#this is still pretty early on in damians whole arc

[regonold]

So twins au, but they both know and are in regular contact with each other like danny was to be killed but was instead placed with the fentons and he kept up semi regular correspondence with damian

He helps damian acclimatise to normal life... kinda he is still a fenton and his veiws are skewed by it but he helps a bit

And Danny's enjoying his new life no longer does he have to hide his powers his parents discovered and accepted and he even set up a schedule with his rouges they now have a scheduled time where they can come through the portal and fight

Everything was going great until somehow the bats found out about him and seem to think he needs help form his crazy parents

[batbabydamian]

🦇🐥 Batman and Robin (2023) #5 rambling and a conspiracy theory lol

tbh this is the most exciting issue for me since…the first one 💀 i’m going to talk about the story and art separately because Nikola Cizmesija’s one of my favorite action focused comic artists so this issue’s a treat 😭

Alfred used to mediate during a lot of Bruce and Damian’s early relationship, so it’s refreshing to see Bruce take more initiative involving himself in Damian’s life even if it’s for a case lol

a couple instances of Alfred’s fatherly support on behalf of Bruce and Damian from Batman and Robin (2011) #2, 4, 39 and Teen Titans (2016) #1

Damian seems to take Bruce's involvement more as a sign he’s not reliable rather than Bruce finally just. being around to help him. which is fair 😭

this is complementary to Cizmesija’s art, but i love this half of the page so bad 😭 the negative space and the shaded foreground with Damian mid-run gives this feeling of time kinda stopping for us to really feel the impact of Damian’s entrance AND the effect it has on Bruce, like!! that wide eyed expression in the below panel!! 😭

Bruce’s quiet “you can do it, son” to A FULL BODY CHEER OF “GO, DAMIAN!” Bruce witnessing Damian be great outside of Robin, and on top of that it’s just another mundane moment that Bruce has wanted with Damian 😭

this is such a goofy bully line sdfgh though the whole “broken” bit might be a callback to Batman and Robin (2011) #1, in that Bruce is really trying to do his job as a father here or i'm likely reading way too into it

SO the “shocking ending” of Zach being Zsasz’s kid was definitely a surprise but then got me wondering what is up with Williamson doing reveals of new kids for villains lol otherwise, the hints in the issue were neat!

the tally marks!! at least tallying blocks is pretty innocent compared to kills 😭

and Damian would recognize how Zsasz moves, since he’s personally fought him before in Streets of Gotham (2009)!! very much not in a sport, but uh maybe it was to Zsasz

the art!! first a shoutout to the colorist Rex Lokus for giving Damian his green eyes and maybe melanin (it didn’t look consistent throughout so i say maybe)!! 😭 also a Talia by Cizmesija!! even though this panel calls her a “not great” teacher…💀

SUCH A FUN PAGE 😭 i’ve been into montage scenes lately lol and i love how quickly Cizmesija establishes Damian’s routine - Tues, Wed, and Fri are the funniest for me!! Damian grumpily getting lectured by his teacher in the foreground while his classmate’s still visibly steaming from the hit he took LOL, DAMIAN’S BUG EYED STARE WITH HIS SUNGLASSES UP, and then Damian looming. stealthily. in a tree. while some kid is blatantly pointing him out HAHA 😭

Cizmesija’s use of motion lines and effects when conveying movement is so cool!! the shonen manga vibes jumps out!! the smoke/dust trails following the movements; the limbs and soccer ball having a sort of blur effect with the motion lines. V COOL.

which leads to my favorite part of Cizmesija’s work - HIS IMPACT SHOTS!!

more motion lines and effects!! the splatter effects!! the arcs!! the jolting impacts!! GRRAAHH!! the setup to that impact shot of Zach's block is so great, and then following with Damian's reaction!! i almost wish that "???" wasn't there, just because that expression of stunned silence already feels so loud!!

last thoughts about Cizmesija's art is that i'm really hoping for a showdown between Damian and Zach next issue because i need to see a Damian fight scene in Nikola Cizmesija-fashion 😭 we get a taste of it with Orca and soccer but i NEED MORE LOL for now, dropping the moment when Damian overpowers Zsasz, in Batman: Streets of Gotham #11 since it was such an epic moment

okay SLAPPING MY CONSPIRACY BOARD!! so on another note Principal Stone being Shush is starting to feel like a red herring and Ms. Heather Hall could actually be Shush. Shush’s main point about Damian as his instructor was emphasizing how much potential he has, but the “wrong” influence could affect that

Stone and Hall have made the same observation about Damian’s potential, but the difference is how they address that - one wants Bruce to be more involved while the other wants Bruce to back off

Stone acknowledged Damian can take care of himself but still wants Bruce to step up in Damian’s life; Hall says it’s okay to be a helicopter parent BUT implies giving Damian space (which we already know Bruce has given so much of after Alfred’s death to the point of neglect 😭)

Hall even suggests moving Damian on to college, which would estrange Damian further. also idk how Damian kicking his teammates/bullies asses at soccer is really “making friends” lol

and of all the subjects she’s teaching, it’s AP Biology - according to the current case Batman and Robin are working on, which is centered around DNA-sequencing, it makes Hall the perfect accomplice to Langstrom

this is where my brain started reaching because i laughed at first at how specific that comparison is, but then it just made me think of how Shush’s first introduction was sniping Bruce LOL anyway, Bruce’s reaction is me 😭

one more Cizmesija appreciation panel - the lil running effects behind Damian :)

[zeroducks-2]

Let’s talk Helena Wayne bc like it’s criminal that we barely get anything about her and that they completely changed her origin and family (the bertinelli mafia family) to add her into the main comic book line.

im torn bc I love both versions of her :(

But I wanted Dick to share some older siblings trauma with her and for Damian to have that “blood” sibling bc I think that would have completely rocked early Damian’s shit. All his life, he was told to be the true heir of Bruce Wayne, but it turns out he has an OLDER SISTER BRUCE HID FROM TALIA AND RA. Idk I just think that would have crushed his lil murder ego and made for some interesting sibling moments and an interesting dynamic.

Lastly, can we talk about how the Batfam fandom completely stole all of Helena (Bertinelli)’s character traits and gave them to Jason??? Im sorry but when in the material source has Jason ever been super devout and catholic? Helena is the religious one, why am I reading about Jason’s apparent Catholicism in fics and HC dumps? Also Jason (besides his Robin days) has never been this savour and protector of the woman and children of Gotham, that’s very very veryyyyyy clearly a trait from Helena and strongly ties into her backstory as a child who suffered coming from a rich bloodline of syndicate crime. And don’t think this is me bashing on Jason, bc it’s not!! I love Jason Todd - but for who he is. Not for this weird fandom version of him who is either still suffering from the craze the lazarus pit puts you through, or this Joan of Arc of Gotham character either.

I'm gonna be honest with you, this character confuses me a bit. I know that Bruce and Selina got married and had a daughter in their Earth-Two incarnations, and this daughter is Helena Wayne, who's Dick best buddy and a vigilante in her own right called Huntress.

Then I know Helena Bertinelli, daughter of a mafia lord who was introduced in the late 80s in the preboot comic continuity, and was a quite murdery vigilante called Huntress who Bruce didn't accept because she "reminded him of Barbara" (you gotta love DC's excuses for sexism and ableism lol it's not like Barbara was dead just paralyzed. Also it did not look like Bruce gave a shit about it at the end of TKJ that Joker had crippled her - "she reminds him or Barbara". LMAO Bruce).

Then post reboot the title Huntress was given back to Helena Wayne, however Helena Bertinelli is ALSO there and she's ALSO called Huntress? She appears in the Grayson run where Dick is an agent of Spyral, and she seems to be Italian-American but I don't think her origin is the same as in preboot? Also I have no idea about Helena Wayne's continuity post reboot - when she was conceived, who raised her, how did she become a vigilante, neither I have any idea where to find this info.

I agree that if she had been raised by Bruce it could have made for an interesting dynamic amongst the bats and birds. It did in Earth 2 even if only Dick is just there - they're not siblings but they also aren't not siblings? The dynamic is murky and I love murky. Pretty sure it would have changed everything for Damian as well, especially the fact that she would have most likely been the first object of Damian's need to prove himself worthy, instead of Tim.

That being said, not much of what you mentioned is fanon about Jason.

Jason had an arc in which he's a priest. Pretty normal that fans HC him as devout or anyway catholic.

Father Todd in Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Vol. 1 - this is an AU in which Jason was never taken in by Bruce and was never Robin.

As for the whole "protector of women and children" thing, you probably know that Jason was born in extreme poverty, his father was in and out of prison and his mother died of overdose. He is very much a child who suffered because of a broken system, and given how harshly he reacts when women and children are the recipient of violence "in his Robin days", is it really that strange that fans assume he carried these traits in adulthood?

We see him being sweet and protective to kids many times, or anyway losing his mcfucking shit when children are being harmed (like in Brothers in Blood). Imo that of Jason caring about vulnerable people is barely a headcanon, and I don't see how this would make him the Joan of Arc of Gotham either - if I'm being honest ALL vigilantes should care about minorities and vulnerable people, it's the other way around that is weird as fuck (like that arc in which Dick almost dies to prevent this guy from shutting down Bludhaven's casinos, like what the hell was Tim Seeley thinking exactly).

That being said, I understand your frustration if the character you like doesn't have recognition. Trust me I do! There's a lot of them for me too, especially female and/or non white characters who had maybe 1 run ages ago and then got forgotten by DC, and I would REALLY LIKE to see them more, and to see them acknowledged more by the fans (from the top of my mind, Jenni Ognats or Patricia Trayce).

But this isn't fandom's fault. As I mentioned before, Helena Bertinelli as a fleshed out character was a thing between 20 and 30 years ago, and most of tumblr's userbase was either very young or not born yet. DC forgot about her, stripped Huntress from her to give it to Helena Wayne, then brought her back but as an agent of Spyral and it really doesn't look like they care. Fans can't be held accountable for the fact that she's simply not there. They didn't "steal" Helena's traits to give them to Jason; this implies a willful and malicious intent from people who saw this character and decided her features fit another character better, and it's obviously not what happened - people barely know Helena Bertinelli exists if at all.

Also - I said this about Jason already and I will repeat it a million times: Jason wasn't picked at random from the sea of DC characters to be people's blorbo, he resonates with fans for a reason. Under the Red Hood is a deeply emotional and relatable arc for many people because it's the story of how a child was failed by every single person who was supposed to protect and guide him, and then was failed again as an adult victim who demanded to be seen and heard and acknowledged, and instead was silenced again. It's heartbreaking to see how many people see this and say "this is me, this is what happened to me", but it is what it is, and most of all there is no taking this away from Jason's fans. DC tried to villainize him, to make him look and sound like a madman, to make him unhinged and deranged and they had Tim suggest that "maybe it's the Lazarus Pit that drove him mad", but it didn't work and fans still love him and still consider him a symbol of how "bad victims" are treated worse than their abusers, and keep being retraumatized by a society that prefers turning a blind eye to violence than deal with the issue at its root.

And lastly, bitching won't get you anywhere. I am the living proof that the right way to make people interested in something is to be passionate about that something. You want more folks to pay attention to Helena Bertinelli, then since DC won't do anything with her, the most effective thing you can do is post about her - write essays, draw her, write fics with her, create webweavings and moodboards, commission this stuff if you don't have the skills. Complaining that she should be the recipient of fandom love won't make anyone more interested in her.

[cherrybombfangirlwrites]

Happy STS, Anna! This is gonna be a series of questions:

What are your plans for TCIO? How long will the series be? If you don't mind spoilers, what are some events you're excited to write? Or, more broadly, what are some interesting arcs (plot- and character-wise)?

Happy STS! Yesss lots of questions i love answering a bunch of questions at once :DDD

What are your plans for TCIO? How long will the series be?

Right now, it looks like it will be a five book series, but I am still in the planning and outlining stages so that could easily change. My plans are mainly to get it published and onto bookstore and library shelves (especially school libraries) so that it will find excited young readers (the target audience is supposed to be teenagers, specifically high school age). All I really want is for at least one reader to fall in love and maybe even be inspired to write themselves like I was by my favorite writers.

If you don't mind spoilers, what are some events you're excited to write? Or, more broadly, what are some interesting arcs (plot- and character-wise)?

hehehehe >:DDD.... Here are some juicy arcs/scenes that I'm very excited for in The City is Ours:

Spoiler alert! Also CW for mentions of torture stuff and a little bit of death!!

Nickelle's entire arc. in case you didn't see early on spoilery thoughts, she basically gets a villian arc WHICH IS THEN FOLLOWED by a redemption arc. she basically snaps under the pressure of being the leader and feeling solely responsible for her team and the citizens safety- she discovers that her ice can control people and technology, and that it turns a different color and opacity when it does, so she takes on a secret persona of the Snow Queen- and makes it her goal to take over the world with her ice and control everything so that no one will ever hurt her or her family ever again

I do have a reveal for The Snow Queen's identity planned, but it's not set in stone. Because Kylee and Nickelle have a pretty strong sisterly bound going, Kylee is going to be the first on the team to find out who the Snow Queen is behind the mask. I'm planning on having Kylee run into the Snow Queen, and the Snow Queen's mask gets knocked off or broken, and Kylee recognizes Nickelle. Before she can get caught, Kylee uses her speed and invisibility to get out of there (though she'll probably get some scrapes and bruises and possibly a broken bone on the way out), and when she gets back to the others her phone is broken so no text-to-speech, and her hands are shaking so bad she can't use sign language, so she grabs the nearest thing to write with and writes down what she discovered. Asher reads it first and tells the others in horror (and that's probably going to be the cliffhanger for the end of the fourth book honestly)

I don't think i've talked about this on here yet but.... Damian, Asher's boyfriend. he's basically a Chekov's civilian, he starts out as just a bystander and one of the few citizens that knows about Asher's superhero life, but then be becomes a secondary antagonist/ani-hero who switches sides and helps the heroes- basically, Damian is Blood Debt. (that little bombshell is a huge shocker to Asher that rocks his whole world). In case you need a refresher, Blood Debt is basically an anti-hero that rides around the city killing anyone he's sees fit of deserving it. and he works for the Snow Queen, but only because she's paying him a pretty penny to take people out for her, and he also thinks the people she's sending him after deserve it (at least at first)

going off of that, I do plan to have a scene (somewhere in book 4, possibly the end of 3, i think) where the heroes are fighting Blood Debt, he gets injured and captured, and they take him back to their base for interrogation because they know he works for the Snow Queen, and Asher is the one doing the interrogating.... [ This is going to be the dialogue I want to use: "Let's find out who you are under that mask..." // "You don't want to do that trust me." // "We'll see about that-.... Damian?" // "Told you.... *collapses and falls unconscious from injuries*."] >:333 To say I'm very excited for that scene is an understatement.

And after that, Damian becomes a very valuable double agent for the heroes and continues pretending to work for the Snow Queen, because after talking to them, he's realizes that he doesn't agree with the Snow Queen's methods, and decides to spy for them. Asher doesn't like it but they could really use this leg up, so he reluctantly agrees to let Damian risk being a spy

Asher very quickly regrets letting Damian go back as a spy when he suddenly disappears for about a week, and then Boss Lady (the mafia boss working for/with the Snow Queen), live streams them a video of Damian being tortured.... i won't go into details but there's definitely going to be stuff in there that's probably the most graphic the books are going to get (but I'll be less explicit about it and more vague and imply what kind of torture stuff is happening, I plan on focusing on Asher's feelings anyway so that shouldn't be hard)

They make an attempt to rescue Damian of course, but I'm not sure yet how successful it's going to be

there's going to be a moment in the field where Chase's armor fails him and he has to rely on pure science improvisation and luck to survive. Not sure when that's going to happen but I want to include it somewhere

Thanks @rose-bookblood !

