#dickhelena

[madcapberry]

i would love to know ur dickhelena thoughts that might be controversial actually… i recently finished a bunch of huntress reading so she’s been on my mind a lot

Idk maybe the most controversial thing is how much I care about the two of them as a pair. I think their friendship is more compelling than Dick and Babs as a relationship or Helena and Babs (whatever tf you’d call what they have going on). And I just wish that we’d gotten more of Dick and Helena together, I feel like their dynamic had so much meat to it. There was so much to dig into that was never full explored. And I think leaning into it would have been good for the development of BOTH of them as characters.

I’m not saying I think they should be a couple, but it makes me sad that nobody seems to care about them as a pair. There are so many Dick Grayson fans and I feel like a large portion of them barely know who Helena is. And Helena fans generally don’t seem to give a fuck about Dick (correct me if I’m wrong, that’s just based on my observations… also fair enough). But they make such interesting foils and you could do so many different stories with the two of them and their opposing viewpoints. And it’s always more interesting than pairing Helena up with Batman because Dick and Helena actually seem to care about each other on a human level and they have this unnamable tension between them that I think works so so so well.

The dynamic I’m talking about is pretty contained to the 90s through to 2011. Dick and Helena’s dynamic in Grayson is fun but it also feels like both of them (but especially Helena) are completely different characters there. And to be completely honest I don’t know a lot about what their relationship looks like since Rebirth.

What I wanted from them was for their relationship/friendship/working partnership to get the breathing room to stretch and grow. I wanted it to be painful and sweet and difficult. I wanted their chemistry, their similarities, and their camaraderie to MEAN SOMETHING!! And it was pushed aside by people like Chuck Dixon who were very very keen on pushing Dick and Barbara as a power couple (Nothing against Babs, I absolutely adore her. Really don’t like DickBabs tho) I also think a lot of writers at the time disliked Helena so they did their best to make it seem like she meant nothing to their precious Nightwing.

I think they work better as friends than as a couple. They’re both quite uncompromising characters with core values that don’t line up. It could be interesting to explore a romantic relationship between them, but anytime that’s been done it just feels… off to me. I don’t mind the sometimes sexual aspect of their relationship, it works for me sometimes, but at other times I do think it feels a little bit forced (Devin Grayson why is Helena randomly shoving her tongue down his throat). Anyway.

Dick can’t love certain parts of her, (her willingness to kill bad people). Helena can’t love certain parts of him (his rigidity, to put it lightly). And I think what they both need is a kind of freedom they’ll never be able to find in each other. It’s crazy because both of these characters have a sort of wild and free personality at times but neither of them are free. Helena is bound by the memory of the slaughter of her family, her old mob ties, her guilt, her compassion and hatred in equal measures, her religion, Batman and Gotham. Dick is bound by his love for Bruce, the shoes he has to fill, the version of himself he needs to live up to, the version of himself Bruce imagines is real, the weight of all the people who rely on him etc.

There’s this dedication and commitment and fervor at the core of both of them and they’re both orphans and they’ve both experienced so much violence and they both have a chip on their shoulder about Batman and yet they have so much to argue over it’s GREAT!!!!

Anyways love them a lot ok byeee!

[murkyrahh]

Anyway

[armed-with-a-waffle-iron]

I just realised the double meaning of the arc title of the Nightwing/Huntress mini series. The story itself is called "Cosa Nostra". On the one hand, it literally means the Sicilian Mafia, like that's what it's called. On the other hand, "Cosa Nostra" is Italian for "Our Thing", as in Dick and Helena's unique, complicated little thing they had going on, that maybe others don't understand.

Another thing, although this mini suffers from a few Devin Grayson-isms, I think this Sicilian Mafia case was the perfect setting for a bitter-sweet Huntress/Nightwing romance. You're always trapped when you're dealing with the Cosa Nostra because of a tangled webs of intense power structures. Constant no-win scenarios. Lots of parallels to work with to depict a relationship essentially doomed by a certain "line of work" and a certain "code of honour". Credit to Devin, this was a clever, though the story's not without its questionable choices...

Nightwing/Huntress

[mysteriousbeetle]

dick grayson and helena bertinelli fluff for anonymous as part of the dc gotcha for gaza fundraising campaign. thank you for donating!!!

