#grayson better be next-

[buddiedaydreamer911]

ethan dolan is now married.

i am so very happy for him but my inner childhood heart is broken.

[hehether]

Joker got beaten by Nightwing, Redhood and Red Robin ❌️

Joker got beaten by Mike Myers, Jason Voorhees and Jigsaw ✅️

[ghost-bxrd]

Prompt:

Jason keeps accidentally drawing parallels between his running away to Ethiopia and getting killed.

He leaves a note saying he‘ll be back soon? Three terrified bats AND a supe crashing through the roof of a 7/11.

Casually mentioning he‘ll be going overseas to check up on a lead? Surprise! Nightwing‘s going the same way! What a coincidence!

Jason pushes someone off the roof? “Don’t worry Jaylad, I know it was an accident!!!!”

The next gig takes place at an abandoned warehouse? “Explosives whomst?? No, Jason, of course I didn’t scout the area beforehand. Don’t be absurd. Your bombs?? Oh, those were yours?”

Look, it’s not that Jason doesn’t appreciate a demonstration of how much they care. But he’s getting seriously fed up with the level of overprotectiveness everyone’s displaying.

Although, in retrospect, he could have handled this whole thing better than having an open spat with Bruce and then disappearing on them for two months straight. Oops.

(In his defense, Kori got them cards for a once-in-life-time-space-opera.)

[danny-chase]

Things every Dick vs Tim Red Robin fallout gets wrong no matter who's side they take

1. They still loved each other

2. Dick went after Tim after Tim stormed out of the cave. He didn't just leave it at that

3. They didn't have 0 contact, Dick called Tim back to Gotham for Blackest Night. They weren't talking because Tim didn't want to talk

4. Alfred gave Damian the Robin costume initially without Dick's knowledge, and his first mission as Robin was saving Tim's life after he got beat up by Jason (again). He apparently left this mess for Dick to clean up, and I don't think anyone ever told Tim that's how Damian ended up with the mantle

5. Dick helped in the process of bringing Bruce back to the current time, Tim presented his evidence when he got home, and Dick checked it out and solved the time puzzle in Bruce's ancestral home. Tim didn't magically pop back with Bruce after doing everything by himself, it was a coordinated effort that involved the Justice League

6. Tim and Damian started to get along. Not during Red Robin, but during Batman: Gates of Gotham

7. They were both grieving, Dick just masked it better

8. Tim didn't feel like he could ask for help because he knew sounded insane (and was feeling/acting insane). He was doing one of those 'i push away everyone i love because i hate myself' things, which he also did to Steph (who he fired as Spoiler under god knows who's authority) and Cassie. Dick wasn't special in this treatment, and he can't force Tim to stay, so he trusted Tim's judgement and let him leave. It is a "Tim's a sad boy" comic, but he's also very much a part of causing his own problems

9. They still loved each other. They never stopped loving each other. They never hated one another. Both in this era asked the other "Do you trust me?" And the other replied "Yes" and did the thing they asked. *shakes everyone who's ever written about this* that's the whole point, it's about miscommunication, and being in a bad place, but having what you need where you started waiting for you the whole time

[flamingpudding]

Ghost Hunting Vigilantes #2

Ties to: Ouija Board Prompt and Ghost Hunting Vigilantes

A/N: The electric gun thing was inspired by Elton from TFIL Overnight. They used it in one of their videos I just don't remember which and what they called it. Also thanks to @cyber-geist for sparking this follow up idea.

Danny was pressed flat against the wall and floating close to the ceiling. His hands still covering his mouth. What the actual fuck? How prepared was this teen? Sam had made him watch a lot of ghost hunting videos online but none of these 'hunters' appeared and held themselves like Red Robin.

Ancients, he wouldn't be surprised if they also had some Fenton Tools now.

Danny watched how Red Robin was frowning at the screen, the camera was still pointed at him. Once more the Ghost King looked down at himself, feeling for the familiar hum of his powers. He definitely knew he was still invisible.

"It's all a little blurry but I think the SLS Camera is picking something up…" The Teen muttered and Danny watched how the girls wandered over to look at the screen too.

