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I love that Shiva meets Duke and decides that she has another kid now

Genuinely the Shiva-Duke interactions were so good in Outsiders I desperately need more of them. It's funny because she gets invested in him after the panel below, like look at her face:

She's like 'wow this kid is hilarious I'm going to adopt him now'. On a more serious note, I love that she is the alternative to Batman throughout the series, but she's not automatically the worse option just because she's a) not Batman and b) a woman of colour. She represents choice and agency, a choice and agency Bruce cannot give because of his White perspective:

And Duke sides with her immediately (the below panel is actually before Shiva makes her offer):

This is lowkey peak Duke characterisation because he's the person who calls Batman out, who doesn't have a personal stake in Bruce being right. His sense of justice has never been imparted through the Bat symbol, which honestly should mean very little to him. Shiva recognises this. Bruce offers him safety - Shiva offers action. Because she knows, without hesitation, that Duke Thomas will always choose action.

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This is true! Duke is a huge momma's boy, he's a nerd, and he's a sweetheart. During We Are Robin (if i recall correctly) he had moments where he noted that his mom wouldn't be happy with his swearing or some of his grammar choices. He's very kind and tries to be well-mannered, but when pushed to a certain point he won't care about the rules, he's gonna fix the issue he sees or so help him. That meant running away from foster homes to try to find his parents himself when the city wasn't giving him the results he wanted, and it meant joining We Are Robin and leading them through the Robin War when they were being unfairly persecuted by the city. if he doesn't agree with you, he's not listening

The idea that Duke is the super well-behaved and rule-following kid is really funny to me cause like, have you read Robin War? His bit in that book opens with him being arrested for wearing red shoes (long story, just know he was also wearing a red hoodie that apparently wasn't a problem) and he explains step by step to the cop exactly how he plans on escaping before executing that escape perfectly by jumping off a bridge. He fought an armored Jim Gordon, the Court of Owls, and Damian who had been manipulated into joining the Court. Duke managed to talk Damian down while getting his ass kicked and then kinda befriended the kid after. He also has defied Batman several times and was proven to be right. All with a healthy dose of sass.

But also I do like lil rule-following sweetheart Duke so I have a proposal. Duke Thomas who follows the rules he agrees with. Most of the time, he's the sweet little angel in the manor. He's polite, he's well-mannered, he's kind, and he does what he's told. However that's only because everything aligns with what he believes to be the right path. The moment Bruce makes a bad call or order, Duke takes it to 11 and becomes more impossible to order around than Jason. Chaotic Good Duke.

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Do you think Duke Thomas's story could have more fantastical or magical elements?

Something about Duke makes me think, if the genre was different, you would a really awesome wizard that fights injustice and corruption

i think fantastical elements would be cool, but also batman media isn't really the place for that? like i think an elseworlds where duke is a badass wizard flinging around beams of light would be cool as fuck, but duke's circumstances are some of what make him so appealing to me. i really enjoy that We Are Robin is mostly street-level threats and about the day-to-day lives of the regular gothamites and how they navigate a city with vigilantes like the Bats. duke's story was already compelling without anything fantastical--even before he discovered his meta abilities. i think before we layer more things onto him we need to get to a point as a fandom (and even with DC comics themselves) where we can consistently write him and write him WELL. i would like to see more magical elements in terms of Actually defining what his powers are within canon, and also creative uses of them. it doesn't have to be crazy in a Zatanna story way, but if DC could throw us a bone that'd be nice. but i did like this idea so here's a quick sketch i did of duke as a badass wizard

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Every time someone writes a Batfamily fic that completely excludes Duke Thomas a fairy dies by the way.

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pretty sure boops come from the main blog. i have a very strict boop-back policy so if you boop me i'll be booping back from @moonlight22oa 👍🏼 happy halloween :D

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You can spam boop me!

reblog if you let people spam boop you

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why don’t we talk about the fact that young Duke wanted to be a paleontologist. why don’t we talk about that the character descriptions in we are robin describes him as showing “potential as a writer” like!!!!!! so many fun little nuggets of facts I could yell

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Tbh I think Jason TBINKS he knows more about Duke than he does. Does jaosn project onto Duke? Yesh but he does that to everyone. but he does really like him? Yes more than he likes most people tbh.

