#back at it with my bruce and dick + the road parallels

[belovedgrayson]

— Bruce and Dick || The Road by Cormac McCarthy

[gffa]

Hmmmmm any thought on Dick being a dad? (DC gives Dick his kids back challenge)

While I'm wary of how well it would/wouldn't be written, this is actually my current ideal direction for the character. As much as I love him as Nightwing and I love that they're trying to build up the Titans again, I'm not sure the Titans can ever truly replace the Justice League in terms of being The Ultimate Best Selling Team Book ever again. So what happens when the Justice League comes back and the Titans are overshadowed again? Where is Dick's story heading from here? I love him as Nightwing, but he's been establishing himself in Bludhaven for so many years now, he's been establishing himself as a leader for so many years now, he's been establishing himself as Nightwing and no longer Formerly Robin for so many years now, it feels like he needs to take another step forward. And I think one way to do that would be to continue the legacy that Bruce started with him--give him a nine year old that needs adopting!! This is a huge part of why I quit DC back in 2011, because that's exactly what they were doing by having Dick step up as Batman and taking Damian under his wing, it was such a fun dynamic and it was rife with tasty parallels and contrasts to Dick's own childhood, and it was so good!! It was a new direction for him that felt like a continuation of where he'd been before!! But then they undid that, went back to him establishing himself in Bludhaven, went back to him as a leader of the Titans, and I love those things, but I'm not sure where this is going ten years from now--still that same road? And maybe adopting a kid wouldn't be the answer to it (or having a bio-kid of his own), but I feel like it could be, in the right author's hands and with some commitment from DC.

[roseworth]

If you got to write an ongoing for Rose, what major arcs would you do? Would you have her ice Slade? Would she team up with Jason's Outsiders, end up with Tatsu or Babs, or be her own free agent occasionally punching other heroes?

oh my god yes. im just kinda gonna start dumping thoughts here with no organization im so sorry but here we go

so first of all i know i will never get this but my ideal rose ongoing would be her working mostly alone but sometimes teaming up with people bc she doesnt like to stay with anyone for long but she DOES work with other people when she needs them

shes been in gotham for a while so id prob keep her there and have her team up with other ppl in gotham every once in a while bc. i want her to. i just think gotham is a good place for her because it is a city of the most stubborn people in the world so she would fit right in

id prob have her do kind of the same thing she was up to in Fresh Hell and taking down various crime rings bc i dont really see her caring much about the costumed villains, not to mention there are a hundred other vigilantes in gotham for the Big Bads

also having her in gotham kind of opens up so many roads SO. gotham vigilante teamups <3 first things first i feel the need to say her and bruce would not have any need to interact and i dont think either of them would really want to fhdkjfhdsf like rose is trained and mostly doesnt kill people so i dont think batman would really care what shes doing until she does something bad, and rose wouldnt really like batman (for various reasons that i wont go into rn) so they would kinda just be doing their own thing

ANYWAYS in general i think that the idea of rose teaming up with bats is sooooo funny bc most of the bats are very meticulous planners and make whole schemes for everything they do. while 90% of the time roses plan is "im gonna go in and start punching people and see what happens" so i think she would give whoever shes working with an aneurysm and thats kind of hilarious to me

i want her to team up with steph and cass for homoerotic reasons because they all have so many narrative parallels, ESPECIALLY with cass so i need them to team up again <3 idk what they would be up to besides getting on each others nerves but i need it so bad

also rose & jason Now.. they r besties to me. i feel like they get into a lot of the same shit so they would also team up fairly often :) not to mention both of them have abandonment issues so they would have the most toxic friendship that constantly shifts between codependency and disappearing whenever something bad happens <3 besties<3333333

honorable mention teamups are babs who im pretty sure ive already talked about a babs&rose teamup before so i wont go into it, helena who i honestly have only read in bop so idk a lot about her but from what i do know i think she and rose would get along, harley who i would only want her to team up with because it would be a fucking mess, dick who i want her to team up with because it would also be a fucking mess but in a different way (renegade arc part 2 but this time theyre both heroes so rose can annoy him even more), duke who i want to include just because i love him even though i cant imagine any reason for him and rose to interact, young justice who arent all gotham heroes but i want them to be around to temporarily absorb rose just for fun, and the entire arrowfam who have no reason to be in gotham but i just want rose to fuck around with them as a treat to ME

as for slade. i think that their relationship is best written when it is really complicated for her :) so i need her to fall back into the cycle of going to him and looking for his approval and being constantly disappointed and angry when he refuses to give it to her :)

anyways ARCS. i dont have a lot of specific ideas for arcs besides another arc of rose giving up the name ravager (bc it didnt fucking stick last time), an arc making her a lesbian (stop booing me im right) and maybe an arc of rose killing slade then immediately spiraling about it bc :))))) yippee :))))))))))

okay this is already embarrassingly long so im gonna stop but i just have so many rose thoughts dc hire me

[bigskydreaming]

Okay, since the argument on whether Tim’s story needs him to be present at the Graysons’ murder is going a little long and neither of us seem to be making any headway, I’m gonna try and cut to the heart of it by saying this: 

A lot of my sentiment on that particular matter comes from annoyance about how even when Tim and Dick are EQUALLY affected by a tragedy, such as when Bruce was thought dead, there was for years - until people started pushing back against it - an overwhelming trend of making it solely about Tim’s losses. A lot of talk about how ‘Tim lost his second father’ as though Dick weren’t right there with that equally applicable to him. And again, that’s in a situation where both of them are in parallel positions relative to the tragedy in question. 

So its in that context specifically that I really have no patience for taking focus away - to any degree - from what’s arguably Dick’s most definitive tragedy, for the sake of not just any character, but Tim in specific. It rankles. 

*Shrugs* It is what it is. Is it understandable that people in the audience the night of the Graysons’ murder would be affected by what they saw? Yes, absolutely. I don’t dispute that. In practice though, I simply don’t trust fandom at large to focus on the impact it had on Tim in specific, without losing sight of its GREATER impact and RELEVANCE to Dick. Its about execution, and its about narrative focus. I just think that inherently, any narrative that tries to talk about the Graysons’ murder as formative for characters that aren’t a Grayson, is a case of misapplied focus. 

I mean, an example of why I’m just never on board with this is like in the post I replied to, the point is made that Tim doesn’t make himself the focal point of the Grayson murders and recognizes that it makes Dick uncomfortable.

Except, that’s not entirely true.

If you look at that panel, its very clear that Tim only seems to recognize the faux pas he’s committed once he says “that night is my most vivid memory” and Dick follows that up by saying “MINE TOO.” That sort of followup should be unnecessary, there should be no need for him to have to spell that out, except as a pointed reminder to Tim as to who exactly he was talking to. Tim DIDN’T just recognize that he was talking to the son of the people whose murder he describes as his most vivid memory, not all on his own. He apologizes for it, but Dick literally reminds him of it before he does so.

