#womens inheritance

[balkanradfem]

I experienced the biggest shift in my feminist consciousness when I stopped seeing women as the 'other' and start seeing us as 'we'. I realized it's not about how the world sees us or how my personality is different or whatever I couldn't relate to in other women; it's what's threatening and disadvantaging all of us. It's we, the women, who are fighting a common enemy and this threat surpasses any differences that we might have between us, it surpasses all my personal squabbles and disagreements, because this is bigger than that.

What happened to women historically are not distant and 'unfortunate' events that have nothing to do with me, they have everything to do with why my life is the way it is right now. M*n burned women, and because of this now we, the women, don't have reasonable or effective healthcare anymore. They didn't burn them in a craze or hysteria, they burned them for studying female illnesses and developing medicine, for keeping women healthy and sane, for benefiting us as a group. It's the reason why I suffer from menstrual pain today and the reason why there's not a ready cure, reason why me and others were not educated on our genitals or our sex-specific illnesses, it's why our health problems are not, and won't be taken seriously.

M*n also burned women for owning land, and during the history, did everything they possibly could to stop women from inheriting, owning and managing land. And it's the reason why I will not be considered to inherit my fathers land, why most of women will not gain land just by having family ties, while males absolutely will, they'll be the first choice to inherit both land and property. It's the reason I will have to fight for the most of my life to acquire a piece of land and not only it will be difficult, but most people will believe that I shouldn't own any. Because they've managed to create a standard where women historically rarely had land, and made this into our normal. They did it to give land to themselves.

The fact that women were barred from colleges and high education in the past is not unrelated to me and my situation today. It's the reason my female ancestors were subjected to poverty and servitude, with no way to free themselves – and by extension, the reason I am still in poverty today. If my female ancestors were from the start, well educated, owning both land and freely managing their health issues, I would inherit not only their knowledge, skills and property, but also the financial security that comes with it. My female ancestors would be able to invest in their children's future, to make sure their female descendants don't have to suffer and fight for food, or a piece of land to exist on. Instead, what they were forced to do was serve a m*n and hope that he would be kind to their children and maybe secure them some more financial safety than they had  - and he didn't. Because m*n save those things for their own class.

The fact that women were banned from their own last names and lineage cuts me off from my history and my heritage. I don't get to draw my female-centered family tree or know what my female ancestors lived through and how they got me here, and if they even did it purposely, or were forced into childbirth without ever having a choice. I don't get to be proud of their achievements, inherit their wisdom or read their life stories. Instead I had to hear about male war escapades and be disgusted that the male lineage was filled with violent offenders.

The fact that women were historically enslaved or trapped in various types of servitude, despite how it was being called, has huge impact on my life today. It's the reason why, from the very start of life, I've been taught that I would be better fit for a role of servitude. That my place is in the kitchen, keeping home, feeding others, cleaning and doing menial tasks that would never be rewarded or paid for. It's why even my reproductive rights have been represented to me as my 'duty to the humankind'. None of that would be happening if women throughout history weren't in a servant/slave class. But, this wasn't only ever true for women, was it?

M*n during history were enslaved too, and yet all m*n are not taught from birth that they would be much very well fitted for a servant role, and to act as a resource for others. They're not told that their only value is to keep house, serve in the kitchen and clean house for others. To sacrifice their reproductive rights for someone else's purposes. That's because our age of servitude never ended. They're still at it, teaching every woman what she is before she even knows there's possibly a choice of freedom. Where they can't enforce us legally, they do it by grooming, by tradition, by violence in our home. We have not been freed from servitude until no female child is ever told that she needs to be a resource, to pick up and clean and cook and please everyone around her. We are still being trapped into belief that we have no choice, that our servitude is normal, expected, and nothing to fight against because they made it a tradition. We still have our female children in servitude before they even understand that what is asked of them is a part of a historical oppression.

