#he might be the first robin but his story line is actually jason todd's

[weirdnico]

the one and only (?) boy wonder!

[zahri-melitor]

Not that I would ever write a Titans Tower fic because of so many reasons but, if we gently massage the timeline just a lil bit here I can make such a better set of starting conditions than your average fic. That actually, you know, recognises when the story is set.

Teen Titans #29 is a December 2005 story, the same month that Dick agrees to work with Slade to train Rose (and proceeds to 'train' Rose as a villain by pointing out all the ways she needs to learn how to fight against the various members of the Society of Super Villains for the inevitable occasion they betray her dad. Oh Dick. You are so bad at being a villain. Anyway). The following month Roy shows up to go "what are you DOING DICK" at the request of Oracle and Dick kicks him around a bit in Nightwing #114.

But what if we shift events in Nightwing just a little forward, ahead of Teen Titans.

So then we can have this Roy-Dick-Rose are fighting Venom-pumped mooks fight scene...and Roy gets an emergency override from Oracle in his ear, letting him know that Titans Tower has gone into lockdown for some reason, setting off an alert.

Now, Mia's on the Teen Titans at this point. So Roy freaks out because Mia's supposed to be there and tells Dick who ALSO FREAKS OUT because the first information about the lockdown Oracle passes along has some detail about the alert giving very bad vibes (hinting that it's one of Jason's codes or something like that, or Tim's managed to set off a distress call or why am I overthinking this, it's a Titans Tower fic).

And Dick (still dressed as Ravager, I might add) turns around with Roy to go storm the Tower and figure out what has gone on, telling Rose "you wanted practice being bad? We're going to go break into Titans Tower".

And given it's Roy and Dick, they are immediately in agreement that they take Rose with them for a fun and educational trip (also Rose knows how to sneak around the Tower just as well as anyone, she's lived there before too while she was Lian's nanny, even though she's recently had her mental breakdown and stabbed out her eyeball an extra body who knows how the Tower works is helpful right now).

So the upshot of this and Dick using his very not-supposed-to-be-used JL transporter codes he nicked off Bruce, probably assisted by Dinah given she's an Actual JLAer at this very point in time and standing right next to Babs during all of these shenanigans, is that Jason Todd, in full weeb 'I'm not having a tantrum about no longer being Robin, honestly I'm not' costume turns around from fighting Tim and bearing down on him is a chick in what looks like a Deathstroke costume knockoff, a creepy red vigilante he's never seen before, and a fuming mad Roy Harper.

We go from there. Jason is having a very bad day.

There's also this angle where Dick's just been explaining to Rose exactly how bad news Talia al Ghul is almost immediately before all of this occurs, so if you want some dramatic irony there is another line to exploit...

[superawesome40]

Wayne Children Timeline Update

Okay, so I’ve hit a standstill on the timeline. I’ve got (most) significant not-hero-related details worked out (I think???) and I’m working on education/jobs right now, but there is SO MUCH from canon that I could pick from, and I’m honestly a bit overwhelmed. Anyone want to help me out?

Enjoy me spiraling into madness as I attempt to introduce the events that I’m probably going to include:

Dick

The Slade/Deathstroke story line, probably heavily warped to fit the storyline.

Talon/The Court of Owls. I love those funky dudes, but I admit I only really know them ‘cause of the rhyme.

Spyral? Maybe? Honestly I have NO IDEA what Spyral is at all, and I’ll need to investigate more.

I’m on the fence about including the whole Catalina Flores storyline. I’ve heard about it in passing, but I haven’t actually done any research into it yet. It’s a VERY sensitive topic, and I don’t want to mishandle anything, especially if I ever get around to writing stories set within this universe.

I think Dick being a cop at some point is really, really funny, so I might have him join the Bludhaven (Blüdhaven?) PD for a bit? So he can take them down from the inside or something. He quits after like. Two years.

Jason

The Catherine Todd/Sheila Haywood/Willis Todd… situation.

Whacking the scary man with a tire iron (was that one ever even a question? Of course I’m including it)

League bodyguard for baby Damian (I’m pretty sure this one is fanon, but it’s my AU, I do what I want!!!)

Heads in a duffle bag

Titans Tower attack.

I’ve heard something about magic fire swords maybe, but I’m not sure.

This is making me realize I know… very little about what Jason got up to after his revival.

Cass

Huh. I don’t really have anything to put here? I know next to nothing about Cass outside of her involvement in the Batfam. Send help.

No like actually. What does she do? I love her character, but this post is making me realize that I don’t actually KNOW them.

Tim

Stalker baby stalker baby stalker baby stalker baby

Joker Jr.! I dunno, I really like the idea of JJ being like a completely different entity who lies dormant in Tim’s head and pops up from time to time? It inspired a story where Tim has several versions of himself living up in his head. I invented an entire disorder for it: Fragmented Personality Disorder. Probably won’t be a thing in this AU, but either way. JJ is DEFINITELY happening.

Young Justice is morally gray at best and they try very hard to pretend like they aren’t. (Young Justice is actually the only comics I’ve read, and I’ve only read up to like. Issue # 6 so far. I love my little dudes so much.)

Off topic, but will someone explain coffee Tim vs. energy drink Tim? Can’t he just combine the two with an ass load of sugar and call it a day?

Spleen.

Highest kill count. Don’t care if it’s canon. He has the highest kill count, he’s not sorry, and he WILL do it again.

I don’t know why the idea of Conner, Cassie, Tim, and Bart running around space completely unsupervised is so funny to me, but it is. Is it canon? Don’t ask me, I have no idea. Is it in this AU? Absolutely.

Again. What does he get up to? Robin era, Red Robin era, anywhere? Anything significant happen? At all???

Duke

Uhhhhhhhh.

I know about his parents. That’s definitely happening.

We Are Robin? What is We Are Robin? Is it pre-Batfam? Post-Batfam?

Wait was he Signal before or after he was a Bat?

Is he a Bat?

I COULD do my research. Or I could do the lazy thing and make you all do it for me :)

Damian

This is the little bastard that dragged me kicking and screaming into the DCU. This is all his fault.

Fun fact! I hated anything and everything to do with DC purely because I was introduced to Marvel first. I thought it was dumb, and poorly written, and a cheap knock off of Marvel. This was back when I only knew about like, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. I didn’t even know that the Flash was DC at this point. Then I found out about Damian and… well, it all spiraled from there.

So anyways, let’s see.

Killed by the Heretic? Yup.

Metal spine? Absolutely.

Dick Grayson’s Robin? Without a doubt.

Hmmm what else…

What happened in Super Sons?

Uh

What did he get up to with the Titans (?) That was a thing, right?

Wasn’t there a murder island story arc? Maybe? And he died for like, a minute but then he came back?

Also Damian and Tim attempt to murder each other as a ✨bonding activity✨

Bruce

Don’t even get me started on freaking Bruce. I dread the day I finally get up the courage to start looking into Bruce.

So yeah. Send help? Suggest your favorite fight/monster/comic for me to research? Please, I’m begging you. Doesn’t matter the universe, or the era, or whether it’s pre-Crisis or Earth 1 or whatever other million ways there are to break them down (I still have to look into those, too.), anything you think should be on the timeline, let me know and I’ll look into it.

[pluckyredhead]

Character Profile: Eddie Bloomberg (Kid Devil/Red Devil)

Some of you could probably see this one coming. I have an Eddie fic ready to share with you very soon, but for those of you who have no idea who I’m talking about, I figured I should fill you in. So here he is! The sweetest little devil in the DCU!

Eddie Bloomberg debuted in the 1984 Blue Devil series. Blue Devil is Dan Cassidy, a Hollywood stuntman/special effects artist who was cursed by a demon and trapped in a devil costume forever. If he had been a Marvel character, he would be hated and feared etc, but since he lives in the DCU, it literally has no effect on his movie career. I love the DCU.

The producer of the movie Dan is making when he’s cursed is Marla Bloom (real name: Marlene Bloomberg), a somewhat manic but fiercely loyal visionary. Her nephew, Eddie, is a gofer on set and in fact is only known as “Gopher” for quite a few issues of Blue Devil before anyone uses his actual name. Eddie is teeny tiny in this series - logically he’s probably no younger than 12, since he’s allowed to actually have a job on set, but the writing and art, especially his little OshKosh B’gosh green overalls, make him seem younger, more in the 8-10 range.

(Note: It is never explicitly stated that Eddie and Marla are Jewish, but their last name, and Marla changing her name upon arriving in Hollywood, are such obvious clues that I wouldn’t even consider it coding or subtext. It might be missed by people who aren’t familiar with Jewish names or the long history of Jewish people changing said names to make it in Hollywood - which, trust me, is as antisemitic as anywhere else - but they are Jewish. This will have some HIGHLY PROBLEMATIC IMPLICATIONS further down the line, but we’ll get there.)

Eddie’s hero worship of Dan leads him to make his own costume, plus a “trident” (Dan has one too and that’s what they both call it, but you guys, you are devils, not mermen. They’re pitchforks.) that he uses to fly, which, UM??? Eddie is apparently a genius and no one ever comments on it?

Eddie is probably best known these days in fandom for his extremely brief (it’s a four page story) friendship with Jason Todd in his Robin days. They are PEN PALS and they team up to catch a jewel thief and it’s so damn cute:

But not too long after this, Blue Devil was canceled, and Eddie faded into obscurity. That is, until he showed up on the Teen Titans 20 years later, looking like this:

Eddie is now 17, and the intervening years have been extraordinarily shitty for him.

First, his Aunt Marla was like “Hey, I talked your parents into letting you stay with me indefinitely, because I love you!” and it took him years to realize that actually, his parents had suggested he stay in Hollywood because they didn’t want him.

Then Marla died in a freak helicopter crash, because some safety lights that should have been on were out. Eddie struggled to keep a job after that, since he’s not actually very good at being a gopher/PA. (Why he was allowed to live on his own/work/not go to school as a minor is not explained.)

He decided to focus on being a superhero, but no one wants a kid in a devil suit with no powers, so that didn’t go so hot either. Eventually he got his chance when a mysterious hooded stranger gave him a black candle, which...Eddie, no. Lighting the candle took him to Neron, who is one of the DCU’s several versions of the devil, specifically the one who makes Faustian bargains with characters.

Neron asked Eddie who he trusted the most in the world, and Eddie said Blue Devil. Neron offered Eddie a deal: he would give Eddie powers, and in exchange, if Eddie ever lost his trust in Blue Devil, his soul would belong to Neron on his 20th birthday. Eddie, thinking nothing could shake his faith in his hero, agreed.

And then Neron told him that Blue Devil killed Marla.

This was in fact completely true. Years ago, Dan had made a deal with Neron: fame in exchange for destroying a power station in the middle of nowhere. Dan, assuming no one would be hurt, agreed. The power station being down was the reason the warning lights were out during Marla’s helicopter crash. Dan never told anyone the truth about her death.

Eddie refuses to believe him, because after all, Neron is a demon and demons lie. He goes on to finally join the Teen Titans as the happy go lucky comic relief/loser. But it weighs on him, and finally he confronts Dan:

Eddie realizes to his horror that his soul is now forfeit to Neron on his 20th birthday, which is less than three years away. But he doesn’t want anyone to pity him, and he doesn’t want to spend the next three years being miserable, so he doesn’t tell anyone (except his friend Zachary Zatara, who was there when he met Neron), and continues to be the sweet, seemingly happy-go-lucky comic relief of the 2000s-era Titans. EDDIE MY DARLING. 😭

I do want to pause here to talk about the implications of Eddie’s transformation. Like I said earlier, Eddie is Jewish. Even if that’s never confirmed in the comics, even if he isn’t religious (we have no evidence one way or the other), Eddie is at the very least ethnically Jewish on his father’s side. This is the extremely clear intent of his (also Jewish) creators.

Jewish people having horns, and just generally being associated with devils, is a very, very old stereotype dating back to the Middle Ages. It was used in Nazi propaganda. I’m a millennial, and I know Jewish people my age who have been asked where their horns are. It is a living stereotype, and an incredibly dangerous one.

I am...let’s say 90% sure that giving a Jewish character horns was a genuine mistake? Maybe Geoff Johns, who wrote that storyline, didn’t realize that “Bloomberg” was a Jewish last name. Maybe he wasn’t familiar with the stereotype. But I can rattle off a whole list of shockingly racist things that man has written by (maybe) accident, and he was one of the people Ray Fisher called out for racism during the filming of Justice League, so...who knows. I love Eddie, I love the devil version of him, but I also don’t trust Geoff Johns an inch, and am generally very uncomfortable with the implications of this particular transformation. (Also, like...cramming a Jewish character into Christian mythology like this is still pretty gross. Jews don’t believe in Hell.)

Eddie has a lengthy tenure on the Titans, from the mid-2000s almost all the way to the New 52. Like I said before, he’s largely comic relief/the “loser” team member who thinks no one likes him (and some characters are pretty relentlessly contemptuous of him, particularly Cassie and Tim during their era of being written horribly OOC at all times). He’s also incredibly self-sacrificing - at one point a villain tries to kill him but accidentally absorbs his curse instead, and Eddie insists on taking it back, because he can’t let anyone suffer in his place, even a rando who tried to murder him for no reason. EDDIE MY LOVE.

And he does have friends! Aside from his friendship with Zachary Zatara (who isn’t really on the team), he’s particularly close with Miss Martian and Blue Beetle.

And then there’s Rose Wilson, Ravager. She joins the team right around the same time Eddie does, and he very obviously has a massive crush on her. Rose equally obviously does not really know how to relate to people in an honest and healthy way, so she veers wildly between flirting with Eddie, being scathingly cruel to him, opening up to him in a way she doesn’t with anyone else, and going feral to protect him.

Also, this happens:

I have never recovered.

Eddie eventually loses his powers when he’s bitten by Brother Blood, because sure, why not? A trip to Hell confirms that not only is he free of his obligation to Neron, but he never actually signed a contract in the first place - Neron simply activated Eddie’s latent metagene, which...turned him into a demon for reasons but can be mystically deactivated, apparently? Look, there’s no time to make sense, Eddie has a noble sacrifice to get to!

Eddie is happy to be free of Hell, obviously, but he’s now stuck being support staff for the Titans, since he doesn’t have any powers. Rose, who had left the team a while back, returns and tries to get Eddie to leave with her, since it’s dangerous to be powerless around superheroes. He turns her down. EDDIE, NO.

