#but saying they included lady shiva

[oifaaa]

arrowette's white mom who is abusive in the comics is not portrayed as anything in the show, so they have not portrayed an abusive white mom but changed an aisian mom to be abusive

Arrowettes mom isn't in the show bc arrowette has hardly been in the show - if the show hasn't even focused on arrowette then when where you expecting them to introduce her mum exactly? And once again dc isn't great with aisian mums as a whole even in the comics lady shiva chooses to leave her baby with a man she knows wants to raise that child as nothing but a weapon and later fights her daughter multiple times

[brucewaynehater101]

Hm if Janet/ Talia happens there is a chance that Tim met Damian before the rest of the bats, which means there is also a chance that Damian prefers Tim to the rest, which means Damian might either

a) be given Robin willingly by tim

or

b) go with Tim to save Bruce

I love your brain. Fudge. We're gonna add into Lady Shiva [Sandra] too :)

Okay... Hmm... So, Talia and Janet get together in a way that both Damian and Tim know of each other.

Let's just say Jack died when Tim was five, which caused Janet to either take Tim with her or visit Gotham more often. This includes taking Tim to meet up with Talia after the two get serious.

The siblings have a seven year age gap (depending), so the theoretical youngest they can be is when Tim is seven. I would assume Talia is still somewhat enamored with Bruce... So let's say the youngest is when Tim is eight.

This is vital because this is before Tim figures out that Batman = Bruce. Tim meets his maybe brother who's one. He knows he's the son of Batman (which is really cool to the eight year old!!!), but doesn't know who Batman is nor that he should inform him.

Nine year old Tim figures out who Batman is... and does he inform his moms or keep it a secret? Either way, he doesn't tell Bruce about his two year old son. That's Tim's little brother, and he doesn't want to share with Dick (he's nine, y'all. He's intelligent, but he assumes he wouldn't become a brother to Dick. After all, Janet isn't dating Bruce too). Therefore, Tim asks for some lessons from Talia so he can continue being the cool big brother.

Talia asks Lady Shiva to come over and help out. This leads to a romance between Janet, Sandra, and Talia. Tim also becomes well-trained with the bo staff and other measures (he's not training for Bruce, but Janet won't let him kill. She thinks he should be older before making that decision for himself [since she's dating two killers, she can't really tell Tim no]. She's fine with Tim learning how to as long as he isn't actually doing it).

Lady Shiva, after seeing both of her partners with kids, tracks down twelve year old Cass. Cass thus learns to speak with Talia and Janet's resources and becomes an older sister to Tim and Damian. She will spend time with either Damian or Tim [or both if they are together] when she's not spending time with her mom (and the two of them are able to resolve their differences a bit more with Talia and Janet's help). Cass will travel with Tim sometimes to Gotham.

Damian, with Talia, Janet, and Tim around, does not become as adverse or guarded to Bruce's family. It helps that Tim gushes about the Robins and Nightwing to Damian and refers to them as Damian's brothers (but not Tim's. Thus, Tim accidentally gives Damian the mindset that Tim and the Waynes are separate groups that might fight. Damian is extremely loyal, so he'll choose the brother he's known practically his whole life over the strangers he's only heard of in stories [if it came down to a fight]).

Then Robin (Jason) dies. Damian is five and thus much too young to become Robin. Tim talks to Talia (and then Janet) about Tim stepping in.

The moms do *not* want to do this. This would mean less time with Tim, hiding his travels from the Detective, and their soon to he thirteen year old getting into harm's way (even though he's only planning to ask Dick at first).

Tim is a stubborn guy, though, so they agree as long as Tim passes a certain marker in training. It takes a few months, but the moms nervously allow Tim to do what he must. Cass goes with him, though, so they'll be more reassured. She doesn't make her presence known to the Bats, but Tim's gotten used to knowing when she's there or not.

The moms are not pleased when they realize he's Robin. They do find out that Tim is able to lie to Bruce and pretend to be a prodigy with training. Tim tells the grieving man (who's not as focused as he should be) that the kid got experience from gymnastics and mixed martial arts. That's why his base is so good. He also takes down King Snake again and excuses some of his more lethal moves (that he learns to adapt to less lethal) as training from Lady Shiva during that time. He lies that he will have no further communication with the woman (his third mom).

So Tim is a scarily efficient Robin who makes time to visit Damian and his moms (where he also receives more training). He tells Damian that he's merely holding the title of Robin for the kid if he wants it when he's older.

The timeline is a little fucky, but Tim finds out (maybe less than a month into being Robin), that Jason is alive.

At first, he's excited, relieved, and disappointed. Jason can come back to being Robin, but all of Tim's work (him putting up with Bruce's bad attitude [and no. Tim does not tell his moms about that]) is for naught.

Then he visits Jason without informing Bruce to confirm. He quickly understands that Bruce can not know about Jason in that current state. However, Tim encourages Damian to seek out a relationship with Jason (who's Damian's older brother).

Tim goes back to being Robin, and Cass finally gets caught tailing Tim. Tim vouches for her but asks Barbara to look out for her instead of Bruce. Cass is then allowed to patrol and assist Tim officially (as well as gain some independence and her own cases outside of her younger brother).

Jason becomes close with Damian before and after being shoved into a pit. This becomes fractured, however, when Tim first shows up to meet Jason again.

Jason does not like Tim and spits all the shit he did in canon. Tim becomes upset but allows Jason his space. Damian becomes upset with Jason, so Jason reluctantly starts hiding his resentment (he eventually gets to thinking of Tim as a younger brother. It takes a bit, though. It then takes a while for Tim to believe him).

Anyways, yes! Damian knows Tim will give him Robin when the time is right, and they also have healthy communication set up.

[snakeredbirdbatkatana]

I will be your Blade Point Me

Loyalty was a trait Janet Drake respected above all others.

It can give you power, fame, money to have someone's loyalty was to have their life.

Tim has always given his all. His people whatever they need they have. May it be his mind, his skills, or even his weapons.

If Dick Grayson demanded the shirt off his back he would remain naked till the end of his days.

Very few times has anyone actually used it the first to test it was Jason.

"Hey Jay.. What's up you never call?"

Tim's phone is always ringing from Wayne Enterprises to his assorted friends he can't remember it being silent. Yet the shock when HighWay to Hell started blaring almost sent him into cardiac arrest.

"Need a favor. Think you could meet me at that safe house you keep pretending not to break into?"

"Yah no problem also it's not breaking in when you leave the window unlocked. Give me ten."

~

Jason doesn't do favors. He would rather die again than ever ask for shit.

When it comes to Tim though he's not an idiot. During his return to Gotham he researched, knew everything about him from his favorite color to when he fucking peed.

Part of his research specifically including who trained the third Robin. Nevermind that watching the kid fight for more than ten minutes gives it away.

Lady Shiva, Ra's just to name a few. He moves almost exactly the same as Cass. Hides in the shadows better than Damian. The whole creepy debacle with Mr. Old as Fuck just furthered Jason hypothesis.

Baby Bird, Bruce's prized protege isn't none lethal.

"I need you to kill someone."

~

Tim in the back of his mind expected it.

Jason for all he is exactly like Bruce doesn't respond the same. To him protection is blood soaked, a knife to the throat is a greeting. Kindess was shrouded and wasn't offered without losing a part of yourself.

"Joker I'm assuming?"

~

He expected a bit of a fight maybe a lecture at least for him to pretend, not whatever it is Replacement is doing.

"He hasn't broken out of Arkham in months haven't heard shit and I hear your in the same business as me nowadays. What you say about helping a brother out?"

~

He wonders if Jason is aware of how his voice cracked. The pleading that was heard the unspoken because I can't. Tim couldn't imagine looking Jason in the eye and saying no. Watching your son bend and demanding he break.

"Hate to burst your bubble, but I already did, I know you think the worst of me but I wasn't gonna let your murderer keep kicking his feet."

He tosses the drive he's been sitting on almost three months before heading back to the window.

"I know we got our shit Jay but your my brother. This is something you needed to be able to sleep at night. You shouldn't feel like you have to beg. I honestly thought you had known and didn't want to acknowledge it."