[laufire]

I ended up making a bunch of dc icons for the snowflake challenge in dreamwidth so. here they are! all from comics I've read or re-read recently-ish: bruce and talia's first interactions, spoiler's introduction, nightwing/huntress, mark of cain, titans (1999), batman/superman annual, dc speechless!, and 'twas the mite before christmas.

Do not edit them or claim as your own. Like/reblog if you use them or save them. Credit is appreciated.

[Detective Comics issue 411. Bruce, as Batman, with a saddened expression, hugs Talia as she cries in his arms.]

[Batman issue 244. Close-up to Talia al Ghul, looking up with a pleading expression.]

[Batman issue 244. Bruce presses Talia to his chest, grabbing her from the waist and the arm, and kisses her for the first time. He's shirtless but still wearing the cowl.]

[Detective Comics issue 648. Tim has unmasked Steph, and she, snarling, hits him in the face with a brik.]

[Detective Comics issue 648. Tim, dressed as Robin, humps behind Steph, dressed as Spoiler, in her motorcycle, aggravating her.]

[Nightwing/Huntress issue 2. Dick and Helena kiss, before an orange sunset. They're in their vigilante suits, her hands on his chest, and his on her arm and her back, with the wind making their hair and Helena's cape fly.]

[Nightwing/Huntress issue 4. Helena is in a brown blazer with her hair up in a relaxed bun, hugging herself with her arms. Dick stands next to her, in civilian blothes and with a fake goatee.]

[Batman issue 567. Cass sits in front of Barbara, while Barbara, in her wheelchair, leans in and shows her flash cards, teaching her to speak.]

[Detective Comics issue 734. Close-up to Cass, wearing a black mask covering her upper face, scowling, with hair flying around her face.]

[Detective Comics issue 734. Barbara, smiling, holds up a picture of herself as Batgirl, showing it to Cass.]

[Titans issue 11. Jesse Quick looks up at Nightwing, enthanced, while she sits in the Titans' plane.]

[Titans issue 12. Jesse, visibly upset and a bit angry, approaches Nightwing. She's in civilian clothes, he's shirtless but with a mask, training against a punching bag.]

[Titans issue 19. Jesse and Dick sit in her office. She's in her C.E.O chair, with her legs crossed, speaking on the phone; he's in civilian blothes, sitting at the other side of the table.]

[Batman/Superman Annual issue 1. Supergirl and Red Hood standing side by side, with their profiles on display. Kara is looking down, with her eyes closed.]

[Batman/Superman Annual issue 1. Kara and Jason, fighting back to back with their swords (hers given by Diana, his made by fire), with Krypto in the background.]

[DC Speechless! issue 4. Zatanna entering a portal she summoned by drawing a pentagram in the floor of a library, surrounding it with candles. She's stepping into the portal.]

[DC's 'Twas the Mite Before Christmas, "Wonderful Toys". Damian hugs tight onto a mirage of Talia conjured by Bat-Mite.]

[the-flying-robins]

I'm having Dickhelena thoughts!

Absolutely god awful doomed from the start relationship. He thinks it means something, she says sometimes it's just fun. The way she is never accepted by Bruce and Dick is in the height of his fuck Bruce era.

Would they be end game or good for each other long term? HELL NO! Is it something I wish they'd explored more? YES!

[yaraaflor]

is there a reason you like dickhelena? what's your ideal idea of a relationship between them - a shorter thing or do you see them working out

omg tell me how this ask has been in my inbox a whole ass month and i never saw it... my bad anon i wasn't ignoring you lol i just never get asks ig. anyways! answer got long so it's under the cut.

dickhelena my beloved... well first of all i do NOT see them ever working out as a like. super long-term married couple type thing. i think their relationship could be functionally good in a lot of ways but they will always have a fundamentally different view of killing and the ethics of it. and i don't think dick would ever be able to fully get past that. like... how do i put this... i think he would be able to get over it TO A POINT out of love, but it would always be a source of tension between them, and at some point the issue would be forced, either by helena killing someone or them disagreeing about somebody else killing someone. i don't think dick's no-killing morality is quite as strong as bruce's, but it's not nothing to him. and i also think he would take issue with the why of it all - like helena killing people bc she believes they cannot be reformed, as opposed to like. idk kory who comes from a different culture and has had to kill her own oppressors.

and also i think bruce would be a permanent issue for them. like helena has a super complex relationship with bruce (and ofc dick does too but he's always going to be loyal to bruce, as his father figure), and bruce sure as hell would not approve of their relationship. which, dick wouldn't let bruce just trample all over his love life, but. at a certain point, having your SO and your family at odds with each other can become exhausting.

