#reverse robin au

[ky-landfill]

Helouda! Only if you want to… how about a Reverse!Robins with big bro Tim and baby Jay, or Dick… or both!! ;;_;; ♡

Thank you so much for sharing your art with the fandom!!! :"D♡♡♡

[chai-artsy]

[RRAU] Dealing with Trauma

[junkdrawerfan]

A Reverse Robins Au Idea:

I love Joker Jr! And I am in love with the idea that in a Reverse Robin AU where the second Robin always dies, Tim — breaking through the brainwashing for just a second — turns the gun on himself to keep from killing Batman. And Bruce has to watch his son commit suicide in front of him to save Batman’s life.

And when Tim comes back (maybe Talia or Ra’s or Superboy Prime idk), he’s not mad at Bruce. If the pit exaggerates your strongest emotion: where Jason ran hot with rage, Tim runs cold with logic. Tim has always been more reserved and non-confrontational. So the Tim that comes back is cold and calculating and focused on revenge.

Tim understands why Batman can’t kill. Tim is an idealist. He believes in Batman and Robin and the symbols they represent. To kill for Tim would be irrational.

But he still wants his revenge, his vengeance. After all, Tim is already a killer, right? What’s a few more?

The plan started with taking out the Joker but grows to destroying all gas based villains (PTSD. He can’t feel safe with gas based villains running around. But he rationalizes it. Just because he’s “cold and rational” doesn’t mean he’s lost his emotions.)

Tim is smart. He never reveals himself.

He’s aware of the third Robin, Jason. Batman needs a Robin. That’s why, after Damien left to spread his wings, Tim bullied Bruce into mentoring him. The city needs Robin. So he’s glad there’s a new Robin. He loves all of the Robins. So he can’t let this one get hurt during his revenge. He needs to keep Robin safe and Batman and Damian distracted.

So he kidnaps Jason and keeps him in a massive underground bunker (a coffin) he built in the caves under Gotham, modeled after the mazes the LoA favor with moving walls and puzzles (because you have to keep little wings entertained and Tim will never have the chance to train Jason properly so he might as well while he has the chance). In the end, the only way out — the answer all the puzzles lead to — is there no way out so Jason has to dig his way out.

All the while, Tim has been manipulating Bruce and Damien into capturing all the gas based villains in Gotham and sticking them in Arkham via puzzles and clues Tim plants around the city. The villains include Joker, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Mr. freeze, etc. And when the rogues are all safely tucked away in the cells Tim has ensured they’d be places in, Tim blows Arkham off the map.

BOOM

Batman’s symbol is intact and Tim is avenged. Tim’s purpose on this earth is complete. He’s determined to slink back into his grave. There is no reason to keep sticking around. What’s one more death after all that carnage?

And it’s Jason — who discovered Tim’s identity during the weeks/months he was held captive — who chases after Tim with Damian’s help (Damian so guilt ridden and desperate to fix all the wrongs he got right with Jason.) They’re going to bring their wayward bird home whether or not Batman wants it.

(Batman wants. He really really wants.)

[haveihitanerve]

the thing I love most about the reverse Robin au is all the lovely like... angst that can be used and manipulated when it comes to adoption

Since Damian is the only birth child, and in the normal universe, it becomes a thing where he has to learn that blood isn't everything and Dick means just as much to Bruce as he does, even though he's not his birth son

but now that he's the oldest- does he deal with adopted kids the way you might deal with pets? treat them as lesser than?

or does he step up and be a big brother and throws hands with anyone who even dares to compare them and put down his brothers because they might be adopted but theyre family nonetheless

[thesulkycroissant]

I like the concept of Reverse Robin AUs but I think it's important then that Robin not be the name of the mantle. Because Robin is Dick's, but also because I don't think it makes sense for Damian if he's not taking up a legacy mantle. I like the idea of Damian adopting a bird theme, though, which one day Dick can bring Robin into.

[melucomarket]

Not Jason helping out his lil bro with his stubborn, unconventional approach to getting the cookies from the top cabinet

[too0bsessedformyowngood]

Okay so I’ve been reading a lot of reverse robin AUs recently and I have a hot take. Duke Thomas should be the Dick Grayson parallel instead of Damian.

Hear me out. So bare bones Duke was the last to join in cannon, so he should be the first to join for reverse robins. But to get deeper into it Duke lost both of his parents at the same time setting him down a path of becoming a vigilante. He becomes Bruce’s ward instead of being adopted because he already was raised with two good parents and doesn’t want them to be replaced. He also created his own mantle that was the opposite to Batman, the light to Batman’s dark, inspiring hope against Batman’s fear. He’s friendly and works well and inspires others, but also extremely sharp and smart which people often forget.

