#goodish joker

[jhdanes]

Another Earth-16 teaser! Batsy-babeeei, you see the glitter box anywhere, this party needs more PIZZAZZ! Inspired by prompt from @write-it-motherfuckers

[therevengeoffrankenstein]

bitch I'M like if the joker didn't kill people.

[damcofeejelly]

I love this so much I can see it though

AU where Talia’s obsession with Bruce is tilted a little to the left and when Bruce adopts Dick she’s like !!!!! My beloved you should have told me you wanted children what a wonderful eldest son we have I want custody over summer I will train him to as the best Assassin the world has ever seen I love him so much etc etc Bruce and Dick are obviously freaked out a little by this.. anyway her response to not getting summer custody is to make Damian in her fake womb and not give Bruce custody (or knowledge of his existence). She is equally enthusiastic about each new addition to the family and they all get increasingly strange holiday and birthday gifts from her. When Dick first moved to Bludhaven he came home one day to League style daggers and a ‘I’m so proud of you, love, mom’ note on his kitchen counter and poison in all his food. When she gets hold of zombie!Jason she’s like ‘finally I get custody time to bond with my sons’. Damian is still completely fucked up when he gets to Gotham but this time the murder attempts are because of the lack of birthday gifts.

[unordinary-analysis]

Totally here fangirling over last chapter but also wanted to run this by you, I really really want Sera to get her powers back before John fight Arlo. Because if she does I have no doubt in my mind she’d get involved to protect her new friends and end “Joker” once and for all. Her fighting John with all of he skills he taught her + her powers + John not wanting to hurt her = Sera demasking Joker and I just think that would be beautiful

(This was the ask i lost an 1000 word answer on R.I.P.)

Sorry this is so late btw

I really like this take. It’s completely possible and would be really fun to read. When I imagine how this current saga is going to end, it’s usually something like this.

Also thank you for this ask because it lead me to realize how much I need a proper Sera and Arlo friendship.

Ok 4 things i want to address:

1. Seraphina getting her powers back

2. Getting involved with the Joker situation

3. Fighting against Joker

4. Aftermath

1.) so this theory (?) is very reliant upon one main thing: Seraphina getting her powers back. This could easily be solved because I mean, it’s pretty likely it’s going to be actually canon soon in the series. Leilah’s appearance was obviously put in where it was so that she would learn about Seraphina. Then, Leila having (supposedly) worked with EMBER or at least the company supplying them, will have the knowledge and resources to heal her sister.

Some things that are unknown, however, are Leilah’s intentions. We don’t really know what her point of view will be. We barely know her, having actually met her character once. Something else to consider, she ran away from home years ago. She will not be as close to Seraphina as she might have been once. We don’t know if Leila’s will prioritize her sister over her work, another thing we know little about. Though likely, us readers are very much guessing that Leila’s works with an organization affliliated with EMBER (which is why I said “supposedly” above). We don’t know if Leilah even actually works at a place that would give her the tools to help Sera. Her reaction at the restaurant may have just been because it was her sister, not that she knew the reason behind Seraphina’s ability loss. Even if she really worked close to EMBER, Leilah could totally be loyal to them. I don’t know. Her character is just so unknown for me to rely upon her to bring back Sera’s powers. Though, that probably is what’s going to happen because lmao why bring back Leilah at all if not for that. So that’s settled lol.

I don’t know how Leilah would bring back Seraphina’s powers. I don’t know anything about EMBER or the drugs they use, that’s the whole point. So I can’t really explain anything there, we just gotta wait.

2.) Okay, now that Serpahina has her powers back, something else I’m wondering about is why and if Seraphina would fight against Joker.

Ask just assumed that she would, to help her friends, but it really goes a lot deeper than that.

