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umbrellacam · 7 months ago

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Saw a post where someone wasn't sure if Tim being good at computers was a fanon thing or not and friend I am happy to inform you that he's been a computer/tech guy from some of his earliest appearances in the comics.

Detective Comics (Vol. 1) #620 (Rite of Passage part 4) - immersed in the ~web~

Robin II: The Joker's Wild #3 - tabletop roleplaying games and spending hours in the basement on the computer - not beating the geek allegations on these fronts, Timmy

Detective Comics (Vol. 1) #676 - Dick was more into traditional detective work and tended to outsource the computer stuff in these days

Batman (Vol. 1) #514 (Prodigal part 10) - hackin' through all the garbage and garble

Robin (1993) #33 - Robin sneaking in and connecting Oracle with the baddies' mainframe so she can do her thing and steal all their data >:)

Nightwing (1996) #6 - "no you're really talented and well suited to be Robin." "no, you." "no, YOU!"

Tim is definitely not as good as Babs/Oracle, but he's certainly her back-up for computer work in the 90's batfam. They're tech buddies and Robin!Tim is her little assistant sometimes, it's super cute:

Birds of Prey (1999) #19 - happy to play with big sister's fancy high-powered toys

Legends of the Dark Knight (1989) #125 - real cute kid

And Dick will hand off computer jobs to his little brother when he doesn't want to bother Babs 😂 (that outsourcing I mentioned):

Nightwing (1996) #68 - examine them pixel by pixel, eh? welp, sounds like a job only you can do, Timbo, you got this buddy, byyyyeeeee

And then when he'd grown up and been doing this for years, he leveled up accordingly, and did stuff like use his access to the League of Assassins computers to overload the generators in every base he could find, etc. etc.

Red Robin (2009) #8 - yeah that was pretty dumb of you Ra's :)

So yeah, it was a bit of a specialty of Tim's, in large part because he was introduced just at the turn into the 90's, when personal computers were really starting to take off and become widespread. (Robins gotta be cutting edge and all)

Of course, by no means does it follow that the other Bats suck at computers (there is no 'smart one' they are all incredibly smart and capable). This is especially true as reboots and the sliding timescale of comics have moved the DC characters into modern times, where computers run the world and everyone grows up with one in their pocket. The baseline familiarity and expertise that everyone can be expected to have is just much, much higher these days.

It gets exaggerated in fanon as all character traits do, but computer guy Tim is definitely not something just made up out of whole cloth :)b

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soleminisanction · 2 months ago

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Once again got a bee in my bonnet to spend a night doing obscure fandom research to make a point, so. For all those people who keep making the annoying, "Tim keeps '''stealing'' other peoples' names" comments -- have a table.

EDIT: Updated version with some mistakes corrected.

Everyone with a check mark has used that codename at some point in DC's 80+ year continuity -- Elseworlds and alternate dimensions/timelines count, adaptations (movies, video games, cartoons, etc.) don't unless they've got comic book tie-ins, and neither do in-universe dream sequences/illusions/fantasies/other narrative elements that are objectively "not real" within the boundaries of the fiction.

A purple marker indicates an element that only applies in Elseworlds or alternate timelines. Yellow is for the originator of the legacy title. Star symbol is for borderline cases/extenuating circumstances/it's open to interpretation (with some further elaboration below).

The "other" column is just there to account for people who've held lesser or non-legacy titles, like Renegade, Wingman, Arkham Knight, Drake, Redbird, Talon, Deadman, Black Bat, Orphan and Catwoman.

Point being: the people who have actually gone through the most legacy titles in this family are Dick, Babs and Jason, tied with 5 each (again, not counting "other;" if we counted those separately Dick would've had by far the most). Tim is tied with Steph AND Helena Wayne, so unless you're whining about them "stealing other peoples' names" you're just wrong, and they're all only one higher than Damian, Carrie and Bruce.

This is a legacy family that passes their codenames up and down the inheritance line. It's what they do. It's not a legitimate criticism to level at one character and not the others. Please get over it.

---

Further elaboration on some of the lesser known/niche cases:

- Bruce uses the Robin ID in Superman & Batman: Generations, as well as the pre-Crisis Detective Comics #226 story.

- In the second half of Thrillkiller ‘62, Babs cuts her hair and dons the Robin costume worn by her deceased partner Dick to get revenge on his killer; however the only name ever used for her in the series is Batgirl

- Cassandra was a member of the Robins orphan gang from Dark Knights of Steel.

- Duke was a member of the We Are Robins gang, as well as the aforementioned DKS orphan gang, and has appeared as Robin in a couple of Elseworlds, including I believe a White Knight spin-off.

- Cass was Batwoman in one of the versions of the Titans Tomorrow, as was Bette Kane, depending on changes to the timeline.

- Babs is Batwoman in the Batman ‘66 comics and in the 1980 story “The Secret Origin of Bruce (Superman) Wayne”

- Earth-3 Steph is Batwoman in Young Justice 2019.

- Helena Wayne is Batwoman in the possible future story Last Rites

- Tim is a member of the Batgirls vigilante/little league baseball team in the DC Bombshells universe, as is Cullen Row. Some call them the “Batboys” instead. I call those people cowards.

- Helena Bertinelli wore the costume that would later become Cass’s signature Batgirl look during No Man’s Land. However, she was more often referred to as “The Bat” and her Batgirl status is up to individual interpretation.

