#damian is the eldest

[fishfrommars]

Y'all got me hooked on this au

It's Reverse Robins, Y'all!

Damian and Tim. I figure Dami was dropped off at Wayne Manor at around 8 / 9 and had some time to adjust before Bruce adopted Tim. Turns out Dami is the beat big bro???

Shadow and Nighthawk

EDIT: changed the hue of the colors so it's not as saturated (I'm sorry if that's not what it's called the only color theory I know is children's hospital)

[melmov]

I cast: curse of the eldest (can’t ask for help)

[lotus-lost-n-found]

Some Batfam Headcanons because the brain never stops;

Jason hates being called "Bruce's Son". But he hates it more when hes called "One of Wayne's Orphans/Wayne's child" because fuck you I'm his son-! wait no--

With the exception of Damian, they rarely refer to Bruce as "Dad/Father". Either it didn't occur to them/didn't see the need to/thought it would be strange. But when Dick/Jason/Tim/Cass are tired or injured it might slip out. And Bruce might just crumble a bit at it

Doesn't mean they don't say it to their siblings when Bruce is out of Earshot.

"Dad said you couldn't." "What do you mean Dad said I couldn't use that mug? It's my mug!" "You snooze you lose Timmy Boy-" "Jason don't be an asshole-"

That being said Bruce says "son/daughter/child" at every available opportunity he can after he knows that they have acclimated enough that they wouldn't be uncomfortable/know they can tell Bruce that they don't want to be called that.

First time Bruce called Dick "son" in a way that meant "You are my kid" and not in a "This police officer just called me son with a brow furrow" way Dick grinned and carried on with the conversation. Later he wondered if his dad wouldn't like someone else calling him Son; but Dick thinks about the life he was given because of Bruce and thinks maybe his dad wouldn't mind.

Calling Jason "son" is a hit or miss situation, even before he died. The first time it happened he was confused, he didnt think that was the relationship they had and it made everything change for him. He got frustrated--not angry--with himself and Bruce at this sudden emotional turmoil. Wasn't he just the kid Bruce picked up in an alleyway? Wasn't he just some street rat in bright Robin clothing? (He lets himself believe that he can be Bruce's son. If for only a little while).

Tim cries after Bruce is out of earshot, it would've been a year or so after his parents died and he was adopted. He didn't think he could have been wanted like that again. Even if you think the Drake's had A+ Parenting or not, I don't think he would have gotten a lot of confirmation of being wanted otherwise.

Cass smiles, emotions carefully concealed under her expression. She's grateful she found Bruce and he doesn't mention it if she leans a bit closer in a request for closeness.

Damian doesn't expect anything less, he only appears satisfied. But also relieved that he has gotten the confirmation that yes, Bruce wants and accepts him.

EDIT 10/11; hiii, i have added Duke, Steph & a Bonus in a reblog you can find on the same blog under my 'batfamily headcanons' / 'sore rambles' tag. have fun :)

[varpusvaras]

Time travel AU where Dick travels back in time to a point where he's just starting out as Nightwing, and he spends exactly five seconds panicking about his situation before his brain latches to the single thought of MY BABIES!!

And so Dick speedruns adopting all of his siblings before Bruce can even see them once

[oifaaa]

I applaud who ever was in charge of dc Instagram today they really said fuck you cass is Bruce's daughter

[shrugsinchinese]

The batkids, around 15 years later

Bonus

[kbkirtley]

Batman: Wayne Family Adventures #51 Night In

Interesting placement of Dick here, completely in the center of the group, like a vital organ of some sort. A heart maybe? Dick Grayson is the heart of the BatFam, the heart of the Titans, and the heart of DC Comics as a whole.

I’m starting to realize my love for Dick Grayson may have something to do with me not only being the older brother in my nuclear family, but also in every friend group I’ve had for the last decade. I think more than anything else, that’s why I relate to Dick so much. Being the older brother is fundamental to who he is as a person and hero. The whole “I’m going to be a safety net for anyone who needs it” is the most eldest sibling thing imaginable.

[gothamite-rambler]

Dick Grayson going through eldest child syndrome.

Dick Grayson: C'mon, take one for the team!

Jason Todd lay on the floor, bruised and exhausted.

Jason: No, I don’t want to. Let the team fail.

Dick: All right then.

Dick Grayson grabbed Jason’s leg and dragged him out of the room.

Jason: No, no, no! Let me rest! No!

------------------------------------------------

Dick: All right, let’s do this. Let’s take down Quilt Man!

Dick left as Bruce remained seated, silently hoping his son wouldn’t take him along. Dick walked back into the room and grabbed Bruce's arm, forcibly pulling him out of the chair.

Dick: Come on, I’m not doing this alone.

