#I don’t know whether the robin is dick or Jason because both make me so happy in this scenario

[sisaloofafump]

Imagining if Lois lane’s one time cowgirl bodyguard had stuck around the world’s finest a little more

[ambriel-angstwitch]

Robins being Robin Commentary #3-4

As Promised Tim angst

I don’t know whether I want Tim to go off or not. But I do want to give him a hug. Growing up doesn’t have to mean getting more cruel. Being someone other than the perfect Robin doesn’t mean losing something that is Tim

This lash out this going against expectations weirdly enough with the last couple lines lines up with his need to prove himself.

I love that Jason, the one labeled as the violent Robin, is the one to stop him. Even if he does it by knocking him out, it still shows that he cares. That he understands his way isn’t the best and has burdens he doesn’t want Tim to carry.

Oh no! The Family Angst! (The very thing I came for) I wish they’d include Bruce in their family discussion before coming to a conclusion though after what happened I get the reaction.

Tim Suffers Bingo Continues. (Btw he lost a tooth earlier because she hit him with his bo)

Ah! Damian is really calling out their issues. These panels hit me like a truck. Dick has major eldest daughter problems going on right now. And I love how the first line on Jason’s panel the something good can both mean Robin and Tim. Dick and Jason both wonder if they lead their sibling(s) down the wrong path, if they could have been something better if they hadn’t been the way they are.

At least he reminds them they should be focusing on the missing Tim.

Baby Robin lore! Slings are really cool and no wonder David took down Goliath. Basically brought a gun to a sword fight.

Dick you idiot why did you shine the mysterious technology you received from the big villain in your eyeball

Ahh! He decida that after seeing Jason’s memorial. This family makes me so sad.

< prev next >

[igotanidea]

It's over: Jason Todd x f!reader

Summary: Jason was dead. Or, well, at least that what Y/N believed. After all, she saw his body, she attended his funeral. And she was hurting for so long. It took her almost two years to get back into sort of normality. And then, then she found out he was alive all this time......

And only because he showed up at her door......

Warnings: hell lot of cussing, angst to the nth degree, a bit of kissing and touching (nothing explicit though), possible crying coming, Taylor Swift quotation.

Based on: "If I ever" by Conor Maynard

A/N: before this, I got a request from an angst lover (story is here: Lost), whoever you are, I dedicate this one's to you.

„Is this a joke?!”

„Y/N…..”

“Is this a fucking joke?!”

“Please, just calm down.”

“Fuck off! You don’t get to tell me what to do!! Not after, after…..” she was slowly breaking in her anger, reality creeping in, draining all the power she had. Her legs gave up on her and she just slid down the wall onto the floor, her limbs laying loose, boneless, eyes wide open while she was processing the situation she just found herself in.

Poor girl. Y/N was an old friend of Jason Todd. They met before he got adopted by Bruce and become Robin. Both Y/N and Jason were raised in Crime Alley and get to know each other from getting in and out of common trouble. When Bruce came in, Jason made sure he took care of his friend as well and that was how she ended up in Wayne Manor, learning about the technology and surveillance and soon becoming the “man, or rather woman in the chair”. Their story was classical “friends to lovers” trope, only ending with them becoming a couple due to Dick’s foul mouth. One time he mentioned something about Jason catching feelings and Y/n, being her direct and straightforward self, confronted the boy about it. After a while of blushing and sweating he finally confessed and they became a couple. And despite everything, the temper tantrums and insecurities they worked through it. Robin and his right wing. They were good together. Until Jason decided to go against Joker.  And got killed. And left her completely alone, or at least that was how she felt at that moment. She could not leave the past behind, desperately holding to the little pieces of memories she had of him, of them. Dick, Tim and Damian did their best to make her get through but she was too stubborn for her own good. It took her 23 months to start slowly healing her heart. And just as she was ready to get out of the house and start living again, maybe getting back to her own position in batfamily, she learned that Jason death was…. temporary and he was in fact alive, and  running around as Red Hood. That was a kick in the teeth. But what was even worse was that one afternoon she found him inside her apartment, placed on the couch with remorseful expression, ready to beg for forgiveness and to crawl back into her freshly –patched up life.  Of course, the moment she saw him inside she wanted to throw him out the window but due to all his muscles and height it was not possible so instead she resorted to verbal anger, trying to hide the mix of emotions – pain, fear, relief, love…. Way too much for one person, so finally she just went silent not capable of dealing with it all.

“Y/N…. Please, say something. Baby…..”

“What did you just call me?!”

“I’m sorry.” He said and she was not exactly sure whether he was sorry for pretending to be dead for the last years or for using her pet name only to his advantage.

“You don’t…. you don’t….” she sobbed desperately and it took all his power not to scoop her in his arms at once, shielding her from the world, making her safe. He wanted to spare her the pain, but the sad truth was that he was the one to cause all of it and upon realizing his grand mistake his heart broke into million pieces. Perhaps even more than hers.

“Y/n…..” Jason tried once again, his hand reaching for hers, but the girl just yanked it away, hugging herself. All the shock she just went through by seeing her ­not-so-dead  dead boyfriend making all her body tremble from the sudden coldness.

“Don’t. Just…. Just don’t.“ she managed to say “I can’t do this again. I just can’t. Please, get out.”

“You know I can’t do that” he whispered closing his eyes in poor attempt to hide all the pain he held inside. His voice, however, gave him away.

“You had no problem with that when you pretended to be six feet under!”

“I wanted to protect you!” he screamed

“From what?!” she yelled back pretty sure her neighbors had perfect acoustic to hear the banter.

“From being hurt! From getting injured because of me! You know damn fucking well how many people were after me while I was still Robin!”

“Well, look where It got you…..Red Hood.” she said barely audible “Are you happy now? Knowing that you broke my heart? Knowing that you broke me. I cried for days for you, Jason. DAYS. I mourned you. I avoided Dick, Tim and Damian for weeks because every time they started the family drama it reminded me of you….”

“I’m sorry.”

“Well, sorry does not make it any better, does it?” she lowered her gaze looking at the floor “and you know what’s the worst thing in all of that?”

“I….”

“I never, never, stopped loving you. Fuck! I could not get into a relationship with anyone even if I wanted a rebound. It was always your face I was seeing, it was always your smile, it was always you” his eyes widened at those words and their gazes met for a second. It was as if a spark flew between them lighting up their inside and making both of them get lost in each other’s eyes. Just like the first time they confessed to being in love.  Neither Y/n, not Jason turned away, and she did not stop him when he slowly leaned forward capturing her lips in his, pulling her onto his lap, closer, he wanted her closer. God, how he missed her, her skin, her warmth, her soft hands sneaking up his chest into his hair playing with the ends. He groaned tightening the grip to the point where she squealed from the long forgotten pain of his strong embrace, but he couldn't care less deepening the kiss, wanting more and more and more…..

He did not get much affection since he became Red Hood and even then, no one could ever compare to her and her gentle touch, the feel of her lips on his, her body against his. She was his one and only. She belonged with him. They were perfect. And then he had to go and fuck this up. Memories of them together just flooded him. All the nights she was spending at the manor waiting for the batboys to come back from the patrol and then checking on all of his injuries to the detriment of her own health.  All those nights she was falling asleep in his arms, feeling safe and loved. All those nights that the only thing that kept him going through all the fights was the thought of her and the knowledge of the comfort and tenderness her presence brought him.  Her acceptance no matter what he did and how bloody he got. All those mornings when they get to steal some time away from his vigilantism and just cuddle in bed, holding tight onto each other like they were one another’s lifeline.  Fuck! He loved when the first thing he saw after waking up was her beautiful face and peacefully sleeping form.  He missed her body, all those curves and stretch marks she hated so much. All those little imperfections of her skin he get to kiss and worship every time she got insecure. All the pleasure he was giving her, while just loving her for hours, never getting enough of her sweat moans and the way she reacted to his touch. Her smile, her laugh, her sense of humor, her brain, her intelligence….. All of her.

He wanted her. There could never be a time when he wouldn’t want her. His fingers started absentmindedly playing with the hem of her shirt and that made her pull away from him and stand up.

“Please…. “ he whined not wanting to let go.

“You need to go, Jason.” she stated simply

“Please, I….. I can make this right…. I’m begging you.  Don’t leave me like this.”

“How can you possibly make this right?” tears was flowing down her cheeks as with every other word she was taking a step away from him “you can’t. It’s too late.”

“But I love you.”

“I know.”

“So let me make this right.” He insisted, trying to convince her.

“No.” she shook her head turning her back to him “I’ll let you in and you will let me down…… How do I know I can trust you?

“You can. Baby, please….”

“Go away, Jason.” her eyes were everywhere but on him, she knew the expression in them would make her give in and she just couldn't do that.

“Do you want me to get on my knees? Fine.” He fell down next to her legs “I’m begging you, don’t do this.”

“Well one of us has to be strong.”

“I can be strong for both of us in believing we can get through this.”

“No.”

“Baby…”

“Stop calling me that! I’m not your baby! Not anymore! Why can’t you understand?! It’s fucking over, Jason! I don’t want to see you again!”

“You…. you don’t mean that…..”

“I sure as hell do. I’ve barely covered all the scars you left and you chose just this moment to show up in my life again! I took a detour from my way to work just to avoid our places! I’ve been through enough! I. Don’t. Want. You.” she poked at his hard chest and he just couldn’t stop himself from grabbing her waist and connecting their lips once again pulling her body closer than possible, moving his lips from her mouth to her jaw and neck, finding that one spot that made her moan softly and his blood boiled at the sound. He needed her. He needed her that exact moment. And he knew she needed and wanted him too. Maybe if he could just convince her, show her what she was missing during that years….. Surely, she did not forget all the things they did when no one was around.

“Y/n…..” he groaned against her skin “let me apologize properly. Let me love you……” his hand brushed over her breasts. “Let me remind you how good we are together….”

"Jay....." she moaned, her walls and tough attitude crumbling.

"I'm here baby. I'm here. Feel me...." he grabbed her hands placing them on his fast beating heart, while at the same time lifting her up and wrapping her legs around his waist.

Oh, she felt everything at once. His kisses, his touch were too much and not enough at the same time.  His palms were burning against her skin yet she felt so cold, like the clothes were an obstacle in getting what she craved so desperately. Him. It was both wrong and so, so right. It was horrifying and beautiful, real and unreal. She wanted more and yet, she should not…. All those contradictions made her dizzy and her head spinning.  

“I should have known….” much to his surprise she sobbed and punched his chest, possibly hurting herself more than him but also making him stop in result “you just came here because you need a good fuck. I mean nothing more to you.”

“That is not true….. You know you mean everything to me." he put her on the ground "Everything! I care about you, always did. When I had no one, even in this stupid family Bruce decided to create, you were always there for me. It’s more than just physical, you know we had, have, a connection.”

Oh, she knew it. She knew it well enough, they were linked on so many different emotional levels. And she knew aiming at this was her last resort  to make him leave.

“Jason.”

“What can I do, babe?”

“You can turn around and walk out the door.”

“Is that what you really want? You want us to be strangers now? You will go over to the other side when you see me on the street? Is that how you want to play? Huh?! Answer me!” out of desperation he gripped her shoulders with much more strengths than intended “I’m sorry. Oh shit, god, love I’m so sorry” he mumbled in guilt letting go, realizing that if he ever had any chance to convince her to trust him again it was now buried. She flinched and slouched, so fragile and delicate and apparently, no longer his to protect and comfort.

“Band aids don’t fix bullet holes. “ she said and he froze on the spot. Fuck, if she was quoting Taylor on him it was really, really bad “you say sorry just for show. You know how the song go, don’t you? We got bad blood. Leave.” Her voice was now ice cold, her face blank.

“No.”

“Just fucking leave!” she grabbed the nearest item (which happened to be a book he used to read to her, while she was drifting off in his embrace on particularly rough evenings, after all day of work) and threw it at him. He caught it, gently stroking the cover and straightening the pages.

“Fine. Fine! I’ll go! Whatever you fucking want!” he turned around on the heels, tears in his eyes threatening to spill and walked out the door, shutting it loudly behind.  Only now he wrapped his head around the fact it was truly over. He fucked up for good and there was no way back. She would never forgive him and he would never get a chance to hold her, kiss her, talk to her and bond over silly, little things.

“Y/n….” he whispered softly, lovingly, still longing for her as he rested his head on the outer side of the door. “I’m so fucking sorry.” That dull ache in his chest tearing him apart. He just wanted to make things right and ended up tossed away, again .…

Little did he know, that inside the apartment the girl, whose heart he broke twice was laying on the bed sobbing and holding tight onto the plushie he won for her at the fair so many years ago.

