#I think about Jason a lot at baseline

[yeahimcal]

[And you are a lithograph/Sketching my history]

[Under the floodlights you look more like god to me/You’re way too fucked up, you’re way too tough]

[Two shots of tequila to speed you up/And I guess what I’m trying to say here is thank you]

[But I go cold]

(Symbolism below the cut if you care!!)

[You are a lithograph]

Young Jason has a target on his back, showcasing how being Robin put him in danger. He was just a kid. He’s talking to Batman, looking up at him, showing how much he trusts him, all the while he has a glaring red target on his back.

[Sketching my history]

Jason’s memorial plaque with his shadow over it. The shadow has ‘history’ written on it to show how Jason has become history, how he is just a story now, he’s not even in charge of how he’s remembered. To quote Richard Siken, ‘history is a little man in a brown suit trying to define a room he is outside of. There are many names in history, but none of them are ours’. Jason is history. He’s not Robin anymore.

[under the floodlights you look more like god to me]

Silhouette of Batman with no eyes, to show how Bruce never really… saw/understood Jason. Jason died thinking that Bruce was this good man, the best man, who always knew what was right. A god. But there is no god to Jason, not anymore. The floodlights are turned off. Jason had to die to recognize the flaws of his father.

[You’re way too fucked up, you’re way too tough]

Half of adult Jason, half of young Jason. Jason can’t go back to who he was. He can’t go back to that little boy who was too tough for his age, who thought Robin gave him magic, who was so good that it hurt. Jason is way too fucked up, now. He came back wrong. Everyone thinks so.

[Two shots of tequila to speed you up]

Jason’s Red Hood mask, a crowbar, a batarang, and his old Robin mask. Two things from his new life, two things from his old. He can’t go back. He can only go forward.

[And I guess what I’m trying to say here is thank you]

Jason’s pointing a gun at his father, who still does not see him. But he cannot kill his father. No matter how many times Bruce fails him, Jason will never be able to take that shot, he will never be able to wipe away the only father he has ever had. Even if he has every opportunity, even if he wants to, he’ll never be able to kill Bruce.

[But I go cold]

Bruce covers the target on Jason’s back as the sun rises over Gotham. Because no matter how many times he fails Jason, he will always keep trying to protect him. Try to keep him intact. The night is dark and it will always be dark and no one will ever be able to wash away all the bad, but as long as the world keeps spinning, Bruce will love his children. Even if Jason doesn’t want the protection, Bruce will give it to him. This is their curse. The will never escape it.

I have some pretty. Insane thoughts about Jason and Bruce’s dynamic as a father and son. So. Yeah…….

[gaywineauntsstuff]

Okay I’m gonna drop an unpopular opinion here

I really

Really

Really

Hate the Jason and Damian met in the league and have a close brotherly relationship

I honestly think it detracts from BOTH of their development and makes both the characters a lot more 2D and boring.

And also I think it disrespects my GIRL Stephanie brown. Bc that close personal bickering, anything goes sibling shit? Yeah that’s Damian and Steph all the way.

And yeah I tend to credit Dick Grayson (bc he’s my boy) for a lot of the Growth Damian goes through. But Stephanie brown and him have the funniest sibling relationship in history

And I think to have as interesting of a development as Damian has had you needed characters like Dick and Steph to be his Batman and Batgirl.

Dick who I think we can all agree is objectively the least violent of the bats at a baseline (Richard crash out Grayson moments notwithstanding) as well as Steph. Both have angry moments of doling out justice but BOTH prefer rehabilitation methods and tend to be more mouthy and loud about their thoughts during a battle

Steph CLAWED her way up into her position, she fought for that and held on with an iron grip that left indents. She wasn’t as good as, Dick born acrobat Grayson, Barbara prodigy Gordon and Tim genius Drake. So she worked her ass off and FORCED people to pay attention to her and got good enough that she matches the rest of the bats on the field.

Dick HAS the experience of working with difficult cases. He’s lead teams his age filled with drama, infighting and death successfully, he’s trained kids younger than him successfully on panel.

He’s canonically a very adaptable teacher, who has strength in meeting you where you’re at and getting you to move to where you want to be.

Both these things helped Damian exponentially

Now let me be so clear.

Damian did the work.

Damian put in the blood, sweat and tears into changing his beliefs and perceptions of the world. But that would not have been possible if these two didn’t at least make it known that “hey you can be the kind of person who cares and still have value and not be weak and pathetic”

Damian going vegetarian/vegan bc of his morals, Damian choosing not to kill, Damian choosing to leave Robin, Damian making choices unrelated to mantles, regrets and vengeance. Is due to the fact that he had Dick Grayson and Stephanie brown as examples (now ofc Alfred was also very very very imp but I feel like no one ignores his significance so I don’t feel the need to add him here)

And Jason?

It also imo, FUCK UP JAYS DEVELOPMENT.

Bc if Jason could be this kind, empathic older sibling to Damian? WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK WAS HE DOING WHEN HE FIRST CAME TO GOTHAM? the way he treated the bats and the rogues gallery? Slaughtering all of blackgate to end up in Arkham, making dick watch him fall to his ‘death’.

No absolutely not

This is the ‘pit madness’ nonsense all over again

Jason had to see the world outside of Gotham and work with other people who were anti-heroes who fall into the category.

Bc Jason didn’t start out as an antihero

Jason was a full on villain with a grudge against other villains, he worked for the place he’s in. It’s bc of characters he interacted with, it’s bc of realizations he’s dealt with. It’s because he’s been a little too trigger happy in the wrong place and ended up looking at the grief he caused others and realizing he didn’t want to do that.

It gets rid of Jason realizing HE CAN work with his family.

It gets rid of Jason BECOMING a solid older brother to Tim and erases the Jason who WANTS to have a relationship with his family.

It erases all of the times he’s tried and failed and still got up and tried again

Both of them have grown bc of the people around them and I think if they had each other at that time it would’ve gone 1 of 2 ways

1) a toxic loop re-establishing bad beliefs and practices that damage both of them and leave them more resentful and stuck in their ways

2) they would’ve hated each other and tried to kill each other

In summary

-both these characters didn’t show up nice, they worked for it, don’t erase that

- don’t erase the characters that helped them grow (my girl Steph Brown being left out of conversations she started will kill me)

- Jason can have close relationships with the family im not saying he shouldn’t. I’m just saying that Jay is the cool older brother who very obviously loves you but was at college when you were a kid and now doesn’t really know how to interact with you and it’s awkward but you know you can go to him even if he isn’t your first call in most situations

- Damian was not a good person, he CHOSE to be that’s important to his growth. And with that growth came the ability to form the close connections he now has in canon. Without the growth he undergoes he wouldn’t be able to form the protective loving group of family and friends he has around him

- STOP IGNORING STEPH, I AM LITERALLY A DICK GRAYSON STAN ACCOUNT AND I AM OVERHERE TRYING TO GET CRUMBS OF MY GIRL OHMYGOD

- I would highkey love a short miniseries of Jason and Damian working together and developing a nice relationship both in and out of the masks but until we get that. I’m sticking to awkward brother that loves you but doesn’t get you at all

Also if you disagree/ have more nuanced takes on the Jay Damian sibling arc please leave in the reblogs and comments, I like hearing more nuanced takes and discussing just please don’t be a dick (hehe) about it

[ditzybat]

I see a lot in fanon of Jason being Tim’s fav robin - and I’m guilty of enjoying it and posting content in that same vein - but honestly we need to sit down and think critically for a second… Tim’s favorite robin is definitely Dick - after all he did sorta bring start everything for Tim as he is a pillar in his orgin story. But like we all write the Jason and Tim brother relationship all sweet and reconciliation (which, in current canon is sorta true, if apprehensive) when in reality Tim actively makes fun of Jason during titans tower when he’s getting his shit handed to him, would call him a flop to his face, and probably barely tolerated his Robin in comparison to Dick’s out of respect for the name. And Jason is just the definition of Cain instinct mixed in with imposter syndrome, and really doesn’t gaf all too much about Tim besides baseline animosity shown in the beginning of their relationship (as it seems that we’ve all collectively decided to stop recognizing any comic after 2010 apparently- which… is fair to be honest 😭) - BUT ANYWAY I just thought it was very silly haha to find that we’ve all somehow interpreted their relationship one way when it’s really written a completely different way, I just love the extravagant game of telephone we all play when making fandom content/spaces.

