#bruce wayne is a fictional billionaire who actually wants to do good with the money he has | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

delusionland · 4 years ago

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so i’m thinking about the dark knight movie because i’m listening to a podcast roasting it and how to like.

make a transformative work batman mythos in which batman is still A Dad, and a Traumatized Man, who can NEVER fix gotham or gotham’s crime problem, despite all the money he funnels into social programs AND batman.

(stream of consciosness rambling under the cut that tries to seperate my own views on batman and toxic masculinity and capitalism which i view as inseperable and important to even my trans bi man take on batman, to like, making a work of fiction that actually expresses my leftists & feminist views and allows bruce the chance to grow & change & be nuanced but still ‘canonical’ to both my vision of bruce and the visions of bruce from all the men who have written him and displaced on him their own toxic masculinity and bad fatherhood thru whose politics are both altogether shadier and altogether... harder to dissect from bruce bc i cannot tell how self-aware / critical they are.)

how a lot of the blogs i follow like @/brokentoys & @/dajokahhh and then like, poison ivy and harley and selina and red hood generally in some versions in canon who are all like kind of socially-inclined and queer and more morally ambiguous and just want to cause chaos against a corrupt social order or strike fear into the hearts of cops/billionaires/politicians (by murdering them sometimes but whatever i believe murder and death can be justified in some cases personally)

and i’m trying to rack my brain out of how to make a nuanced take that isn’t just ‘batman beats up mentally ill people and never does anything to help ANYONE’ OR the bush-era / dark knight ann randian ‘batman NEEDS to exist bc the only way to stop crime is punishing criminals and making people fear u’

and i feel like there IS a middle ground there where batman is so mentally ill that he is.... basically one of his own rogues and he never like WANTS to fight these people or lock them up but he FEELS PRESSURED TO by the establishment and his own moral code. he hates himself for fighting them but also he can’t stop.

i actually feel that the rogues as they are portrayed on these blogs in particular and in canon can and probably do actually do more social good and more for the revolution against capitalism than batman even if they are ultimately flawed and they do kill people

batman in the end has such moral ocd that he has become sort of... an ordered life puritinical sexless fear cultist, the same way joker is referred to as a ‘death-worshipping clown cultist’. the difference between joker and riddler and harley and ivy is... the other rogues only have EACH OTHER, and that’s in limited capacities. they have to PAY their followers.

batman doesn’t have to pay his followers, and yet he still has money. so in a way, bruce & the batfam is even more a cult than the poor lgbt people who just pay henchmen or like, control plants?

as both bruce wayne & a public figure that is thus legally mandated to follow society’s rules (thru both his own ocd & also his obsession with appearances, with following rules in general the same way joker is obsessed with chaos and riddler is obsessed with puzzles and ivy is obsessed with plants)...

the batfam is in many ways the ROYAL FAMILY of gotham, and is subject to the same human rights violations. yes, he is incredibly wealthy & privileged. he also has no freedom in his life, he is subjected to rules and scrutiny and the inability to do anything with his feelings & his trauma without royal family level scrutiny. quadruply so for his children of color.

so yes he does terrible things and his empire is built on the suffering of others. but there can be a nuanced take to it that says ‘he is so insulated from the world bc his home is LITERALLY the establishment and the establishment hurts EVERYONE including those at the top, and then makes everyone IMAGINE their life is beautiful and grand and fantastical (which leads to the further indoctrination of his children into the mythos of robin/batgirl which are not even bruce’s mantles to give) when in reality being looked at under a microscope of establishment rules that u force upon urself due to social conditioning is actually a micro-hell that you cannot escape from because now the world u have inflicted ur violence on views u in the exact same way.’

and in so far as that logic goes, i take it to the logical conclusion.

the joker & riddler & the rest of the rogues may want to KILL the batman, or at least say so that he is FORCED to come out of hiding because the word ‘kill’ is his life-cultist trigger.

but if they literally just said ‘i want to BEAT SOME SENSE INTO YOU BATMAN!!!’ first of all he wouldn’t rise to the occasion unless someone was being hurt.

second of all he does need sense beat into him because the only things he understands are rules, violence, and pity.

[puts up my megaphone] DICK GRAYSON IS THE PRINCESS DIANA OF DC!!!!!

#ooc: shitposts #ooc: hc #hc: batman #fandom: batfam #fandom: dc #fandom: superheroes #i have no idea if this makes sense i just did SOME of the dishes tho B )

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warrocketpodcast · 5 years ago

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Is the "professor x just made a bunch of child soldiers" argument as tired as the "If Batman donated all the money it took to become Batman he'd do more good" line?

.No, but I think there’s an interesting reason why it’s not, and it has a lot to do with textual intent.

In Batman comics, Batman IS the solution to the problems with Gotham City, which we know because WE ARE READING BATMAN COMICS AND THAT IS THE PREMISE, AND IF YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND THAT YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND FICTION. Billionaires in the real world? Terrible, inherently immoral. Billionaires in the fictional universe that has shit like Green Lantern rings and x-ray eyes? Literally the only thing keeping a crocodile man from eating your face. Bruce Wayne is a philanthropist on the side, but, as I’ve written before, writing a check to the local school district or offering comprehensive health insurance to employees of Wayne Industries does not solve the problem of A Murder Clown Is Poisoning The Water Supply Right Now. I do not understand why people claim they want to see fucking Batman meet with his accountant and figure out if construction of the Thomas and Martha Wayne Memorial Humanities Building at Hudson University is a good tax write-off for 20 God damned pages every week, which I assure you they do not actually want, but that’s not the point, really. The point is disingenuous refusal to engage with the text. The actual text of Batman comics is that Batman is a good idea.

The actual text of X-Men comics is that Professor X gathered teenagers and, in the guise of a school, turned them into a secretive paramilitary strike force that went on missions where they were sometimes killed. The argument is whether that’s the best way to go about things, which is an argument that people have within those comics. The text tends to come down on the side that he was right to do so because the alternative is getting murdered by giant purple robots made of racism, but there’s still an exploration. It’s why Cyclops is an interesting character, because he’s The Most X-Man — the guy who found out at 15 that he had to learn how to be really good at aiming the uncontrollable laser beams concussive force blasts that shoot out of his eyes because the alternative was that he and everyone he cared about was going to die. Like, that’s something that’s gonna fuck you up pretty bad, but according to the past 50 years of X-Men comics, it’s also 100% true.

With Batman, the question is not “why doesn’t Batman provide real solutions to to the real-world root causes of crime” — because that’s an astoundingly stupid question to ask — it’s “how is Batman going to solve the problems that are presented to him in this fictional universe that is uniquely built around him?”

With the X-Men, the question is usually “how are the X-Men going to survive this experience?” The idea of questioning whether Professor X was wrong all this time is a core component of that.

The former is refusing to engage with the premise. The latter is asking the questions the premise invites. If you don’t like the premise, you don’t have to engage with the media. There’s a lot of stuff out there and if you don’t like Batman because that idea doesn’t make sense to you, I’m not going to hold it against you. I will, however, hold it against you if you try to break the premise to make it worse.

Here’s a huge tangent where I just know I’m gonna get lost in the woods:

I actually feel a similar way to opinions I’ve seen about the MCU, and how it’s built around a very militaristic idea of superheroes, which makes some people uncomfortable. And, you know, that’s fair! Those movies are built around that idea, because they were built on the foundation of a movie that was the absolute embodiment of transitioning from traditional action movies (ie, stories about loose cannon cops, spies, space marines, Kurt Thomas, and other heroes who usually have the backing of a larger organization) and superhero stories (which are almost always about heroes acting independently of, and occasionally in opposition to, those same larger forces). Those movies never really get away from the idea that Tony Stark, the guy who sets the tone for the entire roster of films to follow, is fundamentally a dude whose primary character trait and fatal flaw are that he always believes he can solve his problems by building a bigger gun. The militarized aspect of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers spins out of this as both a structural result of the action to superhero genre transition, and as a convenience to get Iron Man (former defense contractor), Captain America (literal soldier), Black Widow (spy), the Hulk (military scientist) and Hawkeye (for some reason a spy like in The Ultimates and not a redneck carny like he should’ve been). The odd man out is Thor, which, for all the problems with those first two Avengers movies, is why he first shows up as an antagonist in the first one and then completely bails on the whole thing to go deal with his own stuff on the second one. The military structure is literal plot structure.