Literally the next issue, a riot breaks out on Alcatraz, which is a supervillain prison in the DCU. While the Titans are fighting the supervillains, Eddie is tricked by the Calculator into flying out to the island in the T-Jet to try to find a nuke. When he discovers that the nuke is just a man with radioactive powers who is melting down and minutes from exploding, he gets the man into the T-Jet and flies it as high as possible before the explosion, saving the Titans, Alcatraz, and San Francisco.

😭😭😭

Eddie stayed dead for the next year or so, and then the New 52 happened. He appeared in one issue as Blue Devil’s godson in the New 52; then returned for one more issue with his powers intact in Rebirth.

And then he died at Sanctuary in Heroes in Crisis, because apparently if you’re a redheaded friend of Jason Todd with a penchant for backwards baseball caps, you’re gonna die in HiC.

We haven’t seen Eddie since, so it’s anyone’s guess whether he was brought back to life by Infinite Frontier or not. I choose to believe he was, because I love him and I say so.

If you want to read about Eddie, your best bet is the 2003 Teen Titans series. It’s, like...pretty bad, but it’s also the lion’s share of Eddie’s appearances, and he’s extremely lovable. If you’re looking for fic, I'm mostly familiar with stories where he appears as Jason’s bestie. Eddie Fucking Bloomberg by chucklesbuckles makes me laugh every time I read it. Eddie also has small but delightful roles in the longer JayRoy fics i wish i was by @shhhenanigans​ and gentle on my mind (the actual world) by @hamjay​. And Burning my defenses by the shaking of her hips is some excellent Rose/Eddie by @macabrekawaii​.

(Also, I have a fic about him coming next week! Stay tuned!)

In conclusion: don’t cry. Baby Eddie in Tiny Titans, okay?

[themuskrater]

I just played and finished Gotham Knights for the first time

And I have a LOT of thoughts. I might go in depth on certain things in other posts, but I want to kinda go over my general thoughts and feelings about this game. Spoilers ahead for:

First things first, if you want this to be "Arkham: Gotham Knights", you are going to leave very disappointed. The game's reception was hurt pretty bad by comparisons it to the Arkham series. Arkham is a masterpiece. Gotham Knights is very good at what it wants to accomplish, but comparing it to Arkham feels unfair. I mean...I'm gonna do it anyways, but I'll compare them with the intention that the Arkham games and Gotham Knights set out to accomplish two different things

The Good:

•By far, the best aspect of this game is the scripted moments between the Batfamily. This game features Nightwing (Dick Grayson), Batgirl (Barbara Gordon), Red Hood (Jason Todd), Robin (Tim Drake), and Alfred. It's very clear this is the aspect the developers put the most focus into and it really pays off. It gives me the same feeling as reading "Batman: Wayne Family Adventures". If you just want to see the Batfamily interact and support each other, you're gonna love this game

•While it took me a while to get used to, I really fell in love with the art direction of this game. The skyline of Gotham City is gorgeous. I love the way the bright neon signs illuminate the low hanging fog giving everything a sort of colorful haze. And while I don't love every suit design, I think the customization let's me really like most of them. Batman especially looks really great in this game. His suit in this game is inspired by his look in the Rebirth comics and it translates beautiful

The Bad:

• I'm genuinely confused by the characterization of Mr. Freeze in this game. His motivations are all over the place to the point that I wonder if WB Montréal decided to combine Victor and Nora Fries into one character. At the beginning of the Mr. Freeze side mission, it's explained that Mr. Freeze had given up crime because Batman had promised to help develop a cure for his condition, but now that Batman is gone, he's back at it. Victor doesn't normally care about his own illness, he just wants a cure for Nora. But Nora is never mentioned in this game. Even weirder, nothing he does in the story is ever to cure his condition. SO WHY DID HE STOP CRIME IN THE FIRST PLACE IF HE DOESN'T EVEN CARE ABOUT FINDING A CURE AND HE JUST WANTS TO FREEZE GOTHAM!? It's just a weird creative decision to take

•Yeah so this one isn't a big deal, but at one point in the story, a cat sneaks into The Belfry and the Batfamily just kind of adopt it. It stays there for the rest of the game. You can't pet the cat. I know this isn't important, but it actually made me genuinely sad when I found this out

The Ugly:

•To call this game underdeveloped would be a compliment. I wouldn't call it unpolished, because the game runs perfectly as intended in my experience. I didn't encounter a single bug or crash. But the story and the gameplay feel half-baked, which really sucks considering those are the two main aspects of a video game

•In the gameplay department, combat is passable but the skill ceiling is REALLY low. It reallys very restrictive in what you're actually able to do, but the combat by itself isn't so bad that it isn't fun.

Traversal on the other hand is awful. All the characters use a grapple to get around, but there's no momentum, so you feel like you're barely moving. You stop and lose all momentum between grapples. Arkham also has a grapple gun but it allowed you to string multiple grapple points and keep your momentum through them so they'd be more fluid and you keep your speed going

The Batcylce is also not great. It's REALLY slow and despite the added movement lines around the screen to provide the illusion of speed, you're barely moving faster than the cars on the road. Again, compare this to the Batmobile in Arkham Knight. I did not love the Batmobile in Arkham Knight, and I outright hated the Riddler races, but it was fast and you could really feel the speed in it

Finally you don't actually unlock the ability to glide or any of the other weird traversal abilities if you're playing as anyone other than Nightwing or Batgirl until you complete the Knighthood challenges. Locking an essential traversal ability behind an option set of challenges is weird to say the least. I don't have much to say about gliding, it controls fine but feels slow compared to Arkham

•Lastly, the story of this game isn't bad for what is is, but is disappointing when you realize it had the potential to be so much better by including two characters who are absent from this game: Kate Kane Batwoman and Damian Wayne Robin. The game is set up as a sort of gang war between the The League of Assassins lead by Talia Al Ghul and The Court of Owls lead by Jacob Kane. Both of their child are members of the batfamily, but were weirdly excluded from this game. Including them as playable characters could have made the conflict more personal and interesting.

Additionally, Catherine Kane, Kate Kane's step-mother, is the current anti-vigilante Commissioner of the GCPD. Her daughter being Batwoman would be great character drama that goes completely unexplored. As is, Catherine is a one dimensional, underdeveloped character. And Damian could be shown as torn between the recent death of his father and the re-emergence of his mother in Gotham City. These characters feel like obvious inclusions for the story of this game but are missing without any explanation

In Conclusion:

This game has a lot working against it. I couldn't even fit half of my thoughts into this already way too long rant. The game is just average in the gameplay, mediocre in the story, but absolutely phenomenal in the inter-character relationships. I compared it to Wayne Family Adventures earlier, and if you love stuff like that and want more of the Batfamily being supportive and wholesome to each other, you'll love this game. And I think that's genuinely the main appeal of Gotham Knights. But if you're not interested in the characters and just want a Batman action game, it's passable, but you'd be better off playing any of the Arkham games

[redhoodinternaldialectical]

Hello, I read and love your Chained Series but only now noticed the Major Character Death tag on the second one, since I moved from part 1 to part 2 without checking the tags/summary. I normally really really really do not touch Major Character Death, it just... well it just makes me really sad in a way i don't enjoy, to keep it brief, even when it's plot or story wise fulfilling a purpose.

This is in no way me asking you not to do it, it's your story, and that's how it should be!

But I was hoping if you'd be willing to give me some information around the MCD, who for example (or if this'll straight up be a bad ending overall), so I can emotionally brace myself because I really don't want to stop reading the fic, because it's really good, but going further into it blind feels daunting, in a way. I will of course not relay anything regarding the fic to others, that you might tell me (since idk how familiar you are with tumblr: there is a way to respond to asks privately in the ask-post settings, if you prefer).

If you're not happy doing this I completely understand, it's your story, but i figured it's worth asking.

I hope you have a nice day, and that the writing will be easy 👌

I would be quite happy to explain what I've got planed with that! I deliberately read spoilers for similar reasons all the time; I totally understand wanting to be forewarned and forearmed. Also I'm just happy to ramble about my fic lol :3 If ya gotta drop it, no worries, glad you enjoyed the first sections and I don't mind anyone takin care of themselves

You're probably not the only one who'd want to know so I'll just put all the spoilers in a read more:

First of all, I don't consider this to be a particularly dark story (though granted I don't consider Death Note to be a particularly dark story so uh your mileage may vary) nor do I see it ending in tragedy.

The planned deaths:

The Joker - So, he's not really a main character in this fic, in fact, he might not even get speaking lines, I'm unsure right now, but he's major in the comics so I'm counting it. It's not going to happen for a VERY long time but it is so pivotal to the functioning of a main emotional plotline that I don't know how I'd write around changing my mind about this one.

Captain Boomerang - Like the Joker, I'm not really even sure he'll get speaking lines, but he's important enough to Tim's other canon stories he makes the cut. Unlike the Joker, I don't actually know if he's going to die yet! At the end of Red Robin Tim tries to kill him but fails. I don't know if my older Tim will do it, but I am certain he'll go at least halfway through a second similar plan. Much will hinge on what I read of his interactions with Huntress.

Other assorted villains, such as Darkseid and the Batman Who Laughs - This will depend a lot on, again, my reading of how Tim interacts with the kind of violence Huntress brings to the table. It also depends a lot on how a few in-fic decisions shake out. Tim has to make the decision as to whether or not they kill more people than just the ones on his small list from the first fic and I've got a more solid idea for if he does than if he doesn't.

Roy Harper (and a few other Heroes) - He's not gonna stay dead though, none of them are. So, due to hesitance and fear of fucking shit up Jason and Tim aren't going to make some key decisions in time to prevent the whole "Heroes in Crisis" plotline from happening. Once they learn of this they are immediately going to start doing mad science to figure out how to resurrect people safely. And, of course, they have the power to time travel.

Jason Todd... Kinda. - An increasingly large and loud elephant in the room is gonna be the fact that Jason doesn't have to have died. Ever. In any timeline.

Tim could save him.

But of course that would mean rewriting the Jason he knows out of existence. There really isn't a clear cut moral equivalent to doing this? But I feel emotionally it would count as this/our Jason dying.

On the other hand if Tim refuses, he is deeply morally responsible for Jason's actual already happened death... but will have saved our Jason's existence.

Tim's decision of whether or not to save Jason's child self is THE emotional climax of the story. One of the main purposes of Chapter 12 was foreshadowing how each character will react to this very situation.

I can't put another read more, so if knowing the two options is good enough for you turn back now! And if you wanna know what Tim's decision is (I sure would!) scroll passed the two big pictures!

Tim refuses to save Jason's childhood self. He loves this Jason too much to emotionally withstand losing him. I have had this story beat and the resulting fallout planned for absolute ages and I'm 100% certain on this one. Frankly, timeline erasing the Jason we know and love would make ME cry too much to keep writing it lmao, so this one I can guarantee.

[strunmah-mah]

So now that I’ve finally seen The Batman I kinda want to brainstorm what a sequel might look like if it included a Robin and how that story might very depending on who that Robin is (because I don’t think the movies be beholden to going in the same order as the comics).

Duke Thomas - Duke comes to mind first because the immediate aftermath of the film (the entirety of Gotham is flooded because Riddler blew up the seawall) almost sounds like a variant of Zero Year (Riddler takes Gotham hostage by gaining control of the power grid, (pretty sure there’s flooding involved in there somewhere but I haven’t actually read it)). The plot of this one would be something along the lines of Bruce somehow getting custody of Duke while Batman helps him search for his missing parents. I can’t really think of a specific villain for this, but it could be a good way for Bruce to learn to be more than vengeance as he gets introduced to systemic issues in addition to Gotham’s corruption (ex: Duke getting razzed  by cops because of his race.)

Dick Grayson - Robert Pattinson has mentioned he would be interested covering The Court of Owls in a sequel. So the Grayson murders happen but instead of focusing on Dick wanting revenge against Tony Zucco (because we sorta already got that plot from Selina/Falcone) We focus instead on William Cobb attempting to abduct young Dick for the court and Bruce learning how deep Gotham’s Corruption is.

Stephanie Brown -  Would feature Arthur Brown as a Riddler follower who escaped at the end of the first film and decided to carry on Riddler’s legacy by becoming Cluemaster (no, I have no idea if these two actually even like each other in the comics) and Stephanie attempting to spoiler his clues.

Jason Todd - IDK, I’m having troubles coming up with something I like for Jason, which Is weird cause he’s my favorite. Maybe Riddler’s question of “Do you know what an orphan is?” bugs Bruce and he goes looking into Gotham orphanages and discovers the child soldier training camp that is Ma Gunn’s School for Wayward Boys?

Barbara Gordon - Not a Robin, but Jim Gordon is very clearly pro vigilante in this movie. So his daughter taking that as implicit permission to become Batgirl isn’t outlandish. Could be interesting to see the potential strain that puts on Jim’s relationship with Batman.

That’s all I got. There might be something you can do with Harper Cullen, but I don’t know enough about her to craft that story myself. I think Damian and Cassandra’s stories’ are both to reliant on people from outside Gotham to make work, and Battinson is on an arc for more internal Gotham stories. Tim I don’t think works without a sidekick preceding him. Carrie Kelly is about reigniting hope in a grizzled cynical Batman which Battinson isn’t at yet.

[stxleslyds]

MY THOUGHTS ON TITANS’ RED HOOD,

BEFORE WATCHING THE LAST EPISODE.

I will start by saying that I haven’t been able to watch the show, these are my thoughts after reading a very well-written and detailed review of the last episode. The review is also written by someone that enjoys the show, this is important because my thoughts don’t align with theirs.

I understand that Titans is known for being garbage, I know their writing is messed up, and I had no hope whatsoever for them to actually write a good Jason Todd/Red Hood story. I would also like to make clear that this post is in no way hate towards the actor playing Jason, this post is just my thoughts on Jason’s characterization.

What I really don’t like is these shows/movies taking the names of loved characters and making an “original character” out of them. Yes, there are different takes of the character and you can build their story differently but I do feel that what they did with Jason is beyond all that. They twisted every concept from his origin and his story, nothing really fits, but someway, somehow, they still managed to push all the wrong narratives when it comes to Robin Jason.

Two of the most horrible narratives that DC has decided to push are “Robin Jason was reckless and a troubled kid that never did what he was told” and “Jason Todd is to blame for his death”.

The show does push the one where Jason is reckless. Jason is consumed by fear, and Bruce Wayne pays attention to that but he doesn’t only do that, he also offers comfort and help, he tries to make Robin Jason go to therapy.

