First of all, please forgive any grammar mistakes or vague expressions in this message because English is not my first language.
I'm a huge fan of your perryshmirtz fictions on AO3 !
There is something in the PnF episode ''Phineas and Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo'' that's been on my mind for a while.
Think of it as human!Perry perryshmirtz canon divergence. In the dark timeline (Candace from twenty years in the future caused by her successfully busting her brothers) Doofenshmirtz had actually taken over.
While they only showed what it's like 20 years later, I keep wondering about the 'what ifs' from the beginning of the timeline divergence.
What happened to Doofenshmirtz after he survived that tinfoil ball while there was no Perry thwarting him for the next year and a half, and what would it be like for Perry, who failed his mission (probably the first time) and couldn't do anything but watch everything go off the rails? His own family would never be the same again because all creativity was stopped.
In that episode Doof became a cruel emperor in his late years, but that was initially caused by Perry's absence. Without Perry he could never heal from his trauma. He didn't know what he truly wanted anymore and convinced himself that evil was the only path left for him.
Did Perry continue to fight him after recovering?
Think about the tragedy, when Perry came back, there's no longer a way they could bring them back to how things were even though he would try desperately.
And it will make Doof feel struggling too because now he can actually win their battles and every bit of winning draw him further away from Perry.
And despite everything he is still the Doofenshmirtz who wasn't truly evil at heart, so wouldn't it be heartbreaking for Perry to see him fall into the wrong path?
And if there had been feelings towards each other in the beginning, when all of that happened would they still realize it, lie to themselves, or would it all just fade away over time?
All in all, for me there is just so much that can be dug into what the canon just described as 'downhill ever since'.
Could it be something for the if lines of perryshmirtz dynamics?
Also, though it's a dark timeline, I still like to imagine that everything will work out in the end(or not) and have a happy ending(by that I mean at least there's no one dying miserably), because I'm just not the type to handle real angst.
Sorry for the ramble. If it's not your thing, feel free to ignore this entirely, or to prove me wrong.
hi anon so. i had to rewatch Quantum Boogaloo before making my decision bc i was foggy on some of the details. and let me tell you: OH MY GOD THIS IS SO MY THING .
Platyborg's angsty-ass POV in "doubled over" was 1 of my favorite things i wrote that year (with canon!Perry's being probably the 2nd lma), and while i've wanted to do something like that again for a very long time, i never really hit on a way to do so that felt sustainable. then along comes this prompt. holy fuck you're a genius.
see, being someone's nemesis doesn't really entitle you to visit them in the hospital - or know they're in the hospital at all: what's going through Doof's head this whole time? where does he start to go from "making my small daily grievances everybody's problem" to "subjugation with an iron fist?" ohhh we know where lol. your expansion on what would be running thru his head, the way it would be so difficult to pull them both back from the brink even once Perry returned...i'm lovin' it.
and dw, i'm happy to give this one a happy ending - the entire plotline has already pretty much spawned in my head lol, it's gonna be so much fucking fun.
do NOT apologize for the ramble! you unlocked my platypus hindbrain for the first time in over a year so i cannot wait to get into these guys' heads and spin up something fun!! and angsty along the way but that just makes the fun parts even more fun :D
thanks so much!! <33 i will add an update once i start a draft and check in at the 6 week mark o7