#the one good thing to come out of TT writing titans

[sarahreadstoomanycomics]

Nightwing 103 variant cover by Travis Moore

[spidernuggets]

Hi! First time requeating something and i hope i’m doinv it right, but if you want could you write Reader meeting Jason’s family? Like, titans + bruce and his siblings? Ans Reader is nervous cause she doesn’t know how they’ll react to her and she wants to make a good impression and she’s anxious n stuff? Tysm! 🩷🩷

Jason Todd x Fem!Reader

OH MY DAYSSS, your first time requesting?!?! And you picked lil ol' me?!?! Got me blushing and kicking my feet. ANYWAYS, i hope this fic brings you justice to your request. If you don't mind, I'll split it into two, half for Titans, other for Batfam!!

BATFAM (based on WFA):

You were pacing around the steps of Wayne Manor. Jason wanted to bring you up to the manor with him, but he wanted to make sure all his siblings and Bruce stayed in check before you arrived. In all honesty, he was more concerned about his family's behaviour rather than yours. He also doesn't really care what his family thinks of you. If they don't like you, screw it. He'd pick you up, throw you into a plane, and move to a beautiful island with you.

You were biting your nails, but then realised that you were standing in front of the richest man's, let alone Batman's house, and biting your nails might make you look bad for Jason. Then you looked at your nails. The polish was chipped, and your nails were jagged. And your skin seemed dry. God, no, now they were sweating?!

One little thought led to another. How did your outfit look? Shit, is it creased? Is that a stain? Maybe you should've worn something more formal, more expensive, perhaps.

Your body moved faster than your brain could think and turned, wanting to make a run for it. But before you could take another step, a certain butler opened the doors.

"Ah! And you must be Ms. Y/n, correct?" The old man asks, a welcoming smile on his face.

Your shaking hands wiped the thin sweat away along your pants as you turned and an awkward grin on your own face. "U-uh, yeah. Yes, I am. Hi." You stammer, reaching your hand out as Alfred shakes it.

"My, you're as wonderful as Master Jason decribed you as. Come in, come in," he steps aside, letting you in.

Okay. Maybe this whole family meeting thing isn't as bad as it-

"So you're Todd's girlfriend?" A short boy who appeared out of nowhere says.

You look down on him. Thinking he'd be as nice as Alfred, you tuck a loose strand of hair behind your ear, smiled and replied, "Yeah, I am. You must be Damian?"

Damian tilts his head to the side and hums. "Do you participate in any form of combat?" He asks, as if it's a normal question to ask someone you meet for the first time.

"Uhm... No.?"

"Hm. I would've thought Todd would have dated someone similar to him," the kid mutters. That statement made your knees shakier than they should have.

"Alright, scram, brat." You've never felt more relieved to have heard your boyfriend's voice. The last time you felt this relief was when you were held at gunpoint, and luckily, Jason showed up right on time.

"Tt. You were the one who wanted us to meet her," Damian scoffs.

"Yeah, and now your time is up. Thanks for letting her in, Alfred," Jason says as Alfred nods and heads off to fulfil other responsibilities, and Damian also leaves, most likely to tend to Titus. "Don't worry about Dami, sweet thing. He's like that to everyone," he kisses your forhead.

You lean against his shoulder. "But I need everyone to like me!" You complain.

He rolls his eyes. "I'm the only person who needs to like you. If no one else does, fuck them. Besides, there's literally no reason for anyone not to like you," he wraps his arm around your shoulders, guiding you to the living room where everyone was.

"Okay, everyone. This is Y/n," Jason says upon walking in. The second everyone's eyes were on you, you wanted you run away, jump out the window, have the floor swallow you whole. Anything to get you out of this situation.

You were sure there would be questions bombarding you like Damian's, like, "Are you skilled in any area of combat?", "Do you know how to use any weaponry?"

Or even questions like, "Do you really like Jason, or are you in it just for the money?", "What’s your social status?", "What’s your occupation?"

What you didn't expect was a blonde girl rushing over to you, embracing you in a warm, tight hug.

"Hi! Oh my gosh, you're Y/n! I've been dying to meet you! But Jason's been hiding you away for a while," she frowns at Jason, who was behind you. Another girl, short black hair, stood behind the blonde, waving at you with a small smile. "Oh, yeah! I'm Stephanie, that's Cassandra! You can call us Steph and Cass!" She points to Cassandra.

Jason holds onto your shoulders behind you. "Okay, okay, back off, Steph," he tries pushing you away to meet the others, but Stephaine is just so keen on meeting you.

"Ugh," Stephanie scoffs, linking your arm with hers. "Jason always was so down bad for you. He literally wouldn't stop talling about you," she says while giggling while also making you blush.

Jason flicks Stephanie's forhead. "Ow! Asshole," she mutters, letting go of you. "Anyways," she starts pointing around the room. "That's Tim, Dick, Duke, and Barbara!"

"Hello," you shyly say, waving to the group.

"So you're the girl that was able to swoon Jason," Dick got up from the couch and walked towards you. "Finally, nice you meet you. My compliments to you. You really know how to tame him," Dick smirks at Jason, who was currently shooting daggers back at his older brother.

"You sure he didn't like... pay you or anything to date him?" Tim shouts from the couch.

"Quiet, nitwit," Jason yells back.

"Behave. The both of you," a deeper voice behind you said, making you flinch.

As things were getting good, you turned and saw the man of the house, making you feel smaller than you already were. "Hi- Ahem, hello, Mr. Wayne," you squeaked, feeling the need to curtsey.

Bruce smiles down at you. "Bruce is fine, Y/n. It's a great pleasure to meet you," Bruce extends his hand out to greet you, and you hope he doesn't notice your clammy hands and shakiness as you shook his hand.

"It's great to meet you, too. All of you," you say back to the rest of the family before looking back up at Jason. He sends you a wink back, telling you that there was nothing to worry about.

A bark came from behind Bruce. He steos to the side and reveals Damian and Titus. The two walked by as Damian muttered that they might as well join the rest of the family.

Your nerves were suddenly put aside. "You have a Great Dane?" You gasped, holding your hand out to the dog. Titus slowly walks up to you, first sniffing your hand, then taking a lick, accepting your affections as you begin to pet him.

"Mm. She's an acceptable partner, Todd," Damian looks up to his older bother as he observes your encounter with his pet.

"Yeah, whatever. I wasn't even looking for your validation," Jason bites back. But deeo down, he's glad his family liked you. This meant less work of him trying to praise you if any of his family tried to criticise you or your relationship.

"So. How was that?" Jason asks, walking you out of the manor, offering to give you a ride home.

You smiled up at him. "Fun. Went better as expected."

TITANS:

He kisses the back of your hand. "Told you they'd love you, sweet thing. Not as much as I do, though."

"Nope, I don't wanna do this anymore," you say out of nowhere. You and Jason were already at the entrance of Titans Tower. And Jason being his bragging self, couldn't stop talking about his amazing, beautiful girlfriend to the rest of the Titans.

And a certain comment from Rachel, saying she doesn't believe this girlfriend he's talking about is real, Jason promised to bring you up to introduce you to everyone.

You were eager to meet everyone, but on the way to the tower, you started thinking about everyone and everything. They're all badass heroes, some wirh powers. And even those with no powers can still fight like crazy. And you were just some mundane civilian who didn't even pack a punch.

If you were a member of the Titans, you also wouldn't believe that Jason is dating the kind of person he's describing. And don't get yourself started on his ex-girlfriend.

Rose fucking Wilson.

You heard plenty of her. How she used Jason and the Titans, yet somehow is still a member?

And how she's also a badass who can use swords... And how she can't necessarily die... and how she has cool hair and an eyepatch...

Jason grabs onto your wrist. "And why not?" He asks, preventing you from walking away.

Your shoulders dramatically slump, and you pout. "They're gonna hate me! And don't say they won't, because if they don't hate me, then they'll definitely think I'm some lame person who just lies in her couch all day," you felt like you wanted to cry. You weren't sure if you were overreacting, but this isn't just some simple introduction with other people. This is meeting with Jason's teammates. A group of heroes, vigilantes, who saves lives for a living!

Jason'a gaze softens, taking into account your anxious state. "Hey," he gently calls out, brushing your hair away from your face and cradles your cheeks. "They're not gonna hate you. But, listen. If you don't want to do it, that's okay, I won't force you to," he kisses your nose. The light touch makes you giggle.

You take in a deep breath. "No, it's fine. I want to meet them."

He raises an eyebrow. "Are you sure? You don't have to-"

You hold his hands in yours, turning your face to kiss both of his rough palms before leaning into his touch. "I'm sure."

Jason leans his forhead against yours in reassurance before the two of you head up in the elevator.

You couldn't help but laugh after feigning annoyance when the elevator doors open, and the first thing Jason said was, "I told you she's real, motherfuckers!"

You noticed a green haired boy clap his hands in victory, receiving cash from a buffer guy with a superman symbol on his black shirt, and from a purple haired girl. You also noticed a thorny Rose Wilson, sitting beside the other girl, keeping a sharp eye on you, but you made it your best to avoid any form of contact with her.

Jason had an arm protectively wrapped around your waist as he walked you further into the lobby.

Dawn was the first one to walk up to you. To be honest, if you weren't head over heels for Jason, you probably would've tried swoon Dawn. (I'm sorry, she's just so pretty)

"You're Y/n?" She asks as she walks to you.

"Hi.. yeah, I am," you reply, shaking her hand.

"Aw, well. Jason told us all about you," she sends a knowing wink to Jason. If she knew Jason didn't want her to say anything to you yet, she would've told you all about how he came up to her, asking about what girls like, how to ask you out, how to plan the perfect first date, etc. But that didn't stop her from teasing and testing Jason's shyness. "He honestly couldn't stop talking about you. Especially ever since Rachel said you weren't real," she sends a look and raised eyebrow to Rachel. Rachel just rolls her eyes and smiles at the memory before turning to talk with Gar.

"Well, I can promise everyone I'm a hundred per cent real," you reply, leaning closer into Jason's hold.

"Jason, where have you bee- Oh. Are.. you the girlfriend?" A guy emerges from the hallway, walking over towards you two.

"Hi, yeah. And you're Dick?" You shake his hand, too as you introduced yourself.

"Yeah. Jason's talked a lot about you," Dick says, raising his eyebrows at his younger brother.

You couldn't stop yourself from smiling, hearing about all the times Jason has talked about you. "So I've heard."

"Well, welcome. I'd love to get to know more about you, but Jason. I need you to help me with a few things. It was nice meeting you, Y/n," Dick says before leaving, walking back where he came out from.

Jason rolls his eyes before stepping in front of you, holding your shoulders. "You gonna be okay on your own? It's only gonna be for a bit," Jason asks with concern.

You smile, holding onto his face before kissing his cheek. "I'll be fine, Jay."

He brings you in for a hug. "Ignore Rose. If she says anything, tell me, okay?" He whispers into your ear. You hum in response, kissing his shoulder before he lets go, kissing the back of your hand, and running off towards the same direction as Dick.

You were wrong. You were awkwardly standing there for a few seconds, not knowing where to go, what to do, or what to say. And from the corner of your eye, you could see Rose smirking at your current situation.

You thanked the gods when Dawn came back with Hank.

"It's Jason's girlfriend!" She almost squealed.

"Did he pay you or anything to date him?" Was the first thing Hank said. Dawn hit him against his bicep.

"Be nice," she said to him.

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered. "Nice to meet you," he says, offering you a fist bump, in which you retunred one to him.

Then, from behind them, you saw a vibrant pink haired woman. Damn, all these people have cool hair.

"Oh, you must be Y/n! I'm Kory," She doesn't hesitate to give you a welcoming hug once ciming up to you.

"Hi, yeah, I am. Cool hair," you try to say with confidence.

"Hm, Jason was right. You are sweet. And pretty," she winked. This made your heart race faster. "You want anything, sweetie? A drink? Food, snack?" She asked while walking over to the kitchen.

"Oh, no, I'm fine. Thanks." You call back out to her. That was a half lie. You were sort of in need of a drink. All these nerves and handshakes got your throat drying up.

