#his entire robin run was just everyone not seeing him as a child but bruce thinking that the 19 year old was the actual child

[mikakuna]

tortured by the thoughts of what if bruce was just a slightly better person towards jason. he took in a homeless child and wasn't the adult for him he should've been. what if jason sometimes thinks about who he could've been if a different adult took him in? would he have been safer, happier? do you think, after he becomes red hood, he wonders why robin was too dangerous for 19 year old dick but fine for 12 year old jason?

[krilati]

Tim, who is not Robin, but still feral

Okay, let's say Tim's parents decide that even if their child doesn't need a nanny, they want someone to check on their son's well-being. So Tim is required to go to the doctor once a week. And after he tried to bribe his first one to just tell his parents everything was fine. Janette decided it would be someone else each time.

Tim gets a car once a week that picks him up to see a doctor he doesn't know.

That way he doesn't have time to search for dirt, and he can't bribe anyone, since everyone is more afraid of his mother than of him.

So after Nightwing turned Tim down (Dick later claimed the boy was black-haired and blue-eyed, but since he was often hallucinating Jason at the time, even he wasn't sure). The guy realized he couldn't go to Batman and insist on being Robin. The first fracture (which is 100% likely to happen in the early days of jumping on roofs and kicking angry adults) and the doctor would hand him over to his parents.

So Tim came up with a Plan.

Batman was angry, for a month now someone, every patrol, has been standing up for criminals. If he's lucky, he manages to land 5 hits (dude, your 1 hit can put a person in the hospital, Tim just has short legs, he still needs to run to the edge of the necessary roof) when someone distracts him.

Last time, they poured a bucket of paint on his head, it became almost impossible to see through the mask. Another time, they shot paintballs at his head until he left.

There was another memorable incident when something small landed on his head, and the next moment he was attacked by bats.

But today he finally cornered the attacker, it was a child whose face was hidden behind a mask that completely covered his face, and his hair was hidden behind a hood. He slowly approached the boy, he needed to find out who he worked for. Who decided that they had the right to interfere with him punishing criminals.

Only when Batman grabbed the attacker by the shoulder he felt dizzy and then everything around him went dark. Tim quietly patted himself on the head for the backup plan of the backup plan.

After waking up, Batman did not feel calmer, on the contrary, this meeting ignited even more rage in him.

How dare this child run around Gotham so carefree when his son was killed, how dare he protect criminals when one of them killed his son, how dare he..

That day, a file on a new criminal with high priority appeared on the Batcomputer, Alfred only reproachfully pursed his lips.

By the time Red Hood escaped from Talia (Yes, he escaped here, I don't know for sure, but I think Talia was pitting Jason against Tim to ensure her son had direct access to Bruce's legacy). Batman and Tim's confrontations became legendary.

Tim even had his own name and merchandise! Several names, actually, he was called Gotham's Whisperer, the Soul of Shadow, or Little Shadow. And in various Gotham stores you could find little figurines of him with various weapons that he demonstrated during this time.

Nightwing adored the little guy, although he had never met him in person. In fact, no one except Bruce had ever encountered the kid. And although Oracle never officially supported the boy, she never warned Batman if she saw a small dark silhouette through the cameras. Although Dick really wanted to know where the kid got the sniper rifle with tranquilizers, or how he hacked the Batmobile to put a sleeping Bruce in it and send him to the Cave, or how he got so many incriminating photos of Batman that he scattered all over the city when Batman didn't take one of his threats seriously.

Simply put, Nightwing was a fan, and had wanted the kid's autograph ever since the kid evacuated an entire alley, including Bruce, by playing the sound of a pack of rabid dogs approaching.

Batman, though he had passed the peak of his rage, still made Gotham afraid if he was spotted patrolling alone.

Red Hood was furious, not only did his father not have the courage to avenge him, but he also dared to splash out his aggression on anyone who was not breathing smoothly on HIS Alley of Crime.