And so I just think when Dick having to remind Tim of the fact that it was HIS PARENTS’ murder that Tim was talking about without any display of awareness of that fact on Tim’s part until Dick spoke up there, like....when this doesn’t make an impression when defending the validity of the Graysons’ murder as essential to Tim’s origin and arguing that it doesn’t detract focus from it being Dick’s tragedy, and Tim’s credited with keeping himself more DE-centralized from the tragedy of his own accord, than is like....actually accurate.....

This, specifically, is why I just flat out don’t think its possible for this fandom, peoples’ biases being what they are (and freely acknowledging my own here), like....I just don’t trust people to execute this concept in a way that delves into it as an actual trauma of Tim’s, but in such a way that its not detracting from the character who wasn’t just tangential to the tragedy, but at the literal center of it.

Again, to clarify, I’m not disputing that seeing the Graysons’ murder at age three or WHATEVER age it was, wouldn’t be traumatizing for Tim.

I’m simply arguing that I think that unnecessarily muddles focus in a fandom that I personally consider to already be bad at keeping focus on Dick Grayson even in his own personal traumas and tragedies (see: the way people made it more about how the others FELT about Dick’s ‘faked’ death and Spyral, rather than focus in on how DICK felt about everything that actually happened to HIM specifically, or the way people made it more about how his FAMILY was impacted by him losing his memory rather than focus on how HE was impacted by it, the way people vilify Dick for the Red Robin events because of all the people Tim had lost but zero awareness of the fact that the entire Blockbuster arc took place at the exact same time Tim’s losses occurred and yet this is considered not even worth a mention....like this is a literal TREND)....

Anyway, my argument is simply that with all of that considered, I just think having Tim be at the circus to witness the murders at all, is just....a mistake. And it gives people more cause to divert attention away from a tragedy that is definitively Dick’s, to make it about how Tim was impacted specifically, and I just.....personally do not see a need or justification for that. Tim’s character doesn’t need that moment, IMO, and I think him needing to lean on that moment as integral to his character is if anything a weakness that I would think people should be happy to do without. It makes his character contingent on other characters’ tragedies in order to be HIM, the character at the end of the road there, and I just consider that not great, personally.

That’s about as clear cut as I can make my stance there, so I’ll leave it at that.

(For the record, I’m not tagging the person I was having the debate with because I don’t want to force a continuation of an argument I don’t see either of us conceding on. Its not because I’m trying to sneak in the last word or anything here, lol, I don’t think there’s anything productive left to be gained there on either side, so this post is more just me further clarifying my position from that thread for anyone who does agree with me or at least sees elements of my position as something to consider).

[supeson]

pirate’s progress

You’ve been going out twice a week for about a month now, and he can’t figure out why. Alfred had told him one night, after patrol. He was bone tired, ready to drop into bed, only to get up in about four hours for work. 

“Glad to see the both of you got back in one piece tonight. I was worried I would have to go to sleep in this big empty manor by myself.” Alfred gathers up pieces of the suit to wash later in the day, while Bruce showers off from the night’s events. 

“Both of us?” He asks, head popping out from behind the flimsy curtain. He grabs the hanging towel and disappears again. 

“Yes, sir, both of you.” Alfred says your name with a hint of amusement. “...has been leaving the house after you go off on patrol. They always come back right before you come in for the night, sir. I assume one or more of the children is helping them. They seem to come home in pairs.”

“Hm.” Bruce doesn’t say anything more, but Alfred knows what’s going through his mind. He can see the wheels turning. He’s done his job.

                                                            *

You’re not very good at hiding where you’re going, Bruce thinks as he follows you from the Manor to the city. You’ve gotten a lift from a friend, and the two of you go out to eat. You’re at the restaurant for about an hour, before you say your goodbyes, a bag of food in hand. Bruce watches you as your friend asks if you want a ride home, but you decline, saying you have some business in the city. For a split second, before his rational mind can catch up, he thinks you’re cheating on him. You would never of course, but still.

You walk for about three blocks, checking your phone constantly, before a hand pops out from an alley and taps you on the shoulder. Bruce almost immediately jumps down from the rooftop he’s on, but you start...laughing? You follow the hand into the alley, and Bruce grapples his way across the street. The alley is well-lit, and there’s a small sports car sitting in the center of it. 

“You think you’re ready to try your hand at parallel parking tonight?” Dick asks, rounding the car, opening the passenger side door. 

“Oh fuck no. Is that on the test? I don’t think I can do that, Dick, what if I-” Your eyes are wide, and Bruce thinks it’s adorable. He continues to watch the scene unfold before him.

“Relax, you’re a good driver. Besides, Jason’s here to help too,” He says, popping the seat forward. 

“Did you bring my end of the deal?” Jason asks, hand feeling around on the top of the car. 

You roll your eyes. “Yea yea here are your burritos.” You slide them across the roof of the car and he catches them without even looking. 

“Great. Hop in and we’ll start cruising.”

                                                               *

The three of you drive around for an hour or two, making several stops along the way. Bruce follows along in a disguised car, suit stashed in the back. He quick-changed into a regular outfit, content to watch you drive around. He’s confused as to why you didn’t just tell him you were trying to get your license in the first place, he could have taught you how to drive. After all, Alfred had taught him. 

Jason brings it up before he can. “So why not ask the big bad Bat to teach you? I’m sure he could hire the best instructor in the world. Probably teach you stick too.”

You let out a sigh through your nose, focusing on your mirrors and the road. “Because I’m trying to be more independent. I don’t want to have to rely on other people when I’m a fully capable, mostly functioning adult. I feel bad needing to be driven around all the time. Alfred’s a busy man, and I can’t always rely on one of you guys to take me somewhere.”

“But I’m sure Moneybags Wayne wouldn’t mind. He’d do anything for you, y’know,” Jason says, stuffing the last of a burrito in his mouth. 

“Yes, I know, Jason, but that’s not the point, the point is that this is for me. I’m doing this for me.” You’re getting a little annoyed, and it shows, and Dick gasps, going “Speed limit!”. You make a noise and brake a little, dropping back down to an appropriate speed. Dick points you to an empty parking lot, and you pull in, braking and putting the car in park. You leave it running, and get out, stretching your legs. Dick gets out too, coming around to talk to you.

“Hey, don’t listen to Jason, he’s just a jerk for no reason. It’s a good thing you’re trying to get your license. You’re improving your quality of life.” Dick lays a hand on your shoulder, giving you a reassuring smile.

You kick at a rock in the parking lot. “Yea, I know. Being a dick is built into his DNA. Was that before or after the Pit?”

“A little bit of both, I think,” A voice says from behind you. The two of you turn around to see Bruce standing there, his own car behind him, off. 

“Hey guys? Bruce has been tailing us since we got in the car, just thought you should know,” Jason says, head hanging out of the driver’s window. 