"That's just a bundle of yellow lines. Doesn't even remotely look like a stick figure." Spoiler commented and Danny really wished he could let out a sigh of relief. So the camera was not picking him up. That was good to know.

"That is strange. When I tested it before the background image was still clearly visible but it looks like everything is blurry and static like." Red Robin muttered and Danny couldn't help but suck in a breath when the teen looked up directly at him.

The Ghost King knew they couldn't see him but right now this feels like the teen could. Danny let out the breath he sucked in once the teen turned to the vigilante in blue.

"Hey Nightwing. Could you spark some electricity?"

"What?"

"Your escrima sticks." The teen deadpanned. "Use them and spark some electricity into the air to charge the molecules."

"Why the fuck should he do that?"

"The interference I am getting on the camera is probably because the ghost used up most of its energy with the little music stunt it pulled. So to recharge and offer them some energy to keep communicating with us, we will release some electricity into the air. This will also prevent the ghost from attempting to drain any of our batteries or in the worst case our own energy or stamina if you want to say it like that."

What? Danny blinked. Okay he was the Ghost King, yes he had learned from his tutors that there are some ghosts that feed on electricity but most of them had an electric core and as far as Danny knew he was not sucking up battery power or life energy, not a power he had developed…. yet? He probably should ask his former rogue Technus if he knew anything about what Red Robin just said.

While Danny contemplated this the other vigilantes were staring at Red Robin and his explanation and the teen sighed. "Look if you don't want to use them, under the table to your left is a case with a modified stun gun that will do the same."

"We are not giving this Pit Demon power!" Robin declared as he moved to sit in front of the case blocking Nightwing as well as anyone else potential access to it.

Nightwing only shrugged and took out his weapons letting them spark to live.

There was a very hearable sharp intake of air and suddenly the rooms temperature dropped. The vigilantes watched how a sheen of ice spread around the walls and ice flowers started to bloom on the windows and glass like surface.

"What the fuck?!" Red Hood yelled, dropping the controller he was holding and pulling out his guns.

"We didn't invite Mr. Freeze, did we?" Spoiler asked no one in particular, rubbing her arms for warmth. Orphan was taking on a fighting position with her eyes surveying the room. Robin had sprung up on his feed, katana out and ready to fight once more, even Nightwings whose escrima sticks were still crackling with electricity assumed a fighting position.

The only one who appeared unconcerned was Red Robin, his eyes were still glued onto the screen that was still blurry and static like at times. "Hmm they weren't drawing energy front he camera... but now we know that the ghost has temperature changing abilities. I wonder… if I use the integrated heat-vision of our masks...."

"RR not the time to get stuck in your head!"

Danny couldn't breath as he pressed himself further into the ceiling. Green glowing eyes focused on the visible electricity sparking and humming from the blue ones weapons. His entire focus was on that and he hated it.

He had fucking trauma with a capital T. His friends knew that. His siblings knew that. His parents knew that. His former rogues knew that. Ancients. Even Dan had admitted it once to him that he had a similar problem with electricity!

Everything in him screamed to get away from that electric hum, he barely remembered to keep his invisibility up as he sought out the point farest away from what he probably presumed were tasers sticks. He hated how his core trembled and he wanted to do nothing more than fly as far away as he could.

"HEY GHOST FUCKER! STOP TRYING TO MAKE US POPSICLES!"

Green eyes snapped away from the crackling electricity and Danny could only stare at Red Hood who clearly didn't know where Danny was but still yelled profanities at every wall of the room not once moving from his spot though.

"Like yelling at the ghost will work. Anyone happen to have a blow torch on hand?"

"<tt> I told you it's a Pit Demon and now because of Red Robins stupidly we might end up frozen."

"Look how was supposed to know that the Ghost would use the electricity to change the Temperature this drastically? I knew they could change the temperature slightly but not like this!"

"Nightwing stop fucking sparking electricity already!"

"Oh right." The electric hum stopped and Danny felt himself relax slightly. "How do we get out of this? Think we could get B on the coms to bring us something?"

"Isn't he with the Justice League, right now?"

"<tt> You are all too relaxed for this."

