#thinking he’s gonna be manipulated by another al Ghul

[ghost-bxrd]

Prompt:

Jason is terrified of Damian al Ghul-Wayne.

Talia dipped him in the Pit, fed him lies, put him through the worst kinds of pain possible for the sake of training and turned him into a monster that went to heel when called. A monster even Ra’s was wary of.

He’s terrified of Damian, because if his mother managed to manipulate and play him like a fiddle, then she must have taught the same to her son.

Damian, who only has memories of a catatonic Jason cooing at him, cuddling him and protecting him, is becoming progressively more distressed by Jason’s perpetual cold shoulder and skittish behavior whenever Jason sees him.

[redhoodinternaldialectical]

Finding character motivations for everything Talia Al Ghul does and says in Lost Days

People say she was manipulating Jason to be more violent but like... was she?? Why would she be doing that??? She spends years trying to heal him for Bruce and then tries to make him more violent towards Bruce because... ????????

I've read Lost Days a fair few times and it never felt like she was being cruel or manipulative and this has confused the fuck out of me for a long time. Since I'm going to be writing her into my Jason centric fic pretty soon, I figured it would be good to go back to Lost Days and really focus in on her and her character motivations.

This is a post because I do my best thinking through the act of writing essays, and figured someone out there might also be interested.

tl;dr In the text as written Talia does her level best to guide Jason to become a Hero again out of genuine compassion. It is her explicit goal to make Jason less vengeful, less violent, and more like the hero he was before he died. She is not predatory towards him, and the only times she works in ways that could be damaging to him are when she feels her own safety is threatened by him. Talia is depicted as a good but flawed person shaped by the trauma Ra's and the League has put her through.

So yeah, wildly over detailed analysis of everything Talia does and says during Lost Days under the cut:

Scene one: Ra's and Talia yelling dramatically on a lawn right after Talia uses a Lazarus Pit on Jason.

Her stated justification for doing so is "I did--what--needed to be done" (em dashes for choking). Considering she risked a LOT to do this, I figure she's probably telling the truth. She believed this was necessary.

Then we flash back to her first learning about Jason's death. She posits that his death will essentially break Bruce.

In the panels directly after this she's shown looking at a picture of Jason and Bruce, face in hands, clearly upset. Probably primarily for Bruce, but like idk she's an empathic human I feel like it's safe to say she's upset for the kid who died too, especially since the picture centers Jason prominently, with focus/close-up panels on both Bruce and Jason, with Jason's scanning first.

Then we have the sequence of her learning that Jason is still alive, through her agents who have been instructed to keep a very close eye on Bruce.

Her first big decision is to bring him to her Father. She doesn't make any attempt to hide him, so it's either a good idea to her or a necessary one. Ra's obviously wants to figure out how he managed to cheat death, and it seems likely to me, given that she's loyal to him, that she'd also want to do so. She doesn't seem to want him dead, even if she's at odds with him pretty much the whole time to one degree or another.

Then we get her investigating Jason's ressurection and the doctor she's got telling her about his brain damage and the Doc claims he's not getting better

We're just gonna breeze on passed that autistic affect weirdness...

She disagrees.

This is the third time now that Talia has had faith in the humanity and emotional capacity of people the rest of the League write off as being capable of nothing but violence. Considering she's been right the other times it stands to reason that she's right about this too. It also says a lot about her character that this is something she's repeatedly done.

She attempts to prove he's getting better by slapping Jason across the face, declaring, "He never fights back when it's me! Explain that! Never when it's me!"

This strongly suggests that she must treat him differently than the rest of the league, specifically that she treats him with more kindness and more attention. He recognizes her as someone safe, who he doesn't need to fight.

This is further backed up by the next page

Ra's then decides that all this has been a complete waste of time and demands that Jason be put out to pasture so he can't distract Talia from her work for the League.

During this argument Ra's posits that she thinks handing over a healed Jason would make Bruce love her, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I think Ra's is misreading her, in exactly the same way all of the League has been misreading everyone all issue: he's failing to understand that people are capable of actual love and compassion. He's interpreting her acts of kindness and love as something manipulative and selfish. Maybe that's something she believes or hopes for on some level, but it's obviously not her "real" motive here like Ra's thinks.

This is what makes her decide that it's necessary to make one last attempt to heal him, and get him out somewhere safer than with the League. It's a desperate last ditch attempt, but she's a competent motherfucker.

The rest of the issue is narrated as a letter Talia sends off with him in the bag of supplies she gives him. In it she says that she had other reasons for attempting to save him.

So, at the end of issue #1 we have three clear motives for why she healed Jason:

To heal Jason is to heal Bruce.

She has a basic sense of decency and wants to help a murdered kid recover. Jason healing is its own reward.

She wants to find out how Jason "survived" so that her Father might be able to replicate that for himself.

Healing Jason might bring her emotionally closer to Bruce.

ALL of these are based in love, and thus could qualify for what she meant in those last few lines of her letter. However, I think I want to emphasis that she almost certainly has to be including love for Jason himself, not just for what Jason represents to Bruce, though Bruce is still a huge focus for her.

And she didn't tell Bruce because Ra's might kill Jason. He doesn't want Batman to know he's alive, ever, and may very well kill Jason to keep that secret.

ON TO ISSUE #2

This is where it gets a lot harder to figure out why she's doing things.

Talia's first act is to refuse to tell Ra's where Jason is. Her second revealed act is that while tossing Jason into the ocean to help him escape she says this:

"Do not seek him out. You remain unavenged."

Third thing she does is check up on her loyal agents who tell her "We know where he's going You're not going to like it." This is immediately followed by the reveal that Jason is going to Gotham.

So uhhhh... Why doesn't Talia want him to go to Bruce now? Also, why does Talia think that being unavenged would mean Jason going to Bruce was a bad idea? Like how is the unavenged bit not a complete nonsequitor?

Cause the thing is, we the audience know what Jason is like in the future, Lost Days was written after UtRH, but Talia doesn't know Jason's personality, she's only met him while he was incapable of communication, so what reason does she have to assume this would impact him like this?

Hypothesis one: She knew about Felipe, thinks he killed him, and thus counts him as a killer of abusers, someone who would want revenge.

Seems pretty unlikely. There's absolutely nothing in the text to support this, it's completely made up conjecture. Also, she doesn't seem to think Jason is the type of person to do revenge all that harshly in later panels.

Hypothesis two: She's counting on the temporary adrenaline-rage-pain boost from the Pit to convince him to be mad about the whole unavenged thing.

Why tho? Like, for realsies, there's no reason for her to try to do this? If this is a plan to keep him away from Bruce, it's a dumb one, like why would that be her choice of strategy?? Also the letter contradicts this.

Hypothesis three: She believes it was wrong of Bruce not to avenge him, or at least thinks that most people would be incredibly angry to find they weren't avenged

Baring her just being fucking precognitive and knowing the future for no good reason, this seems like the most likely cause. Growing up in the League hasn't exactly given her a view of how healthy people handle their anger, and violent retaliation is a nigh daily obstacle for her to navigate. It means she told him that because she thought it was important and she probably always intended to tell him whenever he healed enough to understand it.

Hypothesis four: She assumed him finding out was inevitable, and wanted to do that in a controlled manner... uhhh... and the best controlled manner avaliable was... while flinging him off a cliff??? Instead of in the letter?????

Not buying this one.

We see Jason try to kill Bruce and then get him explaining himself to Talia.

That's... that's not how sociopathic works I'm pretty sure... whateves...

Talia seems to have believed there would have been a fight about the Joker, but not that Jason would have actually tried to kill him. Or at least not that Jason would have tried to really, truly kill him in such a cold, calculated way once all forms of Laz juice were out of his system.

So again, why the fuck was she preventing him and Bruce from meeting?! Would the Dark Knight not have survived a fist fight with an angry sixteen year old??

I don't get it. That's uhhhh- that doesn't make any sense to me. I guess she was just wary of how bad the confrontation might get, but not fully expecting this kind of rage? Maybe she was acting much more confident of her decisions in front of her father and was really worried about this outcome? I dunno, and that's all the evidence we've got!