“Oh go choke on it, Todd.” You’re a little pissed, to say the least. You were hoping to surprise Bruce with your license, driving up to Wayne Enterprises or something. Dick goes back to your car, whacking Jason across the head as he passes him. 

Bruce walks the two of you further away. “So why didn’t you want to tell me you wanted to get your license. I could’ve taught you how to drive. Or, at the very least, hired someone.”

“But that’s just it! I wanted to do this myself! I wanted to get my license, and never have to ask anyone to take me anywhere anymore! I’m tired of relying on others to get where I need to go. I wanted to surprise you by me being the one to drive you to work, or to an event. Hell, even down to that pretentious gelato place you like!” You’re crying now, the frustration overflowing in your tears. 

“Well, I’ve seen how well your drive, as evidenced by tonight. Do you want to drive us home?” He asks, rubbing your back. You wipe at your cheeks and nod. 

“I think if I have to get back in the car with Jason, I might see how many quick stops it takes to put him through the windshield of Dick’s car.” Bruce barks out a laugh and leads you to his car. 

His two eldest watch as you leave the lot. “Y’know, they might actually bring down his insurance. He won’t be too inclined to make every Batman injury a Bruce Wayne vehicle accident if they’re on his policy,” Dick points out.

[threadsofsunlight]

let it hurt, let the awful song be heard / blue bird, i know you beat, baby @sovereign-writings for starfire

Every road in the country had begun to look the same to him.

Granted, driving at such high speeds did tend to blur all the details together until nothing was discernible and time stood still while you raced forward. It suited how Dick felt. Or rather, didn’t feel. All he felt was the fire licking at his shoulder from the inside out. All other feelings had been shut down, lest he dwell on the past few days.

Who was he without a mask?

Leave it to Bruce Wayne to adopt a kid, raise him as a vigilante soldier, and then cut him off from the world of crime fighting right when he was starting to flourish. Dick’s knuckles blanched as he gripped the steering wheel harder. His foot nearly paralleled with the floor of the car. He was almost back in San Francisco.

He hadn’t been sure he should come, given that he’d turned his phone off and tossed it in the trunk days ago. The Titans were probably pissed at him for this one. At least when he left for Gotham, he usually kept them updated.

But what was he supposed to do? Stay at Wayne Manor knowing Bruce was too cowardly to look him in the face? Dick ground his teeth, their fight flashing across his mind again. At least his life as a Titan was separate from everything else, save the codename he no longer held. He could slip in, grab a few hours alone, before dealing with the guilt he knew he would feel over how he’d treated his friends. His team.

No anger, no guilt. Just get there.

He slowed as he hit the city limits. No need to call attention to himself off the highway, and it was late enough that the fog (he hadn’t realized he’d missed the fog, how different it was from Gotham’s perpetual haze) would conceal pedestrians. It was in that fog that he approached Titan Tower, the sight a small comfort.

As quietly as the Porsche would allow, he pulled to a stop in the hangar and grabbed his bag from the trunk, hefting it over the shoulder that wasn’t currently splinted to all hell. Then he took the stairs, all eight hundred-and-who-honestly-knew of them, to avoid being caught sneaking back into his room in the dead of night. Not that he should have anticipated good luck with that.

Twenty paces away from his room, he rounded a corner and nearly collided with Starfire. “Shit, sorry,” he mumbled before he caught himself, angling his bad arm away and then looking into her face. Big mistake. His heart dropped into his toes at the sight of her jade eyes, huge with shock. No amount of willpower could have stopped that emotion from smacking into him.

“Uh... Hey, Star. Listen, don’t make a big deal out of this, I’m just trying to get to my room-”

[mrsmarymorstan]

So tomorrow (1st May 2019) we will learn just what it is Tim and Stephanie have been getting up to and why he is calling himself “Robin” again! Here are my Top 10 Totally Serious Theories:

1) Tim Drake of Yesterday

It turns out, that Tim Drake of Today is the Tim Drake of Tomorrow, for Tim Drake of Yesterday. So poor Baby Tim has arrived from the past to see that the future is actually all just a post crisis mess! His pregnant girlfriend isn’t pregnant at all and never was. Dick Grayson is now calling himself Ric, not even RicK but Ric. Jason Todd is ALIVE and running the Iceberg Lounge; and the latest Robin is a former assassin with a pet cow?! So he takes off to Metropolis in a new outfit to try and figure out how to get back home because this place is WEIRD. 

2) Midlife Crisis 

Let’s be honest here, the life span of a Superhero is always weird. Nobody seems allowed to age past 40, and if they DO then it has to be in a carefully controlled Alternative Universe. This means your “Midlife Crisis” is probably going to happen around the age of 17. And NOTHING says Midlife Crisis like wearing the outfits you did when you were 14, riding a motorbike, and trying to re-connect with your school friends you haven’t seen in nearly a decade. 

3) Tim Clone

Ahhh Metropolis! Home of Superman and Lex Luther! And you know who likes clones? That’s right, Lex Luther. But he has a habit of letting them escape! So he creates a Tim Drake Clone to try and infiltrate the BatFam; but the problem is he made him too much like Tim and the little shit escaped! He was trying to escape the city, but then spotted Cassie! His downloaded memories TOLD him she they were friends and so tried for an awkward meet up. Then the city got invaded and he decided to get involved. He’s hoping Superboy will be able to help him work out all this stuff, since he is ALSO a clone. Tim Drake Prime doesn’t know what is going on, he is busy having Steph put tiny braids in his hair whilst they watch Queer Eye on Netflix. 

4) Magical Disapearing Female Character

Tim and Stephanie decide to pause their road trip to go and see a Magic Show with Zatanna! Because you know, she saved their butts that one time and is pretty cool. But when she gets Stephanie on stage as a volunteer, she makes her disappear for REAL!! It happens a lot, but Zatanna assures them she’ll show up eventually. Tim’s now just trying to kill time biking around Metropolis until a writer decides they wanna include her again. 

5) Finding The Perfect Gift 

Tim and Steph have been studying the multiverse and as such have been reading all of Neil Gaiman’s graphic novels. Because you know, if Sandman is part of their universe then the rest of his novels are ALSO gonna be in the DCU, right??? Tim’s been reading Stardust and thinks that going to a parallel dimension to get a gift for your beloved is an EXCELLENT idea. So he tracks down a rift to Gem World with the idea of brining Stephanie back a nice shiny gem. That’s why he crashed straight into Princess Amethyst! He plans on kidnapping her using Cassie’s lasso and brining her back to earth as an engagement gift. Steph likes purple, after all, and Amethysts ARE purple. (Sort of). Tim’s read the book and so he’s PRETTY SURE that Amethyst will just turn into a giant rock when she gets there. So it’s ALL going to be FINE. 

