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guardianbee · 10 months

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I just realized that what sets Netflix's Stretch Armstrong above the rest of contemporary superhero cartoons is that it gave each protagonist a rich inner and personal life, both separate from their superhero identity AND serving as their motivation to become a superhero. Compare Jake, Nathan, Ricardo, and Riya to Marvel's Spider-Man's main protagonists - Peter, Miles, Anya, Gwen, and Harry.

Out of the five MSM protags, only Peter has his personal life consistently explored. Harry's personal life is explored but only in opposition to Peter's, and once Harry's arc concludes in S1, he drops off as a protagonist entirely and becomes a supporting character in S2 & S3. While Gwen gets some personal life development in S1, it is to only forward the villain-of-the-week plotline. Once that resolves, Gwen is hardly given any real character growth except in a few key episodes with Anya. We never see her father or what her life is like outside of Horizon High. Miles and Anya both have a single episode that explores their family dynamics and THEN we only see Jefferson and (a fake!) Maria as poorly-executed villains to add drama to the last half of S3. Neither Miles or Anya organically develops without either Peter or Gwen around.

With Stretch Armstrong, each of the protagonist's family and past are explored. You get the backstory, you get familial dynamics, and you get motivations. Jake wants to be a hero to both escape the confines of the rigid expectations his father places on him AND because he feels like he can finally put all the lessons his dad taught him to use. Nathan wants to be a hero to protect his family and stay close to his friends. Ricardo wants to be a hero because he finally wants to belong somewhere - he wants community, and he wants friends that he doesn't have to leave behind. Riya's primary motivation is avenging her parents and taking down Rook before his corporate schemes go too far. And notice how all their motivations are distinct to their family dynamics and personal ambitions!

Why do Gwen, Anya, and Miles want to be heroes? We don't learn about Miles' desire to protect his neighborhood until S3! What are they motivated by? Just a desire to help? They're just naturally good people and want to make the world a better place? But why? Where does that desire come from? What do their family and community think of them - how are they motivated by those factors? MSM hardly explores that - MSM is primarily in service to the fantastical elements of Peter's life. And, when we do have time to catch up on the protags' personal lives, it is almost always Peter that has these moments. The MSM writers wanted to give Peter a team but then they never explored that team, never gave the audience to care about them other than "they're Peter's friends," while Stretch Armstrong gave Jake a team and THEN chose to develop each protagonist into their own fully-realized character. The show was about Jake but his team was not there to just serve his character and story - they each had their OWN character and OWN story. Had SAATFF been picked up for an S3, I'm almost positive Erika's personal life outside of Nathan would also have been fully explored to the point of being a main character rather than a secondary one.

IDK man, it just feels like contemporary superhero shows and comics in general can't balance the fantastical with the average, day-to-day lives of their protagonists. That's why ITSV and ATSV are so revered and stand out - because of that balance. Miles is a compelling character because he deals with and endures all these fantastical elements of his life WHILE having problems with his parents and deciding what his future will entail. Gwen is a compelling character for similar reasons. Their romance is compelling for these reasons - balancing the fantastical with the mundane - Gwen protecting Miles by keeping him away from Spider Society and all of its secrets, but still feeling jealous when Miles eyes Margo; Miles coming along with Gwen to earth-50101 to help her and then slightly panicking upon learning Gwen has been staying on another earth with a dude named Hobie.

If superhero writers have forgotten this, if they can't find that balance and explore it, then we're really in fucking trouble for years and years to come.

#idk i was just remembering that saatf was such a good show #and since i've been watching msm and thinking of how empty it is outside of parksborn #the comparison was bound to come #marvel's spider man #stretch armstrong #stretch armstrong and the flex fighters #saatff #peter parker #jake armstrong #posts on the run #text post

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lunawho47 · 2 years

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Untitled Secret Circle fic snippet

So, back in late January/early February, I did the first fic writing I have done in...6 years? Possibly 7. (I’m not counting my Unsolved script where Ryan and Shane discuss theories about “The Doctor” and a strange blue box because there’s not really a plot involved there. I just talk about all 58 years of DW through the lens of online conspiracy theories.) However, what got me writing again was a show from a decade ago that only lasted one season.