- Dick didn’t originate the Nightwing name, it started with Clark in the Silver Age.

- Steph has never been Nightwing. The panel where she appears in the costume is a Black Mercy illusion that happens only in her own mind. It’s a dream sequence.

- Barbara was Nightwing in the Smallville Season 11 comics.

- Terry was briefly Nightwing in volume 4 of Batman Beyond.

- Damian briefly became Nightwing after accidentally killing Dick in the Injustice series.

- Dick is Oracle in the “Eight Wonders of the World” version of Earth 2 (aka the Black Superman dimension)

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rredboard · 4 months ago

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many posts going around about female characters and their recognition on tumblr… so i wanted to talk a little bit abt dc women (and bc this is a tim/bats blog — i’m talking specifically about cass and babs and steph)

they are given so much emotional depth, compassion, and presence in the earlier comics — that’s what makes me love them so much!! like they fuck up and learn and just exhibit incredible strength and will. this complexity and care nowadays is replaced with just. blatant infantilization and blandness.

to see them have so much power in the comics and to have them so brutally lost that in the canon since the 2010s is so sad and legitimately painful. and it’s all the more frustrating to see this same ineptitude and absence reproduced by fans who claim to be making a “better version of canon” with them always still missing!! it um. sucks ass, for uh. lack of a better term…

#dc meta #cassandra cain #barbara gordon #stephanie brown #batgirl #oracle #black bat #spoiler

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crow-aeris · 5 months ago

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okay, so here's the seer!tim au i promised:

Tim, freezes on the rooftop, camera in hand as the pressure of a Vision creeps against his temples. He quickly sits down next to the HVAC unit, quietly lamenting the loss of some potentially beautiful pictures before closing his eyes.

His Visions weren't easy to deal with, and would always leave him with terrible headaches- especially if he didn't have his little ball with him. Sometimes, if he wasn't careful, the Vision would overlap with his current sight, creating a vertigo-like sensation that would NOT be good next to a freaking ledge.

So, he sits down like a good kid and breathes. Tim covers his eyes further with his forearm and gently accepts the Vision.

Does he know where the Visions come from? Nope! And neither does his parents, but Tim's still grateful he gets to have it, since-

No, focus. He has to focus. If he doesn't focus, then the Vision would remain as an overlay for up to an hour, and it would make getting down from a three story rooftop extremely difficult.

So, he focuses.

The world seemed to fall away as the sounds of the current gotham faded away to gotham, but different.

Vision-Tim opens his eyes and slips into their room. The decor was the same as Current-Tim's, and the placement of the trash was similar, though the discrepancies could be waved off as natural movements and shifting as time passed. When Vision-Tim looked at the date, Current-Tim shoved it to the back of his mind to review later.

But then, Vision-Tim looks at their laptop screen, and Tim- Both Tims- felt their breath hitch in shock, and the Vision is abruptly cut off as Current-Tim feels a hand against his shoulder.

He rips his arm from his face, ignoring how his brain SCREAMED at the sudden movement, and he looks up to see Robin- the second robin, his robin- staring down at him with a worried expression, batman hovering on the next roof over.

"Hey kid, you okay?" Robin- Jason- asks, "You're crying... do you want to talk about it?"

Tim freezes like a deer in headlights, two agonizingly long seconds filled with silence stretched between them when, in one fluid and sudden move, Tim darted away.

Jason called after him, but they weren't fast enough. Tim easily drowns in the shadows and disappears, leaving behind the confused duo and a air of quiet mystery.

But, five days later, even AFTER Tim had tried to warn the bats about Jason's impending death... They didn't listen, and the future played out like clockwork.

So, what could he do?

Well, Tim did what he does best, and takes matters into his own hands. He receives his visions, sometimes looking for them himself using his scrying ball, and deposits the information directly into the laps of the GCPD and the Bats like a cat of sorts.

on one of the nights, when he's calling on a burner phone to try and warn people of Batman's path, he says, "Rumor has it: Batman will be carving through the East End tonight. Stay home, and remain quiet."

And then, people start referring to him as Rumor, and it wasnt hurting anyone, so Tim never intervened and the name just... caught on.

Little did he know, Rumor was now on a certain Oracle's radar...

#seer tim drake #meta!tim #tim drake #batman #batfam #batfamily #jason todd #bruce wayne #fanfic #barbara gordon #oracle #seer #meta tim drake

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lady-menrva · 2 months ago

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PJO Meta (1 of ??)

DISCLAIMER: I don't mean to offend anyone. I am a ship and let ship person. Please note that criticism =/= hate. Lastly, if you're a solangelo shipper who doesn't wish to hear any criticism regarding their ship, please scroll away.

Ever since it's first appearance, solangelo has been a massive fan favourite. I, however, don't have a favourable opinion of the ship. Here is a brief explanation of my reasons for the same. (I apologise for my inarticulation)

Characterization:-

Nico-

Honestly Nico's writing in the trials of Apollo was terrible even by the usual character assassination standards- in the hidden oracle, he legitimately read as a gag charater who served no purpose apart from being "Will Solace's Goth/Emo Boyfriend". Things were hardly better in Tower of Nero, where he was basically just "Will Solace's traumatized Goth/Emo Boyfriend" who happens to be lazy PTSD rep.

Will Solace-

Can't say much. He was never a character of his own, and probably never will be. His substance as a character is comparable to the quantitative mass of an electron in Kilograms (9.11x 1/10³¹) i.e, negligible.

