Mind sharing your thoughts on the grooming subtext in subtext of child sidekicks/hero?
i will probably come back to this for a more coherent and educated answer but. well one i’m a big fan of stories about the gritty reality of being an abused child. and how that warps and changes and shifts a lot of your reality as an adult. because it’s a really uniquely fucked up thing to have happen to you and then you’re just expected to never talk about it ever. and like i said two i ADORE superhero stories they’re all i wanted to write growing up.
and so the metaphor here is really quite one to one. think of what it is to be a sidekick. you are a young child, often abused, your parents almost always dead. you are taken in by an older mentor figure, who tells you they have a secret. this is a secret you can’t tell to any other adults in your life or they will take you away from your mentor. it’s a secret only the two of you share, at night, and you do things kids normally aren’t allowed to do — but it’s okay, because in those moments you aren’t a kid. you’re mature. you’re capable.
you’re a peer and equal to your mentor, they can trust you with hard things, you’re so grown up. you were chosen for this because you’re different and special. and you go to school during the day knowing that no one there can ever know the truth about your relationship with your mentor. but that puts a divide between you and the rest of the world. so in the end, the only person who can ever REALLY understand you is your mentor, which makes the bond all that much stronger. your sense of personhood — your sense of autonomy — are all tied up in this relationship.
like. the grooming subtext writes itself !!!!!
that’s all without getting into the canon comics of it all — the weird bits where batman has robin crossdress, where heroes and their sidekicks shower together, sleep in the same bed, say they love each other more than their romantic partners, etc.
i also think the power dynamics at play here are fascinating and a great way to tell stories that i think are compelling. and ask a lot of questions i care deeply about exploring, in terms of Ways to be a victim of abuse and specifically being a Bad Victim.
what if your mentor never actually TOUCHED you, but he just made you feel unsafe? what if he let other people touch you, put you into situations where he knew that was a possibility? what if he only ever did it for the sake of the mission? for the greater good? what if he had to strip you because you were hurt? what if he had to drug you or you wouldn’t listen? what if he only puts trackers on your belongings because he’s worried? what if he does it because he cares? what if he only did it because he was under the influence of something else? if one or both of you was mind controlled, sex pollened, kidnapped, etc — was there a way out? did he work on finding one before he fucked you?
what if your abuser was the most powerful man in the whole world? an abuser feels like a god, like he’s unbeatable; what if he really was? what if the only people capable of punishing your abuser were his best friends and colleagues? what if he was a good man? what if putting your abuser in prison meant that all the people he was helping would die?
what if you liked it? what if it made you feel special? what if you asked for it, begged for it, wanted so badly to have that special place by his side? what if your name, your identity, have become so synonymous with his that the world can’t imagine you separate? what if he controlled your access to your house, your job, and your loved ones? what if he told you he really loved you? what if you told yourself you loved him?
what are you supposed to do, at the end of the day, if you leave, and another kid shows up wearing your costume?
when I was a kid I wished I had nosebleeds. I had some friends who had them and I was like. that looks so fucking cool. you're just sitting there and suddenly you're covered in blood. it looks so dramatic. it looks so... and here my language failed me. at such a humble age I did not have the vocabulary to describe the sublime. I just sat in incomprehensible jealousy. I turned out totally normal by the way
Had an abortion and the planned parenthood staff brought out a sombrero and a fried ice cream w a sparkler in it and sang a song about how I shouldn’t feel bad because the baby was ugly
romaincrisis
yousharknotpass
turnnoffyourmind