~

Jason can't breathe as he shuts his computer. Thirty hours of torture his baby brother broke the Joker in ways that turned his stomach.

He climbs into bed his eyes shutting sleeping without a nightmare for the first time in years.

He can't ever repay Tim nothing will ever be enough but he is gonna do everything to try.

He wonders if Ra's might need the same treatment?

[new-revenant]

I am not dead and I have a DPxDC idea to share with you all!

So Ghost King!Danny died died-for reasons I have yet to come up with-and gets reincarnated as one of the BatFamily members. Revolutionary idea I know. But, there’s a catch. It’s not Dick, Jason, Tim, any of the Robins actually, but Danny get’s reincarnated as Cassandra Cain-Wayne. Why did I come up with this you may ask? Because I like Cass. That’s it that is the main reason.

Anyways, Cass doesn’t know or have any awareness of her previous life before being revived by the Lazarus Pit by Lady Shiva. Not even any muscle memories. Which is a good thing since Danny’s muscle memories in fights is a bit like punch kick punch some kind of power punch punch. So a bit after Cass is out of the Pit, the next time she tries to fight crime she is not as good as she used to be, as she’s trying to use her fighting techniques and skills but her brain is telling her to button mash her way through it.

After that Cass tries to train her way back into being a better fighter, with everyone thinking that being killed and immediately being revived the Pit probably just messed with her system in some way.

Cass starts to see some ghosts, mainly animals and shades but Cass mostly brushes it off, and she decides that she can probably use this newfound skill to her advantage when at a crime scene. Cass gets psychically stronger as well, more agile, and she starts to pull pack her punches even more than before so she doesn’t injure anyone too much.

Then someone notices a single, shiny, white hair sticking up from Cass’s roots. But that wasn’t the weird part. It looks like a curved lightning bolt in a way, looking unnatural. Batman finds this a bit odd, and decides it’s best to be safe rather than sorry and brings Cass to all the magic users he can summon to the Watchtower.

Other heroes who wanted to see what was going on were also there, but it’s ultimately Deadman, who managed to tag along to the meeting, who recognized what’s going on. The moment the Batfam entered and Deadman made direct eye contact with Cass, he frantically shouted, “T-THE GHOST KING??? THAT’S who the GHOST KING decided to reincarnated as????”

Needless to say that everyone who heard him was freaking out. That included Cass. All the magic users are like, “Deadman, are you sure?” or “This is bad, what do we do, oh fuck” And Deadman just nods, saying “I mean, I’ve heard from other ghosts that the Ghost King had returned in mortal form, so I kinda just assumed it’s her. She’s definitely ghost some powerful ghost molecules in her tho” Everyone calms down a bit after that, but Cass having some “ghost molecules” in her is concerning.

So now the main quest is figuring out who exactly this Ghost King was, which is the easiest part, and figuring out what happened to him, much harder. All while Cass has an internal and external crisis that she can’t communicate effectively about with bonus powers to worry about. And probably some old ghosts from DP going after her to claim the ghostly throne. Because whether or not they know for 100% sure that she’s the reincarnation of the Ghost King, she’s the most likely candidate.

[avayarising]

Deaths of Cassandra Cain

Part of the Batfam Death Project.

Cass has two very definite deaths and one implied death. She also spent several days in the Spirit World. Total time dead: up to a couple of days, plus Spirit World time.

Verifiable deaths

1. Beaten in the chest by Lady Shiva (Batgirl 1:25, 2002)

Cass asked Lady Shiva (her mother, though at this point she didn’t know that) to train her because she was losing her ability to read body language. Shiva agreed, but in return asked for Cass to come back in a year and duel her to the death. Cass agreed to this. When the time came, they fought on a rooftop, and Shiva quickly killed Cass with what looks like a pre-cordial thump.

Cass was raised to life again by Lady Shiva some unspecified time later through some unspecified technique (though she did say she had prepared for years to be able to do it) involving punching her in the chest again.

Time dead: Unclear, but probably of the order of hours. Since the location where Cass was resurrected was not where she died, Shiva must have had to move her corpse, so probably at least a few hours, plus however long it took for Shiva to do whatever she did to resurrect Cass.

2. Took a sword for someone else (Batgirl 1:72–73, April 2006)

So before Cass was born. David Cain made other attempts at creating the Perfect Warrior, and he started out by taking existing children (from Ra’s Al Ghul) to train, rather than attempting to breed one. One of these became known as Mad Dog: very skilled but almost mindless and uncontrolled. In a forest in the middle of nowhere, he attempted to stab someone, Cass leapt in front, and:

Even though it looks from this picture like that big fat knife goes right through her ribcage, heart, and spine, she still managed to kick Mad Dog in the face before collapsing and dying.

After Cass died, she awoke being carried by Steph.

Steph told Cass something she couldn’t have known (that Blüdhaven had just been destroyed), indicating she was really present and not just a near-death hallucination.

Of course, it later turns out that Steph was never actually dead at all, but at this point in time she is dead, and her presence is meant to be an indicator that Cass is truly dead.

Lady Shiva raised her (again), this time via a Lazarus Pit. (At this point, Cass has only very recently found out that Shiva is her mother.)

Cass came out angry with Pit Madness, but Shiva trapped her in a net and coached her through it. Cass calmed down in a matter of minutes.

Time dead: between several hours and a couple of days (Shiva had to carry her out of a forest on foot and get to the Lazarus Pit before she could resurrect her).

Bonus extra deaths

(Implied, inferrable, ambiguous and arguable deaths)

1. Probably died in Death Metal along with everyone else (Death Metal 7, 2021)

Cass probably died in battle when the Dark Multiverse invaded and destroyed all the worlds of the multiverse. All the remaining heroes came together in a hopeless fight against an army of their worst nightmares, including an apparently never-ending swarm of groblins (mindless evil Jokerised Robins led by the Robin King, an evil child Bruce Robin).

Cass’s death isn’t shown on panel and neither is her dead body, but she is definitely in the group of Bats standing ready to fight (far right, in an oddly ill-fitting Orphan outfit):

And later Evil Child Bruce Robin tells Batman that everyone else is dead, so that seems like Cass is dead too.

On the other hand, Evil Child Bruce Robin probably doesn’t know what’s going on away from his immediate vicinity, so it’s possible that Cass was drawn away during the battle earlier on and is still out there fighting in a different part of the field.

After this, Wonder Woman persuades the Creators to remake the world and everyone is fine again.

Time dead: unclear; might be up to an hour, or longer if it takes longer to remake the world.

2. Perhaps was shot by Lady Shiva at some point (Spirit World 3, 2023)

Thank you to @fantastic-nonsense for pointing this one out! During Cass’s trip to the Spirit World (see below) she was bitten by a kitsune spirit and regained the memory of a previous encounter in the Spirit World when she was dead. The flashback montage panel shows Shiva shooting Cass in the chest, followed by Cass’s revival in the Lazarus Pit in Batgirl 1:73 with its very distinctive hook and chain.

Although it’s most likely that this is just a conflation and reinterpretation of Cass’s previous two deaths and resurrections, the new method of death suggests that this could be an additional, off-panel, death and resurrection.

More details in @fantastic-nonsense’s original commentary here.

Afterlife visits

1. Pulled into the Spirit World (Lazarus Planet: Dark Fate, 2023; Spirit World, 2023)

When the Lazarus Volcano erupts and rains down Lazarus Water on the whole earth, it stirs up a lot of undead. In a graveyard in Gotham, Cass joins John Constantine and Xanthe Zhou (a ’spirit envoy’ who died as a child and was partially resurrected and is now both living and dead) in a fight against hopping vampires (jiang-shi) and a ‘ghost collective’ (a big ball of angry ghosts).

With Constantine’s and Cass’s help, Xanthe exorcises the collective, but on its way out the collective grabs Cass’s ankle and pulls her into the Spirit World with it.

In the Spirit World, she more or less gets adopted by Xanthe’s granny, who has also adopted another ghost, Bowen. (It’s not clear in this panel, but Po Po is tiny and only comes up to Cass’s waist.)

A kitsune spirit she meets there tells her they have met before, when she was dead, though she clearly doesn’t remember her time dead. (The spirit doesn’t clarify which of Cass’s deaths it is referring to, but since she was with Steph all through her second death, it is likely to be her first – but it might be a completely different one; see above.)