Hank grunts. "You sure he didn't pay you? You're like the complete opposite of Jason Todd."

You laugh. "Yeah, he's a hot head a lot of the times."

"All the time," Hank interrupts.

"Yeah, fine. All the time," you correct yourself. "But he's actually really sweet. And real attentive too," you quietly admit, knowing Hank probably wouldn't let Jason hear the end of it.

Hank nods in surprise. "Well, maybe he isn't such an asshole. I'll still find a reason to kill him, though," he grins before walking away.

Dawn shakes her head. "He's not gonna kill him. C'mon, sit." Dawn leads you to the couch to sit on the other side of Rachel. Kory comes up, placing some snacks on the table for the others and hands you a bottle of coke as you quietly thank her.

"Rachel," Rachel introduces herself, offering her hand to shake.

You smile, "Y/n," you shake her hand.

"It's so great to meet you! I'm Gar," the green haired boy smiles. "Rach and Conner believed that Jason was lying about you being real. But thanks, because I just gained ten bucks!" He laughed, waving the money around as you laughed with him.

"So, Y/n," Rose chimes. You and Rose haven't officially met, but knowing what she did to Jason made you automatically hate her. "How did you and Jason meet?"

It was an innocent question that the rest would probably like to know. So you didn't show any signs of disliking yet.

"Oh, uhm, we met at the store I work at-"

"What store?" She interrupts, making a nerve inside you twitch.

"Uhm, a book store. It's also a cafe. I own it," you meekly reply while still maintaining your posture.

"Oh. You know, for a person dating Jason, I expected another vigilante. Or, y'know. Somewhere along the lines," she smirks.

You shrug. "Mm, well. Jason's a bookworm. Not a lot of people know that," you feign an innocent smile to Rose.

"Oh yeah. He told me some stuff about theatre and how he was quite a theatre nerd himself-"

"Thespians. He likes them to be called thespians." You interrupt her. Your shaken nervers were replaced by spite, wanting to put Rose in her place.

"So," Gar tries to break off any possible dispute. "Y/n, how long have you and Jason been dating?"

"Uhm.." You pretend to give it some thought, wanting it to seem like a longer time than Rose anticipated. "Six? Reaching up to seven months now," you reply, knowing that Rose and Jason only lasted less than a month.

You mentally punch the air in victory as Rose rolls her eye and gets up from the couch and leaves, saying she's getting herself coffee.

At the same time, Jason comes back with Dick, sending him a couple of scoffs and glares after saying, "He took too much time from him away from his girl."

"Seriously," Rachel says, scooching closer to you, "What do you see in that guy?" She quietly and genuinely asks, since all her previous encounters with Jason weren't really sunshine and rainbows.

You smile to yourself and look over the couch, watching Jason flip Hank off for no reason, your smile growing wider. "He makes me laugh," you replied.

"So? Wasn't so bad, was it?" Jason asks as the two of you walk out of the tower, ready to go home. His arm is laying around your shoulders as your head lays onto his own.

You hum in response. "They're really nice."

He kisses the crown of your head. "What about Rose? She give you any trouble?" He asks with genuine worry.

"Nothing I can't handle," you smile up at him, kissing his chin.

"That's my girl," he says back, pulling you closer, capturing your lips against his.

You guys see what i did there... at the end... was the reference obvious...

HOPE U ENJOYED, ANON!!

[donnatroyyyy]

A (very long) list of my (semi) unpopular DC opinions

The Batfam shouldn’t work together as a whole big group as vigilantes. Whenever that does happen it ends up being character suicide for AT LEAST two of them and also usually ends up minimizing all of them to one of the skills/traits they’re good at (or the archetypes the writer wants them to be). The only exception to this is if it’s a long arc covering an actual catastrophe where each issue covers a duo or trio within the big group. Otherwise they should stick to no more than 4 ppl at a time in a team up. Also, this obviously doesn’t apply to them as civilians, they’re literally family obviously they’re gonna hang out as a group.

The Teen Titans (2003) is the best writing but (one of the) worst teams. On the other hand the original Teen Titans run and NTT run are the best teams (imo) but have either really bad or really mediocre writing. We as a society need an OG TT or NTT run written well.

Roy struggling with a heroin addiction has so many more layers and nuances to it than struggling with alcohol because as a non-meta hero most of his fights were against something drug-related. As opposed to alcohol which is now seen as a normal thing for soldiers/heroes/warriors to fall on as a crutch, this medium uses alcohol addiction with every other character. Roy’s addiction to heroin would literally be an opposition to all that he’s ever stood and fought for, all that his family and friends ever fought and stood for, and way more interesting because of that.

Garth (like Donna) is one of the most powerful and interesting characters but is never given enough panel time. However, unlike Donna, writers would rather write him out of the teen titans before they actually write a good interpretation of him. And I don’t know why but his role in the Aquafam too has been dwindling with time.

Garth’s openness about his inferiority complex and his inferiority complex in general need more panel time, it’s one of the most interesting thing to come out of the OG TT run

This is a complicated take because it’s literally two opposites in one take, but the main difference in characters as seen in old comics vs. now is two things. One, the writing of characters was much better, much more realistic, and much more nuanced in old comics. Two, when there is a well-written character in modern comics its usually a more show not tell character so everything is shown to us through actions and stuff rather than straight up words or them psychoanalyzing themselves in their speech bubbles and that just doesn’t work with modern audiences because media literacy is a dying art. Also, there’s the variable of the influence of fanon over how characters are written in comics but that’s a whole other post.

Roy and Donna are literally THE OTP like I don’t even want to hear it, they’re literally DC’s percabeth.

Every single Teen Titan had an inferiority complex, some were just easier to see.

Selina and Bruce and Talia and Bruce are two very different relationships that can’t be compared. Also they will always live side by side till the end of comics, this love triangle was one meant to last, and it will.

Jason Todd as we know him right now should get the YJ Roy Harper treatment, we need to find out that he’s a clone and the real JT is somewhere in Africa working for UNICEF or something, that’s the only way to fix his character.

Also, ignoring the top one, if DC doesn’t want to commit to that because they’re cowards, they should at least not make him a part of the Batfam yet, it’s too soon for either side.

Kara Zor El is the perfect character to be a white lantern, her arc literally matches up perfectly with each of the rings, and she’d wield it incredibly

Kyle Rayner is top 3 GLs

In my opinion, Diana is best written when the most important thing to her in the world is the world itself. Like, usually I hate the whole “hero would sacrifice u, villain would sacrifice the world” thing cuz it mostly doesn’t really apply, but to her it absolutely does. Diana would sacrifice the closest person to her for the world in an instant if it was for the sake of the world. And this isn’t like an angst thing because they all know it and are all ok with it.

Also, Diana is one of the most if not the most powerful characters in all of DC, if DC did a Deadpool kills the marvel universe kind of thing they should totally use her because she is sooo powerful. (Afterthought: that’s why I hate most of her appearances in anything JL because they underpower her soooo bad)

I say this as a batfamily Stan, the batfamily is the worst family in all of DC and sadly the one that gets the most attention.

The OG TT are the epitome of superheroes in the sense that each and every one of them defines every part of a superhero spectacularly and always has.

Kory needs an arc where she leaves everyone and everything for a while because as of right now, not only do the writers only ever see her in relation to others, but she sees herself that way. She needs an arc where she finds herself in relation to herself, who SHE is. Away from the love triangle, and the titans, and the Titans, etc.

Babs is a better character outside of the love triangle than she is when she’s in it. (Also a better character as Oracle but that only really unpopular amongst writers)

Every single woman character in DC is written in relation to the men in the comics, even WW. The only exception is Oracle, not Babs, but Oracle, which is actually so twisted considering that the creation of Oracle as a character came hand in hand with an event that literally inspired the cloning of the phrase “fridging”

BOP is one of the best teams

Harley Quinn shouldn’t be a hero yet, she was abused for over a decade, we need to see more of her struggle to undo all of the manipulation and heal from the abuse as well as try to undo all the damage she’s done. The Animated Series is the best version of her arc but it’s still not good either.

We as a fandom(s) need to normalize the ability to consume and enjoy things we don’t necessarily agree with. For example, as I’ve stated before multiple times, I absolutely hate any kind of abusive Bruce, however, I still read those long posts about it and I still read fics where dck punches him cuz he’s an abusive asshole, it’s okay to consume media that you don’t necessarily agree with. And same with fanon versions of characters, I HATE coffee-addict Tim, I’ve still enjoyed hundreds of fics with him in them though.

Damian Wayne is the most compassionate member of the batfam and one of the Keats likely ones to willingly kill

Blue devil and kid devil have arguably the most interesting story and tragedy in all of DC and the only reason they’re not given a lot of attention is because their tragedies have to do with something we don’t like to see: the wrongdoings and flaws of heroes, especially ones we like.

Speed Saunders should’ve continued as a character

Hal Jordan should’ve stayed evil for a while, the end of the parallax arc sucks and is a stupid cop out because they weren’t ready for a fully new GL. I don’t think he should’ve stayed the villain forever, but maybe for a few years, especially if that meant they would’ve ended the arc better.

Mera is more powerful than Arthur, always has been and always will be.

Wally West does see Barry Allen as a father figure and vice versa, it’s okay to see someone as a parental figure when you still have parents, especially when your parents are (canonically) borderline emotionally abusive and/or neglectful.

Any iteration of ANY hero being abusive is the worst writing ever because what the actual fuck, I’m sorry, but what happened to the whole they’re literally fucking heroes part??

There are so many characters that deserve solo series (or even mini series) but don’t get them because all the series are already being taken up by bigger characters (looking at you batfam)

So many characters get mischaracterized for the sake of other character’s stories (again, looking at you batfam)

Anyone who thinks Superman is boring either doesn’t understand him as a character or hasn’t read enough stuff with him in it (I recommend All-Star Superman and/or American Alien)

Anyone who relates to the Joker needs to turn themselves in at the nearest police station. (Unless it’s LEGO Joker, we like him)

The LEGO Batman movie is unironically some of the best DC media to ever exist

Atlantis and Paradise Island should be allies (especially once Diana, Arthur, and Mera come into the picture), I don’t know why they’re not

Lex Luthor is one of the most despicable villains because he’s a realistic villain, which is much scarier

Kon should be the next Superman

Connor Hawke should’ve stayed Tim’s age and Tim’s friend, it makes the most sense timeline-wise plus I think their dynamic was super cute.

Comic writers not making Roy openly refer to Ollie as his dad even though they’ve been father and son since they’ve debuted basically is actually so crazy to me

These next few are about Talia Al-Ghul because I love that woman:

Talia Al-Ghul Pre-Morrison was one of the best and most interesting characters in all of DC and that isn’t just my opinion, she was really popular amongst fans and writers for that exact reason

However, Morrison’s damage to her is near irreparable

BUT, if DC did want to repair it, I genuinely believe she’d be the best character they’d have character-wise and it would probably pull in a bunch of new fans

But even if they don’t, Talia Al-Ghul is one of the most important characters in all of DC and comics in general because she’s literally the documented history of WOC in media (especially Arab and Asian women) as well as their relation to white men in media. Her character and how it changes is directly tied to mainstream views on WOC at the time.

Talia Al-Ghul is literally of “I Bet On Losing Dogs” by Mitski, personified

Dinah Lance is the perfect example of a complex character done right and interpreted wrong/not interpreted enough.

If anyone should be the therapist within the hero community it should be J’onn or Red tornado, those are the two that make the most sense.

Helena Bertinelli is more important to the batfam than Jason Todd is.

Cassandra Cain shouldn’t be portrayed as mute anymore, it doesn’t make sense for her character or her arc.

The worst thing to happen to Poison Ivy’s character is Harley Quinn.

Mera is made to be a mother, whether to her own kids (Garth included) or as a mother figure to other kids.

On the other hand, Stephanie Brown wasn’t ready and doesn’t/didn’t want to be a mother, she gave up her baby willingly and will almost 100% not go out to look for her.

Lady Shiva’s appearances 99% of the time are out of character for her, the whole “training with Shiva” thing is also OOC for her, and Cass even existing is OOC for her. The reason that this continues though is because she’s been transformed from an actual character into a character tool.