So yeah, that gets kind of weird when it filters down to Spider-Man. A lot of that weirdness has to do with things that are beyond the control of the universe, in that Marvel’s most beloved character, the second big success the company ever had whose popularity has endured much stronger than the first one, the flagship superhero who was literally on their paychecks and has never not been popular, had to be a late addition to a universe that already had, like, the Vision in it.

But because they had to work within those constraints, they had to work within the premise they were already given. It makes perfect sense that in that universe, Peter Parker would look up to the world’s most famous superhero nerd, and it makes sense that Iron Man would see Peter as this blank slate that he could stop from making the mistakes that had defined his life. That, to me, is a really interesting dynamic, but it’s also one that requires Spider-Man to take a lot of cues from Iron Man, which is not a dynamic that those two characters ever had in the source material. It winds up giving them different consequences.

And like, if that’s not your thing, I get it. Spider-Man being recruited by the superhero military and having a high-tech suit that talks to him is a jarring shift, even if they do a good job of bringing in most of the core tenets of the character — something about responsibility and... I wanna say... muscles? Is it muscles? — which I think they did. But, if you don’t like that setup, which is a product of the larger universe, then you don’t have to buy into the premise. Like, yeah, it sucks that you’re fundamentally not going to dig this Spider-Man movie, but how do you think I feel? I’m a Batman guy and I literally have to see these movies with their endless terrible premises for my job.

Back when Far From Home came out, I remember seeing someone talk about how the MCU Peter Parker was fundamentally flawed because he didn’t have Uncle Ben, and I don’t think that’s correct. For one thing, Spidey pretty clearly has an Uncle Ben in that movie, it’s just that the reference to him in Civil War is a little less explicit than it usually is, presumably because we’ve seen Uncle Ben die on screen like five times since 2002. Second, it actually makes it make more sense that he’d latch onto the next influential father figure who walked through his front door. Third, even if we got way more Uncle Ben in those movies, it wouldn’t change the fact that the Peter/Tony Stark relationship and the way it played out was a function of the larger universe and the way those two characters had to interact within it. I don’t want to generalize too much or claim to know what people are thinking better than they do, but I’d suspect that if you don’t like that stuff in Spider-Man, the thing you really don’t like is the larger structure of this take on the characters. And that’s fair!

That’s not to say that a premise can’t be bad, or that a twist on a character that posits a new premise is always good by nature of including some of the stuff that works. Again, I’m a Batman guy, and the last three movies to feature Batman are bad partly because the premise is fundamentally broken (the other parts are literally everything else about those movies because they are irredeemably terrible on virtually every level). But, you know, none of them have Batman writing a check instead of fighting crime, so that’s something.

--Chris

#Anonymous

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jupitermelichios · 6 years ago

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Martha Kane and the origins of Batman

Martha Wayne is the least explored character in the Batman canon. No solo books. No major storylines. Nothing but a chalk outline.

And that’s crazy, because the way I see it, she’s one of the most important character in Gotham in terms of how she shaped Batman, and the city.

Really, a lot of how you read Martha as a character depends on how you read Thomas. We don’t know all that much about either of them, and so we have to work backwards from Bruce, piece together the influence they had on him, and what that tells us about them.

Thomas is certainly eccentric - he’s a billionaire with a full-time job after all - but mostly he’s staid. Not necessarily conservative but set in his ways. He cares deeply about duty (again that odd detail of his being a practising doctor rearing it’s head) and about helping people, but he does all that as a wealthy capitalist. Wayne Industries treats its workers well, but it is still a company with minimum wage employees and a billionaire CEO. He gives money to charity, but he still keeps millions in liquid assets for himself and his family. All of which speaks to someone who doesn’t rock the boat. Who upholds the status quo. So he (and Alfred to some degree) must be where Bruce gets his patriarchal tendencies, his instinct to uphold the system even when he knows it’s broken, his aloofness.

But Bruce isn’t just a patriarchal capitalist upholding broken systems. He’s also someone who dresses as a Bat and goes out to solve crimes with his bare hands. He’s someone who will spend a year cultivating a rose the exact shade of Superman’s cape. He’s someone who trolls superhero fan discussion boards for fun. He’s someone who can inspire almost fanatical loyalty in his friends and family. He’s someone who doesn’t just do the right thing, he risks his life nightly for it. And if that didn’t come from Thomas, and it didn’t come Alfred, then it must have come from Martha.

So what do we actually know about Martha? We know she did a lot of charity work. We know her son adored her. And we know she was a Kane. And we know from Batwoman that the Kanes exist, and have existed, in a constant state of high Gothic melodrama. We know that Kate’s grandfather, Martha’s father, was a terror, a figure who would be at home in sensation fiction or southern gothic. We know that they’re a military family, and that Martha was the only daughter. We know that Kane’s are unhinged even by Wayne standards.

From that we can begin to put together a character for Martha, and the personality that emerges is fascinating. She cared deeply about things, to a degree that was almost certainly unsettling for those around her. We can guess that she loved intensely. That her sense of humour was was a little warped and a lot dark. We can guess that she was intensely herself at all times, and taught Bruce the same. We can guess that like all the Kanes, she teetered on a mental precipice (and in Flashpoint we see what’s waiting on the other side of that drop, and it’s not all that different than what would happen to her niece a few years later).

That’s all in the canon, if you pick it apart. What follows is speculation.

So we have this girl, prone by genetics and nurture to fairly extreme emotional reactions to everything, growing up surrounded by brothers who are valued more, listened to more, because it’s the 60s and they’re male and they can join the army when she can’t. There’s a tension in her home, everyone waiting to see which of them will be the first to snap, everyone hoping it’s not them, everyone praying it’s not the father they’re already scared of. And as she gets older, her brothers leave and there’s just her and her emotions in this house where emotional outbursts are all but forbidden.

At 18 she goes to college, a real college not a finishing school, and cuts a little loose, but she’s never free, can never fully escape her father’s shadow, can never escape the knowledge that everyone’s waiting for her to be the one to snap.

She studies literature, because it’s an acceptable subject for a well bred girl, and because she loves reading more completely and passionately than she’s ever loved anything else, because there’s never been anything else too love. She looses herself in the words of women more free than her, more courageous, more rebellious, and writes brilliant passionate essays about them and debates endlessly their various merits with anyone who will listen and most of all, she dreams of escape.

When Thomas enters her life, he seems too perfect to be true. He’s a good man, not just an okay man but a genuinely good man. He has a cause, something he’s passionate about, and that more than his looks or his money draws her in. But above all, he’s safe. He’s an escape from the family home she dreads returning too, an escape that even her father would approve of. He respects her intellect without being intimidated, he enjoys her passion without being afraid. He seems so sane, and stable, and normal. (He isn’t, but even Waynes look sane to Kane eyes).

She doesn’t love him passionately and completely, he doesn’t subsume her life the way books had and her son will, but he laughs at her jokes, and talks to her about medicine and and anatomy and social reform as though she is an intelligent adult instead of just another pretty blue-blooded airhead, and she’s counting down the days until he proposes.

Of course, marriage doesn’t turn out quite the way she’d dreamed of. She still loves Thomas, but forced to live every day with him, to play the society hostess and loyal wife, to be the public face of his charity work and conscious all the time of how she will be perceived... It could be worse, she tells herself. It could be so much worse. She does love Thomas, even if sometimes he makes her want to scream and throw things. The sex is good, and she edits a literary journal now, and the charity work really is important. She has the garden, and she’s given free reign there to rip everything out and start over with her own design, the first time she’s ever been allowed to do anything of the sort. She can listen to music as loudly as she wants, drink champagne by the bucket if her heart desires, eat only foods she enjoys, buy only clothes she likes. Really, Thomas allows her a huge amount of freedom.

That’s the problem. He allows her.

She thinks very seriously about leaving. Not because she doesn’t love Thomas, she does, but because she realises she’s never done anything without the permission of a man. She thinks about funnelling money into a bank account Thomas has no access to and just disappearing. Gotham is her home, but there must be other cities of perpetual night and gothic drama in the world. She could move to Prague perhaps, or New Orleans, or Venice. A city that’s slowly sinking appeals to her sense of drama.

