Looking at Young Justice, it’s easy to see where the Masks come from.
Miss Martian ~ Outsider
Robin ~ Protege
Super Boy ~ Bull
Kid Flash ~ Legacy
So, Aqualad? – He does have Mentor of course, but his relationship to Orrin is not the one implied by the Protege playbook. He never struggles with growing into an image of Orrin or not. Their different powers and the fact that Aqualad will never become King of Atlantis notwithstanding, their values and outlook pretty much align already.
Other than that, Aqualad does come Somewhere Else, but if he ever had problems adjusting to the Surface World, that was before the series started. Legacy doesn’t work either. There is no dynasty of Aqua-People yet. (Tula might react in that way.)
But let’s look at the issue in terms of what actually applies. I think, the most pertinant question to Mask playbooks is their defining relationships. The Doomed relates to their Doom, the Bull to Love & Rival, the Protege to their Mentor, the Transformed to their new body.
So what is the difficult relationship that Aqualad struggles with? – His career choice. That’s what the Heroing thing is to him. A job. A worthwile one, sure, but not the only worthwile one in the world.
Unlike the others, he wasn’t pushed into this life, like Megan. He didn’t stumble into it, like Wally. It was not his way to salvation, as for Dick. Sure, being a prime student at the Academia, he was offered the position of Aqualad, but he could have said no.
The playbook, I have not considered here, is Beacon. Is Aqualad a Beacon? Not quite. Beacons also choose the life, but they do so for novelty and adventure. But that is not why Aqualad is here.
And having found that pattern, there are some other characters in other franchises who act similarly: Yang in RWBY, Sakura in Naruto. They all do the hero / hunter / ninja thing, because, where they come from, it is a valid way of life.
We have a couple of playbooks yet to come, one of which might fit the bill. I suspect the Soldier might be the closest concept.
Interesting. I would have dubbed it “The Student”.
The Professional?
Professional sounds like they are already adults. Kinda messes with the teenage hero thing.
With Student, I can think of more teenage appropriate moves, like: How would someone react, who has formal education in Heroing, but no practice?
I always considered him a Legacy. He’s ‘Aqua-lad’ after all, and he fights villains connected to Aquaman, such as Black Manta. Isn’t elemental powers part of the Legacy playbook too?
Sure. There are plenty of possible interpretations. The book mentions him as an example of Protege.
Legacy might work, if you consider the aristocracy of Atlantis as a whole his Legacy. The playbook clearly assumes that there is more than guy preceding you.
Kaldur is kind of hard to pin down because of how obscenely well adjusted he is. That said, I think having a good relationship with your mentor doesn’t necessarily disqualify you from being a Protege, and he does struggle with the burden of leadership, which is the same role that Aquaman takes. So I think Protege is a pretty good fit overall.
Kaldur is the Protege and his struggle is the burden of leadership, just like Aquaman has. Robin is the Beacon and Wally is the Legacy. They can be interchangeable, but since the game calls for each player to play a different playbook to get the maximum effect, that’s how I would do it.
Wally is clearly the Legacy because The Flash is active and Jay has retired, which is kind of what the playbook asks you for. Robin is the Beacon because he really is the life of the party. By Season 2, he’s not the Beacon anymore, he’s the Protege.
Artemis is a strong contender for Beacon. She is constantly struggling with whether she’s supposed to be there. Robin less so.
She’s listed as an example Beacon in the book, actually. Though arguably she’s a textbook Reformed, considering how often she trades favors with Cheshire.
They call out Miss Martian as a Nova in the book too….
I think season two M’gann is pretty Nova-y, when she goes all glowy eyed and scary, letting her emotions override her better judgment and putting villains into comas and whatnot. I mean, she’s the closest example on the show at least.