"Oh, do you have a better idea than Demon Brat?"

Blinking Danny realized he had frozen over the entire room and that the ice had traveled up to the knees of the vigilantes. Nervously he rubbed at the back of his neck as he let his powers run and told the ice to withdraw from the vigilantes.

-Sorry, I am not got with electricity like that.- The Ghost King apologised in ghost speech sheepishly as soon as that spirit box was no longer covered in ice and his own trauma infused panic had settled down. It was probably better not to let them hear his voice right now.

Red Robin instantly turned his attention back to the SLS Camera Screen only to find it shut down. The cold had messed with something in it, making it blue screen and shut down. The vigilante narrowed his eyes, had the ghost maybe done this on purpose like Robin had said?

"Okay fucking noted. No sparking electricity if we don't want to be popsicles." Red Hood grumbled clearly not happy with what happened as he dramatically stomped with his boots like he was testing if he could feel all his toes.

"Did you die getting electrocuted? That was a pretty strong reaction." Nightwing couldn't help but ask. A little worry as well as curiosity layering his voice.

"Wait didn't Mr. Ghost say last time that asking about how he died is rude?"

"We are not pissing of that fucker any more than we already have." Red Hood decided, crossing his arms, guns still in his hands, while the EMF Meter lay forgotten by his feet.

"This Pit Demon is clearly tricking us. This was an attempt to get rid of us."

"Stop saying that! We still don't even know if it's a Pit Demon in the first place!"

Danny felt a presence appear next to him as he continued watching the vigilantes argue, a little amused as well as still apologetic because of the ice. Carefully he side eyed the presence hoping for all there was that it wasn't who he felt it was only to gulp. Next to him was Lady Gotham and she was once again holding the ghost club in her hands. A new kind of panic settled in the Ghost King's stomach, he slowly started to understand why Clockwork had such respect for this spirit.

"Oh look at the time. It has gotten late. Gotta go! BYE!"

Okay he panicked and once again forgot about ghost speech when he opened the portal home right next to him to escape her first swing but in his defense: That spirit had a mean swing that rivaled all the females of his family when they had the Creep Stick at hand and were pissed.

[sophiethewitch1]

i got diagnosed with dystonia and cogwheel rigidity so needless to say I've been having a hard time lmao. Do you think the batboys would be more protective over a MC who can't really move properly due to her physical disability/disabilities?

Aw man, I'm so sorry to hear that :( As someone with fibro, I really get it.

Anyway, yes they'd be way too overprotective with you. They all know what it's like to be in pain, and to be restricted because of that. Of course, there's was because of broken bones and other such things, things that were temporary. But they can still understand and sympathise.

Tim and Damian would be very inclined to keep you under house arrest, but they'd still want what's best for you. Your health is the number one priority, their own petty greed second. Jason says he's willing to be your personal carrier pigeon, and it's kind of obvious he's more than willing. Dick is always happy to help, waiting hand and foot for you to be just that little bit more comfortable. All of them really want your appreciation and acknowledgement. They're desperate to be helpful, to be needed by you. If you just say thanks they're willing to go to the ends of the world for you. They'd probably do it anyway, but shush.

And even with them being that protective in the house, it's so much worse if you want to go out. They have a group chat where they share the itinerary, and make sure wherever you go is accessible for you. And if anyone ever dares mock you for the way you move, or any of your mobility/disability aids... god help that soul. They deserve it of course, but even I can say the punishment they deal out is a bit... much.

That's all to say, these boys care about one thing, and that's making you as happy as possible. Everything else is just an obstacle. And honestly, give those four geniuses enough time and you might even end up cured. They might be a little sad after, because you're not quite as reliant on them. It was nice, being able to keep you safe, keep you close. Just make sure to give them extra love, okay?

[silverwhittlingknife]

hi Silver! o/ because that fanart made me wonder - would you happen to know when/where Dick's stuffed elephant plush Zitka turns up in the comics?

GREETINGS CAM <3333 THAT ART WAS SO CUTE

Yeah, I think your instincts are right - it's a truly adorable bit of transformative fandom, but I'm 95% percent sure it's not comics canon. Barbara has canon plushies, but I don't think anyone else does.

