she handle clubs/parties? What would her IG handle and followers count be? What would she model for? How would she cover up her superhero identity given she’ll be followed by simps?
I'm not going to pull any panels for this because I'm feeling very lazy! I love this question sm, though, because Kory's modeling career is very interesting to me + inspired me to pursue my own for a time!
Kory is only incognito as a model very early on in her career and, at some point, the Wolfman-Perez team quietly dropped that aspect and any time she was modeling, she was openly herself w/o anything covering her eyes. her career isn't really touched on much outside of the handful of photoshoots we see--like her early denim photoshoot, a beach shoot with Donna, etc.--and also outside of her being recognized by the press for both her modeling and her status as the resident alien princess superhero on Earth (which is why Dick, instead of Kory, is almost always incognito when they go out together after a certain point in NTT and then New Titans)
as for her life as a model: Kory is 6'4" and, in most depictions, is thin in the extreme meaning she would have no trouble finding editorial work and walking some of the most high profile shows. her modeling career isn't super serious in the comics, so I don't see her modeling for most of the year but she would absolutely end up being the muse of either an established or up-and-coming fashion house. she's not a model you see in product photos, she's a model you see on the cover of Vogue, a model you see in editorials in local and international fashion magazines, etc. etc. her career would be relatively easy in that she doesn't have to go looking for jobs and she probably doesn't have to go to casting calls (which are literal hell sometimes). I think modeling would be like a fun hobby for her more than a job because she doesn't have to do it all the time and would get the highest paying jobs, which supplement her income for most of the year.
her IG handle would probably just be @ koryanders or koriandr because, as mentioned previously, she doesn't seem to have a ton of interest in covering up her identity. she's definitely one of the models that has upwards of a million followers because she's been on Instagram FOREVER and I think she would eventually go on to do public speaking which would draw even more people to her page. I also don't see her going to parties/events beyond the requisite events or events that she personally is really drawn to. meaning, she's going to go to after parties and she'll go to events thrown by friends or by her agency or to events that she absolutely knows Donna is going to be at but I don't think she would be interested in parties that strangers throw, ykwim?
I think that she would eventually form her own sort of mother agency, while still modeling for the agencies she's signed to, as a means of providing younger models with an opportunity they may not otherwise get.
as unhappy as the second tamaran arc is. it’s not actually out of character for Kory to take up what she perceived as her duty to her planet and her people at the behest of her father because although he failed her repeatedly she sees him as her leader and sees his choices as unavoidable despite how much pain they caused her
you know what else ties into this? a cycle of trauma:
Talathus saying “we are to serve Tamaran, to sacrifice for her good” and “whatever sacrifices we must make...make them” and it flipping to modern day Myand’r saying “Tamaran comes before us all” as his CHILD SELF says “Tamaran comes before all of us” is INSANE and yet it perfectly encapsulates why he’s so determined to see Kory married to Karras because he’s trying to preserve his mother’s dream while passing on the trauma she passed to him.
ultimately, Myand'r doesn't want to give his daughter away in marriage but they're both carrying the burden of being Tamaran's saving grace (or at least feeling this way) and it's! sad!
Your Starfire Cosplay is coming out so unbelievably good. Like how are you not working in like costumes for movie sets? It’s award worthy! So stunning! And the amount of work that must go into making everything! Wow!
I was wondering if you could give us more thoughts on the whole sibling dynamic between Kory and her siblings because I find that so fascinating! Like on one side you have Kory and everything that can be explored there but you also have Kom who is disabled and her narrative there and then you have Ryand’r who isn’t really explored as much.
what I find interesting about the dynamic of this family is that Ryand'r was so obviously tacked on at the end in an after thought which is like such a real youngest child in a busy/important/high profile family thing lmao
before we jump into it I want to make a few disclaimers:
I am not a mental health professional of any kind, I just have some surface level research behind me on like sibling and parent dynamics
I am not going to be excusing or endorsing some of Komand'r's more violent actions in her adulthood but also please remember that Kom is like a fictional character in a silly comic book
I will be talking both about the in-universe narrative that developed over time and the way it developed out of order in real time
okay let's get into it
their family dynamic honestly isn't super complicated but it is really interesting. the narrative sets Kory and Kom up as the scapegoat vs. the golden child (which is funny bc Kory is...the golden girl. goldie. etc.), Kom is also the black sheep of the family for obvious reasons, and Ryand'r is just lost in the shuffle which, as far as I understand, is pretty common for the third child in this kind of family dynamic.
