#and I love her relationship with Bruce

[haveihitanerve]

Her name is Stephanie Brown and she has been Robin since Tim Drake retired the name, choosing Red Robin instead as he fled the nest, the bat cave, and Batman. Stephanie Brown is Robin, Batman’s loyal sidekick, and the one who reminds him that they are better, that good people should not fear them, and that there is room, in their line of work, for hope. Stephanie Brown is seventeen and she is Robin when Batman is called to arms against Darksied, and she refuses to be left behind, just like Damian, and the two of them band together, both wearing the red and green and yellow, and he relents.

Stephanie Brown is Robin and she is watching him, as always, following his lead, his guide, so she sees it all happen. Sees as he gets hit, and sees as he collapses. The fall is not controlled, or cushioned, or careful, Bruce does not move his hands, does not lift his arms, or flex his legs. He does not do any of the things he has taught Steph to do when she falls, to save herself, to make the fall hurt less. No, he crumples, hard and heavy and final. “BATMAN!” The scream is torn from her throat and then Stephanie is running, dodging heroes and enemies alike, hurtling for the fallen body, her legs burning, lungs screaming. She sees, out of the corner of her eye, Dick crumple, sees Tim get knocked from the sky as his attention diverts, sees Jason roar as he starts firing anewed, rage in every fiber of his being. “BATMAN!” Damian gets there first, tugging at his fathers hand, pushing against his chest, but he’s too heavy, and Damian is too small, too young to see his father die, to be charged with the duty of trying to revive him. So Steph pushes him away, screams for Supergirl to get him out out out. And she beats at his chest instead, screaming for him to get up and fight dammit. Steph crouches over the body of her mentor, of her father, pounding on his chest with everything she has, forcing her own heartbeat into his body, pressing her lips against his over and over, 30, two breaths, 30, again and again and again. It isn’t until hands grab her, pull her back, kicking and screaming, that she realizes the battle is over, is won. But how can it be won, how can any of them say they’ve won when Bruce is dead? Bruce Bruce Bruce. Bruce is dead. The hands holding her relax as Stephanie collapses, sobbing, crawling to his side to hold him, to cry into his chest, begging, pleading for him to stand. To say something. To reprimand her, anything.

She is Stephanie Brown and she is Robin and the battlefield is quiet as they watch this girl, this child, Robin, beg Batman to yell at her, watch as she cries over the body of her fallen mentor. She pulls away, finally, and falls instead into the arms of Nightwing, who is crying too, tears streaking out from behind his mask, lips trembling. Red Robin joins them, his face an ugly red mess of tears, and Red Hood is quick to follow, wrapping his arms around them all. The four of them cling to each other, sobbing in their shared grief. Supergirl returns, holding a small Damian in her arms, the new robin, the one who had refused to stay home. He stares at them, and at the body of his father. Steph detaches from the group, slowly, approaching the boy with careful steps. He looks up at her, Lower lip trembling, head shaking quickly, repeatedly. “No.” He says, voice hollow. “No.” He repeats, louder, as though she hasn’t heard him. Steph crouches, brushing a lock of brown hair behind his ear. “Yes.” She whispers. The word breaks her, and him, because he falls, Steph catching him just in time, and he clings to her, sobbing, renewed screams of “no!!!” Leaving his mouth until his voice is hoarse with it and he can only sob dry tears. The Justice league watches the two robins hold each other and mourn, and they ask, vaguely, in the back of their minds, if they will ever see something more bone chilling ever again. The answer is no, no they will not.

She is Stephanie Brown and she does not have a mentor anymore, and she, they, bury him in an unmarked grave, a grave they tell no one but themselves about, and make a new, public grave for the others. They never go there. She visits him, almost every day, and Alfred hands her his videos, his last words, his contingencies he had crafted for them all. She hands them out dutifully, staying only long enough to see the tears form in their eyes as they hear their fathers voice for the first time again, then slips away, out, to patrol her city. The cowl is heavy on her, the cape too long, but she fits it, she thinks, and he would say so too, she thinks. She listens to her own video, alone, on their roof. “I am proud of you Robin. Give ‘em hell.” Steph wipes the tears away, smiling at his face, that face, pressing her fingers against the screen. “I always do Bats. I always do.” There’s a rustling and Steph shoves the screen away, stows it in one of the insanely deep utility belt, turning to the ruffle of red and green. “Hey Robin.” She smiles. Damian smiles back, happier than she’s seen him in a while. “Hey Bats.” He greets, moving so he can lean against her side. Steph likes the nickname, treasures it, even. The first time someone had called her Batman she had, come to their aid of course, but then she had gone home and thrown up, crying herself to sleep. Damian had appeared a few hours later, and she had snuggled him until dawn, telling him all her memories of Bruce, good and bad, telling him of his father.

