beccaelizabeth's dreamwidth journal

I was watching songvids today and depressing myself
and I thought of a moment I'd want from a TV show

it has to be a TV show because it relies on a long build up

so I've said before (probably a bunch) that Angel the series disappointed me because it thought so small. One champion and some support crew spend every week saving people, and by the end of the show they're... half a dozen people in an alley. they had a hotel and didn't house anyone, they only got help from the people they helped in the form of one off money, and very seldom did we ever see anyone again.

So I want a show that's about heroes. Larger than life ones. Champions, to live as though the world were what it should be, to show it what it can be. Costumes and powers and all of that.

And then there's the one stuck on monitor duty, or the reception desk, or bringing the coffee when a victim makes a report. The kind one, who has time to have a chat with everyone. Their moments seem like a break from the action, probably a distraction to most people, but they always try and make a connection with everyone they meet.

And each week there's accountants, or homeless people, or school kids, or first responders who have Seen Things. People that need a hero, today.

And by the end of the episode they go home.

But by the end of the season?

There's a fight, the big fight, against the big bad. The one we spent all season learning more about, and not knowing how to stop them. And it goes Badly.

Really badly.

So now the hero is unconscious in the street, their team scattered or fallen, and the only one left is the kind one.

The big bad advances on them, civilians scattering out of the way, cars and maybe a school bus parked scrambled on the pavement, stakes as high as they get, and the kind one just... stands there, gets pushed, and goes flying.

Rolls to a stop at a cafe with the tables outside, everything going flying.

So obviously the villain stops to do the villain speech
kneel before me
all of that

and the kind one
kneels
slowly
gets up

and pulls up a chair.



... villain goes bzuh?


Kind one kind of puts themself in order. Straightens their cuffs. Someone comes up and gives them an actual coffee. They thank them. By name.


And we realise we have seen the barista before.

Widen the picture slowly.

We've seen these people before.

Every single civilian, even the bus full of high school kids, we have met them each and all.



And now it's their turn.




What happens next kind of depends on what story you're telling. I mean if you want a big fight scene you concentrate on people who get effected by the weird and come back weirder. But fundamentally, when each of them met the Bad alone in a dark alley, they needed help.

Today they *are* the help.


Like that bit in Raimi's Spider man, you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us
but deliberately
built up of human connections
made by the one who is never going to so much as swing a bat.



So maybe some of them have baseball bats, and maybe some can wolf out, use home made iron man gadgets, or call up a spell
depends on your genre.


But I'd kind of like it if there was no fight
yet
if the villain looked around at these people
the ones they thought that they would conquer
and sees what they can be
when they can stand together.


And then maybe he takes the other seat
and starts talking terms.




That would be nice.