ravenlilyrose

[ravenlilyrose]

For all that the Batman 66 tv show has, shall we say, interesting characterization at times it got at least one thing very right.

Was just watching an episode where Robin was kidnapped and Batman started carting the Commissioner around everywhere because he didn’t trust himself not to take extreme measures and needed someone to stop him if he started going too far.

Yes, Batman does absolutely go off the rails when Robin is threatened. I love it.

[ravenlilyrose]

Bruce bringing Joker back to life in Joker's Last Laugh is actually something I will 100% excuse Bruce for under every single circumstance, because it was not about the Joker and was never about the Joker. It was about Dick and ensuring Dick didn't have to live with the guilt of permanently killing the Joker in an impulsive moment of grief-induced rage. It was about Bruce making an incredibly tough decision to prioritize his living children over continuing to grieve his dead one ensuring he didn't lose another son to the Joker. He knew Dick would still have to deal with the emotional fallout of what he'd done, but he could make sure it wasn't murder. He could make sure it wasn't permanent. He could make sure Dick only crashed out about his capacity to deal out irreparable harm. And that's what mattered to him.

[ravenlilyrose]

you okay?

[ravenlilyrose]

thinking about how Bart probably doesn't see the point in texting or phone calls if he can just run over and have a conversation in person, so all his text threads are probably just messages to him without a single response

[ravenlilyrose]

Like the Great Vin Diesel Said: It's All About Family.

Family has always been an integral part of what has made Tim Drake work so well as a character--

Also hold on I'm just now realizing Tim's wearing a red shirt shirt with yellow on it, and green shorts--Oh you absolute fanboy. Even when you're Robin for 3 to 4 years now you can't stop being a dork. I love this, boy.

Where was I?

Oh yeah, family.

Tim was created to have a family. It's something that made him unique among the other Robins. Even when Tim's mother died, he eventually got a step-mother, which was nice, and added another sense of relatability to the character for many kids who, unfortunately, probably had to deal with similar circumstances.

And although Tim was adopted by Bruce by this time--and I am not a fan of them killing all of Tim's original family as it takes away something that makes him unique--Adam Beechen does the best damn job he can to still make family important to Tim, from him keeping a picture of his original parents--I assume that's in the script.

To just...this talk he has with Bruce.

It's unfortunate this moment had to come because Beechen was made to write in the evil Cass storyline, because it shows the growth of these characters and how important they are to one another.

While I don't have the panel anymore, due to hard drive issues, Bruce from the beginning thought Tim needed a strong father figure, not having the best opinion of Jack and Janet Drake's tendency to flake on their son to go world traveling without him.

So now having Bruce be Tim's de-facto parent...

It's nice that they didn't forget that in order to make Batman edgier, or mysterious, as if that's what makes him cool.

Batman is a cynic, he doesn't fully trust the human race, he likes scaring people, and beating up bad guys.

But through and through, he is a family man. It's why he does what he does, from avenging his parents, to taking in orphans that he can relate to and sees himself in.

This is totally natural progression of Tim and Bruce's relationship, even if it came at the cost of something that made Tim more unique. And that effort is absolutely appreciated by me. Things may be different, things may have progressed in ways I do not agree with, but one of the major hearts to the character of not only Tim Drake, but Bruce Wayne as well remains.

You gotta love it.

Bruce Wayne, and Tim Drake.

Father and son, for better or worse.

[ravenlilyrose]

@bellart asked to see my timeline charting so you all get to see my descent into madness. Note: this is work in progress research for canon-diverging pre-boot-Batfam-centric fic-writing purposes, in which I plan to ignore several things and outright change others, so that's why the foci are what they are, the citations aren't consistent, there's a lot of ranting and asides, I've sometimes delineated years arbitrarily where comics don't (because unlike DC, I think comics characters should age), and I stop at Wargames. You've been warned!

[ravenlilyrose]

Oracle: Year One — Born of Hope

I don’t know much about Babs as a character. I enjoy her in Wayne Family Adventures, and she’s been showing up a bit in my YJ ‘98 read, but I’ve yet to read any stories where she’s plays a major role, either as Batgirl or Oracle.

Oracle: Year One is one of three mini-stories that make up The Batman Chronicles (1995) issue #5. It follows Babs in the year after The Killing Joke as she comes to terms with being disabled, leaves Batgirl behind, and eventually reinvents herself as Oracle. It’s short—tragically short, if you ask me—but it’s a good read nonetheless. And my disabled, exhausted ass is feeling a little introspective today, so. Let’s talk about Born of Hope.

