#Dick Grayson deserves better

[kazbrekkeriselite]

Tim: I haven’t slept in 72 hours…  Jason: I haven’t slept in 80. I’m the insomnia king!  Dick: Ha! I haven’t slept in 90 hours, I’m aiming for an even 100.  Damian: What the fuck is wrong with you people

[weirdheadcanons]

Seriously?!? They let Dan Didio write Nightwing again?!

And of course he decided it wasn't just enough to kill Nightwing, but make every freaking crisis his fault for surviving.

Not killed just once, but every time. Never ending loop. And apparently, it's killing one of the very few genuinely nice, genuinely sweet characters that can bring about the Golden Age, while his murderer gets a happily ever after.

Seriously, DC should stop letting those who hate certain characters write for them.

[lenoryt13]

This story is a series, go read it!

[geekishfangirl]

I can’t view Batman/Bruce as a real hero

So I’ve gotten into DC recently, or more specifically I’ve gotten into the Batfam, and the more I learn about Bruce Wayne the harder it is for me to look to him as a hero.

I’ll preface all this by saying I have consumed very little DC content, so if something I say is not actually canon pls let me know.

It started when I learned that this man seemingly has an absolute no kill rule. Not a “I try to avoid killing and only do it when absolutely necessary” rule, but a “I refuse to kill anyone no matter the circumstances” rule. I honestly hate this because it’s not effective in any way. Take the Joker for example, Batman has to fight him over and over again because they simply cannot seem to keep that man in prison and Batman won’t kill him or let anyone else do it. I think this is because he wants to believe that anyone can change, and they can, but just because they CAN doesn’t mean that they WILL. People have to choose to change and the Joker has had like 30 chances to do so, yet he continues to kill innocent people. How many innocents have to die before someone acknowledges that the Joker will never choose to be a better person and finally decide to do what’s necessary to protect everyone? They either need to find a way to keep him in jail or just take him out.

This got worse when I learned about Jason Todd. Here you have a poor boy taken in by Bruce, who idealizes him and views him as a father, and when he gets kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by the Joker he dies alone. When he is brought back to life, he’s mad at Bruce, not because Bruce didn’t save him, but Bruce didn’t kill the Joker to avenge him. Because Bruce didn’t love him more than he loved Justice. Hell, even on his grave, “A good soldier”. I’ve seen ppl say that maybe he didn’t say son because he didn’t want to erase their family ties and the kids never took his last name and sure, I get that. But putting a good soldier instead? He didn’t have to do that. Jason wasn’t a soldier, he was a little boy. It seems like Bruce forgets that about the Robins sometimes. (None of this is even getting into my feelings about Bruce taking in multiple children and having them fight crime, literally risking their lives every night but then this rant would be even longer)

And apparently Bruce fucking decks Dick because Dick was asking him why he let him become Robin before he was ready? Bro cannot take any criticism for his actions I swear. I mean, even if he never officially adopts them (I’m very confused on that tbh) he does still view them as his kids. He still helped raise them. After all, they were all underage when he met them and took them in. So to straight up deck your eldest and tell him to get out literally right after your other kid was murdered solely because he questioned you is actually wild.

Then you have the whole batarang incident, which just makes me question his morals more because he’s got the whole “no killing whatsoever” thing going on but then decides, “I won’t kill the man who murdered my son and countless other innocents, but I can and will slit my son’s throat and leave him for dead.” Like, HUH??? Also, didn’t Dick accidentally kill the Joker once and Bruce went out of his way to REVIVE HIM? Honestly feels like Bruce has some weird relationship with the Joker cause he seems to care about him more than anything. LET THAT MONSTER DIE!

I saw someone say that they thought the “no killing” thing wasn’t effective but was accurate to Bruce’s character because his vigilanteism isn’t actually mainly about helping but about punishing himself for what happened to his parents. And if you kill the villains when you need to, you can’t keep punishing yourself through fighting them. Like a self-sabotage thing. I thought that was super interesting but it would also just go along with him not being a truly effective hero, cause he won’t make the hard calls that are sometimes needed.