6) Zatanna Zatara on Her Way to Steal Your Girl 

Whilst exploring the Multi-verse, Stephanie meets the Series One Young Justice Cartoon version of Zatanna. She realises she is SUPER GAY and dumps Tim in favour of her. To add insult to injury, in this universe it’s DICK who helps form Young Justice and NOT him! So he nicks Dick’s latest costume and returns to Earth Zero in order to brood. He can’t say the words “Young Justice” because it just ends up reminding him of how he got dumped in favour of a hot teenage magician. 

7) For Shits and Giggles 

Tim got bored one evening whilst studying with Steph, and decided to design a new Robin suit for Damian. He was driving to Metropolis hoping to surprise him when he was hanging out with Jon, when he saw the shit that was going down. So he decided to put on the costume himself (he’s designed it so Damian can ‘Grow Into It’ because somebody round here has to mother the kid now Dick’s gone) and do a spot of Crime Fighting. 

8) Just Popping To the Shops 

Tim and Steph are living together as they study all the weird cosmic shit that goes down in Metropolis. Tim decides to quickly pop to the shops to buy milk, putting on his old motorcycle jacket because Safety First! He’s completely forgotten that it contains the Robin (NOT Red Robin!) costume he designed for himself when he was 16, and thought Dick was going to take him on as a REAL Robin once he was Batman. He never got to use it though because Damian came along and took the job. He had to do some world saving though, and it was the only costume he had! Stephanie is still wondering when he’s going to get back because whilst she’s happy to eat Lucky charms out of the box, she would quite like some milk in her coffee. 

9) Let’s Go Lesbians! Let’s Go! 

Despite his relationship with Kate Kane, Tim Drake has real kinship with Lesbians. He’s often found himself leading a whole pack of them! The “Let’s Go Lesbians!” Skit, which became a meme, was actually written about HIM. The lure of forming a team made up of a Cowgirl Lesbian, a Baby Lesbian, a Pink Haired Lesbian and a Lesbian Demi-Goddess was too much for him. He HAD to follow the call and ended up in Metropolis. Stephanie, being bisexual, is fine with him running away to lead his squad of Lesbians. She is looking into that Queer Team she seems to have started forming in the Pre-Crisis world Brother Eye showed them. Tim is wearing the Robin suit because he’s heard that Damian is up to some immoral shit and wants to maybe give the name a bit more credibility? So when Bruce looks up the latest news stories on Robin, they’ll all be about him and his team of Lesbians saving the city, and not the secret prison full of dangerous criminals hidden under Teen Titans Tower. He’s a good brother, really.

10) It’s a Kink Thing. 

Look. We all know that the Bats are into weird shit. Bruce and Selina are both furries. Dick Grayson makes out with people whilst hanging upside down from skyscrapers. Pretty much any form of Sex with Jason Todd counts as border line Necrophilia. So REALLY Tim dressing up in a replica of the Robin Costume he found on Brother Eye’s database and riding around Metropolis where he will eventually be caught by Stephanie Brown in a replica of the Batgirl costume Brother Eye showed them is PERFECTLY NORMAL AND FINE. 

Zatanna helped them with the sewing, since she makes all her own costumes and supports their right to have safe and sane sex. They’re both over the age of consent, after all! 

[dc-x-readers]

Come Back (Beast Boy x Reader)

Request: hey hon, how are you, I was wondering if you could do a beast boy x reader. like the reader and beast boy are really close but then they have a mission and the reader dies, but she comes back to life and she is evil and they don't know who it is because she has a mask on, also she is working with the joker and all of the other villains and beast boy has to fight her and she has no memory of them and at the end can you make it cute and adorable.I'm sorry if its a lot or confusing.

So this only took me ten thousand years, I apologize. Also I know you didn’t exactly say you wanted Jason in it, but the whole come back to life theme just parallel so well with Jason that I wrote him in. I hope you like this even though the end is very open ended, and not super cute and adorable.

Trigger Warnings: Death, violence, angst, memory loss

“Are you sure you want to go?” Garfield asked you, his voice tinting at being a whine.

 You rolled your eyes at your best friend, you loved him to pieces, but he could be really selfish sometimes. I mean really? Asking you to stay home from a mission so the two of you can play video games? That just seemed low.

“Come on Gar, this mission is a favor to Robin. The little bird is going on some soul searching adventure to find his mom, and our Robin Dick wants me to keep an eye on the little thing. I’m sure nothing will happen.” You explained to Gar, giving him a kiss on the cheek before grabbing your super suit and heading for the door. 

“Hey Y/N,” Garfield spoke, you turned around to face your emerald colored friend.

“Yeah?” You asked.

“Be careful, please.”

You woke up in a cold sweat, a scream gnawing at your throat. The dream had made you bolt upright, but now you couldn’t remember it. Jason shifted next to you, “Did you have another nightmare?” Jason asked.

Jason and you are best friends, rising from the dead together gave you a really tight bond. When you woke up in the Lazarus Pit, in more pain than you could imagine and Jason by your side, you had no idea your life would end up like this. On the road with Jason, trying to get his revenge. For some reason Jason was able to remember his whole life before his untimely death, but you didn’t have the slightest recollection. Jason sometimes tried to help you with your memories, but you didn’t really care. The old you died. Forever.

“I don’t know. It didn’t feel like a nightmare.” You answered Jason who was now sitting up in your shared bed, hey you need to share your money and after waking up from the dead with someone who was flailing and then vomited on your bare feet, total turn off. Carefully Jason rubbed your back, and you smiled at him.

“You should try and go back to sleep. I finally found Bruce, and I am going to kill him tomorrow. I’ll need your help.” Jason murmured not moving his comforting touch. “That is, if you're still interested.” Jason said shyly.

Jason kept waiting for you to back out, he waited for in in most scenarios, always saying that before you were so good and pure that he sometimes still couldn’t believe that you could dabble on the darker side. You knew Jason was just trying to make you comfortable, but you hated feeling like a porcelain doll.

“Of course I’m interested, let’s kick some bat ass.” You spoke cheerfully, even for such a dire situation. Jason smiled at you before laying his head back down on the pillow, you followed suite moments after, thinking of the violence and mayhem which would reign down tomorrow.

------------------

“Beast Boy, I need your help.” Robin said poking his head into Beast Boy’s room, the room that had once been Y/N’s. 

“You need my help, like you needed Y/N’s help?” Beast Boy asked, a harsh tone hazing over his words. It had been two years since you had walked out that door never to come back, and Beast Boy was healing, but he still held a grudge against Dick for the danger he put you in.

“Beast Boy please! I didn’t think the mission would be dangerous. If I did I wouldn’t have let either of them go, you think I wanted the news that my brother was beaten to a pulp by the Joker and then exploded so badly we couldn’t recover the pieces? I know you lost her, but I lost both of them!” Dick shouted, he knew his outburst wouldn’t help get Beast Boy on his side at all. “I’m sorry Beast Boy, but please I need your help.”