She has 3 separate groups of friends: High-tiers, low-tiers, and John (lol)

Most of her high-tier friends have already been defeated by Joker

She said she wanted to see Joker kick Arlo’s ass

She seemed to accept it when John said that he was just climbing up the ladder

But, overall, I agree with ask. Seraphina is going to fight Joker if she is able and that list is a shorter one:

Remi

Low-tiers

Though many of the high-tiers can be considered as fake friends to Seraphina, it’s been clear from the beginning that Remi has always been genuine. They might not have been the best of friends, but Remi and Sera respected each other and didn’t pretend to like each other. And guess what. Remi’s going to get beat up soon. Well, maybe. Depends on what this Remi and John conversation meant to John. Let’s assume things end badly. Remi’s a goner okay. Seraphina is a goodish person. She’s not going to let her just get k.o.ed

A problem with this is that by the time Sera supposedly gets her powers back, it’ll probably be after the whole john and Remi fight. And that’s why I have reason #2

Sera’s low-tier friends are afraid of Joker. They have told her that he’ll be able to do pretty much everything because he won’t have to face the consequences. I don’t know. They just spooked. They won’t be able to even attempt to fight back if Joker wants to duke it out. Seraphina, like I said, is a goodish person. She knows the low-tiers gave her true friendship even after she was an unbothered god-tier that couldn’t care less about them. She’ll be grateful and at least her perspective will have changed.

So if Seraphina finds herself in the position to fight back, she’s not going to just stand back like she did before. That was the old Serpahina: untouchable and uncaring. New Sera is aware of what her actions do to the lives of those around her. She knows that she is one of the only people that can do this, that can stick up for the low (and every) tiers. She gon do that.

So yeah, Sera’s fighting Joker.

3.) When Sera does fight him: I’m wondering a few things. First: things that ask mentioned:

Fighting how John taught her

Her abilities

John holding back

I’m not sure if Seraphina will actually use the tactics that John taught her when she’s fighting Joker. It could go either way. Initially, I thought that she obviously wouldn’t use them. John taught her fist fighting tactics. She learned how to throw a punch, how to block. Now, tell me why she would use those when she has her powers back and she is fighting against someone with an ability?

Then I remembered John’s ability. Aura manipulation. If Sera uses her power, he’d be able to use it too. And we have all observed by now that the stronger ability he borrows, the stronger John is. Remember, we haven’t seen John borrow an ability stronger than his, we don’t know what will happen. But, using her ability in general would be a major hazard. So using fists to fight is a good idea (in theory only because she doesn’t know how good Joker is at that too).

I personally think she would use her powers the most if the author went through the trouble of giving them back. Sure, she’d throw a punch is Joker got close, but I don’t think her type of ability will really suit close range fighting (i think, her ability confused me lol). So yeah. This isn’t really important to the whole of this idea, but I mean it was in the ask and I wanted to address it.

So that was the first and second points.

Now, onto something else ask said. They seemed to think John would hold back on Seraphina. I think it’s a little more grey than that.

Things to remember:

John was allied with Cecile and still went to far

Joker’s whole brand is merciless

The reason the high-tiers want him gone is because he doesn’t know where to stop, he keeps fighting even when the fight’s done.

Other things to remember:

Seraphina is John’s closest friend

Joker only exists because John wanted to protect Sera

Joker’s most common motive is to keep Sera safe

Cecile was more of a partner than a friend: he doesn’t care about her

So basically, I’m confused and I don’t know what John will do. Like ask thinks, John loves Seraphina (platonically, calm down). But he also is feared because he is completely merciless. Dark John’s character can be described by that one word: merciless. Let’s go down memory lane, k? Back to New Bostin. Remember Claire? Remember Claire? Same thing, guys. John’s best friend betrays him and turns on him and he crushes her into pieces.

Like I really don’t know what John would do if fighting Seraphina, and that includes whether or not he would hold back.

I’m going to skip the details of the fight and who I think would win because, like I said above, Sera’s ability vs. John’s would be too new for me to predict the outcome. And why bother. This headcanon kind of relies upon Sera winning so let’s just assume that for now.

4.) aftermath. Do you even understand how dramatic that reveal is going to be? How traumatized both of them are going to be afterwords? For Seraphina, she’s discovering that the guy beating people up and trying to beat her up is her best friend. Beyond that, he has an ability, which ultimately means everything she knew about him and respected him for is a lie. For John, he’s basically reliving the events of New Bostin, reliving the thing that ruined his life. Reliving what he tried to move on from for over a year.

