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sepublic · 1 year

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Alice in New Vestroia AU

So I’ve been getting back into my age-old hyperfixation of Bakugan (both the show and toys from the legacy series) and realizing how much of a formative impact it all had on me, but also. As I revisit the original show, I’m getting the idea for an AU centered around Alice Gehabich, because they really did this girl dirty even though she’s literally Masquerade and has ‘his’ blessing (Seriously, disrespecting Alice is disrespecting Masquerade, you have to respect BOTH).

AU where Alice is the main protagonist of New Vestroia, as part of this larger AU I have in mind where each story arc centers around another one of the original six brawlers, who gets a turn in the spotlight. Part of Alice’s arc in NV is self-actualizing as a less douchey Masquerade, and who’s her Guardian Bakugan if Hydranoid is bronzed?

Why, it’s Reaper! Freed from the Doom Dimension thanks to the Legendary Soldiers of Vestroia. I feel bad for the dude and as others have suggested, Alice using Reaper in NV to free Hydranoid, the one who replaced him… Lots of delicious drama from that. I imagine that because it’s a toyline, Reaper has a new form/appearance thanks to his time in the Doom Dimension, for the same Doylist reason that Drago always has a new evolution, because you can’t reuse the same old toys from last year! Yuck!

Not sure what it looks like (but there’s at least canon basis for the Doom Dimension to have changed Reaper’s look), but regardless he ends up with Alice again. There’s lots of mixed feelings, Alice is happy to be back with Reaper and hopes to make amends with him, confronting her past as Masquerade and any lingering guilt she might still hold. In general, a lot of NV has to deal with guilt and accountability when it comes to Alice and the characters she’s connected to…

Reaper acts like it’s fine, he doesn’t care when he realizes his mission entails rescuing Hydranoid. But then in comes Alice’s first battle with Shadow Prove, in which Hades is revealed; The replacement to the Bakugan who replaced Reaper! And suddenly, in the heat of battle, Reaper’s true feelings emerge as he vents and projects and takes out a LOT of rage on poor Hades. Screaming and yelling at Hades, who he initially mistakes for Hydranoid, if he’s still inferior when he’s the one beating him this time, beating the ‘superior’ Hydranoid. Finding a cruel and bitter irony, that Hydranoid ended up being replaced himself, anyway.

Alice is no fool and can tell Reaper is treating Hades as a personal punching bag substitute for the real deal, so after they leave a traumatized Shadow Prove in the dust, Alice sits down to talk with Reaper about his feelings. Reaper is fairly shocked to see such a vulnerable and soft side to Masquerade, since that kind of thing was never encouraged the last time they were partners. So we have Reaper gradually learning to come out of his shell, and accept his own vulnerabilities.

Alice does get into a battle with Shadow Prove, two fellow Darkus brawlers; But otherwise, it’s clear she outclasses him, and despite Shadow Prove’s attempts to set himself up as a rival with their shared attributes and Hades as a doppelganger, Alice leaves him behind for her allies to deal with instead. No, Alice’s REAL rival… is none other than Spectra Phantom, of course!

Because now the roles are reversed; You have the Darkus protagonist, up against a Pyrus antagonist. We have Helios, who is alluded to have a bit of an underdog story, who felt the need to become stronger just so he could match Bakugan like Hydranoid or Drago. So in a way, him and Spectra are a dark version of Dan and Drago, but they’re also still a dark reflection of Masquerade as well, because Alice definitely notices the similarities. Spectra being a carbon copy of Masquerade is now a meaningful narrative choice.

Confronting Spectra Phantom for Alice is like confronting her past self as Masquerade, the toxic desire for power at the cost of all others. And as Alice grapples with her guilt for what she did, with Reaper being a blatant reminder, she kinda projects onto Spectra a little; Sees the similarities. Alice only has her grandfather but nobody else who could share in that same trauma of becoming a villainous alter-ego, so Alice wishfully assumes Spectra to be the same case, and Mira’s side of the story doesn’t help her perception either.

So Alice tries to reach out to Spectra, thinks he’s also misunderstood and struggling as she did with Masquerade. And a confused Spectra quickly takes it in stride, and… takes advantage of Alice’s sympathy for his own ends. Eventually, it backfires as it becomes apparent that really is no difference between Keith Fermin and Spectra Phantom; Keith 100% chose of his own volition to pursue evil science and the torture of Bakugan for power. It was all him, there is no tragic accident or backstory.