Beast Boy sighed, he looked up at Dick who wore the expression of guilt. Beast Boy knew that the Robin blamed himself for what happened, and it wasn’t fair to him to keep saying it was completely the boy wonder’s fault. If Beast Boy had tried hard enough, maybe he could have stopped her, his best friend and the love of his life, from walking out that door and into the hands of a mad man.“What do you need?” Beast Boy asked, and Dick gave a soft tired smile in response.

Two hours later Beast Boy and Dick were sitting atop an old warehouse in Gotham, freezing their buts off. Every time Beast Boy tried to shift into a polar bear Dick would slap him and say that when doing recon their should be no polar bears.

 “How long do we have to wait here?” Beast Boy whined, probably for the one hundredth time.

Nightwing, Dick’s new persona, opened his mouth to respond when an explosion shook the building next to them. In less than three seconds the two suspects arrived on the roof of the building they were in the middle of destroying, “For the record, I blame you for this.” Nightwing heard the female say to her male partner. Something was familiar about her voice, but Dick couldn’t put his finger on it.

Together the pair jumped to the roof where Nightwing and Beast Boy were waiting.The man in the red hood noticed the pair first, “Dang, I was hoping for the bat, we have unfinished business to discuss.” He said. His partner who wore a stark white jumpsuit with a hood pulled over her face looked around before seeing the two of them. Without hesitation the villain in white ran up to beast boy arms poised for a fight.

“I got the green guy, you start what we came here for.” She growled, and kicked at Beast Boy’s legs. 

“Hey! I have a name!” Beast Boy shouted, deflecting a punch to the gut. You had to admit the green man fought back valiantly, most of her expertly trained hits were dodged or blocked, and whenever he shifted into and animal you simply used that animal’s weakness against him. Beast Boy had no idea how you seemed to know all of his moves, but  he could tell you are an expert. It was by luck that Beast Boy was able to pull back her hood and expose her face. And when he did he couldn’t move.

Before him stood Y/N, his Y/N.

Not deterred by Beast Boy’s sudden stop Y/N punched him in the nose, having the poor green skinned boy stumble backwards. Y/N approached him ready to punch again, but this time Beast Boy waved his hands in front of her gesturing to stop, “Y/N!” He shouted.

You faltered, how did he know your name?

“Y/N, it’s me, it’s Garfield.” Beast Boy said, the name felt thick on his tongue.No one had called him Garfield since you left, he wouldn’t let them.

“Garfield?” You asked sounding confused. The name felt so familiar, yet so far away.

“This is the guy you dream about every night Y/N!” Jason shouted helpfully still in the middle of fighting Dick.

“I don’t- I don’t remember.” You finally said confused.

“That’s okay, it’s okay, just come back with me. Please.” Garfield said, holding out his hand for you.You examined the hand carefully, before looking over at Jason, who had his brother in a chokehold. Jason nodded slightly, and you smiled before taking Garfield’s hand. Your memories didn’t come magically back, but the two of you could make new memories.

[ganzeer-reviews]

EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS By Peter Biskind

o-o-o-o-o

When the two [John Wayne and Dennis Hopper] were working on True Grit, Wayne once flew his helicopter in from the minesweeper he kept at Newport Beach, landed on the Paramount lot, swaggered onto the soundstage with his .45 hanging from his belt, and bellowed, "Where's that pinko Hipper? That goddamn Eldridge Cleaver's out there at UCLA saying 'shit' and 'cocksucker' in front of my sweet daughters. I want that red motherfucker. Where is that commie hiding?"

Like the war between old gods and new in Gaiman's AMERICAN GODS, EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS chronicles the battle between Old Hollywood and New. Well into the 60's, Hollywood was still churning out the glamorous musicals and John Wayne Westerns that were popular in the 50's, but America was a different place that the big studio bosses didn't quite get or understand. Anti-War protests and the Civil Rights movement were taking hold. The already popular Nina Simone began addressing racial inequality in her songs, and Bob Dylan became the most popular singer/songwriter in the country, second possibly to The Beatles, who, even they –mere pop artists– couldn't avoid addressing the horrors of the Vietnam war. Television was new, and it was on TV that you could get a glimpse of people like Bob Dylan and The Beatles, who neither looked, sounded, or behaved like anyone on the silver screen. Television was also where you could see mad, groundbreaking ideas for the first time. Things like Star Trek and The Twilight Zone were miles ahead of any feature-length film starring John Wayne or Elizabeth Taylor. As the studios began to lose a lot of money, the control enacted over film-making was relinquished to smaller production outfits, which started giving directors full control over how they made movies. So radical were the results that first time filmmakers like Dennis Hopper, Francis Ford Coppola, and Martin Scorcese became stars almost overnight. And yes, you read that right. Dennis fucking Hopper. EASY RIDER is America's first biker movie, and thus spoke to Americans at the time in a way that no other film ever had. According to Biskind, it largely involved Hopper dicking around on set. The "set" being America's open roads. Nevertheless, it cost $501,000 to make, and brought $91.1 million in rentals. A huge, and very unexpected, return on investment. It won the First Work Award at the Cannes Film festival and was nominated for two Oscars, and Hopper was subsequently christened by LIFE magazine as "Hollywood's hottest director." It was 1969, and the gates of Hollywood finally swung open to welcome American counter-culture for the majority of the 70's. Arguably, the best decade in American film-making until Spielberg and Lucas showed up to introduce the formula for what would become the, ugh, summer blockbuster. The book is a treasure trove of "New Hollywood" history, and delves with great detail into some of the horrors, trials, and tribulations involved in making some of America's greatest films. Warren recommended it to me, after I had listened to this NPR interview with Coppola about the difficulties faced in making THE GODFATHER. And let me tell you, what is revealed in that interview is nothingcompared to what's in this here book. Not just in regards to Coppola, but pretty much every American filmmaker who rose to prominence in the 70's.

Paul [Schrader] made the call to his agent, Michael Hamilburg, said, "This is The Godfather meets Bruce Lee. It's gonna sell for sixty grand. You get a third of the money, I get a third, and Leonard [Schrader] gets a third."

Hamilburg gave them $5,000 on the spot. The brothers arrived in L.A. around Thanksgiving and rented a tiny apartment on Bicknell in Venice, a block from the beach, for $90 a month, which Hamilburg paid for. They took the bedroom doors off the hinges, stole some cinder blocks from a construction site, set up two desks, one in each bedroom, facing each other. The only other piece of furniture was a massive butcher block coffee table with wrought iron legs. They rented two electric typewriters, wrote three drafts in about eight weeks. They wrote around the clock, twenty, twenty-two hours a day, worked ten hours, slept one, very little food. Toward the end, around Christmas of '72, they were running out of money, even though they were spending less than a dollar a day, $7, $10 a week for food, stealing plastic envelopes of ketchup from restaurants, making tomato juice. "We sat down, took a good look at the script, and said to each other, 'We gotta write it one more time,'" recalls Leonard. "We were just wiped out, needed to find the energy to write one more draft. For us, the only surefire source of that big a jolt was guilt. We talked about, 'How we gonna get' – you didn't wanna go out and rob somebody – 'the guilt?' My brother said to me, 'We'll go to Vegas, lose our money, we'll feel so guilty, so pissed off, we'll come home and finish the script.'"