How I think they’ll end up:

Seraphina: I think that Seraphina and John will cut ties with each other. Seraphina will want to hate John, but can’t help wanting to talk to him and laugh with him. She can’t seem to forget the person he was when he was with her. The humble and nice guy. She knows he doesn’t exist now. That he never did. The thought makes her sad, and she hates it. John did this to himself, brought this onto himself. He had dragged Seraphina into his mess, never confiding in her. It’s not her fault that he turned out to be such an asshole.

Seraphina becomes good friends with Arlo. After the fight, she feels he is the only one that understands her. She feels bad because she didn’t trust him when he tried to tell her the truth. She hasn’t apologized, but hopes Arlo knows that she’s sorry. They start spending lots of time together. It reminds her of the old days. When Seraphina first arrived at Wellston. Arlo had been king and she was queen. They were forced together because of their power and they bonded through that. They both had ambition, goals, a want to make things better for the students at Wellston and a need to prove themselves. They had been young then, and Serpahina had considered Arlo a friend. Then John came along and changed everything. Seraphina cant be ashamed of who she became because of him. If not for John, she would’ve remained ignorant about the mistreatment of low-tiers and EMBER. If not for him, she would’ve never learned how to laugh or how to reward herself. If not for John, she never would’ve stood up to her mom...

Now that Seraphina is back, all of her, her ability and rank, she feels whole again. Seraphina may have gotten used to the cripple life, but she never realized exactly how much her ability was a part of her. Now reinstituted as queen, Sera is with Arlo again. Nowadays, it feels like he’s the only one who knows what she’s going through. Seraphina realizes that he’s changed too. In the past year, he’s turned from the cold and ruthless leader she knew him as into a thoughtful, logical, and surprisingly kind person. He’s humbler too, which is new.

Sometimes they just lie on the roof together, not talking or saying anything, just enjoying each other’s company. It’s comforting not being alone. Seraphina finds it hard to trust him sometimes, but it doesn’t matter much. Though they like to spend most of their time in each other’s company, they don’t talk much, don’t tell each other things. They’ve known each other for so long, they don’t need to. And it’s nice. Seraphina... she’s happy. She may have lost her best friend, but she gained an old one. Her sister talks to her every so often because Leilah’s always in town visiting her boyfriend. Everyone is nice to Seraphina at school.

Seraphina knows she can’t ignore John forever, can’t just forget that he exists, but oh she wants to. In a perfect world, she could lie on this rooftop forever, carefree and forgetful, but she knows she can’t. Because this is not a perfect world. Seraphina tries to help the low-tiers defend themselves and tries to bring awareness to EMBER. Remi aids her in her ambitions, having similar ones herself, and their bond also grows stronger.

Seraphina is finally making a difference. It hurts to know that it’s because of John, but at least she’s trying. She’s better than she was before. Kinder. Stronger. Healthier. Seraphina realizes that for the first time in her life, she really has the chance to truly be completely happy. She’s not about to let someone’s memory ruin it for her.

John: After the fight, John was a wreck. He barely ate for a week, barely slept. Everytime he closes his eyes he sees her. And everytime, John breaks down because he can’t tell who she is. Can’t tell if she has pink eyes or blue ones. Can’t tell if she even exists.

In the end, it doesn’t matter. Claire, Seraphina... it ended the same. Ended with him sitting in these rooms, hands in chains, head pounding.

John isn’t really sure why they bothered to get him into these classes again. The authorities didn’t seem to care when he wore the mask. They didn’t bat an eye at a student climbing the ranks. John supposes he’s only here because of his past. And he can’t blame them. He’s really fucked up.

The classes are better than they used to be. They go faster. John knows all the right answers this time around. And Keon hasn’t returned, something John appreciates everyday. Instead there’s this strict lady running his classes. She’s not great, but so much better than Keon. She seems like she has a good heart.

When John got in here, he made a promise to himself. He promised himself that he wouldn’t forget. God he wanted to. He wanted to forget Wellston like he forgot New Bostin. But he knows how that ended up last time. He forgot too much. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

Everyday, he listed in his head: Claire, Arlo, Blyke, Isen, Cecile, Remi, Seraphina. He won’t let himself forget them. What he did to them. What they did to him.

