#c; Talia Al Ghul | Headcanons

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Latest brain worm well working on my fic: The same way Talia call's Bruce "Beloved" she has names she uses for Damian, Danny and Jason to but she uses their names more often than not unlike with Bruce

Damian: Moonlight

Danny: Starshine

Jason: My son (bc she is claiming him as he own whether he likes it or not lmao)

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Hi! Just wanted to say that i love reading your analysis and your knowledge on comics astounds me

Question, do you view any of dc's heroes as autistic? (If thats too much just batfam is fine)

Thank you for all your thoughts and mini essays 💚

Ty!! Glad to hear you enjoy it!

Ok right. So I'm thinking in general about DC characters I imagine as autistic. Batfam is easy to start with b/c I"ve read so much, but I'll include other characters as well

Cassandra Cain (Batgirl) - This is kind of a gimme, almost everyone headcanons Cass as autistic b/c she is explicitly textually neurodivergent (but they do not give her a real world diagnosis) and canonically has problems with language.

Damian Wayne (Robin) - another one I've seen a lot of. He has difficulties socializing that COULD be chalked up to being raised as an assassin, but also.... its in a way that's realistic for very many autistic people :P he also generally does not care about gaining the approval of everyone around him, like he's prickly and often unlikable but he's not trying to be liked.

Barbara Gordon (Oracle) - she reads as so autistic to me. Her conflict with Dinah in the beginning of BoP is positioned in the text as right brained vs left brained, which I think doesn't really make a lot of sense neurologically but does work as words the characters are using to describe things - the just think differently. Babs often reads as if she's coming at things from what in her perspective is trying to be analytical and unemotional (tho I do not think she always succeeds in this), and keeps people at arms length socially.

Bruce Wayne - he just reads as kind of autistic to me :P

Talia al Ghul - same :P

Milagro Reyes (Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle's little sister) - she's not a superhero but she reads as very autistic to me. We have scenes where we see her clearly upset by sudden change, she also acts generally very similar to how I did as a little kid. We see her blocking everyone out by watching the TV when a lot of new stuff is going on in the house.

Raven - NTT Raven reads as very autistic to me as well. NGL just like many other characters this can be explained by other factors (She was raised in a cult in another dimension, taught not to emote, and is fighting off the influence of her demonic father) but also. They keep doing characters that are relatable to neurodivergent people like that ;P

Back when I watched YJ, I had very strong opinions about Kaldur'ahm being autistic. I still do, even tho I don't normally count the animated tv shows in my version of DC

I also feel a case could be argued for Diana of Themyscira/Wonder Woman. But I am still marinating this in my brain.

[strunmah-mah]

jason todd &&/or talia al ghul for the hc ask? (if u want <3)

Just gonna do Jason cause I don't feel like I've read enough Talia focused comics to be qualified to come up with good HC's for her.

Jason Todd

Headcanon A:  realistic

Holds a grudge against Clark for stopping Bruce from killing the Joker that one time.

Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious

Likes Emily Dickinson's poetry, but still thinks her family should have respected her wishes and burned it after she died instead of publishing

Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends

Jason has body issues, the year of catatonia plus a post pit growth spurt left him with a distorted sense of what size he should be. He's constantly running into things and he had to completely retrain his acrobatics because that size distortion led to him getting the twisties.

Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own.

Jason and Damian are besties who knew each other in the Leage of Assassins. Talia introduced them after she claimed Jason as her son.

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DC AU Question: If Damian Wayne was born earlier, became the first and the oldest former sidekick of the Bat Family, as someone known as Bat-Child, instead of Dick Grayson (who became the young and current sidekick to Batman called Robin), how different would things get for everyone if one of those heroes was born very early and the other much later? Note: The alternate scenario above could happen in ANY DC universe and only Dick and Damian would get their ages swapped.

Also to Note: Dami and Bruce would meet each other after the child turns ten.