[seethestarsalittlecloser]

So I’ve been thinking about Bruce, Clark, superbat, and queerness and how sexuality would have interacted with their various identities depending on the time period.

(cw: discussions of homophobia)

These days, I’ve seen a lot of fics where Brucie Wayne has always styled himself as a bisexual disaster and leaned into that aspect of his identity to sell the brucie wayne persona and sometimes it’s super fun! I love that for him! But I’m in the process of writing a fic where superbat have a summer romance in their late teens/early 20s pre-capes and then meet up years later and there’s angst and one-sided identity shenanigans as bruce realises that Superman is the One That Got Away, etc, (and also how much the way he left clark back then fucked clark up real good).

So I was doing the maths to figure out when that actually would have been, using that Tim Drake Robin comic run that was set in 2007 as a baseline and combining that with basic info/generally accepted facts/fanon on how far apart the bat kids are in age etc. And I worked out that Bruce was probably born (in that continuity) around 1967 I assumed that Clark was maybe slightly younger for the sake of the fic so lets say he’s born in 1969 (also. I think it would be funny for clark to be the same age as the Moon Landing). Which means superbat would have both grown up and started figuring out sexuality stuff in the eighties.

Even if you set aside how traumatic it was to be a queer person in that time period, that means that Dick would have been orphaned in 1993 or ‘94 (give or take) and Jason would have come along in approximately 2002. Idc how rich he is, a single, openly queer man would not have been given custody of children in the 90s or 00s. For such a high-profile openly queer man, even trying would have been a disaster - not only potentially for Bruce and Dick as individuals, but for Wayne Enterprises (and Batman, indirectly) by association.

And even if Bruce and Clark are in their early forties in 2025, that still means they would have been coming of age in the early 00s. Basically, if we wanna be historically accurate about it (and totally chill if you don’t! I also enjoy escapism sometimes!) Brucie Wayne had way too much to lose (mostly his kids) to be openly Bi for most of his life. Maybe if he’d never adopted Dick as his ward or Jason as his sons it wouldn’t matter so much.

Idk as a queer who remembers how homophobic things were in the 2000s, I’m compelled by the idea of this being another thing Bruce has to sacrifice for his family and his mission, another point of difference between the man and the Brucie Wayne persona.

[moon-ayyye]

There are a lot of What-ifs when it comes to Jason Todd. What would've happened if bruce didn't take Jason in? What if Jason was taken in by Selina and became stray? what if jason didn't die? what if Jason was found before the lazarus pit? But one that i don't see at all is what if Jason didn't come back and just stayed with the All Caste?

The Lost Days arc would go about the same as in canon (without the jaytalia because ew), but after the car bomb thing doesn't pan out, Jason just starts looking into the batfam more. He sees his dad for the first time in years. He forgets everything and considers coming back home.

But then he finds out how his death was handled

Of course, he'd still be pissed off about tim becoming robin, but more than that, bruce and dick spun it so people thought tim was the second robin. Jason's whole identity was usurped and was prompted by alfred of all people. Add to that the memorial case and the victim blaming, as well as him not having a memorial in titans tower and tim talking shit about him every chance he gets, and jason starts to lose hope. But these things could be fixed! These could all be explained away as emotionally incompetent people compartmentaling in order to get over their grief! right?

Then he finds the footage of dick killing the joker for tim. Sure, the joker taunted dick using jason's memory, but it was him thinking tim was dead that really set him off. The final nail in the coffin would be bruce reviving the joker. Jason now has proof that 1. tim was indeed his replacement, and 2. Bruce's morals and dick's clean hands are worth more than his mangled corpse.

He scraps all of his plans because now he KNOWS that bruce would never kill the joker for him. Disillusioned with bruce and gotham in general, he sneaks into arkham and puts a bullet in the joker's skull, then goes to the all caste for training. If they didn't care about him, why should he care about them?

I think ducra would be less wary about training jason in this au, since his drive for revenge had dissipated, and he wouldn't "bring great evil into this world."

Since ducra wouldn't really show favouritism to jason, since he isn't as much of a flight risk or a time bomb, i think his and essence's relationship would go way better than in canon. Their main points of contention were jason leaving the caste and ducra's favouritism, and without those 2 factors, their relationship could actually flourish.

Due to the all blades being linked to the soul, it would make sense if the caste taught soul magic. This would make jason a way better fighter than any baseline vigilante or assassin. Maybe he could use his abilities to hide his body language to avoid shiva and cass' ability? The all caste doesn't get massacred here, so he learns how to really socialise, talk with people with different experiences, so he could occasionally go back to the alley or the hill to reconnect with his old friends, like dana or numbers, since he wouldn't push people away like in canon.

The untitled wouldn't be as big of a threat as they were in RHatO since there are way more people available, and jason being super trained, so maybe jason would adopt a new vigilante identity to help people on a more personal level. He considers going by Red Hood, as a taunt to the man that killed him, but he doesn't like it. It's a remnant of a past he'd rather forget. Maybe he'd go by cardinal, but he doesn't want to be associated with a bird anymore. I think marauder would be a really good name for him, a man who goes around looking for things to steal and people to fight.

You can have him interact with some justice league dark members, especially Constantine since I really like their dynamic, and he could deal with hellspawns since he wields the allblades now.

JayEssence is a rarepair, which is a shame since i think these 2 could have a really interesting dynamic if written properly, so I'd probably go with that as the endgame ship, but you could work in so many of his ships. JayRose? childhood friends on the titans who reconnected after jason studied under slade for a bit. JayEddie? same thing but they reconnect in hell. Jaytemis? they could run into eachother during a mission and they'd recognise death anywhere. enemies to reluctant allies to lovers. JayDana? classic childhood friends to lovers. The possibilities are endless

[batobbsession]

You know what the batfams biggest problem is? Their views of each other are clouded by trauma, first impressions, hero worship, expectations and the past. It might be obvious to us, as objective viewers what problems they have but it's not to them.

This is also why Tim, despite keeping track of the Waynes for quite a while doesn't actually know them very well before he joins the family. Even without meeting them he is so tangled up in what he already knows of them and what he expects them to be that he doesn't see a lot of other stuff.

It's also what makes Duke's role so interesting. He's a bit crazy and traumatized, but mostly unrelated to the actual people in the batfam. He can see that Dick's drowning in eldest daughter syndrome, Jason actually wants to reconnect with his family, Bruce actually loves his kids, Tim needs a support system and Damian needs to be a regular kid. The rest of the batfam however has normalized a lot of things that would seem irregular or bad to ordinary people.

Cass might be able to read body language very well but she doesn't have a baseline for normal human emotion. Most of the people she knows are superheroes or criminals. She can understand that her family has problems, but she can't always see that these problems are actually bad things. Which would kind of make her like someone who wants to write a fic where all the characters have actual trauma and problems but also wants them to be a perfect happy family with no issues.

Steph is also unique because I think of her a lot like a casual fan in this fandom. She only interacts with the characters and events she wants to interact with, and in doing so falls into a lot of generalized characterizations and facades that aren't necessarily true.