When John gets out of his readjustment classes, he is more than surprised to find Cecile waiting for him. She doesn’t say much about what happened, and isn’t all that friendly, but he can’t complain. He treated her like trash. But for some reason, she sticks around. She visits his house. She talks to him about his new school. They text. It’s weird to have her. John realizes he doesn’t know anyone else quite like Cecile. Something he never really realized about her before is her genuineness. Yeah sure, she would keep secrets, but everything she did and said, everything screamed Cecile. She never put on a show to talk to him or a new personality that others would. It was refreshing. Cecile wasn’t instantly nice to him and it was great. She reminded him a lot of Seraphina... John wish she didn’t.

Seraphina... John wants to talk to her so badly... but he knows she won’t. He lied to her for the entire time she knew him. They were best friends. John still gets shocked sometimes as he remembers what he hid from her, all the secrets he kept. It never seemed like a lot at the time, only a little secret at a time. He hadn’t realized until recently that by the end, he was drowning in lies. Small ones and big. They had wrapped and choked him like a snake..

John stays silent at his new school. He’s friendly to everyone and greets people when they greet him. He doesn’t lie here. At a regular school, John is basically guaranteed the king spot. He doesn’t shy away from it. He tries not to embrace it too much either. It’s a difficult balance, but he manages.

He manages. And he remembers.

————————————————————————

After all of this, I think they’ll kind of hate each other but also kind of not because of how close they are and still remain despite (Sera) wanting to hate the other. Then when ember starts becoming near future, they will be forced together to solve something or whatnot as the two strongest people. I can’t even express how much I want this now. Sorry for super long post. I get carried away sometimes... oof. Sorry for that weird story thing at the end. I probably could’ve written that more generic and narrative, but eh

(comment “arphina” if you read the whole thing) :)

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Gotham 3×14

pretty sure the Riddler can be credibly accused of for real actual in-universe queerbaiting at this point and I for one am delighted to add that to his list of atrocities

he did make Oswald cry though so. unforgivable. go to hell Riddleboy!!!

the implication of the Joker having an almost reality warper-ish ability to make people around him go ape shit just by talking at them would be so much more interesting if I weren't infinitely familiar with the concept of blackpilling. oh no his power is being a human subreddit.

I once again feel the need to point out that THIS ISN'T A FUCKING RIDDLE

it's a rube goldberg murder device which is still kind of whimsical but

girl be real Kringle 2 is Not in heaven

it is like. insanely funny that Oswald is really convinced that riddleboy would have inevitably killed his girlfriend but was absolutely hoping to date Ed himself. RIP to the Kringles but he's different.

baby Brucie calling the Joker a boring bitch to his face that's my SON

anyway this episode is mostly really bad but I'm making myself some oatmeal with a heap of apple in it and it helps a lot, strongly recommend

while I enjoy the performance a lot this Joker suffers badly from Gotham Riddler Syndrome, by which I mean having him fully active prior to Batman's existence leaves him sort of scrambling to find a new narrative niche to occupy. in his case he's just a 20-something freak who's just REALLY obsessed with teenage Bruce. he's literally taking him on an evil carnival date right now.

anyway that's weird but David Mazouz is doing so much with body language right now gold star for him. I don't know if he has plans to continue acting as an adult but I hope he knows he was very good as Bruce

in like an alternate universe version of Gotham where men are allowed to have sex with each other I do think there would be some nasty potential for Jimboni and Alfred

Bruce pulling a bloody staple out of his own flesh to pick the lock on his handcuffs and escape is so gross and deeply in character for him maybe this episode is Goodish???

but like not that goodish because I should mention that Oswald has survived hi latest near death experience literally just by stupid fucking chance the writers have given up trying to make anything happen for any reason that isn't dumb luck

oh this whole climax is actually just a big Batman moment for baby Bruce 🖤🖤🖤

OSWALD GET SOME STANDARDS YOU CAN DO BETTER. YOU CAN DO SO MUCH BETTER. HE LEFT PEE WEE HERMAN'S BODY IN A DUMPSTER.