Of course, John and Xanthe go in after her and they eventually reunite. After a great quest, the freeing of the ghosts from their collective, and major reorganisation of the politics of the Spirit World, they all leave together through a portal.

Time in afterlife: several days.

Batfam Death Project Masterpost

[justvora]

An appreciation post to Lady Shiva and Cassandra Cain body reading skills and why they should be the top tier in martial arts

Hello there :)

I recently saw a post that talked about Cassandra and Lady Shiva's analytical reading skills should not be a compelling reason to say they are the best martial artists as there are such things as feints, grappling and other 'techniques' as such….. So I do this not just as an answer anymore, but to explain why, in theory, this skill that both of them have is much more than it seems (and what actually ends up being represented in American comics).

Let's start with what I just mentioned: Within American comics generally hand-to-hand and martial arts fights are usually represented poorly when it comes to talking technical and realistic, but in terms of spectacle they are usually a delight, so this is mainly one of the reasons why this skill that mother and daughter share is not usually delved into, and neither do they go into the terms of grappling and so on.

Next up: Cassandra Cain and Lady Shiva are not only the best martial artists in their universe for that skill, but for their position, potential and narrative.

Cass general fighting performance

When talking about Cassandra Wayne (Cain) we have to take into account that she is still young, so she has a lot of potential for improvement to evolve... And yet, since she was born, she has received specialized training to become a great professional assassin (within the Post-Crisis continuity, she was trained by the entire league of assassins, including among her many trainers the Bronze Tiger; however, in the New52/Rebirth continuity she did not go to the depth of all this). The fact that she was raised and trained to kill means that she does not perform so well in non-lethal combat, since she is omitting and restricting an arsenal and naturalized instinct to fight against her own impulses, notoriously limiting herself - and this is something that has already been commented on several occasions.

Why Cass and Shiva are at the "top" of the martial arts tier list due to their narrative / and the powerscaling stuff from martial arts in comic books.

In this section I will not only talk about why I think that mother and daughter are at the top of the best martial artists, but also about how stupid it usually seems to me to do martial arts power scaling with characters that are very evenly matched.

To start I would like to attach the following screenshot from "LetsTalkLadyShiva's" "CuriousAsk", which I consider, in my opinion, deals with many quite relevant and interesting points about why these characters are above average beyond their own feats (although later there will be characters like Karate Kid whose martial arts are a power in themselves that take him to a level of literally cosmic surrealism).

Now, moving on to the topic of martial arts powerscaling… It makes no sense. It makes no sense because it's not something that can be quantified, and because many comic book characters present a dissonance between the hype, the statements, and their own feats. I think it's not a new complaint to say that many of us are fed up with reading "And he's versatile in all existing martial arts," when it's nonsense without logic due to the nature of these things.

The most that can be quantified in a general way around skill is usually: The number of martial arts that a character knows, and the level of skill around said martial arts - Their years of experience, which is what allows them to develop Battle IQ - And the win rate.

Beyond that, many characters exist for and by the hype, and by their own position within a universe. Lady Shiva was introduced in The Question comics as an alien force of nature, one who broke away from the material world to prove to Sage that he was just a fish in the big pond of his world. There she has narrative power, one as one of the most skilled characters by being a technically insurmountable barrier for combatants. And that's what matters: Not her feats, but who she is.

And... Cassandra? She is The One who is All.

Another thing I consider necessary for martial arts power scaling is the fact that many people try to do the typical:

"[x] character beat [y], who is extremely powerful and skilled And [z] beat [x], so he is even more skilled…etc"

All hand-to-hand combats that can occur are unique, and in many cases there are completely circumstantial situations that define the winner. These circumstances, such as the way and objective that someone seeks, the desire to fight, or how the fight began are defining, and may not mean that someone is, really, more skilled or a better martial artist than another.

In addition, there is a thing called "compatibility", where "A" can beat "B", and "B" can beat "C", and "C" will beat "A". And what is this due to? To the compatibility between styles, where striking can beat judo grappling, and judo can also beat a grappler specialized in BJJ who is capable of beating a boxer, but this will not happen vice versa.

Now… Let's finally get to the interesting part of all this…

The true potential of Cassandra Cain and Lady Shiva's analytical body reading ability.

In this case, and now, I will focus on talking mainly about Cass.

Cassandra was born and raised not to understand verbal language, but body language. In this way she would understand every micro-gesture produced by the human body to interpret it instinctively and naturally in order to understand people… And to predict what they are going to do.

There are several panels that explain this in depth, in short Cassandra reads body language, which is what we often do unconsciously, without realizing it, and this is something I have to highlight because it seems that there are people, both in-universe and IRL, who do not fully understand how this works and confuse it with telepathy.

Nightwing and Jason Todd, on one occasion, have believed that by acting erratically, and without knowing what they are going to do, they could surprise Cassandra, but this does not work like that. As much as they try not to rationalize their movements and keep their minds blank, Cassandra is not reading their thoughts, but the gestures that their bodies make, indirectly and involuntarily. These are micro-gestures, expressions and so on that even reveal some things that people do not know they do or feel.

Another thing I'd like to point out (as a rejoinder to everyone using her fight against Jason as an anti-feat) is that Cassandra wasn't fighting Red Hood - She was communicating through combat. She didn't want to defeat him, but rather explain a situation to him… While he was fighting bloodlusted —this is also a perfect example of how circumstances really matter in a fight—.

To give an example of what I was talking before: "Through telepathy you can read a mind, but when it is blank, nothing can be done. However, with body reading, you can read what the body, unconsciously, will reveal."

Secondly… This ability of Cass is based on an existing concept of martial arts known as "sensen no sen" (which I will call pre-initiative as it is practically the same thing to simplify it). What does it consist of?

Sen sen no sen (先々の戦, before the attack), or sensen no sente (戦線の先手, anticipate the movement), is a concept and a technique of the martial arts of Japan that consists of adopting a preventive behavior towards the opponent and, at the slightest trace of aggressive attitude, a defense technique is performed. That, however, does not simply mean that it is enough to act before the opponent or that you will act at any moment, but it means that you must be aware of the opponent's posture and, only when the blow is made, do you intercept his movement to obstruct his force.

Cody, Mark Edward. Wado Ryu Karate/Jujutsu (en inglés). Bloomington: AuthorHouse. p. 82.

In short: It consists of anticipating and obstructing an attack before it happens. Do you know that they are going to attack you with a straight attack to the face? Well, before it happens, you have already carried out your counterattack perfectly - It is done before, at the right moment, and not when the other movement is already being carried out, all to produce an overtaking effect with which the opponent can be cornered.

Within the Kengan Ashura and Kengan Omega manga, this is one of the skills that only true masters can use… And Cassandra Cain possesses it in a naturalized and instinctive way. So with this she can anticipate any feint that she can predict by reading her opponents and understanding what their intentions are. Is someone going to try to counterattack a punch of hers to throw it with a judo-throw? Well, she will predict it by anticipating and counterattacking in the most optimal way not only to surprise the opponent, but to punish him.

And this goes for grappling as much as anything else.

Again I refer to the nature of comics… This ability is so powerful in H2H, but it's often poorly represented, so characters like Cass or Shiva are never really given the credit to recognize the level of something like this.

[but-a-humble-goon]

top 10 best hand-to-hand fighters in the DCU??

just wanna know ur opinions on this, it's really interesting to see the diff answers ppl give!