BUT just because i don't think they would last forever doesn't mean i don't think the relationship would be meaningful. i think they could have a lot of fun together, if they let themselves, and i think they could make each other happy for a time.

i think a key part of dickhelena is, even when they disagree, they're not incapable of understanding each other. they're both children of gotham who have lost a lot to violence and are trying to help others avoid that. and unlike a lot of the other bats, they both try to maintain an ordinary life and job alongside their vigilante work. they both have soft hearts and hard heads. the way they show it is pretty different, but it's there.

and i mean part of the draw of the relationship to me is the complexity of it. of being at odds about one or two major issues, but compatible in so many other ways. of having a kind of love-hate, flirting-fighting dynamic, and a bit of a messy history. but despite that, seeing the good in each other, and still seeing it even when things are over.

there's something to be said, imo, for relationships that don't work out, but don't end with bad blood either. like it's those relationships that often help people learn and grow, and i think they get overlooked in fandom a lot. for understandable reasons! we all have an otp we want to be in love forever. but for dick and helena, i think of them more as like a 'we didn't work out but it's not because the love wasn't there' type thing. love isn't always enough to make things last and that's important to realize.

....looking back i feel like to a certain extent my answer might not be satisfactory here bc a part of my reason for liking dickhelena is like... i just do? lol. like i love both their characters and i like them together and i think they have a certain chemistry that i can't really put into words. and i understand that not everyone feels that way about them which is fine.

but yah. sorry for making you wait for this anon lol

[hood-ex]

When you realize that **** is considered the bat love interest but if you look at the track record Dick has actually been with Helena and intimately with her as well a lot more…

I don’t know why that thought is making my mind explode right now…

Like when Roy got shot and Dick and Helena are at the hospital and they are all interacting. It was so good! Like the snappy energy between them all was good. Dick 🤝 Helena 🤝 Roy having all slept with each other is also making me having major thoughts but mostly like good for you Helena…

You go girl.

Idk if that's accurate but tbh I'm not gonna go hunt down all their intimate encounters to verify aslkdja.

Lmao Roy's face is so funny when Helena tells Dick, "You should own up that you want to do me and it bugs the shit out of you," and when Dick responds with, "You have a pretty exaggerated view of yourself."

Helena is lucky fr. The dickroy stan in me can't help but laugh at the idea that Dick is jealous of Helena for sleeping with Roy and Roy is jealous of Helena for sleeping with Dick.

[necrotic-nephilim]

Fandom: DCU (Comics) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Helena Bertinelli/Dick Grayson Characters: Dick Grayson, Helena Bertinelli Additional Tags: Omega Dick Week (DCU), Omega Dick Grayson, Alpha Helena Bertinelli, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Religion Kink, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Catholicism, Cunnilingus, Praise Kink, Body Worship, Femdom, Timeline What Timeline, Gentle Sex, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Aphrodisiacs Summary: Helena does what should be a simple and easy mission with Dick. But when they both get hit with an aphrodisiac that only targets omegas, Helena learns interesting things about Dick and helps him through the worst of it. - Omega Dick Week 2024 - Day 5: Hidden Designation | Heat During A Mission

[suhmayzooka]

do you have any dickhelena headcanons? 🥹 doesn't have to be when they were, uhm, dubiously together, but even long after, like during nightwing's outsiders-era or the dickbats era! and it could be canon-complaint or not, your choice!!! thank you hehe <3

YAYY omg i finally got a dick x helena ask aaaaaaaa

idk if i have any specific headcanons like in terms of mini fic scenarios or anything but i just love messy relationships and characters that fuck sometimes but would objectively be pretty not great in a "relationship" mostly bc when i ship something it's not bc i think it's relationship material lmaoo nighthunt is one of my least dark/problematic/messy ships for DC at least. i love outsiders (2003) for many reasons, one of which is how much of a fucking menace helena is lmaoo i know certain helena fans lose their shit at the thought of her having casual sex like a dirty sinful catholic lady, and that dick having casual sex is like the flanderization of fanon womanizer dick when he's actually a romantic searching for twue wuv, but personally i love it for them. it makes them believable as two traumatized, exhausted young adults.

like obv on a meta level theyre totally narrative foils for each other. i also am here for fun mess xD

i hope youre the anon who's been talking abt greg rucka's no man's land novelization bc i love them in that too. if youre someone else that's totally cool too, please see if you can find greg rucka's novelization or the amazing graphic audio adaptation of it (you'll probably have to sail the seven seas to find them though...) bc it's objectively so good and such a strong way to experience NML.

i guess if u want a specific headcanon.... my hc is that the nighthunt kiss at the end of the NML comic is canon (ik it's an "editorial mistake" but fuck that, i want mess) akdhlaisudh but yea pleaseeee share your thoughts!!

