Fencer's Plot Bunnies
Skitter in DC one shot
Fencer
Writer
- Location
- 2nd shift
- Pronouns
- He/Him
AN: Still toying with Taylor in DC ideas. This was the shortest I've come up with. It's got one shot energy. Just nowhere to go with it from here. Just something I knocked out in an hour or two after work while my brain was spinning its wheels. I've been poking it with a stick for weeks hoping it would spawn more words but it hasn't. I feel like I should give DC villains more credit but Gotham rogues only survive on plot armor in the first place. Plus I keep making Taylor more murderous when I try these. I wan't more murderous Taylor we don't get enough of that. She was really into measured responses in canon but I just can't bring myself to treat Gotham like it deserves that much consideration, at least not for something this short.
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It started with a phone call.
Arkham Asylum made lots of calls to the police department. For breakouts, for riot suppression, for asking why a man dressed as a bat felt qualified to determine the mental health of the people he beat into the pavement before dropping them off on their doorstep.
This time the call was for them to send a coroner to confirm deaths and identities of two prisoners that didn't survive the night.
The police descended on the possible crime scene performed their investigation, and made their reports.
By nightfall all of Gothem whispered hushed rumors of who had died in the asylum. They prayed it was true, they refused to believe for fear of another trick, they declared it must be some other inmates that died and rumors had only spiraled as they always do.
The bats and birds flew through the night, on grappling cables and cloaks and impossibly light feet. They descended on the crime scene, and the police commissioner, and the streets, hunting for answers and leeds and truth. They found nothing but the inflamed throats of the victims.
DNA, dental, and fingerprints all came back a match. Word got out and the city breathed a sigh of relief because those two deaths in a city where death is a near constant meant safety for everyone else. Those deaths meant part of the nightmare was officially over. They meant fragile hope.
The city did not celebrate. They raised glasses, and muttered prayers, but they did not celebrate because it is Gotham and the people know better than to trust a good thing until it's been proven as such, and not the prelude to some new horror. Not knowing who and how and why they still feared the next hit.
It progressed with a video. Uploaded from a stolen device, in a camera free part of town and the device later abandoned free of fingerprints or DNA.
The video was of a girl in an insect themed outfit of dark gray with yellow lenses speaking clearly into the camera, the backdrop for the recording was an abandoned warehouse.
"I'll try to keep this short and simple. Batman and all his bat's and birds presumably took up the vigilante gig because they decided the police just were not enough. And that's fair, the cops are pretty damn useless here. I've put on a mask for a similar reason. The bats and birds aren't enough.
"Don't get me wrong, I respect them all, but it's clear that half measures just lead to more deaths. I was born and raised in Gotham. I know I need to make myself clear or else no one will understand what I'm doing. You'll all just assume the worst. So this is me laying down my lines. Cross them at your own risk.
"If I catch a human trafficker, they die. If I catch someone trying to gas the city, or poison the water supply, or something similar, they die. If I catch a rapist or pedophile they die. If you murder or torture people for kicks? You die. And most important of all, if the Bat, or the cops have thrown your ass in Arkham or Blackgate you damn well better stay there until you are lawfully released or I will find you.
"Joker and Scarecrow were my proof. Stay in your place, take your fucking meds, and stop treating all of us like toys you can knock over and abuse in your game with the Bats. On behalf of the city, we've had more than enough of your bullshit. And unlike the Bat I'm more than willing to meet you on your own level if it means people can stop carrying emergency gas masks with them for a trip to the grocery store.
"Those are my lines, respect them or have an up to date will."
The video spread like wildfire. Most scoffed and assumed it was fake, or a flash in the pan soon to be locked up, some hoped it might last a few months.
Gotham City Police department started receiving anonymous tips, made by burner phones, sometimes they rolled up to find corpses of traffickers and sometimes they found active drug labs with everyone inside restrained or run off. And as word spread that the new mask was keeping to their rules, hope started to grow.
The bats scoured the city hunting for leads that seemed to not exist. The striking costume from the video was nowhere to be seen and this new vigilante held no pattern they could discern. Popping up at random all across the city. And why would they have any luck when the girl behind the mask could act without being physically present.
The inmates at Arkham were nervous, but not convinced. Two Face, after some prompting, bet on a coin toss.
The bats did not find him in time. And the inmates started to fear. Mr Freeze and Bane joined forces and broke out. The bats found Freeze first, but not Bane. Two days later, Freeze failed to wake up in his cell. The suit keeping him alive was damaged while he slept.