I’ve decided to leave the 800 words or so that I had written at the time in order to see if there is still anyone around in this fandom that would be interested in me writing the rest of it. I don’t hold fics hostage or anything, but I am aware of how fandoms tend to die out (especially after a decade), so if there’s no one around to read it, I might as well just tell the story to myself in my head while I’m trying to sleep. So, if you’re out there and you’re interested, let me know.

Cassie Blake was cursed, but at least the curse was ending. That is what she told herself, reining in her screams of pain. She told herself that all pain is temporary and she only needed to bear it for a few moments more, and then she told herself the same thing again a few moments after that. She had told herself the same mantra for almost a year. When she had first arrived in Chance Harbor, she had schooled herself through every painful moment of missing her mother, then of keeping herself away from Adam when she realized that he was happily involved with one of the few people who was nice to her from the moment she appeared in the high school hallways, and then she schooled herself even harder when her father returned and kept feeding her lie after lie and tearing her world apart. But after six months of watching Adam forget what loving her felt like and after four months of absence from Diana, and with the deaths of her grandmother and her father, Cassie was pretty sure the pain was going to stay for at least as long as she kept breathing. "Just a few moments more," she whispered, staring at the ceiling, wishing she could see the stars in the sky or at least the ones that decorated her bedroom. She also gave a fleeting wish for her warm covers and comfortable bed spread, but they did not magically appear. When it mattered most, she was unable to use her magic and she allowed herself to embrace the encroaching cold and numbness. At least the pain in her legs was gone and she no longer felt panicked that her breath wasn't coming easily; when she coughed, she tasted copper and felt the first tendril of warmth in her body slide down her cheek and mix in with her hair along with a sob. Although she felt little physical sensation, she was happy to discover that she could still raise her right hand; her entire plan depended on her being able to leave a message with it, and she was glad her lack of foresight hadn't made her plan pointless. She took her penknife and started leaving a series of pin pricks and stars along the back of her right hand, hoping her friends would be able to decipher the code and find what she had left for them. She glanced briefly at the inside of her right palm, tracing her family mark with her bloodied left hand and wishing fervently that Diana was there. She wanted her sister, and in that moment Cassie wished that Diana had loved her more than she had been afraid of her.

Cassie felt along the ground and grabbed her family crystal. Thanks to her preparations, it glowed with a gently pulsing light, reminding Cassie of a beacon or a lighthouse. She hoped that it would guide her friends and her former circle in the days to come or everything Cassie had done over the previous four months would be for nothing. She held the crystal up against her lips and whispered, "Adam. Jake. Melissa. Faye," and she then proceeded to hum the tune her mother had sung to Cassie as a lullaby, a marking and a sign. With that, Cassie lowered her arms, no longer fighting the encroaching darkness or gasping for breath. She looked up at the roof of the mines, the walls of which had become her unintentional tomb -- a coffin too strong for her to explode from this time -- and she felt her last breath leave her. It was up to the secret circle now; if the rest could join together, then her sacrifice would be well worth it.

***

Adam Conant was unlucky in that he had an honest face. As a boy, he had never been able to get away with lying to his father, and Diana had always been able to best him in games of Two Truths and a Lie, even before they had started dating in junior high. His previous feelings for Cassie had always shown clear on his face from the day he met her, and his apathy after drinking the elixir had as well. With Adam, what a person saw was what they got, and that was usually a good thing. Being a witch was a big enough secret to keep and Adam had been loath to add any more to his plate. That was what made his current situation so ironic. The boy who was rubbish at keeping secrets currently had the biggest secret of his life stashed away in his basement and none of his close friends suspected anything. He rather thought that Cassie or Diana may have figured it out by now, but Diana had left town four months previously and Cassie had made herself scarce all summer long.

He felt a throb of power radiate through his body and felt his magic give an answering hum. The power of the crystal skull felt like a wad of cash burning a hole in his pocket; the power begged to be tapped into and it took every ounce of self control he had not to give into it. Every day he both won and lost his battle against the dark object. He managed to refuse the desire to use the power to his advantage, but he couldn't manage to do what Cassie had requested of him and get the skull to a place no one else would ever find it. Seven times that summer Adam had gone out on his father's boat to the middle of the sound, skull in a black sack and weighted with a rock, ready to throw the cursed object to the bottom of the ocean, and found himself unable to get his muscles to move to throw the item off the side of the boat. His brain would say the order over and over, but his arms would stay resolutely by his sides and his leg muscles would twitch but his feet would stay stationary. Later, he would find himself back at The Boathouse, standing in the basement with the skull in his hand, with no memory of returning back to land.