She is Stephanie Brown, The Batman and she breathes deeply, hiking the familiar path to the unmarked grave. It has been a while since she’s been here, since she’s visited him, and she doesn’t regret it, not as she brushes away the old petals and places the new flowers in the hole. “I love you.” She whispers, fingers brushing the only word Dick had carved into the pure white stone. Dad. It means more to them then anyone would ever know. Her own father, biological, is buried somewhere across town, in a marked grave, a grave that is bare of flowers. She never visits him. “You were more a father than he ever was.” She whispers to the gravestone, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye, wishing desperately that she had actually told him that. When he was alive. Steph stands, pressing a kiss to the stone as she always does, and turns, leaving him, as she always does. Robin moves on. He had whispered to her once. She knew it was true, had been true for all three before her, but she wasn’t quite ready to. Not yet.

She is Stephanie Brown and he is back. Stephanie doesn’t know how, and she doesn’t much care. He appears on the doorstep, looking a little confused and a lot guilty but they can deal with that later as Steph throws herself at him, burying her face in the familiar smell of his neck, soaking him in, treasuring the strong, steady arms that wrap around her, protective. “Hey Robin.” He whispers, gently wiping a tear from her eyes. “Hey Batman.” She returns, a smile threatening to split her face in two. Damian comes at the sounds of commotion and freezes, on the stairs, eyes blown wide. Steph takes a step to the side, but she keeps her hand on his arm, just because she can just because he’s there, just in case he disappears. Bruce takes a step forward, careful of her hand, and opens his arms to his son. “Hey Princeling.” He whispers and Damian hurtles for him, clutching his father like a lifeline, tiny body fitting perfectly against Bruce’s chest and Bruce cradles him gently, so gently, as he strokes a hand up and down his back and murmurs words of comfort. He looks at Steph over his son's head and she smiles, light and free and happy in a way she hasn’t the last few months and she pulls out her phone, pinging a quick message in the group chat and it isnt long before everyone has arrived, screaming and crying and yelling and Bruce takes it all in stride, hugging and apologizing and squeezing and kissing, and Steph watches from her spot against the wall, smiling so wide and for so long that she’s sure her face muscles will be sore tomorrow but for the first time in a while she just doesn’t care because he’s here he’s alive and she has her Batman back.

She is Stephanie Brown and she hands the mantle off to Damian, declining his offer to be two Robins at the same time like they’d been before, choosing her own purple cape again instead, still running at Batman’s side but a step further away now, running with Black Bat and Red Hood and Red Robin, still under Batman’s cape but no longer his shadow. No, now she is his claws, his teeth, his messenger, spreading across Gotham like mist, branching away and furthering the myth, becoming one of the birds in her own right. She adopts the name later, Sparrow, the one who was not broken, still with the purple colors but with flashes of red and green, highlighted with gold and blue, and a bright, proud, black bat on her chest, emblazoning her as his. She is not Robin anymore, she has moved on, but Robin helped her to grow her feathers and now she flies, flies free and happy and safe, but not alone, never alone, returning each night to her nest, her cave, her home. “Birds of a feather, bats of a cave.” Jason whispers to her once, on one of their missions together, and Stephanie takes the words to heart, repeating them to herself as she flies across rooftops, dancing with the stars and shadows of Gotham, happy and free and safe.

She is Stephanie Brown, the fourth Robin, Spoiler, and the Sparrow, she was the Batman when no one else was able to be, and she is Batman’s plague, his greatest weapon and his biggest curse, because she is his. Stephanie Brown never belonged in the sunlight, she did not belong cowering behind her mother, locked in the closet by her father. She belongs to the darkness, belongs to the creatures of the night because she is one, a phantom, a myth, and she showed them all, and she showed the Bat that there is room for hope in their line of work.

[casscainmainly]

Together.

Batgirl (2000) #67 // Batgirl (2000) #27 // Batgirl (2000) #18 // Batman and Robin: Eternal #3 // Truth & Justice #16 // Batman & The Outsiders (2019) #9 // Batgirl (2000) #29 // Batgirl (2000) #60 // Batgirl (2008) #6 // Batgirl (2000) #59 + Batgirl (2024) #3

[bluerosefox]

Dinner?

Feeling a bit Spirit Halloweenish.

Danny blinked, stared blankly, blinked again before slowly very slowly closed his front door.

