#helena rants

[bobfloydsbabe]

Hey you. Yes, you, new follower. I’m happy to have you, but please, put your age in your bio so I know you’re not a minor. If you don’t, I will block you, and I really don’t want to.

[helena-and-helena-meta]

Can we talk about a character that has been done dirty by both the fandom and the creators? How are the fans of this character being harassed, and some got doxxed just for liking the character and defending them? Why would you go after people for loving a character because they relate to them, because they like the character’s personality, or because they just like the theme of the character itself? Don’t any of you understand how stupid that is, or do you just go after them because they “turned bad” or because the writers decided to destroy them due to their personal opinions on the issues said character has and use those to villainize that character? Is it fun to harass other people, or do you do it because you just think everyone should agree with your thought process? I mean, put yourself in their shoes, see how the people relate to certain characters, and then watch the writers say the character and subsequently the people are less than human because of issues they can’t control no matter how hard they try, like auditory hallucinations, visual hallucinations, major trauma, anxiety, depression, anger issues, dissociative personality disorder, unhealthy obsession, loss of limbs, and so many more, yet people continue to harass them because apparently in their minds everything the character suffers is their fault. After all, “They chose to be evil!” in your minds, but conveniently, you forget the characters are fake; they have no choice, but you still villainize them because you see everything as their fault. You do this because the writers do this; they make it look like the protagonist can do no wrong, but if you just looked at it from a different angle, you’d see that the protagonist is just as bad as the writing. You don’t want to admit this because that would mean your “perfect show” is not perfect but bad. Despite knowing this, you still hate people who point out these points just because you think it ruins the show, but actually, it’s the writers and people like you! Now, going back to my original sentence, you want to know which character I was referencing? General James Ironwood. But now I guess you’ll see his name and think everything I just said was bad. Well, guess what? I don't care; I’m not taking this down. If just one name from a fictional show makes you hate someone, then you need to grow up and act your own age.

[helenabymcr]

rant post in the tags again sorry my captive empty audience

[hidingoutbackstage]

I think I’m funny sometimes

[zeroducks-2]

Let’s talk Helena Wayne bc like it’s criminal that we barely get anything about her and that they completely changed her origin and family (the bertinelli mafia family) to add her into the main comic book line.

im torn bc I love both versions of her :(

But I wanted Dick to share some older siblings trauma with her and for Damian to have that “blood” sibling bc I think that would have completely rocked early Damian’s shit. All his life, he was told to be the true heir of Bruce Wayne, but it turns out he has an OLDER SISTER BRUCE HID FROM TALIA AND RA. Idk I just think that would have crushed his lil murder ego and made for some interesting sibling moments and an interesting dynamic.

Lastly, can we talk about how the Batfam fandom completely stole all of Helena (Bertinelli)’s character traits and gave them to Jason??? Im sorry but when in the material source has Jason ever been super devout and catholic? Helena is the religious one, why am I reading about Jason’s apparent Catholicism in fics and HC dumps? Also Jason (besides his Robin days) has never been this savour and protector of the woman and children of Gotham, that’s very very veryyyyyy clearly a trait from Helena and strongly ties into her backstory as a child who suffered coming from a rich bloodline of syndicate crime. And don’t think this is me bashing on Jason, bc it’s not!! I love Jason Todd - but for who he is. Not for this weird fandom version of him who is either still suffering from the craze the lazarus pit puts you through, or this Joan of Arc of Gotham character either.

I'm gonna be honest with you, this character confuses me a bit. I know that Bruce and Selina got married and had a daughter in their Earth-Two incarnations, and this daughter is Helena Wayne, who's Dick best buddy and a vigilante in her own right called Huntress.

Then I know Helena Bertinelli, daughter of a mafia lord who was introduced in the late 80s in the preboot comic continuity, and was a quite murdery vigilante called Huntress who Bruce didn't accept because she "reminded him of Barbara" (you gotta love DC's excuses for sexism and ableism lol it's not like Barbara was dead just paralyzed. Also it did not look like Bruce gave a shit about it at the end of TKJ that Joker had crippled her - "she reminds him or Barbara". LMAO Bruce).

Then post reboot the title Huntress was given back to Helena Wayne, however Helena Bertinelli is ALSO there and she's ALSO called Huntress? She appears in the Grayson run where Dick is an agent of Spyral, and she seems to be Italian-American but I don't think her origin is the same as in preboot? Also I have no idea about Helena Wayne's continuity post reboot - when she was conceived, who raised her, how did she become a vigilante, neither I have any idea where to find this info.