This is huge, they build up the perfect scenario for Jason to not become the Red Hood. But for some reason, they decided to make Jason reckless and too eager to prove that he didn’t need that kind of help. And then they didn’t help Jason’s case because they wrote their Bruce as a caring father that does not want to see his son get hurt or end up dead.

This Bruce Wayne is doing everything that comics Bruce Wayne didn’t. This Bruce cares, so once more, one would think that this Jason wouldn’t become the Red Hood. But, surprise! Jason Todd doesn’t take well the news of him not being able to be Robin anymore.

Here is the thing, if you were Bruce in this situation, would you let this Jason continue to be Robin when he is a danger to himself? I know I wouldn’t.

Here is where Titans’ terrible writing reaches its peak. They have a vulnerable and reckless Jason try to prove that he can still be Robin by working on *something* that can take his fears away. Jason Todd wants to make a drug, let that one sink in.

Jason Todd wants to make something that is basically a drug. Did Titans really erase the fact that Jason’s mother overdosed? Because that’s one of the most important things in Jason’s life and that built up his hate for drugs and what they do to people. His mother was in an abusive relationship and that led her to do drugs and later led her to her own death.

This might not sound too important to other people but to me, it’s something that has always been important to Jason’s character before and after his death.

Going back to the actual show, Jason goes to Scarecrow, willingly, and asks him to make him a drug that will make him don’t feel fear. I know that this Jason is vulnerable and that he probably thinks that therapy isn’t working for him, but why on earth would Jason think that making Scarecrow make a drug for him would be a good idea?

How does that make sense? The show is basically telling us that Jason had a support system and that he was going to therapy because Bruce wouldn’t want to lose his SON. Why does this show go far and beyond to make Jason look reckless and dumb?

This is not me comparing Comics Jason to Titans Jason anymore, this is me finding Titans’ logic unnecessarily stupid, they really went out of their way to write pure stupidity.

Why would they write Bruce as a caring father and as actively working so Jason can be in a better mental state so he won’t lose him as his son if they are also going to write Jason as an incredibly reckless man? Are we supposed to be on Bruce’s side? Because as of now, Bruce is the only one with brain cells.

There is absolutely no way to compare that to comics because in comics Bruce neglected Jason’s needs and refused to see that Jason had different morals even back then, and that neglect was key in Jason jumping onto the idea that he needed someone that he could call family and actually care for him. He wanted love and attention from a parental figure because he didn’t feel like he had one. Robin wasn’t everything that Jason was, he was also a kid with normal needs.

So, you build that completely different and actually give Jason the support that he also wanted in the show but for some reason, he is fiercely attached to Robin even though his fear comes from the fact that he almost died for being Robin. There is no logic to this Jason’s actions and that isn’t on Jason it's on the writers’ incredibly garbage writing. It is like they come up with ten different ideas and they put all of them but none of them are actually solid and well-developed concepts.

And you can’t tell me to get over it because “Titans has always had bad writing, there were two seasons of bad writing”. Listen, if you are happy to consume media that is badly written then that’s on you, Jason is one of my favorite characters, I don’t want him to be written badly just because that’s the show’s style. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with me wanting writers to actually care about the characters they are writing for, all three seasons have had different writers, is it really so far-fetched for me to want one of these people to write something that makes sense?

Jason's death was tragic in both comics and the show, and he was a victim in both of them, yes. But the show really pushes the limits of that, Jason wanted to take something to make him not fear, he looked for Scarecrow (not Dr. Jonathan Crane, Scarecrow, and he was an already established villain) to make him this drug when he couldn’t make it himself. He trusted Scarecrow (for some weird reason) and then as a test he went to fight Joker? It’s tragic because it ended with Jason dying but it's also tragic because the writing is just bad. It just is, and that is a problem for me.

From then on, we have the “big connection” to comics, the Lazarus Pit! Wow, you guys did it, yeah, everyone loves the Lazarus Pit, every time I think about Jason, I only think about that one time in which he was thrown in a Lazarus Pit to recover his mental injuries or all of his injuries after he came back from the dead.

This Jason has no training, there is no Talia, no League of Assassins, no Ducra or All-Castle, there is only Scarecrow and his new puppet, the Red Hood.

It changes everything and I don’t like it. Once again, I understand and know the concept of the multiverse, the various earths, and the Elseworlds, but that doesn’t mean that I have to like this take on Jason Todd/Red Hood along with its horrendous writing.

I don’t have to like it, just like I understand that others do like it because it is their first contact with the character or because they are fine, as fans of the character, with a new take. I am not gatekeeping Jason Todd or Red Hood; I am just saying that my being angry at this version and absolutely hating it is just as valid as liking this version of Jason.

Red Hood in Titans is just Scarecrow’s puppet, that’s how things are, and I just think that it is too big of a change from the original reasons for Jason to become Red Hood. And I will never get tired of saying this, Red Hood wasn’t only all about the Joker killing him and Batman not killing the Joker. The Red Hood was Jason’s way to make things work, to prove to Bruce that Batman wasn’t enough for Gotham. Red Hood came back to Gotham to stop bad people from introducing children to drugs and to make Gotham’s people feel safe.

He thought that Red Hood was the better version of Batman for Gotham and its people.

But I am not blind, I can see how Titans can twist it again to give us Red Hood as a protector of children and Gotham in general. I can see the “I used to do drugs and now I will fight so no other person goes through the same”, I see it and I am aware of it but it does also bring me to my other problem with Titans and DC in general: story swapping.

Story Swapping is something that DC loves to do, they thrive when they make change people’s origins for others and when they take character traits from one character to another.

And Titans’ Jason Todd is just that, he has characteristics and plot concepts from Dick Grayson and if what I just predicted happens then he will have some of Roy Harper's characteristics. And that is exactly what Lobdell did, but somehow, they managed to get different results. I cannot praise Titans for giving us a new Red Hood origin because they made his characterization with the help of other character’s origins and/or stories.

This is the first time that we see a live-action Jason Todd/Red Hood, was it really that hard to just stick to his origins as both Robin and Red Hood? There is so much to explore from Jason, there is so much between his death and him becoming Red Hood, from both before and after New 52.

Jason becoming Red Hood under the influence of Scarecrow in moths is lazy, bland and an insult to Jason’s character. They could have done things by the book and then explore things that we have never seen before in a show or movie.

Jason has had so much training outside of Gotham, why did Titans think that they could do acceptable work at bringing this amazingly complex character in a show that has nothing to do with him.

They could have had him killed in the Titans show and then wait and make a Red Hood show to actually tell a good story. What is Jason Todd doing in a show that is called Titans? Where are the Titans? They chose the most recognizable Titans’ line-up and they are not using it. They butchered Garth and Donna and for what?

DC gets away way too much with selling their stupid shows and movies by telling us that x character will appear but then when you watch the thing for that x character, they are nowhere to be seen. That’s exactly what they did with Cassandra Cain and what they are doing with Red Hood.

I don’t know how this tv show is doing, I only know that as a non-American that pays the same money for an HBO Max subscription, I don’t get to see any Titans content, not even a miserable trailer.

But I know that if non-comic readers are watching it, they will love it and if they actually were to start reading comics because of the show, then they wouldn’t find that Jason there. So, either that leads to Jason’s characterization being messed up even more within comics or it does nothing for Jason or comics.

To end this post, I just want to bring up the animated movie Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010).

That movie was widely praised and loved by critics, comic readers, and non-comic readers. It was fantastic, the story was amazing (even though it had differences with the comic, one might say that the differences improved the story), the voice acting was phenomenal, everything was done beautifully. Do you know what made it that way? The writing.

And you know who wrote the animated movie? The same person who wrote the comic the movie is based on, Judd Winick.

With that I am not saying that Titans should have had Judd write for them, what I am saying is that given the fact that they are using a pre-existing character they should chat with the Red Hood’s creator or even the writer that wrote for him for ten years after the character came back to comics.

This show obviously didn’t do that though, they preferred to write Jason Todd/Red Hood as if he were a Titans original character, but the thing is, from where I see it Titans didn’t give us an OC, they gave us an OOC.

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So, to sum it all up, I hate Titans’ version of Jason Todd/Red Hood, I think that it is not only badly written but there is also no real logic to what they are trying to do so far. I am also tired of their bad and lazy writing in general. And I would have liked the Titans’ writers to actually respect the Red Hood lore because if they had I would have actually been excited about a Red Hood spin-off show.

Using the material that is available to you isn’t a crime, building from that material is the best thing that they could have done, but all they really wanted to do was use Red Hood’s name to get more money from a dying show.

It makes the show look cheap and actually not interested in giving us good stories, and no, I wasn’t expecting Captain America: The Winter Soldier levels of good writing or good changes to a very loved story/characters, I was actually expecting some Lobdell writing level and the way I see it we ended up getting something worse.

These are all my opinions. You can like, love, or dislike this version of Jason and the show as much as you want but you won’t find any form of love towards the show in this blog, at least not right now.

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MY THOUGHTS ON TITANS’ RED HOOD,

AFTER WATCHING THE LAST EPISODE.

Well, I will start this part by saying: Sorry. I am sorry that I believed that Titans’ Red Hood was bad, it is actually worse than bad.

I was so wrong on many things, that review really made me think that things weren’t that bad but I still hated what I read. Now that I have watched the episode because I wanted this post to be extra honest and to stop myself from saying stupid stuff, I can also say that I hated what I watched.

This show really validates the two most horrible narratives that DC has been pushing for Jason: “he was a reckless Robin that didn’t think about his actions” and “he was to blame for his own death”

Jason Todd wasn’t a victim of Scarecrow, this Jason Todd took every single bad decision that he could, and those decisions led him to his death. No sympathy for this man.

Also, this Jason is like 19? He doesn’t look younger than that, but that’s not the point, what I am trying to point out is that this Robin is extremely underprepared, he lacks training and the mental capacity to stop acting like an edge lord every time he opens his mouth. He is annoying.

And I was wrong about Titans erasing the plotline of Jason’s mother dying of an overdose, she did die that way and this Jason spoke of her as if he hated her. What is going on? This Jason really doesn’t make me feel an ounce of sympathy for him. This attitude of “no one understands my pain” when everybody is trying to help you doesn’t make you look cool or anything of the sort, it makes you look annoying.

It is even worse because this Jason is so immature and reckless that he made his friend Molly (that is just a normal teen with no training) go after a thug with him, while he was not mentally well. He made that decision for them and put himself and her in danger. If that scene had gone any other way, then Jason could have been guilty of getting his friend injured or killed.

Jason Todd is so incredibly dumb; he is not a child but he acts like one every step of the way.

Nothing makes sense in his whole ass interaction with Bruce in front of the theatre, it’s like Jason refuses to listen to what Bruce tells him, well not that he refuses to listen it is more like a “Telefono descompuesto” I don’t know if you guys have that game but you basically have to tell something in someone’s ear and then the person repeats what they understood to the next and so on, what you said is heavily distorted by the end of the game. In this scene that is exactly what happens but it’s between two people.

When Jason accuses Bruce of not taking away Robin from Dick, Bruce says something along the lines of “I learned from my mistakes” and Jason says “so, I am a mistake now?”. Jason, use your ears, if Bruce says that he learned from his mistakes when talking about Dick, then his mistake was what he did with Dick. The writing is so bad, it's actually painful and it is even worse because the acting is bad, but I can’t blame the actors, it must really be hard to make a scene work when the writing is that bad. (Also, the unnecessary pauses, and the sounds that they play after they say something stupid, it is too funny).

Do you know what made me cringe? When they were having the chat in the theatre, in my mind all I could hear was “if you are nothing without the suit then you shouldn’t have it”, not me quoting Tony Stark in my head! I haven’t even watched that movie! But it fits perfectly for that scene.

The interaction with Scarecrow was more than dumb, if Jason was already acting like a child, now, he is basically acting like a toddler. Scarecrow saw right through him in seconds and just as fast decided that he was going to have fun with his new toy. He gave him a formula that wasn’t quite correct even though it looked like he knew exactly how to make the reverse version of his fear gas. This Jason has zero detective or survival skills but we already knew that when he made himself get captured and tortured by Deathstroke.

Anyway, all the interactions with Scarecrow were allowed to happen because this Jason can’t put two and two together. He convinces himself that everyone is out to get him, dude, Bruce is a detective and he also has eyes, Leslie didn’t tell him anything. If I were Bruce, you wouldn’t be able to be Robin anymore either.

I understand that Jason is not in a good mental place and that he wants to make his fears go away, but he had support, people around him were trying to get him help, trying to make him understand that he was hurting himself. His over-the-top anger and recklessness are unjustified when you refuse to take the help that is being offered to you.

He made terrible decisions for selfish purposes and that got him killed.

This is one of the last things I want to say, Scarecrow either didn’t need Jason at all to get out of Arkham or the writers made an oopsie because at the end of the episode he had someone helping him put Jason in the Lazarus Pit and then he was out of Arkham and he had a suit ready for Jason and everything. How did he manage all that? No idea.

The Lazarus Pit, yeah, I am sorry to be that person but the Pit can’t bring back people from the dead, it can only restore or heal physical and mental injuries (however grave they were), but Lobdell messed that one up already and Titans really didn’t have time to write a single good scene so what was I expecting?

Anyway, the last thing I wanted to say is that I know why Jason or Red Hood seems to not be affected by the drug when he sees Molly at the end of the episode, it is because the executive producer of the show is Geoff Johns! He loves making Jason fall for girls and get all mushy and dumb, do you guys remember how dumb he got when he left with Rose?

Jason being written as the kind of guy that acts like a love-sick puppy with a girl but also screams at her when he gets mad is peak Geoff Johns. So, if you were wondering where that came from, well, there it is.

Yeah, that is all I had to say, honestly if you have read this whole post then you are one strong individual, I am sorry I put you through all my thinking and rambling. You didn’t really deserve that.

I didn’t want to delete the first part of the post because I talked about so much more than the show and my thoughts before watching the episode still stand. I hope this post isn’t too confusing. As always you can think the complete opposite of me about the show or anything, I am just writing my thoughts.

Having said all that, I hope all of you, Titans’ lovers, haters, and people that simply do not care, have a wonderful week!

[timelessphoenix]

MILD SPOILERS FOR THE THEMES OF THE BATMAN AHEAD!!!

The only qualm I have with The Batman is what they're going to do about The Robin Situation (basically, nothing actually from the film, just about the path the film might take).