I got kinda invested in the investigation (it's hard to prove a negative!) and I ended up typing out an entire History of Elinore/Zitka, so, uh, if you're curious, meet me below the cut for:

Where does Elinore / Zitka - the animal - appear in comics?

Did Dick ever have a stuffed elephant toy in comics?

Where does Elinore / Zitka appear in comics?

We're gonna go in chronological order!

Dick's circus elephant friend was first created for practical reasons: in Batman 436, Marv Wolfman does a big expanded flashback to Dick's circus backstory as a way to subtly show us Tim before officially introducing him (so that we can have a technically-solvable mystery-of-Tim's-identity in LPoD). In this comic, there's an elephant named Elinore who loves Dick:

Aww. Such a cute elephant!

Batman 436 comes out in August 1989. New Titans 60 comes out a few months later, in November, and guess what? When Dick visits the circus, he is suddenly surprised by an unexpected blast from the past! It turns out that even though it's been years, Elinore still remembers him!

Here's the part where Elinore remembers Dick:

SUCH a cute elephant. I love her.

(Guess who else still remembers Dick even though it was so long ago. Guess which other character is about to be an unexpected blast from the past. Guess which character Elinore is directly paralleling guess guess guess sorry everything is about Dick and Tim in my mind but I can focus I swear)

Four years later, in 1993, Batman: The Animated Series retells Dick's origin story. They like and keep Wolfman's elephant, but they change her name to Zitka:

Wolfman doesn't return to the elephant beyond those two appearances, and a few years down the line, New Titans gets cancelled and Wolfman's not writing Dick anymore anyway. So the animal gets abandoned for a while, until Devin Grayson, a fan of both Wolfman and B:tAS, revives the Wolfman-era Titans team in JLA/Titans and then the ongoing series Titans 1999.

Grayson then brings back the elephant in a flashback to Dick's past in Titans 16 (Jun 2000), where she imports the B:tAS name. Sometimes I'm skeptical of TV-to-comics imports, but honestly, I endorse this one. You lose the alliteration, which is a shame, but IMO Zitka is a better elephant name than Elinore.

Here's Dick with the newly-christened Zitka in Titans 16:

Grayson also briefly references the elephant in Gotham Knights 20 and - in a final angsty callback - in Nightwing 88 (Feb 2004), where Zitka tries futilely to comfort Dick in the midst of his trauma conga line:

... And... honestly, I think that's it for comic appearances? The two Wolfman comics plus the three Grayson comics.

Both Wolfman and Grayson are writing multiple titles - Batman, New Titans, Titans, Gotham Knights, and Nightwing between the two of them, spanning a big chunk of Dick's post-Crisis canon - and both writers use the elephant for heartwarming moments of nostalgia, which means if you're doing a post-Crisis readthrough for Dick, Elinore/Zitka feels memorable. But I don't think she actually shows up that much.

For post-2011, I am not as well-informed - throwing this out to the dash? anyone know? - but I feel like Zitka the heartwarming symbol of Dick's heartwarming circus past is, uh, thematically very at odds with the Court of Owls evil!circus vibes, so my instinct is that this story element was almost certainly dropped in the reboot.

Did Dick ever have a stuffed elephant toy in comics?

In WFA, yes; in main comics continuity, no. Technically, I have not read every comic ever published, so I could be wrong!! But I don't think so.

Below, find my rambling reasoning on the tonal vibes of pre-Crisis, post-Crisis, and post-2011, and why this particular story element doesn't seem right to me for the first two.

Pre-Crisis (...okay, mostly the Silver Age): stuffed animal, yes or no?

tl;dr no, requires too much background knowledge on the part of the reader, plus the elephant wasn't a thing until later

Elinore doesn't get created until post-Crisis, but also just generally, pre-Crisis callbacks are more along the lines of this reference in Batman 129 (published in 1960), where, wow, Batman and Robin are hunting jewel thieves - and it turns out Robin recognized this strongman! BUT HOW?!

The comic goes on to recap Dick's entire origin story in flashback, on the assumption that you may not know it.