[jubileesstuff]

I love Fics where Damian gets carried around. So here is a HC from me.

Bruce is at a meeting with the JL, and he brings Robin with him. Why? He just comes along, no real reason. Bruce shows Damian the watchtower, and they run into Hal and Barry. Hal and Barry never met Damian, and they think he is a normal child that fights crime with Batman. Well, they are wrong. They ask Damian which his favorite is, Flash or Green Lantern. Before Damian can say something, Bruce picks him up and carries him away; Damian is too stunned to say anything. This was actually smart, because Damian definitely would have destroyed Hal and Barry with words. Even if Bruce thinks that they're idiots sometimes, he still needs them, and he can't just let his son destroy their mental health with one sentence.

Later in a meeting something similar happens, but it's Superman asking. Before Damian can say anything, Bruce picks him up again, sits him in his lap, and starts patting his head. None of the heroes know it's for their own good; they think it's cute.

The picking up Damian thing also goes for the others. Once Duke and Damian are in the Gotham Library, because Damian has a group project and he refuses to go to the houses of his classmates and he also refuses to bring them to the Manor. Duke is also there just because he also has some homework to do (and because Bruce told him to supervise).

When one of Damian's classmates says that he doesn't like some random animal that Duke hasn't even heard about, he starts to sprint over to Damian and picks him up. Duke knows that Damian would have verbally destroyed the other kid, and he doesn't want to take care of a crying child.

This picking up and making Damian shut up thing works for everyone except Dick. The others say it's because Dick doesn't hold Damian tight enough or because he is too used to getting randomly picked up by Dick. He is a little bit salty about it when he learns during a mission that this also works with Stephanie.

The entire thing was first discovered by Alfred and Tim. Damian and Tim were alone with Alfred at the Manor, and they nearly got into a fight; however, Alfred walked in on them before something happened. He sees that they're both going to explode soon and that they will start fighting. So he decided to just take Damian and place him in a different room. He crouches down to Damian, ruffles his hair, and holds him, then takes his hand and leads him away. For some reason that completely resets Damian's brain (it's probably because in the league no one ever held him, except for training, and then it was violent).

Tim is like, 'What just happened with the Demon Brat?'.

And from that day on, they figured a way out to make Damian shut up.

[elizabethemerald]

Don't Sneak up on People with Swords

@im-totally-not-an-alien-2 made a prompt about Danny sneaking up on Jason Todd and @sky00asara made a comment in the tags about what would happen if Danny did that to Talia. So here is my version of that! Enjoy.

Talia al Ghul watched her beloved from afar. He was out, again patrolling his city for those he considered wrong doers. Her son was by his side. She scowled at how Damian’s fighting style had changed, softened in the company of her beloved. Despite her love for the man under the cowl, he had a tremendous ability to take even the most ruthless of killers and change them to spare the undeserving. He had even tried it with her. 

She was hidden on the roof of an abandoned tower nearby. The tower had succumbed to fire and was now condemned until the city got around to destroying it properly. For now it made the perfect place for her to observe her beloved and her son work undisturbed. 

“Excuse me?” 

Talia whirled, drawing her blade as she spun. Her blade moved fast enough to almost cut the air itself yet the small shape ducked under her stroke and back-pedaled quickly to move out her range. 

“Jeez! Why is everyone in this city so jumpy!” 

The voice more than anything made her realize that the person who had somehow snuck close enough was an actual child. Their black hair and blue eyes made her wonder if this was another of her beloved’s adoptees. Except surely this boy was too young to catch Bruce’s eye? 

“Well maybe you should not sneak up on people?” Talia hissed, her voice soft yet stern. To say nothing of how a child who couldn’t be older than five had snuck up on her at all. 

“Well maybe you shouldn’t brood on the roof of my home!” The child snarked back, just like one of the Bat’s brood would, completely unafraid of the blade still in her hand. Talia raised an eyebrow at him then looked around at the burnt skeleton of the building they were standing on. 

