First of I want to say that it is in no way me bashing Julia Quinn. She has wrote a popular book series that she managed to put on the screen and for that she deserves alot of respect.
BUT
The books are a hot messes for many, many, many reasons, the three last one are ok but still quite questionable.
(I am obviously in no way claiming to be a better writter or that what I'll do will be good but I decided to rewrite and change what I didn't like and what I think could do better. )
Important information about this rewrite :
As I had hard time with honestly any of the love interest, ESPECIALLY, the boys one (with the exception of my boy Gregory, you were boring but cute) and that I felt like the women character had honestly a waste of potential I will change all of them a LOT. I will also rant about why I didn't like them in the first place.
As the books are so messy I also consider the series as canon and I have a lot of confusion about the way the society and great experiments was done ?! Like honestly WASTED potential.
This will NOT be historically accurate my dear friends purely fictional as I'll state multiple time.
I never understood this mentality that people only care about an issue unless it affects them. People are so quick to put down people who are crying out for help (one example is Palestinian fundraisers). How can someone, or even a lot of people in our society, be so goddamn heartless? What makes you so special over everyone else? News flash.. you’re not. I hope one of Trumps nazi supporters one day needs help and everyone laughs at them like they did the Palestinian, Jewish, disabled, etc
Grow some humanity.
Happy Pride Month
First Felon is building a concentration camp at Guantanamo, Cuba.
It had a previous capacity of 800, but First Felon wants to increase to 30,000.
This is a call to action.
If sex is what you use as the only proof of compatibility between a pairing that you are trying to push at your audience maybe this pairing isn't worth being an endgame.
This is performative.
It's unconstitutional.
An executive order is not a law. Republican lawyers know this is a joke, but they let First Felon cosplay.
Context:
Every MAGA accusation is a confession.
So the National Park Service removed any mention of trans people from the page on the Stonewall National Monument. And removed the word 'transgender' from the page on Sylvia Rivera.
Hell no. Trans women of color built the gay rights movement. Full stop.
Check my Mastodon for a version of this at 300 DPI printable resolution! Take copies to a Stonewall protest and hand them out, if you're going to one!
Thinking about how some modern comics writers (Tom Taylor) write the batfam and why it doesn't sit right (this post centers around the robins because of their training but some of that reflexion would definitely fit for Barbara and Cass as well.)
The thing with writing a team of people with similar training and strength is you can't take the easy route of "well this one is the smart one! And this one is the flexible one! And this one is the strong one!" .... which is obviously reductive to all of their characters. Obviously, they have interpersonal differences; Dick, being raised as an acrobat, is the most flexible, but that doesn't mean that every single one of these little fuckers doesn't like to bend, twist and somersault to dodge bullets like an annoying worm on a string being flung around in the sky. They're Robins. Obviously, Jason is the bulkiest, but that doesn't mean they don't all go through hardcore conditioning -Tim is only considered "frail" when you put him between Bruce and Jason, this guy would bench-press you any day, come on. (And DC editorial can lie to us about the girls' weights and heights and make them at the limit of ed-territory even though they're doing parkour and hardcore martial arts every day but I know the truth, Steph's strong as hell, homegirl's got bazooka-level guns). Obviously Damian was raised in the League and is proficient in a bunch of martial arts, but they all received training from a bunch of different experts, including, for all of them, the same guy (that they are all so normal and chill about.) Obviously, Tim is the one who used detective work to figure out everyone's identity but you're kidding yourself if you think he's the only intelligent/detective one amongst the robins. Being smart and a detective is a defining part of all of their characterization, and so is being a leader and a strategist. And then of course with that kind of simplified characterization we end up with Steph being "the girl robin" and Damian "the assassin one/stabby one" and Duke "the meta one" (yes this post counts Duke as a Robin. They trained him and also just cause I wanted to. I love him.)
And even if we make an effort and try to dissect it "this one is the detective smart one! And this one is the strategist! and this one is smart in a more techy-way! And this one is the leader! And this one- hey what kind of intelligence do we have left..." obviously doesn't work either. Duke was a exhilarating strategist in WaR already, Jason's strategic work in UTH and detective in Lost Days is thrilling, Damian is a fucking child surgeon (do I need to develop how intelligent that kid is), Dick was the first leader of the Titans and is always doing detective work like, that's an inherent part of his character, Duke was a cute-ass baby doing puzzles and planning to defeat the Riddler himself, Steph literally became Spoiler to stop Cluemaster (girl knows to solve riddles that would make Nygma shit his pants), they've almost all lead a team at some point, etc, etc. All of this is great and cool and a character being great doesn't take away from the skills of another character! Stark contrasts cannot possibly be the only interesting team dynamics, especially since they already have their own teams of contrasting skillset and personalities.
Imo, best robin team-up dynamics is them stepping on eachother's toes with their plans, getting into rapid-fire brainstorming sessions where they're all finishing eachother's sentences, reaching a conclusion and saying it out loud at the same time, one of them having a crazy ass plan and suggesting it to the other and the other saying "i like the way you think" to that person who thinks exactly like them, getting mad at eachother for being stubborn while also being a stubborn little shit, pulling complicated acrobatics together, and just thriving solving a good old complicated mystery with other people who are just as competent and enthusiastic about detective work as them but not a carbon copy, with extremely specific strength and weaknesses and quirks (like Dick's ability to recognise heroin by putting it in his mouth, Damian's uncanny voice imitation ability, etc.)
Of course, this doesn't even begin to touch the family drama, but honestly we get so much family drama angst with no real consequence rn, I'd really love just a robin team-up, relatively low-stakes (aka nothing taking over the city, the world, no past traumas unearthed to haunt them or parental abuse or secret cults etc etc.) Just a very elaborate murder mystery and a good excuse for all the robins to be there and a story that works with their similarities and their potential (both comedic and in terms of plot) rather than erasing it. It would be so much fun!