Nico's Healing Arc (or lack of the same )-

After what was essentially two series worth of fanfic-esque trauma bombing, Nico should have received a proper healing arc. Unfortunately, there was no such arc for him (courtesy of solangelo), because Rick has this earth-shattering, inspired-by-Disney idea that relationships can fix everything. So guess what? Nico's years' worth of emotional baggage, pain and trauma simply volatalize into oblivion .

Some shippers may argue "Oh but he got better off page"-but that it is bad writing per se; Nico's struggles, grief, fears, unhealthy coping mechanisms etc. are more pivotal and relevant to his character than a nascent, one dimensional relationship with an insignificant side character. He is much more than just his sexuality, after all.

Cliché and one dimensional:-

Solangelo is firmly rooted in the "opposites attract" trope, which is simply unrealistic in nature.

Also, newsflash: "Opposites attract" is a law specific to physics and chemistry; It's all fun and games till people who are poles apart sit down to take serious decisions, or share opinions. Friction between them can be rather intense.

(Oh! wait... I think Nico was described to be a Nitride anion {or was he Azide? No, I think he was Nitride} and Will was a Tungsten cation. So, they are basically Tungsten Nitride... Boy! They have so much chemistry between them/s)

Anyways, I totally understand why people prefer jasico, valdangelo, percico, nicobaster etc...

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loregoddess · 1 month ago

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Ancient Beastling Deciphered (literally)

So when I played Octo2, I saw the phrase "Ghormf" ef "thanks" and thought it sort of looked like a simple substitution cipher. This has haunted me long enough that I sat down last night and gave deciphering Ancient Beastling a try and lo, in the English localization it is indeed a simple substitution cipher.

Here's the cipher that's being used in the game:

Using this, we can "translate" the dialogue for the "Ghormf!" side quest:

The quest starts after speaking to the beastling in the Nameless Village (henceforth referred to as NVB, since he doesn't have a name).

NVB:

E'da taar jaolrern huzor fpaach jogajy. I've been learning human speech lately. Tug e bir'g mris his gi foy "ghormf". But I don't know how to say "thanks". His bi yiu foy "ghormf"? E zufg mris! How do you say "thanks"? I must know!

After traveling to Beasting Village, you can speak with the beastling there (henceforth BVB, as he also lacks a name).

BVB: E'da taar jaolrern orcearg fpaach jogajy. I've been learning ancient speech lately. E jaolrab his gi foy "ghormf"! I learned how to say "thanks"!

After the player guides BVB back to the Nameless Village and speaks with NVB, a cutscene plays out.

NVB: E'da taar jaolrern huzor fpaach jogajy. I've been learning human speech lately. BVB: E'da taar jaolrern orcearg fpaach jogajy. I've been learning ancient speech lately. NVB: Ih. Bi yiu mris his gi foy "ghormf"? Oh. Do you know how to say "thanks"? BVB: "Ghormf" ef "thanks". "Thanks" is "<thanks>". NVB: Ih! "Ghormf ef "thanks"! Oh! "Thanks" is "<thanks>"! Sohoho! E jaolrab fizaghern ras giboy! Wahaha! I learned something new today! "Thanks" daly zuch! "<Thanks>" very much!

Afterwards, BVB remains in the Nameless Village near NVB. If the player speaks to them, this is what they say.

NVB: Jaolrern huzor fpaach ef wur! Sohoho! Learning human speech is fun! Wahaha! BVB: Ancient speech... Very hard. But... Jaolrern eg ef wur! Ohoho! Learning it is fun! Ahaha!

And, that's the Ancient Beastling speech translated! Well, almost. As you can see in the cipher images, there's 4 missing letter substitutions. I could only find the guide dialogue for Temenos's guide from a video tutorial for the quest, where BVB says, "All right. Jaob gha soy." ("All right. Lead the way."), but I wasn't going to try and scour every video that's ever been uploaded in hopes of capturing unique dialogue for other path actions.

Despite a few cursory searches, I haven't been able to find dialogue script for all of the potential path actions, which might fill in the missing letters on the cipher. Since both files I currently have in Octo2 are already 100% completed, I also can't go and see what these two NPCs say when I use path actions aside from guide on them to grab the text for myself, nor have I been able to find a text dump to scour.

(If nothing else, I might end up trying to grab screenshots for myself on my next playthrough, whenever that may be. But! If anyone happens to have screenshots or a video or the text handy of the path actions for these two NPCs, I'd love to take a look).

Some more notes on my process, and guesses for the letters missing from the cipher, below the cut.

Deciphering the cipher wasn't really that hard, since we're given the key that "ghormf" = "thanks", so I was able to write out the alphabet, and then start writing in the substitution letters above their corresponding letters (I handwrote everything while working through this, but I don't have pics handy, so no process images this time sorry).

Then I just had to go through and start applying what letters I knew for sure to other lines of dialogue and then filling in the rest of the letters based on educated guesses (i.e. "Ghormf ef "thanks". became "Thanks" [e]s "thanks". so it was pretty obvious that "ef' was "is", which meant that Ancient Beastling e = i; also the phrase "Thanks" daly zuch! seemed to fit the phrase "Thanks" very much! and when I applied the letter substitutions for "very" and "much" to the rest of the cutscene dialogue, it made other words pop out, and so on and so forth until I had the cutscene dialogue completely translated, by which time the entire cipher was all but complete).