And sure enough, they did. And a couple paragraphs later:

Says Leonard, "There was an auction, sixteen bidders, it was the highest amount for original script ever sold at that point: $325,000."

The film that came out of it, THE YAKUZA, directed by Sydney Pollack, is... well, alright. But it did open the gateways for Paul Schrader who went on to write TAXI DRIVER and RAGING BULL, and eventually direct his own films, like HARDCORE and AMERIAN GIGOLO. But not before screwing his brother over.

When the dust settled, instead of an easy three-way split, The Yakuza money was split 40-40 between Paul and Hamilburg, with Leonard getting only 20 percent. "I wanted to have that sole screenwriting credit, so I made him take shared story credit," says Paul. Leonard looked the other way, pretended it hadn't happened.

Even though THE YAKUZA was originally Leonard's idea for a novel, before his brother convinced him to co-write it as a screenplay with him. Such personal stories aside, one can't help but see the overarching parallels between then and now. Like Old Hollywood back then, Hollywood today has been riding the wave of an old formula – the summer blockbuster – since well, the 80's really. Like Television in the 60's, the Internet has sprung up as the new media outlet through which one can experience things a little closer to today's equivalent of "counter-culture." The internet became home to some of Cory Doctorow's first novels, it is where the art of Molly Crabapple first saw the light, where live video was being broadcast from the heart of the Arab Spring, where people are Tumbling their homemade unairbrushed porn, where kids are producing microfiction using cell phones, and where you can hear Kim Boekbinder sing Pussy Grabs Back in response to Donald Trump. Again, there is a sense that big media outlets are stuck in their old ways, producing things that are far removed from the pulse of now. But if recent hits like MOONLIGHT and GET OUT are any indication, it seems like Hollywood may be catching up. MOONLIGHT is an honest portrayal of homosexuality in an African American community. GET OUT unapologetically tackles the horrors of racism by way of a popular genre film. One of them won the Oscar for best film, and the other is the highest grossing film by a writer/director in the history of American cinema. These are game-changers that tell us that the decade to come will be nothing short of a cultural revolution. And that excites me.

[Available on Amazon]

Ganzeer April 29, 2017

[bigskydreaming]

I will forever squint suspiciously at a fandom that overall makes a bigger deal out of Dick Grayson expressing he didn’t want to replace his father when he was still young and actively grieving than they do Tim Drake literally hiring an actor to be his fake uncle and saying no to Bruce’s first actual offer of adoption.

Like, if you can get on board with Timothy Drake-Wayne after that, because Tim changed his mind after he was further along in his grieving process, you can get on board with the idea that at some point after the age of ten or twelve Dick similarly changed his mind about thinking a second father would be an insult to his first father’s memory.

*Shrugs* I just don’t get how hard some people go to bat for the idea that Dick never wanted or needed someone he viewed as an actual parent at any point after he was eight. Because you can’t deny that whatever Dick has said about that in the comics, he’s NEVER made it nearly AS big a deal as most fans who cite it at all do. Like, when you run with the most extreme extrapolation of that but gloss right over Tim’s far more extensive efforts to keep Jack Drake the sole father figure in his memory at first, I feel like something else is going on there.

(And I’m not trying to turn this into a Tim vs Dick thing, btw, I’m honestly just using Tim’s story there as a benchmark for how a clearly parallel sentiment is overwhelmingly referenced in regards to just one character but not another. My issues with the way people engage with this particular idea in regards to Dick like, exists without Tim being in the equation at all. That was simply an example of the fact that there IS a discrepancy.)

But point being, as all roads in this particular direction of thought almost always seem to lead to Dick being slotted into some nebulous category separating him from the rest of his siblings, where he’s only partially Bruce’s kid but not FULLY, not like the others....I am the Wary. 

Because whatever the surface intentions behind that, it almost inevitably voids some of Bruce’s responsibility to him as a parent, while at the same time making it easier to heap parental or caregiver style responsibilities for the others on Dick. If Dick’s more like Bruce than he is like his siblings in the overall family dynamic, this not only lessens the need to show him on the receiving end of Bruce being a parental figure, it simultaneously heightens the urge to make him a parental figure to the others to pick up Bruce’s slack there, because they’re more partners than they are father and son, see. So why wouldn’t Dick pick up Bruce’s slack and help him out there, and why would he need Bruce to actually be fulfilling that very role with him instead?

All the things people are critical of Bruce for in his parenting with Dick aren’t quite as bad, right, when Dick’s not fully his son or doesn’t quite view Bruce as his father....its easier to reframe it as fights between colleagues. Or recast Dick’s estrangement from Bruce as not actually a failure on Bruce’s part to reach out and cement exactly what Dick meant to him every time Dick flat out says “I want to know what I mean to you, give a name to it, give me an explanation for why you made these choices that isn’t that you don’t want me because all I see when I look at those choices is you expressing you don’t want me.” 

Because if Dick doesn’t actually want that explanation ever, if Dick doesn’t actually want that rock-solid expression of Bruce putting a name to what he feels for Dick and what he views him as, then the arguments between Bruce and Dick in his late teenage years DO become two-sided. Its just them butting heads back then. Rather than what they actually WERE in the comics, which was Dick clearly expressing insecurities about his place in Bruce’s life and Bruce repeatedly letting him leave or outright telling him to leave without actually giving it to him.

(I’m not even talking about NTT #55 for once, I’m actually talking about when Dick went to Gotham after he found out about Jason being Robin now. And as the events of that issue get referenced a TON in fandom, its HIGHLY suspect that one specific part of that issue gets rewritten in particular: where its acted like it was Dick that stormed off in a huff there or Dick who didn’t want anything more than to confront Bruce about Robin. It really doesn’t get addressed enough IMO that yes, Bruce said outright that he did it because he missed Dick....and then two panels later, Bruce literally asks Dick to go now. Says I would like you to leave now. Bruce is the one who blew up and lost his temper, literally smashing something while Dick was just heated because he was understandably upset, while Bruce somehow made it like he was the one being hurt by Dick and asking for space from him. Yeah, he said I miss you, but he never DID anything with that and in fact just turned around two seconds later and drove Dick away again, like Holy Mixed Signals, Batman! Y’know? Like what exactly was Dick supposed to do with that? “Oh, so Bruce misses me, but also he didn’t want me there, like I was literally RIGHT THERE for the first time in seventeen months and he missed me so much that....he didn’t even ask me to stay for dinner? Or call or reach out to me afterwards? So....my conclusion is.....what, exactly?”)