I'll take Jason Todd as Batman's partner (seems that's the way it's gonna go), but only if they call him anything other than "Robin."

I will not take a Dick Grayson-like character under the name of Jason or Tim or Duke.

I will not take a Jason Todd that is mostly like Jason Todd, but who had a mother who he was close to and called him "her little robin." Because.... how the hell are you gonna do a Death in the Family story if Jason and his mom were t h a t close?

You CAN'T have "Robin" (the name, not the purpose) without Dick Grayson. Before Dick came along, there was no affiliation between any sort of "robin" nickname or title and the Waynes (or anyone other than The Flying Graysons, for that matter).

My proposition, if they use Jason Todd as I think they will, is to call Batman's young new partner "Batkid," or something along those lines. A new name. Don't prescribe another character's story and traits to the character you really want to use. Because then the character you're using isn't the one you set out to (nor is it the character you borrowed from). Stay true to the story, stay true to the characters, and you'll end up being able to tell all the stories in time.

I am so serious about this. Matt Reeves did a brilliant job with this movie, and I'd be so disappointed not to see the proper Robin continuity unfold just because Hollywood obviously has a horrendous misconception about the concept of "Robin."

Honestly, Dick's story would wedge right into the dark doom and gloom of The Batman's world. Making a story about a newly orphaned boy being taken in by Bruce Wayne, who felt compelled to after the realizations he came to in his second year as Batman, and that boy needing to be guided away from his path to vengeance (again, aided by a refreshed Bruce Wayne who came to Many Realizations In His Second Year), is such a good followup and fits perfectly into the atmosphere. Like,, that's so dark.

There aren't many stories that follow, from beginning to end, Bruce and how he comes to the decision to become Batman and avenge his parents, and how he trains to accomplish it. Gotham is the only one I can think of right now. Because it's dark, and because everyone wants to skip ahead and see Bats in action (which,, fair).

But dropping John and Mary Grayson's deaths early in the film, Dick getting taken to an orphanage, and Bruce remembering his final conversation with The Riddler (therefore deciding to take him in), and then following Bruce wrestle with Dick about how the vigilante life isn't about vengeance??? All while training him both physically and mentally while taking on the Main Baddie of the film (would be SICK if it was Two-Face)???

The Dick Grayson/Robin development doesn't even need to be main plot, because that's following too closely to OG comics, and they want their plot to be authentic. But it'd be the same kinda thing that Alfred and Bruce had in The Batman (2022). That little ongoing subplot about who Bruce's family is now and later becomes can shape itself through the whole franchise and it'd be perfect. Will they do it? That remains to be seen, but my hopes are low.

More specific spoilers ahead!! Read on at your risk:

For anyone wondering, my reasoning for suspecting they'll bring in a Jason Todd Robin (as opposed to not bringing in a Robin at all, or bringing in a Dick Grayson Robin):

1. [final spoiler alert] The final scene of the film bringing in Riddler's new buddy and next-cell neighbor The Joker, who would be good to introduce now if they're going to do a Death in the Family story.

2. Bruce's connection with the mayor's kid is an obvious point of reference. Ofc he saw himself in the kid, but the kid reciprocated the connection, and returned the connection when he was the first to trust Bats at the end of the film. So Bruce has a connection with children.

3. Jay Lycurgo's character would be a shoe-in for a Jason Todd defined by Hollywood's perception and years of Red Hood equaling "Jason Todd Was A Troublesome Kid." Lycurgo's character was also obviously street smart, even as he got tangled with the wrong crowd, AND he has a strong sense of morality that disabled him from knocking out the gang's victim, AAAAAND, he had a strong and immediate respect for Batman. Additionally, I believe he was wearing a red hoodie. A little on the nose, but I think it's a sign. There was also enough of a focus on him in the movie to make me believe he'll be important in the future, even though he didn't make another appearance after the first, what, 15 minutes?

4. the emphasis on orphanages and children was curious to me. Again, they're obviously connecting Bruce Wayne and "orphan" as inseparable ideas, and so thus Bruce has empathy for them, but it'd be really great storytelling for Bruce to dwell on his final conversation with The Riddler, about how Bruce Wayne didn't know what it was to be in those orphanages, and he works with Bella Reál to fund orphanages as Bruce Wayne, and as Batman he finds an orphan getting into trouble and decides to take him in. Just... common sense storytelling, and it could work with a Jason Todd. I think it'd work better with Dick Grayson, both because I'm biased and because I'm right. Bruce would be entirely hesitant and resistant to bringing a child under his care. This Bruce in particular. Really young. Still defining who he is as The Batman. He wouldn't just take him in like that. But regardless, it's work.

Anyway, I'm getting way ahead of myself, I just really needed to vent about it. The Batman is truly an amazing film. Truly, truly. Very excited to see where Bruce's story goes now.

[samiralula01]

Jason Todd is the Anti-Batman

* A pointless rambling of the relationship and parallels between Bruce Wayne and Jason Todd.

Picture this opening scene: There are two boys in a dark alley.

One is dressed in an expensive suit with a tie his dead father helped him with only earlier that evening. His hands are stained red with the same blood now puddled on the grimy cement. His face is in shock.

The second boy is dressed in tattered jeans and hoodie. His hands are stained with tires grease and are clutching a tire iron. His face is in shock.

Decades later, there are two more scenes to consider.

A seriously injured man sits slumped over in his father’s study. Without warning, a bat crashes through the window, and everything falls into place. He now knows what he needs to do.

Elsewhere, an emotionally distraught teenager is curled up into a fetal position on a hotel room floor. Heart wrenching cries can be heard from him. But it is only momentary. He now knows what he needs to do.

These two individuals are Bruce Wayne and Jason Todd. While they are both broken and determined men, Batman is a hero. The Red Hood is not. He is the anti-Batman and this is why.

Two Boys in an Alleyway

Despite similarities in their stories’ early themes and elements, Bruce and Jason came to walk down very different paths. One of justice, and the other vengeance. Batman is determined to protect the innocent and Jason more so on punishing the guilty. Both their ideologies have intrinsic flaws, of course, and will naturally clash often. But this wasn’t always the case.

Before they became a father and son perpetually in mourning for who they once were and what could have been, Bruce and Jason were remarkably similar. The two are cut from the same cloth and Bruce knows this better than anyone else.

In the Dumpster Slasher three-part story line, (Batman #414, #421, #422) Bruce becomes emotional. Violent. He sits in the batcave alone that night and contemplates his emotions.

“Nearly blew it. I let it get too personal. Lost my detachment...nearly lost control. Almost beat Cutter to death. Wouldn’t have been any big loss.”

Only one issue later, at the end of this story arc, Robin is out on the streets and becomes angry when he happens upon a pimp is threatening a prostitute with a knife. Now, I want you to compare his line here to Bruce’s and note what Jim Gordon said to him as well.

Batman: "I think he’s had enough, Robin. What were you trying to do, kill him?" Robin (Jason): “Would it’ve been that big of a loss if I had?”

It is important to note here that Batman is not worried or upset just because Jason roughs up a pimp. That would be hypocritical considering his own earlier actions. If anything, it’s because one of the main reasons Batman even takes in these kids, these ‘robins,’ is because he doesn’t want them to be like him.

And Jason was acting just like him.

Jason can and has screwed up and failed due to his own actions, but it was never the reason Batman became upset with him. His reactions in the comics when Jason does things like running ahead and ‘jumping the gun,’ are more like this:

He either makes a teaching moment out of it or is attempts to understand Jason’s reasons in doing any such thing. When Bruce does become harsh in his discipline, it’s either when he feels as though Jason has endangered his own life or as I said, he acts too much like him.

While there are quite a few more similarities between Bruce and Jason that makes them alike, such as both being introverted and interested in obtaining all sorts of knowledge that they might not even feel is relevant, they are both, at the core of their characters, deeply caring and compassionate people.

The differences only start to show with how they act on it.

The Not-So Dynamic Duo?

“What happened to you as a child, the terror, the pain, the horrors (...) you were broken, and I thought I could put the pieces back together. I thought I could do for you what could never be done for me. Make you whole.”

Hot take. Jason Todd is a villain and is best written as a villain. 

Not in that campy way like he’s written during Dick and Damian’s Batman and Robin run while wearing that stupid pill-headed hood, (although, I grant he has a few lines that are enjoyable to read) but in all his serious, vengeful and downright brutal motives. 

The Red Hood is the perfect Batman villain because he’s so different from what the widely perceived perfect foil to the controlled and disciplined Bat is...the Joker. 

The Red Hood was vengeance at its purest. It is justice without being tempered by mercy. It is the rage of victims who were forgotten to become statistics. While other vigilantes wait for a cure, hope for rehabilitation, and pretend their system works, the Red Hood is a man of no such faith.

And this makes him a villain. And a damn good one.

During the Red Hood’s time as a crime lord in Gotham, he goes around blowing up buildings. He throws grenades into trucks. He mows down his competition with gunfire. Batman comes upon the bloodied hanged corpse of a man he was finished interrogating. 

But what is so compelling about this all is that before all the murder, all the guns and explosions, Jason Todd was a very different little boy. And all the great and memorable villains start that way.

The Joker is not someone you’re meant to sympathize with or even understand. In fact, I find him more terrifying because he’s unknown. He has no backstory (unless you want to believe the one he gave in Killing Joke, but the clown has a new story for every face he meets) and seemingly does what he does for a laugh of all things.

Jason Todd is in pain. He’s traumatized. Betrayed. Buried. Replaced. He is no one’s son because his father abandoned him.

Once upon a time, Jason Todd was a boy who saved himself. One of the biggest lies that Batman himself perpetuates is that he saved Jason from a life of crime. He tells Alfred that Jason was always dangerous. Bruce simply took him off the streets before he could be any worse.

But I don’t believe that’s true.

Jason grew up surrounded by crime, poverty, substance abuse and yet this amazing kid saved himself everyday by making a conscious choice to be kind and care about school, care about keeping his mother alive for over a year when he was just a child himself. That amazing kid was magic. 

Jason Todd as Robin was magic.

“Jason smiles. A bright smile. The kind Robin, the Boy Wonder should have.”

A good portion of his character’s assassination was in order to push the Tim is the perfect Robin idea. It was editorial decisions. The same ‘suits’ who insisted that Tim Drake be the Robin in the New Adventures cartoon despite having Jason’s backstory and personality. But I digress on that. 

Jason Todd was an introverted, studious, and emphatic person. He wanted to make friends with other kids his age even though he was a loner at heart. He joined the school baseball team and was a class officer, even if his training kept him from most social interactions.

He was also very much in tune with non-verbal cues and small changes in the environment around him. He was a thoughtful person who could be found admiring the stars or passing by scenery. When he teams up with the New Teen Titans, we get to see these aspects of his personality:

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so beautiful before. We’re actually riding above the clouds.”

“Every so often, I notice you become awfully agitated...like something was going on you didn’t want to be part of. Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”

It didn’t take Bruce long to fall in love with this boy and ask to legally adopt him. He found him to be smart, thoughtful, quick at learning and funny as hell. Their first meeting opens with Batman laughing in the very same alley his heart was ripped out decades earlier. 

Even in the Rebirth canon, (RHATO #48) we see that Bruce is already set on taking in Jason while he’s still with Ma Gunn’s school. He likes this kid. A lot.

“Butler, actually. You’ll meet him someday, I’m sure.”

Jason Todd was happy. Most of the time. Unfortunately, he still wrestled with depression and would sleep all day on occasion and could be found crying hidden away on his own, withdrawn from the concerned Bruce and Alfred.

In A Death in the Family, Alfred and Bruce sit down and discuss Jason’s worsening mental health, particularly after the Diplomat’s Son where Jason becomes witness to sexual assault, suicide and the failings of both Batman and the GCPD to protect innocent people. Barbara, his tutor, someone he cared about and got along with, is also shot a few months earlier.

Bruce thinks Jason has become suicidal. Alfred does not disagree with this theory and supplements it with things he’s observed himself about the ‘lad.’

“I’ve come upon him, several times, looking at that battered old photograph of his mother and father, crying. When he’s seen me, he’s hidden the picture and left the room, refusing to talk.”

It is then that Jason discovers the truth about his mother at the worst possible time, when he’s not even thinking straight, and thus leads way to the tragedy that will be his murder at the hand’s of the Joker.

The Curse of Jason Todd

“Do you have any idea what you have done?! Do you? You have no inkling of what you’ve created -- what you have unleashed! You have set free a curse upon this world!”

Red Hood: Lost Days, which depicts Jason’s dark post-resurrection origin, opens with Ra’s al Ghul bellowing this line, the steam from the Lazarus Pit still rising off of him. 

I’m not going to analyze this line, I’m just using it to supplement a point of mine I hope I’m getting through well enough. The Red Hood is a compelling, tragic villain. He is similar to Batman in ways that Bruce always knew and may have even feared because of how intimately he knows his own deepest, darkest thoughts. Jason is the perfect foil as an antagonist for him because of what he represents to Bruce.

And it’s not his anger, or his rage, or even his brutality. 

It’s his compassion. His caring. His emotions. And how they can open up the worst parts of themselves. 

Both are motivated by preventing whatever trauma happened to them from ever happening to anyone else. They both trained for years with this motivation. And they’ve both acted out on the very person who inflicted their trauma onto them.

Here’s where their paths start to differ, however, and what separates them with a line of morality.

They both get angry. They both care so damn much. About Gotham, about innocents, about each other. They both get too emotionally invested and deal with consequences related to that. To manage with that, Bruce shuts down. He creates all these choices, rules and symbols. He uses every ounce of his self control to keep them. 

Bruce Wayne is not a good person. He forces himself to be with discipline and will. He chooses to be a good man and constantly pushes himself to live up to that. Because it’d be too damn easy to be just like the Red Hood.

Jason doesn’t understand that. Because no matter what Bruce had done or will do, he doesn’t hate him. He can’t. Despite his denial of the fact to different people, he still thinks of Bruce as his father. This great figure that so many others revere and are even intimidated by.

He’s not the only bat-kid to think of Bruce in this light despite the fact that the man is not. It took Dick years to overcome that perception. Tim only just started to begin understanding this true nature after his own father was murdered. 

But even if he did understand his (once)father, he still became the complete opposite of him despite so many early parallels. He doesn’t hold back his words and emotions, he doesn’t go into a state of controlled dissociation or emotional disengagement.

Jason Todd—the Red Hood—is Batman without all his rules and control. In a way, he’s what the darkest part of Batman himself wants to be. Jason does what Batman can’t do when it’s needed.