“Jay….” She cried silently, not able to calm down without his arms wrapped tightly around her, his warmth lulling her to sleep. He didn’t deserve this. But then, neither did she….

He opened the wound and this time she was not sure if she could recover again. But one thing she knew for sure. It was over. The question was, how long will it take to deal with the pain this time.      

[vinelark]

do you have any good reverse robins fic to rec?

oh hell yeah!

Reverse Robins: Joker Junior series by miyaji_08 i rec’d the second fic in this series over here for the timkon of it all, but the series—two parts, both complete—is also one of my absolute favorite reverse robins stories. it goes the joker junior!tim route, so heads up for A Lot of tim-centric trauma, but gives tim (and everyone else) so much healing, too. it also gets creative with the robin of it all, as in, the call sign for batman’s partner is different from the jump because dick wasn’t around to originate “robin” for it, which i always think is a fun extra detail. the batfam characters are great and the young justice crew is also great, so read for top-tier hurt and comfort and great characters and satisfying plot and tim and damian competing to see who is the most Tired big brother of the bunch.

blood of the covenant by envysparkler robins are angsty in any order, but man does this hit the angst sweet spot, which in turn makes the soft parts feel even softer. i genuinely can’t decide what my favorite dynamic is in this AU, between damian & tim (damian wracked with guilt, tim hurting and still wanting an older brother even if he’d never admit it) and tim & jason (no spoilers but chapter 4 especially lights my brain up like a supernova) and tim & dick (i think about the part where dick grayson [tiny, cheerful] uses tim [undead, annoyed] as a jungle gym like once a week).

Wing Beats in Reverse by firefright a longfic where jason gets kidnapped by the mysterious red hood, who turns out to be jason’s not-so-dead predecessor. the jason pov here is great, and i was so compelled by how this AU explored his place in the bat family, and how it managed the emotional fallout from the kidnapping. tim is also so interesting in this—it does something i love in a reverse robins concept, which is make tim’s motivations (and lazarus pit effects) less about anger/hurt/revenge and more about ice cold logic, about being the villain so the bats don’t have to/whether they want him to or not. plus some league of assassins trauma as a cherry on top. also, kon gets to show up for a bit. (as a fair warning—and spoilers ahead—the fic has a somewhat hopeful ending for tim, but doesn’t reach full reconciliation in the scope of the plot.)

i woke up so worried that the angels let go by circees a short but potent batkids age reversal au that’s also a grisha au, starring duke as the coveted sun summoner that damian is trying to deliver to safety without mentally adopting a new brother (damian fails on the second part). even with my limited memory of grisha lore i could tell a lot of thought was put into this au, and i have a feeling it would be even better if you are able to catch all the details. i also love that even in a fantasy world where some of the bat family have magical abilities, duke is still extra special—a great analogy to being a metahuman among the bats.

The 90s Are Back! by RedWritingHood saving the two silly ones for last to lighten the mood! in this one, red hood!tim gets de-aged to sixteen and meets all his new siblings. it’s like .01% angst and 99.99% shenanigans, and pretty much all the dialogue is super quotable but Dick holds out his hands like he's calming a bunch of wild animals. "Okay, I know everyone's real upsetti spaghetti right now, but I think we all just need to calm down." might take the cake.

Clowns Don’t Kill People by mademoisellePlume very short, very silly reverse robins brother shenanigans, in which tiny dick grayson isn’t scared of recovering joker junior!tim because dick, having been raised in the circus, doesn’t associate clowns with evil yet. the fic is fun (and a great palate cleanser if you need a break from the angst above), and the author’s note at the end made me fully laugh out loud.

[britcision]

Alright I’m on a Dead On Main kick but I’m also permanently in house “Danny Should Adopt Connor For Proper Clone Parenting”

So let’s combine those for crack purposes!

Timelines are fake and so are trees

Jason and Danny are both technically younger than Connor’s supposed to be, and both actually older than Connor is

There’s some fight in Gotham big enough to justify both Superman and Superboy showing up, Red Hood’s willingly working with the bats, mass hysteria

Jason Todd knows more than enough about forcing a working relationship with shitty parents enough to have Suspicions about how Man and Boy are interacting

He knew them before he died and knew it was a bad relationship then, it’s clearly no better

But it’s shooty shooty guns time so we’ll get to that later

Eventually he has to call in the bf because the JL are getting their asses kicked and Danny shows up and joins the fight

Even he can spot the tension and he and Jason exchange Big Gay Looks

But as the fight goes on, Connor’s pinned

In Big Danger, going down, Superman’s closest and doesn’t even glance twice

Just turns away

In comes Danny with the steel chair and if some flying fragments of goon nearly hit Supes, well, pure coincidence

Danny helps Connor to his feet and they get back into it, Connor gets to be in on the big plan which is Get Danny To The Middle

One ghostly wail later, that’s it that’s the fight

Everyone’s wondering what happened, how all the baddies disappeared, Danny gives Connor a pat on the shoulder

“I’m retired kid, and couldn’t have done it without you, so do me a favour and you take this win”

Danny’s gone, Connor’s confused, Jason INSTANTLY backs him up

If Bats is wondering who the unknown fighting alongside them was, well, Superman’s making his biggest constipated faces about congratulating his clone

Jason promises to explain everything if Connor comes by for coffee, Connor has no social life so post debrief they go and pick up enough for 3

Connor’s a little surprised cuz yeah, Jason’s different from when he was Robin, but way less angry and violent than Dick’s led him to believe

Jason explains it’s because of his new bf Danny, the explainer in this case

They get back to Danny in his human form, he’s all gushy and happy to meet Connor cuz whether he went to space or not Connor is technically an alien

Connor gets very quiet about his dna donors

Danny gets Instantly Suspicious and remembers that moment in the fight

Jason rats out the incidents he knows about where Superman’s been a shit

Connor insists we are Not Talking About This It’s Fine

Danny stares him in the face

“Hey wanna meet my clone? Her name’s Danielle, her creator made her try to murder me to replace me. She’s my sister and best friend and I love her dearly and You’re My Clone Now Too.”

Connor, befuddled, is instantly adopted by Dani as well because Clone Sibling, who cares about genetics

Jason tells Connor they’re always like this, but yeah, if he doesn’t wanna put up with Supes’ shit he can go his own way

He doesn’t even have to go full Red Hood style, but they’ll take care of him if he wants to break off on his own

Connor doesn’t believe Supes would ever allow this and would kill Connor the second he showed any hesitance

Danny goes Full Eldritch Horror

Jason:

“Oh hey I don’t think I formally introduced you, Connor this is my boyfriend Danny, the King of the Infinite Realms, you just watched him melt a guy who was kicking Clark’s ass. What were your concerns again?”

And that’s how Connor ends up adopted by his friend’s baby brother and his eldritch boyfriend, complete with happy family jokes

Jason and Danny both call him their baby incessantly and Connor will never admit he kinda loves it, not least for the faces Dick makes

Superman does predictably kick up a stink about Connor not living on base, Batman can’t control Jason but Jason isn’t a world ending threat

Jason smiles extremely sweetly and demonstrates exactly what a world ending threat looks like by texting Danny, who shows up again in full Eldritch Horror

And then Danny texts JAZZ and the Justice League learn the true meaning of fear from a 6’9 redhead therapist who went to the Harley Quinn school of “Sit Down And Shut Up While I Read You For Filth”

Danny pinky swears not to end the world if the JL leave Jason and Connor alone, they can even still be on call for the league and MAYBE so will Danny

If they’re extremely lucky

Constantine assures them this is The Only Way Fucking Hell Superman What Did You Do

The only hiccup in the happily ever after is Dick deciding this makes him Connor’s uncle and being insufferable about it

Danny agrees and it only makes it worse

[andi-dromeda]

Giggling and kicking my feet thinking about Jason, Grant, and Tara always finding each other. Reincarnating over and over again, a little closer to divinity each time, and finding each other in every lifetime. The real reason Jason was blonde pre-crisis is because him and Tara were twins. Tara dyes her hair blonde now because it reminds her of a past she can't remember. Grant is unreasonably irritable around Robin Dick he subconsciously knows that Dick is the WRONG Robin. Tara and Jason are subconsciously searching for Grant in Slade and Rose respectively. Grant can't stand Tara because being around her feels so uniquely right and he doesn't know what to do with it. They're rotting my brain I fear.

- AutisticRoseWilson

That’s my favourite part about all this and best of all they’re all interconnected even canonically (in my opinion). They all were introduced as blonde in the 1980s, Tara’s introduction was directly because of Grant’s death and they all keep coming back again and again. Jason and Grant are both the dead sons who haunt the narrative. Tara and Grant killed themselves trying to hurt the titans. Jason and Tara both get shoved into elite circles they don’t feel like they belong in and had to fend for themselves on the streets before getting picked up by a bunch of heroes/mercenaries who ended up failing them. I just feel like these three fit so well together that to me, this au keeping them dead for a bit to get them all to the same age just makes so much sense. Dc doesn’t see the vision but when has Dc seen potential in anything that wasn’t Bruce or the joker. Besides it doesn’t matter, because the universe itself sees the vision and WILL make these three ascend whether they like it or not.

To me these three are as obvious as Neapolitan ice cream.

[dxckgrxsonx]

I love that we are obsessing over AK!Jason because that outfit is just so good and honestly his character is so good in there. But also since we obsessed over Ex!Dick I feel like we gotta mention Ex!Jason.

TW: Religious talk, Super Long (sorry)

And imagine if your Ex!Jason was AK!Jason? All his anger, vengeance, the longing to right the wrongs. Whether the wrongs are of the lack of keeping kids safe from traffic light colors or on the streets from bad guys getting out in what amounts to revolving doors.

All that longing to do good, to do right, to change the world. All those childhood dreams of changing the world by protecting the weak, all those hopes of "Robin gives me magic" where for just for a while he felt like he did before he couldn't and realized he wasn't. All that anger because now he can make a difference and it's still not enough.

ExAK!Jason where you used to the one to calm him down from nightmares. Where you kissed his anger not away, never away, but to a place where he could stand to trace more than battle plans on your skin. ExAK!Jason where he would whisper about all the blood on his hands to you as if it was confessional and your hand in his hair a baptism.

ExAK!Jason where after it all, after his redemption, after he puts that bat on his uniform and means it you see him in person... you pass each other on the street. He's alone or he is with his brothers or sister, your eyes lock for just a second. This isn't the man you would whisper confessions back to. This is a dead man gone back to a family.

Confessional is always meant to be walked away from you suppose. Baptism is meant to make you a new person you suppose.

ExAK!Jason Todd-Wayne and you both curling fingers into air where the other used to hold back.

ExAK!Jason and you're still seeing that need to change the world with that aching force for good and it chokes something in you.

every single time i see your name pop up in my notifications i get excited. i just want to put you in my pocket and carry you around with me.

ak!jason as your ex?? aaaa i’m not equipped to handle this. my head might just explode clean off my shoulders. you never fail to pull the ground from under my feet. i don’t even have anything useful to contribute, just yelling and crying and a secret third thing (more crying).

‘All his anger, vengeance, the longing to right the wrongs.’ ‘All that longing to do good, to do right, to change the world.’ ‘All that anger because now he can make a difference and it's still not enough.’

‘Where you kissed his anger not away, never away, but to a place where he could stand to trace more than battle plans on your skin.’

‘This is a dead man gone back to a family.’

‘ExAK!Jason and you're still seeing that need to change the world with that aching force for good and it chokes something in you.’

you’re killing me. i keep reading the same lines over and over and just??? feel something i can’t properly put into words. exak!jason has the potential to be something so devastating, so raw.

to have seen him, really seen him, twisted up in endless trauma, endless pain and love him in the face of it. to then passing on the street and not stopping like you didn’t guard the door whilst he slept because he was terrified of waking up back in that chair. like you didn’t hold his hand when he wanted comfort but didn’t know how to ask for it. to go from that to acting like strangers. how could you ever look away after that? how could he look away?

you pass each other on the street and don’t look back but your palms turn towards each other and it feels like grief.

[the-emerald-quill]

Hello everyone!! I have so many dang posts I wanna make and then I simply don’t have time and I feel so stupid for not having done it BUT here’s a rant I’ve wanted to get off my chest for a while :)

So today I had the most fun and fresh fanfic idea and usually when I have fanfic ideas, it’s within the universe I’ve drawn my inspiration from rather than like writing a whole new universe and such with similar character archetypes bUT I think those types of fics are just such cool ways to break into the writing world bc you have a guaranteed audience within your own fandom, but the idea is also purely your own and I just think that’s so neat bc you’re holding onto your roots but still doing your own thing. SO I had an idea today inspired by the first three BatBrats: Dick, Babs, and Jason.

