robert robertson the third, the man you are 🤍

Made worse by the fact that most authors doing this purposefully make the story summary vague enough that you don't realize it's an OC until you're two chapters in when they're suddenly given a detail description, name, and backstory.

but when you give things to robert, it feels more personal. you take your time, placing the feather in his hands, fingers lingering against his palms. “it reminded me of your eyes,” you say softly. which means you’ve been looking at him, really looking. because this feather has the same flecks of gold, the same color of darker brown that rings his pupils.

TW’ : [SPOILERS] Personally, I don’t like Invisigal. I will let you know that right now. But as an attempt to analyze her character I will be trying to rid myself of any bias and be open to opinions, feel free to comment. I also don’t want anyone to confuse me trying to understand her character and her writing as me defending some of her actions. Mentions of Sexual Assault, daddy issues, intoxication (alcohol), cheating, and etc.

There is a lot I want to talk about on the topic of “DISPATCH” as a whole, but for as of right now Invisigal especially. Online there have already been numerous debates on her as a character entirely within the fandom and I pretty much wanted to be fair and do her Justice, as well as include my two cents and attempt to analyze her entirely since many believe her overall writing and character arcs to be… interesting, to say the least. While I don’t particularly enjoy her, I also think that she has a few complexities that I would like to speak about.

But, let’s get into it…

When we are first introduced to Invisigal, also known as Courtney. She comes off as your tomboy archetype, many in fandom comparing her to characters like Violet from Arcane because of her snarky and rather verbally/physically aggressive persona. She is one of the many interesting characters throughout the game that has joined the SDN’s “Z-Team”, in hopes of rehabilitation.

We don’t know much about her in terms of backstory/background but from the beginning we can clearly see that Invisigal is quite reckless. She doesn’t follow orders, she continuously bombs missions, and more. But as the game progresses we also begin to realize that Invisigal’s biggest character flaw is the fact that she doesn’t see the good in herself. Her recklessness, defensiveness, and the fact that she often goes solo no longer really begins to read as her doing it out of complete malice but as a coping mechanism due to her immense insecurity, low self esteem, and the fact that she doesn’t believe she should be on the team. By her logic, if she doesn’t rely on others she can’t be let down, she can’t be responsible for letting them down. And by failing on her own terms she controls that narrative and it therefore makes it less painful for her to be rejected for being a “fuck up” or “inherently bad” which she is convinced is inevitable.

We don’t know much about the overall world building of dispatch, but I’m going to assume… that like most worlds, there are complex issues and levels of oppressions/discrimination when it comes to certain things. And in DISPATCH’s case, superpowers. And I guess, I can say we see this in the way that the Z-Team and others treat Robert before it’s revealed that he is Mechaman. Underestimating his capabilities because he lacks a superpower. I don’t think it would be too far fetched for me to assume such judgement also applies to those who do have powers. Whether is discrimination/judgement based on capability or the “type” of superpower you have. And in Invisigal’s case, invisibility. Which could also be another reason as to why Invisigal fails to see herself in a good light, because she’s automatically placed into the “villain” category because of her powers.

I can understand, that when you’re raised being told something it’s not easy to just unlearn. And I’m going to apply this logic to Invisigal because it’s obvious that this idea of her inherent villainy is something she internalizes and therefore believes which hinders her from doing the right thing. And it’s probably also another reason why she and Robert have such friction in the beginning. Because she sees him as just another person who believes she can’t better herself.

But when she realizes that in fact, he IS different, that he SEES her different, and that he reckons she can be better, especially after the swing scene. He doesn’t just offer criticism, he offers her belief. He plants that seed and she latches onto him because hes probably the only person that really knows what It’s like to not be believed in. (And this is something they absolutely have in common since Robert battles with his own insecurities about being Mechaman.)

So overall, her journey should be about breaking that cycle. The catalyst being her relationship with Robert which tilts that mask shes been putting on. The central question of her arc becomes: Can she learn to see herself as he does? And in doing so, redefine her power and self?

But unfortunately, we see that the game absolutely fumbles this and in turn oversexualizes her attraction to Robert.

Which brings on the next topic…

In my opinion, I believe the game itself would have been ten times better if it focused on the plot rather than the romance. (Or Atleast gave us a better variety of options to choose from. LIKE HELLO WATERBOY, PHENOMAMAN, PRISM, FLAMBAE, MALEVOLA, AND COOPE ARE ALL RIGHT THERE.)

But I’m not here to put two baddies against each other. (I promised I wasn’t going to be biased.) but instead, we are going to compare Blonde Blazer and Invisigal in terms of how they’re written and their respective relationships with Robert.