And now we have a new problem! Why does Talia agree to help him?

She believes she's released a curse into this world. She believes that she has kickstarted a nasty cycle of violence spiral. She doesn't want to see Bruce hurt or killed by his kid.

So the only conclusion left is that she thinks she can better mitigate the damage by helping and misdirecting than she can by actually confronting Jason. Considering who she interacts with, that seems perfectly reasonable.

ON TO ISSUE #3

We get some proper answers here hopefully

Our previous idea about why she was helping him was correct, this is an attempt to keep him less violent, steer him towards other things, and let his desire for revenge fizzle or find a different target.

She's not giving him over to Bruce because Bruce would never forgive her for having kept Jason from him... And also Jason will fucking kill Bruce.

Make special note here of the idea that sex is why she isn't beating the crap out of this guy. Put a pin in that. It'll be important later.

Back down at the murder ranch, Jason finishes killing his teacher and then explains himself

I believe she's genuinely happy about this, because it is actually a step in the direction she wants him to take. He went from being completely obsessed with just killing the father who didn't avenge him, to saving a bunch of kids and delaying his own revenge goals to do it. The tin man IS growing a heart. Her plan is, miraculously, kinda working!

ON TO ISSUE #4

Further proof that her plan is working: Jason leaves Rip, the mercenary driver, alive. He's developing standards for who he is and isn't willing to kill, and those standards are evolving because he is being pushed outside his conflict with Bruce.

His treatment of the bomber's connection with the mob is further proof of this.

That little smile and her gently nudging him towards the idea that he's picking "old habits" back up is very telling. She's guiding him back to the path of actually being a Hero. I think this is meant to imply that Talia is deliberately throwing scumbags towards him to not only distract him, but also to remind him of the heroism he did before he died and give him new purpose beyond mere violence towards Bruce.

And again, her plan is working! He's doing hero stuff!

Aaaaand now we have another curveball. Why show him Tim?

Again, him finding out about this was probably inevitable. He seems more chill, the dark circles under his eyes are gone, I think she's hoping that while in the middle of a new investigation Jason will be in as good a place as she can find to tell him about this.

It's better than mid cliff dive, if nothing else.

Now, to head this off at the pass, because I've seen people assert this in other posts before: this is definitively, absolutely, 100% guaranteed, NOT WHEN TITANS TOWER HAPPENS. He hasn't even come up with using the red hood as a persona when she shows him this picture, so even if he let the extremely time sensitive bombing plot go for a day or two worth of private jetting to beat up the new guy, there's no way in HELL Tim would be able to recognize the Red Hood as Jason. Heck, Tim wouldn't even be with that set of Titans yet, the fucking HUSH plotline hasn't even happened yet!! Okay moving on...

ON TO ISSUE #5

Talia isn't in this one

Jason acts as a Hero. Tim man definitely has a heart.

I really like this plotline tbh, it's just great.

He kills all but one of the Russian mobsters that come to kill him and then he runs out of ammo on the last, and that guy offers up the Joker's location in exchange for his life.

This is when the Tin Man relapses.

ON TO ISSUE #6

CONTENT WARNING FOR DISCUSSION OF CONSENT ISSUES

He hunts the Joker down and fails to kill him. I want to emphasis here, that failing to kill the Joker is a failure to adhere to the morals that Jason has established for himself, and a failure to keep being an anti-hero the way Talia was encouraging him to be.

This is not him being a good guy. This is him getting worse again. This is him failing to care about the world and things other than his own revenge.

Once again he explains himself to Talia, and reveals that he's known for a while now that she's been stalling him.

And then they fuck, and Jason wakes up alone.

So what just happened and why?

First of all I think the fact he KNEW he was being stalled combined with his heroism prior to the Joker being brought up strongly implies that Talia's plan would have kept working and that Jason would have kept letting it work, drawing him more and more into just being an anti-hero. He has a heart, he has morals, but his rage for Bruce and the Joker eclipses those morals pretty completely. Talia's plan was always to guide him away from revenge and it might have worked if he hadn't run out of ammo at the wrong time.

Secondly, Talia has just been given a bunch of reasons to feel threatened. Her plot was revealed, and Jason no longer has reason to believe that she isn't an obstacle to his goals.

Considering the sheer amount of violence that Talia regularly narrowly escapes only through manipulation and leveraging men's emotions, it seems pretty reasonable to me that she'd assume she needed to do both those things in order to protect herself.

She tells Jason about Ra's death, claiming that she's angry with Bruce for that. I don't know if this is the truth, but it would serve this purpose either way. She's giving him reasons to believe she's still on his side. Then she gets emotional leverage on him by sleeping with him. Take that pin out of the fact that she didn't beat that other guy for talking out of turn to her because she was fucking him. Then she escapes while he's asleep and only contacts him again from afar.

She does both of these things because she is afraid that a freshly refocused on vengeance Jason will hurt or kill her if she doesn't. After all, she herself is a killer. Jason might just decide it's her turn to join his other teachers.

The scene of them sleeping together isn't framed as traumatic for Jason; he seems to be perfectly willing.

There two very important questions that need answered before we cast judgments though: Is Jason still a minor when this happens? How old is Talia in comparison to Jason?

The only indication of timeline that we have is that it takes place JUST prior to Hush, as the story ends with Jason meeting Tomas Elliot. According to the Batman Chronology Project, Tim should be 16 during the events of Hush. We know Jason is about two years older than Tim, making him 18 during this scene.

According to Dennis O'Neil "I’m pretty sure that Talia is still a young woman – young by our standards, not just her father’s." According to some random fucker on an ancient comicvine forum going by the handle "brock4618", O'Neil said in a different interview that she was 18 when Bruce kissed her and is about Dick's age, not Bruce's age. I can't find O'Neil saying that, but it does line up with the quote we know is real.

So this was a case of an extremely traumatized 18 year old boy agreeing to sleep with a woman in her twenties after he accidentally made her feel that she needed to use sex and emotional manipulation to protect herself from his possible violent retaliation.

This is still a deeply unpleasant situation, but it's so much better than the initial impression that I got!

CONCLUSIONS TIME

Talia healed Jason because

She's a kind and loving person, and was especially kind and loving when she was younger. She wants to help Bruce, she wants to help Jason, and she wants to help her father. She did it for love.

Talia kept Jason's existence a secret from Bruce because

Her father demanded she keep it a secret, then she was afraid Bruce would hate her for it, and by the time she ought to be warning Bruce about Jason, well he was a scary motherfucker and she was in too deep.

Is Talia portrayed as a sexually predatory monster?

No. A woman using sex to escape violence is not predatory; I will fucking fight you. That whole scenario was bad, but acting like she's evil for this doesn't pan out unless you disagree with some of the facts of the case. It also really doesn't feel like Winick intended for the audience to assume this was predatory. Jason never seems uncomfortable with the fact it happened, and he even gives Jason a bit of beard scruff to help convey that he's older now. (it uh... it didn't work. Because I thought Talia was like 52 at minimum. Also just the timeline. But that was the intent I feel)

Is Talia attempting to make Jason more vengeful?

No. Exact opposite actually, every lie and manipulation is in service of preventing him from going on his vengeance quest, guiding him to be a better person, and protecting herself and others.

As a side note: I haven't touched the potential misogyny or racism angles, because that's simply beyond the scope of this analysis. I don't have the time, energy, or resources to dig into this myself, you'll have to find a different post for that angle, sorry.

So... yeah. That's my findings, I hope at least one other person finds this useful!

[fatheriimaginedyoutaller]

(SCRIPT PREVIEW)

Hey ya'll. Hope you're all having a great afternoon! I'm here to bring you a little update about this post.

After watching some video essays for inspiration, I began developing a draft for a script about Robin: Son of Batman (2015). Analyzing the story implications, themes and motifs! :)

And because ya'll been so supportive of my nerdy endeavours, you guys are getting a special preview of the aforementioned draft! (criticisms accepted of course!)