Kom was set up for failure. a pretty important city, the city of Kysarr, was destroyed by the Citadel. the only source I can find on this is from Who's Who volume 2 (which is misattributed on her wiki as v. 1 #13, when it's v. 2 #13, but I'm banned from editing the wiki so whatever they'll just have to live with the mistake):
[image text: Komand'r was the eldest child of Tamaran's royal family, and the first princess born in almost a century. As such she should have been courted and showered with honors, but Komand'r was instead reviled. On the day of her birth, the dreaded Citadel Empire attacked and destroyed the western Tamaranean city of Kysarr and Killed three thousand citizens in her name. Due to no fault of her own, Komand'r was for all time inextricably linked with Tamaran's day of infamy.]
now, this destruction of Kysarr is not included in her or Kory's backgrounds in any comic, so this is something that's thrown into the continuity in 1991 and never spoken of again because it's in a total throw away comic. BUT that's exactly what makes it so interesting. so, let's go into this with the retcon context that Kom's day of birth was marked with destruction and this, alongside her disability, made her parents consider setting her aside as heir and having another kid (who would have previously been the spare, if Kom hadn't been "sickly" when she was born, as Kory says in The Tales of the New Teen Titans #4).
(as an aside: this profile on Kom also says that Myand'r is like a puppet ruler, which is not quite accurate, so we might also take this added Komand'r seasoning with a pinch of salt)
so, with this added context, we could see maybe why Kom would hold so much resentment toward her younger sister. Kory, being the golden child, is both aware of her parents treatment toward her disabled older sister and misunderstands it.
[The Tales of the New Teen Titans #4]
so, Kory says that "even when [they] were children the differences between [them] were so very apparent" but neglects to say why those differences may have been so apparent. she also says that "those were such happy days for [her]" and that there's one thing she could do that Kom couldn't, which is: fly. Kom can't fly. she has never been able to fly. in the page above, you can see Kory flying with her mother while her father watches and just below that, we can infer that the contrail in the distance behind Kom is either Kory or their mother, Luand'r.
can you see, maybe, why Kom would hate Kory? it's not Kory's fault. their parents literally pit them against each other because they're not good parents. it's clear from this alone that Myand'r and Luand'r are neglectful parents and even if they aren't neglecting Komand'r on purpose they are neglecting her in favor of Kory. so, Kom starts to escalate her abuse toward Kory in a bid for their attention and to ensure that Kory is as miserable as possible. Kom is forcing Kory to atone for the sins of the father (and mother) because in her child mind, Kory is the source of all her problems and if she can eliminate her or, at the very least, make her miserable, Kom can again gain the approval and love of their parents. it's unclear if she ever had this to begin with but she wants it so bad.
and, in turn, Kory wants her sister's love more than anything when they're children. it doesn't matter that Komand'r is abusive and will do whatever she can to make Kory's life hell, Kory wants her sister to be a sister to her. (any of you that have siblings know that sibling relationships are very rarely nice growing up, though, so Kory is striving for something that might not even be possible if Kom was like loved and cherished by their parents)
Raven quite literally asks Kory if their parents favored her over Kom and she kind of hand waves it away with a "well not in the beginning" which is like. such a golden child thing to say. they didn't care for her before she betrayed Tamaran, which is pretty clear from Kory's whole narrative up to this point, and what's the core of the why of the matter? Kom couldn't be their perfect paragon of a Tamaranean princess and she couldn't complete the image of a perfect Tamaranean royal family. which is very obvious if you read all her appearances and then read the second Tamaran arc where Myand'r uses Kory as a bargaining chip. if Komand'r had not been disabled, she would have been that very same bargaining chip, but because she's disabled she is then pushed away, punished for her disability, made into the scapegoat for an entire planet, and eventually begins to buy into that and becomes like a really bad fucking person, right?
it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
and then Ryand'r is just like. there.
literally, he's just there. we get this one glimpse of him (which is a hard maybe because this kid is never named) in New Teen Titans v1. #3 and then we don't see him again until 1982 when he is a literal infant:
that's a baby.
we meet full grown Ryand'r in New Teen Titans Annual #1 (love annuals) where it's revealed that he's alive! which is funny because I think most people forgot he even existed considering the last time they saw him he was like. an infant.
he does it in the funniest way possible and just pops out of the jungle after Kory curbstomped their sister. like. okay. you didn't want to, like, help your older sister who you most definitely don't remember because you had not gained sentience yet as you were busy being under a year old when she left the planet to train. I guess I wouldn't get involved either idk.
so, Kory, for some reason, believed Kom when she said Ryand'r KILLED THEIR PARENTS and then is like oh damn you're alive and you didn't kill them? that's cool I guess.
so, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that no one in this family has a real relationship with Ryand'r because Kory 1. believes this absolute lie their very obvious liar of an older sister made up and 2. is also surprised to not only see him alive but to see him as an adult and that just doesn't scream "I care about my younger brother and think about him when we are not together".
