#Bruce: HES KILLING PEOPLE

[ilostmygenderalongwithmydignity]

AU where Jason still does the Red Hood thing, but he specifically shows up when Bruce is in a different country on WE business, Tim is in California with Young Justice, and Dick is on a space mission. This means that at first some people just assume he’s the vigilante that Batman left in charge, before they’re like “ohhhhh, he’s being a crime lord. Okay, yeah, maybe this isn’t sanctioned,” and also he said something about the Bat that sounded SUPER bitter, and not in a “he’s making me take care of Gotham” way

But Gordon is a good detective, so he makes sure to do his research and realizes hey, crime has actually gone down under Red Hood’s rule, and figures “fuck it” and approaches him like “hey, you’re doing a decent job, also here’s a list of cops I’m pretty sure are involved in the mob but I can’t prove it, have fun” and Jason is just like “thank you for the enrichment :)” and two days later half of the people on the list are dead, a quarter have had their personal files leaked to the FBI, and the others have all been given the all-clear via a folder left on the roof of the GCPD headquarters.

Anyway, Jason ends up putting the red bat on his armor not to piss Bruce off (even though that was the original plan), but because he’s become the same symbol of hope as the light shining in the sky, just focused specifically on the long-forgotten East End, specifically Crime Alley. The people love him, Gordon doesn’t really give a shit that he sometimes kills people (he’s been praying for the Joker’s downfall for years now), and it’s the most peaceful the city has been without Batman literally ever.

Bruce comes back full of anxiety and expecting the city to have imploded or sunk into the sea, only to find that… it’s fine. In fact, it’s doing better than average. No rogues are running rampant, crime is down, and when the Bat Signal turns on, instead of the yellow that it’s been for years, it’s glowing blood red (one of the rookies put a filter on it since the normal Bat was still out of town).

He gets to the roof of the GCPD to find Gordon already talking to someone, a man his size with a red bat on his chest and practically dripping in guns. He takes one glance at Batman and leaves, taking a folder with him.

Basically, Jason originally intends to use their absence to cement himself without having to worry about the Bats, but instead accidentally starts to replace him. Bruce is crashing out. Dick is still in space. Tim is in the middle of murdering Santa Claus. Jason, on the other hand, has convinced Gordon to have an active shoot-on-sight order for any time the Joker escapes, and is living his best life

[goldfishinaplasticbag]

damian being held up on bruce’s shoulders (but they’re super serious) for @catacoves aka my dearest admin in crime of @dcforgaza <3 appreciate you for helping host and also donating!

donations are still open until June 21st!!!! get yourself a piece of art for just a $5 donation 0-:

[imtired-likerllytired]

Headcanon that bludhaven hates heroes with a flaming passion bc theyre just cops in tights but love Nightwing and therefore vehemently deny his hero status to anyone and everyone.

Like there is no official Nightwing merch bc he’s a criminal he’s committing a crime okay vigilante justice is in fact not legal and he’s not TECHNICALLY on the justice league and he’s NOT TECHNICALLY the leader of the titans anymore. But there are about 400 different Etsy stores that make hoodies, crop tops, joggers, sweats, sunglasses, bracelets, t shirts with nightwings logo or some art of him on them.

Like they love this guy and will get into beef with any Gotham national who tries to claim Nightwing is THEIR hero.

1) hes not a hero he’s a criminal fuck you

2) you have a hero and just bc he’s shit at his job and needs our guy (who is NOT a hero) to help him sometimes doesn’t MEAN SHIT

people are walking around with tiny v shaped blue tattoos or embroidered on clothing but again NOT A HERO BLUDHAVEN DOESNT DO HEROS

There are coffee shops with bad nightwing pun names nightbird, beanwing, nightwinging it and so on

Every third piece of graffiti is this man’s logo

Every sandwich place or fast food chain has a ‘secret menu item’ that’s not actually secret bc everyone orders it and it’s just one of their normal items dyed blue (sodas, desserts, burger buns, condiments so on) some places will sell wings fried in blue panko bread crumbs and call them them ‘nightwings’ ofc these are ALL off the menu you can’t see these items and if you try to order them out of the city you get weird looks.

Superman goes on tv and says Nightwing is one of his favorite hero’s and bludhaven riots. wtf nightwing is your favorite hero you fuckin poser

1) nightwing isn’t a hero he’s a criminal so back off

2) he’s ours you and your frou frou fancy city that hasn’t been nuked by a sentient pile of radiation can fuck RIGHT off

Naturally the only person in bludhaven who is unaware of this is Dick Grayson bc tbh this man is too busy to give a fuck about what his city thinks of him. They trust him to get shit done. Good that’s all he needs okay he has 22 reports he needs to log he’s busy.