And then Bruce happens and everything changes. She loves gardening, and literature, and Thomas, and Channel no 9, and jazz, but she’s never loved anything like she loves Bruce. She didn’t know it was possible to love anything as much as she loves Bruce. Overnight he becomes her world and by the time he’s three it’s already clear that he’s like her, he feels things with that maddening intensity. She teaches him to be himself fully and without apology, to be the strange half-wild creature that Kane and Wayne blood were always going to create. She creates someone who lives on that edge all Kanes know so well, but instead of teetering he plants his feet like a Wayne and will not be moved. He is strange and wonderful and she reads him horror stories and teaches him to dance and gives him everything his heart desires without a care for things like whether it’s safe or appropriate. He is her son and she doesn’t even care that he’s Thomas’s as well because in Bruce she can see all the ways Thomas is her perfect foil.

What Bruce remembers of her, what he chooses to remember, is laughter and music and her perfume. What Alfred remembers, but chooses not to share, is laughter, and music, and perfume, and things thrown during arguments, and a rose bed that never got the chance to settle in before she ripped it out again, and Bruce paralysed with fear at a story but not wanting it to stop because it was his beloved mother reading it, and finding Thomas collapsed over the pages of the DSM with tear tracks on his cheeks, and her never forgetting the name of a servant who she liked but especially one she disliked.

He remembers a woman being herself as hard as she could every day regardless of the consequences to herself or anyone around her, screaming defiance at a world run by the sane and the stolid, teetering always on that brink.

#meta #meta fiction #martha kane #martha wayne #batman meta #batfamily meta #batman fanfic #my fics

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jcmorgenstern · 5 years ago

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@superohclair oh god okay please know these are all just incoherent ramblings so like, idk, please feel free to add on or ignore me if im just wildly off base but this is a bad summary of what ive been thinking about and also my first titans/batman meta?? (also, hi!)

okay so for the disclaimer round: I am not an actual cultural studies major, nor do I have an extensive background in looking at the police/military industrial complex in media. also my comics knowledge is pretty shaky and im a big noob(I recently got into titans, and before that was pretty ignorant of the dceu besides batman) so I’ll kind of focus in on the show and stuff im more familiar with and apologize in advance?. basically im just a semi-educated idiot with Opinions, anyone with more knowledge/expertise please jump in! this is literally just the bullshit I spat out incoherently off the top of my head. did i mention im a comics noob? because im a comics noob.

so on a general level, I think we can all agree that batman as a cultural force is somewhat on the conservative side, if not simply due to its age and commercial positioning in American culture. there are a lot of challenges and nuances to that and it’s definitely expanding and changing as DC tries to position itself in the way that will...make the most money, but all you have to do is take a gander through the different iterations of the stories in the comics and it’ll smack you in the fucking face. like compare the first iteration of Jason keeping kids out of drugs to the titans version and you’ve got to at least chuckle. at the end of the day, this is a story about a (white male) billionaire who fights crime.

to be fair, I’d argue the romanticization of the police isn’t as aggressive as it could be—they are most often presented as corrupt and incompetent. However, considering the main cop characters depicted like Jim Gordon, the guys in Gotham (it’s been a while since I saw it, sorry) are often the romanticized “good few” (and often or almost always white cis/het men), that’s on pretty shaky ground. I don’t have the background in the comics strong enough to make specific arguments, so I’ll cede the point to someone who does and disagrees, but having recently watched a show that deals excellently with police incompetence, racism, and brutality (7 Seconds on Netflix), I feel at the very least something is deeply missing. like, analysis of race wrt police brutality in any aspect at all whatsoever.

I think it can be compellingly read that batman does heavily play into the military/police industrial complex due to its takes on violence—just play the Arkham games for more than an hour and you’ll know what I mean. to be a little less vague, even though batman as a franchise valorizes “psychiatric treatment” and “nonviolence,” the entire game seems pretty aware it characterizes treatment as a madhouse and nonviolence as breaking someone’s back or neck magically without killing them because you’re a “good guy.” while it is definitely subversive that the franchise even considers these elements at all, they don’t always do a fantastic job living up to them.

and then when you consider the fetishization of tools of violence both in canon and in the fandom, it gets worse. same with prisons—if anything it dehumanizes people in prisons even more than like, cop shows in general, which is pretty impressive(ly bad). like there’s just no nuance afforded and arkham is generally glamorized. the fact that one of the inmates is a crocodile assassin, I will admit, does not help. im not really sure how to mitigate that when, again, one of the inmates is a crocodile assassin, but I think my point still stands. fuck you, killer croc. (im just kidding unfuck him or whatever)

not to take this on a Jason Todd tangent but I was thinking about it this afternoon and again when thinking about that cop scene again and in many ways he does serve as a challenge to both batman’s ideology as well as the ideology of the franchise in general. his depiction is always a bit of a sticking point and it’s always fascinating to me to see how any given adaptation handles it. like Jason’s “”street”” origin has become inseparable from his characterization as an angry, brash, violent kid, and that in itself reflects a whole host of cultural stereotypes that I might argue occasionally/often dip into racialized tropes (like just imagine if he wasn’t white, ok). red hood (a play on robin hood and the outlaws, as I just realized...today) is in my exposure/experience mostly depicted as a villain, but he challenges batman’s no-kill philosophy both on an ethical and practical level. every time the joker escapes he kills a whole score more of innocent people, let alone the other rogues—is it truly ethical to let him live or avoid killing him for the cost of one life and let others die?

moreover, batman’s ““blind”” faith in the justice system (prisons, publicly-funded asylum prisons, courts) is conveniently elided—the story usually ends when he drops bad guy of the day off at arkham or ties up the bad guys and lets the police come etc etc. part of this is obviously bc car chases are more cinematic than dry court procedurals, but there is an alternate universe where bruce wayne never becomes batman and instead advocates for the arkham warden to be replaced with someone competent and the system overhauled, or in programs encouraging a more diverse and educated police force, or even into social welfare programs. (I am vaguely aware this is sometimes/often part of canon, but I don’t think it’s fair to say it’s the main focus. and again, I get it’s not nearly as cinematic).

overall, I think the most frustrating thing about the batman franchise or at least what I’ve seen or read of it is that while it does attempt to deal with corruption and injustice at all levels of the criminal justice system/government, it does so either by treating it as “just how life is” or having Dick or Jim Gordon or whoever the fuckjust wipe it out by “eliminating the dirty cops,” completely ignoring the non-fantasy ways these problems are dealt with in real life. it just isn’t realistic. instead of putting restrictions on police violence or educating cops on how to use their weapons or putting work into eradicating the culture of racism and prejudice or god basically anything it’s just all cinematized into the “good few” triumphing over the bad...somehow. its always unsatisfying and ultimately feels like lip service to me, personally.

this also dovetails with the very frustrating way mental health/”insanity” or “madness” is dealt with in canon, very typical of mainstream fiction. like for example:“madness is like gravity, all it takes is a little push.” yikes, if by ‘push’ you mean significant life stressors, genetic load, and environemntal influences, then sure. challenge any dudebro joker fanboy to explain exactly what combination of DSM disorders the joker has to explain his “””insanity””” and see what happens. (these are, in fact, my plans for this Friday evening. im a hit at parties).

anyway I do really want to wax poetic about that cop scene in 1x06 so im gonna do just that! honestly when I first saw that I immediately sat up like I’d sat on a fucking tack, my cultural studies senses were tingling. the whole “fuck batman” ethos of the show had already been interesting to me, esp in s1, when bruce was basically standing in for the baby boomers and dick being our millennial/GenX hero. I do think dick was explicitly intended to appeal to a millennial audience and embody the millennial ethos. By that logic, the tension between dick and Jason immediately struck me as allegorical (Jason constantly commenting on dick being old, outdated, using slang dick doesn’t understand and generally being full of youthful obnoxious fistbumping energy).