Obviously, there's a few missing letters: we don't have the Ancient Beastling equivalent to j, q, x, or z, since those letters weren't used in any of the dialogue I could find, and the letters k, q, x, and v weren't used, meaning they're the substitutions for j, q, x, and z but we don't know which letters they substitute for.

There's probably an official cipher, but until it's released (or if I find more letters in the path action dialogue eventually), I don't know for sure what the substitution letters would be.

I do have a guess of course, if you're into speculation.

Based on the pattern of the cipher, and the fact that Ancient Beastling looks like something I could read out loud if I wanted to, we can assume the missing letters of the cipher should still be "readable" for phrases translated to Ancient Beastling.

Therefore, my best guess is that x = x and q = q because they're weird letters, and my tentative guess is that English j = k, and English z = v.

x isn't used in English often, so keeping it as it is avoids losing the use of a more versatile letter, and also avoids the various phonetic qualities of x being lost when put through the cipher.

Keeping q as q would preserve the "qu" rule that appears in English, making encoding words with "qu" less awkward looking in Ancient Beastling: i.e. "quiet" would become "queag" which still doesn't look like English despite preserving 40% of the characters, and could still be pronounced out loud.

I'm tempted to have English j become k and z become v simply based on the phonetic qualities of the letters: z and v have a slight buzz when enunciated, and then j and k are the leftover letters. However alternately using j = v and z = k doesn't make the encoded Ancient Beastling unreadable per se.

For example:

the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog (using j = k, and z = v) gha quecm tlasr wix kuzpf idal gha jovy bin (compare against j = v and z = k) gha quecm tlasr wix vuzpf idal gha joky bin

Here's another:

pack my bag with five dozen liquor jugs (using j = k, and z = v) pocm zy ton segh weda bivar jequil kunf (compare against j = v and z = k) pocm zy ton segh weda bikar jequil vunf

So, I guess if you're going to use the cipher to write Ancient Beastling into a fanfic or something like that, you'll have to come up with your own headcanons for the missing letters based on your preferences. At least until either the path action dialogue that I'm missing potentially reveals the missing letters, or until we get access to the official cipher that was used.

In any case, I had a lot of fun cracking the cipher, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it as well. If you made it this far...

ghormf wil laobern!

#octopath traveler #octopath traveler 2 #octopath ii #I wondered why the beastling from Beasting Village remained in the Nameless Village and now I know #the two stay together to help each other learn the languages they're studying which is...so very sweet honestly #Octo2 continues to delight me in unexpected ways as I continue to be Very Obsessed with weird little details in it #oracle of lore #lore's lore analyses and headcanons #(I'm finally getting myself a tag for meta bc scouring my posts to start copying them so I can archive them was Not Fun)

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fantastic-nonsense · 11 months ago

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I desperately want to know what the extent of the editorial mandate re: Babsgirl is, because the spectrum of Tom Taylor only depicting Babs as a perfectly abled Batgirl to Ram V only using her as Oracle is too much variation for me to place all blame for writers' creative choices on editorial

Like...Kelly Thompson is on Twitter insinuating that editorial is to blame for why Babs is going to be Batgirl and not Oracle in her Birds of Prey run, but there's clearly some level of writer capacity within the mandates for Babs to be depicted as visibly disabled or only used as Oracle, from her being an ambulatory wheelchair user who occasionally uses a cane in Batgirls:

pages from Batgirls (2021), by Becky Cloonan and Michael Conrad

To other writers seemingly being perfectly capable of only utilizing her as Oracle for entire arcs at a time:

pages from Mariko Tamaki's 2021 Detective Comics run and Ram V's 2023 Detective Comics run

And I want to know what the mandates actually are so I can figure out how much responsibility any given writer vs. editorial bears for the ongoing ableism and sexism whenever Babs pops up in a comic

Because I can certainly believe there's some sort of editorial mandate on the wheelchair or referencing her spinal chip being faulty, but I find it EXTREMELY difficult to believe we're back in the Burnside-era anti-Oracle mandates given there are multiple writers only utilizing Babs as Oracle right now

#it's just infuriating to see 'editorial' being trotted out as an excuse when there's clearly a capacity to show her as disabled and Oracle #I just don't think there's a DESIRE to #barbara gordon #dc comics #batgirl #oracle #birds of prey #detective comics #barbara gordon meta

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essektheylyss · 1 year ago

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Okay here's the thing though. Actual play is not like other narrative forms, because the amount of chance involved in the game play means that the ending, in most scenarios, is not already written, and even when it is, as in EXU: Calamity, how you get there is not yet set in stone.

But notably, what is set in stone, the past, only goes back so far. In theory, character backstory is pre-written, but anyone who has played TTRPGs with an emphasis on story and character will recognize that backstory is a lot more fluid than we might imagine, and certainly more fluid than the history of a real person. As you really begin to play the character, you find the ways the backstory doesn't quite mesh, what needs to be cut or fleshed out, and you can make those edits over time so long as they haven't yet been brought out explicitly in game.

But the farther along you get, the more you have to make explicit, and the less leeway you have (at least without significant, usually clunky, retconning) to change that past to suit the future that you're developing.