People started to believe, inmates at Arkham started to believe. And the people in Blackgate almost unanimously decided that a mass breakout might make it harder for the latest masked freak to find them, but it wasn't worth the risk because she'd likely find at least some of them and no one wanted to risk dying like that.
Well off criminals started to invest in bug proofing and pesticides. Those measures were either of only middling effectiveness and thus a waste of money, or fully effective which just made it more obvious they needed to be investigated. The police saw a spike in anonymous tips.
The bats and birds searched in vain. The police continued to receive anonymous calls. People started to accept the new normal.
Riddler lasted six months before he decided he just couldn't take it any longer and broke out. He died on camera, choking to death on bugs.
Crime rates continued to drop. Red Hood was insufferably smug and cheery about that fact.
Oracle's custom built search algorithm took eight months to acquire a tentative ID. Taylor Hebert age seventeen. Orphaned about a month before Joker and Scarecrow were murdered. Ran away from her foster home a week after being placed. Presumably she had been surviving on the streets for nearly a year now, all while giving everyone the run around by simple virtue of keeping her head down, avoiding cameras, and not doing anything dangerous in person. It was almost insulting how effective those methods proved to be.
Barbra Gordon drummed her fingers on the wheel of her chair before deleting her findings and arranging for a fruit basket to be delivered to the hotel room she tracked Taylor too. The girl was amazing untrained, she'd be an absolute horror with training. But that was for the future. For now Barbra just wanted Taylor to know she was appreciated, and give the younger girl a way to get in touch.
{}{}{}{}
It started with a phone call.
Arkham Asylum made lots of calls to the police department. For breakouts, for riot suppression, for asking why a man dressed as a bat felt qualified to determine the mental health of the people he beat into the pavement before dropping them off on their doorstep.
This time the call was for them to send a coroner to confirm deaths and identities of two prisoners that didn't survive the night.
The police descended on the possible crime scene performed their investigation, and made their reports.
By nightfall all of Gothem whispered hushed rumors of who had died in the asylum. They prayed it was true, they refused to believe for fear of another trick, they declared it must be some other inmates that died and rumors had only spiraled as they always do.
The bats and birds flew through the night, on grappling cables and cloaks and impossibly light feet. They descended on the crime scene, and the police commissioner, and the streets, hunting for answers and leeds and truth. They found nothing but the inflamed throats of the victims.
DNA, dental, and fingerprints all came back a match. Word got out and the city breathed a sigh of relief because those two deaths in a city where death is a near constant meant safety for everyone else. Those deaths meant part of the nightmare was officially over. They meant fragile hope.
The city did not celebrate. They raised glasses, and muttered prayers, but they did not celebrate because it is Gotham and the people know better than to trust a good thing until it's been proven as such, and not the prelude to some new horror. Not knowing who and how and why they still feared the next hit.
It progressed with a video. Uploaded from a stolen device, in a camera free part of town and the device later abandoned free of fingerprints or DNA.
The video was of a girl in an insect themed outfit of dark gray with yellow lenses speaking clearly into the camera, the backdrop for the recording was an abandoned warehouse.
"I'll try to keep this short and simple. Batman and all his bat's and birds presumably took up the vigilante gig because they decided the police just were not enough. And that's fair, the cops are pretty damn useless here. I've put on a mask for a similar reason. The bats and birds aren't enough.
"Don't get me wrong, I respect them all, but it's clear that half measures just lead to more deaths. I was born and raised in Gotham. I know I need to make myself clear or else no one will understand what I'm doing. You'll all just assume the worst. So this is me laying down my lines. Cross them at your own risk.
"If I catch a human trafficker, they die. If I catch someone trying to gas the city, or poison the water supply, or something similar, they die. If I catch a rapist or pedophile they die. If you murder or torture people for kicks? You die. And most important of all, if the Bat, or the cops have thrown your ass in Arkham or Blackgate you damn well better stay there until you are lawfully released or I will find you.
"Joker and Scarecrow were my proof. Stay in your place, take your fucking meds, and stop treating all of us like toys you can knock over and abuse in your game with the Bats. On behalf of the city, we've had more than enough of your bullshit. And unlike the Bat I'm more than willing to meet you on your own level if it means people can stop carrying emergency gas masks with them for a trip to the grocery store.
"Those are my lines, respect them or have an up to date will."
The video spread like wildfire. Most scoffed and assumed it was fake, or a flash in the pan soon to be locked up, some hoped it might last a few months.