“This building is not fit for human occupation.”

“Neither was the last place I lived.” He said dismissively. “This place hasn’t even killed me yet, so it’s practically a paradise.” 

She was tempted to take the child’s words as sarcasm, yet something in the way he spoke made her think he meant it more truthfully. 

“You’ve died before?” Talia asked. She relaxed her hold on her blade, allowing it to rest at her side. 

“Oh yeah, I die all the time.” He said, then he looked at her curiously tilting his head first one way, then another. “You’ve died too, huh?” 

She nodded, now examining him closely, looking for the signs she would recognize. She could see the hint of a scar on the boy’s palm that might have caused a death. 

“What is it with this town that so many people have died and come back?” The boy asked, apparently rhetorically as he didn’t let her answer. “First the stabby Robin, then the stabby Batgirl, then Batman, and even Red Hood. It’s like everyone I run into is contaminated.” 

Talia’s eyes widened. 

“You can sense those who have utilized the Lazarus Pits?” She would have to inform her father about this child. He could put the entire League of Assassins at risk. The child before her just shrugged. 

“I have no idea what that is. Red Hood mentioned some kind of pit as well, but I’ve never seen anything like that. I just know y’all are contaminated with ectoplasm, though not enough to make a core.” 

“What is this… ectoplasm?” Another name for the Lazarus Waters? Had there perhaps been a Pit outside of League control? In the midwest somewhere based on the boy’s accent. 

“Oh it’s this stuff.” He held his hand out and Talia couldn’t help keep her expression of shock withdrawn despite all her training as his hand filled with the glowing green light of the Pits. He held the Pit Water in his hand then tossed the glowing orb to his other hand in a half juggle as if he weren’t carrying the League's greatest secret and weapon. 

Nevermind telling her father about this child, he could never learn of him. If Ras had the power this child had under his control the world would never survive. There was only one option. She needed to train this child to wield this strength. With the stealth he displayed in sneaking up on her and his power over the Pits themselves he could make an assassin like the world had never seen. He could be the next Head of the Demon under her guidance. She knelt down to the boy’s level, slipping her sword back away as she did so. 

“Tell me, young one. Are you living in this death trap of a building all by yourself?” 

“Yeah, but don’t worry, I’ve got it taken care of. I know I’m little, but that just means people are less likely to notice me. I’m able to steal all the food I need from that big box store down the street.” 

“Oh of that I have no doubt. My name is Talia al Ghul. What’s yours?” 

“Hmm. I’m Danny.” The boy seemed hesitant to trust her, which to be perfectly honest was probably a very smart thing to do, but at least she had a name for this gift of Lazarus. 

“Danny, how would you like to come live with me? You won’t have to steal any more, or worry about food ever again, and I could train you how to fight even better than the Bats.” 

He narrowed his eyes at her, looking her over closely. 

“Would I get a sword?” 

“If a sword is what you want, then once you were trained in its use I would acquire one for you.”

Danny looked like he was about to nod, but then he froze, his head tilting to the side as if he was listening to something. His eyes widened and Talia tensed. 

“Uh-oh. Fruit Loop incoming. I gotta go.” 

Talia half turned as she heard the sound of one of her beloved’s grappling lines catching on the building’s edge. By the time she had turned back to face him, Danny had completely vanished. She hadn’t even heard him leave. She stood and scowled as her beloved landed on the rooftop next to her. 

“Talia.” He grunted at her, glaring all the while. 

“Beloved. Must you ruin every nice thing in my life?” Talia snarled back. The boy, Danny, had the gift of Lazarus at his beck and call and Batman had scared him off. 

Bruce looked momentarily stunned at her fury, but quickly hid it behind his mask. However Talia couldn’t care less about her beloved right now. She just needed to lose him so she could return to find the boy. The boy who would change the world with his power. 

[prlssprfctn]

I think the best way to implement (in a more canonical way) a LOA Jason without diminishing the relationship Damian has with his mom and his future relationships with the likes of Dick/Steph is to have it parallel Jason's relationship with Dick.