Damian would work well as a batgirl parallel more. He would join after Duke but be a few years older, got there already trained and immediately jumping into crime fighting. Covering the areas that Bruce and Duke don’t fill. While Duke takes up his own name Damian would use a name more inspired by Batman himself.

I just think this dynamic of Bruce and Duke being the first dynamic duo would fit so well (also get to spotlight Duke who so often gets overlooked).

[necrotic-nephilim]

I think what I love the most about Reverse Robin AU TimJay is the absolute potential for hero worship with Jason toward Tim. In canon we often forget that Tim didn't really care for Jason as Robin, meanwhile as I never shut up about, Jason has been weirdly respecting and obsessed with Tim since finding out about Tim's existence. So if you flip their order, make Tim Red Hood and make Jason Red Robin, there's so much room for hero worship from Jason.

As Robin, Jason has always teetered that edge of being pro-murder or not. Whether you believe he killed Felipe or not, even in his Post-Crisis introduction as Robin, he almost kills Two Face. Those concepts of lethal justice have always been brewing inside him, just reigned in by Bruce. So if you have Robin!Jason witnessing Red Hood!Tim start killing people and quickly making noticeable change in the landscape of gangs in Gotham, Jason would take quick notice. I think Tim as Red Hood would still be lethal, but there'd be a different application than Jason's Red Hood. Heads in duffle bags isn't Tim's style, even if he kills. I think you'd see something much more akin to that time Tim almost killed Boomerang, where it's such an elaborately thought out set up, it realistically doesn't even look like Tim killed anyone. It'd take months for Bruce to connect this string of deaths as anything other than coincidental, let alone link them to Red Hood. And Jason is wickedly smart, even as Robin. Jason, putting those pieces together before Bruce does and witnessing the undeniable positive change for Gotham it's enacting? Robin!Jason would be incredibly drawn in by that, and then even more-so, a Red Robin!Jason who has to grapple with being replaced to make room for the next Robin would I think, in anger, turn to Red Hood. And Tim would push him away at first, his plans don't have room for a scorned teenager who's trying to get back at Bruce and Nightwing!Damian like this- but I think Jason would wear him down. Prove to Tim that Jason can think on his wavelength.

Slightly related, what interests me about Red Hood!Tim is how it'd implicate his closeness to Ra's. Jason is taken into the League by Talia in Lost Days and Ra's doesn't necessarily approve of Jason's presence, especially not of Talia dunking him in the Pit, but Ra's has always canonically been A Little Weird about Tim. I think in a world Tim dies as the second Robin, it would be Ra's who dunks Tim to preserve his mind that Ra's thinks shouldn't be wasted, and you have the potential for 'apprentice of Ra's' Tim wrapped up in it all, even without him experience the Red Robin arc. So when it's Jason as Red Robin, instead of him going to Ra's when he's scorned by the Batfamily, he goes to Tim. The person he once idolized, because I think Tim would've been Jason's Robin. Smart, competent, a strong legacy to live up to. And now he's back, and he's pro-killing, an edge that Jason has always teetered on and would feel even closer to when he's replaced by a young Dick. I think Tim wouldn't ever be able to get rid of Jason.

Then on Tim's side, I think his reaction to being replaced after his death would be a complicated one. Objectively, being the Robin who believes Batman needs a Robin, he'd respect the logic and know Bruce was always going to replace him eventually. But still, there's always going to be that instinctual emotional reaction of betrayal and replacement. I think he'd view Jason at first with anger and distance, but then, seeing Jason as this street kid with begrudging potential, I could see Red Hood!Tim testing Jason. Constantly throwing things at Jason, seeing how he reacts, if he lives up to being Robin. Tim has a need for analyzing people, understanding their strengths and weaknesses. And he seems the Robin mantle very uniquely, he'd need to have it proven to him that Jason can handle it.

So you would have this dynamic of Jason hero worshipping Tim, slowly believing in Tim's methodology. While Tim is at first dismissive of him, but then starts to test him, see what makes this kid tick. And I think the TimJay potential of Jason trying to prove himself to Tim could be Neat.

[kheta]

Things I need in a Reverse Robins AU

-I don’t care what the order is but please let Duke and Jarro be adopted before Damian is taken in! I need Damian to be jealous of an alien starfish, my bones require it 😭

-Duke ans Damian make Jason and Dick’s lives so difficult… not as antagonist and purely because they snuck out and caused so much havock that Bruce now has a sixth sense for when his kids want to act up. They cannot even attempt stealth because Duke and Damian did it better.

-I want Duke and Damian to be those kid brothers that never got along. They used to regularly ‘spar’ (fist fight) but Dick, Cass and Jason don’t believe it because they get along so well now? Tim and Steph are obviously lying.