Note: General TW for internalized ableism.

“You know, when you’re healthy, when you’re whole, there’re a million simple things you do every day that you take completely for granted.”

Here’s the thing about being disabled—it’s never really the things you think you’ll miss that you actually miss. Two years ago, I had a chronic illness flare up that’s left me borderline non-functional ever since. I’m not wheelchair bound, but I am incapable of working full time and pretty much in constant pain.

It doesn’t really bother me that I can’t dance, or run, or lift heavy stuff like I used to be able to. What’s really frustrating is the simple stuff. I can’t cook anymore without a chair, because standing in front of the stove for more than 2 minutes makes me feel like my knees are on fire. I tried braiding my hair last week, but my muscles were so weak I couldn’t hold my arms up long enough.

In my experience, when you lose mobility, that’s the stuff you miss the most. The little things you used to take for granted. Stuff like getting into and out of a car. Stuff that was so easy it didn’t occur to you it could be hard.

“I used to walk everywhere and the traffic never bothered me. Now, I’d come to a busy street corner and feel myself start to panic.”

Born of Hope isn’t really a superhero story. It’s not about how Barbara feels losing Batgirl—it’s about how she feels losing everything else. Everything from the ability to navigate a crowded sidewalk to her sense of self. Forget Batgirl—in the first 6 months of her recovery, Barbara is convinced she can’t even be Barbara Gordon anymore. That even if she’s still breathing, the old her is dead and gone.

“having no sense of self, of feeling that I meant nothing, that my life was now over.”

She’s wrong, of course—Barbara is, and has always been, more than her physical abilities—but in a way, she’s also right. Future retcons notwithstanding, Barbara will never walk again. There’s a part of her that’s gone forever.

“Thats who you were, not who you are. Who are you?”

None of us really realize how much of our sense of self is tied to our health until it’s taken away. I used to spend so much time trying to be productive—to do things, make stuff, earn my keep. Then I got sick, and all of a sudden, I was too exhausted to work more than a few hours a day. I’d built my whole life around proving myself, and suddenly I just… physically couldn’t.

There was this little voice in my head that kept whispering I was useless. At first it was devastating, but then it was just… weirdly annoying. Like okay, fine. I’m useless. I’m sick. I’m never going to be the same person I used to be. So if the old me is dead, who the fuck am I?

And I found, pretty jarringly, that I didn’t actually know. I didn’t know who I was without this need to work—I didn’t know who I was when I wasn’t healthy. But I had a lot of resting to do, and a lot of time alone with my thoughts, so I tried to figure it out.

I’ll never say I’m happy I got sick. Being disabled is hard. It’s exhausting and frustrating and it makes you feel so, so alone sometimes. But it gave me the chance to realize who the hell I was underneath all my capitalist brainrot. It made me look at myself, actually look, and ask what I wanted out of life. What made me happy.

I’m not happy I got sick. But I am happy—like, in general. Sometimes I think I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. I’m in pain and exhausted, but, bizarrely, I feel so at peace with myself. I feel like I love myself in a way I never did before.

Which brings us back to Barbara.

“In a strange way, I became more real to me as well. More content, more happy.”

Barbara feels defenseless after getting paralyzed, too terrified to even go outside. Instead, she dives head first into research—a skill she’s always had, that she doesn’t need her body for. She starts hacking, building a new skill set for herself, a new career. She takes the pieces of the old Barbara Gordon and makes someone new. Still her, just a different shape.

Born of Hope isn’t really a superhero story. You’ve got the classic Batman staples—white collar crime, hacking, training montages—but none of them are really the focus. This isn’t about Barbara losing Batgirl. This is a story about a disabled woman learning that she is worth more than what’s happened to her.

Batgirl is only mentioned a handful of times in this story. When her old identity is brought up, Babs seems almost resentful of it. She starts to see Batgirl as “a second hand version of someone else,” too attached to Batman’s legacy to have ever really belonged to Barbara herself. Part of what she values about Oracle is that it’s entirely her own invention.

“This would be mine—my mask, my shield—my persona.”

Babs will never get back the security and independence she had before she was paralyzed. But with Oracle, she gains an independence she never had before. She’s broken free from Bruce’s influence. In the years to come, he will depend on her—Oracle becomes a lifeline for Batman and everyone who fights beside him. Barbara’s life will never be the same, but she still has a life. She’s still able to be happy. In some ways, she’s happier than she’s ever been.

