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bigskydreaming · 3 years

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Okay, so you know “Justice League meets Batman’s kids, who they’d previously been unaware existed” AUs?

So picture that.....but this time, instead of them just having no knowledge of any of these other Gotham vigilantes at all....the Batkids all migrate to various cities as they get older and become known as their protectors - Dick in Bludhaven, Tim in San Francisco, Cass in Hong Kong, etc....

Meaning they’re all established figures, the Justice League are aware of them as solo local heroes who stick to their cities and so they just don’t interact with them much if at all, or else some are members of team lineups but are particularly vague about their histories or life outside of the team’s adventures....

So the big reveal isn’t that they become aware of all these other Gotham vigilantes all at once....its that some big conflict or whatever requires a huge team up of all available heroes, and in the aftermath, they figure out that like.....despite being known as solo heroes who work alone or loners outside of their team settings, 80% of these heroes all not only seem to already know each other, they seem to be related.

And so naturally they all turn to Batman, who has profiles on every known hero and they thus figure had researched these individuals too and just never mentioned this little detail, and they’re like, “Did you know about this?”

And then Nightwing turns to him too, arms crossed and is like, “Yeah Dad, did you know about this?”

And the infamous Red Hood is all: “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have never met any of these people before in my life. Lives? Whatever.”

And then Red Robin moodily grates out “I have no siblings.” Since he’s nursing a grudge since Dick and Jason broke into his apartment the night before and replaced all his custom Red Robin gear with Darkwing Duck merchandise and his vengeance will be swift and also totally disproportionate because things escalate quickly in this family, that’s true in every universe.

Cass meanwhile has deftly skewered Jason’s lie by walking over to him and brazenly patting down the man with many many guns with no fear whatsoever. He squawks and futilely attempts to bat her hands away as she riffles through his many pockets, but he doesn’t seem shocked, just annoyed. Eventually, she pulls away and triumphantly reveals a box of Hello Kitty themed band-aids.

“So these are yours then? Just for you?” Black Bat asks smugly. Red Hood squints at the box.

“What the fuck? How long have those been in my jacket? Why are those in my jacket? Did you freaking plant them in my jacket just on the offchance you could at some point in the distant future use them at my expense?”

Black Bat frowns, puzzled. “Yes?”

“Oh come on, Dead Hood,” Spoiler says with an exaggerated toss of her head meant to convey she’s rolling her eyes beneath her own mask. She skips her way across the room to Black Bat and then drapes herself languidly all over the smaller woman. Who in turn doesn’t so much as twitch beneath the sudden added mass as Spoiler holds out her hand towards the box of band-aids.

“One please. I have a boo-boo,” she says with easy familiarity straight into the intimidating cowl of Black Bat. Only then does she deign to finish her train of thought with Red Hood.

“I mean seriously, are you saying you don’t have potential blackmail set-ups, pre-rigged releases of incriminating material, and a random assortment of traps, pratfalls and mortifying scenarios in place for the express purpose of being able to humiliate any and all of your siblings at any given moment, without any need for additional prep time?”

“Is this true, Little Wing?” Nightwing whirls on the larger Red Hood with a faux-scandalized gasp. The founder and leader of the Titans, formerly the Teen Titans, renowned for his stratagems and calm competence when directing squads of supers in the heat of battle while he keeps pace with nothing more than naturally acquired acrobatics and a utility belt that apparently uses the same technology as Wonder Woman’s invisible jet....now appears to be....staggering with the back of his hand pressed to his forehead, moaning about how he felt....faint?

What is happening right now, several dozen superheroes want to know. Is this a drill? Are they supposed to be checking for signs of a mental ambush from undetected psychic saboteurs? Did they all hit their heads at the exact same time and are now experiencing some kind of shared mass concussion?

Look, that wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to ever happen on the Watchtower.

“Have I failed you so utterly?” The veteran child hero bemoans with a dramatic twirl - that when contrasted with his stern demeanor of a mere ten minutes ago - makes the fears of telepathic infiltration seem less paranoia and more....concerningly probable. “Did you learn nothing from me? Did you learn nothing from B?”

He stops and jabs a finger up at the sky. “Quick, everyone! What is the very first rule of Living While Batty?”

As if by rote, over a half a dozen voices chime in from all over the room, causing various heroes to jump. Spooked by yet more and more vigilantes joining in some kind of mass recitation like they and they alone have some kind of clue what the hell is going on and everyone else just hadn’t been invited to the party. Which is just rude, honestly. Nobody likes feeling like they weren’t invited to the party. Not even superheroes.

“If you’re not going to bother preparing for every possible contingency and at least six impossible ones, you might as well just stay in bed.”

Even the Red Hood joins in the Illuminati chant or Cub Scout pledge or demonic ritual or whatever the fuck that just was, though his slumped and exasperated posture gives away every hint of sulkiness his headgear otherwise would have kept safely hidden. He’s surprisingly more...expressive, than most who’d only known of him by reputation had expected him to be. The day continues to yield surprises.

“Of fucking course I do,” he growls out, snatching the box from Black Bat. She doesn’t even fight to hold onto it, just lets it go with a knowing smirk. “I wasn’t surprised by the idea of it, I was just surprised she bothered with such a weak effort. Like yeah whatever, actually those could be mine. I use those all the time at home. So what?”

He aggressively yanks one of the band-aids out of the box, fumbles with the peel-off strips with one hand and he roughly rolls up the sleeve of his jacket with the other. Then just slaps it on his forearm and raises said appendage high, showing it off this way and that. “See?”

“Oh yeah, for sure,” Signal drawls from the other side of the room, nodding his head approvingly. “Totally convincing. Nice job walking that one back, you really showed them.”

Red Hood’s head snaps in his direction with ominous intent. “Watch it, Day-Glo.”

Signal just snorts.

“Yeah, like I’m gonna take constructive criticism on my name and costume from a dude who’s spent the last several years calling himself Red HOOD while running around in a freaking HELMET.”

“Its not meant to be literal, you fucking pedant.”

“So wait, its not literally a helmet? Huh, does it at least protect your head literally, or just like...symbolically? Like if Bane were to clock you across the head, would your concussion just be a metaphor? What’s the treatment protocol for a metaphorical concussion? Fluids, bedrest and a philosophical prescription of two chapters of Chicken Soup for the Soul as needed?”

“Laugh it up, KC and the Sunshine Band,” Red Hood bats back. “You just got yourself disinvited from Thursday night’s poker game.”

Signal just grins and folds his arms over his chest cockily. “Please. You’ve been looking for an excuse to ban me for weeks, cuz you know until you can prove I’m using my ghost vision to cheat, you can’t actually bring suit against me for it in Family Court.”

“That, and also Family Court isn’t a real thing, you toddler. Stop validating Wing-a-ding-ding’s obsession with Shitty TV Nostalgia and just call it that thing where Oracle traps us all in a room until we settle our latest fight without anyone getting stabbed.”

“Yeah, but like, say that five times fast,” Spoiler pipes up. “Its just not practical. Family Court’s way easier.”

“Says the one who’s not even in our fucking family.”

“And yet I grace you all with my sublime presence anyway,” she blows a kiss at him, beatifically unbothered. “You’re welcome.”

The Red Hood scoffs and rounds on his heel, zeroing in on Batwoman in the far corner.

“Hey Auntie B, my siblings are all dead to me and I just helped stop an alien invasion so I deserve nice things like a fun Saturday night. Can you get me into Dad’s fundraiser so I can crash it? He won’t put me back on the list until I promise not to bring any C-4 with me and I won’t promise not to bring any C-4 because he should just trust me that I won’t when I say I’m not gonna and he won’t trust me that I won’t until I admit I shouldn’t have brought any to that sting last month where three tiny little yachts blew up through barely any fault of my own, and I’m just not gonna do that ever because I have convictions and I feel I shouldn’t have to be punished for that. Y’know?”

Batwoman blinks at him. “Kid, I’m not gonna lie to you. You’re my nephew and I love you, but I stopped listening three seconds into all that.”

“Ugh, fine. Can you help me crash Dad’s event tonight so I can teach him a lesson about why he should just trust me not to make a scene so I don’t have to always make a scene to make a point.”

“Tempting as you make that sound,” she says wryly, “I have a strict policy for dealing with you lot and your......everything. I only worry about tolerating one of you at a time, and there’s seven of you, and seven days in the week. You each get your own. You know perfectly well its Robin’s day today. You get me on Tuesday, just like always.”

“Auntie B, we’re not like other families, are we?” Red Robin’s delivery is sarcastically childish and his question clearly rhetorical. Most of his attention is fixated on whatever it is he’s doing with his wrist-mounted computer.

“No sweetie, we’re all severely fucked in the head and a little bit too comfortable with that.”

“Just checking. Oh hey, Hood, I just emailed you a patch for the hole in your firewall I exploited when replacing all my shit using your accounts just now.”

“You did what?”

“Used your accounts to pay to replace all my stuff that you fucked with last night?” Red Robin says slowly. “Did you not realize that I’ve been sticking within ten feet of you for the past five minutes just so I could clone your devices and do all that while BB and Spoiler kept you distracted? I gotta say, bro, I feel like that’s on you then.”

Red Hood swivels his helmeted head in the direction of the aforementioned two. Black Bat waves. Spoiler shoots him an utterly unrepentant thumbs up.

“You’d side with your ex over me? That’s what its come to?”

“My only allegiance is to chaos,” Spoiler says brightly. Black Bat shrugs.

“Plus he bribes better.”

“Hateful,” Red Hood points at Black Bat, moving on to level the same finger at Spoiler, who curtsies in acknowledgment: “Hateful-er.”

Then the finger rounds the bases to aim judgmentally at Red Robin. “Hateful-est. And that was all Nightwing’s idea anyway, not mine.”

“Oh, I assumed as much,” he says casually. “Your idea of a prank tends to have more of a Carrie vibe. Or be a literal literary reenactment.”

“Its called an homage, 4chan.”

“Whatever, plagiarist. And anyway, I couldn’t go after ‘Wing for payback on this one. He used an Immunity card. If you didn’t want me getting back at you, you should have used one too."

Red Hood looms aggressively. Red Robin ignores willfully. Round and round they go. Superheroes who can survive excessive G-Forces are getting dizzy just watching them have a largely motionless stand-off. That shouldn’t be how that works, but whatever. All the most infamously reclusive and isolated heroes in all hero-dom are apparently part of the same one big reclusive and isolated family of fucked up weirdos and they’re all officially bonkers. Nothing makes sense anymore. Reality broke. Try another stall.

“Okay, but see, in order to have an Immunity card, I would have to participate in one of you losers’ stupid Immunity challenges,” the Red Hood drags out with exaggerated patience. “And I’m just not going to do that, on account of those all being fucking stupid. You see the problem there?”

Red Robin just shrugs. “I don’t know what to tell you, bro. You can have principles or you can have an Immunity card. You can’t have both.”

Meanwhile, on another side of....the same room.....look, its like, an octagonal room, probably. It has a lot of sides. Robin fends off questions from an aggrieved looking Superboy.

“You never told me you had a bajillion brothers and sisters!”

“Yes but I never said I didn’t either.”

Superboy rolls his eyes. “Oh yeah, so I should just assume everyone I meet has a bajillion secret brothers and sisters?”

“Well clearly it would have worked out in your favor in this instance if you had, now wouldn’t it?”

“Assuming of course that you can trust what has been said or implied here today and I am actually related to any of those numbskulls. Which I am not actually admitting to,” Robin tacks on hastily.

