#not new to gotham but new to this batshit family

[dead-girl-tells-stories]

DC x DP Prompt

To the delight of Gotham's citizens, and the dismay of her criminal underbelly, the GCPD has a new specialized unit that ACTUALLY apprehends criminals and brings them to justice!

It's a relatively small squad of mostly young adults, who looked fresh out of their teens. But age didn't matter once they got the work done. And they did, as they've already got criminals like Penguin, Riddler, and Bane behind bars for what looks to be 'for good'.

No one besides Commissioner Gordan knows anything about the squad as they operate as a mostly separate entity from GCPD. It was rare to see any of them, and any photos taken were unusually blurry. They are also extremely secretive; if you exclude their social media which are usually just shit posts, memes, and thirst edits of the Wayne family.

They were a total mystery. Almost as mysterious as Batman.

But those who have seen/worked with the squad before all had the same thing to say about them. They were cool. They had an unusually effective method. And their leader is a menace. With his sharp teeth and pointed smile. And bright blue eyes that spoke to your soul. It was a pleasure to see/ work with him, it really was. But they weren't planning on doing so again for a long time.

That being said, Gotham had been quiet for a while. A bit too quiet if you ask anyone, especially the Bats. Strangely, it didn't feel like the usual calm before the shit storm. The instinctual pit in their guts that usually formed just wasn't there. This was different. This wasn't the calm before the storm. This was the ocean receding. But no one seemed to realize it yet.

Not until the tsunami came crashing down on them.

The GCPD special unit accounts that had been inactive for the last three months suddenly pinged to life. Everyone who followed them clicked the notification almost immediately. With this unnerving calm surrounding them, who the hell didn't want to see what batshit crazy statement they would make after three months of radio silence.

What they didn't expect, was to see a crystal-clear picture of justice finally being served.

The picture was a selfie, taken in an abandoned warehouse. In the middle of the dirty floor was the Joker. He was tied up and his head hung low. You could see how beaten he was, his clothes torn and bloody. His face paint was also coming off, revealing pale blotchy skin. Reminding everyone that, he was still human, just like the rest of them.

Behind him, all lined up with smiles on their faces, was Team Phantom. They were a bit bloody and bruised as well but overall in much better condition. They weren't wearing the normal GCPD navy blue uniform, but black and white ones. All stylized to fit the wearers taste. They all looked so young, but their eyes looked like old tired eyes, finally getting some relief.

From in the corner was their leader. Only part of his face was in the picture. One glowing blue eye, and part of his Cheshire smile. His hand making a peace sign next to the Joker. Even with only part of his being shown, everyone could tell he was relived as well.

And while the picture itself was shocking, the caption was what really got them. The top was what you would usually expect from the team. A big bold 'GOT EM' ' at the top. But at the bottom in small, almost unnoticeable text was:

"He will face his punishment. We will get our retribution. May we finally rest in peace."

[i-cant-sing]

Hmmm I could get tired over any fandom but.... batfam???? Yall would never see me tired of talking about them.

Like think just how absolutely batshit crazy they'd go if reader fractures her limb or something. Maybe reader like slips off the stairs or falls from a swing or something, and the batfam- they have to watch it all happen in slow motion, and nothing- there's absolutely nothing they can do to help you. It's scarring for Dick to watch the color drain from your face as you drip to the ground. It's scarring for Jason to hear the nasty crack as your bone bends in an ugly handle. It's scarring for Tim to hear you scream in pain. It's scarring for Damian to see the blood pour out of your body. And it's oh so heart wrenching for Bruce to hear you cry into his chest as he carries you to Alfred to get your cast done.... how hopeless he felt, unable to soothe your pain.

But things only seem to go even more downhill from there. As you recover, the family has silently decided to double down on their paranoia and be even more coddling and protective of you. You wanna walk down the stairs? Nope, here comes big bro Jason to hold your hand- or better yet, carry you around in his arms. Why risk you even tripping over air?

Wanna get something from the top shelf? Stand back, dont need the shelf or something heavy falling over your head and cracking your skull open. Let Dick pull the cookie jar down for you- but why are you even eating cookies this late???? You need to get some healthy nutrients in you, lest you should have weak frail bones. Heres your broccoli.

Wanna play video games or go on socials? Well, no more! Dont need you getting influenced by the violent storylines and bad news from around the world- Tim wouldnt your mental health to be affected. If you really want, you can use his laptop... under his supervision.

What the fuck do you think youre doing staying up past your bedtime? What do you mean youre too old to have a bedtime???? Get your ass back in bed before Damian drags you back like a gremlin and REMINDS you of the bedtime he has set for YOU, because he doesnt need you becoming an insomniac and turning insane. He will not be the one to bust you out of Arkham asylum (he absolutely would, but hed be complaining all the way) just because you decided you didnt need your 10 hours of sleep!

Wanna go to your therapist? Well, you cant cause he suddenly moved far away and every other therapist in gotham is a maniac in disguise. Bruce doesnt get why you cant just talk to him about your feelings??? Dont you trust him? Your dear father, the very man whod hold you in his arms and shield you from the scary lightening when you were young? The very man who you would ramble on to about everything and anything, including tattling on Damian locking you in his room and throwing a tantrum when Jason took you away when you were all kids? You can tell him anything sweetie, even if you wanna bitch about the batfam... it'll hurt a bit, but hed be okay (absolutely has big sad eyes when you tell him how everyones just too suffocating for you and you wanna leave them)

[klanced]

i just finally watched the batman (2022) and need a repository for my thoughts

anyway yes i know i am the voltron blog but you all must understand. and this is key to my lore. that i am an insane batman fan. i haven't kept up with comics in recent years but i am a total sleeper agent when it comes to batman and i've been waiting literal months to watch The Batman (2022) and i finally watched it last night and have been marinating in my thoughts since. and also my parents are tired of hearing my ranting and watching me walk around in circles.

ANYWAY.

-

cinematography

this is literally the best looking batman film in years, if not the best looking one ever. the color grading was like a balm to my eyes, especially after the slog fest that is some of the other superhero movies... even with the constant rain the city never looked washed out, reeves and his set designers made such awesome choices when it came to fluorescent and neon lighting... the DINER SCENE!!!!!!!!!!! also omfg the way they made battinson the Red and Black Batman like what an excellent color combination. i loved it. i need to buy some of the theatrical release posters post HASTE.

more than anything this movie was SHOT like a comic book and so many scenes looked like they were ripped straight from a comic book, like i could visualize the paneling and everything... so freaking baller.

my family wasn't super impressed but i think it's because they expected an action movie but No You Don't Get It. batman sees the world as a gritty detective noir movie but to everyone else in gotham they're living in a horror movie and that is BATMAN CINEMA!!!!

when the riddler was arrested i was like 'wait there's still 40 minutes?' and then i preceded to have my mind completely blown. i kept questioning what reeves was doing only for him to IMMEDIATELY correct me minutes later. literally, let this man cook he knows what he's doing. when bruce lit the flare i didn't immediately get it -- and then the little mayor's boy reached for batman without any hesitation. and then the crowd began to follow him, closing the distance. and then he began to lead them to higher crowd. And Then I Got It.

-

2. gotham

yes i'm devoting an entire section just to the city.

gotham city is one of the hardest things to get right in any kind of batman media. like gotham is Not Normal and that should always be something hovering in the background. but many directors just don't bother because gotham architecture is so fundamentally different from normal sensibilities that building lore accurate sets would be both incredibly costly and almost impossible to do. but matt reeves tried and the movie was so unbelievably better for it.

bvs gotham was basically just new york city and don't even get me STARTED on how futuristic minimalistic modern the nolan movies were. ugh.

but when bruce and alfred were in their penthouse suite surrounded by fifty layers of gothic style trim my dad verbally said 'are they in a fucking church or something' and like YES DAD! that's the POINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! gotham is supposed to be borderline CAMPY GOTHIC like the city itself is not just a setting, it's a full blown supporting character. the city looking batshit is essential lore and PIVITOL to the world building that has produced a man dressed up as a bat to fight crime like you DON'T GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! batman is divorced from our reality but he is GROUNDED IN GOTHAM!!!!

actually side note i've been playing gotham knights on the PC and 1) the game is way better than critics gave it credit for and 2) GOTHAM LOOKS SO GOOD IN THIS GAME. THE LIGHTING IS CRAZYYYY. best adaptation of gotham city fr, i loved the arkham video game series but the panache. the style. it became so diluted after arkham asylum fr.

my one criticism is that reeves needed to make one more rooftop set it was so silly that all the characters kept returning to the same gcpd roof with the bat signal on it.

-

3. plot

FINALLY A MOVIE WHERE BRUCE IS A DETECTIVE. i've waited literal years for this. i do wish batman had been a little bit more active/proactive in the plot, i.e. not strictly following with riddler's games, but this is also early batman so i'm more forgiving of his rookie mistakes... however in the second movie i expect him to be on his BALL GAME!!!! give me plot-armor-borderline-prescient batman PLEASE MR. REEVES I BEG OF THEE.

LOVED this adaptation of the riddler. using the zodiac killer as an inspiration for the riddler was amazing, brilliant, showstopping, spectacular. and they kept a little bit of camp in paul dano's performance which i appreciate. i don't think we'll ever go back to batman forever levels of camp, but that's okay </3

there was a nod to the character of hush in the movie (at least that's how i'm choosing to interpret it) but i don't think they could ever use hush in the future because they already adapted so much of his gimmick for the riddler... but that's okay tbh i don't think hush is that interesting anyway.

at its core the batman was a buddy cop movie and i LOVED that. jeffrey wright KILLED it as lieutenant gordon and the dynamic between batman and gordon was amazing. excellent usage of our favorite future-commissioner, you could really see they already had an established rapport but their bond was becoming even stronger... their conversation in the interrogation room was so amazing, as well as their scene with the penguin.

my one criticism is that alfred became non-existent after a certain point. also lowkey the lego batman movie did a better job at the 'bruce realizes that his trauma has made him reluctant to form bonds or deepen them because of his fear of losing anyone else' subplot. lego batman movie on top!

-

4. characterizations

everyone and their mom has already talked about how this version of bruce wayne is more focused on developing his identity as the batman versus his identity as brucie wayne so i won't repeat those essays. but i will say that i have such high hopes for bruce's development in the sequel. like the way the movie ended with him emphasizing how he needs to become a 'symbol of hope for the city' reads to me as him preparing to finally re-enter gotham society as Billionaire Bruce Wayne and i am SO READY FOR IT.

but what i actually want to talk about is how amazing catwoman's development is. i love how much backstory they gave her in this movie. i will always love the nolanverse version of catwoman but you really learn almost nothing about selina in TDKR. but in the batman selina's is this fully fleshed out character. you can immediately guess what her life has been like. and her motivations in the story... the way she was prepared to run until she found annika... and then she immediately changed gears and focused on vengeance for annika and her mother... god, i love it.

cobblepot's character was also so, so good. you can intimately tell that he's a two-faced bastard who's spent years being a yes-man purely so he can climb the social ladder. i know colin farrell is going to rock the HELL out of that monocle in the sequel.