[geekkatsblog]

Things the batfamily have done after being woken up too early. (Headcannons)

Because we all know the bats would sleep though the day if they could. They're literally up all night kicking criminals asses. Everyone's sleep deprived.

Dick

He's actually the only bat who doesn't mind being woken up early. He likes the morning. It's the only time no one can judge his overindulgence for cereal.

Jason

Tried to throw Roy out of the window of his apartment because he was using the microwave and the beeping woke him up. Jason got out of bed and literally threw the microwave out the window. But the day after he ended up feeling bad and brought a new silent microwave to replace the old one, he damaged.

Shot two bullets at Tim who had only come because he'd forgotten his laptop at Jason's apartment. Jason was still sleepy so his aim was a little sloppy, the first one narrowly missed Tim but he ended up grazing him with the next one. Which was how Bruce ended up switching his bullets with rubber ones. He always manages to replace them without Jason knowing and eventually just gave up trying to stop him. Watching the criminals curl up in pain from the bullet hitting them was much more fun anyway.

Tim

Sleeps like the dead, the only way he will wake up is if the person has a fresh cup of strong coffee waiting for him, the smell alone will lighten his sleep. He once managed to sleep though an entire kidnapping at the manor. The kidnappers swiped Damian from right under his nose while Tim slept peacefully. Damian still hasn't let it go 2 years later.

Damian

He didn't have a problem the first year, when he moved into the manor. He slept like if he was in a coffin successfully scaring the crap out of everyone and making them avoid his room in the mornings.

Threw a dagger at Bruce when he tried to wake him up for school. His actions caused Bruce to enforce the rule of no weapons being allowed to leave the batcave unless it's an emergency or it's time for patrol.

Cassandra

Where does she sleep? no one knows by the time anyone can try to wake her up, she's disappeared. Sometime in the middle of the night, Cassie manages to hide and finish her rest undisturbed no one has figured out that she sleeps in her laundry basket to avoid people waking her up.

Duke

Threw an alarm clock directly at the victim's head it broke and the person ended up with a mild concussion. Jason (the victim) had to spend a week of the manor with everyone doting over him. He'd sooner die for the 2nd time than admit he enjoyed it.

Duke in a sleep haze one offered the person waking him up the secret identity of Batman if they would just let him sleep for an extra half an hour. Needless to say Bruce almost flipped out and Duke was forced to do extra endurance training for a month.

Stephanie

Threw a bottle of nail polish at Dick who wanted to wake her up and be the first to wish her a happy birthday. The nail polish bottle wasn't capped tightly enough and the sparkly purple paint landed right in Dick's head. He legit cried when he had to shave off all of his hair and start from scratch..

Bruce

Once Clark tried to wake him up for an emergency Justice League meeting. Bruce staggered out of bed down to the cave and returned with a Kryptonite glove and decked the crap out of Clark, since then Clark would rather watch Bruce sleep and wait for him to wake up before he tries to disturb the man's sleep again. To Bruce the staring is creepy, but atleast he gets to sleep.

In attempt to prank Bruce Jason was all ready to draw on the man's face and body with sharpies when Bruce suddenly got the upper hand and hugged him in his sleep. Jason had to stay there for a whole hour cuddling with Bruce while the older man slept. Jason claims the whole ordeal was more traumatizing than the Joker beating him with a crow bar and blowing him up but Bruce knows better. He and Jason used to cuddle up all the time whenever the boy was sick, had a nightmare or just needed to feel safe and Jason loved it then, plus there's the fact that Bruce was pretty sure Jason would have been able to escape his grip at any time.

Alfred is not involved because no one can touch him.

Last one was inspired by a comic I read where Jason was sick and Bruce sat on the couch and watched tv with him.

And I'm still upset about the whole Ric story arc so I made up another explanation for why he cut his hair. (Forgive me I have problems.

[lafayetteworld]

Robin 2021

Okay, so it's been a while since I've been actively posting on tumblr, mainly because I haven’t had time. That being said, the commentary I am about to make on the Robin 2021 series is not meant to offend anyone and while I am particularly critical, I also acknowledge that some people genuinely like it/prefer the direction its's going in. And that's fine. But I did want to break down why I feel the current series is just 'meh' to me at the moment and it’s not necessarily because Damian is potentially being shipped with a newly introduced character.

Please be aware, that there are lots of spoilers. 

So, to start off, I am a big fan of the older Batman and Robin (2009) series, where Damian had partnered up first with Dick and later Bruce (2011). I do no think they are flawless, certainly. I think, in particular, the Nobody plot - excluding of course the interactions between Batman!Dick and Robin! Damian which are gold - was very good. In just a handful of issues, I think we were offered a great insight into Damian's character and how layered he is. 

My first thoughts when I heard about Robin 2021, based on the announcement: Damian will follow his own path, for some reason he retains the Robin moniker which is weird but okay, it does seem like something he'd do I suppose. He will participate in mortal kombat-sort-of-tournament, which will showcase his abilities and in the process, 'he will seek his own destiny' (which I believe was a line used in the actual announcement). The reason he wants to win? Initially, it appeared to be only because he wanted to prove to be the world's best fighter -- which by the way, how is only a tournament of this level only coming up now? Anyways, ignored that. Not a big deal. The idea of watching Damian fight different opponents was appealing either way.

The art of those comics is perhaps nowhere as striking/appealing as Robin 2021 and there's certainly not as many elements to it, but there was just something about it. I stopped reading comics after, for reasons I can't recall but I do remember finding out that Damian was killed off sometime after. I was super heartbroken over it but luckily I found out about it right around the time DC decided to bring him so really I had to wait a short while to see the little shit being Robin again.

I am not as familiar with the arc on Alfred's death but I know Damian watched what was basically his grandfather figure die in front of his eyes. How it was addressed after was rather poorly and that's a discussion for another time, just as it is that hot mess of Gleason's Titans.

 My hopes may have been too high in thinking we will be offered the introspection we'd seen in Batman and Robin, or him deciding what type of vigilante he wants to be. Like who remembers Damian admitting 'sometimes I don't know who I am or what I want' or him saying he does not wish to be like Nobody. That was so poignant.  

First issue of Robin 2021 was a disappointment. I know that there's a lot of damage to the character that had to be addressed but why did he die from like the beginning? Why is it the first thing we see is the author's OC defeat him? I mean, we really didn't need that to find the tournament's rules. Anyway, I was so sold on the art that I could have overlooked all that, except then the art became inconsistent so.....

Do I think Flatline's design is awesome? Yep. Do I like that she is potentially a badass female fighter? Sure. Do I like her abilities? Somewhat? They haven't been explored that much. But to me, having an OC appear out of nowhere and kill the character I was hoping to watch mature/develop is a bit underwhelming. Then, we start getting references of how poetic it is that Damian may fall in love with the first girl that kills him. I thought it was funny at the beginning but subsequent issues only seem to point that actually, the author does want to use Flatline/romance in this journey of growth that Damian is undergoing. I mean, we really shouldn't be romanticizing that she killed him? The girl is serious about winning too. That she caught him off guard is actually rather awesome but I don't think it had to mean anything more than Damian meeting a potentially dangerous fighter and that he needs to be less reckless.

Damian is a pretty complex/difficult character with a lot to figure out. Why does he need a girlfriend? Why can't he have friends that helps him grow or mentor figures? Him and Rose have such a great dynamic, for example.

I see a lot of people saying 'well, he's a teenager boy so it's normal'. Yeah of course it is. But why can't it be the opposite? Damian isn't a normal teenager. Out there, may be teenagers who feel the same. They don’t care about this stuff. 

It is so frustrating, and underwhelming. Not because there's anything wrong with Damian having a crush. Not because there's necessarily anything wrong with Flatline. But because there's no need.

Why is it just because he's a teenager he has to have a romantic interest? If romance is introduced in a plot, surely it doesn't have to be just because 'he's a teenager'. And if he does, why does it have to be an OC that hasn't been explored very well? Flatline could be a seriously cool character without needing to be a romantic interest for Damian and vice versa, Damian has so much to figure out on his own. So for me it's not the shipping that’s an issue, it’s the reasoning and how it may perpetuate clichés when there’s other angles that could be explored. 

Also, why the hell is Alfred used to drive Flatline's likeability? If Alfred is Damian's guilt manifesting, then that's actually Damian thinking that?

'I like this one, Master Damian.'

Seriously. I really hope we end up finding out that was tied in with Flatline's ability or something. So, Williamson won't explore Damian's guilt over Alfred but he'll give us a panel where Alfred (or a manifestation of him) is basically giving his thumbs up for his OC. That doesn’t sit well with me. Not so early in the series, anyway. 

Why is this whole manga thing keep coming back? Yes, Damian reads manga. I loved this addition and I think it's great that Williamson actually brought it in. The fact that it was Flatline who found it seems cliché. And no, I don't think it's a parallel between the shojo manga characters and them two. I really hope that particular manga has a deeper meaning than that. The fact that we keep seeing the blood sprayed (or is it cuts? not sure) on it does seem to hint at that.

There were some good moments. Damian and Dick. Basically every single interaction between Damian and Ravager. The whole Damian and Conner could have been developed better, because it seemed rather sudden they had a heart to heart when Damian can be such a distrusting little shit. Damian reuniting with Goliath.

Why is it that we're five issues into this series and it's all over the place? I don't dislike it. The art is great, although there's so many inconsistencies. But it's been super hard to feel in any way about it other than just 'meh'.

Issue #6 was boring. I didn't mind Flatline and Damian analysing other fighters, it was interesting actually, but that it's still being framed as heading towards a romantic relationship is so.....well, eugh.

Overall, I just don't feel there's enough...substance? Damian does interact with a wide variety of characters and there are a lot of things going on - batfamily searching for him, Ra’s Al Ghul (which was funny yet so odd the way he was characterized), the whole tournament and magic island, so on.

Flatline is not the issue for me, but rather one part of why the series has not managed to appeal to me. I do feel there's a bit too much of her. Or rather, there's not enough of her as a character and too much of the whole 'they're teenagers so they'll have to end up having a crush on one another because he's a boy and she's a girl who literally stole his heart'. Like, I wouldn’t mind having Flatline or other fighters background explored, just to see the types of people they are and so on. 

I wish there'd more of Damian's inner thoughts too. If not that, then give us more fights. Not just snippets. It's a tournament. Let's see how badass they all are. Damian’s fight scenes in #6 were beautiful but brief. I hope the next issues will give us more of that.  As someone who does like Damian x OC fics, I can’t blame the author for wanting to hype their own OC, but I am also a great fan of friends to lovers, slow burns, friendships can be just as great as romantic relationships, of taking the time for mental/emotional growth. 

Anyways, if you've made it to the end of this commentary, I applaud you. Once again, if you do like the whole Damian x Flatline thing, that's cool. I don't, but I do understand to an extent why people find it appealing. And if you think the Robin 2021 series is amazing, then I am happy for you -- I wish I could be this enthusiastic about it.

P.S just saw the cover for issue #7 or is it #8 ? I think I may cry.

[preciousthingsareprecious]

Finding Us Chapter 20

Insert Mushu’s I liiiiive gif here because Finding Us is back! My goal for this year is to get this fic finished, because as surprising as it may seem I don’t think there are that many chapters left waiting to be written. 

I hope you guys enjoy it, and I am so sorry for the just wildly long delay between chapters. 

AO3 Link

~

Titus moved at a faster pace than Damian was willing to run. He watched as his dog scampered ahead on the sidewalk, pausing here and there to sniff at trees or examine bushes and flowers, but always darting forward to something new and interesting. Still, he stayed within Damian’s line of sight, and even paused to look back at him every so often with an inquisitive tilt of his head.

Damian had allowed the dog off his leash after Titus’s excitement had almost pulled him off his feet. It had been a few days since he’d been able to take him out for a proper walk, and the dog was eager to stretch his legs and explore. Damian wasn’t worried about Titus getting into trouble, he was well trained and the chance of meeting someone else was slim, especially since they were walking the path between home and Drake Manor. It was private property, and far enough from most civilization that few bothered to wander out here for fun.

He was happy to follow the animal at a slower pace. He refused to admit that Pennyworth’s reminder that he was not fully recovered yet had been accurate. His inability to balance properly earlier, had nothing to do with his head. Neither did his lethargy. He was simply tired from the stress of having to worry about Drake.

Everything was Drake’s fault, even Damian’s escape outside. Damian had needed to get away from the tense atmosphere filling the house, and the tension there. So he’d claimed Titus needed a walk, promised to return soon, and scurried away from Father and Grayson’s grumpy voices, irritated with their lack of progress. Damian was frustrated himself, having worked from the early morning and past lunch alongside everyone.

Damian bit his lip before huffing, Drake was an imbecile.

Honestly, did he not realize this was an issue he should have spoken of before now? It was as if he thought he could ignore weirder than normal stalking and it would simply go away.

He kicked at a pebble, sending it arcing through the air to thump against a tree trunk. Drake had not learned anything apparently. It was one thing to hide it from Damian, he could understand that. They still did not have the best relationship (little relationship at all if Drake could have his way and Damian did not want that), but he would have expected his brother to have spoken to Grayson or Father at the very least. But no, Timothy had not even considered how his family would see the situation, had not thought of what allowing that psychopath to get close to him would do to any of them.

“The fool.” Damian mumbled.

At his voice, Titus stopped his examination of a stump and ran back to him to butt his leg for a moment. When Damian did little more than give him a quick pat to the head, Titus ran forward again.

Damian wished he were still home, digging through information. Part of the reason he’d taken his walk was because he’d been banned from doing just that. He had been outvoted. Father, Grayson, and even Todd had insisted it was time for Damian to take a break and see to his growing headache. As if any of them were resting. It was too much fuss over injuries that were paltry. He might not be as irritated if Grayson had been forced to rest as well.

The man was as stubborn as Father. While he had been partnered with Grayson, Damian had been told of his brother’s famous hard head, but he had not truly realized it until he began to work with the man. He wondered how the two ever worked together when disagreeing, their attitudes were so similar. When they got it in their heads to do something, they were almost unmovable. Like Titus when he refused to give Damian his favorite stuffed toy.

Damian could be that stubborn. He had many times, but when faced with not one but two people wielding such power, well he’d much rather find an alternate means of helping. He did make a mental note to sway Father to his side in forcing Grayson to rest later. He would not be the only one bullied into a break.

Drake Manor came into sight as Damian and Titus moved out of a tree line. The building was not as stately as Wayne Manor, but it was kept up well, even with Drake spending hardly any time there anymore. Damian liked to think that if he had a whole mansion to himself he’d use it more than Drake did. Though that might get lonely. Perhaps he would use it the same way his brother did: as more of an escape than anything.

Now that he was here, Damian’s reasons for coming felt shaky at best. He had been so sure of himself when he’d snatched the keys to the estate from Drake’s room and decided to secretly investigate. He’d hoped that-- well Damian wasn’t sure what he’d hoped. To find the stalker here? Camped out at Drake’s childhood home sifting through his mail or something? It felt silly. Like he was grasping at straws.