Whatever was done to women and girls throughout history affects every bit of my life right now, and what my life would be without it is almost unimaginable for a woman who never experienced living outside of an oppressed class. Our history is not only scarred but then cut away from us, we're being convinced that anything from the past is 'long forgotten' and 'no longer relevant since we can now vote', but it's only done to isolate us from the female class consciousness, to convince us that our life right now, is the best we could ever hope for, and there was never any way for it to be better, for us to have any more power than we do. While they give power to themselves.

We had the right to freedom, healthcare, knowledge, education, land and inheritance, for the entire history. All of it has been cut away and taken from all of us, resulting in us never being able to accumulate any security or safety for our own, not even enough to keep us out of life of poverty and servitude, not even enough to ensure that our children will be safe. And on top of that, we've been 'othered' and isolated from each other, so we cannot even work together on acknowledging what's been taken and how to reach safety. We're turned to self blame, and self loathing for our low status in the population, as if it's personally each of our faults that we couldn't overthrow the oppression or thrive in a hostile society.

Women are not the 'other'. M*n are. We the women are robbed of our property, inheritance, resources and right by m*n, systematically and consistently. It's affecting each and every one of our lives. It's why we can't care for our children, why we get turned away from our doctors, why each of us has to heal their own organs, why our mothers and grandmothers can only give us horror stories of survival and tell us we should make peace with a life of servitude, for they've never seen a woman survive any other way. It's why we had and still have to rely on m*n for housing and survival, even though there would be absolutely no need for this had they not robbed us of our half of the land. It's why developing class consciousness is necessary, we cannot recognize or fight this while we're othered from each other.

[ministarfruit]

day 12: karma ♡

(femslashfeb prompt list)

[mourningmaybells]

i realize why it happens, but its funny how culture's gone with "people were so much more romantic and refined during jane austen's era" and then you watch or read the books and it's very much a critique whatever fucked up system they had in place even if it's in a romcom or satirical format and it doesn't quite push towards revolutionary changes the way we can now but still. girl your rights.

[obbsessedfan]

List Your Top Five Favorite Books or Series and Tag Five People!

The Inheritance Games (First is Hawthorne Legacy)

Little Women

Throne of Glass (Queen of Shadows then Heir of Fire)

Harry Potter (Any)

Hunger Games (The first one’s the best)

Absolutely no pressure 🩵💙: @bookish-swiftie13 @1look-at-how-my-tears-ricochet1 @saturntonads @novas2cool4u @herondalesbooklover

[jackdaw-and-hattrick]

Big fan of Tall and Lean Danny combined with even Taller Amazon Jazz. Just this 6’7” twunk being teased by his 6’11” buff sister about how tiny he is compared to her and their 7’3” dad.

[lunamond]

Rhaenyra‘s sons‘ illegitamcy is actually such a fascinating topic to discuss. Because on one side, yes, she should be allowed to have children with the partner of her chosing. But on the other side, the way she handles the situation, she manages to upset almost every cultural norm surrounding this issue, further alienating potential allies.

According to the social and cultural norms of their world, Rhaenyra and her sons are being valued as lesser for the circumstances of their birth. This a result of westerosi male primogeniture, which has to police woman sexuality in order to ensure that wealth and power get passed through the male family line.

Bastards born from the affairs of male lords are tolerated because they do not endanger the system of power, while male bastards especially are still marginalised (as seen with Jon) the father isn‘t subjected to any form of social scorn.

On the flip side, a noblewoman fathering a bastard is a direct threat to the system of male primogeniture. A woman will always know her biological children by the simple fact that she gave birth to them.

Men, however, don’t have this certainty. To ensure that their heirs are their own biological offspring they need complete insurence that their wives are soley sexually active with them, hence the policing of female sexuality and the obsession with female virginity.

This tactic is obviously not foolproof. A clever wife might still manage to have a secret affair and pass off another man‘s child as her husband's. This anxiety and continued incertainty is reflected in the social censure woman receive for acting as sexual beings and the severe social and legal punishment a wife who has been judged as unfaithful can face.