Bruce meanwhile is stuck in the past. He still remembers his Robins when they were younger and he can't let go of that perception of them. But also that was never really real because he's remember what he wants to remember. He won't think about how reckless and angry Dick and Jason could be, he'll only bring up when they were perfect sons who did nothing wrong. He won't talk about how little supervision and time he spent on Tim and Damian, he'll just talk about the moments when they were close. And by doing this he unintentionally makes the problem worse.

I feel like Barbara would see these issues but she won't deal with them because of essentially nostalgia. Both because she desperately wants to see the past as better than it was and because it hurts her to think about the past.

[mysterycitrus]

so i was reading wolf king and you mention jason having a jersey accent and i wanted to ask.......what accent does dick have? he's french and was raised travelling around europe (thank u for french dick btw i'm obsessed), and then was raised by bruce and alfred, and then lived with the titans a lot as a teenager (some of whom i guess sound american and some of whom don't). where does this leave his accent. i deeply need to hear your opinion about this

this is such a great q so im gonna hijack it a lil and talk about how the bats hide their identities in different ways — like with the voice modulators, i don’t believe they’d be walking around with their real voices fighting crime

so kevin conroy kickstarted the trend of bruce having a voice and then batman having a voice. which is a good cinematic take, tbc, but i think he had it backwards. bruce as batman has a naturally deep, rumbling timbre, and bruce as socialite brucie wayne is higher pitched and more energetic — think a cross between pauly d and zach braff. bruce normally talks with distinct british influences. super clear vowel pronunciation.

by that same token, i think dick deffo still has an accent, but obviously puts on a generic “american” accent while in costume. his normal cadence would be an interesting combination of stuff. like u mentioned, he spent a lot of time around alfred and donna and kory so that definitely affected the way that he speaks. i think baseline…. he sounds a bit like marion cotillard? very subtle inflection, with some british intonation mixed in. kind of indistinct, like you’d clock him as vaguely european. he might make it more pronounced to distinguish himself from nightwing.

jason, tim, steph, and duke would all have distinct gotham accents, but deciding whether u want them to sound more philly or more ny is kinda up to interpretation ig. im not an expert. jason’s accent has probably changed over time — profound brain damage and extended period abroad will do that, but i imagine he leans into it heavily around his allies to emphasise his identity as a gothamite. depending on canon, babs would have an ohio accent and because she was a very influential figure to cass, cass would probably have that same weird collection of intonations — british, variations of east coast, etc.

if we’re going off on-screen depictions of the al-ghuls, damian would have an rp accent that would probably soften a little after his time in gotham. tim and duke probably sound similar, and steph might fall between them and jason. in my heart, the joker sounds like snooki.

[too-much-tma-stuff]

As Weak as You are Strong

Part 2 of Mutually Assured Disaster, as usual this isn’t edited so if you see any errors let me know!

-----------

Training Danny did not go the way that Hood had expected it too. First off it started way sooner then he had expected or wanted, he had wanted Danny to rest and fully heal before they started anything, maybe settle in fully to Gotham. But by the end of the first week he had realized that keeping the boy still was a fucking impossible task, he was so fucking restless! Jason attempted it for another four days before realizing that he had to give Danny something controlled and safe to do before sitting still drove him crazy and he did something stupid.

The easiest way to do that just then was to start training Danny, he was able to put it off a few more days by telling Danny he wouldn’t start training until he was signed up for school because the teen didn’t want to go back to school. But it was only a couple days before he seemed to decide that even school would be better then nothing.

Danny accepted being given a new identity, Danny Nightingale and let Hood forge paperwork to have legal guardianship and then enroll him in a decent school. Though he wouldn’t be starting till next semester to give him a chance to settle in to his new home. Jason wasn’t entirely sure when he’d decided Danny belonged with him, but he had, and was looking into bigger apartments for him and his new ward. After all it was official now.

“Okay the first step will be for you to show me what you can do to get a baseline, so we’ll go to gym I usually use after breakfast,” Jason finally said one morning as pulled a bottle of milk out of the fridge. Usually he cooked breakfast for them but it was a bad idea to eat to heavily before a work out, he’d take Danny out for lunch afterwards instead.

He heard Danny pause from where he was digging around in the cupboard grumbling about how healthy Jason’s cereal options were, as if he wasn’t the one who’d already eaten the box of sugary shit Tim had left here. The silence went on for too long and Jason scowled, turning to put the milk down on the counter and stare ad Danny hard.

“What’s the issue Wisp?” Jason asked sounding more annoyed then he actually was.

“Well, it’s just, I’m really strong and I have, like, a lot of powers? A Lot, I don’t even remember all of them half the time! I think it might be better of we leave town for me to show you? Like, if you want to see my most powerful ability that’s my Ghostly Wail, which is a pretty powerful sonic thing I don’t have great control of and I’m worried if I tried to do it inside I might bring down the building.” Danny rambled as casually as he could while he went back to digging for cereal and brought them over to the table.

Jason blinked as he processed that and then nodded slowly. “Okay, we haven’t talked about this much, what powers do you have?”

“Well, the sonic scream I mentioned, super strength, flight, intangibility, I can make and control ice, I have enhanced senses, I can shock people though that’s a hands on attack… Oh, I can sort of hypnotize people, I can possess people as well but I don’t like doing it… I can shape shift a bit though I’m not very good at it yet.” Danny said, counting them out on his fingers and looking a bit unsure as if he might have forgotten some.

“Damn Spooks what Can’t you do?” Jason asked, making light of how genuinely shocking Danny’s power level was.

“I think eventually I’ll learn how to shoot lasers.. Oh! I forgot my ecto beams! I can shoot ecto from my hands with some force, it’s corrosive to humans. And I can’t duplicate yet, the one older member of my species I met could so I assume I’ll learn eventually? I’m not really in a rush to learn though, I already kind of scare myself,” Danny admitted, looking away and rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

“Alright, can you show me everything accept the wail inside?” Jason asked tapping his fingers absently against the table, before Danny shoved the box of cereal across the table to him and he remembered they were supposed to be eating.

“I think so, as long as I’m careful. But if I break anything you’re paying for it,” Danny joked around a mouthful of cereal, pointing his spoon at Jason.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Jason said automatically, forcing himself to power through the realization he was fucking parenting this kid. “If I have to pay for anything you’re grounded.”

“You can’t ground me, you’re not my dad,” Danny shot back with an exaggerated pout, at least his mouth wasn’t full this time.

“So you’re not living under my roof, eating all my food, and asking me to train you?” Jason asked, raising his eyebrows, Danny stayed silent, pouting and poking at his cereal, steering the last few bits around the bowl. “If you have so little control of your power that you would break something you might seriously hurt a human in the field even if they don’t deserve it, and we don’t want that so if you break anything you’ll be grounded and it’ll be longer before you get into the field. Until we’re both confident in your control,” Jason explained firmly, he watched Danny consider that then deflate and nod.

“Fine,” He mumbled, drinking his cereal milk and bringing his bowl to the sink, washing it quickly.

Jason let it go, he knew Danny didn’t want to hurt anyone, he was a good kid, he was just disappointed. It wasn’t like he hadn’t had a shit attitude when he was Danny’s age as well. Jason finished his breakfast quickly, cleaning up before he grabbed the keys to his bike. “Alright let’s get to the gym, I already made sure it would be kept empty for the morning, so no one will see what we do.” He had been going to this place for ages and no one had found out he was Red Hood after all, in Gotham businesses that catered to vigilantes and rogues were deeply valued.