It would be even sillier to turn on his heel and leave, so Damian stomped ahead. He turned the gate key in his hands, Drake had probably already been out here, searching the grounds for any signs of his stalker. Father too would have come to look. And Todd and Cain and Grayson and the whole lot of his family. Damian was simply last to come up with the idea.

“Tt,” he said, and put the key into the lock, turning it until he heard a click.

The gate swung inwards, giving Damian access to a spot he was sure would lead to nothing. But he would not give up. Grayson used to-- and sometimes still did -- give him cases to read over that he thought he’d solved but wanted ‘fresh eyes on’. When Damian had asked why, when they were already solved, Grayson had said that everyone saw things differently, and a new perspective could reveal things everyone else missed.

Damian was going to be the new perspective.

He decided to check the inside first, and circle around the grounds after. That way if he took too long and someone came looking for him Damian would have managed to explore most of the spot he was most curious about.

Titus darted through the open gate off to explore the new area. Damian let him frolic for the time it took him to approach the house then called the dog over to him. He’d rather have his friend close by through the exploration.

Only his whistle didn’t catch Titus’s attention, and when Damian didn’t see the dog coming close, he looked up to search for him, the keys dangling in his fingers.

Titus stood close to the front gate to the driveway, growling, with his ears pulled back, at a man. The man stood very still, even separated by wrought iron.

Damian hurried over to stand near Titus, “Hey boy, it’s okay.” he said, resting a hand on the dog’s head and frowning at the person Titus had decided was no good.

The man looked to be in his late forties, with dark hair speckled with some grey, and deep lines on his face. He was dressed plainly, and in a coat and gloves that were appropriate for the weather only if he’d planned to stay out late. Everything was done in dark tones, with nothing that really stood out. What was most interesting was the fact that a small envelope was held tightly to his side in one of his hands.

Damian did not glare at the man since he did not wish to make him bolt, but every fiber of his being said there was something very wrong about this guy.

“Can I help you?” Damian asked, raising himself up and filling his tone with as much authority as he might have in addressing one of Grandfather’s men who’d stepped out of line.

“Hi, you wouldn’t happen to be Tim Drake would you?”

Damian’s heart sped up, and he squeezed his hand around Titus’s collar, “I do not think I should tell you. I don’t know you, and so far you have not introduced yourself.”

“Oh, sorry, I’m Joe, I’m an old acquaintance of your dad’s.” The man gave Damian a smile that felt a little too bright, “Listen, I’ve been out of town for a couple years, and well I came by to give my condolences and just say hi. We used to be pretty close back in the day.”

He thought Damian was Timothy. Well then he couldn’t have been that close a friend. Damian shared a hair color with his brother, that was it. It should be obvious he was not the son of a supposed ‘old friend’.  

“Timothy is my brother, and he would not appreciate you snooping around. Now I would kindly ask you to leave.”

Titus’ growl turned into a bark, and he tried to pull away from Damian to lurch at the man. Damian held firm, but did not hush his loyal friend.

The man glanced down at Titus and back up at Damian, “Alright, okay, I’ll try calling ahead next time. Have a nice day.”

“Wait--” Damian called, as the man turned, “Did you not have a letter you wished delivered?” he pointed to the envelope clasped close to the man’s side.

“Oh! Yeah.” The man smiled, “Will you give this to your brother? I wasn’t sure if I’d catch him or not, so I thought I’d say hi with it.”

Damian stepped a little closer to the gate and took the offered letter. It did not seem to weigh much, and might have been what the man said. He gave him a sharp nod of dismissal.  

Once the man was gone, Damian turned and hurried back to the manor at an almost sprint. He would have run, but moving quickly was making his headache return and he was not certain the man he’d just run into was Drake’s stalker or not. It could be a false alarm.

When he returned home he came in the back he quickly examined Titus’ paws for mud or any pebbles he might have picked up on the walk then let him run into the house. He paused in the kitchen where Pennyworth was enjoying a cup of tea.

“Back so soon?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I have brought news.” Damian told him, “Where are Father and Timothy?”

“Downstairs with the others. Might I ask what this news is?”

“I ran into a strange man on my walk. He was attempting to enter Drake Manor.”

Pennyworth straightened at this, and looked Damian over. “That is news.”

Something told Damian that the butler was not just reacting to the man, but Damian’s involvement. He seemed concerned, but in that way that said he was trying to hide it.

“I was perfectly safe.” Damian said, “Titus was there and the gate was between us. I had planned to examine the house for clues to help the search.”

Now Pennyworth’s lips turned up in a smile, “I see. Well then, head downstairs. I’m sure the others will be interested to hear of your news. And I expect you back up here in a reasonable amount of time. Breakthrough or not, you are still recovering, and I could use a hand with dinner.”

Damian nodded, “Of course.”

He made his way out of the kitchen and down to the cave at a more sedate pace, knowing Pennyworth’s eyes and ears were on him, alert for any sounds of Damian “exerting” himself. Thankfully it was not long before he was exiting the elevator and moving into the cave proper.

There, he found Father at the computer, with Richard leaning over his shoulder as they both read something. Todd and Drake were sparring on the mats while Cain watched, and Brown did handstands. Damian stopped just between the practice mats and computer to watch them all.

Upon seeing him, Brown dropped from her handstand to wave, “Back from your walk?”

Richard turned to frown at Damian, but before he could send him back upstairs Todd spoke up, ducking under Drake’s fist.

“Nope, you are not supposed to be down here, Squirt. Upstairs before Alfred figures out you’ve snuck down.”

Damian huffed, “I did not sneak anywhere, Pennyworth is aware of my location. While you all have been dallying I have made a breakthrough in Drake’s case.”

Todd froze, and took a kick directly to his stomach for it. He oofed and doubled over while Drake scrambled to make sure he was fine. Father and Richard both turned fully in Damian’s direction.

“What do you mean, Dames?” Richard asked.

“You weren’t supposed to be doing case work upstairs either.” Father reprimanded.

“I was taking Titus on a walk.” Damian defended.

Yes he had been planning on sneaking case work into the walk, but it really hadn’t come up, so technically he was still telling the truth. He had only really managed the walk before he’d run into “Joe”. It was pure luck he’d come across the man at that time. If he had been any slower or faster he might have missed him altogether. Or perhaps even been mistaken for Timothy inside the house. That might not have gone over nearly as well as the meeting at the gate had.

“Well what did you find?” Drake asked.

He and Todd had straightened and were moving closer. Cain and Brown kept back, they were interested, but leaving things up to those who’d been closest to the investigation so far.

Damian held up the letter, “A man gave this to me outside Drake Manor. He initially mistook me for Drake despite claiming to be an old family friend. From his manner and way of speaking I suspect he is either Drake’s stalker, or someone hired by them to drop off the latest threat. In either case he was a terrible actor.”

Drake snatched the envelope from Damian’s hands and tore it open before anyone could stop him. He removed a single sheet from within, stared at it for a moment, then silently handed it over to Father.

Father read it, his face darkening with every line he scanned. Damian resisted the urge to stand up on his tiptoes to peer over the sheet and read what was on it. Whatever it contained, he was certain it was more of the same creepy and unsettling information Drake had been receiving for a while now.

Part of him thought he should have opened the letter himself before presenting it to the family. It had been an oversight to just hold it out as he had done. What if there had been something dangerous inside? And to have put more threats upon Drake like this, after they were trying to stop everything--it was embarrassing. He should have checked.

But then again, Drake would have insisted on reading it. Everyone would probably insist. Still, it wasn’t the letter that was important. It was the person who had delivered it.

“Damian, you said you saw the person who delivered this?” Richard asked, looking up, concern on his face.

He nodded, “Yes, I can sketch him, and we should be able to use it to identify him.”

Todd moved over beside Damian, and ruffled his hair, “That’s great! Even if he’s not the guy, he’s connected with him, this is a good lead.”

Damian scowled, and ducked away from him, “It was simply luck. I was in the right place at the right time. If not, we would only have another creepy letter.”

“And boy is it creepy.” Todd said, yanking the letter away with a whistle, “He said he likes the smell of your shampoo on your pillow? Ew, and also totally false unless he somehow got in here.” Todd looked up with a frown, “He couldn’t have gotten in here right?”

“It is most likely a lie intended to be built upon a truth. Either he believed Timothy was still staying at Drake Manor or it was supposed to come here and the hired hand chose the wrong home.” Damian said.

Both Richard and Drake’s attention shot up to look at Damian. He frowned at them confused for a moment, then realized his mistake. He turned the frown into a glare.

“Pennyworth asked me not to be too long. I will return upstairs to aid him then draw the picture of your stalker.”  

With that he turned on his heel and left them to glean whatever they could from the letter

[whetstonefires]

Do you think the DC fandom maybe, Infantilizes Tim a little too much? Like for a rich kid character who's main trauma for a long time was a getting left home alone too much there's an oddly amount of meta abt how much how much his parents hurt him~ compared to, y'know the two poor characters who grew up with physically abusive dad's+druggie mom's, or the two that were raised assassin cult's, etc

…well, yeah, I do kind of think that? His whole schtick for so long was being too old for his age in ways that didn’t sacrifice his jokey, relatable teenager energies. It’s weird how little of that we see anymore, sometimes.

And then DC broke him and discarded him and he’s sort of awkwardly hanging around getting reimagined as more woobie with every fan generation. It is weird!

But tbh I do get it. And I think the reason his parents’ failure of him and his vulnerability get played up so much, and Jason and Steph’s sufferings (while used a lot for things like motivation and context) not dwelt on quite so much in the same lugubrious style, are kind of the same reason.

Which is that canon didn’t commit to it. Jason and Steph’s experiences with bad parenting were foregrounded and retconned more dramatically awful several times. (There’s some definite classism in how that was approached imo, and I’m never budging on being mad about DC retconning out Catherine being sick and then ignoring her forever in all Jason characterization because a drug death invalidates a person ig, great message during the opioid crisis guys.)

They engaged and coped with it–Steph (and Cass, our #1 canon batfam parental abuse victim) pretty directly, Jason a little less so because of the dubious and fluctuating canon status of most of the content more specific than ‘poverty, homelessness, theft, parental drugs and crime in there somewhere,’ so most of his parent issues have been focused on Bruce. He sure has dug into them tho. 😂 Rarely well or productively, thanks DC, but it’s explicitly part of his character, is my point.

Whereas upper-middle-class Tim was always treated by the narrative as fortunate and unharmed by his experiences with his parents. Even though they were clearly behaving badly in several ways, and Tim showed signs of being harmed by it.

Tim outside of immediate moments of frustration always was of the opinion he was Fine, and Very Fortunate Actually.

Therefore a huge chunk of the numerous everyone who’s got parent-related mental and emotional harm, but has struggled to have that validated and hasn’t responded with a lot of anger toward the parent, identifies with Tim. The only one who’s never really lashed out at his parents for fucking up with him. The one who still needs it explored, because canon ultimately didn’t.

[editing post to put in a readmore because lol it’s long, post otherwise unchanged]

(Dick obviously didn’t ever have any Issues with the Graysons, but he Angry Teenagered at Bruce so hard it changed Bruce’s characterization permanently, rip.)

The things Jason, Steph, and Cass have been through are dramatic, obvious, and fit stereotypes because that’s what they’re based on.

That’s important content to have, but because it’s right out there in your face even people who identify with it quite a lot are less likely to feel the need to work all the way through it again in fanworks. That part’s there. It’s text.

(Well actually Jason having been physically abused kind of wasn’t? I think? It was mostly assumed on the basis of stereotyping and Jason’s not caring about the man much even as he felt possessive of information about his death, which is valid. I don’t actually know what’s up with Willis now, Lobdell did some weird shit that lacked emotional resonance or staying power because he’s Lobdell and has no soul.

Cass’ wandering years are also ludicrously underdeveloped. But very very few comics fans or writers can personally relate to being amazing child warriors with no grasp of language living feral under bridges. That part of her life is consistently represented in terms of absences, in terms of its deviation from the norm and the deficits of normality it left her with, which is typical but unfortunate.) 

-

The interesting things to do with these characters are often informed by the bad stuff in their childhoods, but there’s relatively rarely that much more to say about the fact that those things were bad. They know they’re bad. They’ve had a lot of on-panel rage about it, as discussed above. Steph and Cass both beat the shit out of their dads.

Jason is, in fandom especially, a sort of Platonic ideal of a kid who’s mad about his bad childhood and really bad at figuring out where to point that rage.

(Damian is a whole other kettle of fish, because he’s been lumbered by so many detailed retcons coming so fast no two people can seem to construct compatible models of what his early childhood was like, and even more because he’s still ‘a child’ enough that he’s necessarily in a different stage of processing than someone who’s officially only a few years older than him at this point, but still functionally 8 and also 20 years older, and whose parents are no longer in the picture to continue screwing up.

Also there’s no question that if he brings up an abusive thing the League did, he will be validated by his current environment about his realization that it was in fact bad. There’s a lot of fic on that theme! But it doesn’t have the same tone precisely because it is usually understood that that support will be there if he wants it. Realizing that his previous context contained things that were wrong keeps being made the focus of his arc.)

The badness of Tim’s childhood, on the other hand, was mainly in subtext. Even when we were clearly meant to understand Jack was fucking up, like when he canceled plans with Tim at the last minute to go on a date with Tim’s stepmother, or that infamous time he came to apologize for not being a great parent and got mad Tim was distracted by a crisis on TV so he flew into a rage and took the TV and smashed it and was like ‘that’ll teach you,’ it wasn’t leaned into.

The story didn’t treat Jack as a minor villain to be overcome but like a sort of environmental hazard of childhood, like homework, to be endured and coped with. Tim said things like ‘it’s fine’ and ‘at least he left the computer.’

(And like. It’s not about having a TV and computer in his room. It’s about not letting a child have boundaries, pointedly not respecting a child’s possessions, creating an emotionally insecure environment, punishing minor infractions in proportion to their momentary impact on your own ego, physically lashing out at a proxy for the child…)

Rather like Tom King later didn’t understand about the punching from Bruce, whoever did that story (probably Dixon? I don’t care enough to check) did not understand how serious a case of bad parenting that scene was. That is most definitely textbook abusive behavior. (It’s a hell of a lot more common abusive behavior than being a lame supervillain or shooting you when you screw up, and a lot more specific than ‘was a thug, might have hit me, dead now.’)

And Tim was never allowed to be mad at his parents about it. It was fine. He needed to be ignored so he had the freedom to be Robin. He deserved his dad being mad at him because he was keeping secrets. He complained too much, although objectively he did not.

The universe punished him for ‘complaining,’ more than once. We cut straight from him shunting aside his disappointment that his postcard from his parents was just to say they weren’t coming home yet after all with ‘if it will stop all the fights they’ve been having lately it’s more than fine’ to them getting kidnapped.

He agreed not to come on the rescue mission. His mom never made it home, and his dad was in a coma for a while. And then ultimately Jack died as a result of Tim’s decision to be Robin, immediately after finally deciding to accept it.

So Tim walks around feeling a huge burden of responsibility for his parents’ deaths, and completely unable to process any hurt they did him as real or valid, especially in comparison with the far more blatant awfulness other people have been through, and canon is clearly never going to address it. Or even acknowledge it properly.

Let me repeat that because it’s kind of my main point:

People are fixated on getting Tim’s emotional abuse validated because that’s an incredibly important step in recovering from emotional abuse, and it’s one canon consistently denied him.