At the same time, though, the backstory that does get set into stone over the course of the game is still in many ways virtual, in that it is often, if not exclusively, filtered through the point of view of the character's memory. Even in the flashback sequences of this chapter of Candela Obscura, the emphasis tends to be on how the characters remember it, and what they choose to remember—Sean doesn't know, will never truly know, if the children he killed were monsters or not; Nathaniel doesn't focus in his memory on the fact that he tried to save his brother, he only remembers having failed.

In this sense, there is generally an element of unreliability to backstory. Because it exists in memory (even for the players, who usually have not played out every one of those moments as if they were living it, only having remembered it), it is subject to the fallibility that memory always involves.

This kind of restricted timescale, the entire world contained concretely only within the context of game play, is a mechanical reality and limitation of TTRPGs in general, and much like the laws of physics, it's not really malleable. One could play out certain pieces of backstory, but cannot ever live the entirety of a character's experience, and even then, the larger context of that experience will always exist outside of the world until it is made concrete in the course of the game.

This is the brilliance of Marion's breaking of time. The manipulation takes advantage of the fact that this memory is only a memory, because even as played out between him and Jean in "Flesh and Blood," it is still filtered through how the Marion of the game remembers it, and not a concrete experience.

That ability of the Medium, to manipulate reality and change oneself in the process, as though it had always been this way, is a mechanical acknowledgement of the already slippery flow of time in game play. It is a beautiful mechanical form of retcon that doesn't feel like a cheat or a copout, and it's simultaneously a very clever way of managing the tension between these limitations of form and the common fantasy archetype of diviners and seers.

Using it to then literally rewrite the past, because the details of the past are still fluid until they are explicitly written, is nothing short of poetic.

#critical role #cr meta #candela obscura #co spoilers #marion collodi #I almost got really into the weeds and compared this against vespin chloras's Atonement and the oracles in avalir #(which I think I've written on before anyway. or at least I have thought about it extensively.)#but that would've required dragging out some Sources lmfao #can you tell I think too much about time especially as it relates to story

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spoiledqueenie · 7 months ago

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The conclusions Babs and Bruce somehow learned from Stephanie’s death:

“We have to stop letting these untrained kids go out and fight by discouraging them and belittling them.”

The conclusion they were supposed to have gotten:

“These kids are going to do this anyways, so we have to train/prepare them and give them a safe place to advance their skills.”

#stephanie brown #spoiler dc #batman #barbara gordon #bruce wayne #batgirl #oracle #batfam #i've been re reading #batgirl 2009 #and that scene where babs tells steph about showing her autopsy to misfit to stop her from crime-fighting...#oh how i wanted steph to snap back #(not that it maters but that was dumb anyways bc Misfit is literally a meta-human with healing powers so...)

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call-me-oracle · 8 months ago

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barbara gordon in nightwing #85 pt. 1

bonus:

#wow wow wow i did NOT expect to break the tumblr photo limit but ig this issue has a lot of babs #tom taylor's nightwing run has had its ups and downs but i can't deny it has BEAUTIFUL art #the whole monologue about how much good she's done as oracle THAT'S. WHY. SHE. NEEDS. TO. BE. ORACLE. AGAIN.#the meta tkj reference is so sad and yet so good cause she's fully RIGHT #it wasn't about her it was about the joker #but she made it HER story #and that's why oracle babs will always clear batgirl babs...always.#dc comics #oracle #batgirl #barbara gordon #comic panels #nightwing #dick grayson #dickbabs #written by: tom taylor #art by: robbi rodriguez #cover art by: bruno redondo #variant cover by: jamal campbell #1:25 variant cover by: bruno redondo #colours: adriano lucas #nightwing (2016)#issue 85 #queue #pt. 2 out in a few hours :)

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sassylittlecanary · 1 year ago

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I am so freaking angry about how DC has treated disabled characters in recent years.

Many people have pointed out all the negatives of making Babs into Batgirl again — taking away her character development, de-aging her, casting aside two other Batgirls, using comic book science to “”cure”” her, etc, all for the sake of nostalgia. Oracle was an icon and an inspiration to many, and that was taken from us. Some great meta on this here and here.

But what I don’t hear anyone talking about is how this was also done with Joey Wilson/Jericho of the Teen Titans, albeit in a slightly different way.

In the post-52 DCU, he doesn’t use sign language anymore (he’s mute) and instead uses technology to speak.

First of all, artists drawing Joey signing shows loving detail and care toward representation for that form of communication (which is frequently overlooked by able-bodied people). Joey using ASL is such incredibly important representation for everyone, and taking that away from him feels like an easy way out so artists don’t have to draw ASL and writers can give him typical dialogue. It reminds me of stories about deaf people (especially kids) who were disappointed when Hawkeye didn’t experience hearing loss in the MCU. There’s a lot of people who see themselves in different kinds of characters, and when you take that diversity away, you lose something important. I hate these cop-outs to fit differently abled characters into the cookie cutter superhero mold. Superheroes aren’t defined by their abilities — they’re defined by their heroism! Characters like Oracle and Jericho, among others, have reminded all kinds of people that anyone can be a hero so long as you care about helping others. That’s literally the point of superheroes. The superhero genre should always have room for diversity and representation of all kinds. Minimizing or erasing disability does a massive disservice to that legacy.