Danny nodded and grabbed the helmet Jason had bought for him in the first couple days. He left the apartment and went down the stairs ahead of Jason as he locked up. Danny bounded down, jumping a flight of stairs at the time and waiting on the landing for Jason to catch up before leaping down the next one. Jason didn’t understand why he was doing but he had learned gravity didn’t affect Danny the same way as most people did so jumping that way wouldn’t hurt the kid. And if it made him happy Jason didn’t give a shit, he just hurried to keep up.

Danny sat on the back of Jason’s bike, making him think about how he should really look into getting a sidecar or something, even though Danny seemed to enjoy riding on the back. Actually, it was the first time Jason was genuinely considering switching to a car for regular use, that would be safer right? And what if Danny wanted to have a friend over once he started school? Jason couldn’t bring both Danny And a friend home like this. Ya, he should definitely get a car.

God fucking damn it, he was a dad.

They reached the gym no problem and Jason lead the way this time, Danny hanging back just a little, clearly nervous. Jason marched on ahead, leading by example that there was nothing to be afraid of, and Danny hurried to keep up. There were a few people there still there so Jason whistled loudly and reminded the room at large the gym was privately booked out for the next couple hours and it was time to clear out. There was some grumbling but everyone went, it wasn’t exactly the first time this had happened.

“Okay the first thing is a test of strength, help me move all this shit out of the way,” Jason said, he was joking really but Danny didn’t seem to notice. He nodded firmly and went and grabbed one of the pieces of exercise equipment, lifting it and all the weights attached with no trouble at all. Jason had to pause to process that, watching as Danny moved it off to the side. “How much exactly can you lift?”

“I don’t know, I lifted a bus once and it wasn’t to hard,” Danny told Jason casually, as if that was fucking normal! Jason really had his work cut out for him with this kid. He sighed at Danny and then went to grab some targets since Danny had mentioned some sort of blast.

“Alright now that we have a clear patch show me what else you can do,” Jason said once he’d set up the targets. Danny nodded with a determined set to his jaw and in a flash of light that made Jason blink Danny had changed, his hair turning white and his eyes a green that would have made Jason’s stomach turn if he wasn’t already half used to Danny’s eyes flashing that colour randomly.

Over the next hour he watched as Danny blasted the targets with green beams that seemed to melt through what they hit and then eat through the rest, shock, freeze, and fight. When Jason told him to hit a punching bag as hard as he could Danny fucking broke it! The chain snapped and the bag flew across the room.

“I’m so sorry!” Danny yelped as soon as he realized what he’d done, before Jason had fully processed it. “You told me to hit as hard as I could! I should have known to hold back a bit but-“ Danny cut off on his justifications, ducking his head and biting his lip.

Jason took a deep breath, watching the sand that spilled from the split in the punching bag and trying not to think about what that force could do to a human body. “It’s alright, I did say to hit it as hard as you could. Now I need to see if you can punch just hard enough to drop a person without hurting them badly,” he said, ushering Danny over to a bag that wasn’t broken. He wanted to spar with Danny but he needed to make sure it wasn’t overly dangerous to his health first.

“I can do it in my human form,” Danny offered, eager to be helpful. “I have some access to my powers when I am but they’re much weaker when I am so it might be safer.”

“Safer for others but what about for you? You’re more vulnerable when you’re in your human form right?” Jason demanded and Danny winced, nodding reluctantly. “Alright then we’re going to work on you being able to control and restrain your strength in this form. You should be able to do that anyway, pulling a punch takes just as much strength as following it through and the control is even more impressive.”

“This is going to take forever,” Danny groaned.

“Well then we’d better get started then shouldn’t we?” Jason said, repressing his smile in case Danny thought he was making fun of him.

Danny groaned dramatically again, wallowing but only for a moment before the determined set to his jaw returned and he nodded. “Good, do you think you can spar with me without throwing me into a wall?” Jason joked, Danny wouldn’t want to hurt Jason so it really was the best way to help him practice.

Danny barked a startled laugh and grinned. “Oh ya! Don’t worry I’ll go easy on you~” Danny teased making Jason laugh in return, the kid really liked to banter.

“Don’t hold back to much, I’m plenty strong,” Jason shot back as he lead the way to the mat. “After this though I’m taking you to the shooting range. A gun with rubber bullets will be a good way for you to have a ranged attack without shooting fucking acid, and it’s a lot gentler then you can hit. The last thing we need is for you to get worked up or spooked in the field and really hurting someone by accident.”

“Turns out I’m not a gun, I’m much, much worse,” Danny joked and Jason rolled his eyes at the movie reference.

He dropped into a fighting stance once he reached the mat. “I’m on the attack now, I just want you to show me how well you can dodge and block Without using your powers.” Once he had Danny’s confirmation and the younger man was in his stance Jason lunged without a count in.

Danny wasn’t bad for someone who didn’t have any actual training, he was quick and his reflexes were good but he was clearly used to relying more heavily on his powers and took a couple pretty hard hits. Just as importantly though he took those hits, stumbled, recovered, and kept going. They could never avoid every hit, being able to keep going in spite of it was a crucial skill in this line of work.

Jason pushed it until he could see Danny starting to get frustrated so Jason had a good measure of both his abilities and his capacity and then backed off. “Alright we need to work on that, and your patience,” Jason said as he left the mat for a moment to grab their water bottles.

“Why?” Danny asked, maybe a little petulantly, he was eager to get out on patrol and he had always been able to rely on his powers before. Still Jason chose to answer the question in good faith.

“What if your attacked as a civilian and need to hide your powers? What if some day you’re up against something who Can actually hurt and hit you? They obviously exist given how you found me. What if some day you lose your abilities?” Jason pointed out. “Your life is the most important thing so if you have to use them so be it but we need to make sure you can handle yourself decently without them.” He handed Danny his water bottle and they both drank while Danny processed and valiantly attempted not to sulk, he was still a teenager after all and a bit immature.

“As for your patience, you don’t have anger issues like mine but if you lost your temper you could do a lot more damage.” Jason noted the way that made Danny flinch, he’s ask about that later.

“Alright now your turn to attack, show me how you fight without those powers of yours. You can turn back now if you want to, though I think you should patrol in this form so you should learn to control your strength like this. It’ll help keep your identity secret too. Though if the people in this city haven’t figured out who Nightwing is their obviously fucking idiots,” Jason told Danny as he put down his bottle and returned to the mat.

“I don’t have a lot of practice fighting humans, just other ghosts, so until I get a better feel for that I think I’d rather spar as a human as well. I mean, I’m still strong like this,” the same flash of white light around Danny and he once again had black hair and blue eyes. “But not as strong so it’ll be a good way to ease into it right?”

“Sure that makes sense, come on,” Jason said beckoning for Danny to come at him. Which he did, sloppily. He was fast, but he was untrained, his strikes were wide and telegraphed, Jason dodged and grabbed Danny’s arm, flipping him and putting his back on the ground before letting him up. Danny stood up again, looking a little more wary this time, he took a moment to consider Jason before attacking again, his attacks a little more considered and precise, but still pretty damn obvious.

Jason blocked and dodged mostly, letting Danny land at least one hit to see how hard it would be, he pulled it pretty well actually, it might leave a bit of a bruise but it didn’t even knock Jason over. Jason took Danny’s moment of triumph for landing a hit as an opening to put Danny on the ground again with a chuckle, he had to keep the kid humble after all right? He offered Danny his hand to help the boy up giving him a warm smile.

“Alright, not bad but there’s a lot you could learn. I think we’ve got a good baseline of what your capable of, and I’ll start training you in MMA and other fighting styles tomorrow, and shooting lessons this afternoon. First lunch, what do you want to eat?”

[lady-raziel]

Do you also find it annoying how people will trash talk the USA by using statistics for the whole country instead of looking at them by state?

