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judd winick doing subtext is my favorite thing bc the man does not know the meaning of the word subtlety he just hits you with it like a truck. not just butch and sundance but erotic butch and sundance, literal queer iconography, and THAT being when roy breaks and kisses her to stop her from finishing that train of thought. & the butch and sundance reference also foreshadowing violence as an excuse that justifies tenderness/vulnerability btwn men. god.

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How much sympathy do you think Cass extends to her younger self?

INTERESTING QUESTION KOL!!! This is actually a question where canon slightly differs from my own preference, but I'll tackle canon first. In modern day, solidified by Batgirl (2024) #5, Cass feels a great deal of sympathy for her younger self:

The hugging + the line before this panel ("maybe I can save") + the "no control of her life" indicates to me that she sympathises with and pities her younger self, understanding that she was forced to kill and it wasn't really her fault. She still sees her younger self as guilty (she frames it as 'saving' her younger self, not accepting her younger self), but she does show such compassion here to young Cass. This follows on from Batgirl (2008) #6, where she lays the blame squarely on David Cain:

In both this and Batgirl #5, Cass highlights her younger self's lack of agency. I think modern Cass does truly feel sorry for her younger self, in a way she didn't before.

I think this is a sweet and natural progression of her character arc, but gosh if I don't love early Cass and the way she looked at her younger self. Because the Shiva fight solved her death wish, but I personally don't think it resolved the resentment she felt towards her younger self. I think it's very interesting that even in Batgirl #5, her younger self isn't really 'her', but someone external - someone she can 'save' like another criminal. To an extent, Cass has never been able to fully reconcile that younger self with who she is now.

In Batgirl (2000) #25, Shiva kills Cass and fulfils her death wish, so current Cass has 'atoned' (or suffered appropriately) for her murder. She realises that death isn't the solution for any murderer, including herself. But young Cass didn't go through that punishment or redemption. When Babs shows Cass her young self in the holo room, Babs says "that's you, isn't it." Cass doesn't reply until young Cass moves, and then she screams "STOP!". Obviously the 'stop' refers to young Cass killing Faizul, but in light of Babs' question, in a way Cass is begging for that young girl not to be her. She wants to stop her younger self, and she wants to stop being her younger self.

Batgirl Secret Files and Origins

I wonder if part of her also resents her younger self's happiness pre-kill. Just personally, while I like her having evolved past these early days and being able to embrace her younger self like in BG '24 #5, I really do prefer the messier feelings. In Cass' mind her younger self is associated with David Cain, with the "perfect killer", with a happiness built on lies - she definitely feels sympathetic, but that sympathy should be (in my opinion) strained by discomfort and a bit of blame.

My ideal amount of Cass sympathy for her younger self is Batgirl Secret Files and Origins. She tells a boy "you did... one bad thing. But you're... not," and when he asks whether she really believes that, she answers, "I try to." She hasn't fully forgiven her younger self, she might never fully forgive her younger self, but she's trying her best to sympathise with her anyway. It's imperfect, painful, effortful sympathy, and that's what makes it so beautiful!

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I had to make a video for another college project and decided to talk about Robin, so I'll show you some small frames!!

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This is the bad place

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Check my Patreon out if you’d like to support the comic, even a little bit helps. Or just to check out the reward tiers, there’s some neat bonus stuff and I tried to make them fun: https://www.patreon.com/waitingforthet

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Simple comic doodles of some of my favorite moments from @danishsweethearts' fic big d stands for big (demon)or <3 go give it a read for a hell of a good time with improviser exorcist nightwing

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I've been thinking a lot about Jason Todd recently, but less about what is canon and what is not, but what is *added* to fanon to facilitate the types of stories people want to say. There are a few key things that I find to be fascinating and universally added to canon that really I think say a lot about how people view and shape crime and characters.

The main one is just this idea of how Jason prosecutes crime. Who are the criminals writers choose to have him kill? Generally rapists and drug dealers who deal to children (it has to be kids otherwise he's just killing like. A Guy). These two targets are not the only targets that Jason is seen as killing in canon, but they are the ones that are overwhelmingly depicted by fans. People choose crimes that are unjustifiable and invoke strong emotions.

More striking to me is the methodology of the killing. Jason is often depicted as killing criminals as soon as he catches them in the act. There can be no doubt of guilt if Jason is to be the judge, jury and executioner, he can't been seen hunting criminals down.