There's probably like hundreds and hundreds of characters I'm forgetting or are gaps in my knowledge because this is DC. Also not including Karate Kid because he's around centuries in the future and also that's basically cheating. -Cassandra Cain, (the only person alive who can somewhat consistently beat Shiva when they're both at their best. Name any martial artist in the DC universe and the odds are she's humiliated them. Like half of the shit she does in every single issue is flagrantly physically/biologically/logistically impossible) -Lady Shiva & Richard Dragon (it's established the two meet up to duel constantly and as of yet neither has definitively proven themselves superior so they share a spot) -White Canary (according to Dinah she's as good as if not better than Cass or Shiva but she does also back down from Shiva like a total wuss so that's probably a slight exaggeration, nonetheless she certainly proves herself to be in the same ballpark) -Strix (Shiva calls her one of the most impressive fighters she's ever seen and shall we say everything we see her do certainly backs up that assessment. Plus she has the same acrobat training as Nightwing) -Conner Hawke (He's basically only ever lost a fair fight to one of the above. He fought Shiva and gave almost as good as he got and even Cass concedes he's pretty good and if you know her she does not compliment lightly) -Bronze Tiger (can handily kick Batman's ass as well as basically everyone else in his league like Deathstroke, Black Canary, Catman etc, can at least hold his ground against the likes of the top 3) -Nightwing (he's usually held to be better than Bats and he's handled Deathstroke with relative ease a couple of times. Not to mention his absurd talent at acrobatics. I'd put him at the top of the A tier) -Deathstroke (we're really splitting hairs at this point but yeah, generally Slade's pretty much considered unstoppable by most people. There's a good reason the Bats' standard procedure when going up against him is to just pay him off) -Black Canary (really this spot could have gone to Batman or David Cain just as easily but in addition to being as good as those two Dinah has the best track record when it comes to being the underdog and winning through sheer grit and adaptability. I'd put my money on her scoring a surprise win against any of the heavy hitters on this list over those two)

[mazamba]

Teen Titans Episode Idea

I thought of a way to include the other kids into Teen Titans. Yes, I know most of them were introduced after or during the show's original run, and yes I'm aware that a lot of this is a massive cannon rewrite (as if every DC show wasn't), but just hear me out. Think of it as a potential revival episode idea, rather than something that would have shown in the original run.

So the theory that I had was that after Jason's "death", Bruce tried to get him and Batgirl to put the cape down to protect them.

Robin leaves, forms the Teen Titans, and life moves on. Barb is probably Oracle at this point, but I'd honestly rather skip The Killing Joke, so let's just say she's Batgirl somewhere else.

A few years later, Dick is now sixteen. Something episode appropriate happens that makes him think of Jason, when four twelve-year-olds show up at Titans Tower.

They introduce themselves as Blue Robin (Tim), Pink Robin (Steph), Yellow Robin (Duke), and Black Robin (Cass). None of them are Red Robin because that was Jason.

Yes, they're into Power Rangers. They're twelve.

Robin is equal parts furious and conflicted. On the one half, his hypocrite of an adopted father adopted the neighbor's creeper spy kid, said kid's childhood friend who might be related to Black Mask, a meta kid who he knows next to nothing about, and another kid who vaguely reminds him of Lady Shiva. Then he made them all Robins.

If Dick didn't love his father, he would kill him.

They're hyper, they're underfoot, and they emptied the fridge. At least someone appreciates Starfire's cooking. Blue Robin has way too many questions, Black Robin keeps sneaking up on everyone (Raven loves her though), Yellow Robin keeps complaining about Starfire being "too bright", and Pink Robin somehow started a turf war with the Hive Five.

Either way it's chaos and while the whole team loved the kids, Robin's patience is being worn thin.

I don't quite know how the rest of the episode would go, but the gist of it is that it'd end with the big reveal that Red Robin survived and is now Red X, so it'd probably need him as an antagonist. Obviously Robin would need to snap at the kids at some point, before realizing the error of his ways and learning whatever moral the episode had.

The episode closes with him calling Bruce, while mentioning that it might be time to move on from Robin. He vaguely recalls Starfire mentioning a "Nightwing" from that one time she went to the future.

Bruce then drops the bombshell that he has three even younger siblings he needs to meet (Damian, Carrie, and Jarro) and that would be the iris out.

***

It's still a little half-baked, I was trying to hit the beats the original show did, but I still need to figure out the main conflict. If anyone has more ideas, I'm all ears.

[bat-besties]

People often say Cass’ reason for identifying as nonbinary is “not understanding gender” and while it’s often a joke, I do think it’s the complete opposite to Cass’ knowledge. (I’m using she/her for canon, this applies however and whichever way you headcanon Cass’ gender identity)

I feel it’s often coming from a place of her not understanding language, but gender is so much more than language. A lot of sociologists and gender theorists would kill for the ability to perfectly understand body language and then travel across (at least) China, Vietnam, and the US observing people in urban and rural environments, in both peaceful and violent situations. 

 In many ways, her lack of preconceptions about gender or need for language to shape her observances would make her more able to see the reality of gender performance rather than ideals. The idea that women are weak or men are unemotional would be foreign to her. 

As a child she’s isolated, but she still trains with the League of Assassins briefly. Unfortunately, the first time she is heavily gendered is as a disguise and a weapon in the most traumatic event in her lift, which undeniably shapes her attitude to femininity as this post covers. 

But as she runs, her world suddenly expands to, well, the entire world. 

Her gender identity may have come to words and self-expression in America, but the first place she would be able to really observe people is in south China, likely passing through Guangdong and Guangxi over the course of a year or two. That’s a really formative period, and as I personally think Lady Shiva is from south China (specifically Yunnan), is also unintentionally Cass connecting with her heritage. 

She’s a homeless and very traumatised nine year old, so obviously her experience would have been overall awful. However, a teenage Cass still strongly believes in the sanctity of life and the capacity for goodness in people, and I have to think that while she’s seen a lot of darkness, she’s seen a lot of goodness too. Cass isn’t always curious about things she doesn’t understand (as with her reading), but she has to have been observant to keep travelling and keep escaping from Cain. 

She will have seen the wealthy gamblers of Macau, the street vendors of small-town Vietnam, the pickpockets of Gotham. She will have seen different gender norms across cultures, even if she doesn’t know how each language reflects those norms. She would have to adjust to each new place, and refine her body language reading more generally (like how Americans smile way too much), including gendered readings. 

Cass will have seen a million couples, straight and gay. Pairs of women afraid to hold hands but projecting their nervousness on the first date like a signal. Unhappy marriages hidden by false smiles for the neighbours. Elderly couples where the man still walks on the road side of the pavement.

Considering herself an orphan, she will have seen mothers nursing their babies, fathers pushing their daughters on swingsets, sisters yelling at each other one moment and laughing the next. 

Watching unobserved, she would see all kinds of women in the city. Groups of women going from club to club in high heels, schoolgirls copying each other’s homework on the train, business women in neat makeup and a purposeful walk.  

She will have met other homeless girls like herself. Despite being unable to speak with them she might recognise the guarded set to their eyes, the way they are always poised to run - but they might have a smile for her, and a willingness to share a sheltered spot. They might have cut her hair spiky and short, or taught her to play cat’s cradle.  

Unfortunately, she will have seen predatory behaviour, men who leer or talk with deceptively friendly tones to a little girl alone. (I know she’s meant to “discover” men being attracted to her in the comics as a teen but that’s optimistic). When those men approach other girls, she doesn’t hesitate to protect them. 

But she would have seen so much joy too - boys playing football and grown men joining in, old men sitting on plastic chairs and observing the street together, gangly teen boys play-fighting.

On the streets, clustered and sometimes hidden, she would have seen people whose clothing and body language doesn’t match their bodies. Before Cass knows the words transgender and drag and gender nonconforming, she knows that these people are at risk for being different - at risk like she might be, if she couldn’t convince herself she only needs her fighting skills to protect herself. She wouldn’t need words to take each person as they look to her, to have an amorphous and wordless idea of performativity. 

And then of course, she has Barbara, and Batgirl, and finally language. 

So, I think Cass’ gender identity is something she discovers with the background of this huge tapestry of humanity she’s observed over the years. And if she goes “fuck that it makes no sense”, that’s a deeply informed, nuanced Fuck That. 

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

out of curiosity, is there anything that Tom King has written for/about Batman that you do like?

