*visible confusion*

Simon used to pilot the Iron Lung, he made a mistake that lead to dozens of deaths including his drifting partner. The left side of his Jaeger was destroyed which caused severe nerve damage to his left arm, leading to it being amputated

Grace's origin story would be the same until he's recruited by Stratt to do research on Kaiju to find out what they are and why they're attacking. He ends up being the one to discover that they're a hive mind

Rocky can still be an alien in this AU, Erid could be getting invaded at the same time. The Eridians could discover that the energy signal the portal they have is the same signal as Earth's, so they would make contact to figure out what's going on. Rocky and Grace would research the Kaiju together

Once the purpose of the portals are discovered, a team of Jaegers would volunteer (or be selected) to close the portal. Simon is one of the best pilots and he's forced to join to make up for his mistake and a drifting partner has to be found for him. Grace ends up being the most compatible, but he declines because he wants to live

DuBois and Shapiro along with Yáo and Ilyukhina would die fighting multiple high level Kaiju. This causes people to become desperate as there's only one Jaeger left, the Hail Mary, which Simon will pilot

Grace is forced to become a Pilot and go with Simon to close the portal. Rocky and Adrian pilot mechs similar to Jaegers to close their end of the portal

A missile is launched, the portals close, and then Grace and Simon end up on Erid and stay there

Imagine being in a long-term (probably 10+ years) relationship with someone, you've made your boundaries clear that your career is a priority, they stay with you the whole time despite wanting something else, a significantly younger person comes along and tells your partner that they suit your partner's needs better, and then your partner leaves you. Lin's crashout wasn't enough for me, I would've been 10x worse. He should have broken up with Lin a lot earlier and not wasted years of her life.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/65745628/chapters/169315651

I had to do it because Eve (AND Mark) deserve so much better. As I wrote these two as co-protagonists in a slowburn, more clearly coherent season long relationship arc, it made me realise just how safe yet still serviceable, even good their writing was. Writing them this way was NOT easy and it made me appreciate the season even better. It could’ve been a lot worse and the fact that they only feel weird but still make sense on an cerebral level is enough for me now. I have a bit more trust in the Invincible team but Season 4 is still going to be my last season for awhile.

I hope this can make you happy. It’s dense and maybe a bit overlong but I have a story I really want to tell and be understood. Entirely up to you!

My exact reaction when I heard that Paul and Debbie broke up.

The thing is, and arc where she and Nolan got back together could work. If done by any other team of writers. I know that she forgave him in the comics, but that was wayy to soon and she was written so weak there. But the show was an opportunity to take the flaws of the comics and evolve, but that didn't happen.

I know for a fact that these writers aren't going to write her and Nolan's relationship properly. They have the worst trackrecord for character relationships (somehow making some people worse from the comics). I don't know what happened, but after season one everything tanked.

The funeral scene was rage bait with how mad I got with everyone besides Rae. I was jaw-dropped flabbergasted the whole time at everyone's audacity (Mark smiling at a funeral and saying that he's glad that's not him and Eve was so disrespectful in my opinion). Rudy takes on Rex's name after theres a whole scene about Rex talking about how his name is the only thing he has left, this being after Rudy cloned Rex without his consent so that he could be with his deaging crush who wasn't guaranteed to like him back (he chose Rex because he thought that Amanda was attracted to him). This is identity theft to the highest degree, there's nothing honorable about this. Rex himself would be reasonably upset considering, again, Rudy CLONED him without consent and there was nothing he could do about it afterwards but accept it.

Rex, Rae, and Oliver (because he's 1 year old with barely any friends his mental age) were the only people I liked. I steadily grew to become apathetic or dislike everyone else.