#I’m an able bodied person writing this so if you have thoughts or corrections to add please do!#dc comics #dc #dcu #oracle #barbara gordon #jericho #joey wilson #joseph wilson #teen titans #deathstroke #new 52 #dc rebirth #tw ableism #disability representation #meta

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theflashjaygarrick · 10 months ago

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One thing I keep thinking about is because superhero comics are simultaneously niche and cultural icons, the general public understanding of characters can be starkly different to the actual medium. Often this is harmless fun but it can be a problem considering arcs about female and minority characters often suffer in the realm of reprints and adaptations, and therefore never have the same impact on the public consciousness. And I think this explains the erasure of Oracle.

Yes, Killing Joke was misogynistic as hell and as a massive Barbara fan I have serious issues with it. But then what Kim Yale and John Ostrander did with Oracle in year one was moving, beautiful and undeniably feminist. I'm not disabled but I got serious chills reading the story and it is honestly one of my favourite comics. From there she grew to become a staple in the DC universe and helped launch the wildly successful Birds of Prey superhero team.

And she was a disabled hero who was psychologically complex and kickass in a fight. She also was seen as an attractive woman who had love interests like Dick Grayson. She got to train the next generation of Batgirls. As Oracle Babs thrived.

Not to mention according to Scott Peterson's article on DC women kicking ass, the creative team at the time were seeing an overwhelming positive response to Oracle from people who saw themselves on the pages of a superhero comic for the first time thanks to Babs:

"we were the ones getting the mail from disabled fans. We were the ones reading letters about how much Oracle meant to them, how much it meant to see someone in a situation so much like their own, someone who by then had been come such an important part of the DCU, treated with respect and admiration by not only Superman and Black Canary, but by the Batman, a guy who treated pretty much no one with respect." (Scott Peterson, 2011)

But if you look at the mainstream perception, her success is less obvious.

Batgirl has always struggled in adaptations, and Oracle even more so. The versions of Oracle that have been translated onto film and TV haven't caught in public imagination in the same way, to the point she was straight up cut out of the recent Birds of Prey film.

Not to mention Killing Joke is one of the most iconic Batman stories of all time that not only has been reprinted countless times but was one of the select few comic arcs to be adapted into animation. Contrarily, Oracle Year One was reprinted in English once after the original date: the Batgirl 50 years celebration. This collection is expensive and not something you would buy without considerable investment in the Batgirls. It certainly isn't one that would show up if you google 'best batman comics'.

If you see this you understand why people marginally invested in DC mythos considered her return to batgirl was seen by some as a feminist move, rather than an ableist one. Gone were her years of development, one of the most powerful information brokers in DC, and two other beloved Batgirls. And the real insult: killing joke was still canon. Yes, they kept the misogynistic violence and ditched the disability rep and the character growth. And that is despite the fact Killing Joke was made to be part of an else world, not main continuity.

#dc musings #Barbara gordon #batgirl #oracle #dc #dc comics #batman #batfamily #ramblings/meta #hopefully this is something

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apollosgiftofprophecy · 4 months ago

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The Copollogism Essays - Part 2: The Assassination Scene

Part 1 (The Tent) ~ Part 2 (The Assassination) ~ Part 3 (Lester's Reaction) ~ Part 4 (Leo's Questions/Seeing Commodus Again) ~ Part 5 (The Arena) ~ Part 6 (The Waystation) ~ Part 7 (The Yacht) ~ Part 8 (The Final Moment)

Analysis: Part 1 (Apollo and Commodus as Individuals) ~ Part 2 (Toxic Relationship?) ~ Part 3 (Codependent - Or Is It?) ~ Part 4 (Other Thoughts)

Oh ho ho ho. Here it is. The One You Have Been Waiting For.

A little personal background–

This was the scene that I remembered that made me pick the Trials of Apollo books back up last year.

It was this scene that brought me back into the fandom.

Everyone say thank you to this scene because it is a masterpiece and I sure damn well hope I do it justice.

Anyway. Let us begin~

I KNOW WHAT YOU are thinking. But, Apollo! You are divine! You cannot commit murder. Any death you cause is the will of the gods and entirely beyond reproach. It would be an honor if you killed me! I like the way you think, good reader. It’s true I had laid waste to whole cities with my fiery arrows. I had inflicted countless plagues upon humanity. Once Artemis and I slew a family of twelve because their mama said something bad about our mama. The nerve! None of that did I consider murder.

None of that, none of the deaths Apollo has caused, did he consider murder.

But Commodus’s he does.

This has always stuck out to me, even when I first read the books.

The praetorian prefect Laetus had pulled me aside only an hour ago: We failed at lunch. This is our last chance. We can take him, but only with your help. Marcia, Commodus’s mistress, had wept as she tugged at my arm. He will kill us all. He will destroy Rome. You know what must be done! They were right. I’d seen the list of names—the enemies real or imagined whom Commodus intended to execute tomorrow. Marcia and Laetus were at the top of the list, followed by senators, noblemen, and several priests in the temple of Apollo Sosianus.

Something that was pointed out by @amiti-art was how Apollo’s priests were set to be killed. This is baffling for a couple reasons: 1) Apollo is well known to deliver terrible punishments onto those who even treat his priests with disrespect (Agamemnon in The Iliad got a nice plague for his disrespect); and 2) Why would Commodus do this? Why would he specifically kill Apollo’s priests?

I suggested it could be a way to “get his attention” so to speak. Because remember, in Part 1, we know Apollo left after Marcus has died. And now, Commodus is deep into his paranoia and lashing out at everyone and everything he perceives as a threat.