Stephanie Brown and Cassanadra Cain are a good duo and anyone who hates on one but likes the other misunderstood both of their characters.

Dick hating Jason for what he did to Tim IS in character of him, and, in my opinion, correct of him

The rise in people who don’t like heroes’s pacifism is concerning. People calling Bruce a bad person because he doesn’t kill is concerning. People viewing Clark as boring because he’s a good person is concerning. People liking straight up villains more than they do heroes is concerning.

Anyone who recommends mister miracle should also tell them about the TW in the first few pages

Kingdom come isn’t that good, especially to non-Christians

Big Barda needs her own run. We need a Bug Barda run that covers everything from her origins to where she is now, and we need it done by a female writer who’s good at complex and heavy stories

Some of the most hated comic writers are some of the best at what they do

Chuck Dixon is just as much a blessing to any character he writes as he is a curse

Marvel’s comic writers and artists 80% of the town do a better job with their characters and their arcs than DC writers and artists.

DC should have sensitivity readers because the amount of racism in these comics is insane

It’s okay to put down a comic/run because you don’t like the art, it’s your time no one’s gonna judge you

Alex Ross’s art is actually nice, people just like hating

The Trinity should never be shipped with one another

Steve isn’t important to Diana at all, he’s barely in any of her comics actually, he’s less important to her (or at least to her character) than fucking swamp thing

Batfam is better smaller

It’s better to read the first appearances of characters, it helps you understand them better.

Lois Lane is the DC version of Susan Storm, aka the blueprint of women in that company’s comics, but also one of the most forgotten women in that company’s comics

Comics aren’t going to go anywhere arcwise for the characters long term, that’s the whole point. Batman will always have a robin. Love triangles will always be love triangles. They will all always stay young.

Old campy comics were better than modern comics.

Cheshire isn’t a redeemable character and shouldn’t be one. Women in comics should be allowed to be straight up villains and stay that way.

Cheshire having Lian is OOC. Cheshire leaving Lian is a racist trope.

Asian and Arabs are treated horribly by DC.

The New 52 is actually a good place to start for new readers, it was a good idea, but it should’ve just been an alternate universe (like mcu is to 616 kind of) or something (and it should’ve been down with the supervision of anyone who isn’t Dan didio)

DC has some of the best world building in the history of modern day media/literature especially considering how many facets of this world there were/are to build

Team rosters that are constantly changing are better than stationary ones unless they change too much/too fast

Canon is hypocritical 90% of the time, most times canon clashes and crashes and doesn’t make sense, so don’t worry about it, read a comic, count what you want to be canon as canon, throw the rest into to the “never existed” pile

I’m sorry to tell you guys this, but it isn’t an opinion, it’s an unpopular canon fact, one that even I don’t like: Dick Grayson likes pineapple one pizza

Something that I hate that been on the rise a lot lately is the fact that the fandom is so okay with character being sexualized just because they like how the characters look, I feel like we should keep our stances on this as they are with all over-sexualized characters.

Villains of the week are actually so fun, even more then the big villains sometimes.

JSA needs a comeback please and thank you (I’m begging atp)

Cassandra Cain shouldn’t be Orphan, ever, it makes no sense for her to take the name of her abused. The same way it doesn’t make sense for Jason to become red hood.

Complex characters who are dumbed down once can be dumbed down and mischaracterized every time after that, and this has been done A LOT.

The YJ shows is very much overhyped

The fact that DC overpowers their characters makes them more interesting, not less

Selina was right and in character when she left Bruce at the alter. She was not right and in character when she hid Helena from him, she wouldn’t do that.

Bruce Wayne is more fun to read when he has a pipe and fun colored robes, please give him back his pipe and his fun colored robes.

[moonspirit]

TOP 10 favourite AA fanfics? (if you have one)

Oh hello xD That's a great blog name! Does that mean more questions will follow ._.?

Anyways, my reading speed has taken a nosedive as of late; too many things have been going on and I'm trying to stick to my own writing schedule too... so my recs remain mostly the same as the previous times I've been asked. Still, here are a few of my faves:

Bury Me in the Shadows of Spring & My Yellow Light in Your Soft Whispers by @annawayne . Features some of the most compelling story-telling I've ever seen. The former is a historic AU set in the 1920s and holy shit the immersion? Anna comes armed with a deep, impressive knowledge base of history and so the fic takes you straight back in time, as if you were standing in the time period itself. BMSS is a story carrying very heavy themes, and the dive into the character's psyches is simply stellar.

As for the latter, a post-canon fic set 10 years after the Rumbling, MYLYSW is a story that takes an in-depth study into the ways that an intensely traumatic event can affect people - both the victims and of those around them. It's a wonderful telling of grief, heartache, unresolved ghosts from the past, with stunning imagery and descriptive writing. :3

Black Water & everything else in @distortedclouds 's collection. BW is, as another reader very aptly put it, the single best take I've seen on Annie's relationship with her father, and how it affects Aruani's relationship. Clouds' mastery in prose and narration is on a whole other level, and every chapter literally hurts your bones. Aside from that, all the other fics in the collection are simply wonderful reads, with everything ranging from fluff to angst to smut and everything in between! My wife is very talented you see :3 Unparalleled!

Little Bird by @aquietjune . Simply a fantastic Annie-centric post-canon story, with writing skills that simply leave you in awe. June takes a deep dive into many of Annie's issues and problems that are still left unresolved, though the world may be rid of titans. Her dedication to period-appropriate research, and the how's and why's of in-world problems make the story a truly delightful experience, and coupled with her talent of being able to tell so much in so few words, this remains one of the best post-canon fics I've ever read. Please also check out her other works, she has an uncanny ability to make you laugh until your sides hurt xD

Coveted by @honeytheriot . One of the first aruani fics I read after the S4 P3 P1 dropped in March 2023, and holy shit xD Every chapter is a smut-filled goodness and delight, and honeyriot makes it WORK with her writing!

Children of War by @/SeaTempest . Primarily a Jeanpiku fic with Aruani as a side-couple, this fic features some of the best writing I've ever seen. Smooth prose and convincing post-canon world-building, plus very good character monologues?? Hell yeah. Hasn't been updated in a while, but has plenty of content, absolutely worth a read.

Tater Tots & Heavy Thoughts by Anonymous and everything in this collection. TT&HT is a modern AU Aruani fic primarily from Armin's POV, dealing with some very dark and heavy subject matter. The writing is really good, and while I haven't caught upto later chapters, I highly recommend it. The other fics in the collection are great too :3

There are many more tbh, but my head is mushy for the moment xD However, I'll add some fics I've been following as of late!

on the path that led me to you by @the-last-thread-of-my-sanity & By Each Crime and Kindness (I'm bound to you) by @aruanimess - two Cadet Aruani fics taking place that are an absolute delight to read! Wonderful writing, wonderful characterization, lots of fluff, and the impending doom of angst~

Who painted the sky? by @dudewhy3 & Hiding in Plain Sight by @midnightraine131, two Modern AU fics that take a look into the issues Aruani deal with from their past, in a modern real-world setting. Engaging and fun, with sprinkles of heavy angst now and then.

A Force To Be Reckoned by @luciensdefenseattorney . Inspired by Bridgerton, this is a wonderfully written and highly engaging Aruani fic set in the regency era. You just want Armin and Annie to kiss and find out all about each other already.

Legends by @mimiwrites2000-fun . Canon-divergence and wonderfully written, this is an Aruani fic spanning 32 chapters and counting! Lots of emotional, heart-wrenching moments, Mimi is a writer who embraces angst with a passion and doesn't shy away from hurting you T^T

[roseworth]

vote in my poll boy but also im gonna skew my own results by giving my opinion. here’s my personal ranking of rose writers

sean mckeever: FRESH HELL <3 literally THE rose book. also tt03 #57 slayed. he ALMOST gets knocked down on the list because a) the fucking shitshow that was terror titans and b) he backtracked on like 3 different character arcs as soon as he started writing tt and it pisses me off. but he redeemed himself with fresh hell

geoff johns: i hate johns so much. but he solidified sooo much about rose as a character that he has pretty much the definitive rose. what he did completely defined rose's relationship with her father and her attitude towards the titans/being a hero in general. whether they realize it or not, every rose writer after johns is writing his version of her. as much as i hate him he is one of the best rose writers and i will stand by that

christopher priest: i have not made it a secret that i love ds16. there are some aspects of his characterization that i dont agree with but for the most part he killed it tbh. hating her dad but still coming back to him, loving her brother but still keeping him at arms length, HOSUN!!! HER HMONG FAMILY!!!!!!! ily priest

ed brisson: SLAY. the only reason he's not higher is because i dont like the fact in general that she chose to be on stormwatch (she would not do that), and he used baby rose in ktr and didnt even mention lili (and DID mention that foster family. im still mad). other than that!!! everything about her struggle to be a good person in batb was soooo good, and so much about ktr was so good for her <3 thank u mr brisson

marv wolfman: i feel a little bad not ranking him higher given that. he created rose. but she doesnt really do much in the issues he writes. which is fair given that she was a new character that was just made to hang around on the sidelines at the time, so theres not a lot to judge in his writing. but he definitely laid the foundation that johns expanded on, and he was the one that made her so uh thnx marv

jt krul: i wish he had gotten more time :( i wish he had gotten to do whatever he was planning with lili, i wish we could've gotten to see more of his rose. his rose was def a different take than before given that she was more... mellowed out ig? it was a lot more lighthearted, just her hanging out with the team, being an older sister to damian (<3), and looking for her mom. hes not my fav just because i like it when shes a crazy bitch instead of a normal girl, but i completely understand why people like his rose. not to mention tt03 #77-78 slays so unbelievably hard

jay faerber: NANNY ROSE <33333 i love love love rose in titans 99 <3 this version of rose is DRASTICALLY different than any other rose, which is the reason hes in the bottom half, but i like it in the sense that its nice to know that she was just hanging out in between the two worst things to ever happen to her (her mom dying & slade drugging her). rose with roy and lian lives rent free in my head every single day of my life i love it so much, also that issue with rose & toni was so fun. titans 99 rose you will always be famous

adam beechen: he is going to hell for what he did to cass but for rose? he was fine. he helped with that one really good wilson family arc (tt03 #43-46), and wrote the only pre-52 rose & jason interaction (#47) so he gets points for that. and batgirl 2008 was pretty good for rose. but unfortunately he just didnt make enough of an impact on me to be ranked any higher

matthew rosenberg: unfortunately im mentally ill so i have a detailed explanation of what i think of rosenberg's rose but the short version is: i like him, he writes a good rose. its fun, shes well-written for the most part, but there are some :/ parts about it to me. i think if he continues writing her he'd be ranked higher but for now hes sitting pretty near the bottom of the list

devin grayson: i used to really like devin grayson's rose but. i have since changed my mind. it doesnt feel like rose. this is NOT the rose that stabbed her eye out because she thought slade was disappointed in her! shes too Quirky Girl here even though this is theoretically during the period where shes being drugged (honestly. i dont think grayson actually knew about the super soldier serum. and if she did it does not show) and we've seen rose in this era in tt03 and bg00, and this arc does not read as the same character at all. it was a good arc for her, and she had a lot of good moments here! but the characterization overall wasnt great

joshua williamson: i won't go on a whole tangent about the way williamson writes but. he has no sense of character voice, his characters all feel like blank slates to get the plot across, there are no character decisions being made besides what's needed for the plot. theres not a lot that i can put my finger on and say that its bad, but there are so few choices being made that its hard to say anything about his rose. to put a completely different character in rose's place in robin 2021, all you'd have to do is switch a few words around. williamson uses a vague idea of who a character is to guide what he wants them to do, and all his characters come out shallow. his rose wasnt BAD but it wasnt good at all

scott lobdell: every day i blow on a dandelion and wish for scott lobdell to kill himself

[quotidian-oblivion]

Wouldst THou be okay with questions???

What’s your favourite thing to do at 2am (follow up question, fic recs??????)