In conclusion, while I am sure Bruce has done good for people, it’s hard to see him as a truly effective hero (or a good person/father for that matter) when he does stuff like this.

[elflynns-horde-of-stuff]

Gotham War frustrates me to no end. There is no emotional follow through for anything. If there was, it was in no way consistent. Bruce is once again bringing his shitty parenting skills to nightmare levels.

[hoppitty-doppity]

Oooooo I can tell we have similar fic tastes (Dick angst with limited Tim lol) got any favorites??

yes!! i absolutely do have favorites!

this next one has major character death so if you don’t like that then do not click it !

this one has roydickwally as the main pairing and also bad parent and good parent bruce wayne(it’s 2 diff universes) this one also has tim being semi decent ig but like i can deal with him in it lol

these are some of my personal favorites!! there’s more that i like, but i always forget to bookmark!

[cardinalcheerio]

Half the time I'm like, "can we have jason todd media not all about his death"?

Then I realize. If I died I would never shut up about it.

"Can you get up and grab that for me?"- absolutely not. My legs are tired from death.

"Will you go to the store with me?"- leaving the house?!? What if I die AGAIN.

So yeah, anyone who thinks jason talks about his death too much. Be honest. We'd all do the exact same thing.

[brucewaynehater101]

I can't. I start sobbing with laughter every single time I watch this. I can watch this three times in a row and still be crying with chuckles.

Tik Tok by osmiiv and NOT by me. I recommend checking out their page

[casscainmainly]

The Batkids' deaths vary in severity/importance, but they all serve to shake some core part of their superhero identity. Sometimes it affirms their existing identity (Cass' first death), or it spurs them to discover more about what their current identity means (Damian, Tim); sometimes, however, it severs them from who they were. Dick's transition into Agent 37 and Cass' turn to evil both stem from very temporary deaths, where the death is not as important as what happens after. It's not the pill or Cass' dip into the Pit that actually changes them, but the boundary these events create between their old and new selves.

Which is why Jason's death is different from all of the above. Beyond being (at one point) permanent, his loss of self is irreversible. Dick and Cass claw their way back to their identities pre-death, Nightwing and Batgirl respectively; Jason does not. He cannot, because he doesn't fit Robin anymore, and Robin doesn't fit him. It's not only that his sense of self is shaped by his death, but that it was, in many ways, destroyed by it.

But it's ultimately Stephanie's death that links death so closely to the loss of a superhero identity. Her death, unlike the others, is instigated by loss - Batman fires her from Robin, which leads to the events of War Games. On her deathbed, Steph asks "was I ever really Robin?", and Bruce replies "of course you were." It's a sweet moment, but it's retroactive. He can only affirm her legacy as Robin in the past tense (it's over; it can't impact anyone anymore). Her non-existent memorial can be read not only as a lack of care for Stephanie Brown the person, but for Stephanie Brown the Robin - Jason's Robin is immortalised, Stephanie's Robin is erased. She dies because she was made Robin, and she was made Robin to die.

I guess my point is that everyone's deaths are linked to how much they are valued within their mantle, not just in a metatextual sense (as in, how much DC editorial liked them) but also in the text itself - deaths either instigate further ownership of their name, or dismantle their sense of self. This is why it's important to recognise Steph's tenure as Robin (both in comics and fandom). Recognising Steph-as-Robin is a direct refutation of her death, a long-delayed memorial.