-

5. hopes for the future

i know it's too late but i reallyyy don't want joker to be in the sequel. i unfortunately think that's more or less guaranteed though since they've already casted barry keoghan. and his performance was really good. i'm just tired of seeing the joker in batman media. (inb4 keoghan absolutely kills it in the sequel and makes me eat my hat). i don't really consider batman to have one arch nemesis, only that the joker has consistently ruined batman's life more often than all the other villains.

literally the one hill i will die on is that reeves NEEDS to include robin at some point. PLEASE. you can't have batman without a robin, he gets so lonely. literally that's all i want. i want battinson to become a dad so, so bad. you have no idea.

and (and this is key) robin must be a kid. a pre-teen aged 14 or younger. "oh but that's so unrealistic, child superheroes totally break the immersion" well I DON'T CARE. FULL THROTTLE ON THE CHILD ENDANGERMENT. let children fight crime, for the culture.

[okay, okay. make it a robin origin story where dick grayson is introduced and is plot-relevant but he doesn't actively patrol and fight crime and only becomes robin at the very end.]

introduce robin in batman 2, and then have robin be a participating older teen/adult in batman 3.

my incredibly indulgent ideal batman 2:

at least two years have passed (bruce is more or less settled and has finally hit his stride). he has mastered air gliding and now attacks villains from the rafters instead of just constantly walking out of the shadows. i want to see arkham-level combat So Bad.

selina is mentioned, but doesn't really appear (and there are no other love interests.

actually wait i change my mind about joker. joker can be included in the movie IF the red herring "main plot" is that he's using a circus as a base of operations (because clowns and circuses).

i say red herring "main plot" because the movie starts with a joker crime spree, so you think the movie is going to be all about the joker, but then he leads batman to his circus base and it turns out that PSYCH! THIS IS ACTUALLY A DICK GRAYSON ORIGIN STORY. because joker's base of operations is haly's circus.

batman is snooping around looking for evidence and that's when he comes across dick grayson, age 10.

kid dick grayson. PLEASE. PLEASE.

batman decides to visit the circus as bruce wayne. You Know What happens.

plot plot plot

COURT OF OWLS SUBPLOT.

bruce has to balance hunting down the joker while also protecting this little kid he pretends he isn't totally attached to.

this is incredibly indulgent because i have no idea how you would balance joker screentime with that of the court of owls. idk. that's what's fanfiction is for i guess c:

i have decided that over winter break i am going to rewatch all the batman movies from 1980s onwards so i can revise my Batman Cinema power rankings. i will create some kind of metric or spreadsheet so i can grade and quantify each movie.

hell i should also replay all my favorite batman video games. because those are basically just movies anyway. and i miss kevin conroy :(

thanks for reading. god i love batman.

[connanro]

i’m sure someone has made this list before. but i’ve recently reread the robin (1993-2009) comics and realised how Batshit Crazy tim’s time as robin was. here’s a list of major events that happened during his tenure:

obeah man???: still not clear on exactly what happened here, but his parents are both poisoned, resulting in his mom’s death and his dad’s long-term coma.

knightfall/knightquest/knightsend: the iconic arc when bane breaks bruce’s back and azrael (derogatory) temporarily becomes batman then quickly goes off the rails and tries to kill tim, forcing him to go solo and work with huntress (hashtag girlboss) before bruce returns and handles azrael

contagion: the incurable Apocalypse Virus™ threatens to wipe out gotham city and tim naturally catches it and nearly dies before bruce returns with The Cure

the final night: a sun-eater tries to Eat The Sun. tim meets impulse! robin and spoiler defend gotham city on their own during the crisis! tim’s girlfriend’s crazy mafia uncle tries to kill him after finding them in bed together (not doing the sexy. but it looked like they were gonna do it.)

cataclysm: a massive earthquake levels half of gotham, throwing the city into crisis and causing some problems in tim’s personal life as his father relocates them to keystone briefly before tim’s misery convinces him to move them back to gotham

no man’s land (a personal favourite): gotham’s post-earthquake crisis worsens and the government decides that the best solution is to declare it no man’s land. shockingly, this causes Even More Problems. there’s a whole thing where tim’s dad realises tim snuck off into the city, and the news about it makes people sympathetic enough to gotham’s (cough a rich white family’s) plight that the government decides to actually help. cass becomes batgirl!

young justice/teen titans drama!: so much went on here. i don’t even know where to begin. the whole imperiex/our worlds at war apocalyptic crisis. tim quits young justice after the thing where the justice league discovers batman’s Super Paranoid Contingency Plans™ causes the team to distrust him. he returns to the team, which is disbanded after a team-up with the titans goes badly. the teen titans is formed. general fuckery involving tim’s civilian life!

unmasked: tim’s dad finds out he’s robin, confronts batman in the batcave with a gun and forces tim to quit. steph becomes robin and cuts off contact with tim. superboy tries to convince tim to come back to teen titans, but tim insists that he’s Totally Happy Just Being A Civilian, Kon. Really. He’s Less Stressed Now That He’s Not Dealing With Constant Crises! (lying)

war games: oh god. we all know this one. gang war! gotham in peril! steph dies! tim meets evil!future batman!tim who murdered the entire rogue gallery with the gun that killed bruce’s parents. tim seriously considers killing himself to prevent this future.

identity crisis: a Mysterious Villain begins targeting families of the justice league. because tim is not allowed to have anything remotely nice, his dad is murdered (by captain boomerang, which is frankly adding insult to injury). tim invents an uncle to avoid getting adopted by bruce (really, kid? really?). bruce finds out and helps him solidify the fake uncle's identity (bruce no)

robin: to kill a bird: jason todd returns all crazy and nearly kills tim at titans’ tower (dressed in a version of his robin costume) and signs his name in tim’s blood. theatre kid much, jason?

infinite crisis: c’mon dc, you’ve done like four world-ending crises in the last decade. chill your goddamn tits. the teen titans, doom patrol, and justice society of america team up to take down superboy prime. normal superboy dies due to the fight, despite tim’s desperate attempt to find a cure. also bludhaven got nuked and tim’s stepmother gets a traumatic brain injury and is permanently hospitalised. then bruce, tim, and dick go on vacation and tim accepts bruce’s offer to adopt him! yay!

one year later: cass is briefly evil! the league of assassins tries to recruit tim, who barely escapes with his life after turning them down. then he goes a little crazy with grief, tries to clone kon, and has a brief relationship with extreme violence before deciding to break it off.

the resurrection of ra’s al ghul: damian arrives in gotham! and tries to kill tim multiple times! ra’s tries to seduce tim to the Dark Side with the promise of resurrecting his parents! tim refuses! ra’s tries to force bruce to sacrifice either tim or damian to become his new host body! tim tries to sacrifice himself but is convinced by dick to Not Do That at the last minute!

batman r.i.p.: bruce dies, but not really! fun times!

battle for the cowl: i like to pretend this doesn’t exist, because it is Stupid As Fuck. jason nearly kills tim again, but damian (!) rescues him.

red robin: dick makes damian robin. the end!

but not really

and then of course the whole red robin series (which i love) is just like. tim is passively suicidal! tim loses an entire important organ while working with the loa! tim becomes ceo of wayne enterprises then blows up the loa and ra’s almost kills him! tim is nearly raped by one of ra’s’ daughters because ra’s really wants tim’s babies! this is not dealt with at all!!! love that for him

[britcision]

So two things are sitting side by side in my heart

1) Duke’s dramatic Riddler vigilante origin story of teaching himself riddles to try and stump the Riddler and save Gotham for some ungodly reason as a small child

2) Riddle Me Piss, a Travis bit on My Brother My Brother And Me where Travis goes to the darkest corner of the internet, Riddles.com, and brings us back the most fucked up and least coherent “riddles” imaginable

And I don’t know if both Travis McElroy and riddles.com were banned in Gotham during the Riddler’s reign

(Or the writers just did not know how fucking batshit the human race could get on riddles, which, lucky them)

But I need these two to combine, and I’m not sure how

Letter writing campaign from Duke to try and get Travis to take on the Riddler and save the city?

Riddler as a deep fan/nemesis of this bit in particular and it gets him hooked on the podcast?

Duke using it for inspiration for his own anti-Riddler crusade?

Duke finding it later on in his teen years and developing his own love/hate relationship to it?

Duke using it as an active weapon against the Riddler every time he comes across him?

There’s just so many options I just think Duke would like MBMBAM and the McElroys would remind him of his new found family and he would never let any of them live it down

(Dick’s a total Travis, he has wild middlest brother energy for an only child turned oldest sibling)

(Jason’s a Travis too)

(Tim’s a Justin somehow he turned into a 40 year old man at age 16 when Damian turned up)

(Steph is a Griffin and the only one who knows why these are all various forms of shade on their siblings but not on the McElroys)

(Damian’s also a Justin and cannot comprehend what this means and thus pretends he doesn’t care to know)

(Cass is a Griffin except she was not nerfed by IBS/anxiety combo and therefore achieved the full power that he cannot be allowed)

[larrikin-is-a-himbo]

Thoughts on rewatch of the Batman 2022

"Ave Maria" faintly playing in the background in the beginning. Hadn't noticed that before.

Gotta look fabulous before going to beat the life out of criminals.

This movie does a perfect job of separating Batman and Bruce Wayne. How different those two people are, despite being the same person.

Another aspect I love is that this is the very beginning stages of Batman's journey. He's not the "perfect, no mistakes, flawless detective work" Batman that most movies portray. He's learning, making mistakes, still needs to improve his skills and craft. And since it's the first years and he hasn't been established as an asset to the Gotham PD yet, the officers, rightfully so, *do not* like him which makes a lot of sense than letting him run amok. (Not that that gets any better with time but you feel the difference in how they take Batman's presence.)

"The city's eating itself. Maybe it's beyond saving. But I have to try." SEE that is how you characterise Bruce, hope and endurance in the face of despair.

The narrative parallel between the death of the mayor and his son finding the body, and young Bruce watching his parents being murdered. Oh, it's so good, I'm gonna eat my hand.

Bruce saying he doesn't care what happens to his family's business and all the work they've done, equating his worth to what he does as a vigilante just goes to show how much the trauma and mental anguish has taken over his life, and now the severe depression, suicidal tendencies, even subconsciously just looking for an excuse to not live hits too close to home.

Robert Pattinson's back 😳 (I am a whore, leave me alone)

Batman fucking up the twins will never not be funny.

You've gotta be honest, our edgelord's entrance into Penguin's lair is nothing short of iconic.

I love this version of Penguin so much, he's the right amount of menacing and goofy.

THE FIRST MEETING OF BATCAT. Love-at-first-sight if I've ever seen it.

I fucking LOVE seeing Catwoman in action.

If I don't meet my S/O with us having a 1v1 and them manhandling me, what even is the point of it all.

Selina and Bruce's socio-economic background play such a big role in their reasons and aspirations to be heroes (or vigilantes). Glad this movie doesn't gloss over that.

Batsy is such a bastard in his early days. Selina should deck him.

He has so much to learn and grow, not just as Batman, but as a person. Yes, this is about him sending Selina as a spy.

Bruce Wayne looking like he's having the worst time of his life when he's in public. I love this socially repulsive man with all my heart.

Bruce seeing his child self in the mayor's son, but now with new responsibility of solving this mystery, just wow. A lot of movies, at least the live-action ones, tend to not prioritise portraying Bruce's childhood or the trauma he experienced with the gruesome murder of his parents, because at his core that's what led him down this path, it's just as, if not more, important, to him being the saviour, the knight of Gotham.

