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[luliaka]

rolling bruce and dick around in my mind like fidget marbles bc their dynamic has so many delicious layers like… dick, eventually, finally admits that “im not you bruce” (read: im a failure) and bruce echoes him, “you are not me” (read: you are better) and dick takes it as an insult because shouldn’t he be like bruce? shouldn’t he be like batman? even though he does NOTTTTT want to be him at all it still feels like a failure that bruce is agreeing to. meanwhile bruce is like… he’s so grown up now he’s independent he’s better than batman could ever be he is my pride and joy he is the only thing i have ever done right. but neither of them say anything and they keep talking circles around each other

[luliaka]

After Death in the Family and Bruce and Dick’s big fight, when was the next time they spoke to each other? Was it with Tim?

They were actually back on talking terms before Tim entered the picture.

Batman (1940) Issue #436

Dick comes back from the Titans because Alfred calls him about Bruce and he checks up on Bruce's life and is like "I gotta go fix this guy right now."

Batman (1940) Issue #436

So he basically tracks him down and ruminates about how Bruce has completely ignored every smart detectiv-ing he taught Dick and is wilding out-

Batman (1940) Issue #437

And then together they solve this massive case about Tony Zucco and some book and by the end of it, things are not entirely normal but much, much better. Almost close to the way it used to be.

Batman (1940) Issue #439

It's also why Bruce was so comfortable calling Dick for help in the "A Lonely Place of Dying" arc because he and Dick were already on good terms

The New Titans (1988) Issue #61

[luliaka]

It’s a shoujo manga to kdrama to K-pop pipeline

[luliaka]

This is the right answer!

My God. What if you were Bruce Wayne and you took in Richard Grayson expecting to only find in his eyes a mirror of your own endless grief and anger but instead, after a short time, he completely surprised you by not just having the happiest eyes you've ever seen, but also being positive, empathetic, fearless, and so eager to do good and help people? What if he held a tiny but bright torch against the darkness you've been living in? What then? Would you or would you not love him with your entire soul?

[luliaka]

Every time I remember that Dick and Talia hate each other it makes me smile.

Ideal dickbats and goodmom Talia co-parenting dynamic send post

[luliaka]

I like this timeline a lot. It makes sense for their relationships.

So the timeline is contradictory in many places, but what makes the most sense to me is:

Dick is fairly newly 9 y/o when his parents die. He meets a 26 year old Bruce, who has been Batman for 1 year.

He is Robin for nearly a decade, until he’s fired at 18 y/o

Jason meets Bruce at 13, and is Robin til he’s 15. He’s 5 years younger than Dick. Note that he is 23 years younger than 36 y/o Bruce, a gap that suits their more parental relationship.

Tim is 13 y/o when he finds Dick again. He and Dick met when he was 2 y/o and the Grayson’s death is his earliest memory (to the point where he thought it was a dream for many years). They have a 7 year difference.

Tim is Robin until he’s 17 and Damian becomes Robin at 10 y/o. Dick is 24-25, and Jason is 19-20.

This allows a couple of fun things. The first is that Jason was a shitty teenager in UTRH which is just kind of funny. The second is that the Damian-Dick-Bruce parallel can exist, but also a Damian-Tim-Dick parallel, which I think is almost juicier. Dick was the perfect older brother to Tim, and yet Tim and Damian’s relationship is nothing like that. Tim is no longer Robin, but he’s also no longer the baby, which is almost harder. And I think is a reminder of how tiny Damian is at introduction. Tim is on the verge of high school when he becomes Robin. Damian is in 5th grade. And Dick is 25 trying to stop them from fighting.

[luliaka]

This is how I wish Bruce could be written more often- not a bad dad, just bad at communicating.

(Batman (1940) #408)

[luliaka]

A dastardly plot!

(Batman 66 volume #2)

[luliaka]

Shame on you, Bruce!

(Batman 66 volume #1)

[luliaka]

how i think the boy robins view each other in order of which brother relationship they care the most about, based off my overall comic readings:

dick: tim, damian, jason

jason: dick, tim, damian

tim: dick, *massive gap*, damian, jason

damian: dick, *massive gap* tim. honestlyyyyyyyy, don’t think dami cares about jason that much. he’s usually more dismissive of him than he is with tim

how it appears the robins view each other in order of which brother relationship they care the most about, based off my modern comics readings, (i.e, New 52 onwards):

dick: damian, *massive gap*, tim, jason. tim + jay feel lowkey interchangeable here ngl

jason: tim, *gap*, dick, damian

tim: jason, dick, damian

damian: dick, *massive gap*, tim, jason.