Like, for example, how they’ll claim we have terrible standards for paid maternity leave, but they’ll use the baseline for it and completely ignore the fact that paid maternity leave is different in each state.

Yeah. I think it’s difficult for people from other countries, especially smaller countries who are geographically small and overall more culturally cohesive, to grapple with the idea that America as a whole is a very challenging country to generalize. Like, yes, ok. I work at a government agency that looks at federal level statistics— the work my coworkers are required to do by statute requires them to look only at federal level data and draw conclusions based on that data. With large scale statistical analysis, you CAN say “based on census data of everybody, the AVERAGE demographics are x, y, and z and the AVERAGE income is x, the AVERAGE person pays this much in taxes, etc.” And those sorts of conclusions are valuable in certain senses and in certain situations.

However, making generalizations like that for a country of 333 million people is really only a very narrow view of the whole picture. People have said before that it’s more like America is actually 50 small countries in a trenchcoat, and honestly that’s not far off! It is pretty difficult to say “all Americans are x” when conditions in Alabama and Colorado can be literal opposite ends of the spectrum.

Even the “red state” and ��blue state” generalizations can be pretty misleading— take Colorado again, for example. Colorado is widely considered a “blue/liberal state” because of the large high-population density progressive cities on the front range of the Rocky Mountains where most of the residents of the state are. However, this discounts the fact that in the rest of the rural areas of the state, especially the eastern half bordering Kansas, attitudes and policies are much more conservative.

Here’s a map that might be illustrative:

These are Colorado’s 8 congressional districts. Congressional districts are required to have approximately equal levels of population—therefore, you have geographically tiny districts in population centers and geographically large districts in rural areas. So the ENTIRE purple portion of District 3? That has the SAME number of people living in it as the tiny district 1 that contains the capitol of Denver. I’ll add another layer— despite Colorado being a “blue state,” that purple district is represented by Lauren Boebert, a notable MAGA conservative. So really, even in Colorado it’s hard to generalize and say “all Coloradans are x” because no they’re not—you have a variety even in the same state.

If you want to get EVEN more in the weeds, you can have wildly different types of demographics even within Congressional districts.

Here’s the map for Colorado’s 6th congressional district, currently represented by Jason Crow, a Democrat.

This district includes the city of Aurora— known for being a highly diverse area that has a high refugee population. You might also know the city of Aurora for being the site of the 2012 theatre shooting as well as being the home of Elijah McClain, a young African-American man murdered by police officers in 2019. So this Congressional district contains a large POC population and is not homogeneous. But this district is also interesting in that it also encompasses the WEALTHIEST CITY IN THE STATE, the 96% white Cherry Hills Village— which, considering Colorado has highly wealthy mountain resort towns like Aspen and Vail, is saying quite a lot. And this city is mere miles away from Aurora, where economic outcomes tend to be very different. Yet they are in the same Congressional district— so even on a local level its hard to make sweeping generalizations about most things and say “this is the one number or set of numbers that represents everything for everyone.”

Now imagine situations like this in every state and every congressional district across America. There is, of course, a place for large statistics, but such wide generalizations especially with context removed really don’t say much of anything unless you’re a data analyst studying something specific. It is hard to say definitively, especially on national data, that all Americans are a certain thing. This isn’t just an American problem with statistics, of course, not all people in any given country or population are going to be the same. Generalizing statistics can be good at a VERY broad overview that represent things worth conducting more specific crosscutting analysis to form more specific conclusions. However, a lot of people tend to view large stats as ways of stereotyping or confirming biases about groups of people in a way that SEEMS scientific or data based. They remove all context or specific crosstabs that actually paint a more accurate, but often messier, picture.

Big clean numbers are nice. But they rarely tell the full story or allow for nuance.

[kindlingkeen]

I need to know if I’m alone in this or maybe missing something.

It always bothers me when people say Tim’s childhood was so much worse than Jason’s, or even says they’re the same kinda thing. Am I the only one in this?? (More specifically when they compare them) Like it feels like they’re minimizing Jason’s story to nothing, when it makes his character up as much as his death does. (I’ve even seen people compare Tim’s childhood to Jason’s death, which is. A choice.)

Granted, I’m not a big Tim fan (he’s a cool character, just not the one I focus on) so maybe I’ve missed some part of his canonical backstory or ive subconsciously got something against his character idk.

But from my understanding, Tim is a rich kid who was taken care of (as in, he always had what he needed), just his parents were neglectful? Or away? (Not to say this isn’t bad, of course wouldn’t wish that on a kid either)

But Jason’s lived surrounded by crime and poverty, hell we see panels where he’s hurt and generally not havin a great time.

And I’m fine with people making angst worse because like, favourite character. I’m sure I’m guilty of doing the same to Jason (fave character bias and whatnot) it’s just something that strikes me as odd. But hey, maybe I just don’t know about some canon panel that shows Tim’s childhood as a tragedy where he almost died countless times (another thing I’ve seen fans use)

So yeah. Generally, what do you think about this? I am not too great with character analysis & whatever else, but I like the stuff you’ve said in regards to characters. I know you’re a Jason fan, unsure about how you feel about Tim/how much you know, but curious about your opinion anyway. Thanks.

You are not alone, anon.

You’re also not missing anything in canon, Tim’s childhood was not a tragedy (his parents traveled a lot and he spent his time in boarding school). Were his parents on the neglectful side? Yes. Does that equate to being parentless and living on the street before the age of 12? No. I answered an Ask about Tim a little while ago explaining why I don’t really care much for Tim in the comics or a lot of fanfics. And I only ranted a little about how projecting Jason’s trauma onto Tim is Not. Cool. So maybe check that out.

As for my opinion on this … *takes a deep breath* Let me start by saying that everyone should like what they like, read what they want, write what they want, etc. No judgement or shame intended at all.

But … my opinion is that the enemy-to-caretaker trope is to blame for the over abundance of this dynamic in the fandom.

It seems like this trope grew out of/is a Gen take on enemies-to-lovers. I have absolutely no problem with this trope in general. In fact, I quite enjoy it in certain settings. But the thing is, lovers can be equals. But a caretaker, that has an inherent power imbalance to the relationship. A caretaker takes care of a person who is in some way weaker or less able than them.

So, to make Jason a caretaker for Tim, you somehow have to make Tim weaker, and with time and repetition that’s gotten amplified to much weaker.

The easiest way to do this is to jack up the angst and trauma of Tim’s origin story and increase his overall vulnerability. Because in reality, the inherent power imbalance between Jason and Tim is not that significant. Jason is only two years older than Tim. They’re both supposed to be badass vigilantes who can fight and solve crimes. Tim’s home life was loads more stable and supportive.

Play a few games of fanfic telephone, and all of a sudden you have a baseline of touch-starved Timmy who was made to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs as a wee little niblet and then Lazarus-mad Jason came along and tried to murder him repeatedly (nope), slit his throat (‘twas but a scratch), and generally traumatized him beyond repair (Tim is Robin, pretty sure he’s been beaten up before). 🤦‍♀️

That’s my opinion, anon! Thanks for the ask! 💙

[pentsandlilies]

magoria's book list

would recommend

Magic for the Resistance: Rituals and Spells for Change by Michael M. Hughes — I loved hearing about political magic from the perspective of someone who was successful in that field. There were some great ideas for spells that I will be incorporating into my daily practice. It was interesting but not overwhelming to hear his UPG. There is some, but you can easily work around it; he's very clear about what some people believe in. It helped remind me what we can do when we band together, so it's a great read.

Magickal Servitors: Create Your Own Spirits to Attract Pleasure, Power and Prosperity by Damon Brand — I think this is a great look into servitors if you're interested in chaos magic. It's free, available on Archive, and super short, yet also very informative. It includes basically anything you'd need to immediately make a servitor.