Ultimately though, my big beef with the stuff about adoption or Dick not wanting to replace his father, its not even about those specifically. Its about that period when Bruce very visibly was NOT in Dick’s life....and that was BY BRUCE’S CHOICE. That is the thing that needs addressing in my book, and far too often goes unresolved. No matter what the particulars of Dick’s views or wants re: adoption, there is literally no confusion about the existence of comics where Dick is repeatedly the one to reach out to Bruce, at a point in his life where he no longer had any legal ties to Bruce whatsoever.....and clearly express in one way or another that he is there and willing to talk, that in fact he WANTS to talk about why Bruce doesn’t seem to want HIM, specifically. 

It was Dick who brought up the issue of Bruce adopting Jason but not him and asked WHY at that one issue with them at a party. It was Dick who returned to Gotham and asked Bruce WHY he made Jason Robin when he hadn’t wanted Dick to be Robin - (and for the record, NO version of events where Bruce is the one to make Jason Robin aligns with Dick voluntarily giving up Robin.....the one and only continuity in which Dick did that, HE made the choice to pass Robin on to Jason. Mixing and matching continuities specifically to make Dick unable to claim hurt or resentment for the identity he crafted for himself being given away to someone else without his approval because ‘he was the one who said he didn’t want it anymore’ is yet again, suspect, as it serves absolutely no purpose other than to lessen the hurt done to him and abdicate Bruce’s culpability in hurting him when he did that). 

It was Dick who returned to Gotham after Jason died with no intention but to express his condolences and share their grief, and it was Dick who returned to Gotham to check on Bruce after Tim said he was worried he was going to get himself killed, as well as again more longterm in order to help with Tim’s training.

And in each and EVERY one of those situations.....it was Bruce that ended those encounters, and ALWAYS without ever offering Dick any actual resolution or change in their dynamic. Despite Dick’s very presence in each of these being a very clear sign that Dick was unhappy with their estrangement and wanted a change to it or else he wouldn’t even be there, he would be off being comfortably estranged somewhere else and totally content with that.

THAT’S the bigger issue and always has been, I think. That no matter how else you parse it, Dick repeatedly looked for and asked for reassurances, some kind of actual TIES to Bruce, and that Bruce for whatever personal reasons of his own, repeatedly did not give....even when Dick walked him right up to the perfect opportunity to just fucking say “I would like you to come home more, I want you here, I want you as part of my family even though you’ve already aged out of our existing legal bond.”

Bruce still just WOULD NOT SAY IT. Dick was very clear about needing and wanting something from Bruce that Bruce DID NOT GIVE HIM. Bruce gave him basically nothing to work with in these encounters more often than not. 

(In the interest of not being disingenuous here, I do admit that at the party when Dick asked Bruce why he’d adopted Jason and not him, Bruce did give a fairly touching response about how by the time he thought Dick would be open to it, he thought that Dick was too old to actually want or need it anymore. BUT, problem is, even with that it does absolutely nothing to change or address how the very fact that Dick was expressing insecurity about this now meant that Dick WASN’T actually too old to want or need it. It was literally a smack in the face that Bruce’s conclusion was wrong and not actually about Dick’s wants. And Bruce knew this, even referenced it at later points when he threw it back in Dick’s face to accuse Dick of resenting Bruce adopting Jason and not him.....which is a clear indication that Bruce knew it was something Dick still wanted or else there would be no reason for resentment, and THAT is the issue there. That no matter what Bruce said at that party about his reasons for not adopting Dick sooner, that very conversation itself should have been reason enough for Bruce to rethink his stance then there....but he didn’t. Also he ended up adopting Dick like five years later soooooo.....if he could do it then when Dick was even older, that doesn’t work as a barrier for him not doing it then.)

And that’s the troubling part.....how many people try and make that period of their lives unclear with no other visible purpose than to make the fact that Bruce WOULD NOT OUTRIGHT CEMENT DICK AS FAMILY OR ASK HIM TO STAY, like.....less problematic.

And as I’ve said before and will no doubt say again.......that logic process bugs the hell out of me, because it ultimately tries to claim the responsibility for Dick’s unhappiness in this regard back then is at least as much his fault as Bruce’s. That it was some kind of fight between equals, or that it was something Dick initiated or that Bruce had no power to resolve on his own via just his own choices or gestures.

Because it wasn’t! That’s not remotely what all of that was! And like I’m also always saying, you don’t HAVE to stick with the canon by any means. You can literally rewrite things so Bruce adopts Dick before he’s eighteen and they never HAVE that period, you can rewrite things so that Bruce reaches out and ends that period early on by DOING THE WORK of being the parent in that situation, you can ‘fix that’ by any number of means......yet over and over we see that period of estrangement repeatedly upheld as a thing that exists in the history that fics and headcanons reference having happened......but with the only ACTUAL change from the comics being that its framed as though it was just growing pains or Dick being stubborn or a dozen other things that somehow keep coming back to Dick doing something wrong there instead of repeatedly standing in front of Bruce asking for him to clarify their relationship and Bruce changing the subject or asking him to leave.

Again. THAT’S the problem.

You want Good Parent Bruce Wayne? Then WRITE Good Parent Bruce Wayne. Don’t just write Stubborn Teenaged Asshole Dick Grayson who btw doesn’t even really want Bruce to be his parent so there’s absolutely nothing Bruce could have done to bridge that gap back then anyway. 

(As that’s an equally critical part of the equation here as well. See, since Dick DID clearly express a want for a clear connection to Bruce back then, acting like Dick never really wanted a second father is a super convenient way to write over the part where Dick spelled out for Bruce how to bridge the divide between them and make things good again.....by demonstrating an actual WANT to have Dick in his family!)

But writing Stubborn Teenage Asshole Dick Grayson Who Did This To Himself.....that is something entirely different from writing Good Parent Bruce Wayne. You haven’t actually done or said anything with BRUCE’S character by just making Dick the fall guy for every conflict between them as though they were just equals all along and there was never any kind of actual parent child relationship or even a DESIRE for there to be a parent child relationship. Where the responsibility for being the PARENT like, lands on the....y’know. Parent.

And for the record, I don’t think this issue is confined just to this period of the comics, I think rather that its kinda the point of origin of a very large recurring problem in Dick’s conflicts with other people.

Because like I said, it was abundantly clear that Dick was expressing a want to be acknowledged as family, or just flat out acknowledged by Bruce at all, during this time. And if people can somehow make THAT period into just his fault.....then of course it should be no surprise that they can make any conflict he’s part of into his fault. Its a freaking blueprint for doing just that! 

And that’s exactly why this pattern recurs so damn often with EXACTLY the same fanon beats......whatever role the other character plays even in initiating a conflict is shifted onto Dick and somehow made into his own proactive choice and not something he’s actually reacting to. Thus Dick does double duty as both the CAUSE of the conflict and the resulting EFFECT - aka how he reacted to that thing that originally, he did not actually cause or initiate. While meanwhile, the other character not only gets off scot free bearing no actual culpability....no, now since DICK is the one making all the actual choices in the conflict from start to finish, now the other character is actually his VICTIM in it as well.