Even if subconsciously on the part of the writers, jason’s over-aggressive energy can be read as a commentary on genZ—seen by mainstream millennial/GenX audiences as taking things too far. Like, the cops in 1x06 could have been Nick Zucco’s hired men or idk pretty much anyone, yet they explicitly chose cops and even had Jason explain why he deliberately went after them for being cops so dick (cop) could judge him for it. his rationale? he was beaten up by cops on the street, so he’s returning the favor. he doesn’t have the focused “righteous” rage of batman or dick/nightwing towards valid targets, he just has rage at the world and specifically the system—framed here as unacceptable or fanatical. as if like, dressing up like a bat and punching people at night is, um, totally normal and uncontroversial.

on a slightly wider scope, the show seems to internally struggle with its own progressive ethos—on the one hand, they hire the wildly talented chellah man, but on the other hand they will likely kill him off soon. or they cast anna diop, drawing wrath from the loudly racist underbelly of fandom, but sideline her. perhaps it’s a genuine struggle, perhaps they simply don’t want to alienate the bigots in the fanbase, but the issue of cops stuck out to me when I was watching as an social issue where they explicitly came down on one side over the other. jason’s characterization is, I admit and appreciate, still nuanced, but I’d argue that’s literally just bc he’s a white guy and a fan favorite. cast an actor of color as Jason and see how fast fandom and the writer’s room turns on him.

anyway i don’t really have the place to speak about what an explicitly nonwhite!cop!dick grayson would look like, but I do think it would be a fascinating and exciting place to start in exploring and correcting the kind of vague and nebulous complaints i raise above. (edit: i should have made more clear, i mean in the show, which hasn’t dealt with dick’s heritage afaik). also, there’s something to be said about the cop vs detective thing but I don’t really have the brain juice or expertise to say it? anyway if you got this far i hope it was at least interesting and again pls jump in id love to hear other people’s takes!!

tldr i took two (2) cultural studies classes and have Opinions

#wow this was a hot fucking mess #i tried to be organized but my thoughts weren't coming out super well #again anyone interested please feel free to jump in or correct me at any place you feel like #i die on the ''jason todd would be treated horribly by fandom if he were a character of color' hill tho #i could go on about 1x06 until im blue in the face but that's the uhh overview. the executive summary.#dc titans #i need meta tags and shit for this show #god help me in too deep #finding the meta side of fandom was a GIFT tho i love this shit #so excited

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jmkitsune · 6 years ago

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So like last night I found a project I started back in like November/December last year, I wanted to “novelize” the batman arkham games while...tweaking the story a bit to flow better in some places (I love the series over all but there were parts I felt...needed help)

so I guess that counts as a fan fiction

I was told a few weeks ago by steph when I was having issues with my views on my writing ability that I need to not make some BIG project but I need to try something...smaller, I guess this would count maybe

so I’m just gonna put the first section I wrote below the cut

I haven’t finished the project, I got like 140ish pages but yea

I’m stating this AGAIN because I know SOMEONE will say it if this is read- YES I did try to novelize/write the Arkham Game series as a prose vs a script so no its not some “you’re ripping off the games”

...that was the point, I wanted to see if I could take it and retell it in this format and see if it came out as good.

The last will and testament of the deceased, Thomas Wayne: In the event of my death, I hereby declare that all my worldly possessions pass to my son, Bruce Wayne. Bruce, I ask that you honor the Wayne family legacy, and commit yourself to the improvement of Gotham City, its institutions, and its citizens. Please, be strong. You are young, but destined for great things. Make the most of your opportunities. Use them to give back to a city that has given us so much, to change the lives of millions of people. Do not be frivolous with this wealth. Please, do not waste it all on fast cars, and outrageous clothes, and the pursuit of a destructive lifestyle. Invest in Gotham. Treat its people like family. Watch over them and use this money to safeguard them from forces beyond their control. My deepest regret is I will not see you grow into the good man I know you will become. And finally, my son, I ask that you never abandon this city to fate. We have lived through dark days, and no doubt there are more to come. But it is the good and great men who stand up for Gotham when others turn and run. In death, I will love you forever. Your father, Thomas."

—Thomas Wayne

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The cave was dark, damp and cold which was normal. However there was a bitter extra coldness tonight, colder than most nights, it was Christmas eve and the sun had been set for hours now, the snow outside had been falling for hours. As the elevator carrying it's occupant reached the bottom and opened its doors, a large collection of screeches and flapping echoed throughout the cavernous space. The colony of bats screamed as this person disturbed their slumber and awoken them with his large machinery. They tore through the cave, flying every which way until after a few moments descending deeper into the depths of the cave far from sight and sound. Only echoes of their cries and flapping remained for a short time. The occupant stepped out of the elevator with purpose, a stern and almost rage filled expression on his face. The height of his persona felt increased only by the shadow he cast as he strut through the tunnels towards a much larger, open cave filled with lights and equipment. The far side of the cave was a large waterfall, pouring down and blocking an opening in and out of the system that this man had made his base of operations. The large space was filled with computers and machinery on one floor; and in the center, a platform with a black as night flying craft.

The body suit on the man covered him from neck to toe. Made of a tight weave that protected his body from the cold that filled the cave and the outside as well, he also wore heavy armored boots. This man stood 6'0 and was built sturdy. Not massive but stocky enough that you knew he could throw a punch, though outside this dark cave he never gave the impression of that. An angry man, he never seemed to do anything about his anger in public. He couldn't, he had an image to maintain.

Bruce Wayne made his way to the series of monitors and computers, patching into the local news stations and the Police radio bandwidth. As the different frequencies and channels came into focus one monitor displayed News crews attending a press conference at Black Gate Penitentiary. A decorated officer on the screen at the podium was heard mid speech.

"...knowing tonight, we put to rest one of Gotham's most heinous and relentless killers of our time- Julian Gregory Day."

One of the reporters in the crowd spoke next to the assessment.

"Commissioner Loeb!, Commissioner Loeb – any comment on rumors circulating that it wasn't actually the GCPD who found, apprehended and delivered Mr. Day to custody?" He asked, his voice a little evident of the cold weather over at Blackgate, but strong and convicted in this line of questioning none the less. At this the Commissioner left the podium and a man in his early to mid thirties stepping up to replace him, his glasses fogging a bit from the temperature, the man had auburn hair and signs of facial hair forming on his face. He wore a GCPD jacket over a Policeman's uniform and bullet proof vest, he must have been on assignment before arriving or he felt better to prepare for anything tonight at Blackgate.

"There is no such thing as a bat-man!" Captain James Gordon spat in response to the question. His hand pointing to enunciate each syllable for the crowd. Which of course got a buzz from the reporters. All of them shouting Captain Gordon, over and over trying to garner his attention to ask follow up questions. Camera flashes created a strobe effect on the screen as Bruce half paid attention while looking over at another screen and filtering the sound to that monitor instead of the news.

"All Units, all units, Code 10 at Blackgate Prison! Communication is Down. Possible 2-11." A woman's voice filtered through on the Police Scanner. Behind Bruce, an older man, dressed in a nicely pressed tuxedo, carrying a dome covered silver dinner tray quietly entered the cave and watched and listened to the sight before him as he made his way to a table where he softly lay the dinner tray carefully next to a brass framed photo. A black and white family photo of a slightly middle aged man, his beautiful wife and young son. The three looked happy, and the young boy's smile was ear to ear, teeth shining on his face and a sense of prosperity came from the photo as it reflected off the surface of the tray next to it. The older man gazed for a half second at the photo before returning his attention to his master. Alfred Pennyworth, never too thrilled with Bruce's decisions to take up this crusade, gave his undying support regardless because he had served this family for as long as he had. Raising Master Wayne since his parents' death Alfred couldn't help but wonder what the late Thomas and Martha would think of their boy tonight.

Gone was that smiling happy boy, and replaced by a hurt and angry young man. At 28 time had barely tempered his scars. Only inflamed them. Taking a multi year journey around the world, learning many forms of Asian martial arts. Bruce would travel to China, Japan, Thailand, eventually winding up in Korea. In North Korea he found a secret Korean castle, where he would meet the Martial arts Master: Kirigi. The master would take Bruce in as a servant while he trained with his other students in TokagureRyu and other Shinobi.

Knowing an art similar to Japanese Ninjutsu, Kirigi trained Bruce in the ways of the shadow warrior. Learning how to use the shadows, devoting himself to a single ideal and in that devotion learn patience, develop agility, master deception, partake in theatrics and utilize the power to fight 600 men. But most of all Kirigi instructed Wayne in the method of using fear. Two years ago Bruce had returned from this trip and filled in Alfred of his success under Kirigi and how this meant he could begin his crusade to save Gotham. It was then he took up the cowl as Batman.

"Delta 6-4 Enroute" a mans voice broke Alfred's concentration on those memories, reminding him that Master Wayne needed him in the now, tonight was a sordid one. Being Christmas Eve, Alfred had hoped that Bruce would stay in tonight, be a normal billionaire playboy for the cameras on Christmas, however for another year, he shooed away reporters wanting interviews with the young rich industrialist and instead took up his only focus- the mission.

"Dispatch 5-9. Confirm code 10- this a break out?" Another man came through the radio.