Him getting jealous thinking that's Selina with Falcone. Somebody's in love.

Riddler and his stupid love letters. Get a life.

Batman, you idiot, why would you stand with your face right infront for the bomb.

The police station scene is so funny. Poor Jim is losing it. "Great, now I got you on assaulting an officer." "You got me on assaulting three." Bad bitch energy.

"We gotta get you out of here buddy." "🥺" Gay behaviour.

OOOOOH. THE ESCAPE SCENE. Can't wait to see Batsy hit the ground and eat shit. THERE IT IS.

The fucking chase scene. Hell yeah. Emo Batman has some of the best entrances and chases in this movie. It's actually fun to watch and isn't cringe. What a refreshing change.

"Good cop, batshit cop." Jim shoving the pictures of the mutilated face into Penguin's face. I can't breathe.

Jim and Bats interrogating Penguin. Penguin roasting the fuck out of them. "No habla espanol, fellas?" "Shut up!" FUCKING HILARIOUS. Them leaving his tied up, and him waddling while cursing. THAT'S how you do comedy without breaking the tone of the movie, especially for dark superhero movies.

I know Alfred doesn't die but godsdammit I hate seeing him hurt.

Bruce lashing out because he feels betrayed but also reeling from getting flashbacks to his father's death while seeing Alfred in that bed, my boy was in the worst emotional state. I forgive him for being a little bitch to his dad (Alfred).

The heart to heart between Bruce and Alfred is such a tender and love-full moment. I needed that :,)

Selina should have just killed Kenzie before Bats came around. I support women's rights, but more importantly I support women's right to murder.

Carmine Falcone is such a sleazebag character. He gives me the creeps.

I love Jim Gordon. No particular scene inspired that statement, I just love him.

THE SECOND BEST HALLWAY FIGHT SCENE IN THE WORLD. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. I want it injected in my veins.

When Falcone is arrested and Penguin speaks against Carmine, I love that scene because it's a subtle indication to the end of the movie, where we see Penguin will now take over the criminal underworld of Gotham. The mighty Falcon has been taken down, the city is drowned. What better opportunity for a flightless bird to takeover?

Riddler with his dumb ass jokes and reddit lives. What a clown. He's dangerous but I can't take him seriously.

Batman appears and he just [starts screaming] peak teenage boy behaviour. Cringe lord. Be better.

Starting the movie with "I am darkness", contemplating if Gotham can even be saved, and ending it with Batman lighting the way, leading Gotham out of the destruction. GODS. Him coming to the realisation that Gotham, and by extension himself, need hope and change, not clinging to the past, not vengeance. That is so poetic.

In regards to BatCat, the last meeting really signifies their love story. He loves her, he truly does, and maybe in this version of the story they end up together despite all the, but Gotham will always be his priority. She wants him to live, not just exist, but live, but Bruce gave up on that idea long ago.

"The Bat and the Cat, its got a nice ring to it. [Pause] Who am I kidding? You're already spoken for." OK, Mr. Matt Reeves, why don't you just shoot me between the eyes?

[exhausted-pigeon]

@matchacheezo sorry it took me a while but there we are! Let's start explaining my unhinged (wel not really unhinged but surely complicated) headcanon for Cass and Jason has twins!

-

A bit of a premises:

1. We are going with Sandra old backstory, her sister was murdered by Guano Cravat, not David Cain, and Cain had absolutely nothing to do with her until well after she became Lady Shiva;

2. I prefer when Willis and Catherine are loving but struggling parents, with a lot of flaws but that are trying their best, that the outright abusive ways that are depicted in RHatO;

3. I haven't read has many comics I like (fuck ADHD) so my canon information is second hand, not very important for this but I wanted to clarify that.

Now in for the actual headcanon!

-

How Jason and Cass are twins

Cain wants a heir like in canon, and does find a suitable partner in Lady Shiva (who has become extremely famous after she took revenge on her sister murder has a wandering mercenary) and approach her with a proposal of her donating her genetic material to make the perfect warrior, but she refuses and laugh in his face.

Cain is determined to have the perfect child so he hunts her down and tries to force her in to collaboration but she is better an manage to kick his ass and avoid the LoA people that he send after her.

So Cain goes in another direction and investigate her past and find out her old identity, and the fact that she had donated her eggs to a fertility clinic before the death of Carolyn. So he has the eggs stolen and hires Sheila Haywood, a doctor that was in trouble for malpractice, to act has both the surrogate mother and pediatric for after the kids are born (because they would still have needed some medical supervision even with the batshit training he would put them through).

So they move to one of the LoA bases or something and the kids are born. Fraternal twins, and they are healthy and growing well, but the boy seems to be weaker than the girl, and Cain is all but ready to be done with Jason to focus on Cassandra.

Potentially Jason has some health issues that seen to make him a imperfect candidate, maybe he is born hard of hearing or something that a eugenicist piece of shit like Cain would consider lesser. The point is Jason is not the son Cain wanted and would not care if he died or disappeared.

But there is a guard there that has taken something of a shine to the boy, and he does want he can to help Jason in some ways.

Enter stage left a young Talia, who is there to see how the project for her father perfect bodyguard is coming along. She notices the way baby Jason is struggling, Cain disinterest, Shelia coldness towards both kids, and how it seem that only this guard seems to care about this child. so she takes the situation in hand, and help the man escape with baby Jason, and covers his tracks so the LoA would not find them again. It's not that hard, Jason was pretty much declared a fallied product and the guard was no one important, so they disappear.

The man ends up settling in Gotham and making himself a new identity has Willis Todd, single father, and meets there a struggling actress who ran aways from her family when she came out has trans. Her name is Catherine, and she absolutely adore his little prince.

-

And the things process has canon or whatever story I'm working on.

-

The details may change depending on stuff (like if I go with trans guy Jason), but this is the basic idea.

I have more ideas on Willis and how his experience shape the way he raises Jason but that isn't the focus there.

-

I hope you enjoy! 💜

EDIT because forgot earlier: anyone feel free to reblog and/or use this idea for their stuff, just tag me/message me so I can see it!

Also tagging @benbamboozled (because I added some stuff from the last time we talked about this) and @prodigworl hopping you enjoy it since it was your post that pushed me to finaly clean this idea up.

[raeuberprinzessin]

Coffee Fairy Twins - Chapter 3 - Shadows of what could have been

Summary:

Marinette always knew that she was a fairy and that Tom wasn’t her biological father. But he was her papa and he adored her and she never felt the need to know her biological father. But she never knew that she had a twin brother. Tim never knew he had a twin sister. He also never knew that the people he thought were his parents kidnapped him as an infant or that it was his biological father who adopted him. And since he had no idea that he was a fairy - or that fairies existed for that matter - he seemed like an ordinary human to almost everyone (immortal megalomaniacs may be an exception). Sabine never knew that the child she thought was taken from her was still alive. And Bruce? Bruce never knew that his parents hadn’t been fairies (or maybe he didn’t want to know) or that one of his Robins, who he thought to be human, had a lot more in common with him than he thought.

But it might only take a nightmare and a shiny new pair of wings or two to change all that.

AO3 | Masterlist

Chapters: First | Previous | Next

An immense power rippled through the magic veins that span the globe. Alfred was an old fairy. Well, maybe not by fairy standards, he could barely claim an age of half a millennium. Still, it was an impressive age as a fairy living amongst humans and not in the Otherworld.

Nevertheless it was rare to feel a ripple like that when he wasn’t attending a Blessing Ceremony. He felt as if he couldn’t breathe right after the ripples hit Gotham and it was pure willpower alone that brought him from the medbay, where he had restocked some of their supplies, over to the bat computer to answer the questions that would doubtlessly come.

“Agent A? Can you hear me?” his son’s voice already asked. He could hear the concern that told him, someone else had already unsuccessfully tried to contact him.

“I’m here, I just had to get over from the medbay,” he answered in a calming manner. Everyone else fell silent. It was practically already the answer they had sought.

“So, you just felt it as well?” Dick wanted to know.

“I have,” he confirmed. His breath had returned but there was still a tingling feeling in his body. The kind of feeling one would get in a numb limb when the feeling returns. “Maybe this is a sign to end patrol early for tonight.”

Gotham had the dubious pleasure to be located on a hub of the magical veins. One of the reasons everything just went batshit crazy as Jason once described it. A ripple like this one would lure the craziest of Gotham’s Rogues out of the shadows.

“The disturbance occurred at 00:07 am, it’s too early to return on a saturday night,” Bruce decided and even though his children loved to disagree in any other case, they hated cutting patrol short more. Alfred sighed internally. “As you wish, sir,” he answered and resigned himself to attempt to balance the ripples as fast as he could. It was always easier if he had the other fairies in their family near. Bruce, his son, even though he still had no idea, that his parents hadn’t been fairies, Dick, Jason, who came back as a fairy after his death, probably thanks to the hub of magic veins, and Damian, although their youngest was only a half-fairy and concerningly unbalanced himself. It happened when the fairy-parent didn’t introduce counter-measures. A strong bond to a fairy companion, who also supported the not-fairy addition to the relationship would be ideal. Although a confidant, willing to support the relationship would also do it. Of course, this needed the willingness to be open with another fairy.

And willingness to be open and therefore vulnerable with someone else was not something his son excelled at. You could say he was allergic to it. If Thomas and Martha had been there longer …

He missed his old friends. Alfred had lived with the Wayne family for many generations due to a debt he owed once. And after that he stayed. The hub was one reason. 

There were many magic hubs around the world, some smaller, some larger, although the one under Gotham was without a doubt one of the largest. Almost comparable to some in Ireland, which was the country with the most magic activity. Hubs were places with a lot of magical energy that could be used to open portals to the Otherworld most Fairies lived in. Fairies and magic users with special talents could even use all this energy to travel to parallel worlds with their own human and fairy worlds. 

The Gotham hub had been corrupted even before Alfred came here. And it only seemed to get worse and more unstable the longer nothing was done. He had the theory that some sort of current carried every taint from all over the world - and since hubs connected to other worlds as well, maybe even from there - to Gotham. And years ago some fairy hunters found a way to use the magic. This was what had cost his companion her life.

Vega had been magnificent. Alfred had never been easily impressed but Vega did so again and again. She had been kind and peace-loving and in her burned a determination he had only ever seen in her and their son. Vegaon on the other hand once told him that she had been inspired by her grandmother. After Azelio had become queen, she had done everything to make sure most humans thought fairies didn't exist. It was the best protection for their kind. 

Alfred would argue she used the rivalries between fairy families and fairies and humans to take this position, but she just had the willpower to do what Alfred himself would have wanted to do, so he didn't think too much about it. The only exception Azelio had made were the families of blessed guardian knights. The knights were originally human but received a fairy blessing which gave them some magical powers and a prolonged life span. Knights could live as long as the fairy who blessed them, if they weren't killed and even killing them was a lot harder than killing a normal human. In the many years since his friends Thomas and Martha had been killed Alfred had often wondered if he could have changed their fate, had he been more persistent. He had offered them to bless them. He had wanted to one day properly introduce them to Vega. He just knew they would have become a close-knit group.

But Vega had been killed by hunters, right here in Gotham. They had used the tainted magic to rip apart her mind into tiny shreds until there was nothing left of her except the weapon they wanted.

