#cassandra complex

[hauntedbythenarrative]

The darkness said, You die whether you risk anything or not. I emptied ashes from my pockets. I crawled to feel the stones cut my knees, God's foot on my throat. The dream said, Follow me. The angel said, You're here.

Yellowjackets (2021-)//Andrei Tarkovsky//If I Believe You, The 1975//Agamemnon, Aeschylus//“dear thanatos, [it wasn’t a dream…],” come the slumberless to the land of nod, Traci Brimhall

[theking-mustdie]

stiles’ cassandra complex needs to be studied

[myownperception83]

"Ἀκούσας νόει."

"Understand what you've heard." (Delphic maxim n.7)

The rage a dark!Lottie would contain...I need a minute.

That Cassandra complex she goes through in season 1 would make the most delicious crispy fic material. Once again, I need time and a tangible plan.

[gotankgo]

[resonanteye]

[sentimentalgirl444]

suffered from the cassandra complex too many times…

[eostar-art]

-THE CASSANDRA COMPLEX-

“What is it like to be a prophet? Everywhere Cassandra ran she found she was already there.”

[thearksys]

i must be crazy to fight this war; i must be out of my mind.

[aingeal98]

Ok so you know how back in the 2000s there were a few jokes about Cass's gender likely because male comic book writers thought it was funny she had muscles? I'm taking that and spinning it to villains genuinely being confused about what to refer to Cass as.

Goon 1: Cmon man she's obviously called Batgirl

Goon 2: Well last month I told him he wasn't Batman and all he said was "Try me."

Goon 1: Have you heard them speak?

Goon 2: Yep. Pure gravel. You really swear that's definitely a girl's voice?

Goon 1: Has anyone ever gotten a good luck at her?

Goon 2: At Batman's stealthier, faster shadow? Come on Doug.

-

1 week later

Goon 1: Jerry you're not gonna believe this. The little Bat saved me from getting my brains blown out by Penguin.

Goon 2: Oh nice! Glad you're still-

Goon 1: I asked them what their pronouns were.

Goon 2:

Goon 1:... And they said "Bat"

Goon 2: Well that settles that then. Why are you still referring to bat as they? You want bat to beat you up next time bat sees you?

-

1 month later

Cass: At first I was confused why villains I save keep complimenting me on my nonbinary swagger. But after Duke explained what that meant... I think I kind of like it. Babs am I... Nonbinary?

Babs, frantically tossing aside her prepared 10 point acceptance speech for when your daughter realises she's a lesbian and scouring her database in search of parenting guides for nonbinary adult children: Honey, you can be whatever you want to be

[canticleofcanticlesforleibowitz]

[spectral-phases]

The Night Blüdhaven Exploded

I don't see enough people talking about what the Chemo attack on Blüdhaven must have done, as just everything was going wrong for Bruce and his boys that night.

For starters, Bruce is already fighting his dead/ressurected son who came back as a crime-lord villain who has been blowing up so, so many goons/criminals in Gotham for a while.

Then he sees Blüdhaven explode in front of his very eyes, and Jason then taunts Bruce, saying that Dick must be dead and insists on forcing Bruce to choose between killing Jason and killing the Joker not 2 minutes later. Bruce, as we all know, refuses to allow either, and stops Jason with a Batarang to the neck/shoulder, depending on your angst factor (or possibly aiming for Joker, but Joker moves and gets it to hit Jason on purpose/by accident ymmv).

(Batman 1940 #650)

And then, after all of that, the Joker sets off some explosives, surely killing Jason/the Joker (This makes the second explosion the Joker is going to no-clip his way out of, and Jason's learned that skill this time as well)

(Batman 1940 #650)

But wait! There's more! I know in the Batman comic they only mention Bruce being concerned for Dick, but Tim was living in Blüdhaven at the time too! Tim was fresh off of his father/girlfriend dying and didn't want to be adopted by Bruce, so he invented a fake Uncle Eddie (hiring an actor to play the role) and moved to Blüdhaven, where his comatose step-mother was being treated. Tim is only out of the city at the time of the explosion because the Titans came and said something was wrong with Conner, so they needed to leave to help save him. On their way out of the city in their jet, they only get far enough to avoid the blast, but not far enough that they avoid the resulting shockwaves as it renders their navigational systems offline, and likely their comms too. So not far enough that Bruce, who has been chasing Jason and Black Mask all night, could reasonably be aware of this fact.

(Robin 1993 #147)

So Dick and Tim very well could have been in that explosion and then Jason gets exploded! Amazing! That's 3 for 3 remaining Robins possibly killed in an explosion in one single hour.

We have no idea where Jason gets to, but we'll assume that he is unable to find the body because of the new no-clipping into the backrooms skill Jason must have (Jason was meant to die here, again. In another explosion set off by the Joker, so Bruce will have to assume Jason is dead even if he turns up alive later. How? Who the fuck knows).