Superboy eyes him dubiously. “You joined in the same creepy chant all the others did and then got super self-conscious and looked around to see if anyone had noticed. Which uh. I did.”

“First off, your interpretation of body language is abyssmal. I do not get self-conscious,” Robin says with a delivery that probably could have benefited from being a little less self-conscious. “And second....that proves nothing. I guessed what they were going to say.”

“Word for word,” Superboy says super-skeptically.

“I’m very good at guessing things. You know this.”

“Okay. Guess how much I believe you right now then.”

Robin glares and folds his arms grumpily across his chest.

“And what was that anyway? Was that like....you guys’ family motto or something like that?”

“Oh no,” Spoiler pipes up. “That’s much shorter.”

Superboy balks at that. “Wait, you guys actually have one of those for real?”

“Yup,” Steph says, counting out the words with her fingers. “He who laughs last....probably works for the Joker. So tranq him just to be safe. See? Only sixteen words. The first rule of Living While Batty is way longer, and what we said was just the abridged version. You should hear the original, before Black Bat put her foot down and refused to memorize it unless sizable edits were made.”

Superboy hovers between her and Robin now, both in mid-air and on the verge of taking Spoiler’s words as an invitation to hear just that. A low growl arises from Robin’s direction.

“Must you?” He asks the older vigilante, with a most put upon expression.

She looks at him pityingly. “Do you actually need me to answer that? Like, we’ve met, right? Hi, I’m Spoiler.”

“Wait, so Robin said that I just never specifically asked him if he had a bajillion brothers and sisters, and that’s why he didn’t tell me, so that means he wouldn’t have just lied and there’s not some code of secrecy that flat out forbids telling other people stuff, right?” Superboy realizes excitedly.

“Yes, excellent direction. Go on,” Spoiler says, steepling her fingers. Robin buries his face in the palm of one hand.

“Soooo, what other stuff could you tell me about Robin’s super top secret family that I wouldn’t think to ask about but that he would tell me about if I knew what questions to ask?”

She claps once, lightly but with emphasis. “Well done. You’ve passed the first barrier. Untold secrets await you behind just a few more.”

“I’ll get you for this,” Robin vows calmly. She waves a hand at him.

“Yeah, yeah. Just make sure you do it before January 1st, remember? You’ve promised retribution like ten times already this year and those don’t roll over, y’know. Rules are rules.”

“Enough!” Thunders a voice then, from the front of the room. Well one of the fronts anyway. Like sides, it has a lot of them, but this is the one where Batman’s standing. All eyes snap to him. Which is kinda just what eyes do when Batman says stuff like that. Its like his superpower, except he doesn’t actually have superpowers, which is what makes it scary. But where the snapping of the eyes (directional) is usually followed by Batman saying something else besides just “hey look at me,” here he pauses in the wake of his own call to attention’s waning reverberations. Uncharacteristically silent.

Not that, y’know, he’s normally Mr. Talkity Talk, but usually his silences feel like he has the words to fill them, he’s just withholding them. This though, this feels more like he doesn’t have any words at all. And he’s as confused by it as any of them, and most everyone else is confused by Batman being confused, and its this whole trickle down economy of confusion and its wrecking havoc on the value of the golden silence standard.

Of course, not everyone present is rendered spellbound with confusion.

“C’mon B,” Nightwing cajoles, leaning forward and practically radiating delight. “I think you know what you have to do now. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Its not likely to come around again.”

Red Hood snickers beneath his helmet and chimes in. “Yeah Pops, go ahead. You do this and you’ll actually have my respect for a whole twenty four hours. No, wait. Sixteen. No! Eight. Yeah, eight. Still a good deal.”

“Carpe diem, B,” Red Robin grins, leaning back as if to enjoy the show.

“Hey! Infringe on my trademark one more time, dude,” Signal throws a faux-glare at the former. Red Robin just quirks an eyebrow.

“And what, you’ll start saying Yum every time you eat a burger? Oh no. I’m hoist by my own petard.”

Signal flips him off with a grin and then redirects his attention back to Batman. “Yeah seriously though B, you kinda gotta do it now. Because if you don’t do it, then you’ll forever be the guy who didn’t do it, and you don’t want to be that guy, do you?”

“Yeah you really don’t want to be that guy,” Spoiler shouts out. “Nobody likes that guy. He’s the worst.”

“Do it, do it,” Black Bat starts chanting beside her, steadily picking up speed and volume. Several others start joining in. Even Robin appears to be slightly anticipatory, albeit trying very hard to hide it.

Batman sighs, and somehow everyone manages to hear it. Stills. Waits for....something? Nobody but them seems to have any clue what, but the air is thick and heavy with portentiousness. Something is about to happen, and all most of the heroes present could say for sure is it was something they never would have in a million years seen coming.

Finally, Batman straightens with the resigned air of a man about to have oh so many regrets. He crosses his arms, shakes his head, and in an absolute deadpan monotone, says:

“You are awful children. You know you’re killing me. You’re killing your father.”

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bafflecks · 3 years

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okay i think i’ve seen batman v superman a hundred times now so here are some of my favourite things/quotes from it because that movie blows my mind and makes me go absolutely feral:

the way batman hangs there up in the corner of that old house in silence like some huge demon-bat

when senator finch says “take a bucket of piss and call it granny’s peach tea, i’m not gonna drink it” and then in the courtroom she sees the glass with the label ‘granny’s peach tea’ and we all just immediately Know™

literally every time senator finch and lex luthor interact with each other

lex pointing at the paradise lost painting and saying “that should be upside down; we know better now, don’t we? devils don’t come from hell beneath us, no, they come from the sky,” and at the end we see the painting upside down; because he obviously talks about clark, but the real devils (darkseid and steppenwolf) really do come from the skies — from the stars

the way the world engine’s sound can be heard throughout bruce’s (k)nightmares

robin’s costume in that glass cage, like some kind of morbid exhibition, always reminding bruce of his failure — and the wayne manor is basically exactly the same thing

just. lex’s whole speech in the library, when he’s like “books are knowledge and knowledge is power, and i am… no. um, no… what am i? what was i saying? the bittersweet pain among men is having knowledge with no power because… because that is [angrily] PARADOXICAL! , and, um… thank you for coming,” and then just walks off

night and day by richard cheese playing in the background while clark and bruce talk for the first time (not knowing who’s the other) — because they are, of course, the night and the day

when lex shakes clark’s hand and says, “ow! wow, that is a good grip! you should not pick a fight with this person,” like HELLO????? THATS LITERALLY— I— DHFJFKJRKRKF OMG

the whole “must there be a superman?” sequence: the quotes, especially “is it really surprising that the most powerful man in the world should be a figure of controversy?,” and “we have always created icons in our image; what we’ve done is we project ourselves onto him. the fact is, maybe he’s not some sort of devil or jesus character, maybe he’s just a guy trying to do the right thing,” and the images of clark refering to artworks, like jesus carrying the cross or atlas with the world on his shoulders

oh just the Symbolism™ through the whole movie oh my god, and the way it’s full of shots that are references to paintings

like: napoléon bonaparte by benjamin robert haydon

and the descent from the cross by peter paul rubens

and the archangel michael defeating satan by guido reni

and the lamentation of christ by jan lievens

and clark going up on the mountain and talking with his dead father vs bruce going into the old wayne manor and talking about his dead father in the very next scene

and the parallel between bruce letting wayne manor slowly crumbling to the ground and lex keeping everything the same in his dad’s old room

lex on the helipad with the little blue ball in his hand, which is the world; so he holds the world in his hand

the whole lex luthor speech on the helipad, especially: “i figured out way back: if god is all-powerful, he cannot be all-good. and if he’s all-good, then he cannot be all-powerful,” and “the greatest gladiator match in the history of the world: god versus man, day versus night, son of krypton versus bat of gotham,” and “close, but i am not talking about lois. no, every boy’s special lady is his mother,” and “there we go. there we go. and now god bends to my will”

clark as a saviour god vs the vengeful god of bruce in the storm:

just the fact that the name martha is the thing that finally stops bruce, as he realizes that clark has a mother, he’s as much of a son as bruce is, and being human isn’t just about being born here etc.

bruce saying “i’ll make you a promise: martha won’t die tonight,” not like that other martha on that other night — and he goes and saves this martha instead of the one he couldn’t........ idk it always makes me tear up

the whole warehouse fight obviously

lex saying “no man in the sky intervened when i was a boy to deliver me from daddy’s fist and abominations,” and then later clark, the man in the sky, intervenes when the fist of an abomination is about to hit him

that scene where doomsday is looking up at the sculpture, then down at the real superman, so we have this image of the symbol of the man, the reality of the man, and this monster between them; i can’t really explain what it is about this image but it hits me hard every time

the gunshots and falling shells at the beginning with bruce’s parents being murdered vs at the end during the funeral

‘if you seek his monument, look around you’

and i’m forgetting a lot of other scenes and things of course,,, i just love this movie very much

#dc #bvs #batman v supeman: dawn of justice #batman #bruce wayne #superman #clark kent #lex luthor #🍏.txt

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miragekarma · 4 years

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what do you like about stephanie brown

you are literally asking me to write an essay because i can never shut up about her

so, steph is one of my favorite characters of all time which you will see if you check my tags lol. there’s not a single appearance of her i haven’t already read -good for me- so i like to think i know pretty much everything about her. if i tried to say every little thing i like about her this would be too long so i’m gonna try to summarize under the cut.

first of all steph is the daughter of a villain, she grew up in really bad conditions, -even had riddler stay at her house at some point- she pretty much had the worst possible father. (“he destroyed my life... destroyed it!”) what first got me really into her was how her first motivation in becoming the spoiler was because she wanted to stop her father, so that he doesn’t hurt anyone else like he’d hurt steph and her mother. batman was busy with other bigger threats so she wanted to get his attention to get him to help stop her father. and she came up with a brilliant idea (which is very underrated, something people keep forgetting about her is that she’s actually very intelligent) and just never gave up on it. robin tried to stop her, batman tried to stop her, her mother tried to stop her but she simply said no, and did what she wanted. (“gotham city needs heroes. [...] and it doesn’t matter that robin doesn’t want me doing the spoiler thing. it doesn’t matter that batman told me to stay off his streets. to hell with their rules.”) and helped people who were unintentionally overseen by batman. (“maybe gotham needs a spoiler. you and batman handle all the crime in the city. the suburbs don’t have anybody.”) (“i did it for us, mom. the cops weren’t going to protect us from dad. the system caught him and let him go how many times? i thought someone like the spoiler could keep him locked up.”) she was also never afraid to put batman in his place. (“so excuse me if i don’t jump when you bark, batman.”)

another thing i absolutely adore about her is that she became her own hero. batman didn’t save her, robin didn’t save her, she saved herself. she stood up for the people she loved and she stood up for herself. the thing is, as a kid, she used to dream she’d see batman someday. that he would come and save her from that terrible life no child deserves.

but you know what happened? she became the hero she needed her whole life. and started it by stopping her father who was the one to ruin her childhood and was the reason why she needed a hero in the first place. i just think that’s really powerful.

another thing i love is that she is the epitome of hope. (“everything doesn’t have to be about fear. there’s room in our line of work for hope, too.”) that kind of life, having a villain as her father, could’ve turned her into a bad person too. but she never lost hope and she became this strong, hopeful woman who is able to look back and say i did it. i came all the way by myself, and never lost hope for a better future. (“this is about me having hope... about me saving the one person who’s ever given a real crap about me. this is about keeping promises, about being a hero.”)