A few seconds later Danny opened the door again and once again meet a certain tallish young man, around his age if maybe a few years older, in front of him...

Who was it?

Bruce Wayne....

Bruce freaking Wayne, someone according to what he heard from Sam telling him from what she heard from her parents had apparently just dropped out of med school and was 'in the wind' according to rich elite gossip talks, was at his front door.

........

Why?

Wait... Did he just ask Danny out on a date?

-x-x-

Bruce Wayne has just dropped out of med school and is beginning his training into becoming the person his city needs him to become. While looking into where he can he remembers how in his teen years the planet was almost destroyed but was saved by a ghost teen hero and looks into it. He digs deep to uncover what happened, uncovering impressive firewalls Amity Park has, etc and finds out about Danny Fenton/Phantom.

He decides to go visit the younger man, who is just about to start college himself, and ask a few questions.

He uhhh... Bruce just wasn't expecting to find Danny very cute (even though he was pretty certain Phantom had been his first male crush when he saw a photo of the teen years ago), and adorable with his owlish stare, and well the first words out of his mouth was

"Would you mind joining me for dinner?"

-x-x-

[just-an-enby-lemon]

I think more media should work with the concept that you can still love someone you never forgave. You can still rebuild and create a new relationship with someone but also be "what you did to me was wrong and I trust you to not be like that again and want you in my life but I can't won't forgive that, won't forget the hurt you caused. I love you but there will be days I won't be able to see you because the trauma you gave me is back and I'm just so angry and sad and at least you never asked for forgiviness just to be here, just for friendship, because you know that this are things I can give you."

[lilaclilyroses]

This could be a reverse Robin au but that’s not my intention. I want Steph to be angry and powerful!!! Im thinking that after Black Mask kills Stephanie Brown she is resurrected by her father who stole a vial of liquid from the Lazarus Pit. Instead of this being an act of love, Author Brown uses this to get her to work with him. He says he forgives her for working with Batman, that it’s even a blessing in disguise because she knows inside information. Stephanie pretends to work with her father for a while while she gets stronger and gains allies. She eventually kills Roman Sionis for revenge and takes his place as the Black Mask. She throws her father back in jail with her new found power and names herself as one of the top crime lords in Gotham city. Stephanie is sick of Batman and his rules, and Tim Drake who originally pushed his superior morals on her. The Batfamily for never really believing in her, who never gave her the tools to succeed. Her father who took advantage of her at every turn and made her life a living hell. Her mom who never thought she was worth getting sober for. This whole damn city for never accepting help. Well Stephanie will never let herself be hurt by anyone again, this time she’s made sure of it.

[yuripira4e]

I love the trope of “kid without a mother/father figure discovers magical world and gains 4 of them”

[foultreenightmare]

Okay, but imagine Damian was like just raised in the league of assassins. Like Talia was a good mother, and Ra's was a good grandfather, but damian is still trained and still is amazing at almost basically everything, but he had a really loving family before he came with his father. So imagine how confused damian was when he found out that his new family wasn't as loving. But we also have to consider his personality and how it would have changed. Damian is very cold and mean because he isn't very loved in the league, and he has a lot of trauma. I think he would have been kinda the same, but just because he doesn't know these people and he wouldn't be very mean mean and he would act like a kid sometimes. I just think, what if Ra's wasn't all that mean and Talia showed more love to damian probably would have changed him.

[ronniesart]

being a cass fan is 100% believing that the cass story in Detective Comics #1084 is setting up for a cass solo (please DC)

[hood-ex]

Donna Troy added Dick Grayson Mia no fucking way

SCREEEAM @boiwcndr scream scream scream. I'm screaming into the void.

[farshootergotme]

Dick, Bruce and Cass for the Ask game

Please and Thank You 😊

Dick

Bruce

Cass

[aalghul]

it's so sad that talia still doesn't have good friends when her loneliness is what allowed nyssa to get talia to lower her guard

[haveihitanerve]

Steph and Bruce things-

Bruce once said- “when I die I want you to be the one who lowers me into the grave so you can let me down one last time” and dick gaped at him in horror, jason exploded into laughter, and steph glared at him before giving him a high five

Steph ends every argument with him with “i won this argument” even if she- especially if she very clearly did not

When she gets injured Bruce forces her to stay at the manor. Its the only time he is permitted to actually parent her because she is injured and needs to recover, but thats not to say she doesn't break into the cave and annoy him during work and force him to take her with him everywhere

Steph has all the codes and keys for everything in Wayne Manor/Batcave, but still breaks in everytime she comes over. It drives Bruce insane

When bruce gets injured shes one of the kids who sits at his side the whole time, especially if its because of her or its a big injury(dick is usually the other one)

When he gets sick she forces him to sit on the couch with her all day and folds him into a burrito blanket and eat junk food and slightly burnt soup with bread and watch trashy tv

When she gets sick bruce wraps her in a blanket burrito that she actually cannot escape from and takes her everywhere with him, just carting around his technically not daughter who is forced to be there and take the medicine he gives her and food and everything because shes wrapped in a straight jacket blanket

He picks her up from school and will have the most embarrassing songs ever playing, or will call out something awful like “is that the boy you have a shrine of in your room?”

