#Look me in the eye Bruce

[spectral-phases]

Another thing I need people to stop just saying like it's the truth is that Bruce picked up Tim as Robin immediately after Jason died, or that Tim forced his way into being Robin.

Now, of course, there is the caveat that Jason can come back into town thinking that it was the case, he was dead and Talia informed him of the changes in Gotham, so we don't know how accurately he was informed. Another caveat is that Tim can grow up thinking he forced his way into it because he does argue for it at a point, but I need no one else who had a fully developed mind and was there saying it. Okay? Okay.

So, let's tackle the first one. Jason Todd gets an official death certificate in the Daedalus and Icarus Annual explaining how he came back showing his date of death as 4/27/19xx (since comics are always meant to be contemporary unless stated otherwise, we can just ignore the year). The DC Encyclopedia had a death certificate too, but it had a lot of odd details, not least his height and weight being more in line for a 10 year old than a 15 year old (the Titans comic put his height at 5'4" when he died), so I'm going to use the comics certificates over that when they conflict, but the Batman Annual also lists his date of death as 4/27 (why is it a Gotham City Death Certificate when he died in Ethiopia? I have no clue).

(Batman Annual 25)

(New Titans Vol 1 55)

(DC Encyclopedia)

Tim Drake appears after Jason dies when Bruce Wayne is going a little crazy as Batman. He specifically shows up during a break week from school.

(Batman 1940 #441)

Given that he could only have a Break Week feasibly in November for teacher conferences, December for Christmas/New Year's, or March/April for Easter, and the greenery outside show that it's neither November nor December, he's therefore shown up for his Spring Break. Since that would never be after April 27th, then he has to be there at least the first Spring Break following Jason's death, so about a year later.

He shows up and begs Dick to become Robin again to save Bruce from himself.

(Batman 1940 #441)

You see, this is interesting. He's explaining all his best qualities, not as a way to say "I'm right for the job" but to awkwardly (as only Tim Drake can) explain how much Batman and Robin mean to him, and how much they've influenced his life, to show how committed he is to this idea to back-up his assessment that Batman needs Dick as Robin again.

Dick is very adamant in his refusal to step back into the Robin role.

(Batman 1940 #441)

Both Alfred and Dick(Maybe? unless it's just Alfred being the drama again, but Dick did leave his old Robin costume out on the side before leaving) suggest Tim should pick up the costume. And he does only hours later, when Dick and Batman's signals have disappeared after going to confront Two-Face. Tim is feeling guilt over Nightwing possibly being dead because he got involved, he's worried sick about his heroes, and Tim has to go help because he is not built for sitting back and worrying.

(Batman 1940 #442)

At this point, he does start trying to convince both himself and Batman that he should be Robin, but only seriously after Alfred and Dick start hyping Tim up as well. Bruce is not having it. Like. At all.

(Batman 1940 #442)

They go to track down Two-Face and the confrontation ends with Tim nearly getting crushed to death as a pile of cars in the junkyard are toppled over onto the Batmobile, where he's been instructed to wait.

(Batman 1940 #442)

The confrontation ends with Bruce punching Two-Face and telling him that he can't kill Batman or Nightwing (Or Robin?) Or Robin!

Afterwards, after all the adrenaline has worn off and they're back in the manor in their normal clothes, Tim starts to back off of being Robin. He's still super stoked for having had the chance to fight criminals with his heroes, he's 13, give him a break. Please and thank you.

At this point it is Alfred, Dick, and Bruce who cement Tim going into training to become Robin. Yes, because of his logic, but also, like. I think Bruce knows deep down he needs someone to work with just as much as everyone else does. And Tim already knows his secret, and this is the easiest way to keep him quiet. Also, Bruce. Fucking. Communicate better. Jesus.