Part of the script avaliable under cut

tagging in: @fancyfade @fluffykitty149 @cleoeatsit

The first issue of the comic run starts with Damiam returning some sort of cultural artifacts to their rightful owners; an order of monks in mainland China.  So, immediately, we got this Tomb Raider/Indiana Jones kind of plot point.  

(Man I sure hope it doesn’t get abandoned halfway through and pivots to portraying  the replacement of an autocracy with another autocracy where the head of state its not even from the country as a good thing)

ahem…

He gets interrupted by League of Assassins members which he fights off with the help of his pet, Goliath the Bat-dragon. He wins said fight and is lavished for returning the sacred object by the locals

All while a masked figure is observing the scene while saying: 

“(...) there cannot be redemption for the year of the blood”

This introduction to the comic is interesting because it highlights the main narrative theme and framing device of the whole story: The Quest for Redemption.

Before we even know exactly what Damian is doing and why he's doing it. We know he's looking to mend a rift. To make a past wrongdoing right. And then we find out someone wants to stop him…

This forms an interesting parallel with real life survivors of schoolyard abuse aka bullying.

Now, hear me out…

 Many kids (especially those with conditions such as autism) are manipulated by their bullies into doing bad things to other children. They generally do this by preying on their loneliness and desire to be accepted by their peers. And so said kids carry out acts of hazing to other children, perpetuating a cycle of harm.

A cycle which is hard to escape from. Because if you hurt someone, regardless of if you were manipulated or not, that person will probably not trust you after the fact. And if you add into account the environment of a school, where rumors spread like wildfires, there's a high chance you develop a bad reputation. Cause other people have no way of knowing you did it while being threatened into being a social pariah. It's a no win situation.

Damian's story is simile to this. Sure, the acts he carried out were far more extreme and he was not manipulated by an outsider but by his own grandfather, Ra’s Al Ghul.  But the effects of his psyche, development and public perception are all the same.

Think about it: His claims to being either the Blood Son or the Grandson of the Demon  are basically him trying to justify his existence  to a family that, for all he knows, could abuse him again. Which leads him to having a thought process where he has to be the best of the best in the room, cause the only other alternative is death. and for that he’s punished. Even though no one ever bothered to teach him the normal social protocols for a boy his age. 

So when you make that reading of Damian, and put into the context of a story where he, by his own volition, decides he’s gonna try and reverse all the harm he caused while being essentially groomed. You get something really powerful.

Well…kind of…

There’s a few things that stuck out with the framing of this arc. The most glaring one being: this arc takes place after he comes back from the dead. After being trapped in hell for the better part of a year after being killed by his own clone.

By making Damian’s journey for redemption take place after he’s been through literal Hell, there’s the subtle implication that he’s not doing it out of his own free will, but to avoid some sort of celestial punishment.

And that’s not a bad idea per se, if the comic acknowledged that implication. Because it does put an interesting question into the table. “Does it matter why we do good things? As long as we do them?” Does it matter if Damian doesn’t kill anymore because of “selfish” reasons. After all, why would an orphan he saves from a fire care if he used to be bad or not? Should that matter to anyone?

That last part is a testament, I think, to how much better executed some ideas that writers at DC have would be if they played them straight. If they acknowledged the implications of their writing instead of just doing something because they thought it would be cool or dramatic. 

[buttercupsbitch]

A Short One Shot for MGI: Civil War 2022, Dead Hood Society.

After a long day at work, all Marinette wanted to do was lay on her couch and wait for Jay to call her. She wished he was home to cuddle up with, he was the best at making her feel better, but he wasn’t due back from his business trip for three days. So, she would settle for a glass of wine and a bad romcom instead. Approaching her door, she realized something was off.

Marinette slowly opened the door, taking note that it was unlocked but also undamaged, as she entered her apartment. Only one other person had the key and he was supposed to be on another continent. Entering, she grabbed the gun that Jason kept hidden in the umbrella holder beside the door. He probably thought she didn’t know about it but when you have 19 mini gods that share the same space, you learn there are no secrets, especially from the Guardian of said gods.

She could hear someone around the corner, in the kitchen, so she followed the noise. She wasn’t prepared to see her lovely boyfriend, who was supposed to be in New Jersey, with a child.

“Mari,” he exclaimed, going to pull her into his arms, before he noticed the gun. “What’s that for? Where’d you even get it?”

“Where’d I- Jason, it’s yours. I got it out of the stand by the door because the door was unlocked and you are not supposed to be here until Monday. Yet here you stand, without telling me you were coming home early. What was I supposed to think, babe?”

Jason rubbed his hand through his hair, nodding as she spoke. “Yeah, that makes sense. Sorry, darlin’.”

Marinette rolled her eyes a bit but refocused on the child. “Jay, honey, when I asked you to bring me something home, I didn’t mean a child. Who’s this?”

Jason whips his head around as if just remembering the boy he had brought with him. Looking at him, Marinette thought he looked a bit familiar. Almost too familiar. “Jason. You didn’t.”

“Didn’t what, darlin’? I’ve got no clue what you could be implying of your dear boyfriend.”

“Of course not. Sweetie, what’s your name,” she asks, turning to the boy. He was at least old enough to know his name and age. Kidnapping. Just another thing to add to the long list of things she had done over the course of her life, she supposed. Hopefully, Jason had a good reason for bringing him home.

The boy looked up, as if just realizing they were speaking. “Damian Wayne. Who are you?”

The name alone gave away just how much trouble she was planted in. “Jason! You didn’t!” A string of Mandarin curses followed her words, and, though he couldn’t translate them exactly, Jason had been around both Marinette and her mother to know they were not nice words. Jason winced as she began pacing the room.

“Damian, this is my girlfriend, Mari. Mari, this is Damian, my brother, but you knew that, huh?”

“Yes, i guessed from the fact that he is a carbon copy of your father with Talia fucking Al Ghul’s eyes. Merci, Jay, we’re gonna die. If Bruce doesn’t track us down to take him back, Talia is gonna murder us and burn the bodies.”

The boy-Damian-seemed surprised that she knew of Talia, but as Guardian of the Miracle Box, knowing of the League of Shadows was one of the more unfortunate duties Marinette held.

“Relax, Mari. Who do you think sent me on the trip?”

Marinette stopped moving at his words and quickly turned to face him. “You want to take a child from the richest man in the world and return him to the League of Assassins? Yes, that is just a wonderful idea. Let’s get in between the lover’s spat of the man you refuse to speak to and the woman who manipulated you and sicced you on a child.”

“No, we’re not giving him back.”

“What,” Damian asked, quietly.

“I- uh. Your mom asked me to bring you here and keep you. Until you graduate, at least. She’s worried about you, Baby Bat. Do you know how difficult it is to get Talia worried? Something had to be up.”

Damian appeared to be thinking, as he went quiet at that. “Yes, I suppose. She is my mother after all.”

Jason looked relieved he hadn’t accidentally turned the child on his mom of all people. Merde, Marinette thought. This man will be the death of me.

“I don’t suppose you would like to stress bake with me while your brother cleans out the spare room and puts new sheets on the bed?”

The boy looked at her inquisitively, as if her offer was a trap but followed her into the kitchen regardless.

Baby Steps

tagged: @illiteratefucks @mgi-events

[safitheartist]

Okay. Listen.

This is super self indulgent and basically just me wanting these characters to get along and be friends.

Anyway Gotham City Siren Talia should be a thing.

-

"-So I stand there, with half a rubber chicken, a baby bear and 5 jars of honey an' with the major of Gotham as a hostage an' Batman just stood there, staring at me as if he wasn't quiet sure if he should be impressed or disapointed in me. I honestly had no idea how to explain that to him either so I just offered him some honey." Harley finished her tale.

"Okay, you win. I can't top this story." Pamela said, handing her girlfriend her plate in defeat. "Me neither," Selina shook her head, sliding her slice of Pizza to Harley.

Harley smiled gleefully at her prizes. "Come to mama!" She said, before pausing. Her eyes traveled to, where the fourth member of their sleepover was located.

She exchanged looks with her friends, who both gave her unsure shrugs. Harley took a deep breath.

