manicmouse

[manicmouse]

Thinking about Cass being shunted off to Hong Kong and having all sorts of feelings about it again.

I think Gates of Gotham is the only series (besides bits of Red Robin) to even touch on how Cass reacts to it.

Gates of Gotham #1

When Dick tells her he didn't know she was back, Cass responds "I'm not". This is mostly referring to the fact she's back for a mission, but it also sheds light on how she's feeling. She doesn't belong in Gotham anymore, not the way she used to. In Red Robin #17, we see she was fighting without a Bat symbol, until Tim gives it back. Bruce sending her to Hong Kong wasn't just a geographical distancing, but an ideological one as well (whether he intended it or not). Cass understood him sending her away as a rebuke of her right to the Bat mantle.

Gates of Gotham #2

How does Cass feel about being 'relegated to Hong Kong'? She sidesteps Damian's comment here (mostly 'cause she knows not to engage), but her silence indicates it's not an easy answer. I wonder if there is some resentment/negative feelings towards Bruce.

Gates of Gotham #4

This exchange is so interesting if you look at it through Cass' perspective. Dick is grappling with his insecurities about not being a good enough Batman, and says "if you don't belong [in Gotham], she'll never keep you." Dick and Cass both don't come from Gotham - his comment unintentionally reflects on Cass' ability to be Batman as well. And given that Cass just returned from Hong Kong, it makes her feel even more like an outsider.

So her response - "you're[...] wrong.[...] It's not about the city. It's about how you choose to see the world. Everything else is just an excuse" - is not only addressing Dick's problems, but also her own. Her whole story is about choice and agency, and here she's making it clear: upholding the Bat mantle is their choice. No one can take it from them, not the opinions of Gotham citizens, not their own insecurities, not even Bruce himself.

Gates of Gotham #5

Cass asserts her desire to stay in Gotham (a decision tragically followed by the New 52, but I'll ignore that for now). Where Dick's arc ends with him telling Bruce he can be Batman, Cass doesn't interact with Bruce at all - her right to the Bat mantle no longer requires a Bruce stamp of approval. It shows the difference in Dick and Cass' approaches to Batman (Cass' loyalty is to the symbol, Dick's loyalty is to the man), but also highlights Cass' growth. She chooses to stay in Gotham because she wants to, not because of anyone else.

I'm not actually sure if her feelings on going to HK are elaborated elsewhere, so if anyone has more info please let me know!!! But I think it's very interesting that her first entry into Gotham is in defiance of David Cain, and her re-entry into Gotham is, in this interpretation, in defiance of Bruce.

[manicmouse]

TIMKON AND STEPHCASS SUPREMACY

[manicmouse]

No. 1 batman fan

Batman haters fear him

[manicmouse]

Young Justice (1998) #7

[manicmouse]

I forgot the canon reason as to why the Joker won't die or stay dead but may I propose: Metahuman Joker! Who can transfer his consciousness to another body. That's how he keeps living by basically being captain Ginyu lmao.

Imo this is why Batman won't kill him or let anyone else do it cause then they'd just have to find the new one, so it's easier to just imprison the current host 🤔

[manicmouse]

Ozai is so pathetic, like that “take his bending away haha he’s harmless now” trick would never have worked on Zuko, if you took his bending away he’d just grab his swords and come at you twice as hard, Azula doesn’t have swords or anything but she’s pretty good at hand to hand and amazing at talking her way out of problems, Iroh bust himself out of prison with no bending at all, meanwhile Ozai? Gets his bending taken away and then just collapses, doesn’t even try anymore, then just sits in prison and tries to get into Zuko’s head some more, he could have trained up and tried to break out too! But no! Bet he can’t break steel bars with his bare hands. Bet he can’t kick a steel lever in two. Bet he can’t even do a flip.