Love

'Course! I has puts blanket permission it on le pinned post.

Read/write fics. Unquestionably. And eat junk food (like ferrero rochers *cough cough*). If i was alone in the house at 2 am, i would probably be singing out as loud as i could.

But *sigh* I end up doing schoolwork half the time. The other half I'm laying in my bed, and sleep-deprived me takes over and magically produces a fic and its outline leaving daytime-me to write it out and expand on it.

Fic recs... hmmm... Lemme go visit my bookmarks and link the links here.

Okay, so Repletion by sardnoic-sprite is rlly good. Actually lol, im providing analyzations + some minor info and ideas on the 2.0 version of the fic to sprite rn. In this one, Uncle Edward does exist and is a certified asshole and abuser. He tries to control Tim and keep him away from the Bats and threatens to hurt Tim real bad if the Bats try to contact him.

Zugzwang by sardonic sprite is rlly good too! Very hurty. Much angst. Ra's captures the batfam and challenges Tim to a game of chess. Each move is dangerous. A small mistake puts any of the Bats at risk. And Tim has to predict which batfam member will get hurt depending on which chess piece he moves.

And the whole series of Celebrity Batwaynes by sardonic-sprite is rlly good too! It had me cracking up so much. But ofc there's angst there too, but mostly crack and i adore this series with my life. It's about the Gotham vigilantes, some rogues, and the Waynes doing internet challenges like Buzzfeed quizzes and other stuff too.

My Mummy Has Tattoos by I_is_a_fangirl_yee is v v angsty. And yes, im being prejudiced rn but what im not being prejudiced abt is the fact that i screamed out loud in class while beta-ing this fic.

Now, The Dream Of Flight by A_Canceled_Stamp is an excellent fic I will never stop yakking about. The plot is literally just Tim falling off a building. But the writing? The emotions captured within the writing, the pure act of storytelling through actions described by text is something out-of-the-world.

I adore Instead Of All The Colors I Saw by SilverSkiesAtMidnight. It deals with Tim dealing with the aftermath of Titans Tower and his relationship with Jason and oof- the angsty dialogue is PEAK.

All of Vamillepudding's works. Well, at least the Batman ones, those are the only ones i've read. But they are all. Just. So. Good. The writing and oh- the ideas especially. Definitely some of the greatest Tim joins the batfam early fics to ever have existed.

Living Dead Boy by Terranphuem. *SCREAMS*. This fic. Let me tell you, this fic. It reached into my heart, grabbed it and teared it out then bandaged it and put it back in again. It's about Tim encountering Jason from when he just rose from the grave. And Jason's catatonic and everything and Tim helps him all by himself (with special help a little later) to make him "good enough" to return back to Bruce. SUCH A GOOD READ ISTG.

untitled titan's tower fic #89268439 by Ashynarr. It's, as the title says, a TT fic, but in this one, Jason finds Tim's old fanfiction account and tortures him by rereading some stuff from there to Tim XD Doesnt get the attention it deserves imo.

come back home please by PurpleHeartsOne. Gosh, the writing in this one... it is Up There with the Greats. I love how the emotions is captured so well here and also how smoothly the progression of chapters goes! The character development and- oh! The character reveal! Ahhhhh! Please do mind, it is still incomplete 8/10 chapters rn.

sipping the piping hot tea by BlueTee. In this one, Tim sips tea and destroys Jason instead of Titans Tower happening. Gosh, i loved the nonverbal reactions so much 😂

Conference Room 2B by motelyfam. It's part of a series, but it's so good, it deserves its own special appearance. Big bro Jason Todd! And theater kid Jason Todd! They're both in here!!

of crime lords and literature by adelfie. Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! The writing! The fucking- *slams table* THE WRITING!! It's a TT AU where Tim asks help from Jason for English h.w. There's more obviously, but that's where the plot starts. It is. so good.

don't drop the baby (i'm the baby) by Ms_Trickster. I will never ever ever shut up about this. I read this twice and both times I teared up. Both times. This fic means a lot to me on a personal level. Basically, Tim accidentally time-travels and meets a baby version of himself.

Late Night encounters by paperxcrowns. Oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh! I adore this fic! Not only is the writing especially good, but the story line, the slow and smooth and excellent progression of events and character! Ahhhh! It's about Tim meeting Jason accidentally at a cafe and him somehow accidentally helping Tim with his homework and becoming friends.

just be there by TaraLaurel is so so good. I wrote a fic inspired by it (it's Shiver btw, the title of the inspired fic). Heck, I love all the batfam fics written by them (I haven't read the other fandom fics). This one is touch-starved tim drake and who doesn't love touch-starved tim drake! But more particularly, the writing. The fucking- writing. I'm like, the person who reads fanfics, but the ones with good fucking writing become my favorite cuz then i can kinda read it again and learn from it yk? It's like, looking up to people. And I look up to this author. How they describe emotions through nonverbal actions and verbal actions and subtle actions but also the inner monologue as well. Love it all.

Lastly, I've been saving this for the end. Rebel Without A Clause by DangerBeckett. This fic covers topics like classism and has Deep Stuff in it which is so so fun to read! I started commenting from the third chapter. Then by the fifth chapter, my two-sentence comments turned to two-page comments. As did with so many other commenters. I love the author and their writing. It is truly top tier. I love the character development going on too and the retrospection of topics and events through fiction and fandom. Truly excellent. Honestly. I can go on and on. And I have! It's about Tim meeting the batfam through galas and slowly getting adopted by them. It's in-progress still.

Those were too many fics probably lol. But I kept going through my bookmarks like "Oh! I forgot about that one! It was so fun". Happy reading! Thanks for the ask! ^^

[ectonurites]

Hey I noticed you saying you weren’t a Geoff Johns fan, and I was wondering why? I love his Flash, GL, and Justice League work, amongst others although I haven’t read his Teen Titans, and I’d defer to you as the expert on the core four anyway. So I was wondering, is that run just bad or is it something about his writing as a whole? Obviously not an issue you dislike Johns, just curious why.

AH YES okay so. Yeah, my problem is more specifically about his Teen Titans run rather than necessarily Johns as a writer in general. (Which I can understand not being 100% clear from the context of what I recently said. My point was primarily 'it's frustrating talking about this run with a Johns fan who blindly defends that run's characterization of the core four despite how drastically Johns had altered things')

Frankly, I don't even think I've read all that much of his work to even try to make super general comments/form general opinions on him as a writer. His Teen Titans run often incites a fiery rage within me if I try to think about it too hard/don't just joke about the funny (not intentionally funny, just turns out that way funny) parts, I was Not a fan of Three Jokers after the first issue, I did enjoy Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., I do really enjoy Superboy: Boy of Steel, and Infinite Crisis was like, interesting. Those are the main things that come to mind that I've read from him, so like, there's definitely varying opinions there—it's not all negative. Just the negative feelings are Strong when they occur.

Anyways, to TLDR why Geoff Johns Teen Titans bugs the shit out of me: it just shows a blatant disrespect for the history and prior characterization of the Core Four! It's not even that I think the book is entirely bad, there are plenty of elements of plots I like (though it's a lot of... 'cool idea, i do not like this execution') and it in general does have some good moments... BUT I think that time where within a three day period I did a full read through of Young Justice (1998) -> Graduation Day -> Teen Titans (2003) thus within a pretty short period of time consumed about 13 years of content that pretty consistently featured at least some combination of Tim, Kon, Cassie and Bart... well it was just eye opening and showed how little care was put into many choices made with how those guys would get portrayed when they transitioned between teams.

Now, at this present point in time, it actually has been a while since I've given Teen Titans Vol. 3 (or even just Johns' run of it, so #1-50 barring a few issues with guest writers) a full reread, so I'm maybe not in the best position to articulate all my thoughts on this subject. Though I did find this post from pretty freshly after I'd done that big mega reread talking about my frustrations in how Cassie was handled.

Just seriously, look how he massacred/yassified my girl….

(Teen Titans Vol. 3 #25)

Now, one thing about me though, is that when I approach these books, even when I have problems with them I don't like to ignore them (the ‘reject the canon you don’t like’ approach to fandom simply does not work for me personally outside of situations where canon literally has conflicting info you need to ignore some of to try to reconcile things OR things get rewritten over like by reboots/retcons).

I like to try to find ways to rationalize/make sense of the things that occur, I try to put pieces together and still find something enjoyable out of it even if it’s far from what the author(s) intended. That’s how I manage to feel as negative as I do about TT Vol. 3 while then also enjoying Boy of Steel—because many of my problems with TT Vol. 3’s approach to Kon come from how changes with him were made and handled… but when I approach Boy of Steel accepting that those changes happened and taking that story in not just still being mad about the previous stuff, I do really like it. I contain multitudes.

Anyways I rambled far more than you probably needed me to, but uhhhh. yeah!

[starlightbelle]

7, 12

Oooh, yay! Thanks for asking; I’m gonna have fun with this one! 😃

7. One DC death you’d like to make permanent — or alternatively, one you’d erase so it never happened?

Hmmm…tough one. I’m not usually a fan of permanent character deaths tbh. Especially with my faves. But even with other characters like…they’re someone’s fave, y’know?

I guess maybe I’d say Solomon Grundy?? Granted my only exposure to him has been in JLU but I was so…bored?? I’m not a fan of the “giant hulking characters who no speak good” trope. So I guess I’d write him out 🤷‍♀️ Sorry that’s the only thing that comes to mind rn

It’s definitely not Jason. That’s who it’s not

Although the “death by fan-vote” is kinda a crummy thing, at this point in the narrative it is kinda fascinating having him brought back. It has evolved to be synonymous with his character so I don’t know whether or not I’d erase his death from comics canon. The storytelling potential is too immense 😅

Last-minute addition:

Oh! I’d make it so that Aquababy (Artur) never dies. Killing him off is dumb and I hate it, so I’m reversing it.

12. Pick up to 7 characters to star in a Teen Titans ongoing (any era or generation you like). What tone do you envision for this series?

Okay I pondered this and I think I found a lineup I’m comfortable with:

Dick Grayson/Nightwing

Koriand’r/Starfire

Wally West/ Kid Flash

Donna Troy/ Troia

Artemis Crock/ Artemis

Jaime Reyes/ Blue Beetle

Jason Todd/ (??)😉

Dick, Kori, and Wally I knew immediately. My dream team is not complete without these three. Donna has been left out of so much for far too long, and she’s Dick’s other best friend, and I just like her character.

After that it becomes a bit dicey because I have to narrow it down to seven…

I elected to have Artemis (Crock) with her YJ-characterization. I like her in the show and she’d fill the archer role since (sorry, don’t hate me) I’m not making Roy a draft pick, lol. Plus she and Wally are great together and I like her friendship with Dick.

I’m putting Cyborg on the Justice League, so he won’t be a member of the Titans. Having Garfield without Vic feels off somehow, and having Raven without BB also feels off. I like Jaime so that could be fun, plus I liked the idea of him and Kori being on a Team together (since she showed up in his comics run recently).

My last pick…might be unexpected?

I feel like most of the run would center mostly on these six. With a side-plot-turned-main-plot tying in another antagonistic figure (Red X/Red Hood) who ends up being Jason Todd. In the end of the first arc, Jason ends up joining the Team (he maintains that he works alone, yadda yadda…but he definitely joined the team 😅)

I’ll ramble a little more under the cut. I have more thoughts but don’t want this post to be too long so I’ll abbreviate it here 😁

The tone would probably be somewhere between the Young Justice and Teen Titans cartoons. I’m a big fan of YJ’s first season especially. I also like the anime influences TT had.

Maybe something similar in tone to My Hero Academia? It can be lighthearted at times but isn’t pulling its punches when it comes to the action/storytelling aspects.

I’m giving this run the “Titans” title since I don’t envision this being a teenagers story. They’re probably mostly young adults.

Dick has been friends with Wally and Donna for a long while already. Maybe Kori at the point has been on Earth for a couple years? Artemis has been close with Dick and Wally especially for several years. Jaime is the last to join the Team (until Jason) which feeds his insecurities at times. Kori is more than eager to help him through those feelings (which is how their friendship blooms)

All-in-all, I want this to be a very close knit group. I’ve always liked the idea of Kori and Wally being friends too, and Donna is canonically one of her best friends, too.