(also, ryan's age doesn't quite add up, considering Kory and Kom are the right ages but he's like...an adult...and not a preteen. like. sure. and no do not go "but time passes differently on tamaran" because in-universe it most certainly does not pass any differently because Marv Wolfman, like me, does not care to calculate time differences between planets)
so between Kory being surprised that he's alive and Kom making up whatever she wants about him I think that we could say that there's no real relationship between the siblings. like I said earlier, Ryand'r is just lost in the shuffle and like at the first sight of trouble he peaces out and leaves the planet. he's done this like as much as Kory has peaced out from Earth when she needs a break. this has, I think, impeded his ability to like truly form a relationship with Tamaran and his people because he's just neglected by everyone. there isn't a lot of info on his childhood and from the way we see his parents deal with his sisters, we might be able to come to the conclusion that he was also pretty much left to his own devices.
which is sad but nothing egregious happened to him in childhood. when he was older, he was also experimented on by the Psions and gained like the ability to burn people and things with his hands in a different way than Kom and Kory can (starbolts vs. thermal emissions) and that's like hugely traumatic and kind of binds him to his siblings in that way. is that every explored, though? no, it's not.
in Ryand'r's appearances that take place in the 90s and early 2000s (which is the last time he appears for a really long time), every time he appears it's to call Kory for help. one of these times he also asks her to help him commit genocide. so. just let that sink in. he's mostly just a plot device in later years and outside of his scant character development in the original Omega Men run he just doesn't to be an interesting character with a place in the dynamic of his family.
so sorry about all the starfire questions but!! has anything been mentioned about starfire's attitude/feelings towards her parents?? didn't they essentially sell her into slavery? im surprised there's not a lot of specific animosity towards them, but i guess maybe because she more so sees komandr as a direct cause?
I talked about this just a little bit a couple weeks ago and I actually talked about this with @bludhavenbird pretty recently. I think about Kory and her family too much and my feelings about her parents are pretty complicated and how Kory feels about them in-universe is even more complicated.
originally, Kory was the eldest child and Kom didn't exist at all (The New Teen Titans (1980) #3) which puts a different spin on this whole situation. in this original continuity we see Kory being forced into slavery under the Citadel via the Gordanians as this was the agreement they came to with King Myand'r who wanted to broker a peace--Kory points out that while this saved the Tamaranean people and their planet, it also crushed their spirit to see their future ruler taken by the people that had (we later find out) been tormenting them for at least 100 years.
so, in this context, her parents did give her up to slavers. however, even in this version of events, Kory doesn't blame her parents and, instead, blames the circumstances they were under. her father, as king, is a king first and a father second (he's not a great ruler but he is a ruler) meaning that when it comes to the preservation of his people he must act in their best interests. and, in this case, the best interest of the Tamaranean people was to survive rather than be callously destroyed by those that deigned to rule over them. while the Tamaraneans are a warrior people, it is made clear by Kory that their technology and their might is no match for the Citadel who have higher technologies and more people at the ready.
in the panels directly above this one in NTT (1980) #3, Wally is indignant and asks Kory why her father didn't fight and Kory, defeated, tells him that he did fight. he fought for four long years and, in the end, knew that he couldn't save his planet through warfare. and, so, he gave up his only daughter. Kory holds no animosity toward her parents, even here, and saves all of that animosity, rage, and hurt for the people that forced her father's hand and subsequently abused and enslaved her.
this is the last we hear of Kory's past for a while so let's move on to the later retcons of her story and specifically the retcon from The Tales of the New Teen Titans #4.
this isn't Kom's first (or last) appearance (her first appearance is NTT (1980) #22) but it is one of her juiciest appearances because it's when we get the first retcon of Kory's background that really lays it all out. this issue comes out in September 1982, while NTT #22 comes out in August 1982, so they had to do a little bit of background and character building (I assume to gaslight all of us <3 thanks marv). so, Komand'r is added into Kory's backstory in 1982 and we get to see just how fucked up Kom has Kory.
so, from day 1, Kom hates Kory. the answer is super simple: she hates Kory because she sees Kory as taking her birthright (the Tamaranean throne) from her and does everything she can to torment her. she even kills her pet at some point. she sees Kory as having everything she can never have and that includes: the ability of flight, the Tamaranean throne, and the love of their parents who just can't seem to relate to a child who can't fly. preeeeettty fucked up.