The pain of losing a companion is immeasurable, he was told, but Alfred wouldn't agree. He didn't lose Vega. She was taken from him. And he measured the pain in dead hunters. He didn't regret their deaths, but looking in the mirror afterwards he couldn't help but regret what this turned him into. Many years later he would see the same pain in Bruce after Jason was taken from them. And he feared to see his son repeat his own experience until Tim pushed into their lives to prove he could out-stubborn Batman himself. Alfred loved all his grandchildren, but he couldn't help but feel especially grateful to him. Tim had saved Bruce and brought him back to him twice now. He wasn't just the boy who figured out Gotham's best kept secret, but the Robin who saves Batman - even from himself.

Looking back, he didn't have all that much time to regret anything, because it was 1924 and some thug shot Martha and Thomas Wayne for some measly dollars and a pearl necklace. Suddenly he had to be there for his 8-year old son who had no idea he was his father. He had to become his father figure instead of his butler or family friend.

"Thinking of me?"

Alfred opened his eyes, not knowing when he had closed them and turned to the voice. His mentor and confidant walked from the shadows. Considering he didn't see her car anywhere he could only assume she came here by shadow walking.

"Good evening, Leslie," he greeted, for once not bothering to hide his exhaustion. She would understand more than anyone. When he was born, the changeling tradition was very different from the one today. He didn't know who his biological parents were. And back then they hadn't figured out things like the Blessing Ceremony during which young fairies got their wings. Weird things started to happen around him and one night he had awoken from a sleep filled with nightmares that would make Jonathan Crane envious and in the first light of the rising sun he had seen the giant wings he now had. The family he worked for at the time chased him away and when he showed up at the house he had been raised in, his older brother almost decapitated him with an ax.

He had roamed about, cold, hungry and lonely, until Leslie found him and taught him everything. Years ago, when he couldn't bring himself to tell Bruce about his parentage, he asked her if she was his mother. "I've always preferred being a mentor over being a mother, Alfred," was all she told him. It wouldn't have changed anything anyway.

Alfred didn't know his parents, but he knew Leslie and she was there when he needed her. After Vega was taken from him, she decided to stay in Gotham to help with the steadily increasing strain the tainted magic caused.

"When are the others coming back?" she asked casually as she sat down on a chair near him. "They're not," he answered, too tired to formulate a full sentence.

Leslie was silent but Alfred could feel her gaze and finally assumed a proper seating position.

"Batman decided it's too early to return on a Saturday night," he explained. Leslie scoffed.

"Do you know what caused the disturbance," he tried to change the subject. 

For a moment his old mentor seemed as if she wouldn't go for it, but then she gave him a vague nod. "I heard there was a Blessing Ceremony in Paris. Rumors say Azelio and Omaru planned to attend which would make sense since we could feel the magical explosion all over here. This would at least explain the disturbance coming from the east. But there was another disturbance coming from the west, just as strong as the one from Paris. They clashed over Gotham which is probably why you're so exhausted. Gotham's taint and a clash of two powerful magical awakenings would do that."

"How big is the chance that two fairies had their awakening at the same time?" he wondered. Not very likely. But not entirely impossible.

"Considering the power we could still feel here they probably were able to complete the whole ritual from midnight to sunrise. When did the sun rise in Paris today?"

Alfred turned to the Batcomputer and looked it up. "06:07 am. Batman said the disturbance occurred at 00:07 am and Paris is 6 hours before us." So it was the most reasonable assumption that they had felt the disturbance of the ceremony in Paris, just …

"Twins have to have their awakening at the same time. But they are also at the same place."

They were both silent as they had the same thought. “Except when they're not in the same place. There might be a reason why they wouldn't be together,” she finally said softly what they were both thinking. Alfred massaged the bridge of his nose. This wasn't his problem. He now knew what caused the disturbance. He would relay that information and be done with it. Why should it be his problem if there were powerful twins who for some reason didn't share their Blessing Ceremony?

“Do you know where the other awakening was if the queen and the king both were at the one in Paris?” he asked. At the same time something about this felt strange. Separated twins and both of the leaders only joined one ceremony? Was it possible they simply didn't know about the other twin? And who had their awakening that both leaders were there? Usually only family members and invited friends would celebrate a Blessing Ceremony. Were the twins the children of one of their children? He didn't know much about the King's family, but his grandmother-in-law had a few children and some of them had children as well. But he thought most of them lived in the Otherworld. Although, Vega had at least one sister who loved exploring the human world. The Blessing Ceremonies in this family had never been big occasions, so he wasn’t sure what was normal. Bruce had only wanted Leslie and him there, Dick could barely be convinced to come back to the manor for his ceremony and Jason had his awakening when he was with the League of Assassins. And Damian would probably be too unstable for the next few decades. Today, usually a fairy would be deemed an adult according to the place they lived at before the Blessing Ceremony would be initiated, but especially half-fairies could be too unstable and in that case the magical awakening would be pushed back if possible.

Something about that thought tickled something in Alfred’s subconsciousness. He just didn’t know what or why.

“Don't worry. I’m sure if that fairy was alone, another fairy close by noticed the disturbance and will help them. Just like I helped you. And maybe they won't even have to chase after the newly winged fairy,” Leslie replied dryly. Alfred didn’t even react to this any more. She liked to remind him when he worried too much in her opinion that had he stayed where he was, she would have found him within a few days after his awakening. But she was probably right. If it was too far away for them to make out where the new fairy was, they couldn’t do anything. There probably was another fairy closer than them.

Alfred opened the fairies-only com line and told them what he had learned from Leslie. Bruce just gave a noncommittal grunt, Dick sounded excited about the idea of twins having their magical awakening at the same time and Jason expressed his sympathy for the twin who wouldn’t want to have their awakening with both of the fairy rulers there. Damian demanded they should both attend his ceremony as well and Alfred closed that line on his end just as Dick reminded Damian that the ceremony was for family and friends.

He obviously couldn’t tell them that Azelio might agree to come, since Damian was her great-great-grandson.

“Is everyone out tonight?” Leslie asked. She had sat down next to him and he felt her magic weave around and straighten out the tangled up magical veins, cleansing what she could at the same time.

“Yes, except for Tim. He is at the Titans Tower to celebrate his birthday with his friends,” he told her as he let his own magic flow out and follow the veins to reach as far as he could as fast as he could.

“Has Bruce finally told Tim and asked him to become a knight?” Leslie asked, unknowingly hitting a sore spot. Alfred tensed at that. It was an ongoing discussion amongst the fairies in the manor. Should they tell Tim and ask him to become a knight? Cass had become a knight after her 18th birthday. It would give Tim added protection and every vigilante could use that. Also, since he went out alone to bring Bruce back from the time stream Tim had drifted a bit away from the family. Telling him and asking him to become a knight might pull him back to them a bit.

Yet, Bruce still didn’t want to hear about it.

“Bruce still thinks Tim might be able to stop with the vigilantism and he doesn’t want anything to hold him back. He thinks, because he wasn’t pushed into it, he would one day be able to get out.”

“Alfred, please excuse me, but Bruce is an idiot.” Leslie shook her head slightly. “Tim won’t quit. Yes, nobody pushed him into this life, he could have easily lived as a normal civilian, but Tim chose this. He went out at night long before Bruce was part of his life. If you ask me, Bruce would quit before Tim would even think about it.”

“You know that, I know that, I’m sure even Tim will tell you that. But we both also know how stubborn Bruce can be. I can only hope that nothing happens to him before Bruce comes to his senses. Because if Tim isn’t there, I don’t know who would be able to pull Bruce back again.”

[forevermore-quoth-the-kitten]

Jason’s the family cryptid

Headcannon on that Jason's actually the family cryptid because his default on anything is to be short and vague. The family has to regularly check in on Jason when he's not in Gotham, otherwise they won't hear from him for months. but he won't answer Bruce, so Bruce will tell a random different batfam member to check in every week. (If Jason notices a pattern he'll ghost that person for a while, so it had to stay random). But they do so and that's fine, but his answers are the cause of his cryptid status. So when prompted he'll say something batshit crazy, but when they ask for him to clarify, it's absolutely not helpful. After that though he'll ghost them about it and whenever asked he'll say that same thing, no more details added, ever. So everyone knows he's done weird things, which is normal for the bats, but because he's never explained the situations, is so much weirder. Some examples include-

-

Dick: you missed our check in, everything good?

Jason: sorry, killer mimes.

Dick: . . . Long version?

Jason: killer mimes in Paris.

Dick: Jason that's not helpful. Explain.

Dick: . . . Jason

Dick: Jason answer me, wtf happened?

-

Damian: Father has requested I contact you for your check in.

Jason: lazarus pit.

Damian: Todd!

Damian: You have been told to stay away from those!

Jason: it's not at Nanda Parbat anymore.

Damian: . . . WHAT?!

Damian: Todd explain yourself!

Damian: Todd!!

-

Steph: check in, still not dead?

Jason: checking in, still alive.

Steph: cool. Where are you now?

Jason: just gave my best memory away

Steph: wtf Jason?! What was it?

Jason: dunno, ask the immortal baby man.

Steph: this is why you're the family disappointment.

-

Cass: little brother good?

Jason: sorry, shower was on fire

Cass: ?

Cass: showers use water?

Jason: I was in it.

Cass: little brother ok?

Cass: . . .

Cass: I'm calling Alfred

Jason: I'm ok, it was on purpose

Cass: :)

Cass: I think

-

Duke: checking in? B said to, dunno what it entails.

Jason: you're making sure I’m not insane or dead.

Duke: that's not reassuring but I guess that's normal here? So checking in?

Jason: Rent-a-bat

Duke: . . . What?

Jason: he named us REDARSE

Duke: what does that even mean?!

-

Babs: Jason

Jason: Barbie

Babs: check in.

Jason: ex possessed a date to kill me

Babs: how'd that happen?

Jason: sword

-

Bruce: Jason please answer. You've been ghosting everyone.

Jason: fuck off.

Jason: I was in space.

Bruce: why? You've never gone off planet so suddenly before.

Jason: new gear too

Bruce: . . .

-

Dick: checking in time.

Jason: I did your old girl before we saved Roy

Dick: which one?

Jason: now she's doing Roy

Dick: who?

Dick: Jason who?

Dick: . . . Goddammit Jason

-

Kate: you dead yet?

Jason: no, new team tho

Kate: lovely. Who's on it?

Jason: a hulk child and badass with an ax

Kate: I'll tell Bruce

-

Tim: dead?

Jason: sadly no

Tim: so fucking.

Tim: check in.

Jason: was taking out guys before going back to out invisible floating cube.

Tim: say what now?

Tim: your what now?

Jason: oh I used my tazer titties

Tim: YOUR WHAT?!

-

Steph: my turn again.

Steph: time to play dead, alive, or fuckin weird.

Jason: I'm a teacher now.

Steph: . . . Please tell me your an English teacher or something?

Jason: they're gonna kill so many people.

Steoh: fuckin weird it is!

-

Damian: Todd, report.

Jason: Shush, dealing with knock off Croc

Damian: Jones cousin perhaps?

Jason: he's cool, like a dragon.

Damian: I will alert father to your new pet.

Jason: he's in space now.

Damian: . . . Why do I even try anymore?

-

Dick: how's it going little wing?

Jason: small midest town wants my head.