(BTW, if you'd like to know more about Haly's Circus throughout the years, nightwingology has a great post here summarizing a lot of fun plotlines and characters!)

Basically: Silver Age comics are very self-consciously episodic and kid-friendly; they're not generally gonna do overly-elaborate callbacks because they don't know what comics their kid readers may have randomly picked up or remember.

By the time of post-Crisis, comic books were being written for an adult audience buying from the direct market, i.e. readers who are collecting whole runs & don't need or want Dick's origin story to be recapped to us in full every time it's referenced. That's why in post-Crisis, we get stuff like "hey, neat, this particular soda brand is getting mentioned in several different books!!" or "in order to understand this story arc, buy SIXTEEN DIFFERENT COMICS in FIVE DIFFERENT RUNS and read them ALL ACCORDING TO A NUMBERED ORDER and also you better be following the individual plotlines and recognize these five minor characters who we don't bother to introduce!! Good luck!!" But the elaborate post-Crisis plotlines - and subtler worldbuilding like a stuffed animal callback to Dick's backstory - don't make a lot of story sense UNLESS you're imagining your readers as completionist adult fans.

So IMO a stuffed animal wouldn't be a pre-Crisis thing unless it was The Episodic Story Of the Week, and I don't think a stuffed animal is action-adventure-y enough for the fast-paced storytelling of the Silver Age. (Unless it, like, came to life and tried to eat you or something.)

Post-Crisis: stuffed animals, yes or no?

tl;dr: no, Dick's a manly tough guy, he's not gonna have a stuffed animal, that'd be lame, like something Tim might do

Part of the edgy grimdark adult vibes in 80s/90s comics is that some characters who used to be kinda silly & goofy & lighthearted - like Batman and Robin - get reimagined as Serious and Angsty and Edgy in a Tough Cool Manly Brooding Way. This massively affects characterization for Bruce, Dick, and Bruce and Dick's relationship.

(I obviously love this change & love the tense Bruce-and-Dick interactions, but plenty of fans of the earlier fluffy comics really disliked the edgy retcons of Miller / Wolfman / Starlin / et al.)

The upshot is that post-Crisis is a period when you could have a recurring reference like a stuffed elephant, but you wouldn't have a stuffed elephant, not for Dick. I think a toy like that would be too cutesy / childish / effeminate to give a male character in post-Crisis, unless you were poking fun at him.

Now, you could probably let Tim have a stuffed animal, because Tim is sometimes cool but also sometimes a tryhard loser who is faking being cool and not entirely pulling it off (see e.g. the Robin comic where he practices tough-guy faces in the mirror, or the Teen Titans comic where Conner discovers his cringy Enya CD, or when he's fanboying over Connor and it's awkward, etc etc.). A stuffed animal would be deeply embarrassing, and you'd have to be careful to compensate by having Tim do something cool afterward - but Tim's character concept allows for "he's kind of a loser sometimes."

But Dick isn't!! In post-Crisis, Dick's a tough / impressive / "cool guy" character, the kind of guy anyone would want to be, even in the flashbacks where he's Robin, and even in the stories where he's more lighthearted than angsty. It'd be kinda lame for Dick to have a stuffed elephant, so he wouldn't. I feel like Dick would be more likely to poke fun at it if someone had one, like when he's making fun of Wally for liking the Hardy Boys. Dick could have a Batman action figure, at most, and if he had one he would have it ironically.

Basically: in post-Crisis, a male character hugging a stuffed elephant feels more likely to be a punchline to me, not something poignant. (Even with Tim, Tim could have an embarrassing stuffed animal, but he couldn't hug it when sad - that's too far. Maybe Booster Gold might do this. Probably he wouldn't, but spiritually, he would. Sorry Booster ilu! <3)

Instead, Dick instinctively deals with his inner turmoil like the TORTURED ACTION HERO he is: by punching things and brooding and yelling and joining the mob and sleeping on rooftops and going on obsessive secret missions and acquiring Angsty Stubble!! Just like Batman!

(Technically I don't know if Bruce ever joined the mob but you know he would.)

Anyway as you know this is my favorite continuity and I am poking fun affectionately, but uh, yeah sdfsfdsfs. No stuffed animals.