First, that name would never stick... But there would be a lot of changes in how both Bruce’s and Damian’s characters develop. Damian is snotty, not just because he was raised as the young prince Al Ghul, but because of the chip on his shoulder of his father raising other children. This is one of his major insecurity issues. If Damian came first, this would probably die down a lot, and he would act out a bit less. That said, he’d still be a little shit. On the other hand, Bruce, without the experience of raising his other son’s or daughter (we will always acknowledge Cassandra Cain Wayne in this house), would be completely out of his depth with this precocious little brat. His priorities would be very different as well, because he didn’t specifically train the others to be his agents, he trained them so that they would be safe doing what they were going to do anyways due to grief management (Dick), anger management (Jason), and moderate reckless behavior (Tim, Barb, Steph). Cassie was an exception because she was already a trained, perfect assassin before she met Bruce. Bruce would have no clue how to deal with this sudden fatherhood dropped on him at this stage, and this unplanned, and he would be even more opposed to putting his son at risk. In fact, he would be horrified by the kind of training the League of Assassins would have put Damian through, and would probably waste time trying to put the kid through therapy. The main problem I see with this is also time wise. Robin is a very early addition to the Bat-mythos, I headcanon around Year 2-3. Meanwhile, to a.) Garner Ra’s and Talia’s attention, b.) plan to grow a child, and c.) the 10 years for Damian to grow would redefine Bruce’s whole character as a solo hero. He would be adamant about not taking a partner, especially his child into danger, and without Robin, he would definitely become a harder, darker character without that moderating force. In fact, I would argue that without Robin (Dick), it wouldn’t be impossible for Ra’s to just recruit Bruce due to character changes alone.

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Talia Al Ghul

Obviously things can vary to fit plots, the info I'm writing mainly fits in with my fic and my info for Danny but can be altered to an extent timeline wise and such. Also she has been effected by proximity to the pit along with how much her father had used them before she was conceived and ages a bit slow & I kinda picked and chose pieces from the various stories we have about her

Talia Al Ghul was born around 1950 to a woman born into the league who had caught the eye of the Great Ra's Al Ghul, Melisande was killed when Talia was an infant by a former ally of Ra's named Qayin. After her death the guard who had been charged with protecting his child was killed for their failure and a price was put on Qayin's capture or death. After the lose of her Mother Talia was raised by a combination of teachers and her father, as she got older and her skill became more obvious? Her father became a more prominent figure in her lessons, training her to be able to run his organization for him when he had things to attend to.

Sometime later in her life she meets Bruce Wayne as Batman after both her she and Dick Grayson are kidnapped seemingly by a mutual enemy of Ra's and Batman. Unknown to Batman at the time, this was a set-up to allow his daughter the chance to seduce him. After their encounter an offer is extended to Bruce to train with the league and expand his skill set, during his time with them Bruce and Talia do manage to fall into a whirlwind romance. During this time, much to her father's disappointment, Talia ends up truly falling for Bruce. Unfortunately for her he learns the truth about their meeting and that Gotham is in danger at the same time, making his decision to leave easy for him.

It was nearly 2 weeks after Bruce left that Talia realized the that she was pregnant with his child, or rather children. When it was learned she was pregnant, steps were taken to make sure that her child would be stronger and more resilient than any normal child should. A combination of Lazarus magic and science was used to make the child stronger and more resilient. She's had thoughts about it being the reason Aidan was born still, needing to be dipped in the waters to truly enter the world. She has never voiced them allowed for fear that her own meddling in an attempt to make him stronger caused her son's entrance to the world to be delayed.

As Damian and Aidan grew, it was obvious to Talia which one her Father favored, even if it had not been for Aidan's less than ideal birth? His hesitance to kill unless it could not be avoided was obvious, even if none would voice it outside the looks her father would give her in those instances. Despite this, he excelled in stealth more so than even many of his teachers. Many members took to referring to him as The Heir's Shadow and assumed that if Damian ever took over for his grandfather, Aidan would serve a similar role to him as Talia did for Ra.'s.

When it comes to her son's Talia would do anything that she could to protect them, no matter who that made an enemy to her or who it turned against her; even if it was them that turned against her. It is this that pushed her to helping Jason Todd when he died and came back incomplete, knowing that Bruce was going through the pain of losing a child? She could not sit back and ignore that as her own children now nearly 7 years old lived and breathed in front of her, and so she found Jason and tossed him into a pit to be fully revived. During his time with her he met Damian twice and Aidan only once, but he was so far into the pit haze that it's possible they looked similar enough he didn't realize there were two of them.

Unsurprisingly with her protective streak when it came to her children, when her schedule allowed it Talia would follow them on any missions that they were assigned. When Danny was 8 years and 3 months old, he was assigned to a mission to kill a former ally of Ra's. She did just that, seeing when he failed in his mission and doing so for him well, rigging the building to blow. She then caught up with her son and told him to follow her, traversing him over 2 states from where his mission had been. She told him that Aidan Al Ghul was dead, and if he wanted to survive, he would stay that way. She trusted that she had instilled the skills needed to survive in him and left, not being able to stay away longer for risk of Ra's becoming suspicious.

After returning, she broke the news about Aidan to her father before doing so privately to Damian in anticipation of his upset about his brother's lose. It was not long after this that she brought him to Gotham to tell him who his father was, hoping that learning this information would help him through his grief. When she later left Damian with his father it was the second-hardest day of her life, because at least with him she knew that Bruce would be there to protect him.

