#.outbox

[il-mostrc]

With fingers woven, he gives a slanted smile before gesturing for Cloud (@cloudvii) to take a seat across from him by means of a nod to his head. "That may be the case. However, sessions are an hour long. I'm afraid you're stuck here for another…" The sleeve is pulled back from his wrist to expose his timepiece. "… fifty minutes."

On the contrary, Hannibal thinks this is the greatest gift ever. "If Rufus ShinRa has brought you to my door, he must care for your wellbeing. He isn't so facetious with his money or so I heard. Least one forget, the greatest gift is a sound mind." He tapped the side of his temple.

"Rufus ShinRa is paying for my therapy with you. I'll make this easy; he's the problem. Now we're done here. Enjoy the fat check." worst b-day gift.

[textsfromthetva]

Loki + tumblr [148/?]

[02511213942]

Show us a little drawing of Neil ...pls ? Neil save me ....

yessir!!!!! 3 neil layers from an old sketch doc

[housemdsuggestions]

What if wilson had a fursona and house finds out

[boyfridged]

I think an really interesting thing about when they have the character's say that Bruce was saving Jason a life of crime or teaching Jason to be good is that it not only isn't true, it directly contradicts other canon.

We have at least two separate alternate time lines (caused specifically by time travel events where the consequences included no Bruce adoption) both of which were Jason was still a moral person. In Flashpoint he is a priest who believes in helping people not matter if they are church goers or not. A world without young justice has AU Jason die trying to do the right thing.

On top of that Jason is at the very least strongly implied to have taken care of his sick mother and the more recent portrayals of him meeting people from his pre-Bruce life also portray him as a caring person.

This adds up to although the writer means for the character to be right, and that Bruce is so noble for helping (failing) this poor child. They are actually being canonically classist towards Jason as what they are saying is an untrue assumption based on his background.

Selina in Gotham War saying he taught Jason to be good is her being classist. Alfred treating Jason like he was just a bad seed Bruce couldn't save is classist. Bruce and his whole reasoning that it is okay for Jason specifically to be endangered because of his background is classist.

Obviously that isn't the intent but when writers who are less classist about Jason write him these classist things aren't be true. It doesn't matter if Zdarsky retcons Jason being such a 'bad kid' when there are a bunch of other writers who didn't do that.

(Zdarsky: Look at this 'bad kid' before Bruce taught him morals. Ignore all the times he was portrayed as a good kid, those aren't canon anymore. Bruce is the source of all his morality. Bruce is actually less classist than Jason. This is definitely not classist writing.)

you summarized it excellently. i think it is also related to bruce projecting both his own trauma and his own worldview on jay and his background. i have written a very long post about this exactly, with receipts too. you can find it here. oh and another one, in which i explain why it would be more interesting to allow bruce to be wrong too.

and as i cited it in the above post – bruce is wrong and that fact is quite evident in-text, at least in the early versions of the story. this is also what i love so much about barr’s detective comics run – because barr calls bullshit and gets leslie to tell bruce his reasoning behind putting jason in field are unbecoming and that he is “doing it for himself.”

of course, post jay’s death that awareness has evaporated and instead we got revised versions of the story that were more than ever deadset on proving that jason did possess some fatal flaw, a violent seed that bruce did not manage to eradicate (like the issues of gotham knights, which again, i have no idea as to why they are so popular, given how malicious they are in the evaluation of jason’s fate). the latest retcons such as zdarsky’s work also fall into the trap of attempting to justify bruce’s decisions irt jason & his role as robin by diminishing jay and rewriting his story to be tainted with inevitability. even a death in the family (2020, the animated movie) provides the audience with plenty alternative endings, all of which are to make a murderer or a villain out of jason.

