but-a-humble-goon - Tumblr blog

[but-a-humble-goon]

old doodle new doodle

[but-a-humble-goon]

I know it’s been said before but augh Shadow of the Batgirl is so good. it's one of the few Cass stories that gives her a community with other Asian people and I really appreciate that a lot. it felt like a thoughtful take on Cass for a lighter hearted story in a different continuity

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The Fury... the Rage... the Fire...

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Ohhh my God, the current VA for Foghorn Leghorn actually dubbed it.

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As of Batman: The Brave and the Bold #12, local precious-gremlin-who-I-would-die-for, Maps Mizoguchi, is now officially(?) the sixth Robin. Or at the very least, she's now "in" on The Secret™.

If this isn’t a set up for her taking up the mantle officially then I genuinely don’t know what is.

As one of the twelve Gotham Academy enjoyers in existence, I am having the extremely normal reaction of "FUCKING FINALLY! LET'S FUCKING GOOOOO--!"

In all honesty, I'd be lying if I said I hadn't seen this coming from miles away. Like, Maps has appeared in a number of seemingly random cameo roles recently, including Batgirls (2021), and even technically as Robin in the backup issues of Batman (2016) #119-121, and in a short story in Batman Black & White. And most of those got collected in a standalone titled "Maps of Mystery", which specifically gathered all her appearances as Robin (and the Gotham Academy Belle Reve story).

And then, of course, her recent time-travelling Future-Trunks-esque appearance in Birds of Prey (2023), as Meridian, from a potential future timeline where she apparently makes it as a superhero, proving that she's hero material.

That's not something you do for a character for no reason. That's the sort of thing you do when you want to keep a character in the conscience of your readers for whatever reason, because you have bigger plans for them.

Considering that, in the "Mother's Day" story that released recently, Alfred is standing right there and not lying down six feet under wood, dirt and a stone slab, and that Bruce is in the old Batcave under the manor so he still has Money™, I assume this was some nebulous time in the past (after GA: Second Semester, but before City of Bane)... which I won't bother to analyse the exact timeframe of because DC doesn't care about the post-Flashpoint / New 52 / Rebirth / Prime Earth / idfk / Dawn of DC timeline, so neither should I.

But I think it's really funny that this presumably means Maps has known The Secret™ for a long time relative to present-day comics, but always acted like she didn't.

But if all her appearances are in chronological order, that means Bruce is only the fourth Bat whose identity she discovered.

Like, she discovered Cass' identity almost by accident on a trip to the zoo, Damian showed off his grapple gun and gave her an actual Batarang during the three hours he was enrolled in the school (as if she wouldn't immediately put two-and-two together even back then), and she even found out Terry fucking McGuinness would become Batman in a future via a time-travelling grandfather clock.

No I did not make that last part up. Read Gotham Academy istg.

Did Cass know that Maps had been acting as a Robin when she met her, both at the zoo in Batgirls and her future version in Birds of Prey?

Does Damian know the one friend(?) he made in Gotham Academy is potentially in the running for his job?

Is Bruce himself aware that she knows as much about their identities as she currently does?

How is DC going to retcon this so it all makes sense in the barely-functioning canon of the modern DC universe?

I'm digressing. Where was I going with this?

Point is, she's destined to become a Robin. I'm just glad DC finally pulled their fingers out their asses and capitalised on that destiny.

Let's just hope it doesn't take another year for them to follow up on this plotline again.

Bonus: Jason Todd, after learning of Bruce taking yet another happy kid under his wing as yet another Robin, giving her some advice:

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so beyond happy that their story gets to continue, that bumbleby will be breaking the cancelled sapphics curse and that we’ll be able to see them again as an established couple 🖤💛

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panel redraw 🩷💜

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tagging @adam-sadmon

Tag game!!!

Do this quiz

And this picrew

And tag people(obviously)

@anartistwithamask @gummy-axolotl @shadowthegay @auseryoumayknow @copper-ichor @moonysfavoritetoast @alexthescaredenby @invaderxeya @fungal-boy-witch-yay @artists-void @hazbin-hotel-lucifer-simp @ka1-the-pr0ot @theautumnalcat

[but-a-humble-goon]

Okay I know what you mean but the wolves she was raised by were, in fact, very literal.

Therapy dog Cass is an abomination but Cass absolutely would be that friend who notices whenever someone's going through it and wants to do something to help. The issue being she's really bad at this so she just thinks of what always makes her happy and winds up shoving a chocolate ice cream cone in their face and blurting out, "hey, feel better. Okay?" in a way that sounds a lot more like a threat than a reassurance before quickly grappling away to avoid further awkwardness.

[but-a-humble-goon]

Hey, I had a thought about Cassandra.

I haven't read any of her comics, only read the Batgirls one with the three batgirls going on their own side with that artstyle I love so much for some reason.

