With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

Awww, I was hoping for more Peter.

 

Well, at least someone appreciates super-heroing's aesthetic benefits.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Gee, what do you think, Captain Obvious?

The joy of secret identities...

My word, that opening is awkward. Perhaps 'So far, Zatanna hasn't...' would flow better?

Of course, they wouldn't be a threat anyway because they wouldn't be employed any longer... Seriously...

At most, some people would be shocked and a little offended...

Isn't that like 100 kilometres or so? Damn, Diana is hardcore.

Not in the mood to become a vigilante, eh? Then again, Gotham...

She is still a teenager, right? Forethought is not a common ability at that age.

Less dangerous than plenty of things she's fought on Earth."

Methinks you're not the only one.

Hmm... Wonder where this episode is going...

 

They were too busy bootstrapping what the Justice League had set up in order to properly crack down on villains, and even then they'd be more focused on the ones doing actual crime. At most, they'd swing in, check on things, see that they weren't the only interdimensional travelers cleaning up this backwater dimension, and go along their merry way.

 

Perhaps something significant will happen and Paul wishes he had his other rings?

 

I don't think that the Lords were on Earth for more than a couple of days, perhaps only a day. They probably weren't aware that Peter exists, and I doubt that they would have had a problem with his work.

Thank you, corrected.

This is just a fluff section before we move onto the meat of the episode.

 

And then everything ended in fire. And at least 4 chapters will end with either an explosion or someone getting attacked.

Who knows, Jade might end up breaking up with Paul for some Alien booty/ wanting to focus on her career, leading to PaulxBlackfire?

I do hope the age thing gets resolved soon.

 

Paula's speech seems a little stiff there at the end due to not using contractions.

 

Is she replaced by an alien? Is that why she doesn’t know how he knew Wally?

 

Oh, she knows. She can't say in public how she knows, to protect both Wallace's secret identity, and that of her younger daughter.

 

Does talking about how they hope Jade doesn't have to fight count as tempting murphy?

Also: Laundry Files! Yuus!

 

Don't worry, she's Paul's girlfriend, and that gives her plot armor invincibility.

 

Doubt.

Oh come the fuck on, now you’re just being blatantly petty.

 

I don't recall how old Holly is in this story. Is she young enough that checking out an obvious teenager like Artemis isn't too creepy?

 

Holly's 23 at this point, and Artemis is... 17, I think? Holly also doesn't know how old Artemis is.

 

I'm sorry? I don't know another term that fits what I'm trying to convey as well.

Maybe? I think she was retconned to be over eighteen instead of under eighteen, but an eighteen or nineteen-year-old checking out a sixteen-year-old is only creepy if someone is using really strict definitions (or there are other factors not listed, of course).

EDIT: Likewise a 23 year old checking out a 17 year old.

 

I thought Holly was nineteen during the world split episode meaning she should be twenty one at the most... Unless I am remembering wrong.

 

Yes. I don't normally make character references when debating Vaermina, because ideally it shouldn't matter who is presenting a argument at all in regards to whether it's true or not. But I wouldn't call you wrong.

But in this case, I wouldn't say Vaermina is wrong, per se. It's just that plot armor is a really, really common thing; it's no mortal sin for a character to have it. It's so uncommon for any sort of literature to get rid of named characters, that it's very noteworthy and is even a defining feature of some works (see: Game of Thrones).

It's really, really, really fucking common in DC. Seriously, Superman is here to stay unless he manages to fall into obscurity, and that isn't happening anytime soon. Yes, sure, comics "kill" him to be noteworthy and stand out. And they're either non-canon, or they revive him with clockwork regularity a bit later. No reasonable comic reader would stop in the middle of a fight sequence, and think "oh, wow, Superman is in real danger! He could actually die for good here!".


Its a pretty inevitable part of fiction, owing to the unavoidable combination of "This work focuses on character X" and "The story will continue for Y length". It's no great leap of logic to realize that at bare minimum, the story isn't going to kill off the main character; it can't, not without breaking one of those tenants.


Jade isn't necessarily core to the store, but she's not substantially more likely to die when you look at the details. So, yeah, plot armor. Big deal. If you don't like it, go check out the non-fiction section in your local library, because that's the only place you won't find more plot armor.