Nate I'm gonna be so real with you: I like a lot of the spaghetti that King throws at the wall when he's writing. unfortunately you hardly get time to say "hey, that's neat" before he's loaded the spaghetti into a cannon and starts firing it at you at speeds calculated to kill.

an example that I think about absolutely goddamn constantly is King's original character The Help, from the abysmal miniseries Killing Time. The Help starts out as a cool idea: an older, extremely prim killer for hire who prides himself on his professionalism and is less than impressed by the costumed freaks that are just starting to rise to prominence in Batman's early days. he's known and feared by younger criminals, he's prone to critiquing the fighting style of his enemies up to and including offering them pointers, he's aggressively polite, etc. he's fun!

except he can't just be fun, he has to have trained every other famed combatant in the DC universe. yeah, he's better than Canary and the Question and Lady Shiva. oh, and did we mention he knows Ra's? yeah, Ra's actually initially wanted The Help to be his successor, Bruce is just his second pick. King doesn't really do subtlety, you know? he just hamfists his shit in and uses the existing DC lore to prop it up until his story ends up looking like that prokopetz post about how Supernatural ends up being about fighting the devil's more evil cousin Phil because the writers didn't know how to do anything but escalate.

the worst offender by far, TO ME, is his issue of One Bad Day, wherein King decides to take on the incredibly loaded legacy of the Killing Joke and handles it with all the tact of a musk ox by using it as a cheap device to prop up his Hannibal Lecter-esque Riddler. oh, that whole thing with the Gordons? yeah, that wasn't actually the Joker's idea. the Riddler came up with the actual plan, the Joker just carried it out. isn't that scary? isn't that fucked up? don't you want to take the Riddler seriously now? welcome to his twisted mind.

to me it seems like King is a pretty okay ideas guy but can't stop shooting himself in the dick when asked to follow through, which would be funny if the bullets didn't keep ricocheting to hit my favorite characters.

[judgeanon]

It Sure Has Been a Wild Couple of Days to be a Lady Shiva Fan

(Art by Skylar Partridge)

So after only showing up for a backup story in DETECTIVE COMICS a few months ago and for a few pages in the last issues of BATGIRLS back in January, turns out that Lady Shiva is gonna be a major part of not one, but two different series come November. Putting my thoughts under the jump 'cause they might be long:

First, there's an all-new BATGIRL ongoing written by Tate Brombal and drawn by Takeshi Miyazawa. I'm not really familiar with either of them, but I'm gonna try to check some of their work in the weekend. As for the plot:

When a deadly group of assassins shows up to kill Cassandra Cain, Lady Shiva must come to the rescue, and they’re forced to put their complicated past aside and work together as mother and daughter to ensure they make it out alive. Unfortunately, things are never as easy as they seem, and Batgirl must embark on a jaw-dropping, martial-arts filled adventure in her quest for truth and justice…and revenge?! This is a Batgirl unlike any other so don’t miss the opportunity to dive into the psyche of one of Gotham City’s deadliest fighters, while exploring her deep and complex relationship with her mother.

Here's the thing: while I am overjoyed that after Bryan Hill's OUTSIDERS we've pretty much exorcised the idea of Shiva as a zealous, card-carrying member of the League of Assassins, I've been a little bothered by how literally every single big Shiva appearance afterwards has revolved around Cass. Even in that weird short stint leading a new Birds of Prey team, her motivation was somehow gaining Cass' trust for... reasons. So I'm glad Shiva's no longer an LoA flunky, but I'm concerned with how she seems so tied at the hip with Cass -- especially since Cass does get to have stories that don't involve Shiva at all.

But at the same time, I do think there's a lot of meat on that bone, meat that, in my eye, nobody has really sank their teeth in yet. Hill tried but he was working within a team book, and Cloonan and Conrad just sorta teased it. This one, however, feels like a story about Shiva and Cass built from the ground up, with all the room necessary for some actual development from the two. This is them not as a subplot or as a tease for future stories, but as The Story. And while that may go in a bunch of different ways, I'm definitely interested to see what way this will go.

Annnd then there's Tom King and Ryan Sook's BLACK CANARY: BEST OF THE BEST, which I'm... a little less interested in.

Black Canary faces her toughest opponent yet, Lady Shiva, in a battle to determine who is the single greatest hand-to-hand fighter in the DC Universe. To make it to the final round, Black Canary will need all her fighting skill and ability, plus additional training from some of DC’s most accomplished fighters, including Batman, Wildcat, and even her mother, the original Black Canary!

Yeaaaaah, I just... I'm not feeling this one. There's not any real mention of a plot here, not a lot to really grab on to other than vibes, and the vibes are just weird. It's weird how Dinah is fighting to determine who's the best fighter, something that to me isn't really a huge part of her character. It's weird that, from the preview pages, they're fighting in like a Vegas casino, in a ring, with an audience. It's weird that there's three trainers mentioned and none of them are Cass, who not only has beaten Shiva before but has trained with Dinah at least twice in canon. And this being tumblr, let me say it's also weird that this is a story about a white woman training with three white people to beat up an Asian woman in martial arts.

It's a six issue mini and the short solicit and weirdness is clearly meant to pique curiosity. But I'm dreading how much this all sounds like it's using Shiva to put Dinah in a pedestal, to show how strong and resilient and stubborn she can be. Even if it goes for a ROCKY ending of "Lost the fight but won at life", unless Shiva is written very thoughtfully, it feels like she's just gonna be there for the sake of Dinah's character. And I dunno if I trust King to write Shiva with any real thought.

So that's kinda where I'm at. Neither of these are a full Shiva solo, and one of them fills me with dread, but it's been a real rush to have two major Shiva-related projects like these be revealed one after the other. And with 2025 being the 50th anniversary of her debut, hey, who knows? Maybe this is just paving the road for something special. Hope springs eternal, no?

[autisticrosewilson]

Todd Family Tree pt. 1

I know you guys have been waiting with baited breath for this (Read: no one but me and a handful of select mutuals care), but fret not because it's finally here.

Let's start with the side of Jason's family we know the most about, Willis's. A lot of things I'll have to say about Willis himself will be things I've said before with maybe some new additions, but a lot of the focus will be on his relationships with his family anyway so hopefully it won't get too repetitive.

Someone on my last Todd Family post commented that the Ma Gunn aspect may have been retconned, however I already integrated it into my personal canon so let's just keep going shall we?

Also shout-out to @perseus-jackass who let me ramble to them about all of this and helped me iron out some of the finer details!

The Todd/Gunn Family; Canon:

- Willis reportedly named Jason after his father, Jason Todd Sr.

- Faye Gunn II is the niece of Willis which implies Willis has at least one sibling that is never mentioned, although Faye was either raised by or very close to Ma

- Faye was named after Ma implying that whichever sibling she was raised by was close to Ma

- Assuming Gunn is her maiden name, or perhaps an alias, she didn't keep her husband's last name and Jason Sr. Is never mentioned, which could mean that they split or that he's dead

- Obviously from a meta textual stand point the reason Ma Gunn was never mentioned as Jason's grandmother is because it was a later retcon, but in universe this and Willis's choice to keep his father's last name implies he wasn't fond of his mother/was closer to his father

Sub note: The candidates for Jason's mother included Lady Shiva (I'll get into my thoughts on her in Part 3) and an Israeli woman. Edit: @ammomancer informed me that Jason was Spanish (Basque specifically) in the Bombshells continuity as well!

- Ma was implied to be from Australia, and likely taught there for a time.

- Ma implied that she had sons, and possibly that they're dead. (I have obviously disregarded this, but I'm not against the interpretation that one or both of the girls are trans.)

So my version of Jason is black/Asian/Latino! I think he's Japanese/Indian from his mom and black/Latino from Willis so keep that in mind.

Fleshing Them Out; My Expansion:

I'll start with Ma Gunn, since we see the most of her in the comics and she has the most groundwork laid for her already. Mostly I'd like to make her a little more complex.

She's proven to be a ruthlessly pragmatic character, but I don't see her being someone who does what she does for fun. She's someone who values control, someone who doesn't take perceived slights lightly. I imagine growing up a woman on Gotham's streets with so many relations to organized crime builds grit, spawns bitterness and hate. She seems like the type to value tradition - in the Gotham crime family way- this is how she was raised and the way she raised her own children. There is no changing the world they live in, only surviving it. I think she really wanted to teach her kids, both the ones she birthed and the ones she fosters, how to survive.

That's not to say she really cares though, I don't think she's close enough to anyone to really care, even if maybe in the early days of motherhood she wanted to be. She's a stone cold bitch and she's proud of it, she made her kids strong and look at the reputation it's given her. Ma Gunn's school for wayward boys isn't just for strays anymore, there are some big names dropping their brats off for training these days. Crime lord daycare. Truly, only in Gotham.