Because in Batman’s book, life beats out justice. Even if he could take down abusers and murderers, he won’t. He will choose saving and protecting lives over the apprehension of killers...he always does.

Batman is justice. Red Hood is vengeance.

Jason is a victim’s fantasy. He punishes and kills the guilty. Something Batman won’t do.

He is the anti-Batman for better or for worse.

[animatedminds]

Let’s Get Dangerous Review!

It’s dangerous. In a good way. <cue dramatic music> Okay, obviously there’s more thoughts than just that. I’ve been waiting for it for weeks, and it arrived just as awesome as I hoped. For the first time, let’s give my full movie style review to the double length Ducktales special: “Let’s Get Dangerous.”

The spoilers are open and widely discussed, so maybe don’t look past the following image if you haven’t seen the episode yet.

To note, I’m not entirely convinced that this was actually meant to be a pilot. It definitely does introduce a new status quo for the Darkwing trio of characters (minus Honker for now, here’s hoping they haven’t forgotten him), but it’s also a very remote story that still tries to take place within the context of Ducktales’ universe, so it really depends on what they choose to do.

But let’s just get down to it.

First off, as I mentioned in my earlier post… Taurus Bulba. He was maybe the biggest and most eye-catching aspect of the first part of the episode, as one of the few elements we hadn’t already seen yet, and his reputation as a really, really bad guy has quite preceded him. As I may have gushed somewhat about, he’s one of the best parts of the special.

James Monroe Inglehart, for those living away from the Disney scene for a decade, is an actor and voice actor most famous for being the original Genie on Broadway’s Aladdin. A grand, bombastic presence, he generally plays characters who - much like the genie himself - a big, jolly, kind but maybe a little mischievous souls that take the attention of a room and brighten up the characters’ day - like Lance, in Tangled the Series. The most interesting thing about Bulba is that Inglehart brings that exact same energy to the role, and so Bulba keep that jollity and lofty personality in a package that becomes increasingly less nice as the story goes on. As someone who keenly remembers Taurus Bulba as cruel monster willing to hurt kids and capable of crushing Darkwing like nobody’s business, the contrast was immediately fun to watch - and I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.

In this story, Bulba is recast from a crime lord intending to use a super weapon go on an endless plundering spree to a FOWL scientist with a respectable reputation who intends to use a super weapon to take over the world, and the transition goes off fairly well. The end result is a pretty standard mix of superhero fight and Bond plot, as Bulba ends up holed up in his lab with his squadron of elite supervillain minions - all plundered a particular fictional universe - with the heroes having to break in / escape from his captivity and stop him before he destroys everything. It’s very Silver Age, with Bulba in the role of maniacal villain, and he’s contrasted very well with Bradford - who is as always an antagonist who prides himself on pragmatism. This contrast leads to some great moments: Bradford’s increasing frustration with the cavalier attitude of both the heroes and the villains gives him the best stint of characterization he’s had since the beginning of the season - he basically spends the whole episode arguing with everyone about how badly thought out their actions are, while also badly hiding his own secrets.

The Fearsome Five (of which Quackerjack is voices by his original actor) are great to see, though used minimally. If you’re expecting to see classic show dynamics between the villains and Darkwing, that’s not really what they’re used for. Mostly, they’re minions with personality, and they’re more there to establish both to the audience and to Drake the character himself that he is ready to take on really big threats even with his lack of superpowers.

But enough about the villains, on to the heroes!

A couple episodes ago, with the Halloween episode, I criticized that story for not balancing its A and B plot all that well. This episode does not have that problem. The story is actually maybe about three fifths Darkwing’s story, and the rest of it is Scrooge and the nephews as they figure out what Bulba is up to independently of Darkwing and try to stop him themselves. It’s somewhat similar to Timephoon, where they’re there constantly and are doing their own bid to solve the story but the focus isn’t primarily on them. Instead, we have some of the best “HDL actually matter to the story” bits of the show, where they escape Bulba’s prison on their own and lead Bradford out, all the while slowly figuring out that something is shady about the guy. Meanwhile, Scrooge gets stuck in the original Ducktales universe’s most memed scene, which was a fun gag (but not the best gag - that would be the one and only Bonkers D. Bobcat as the Harvey Bullock-style cop in the Darkwing show).

Which I suppose can lead to a digression about the mad science bit here. The alternate universes here are… interesting. I always pay special attention to how things like time travel or other dimensions or alternate universes work in a series, and this one reminds me the most - I think - of DC’s Dark Multiverse: a collection of universes that are both explicitly fictional but made real because people created them. Ultimately, it’s less as if the OG Darkwing universe exists independently of the Ducktales universe and more that the in-universe Darkwing show as a world based off of it that the characters can reach into. I wish the episode had delved into that more, and now you’ve got people trying to use it to look for more establishment of OG Darkwing elements (though I was fine with it being separate, perceiving anything else as rather needlessly inexplicable), but ultimately that is not specifically what the episode is about, and is kept rather separate.

So what is the episode about? Like you didn’t already know…

As always, Gosalyn Waddlemeyer is a little girl whose grandfather was done away with by Taurus Bulba, and who falls into Darkwing’s lap over the course of his adventure with him. Here, her grandfather is (possibly) still alive, just lost in the ether a la Gravity Falls’ Grunkle Ford. And like the mighty glazed McGuffin, Darkwing’s goal in the episode is less strictly defeating Bulba as it is helping her get her grandfather and her home back. Gosalyn here is self-sufficient and action oriented (it may be my inner Brooklyn 99 fan talking, but I loved Stephanie Beatriz as her, and kind of wish she had gotten a wider range of lines), taking on her own crusade against Bulba until she realizes she can go to Darkwing for help, and is constantly trying to pull him into the fight - even while he is reluctant, and no matter what the danger - so that they can win and she can get justice. But in the end, she has to accept that they might not be able to.

As a longtime Batman fan, I immediately recognized a plethora of Robin references with Gosalyn. She’s a kid who’s family was taken from her by a villain, given a surrogate home by the hero - like Dick Grayson. She’s a street tough who originally met the hero committing a crime, and who is both skeptical of his heroism and heavily critical of his flaws - like Jason Todd. And she’s a young genius with a lot of scientific knowledge, tech skills and common sense - just like Tim Drake. There’s even elements of Carrie Kelley or Terry McGinnis there, in her determined if not gung-ho approach to heroism despite her circumstances and the hermit-like behavior of the hero.

And in the end, this is a fairly apt comparison, because Gosalyn essentially ends the story more as a Robin figure than previously, now as Darkwing’s more of a ward and official sidekick alongside Launchpad. The story does not, to note, involve her being adopted by Drake or becoming Gosalyn Mallard. Indeed, they don’t really end up having that sort of relationship. They’re distant and don’t really know how to relate to one another, and not about to broach the subject of family except in distant terms. There’s ultimately far less emphasis than before on Gosalyn and Drake being similar and hitting it off on a personal level, or even really Drake keying into Gosalyn’s potential and spirit as a person vs an element in his adventure. Throughout the story he regards her as a victim to be saved, then ultimately as an ally with potential to be respected, and in the end he gives her an offer to take up the mantle along side him while they search for her family… which ultimately creates something very different.

For people expecting something a little more akin to the implications the show made with Gyro and BOYD, Gosalyn here. The implication that they could be a family is brought up by Launchpad, but neither Drake nor Gosalyn are really there at the end of the story - I want to say they’re not there yet, but the way the story goes gives off the impression that the dynamic duo dichotomy is the relationship for the two the writing is most comfortable giving them.

Again, I’m a longtime Batman fan, so I understand and appreciate the nod. It gives them a really cool status quo that’s distinct from what came before it. Still, the strong father/daughter relationship between the two was very much the heart and soul of the original show, an endearing quality that created the character traits we love about both characters, and ultimately one of the primary characteristics that set the Darkwing family apart even from most comic book superhero stars - so even if they made something great out of it, it’s a shame to see Ducktales ultimately keep that relationship at arms’ length.

But that’s less a criticism and more just something I wish they had chosen to do differently - and it makes sense for the 2017 team’s take on Darkwing, which has always been more focused on “irrepressible hero who doesn’t give up” - a pluckie rookie growing into his competence - than “former fool whose great potential is unleashed through the people around him.” The latter is there, sometimes, but it’s not prominent. Original Darkwing was a man made better by his daughter, while the modern Darkwing doesn’t quite need that to find the hero within.

The only (and I mean only) criticism I have is the way the characters kind of jump around in how they respond to things. Drake wanting more crime, and then freaking out when super crime shows up and it’s way more than he thought he can handle is fine, and is one of the better character bits in the special. It being unclear whether Drake is against fighting supervillains because he thinks they’re too powerful vs because he doesn’t want to risk Gosalyn’s safety is another thing, though - it seems the show intended to imply the latter but forgot to include the line somewhere, so it’s not inferred until later and Drake suddenly benching Gos towards the end lacks set-up.

For her part, Gosalyn is suddenly and quickly afraid to fight for a brief moment so Launchpad can inspire her to face impossible odds, even though it was hardly the first time she had done so in the special. The ending I think wanted the characters to be somewhere that the rest of the special hadn’t gotten them to yet. But it’s all good - it ends well, so all’s well. Best gag of the episode, btw? Fenton, who is awful at keeping his secret identity secret, has hooked up Darkwing with his own hi-tech hero lair. Darkwing, despite supposedly being a detective (or at least an actor playing a detective), ends up as one of the two or three people remaining on Earth who hasn’t figured out that Fenton is Gizmoduck. Darkwing considers himself good friends with Fenton, despite hating Gizmoduck. It’s actually very funny.

It’s as of now unclear what is coming up for Darkwing. We know the St. Canard characters are going to factor in more as the FOWL plot progresses, and this episode kicks that plot into high gear - the characters now know about FOWL and their intentions, and are preparing themselves for a far more dangerous fight than usual. In short, with the midseason comes the renewed focus on the primary plot of the season, as per the usual. Like I said before, while I’m not as on board as most with the idea that this was a pilot, St. Canard was definitely established here - with series regular Zan Owlson as it’s new mayor, and a general aesthetic and set of protagonists. It wouldn’t be remiss for a future episode this season to take place there (though we know Negaduck isn’t happening this season).

The new few episodes, however, are focused more on the quest for Finch’s treasures and FOWL, so that’s going to have to wait for a while. We’ve been promised, as I recall, an episode that brings all the kids together (unless that’s part of the finale), which is nice - I may have mentioned before that the best episodes of the series have been the ones that put the kids (who are the characters with the most focus throughout its run) together and let all their personalities run through an adventure together - and with the cast growing somewhat constantly, it’s nice to know that no one is being forgotten.

Either way, I give the episode a great deal of recommendation - I only had a couple things that bothered me, and a few wishes for different choices, and ultimately I’m planning on watching it a ton of times just like I did the first Darkwing episode. From a classic Darkwing fan, and in the words of Bat-Mite, it’s a different intepretation to be sure, but not at all one without merit.

So thanks to Frank Angones, Matt Youngberg and the Ducktales crew! I hope my virtual thumbs up reaches them somehow, but either way, it was a good day to be dangerous.

[hidinggal]

Bruce's Bat Baby

This is a story I wrote about this post I saw this is my take on the Bruce part.

Bruce and I had met shortly after he had adopted Dick Grayson and quickly fell in love with him and everything about the Wayne heir. We got engaged around the time he adopted Cassandra Cain by this time Jason Todd had lived and died and lived again and the most recent Robin was Tim Drake. I went out most nights I also preferred to stay in and work the coms with Barbara Gordon. Then came Stephanie Brown she was a surprise to they the least but she wasn't a shock like Damian was to the Bat family. Bruce had a biological son. Sure we weren't married but we already had all these kids, it hadn't occurred to me that he might want kids with me. Two years later we got married. We were at a calm and then the conversation of us having kids came back up two months after we got back from out honey moon.

I was sitting on the bed getting ready to crawl under the covers when Bruce came in and looked me in the eyes, “What about another kid?” 

“Who’d did you find this time?” I asked wondering if he had found another kid on the side of the street, “Someone else try to steal the tires off the bat mobile.” I crawled across the bed, shoving my feet under the blankets and then the rest of my body. Bruce laid down beside me on top of the blankets, I cocked my head, “What?”

He smiled at me, kissed me on the head and then turned off the lights and the conversation wasn't brought up again. 

But two weeks later we had a gala event all the kids went a few of the titans came too, me and Bruce spent most of the night helping Lois and Clark on an article. That night Bruce and I had one too many drinks, we woke up that morning tangled in blankets with Bruce's alarm going off. 

He covered me up and kissed me on the head before he left for work, I had the day off. Dick came over from an off shift and after I got showered and changed he got into bed with me and we watched movies while Cassie, Steph, Damian , and Tim were all in school Barbra had work as a librarian. Luke and Duke also had work. So while Alfred cleaned the house Dick and I watched old movies and ate popcorn, Ace came to join us. 

Dick fell asleep with his head on my shoulder and I think I fell asleep too because when I woke up to Jason who spent the day doing whatever taking the photo of the two of us, he saw I was awake and without having to say anything he got into bed laying down next to me and grabbing the remote and choosing the next movie. When I woke up again, Dick was gone and so was Jason in there place was Cassie and Tim who were crossed legged at the end of the bed Damian was curled up asleep, all three of them in their school uniforms. 

Eventually we got up and moved to the dining room where I made the four of us lunch Alfred wasn't too happy but he cleaned up. 

A few days had passed and I was at work at Wayne Enterprises sitting in my office when suddenly a wave of nausea rushed over me. I raced to my private bathroom off from my office and threw up. I sat down on the floor with my head in my hands as another wave hit me. 

I didn't tell anyone about that. The sickness began to happen in the morning and Bruce caught on. For the first three or four days I had managed to get out of bed into the bathroom throw up and shower and change, but today Bruce followed me to the bathroom and held my hair back without a word. His large and calloused hands massaged my back as I leaned forward and heaved. When I was done I leaned into his embrace, he had a wet washcloth and wiped my face with it, folding it over he put in on my head as I caught my breath. “How long has this been going on?” Bruce left the washcloth on my head, i leaned my head back and stared at the ceiling, Bruce intertwined his fingers around me. 

“A few days.” I went to lean forward and stand up but him hands caught me and with a wet slap the washcloth hit the floor. “Let me up.” it was a quiet whisper those last three words, “Its just the flu.”

