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Mom said it's my turn to make one of these

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pomegranates are so damn difficult to eat like could you be less of a metaphor and more of a fruit for a second im trying to have a snack

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joker is the biggest industry plant in the WORLD, main batman villain should be two-face.

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Talking about a Steph-as-Red-Hood scenario, and how it doesn't work, made me imagine: Stephanie's recovery in Africa is slow. There's so much damage. She keeps refusing the pain meds because she's afraid of becoming addicted, and -- though she won't say as much -- because she straight-up believes she deserves to suffer. She's isolated from everything and everyone she's ever known, and she goes back and forth between desperately wanting to see her mom, or Tim, or Cass, and the certainty that she should never see them again because they're better off without her and probably would prefer never to see her again, anyway. While she's lying in a hospital bed and unable to get up, or later while she's resting after physical therapy -- she feels so weak now, as betrayed by her own body as by her own mind and emotions -- there's nothing to do, really, but reflect, and wallow in guilt, and try very, very hard not to think about what her future is going to be like, if she even deserves to have one. But Stephanie Brown is nothing but not resilient, and determined to do good, and never one to leave well enough alone. Eventually, as she gets stronger and stronger, her guilt and her determination and her restlessness and uncertainty compels her to do something. Maybe they were all right that she wasn't good enough -- after all that she did, how could she not agree -- but she refuses to believe that she could never be good enough. She has so much that she needs to put right -- for real this time, without screwing it up and causing more harm than good -- and if nobody in Gotham has enough faith in her to help her get better, then, as always, she'll just have to help herself. Steph goes on a globe-trotting quest for training, without ever realizing that she's mirroring the exact same quest that Bruce Wayne undertook years before. The Spoiler that returns to Gotham several years later is undoubtedly stronger, much of her potential as a fighter realized at last, and the will and sense of self that she'd lost along the way when she became desperate for Batman's approval -- the Stephanie Brown that took care of herself and her mother, who forged a vigilante identity for herself, who took it upon herself to force a change in her own circumstances when no one else would help her -- is back in full force. But she's also broken, like him: driven by purpose and obsession, seeking to atone for crimes that were never really her fault, fighting a battle that can never, ever actually be won. She doesn't return as Red Hood, she returns as Batman -- not wearing the literal cowl or name because she doesn't give a shit about that, or about Bruce Wayne, but she's him in spirit nonetheless. And the great tragedy of it is that finally, finally -- long after it mattered, long after she needed it, long after she deserved to have it for the good and strong and eager person that she was instead of the broken person that she is -- Batman looks at her as he once looked at Cass and thinks "This is good".

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THE trio of all time

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conversations overheard through the batkid com lines pt 2

*Damian and Jason, four hours into a stakeout*

Damian: Jay, hand me the mango pieces.

Jason: *plastic crinkling* ayyy, I’m Jason again!

Damian: *snorts*

Jason: what was with that, by the way? I just showed up in Gotham and found you referring to everyone like they’re your professor. Like, that’s not a ‘you’ thing, I don’t know why you started doing that.

*audible chewing noises*

Damian: do you want the genuine honest answer?

Jason: please god do tell

Damian: so- and you aren’t allowed to laugh. but when I first came to Gotham and I showed up at the manor, father obviously had to give me a tour of the place, right?

Jason: yeah.

Damian: and they wanted to do a DNA test to check that my mother wasn’t pulling a fast one by claiming my birthright, so the first place he showed me was the cave, which was also where Tim was.

Jason: *hums*

Damian: and you know that place- the first time you went to the cave, it was wild, right?

Jason: oh, like walking into the tardis for the first time. insane.

Damian: exactly. all high-tech and shit, and I’d just come from the desert compound I’d spent my entire life in- like, my first time going into the kitchen at the manor I saw Alfred loading the dishwasher and my first thought was ‘oh my god what the fuck kind of machine is that-‘

Jason: *abrupt cackle*

Damian: -so the fucking cave for the first time? as a little desert-boy ten year old? I was a little distracted,

Jason, chuckling slightly: ok, fair,

Damian: and so I’m zoned the fuck out, looking around this cave and not paying attention to anything father’s saying, and then I finally tune back in just to hear the words ‘-ackson drake’ while he like, tries to introduce me to Tim.

Jason: *slowly starts laughing again*

Damian, raising his voice to be heard over Jason’s increasing beats of laughter: -and so I’m fucking standing there, ten years old, no clue what this kid’s first name is, and everybody’s looking at me like I’m supposed to be the one fucking talking right now, and ALL I can think of is my mother, who before she shipped me off to Gotham completely alone kept fucking telling me ‘Damian you have to be strong and show that you deserve to be the Batman’s blood son. show no weakness and take the mantle you were born to have; show no fucking hesitance.’, so I’M panicking,

Jason, still cackling: *a clap* NO I DO- I DO REMEMBER, LIKE, BACK IN THE LEAGUE-, holy shit back in the league when your only coping mechanism for not knowing the fuck was going on around you, was literally just to pretend you knew what the fuck was going on around you and bullshit till you make it,

Damian: WELL IT WAS LIKE THE ONLY FUCKING THING MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME-

Jason, through tears: -that’s why I didn’t say shit when I came back to Gotham and found you fucking, doing all this blood son bullshit! You started calling me Todd and speaking in old english and I was just like ‘bless him he’s terrified, just leave him be’

Damian: *cackles* and I did- I did appreciate you going along with it, because back when this happened I panicked and just started calling Tim ‘Drake’ because I was too embarrassed to ask him for his first name, and then by the time I heard somebody else call him Tim in passing, everybody had just assumed this was a thing I did. and I was too socially awkward to clear it up and switch back, so I just had to stick to Drake.