And Alice feels hurt and betrayed, because she really wanted someone she could’ve shared in that type of trauma with. And rebuked, Alice goes cold, she starts building up walls and decides that gentle compassion of hers was a mistake. And this is when Alice REALLY starts to emulate Masquerade, worst parts included… This is of course reflected in a design update.

S1 gave us Alice accepting Masquerade as a part of herself, but what if S2 explored an inverse of that idea, of Masquerade accepting Alice as a part of herself? Alice starts to loathe and detest her former, softer self, whom she deep-down despises for being too weak, too much of a pushover, to do anything. Alice becomes unkind towards that side of herself, and overcompensates by embracing the crueler side to Masquerade, thinking her worth/growth lies in that aspect alone. We once again see the Masquerade who angrily bristles when Exedra examines his motives, as we get some déjà vu and realize how he was a sped-up endpoint for Alice’s insecurity; Masquerade really IS just Alice, who became fed up and disgusted with everyone but especially herself.

This of course concerns Reaper, who’s also beginning to recognize something familiar and finds it foreboding. And so Alice’s arc comes from accepting that not only is she Masquerade, but she’s still Alice too; And that softer, kinder person is by no means an ‘inferior’ version of Masquerade. Both sides, both aspects to her identity, have their strengths and weaknesses, and do best when reconciled together. Alice learns to forgive her past self, not just Masquerade but the identity of ‘Alice’, for being meek; It’s self-love for the person you used to be.

I imagine the posthumous discovery of Lync’s redemption influences that realization; Alice inferring from his glove that her compassion DID have an impact on Lync, that it wasn’t wasted. Showing kindness to others was never a mistake, and if Alice keeps trying, it eventually does pay off, even if there are those who might take it for granted. So Alice accepts that she’ll always still have some weakness, some vulnerability, and need to ask for help; And that’s okay!!! No shame in that whatsoever.

Alice forgiving her own shortcomings helps her reconcile with Reaper; Reaper also learns to forgive himself for not being the strongest Bakugan, for having been replaced by Hydranoid for this. Because his self-worth and dignity are not tied to whether he can beat others up, it’s inherent, and Reaper fighting for the rights of Bakugan in New Vestroia is him fighting for his own worth at the same time, in a roundabout sense.

Speaking of, this gets me back to Hydranoid; Him and Alice’s reunion mid-way through NV is going to be awkward with Reaper there. Remember that episode of Skyress being uncharacteristically harsh towards Ingram, assuming herself better, only for him to step up when she fails, all as a way to push forward the new product over last year’s? That doesn’t make sense for her, but you know which Bakugan of the original six it would make sense for? Hydranoid! Because it tracks that Hydranoid hasn’t completely let go of the toxic arrogance he had under Masquerade, the Might makes Right mentality.

To him, Reaper is still that inferior Bakugan who wasn’t good enough for his Alice, so Hydranoid got rid of him. He’s being territorial, trying to defend his place alongside Alice now that Reaper has returned, and also ‘redeem’ himself for being captured by the Vexos. While Reaper’s dignity is not dependent on whether he can beat Hydranoid, I think it’s still a nice treat for Reaper, and a necessary wake-up call for Hydranoid, for Reaper to be the one who saves him after all, this time.

So now we have Hydranoid coming to terms with HIS own weakness and failure, that sort of thing. If Marucho can have two talking Guardian Bakugan, one returning from S1 while the other is new with S2, so can Alice! Also, I guess this means we have an arc where Spectra captures Reaper, and Alice has to team up with Exedra to rescue him…

I should add; One of the first battles Hydranoid has after reuniting with Alice? It’s him finally measuring up in-person against Hades, and just like in canon, it ends with his mechanical replacement obliterated in a single shot. After surviving previous losses with other opponents, Hades crumples in its first battle with the real deal, opening up for MAC Spider to take over. And, since Alice’s battle here isn’t as important (since she’s already garnered plenty of wins beforehand in NV as the protagonist), I guess we can have Hydranoid be defeated by MAC Spider, and perhaps this is the incident in which Reaper steps up to save him! Either way, Alice wins the overall battle, as she should.

This also gets me back to Spectra Phantom and Helios, who themselves are dark reflections of Alice/Masquerade. They’re both motivated to become stronger, and from what I understand, in canon Spectra heads over to the good side after being shown that the Power of Friendship really is the best way to become powerful.

