#And Talia deserved a requited love

[damian-lil-babybat]

"Eventually, I will no longer drown from the overflowing of an empty cup"

Pre-Morrison Talia would be the kind of love poets would write for.

Talia al Ghul, with all her history, faults, and flaws, have no means to have had so much love for the people she cherish. But she does...she does.

"We are immortals, Habibi. When others say they love forever, they lie. But we don't have the same luxury. For people like us, forever means eternity, beyond death and even after. It is a curse, my heart. Our curse. For such promise meant to taint such noble feelings— And yet, I will never apologize for loving you."

"Boy Wonder" (2024) #4 by Juni Ba.

[pulchrasilva]

HI I SAW IN THE TAGS YOURE MAKING A CHARACTER TELL ME ABOUT THEM (THREAT) (I AM SO NORMAL ABOUT DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS)

YES I'LL TELL YOU ABOUT MY CHARACTER (finally)

Ok ok so she's a tiefling warlock (i almost made her a bard but then I realised I was just trying to make Noise 2 so I went with warlock instead. It didn't work very well)

So anyway, her name's Requital but she doesn't trust most people so everyone knows her as Talia (RequiTALIA get it). She's pretending to be a noble and thats the name of her alter ego.

Shes chaotic good and really hates the rich or anyone who takes advantage of others (even though she does it herself sometimes, shhh its tootally justified). I'd say her manner is like Janus Sanders but her like ideals are more Robin Hood. She loves stealing from people she thinks deserve it and she uses her noblewoman alterego to do that.

This is why Narula, an archfey, offered her a warlock pact. Narula is vengeful and wants to punish wrongdoers but she's been imprisoned in some kind of enchanted forest (this is my DMs backstory because for some reason we can't find any lore for Narula except her name) so she needed someone to do this for her. Obviously Requital was like hell yeah im doing that anyway, gimme powers. But if she gets too sidetracked or goes after someone Narula doesn't deem evil then she's gonna be in trooouble~

So yeah she's kinda bound to keep enacting her own form of justice on the world. BUT because she constantly surrounds herself with shitty people she's exacerbated her own trust issues and can't properly judge who deserves it anymore, which led to... problems.

She heard about a nobleman who was stockpiling wealth and assumed he was exploiting his people for his own gain. So she befriended him (she told herself that his kindness was just a facade like always) and stole all the money only to later learn that he wasn't hoarding the wealth. There was a blight plaguing his people and he'd been gathering funds to treat it. So by stealing the money, she'd actually prevented him from saving lives. More people died because of her AND she hurt someone who genuinely thought of her as a friend (and she maybe thought of as a friend too but she's not gonna admit that). So now she's trying to atone for that mistake.

All of her spells and stuff are about deception, illusion, disguise, etc (she's kinda useless in combat rip). So far she's made loads of people basically piss their pants with her Fey Presence. She's also scammed an elf diviner (i think they were a diviner at least?? They could tell the future and stuff) and managed to persuade them that she really was a noblewoman who was travelling and so didn't have much money with her but pretty please can she have that magic item she'll pay 25 of the 150 gold upfront and then have someone come back with the rest of the money soon (really hoping we don't see that elf again lol where am I gonna find 125 gold). One of the other party members overheard this and called bullshit so I had to roll with disadvantage but I nat 20ed and did it anyway!! (Obviously she's really pissed about that and is now holding blackmail over him)

Oh and in our session today she Fey Presence-ed a guy and then the SAME PERSON just BARGED IN and knocked out HER PRISONER!!!! and she's furious so she tried to kill him (multiple times) but his armour class is so high that all she managed to do was waste a spell slot and nearly stab herself lmao. Imagine a really angry kitten trying to scratch you but being held by the scruff of the neck thats her right now

In terms of appearance she's like kinda tall and pretty weak. Her skin is dark with bronze freckles and her eyes are jet black, her horns and tail are bronze and she wears her hair in long black locs which fade to red at the ends. Since getting to level 2 though one of her eyes has turned purple (like Narula's) and her horns have become more fey-like but she's been hiding this using Disguise Self so only she knows about it.