What makes Rhaenyra‘s position unique, however, is the fact that she is Viserys‘ heir.

So if the crown is to pass down from Viserys to Rheanyra and through her to her own heirs, why does Jace‘s legitamacy even factor into all this? Some people in the fandom make that argument: If Rheanyra inherits in her own right, why does it matter who fathers her children?

The problem with this is that even the Lords can‘t declare their bastard heir without expressed permission from the king. So, firstly Rhaenyra would need to publicly aknowledge her sons as ilegitamte for Viserys to legitamise them.

Secondly, even if inheritance in the male linegage is important, marriages in Westeros are still utilised to forge political and economical ties. Any Lord, who wants to make their bastard heir instead of the children born by his legal wife, will at best destroy any goodwill given by her family or at worst start a generations long feud.

Rhaenyra‘s position isn't as simple as a mere reversal of the genders. She can't just take the role of the Lord, she is still a woman and society will continue to treat her as such. Laenor is still bringing his own inheritance of Driftmark to ther union, separate from any claims Rhaenyra holds.

While she is lucky enough not to lose the Velaryons as her allies, it does lead to tensions surrounding the succession of Driftmark.

Another argument then is, if Laenor and Corlys aknowledge Jace, Luce and Joffery as Velaryon their blood shouldn‘t matter.

However, that is also not how westerosi society works. Because to them, blood does matter. Laenor and Corlys can claim them as Velaryon as much as they want. But as Varys puts it: „Power resides where men believe it to reside“, and as long as the westerosi people believe that blood lines are vital to the right to rule, the boys‘ right to Driftmark will continue to be questioned. Family names and blood lines are super important (and not just socially, considering how many magic blood lines exist in this world).

And to me it seems pretty clear that Corlys is aware of this fact as well, because he never publicly anounces that their blood doesn‘t matter, in fact he claims them to be Velaryon as Laenor‘s sons.

And this is ultimately the issue at heart of all the vitrol thrown at Rhaenyra. The reason she faces so much push back isn’t just because she had bastards but specifcally because she tries to pass them off as legitemate. With this she triggers the deeply ingrained social anxiety about women duping their husband and disrupting the blood line with their own kuckucks child.

It doesn‘t truely matter that her position is slightly different, because for one Westeros is deeply misogynistic. Even as a female heir she is still subject to the misogynistic standards put on women, because no matter her personal circumstances, their society is still built to cater to male power.

But even more damming is the fact that she ends up proving all these fears true, because she does take Driftmark away from a true Velaryon heir and gives it to Luce.

I think it is really fascinating (in a very concerning way), how some fans are so ready to take these societal rules as hard facts. Instead of thinking how they might reflect on inherently flawed systems of power.

As viewers we should be capable to recognize that these cultural norms are wrong. Jace, Luce and Joffery might be bastards but this doesn't devalue them as human beings. Nor does it impact their capabilites as future rulers. Nor does Rhaenyra‘s gender impact her‘s. There is nothing that make a trueborn man more worthy of ruling than a bastard or a woman.

But important to remember is also that Rhaenyra isn‘t going to make a better ruler soley on the virtue of being the firstborn or chosen by Viserys. Nor are her sons going to make better heirs because they are her children.

[lovesickeros]

☆ the dove

{☆} characters tsaritsa {☆} notes cult au, imposter au, drabble, gender neutral reader {☆} warnings violence, blood {☆} word count 0.7k

Her hands are weapons, forged in a tragedy as much as a war of ash and blood that seeps into the earth and rots it from within. To them, however, she is salvation. Her hands are a kindness, not a threat. She sees it in their puffy, red eyes just brimming with tears, their fragile body so delicate and weak is still remains marred by wounds new and old – the gold still stains their skin, even long after it had been washed away.