"Hey Tali' ya wanna have a play too?" She asked the woman who was sitting next to the balcony railing. Talia didn't pay her any mind. Her gaze was striktly directed over the dark streets of gotham. She has been that way since they arived back at Selina's appartment.

"I bet you have tons of crazy stories!" She added, but Talia still made no sign of even hearing her.

"Or not...that's fine too!" Harley replied to the silence she got from the other woman.

"Don't take it personal." Selena said, "She's...been going through a lot." Harley knew that, she really did, she just...wished she could cheer her up a bit.

"Honestly, why are you even still here if you are going to be like that?" Pam threw in, "Pam!" Harley exclaimed, "Don't be mean!"

"Well, she can at least respond to us. We are helping her after all." She countered.

"Yeah but-"

"She is right." Talia said, her glance not straying away from the gotham skyline. "I appologize for my rudeness, your assistance was very much appreciated. I just...happen to have a lot on my mind." She added.

"Oh well....ya' are welcome?" Harley said, she again exchanged looks with her friends, before nodding at them.

If Talia was suprised over the two arms that wrapped around her neck from behind she didn't show it, however, Harley knew she probably noticed her approaching immediatly.

She guessed Talia even allowing her in her personal space like that was her way of letting Harley in even just a little bit.

"Penny for ya' thoughts, darlin'?" She asked, pressing against Talia's side. Selena and Pam moved in closer too. Selena slumped down with her back against the railing, her eyes fixed on Talia like a curious cat, Pam on the other hand decided to swing her legs over the it, staring ahead twoards the night lights as her toes played with the Ivy that was climbing up the house phasade.

"....I shouldn't have killed him." Talia said. "I beg to differ," Pam replied, "After finding out what he's been doing to you, I would say you should have killed him slower." She countered.

"Putting part of his own soul inside of you to control and manipulate you, honestly cutting his head off was mercyfull. If I had a tell in it I would have made sure he feels as much pain as immaginable." She said.

"I agree with Pam, ya ain't need to feel bad for killin' him. He ain't a dad worth cryin' ova." Harley said. Her accent made her words almost sound silly, but somehow it also made them feel more sincere.

"I don't think that's what she means Harls." Selena threw in, "You aren't sorry you killed him at all, are you?" She asked the assassin.

Talia smiled, it was a bitter smile, "He'll be back." She said. "He always comes back some way or another. I know that, I know killing him makes no difference in the bigger picture, but I did it anyways. Because it felt good." She explained.

"After waking up from what felt like a endless nightmare, after realizing what he had done, what he made me do, to my own son no less, it felt cathartic, like something I should have done ages ago....it felt good. And I know Damian saw on my face how good it felt." She ended her explanation, letting it hang in the air as the other women stayed silent.

"You know this doesn't make you a monster, right?" Selena asked, "Because I happen to know your kid and trust me, he doesn't think you are one either." She added.

Talia chuckeled, "I wouldn't bet money on that." She said dryly. "I want to make right by him, repair our relationship." She said, "And this really isn't the best way to start, is it?" Harley tightened her embrace a bit.

"Well, good starts are overrated, ya know?" She said, "So ya had a lil' hic up there, that ain't the end of the road for ya. You'll eventually get to where ya want to be, Tali'." She reasured her.

Talia smiled, "I hope so." She admited. "....thank you." She added, "For everything."

"What are friends for?" Harley chuckeled, leaning more of her weight onto Talia in a playfull manner, who smiled, returning the playfull gesture by showing at the other woman.

"So, what's the plan?" Pam asked. "I guess you aint going back to the league." She said matter of factly.

"The league is a extension of him." Talia answered, "I can try, claiming it, reforming it, as much as I want but his poision will always stay dorment within it." She closed her eyes, feeling the cool night breeze brush her hair.

"I have no love left for him, he never had any love for me to begin with. He has no control over me, I have nothing binding me to the league anymore." She said, feeling like a heavy weight fell off her shoulders.

"I do have money though, if you are concerned about that." She added.

"Figured, Talia Al Ghul is too smart to be financially dependent to anybody, even when she is slightly mind controled." Selena threw in.

"Marzouki." She said, causing her companions to look at her in mild confusion.

"Talia Marzouki. It was my mother's maiden name." She explained.

"Oh." Harley said, "It's pretty. I think it suits you." She said cheerfully.

"Well, Marzouki, you might not need anywhere to stay, but you know, if you happen to want to stay anyways, I think we can make a spot in the Gotham City Sirens." Pamela offered.

Talia smiled, "A team?" She asked, couriosly.

"Kinda." Selena said, "We really just happen to be some friends doing their own thing and help one another while at it. We don't know where that name even came from but people started calling us that, so..." She shrugged, "I guess it's about us being beautifull and dangerous, both things that clearly apply to you too." She added.

Talia frowned, "Just a group of friends, huh?" She said, her eyes trailing twoards the night sky, "That certainly would be new for me."

A smile spread on her face, "I think, I would like to try something new." She said as her new friends smiled at her.

"Well, now, let's talk about how we gonna call ya in the field." Harley exclaimed, "I have some wicked idea-"

[get-your-fics]

Violent Delights - Chapter Six

The Path the Blade Follows

Summary: Bruce Wayne is addicted to a lot of things to distract from his dark urges, but his addiction to you might only increase them.

Pairing: dark!Bruce Wayne x reader

Series warnings: Violence, language, smut, rape/non-con, stalking, kidnapping, underage drinking, drug use, torture, abuse

CHAPTER FIVE

When I came to, I was laying on a hard, cold, stone slab. I sat up, my whole body aching. I slowly blinked, clearing my blurry vision to take in my surroundings. I was in a dark, damp network of underground caves lit up by candles lining the walls. Water ran down the side of wrought iron gates sealing off some of the archways and trickled to the ground.

“Bruce...”

My head snapped to identify the source of the voice. Ra’s al Ghul turned the corner and stood at the edge of a hallway. He stalked towards me with a curved dagger in his hand, the silver steel edge glinting in the dim light. I hopped off of the slab and readied myself to fight. “Where am I?”

“Beneath Blackgate Penitentiary. Alfred Pennyworth and Jim Gordon are upstairs.” He glanced at the ceiling for a second before focusing his attention back on me. “In the company, unbeknownst to them, of my men.”

I drew my thick brows together. “Let them go. They have nothing to do with this.”

“Still playing the white knight, Bruce?” He smirked at me like a crocodile barring its teeth before eating a meal.

My eyes widened as realization hit me. “You replaced the guards before I got here.”

“I’m sure your friends can fend for themselves.” His tone was patronizing.

“You applied for diplomatic immunity, knowing I’d hear about it and come for you.”

“I wanted the knife, but nor for the reason you think.” He looked down at the blade in his hand with admiration. “It’s been ages since I first held this dagger. It was given to me moments after I was bathed in the Lazarus Pit.” He turned away from me and held his hand out under a stream of water dripping from the ceiling. “Submerged in the waters, suspended between life and death.” He stared at the dirty water filling his palm, mesmerized. “I saw a vision of you, my heir.”

“You’re insane,” I spat. “I’m not your heir. I don’t even understand what that means.”

He faced me, and before I knew what was happening, he grabbed my clenched fist. “It means that you are the only one who can end my suffering.” He forced the handle of the blade into my hand. He stared at me with desperation in his eyes. “Please.”

I furrowed my thick brows. “You want me to kill you?”

He let go of my hands, leaving me to hold the blade. “Set me free.” I lowered my gaze to inspect the dagger in my grip. It felt heavy, like it was weighing me down and dragging me to the center of the Earth. “This may be hard for you to understand, but I have walked this Earth for centuries waiting for you, Bruce. Only you can kill me, and only with that dagger. That is my curse. That is the meaning of my vision.”

I lifted my head to glare at him. “I don’t believe you.”

He walked closer to me. “Believe me.”

“This is just another manipulation.” I clenched my jaw.

He drew his brows together, and my skin crawled under his intense gaze. He looked like a predator stalking its prey, and I wasn’t sure if he was about to devour me or not. “See. Look.”