she’s also very sensitive about kids going through what she had been through, like damian. when she met him he was cold, full of rage. she managed to see behind that mask and knew he was just a child who couldn’t be a child. just like herself. she saw he was a child who didn’t know how to have fun, and did everything in her power to fix that. she believed in second chances, after all. that was all she had. (“...so why stay? why open yourself up to all the bad you’ve tried to leave behind? ‘the only variable you can control is yourself.’ you can forget who you are, or you can be who you want to be. that’s why you stay. you stay for a second chance.”)

she’s a skilled fighter, she’s quick witted, she probably has more medical knowledge than the rest of the batfamily excluding bruce, she knows how to turn things into her advantage, she’s good at reading people and she’s very compassionate. also she’s bad with authority and is never hesitant call them out when needed. she’s so determined that it’s almost impossible to stop her if she puts something on her mind. (“even after i fired her — her determination remained unabated.”) she’s fun to be around, she’s sarcastic and daring and talkative. (“what do i bring? besides my sunny disposition. and donuts.”) she gets angry very quickly and she gets dangerous when she is. she’s scared of failure and doesn’t handle it very well. she’s too quick to react especially if someone’s life is in danger which sometimes causes her problems. she’s very human after all.

also i can’t not mention this, in young justice (2019-) there was an alternate reality version of her who was batwoman. it was a world where almost every hero we know in the main universe was a villain. it was a world ruled by hate and do you know who was the one remaining hero there? stephanie brown. even in a world full of bad people (including the main world’s justice league, young justice etc) she was still good. she was still a hero. she is probably so lonely, having to save people everyday all by herself, doing good when she’s surrounded by evil only. but she just keeps going, she never gives up or loses her determination and hope. i really think that says so much about who she is. she doesn’t do any of that because that’s what she’s told to do, she’s doing it because she’s good, she’s so good, and she loves helping people as much as she can.

as you can see i can keep talking about her because she just means a lot to me, feel free to message me about her anytime. i will also post a detailed reading guide of her very soon :)

#I CANT SHUT UP #i just love her so much okay #stephanie brown #dc comics #asks #talking comics

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crystalangelluna · 4 years

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A New Chance Chapter 3

Ao3 Part 1 Part 2

I tried writing Damian as best as I could since I really don't know even know Damian besides the basics. My knowledge on DCU is limited. I wrote this really late so if you spot (hehe:) any errors please let me know. Enjoy

Earlier that day…

With Damian…

This by far had to be Damian’s worst day ever. Kent came over and basically dragged him to the arcade, where he was surrounded by ugh.. People . Of course he also found the games useless, like why even bother playing them unless you want to be brainless zombies (i don’t actually believe this so i am trying my best to write Damian as best as possible).

Then when he returned back to the Manor, his imbecile brothers kept pestering him and couldn’t even leave him alone for just one minute. But the worst thing happened during patrol, No he didn't die again, instead he found himself at this particular moment…

Damian separated from the rest of the bat clan and headed towards crime alley in case a crime arose again in that area. He could practically feel that someone was following him for the past 10 minutes. He abruptly stopped and as quick as he could aimed his favorite katana towards his stalker. This of course caught his talker off guard. He was about to stab them when suddenly…

“CATACLYSM”

A black orb appeared in her hand and she touched the tip of the weapon.

Out of nowhere the katana instantly disintegrated and fell to the floor.

He had 3 words repeating in his mind…

HOW DARE SHE

He finally noticed a girl dressed in a catsuit who could easily pass as Selina’s ward. She has a long braid that seems to be moving on it’s own like a TAIL?!?! Cat ears that also seem to be too real to be fake, long black hair as midnight, her eyes seem to cat like they are gre- wait that is not right her eyes seem to have changed into bluebell eyes for 1 second.

His stalker now turned enemy seemed to have recovered from everything that happened. She quickly made a run for it but before running away she actually apologized, the nerve that she had.

He quickly began running after what he assumed was a meta-human. He needed answers and he was going to get them!!

“COME BACK HERE” She managed to escape him for a few minutes and then she appeared to be running away behind him. He cornered her in an alleyway he was about to begin yelling at her but all of a sudden she disappeared in thin air.

He began letting out curse words for letting her get away

“Batman, a metahuman, has been spotted near by a crime ally.”

It was dead silent on the other side of the comm. Realization hit him in the face..

TURNED

OFF

HIS

COMM..

The reason was simple:

He didn't want to hear his annoying brothers since they kept bothering him earlier.

Great just great.

He checked the time

Guess what else happened…

Patrol ended an HOUR AGO!!!

He didn’t know why he had such bad luck…

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Back at the apartment where Mari was staying…

Plagg could barely keep his laughter from escaping…

The rest of the Kwami’s looked unamused…

Mari on the other hand was confused…

“Tikki why is Plagg ac-” she was cut off by Tikki groaning

“He cursed someone with bad luck again”

She got her answer , Or so she thinks...

(Time Skip)

Mari woke up late again due to staying up too late.

The answer is simple: she felt bad for destroying Robin’s Damian’s Katana so she made him a new and one of a kind katana. With the help of the kwami’s she finished the apology gift around 5 in the morning.

It is indestructible and can cut through things easily, it also has some of Tikki’s good luck/ it comes along with a bracelet that lets him teleport wherever in the world the katana may be( courtesy of Kaalki). It had the yin-and yang symbol. And other cool features etc...etc…

The katana

She went to explore Gotham, to find out the places where it really needed to be healed. She came across a beautiful hidden garden and figured it would be the best place where she can transfer her magic to heal since ladybugs tend to like the outdoors.

She put her hands on the grass and focused her energy towards the gloomy parts of Gotham. Knowing that if she uses too much energy she could be hurt she let go of the connection of her magic on Gotham. The sun shined brightly above her and the skies cleared. Every gothamite felt that Gotham felt a little less Gothamy (did I make a new word) they didn’t know why but they were happy.

Across town a certain red haired female rogue felt her plants show extreme measures of happiness, and new life was created.

She was on her way back to the apartment when a building was set on fire. Knowing she doesn’t want to wait for the Batfam Wayne’s, she takes action. She ducks into any alley and transforms into Ladybug. Her outfit is completely different.

The Outfit. (pretend she has the yoyo, the ladybug mask on and without the bow and arrows.)

Instead of her normal spandex suit she has a warrior's type outfit with a ladybug hood & cape.

She uses the lucky charm and gets an oxygen mask. She puts it on and goes inside to take everyone to safety. The batfam arrived when ladybug finally got the last of the citizens outside. The building collapsed and every one backed away but one. LB immediately threw the oxygen mask into the air and called out

“Miraculous Ladybug”

While everyone distracted she was leaving the scene, suddenly someone grabbed her wrist and detained her from escaping…

Low and behold it is Robin Damian…

Recognition spread across his face…

He knows, he knows, he knows, he knows, he knows, he knows.

How did he find out, I have to leave…

She ran away again and left a certain robin processing stuff.

……………………….

Damian recognised those eyes, they belong to his stalker who ended up destroying his weapon. Instead of chasing after her again he decided it was best to tell his family about what happened so that the next time they run into each other that she won’t run away again.

………………………….

Mari decided that it was best if she met the batfam officially and apologized. After all she ran away from Robin Damian 2 times already. She can tell he is pretty mad about it so it would for the best to come clean.

Night came faster than she would like to admit, but she had a mission to complete.

She transformed into Ladynoir, grabbed the katana and headed off to Wayne Tower.

Instead of going after them, she is letting them come to her.

(By now you already know who is going to find her first right…)

Robin landed behind her knowing she could be a dangerous threat.

“Tt I honestly expected you to run away like the last few times STALKER .”

Aww great, first impressions are always the WORST. Am i right?

Instead of making a snarky comment she turned around and looked directly at Robin Damian and smiled

“Not This Time.” Not this time.

“My name is Ladynoir and I came here to formally apologize to you about the other night. It was just that you caught me off guard and my instincts kicked in and I destroyed your Katana. And to meet the rest of your team.”

She pulled out something from behind her and gave it to him (guess what it is)

“I knew an apology wasn’t enough and I felt really bad about it so I got this for you.”

Not knowing if it was a trap he reluctantly grabbed it. It was a brand new KATANA!!!”

Inspecting it closely he could tell it was a really unique one attached to it was a bracelet.

“Tt it’s adequate.” Deep down he knew it was a lie.

He’s having some strange emotions that he has never experienced before he can’t quite place a finger on it.

Just as he was about to ask questions, footsteps were heard from behind them...

Taglist:

@thequeenofpotatoeunicornss @kceedraws @lilyreadbooks12

#daminette #maribat #maridami #damian x marinette #damianette #marinette x damian #ml x dc #mlb x dc

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gothamdetected-a · 4 years

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an idiot’s guide to the wayne family.

now complete with new diagrams! i wish i wash kidding, ive really made a diagram to help illustrate this.

[ follow the link here for actual visible quality. thanks tumblr.]

some points to make quickly -

• this is not complete. there were probably more siblings and wives and children, but i just focused on the main lineage i could piece together from DC knowledge

• apologies for the lack of knowledge on the women in the family past the last century. this is unfortunately common in real life too, as women were not landowners etc, and without a marriage certificate they basically don’t show up on records. dc happily talk about the male line but not about the wives and daughters so :/

• the dates are fairly made up, and especially at the bottom are just me twisting things to fit my own personal canon

• and finally, i just wanted to say that while this is pieced together from what DC have told us, there are a lot of holes that i have filled with headcanons. not all of this is canon. sometimes i just want to give a person a cool life that dc are too cowardly to do.

so, although this varies by “earth”, i have tried to combine the various histories given for pre- and post-52 waynes into a full comprehensible timeline. i’ve probably failed, but this is what i’m sticking with.

to start with we’re supposed to believe that there was a norse guy calling himself the Bat-Man, running around in the 10th century killing frost giants. is it plausible? yes. is it exaggerated? most definitely. am i wiping it from existence because it was one issue in a faintly terrible run that has technically been retconned anyway? absolutely. ignoring that makes the earliest recorded ancestor of the wayne family a man called gawayne de weyne, a french crusader in the 14th century. on some earths he’s called lancelot wayne (too on the nose) or harold wayne (thanks i hate it), so im personally going to retcon that and just say gawayne is it. also because i love the etymological aspect of the name beginning as de weyne in old high french and it slowly changing through out the centuries. gawayne, also sometimes written as gevain, was one of the knights sent to retrieve the holy grail, but, as knights tended to do, he died. sorry gawayne. the weirdest part about all of this is that he asked for his heart to be embalmed, and there’s a plot line revolving around this (batman: scottish connection). now i’m not saying that madness runs in the family, but the waynes absolutely do not get a good head start in history.

gawayne must have had at least one surviving heir who goes on to have babies etc etc, and eventually we get to the 16th century, and the next instance of the waynes. specifically, contarf wayne. which, i have to say, super dumb name. if i ever have a kid, im calling it contarf. so it’s now the 1500s and the waynes have somehow become scottish, probably from getting given land after crusading and that. apparently gawayne was aknight of the scottish court, despite being french, which actually happened a lot back then. literally the only notable thing contarf does with his life is build castle wayne, and i swear these people are all born with both madness and a flair for the dramatic. yes at some point bruce does go to this gloomy scottish castle where it’s always rainy and stormy and fits right on in, so that’s terrifying.

