fangedbats - Tumblr blog

[fangedbats]

Names Used: Alfred Summary

Alfred is known for a very regimented way of speaking. That makes him a good first candidate for a deep dive into how Batfamily characters address each other.

(See the other posts HERE.)

DIRECT REFERENCE (Talking TO the person)

The main pair of terms Alfred uses are ‘Master/Miss [given name]’ and ‘Sir/Miss’.

His usage of ‘Sir/Miss’ is proportional to how close his relationship is with who he’s adressing  - Bruce is ‘Sir’ 69% of the time, while we have no examples of Babs or Cass as ‘Miss.’

His usage of given name is inversely proportional to how close his relationship is with who he’s adressing (and how often he’s using ‘Sir/Miss’) – Babs is ‘Miss/Mistress Barbara’* 67% of the time, but Bruce is ‘Master Bruce’ only 25% of the time.

*Writers don’t always understand proper forms of address. ‘Mistress Barbara’ is just incorrect to use, and ‘Miss Barbara’ isn’t really appropriate for an adult friend of the family.

The only person who gets directly addressed as ‘Mr/Miss [surname]’ is Babs. Which IS proper. ‘Miss Gordon’ is used 17% of the time.

-

Alfred is more likely to use a preferred name over a formal name, with people he’s close to. He uses ‘Master Tim’ 32% of the time, and ‘Master Timothy’ only 13%. ‘Master Dick’ is 24%, while ‘Master Richard’ is 14%. (And ‘Master Richard’ is pretty rare before Dick became the head of the house. Alfred retreated into extra formality after Bruce’s ‘death’, either to emphasize his support of Dick’s new positition, or to hide from his emotions.)

With Bruce’s sons, he varies between ‘Sir’ and “Young Sir.’ This tapers off as they get older.

Jason was always ‘Young Sir’

Damian is ‘Young Sir’ 14% of the time, and ‘Sir’ only 5%

Tim is ‘Young Sir’ only 6% of the time, and ‘Sir’ 19%

Dick is ‘Young Sir’ less than 1% of the time, and ‘Sir’ 46%. (Especially after he becomes head of the house.)

-

Major other forms of address are ‘Lad’, ‘Young Man/Lady’, and ‘Dear Boy/My Dear’. He also addresses multiple kids as ‘Boys.’ There’s a similar distribution to ‘Young Sir’ – the terms taper off as the kids get older.

Bruce is ‘Lad’ 1% of the time

Dick is ‘Lad’, ‘Young Man’, and ‘Dear Boy’ 4% of the time

Tim is ‘Lad’, ‘Young Man’, and one of the ‘Boys’ 10% of the time

Damian is ‘Young Man’, and one of the ‘Boys’ 14% of the time

Cass is ‘My Dear’ 14% of the time

Steph is ‘Young Lady’ 17% of the time

Jason is ‘Lad’ 25% of the time

Damian is the only kid directly given a familial title – Alfred addresses him as ‘Son’ once.

-

He tends to only use given names when his charges are vulnerable. Also, it seems to be vastly more common with Tim. Here, the preferred vs. formal distinction is reversed.

Tim is ‘Timothy’ 13% of the time, and ‘Tim’ only 6%

Dick is ‘Richard’ 6% of the time, and ‘Dick’ less than 2%

Bruce is ‘Bruce’ 2% of the time

-

Alfred only uses codenames when there is no other option, and even then, mostly with the ladies.

Babs and Steph get codenames 17% of the time (Babs is, wonderfully, ‘Miss Oracle’)

Cass gets a codename 14% of the time

Dick is 2%

Bruce is less than 1%

He never directly addresses one of the younger boys by codename (that I’ve found)

-

INDIRECT REFERENCE (Talking ABOUT the person)

When indirectly referring to people, Alfred makes a clear distinction between family and family friends. Both Babs and Steph are referred to as ‘Miss [surname]’ 50% of the time. The only other person who gets this treatment is Bruce, who is ‘Mr. Wayne’ 4%, and ‘Mr. Bruce Wayne’ 1% of the time, when Alfred wants to be especially formal.

(It’s possible that ‘Master Grayson’ (2%) for Dick, and ‘Master Wayne’ (1%) for Bruce, are other examples. That is an appropriate, but old fashioned, way to refer to a child. But I’d need to check the exact issues to make sure.)

-

‘Master/Miss [given name]’ remains most common in most situations. But:

Babs is ‘Miss Gordon’ 50% and ‘Mistress Barbara’ only 37.5% (and that 37.5% is way to much)

Steph is ‘Miss Brown’ 50%, ‘Young Stephanie’ 25%, and ‘Miss Stephanie’ 25%

Jason is ‘Jason’ 29% and ‘Master Jason’ only 24%

For the others, is ranges from 47% for Bruce, to 71% for Dick.

-

Given names are more common in indirect reference than direct. Other than what’s already been mentioned,

Cass is ‘Young Cassandra’ 20% of the time

Damian is ‘Damian’ 15% of the time

Tim is ‘Tim’ 8% and ‘Timothy’ 2% of the time

Bruce is ‘Bruce’ 7%

Dick is ‘Dick’ and ‘Richard’ each 2.4% of the time

-

As a counterpart of the direct address ‘Sir’, Alfred refers to Bruce as ‘(The) Master’ when he isn’t present 15% of the time.

