#girldad bruce wayne

[rubydubydoo122]

"Girldad" Bruce Wayne pisses me off so much

Understandable.

Bruce pretty much only has boys, except for Cass. And I guess Stephanie, but not really. I mean, Bruce was really sexist towards Steph during her Robin days, but mainly the fandom talks about Bruce being a girldad towards Cass.

But I still understand why it feels odd for Bruce to be called a "Girldad".

Bruce didn't teach her how to ride a bike, or have tea parties with her growing up. He didn't struggle to learn how to tie a ponytail for her, or awkwardly help when she was having her first period, but that's because. Bruce didn't raise Cass, Cass raised Cass. Bruce didn't raise any of the younger girls who entered his life as mentees

Does that mean they aren't going to love each other in a familial way? No, of course not.

But I do think prime 80's comics Bruce Wayne would be a total GirlDad. But as the writing went on, and as he became more of a male power fantasy, Bruce's character changed into someone who was a bit mysogenistic. That Bruce is the one who interacts with both Cass and Steph, not 80's comics Bruce.

But the fun thing about fanon, is that we can mix and match different charactarizations of different characters, use different AUs and tweak backstories.

Though, I do understand certain fandom takes being infuriating and needing to rant about them(trust me) so if you want to rant more about why you don't like "Girldad Bruce" in my inbox, I'm down.

[thy-valhallen]

i like the idea that it's understood in the Batfam that Bruce has a favorite but no one's really sure who it is-- all of them have their own guesses, and it's never themselves (except Steph, who's here to laugh at their theories)

Dick is convinced it's Jason because of how he saw Jason's death destroy Bruce-- like, he knows Bruce would cry for all of them, mourn and all, but... well, he's pretty convinced Jason had a spot in their dad's heart a bit bigger than they did

Jason, if asked, will swear to hell and back it's Dick-- the Golden Boy, the perfect son, the one he had to compare himself to growing up. Secretly though? he thinks it's Tim. Tim, the best detective of all of them, the steadfast kid who stepped in to fix everything without the slightest bit of thanks or appreciation, the nerd who dedicated himself to their crusade with nothing to gain from it. who wouldn't favor that kid??

Tim has known since the first picture he ever took of Batman and Robin who the favorite was, and has never wavered. Dick Grayson, his first son, the one who's pain was reflected so sharply back at him in a twisted mirror that he had to take the kid in-- Dick was the one to bring the Dark Knight to life in the daytime. Dick is his everything-- the boy he loved enough to slow in his life's work to help. Tim was certainly never worth the time, but Dick? Dick is impossible not to love, and to love Dick Grayson is to love with your whole chest

Cass bases her guess off of Bruce's body language, not Batman's, and for that, she thinks it's Duke. Duke is softer than the rest of them, less sharp edges from a childhood shaped by misery or death, and Bruce is less of a drill sergeant with him for it. after all, Duke doesn't struggle with directions like the rest of the Batfam (he so does, he's just the best at hiding it), so he gets less of the terrified, furious leader and more of the tired, worried dad

Damian has no doubt in his mind it's Cass-- at first, because she's the best fighter, and therefore most deserving. she's far more skilled after all, so in this insane family where adopted children upend the hierarchy he knows, it must be dictated by skill, no? no, actually. but then, he sees how Bruce doesn't yell at her, the implicit trust he has in his daughter. the way that they're so very in-tune with one another, it's like looking at a man and his shadow. Cass has to be the favorite, because no one else can look him in the eyes with the same sort of heartbreak he has and comfort him without a word

Duke was an only child before joining the Waynes, so it was a shock to suddenly see sibling favoritism so blatantly when Bruce so carefully and kindly talked Damian down from a rant about his classmates in the middle of patrol. no one else would've been allowed to talk about something so personal and revealing on a Gotham rooftop. it was just continually proven from there; shoulder pats and hair ruffles answered with little scowls, utterances of "son" that were lost to shuffling capes and tiny smiles tucked away in darkness

[martyrbat]

i need everyone to understand bruces actions are always going to stem from his neverending guilt complex and unwavering love for people AND his dedication to be the most annoying cunt in any room

[casscainmainly]

I know people love saying 'Bruce is a girldad' and I totally get it, we want to show how much he loves Cass and that she's his daughter. But Bruce's initial love for Cass was largely predicated on how not girly she was. He openly dislikes her girlhood throughout Batgirl 2000 (including but not limited to: dismissing her civilian identity, berating her for any romantic attempts, weakening her friendship with Stephanie, undermining her relationship to Babs, etc. etc.). Cass' femininity interferes with his ability to project onto her, so a lot of the time he just dismisses it. Is it really a coincidence that Bruce's only adopted daughter is one who wasn't raised as a girl?