Blonde Blazer is the symbol of the classic, confident, and socially celebrated hero. She is a leader and a person who takes charge in her job, such as rebranding a team of ex-villains and giving orders. And honestly, is the complete opposite of Invisigal in terms of persona. But one thing they do share in common is insecurity. While blonde blazer is apparently the epitome of “perfect” she holds some timidity when it comes to her true self, Mandy.

And this insecurity especially affects her relationship with Phenomaman, which I believe is why she truly breaks up with him.

Phenomaman is also the embodiment of the “perfect hero”, essentially their world’s Superman, essentially her “equal”. I think I can definitely assume that Blonde Blazer has a high celebrity status is their world and is very used to having to pretend she has no flaws or “act” for the sake of appearances. While she is very fond of Phenomaman, she comes to realize that… he doesn’t exactly understand her. While he admires and even reveres her, he doesn’t know who she is beyond Blonde Blazer.

In the game, we clearly see, that while he is not at all malicious, Phenomaman sees human beings as weak and vulnerable. And that is also how blonde blazer sees her human self. While that doesn’t justify the cheating, I believe that before robert even came into the picture, she was already debating on leaving Phenomaman for that reason. She doesn’t want to have to perform in a relationship and compared to that first night she had with Robert… She didn’t have to be so professional, she didn’t have to be perfect. She was able to let her guard down. And while yes, this did lead to some questionable choices; like flirting with Robert when she was still in a relationship, it makes complete sense.

And I don’t think the blame is entirely on her since she isn’t the one who initiated the kiss and she immediately pulled away. Plus, she broke up with Phenomaman afterwards.

But in terms of her relationship with Robert I think they have amazing chemistry. (Especially if they’re kissing each other on their first meeting lol.) Blonde Blazer is able to feel comfortable enough with him to expose who she is without the amulet, Robert’s not perfect and that’s what she’s attracted to. While we don’t get too many scenes with Mandy, I think her writing eventually comes full circle when she ditches her amulet to save chase and everyone is able to see her without it. But overall, Blonde Blazer has some sort of growth and character development by the end of the game. (Unlike someone we know...)

Like I mentioned earlier, the catalyst in Invisigal‘a journey for breaking the cycle is her relationship with Robert. But… their relationship feels… weird, to put it plainly. The game constantly sexualizes Invisigal’s attraction to Robert. And personally, it immediately felt strange to me because of how immature Invisigal comes off due to her recklessness and vulgarity. (I was genuinely surprised that she is in fact a 27 year old woman). Her defiance when it came to Robert’s authority came off as very bratty and almost childlike and considering the power dynamics in their relationship: Robert essentially being her boss/mentor it left a bad taste in my mouth.

And the fandom’s objectification of her only made it worse, since in the beginning I didn’t have the full picture of Invisigal’s character and who she was. It felt like the relationship between her and Robert fell flat without the sex, but after her wet dream it was all anybody really seemed fixated on. And this constant over sexualization gave off this icky, older man x bratty teen vibe that I was not at all comfortable with even if it wasn’t intentional. And considering how real life “daddy issues” work (I have them if you haven’t noticed lmao.), I think I can also apply that to the psychology of Invisigal.

A father is often the first major male figure in a person's life. When that relationship is absent, critical, unreliable, or conditional, it can create a deep seated void and a powerful and often unconscious, desire to get that missing validation from other men. I’m not saying Invisigal has daddy issues, because we don’t know her entire backstory, but these issues parallel because she lacked a person in her life that was able to believe in her and believe that she could be a good person.

A person with daddy issues may have learned “I am not worthy of love and attention just for being me. I must earn it." And again, this checks with Invisigal because she tries to prove herself to Robert by over compensating. (Which leads her to continuously fuck up.) Robert is the only one able to see past the persona of her “villainy” and it created a great desire to get that validation from him. That validation not only being his praise but eventually his love. And this is why she oversexualizes herself. It’s because she thinks it will draw her closer to him instead of blonde blazer who in her eyes is “perfect” for Robert.

And since she can’t seem to stop messing up she might have come to believe that her only value to him was her sexuality due to guilt. Kind of like a desperate last ditch effort to please him. It’s about using sexuality as a tool to achieve security and again, hopefully win his affections.

"If I am sexually desirable, then he will stay. If he desires me, then I am valuable. Maybe I’m not a fuck up.”