She has seen it all – and she takes the injured dove beneath her wing with the sickly sweet promise that someday she shall mend its broken wings and teach it to fly again.

And in their stupor, they do not see her clip their wings.

It is for the best.

The wolves still salivate below the nest, waiting for her little dove to fall again – no, she shall not send her little bird to fly when it will just fall into their waiting maws once again.

This..this one is hers, she has decided.

Her little bird who dreams of the sky and the woman who clips their wings..what a tragic pair they must make, she thinks.

Not for her, of course. Yet not to them, either, unaware of the way she grounds them and keeps the key to their cage tightly in her fist.

"Tsaritsa?" The soft, meek lilt of the little bird draws her from her reverie, and she smiles – all teeth and little else, wolfish and predatory.

Yet the bird sees nothing but love in the sharp points of her canines.

As it was meant to be.

"Yes, little bird?"

She coos in honeyed tones, brushing her cold, cold hands against their skin, reveling in the way they shiver and shake beneath the ever present chill in her very bones. They do not fear the claws that ghost across their skin, and the smile they offer that illuminates their eyes like stars only proves her right – she wants to devour them whole. To see the stars in their eyes burn out beneath her teeth, their golden blood burn upon her tongue and down her throat.

"You promised to take me to the gardens today, remember?"

Her pearly, sharpened fangs peer out beneath her lips as she grins wider, unnerving to all but the little bird who sees not the wolf but the wool it wears, her hands finding their place upon their shoulders as she whispers into their ear.

She will guide her little bird where they cannot go, where their clipped wings cannot take them.

She will give them that bittersweet taste of freedom and then watch them try to catch the stars..

Just to drag them back down to earth where they belong.

"Of course, Creator – I am a woman of my word, am I not?"

Such sickly sweet lies come to her with ease – she lies and she lies and they do not see past the woolen cloak of the wolf until its jaw has snapped around its throat and its blood has painted the world a shimmering gold.

She will delight in that, too.

"If I may be so bold, Creator, you have been distant lately..have you grown tired of me already?"

Her words were as sharp as a blade, yet as dull as a rock, as sweet as they were dangerous. Like watching a mouse trap luring in its prey, she would snap it shut as soon as the little bird strayed too close.

"No! No, that's not..you've just been busy lately, I didn't want to intrude."

They remind her so much of a rabbit in those moments, and she so badly wants to know what would happen if she just took a small, insignificant bite..yet she restrains herself with a far too wide smile, her jaw clenched so hard she almost thinks they will hear it creak.

"Intrude? You could ever hardly intrude, Creator – what is mine is yours. Though, perhaps I shall have to lock you in my room to ensure you compensate me for depriving me of your presence."

In just a few short words, she snares the rabbit – her little bird, her Creator. They will see nothing but the sickly sweet lure of her smile, letting out a pretty laugh of their own as they press closer, like a bird wandering into the open maw of the beast lying in wait.

"As long as it has a nice view, I suppose I won't mind."

They jest, but she does not. And oh, how easy it is to ensnare an unsuspecting prey.

"Of course, Creator – just for you."

It won't be long until her little bird returns to its gilded cage, now. Permanently.

It is better that way.

[thecatsaesthetics]

Rhysand hater: he does nothing for Illyrian women.

Meanwhile canon Rhysand:

[fromtheseventhhell]

Saying that non-conforming female characters don't face as much misogyny as their "feminine" counterparts is so funny cause literally the misogyny in their treatment is more overt because they aren't staying "in their place" like men think they should. The disdain for women + misogynistic societal ideals are so much more blatant in male characters interacting with these women. Countless times they are, in essence, told they need to sit down, shut up, and know their place but somehow that translates into them having "masculine privilege". I can only assume that people with this take haven't actually read the books and only get their information from second-hand sources.