-

Alfred continues to use terms like ‘Lad’, ‘Boy/Girl/Child’, and ‘Young Man/Lady’ when indirectly addressing people (9% to 24% of the time with family). Even Cass is included, though that might have been because she didn’t have a name he could use for a while! Groups of kids are ‘(The) Lads’ or ‘(The) Boys’.

Alfred is slightly more open to familial terms when the person isn’t there. He’s willing to refer to Bruce as ‘My Son’ (1%) and ‘[His/Your/The] Father’ (7%) after he has died. Jason is a ‘Son/Ward’ 5% of the time after HIS death. And Dick gets to be referred to as Bruce’s ‘Ward’ 2% of the time even WITHOUT dying!

-

Full names:

Jason is ‘Jason Todd’ 12% of the time

Tim is ‘Timothy Drake’ 8% of the time

Dick is ‘Dick Grayson’ 5% of the time

Bruce is ‘Bruce Wayne’ 3% of the time

-

Finally, Alfred is quite a bit more comfortable using codenames when talking about people.

Babs is ‘Miss Oracle’ 12.5% of the time

Dick gets a codename 12% of the time

Jason is 7% of the time

Bruce is 3%

Tim is ‘Young Robin’ 4% of the time

[fangedbats]

Mother & Daughter

[fangedbats]

this was originally just supposed to be showing off my Harley design, but then I made it into a whole thing :P

[fangedbats]

This is what I imagine working for Amazon is like

—

Another sketch that got out of hand

[fangedbats]

wahoo finished this in time for superbat week day 5: tired dads!!

[fangedbats]

The batkids would absolutely work together if they had news they needed to tell Bruce but didn’t know how. One of the batkids would put in the group chat that they needed help breacking news to Bruce and everyone would pull out their own story’s so Bruce can’t stress out about whatever it is that needed to be told to him. So like this:

Jason: ugh how do I tell Bruce I’m dating roy and he now has a grandchild.

Steph: Infodump?

Jason agreeing: infodump

Then all the batkids would give Bruce the most random piece of information he has no way of processing till later so he can’t focus on the fact he now has a gay son and a grandchild (gotta love Lian). Everyone would pull out the most random facts like;

Dick: remember when I was 12 and didn’t talk to you for a month and only slept in Alfred’s room? Yea well that’s because my pet hamster you didn’t know about died.

Damian: I first ever killed Someone when I was 2 years old and thew up peanuts on someone who had Anaphylaxis.

Duke: I used to have a red string board about Batman’s identity and I would have been right if it wasn’t for the fact the robins kept changing.

Cass: when I was homeless I broke into ever house in Gotham including Wayne manor.

Tim: *mentions literally anything that happened in yj98*

Babs: my fathers known you were Batman since before I was batgirl.

Steph: my first costume came from the scraps of fabric that my father used to try and make me his sidekick.

Bruce never knows how to prosess any of the information and thus never reacts negatively because there is always at least one piece of information he didn’t know that throws him off.

[fangedbats]

2 red flags in FP1? Oh Baku we’re so back

[fangedbats]

thanks doc!

[fangedbats]

Batman gives each of his Robins a different code to use when they’re in trouble and need immediate extraction. He promises that when they call, he’ll drop everything just to get to them, come hell or high water.

Jason, during his time with the League, shares his code with Damian, to be used “only in the direst of circumstances, when you have exhausted all other options.” He doesn’t know if Bruce will answer, given how fractured their relationship was before he died, but it is better than nothing. Every tool counts when they live such dangerous lives.

Damian uses it exactly once, and Bruce, who still feels the loss of his son like a yawning chasm in his chest, responds to it even though he knows it can’t be Jason because Jason’s dead. What he finds, instead of Jason, is a boy in League garbs, drenched in blood from the tips of his midnight-black hair to his too-small feet, with a face that Bruce sees himself and Talia in, requesting asylum from a grandfather who wishes to possess his body. Bruce doesn’t question how this boy who is so clearly his son knew the code. Talia al Ghul is resourceful and places family above all; the code is not beyond her abilities to discover, and she is not above using Bruce’s desperate love for his dead son to ensure that hers does not meet the same fate.

Bruce takes Damian in, because of course he does, and since Jason is dead he allows Damian to keep using the code. After all, it’s not like Jason is alive to use it, right? If someone uses the code, there’s no one it could be but Damian, right?

The next time the code is used, Bruce traces the location to Gotham even though Damian was supposed to be in Bludhaven visiting Dick. But whatever happened that resulted in Damian being in Gotham can wait, because he has already failed one son and he will not fail another, his son is in trouble and he needs to get to him, he needs to—

What he finds, instead of Damian, is a boy (just eighteen, too young, but also too old, but also he will always be a boy to him) in League garbs, drenched in blood from the tips of his midnight-black hair to his too-large feet (when had he gotten so big), wearing the face of his dead son.

(Who, maybe, just maybe, may no longer be so dead.)

[fangedbats]

i hate the clown episodes of criminal minds so much it’s not even funny

[fangedbats]

felt like drawing them <3 they are so murderous <3

[fangedbats]

Oscar Piastri (Azerbaijan GP - September 12, 2024) 📷 Clive Rose

[fangedbats]

yeehaw, baby!

[fangedbats]

he's so pretty i wanna cry

[fangedbats]

91 hearts

[fangedbats]

is this anything

[fangedbats]

something something she left the tower

been thinking about traffic pearl too much

this was done fast because i have school work to do, so thats why its messy