Of Blood and Bones: Working with Shadow Magick & the Dark Moon by Kate Freuler — I enjoyed every part of this book! I don't normally work with death magic or animal remains, but I'll definitely go back to this book if I want to try out some of the more nitty gritty parts of the craft. All of the spells were unique and helpful, and this book alone convinced me to try out blood magic for a change. Perfect for an intermediate witch that at least wants to see what options exist, even if you won't work with them.

you can read if you want

Advanced Magick for Beginners by Alan Chapman — This was the first book I read about chaos magic, and I think it's super easy to understand the theory that goes around it. While I may not agree with everything, and some of the ideas are a little outdated (when was the last time you masturbated to charge a sigil?) I felt that overall, it was a great look into the basis of chaos magic and how important intent really is when paired with action.

Consorting with Spirits: Your Guide to Working with Invisible Allies by Jason Miller — I liked the base ideas of how to work with spirits, what your relationship with them should be like, and ideas of the astral plane, but there's a lot of UPG I can't relate to at all. A lot of the spells are very ceremonial and invoke deities I don't know of. It's a good read as an intro to spirit work, but take a lot of the ideas and spells given with a grain of salt if you'd like.

The Modern Guide to Witchcraft: Your Complete Guide to Witches, Covens, and Spells by Skye Alexander — I thought that it was fine for if you've never heard of a grimoire before, but it only really touched on the very baseline ideas. I would only recommend this video to a very beginner witch; everyone else would find little gain from reading it.

Utterly Wicked: Curses, Hexes & Other Unsavory Notions by Dorothy Morrison — I preferred Of Blood and Bones, but I thought that this is also a helpful addition to the list. It was too beginner-oriented for me, and I found some of the spells to be too focused and the book organization to be a little messy, but none of this was much of a problem as I was reading. Added a few new hexes to my collection from this!

would not recommend

1001 Spells: The Complete Book of Spells for Every Purpose by Cassandra Eason — Maybe I'm picky with my spells, but I absolutely did not like the spellwork in this one. The phrasing of spells as "healing illness" or "guaranteeing a win when gambling" made me uncomfortable. Most of the spells in this book are 1 or 2 ingredients and a not so great incantation, claiming to be able to do something very important. A lot of the spells were hyperspecific and couldn't apply to me at all.

Psychic Witch: A Metaphysical Guide to Meditation, Magick & Manifestation by Mat Auryn — I know this is an unpopular opinion, so feel free to not listen to me. For me, reading this book as a beginner witch was not the best experience. I was sucked in to some new, convincing energy work and theory I'd never heard of, and then got hit with 7 paragraphs of pure UPG. I think it's mainly because I don't really believe in / work with brainwaves, chakras, and the fifth element, among many others referenced. It was hard for me to figure out what it is I should take away from the book, and many chapters I skipped all together.

to read (or rereading)

The Practical Psychic Self Defense Handbook: A Survival Guide by Robert Bruce

By Rust of Nail & Prick of Thorn: The Theory & Practice of Effective Home Warding by Althaea Sebastiani

Condensed Chaos: An Introduction to Chaos Magic by Phil Hine

Advanced Magick for Beginners by Alan Chapman

Protection & Reversal Magick: A Witch's Defense Manual by Jason Miller

[pluckyredhead]

☕️batfam (not each character, but your opinion of them as a family both in canon vs. canon)

I think the version of them that you see in things like WFA and a lot of fandom stuff is delightful and entertaining. Don't get me wrong - a lot of the fandom stuff is also wildly wrong and infuriating. But there are writers who do a great job with a more fannish take on the Batfamily and I enjoy their work. (It is usually...painfully obvious who has actually read the comics and who only knows the Batfam via tumblr posts.)

The Batfamily in mainstream continuity is...not that. The characters are significantly more traumatized and rarely joke around with each other. They're also not a unit in the same way. They almost never do anything together out of costume. They don't have a joint baseline relationship of "family" - each pair of characters has a unique relationship. Like, Dick and Damian are close, Tim and Damian have a very rocky history, and Jason and Damian have honestly just not interacted that much? (Hilariously, Jason literally shot Damian early on and Damian doesn't appear to hold a grudge, while you know Tim is still mad about the dinosaur thing.) Damian has a specific relationship with Steph. Tim has a specific (and close!) relationship with Babs. (He used to just...hang out in the Watchtower! Being nerds together!) Duke and Cass are close, which of course is largely ignored by fandom. Etc.

I think the fact that the canon relationships are fraught and in some cases either really volatile or nonexistent is potentially really interesting. Like, I would love to see a story that puts Jason and Tim on a mission together and really digs into that dynamic, or Tim and Damian. (Or my dream story, one where Tim feels Some Kind Of Way about how he used to be Dick's favorite but now Damian very clearly is. (This is not how Dick sees it at all, for the record. Tim is his little brother! But Damian is his baby. It's different.))

Or look at the Robins' current relationships with Bruce: Dick is the closest with him but also accepts and absorbs much of Bruce's bad behavior without question. Bruce and Jason cannot be around each other for more than 30 minutes without dragging up every wound they've inflicted on each other over the years. Tim is desperate to fix Bruce to a degree that's actively unhealthy for Tim. Bruce functionally ignores Steph's entire existence and she seems to have wisely made her peace with that. And Damian is desperate for the unconditional love Bruce seems incapable of giving and mad at himself for it.

I don't actually want to change that. I find it fascinating. I'm not opposed to stories about the kids healing some of that damage, but I don't particularly want it to be via their relationships with Bruce. I'd like to see it happen via their relationships with each other. (That one story where Dick was like "Tim you will never fix Bruce, PLEASE stop trying" and Bruce was like "Lol he's right" was SO good. And then the writing on Tim went catastrophically off the rails but we're not talking about that right now.)

Anyway I think I've gotten a little far afield of your original question, but basically: I like (the good takes on) the fanon Batfam, but I also think the canon Batfam is really interesting. I don't think the two should be conflated (which is what DC does when they try to give us fluffy interactions that haven't been earned, Tom Taylor). And I don't think anyone is wrong for preferring either a more lighthearted take or a more fraught, canon-compliant take. The asshole behavior comes in when you refuse to accept other people's preferences.

(But also, if you are looking for an actually loving and healthy canon family that has playful interactions, you want the Flashes or the Arrows.)

[ectonurites]

Do the Robins really think of each other as siblings? I know they all consider Dick a brother and vice versa, but between all them, is there really a sibling dynamic/consideration? Do they ever call each other as such?

Okay, so, off the bat (heh) from the phrasing of this ask I want to clarify something:

Namely that the hero role of ‘Robin’ does not inherently have a familial tie.

‘Robin’ is a hero role that has (in main continuity) been filled by: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, Damian Wayne, and in a slightly less formal way Duke Thomas (he was a member of the We Are Robin movement and the most prominently featured of that group, though he did not really act as ‘Batman’s sidekick Robin’ which is why he’s kinda in his own category here but still worth mentioning).

However, that’s not to say there are no familial ties there. From the list of Robins… Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, and Tim Drake are the adopted sons of Bruce Wayne. Damian Wayne is Bruce’s biological son. Duke Thomas was for a time fostered by Bruce, though that is not presently the case (he lives with his uncle instead nowadays). And, while not a Robin, it’s also worth mentioning that Cassandra Cain (Batgirl) is Bruce’s adopted daughter.

So, to answer the baseline question of ‘Do the Robins really think of each other as siblings?’ I would say 'most of them do, the ones that are adopted siblings'. But like, Steph isn't their sister, and they aren't her brothers. That’s simply not the case there, she's never been adopted by Bruce (not to mention one of them—Tim—is literally her ex-boyfriend).