How ‘bad’ things are ‘in comparison to’ problems other people have is a bad and unhealthy way to engage with trauma. Okay? That’s just a really harmful framework to apply to pain.

It’s also a way that both Tim and people with experiences similar to Tim’s are encouraged to engage with their own experiences, compounding the existing problems.

So. Not a form of relatable DC was ever actually aiming for when they tried so hard (and pretty effectively) to make him a relatable character as Robin, but an enduring one for a lot of fans.

-

So Tim’s childhood is a natural target for fanworks in a different way than the traumas that have been made explicit and taken seriously by the text. And then a lot of that got compounded by the way the introduction of Damian as Robin was handled, and the lack of resolution that got. And his current status as not quite having a place in the family anymore.

So between the level of projection encouraged by that context and how relatively difficult to access Tim’s Robin run has become ten years after the fact, this has led to a lot of fanworks on these themes that are based mostly on other fanworks, and stray further and further from the original content.

So at this point there’s an entire wing of Tim’s fandom wherein this side of him has expanded enormously, and he primarily exists to suffer, frequently in ways that 1) escalate to a point that is inarguably ‘valid’ and hard to dismiss and 2) set him up to rebound from it in whatever way the writer finds emotionally satisfying or useful–being ultimately cared for and reassured by people who value him (the most infantilizing option but like, popular for obvious reasons), or unveiling his brilliant scheme that was causing him to pretend to be passive in the face of mistreatment, or turning around and using his genius ninja skills to wrest power back from his abusers, or just laying down some sick burns about being treated fairly.

But not that many of the last one, because that’s mostly done with other batfam members.

Tim’s become a vehicle for a lot of vicarious coping that Steph and Jason just aren’t appropriate for, because they get angry and they get even. And those are stories that exist already, so there’s less scope for telling your own.

And because Jason’s reaction pattern is ultimately so masculine (i’ll make them all sorry! with my guns! blam blam!) while Tim’s is pretty gender-neutral, the demographics of fanfic mean that the bulk of the people using Tim vicariously in this manner are female-aligned, which has over time feminized this archetype of him a lot. Sometimes in ways I find really uncomfortable, like there’s a lot of forced pregnancy stuff which activates my panic buttons. x.x

But, ultimately, it’s fandom. People are going to do what they’re going to do, DC in their perpetual fail has hung Tim out to dry in narrative terms, and I’d rather the people who are using Tim for victimization narratives over the people who can’t dismiss or discredit him fast enough now that his position has been filled. 🤷‍♀️ What we gonna do? Fave’s in an awkward spot. DC hates us. This is the life in this comic book pit. XD

-

Also if you’re the same anon who left me a callout about op of that weird Steph post in my inbox, or if you aren’t @ that person, 1) I refuse to get involved so I’m not answering that ask 2) those aren’t even particularly dramatic fandom crimes? That’s pretty normal? That’s just…Caring Too Much About Ships And Disagreeing With Me.

Do I also feel those opinions are kinda bad? Yeah. But I disagree with everyone about something. Chill.

[maychorian]

i am not a comic follower, and aside from jasons return i am unaware of how any of the boys ended up dead/revived but still see it mentioned a lot in fics (still largely confused on why dick needed to be batman for a while) would you be so kind as to give me a summery?

Gosh, there’s a lot. And I haven’t read all the stuff in the reboots, so this will be incomplete.

Basically Jason was the first one to die, back in the early eighties. It was very shocking for the comics community, even though characters die in comics and come back pretty frequently. For a while it was even a saying that everyone comes back in comics except for two people: Jason Todd and Ben Parker from the Spider-Man comics, because those two deaths made too much of an impact and changed things too much to be reversed. Then, of course, they did bring Jason back, so that saying isn’t true anymore.

So Jason died, and it had a huge impact on Bruce and the entire DC continuity. If Jason hadn’t been killed that way, we probably wouldn’t have Tim Drake at all, or if we did the character would be very different. Tim was always in Jason’s shadow, from the moment he appeared. We have about twenty years of comics, which I see as a golden age, wherein Tim, Dick, and Bruce were a very effective trio. Dick was in Bludhaven for much of that, but he came back to Gotham frequently to work with Batman and Robin. And Batman also had a bunch of other supporting heroes in Gotham, like Batgirl and Oracle and Huntress and Azrael, and then Dinah and the Birds of Prey, and even Catwoman when she didn’t feel like being a villain at the moment. Batfamily comics were a whole interconnected web of stories with interesting character and plot-lines.

Then they decided to toy with the idea of Jason coming back, with the Hush series. Hush is a very good storyline, imo, but I think the way it was so well-received put the idea of bringing Jason back for real into the writers’ heads, and I’m not convinced it was a good move. In Hush, it seems like they face Jason Todd as a villain, back from the dead. He takes Tim hostage as revenge for “replacing” him and almost slices his throat, but Catwoman saves him. Later it’s revealed that that was Clayface all along, and Jason was never alive after all. It was all a mind game to mess with Bruce’s head, like the rest of that storyline.

But then later we got Under the Red Hood, with Jason actually coming back from the dead, and they retconned it so that really was Jason, and he just traded places with Clayface to make it look like it wasn’t him. It was kind of nonsensical, because Under the Red Hood was all about Jason coming back and being angry and going full villain and trying to get revenge on those who had hurt him, especially Bruce and the Joker, so why wouldn’t he have just come back for real in the Hush storyline? But anyway, not the point.

Under the Red Hood was a well-written series, and it was well received by fans. So now DC had all the go-ahead they needed to start killing Robins and bringing them back willy nilly, and it got really stupid really fast.

You asked about the boys, so I won’t talk too much about Stephanie here, but it was sort of similar with her. She was a character who had been part of Tim and Bruce’s stable of allies for a long time, and she was Robin briefly when Tim’s dad found out he was Robin and forced him to retire, and then she was killed in a gang war that she accidentally started. It was a pretty shocking moment and actually had some impact on the series and on the characters, especially Bruce and Tim. But then they retconned it so her death was fake all along (which really REALLY threw the character of Leslie Thompkins under the bus, lemme tell ya), and her returning didn’t make even close to the splash that Jason returning did. Still, it was widely regarded as a good move, because her death was really skeevy and gross, and comics fans were generally happy that it had been reversed.

But see, that set a pattern. Now Bruce’s kids could get killed and brought back to life at any time, and both the writers and the fans knew it. It no longer has any impact, in my opinion, because we all know it isn’t going to stick. That’s the way I feel about the fact that Alfred is currently dead in canon--there’s no way it’s real. It has absolutely no emotional impact on me, because it’s stupid and ridiculous and I refuse to acknowledge it. 

The next thing that happened was that Bruce “died” (was actually thrown back in time by a big bad alien), and Dick had to take over as Batman. That was when Dick made Damian Robin and basically demoted Tim, or at least that was the way Tim saw it, though Dick didn’t mean it that way. Tim was the only one who believed that Bruce was alive, and he went on his whole journey to bring him back, and somehow when the dust settled he ended up more isolated than ever.

And that was where the pre-New52 storyline ended. I’ve only read a few story arcs in the reboots, so I’m not as familiar with that era, but I know some basic plot points just from reading summaries and panels on tumblr.

At some point people thought Dick was dead, but he was never really dead. It was another faked death, and he went undercover with Spyral? A whole spy thing? Yeah, I didn’t read that one. Still, bad move to kill another Robin, but at least the readers knew all along that he wasn’t really dead, even if his family (besides Bruce, who knew he wasn’t dead) had to grieve him.

Then Damian was killed, and that was a “real” death, in that he actually died. And his soul went to hell??? And Bruce took a posse, including Tim, and went down and got his soul back and revived him. I don’t think this death had even close to the impact of Jason or even Steph’s did, because at that point comics readers had to KNOW there was no way Damian was staying dead.

And later Tim looked like he was dead, too, shot up by a billion drone bullets, but just a few panels later readers knew he wasn’t dead because he’d been captured and taken to space prison because his brain was too big and too special and he was going to mess things up for the bad guys. So at least DC knew not to even pretend that he was dead for a whole issue, because they knew it would have no impact.

So yeah, at this point pretty much every member of the Batfam has been “killed” and brought back to life, except Cass and Duke, I’m pretty sure. Well, Alfred is dead at the moment, but I’m sure it’s temporary.

I hope that helps. I didn’t really attempt to write this in a coherent way. Because DC comics aren’t really coherent, and I have a lot of contempt for their choices, so I don’t think they deserve that much effort from me, haha. 

And yes, I still love the characters despite the bad writing they’ve been subjected to.

[thattimdrakeguy]

ROBIN 80TH ANNIVERSARY - REVIEW!! - The GREAT, the okay, the meh, the wait what, and the freaking awful

None of the stories I’d consider bad in this besides the Super Sons one.

They have flaws, some don’t have any but aren’t that great, and just weird choices, with some disappointments.

I’m just gonna be honest about each story because that’s all I can do.

--

DICK GRAYSON’S FIRST STORY: Really freaking good.

My favorite story is probably the first one:

Like the art is the best in the whole issue, and the only real flaw is how mean they made Bruce through-out it.

It’s yet again another story of how and why Dick quit (I guess he didn’t get fired this time) being Robin, but it’s just nice. Nice pacing, timing, dialogue, good art, and because the people working on it are 80s writers and artists, it keeps it feeling classic.

Which is great for a little showing of the 80s world, and I’m no big 80s DC guy at all, but it’s a really nice flashback for that.

One thing that was disappointing but I won’t count as a flaw (since it’s really not, just a wasted opportunity) is that this kid didn’t end up being Tim:

It looks like a young Tim, it’s drawn by the first artist on Tim’s Robin ongoing, written by his creator, it’s about the history of Robin, and he’s an overeager Robin fanboy-- like why wasn’t this kid Tim? He even has that dorky bowlcut Tim had when he was little, just less 80s styled.

A missed opportunity honestly.

The story though shows Dick’s compassion, talent, frustrations as he became his own man, his views on Robin, some of his sense of humor even. So his characterization is pretty great, but it is written by the man that grew Dick his own unique character to begin with, and it’s great to see this story keeps it up. (Prolly gonna find out this is an old script, but hey, it’s a good one.)

A weird retcon story, but it’s a nice callback to the 80s, and I think it’s really well-done beyond Bruce being a controlling grumpy prick to the point it feels like parody.

--

DICK GRAYSON’S SECOND STORY: It’s just alright.

Where the first story is a flashback to the 80s, this is a direct flashback to he 90s, with the writer and artist that started his ongoing solo.

And it’s good. Like I had a lot of fun reading it, good heroics, feels of it’s era, but like the last story that’s the fun.

There’s nothing really to say about it besides it’s good. There isn’t anything too standout about it.

--

DICK GRAYSON’S THIRD STORY: It’s forgettable.

I forgot this was a thing in this, and it just feels like a waste of page.

It’s in no way bad that I seen, but it’s so very bland and one note. Titans fight and Dick acts as leader. Very generic.

The art’s really good though.

--

DICK GRAYSON’S FOURTH STORY: It’s better than that last one at least.

Unlike the last one, this feels like it at least has a point to be here, and it actually feels like it makes sense to be in he 80th anniversary as well.

I’m not a personal fan of the “Grayson” series, it just sexualized Dick too much honestly, made him cheesier again a bit, and the writing was a little on the off-side in a way that just made it all feel empty besides a few moments, but I never read the whole series to be a great judge on it.

But also because of that, I have no idea who these people are for this story to be grand. What makes it feel like it’s worthy of being here though is trying it back to the history of Robin like the first story with these little bits.

Without these moments though, you wouldn’t have a clue why this is there.

Also Dick just suddenly wears this:

Which is super duper off-putting. But Oh-ho gotta have sexy Dick in there somewhere I guess. Just-- wow, was that super sudden.

--

JASON TODD’S STORY: It’s good but this kid doesn’t look right.

The story is very simple and sweet, and I think it works a lot given Jason and Bruce’s complicated relationship.

It’s even written by Judd Winnick who did Under the Red Hood, which is awesome.

But who is this kid they keep calling Jason exactly? It irrationally bugs me, because all the art has been super spot on till this story. They even write him well, but it just genuinely doesn’t look like post-crisis Robin Jason.

Like to show what I mean--

You read it and this is how the kid speaks.

Super snarky,

a bit of a rude edge to it,

practical sounding but rough teen-ish still

yet still mature enough to feel like he can handle himself.

So you might place this around when Jason was 15 given he’s Robin, and when he was 15 and when they gave him a unique design finally away from a generic silver age Robin, he looked like a young body builder--

Like this is what Jason Todd looked like when they settled his look away from a Dick clone:

A young body builder type, strong jaw, working out, mature features for his age

So who the heck is this?

Like this isn’t what Jason looked like besides pre-crisis, but this is post-crisis Jason. They already settled what he looked like during that 80s run, and this isn’t it. He’s not supposed to look like a generic silver age Robin anymore.

Even beyond it not looking like what Jason’s supposed to, it doesn’t fit the dialogue. He’s written as a practical, snarky, yet in his own way still mature teen. Soooooo why’s he look 5?

It’s so off-putting and it bugs me.

However, beyond that, I really like the story, and at least the artist was good at drawing adult Jason.

Them representing Bruce’s and Jason’s complicate relationship of distant but still caring is something I really enjoy. It’s so much more true to character rather than acting like Jason is just a part of the family like nothing ever happened.

More of that dynamic for them, please.

--

TIM DRAKE’S FIRST STORY: It’s pretty good, but it’s missing something.

Not the highest praise ever, but I do like this story. I enjoy it’s setting at Tim’s school. High school was a constant setting for Tim’s comics in Robin, and they rarely ever treat it like that so I enjoy this story bringing it back.

I really enjoyed the connection  between extracurricular activities and what he does as Robin. It’s that blend of relatability and heroics that really made Tim work as a character. So that’s also great they brought back.

One of my favorite things that they bring up is Tim being into eSports, cuz it reminds me of how much Tim was into video games. It’s a very modern version of him being into the arcades in the 90s. Which is great.

However a downside is that it doesn’t really focus on Tim as a character like the other stories did with the other Robins.

Nothing about his never give up attitude, his insecurities, his underdog likability, how hard he is on himself, or things like that.

In-general this story says nothing about his personality besides a mention that he’s geeky. Which is a pretty big let-down because it keeps it from being any better, despite it already being good.

Freddie William’s art is also very hit or miss. It’s so crude sometimes, and Tim seems so buff compared to before in his actual Robin run. It’s very displeasing given that his early Tim work was top 5 Tim art material. However I still enjoyed that they brought him back even if he can’t draw Tim as well anymore. Tim’s still good in the babyface in most panels at least.

BUT-- this is still a pretty good Tim story. It’s just lacking.

Like it just should’ve been more about Tim as a character since it’s a Tim Drake story.

--

TIM DRAKE’S SECOND STORY: It’s honestly just pretentious.

Tim doesn’t talk like this. Tynion has a melodramatic tone to his characters that works great for characters like Batman, I’ve actually quite liked his Batman run so far partially because of that, but it doesn’t work for Tim.

This is not what Tim talks like. It’s so very unnatural sounding for a kid. Yet Tim talks in this incredibly dramatic tone except for a few light hearted spots, when I feel like it should be the opposite.

It’s also trying hard to be a character study, but again it’s so unnatural. It sounds like a fan describing their view of the characters, not the characters themselves. Like since have these guys became each others therapists?