I know that the use of child actors is like. a deeply murky area morally but man there really is something viscerally satisfying about getting to see these pivotal moments played out by an actual teenager instead of a 20-something pretending. um but also if it ever comes out that any of the child actors on this show were mistreated I will kill to avenge them

diversity win: the joker had chronic pain

oh this is a BIG Batman episode for Bruce I'm so proud of him 🖤 🦇 🖤 🦇

DEUCE WAYNE????

OSWALD RESPECT YOURSELF!!! RESPECT!!! YOURSELF!!! HE'S THE RIDDLER!!! HE DOESN'T DESERVE TJE GONE GIRL SPEECH

"when I met you you were a nervous jittery loser" and I miss him every day 💔

🚨 CATEGORY FIVE HOMOPHOBIC RIDDLER MOMENT 🚨

hello friends I am sorry to report that I have once again succumbed to Gotham's siren song. let's see if season 3 can get any better, or at least more interestingly bad.

(thanks as always to @petersthree for the banner)

Gotham 3x13

David Dastmalchian remains hot in a rat way idk. horrifically negated by his being horny for the Joker though barf gag

"Makenzie they were never allowed to call either of Cameron Monaghan's characters the Joker so actually -" shhhh. shhhHHHHHH.

I feel like the show is really unaware of who the average Joker enjoyer is. certainly not a racially diverse group of downtrodden goths with cool hair.

Barbara refered to Oswald's hair as a "disco vampire thing" I love her. I want to kiss her your honor.

this thing with Selina's mom feels like such an obvious scam but idk sometimes on this show stupid shit happens like Kringle 2 where there's actually no twist to figure out it's just something really silly meant to be taken entirely at face level

lmao get peeled idiot

oh wait I've been Cameron Monaghan baited again

um okay I've decided to start trying to say nice things about this bad show so. I think it's cool that Jerome's groupies wear black and red it feels like a cool nod to Harley. I hope there's never a Harley on this show because they don't deserve her at all but it's a nice touch.

GET HER ASS OSWALD BITE KILL MAIM!!! MLM/WLM HOSTILITY 🔥🔥🔥

oh nevermind he's just getting played like a cheap fiddle I hate it here

anyway it's so funny that in literally every episode Jimbolini is once again SHOCKED AND APPALLED to discover that the GCPD is corrupt somehow

oh my god... Lee badass era??? 👀

David Dastmalchian really put his whole Dastmalussy into this two episode bit role good lord. he's too good for this show, is what I'm getting at.

okay so. this scene with Jerome and Lee is the best-written part of this season and maybe the entire show. this is why I like Cameron Monaghan I'm never bored when he's here

Bruce is so eyebrows it's so cute

this is actually a more effective use of the Joker's face getting peeled and stapled back on than anything that happened in comics

god fuck it all we almost made it a full episode without Ed

Donal Logue is being so profoundly wasted this season. he's tired I'm tired we're all tired. please Cameron Monaghan you're our only hope

[jhdanes]

MINI COMIC UPDATE FOR DC VAMPIRE WEEKEND 2024 DAY 1 (ALL PROMPTS) II Saturday, 11. May || 2024 A Earth-16 AU teaser where everyone was turned into a vampire by Bruce and set in my Au earth-16! Done for #dcvampweekend #dcvampireweekend2024 that is hosted by @dc-vampire-weekend on tumblr. I cheated a little and used all the prompts making all these mini comics (for day 1,2 and 3), but a lesson was learned to never fully render them the last week so the next ones are just gonna be made in flat colors. My hand is dying XD #batjokes #thebatman #thejoker #batmanxjoker #brucewayne #jackm’plier #occ #dc #alternateuniverse #comics #goodjoker #goodishjoker #vigilantes #comic #fancomic #minicomic #crossover #blade #marvel #iknowit’sadceventbutbaneneededtobethere #art #Fanart #digitalart #cartoon

[jhdanes]

A Earth-16 teaser! When you have a bad day, kisses make the bad clouds go away… ps. dont tell Alfie about the shredded couch afterwards, poor mad had to replace it 3x already XD. #batjokes #thebatman #thejoker #batmanxjoker