#i was going to add something about parallax hal but this is already so long lol

[roobylavender]

the thing i don’t really get about people’s love for the morrison batman run on an ideological level (bc obv we have rehashed the racism angle to death on here) is like. sure there are always points to be made about the harmful extremes of vigilantism and how it hurts not just ordinary victims who are strangers to you but also your friends and family and inevitably yourself. but those are things you can accomplish while maintaining a core characterization and i don’t think that’s something that ever applies to morrison’s version of bruce at all. bruce becoming someone who would believe in vigilantism to the point of mass surveillance and control is at complete odds with the bruce developed in the eighties and nineties who began to realize the overreach vigilantes possessed and how the future he was working towards had to be one where he could imagine them no longer existing. he created entire failsafe mechanisms for his closest friends bc he recognized that power in the wrong hands was an incredibly dangerous thing. his interpretation of the no killing rule was specifically about refusing to take control bc he believed he had no right to be afforded the power of ultimate judgment and wanted his priority to be saving victims before they met untimely fates

if you want to drive bruce to his natural conclusion, it has to draw from his core, which paints the picture of a person who cares too much to the point of delusion. an icarus of heroes, if you will. he cares so much he’s willing to let people walk away and hate him if it means allowing them to move on and remain protected. he cares so much he’s willing to shift all burdens onto himself so that no one else will have to suffer for the cause. there’s a deep tragedy in bruce’s inclinations towards isolation, but it’s mired in the selflessness of martyrdom as opposed to the selfishness of pride. if bruce ever meets his end it has to be with him dying in service of the vision he was striving for but tragically could not achieve bc he was only one man and it takes more than that to change the world. his death has to be an act of the most delusional love. love for his family, love for his friends, love for people, love for the world. a heartbreaking tragedy steeped in the most palpable hope. something as simple as diving in to save someone but not making it out alive in the process. we’ve come to read about a batman defined by the most expansive events and life-changing decisions, but the classic batman was best defined by what he accomplished in the everyday. it seems only fitting he would die trying to do the right thing

[kiseiakhun]

So where's the HalGuyKyle essay? 👀

Okay okay okay

This got long so I'm going to just

So the thing about them is that they each build on a part of something that the other two lack when they're in a relationship together. Kyle and Hal are too indirect - Hal's not one for talking things out, and I can think of at least three examples of Kyle just happy to float along in relationships even when he KNOWS there are issues. Guy is a metaphorical battering ram of honesty. He won't let you hide things. He's indelicate, and he hates secrets, and you know exactly where you stand with him. Kyle and Hal can dance in circles forever, but Guy will plow through that circle. More than just forcing them to confront their truths, Guy is a force of motion. He's something that keeps moving forward, not letting the other two fall into stagnation, and I think Kyle and Hal would both be attracted to how solid he finds himself, how he's unflinching in his conviction. Guy knows who he is, while Kyle and Hal (especially Hal) go through like three identity crises a year. I wouldn't call him simple, but being with him is uncomplicated. It's not always easy, sure, but no matter what, he's devoted, he's sure of himself, he's sure of who they are. Guy is like a scaffold, or a guiding light. He's solid and dependable. You always know what you're getting.

Meanwhile, Guy and Kyle together feels like. They feel like the most stable twosome of the group, but maybe I'm biased because I'm still fresh off of binging all the guykyle fics lmao. They're devoted to each other - remember how Guy went red because Kyle died? That moment lives in my head forever. But I don't think Kyle can really... get the full complexity of Guy in the way that Hal can. And it's not through lack of trying, or deliberate ignorance (though Kyle does have a habit of putting his partners on pedestals), but simply just. Not from being there. Hal and Guy have such a long history together. They're the ones who've seen each other at their worst. I haven't gotten to the point where I see a lot of Kyle and Guy's dynamic together in the comics, but they seem to lift each other up. They seem to bring out the best versions of each other, but sometimes that's not what you need. And I think Hal has an easier time of seeing all of Guy, of knowing all he is. The interesting thing about Guy is that he seems to know the people around him - of how and why they act, their motivations, the things that drive them - better than he knows himself. And it's interesting because Hal doesn't tend to focus a lot on others, either, but he does have an intrinsic knowledge of Guy. They're similar enough that Hal barely has to try in order to Perceive him, but they differ in that Hal actually does introspection. So he's aware of how his own brain works, he overthinks his own motivations and what drives him it's that parallax induced trauma to the point of landing on an ouroboros of recursive thought loops. He Knows Guy, much as he wishes he didn't sometimes, and it can be refreshing to be around someone who you don't have to be perfect around. Kyle is just... so good. He makes everyone want to be good. When you're around him, you want to be the good person he knows you are.

And I could write ANOTHER essay on how Kyle and Hal were written to be complete opposites of each other, but the circumstances of them becoming a lantern were so similar. They both started off completely alone. There was no one to guide them at the start of their careers, no one to help them. Hal was the first, at least the first in earth, yes Alan was technically the first but he didn't have the corps so I'm not including him in this count. And when Kyle was GL, there were no corps. They were gone. They were completely destroyed. Kyle was the only lantern for a DECADE. Well, a decade in real time so like, probably two years in universe. And I don't think anyone else quite understands that particular type of loneliness. Even when the corps were back, Kyle and Hal are the ones who are like. Idk if exceptional is the right word but they keep getting singled out? Like Hal as the spectre, white lantern Kyle, etc. It's that sense of belonging yet not belonging all at once, and they both feel like the other is too good for them and it's like how by being on opposite sides of a spectrum, you're closer to each other than the folks in the middle. They don't seem like they should get each other, but they DO. When one of them says "I give up," the other one is there, telling him no, and holding out his hand. Kyle brought Hal BACK FROM THE DEAD and Hal brought Kyle back from parallax!! They SHARED THE SAME MIND. If Hal and Guy see and acknowledge the dark, ugly parts of each other, Kyle and Hal have metaphorically touched hearts. They've seen each others soul and they deem it worthy. Adding Hal to Guykyle is like adding salt to taffy. It adds depth to something that's already good. I guess this metaphor only works if you like saltwater taffy.

AND while I love halguy, they're as liable to break bones as they are to make out. They've both internalized different aspects of toxic masculinity and they seem like the most volatile combination. When they're good, they're great, but when they're not good they're BAD. They're terrible. Hal went to the school of internalizing your feelings until they all burst forth in a terrible flood like a tsunami that destroys everything (Parallax) (a trait he also unfortunately passed down to Roy, both of them spiral HARD), and Guy has an unnerving habit of taking the energy you give him and then amplifying it. Usually by making it worse. Fortunately for them, Kyle is a diplomat. He walks into a gun fight and he convinces them to put down the guns, and idk how he does it because he's also impetuous and short tempered and sort of an asshole tbh but SOMEHOW HE DOES IT. If anyone can make Hal and Guy get along, it's him. Also lbr, he sees Hal and Guy getting testy and snapping at each other and he goes 👀 and tries to insert himself in the middle and redirect their anger to something more fun. He's attracted to passionate people, and Hal and Guy are brimming with passion. He's also so horny, and Hal and Guy are. Like. Just look at them.