Also we never really see him do any really impressive firebending apart from when he has magic comet power, I guesss he shoots some lightning at Zuko, but that’s it and Azula is still better at the lightning thing. Azula has blue flames. Zuko can do firebreakdancing and bend with his swords. Does Ozai, who is not 14 years old, have blue flames? No he doesn’t.

He didn’t even do his coup himself, Ursa had to kill Azulon for him! Could have just challenged Iroh to an Agni Kai for the throne but he didn’t bc he knew he’d lose.

And then he only ruled for like 6 years! He lost a war that had been going on for 100 years bc of a bunch of kids.

Loserlord indeed

[manicmouse]

I have a crack au idea. Robin Cass au but Tim is the mastermind trying to match make a homeless teen he found with Batman.

The only problem I have with Tim Playing Matchmaker AUs is that the more I think about 13 year old Tim, the less I believe that he has the people skills and social awareness to consider that idea.

Like, what we see in Lonely Place is a kid who's so used to being invisible that he doesn't consider that a detective might want to know his name. He struggles with adapting his plans when Dick doesn't immediately agree to be Robin, and Alfred has to do a LOT of dusting the Case and making meaningful comments for Tim to twig in.

Basically, what this makes me think of is an AU where Bruce is distracted from his self-destructive spiral by the two most unintentionally creepy kids he's ever met. They are trying to convince him he needs another Robin. He THINKS they're threatening him in a variety of creative and unexpected ways. He has to put so much thought into predicting their next moves that he's forced to gain perspective again. He falls in love with them while he still thinks they're trying to bring about his downfall.

Cass has now adopted Tim. He is very confused.

Bruce is trying to adopt these baby criminals. They are very confused.

Bruce thinks that Cass is trying to frighten him by being the ghost of Robin's past. Tim thinks he's designed an accurate and appealing Robin costume. Cass thinks her Batman costume has too many colours, but her new friend is trying.

They are all VERY confused.

[manicmouse]

Tim Drake🔄Mask OFF • Work Illust

[manicmouse]

You know what I think about from time to time?

Stephanie Brown and Talia Al Gul

Like that entire plot point was completely dropped in Dceased. Wasn't even a footnote in 'War of the undead gods' (if I'm remembering the mini series correctly.) I think a lot more could've been done. Talk about wasted potential 😕

Adding this part for context but also because this was really sweet. I sobbed through most of it 🥲 like this was so heartbreaking.

But back to the point, this. I also wonder what she originally thought of Steph lol. I really liked their interactions with each other little as there was of it. Their personalities work quite well with each other but-

Then she died :(

Had to add these because wow and I like when they acknowledge each other as family 🥲

And we were left with this:

And it never came back up 😔💔 I would've loved to see their new dynamic when the new JL came back for 'Dead planet'. Can you imagine what they would have been like? Like I don't know if it was begrudging respect that made Talia decide to use a one time only Lazarus pit for Stephanie or if it was because she didn't want her son to lose any more family. Either way they would've played nicely against each other had it not been forgotten about 💀

Rip what could've been

[manicmouse]

Batcourt

Tim is sick of his family fighting, an occurrence which doesn’t always but enough times has nearly led to murder, that he devises a new method to deal with them and their petty (or serious, but usually petty) arguments: Batcourt

The first ever batcourt trial was to mediate an argument between Dick and Bruce, bc when Tim became Robin they were on the outs; Dick had moved out and was rebelling against his dad. They barely talked to each other, and when they did it was to argue.

Tim, being in the middle of all that, finally snaps and basically strong arms them into a impromptu “court session”, bc if they can’t be civil with each other in conversation they maybe they can at least be professional in this Thought Exercise.

He appoints Alfred as the unbiased jury, and then demands that both Bruce and Dick take five minutes to compile their cases against each other to present to the judge (Tim).

Both Bruce and Dick are incredibly unamused, but Tim has Alfred’s support, so they reluctantly go along with the charade. And…

It’s actually surprisingly effective.