Bruce: I hate the Quilt Man! He’s your nemesis.

Dick: Shut it, and let’s go.

---------------------------------------------

Barbara: I’m not going to sit through the Star Wars prequels, and there’s nothing you can do to make me. I stop my chair from being rolled.

Dick blinked for a few seconds, then nodded. He proceeded to lift Barbara and her wheelchair with ease.

Barbara (remembering how strong her friend is): God damn it.

Dick: You will see the good in these movies.

Barbara: When pigs fly!

---------------------------------------------

Damian kicked his legs as Dick carried him into the doctor's office.

Damian: I don't want to get the booster shot! I don't want it!

Dick: I don’t care. Bruce is paying me to bring you here. Behave, or I won't take you out to eat.

Damian stopped kicking and screaming, crossing his arms in anger as Dick sat him in his chair.

---------------------------------------------

Dick: Tim?

Tim buried his head in his pillow.

Tim: Nope. Nope. Eat a cactus.

Dick (calm): Tim, you're going on this run.

Tim: You may be my hero, but not in the morning! I'm not running in a marathon with you. It's not happening.

Tim attempted to sleep, but Dick grabbed his leg and dragged him out of bed. Tim groaned as he was pulled out of his room but didn’t put up a fight.

[magnoliasandarson]

Dick Grayson, Golden Boy

It pissed Dick off when Jason called him “Golden Boy,” but he understood why he said it. 

Dick Grayson had been the first- the first son, the first Robin, the first failure, and the first success. He was the prodigal son, the runaway who returned to his place at Bruce’s side. It was a position earned with blood—a terrible privilege. He couldn't stay away, he'd tried, he was the only one that could temper Bruce's fire.

Dick drew lines in the sand- screamed in Bruce’s face, called him out on his failings, demanded better of him- then he took the man’s punches “for not knowing his place.” There was never an apology (not that Dick would accept it). He wiped the blood off his face, and when someone asked what happened, he said he slipped up, and some random mugger got in a lucky shot. He wasn’t sure who he was protecting when he said it. He still rushes to Bruce's side when called.

He recognizes bits of Bruce eating away at his soul. He tries desperately to stay Mary and John’s son, tries to keep the light alive in his soul. Robin is magic. He feels the darkness creeping in at the edges of his mind. He’s Nightwing; he’s not in Gotham, not in Bruce’s shadow, but he’s never been more of a Bat. He isolates himself and pushes people away. He’s too controlling, too morally rigid. The fearless leader become tyrant.

He fails each of the Robins in new and increasingly horrifying ways, but always for the same reason: he puts the mission first. Bruce is proud of him for it; somehow, that approval hurts him more than any punch ever did. It keeps him up at night, Tim’s face when he left (forced away by Dick’s actions), Damian’s pride at becoming Robin (he was only ten), Jason’s eyes filled with resentment and deep sadness (he had been right all along). 

He hates Bruce when he sees him in the mirror. He hates Bruce when he hears him in his own voice. Bruce Wayne was the worst person on Earth, but Dick Grayson was his favorite son. So what did that make him?

[tarucore]

screenshotting this one bc I can acknowledge that I’ve got shipper goggles on and op isn’t about that life which is fair but

I feel like batfam fans misunderstand the term parentification a lot and conflate it with Dick filling a parental role for his siblings, which might be part of the “oldest daughter syndrome” that’s so often pinned on him but that isn’t what parentification actually means

If I say that Dick Grayson was parentified, then that isn’t referring to him taking care of his siblings, it refers to the way Bruce treated him. As someone capable of taking care of his emotional needs and not as the child in need of care in the relationship

Parentification is a term that’s been around for decades, and while having to care for younger siblings might be a part of the definition, it focuses mostly on the role reversal of the parent-child dynamic. I’m not going to get into the psychology of it but being parentified has very little to do with if he actually acted as a parent for his siblings and everything to do with if he acted as a parent for Bruce

This is honestly why I prefer the term spouseification, which is less ambiguous than the term parentification and I feel accurately describes their “equal” relationship and the type of emotional abuse that Dick went through

Also from what I’ve read, Dick doesn’t act as a parental figure for any of his siblings except for Damian. While he might have given extra emotional support to Tim due to Bruce being Bruce, Dick still fits solidly into an older brother role. I’m not even going to touch on Dick’s relationship with Jason which is too weak to even be considered fraternal never mind parental

[hijinxinprogress]

