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Extra (Bernard outfit) 🤭

Before the month ends, timbern in pride month 💕🏳️‍🌈

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Before the month ends, timbern in pride month 💕🏳️‍🌈

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Happy Pride!

Based on this: https://bsky.app/profile/waitingforthetrade.bsky.social/post/3lshxzx5bfc2l

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Timber and their infant son (it’s Tim’s 15 year old brother)

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The voices in my head told me to draw Fem!Bernard and Fem!Tim together! Or, Brianna and Timmy ❤️

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No, he is not a Completely Different Character from when he was in high school - The Continuity of Bernard Dowd

SO I often see the argument that Bernard my man has changed into a completely different guy since high school. Me too, bestie. And much like Bernard, if you had met me in high school, you probably would have wanted to throw me into a lake.

People grow and change from high school to young adulthood, of course, but the nature of this criticism tends to be the idea that there's no continuity - that Bernard was completely retconned and there's very little to nothing recognizable of his personality and characterhood at the time. The common argument I see is that there's no way to reconcile the differences, even taking into account that people naturally age out of being obnoxious teens.

This just isn't the case. I got into it a little at the tail end of my previous post about Bernard and the art of Recontextualization, but it's really astounding just how much effort seems to have been put into respecting the continuity of the character. I'm gonna go through the 1993 Robin run and go character trait by character trait and see how these scenes read as foundational information for the continuity of the Bernard we have today.

Yeah you heard me. It's basically a fucking listicle. come at me

(SPOILERS for Tim Drake: Robin, Urban Legends, and the 1993 Robin run under the cut!)

1) "They just randomly made him gay" - yeah but it was really funny and based did you ever think of that

I already posted this one last time but let's take a minute to really sit with this one because it's soooooooo

It's absolutely undeniable that the original author of the Robin run almost certainly intended Bernard to be a pointedly heterosexual teenage boy. No arguments there. I actually think based on my experience living in that era and being bi that if you'd suggested the idea of an explicitly deeply closeted best friend for Tim Drake in the early 2000s at DC they would have laughed in your face and then possibly fired you and/or called you a slur or something. There are probably standout queer comics from the time, but mainstream Batman? We're making this for boys that want to ogle Steph's tits, I say, grinding up a rock into dust in my bare hand as I look over this storyline again for panels

My point here is that a lot of comics at the time come off as overly exaggerated about how cool and manly and heteronormative their guy characters are, which is of course also the ultimate refuge of the closeted gay guy. If they'd been normal about it it wouldn't have been so easy to read closeting into it, but as it is...

Yeah this is believable from a teenager but becomes a zillion times funnier as just covering a panic attack over going over to meet the cute boy's paren- wait why does he have elf ears. Why does he look 40 five panels ago

the two genders etc etc.

ANYWAY this was obviously a purposeful choice when rehauling the character. We're going to see a pattern of using things from the 2000s that were baffling or weird in retrospect and expanding on them to bring some consistency and intrigue to his character. "Now Pika," I hear you saying, having divined my nickname from some other source, "you're showing panels out of context to create a false narrative. Five panels ago when Bernard was 40 he was notably accused of staring at Tim's stepmom ALL DINNER. That sounds just, just SLIGHTLY heterosexual and there's really no other explanation f

2) He was always smarter than he looked actually

ah.

ah.

I said before that a lot of Bernard is hidden behind layers.

While he appears to be a dumbass in the 2000s, he manages to notice something is Wrong with Tim. Like, consistently. A lot of what we see on panel is Bernard questioning Tim and probing into his personal life - he notices something is unusual about Tim on literally their first meeting, and no shit, Bernard is only in a grand total of five scenes with Tim in the entire run and he spends four of them asking inconvenient personal questions at Tim.

"Tim, is your dad secretly an asshole? Blink twice for yes" "How about we stop talking for a little while"

Obviously in the context of the 2000s this is just like forced drama. But there's a sort of elegance in how seamless it is to look back at this with the context that he's been someone who downplays his own intelligence the whole time. Like "actually, he tends to hit on or adjacent to the truth a LOT, doesn't he?" Even without the new stuff, it's a pertinent observation.

3) "I like Robin a normal amount" - guy who pirates modded Robin games

This feels free. Is this free? I feel like this is free. I don't need to explain this one. Celebrity crushes on Superheroes are literally always funny

See Mario dies every time and it's like not the same guy. There's actually 3 Marios and then every time you make a certain amount of money (points) they get enough to clone a new one. Wait Tim come back I hadn't gotten to the shadow Koopa government. Bowser isn't actually in charge it's Big Goomba -

4) Alienation and the sincere desire to seek meaning in this life

The cult thing might seem to come out of nowhere if you were focused on his goofy persona and the specifics of Bernard's hilarious theories, but it's interesting to me that we get told that Bernard doesn't feel like he fits in like literally right away. One of his very first panels:

yeah okay i sure buy that dude

Bernard is textually, before adding any of the new stuff into the mix, an outsider. He has weird conspiracy theories, he's initially dressed like a douche who's trying to impress everyone and actually impressing no one, and he's obviously putting on airs here.