Tim Drake professional nightwing fanboy however is fucking furious about this because.

A) dick was a GOTHAM hero FIRST and bludhaven can suck it

B) fuck you nightwing isn’t just a a hero he’s THE HERO and the BEST hero and don’t be rude bc you have a complex

C) all of the cool nightwing merch only ships around bludhaven so has to get it ordered there and it’s just a hassle and he’d pay double he swears just let him get it delivered to where he is please Everytime he stops by bludhaven he leaves with 10 new pieces of nightwing merch and bc he has so much. Damian doesn’t think he notices when some of his doubles mysteriously go missing. He does.

D) since they are anti hero they are firmly unhelpful whenever he or Steph show up bc a case has lead them to the city

The one plus side was watching Jason Todd having a mental breakdown bc apparently in bludhaven redhood counts as a hero and is therefore hated.

“Yous worked with the bat yous a hero thems the rules”

“I KILL PEOPLE”

“Yeah so do cops and people always call them heroes”

“Okay but I kill people to protect the general public I put down scum”

“Cops say they do that too”

“I- okay you know what I’m a hero fine okay. Why isn’t nightwing a hero”

“Vigilante justice is a crime”

“I’m documentably worse than a vigilante”

“But you have worked with the bat”

“For money yeah”

“See you even get paid, face it you’re a hero which means you suck”

“You realize Nightwing has worked with the bat right like way more than I have”

“Listen that ain’t his fault okay, the bats incompetent and so are the rest to you idiots. He’s a nice guy and a good neighbor don’t mean he’s a hero”

“I- what the fuck is in this cities water”

“I don’t fuckin know but it’s prolly better than whatever gothams got in its harbor”

“I- yeah you’re probably right”

[fantastic-nonsense]

society if Two-Face was Batman's arch-nemesis instead of the Joker:

[deadsetobsessions]

Damian Wayne was like a duckling. A violent, stab-happy, danger-prone duckling, yes, but a duckling all the same. Which means when Danny almost got stabbed by a sleepy, instinct driven Damian, he was able to wave it off with a laugh. Damian, on the other hand, stared in horror at the butter knife firmly lodged in Danny’s arm.

“PENNYWORTH!” Danny jerked back at Damian’s scream. “RICHARD! FATHER!”

God damn, the kid had a pair of lungs on him. Danny’s wince was interpreted as pain to Damian, who gently grabbed his injured arm and started to pull him towards the kitchen’s marble island.

Danny blinked, non plussed as his hearing picked up a thundering of feet as the present family members scrambled towards Damian’s distress call.

“Wait, Damian, I’m fine. It’s-”

“You have been impaled, you imbecile! Had it been any of the other simpletons, they would have-!”

“Ouch.” Danny put his other hand in mock hurt over his slow-beating heart. He literally doesn’t care about the butter knife. He’s just impressed there was enough force in there to impale him. “Are you calling me names now? After- gasp- stabbing me?”

Before Damian could reply, the beginnings of regret, remorse, and guilt on his face, Alfred, Dick, and Bruce burst into the kitchen.

“What happened?!”

“My word, master Danny!”

“What is it?!”

“I’m fine. It’s like a small stab. Not even a big stab. I’m good.”

Dick paled, seeing Danny’s arm clutched in Damian’s hand.

“That’s- that’s a knife. In your arm. How is that ‘fine’?!”

“What happened.” Bruce asked Damian, gently removing Danny’s arm from Damian’s death clutch.

“I- I did not mean to,” Damian starts, guilt coloring his voice.

“He didn’t,” Danny cuts in. “I startled him and got stabbed for being dumb. I won’t fault him for having a defense mechanism like that, ancient knows what I might do if you guys startled me.”

The awkward silence that settled at his words made Danny twitch awkwardly.

“Uh, so, can I add this knife to my collection? Even if I didn’t get mugged?”

“Danny.”

“Bruce.” Danny stared stubbornly back. With his uninsured hand, he patted Damian on the head. He was going to enjoy the fluffiness before Damian’s guilt was no longer enough to hold him back from snapping at Danny’s hand like a grumpy alligator. Bruce loses, obviously. He’s a teenager who was also an ex-vigilante. Batman’s got nothing on a determined halfa.

“Master Danny, I must insist you refrain from getting stabbed. There is only so much gauze and antiseptic cream in the house.” Alfred returned- huh, when did he leave?- with a med kit.

Danny called bullshit because he knows there’s a whole ass medical bay beneath the manor.