The argument is hashed out without anyone coming to blows or a screaming match. They are all very mature about it and the argument is settled with both parties, if not happy, then mollified that they actually got to speak their parts and come to a conclusion that wasn’t unfair.

Alfred is very pleased with the results of the first batcourt trial, and give his blessing for this method to be used in the future.

And so it is. Tim is typically the Judge, as he is the mastermind behind the method and typically stays out of all arguments as much as he can, and is known to everyone to be extremely impartial when the others argue about anything. So 9 times out of 10, Tim’s judge, and uses a generating software program he developed and installed on his gauntlet (and civvy watch) to choose a jury to preside over a trial when one of the family members opens a case against someone else.

This eventually becomes just how the family resolves disputes.

If an argument comes forth and is starting to get too heated, whoever declares that they’d ‘like to submit a case to the batcourt’ is by default the prosecution, leaving the other party as defendant (these are just terms, this isn’t actually a court of law, this is just a method of resolving arguments, so both sides are heard). At this point, everyone usually turns to Tim, who appoints a jury and then tells the pros and def that they have five minute to compile and submit their evidence to the court.

It’s all very official, and the Rules of Batcourt is that everyone has to remain absolutely professional as if this were a real court case. This is to ensure nobody breaks the exercise, otherwise it won’t work.

Anyway it’s VERY effective, and is used for years in private.

Until a pair of them have an argument in the middle of an op in public and it’s getting in the way of taking out the villain…. So someone declares that they’d like to submit a case to the batcourt.

Of course any non-bat present is like “the what”

But all the bats present, being so used to using the batcourt method to hash out disagreements, automatically turn to Tim (in the insert fanfic I was daydreaming this up for, he isn’t Robin but called Shrike, but O digress).

Anyway, Tim, by habit, immediately runs the jury program and appoints Spoiler and Black Bat as jury (the argument was between Red Hood and Nightwing, with Red Hood submitting the case and therefore the prosecution).

The rogue they were fighting (let’s choose a nicer one, Riddler maybe) is so confused at this point that they kind of stop in the middle of their scheme just to watch the the fuck is going on.

The bystander civilians and any reporters are also like “???” And so basically they all get to watch the first ever public batcourt trial.

(The jury ends up voting in favor of Red Hood, so Tim declares that Nightwing is Guilty “by the power vested in my by the Batclan” and Nightwing is sentenced to Apologizing to Red Hood - since the argument started because Nightwing wouldn’t get the fuck out of RH’s way and he kept almost shooting him lmao, it just went downhill from there. Brothers amirite.)

Anyway the video goes viral immediately, the Gotham internet going insane over the concept of how the vigilantes apparently resolve their arguments.

The riddler is so fascinated by what he just witnessed that he just accepts being taken back to jail for the meantime to mull things over (I love Eddie)

Now that the bat is out of the bag (lol), so to speak, the Batclan submits cases to batcourt in public a few more times without thinking, and the public is very excited every time. Every case and verdict shows up in the next day’s paper, and it’s a Gotham Highlight. People love it.

And then it escapes containment. Because one day a rogue loudly declares that they would like to submit a case to the batcourt. Against Batman.

The present Batclan members all look at each other, and then to Tim, who is already running the jury appointment program without even thinking. It ends up choosing Riddler (who was also there) along with two civilians and a bat (Robin).

Tim blinks, then shrugs, and lets it happen.

So starts the Batcourt trial of the decade: Batman V Poison Ivy.

And Batman loses.

Ivy still goes to jail afterwards, being a criminal and all, but she does so victoriously. She has mad street cred after this. The public goes WILD.

Anyway what I am saying is that batcourt is a highly respected court of dispute in Gotham. The majority of trials are conducted between Batclan members, but there are rogues who have won (and lost) trials in batcourt, and even one very infamous instant where the GCPD submitted a case against Red Hood and subsequently lost when the mostly civilian jury declared him Innocent.

The police force having to then apologize to Red Hood made headlines so big that they broke Gotham City containment and made it into the outside world.