Gotham City Police department started receiving anonymous tips, made by burner phones, sometimes they rolled up to find corpses of traffickers and sometimes they found active drug labs with everyone inside restrained or run off. And as word spread that the new mask was keeping to their rules, hope started to grow.
The bats scoured the city hunting for leads that seemed to not exist. The striking costume from the video was nowhere to be seen and this new vigilante held no pattern they could discern. Popping up at random all across the city. And why would they have any luck when the girl behind the mask could act without being physically present.
The inmates at Arkham were nervous, but not convinced. Two Face, after some prompting, bet on a coin toss.
The bats did not find him in time. And the inmates started to fear. Mr Freeze and Bane joined forces and broke out. The bats found Freeze first, but not Bane. Two days later, Freeze failed to wake up in his cell. The suit keeping him alive was damaged while he slept.
People started to believe, inmates at Arkham started to believe. And the people in Blackgate almost unanimously decided that a mass breakout might make it harder for the latest masked freak to find them, but it wasn't worth the risk because she'd likely find at least some of them and no one wanted to risk dying like that.
Well off criminals started to invest in bug proofing and pesticides. Those measures were either of only middling effectiveness and thus a waste of money, or fully effective which just made it more obvious they needed to be investigated. The police saw a spike in anonymous tips.
The bats and birds searched in vain. The police continued to receive anonymous calls. People started to accept the new normal.
Riddler lasted six months before he decided he just couldn't take it any longer and broke out. He died on camera, choking to death on bugs.
Crime rates continued to drop. Red Hood was insufferably smug and cheery about that fact.
Oracle's custom built search algorithm took eight months to acquire a tentative ID. Taylor Hebert age seventeen. Orphaned about a month before Joker and Scarecrow were murdered. Ran away from her foster home a week after being placed. Presumably she had been surviving on the streets for nearly a year now, all while giving everyone the run around by simple virtue of keeping her head down, avoiding cameras, and not doing anything dangerous in person. It was almost insulting how effective those methods proved to be.
Barbra Gordon drummed her fingers on the wheel of her chair before deleting her findings and arranging for a fruit basket to be delivered to the hotel room she tracked Taylor too. The girl was amazing untrained, she'd be an absolute horror with training. But that was for the future. For now Barbra just wanted Taylor to know she was appreciated, and give the younger girl a way to get in touch.
verycoolname
Not actually cool
Nice little one shot. I can see why you didn't flesh it out, but it was still pretty slick.
Though, if your muse isn't cooperating with making a Taylor in DC fic, why not consider a Taylor in Marvel instead? I can't help but imagine how amusing it would be to see a murderous Taylor working with the likes of Punisher or Deadpool, and there are all sorts of interesting villains for her to fight in New York. Not to mention the reactions to another creepy crawly themed hero in the Big Apple.
Though, if your muse isn't cooperating with making a Taylor in DC fic, why not consider a Taylor in Marvel instead? I can't help but imagine how amusing it would be to see a murderous Taylor working with the likes of Punisher or Deadpool, and there are all sorts of interesting villains for her to fight in New York. Not to mention the reactions to another creepy crawly themed hero in the Big Apple.
Batman would not be amused when Taylor permanently takes out Gotham's criminals with her swarm of bugs. That guy is a very strict adherent to Thou Shall Not Kill to ridiculous levels and intended to take her down for doing that.
- Location
- Europe
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Taylor "If-your-balls-aren't-in-the-Asylum-the-cops-won't-find-'em" Hebert.
Amazing short and yeah, it really feels like this is the slow and thought out response she might turn to considering what actually plagues Gotham.
Question, though: What happens to those who have been eating Gothams wealth for decades now? I wonder how Taylor would react to the court's existence.
My personal take is that they are a particular type of opponent she wouldn't strike because this genuinely might be a bit too hot for her. Could it be that moving against them might get her to seer support with the birds and the bats?
Taylor "If-your-balls-aren't-in-the-Asylum-the-cops-won't-find-'em" Hebert.
Amazing short and yeah, it really feels like this is the slow and thought out response she might turn to considering what actually plagues Gotham.
Question, though: What happens to those who have been eating Gothams wealth for decades now? I wonder how Taylor would react to the court's existence.
My personal take is that they are a particular type of opponent she wouldn't strike because this genuinely might be a bit too hot for her. Could it be that moving against them might get her to seer support with the birds and the bats?
- Location
- Elsewhere
Takes one to know one?
That's something the Superhero genre sort of glosses over.
