#and later. he Realizes. and kon also Realizes. and then proceeds to laugh himself to tears

[mamawasatesttube]

YES ACCIDENTALLY POPULAR KON!! Such a good contrast from Clark who was nerdy and so not a social butterfly. Conner Kent has everyone in school in love with him, and he’s so oblivious to it, and it makes Tim both relieved and wanting to cry. He’s paints backgrounds for the theatre kids, and is the head of the Wendy the Werewolf Stalker club at the school. He’s the sweetest guy you’ll ever meet, and sometimes he has to leave early because his grandma got arrested for disrespecting an officer (<- This is canon btw. In Supergirl Volume Four, Martha and Fred Danvers do go at it), and his grandpa threatened to shoot said officer. It’s a regular occurrence.

Tim tries so hard to be impressive, and fails. He almost drowned in swimming, nearly had an asthma attack in rope and rock climbing, etc. When he tries to flirt, it comes out as threatening. Somehow, this is what endears Kon to him, and it makes everyone confused.

now TO BE FAIR a tim who is robin is quite fit and athletic. so i think it's more like "he skitters to the top of the rock climbing wall alarmingly fast and unsettlingly, like some kind of spider or creature" and so on. def can keep the near-drowning incident though and it's bc he's not watching where he's walking bc conner just took his shirt off, and oops tim just stepped into thin air and toppled into the deep end and banged his knee and scraped his shin open on the side of the pool real good on the way down. he's had worse he's robin he's fine but conner, who doesn't know that, still leaps in to save him and cradles him gently in his arms while asking if he's okay and if he swallowed water or anything. tim is mortified.

thinking on it more i kinda wanna make this a college au. they both have more free time and can more readily disappear when it's convenient, etc, plus they're a little older and more mature which i always enjoy, etc. they can still have some classes together too like gen eds and all. tim is an insane engineering kid and kon is maybe going into education (future high school biology teacher kon <3)...

that's not all really that relevant i was just thinking about it. anyway. kon telling hero tim (red robin? something else?) about his weird lil friend and tim is like wow this guy sounds pathetic. wow i mean im glad you like him and are having fun but he for real sounds like a weirdo. what a loser. lol

[isfjmel-phleg]

I'm a big fan of those moments in stories where a character who has previously been utterly obnoxious lets a bit of the façade slip and you get to see for the first time what's really behind it and how they might be capable of growth after all--and you have to completely recontextualize your understanding of them.

For instance...

When Kon is introduced, he's a showboating egomaniac who is rude, violent, or inappropriate with just about everyone and has a massive sense of entitlement. There's an incident in which his showing-off leads to the destruction of a Daily Planet helicopter and the death of its pilot. Steel, who had to step in to deal with the problem, grabs Kon up by the scruff of his neck and gives him a severe talking-to. Kon's initial response is to get defensive and angry, but after flying off alone, he self-examines for the first time in his very short life and has to come to terms with his own selfishness (and goes back and apologizes later). This will be the start of a pattern for him: he often reacts in anger but he's also capable of rethinking and learning from mistakes. The attention-seeking is a role that he was created to play, and behind it there's a child with no guidance who wants to do the right thing but doesn't know how.

(Superman: The Man of Steel #23)

Bart is introduced trying to kill Wally on sight and, after getting his aging straightened out, proceeds to be a reckless, thoughtless, petulant nuisance. This is compounded by the fact that we see him almost exclusively from the perspective of Wally, who can't stand him. After Wally passes over Bart as his intended successor before a potentially fatal mission (it's actually a ruse to try to motivate him to learn), Bart and Jesse Quick spend some time together, and he opens up enough to reveal that he's determined to prove himself, he cares about Wally more than he lets on, and he still hasn't adjusted to not being in his own time. He's a displaced child from the future, transported to an era in which he is scolded and belittled for doing things according to the definition of normal he was raised with, which accounts for his near-constant frustration. And yeah, he could use an attitude adjustment, but he's not just being annoying to be annoying. He's even capable of loyalty, however begrudging, to the cousin who has made no secret of his disdain for him. There's complexity here.

(The Flash 1987 #98)

Thad is introduced as a villain and presented as such for most of his appearances--until we're given his narration during the time he spends impersonating Bart and we find out that his motivations are not limited to his murder mission. There are moments previously that hint at his being more pitiable than evil, but I think we first see what he really wants out of life after one of the social interactions that he loathes results in his managing to make "his" friends laugh. He's not just a supervillain bent on revenge; he's a kid getting his first taste of being liked and accepted on his own terms and realizing what he has missed out on his whole long, long lonely life. This complicates our understanding of him and makes his defeat in the climax more tragic than triumphant.

(Impulse #65)

Damian is awful when he first shows up. He attacks his father, refuses to follow even the most reasonable of instructions, loudly insists that no one can make him do anything, cusses out Alfred, throws a tantrum when his father won't let him have a laptop or a sword, insults and rejects food, steals the Robin uniform and goes out and beheads a criminal, tries to kill Tim, and generally behaves like a spoiled brat. It's made clear that this behavior is a product of his upbringing, with its horrifying combination of violence and indulgence. But the moment when we first see the vulnerability behind it is when Damian spills his mother's plans to his father and adds frantically, "See? I can be useful!" The ruthless assassin is really just a ten-year-old boy who is desperate to help the father whose respect he longs for. Given guidance and love, he could be better, and will be, but it's a long, difficult road there.

(Batman #658)

There are further examples, I'm sure, but these are the ones that stand out from what I've read.