"Suspect identified as Black Mask. Repeat: Code 10 suspect is Black Mask. All Units at Blackgate. Code 6 Code 6. Commissioner Loeb being held captive. Repeat. Commissioner is 701." The woman's voice repeated with urgency. On one of the monitors in front of Bruce a file had opened and revealed many pictures of a man in a white pinstriped suit wearing a black skull mask, all with information filtering in along with the photos. Bruce had collected as much information on this man as he could. Black Mask- the alias for a one Roman Sionis. Alfred's gaze followed as Bruce crossed the space from his computers to a spot on the platform they stood on as it raised from the floor, a glass case with metal framing. Inside spun something Alfred had grown accustomed to seeing, and sometimes repairing when Master Wayne was too overzealous on his night's out. The tailored suit of the vigilante. The mantle Bruce claimed after returning home from his trip abroad. The mask he wore to enact his mission to save and protect Gotham, his home.

The Batsuit was black and gray, an armored and caped body armor he could wear to hide his face and protect himself from the scourge of Gotham's dark underbelly. Bulletproof, knife-proof, however the suit did lack in some flexibility leaving Bruce forced to have stiffer movements and have to be deliberate in his actions. For now it suited him well, protected him and struck fear in those who saw it before he beat them into unconsciousness. Designed to withstand or significantly reduce the impact of bullets, the armor up til this point has allowed Batman to barely flinch when shot, causing a psychological strike in those attacking him, fearing that the urban myth that was batman- was impervious to bullets.

Suiting up, and going from the public figure of Bruce Wayne to the legend that was spreading in the city. The enigmatic shadow that struck out and launched a violent onslaught on those who would dare commit crimes in the city. Someone who was the reason thugs collective breathed sighs of relief upon the rising of the sun each morning. Batman. Gathering his equipment as well, a grappling hook gun, a collection of shuriken that were in the shape of bats, and other assorted equipment donned his large belt at his waist. When he was fully equipped with his gadgets and ready to go, he slowly reached back into the container where his suit was housed to lift the cowl and bring it to his face. Sliding it down and over Bruce Wayne's profile snuffing him out for the night. Awakening the other- the Batman to his next patrol. The night had begun and Batman was needed.

The large craft in the center of the cave roared to life as Batman pressed a series of keys on one of his gauntlets. Lifting itself from the ground with loud engines the VTOL hovered in wait for it's pilot to embark them in their starry night flight across the Gotham skyline. Batman marched towards it, his cape billowing behind him wildly as the engine's caused a powerful draft from their force. Batman could just barely make out Alfred's voice behind him.

"You do realize it is Christmas Eve, sir?" The butler called, his arms out and making a hopeful gesture that he could assuage the Bat into taking the night off. However this hope dashed as Batman climbed into the control seat of the jet and rose into the craft, doing last moment system checks of his vehicle. Alfred resigned his hopes and made his way across the platforms to retrieve the dinner tray he had originally came down to the cave with. Knowing he'd better leave it upstairs in the kitchen so that if Master Wayne returned hungry he could heat up his dinner. Alfred Pennyworth would die on the spot the day he served anyone a cold Christmas Eve dinner.

The Batwing rose higher in the cave, it's wings folding down, extending to their full length in readiness to exit it's lair, Batman inside gripped the controls tightly and focused his vision on the horizon line as the Batwing faced the waterfall and screamed out of the cave at an intense high speed. The waterfall barely breaking under the Batwing's trespassing on it's path downward. Batman piloted his craft at top speed to reach Blackgate as soon as possible.

#JM wrote stuff #batman #arkham series #I guess this is fanficiton?#I dunno I avoided fanfic forever #but I'm trying something steph suggested because well my view was narrow and causing me problems #considering putting it all on a drive if someone wanted to read more than this

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awhitehead17 · 7 years ago

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Hello! I love your fan fiction, you write really well! Sorry for my bad English, i'm italian...XD I would have a TimKon Prompt for you: AU - No capes; Conner has just moved to Gotham, at the same high school as Tim and at the beginning the two hate each other. But when he finds Tim hurt by a group of bullies in their class, Conner decides to help him defend himself. The Bat-family supports Tim, helping the kid to clarify his feelings for Conner. ♥

Hi and thank you so much! It’s always fantastic to hear that peopleenjoy my writing, it means so much to me.

Sorry it took me a little while to answer this, but the prompt’s awesomeand great timing too, because I’ve been wanting to write another high schoolstory for a little while now. This story took a turn all in it’s own but it wasfun to write, I hope you like it!

Of course the one guy who gets his attention turns out to bean asshole. He’s only been at the school for four days and he has alreadydeveloped a crush on someone and that someone happens to be the son of thefamous billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne.

Even though its only been four days Kon already knows thatTim is an asshole. He’s seen it by the way Tim acts in class and the way heacts during lunch breaks. The guy pushes everyone who tries to get close away,he’s stuck up and clearly thinks he’s better than everyone else just because hehas money. Kon’s fairly sure he hasn’t seen Tim interact with more than fiveother people in school in a way that wasn’t mean.

How Kon has fallen for him he has no idea, it probablydoesn’t help that Tim is hot. Piercing blue eyes, medium length black hair, alean figure (though Kon has seen him once at the school’s gym and knows thathe’s packing some serious muscle and strength even though it doesn’t show).Maybe it’s because Tim Drake-Wayne is appearing to be a mystery person that Konhasn’t come across before and its made him intrigued.

Damn him and his mysterious ways.

It was on his fifth day at his new school that somethingactually exciting happened. Well not exciting but something interesting. Halfway through the day he was in biology and asked to go to the toilet, thankfullythe teacher let him go and Kon headed out to look for the closet toilets. He wasstill new and was yet to remember the school’s layout.

He was walking down the empty hallway when a group of guysenter from the side. They were being loud and all of them were laughing. Konrecognises them all from the football team. While they all look like a good groupof guys, Kon’s heard rumours about them being bullies and general dick heads.He has yet to see them bully anyone, but the rumours are just enough to makehim want to stay away from them. He doesn’t like bullies.

As they cross the paths the one at the front spots him andpoints at him, “Kent, you better be trying out for the team next week. The wayyou played the other day was fantastic.” He praises Kon.

Kon appreciates praise but he gets he distracted by seeingblood on the hand that was pointed at him. “Yeah, maybe.” He says.

“You better.” The guy laughs and then he and his friendscontinue down the hallway.

Kon walks down the hallway and turns to the side, where thefootballers had just come from, and follows it through to the end where thetoilets were at. He gets to the door but pauses after seeing something smearedon it. He bends down and gets a closer look to find that it’s blood, and thatit was still wet.

Frowning he enters the toilets and finds a sight he neverexpected to see. Leaning over a sink was Tim Drake-Wayne. From where he stoodKon could see the blood dripping down the side of his head and down his neck. Whenhe looks in the mirror he sees Tim looking down and holding a hand to his nosewhile blood seeps through his fingers and into the white bowl below him.

Kon stands there for a minute before he realises that he’sstaring. Making himself move he goes over to the toilets and does his business.At the same time he feels something inside him pulling at the fact TimDrake-Wayne was bleeding in the school toilets and how he should somehow helphim.

As Conner was zipping up his jeans he made the connectionthat any idiot would be able to. Blood on footballer’s hand, blood on the doorand blood running down Tim’s face. Tim had gotten beaten up.

He takes it back, he’s now seen them bully someone, butwhether this was a one-time thing or a regular thing he’s not sure.

Kon leaves the toilet to find Tim still at the sink exceptthis time he’s continuously wiping his nose with a now red tissue. He walks upnext to him and starts to wash his hands, he glances at Tim through the mirror,“Why did they do it?”

“Why does it matter?” Came the sharp reply.

“Just curious.”

“Well take your curiosity elsewhere.”

“I was just asking okay. No need to be so hostile.”

Tim turns and glares at him, “AndI’m telling you to get out of my business, so fuck off.”

Kon turns the water off and faceshim, “Look there must have been a reason to why they punched you, I was justasking that’s all.”

“I get that you’re new here butlearn that people in this school are assholes and they don’t need a reason todo anything.”

“Like how you’re one?” Conner shoots at him. He watches withamusement as Tim blinks, taking in what he had said.

Tim moves away from the sink over to the toilets to grabmore tissue before coming back to the sink, “It doesn’t matter why they didit.” He says quietly, this time with no anger to his words, “Nothing will getthem to stop.”

“I could teach you how to fight, if you want.” The offercomes out of nowhere, so it shocks Kon just as much as it apparently shocksTim.

“I know self-defence.” Tim tells him sharply, like Connerhad insulted him.