A lot of people who are depressed are just... you'd never know. Sincerely, the person you know who laughs the loudest and surrounds themselves with the most people might be the most depressed, the most isolated.

In the future, we see that he's similarly got a lot of people that know him, but not a lot of people that know him.

Having him get caught up in a cult after this setup is a very logical progression. He was already the type of personality to turn to conspiracies to feel some degree of fulfillment as a teen. Why the fuck wouldn't he become a Gotham cult statistic. Cults love intelligent people who are susceptible to isolation and emotionally not in a good place.

There's actually a really clever set of panels in the Urban legends run where Tim and Bernard are fighting against the chaos cult and they're mirrored. And Tim is the one "speaking", but the way the comic is framed, you can tell that they were both kind of having the same struggle from different angles and it doesn't snap into place until they fight together.

God, I love the medium of comics. I didn't actually notice this until I was writing this up and staring at panels. This is so subtle, but when you stop to look, the visual language clicks. They're both searching for something. The same thing. But it's not explicit. You gotta be paying close attention.

I think part of the reason people accuse Bernard of being bland or too different from before or whatever is that so much of this requires you to read. No, come back, hold on -

Like, the fundamental writing sleight of hand on this guy is that they earnestly set up the premise that he's so convincing that he managed to fool Tim, and by extension the distracted reader. To this end, Fitzmarten, and I can't believe I'm saying this, successfully weaponized the shittiness of early 2000s writing.

The idea that they went with is that sometimes you think you know people, but you don't have the full story until you really look and actively put the pieces together. He's someone, that very real kind of person, that flies under the radar both in and out of the fiction. And when the whammy hits -

- you end up wondering if you ever knew them at all.

This is very real. I mentioned earlier that you might not know someone is depressed until you know them very, very well or they tell you. And it's true. Be on the lookout for people like Bernard in your own life - from personal experience, they could use someone on their side.

Bonus: No he was legit always that insane. I think this is some A to B shit

"well if my friend won't hire me as a super-manager maybe I'll just prepare for the next time I see a superhero by learning martial arts!" - extremely normal thing to do thank you bernard. that's all folks

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The Conflict of Timbern: More Thoughts

As usual, SPOILERS for Tim Drake: Robin under the cut

So you might have read my post on The Conflict of Timbern. I'll link to it but the TL;DR is that the overarching conflict of their relationship, and thus the comic, is that Bernard doesn't know that Tim doesn't know that Bernard knows. and like

I saw this set of panels again and it fucking clicked that this is yet another hint that Tim isn't paying enough attention to realize that Bernard Knows. That they are YET AGAIN having two different conversations. this is basically shaking the reader by the shoulders and telling them what's going on again

Like, Bernard, who has been pushing the entire comic so far to be included in Tim's vigilante work, gives him a symbol of him to take with him IN BOTH IDENTITIES.

He wants to be fully in on Tim's life in whatever capacity he can. They just got out of a restaurant fire where Tim had to leave and Bernard desperately didn't want him to even though he understood it was Robin Business. He visibly like. You can see him making peace with it even as it hurts him to be left out -

- because it means that Tim isn't fully engaged with his life or his problems, either. Bernard immediately has to face down his homophobic parents alone because he's covering for Tim, who only did this dumb bathroom charade because he thinks Bernard isn't wise to his identity.

They're textually and subtextually separated in the problems they face because of this misunderstanding, to the point where it's highlighted beautifully in this page where Bernard is having the worst moment of his month as Tim is doing Robin Shit in the background.

Yeah. Life is worse when Tim's not around. Which he's not, right now, not really. Is he?

I think the real masterstroke of this issue is actually this - two pages later, when they're back together and actually talking.

Basically the instant they actually speak, Tim has the flashbulb moment to solve what's going on because of something Bernard noticed. The writing is telling us clearly: When they're communicating, they make a fantastic team.

Yes, this issue highlights and drives home a major problem in their relationship that had previously been foreshadowed. But look at how well they work together when they're on the same page? We're obviously foreshadowing the payoff of this whole (sadly ultimately cancelled) arc: a relationship where they work together seamlessly and bring out the best in each other.

This excellent beat is only possible because Bernard is far more perceptive than Tim gives him credit for, even as he's actively being helped by Bernard's skills. In fact, this mirrors a similar situation in the previous arc when Tim overlooks a critical fact about the Moriarty case (That HIS OWN COPIES of the books were missing, if I'm not reading this wrong, pointing to the fact that it had to be someone that had access to his boat) because he's too in his own head and isn't really listening to what Bernard is saying in favour of being Sherlock-brained and following Moriarty's very interesting and ultimately misleading literary-themed trail.