It would probably be a largely urban setting, as only one (arguably, two?) of these characters is not native to that landscape.

I think other settings could be possible at some point, teaming up with someone from Atlantis, for example. (Part of the reason why I didn’t choose an Atlantean to begin with was I was torn between classic Garth or YJ Kaldur)

Anyway this was fun!! Thanks for asking! 😅

[blorb-el]

i was like 'im gonna do weekly lil comics reactions,' did one, and then immediately skipped two weeks. on brand.

this week: world's finest: teen titans 2, last week knight terrors: action 1 and superman: last days of lex luthor 1, and from a While ago superman: lost 5

WFTT 2:

brief moment of 'who the fuck are lilith and gnaark' but then again almost all of these characters are relatively new to me, so shrugged and carried on

other than that one moment i really appreciate how frictionless this book is in terms of new-reader-friendliness. i gather that's the point of the world's finest imprint rn and it's working. waid is a careful craftsman. sneaking in donna's backstory much appreciated

[i'm thinking of issue 1 of the adult titans by tt, which i stuck my nose into. it was frictionless in terms of team dynamics and friction-filled in terms of newcomer friendliness... taylor titans issue 1 felt like i was walking in on a conversation that's been going on 40 years. this book feels like walking into a room and it's throwing a hand around your shoulders and saying hey come meet the gang (and the gang is interesting).]

lupacchino's art feels like such a good pairing for this. soft edges, exaggerated faces.

interesting choice by bellaire on the coloring to make the horror house/dalisay's mindset of closing in on herself and hiding duller than the vibrant normal, light, teens-hanging-out world.

why garth ourple

knight terrors: action 1

laughed out loud at the last page, which is proooooobably not what a horror comic is aiming for

'nightmare, but an ensemble cast' is. meh for me... the other knight terrors have drilled down onto an individual, but this one, if it IS just one person's nightmare i can't tell who. it would make sense for kon to be afraid of being weaponized into an artificial superman but then the rest of the issue isn't from his pov, it'd make sense for otho and osul to be afraid of cyborg superman who they literally just saw but i don't think they'd have any reason to be afraid of kon specifically turning into that, jonno already has multiple! evil dad supermen to be afraid of and they're not this one, and kenan has yet to be given one (1) single speck of narrative significance so id be surprised if it's his nightmare specifically.

i don't like the homogenizing nature of saying 'this is one of the worst fears all four of you can come up with [you all are afraid of the same thing].' i'd rather have a solo or duo focus on someone who hasn't gotten narrative attention in action or elsewhere. i love the gang but i think this would have been much stronger if it'd been, lets say, just kenan and the twins facing down a cyborg superman telling them they're outsiders/not useful/whatever

some nice touches in the art (otho and osul have been consistently sleeping curled up next to each other on the floor which is a little🥺) but i loooved the coloring. another romulo fajardo jr w, i've loved his work since flashpoint beyond.

meanwhile the power girl story has the opposite problem where it's one character but facing ten different fears. it was kitchen sink-y :(

superman: lost 5

clark continues to be Very Sad. this is like catnip to me. i will read 9000 pages of clark being Very Sad no problem. i love love love the physicality of his issues remembering to breathe and filter his hearing

very funny cover bait and switch

i continue to eat the art in this series it's. so good. the spacescapes are gorgeous the buildings are gorgeous the expressions are wonderful and the colors are perfect. thank you pagulayan thank you cox

also i love it when i am writing a fic where clark gets lasso of truth therapy'd and then i pick up a comic and the exact same thing happens. wmm is giving a thumbs up from the grave about the Power of Therapy Bondage

lois at the end of her rope. frustrated and snippy and inventive and tender all at once. they didn't need to write her sniping at diana's costume but i do like her being overly mad at little things (because she's powerless about the Big Thing)

yandere gl hope is fun. the little detail about the contrectatio destroying her planet sets her story up so well

love it when clark is immune to Sexey Lady Temptress. (hope i dont eat my words next issue but for now) i slide this issue into my demisexual clark folder. maybe they wanted me to believe that he was thinking about it but he literally went 😑💨. ma'am this house is my exact recreation of my childhood home as a way to deal with my trauma and helplessness and i know i put a shower curtain in here so please use it instead of dribbling water on the floor in your seduction attempt

superman: last days of lex luthor 1

you guys i made a noise approximating a lawnmower at the mention of rondors. and the drygur moliom. i made noises out Loud. there might have been a lets fucking goooooo at clark getting pulled outta there at ten dendaro. i am the target audience for this trivia shit.

its been a while since i've read anything with lex fully unleashed in Horrible Evil Bastard Mode and. enjoying it fully. corporate lex is fine whatever i guess but only if they let him off his leash every once in a while to do horrible mad science mass killings to further his little plots

lex's vibes being so rancid that the entirety of the phantom zone was like OUT YOU GO was so fucking funny

some of the smallville sections felt a leeeeeeeettle bit like recap but that's only because i have a dual bachelors degree in Bronze Age Dweebery and Birthright Enjoying so i'm already fully on board with whatever waid wants to do

the only really jarring section to me was the hero worship in kandor. it makes sense to set up the dichotomy between clark and lex and the 'public' attitudes toward them and also makes perfect, economical sense as to why a superman who is more superman than clark would not spend more time in there...it's a good choice for the storytelling... but. i really love kandor's bizarre silver/bronze age culture as a reflection of kryptonian culture, even though it's distorted by the citywide trauma of being in a bottle for years and years, and part of that is a fascinating dual trust and resentment many kandorians feel for superman, who is both their protector and the guy who has made almost no progress getting them out. (until he does). ah well. this comic is not about kandor

'lex freaking luthor' let him say fuck. he killed like 10 people at absolute minimum i think he should say lex fucking luthor. its legal

also read:

knight terrors 1-3: a little zzz to me

knight terrors: batman 2: nice, but overall this felt different from the rest of the kt oneshots in a little too 'bruce is the main character of the dcu' way

superman vs meshi: cute <3

superman 2023 annual: artwise had some nice stuff but writingwise only really confirmed my h8er opinion on lois as daily planet editor in chief (why put her into a position that actively takes her away from doing interesting shit)

[archies-litterbox]

You know... tonight I'm thinking about how I and much of the rest of the fandom had alot of positive feelings about Wizards, even though it had its share of imperfections, in comparison to ROTT, which had such an overwhelmingly negative response.

And I think it's because much of the criticism of Wizards was centered around what we didn't get to see, while criticism of ROTT is largely centered around what we did see (and what we shouldn't have seen).

Two of the most popular criticisms I saw of wizards when it first came out were:

1.) The story was so tightly condensed that there was alot that didn't get to be explored.

2.) Zoe didn't get to have a larger role.

And I think both of these criticisms share one uniting sentiment: we wanted more. The audience loved what we did see, and we wanted to see more of it. We wanted more of Douxie's time in the spotlight/more of Camelot explored/more of The Pink-Haired Girl And What She Means to Douxie. It's INTERESTING and WE LIKE IT.

Since the show only had ten episodes, there was alot that had to be squeezed down/removed to fit in the time allowed, but Wizards spent the time it did have giving us amazing characters, compelling dynamics, and interesting lore expansion that the audience was ENTHRALLED by, to the point where much of the criticism of the installment comes down to: the audience was so intrigued/fascinated by this content that the fact that there isn't more sucks.

Now... cut to Rise of the Titans.

With its runtime of nearly two hours, it theoretically had the chance to do more of what Wizards, as great as it was, couldn't fit in: more of Douxie in the spotlight, expansion on his other relationships (like Zoe & ADP), compelling lore expansion, and smart utilization of characters & completion of character arcs for a satisfying ending.

And... it didn't deliver.

Firstly, let's get one of the big ones out of the way: it used a good ~10 minutes (?) of its runtime, which it could have used for doing something like 1.) a scene of characters who didn't get to interact much in the trilogy 2.) showing us why douxie and nari stopped running/them running at all 3.) my personal favorite, a scene of human jim coming home to his mom - and used it to give one of its side characters with the best character development I saw in the series... one of the grossest "comic relief" subplots I've seen in a long time. I would have rather Steve not been in the movie at all (like perhaps he heard arcadia was in danger and went to make sure his step-dad was okay) than seen that.

...Moving on.

What Douxie was able to do in the movie was good: he was VERY enjoyable to watch on-screen, and his big brother/baby sister dynamic with Nari was simply too precious.

But, like Wizards... it wasn't enough.

After finally getting his chance in the spotlight in the last installment, Douxie was sidelined and kept losing the people he loved left and right for what seemed to be for the mere sake of making him suffer (Nari dying as she killed Skrael/Archie getting stuck in the Hong Kong Trollmarket) when he'd already had to grieve Merlin in Wizards. He also doesn't use his most iconic item from Wizards: his spellcaster guitar. Sometimes, honestly, it seems like all he was there to do was 1.) suffer 2.) do spells (guitarlessly) to help people out and 3.) scream "NARI!"

(But Colin's voice acting DE👏LI👏VERED! Everyone's did, really. There were honestly alot of other aspects to the movie like voicework/animation/music that were really good and it sucks to see it dragged down by all the staggering missteps in writing.)

And arguably the worst aspect of that? His sidelining wasn't even unique to him; to me, every protagonist from the subsequent series' post-trollhunters seemed to be sidelined for the sake of Jim's spotlight.

Which wouldn't have been a problem... if it was used for any other confliction/crisis than him doubting being the trollhunter without the amulet, a question that was already answered in Trollhunters.

Aside from the fact that Jim felt strangely out of character, the whole ~confliction~ he had over being an amulet-less Trollhunter was redundant and felt unnecessary (I sort of wanted Merlin's ghost to show up and thwack him and say "WHAT DID I SAY!? WHAT DID I TELL YOU!?" and dip back out). In my opinion, a better confliction to explore would have been his connection to his humanity, which he'd just gotten back, or coping with what he'd done as a beast under the order's control. But instead, it badly recycled an old aspect of his arc that was already discussed in Unbecoming.

Besides Jim being what I never thought he'd be, an irritating and honestly sort-of unlikable protagonist, other characters were greatly underutilized as well.

...Especially Nomura.

First of all, they made the ridiculous decision to send two trolls with Douxie to Brazil in the daytime, knowing trolls TURN TO STONE IN THE SUN. But THEN, just for the sake of showing how deep Nari is under control, she pulls Nomura into the sunlight and shatters her when she gets petrified. It happens out of nowhere for complete & utter shock value.

To me, it seems like they brought in Nomura for the sake of having Nomura, and then they didn't know what to do with Nomura, so they killed Nomura.

And honestly, not knowing what to do with the characters and deciding to just nerf/kill them was this movie's whole thing.

But it's okay, because we have... the COP-OUT-ENDING-O-MATIC 3000! 🥳🎉

Oh, wait, sorry... the kronosfere.

[underwhelming party favor noise]

There's really no need to repeat myself on what it did - if you watched R*TT, my condolences you know what I'm talking about, and if you've read this far along, you're probably ticked about it too.

So, because of this little ball of SHAME AND BAD THINGS combined with Jim's edge-brood OOC-ness, not only did the movie give us underwhelming/unsatisfying/devastating-and-not-in-a-good-storytelling-way plotline and giving us so much that was... bad, it took away everything that was good - everything we loved. It was the second worst thing introduced in the story (the first is the entire garbage heap that is 7 kisses = MPreg (even though akiridions are projections from CORES)), and to be completely honest I WISH skrael and bellroc broke Nari and Douxie's spell before nari could say "kronosfere will make right"

(...AND the ninth configuration thing too tbh)

So... while Wizards spent the short time it had giving us something amazing, Rise of the Titans, instead of continuing to deliver on what Wizards couldn't fit in, squandered the potential it had as a finale and used its time to give us gross subplots/frustrating once decisions/underutilization, as well as to take everything else down with it at the very end with the Green Shame Orb.