(for reasons of brevity I'm skipping the Warlords of Okaara bit, just know that at some point, Kom just deserts Tamaran and disappears after almost killing Kory)
so, as Kory and Kom grow older, Kom decides to turn on the Tamarean people as a whole and ally with the Citadel. this is where Kory's original backstory comes through a little and we see that the Citadel has been raiding Tamaran for about 100 years at this point. they've been raiding the planet for all kinds of resources: food, building materials, and, most importantly, people. Kom knows this. She also knows that Tamaran's defense system (this time around) is good enough to mostly fend of attacks and Kory says that at some point the defenses were so good that the Citadel couldn't get through anymore.
well, guess what! Kom gives the Citadel everything they need to break through those defenses and hold the planet for ransom. however, Myand'r says the same exact thing this time around that he does the first time:
"So soon? I had hoped it would be longer."
the implication being he had always known the Citadel would come for one of his children (and then later we find out the Citadel had been taking royal women for a while) as a tithe of sorts.
so, even in this instance, she places the blame almost totally on Kom. and, we ask, why? because, again, Kory sees her father as not only her father but her king. she's raised her entire life to not only never question his authority but to expect that she might one day be the one having to make impossible decisions like: fight back or let the planet and people I love become nothing but ash.
these are some complicated questions and feelings.
we see these questions come up again in the second Tamaran arc (the juiciest and most soapy of the Tamaran arcs) when Kory's father just decides that the daughter he only got back like, idk, yesterday is going to be a pawn in Tamaranean politics and marry into a newer royal family:
The New Teen Titans (1984) #15
so, Kory is essentially being sold off again to broker Tamaran's peace. the first time was indirectly his fault--he didn't treat Kom as well as Kory, he made her feel unwanted, and he let the people of Tamaran spit on her (metaphorically) and make her into a scapegoat which in turn led to her turning on Tamaran, a place she had no allegiance to because it had no allegiance to her, and forced her father's hand when it came to Kory being offered up on a platter to the Citadel.
this time, though? this was 100% her dad's fault. like all the way. he's a bastard for this.
Dick, rightfully, points his rage toward Myand'r:
he places the blame squarely on Myand'r's shoulders--something Kory won't do for a lot of reasons--and condemns him for trying to do it again because he got his 1 bargaining chip back (bc Ryand'r is also like in the wind at this point so he can't marry Karras' little sister to bring them together as a planet and also Karras' little sister suffered Kory's exact fate but then turned it into like a career as a space pirate, anyway...)
now, in our next issue, NTT (1984) #16, Kory still has no animosity for her father and feels only that she must obey him:
Dick is voicing what both he and Kory want but Kory's obligation not only to her father, her king, but to the Tamaranean people outweighs her own desires in her mind. I really don't like how Dick talks to Kory here because he's absolutely refusing to understand the situation both he and her father are putting her in. Kory has a little bit of eldest daughter syndrome in these issues (this is coming from an eldest daughter) because she's doing any and everything she can to keep her family and her planet together in one piece to the total detriment of herself.
so, ultimately, she doesn't hold anger toward her parents and, particularly, her father because they're not just her parents. they're her rulers and she sees them as having done what they needed to do in order to survive. however, it doesn't make that decision any less heinous.
this also hugely ties into my last post about Kory’s character motivations being heavily tied to her need for love, family, and a home. regardless of how her father has treated her and how her mother has stood by and let him treat her, she still wants their love, approval, and a place with them as their daughter. this is part of the why of her actions and feelings in her Tamaran story arcs--it doesn’t matter that they’ve done her wrong, she wants to give them a second chance, she wants to give herself a second chance to be their daughter, and she’ll let them walk all over her in the name of having love, a family, a home on the planet she loved from afar for so long. it’s fucked up! but it’s an important part of her character especially when she grows beyond it and realizes that she has a family and a home with the Titans on Earth. character growth!
so sorry about all the starfire questions but!! has anything been mentioned about starfire's attitude/feelings towards her parents?? didn't they essentially sell her into slavery? im surprised there's not a lot of specific animosity towards them, but i guess maybe because she more so sees komandr as a direct cause?