“The flu?” He asked as I leaned forward away from his becoming embrace. Bruce placed one hand on my waist keeping me down and one on my forehead, I brought my hands up to his and kept the coolness of his skin on my head. “You're burning up.”  He began to make slow movements to stand, “Lets get you into bed.” with one arm on my back and one under my legs he picked me up and carried me to the bed. “ill call you off work and ill tell Alfred to make you breakfast in bed.”

“Go to your meeting” He kissed me on the cheek,

 “Ill have Dick check up on you when he gets back.” Bruce leaves for work knowing that after his shift today he wont be going on patrol, he will be crawling into bed with me. 

A few minutes later, Alfred walks into the room, I'm sitting up ready for a breakfast tray, and he sets it down, overtop my legs the first thing i do is unroll my napkin and a pregnancy test falls into my hands, I look up at Alfred with my mouth open in shock, ”Master Bruce told me your symptoms, it could just be the flu but it could be a child.” I look away from him and look down at the light blue and purple stick, “Now close your jaw you'll catch a fly, Mistress Anne.”

I utter a quick thanks before he leaves the room and closes the door, I stare at the stick i left on the mattress next to me, outside the door I hear Alfred tell the kids I'm sick and not to bother me before school. I can hear Jason doing the crossword on the bench in the hall outside of my room, my eyes never stray from the stick until I move the tray and head into the bathroom. I pee on the stick and sit on the floor with a timer on my phone set for two minutes. 

Me and Bruce always had a family when we started dating he had Dick and I was here when he got everyone else, his own children, Gordon's daughter, i was here when the accidents happened, Babs lost her ability to walk and when Jason died. I was here for them, so maybe if that stick says what i think it says they will all be there for me, I've been apart of this family for so long that sometimes it feels like because they all have the hero thing and yea I do it to but they do it more often and they all have that bonding of shared trauma and because I was raised in a middle class family, I will never have what Bruce and the kids have. My phone begins to buzz without looking I click the phone off and stand up. I look at the little plus sign on the stick. I get in the show and change into new pajamas and by the time I'm coming back into my room to hid the stick in my bedside table, the breakfast tray is gone. 

After tucking the stick away on my bedside table I walk out of my room to the kitchen where Dick and Jason are arguing, they both stop when they see me, “Don't stop on my account.”

I open a cabinet but due to the fact that I'm normally waring heels when i'm out of my room and not dark pink bunny slippers I couldn't reach the crackers, Dick saw and without hesitation he grabbed it for me. He then put a hand on my head, “Fevers gone, how ya feeling?” 

“Thank you,” I pull the box of crackers out of his hand and head to another set of cabinets to grab the peanut butter, “I'm feeling better.” Trying to contain the smile on my face as I pulled the butter knife out of a drawer. I sat down at the table and the two of them sat with me, “What were you two fighting about?”

The two of them sit at the counter with me and begin to rant about what happened on patrol last night, we laugh together and the moment Alfred sees me he lets me finish eating before he ushers me back to bed, both Jason and Dick wish me good luck as Alfred tucks me in, the two of them go back out on patrol. 

I sit in bed with Ace until Bruce comes home, His shoulders are tense so when he sits on the edge of the bed I crawl over to him and begin giving him a shoulder rub. “How are you feeling, Dick said the fevers gone.”

I smile, “Better.” I begin to crawl to my bedside table and I pull the purple and white stick with the faded plus sign out I set it down and go back to rubbing his shoulders. “Turns out it wasn't the flu.”

“Hmm” Bruce just leans into my massage, “What was it? A cold?”

“No” I pull back and grab the stick i then wrap my arms around him putting the plus in his line of sight. “I think we should go to the doctor before we start telling people,” Bruce grabs the stick out of my hands and stands up before turning to look at me, “I know its a lot, I think Alf-” Bruce has the biggest smile on his face, he puts his hands on waist and spins me around the room.

He sets me on the ground, one of my slippers flew off, he kisses me hard, keeping that cheeky grin of his, “Ill call the doctor, we’ll drop the kids off at school, Jason and Dick will patrol again, we will go out to lunch than  if its true.” He kisses me again, “We will have a family dinner in a few days.” I'm not sure how long we stood their and hugged and cried I also don't remember going to sleep or driving the kids to school because next thing I know me and Bruce are sitting in the waiting room of the doctors office.

I don't hear the nurse call the name or the doctor introduce herself I vaguely hear her explain what's she's gonna do I'm too busy thinking about when the baby was conceived, I think it was the night of the gala and so does Bruce that was a little under a month ago a little more than twenty two days, we should be able to hear the baby's heartbeat. I put on the hospital gown and Bruce folds my clothes eventually the doctor walks back in.

She places cold gel on my stomach and Bruce's hand is in mine. I turn my head to look at the screen and there it is a small looking peanut shape, “There it is.” The doctor points at the grey and white on the staticky screen and suddenly this is real, this is I sat on the bathroom floor when I knew the truth, I think I have known since that night that there was a baby inside me and I've always been a parent but now Ill actually be a mom, I didn't know I was crying until Bruce wiped away my tears and then we heard it a small and tiny noise that whispered of love and screamed joy in both our ears a little heartbeat. 

The doctor spoke to us some more, I got prenatal vitamins and other meds she thought I would need. She told Bruce about everything I would go through and then some, I got changed and we got lunch then headed home. Bruce showed the photos to Alfred before he even had his coat off. Alfred congratulated us, he was going to invited everyone to dinner next week. The two of them left me alone to go plan. 

The next week goes by fast the only question I get are why I haven't been out patrolling for the moment I've been shrugging them off but I think Damian is getting suspicious although he hasn't said anything. Bruce has been getting up an hour early so that when I get morning sickness There's towels and bottled water set up in the bathroom for me, He’s also been cutting back on his patrolling shifts and has been telling the kids that's me and him are working on a project for work. When in reality we are working on plans for the nursery, we have kids but we've never had a baby before this was new territory, given we had eight months we had no idea what to do and we still are clueless. 

Me and Bruce wore our dinner clothes to work, business causal we were in meetings all day, and eventually time was for dinner, we had made it so that only immediate members of the so called “Bat Clan” were allowed to dinner. Alfred cooked a chicken dinner with biscuits, mashed potatoes and gravy there was corn and peas as well. Dick was in his police uniform and Jason wore his normal clothes but with a tie on top of everything. Tim, Damian, Steph and Cassie were all wearing school uniforms, Duke and Luke also were wearing business casual and Babs was wearing a blouse and skirt.

They brought up old conversations and family photos to Steph's famous food Instagram page, and to the last meme Tim tagged Bruce in.  Dick brings up a case he’s currently working on down at the GCPD and Jason says something inappropriate that makes everyone laugh. Cassie doesn't say much but she nods and a smile appears on her face. As the conversation dies down Babs asks the question, “Is there a reason were having family dinner tonight, I don't mind its just-”

“I'm pregnant.” I say the whole table is quiet, both me and Bruce are trying to take in everyone's expressions. 

“And during the remaining eight months i will be hanging up the cowl, the justice league doesn't know yet why I'm giving up being batman.”

“This is real?” Jason says eyes wide.

Cassie lets out a laugh and signs congratulations. 

“Baby names!” Stephanie pulls a pen out of her pocket and begins writing on her cloth napkin, I let out a laugh as Tim leans over to help her.

“You need boy names too!” Cassie leans over to read the names as Tim yells at Steph.

“Congrats you too.” Dick says nodding his head he then glances at Steph's napkin that is upside down to him, “Does that say Dino Nugget?” 

Jason leans over and reads the list, “I don't think Batman is going ot name his child Baby Bat.”

The rest of the evening was spent it a cheerful mood and ended with Bruce showing everyone the ultrasound pictures. 

The night was a success now came the hard part, preparation for the baby and the next nine months.

PART 2??? how was this 

[aros001]

Going in blind: Watching season 1 for the first time. Random thoughts.

This show is kind of nice because I have no memories of the original She-Ra show, or even any of He-Man, honestly. I'm not sure if I ever watched the original, so I have no frame of reference for how the series is "supposed" to be. I can just take it and judge it as is.

Of the bat, all I know is that supposedly She-Ra and Catra get together as a romantic couple later, but I'm also a huge My Hero Academia fan and the fandom around me ships every character with every other character, so for all I know that might just be shipper wishful thinking I've been seeing and hearing. Given fandoms for Gravity Falls, Thor, and Supernatural ship even siblings together, I've learned not to trust anything except for what I see in the series for myself.

By the way, this isn't a review, just random thoughts and comments I'm having as I'm going through season 1 for the first time.

Episodes 1 and 2: Right off, I really like Catra's "No duh" response to Adora about the truth of the horde. She knows they've been lying to them and have been doing terrible things, she just doesn't care. If she and Adora play their cards right they could end up being the ones in charge and then they'd have all that power. Not necessarily to make things better but enough to where they could do whatever and live however they want. That's a good build for an antagonist. Not ignorant to the fact what they're doing is wrong, just simply so selfish that they don't care.

Episode 3: It really feels like there was no good reason why Glimmer didn't just outright introduce Adora to her mother and every reason she should have known it was a bad idea to try and hide her for a surprise. Being a former horde soldier she'd probably get treated with hostility if Glimmer brought her to the front gate but you'd almost guarantee Adora would get arrested or outright killed if she got caught while no one else knew she was there.

On the other side, we have Hordak being pretty intelligent in promoting Catra. He probably knows Shadow Weaver already doesn't like him, so it's not like he's losing anything making her upset with him, and it's clear she favors Adora way more than Catra, so that little bit of advancement towards Catra probably goes a long way in earning her loyalty to him and a person on the inside with Shadow Weaver.

Also, I'm not the only one who saw Madam Razz and immediately thought Adora had found her Yoda, right?

Episode 4: I don't know how it was in the original She-Ra and He-Man series but I kind of like She-Ra being this title from legend. Adora is not the first She-Ra, given what Razz was talking about with a Mara, so instead of being something new, impressing everyone with abilities they've never seen before, and creating the legend, Adora is placed in a position WAY over her head where she's having to live up to what came before her.

Episode 5: Calling it now, as long as her personality is genuine I think Scorpia is going to be one of my favorite characters in this show. She's...endearing, I think is the best word. She's like a mix of Kronk and a nicer Shego.

For a little bit I thought Mermista was voiced by the same actress who played Poison Ivy in the Harley Quinn animated series. She's not but they do have the same kind of Daria-ish inflections, thus by confusion. Given the prom episode, Sea Hawk feels kind of like her Kite Man.

Episode 6: Okay, now it's between Scorpia and Entrapta who are likely to be my favorites by the end of this. She's fun and quirky.

Episode 7: Quite the lore drop. Shadow Weaver was once a Mystacor sorceress known as Light Spinner. I like to imagine we'll get more on that later. Her haunting Adora reminded me of the Teen Titans' episode where Robin was similarly haunted by Slade. This didn't go as far as that but that's probably for the best, since TT had two and a half seasons to build that dynamic up with Robin and Slade while we're only now halfway through the first season.

Episode 8: Well dang. Again, I don't know for sure if Adora and Catra do end up together but boy do I buy why they're shipped together after that dance. Also, good on Bow for standing up for himself. It's clear that he'll always be Glimmer's friend and this won't change that but that doesn't mean he has to just accommodate her. I understand where her issues stem from but I am still glad he gave her a reality check. It helps him feel a little more like his own character.

Also, another nice little bit of lore and worldbuilding. Scorpia's a princess, the horde landed where her people lived, and they seemed to join them willingly.

Episode 9: Surprisingly don't have a lot to say about this other than I don't buy for a second that Entrapta is dead (EDIT: She's not). This was mostly action.

Episode 10: Not going to lie, this one kind of annoyed me a little, at least the first half. The conversation between Glimmer and her mother saved it a bit. It was a bit of a trifecta. You have the alliance breaking apart, saying that the loss of Entrapta only happened because they were all together...even though Entrapta only "died" because of her own machine obsession that caused her to deliberately walk back into the purging chamber. You have Entrapta who might be turning to the horde's side because she feels abandoned by the other princesses...even though they thought she was dead, and again it was her fault they got separated. And you have Glimmer refusing to tell her mother that Shadow Weaver's dark magic has caused her powers to go on the fritz and is causing her great pain. It just feels like none of this would be an issue if most of these people would stop being self-absorbed for three seconds and talk like any normal person would. It feels very CW drama, like something I'd see in a bad season of Arrow or The Flash. The only person whose issues I buy is Adora, who is basically a soldier who was never properly raised to deal with emotion or loss and is already struggling with the burden of being She-Ra, the legendary savior. I get why she's beating down on herself for not being able to do more even if nothing that happened was her fault.

Episode 11: JEEEEEEEEEZZZZ, that was such a good episode! Focused entirely on Adora and Catra and their past together. Like, just showing someone this episode alone could probably get them to want to watch the series. That was everything you needed to know about their dynamic and history together.

Also, that moment when Catra and her past self are looking at each other, while obviously Catra takes the opposite lesson, it reminded me of this fanart I'd once seen of Jason Todd, the Red Hood, looking at his past self as Robin. The past says to the future "You ruined everything". Catra could be happy but, ironically for someone who hates Shadow Weaver, she's probably going to be a lot like her, sacrificing everything for power and ambition.

Given the way she looked, I'm guessing Shadow Weaver is either addicted to the power of the Black Garnet or she suffered some kind of past injury and its power is the only thing keeping her going. Or both.

Episode 12: I'll be honest, Swiftwind being able to talk kind of gobsmacked and I needed a moment to recover. What a great voice they chose for that character.

So She-Ra is kind of like the legendary heroes from Rising of the Shield Hero, coming from a long line of people chosen to wield the sword. I tend to dislike chosen one types of stories because I think prophecy takes a lot of weight out of the character's actions, so this and Avatar are more what I like. The MC is special but not the only one who's ever been special and they can still easily fail. Their destiny was only to be able to use the weapon, not that they would succeed in any specific purpose.

And dang, Catra's turn against Shadow Weaver happened faster than I thought it would but I'm not complaining. That great "This is what you've really been preparing me for" speech and Hordak, again, being an intelligent villain. "Oh, this experiment could net me a MASSIVE gain and all it could potentially cost me is this rock I already gave away to someone who lately hasn't been producing any results and has been consistently disobeying me. Yeah, I'm going to let this play out."

Episode 13: That was kind of a brutal fight between Adora and Catra. Not the worst I've ever seen even in other shows for this age range (Samurai Jack, for example) but those punches are connecting and those claws are leaving marks.