Jason Todd Sr. Is a non-character. We know basically nothing but his name and that his marriage failed, and he's probably very dead. Which may or may not be related to said failed marriage.

Do I think Ma hired a hit on her husband? I wouldn't put it past her. I think she'd get rid of anyone if they were dragging her or the family down.

We can assume he was close to Willis, and I like to think that Mr. Todd was the homemaker because I can't really imagine Ma staying home to tend the kids. It's more likely her version of family bonding was a bank heist. Willis may have very well learned to drive from high speed car chases.

I think it would be very funny if Mr. Todd is from some third or fourth rate crime family that's using a mechanic shop as a front but Mr. Todd was actually really interested in it so he got an engineering degree and had little to nothing to do with the actual crime side of things. Maybe his family married him off to make him someone else's problem and while the Gunn's aren't a notable crime family they have a lot of resources and a lot of contacts, not to mention the small army of feral children.

Ma thought she was getting a seasoned criminal to help fund her illicit activities but instead he's a stay at home dad who has turned their home into a board game because he insists on fixing it all himself (if you use the microwave the doorbell might ring and you need a screw driver to use the shower ect.)

A lot of the experiences I associate Jason having with Willis I imagine Willis had with Mr. Todd, doing homework together, working on cars in the garage, Willis definitely learned how to cook from Mr. Todd because I just don't think Ma can do better than hamburger helper and public school lunch.

For the sibling situation, and I have no real evidence canon has completely left the building with this one, but I think he has sisters. Middle child Willis and also boy who grew up with all sisters Willis is real to me for reasons I couldn't say.

Completely made both of them up, but this is my house I can do what I want.

I'll start with the oldest sister, who I've decided to call Celia. I think she's the closest to her mother, the one who took over after her. Probably a serious, studious kind of person, she grew up with more opportunities than Ma did so she probably had more schooling. I can definitely see Celia as someone who worked her ass off to bring home good grades to make her mom proud and always falling short because Ma didn't really value traditional education.

Her and Willis definitely clashed growing up, Willis never liked Ma but Celia idolized her. Where Ma's crude demeanor and distance drove Willis to acts of rebellion it made Celia even more desperate to please.

Although I'm sure Willis would deny it, I think it's still a sore spot to him that Celia's way kind of worked. Once she got old enough to really learn about the business Celia was great at it, Ma started coming around to the benefits of having someone better with the numbers and paperwork.

I think that even after Willis leaves he genuinely tries to keep in touch with everyone, I don't think he ever stops trying to reach out to Celia. I don't think he agrees with who she became even if he saw it coming, regardless of how much he doesn't like their mother (he'd never say he hates her) Celia is still the girl who put bandaids on his scraped knees and let him crawl into her bed when he had nightmares and he can't bring himself to cut contact with her.

Celia is nicer than Ma, more adept at caring for the kids and because of this she earns their trust more which ultimately makes them more loyal to the Gunn's. This is a purposeful tactic because although she does see the kids as her own she doesn't see anything wrong with manipulating them for her gain. They're family, and family always want to help each other.

Jason was not allowed to visit his auntie, and didn't even know his grandmother was still alive.

I don't think she'd have a husband or boyfriend, a romantic relationship would take too much attention away from her business and if there's one thing she learned from her mother it's that a man would only drag her down or try to control her.

Willis is, to the surprise of no one, is who I have the most to say about but I'll try to keep it brief. For all he gets a bad rep I think he's a family man at heart, I'm positive he always planned on kids even if he wasn't sure about settling down with anyone at first.

Mostly because his mom kept trying to arrange marriages which is how he ended up dating Sheila for a time...which obviously didn't work out. One could say he wasn't keen on a repeat performance after that fell apart.

Man whore I fear, Gotham's fourth most bisexual man. Where's that one post about the goon who causes a distraction for his boss by making out with the bank teller and his wife. That's literally him Willis Todd ghost wrote that post. I'll get more into his various relationships in Part 3.

This man was born to tell dad jokes and wear funky ties but he's forced to live a life of violence and crime. Because of poverty and generational trauma.

I think the most tragic part of Willis Todd is that he tried. He loved his wife and he loved Jason and he gave everything he had to providing for them so Jason wouldn't have to grow up like he did but it ended the same anyway. And he'd never be disappointed in Jason, although Jason thinks he would, because home knows his son and he knows Jason wouldn't do it unless he really thought he was helping people.

I know everyone holds the opinion that Catherine was the most serious about Jason's school but I argue it's Willis, Cathy taught Jason to love learning but Willis taught him the importance of it. I think Willis always got good grades but he never went to college because part of ditching his family was ditching their money and most of what he made went towards supporting himself.

I've named the youngest sister Joan, and I think it's important to define her relationships more than her personality for reasons I'll get into in a bit.

For continuity's and sake I'll say she was a pre-teen when Willis moved out at 18-19, which would give her a large gap between both Willis and Celia - who I imagine are maybe two or three years apart - age wise. So while Willis likely tried to take care of her, to influence her away from their mom and sister, I don't think he was super fond of being at home to begin with so I don't think he was around much and I think Mr. Todd died not long after she was born so she didn't really have the gentle hand that Wills did growing up.

This left her with little to rely on but Ma and Celia, it was a real rock and hard place. Ma is honest in her ruthlessness at least, but Celia uses her love as a tool for manipulation. I'm sure she grew up right beside the other kids at Ma's school.

So I think it's no wonder that when she found herself with a baby she had no clue how to take care of, it was very easy for her mom and sister to convince her to give the baby over. Easy for Joan to decide that her daughter was in better hands with Celia as her mother.

And then Joan...vanished. No note, no phone call, no body. Most suspect it was Ma who did it, even though the woman had her kids - former and present - rip the city apart looking for her. No one knows the full story, and no one knows Joan Gunn's whereabouts.

Well, no one except Willis Todd, not that anyone else knows that.

Faye Gunn II has a lot of potential. I think there's a chance for her to parallel Jason. They both grew up on the streets and both have affiliations with organized crime, but where Faye is comfortable perpetuating the cycle of violence expected of the Gunn women Jason spends every night busting his ass to make sure another kid never has to go through what he did.

I also think it would be fun if maybe Faye wasn't entirely human, y'know give her a little bit of meta gene as a treat. Beast Boy isn't using the name Changeling anymore and I've long subscribed to Gotham operating by faerie rules so maybe she can borrow it for a few issues.

I don't have many thoughts on her as is but I'd like to do more with her in the future!

This got really long and I'm certain it will only get longer with the next additions. The next part will focus on the Clemens/Johnson family! Catherine Todd lovers stay tuned for part 2. Remember that all of this is just how I view them based on the cookie crumbs we get about them in canon.

[casscainmainly]

I picked out some really cool Cass meta that I was lucky to save in my Cass tag, and I was gonna send it your way all nicely formatted and organized and stuff, but Tumblr crashed on me. 🤦‍♀️ But I think this piece https://thecruellestmonth.tumblr.com/post/744533440569999360/what-ethnicity-is-lady-shiva in which the OP traces the comic history of the portrayal of Lady Shiva's cultural/ethnic background is pretty groovy to check out. The post was made some years ago, so it doesn't include the Infinite Frontier lore about Shiva from Batman: Urban Legends. Anyway, just wanted to say I really enjoy your posts, and I hope you're having fun on your journey to connect the big brain Cass expert meta. ✌️

A really excellent read!! I'm definitely biased towards Cass and Shiva being Chinese for personal reasons, and as you point out Batman: Urban Legends basically confirms this by setting her childhood in China, but her having Japanese influences is really interesting. Highly recommend everyone read that meta if you haven't already!

And I'm glad you enjoy my posts :))). You're the person who turned both the Duke + Dami AND the Duke + Dick relationship polls around so I am legitimately in your debt for all time.

Anyway, I've updated the Cass meta list with a few more since I first posted it, so check it out here!