He gestured down to a dip in the stone floor where a puddle of grimy water was gathering. On the surface, I could see his reflection, but it wasn't him. He still had all the same features, but ashy, gray skin was pulled taut over his bones. His face was creased with deep wrinkles and lined with purple veins. His hair stuck up in gray, wiry tufts on his head. His eyes were dull with deep, shadowed circles around the sockets. He looked like a ghastly wraith, but instead of being intimidated, I couldn’t feel anything but pity for him. He looked tired and sorrowful, like he just wanted to lie down, fall asleep, and never wake up.

“My true form,” he mused. “Every moment of my life is agony.” He looked back up at me. “End my suffering.”

I let out a shaky breath. “Whatever your curse is, you deserve it for what you’ve done,” I seethed through gritted teeth.

“You’re angry, Bruce. I understand.” His tone was almost placating. “But unless you strike me down with that blade, you will never be free.”

“No!” I cut him off, shaking my head. “I won’t.” I turned my back on him and walked away. An uncomfortable silence settled over the room, and I could feel the pressure mounting.

“Then allow me to tell you what will happen if you don’t kill me.” His voice sliced through the tension like the blade in my hand. “I will disappear and let you live your life. You will follow the path of light, grow into a fine man, become a husband, a father. There may be a day when you forget I ever existed.”

I felt a single tear leak out of the corner of my eye and roll down my cheek. It dripped off my chin and landed on the floor with a satisfying drop.

“But then, I will return.” His tone darkened and turned sinister. He crept closer to me, and I could hear the sound of his footsteps click against the floor. “And I will kill everyone you love. Just as you watched your parents die, just as you watched me slice your friend’s throat, I will slaughter your wife and children before your very eyes, and there will be nothing you can do about it,” he hissed directly into my ear.

Rage surged within me, and I spun around. I stabbed the blade firmly in his chest; the feeling as it sunk into his flesh was unforgettable. His eyes bulged, nearly popping out of his skull, and he let out an airy groan. “Die!” I growled and shoved the blade in deeper. His painful howls increased in volume and echoed off of the stone walls, piercing my ears.

I finally pulled the blade out. Its silver surface was stained with his dark, inky blood, but his shirt was spotless. He ripped open his shirt and revealed the concavity where I had stabbed him, but there was no blood. Instead, there was a fiery, burning ember exploding in the hole in his chest. His skin paled, and black liquid ran through his protruding veins, making them look like bolts of lightning. A wave of ash stemmed from the wound and ate up his flesh, singeing it until it resembled char.

He collapsed and leaned back against the stone slab in the middle. “Yes,” he sighed.

My whole body trembled as I watched his eyes sink into his sockets and glaze over with lifelessness. His skin shriveled until he was merely a sack of bones. He was completely unrecognizable from the man he had been a few moments before. He looked like he had been a dead, decaying corpse for centuries.

I heard footsteps behind me, and I whirled around to see Alfred and Jim Gordon standing in the archway, guns drawn. They lowered their guns when they saw me. Their gazes drifted down to Ra’s, and their eyes widened when they saw him, or what was left of him. My cheeks felt wet; I hadn’t even realized I had been crying. The blade slipped from my grip and fell to the ground with a reverberating clang.

I wonder what it would be like, if I hadn’t have killed him. I wonder what would’ve happened if I had met you and didn’t have blood staining my hands. Maybe I wouldn’t have hurt you; maybe he would’ve instead. Alfred always thought that the reason I turned to the partying and the drugs and the drinks and the girls was because I felt guilty for killing Ra’s, but that wasn’t true.

It was because I had enjoyed it.

-

“Bruce! Bruce, wake up!”

I jolted awake in my bed. My body was covered in a thin sheen of sweat, the white sheets and my mess of dark curls sticking to me. My chest heaved up and down at a rapid pace, and I turned my head to see Grace sitting up in bed next to me. She held the sheets close around her bare body.

“Are you all right?” She leaned forward and caressed my cheek. “You were screaming in your sleep. Did you have a nightmare?”

“I’m fine,” I wheezed, swatting her hand away. I was shaking, and I hugged my knees to my chest. “You’re still here.”

She furrowed her brow. “Yeah, of course.” She tilted her head to the side. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

My breathing started to slow. “I don’t know. I thought you would be mad at me for last night or something,” I mumbled.

Her gaze lowered to the covers. “Oh, yeah. That.” She scratched her arm nervously. “Well, I know you’re going through a tough time right now. I want you to know I’m here for you.” She smiled and rested a gentle hand on my shoulder.

I ran my hands down my face. “God, I don’t want your pity.” I shrugged her hand off of me. “You’re not Mother Teresa, Grace. You’re just some horny chick who thinks she can chain me to her. You can’t help me, or fix me, or whatever the fuck you think you’re trying to do.”

Her expression contorted. “What?”

“I mean, how desperate can you be?” I laughed. “Did you really think I was gonna want to take you out to dinner and a movie just because I fucked you a few times?”

Her jaw hung so low, I thought it would hit the floor. “God, you are such an asshole, Bruce.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “You push away anyone who gives a single fuck about you.”

“Yeah, whatever. Just get the fuck out before I have to drag you out.” I gestured vaguely to the door before swinging my legs over the side of the bed away from her.

I held onto the edge of the bed, my shoulders square and my back tense. She didn’t say anything else, just gathered her clothes and cursed under her breath. I heard the door swing open and slam shut with a resounding bang. Then, I was all alone.

Now I was having night terrors even with someone else in bed with me. The darkness was growing stronger. None of my usual behaviors could quell this insatiable hunger inside of me anymore. I needed to do something, something to stop the consumption before it ate me alive and transformed me into a hollow shell of the person I once was.

I needed to make a sacrifice, and I knew just the perfect candidate.

-

I followed Brant Jones from his townhouse uptown all over Gotham City. Unlike you, he didn't do much. He went to a few lunches or to the mall here or there, but besides that, he mainly stayed at his home. He didn’t do anything interesting until one night, his town car pulled up in front of an old bar. I parked down the street in my classic, black Cadillac. In this instance, I didn’t think I could pay my chauffeur enough to keep his mouth shut.

I followed Brant into the bar, the hood of my leather jacket pulled up so it cast shadows over my face. However, it was so dark, it was hard to see anything anyway. The main staple was a giant, oak bar along one side of the room with a glittery neon sign above it. On the other wall were stuffy, tufted booths made out of red leather. The bar was packed. All of the stools were taken by people waiting to get their drinks, leaving everyone else to stand, and a large crowd occupied the booth in the back corner.

Brant headed straight for that booth, tugging on the lapels of his navy blazer and running a hand over his slicked back, brown hair. “Hey, guys!” He beamed, revealing two rows of bleached white teeth.

He was greeted with a series of “Hey, Brant”s in return. Several people in the group came over and hugged him. One of the stools opened up, and I immediately slid into it. I had a perfect view of everything that was going on at the booth, but it was hard to hear what they were saying over the chatter and the jazz music drifting out of the speakers.

“Happy birthday, man!” Brant shouted and wrapped his arms around a rather tall boy that I didn’t know. He patted him on the back, and when they pulled away, he produced a small box wrapped in paper out of his blazer. I assumed this was a birthday celebration of some kind.

The group sat down in the booth, and he took his place next to a girl I recognized as Emma Hsueh. She also used to attend Anders Prep with me, Tommy, and Grace. She and Brant smiled at each other before he slung an arm around her. It was done so casually, but I raised an eyebrow nonetheless.

They drank and talked for a while before they started opening presents. Brant got the birthday boy an expensive-looking Rolex, of course. Then, they drank and talked some more until the birthday boy footed the bill. I followed them as they spilled out of the booth and onto the sidewalk, mostly in pairs. I observed Brant as he walked out of the bar, his fingers covertly intertwined with Emma’s. Everyone departed from one other, each town car that pulled up to the curb a carbon copy of the other.