Perhaps something triggered him to think the priests were some sort of threat, or maybe he’s so far in his delusions that he thinks he can have everything be “fixed” if he draws Apollo back to him. As we saw in Part 1, Commodus looked to Apollo first at the news of Marcus’s death— maybe even now, he’s trying to rebuild that bridge because everything’s falling apart.

If so…he did not think it through 😬 I mean… *eyes the plague Agamemnon got; Clytemnestra being killed by her own son for murdering Cassandra* yeah…things don’t end well for those who mess with the people in Apollo’s cult.

I pushed open the bronze doors of the emperor’s chambers. From the shadows, Commodus bellowed, “GO AWAY!” A bronze pitcher sailed past my head, slamming into the wall with such force it cracked the mosaic tiles. “Hello to you, too,” I said. “I never did like that fresco.”

*wheeze from alder* I get the feeling there was very casual banter in their relationship lol

Commodus knelt on the floor, clinging to the side of a sofa for support. In the opulence of the bedchamber with its silk curtains, gilded furniture, and colorfully frescoed walls, the emperor looked out of place—like a beggar pulled from some Suburra alley. His eyes were wild. His beard glistened with spittle. Vomit and blood spattered his plain white tunic, which wasn’t surprising considering his mistress and prefect had poisoned his wine at lunch.

This whole paragraph really gives you a glimpse into Commodus’s mindset, even if we don’t see his thoughts. He is quite literally at his wit’s end. His mistress and prefect have just tried to assassinate him. Everyone is against him. He is completely alone; no father, no lover.

Except Narcissus.

But if you could look past that, Commodus hadn’t changed much since he was eighteen, lounging in his campaign tent in the Danubian Forest. He was thirty-one now, but the years had barely touched him. To the horror of Rome’s fashionistas, he had grown his hair out long and had a shaggy beard to resemble his idol, Hercules. Otherwise he was the picture of manly Roman perfection. One might almost have thought he was an immortal god, as he so often claimed to be.

Not very important but short-haired teenaged Commodus canon 👍

Sike, this can be important because it is INTERESTING that Commodus deviates from the traditional Roman culture here. He grows his hair out, as well as a beard. Roman men didn’t typically do that.

But you know who does?

Greek men. Such as Heracles (which is why Commodus does so.)

I find this VERRRYYY interesting, especially paired with his relationship with Apollo. Because if you look at Commodus…he’s not very Roman, no? I’d say he’s more Greek-flavored than Roman.

Because here’s the deal: Besides the longer hair, Commodus (historically, at least) also liked to sing and dance. That was 100% accepted for men to do in Greece, but in Rome?

Rome had a very convoluted attitude towards singing and dancing. It was essentially “oh the upper class OBVIOUSLY can get SUPERB teachers for it, but if they're TOO GOOD AT IT they are NO BETTER THAN A WOMAN OR A SLAVE!!!!”

The kicker here is that the Greeks were typically slaves within Rome. They were regularly hired by the Roman elite to perform music and dances.

(Interesting how Apollo is their god, too.)

Out of all the Romans, out of the Roman elite…Apollo falls in love with the most Greek one he can find.

What’s even better is that Commodus continues the trend of ‘Apollo’s lovers are related to his domains’ because of music and dance.

That is what they bonded over. You bet Apollo made Commodus feel better over what he liked doing when the society he lived in looked down on it.

My poor, precious heart 🥲

“They tried to kill me,” he snarled. “I know it was them! I won’t die. I’ll show them all!” My heart ached to see him this way. Only yesterday, I’d been so hopeful. We’d practiced fighting techniques all afternoon. Strong and confident, he’d wrestled me to the ground and would have broken my neck if I’d been a regular mortal. After he let me up, we’d spent the rest of the day laughing and talking as we used to in the old days. Not that he knew my true identity, but still… disguised as Narcissus, I was sure I could restore the emperor’s good humor, eventually rekindle the embers of the glorious young man I’d once known. And yet this morning, he’d woken up more bloodthirsty and manic than ever.

Ouch. Owie. This hurts.

Time to discuss Apollo’s disguise now.

Narcissus, now, was a real person. But it appears in the RRverse, Narcissus was Apollo the whole time. And Apollo’s goal here was to, and I quote; “restore the emperor’s good humor [and] eventually rekindle the embers of the glorious young man I’d once known.”

Apollo initially disguised himself because he wanted to stop Commodus from going down his bloody, awful path. Apollo had been keeping such a close watch on what was happening that he knew things were getting bad enough to warrant his interference, with the hope of steering his former lover away from a dark fate.

*insert ‘I can fix him!’ meme here* ah, Apollo. If only you could RIP

Also wow, Commous wrestled Apollo— Apollo, who beat Ares in a wrestling match— to the ground? And would have broken his neck if he were mortal?

I’m guessing Apollo was holding back here, considering…well, considering the ending of this scene heh. But I doubt Apollo was a slouch even holding back, so Commodus is probably very good at hand-to-hand combat. Sheer brute force is exactly his style.

I approached cautiously, as if he were a wounded animal. “You won’t die from the poison. You’re much too strong for that.” “Exactly!” He pulled himself up on the couch, his knuckles white with effort. “I’ll feel better tomorrow, as soon as I behead those traitors!” “Perhaps it would be better to rest for a few days,” I suggested. “Take some time to recuperate and reflect.” “REFLECT?” He winced from the pain. “I don’t need to reflect, Narcissus. I will kill them and hire new advisors. You, perhaps? You want the job?”