how i might think the robins view each other in order of which brother relationship they care the most about, based off my non-curated fanon encounters:

dick: he is the Older Brother ™️. he has no favorites. (damian)

jason: tim, dick is a close second, damian. unless it’s jason + dami loa brothers au, in which case i assume dami comes first, but idk how dick and tim would fall there since i haven’t engaged with that au a whole lot.

tim: jason (that’s his robin!!), dick, damian

damian: dick. *massive gap*. toss-up.

the overlap and differences are very interesting to me. there’s definitely a shift once you hit New 52, (and i wholeheartedly blame dick and tim’s relationship falling off to the wayside in canon on grant morrison.) as someone who honestly really enjoys all the robins, the discourse over jason & tim relationship entertains me the most because both sides can technically point to comics to defend their stance. it’s like a platonic ship war. the relationship discourse i have the least patience for is tim & damian “they’re abusive and awful to each other” hot takes from one robin’s stan about the other. headache inducing fr

[luliaka]

The core thing some people misunderstand about Dick (which leads them to mischaracterize him) is that he's not a flamboyant attention seeker or a drama queen(idk where people get this from it drives me up the wall), he lives off of people's affirmation. He was raised as a performer, and then his audience was suddenly ripped away from him.

His earliest memories involve people cheering and clapping for him when he did something good, smiling at him and showing their approval. His parents would say good job, Dickie! when he performed well. That's how he knew he was loved and secure.

So when his parents are killed and all of that is taken away from him and for a while his only audience is Bruce and Alfred, what do you think that would do to him? Do you think he would stop at anything to get Bruce's approval? Do you think in his child's mind he wouldn't make it into a challenge to get any kind of good job from Bruce? Hell, even when he "acts out" it's with the intention to show Bruce that hey! look! I can do it! Didn't I do a great job? Didn't I help?

His whole thing is doing everything he can to make the people around him happy. Of course things change a bit as he grows and matures, but he's still a performer at heart trying to please his audience, and you need to understand all this to please for the love of god stop writing him in fic as a huggy guy who cries at the smallest sign of rejection.

[luliaka]

"I'm not a judgmental person, I'm pretty open minded and ok with experiencing new things" it's a lie, I'll judge you by your characterization of Dick Grayson

[luliaka]

Batman is an expert at both dancing and fire safety. Maybe because he’s BURNING UP on the dance floor??

(Batman 66 volume 1)

[luliaka]

That would destroy Bruce. I don’t even know what kind of terror he would unleash. Good idea for the next major crisis.

The only death I will ever accept for Dick Grayson is by self-sacrifice. It's the only thing that makes sense for him. Bonus points if he sacrifices himself for Bruce.

[luliaka]

Idk if we want to say Dick is a bad sibling because he made a decision that Tim didn't like, or because he didn't like Cass as batgirl originally I feel like we're ignoring the the following:

a. He is a just a person who is capable of reacting/acting poorly especially under duress and it's not fair to expect him to be perfect and/or kind every second of every day just because he's older

b. Just because someone was hurt by an act(ie Damian becoming Robin) does not mean that the actual act itself was an inherently bad or cruel one

c: The literally unquantifiable amount of effort and support he's gone out of his way(because to be clear, he quite seriously did NOT have to) to pour into them

d: he has as much of a right to disagree and argue as anyone else

None of this to say that he's not capable of being an asshole, he absolutely is(as are we all, tho) but a 'bad sibling'? Nah. Honestly if we want to have a serious conversation about family dynamics wrt to Dick n the batfam, we're gonna have to talk about how found family is not about assigning ppl roles based on the nuclear family format, why y'all seem to think that it is only ever the older sibling that owes something to the younger ones AND that every single one of Dick's siblings(including Cass and Tim) have put hands on him outside of combat/training situations but they seem to get 1/8th the scrutiny he does for being mean a handful of times, but I honestly don't think that this community is ready for that kind of heat ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[luliaka]

Dick and Bruce's problem is that Dick knows Bruce better than anyone. everyone knows it, including Dick and Bruce. Dick knows Bruce better than any of the other bats, the other Robins, better than Clark, even Alfred

The one thing Dick doesn't fully know is how important Dick himself is to Bruce. And for Bruce, Dick is so fundamental he doesn’t even need to think about it. He’s like his right leg. And Dick knows him. How could he question such a think that Bruce isn’t even questioning. It's not possible for him to get such a core thing wrong.

[luliaka]

Broke: adopt a child

Woke: borrow your boyfriend's