[oleryn]

i love creature batman. no body just his pointy ears and eyes. he’s not even human. he can probably fly. he makes no noise when he moves. how he procures a seemingly endless supply of human children is a total mystery, but they seem to love him, so rescue efforts are usually ignored.

Commissioner Gordon, standing on a rooftop with a cup of coffee and a megaphone: Tim Drake, get away from the Batman. You have human parents and they are going to be very worried about you

Tim, sitting in Batman’s lap as a spindly, clawed hand affectionately pats his head: YOU’LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE, JIM

[tequiilasunriise]

When Steph and Cass get married they don’t take the last name Brown (Daddy Issues™️) or Cain (Daddy Issues Prime™️) or even Wayne (Steph absolutely REFUSES to become a Wayne nosirree), but a secret fourth thing (Gordan).

[jellytheteawolf]

Cass in diff types of traditional cn clothing 🫶

Top to bottom: tang zhuang, qipao, and hanfu! :3

Bruce would totally accompany Cass to a hanfu photoshoot (I am projecting so hard rn bc I've wanted to do a hanfu photoshoot for YEARS but then pandemic and I couldn't go back to China so :(( )

Putting Cass in the pretty outfits I'll never have 💅 (my qipao is kinda pretty but it's oversized asf HELPPPP)

[kittykatninja321]

canonically overprotective GirlDad Bruce sighing in relief when Cass tells him she’s a lesbian

[allthebatgirlsaregay]

I love the idea of Bruce not only being a girl dad, but Cass being the only kid he has any amount of general trust for.

Dick: Hey, you know Bruce installed one of those parental tracking apps on my phone?

Tim: Yeah!? I couldn't delete mine if I tried. Even Barbara couldn't help.

Steph: I'm not even his fucking kid and he did it! What bullshit! Right Cassie?

Cass: Oh...Bruce doesn't know the password to my phone so he can't get in

*Everyone's face drops. Bruce does know the fucking password, he just has favourites*

[brokenbrds]

[intriq]

As your forceful best friend I demand girldad!Bruce Wayne...?

Bringing an infant home after saving her

Raising her as his own

Being a good dad

- 🌻

your wish is my command [not me doing this while im sick. sooo not me. totally. absolutely, even. wdym i've told you im sick i'm not ur delusional /silly]

credit to cafekitsune for the divider!!

girldad!bruce who is a little lost on what to do at first. He's never cared for an actual baby before, so what's he meant to do?

girldad!bruce who eventually seeks Alfred out for advice. Maybe even browses online on what to do.

girldad!bruce who panics the first time the baby cries, because he's so lost! he doesn't know why she's crying. most of his kids were grown when he took them in, he's used to always being told what was up. with this tiny little lady he's got absolutely no clue.

girldad!bruce who felt like he was going to be prepared for everything this small infant could throw at him when he first saw her and decided to bring her home. he wants to think he's learned from his fuck-ups with his older kids, so surely he'll do better by her, right?

girldad!bruce who absolutely loses his mind any time she cries and nothing seems to soothe her. he wonders if he's already done something wrong, screwed up with yet another kid. where had he gone wrong this time, he wonders?

girldad!bruce who does everything in his power to make sure this kid is happy.

girldad!bruce who is relieved when he learns that the constant crying is from her teething. he's glad to learn it wasn't because of him. he's not very emotional, but he just nearly cries out of relief when alfred tells him about it.

girldad!bruce who tries just about every trick in the book to help soothe the pain she's feeling while she's teething. and when i say every trick, i mean every trick.

girldad!bruce who constantly stops to think to himself before he does anything. what will be the possible consequences of his actions? will his choices make her hate him in the future, in the long run? would it make her happy?

girldad!bruce who just wants to be a good dad. as good as he can be. he wants to do things right, even if just once in his life. he doesn't wanna fail this child who seems to small in comparison to him.

[rubydubydoo122]

I saw the invite to rant about "GirlDad" Bruce and instantly ran here. *shuffles notes*

Okay so one thing that i noticed about fandom girldad Bruce is that he doesn't actually have to do much with Cass. He doesn't have to put in the work to be understood by her since she just "gets" him because of how she understands body language. She's "easier" to be around because he doesn't have to actually talk in a way that his other kids understand. He doesn't have to put in the work to understand and put a voice to his own feelings and emotions in a way that won't hurt who he's talking to.