(Batman 1940 #442)

And then Tim's training begins, but he won't become Robin until the following Christmas. And only after he saves Bruce because he's been captured by Scarecrow and is being tortured with fear toxin with Vikki Vale. Tim was ordered to stay home, but again, he is incapable to standing back and not helping when he thinks there's a problem (this is a good and heroic character trait). This time, he doesn't wear the costume because he can't bear the idea of failing in it, so he dons a ski mask and comes in, gets dosed with fear toxin while saving Batman and beating Scarecrow and runs away before the cops show. Tim believes this means he'll never be Robin, that Bruce will fire him from training, but at least Bruce is alive. When Tim explains this all to Bruce, Bruce says the rules are there for a reason, but sometimes it's okay to break them when justified and gives Tim a new Robin costume.

(Batman 1940 #457)

[mycroftrh]

Bruce and Tim’s autistic asses have never made eye contact with each other in their lives

Like an interviewer comments lightly on his habit of adopting kids with black hair and blue eyes and he says, absent-mindedly, “Tim doesn’t have blue eyes,” to which the interviewer answers, with great confusion, that he most certainly does, and Bruce suddenly realizes he has never once looked at Tim’s eyes without the domino on and had just sort of assumed they were brown, statistically

[quadrantadvisor]

Thinking about DP x DC Jason Todd being a revenant again. Here's my scenario. Jason gets called that by some ghost. He's like "what the fuck is that supposed to mean?" He's heard the term before but he doesn't know any actual lore. He googles it. He scrolls past the Leonardo DiCaprio bear movie. He opens the wiki. Sees the words "animated corpse" and gets a chill diwn his spine. He starts reading the first section.

He closes Wikipedia.

That night he has a nightmare that his family buried him, again, this time with precautions. He wakes up in his own grave, full of stones, too heavy to move, to scream.

[starry-bi-sky]

no thoughts head empty de-aged blood blossom danny

if ONLY because i was at work yesterday out in the play yard and one of the babies from the one year old room walked up to me, held up her arms and went "up. up" and i caved like a wet fucken nOODLE and im inflicting that onto Bruce

so im just picturing like, roughly 18mo Danny, just absolutely teeny, walking up to Bruce in the Batman suit, grabbing his cape and pulling on it to get his attention or plastering himself to the side of his legs (<- real experience i've had) and when Bruce looks down at him Danny just goes "Bah-man, bah-man. Up."

and im teLLING YOU. Bruce would cave in a fucking heartbeat.

or if he crouches down, Danny will just crawl onto him anyways. wraps both arms around his neck and tries to raise his leg over his knee so he can wrap himself around his waist (<- ALSO A REAL EXPERIENCE I'VE HAD)

also he can't fully articulate himself yet, he doesn't have all of his teeth quite yet and phonetics are harD, so he can't say Bruce it just sounds like "boo" or "booce" like 'boost' but without the 't'.

[emberhope-fr]

so i had a thought after buying a dragon from a friend

bruce the parrotlet and his "eating dome"

[noodles-and-tea]

Wait so if Deku is Clark, does that mean Kacchan is Bruce?

YES.

[multibatshipper]

If I had a nickel for every time Bruce was drawn so pretty that batcat looks like a sapphic couple I’d have two nickels which isn’t a lot but it’s fantastic for my batcat Yuri agenda that it happens twice

[the--firevenus]

An idea cuz I'm currently obsessed with my own babybat au (but this is not about it),

If Clark and Bruce had meet before the alley tragedy, their dynamic can be flip, Que 7 years old (maybe younger) bright Bruce Wayne that's very curious of things and so optimistic, smile can rival the sun itself and genuinely a sweet little thing (can also be a demon but usually people are none the wiser cuz LOOK AT THAT PUPPY EYES!!) meet 8-9 year old Clark, that perhaps newly discovered his powers and are still trying to control (hide) it, a bit timid but still sweet and is just generally more shy than who he is as an adult.

Bruce, easily excited of new things, jumped on the taller country boy : you can fly!? Show me! Show me!

Clark, startled by the big icy blue eyes looking at him with pure adoration and don't know what to do: Uhhhh sure?