And... yeah. Technically, it's not exactly two months post-ROTT anymore, because it's like 2 am on the 22nd, but I thought about this a lot felt compelled to share.

[stressedoutcanary]

Hold On - Jason Todd x Batgirl!Reader [PART 2]

WORD COUNT :- 2.3k

Warnings ⚠️: I don't even know if there are any...Swearing maybe?, mentions of kidnappings, actual kidnapping oh and also violence and angst :)

A/N 😋: I got lost while writing this so judge accordingly people. Also forgive me for any mistakes. I TRIED.

Part 1 , Part 3

•°•°•°•°

“JASON STOP!!!!!”, your voice echoed in the silent warehouse.

Jason stopped in his tracks as soon as he heard your voice, his mind was brimming with thoughts, questions and worst of all, emotions.

“Well, well, well, look who crawled out of her little cave”, He said smugly as he finally turned around to face you. The voice was his, you’d recognize that voice anywhere but it felt cold, devoid of emotions, hearing him like that sent a shiver up your spine. You could feel your determination slipping.

Even though you had your cowl on, Jason could still see how much his rampage was hurting you but he couldn’t stop now, not when all he had left to do was to capture Joker, beat the living shit out of that asshole and show Bruce how much of a failure Batman’s moral compass really is.

“Well? Got nothing to say now?... Why am I not surprised?”, Jason scoffed.

You took a deep breath, you were breaking down inside but you sure as hell weren’t going to let that stop you. You spoke, voice barely above a whisper,  “Jason...Jay...Stop all this...Please, come home, come back to the--”

“Manor? Home? Did you hit your head (Y/N)? Why in the hell would I ever go back to a place where NOBODY GAVE A DAMN ABOUT ME, WHERE HE REPLACED ME AS IF I MEANT NOTHING?!”, Jason didn’t want to lose control of himself, not in front of you. So with visible effort he calmed himself down, took a step forward and gave you a deadpan look.

“You all left me”

Your blood boiled at that statement.

“How dare you?! We lost you! We mourned for you! I mourned for you!”

Tears welled up in your eyes, listening to him you wondered whether he truly believed the words actually coming out of his own mouth.

“The Jason I knew was a roughed up street boy who still cared when many didn't, who called Bruce out every step of the way, who had this ridiculous favoritism for bread, who had the guts to take out a tire from the fricking Batmobile”, despite the dreadful situation you smiled remembering those sweet memories.

You looked him in the eye, pleading in a way, and you spoke softly, “The Jason I knew was The Robin to my Batgirl. This-this is just not who you are Jay, not really...So can you just stop?”

He looked unfazed by your words and cocked his head to the side.

“Princess, the only way you can stop me is if you fight me, knock me down real hard, make sure that I won't get back up again. Tell me Batgirl, can you do it? Do you actually have what it takes?”, he waited for an answer he knew wasn’t coming. As expected, all he was met with was silence.

Long, Painful Silence.

With that Jason knew what he had to do, he put on his red helmet and swung out of the nearest window, you couldn't stop him, for all your big talk, you just couldn't. He was right you failed him.

•°•°

You jumped awake with a start, bolting upright and immediately regretting your subconscious decision, the throbbing pain made you clutch the back of your head with your palm and you closed your eyes again to achieve some semblance of reality as a way of grounding yourself.

‘It was just a dream (Y/N)…just...a...dream’

You tried to lie to yourself knowing deep down that it was a memory, something you have already lived through, something you regret everyday. You swallowed the lump in your throat. It felt dry and your whole body was sore. You really should've called in early and then maybe Dick would've been the one stuck in this crapy situation and not you.

Pushing past your perplexed state you got up and took in your surroundings, there were vines hanging from the open roof, a LOT of flowers and some Venus flytraps by the corner. It wouldn’t even take being a detective to figure out where you were; The Botanical Gardens.

“How the hell did I end up here”, you muttered under your breath. This was getting out of hands.

“See Pammy I told ya Girl-Bat would rise and shine by now”

“I can see that Harls”

‘Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, just great, is nobody in Arkham these days’

The duo descended down from the open roof through one of the vines and stood in front of you. Harley looked as happy as a 10 year old about to get their favorite toy and Ivy seemed to be interested in anything and everything that did not concern you. Classic.

“Why the hell did you both kidnap me?”

You jumped forward and grabbed Harley by the collar of her dress, in retrospect it wasn't the best move but it's not like you were thinking straight at the time anyway.

A vine wrapped itself around your waist and you were tugged back by such force that you were sure there was gonna be a big bruise there tomorrow. You skidded across the floor and finally stopped when your back connected with a bench. You were just too drained to fight back so instead you just crawled up and sat on the bench with a grunt.

‘Not fighting my way out of this one so for once let’s try talking’

“Whoa, should ya really be this obnoxious when ya got a concussion?”, Harley burst your thought bubble as she looked you over.

“Wait, Did you just call me obnoxious?!”

“But don'tcha worry I am a doctor and I got a PhD”

“In psychology!”

“I will fix ya in no time”

“Are you even listening to me?”

Just like that you saw Harley leave the room to go get some medical supplies, or well at least you thought that that's what she was going to do, you turned your face towards Ivy hoping that she can fill in the blanks.

“So you both finally done babbling? And here I thought it was never going to end.”, She looked at you from where she was petting her plant, and made her way over to you, something about her seemed genuine. You got the feeling that whatever she had to say, it won't be a lie.

“Try and not mind what Harley does, she's just happy to make new friends for girls night.” She sighed before continuing, “As for your question, last night we were near the Gotham Central Park when we saw a masked man dragging your unconscious body out of a building and into a van parked in the alley, so we kil-- we took care of him and brought you here”, She shrugged as if that explains why the Poison Ivy just saved your life.

"Wait that means Red isn't here", you whispered more to yourself than to others.

“Pam is Red!”, Harley said cheerfully as she came back out nowhere with a bunch of boxes which would've made you very uneasy if your mind wasn't already preoccupied.

“What Harley means to say is that if you are trying to ask about that gun loving leather jacket vigilante who wears a red helmet, then no we don't know where he is”

Her words sunk in and yesterday's memories flashed in your mind, your eyes widened under your mask as the realization hit you like a bus.

The missing people, the creepy mannequins, the medical journals regarding surgeries, the weirdo in the white mask instead of a face, the poster of some Pretty Dolls parlor; Now it all makes sense!

“Pyg!”

"Huh?", the women in front of you almost jumped at your sudden revelation.

“Lazlo Valentin aka Professor Pyg that's the son of a bitch who is behind all this mess, he's the one who has got Red Hood And it's all my fault! Now, He might be dead already! I should've known, I-I should've figured it out quicker, I should've done something, DAMN IT!!”, you buried you face in your hands due to the building frustration within you.

“Don't be like that”, you heard Harley's voice as a hand was placed on your shoulder, she sat down on the bench next to you, you turned your head and eyed her warily, seeing nothing but concern.

“Don't give up. Clearly this Hoodie person means a lot to ya so you get off your ass and go get him, don't you Bat People always find a way”, you looked at her for a moment, then jumped up on your feet.

“Can't believe I am saying this but you are right Harley, I need go and I will find a way to save him, but before leaving I wanna know something”, you looked Ivy in the eyes as you worded your next sentence, “Why save me?”

“It was just my way of replaying you for saving Harls from that clown once”, instead of elaborating Ivy just crossed her hands over her chest waiting for you to leave. You gave her a warm smile, something they are not used to seeing, from a bat of all people.

“Thank you Pamela”

With that you were out of that detour and onto finding the path leading up to Jason.

•°•°

Somehow you reached the safe house without running into some kind of trouble, with how your day has been going, you were completely expecting something else to go wrong. Thankfully it didn't. You took out a spare comms unit, keys for your bike and some aspirin to dull the headache.

Soon you were whizzing past vehicles at full speed triying to contact anyone available at the moment.

“Come on pick up, pick up, pick up! What's the meaning of giving us an emergency button when no one picks the damn thing up”, you spoke into a dead line, wishing you could just bang your head against a wall, on second thought not a good idea.

Two minutes later the call was finally picked up and a screen appeared on the dash of your bike, it was from the batcave and you could see Dick, Damian and Bruce in sitting in front of the computer, Tim was connected from what you assumed to be the titans tower. However Dick was the first one to pop the question.

“(Y/N) what's the emergency? Are you okay? We haven't heard from you since last night”

“Look no time to explain. Jason's been taken by Pyg and I need you guys to give me a location. Now”, you said gritting your teeth as you narrowly missed a truck for the second time this evening.

“Todd's captured? *tt* his incompetence precedes that of Drake”, Damian's snarky remark made Tim snap his head up.

“Hey!”

“Boys”, Bruce's stern voice made them quiet enough for the time being, “Batgirl you are injured and your emotions can compromise the whole rescue, go back to the safe house and let us handle this”, Bruce ended the transmission and it made you angry.

'He said that they are going to handle it, that means they know where he is, so now all I have to do is to get Dick to spill it out'

You dialed Dick back, hoping he would understand what you are trying to do.

“I know why you specifically choose to call me back and No I am not letting you go head first into danger without any of us with you especially when you are compromised”, Dick's tone was stern but laced with concern.

“Dick the last time Bruce said he will handle it, Jason died, look I know what he is trying to say, I get him, I can't blame him for wanting to look after me but you have to understand I have to be the one to get him back”

“Why?!”

“Because I can't lose him again! The last thing that I said to him was that I might never forgive him! Never forgive him for something that's not even his fault! You are my only hope at getting him back, please don't take that away from me, please”, you pleaded with him as you slowed down the bike to a stop.

The line was silent for a while, the thought about saying more to him crossed your mind; what you are feeling about Jason, how much he matters to you, how you've failed him more than once, but ultimately decided against it and instead you just waited for his reply.

You deflated as soon as you realized that the line was cut but the ping of a notification caught your attention; The map to the possible location of Jason.

“Dick Grayson, you big softie”, you smirked, your bike roared as you made your way on to the free way heading fast towards the Gotham outskirts.

Meanwhile at Professor Pyg's 'supervillain headquarters' :

Jason slowly woke up, assessing the situation he quickly came to the conclusion that he messed up and now he is tied up to what seems like dentist's chair.

“Great, there has got to be a new record I've set in this family for messing up and getting kidnapped”, Jason muttered under his breath, he tried to tug at his restraints to get free but it turned out to be fruitless. A blinding light was switch on above him and he grunted due to the intensity.

“Man, what is up with you people and light?! Turn it off already!”, Jason said as he tried to adjust his eyes accordingly, when he came to, he was met with his captor himself.

Jason just stared at the man in front, moving towards him, wearing a pig mask and holding a butcher knife. He has seen enough crazy but this guy might just rival the Joker himself.

“Pyg know you broken. Pyg make you perfect”

“WHAT THE F--”

°•°•°•°•

(I like to think I am funny)

Cute little extra note: Yes it is the second time I'm leaving you guys hanging and NOPE I do not regret my decision.

Tagging: @ladyperceval

[anothertimdrakestan]

Lovebirds Damian Wayne x Reader

Words: 2.8k

Requested? Yes! From a few lovely anons!

“So far i am loving your blog and went through like all of your writing🥰💖💖💖💗💞! I was wondering if you could do 'star sapphire corp reader' x damien please? Like them getting together” and “Could you please do sapphire lantern reader with your choice of the batboys meeting on a mission?”

LINK TO PROMPTS  -> REQUESTS ARE STILL OPEN!

I absolutely love the sapphire corps! Thank you for these adorable requests! Dami plus a lover actually in tune with their emotions- hell they’re powered off the emotions- is too funny and so adorable! Also we are going to pretend that Raven and Damian aren’t a thing even though I’m using the DCAU teen titans alrighty? Plus it gives me a chance to ship BBRAE YEAHHHH! Hope you enjoy!

I’m so sorry it’s long it’s my first fic back I was so excited haha

“Deep breaths and English you got this” you stared at yourself in the mirror of your makeshift room in titan’s tower. Being the youngest member of the star sapphire corps you were the one tasked with the trip to earth, it made sense, no one wanted to work with teenage earthly heroes but you. Finally, a chance to meet a being similar in age to you! No more old hymns about the power earthly love, you were about to experience it first hand. 