Jason: *wheeze* a-and Grayson?

Damian: well at first I just went along with the surname thing out of awkwardness, but then I’d gone too deep and I had no way out- AND THEN- and then Batman fucking died-

Jason: *wheeze*

Damian: -and I went from being parented by the gymnastics version of the dark lord to being gentle-parented by fucking Nightwing-

Jason, choking: holy- holy shit-

Damian: do you know what it’s like to go from *gruff voice* ‘Damian we don’t fucking kill, give me the katana or I’ll put you in Arkham’ to *high pitched, sweet voice* ‘oh hey Dames, obviously I can’t stop you from killing but I really would appreciate it if we discussed all our options and came to a mature decision together on what’s best in this scenario-‘

Jason: *crying, silent wheezes*

Damian: so DURING all this I’m trying to subtly switch back to using peoples actual names, except it fucking backfired because people just assumed I was calling Richard Richard because we had that special parental mentor bond, and Tim had pissed off to- whatever he was doing in the desert for six months- getting a hysterectomy or whatever the fuck happened-

Jason, amused: hysterectomy- he lost a spleen, Dames

Damian: well whatever happened he wasn’t AROUND for me to shift to calling him Tim! and when father was back I’d made no progress and was back to square one, except this time I was stuck calling one brother Richard and the other Drake!

Jason, still laughing: and this is where I came in?

Damian: I felt BAD! I’d already taken Robin from the guy, I didn’t want him to feel like he was lesser of a brother to me than Richard. So I demoted you to Todd so he wouldn’t feel alone.

Jason: very thoughtful.

Jason: we should probably get you a therapist, dude. I think everybody forgets that when you showed up you were literally just a very confused immigrant child with no experience of normal social interaction apart from me at the league.

Damian: oh I was like, 60% into an anxiety attack consistently for the first two years I was in the city.

Jason: *snorts*

Damian: the first time I was left alone with Tim we were in the kitchen and he said ‘do you want wifi?’ and, y’no, coming from the league, barely any tech and the only normality was the concept of fighting to the death over everything, MY instinctual ten-year-old thought was ‘oh shit, wifi must be slang for brawl here, we’re about to fight’-

Jason: *laughter* you’re fucking kidding

Damian: -so I’m like, so be it, and I say ‘come on then’ and get ready to start punching, only for him to turn around and grab a piece of card stuck to the fridge and hold it out to me,

Jason: *cackles*

Damian: and he goes ‘here’s the password so you can connect, I’m assuming you have a phone or something’-which I fucking didn’t by the way, my mother gave me a shitty flip-phone to call her in emergencies but it didn’t use wifi-, and he’s holding it out to me and I had to like, subtly shift my posture out of the defensive position I’d been in-,

Jason, delirious from laughter: this is the fucking best. thing.

Damian: -and I take it from him, and he gives me this weird look like he has no idea how to communicate with me, and I was just like ‘shit I might have to kill this one, it’s the only way to get out of this interaction’.

Jason: *wheeze* if we go through the timeline, every murder attempt on Tim’s life has just been an occasion where you’ve felt socially awkward and didn’t see any other way out of conversation,

Damian: pretty much, yeah. I should have been on xanax for those first few years.

Jason: stories from your first years in Gotham are my favourite thing in the world.

*a few silent beats*

Tim: are you telling me I’ve been stuck as Drake for YEARS all because Damian’s fucking scared of social interaction?!

*crashing sound*

Jason: HOLY FUCK-

Damian: OH MY GOD I FORGOT WE WERE CONNECTED TO THE MAIN LINE-

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conversations overheard through the batkid com lines pt 1

Jason: yeah me and B are on ok terms now,

Dick: oh you guys are getting along-?

Jason: well we’re doing ok, I’m not mad at him anymore.

Dick: thought you wanted him to kill the Joker?

Jason: i did, but then like last week i went to the manor and i saw him smash the coffee machine with a hammer because it didn’t fill his mug enough; and i just don’t think he’d be a good killer.

Dick: *light wheeze* because he broke the coffee machine?

Jason: well it was just- *cracked grin* he gets- he gets angry, you know? and he’s not good at self control? like that machine did nothing and he just destroyed it. and i was just thinking about how, like, he decided that adopting kids was an acceptable thing to do, and now he has like eleven of us,

Dick: *silent cackles*

Jason: like he can’t see a kid without thinking ‘wonder if i can draft this one’. i think if we managed to convince him killing was ok it wouldn’t go well. he’d just keep doing it.

