#I am so curious which Joker prevails

[distort-opia]

Who do you think should win the joker sexy man polls?

...Did I ever mention that I have a particular weakness for a very specific Joker depiction that, unfortunately, I did not see competing in the polls?

The Joker/Daffy Duck

[gestures wildly] Do you see my vision, Anon. Do you understand.

[roobylavender]

i don't know if you've ever been asked this before but, roughly speaking of course, do you prefer the pre or post-crisis iteration of dick's split from the robin mantle more? i've seen both sides of the arguement, but i'm curious as to where you fall there considering how complicated your thoughts on bruce & dick's dynamic can be. hope you're enjoying your day!

i'm personally inclined towards the post-crisis version but a big part of that is bc i don't actually believe it's as contradictory to the pre-crisis version as people tend to allege it to be. like i'm honestly very confused by people's reading of the post-crisis issue bc the way it's talked about on here you would think bruce told dick to stop heroing wholesale. what he asked dick to do was to stop being robin at his behest. ig there's a fine line between those two statements if you don't want to read into them too deeply but i think it really makes a world of difference bc the first interpretation makes the decision purely about dick and the latter interpretation makes it all about bruce. and it's funny bc people who go with the first interpretation will act like they're making it about bruce by complaining he's overriding dick's personal agency as an adult, etc., but that to me is in effect making it about dick bc his being an adult is the farthest thing from what's actually impt here. making it about bruce means understanding that bruce is hyper aware and critical of how he introduces danger into dick's life. he recognizes himself as an enabler and he takes that position seriously enough to realize that it would actively be wrong to witness dick go through what he did with the joker and ask him to show up in the colors for another night on the town. which is why i think it's impt to recognize that bruce isn't asking dick to stop being a hero, he's only asking him to stop being robin. he recognizes there's a chance dick could still go on to be a hero and he's fine with it bc he knows dick would be doing it of his own volition and not bc bruce asked him to. i am sure people who really really hate bruce would interpret that as an expression of overindulgent self importance but i think it's nothing more than bruce caring about dick and not wanting dick to do things simply bc he's always seen bruce doing them. he feels that way bc he cares

and i believe it's completely within bruce's rights to ask dick to step down as a concerned parent. obv we can talk about the hypocrisy of his decision in light of later events but in that singular moment i don't think he's wrong to recognize he's enabled this to go on for years and that he's in a position to stop it before it's too late. i think a lot of people get caught up in this idea of like, well bruce allowed it to go on for this long so he has no right to stop it now, and i don't really agree bc i mean if you were a parent and made poor decisions prior that doesn't really negate that you still have a responsibility to exercise as a parent in the future. bruce can't use the fact that he enabled robin as an excuse not to protect robin in the future and he knows that. intimately. i think that is one of the most misunderstood things about him (in part bc of how canon and perceptions of bruce deteriorate over time following jason's death) and frankly i would even go so far as to say it's a really good reflection of how relationships between parents and their children are perceived in the west. there's this prevailing idea that bar whatever else has happened in the past you have no responsibility over your child the minute they turn eighteen years old and are not entitled to caring about them or wanting to guide them in their decisions. it's incredibly baffling to me

to piggyback off of the brief jason parenthetical though, in words that will surely ignite dick fans everywhere, i really like the post-crisis version bc i think the way it overlaps and interlaces with what happens to jason is kind of one of the most ingenious things about post-crisis 80s batman as a whole. i'm unfortunately way too lazy to pull up and screenshot comic issues so you will have to bear with my memory of specific lines but the issue where dick was fired (batman #408) was actually referenced to a month prior in an issue taking place during jason's robin tenure (dc #574). jason has a nearly fatal run-in with the mad hatter and while he's being operated on leslie asks bruce, "didn't that close call with dick teach you anything?" and i think it's really clever how max allan collins works with that to ultimately create this tension between the bruce who recognizes that he cannot justifiably enable children into becoming vigilantes but also desperately hopes to save these children from a life of loneliness and unresolved anger at the perpetrators of their trauma. there's a wonderful see-saw between the way we see bruce treat dick and jason that i think culminates quite perfectly with a death in the family for however horrific the actual storyline is. i know the canon in that period pulls from quite a few different writers but it's interesting how you get these stronger exercises of parenting from bruce when it comes to dick (barring the moments of physical abuse which as i'm sure you're well aware i completely ignore as unnecessary exaggerations purely inserted for purpose of drama and standard wolfman-fare dick prop-ups), followed by moments of regret that i think you could argue influence the way he's a bit softer with jason. but then there are moments like the one in the issue above where he wonders if the way he handled dick was actually the right way to go, so you get him telling jason it's okay to step down, he won't mind. and obv jason doesn't step down and life goes on and is swell for a moment in time until something else happens and then bruce is left to wonder all over again whether the stronger approach is the right one. he suspends jason from duty bc it's what he does with dick but in the end what does it get him? the child he so desperately wanted to save dies. idk if i'm making sense here but that interpolation of parental exercise between dick and jason that starts at how bruce asks dick to step down is incredibly interesting to me. it is a patchwork of canon i have stitched up in my own mind admittedly but i am quite fascinated with it