The difference between a Supervillain and a criminal is that the Supervillain puts on a costume, makes public appearances, and goes around introducing themselves.
Why they do this is often ambiguous.
The Doyalist reason is that most Superheros aren't competent enough to catch criminals without brightly colored costumes marking them out.
- Location
- United States
While the idea wouldn't grow past a one shot for you, it did in One Hell of an Afternoon.
"Ms. Quinn, I feel the need to send a message to the scum of this city. You are my chosen messenger."
"What am I, chopped liver?"
Puddin' had slipped out of the fake hand and chucked one of his sharpened playing cards at the woman's back. That she didn't even turn around before catching it out of the air and throwing it back to pin his free arm to the table was distressing but something like what I'd seen the Bat do often enough that I wasn't worried. It really should have been.
"No. You are the message."
And just like that waves of insects poured out of the darkness, covering that beautiful man for the last time and starting to eat. Still though, I heard him laugh throughout it all. He was always so brave. I tried to turn away only to have a grip like iron grab my face and force me to watch. Insects fell to the ground dead after only a few moments, but still they came on and before my eyes the love of my life was…. eaten down to the bone.
I didn't remember when I started to weep, but I nearly choked on my gag before the end. When all that was left of the man who had brought fun and laughter into my life was his bones. And when it was done, she forced me to face her with that healing skin and one good eye.
"I have one rule, Quinn. Just one. No Children. Do you understand me?"
The grip shook me hard, forced me to pay attention to something other than the grief that threatened to drown me. The physical sensation reached me through the haze of pain and helplessness.
"Tell the rest of the scum. No kids. You so much as see a school, you cross the damn street. You get me. Quinn?"
"What am I, chopped liver?"
Puddin' had slipped out of the fake hand and chucked one of his sharpened playing cards at the woman's back. That she didn't even turn around before catching it out of the air and throwing it back to pin his free arm to the table was distressing but something like what I'd seen the Bat do often enough that I wasn't worried. It really should have been.
"No. You are the message."
And just like that waves of insects poured out of the darkness, covering that beautiful man for the last time and starting to eat. Still though, I heard him laugh throughout it all. He was always so brave. I tried to turn away only to have a grip like iron grab my face and force me to watch. Insects fell to the ground dead after only a few moments, but still they came on and before my eyes the love of my life was…. eaten down to the bone.
I didn't remember when I started to weep, but I nearly choked on my gag before the end. When all that was left of the man who had brought fun and laughter into my life was his bones. And when it was done, she forced me to face her with that healing skin and one good eye.
"I have one rule, Quinn. Just one. No Children. Do you understand me?"
The grip shook me hard, forced me to pay attention to something other than the grief that threatened to drown me. The physical sensation reached me through the haze of pain and helplessness.
"Tell the rest of the scum. No kids. You so much as see a school, you cross the damn street. You get me. Quinn?"
If that was a baby Skitter what would the more experienced one be like?
- Location
- Livin' in the Land of the LOST! *roar*
Baby Skitter is three or four threadmarks back. This is more experienced Skitter.
Taylor has done pretty well for herself and has murked some pretty horrible people. She is in early days of being a vigilante but is no longer chibi Taylor.
Fencer
Writer
- Location
- 2nd shift
- Pronouns
- He/Him
This question sat in the back of my mind like a sore tooth but I think I have an answer now, though it's a bit involved.
First and most obvious I grew up with a lot more DC than Marvel. The justice league cartoons, a bit of batman beyond, probably some actual batman cartoons on a couple occasions, the teen titan's later. By contrast my only marvel exposure before disney bought the rights was one of the x men cartoons. And while those disney movies are good they don't actually get my muse fired up.
Next marvel's big ticket issues seems to usually boil down to accountability and oversight for the avengers and then for x men it's either join the guy who survived the concentration camps and now has decided extermination of non mutants is somehow ok… or the group that's as married to the no kill rule as batman… or wolverine who just sort of exists with the batman group but they don't throw a fit all the time about him. Again not super familiar, but the fact they use those two extremes as the go to mentalities sort of poison's the well a little though introducing more measured responses could be a lot of fun.
DC by contrast or at least the batman comics has been almost hyper focused on the debate of where the moral lines should lie and that is my jam. I love that debate.
Finally it's a matter of power levels. Most of DC? Stupid overpowered go away leave me be, and honestly a lot of Marvel's the same.
