kerravonsen | The Sentinel For Fanfic Writers (Reply)

I've read a few MCU/Sentinel crossovers recently that gave the impression that the author had never watched an episode of The Sentinel in their life. Which is kinda sad. There's two things that attracted fans to the show: the buddy cop vibe, and the worldbuilding. Lots of fan writers took the worldbuilding and ran with it, sometimes very far away. One of the most influential worldbuilding-extensions was the "GDP" series by Susan Foster. More on that later. The Sentinel has been described as "the little black dress" of fandom, because if you just take the worldbuilding aspect of it, you can cross it over with practically anything. And it seems that people are writing crossovers based on the fanfic they've read, rather than the actual series.

So I'm going to do an introduction to the Sentinel worldbuilding, what is canon, what is fanon, and possibly what is in-between.

So what is the premise? What are Sentinels? (No, they aren't robots, this has got nothing to do with the X-Men.)

Sentinels are people with superior senses; all of their senses. I don't say "enhanced senses", because they aren't mutants, they are 100% human. Indeed, they could be considered a genetic throwback, because Sentinels were more common in the past, in tribal cultures. They guarded the tribe, spotted dangers before anyone else could. Sentinel abilities can remain latent or be suppressed, but they can be triggered by isolation under stress in the wilderness (such as being stranded in the Peruvian jungle when all your fellow Army Rangers died in the helicopter crash).

Another difference is that, unlike most superheroes with enhanced senses, Sentinel senses come with two (very logical) vulnerabilities.

The first is "zone-outs". This is when a Sentinel is concentrating on one sense to the exclusion of all the others, and they become completely unresponsive, caught up in the one thing they are focusing on.

The second is sensory overload. This comes in two flavours, a "sensory spike" and a general sensory overload. A sensory spike is the acute form, when a Sentinel is overwhelmed by one of his senses due to an unexpected and large stimulus, such as a sudden loud noise when they were concentrating on their hearing. This can not only be overwhelming, but painful. General sensory overload can involve more than one sense, and is caused when the Sentinel has trouble controlling his senses due to things such as being drugged, or ill, or suffering from PTSD. When this happens, clothing can feel like sandpaper, mild chilli can taste like a Carolina Reaper, the softest whisper can sound like a shout, etc. Also general sensory overload can happen when a latent/suppressed Sentinel comes fully online suddenly, and they haven't yet learned how to control these abilities.

These vulnerabilities mean that a Sentinel needs to work with a partner, called a Guide. At the bare minimum, a Guide would watch a Sentinel's back, protect him when he's vulnerable. But in the longer term, a Guide would help a Sentinel come out of zone-outs, and help them when they have sensory overload. They are an outside presence, able to "guide" a Sentinel back to stability.

That's the straightforward part. Then we get the mysticism. This didn't come in until later in the series, and only came up in half a dozen episodes at most, so many fan stories ignore it, while other fan stories embrace it with much love. The mystic part is that Sentinels and Guides have spirit animals/guides, and a Sentinel can have mystic visions involving such guides and other guiding figures. I can't remember if the Guide can see their spirit animal, but I think it's only the Sentinel. Also over time, a Sentinel can develop their "sixth sense" to a degree that they can see ghosts.

That's canon.

Now we get to the fanon. Let me tell you about the GDP universe...

This is a near-future AU where Sentinels and Guides are well-known.
Guides are empaths who form a psychic bond with their Sentinel.
Bonding rituals can involve animalistic behaviour on the part of the Sentinel, such as sniffing and biting.
Sentinels are insanely protective of their bonded Guide, to the degree that they become berserkers if their Guide is harmed or threatened.
Guides are an oppressed minority.
Sentinels are basically above the law when caught up in a berserker rage.

Now, the "Guides are empaths, psychic bond" trope is very popular, so I can't be sure if it originated with the GDP series, but I'm pretty sure all the others above did.

Other pieces of fanon I've seen:

Guides can see their spirit animals as well as Sentinels.
All Sentinels and Guides can see not only their own spirit animals, but the spirit animals of other Guides and Sentinels.
Spirit animals can send messages like Lassie.

The things in-between...

There are some things in canon which are ambiguous as far as the worldbuilding goes. Because we have incidents which only occurred once, were they one-off, or a pattern for all time? Because we're dealing with two individuals, can we say that their behaviour is due to being a Sentinel or Guide, or simply due to their individual characters?