Will lecture her in front of her friends

Steph changes all his contacts frequently so he always has to spend some time deciphering who it is based on what she called them, or he just starts every conversation with “who is this?”

She once forced him to come to a concert with her and buy matching t-shirts and merch and whenever shes feeling down he wears the shirt as like.. Solidarity and it makes her feel better

Every year for her birthday or christmas or something he sends her a bat symbol, either in purple or black or some other color and every year on his birthday she actually wears it for one day and lets him “claim” her as a bat

She was the first one to visit the League and gave everyone whiplash and made Batman actually break composure

Bruce will actively go on the patrol route she goes on and throw water or like snacks at her while screaming “Hydrate or diedrate!!!” and it is common to see a screaming Spoiler sprint away from Batman across rooftops

They have a snowball fight every year and she recruits every batkid to help

When shes on her period bruce “grounds her” from patrol and forces her to accept his mother henning just once a month. Steph doesn't actually mind. 

Steph gives him actually useful dating advice

Since shes not actually his daughter she lacks the baggage of being his child and tells him when hes messed up and he and Babs have like meetings with him to explain what hes done wrong with his kids and how to fix it/be better. Dick is also sometimes involved in these meetings when he is not the offended party

thats all i could think of rn but please feel free to add more 💗

[casscainmainly]

The Feelings About Cassandra Cain Alignment Chart

Like the Dick Grayson chart, open to change. Not moving anyone down though Cass is just this loved <3.

[imavikingo]

Everytime I look at Tumblr and see the tl I remember why I hate endgame with a passion you couldn't understand.

They fucked up Steve and Bucky so bad (yes, Bucky too bc suddenly he doesn't matter/isn't even a secondary character that deserves to be near Steve)

It's so funny to me (not) bc they talked about gay characters being in the movie at panels and interviews and even talked about Stucky at some point (basically queerbaiting) for then... Steve not even acknowledging Bucky. An awkward and impersonal hug doesn't cut it.

And Steve suddenly yearning and talking about Peggy? When he didn't even mourned her that bad and already had let her go ages ago? They knew they fucked up in CATWS with Steve and Buckys relationship, so they tried to distance them and then inserted Peggy bc ofc

(they possibly didn't have the time for a new character and they already had fucked up pairing Nat and Bruce and Wanda and Vision). Steve didn't have anyone else he cared about so they couldn't give him a new girlfriend. So they used Peggy AGAIN.

I'm not mad bc "Stucky not canon grr"

No.

I'm fucking pissed off because they did the worst character assassination and friendship assassination possible. Every movie of Cap America revolved around Steve saving Bucky at some point and him caring about him above all else, and you want me to believe that Steven Grant Rogers didn't care about him when Bucky died in front of his eyes? AGAIN? That Peggy's death was more important and impactful for him? If that was the case then why the fuck did he crash the plane then? If he cared so much about Peggy since forever?

No, that was just lazy writing and a way to reinforce Steve's sexuality "He can't be gay and you can't say that bc he LOVES PEGGY"(even tho he only kissed her once, even tho he crashed the plane and didn’t give her the coordinates, he didn't really care that much after all) they could have paired him with Nat in later movies, but they didn't.

That's why I only raise my eyebrows a lil when people say that x character will be gay canonically in a marvel movie/series. Is more than possible they won't. And if they are they're Deadpool, a secondary character no one cares about (obscure in lore too, so they can cut them off) or is plain queerbaiting again (because yes, even if you don’t see Steve and Bucky’s relationship as romantic, they DID QUEERBAIT IT)

Steve and Buckys relationship wasn't even written in a romantic way (you can ship them or not), but they tried so hard to rectify Steve's heterosexuality in endgame, that they fucked up their character arcs on purpose. And now they will always feel hollow and inconclusive. A bad taste in the mouth, a painful reminder of what it was and a what? 11 year long? characterization.

Idk man, I know I've talked about this more than three times, but omfg Tumblr reminds me why I hate that fucking movie!!! It's not my fault!!!