Your mentor had called in a favor and you had been escorted to earth by none other than the physical embodiment of flirtatiousness, Hal Jordan. The trip itself was tiring so upon a midnight arrival you retired to your room without meeting anyone. Now, you could hear a bustling of voices, there was so much emotion radiating it seemed slightly overwhelming, so you opted to wait for Hal to come pull you from your room. 

At the familiar knock you shook away your nerves and flexed your hands into fists, feelings your ring almost pushing you to go outside. “Howdy miss l/n! Ready to meet your new team?” You were greeted with the cheesy grin that had apparently wooed your mentor, but always prodded you. “Good morning Hal, temporary team remember?” you replied, letting your aura be picked up by your purple light. Hal coughed awkwardly, “we walk on earth newbie, not many float here” embarrassed, you touched back down, clearing your throat as you exited your quarters. 

As you made your way down the hallway shouting grew, but upon you entering the room went quiet. With a small smile wave you scanned the room, noticing a green boy who was burning a strange looking food, two other boys who had froze to look at you but stood at a large table that made a strange sound, and lastly a raven haired boy who was sharpening a- sword? At ten in the morning? On the couch. The green boy came up to you first, “hello! You must be y/n! I’m Gar, there’s Jaime, Vic, Robin, and Raven isn’t here but she’s also part of the team! Nice to meet’cha!” Trying to keep up with the names Gar started shouting “SHE’S HERE Y’ALL” apparently to summon a woman who looked like the leader, as she was much older. Following her was a younger girl in a purple cloak, you quite liked her look and vibes, though she felt quite closed off. 

After learning more about everyone at a team breakfast with strangely prepared food you were with the team getting suited up as your mission to travel to Celea, a planet whose environment was toxic to any being over 18, making it a “teen titan’s mission” as they called themselves. As some of the titan’s changed into their suits and prepped themselves for combat you bonded with Raven and Blue Beetle as you had all loaded onto the ship fairly easily. “So why do you have a powerless human on your team? Do you not worry for his safety?” you wondered as you watched Robin methodically pack all his gear. “Trust me, Robin could take all of us out if he wanted to, he’s earned his spot on the team from pure skill and being a little bit of a monster- OOMPH” Jaime was cut off by Raven nudging him. You couldn’t help wanting to hear Robin’s story, as you were like him too- powerless but highly trained and craving to do more. Luckily you had a couple hours of flight to get to know the mysterious boy. 

The ship was large, built for a league of heroes apparently. This meant the team had spread out but you had stayed in the piloting area to assure yourself the team was on the right trajectory, apparently Robin was as well. “You actually know where we’re going?” his voice shook you from your calculations. “Yes, I’ve visited Celea before, but never to fight it’s people” you mused, wondering how in just a few years since your visiting a toxic group of manipulative outlaws had attempted to stake their claim to the beautiful Celea. “TT, not much of a fighter?” Robin mused snarkily, his flitted down to the ring on your finger. “Y’know your team here thinks you’re pretty strong, but I’d wager you’d be easy work for me” you teased back, twisting your ring around your finger as Robin came closer to you. 

(TW FOR BLOOD)

Sitting next to you he began, “my abilities come from my skill, my wit, and my determination. I don’t believe you can say the same princess” you scoffed, “you underestimate me Robin, this ring is nothing without me, not the other way around. Powered from my emotional control and my creativity, my skill takes focus and agility not just glorified muscle memory” you winked at him, enjoying the banter. He scoffed in return. “Yes and what can you do with that ring that I cannot defeat with my blades” he mused. This invitation was perfect. You got up jubilantly, started your lecture. “Clearly you lack certain knowledge Robin, hand me one of your so called blades” you stuck your hand out as Robin rolled his eyes handing you a bat-shaped blade. Without a second thought you cut into the side of your arm, wincing at the pain. “Y/N! What are you doin-” you cut Robin off, beginning to channel your power. “You see, true power is the ability to heal any cut your blades could make, to take was has happened and turn it into a place of love, not malice or hate” as you said this, the familiar purple tone washed over your arm, easily mending the break in your skin. You noticed it felt faster than usual, but wiped it off as adrenaline. 

(TW OVER)

At the display of your powers Robin was in awe. “That’s not all I can do” you laughed, creating a small purple hand that pushed Robin’s open jaw closed. He stumbled back angrily, mumbling about accepting your abilities merit. “You impressed now Robin?” you grinned, sticking out your hand to him. He closed the distance, returning your handshake. “Damian.” he said softly. You swallowed, Damian. It was becoming. Your ring began to warmly glow, Damian snapped his hand away wearily as you cooled your emotions. “Oh uh! Sorry, energy burst” you said, it was a half truth at least. Damian nodded, moving to go clean the batarang. 

The rest of the trip was short, upon entering Celea you’d divided, Damian was with you as the both of you entered publicly while Beast Boy and Raven entered covertly, planning to cover you if the diplomatic endeavors went south. Blue Beetle and Cyborg, unfortunately, weren’t allowed in Celea as their tech was apparently very old and triggered the planet’s defense system, so they stayed up in the ship was manning comms, prepared for an air fight. 

Upon entering you were taken straight to the capital, a sapphire corps was a rarity on Celea and they were all excited for your help. You and Damian met the governing leaders, explaining that you were here to help end the tyranny on the dark side of the planet. As you had hoped, they agreed, you could feel their love for their planet was strong, but that was about all the love on the planet as everyone was so young. It felt slightly difficult to keep a reign on your emotions on Celea, the planet itself was a safe haven for children, almost like a giant orphanage ran by beings that reincarnated frequently as to stay alive on the planet, the concept of pure love was foreign to many of the children and unharnessable. It all felt quite isolating in comparison to earth, a planet driven by intense emotions. 

“You look tired already” Damian mused. “I’m fine, just not a huge fan of a child-only planet” you responded as you made your way towards the large base, preparing yourself for a fight. Before Damian could respond you were joined by Raven and Gar. Their presence eased some of the pressure. “You guys love each other, it’s refreshing” you said, both of them froze, staring at you. “Oh uh, we haven’t really talked about that yet” Raven whispered, staring at Gar who was grinning like a child in a candy shop. “I love you too Rae!” he cheered. “Not how I imagined I’d say it but, yes, I do love you idiot” she huffed. Your cheeks flushed, “oh uh, my bad sorry, it just, seemed so obvious” you giggled, secretly glad you’d brought the two together. 

“Just a couple’a couples!” Beast boy teased, you felt your cheeks redden, glancing to Damian who was now suddenly interested in looking anywhere but at you. You felt your ring begin to glow again, covering it with your other hand. “Oh wow! Look at that! We’re here! Battle time!” you cleared your throat, setting the group focus on infiltrating the rogue base. 

The base itself was relatively small, it hadn’t been flushed out yet but the four of you were here to clear it before they had the chance. Trying to establish a child trafficking ring on a planet of only children was disgusting, and needed stopping before it got the chance. You were especially passionate about this endeavor, the reason for you channeling the power of love was when you lost your sister, that loss of love taught you it’s importance even at a young age, and after training harder than anyone you knew you earned the ring, promising to defend love the way no one defended yours. You would protect these children at any cost. 

There was no need for stealth as you had the permission of the Celean government, it was more of an ambush. As Gar shifted into a large tiger, Raven donned her hood, and Damian stripped himself of the Celean garb, you noticed his Robin suit, littered in weapons and ties, he looked like a hero. There was that damn glow again. Channeling it into your focus you felt the warm aura surround you as you lifted off the ground, ready for a fight. 

“Y/n should say it!” BB roared, Raven nodded in agreement. “Say what?” you looked at Damian. “We have this tradition where the leader says ‘Titan’s Go’ then we fight, and I guess you’re our leader today” he said, you noticed the light tint hiding beneath his mask. “Okay!” you said, positioning yourself, flexing your hand to feel your ring one last time before shouting.

“TITANS GO!” 

And you were off, soaring through the air while BB and Robin took the ground. You noticed a few scared looking kids were being held in pens, and you decided to free them first. As Raven covered you easily, you floated down to the kids, accidentally bonking heads with Robin who stared at you. “I’m so sorry! It’s just we always have to-” “Get the kids out first” he finished your sentence, a small smile dancing at the corner of his mouth. For just a fraction of a second, your eyes flitted down to his lips, feeling his gaze of you the moment felt like slow motion before you both snapped out. “Let’s go! This way!” you used your ring to break the gates as Robin herded the kids out to freedom. 

Glancing up you saw a couple rogues grabbing kids as they tried to run away, your heart stopped when you saw one pull out a laser blaster. “Enough!” you screamed, violet rays exploding from your hands as you easily knocked them out of your way. Leaving your post you flew up and began eradicating anyone who tried to harm a child. “No one hurts my sister!” you screeched, your powers growing stronger by the second as you began dividing your powers between knocking out bad guys and literally carrying children to safety. As the last of the kids were safe you escorted Beast Boy out while you and Raven combined your powers to crunch up the base, making it unfixable and uninhabitable forever. 

Feeling the adrenaline subside you glanced down to see a herd of children cheering, but your focus drew to Damian who was propped up against a barrel, nursing a laser bullet wound. Rushing to his side you quickly pulled open his suit, a trail of blood trickled into your hands. “Damn kevlar doesn’t stop their bullets apparently” he coughed. “Oh my god Damian don’t go” Gar shifted next to you. “He’s not going anywhere” you said, focussing your energy, feeling the pain and imagining turning the warmth of blood into mending, the pools of blood are just pockets of blissful love. 

This wasn’t a good time to tell the team you’d never healed a wound this large before. Positive self talk right? Or negative. 

I’m alone on a planet of useless children, surrounded by a glorified furry, goth, and stocked vigilante. No one is here to help you y/n you’ve gotta do this. You felt the wounds begin to mend, after all that focus you’d barely started. Damian you idiot! If you die right now how will I know why my damn ring is gleaming everytime I see your cute face. Fuck. I didn’t mean cute. Yeah I did. Okay, save the cute face. Maybe kiss the cute face if you save it? Yeah. That’s a good deal y/n let’s do that. Your head was rushing through a million thoughts, anything to motivate you to do the impossible. Halfway there, you could feel it. “Holy cow, look! The wound is closing!” Gar pointed at Damian’s chest. “Y-yeah. No help from you green bean” you mumbled. “Oh I know what’ll help!” Gar squeaked, running off. You turned to Damian who was just staring at you bewildered. “Don’t look at me like that when I’m literally repairing your organs bird boy” you whispered through clenched teeth. 

Then a surge of power came over you, it felt raw and unchanneled, you glanced up to see Gar mid-kiss with Raven, giving you a thumbs up. The love was short lived, but enough to keep your engine revving. Alright girl you got this, heal, then kiss, maybe. Definitely heal first. He has to live. C’mon. “JUST LIVE DAMMIT” you shouted the last bit, feeling the last of your power drain while the wound completely closed. “Holy shit I’m a badass” you whispered, before feeling intensely light headed. 

You woke up in the ship med bay, jolting up. “HE LIVED HE LIVED” you burst up, throwing a fist in the air. The other corps members would be so proud! Your first battle with death you’d won! “You’re right I did live, thanks to you” a familiar voice brought you back down to earth. Next to your bed was Damian, now in casual clothes with a little bandaging on his other wounds. “Oh! uh yeah, you’re totally welcome” you grinned. Awkwardly Damian scooted closer to you. “I think I owe you a certain gratitude” he said, emotions dripping in his voice you hadn’t heard before. 

This time his eyes snapped down to your lips, as he leaned in you felt like you were dreaming. When your lips connected you couldn’t help but smile into the kiss, feeling lightheaded with pure joy. The kiss itself was soft, blissful and lovely. Damian’s lips felt soft against yours, like they fit with yours like a puzzle piece. Pulling away you stared at him shocked. “I could hear your thoughts when you were healing me, had to live up to your expectations” he winked while you covered your face with embarrassment. “Oh my gosh that’s so embarrassing yikes” you mumbled into your hands. You felt Damian’s hand slide under yours, caressing your cheek, drawing your eyes to his. “I thought it was pretty endearing personally, I suppose it’s because I was being saved by the most gorgeous, fascinating girl I know” he mused, before bringing you in for another kiss, this time more passionate, as if to show his feelings through a kiss instead of words. 