And then he has Dick say these things that makes Tim seem like a Gary Stu and the greatest most talented guy ever.

Also having Tim hang out with Jason when Jason’s using guns even though Tim’s insanely against that sort of thing.

They even have Damian talk like a typical fan person who dislikes Tim based off of superficial things for a bit.

The fact it treats that Detective Comics Rebirth part of Tim’s character history as uber important is also a bit pretentious of the writer given he wrote that too. Despite Tim only being in that run for like three arcs and wasn’t even in-character for most of it.

Best part of it, is the vague acknowledgement that Tim didn’t want to be anything else but Robin to me.

Otherwise it just reeks of awkwardly written fan fiction.

Honorable mentions of quality though, is Dick and Tim being brothers train riding, and Damian’s mini-adult coming out. I’m so sick of them making Damian a generic kid sometimes that I actually liked this part even if it’s through a snarky filter.

--

STEPHANIE BROWN’S STORY: Better than expected, it’s actually pretty good.

I actually really liked this story. Overall I think Steph’s actual Robin run sucked, this is still a good story if I can get past the era it’s set in.

Unlike Tim’s stories, this actually uses her character.

How reckless she can be without it being super exaggerated, her attitude, love that they brought back the diary format for her inner-monologue too. 

There’s not much to say besides I’d actually consider this one of the best stories in the thing, except for the fact Steph clearly disobeys Batman and she was said to get fired for that. That’s a decent plot holes for me.

I super love the detail of Tim being so small that Steph can’t fit in his uniform. That cheered me up.

Them bringing back her Robin era artist was also great. Unlike Freddie Williams, their art actually really improved.

DAMIAN WAYNE’S FIRST STORY: The genuine worst story in it.

It’s so-- baaad.

Fan service can work if it’s in good quality. Like being in-character, or a nice homage. The train riding in Tynion’s story was that.

This isn’t that.

Damian and Jon didn’t get along right away, not even soon enough for this “mostly” part to feel right as a joke, because they obviously didn’t get along mostly right away. They fought a lot. They even show it on the full page them fighting, but they downplay how long they did fight just for fanservice. It took a long time, and even when they did it was still contrived.

Then they have Damian and Jon in the same class, when they aren’t the same age for that to make sense..

They even have Jon help Damian on his tests when it’s constantly shown that Damian is a brainiac who wouldn’t need that.

It’s literally even in the history summary at the end that he’s highly intelligent. So he probably wouldn’t even ever need a study partner considering he’s even said to have actual PHDs anyway. Which makes the study partner thing just plain out of character.

There’s also panels that straight up feels like oddly specific deviantart fetish art, which is so nasty. Especially considering that I know damn well that’s there’s pedophiles who make this same kind of oddly specific fetish art on there. So much so I had to stop using the site cuz of the anxiety it gave me.

And they downplay how mean Damian can be too Jon so much that it irks me.

This is the worst story in the whole comic, genuinely. Nothing good is in it, besides some decent enough art.

It’s certainly pandering to it’s fandom, but to certain parts it really shouldn’t be.

(This sort of stuff was still happening in their miniseries. Jon really shouldn’t want this as a brother. That’s stockholm syndrome.

--

DAMIAN WAYNE’S SECOND STORY: It’s better than the last one, but somethings missing still.

Unlike the last one avoiding talking about Damian’s actual character besides to play it down. This one actually uses it.

It’s just so quick, and empty feeling at the same time that it’s missing something. A bit like an inverse of Tim’s first story. Tim’s story had the setting and interesting story format, but no real character, while this has a lot of usage of the character but no interesting setting or story.

A lot of Damian’s character is that he’s not a natural Robin as far as attitude goes. He isn’t a typical Robin, and I enjoy how they play into that rather than be afraid of that. It’s what makes this actually work for me.

Although it makes you question why he’s still Robin, I consider that a good thing, because YOU SHOULD. You want the character’s to actually acknowledge things as if they’re real and not just ignoring things.

He’s not typical, he’s unique for better or worse. That’s Damian, and that’s what you should show of him.

This goes into why Damian’s the exact opposite of what a Robin normally is. That’s great.

But it’s missing anything memorable about it. However I think that’s cuz it leads into a future issue of Teen Titans which gives it a reasonable excuse.

I’m really hoping it leads into something.

Although i have a feeling they sadly might do the same thing as typical and ignore Damian’s actions more. Avoiding any genuine feelings.

--

OVERALL

It’s not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Only two stories I’d actually call bad, which is a lot less than I thought With just occasionally sloppy art, not even what I’d call back, but just crude or not drawing the character accurately which will annoy some more than others.

When I heard of this book I got so worried, but only two stories is actually almost relieving how little that is given the potential ego-driven things they could’ve done, which only those two stories then.

To me, I say it’s worth a pick-up, just rip out a story or two to keep it friendlier to revisit

Mostly was just really missing that extra heart in a lot of the stories.

[otpnessmess]

Of Casual Encounters And Late Nights Pt.2

Here it is! I don't know if it's as long as you wanted but it's almost double the first chapter. I hope you like it!

First Next Ao3

-

A week went by where Jason managed to avoid meeting Ladybug again while investigating, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t heard of her. Akuma attacks were as frequent as ever and gave him an opportunity to learn more about the terrors that had been plaguing Paris for years now apparently. He sent all new info on it to his family,  who couldn’t believe none of it had reached them up until that point. Bruce was feeling particularly flabbergasted among them.

“You mean to tell me there’s been a terrorist in Paris for years, one that’s been destroying the city twice a week, and we knew absolutely nothing about it?” He seemed to be going through the seven stages of grief before excusing himself to call Diana.

Meanwhile, Jason’s brothers piled up in front of the computer screen wanting to hear more about the heroes and their work. Tim was looking up information on the internet while Dick asked questions nonstop about their powers, and their suits, and if he had had the chance to talk to them yet. 

“They sometimes stay back after the attacks, but their powers have some kind of time limit so those are rare occasions, or so I’ve heard. They’re all proficient fighters and each have their own set of powers and weapon. Ladybug’s powers are the most impressive by far” 

The mention of her name threw him right back into the memory of the night they first met. Despite resenting not being given an opening to talk to her more then, Jason had to admit leaving had been the right choice. He wanted to stay in the shadows as long as possible, and dealing with the police on his second night in the city wouldn’t have made that easy for him. Adding to that, even though he was quite stubborn and didn’t want to accept it, he felt curious about the spotted heroine. She was sassy and clever and, if the two battles she had this week were anything to go by, her abilities to strategize rivaled Tim’s.

He came back to the present with a jolt when Dick whined about him not paying attention, eliciting a snort from both him and Damian, who also looked at the eldest with a sneer. “You’re 29 Grayson, no one that age should be making those types of noises.” Jason would rather die than saying it out loud, but sometimes he did miss the dumbasses that were his brothers. 

“You know, I don’t think we would have believed this was real even if someone had told us about it. I found a... Ladyblog? It has videos of almost every attack from the last 4 years as far as I can see, and these look every bit as outlandish as I expected them to. There’s this one where apparently the whole city was flooded.” Tim pulled up the video in the peripheral monitors for the others to see and, lo and behold, there was the video from the day Ondine had drowned Paris. Faint screams could be heard in the background as the person recording managed to get to the roof of a building just in time to see the people still left on the street be swiped by the giant wave. From then on it was all silent. “This is horrible, so many people must have died during this. How did they manage to recover? I’m sure the news of Paris underwater should’ve popped up SOMEWHERE.”

“They didn’t because it didn’t last more than an afternoon.” Jason ran a hand through his hair impatiently. The whole week he had been aching to go out as Red Hood but couldn’t risk meeting Ladybug and it was making him jittery. “That’s what Ladybug’s power is. She just….reverts everything. I haven’t been able to find out how yet, but I’ve been told it must be magic or some shit.”

“Reverts everything? Just like that? Like….turning back time?” Dick looked confused trying to come up with a rational explanation

“I don’t think so. Everyone except the victims remember everything that happened. It’s more of a cure, if you will. She fixes everything, makes a new Eiffel Tower appear, brings the dead back to life, you know, no big deal.” Jason couldn’t help but chuckle at their faces. “I know, if anyone tried to tell me this before I saw it myself I wouldn’t have believed it either.”

A moment of silence on his brothers’ end was interrupted by the return of Bruce. “Diana is positively furious right now. Apparently someone received a message from these heroes years ago and thought it was a joke, so they dismissed it. Diana asked to see the message and just unleashed hell on the poor guy after watching it. It seems her mother was a former Ladybug and she grew up knowing about the magic of the ‘Miraculous’” He said the word in a way that made his sons think he was as confused as they were “The League is planning to make a trip to Paris as soon as possible to assess the situation.”

Now that brought a frown to Jason’s face. “I know I’m usually the reckless one here, but listen to me for a moment. You’re just planning on barging in here, with an angry Wonder Woman, and a probably scared shitless League, to battle a guy who makes you his minion if you show the tiniest hint of a negative emotion? Imagine if Diana got akumatized. You must really want the apocalypse to start huh?” 

He scanned their faces and wasn’t surprised to see skepticism and some smirks too. This was so not typical of him. Jason was a shoot first, ask second kinda guy, and he used to enjoy killing a little too much for it to be healthy. But he remembered what Ladybug had told him about resorting to the least amount of violence possible, and he was honestly worried about what could happen if three dozen superheroes just showed up one day to a fight. “Listen, as far as I can see, Ladybug and her team have things covered here. Give me some time to gather more information and maybe I can find a way for her and Red Hood to have a meeting. I’ll ask her if she still wants our help. But until then, you should refrain from bringing anyone here. Unless you want panic to run rampant among the citizens because the whole Justice League came.”

Snickers could be heard coming from Tim and Dick. Even Damian was trying not to show his amusement at the situation. “Who would’ve thought Todd actually had a brain. We should go if only to check whether he’s been replaced by a clone or something”

“Oh fuck off Demon Spawn, I can be smart too if I want to."

Their father seemed to be mulling over his words before sighing and nodding. “Alright. I think we can go along with what you said for now, but I want you to keep us updated regularly, and to inform us if something out of the ordinary happens. If you need us there, we’ll be on alert. And I expect that meeting with Ladybug to happen sooner rather than later. Also don’t forget why you’re originally there, we have to gather more information on what the Penguin is planning."

“You got it Brucie.” He made fingers guns at the screen with a click of his tongue. “Expect it to be at least a week until I have some big news for you, but I’ll try to make it happen as quickly as possible. And worry not about my mission, I’m almost done with it. Now my dear family, if you’ll excuse me, it’s already 2am and I would like to pretend to be a tourist at least for a day tomorrow. I’ll let you know if something comes up.”

He quickly ended the call and face planted on his bed. This was going to be a long mission. One week in and he was already exhausted. He wasn’t lying when he said he was close to finishing the mission he was originally sent to Paris for, though.  He had infiltrated the goons quickly and efficiently, and managed to hear about a drug shipment due to arrive in a couple weeks together with a human one. As soon as he got the information as to where he’d call his family and they could resolve the problem easily. For now though, he couldn’t help but want to keep them away a bit longer. Be it because, even though he loved his brothers (not that he’d ever tell them), he wanted some time alone, or be it because he wanted more time to try and figure out Ladybug, he still wasn’t completely sure.

If you asked him, he would deny it to his dying breath that he was interested in the heroine, but something about her made him want to get closer and know more about her. In spite of the great amount of knowledge the public had on her, she was surrounded by an aura of mystery and something else that Jason couldn’t pinpoint, which had him turning in his sleep ever since that encounter in the alley. It also didn’t help that she seemed to be around the same age as him, her suit doing her great favours in all her red and black. Alright. Maybe he thought she was a bit attractive. Very attractive? 

“No. Nope. Not going there.” He got up and decided to ignore that part of his brain as of now. For no particular reason whatsoever. It was only normal to want to know more about the person protecting the city. Call it a professional interest, thank you very much.

The dark haired man decided to take advantage of having an expensive suite for once and took a long bath while doing some more research on Paris. He was indeed planning to walk around the city the next day after all. When he was done, Jason headed to the bed and fell asleep promptly. Dreams full of back alleys and superheroes. 

-

As luck would have it, it didn’t take long for the both of them to meet yet again. Only maybe not in the way the Gotham vigilante would have hoped for. Set on at least enjoying this pseudo-vacation he was gifted, Jason left his hotel the next morning to visit the most popular places in the city. The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc of Triumph and the Champs Élysées were the places he had chosen to visit during the morning and early afternoon, but, even though his main goal was to distract himself from the tasks at hand, he couldn’t will away the questions roaming around his head. 

How was he going to contact Ladybug? He wanted to do it as Red Hood, but he didn’t want the heroine of Paris to distrust him since he was pretty sure his reputation would precede him. He was known for being the most ruthless of the batfam, the only thing keeping him from killing criminals once he was done with them was Batman’s No killing under any kind of circumstances rule (which if you asked him was a special kind of bullshit, some of them did deserve to rot in hell in his opinion), and he wasn’t sure if Ladybug would be as willing to hear him out as she may one of his brothers or father. However, his only other option would be to approach her as Jason Todd, one of Bruce Wayne’s adopted sons. He didn’t even know whether Ladybug would care about his family name. This wasn’t his city. And on the off chance that she might have recognized him… He was still a mere civilian. One that had, on top of that, to explain his connection to the Gotham vigilantes without giving away any of their identities. Jason knew his hands were tied. Red Hood had to be the one to try and get the attention of the spotted hero. Knowing there was no other option didn't make him happy about it though. 

Once he was done with this line of thinking his brain decided to go back to the Penguin. He was trying to instill one of the worst types of businesses in Paris and he couldn’t wait to put a stop to it. As much as he knew drug trafficking to be terrible, he was of the opinion that people who engaged in (as well as profited off of) human trafficking should have a special circle of hell destined for them. Preferably in the very depths of it.

Jason was very much aware that, for as long as he remained in this city, negative emotions had to be controlled and dissipated as quickly as possible to avoid an akumatization. Especially those of someone with the skills and knowledge he had. He had a lot of the latter in strange topics, most of which he acquired growing up during his training. And albeit he wasn’t sure whether it would actually be useful to Hawkmoth or not, he would rather not put it to the test. All of this, however, was sent to the back burner for a second as Jason's thoughts strayed towards what he would like to do to the Gotham villain when he captured him. 

Being so busy imagining the 30 different methods of torture he would like to inflict upon the Penguin had made him completely disregarded his surroundings, however. Coming back to his senses, his brain pointed out they were standing at the door of what seemed like a very nice patisserie, just in time for his stomach to growl, his lunch seemingly having been digested some time ago.

‘Maybe something sweet is exactly what I need right now’

-

Some days had passed since Marinette met Jason,  and though he was still burning in the back of her mind, she had way too many things to worry about during the day to remember him often. At night, however, the questions she had originally asked herself the first night continued to plague her, and since Tikki told her not to worry about it too much, the designer saw wise to keep her train of thought to herself. She wasn’t even sure why her brain seemed so fixed on this stranger she had only met once. Sure, he was involved in a fight, and seemed to be a foreigner, but it wasn’t that uncommon for petty altercations to break out around the city while she patrolled. Also this was Paris, for Kwamis’ sake. One of the biggest tourist capitals of the world. There was no reason why this Jason guy should’ve stuck to her mind as he did. Yet here she was. In the middle of her afternoon shift at the bakery. Still thinking about him.