And that’s just.....so....blegh.

[bigskydreaming]

Also its important to remember that canon has context too, and like....I refer back to canon as often as I do because IT is the context for fics and fanon.....but in the case of canon itself, the context is often the knowledge and perspective and even biases of the writer writing a piece of canon.

And that example from Batman and the Outsiders that @nightwingmyboi included for Dick’s conversation with Cass about his behavior towards her is a significant example of this because like......it has an extremely narrow context, with no sign in the narration there of any context OUTSIDE of what the writer is referencing.

What I mean by that is.....Dick actually was originally quite welcoming of Cass. He got along great with her, taught her all sorts of things, did his best to help her adjust.

The time when he wasn’t welcoming specifically, and seemed to take her adoption badly, is like.....directly about the time when Cass’ adoption first came up at all....in a story called Redemption Road.

Make no mistake, Dick very much acted like an ass to Cass there. Oh, even then not without reason, like, his behavior was characterized as him being suspicious due to the fact that Cass had recently been brainwashed into working for Deathstroke and killed again due to his control, and nowhere did Dick express that his issues were with Cass herself but rather that he was worried about taking it for granted that the brainwashing was gone and dealt with. With this particularly juxtaposed against the fact that Good Dad Bruce Wayne was very much on display throughout this story and Bruce was consistently characterized as being fully in Cass’ corner and showing none of his usual paranoia or concerns about something like whether they could trust someone who was recently brainwashed. Thus Dick kinda stepped into that role in the absence of Bruce assuming it as he normally would.

Now, personally, as much as I don’t LIKE how Dick acted towards Cass in that story, I’ve never considered it OOC....as I’ve always headcanoned it as being a bit of a prodigal son situation. In my mind, Dick was either consciously or unconsciously paralleling these circumstances with things like the time when he was brainwashed by the Church of Blood for a year....and he very much did NOT get a free pass on anything he did during that time (despite people promising they did understand it), with ‘decisions he’d made’ during that time frequently being brought up and thrown in his face afterward. 

So my read of that story was always in light of that, and the fact that Bruce was very much removed from Dick’s life at that specific time and was a non-entity in helping Dick recover from all of that......and so I headcanoned that Dick’s attitude towards Cass was at least a little bit influenced by him being resentful of seeing her get the unconditional support and understanding from Bruce that Dick got none of in an EXTREMELY similar situation, and very much could have used at the time. 

(Especially of relevance here IMO is the fact that Dick was very much in Limbo when it came to Bruce at that time, with the Church of Blood storyline happening when he was nineteen and thus no longer Bruce’s ward or legally bound to him in any way, estranged from him in every other way, and it would be years more until he was actually adopted....whereas in Redemption Road, Bruce’s actions were consistently geared towards getting Cass to accept that he didn’t blame her for what she’d done while brainwashed, that he did still very much want her to be part of his family, and here was his offer of adoption if she wanted it, as a result. Like....it was beat for beat EXACTLY what I imagined Dick wanted to happen in his own parallel circumstances back then, dreamed of happening, but very much DIDN’T happen...and here he was watching it happen with no acknowledgment whatsoever of when he experienced no similar drive from Bruce to show that he was understood, forgiven and wanted, at a time when he desperately wanted and needed all of that).

And thus Dick was acting and behaving towards Cass here in much the same manner as everyone had treated him when it was him in that position....with this not being hypocritical so much as him internalizing the idea that SOMEONE had to express this skepticism/judgment towards Cass here, in order for Dick to not raise long-dead and buried resentments of how all his friends and loved ones expressed that very same attitude towards him when it was him in this place. In order to be okay with that, he had to kinda internalize the idea that their behavior was valid and necessary and earned....which in turn made him internalize that it was valid and necessary and earned that someone express that behavior here and now.

BUT its not remotely in Dick’s nature to make excuses for his own behavior, or to cut himself slack....so its perfectly in character in my opinion for him to express the sentiments he’s expressing to Cass in that example. To focus SOLELY on his poor behavior and make the time when he wasn’t welcoming to her stand as if it was the entirety of their history together...when it wasn’t. At all. It was one small slice of their history, with a very specific context, that Dick certainly wasn’t about to bring up.....and that no one else brought up either, and thus it might as well not have existed.

So if I were writing that story, personally, I wouldn’t necessarily have done anything differently in characterizing Dick. I might have even had him say those exact same things to her about how he hadn’t been welcoming to her and had an issue with her adoption at that specific time.

BUT.....I would have contextualized this as being unreliable narration on his part, and used OTHERS, or even just him having other conversations elsewhere, to provide the context that I felt was necessary to explain WHY he’d acted the way he had, even without Dick himself offering that mindset up as an excuse.

Like, and there’s so many ways to contextualize that scene. You could have Cass herself push back against the idea that he was just wholly unwelcoming to her, and express that he had been really great at first and she’d really appreciated that, or even frame it as her expressing confusion as to WHY he’d acted that way towards her later, when he’d been so much more open with her before.

Or you could have Dick have conversations about that with others in his life, even in the form of making further self-recriminations against his behavior, like, getting down on himself for being such an ass to her there.....BUT using friends who knew him well to push back against the idea that this is just who he is rather than it being born of specific circumstances and his own issues....like maybe him talking about this with Roy or Kori and them raising the possibility “hey, I know this is a sore spot, but do you think that maybe the reason you reacted so badly to Cass there was because it brought up a lot of old stuff about that time you were brainwashed for a year?” Dick wouldn’t even have to agree with their assessment in the end, but it being raised as a possibility at ALL would at least allow readers to enter that context into their own interpretation of his actions and behavior and decide for themselves whether it played a role.

Or you could have Dick have a conversation with Bruce about it, with maybe even Bruce being the one to say, I’m a little surprised how harsh you were with Cass, as it doesn’t seem like you....and with this opening the door to Dick finally airing some long pent-up grievances in the form of him maybe only then just realizing himself that y’know what, it ISN’T like me, and now that I think about it its because it had nothing to do with Cass really, and it was more about me reacting off of how you were acting with her....and dealing/not dealing with the reality that it was exactly what I’d always wanted to see and hear from you back then, but you were nowhere to be found, and you certainly weren’t stepping in to protect me from people giving me crap for my brainwashed actions or expressing doubt about my trustworthiness/capabilities the way you were stepping into protect Cass from me expressing doubt about her trustworthiness, etc.

See what I mean? SO many possibilities there, all of which provide so much more meat and context to that particular story than Dick just being a douche to Cass because generic daddy issues or whatever.

But you gotta actually DRAW those connections in a story you’re writing, to go alongside the unreliable narration you’re having color Dick’s view of his own actions or behavior.....or else, those connections just flat out aren’t going to exist for most readers to be aware of or factor in to provide CONTEXT to Dick’s unreliable narration.