“Sorry.”

“No need to apologize.” Alfred said, promptly beginning the extraction of the butter knife.

“Are you okay?” Dick asked, hovering worriedly. “He- are you…?”

Damian was allowing Danny to ruffle his hair, so…

“Yep, I’m good. This isn’t even on my top thirty most painful stabbings,” and it really wasn’t. That honor was given to the GIW and that one time Jazz accidentally stabbed him with her earrings. “That was pretty impressive, actually. It’s like, a butter knife. The other ones had pointy ends.”

“Do not clump me with those pathetic wastes of spaces. I am naturally superior and would… would never harm you on purpose.” Damian said, getting quiet at the end like he was trying to plead to Danny to believe him.

“Of course not. But- if you want help me keep the knife, you can hit me with a mug, it would technically be a mugging.”

The pun got the desired effect. Damian leaned away with a disgruntled look and Dick stopped hovering as close in order to let out a small cackle.

“Done.”

“You should go get changed, kiddo. We’re going to see Tim’s photography at the Gotham Gallery today.”

“Oh, for real?” Danny patted Damian’s fluffy hair one last time, pushing away from the counter. “Oh, I’ll clean up here first and-”

“That will not be necessary,” Alfred scolded, a mop somehow already in his hands. “Please see to it you are prepared for the day.”

“Thanks, Alfred. Can I keep the knife.”

“Very well.”

“Sweet. See you guys later?” Danny pranced off after seeing the nods.

——

“He’s… he got stabbed a lot. Before us, I mean.” Dick tapped a furious rhythm onto the counter. “Not that we’ve stabbed him until now but even once is concerning for a civilian.”

“He was used to it.” Bruce replied.

“Perhaps we should join Todd in his endeavor and ensure that his worthless tormentors are permanently out of the picture.”

“God, he said top thirty. He was counting.”

Damian silently withdrew a kitchen knife.

“No murder with my quality chef’s knives, Master Damian.”

“Tt.”

“Master Jason follows the same rules. Now, out of the kitchen. I may be old, but I remember the last time master Bruce and master Dick stepped foot in here and I will not have a repeat.”

[frownyalfred]

the way to take the really bizarre and out-there Batman villains and ground them in a “realistic” Batman universe isn’t to change the villains at all. it’s to have Jim Gordon stand on a rooftop and hit his vape hard enough to dampen power from a three block radius and tell Batman “you were the only one we could think to call. there’s some lunatic running around calling himself Condiment King” and Batman just stands there silently on the rooftop taking that in until Jim adds “he put ten people in the hospital with a ketchup gun……somehow” and then hits the vape again. Batman realizes that the GCPD’s unofficial position on this is that the Bat should take out the Condiment King because crazy cancels out crazy, and they’re not entirely wrong. he agrees to help out and Jim brandishes his vape at the Gotham skyline and mumbles something about this being fucking crazy, and that’s it. that’s all you need to do to ground the storyline. every single villain, just like that.

[littlefankingdom]

~ Detective Comics (1937)

These posts saying that "Jason used to write fanfics" are right. This is an issue "written" by Jason (his name is in the writer's box), where he tells the latest adventure he had with Batman. However, at the end, he isn't satisfied with his writings, so he burns it, which implies this is not a journal, but him working on his writing skills, using their crime fighting as a base. He even talks about "maintaining suspense" at one point. So, yeah, if Jason grew up in the 21st century, he would be writing Batman and Robin's fanfics inspired by his own adventures with his dad.

And Bruce, faking being asleep in the same room Jason is writing in, so he can listen and watch his boy as he enjoys his hobby, just happy seeing his baby do something he likes. He probably loves to read what Jason wrote.

I can't believe people looked at this cutie pie and his dad, and went: "I want him dead".

[dcxdpdabbles]

Has Menace!Danny ever gotten into a fight at school?

Bruce's emergency phone goes off in the middle of a WE Board meeting. He had always started any meetings by explaining that his emergency phone was the one he used for his children's emergency contact listings and for the children themselves to reach him if they absolutely needed to.

He would always have it on to answer, no matter how important the meeting was. They have all accepted it long ago that Bruce would never back down on that rule.

It was a necessity after all the kidnapping attempts on his children, and it's unfortunately rung before. Still, this knowledge doesn't stop the cold terror from sinking into their stomachs as Bruce scrambles to answer.

The board holds their breath as Bruce rasps, "Hello? Yes, this is he."

There is a moment of silence before the CEO jumps to his feet, scrambling to gather his things. He doesn't look in their direction, eyes unusually serious as he listens carefully to the other person.