around a hundred years later nathaniel wayne tries to emigrate across to the “new world”. nathaniel likes witchhunting, and has come over to what will one day be the US following a witch fleeing from england - annie. annie who he may have dated. annie who may be pregnant with his child. good on you nathaniel, that’s a healthy relationship you’ve got right there. after the baby is delivered, he finds her and. you know, people were not kind of witches back then, so she dies. and with her dying breath, curses nathaniel and all his descendants. which includes her OWN BABY (super punk move), and one day bruce wayne. this curse manifests in very few of the extant waynes surviving beyond 40, often going mad, and absolutely tuning on each other. nathaniel’s particular grisly end comes when his is the fateful colony that ends up in what-will-one-day-be-gotham (see my idiots guide to gotham for more juicy details), releasing the deacon blackfire from his little cave and ending up missing, presumed dead. (definitely dead). this is the start of the “waynes probably should avoid gotham” saga. spoiler alert - they don’t.

somewhere in the interluding 100 years, a branch of the waynes do actually successfully make it over into the americas. 2 brothers, caleb and thomas simon wayne, reach the east coast from britain, and go their separate ways. caleb joins a convoy heading out west, leading a wagon train, and, as so many pioneers do, he also dies, while trying to make this trip. but caleb really isnt the interesting brother here (sorry man), because what thomas gets up to is far more exciting. he settles in, lo and behold, the newly formed town of gotham, and for some strange reason (probably because all the waynes are fairly nuts, as we’ve established at this point) decides to give devil-worshipping a go. maybe its fucking curse. maybe its something in the water. maybe its maybelline. but whatever it is, thomas wayne tries to summon and ensnare the demon barbatos by killing some innocents, in a wild, but understandable, attempt to gain immortality. he doesn’t succeed. or does he. it half works - instead of summoning the bat-demon (yes the same bat-demon that the founding fathers later summon and also trap beneath gotham) he gets one of darkseid’s hyper-dimensional bounty hunters, and some how, through some space age magic, the energy of this event corrupts him into agelessness/slowed ageing, we’re not totally sure. later dear old tom pops back up as the villainous dr simon hurt, and literally fights his own descendant. DC give no fucks.

after the whole corrupting not-magic thing, but before he disappears, thomas/simon impregnates one of his cult’s disciples. a lot. (is this why the waynes can look 30 at 50? more on this at 10) and between 1747 and 1771 (because immortal people also have immortal sperm apparently), she bears him 3 sons. probably some daughters too but again, who cares about that. not DC, that’s for damn sure. these sons are all absolutely fucking insane, just like daddy dearest. the eldest, who is LITERALLY known as “mad” anthony wayne, is said to be the spitting image of bruce, which is confirmed through some time travelling bs that we’re not going to think about. anthony and horatio wayne, the middle brother, both sign up to fight in the revolutionary war. unfortunately THE CURSE STRIKES AGAIN and horatio perishes while burning british ships. anthony goes on to becomes a brigadier general, serving directly under george washington and pulls some crazy good strategies that help to kick the british out of new jersey, earning his nickname of “mad” anthony, because only someone fucking nuts could come up with these plans, and pull them off. the youngest brother darius wayne is only 4 when the war breaks out, and is therefore too Babey to fight, but does later become notable for being the man to start construction on wayne manor. in 1795, using the money inherited from his brother horatio on his death, he hires an architect nathan van derm, to begin planning and building. sadly darius will never see it completed, with funds dwindling and his older brother’s death, eventually darius takes his own life.

not to worry, he leaves behind 2 sons - herkimer and charles wayne. literally herkimer’s only notable feature is that he fights in the war of 1812. sorry my guy, DC hate you. charles, on the other hand, is a businessman, who manages the failing company his father had left behind and starts to grow the wayne fortune. charles buys more land surrounding the manor, as well as a lot of general gotham real estate, and is the man accrediting for starting wayne enterprises as a series of several small business, ranging from merchant trading to land ownership to mining, in 1845. however charlie contracts tuberculosis at the ripe old age of 62 and shuffles off the mortal coil.

the oldest of his sons, charles lincoln wayne, also known as charles junior, does 2 things - begins construction on the wayne manor again in 1855 after purchasing it back from jerome k. van derm, the destitute son of the original architect, who had been living in the bones of the construcion, and uses a considerable portion of his inheritance to build the gotham botanical gardens in 1870. the next son, winslow wayne, is another enigma - the only thing mentioned about him in the comics is that he fought alongside teddy roosevelt, which i’m guessing is in the spanish-american war. but the youngest two brothers, joshua thomas and solomon zebadiah wayne are the real spicy pair. not only do they tackle the bat infestation on the manor grounds, but the pair work to change the federal system of america - joshua, when he’s not managing the wayne companies, is an abolitionist who engages in secret missions to free slaves by getting them across the border into canada, and solomon, the vaguely more sensible of the two, becomes a judge, attempting to be as fair and incorruptible as possible. sadly joshua is killed due to his slave smuggling antics (THE CURRSSEE), and this sends solomon slightly nuts, and causes him to contract the architect cyrus pinkney, who is even more nuts, to basically. build gotham. these two men are the reason 97% of buildings have gargoyles on them.

solomon has only 1 child before he dies, who fortunately, grows up to be a very shrewd businessman capable of growing wayne ent even through with the advent of shipping and rail sectors. this man, alan wayne, constructs the original wayne tower in 1888, and it completely swamps the gotham skyline. he also marries catherine van derm, the great granddaughter of the original architect of wayne manor, and finally manage to complete and move in to the building in 1895, exactly 100 years after the project was started. for a while they are very happy, and catherine falls pregnant. but this darn curse just won’t leave these wayne boys alone, and in 1897, catherine dies giving birth to their son, kenneth wayne. a year later, lost and traumatised and going insane thinking about his wife’s death alan wayne mysteriously disappears (read as: fell down a well and was maybe or maybe not tortured and killed by the court of owls).

kenneth wayne, raised as virtually an orphan, turns out to have his papa’s business management skills, and, foreseeing america's impending industrialisation in the 20s and 30s, makes some risky moves that pay off, including the advent of wayne chemicals, and wayne ent expands yet again. kenneth, like the recurring pattern that you can see here, dies fairly early due to WW2 however, leaving his wife laura to care for their 4 sons AND the company, which she does like a boss ass bitch. seriously, women barely had the vote and she was already a titan of industry and raising 4 teenage boys like. massive props to you babe. these boys are

ishmael wayne, a whaler who is an incredible parody of captain ahab and also dies trying to catch a white whale, elwood wayne, who goes and reclaims what is now called waynemoor castle in scotland, living there until his death, silas wayne, who may or may not be a thief posing as a wayne because the real silas died, AND at long last, patrick wayne - bruce’s granpappy, who founded the wayne tech arm of the company at 20 years old, aiding the war effort, and where this stupidly long post ends, because there is 0 point in me recounting the lives of thomas, bruce, or any of his children. everyone knows them. could i write more about thomas’ siblings and the kanes and how they tie in? yes. but this post is like 2100 words long and i want to sleep at some point today so this will have to do askjdbjsdhgf

#im #this is virtually incomprehensible #\system\directory\hidden.txt ›› META #long post /

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athenadcvell · 5 years

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Hi! I was thinking of starting to watch DC. Do you have any suggestions about what I should watch or in what order?

@hunter-with-a-tardis Oohoohoo, you came to the RIGHT PLACE MY FRIEND. Before I really got into Marvel I was obsessed with everything DC, from shows, to comics, to movies, etc. Point is, you have come to right chica. Be warned, this post will probably be lengthy and have much more information than you wanted, but oh well. I like being thorough.

Okay, so always, always, I will recommend the CW series first. Most DC shows don’t have a lot in common with the comics, but with CW, you don’t even have to know what DC is. They explain everything, only throwing a few Easter eggs here and there for comic fans. Anyways, you’d probably want to start out with Arrow. This is a show about a playboy billionaire (kinda similar to Bruce Wayne) who gets stranded on a desert island for five years, comes back to his city, and decides to become a vigilante. I know a lot of people didn’t like the first few seasons of Arrow, but I thought they were great. The first season may be a little boring, but I beg you to suffer through it because I promise, the show does get better.

I’m not sure if it’s the second or third season, but some time into the show, a certain CSI by the name of Barry Allen will appear in the show. After this episode, you’re probably gonna wanna start watching, The Flash, which is a show about said CSI who one day obtains powers and becomes the fastest man alive.Once you get to the second season, you can also start watching Supergirl, a show about Superman’s cousin who also decides to take on the superhero mantle. Now, at this point, Arrow will be on it’s fourth season. This is the time you can start watching Legends of Tomorrow, which is basically a time travel show (has a hint of Doctor Who vibes, since the actor who played Rory is in it) about a misfit of heroes that had appeared in Flash and Arrow. I hope you don’t find this confusing yet because we ain’t done. the tricky thing about CW (and probably the reason I’ve fallen behind in watching it) is that they do a crossover between all their shows once a year. I’m not sure when it starts, but it’s normally a four part crossover (starts out with three, before Supergirl joins) with each part being an episode on each show. It’s important to watch all the crossover episodes, even if you’re just watching one of the CW shows. Generally, they have a big impact on the future of the show. As of 2018, two more shows have entered the light, Black Lightning (a show about a school principle who has lightning powers) and Batwoman (hasn’t aired yet but is soon, and it’s about Batman’s cousin. She already appeared in the recent crossover). I know Black Lightning takes place on Supergirl’s world (yes, there are different universes) but I don’t know much about Batwoman as I haven’t watched the crossover she was in yet. Anyways, that very lengthy list is the CW shows! If you don’t want to watch more than one show at a time, the order you should go by is Arrow, Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, Black Lightning, and Batwoman (when it comes out). You can also watch Vixen if you want after Flash (it’s an animated show with the real life version popping up on screen, but I’ve never watched it) then you can. If you wanna take a more confusing road, use this link to help coordinate it (Constantine is on there too and I’ve heard it’s a really good show).

GUESS WHAT?? WE’RE NOT DONE YETTTTT. I’m so sorry I’m pretty sure you have stopped reading by now, but Imma keep typing cuz sharing my knowledge is lowkey fun.

So, if the Arrowverse is too messy and confusing for you, I have good news! DC has their own line of shows and they are fucking A M A Z I N G. Every single show so far has been a banger. You don’t have to be a comic reader, which is also a big plus. I’m going to recommend, because that show is probably the greatest thing DC has ever created. If you know what the Teen Titans are, it’s basically a ore real and gruesome version of them. It revolves mainly around Dick Grayson, Batman’s sidekick, and his team of heroes as they try to take down a villain. Doom Patrol is also pretty good, and it’s basically about misfits with powers. I’ve heard very, very good things about Swamp Thing, but have never checked it out myself. This isn’t on the DC streaming service, but I highly recommend Gotham. It’s basically about Gotham City years before Batman existed, starting at the moment Bruce lost his parents. Mostly revolves around Jim Gordon, who at this time is just a Detective, not Commissioner, and also the events leading Bruce to take on the mantle of the Bat, while also showing the formation of Gotham’s villains. A great show, and was super sad to see it end.