They are a love triangle. No one talks about it nearly enough, but even if key members of the triangle don’t know it, they are a love triangle.

The only time I’ve ever seen Babs and Dick addressed as being a thing by other members of the Batfam MIGHT have been by Alfie and then ONCE by Tim during the old 1990-something Nightwing run, which is probably considered inaccurate now since they’ve rebooted that series like three times. Like I used to think that when they would walk into Batfamily debriefs together, everyone would like smirk at each other and annoy them about it after at their respective girls/boys nights. But then it occurred to me:

In Batman: Three Jokers there’s a little… tension between Babs and Jason 😏 they share a little moment and it’s cutie and slay and whatever but I also felt like a wHORE because I’ve been a DickBabs fan since before I officially joined the fandom like,,, they were what drew me into comics. I have been a sucker for any romance plot since I was born and the two of them falling in love right under Bruce’s nose was the best thing in the entire world to me. Whenever I need a dopamine hit, I craft a little daydream plot about them, and I’m back on my feet.

That being said, almost every Robin has a Batgirl. Whether platonic or otherwise, they all have one. Dick and Babs, Tim and Steph dated before she was Batgirl, making her more Damian’s Batgirl and Cass would be Tim’s.

However

Jason never got a Batgirl.

OR you could say that Dick and Jason shared a Batgirl (Barbara) which would make more sense.

Because the way Babs saw it was that after Dick became Nightwing and moved out with the Titans, he left her alone with Bruce. And who came in to keep her company?? Jason. There’s also the obvious shared trauma related to the Joker, which was the core of their little fling during Three Jokers.

And then you have to consider that Jason and Dick are like moral opposites of each other in every way. We’ve all agreed that deep down, Dick is the angry, vengeful one, but he presents more calm and controlled. On the other hand, Jason comes across as being angry as a sort of intimidation tactic, and frankly the kid has a lot to be upset about. They all do. But if you take a peek into his brain, everything he does makes logical sense. He’s thinking three steps ahead and knows exactly how his little rage fit is going to turn the tables in his favor. They present opposite to how they actually are, and because of that, they misunderstand each other about 85% of the time. If they would just look at each other like “hey! You’re like me!” They would get along a lot easier. And frankly I think that they see themselves exactly as how they present on the outside and don’t realize just how wrong they are because the world has told them what they are for so long. Everyone’s yelling at Jason telling him he’s too vengeance driven, and Dick is put on a pedestal as the perfect Robin and leader when he’s really the biggest hot mess of them all.

So anyways,,, they’re both in love with Barbara because they either relate to her or compliment her in some unique way, and Barbara has her own private history with each of them that I’m sure the other doesn’t know about. Can you imagine Dick asking Barbara how the Joker case went and her saying, “yeah it was fine and I kissed your little brother” like ???? He would absolutely LOSE it

So that’s my rant idk if that made any sense at all but if you grasped all those feelings and such, they’ll be in the story I’m writing and if I remember I’ll try to keep whoever sees my posts updated lol

[aceofshitposts]

Welcome to some retaliatory fluff after what @galkyrie did to all of us in the latest chapter of fates :') I was intending to post some shutterbug stuff but I got grabbed by the throat to work on something else (that's arguably fluffier)

for some brief context this happens in the same au as THIS which I lovingly call my "oops, all robins" au where all the robins get to be robin at once ;) enjoy!

-

"Are we dating?"

Jason moves his book so he can peer down at Tim, head lying comfortably in his lap. They're in the library, Jason sitting comfortably in the corner of the couch with Tim sprawling the length, his feet propped up against the opposite armrest. Tim raises an eyebrow at him, lowering his phone down to rest on his stomach.

Jason swallows, meeting Tim’s eyes before looking away at a random bookshelf. He swallows again, trying to make his throat work and asks, "do you want to be?"

It seems like a strange question to ask, putting a label on whatever kind of relationship they’ve had over the years is both overdue and entirely terrifying. They’re currently in this nebulous state of nowhere, nothing and everything at the same time. Jason wouldn’t have even thought about it if the rumours at school hadn’t, naturally, wormed their way back to him and evidently Tim as well. They are as they’ve been for the last several years, as constant as the rising sun over the horizon.

Jason doesn’t want anything to change. He wants everything to change.

It won’t change.

It will.

Tim sits up sharply, nearly headbutting Jason in the process, and turns to sit, crossing his legs underneath him. He doesn’t say anything, just looks at Jason in that usual unnerving way; his head tilted slightly to one side like he does when he’s trying to figure out a particularly hard problem.

And there it is, the anxiety that curls in Jason’s gut. He wants– he wants Tim. In whatever way Tim will have him, it’s not that hard to figure out. He’s not going to let something like some unrequited feelings keep him from enjoying Tim’s company and he’s determined to keep it from ruining their friendship. But that all depends on whether or not Tim’s comfortable with the idea. Because if Tim wanted Jason to. To. Whatever- Jason would. Even if it hurt.

“I can practically hear you thinking, Jay,” Tim says. There’s a smile on his face, soft and fond, an expression Jason’s seen often on Tim. It’s familiar, it’s old, it’s something he never would have thought twice about before.

Jason forces himself to swallow. He needs to stay objective, this deep tangle of feelings has only just been unearthed first by rumours and then by the late night talk he’d had with Carrie two days ago. He can practically see her rolling her eyes at him here and now. Actually he wouldn’t be surprised if Carrie and Dick were surreptitiously hiding behind one of the shelves as this happened.

Tim sighs, equal parts fond and exasperated, reaches a hand out to cup Jason's face. "I know the rumours bother you." 

"What? No," Jason says in a rush, because he shouldn't be bothered in the first place. Some assholes at school didn't get to define his relationships, it was just…

"You don’t have to protect me from your feelings,” Tim says softly, earnestly. Jason doesn’t usually keep things from Tim, has told him things he hasn’t told anyone else and Tim has been the same. And yet this one thing, this one thought, feeling, hope, wish feels as if it will shatter if Jason dares to speak it out loud.

He has to swallow again, eyes darting away from Tim’s constant, patient watch and back again. Mouth opening, then closing while he thinks of and discards responses at a breakneck speed.

“I think I love you?” Jason eventually settles on, his brain thoroughly fried and what a stupid thing to say because.

Because.

Of course he loves Tim. Has loved him, will love him. Loved Tim’s fierce independence, his tenacity, the way he’ll give as good as he gets. Loves how Tim will always get back up again, that he’s so, so strong when it comes to doing what needs to be done. Loves that Tim lets him help, that Tim trusts him so he doesn’t have to do any of it alone.

He loves the others, too, of course. But Tim. The very idea of not having Tim with him leaves him feeling unmoored.

Tim’s mouth quirks up, his expression cracking as he hiccups, “yeah?”

“Hey! Don’t laugh at me!”

Tim’s mouth twitches again, this time into a full blown grin. He brings up his other hand, now holding both sides of Jason’s face in his hands. “I think I love you too.”

Jason brings up his own hands, book abandoned in his lap, to hold on to Tim’s wrists. The world continues turning, time marching forwards but Jason’s focus is singularly on Tim and the blue of his eyes, the quark of his mouth as he looks at Jason as if he’s the only thing in the world. Tim leans forward, just a little and–

The kiss isn’t anything like in Jason’s books, really. There are no fireworks, no sparks, there isn’t any fire stoked by it. Instead the thing that comes to Jason’s mind is relief. Like having his hair parted the wrong way for hours and finally letting it fall naturally again, it is the sigh of a cool breeze on a hot summer’s night. It is every moment Jason has looked over at Tim to see his reaction to something, every time Tim has looked back at him and smiled.

It’s everything. It’s nothing. They bump noses and Tim giggles into Jason’s mouth which makes Jason start to giggle back until they’re both laughing and kissing and laughing and where one ends and begins is a question they don’t know how to or even want to answer.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Tim says sometime later, resting his head on Jason’s chest which is not a new thing but it suddenly feels new.

“Yeah? You didn’t answer mine,” Jason shoots back.

Tim rolls his eyes and kisses Jason again.

[northoftheroad]

How about we try something new today. Instead of arguing about which Robin was the best partner to Batman, or the natural successor (or not), because of fictional character traits this and that or skillsets so and so.

We put it like this.

Dick Grayson/Robin was created as a storytelling tool, to give Batman a “Watson” character. A reader stand-in that Batman could explain what was going on to. It was successful, sales of Batman comics is said to have doubled after Robin was introduced, and Dick also got his own solo stories in another book. Until the Justice League was invented, Robin appeared in more comic books than Batman.

After almost 30 years, he was shipped off to university, and eventually his own highly successful team book, because the powers that be wanted Batman to be a lone creature of the night or something.

From Batman in the Sixties (1999):

Jason Todd was created, as a Dick Grayson clone, because in the early 80s editorial wanted Batman to have a young Robin again, after some ten years as a mostly solo hero. While the creators of New Teen Titans wanted to keep Dick in the team book.

Marv Wolfman, NTT writer, described it like this in an interview at 13thdimension.com:

It was fairly simple, actually. I got a call that (DC) really would like Robin back in Batman, and they wanted Robin to be younger. Again, because Batman really needed a partner. The nice thing was that Teen Titans—which I was still on at the time—was way outselling Batman and I really wanted Dick Grayson and I really loved the character. We had aged him, we had made him a real leader, we had done a whole bunch of things with him, and I didn’t want to give up Dick Grayson. And it suddenly struck me — I don’t even know what happened because it was unprecedented in comics — I said, “Why don’t I keep Dick Grayson and you create a new Robin and make that a big to-do in Batman … while we have Nightwing.”

Jason failed to become universally loved by the fans - Denny O’Neil once said this in an interview at 13thdimension.com:

Someone at DC got the idea to let a reader poll decide whether to let Jason live or die. A (small) majority called for his death. DC delivered.

Tim Drake was created because editorial still wanted Batman to work with a Robin. (It was less than a year between the issue where Jason was killed, in A Death in the Family, and Tim’s first appearance in A Lonely Place of Dying.) He was written and introduced in a way to make readers like him, learning from the experience with Jason Todd.

Marv Wolfman, originally printed in A Death in the Family (2011):

Damian Wayne turned up, as far as I understand, because the writer Grant Morrison enjoyed rummaging around and picking stuff from different continuities. Batman and Talia had a child in the out-of-continuity story Batman: Son of the Demon (1987), and a Wayne-Al Ghul son had also been used in for instance Kingdom Come.

When it comes to the last decade or so, my guess is that a lot of bat side-characters have been created because writers hope to create a character that will be popular enough to be used in bat-storytelling longterm, and for merchandise, film or games. Both for economic reasons - how DC’s modern compensation system works - and, of course, for the satisfaction of creating something that people will read and enjoy for decades.

This is the (soon to be former) Batman writer James Tynion IV in an interview at sktchd.com:

[scorpionyx9621]

Do you think Jason Todd fandom is kinda toxic? Because it seems like NO MATTER what DC do, there'll always be complains. Forget the bad adaptation like Titans. Even Judd Winick cannot escape the criticism with how he potrayed Robin!Jason. They just never satisfied.

SORRY, IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO RESPOND TO THIS. I just moved from Washington D.C. to Seattle, which, for my non-American friends, that's 4442km away. And I DROVE THERE ALL BY MYSELF. And now I'm trying to find new work in a new city and trying to stay mentally healthy and positive. Life is exciting but hard and scary.

*sighs*

As someone who was a fandom elder with V*ltr*n. I've seen some of the worst when it comes to fandom behavior. I'm talking people baking food with shaving razors and trying to give them to the showrunners. I'm talking leaking major plot details and refusing to take it down unless they make their ship canon (I am looking at you, Kl*nce stans) For the most part, DC Comics has had a decades-long reputation of treating their fans like trash and not caring what they think so from what I've seen, we all just grumble and complain in our corners of the internet about how we don't like how X comic portrays Jason Todd.

The challenge with Jason Todd is that he's your clinical anti-hero, the batfamily's Draco in Leather Pants, he's a jerkass woobie, and on top of all of that, he's a Tumblr sexyman. It's a perfect storm for a very fun but frustrating character to be a fan of. It doesn't help that every writer decides to re-invent the wheel every time Jason comes up so his canon lore is confusing at best and inconsistent as a standard.