Post-2011 / Infinite Frontier / Wayne Family Adventures: stuffed animals, yes or no?

tl;dr it's in WFA! Probably not anywhere else, but it could be.

Post-2011 stuff tends to be cutesier overall, most of all in the current Infinite Frontier era. So I don't feel like this would be tonally out-of-line with IF comics. Taylor tends to go for more meme-y references rather than fanfic references, though.

So the obvious best fit is WFA, which is aiming for a rough approximation of Silver Age family-friendly vibes - wholesome, episodic plots, Teaching Good Moral Lessons For The Youth, etc. - plus lots of Easter eggs for fanfic readers and some comic references.

And look, here we are:

Aww.

Whew - that's everything I could find!

Anyway as you can probably tell, I LOVE the elephant, so this was a very entertaining rabbit hole to go down, thank you <3

[willfulscarlet]

Seriously?

On what planet could Bruce feasibly stand in for Dick? You can hide a lot with a domino mask, but he’s twice as wide, half a foot taller and a quarter as flexible.

[sofyreneko]

hc that one thing everyone in the batfamily knows without doubt is: alfred knows everything. hidding anything from alfred is a waste of time and energy, because he always just knows. so they simply don’t. they dont need to tell him, but they dont need to hide it, he always knows anyways.

however, the thing is alfred is just a regular old man who spends all of his time cleaning, cooking and making sure they dont die. he doesnt have time to be figuring out what the bat ninjas he has for a family is hidding so most often than not he doesnt know. it doesnt help that no one in the family ever tells him anything, because they expect him to just know. he just has a really really good poker face and an inability to be surprised by much so everyone just assumes he already knew once he discovers anything.

[welcometogrouchland]

I miss them so bad (Dick and Damian)

[notfeelingthyaster]

tim as ceo is an absurd concept (at his age of twenty something because i am a seventeen atheist) except as a joke, but i can see him as a corporate drone around bruce (as head of some kinda department? very nepo baby)

he's the only one of bruce's kids interested in corporative work (except for maybe Duke): Dick is very community focused (officer, teacher, etcetc), Jason is dead (legally and emotionally and ocasionally physically), Cass Could Not Care Less, Steph is Not Official and you can take vet/activist Damian out of my cold dead hands

so yes, tim (and maybe duke) as future nepo baby heads of WE, thank you

[erebosblue]

I cannot find the post now, (god I should’ve saved it,) but there was this post about how the other Batkids shouldn’t be given their own cities like Dick with Blüdhaven because they’re more connected to Gotham than Dick is and while I agree I also wanna add on:

Dick is shown actively struggling to keep Blüdhaven together.

he’s doing the best he can with the resources he has and is generally doing better than you would expect for a city with a worse crime rate than Gotham, but it’s not easy.

by the time he actually became Blüdhaven’s protector, he already had years of experience. because that’s the only way it is believable that he is able to basically be the Batman of another city without the same resources.

remember, Blüd was not Dick’s first city. if I recall correctly, he was first protecting NYC. a city he would not be helping completely solo.

basically: if you want to separate the Batkids from Gotham for whatever reason, put them in a city with other heroes first.

UPDATE FOUND THE POST: https://www.tumblr.com/legendarygrayson/748938004885913600/stop-saying-jasonstephtim-should-get-their-own

[frogaroundandfindout]

Nightwing Vol.2. #52

[crismakesstuff]

i feel bad for everyone saying nolan can’t get a redemption arc or that he’s gonna be some big final antagonist

his redemption arc is a huge part of the plot of the comic guys they can’t not do it. Doesn’t mean anyone needs to like him or anything but yea don’t worry he’s gonna pay in his own blood for his crimes. mark got his proneness for getting his ass beat from his father

[batcavescolony]

How many times do I have to hit the stupid fanboys with a bat before they get that Robin is an integral part of Batman's story? And How many times do I have to hit DC with a bat before they get that too?

[goldenraeofsun]

LAST LINE MEME

Rules: post the last line that you wrote and tag someone for every word in the line.

Tagged by: @selkienight60!

"Please tell me you’re not including the chandelier story."

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