Annie Hargreeves (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
defenderofdesmoines) wrote2020-09-28 05:47 am
defenderofdesmoines) wrote2020-09-28 05:47 am
Entry tags:
OOC: Info Post!
Meet Annie January, also known as Starlight.
Annie hails from Amazon Prime’s The Boys, which takes place in a world just like ours, except for one small detail: superheroes are real.
But no, seriously - I said just like ours except for that detail, and I mean it. They still have action figures and T-shirts and lunchboxes and movies featuring these very real superheroes. Most of the heroes we meet in canon neatly align with a Marvel or DC counterpart - the leading superhero team in America, The Seven, is pretty directly the Justice League, with Superman and Wonder Woman analogs (Homelander and Queen Maeve, respectively) leading the team.
The show is not shy at all with its comparisons to both the Justice League and the Avengers - these heroes release MCU/DCverse-like sagas of movies (down to the fact that Joss Whedon apparently wrote the newest one), and they work out of a tower in New York like the Avengers.
But, get this: most of these heroes are pretty normal, often-crappy people who just happen to have powers. The Boys follows up on the question that Watchmen originally posed a few decades ago: what if the people who are meant to protect us are just as messed up as the rest of us (if not more so) - the only difference is they have dangerous superpowers?
It’s a good show! I recommend everyone watch it (after your kids and elderly parents go to bed, because gosh there sure are a lot of warnings at the start of each episode.) I will also note that it’s based on a graphic novel series by Garth Ennis. I’ve read about half of it, but it’s really not my cup of tea. The show isa lot less blatantly misogynistic, what is wrong with you, Garth Ennis? updated and a little bit different in tone - the book series pretty directly takes the tack of All Superheroes Are Bad And You're Dumb For Liking Them, while the show smooths its satire out into a larger critique of capitalism and consumerism (and superheroes/nerd culture.)
Annie January
Annie January is so small-town-girl-next-door, you sometimes kinda want to shake her. She’s very friendly and Midwest-nice, and genuinely cares very much about helping people and doing the right thing. She is also headstrong, willing to compromise on a personal level if she needs to in order to do the right thing, and while very polite, does not take a lot of crap from people. She is openly religious and believes that her powers are a gift from God.
Annie is in her early twenties and pre-canon - she hasn’t joined The Seven or even been invited, though it’s still her dream. As Starlight, she is very open about being a Supe her whole life and the training she’s done to work towards eventually being in the big leagues. Annie did Little Miss Hero pageants (exactly what they sound like) as a kid and was big in the Christian Supe events circuit, and was a part of the teenage superhero team Young Americans before she started working on her own. She is very conscious of her own image, and has struggled with her self-esteem and reconciling what she wants with her own morals.
Annie is moving to Fandom under the pretext that Vought International (the Disney-like megacorporation that controls all licensed superheroes, including The Seven, and no, the irony is not lost on me that this show is airing on Amazon) is transferring her from Des Moines to an area where she’ll be operating alone. She’s like, so wrong on about five different fronts, and she’ll figure that out pretty quick.
Starlight
In The Boys, they're big on the whole secret-identity thing, though the lines get pretty blurred pretty often. Annie will be trying to keep a secret identity going at least at first, though we’ll see how long that lasts since it’s not like she wears a mask or anything. (In canon, she gets recognized pretty immediately by people who know her as Annie.) For the most part, if she’s dressed as Starlight, I’ll clarify by calling her 'Starlight' in narrative. Annie usually does not use her powers if she’s out of costume/character, except in emergencies.
And what are those powers? So glad you asked!
- Starlight can harness power from nearby lights and electronics to create and amplify blasts she can send from her hands. These blasts can knock grown men several feet, and are also known to blind people - she will almost certainly warn your character to shield their eyes if she has to blast something in a scene. Note: she does need some kind of power source nearby in order to use her powers. This actually came up in very recent canon - looks like a battery will do in a pinch, but she does best when there's something electronic she can drain. If ever anyone would like to play with Annie draining their cell phone or whatever in the name of being able to use her powers, I am very down for that. :) (The word 'power' now has no meaning, wow. I have got to find some synonyms.)
- She is bioluminescent - her eyes and palms glow when she’s using her powers or about to (and her eyes sometimes glow in moments of intense emotion or pleasure, as well.)
- She is very strong - when we meet her, she’s training by lifting the back end of a car, punching through brick walls, and doing one-armed pull-ups. (Eat your heart out, CrossFit.)
- She is also very durable! She has been shot in canon and pretty much just got up and kept going after being a bit out of breath.