[deathmetalunicorn1]

Hey love I wanted to know if you can do a yandere Shiva x empress reader who had two sons both teenagers however though when she died she turned into this sweet lady however those shoes kind of like Queen Elizabeth II where Queen Elizabeth was in her 20 she was a ruthless woman give out war speeches that's how reader is the only thing about this is that reader was actually on the battlefield with her soldiers and let's just say this her sons are in a battle and they are losing she acts the Valkyries to bring her back to life and Shiva does not know where she is so they go looking for the Valkyries take them to her and she's on the battlefield and her words were after they see her killing an enemy whole words are blood for blood you will not be missed after she ripped it the heart out of her enemy with her bare hands how would yandere Shiva and his wife's react

-When Shiva had first met you, he had no idea that you were a warrior, a queen but instead of sitting on the throne and just looking pretty, you would be out in the fields with your soldiers, leading them and fighting alongside them.

-This is what drew him to you, as he had heard about a newly arrived monarch who was once a great warrior, one that fought in many battles and he wanted to meet them.

-After Ragnarok, Shiva and many other gods had a greater respect for humans, as they were way stronger than the gods initially thought, and after all those who passed were brought back to life, including his rival turned best friend, Raiden, Shiva wanted to fight other strong humans.

-However, when Brunnhilde introduced the two of you, he was a little disappointed seeing that you were a woman, no longer the older woman, reverting back to your prime in your early twenties, however when you greeted him, he could sense power within you.

-You were a sweet person, treating others, especially children, with such gentle kindness, but also speaking to others who have disrespected you or others like a true ruler, commanding their respect, but not talking down to them as if they were beneath you.

-When he brought his wives to come and meet with you after several visits, his wives instantly liked you, finding you witty, polite, sweet, but also you took no crap, you were perfect!!

-The four of them were stunned to learn that you had two sons, who were still alive, both of them wonderful people, making you proud by helping so many others.

-You were flattered by their affection towards you, after spending time with them and all four of them, Shiva, Parvati, Kali, and Durga, all fancied you, as you didn’t care for your husband, as it was an arranged marriage.

-It was the first time you were dealing with others who had genuine affections for you so you were a little hesitant, something they saw, but they found it alluring, finding it cute.

-Shiva was the one to ask you to start dating them, and while you were a little uneasy as he had three wives already, they were all in agreement and you could see that he had enough love for all of them, you included, so you agreed.

-It was the first time that you got to be in a relationship where you were happy and allowed to be happy and enjoy yourself rather than just ‘sit there and look pretty and be silent’.

-Shiva promised you, that if he came across your ex-husband, he would deliver a beat down, after you didn’t want to talk about him so they did their own digging, finding out how cruelly he had treated you, including cheating on you, multiple times.

-Luckily for your ex-husband, he wasn’t worthy to come to Valhalla, so he wasn’t there, but you would check in on your children here and there, making sure your sons were safe.

-Shiva was confused after you failed to meet up with them for a picnic date, as you were never late, it was impolite to be late. Kali was holding her cheek, trying to figure out where you could be, “I remember that she said she was going to check in on her children with that Valkyrie, Brunnhilde. Could she still be there?”

-They sought out Brunnhilde who was watching over a large orb, showing a massive battle and Shiva spoke, “Brunnhilde, do you know where Y/N is?”

-Brunnhilde turned, bowing in greetings to the four of them, “Lord Shiva- Y/N is currently on the screen before you.” They turned, seeing that you were in a large battle, holding a sword.

-Parvati’s hands came to her mouth, “What is she doing?!” Brunnhilde explained, keeping her eyes locked on the screen, “Y/N came to me, asking to see her children, and when she saw them in a losing battle, she requested to be sent back down. It is possible to send humans back, as long it’s within five years of their passing, but only for one hour.”

-Shiva remembered this rule, as not many humans took advantage of it, being content in Valhalla, and to see you using your one time pass to help your children, he could only admire you more.

-Shiva turned to Brunnhilde, “Take me there- I want to help her.” Brunnhilde was surprised by his request before remembering that you had joined their group as the fourth. She agreed, “I will do as you ask, but you must take a human form.”

-Shiva had no issue, turning into the human version of himself, which looked exactly the same, only with tanned skin and one set of eyes and arms and she took his hand and opened the bridge to Midgard, or Earth and pulled him through, while the others remained, watching the fight from Valhalla.

-However, thanks to your leadership, with many not realizing that it was you, but listening to your orders, feeling your aura of a leader, including your children, they followed you and you quickly turned the battle around.

-As Shiva and Brunnhilde arrived, they both paused, eyes wide as they watched you charge towards a man, wearing heels and your pretty sundress before you thrust your hand into his chest and pulled out his heart.

-Shiva had no idea you were so vicious and violent! It was kind of hot as the enemy retreated, seeing this young maiden fighting so violently as your sons and the soldiers cheered.

-You turned as your sons approached, recognizing you and you smiled warmly, “You both did so well! I’ll keep watching over you.”

-They both hugged you before you turned, running to Shiva who grinned, catching you princess-style and your sons saw this new man, seeing you so happy, so they said nothing other than goodbye, and the three of you disappeared.

-Once back in Valhalla you were plowed down by Shiva’s wives, who expressed their worry for you as well as telling you how cool it was to see you fighting, as many said you were a warrior queen, but many didn’t believe it, looking at you.

-You couldn’t help but smile, feeling so loved between the four of them before Shiva picked you up princess style again, “Well let’s get you cleaned up then we can have our picnic!”

-His wives cheered and you couldn’t help but smile, cheering along with them, feeling like you truly belonged there with them, like it was where you were meant to be.

[house-on-sand]

the other day my brother and i watched a video where this dude was talking about batfam fancasts for like upcoming projects (like dynamic duo and batman brave and the bold) and it became less abt us genuinely being curious who'd he'd pick and more us being angry and flabbergasted by dudes choices AND his comments

heres a list of some of the problems we had with it:

changed the age gap between dick and jason so they were closer in age then they're supposed to be

which then fucks up dick's age gap with the other robins as well a little bit

fancast asher angel as jason based on how he acted in shazam apparently

also said billy batson was possibly too similar to jason todd

said it was okay if dick wasn't romani or played by a romani actor bc it Wasn't Important bc it was a Newer Fact

CAST AIDAN FUCKING GALLAGHER AS TIM DRAKE?????

considered asher angel for dick as well akshksbs

said he was okay with racebending the two middle robins but mainly if it's tim (to which my brother and i were like No That's Not Right If One Of Them's White It's Tim. so im glad we reached that consensus)

also said tim has nothing setting himself apart from the other robins

didn't include steph at all

the way dude talked about damian & talia's ethnicity just felt Icky. very very icky

^^ again it was so very Ick

VERY WEIRD COMMENTS ABOUT HOW THE ACTRESS FOR BABS NEEDS TO BE ATTRACTIVE? like okay sure whatever but bro it was so fuckin. weird to say that

cast sadie sink as babs which? eh we didn't care for it much but. i guess?

OH MY GOD AND? ITS APPARENTLY NOT IMPORTANT FOR CASS TO BE ASIAN???

dude was very weird abt ethnicity n like erasing parts of people's identities. we did not like that much. and we were both very very upset abt the cass thing

said cass didn't need to be asian but her mom sure did???? how does that make senseeee. if lady shiva has to be asian then so does cass?

aged cass down for some reason? so she'd be closer in age to damian & tim (literally putting her between them) instead of between dick and jason

when casting selina once again made weird comments and said that they shouldn't make her black bc the version in the batman already was.... like. dude what the fuck

once again made weird comments about how the actress who played her HAD to be extremely attractive

I'll also point out he did not make the same comment about talia. which was Weird as well

we stopped watching after that but dude does cast more characters and i doubt they get better

[o-kaythislooksbad]

ailesswhumptober day 5: overstimulation / migraines / "i can't take this anymore"

chapter 5 / 7 of the memory of you marks everything i do | not rated, chose not to warn

marc stares at the bathtub, making no move towards it. downstairs, people are yelling, arguing about anything and everything related to roro's burial and shiva. his body didn't even go to the hospital; marc had pulled him out of the cave and screamed his little lungs out until their dad came running. by the time an ambulance was called, there was nothing the medics could to do help. they zipped roro up into a large plastic sleeping bag in the backyard and put a thick blanket around marc's shoulders, and that was it. 

someone from the shul showed up to sit with roro's body, saying something about it being her job to stay until the rabbi could arrive. she offered marc a hug and a lollipop, like she's done this a bunch of times before, and marc nodded and said 'yes, please,' because imma pushed him away and abba was too busy trying to calm her down and everybody forgot about marc.

the nice lady didn't mind that marc's clothes were still wet. she didn't mind that he was crying, even though he's a big kid and he's not the one who got hurt and it's his fault roro's gone. she excused herself to wait somewhere else, in her car, probably, when the rabbi arrived to sort out the details of where roro's gonna go to get cleaned up before they can bury him.

and now marc's still wet and crying, sat on the muddy lawn and the sun's shining like the sky never rained. imma and abba are fighting in front of the neighbors and the new rabbi; marc doesn't remember his name or what the older rabbi's name was, but that doesn't matter. his voice pipes up whenever abba or imma stop to take a breath, reminding them that randall led a great life and wouldn't want his parents to fight over him. for once, abba agrees with imma in saying 'no,' but imma's on her own when she says it wasn't an accident. 