"Which hospital was he taken to? How bad are his injuries? The ones who did that to him, where are they?"

Oh no. A few board members think. One of the Wayne boys was attacked.

Bruce pauses in his movements, going white. "He what?"

Susan from Accounting gasps, pressing her hands over her mouth. Seh recognizes that look on his face. Bruce wore the same look the night he had heard about Riddler taking a entire school bus of children- in including his second oldest, Dick- and three of the students had not made it before Batman was able to take him down.

She sends Tom a horrified look as the man grimaces, tapping on his phone to check in on his teenage daughter. She goes to school with a few of the Wayne children, which means that if something happened, she may have been affected.

Susan can't blame him. Her nephew is two years older than Danny Fenton-Wayne, and the number of attacks targeting the Academy to reach that boy had gripped her in worry for years. She pulls out her phone to send him a text, too, praying that whatever happened, it happened to one of the younger ones or away from her nephew.

A horrible thought to have, but one she has often.

Thankfully, Alex was set to graduate soon and was no longer in danger, which is her only comfort as she presses send.

"How bad was it?" Bruce finally whispers, face white as milk. The board stiffens, glancing at each other, but no one dares to say anything as Bruce finishes packing up and running to the door. He doesn't even give a by your leave, which means that it was bad. " I understand. Yes. I'll be there in twenty minutes."

The door slams closed behind as multiple pings go off in the room. Tom and Susan are the fastest to check their phones. They blink at the letters before Tom rubs his face with a sigh. "Of course it was about that one."

"What?" Amy gasps, rubbing her hands. "What happened at Gotham Academy? Someone tell me something, my little cousin isn't answering!"

"Danny Fenton-Wayne happened. He sent the entire football team to the ER." Tom sighs, waving his phone. "My daughter said they found out there was a hole that let them see into the girls' changing room and had spent the last few months taking videos and photos. The photo of an underwear-clad Barbara Gordon got passed around, with none of the team players admitting who took it and shared it. The school discipline board was going to just slap them all with a three-day in-school suspension, and Fenton-Wayne thought it wasn't enough. He took matters into his own hands. He jumped the team."

"Wait, the kid took on the whole Football team?" Neil scoffs. He wasn't from Gotham, so he's not in the know about the eldest Wayne child. "No wonder, he ended up in the hospital."

"No." Susan gasps, watching her nephew's texts come flying in at neck-breaking speeds. "No, Danny Fenton-Wayne isn't the one in the hospital. He.... he beat the entire team, including the ones on reserve, and then drove them to the ER. Technically, he kidnapped them for medical attention for injuries he caused. He was lecturing them the entire time about respecting women."

The room is silent, and then they all shiver. That kid was not normal.

"I think they are going to expel him." Tom continues, face pulled into a tight frown. His phone screen is also blowing up with updates from his girl. Susan can see a lot of rage emojis. "My daughter and almost all female students are going to protest his punishment since he was the only one protecting them. She wants me to help plan a walk-out at the next PTA meeting."

"Are you?" Amy asks.

Tom's eyes flash. "Of course. My daughter uses that changing room. How dare they."

"I'll help," Amy announces, tapping on her laptop keyboard. She's the youngest in the room a intern that just got hired while in her first year of college. Her whole job was to take notes, which is why her fingers fly at a speed that's almost awe-inspiring to see. "I just made a post to the Phantom's official blog. We'll have a mob in an hour."

Two hours later, Amy's words came true as the school was surrounded by half the city demanding that Danny Fenton-Wayne's punishment be overturned or lowered. Many of them were mad for the crime the football team committed, but most are there after a video of Phantom reacting to the News was posted.

The hero had cried at the horrible news. He personally went to Gotham Academy to fix up the girls' changing room, installing changing rooms with curtain walls, sad that he had to resort to that measure.

The people were ready to riot in his name.

[autisticrosewilson]

"Oh Steph wouldn't like Jason just because they have similar backgrounds because he kills people/is a criminal/fights the bats!!"

This is in the 90's BEFORE he even tortured her. She doesn't go through with it, but she sees the evil he's capable of and its enough for her to justify it. She only doesn't because it "goes against what Batman taught her" but well.

That's the same man who would let her dad's friends infest her house for MONTHS until BLACK CANARY came to Gotham and handled it

A grown man who would go on to verbally degrade her, withhold the tools he gave everyone else, keep her intentionally isolated and then use her lack of resources against her.