I guess starting with a general brief on who Jason is and what is uniform about him with every instance he's appeared in comics/media.

Grew up in a poor family in Gotham with a dad who was a petty-mid-level criminal, and a mother who dies of a drug overdose.

Survives on the street on his own by committing petty crimes and potentially even engaging in sexual acts to keep himself alive.

Is cornered by Batman and taken in after Dick Grayson quits/is fired

Becomes the second Robin, but is known for being the harsher, more brutal Robin.

Is killed by Joker after being tortured, but somehow comes back to life and regains senses through the Lazarus Pit

Resolves himself to be better than Batman by basically being Batman but kills people.

Where there has been a lot of conflict in the fandom is the fact that Jason Todd is not a character that is written consistently. DC Comics loves to go with the narrative that Jason was "bad from the start" and was the "bad robin" when, yes, he has trouble controlling his anger, but he also still is just as invested in seeing the best of Gotham City and trying to be a positive change for the world as any other DC Comics hero.

Where I get frustrated with the fandom is its ability to knit-pick every detail of a comic they don't like while completely disregarding everything that makes the comics great and worth it to read. My example being Urban Legends. To which most people had pretty mixed reactions to. I was critical of the comic at first but as it went along I ended up really liking it. I have a feeling DC Comics went to Chip Zdarsky and told him he had 6 issues to bring Jason back into the Bat Family, and honestly he didn't do a bad job. Did it feel rushed? Absolutely. I wish there was more development of Jason and Bruce's characters and their dynamic as a whole. However, where I see a lot of people being angry and upset with Urban Legends is that they feel Zdarsky needlessly wrote Jason as an incompetent fool who needs Bruce to save him.

Whether or not that was the intention of Zdarsky is up to debate. However, and this may be controversial, but I don't think he wrote Jason Todd out of character at all. For as fearsome, intimidating, and awesome as Red Hood is. Jason is a character who is absolutely driven by his emotions. Why do you think he donned the role of Red Hood? As a response to his anger towards The Joker for killing him, and towards Bruce for not taking action against The Joker and for seemingly replacing him so quickly after he died. Jason didn't care about being the murderous Robin Hood or for being the bloody hammer of justice against N*zi's and P*d*ph*les. He only cared originally about making The Joker and Bruce pay. It wasn't until he trained under the best assassins in the world and realized most of them were horrific criminals who trafficked children and were p*dos that Talia began to realize that the teachers that she sent Jason to train under started dying horrific and painful deaths.

The entire story of the Cheer story in Batman Urban Legends was started because it finally forced some consequences upon Jason. Tyler, aka Blue Hood's father was a drug dealer who gave his supply to his wife and kids. And when Tyler's father admitted he gave the drugs to Tyler, it immediately made him fall within the self-imposed philosophical kill-list of Jason Todd. And Jason, well, he proceeds to kill Tyler's father. When this happens, Jason is in shock. Tyler's dad fit the bill to easily and justifiably be killed by Jason. We've never seen Jason having to deal with the consequences of being a murderous vigilante on a micro-level. When Jason realizes what he's done in that he's murdered Tyler's dad, he's shocked. He tells Babs the truth. He does a rational thing because he's in shock. He doesn't know what to do, he never has had to face the consequences of his actions as Red Hood and now the gravity of befriending a child as a vigilante hero who kills people just set in when he killed the father of the same child he was just introduced to.

(Oh here's a little aside because it had to be said, Jason would not have been a good father or a good mentor to Tyler and absolutely should not have been his new Robin. Jason is a man who is in his early 20's (not saying men in their early 20's can't be good fathers at all) who is a brutal serial killer using the guise of a vigilante anti-hero to let him escape most of the law. the complications of having the man who murdered your father adopt you and make you his sidekick are way too numerous for me to explain in a long-winded already heavy Tumblr essay post. There's a reason why we don't advocate for a story where Joe Chill adopted Bruce Wayne or one where Tony Zucco took in Dick Grayson.)

The next biggest argument is that they feel that Jason is giving up his guns as a means to just be invited back into the Bat-Family. To which I will tell anyone who has that argument to go actually read Urban Legends. Already have and still have that argument? Please re-read it. Don't want to? That's okay, I will paste the images from the comic where Jason specifically says that he doesn't want to give up his weapons for Bruce and his real reasoning down below since the comic isn't exactly readily accessible.

Jason gave up the guns because he felt the gravity of what he had done and knows how it'll effect Tyler. Thankfully his mom is alive and in recovery. But Tyler doesn't have a father anymore. And Jason killed Tyler's father. It may have been in accordance to Jason's philosophy, but it was a case where it blurred the lines. Jason Todd isn't a black and white character, just very dark gray. He doesn't kill aimlessly like the Joker. If you are on Jason's list you probably have done something pretty horrific, and also just in general, being in his way or being a threat to him. Mind you, in early days of Red Hood and the Outlaws (Image below) Jason almost killed 10 innocent civilians in a town in Colorado all because they saw him kill a monster. That being said, Jason isn't aimless in his kills.

(Also can we just take a moment to appreciate Kenneth Rocafort's art? DC Comics said we need to rehabilitate Jason Todd's image and Kenneth Rocafort said hold my beer: It's so SO GOOD)

That being said, the key emphasis in the story of Cheer asides from trying to introduce Jason Todd back into the Bat Family and give an actual purpose for him being there, other than him just kind of being there ala Bowser every time he shows up for Go Kart racing, Tennis, Golf, Soccer, and the Olympic games when Mario invites him, is that Jason and Bruce ultimately both want the same thing. Jason wants to be welcomed back into the family and to be loved and appreciated. Bruce want's Jason back as his son and wants to love and protect Jason. Both of these visions are shown in the last chapter of Cheer while under the effect of the Cheer Gas. It's ultimately this love and appreciation they both have for each other that helps them overcome their challenge and win.

Jason Todd is a character who, just like Bruce, has been through so much pain and so much hate in his life. The two are meant to parallel each other. While Bruce chose to see the best in everyone, giving every rogue in his gallery the option to be helped and give them a second chance, hence why he never kills, Jason has a similar view on wanting to protect the public, but he understands that some crimes are so heinous they cannot be forgiven, or that some habitual criminals are due to stay habitual criminals, and need to be put down. But at the end of the day, the two of them both try to protect people in their own ways.

I am aware that through the writings of various DC Comics authors such as Scott Lobdell and Judd Winick, the two have had a very tumultuous relationship. And rightfully so, I am by no means saying that Scott Lobdell writing an arc where Bruce literally beats Jason to within an inch of his life in Red Hood and the Outlaws, nor Judd Winick's interpretation of Under the Red Hood where Bruce throws the Batarang at Jason's neck, slicing his throat and leaving him ambiguously for dead at the end of the comic is appropriate considering DC Comics seems to be trying everything they can to integrate Jason back into the family. That being said, a lot of these writings have shaped the narrative of Jason and Bruce's relationship and have an integral effect on the way the fandom views the two. It doesn't help that Zdarsky acknowledged Lobdell's life-beating of Jason by Bruce at the very end of Cheer by having Bruce give Jason his old outfit back as a means of mending the fence between the two of them. That does complicate a lot of things in terms of how they are viewed by the fandom and helps to cause an even greater divide between the two.

Regardless, I want to emphasize the fact that Jason Todd is a part of the family of his own accord. Yes, he's quite snarky and deadpan in almost every encounter. However, Jason is absolutely a part of the family and has been for a while of his own will. There's a great moment in Detective Comics that emphasizes this. Jason cares about his family because it is his found family. Yes, they may be warry about him and use him as a punching back and/or heckle him. At the end of the day, we're debating the family dynamics of a fictional playboy billionaire vigilante whose kleptomania took the form of adopting troubled children and turning them into vigilante heroes. Jason Todd wants a family that will love and support him. This is a key definition of his character at its most basic. This was proven during the events of Cheer and is being reenforced by DC Comics every time they get the opportunity to do so.

Now, none of this is to say that I hate Judd Winick. I do not, I don't like the fact that in all of his writings of Jason, he just writes him as a dangerous psychopath, and Winick himself admits to seeing Jason as nothing much more than a psychopath. Yet Winick is the one who the majority of the fandom clings to as the one true good writer of Jason Todd because 'Jason was competent, dangerous, smart' Listen, friends, Jason is all of that and I will never deny it. However, what I love about Jason isn't that he's dangerously smart of that writers either write him as angsty angry Tumblr sexyman bait or that they write him as an infantile man child with a gun. There's a large contention of this fandom that has an obsession with Jason Todd being this vigilante gunman who is hot and sexy and while I definitely get the appeal. It is very creepy and downright disturbing that all of you hyperfixate on his use of guns and ability to be a murderer. It is creepy and I'm not necessarily here for it.

What I love about Jason Todd is that despite all of the pain, all of the heartache, all of the betrayal, and bullying, and death, and anguish. Jason Todd is one of the most loving and supportive characters in all of DC Comics. Jason has been through so much in his life, but he still chooses to love. He still chooses to see the bright side in people. Yes, he takes a utilitarian approach and chooses to kill certain villains, but at the end of the day he wants to see a better world, and he wants to be loved. It takes so much courage and so much heart to learn to love again after one has been abused or traumatized. I would not blame Jason at all if he said fuck it and just went full solo and vigilante evil. He has every right to, but he still chooses to be with the Bat Family of his own accord. That's something that I see a lot of in myself. I have been through a lot of trauma and yet I try to be a better person myself in any way that I can. It is extremely admirable of Jason to allow love back into his heart when he really doesn't need to. He kills and he protects because he has this love of society. It may have been shaped by anger and hatred, but Jason has found his place amongst people who love him and value him. I think Ducra, from Red Hood and the Outlaws put it best in the image given below.

To end this tangent, I love Jason Todd and all of his sexy dangerousness, but it's far more than that. As much as Jason may be dangerous and snarky, he loves his family without a shadow of a doubt. I look up to Jason Todd because despite all of his pain and all of his trauma, he still choses to love. Jason Todd is a character who is someone I love because despite all of his flaws and having a very toxic fandom, he still serves as a character filled with so much heart and so much passion. I wish more writers would understand that. But for now I will live with what I have. Even though the fandom may be vocal about it's hatred for his characterization, I choose to love Jason regardless because he is a character who chooses love and acceptance regardless of his pain. Jason Todd is by no means a good person in any sense of the word. He has easily killed upwards of 100 people by now. He is a character who is flawed and complex but ultimately is one who powers forwards and finds love and heart in a place from so much pain and anguish. That is what I love about Jason Todd. After all, to quote a famous undead robot superhero, "What is grief, if not love persevering?" Jason Todd chooses to love despite all of the trauma and pain and grief. Yes, he is hardened in his exterior, but inside there is a man with a lot of love to give and someone who deserves the world in my eyes.

[sleeping-lilies]

robin era jason, dick, and babs headcanons because there’s too much comedic potential to ignore

- dick and babs were the ultimate gossip buddies. whenever dick was with the titans for long periods of time, babs always filled him in on everything

babs: dick you’ll never believe what hal said to bruce last night, i even have videos. dick, the look on his face please—

dick, immediately locking doors so his teammates don’t hear the mad shit about to be dropped on main: tell me everything

- vice versa too, dick filled babs in on everything going on with the titans and all they can say is thank god those lines are bat secured with no villains being able to listen in, imagine deathstroke hearing through bat gossip that joey’s dating who?!?! 😳

- batkids have been and always will be the holder of superhero gossip. it’s a business, you see, but we’re getting off topic 😡

- lmfao anyways this is literally how dick finds out about jason

babs: anyways, jason—

dick: who the fuck is jason

babs: ....

dick: barbara?!?!

babs: ok promise you won’t freak out

- babs and dick’s first reaction upon meeting jason being “why is he so small i wasnt that small” “dick you were literally nine when you were robin—“ “he’s tiny” it’s like those two share the same braincell

- i’m making it so that dick gave jason his number earlier because i feel like it 😡😡😡 (not that it changes much other than the fact that i want more gossip dropped in dm’s)

- when dick gave jason his number, he went to babs like “give me jason’s number” “didn’t you literally just give him your’s?” “ya but i’m gonna make sure he texts me” “ya ok that’s fair”

- whenever jason didn’t want to be in the manor (fight with bruce, boredom, etc) he went to wherever the fuck babs lived and they would facetime dick and talk mad shit. it was a thing.