Also, maybe I'm just misunderstanding the exact situation but shouldn't the good guys' side be called the Resistance instead of the Rebellion? Being a rebellion would imply they are rebelling against an established power or rule over them, but the actual conflict we are shown is the established power and rule that is the kingdoms of Eternia resisting an outside force that wishes to establish a new order over them.

Season 1 verdict: I'm into it. I'm definitely more invested in the villains' side of things but that's not a fault of the series, that stuff is just way more geared towards me than the current princess stuff. I actively am at attention whenever the horde main characters are on screen. For the good guys it's mostly Adora and the She-Ra stuff I'm invested it. That isn't to say I have any real dislikes for that side. Bow especially I'm liking much more than I thought I might. He has kind of this gravitational pull around him. You will be his friend regardless of how much you might want to resist. He's definitely the rock for everyone else to hold onto.

Minor side note, kind of like Korra in Legend of Korra, I love how even when her powers aren't active Adora is shown to still be pretty strong physically with how easily she was lifting people up at the prom.

And I was right, Scorpia is my favorite side character.

On to season 2!

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PrincessesOfPower/comments/nyll2e/going_in_blind_watching_season_1_for_the_first/

[red-winters]

*Batfam fic-recs

*Some are Tim Drake Centric

**Some links are not working in mobile (and ONLY mobile) for some reason? And some titles that were bolded in the original post are ALSO not displaying on mobile correctly. Idk what to do about that, but you can still look up the fic, I guess.

The Bat’s Crest - livierambles

Note: I will always keep recommending this fic. It’s epic, thrilling, and hilarious and sometimes angsty. Also, everyone is confused, including the ones doing the confusing. Maybe especially the ones doing the confusing. Also, some Tim and Damian bonding, which is always nice.

Summary: Tragedy strikes the hero community when Bruce Wayne commits a crime so heinous even the best start asking for blood. However, as the heroes try to recover from the hit and carry out justice for their friends, a random assortment of people start acting oddly, including the current Speedy Tim Drake, a child hostage in Gotham, and a young man from an unremarkable circus amongst others. All of them seem intent on saving Bruce Wayne from the grasp of the Justice League for no apparent reason, going as far as betraying their previous allegiances.

Unknown to the Justice League, these people are equally confused. Clearly they're stuck in another dimension, but how do they get back? How did they even get here? Who else is stuck in this world? And how long will Tim's patience last? Back home, the Bat was a planetary symbol that struck fear in the hearts of criminals. In this new world, it has no meaning, save for the handful of stranded souls.

In the Shadows - Kieron_ODuibhir

(shortened) Summary:

“I’m not like you.”

The cowl still looked like something he was wearing, but Clark knew it was not. It flexed like skin when Batman narrowed his blank white eyes and said, “I can see you know that.” 

Chirp - AmariT

Summary: Every piece of the signal Tim unlocked revealed more locks, and by the time he broke through the last one, he was already mentally rehearsing his many upcoming talk show appearances. 'Yes,' he told the interviewer, 'it was difficult for me, a ten-year-old genius, to break open the worldwide alien conspiracy. That's why it took a whole hour.'

When the crackling audio started, he expected some weird alien language. Maybe squawks and high-pitched squeals mixed with musical woofs. Maybe they wouldn't talk at all, and images would beam directly into his mind. Maybe they'd talk in practiced English with a Midwestern drawl like their other resident alien.

Instead he heard a low, guttural voice growling out of his computer speakers. "Robin," it said. "Are you in position?"

A Better Cage - Mangaluva

Note: I was absolutely DELIGHTED to see a Young Justice Crossover with the Justice Lords (Earth-50) from the animated Justice League series, which is near and dear to my heart. I admit I haven’t really had much time to hunker down and read this, but even skimming, it’s an intriguing piece of work. Also, Justice Lords.

Summary: Wally's grateful to have woken up at all, really. He just doesn't know what to make of the world he's woken up in. At least they want to find a way to his world as much as he does, if not exactly for the same reasons...

Common People - AmariT

Note: The Bat boys are all Bruce’s blood sons, but it still feels very much like a found family. I haven’t really read everything in this series, but I feel the author has an amazing grip on all the characters. Lovely and heartwarming.

Summary: His whole life, Jason’s mom had told him his dad was Bruce Wayne, but he’d never been dumb enough to actually believe it. They lived in a rundown, one-room apartment in the worst part of town, and in every single picture he’d ever seen of that rich bastard he was wearing a suit or sipping champagne worth more than everything they’d ever owned.

But if he wasn’t Bruce Wayne’s kid, then what the hell was he doing sitting outside the man’s office in Wayne Towers?

Red Robin and the Hood - momoejaku

Note: Haven’t read this in a while, but it made an impression. Though it’s a fic set during the Red Robin arc, it very much is about both Tim and Jason. Plus, it fleshes out the Pru and Z a bit more, too.

Summary: Bruce Wayne is dead. Superman brought back his body, and the family mourned him, holding a quiet funeral in secret so that the legacy of Batman could live on. But not everyone has been able to put him to rest.

Reeling from the loss of Bruce, his identity as Robin and his trust in his family, Tim Drake sets out on a personal quest that will take him across the world to prove what he knows in his heart: that Bruce Wayne is alive.

Though intending to make his way alone, Tim reluctantly accepts help from his predecessor, Jason Todd, who knows from personal experience that death is not always as final as it seems.

Together, they are Red Robin and the Hood.

Liminal Spaces - Calamityjim

Note: Skimmed this only since I’ve been busy, BUT it does look well-written, and I’m always a sucker for alternate dimension/dimension travel intervention-type of fix-its. It’s a very specific trope.

Summary:

Bruce's habit of collecting strays is not limited by dimension.

Or

When Young Justice Batman comes across an angsty, seemingly abandoned by his Batman Tim Drake, he decides to step up to the plate and parent the crap out of him.

Little Bird’s Vengeance - KatHarkness-Katara

Note: Crossover with Avengers. Awesome fic with Tim and Jason and some Outsider POV (via the Avengers) of these dimensional stragglers. I think Tim’s team shows up in the later chapters, too. If you’re reading on mobile, it’s still very much worth reading despite FF.net’s horrible format and abundance of advertisements in the mobile version.

Summary: Why is life never simple? Red Robin's ended up worlds away from home once again, and now what's he to do? What do the Avengers want from him; do SHIELD have another agenda; and is there any way back? Pre-New 52. No slash. Rated for inevitable language/violent themes.

A Displaced Red Robin - dragonprincess1988

Note: Worth reading despite FF.net’s horrible format and abundance of advertisements in the mobile version. Well-written fic! EMOTIONS! I love them. Younger Dick Grayson is adorable, Tim is a competent fixer-upper for other people but not so much himself. He’s kind of angsty and making YJ Dick want to keep him (and YJ Bruce, too, if you read between the lines). On the plus side, seems like he’s making good friends with Young Justice Roy. This fic was written before certain episodes of YJ came out, though, and the fic reflects/will continue to reflect that. Still, I give it five stars.

Author’s Summary: Tim gets transported to the cartoon Young Justice world, and he's not sure he knows how to deal with it. Attention: If you want to know about Artemis or people from Tim's world the final note on my profile is for you. Also, a special thank you to angel-gidget over at Tumblr, who made the wonderful cover art for this story.

The Till-then From the Ever Since - Keiron O_Duibhir

Note: Fandom classic. Definitely a must-read for Batfam fans, in my humble opinion.

Summary: It began, or seemed to begin, with Jason.

Usually that would have meant something in the order of fire and explosion and probably at least one gunshot wound, but for once (as Tim said, sourly), it wasn't actually Jason's fault.

The Wayne Family Ghost - pupeez4eva

Note: Please read this. Especially if you’re sad or anxious or just have time. I couldn’t stop laughing. It’s my go-to cheer-up fic. Absolutely hysterical.

Summary: In which Bruce realizes that having a legally dead son, who regularly hangs around the family, might be slightly problematic. 

Bloodline - chibi_nightowl

Note: Complicated family dynamics, this time centering around Tim, Selina, Bruce and, surprisingly, Damian. Jason and Dick make an appearance as supportive big bros, too. It works. Take a read, it isn’t that long.

Summary:

“Mr. Drake, I can’t think of a better way to say this, so I’ll just be blunt. This file is for your first adoption. By the Drakes.”

Tim blinked. “My what?”

“You were adopted as a newborn by Jack and Janet Drake.”

“Excuse me, but what the fuck are you talking about?”

Talon!Tim AU Series by keeptogethernow

Note: Found family, from a different angle. Cool fic and well-written.

Summary of Tso’ape Mumbichi, first in the series: Ten years ago, two people made a deal with the devil--unlimited funds in exchange for their child. And now it's time to pay up. But there's no way to ensure that the child will cooperate.

Shutterbug Series by goldkirk

Note: Exactly what it says on the tin! Found family.

Summary:

Tim Drake is thirteen, runs the famous BatWatch blog that has spiraled hilariously out of control, has absentee parents that suit his purposes just fine, is training himself to run the streets at night, and is doing absolutely peachy, thank you.

Alfred and Jason disagree, and get Dick and Bruce involved in figuring out their weird next door neighbor kid’s life. Everything goes uphill from there.

Thursday’s Child - anthalogia

Note: Well-written and has found family and Tiny!Tim? Automatic win.

Summary:

He’s not the first child with nowhere else to go that Bruce Wayne has taken in. Dick Grayson was the first and the most high-profile – because no one would have thought Bruce Wayne was interested in ever raising a child, let alone the orphaned son of circus performers – but Jason was maybe just as much of a shock to society for being a street kid who came out of seemingly nowhere. Tim Drake is ordinary by comparison – his parents died in a plane accident. He can’t think of anything very special about him except that he met Bruce a few times when his parents hosted parties to keep in touch with Gotham society.

Or, tiny Tim Drake is adopted by the Waynes a little earlier than scheduled.

We’re Not Driving (How did we get here?) - TimTheToaster

Note: Short and sweet, a little angsty, and then very sweet.

Summary:

Tim stared at his phone, as if that would change what was on the screen.

Dick Grayson @FlyingDGrayson

It took some doing, and in some cases a little blackmail, but we've finally got the whole family together for a movie night! #WayneManor #movienight #familytime #schedulingisanightmare

15 minutes ago

Take It Back Now Y’all - TimTheToaster

Note: And Tiny!Jason has made his appearance. Also, Tim, I am begging you to please take care of yourself—ah, Bruce has made his appearance. Interesting. Also, I gotta say this author is good.

Summary:

There was absolutely no way this sunshine was from Gotham in April.

Not possible.

Which meant, Tim was no longer in Gotham, in April.

(In which Tim finds himself in the past, and tries to do the right thing. It's more complicated than he'd like.)

Takes a Little Time, Takes a Lotta Twine (To Get Us Back Together) - TimTheToaster

Note: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, beginning of reconciliation, and brotherhood. A satisfying, cathartic moment during the Red Robin arc to soothe your heart.

Summary:

Tim was in Gotham.

Tim had pretty specifically been avoiding thinking about Dick as much as possible for the last few weeks.

For the last year, really. No need to open that can of carnivorous worms.

Dick had other plans.

Everybody’s Heard (Bird is the Word) - TimTheToaster

Red Robin Era ANGST, but like, deliciously well-written. Also, protective Dad Bruce is always epic. Light bashing of Green Arrow and BC, though. But considering the situation (in this fic), kind of warranted.

Summary:

5 times Batman heard other heroes talking about his wayward brother,

And 1 time they were talking about his son.

A Choice to Make - scorbusfics

Note: fresh and interesting premise! Cool world building, too.

Summary: They have to choose. Dick and Bruce have to choose one person each to save, and one to disappear through the door.

“Send one of us,” Dick says fiercely, not for the first time. His face is dark and angry and desperate, eyes flicking from brother to brother. “Send one of us instead. I won’t choose.”

“Neither will I,” Bruce says.

But Tim knows.

Secret Places - RenaRoo

It’s ANGST, but the author knows how to use it well. Also, Jason’s line at the end killed me. Damn.

Summary: Tim Drake goes missing. The search to find him begins.

[hedgebelle]

Oh my, I have been tagged! Thank you @nerd-by-definition 😊.

Rule: list the first lines of your last ten stories. See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line.

Unfortunatelly, I don’t have ten stories yet ;_;. I can share first lines from seven stories I already published and the one I will publish for the JayDick week in April. Maybe it’s enough material for patterns to emerge ^^”.

1. North Wind

“Here,” Jason grumbled and somewhat rudely pressed a paper coffee cup into Nightwing’s hand.

2. They Are Out There Saying

After a long journey down the Tōkaidō Road, a slightly shorter trek on the roads less travelled to the Inabayama Castle, a truly arduous hike up and down way too many mountains of the Hida Province, and an unplanned detour to the rural idyll of Shirakawa Village because he had taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in the wrong valley, the infamous red hooded monk finally reached the hidden seat of the Bat Clan.

3. Dolce Vita

They didn’t sleep in because of jetlag. They slept in because they could.

4. All The Roads Lead Back To You

Red Hood was in the process of busting the kneecaps of two wannabe drug lords, when his com buzzed to life. “Boss?”

He grunted a confirmative, while delivering a solid kick too, for a good measure. Answering howl of pain made him snort. Pussies.

5. If You Wear A Red Hood

By the time little Jason Todd first heard about him, Red Hood had been more of an idea than an actual person. So many had put on the garment already, only the GCPD records cared to keep track of their names. For everyone else, they mattered not. The city didn’t look past the colour they bore – the same colour that caught Jason’s eye sometimes on the TV screen in the dingy flat he lived in with his mum, or on a front page of Gotham Gazette lying about on a street.

6. To All Dick I’ve Loved Before

One evening after a mission gone well, Arsenal pointed at Red Hood with his beer and, apropos of absolutely nothing, slurred, “Whassup with ya and Nightwin’?”

7. Robins Fall Once

The very first chance encounter between the Bat and Red Hood after the intricate revenge plot of the latter blew up in his face, quite literally so, started as one could have expected – with spiteful fury, aggressive disapproval and the barrel of Red Hood’s gun pressed to the temple of the Bat’s newest child soldier.

8. JayDick Week Day 3 Fic

Nightwing is alone in the Batcave.

It was his guardian devil who put that whisper in his ear. He might have been wearing the face of a kind, old butler, but Jason recognised him right away. They went a long way, after all, he and the Wicked.