So yeah. I'm sure Steph's faith in Batman and his teachings have wavered plenty. Just because DC casually discarded the way she was treated so she could play happy family with the boys, but she has NO REASON TO. Before she was aged down there was definite tension between her and Tim, and while Babs worked to get that relationship back, Bruce did no such thing. "Oh I'm just as proud of you as I was with the boys" when he thought she was dying doesn't fucking change how he treated her.

And of course, there's her own forray into betraying the family and being a criminal in The Next Batman series.

That's without getting into how she was compared to Jason, the way she watched a murdered east end kid be toted as another violent, reckless, idiot who didn't think and got himself killed.

"Oh but he tried to kill Tim!" First of all, you didn't read that comic. Jason was TESTING him, they were 2 years apart MAXIMUM, and Tim FOUGHT BACK. Jason gave him a little cut and a nose bleed that he slapped a bandage on and was fine. Damian also started his first meeting with Tim antagonistically and even though he was actively hostile to her, Steph still formed a close sibling bond. Her first meeting with Tim she threw a brick at him. He spent a not significant amount of time belittling her and telling her she wasn't cut out for hero work when she came back. This is the same guy who hallucinated Jason just so Jason could be like "Oh I got myself killed don't be like me!" Can we be real she doesn't give a shit. I guess you could count Hush but. I know they retconned it so that was Jason but when the fuck would he have had the time to do that between death, catanoia, the All-caste, and his murder tour.

Stephanie understands better than anyone that desperate circumstances lead to desperate people who do bad things. Stephanie understands being belittled and compared to a rich white boy who never had to fight to survive like you did. She understands being isolated from the hero community. She understands the evil that exists and the ways the system is corrupt, and that the bad guy never STAYS caught. And it's not like she has any big problem with people who kill, Babs said in 90's she would fucking LOVE Joker to drop dead and Dinah has killed multiple times. She literally switched places with Lady Shiva? These are both women Steph looks up to. You don't think Steph would feel any admiration at all for someone who gave Bruce a taste of what it feels like to be shown up? Someone who made Roman's life hell? Someone who made Tim put action behind his shit talking? An alley kid who came back and refused to be another statistic, who showed everyone who spent the last decade calling him stupid and reckless EXACTLY how cunning he can be? None? At all?

I just find it a little hard to believe.

[seekingxanadu]

Batfam stans trying so so hard to mystify Dick and Jason's relationship when canonically all it is, is Jason never recovering from imposter syndrome and worse, he KNOWS the syndrome is real because he doesn't succeed. Jason keeps trying to BE Dick - wearing Dick's Robin suit, pathetically enraged at 13 yr old Tim for wearing Dick's Robin mantle, wearing Dick's Nightwing suit to commit murder (please stop with the fanon of Jason patrolling Bludhaven when Dick is otherwise occupied; serial killer Jason does not deserve Dick's city), trying to kill Tim (TWICE!) and Damian - the brothers who built a relationship with Dick inspite of Bruce, trying to team up with Dick's besties. I am sympathetic to Jason's original tragedy but Jason's subsequent complaints are not sympathetic; Jason keeps making the wrong decisions and having misplaced motives for those actions. But when his well-laid plans fail, he cries "I died". Yes you did, kid, but NOW? You are a serial killer - who has killed gen pop prisoners, small time thugs and street drug dealers - and you CHOSE that way of action. So NO. Jason's tragedy ain't Dick's to shoulder, not AFTER the actions of Jason -towards Dick's brothers and Dick's city and Dick's people - after he came back.

Dick mourns the boy that once was. Not the serial killer who IS.

[dukeofthomas]

I find the fact that the confrontation at the end of UTRH is often summarized as Jason asking Bruce to kill the Joker for him fascinating.

Because that's not what happened.

Jason holds a gun up to Joker's head, gives Bruce another, and tells him that if Bruce doesn't do something (shoot Jason), he will kill Joker.

Jason doesn't give the gun to Bruce so that he would shoot Joker. He isn't expecting Bruce to pull the trigger on the clown. He's asking Bruce to do nothing. To be inactive. Because that will still be a choice, and despite having done nothing, everybody clearly agrees that Bruce would still, at least in part, be responsible for Joker's death.

...And to me, this moment is a kind of- microcosm, of the rest of Jason's point. Because after being captured and carted off to Arkham, the villain will escape again, and will kill more people. The only way to truly prevent that from happening would be to kill them; Bruce refuses to do so, and I respect his right to choose such a thing for himself, but it is still a choice, and if we agree that Bruce's inaction during the confrontation would leave him at least partly responsible for the Joker's death, then we must also agree that his inaction in permanently preventing the Rogues from killing more people means he is also, partly, responsible for all of those deaths.