Now for the honorable mentions. Young Justice is honestly still one of the best shows I have ever watched, but I didn’t list it because it’s animated and I know animated shows aren’t for everyone. But I highly recommend it, because it may be a cartoon, but it sure as hell don’t feel like one. You may want to read the comics for this show, because I watched it before I really got into comics, and I was confused a lot. Still good, though. Also on this list are Krypton, Pennyworth, and Smallville. I have not watched any of these shows, but I have heard some very good things about Krypton (pretty much about Superman’s planet and family before it was destroyed) and Smallville (and older show about Superman becoming Superman). I haven’t heard much about Pennyworth, but I do know it’s about Alfred Pennyworth (Batman’s butler) and his life before becoming a butler. by the trailer it looks awesome, and I’m trying to get around to checking it out.

So... Imma just say sorry again for making this post so fucking long, but I hope this helps! I feel like I’m forgetting some shows, so if anyone knows any other good DC shows, make sure to list them and help out a fellow mutual! I’m gonna go ahead and leave now bc this post is way too long and confusing and annoying... hope you enjoy the shows byyyyyyeeeee

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jcmorgenstern · 5 years

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@superohclair oh god okay please know these are all just incoherent ramblings so like, idk, please feel free to add on or ignore me if im just wildly off base but this is a bad summary of what ive been thinking about and also my first titans/batman meta?? (also, hi!)

okay so for the disclaimer round: I am not an actual cultural studies major, nor do I have an extensive background in looking at the police/military industrial complex in media. also my comics knowledge is pretty shaky and im a big noob(I recently got into titans, and before that was pretty ignorant of the dceu besides batman) so I’ll kind of focus in on the show and stuff im more familiar with and apologize in advance?. basically im just a semi-educated idiot with Opinions, anyone with more knowledge/expertise please jump in! this is literally just the bullshit I spat out incoherently off the top of my head. did i mention im a comics noob? because im a comics noob.

so on a general level, I think we can all agree that batman as a cultural force is somewhat on the conservative side, if not simply due to its age and commercial positioning in American culture. there are a lot of challenges and nuances to that and it’s definitely expanding and changing as DC tries to position itself in the way that will...make the most money, but all you have to do is take a gander through the different iterations of the stories in the comics and it’ll smack you in the fucking face. like compare the first iteration of Jason keeping kids out of drugs to the titans version and you’ve got to at least chuckle. at the end of the day, this is a story about a (white male) billionaire who fights crime.

to be fair, I’d argue the romanticization of the police isn’t as aggressive as it could be—they are most often presented as corrupt and incompetent. However, considering the main cop characters depicted like Jim Gordon, the guys in Gotham (it’s been a while since I saw it, sorry) are often the romanticized “good few” (and often or almost always white cis/het men), that’s on pretty shaky ground. I don’t have the background in the comics strong enough to make specific arguments, so I’ll cede the point to someone who does and disagrees, but having recently watched a show that deals excellently with police incompetence, racism, and brutality (7 Seconds on Netflix), I feel at the very least something is deeply missing. like, analysis of race wrt police brutality in any aspect at all whatsoever.

I think it can be compellingly read that batman does heavily play into the military/police industrial complex due to its takes on violence—just play the Arkham games for more than an hour and you’ll know what I mean. to be a little less vague, even though batman as a franchise valorizes “psychiatric treatment” and “nonviolence,” the entire game seems pretty aware it characterizes treatment as a madhouse and nonviolence as breaking someone’s back or neck magically without killing them because you’re a “good guy.” while it is definitely subversive that the franchise even considers these elements at all, they don’t always do a fantastic job living up to them.

and then when you consider the fetishization of tools of violence both in canon and in the fandom, it gets worse. same with prisons—if anything it dehumanizes people in prisons even more than like, cop shows in general, which is pretty impressive(ly bad). like there’s just no nuance afforded and arkham is generally glamorized. the fact that one of the inmates is a crocodile assassin, I will admit, does not help. im not really sure how to mitigate that when, again, one of the inmates is a crocodile assassin, but I think my point still stands. fuck you, killer croc. (im just kidding unfuck him or whatever)

not to take this on a Jason Todd tangent but I was thinking about it this afternoon and again when thinking about that cop scene again and in many ways he does serve as a challenge to both batman’s ideology as well as the ideology of the franchise in general. his depiction is always a bit of a sticking point and it’s always fascinating to me to see how any given adaptation handles it. like Jason’s “”street”” origin has become inseparable from his characterization as an angry, brash, violent kid, and that in itself reflects a whole host of cultural stereotypes that I might argue occasionally/often dip into racialized tropes (like just imagine if he wasn’t white, ok). red hood (a play on robin hood and the outlaws, as I just realized...today) is in my exposure/experience mostly depicted as a villain, but he challenges batman’s no-kill philosophy both on an ethical and practical level. every time the joker escapes he kills a whole score more of innocent people, let alone the other rogues—is it truly ethical to let him live or avoid killing him for the cost of one life and let others die?

moreover, batman’s ““blind”” faith in the justice system (prisons, publicly-funded asylum prisons, courts) is conveniently elided—the story usually ends when he drops bad guy of the day off at arkham or ties up the bad guys and lets the police come etc etc. part of this is obviously bc car chases are more cinematic than dry court procedurals, but there is an alternate universe where bruce wayne never becomes batman and instead advocates for the arkham warden to be replaced with someone competent and the system overhauled, or in programs encouraging a more diverse and educated police force, or even into social welfare programs. (I am vaguely aware this is sometimes/often part of canon, but I don’t think it’s fair to say it’s the main focus. and again, I get it’s not nearly as cinematic).

overall, I think the most frustrating thing about the batman franchise or at least what I’ve seen or read of it is that while it does attempt to deal with corruption and injustice at all levels of the criminal justice system/government, it does so either by treating it as “just how life is” or having Dick or Jim Gordon or whoever the fuckjust wipe it out by “eliminating the dirty cops,” completely ignoring the non-fantasy ways these problems are dealt with in real life. it just isn’t realistic. instead of putting restrictions on police violence or educating cops on how to use their weapons or putting work into eradicating the culture of racism and prejudice or god basically anything it’s just all cinematized into the “good few” triumphing over the bad...somehow. its always unsatisfying and ultimately feels like lip service to me, personally.

this also dovetails with the very frustrating way mental health/”insanity” or “madness” is dealt with in canon, very typical of mainstream fiction. like for example:“madness is like gravity, all it takes is a little push.” yikes, if by ‘push’ you mean significant life stressors, genetic load, and environemntal influences, then sure. challenge any dudebro joker fanboy to explain exactly what combination of DSM disorders the joker has to explain his “””insanity””” and see what happens. (these are, in fact, my plans for this Friday evening. im a hit at parties).

anyway I do really want to wax poetic about that cop scene in 1x06 so im gonna do just that! honestly when I first saw that I immediately sat up like I’d sat on a fucking tack, my cultural studies senses were tingling. the whole “fuck batman” ethos of the show had already been interesting to me, esp in s1, when bruce was basically standing in for the baby boomers and dick being our millennial/GenX hero. I do think dick was explicitly intended to appeal to a millennial audience and embody the millennial ethos. By that logic, the tension between dick and Jason immediately struck me as allegorical (Jason constantly commenting on dick being old, outdated, using slang dick doesn’t understand and generally being full of youthful obnoxious fistbumping energy).

Even if subconsciously on the part of the writers, jason’s over-aggressive energy can be read as a commentary on genZ—seen by mainstream millennial/GenX audiences as taking things too far. Like, the cops in 1x06 could have been Nick Zucco’s hired men or idk pretty much anyone, yet they explicitly chose cops and even had Jason explain why he deliberately went after them for being cops so dick (cop) could judge him for it. his rationale? he was beaten up by cops on the street, so he’s returning the favor. he doesn’t have the focused “righteous” rage of batman or dick/nightwing towards valid targets, he just has rage at the world and specifically the system—framed here as unacceptable or fanatical. as if like, dressing up like a bat and punching people at night is, um, totally normal and uncontroversial.

on a slightly wider scope, the show seems to internally struggle with its own progressive ethos—on the one hand, they hire the wildly talented chellah man, but on the other hand they will likely kill him off soon. or they cast anna diop, drawing wrath from the loudly racist underbelly of fandom, but sideline her. perhaps it’s a genuine struggle, perhaps they simply don’t want to alienate the bigots in the fanbase, but the issue of cops stuck out to me when I was watching as an social issue where they explicitly came down on one side over the other. jason’s characterization is, I admit and appreciate, still nuanced, but I’d argue that’s literally just bc he’s a white guy and a fan favorite. cast an actor of color as Jason and see how fast fandom and the writer’s room turns on him.

anyway i don’t really have the place to speak about what an explicitly nonwhite!cop!dick grayson would look like, but I do think it would be a fascinating and exciting place to start in exploring and correcting the kind of vague and nebulous complaints i raise above. (edit: i should have made more clear, i mean in the show, which hasn’t dealt with dick’s heritage afaik). also, there’s something to be said about the cop vs detective thing but I don’t really have the brain juice or expertise to say it? anyway if you got this far i hope it was at least interesting and again pls jump in id love to hear other people’s takes!!

tldr i took two (2) cultural studies classes and have Opinions

#wow this was a hot fucking mess #i tried to be organized but my thoughts weren't coming out super well #again anyone interested please feel free to jump in or correct me at any place you feel like #i die on the ''jason todd would be treated horribly by fandom if he were a character of color' hill tho #i could go on about 1x06 until im blue in the face but that's the uhh overview. the executive summary.#dc titans #i need meta tags and shit for this show #god help me in too deep #finding the meta side of fandom was a GIFT tho i love this shit #so excited

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dcubang · 5 years

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4 More Stories Need Artists!

Hello everyone! We're down to just 4 stories that need to be claimed! Now that a few days have passed and everyone has been given a chance to get their first claims in, artists that have already made one claim are now allowed to take additional stories based on what is left of the unclaimed stories. I have updated the claiming form with a section to let me know how many additional stories you want to take, such as "I want 1 extra story, I want 2 stories" etc.

If you only want one more story this is totally fine, just list N/A for the second and third choices. If there are a few stories you have your eyes on, list your choices, and then in the "Claiming a Second Story" section tell me how many of those stories you can take on, such at "I want 1 story" or "I want 2 stories", etc.

Once all of the stories are claimed, I will be sending out emails to artists and authors, and then second claims will open, letting artists take on additional stories. Each story can have up to 3 artists, so that authors aren't overwhelmed with coordinating with too many people. I can only guarantee that each story will get one piece of art for their stories!

Claiming Form

Here are the last 4 stories that need artists after the read more!