I think it’s very safe to say that among the ‘Dick, Tim, Jason, Damian’ grouping, yes canon has pretty clearly shown that they do all have a brotherly dynamic. They don't all use the specific phrasing that frequently, but it's not uncommon for them to—whether to directly call one another brothers, or to talk about their shared (adopted or otherwise) dad. This isn't to say they are all close or all have good relationships with one another all the time (lol no, Dick & Tim are close/generally have a good relationship, and Dick & Damian are also close/generally have a good relationship, but aside from that things get rockier/vary a lot more) but at the core there's a brotherly thing with all the ups and downs that entails.

To pull some examples of either using that phrasing or showing that kind of dynamic from books published within the last few years:

(Dick & Jason in Nightwing (2016) Annual #1)

(Dick talking about Tim in Nightwing (2016) #80)

(Dick talking about Damian in Nightwing (2016) #110)

(Jason & Tim [& Cass] in Task Force Z #8)

(Jason & Damian Robin (2021) #5. I do feel the need to mention that on Damian's end this hug was also a distraction to then electrocute Jason. That's just how he is sometimes. but the hug was genuine on Jason's end 🤷)

(Tim & Damian [& Dick] in Batman #138)

That’s just some stuff I could think of off the top of my head, there’s definitely more examples (and also if I went further back, but I'm approaching this anon from a 'the current state of things' POV).

Also worth noting that Dick & Damian’s relationship does kinda toe a line between ‘brothers’ and ‘pseudo father-son’ due to Dick needing to fulfill a parental role while Bruce was dead (pre-N52, like, Batman and Robin (2009) era). They’re still more brothers than anything else, but with such a large age gap and the way responsibilities had to be taken due to the situation at the time, it makes things complex, ya know! In general, I think that’s something to keep in mind—it’s not that these guys all lived together as one happy family with Bruce at any given point in time (they did Not), but despite that they still are family. They each have a complicated relationship with Bruce, and complicated relationships with one another, but they are (and see each other as) family regardless. A messy and non-traditional family, but still a family.

The thing I think some people get confused with is the way that the greater 'Batfamily' is more what we think of as a 'found family' where characters don't necessarily fall into traditional familial roles... because that includes people like Barbara Gordon, Stephanie Brown, Helena Bertinelli, etc—people who are bats but are not part of the Wayne family. Like... The Wayne Family and The Batfamily are not synonymous. The Wayne Family is a separate but partially overlapping thing. The Waynes are Bats but not all Bats are Waynes, ya know? And like, it's only further confusing because of how most of Bruce's adopted kids kept their original last names even after adoption, so it's not always clear at a glance who falls into which group if you're not super familiar with the characters.

NOW, the person I think this gets a bit fuzzy with in terms of placement is Duke… he's obviously part of the Batfamily, but where exactly he sits in relation to the Wayne Family has like, been different at different points in time. Because he was Bruce's foster child for a while, and now he isn’t anymore. So in terms of his relationship with the other Robins, it definitely is more familial than like, Steph's relationships with any of the others—because he was their foster brother—but it's not quite as strictly defined as among the 'Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian' grouping. I’m gonna link this post by a Duke-centric blog which goes into some of this more clearly!

[sergeant-angels-trashcan]

Noh-Varr and David Alleyne have worked a few missions with the Outlaws; not a lot, but enough that Noh apparently feels comfortable enough to ask for a favor.

He needs help breaking a friend out of prison. And Jason "Broke My Best Friend Out of Prison" Todd and Roy "Was Broken Out of Prison by My Best Friend" Harper are like, sure. But Artemis or Kory are noticing the hardcore bitchface David is giving him so they press a little harder on the who and the why. It's a long story, but it boils down to:

In their universe, there's a big discussion fight war over using knowledge of the future to prevent future crimes/apprehending the perpetrator even if they haven't committed a crime yet ("Why does this sound familiar?" Roy asks) and someone they know got captured and is in prison. The problem is this person is a baseline human in a prison intended for not baseline humans and guards who are used to dealing with non-baseline humans, and the odds of this person dying due to this fact are...pretty high.

That still leaves the who.

Well! Noh says. It's my super amazing rad (ex) girlfriend! She is awesome. And great. And cool. And amazing, has he said amazing?

-Wait what was the part before girlfriend?

It was rad

And David, in the spirit of not derailing the mission before it gets started says that it's their team leader (derogatory)

whatever, doesn't matter, Jason and Roy are ON it.

The thing is. Jason and Roy heard "baseline human" and stopped listening. So they break into the Raft and are prepared for a civilian, they are NOT prepared for someone to grab Roy's bow and say "come to mama" initiating a staredown between her and Roy because CLEARLY her boys told you to bring this bow FOR HER, right???

Roy is staring at her over his bow (MA'AM ITS HIS) when she swings him around (how????) pulls an arrow from his quiver, and fires it at a guard who was coming in behind them while Roy is still holding the bow. And he has a Cecil-meeting-Carlos moment

"Her aim is perfect, and we all hate, and despair, and love that perfect aim in equal measure..."

"She has teeth like a military cemetery, her aim is perfect, and she grinned, and everything about her was perfect, and I fell in love instantly"

Roy is experiencing a paradigm shift and Kate is just trying to escape prison!!!!!

(David takes one look at Roy and goes "Ah fuck we lost another one")

("Sorry, Noh, I think you made a tactical error there--"

Did he? DID he? Or is he about to be in a polyamorous relationship with two of the greatest marksmen in the universe???? What about THAT, Prodigy???)

[frownyalfred]

Omg I love your writing so much I’m just dying to how Bruce got the batkids in bloodletting? I know Damian and Cass were covered a little bit with death watch being the league of assassins in this case, but what about dick? Was the circus like… an intergalactic traveling circus? Maybe Tim’s parents instead of being socialites were some other station of power, generals or something who were killed in battle? Does Duke still have a metahuman bio dad? And Steph… is there like a mando version of CPS?

Ah thank you for asking about this anon! I've had some side stories/shorts in mind for bloodletting, but haven't gotten around to them since the main plot is heating up a lot (and writing the chapters is a lot of work).

The bare outline I usually work with in my mind is:

Damian was part of Death Watch/Kyr'tsad under Talia. He's not Bruce's son, despite Talia's desire to have a child with him. Talia beat him horribly when he questioned her orders and Bruce found him on a raid or mission and adopted him. Damian never renounced Talia so she's still technically his buir, which is difficult since she tortured and somewhat disfigured him (semi-permanent limp).

Cass was raised as a child soldier by Death Watch/Kyr'tsad. Like many of the unfortunate children in this scenario, she was set across from Mand'alor Wayne on the battlefield. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but she defected and Bruce adopted her on the spot.

Dick was the child of spacers Bruce encountered while on a mission. His parents died in a ship crash and Bruce -- newly Mand'alor I think -- took Dick with him as he finished his mission, as they were in a remote area. Once he completed the mission, he took Dick back to Mandalore and gave him the option to find his family or return to another planet. Dick wanted to stay with Bruce, and they said the gai bal manda a few moments later. Probably in front of a tearful Alfred or something.

Jason grew up on Concord Dawn, like the character I sometimes model him after (Jango). Bruce encountered him on a mission like he did with Dick. I'm debating him having the same background as Jango (Bruce helps him avenge the deaths of his buire who were killed for sheltering the Mand'alor from Kyr'tsad) but haven't firmly decided yet. Regardless of his backstory, Bruce knew the instant he saw him -- in the Manda and in real life -- that he would be the next Mand'alor.

