#i can do the rrb for real too i just need to rewach their eps first

[fedoranonymous]

Okay okay okay

If we're gonna do a powerpuff girls reboot, let's do a

Powerpuff Girls Reboot!

We open with the intro text from the original cartoon. It's iconic, it's been basically unmodified since they were the Whoopass Girls, you've gotta have it. Either use the original animation or hire three cute lil things to do it, but have your new Professor read it out.

When we get to "but a secret ingredient was added to the concoction..." start pulling out to reveal that it's coming from the TV, and the Girls are reacting to the portrayal of their childhood in real time. They keep saying the girls are cute, but they have things to say about the plot. Blossom wants to know if this is a period piece or isn't it, make up your mind. Bubbles is worried about people confusing fiction for reality and blaming them for things that happen on TV. Buttercup just wants to watch a mindless action flick.

The Professor narrates again. "It's been ten years since the Girls first woke up in that Lab. Of course, they were already physically six by then. Mentally... Well, they certainly had the intelligence of adults 7 times their age. Along with the innocence of children. That was our goal -- people who could really, honestly, and without cynicism plot an attainable future for humanity. The superpowers? Well they caught everybody by surprise."

Flashback to the girls earliest moments perhaps, or just go straight to: for their safety, and to try and dissuade the onslaught of costumed villains that have come to Townsville seeking a fight with Real Superheroes, the Mayor and the Professor have decided that there will be No More Superheroing In Townsville Anymore. They get to live the next twelve years as ordinary girls, have real lives, isn't that exciting?

Well, if it's what you think is best.

In the intervening decade, the girls have grown. They're not perfect little girls anymore.

Blossom has clearly seen the Incredibles. She has a meticulous line of silver medals: science fairs, races, MMA. Straight 95% As across the board. Her golds are all in team sports, and her clear eye for tactics has garnered her the attention of the junior ROTC, who she has to dodge frequently and ever more creatively because "it just doesn't seem right to train with them like an ordinary soldier when I have heat vision and two purple hearts".

Major drama comes from her science fair partner who seems... Weirdly well researched about weapons manufacturing. And obsessed with superheroes. During the midseason finale, they get way too riled up working on their automatic water purification system and end up inventing a weather machine that goes haywire. Science fair partner is way too into "something exciting happening for once". Even though it nearly destroys the city, they get a Tidy defense contact for the technology. Blossom adds it to her secret safe absolutely bursting with various patents.

Bubbles, meanwhile, is working herself to the bone trying to do as much good as it's possible for a "normal girl" to do. She volunteers at the hospital. She gets yelled at by the Professor for giving plasma when they can't know it wouldn't hurt a normal human. She volunteers at the soup kitchen, at Big Brothers Big Sisters, at Habitat for Humanity. She's a religious follower of the "only eat what can be grown within x miles of where you live" (I think it's 100?) While being vegetarian, obviously, she can talk to animals. She had to get yelled at for volunteering at the pound for that reason, too, but the vets missed her so much, she got brought back in. She's much more vocal about shopping locally, though, and she is never not eating a handful of nuts, because this girl needs protein! She feels bad even though she knows squirrels eat a different kind of nuts.

Definitely a scene at a farm where her cow friend tells her that food is love and that she needs milk so she can have bones string enough to punch through steel, right after Bubbles had punched through some steel.

Definitely the instigator of Let's Fight Crime Again and early season drama of her learning that she needs to accept some reciprocation of all the love she puts out into the world. Like, she drops out of the sky out of exhaustion, shit like that.

And Buttercup? Buttercup is just fine. Never been better. Cruising down easy street. No complaints here. Yeah, she's been suspended for starting fights with normal kids again, and that's super dangerous, but that kid's an asshole and all they've got is a couple of bruises. Yeah, she stays out all hours of the night, trying to drink and use enough that it gets past her metabolism, but like, it hasn't yet? Honestly this is science at this point. And yeah, no one knows where she got the money for that bike (until an early season episode reveals that she's been cutting hair at a publish barbershop that is either part of or adjacent to a tattoo parlor, and that her coworkers there are the only people she feels like she can talk to. All the characters here are blatantly queer.) But the bike isn't stolen, or anything, back off.

The only thing that lets on that there might be something deeper than "takes no shit, gives a mean right hook" is the way she JUMPS at the chance to fight "for real" again.

As a Powerpuff Girl, as a kid, Buttercup always felt like all she could do was fight. Blossom was the smart one, the leader; Bubbles was the kind one, the friend to all. Yeah, they all had the same capabilities, but like most twins and triplets, they specialized. So the could hit, too, but she could hit best.

Having their hero work taken away from them hit Buttercup hardest of all. Especially because when they started trying to take up "normal" hobbies, Blossom and Bubbles had an easier time holding back their powers while she felt like she had no middle ground between laughably weak and giving her all. Basically, a feedback loop. So Buttercup has spent the last ten years walking on eggshells Constantly and is ready to go Ape Shit.

All of these skewed self esteem issues make her crazy self sacrificial and beastly to fight. She's not holding back anymore, and she never will again! This is who she is, this is all she'll ever be, and she'll die as herself rather than give anything less than 100%!

You know, terrifying.

Comes to a head when one of her sisters takes a hit meant for her and she realizes that she might be the most fucked up, but they kind of all are a little fucked up. The same, but more so.

Obviously everyone's going to want the Rowdyruff Boys to feature heavily, maybe the teaser after the midseason/season finale is them making parole or something? I've got to admit, they were never my favorite villains. If the series leans more comedy, maybe start with them coming (back?) to school and purposefully starting trouble while making direct eye contact, since they Know.

I definitely see the Gangreen Gang being involved with Buttercup's tattoo parlor place. Not even commiting crimes, just being Green and sleezy. Or, shit, that's a racial profiling allegory. Very CW, but no thanks! I have no trust in my senshi heart, you will fuck it up, forget I said anything.

That being said, if you don't get the license for ANY Gorillaz music, when Ace has canonically played for them? Fuck right off.

I really want HIM to appear in a place of prominence, like a season finale. Just rip HIM straight out of the cartoon, don't try to update HIS appearance or schtick at all. But HE is all about getting into your head and toying with your insecurities, right? I just went through all this effort to give the girls imposter syndrome and negative self worth, let HIM play.

I regret my formatting choices on that last paragraph.

Also Halloween episode where they go as their alter egos from Super Zeroes and the monster is like "Oh not this shit again" and the girls are like "hey, we can dress up AND kick ass".

#let me know if there are other characters you want to see me do treatments on #i can do the rrb for real too i just need to rewach their eps first #long post #Powerpuff girls #powerpuff girls reboot #eli's writing tag