[angelnumber27]

Y’all omg

I just randomly mentioned I wanted to have a weapon by my bed just in case and dad went to grab a baseball bat and couldn’t find it and out of nowhere I said “I really want a sword.” and he goes “there’s a sword around here somewhere” and hands me THIS

I feel so powerful

[camestela]

i used to want to be a man so bad growing up but now i cannot imagine not being a woman i feel so blessed to be a girl i love me and all the women i know.

[pookiebearnancy]

Grayson Hawthorne is just a mix of Amy and Jo March be fr.

[alagaesia-headcanons]

There's something inherently ugly about how you ship Murtagh with Orrin. It's one thing to not like the main ship for a beloved character as set up by the author - valid - but it's another to push half of said ship away to force in your fave pasty white boy. You can write meta after meta after meta all you want about how poor Orrin is done dirty, or how that meanie Nasuada hurt him, or how the books don't put your fave background character on a pedestal, but all your writing amounts to is the fact that you've imprinted on Orrin and are now using him as a vessel for your original character. In your writing, he's not a character from the series anymore - he's your OC wearing Orrin's face and bearing Orrin's name. Which, it isn't bad to expand upon a sidelines character. But it's the way you turn around and spew how fandom fave Murtagh is in love with your OC that really shows the truth and the rot festering in you. You can cry and bemoan the romantic love Paolini has written between Murtagh and Nasuada, but your essay won't amount to jack shit if you're just going to turn around and replace Nasuada with your OC and suddenly sing it's praise.

Before you start decrying all of this, ask yourself: why are you so desperate to discredit canon's romance? It's one thing to think they should both remain single after the trauma they experienced throughout the series - fair take. But then why are you so eager to prop up your own ship? Is "Orrin" inherently more worthy of of Murtagh's love? Or is Nasuada simply not worthy, but instead in the way, in your eyes? You can wish all you want for people to love your writing, but that doesn't hide the rotten foundation of your ship: sidelining Nasuada to uplift your white fave and wanting him to have all that she does. No amount of rambling meta about how they're a "good ship" and they would work will ever cover up your inherent biases and -ism's that your poor sad white boy's ship is built upon.

For the love of god.

Anon, let me just say this to you directly- block me. It's that easy. Sending something like this instead is an embarrassment. But since you've already said your piece, I'll go ahead and say mine.

Let me first bring up what you oddly wouldn't directly accuse me of (maybe even you knew what a blatant straw man it is), that being racism. I'm not going to make light of this. Racism in fandom is a real issue, and separating a ship with a character of color to ship white characters can be a symptom of that. I have never turned a blind eye to this and I make a continual effort to remain conscious of it because it's incredibly important to me that I'm not contributing to this kind of prejudice in fandom.

This pairing started years ago when I thought of a crack ship polycule with all three of them. Over time as I considered that, the idea of shipping Murtagh and Orrin developed into a distinct concept which I found more intriguing than shipping Murtagh and Nasuada. At that point, I made an active decision to examine my interest and determine if it was grounded in the way canon presents the individual qualities and dynamics of these specific characters, independent of the broad groups any of them fall into, or if it lacked any such basis in canon and only stemmed from an unconscious bias of mine. And if I didn't find any substantial elements of canon that supported the idea, I intended to put it away and work through my bias.

So I looked, and I found I could fully explain the reasons the ship appealed to me through the details in the books. I never made some public announcement about taking this issue into full consideration because it shouldn't be performative. Holding myself accountable is a basic personal responsibility which I take seriously, not something to make me look better. But it’s always felt meaningful to simply convey that I care about putting thought and reason into my ideas and my preference for my ship isn’t baseless. I’ve done that, but it seems I should be more direct here.