So like coming back to this. The Panels that sent me on this journey.

Tim fundamentally underestimates Bernard, misunderstands their relationship as a result! They're telling us again!!! They're mirroring it at us multiple times throughout the whole of TD:R!!!!!!

What a tightly written book man. TD:R fucking rules

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"Does He Know, Chat?" - The Conflict of Timbern

There's so much about Tim Drake: Robin that is characterized by being a cancelled run. Like, every reading of it should come with the context that they meant to do way more and were forced to close the doors early because of sales. The knowledge that we'd basically been doing Act 1 this whole time puts a lot into perspective!

While the overarching plot had just started to kick in and I think that's what most people catch, that it seemed slow to move (Something I think isn't necessarily true either but that's another day another longpost). BUT I think many people miss that we'd also just started to hit the meat of Tim and Bernard's relationship.

Specifically, we'd just - JUST - gotten enough information to deduce the central complication to their relationship. A miscommunication of epic proportions that affects how two people that very much love each other view the other and their place in the relationship. One that actually does have a few cracks showing on-panel! I think - and I'm being more speculative than usual here, but I feel solid about this one - if the comic had gone on, we'd have seen this become The Conflict.

Spoilers for Tim Drake: Robin under the cut. And as a VERY important note, because this is under the lens of an exploration of what the run was building to before it was cancelled, we'll be assuming that information given out in the last two issues was what the writer intended to give out later, but rushed for the ending.

Anyway, I call this game "Does he Know, chat?"

Step 1: Bernard Knows

Yeah, this is pretty straightforward. He says this one out loud to the audience.

I've previously made the case, or at least implied that it is the case, that Bernard not only knows, but he knows that Tim is Robin for his entire time onscreen for the TD:R run. This is because he is hilarious about it.

Absolute icon. He's so unserious

He's hilarious about it and he's also... cagey about it. He lets Tim move at his own pace about telling him, but he also pries gently into it when he thinks Tim might be in over his head.

RIGHT, ANAKIN?

we're coming BACK to this conversation later in full trust

When exactly did he figure it out? Dunno. Doesn't really matter for anything besides comedy value. I think it is the most funny if he somehow put it together years ago, but I think the evidence of his trolling and doublespeak points to somewhere between his reintroduction in Urban Legends and the start of TD:R - you could argue that him asking Robin to take his last words to Tim is when he figures it out, but that's ehhhhhh. It don't mattah.

Step 2: Tim Doesn't Know Bernard Knows

So like. Tim doesn't fucking know, chat

No literally like I'm combing through the entire comic. Is there any indication he knows besides Bernard assuming that he does? We see his thought bubbles. Since it's really hard to show the absence of a panel let's just take some looks at Tim Drake's Inner Monologues While Hanging Out With The Guy That He Allegedly Knows Knows His Secret Identity

I could scrape for more examples, and there are more, but we get this, right? This is not how you think about the guy you know knows your secret. He is in fact straight up anxious about Bernard finding out that he's been lying to him. He goes out of his way to point out that he's not sharing his full self, which would presumably include, as the mooks put it, da Bats.

Actually, no, I changed my mind. Let's scrape for more examples. All of those are pretty early on, so what about in the middle of the comic?

Still actively hiding his mask from Bernard. Visibly panicked. From Bernard's revelation, we know that Bernard is fully aware of who he's talking to - one might even take this conversation as him prodding at Tim to just stop the charade already, but having fun with it.

Like "I don't think I'd be dating my boyfriend if it weren't for you" speaking to the boyfriend in question. LMAOOOOOOOOO Bernard I'd die for you

Tim's so firmly separated his identities and doubled down on keeping this secret from Bernard, in fact, that in their penultimate meetup before the finale, he grieves the fact that he can't be there to comfort Bernard as himself.

I don't think this is because he was simply unwilling to come as Tim. This is, put together with everything else, the behaviour of someone who. Well. Doesn't Know, chat.

Oh yeah and there is also that he outright says "Bernard can't Know" but what would the fun be in leading with that 💖

Step 3: Bernard Doesn't Know Tim Doesn't Know Bernard Knows

Okay so now we're really getting into the juice of this.

Bernard thinks they're on the level.

A lot of people see this as proof that Tim does in fact know, but the thing is that, as we just handily established, everything we see from Tim's POV contradicts this. Sometimes explicitly.

Which leaves the obvious answer - that Bernard is an unreliable narrator. He doesn't fucking Know, chat!

Hey sooooooo remember how I said that Bernard has a habit of dropping Robinisms into conversation or bringing up Tim to Robin because he's prodding at Tim to drop it?