You spent the rest of your earthly get-away with the Titans, finding a sort of family with them. When you were called back to your people you promised to return in a few weeks, hoping to move your station to earth. They could always use another lantern right? 

When you returned to your mentor, C.Ferris you told her of your earthly adventures. She laughed, “a Star Sapphire’s greatest strength and weakness all wrapped into a snarky earth boy body” and you couldn’t help but agree. And with that, you were sent back to earth, this time returning as Dove, because every Robin needs a lovebird to help them along the way. 

[thatoneao3writer]

Hey I hate my brain for coming up with this but

Can you fucking imagine the whiplash Sam and Ponk - no, the ENTIRETY of the ttau world would get from aw!Sam alone? (I'm gonna call aw!Sam 'San' so I don't get confused)

At the point in time San enters the ttau and starts causing havoc, it's really scary to both the media and the Titans themselves- especially Sam, because that's literally another VERISON of himself. For all he knows (while he's trapped in a place i shall not name for spoilers), San could be doing anything he wants because San knows everything about him. Because he. Is. HIM.

Some parts in that arc really terrify Sam- although he knows that he's not really doing this and San is just another 'villain' he has to stop, it gets personal because it causes Sam to think about if he'd do the same things that San did.

He has the capacity to do the same things San did.

So he gets scared of himself.

And to top it off even more, how would you think Ponk would be? Mans is traumatized oh lord

He'd be subconsiously scared to do anything with Sam, touches from him would make them flinch for a few weeks :,(

Mostly everyone would be a little on edge around Sam, even though they know he never did anything wrong.

I say mostly everyone, because Bad is the only one that fully understands what Sam is going through because he used to be someone he didn't want to be. He saw in himself someone that wasn't him, although looked like him. And that's not necessarily the same scenario, but it sure means the same things.

To make this whole angsty drabble a little bit better, Bad talks with Sam about it when Sam starts locking himself up in his room like a hermit- Bad has talks with everyone, honestly (Bad is the mvp of this whole thing)

"Everyone has the capability to do evil, but everyone also has the capability to do good. All that matters is what you choose to do in the first place."

-tt!Badboyhalo 2021

You're welcome for the bittersweet ending

I have to write this out though-

Love the angst Narwhal

You can never have too much angst and can’t wait to see the full story

-👻

[thattimdrakeguy]

Look, I don't want this to sound bad or be misinterpreted, that's why I'm writing it to you, who are one of the few human beings in the fandom who take more than 5 seconds to think before speaking.

Look, I think I'm just sick of the timkon, I've never been one of those who ship but I just don't care, everyone can imagine what they want, it's just that in this case, it's just on another level.

I'm not homophobic or anything annoying like that, I was among the first to jump with excitement when the first Urban Legends request came out hinting at Tim's reveal.

It's just that I'm fed up, since it became official about Tim it seems that everyone only wanted it for their ships, it doesn't help that the timkon really is one of those ships maked because two characters are close so they should automatically be a couple.

The ship stems from Geoff Johns' TT era where none of the characters were particularly well written, I've seen people who literally only like that run because of the moments they assigned to the ship.

And the worst and what has bothered / surprised me the most at the time of writing this silly complaint, I really just cannot process that there are really people outraged and spitting billis at DC for not putting a ship that is not canon in any way in Titans , that simple, as if it were something real or elemental of both characters.

At the same level of those same people who want to make Kon homosexual from one issue to another just to stick him with Tim and throw the narrative sense in the trash, I don't know what to say anymore, thanks in advance.

Honestly, I'm right there with you.

I'm not sure I can say I'm sick of it. Cause really I'm sick of most of the fandom's stuff.

Because so much of the things are popular is just bandwagoning and that's it. Like I bet you, without finding whatever it is to jump on online, they would not still like it as much and may have a total different view even.

Some of the hills people die on are freaking crazy cause I read a lot of comics and they're often so off the mark it's honestly, so so honestly head scratching.

And I'm not saying this to be like, "yeah screw you TimKon stans", cause legitimately I'm not. People enjoying whatever is good as long as it's not morally wrong. Cause that just means people are enjoying themselves. Which is good in the end.

But boy, do I not get it from a fuller perspective. They were just suddenly best friends in a series without much good characterization. During Y.J. they got on better terms...but not really best friends.

Why...would they be? lol

Neither of them are into the same things. They're quite different. Barely shown just hanging out.

Kon was closer with Bart if I had to compare.

But ships and stans generally speaking. Always have insanely loud, insanely toxic people.

They lie, gaslight, bully, exaggerate, and go into denial about stuff to create this preferred image for whatever it is. Not limited to TimKon. Cause I mean in literally every fan base. In that way.

It's why I stopped being on as much. There's too much about stuff people don't know a lot about and won't let go of. And again I get it. But when you really care about them cause it's a comfort thing or that's just how your mind works, odds are you really won't like it.

I don't find the fun in lying to myself or pretending I find the same jokes funny time and time again.

Like, no, that's exhausting lol

Idgaf about some random dude with a strawman argument online tryna make me feel like a crap person.

"Oh so you prefer when Batman hits his kids huh??"

Like, uh, nah. lol

Just exhausted of fanon. Why do people forget there's a gray area? Sheesh. I'm not into stuff that comes from a janky source at best. I want to like actual content.

Anyways I find people that want Kon to be gay, as in loud ones not all of them, literally just want it for their ship. They don't actually care about the character/characters. They got obsessed with it so much that it's probably not healthy. I've yet to see someone that actually seems to genuinely like the character get so stressed about the ship.

Most of the ones that care about Kon aren't stressed about the ship being canon. Some ship it. But barely nuts about it. Some may want it. But they aren't acting as if they are canon and it's imperative.

That's my experience at the very least.

[thedragonchilde]

My Fanfiction Greatest Hits

*I know, it sucks that a good chunk of them are Harry Potter, which tells you how long it's been since I wrote on a regular basis

Highest Acclaim:

Slipping, House MD, angst, warning for discussion of (canonical) suicide. Taub and House have it out in the wake of Kutner's death. Overtones of unrequited Taub/Kutner and House/Wilson, but apparently reads well enough as gen. Written in present tense, and tbh I don't think it would've been as good in past tense.

Though ffnet and AO3 were both ghost towns, LJ came in clutch with some really awesome reviews about how in-character and canonically plausible it was, and wound up on three rec lists, which is the most attention I've ever gotten on anything, and quite a high compliment given how cutthroat House fandom often was!

Fun fact, the only other fic I've ever had wind up on a rec list was Something to Talk About, a patently ridiculous Big Bang Theory flashfic in which Raj and Howard are frustratingly oblivious to each other's signals.

Actual Contest Winners:

Ghost!, Harry Potter, JR's dad died before he was born, but that doesn't mean he can't still meet him. First person epistolary. First place in a next-gen drabble contest.

Charming, Harry Potter, Rita and Gilderoy came by their claims to infamy through each other. Has since been wildly jossed. Second place in a oneshot contest that asked us to use five randomly chosen words in a story.

Most Enduring:

No Sense of Humor?, Mulan II, Princess Su musing on how her eldest sister has changed

Paradox Confessional, Beetlejuice (animated), the most circuitous love confession ever, BJ/LD. First person monologue. Nowadays I actually think this one is pretty clumsily written.

I wrote these fuckers, like, thirteen years ago, and I occasionally still get faves. It's kind of cool, because I know that means someone has just discovered or rekindled the fandom and binged everything that exists for it, and as a niche fandomer myself, I'm honored to be part of people's "HOLY SHIT THERE'S FIC FOR THIS I'M NOT ALONE" elation.

Best Thing I Never Finished:

Break Me Shake Me, Teen Titans, tackling Speedy's abandonment issues in the context of the TV show, only one chapter written

I think I once figured it would come to about five chapters? I'm aiming to format it like an episode. Have an outline for the whole thing (or at least I did years ago), but first I got tripped up on how to open the next chapter, and then I hit a plot snag, and then I couldn't get back into TT brain. But like. I'm pretty proud of what I have.

Best Thing Nobody Read:

Blow to the Heart, G Gundam, George thought that having a conversation about love was a good idea for some reason, and nobody anticipated Chibodee accidentally getting way more revealing than he wanted to. Established Domon/Rain and unrequited Chibodee/Domon. First person monologue (implied conversation, with responses gleaned from context).

Still proud of this exercise in character voice. Sometimes wonder if I should attempt to remix this as a proper prose piece, though my worry is screwing up/slowing down the pacing too much? And I know generally remixes are meant to be done by someone else. Other options are comic (though that's a big undertaking) and podfic (but who would listen?).

Claims to Fame:

Paradox Confessional already covered above

She's So High, Xiaolin Showdown, crushes suck, especially when she's your housemate, and so are the other guys who are into her, and you're just a big oaf. Mostly-onesided KimiClay. Yes, this was originally a songfic. Fun fact, once upon a time I had planned on writing a follow-up from Kimiko's POV based around "Head Over Feet".

In Sickness and In Health, CATS, warning for discussion of mortality, Jennyanydots faces a problem she can't fix on her own. Jenny/Bustopher. I recently had an interaction on discord that roughly went "hey, you're the one who wrote that thing! Fellow shipper! I found the ending an unsatisfying copout."

Enchanted, Harry Potter, warning for explicit drunkenness and implicit sex, it's not easy to be an ugly brutish Slytherin. Crabbe/Millicent. I got a really gorgeous comment on this through an archive that I don't believe exists anymore.

The Video, Yu-Gi-Oh, warning for copious mentions of sex and childbirth, sex ed assembly actually shows porn. No fucking way am I linking this, but this OOC nightmare is what cemented my reputation as a crack writer. (I'll just have to dig up some crack that's actually still readable.)

[yicruz48]

apparently Bendis has caused this assiantion of Damian's charcater

Not surprising. 

I figured that out months ago. Many things in this writing were pointing to this. 

Just looking Legion of Super-Heroes #3 makes it clear that an evil Damian was eventually going to be apart of the plan:

-> Ignoring the highly inappropriate “Baby Hitler” comment, it is indisputable that Damian is a major villian in the Legion of Super-Heroes. 

In addition, it seems the Legion was even created in order to stop him-or at least stop an evil Damian from even being an outcome (which they aren’t doing a very good job of), the text from the last panel makes this clear:

“...And we are working to avoid that outcome. Therefore we, as a group, have dedicated our entire existence to rooting for his success.” 

Also Teen Titans (issue 43), Damian’s main book, goes along with this narrative of an evil Damian in the future when Jon himself mentions it to Damian the last time he talks to him:

Plus Bendis himself seems pretty happy about the outcome of Damian losing the Robin title in order for Tim to acquire it on his Instagram:

Not to mention, the countless “Damian will be evil” foreshadowing's since we have gotten since the beginning of rebirth, I talk about that a bit more in this post I made months ago.

Although, I think it also important to remember that Bendis isn’t the only one involved in this. There is other  writers who are using Damian’s development as a sacrificial lamb in their own stories and probably more if what Tynion said is true about Damian being “BIG” in the bat-books in the future. 

What I am really sure of is that ALL of  this mess is not worth losing years of Damian’s development.

Its not worth turning one of your most visibly diverse Robin’s evil. 

It was not worth perpetuating negative stereotypes about Arabians and other people of color. 

And if Jon comes in and swoops in to save and redeem Damian himself, I couldn’t help but get a bit of “white savior” vibes from it. 

Adam Glass’s execution of it since the beginning was terrible (I talk about that in several posts but mainly this one and this one). I admit, Thompson does a better job of showing a more sympathetic Damian since he has taken over but still hasn’t done a good job of writing Damian. If you are a long time follower of my blog, you already aware of what I mean if you’ve been reading my TT reviews. 

I recently made a petition related to this, and if you haven’t already signed it or re-blogged it, I would appreciate it.