[mikakuna]

i see this jason todd who actually looks his very young age (instead of the 30yr old man that comics like to portray)

and feel my heart breaking just imagining bruce beating him up, almost killing him, mind-breaking him, and just overall being a total piece of shit father towards him.

a huge chunk of the reason why people don't view bruce's actions towards jason as abusive or wrong is because jason doesn't look his age. he's drawn to be this 35yr old father of three who looks even older than dick (and way too on par with bruce) that people see their fights as one between batman and any of his regular rogues. when they fight, it just looks like batman is fighting a man his age and not an actual young person. it doesn't look like batman is fighting his son who's barely even drinking age (and who def wasn't drinking age in utrh). their fights are portrayed in a way that eliminates the very real power struggle between them.

this applies to jason's entire character as well. a lot of people don't sympathize with how he died or his actions as robin or his fights with the other bats because he doesn't look his age. he always looks older and scarier than everyone else. tim has many sympathizers from the titans tower incident because jason just looked like a grown man fighting a 12yr old (even tho i disagree, tim was built and like 17 lmfao).

anyways, i just wish comics would actually draw jason to look his age, which literally ranges from 19 to early twenties. he's young- so young, and it's so annoying to see him drawn and written as someone older than even bruce.

[the-purple-possum]

When I say I really want a Jason adopts tim fic, I don't mean I want him to become a parent at 19 to a teen like 2-4 years younger than him, I want Jason to meet Tim and decide that he wants Tim on his side.

I want Jason to adopt Tim as his Robin, like he decides that he wants to recruit this 15 year old that is some how the smartest and snarkiest person in Gotham. I don't want infantilised tim, I want a sorta Nani and Lilo sibling dynamic, but with a smaller age gap.

Like sure, Jason sees his little brother as some sort of soggy kitten that he must protect, but also a Tim that is very capable of looking after himself.

I want Tim to look at Jason, see Bruce back when he first donned the Cape and traffic light colours. And then in true Tim fashion decide to fix him, B was being too over protective since Red Hood showed up anyways.

Like imagine, Jason meeting Tim instead by accident when he drops in on a drug trade. Tim says some quip that throws him off his game while fighting. Jason basically losing to a very deadly fifteen year old who's not slept in 29 hours, and he thinks 'f it, I like the kid'. Then trying to recruit him consistently until Tim goes 'why tf not'.

I want enemies to caretaker, but they both think they're the caretaker

[warrior-of-storms]

Okay actually you know what I'm gonna make my own post about this.

Jason's primary goal in UTRH was not for Bruce to kill the Joker, it was about Bruce choosing Jason's wellbeing over the Joker. I don't think Jason ever expected Bruce to actually headshot the Joker. He's not stupid - he knows Bruce doesn't like guns, and he knows Bruce doesn't kill.* But Jason needed to get closure of some kind, and he wanted his dad to prove that Jason still had some kind of meaning to him, hence why the other option was for Bruce to kill him. If he wasn't going to choose Jason, if Jason was no longer his son, Jason would rather die than live with that choice.

Is it selfish to ask his dad to kill him if he doesn't want the Joker dead? Sure. I guess. It is more of a direct ask for Bruce to kill someone so like. Make of that what you will. But is it selfish to ask Bruce to stand aside and literally do nothing while Jason deals with it? I don't think so, and I don't think it was an unprecedented ask!

*Because Bruce has attempted to kill before, including in Jason's presence, and allowed others to kill with his blessing

Detective Comics #570: The Joker brainwashes Selina to be evil again. Jason stops Bruce from killing him, and Bruce notably says "he took her from me" (aka something Jason famously says in UTRH)

Batman #425: José Garzonas sets a trap for Batman and Robin due to Jason's (intentional or unintentional) involvement in the death of his son, Felipe. Bruce indirectly but intentionally kills three people in this issue, and he tells Jason outright that fathers avenge their sons.

Batman #429: Bruce intentionally goes after the Joker with the intent to kill him, and only delays that until Joker loses his diplomatic immunity. He does not attempt to save him, only asks Clark to find the body.

Detective Comics #741: After the Joker kills Sarah Essen, Bruce tells Jim Gordon to take the shot and he won't stop him.

(These are just what I remember off the top of my head; I know there are more, I just don't remember issue numbers rn)

"Joker's Last Laugh #6," the people cry, "what about Joker's Last Laugh #6?"