that is not to say that i think there should not be a sense of inevitability of jay’s tragedy at all – but its source is stubbornly misplaced for bruce’s benefit despite even the actual aditf storyline and barr’s run before placing the responsibility for it in bruce’s inability to compartmentalise his parental and vigilante duties (the chapter of aditf titled choices relates to bruce’s decision to go after the joker instead of jason; it does turn out it did not matter as jason has long been tied up in that family-vs-heroics conflict.)

bringing up the alternative versions of jay is a good way to illustrate it; in the world in which he does not meet bruce, he is not damned to participate in the cycle of abuse forever. i’m not gonna lie, i also wish countdown went in that direction and has given us more glances at realities like that. because i do believe that jason’s resolve to stop at nothing when faced by crime, the sense of obligation to do so that leaves his hands bloody, is something that was cultivated in him primarily by the robin training.

[tsaricides]

(Sorry for sending this here but your askbox in boyfridged is not working for me 😓) I read the new issue of the Red Hood Hill mini and I have to say I'm fascinated by the kiss one because its literally so out of nowhere, but mainly because it's such a representation of how writers attempt to shove Jason into this boxes that fit the more classical comicbook antihero (not that i think he even is one) without actually writing him as a distinct character.

In abstract I think the exploration of relationships both with friendships and romances with Jason would be interesting just because he has been so isolated and grew up in circumstances that didn't really allow for more normal socialization? and also because he is genuinely so intense and constantly losing the idgf war that hes bound to be an absolute little weirdo in any dynamic like he has no parameters of what a regular friendship or relationship would be or function like anymore

So its so bizarre to see writers still attempting to play him as a womanizer who just does random hookups without accounting for yknow his actual character

all very true; i've seen a lot of people very firmly reject the idea of him being given a romantic storyline at all, or even being quite hellbent on jason having no friends; and i want to say i do agree he is not well equipped to handle any of these relationships, but this is specifically why exploring them would be so fascinating. as you said, he is so intense in terms of how he seeks any sort of relationship out, but something that is also apparent in-text is that he very fiercely searches for connections with people to whom he can relate (one of the main reasons he looks to donna, who has came back from the dead!) i'm also of a rather unpopular opinion that because of that he would be very prone to entering relationships (both platonic and perhaps under certain circumstances even romantic/sexual in nature) that would be detrimental to him, as despite everything he remains quite naive (and i'm saying this lovingly. this is not an attack, despite the word itself having negative connotations) in his grand ideas about love. and, as you pointed out, he has been so isolated that he doesn't really know what normal socialisation should be like, which on top of his own perhaps at times unpleasant social habits makes him rather vulnerable.

alas. dc would rather make him into a cardboard cutout with competence i have no idea where and how he would gain. i understand some of it is logical in a sense that he had to develop *some* communication skills in order for his plans to work out (which is a very generous claim, given most of them actually fell through--) , but there is a difference between commanding people/investigation versus personal relationships-- and i would be even very much interested to see the hints of his own inability to form the latter affect the former (which we used to get. sparsely.)

[roobylavender]

hmm this may interest you, do you have thoughts on this subject matter character-wise or in a meta sense?:

https://www.tumblr.com/thecruellestmonth/740875315694501888/batman-turning-points-3-batman-under-the-red

personally i'm not a fan of bruce's disavowal of fatherhood much for the same reasons that i'm not a fan of his installing the good soldier plaque. these to me are both writing choices driven more by writers' desire to explore theoretical concepts than they are driven by a character study of bruce himself. the concept of robin as an occupation inherently equivalent to child abuse is interesting. the concept of wondering what right a father has to children he has adopted towards that end is interesting. that being said, exploring the former concept didn't necessarily demand eliminating robin altogether. exploring the latter concept didn't necessarily demand bruce completely disavowing himself of any accountability. and ultimately both writing choices ignore that a core aspect of bruce's relationships with the robins was wanting to be a good parent, or at the least a good guardian. certainly something more than a mere ally or friend. he took responsibility for these children because he wanted to help guide them towards a certain path in life where they would no longer be ruled by their trauma the way he was and is by his. allowing them to become robin to that end was obv more than questionable, but all too many writers forget and even go so far as to ignore that bruce knew that. he was well aware of his status as an enabler and he eventually hated himself for it deeply. he felt perpetually guilty and reluctant to ask dick for any support once the latter became an adult bc he didn't want to sanction and (in his mind) effectively require dick to do something that would endanger his life on his own orders. he could realistically never stop dick from pursuing vigilantism, but he could at least refuse to ask dick for that commitment any longer so that dick had complete freedom to make his own choices as to the matter. regardless, bruce had to live with the guilt of having enabled the existence of robin to begin with, and he intended to live with that guilt. it was his closest friend and his primary means of survival