“I’m me—more me than I’ve ever been.”

Call me a sap, but I love to see a disabled character win. I love to see them live. There are so many stories where disability is just a tool to breed conflict, a source of angst. And while I think it’s interesting to explore the tough parts of being disabled—and there are a lot of tough parts—I find it so much more rewarding to read about disabled people thriving. Not because they’ve gotten “cured,” not because they’ve “overcome” their disability—but just because. Because they’re people, and they have skills and goals completely unrelated to being sick. Because there is so much more to life than being healthy.

[ravenlilyrose]

#*dies laughing*#oh god he really would#he carries around a sling-shot in his back pocket because one of these ONE OF THESE DAYS it'll happen#and then he can take it out all stealthy at just the perfect moment and slingshot the gun out of a goon's hand or something#just as they were about to shoot Robin in the back!!#and then Robin will glance at him and give an impressed little thank-you brave citizen salute#and Tim will nod back all suave and cool#and then duck down so as not to make a target of himself and distract Batman and Robin from their important work#and then they'll find him afterward to shake his hand and-- and-- and---#never fucking happens 😩#Tim Drake#fanboy Timmy my beloved#dcu#batfam

tags via @umbrellajam

in my heart of hearts i do think that as a kid tim had bad luck in that every time his parents took him to the opera he would be like "please let this be the day the penguin decides to hold the entire audience of la traviata hostage and i get to be saved by batman and robin" to himself and it would not happen but inevitably the very next day on the 10 o'clock news it's breaking "no tragic ending for these operagoers! batman and robin save the day when mr. freeze tries to encase the entire gotham opera house in ice" and he's just there trying not to scream in frustration while his dad crosses his legs in his recliner chair and turns a page in his newspaper and chortles, saying "jeez we picked a perfect day to go, didn't we janet? one day later and we might've become the gotham city ice mummies" and tim gets upset because he should have become an ice mummy and janet has to be like "oh, darling, there's nothing to be scared of, mom and dad won't let anything like that ever happen to you" but he wants it to happen so bad. please, mad hatter. kidnap him. just once. that's all he asks for. just once.

[ravenlilyrose]

Concept: The Gotham Citizen app has a forum for posting candid photos of vigilantes and there’s an ongoing phenomenon where photos of Tim are impossibly gorgeous no matter the angle and photos of Dick (one of the most beautiful people in the entire world) look like when you take high-speed photos of Olympic athletes mid-sport

[ravenlilyrose]

OKAY OKAY no but the brilliance of "JPV comes with Tim on his Brucequest" (as seen here)

is that. yeah! it's not like Dick is like "oh tim must be crazy, i have definitely decided this, bruce can't be alive you little weirdo." honestly, if Dick were to, say, follow Tim to Europe and trail him being like :( Tim talk to me :( I want to help u :(( I know ur having a hard time rn but you shouldn't push me away :((((, Tim would probably eventually snap and be like okay look i am NOT delusional!!!! i just have this theory!!!!!! and tell him about the portrait and whatnot and Dick, in turn, would probably be like well that does at least sound like it's worth investigating so okay, and we'd solve discourse forever

except!!! obviously, Dick can't follow Tim to Europe and make sad faces at him until he cracks, because

he has to be Batman, and do Batman things, like protecting Gotham and wrangling Damian

in their fight, Tim tells Dick not to follow him, in terms that make it clear that if he does continue pursuing Tim, Tim is gonna interpret that as meaning that Dick doesn't actually trust or respect him and thinks he's a problem that needs to be managed, etc.

So Dick is stuck in Gotham! But you know who isn't stuck in Gotham? JPV. JPV is not Batman, and does not really have anything important to do because it's not like Dick would trust him with anything important, and also Tim doesn't really care that much about JPV's opinion so there's not gonna be this huge drama over whether JPV really loves or respects Tim or considers him his equal or etc., etc.