So let me lay out my thought process. Why am I not interested in shipping Murtagh and Nasuada? The things that deter me personally are both emotional and logistical issues. The major emotional issue to me is how disparate their priorities are. Murtagh prioritizes protecting loved ones, which causes issues when he accepts and complies with awful acts while trying to defend them. Nasuada prioritizes the good of her cause, which causes issues when she dismisses another person’s wellbeing when it’s in the way of her goals. Murtagh’s character arc is about learning the best thing he can do for his loved ones might be accepting their willingness to make sacrifices, suggesting he becomes aware of his issue and would try to correct that going forward. However, Nasuada still doesn’t seem aware of her issue after the war, given her policy about magicians and her minimal concern for Roran, so that still presents an underlying problem that would badly exacerbate their serious trauma until it’s addressed.

None of that is a moral judgment on anything. Both of them could cause any number of other issues; it’s just stating where they stand. And I still think they could be written in a way that stays true to their characters while working through those issues so that they stay together. I think it’d be exceptionally challenging, and it still might not be to my own taste, but it has that potential. But there are also logistical issues. Nasuada is queen in Uru’baen. I genuinely feel like this is so meaningful to her character, a very fitting culmination of her aspirations, and if she were to take substantial spans away from her throne, it would be a disservice to how she was written. That said, with the way I characterize Murtagh, I really don’t feel that he would want to openly settle in a place defined by politics and power struggles. I feel like it would be very unfulfilling for him and Thorn, especially in the city of his tumultuous childhood and their tortuous enslavement. So given the dissatisfaction if Nasuada left the rule she wants and deserves and the discontent of Murtagh living in Uru’baen, I struggle to imagine them as more than a distant, intermittent relation.

So that’s why I personally don’t enjoy shipping them. Of course, it’s subjective, but I feel like it’s also fair, and you seem to suggest that you do too. So let’s move on. So now the question is if a potential relationship with Orrin would present the same or equivalent issues that I overlook just because he's a white man.

Naturally, this is subjective too, but I say no. Of course there are still possible emotional issues between them (if there were none it’d be boring), but they’re different. Given the way specific way Orrin grieves for his friends and struggles to have faith in their cause when he sees the risk of his people being killed, I believe he is also more focused on looking after individuals than pursuing a cause. I feel like that lays a smoother groundwork with Murtagh, who has been hurt by people who dismissed his wellbeing, and that reduces a lot of underlying pain between them. Orrin’s other struggles, like defeatism, fear, and hopelessness, as well as yearning for recognition and autonomy, align with Murtagh’s experience more in a way that makes their emotional issues more interesting to engage with.

With logistical issues, obviously Orrin is also a king. But I don’t find that presents the same issues either. I interpret that Orrin didn’t want to be king and isn’t content in that role. When the matter of Murtagh’s desire to avoid being openly tied to Surda’s seat of power arises, I find a much more interesting and balanced potential story where Orrin also hopes to leave his crown and they support each other in their search for a home that they can both make their own. The discrepancies I personally find so bothersome between Murtagh and Nasuada don’t come up with Murtagh and Orrin, so I enjoy their ship more. It’s just about my interpretation of compatibility. That is the crux of my thought process. No one has to agree with it, but I believe it stands as a fair assessment.

You insist that I ask myself why I prefer one ship over another. I've done that. I've already been doing that the entire time and will continue to do so. You keep whining that I make a lot of meta analysis about aspects of the characters and how I feel like they would or wouldn't mesh together, and yeah. That's the whole fucking point. In the same way I just did, those posts explore and articulate the concrete reasons one ship appeals to me and one doesn't. For years I've diligently asked myself why I'm drawn to Murtagh/Orrin more than Murtagh/Nasuada and I'm fully secure and confident in my answer that it's the emotional and narrative possibilities they have that appeal to me more. If I was given all the details of these characters, stripped of any names, descriptions, genders, ect. I know I would still really love this ship.

And that's not even to say that it's somehow "better" (it's just different in a way that suits my taste), or that Murtagh and Nasuada's relationship must be meaningless or non-existent if it's not romantic. In my story where I ship him and Orrin, he and Nasuada go through struggles, but as they grow, they're able to reconcile and learn to better support each other and their relationship ends in a much better place.