[feliphesilveira-blog-blog]

Dick and Helena, Grayson - Tom King

[tiffanybluesclues]

Randomly remembered this panel and it's still hilarious with the comedic timing I read into it.

"Ridiculous. "

[armed-with-a-waffle-iron]

"Nightwing and I? It's over and done. Anyways... It was a mistake..."

"...Bad for both of us..."

Quote: Huntress: Cry for Blood #5. Panels: Huntress: Cry for Blood #2

[laufire]

jla/titans #3

otoh, this can be taken as a. kinda sweet? little dickhelena moment after the more sexually charged comments and I very much enjoy that.

ON THE OTHER. I can't help but see this as a flex lmao. helena's implicitly stating she's seen behind the lenses of that damn domino mask. specifically that one time the two of them had sex.

so I imagine that dick keeps walking towards kory and argent goes wait wait wait- WHEN did you see his eyes??? and helena replies with the most smug smile you've ever seen.

[trexiejan]

Some Toxic Dickbabs moments that happened in canon. (LONG POST)

so i saw a dickbabs shipper talking crap about dickkory saying they're the most toxic nightwing ship? and they also claim dickbabs is the most healthiest ? it's ironic considering I've seen many dickbabs comic panels where dickbabs is being toxic towards each other plenty of times in the canon comics. Looks like Tom Taylor wants to brainwash people and make them believe that Dickbabs is such a perfect healthy loving couple since day 1, when that hasn't been true at all before he was put in charge of the nightwing comics to write dickbabs wattpad fanfiction in the book every single issue, this ship has done nothing but damage both characters even in tom taylor's run Dick is turned into a happy go lucky himbo who is incapable of accomplishing anything on his own without being monitored and babysat by barbara 24/7.

Anyways let's proceed with dickbabs history of being a toxic couple.

Remember those times where Barbara physically and verbally assaulted him when he was only trying to be nice and polite. She yelled at him, called him stupid, a crybaby and beat him up.

Also they keep calling Kory a victim blamer for something that happened once in over 30 years ago but ignore the fact that Babs has victim blamed him and slutshamed him multiple times in the modern comics when he was sexually assaulted and raped by Tarantula and when he got shot in the head by the Joker.

Dick just got raped by Tarantula and was traumatized by what happened but instead of comforting Dick, she has the nerve to mockingly say Dick likes his rapist. her jealousy always clouds her judgement.

I'm sorry But Barbara is canonically a victim blamer and a slutshamer. Don't forget how she also insults and slutshames other women like Helena when she gets jealous of the other women in Dick's life. She called dickhelena a cheap one nightstand even though Dick clearly told Helena he doesn't do casual sex and and she mocked Kory and refused to help her on a mission when her people were dying.

so yeah let's get back to her history with victim blaming Dick. She victim blamed him again after he got shot in the head and had an amnesia and when his memories was restored, she lashed out at him for forgetting about her when he had an amnesia.

And remember that time when Bludhaven was burned down and Dick lost his apartment, he came to Barbara to ask if he can stay at her place but she kicked him out of her apartment the next day. She's totally fine with him being homeless but dickbabs shippers claim babs has always been very loving and supportive towards him while calling Kory a slut.

Even in elseworld stuff she treats him like garbage. Aside from cheating on Dick with Batman and getting pregnant with Batman's baby in the BTAS universe, she's also very emotionally abusive to him in comics where dickbabs shippers brag about them having a kid in it like in whiteknight.

Barbara was always out there acting like a toxic judgemental domineering bitch in the modern canon comics, Barbara behaved like this consistently for more than 30 years but Kory is the one we should crucify over something that she did only once from 30 years ago 🙄 Did they crucify Barbara too when she was ableist to Cass and called her stupid because she can't read.

