#terry long

[jesamnelovelace]

Many people’s negative feelings towards Terry Long lead them to wanting him to be removed completely from Donna’s history. I understand why. He was a good decade older than her, and she was freshly an adult when they began dating. He didn’t respect her career as a hero, often complaining about it despite having known beforehand what he was getting into. He took her child from her in their divorce. Etc. 

Terry was not a good partner for Donna, but I don’t believe canon should just erase him. For better or for worse, Terry played a major role in Donna’s life, and removing him would change who she has become as a character/person.

The problem with Terry’s portrayal, especially prior to his and Donna’s divorce, was that the source material presented their relationship as healthy and tried to convince the readers of that. Clearly their relationship was not actually healthy.

When the age gap is brought up in the comics, it’s never for negative reasons. Sometimes it’s just a jab at Terry for being old, but often these references are used to show how mature Donna is. Wolfman has even said that he created Terry as Donna’s love interest because she needed somebody more mature like her. For him that meant she needed to date a man ten years her senior.

Only after their separation and divorce does their relationship start to be shown a bit negatively. However, even when it is, it’s not doing anything to show that the relationship was unhealthy when they were together. The negative things brought up and referenced about Terry are just that he was the one who initiated the divorce and left Donna and that he took Robbie away from Donna.

The ideal way, in my opinion, for what writers should do with their relationship is not to look back on it in a positive way, nor do I think they should completely ignore it ever happened. It should be acknowledged as something unhealthy that Donna didn’t seen at the time since she was young and naive. Something that took time/needs to take time for her to fully grasp.

However, this doesn’t mean I want for Donna to suddenly just completely hate him. I know many people enjoy revenge fantasies, and I know there are people that use Terry for those, and if that’s how you cope with things, that’s fine. I just personally don't see that as in character for Donna, nor do I really find it compelling.

Donna’s feelings towards Terry should be complicated. It should be something she struggles with at first that she later comes to terms with. There were some comics during and after the divorce that started to do this, but, again, her negative feelings were about the divorce itself and Terry taking Robbie away and not the relationship prior to these events.

During and after the divorce, despite everything Terry has been putting Donna through since he left her, she continues to believe she still loves him and thinks he must feel the same way about her. It ties a bit in with her issues with perfectionism. What they had was the perfect family she wanted, and she can’t fathom that she’s losing it. 

She believes that despite everything he is still a good person. She has occasional moments of anger towards him, but she still feels positively about him a lot of the time. It’s heartbreaking seeing these moments.

New Titans #117

New Titans #128

Even after his death her feelings remain complicated. She grieves for him along with Robbie. After everything he put her through. It would be so easy for her to be angry at him for Robbie’s death regardless of how much at fault he is. But she doesn’t. Instead she continues to feel love for him.  He took her son from her in more ways than one, and she still loves him.

Girlfrenzy! Wonder Woman: Donna Troy

This display of complicated feelings, where she continues to love somebody she has every right to be mad at, isn’t just something she does with Terry. She’s done this with the Titans of Myth as well. They messed with her memories and manipulated her, but she still feels love for them. 

Return of Donna Troy #4

To me it’s just a lot more compelling for her to struggle with the fact that she still loves these people who she has every right to hate. Even as she comes to terms with how poorly they treated her. She loves Terry. He was an important part of her life. But he hurt her. From the start their relationship was unhealthy. 

A story arc for Donna where it finally hits her how bad things were the whole time could be so much fun if handled correctly. And this is why I would prefer this over him being removed or just having Donna suddenly switch to just full on hating him. For her character it makes a lot more sense for things to be a bit more complex than that.

[cer-rata]

Forgive me for posting from Reddit, but...

I'm sobbing help my girl out--

[donnatroyprincessofthemyscira]

[dc-tournaments]

Why do they deserve to win?

Terry Long

Hawkman

[sebeth]

Celebrating Christmas Without You

[gretahayes]

PAUSE. Why is nineteen year old Donna with 29 year old Terry??? Who approved this??? God the 80s were a time

[wondertwinsenthusiast]

Head full of around 30 yo Dick and Donna sitting and talking one late night and Liu and Terry come up. Dick was not even 17, Donna was around 19. Now they're both around the age Liu and Terry were. Those two relationships happend like a little more than two years apart, neither of them can call it what it was even after all this time, just imagine Dick and Donna finally unpacking everything. Devastating.

Might write this as a fic but idk

[pluckyredhead]

Opinion on Terry Long ( I really hate him and i hope you do too )

I HATE HIM SO MUCH. Terry really embodies the concept of, like, nothing he did was truly that bad, but he was annoying which is much worse.

I mean okay he did:

date his 19-year-old student as a 29-year-old professor (although I am significantly older than 29 so they both seem like babies to me in this scenario)

aggressively hit on her friends

expect her to write his tenure track papers for him (!) and whine when she didn't because she was busy saving the world (!!)

completely fail to be a good ex-husband to either his first ex-wife or Donna after their divorce, or a particularly present father to his first kid

But this is a universe with supervillains doing much worse things all the time. I think it's because we're supposed to read Terry as this very desirable partner for Donna when everyone can tell he's actually just a pathetic, vaguely creepy nothing (and possibly a weird Marv Wolfman self-insert).

The funny thing is that if you read far enough to get to Danny Chase, he's SO annoying that he kind of makes Terry seem okay. At least when Danny makes fun of Jason for dying (!!!), Terry is like "Hey chill out, okay?"

[notyournightsky]

Terry, you are delusional. Your wife, who is the same age as your students might I add, is not responsible for your job requirements. It’s your job, Terry, not Donna’s. If you can’t publish any research to keep your position as a college professor, that sounds like a you problem 🙄

[hood-ex]

Remember when Terry's ex-wife was being a condescending asshole to Donna and Donna just

The New Titans #55

[ribombeee]

“youngsters! children!” always a cool and normal thing to be saying about the person you’re dating

[dc-worse-dad-poll]

Round One, Part Eight Results!

Terry Long has won Worse Dad over Jim Gordon!

[horsechestnut]

I hate the whole Lord Chaos arc, but at least it gave us this incredible panel:

[allovesthings]

If Terry has zero haters, i'm dead.

[dc-tournaments]