if anything, that to me is precisely why his disavowal of fatherhood doesn't make sense. bruce is a poor communicator and he has a tendency to take upon all burdens at the expense of his loved ones feeling like he no longer values them or their support, but that doesn't negate the fact that he's quite hyperaware of his flaws. he's a far more relentless critic of himself than he is of others, and that stems as much from self-righteousness as it does guilt. he's supposed to be better. he's supposed to set an example. he's supposed to do the right thing. he's supposed to save the whole city even if he's only one person. and so on and so forth. bruce is possessive of highly unrealistic expectations for himself bc he's a ridiculously emotional person trying to tell himself to act like a robot. he repeatedly sets himself up for failure and then when he inevitably fails he kicks himself down like a dog. he is essentially a walking man-child simply because he cares too much and that often leads him to make stupid, emotionally driven choices: like taking random children into his home and teaching them how to channel their emotions through fighting crime, because if it worked for him it might work for them too, esp when they've got the added benefit of his supervision and well-intended (albeit awkward) companionship

all of bruce's circumstances and internalizations and traumas point to him taking what i would term excessive ownership of his crimes. he's a self-made pity puddle because he thinks everything is his fault. dick barely having a life outside of vigilantism is his fault. dick nearly falling to his death is his fault. jason failing to properly process his parental trauma is his fault. jason getting blown up by the joker is his fault. i simply cannot imagine a world where bruce isolates himself from caring or from taking the blame because doing the latter has been his modus operandi for so long. it makes more sense for bruce to disavow fatherhood in the specific context of not wanting to take the place that john and mary or willis and catherine will always occupy; it makes less sense for bruce to disavow fatherhood in the specific context of raising and loving dick and jason as if they were his own. it's very much a you don't have to call me dad but when i call you "chum" i mean "son" situation. he's never one to burden others intentionally (although we obv know this rarely plays out the way he wants it to), rather he intentionally burdens himself. that's precisely what knightfall as an arc is stellar at depicting, regardless of the fact that it coincides with the existence of the good soldier plaque. bruce in the aftermath of jason's death has to blame himself excessively because it's the only way he knows how to cope. i've never understood depictions of his grief with an emphasis on jason's share of the blame bc not only is it classist towards jason, it's also inconsistent with bruce's own character and tendency to believe that every bad thing that happens is his fault. it's why i'm not really a fan of gotham knights #43-45. a death in the family makes it clear that bruce blames himself for not allowing jason to have the space and time to process his trauma properly before throwing him into the suit. allowing him to have hope never even comes into the picture