I know the fact that Cass speaks, and how, tend to change a lot between comics and all, and I don't know the exact lore, but I thought a bit deeper about it all from what I know.

Cain never taught Cass how to speak, right? She grew up with fighting and understanding the body as her only way to convey anything from her brain to the world. (even if she obviously learnt to understand other languages)

But languages shape how your brain understand and interact with the world. It is most noticable when someone talk a language they didn't grew speaking, there's those little mishaps or confusion of meaning and use for words that are said to be equivalent, and that's because you have to relearn a way to see and understand things.

I'd say it's even more obvious when the structure of the language changes, I don't speak any sign language, but I know how some things work, and you don't describe things the same way with it as you would with a spoken language. You have to translate the meaning because of that.

Now, to go back to Cass, she didn't grew up with either of those, at least from what I know. Her language is Body. Her mind shaped itself and its understanding of things through her and others' body. How do you translate that?

Like, she doesn't say things, she can see how others' body feel by looking at them, so she express her feeling through her body. If Cass were to want to express an emotion,her mind would first and foremost express it through her body, and that's not words, that's feelings, and your body can reflect so much mors complicated feelings than words.

My point is, if Cass was to learn her first spoken language while in her teens, it would be really hard for her to express herself in a way that is understandable. Bodies reflect intent with specific muscles, while you need to build a sentence. I know fanon make her learn ASL, which is logical from a vocal cords point of view because she never trained it to speak, but that would still make communication hard, because sign languages are still not body language.

I don't know if I get the idea across, but Cass' whole understanding of the world was built around the way bodies work, and it probably holds for animals too, which are just different, sometimes similar, body languages.

It is so intersting! You can only guess how they would understand the world!

But also, would hinder them so much in their communication. Once, if she ever, get past the training to not express any feeling, you would have someone who express anything with movement, postures, specific muscle being tensed or not. Someone one who is constantly seeing how others feel because no one knows how to prevent their bodies from having feeling.

You're on the same level as an empath as long as you can see their bodies. hiding your body allows you to not be truthful about your feeling...

I fee like I'm not going anywhere with this, but the implication over how one would share anything is wide.

It's actually addressed directly at the end of her solo book that for her it's not as easy as just learning a second language, it's a hardware problem. Her brain is so specialized for body language that it lacks the structure to even process written or verbal languages the way a typical brain can. While she can learn, it will always be much more difficult for her than anyone else.

Also the thing that makes her way of communicating unique is that it's sort of "read only." As in, since it's about reading subconscious body language signals there's no real way to consciously express yourself with it. That's part of why she's all about the arts (dancing, drawing etc) because she's never had ways to express herself properly before and words obviously don't work for her.

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God we were so robbed of Steph Robin. She really is the Robin that we needed but not the one the Batbooks deserve. One who would actually call Batman on all his bullshit and hold him accountable for his terribleness and come at him with a 23 page long document full of orphan jokes whenever she senses him trying to take himself seriously. He would hate having her for a Robin and that's exactly why he needs her.

[but-a-humble-goon]

Well technically there was the one time

Happy Lesbian Visibility Week! (part three) ✰ if you're looking for canon lesbian relationships that appear for more than 2 seconds in the background, check out The High Republic & Doctor Aphra comics ✰ reminder that T*RFs can fuck off, only interact if you love trans & nonbinary folks ♡ more characters under the cut!

Tumblr only allows 30 images per post, so this was the max number of characters I could include BUT if there is anyone you would like to see made into one of these edits that isn't here, just let me know and I'll make it separately ♡

[but-a-humble-goon]

Ruby is the only member of her team to not directly blow up or burn down a building. Yang blew up Juniors bar, Blake burned her parents house down, and Weiss burned down a farmstead.

If Ruby cant say fuck then at least let her burn down a building on purpose

[but-a-humble-goon]

Red like roses

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Couldn't resist.

Happy Lesbian Visibility Week! (part three) ✰ if you're looking for canon lesbian relationships that appear for more than 2 seconds in the background, check out The High Republic & Doctor Aphra comics ✰ reminder that T*RFs can fuck off, only interact if you love trans & nonbinary folks ♡ more characters under the cut!

Tumblr only allows 30 images per post, so this was the max number of characters I could include BUT if there is anyone you would like to see made into one of these edits that isn't here, just let me know and I'll make it separately ♡

[but-a-humble-goon]

Therapy dog Cass is an abomination but Cass absolutely would be that friend who notices whenever someone's going through it and wants to do something to help. The issue being she's really bad at this so she just thinks of what always makes her happy and winds up shoving a chocolate ice cream cone in their face and blurting out, "hey, feel better. Okay?" in a way that sounds a lot more like a threat than a reassurance before quickly grappling away to avoid further awkwardness.