- despite them all being able to drive, babs was the only one during this time with an actual, legitimate, legal license (jason was too young to have a license and dick is too lazy/busy/whatever-excuse-he-wants-to-use to take the permit and driving test) so babs drove them around everywhere and it was a mess™ consisting of a bunch of backseat drivers

- “dick omg look at this video i found from the batcave” “omg he said robin gives him magic” “robin gives him magic” they both cry about it for years to come

- babs sometimes kidnapped jason after school after telling the head of wayne manor (alfred) and took him to get ice cream, then to the library while she worked. jason was the greatest kid in the library, he even had his own throne special chair just for him whenever he came provided by library staff who adored this absolute angel.

- jason 🤝 babs 🤝 dick -> i believe in annoying yet endearing nicknames supremacy

- nicknames include (some used by some more than others or just one, or by both equally because they’re annoying pick and choose my good people)

little wing (iconic, we all know this one fellas and who uses it)

red (used for babs, absolutely fantastic, but in the future it gets confusing because some people with their goddamn hero names 😡)

boy wonder (classic, babs calls them both that)

barbie (for babs, jason uses this one and he’s the only one able to get away with it)

dickie (jason just really gets away with everything huh)

dickhead (jason’s lucky he’s cute)

baba black sheep (jeez i’m on a roll with babs’ nicknames she’s so nickname-able and that’s very cool and sexy of her)

jay z

jay allen

jay jay jay (shut up, dickhead—)

big bird

and a bunch more i’m too tired to look for them in canon or make new ones up, but you get the idea

- dick can totally bake, and babs and jason keep bugging him when he’s baking and add more chocolate chips while pretending to not notice that he can see them 😡😡😡

- headcanon that jason had hero worship for babs and dick because they’re so cool in and out of costume and it never really went away when he got older listen his older brother and pseudo sister are so cool and that’s not his fault but he’ll never admit it

- barbie movie marathons because barbie is an iconic legend and they all recognize it. they have the fucking “she’s the queen of the WA-A-A-AVES” song memorized along with all other barbie movie songs, they sing it on patrol.

- dick and jason’s sibling dynamic was and is basically “ur a little shit and i hate you but i will literally kill for you”

- dick had tension with bruce while jason was just a little shit who would totally cause drama for the sake of it, and people never take advantage of this absolute power duo for destroying bruce

- dick sending cryptid texts to jason through a burner phone because he’s dramatic jason totally knew it was him about things that drive bruce mad, like leaving the shower turned to the coldest setting before bruce got there, leaving the lights in the batcave on, etc. jason, a wise little child, totally took advantage of this. bruce came to accept his fate

- the gc names, guys the group chat names

- jason crashing into titans tower whenever he wants and dick doesn’t bat (hAH) an eye, occasionally he very sweetly asks babs to come with him and she agrees but only sometimes because some people have jobs, jason—wait dick is being flirted with by who?!?! i’ll leave it up to your imagination ;) and they totally crashed titans missions too

- one time bruce was busy with the league while alfred was on vacation and bruce absolutely could not dip (i’m imagining bruce getting a call from the headmaster during an honest to god fight and bruce just picking up while punching the daylights out of some asshole) (“mr wayne, what is that noise in the background?” “sorry, headmaster, the cat is having a seizure”), so when jason got into a “fight” (read: some jackass picking on jason before he snapped and yelled at him and the bitchass kid tried to punch him and jason’s no quitter) bruce called dick who was an adult and legally family (yes dick is adopted sometime after jason was, stay mad) like “son... son please” and dick was like “oh no need to plead with me, this is too good” but of course this bitchass doesn’t have an actual lisence yet and he was hanging out with babs anyways so he and babs rolled up to gotham academy and the kids stared at them like “holy shit they’re so cool” ya dick and babs are those power couple, whether romantic or not, that turn heads, they’re just that powerful strolled into the office, bailed jason out while intimidating the headmaster because the altercation was the result of school staff negligence of actual bullying like those cliche tropes, said “ayyy you got that brat good” and get him chili dogs or whatever the fandom made robin jason’s favorite food. omg i just made an entire fanfic in rough draft form someone please steal it and write it in full form and send me the link

- jason is very very tiny, you see. babs and dick pick him up and move him for any reason, whether because they want to sit on that chair or to just throw him out of harm’s way and take the bullet for themselves.

- jason and dick both get adorable blushes on their faces it’s genetic yes that’s how genetics work shut up meanwhile babs’ ears turn red when she’s embarrassed and all three of them clown each other for it

- i yelled about this to my mutual (cough cough @littlespaceboii) who also added to this absolute dogshit headcanon and then in the discord full of mutuals, but the basement of wayne manor is haunted. dick found it when he was a little gremlin (i stand by that dick was the original demon child) (“you see damian, before there was you there was me” the real reason he was good with damian lmfao) and was like “omg this is so cool” @littlespaceboii came up with that it was just alfred fucking with bruce and so when jason first came and dick was comfy around him he was like “so have you been in the basement” and jason was like “im literally robin i’ve been in the batcave?!?!” and dick goes “no the basement, the haunted one” and jason’s like “hAUNTED?!?!” cuz jason has at least some self preservations and knows not to fuck with the spookies until he too became a spooky and bruce was like “there’s no ghost it’s not haunted” because he’s a skeptic and a party pooper and babs is like “no go on let him finish” even though she knows full well there are no ghosts or does she? and uhhhh basically they becomes ghostbusters 2.0 but cooler and funnier

- this trio is basically baby pan/bisexual jason and two resident expert pan/bisexuals solidarity but that’s literally canon. they go to pride every year that jason’s alive what who said that?

- they all tease each other for their crushes like all siblings/family friends do, i don’t need to say it but it’s important that’s emphasized for my well being

- yelled about this in the discord to the mutuals who added onto this absolute train wreck too, but jason used to play baseball during his robin days, and dick never showed up to those games with being busy as an excuse, but babs always showed up with bruce and alfred and took pictures for dick so dick could be like “mlb players are jobless now that little wing is on the scene” babs (and sometimes bruce) always shouted loudest for jason whether he was in the field or in the dugout and jason would get this extremely adorable blush on his face (jason finds out in the future why dick never showed up (cough cough ptsd from two face’s massive baseball bat which led to everything that came after including being fired and veangance academy and nearly killing two face and omg that’s a ride) and is like oh my god my childhood is even more ruined—)

- remember when i said dick got adopted after jason did in this new absolutely fabulous canon i just created? bruce did that because “ahhh fuck that’s my kid and i want him to know i love him through every means possible since i have the ability to do so” i believe in good dad bruce supremacy and made a whole thing where he invited dick to dinner for like a week to work up the courage and bonding to ask him and show him the adoption papers and then everyone cried :) bruce decided to finally adopt dick after jason referred to dick as his brother and bruce was like “...oh” and alfred was like 👀

- dick, as the first child hero and one of the first heroes period like at least a year or two before babs, holds the “back in my day” card over literally everyone in the hero community in general and pulls it out to annoy babs and jason even tho babs literally joined the scene only a year or two after dick

jason, shaking in his panties: it’s so fucking cold

dick, standing strong in his tits out outfit, who had to wear the panties on his own decision: oh, you’re cold? back in my day—

babs, throwing her boot at his face: god shut the fuck up—

and then dick doesn’t give back her boot and it becomes a whole thing with lots of tackling and play fighting and someone nearly gets thrown off they rooftop for funsies but anyways

also on a side note, babs would take off her cape and wrap it around jason whenever she noticed his discomfort with the weather, or use the weather as an excuse whenever she saw him uneasy for whatever reason and they never mention it to each other

- yelled about this in the discord to the mutuals at some point too holy shit i have friends, but those three are team rocket. they went out as team rocket for halloween one year after bullying bruce to let jason out only jason because he can’t tell dick and babs what to do and jason is under his care and when they do convince him, dick and babs bully jason into being meowth. manifesting jason in a meowth onesie ARTISTS PLEASE—

- dick finally took his license seriously and took his driver’s test after babs became paralyzed.

- those were a rough few months for those three. and then another rough few months for those two

- yikes, sorry to throw angst at you (sorry (unfeeling)) anyways, in the future alfred finds those old photos and shows the rest of the fam, so dick and babs bully jason, 6’2 jason that towers way above both of them, and once again bullies him into being meowth “for tradition, little wing!” “shut up, dickhead” the rest of the batkids lose their shit over this, naturally. bruce and alfred stand in the back teary eyed reminiscing the old days when things were a little more simple.

- discowing walked so terrifying handsome squidward red hood helmet could run (even tho the ugly helmet tripped and fell and missed the mark because discowing wasn’t ugly and will always remain superior, i feel i have committed a terrible crime comparing the two)

dick: jason what the fuck is that

jason: it’s fashion

dick: it’s terrifying

jason: i’m only following in my older brother’s footsteps 😔

dick: listen here, you little shit strangles him haha just kidding that illegal wait theyre vigilantes they don’t follow the law—

- these three and cass refer to the rest of the batkids as “the kids” (if she’s older than jason, sometimes she is and sometimes she isn’t and i’m really confused but whatever)

- babs and dick’s relationship with jason pre death literally shaped how jason treats his siblings post pit madness like he literally goes “what would red and big bird do?!??” when he needs to go into big brother mode over the “little ones” (“little” because tim and steph are adults and duke is nearly an adult himself oh my god he’ll graduate from high school soon and jason never got to do that himself he’s totally going to the ceremony legally dead or not) 🥺

- holy trinity continue hanging out with each other, whether lunch or games or whatever, and just enjoy each other’s company after long, rough years

[danny-chase]

Do you think that Tim saved Dick in a way? Because we see Dick getting better as he gets closer to Tim and healing and getting back into the family, and ig it’s Tim who initiated that.

I literally don't have a yes or no answer for this... like most things in the Batfam - it's complicated. (Following answer is informed by 90s-00s comics, i can't really speak for new52 because it just... has so many issues one of which being erasing the relationship between Dick and Tim for *checks note* no discernable reason other than possibly *checks note* Didio hates legacy characters and wants only bad things for them so he could have excuses to kill them off or cancel their comics... idk just a guess)

Warnings: for Bruce stans - just look away i'm about to bring up bits of canon you most likely don't like, for Dick stans - Devin Grayson's run is mentioned, for the lovely anon - i wrote an essay, hope you are prepared

Tim coming into the family gave Dick a reason to occasionally hang around Bruce and i'm not sure if this is an exaggeration or not but he did sort of save that relationship - but whether that was a good or bad thing at the time, i can't really say. For sure - it starts off good, Bruce is actually trying to be a good dad (he comes down to Blud to check on Dick, adopts him, trusts him with his own city, calls him for backup, etc.). But we also see throughout Bruce Wayne: Fugitive/Murderer how unhealthy the relationship between the two can be. Dick built his core values around Bruce - if Bruce had actually killed here it would have been devastating for Dick (he was pretty much on the verge of a mental breakdown simply because they couldn't find proof Bruce wasn't guilty). The two literally got in a fist fight during the arc because Bruce was being uncommunicative and Dick couldn't take it anymore, snapped, and punched him when Bruce said "Bruce Wayne is dead only Batman now" - this tied into Dick finally having the relief and validation of being adopted and he couldn't handle Bruce stripping himself (and by extension, his fatherhood of Dick) away. In this era of comics Bruce had gotten physical with Dick before (here's me venting like an annoyed loser), and here's a clip from Bruce Wayne Fugitive that i just, *sigh*, canon Bruce, my detested.

Now on the other hand - getting Dick involved in the batfam more doesn't just mean he was hanging out with Bruce. His relationship with Tim is pretty great and I can definitely see where it was healing for a while - but also - to give credit where credit is due, the healing he goes through during this era of comics can also be attributed to Barbara and the Titans (the fab five specifically). Wally literally joins the Titans to give Dick a "social life" (me - it's because he's gay and wants to spend more time with Dick, actually, screw you DC you know i'm right). Donna plays a major part in keeping Dick's emotional well being in check. So like everything was going fine - Dick was healing, spending more time with friends, spending a lot of time with people he loved, like Tim, except he was neglecting his health and not sleeping - but overall he was in fact, managing, and moving past the deaths of Jason and some of the other Titans. With the current Titans - he was a hardass (which like ~trauma~ so I understand), but like things were going relatively okay.

And then Donna and Lilith died. And hooof Donna dying was like really really bad for his mental health.

Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files (2003) #1

[Image ID: Dick sits in a room staring at a photo, the phone rings in the background, and he doesn't even acknowledge it, the voice mail plays: "I'm not here. Leave a message after the beep." The photo is shown closer in the next frame, it's of the five original Teen Titans - Roy kisses Donna on the cheek, tipping his hat his other hand making the okay sign, Donna has an arm around Roy, the other hand on Dick's shoulder, Garth proudly stands beaming with his hands on his hips, and Dick has both his arms around Wally's neck. Everyone is smiling in the photo. A voice plays over the answering machine: "Dick, it's Roy - pick up the phone... c'mon... please... I know you're there... just pick up. Dick, we need to talk... you can't just... please..." End ID]

For context - the previous page noted that this is Dick SIX WEEKS after Donna died. Usually Dick's the one who moves on quickly, but Donna dying broke him in a way nothing else had before - and that could be partly because he was still recovering from everyone else's death.

Up to this point, Dick had been healing and Tim was definitely a part of that, but then DC decided to throw the absolute book, bookshelf, and library at him. Reading Outsiders (2003) it's very clear he's very traumatized, and around the same time, Devin is literally whumping him like it's the whump Olympics, breaking him and Babs up, burning down his childhood home, blowing up his apartment complex (killing all but like two of his neighbors), he's literally sleeping on fire escapes using newspapers as covering because he has nothing, and the bad thing i don't like to think about (i'll let you know if you ask but that one needs lots of tw, but if you know where i'm going you know what it is already), Blockbuster is killed and he blames himself - and loses it over breaking Bruce's one rule, Bludhaven is nuked, and he pretty much tries to kill himself.

So basically, he was on the path to healing (with Tim as part of that) before he got absolutely destroyed (and almost killed off by Didio in one of the crisis). Tim in his own right, was also going through a lot in the meantime, his dad died, Steph died, Kon and Bart died, i don't remember what else happened and i haven't read that era of Robin yet. Things were good until they weren't anymore, and sometimes i think Dick would regret ever exposing Tim to the life they live, and questions whether he should have just sent Tim packing x2. They do get to spend a year together on a mental health cruise, but then Damian comes into the picture, Battle for the Cowl happens, and they have their falling out. But whatever happened on that cruise must have been really healing for Dick because he actually kind of rocks it in this era - he keeps things light with Damian, Alfred notes at one point how he makes things easy because he has lightness in him, and he patches things up with Tim - catching him in that panel of Red Robin - from there they kind of go back to normal, there's a lightness to the way they banter with each other (also here) and Tim returns the favor (from the Red Robin incident) by pulling Dick out of the water.

They've saved each other multiple times over (physically), and in both in the Black Mirror and Gates of Gotham, Tim helps out in a period where Dick is starting to fall apart from the pressure of holding things together for so long (something Tim might feel guilty for, because he did run away from Gotham on a wild goose chase for Bruce). In that period, it's really clear that Dick saves Tim (he reminds him in RR, that someone does actually care for him) and then Tim saves Dick from being torn apart by Gotham.

I should point out - Damian, while starting off as kind of a hinderance, does eventually start helping Dick as well. By the end of their relationship (before the New52 destroys everything i love), Dick has helped Damian grow emotionally, and through that process Dick probably finds meaning and value in their time together, probably a lot like he used to feel with Tim. And of course, physically, they've both saved each other multiple times by the end of the run.

So yeah. I think Dick finds meaning in growth in mentoring his younger brothers, and it's likely a healing process, that healing just has some twists and turns along the way, and sometimes, on bad days, he probably feels like maybe he shouldn't have intervened at all, but i think on most days, he's proud of what Tim's become.

...I hope this is coherent lmao

[igotanidea]

Lost: Jason Todd (Red Hood) x reader

Summary: Red Hood make a mess and leaves Jason to deal with aftermath. Requested by angst lover.

Dick Grayson (Nightwing) version of this plot is here.

A/N: reader is older than Jason, member of the old Titans, Jason's only ally when he was still Robin. There;s no romantic relationship between them, more like an older sister - younger brother vibe.

„Jason?”

„Yn?” former hero, now self-appointed Red Hood stopped and turned around to the voice of the only person who could made him do it. “what are you doing here?” he put the gun down and took a step towards the girl.

“I could ask you the same question, Jay. Or should I say Red Hood? Because that is what you are now, huh? A villain? How does it feel?”

“Yn, listen to me….”

“No, I won’t. I’m done with all the bullshit and playing around. Just because you had a fight with Bruce or Dick or whoever, I don’t care. It does not give you any ground to terrorize Gotham. Do you even see yourself? What happened?”

“Titans happened! You all are the very same! Always making me look like an outcast! I was done with it! Being put aside!”

“I never put you aside!”

“Didn’t you?” he smirked mischievously “really? You go round listening to Grayson like a lost puppy you are. Never had an opinion of your own.”

“Jason…..”

“Look at me and tell me I’m lying. You let him pull all the strings, order you around and you blindly follows. Wasn’t it like that during the old Titans days as well? I wonder why is that?”

“Don’t you dare…..”

“oh, wait…. “ he titled his head and tapped his chin in fake reverie “it’s because you are soooo in love with him, isn’t it?”

“Shut the fuck up!” she was angered like never before. And all because Jason Todd was right. He saw right through her, exposing all her insecurities and worries. Always had this effect on her since, whether they both liked it or not, they were a lot alike. She might have been older than him, but she saw a lot of herself in the boy taken by batman as a replacement. He was right about the old Titans. It was a team but she never felt like she truly belonged. Doing all she could to get respect and acknowledgment but being left behind on everything. It always felt like she wasn’t good enough despite all her skills and abilities. And Dick…. Well, better not to talk about it.

“Oh, you poor thing” he mocked “always put in the second place. Tell me, how was it like to watch him date Barbs? And Dawn? And now, that he clearly takes interest in Starfire? How was it like when he was constantly putting you aside. And still does, doesn’t he?” he shrugged knowing well enough what effect this words would have on her.

“That is enough!!” she jumped forward trying to tackle him to the ground but he was just too fast. Red Hood grabbed her arm and twisted it, making her gasp in pain of a broken bone.

“You are pathetic.” He hissed towering over her, while she winced on the ground “full of fear. Look at me, I finally got rid of that! I’m invincible, everyone’s at my mercy! I even got you, the famous H/N down.”

“Are you proud of yourself then?”

“What?”

“Like you said, you used to be an underdog, so how does it fell to raise to the top of the world?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” he squinted “don’t turn this thing around.”

“I am not. You used to have family, maybe a bit broken and messed up, but still. What do you have now, hm? Mr. fearless?”

“Don’t you have enough pain for once?” in a blink of an eye he was crouching next to her grabbing her chin in an iron-clad grasp “you are clearly masochistic playing with me like that.” He put more force into the it, making sure to leave a bruise.

“You turned into a monster” she hissed, not able to hold her tongue and not caring about the pain. “Face the facts and ….”

“Will you shut up!?” he lifted her up by a throat making her choke and fight for air “this is bullshit! This city! This fucking town! They need someone to put order to it!”

“And…. And…. You think…. That is ….. what you are doing?” she panted, her legs dangling above the ground in futile attempt to get some footing.

“YES! The fuck yes!”

“Well …. Maybe…. “ it was getting impossible to get any air into the lungs “ look around you…..” she was seconds away from passing out.

“Why can’t you see it?!” he yelled “they will abandon you as well! You mean nothing to them! You hear me?! Nothing! You never did!”

“That is not true….” She whispered, her face pale like never before. It was even more terrifying given the fact she was illuminated by the blue neon light, reminding him of the dead people he saw while fighting alongside Batman. That memory slowly crept inside his mind making him realize what he was doing but before he could react a voice from behind made Jason drop the girl and release her from the grasp.  

“JASON!” an escrima stick flew in his direction making him loose balance. Nightwing and Conner came for the rescue and were prepared for the fight but Red Hood just looked at them, then turned around and focused his gaze on the girl, who was now clutching on her throat breathing heavily and  without taking any further action run from the place.

“ You’ll see…..” he interposed towards the girl “you’ll see it soon….”

*** A few hours later YN woke up in one of the many rooms in Wayne manor. Memories of what happened and harsh words of her former friend still fresh and painful in her mind. She could not clearly say when Jason became so violent. Maybe it was after his fall? After the failed mission he was so dead set on succeeding in? Anyway, it did not give him any right to turn this anger and pain as a weapon aimed at her. The thing was, she was always on his side. Sometimes, standing against the rest of the team. Even when Hank, Dawn and Donna got mad at her for defending him. Even when Dick called her crazy and irresponsible for protecting Jason. And now, he was a villain in the story. The worst part, he was hurting not only her, not only Gotham but also himself. He just didn’t realize yet, how destructive burning the bridges was.

“Yn? Are you all right?” Conner stood up from the nearby chair.

“Besides a broken bone and a few mental bruises I am fine. I will be fine. Thanks for coming to the rescue, Superboy.” She smiled lightly and the younger boy reciprocated, looking at the ground sheepishly.

“It’s nothing, really. I’m just glad I could do something good”. Conner was with the Titans for a while now, but he was still worried about his darker part, coming from Lex Luthor, so every time he did something positive it made him shy.

“You are a good person, Conner. Don’t ever let anyone tell you different.”

“Thank you, YN. Do you…. “ he hesitated scratching his head

“What, Conner?”

“do you want to talk about what happened? I don’t really know this Jason guy, but wasn’t he a part of the team? Isn’t it a hero turned villain situation?” there was almost invisible glance of fear in his eyes.

“It won’t happen to you.” she simply said squeezing his hand reassuringly “Jason…. got lost. I feel like it was partially my fault. I think I let him get lost and ….”

“It’s not your fault….” Third voice came into the discussion and Connor and YN turned their gaze towards Dick who walked into the room “I pushed him away too far, should have listened to you when you warned me about the consequences…”

“Not the first time, right? Guess you will never learn to listen to the smarter people” she smirked

“Good to see your injury did nothing to your sense of humor. Conner, can you give us a minute please. There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“Sure. I will wait outside, but. …. I’d really like to talk to you more, YN.”

“Won’t leave you hanging” she smiled and the boy left “he’s worried he might turn into a villain too” she sighed looking at Dick. “we can’t let it happen. We mustn’t repeat that mistake.”

“We won’t. But speaking of villain…..”

“What happened?” she propped herself up on the healthy arm, getting nervous.

“Jason wants to meet you.”

“When?”

“You cannot be serious YN” Dick scoffed “after everything he did you still considering going?”

“Where?” she turned deaf ear toward his words

“YN!” Nightwing was appalled by her words “You are not going anywhere!”

“You won’t tell me what I can and cannot do!” she spat, remembering Jason’s words “sorry…” she mumbled soon after

“Is that how you feel? Really? Like I’m ordering you? Yn…. I’m just worried about you.”

“I know, I know… I’m sorry.”

“What did he tell you?” Dick became suspicious “was he trying to play with your mind? YN, you know you are an important member of the team, right? It would not be the same without you….”

“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes not feeling in her best capacity to deal with this matter now “we can discuss this later, we have more urgent things to take care of. Tell me the details.”

“You really want to go? You are hurt, you need rest and healing.”

“Dick.” She warned him.

“Fine. But you can’t go alone. I will go with you. Or you can take Gar, he is the second person after you to have any faith in Jason left. “

“Dick. It’s my problem to solve, all right? I appreciate your effort, but I’m going by myself. Hoping for the best.”

“You have always been too stubborn for your own good.”

“Details, please, Nightwing.”

*** Of course Jason picked the abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere for a secret meeting in the middle of the night. Darkness, quietness and remoteness of the place fitting well with his new imagine of Red Hood. There was not a soul around and even her quiet footsteps echoed through the entire building. It made her even more vary of the surroundings. He could be hiding anywhere and despite her high hopes she was prepared for everything, for any potential danger from his side.

“Jason!” she stopped in the middle of the space looking around “I’m here.  I’m alone. Stop playing hide and seek and come out.”

“You came…” a dark figure emerged from the shadows in front of her “wasn’t sure if you will, after what I said. “

“What you said?” she scoffed “I don’t care about the words…” that was a lie on her part “but all you did…..”

“For what it’s worth I am sorry. For everything. Mostly for hurting you…. I.. I don’t know what’s happening to me….”

“Is that what you said to Hank before bombing him?” the memory made the boy freeze. “is that what you are going to do to me?”

“YN….” He took his helmet off and she saw tears and pain in his eyes “you know I would never….”

“I don’t know a thing anymore, Jason. I don’t know if you are telling the truth or playing  a part in Crane game. How can I tell the difference?”

“I need your help, YN. You are the only one who…..”

“Right, now you see it.” She shook her head “why didn’t you notice it earlier? We could have prevented so much damage, Jason.”