When no one was looking, Brant tugged on Emma’s hand and pulled her into a nearby alley. I chased after them and pressed myself against the brick wall of the bar. I leaned back and kicked one foot up on the wall so that if anyone walked by me, it wouldn’t look like I was eavesdropping on their conversation.

“Are you sure you can’t come over tonight?” I heard Emma ask in her whiny, high-pitched voice.

“No, I have something I gotta do,” came Brant’s reply. “But I’ll see you tomorrow, ‘kay, babe?”

“Okay.”

They went quiet, and I leaned in a little closer, my ears straining to hear what they were doing. Then, I heard it: the small, telltale sound of lips against lips.

He was cheating on you.

As if he wasn’t already bad enough, he had the audacity to cheat on you, and why? Because you had been a little busy lately? Because you couldn’t spend every waking second by his side since you were raising money for people in need? How selfish could he possibly be? I would never do something like that to you. Hell, I could hardly bring myself to touch Grace, and you weren’t even mine yet. You would be more than enough to satisfy me.

Emma walked out of the alley, and I lowered my head as she passed me. I pushed myself off of the wall and turned into the alley just as Brant was walking out. My chest bumped into his, and I stumbled back slightly. He lifted his head to make direct eye contact with me, his eyes widening.

“Brant?” I pulled my hood down and forced a smile on my face. “I thought that was you in there, but I didn’t want to interrupt whatever you guys were doing.”

“Oh, hey, Bruce.” He avoided my gaze. “Yeah, we were just celebrating a friend’s birthday.”

“Nice.” I nodded and shoved my hands in the pockets of my jacket. “What are you up to these days?”

“Nothing much.” He cleared his throat. “Bruce, I just want to clear the air. I know I was a total jerk to you the last time we spoke, and I’m not that person anymore. So, I just want to say I’m sorry. No hard feelings?”

Not the same person? Right, ‘cause you weren’t a total jerk for cheating on your girlfriend just now with someone completely inferior. “Of course. No hard feelings.” The frozen smile on my face didn’t reach my eyes.

His smile was genuine. “Great.” He looked over my shoulder. “Well, it’s getting late. I should probably go.”

He tried to sidestep me, but I blocked his path. “Why not stay a little while? We can catch up.” I tilted my head to the side. “We can talk about how you’re cheating on (Y/N) (Y/L/N) with Emma Hsueh.”

His eyes widened to the size of saucers. “Cheating on (Y/N)?” He shook his head, a slight laugh escaping his lips. “Bruce, it’s not what you think.”

“Oh, save it.” I moved forward, forcing him to back up further into the alley. “I was watching you two in there, being all lovey dovey under everyone’s noses. You thought no one would see you, but I saw you. I saw everything.”

“You were watching me?” He furrowed his brows. “Have you been stalking me?”

“Don’t try to turn this on me.” I jabbed a finger into his chest. “You’re the one cheating on your girlfriend when not too long ago you told her you love her.” My whole body was shaking. Adrenaline pumped through my veins, and my heart was beating so hard in my chest, I felt like it was going to burst. “You don’t love her like I do, and you’re never going to love her. Never again.” “Bruce, what... what are you doing?” he stammered. “You’re scaring me.” His pupils were blown out with fear, his irises mere rims around them. I smiled, for real this time. “Good.”

I took the switch knife out of my pocket and flicked it open. Before he could react, I clamped a gloved hand over his mouth and sunk it into his gut. He screamed into my hand, and I pulled the knife out only to shove it back in. I gritted my teeth as I stabbed him a few more times. I saw red as I plunged the blade into him, relishing in the noise the knife made as it sliced through his flesh.

I finally pulled it out, and vibrant, red blood dripped off of the edge and dotted the concrete ground. I looked down at his stomach; the fabric of his shirt was completely soaked in dark blood. I removed my hand from his mouth. His lips parted, but he was in so much pain that no sound came out. His knees buckled, and he crumpled to the ground in a pool of his own blood. His skin paled, and I watched the life fade from his eyes as red liquid bubbled from his lips. I would’ve spat on his corpse if it didn’t mean the cops could tie me to the crime.

I flipped the blade back in and tucked it into my pocket. I bent down and took his wallet out of his blazer. I would toss it in a dumpster a couple of blocks away. I didn’t bother to move the body; I just left it there. I pulled my hood back up and walked out of the alley. Someone would probably discover it in the morning, and by then, it would be too late to connect me to anything.

My only regret is that I didn’t made him suffer longer.

CHAPTER SEVEN

[liathgray]

I think Damian is misunderstood on such a fundamental level that it kind of hurts me when people say he’s a bad character, or unsympathetic. And that’s coming from someone who still finds him, at times, super grating. He’s not a favourite of mine but I think it does a disservice to the quality of his character and to those who have similar behaviour patterns. When people call him arrogant and a brat they are not entirely wrong but they are painfully oversimplifying a really complex individual.

He was raised in an environment which violence, aggression and intimidation was rewarded and any form of affection or positivity was punished. He, LITERALLY FROM THE WORD GO, was conditioned to feel entitlement and away washed was any semblance of his own identity; he was the heir to the shadows. Not a person, a contingency. A replacement for an immortal ruler. He felt useless and sought any type of approval available.

Because of this he has, and will continue to have, an understandably hard time adjusting to a setting wherein compassion and free thought are the appreciable factors.

A setting where the people around him love him unconditionally and do not base his worth off of fighting skills. When he argues, fights, yells, bullies his friends and family, it is not out of malice. It is the only way he has ever been taught to show emotion and it’s his way of trying to earn respect and love. Damian grew up with affection being withheld as a punishment, and suddenly its readily available with no prerequisite to attaining it.

Talia didn’t love him.

And I know it seems obvious to say that but really think dor a minute.

She used, abused and manipulated him into doing what she wanted that went directly against any semblance of caring for her son whom she assaulted another human to create. Think about that for five seconds and tell me it’s a surprise Damian is so opposed to feeling anything that could possibly be condemned as weak.

His mother treats him like an object. A means to an end.

He was her tool, and was expected to act as such.

That is bound to give someone emotional whiplash. He bleeds a desire for acceptance and approval but only knows one way to get it; combat.

No one save Dick (pre-52 at that) thought to explain or show this severely traumatized kid that emotion was a good thing to have.

Now kindly consider the fact that upon being brought into Gotham, people don’t react in the same way to how he would normally prove himself. They don’t give him the praise he’d normally received for that behaviour and thus, understandable, he pushes it harder because to him, it must be because he has yet to prove his value.

Even after he does start to learn that his fighting abilities are not his person, his worth, its still gonna be hard to cut those habits away. Think of it this way: we’ve all grown up being taught to smile when we’re happy. Now imagine suddenly you’re not supposed to do that. That suddenly a smile is akin to a death threat. It would be awful hard to regulate that instinct since it’s been there literally forever.

Damian suffered betrayal after betrayal from his own family, even after dedicating himself wholly to them in every way possible.

And they abandoned him. And I don’t just mean Ra’s and Talia.

Bruce fucked off into another era, Tim practically rejected him out of spite, Jon left and Dick faked his death.

How the hell can people say that he has no right to be angry, or reason to jump to aggression?

No one can erase the damage done to them as children.

And it will never go away.

There are times when, on a mental level, one needs to surrender themselves to a base instinct or overwhelming amount of fear will rise from some buried trauma.

People fail to remember that Damian IS the legacy character.

He’s a combination of Al Ghul and Wayne families; powerhouses of skill and control.

Hummmm.... wonder what that could lead to, the kind of expectations a child forced into adulthood from the second he could speak will place upon himself.

Hey here’s a thought maybe binaries are a dumb idea especially in fiction whose purpose is to explore the gray zone of humans; nothing is ever simply enough to split in two.

Emotionally conflicted while later unsympathetic to the status quo that ruined his sense of humanity Damian Wayne is a character built from selfishness and cold indifferent yet manages to be disarmingly powerful and magnetically entertaining in the moments that matter. Heroes are gray sometimes. Keep up.