I know I'm going to end up writing something out of spite bc I can't take it shdkdjjcif

"It's been more than 4 years get over it" NEVER

Also the bit with Johnny Storm in Deadpool and Wolverine was also a dig (a fuck you if you will) to the fans bc Deadpool explicitly calls him Cap. And it implies that Steve as a character (not that old Steve nonsense) won't be back.

It's funny they've remade over and over again some movies (Fantastic 4, Spiderman) changed actors for characters (James/war machine, Bruce) and they include them in the multiverse/plot, but they won't do the same to some movies and some characters when they fuck up their stories, because they know if they do, they will have to acknowledge WHY they did it. Like with James/war machine changing actors.

So yeah, that's one of the reasons I don't care about Marvel anymore.

**I mean remake the movies ((Also they Can't remake Cap America bc that would mean they need to remake every important movie. And they don't have the time, the money nor the need. So that's why they decided to fuck their character arcs))

or include some characters in multiverse (they're going to do that with Tony/RDJ/Dr Doom after all, no?) and they also won't remake Cap bc the movies are amazing.

But the point stands. Steve couldn't be in DaW bc that would imply he's an alternative one or that Old!Steve was an alternative one or wasn't even Steve to begin with. But they couldn't do that ofc, no, bc that would give the fans hope in seeing Steve and Bucky together once again. So they did a dig at the fans bc "haha you thought it was Steve, but it's Johnny!"

Idk if I'm making sense at this point I'm tired af, need to sleep.

The thing is that they fucked up Steve Rogers's arc on purpose (Bucky's too, and others charas too tbh) and now they expect the fans to accept everything they give us with open arms. And imho I won't accept shit.

"Deadpool saved the MCU" how? If the other og characters are DEAD or they fucked them up too? Or are the butt of the joke now? Don't make me laugh. Most people don't gaf bout the new charas bc they only are presented in series not everyone watches (only available in one place) or are presented with characters that are dead now or as a replacement for the og characters. They aren't interesting on their own (not really, at least in mcu) and that's why most of the new stuff isn't liked as much. If they wanted to present more characters the opportunity passed already.

Also now if you want to watch and really understand 1 movie (if you don't read the comics too) you need to watch like 20 other movies and 5 shows. it's fucking exhausting.

[arabian-batboy]

I have seen some disclosures in the past about how fandoms force a non-existence "found family" dynamic between the characters then forcibly turn that found family into a "nuclear family" where they will make one character be the "dad" while one character is the "mom" and everyone else are siblings when that's not the case and while I definitely know what people mean by that and have seen it happen before, I feel like in the context of the "Batfamily," some people are taking it too far into the opposite direction.

Like first of all, depending on how you divide them, the "Batfamily" is made up by characters who are either literal family or just close friends/lovers, so I can understand why grouping all of them together and labeling them as one big family may sound confusing (but always remember, Wayne family =/= Batfamily)

Characters like Barbara, Stephanie and Duke (I might even throw in Tim & Cassandra, since they both were only adopted at 17) absolutely have an "unconventional" familial ties to each other and to Bruce, so I personally don't think you should be so eager to fit them all into a stereotypical nuclear familial roles, especially since all the characters I mentioned above (except for Cass) have one or two loving parents who have raised them all on their own without the help of Bruce and are still alive and present in their child's life (except Tim, whose parents canonly died a couple of years ago in-universe).

With that being said, sometimes characters just so happen to fit the bill of a stereotypical "nuclear family" in canon and not wanting to accept that because the children are adopted/not related by blood to their parents is fucked up.

And I say that mostly about Dick and Jason, who for for all intent and purposes were both fully adopted at 9 and 11 respectively (ignoring rectons that aged them up or the fact that Dick was a ward at first only because single men couldn't legally adopt in the 40's), so it doesn't matter how you go about it, Bruce is 100% their father and they are 100% his sons, no ifs or buts.

For me, I have seen too many people trying to down-play the fact that Batman is canonly a dad (maybe because they don't think its cool? Idk) by pretending that him and his literal children are just a found family or just partners and accusing anyone who refer to them as parent-and-child of diminishing this found family and forcing them into a "nuclear" family when that's not case with them.

Referring to an adult man who fully adopted a young child to raise them as his own as that child's dad isn't forcing them into a nuclear family, because he's LITERALLY their dad? That's just common sense.

[vicontheinternet]

It will never sit right with me the way some of yall treat Talia vs Selena and Barbra vs Kory with Bruce and Dick respectfully in y’all’s fanfic it’s turned me off from those two ships almost completely