Dick: . . . Wwwhhhyyyyy?

Jason: killed a cop with my magic swords.

Dick: you did what with your what now?

-

Tim: sup nerd. What'ya up to?

Jason: my ex possessed my other ex.

Tim: think Babs mentioned that?

Jason: yeah but I'm sad.

Tim: that's reasonable.

Jason: no, I think she killed dog.

Tim: which one?

Tim: you have a dog?

Tim: Jason, seriously, what the fuck?

Tim: which ex?

Tim: when did you get a dog?

Tim: what was its name?

Jason: he was dog.

Tim: you're bad at this.

-

*note, these are not in order, but all have happened.

[river-bottom-nightmare]

okay but imagine how absolutely messed up bruce must feel about laughter.

the first, the loudest, the most prevalent type is his children's laughter. dick was hit hard by his parents' murder, was hit even harder by being dropped into the worst city of an entirely new country where no one looked like him, talked like him, acted like him. but once he and bruce grew to trust each other, it was like a dam had been smashed open, ripped apart brick by brick. he chortled at bruce whenever bruce said the simplest things, giggled at anything remotely fascinating he found around him, took utter glee in his chilling little cackle that put the hairs of the gotham underworld on edge. none of his other children had quite the propensity for showing joy as dick did, but jason's rare warm laughs lit bruce up from the inside out. tim would always try to muffle his laughter, trembling and turning red under the hand slapped over his mouth, but would usually end up giving in and falling to pieces in either the loudest or quietest way possible. once tim started becoming tim in bruce's eyes, not jason with a wrong-nose-wrong-chin-wrong-hair-wrong-everything, he started actively working to draw those fits of laughter out. cassandra had so little experience with being able to express pure joy that every chuckle of hers was a gift, every wide-eyed and joyful sound she made caused bruce to hug her a little tighter whenever he could. damian still wasn't the most comfortable around him, but he'd overheard him laughing with dick before, high and childish and innocent, despite that being one of the last words bruce would ever use to describe his youngest. and he talked to his pets sometimes, snorting in either amusement or derision at whatever he imagined them saying back to him. his children's laughter was one of the best sounds of the world, in bruce's completely unbiased opinion. it was a warm drink on a snowfall day, it was a shaking and desperate embrace in the aftermath of a battle, it was home personified.

so imagine how guilty bruce must feel when he, occasionally, hears one of his children laugh and immediately goes on edge, because all he hears is the joker. all he hears are demented giggles bent and twisted and sizzled into the worst kind of joke. was that how he laughed, bruce wondered, when he twirled the crowbar in his hand with the ease of practice? was that how he laughed when he raised a camera, and made sure to get barbara's petrified eyes and broken body in the frame? it's either those thoughts that put him on edge when he hears a laugh or it's harvey, his chuckle low and familiar until it isn't. until it turns from a smooth timbre to a hacking menace because of his burnt vocal cords, until bruce turns around and doesn't recognize his best friend anymore. the burns don't even register, because he's too busy remembering all the times harvey had sneered with enough hatred to frost over the world at people who'd badmouthed bruce in school, who'd hurt others and treated power like a joke. he's barely handling seeing that scowl aimed at him. joker's pathetic attempt at laughter and harvey's traitorous cackles and riddler's maniacal giggles and it was all too much, swirling around his brain until he went mad himself.

but harvey wasn't the only one with a deep, low, comforting laugh. it may have once meant betrayal and pain and guilt, but it was battling with safety and trust and a flowing red cape in bruce's mind. bruce didn't know what exactly he'd done to deserve a friend like clark, but he was long past the days of desperately clinging to his self-cultivated mystery, and he'd do close to anything to keep clark by his side. diana, too, came up as someone bruce knew he could rely on. she was stronger than her gauntlets and sharper than her spear, and her laugh was as gentle and nurturing as a goddess could be. he'd recently begun to appreciate barry's brilliant mind, learning to appreciate his rapid movement and laughter along with it, and jordan was an egotistical headache, but his cocky demeanor and cackles were bathed in years of proving himself. bruce had more friends than he cared to admit, and though dick had told him to start leaning on them more often decades ago, it was better late than never.

(and what about alfred? tim had asked once, jokingly. where does he fall on the bat-scale of family and friendship?

alfred? bruce replied. he doesn't count. he made the scale.)

tag list: @woahjaybird @birdy-bat-writes @anothertimdrakestan @subtleappreciation @screennamealreadyused @catxsnow @pricetagofficial @bikoncon @maplume-bleue-blog-blog @sundownridge @thatsthewhump @xatanna-troy @red-hood-redemption @capricorn-stark @batshit-birds @buticaaba @comics-observer

[munohlow]

Ok real quick gonna propose an idea for that powerpuff girls reboot:

Don’t

But it if they really must (they shouldn’t!), there’s some better ways I think they could go about it, as well as what I’ve seen floating around (like don’t).

Pretty much all of these are assuming they’ll go the gritty reboot route because that’s pretty popular atm. A dark gritty take on anything is getting a bit tired, I think people are more open to weird and sincere stories, whether they’re adaptations or original. But recently a lot of comics (good comics!) 10+ years old are getting faithful adaptations (good adaptations!) and reviving that early/mid 2000’s taste for “what if Superman, but bastard?”

Aright one route they could go would be like that of Samurai Jack season 5 on Adult Swim. Written and animated by the original team and keeping to its truest nature while maturing it a bit along with the original fan base and maybe have an overarching plotline. The difference being that keeping it like the original ppg would create a stronger contrast with more mature and brutal violence, similar to Invincible’s friendly neighborhood Spider-man vibes and use of graphic violence.

This would be the second best way to adapt besides not doing it at all..... but that would also take more money and might not last beyond a season, ending with a solid conclusion like Samurai Jack did. Plus I’m semi doubtful the original team would be on board to drag out the girls’ story, especially like this.

Addressing the leaked script, a common comparison made was to the Netflix adaptation of The Umbrella Academy. Both are loose adaptations about child superhero siblings coming together after years of being apart, dealing with childhood trauma and their parent’s wrecklessness as adults.

And talking monkey.

Where Umbrella Academy made changes for the sake of depth and character development amidst the sci-fi madness, the CW Powerpuff Girls script attempted to be edgy and gross for the sake of being edgy and gross. They just want to be mature and topical while ignoring everything enjoyable about the original. It also just straight up sucks. I’m no writer but it seems like a lot of people who are writers are pretty pissed about paid professionals pushing this to the point of post-production. Well not post production, it was being filmed, but I enjoy alliteration. That’s also pretty far into development for something this bad, while it was rejected and is being reworked, it still got approved by enough people to shoot a pilot. If the leaked script itself isn’t a marketing ploy, I imagine that’s the real reason it was shut down. CW probably would’ve went through with it, otherwise. Maybe just keep it cancelled, yeah? Yeah.

This idea isn’t mine either but instead of the child star allegory, it could be more interesting to sort of see it carry on from where it left off, as the continued adventures of the powerpuff girls. Similar to the The Venture Bros. (a show I have not watched but know vaguely about, again this is someone else’s thought, I just think it sounds good) the girls can be grown up but start to realize they want to explore their lives and goals as individuals outside of heroism.

This at least appeals to me because you can keep the show’s status quo, keep the characters together, and have them grow into better more interesting characters as opposed to starting with a dour world where everyone is dead or just worse insufferable people. Instead, begin where audiences are comfortable and open to a new interpretation then let the characters realize there’s more to life and explore what kind of people they can become. (Or just don’t do it.)

Also just hear me out, but maybe, possibly? perhaps the professor was a good dad in the original cartoon? And let’s keep that? Let him remain a wholesome father figure? Is that okay? Don’t make this reboot? But if they do, keep him a nice loving parent?

Since this is the CW/ Warner bros who own DC comics, the best case scenario (cancelled) would be to make it more like the MANY SUPERHERO SHOWS THEY ALREADY MAKE. The good ones, anyway. I’m pretty sure the girls have crossed over with some DC characters in the cartoon already, why not make them canon DC characters? Maybe not. Could be cool! Better not, though. But they could still model the show after some of their better shows. Flash, Arrow, Supergirl are all not bad depending who you ask. I just finished Gotham, that was neat. Superman and Lois sounds like it’s pretty good so far. Powerpuff girls would better suit an earnest, straightforward, lighthearted take. Keep the humor, idk maybe up the violence to keep it dark and cool if that’s what people want (we don’t) and have it contrast with family drama like Invincible. All that to say that a darker, comical, well-written, DC-ish superhero thing they should look to for reference should be Doom Patrol.

This show fuckin litty. It’s like the better parts of Legends of Tommorow and Titans put together, as in it’s super weird and dumb but in a way that’s fun and moving. I recently rewatched season one as refresher before getting into season two and dammit if it didn’t get me in my feels amidst the quarantine. It’s about broken people working through their issues and pulling themselves together to help one another. Admittedly, it doesn’t have the best representation of those with disassociative identity disorder, as one character sometimes referred to as “Crazy” Jane has a different superpower with each of her alters. The character is very much a product of the 80’s but the writers of the show do their best to show that Jane respects the alters and their free will. But it also deals with topics of abuse, self-image, trauma, disabilities, homophobia, discrimination, and more in a way that gave me some catharsis while watching after all that’s been going on the past couple of years. Aside from all the comedy and action, it all flows together naturally, which is what you want in any series, not just your gritty superhero show. Doom Patrol is also batshit weird, every episode feels almost self contained/ freak-of-the-week while still following the main overarching plot, and Powerpuff Girls is very much like that, without the bigger plot or mature themes (as it should remain, let it be). Many will find it vaguely similar to The Umbrella Academy because GERARD WAY WAS INSPIRED BY DOOM PATROL TO WRITE THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY. The og comics, not the show, but still.

Also let’s address this

The hell was this about?

Anyway Idk maybe I sound like “Old Man Yells at Cloud,” but this really isn’t the way to go. Don’t do it, CW. Leave it alone, CW. Just don’t do it. We don’t need more sequels and reboot cash grabs, there’s plenty of up and coming writers with good original ideas waiting for their shot. And even with all those new edgy shows and movies, some of which are actually not bad, not everything needs to be so grim. Like sure Teen Titans Go! is a goofy reboot but it’s still just a fun dumb cartoon, it’s not bad, I bet that other ppg show was also just fine. Maybe YOU are “Old Man Yells at Cloud.” But what do I know?

And all THAT to say you should go watch all those other things I mentioned and some old ppg episodes back to back, instead. Don’t fuckin do it, CW

[sohotthateveryonedied]

Hiii!! I really love your tumblr posts and I'm pretty new to the Batfam (meaning I have only read fics and textposts about them, no comics) and I wanted to ask about the year Bruce/Batman gets "lost in time". I know general things of what the kids have been doing–Dick became batman and fired Tim from robin, giving it to Damian, everyone thinking Tim was crazy for believing Bruce was alive, (don't really know what Jason was up to though, was he still murderous towards Tim? Does the pit still affect him? Also I have no idea about Cass and Duke, were they introduced at this point??) Anyways, my real question was why was Bruce lost in time, what villain put him there? And how did he get out? And how long was he "dead"? Was Bruce in another reality or like just asleep the whole time? Oh! And how soon did this happen after Damian got introduced to the family–a couple months?