[dickgreyson]

So what IS the Safiyah origin story you’d like to see?

i actually had a shower to try and think about this, but like the thing is, im really bad at coming up w stories and plots and that kind of thing. i can do beginnings and endings but like hhhh anyway

she’s like neutral evil right. maybe true neutral, but im not sure how sympathetic i want her to be, or how transgressive i want to be with the plotline. like am i afraid of just making her evil? but she’s also a brown wlw and ive railed against that trope before? but also it’s so intriguing to watch a maligned woman rise through the ranks of Evil Inc to control everything? so i dont know where i want to go w it.

so, i think she’s afghani, small, traditional village with massive wealth inequalities. There’s the local warlord, who isnt necessarily vicious, but he’s unattainable and unapproachable. he basks in his riches while saf and her mother, and the other townsfolk starve. I dont know what happened to her father and i don’t really care, but she adored her mother. She was the one spark of kindness in the wasteland of her adolescence. When she’s maybe 7, her mother is taken away by the syndicate. It’s not made clear if she’s killed, or banished, or put in a brothel, and saf can’t comprehend the situation, so it ends up being a black hole that shapes who she becomes.

i want it to be a dark rags to riches kind of sich. she lives as a street rat until she’s old enough to start working. Watching her mother be dragged away splinters something inside her, even the good are punished so why be good, and she starts planning how she can rise through the ranks of the syndicate. and she won’t be especially vicious or benevolent either, but she will do what needs to be done. and it’s more an ‘i want him to fucking pay’ than an ‘i dont want girls to go thru what i did’ kind of situation. shes charming and bright, alarmingly so. and she has to be, thats how she manages to feed herself, by bewitching food out of the mouths of already poor people. she’s hypnotic to the point youre not really sure if it’s an ability or not. is she gifted or just really manipulative. i think that adds to her mystery.

She’s friends with another local girl who is just as poor. the friendship benefits her - she’s doted on, adored, fed, and has a place to sleep at nights, since she gets snuck in after dark. saf doesnt feel anything for her, and sacrifices her to prove loyalty to the syndicate later on. again, she does what she needs to do, to get where she needs to get, which we see in the batwoman run.

She’s not a psychopath, but it leaves you wondering. she’s capable of great kindness, but great cruelty at the same time. the duality of woman. god shes sexy. i also dont want her to be like shaped by the need for revenge, bc i think thats over done and boring. i think she’s a little empty, and too capable for her own good, and she just wants to rise above her station. bonus points if she gets to kill the warlord (but she never get’s a chance, he dies of old age. his son takes over)

she starts drug running and weapons trafficking for the syndicate when she’s 12. it starts off small, but she’s resourceful, and spellbinding. she doesnt need to fight, because her wit and charm are weapon enough. people want to care for her and protect her, and she’s not gonna stop them.

She keeps rising until she catches the eye of the new warlord, and ends up married to him. she Does What She Needs To Do, get’s in on war council meetings, makes herself integral, and then when it’s time, she fuckin merks him. poison or something. she kills anyone that suspects, not that she really needs to. she could probably enchant them into submission. she gets this done in a few months, it’s really just a blip.

afterwards she finds out she’s pregnant, thats where fatimah comes in. another spark of kindness, and it teaches her to love again. Softens her edges, makes her capable of being gentle. she wants to emulate how her mother was to her, and bequeath an empire to her daughter.

Now that’s done she realises she can keep going. she can join up other syndicates, she can make things more efficient, less tribal and tumultuous. a pillar of governance in the black market, with her at the head. She runs in the same circles as Ra’s Al Ghul and they strike up an uneasy alliance. She also hits it off with talia. This is super interesting to me. she’s intrigued and entranced herself, for the first time. they both are. They get swept up, but ultimately it’s doomed to fail. She’s loyal to the vision she’s building for her daughter, and talia is loyal to ra’s. and like neither can live while the other survives. the alliance ends BADLY, and safiyah is heart broken, but with a renewed vision

and this post is now officially too long

[daughterofthedcmon]

✕ — isn’t that talia al ghul wandering the streets of new york? civilians know them as leviathan and see them as an anti-hero. as far as i know, the thirty six year old stands with the league of assassins and are rumoured to be pretty manipulative & ruthless. ( aiysha hart / cisfemale / she/her ) 

hewwo fam !!! gia back at it again bc i ... have no self control. not even an ounce. nada. ANYWAYS. i love talia a lot, despite what gr*nt m*rrison did to her. that being said, there’s a lot of her canon i’ll be choosing to ignore, like her (r*pe mention) drugging and r*ping bruce to have damian, and the fact that damian was raised in a fuckin TUBE ? 

i unfortunately won’t be writing a complete intro to her as piecing together what i want to use of her comic canon would take me a million years and i just Do Not have that time rn dhsjkfdj. instead, i’m basically just gonna word vomit things i feel are necessary to mention however this is my first time playing her so i’m still learning and truly cannot wait to flesh her out a lil more!!! tysm for reading ily angels and pls don’t be shy to come to me for plots <3 for talia or for anyone ok UWU 

for those who don’t know, talia al ghul is daughter of ra’s al ghul and the mother of damian wayne al ghul

from the moment talia could walk, she’d been trained to eventually join the league of assassins. her father was the founder of the league, which was an organization of deadly warriors that he used to achieve his goal of ridding the world of evil. this is where ra’s enemy batman comes in 

talia was raised by her father, and from childhood to adulthood, she traveled the world learning everything she could to help her father and his criminal empire. 

talia has an extended lifespan due to exposure to the lazarus pit, is said to be an expert marksman, and is skilled in hand to hand combat. she possesses a genius intellect and has degrees in both engineering and biology. 

talia, given that she loves bruce, their son and her father, has always been at a crossroads between love and loyalty. though her love isn’t expressed like actual love (give her a break pls) she does have ways of showing it. she’s fiercely protective of damian and bruce, continuing to look after them from a distance even at her father’s side. 

which is another thing, while she had always been loyal to her father, talia is always wavering in her alignment. just really depends on where the pendulum swings lmao 

because on one hand, she remains loyal to her father because she loves him. though literally every other word out of her mouth is like “ugh my dad and his crusade” like she straight up knows he’s a mess but loyalty is more prevalent to her than love so from time to time she aids in his schemes against “evil” but has a loyalty to her son and to bruce. there’s even a point in the resurrection of ra’s al ghul where she knocks damian out so he doesn’t fight ra’s and when bruce is like wtf she said she wanted to protect the legacy of the man she loved .... wrow 

this is really brief but i hope you guys at least get an idea of her... like i said i’m still learning and researching all i can about talia so i can come up with my own concrete portrayal of her so i might end up updating this with a few plot points in her canon i see fit to include but for now these are the BASICS!!!!! 

ps i didn’t forget her stuff with jason but since i also play jason i don’t think i need to write much about it. just that she saw he was meant for more, brought him to the lazarus pit etc. prob still looks after him to this day. and NO they didn’t boink idr who wrote that but i hate men and i hate dc like 99.9% of the time 

THANKS FOR COMING TO MY TED SCREAM ily guys 

[sabulana]

Gotham S4E04 The Demons Head Liveblogging

Liveblogging again because I just can’t help myself. 

- if i haven’t said so before, i want to say it now: i love alfred. so much. 

- why are they working in the dark. turn some fucking lights on. 

- i need a million gifs of eddie trying and failing to write because i relate so fucking hard

- well at least the translation doesn’t rhyme. every time someone in a show or movie translates some ancient text now, i think of that one tumblr post. 

- r’as al ghul casually dropping anecdotes about historical people is my fave thing lmao

- anubis oh my god. guys keep the scene play at home. -_-

- and okay on a more serious note i find it interesting that r’as al ghul is... well. ghul. ghuls/ghouls/however you want to spell it are carrion eaters of the dead, right? mostly i just remember them as lovecraft wrote them. they resemble jackals, somewhat, with rubbery skin and canine faces, but not always, because humans can transform into ghouls, and that’s what anubis makes me think of. he’s not fully transformed, but he’s getting there maybe. 

- i think i have a new side-ship. i didn’t before, but i’m being won over by the zsaszlepot. (gobblepot is forever my main gotham ship though. love those two. <3)

- victor’s little stabbing motion lmao

- ah fuck do not fall for this oswald. “gotham is my home” damn she’s good.

