what she says: yea i’m fine
what she’s thinking: the story brought both carpenter and faulkner to their inevitable end points that have been foreshadowed from the v first episode of the show ambiguity of carpenters death aside she stood on the banks of the river singing like her nana glass and was gunned down by the military and faulkner was drowned dragged delivered by the god and story he had let devour him but. but. before those things happened right before the narrative reached its end both of them stood up and said no! i want to go forward! i want to find something past this whatever it might be i don’t want it to take me yet im going to keep on walking! and it was too late! the thing is it was too fucking late!!!!!!! the aquifer was already flooding the soldiers were closing in she was to hurt to run he can’t swim. the chance had come and gone at the beginning of the episode for any hope of them reaching each other ever again but even though it was too little too late never ever going to be enough they both looked the site of their doom in the eyes and said i do not accept this. not here. not now. i am staring at you– the thing that will eat me — and resolving to pry open the jaws and choose to use the last moments of my life (whether i know it or not) to run and stumble and crawl and cry and sing in the hopes of reaching the people who matter to me more than being made your meal. and of course they got fucking eaten anyways. of course they did bc they were walking towards it from the beginning. but there is a way out, there is a way forward, there is a land beyond the storm that is possible to reach if you choose to step out of the story that has been built for you to find it. we walk on, with a rough and tarnished hope, and a tangled, ruined love. it can end with love, and it can end with kindness. even as the jaws are closing. ours is a world of miracles.
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i think my favourite thing about aom is that you can tell everyone (except maybe alice) fucking hates each other but they're also trying to be so calm and polite about it. the breakfast scene where orpheus infodumps about mary is the best example of it. his pointed comments so clearly digging into sore spots for both melly and frederick, melly's seething tone of voice when orpheus addresses her about loyalty before immediately throwing the heat onto frederick, frederick just setting down his drink, dismissing the whole thing, and then immediately fucking off but not without one last pointed glance at orpheus, it's so good. like i am just waiting for these people to rip each other apart. alice is on her own quest and getting dragged into these people's beef by virtue of just existing near them and being way too nosy for her own good, it's the fucking best
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I need to clarify that Duke Thomas did not create the We Are Robin movement. It was already up and running, albeit in its early days, when he joined. He was the last addition to his cell. This is their first appearance.
From left to right, not counting the guys who’ve been and are being knocked out: Duke, Izzy Ortiz, Troy Walker, Daxton Chill, Riko Sheridan and Andre Cipriani. Duke is down here looking for his missing, Joker-gassed parents among the homeless. The others are here to foil a terrorist cult of homeless people, and also because their shadowy true leader has his eye on Duke and specifically sent them to give him the chance to sign up. Duke jumps into their dangerous mission like the hero he is. That same day, Troy dies. He stays behind to defuse a bomb and can’t, while his close friends and teammates, and Duke who just got here, escape on a train. In the wake of this trauma, Duke decides that he doesn’t care that that could happen to him. He wants to be a hero.
He goes on to be one of the network’s most influential and accomplished members, being a natural leader and impressing the official Robins the most (along with his friends, they’re the best team). The movement really takes off after he joins. Mostly due to exponential expanding numbers, but partly due to him. So I understand why fans think he started it, on top of him being the obvious choice as the one who becomes a proper Bat. But he didn’t.
We never learn the original amateur Robin’s name. It could have been anyone. An unseen, unremarkable background character lit a spark that set Gotham ablaze. I think that’s pretty beautiful. It definitely fits for the comic’s themes of community, being part of something greater than yourself and how ordinary people collectively can have a powerful impact that transcends their individual weakness. What’s important is that We Are Robin exists and endures. That we are all Robins together. It’s the “Anyone can be Spider-Man” idea from the Spider-Verse movies with no superpowers attached.
So who is the mysterious mastermind, the reason Duke enlisted in the first place?
Alfred Pennyworth. He either founded or cofounded We Are Robin himself or stepped in to organize and equip the very first wave of kids. He acts anonymously in disguises or online, using the handle the Nest. He gives his recruits special phones that connect them to him and each other, their armoured uniforms, information and weapons if they need them. Some, like Dax with his wrench and later handmade grappling hook guns, prefer their own tools. But he does tell Dax the key to making the grapple guns compact.
Stop joking about Duke founding a teen vigilante street gang. Alfred founding a teen vigilante street gang is much funnier. He should never hear the end of it. It’s implied that he did it all independently and kept it secret from the rest of the Batfamily, so they might not even know about it until Duke, who figured it out during his first meeting with Alfred out of disguise, informs them. And Duke’s real origin story needs no exaggeration. It shows him to be a proactive, altruistic menace with no regard for rules or his own safety just fine.
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I also love that Rory complains that Jess is "still there" "staring," and then they show Jess... clearly reading and not even looking at her at all? 😂 Uh... Rory? Maybe we're projecting just a teeny tiny bit? Maybe she means that his EXISTENCE is "staring at her," like, metaphorically? Oh dear. I'm afraid she has truly come unhinged. 😂😭
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