I talked about this just a little bit a couple weeks ago and I actually talked about this with @bludhavenbird pretty recently. I think about Kory and her family too much and my feelings about her parents are pretty complicated and how Kory feels about them in-universe is even more complicated.
originally, Kory was the eldest child and Kom didn't exist at all (The New Teen Titans (1980) #3) which puts a different spin on this whole situation. in this original continuity we see Kory being forced into slavery under the Citadel via the Gordanians as this was the agreement they came to with King Myand'r who wanted to broker a peace--Kory points out that while this saved the Tamaranean people and their planet, it also crushed their spirit to see their future ruler taken by the people that had (we later find out) been tormenting them for at least 100 years.
so, in this context, her parents did give her up to slavers. however, even in this version of events, Kory doesn't blame her parents and, instead, blames the circumstances they were under. her father, as king, is a king first and a father second (he's not a great ruler but he is a ruler) meaning that when it comes to the preservation of his people he must act in their best interests. and, in this case, the best interest of the Tamaranean people was to survive rather than be callously destroyed by those that deigned to rule over them. while the Tamaraneans are a warrior people, it is made clear by Kory that their technology and their might is no match for the Citadel who have higher technologies and more people at the ready.
in the panels directly above this one in NTT (1980) #3, Wally is indignant and asks Kory why her father didn't fight and Kory, defeated, tells him that he did fight. he fought for four long years and, in the end, knew that he couldn't save his planet through warfare. and, so, he gave up his only daughter. Kory holds no animosity toward her parents, even here, and saves all of that animosity, rage, and hurt for the people that forced her father's hand and subsequently abused and enslaved her.
this is the last we hear of Kory's past for a while so let's move on to the later retcons of her story and specifically the retcon from The Tales of the New Teen Titans #4.
this isn't Kom's first (or last) appearance (her first appearance is NTT (1980) #22) but it is one of her juiciest appearances because it's when we get the first retcon of Kory's background that really lays it all out. this issue comes out in September 1982, while NTT #22 comes out in August 1982, so they had to do a little bit of background and character building (I assume to gaslight all of us <3 thanks marv). so, Komand'r is added into Kory's backstory in 1982 and we get to see just how fucked up Kom has Kory.
so, from day 1, Kom hates Kory. the answer is super simple: she hates Kory because she sees Kory as taking her birthright (the Tamaranean throne) from her and does everything she can to torment her. she even kills her pet at some point. she sees Kory as having everything she can never have and that includes: the ability of flight, the Tamaranean throne, and the love of their parents who just can't seem to relate to a child who can't fly. preeeeettty fucked up.
(for reasons of brevity I'm skipping the Warlords of Okaara bit, just know that at some point, Kom just deserts Tamaran and disappears after almost killing Kory)
so, as Kory and Kom grow older, Kom decides to turn on the Tamarean people as a whole and ally with the Citadel. this is where Kory's original backstory comes through a little and we see that the Citadel has been raiding Tamaran for about 100 years at this point. they've been raiding the planet for all kinds of resources: food, building materials, and, most importantly, people. Kom knows this. She also knows that Tamaran's defense system (this time around) is good enough to mostly fend of attacks and Kory says that at some point the defenses were so good that the Citadel couldn't get through anymore.
well, guess what! Kom gives the Citadel everything they need to break through those defenses and hold the planet for ransom. however, Myand'r says the same exact thing this time around that he does the first time:
"So soon? I had hoped it would be longer."
the implication being he had always known the Citadel would come for one of his children (and then later we find out the Citadel had been taking royal women for a while) as a tithe of sorts.
so, even in this instance, she places the blame almost totally on Kom. and, we ask, why? because, again, Kory sees her father as not only her father but her king. she's raised her entire life to not only never question his authority but to expect that she might one day be the one having to make impossible decisions like: fight back or let the planet and people I love become nothing but ash.
these are some complicated questions and feelings.
we see these questions come up again in the second Tamaran arc (the juiciest and most soapy of the Tamaran arcs) when Kory's father just decides that the daughter he only got back like, idk, yesterday is going to be a pawn in Tamaranean politics and marry into a newer royal family:
The New Teen Titans (1984) #15
so, Kory is essentially being sold off again to broker Tamaran's peace. the first time was indirectly his fault--he didn't treat Kom as well as Kory, he made her feel unwanted, and he let the people of Tamaran spit on her (metaphorically) and make her into a scapegoat which in turn led to her turning on Tamaran, a place she had no allegiance to because it had no allegiance to her, and forced her father's hand when it came to Kory being offered up on a platter to the Citadel.
this time, though? this was 100% her dad's fault. like all the way. he's a bastard for this.