and i'm not sure if anyone has ever considered this, but the disavowal of fatherhood really confuses me when you remember tim exists. why is bruce's disavowal with regards to jason even necessary when the crux of tim's entry into the mythos is precisely the fact that he isn't someone over whom bruce can similarly exercise responsibility and ownership.. it's far more interesting to explore the tightrope bruce walks with that partnership because he's easily in a place to deny responsibility and yet obv he ultimately can't because despite whatever reluctance he expressed initially, he eventually gave in. the tone of the grant/brefoygle run also helps with depicting that dilemma. we're not primarily privy to the bruce of old anymore, who while quiet and awkward nonetheless expressed a capacity for caretaking. there are remnants of that of course (esp after tim's mother dies). but the bruce of the 90s is more imperious and domineering because he's been hardened by trauma. he delivers grand speeches about vigilantism and justice. he sends tim across the pond because he needs proper training. the fact that they're neighbors and get burgers together sometimes doesn't detract from the physical divide present there because tim is ultimately someone else's son and possessive of a life entirely divorced of what he does in the mask. he can walk away without preamble in a way that dick (at least until adulthood) and jason never could. plenty of writers recognized that and personally i believe it's what made the 90s robin run interesting to read, but i also believe writers retroactively projected the necessity of an emotionally distant bruce to that narrative onto the bruce of old. it was progressively rewritten to be a constant rather than a development in the wake of a highly transgressive event. and unfortunately that's tainted every interaction and/or recollection that he has with/of jason afterward

[darkartistyt]

i know you just said pl or submas. but. eve and sissel? eve and sissel two kitty cat best friends?

listen eve's from pl(vspw) its good enough (plus how can i pass up an excuse to draw cats)

id love for them to interact sometime i think theyd be pals. maybe add constantine and missile to the group so the puppers can be besties too :)

[corditeheart]

‘i’ve been having nightmares.’

the bird eater prompts

The fire escape is narrow, cramped with the two of them on it, but the air, at least, is fresh. Sort of, anyway; the smoking probably isn't helping, but at least that's familiar. That tastes the same.

Xu holds out her half-done cigarette in offer, because it's easier than getting up and finding the pack. Her slight shift sends an ominous creak through the weather-worn metal.

One day, all this old metal is going to rip right off the side of the building, and send both of them plummeting with it.

I hate New York.

But she loves Chi, so Xu turns her attention away from the generalized annoyances, and to the more immediate issue:

"--Do you want to talk about them?"

[hemipenis]

where on ig did u see his mango 😭

They straight up erased your username, too, homie 😭

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8bvfSJOeOP/?igsh=eGJkazN1dzI5Y2Nv

[02511213942]

I just wanted to say that whenever I feel down I look at your bluey andreil art and smile :) life is so good sometimes

😭 THANKS CROW!!! this makes my heart feel 10000x biggerr here have another blueydreil!!! 💗

[housemdsuggestions]

can you draw hilson in The Titanic

[boyfridged]

hello! can i request some Jason centric fic recs?

this is actually such a difficult question. in spite of years spent reading jason-centric fanfics, it is very rare that i find something that i genuinely enjoy. still, i do have some favourites that i go back to.

beneficiary by @sirsparklepants (1/1, 2k)

my favourite post-death jay fanfic. it's such a beautiful, bitter-sweet conclusion to his legacy.

untitled by @pendulum-north (1/1)

this is a very short ficlet. absolutely riveting language, as expected of a poet. my favourite take on the canon divergence that is bruce dying instead of jason. would sell my soul for north to actually write more on it.

what the living do by Anonymous (1/1, 6,5k)

stunning. perhaps my all-time favourite. jason believes he's dead. dick takes him on a road trip.

complications by JHSC (1/1, 6k)

i want to tell you so badly why i adore this fanfic but that would spoil the conclusion. so instead i can just tell you that it contains my unpopular agenda for jason's character development.

the (family) doctor's appointment by smleeish (1/1, 4k)

i have some qualms with the minuatiae of this work but this sickfick surprised me with the depth of the character study. the conclusion is so beautiful in the way it gets to the core of jason's values.

jet black crow by starknjarvis (series, 2/2, 19k)

i normally avoid sex-worker aus so please do know that this had to really impress me to be found on this list. the main reason for which it winded up here is a conversation jason has with bruce in the second installment.

the clay steals the clay by zipadeea (1/1, 2,5k)

just give it a read. a haunting... fix-it. i think about the usage of catholic themes in this fanfic often.