Tim, I have sometimes considered, was the child of Mandalorian socialites/etc who joined the New Mandalorians and eschewed the Haat'ade ways of the new Mand'alor. They were close with Bruce's father, the former Mand'alor, but didn't agree with the new empire. Tim jumped a ship as soon as he knew how, demanded to be let into the Haat'ade stronghold, and for an audience with the Mand'alor. I like to think Bruce adored him instantly but didn't adopt him for fear of stepping on his former buire's toes. Tim thought that was ridiculous, renounced them despite Bruce's protests, and basically strongarmed Bruce into saying the gai bal Manda. Otherwise he was going to get like, one of the guards to do it (they all loved this crazy mando kid from the passive New Mandalorians and were fighting each other for second chance at adoption)

Duke I like to think has non-baseline human ancestry that isn't quite apparent visually. I haven't decided what that is yet. He came to serve his Mand'alor as a young orphan when he heard about Bruce's rise to the throne. Dick immediately grabbed him, shook him in front of Bruce, and was like are you seriously employing kids? To which Bruce said [puppy eyes] and started training him as a guard, if only to protect himself. The adoption happened a few months later.

Steph, I'm not sure yet. But I like your idea, anon! Mandalorians feel very fiercely about the treatment of children. I imagine, however Bruce came into contact with her, it was intense. And she was secretly relieved and happy to be adopted and wanted that badly.

[dizaryswrites]

I have a confession to make!

I don’t know how obvious it is, but I actually haven’t read any comics 😅 I know, I know haha, it’s just I haven’t had the time! Luckily, I mostly follow blogs that I know are comic readers so I know what’s fanon and canon mostly. But since I will have free time in the summer, I was wondering if you have any recommendations on what to read and where to start?

Oh man I WISH I could be one of those blogs who snaps out the long scroll that just rolls down the hallway with a concise cross referenced list of top hits from every era and where to start with each character! But I am a book hoarder with not enough time on my hands so I haven't even read half of what I have, let alone all the back issues 😅

Here's some stuff that I really enjoyed as a new-to-comics-and-DC reader and in general (in mostly chronological order because that's how I arrange my comic books):

Batman: Dark Victory

I really enjoyed the mystery and early Batman days, plus Dick Grayson's debut! He is a delight. I didn't read Long Halloween which comes before this so I missed some context but I picked it up easy enough (also according to some reviews the mystery can be repetitive if you have read Long Halloween sooo win for me ig?)

Robin: Year One

I am determined to read this one soon. I've heard great things about it though so it's being added

Batman: Prodigal

I read this without reading a single page of Knightfall because I was getting interested in Nightwing and this was the earliest book that my library had available (I have given up on a chronological reading order since those early foolish days). I knew nothing and still really enjoyed Dick!Bats and Robin!Tim together. I need to reread this soon

Formerly Known as the Justice League

A limited run, 6 issues I think. Honestly I should just say Justice League International in general but I started with this mini for Booster Gold and Blue Beetle after seeing some funny panels online and I fell in love with that whole cast of losers (affectionate). It's not BatFam but so so fun to read (and JLI has some really poignant moments too)

Young Justice: A League of Their Own

SO FUN. Tim and friends dealing with just ridiculous scenarios LOL I'm only halfway through but it's great

Batman: Hush

I haven't read a lot of just Batman titles but I enjoyed Hush. It had some good character moments for Bruce that helped me understand the way he thinks a little more. I also hear Bruce Wayne: Murder/Fugitive is very very good but I haven't gotten around to it yet (a running theme)

Batgirl: Point Blank

Cass is a treat. This was the first volume I found of her's, haven't read the others yet, but even lacking context I really enjoyed her as the main character and her interactions with Steph, Babs, and Bruce.

Teen Titans (Geoff Johns)

This was one of the first series I started reading and it was a good intro for me, a completely new DC fan. It's Tim and his friends but more serious than YJ. I've read vol 1-2 and part of 3

Under The Red Hood

Classic for good reason. I haven't finished it yet (teehee) but the first half has been entertaining. Jason has had some um... interesting writing in his time. But I really enjoy the way he's written here. It's a good baseline imo. I've heard Lost Days is also good

Nightwing (Tomasi run)

I love Tomasi and this run was a lot of fun. Dick is funny while not losing his serious, capable edge, he interacts with people in his circles, and has some interesting introspection moments. There's a weird part of the plot about midway that definitely uses bad Asian stereotypes which is so disappointing. But after that it gets normal again 😅

Batman & Robin

This comes right after Tomasi's run and it's a mixed bag for me. It's definitely interesting seeing Dick and Damian learning to work together but I was still new to DC with little context for things and was also *so* put off by the art style that I don't remember it well. But I thought I'd add it anyway since it's an iconic moment for Dick!Bats

Batman and Robin (Tomasi)

I adore Bruce and Damian struggling together to discover what being father and son looks like for them. I adore Damian having growth. That's volumes 1-3. 4 is post Damian's death (and damn issue 1 is a well written look at grief), I haven't read 5 or beyond yet.

Nightwing (Rebirth)

The first Nightwing title I read. Looking back, the characterization is a bit weak in some areas, doesn't quite match how he's written in older runs, but it had good moments and kept me entertained. Especially!!! In vol 3 with Humphries's Judge arc

For more current runs, I'm really enjoying World's Finest. Waid's writing is good and Mora's art is just *cartoon heart eyes*. Bats, Supes, and teenage Dick Grayson are a fun trio. Amid other runs that had me tearing my hair out in disappointment or frustration, WF is a breath of fresh air.

Titans United: Bloodpact is a 6 issue limited that was also a really nice read. It's Dick's Titans but Tim is there too and I enjoyed everyone's writing.

The Human Target (Tom King) but honestly I was just losing my mind over Greg Smallwood's art and paneling the entire time. A masterpiece. I want to frame every page. I cheered when he posted inspiration threads on Twitter.

Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen

It's not Batfam but hear me out!!!! This comic had some of the sweetest moments between Supes and Jimmy and I wanted to grab literally anybody by the shoulders and shake them until they looked at the Lois, Clark, & Jimmy in the helicopter panel and GOT IT!!! Also it is so delightfully wacky and funny, I was genuinely laughing out loud. Steve's Lieber's art is the perfect pairing with Matt Fraction's writing.

AND SPEAKING OF!

This isn't DC at all but it's the series that made me (and so many others) really love comics and their storytelling potential. Matt Fraction's Hawkeye run, volumes 1-4. Between his writing and David Aja's artwork and color theory (and Steve Lieber's guest issue that literally gut punched me and changed how I saw later parts of the story, it was never just a filler issue to me, Steve) you get a great story that says so much with so little (in the best way) and is a visual treat as well. Chef's kiss.

Some other non-DC comics I really enjoyed are Die (imagine Jumanji but D&D and novels and oh look the consequence of your actions has grown up), Something is Killing the Children Vol. 1 (I am not a horror girly but I really enjoyed this, in no small part because of Dell'edera's art), Eight Billion Genies (the world population hits 8 billion and now everyone gets a genie, what could go possibly wrong), and Paper Girls which I'm about 2/3 through (picture stranger things but with time travel, spaceships?, and oh shit is future me lying??)

Damn, I guess I really did have a scroll's worth. 😭 Anyway, my recommendation for where to start with this list is...what does your library have available? Don't forget about the Hoopla app too, that's where I read some of these digitally. Or the used bookstore which is where I got 90% of my comics from.

But seriously! Just pick whatever sounds the most fun or has the character(s) you're the most interested in and go from there. Skip around on the timeline or go in chronological order. Whatever floats your boat! I think that's the really unique thing about comics. Plus if you can't figure out the context of what you're missing or what is happening simultaneously (because writers & editorial used to care a little more) you can do a quick google or (and I wish I had this with Batgirl) @cephalog0d has a pinned timeline master list. Incredible.