Dick: *through laughter* because of no self control?

Jason: yeah, like once he crosses that line he’d probably step over it at any minor inconvenience. he gets addicted and he gets mad at a lot of things.

Dick: so B shouldn’t kill?

Jason: no.

Dick: but you can?

Jason: well i- *wheeze* i have practice honing the rage, i don’t kill for stupid reasons. *pause* apart from that one time.

Dick, audibly amused: what time?

Jason: i sneezed and accidentially pressed the trigger.

Dick: *loud cackles*

Jason: i felt bad, man, like his cat was there-

Dick: *falls off his chair*

Jason: how are you this apathetic.

Dick: is that where Damian’s new cat came from?

Jason: it’s not like i could just leave it there!

Dick: i thought i saw trauma in it’s eyes. it had that wartime stare.

Jason: the blood spattered right across its fur. i had to bathe it.

Dick: Damian thinks it has anxiety

Jason: anxiet- dude it has more than anxiety, it has fucking PTSD-

Dick: *wheezes harder*

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Ik Jason was a really good kid. That part matters — a lot. He was smart, driven, probably made honor roll. He loved being Robin. For him, Robin was magic — a chance to help people. He wanted to, and did, do a lot of good.

But I also think it's important to remember he was still a teenager. Teenagers do stupid shit. Jason wasn't an exception to that — and he shouldn't have to be. He made rash decisions, and went against Batman’s moral code in the comics. And so have all the other Robins. The difference is, they got to grow out of it; Jason didn’t.

We flatten Jason’s character when we reduce him to just the "angry Robin," but we’re also flattening him when we swing too far the other way — turning him into a perfect martyr. He was a kid with good intentions, a big heart, and a short fuse.

Jason should be allowed to be complex. He should be allowed to be wrong, to make mistakes, to be reckless and still be good.

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Nightwing and Robin Jason: On your mark, get set g-

Batman: No

Nightwing: No? No, what? You don't even know what we're doing?!

Batman: You two were about to try and race across the rooftops

Nightwing: And? We do it all the time

Batman: And, they're covered in ice from freezing rain

Robin Jason: So? We fought Mr. Freeze last week, and we're still alive

Batman: [glares]

Dick: Ugh, fine. We won't have ANY fun

Batman: [turns around]

Nightwing:

Robin Jason:

Nightwing and Robin Jason: [glance at each other]

Nightwing and Robin Jason: [whispering] Go

[Both start running]

-

[Later]

Dick: [sitting on the couch with his ankle in a cast] Consequences, gotta be my top three least favorite parts of my actions

Jason: [sitting next to him with his arm in a cast] Big brothers, gotta be the top three worst people to listen to when they say they have a fun idea

Dick: You're just grumpy because YOU fell down first

Jason: [hits him with a pillow]

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Damian silently crying in the batcave after patrol because a little kid gave him a crayon drawing of him, with crude writing at the top saying ‘favorat ROBIN’ with an arrow pointing at what looked like him in his Robin suit and a Batarang.

When someone sees it hanging above his desk in his room, he calls it art inspiration. That’s all.

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Guys idk what’s gotten into me, but I really wanna read a Fic with Father Todd. Anyone got any recommendations?

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Cass + Jason are the foils of all time to me, in a way that transcends the whole ‘moral aversions solidified by the trauma of becoming either a murderer or a murder victim’ thing that pushed them into extreme deontologist or consequentialist camps. B/c when you set that aside, they have so many similar themes it’s almost funny. Their self-destructive mom-quests, their relationship to a patriarch (Bruce) who doesn’t understand them, their inability to disentangle themselves from the mask, their natural talent for vigilantism — even the murder (/attempt) of their parent, after the Pit augmented their grief (Batgirl #73 + Lost Days #1-2). there’s so much there to explore!!

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It feels like this every time I write a fic

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Personally I ship JayKyle in a "Kyle has the fattest crush on Jason ever, but Jason is Aro/Ace so he doesn't gaf/is too oblivious to realize" way.

does anyone have a ship that they don’t really like to see but at the same time are also relieved when they see people shipping it because it could’ve been so much worse? yeah, that’s me with jaykyle.

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Man, I'm finishing up my second to last chapter of In Every Universe;Still I Rise and just thought of all the Bruces seeing this grown version of Jason, and seeing how strong and healthy he looks, thinking "I raised this kid and he turned out the best" only for His Jason to die thirty minutes later.

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Just in case any of you are confused, TikTok being banned and coming back not even 24 hours later with a giant "we thank President Trump" message is NOT a win. It's a huge red flag and a sign that this was a thousand percent planned.

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i think it's absolutely valid to be critical of Devin Grayson but I also think the amount of vitriol the fandom throws at her is baffling compared to what Wolfman gets (which is basically nothing) for doing the same thing.