When she is in costume as Starlight, she has her hair pulled back with a white headband, and wears a white and gold dress with a knee-length cape, like so. Maybe one day I will send her off for a canon catchup, and Vought will make her wear their new and improved version of the costume, but as she is pre-canon, my Starlight will be keeping her skirt and passing on the hair extensions, thanks. (You may still see this look in her icons on occasion, though, because I only have two seasons of canon to work with and she wears the new costume exclusively from the start of season 2.)
And that’s about it! Any questions?
Annie hails from Amazon Prime’s The Boys, which takes place in a world just like ours, except for one small detail: superheroes are real.
But no, seriously - I said just like ours except for that detail, and I mean it. They still have action figures and T-shirts and lunchboxes and movies featuring these very real superheroes. Most of the heroes we meet in canon neatly align with a Marvel or DC counterpart - the leading superhero team in America, The Seven, is pretty directly the Justice League, with Superman and Wonder Woman analogs (Homelander and Queen Maeve, respectively) leading the team.
The show is not shy at all with its comparisons to both the Justice League and the Avengers - these heroes release MCU/DCverse-like sagas of movies (down to the fact that Joss Whedon apparently wrote the newest one), and they work out of a tower in New York like the Avengers.
But, get this: most of these heroes are pretty normal, often-crappy people who just happen to have powers. The Boys follows up on the question that Watchmen originally posed a few decades ago: what if the people who are meant to protect us are just as messed up as the rest of us (if not more so) - the only difference is they have dangerous superpowers?
It’s a good show! I recommend everyone watch it (after your kids and elderly parents go to bed, because gosh there sure are a lot of warnings at the start of each episode.) I will also note that it’s based on a graphic novel series by Garth Ennis. I’ve read about half of it, but it’s really not my cup of tea. The show is
Annie January
Annie January is so small-town-girl-next-door, you sometimes kinda want to shake her. She’s very friendly and Midwest-nice, and genuinely cares very much about helping people and doing the right thing. She is also headstrong, willing to compromise on a personal level if she needs to in order to do the right thing, and while very polite, does not take a lot of crap from people. She is openly religious and believes that her powers are a gift from God.
Annie is in her early twenties and pre-canon - she hasn’t joined The Seven or even been invited, though it’s still her dream. As Starlight, she is very open about being a Supe her whole life and the training she’s done to work towards eventually being in the big leagues. Annie did Little Miss Hero pageants (exactly what they sound like) as a kid and was big in the Christian Supe events circuit, and was a part of the teenage superhero team Young Americans before she started working on her own. She is very conscious of her own image, and has struggled with her self-esteem and reconciling what she wants with her own morals.
Annie is moving to Fandom under the pretext that Vought International (the Disney-like megacorporation that controls all licensed superheroes, including The Seven, and no, the irony is not lost on me that this show is airing on Amazon) is transferring her from Des Moines to an area where she’ll be operating alone. She’s like, so wrong on about five different fronts, and she’ll figure that out pretty quick.
Starlight
In The Boys, they're big on the whole secret-identity thing, though the lines get pretty blurred pretty often. Annie will be trying to keep a secret identity going at least at first, though we’ll see how long that lasts since it’s not like she wears a mask or anything. (In canon, she gets recognized pretty immediately by people who know her as Annie.) For the most part, if she’s dressed as Starlight, I’ll clarify by calling her 'Starlight' in narrative. Annie usually does not use her powers if she’s out of costume/character, except in emergencies.
And what are those powers? So glad you asked!
- Starlight can harness power from nearby lights and electronics to create and amplify blasts she can send from her hands. These blasts can knock grown men several feet, and are also known to blind people - she will almost certainly warn your character to shield their eyes if she has to blast something in a scene. Note: she does need some kind of power source nearby in order to use her powers. This actually came up in very recent canon - looks like a battery will do in a pinch, but she does best when there's something electronic she can drain. If ever anyone would like to play with Annie draining their cell phone or whatever in the name of being able to use her powers, I am very down for that. :) (The word 'power' now has no meaning, wow. I have got to find some synonyms.)
- She is bioluminescent - her eyes and palms glow when she’s using her powers or about to (and her eyes sometimes glow in moments of intense emotion or pleasure, as well.)
- She is very strong - when we meet her, she’s training by lifting the back end of a car, punching through brick walls, and doing one-armed pull-ups. (Eat your heart out, CrossFit.)
- She is also very durable! She has been shot in canon and pretty much just got up and kept going after being a bit out of breath.
When she is in costume as Starlight, she has her hair pulled back with a white headband, and wears a white and gold dress with a knee-length cape, like so. Maybe one day I will send her off for a canon catchup, and Vought will make her wear their new and improved version of the costume, but as she is pre-canon, my Starlight will be keeping her skirt and passing on the hair extensions, thanks. (You may still see this look in her icons on occasion, though, because I only have two seasons of canon to work with and she wears the new costume exclusively from the start of season 2.)
And that’s about it! Any questions?