“Okay, but do you know how to fight?”

“I have brothers.” Tim tells him.

Conner lets out a frustrated noise, he isn’t getting anywhere here. It’s clear that Tim isn’t interested so he decides to give up withhim. He tried, so no one can say that he didn’t do anything. Conner starts towalk towards the door, “Well if you change your mind let me know.”

With that Kon leaves Tim to his bloody tissues and exits thetoilets. He heads back to his class while repeating their conversation in hishead. Once he’s sat down again he shakes his thoughts away and tries to focuson what the teacher was babbling on about.

Tim hikes his bag up on his shoulder and exits the school.Another week over, another step closer to finally finishing this hell hole. Hesighs as he looks around for his eldest brother, this was something he wasn’tlooking forward too. His brother will see the bruises on his face, question it,then get protective and try to get him some help.

Too soon for his liking, there was a hand frantically wavingat him. Sighing, Tim makes his way over and sees his brother’s smile drop offhis face and as it’s replaced with a frown, “Timmy what happened?”

“Nothing. I’m fine.”

Tim doesn’t stop the hand that reaches out to him and gentlygrabs his face. He lets Dick do his examination before he slaps the hand away.“Can we go?”

Dick looks like he wants to ask more questions but wiselykeeps silent. Tim sees him look over his shoulder and then he cocks an eyebrow,“Who’s that?”

Tim turns to look in the direction Dick was looking at. Hesees the new kid, Conner he believes he’s called, standing by a truck lookingat them. Seeming to have realised that he’s gotten caught, he quickly advertshis eyes and climbs in the truck.

Tim turns back to face Dick, “He’s new.” Tim tells himreaching for the door handle of the car, “Just joined this week.”

“Oh yeah?” Dick says as he walks to the other side of thecar and climbs in, “He seemed to be checking you out.”

Tim snorts, “As if.”

Dick grins, “I dunno baby bird, it seemed pretty obvious.”

Tim decides to not say anything but that seems to encouragehis brother, “Oh! You like him!”

Tim snaps his head to look at him and glares, “No I don’t.”

“Yes you do!”

“No. I don’t.”

“Oh you do! Wait until Jay hears about this, he’s going tolove it.”

Tim gives up. If he opens his mouth again he’ll only beadding fuel to the fire.

Finally Dick starts up the car, “It’s okay to have a crushTim. There’s no need to be embarrassed about it.”

“When they see you beaten up and bleeding in the toilets,there’s plenty to be embarrassed about.” He snaps, glaring out of the window.

Dick seems to take this in consideration, “Okay, what didyou say to him?”

“I told him to stay out of my business.” Tim tells him, hethen quickly adds on, “And then he offered me to teach me how to fight and Ideclined.”

Dick face palms, “Why did you do that? That was a perfectopportunity to be with him and get to know him.”

“I panicked!”

“Have mine and Jason’s lessons been going over your head orsomething Tim? Just let him know that you’ve reconsidered and want to do it.Invite him over to the Manor, do whatever you’re going to do and then bam, it’sall sorted!”

Tim rubs a hand across his forehead, “No Dick, it’s notsorted. Things like that just don’t work out.”

“Why not? What have you got to lose?”

“He already thinks I’m an asshole.”

“So show him you’re not.”

Having had enough of the conversation Tim shakes his headand looks out the window.

Later that night Tim brings up Conner’s Facebook account and starts tostalk through it. He wanted to see what the guy was like. From his Facebook Timgather’s that he seems to be pretty chill, often outside enjoying the sun orwalking his dog. He has lots of friends back in his home town, they had oftentagged him in lots of comical pictures of him.

Deciding, Tim sends him a friends request. He hasn’t got hisnumber to text him so this seemed to be the next best thing. He would speak tohim in school on Monday but that was two days away and he kind of wants to speakto him now.

His brothers had manipulated him into saying yes to Conner’soffer on the fighting lessons. They told him if he doesn’t ask Conner himself thenthey’ll do it and Tim doesn’t want that.

Half an hour later Tim gets a notification saying that Connerhas accepted his friends request. A minute after that he gets a message throughfrom him, “Have you added me becauseyou’ve reconsidered on taking my offer or because you want to have a go at meagain?”

Tim frowns at the message and replies back, “I didn’t have a go at you, I just told yousharply that it wasn’t anything to do with you. If the offer is still availablethen yes, I have reconsidered.”

“Yeah, the offer isstill there, that’s good to hear I guess. When do you want to do it?”

“How about Wednesdayafter school if that’s good for you. You can come back to my place.”

“Sounds good. See youthen I guess.”

“See ya.”

Tim sits back and looks at their conversation, well that waseasier than expected. Maybe Dick was right about it being simple after all.Though he can’t help but wonder what Conner is thinking right now, maybe he’sfreaking out over it, maybe he’s laughing at Tim and how pathetic he is,perhaps he’s just as confused about the situation as he is.

With that sorted Tim goes ahead and does his nightly routineand prepares for bed. Tomorrow he’s at his adoptive father’s company, so heneeds to not be over tired to deal with that.

Before he knows it, it’s Wednesday and he’s waiting forConner outside of school. They haven’t spoken since Friday night over Facebookso Tim has no idea if this thing is still even on, he hopes it is and he hopesthat it wasn’t all just a set up. As nervous as he is for it, he’s lookingforward to it.

A few minutes Conner comes up to him, “Hey, sorry, I got heldback in class. The teacher was being a dick.”

“Who did you have?” Tim asks, he knows all the teachers andknows that about 90% of them can be dicks.

“Mr. Public.”

Tim makes a face, “Yeah he’s an asshole alright.”

“Yeah…”

They fall into an awkward silence for a minute before Connerclears his throat, “Um, shall we? I, uh, have my truck so I can drive us there or are you getting picked up?”

Tim shakes his head, no I’m not getting picked up. Inormally walk on Wednesdays anyway, so if you’re happy driving then we can go.”

“Okay then let’s go.”

Conner leads the way to his truck and Tim follows. They stayin silence for the whole ride, the only words shared between them is Tim givingConner directions on how to get to his home. They get there and make their wayinside. Tim is fully aware of Conner gaping at everything around them. Comingto Wayne Manor can be overwhelming for the first time, Tim remembers his firsttime arriving at the mansion. The shock and awe that falls over you at seeingeverything so grand can be overwhelming, just the size alone is enough to getpeople looking like gold fish let alone the interior décor.

Tim leads them through the halls and down to the Manor’sgym. It was a wide room full of a variety of equipment, ranging from cardio toweights and then in the centre there are floor mats. Tim turns to find Connergaping at the room, “Holy shit dude. I knew you were rich, but this is, this isreally, fucking hell…”

Tim lets Conner marvel at the room for another minute or so.It was entertaining watching how people react to his home, especially the oneswho go all speechless and gape at everything. After a moment of silence heclaps his hands, “So shall we?”

That seems to bring Conner back to himself, “We shall…”

They spent the rest of the afternoon in the gym. Conner wentthrough teaching Tim the basics of street fighting and how to executecertain moves. When Tim had questioned him on how he knows how to fight theother teen had shrugged and said, “I was involved in several fights at my old school,also I looked them up on YouTube.” Tim had left it at that, there’s no need topry into his life.

By the end of their session a few hours later Tim wassporting new bruises over his body and his crush on this guy had increaseddrastically. He walks Conner back to the front door, after making the samearrangements for the following week Tim waves him off. Once his truck hasdisappeared from sight Tim closes the door and leans against it with hisforehead against the cool glass.

In a rhythm Tim starts to smack his head against it. Whatthe hell is going on? He has a crush on a guy he doesn’t even know. Said guy isteaching him how to fight so he can fight off some stupid school bullies whodon’t really bully him they only occasionally beat him up like once or twice amonth.

Tim groans as his head hits the door again, when had thisbecome his life?

When his head hits something other than the solid glass ofthe door he looks up confused and finds Dick staring at him with a raisedeyebrow, “You okay there Timbo?”

Tim turns and faces him. He slaps his hands down on hisbrothers shoulders sags into him while exclaiming, “Help me, I’m feeling!”

Dick simply laughs and grabs Tim by the arms to keep him onhis feet, “Alright kid, you’re okay. Feelings are normal.”

“I don’t want them!”

“Well tough because you got them.”

Tim makes a whimpering sound and lets Dick carry him throughthe Manor to wherever the man is deciding to take them. Crushes suck.