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Talia is Asexual in the fact that she doesn't go looking for sex and doesn't necessarily want it, but she is adept at using to her advantage for missions if needed. She also is Demi-Biromantic, and well she doesn't usually go looking for relationships and actively avoids becoming attached to people. Because of this she's never managed to fall for someone besides Bruce, but she wouldn't say no to a relationship with a woman if she felt that connection. When she feels that connection she is also very much willing to participate in the physical aspects of a relationship if she knows her partner enjoys them, not so much because she wants it but to make sure they feel good.

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damian: 7, 2, 16, 28

7 A quote of them that you remember

Favorite Damian Quotes :P

choose to be something more than a weapon

There actually is no way to stop me

You may have invented being Robin, but I perfected it

2 When I think I truly started to like them (or dislike them, if you’ve sent me a character I don’t like)

I liked him since I first saw him in Batman: Bad Blood (I used to get into characters via TV shows and movies before reading comics :P) Then I immediately watched I think Son of Batman and Batman vs Robin, and then read Robin: Son of batman and Batman and Son. He's been perfect since day 1

16 A childhood headcanon

I have a lot, normally ones I sprinkle thruout my fics but... we'll see

I headcanon he's not actually that enthusiastic about playing violin and only does it b/c it was part of his training (based on the fact that we see him drawing a lot more after leaving the league than we do playing violin)

that talia didn't raise him in the league and wasn't aware of his training (or the fact that he was alive) :P

he sometimes trained with the assassins who were trained from birth that talia mentions in batman chronicles #8, but still felt somewhat disconnected with them due to the fact that he had more additional training on the side to prepare him to be the next ra's al ghul

28 The most unnecessary thing they ever did?

I guess challenging the other robins to fights is kind of unnecessary :P but funny

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For thel headcanon thing Damian Wayne + 15? Thankyou.

tysm for the ask! (prompt from here: link). I always love an excuse to blabber about 1 of my favorite characters

15 What it takes to make them cry 

Okay I’ll start w/ canon then headcanon

from what I’ve seen in canon, Damian doesn’t really cry much at all. We see it after he comes back from the dead… again in Robin: Son of Batman #13. We see it in one of the flashbacks during the year of blood, when he found Goliath (link). And IIRC when he’s confronting Nobody v1 alone and Nobody is beating him up and asking him why he betrayed him for Batman and he says because (Batman) is his father.

IIRC, none of these are in reaction to physical pain (or in the case of nobody, only, in reaction to physical pain). He seems to be pretty stoic in the face of that which makes me sad b/c… shouldn’t have to be.

it seems to normally be a reaction to stressful or very intense emotional situations. Like in the Year of Blood he was all “I’ve come too far, worked too hard, slept too little…” w/e and very clearly worn the heck out from having to do something super impressive every single day. There’s also the fact that Goliath was *not* acting like he was expecting. I don’t think he knew how to react to non-violence in that situation. He could have been realizing that he killed Goliath’s family for nothing. and I think he projected a bit onto Goliath (”you have to fight your family is counting on you”).

Same for vs Nobody he had come off a lot of arguments with Bruce and not feeling trusted by his dad. And he obviously thinks that Bruce wants a Bruce Wayne clone. We can see he’s dealing with his anger about having to restrain himself while fighting and feeling repressed. So he’s doing all this for Bruce and he doesn’t feel like Bruce is doing anything for him, then he’s in a high stress situation (with nobody) and he has to justify/articulate why he’s still loyal to bruce.

So I guess my take is normally like… not just one thing, but a lot of things kind of building up. He’s normally pretty worn down and there’s some type of emotional thing he’s having a hard time even articulating. Like I don’t think that during the Year of Blood, he was able to articulate a) that what his family was doing to him was wrong or b) that what he was doing was wrong. But it was still getting to him, even though he didn’t know why.

Also notable that 2/3 of these examples had something to do with his family (either about bruce or about the duty he feels to the al ghuls). So if I was writing something, to keep my headcanon consistent to canon, I’d make him cry when he’s already very stressed from lots of other factors and probably when he might feel like something is wrong, but be unable to articulate it. Possibly if he ever confronted a non-villain-ball wielding Talia (i’m not sure morrison Talia would make his emotions kind of confused enough for that, it’d be easier to say “Oh so i hate her”).

I think most of the time, though, he turns his sadness into judgementalness or anger (thinking of the batgirl 2009 scene where he was observing the kids going to school and like “Look at them they’re like mindless drones, ants” or w/e… but then looked kind of sad, the judgementalness was clearly trying to feel better about not being able to relate to kids his age or do the stuff they do), and that’s why it’s not very common to see him cry.