#but THIS dick is back for more

[tossawary]

This is petty fandom salt, BUT... I've been chewing on this phenomenon that I've been calling "Fandom's Darling". It is related to things like "Author's Darling" and "Mary Sue / Gary Stu" and "Protagonist Halo" and all that jazz, where one character gains a peculiar narrative weight in a story.

"Author's Darling" is when a writer has a favorite character, and the world and all other characters sort of get... warped to put the Darling in the spotlight. It's most noticeable in TV shows with multiple writers, when a character you personally like suddenly has their previous characterization destroyed to make another character look good somehow. Every other character might become weirdly incompetent. The Darling's feelings are treated as The Most Important Feelings in any given situation. The logic of the fictional world seems broken past suspension of disbelief in order to validate this one character's beliefs or skillset or some other fantasy. And so on.

"Fandom's Darling" is what I've been calling the pattern where a fandom essentially crowns a New Protagonist for their fanfiction stories (it's often a side character rather than the original protagonist, but it can also happen to protagonists). This character becomes the self-insert for all sorts of indulgent fantasies, gaining special powers or backstories, and/or becoming the focus of extreme whump, and/or hooking up with all the various hotties, starring in all sorts of tropey AUs, and so on. They're not always an obvious Mary Sue version of themselves, but the character's original personality and interpersonal relationships tend to get warped or dropped completely, and other characters tend to become a little flat around them. I call it "Fandom's Darling" because it's not just one self-indulgent fantasy fic (you do you! Have fun!) with characterization choices that I don't vibe with (I have neither the time nor the desire nor the authority to police anything, I am just venting), but rather a prolific mini-fandom of sorts revolving around this empty doll / fanon version of the chosen vessel character, so it becomes a little unavoidable.

I am salty about this (mildly frustrated) (imagine a soft sigh of disappointment before I just go do something else) because you are FUCKED if you actually liked the canonical version of this character and their interpersonal relationships. It's almost worse than liking an obscure character that no one cares about. There's about a thousand fics starring your fave, but maybe only about a dozen of them are actually rooted in any kind of recognisable canon.

[haveihitanerve]

Tim casually dropping bits of his traumatizing childhood lore on Red Hood(he knows its Jason, but Jason doesn’t know that yet)

but plays it off/alludes to it being Bruce and Dick that are treating him this way. And Jason believes him bc Tim sneaks off to see Jason all the time- which obvi makes the two of them very panicked when they realize he’s with the fucking Red Hood and thats their baby boy, which leads to get-your-ass-over-here-i-was-so-worried-you're-grounded yanks from bruce/dick, and that makes Jason think they’re like… awful+ he has pit madness so he’s not thinking straight and remembering the good parts of living with bruce and how he would never but anyway-

this eventually leads to Jason marching into the cave on Tim’s behalf… only to find, Bruce and Dick actually adore???? This tiny gremlin child??? Would literally die for him??? Are sooooooo fucking happy to learn its Jason, are like, really welcoming??? Love him??? Mourned him?????

And Jason is looking at Tim in confusion, and Tim is in the corner with his tablet and goes “haha. Nice. Horrified you back into the family, uwu” 

Anyway Tim is a chaos gremlin who deserves to force jason back into the family by making him truly horrified and want to raise tim on his own, which tim is not willing to do, so instead he has to co-parent him with bruce, which leads to reconciliation etc etc…

[ghost-bxrd]

Prompt:

Brucie Wayne gets into a mild accident in public (read-got hit by a car). And Batman would just walk it off (“it’s barely a bruise”), but Brucie obviously… can’t.

So he has to suffer the ordeal of having civilians call paramedics, getting fussed over, and having-

Having his dead son get into the back of the ambulance with him.

Oh- oh no. He must have hit his head worse than he thought. He thought he was past this…

[mikeluciraphgabe]

Jason hitting the panic button in his sleep cuz he was still in his uniform and rolled over but because he’s in one of his safe houses the signal is all messed up and the Batfam is in chaos trying to find him but Jason is just “zzzz” the whole time

[dragonpyre]

Reverse Robin au but the ages aren't changed. Just adoption order.

[seamistgale]

Of @ghostreblogging, Where Danny has the same tax evasion skills as his parents. Kind of a coffee shop AU, but well, its gotham.

[welcometogrouchland]

[ID in ALT] I've made posts before about Talia/Dick co-parenting Damian moments (will never happen but let me dream) and this came to me in a vision. Took me ages to finish for some reason 😭 and then even longer to post

[emmcfrxst]

jason todd swears like a sailor whenever you ride him. the visual of your body on top of his, the feeling of your hands on his chest and your cunt fluttering around him, the sweet sounds of your moans and mewls— everything about getting ridden makes jason’s dick hard and turns his brain to mush

[frownyalfred]

there is something absolutely hilarious about a Bruce who is somewhat new to Batman but entirely new to parenting being told he needs to "lead by example" by Alfred when it comes to Dick, and that somehow includes modeling eating vegetables at every dinner. except Bruce has been drinking fuck-ass protein-maxed smoothies for every meal for the last 1-2 years so he has to (awkwardly) eat his first piece of truly solid food in several months at the fancy dinner table, with Alfred serving everything, and with Dick sitting off to the side with wide eyes.