So in other words, his redemption is arguably not altruistic; It’s merely Spectra being offered a legitimate option and taking it. He’s embracing the side of good because he expects a reward for it, that being a strengthened bond between him and Helios that will enable them to access that elusive Power of Friendship. And I think we could really work with this by exploring some proper tension with Spectra as an ally now, given his motives to become one.

Pragmatically speaking, it’s better for the world if Spectra is with them, not against them. But as our protagonists interact with him, again, it becomes clear that Spectra is treating his ‘redemption’ as some sort of transaction, a different type of grab for power. So part of his storyline is being exposed to enough kindness and compassion that he realizes he should appreciate it for its own sake, not for the practical benefits it might bring.

Hydranoid is of course super salty towards Spectra; He participated in his torture. Likewise, it’s this fact that added an additional personal layer between Alice and Spectra’s conflict. Hydranoid demands how they could possibly forgive Spectra for all the wrong he’s committed, but then Reaper cheekily asks the same of Hydranoid himself; Hydranoid was no saint, he sent many Bakugan to the Doom Dimension, as did Reaper.

So they have no place to talk, Reaper figures, so he’s a bit more at peace with this. Reaper likes being given a chance to work on himself and change for the better, so he’s willing to grant that to others, becoming more compassionate. And keep in mind, he was temporarily under Spectra’s control before Alice and Exedra saved him, so Reaper has some stake too!

As our protagonists learn to interact with Spectra in a non-adversarial setting, we see Reaper and Hydranoid reach out to Helios, and help Helios come to terms with his own vulnerability and shortcomings, and thus become less toxically obsessed with becoming stronger to compensate. Helios is less punishing of himself, and thus less reliant on becoming a cyborg, which could be seen as symbolic of self-harm in a sense; This culminates in Mechtanium Surge, in which Helios seems more organic since his redemption!

Likewise, there is SO much awkwardness between Alice and Spectra. Alice is rightfully mad at him for… basically everything, though she does concede, when Spectra brings it up, that she did kinda assume and project a lot of stuff onto him. Spectra still took advantage of it, but Alice was the one who showed up out of nowhere and insisted they were parallels. Reflecting on her own past and motives, Alice explores Spectra’s reason to seek power, and perhaps a loneliness/inadequacy he also struggles with. He’s a lot less of a Poor Meow-Meow compared to Alice regarding their ‘origin’ stories, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t anything there, whatsoever.

And as I said, Spectra learns to appreciate compassion for its own sake, and not as a roundabout means of becoming stronger. He sees that Alice’s kindness is a strength in its own right, that continuing to be hopeful and compassionate even in the face of adversity is not foolishness, but true perseverance. Spectra gains a new appreciation for Alice, and also begins to take accountability for his own actions, working to undo the harm he inflicted. What started off as basically a professional alliance becomes personal and meaningful to him, now.

Alice still has to maintain boundaries around Spectra, who also learns to navigate and respect the distrust that others, especially Hydranoid, still have towards him. And this goes hand-in-hand with his reconciliation with Mira, who probably becomes more aware and accepting of Keith’s flaws, and condemning of them; Meaning Keith really does have to earn back her trust and approval this time. Neither Alice nor Keith feel entitled to forgiveness, but that doesn’t stop them from focusing on just doing actual good for the world regardless. Keith learns to stop hiding behind a mask, and also open up, as Helios and Alice and others do.

That’s the general gist of Alice’s storyline here; Her grappling with her past self as Masquerade, with the guilt of what she did as him. Exploring and bridging the apparent gap between these two identities. There’s a bit of gender discussion in Alice accepting the ‘feminine’ aspect of herself, the soft and kind person, as being just as strong and meaningful as the more aggressive and masculine Masquerade, whom she may have subconsciously embraced out of internalized misogyny (while also still allowing herself to defy gender expectations).

Alice has become stronger, but she also learns to forgive and appreciate her ‘weaker’ past self who got her there, as Masquerade forgives the vulnerability of others. Progress is progress, be it learning to stand up for who you are, or make up for the harm you’ve caused. Forgiveness is the major theme, not just by Alice towards her own sins as Masquerade, but her supposed shortcomings as Alice herself. She’ll move on, but not deny one part to embrace another.

#bakugan #alice gehabich #new vestroia #au #reaper #hydranoid #spectra phantom #helios

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