Dick, rightfully, points his rage toward Myand'r:
he places the blame squarely on Myand'r's shoulders--something Kory won't do for a lot of reasons--and condemns him for trying to do it again because he got his 1 bargaining chip back (bc Ryand'r is also like in the wind at this point so he can't marry Karras' little sister to bring them together as a planet and also Karras' little sister suffered Kory's exact fate but then turned it into like a career as a space pirate, anyway...)
now, in our next issue, NTT (1984) #16, Kory still has no animosity for her father and feels only that she must obey him:
Dick is voicing what both he and Kory want but Kory's obligation not only to her father, her king, but to the Tamaranean people outweighs her own desires in her mind. I really don't like how Dick talks to Kory here because he's absolutely refusing to understand the situation both he and her father are putting her in. Kory has a little bit of eldest daughter syndrome in these issues (this is coming from an eldest daughter) because she's doing any and everything she can to keep her family and her planet together in one piece at the total detriment of herself.
so, ultimately, she doesn't hold anger toward her parents and, particularly, her father because they're not just her parents. they're her rulers and she sees them as having done what they needed to do in order to survive. however, it doesn't make that decision any less heinous.
What do you think is something that Kory really wants for herself or her life? She reminds of this wandering star right now with no set place for herself and I wonder what that it would be if like a solo for her ever happened again
something that's always motivated Kory is the desire to belong to not only herself but a family, which is the biggest motivator for initial settlement on Earth and with the Titans, and I think that part of her is always going to be core to her motivations and desires as a character.
there are three things Kory wants more than anything: to belong to her people, belong to herself, and ensure that no one suffers like she did. the common denominator in these is: love. Kory loves others, wants love for herself, and that love motivates her to protect those who cannot protect themselves. ultimately, Kory is all about love and that's an important part of her motivations and the desires that come out of them.
Vic said it better than anyone could, as long as Kory is loved, she's home:
but you're also right, Kory has always been a little bit of a wandering star and she's said very explicitly in the past that she doesn't quite feel like she belongs anywhere:
if I was writing a solo for her, I would probably pick up during one of the times she's taken a sort of sabbatical off world to find herself and end it with her finding her home in her loved ones again (because I'm corny). this has always been her character arc: feeling like an outsider, making journey, finding a home, and being loved while giving love in return. that's literally the core of her character and it would be nice to see it written in a way that's just as satisfying as it was in NTT if not more satisfying because I think this kind of story arc needs to be written with more nuance than a ham fisted "i don't belong anywhere"
Do you have a Mar'i reading list of sorts? I'm thinking of getting to know here and I wanna know from someone who looks like they know what they're talking about
So some of my favorites are:
Kingdom Come #1-4
The Kingdom Come novelization
The Kingdom: Nightstar (this is where you get solid characterization and not just one liners or details about her)
The Kingdom: Son of the Bat
The Kingdom: Planet Krypton (this one is fun because there’s ghosts)
Titans (1999) #23-25 (the most fun because Mar’i meets New Earth Dick but also the least fun bc Mar’i doesn’t meet New Earth Kory and that’s a tragedy)
Let’s talk about Kory’s name (as inspired by…I Am Not Starfire) and what I know about Tamaranean naming conventions (there isn’t much lmao)
Kory’s name itself means ‘optimism of tomorrows’ (no, her name doesn’t translate to Starfire):
[The Tales of the New Teen Titans #4]
She was born “at dawn, the hour of innocence” and was named as such–this might imply that Tamaranean naming conventions have something to do with the circumstances under which someone is born but that’s just conjecture on my part. Now, Myand’r was the one to announce her name and may have been the one to give Kory her name–but his name is also super interesting.
