I see a lot of confusion on why calling Damian Wayne "feral" is racist/problematic, so here's a rundown.
There's a difference between calling your child or your younger sibling "feral" and calling a character like Damian "feral." You know your child/sibling/niece/nephew etc. They're real people, and unless they have a problem with it personally, then there's nothing wrong with calling them feral as a joke. It doesn't (shouldn't) affect their perceptions by other people. It doesn't become a label that follows them.
Damian al Ghul-Wayne is a fictional character. A canonically mixed Arab/Chinese/Jewish White character with a history connected to some of the most prominent Arab comic book characters, who themselves also get insanely mischaracterized.
He's constantly whitewashed. He's been written with racist undertones (the suicide bomber vest). He's had his character development and progress backtracked time and time again by DC. DC treats him weirdly most days and completely shitty in the worst stories.
A good majority of fanon hasn't done any better than DC. You cannot pat yourselves on the back for being more inclusive or mental health aware than DC when you call a mixed Arab/Chinese boy "feral". It's constant. You can come up with various titles and nuances for every Bat-character, for every Robin.
Tim can be smart, a skater, a genius, the one holding everyone together, the little brother, the one who needs love. Jason can be cool, morally "right" or "wrong", unstable, PTSD-stricken, the one who was betrayed, the one with Shakespearean tragedies. Dick can be fun, happy, the first one, the prodigal son, the one with complicated history and the big brother.
You give them room for exploration. Love and care and attention and research. Many headcanons. You either comply with canon or you don't, but there's substance to their character.
What does Damian get? He's feral. He's rabid. He's a gremlin. He can't be reasoned with. He has no self-control, he's impulsive. He's hurt others, and you can't forgive it. Sometimes he's homophobic. Or classist. Or plain mean and rude to your favorite boy. He's always carrying a sword. A psychopath with no regard for another's well-being (usually Tim in a lot of fics). He can't be taught what's right.
I've seen people cry that Damian needs to punished or kicked out or treated the same way he's treated others. He needs to be brutalized or talked down to. He can never grow as a person, because he's mean to Tim or Jason, and you need him to exist as the abuser. His first move is always violent.
Fanon compares him to an animal often; he bites, claws, hisses, growls. Bruce or Dick or Jason or Tim have to wrangle him, tame him, civilize him the white man's way in lieu of his brown mother and grandfather who "clearly" raised him wrong. You don't see the issue with that? The issue with always labeling one of the few major brown characters in Batman comics as the unreasonable animal? That the child of color is always the abuser, the instigator, to older characters?
And even if you don't see him this way, you don't write him this way - then are you giving him the care and attention you give for other Bat characters?
Do you know anything else about him other than his "anger"? Because he isn't always angry. In fact, he's typically well-mannered. Quiet even, when he's not being provoked. DC's writing will always vary but whenever Damian lashes out, he's usually written with a reason to act the way he does.
Are you making him intelligent like he should be? A hard believer in redemption? A neglected and abused child who isn't meek or crying or closes himself within? Are you willing to explore that he's always exhibited the "wrong" kind of trauma responses - lashing out, being snippy, ruining relationships, refusing to admit weakness?
Do you write anything about him without making his mother and grandfather comically abusive and violent? Will you give him the supporting cast/friends he actually has? Can you write his dad/siblings interacting with him without making them white saviors or therapy pets? Can you write him without a ship or his love for animals or being vegetarian overshadowing everything?
Is he a character to you at all other than a glorified plot device with a sharp tongue and the convenience of being violent?
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Enabled by the 2 notes on my “do you want this AU” post, here it is, or at least part of it because it got LONG:
Okay, so
I was gonna introduce my OCs but screw it, let's just talk about the world instead
So I'm gonna establish that this is alternate history
The change is that there's way more schools (well-funded ones at that!) accepting commoners and girls, due to the efforts of a certain charity organization's efforts. I don't have a name for them, but let's call them Tulip.
Shit's doing this well because Tulip has been a thing for 20 years.
Tulip is no ordinary charity org, however
We'll get back to that
It has three founders: Willard Hans Seymour, Shannon Seymour, and Edmund Velvet. We'll also get to them later.
With that preamble aside, we dive into the story proper
Young Albert is part of the London branch of Tulip. He really likes them, he's only met Shannon once and the other two founders never, but he admires her a lot and inwardly wishes she could be his mother instead. His father, Earl Murtagh (changed Moriarty to Murtagh, expect many name changes to pop up) still does acts of charity but only for appearance and good reputation, as in canon. Albert meets and adopts the two brothers as in canon (renamed Olivier and Lewis respectively) and things go roughly the same for a while.