There was this post floating around about how Jason appreciates Duke's honesty and I really like that take, because both Jason and Duke have strong reasons to value honesty and knowledge.

Jason's death begins with a quest for knowledge (his mother's identity) and ends with a betrayal; it makes sense for him to value people who don't beat around the bush with him, and don't seem as manipulative as his main ties to the Batfam, namely Bruce and Dick. Duke acts as a foil to both of them (Duke mirrors their backstories, but differs in important ways), which I think Jason would appreciate.

As for Duke, besides his light/truth imagery (which includes the symbol on his chest being a mirror), a large part of his story is his frustration at his own ignorance - he didn't know where his parents were, he didn't know what his powers were, he didn't know where they came from, etc. He expresses anger at Dick for deceiving him in Robin War, and confronts Bruce on the possibility that he knew Duke was a meta but didn't tell him; he dislikes dishonesty in general, but particularly when it has something to do with him.

So I think they both appreciate each other's honesty, or more accurately perceived honesty, because neither of them are actually that forthcoming. Idk if Jason projects onto Duke (in "Role Call," they both consistently talk about their differences), but he definitely likes him more than Tim/Damian/Cass. It's harder to pin Duke's opinion on Jason, especially because Bruce has talked about Jason very negatively in front of Duke (and Duke essentially calls him a 'villain' in The Cursed Wheel, though not with any particular heat). But I'd love to see their dynamic fleshed out more!

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batober 22 - home

elaine thomas, the signal

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So many Duke Thomas thoughts and how he views Batman and Robin not as untouchable giants but as symbols of community. His first appearance in canon his family saved Bruce Wayne's life without knowing who he was simply because they were good people. The first time he's in a batman story Batman manages to defeat the Riddler and save the day. The second time they meet his parents get jokerized and Batman promises to do everything he can to save them but while he stops everyone from dying and stops the Joker he vanishes presumed dead with Duke's parents still jokerized. Batman failed and Duke doesn't hold it against him but he does end up forming a community of Robins because Batman is just one man. Duke has seen him win and Duke has seen him lose. He can't be everywhere and save everyone. But they can save each other.

On top of that there's the fact he's introduced at the time where Damian had died. Batman had already failed Robin for the third time, a child he was responsible for dead on his watch, and so when Duke takes up the Robin mantle it's not to do with Batman as a person needing him. It's that Gotham needs all the fighters it can get and Robin is a symbol for that, defiance against all odds. Kill one Robin and five more will join because you cannot outsource the safety of Gotham to a single man no matter how much he talks about standing alone in the darkness. He never was alone and he never will be. Robin will always be there too.

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"swarm" for batober.

duke thomas, the signal

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LJSDKSHDJASDGASJ???????? i do NOT.

i, personally, love to straddle that fine line between “fandom blog” and “record of complete psychological breakdown”

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"Duke and Cass are Bruce's normal angel children." Duke and Cass are two of the three batkids most likely to punch a cop in the face and tell Bruce they'd do it again when he comes to bail them out.

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Something so incredibly funny to me about Duke, who clocks out once the sun sets, having to be present for all hands emergencies in the Batcave in various cartoon-patterned pyjama sets with matching durags. Just standing there (loosely defined as he keeps drooping his head onto Steph's shoulder) while everyone else is suited up and forced to stay in case they need him to join them.

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obsessed with this but duke is not 'faintly' complaining about racial profiling he is saying it so loudly the flash genuinely has a white guilt moment

Duke meeting the JL but it goes wrong.

We've all heard about Jason getting apprehended by the JL because they don't know Red Hood isn't a villain. Now get ready for, Duke Thomas getting apprehended by the JL because they don't believe he's new and they don't believe he's part of the bat clan.

They just see this new vigilante in Gotham who's the only one that works the day shift, has not been seen with the batman in person (that they know of, bc they don't actually have a pair of good eyes in Gotham that isn't Bruce and Bruce ain't telling them shit.) with no history of being a Robin.

They draw their conclusions, realize that this must be a copycat and therefore dangerous towards other and himself and decide to bring him in, because Bruce is of world somewhere.

Duke just lets it happen, faintly complaining about racial profiling while he waits for the rest of the family to break into the watchtower and embarrass the fuck out of the justice league.

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Thank god for Duke Thomas

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Thank god for Duke Thomas