5 Title: Daily Gab Word Count: 5776 Genre: Coming Out Fic Fandom/Universe: Batfam Characters/Pairings: Jon/Damian, Damian & Dick Warnings: Bullying Rating: PG-ish Summary: Damian finds a tabloid taped to his locker at school. The headline? "Wayne Kid... Gay?" He endures a day at school listening to the gossip from all the other kids. Dick does the brotherly thing and helps Damian sort through all he's feeling. Damian admits to Jon what the tabloid said and why he's been running scared all day, they talk about the reality of what they want together and Bruce manages to be a real father for once. Summary I'm posting when I post the fic: Damian swallowed against the bile in his throat and carefully took in his next breath, walking himself through the steps of emotional calm. Pretend this was only torture. Pretend it was only a gunshot wound. Pretend it was only his body in pain and not his heart and his mind. Remove himself from the situation and take a few steps backwards from the reality of it. ~ ~ ~ 9 Title: A Bit(e) Wild Word Count: 5-6k total, 4k written Genre: mostly Angst/Fluff but some Action/Adventure Fandom/Universe: Losers/Batfamily, no particular series Characters/Pairings: established Jensen/Cougar, will be Jensen/Cougar/Jason Todd later in series. Background canonical Pooch/Jolene, mention of Clay/Aisha. Warnings: Graphic violence, swearing, maybe sex in the flashback Rating: Explicit. Even if no sex happens yet, it will later, and there's also the violence to consider. Summary: The Losers have just barely taken down Max and cleared their names; Jensen's still cleaning up post-mission but they're all back home. Jason Todd's preparing to move back to Gotham and butt heads with Batman when a bit of pest control ends with him bitten by a wolf shifter. He didn't think the Pit's aftereffects would allow him to be changed, or that he'd call the Losers for backup again, but of all the people Talia had him learning from, Cougar's the only shifter he knows he can trust if this IS the dreaded change coming on. Cue frantic phone call. The Losers load up and head out immediately, but Pooch brings his family just in case, Clay rides up with Roque, and Jensen and Cougar lead the charge because they've already got the shifter genes and being bitten again isn't going to do anything to them (Jake is a recent change; Cougar was born a shifter). By the time the others arrive, they've got Jason settled and all three are in their animal forms. Jensen is a wolf, Cougs is a cougar, Jason is a snow leopard. After the first few lessons, Jason gets impatient--maybe the Pit, maybe new instincts, partly the knowledge that the Losers aren't going to just let him leave until he's got enough control over his shifter side to satisfy Cougar. He tries to slip out in the night, half hoping they won't follow him, subconsciously aware this will be much easier with trusted backup. Every Loser was expecting this, though, and when Jason slinks off to Gotham, they're still mostly packed and ready to head out. It doesn't take them long to follow. ~ ~ ~ 15 Title: Happy Middles Word Count: ~4600 Genre: PWP Fandom/Universe: Batman and Green Lantern, no specific canon Characters/Pairings: Bruce Wayne/Hal Jordan Warnings: Somnophilia, Dirty Talk, Praise Kink, Noise Kink Rating: NC-17 Summary: Basically a slice of life PWP about the time Hal and Bruce make for each other, specifically how Bruce's ends his nights and how Hal starts his days. Bruce comes home early from a shortened patrol and joins Hal in bed a few hours before Hal has to go to work. Hal falls back asleep, and then wakes Bruce up when he starts exhibiting signs of a wet dream. Bruce pleasures Hal until he wakes up, and then gets Hal off. Hal turns the tide on Bruce, teasing him until Hal decides he's ready to ride Bruce to their mutual completion. This takes place solely in Bruce's and Hal's bedroom in the Manor, described as having a darker color scheme with blues, blacks, and grays. All kinks are negotiated prior to the story, as this is a well established, husbands!fic. No noncon here. ~ ~ ~ 20 Title: Broken Wings and Notched Arrows. Word Count: Around 6-6.5k total. 4,280 written Genre: Action, Romance, Drama. Fandom/Universe: Young Justice, Batman. Characters/Pairings: Will Harper (Roy Harper's clone)/ Jason Todd Warnings: Temporary Character death, mild language, mild violence, small age gape, Rating: NC-17 Summary: The only thing Will Harper wanted to be doing that fine winter morning was to play dress up with his beautiful daughter Lian. What he got however was a surprise visit from the legendary Bruce "Batman" Wayne. And if that wasn't a big enough shock being hired by said legend was icing on the cake. So now instead of spending Christmas with Lian Will is kind of, maybe being held against his will on Infinity Island. Bright side he did find Jason Todd like he was hired to. This story takes place in multiple locations. The main set is in the Caribbeans, mostly Infinity Island and the League of Assassins HQ. It also show cases Will's home in Star City and a major fight screen in Gotham. There is no major warnings. Temporary Character death as Jason Todd doesn't stay dead for long. Some violence but nothing more then a few short details of fight scenes. No gore just a little blood.

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sebeth · 5 years

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Young Justice: “Down The Rabbit Hole” and “Schooled”

Warning, Spoilers Ahead…

The seventh issue of Young Justice “Rabbit Holes” takes place in Gotham City on July 31st.

“My name is Artemis. And this is my life. My life. Waiting. Waiting for something to happen. For something to change. My life is a bus stop.”

Artemis is waiting at a bus stop. Artemis’s mother, the original Huntress, has been released from prison. The wheelchair bound woman exits the bus: “Artemis? Is that you?’

“Your father?”

“I reminded him it was today but…”

“I understand.”

I feel we should pause for an info drop on the mainstream DC universe Crock family.

In the main DC universe, Artemis Crock is the daughter of the Huntress and Sportsmaster.

Sportsmaster’s name is Lawrence Crock. He was a Golden Age character and fought the original Green Lantern (Alan Scott), Wildcat (Ted Grant) and he was a member of the Injustice Society.

I don’t remember if the circumstances of Lawrence’s death are revealed but afterwards the Council, a mysterious criminal organization, took his remains and cloned his body numerous times to use as their enforcers. The Council did the same thing to Paul Kirk, the second Manhunter. I wonder if Gregg Weisman was inspired by the Council storyline – specifically its use of cloning heroes/villains – and applied it to the Light storyline? He clearly has an extensive knowledge of the DC universe. Paul Kirk’s battle with the Council was fairly well-known by Bronze Age DC fans so I could see Weisman being aware of the event. Superboy and Guardian are the exceptions as their creation (or cloning in the Guardian’s case) was straight out of Cadmus/Return of the Superman storyline. But Roy and the attempted cloning of the YJ heroes – yeah, that’s straight out of the Council storyline.

Small spoilers for Sportsmaster-related moments in “The Golden Age” in the next two paragrapghs.

Lawrence has a small part in “The Golden Age” an elseworlds that is mandatory reading for anyone who loves the Golden Age heroes of the DC universe. Lawrence is on a robbing spree – he is attempting to earn enough money to be able to see his daughter again. The girl’s name isn’t mentioned but this storyline was written several years after Artemis’s creation so it could be her.

Sadly, Lawrence will never see his daughter again as he sacrifices his life to save a little girl from being murdered by the main bad guy. I’m intentionally not mentioning said villain’s name because it’s the main bombshell of the series. If you haven’t read it – 1) read it and 2) Don’t go looking for spoilers before you do.

Paula Brooks was the original Huntress of the DC Universe. She was a frequent foe of Wildcat and the Justice Society. Paula’s romance with Sportsmaster might have been one of the earliest villain-villain romances in comics.

Paula had a notable one on one fight with Helena Wayne: Golden Age-Huntress vs Silver/Bronze Age-Huntress!

Post-Crisis, Roy Thomas retconned Paula’s past and had her be the heroic Tigress, a member of the Young All-Stars, before she later turned to a life of crime. Paula idolized Paul Kirk and had him sponsor her admittance into the All-Star Squadron. Paula’s reasons for turning “evil” were never explained – possibly she fell in love with Sportsmaster and fell from grace as a result? It was long rumored/theorized that Paula had a fling with Wildcat (Ted Grant) and a child resulted from that union. A child that he remained unaware of. Wildcat’s long-lost children rumor was later brought into the JSA series – unfortunately, Paula wasn’t the mother of either boy.

Artemis grew up in her parent’s footsteps. She used her real name, “Artemis” as her criminal alias. She joined “Injustice Unlimited”, a group consisting of the children of the Injustice Society, and battled Infinity Inc.

Artemis began a relationship with the latest Icicle. Side-note: Geoff Johns made Icicle a very sympathetic character who came very close to turning into a “hero”.

Artemis would later marry Icicle and give birth to their son.

In another “like mother, like daughter” moment, Artemis would later change her alias to “Tigress” due to another character with the same name becoming more popular than the original. The writers changed Paula from the Huntress to the Tigress due to the creation of Helena Wayne/Bertinelli. Artemis would become Tigress due to the debut of Artemis in the Wonder Woman series.

Artemis and her mother are changed to half-Asian and Asian in the Young Justice universe due to an addition to the family that is not cannon in the main DC universe. But we’ll talk about Cheshire later.

Back to the issue…

We establish the length of Paula’s prison sentence when she states dinner is better “than I’ve had in the last six years.”

Artemis is around 15/16 years old in the first season. Paula’s imprisonment occurred when Artemis was 9/10 years old. We know Cheshire split soon after Paula’s imprisonment and Sportsmaster is running around as an operative for the Light…10 years old is a very young age to essentially raise yourself.

We see Artemis’s bedroom that she clearly shared with Cheshire. It’s pretty bare bones but there are two posters on the wall – an Alice In Wonderland one and another that has a dragon/martial artist combo.

“This is my life. Preparing for a battle that never comes. What I wouldn’t give for a rabbit hole to tumble into.”

Artemis’ ruminations are interrupted by Sportsmaster’s return. Lawrence calls out “Daddy’s home” and then realizes Paula is in the house.

“Oh, yeah…Paula. Forgot you were coming home.”

“Overjoyed to see you too, lover.”

Yep, the bloom is definitely off this romance.

“I meant to visit.”

“Even a postcard would have been nice. Artemis wrote once a week.”

“She did? You’re kiddin’.”

“Stop rolling your eye. It’s all that got me through.”

“Look, the way the game played out. It could have been either of us.”

“But it wasn’t. I took the falls. Both falls. I did the time. But I’m back now. And Artemis is my priority.”

The conversation establishes Paula’s injury and paralysis occurred in their final heist. I wish we had more details – did it happen while battling a hero or the cops? Was the injury caused by a fall, a bullet?

Paula kept quiet about Sportsmaster’s involvement – was it due to love for her husband or the desperate desire for the girls to have one free parent while she was imprisoned?

Paula continues “I lost one daughter while I was gone. I won’t lose the other. I need to set some ground rules, Lawrence.”

“Six years you’re away and now you’re taking over? While you were gone, I raised her, trained her, toughened her up!”

Did Paula participate in the girls training before she was imprisoned? Probably not Artemis but possibly Cheshire? Maybe not with the goal of training future criminals but in general self-defense? Paula didn’t fall off the criminal bandwagon until her paralysis and imprisonment – did she want the girls to follow in her footsteps before that?

“I’m giving up the life. You have to give it up too.”

“Or else what?”

“Or else you’re out of here.”

“Then I guess I’m out but, Baby, you’re kiddin’ yourself if you think you can save Artemis from the life. She’s one of us.”

Lawrence is both right and wrong in that statement. Also, way to fight for your marriage and family, Lawrence!

I said the Crocks’ apartment is pretty bare bones. Lawrence is clearly not putting money into their home. Is Sportsmaster hiding it away to avoid suspicion? The Light would have to pay Sportsmaster some serious money for his time. I’m assuming Lawrence is hiding the majority of the money is an anonymous bank account. Pretty sure if he spent big money on his home and possessions any local cops, federal agents, and heroes would make inquiries on how he obtained it.

Speaking of local heroes…it’s pretty ballsy of Lawrence to have the family located in Gotham City. Batman’s pretty snoopy, “World’s Greatest Detective” etc. Batman isn’t like most heroes – he can and will track down all of their known hideouts and locations. Lawrence has to have a supreme confidence in himself to live in Gotham City. Particularly as he is one of the main operatives for the Light.

Batman has to be aware of the Crocks – he is one of the main sponsors for Artemis’s admission into Young Justice and the Gotham Academy. Yet Bruce doesn’t appear to have any knowledge of Sportsmaster’s connection to the Light.

Artemis, having overheard her parents’ conversation, decides “This is my life. I’m not waiting anymore.”