"he did this on purpose and you know it!"

"darling, please. we're all hurting, but let's not say things we'll regret."

imma laughs, but it's not her regular laugh, light and bubbly and comforting. "seriously, elias? you think i'll regret being honest with you?"

the rabbi clears his throat awkwardly, tilting his head towards marc. abba starts to walk towards him, but then imma pulls his arm back because "don't you dare walk away from me" and "we've got actual problems to focus on" and marc wishes the nice lady would come back to give him another hug.

they're fighting about who should be allowed in the shiva house, wherever that is - marc's still not sure what shiva is, exactly - and abba says he would welcome roro's friends from the neighborhood and hebrew school.

imma doesn't want any kids in the house or around her.

including marc.

and now they've sent him inside to bathe - "it doesn't matter if you shower or take a bath, you need to clean up! make yourself presentable!" - but he hasn't been able to do anything other than close the door behind him. he's still dressed in his clothes from earlier, still clutching a torn piece of roro's t-shirt in his right hand, still replaying the scene over and over again. it's been only an hour, maybe two, since the medic shook her head and put her equipment away. marc is still shivering in his rain-soaked shirt and flooded socks, still shaking from the cold and the shock. 

"i want to die i want to die i want to die," marc chants through chattering teeth, believing every single syllable. he looks up from his legs, across the room to his mirror, but he's not there. no one is there. or maybe someone is, but there's no way to know.

a dark cloth covers the mirror in marc's room. similar cloths cover mirrors throughout the house, along with picture frames; there's nowhere to see any of roro's features anymore. 

the thought draws something dark and angry out of marc, pulling him to his feet to tear the cloth away from the mirror. his reflection stares back, a blank face resting on hunched shoulders. no smile, no dimples; the only thing it shares with randall is the boy's flannel pajamas. 

the person in the mirror scares him. he readjusts the cloth, walks in circles for a moment, and then steven is sat at his desk with some colored pencils, driving the sharp points deep into his paper.

and now someone nudges marc's shoulder, holding out an open siddur to him, and marc's starchy white shirt itches his arms. he does his best to stay still as the man explains that "even though you're too young to count as part of the minyan, you should say this for your brother," and marc wishes that abba and uncle yitz never taught him how to read hebrew. 

"okay," marc whispers, taking the siddur. "thank you." 

he stares at the page, at the words he can sound out but not define, but those aren't the words he hears in his head when he tries to read.

"you know," uncle yitz would casually say as he circled around marc, "the only good jew is a dead jew. however," he would add, raising a fist closed around a knife, "jews like you are a close second."

with the blade pointing at the ceiling, displaying the chain that once held a chandelier but marc knows is used for other games, uncle yitz would talk about marc being up there, one day, "if you and your kind can survive the next few years." 

"what d'you mean?" marc had asked one time, and his uncle must've been in a good mood 'cause he didn't even slap marc for talking back. 

uncle yitz explained, with the practiced patience befitting a shul rabbi, that the cabal has big plans in motion. he'd said things about realism and money and marc had no idea what it meant or who 'his kind' were or why these plans would make it hard for them to live. his uncle must've seen the confusion on his face, 'cause he got frustrated and started yelling about breaking minds and genes, about creating slaves and hurting them 'til their blood tasted like defeat.

everyone says 'amen' after the chazzan, the sound of their united voice startling marc away from his memories. at least ten voices overlap in a familiar rhythm, echoing around marc, and he doesn't mean to but he drops the siddur so he can cover his ears.

wrong move, marc. 

it hits the ground and mostly everyone turns at the sound. multiple sets of eyes land on marc and he knows at least two are friendly, 'cause one is his abba's and one is the chazzan's, and chazzan gavriel isn't like uncle yitz, but marc has no idea about the other men in his house. some are yitz's friends, they have to be, 'cause even chazzan gavriel and his abba were friends with yitz, and a coldness runs down marc's spine. he shivers as the thought pops into his head: what if abba was one of those friends? what if he was there, in the basement, when marc begged to be saved by him?

easy, marc. i need you to take a deep breath for me.

he doesn't know if it's his own voice or an imaginary friend talking to him. he can't make himself care about what the answer is, 'cause he hasn't talked to an imaginary friend since the games with uncle yitz. he hasn't even thought about them or him since forever, doesn't even know if what he's hearing and seeing is from his memory or a terrible imagination, but the voice is right.

marc needs to breathe, so he does. he doesn't dare close his eyes or lower his hands, in case something bad happens. he just takes a deep breath in, lets it out, and repeats until his heart no longer feels like a rabbit trying to jump out of his chest.

and now marc is at the cave, alone. except he's not alone, 'cause there's another set of footprints on the dusty path beside him, and soon he sees abba walking out of the cave.

"there's nothing there, marc," he says a bit sadly. 

marc's brow furrows as he tries to figure out what abba is talking about. what would be in the cave, anyway?

abba sighs. "i see him sometimes, too. out here and around the house."

"who?"

"your brother."

marc must've seen something like a ghost of randall, and abba went to check, like he used to do for monsters under the bed before marc learned that monsters don't bother with beds.

"sorry," marc apologizes, 'cause this is all his fault. 

abba sighs again, and in the fading sunlight, he looks much older than he did only two years ago. "no, son. you have nothing to be sorry for."

"but -"

"you're only a child, marc. i've told you before, and i'll keep telling you, no matter what your mother says - you're a child, and it was an accident. you didn't do anything wrong, and i'm so sorry if i've made you feel that you have."

he spaces out for a bit, lost in thought. imma doesn't always agree with abba, doesn't always treat marc the way he does, but that doesn't mean abba has said this before. marc doesn't remember hearing this at all. 

"can i ask you something, son?"

"just did," he grumbles, but there's no malice behind it. 

"you're right. you don't need to answer me, or even have an answer, but…" abba trails off. he clears his throat, then tries again. "right now, are you marc?"

who else would i be? dies in his throat. sometimes, he has conversations in his head with imaginary friends, but sometimes it's like he's the imaginary friend. 

"no matter what, you are still my son. i need you to know that, okay?"

"but not hers," leaves the boy's lips before he even knows what he's saying. "she never wanted me, anyway, and you know it. she proves it at least once a week and you just let it happen," he says, gaining confidence with each word. he raises his chin and stares up into the man's eyes. "it happens to marc's body, yes, but he doesn't need to know how he got his scars. you, however," he takes a step closer to the man, "you've been there when it's happened, and done nothing to stop it. so, please, look me in the eyes and tell me that i'm your son. tell me that you care for me as much as you care for marc." he sets his jaw, and through gritted teeth, begs for the first time in his life.

"tell me i'm real."

his teeth hurt from clenching his jaw so tightly, and his eyes begin to fill with warm tears, but he doesn't look away. he's already let down too much of his guard for someone who will only use the words against him. 

and now marc is somewhere in a desert, the heat and humidity unbearable. images of the ten plagues pops into his head, along with a sneering old man brandishing a razor. someone shouts for him to get down, and his body slams into the sand before something explodes a few meters away.