(But I’m not AT ALL excusing that locker room scene. I feel like that was definitely a mistake on the developers part because they literally basically make that scene happen no matter what option you choose. Instead of being a complex, flawed, and choice driven action by a traumatized character, it becomes something the game does to the player and to Robert. It transitions from a character moment to a forced and strange plot beat. And again, I’m not at all excusing it because who goes invisible, pushes someone up against a locker, and kisses them without their consent? And as a person who has experienced sexual assault on multiple occasions, that entire situation made me extremely uncomfortable. And I know a lot of people online definitely agree. BUT. [I know, crazy. But stay with me.] it’s a scene I also wanted to analyze a bit deeper.)

It was clear to me that when she kisses him in that locker room it was her ultimate act of desperate overcompensation. It’s a Hail Mary pass, using a tool she's come to rely on (sexuality) to force a connection and shut down his (perceived) rejection and her internal competition with blonde blazer. "All I wanted... was for you to look at me the same way you look at Blazer." It's a power move born from a place of utter powerlessness.

This is the thesis statement of her entire arc in this moment. She isn't just asking for forgiveness; she is begging for him to see the same inherent worth in her that he sees in the "perfect" hero, Blonde Blazer. She feels fundamentally inferior, and his validation is the only thing that can repair that. And he replies, "I don't know what you mean by that," is a critical moment. But from his perspective, he's already given her the ultimate gift; forgiveness and a guaranteed place on the team ("I'm not letting anyone cut you"). But he's offering professional salvation, while she is asking for emotional validation. He's solving the wrong problem. She has laid her soul bare, and he doesn't, or can’t grasp the depth of what she's asking for. Her "numbness" is the feeling of this failure. Words have failed her so she defaults to action. And the only language of connection she believes in with any confidence is a physical, sexual one.

The kiss she gave him wasn’t exactly a kiss of passion but one that was supposed to potray that is trying to physically show him what she couldn't make him understand with words. "You want to know what I mean? This is what I mean." It's an attempt to bridge the gap she feels between them.

And her use of invisibility here is very symbolical. It's the tool of her "villainy," but she's using it in this moment to be brave enough to be vulnerable. However, this bravery manifests as aggression and violation which twists the intention entirely. (And this doesn’t at all excuse the violation. I’m just trying to explain it.) It's the act of someone who is so emotionally illiterate and so desperate for connection that they resort to the only method they think might work, regardless of the other person's boundaries. It's a last desperate gamble to make him "see" her.

But again, the player is given the option to react to the kiss, but not to prevent the initial violation. This forces the player into a complicit position they did not choose. And it makes the kiss feel like a scripted event that happens to Robert and the player rather than a character choice. It robs you of agency and the Ick people feel towards this scene is completely valid.

And the fact that she basically betrays you again if you choose to lean out of the kiss is crazy to me. The game will tell you at the end that you chose to “neglect” Invisigal, like she’s a child and I hate it. It’s a full regression of her arc and implies her value was contingent on Robert’s romantic acceptance. This her self forgiveness and reinforces her toxic belief that she needs a man's validation to be good. (Which is terrible on the writers part.) and compared to blonde blazer… it’s pretty dissatisfying.

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But yea… overall I think Invisigal is a very complex female character, but it’s badly written in the game. And while I do understand her character, I don’t think she needs to be in a relationship until she learns not to tie her self worth to the way others perceive her. (Especially Robert.) and I enjoy their relationship more when it’s more platonic leaning rather than strictly romantic. Because if winning Robert’s affection is her “happy ending” it makes her value determined by a man’s approval. A better arc for her would be for her to be able to stand on her own and earn a place on the team with her own merit. And the regression of her character when rejected proves my point.

i have now seen ppl complaining about reader (y/n) always being weak, feminine and bimbo-esque and also seen ppl complaining that reader is always strong, masculine and confident/cocky… can you guys pick a struggle?

like ofc not every single x reader fic is gonna have your exact personality??? i personally see a healthy mix of different reader characterizations so idk what we’re complaining so much about. if you want a reader that suits you more then start writing your own fics ig.

Artists. STOP POSTING ART OF YOUR OC/SELF INSERT WITH CANON IN THE ‘CANON X READER’ TAG.

Same for fic writers. If your fic is an oc/self insert x canon (as in the MC has a name, is described physically, does not use reader/yn), DO NOT POST IT UNDER THE ‘CANON X READER’ OR ‘CANON X Y/N’ TAGS

" TAKE IT " — M. Grayson

Info: Mark Grayson Variants x GN! Reader

SMUT

Variants: Mohawk Mark, Sinister Mark, Viltrumite Mark, Prisoner Mark, No Goggles Mark, Full Mask Mark, Sheisty Mark, Omni Mark, Long Hair Mark, Tracksuit Mark, Light Blue Suit Mark, Bald Cap Mark, Flaxan Mark, Mustache Mark, and Retro Mark.

There were too many hands on your body to count.