Speaking of ol' Richard "Dick" Grayson, aka Nightwing, how is old boy wonder doing? Well, he's been having a rough go of it the past six months, between Blockbuster targeting him and destroying everything he cares about, Tarantula killing Blockbuster after successfully convincing him to just let her kill Blockbuster (while he walks away and has a panic attack...and...other things happen...TW: SA if you look it up), and then basically playing "suicide by cop" through the job following that and being a double agent of the group that just nuked Blüdhaven, uh...he is straight-up not having a good time by the time Chemo blows up Blüdhaven, and he's only getting worse. He tries to go to the center of the explosion, and Superman, fortunately, arrives on the scene to save Nightwing and put him up on the shelf to avoid dying (I love how Superman keeps trying to save Nightwing from himself in this era and Nightwing is just...no, thank you).

(Nightwing 1996 #116)

Unfortunately, this is the "Flying Grayson" himself, so no shelf is high enough to prevent Dick from going in there, and his mental state is so bad that certain death while saving others is probably more tempting to him at the moment than a deterrent. He "Duly Noted"s his way back into Blüdhaven, helps get the police to control the panicking crowds of survivors towards an escape route, saves the few remaining friends Blockbuster didn't kill recently, and goes directly into the most radioactive area of Blüdhaven to try and save some rouge who might have been there. We see Superman fighting Chemo's core in the background throughout his rescue attempts, so Dick's close the entire time to this heavy radiation. Dick notes that this is the first time he's able to breathe easy in months, saving people from the ruins. He's eventually taken out as a door explodes with the Chemo green gasses while trying to locate the rogue while reflecting on his recent failures.

(Nightwing 1996 #116)

I do think the appearance of Batman as Dick passes out isn't real, Bruce was in Gotham, either reeling from the explosion or looking for Jason or something. There's no way he got to Blüdhaven already, and the legs of Batman are hazy, blending into the smoke.

I also think after Chemo is stopped that Bruce probably still hasn't heard anything about Nightwing, because I don't imagine he took the time and resources to call the Veteran in a communications blackout (who has been historically trying to poach Batman's Robins, and nearly got Tim killed trying to convince Tim to leave Batman and join up his forces. Batman and the Veteran are not on good terms, is what I'm saying) just for Tim's step-mother and fake uncle.

(Robin 1993 #147)

By this time, he is talking about Tim as if he's alive, so he's probably gotten something from the Titans base confirming that Tim's alright, so he's gotta be taking the time and effort to call the Veteran for Dick.

Bruce, being Bruce, gets into a fight with Dick as soon as Dick is brought back to the Batcave and wakes up, while Dick is being treated for severe radiation poisoning/burns. I am willing to forgive this because he's had a time of it, even if he's being hostile and pissy and unsupportive. Definitely not winning the Father of the Year award for this, I'm afraid (Worst Father of the Year award is going to Deathstroke, for embedding a known radioactive carcingenic material into his daughter's eye, but Bruce is in the running for this and Jason).

(Nightwing 1996 #117)

I am awarding this to Bruce for trying to reassure Dick.

But. Anyway. Yeah.

Rough night for everyone involved. Absolutely everything going wrong all at once.

[jokey05]

I genuinely think that by some paradox DC was WAY more inclusive and "woke" in the '90 than now. Like so many POC characters, the firsts queer relationship in comics, many more disabled characters and representation than today. Not all of them were written well, mind you, but at least they were doing something instead of just showing up during Pride moth and then disappearing in limbo forever after a couple of cheesy lines. And we are not talking enough of all the disabilities erasure in the last years.

[let-me-sleep-or-die]

Listen I’m hoping when we get Cassandra back and Ankarna for the first time that they immediately decide they are Kristen and Figs parents. like: “Ah yes Saint Kristen Applebees-“

“you mean my daughter.” “she brought you back from being a corrupted fey construction of fear and literal nightmares?”

“parenting really changes you<3”

——-

“Figeroth Faeth Archdevil of Rebellion-“

“and my favorite daughter :)”

“she laid claim to your domain, and played a song so metal she reconstructed your fire horse”

“I know isn’t my kid the best.”

Let the lesbian gods be moms

[franollie]

a big point of contention for steph and cass in Batgirl 2000 is that steph wants to fight and has the potential to be a really good vigilante, but cass feels a need to protect her when theyre on the field together because she knows steph "isn't good enough yet" and she doesn't want to see her get hurt.

and then steph dies. and cass couldn't save her.

post steph's death, we see a shift in cass's behavior. she was always reckless and blindly trusts her ability to punch her way out of things, but i would argue that she becomes more passively suicidal post war games/war crimes.

then, the two times cass almost dies steph is the one who saves her...steph became cass's white knight...like aughhhhhh

[jamesrb4th]

Caitlyn: All this decision for the fate of the city is hard, I wish my mother was still here to give us advice

Vi: yeah, I miss my mom too

Jayce: yeah, moms are the best

Vi: not your mom Mel, your mom sucks

Mel: Fair enough