I agree that if she had been raised by Bruce it could have made for an interesting dynamic amongst the bats and birds. It did in Earth 2 even if only Dick is just there - they're not siblings but they also aren't not siblings? The dynamic is murky and I love murky. Pretty sure it would have changed everything for Damian as well, especially the fact that she would have most likely been the first object of Damian's need to prove himself worthy, instead of Tim.

That being said, not much of what you mentioned is fanon about Jason.

Jason had an arc in which he's a priest. Pretty normal that fans HC him as devout or anyway catholic.

Father Todd in Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Vol. 1 - this is an AU in which Jason was never taken in by Bruce and was never Robin.

As for the whole "protector of women and children" thing, you probably know that Jason was born in extreme poverty, his father was in and out of prison and his mother died of overdose. He is very much a child who suffered because of a broken system, and given how harshly he reacts when women and children are the recipient of violence "in his Robin days", is it really that strange that fans assume he carried these traits in adulthood?

We see him being sweet and protective to kids many times, or anyway losing his mcfucking shit when children are being harmed (like in Brothers in Blood). Imo that of Jason caring about vulnerable people is barely a headcanon, and I don't see how this would make him the Joan of Arc of Gotham either - if I'm being honest ALL vigilantes should care about minorities and vulnerable people, it's the other way around that is weird as fuck (like that arc in which Dick almost dies to prevent this guy from shutting down Bludhaven's casinos, like what the hell was Tim Seeley thinking exactly).

That being said, I understand your frustration if the character you like doesn't have recognition. Trust me I do! There's a lot of them for me too, especially female and/or non white characters who had maybe 1 run ages ago and then got forgotten by DC, and I would REALLY LIKE to see them more, and to see them acknowledged more by the fans (from the top of my mind, Jenni Ognats or Patricia Trayce).

But this isn't fandom's fault. As I mentioned before, Helena Bertinelli as a fleshed out character was a thing between 20 and 30 years ago, and most of tumblr's userbase was either very young or not born yet. DC forgot about her, stripped Huntress from her to give it to Helena Wayne, then brought her back but as an agent of Spyral and it really doesn't look like they care. Fans can't be held accountable for the fact that she's simply not there. They didn't "steal" Helena's traits to give them to Jason; this implies a willful and malicious intent from people who saw this character and decided her features fit another character better, and it's obviously not what happened - people barely know Helena Bertinelli exists if at all.

Also - I said this about Jason already and I will repeat it a million times: Jason wasn't picked at random from the sea of DC characters to be people's blorbo, he resonates with fans for a reason. Under the Red Hood is a deeply emotional and relatable arc for many people because it's the story of how a child was failed by every single person who was supposed to protect and guide him, and then was failed again as an adult victim who demanded to be seen and heard and acknowledged, and instead was silenced again. It's heartbreaking to see how many people see this and say "this is me, this is what happened to me", but it is what it is, and most of all there is no taking this away from Jason's fans. DC tried to villainize him, to make him look and sound like a madman, to make him unhinged and deranged and they had Tim suggest that "maybe it's the Lazarus Pit that drove him mad", but it didn't work and fans still love him and still consider him a symbol of how "bad victims" are treated worse than their abusers, and keep being retraumatized by a society that prefers turning a blind eye to violence than deal with the issue at its root.

And lastly, bitching won't get you anywhere. I am the living proof that the right way to make people interested in something is to be passionate about that something. You want more folks to pay attention to Helena Bertinelli, then since DC won't do anything with her, the most effective thing you can do is post about her - write essays, draw her, write fics with her, create webweavings and moodboards, commission this stuff if you don't have the skills. Complaining that she should be the recipient of fandom love won't make anyone more interested in her.

[just-about-nothing]

holy fucking fuck i am so in love w huntress helena youre the best damn cape in gotham

[shineyma]

the number of posts that go around the batfandom that can basically be boiled down to "people aren't writing about the character I want them to write about so I'm gonna shame them"

good lord

[merevide]

i have zero thoughts in my mind except this specific photo of helena. she slayed (literally)

[prydefulhunts]

batcat fans are really delusional, they really think helena wayne is going to be born in a year in the dc universe?

1. we already saw helena’s childhood and upbringing in the new golden age one-shot

2. helena is an adult time traveling, she’ll most likely wipe out the potential of being born and sticking around as an adult in the present.

3. geoff johns said helena will be back in all-star comics which were in the 70’s, she wasn’t a baby then.

i love batcat, they’re my favorite dc ship, but their fanbase… please realize helena is a jsa character, not one that revolves around batman and catwoman. let her exist outside of them.