In Joker's Last Laugh #6, Dick beats the Joker to death and Bruce resuscitates him. But that was not about Bruce's refusal to kill or let his allies kill - it was about protecting Dick. Dick, who rather famously does not handle having blood on his hands very well even when it's not actually his fault (see Nightwing #93 and the fallout from that for proof of how poorly Dick copes with his perceived guilt).

If it were anyone but Dick, I genuinely believe that Bruce would have left it. Helena was there. Dinah was around. If one of them had taken out the Joker, I think Bruce would have let it lie. Helena and Dinah are not Bruce's kids, and they both have killed before. It's not their first choice, but they have in fact killed and are willing to do so again. Bruce bringing back the Joker wasn't about keeping him alive, it was about protecting Dick's mental health (and he uh. kinda failed at that anyway. Good try though 👍)

So how on earth is UTRH an unreasonable ask? Jason says "let me kill him, or do it yourself, or kill me," and really, there's no reason Bruce should have stopped him. This is more direct and personal than either Bruce's attempt in 'tec #570 or the opening he gives Gordon in 'tec #741. This is Jason asking for Bruce to live up to the standard Bruce himself set in Batman #425. Jason doesn’t have Dick's problem with killing, he's killed several times and he's more than willing to do this. His first option, Jason killing the Joker, asks nothing of Bruce. Bruce literally had to do nothing in UTRH, and Jason would have counted that as a win. Probably. We'll never know for sure, because for whatever reason, Judd Winick decided that in this scenario, Bruce's best move was to throw a batarang through Jason's neck.

So no, UTRH is not Jason being a hypocrite who claims to want to protect people from the Joker but really just wants validation (I mean, he does want validation, and he does want the Joker dead to protect people, but that's not the point). UTRH is Jason asking Bruce for less than the bare minimum that Bruce established when Jason was Robin, and Bruce failing to allow even that. UTRH is Jason desperately screaming for Bruce to prove that he cares even a little bit about him, and Bruce trying to duck out at every opportunity. UTRH is about a kid, 17 or 18, maybe 19 at best, asking his dad to love him and getting a knife to the neck for his trouble.

No wonder Jason goes on a full villain arc after this - I would too.

[deadsetobsessions]

Sea Cryptic! Danny AU- Pt.4

[Pt.1] [Pt.2] [Pt.3] [Pt.5] [Pt.6] [Pt.7] [Pt.8] [Pt.9] [Pt.10]

Danny was sitting in the back, his backpack obnoxiously taking up the seat next to him, when the door to the lecture hall creaked open near silently.

“What are you in here for?” Danny asked the guy who crept into class. He sympathetically took his backpack off the Seat of Shame and allowed the guy to sit down. Funnily enough, they had the same hair and eye color.

“Gen Ed. Undecided. You?” The guy grunted quietly back.

“Environmental studies. I’m Danny.”

“Tim.”

With the implicit understanding of two people in a required class they could not give less than two fucks about, Tim and Danny tuned back into the lecture. When the class was assigned group work, Danny looked over to see Tim softly snoring, head slammed down on the table.

“Tim. Wake up, dude.” Danny poked his shoulder.

“Huh? Class over?”

“Nah, we got group work. Discussion board.”

“Oh shit, thanks for waking me up. Wanna team up?”

Danny shrugged. “Sure. We should aim to post it in the middle so the professor doesn’t read our answers to the class.”

“Yeah, sounds like a good idea. Any idea what we’re talking about?”

“Kind of?”

“Good enough for me.”

——

Tim Drake kept seeing Danny Fenton around on campus.

“Danny! Dude, what are you doing?”

Danny turned, gloved hands full of crumpled trash. “Picking up after the student population, apparently.”

“Didn’t think environmental studies was that serious.”

“Global warming is very serious, you jerk,” Danny smirked at him, crossing the grass to put the trash into the trash can. “Reduce, reuse, oil shouldn’t be spilled in water and all that.”

“Basic stuff,” Tim grinned. Nice, he basically had a friend past Bernard now!

They were friends, right?

“And yet humanity fails to comprehend it. Incredible. Incredibly stupid that is.”

“They get it. Major corporations just don’t care.”

Danny sighed. “True that. You on your way to your next class?” He took off his biodegradable gloves off (nitrile and nylon, baby!) and chucked them into the trash.

“I’ve got free time, actually. Prof cancelled for his daughter’s surgery.”

“Oh, shit, that’s rough! You wanna go downtown and join the strike?”

“A strike? What for?” Even as he asked, Tim hiked his bag higher onto his shoulder, ready to go. They fell into step as the two left campus.

“Apparently, Quillan Pharma was doing some shady shit at their manufacturing plants. I think it’s like killing kids, and pouring toxins into the ground.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Yeah. Oh! Poison Ivy’s gonna be there!”