[froizetta]

This is such a good point! And for me, it ties into a broader interpretation of their characters: they both mirror each other in being Not As They Seem. Despite their superficial characteristics being complete opposites, they connect because they have a surprising amount in common. And that's because they both contain dualities.

I firmly believe that Bruce is a romantic. Yes, he's often cold and calculating in his relationships, but that's never for lack of caring. In fact, if anything he cares too much: fiercely, pathologically. He cares about Gotham so much that he practically tortures himself in the name of protecting it. He cares about people so much that he's sworn never to kill, even criminals who've caused him immense and personal suffering, because he believes everyone deserves a second chance. He cares about his family so much that he will blow up his own relationships with them if he can convince himself its for their sake. In Batman: The Knight, Bruce tries to get rid of his love so he can be more efficient, more unfeeling, but in the end its his love that becomes his true strength.

Is any of this healthy? No, not really! He's deeply emotionally repressed and can't express any of these feelings in healthy ways. But the feeling is there. And I think in love he can be reckless and impulsive, when the feeling overwhelms him. Thus the proposal to Selina; thus his many entanglements with his rogues, especially Talia, which are pretty obviously Bad Ideas from a logical standpoint. But he loves, and sometimes he can't hold that back.

Meanwhile, Clark also loves deeply, but his love drives him in a different, nearly opposite way. Clark is warm and friendly, raised by emotionally supportive parents - but he's fundamentally not human. He's always kept the alien parts of himself hidden to keep himself and his family safe, keeping his powers under careful control. Because if he slipped up, he could hurt someone, out himself, destroy his ability to be among people without quite being one of them.

And this too is out of love. He loves people, and he loves humanity. But in many ways he expresses this by keeping himself at a polite distance. Unlike Bruce, he doesn't paint himself as a loner, but for much of his existence he has few friends; he's isolated from both humanity and his own culture in ways more profound than almost anyone else can understand; he has a Fortress of Solitude in a place few others can reach, which is his closest link to his heritage on Earth. Superman separates himself from humanity, and this bleeds into Clark Kent as well.

I see nothing wrong with writing superbat in line with their friendship dynamic, with Clark being more open and Bruce more cautious. In fact, I think there's something interesting about their theoretical romantic relationship with each other being distinct from their usual relationship styles (e.g. Clark doesn't have to be cautious now because it's BRUCE, who already knows all his masks). But it would definitely be awesome to see more fics trying it the other way around once in a while. For instance, a Bruce who only holds back because he thinks his feelings are unrequited, while Clark knows it's requited but says nothing out of a fear of upsetting the balance. Superbat are so fun as a pairing because there's so much to explore there, so explore I say!!!

I want to see more superbat fics that incorporate their canonical* ways of approaching romantic relationships. I want to see a Bruce like the one who impulse proposed to Selina on a rooftop without sparing a thought to their “work” statuses or what a domestic future together would truly look like. I want to see him across from the same Clark that for decades did not allow himself an official, truthful, or committed relationship with Lois (or Lana) because of his paranoia and fear around identities and bringing them into further harm’s way.

So often in fics, Bruce is painted as the one overanalyzing every potential outcome, hiding his romantic approaches behind layers of masks and secret identities, any denying himself a relationship on the smallest of technicalities—but it’s Clark who tried that for years.

So often in fics, Clark is written as the one to take the leap, to enter relationships with deep hope and trust and commitment—when Bruce has had his heart broken by this too many times in the past.

The way their relationships are commonly written mimic their modern friendship’s development—it is in no way out of character—but I would love to see more that is based on their romantic styles, not just platonic.

*(obligatory disclaimer that this is a mass generalization of some canon and common fanfic depections)