A chime coming from the door brought her out of her stupor. But as she looked up, ready to greet the new customer, she suddenly froze, and her brain could only supply her with the word green. 

Green eyes she had only got a quick glance into a week ago were now in front of her and the color was even more intense as they reflected the sunlight rays that entered through the bakery’s windows.

-

There you have it peeps and pals! I'll try to update sometime again this week in between Daminette December.

Tag list:

@18-fandoms-unite-08 @bamagirl513 @j-a-n-e--d-o-e @dawnwave16

[is-it-art-tho]

This is Chapter 4!

Chapter 1  Chapter 2.  Chapter 3.  Chapter 5

Summary: The BatFam goes to a party and Dick learns that even the suburbs of Gotham aren't without their monsters. Especially on Halloween.

“You’re loving this, aren’t you?” Dick asked, studying himself in the full-length mirror hanging on his closet door.

“I really am,” Barbara giggled. She’d been cracking up for nearly five minutes straight, tears streaming down her flushed cheeks as her abdomen ached. “Hold your phone up higher. And do another spin.”

“Babs,” he whined, lifting his phone to give her a better view.

“Please?” She let her voice got all plaintive and cute the way she knew would turn Dick into putty in her hands. It was a power she had discovered long ago, and one she wielded with reckless abandon.

Dick obeyed, the silky cape drifting around him as he came to a stop. He was in a replica of her old Batgirl uniform. Some knock-off Tim had scored in an online bidding war.

“You look great,” she said. The suit she used to wear hadn’t been quite so delicate. The overall gist was more or less accurate, but hers had been designed with combat in mind, everything layered and dense. The cape had been heavier, the boots not quite so rubbery and squeaky, and the colors much more muted – it would be hard to sneak up on anyone with bright neon yellows and purples announcing your presence from a mile away.

Even so, looking at the suit now, she could almost feel the wind rushing past her face; could feel her stomach flip in the sweeping arc from one building to the next.

For a long time, she hadn’t been able to remember those days without a bitter knot twisting in her gut. She was glad now to be able to look back fondly.

“You know, I really do,” Dick agreed, twisting to show off his butt in the thin spandex. “But I’ve seen better.” He flashed a rakish grin, and she laughed.

“You sure you can’t make an appearance tonight?” he asked.

“Nah. I’m still troubleshooting some bugs from the last system update. Probably take a while.”

Dick sighed. “Won’t be as fun without you there.”

“You bet your ass.”

He barked a laugh as he walked away from the mirror and set his phone down. Now the entire screen was black as she listened to him talk and move around his room.

“Just so you know,” he said, opening and closing drawers. “There’s probably gonna be like a ton of girls there. Can’t make any promises if I meet a nice lady Nightwing.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she grinned. “See you later, Batboy.”

She ended the call before he could protest the name and smiled to herself, letting the warmth of the conversation linger in the air a moment longer before turning her attention to her computer.

____________

The party was in one of the wealthy suburbs just outside of the city and the houses were pretty big. Not Wayne Manor big, but large enough to comfortably host well over a hundred people. It was one of those sprawling parties that took up every inch of the house and the back yard and managed to also bleed out into the street.

In every direction people were gyrating and laughing. There was no way most of them even knew whose house this was, but no one seemed too concerned about that. The host certainly wasn’t. Dick had seen him drunkenly carving a pumpkin by the pool and had quietly switched the steak knife out with a butter knife before the guy’s headless horseman costume became a lot more convincing.

Now Dick was standing on the deck, watching the fire pit where Steph, Tim, and Damian were among the crowd roasting marshmallows. Cass was leaning against Steph’s shoulder, her arms wrapped around her knees. Dick couldn’t see her expression through the papier mache Red Hood mask, but he could tell by her languid body language that she was having a good time.

Seeing them in each other’s uniforms was disorienting, like looking at a green sky or eating hot ice cream. Not necessarily bad, just off. But the anxiety he’d felt about the risk to their identities had died when he’d picked them up from the manor and saw them up close.

They looked more like pajamas than anything else, and they definitely wouldn’t draw any more attention than a bedsheet ghost or a grim reaper. Plus, their open enthusiasm for the whole thing made them all seem that much younger and unassuming. Just a bunch of young people excited about Halloween. It was honestly pretty fun to watch, especially coming from kids who were so often called upon to leave their more childish impulses at the door.

He put his phone to his ear. “Babs?”

“Batboy!” There was a smile in her voice. “Sounds like you’re having fun.”

She must have been talking about the music. It was coming from every direction. His bones rattled with each chord and was once again reminded of how freaking old he was getting. When had that happened?

“It’s a riot,” he said, dodging a fairy as she stumbled toward him with a plate piled high with nachos. Both she and the nachos went over the railing and the sound of the impact below hit him with a pang of guilt for not just stopping her. When he peeked down, she was laughing from the center of a bush. Four other fairies leaned over the side to laugh and throw pretzels at her.

“Uneventful?”

“So far.” He squinted for a second at Damian who was now standing, showing a Power Ranger a batarang. He nearly bolted across the yard until he noted the way it caught the light of the fire. Dick was fairly certain it was either plastic or cardboard. Not real. At least, he hoped not.

Cass and Stephanie had gotten up and slipped past him through the French doors and into the kitchen. Tim was still sitting by the fire, clumsily navigating a conversation with a witch who was openly flirting with him. He tossed a pleading look to Dick, who just smiled and waved, savoring every second of it.

“I think Tim has a new girlfriend,” he added.

“Fun. How’s Steph handling it?”

He glanced back into the house. She and Cass were rifling through a massive trash bag of candy that had been left on a counter, picking out all the king-sized bars and grinning ravenously. The many pockets in Cass’s brown leather jacket – Dick wasn’t sure if Jason had loaned it or if she’d commandeered it – were already full to bursting.

“Inconsolable.”

“Poor girl.” Babs sounded distracted, keys clacking as she muttered to herself.

“What’re you up to?”

“I keep getting the same system error, but I can’t figure out if it’s an issue with the hardware or software. I’ve run like ten diagnostic protocols already and I’ve been staring at the same wall of code for like five hours. I’m probably gonna end up just rebooting the whole thing. Comms’ll be down for a couple hours. Or days the way this is going.”

One finger jammed into his free ear, Dick wandered down the steps and around toward the front of the house in search of a respite from the chaos. He motioned to Damian, signaling that he was on a call, and Damian, in his oversized Batman cowl, nodded.

It wasn’t until Dick was a few houses away that the music and chatter became more of a muted throb than an overwhelming assault.

“What’s B up to?” he asked in a lull, his pace slowing.

“Alfred got him to hang around the manor and help give out candy for a while. I think he guilted him with the turmeric incident.”

Dick laughed then he went quiet for a moment, considering, before asking, “And Jason?”

“Nothing. Is it just me or does something seem off with him? I mean, I know he’s not the most communicative guy in the world but, I don’t know.”

Dick sighed. “It’s compli–” He fell silent. At the end of the block there was a guy in a wolf mask standing under a streetlight just… staring at him.

Dick glanced over his shoulder then back at the man.

“Dick?” Barbara asked.

He didn’t respond. A sense of foreboding had washed over him; a crackling thrum in the air that set all of the hairs on his body on end.

Instinctively, he found himself taking stock of his surroundings. He already knew exactly how many steps it would take to close the distance between them, how long it would take for him to get back to the party if he needed to.

He knew how he could use the string lights on the porch closest to him as a weapon or a restraint. How he could tear his Velcro cape from his own shoulders and get it around the man’s face and throat or disarm him since it looked like he was holding something – a pipe? There was a garden gnome in the yard beside him with a hat that looked sharp enough to do some damage if it came to that.

The man was big. Probably had a foot and eighty pounds on Dick.

Dick pushed his cowl back from his face.

The man turned and lumbered away.

Dick exhaled.

“Dick.” Barbara’s voice had slipped past playful curiosity. She sounded about two seconds away from alerting the cavalry.

“I’m here.”

“Geez. What just happened?”

Dick watched the disappear around the corner. “I don’t know. There was just some guy. He was staring at me, I think.”

“Friend of yours?”

“Not likely.”

“Maybe he just really likes Batgirl,” she teased.

Dick let out a breathy laugh, but the man had set him on edge and now he needed to run it off.

“Think I’m gonna call it on this party,” he said. “I need to unwind.”

“Most people do that sort of thing at parties.”

“And since when have I ever been like ‘most people?’”

Babs laughed and Dick felt his chest warm.

“You going home or going out?” she asked.

“I think we both know the answer to that,” he said, grinning as he turned back toward the party.

“Where would this city be with you, Batboy?” she sighed airily.

Dick chuckled despite himself. “Talk to you in a few,” he said, then hung up and opened a group message with Steph, Cass, Damian, and Tim.

Leaving early. Be back in a few hours to pick you up.

Tim’s message came a few seconds later. Don’t worry about it. We’ll just hot wire a car here.

You can’t just steal a car. Dick.

It’s not theft if we return the vehicle. Damian.

Everybody is wasted anyway, Stephanie said. We’d be doing this city a favor.

Cass just sent a car emoji, a beer, and an emoji of a girl making an X with her arms.

Exactly, Steph responded.

Dick pursed his lips and decided to roll the dice on whether or not they were joking. If they weren’t, he hoped they’d at least return the car before it was missed.

He was standing by his own car now, staring at the screen as he mind went to other things. Babs had sounded stressed, so already he was set on stopping by her place. Maybe he could bring her some of the candy he'd managed to snag throughout the night. He could swing by the Manor for his Nightwing suit and then hit Barbara’s place before going on patrol.

Just the thought made him smile, but there was something else still nagging at him. He needed to find Jason. He still had no idea what he wanted to say, but he couldn’t leave things the way they were.

As he sorted out his plans for the evening, his screen went black. And only then, in the dark reflection of the glass, did he see the wolf mask peering over his shoulder.

And in a flash Dick was turning, ducking, his fist clenched.

And then he was falling, and the left side of his head was an explosion of white, searing pain, and suddenly he was staring at boots, one half of his face hot and wet and throbbing, the other cold against the sidewalk.

He heard himself dragging in short, ragged breaths, his teeth gritted as he ordered his body to move. But his limbs remained where they were, heavy and obstinate. His neck ached as he tilted his face up to look his attacker in the eye, his cheek scraping against the sidewalk.

Squinting into the light of the streetlamp, Dick’s eyes focused just in time to watch the man bring the pipe down again, fast and hard.

And Dick heard the sickening wet crack of bone yielding to metal.

And then nothing.

[becblanc]

(the boy is back in town. the boy doesnt want to be back in town. wait boy where are you going.)

finally made a ref for my pokemon insurgence protagonist after being inspired by the one @frightguard made [x]. i love this character a lot and have written quite a bit on them. some extra info under the cut

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CHARACTER PROFILE

Dont want to read the whole thing? this pretty much sums up josiah

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ACTUAL CHARACTER PROFILE

latched onto damian super quick since he was the first person they encountered that wasnt trying to kill them. cherishes vijol with their life; truly their best friend and an irreplaceable partner. tolerates nora but really doesnt like being around her after she bullied damian in utira. 

what is self-care. or shoes. or sleep? huh. “local hero doesnt practice personal hygiene, more at 11″. 

as soon as they get to suntouched and see the tacky gaudy cape on the clothes rack they buy it immediately. “look im alone, dont know jack shit about myself, a good # of people want to kill me, fuck it im buying the edgy cape. if i die, i die in style.”

very much a “reluctant hero type”. starts off extremely skittish and not wanting to get into any sort of conflict, but gradually gains confidence as their team evolves. gets a hoot out of fucking around with the abyssal cultists as audrey. by the time of the infernal infiltration operation theyre almost too cocky in their abilities. blasts gasolina on a boombox as they storm in. when the thing with the darkrai cult happens again, avoids the fuck out of going back to the shade forest. still carrying a bit of trauma from that whole incident. bad memories. all the bravado from before is instantly gone.

after having to return to the surface world from the dream realm, never stops looking for a way back. that becomes their whole drive. They’ll Get Him Out. They Will. 

Really Really Really doesn’t want to be the next augur. I Guess I Dont Have A Choice Though, Huh. doesnt want to be famous. wants to disappear into obscurity so they can live a normal life. arceus wont have it. 

The timeless: “you’re a fantastic trainer- you’ve beaten all of us. How would you like to be the next augur?”

Josiah: 

refuses the crystal shards. boxed them immediately. Thats A Liability. 

wants to care more about exploring Holon but doesn’t. I Just Really Want To Get Back To The Dreamworld, out of my way. Everybody just stay the FUCK out of my way. Gets incredible annoyed when people keep trying to fight them 

as soon as they get the magic carpet, yeets right the fuck out of holon to get back to the dreamworld. is heartbroken when the first thing adam does is ask that they help take care of the deoxys problem and malon. Cries when adam talks about “father and daughter side by side…. Just as it should be”. cries again when damian comes to. 

eventually moves into adam’s old HQ, lives there now. reopens the gaea town gym so challengers can resume taking on the championship. the badge resembles their dragon-based team while paying homage to their father’s badge. since the cults are all finally quelled, augur calls dont come in as frequently. eventually things calm down and josiah can finally get some fucking rest. never really got back the bravado they had from before darkrai cult: pt 2

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TEAM INFO

Lead: Kirby (mew) 

sets up barrier + amnesia, then baton passes it off to the teammate most suited for countering the opponents team

Physical specialist: Sweet boi (delta dragonite)

also the secondary lead. sets up livewire, then punches away with drain punch, thunderpunch, or aqua tail. extremely tanky and self-reliant when receiving kirby’s boosts (which is often)

Special specialist: Respite (delta charizard)

one of the many mega options available, typically takes up sweeper role 

Mixed attacker: Saburra (flygon)

can change depending on the need for good ground type coverage with STAB, or extremely strong substitute breaker as mega flygon. good flexibility and type coverage

Wallbreaker: Wingdings (delta noivern)

leech seed + nasty plot/giga drain combo + big root + kirbys defense buffs is something to behold. frail but can heal a ton of HP if done right. can go toe-to-toe with legendaries thanks to immense healing capabilities

Jack-of-All-Trades: Vijol (eevee)

moonblast and icebeam provide type coverage as mega eevee, thunderbolt provides speed to outpace faster opponents and land a finishing blow if necessary. single-handedly carrier the team through the champion match: redux as mega sylveon

keeps 3 mega options on the team for flexibility, depending on type coverage needs. the opponent will never know which mega to expect. the typical recipients of kirby buffs are sweet boi and wingdings due to sweet boi’s tankyness and wingdings’ sp. attack augmenting capabilities combined with healing. 

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SOUNDTRACK INFO

i like to have certain songs that i associate with parts of the game, making small montages in my head to them. here are some excerpts. click on the location names to hear a song i associate with that arc of the story. 

i dont have many songs for early game since i was listening to the insurgence ost for so much of it, however:

Telnor Town, meeting Damian

Travelling the region at night (typically this was the only time i was free)

Abyssal base infiltration

Doing any kind of heroic shit

Infernal Base infiltration

Traversing the Dream Realm

The growing suspicion that adam is josiah’s father (i had guessed it correctly before the reveal in the 8th gym)

no alt music for the nyx battle because the insurg ost for that fight is already bangin

Finally reaching Gaea Town..........

Exploring No Man’s Land late at night 

This is a favorite. 