PLUTO. by orpheusaki (@damianbugs) (1/1, 22k)

a huge reason for which i love this one so much is the thematic similarity to the earth-51 arc in countdown. there's such good understanding of what made jason who he is as the red hood & his relationship with batman as the symbol and with bruce as his father.

things that make it warm by one_step_closer_to_death (@hopeworth) (1/1, 4k)

my favourite jay & dick fanfic! if you've been following this blog for a while, you know i am very particular about their relationship. you also know that i believe in jason's need to reconnect with his childhood and that dick should be a part of it, and this piece delivers that in the sweetest way.

of broken, blazing wings by FrEShAVocaNoob (44/44, 190k)

before i get to the praise, i have to say that this fanfic does talia very dirty and that i am not a fan of how it deals with mentions of jason's childhood & his robin days. however, it is also 190k of jason having a perpetual mental breakdown and it follows canon event starting from the lost days and finishing with countdown. it has great pacing and an admirable balance of being plot-driven and the focus on character development. jay is so painfully young and lost. i also really enjoyed dick's attitude. it's a riot and an emotional rollercoaster. i will never recover from it.

compulsory (shameless) self-promotion:

leave no trace, a ficlet on ouroboros.

black out days, a lost days au which is not a story at all. about talia, jason, the need to mythologise and staying away.

and my wip robin (vol 2): future nostalgia, a jay lives au that is to contain follow major batman plotpoints such no man's land and murderer/fugitive.

[userparamore]

i have the most insane anxiety about something that is completely irrational.

[roobylavender]

your last reblog is so real like bruce wayne has dark eyes to me. sorry. take it up with the universe.

i'm still riding the son sukku as bruce wayne agenda ngl

[tangleweave]

Give us six blogs you reccomend?

[ Random Asks / Accepting ]

@brooklynislandgirl - One of my all-time favorites here on Tumblr. Beth Riley, RN is a fandomless OC lovingly and painstakingly crafted from the ground up, a charitable and compassionate character so sweet you ache to see it, and she has dynamism and range the depth and width of an ocean. Both Beth and her mun Turtle are fantastic beings... so much so, it can be difficult to tell which one is real!

@morgansmornings - Another fandomless OC blog that easily incorporates into many verses. Jayden might be pouring your coffee or taking the safety off her service weapon; whatever the task, she does it with a smile. Stoat is a wonderful person, well worth befriending, and the plots are terribly fun!

@defectivexfragmented - An indie Marvel multimuse blog dedicated to the never-dull lives of Bucky Barnes, Clint Barton, and Matt Murdock (Winter Soldier, Hawkeye, and Daredevil respectively). How this mun manages to pump out so much content, I've no idea. I'm confident I'll learn the secret - what do you MEAN "just write it"? That can't be it...

@arachnidbit - An indie Spider-Man blog, inspired specifically by the Insomniac video games. Not only are they prolific, this mun has the voice of Yuri Lowenthal's Peter down cold. You know it's good content when you can hear the character in your head reciting the dialogue on the page. If you want Insomniac's Spidey, this is most definitely the one for you!

@smolcuriouskitten - Rockelle is just your average magical alien catgirl multi-platinum recording artist! ... What? Those are a dime a dozen, right? The description may seem a tad bit cracktastic, but trust me when I say this fandomless OC is delightful to write with, because the mun's only expectation is that you have fun with the writing! Rocky is really a treasure of a character to help cleanse your palate if you've been into heavy themes a bit too long.

@kylo-wrecked - I'll be honest about this one, I really never expected to see such range and such fiercely prolific devotion to this character. Dedicated to Ben Solo / Kylo Ren of Star Wars, this blog waves a proud banner over its myriad divergences and vast panoply of verses. Ben might be a family man, a politician, a dark devotee, a musician, a murderer... a world with him truly is your oyster, and a story with him is an unforgettable treasure.