But then there's this idea that criminals have already been caught. Jason's always saying I've caught you before, *now* you die. This is super interesting to me because the emphasis on this over and over again creates a sense of “justice” (but only a sense) -- at the end of the day we are looking at an execution in the streets. This creates narrative machine that searches for "valid targets". They are such terrible people -- beyond helping! -- because they are told don’t rape twice and they did it *a third time*. It invites us to find acceptable targets.

We want to find acceptable targets because at the end of the day the stories in which Jason kills are not about Jason killing, or about justice. They are about family and Jason killing is just a metaphor to have a middle ground between his drug empire or his "crusade" and the rest of the family. You need to show Jason as heroic for cold blooded murder in order to get there.

To reconcile both sides have to be somewhat wrong and somewhat right, and how do you make Jason right? Well in addition to this dehumanizing bit, you also need to show narrative justification.

And that's where all these narrative choices that come from having crime ally be "Jason's territory" sometimes to the point of having no bats ever go to crime ally (which is crazy if you've read some pretty iconic bat stories they are always there, Tim made a base there once). You would think the people of crime ally would dislike their siblings and children being gunned down, but more often than not, authors decide to have the marginalized characters in crime ally sing Jason's praises and distrust the bats in order to hammer this idea home -- Jason is also right, do not question it.

You need to question it. I understand that by writing these things people are not making statements about crime but trying to write stories with other themes. Or sometimes its about the pleasure in executing terrible acts of heroism or catharsis of seeing someone act on a justice the state fails to serve. But we need to think about what do we use for shorthand to say that someone is worth killing? If dehumanizing criminals is a means to an end to write these stories, why does it come so automatically to us, without question?

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If I was Todd I’d be pissed that my stupid dad gets more pride stories than me even though my boyfriend is alive and I’ve been out as gay way longer than him.

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Have you ever done a tutorial on how you do Kori’s hair!!? Because you do it so perfectly!

Thank you so much!! I’ve never made a tutorial for anything ever but here is a little one for Kory’s hair!

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red hood murders your weed guy because he was dead when it was legalized and didn’t get the memo

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lots of real problems with n52 but on god my biggest gripe will always be that we didn’t get a funeral for dick after spyral like can you imagine bruce wayne having to give the performance of a lifetime that isn’t really a performance because all his love is always grief. he saw his firstborn die and then he had to symbolically kill his son again for that unforgivable failure and now there will always be a grave with no body between them

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Titans #23

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Puts them in the club 🕺

This was my contribution for @womenincomicsminibang!! Check out samg.writes' corresponding fic here!

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Repeating patterns

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Dick, Donna, and Roy thinking of the Titans as family.

"We just wanted to remind you that even though you lost one family..." "...I gained another."

Nightwing: Secret Files & Origins

"When you told me the Titans were like a family--"

The Titans #13

"You guys are my family."

JLA/Titans #3

"We created a family."

Outsiders #1

"The Titans are more than my teammates. They're my best friends. My family."

Titans #21

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I’m always thinking about how bonkers the forums must have been in the lead up to the DickKory wedding. Like Kory and Nightwing are the IT couple. They've been on magazines, they've been on the lettermen show, people know who they are.

But Dick decides he wants to mary Kory, not as Nightwing but as Dick Grayson and Kory is like I mean Dick knows more about human customs so I guess I'll listen to his plan which is --- and I cannot stress this enough -- INSANE

He takes Kory on a not date in front of Starfire impersonators

and then calls a press conference where he announces that he's with Kory now prompting "Nightwing" (actually mirage who thinks she's dating Dick Grayson while Kory is dating nightwing) to beat Dick Grayson up in public

AND THEY THEY GET MARRIED SO SOON AFTER THIS LIKE WHY DID YOU THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA???

what I am saying is that Dick Grayson should be the number 1 Nightwing hater because he beat him up in NYC in the 80's and Nightwing should be the number 1 Dick Grayson Hater bc he married his girlfriend

ALSO THE STARFIRE INPERSONATORS don't tell me they're doing nothing they got to be in the forums debating who the right man is for their girl. Meanwhile robin Tim is fighting for his life in the comments defending both Dick Grayson and Nightwing

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another one