It became a regular thing between the two of them. Everydayon Wednesday after school Conner would go to the Manor and teach Tim how tofight and every time they meet Tim’s crush grows on him as he gets to know himmore.

Tim has made a lot of progress since Conner had started toteach him how to fight properly, so at least his lessons weren’t being wasted andhe often goes on YouTube to try and improve on the days that Conner isn’t withhim. He has yet to use his new skills on the people they’re originally intendedfor, but he knows he’ll be ready for when he needs them.

It was their third week of meeting up and Tim is waiting forConner outside the school. Like normal on Wednesdays, Conner has Mr. Publiclast period so he’s always a little later, however this time Tim spots himcoming out a piece of paper in clutched in his hands and his head is dippedlow. Tim walks up to him, “Hey you okay?”

Conner looks up at him, “What? Yeah I’m fine.” He thenplasters a fake smile on that pretty face of his.

Tim rolls his eyes, “There’s something wrong because youlook like you have a rain cloud over your head.”

Conner sighs, “I, um, I failed my test.” He admits andshakes the paper in his hand, “which sucks because I actually studied for itand I still get bad results.”

Tim looks at him for a moment and decides on something, “Ifyou like, I could tutor you?”

“You would do that?”

“Yeah sure, think of it as pay back for teaching me how tofight?” Tim smiles at him, while inside his head it’s like a bomb had gone off. What the hell was he doing? This is justsetting himself up for a disaster! Abort! Abort!

Conner gives him a small smile which makes his heartflutter, “Yeah okay. If you don’t mind. What day?”

“How about Fridays? Wednesday’s, we carry on fighting andFridays we can study.” Tim suggests.

“Yeah okay, sounds good.”

“Awesome let’s go.”

So that became their routine for the next couple of weeksand yet again every time they meet Tim’s crush grows more and more and it’s atthe point where it’s killing him. His brothers tease him about it on a regularbasis and often try to ‘help’ him get hooked up, they unhelpfully leave him newpackets of condoms and lube around his room and even in his school bag. What makesthis crush even worse he doesn’t even know if Conner likes guys, knowing Tim’sluck he’s straight as an arrow.

It was their fifth week of meeting up that Conner’s lessonscome into use. It was Tuesday and school had just ended and Tim was outsidewaiting for Alfred to pick him up. He silently watched as students mil about aroundhim, talking excitedly in their friendship groups, some waiting to be picked upand others already walking away.

Tim was minding his own business as he stood waiting forAlfred, books in one hand, his bag over one shoulder and listening to somelight music through his earphones. Then out of no where he lurched forward as something collided against his back.Tim stumbles a few paces before he gains his balance, he spins around to find someof the footballers standing there sinisterly smiling at him and Tim knew whatwas coming. Was it that time of the monthalready?

“You know what Drake, I’ve had a pretty bad day today. Youknow what’ll make me feel better?” Peter asks him.

Tim looks at him, completely bored of the situation, “I don’tknow Peter, perhaps a facial lift maybe?” He quips unable to help himself.

The first punch he didn’t see coming. The strike collides withhis right cheek and knocks him down onto the floor. He’s aware of laughinghappening around him as he tries to comprehend on what just happened. At thesame time he hears a voice break through the laughter, “Tim!”

Conner. Tim starts to pick himself up off the floor when twohands are suddenly on him helping him up. He looks up to find the other teen looking athim with worry, “You okay?”

Tim brushes Conner off him, “Fine.”

“Got the new dog as your bitch now have we Drake?” Peter comments.

Tim turns around and glares at him, it’s one thing to punchhim and call him names but calling Conner a bitch was not okay.

“Tim?” Conner frowns at him.

Tim ignores him and pushes his books into Conner’s hands anddrops his bag by his feet, “Hold these for me.”

With that Tim launches himself at Peter and proceeds topunch him in the face twice and then knee him in the stomach. When Tim stepsaway Peter smirks at him, “Oh, the dogs learnt how to bite.”

Tim snarls at him and launches his own attack again but thistime the other was ready for them and dodges them, he then starts to throw outhis own punches which Tim is able to dodge.

Normally Tim would let them beat him until they were satisfiedso they would then leave him alone, but this time he’s fighting back. With Conner’straining and his pent-up anger, he throws punches and kicks at the bully and is able to beat him onto the floor. Seeing that he isn’tgetting back up Tim steps away and wipes the blood off his lips with hissleeve, “From now on you aren’t going to touch me anymore. I’ve had it with you’reconstant bullying. Next time I’ll beat you until your unconscious.”

Breathing heavily he turns away from the teen on the floorand the gaping mouths of his friends to face Conner who is also gaping at him. Ignoringat how badly he is shaking Tim smiles at him, “Looks like your lessons cameinto use after all.”

“Apparently.” Conner supplies still looking at him withshock.

Tim watches him for a moment and a sudden wave of boldnessrolls over him, he leans up and places a kiss to Conner’s slightly open mouth. Ashe goes to pull away he feels a hand capture the back of his head and force himback towards Conner’s mouth. Their lips meet again and this time Conner iskissing him back.

Tim can’t help but moan at the warmth of Conner’s mouth. He figuresthat it can’t be that great of a first kiss because he can taste blood in hisown mouth and no doubt that Conner can taste it too. Soon enough they breakapart and look at each other, “You are so hot.” Conner comments with a grin.

The smile is contagious and Tim grins back, “Not so badyourself.” He looks back to find all the footballers staring at them turningback to Conner he says, “Come on, lets go. Alfred is picking me up and you’recoming along.”

Conner lets Tim drag him away to where Alfred was nowwaiting. Tim smiles, getting beat up that day weeks ago wasn’t such a bad thingafter all.

#timkon #prompt #Tim Drake #conner kent #no capes au #high school au #fanfiction #humour #dick grayson

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lelou-quotes · 4 years ago

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In Defense of Being Average

There’s this guy. World-renowned billionaire. Tech genius. Inventor and entrepreneur. Athletic and talented and handsome with a jaw so chiseled it looks like Zeus came down from Olympus and carved the fucker himself.

This guy’s got a small fleet of sports cars, a few yachts, and when he’s not giving millions of dollars to charities, he’s changing out supermodel girlfriends like other people change their socks.

This guy’s smile can melt the damn room. His charm is so thick you can swim in it. Half of his friends were TIME’s “Man of the Year.” And the ones who weren’t don’t care because they could buy the magazine if they wanted to. When this guy isn’t jetsetting around the world or coming up with the latest technological innovation to save the planet, he spends his time helping the weak and helpless and downtrodden.

This man is, you guessed it, Bruce Wayne. Also known as the Batman. And (spoiler alert) he doesn’t actually exist. He is fiction.

It’s an interesting facet of human nature that we seem to have a need to come up with these sort of fictional heroes that embody perfection and everything we wish we could be. Medieval Europe had its tales about gallant knights slaying dragons and saving princesses. Ancient Rome and Greece had their myths about heroes who won wars single-handedly and in some cases confronted the Gods themselves. Every other human culture is replete with such fantastical stories as well.

And today, we have comic book superheroes. Take Superman. I mean, the guy is basically a God with a human body wearing a blue jumpsuit and red underpants on inside-out. He is indestructible and unbeatable. And the only thing as sturdy as his physical fortitude is his moral fortitude. In Superman’s world, justice is always black/white, and Superman never wavers from doing what’s right. No matter what.

I don’t think I’m exactly shaking up the field of psychology by suggesting that, as humans, we have a need to conjure up these heroes to help us cope with our own feelings of powerlessness. There are over 7.2 billion people on this planet, and really only about 1,000 of those have major worldwide influence at any given time. That leaves the other 7,199,999,000 +/- of us to come to terms with the limited scope of our lives and the fact that the vast majority of what we do will likely not matter long after we’ve died. This is not a fun thing to think about or accept.

Today, I want to take a detour from our “make more, buy more, fuck more” culture and argue for the merits of mediocrity, of being blasé boring and average.

Not the merits of pursuing mediocrity, mind you — because we all should try to do the best we possibly can — but rather, the merits of accepting mediocrity when we end up there despite our best efforts.

BEHIND THE CURVE

Everything in life is a trade-off. Some of us are born with high aptitudes for academic learning. Others are born with great physical skills. Others are athletic. Others are artistic. Others can fuck like rabbits and never break a sweat. In terms of skills and talents, humans are a wildly diverse group of smelly creatures. Sure, what we end up accomplishing in life ultimately depends on our practice and effort, but we are all born with different aptitudes and potentials.