- i didn’t watch the promo so this is the first time i’ve actually seen this rap not in gif sets and all i can do is echo oswald’s “what the hell was that?”

- i love the bookcases falling like dominoes but omg don’t damage the books! 

- not sure how i feel about sofia and oswald’s scenes yet. i think part of it is the stuff about the ‘victorian flirtations’ or whatever from that article that was going around. i just feel like she’s manipulating him, and he knows it and it makes him mad. her father was respected when he was in charge, and when she came back, his old capos came out of hiding to talk to her with the idea of getting rid of penguin, and while i’m satisfied that oswald caught them and had them killed, he doesn’t like being told how her father would have done things differently with the implication that it would have been better.

and now she’s planted the idea in his head that it would be better to have her on his side, by takign her out to dinner and getting to know her. geez.

- so much second hand embarrassment from these raps. i really feel for ed. it must be awful, not being at full capacity. 

- oi have some fucking respect for the exhibits you animals. fucks sake.

- are you fucking serious with that bone do not tell me that anubis fucking plays fetch or wants to chew it. :/ (if someone draws fnart of anubis and his handler playing fetch, that would be awesome)

- NO NO NO YOU FUCKING MONSTER YOU DID NOT HAVE TO DO THAT

- oh bruce baby it’s not your fault. someone give that boy a hug. i know it won’t make things better, but he needs a hug, damn it.

- oswald gloating is everything. always love seeing him on top XD

- “i am too smart” such a child, ed

- they’re like children arguing. oh please let this be their dynamic from now on. 

- love that oswald still won’t say ‘the riddler’, even when not directly calling ed ‘the riddler’. he’s so petty i love it

- i love this scene with them so much. it feels like oswald finally got some real closure for his feelings for ed, and now he can move on. not freezing ed serves two purposes - oswald’s final revenge of having ed live with the knowledge that he isn’t intelligent enough to be the riddler anymore, and letting him go physically and metaphorically to show that he’s no longer attached to ed. no longer in love with him, no longer hates him as a threat any more. some say the opposite of love is indifference, and now perhaps oswald can be indifferent to ed.

and ed is really gonna hate not being up to the standard he needs to be to go up against oswald anymore. plus, how irritating is it gonna be to know that you hate and want to kill someone who no longer sees you as a threat, as something to worry about? now that oswald’s no longer worrying about what ed might be up to or planning to kill him, he’s gonna move on to other stuff. ed is just another nobody now, a minor annoyance at best.

- i mean i never shipped them but i do like ed and feel bad for him in this situation. 

- not a fan of the jim/sofia plotline but god damn is he hot in this scene. the intense stare! breaking the glass! oh my heart

- also MORE PROOF THAT IF OSWALD WAS FEMALE THEY’D HAVE TOTALLY FUCKED BY NOW, RIGHT?!

- no seriously i need an alternate scene where he’s doing this with oswald

- ugh i need the next episode right now

- also need ben mckenzie to write more episodes because this one was awesome

[mohartproductions]

What Hunchback of Notre Dame Should Have Been.

You know, truth be told when I was a kid I didn’t really mind the sequel as much; but now I watched it as an adult… Yeeeeah I can totally see why others despise it. For me personally, the problem is not the animation, or the music, or the voice acting or even the characters (save for Sarousch) it’s the script, and boy howdy this is a really, REALLY poorly written script. Which is a shame since I actually think the concept for Quasimodo having a loved one, is a good idea, it’s just poorly executed is all. Madellaine, for the most part is actually not bad a character, sure she sometimes says things that don’t make sense (especially given the time period this was set) but I still think she’s nicely drawn and she still has at least some level of charm to like about her; and her relation with Quasi is actually kind’a cute—SURE generic, contrived, and forced as all hell, but still kind’a cute, so it is kind of nice to give the two some finality at the end. As for the kid… Well I'll be honest I didn't really find anything to hate about Zephyr; there's nothing unlikable about him nor is there anything that made me wanna punch him or something like that; although I can definitely see why others can’t stand him, but hey he’s a kid, of course he’s gonna act playful and naïve, granted that’s not a good enough excuse now I think about it, but otherwise I don’t think there’s anything to hate about him per say. But other than that, yeah everything else about the film just doesn’t work! The animation, while good in its own merits, does seem inappropriate for a Disney film, even for a direct to video one, (I mean look at it, it’s a feature length Looney Tunes cartoon, there are even some breaking the fourth wall moments with the animals for crying out loud!) and the songs are pretty damn generic; and really what’s the point of bringing back these actors for Phoebus and Esmeralda if you’re not doing anything with the character themselves? (least you can do is get some voice actors to impersonate them) There are so many things they could have done with said characters, they could have explored more of their relation as a parental couple and as close supportive friends to Quasi, they contributed a lot more to the story, the possibly are endless! Ugh, yeah now I see why this film gets such a bad rap, but again I do think concept for the movie can work, if only they put more thought into what they were given. The voice acting is still good, animation is still good, the musical score is decent, they have some good material to work with but they squandered it; If they had put some thought into the story and the characters, both the original and newer ones, this could have made a decent sequel to, again bring finality to Quasimodo having a loved one, and sure, Sarousch would actually have made for a pretty cool villain to, but as is the film as it stands now is a major let down! 🙁 Now here's how I would have written out the story and utilized these new characters-- In the original source material, Judge Claude Frollo (the main antagonist in the first movie) actually had a younger brother by the name of Jehan, and looking at Sarousch he actually does look like a much younger relative to Claude himself... so what if Sarousch was actually Jehan?! Jehan could very well be another lord from another city, who was envious of his older brother, who also constantly scolded him and even abused him like he did with Quasi before taking him in. Once Jehan received word of Frollo's parting, Jehan sought an opportunity to claim control of Notre Dame for himself, but he had to be smart enough to try and seize control from the ground up, so he pretends to be a circus master, with some of his personal guard as his performers, and even his own adoptive underling, Madellaine. Like what Claude did with Quasi, Jehan adopted Madellaine when she was an orphan (only he was not the cause) and raised her to be her pupil and her ward, and (unlike in the movie) he is more caring of her her, and is more benevolant than Claude was with Quasi. (though still deceiving and manipulative just the same) His personality is somewhere between that of his brother, and some more over the top disney villains like Jafar, Captain Hook, or Professor Ratigan; he can be just as intimidating and vindictive as his brother, but can pull of a comical and whimsical attitude, particularly for his shows. So consider Jehan here to Frollo was the Riddler is to someone like Ra'as Al Ghul; an antagonist is can be entertaining, charming, but still malicious and fearful for his intentions. Jehan could use his charm, and father-like nature to persuade Madellaine to gain the trust of Quasi, Esmeralda and Phoebus personally, Quasi in particular after he openly admires her "performance" during one of her acts which Jehan himself noticed earlier and again sought that to his advantage by having Madellaine pretend to love him. (to which of course over time the two do fall in love with another) All the while, Jehan slowly but surely starts to relinquish control of Notre Dame, especially with having Esmeralda and Phoebus' son as a hostage. Madellaine could see the errors of her ways and confess herself to Quasi that she was forced to trick him, they both have a moment to break down, but eventually Quasi comes to grips and gives Madellain his trust again, as well as Phoebus and Esmeralda, in her plan to rescue Zephyr and fight back Jehan's regime, using her circus tricks to her advantage. There is a battle between Phoebus's guard and Jehan's, with Clopin and his fellow gypsies helping them. (as well as the gargoyles of course) The final bout is between Quasi and Jehan himself, who engages Quasi personally; (consider he is Claude's brother)it seems he is about to gain the upper hand by pretending to fall, in his attempt to sneak from behind and stab Quasi, before he is tossed aside by Madellaine who swings from above and kicks him to the ground. Phoebus and his men arrest Jehan and all his men surrender. Then we cut to the very end with Quasi and Madellaine's happily ever after. Ah well, those are at least my thoughts for the film, what do you guys think?