At least it's done well.

 

Originally Holly was 17 and was on of those who stayed on the child side when the world was split, but her age was later retconned to 22 because Zoat wanted to get the backstory in, where she stabs Batman in 1999 on his first day.

 

"Doesn't actually make sense" indeed, considering the sun is a bloody star.

My speculation is that it's actually powered by something else coming from space and intense solar radiation (that is, sunlight) interferes with the collection process.

 

That sounds like a bad reason to get a retcon and more like he wanted a reason to get her more age appropriate for the eros pornfic.

Holly being in the child side has more narrative weight and its more important in the fic than she randomly stabbing Batman for a background history.

 

She could die, but it would just lead to a story arc about how Paul brings her back to life. Much easier in a world with an afterlife.

 

Mr Zoat, how did Dame Carol Danvers react to seeing the Zamarons of Universe 16? Befuddlement, disappointment, or curiosity?

 

Has Jade converted to a religion that makes resurrection a possibility? Don't think it's ever come up; frankly I can't remember all that many deep conversations she's had with Paul about religion.

Or, hell, I have a hard time remembering anything they talk about other than fulfilling her needs for career, validation, etc. I'm of the opinion that some of the next few arcs are going to feature Paul and Jade growing further apart, maybe breaking up given the distance, both emotionally and galactic-ally, between them.

 

Also the fact that the story is now written on QQ opens up many relationship possibilities that were definitely closed before.

 

I remember OL discussing it with her at some point; IIRC, she's still close-enough to christian to go to them, and she's a former supervillain so... Hell. Luckily, OL has actually invaded Hell before, with tougher objectives than recovering a single damned soul. And hey, Hell is real to get to! It'd be a 20 minute adventure, tops.

Hmm, alright, I think it's come up before but I had still forgotten how versatile cosmic rods are.

But still, I'd expect it to be overall inferior, regardless. Single human developing schizotech v.s. multiple members of one of the smartest races in the galaxy iteratively improving a design over their multi-billion year lifespan. Plus, if cosmic rods could compete directly with powerful-but-mentally-corrosive orange rings, the Maltusians would probably just use a version of cosmic rods instead of Emotional Spectrum tech.

And on a more direct level, OL has a cosmic rod and a orange ring, and he saves the limited orange ring for emergencies. And you don't usually keep a limited-and-inferior device as a backup; unless you're concerned about the better version breaking, forcing you to fall back on a more reliable tool... and if that was a concern, why not put a second cosmic rod in the safe as well?

 

Come now Karen, don't tell me you're that insecure. You're relationship is fucked if you are.

That being said...come on Holly.

All this reminded me that Jade is a thing, and I had actually completely forgotten that OL is supposed to be very much in love with her. Which is a thing, but doesn't even remotely feel like a thing.

 

The Malthusians don't have cosmic rod technology in the comics.

In fact, they didn't even invent Emotional Spectrum technology, they were taught how to create it by a dimensional traveling human from the future of Earth 15.

 

Doctor Theodore Knight worked on the Manhattan Project, and spent some time in a psychiatric hospital, having had a breakdown over the harm he feels he caused. Peter used the orange ring in this case because using the rod that Dr Knight gave him for personal protection in order to facilitate a nuclear strike on someone, even if said someone is an alien invader, would be particularly callous.

 

For the first point: okay, but they could probably invent it. They're Multi-billion year old omnidisciplinary geniuses, to the point that they only really specialize once they start getting into the really fancy tech like power rings. Surely, they could independently come up with cosmic rods.

For the second: okay, but that's probably not the case here. And did that one human from Earth-15 travel through the entire multiverse, and teach them all about Emotional Spectrum technology? If so, that seems pretty absurd and unlikely for a lot of reasons.

Fair enough, but that'd still be a really weird to keep it in reserve. He did outright say that he was keeping it for emergencies, and if the only reason to use it is something like that, then that would be a extremely specific and strange emergency preparation.

 

I would also say that it's a lot easier to have a rod knocked out of your hand, then it is to have a fitted ring knocked off your finger.