This here is called a bell curve. Any of you who have taken a statistics class and survived will recognize it.

A bell curve is quite simple. Take a population of people, like, let’s say people who play golf at least once a year. The horizontal axis represents how good they are at golf. Further to the right means they’re really good, further to the left means they’re really bad.

Now, notice that it gets really thin at the far ends of the curve. That means there are a few people who are really, really good at golf. And a few people who are really, really bad. The majority fall into the mediocre middle.

We can apply a “curve” in this way to tons of things in a population. Height. Weight. Emotional maturity. Wages. How often people like to fuck. And so on.1

For example, this is Michael Jordan dunking a basketball:

It’s well-known that he’s one of the best to ever do it. Therefore, he’s way on the right side of the bell curve, better than 99.99% of anyone else who has ever dunked a basketball. Few can compare.

Then you have this guy:

Obviously, he’s no Michael Jordan. In fact, chances are many people reading this right now could do much better than this guy. That means he’s probably towards the bottom end of the bell curve, an extreme on the other side.

We stand in awe of MJ because he’s more athletic than all of us.2 We laugh at the trampoline guy because he’s less athletic than most of us. Both are at different extremes of the bell curve. And most of us are the majority in the middle.

WE’RE ALL PRETTY AVERAGE AT MOST THINGS

We all have our own strengths and weaknesses. But the fact is, most of us are pretty average at most things we do. Even if you’re truly exceptional at one thing — say math, or jump rope, or making money off the black gun market — chances are you’re pretty average or below average at most other things. That’s just the nature of life. To become truly great at something, you have to dedicate time and energy to it. And because we all have limited time and energy, few of us ever become truly exceptional at more than one thing, if anything at all.

We can then say that it is a complete statistical improbability that any single person can be an extraordinary performer in all areas of their life, or even many areas of their life. Bruce Wayne does not exist. It just doesn’t happen. Brilliant businessmen are often fuck ups in their personal lives. Extraordinary athletes are often shallow and as dumb as a lobotomized rock. Most celebrities are probably just as clueless about life as the people who gawk at them and follow their every move.

We’re all, for the most part, pretty average people. It’s the extremes that get all of the publicity. We all kind of intuitively know this, but we rarely think and/or talk about it. The vast majority of us will never be truly exceptional at, well, anything. And that’s OK.

Which leads to an important point: that mediocrity, as a goal, sucks. But mediocrity, as a result, is OK.

Few of us get this. And fewer of us accept it. Because problems arise — serious, “My God, what’s the point of living” type problems — when we expect to be extraordinary. Or worse, we feel entitled to be extraordinary. When in reality, it’s just not viable or likely. For every Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, there are 10 million scrubs stumbling around parks playing pickup games… and losing. For every Picasso or DaVinci there have been about a billion drooling idiots eating Play-Doh and slapping around fingerpaints. And for every Leo Motherfucking Tolstoy, there’s a lot of, well, me, scribbling and playing at writer.

THE TYRANNY OF A CULTURE OF EXCEPTIONALISM

So here’s the problem. I would argue that we have this expectation (or this entitlement) more today than any other time in history. And the reason is because of the nature of our technology and economic privilege.

Having the internet, Google, Facebook, YouTube and access to 500+ channels of television is amazing. We have access to more information than any other time in history.

But our attention is limited. There’s no way we can process the tidal waves of information flowing through the internet at any given time. Therefore the only ones that break through and catch our attention are the truly exceptional pieces of information. The 99.999th percentile.

All day, every day, we are flooded with the truly extraordinary. The best of the best. The worst of the worst. The greatest physical feats. The funniest jokes. The most upsetting news. The scariest threats. Non-stop.

Our lives today are filled with information coming from the extremes of the bell curve, because in the media that’s what gets eyeballs and the eyeballs bring dollars. That’s it. Yet the vast majority of life continues to reside in the middle.3

It’s my belief that this flood of extreme information has conditioned us to believe that “exceptional” is the new normal. And since all of us are rarely exceptional, we all feel pretty damn insecure and desperate to feel “exceptional” all the time. So we must compensate. Some of us do this by cooking up get-rich-quick schemes. Others do it by taking off across the world to save starving babies in Africa. Others do it by excelling in school and winning every award. Others do it by shooting up a school. Others do it by trying to have sex with anything that talks and breathes.

There’s this kind of psychological tyranny in our culture today, a sense that we must always be proving that we’re special, unique, exceptional all the time, no matter what, only to have that moment of exceptionalism swept away in the current of all the other human greatness that’s constantly happening.

For instance, here’s a five-minute video of nothing but some of the most amazing feats you can imagine:

The crazy thing is that every single person in this video, for their five seconds of incredible footage, likely spent years and years and years practicing their craft as well as dozens of hours of recording to just get that perfect five-second spot.

Yet we are not exposed to those years of practice. Or those hours of drab and failed footage. We’re merely exposed to each person’s absolute finest moment — possibly in their entire lives.

And then we watch this and forget about it within minutes. Because we’re onto the next thing. And then the next.

B-B-B-BUT, IF I’M NOT GOING TO BE SPECIAL OR EXTRAORDINARY, WHAT’S THE POINT?

It’s an accepted part of our culture today to believe that we are all destined to do something truly extraordinary. Celebrities say it. Business tycoons say it. Politicians say it. Even Oprah says it. Each and every one of us can be extraordinary. We all deserve greatness.

The fact that this statement is inherently contradictory — after all, if everyone was extraordinary, then by definition, no one would be extraordinary — is missed by most people, and instead we eat the message up and ask for more. (More tacos, that is.)

Being “average” has become the new standard of failure. The worst thing you can be is in the middle of the pack, the middle of the bell curve.

The problem is that, statistically speaking, pretty much all of us are in the middle of that bell curve almost all of the time, in almost everything we do. Sure, you might be a world-class putt-putt golfer. But then you have to go home and be a lousy father and get drunk on cheap beer faster than 90% of the population and piss the bed at night. Or worse, you could be Tiger Woods. No one stays exceptional for very long.

A lot of people are afraid to accept mediocrity because they believe that if they accept being mediocre, then they’ll never achieve anything, never improve, and that their life doesn’t matter.

I find this sort of thinking to be dangerous. Once you accept the premise that a life is only worthwhile if it is truly notable and great, then you basically accept the fact that most of the human population sucks and is worthless. And ethically speaking, that is a really dark place to put yourself.

But most people’s problem with accepting being average is more practical. They worry that, “If I accept that I’m average, then I’ll never achieve anything great. I’ll have no motivation to improve myself or do something great. What if I am one of the rare few?”

This, too, is a misguided belief. The people who become truly exceptional at something do so not because they believe they’re exceptional. On the contrary, they become amazing because they are obsessed with improvement. And that obsession with improvement stems from an unerring belief that they are, in fact, not that great at all. That they are mediocre. That they are average. And that they can be so much better.

This is the great irony about ambition. If you wish to be smarter and more successful than everybody else, you will always feel like a failure. If you wish to be the most loved and most popular, then you will always feel alone. If you wish to be the most powerful and admired, then you will always feel weak and impotent.

All of this “every person can be extraordinary and achieve greatness” stuff is basically just jerking off your ego. It’s shit sold to you to make you feel good for a few minutes and to get you through the week without hanging yourself in your cubicle. It’s a message that tastes good going down, but in reality, is nothing more than empty calories that make you emotionally fat and bloated, the proverbial Big Mac for your heart and your brain.

The ticket to emotional health, like physical health, comes from eating your veggies — that is, through accepting the bland and mundane truths of life: a light salad of “you’re actually pretty average in the grand scheme of things” and some steamed broccoli of “the vast majority of your life will be mediocre.” This will taste bad at first. Very bad. You will avoid eating it.

But once ingested, your body will wake up feeling more potent and more alive. After all, that constant pressure to always be something amazing, to be the next big thing, will be lifted off your back. The stress and anxiety of feeling inadequate will dissipate. And the knowledge and acceptance of your own mundane existence will actually free you to accomplish what you truly wish to accomplish with no judgments and no lofty expectations.

You will have a growing appreciation for life’s basic experiences. You will learn to measure yourself through a new, healthier means: the pleasures of simple friendship, creating something, helping a person in need, reading a good book, laughing with someone you care about.

Sounds boring, doesn’t it? That’s because these things are average. But maybe they’re average for a reason. Because they are what actually matter.

https://markmanson.net/being-average

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