“I’m sorry….” He looked straight at her “please….”

“Jason….” she sighed

“Please, YN. I want out…. Can you forgive me?”

“I don’t know. Not now, but maybe in the future…..”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me just yet. We still got damage control to do.”

“I’ll do anything.”

“Of course you will, you have no other option. And there’s one condition.”

“What?”

“You will stay down.  Titans won’t know about you helping”

“So, I’m a dirty secret now. Grayson will figure it out in no time.”

“I don’t care. It’s not about him. I’m making my own choices. Look, Jay, I want to help you and even if you will never be a titan again….” she shook her head again and sighed deeply “I still feel like I owe you this much. So are you game?”

“You’re the only person who could make me, so yes, let’s safe this fucking city.” @pinksirensong @somest1

[stxleslyds]

I saw your rant about the Red Hood Movie lol (I agree DC keeps hurting my boy Jason) and you said something that interested me, you mentioned that you don’t like it when Jason is drawn with a bat symbol on him but why? Personally I feel that him wearing the bat symbol makes sense because he’s always tried to fit in with the family and it’s his way of connecting with them because he’s never had a family before. He gets along with his other siblings sometimes so I don’t think it’s ooc. I consider ‘bat symbol’ Jason an era of the past and am perfectly fine with his new Red Hood logo it looks sweet (but I wouldn’t be angry if he had the bat symbol on or not in the future). I’m curious what you’re thoughts are!

Hey there Anon, I have to be honest with you, your ask has been proven very difficult to answer, this here is my third draft. I have decided that instead of explaining my thoughts as I was trying to do in my previous drafts, I will now just link you to some of my past posts when I bring up certain points that make me think Jason should have never worn the bat-symbol on his chest.

Just a heads up, I am not a fan of Batman, the “Batfamily”, or Jason being dragged to any Bat-related content, I think it makes his character bland.

In order to make the answer clear to me as well as to anyone who reads this post, I will be separating my thoughts on how I think Jason’s relationship with Bruce has led me to think that he shouldn’t wear a bat-symbol or be involved with any Batman related content, and how Jason’s relationship with his brothers has led me to think that he isn’t part of any Batfamily or has ever been written as someone with true reasons to consider the others his brothers/allies/friends. I will separate each of those two groups in four different sections: pre-New 52, New 52, Rebirth and Infinite Frontier.

First though I would like to say that Jason as the Red Hood wearing a bat-symbol doesn’t make sense to me from the most basic of things, Jason’s vigilante name has nothing to do with Bats. Who wears bat-symbols? Batman, Batwoman, Batgirl, Batwing… All people that who have the “Bat” prefix on their names, nobody else wears a bat-symbol, Nightwing, Robin, Red Robin (Robin), none of them wear it, so why would Red Hood do it? It just makes zero sense. But anyway, that’s just me being annoying, I guess.

Jason and Bruce’s relationship.

First let’s go back in time to when Jason hadn’t died yet. You said that Jason wore the bat-symbol so he could connect with his family because Jason had never had that before, well, I see things differently, Jason had a family and that was his mother, the mother that he cared for when she was sick and the mother that he saw die to drugs after his father was put in jail. He had a family with her. And then he had a family with Bruce when he was Robin, but because Bruce started to neglect and not pay enough attention to him after he realized they weren’t seeing eye to eye in various things, Jason was pushed to act the way he did when he found that his birth mother was alive and “being manipulated by Joker”.

Jason’s father was abusive with his mother and didn’t care for Jason, Bruce wasn’t ready to be a father (even after Dick) and when Jason started to not want to follow his every rule Bruce neglected him, later his birth mother betrayed him and was one of the people involved in Jason’s death.

My point here is that Jason had a family with one person who died to drugs and then every other “family” that he found ended up betraying him or neglecting him. So, I don’t really think that Jason has much trust in the whole concept of “family” at least not when it comes to any of his experiences outside of Catherine Todd.

Now let’s move to the events of Under the Red Hood where Jason comes back to comics. Jason doesn’t hate Bruce then but he felt betrayed by him and felt like Batman’s whole crusade was not good anymore. Jason expressed several times in that book the fact that he didn’t believe Batman was good for Gotham and that he became a better version of Batman, the Red Hood.

Red Hood could do things that Batman didn’t dare do, he was better. So, why on earth would Jason wear a bat-symbol then? Well, Jason never wore a bat-symbol pre-New 52 when he was wearing his Red Hood suit. NEVER.

Jason didn’t care for Dick or Tim, he saw Dick as inferior to him because of Nightwing’s no killing ways and he was completely indifferent to Tim, his only interactions with him were when he cut his throat a little bit in Batman: Hush and when he called him “the pretender”.

So, Jason wasn’t looking for family he just wanted Bruce to kill Joker for him, and Bruce didn’t. When things got complicated and Jason realized that Bruce was too much of a coward he improvised, he told Batman that in order to stop him from killing the Joker Batman would have to shoot him (Jason). Batman didn’t use the gun, but he did save the Joker by throwing a batarang at Jason’s throat. When Joker detonated the explosives in the building they were in Bruce once again saved Joker from the rubble and didn’t look much for Jason.

That my dead Anon is the first time Bruce betrays Jason in such a big way that made me think that Jason would have never wanted to interact with Bruce in a good way. I will repeat it now, Bruce SAVED the Joker instead of letting Jason KILL the Joker.

After Under the Red Hood we got to see that Jason was alive and well in Green Arrow #69-72, where he made an appearance, there I can say with a 100% certainty that Jason hated both Batman and Bruce. He actively did things that pissed Bruce off and was searching for conflict with the man.

Jason and Bruce don’t interact much after all that because at some point Bruce “died” and that’s where Battle for the Cowl comes in. There is where we see one of the craziest Jason characterizations, there Jason took on the mantle of Batman because Gotham needed Batman (what? Red Hood was created to replace Batman!). But in that book Jason actually harmed both his brothers and left them for dead. In that book we also see a horrible message that Bruce left for Jason where Bruce told him that “Jason was broken and he tried to fix him” and that “Jason was my (Bruce’s) biggest failure”. I don’t know about you Anon, but if my father saw me that way, I would be packing my bags. And Jason didn’t look like he was looking to connect with his “family”.

After all that we don’t see Jason until Batman and Robin vol.1, where we see the weirdest characterization of Red Hood, this Red Hood hates Batman and would kill anyone just because. Jason had zero need to connect with his family there.

I just want to remind you here that Jason never wore a Batman symbol until here in his Red Hood suits, he only wore the symbol when he “was” Batman and that was OOC.

So now I welcome you to the New 52, where Jason wears a bat-symbol on his Red Hood suit for the first time. I HATE New 52 Jason Anon; you will find zero love for him here. That man wore a bat-symbol on his chest even though he didn’t believe in Batman’s ways and while he had this internal conflict about whether he hated or not Bruce. This Jason gave up a memory from his Robin years with Batman because he didn’t care enough to keep it, then he was seen acting like an ass towards Bruce and Barbara in the “Court of Owls” event.

But this whole shit show was written by Lobdell and one day he decided that Jason cared about what Bruce thought and let us know that maybe Jason secretly admired Bruce (in the post I will link here! I talk about what happened in those issues among other things). That story would be followed by Batman and Robin vol.2 #20, or what I like to call “the second time Bruce betrayed Jason in an even more painful way”. I am not going to explain what happened there, but I will like here! the post where I talked about what happened there and why I think that Jason should have never been on good terms with Bruce again from that moment on.

In that post I also discuss how much of an abusive and manipulative person and father, Bruce has and can be. He is a disgusting human being and Jason called him out about it but DC loves to write Bruce being abusive and then swiping it under the rug, Jason being on good terms with Bruce or wearing a bat-symbol on his chest is just horrifying after witnessing that issue, and it normalized Bruce’s abusive behaviour when issues later the same writer (Tomasi) had Jason interact with Bruce as if nothing had happened.

After that Jason was seen interacting with Bruce when the latter lost his memory, Jason even hugged Bruce there, it was OOC, and like I said it normalized Bruce’s abusive behaviour or at the very least made it look as something of no real importance.

Now, we are entering the Rebirth era of Bruce and Jason’s relationship, Jason was still wearing that fucking bat-symbol on his chest and this time around Jason even made a deal where he wouldn’t kill anyone while in Gotham (RHatO vol.1 #6), Lobdell even wrote them as being all buddy-buddy after the mess that was the New 52, absolutely disgusting.

Jason didn’t interact with Bruce in Rebirth that much, in fact the next time that Batman made a big appearance in the Red Hood book was in Red Hood and the Outlaws vol.2 #25, yeah, the issue where Batman beats the living shit out of Jason twice because he thought that Jason had killed Penguin. Father of the year, Jason wasn’t dying to be part of Bruce’s family, he was just brutally beat to be part of it. Bruce also ripped the vat-symbol off of Jason’s chest and told him that he didn’t “belong” with him or in Gotham any more. The AUDACITY of that bitch, can you believe? Jason belongs in Gotham as much if not more than Bruce.

Later when Red Hood and the Outlaws became Red Hood Outlaw, we saw Bruce and Jason interact again when Bruce informed Jason of Roy’s death, hugged him and also told him that he was still not allowed in Gotham, what a swell guy that Batman lad!

After that Batman went after Jason Todd when Jason came back to Gotham (without King Batman’s permission) and told the world that Jason Todd was alive and well and taking over Penguin’s Casino. Jason actually threatened Batman with revealing too much information about himself to the world (meaning, Jason threatened Bruce with revealing his secret identity) and that was that. Jason and Bruce only saw each other a few times when DC needed to make money with one of their boring ass events like Joker War and Bruce was shown “welcoming” Jason to Gotham in Red Hood Outlaw #51 or #52, I don’t remember but either way, it was absolutely hilarious and made zero sense. I am sorry, but after Bruce being a manipulative, abusive and all around a horrible person, I don’t feel anything except rage when they make them interact as if they cared for one another.

Shit hits the fan in Infinite Frontier with Urban Legends: Cheer, once again instead of explaining what happens there, I will just link you to the six posts I made about that mini. Part one, Part two, Part three, Part four, Part five and Part six.

Here I will only talk about the comeback of the bat-symbol in Jason’s life. Like you said Jason used (still has in some books) his own logo on his chest after Bruce ripped off the bat-symbol and told him to fuck off. That Red Hood logo was still done with the bat-symbol in mind and I just thought that it was ugly, like, there is no need for a logo if you are going to give him an ugly one along an even uglier suit. But that’s not what matter here, what matters is that the bat-symbol IS making a comeback because at the end of UL: Cheer, Bruce gives Jason a brand new (ugly) suit that has the bat-symbol again. That gift comes as a slap to the face after the disaster that was that book, from every point of view that mini should have not come out to the public. But it did because it forced the “Batfamily” down our throats through Bruce deciding to welcome Jason back to the “family” by giving him a suit with HIS logo on the Red Hood suit that kinda looks to me like Bruce saying “glad that I own you too as well”. The whole bat-symbol thing doesn’t sit right with him and sadly I don’t see it like a “Jason era of the past”, I see it like a metaphorical jail for Jason’s character, he is not free to be the character that he is supposed to be (a perfect opposite to Batman that shows that duality MUST exist in Gotham), and instead all we get is another Batman wannabe that is just as boring as the Batman himself.

Jason and his brother’s relationship.

The funny ha-ha thing with this is that we are not supposed to see Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian as four brothers (and to be honest I have never seen them four as brothers, as far as I see it, Jason hasn’t had a brother since before died). DC always makes it clear that Damian is Bruce’s only son so yeah, there is a big misunderstanding there within DC themselves, they have no problem with trying to sell us their absolutely nasty version of a family but at the same time they refuse to acknowledge any one except for Damian as Bruce’s son.

Even though I don’t necessarily believe that Jason sees his brothers as such I still call them that way because they were/are all Bruce’s children.

But this is not about Bruce so let me talk about Jason’s interactions with his brothers in the pre-New 52 era. So, as I said earlier in this post Jason didn’t think Dick was a big deal in UtRH because *just* like Batman Dick never killed and his way didn’t work or whatever (if only Jason knew what Dick did), and with Tim, Jason was mostly indifferent, he only hurt him a little bit in Batman: Hush (for the little bit that he took Clayface’s place) and then he referred to him as “the pretender”. Then we jump to the events of Teen Titans for Tim and Nightwing for Dick. In Teen Titans #29 Jason went to Titans Tower and beat the living hell out of Tim just because, now that thing was OOC and written by Geoff Johns but it existed and it further proves that DC writes this “family” through violence every time they can and then they just hope we forget it happened. With Dick, well, there was the Brothers in Blood arc where Jason dressed up as Nightwing and killed people in his name, he did it because he wanted to “bond” with Dick because he thought that Dick had killed Blockbuster, the whole arc was a mess and I can tell you this about it, Jason wanted to bond for all the wrong reasons and Dick was written as actually preferring Jason to be dead.

