#play ball

Rotating Deathstroke Rebirth Defiance arc no capes little league baseball AU in my mind. Manager Adeline Kane putting so much work into building her team from the ground up and then right at the start of the season her ex husband becomes coach and rips it out from under her. Slade giving Tara the "I never loved you" beat because it's her last year before she's too old for little league and she's not going to be useful anymore. So much of Tanya's abuse can still happen almost unchanged, and it becomes so much more horrifying when it isn't framed by a background of superheroes and villains. I know this is reductive but Slade's motives are almost stereotypical of an overzealous youth sports coach, treating every relationship with a younger person as an opportunity to fix old mistakes and prepare them for the life he lived instead of the life they want to live. I remembered this tomatog clip while I was writing this and it's so fitting, all that's missing is a bit about Grant