It’s really telling how much Commodus trusts Apollo— that is to say, Narcissus— here.

It’s also telling how Apollo— his lover— is using his father’s words to get him to stop.

Marcus Aurelius’s advice is coming out of Apollo’s mouth, but Commodus has no idea; he does not know it’s Apollo telling him this.

Not until it’s too late, that is. When it’s revealed once and for all that he has no intention of stopping.

But it does make you wonder what Commodus would have done if he had known it was Apollo. Would the combined might of his father’s advice and his lover be enough to prevent him from killing more innocent people?

Or would it have only made things worse?

I did not know whether to laugh or cry. While Commodus concentrated on his beloved games, he turned the powers of state over to prefects and cronies… all of whom tended to have a very short life expectancy. “I’m just a personal trainer,” I said. “Who cares? I will make you a nobleman! You will rule Commodiana!” I flinched at the name. Outside the palace, no one accepted the emperor’s rechristening of Rome. The citizens refused to call themselves Commodians. The legions were furious that they were now known as Commodianae. Commodus’s crazy proclamations had been the final straw for his long-suffering advisors. “Please, Caesar,” I implored him. “A rest from the executions and the games. Time to heal. Time to consider the consequences.” He bared his teeth, his lips specked with blood. “Don’t you start too! You sound like my father. I’m done thinking about consequences!”

Apollo is once again putting on his Marcus Aurelius hat.

But once again…Commodus does not listen. He’s done listening to wise counsel. He’s done doing what other people have told him to do.

He’s emperor, after all.

Nobody can stop him. He’s blessed, after all. Who would even try?

My spirits collapsed. I knew what would happen in the coming days. Commodus would survive the poisoning. He would order a ruthless purge of his enemies. The city would be decorated with heads on pikes. Crucifixions would line the Via Appia. My priests would die. Half the senate would perish. Rome itself, the bastion of the Olympian gods, would be shaken to its core. And Commodus would still be assassinated…just a few weeks or months later, in some other fashion. I inclined my head in submission. “Of course, Caesar. May I draw you a bath?”

Read no further if you wish for a happy ending 😢

Commodus grunted assent. “I should get out of these filthy clothes.” As I often did for him after our workout sessions, I filled his great marble bath with steaming rose-scented water. I helped him out of his soiled tunic and eased him into the tub. For a moment, he relaxed and closed his eyes. I recalled how he looked sleeping beside me when we were teens. I remembered his easy laugh as we raced through the woods, and the way his face scrunched up adorably when I bounced grapes off his nose.

Their relationship was more carefree in nature. It was more teenager-esque, with Apollo even saying “when we were teens”, despite the fact he is merely a teen in body.

Even so…

I sponged away the spittle and blood from his beard. I gently washed his face. Then I closed my hands around his neck. “I’m sorry.” I pushed his head underwater and began to squeeze.

Apollo begins with gentleness. With cleaning him off. He doesn’t immediately kill him— perhaps to give both of them one last moment of peace.

But then that gentleness turns to murder.

Commodus was strong. Even in his weakened state, he thrashed and fought. I had to channel my godly might to keep him submerged, and in doing so, I must have revealed my true nature to him. He went still, his blue eyes wide with surprise and betrayal. He could not speak, but he mouthed the words: You. Blessed. Me.

Apollo is forced to reveal himself in all his glory— and in that moment, they are both aware of his betrayal. Commodus is floored by what he sees— by who he sees.

This isn’t merely his trainer who he has grown to trust.

This is his lover who he has loved for decades.

The lover who blessed and reassured him that everything would be fine.

But it’s not.

Apollo’s the one with the hands around his throat, and all Commodus can do is throw his promise back in his face: You. Blessed. Me.

*and this is the moment everyone knew: they started bawling*

Tissues, anyone?

The accusation forced a sob from my throat. The day his father died, I had promised Commodus: You will always have my blessings. Now I was ending his reign. I was interfering in mortal affairs—not just to save lives, or to save Rome, but because I could not stand to see my beautiful Commodus die by anyone else’s hands.

And even at the end, we can still see the toxicity that permeates their relationship.

Commodus took Apollo’s love and support for granted. He thought he could do anything he wished because he had the love and blessing of a god.

Apollo loved Commodus so much that he couldn’t stand the thought of someone else killing him. He could have kept his own hands clean of the kill, but he did not.

Because he wouldn’t be able to bear it to allow someone else to do the deed.

His last breath bubbled through the whiskers of his beard. I hunched over him, crying, my hands around his throat, until the bathwater cooled.

Even after Commodus is dead and gone, Apollo stays sitting there. Crying. He is utterly distraught by what he has done, and will continue to torment himself over it.

Perhaps even for eternity.

Britomartis was wrong. I didn’t fear water. I simply couldn’t look at the surface of any pool without imagining Commodus’s face, stung with betrayal, staring up at me.

That, my friends, is how you write an ending. That is how you write a tragic, doomed romance.

This is the deepest romance in all of Rick’s books. And we’ve only gotten through the flashback scenes.

We— and Rick— are merely getting warmed up.

#ramblings of an oracle #copollo #toa meta #toa analysis #the trials of apollo #trials of apollo #pjo apollo #toa apollo #toa commodos #apollodus #apollo x commodus #toa #pjo hoo toa

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