And they call Kory a sexual assaulter? Because she kissed him when they first met. Did they forgot that Kory was an alien, she was clueless about Earth laws when she first came to earth, she didn't know that you're actually not supposed to kiss someone without their consent, she had no clue that it was considered inappropriate and she kissed him not to sexually assault him but for her to learn english. Her people can learn other languages through kissing and Kory didn't learn anything about Human law until she officially joined the teen titans, so you can actually excuse her for her behavior what's not excusable is Barbara who was a human being who studied law for years, but still has the nerve to commit a sexual crime. As always, She violated Dick's personal privacy, she put camera on his apartment so she can enjoy watching him naked without his consent. Look it up on google the crime is called voyeurism. Barbara would considered a creepy criminal by human law. I'm not surprised considering I always think of her as a type of gf who has no respect for her partner's personal space especially when she's Oracle, She never respected Dick's privacy even in tom taylor's run, she keeps monitoring his every move in her computer, she always invades his personal space. Dick is trapped in this relationship. It's not a good relationship if you constantly watch your partner's every move and if you keep following your partner around like a dog wherever he goes.

Many people think Dickbabs is such a healthy because of Tom Taylor's run. I think for someone who is a huge dickbabs shipper like tom taylor it's expected he's gonna try to convince people to believe that to to sell his favorite ship but in reality even in Tom Taylor's run Dickbabs relationship is pretty toxic and forced. It's toxic when your partner doesn't respect your privacy, when your partner constantly stalks and keeps an eye on you on every single thing that you do, when you wanna talk to other people but she's there lurking in her computer listening to your conversations with other people, when she puts a camera on your mask so she can always see what you see and hear what you hear, as if you're not a real human being who needs your own privacy, and constantly follows you around like a dog, like Barbara does to him every single issue. It really is a sign of an abusive relationship when there is no respect. How is Tom Taylor's Nightwing good when the book keeps destroying Dick's independece by having Barbara stuck to him like a leech 24/7 . The book is called Nightwing but Tom Taylor turned it into a Nightwing and Batgirl fanfiction series where 90% of the time Dick hasn't done anything on his own and where his IQ is chopped off in half to prop up Barbara as the smarter woman in their relationship. Dick can't even handle his own missions without constantly being babysat by Barbara in her computer like a sidekick who needs to be watched 24/7.

Poor Dick he became Nightwing to stop being Batman's sidekick and be independent only for Barbara to take away his independence and treat him like a sidekick again. Dickbabs has always been a toxic ship in any kind of form.

and don't forget Tom Taylor himself is a toxic misogynist slutshamer. He keeps throwing shade on Kory on twitter by liking comments that slutshame her on twitter

You know what would be the best way to fix dickbabs? is by letting them move on from each other! Let them grow tf up and move forward in life outside this relationship.

Babs is an anchor that brings him down whenever she's too involved in his life and same with Babs because do dickbabs shippers even care about Barbara. I haven't seen any barbara fan complain about barbara not doing anything on her own other than chasing dick around like a dog in his comicbook every single issue.

[madcapberry]

You should read Greg Rucka's No Man's Land novelization for more DickHelena/NightHunt!! Their subtle pining and wistfulness and regret in that arc hits so hard... I like that they consider each other very close friends by the time Dickbats happens and he's seen relying on her a lot in Streets of Gotham! Also this is one beef I have with Dixon and Winick - they say Dick regrets the relationship and it was a mistake and blah blah, and I can see Helena thinking that at first, but imo it's OOC for Dick because he considers everything a learning experience especially at that part of time and he really did care for her beyond that stupid one-night fling, like they've been inadvertently working with each other since Helena debuted as Huntress in one comic or another! That's why I like their NML New Year's kiss that functions more like a goodbye kiss, because even though it didn't work out between them, it's like no affection however brief is ever wasted, and that was Dick's way of telling Helena that despite everything he doesn't consider meeting her a mistake :') I think for Helena, who has found herself always abandoned when she doesn't fulfill other people's expectations and wants from her, that would mean a lot, and it would explain why she values Dick and Tim so highly at the end of the day!

I LOVE No Man’s Land!! THE comic book event of all time!! Helena-focused storyline and Leslie and Bruce moral arguments and Cass introduction and Bruce and Gordon’s weird divorce arc and Helena as batman and Jean-Paul Valley still being considered a core batfam member and lots of 90s bat drama!! It’s so so so good!!!

I love your thoughts on Dick and Helena, anon!! And I have so many thoughts of my own but I fear they’re controversial and deserve a separate post. I think about them a lot actually <3333