To me that really feels like an eldest daughter doing all the emotional labor for her father and it infuriates me, maybe because it hits a little close to home. It feels like a cop out on Bruce having to put in work to be a good parent, because sometimes being a good parent is a struggle and you have to learn how to be one. Letting your kid do most of the work in communicating so that you have a good relationship is sucky imo.

Bruce being a girldad is fun and honestly very cute a lot of the times but some aspects/ways that people write it dont sit well with me sometimes.

Ok rant over thanks for listening:)

I always love listening to people rant about the Batfam.

And yes, just because Cass is Bruce's favorite daughter doesn't automatically make Bruce a "Girldad".

(I'm about to slightly trauma dump here) I'm a victim of the "Daddy's Girl" to "Daddy issues" pipeline.

When I was growing up, I was always seeking his validation-- because being the youngest daughter, I was spoiled by my dad until I reached puberty and he basically stopped loving/respecting me-- so by the time I was 10/11, the only way I could earn that validation from my Dad, was by listening to him tell me about his life (aka, he trauma dumped on me, even though I now know that he shouldn't have been forcing those issues on me) And that in itself

In most fanfics, bc Cass is the bat who can read people, she becomes the family therapist, especially towards Bruce, which isn't a healthy father-daughter relationship. So Bruce being a "Girldad" is only beneficial for Bruce, and not Cass.

Yeah, I completely understand what you mean anon. Basically what most Fanon does is make Cass a "Daddy's Girl" but fails to make Bruce a "Girldad" and that's probably why it rubs you in the wrong way bc it's one sided.

[gretahayes]

Batgirl (2000) #31

[martyrbat]

“What? Are you saying it was all some kind of screwed-up therapy session?” “What other therapy would Cassandra understand? She grew up with no human contact apart from violence. Fighting is her language, Barbara. The core of her being... of her soul. She had things she needed to get off her chest. And so did I.” “You're crazy.” “So they say. But it works.”

[ID: two photos from the 2000 comic Batgirl. The first is from issue one and has Bruce Wayne and Cassandra Cain in their respective costumes with their cowls on. They're standing on the rooftop of Oracle's clocktower and are looking out into the city skyline. Bruce tells Cass, “One rule—no costumed criminals. Oracle will tell you what that means. As for the rest... it's all yours. Remember. On those streets, you... are me. You can start whenever you... uh...” He awkwardly trails off as Cass unexpectedly puts their hand gently on his cheek and stares up at him. Bruce tells them, “That's... really not necessary...” before Cass leaps off the building with their grappling line, eager to begin.

The second photo is from issue 50. The bridge they were therapeutically fighting on just exploded and Bruce dove into the water to grab Cass and pull them into safety. They sit together on dry land without their masks, with Cass laying their head against Bruce's chest as he has his arm around her securely. Cass tells him, “He (David Cain) never let me touch him... hold him... just fighting and hurting...” Cass sits up as they keep a hand on his chest, Bruce holding it as Cass continues, “You hurt me, too... When you sent me away.” Bruce asks, “I need to know once and for all where your loyalties lie, Cassandra. With your father?... Or Barbara?... Or me?” Cass points to the bat emblem on his chest and answers, “No. Not you. This.” END ID]

[aingeal98]

The important thing about Bruce Wayne is that when I call him a girldad I don't mean in a lets his daughter braid his hair way. I mean he would absolutely do that if Cass wanted but since that's not really something they're interested in he's more likely to pull a "take your daughter to an active crime scene and let her practice her detective skills" type of bonding activity. But more importantly he's a trainwreck. When Cass breathes near a boy he has a meltdown. He's not a girldad in an 'in touch with his feelings and comfortable enough with his gender to not let it get in the way of his bond with his daughter." type thing. I mean it instead as the type of dads who bought their kids soccer magazines and gave them their first beer and took them fishing and most definitely scared off all future boyfriends with a shotgun. She's his favourite son and any reminder that she is in fact a woman who will face different issues to him is always going to short circuit him a little. He's a girldad who will never ask what period products she uses or bring up the subject at all but makes sure he has a stack of all variations ready to go just in case.

He's the definition of a girldad. He tries so hard and gets so much wrong. He loves her and doesn't have a clue how to handle it but is convinced he's doing an OK job anyways. Whether he's right or not well... Read Batgirl 2000.

[theglidingbat]

They should give him more daughters OMFG