Which leads to the next famous batcourt case: Superman V Batman.

I have been thinking about this concept for weeks and it’s definitely going to be a running gag in all my batfam fics forever

Also we get to have this fun interaction

“Batcourt is now in session”

Batman: please don’t call it that

Tim: ahem

Batman, sighing: objection

Every single one of his kids, pointing at him like in ace attorney: overruled

[manicmouse]

more birdlike red robin tim. i wanted him to have claws because bird motif needs more umph in this one and the cowl is good and they underutilized it ??? like so hard? wheres his beak and his hornlike feathers or whatever. this is what the people want!! i kept his heels because that serves cunt tho and im a big sucker for red robin wearing lil boots with a heel

[manicmouse]

This is stupid, I spent too long on this lmao

[manicmouse]

A idea- bats mostly Dick and Tim

I feel like all the bats are so used to serious life and death situations that they zone out sometimes (mostly during villains evil monologues)

Dick is going through a whole panic life and death moment then thinks about something silly like omg I'm going to di-wait did I turn off the oven?....yes I did. Did I text Tim to get batburger...yes I did, oh then everything fine!

.....

Dick: OH Shit! I forgot to pick up Damian!

Que Damian sitting at an empty school with a frown.

Damian: curse you Grayson....

------

Tim hanging upside down about to drop into acid, oh man this sucks imagine dying from acid such a lame way to go. I already have my will so I should be fine- wait....

Tim: shoot! Hey can you kill me in a few minutes later I just remembered that I forgot to burn my old notebooks!

Kon: bro your about to die I doubt notebooks are that-

Tim: it is! Its very important, here just let me just

*wiggles out of binds*

Tim: listen we can do this whole dying and evil thing after I burn my notebooks I'll be right back I promise!

[manicmouse]

So no one asked but.. Akatsuki Cassandra Cain?

pls don't come for me I know it's rushed 😭 I just have no patience

[manicmouse]

Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham #3 keeps getting pushed back and I'm sick of it 😠😞😭

Do ya think they're really gonna go through with killing Bruce Wayne off???

Like we all know why him also being Bruce Wayne is important but god it'd be so interesting to see him go through with it ya know? I'd like to see him realize what a mistake that was or maybe it might not have been depending on where they're going with this Ajagahaj There's so much potential in this universe that it's maddening!?!

[manicmouse]

kon would have so many feelings about lilo & stitch here's my evidence:

Stitch is a genetic experiment who's punished for being made

Stitch doesn't have a name at first and is instead called Experiment 626 like Kon was project 13

feral little beast (affectionate) associated with blue and red 💙❤️💙

he's fluffy

lives in Hawai'i

his best friend is a little human who's clearly neurodivergent (adhd & austistic bestfriendism)

"What must it be like to have nothing? Not even memories to visit in the middle of the night?"

everything about the ugly duckling

"he's sad because he's all alone and nobody wants him. but on this page his family hears him crying and they find him. then the ugly duckling was happy because he knows where he belongs."

I think Kon would listen to Elvis

Stitch's guilt after causing mayhem and destruction while trying to fit in

I'd bet money Kon surfs. $2.

Stitch seeing Lilo and Nani and David as a family and desperately trying to be a part of it even if he gets hurt. looking on the outside in on the connection you desperately want and knowing you weren't made for that.

"you can be our baby and we'd raise you to be good"

lilo saying "I'll remember you though. I remember everyone who leaves" gives me tim feels

Stitch waiting for his family, but ... "You don't have one."

unrelated, but david was out here on the job search FOR NANI! there has never been another man

"You're VILE, you're FOUL, you're FLAWED!" "Also cute and fluffy 😘😘😘"

Stitch claiming the name his family gave him instead of experiment 626!

"This is my family. I found it all on my own. It's little, and broken, but still good."

You can't tell me Kon doesn't cry hysterically watching this movie for the first time.

[manicmouse]

The wings they brought back the wings?!?!