Until Willard and his daughter Erianne swing in like a wrecking ball
Okay, more like two sudden and very courteous guests at the Murtagh estate but my point still stands
Albert and the Earl chat with father and daughter, but oh Willard's not here to chat with a faker, he's on a mission. He basically manipulates the conversation to make the Earl suggest Albert show Erianne around while the adults chatted.
Alright then.
Albert has heard of Erianne, heard of this girl so much like her mother, the girl who won a court case representing the lawyer-less workers of some workhouse just recently. She had yet to appear in London up until this point, and he notes her attire is... odd. The skirt silhouette is normal like what a girl her age should wear, but she paired that off with the shirt waistcoat and coat combo of menswear style.
Okay...?
As soon as they're in the garden out of earshot of anyone present she asks that he take her to his newly adopted brothers
Albert's heart drops because he knows what his family's doing to them is shit, he tries but he can't stop it, and it'd make a really bad impression in the eyes of the daughter of a charity org founder he really admires
In case the weight of the situation hasn't sank in yet, lemme clarify
Albert feels like an outsider in his own house. He can't relate to his family, his family thinks there's something wrong with his head and acts like it too, and not even the servants are on his side. They obey his mother over him. He may be heir but he has no power.
And at school... what makes you think he had friends, in an environment where children of classist families congregate? With none who shares his ideals?
Tulip had been his only solace
So in his mind: lose their respect -> lose the only place he's ever felt he belonged
So understandably he's panicking a whole lot
Erianne states that she already knows what's going on, her parents know, and they're going to help. But first she must meet them. So he takes her to... I'm not sure whether it should be his room or the brothers' room, but she basically gets to meet them, and reveals that her parents are gonna get the three out of this family's grasp but it will take time and probably would end in the family's death.
Albert is shaken but he steels his resolve, Olivier and Lewis are... suspicious but they decide to ride along.
There originally was a scene where Willard sneaks into the two brothers' room late at night and calls Albert there too, and they hash out a plan together, but I'm considering scrapping it— replacing it with some sneaky meetings at the org office instead, but whatever the case is they are given a plan of what'll happen next, and also somewhere along the way revealed that Willard is actually a notorious underground Robin Hood figure criminal Robin Kinglet. Probably in the scene Erianne meets them for the first time but hm...
Oh yes the criminal thing
Let me explain
Tulip is actually one of the many fronts of an underground criminal/rebel organization who's against monarchy and pretty much sick and done with the British Empire's BS
They intend to go through a revolution and instate a republic instead
Willard is no mere jovial harmless looking man, he's an active information gatherer and leader of said many crimes and schemes and all the shit going on underneath to fund and prepare the org
Shannon and Edmund are of course in on the thing 100%
Two new maids are employed at the Murtagh estate, but they're actually spies/agents sent in by Tulip™ to help the boys endure and also keep contact with Willard.
Something happens that tanks the reputation of the Earl and the family even if Albert's stayed relatively clean, I haven't decided what yet but the three brothers know it was orchestrated by Willard. Servants quit their job at the estate, that kinda stuff happens, until the kids and the two maids set fire to the manor, after which the two maids disappear into the night, so as to not get caught. They returned to their base.
Lewis still burns his own face deliberately, which reduced ppl's suspicions and it'd be actually shown. Lewis is smart, okay!!
No one complained when Willard swooped in to foster the children, the children of a fallen family and two of them orphans anyways. The three brothers live with Shannon and Willard in the countryside estate— their main base of operations.
The AU spans from their childhood to all the way up until they win the war— probably around 1870s but could probably go longer than that. Shenanigans ensue, basically:
Featuring: History professor Olivier, politician Albert, lawyer Lewis who works exclusively for commoners and victims of the wealthy and nobles' bullshit
Erianne and Lewis are lawyer buddies
Ollie, his eventual love interest, and not-Sherlock are locked in a three-way rivalry. A great many things have exploded or burnt to dust.
Not-Sherlock has no love interest as of yet.
Lewis gets a boyfriend. As a bonus the boyfriend is trans and he's very soft.
Not-Bondler is actually trans. His name is Jaime Bondler. His love interest is not-Watson.
Not-Mycroft is an antagonist as is Queen Victoria. Moneypenny too.
So uh, that's it for now, I actually have a lot more under the surface such as backstories and everything, additional cast members, the structure of Tulip the rebel org, etc, but imma stop here now. This post must be hella long.
If y'all want me to elaborate on anything just shoot me an ask. Pretty sure my askbox is open.
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