-A grown Dick Grayson being so mad because he went his whole life wanting to be taller than just one big brother, one! And he never gets it 🥰 (Him and Tim are the same height. He hates it w a passion) Technically he is taller than Jarro. But so is Ace and Tidus, that accounts for literally nothing.

-In contrasts to his big brother’s stealth and sneaking out shennanigans, Tim just straight up lies to Bruce when he wants to take off with YJ, vaguely saying their plans (baseball, trip to some histprical landmark, chilling on Bart’s new ride) So while Bruce blames Duke and Dami for his greys, he says that Tim is the only reason he isn’t fully grey because he’s so responsible and considerate and always tells Bruce everything. (Tim tells Bruce exactly three things, two are half-truths and one is the boldest lie in town 😇 Bruce is nonethewiser.)

-Running off of that, I want Tim to be the sneaky middle child always in chaos, but I want Dami to know this and point it out to Bruce and gst shut down (like Candace Flynn levels of bad)

-Dick is spoilt by his many older siblings. He knows and takes advantage. I’m talking like 18yo Dick Grayson showing up at 22yo Jason’s place when Jason is at College and Jason returns home to find his little brother wearing his robe, eating hia cereal and asking if he can borrow Jay’s car because Bruce is hiding his keys until Dick actually gets a drivers license, which he doesn’t need because he hardly ever drives anyway 🙄😒 Jason tells him to fuck off, kicks him for not throwing thw empty cereal box away and asks where tf he thinks he’s off to anyway??????

-I want Cass to be a bratty younger sister, but only to Jason. She’s happy to hangout and cherishes her time with all her brothers, but she terrorises Jason. Purposefully is quieter when walking near him to frighten him, steals every comfy, bright hoodie he owns, wiggles into his bed and leaves her stuff for him to pick up, clean. She happily helps with chores until Jason asks and suddenly, she did not hear him, she was ‘busy, calm down grumpy.’ I want her looking at his school work and making faces at him if he tries to help her. I want her to want nothing more than to bite Jason, but also have him be her secret favourite brother. I need them to be best friends but the sort who will sell each other out for a single corn chip.

-Dick convinces Damian to help him steal an elephant. If Damian weren’t so weak for his baby brother he’d think about how even tge manor is not large enough to comfortably house an elephant. Duke isn’t completely sure it’s a good idea, but he trusts his brother’s to be smart enough to think this through ☺️ (they have not and will not think the logistics of owning an elephant through) Tim is fully aware this is a bad plan, he’s just even worse at saying no to Dick 💀 Steph is so mad that she has to be the voice of reason among these idiots 😒

-Tim dropping out of High-school actually leads to a huge fight lol. Bc Duke and Damian have Masters and Jason is looking into Ivy Leagues and Cass adores you Tim you need to be a role model 😠 Tim moves to San Francisco and doesn’t talk to Bruce for months after that fight. He still regularly contacts his siblings though.

-Personally don’t love Jason dying in Reverse Robin AU’s, but you know if Joker killed him at 15 he’d be dead in two weeks tops. Oh you want to kill the baby brother of a trqined assassin and Tim, one bad hour away from villany, Drake-Wayne? You think Duke would stop them? Dick? You think wrong. Dick might even try to jump ahead of the line. Cass is perfectly happy to shut her eyes and pretend she cannot see her brothers planning 🫢 The Joker would die a slow and painful death. Steph and Duje would run Batman distraction. (Bruce actually has a support network and two kids younger than Jason who are grieving. He’d need to be a parent and help them with their grief. He’ll probably be shit at it, but he’d still need to try.)

-When Steph starts college she occasionally visits the manor, liberally fills her bag with spare socks, new towels and non-perishables. Alfred doesn’t mind. Bruce does, but only because he’s more than willing to buy it for her and she will kick him if he even glances at any of his credit cards or bank accounts while she is near.

- Barbara probably has a crush on Steph and Tim. Like not a serious, I want a romantic relationship crush. But like ‘Steph is so strong and pretty and she’s so smart Dick, she wants to be a Doctor that’s so cool!’ And Tim is that weird crush you can’t describe. Like Matthew Gray-Gubler. He looks sorta like a raccon and an addict, but he’s weirdly handsome and can work a computer like no one else, ‘isn’t he so smart Dick?’ Dick doesn’t know whether to be jealous or to laugh at her because. Like. Really??? That’s who you think is cute from all my amazing big brothers ans sisters?

-Dick, as youngest brother, probably has the most eclectic music taste. He listens to classical, trap music, K-Pop, scremo, RnB, showtunes. Just all genres. He doesn’t love all genres, bit he k ows enough to have a super weird road trip playlist.

-Dick also always has to deal with his friends, civvie and otherwise, having crushes on his siblings.