(Also, if you're talking about my “essay” that Murtagh's true name doesn't change because he fell for Nasuada, that's irrelevant to shipping them. The series could end with them getting married and they could be my all time otp, and it'd still be true that falling in love didn't change his true name. It's just a separate part of his character arc.)

For another thing, Murtagh and Nasuada are NOT a canon ship, and that does matter. For example, it has very different implications to change an interracial ship that is happily married in canon. In the IC, it is canon that they're attracted to each other, but nothing beyond that. (And I've never even discredited that! In fact, I've said their attraction is well written and in character. It's included in my story; I didn't overwrite it.) They're never in a relationship and there's no set up that implies romance is inevitable for their stories. You yourself acknowledge that there are very valid reasons to interpret that a romantic relationship wouldn't work between them!!! So if it's fine to not ship Murtagh and Nasuada as a couple, why is it suddenly heinous to imagine Murtagh with someone else?

It’s not. Your claims are far more baseless and distasteful. Why do you act like Nasuada couldn’t possibly be respected or worthy without Murtagh’s affection? Why do you act like pointing out her mistakes condemns her entirely, as if she’s not allowed to have any flaws? Why do you think a relationship with Murtagh is equivalent to all that Nasuada has? I won’t make your kind of moral accusations about a stranger, but I will simply say that I find that very objectionable. I love Nasuada for being such a unique, flawed, and fascinating character who is so much more than all that. And if you made such a volatile, deplorable, inappropriate response simply to the idea that Murtagh- a fictional character- could love someone else, you might need to take a step back. You’re being cruel.

(Also, I don’t feel like going through the whole “u just made orrin into an oc” shit tbh. This is long enough. I take care to draw my characterization from canon, but y’all can read my stuff and decide for yourself if you’d like. Although, saying I imprinted on him is the funniest part of this ludicrous message. You know what, yeah. I’ve tricked you all. You thought this blog was being run by a human being? WRONG. Baby duckling.)

[redstreetsahead]

How obvious do you think it would be to bruce? Because even if they're not a couple Damian's treating raven like a partner, I imagine they'd expect the other be treated with respect, ect. Plus he's get updates from dick. It's be enough to realise that this is serious I think.

Well first of all, you are so right obviously Bruce and Alfred facetime Dick every week to talk about any updates with the relationship. Sometimes Kory pops on to complain about how Raven is also completely transparent with her feelings, the two of them simply aren't able to confess. The four of them shake their heads at the teens, knowing that they would never do anything like that (neighbor has openly hit on Alfred and man didn't think she was into him, Bruce has fumbled the bag with Catwoman too many times to count, Dick and Kory's first interaction was literally making out and it took them years to confess their feelings)

It's completely obvious to Bruce. When Damian visits Gotham, his stories about the Titans are usually Raven centered. He'll give his thoughts on the book she's reading, wonder if Bruce has any new ideas about fixing the Trigon-sized problem in her head, and discuss her progress in her training.

Of course, Bruce is skeptical as to the extent of these feelings at first. After all, Talia might have loved him, but that didn't stop her from doing everything she did. But the more he hears about the small things Damian does for Raven (carrying her to bed after she fell asleep on the tower (Dick was stalking them), making sure her favorite tea is always ready before she wakes up, practicing meditation just so he can spend time with her), he realizes just how deep Damian's feelings run.

He is slightly unsure of Raven's feelings, and after mentioning this to Alfred once, Alfred decides (without consulting Bruce, Damian, or any other member of the bat family) to extend an invitation to Ms. Roth to join the Wayne household for dinner.

After that dinner Bruce is 100% certain of their feelings for each other. Alfred starts a wedding binder.

[bookguide]

“I want to do something splendid… something heroic or wonderful that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead… I think I shall write books.”

— Louisa May Alcott, The Inheritance

[rosietrace]

Live laugh love Alisa Ortega and Thea Calligaris 💓💕