[thottybrucewayne]

Unless they make Helena Wayne huntress Afro-Italian too, they can keep her.

[fureliselost]

SO

the "A-Listers ghost-hunting" AU which turned into a "Danny is a cheerleader" AU... somehow

I realized we didn't know the cheerleaders in DP aside from Paulina, so I had to drag my various OCs into this AU.

(Mallory Doukas, Melinda Martins, Cristina Walter, Ebony White, Helena Barden, Alyssa Joy)

Some of them have Faceclaims too!

Ebony White

Cobalt Blue

Jordan Keane

Mallory "Mal" Doukas (FC is Mallory Merk)

Delilah Dawson (couldn't find the FC's name anywhere)

[bobfloydsbabe]

Remember to reblog the fics you read and like. It makes the hellsite a little better and keeps authors writing.

[helena-and-helena-meta]

Pookie

What's wrong pooks ?

You can always tell me anything that's burdening you, my mouth isn't wide and my ears are always yours ♡

It's mainly just some mental health issues mixed with work, right now I'm barely touching tumblr because I'm way to busy and may or may not be in a lot of pain from a few health issues.

I don't want to ignore anyone, I'm just more or less trying to get some stuff to calm down before I go absolutely nuts, I don't want anyone else to have to deal with my barely functional self right now, it doesn't feel right. Also my tumblr messages glitched the fuck out.

[sassylittlecanary]

How the Arrowverse Failed Helena Bertinelli

Generally I’m a big fan of the Arrowverse, but I wouldn’t be the first to point out Arrow’s bad track record when it comes to adapting female comic characters.

Huntress was a perfect character to feature on Arrow — an edgy hero with a penchant for violence and vengeance, much like Oliver himself.

The issue is that Arrow decided to turn Helena into a villain who takes innocent people as hostages and kills relentlessly. Her motivation is that her father killed her fiancé, and for that, she single-mindedly hunts him down in every episode she appears in. When someone else kills him, she’s devastated because she wanted to be the one to do it. Moreover, she’s mentored and trained by Oliver, who views himself as responsible for “failing” Helena because he couldn’t get her to stop killing. (He even came up with the idea for her to use a crossbow!) Essentially, her entire identity and origin story revolve around men — her father, her dead fiancé, and Oliver. (Also — she slept with Oliver. As in, the lover/fiancé/husband of one of her best friends in the comics. I literally said “ewww” when they kissed. Show Dinah and Helena some respect, I am begging you.)

This is a huge disservice to such a wonderful character. In contrast, comics!Helena was trained by the mafia, and she fights them not because they killed her lover, but because she takes it on as a personal crusade to prevent them from hurting more people. She fights human trafficking and protects children. She does kill, and this sometimes puts her in a complicated relationship with other heroes like Batman and Oracle. Yet at many points, she actively chooses not to kill, not to become the darkest version of herself. Vengeance is important to her, but compassion and justice are also core parts of her character. She’s witty, she’s intelligent, she’s kind. She’s a well-rounded character who’s so much more than just a vigilante with a crossbow. Additionally, she’s most associated with the Birds of Prey, which provides an ideal setting to show her humanity and the evolution of her own heroism. Her close relationships with other women, Barbara Gordon and Dinah Lance specifically, make it even more striking that Arrow defines her based on her relationships to men. (Also, they position Huntress and Black Canary as enemies, which hammers another nail in the coffin of the representation of close female friendships.)

Considering how important female representation in sci-fi is, it’s frustrating to see a character who’s long been fleshed out in her friendships with other women turned into a bitter femme fatale whose actions have all been spurred by her relationships with men.

The Arrowverse has done a seriously good job with a lot of DC characters. Sadly, Helena isn’t one of them.

Also, she has one of the coolest costumes in DC Comics, and Arrow characteristically turns it into just another dark leather outfit with a domino mask. Boo.

[hidingoutbackstage]

Sherry, who doesn’t know what nonbinary means: Hey have you ever thought about what it’d be like to…not be a woman?

Helena, whose lesbian identity has heavily influenced her gender identity as a woman: No not really, why?

Sherry: Oh haha no reason

-

Jake, also never heard the term nonbinary before: Yo have you ever thought about not being a guy?

Piers, a trans man who really doesn’t want anyone to know he ever identified as female: No not really in fact the idea sounds a little crazy and like a fucking nightmare actually

Jake: Okay ffs forget I said anything

[citrine-elephant]

unhinged thoughts with leon and simmons for some reason and now my mind is going wild via last rebloig iaosdmk