But Gothem? It's just chock full street level threats and some of them deserve to die and some of them don't. And it comes with a whole clan of vigilantes that fall all over that moral spectrum to play against.
Taylor and Gotham fit like a glove.
If I wanted to do a marvel fic… I'd probably stay the heck away from the avengers. X-men is probably the way to go but the power levels…. Ye tiny lovecraftian monstrosities. The power levels and abilities are broken. Seriously, if Proffesor x set aside his morals to do anything pragmatic at all he could derail just about every plot line I know about by simple virtue of breaking out the jedi mind trick treatment and telling the government "no you really do not want to persecute us because we have powers." Or just telling all magneto's followers they want to take up a quiet life as farmers. The pheonix force is a thing. And I'm fairly certain some version of gambit was either some kind of god or the embodiment of a star or something. That bit from a wiki stood out when I went skimming once.
I could make it work. Either by toning everyone's powers down or by allowing Taylor's power to develop further. But I don't know the characters or the setting well enough to make that leap. I barely know the bat clan well enough to write them and that's only if they aren't the pov.
To write a marvel cross… I'd probably have to binge the all the x-men content on disney then dive into fanfics for a few weeks to further flesh out the cast and then I'd still be depending on my muse to latch onto some plot line in particular. And again I'd have to do something about those power levels.
- Location
- Elsewhere
I'd say the issue is that Marvel is too close to Worm tone-wise.
It's common for Marvel to say "we won this fight, but we're fucked anyway because people suck."
Taylor in DC has a contrast between the ideals and the way she interacts with them.
Marvel would just live down to her expectations.
"I had to murder them all."
"Yup. You did. We're going to hate you anyway."
It's common for Marvel to say "we won this fight, but we're fucked anyway because people suck."
Taylor in DC has a contrast between the ideals and the way she interacts with them.
Marvel would just live down to her expectations.
"I had to murder them all."
"Yup. You did. We're going to hate you anyway."
Shame. I can just imagine Taylor in Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes where she'd be one of the founding members who took down Graviton and get along with Janet (to go out shopping and have fun) and Hank Pym (when it comes to insects they respectively command over).
Windborne
Devourer of Stories
- Location
- Oregon
I can see Taylor doing well in Marvel if you kept her at street level, like Spider-Man going against regular crime, but not most of his villains, or Daredevil. They aren't fighting against high level foes like Galactus or Thanos most of the time. Basically doing the Friendly Neighborhood part of Spider-Man's title. That being said yeah Gotham is absolutely a perfect fit for Taylor, the worst she'd be going against is the likes of Scarecrow or Joker. Professor Pyg or opponents like him are where Taylor can really shine. Everywhere else in DC would likely be way out of her league, at least by herself.
Fencer
Writer
- Location
- 2nd shift
- Pronouns
- He/Him
In laying out why I haven't done a skitter in Marvel fic I now feel as if the universe has thrown down the gauntlet and challenged me to write one.
So, first of all, fuck the universe, it's a dick. And my brain for interpreting that as a challenge I suppose. Second, I am rapidly finding that good x-men crossovers… may not exist? Or at least not ones that cross with fandoms I know? Like, how is it the best I can remember are two middling quality HP crossovers, one that tried way to hard to be dark, and one that boiled down to fem harry running a new age shop that sells meditation stuff and scented candles. No wait, there was also a cracky naruto crossover where the author just declared Naruto recreated a lot of mutant powers with chakra and then naruto styled all over everyone. Amusing, but not exactly high quality. Truly power creep is the enemy to good story telling.
So, first of all, fuck the universe, it's a dick. And my brain for interpreting that as a challenge I suppose. Second, I am rapidly finding that good x-men crossovers… may not exist? Or at least not ones that cross with fandoms I know? Like, how is it the best I can remember are two middling quality HP crossovers, one that tried way to hard to be dark, and one that boiled down to fem harry running a new age shop that sells meditation stuff and scented candles. No wait, there was also a cracky naruto crossover where the author just declared Naruto recreated a lot of mutant powers with chakra and then naruto styled all over everyone. Amusing, but not exactly high quality. Truly power creep is the enemy to good story telling.
- Location
- United States
Not a crossover, but this is an amazing Xman SI fic.
Pound the Table | An X-Men Self-Insert Users' Choice!
"If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither the facts nor the law, pound the table." Mutant law was an emergent field, more or less the wild west of the legal profession, and on a good day, you're lucky if the law...
forums.sufficientvelocity.com
Not sure if you know the Buffy fandom but this an a wonderful old fic of Xander getting the memories of Magneto shoved in his head and how that would change his life.