I'm so sorry this is so long, but I hope you answer and thank you!!

(I’m going to try and cover all my bases here by going into how exactly Bruce “died,” what went down during the Battle For the Cowl, what the Batkids did while Bruce was gone, and how Bruce came back. Hopefully it all makes sense?? We’ll see how it goes lmao.)

Part 1 - What Happened to Bruce:

So there was this event called Final Crisis (which I won’t go completely into since it would make this post a million times longer than it already is), but the bottom line is that Darkseid wants to overthrow reality and release his Anti-Life Equation, which would overthrow the whole planet and turn everyone into slaves. (If you’re interested in knowing more about the storyline, here’s a Reddit thread that explains it WAY better than I could.) 

What I CAN tell you is that during his final confrontation with Darkseid, Bruce is hit by an Omega Beam and turned into a burnt chicken nugget killed. Poor guy.

Final Crisis #6

Clark and Diana bring the body back to the Batcave and break the news to the Batfamily. Batman #687 covers a good portion of the aftermath such as Bruce’s funeral, the Batfamily grieving, and Dick coming to terms with his new responsibility of becoming Batman.

Batman #687

Part 2 - Battle For the Cowl: 

Musical chairs time, fellas! After word gets out that Batman is gone, Gotham erupts into chaos. Dick doesn’t want to take over the mantle, Tim needs Dick to take over the mantle, and Jason says “fuck it” and takes over the mantle himself because somebody around here has to. He becomes this murderous psychopathic Batman and starts taking out criminals with deadly force because someone’s gotta do the job, so it might as well be him.

Batman: Battle For the Cowl #1

(Okay honestly, this series had some pretty bad characterization overall, which sucks since it’s such an important storyline. Jason is portrayed as this violent psychopath, which...okay, he was kind of insane after the Pit and all, but not to this degree. Personally, I choose to owe the bad characterization to Bruce’s death because as much as Jason resents Bruce for all he’s done, he does still love him and losing him would be devastating, which would exacerbate his already fragile mental health. As for Damian, this happens roughly three years after his first appearance, so we can assume it’s been a few months since he first joined the family. He’s still relatively new at this point, so nobody knows how to write him yet. He ends up being depicted as if his main two personality traits are Bratty and Assassin-Child and that’s it. It’s all just a mess.)

Anyway, Tim tells Dick to become Batman and stop Jason’s reign of terror. Dick says no, so Tim follows Jason’s lead by saying “fuck it” and putting on the cowl himself. He goes to confront Jason, which ends in Jason beating the crap out of him (again) and leaving him for dead after Tim declines his offer to become Jason’s Robin. Dick goes to save Tim and ends up fighting Jason. 

Battle For the Cowl #3

Dick wins, Jason disappears, Tim is fine, and Dick finally gets his head out of his ass and becomes Batman. 

Part 3 - What Happens to Each Batkid While Bruce is “Dead”?:

Dick: 

As I said, Dick becomes the new Batman a month after Bruce’s death. He’s got big shoes to fill, and it takes some time for him to get used to his new role. He and Damian end up flipping around the classic Batman and Robin dynamic, with Batman now as the fun counterpart to Robin’s edginess. Dick, Damian, and Alfred relocate to the penthouse above the Wayne Foundation building, operating out of a secret Bat-Bunker in the basement.

Batman #688

Jason: 

After Battle For the Cowl, Jason is still batshit insane and determined to make Dick’s already stressful life even harder by becoming a supervillain with an ugly costume and an even uglier hairstyle. (I know it’s just because the artist sucked, but still. Jason is horrifying to look at during this time.) He mostly just gets on Dick’s nerves by running around Gotham with his new sidekick Scarlet and killing criminals as Batman and Robin wannabes. Eventually, Dick has Jason committed to Arkham Asylum and he hangs out there until Bruce returns.

Batman and Robin (2009) #5

Tim: 

Tim...doesn’t do great after Bruce’s death, mentally. Dick makes Damian Robin, his reasoning being that Robin is more of a sidekick and he sees Tim as his equal. By making Damian Robin, Dick hopes that it will give him the stability he needs to keep him from straying back toward the “bad” side. (It’s the right move ultimately, although his execution was pretty messed up since he didn’t discuss it with Tim beforehand, but he’s allowed to make mistakes. Dick’s father just died and now he’s in charge of picking up the pieces of their broken family. It’s a lot to handle.) 

Long story short, Tim has a breakdown, realizes that Bruce is alive, dons the Red Robin identity, and cuts ties with his family to travel the world in search of proof. It’s a rough time. 

Red Robin #1

Damian: 

Our little guy becomes Robin! So proud of him! As I explained earlier, Dick makes Damian his Robin with the assumption that it will keep him out of trouble, and he’s right on that account. He mentors Damian, teaching him how to channel his violent instincts into something productive, and it works! Slowly but surely, Damian makes the transition from bratty assassin to actual hero!

Batman and Robin (2009) #22

Cass:

Duke sadly was not introduced at this point in time, so he missed out on all the pandemonium. Cass, however, has been Batgirl for years by now, but she got kind of pushed aside by the writers after Bruce’s death. Bruce disappears shortly after adopting Cass, but once he was “dead,” the writers sort of moved Cass around for a while, not quite knowing what to do with her. First she was with the Outsiders. Then they got disbanded and Cass tried forming a new network of heroes to take over for Batman if needed. Then she helped out in said network during Battle for the Cowl, taking care of a newly ravaged Gotham. Then Cass gave the Batgirl mantle to Stephanie Brown after she became disillusioned with the role, thanks to the loss of her father and mentor. Then Cass picked up and moved to Hong Kong to “follow Bruce’s plans” by continuing whatever work he had set up for her there. It was all very vague and confusing, and Cass more or less got swept under the rug during this time. Thanks, writers.

Batgirl (2009) #1

Part 4 - How Bruce Came Back: 

When the Blackest Night storyline happens, the Justice League realizes that the corpse buried under Bruce’s grave is apparently not the real one and that he’s actually alive out there somewhere! How wild is that! This is further proven by Dick after he places Bruce’s body in a Lazarus Pit to revive, which has the same result because it’s very clearly Not Bruce and they should have listened to Tim from the start.

Batman and Robin (2009) #9

Anyway, what actually happened is that the Omega Beams that Darkseid shot at Bruce didn’t kill him, but rather blasted him back through time to the prehistoric era with his memories wiped. The Omega Energy inside of Bruce ends up catapulting him through various time periods, which is all part of Darkseid’s plan. With each time-hop, Bruce builds up more Omega Energy in his body which, when he gets back to his original time period, will be unleashed and destroy everything.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #5

It’s been a little under two years since Final Crisis, though in-universe it’s uncertain exactly how long Bruce has been “dead.” We can assume it’s been a year, give or take. The way he comes back is too scientific and complicated for me to understand, so uhhhh the bottom line is that Tim and a few Leaguers save Bruce at the Vanishing Point and the day is saved! Hooray! 

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #6

(If you want to read about how it actually goes down, then I seriously recommend reading Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne. It’s only six issues, so it’s a quick read and it explains the situation far better than I ever could.)

Bruce eventually reunites with his family after spying on them for a period of time as Insider to see what has changed in his absence:

Bruce Wayne: The Road Home

After that, things quickly settle back into their new normal. Dick and Damian stay on as Batman and Robin. Bruce goes back to being Batman as well, with him handling Batman Incorporated business and Dick continuing as Gotham’s defender. Tim keeps the Red Robin outfit, Steph stays on as Batgirl, and Cass becomes Black Bat. Jason stays in Arkham for a while before filing an appeal to be moved to a regular prison. He kills 82 inmates in less than a week and gets transferred back to Arkham, which he promptly escapes from. It’s a ride, I tell ya.

Aaaaand that’s about it! I hope this answered all of your questions!

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Miscellaneous Batfam headcanons

Dick

He’s really the only person in the family who can get away with getting out of hostage situations because of his job as a police officer

… but he doesn’t

Yes he uses this as an excuse to hug his family

No he doesn’t feel bad about it

He’s a good actor, he has to be with his job, so if there’s other civilians around or the tied up henchmen are still conscious… well, what kind of asshole wouldn’t hug a sobbing civilian?

Clings to whichever unfortunate sibling is closest when he’s let go

Just… no shame whatsoever

Yeah, the family is more than a little hesitant to help him

Unfortunately for them Dick is pretty much the entirety of the family’s emotional support system

So, eventually, someone caves and goes to rescue him

(Also, one time they didn’t, and he was insufferable for months, and they don’t want a repeat of that)

Babs

Babs knows EVERYTHING

This makes getting around her… difficult

One time she decided to make everyone get over their unhealthy habits

She was mostly just concerned about everyone’s habit of substituting sleep with coffee

They'd done everything to keep Babs from finding out

Checked everywhere for bugs, made sure she wasn’t home, bought new phones, EVERYTHING

And yet when they snuck to the kitchen for food…

The phone started ringing

Cue screaming

They only got back their unhealthy habits by begging… and considering they're the bats…

Well, let’s just say it took a while

Jason

He regularly kidnaps his siblings

It’s a love language, okay?

He might not be good at emotions like Dick is

But he WILL break into everyone’s safehouses, grab them by the back of their shirts, and drag them out for joyrides and ice cream

And that’s just as important, really

The bats are terrible with dealing with emotions and he is perfectly happy to help them avoid their problems

His services also extend to stealing them away from Dick when he’s attempting to get them to open up before they're ready

One text and he’s there

There’s two older siblings, one of them has to be bad, it’s called balance

Tim

The only time he sleeps is when Bruce is attempting to lecture him

Of course, he didn’t start out that way

He’s Tim Drake, after all, he has a duty to be perfect at everything he does

But… there’s only so many times you can listen to the ‘Don’t do reckless stuff’ speech before you can recite it from memory

At this time, lecture time has been changed into nap time

Bruce has started to use this to his advantage

When he notices that Tim hasn’t slept in days he starts lecturing him

One time he had a dream where he was getting the lecture and he had to wake up

Bruce had to scramble to start lecturing again

Tim figured out what was going on after that

But the other option is to listen to the lecture all the way through so he accepts that he has to sleep

Steph

I see your “Jason Todd/Damian Wayne are the embodiment of the Cain Instinct(™)” posts and raise you Stephanie-fucking-Brown

The Wayne Love Language is almost murdering each other and it really shows

Steph walks into a room and it is On Sight

Who punches first? Who knows

(It’s usually Steph)

It’s a smack or be smacked world and Steph is just living in it

No one is safe

At least they get a lot of sparring practice

Cass

You would think that having Cass around as a lie detector would be a good idea

And, on paper, you’d be right

She can tell when everyone is lying before they even open their mouths

But…

She’s a little bit more petty than people give her credit for

She Remembers Everything

She ranks siblings in her head based on who has the most indiscretions

Whoever is at the top of the list when something bad happens is the one she will point out as the culprit

And if nothing bad happens? Don’t worry about that, she’ll make something happen

Damian

He definitely gets teased the most because he just happens to be really young

(Doesn’t help that he’s so tiny)

But the moment someone has the audacity to make a joke about him or agree with one of his siblings?

Let’s just say the bats reconsider their No Killing Rule

Damian mentions someone at school being a little snot? Tim and Jason aren’t above throwing hands with children

A teacher gives an unfair grade to him on an assignment? Hope they weren’t expecting to get saved in the next Rogue attack

And god forbid someone call Damian a slur in front of his siblings

He's the baby of the family. What else is there to say?