Squaring up to fight Reukra before he can summon arceus 

when i played pokemon uranium, i associated The Felt [x] album with the scenes of infiltrating the abandoned nuclear plants, especially jade dragon, swing of the clock, rhapsody in green, and variations. (my luxelong- a fakemon which is based on imperial dragons and has a jade tail, is literally a Jade Dragon, was name Rhapsody in line with this album). i really liked having an “associated album” with the game so i decided to do it for insurgence as well

the album that takes that title for insurgence is the Spiderverse OST [x], many of the songs i can see in a lot of different venues in the insuregnce plot thats about it. i actually even have more written about this character on a word document. why cant i have this much passion about my actual OC’s. 

josiah is also my go-to boredom character to draw while watching lectures for class

[victoriousscarf]

For the impression meme : Dick Grayson; Damian Wayne

(I tried to insert this picture later in the post but honestly it makes such a good header for me babbling about Dick so I’m leaving it where it is even tho this was an ACCIDENT) 

Dick Grayson:

First impressionLike, I know I watched the old animated Bats show and watched the movies etc so probably the first real time I went “Dick Grayson is a character” was the Val Kilmer movie which like, kill me. 

But honestly the first time reading comics I remember sitting up and going oh this is a character, this is a person and I’m SO INTERESTED was reading Hush (again, good/terrible comic to read early) which means Jim Lee’s beautiful art (I may disagree with 90% of anything that man says or does and would like him to retire from DC as editor but man I can admit he draws so PRETTY) 

Yeah like that panel. And his snark about maybe this time the Joker won’t break out from Arkham for at least a month this time. 

And I was like yeah okay. This is good. Let me go add Nightwing comics to my massive library request list (All the librarians knew my name pretty fast okay)

Impression now

My FAVORITE. Like no I’m serious, he’s right up there with Luke Skywalker as all time favorite characters. And also this is why I’m so damned picky with him as a character because at his core, I think he’s an inherently optimistic character, not because he’s naive or stupid or sheltered, because he’s not. But despite the terrible things that have happened to him, and in fact despite his own nature (his temper, his distrust, his workaholic tendencies) and despite the terrible things that have happened to him over and over and over again, he still makes the conscious CHOICE to believe in goodness, in kindness and compassion, in the world being a better place. (And honestly he’s a lot like Luke “I am a Jedi like my Father Before me” Skywalker in this way). He’s still flawed, as I said he has such a temper, and is about as distrustful of people as Bruce is. But he can BUILD trust with people (unlike Bruce for like the majority of people) and everyone loves him for it. The superhero community trusts him in ways they don’t trust Bruce Wayne (which is fair considering how often Bruce like causes destruction simply due to his own massive trust issues, like the Tower of Babylon and Brother Eye). And yeah okay he’s my favorite, but there’s also this view of Dick in fandom and even the more recent writers that strips a lot of this complexity and shrewdness and leadership from him. And so like in current pre-Rebirth (I’ve been waiting for rebirth to settle a lot more than venturing in there) my impression is not great. And i dread what’s coming both there and in larger media. Favorite momentAh damn like where would I even start.

Like it’s sad that in some ways my favorite moment dealing with him ever actually doesn’t even feature him in it, and it’s Bruce talked with Earth 2 Superman and Supes saying that their world was so corrupt, so dark, so tainted compared to his and he couldn’t understand why this world survived when his own had been destroyed when it was much gooder and Bruce looks at him and you can tell he’s wondering that too and then he goes okay but what about Dick Grayson and Supes sorta goes eh? and Bruce is like if everything is so much worse here, is Dick Grayson tainted and corrupted compared to yours? And Earth 2 Superman says no, no he’s still good, and Bats goes great and fights him. You get the implication that if that hadn’t been the answer, Bruce might have been as willing to give up on this world as that Supes but no, Dick still was the same shining bright light, still such goodness in a dark world and that made the whole world worth fighting for. LIKE KILL ME. Kill me. 

And honestly I still love Dick being so good that even when all the other teen titans were down and Slade Wilson charges into his apartment even out of costume and with no warning Dick manages to jump out his window and escape where the element of surprise pretty much took down the rest of the team. That’s a classic. 

Idea for a story

I’m a sucker for aus, especially aus where the DCU is more or less the same expect Bruce didn’t raise Dick. There was one scan I found where an alternate Dick was raised by Zucco and honestly that haunts me to this day. Or a novel length exposition of the time he was a vampire hunter and Batman was a vampire who killed his parents and it ends with them being together in the night… forever. LIKE THESE ARE CANON AUS give me more of that weirdness. (A lot of Batman elseworld stories that are canon sorta downplay Dick and what I’m saying is don’t. Upplay him like crazy and how he effects Bruce at ever turn, in every world, how all the Robins exist with him through time)Unpopular opinionI hate him and Barbara. I mean, with caveats but I can’t ship it. Partly because I really got into comics around the time of Infinite Crisis, so when Barbara was blaming him for being sexually assaulted, (And there’s a lot of baggage in there because the author at the time was refusing to acknowledge it was rape so like there’s no way to deal with the aftermath of that if you’re not even saying it happened) he cheated on her (what) and I’m pretty sure they were engaged just in time for shit to totally blow up. And then we fast forwarded to one year later and like this stuff didn’t really come up or get worked through? But yeah it was just a period where i found them really messed up and unhappy with how it was written and all the new 52 stuff makes me want to scream and possibly tear my hair out.

Like okay the one time I really liked them was like in the 70s during Batman Family where like she has a phd and was at a congressional hearing and Dick came along as her assistant? Like, that was fun and cute and I really liked their dynamic. Modern comics? Not so much. Favorite relationship…. Yeah Dick and Bruce man. I’m reading this not as a romantic relationship but in GENERAL of any relationships ever nothing has driven my love for DC quite like Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson and their clusterfuck of emotions about each other, the fact that no matter how or in what manner, they are fucked up in love with each other and it is incredibly destructive to both of them. They can’t like settle down and just care, because of who they are they’re constantly butting into and hurting each other and yet at the end of the day they are still the most important to each other. Favorite headcanonDick is demi sexual fight me. 

Damian Wayne

First impression

Okay I read Batman and Son like when it first came out in trade, having NO CLUE who Damian was gonna be, or how his arc was gonna play out so like my first memory is him kicking Tim through the fucking cases and going WHAT IS THIS. Like, I was pretty peeved when he showed up. I was like ugh, of course Bruce having a biological son had to happen sometime and yeah Talia, because Son of the Demon but uuuugh. That was to change. Impression nowHe is precious and must be protected, 11/10Favorite momentI mean, there’s a lot. But one panel that always sorta stood out to me was the time that Hush got plastic surgery to look like Bruce Wayne and confronted Dick and Damian like that. And there’s just this panel of Damian, barely coming up halfway Dick’s chest, putting himself between Dick and Hush like hell yes I will take you on, how dare you. And how protective of Dick it was, even though Dick was Batman and he was Robin, that didn’t even matter. 

So yeah that one panel stands out because it encompasses so much but I also love every time he loves an animal more than most humans. Idea for a storyIdk, I really like future Batman Damian again, as Morrison introduced him a couple times, including in Multiversity. I’d really be interested in the downright apocalyptic future he becomes Batman in and how the batfam backs him up, and how he creates his own because as much as his father, he cannot really work totally alone.  

Alternatively he and Billy Baston go on a series of misadventures and it’s as terrible as that sounds like it should be but also GREAT

Unpopular opinion… It’s really funny I can instantly pin down things I disagree with fandom on with Dick Grayson but so rarely with other characters. Idk? I love him? 

I guess a thing I’ve seen a lot is people not really exploring how he will change as he gets older and just sorta transpose how he is currently on his future self and obviously he’s going to grow up a lot and change and I don’t see that coming up a lot whereas I’m like super excited to see him grow up/explore him grown up in fics. Favorite relationship*Sigh* Well obviously Dick and Damian. I mean, again, this doesn’t even have to run romantically, I just loved their dynamic under Morrison. I loved the switch of Batman and Robin where Dick, who was the brightest Robin became the dark knight, with a little nugget of rage as his Robin. I still love that comics cares about them together but I feel like a lot of their later interactions misses the edge Morrison gave them. Favorite headcanon

Him and Connor Hawke hang out a lot and go to vegetarian restaurants and bookstores together and have very philosophical conversations about religion and art and literature and faith and how they view being heroes (and Damian coping with his past vs Connor growing up in a monastery) and what their fathers mean to them. 

Damian is very protective of Connor is what I’m saying, he’s the only intelligent conversation he gets sometimes. (Sometimes, way down the road, Jason joins them for bookstore excursions, looking for first editions to send Alfred and Damian is sorta pissy but he’s grown, he can handle this) 

[daniellethamasa]

Hey all, Dani here.

How are you all doing today? We’ve made it to the middle of the week already, which is pretty fantastic…though it does remind me that I need to do some work and planning for D&D this weekend. Yeah, I need to do that soon. Anyway, welcome back to my weekly blog series where I talk about what I’ve done, watched, played, tried, and read in the past week, as well as a glimpse into what I’m hoping to read next. We are officially at a whole year of this post under the name Weekly Wrap-Up and two years of the blog series in general. That’s pretty impressive to me.

Okay, so watches are up first. Well, Damian and I went and saw the new “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie for Valentine’s Day, and it was rather fantastic, actually. And, with the way it ends, I’m really hoping for a sequel, because I want Tails and Knuckles and the rest of the gang to be introduced. I’ve also been continuing my “Arrow” re-watch, and I’m in the middle of the Invasion crossover event right now, but I’m enjoying this return visit to the show that started the DC Berlantiverse, you know, what the studio calls the Arrowverse. Oh! I also have watched the first two episodes of “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist,” and if you like quirky contemporary musical shows, then definitely check it out. The first two episodes are available for free on YouTube or through the NBC web site.

I guess I should also talk about gaming a little bit, because I did pick up my Switch again a few days ago…only managed to play for an hour before I got the low battery alert and decided it was time to go to bed. But I have started playing Witcher 3. I think it’s a bit too early to tell if I’m liking it or not. I’m still figuring out controls and everything, so we’ll see what happens, but I’m definitely in a Witcher mood/obsession right now.

Speaking of obsessions, I finally got around to buying a Wicked Saints t-shirt from Blissfully Bookish, and I can’t wait to do a shirt/book photo shoot.

Anyway, I guess it’s time to move on to the reading portion of this post…because sadly I don’t really have much of a writing update for you guys. The writing is going very slowly. Actually most of the writing is going on in my head and not on the page. That’s still technically progress, but it’s not an easily quantifiable or visible progress.

Next up is everything I’ve read in the past week. It’s been a pretty decent reading week overall, so that’s cool. I still wish I had actually read more books that are on my TBR, but at least I’m still reading fantasy, mostly. Big Damn Hero by James Lovegrove, Foul is Fair by Hannah Capin, Snug: A Collection of Comics about Dating Your Best Friend by Catana Chetwynd, Looking for Group Omnibus Vol 1-3 by Ryan Sohmer and Lar Desouza, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls In a Dungeon? Vol 4 by Kuneida and Fujino Omori, How to Treat Magical Beasts Vol 4 by Kaziya, Prince Freya by Keiko Ishihara, and The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin, and Critical Role Vox Machina Origins II Issue #5 by Matthew Mercer, Jody Houser, Olivia Samson, Msassyk, and Ariana Maher.

I think I’m in sort of a reading ADHD mood right now. Like I’ll plan to read a book, pick it up and read like 50 pages or so, and then I’ll get pulled away to another book. So I’m not making the kind of progress that I’d like. I think two of these books have been on this currently reading section for a couple weeks already. And the third one…is a NetGalley ARC for a book that doesn’t come out until August. Usually I try to wait until a little closer to the release day to read most books, but I don’t know, I just wanted to pick this one up. So I guess when I finish I’ll write up the review and schedule it for a few months from now. It’ll all work out eventually.

I want to pick up the next volume of Fruits Basket, and I discovered that my local library has volumes 5-12, so I could easily finish the whole series…but I’m not going to let myself go to the library until I’ve written up the reviews for volumes 1-4. If I’m going to binge the series then I’d rather not get the events all jumbled up in my head. I think that sounds like a reasonable restriction to give myself. And I want to read Sky Without Stars again because I was granted access on NetGalley to the sequel, and I’d like to read it before it’s released next month, but I feel like I need a refresher of the events in the first book. I also can’t resist picking up the conclusion to Julie Kagawa’s latest series, especially since I get to be on the blog tour for it. I’m so excited to get more kitsune tricks and awesome fights with demonic entities. It should be pretty cool.

Also, I’m getting ready for Middle Grade March, where I try and focus on reading, reviewing, and talking about MG books. I’ve already picked out a pretty good TBR, and I’ll talk about a couple of those books in next week’s post, and then even more in my Feb Wrap Up and March TBR post.

So yeah, that’s it for me for today. What are you reading right now? Let me know in the comments and I’ll be back soon with more bookish content.

Weekly Wrap-Up (52) Hey all, Dani here. How are you all doing today? We've made it to the middle of the week already, which is pretty fantastic...though it does remind me that I need to do some work and planning for D&D this weekend.

[flauntpage]

The Outlet Pass: The NBA is Back and Zach LaVine is Unstoppable

Last year I ventured to analyze every side of the NBA through this column, but instead of exploring all 30 teams as randomly as one possibly can, I’m going to break things down within a rotating group of categories to make it all more digestible. (They’re all pretty self-explanatory, but just to give a quick example, “Film Session” is a category where I’ll break down a possession or two—or three or four—and then explain why they’re relevant. I promise none of this will be complicated!)

It’s a work in progress, and figuring out how to organize it the best way I possibly can will be fluid. If you have any questions, ideas, or comments, feel free to shoot me an e-mail or ask away on Twitter. Now, without further ado, welcome to The Outlet Pass’s second season. And, as ever, thank you for reading!

Film session

The 0-3 Oklahoma City Thunder might be in trouble. Heading into tonight’s game against the Boston Celtics, they have the least efficient half-court offense in the league and rank 29th in transition. They don’t pass and they can’t shoot. Not great!

The Thunder rank dead last in three-point accuracy from above the break and the corners, and are 29th from the mid-range. Everyone is shooting below 30 percent from deep except Paul George (who barely clears it at 31.3 percent); Terrance Ferguson, Jerami Grant, and Russell Westbrook are a combined “I’m not even mad, that’s amazing” 3-for-27. Nerlens Noel, Hamidou Diallo, and Steven Adams scare no one from the outside.

A three-game shooting slump is nothing to panic over. Alex Abrines will eventually heat up, George and Dennis Schröder will eventually settle down, and (somewhat superficial) stretch fours like Grant and Patrick Patterson should find some type of rhythm as the season goes on. What Oklahoma City can’t control is how defenses choose to play them—but they can control how they respond. When the floor is cramped, as it usually is, they often choose to swim upstream instead of taking what’s given.

It’s that lack of an extra pass that does those low shooting numbers no favors. They rank 28th in passes per game, 29th in assist points created, and 26th in secondary assists. (The Thunder are somehow fifth in potential assists, but, yeah, that’s neither here nor there.)

Here are a few examples:

Being that it’s Adams taking this shot from one of his sweet spots, what happens isn’t the most terrible result. But with Draymond Green sinking that far in off Patterson, a little action on the weakside might be beneficial. Either immediately kick the ball out to an open shooter or maybe have Patterson back pick Steph Curry to free up Ferguson.