Artemis throws on her costume and heads out into the night to fight crime. She spends the nights of July 31st to August 2nd stopping a variety of crimes.

The fifth episode of Young Justice, “Schooled”, opens in Metropolis on August 3rd. A bridge suffers a physical defect causing multiple crashes and cars heading over the side.

Bruce, watching from a nearby building, presumably in Metropolis and not Gotham City, hits a switch to reveal the Batman suit.

The location of Metropolis varies from continuity to continuity or the media. Sometimes it’s in Delaware, sometimes it’s across the bay from Gotham City, other times it’s near Smallville – which is located in Kansas.

To sum up:

Gotham City – New Jersey

Young Justice HQ – Happy Harbor, Rhode Island

Metropolis – Wherever the writers want it to be.

I don’t like the “bay” approach as it puts Metropolis too close to New York City in the DC universe. One of my main enjoyments of the DC universe is the heroes are spread out across the United States as opposed to the 95% are located in New York City, 4% percent in Los Angeles, and 1% elsewhere route of Marvel Comics.

The near Kansas approach is ridiculous as I can recall that took place around ocean docks. Kansas – and the Midwest in general – has a notable lack of oceans.

Delaware is the best location for Metropolis. It has ocean access and enough geographical distance between other heroes’ bases of operations. Look, Batman may tell other heroes to “stay out of his city” but there is no way he wouldn’t be interfering in Superman’s business if they were essentially neighbors. Yes, it’s hypocritical, and no, Batman doesn’t care.

Back to Metropolis where Bruce is witnessing the impending destruction from a Wayne Enterprises building – let’s assume he’s in town on business.

Bruce is about to change when he sees Superman head for the bridge. Superman is better equipped to handle the bridge repair. Clark braces the bridge and begins welding repairs with his heat vision.

Superboy leaps onto the bridge and hauls listing cars back onto the bridge. Bruce witnesses the situation from the Wayne Enterprises building. He decides to sit the crisis out as the Supers have it handled.

Superboy is not happy with Superman interfering with his rescue of the bus.

“I had that.”

“I didn’t want to take the chance. As it is, your landing could have destabilized the entire bridge.”

“It didn’t.”

“But it could have. We don’t yet know the limits of your powers.”

“Well, maybe you could, you know, help me figure that out.”

“Batman’s got that covered.”

“Yeah. I know, but…”

Beep-beep.

“Superman. Wait, Arrow. Slow down. What’s attacking? No, I’m definitely available. Coordinates? Acknowledged. On my way. Sorry, Super…boy. Duty calls.”

Beep-beep.

“Already got the alert, Bruce.”

“I know, Clark, but we need to talk.”

The scene is both heartbreaking and frustrating. Conner is so desperate for a connection with Clark. Metropolis is not Conner’s home base. So why was he in Metropolis? Was he visiting the Guardian and company at Cadmus? Or was he strolling the streets hoping to chance upon Superman?

Dick would be the only member of Young Justice to be aware of Superman’s secret identity but I doubt he would tell Conner. Cadmus is completely unaware of Superman’s real name so hoping for a chance encounter would be Conner’s only option for contact.

Conner is quickly switching from heartbreak to anger as indicated by his expressions. Conner’s anger is justified – he hasn’t done anything wrong and surely didn’t ask to be created/made into a weapon. Conner’s situation is similar to an adopted child attempting to make contact with their birth parents.

Clark…it’s time to put on your big boy pants and deal with Conner. I cut you some slack in the immediate aftermath – it was a shocking revelation and violation of genentic material but a man who can halt alien invasions, handle erupting volcanos, and go one-on-one with Darkseid can deal with a confused child.

I’m curious on how the scene would have continued without Green Arrow’s interruption. Clark was hedging (“Batman’s got that covered) but he didn’t immediately flee out of terror like he did in the second episode.

Finally, Bat-dad is watching and he is not happy. You’re in trouble, Superman. Bruce knows all about children conceived without your consent – his experience involved a drugged sexual violation – and he accepted Damian. So, no, Bruce isn’t going to accept any excuses.

I’m going to break this post into two parts as I’ve typed up six pages and we still have over 20 minutes of the episode to go along with a few pages of the issue.

#Young Justice #Artemis #Superboy #Conner Kent #Artemis Crock #Superman #Batman #Huntress #Sportsmaster #Metropolis

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frostbite883-archive · 6 years

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Well, either of your ideas that you had written was already written before (albeit differently) by someone else a while back basically (out of the fact that I made questions similar to the ones I gave you which resulted in tumblr bloggers giving me different answers to them).

gingerly-writing: to this ask I filled out for them. I’m pretty fucking pissed off, and I’ve had my fury checked out by uninvolved parties to make sure it was righteous. It’s righteous.

Me: Not entirely so.

gingerly-writing: First off, feel free not to send people rude-ass messages after they’ve put time and effort into coming up with a response to you?

Me: The top comment there (the “Well, either of your ideas” comment) wasn’t really the rude comment I typed out. The other one was (which I’m sorry for) which you didn’t copy paste in your third post so other bloggers can see it as that public evidence is vital for context.

gingerly-writing: Also, I thought you were going to use my idea and have me to thank you or something for it when I came up with something like my asks I gave you and something to the equivalent of your “heroes and villains school” stuff before I replied to your ask box sometime ago. Basically, wanting me to give you undeserved credit for my very own idea. I certainly didn’t know you were going to make comments like this either.

So, I actually have a hero and villain school in my own original superhero works, and I did come up with a solution to this one. If you’re writing your own original stuff, please change this up, but if you’re writing fic I don’t mind if you nick it wholesale (as long as you tag me in it! I’d love to read it).

Y’know, for me, this was just background information, but now I kind of want to write a whole book focusing on it.

gingerly-writing: It took me a good 45 minutes to get tumblr to accept my answer to your damn ask, so you’ve just made that a waste of my time.

Me: Maybe. But, from below, you were not bettering the situation.

gingerly-writing: Also, feel free to simply not respond rudely to people’s posts, at all, ever, especially if you were the one who sent the ask in the first place. I didn’t need to know how shit my ideas are, thanks.

Me: Yeah...not really sure where you’re going with this. Are you saying your ideas were horrible because they were based on my idea and how I spread more around on tumblr? Or do you think I’m saying your ideas were horrible because you think I’m somehow saying, implying or thinking that?

Either why, that comment of yours was not helpful for anyone. Yourself included.

gingerly-writing: Also, as a more general PSA, feel free not to send identical asks to multiple bloggers.

Me: Not happening. As I can sent any ask at any time by my own free will. As is my right.

gingerly-writing: Seeing someone else answer the same ask really disincentivizes me to answer it, even if it’s in my queue: I worry about stepping on the other responder’s feet,

Me: Well, to be fair, I can understand the sentiment there. Still, what you say next will lower that sentiment.

and also, it’s motherfuckin rude, you absolute assclown.

Me: Childish name calling. So...how is it you’re any better with what you had said. What would you benefit from doing that other then venting out your anger. ...Which ironically enough I didn’t even do here and wouldn’t now just so I won’t sink to your level of rudeness.

gingerly-writing: And if you do send multiple asks and get similar responses, maybe it’s simply because it’s a good fucking idea. If you get different answers, maybe it’s because we’re all different fucking people with awesome different ideas that I’m not sure you deserve.

Me: You know what, I’ll be upfront, and say that I should have not jumped the gun and assumed the worse and could’ve worded my comments better (or just replied privately about the whole matter), you, on the other hand, didn’t do much of anything to resolve the situation as best as you should’ve. In the end, you basically became me. But a little worse.

gingerly-writing

: feel free to block me on the way out

Me: Already did. I’m hoping you don’t treat other bloggers the way you had treated me. Especially if they were nicely bringing up stuff to your attention among other things. And especially, even, in the ‘ginning once they asked you something.

gingerly-writing: #I try to be nice on this site #but I have my limits #and now I'm in rage mode #the asks and the answers #rude #ungrateful

Me: As if you were better with your own fair share of rudeness that might be on the level of hackedmotionsensors’.

hackedmotionsensors: THIS PERSON IS SO WEIRD!! All they ever do is send these bizarre questions about the DCEU being in MCU!

Me: Actually, that's not ALL I do. I asked other questions too. And my qs aren't as weird as any one else's either, hacked. Best to not go by assumptions and call people weird for what they say or do. Be it in front of their faces or behind their backs. Also, don't like me or my qs? Then either block me or just blacklist my name.

See ya...never, I guess.

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

Here’s some context on what I was talking about on this post:

TumblrFrostbite: How would you want schools for villains' kids (for Marvel villains' kids, for DC villains' kids, etc) to be ran? And who would you want to run those schools?

gingerly-writing: This is one of those things that I’ve put way too much thought into after you sent this, because I love stuff like this. The question is, are the villains running this school for their kids, or is this something the heroes are putting on to try and rehabilitate the kids while their parents are in prison? I’ll assume the former, but the latter is also super interesting to me.

Disclaimer: this will have a strong DC bent because I have little to no interest in most Marvel villains, whereas I could yack on about DC villains for month. In fact, I might just stick to DC in its entirety because other than Loki (who would be the worst teacher ever, he would encourage so much shenanigans) most of the Marvel villains I know are Nazis or space monsters. Second disclaimer: I’ve watched a lot more animated DC movies and read a lot more fic than I ever have comics, soooooo these depictions might not be comic book accurate. Fanboys, please don’t come for me…but I also don’t really care that much tbh. I like the incarnations that I like. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Actual answer under the cut because this got hella long. Hope you like it!

Sponsor: Lex Luthor. Funds the school, shows up to speech day to give speeches and hand out prizes, gives the brightest and most stable kids scholarships to work at Lex Corp in the holidays. Absolutely 100% has his own ends, no one knows what they are. Chucks buckets of money at every problem. Likes to bring the school up at fancy soirees in front of Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen just to piss them off.

Headmaster: Deathstroke (or rather, Slade from Teen Titans). Has no idea how he wound up with this job, complains about the pay 24/7 even though it’s in the range of millions of dollars a term paid in untraceable cash from 50 different countries. Basically ends up like Gordon Ramsey: threatens to assassinate the teachers and parents all the time, has actually taken out some abusive parents, but is weirdly, gruffly nice to the younger kids. Teachers self-defence to all the non-powered kids and weapons to anyone who’s interested and has the discipline for it. Grudgingly tolerates old man jokes.

Deputy Headmistress: Talia al Ghul. Absolutely terrifies all the older kids, mothers the younger ones. In charge of who graduates and who doesn’t; will only let kids graduate if their villainy won’t critically endanger their own life. Sometimes shows up in the backs of random classes and lurks there for ‘assessments’; shows up in more than 50% of Deathstroke’s classes to harass him about his technique. Keeps a photo of Damien on her desk, refuses to acknowledge it’s there if someone asks about it.

Biology: Poison Ivy. Excellent teacher, surprises both herself and her students at how brilliant she is. Everyone wants to take biology with her even if they have no villainous interest in the subject. Litters her lectures with feminist rants, eco-warrior tirades and talks about LGBT+ rights, will gently but forcefully correct anyone who disagrees with her. Runs a vegetable outside the school and encourages the kids to get closer to nature. Just enough passing knowledge of memes to make her older students roll about with laughter: ‘Batman’s homophobic because he inconveniences me and I’m gay’. PDAs with her girlfriend in the corridors.