[newbieineverything]

Who is the “best” Robin fights/arguments/claims are inherently unfair, because they’re often times put forward by someone who has very clearly only read 1 of the Robin’s main appearances, and like. That’s fair i’m not gonna go read all of Dick’s Golden Age appearances and I don’t expect anyone too, but before you go shitting on other characters maybe you should idk um like read a couple comics with them instead of just assuming based on fanon + there’s the issue of Steph never getting a fair shot as Robin so she’s been in 3 issues + there’s DC’s racism in the way they write Damian getting in the way of everything including him being able to rightfully have his time as Robin + Jason was pretty much a copy paste of Dick’s robin in a blond wig (which got retconned out) + intelligence isn’t a single metric or how well you’d do on an IQ test (standardized testing is racist bullshit) + personal bias is literally just too big for any of these arguments. I will always argue that Dick’s the best Robin, because he’s my blorbo, I will always hold in my hands the panels of him speaking like 10 different languages to prove to you he’s smart, and will always have comic recs ready for you to go read, and most other comic reading stans will have the exact type of thing ready for their favorite character. Does this keep me from getting involved in these fights? No. For the honor of blorbo- *transforms into she-ra*

[kazbrekkeriselite]

Dick Grayson is my comfort character and I will not take any slander whatsoever

I enter a fanfic.

It’s beautiful, it has paragraph breaks, and emasculate writing.

It has dick Grayson slander…

I exit the fanfic

[thedevilundercover]

Yk what dc definitely needs? An ao3 cameo bc have you seen your fan base, there is definitely some rando writing Batman/Brucie fics in Gotham because Batman Is Not beating the sugar baby allegations.

And have you seen the fucking batfam, Jason writes BatBruce fanfics whenever he feels Chaotic and Tim edits them whenever he get pissed at Bruce

Now I really want to see like fandom wars in the DCU but it's just the Batkids fighting for their ship bc they want [blank superhero] as their step parent

Imagine going on Tumblr and it's just like the same 10 blogs threatening each other because they don't agree with who's fucking batman? It'd be hilarious

Twitter fic this Twitter fic that, what about tumblr fics, huh?

[lenoryt13]

I'm here to let you know that the Brotherhood series has new chapters posted.

Go read the story on AO3

PS. This digital art was made using an AI app, I myself don't know how to draw, all I did was type the information into the app.

[cat-soul-in-human-body]

I agreed so much with this , i always hate the tag of bad siblings/brother Dick Grayson, like it shouldn't exist in the first place . Also people in fandom don't acknowledge that Bruce has been awful to dick at many times , like the whole spiral , i never get how dick got blamed for it , when Bruce freaking was the mastermind , he didn't even wanted to go in first place . Dick he is literally dies, his heart stops even for some minutes but still, i hate how they make it fake to everyone

And I fully acknowledge that a BIG gripe I have with how willing people are to ignore or invalidate scenes where Bruce is abusive with his kids because it doesn't fit into their preferred view of him as a character....

Like, I have my issues with how people interact with abuse as a topic and trope in media, granted, but I've always additionally taken issue with how matter of fact a lot of Batfandom is about being willing to look the other way about many of Bruce's worst moments because they're like That's Not MY Bruce...

And its like, okay, I get that, I can sympathize.....

But its both weird and OBNOXIOUS to me how at the same time, so much of fandom is so much LESS willing to extend the same kind of allowances to Dick's worst moments, even when....as I was just talking about....many of THEM have brainwashing or amnesia or other contexts that a ton of Bruce's worst moments just flat out do not have!

Whatever you may think about Bruce's scenes of abuse, it can not be denied that like....NTT #55? A hard, brutal story, but the Bruce in it was still in possession of his own faculties. He was grieving. Absolutely. But he was Bruce. Nobody ever tried to claim he was possessed, that someone was mind controlling him. He did that.

The Bruce who knocked out Dick's tooth in the Court of Owls story.....again, just Bruce. I don't even like citing that particular scene because I find it so gratuitous but yet again....this is not a possessed or mind controlled Bruce. Bruce with Jason in too many stories to name...Just Bruce. Etc, etc.

Now juxtapose that with the FIXATION so much of fandom has always had on the subject of DICK'S temper....even though....he has never actually tried to beat his family members to death, or punched them in a fit of anger (he's usually the one on the receiving end of Jason or Tim's punches, if not Bruce's)....