Hardcut to them crashing to a pile of dry wheat somewhere in the farm

[shower-phantom-ideas]

Danny as Fenton takes a hit that no human boy should survive while in a different city (im going crossover here) and just transforms into phantom and pretends to be all sad that he died. Just for a moment. He then proceeds to kick the baddies ass. Claims he got ghost powers and fucks off. Imagine if Captain America or Batman saw this while failing ti protect him, hell or any hero type. Danny doesn’t think much on it and just goes on with his week. Continues being Fenton of course but what if he runs into whatever hero, but out if costume, saw him do that.

“How are you here? And alive?”

Danny holding a smoothie:”uhhhh I made a miraculous recovery”

He just shrugs it off and goes about his day. It isn’t until he finally gets some sleep later that night that he wakes up in a cold sweat realising he now knows their secret identity. “Oh well it’s neat I guess” starts to go back to sleep only to bolt back up “oh god now they know my secret identity”

Meanwhile said hero is too busy trying to figure out how to help this random kid to even be worried about the fact that they outed themselves. Someone else probably points it out to them and has to explain it twice before it gets thru.

[littlefankingdom]

When Jason shots Scarecrow and free Bruce in Arkham Knight, he already has a red bat painted on his militia fit, WHICH MEANS, after being defeated by Batman, he went around Gotham looking for red paint to mark himself as one of the bats. This boy. He wanted Bruce to look at him in the eyes when he died, but the moment they do look at each other in the eyes for more than a couple of seconds, Jason folded and went back to being an ally of Batman. The months/year of torture did not stand a chance to having his dad calling him Robin and asking him to come home. And I think Jason knew that the moment he revealed himself and saw Bruce's reaction, because during their fight, Jason keeps trying to keep his distance, doesn't look at Bruce for long and refuses to listen to him. He thought it was going to be easy, but the moment he was facing his dad and saw the emotions on his face, he started losing determination in his vengeance.

But also, Bruce not being able to punch the Knight because he can see Jason's face. He is looking in the eyes of his son and he cannot punch his son!

[brucewaynehater101]

Reverse Robin AU

Tim, pissed that he got replaced as Robin, decides to kidnap Jason and go off grid. He bribes him with books, plenty of online literature classes, and Alfred's signed approval.

When Bruce debuts with 9 year old Dick Grayson, Tim pulls the same stunt. He has a nursery set up for Zitka, though.

[mysterycitrus]

i think isolating the bats from their teams and external support systems is like….. functionally bad. like wdym red hood is on dicks speeddial but his actual soulmate donna troy isn’t. why is everyone in gotham. why do these people have no friends

[erinwantstowrite]

STOP PUTTING BRUCE NIGHTWING ON MY TIMELINE I CAN'T DO IT,,,, PLEASE HAVE MERCY ON ME I CAN'T DO IT I CAN'T LOOK AT IT IM BEGGING Y'ALL,,,, IM BEGGING,,, IM ON MY KNEES,,,

[the-bat-bros]

Today’s daily Nick Robles Jason Todd Post

Hello Sir looking like a mob boss we love that for you, sweetie

Everyone say thank you Nick Robles

Art By: Nick Robles

[ricgraysonmemorial]

tim should be one of the funniest character of all time when bruce starts acting like that loner, depressed, pushing people away man. like this isn't the teenage boy that pulled a grown ass man out of his depression after he lost his son. tim is supposedly the most like batman? fine so he knows what works. from personal experience. all tim has to do is smack that man on the head and scream at him to act right. (bonus about this is bruce can't say shit, bc they both just know; they both lock eyes and all timmy has to do is squint his eyes like a disappointed mother, daring him to try.)

keep in mind that tim will sit there pretending like azael didn't choke him out at all of 16, causing him to take a car and run out of the cave in fear; you think tim gives a fuck if bruce's fee fees start to get to him? no! it's called compartmentalizing bruce, schedule your attacks when you're free. thus, tim "bruce can you lock the fuck in" drake is taking no prisoners when something goes wrong and this man pushing 50 dressing like a rodent is having an unneeded anxiety attack from stress he caused on himself. meanwhile, there's a MAN BAT INFESTATION, LET US HELP!!!

[hood-ex]

Do you ever think about how Bruce and Donna's deaths changed Dick in different types of ways?