Here, Schröder forces weak-side help on a drive into the paint, but instead of flipping a pass to Grant in the corner, he tries to float in a difficult layup over a collapsing Warriors defense. And on the play seen below, Grant is obsessed with attacking Klay Thompson in the post even though Abrines is wide open in his line of sight:

Two of Oklahoma City’s losses have been without their best player, a guy who averaged a triple-double two years in a row. That’s true. It also doesn’t change the moral of the story: in 2018, nothing humbles an offensive star quite like a cramped floor. Westbrook will find the rim because he’s a bull and that’s his matador, but, on the whole, high pick-and-rolls run by him and (especially) George will turn into mud more often than not. Until they add another outside threat (Andre Roberson isn’t it), get used to seeing this:

Nemanja Bjelica couldn't care less about guarding Grant in the corner. The Thunder’s spacing is terrible, but besides crashing the glass as often as they can and making open shots when they appear (surprise: no team has been worse on wide-open threes), perhaps feeding whoever the defense chooses to ignore until the floor loosens up a little bit isn’t the dumbest idea.

The Trade Machine

The Phoenix Suns do not have a point guard and, assuming they don’t want to pay Trevor Ariza $15 million on their way to another postseason-less campaign, they should probably think about acquiring one—as futile a move as it might be. But before we look at two semi-realistic options, I want to take a deeper look at why getting a real point guard is so important.

New Suns head coach Igor Kokoskov is implementing the same hand-off-saturated system we’ve seen in Utah since Quin Snyder took that job. The Suns are averaging the second-most passes per game (about 13 more than the Philadelphia 76ers led the NBA with last season), and despite their youth and athleticism, a whopping 84.9 percent of their offensive possessions have come in a half-court setting, which is second to zero teams. (In four of the last five years, Phoenix has placed top-five in the percentage of their possessions that began in transition.)

Life is different in a system that demands structure and orderliness. In Phoenix’s home opener, Kokoskov just about lost his mind when Isaiah Canaan veered off script by faking a handoff, keeping the ball, and mucking up the action’s intent. Nothing against Canaan, but confident, stable point guards don’t do that. They organize and let teammates sink into their natural roles while assuming more play-to-play pressure than anyone else. Devin Booker at the point in crunch time is fun and not the worst thing for his individual development, but it’s also not a consistent winning formula. Jamal Crawford is not the answer, either.

The list of semi-realistic options is long: there are expensive stars who may be declining (like Mike Conley and John Wall), intriguing restricted free agents to be who’ve yet to prove they can handle their own team but, depending on who you ask, have the talent to do so (Terry Rozier, Malcolm Brogdon, D’Angelo Russell), and established-but-still-improving vets who aren’t that expensive (Ricky Rubio, Marcus Smart).

There are more names to fill in, but my favorite fit is Rubio. He already knows the system, doesn’t need shots, and is the best passer named. Just about anything is possible in today’s NBA, but there is an extremely slim chance Utah disrupts its momentum by jettisoning an important starter. They’re too good. But what if the Jazz receive an offer that’s too good to pass up, then talk themselves into Dante Exum’s progression as a logical long-term partner beside Donovan Mitchell?

If the Suns really want Rubio, they can go after him as a free agent this summer. But that’s what a smart franchise would do. So long as Robert Sarver is the owner, Phoenix is not that, which brings me to the player I most want to see in a Suns jersey...

If there’s any candidate for the Blake Griffin treatment before this year’s trade deadline, it should be Wall, a supremely gifted maestro who’s currently stuck in Ernie Grunfeld’s purgatory and owed a cap-crippling extension that runs until 2023. He turned 28 in September. The Wizards are 1-3, and Wall is 2-for-17 beyond the arc. If they can get off that contract and pick up a valuable asset or two, they should do it in a heartbeat.

Phoenix’s position is harder to justify, given they’re clearly rebuilding around Booker and Deandre Ayton, neither of whom is older than 21 years old. But if headlines and relevance are a priority over patience, growth, and sensical decisions, then what the hell, right? (Wall, Booker, Ariza, Ryan Anderson, and Ayton is not a bad starting five!)

Phoenix has assets to dangle. Would T.J. Warren, Josh Jackson, and Milwaukee’s awkwardly-protected first in 2019 (that’s top-seven protected in 2020 and unprotected in 2021, which doubles as the final year of Giannis Antetokounmpo’s contract) be enough for the Wizards to bite? In reality, probably not. But they should. And the Western Conference would be that much more interesting going forward.

Character Spotlight

If I was the GM of a team that’s dangerously thin at center, Damian Jones, Golden State’s most recent (and intriguing) fifth wheel, would be an unhealthy obsession. Jones is 23 years old, seven feet tall, athletic, mobile, long, and instinctive. So far, he looks like a more responsible version of what the Warriors had with JaVale McGee.

He’s started every game and has made a league-leading 85.7 percent of his field goals, but the best part is he may ostensibly be available before the trade deadline! Golden State already has Kevon Looney, Jordan Bell, and a recuperating DeMarcus Cousins at the five spot. Meanwhile, Draymond Green will play center when it matters most, Kevin Durant is also seven feet tall, and Jonas Jerebko can moonlight at the position if need be. But more on that later.

Jones is good. As an anchor, he can defend pick-and-rolls in myriad ways, protect the rim, and stand up opposing centers who want to battle in the post. As of Wednesday, he had the sixth-most box outs in the entire league despite logging at least 20 fewer minutes than everyone who ranked higher, while opposing shooters are really struggling at the rim when he’s protecting it.

Jones battles, runs the floor, and is already a menacing vertical spacer. He’s also established enough capital with Steve Kerr to stay in games despite early foul trouble, as has already been the case twice this season. The next two possessions came right after he picked up his second foul, yet there’s no drop in his activity.

One minute later, he deflected a Derrick Favors lob that led to a Durant dunk on the other end. Sure, there was that whole ordeal where his would-be-game-tying layup was blocked by Juan Hernangomez, but for the time being, Jones has quietly morphed into a significant steal.

With a $2.3 million team option next season, before he’s eligible to become a restricted free agent in 2021, Jones is someone the Warriors may not be able to afford long-term. At the same time, Looney and Cousins are both unrestricted free agents this summer, while Bell can be restricted. It’s not that crazy to plot a scenario where Jones is not only the last big standing, but a consequential building block for whatever this roster evolves into over the next few years. Small ball is nice, but Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis, and Karl-Anthony Towns are coming.

A Bold Take

Zach LaVine will be this season's scoring champion. In the first four games of a four-year, $78 million contract that the Chicago Bulls were heavily criticized for feeding into their cap sheet, he dropped 129 points with a 69.5 True Shooting percentage and 33.3 usage rate. He's scored at least 30 points in every game, and Monday night LaVine mutilated the Dallas Mavericks, doing as he pleased against every pick-and-roll coverage Rick Carlisle threw at him.

So, how do we go from witnessing a four-game inferno to making a prediction that feels even hotter? To begin, let’s first identify a few parameters that don’t make the idea look that insane. For starters: the three-point line. It’s become a fluke-inducing game changer—the sort of variable that makes inconceivable events feel possible. And LaVine doesn’t need anybody's help taking advantage.

He has the conscience (or lack thereof), legs, and willingness to pull up from 25 feet seven, eight, nine times per game. He can create his own shot from anywhere on the floor, whenever he wants, and looks faster and stronger than he did before he tore his ACL, with more sway over his own NASA-regulated athleticism. Dribbles aren’t wasted; he’s becoming a carnivore who’s learned not to play with his prey.

Here he takes a stagger screen from Jabari Parker and Robin Lopez, sees a crack in Dwight Powell’s coverage, and jackhammers his way into the paint with a right-to-left crossover. One play later, Chicago ran the exact same action, but this time LaVine rejects the screen (at the very beginning, watch how he tries to confuse Dorian Finney-Smith by pointing at where he wants the pick) and finishes with a dunk. There’s no hesitation.

LaVine has more than enough tools to attack from all three levels, with an ability to separate behind the three-point line, dance in the mid-range, and finish strong at the rim (as he did with his left hand against Joel Embiid in Chicago’s opener). It’s impressive, and, on this roster, will unleash itself beneath a dark cloud of necessary selfishness. If LaVine moves the ball, there’s a slim chance he’ll get it back (especially when Parker is on the floor—the Bulls do not pass!). He’ll also operate in lineups that feature big men who can space the floor. Look how far out Bobby Portis stands in the clip below, trying to drag Ben Simmons away from his help responsibilities. Now picture Lauri Markkanen in the same spot:

There are more outside factors that support LaVine’s chase for a scoring crown: 1) Chicago will rarely, if ever, taste a fourth-quarter blowout in their favor, trotting out defensive units that quickly surrender gobs of points without any resistance, 2) We exist in an era that’s defined by selfless All-Stars who’re happy to sacrifice their own numbers for the chance to team up with other All-Stars, 3) And, again, the three-point line’s incessant takeover of NBA aesthetics. Combine all this with LaVine’s own improvement and it’s easy to see how he’s set up to contend for, if not win, the 2019 scoring title. So many of his buckets will be empty calories, but if he manages to sustain even 80 percent of what’s already on display, LaVine’s contract will become a steal. (His defense hasn’t been awful, either!) Even if it’s due to a flurry of circumstance, he’ll also be the NBA’s top scorer.

Small Sample Size Theatre

Kemba Walker was a breakout topic of conversation during the season’s first week. In five games, he’s averaging an efficient 31 points. And even though an eventual return to Earth is more probable than not, there’s also some reason to believe that we’re witnessing a “late” career leap. Walker probably won’t do what Steph Curry did in 2015, but why can’t his upcoming season mirror the explosion detonated by Isaiah Thomas two years ago?

Right now he’s the league’s fifth-leading scorer, and not to subtweet Dwight Howard, but look at how good Walker was last season when Howard wasn’t on the floor. Those numbers are a dagger, and speak to how much better he can be in small (shout out to Michael Kidd-Gilchrist at the five), spread lineups that also feature big men who can pass on the move. Consider the mind of a defense as it tries to stop him in the pick-and-roll. If the screener’s man drops, well, Walker made 38.1 percent of his pull-up threes last season and through five games is 15-for-38 (that’s both accurate and a ridiculously high volume). If you trap or bring the screener’s man level with the pick, execution is key. Whenever he splits a screen, it’ll make you think about paintings in the MOMA.

And even if you squeeze the ball out of his hands, there’s a good chance your weak-side defense will somehow get punished by an open three. This skip pass was awesome:

In the same vein as Thomas, Walker’s three-point shot forces the defense to remain in code red whenever he has or doesn’t have the ball, but in order for him to sustain his efficiency there must be an aggressive willingness to drive, finish, and draw fouls in the paint. So far he’s averaging about half as many free-throws per game as Thomas did in 2017, with the lowest free-throw rate of his career. If Walker wants to reach that next tier and legitimately find himself in the MVP conversation, obviously Charlotte needs to exceed expectations and bump itself as high as a five or six seed, but also he needs to score efficiently at a high volume against teams that will view slowing him down as steps 1, 2, and 3 to victory.

This Stat Feels Important

The Milwaukee Bucks have scored a lower percentage of their points from the mid-range than every other team in the league, including the Houston Rockets. Right now, they’re at 1.7 percent. Last season, they finished at 13.7 percent, which was ninth-highest in the league.

Given what we know about their new head coach, their old head coach, and the ceiling this roster’s all-around talent has yet to discover about itself, that first stat feels like the moment in any classic horror movie where the babysitter tries to call 911 right when the power goes out. If you aren’t a Bucks fan, you are that babysitter.

Digging a bit deeper into Milwaukee’s offense, we already knew Brook Lopez and Ersan Ilyasova would allow Giannis Antetokounmpo to demolish everything in his path, but it’s jarring how quickly this team has adopted and taken advantage of Budenholzer’s five-out system. Antetokounmpo is having a field day, sure, but it’s easy to overlook just how beneficial an equal-opportunity/mid-decade-Hawks outlook would be for the supplementary pieces, too. There’s more freedom to shoot threes, yes. More importantly, with an open paint, there’s more space to cut, move, dive, and slip for easy layups.

At times, Milwaukee’s half-court offense looks like the Warriors, with split cuts that force defenses to pay attention and communicate all over the floor. The system is a beast unto itself, and taming it while Antetokounmpo breathes fire in your face can’t be fun.

Related: the evolution of Khris Middleton’s shot chart deserves its own thousand-word essay, but for the time being here are the basics. According to Basketball-Reference, the 27-year-old’s career three-point rate heading into this season was .322. Right now it’s .508! In Milwaukee’s first five games last season, Middleton only made three three pointers. This year, he’s already drilled seven against the New York Knicks, five against the Indiana Pacers, and three a piece in the Bucks’ opener in Charlotte, and last night’s win over the Philadelphia 76ers.

With an easy stroke, long arms, and a high release, Middleton should’ve already cemented himself as one of the most feared high-volume deep threats in the NBA. Instead, Budenholzer’s offense was the key to accentuating a more valuable part of his game.

Even though Lopez gets called for a foul, it matters that Milwaukee is actively looking to free Middleton up from downtown by incorporating subtle wrinkles like the off-ball drag screen seen above.

Strictly talking personnel, the range and length that Milwaukee has accumulated over the past few years comes with a futuristic identity. It’s nice to see them finally embrace such a fashionably effective style of play to go along with it.

What The Hell Was That?

Last season, when they were the fastest team in basketball, the New Orleans Pelicans liked to race up the floor and begin a possession with a small-small side pick-and-roll, then have the screener (be it Jrue Holiday, E’Twaun Moore, Ian Clark, or whoever) slip towards the basket. It almost always resulted in a layup.

In New Orleans’s home opener against the Sacramento Kings, the Pelicans got extra tricky. As they appear to get ready for a time-out—watch Anthony Davis slowly walk towards the sideline—Holiday stands on the right wing ready to execute their signature action, then darts backdoor to catch Elfrid Payton’s bounce pass.

Bravo, Pelicans. That’s some next-level duplicity right there.

This Has Nothing To Do With Basketball But…

Erik Spoelstra definitely wore a maroon blazer during a game last week and for that he should be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame tomorrow. That is all.

Character Spotlight (Bonus)

There’s almost something vaudevillian about Vince Carter beginning his 21st season as the starting power forward in Atlanta, the garage-rock band version of an NBA franchise that’s currently in the first stage of an appropriately depressing rebuild. Carter is 41 years old and last Wednesday night he suited up as the second-oldest opening day starter in league history (shout out to The Chief).

To be clear, the Hawks didn’t sign Carter to help them win games. At the start of Atlanta’s win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, it took three minutes for Lloyd Pierce to replace Carter, who was valiantly trying to stay with Kevin Love. But the impact he should have on younger teammates is kind of cool!

“It definitely is [surreal], and he’s gotten a chance a couple times to tell us some stories,” rookie Kevin Huerter told VICE Sports. “I think a couple weeks ago was the anniversary of when he had the dunk in the Olympics over the seven-foot guy, and we watched that as a team during film and he walked us through what he was thinking, so I mean that was a cool moment.”

Huerter had just celebrated his second birthday when Carter committed that memorable murder, but even now it’s awesome to watch him hustle around the court, lopsided score be damned, to do legendary stuff like this:

Carter is more than a motivational speaker, though. He played fourth-quarter minutes in Atlanta’s comeback win against the Dallas Mavericks last night. God bless this man.

The Outlet Pass: The NBA is Back and Zach LaVine is Unstoppable published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/