Date: 2023-05-28 09:45 pm (UTC)
thracedt: (Default)
From: [personal profile] thracedt
Canon: Stargirl

Ships: Richard "The Shade" Swift/Charles "Dr. Mid-Nite" McNider

Media: Live Action TV

A summary of the canon: Stargirl is about Courtney Whitmore, a teenager from LA who moves to small town Nebraska and discovers that her new stepdad Pat used to be a sidekick for the superhero Starman, until Starman and the rest of the Justice Society of America were killed by the rival supervillain team the ISA ten years before - and more importantly, finds the cosmic staff that used to be Starman's to become a superhero herself, because the ISA is still around and making plans in her new little town.

All three seasons are currently streaming on MAX and the first two seasons are out on bluray (Shadenite is mostly containted in S2, but it's such a good show!)

(Spoilers from here on!)

What do you love about this ship/these ships?: The Shade comes to town in S2 seeking an artifact called the black diamond that's connected to a very dangerous villain named Eclipso, but since the Shade was also a member of the ISA and Pat saw him murder Dr. Mid-Nite with his own two eyes, Courtney and her friends don't exactly trust him (and to be fair, he doesn't do a whole lot to help his case there.)

Until Courntey's friend Beth, the new Dr. Mid-Nite, accidentally makes contact with the still very alive but trapped in the Shadowlands Dr. Charles McNider and catches him up, telling him that the Shade is there ("The Shade is there?") and that don't worry, they know better than to trust him. "I know he tried to kill you."

"Kill me? No, Beth, he saved me."

And a ship launches! 🖤

Rewatching S2 with the knowledge of what is actually up with the Shade and why he's doing all of this may be the most fun I've ever had with a canon.

What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: I will take ANYTHING. JSA era fic when the two of them are obstensibly enemies (but clearly not completely, or in any case they don't stay that way.) There's an important moment that's referenced but not scene where after Eclipso kills McNider's young daughter the Shade shows up drunk and guilty in his house because he feels like he should have prevented it that I would love to see fleshed out, especially if McNider did not say everything that happened that night. How did they become friends? Did any of the other JSA know? McNider knows the Shade's whole tragic backstory! When did that conversation happen??? When did the Shade start calling McNider "Charles," and why does McNider let him? I love all those gaps getting filled.

And there's a ten year gap between the end of S3 and the epilogue that is a perfect setting for any kind of fic, as the two of them figure out who they are and what they are to each other after everything that's happened, the presumed deaths and the near deaths. Do old enemies come back? Old friends come back from the dead to find things are very different?

I love them and would love any fic about them.

Content warnings: Their story in particular deals with the death of a child - the death happens offscreen but it's very clear what happened, and Rebecca McNider's death is brought up multiple times. In general Stargirl also has the usual superhero violence and deals with the trauma involved actually really well, and the show deals a lot with the relationships between the kids and their parents, both the heroes and the antagonists, and some of those relationships are...not good (and not just on the villain side.)
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