Duke

He used to be annoyed that he got the reputation as the person in the family with common sense

He’s done so much stupid and dangerous stuff but nooo he’s the sane one

(Granted, he kind of is. It’s not a high bar to meet. Still, he’d like some recognition that he is also completely batshit insane.)

But now…

He realizes there are benefits

Like how he can prank his siblings and no one will ever think he did it

And when no one fesses up because they didn’t do anything? Prank wars ensue

And Duke? Duke gets by unscathed because everyone agrees he wouldn’t be stupid enough to do any of the pranks

Bruce

He has an adoption problem, we all know this

The man practically has adoption papers in his utility belt at this point

The moment a new kid appears in Gotham the batkids all start a betting pool on how long it’ll take him to adopt this one

Most of the time the kids don’t even realize they’re being adopted until it’s too late

“B caught me crying on a rooftop and he disappeared and I was like ‘wow, rude’ but then he came back with some car keys and it may not have fixed my trauma but damn did it feel better to cry in a sports car than on a random gargoyle”

“B gave me an allowance? I was going to say something but this is rent for three months so I guess I’m a bat now?”

Does he even know which kids are his and which aren’t?

(No. He treats every child that frequents his house the exact same because he can’t remember which ones are his and which ones aren’t.)

[verymuchimmortalcat]

Maribat March Day 1: Found Family

Yes, I'm aware it's not March. It's already up on ao3 but I wanted to cross post it onto this.

ao3

@maribatmarch-2k21 

Hawkmoth was gone. There wasn’t even a battle, Adrien had come to her as soon as he found out about his father. Having the element of surprise and Chloe as Queen Bee, they managed to get the miraculi with minimum damage. Everything afterwards was a blur. Hawkmoth was gone. She thought for the hundredth time emptily.

She’d been staying with Chloe when Adrien had come to her, they’d known their identities for the past three years after Hawkmoth’s threat became worse. Adrien and Chloe had been the only two people she had spoken to in the last month after a horrible argument with her parents about her continuous disappearances. And the Bats, but they didn’t know she was no longer staying with her parents. All her conversations with them were mostly check-ins over text. She hadn’t visited or called, they would have known something was up so she texted Tim that she’d be busy for the next few months with commissions and Ladybug and that she wouldn’t be able to talk or visit as often. She had convinced Tikki that using the Horse miraculous to go to Gotham wasn’t using the Miraculous for personal uses, she trained when she was there and it was a good break from the tension in Paris and it reduced her chance of akumatisation. Tikki had agreed to those points but had only caved when Marinette started trying to bribe her with extra cookies.

She missed those visits. She was with Adrien when she voiced that thought. They were at the Eiffel tower, sitting in complete silence as the two of them stared out at the city. The news of Hawkmoth’s defeat would spread throughout the city in the next hour or so and it was sure to erupt into celebration. Adrien’s aunt had already been told and she was coming the next day to take him to London.

He had smiled sadly at her and said, “Go to Gotham, Bug. Go to your Family.”

When she started to speak, he cut her off, “You and me both know they’re exactly that. They’re more your Family than Tom and Sabine will ever be.”

“And you? I don’t want to leave you alone, especially after everything.”

“I’ll be fine. I have Chloé, and Aunt Amelie will be here tomorrow. I want you to go. You deserve someone to be there for you too, and they’ll be there. Even though the whole lot of you have issues with processing emotions and talking things out.”

She laughed at that, a sad sounding crying laugh, but a laugh all the same

“Talk to you later?”

“Talk to you later. Come visit, we can explore London together once things calm down. Feel free to drag the others along.”

“You’re begging for chaos.”

“And you’re stalling. Go or I’ll call them myself.”

“Ok, ok, I’m going. See you soon.”

She swung off leaving Adrien on the tower still staring out at the city the two of them had protected since they were thirteen. She headed to the hotel first to tell Chloé. Chloé was in her room, talking to Pollen as if it was the last time she would see her. “Here to take the miraculous?”

“Actually no.”

“Great. You’re finally going to talk to the Bats then.”

“It hasn’t been that long, and anyways Adrien’s on the tower. Bring him back and spoil him for me, will you?”

“Of course, now shoo. The news was just released, they’re probably already waiting for you,” and then Chloe transformed and jumped out of her Balcony.

Chloé had been right. The news had already spread throughout the world and the second Marinette detransformed her phone started going crazy. There were messages and missed calls from all of the Waynes, official and unofficial. Ignoring most of them. She opened her messaging history with Tim and sent him a message.

Batcave. I’ll be there in 2 minutes.

She didn’t need to bring anything with her, she visited them often enough to have her own room filled with her things and everything. Transforming with Kaalki she created a portal and stepped into the Batcave. Tim was already there. Knowing him he’d probably been there for the past few hours regardless of how early it was. She fell into his arms as soon as she got there. Crying, with relief, happiness and so many other emotions. And he just hugged her back and stroked her hair. “Let’s go up, Dick wants to have a movie night. Cass and Steph will be back from Hong Kong tomorrow morning and Babs already went home.”

“Tim, it’s past 4 in the morning. And I’m going to assume you mean today morning”

“well, technically, yes. Today morning and it’s not like we were asleep anyways. The news came just after we had finished with Patrol,” he said defensively.

She sighed, “you Bats and your sleeping habits.”

“Hey, yours isn’t much better.”

“Guess that makes me one of you, then”

He scoffed, “please, Damian thinks you’re skilled and that’s more than what he thinks of the rest of us. You’ve been one of us for ages now. All that’s left are official documents.”

“Please don’t fake those.”

“Do you seriously think I would do that?” He said mock offended.

“Obviously,” she deadpanned.

They continued making their way through the rest of the Manor in comfortable silence. Leaving Marinette with her thoughts for the first time since she had entered the Manor. She remembered, when she had first met Tim when he had come to Paris to train with Master Fu’s friend who had at the time been teaching her too. When they weren’t practicing, Marinette took him around the city. He had become like a brother to her. An annoying one, but she’d been continuously reassured that all siblings were just like that. And then she met the rest of the Bats and she found the way they behaved around each other fascinating. Teasing and rude until someone outside their family did the same then they were nothing but defensive and dangerous. And somehow Marinette had seamlessly joined their chaotic Family some point in the five years it had been since she had first met Tim. They had become family even before they trusted the other with their Identities which was as weird as it sounds. With Marinette dropping by Gotham to help with Patrol and the Bats occasionally coming to Paris to help her and Adrien train.

They had reached the media room and she entered the room only to be swept into a hug by Dick. Damian was sitting on one of the blankets surrounded by his pets. Jason was sitting on the couch with a book, he reaches out and ruffles her hair when she’s near him and quietly says, “you did good.” She whispers back a thank you. Duke waves to her from his spot on of the bean bags. Bruce was Bruce. So, Marinette as soon as she was free from Dick’s hug, hugged him and said, “Good to see you too B.” And then Bruce smiles and Marinette takes that as an opening and cuddles into his side. Tim sits on her other side and Marinette leans onto him too.

Jason leaves his book and joins Damian and Dick on the blanket pile on the floor, despite the large amount of space left on the sofa. Duke stretches out in the now empty space. They finally settle on watching the Avengers movies.

Damian falls asleep halfway through the first movie and Dick brings Damian closer to him. Marinette feels Tim’s breathing slowly even out towards the start of the second movie and she smiles softly, Tim needs more sleep. She falls asleep around the time the Avengers start trying to pick up Thor’s hammer.

She wakes up the next morning to Stephanie jumping on her and hugging her and as soon as she’s calmed down from the instant panic any hero gets when they think they’re getting attacked in their sleep, she hugs Steph back and laughs. Cass is standing behind Steph and engulfs her in a hug the second Steph lets go, and Marinette is filled with a sense of safety in her sisters’ arms. Steph starts talking excitedly, shooting rapid fire questions, before Cass gets her to stop by bringing her attention to Marinette’s expression. The rest of the boys start to wake. And Steph and Cass go around with the round of hugs and greetings after being gone for a while. Steph’s phone chimes with a notification. Checking her phone, Steph grins. “Babs said she’s coming by for breakfast. Oh, and Alfred said he’s making crepes and we should probably go before they cool down.”

Jason groans, “Couldn’t you have started with that.”

Stephanie crosses her arms, “Of course not. What do you take me for?”

Jason just grumbles and walks out of the room, probably to get ready before breakfast. Marinette, giggling, follows the rest of them as they all rush to get ready so they don’t miss Alfred’s crepes.

Five minutes later, the whole Wayne Family and their friends are there at the table eating breakfast. And it’s a beautiful chaos that Marinette thrives in. Babs and Dick are talking. Steph and Damian arguing spectacularly loudly about something or the other. Jason and Duke are fighting about books again. Next to her, Cass tries to make sure Tim doesn’t fall asleep on his food. And throughout the chaos Bruce just has an exasperated and tired but somehow fond look on his face. While Alfred comes and goes, offering sarcastic remarks occasionally.

Marinette knows they’ll have to talk later about Hawkmoth and Tom and Sabine. But right now, she’s eating breakfast with her family and having fun and all the worries can be for future Marinette. Present Marinette is going to wreak chaos with her batshit crazy family. The one that she chose.

[original-idiots]

Batfam Social Media: Waynes’ World YT #3

- because of popular demand they finally did a behind the scenes of dance vids Cas and Adri go around the city scouting and taking photographs of locations for the videos and then cut to them creating the choreo (sometimes with Dick or Reina or Steph) and to Adri and Damian composing, recording and mixing the songs to dance to.

- The great Gotham bake off started off as a joke. Dick tweeted he would do anything for a slice of the best chocolate cake. And suddenly the manor, his apartment and his office were receiving package after package, box after box of chocolate cake. Some were pretty good, some were downright horrible, and some were so suspicious Tim took to analyzing all of them for poison or crazy fan dna.

- the winner of best cake though was an ugly ass cake no one even bothered with for days until Jason decided to try it during a tea time video and he literally spaced out so long, Adri worried he was poisoned. Then he proceeded to scarf it down and fight off everyone who tried to steal a piece. Eventually he let them have a taste and it was declared winner. The tea time room though? Totaled.

- Bruce gave them one rule in allowing them all to go to the Gotham ComicCon. They werent allowed to use their suits. So they used each others. Dick went as Robin, pixie boots, scaly panties and all. Cass went as a Signal, Duke went as Spoiler, Steph was Nightwing. Tim deviated by dressing as Alfred (moustache and white hair included). Adri was the Red Hood and Damien would only accept Adri’s Nightingale armor.

-actually he wanted Batman but Jason stole it first. No legit, he stole Bruce’s REAL Batman suit and proceeded to brood and scowl at everything. He even won a contest for best impression but then needed a dozen throat lozenges the day after.

- during the summer of Gotham, everyone took to stripping around the manor. Yes they had centralized cold air but somehow it was still hot and everyone would take off shirts and just wear shorts and sports bras. It didnt really bother anyone except Alfred who conceded when he found the need to take off his own jacket. But then Tim and Adri went for coffee with Babs uptown. And Tim forgot they were in public and took his shirt off.