Then we jump right into Battle for the Cowl and even though (once again) this Jason was extremely OOC he did try to kill both Damian and Tim and fought Dick too, so, so far, I am not seeing Jason wanting to connect with his brothers, it was more like him going “be robin to my weird ass version of Batman or suffer!”. It was just weird.

Then there was Batman and Robin vol.1, where Jason’s Red Hood was just a blood thirsty and crazy and he didn’t want to be part of any family. I might not like Jason being written as part of the family but what this book had going on was not it.

Now, get ready because it is New 52 time again and this is messier than his relationship with Bruce in this timeline. The most recognizable relationship (or lack of thereof) was Jason and Dick. Lobdell just let us know one thing about what Jason thought of Dick and that was HATE. Jason HATED Dick, why, you ask? Oh, um, no one really knows, the only panel we were shown as “proof” of why Jason hated Dick was when Jason was acting like a little bitch when Dick was teaching him stuff during patrol (RHatO vol.1 #6). But, yes, Jason “had” (apparently) a good relationship with Tim. Yeah, no gracias, listen, Jason and Tim having brunch for two pages (RHatO vol.1 #8) isn’t making me believe that Jason cares or sees Tim in a good light, just throwing a brunch between them isn’t proof of them being the best of brothers but then again Lobdell loved giving Jason every character trait and relationship that Dick once had (examples: Tim, Roy and Kory). That brunch didn’t mean much because later on during the Death of the Family event Jason almost killed Tim (Teen Titans #16) to “save” his father from Joker (talk about bad writing). Jason and Damian had a very weird and forced “bonding” moment in that same event (you can include Damian to the relationships that Lobdell borrowed from Dick), all of the sudden Jason cared for Damian and he was acting all brotherly, because “they worked together” as different people in Batman Incorporated #4, this weird interaction between Jason and Damian (it can only be called weird because it looked out of place and you cannot change my mind, even Jason thinks it is weird in those panels) happened in RHatO vol.1 #17. In that same issue is where Jason tells Dick that he was trash because he didn’t want to say hi to Kory and kinda tells him that Dick “underestimates” Kory, listen, New Teen Titans isn’t a book that I enjoy reading most of the time but Lobdell needs to do some re-reading himself, Dick isn’t trash to Kory, Lobdell was trash to Kory. Anyway, at that point in time, Jason had a bad relationship with Dick, a secret admiration for Bruce, and a weird ass relationship with Tim and Damian.

Before we go on let me tell you what I think about the whole New 52 dynamic. Jason was used as a replacement of Dick Grayson. Dick was the one that had good relationships with his brothers and father, Jason up until the start of New 52 didn’t care for Tim or Damian, hated Bruce and kinda had a soft spot for Dick. In the New 52 the tables were turned. Jason’s relationship with Tim was never developed in paper, they for some reason were friends only when they stood together like they did in Robin War and Batman and Robin Eternal, there was never development or a reason as to why they “were in good terms”, they just *were*. The whole Jason and Damian thing didn’t last long because Damian died and then the whole mess of Batman and Robin #20 happened with Bruce.

Ahh, Grayson #12, the time when Jason and Tim’s last braincell died, they threw so much shit Dick’s way and for nothing. I will forever be mad at this, they really thought that Dick of all people faked his death, and because Bruce was conveniently amnesiac nobody dared say “hey, wasn’t it Bruce the one that told us that Dick was dead?”, seems to me like New 52 Jason and Tim can go be friends with that one braincell all by themselves. This is not family; this is people teaming up with whoever so DC can sell another weird comic event. Also at that time Damian was alive and Jason couldn’t have cared less about him being there (maybe it was because Jason was there when Damian was resurrected? Who knows?).

And now we jump to Rebirth because I hate the New 52. Tim was nowhere to be seen. Jason just forgot Tim existed and it wasn’t until the Red Hood Outlaw era in which we saw Jason interact with Damian again. What we did see, was a reconciliation between Jason and Dick, Jason was written as acting completely different in RHatO Annual #1, Jason respected Dick and his work and also said that Dick “had been a better brother than he had given him credit for”. Then Jason appeared once in Nightwing and they talked about Dick’s new girlfriend. And that was that for a long while.

As I said, during the RHO era Jason and Damian shared a couple of issues in the Teen Titans run, I have talked about these issues before in two posts (Post 1 and Post 2) but I will summarize what happened there here quickly.

Apparently, Jason and Damian had been working together in secret (never shown in actual comics), Jason gave Damian targets and intel of people for Damian to put in his secret prison for villains. When Damian and the Titans go after a target something goes wrong and the Titans end up hurt. Damian goes after Jason without a second thought and accuses him of betraying him, a physical and emotional fight ensues and it ends with Jason promising that if he sees Damian again, he will kill him. That’s all for Jason and Damian being on good terms in Rebirth.

But it all changes in Infinite Frontier, in August of 2021 we see the *real* comeback of the “Batfamily” in Robin #5. Dick, Damian, Jason, Tim and Stephanie appear in this issue but the only things of essence happen between Jason and Damian and Dick and Damian. Only one of them made sense, and it wasn’t Jason and Damian.

Jason was there to bring Damian back to Bruce. Listen, the last time Jason and Damian were seen together they were actively hiding their work from Batman and then they ended promising to kill each other, and now Jason came fresh out of Urban Legends: Cheer #6 wanting Damian to go back to Bruce. Damian tricks Jason into a hug, but surprise! it wasn’t a hug, Damian electrocuted Jason to get him of his back.

And that’s all.

-

I understand that there have been moments where Jason has been written as wanting to connect to one or two people from the “family” but its never developed or based on something of true essence. You might consider it actually strong family connections but I just don’t see it that way.

Jason wearing a bat-symbol after the abuse and manipulation that Bruce put him through in new 52 onwards is just dumb to me. And given Red Hood’s origin, Jason wearing a bat-symbol in the first place is absurd and goes against everything that he once was.

Jason officially started wearing the bat-symbol again in Detective Comic's back up story written by Rosenberg and will continue to use it in the ongoing book Task Force Z.

The bat-symbol is annoying but Rosenberg writes Jason beautifully so yeah, I am biased there...

We just have different opinions on the matter Anon, but don't take this post as an attack towards you and what you think, it is just that I just don't like Jason being involved with anything Batman.

I hope you have a fantastic week Anon!

[bigskydreaming]

What kills me in fics is when you have tags going like "Good brother Jason", which, cool, but in the same story there's " Dick TRIES to be a Good Brother" LOL way to switch the dynamics. I also tend to stay clear of the ones where the centric character seems to have a platonic relationship tag with everyone (including the ones where they're antagonists in canon like Jason & Tim) except Dick. You can feel the hate/dislike/prejudice a MILE away.

Yeeeeeeah. You are definitely not alone. Like pretty much every Dick Grayson stan I’ve ever talked to on the subject stays the hell away from any fic tagged “Dick Grayson tries to be a good brother.”

LOL like....it’s basically what I was talking about in that older post I just reblogged a few minutes ago. That thing where Dick’s actions or choices in a canon story or fic aren’t judged on their own merits but are rather inherently weighed against some hypothetical perfect choice that he DIDNT make and so he’s basically evaluated based on how much he falls short of that mark each time instead of anything he actually did.

Sorry not sorry, but I’m just not interested in stories that TRANSFORM the character most commonly referred to as the emotional glue of the family and the only one who consistently even CARES about them all being a family....into the fumbling incompetent relationship disaster man who at best gets credit for at least putting in an attempt at being there for his family.

Especially not when Bruce and Jason and Tim are praised for doing the bare minimum in canon when it comes to family interactions while everything Dick ACTUALLY did is just completely ignored and overwritten in order to make his Failure to People Good the narrative obstacle to be overcome.

Now, the “Dick Grayson Tries To Be A Good Brother” tag applied to Tim-centric fics in particular tho....hoo boy I am out of there so fast there’s a Kool-Aid Man shaped hole in the wall and not a sign of me as far as the horizon.

Like, currently my Pet Peeve Thermostat is set to Battle for the Cowl-referencing fics that don’t use this tag but very much are in that spirit. You probably know the ones, like their summaries suggest they’re open to considering Dick’s side of the situation but turns out the author at most is throwing him a “well at least you tried not to suck” bone while still reading him the riot act for very much still sucking.

Because what drives me up a flipping WALL here in particular, when I naively click on a link that seems different from the usual and ignore the voice of experience because I’m just desperate enough for Tim and Dick food that doesn’t just go on and on about how Dick ruined their brotherhood and it will never be truly repaired....

What makes the fruit bats in my belfry go absolutely B-A-N-A-N-A-S is not just the super fun realization that Psych! You thought this fic might be different but it’s actually the same!

Nah.

It’s how much people, both writers AND commenters, just absolutely LOVE to reference Tim’s shitbag parents and how emotionally abusive and neglectful they were (all true and valid, btw, let’s be totally clear about that)....but bringing them up here specifically to emphasize just how great Dick’s ‘betrayal’ was and how what he did makes him no better than them.

It’s like. Oh. I see.

So because after twenty years worth of stories about Dick dropping everything the second Tim needs him, whether it’s for help or just advice or even just reassurance or comfort or ANYTHING ....because after two decades worth of content showing Dick absolutely doting on Tim in their EVERY SINGLE interaction and buttressing his self confidence at every opportunity, never passing up a chance to call him his brother and emphasize that they’re family and he loves Tim and is so proud of him...

Because after all that there’s a story whose very premise forced Dick to choose between two kids, both still very much his brothers and their shared father’s sons even if one was new to him and didn’t have the same history the other two had....

Because by the very nature of the story Dick had no choice but to prioritize one over the other due to them both hating each other and Dick already being stretched to his absolute limits trying to live his dead father’s life and take on everything Bruce used to do at the cost of giving up everything Dick had chosen for his own life and wants and priorities, all while dealing with his own grief....

And with it being inevitable that the boy he DIDNT choose to prioritize was going to be hurt....

Because after twenty years of never failing to put Tim first the second Tim needed him, never even putting HIMSELF first OVER Tim....because for the first time Dick felt that someone else he felt obligated to, felt a responsibility towards, actually needed him MORE than Tim....

And for that reason and that reason ONLY, Dick picked that other boy, all while trying his best to tell Tim that he still needed him, still valued him, all the things that Bruce DIDNT tell him when he took Robin not even because he thought someone else needed it at the time but simply to take away, with absolutely nothing Dick said in any way negating or contradicting any of his many, MANY assurances to Tim over the years that they were brothers and always would be and with them still very much legally brothers and with concrete ties to each other that declared them family even WITHOUT the connection of Robin....

Because after and despite ALL OF THAT, Dick picked the brother that he didn’t know and frankly didn’t even LIKE, because he knew no one else was going to pick this kid and he also knew he’d already picked Tim a hundred times before and hoped that at least all that HISTORY of past focus and attention he’d given Tim to help build him up, give him foundations to build further upon, that hopefully at least that history that was still there, still relevant, still something Tim had actively benefited and grown from in ways Dick now hoped to help Damian....like surely this would be of at least SOME significance to Tim, SOME kind of proof of how much Dick loved and valued Tim....

Because one time and one time ONLY, Dick DIDNT put Tim’s needs first, not because he didn’t want to or because he was being selfish or short sighted or simply didn’t care, but rather solely because this one time Tim’s needs were in direct opposition with the needs of another young boy Dick saw as his responsibility and in even greater need and with even less of a foundation than the one Dick had helped Tim build....

This puts Dick on the same level as Tim’s shitbag parents, the ones who are infamous for (and practically synonymous with) emotional abuse and neglect. Dick’s basically interchangeable with them now. Certainly no better than them. Tim’s entire emotional well-being rested on Dick and Dick alone and nothing he’d provided Tim with in the past counts, just this one moment in time right here right now, that’s the entirety of their relationship see, it all comes down to this and nothing else, and because Dick didn’t put Tim first, no matter WHAT his reasons or how much he wanted to, he has officially failed Tim as hard as the neglectful parents who did nothing BUT neglect, ignore and just not give a shit at all, simply because they couldn’t be bothered to.

Yeah.

That’s neat.