#I also have zero idea on how to write Martha Kent

[radiance1]

"You know what happened to Odin?"

"No, what happened to Odin?"

"Exactly, you cannot step foot in the mortal realm like you are now. Follow in Odin's footsteps."

"No, I don't want to follow in the Allfather's footsteps."

"Stop whining like a child and take a mortal form love."

"No, I will not."

[Deep inhale] "Do you know what happened to Loki?"

"Loki? The trickster? What happened to that one?"

"Well, he's currently still trapped inside of a cave, chained by his son's own entrails as a snake eternally drips poison onto him, but that is beside the point."

"No that is exactly the point."

"No, it is not. His fate has no relation to the main subject of our conversation."

"Yes, it does."

"No, it does not- No. Stop making that face. I am not doing this again."

"What face?"

"You know what you're doing. Stop it."

"I don't think I will."

[Exasperated exhale.]

"You should follow in the god of mischief's footsteps, even he- no especially he knew the point of a convincing disguise."

"Hmmm."

"No."

"Dearly beloved if you do not take on a mortal form while living out your farmer fantasy then so help me, I will place you back inside the coffin from which you came."

"..."

"That would be beautiful really, but no thank you I'll take that mortal form now."

"Good." Clockwork smiled

An hour later....

"Is this convincing enough for you, my love?" Pariah Dark adjusted the straw hat sitting upon his head, trying to shift it into a position better suited for his hair.

Clockwork hummed, floating around Pariah to take in his new form from every angle. "Well, it is certainly better than your first try."

"Then can I leave now?"

"No."

Pariah sighed. Feeling as hands were gently placed on his shoulders and slowly guided him down to rest on his own legs as he felt hands run through his hair and his straw hat gently taken from his head. He sighed with small indignation as crossed his arms. "I spent a while trying to fit that over my hair properly, you were the one who told me to fit in, so why take it off?" Pariah grumbled.

"Yes, yes. I know love." Clockwork's fingers gently worked themselves through his king's hair, a deep and long sigh leaving the man's body as he fully relaxed, causing Clockwork to smile.

As he worked, Clockwork hummed a small tune lost to the seas of time, causing Pariah to perk up slightly, before, a few minutes later, also joining his lover's humming.

"There we are." Clockwork removed his hands from the other's hair, and Pariah took that as a single to stand up. He turned his head, carefully pulling the braid over his shoulder, he then quirked a brow. "Where did you get the flowers from?"

"From here and there." Clockwork smirked, one that Pariah knew meant he was receiving no answer to his question from, so he shrugged, moving the braid off his shoulder. "So, where exactly are you going to send me?"

"Right, yes." Clockwork waved him over, pulling up a small mirror of time as he shifted through locations. "So, you'll be going to this world and..."

===

Pariah Dark stared down at the door, in one hand holding a basket as he brought the other up in preparation to knock before freezing.

How does one interact with a human outside of violence and threats again?

He shifted, not for the first time realizing that he had to crouch down to even fit to get to his new neighbors door.

Humans are intimated by height, right?

Should he shrink?

His beloved never walked him through how to talk with humans what does he do????

Should he leave?

But then his beloved would be disappointed...

Okay, first things first.

Knocking.

He gently brought his fist forward, and tapped his knuckles against the door frame, small thunks sounding out with each and every knock.

He tapped a bit harder, each series good louder than the last.

Okay, he thinks he's getting good at this! He's practically a natural!

Oh, the door opened.

The door opened.

"Hello?" An old mortal woman peered up at him, or tried to, at the very least, for his head was well above the door.

Pariah Cleared his throat, moving his hand back in a small wave. "Greetings, mortal-" Shoot. Normal mortals don't talk like that. "I am Pariah Dar- I mean Ark."

He coughed, moving his other hand forwards to present her with the basket. "I bring you an offering in hopes of creating an alliance-" Alliance, really Pariah? Really? "Between the two of us that will foster until the end of time!"

The human woman below hesitantly took the basket, probably shocked, and then just. Stood, there.

Ancients, did he accidentally kill her? He didn't even do anything! Were humans always so fragile?!

The woman cleared her throat, and stepped out of the doorway. "Thank you very much dearie, that's very kind of you!"

Why is she smiling.

Ancients she's smiling he wasn't prepared for this. His beloved never told him his neighbors would smile he wasn't ready-

Annnnd he already teleported away.

Pariah groaned, reaching up his hands to his hair before suddenly remembering who it was braided by, before lowering down to cover his face as he crouched besides his own house.

A nearby horse wandered over and nipped at his hair.

"I was supposed to get a name, Elizabeth." Pariah despaired. "A name!"

@pennerjones

[therehavebeenstranger]

thank you so much for this thoughtful response! a lot of what you're saying is really resonating with me. it's so interesting (i know we already said it, but--two jews, three opinions) but some of what you raise as a positive is what i find frustrating--because bruce being somebody who is halachically jewish* but raised entirely cut off from jewish community and practice is very interesting, which makes it all the more frustrating that it isn't explored (a frustration you seem to share somewhat--i apologize if i'm putting incorrect words in your mouth). so i'm of these two minds where bruce becoming jewish feels like, as you said, rushed and halfhearted, but i do think it's also frustrating because it's an underdeveloped avenue for storytelling (which is why im so grateful to you and other dc writers who write interesting jewish bruce stories!)

you nailed a lot of my reservations with why i struggle with the retcon. i'd like to offer my other main ones, just in case they're interesting i guess? to me, bruce's WASP-ness feels like it was deeply fundamental to his character and how we understand the waynes and their influence. like. northeastern wasp family with historical great influence on their city? that's an important american archetype, and i think it's interesting to kind of figure bruce and batman inside of that. the darker underbelly of this is that dc has, purely by accident and (i believe) with zero intentional malice, turned batman into a massively wealthy jewish man who kinda sorta runs a secret cabal in his city. and that's a little bit of an ick for me!