Women and gender studies: Harley Quinn Ivy’s girlfriend, part time teacher. Wanted to take up the psychology post, but after she seriously suggested sharing it with Jonathan Crane (Scarecrow) no one wanted to let her anywhere near it. Knows every meme. Gives great relationship advice, will kill anyone’s abusive boyfriend with no questions asked. Brings her hyenas to school in a ridiculously massive handbag. Has her own locker.

Thievery, sneaking around, Gotham safety: Catwoman. Definitely brings in her cats to act as therapy/comfort animals for the kids. Unofficial therapist; absolutely mothers anyone from Gotham, no exceptions. Brings the kids super expensive (stolen) jewellery to wear on prom night and for big dances, charges in secrets about their parents.

Business and Economics, with a side in mind control: Maxwell Lord (in the more business-orientated editions). Keeps to himself, is one of those teachers who doesn’t actually seem to like kids. Always wears a freshly pressed suit. Bit of an asshole. Selina tripped him down the stairs once.

Magic: supposedly taught by Felix Faust, but Klarion enrolled as a student just to show up in his lectures and argue. Every. Single. Point. Magic classes have turned into a magical war several times. They can only get along when someone else turns up claiming magic isn’t real. Faust has a lecture prepared for the non-believers, Klarion has a fireball. Circe often shows up in these classes, ‘borrows’ all the female students for private lessons and turns all the boys into pigs. Pig-Klarion does not appreciate this.

Physics and advanced thermodynamics: Killer Frost. Gets on really well with the Gotham City Sirens; they have cocktail parties in the staff lounge every second Thursday. Is paid by other villains kidnapping Firestorm so she can feed. Absolutely has favourite students and students she hates with a passion; has been known to freeze some students to their chairs in lieu of detention.

Other random villains that show up from time to time: - Flash’s Rogues Gallery. Created the infamous ‘Rogues week’ at the end of the year where every single one of them shows up and helps the students wreak absolute chaos across the school. Can never be stopped from showing up and starting this. Captain Cold comes grudgingly, sits in Slade’s office and has a drink with him; the rest of the Rogues join in with the chaos a bit too enthusiastically. Best week for the seniors. The younger rogues would totally be students and help to smuggle the older ones in for Rogues week.

- Black Manta: shows up sometimes, teaches a few lectures, leaves. Always on super random topics, often tangentially related to his latest evil scheme. The students have a betting pool that reawakens after each visit on how his talk will relate to his next scheme. Literally no one understands why he shows up. Doesn’t get paid, doesn’t seem to enjoy it. ?????? Has great on-land fashion sense though. A lot of the older students have lowkey crushes on him

- Cheetah takes advanced genetics and many other complex of aspects of science. Only shows up to teach special classes for the seniors. High fives Ivy in the corridors.

- Deadshot. Sometimes shows up and interrupts Deathstroke’s guns lessons (poor guy can never teach a lesson in peace), always gets chased out of the school. Gets teary eyed over the young female students kicking ass. Doesn’t seem to do anything useful but somehow gets paid a salary. Sleeps in the gym when he’s on the run from Amanda Wakker/Batman.

- Hugo Strange keeps showing up in disguises and trying to get the psychology job. Last time it was just a fake moustache. What is he even hoping to achieve.

- Merlyn shows up when he’s bored to host archery competitions on the front lawn. Mostly does this when Oliver Queen is in town. Keeps saying he’s going to pick a protégé out of the best archers and never does because the Arrow Clan kids annoy him so much he’s wound up thinking he hates kids. Actually loves kids, pretends to be snooty and above them though. 100% has to prove he’s still the best archer at every competition, even the one for 12 year olds.

TumblrFrostbite: If the super villain academy children, by the time they hit twenty, had to do some VERY impressive villainous in order to graduate, what type of villainous stuff would you have the rookies villains do to not only graduate, but also to be considered as full fledged villains?

gingerly-writing: So, I actually have a hero and villain school in my own original superhero works, and I did come up with a solution to this one. If you’re writing your own original stuff, please change this up, but if you’re writing fic I don’t mind if you nick it wholesale (as long as you tag me in it! I’d love to read it).

My thought was: all villains are going to be different, with different strengths and gifts. Sending them all to, I don’t know, infiltrate an island or fight Black Canary (which no one would win, let’s be honest) doesn’t seem fair on those it doesn’t suit. I was really struggling to come up with something that could work for everyone that didn’t force them to work in a team, because, well…villainous teams never work so well. Too many egos and whatnot.

My solution was: have the kids pick their own challenges. Make it their end of final year project. They submit a fully researched plan, all the way from the developmental stages to the final polished article. Plans like ‘killing Batman’ or ‘blowing up the planet’ are swiftly vetoed, but as long as they’re convincing enough the plan can get as elaborate and dangerous as they like. Half the marks come from the plan itself, and half for execution. Sometimes, my particularly vindictive kiddos make their plan to screw over their nemesis’ plan; I particularly enjoy when their plans are both to screw over each others’ plans. That gets entertaining.

They’re assigned a teacher whose knowledge base best fits with the plan the kid wants to execute, and they submit and resubmit and re-resubmit it to improve and refine their scheme until it’s as perfect as it’s going to get. Then, with no further outside help, they have to execute it.

This method lets you titivate the grand finale to best suit your plot needs. Your character has a serious nemesis? Pitch them against each other. Parental grudge? Make their aim to foil their parent’s plans. Hero that they hate? Plan to ruin their day. Plus, you can shove in bureaucratic nightmares and whatever other problems you can dream up (sabotage, indecision, dreams too grand to execute) into the planning stages.

I’m not sure you could do anything in a school situation to make the outside world consider them ‘real villains’: that would take time, money, and a body count, all things a school probably can’t afford to have on their books, villainous or not. But a huge, large-scale, dramatic graduating plan probably wouldn’t hurt any young villain’s rep!

Y’know, for me, this was just background information, but now I kind of want to write a whole book focusing on it. xx

#post #tumblr #matters

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gingerly-writing · 7 years

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TumblrFrostbite: How would you want schools for villains' kids (for Marvel villains' kids, for DC villains' kids, etc) to be ran? And who would you want to run those schools?

This is one of those things that I’ve put way too much thought into after you sent this, because I love stuff like this. The question is, are the villains running this school for their kids, or is this something the heroes are putting on to try and rehabilitate the kids while their parents are in prison? I’ll assume the former, but the latter is also super interesting to me.

Disclaimer: this will have a strong DC bent because I have little to no interest in most Marvel villains, whereas I could yack on about DC villains for month. In fact, I might just stick to DC in its entirety because other than Loki (who would be the worst teacher ever, he would encourage so much shenanigans) most of the Marvel villains I know are Nazis or space monsters.Second disclaimer: I’ve watched a lot more animated DC movies and read a lot more fic than I ever have comics, soooooo these depictions might not be comic book accurate. Fanboys, please don’t come for me…but I also don’t really care that much tbh. I like the incarnations that I like. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Actual answer under the cut because this got hella long. Hope you like it!

Other random villains that show up from time to time:- Flash’s Rogues Gallery. Created the infamous ‘Rogues week’ at the end of the year where every single one of them shows up and helps the students wreak absolute chaos across the school. Can never be stopped from showing up and starting this. Captain Cold comes grudgingly, sits in Slade’s office and has a drink with him; the rest of the Rogues join in with the chaos a bit too enthusiastically. Best week for the seniors. The younger rogues would totally be students and help to smuggle the older ones in for Rogues week.

- Cheetah takes advanced genetics and many other complex of aspects of science. Only shows up to teach special classes for the seniors. High fives Ivy in the corridors.

- Hugo Strange keeps showing up in disguises and trying to get the psychology job. Last time it was just a fake moustache. What is he even hoping to achieve.

#the asks and the answers #villain school #DC #heroes and villains

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bigskydreaming · 2 years

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I will say though that IMO one of the problems with trying to treat Batman (or admittedly the entire Batfam) as a solution to the problems of the police as an institution is its not as simple as people make it out to be....because people try to treat Batman/the Batfam as just another group of superheroes while ignoring that Batman’s real superpower is his resources.

What I mean by that is a large part of the appeal of stories about vigilantism is that its easier for people who have no faith in the morality of institutions to put their faith in the morality of singular individuals instead. And the appeal of superheroes is in large part the idea that superpowers give a single individual the power to stand up to large institutions or the kinds of threats that those institutions are ‘realistically’ the only usual counter to in a world without superheroes.....BUT those superpowers, while useful in a straight up fight against a supervillain or alien invasion, are so disconnected from the FRAMEWORK of societies that short of them like, using their powers to conquer society and put themselves in charge overall, there’s not the same fear of the ‘power’ of superheroes as opposed to the ‘power’ of institutions: the fear that the same power that is used to protect people can just as easily be turned against people and used to control them instead.

The danger of the Batman/Bruce Wayne concept, that I feel a lot of writers trip and fall into....is that Bruce’s fundamental ‘superpower’....is literally the SAME as the fundamental power of institutions:

Overwhelming and unmatchable access to resources.

So unlike most other superheroes, no matter how much confidence we put in Bruce’s own singular morality as compared to that of an uncaring institution....its very hard to get away from the reality that Bruce’s ‘superpower’ IS fundamentally much easier to slot into the framework of society in ways that other superpowers just aren’t. And this complicates things considerably.....because as much as Bruce is just one guy.....his RESOURCES, comparable to that of entire existing institutions....make him a kind of institution unto himself. And so it can very easily become a case of ‘meet the new boss, same as the old boss.’ Whereas other superheroes, no matter how powerful they are.....they’re a little more distanced from the system as a whole and the only way for them to effectively usurp institutional power is for them to just willfully insert themselves at the top/control of society in ways most of them are never going to actually attempt.

The line is a lot more inherently blurred in Bruce’s case however.

And truthfully, this issue IS built into the entire Batfam as a whole. Its why I think yeah, it IS a problem when Jason inserts himself into the same role of judge, jury and executioner as the state does. Its why I always prefer keeping Dick as either one of the Titans, concerned with supervillains and demonic foes, or else focused on opposing the police as an institution with no real interest in stepping into its shoes. Its why I think Bruce’s greatest ‘gift’ to Gotham was investing so much of himself, his knowledge, skills, resources, in the uplifting of his various children, who all hail from all different backgrounds, communities, walks of life, etc.....

Because even though these same problems exist in the entire Batfam as a whole, they don’t exist to the same degree or in the same ways when you look at the scenario from the angle of “what would various children from persecuted/oppressed backgrounds do if they accrued the kinds of resources that let them address the problems of their childhoods on a systemic level”......versus “how do you keep a born and raised billionaire who believes that he - in part because of his background, his education, his circumstances of birth - IS the solution to his city’s problems....from being a kind of noblesse oblige situation?”

Idk, idk. I’m just saying the Batfam franchise as a whole is messy and complicated, a lot more so than other superhero franchises, especially when you try and utilize it for social commentary....

But that’s not a BAD thing. It just means that the stories examining these problems and trying to find solutions or alternative takes on it are SUPPOSED to be weird and experimental and messy, and I think that anyone who thinks they have a simple solution or clean take that ‘solves’ the Batfam franchise’s inherent issues is well. Kidding themselves.

A simple solution or take does not exist. It can not exist.

Because the problems are manifold and hard to untangle.

That doesn’t mean they’re not worth trying to untangle or address, it just means....the way to do that is not to look for a simple knife to cut through that Gordian Knot. Rather, accept that this is not a Gordian Knot, not an abstract thought experiment. Its a whole different beast, and requires a whole different kind of analysis and exploration.

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