So he goes to Europe to find Tim, because Tim seems like he's having a hard time and also vouched for him earlier in BftC (because he was trying to annoy Dick into taking the cowl himself), and at first Tim is like goddamnit stop following me around i want to be ALONEEEEEEE because everyone is against me!!!! but eventually he cracks and is like look i am NOT crazy okay bruce is ALIVE and i will prove it -- and JPV is like okay then i'll help you :)

and to DICK all of this looks like tim hates him now and doesn't want to talk to him or confide in him anymore but he will confide in! jean paul!!!! of all people! (even though jean-paul is clearly just enabling all of tim's worst most obsessive tendencies because he is the WORST and dick is obviously the superior older brother figure and --) when really, tim was just lonely and JPV happened to be around. being earnest and helpful

~~~~~ star-crossed brothers ~~~~~~ (and also jpv is here i guess)

[ravenlilyrose]

For the 5 facts thing, Knightfall AU where Nightwing swings by to check on Tim and walks in mid-strangling of Tim.

Oooh! Dick around for Robin#1!

Dick speedruns brotherhood with Tim even faster. Walking in on Azbats throwing Tim out of the Cave brings back a lot of complicated feelings about fights he's had with Bruce over the years. You don't do that to Robin.

Sleeping on Wally's couch definitely goes out the window. Dick escorts Tim home, remembers to hold his life together long enough to be polite to Mrs Mac, and takes over the spare room at the Drake's house. He makes some some phony excuse about the Waynes wanting to help with Tim still due to his previous fosterage.

Dick has always been too late. Found out too slow. Had things hidden from him. But this. This he can fix.

"I'll be your main Bat contact for a while," Nightwing says to Commissioner Gordon, on top of GCPD HQ, Robin lurking by his side. "Do I know you, son?" asks Gordon, squinting. "No." Dick's lie clearly falls flat.

The fight on a rooftop with Azbats is very, VERY showy. Lightning strikes in the background and all!

[ravenlilyrose]

i meant to be a casual fan but it ended up ruining my life

[ravenlilyrose]

The Origin of Dick Grayson– (Full Sheet)[Extended]

[ravenlilyrose]

i truly think the dickbats era dick-ra's dynamic is underrated. ra's is out here playing hard to get, like, oh i don't care about you in the slightest, detective, you are nothing to me, i don't care that you are batman's heir and successor or that you've won the love and loyalty of my grandson in a way that i never could or about any of the rest of it, the only one of you bats who truly concerns me is your seventeen-year-old brother

and we don't get a lot of follow-up on this from dick's end, but i think this approach would be surprisingly effective. not because dick cares about the ego hit of ""not being considered a threat"" by ra's, or would even want ra's creepy attentions in the first place. it's simply that if you touch tim, and dick hears about it, you are gonna be eating through a TUBE

[ravenlilyrose]

I think I’ve determined that what bothers me more than people being wrong (about a character/relationship/story/etc) is when they’re boring about it. Like, I’d be much less annoyed if they were at least complicating things, but a straightforward “everything is lovely and everyone adores each other” or “everyone hates this character and they’re all mean to him and he’s sad” just makes me want to scream about all the facts they got wrong and points they entirely missed.

Just… let things be complicated. Please.

[ravenlilyrose]

I'm a very big fan of the “one of the ways Batman fights crime is by making the bad guys afraid he could be anywhere”. The “he’s not in every shadow, but he could be in any shadow” thing.

I think it would be fun to mix that with the way the rest of the batfam is drawn when they're in shadows:

the glowy eyes and splashes of vibrant colour, especially with Nightwing's symbol looking like it's actually reflective.

So now I'm thinking:

imagine if Gothamites realized that dangerous people get really uneasy when they keep seeing things that, out of the corner of their eye, might look like a vigilante. To the point that they avoid areas where, let's say, an old poster on the wall is just that shade of yellow that keeps jumpscaring them every time they turn. Or that old trash can that still has a patch of green paint that hasn't peeled away yet. Not even realizing what makes them nervous, just knowing that a particular place makes them jumpy. Stuff like that.

So to keep themselves a little safer Gothamites just start… adding little things like that in their neighborhoods. Nothing that outright references the Bats - stuff like that might get vandalised or just lose the effect if it's recognised, but things like:

- plants on window sills in flower pots or vases in bright colors

- little shiny trinkets in the windows that just might be mistaken for a flash of a utility belt

- colorful curtains get very popular for children's bedrooms

- someone sticking a piece of blue reflective vinyl on a chimney visible from the street, so that as you walk you see a little flash of electric blue when the light from streetlights hits it just right

- people painting a pair of dots with glow-in-the-dark white paint high up on walls by fire escapes or in dark alleys, that look like glowing eyes

So basically I want Gothamites to invent protective charms and amulets which have exactly zero supernatural properties and aren’t intended to have any, but still very much work lmao