Tim blinked. He casted a sideways look at Danny. Sure he’s been here long enough to know… but it couldn’t hurt to check. “You know she’s an eco-terrorist, right?”

“Okay, but like… people suck sometimes. And all she’s asking for is like don’t kill the planet. And she doesn’t do that whole mind control thing too much anymore! The Sirens are so cool. Plus, one of my best friends at home might actually kill me if I don’t try to get her autograph. Poison Ivy is like, Sam’s personal hero.”

Tim snickered. “Yeah, okay. Mind if one of my friends join? His name’s Bernard.”

“The more the merrier,” Danny nodded. “Ooo! Hot chocolate. Want some?”

Danny bought three drinks as Tim trailed behind, texting Bernard.

“He said yes.”

“Cool! We should meet up somewhere before the drinks get cold.”

Well, Danny got the autograph. Tim got a new friend, and Bernard got a drink from his crush.

——

“Oh, you’re the glowing dude that Batman always talks about!”

Danny blinked, eyes scanning the wing-like cape and the yellow emblem on the hero’s suit. Danny was indeed glowing, stars and nebulas freckling across neon green skin, and glowing hair the color of a white dwarf star, tinged with the blue from his ice core.

“I… have absolutely no idea who you are,” Danny lied, like a liar. He’s found a surprising niche of entertainment in messing with the local vigilantes and he’ll be damned if he missed this opportunity.

He heard a snicker from the comm lines as Red Robin visibly brushes it off.

“I’m Red Robin. Why are you picking up trash?”

“Picking up after you humans, apparently.”

The both of them blink, feeling a weird sense of déjà vu. A moment of awkward silence passed before they both shook it off.

“Are you here to help? No offense, but the track record for you people is terrible.” Danny strode over and grabbed a bag. He opened it, and shook it at Red Robin’s face. “See? Batarangs, these odd bird looking ones, the R’s. Seriously, pick up after yourselves!”

“Oh, woah, can we have these back?”

Danny yanked the bag back before Red Robin could get close. “Pay me. These were incredibly tedious to pick up. Especially the batarangs. I mean, I even found a whole bunch of old rusted ones in the middle of the bay. What did you do, dump an entire bag in there from the air?”

Red Robin sighed and took out a wad of cash, with tracking fluid all over it. Danny grimaced, smelling the odd scent on the money. “That’s not real cash. It smells off. Are you trying to give me counterfeits because you’re broke?”

Red Robin gaped, oddly offended. “No! They’re real!”

“Doesn’t smell like it. It’s stinkier than the trash. Go get the one with the money, the litterer. Tell him I’ll be back the next full moon. I don’t want to talk to you anymore.” Danny grumbled, disappearing on the spot to watch Red Robin flounder with the stack of cash and the piles of dead bodies on the shore.

“What the fuck even is my life these days?” Red Robin wondered out loud, stuffing the cash back into his pocket. He looked over the plastic wrapped bodies and slumped, sighing.

Oddly enough, Danny felt a sense of sympathy. Well, he’s not getting paid for sympathy. He’s not getting paid at all tonight, actually. Danny flew off, plunging once more into the depths of the significantly cleaner waters, and used his ice to scoop out oil stains.

Danny glanced around and sighed. He had a lot of work to do.

——

“So you’re saying he’s like a werewolf mermaid fae child immortal god thing, right?”

Bruce grunted.

“B, what the hell are you smoking these days? You know drugs are bad, right? Do we need Superman to give you that PSA?” Jason snickered.

Tim, massaging his arms from having to haul an ungodly amount of dead bodies, grunted. He’s so similar to Bruce that it gave the people currently in the cave hives.

“He said full moon. I don’t think we can track him with regular stuff. The bugs kept shorting out.”

“Oh boy,” Dick sighed. “Don’t fall off the spiral cliff, Tim. You’ve got midterms to think about so no stalking the guy.”

“Yet,” Tim shot back, changing out of his suit.

Bruce grunted, setting aside a huge stack of cash.

[dclovesdanny]

Soulmate Facts x Kill Shot

Jason and Roy both noticed when the words “I have killed the entire justice league before.” Showed up on their arms, almost two months after years of only having each other.

Dan was not expecting that when he finally got a new body courtesy of Vlad’s cloning equipment to have any form of soulmate facts. (After all, his soulmates, his Tucker and his Sam, were long gone.)

He wasn’t expecting to wake up with the sentences “The Joker killed me.” And “My daughter’s name is Lian.” on his arms, but he wasn’t going to complain.