Bernard you are soooo insane for this level of doublespeak. Just talk to your boyfriend my man

Bro sincerely thinks that Tim is just. Holding out on him on a pretense. This explains why he is so GOD DAMN MAD when Tim comes knocking as Robin when the Chaos Cult comes back to town.

Like. From the Bernard POV. The disrespect from Tim here.

Step 4 - Ruh Roh Raggy

This is, as the writers' workshops say, THE CONFLICT. The fundamental disconnect of Tim and Bernard's relationship is that they're going through the same motions and interpreting them completely differently!

Tim DOESN'T realize Bernard is smarter than he appears he DOESN'T realize that every time he's sent Bernard away or tried to send him away to deal with something, something that happens repeatedly

that Bernard has known that he wasn't letting him into his life all the way and he DOESN'T trust Bernard enough to let him in despite Bernard making him very happy. He's so hung up on doing the relationship Right and not compromising Robin as he learned it from Batman (Themes!) that he misses that he has a competent partner right next to him who is willing to be his equal.

I sincerely believe that we were in the buildup for this to come to a head when the run was cancelled. The buildup itself is, in fact, excellent - as we've proven, if you're paying attention, you can see this coming like an oncoming train.

I actually specifically want to highlight how tightly Page fucking 2 of the run sets this up. Like mmmmmm writing masterclass here

This page is doing double duty as foreshadowing the Moriarty fakeout (Ooooh is Bernard the bad guy? No lol) and just setting up that Bernard knows and that Tim is too distracted by Bernard... being the Bernard he likes to put forward... to notice.

Like it is genuinely impressive how many conversations in this run, on reread, mean completely different things to both participants, and they start it RIGHT away.

I've been focused on Tim here so far but on Bernard's side he's just. He speaks in doublespeak all the time. Like even when it's something he's upset about or has hurt him in the past he just keeps it in and hints at it because he trusts Tim blindly to understand because he's a detective and shit. Look at this mf he can't turn the layered meanings machine off he's even doing it in the Pride Special

THE PRIDE SPECIAL!! Metaphor loving mf... you're everything to me you funny bastard

So basically if this had been allowed to run its course...

Step 5 - Okay so we now Know that Bernard Doesn't Know that Tim Doesn't Know that Bernard Knows. what now

... Well, it would have been really fucking interesting!! I think Bernard would not have been happy to know he'd been so thoroughly misunderstood and underestimated, and I think Tim would have been very torn between his bat-training and what needed to be done to make things work between them.

Personally? I think that Tim would have learned that he doesn't need to be the Robin that he was before and that it was getting in the way of really knowing Bernard. At the same time that Bernard learned that his conception of Robin (and by extension Tim) as larger than life was getting in the way of knowing who Tim really was.

Step X - Reflections

I find myself, like... I keep coming back to these two. The build here is incredible, and subtle, and it's really a credit to the writing that I can just go back and panel by panel always find some new way that it was tightly written when looking for the panels for these writeups. Their interactions are layered, and each layer has something interesting going on. Really great use of (in the interim I learned the proper term for this!) delayed decoding! I really don't understand why people don't think Tim is interesting in this, too. He's out here being the second funniest mf in Gotham.

Unfortunately, having to end the run on Tim being rescued in costume by Bernard being the world's least subtle about Knowing, we kinda blew our chance to slowburn this in canon. Maybe a good canon divergent fanfic departing from before the last issue could do this justice, idk.

Such is comics! Hope this turns out to be good reference material for someone, at least.

Seeya!

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spiderman kisses

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and for the fourth year in a row, my annual timbern pride drawing 🥹

I don't know how to feel about this year's... I tried something new but now I wish I went with the theme I used to always go with .. not a speck of bisexual colours in this years, fly high to their bisexuality I guess 😭🙏

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Tim showing off his brand new outfit, happy Pride month everyone!!

Outfit inspired by the pride robin funko pop. Pose reference from the Robin #150: ONE YEAR LATER comic cover.

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lame civilian boyfriend that no one likes (he's my favourite)

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This guy finally made it into my hands after a month of travel and three months stuck in customs 😭💕

And also some comics that arrived months ago 🫶

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i feel like we aren’t properly exploring the aesthetic implications of a cult that worships dionysus

(READ THE TAGS IF YOU CAN I PUT MORE STUFF THAN I THOUGHT I WOULD IN THERE AND I DONT WANNA COPY-PASTE)

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sk8ter bois (he said see you later boy)

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It's so funny how everyone was saying that Tim was going to die in Hush 2 and he's yet to even come. So many people in this arc are getting their ass beat and yet fans were planning funeral for the one guy who is most likely too busy fucking his bf in his shitty boat to even show up. Happy Pride in advance 🎊🎊

Hell yeah brother