(my other issue is actually not an issue with the decision itself, more another place where i'm frustrated with the fact that this is so under-explored. and it's like...kinda fucked up, but i grew up around wasps and even the not-massively-rich ones like....a lot of them don't like us! and i find it difficult to suspend my disbelief that somebody from a family like the waynes would ever be allowed to marry a jewish girl, no matter how rich she is. this is less an actual complaint and more me begging dc to let me write a oneshot about martha kane's complicated feelings about being forced to convert for love and having to raise her son without judaism. maybe interspersed with alfred's guilt about not knowing how to give bruce this part of his parents' legacy. dc editors my dms are soooo open)

anyway, i really like your phrasing of this as a "happy accident." i find that personally pretty useful in navigating some of these mixed feelings--because part of me obviously does think it's cool that batman is jewish, duh!

thank you so much again for taking the time. i hope other people chime in. in conclusion they should really retcon clark as jewish next i mean come ON he's practically a rabbi and his dad is a JONATHAN instead of a JOHN like hello cant you just imagine clark kent in one of those BIG tallits that dads at shul wear like hello!!!!

(*whenever the issue of halachic/matrilineal judaism comes up i feel the need to say that, while i think it's worth understanding the vast cultural trauma that the idea of matrilineal judaism comes from, i personally find the idea of discounting patrilineal jews pretty gross! if you have a jewish parent, you're jewish!)

if you feel like it (and if this question even ends up making sense lol), would you mind talking about how you feel about bruce being jewish? not like the idea of jewish bruce wayne, i mean the fact that in 2011 or so he was retconned kind of accidentally into being jewish. i ask bc i, as a jewish person, have a lot of mixed to negative feelings about the whole thing, and you seem not to. i really hope this doesn't come out as like judgy. i don't think you should feel negatively about it. i'm genuinely just interested in your thoughts and feelings about this. two jews, three opinions, lol

It's not judgy! As you said, two Jews, three opinions -- there's no right answer here.

As I mentioned in my Jewish Bruce post, the likely accidental ret-con of Bruce to likely being Jewish is a tricky subject. It's simultaneously a good moment for Jews who want to feel represented, and a bad one for those who think Bruce's story is not an adequate or appropriate vehicle to convey Judaism.

The reality is, Bruce isn't visibly Jewish now, nor is he practicing or displaying overt cultural, ethnic, or religious influences. He's Jewish by halacha, which is its own mess of significance for Jews.

Personally, I feel that Bruce's emergence as a Jew by halacha, and not by practiced religion or culture, is an important discussion to be had in our modern, interfaith, assimilating culture.

Barring the Orthodox communities, the number of young observant Jews is dropping. Jews are increasingly marrying into other faiths, assimilating, and raising their children outside of the faith. When Jews do stay in their communities, they tend to stay in more "liberal" ones such as Reconstructionist or Reform congregations. You can read more about this at the Pew site.

There are, and will continue to be, many people who find themselves cut off from Judaism and either halachically or ethnically Jewish in the next few years, with little to no connection to the religion, ethnicity, or cultural traditions.

So in this respect, Bruce being cut off from Judaism by nature of his family structure and abridged childhood is good to see, because it's representative of a new generation of Jewish children or interfaith families. Or it will be?

But. There are many Jews who do not identify with this at all -- who grew up in the community with strong ethnic, religious, and cultural ties, who see Bruce's (accidental?) ret-con to Judaism as rushed, dissatisfying, half-hearted, a million other words.

I don't want to assume what you or other Jews are thinking about this, but I can guess. It's not fun to see your religious identity thrown around somewhat flimsily, especially when there remains such a deep and consistent Jewish influence throughout the DC comics.

Why Bruce? Why not Hal? Why hint at it, or make him somewhat Jewish? Why not have a fully-Jewish character? Why not have a character who embraces Judaism as a belief system?

I think the mixed feelings over Bruce's ret-con highlight the growing divide within the Jewish community over who is, and isn't Jewish, and by which standards we judge those who are peripheral to the community.

Having worked with many converts and patrilineal Jews, I have deep sympathy for those cut off from the Jewish community, especially when it is by halachic rule. How can someone who was raised by a Jewish father, who is 50% Ashkenazi, who had a Bar Mitzvah and attends shul regularly, not be as Jewish as someone who was born to a Jewish mother and rarely, if ever, practiced the religion?

We make conversion to Judaism a tricky, difficult, and conditional process. Reform marriages and conversions are questioned by Orthodox rabbis and not considered valid by others. Some people are Jewish in one synagogue and not Jewish enough in another. It's so hard.

So yeah, in my other post linked above I think I called this a happy accident, which is how I'm trying to view it. It makes me happy to have a character to push Jewish headcanons and fic ideas into to, and to tease out the themes of community and what it means to truly be Jewish from Bruce's story. But I don't expect that to be everyone's else's experience at all.

I'd be curious to hear your, and anyone else's, thoughts on this. Again, two Jews, three opinions -- nobody is right here, and we all change our minds a LOT.