Coffee addict Never sleeps Tim drake ❌ 

Solving cases in his sleep off 87 energy drinks Tim Drake ✅

The coffee addict never sleeps perpetually tired Tim Drake thing is a widely accepted headcanon however that was elementary school tim but after he stayed up for a week straight subsisting entirely on coffee to decipher the bat weekly patrol schedule and how it aligns with rogue attacks/Arkham breakouts, he crashed then when he woke up it was fucking wednesday so he missed his chance to commemorate his discovery with pictures of Robin and he decided that shit would never happen again and made himself an ‘efficient’ sleep schedule so he could run around doing fuck shit, add to his robin shrine, and stay on honor roll bc he was even more pissed to see the gotham gazette had pictures of Robin with an on site interview credited to Vicki Vale (listen bowl cut tim had a one sided beef with vicki vale that included tim judging who gets better pics of the bats but she isn’t even aware that she’s competing with a whole ass child 😭 he’s sitting at the table with a mug of orange juice and looks at the newspaper snorts and goes ‘fucking amateur I could do better’) 

Regularly unsupervised tiny businessman in training Tim ‘Ten hours of uninterrupted sleep?? That’s so inefficient not to mention fucking stupid’ Drake is so pissed he missed getting shots of Robin dropkicking a rogue from 6 six stories up (for absolutely no reason dick just thinks it’s fun) that he just takes at least 3 hour naps every eight hours 😭 he refuses to spend almost half a day sleeping ‘for no reason when he could be doing something productive’ 

And he still does this as a bat but it’s just easier to tell if he didn’t take his nap bc he has less than zero impulse control and he’s just fucking done with everything like the gcpd is terrified bc tim’s saying shit like ‘This guys a fucking moron, I could’ve done this in half the time without killing anyone fucking loser doesn’t he know if you keep them alive you can prolong the torture?’ and ‘you’re like all hysterical and for what 🤨 ‘you blew up 83% of Bristol waah’ stfu and fucking rebuild it?? It’s only rich mfs that live there, it’s just a matter of them opening their fucking wallets’ once a new recruit made the mistake of asking if robin had adult supervision regularly and Tim responded with ‘well if you’re gonna snitch to cps like a little bitch then yeah’ and that cop did snitch so tim fucking doxxed him

Yj has just accepted that sometimes they will find tim in an air vent, on the roof, in one of their closets, or something just fucking knocked out then an alarm will go off and he’ll just get up like nothing happened but for the first couple of months they were probably concerned bc ‘I’ve never seen you sleep?? wtf are you on man’ and Tim’s confused bc ‘I slept next to you this morning wdym??’ and that’s how yj discovers tim sleeps with his eyes open

But one of the worst things about Tim’s ‘time efficient sleep schedule’ nonsense is that it fucking works he’s one of the most well rested and coherent bats even after back to back Arkham breakouts however the absolute worst thing about his sleep schedule is the likelihood of going into the cave and seeing tim staring in a daze but wide eyed yet somehow never blinking at the batcomputer with 57 tabs open on top of being unresponsive and thinking he has a fucking concussion or he’s been replaced but he’s just doing case work while muttering nonsense in his fucking sleep for some reason

[bruciemilf]

Dick when Bruce annoys him: I've never met this man in my life

Dick when Alfred or any of the batkids regard Bruce with the smallest bit of harsh criticism: I will literally kill all of you. I'm not joking. With my bare hands alone I'll make you WISH there was a hell you could go to escape from me, how dare you? The nerve, the CHEEK, he's a man of honor, he's flawless, he's never done anything wrong ever, and also your shirt is ugly

[yourmotherismylover]

Jason Todd and Rarity are literally best friends, change my mind

[wondertwinsenthusiast]

When I said I want Dick to pick Damian up and run for the hills after Gotham war I did NOT think the other 666 batkids would be included in this. Oh well, fuck. How did he even tell Babs? "Congrats you're a mom"?

[cluescorner]

I gave myself a writing challenge and I am fascinated by it

So basically I put the robins in a randomizer to give them a new order/role (because I just...kinda wanted to see what would happen + I like role-reversal AUs) and got results that are giving me a fucking brain blast.

Stephanie, the first sidekick who defines the role

Tim, the sidekick who dies and comes back wrong

Dick, the sidekick who saves Batman from himself

Damian, the sidekick who was never supposed to be a sidekick but would go on to prove everyone wrong

Jason, the youngest sidekick who is still the Kid Wonder

...So this is fucking wild. I've got some ideas and several of these fit perfectly (Dick's role is pretty similar to his one in canon), but some of these are fucking INCREDIBLE to explore (Steph being the first Robin is something I never even considered but tbh I kinda love it).

I probably won't write a fic or anything because tbh I don't like publishing my writing that much, but I might expand this into a full AU and post about it. I might randomize other stuff too (ie, stuff that I cannot change vs stuff that I cannot keep the same) but this fucking rules as a starting point.

[reggies-eyeliner]

yeah because if i animate the batfamily to the songs from the outsiders musical what then