Bruce, delicately chewing on a single piece of broccoli he's speared to his fork: "Mhhhhm. See? Tasty, chum! Have some."

Dick: "You’re being weird."

Bruce, still chewing and trying desperately not to make a face: "What? Of course not. Alfred—"

Alfred, who knows Bruce will be paying for this later in the bathroom: "Perfectly normal, sir."

[arkangelo-7]

I hc that after Bruce’s infamous spine-breaking fight with Bane, all the Batkids pitch in and get Bruce one of those super bougie gamer chairs for the Bat-Computer. Like this thing is all leather, it’s got cup holders and LED lights, and that bad boy swivels smoother than butter.

It’s also bright fucking red. Robin red.

[batfamhastwitter]

Part 43! This was the first time I learned that Mr. Darcy's first name is Fitzwilliam, and I have to agree with Steph about that being a deal breaker

Prev ~ Beginning ~ Next

[erinwantstowrite]

got to thinking about this au again and it got me in my feels. jason you will never outrun these idiots

[bet-on-me-13]

Fight Knight is the Spirit of Halloween.

So! A new Spirit Halloween location has opened up in Gotham, and the Batfam has decided to go shopping so they can prepare for Halloween.

Just because it's one of their busiest nights of the year doesn't mean they can't enjoy themselves while patrolling.

So the family walks in about a week before Halloween and spreads out to look for decorations or costumes to wear.

Its a fun trip, they buy their costumes, have a pleasant conversation with the manager about the holiday season, and go back home.

Then they actually put on their costumes and find out that they were either Cursed or Enchanted, because once put them on they are transformed them into the Costumes themselves.

Damien has become a Dog, after putting on a cheap dog costume at the insistence of his brothers. He's not unhappy at least.

Jason has been turned into a Zombie, though he has managed to restrain himself from eating his brother's Brains so far. He claims they look unappetizing.

Tim has been turned into Super Mario. He can't stop speaking in a bad Italian accent and has a huge mustache.

Dick has been turned into a Fairy Tale Princess after putting on the costume as a Joke. He has to admit though, he looks great as a Girl.

Even Bruce wasn't spared, and was turned into a Vampire after putting in some Plastic Teeth.

Taking off the costumes hadn't turned them back, leaving them stuck in their new forms.

Now they are all racing back to that Spirit Halloween to get answers as to what the hell just happened to them.

They hope Mr. Frank Knight has some answers for them.

[umbrellajam]

de-aged baby Tim but it happens during Prodigal when he and Dick still barely know each other and are supposed to be holding down the fort in Gotham by themselves and also Dick's life is already in extreme early 20s shambles

Dick!Bats:

Baby Robin!Tim (with oversized domino falling off his face): (burbles) Dbbb? BUH-MUH-MUH.

Dick!Bats:

Dick!Bats: nope nope nope nope NOPE

Huntress (rolling up warily): hey...Batman. what was that lightshow - oh, that is a baby.

Baby Robin!Tim (waving his hands delightedly): He-ba-ba!

Huntress: ...Heb-- wait a minute, is that Robin's uni--

Dick!Bats (bundling Tim and the Robin uniform into his own Bat cape and using his best Bat growl): the situation is under control, move along. (sweeps away)

---

Dick: (reading the manual to the new Batmobile to try and activate the baby carseat configuration that has to be in here somewhere, please god)

Tim: (yanks on the end of Dick's ponytail and sticks it in his mouth)

---

Dick: (standing in front of Drake Manor gearing up to hand baby Tim over to his actual family, thank fuck this will no longer be his problem--)

Dick: (remembers (a) Jack Drake is still in a wheelchair and (b) Tim laughingly telling him the funny family story of how Janet left Jack in charge of Tim for one (1) girls night when he was a year old and came back to diaper rash because he hadn't been changed in six hours, haha Dad was so embarrassed, like "so by every two hours you meant every--??")

Dick: y'know what I've helped babysit Lian how hard can this be

---

Dick (with formula in his hair, spit-up all over his shirt, juggling a red-faced wailing Tim and a corded phone held between his shoulder and his ear): ROY. ROY MAYDAY.

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Rejected Soulmate au where the bats discover a way to track Phantom. This leads to an all out brawl between the bats and Phantom, who is badly losing. In his attempt to escape he pulls out a portal gun to the ghost zone and fires it.

Things get out of hand, and he and Nightwing end up stranded in Hyrule and continue during it out, only to be interrupted by a castle in the distance being...lifted up into the sky???

Things happen in quick succession, they nearly get trampled by wild horses running in a panic, a bunch of caves appear along with an opening in the ground packed with red goo, and they get attacked by a weird evil goo monster in the form of a bunch of hands. Phantom ends up badly hurt and powers down to Fenton, shocking Nightwing and he has to carry the teen to safety as they flee the glowing mummy the hands had turned into after being defeated.

Nightwing is having a bad day.

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt in Memes 4

Another prompt, but in memes because trying to gather my thoughts is hard sometimes lol.