While at the same time citing things like.....Dick's scathing words to Donna in their fight while....he was brainwashed.....or his attitude towards Kory or Alfred in....the exact same story time frame. Rinse and repeat for the Ric Grayson era, or his attitude around the time of his intended wedding to Kory, when he was very much initially characterized as being all over the place and talking about feelings of violation in the aftermath of everything with Mirage....his fight with Roy over leadership of the Titans did NOT happen in a vacuum, and let's not forget about how completely twisted people have made Dick and Tim's dynamic during the Red Robin era when so much of what's claimed about Dick's behavior towards Tim is just...not even accurate, let alone without context, but all of this context? Across all of these instances? Lost completely when these specific moments in time are plucked out of their larger stories and stitched together to form the tapestry of Dick Grayson's Infamous Temper and Bad Acts Towards Friends & Family.

And that's so....ugly to me.

There's no escaping that juxtaposition, in my mind. The allowances that are made for Bruce's character, and many other Batfamily members like oh say, being able to see Jason as the one who values Tim the most out of all his siblings, never mind that time he almost beat him to death in Titans Tower, etc, etc.....

At the exact same time as these allowances are made, the exact OPPOSITE energy is displayed towards acknowledging and cataloguing the context of these various events upheld as proof of why Dick's Not So Great, Actually.

And that will always be at the heart of my issues with this fandom.

I'm actually fine with people not wanting to view Bruce as an abusive father. I GET IT. I can sympathize even as I personally do see value in exploring the dynamic that's resulted from many of these stories that others shy away from as its not what they want to see in these characters' stories.

But what I will never be fine with is how the character who has DEFINITIVELY been on the receiving end of more instances of physical abuse from his family, let alone Bruce himself.....is continually judged with an intense scrutiny on his temper, attitude and behavior towards the very friends and family who so often dole out harm to HIM.....that no other fans EVER subject their own faves to.

When the character continually abused in various stories is held to a higher standard of behavior than those who continually are shown hurting him just to make themselves feel better, all because nobody is willing to even hold those stories AGAINST the characters dishing out the abuse THERE.....

When fandom has so twisted and skewed things that he's commonly cited as being just as capable of being cruel and cutting to his various family members and friends as they have ever been to him, with this always taking the form of things he's said to them (usually under VERY extenuating circumstances, up to and including amnesia and mind control) even as his family members and friends continue to have instances of outright physical violence towards him (Jason & Tim punching him post Spyral, Bruce in NTT 55 and others, Donna punching him through a wall in the Brother Blood stories)....

And its not even framed as 'he can be just as bad as them' but it actually ends up being more like 'he can be worse than them actually' because nobody wants to bring up, let alone linger on all of those things I just cited about them doing to HIM....

I have a Very Big Problem with that, actually.

And frankly, I think more people SHOULD have a Very Big Problem with that.

Because some of those things are not like the others.

Not that you could tell from the way fandom talks about these characters.

[insonniacaotica]

WHY IS THIS NOT A CANONICAL TAG? WHAT ARE YOU DOING, FANDOM? GIVE ME THIS TAG AND NO ONE WILL GET HURTED

(Yes, I know that the tags "Duke Thomas is a Batfamily Member" and "Good Siblings Duke Thomas" exist but IT IS NOT THE SAME THING)

[dontbesoweirdkira]

How I imagine Jason Todd- a sketch

I like to think he’s super pretty, just like Dick but he cannot see it because of his scars and warped self image. Also he’s literally Bruce’s twin when he was younger but that’s superrrr touchy because well….it’s Bruce. Don’t tell Todd the comparison.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST I WILL NEVER DROP THE HEADCANON THAT JASON WEARS HEARING AIDS. THAT MFR RIGHT THERE CANNOT HEAR!! He’s supposed to just be hard of hearing but without Wayne tech he’s completely deaf. This is all due to his dumb ass playing with weapons he wasn’t supposed to as a child.

He’s perfectly okay with it because per the photo,,,he frequently uses it as an excuse to ignore Bruce. Do you think he refuses to learn sign language so he cannot communicate with him when he’s not using his aids??