He tried to avoid turning a guilty glance to the basement door and instead focused all his attention on scrubbing down the bar.

"You know, if you stare at that bar any harder, you may accidentally set it on fire."

Adam glanced up and quickly returned his attention back to the wooden countertop, rolling his eyes as he spoke.

"Not all of us like to use our powers for destruction, Faye. I'm pretty sure that's just you."

"And your ex."

Adam tried to refrain from giving an audible sigh, but failed. It was hard not to sigh in exasperation while rolling one's eyes, after all. "You say that like Cassie's vengeful streak isn't the one thing about her personality that you've always admired."

"That's true. Who would have thought little miss blonde and innocent had it in her? Speaking of..."

Adam fought back a smile. Obviously, whatever Faye was about to say was the real reason for her visit.

"Have you seen our queen of darkness anywhere today? I stopped by the coffee shop, but she wasn't there."

"I haven't talked to Cassie in weeks. So no, I don't know where she is."

Faye leaned back, flicking her dark hair behind her shoulder and leveling a no nonsense expression in his direction.

"What?"

"You don't know where she is? That doesn't sound like the Adam Conant I know. The elixir made you fall out of love with her, it didn't eradicate your friendship. You mean to tell me that you're not familiar enough with her schedule to hazard a guess as to where she might be?..."

"Honestly, I don't know. Ever since Diana left, Cassie has been secretive and withdrawn. The circle is no longer bound, so she could be doing literally anything right now. Wait. That's what you want her for, isn't it? You need her help for something."

"You got me. Melissa and I found a really fun spell that we want to try out, but we need more power than our lone magic can give us and two of us weren't enough. We were hoping Cassie would be our third, but she hasn't answered any of Melissa's messages over the last two weeks, her house is dark and she won't answer the door, and she hasn't shown up for work for her last two shifts."

"And it didn't occur to you to come to me before now?"

"I've been busy! And I figured if she needed help with anything, she would call. I saw no reason to panic."

Adam fought against the urge to grab Faye by the shoulders and shake her. Cassie was a walking danger magnet; dark magic like hers called out to every demon and witch hunter and evil witch within a thousand mile radius. He would never understand how Faye could be so self absorbed that Cassie could fall off the face of the Earth for days and it not occur to her that Cassie could be in serious danger.

"Don't freak out, Adam. I'm sure she's fine. It's been a rough few months; she's probably just taking some personal days. I mean, she has no family she has to answer to so maybe she's just traveling for the weekend. Or maybe Diana got in contact with her and they're meeting up somewhere to have a goody too-shoes Adam-Used-to-Love-Us-and-No-Longer-Does Club Pity Party."

Adam gave her his best un-amused expression which only made Faye smirk even wider. "Or maybe she's looking for her four other siblings so they can start a homicidal witch father support group. Wherever she is though, she's the most powerful witch there and she can take care of herself."

Adam nodded to this last point. Cassie's magic was strong, dependable, and very deadly. But now that Faye had mentioned that Cassie was missing work, Adam couldn't help but be concerned. With her grandmother gone, Cassie needed that income and it was unlike her to shirk that particular responsibility. If Cassie wasn't in danger presently, then she was likely investigating something that would put her in danger soon, and if Cassie was going into danger, then Adam was going to be with her. He may not be able to remember the feeling of what it was to be *in* love with Cassie, but he did still love her and she was one of his circle. He would put his life in danger for any of his five friends, and when it came to Cassie or Diana, he would never regret giving his life for theirs. Adam decided then and there that when his shift was over he would go to Cassie's house and find out what she was up to. He had given her four months to get used to their new dynamic, and the weirdness between them had been going on long enough. Hell, they had been broken up far longer than they had been together, and those feelings had likely been majorly overstated anyway. What they had post-elixir was comfortable -- much like his relationship with Diana had been at the end -- and while he wasn't in love with her any longer, Cassie was (in the absence of Diana) his best friend.

#the secret circle #fanfic #*taps mic* hello is anybody out there listening?#cassie blake #faye chamberlain #diana meade #melissa glaser #jake armstrong #adam conant

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