Echos of the Fallen
There are other good xmen fics I'm trying to remember, but these are the ones I remembered the names of right away.
For a very long time, one of the main differences between Marvel and DC was that they come at the heroes from different directions. It's become less and less obvious since everybody and their brother started shifting things darker and grittier, but it's still there, somewhat.
DC has the heroes you can look up to. They are the pinnacle of humanity, people of exceptional character. Unbreakable wills, iron clad morals, endless resolve. People look up to them as the ideal to be reached.
Marvel, on the other hand, focused on heroes you can relate to. People with flaws, who could do great things despite those flaws, or in spite of them. Heroes struggling with alcoholism, depression, breath-taking anger management problems and a host of other things form the basis of entire story lines. People see them overcome their personal demons and are inspired to do the same.
DC has the heroes you can look up to. They are the pinnacle of humanity, people of exceptional character. Unbreakable wills, iron clad morals, endless resolve. People look up to them as the ideal to be reached.
Marvel, on the other hand, focused on heroes you can relate to. People with flaws, who could do great things despite those flaws, or in spite of them. Heroes struggling with alcoholism, depression, breath-taking anger management problems and a host of other things form the basis of entire story lines. People see them overcome their personal demons and are inspired to do the same.
- Location
- United States
DC are fantasy heros recorded in legend, glorious and perfect in every way. Marvel are the heros we have in the real world, they look wonderful in the moment but 20 years from now it will leak that they did drugs or beat their wife.
verycoolname
Not actually cool
Part of me is sorry I did that to you, but I love the answer you came up with.
I agree. Now that I think of it, DC was a bigger part of my childhood as well and Marvel just wouldn't feel right. And the more I think about it, DC would just be a better place for Skitter for a lot of reasons.
So yeah, I can see why you are so invested in making stories about Taylor in Gotham. I can see why you are having trouble as well, although the one shots and snippets you've come up with have been amazing.
Maybe you need to give Taylor something else that may or not hinder or motivate her killing spree? Some kind of Undersiders equivalent to complicate her relationship with Gotham's criminal underworld. I dunno, like growing up with Aunt Harleen being her favorite aunt and wondering why her parents suddenly stopped talking about her and finding out about Harley Quinn a couple years later. Or maybe running into Jason Todd just as he starts his career as Red Hood. Or maybe maybe a vagrant Taylor gets her life saved by Killer Croc or someone like that.
I can't see inside your head, but something to make things more complicated than just 'Taylor kills a bunch of Gotham's worst villains because she thinks it's the only way to save Gotham.' might help germinate a longer story.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I would kinda love to see that Taylor's reaction to those villains just showing back up after she killed them. Like some of the fanon about how Gotham won't allow the villains to die because hellmouth or whatever so the villains die by bugs and just come right on back out of hell.
"Now what, bug girl? Killing them is clearly just as temporary as Arkham and they come back stronger instead of slightly less prone to collateral damage. Good call on the killing. Really. Just fucking super good idea that no one else has ever thought of. Fucking amateur." -- Sword Robin
"Now what, bug girl? Killing them is clearly just as temporary as Arkham and they come back stronger instead of slightly less prone to collateral damage. Good call on the killing. Really. Just fucking super good idea that no one else has ever thought of. Fucking amateur." -- Sword Robin
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- Location
- Elsewhere
That's always felt like a cop-out to me when it's applied.
It turns a debate about use of force and vigilantism into "you can't because reasons."
Then they smugly declare that they are right without backing it up with anything solid, just one or two badly documented anecdotes.
"One time I thought I killed a guy, and then someone in the same costume popped up and killed someone. Therefore, killing doesn't work."
If they really drill down into exactly what is going on and try to address it, that's fine, but a vague hand-wavy meta argument is just obnoxious.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Oh, I absolutely agree. I think it's super lazy and sidesteps something with immediate, real-world implications. Good science fiction (and fantasy) holds a lense up to real world issues in the fantastical backdrop.
However, the Flanderized fanon of "you literally can't kill them nyah, nyah, nyah" can be useful for exploring: what do you do with the entities that are malignant but you cannot simply dispose of them? It forces thinking about other options.
The way that gets applied to Gotham is usually done in a lazy, unsatisfying way, but exploring the idea of "killing is off the table because narrative fiat so what now?" does have merit. Disagreeing with the premise so hard that the way you implement it is lazy and bad is something many, MANY DC writers have done.