- the pics went viral for a solid 30 minutes before he took them all down...until Babs started reuploading them again.

- on Barbara’s Birthday she got tremendously wasted. Dick was right there with her, Jason was well on his way and Steph was already singing Kumbaya on the rooftop of the manor with Tim asleep next to her. Adri was holding Kate’s hair back in the bathroom and Damian went out on patrol because they wouldn’t let him drink. Meanwhile Cas and Duke took all the pictures.

- Gotham Nights 2 followed Tim, Dick, Adri and Bruce as they went on nightshifts at work. Jason was Adri’s camera man, and Cas was Dick’s for his a bust in Bludhaven. At Wayne Tower, Tim and Bruce were providing insight and facts about the company and it was going so well until a new intern spoke the forbidden words of the tower. “Sorry Mr. Drake sir, we’re out of coffee” and it all went downhill from there.

- because of how much Alfred was seen prepping snacks and readying coats in the last video, people requested to see a day in the life of the Wayne’s ever reliable butler Alfred Pennyworth. It was all really wholesome, talking about cleaning, cooking and his favorite things, until he showed pictures from when Bruce was young, and from when Thomas Wayne was young and everyone in the comics went batshit over how Alfred didnt ever age in them.

-thus the hashtag #AlfredIsImmortal came to be.

- it was Steph (off duty) who decided she wanted to go “vigilante hunting”. It was Adri, Cass and Duke that gave no arguments. Only, they didnt tell Jason, Dick, Tim or Damian who were on patrol that night what they were doing. Imagine Jason tensed up on his sniper’s nest paranoid that someone could see him, suddenly hearing. “OHMYGOSH GUYS WE CAUGHT THE RED HOOD!”

- The Solheim vlogs became a quick favorite because not only were viewers getting inside the world of the Royal Morgensonne family, Adri had brought over a hundred of the refugees of her country who were staying in Gotham back home for the Midsummer festival.

- but of course, these are the Waynes. Because Bruce gavr the private jet for use of the refugees, they took a commercial flight which got delayed. It was fine until Steph and Tim got bored and found a costume shop.

- when they go to Castle Morgensonne, Dick saw the tallest tower and decided to accept the challenge. What challenge? Exactly. He climbed it then proceeded to dive off it into the loch below. The others followed and the staff were so scared they thought there were ghosts in the tower. Until Adri climbed up there with them and yelled it’s okay. And if the princess approves, why not?

- while some of them went on a traditional Midsummer hunt with Adri and her brother the King, Tim and Duke decided to have a photoshoot in the nightbloom fields east of the castle where the grass and leaves of the wildflowers are such a dark green they almost appear black. They get incredible pics and also get incredibly lost until someone from the hunting party accidentally fires at them with an arrow, thinking they’re game.

- “Yeah, accidentally.”Jason said at the end.

-because they all watched the movie Midsomar together everyone was a little skeptical of all the flower fileds and maypole dancing and singing and Jason and Tim went full crackhead after drinking something they were offered and kept declaring they were ready to join the cult. It turns out it was just crushed beets and they were just being stupid. But Damian wasnt going to tell them that when he offered it to them.

- the Solheim tradition of black items being burned in a central bonfire commenced, Dick drank some of the “crazy juice” and Cass was crowned Mayqueen for being the best dancer.

-Duke was also given a gift because the band heard him singing along and brought him up on the stage.

-when they got back everyone realized Tim had mislabelled the number of at least five prerecorded videos that were posted while they were in Solheim and gave him soooo much shit about it he said fuck it and started numbering them with ridiculous equations, random symbols and letters or, just not at all.

-also when they got back Commisioner Gordon got jacked.

- Dick notices it one night on the roof of the GCPD, Gordon takes off his coat and the sleeves and buttons of his shirt are HANGING ON FOR DEAR LIFE. Batman and the Comissioner are trying to have a serious discussion and Nightwing is poking Gordon’s biceps. “When did you get these?!”

- the next day Dick invaded the GCPD gym with a camera to film him during a workout and LORD. The onlie thirst was real, Barbara found it so funny she made it go viral herself.

____________

Part 1

Part 2

[greycappedjester]

What is your take on Barbara in your Young Justice story? As in what comics or shows inspired you? Also, how is she handling(i don't know another word) her feeling for Dick? From what I can take is that she still loves him; she wants him to be happy and will do things for him to accomplish that. Idk i don't think she has time to really "move on" even if she tried because she will always be there for him... along with the other bat-family

Thank you so much! Hmmm, I love Babs a lot but I’m trying to think of where I primarily draw her character from--probably a mix of her Oracle days, Birds of Prey, some Batgirl Year One, with a bit of fandom in general, Young Justice (ofc), and the Batman animated show I watched when I was younger. Anything that shows Barbara as competent, efficient, a badass but also clearly cares about her family and the people she works with. She’s such a great example of a character that can both act marvelously and unhesitatingly in a support role without making supporting others seem lesser in any way--because really how would any of the Batfamily in the 90s-early 2000s get anything done without her--while also being a hero/ main character in her own right (with Oracle and Birds of Prey).

For how she’s dealing with her feelings--I think what you said is fair: she loves him, she wants him to be happy and is glad that he seems to be with Kory, she does have trouble moving on completely because they always work together. It’s essentially Barbara’s a wonderful person about prioritizing her goals--her top goal is to keep her loved ones (and Gotham) safe through anyway she can help them. As long as she has that, she can be happy...even if she sometimes is too selfless in that she removes herself from (or allows) situations where she thinks she’s too biased even if she thinks the situation is ill-considered.....that’ll make sense a lot more after the next year arc, promise.

Bonus very short story under break because I feel like it explains it better than my ramble.

Here is a piece of dialogue I wrote from a short story in Barbara’s POV. It’s not finished so I won’t post all of it; but, it’s called “Prom” and takes place between Year 2 and Year 3 (so post Batgirl, pre-Kory’s arrival on Earth).

-----

Barbara Gordon is in love with Dick Grayson.

She doesn’t let it affect her that much. 

There’s more important things to worry about.

Namely being Batgirl, Gotham’s newest vigilante of about a year and a really good one if she does say so herself. And with that comes other worries. Like containing Arkham breakouts. And patrolling Crime Alley. And tracking down leads on whatever new addition there is to Gotham’s ever expanding list of batshit insanity. And going through the next torture mislabled as a training exercise because “we can never be too prepared, right, Babs?”. Or, hey, speaking of which, trying to make sure neither she nor Dick die in this nightmare of a city that she adores so much.

And then, there’s the additional joy of keeping all of the above mentioned vigilante activities out of the attention of her father aka the Police Commissioner aka one of the most observant men in Gotham.

The point is Barbara doesn’t have time to be part of anyone’s unrequited teenage love story, even if it’s her own.

All of which normally works out pretty darn well except for one occasional fact.

Dick Grayson is an idiot.

Big blue eyes look up at her imploringly from across the lunch table and Babs momentarily contemplates stabbing him with her fork.

“I just thought it would be a good idea,” he explains before hurrying to add, “if you don’t already have someone you want to go with, I mean.”

“You’re asking me to prom,” she says incredulously. “Wait, you’re telling me you don’t have a date to prom?”

Dick hesitates. “Um, well, no, I don’t. Not exactly.”

Barbara blinks, narrows her eyes, and then mentally translates that through her built in Dick Grayson decodifier. The answer comes alarmingly quickly.

“In other words, people asked you and you turned them down. So now, you have to find a date if you want to go and not look like an asshole,” she concludes.

Dick blushes and she knows she’s right.

Not that there was ever really a question because, unlike her, Dick actually is popular. Insanely so considering, like her, he’s two years younger than most of their classmates and makes the absolute minimal effort to be part of any extracurricular activities besides sporadic decathlon appearances.

Then again, maybe it’s not that surprising when you factor back in the whole billionaire heir status plus the...well, okay, the unfair levels of attractiveness and grace Dick exudes as unconsciously as breathing.

Dick smiles sheepishly and Barbara swears she hears a girl two tables away actually sigh.

“I just thought it would be more fun to go with you,” Dick insists and Barbara’s traitorous little heart might have skipped if he didn’t immediately follow it with, “as friends, you know?”

Barbara continues to stare at him because dang it, she might have tripped into a bad teen movie but she still has her pride.

“If you’re just asking me because you think I don’t have a date--”

Dick’s eyes immediately widen. “No! Babs, that’s not it at all, I swear!” He sighs, checking the cafeteria before leaning in. “It’s just...you know how things can get kind of, ah, busy all of the sudden for us, right?”

Oh….

Barbara nods, feeling like an idiot. She should have known it would all come back to vigilante stuff.

Dick looks relieved. “I just don’t want to agree to go to prom with someone when I’ve got to ditch them last minute if something comes up.”

“Oh,” she says, mostly on autopilot. “And at least if we go together and something happens…”

“We won’t be letting anyone down.” Dick smiles before shrugging. “And, if nothing happens, then I still get to go to prom with one of my best friends. Win-win.”

Barbara forces herself to swallow. “Win-win.”

“So, what do you say?” Dick’s smile goes a little bit mischievous. “Barbara Gordon, will you go to prom with me?”

The sad thing is that when it comes down to it, she doesn’t have to think about it.

“Sure, Dick.”

Dick’s face lights up, endearing in all the ways it’s not infuriating. “Really?”

Barbara shrugs, pulling up a smile. “What can I say? You know I love dancing.”

-----

Since apparently this is her life now, Barbara gives in to overdramatic impulses and throws herself onto the couch before finding a thick enough pillow to scream into.

When she finally lets the pillow slide off her face, her dad’s staring at her from over a heavy stack of case files.

“Bad day at school?”

She smiles sardonically. “I got a date for prom.”

“....Oh.” He frowns and there’s something Babs always finds oddly touching about the utter panicked confusion the hardened police commissioner shows with anything approaching the emotions of teenage girls. He shoulders through. “I thought you weren’t going to prom.”

“I wasn’t,” she agrees. Frankly, she thinks she could go her entire life without seeing classmates she barely talks to swaying awkwardly in a cramped gymnasium.

Her dad’s frown deepens. “Who’s the guy?”

She sighs, closing her eyes, already knowing how this will go. “Dick Grayson.”

“Ah...well that’s--”

“He asked me as friends,” she finishes.

Silence greets her response and Barbara shuts her eyes a bit tighter.

If there’s one thing she absolutely hates about being in love with Dick Grayson, it’s the fact that everyone else in her life already knows. Everyone except Dick.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

“It’s fine, Dad.”

“You want me to shoot him?”

She chokes on a laugh, finally opening her eyes. “You can’t. You’re a cop. The police frown on things like murder.”

He gives her a look, a smile creeping in under his moustache. “It’s Gotham, Barbara.”

She stands up, leaning over to kiss his cheek.

“Don’t.” She smiles. “Gotham still needs one honest cop left.”

“Drats.” He catches her hand, smile evening out as he meets her eyes. “If he doesn’t see what’s in front of him, honey, then he doesn’t deserve you.”

Barbara squeezes his hand in lieu of answering.

That’s the thing no one ever seems to get. 

It isn’t that Dick doesn’t see her. In fact, she’s pretty sure Dick sees her better than anyone.

He’s her partner, the best friend she’s ever had, the one thing she knows she can always count on.

But, he’s not in love with her.

-------

Thanks for the ask!