-Jarro barely spends holidays with the family, but he gets presents put aside for him and is the most patient, most fun big brother of the batfam. Damian still hates him, but will begrudgingly buy him gifts and invite him to family events because unfortunately, Jarro is his sibling. -Because he's never around, Jarro is the favourite older sibling, with Jason, Cass and Dick always making him projects from school. Duke, Dami and Tim see Jarro more, since they love going to see the JL or going to space and don't care that Bruce disapproves. They will either lie to Bruce or sneak out or just leave the manor 'Because I am a grown ass adult B, you can't ground me.' Steph does not like space or the JL half as much and is more busy studying/working than the other three losers. (affectionate)

-Gotham villains are in shock when, after having highly predictable vigilantes who just come in through the front/back door (Duke and Damian) they are faced with vigilantes who will in fact bazooka an entry way open (Jason and Cass)

[ablogofmissingfics]

Does anyone remember the fic where Dick was a werewolf who got adopted by werewolf hunter Bruce? There was no romance or anything (have to specify cause all the werewolf au's I could see while hunting for this thing was romance and this story definitely wasn't). It was all found family, and I think it may have been reverse robins cause I remember the other robins being there as hunters also but it's been so long since I read this thing, I can't remember if he just hid it for so long for if it was reverse robins.

[ky-landfill]

Your reverse Robins art inspired me to write again after not writing for months. Thank you so much for creating and sharing your art. Getting into a big writing project again has really helped me feel settled again after some hard times, and it’s your art that drove me to write again.

I can’t thank you enough. Hope you’re well <3

[chai-artsy]

[Reverse Robin AU] Big birds and their baby birds

[junkdrawerfan]

One thing I do believe: In alt timeline AUs like reverse robin, no one but Dick Grayson can be Nightwing. We can justify Robin. I’ve seen some good ones. The Robins: Being Robin comics gives us a decent set up for Bruce to name the “first” Robin.

But Dick is Nightwing. He life relates to the myth: the abandoned son moving through the dark to defeat the threats his father cannot see. He has the special relationship with Superman and Clark Kent. He is the only one who can get permission to use that name.

Damian has a cool relationship with Diana, from what I’ve seen. If he is the first Robin, he can get a name from her to escape the bloodlines that tie him down, something Greek. Maybe Prometheus. A story about suffering for kindness and redemption.

If it’s Duke and he builds that relationship with Superman, I don’t know what would cause him to run and feel so dismissed by Batman, considering he and Bruce have a mentor-mentee relationship, not father and son. And I don’t think he would relate to a dark hero like Nightwing as a light-based meta and a daytime hero (which I doubt he is if he’s the first Robin. But nonetheless!) And I really really doubt Duke would call himself Rao, a bit sacrilege ya know.

Ultimately I’m always a fan of new names.

In my story where Damian is the first Robin”Robin”-like sidekick, his name is Wolf, the dark vengeance of the lost children of Gotham, forcing Batman to be his lighter, kinder counterpart. And when he leaves to find his own path and go on his redemption story, he takes on the name Cerberus upon his return to Gotham. Damian becomes the guardian watch dog who prowls the edge of his father’s domain, loyal and distant.

It’s why I like Reverse Robin AUs, how the story beats of their life rhyme but never echo.

[stillpanicking]

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[thesulkycroissant]

Damian and the no-kill rule is a little more complicated I think than it is for maybe any of the others. Damian has killed people. Many people. And you know what else? Damian has killed someone while wearing the Robin suit, after his time with Dick, fully aware of the fact that Bruce would be angry with him, and it was permanent.

This is actually where I think a Reverse Robins AU could be fascinating because I think you could very realistically have Damian kill the person who killed his successor (in my view, this would be Steph). The fallout to his relationship with Bruce would be enormous, and who knows if it even would have recovered by the time you get to Dick in the lineup.

[stoicallyferalknowledge]

Freaking frothing at the mouth about reverse robin au and its implications because Damian as the first child would open a new can of worms. Like aside from the psychological stand point based on Alfred Adler's Birth Order Theory, Damian would probably be raised differently in the League.

Because without Dick, Jason, Tim, and Cass, Talia would not know if Bruce would take in Damian if she sent him there. Sure you could argue that he would since he is a good guy but that's a whole child we're talking about. Besides, it's been years so it would be out of the realm of possibility if Bruce were to change at least in Talia's eye.

Then there's the whole moving to Bluddhaven which eventually leads to Jason becoming Robin down the line and would that even happen with Damian? Because he could rebel but would he go so far as to move to a different city? Would his mom, or better yet, Ra's let him? Won't they hound him back to Bruce, if not the LoA?

How would even Tim discover their identity? Originally, he was able to do that because of Dick's flip but Damian doesn't have that flip. I mean his little 'Tt' would probably do that trick but still.