So I guess I often start my stories with Jason saying or doing something...? 🤔Idk, what do you think?

Tagging @whipbogard and @rawrbin1 (sorry, if you’ve been tagged before ^^”).

[heyitsani]

Let Down My Guard

Omega!Dick Week Day 2: Reverse!Robins

Word Count: 2926

Rating: Mature-ish

Warnings: Threats of non-con (nothing graphic) and Robincest (obviously)

Pairing: Dick Grayson/Jason Todd

Summary: Dick’s scent blockers fail him on patrol when he’s out alone and brings a predator his way.  

Notes: Day two and the one story for the week that doesn’t fit the rest of the series.  The non-con-ish scene happens in the very beginning so the entire story is under the cut to avoid triggering anyone who might stumble upon this post.  The ages/codenames of the Robins are as follows:

Damian Wayne: Sparrow 28

Tim Drake: Red Hood 25

Jason Todd: Phoenix 18

Dick Grayson: Robin 16

You can also read this on AO3 here

“Here birdie, birdie, birdie,” the voice called out, chilling Dick to his very bones.  He knew who the man was calling for.  He knew that somehow his scent blockers had stopped working and the dirty alpha had caught his scent.  He also knew he was cornered.  He had nowhere to go and unless one of the Bats answered his distress call soon, he was so very screwed.  Perhaps quite literally.  “I know you’re around here somewhere, birdie.  Can smell you.  Like,” there was a pause and Dick assumed he was taking a deep breath, “like honey and spice.  Do taste as tempting as you smell?”

And that was something the sixteen-year-old had no intention of letting this man find out.

He wished he knew if someone was on their way, but the sharp screech in his ear earlier and told him something had gone wrong with his comm unit and now he was just stuck.  Stuck hoping and praying to a god he didn’t believe in to save him from a fate he had saved so many others from over his years of being Robin.

There was no out for him.  And suddenly Dick to felt weaker than he had ever felt in his life.  Weaker than he had felt watching his parents fall to their deaths those years ago.  A glance above him told him there was no way for him to get to the roof and to safety without his grapple.  And since the snapping line was what had caught the attention of the alpha to begin with, he was stuck.  And he was scared.  And his head and his knee hurt from his fall.

“You might as well just come out from your hiding spot little birdie.  Make it easier on both of us.”  Closing his eyes, Dick tried to pull his scent back in a bit to put the man off just a little longer.  The closeness of his voice was enough to make his hands shake in terror.  “I won’t bite…too hard.”  And Dick could practically see the sneer on the man’s face.

“Is that so?”  Oh, thank god, Damian.  “Perhaps you didn’t get the memo, but that’s not how things go here in Gotham.”  Dick jumped when a shadow jumped down next to him from the roof and immediately, he fell in a defensive crouch.  He wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

“It’s just me Baby Bird,” the electronic sound of Tim’s voice modifier in his helmet was a bigger comfort than most would have thought, and Dick felt his muscles relax as he threw himself into his older brother’s chest.  There was a click, but instead of trying to find the source of the noise, Dick just buried his face in the armor-plated shirt Tim wore as part of his Red Hood suit.  “Are you hurt?  You smell hurt.”

“Nothing dangerous, just so fucking glad you guys are here,” he muttered into Tim’s chest.  He relaxed further when one of Tim’s arms wrapped around his back and held onto him.  Dick could hear scuffling in the background and a pained yelp, and he knew it was Sparrow taking down the alpha who had put them in this situation.

“Robin,” the edge of Damian’s voice caused him to pull his face away from Tim’s chest and look over at his brother.  “Are you hurt?  Did he…?”  Dick shook his head quickly and though it took a moment, Damian eventually nodded and looked back at the entrance of the alleyway where the alpha had cornered him.  “Hood and I have Robin.  We are heading back to the cave.  Tell Phoenix he’s fine.”

That caught Dick’s attention.  “Why didn’t he come with?”

“Come, Robin.  You shall ride with me.”  Looking from Damian to Tim, Dick frowned.  He was going to demand an answer but stopped when Tim shook his head.  “Robin.”  The sharpness to Damian’s tone caused Dick to flinch.  Rare was the moment when Damian was short with him.

“Fucking hell, Sparrow.  Can’t you see he’s already freaked out enough without you snapping orders at him?”  Tim tightened his arm around Dick and while it wasn’t strange for Damian and Tim to be at odds, it was strange for it to be about Dick specifically. 

He could hear the sigh slip from Damian even though he obviously tried to hide it.  “I am sorry, Robin.  Please, let us get you back to the cave.  There is a very worried and just slightly injured Phoenix desperate to look you over.”

Without saying anything, Dick nodded and pulled away from Tim to follow Damian back to his bike.  Glancing back at his other brother, he watched Tim take out one of his guns and put a bullet in the chamber. 

“Don’t kill him, Hood,” was all the warning that Damian gave Tim before taking Dick’s arm and pulling him out of view of the still whimpering alpha and into the street.  Dick put on the offered helmet and slid onto the motorcycle behind Damian, the engine revving just enough to make Dick wonder if he actually heard the gunshot and resulting shout of pain.

But he decided he didn’t care if Tim had shot the alpha.  If he had tried to do that to someone who could obviously handle themselves (if not in that exact moment), Dick didn’t want to know how many others he had managed to hurt because they couldn’t defend themselves or have someone defend them.

No, instead he focused on tightening his arms around his older brother’s waist, closing his eyes, and letting go of the fear that had caused him to freeze.  He wasn’t sure what it was that had caused him to freak out so suddenly, but there had been something about that alpha.  It hadn’t been the first time one had tried to take something from him by force, but it had been the first time he had frozen so completely.  Never had he ever felt so weak before.  Not even just in a normal fight when the opponent was obviously far superior.  He had always managed to find a way to get himself out of a situation. 

But this had been different.

He shuddered to think of what could have happened if his brothers hadn’t gotten there in time.  What would they have done if they had come even a few minutes later to find him in the clutches of that alpha?  What would Jason have done if he had been violated?  Would he withdraw his intentions?

No, that wasn’t the kind of man Jason was.  Otherwise, he wouldn’t have made his intentions clear two years before he could even act on them.  Being eighteen meant Jason could bond legally, but Dick still had two years to go before he was of age.  And though Bruce could have given them permission, he had made it clear that he wouldn’t give his blessing until they were both consenting adults.  Even though he followed that up with stating he approved of the pairing and would happily support it when the time came.

Sapphire eyes opened when he felt the terrain change under the motorcycle, and he found they had pulled into the entrance of the cave.  So, carefully, he pulled the fear scent as far in as he could.  There was nothing he could do about the scent that still clung to his suit, but he could overwhelm with relief at least. 

Hopefully, Jason wouldn’t panic too much.

“Dick!”  Well, there went that hope.

“Honestly, Todd,” Damian reprimanded Jason as he came running up to where Damian brought his motorcycle to a stop.  Dick could see the bandage wrapped around Jason’s forearm and he knew there were probably stitches under it.  “I said he was fine.”

“Forgive me for wanting to check for myself,” Jason shot back, reaching out to help Dick slip out from behind Damian.  Thankfully, the helmet hid the wince of pain on his face when he was back on two feet and the pain in his knee made itself known again.  Dick let Jason remove the helmet and mask, dropping them both to the ground, before he ran his hands down the length of his arms and gripped his hands.  “What happened?  Alfred wouldn’t let me go out with Damian when you sent the beacon.  Are you okay?  Why can I smell you so strongly?”

“I don’t know what happened, but my blockers failed, and the alpha was following me before I realized it.  I was going through Crime Alley when my line snapped, and I think the crash of my fall caught his attention initially.  The blockers failing was just bad luck.” Dick said as Jason pulled him toward the med bay where Alfred was probably waiting to look him over.  He did his best to walk normal despite the sharp pain that shot through his knee with each step.  “I sent the beacon the moment I knew I was going to end up cornered.”

“The animal never got the chance to touch him,” Damian added from where he was following the pair.  “Tim arrived from wherever he was at the same time I did.  I took care of the disgrace of an alpha and Tim went to Richard.”

Jason glanced over the top of Dick’s head with a raised brow.  “Tim let you handle the alpha?”  Dick glanced back in time to see Damian sniff haughtily.  “You promised him he could take care of him if you incapacitated him in order to get Dickie out?”

“I certainly hope that wasn’t the case, Master Damian.  Your father would be greatly disappointed.”  Alfred stood next to one of the beds in the med bay, obviously waiting for Dick.

“Perhaps.  But perhaps not when he hears what that waste of space was planning for his youngest.”  And Damian was probably right.  Even if Dick was no longer a child, Bruce did have the tendency to treat Dick as though he was more precious than air.

Dick watched Alfred consider his oldest brother before the man looked back to Dick and waved him over to the bed.  “Come now, Master Richard.  Take a seat so I can look you over.”  Dick let Jason lead him over to the bed and didn’t complain like he usually would have when Jason lifted him to sit on the bed.  He could smell the distress on the young alpha and knew he needed this.  Dick could be coddled if it meant he stopped smelling so sour.  “Any injuries you wish to make us privy to?”

Thinking over his night, Dick couldn’t recall anything to worry about outside of when his line snapped.  “Maybe a light concussion from my fall?  I didn’t pass out at all, but I think I knocked it on the ground.  And my knee hit pretty hard as well.” 

“Very well.  I will need you to get out of the suit so I can check your knee.  Master Jason, will you please retrieve some more comfortable clothing for Master Richard?”  When Jason looked like he was going to protest, Dick placed a hand on his upper arm and drew Jason’s attention back to him.

“Something from your locker, maybe?”  The pleasure at the suggestion filtered into Jason’s scent and Dick was glad he could manage to get some of the sour distress scent out.  With a quick press of his lips to Dick’s temple, Jason hurried out of the room.

“That was wise,” Alfred commented as he moved closer and began concussion protocol.  Dick focused on the questions and commands as best he could, but his attention kept falling back to Damian who still stood in the doorway with is arms crossed and a dark look on his face.  “Yes, I do believe you have a minor concussion, nothing to be concerned about given your level of alertness.”  Alfred was stepping back as Jason made his way back into the room.

“Do you need help?”  Jason asked quietly when he came up to Dick’s side with a few items, all smelling strongly of Jason and home.  Dick only nodded and held a hand out so Jason would help him down from the bed. 

“Master Damian, you should get out of your own suit and contact your father.  I did not want to worry him without all the details.”  Though it sounded like a request, it was definitely an order and Dick could see the annoyance on Damian’s face without even bothering to read his scent.  But the oldest nodded and left the room.  He was followed by Alfred, to give the pair a bit of privacy Dick was certain.

Instead of letting Jason help him out of his suit, Dick turned and buried his face into the spot of his neck where his scent glands were as he wrapped his arms around Jason’s torso.  “Dickie,” Jason whispered, voice hoarse as he buried his face into Dick’s raven hair.  His arms came up and around Dick, holding on tightly.  The pair let the silence fall between them as they took the moment to comfort each other without words.  But eventually reality came back to them and Dick was pulling back so Jason could help him out of the suit and into the clothes he had brought.

He was just slipping on the t-shirt when Alfred reappeared in the doorway with a tray of food and some water.  “I would appreciate it if you would eat this while I look over your knee,” he explained, setting the tray next to Dick on the bed, giving him a pointed look.  Nodding, he picked up the sandwich and took a bite as Alfred moved to the knee he had left exposed by pushing the loose sweat pant leg up.  The touch was firm, but gentle and just enough that Dick was able to hold back the reaction to the pain that flaired up with the inspection. 

“A sprain,” Alfred told them, grabbing the items needed to wrap it to stabilize the limb.  “A few days rest and you shall be right as rain, young sir.”  Jason visibly relaxed at the diagnosis and Dick sent him a look before turning back to Alfred.

“Crutches?”

“If you would rather be carried everywhere…”  Dick balked at the idea of being treated like a damsel in distress and Jason choked out a laugh.  “Then yes, crutches for at least two days.  We shall check the condition of your knee once we check it again.”  He knew he was pouting, but Dick hated crutches and the limitations they placed on his movement.

“Don’t worry Dickie.  It’s only a couple of days,” Jason tried to comfort him, but Dick just pouted more and Jason let out another laugh.  Dick supposed if Jason took this much glee in the situation then he could suffer through it.  Especially if it made his scent go warm with amusement and joy.

“Fine,” Dick grumbled, finishing off the sandwich before grabbing the water bottle to drain.

“Before you finish that,” Alfred stopped him, getting up from his stool and grabbing a small cup Dick hadn’t noticed before.  But it was one he had seen plenty of times in the past.  Pain pills.  If he didn’t have a headache on top of the knee pain, he probably would have turned them down, but he knew there was no way he would sleep with this headache.  So he accepted the cup and tossed the two white pills back before finishing off the water.  “Now, Master Jason will you help Master Dick up to his room and place a pillow under his knee?  I am going to check in with Master Damian and then I will be up shortly.”

“Sure, Alfie.”  Jason said, holding the hoodie he had also brought in for Dick so the younger could pull it on before they headed up.  “Piggyback or…?”  Dick just rolled his eyes as his head slipped through the neck hole and he pushed his arms into the sleeves. 

“Just pick me up,” Dick said, holding out his arms to wrap around Jason’s neck.  He didn’t say anything else as Jason slipped one arm around Dick’s waist and the other under his knees, lifting him with ease.  The walk to the elevator that would take them up to the manor revealed Damian at the computer, talking to someone (probably Bruce) as Alfred soon behind him.

Nothing was said until the doors to the elevator slid shut.

“Do you think B will come home early?”  Dick asked, tucking his head under Jason’s chin.

“Maybe.”  The rumble of Jason’s deep voice beneath his ear was a comforting sound.  “Damian said the League was almost done anyway.”  So, it could go either way.  Dick wasn’t sure which way he wanted it to go.  Yes, he missed Bruce the past two weeks he had been gone, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to deal with the surge of protectiveness that would be sure to follow his homecoming. Sometimes being the only pack omega had its downsides.

“Can you stay with me tonight?”  Jason didn’t say anything in response, but the tightening of his grip on Dick was enough of an answer. As if to say there was no where else he’d be.  “Thanks, Jay,” he whispered, closing his eyes at the steady sway of Jason’s steps as they stepped off the elevator.

“Anything for you, Mate,” Jason whispered back.  And though it wasn’t technically true yet, Dick still felt a familiar warmth fill him at the title.