Starfire vs. Batgirl: The Rivalry That Never Existed
Most of us are familiar with the treatment of female characters in both comics as a medium and in the fandom that surround them. From situations as shallow as existing solely to create a vortex of romantic drama to recurring phenomena as serious as fridging, it’s clear to an audience with critical analysis skills that comics aren’t necessarily the friendliest medium for women to exist in and that tends to extend to comics fandom as a whole.
This is especially true when it comes to the now decades old question of who’s better: Kory or Babs?
You can find mile long threads dedicated to picking apart this argument anywhere on the internet. On ComicVine, LiveJournal forums, DeviantArt, CBR, Twitter, Tumblr, and even on podcasts—just search their names together and you have a near endless list of thousands of options to choose from. Want someone to tell you Babs is smarter, not a slut like Kory, and is the best option for Dick? Look no further than the first results page on google. Want someone to tell you that Kory is prettier than Babs and is therefore a better match for Dick Grayson? Look a couple search result pages in and you’ll find it.
My point is: it’s easy to find hatred pointed at either character on the basis that the other is superior.
And I’m sure at this point you’re looking at your screen wondering ‘why the hell does it matter?’ or maybe you’re wondering ‘what’s she even talking about?’ but I’m really hoping that, instead, you’re asking yourself why people do this and if there’s a basis for any of it (there isn’t).
This kind of behavior—pitting two characters against each other on the basis of a shared past romantic partner—is predicated on sexism and a misunderstanding of both character histories. Neither Kory nor Babs have been solely defined by their relationship to Dick Grayson and, yet, in fandom, it seems that their respective relationships to Dick is what does define them. I want to examine both their character histories, actual interactions between the two of them, and their relationship to Dick Grayson as a point of contention in fandom.
Let’s take a look at the actual interactions between Kory and Babs that may or may not have fed into this behavior.
Starfire vs. Batgirl: The Rivalry That Never Existed
Most of us are familiar with the treatment of female characters in both comics as a medium and in the fandom that surround them. From situations as shallow as existing solely to create a vortex of romantic drama to recurring phenomena as serious as fridging, it’s clear to an audience with critical analysis skills that comics aren’t necessarily the friendliest medium for women to exist in and that tends to extend to comics fandom as a whole.
This is especially true when it comes to the now decades old question of who’s better: Kory or Babs?
You can find mile long threads dedicated to picking apart this argument anywhere on the internet. On ComicVine, LiveJournal forums, DeviantArt, CBR, Twitter, Tumblr, and even on podcasts—just search their names together and you have a near endless list of thousands of options to choose from. Want someone to tell you Babs is smarter, not a slut like Kory, and is the best option for Dick? Look no further than the first results page on google. Want someone to tell you that Kory is prettier than Babs and is therefore a better match for Dick Grayson? Look a couple search result pages in and you’ll find it.
My point is: it’s easy to find hatred pointed at either character on the basis that the other is superior.
And I’m sure at this point you’re looking at your screen wondering ‘why the hell does it matter?’ or maybe you’re wondering ‘what’s she even talking about?’ but I’m really hoping that, instead, you’re asking yourself why people do this and if there’s a basis for any of it (there isn’t).
This kind of behavior—pitting two characters against each other on the basis of a shared past romantic partner—is predicated on sexism and a misunderstanding of both character histories. Neither Kory nor Babs have been solely defined by their relationship to Dick Grayson and, yet, in fandom, it seems that their respective relationships to Dick is what does define them. I want to examine both their character histories, actual interactions between the two of them, and their relationship to Dick Grayson as a point of contention in fandom.
Let’s take a look at the actual interactions between Kory and Babs that may or may not have fed into this behavior.
can we stop pretending Mar’i Grayson is perfect? she’s more like her dad than her mom and yeah she can be nice and sweet but she’s also angry, grieving, flirty, and more than willing to kill her own father when she finally breaks
Let’s talk about Kory’s name (as inspired by…I Am Not Starfire) and what I know about Tamaranean naming conventions (there isn’t much lmao)
Kory’s name itself means ‘optimism of tomorrows’ (no, her name doesn’t translate to Starfire):
[The Tales of the New Teen Titans #4]
She was born “at dawn, the hour of innocence” and was named as such–this might imply that Tamaranean naming conventions have something to do with the circumstances under which someone is born but that’s just conjecture on my part. Now, Myand’r was the one to announce her name and may have been the one to give Kory her name–but his name is also super interesting.
Keep reading
the golden girl. @housetykayl - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