During his time as Robin, Jason and Dick consider each other as brothers (after Dick accepted him being Robin and giving Jason his approval). However, Dick does not spend a lot of time with him. He has his own life in college (or a cop) in an entirely different city, all while leading a group of vigilantes to fight crime. He gives Jason his number, saying he can call anytime, but that puts the onus on Jason, and frankly, he isn't the type to reach out for help, especially as there is little rapport between the two. And it's not exactly Dick's responsibility to be an older brother. He has no relation to the boy (technically not adopted yet) besides Bruce, who he isn't exactly happy with. He's also only ever been an only child and imagine telling an 18 year old to hang out with their new 13 year old brother, its not gonna happen. Jason's run as Robin is differentiated by just how lonely he was. He had no team with people his age to grow up with, and as his relationship deteriorated with Bruce, of course, he would cling to any relationship he could ergo running to find Sheila. Dick simply wasn't around, and the time they did spend together wasn't enough.

As for Jason's time in the LOA it's spent either catatonic or traveling in his training world tour. I'd envision it that Talia introduces the two of them and Damian starts off as indifferent (even more so if it's when he was catatonic), but Jason is much more hesitant. That is Bruce's son, his actual son. The similarities are obvious, and there's some resentment there, but at the same time it's his younger brother. Remembering back to how when be first met Dick he wanted his acceptance and for him to be his brother, to be there, he then tries to be what he wanted from Dick for Damian.

He brings back souvenirs from each place he visits. He tells stories about his time as Robin, fighting alongside Batman and the others. Any question Damian has is answered as he. They train together, and Jason would protect him at a moments notice. Over time, Damian warms up to him, accepting Jason as his brother. But the actual time together is short. Jason is always packed and ready to go to spend weeks at a time training. His main goal is to face Bruce and ask him why. Why is there another Robin? Why is the Joker alive? Why did he not love him enough to avenge him? And to do all that, he needs to be better than Batman. Thus, he continues to throw himself to teacher after teacher. Eventually, spending a year secluded with the All Caste before returning to Gotham, without much of a goodbye or promise to return.

He also isn't the emotional pillar Damian needs. Damian's character development is about moving away from his life as an assassin while Jason throws himself into it. He can't help him live a regular life when Jason didn't have one. Poor, homeless, to vigilante. Then dead, catatonic/comatose, and now murderer/anti-hero. He lost his own childhood and isn't in the state to guide Damian to his like Dick and Steph are.

Eventually, UTRH and Damian's arrival occur where Jason on the outskirts of his family sees how Dick has grown over the years and can actually step up as the older brother he needed and wanted to be. Of course, it's Dick, everyone's favorite, the golden boy, but only for everyone else. He looks at Dick with resentment and the others with envy. Why couldn't that be him? Why isn't he enough for anyone? For all he does and for all he feels, he keeps failing.

‐----‐---------

Well here it is my interpretation of Jason + Dick + Damian's relationship :)) I love them so much.

I also wanted to say thanks for this blog. If it wasn't obvious by how I write some of the recent longer angst/fluff posts are made by the same person and its a fun outlet for me to talk about this man I've become obsessed with.

I enjoy your interpretations and your own writing of Jason, which inspired me to put these thoughts to words. I always love reading what you have to say (both your own work and your responses to my asks) and this has become a fun outlet for me so thanks <3

this post is actually genius. i agree *so* much.

it is all fueled with the fact that Jason canonically yearned for being someone's big brother, taking care of kids so natural for him, but the situation with Damian is so different for many reasons, including Jason's own state at that moment. he tries so hard to become Damian's safe place, something he himself yearned at that age — but how one can become that if all he knows is ruination (of himself and his surroundings) and anger?

i think Jason eventually (starting with LoA and later on, after Damian joins the family, it becomes more prominent) settles down for the role of a quiet shadow protector for Damian. in LoA, he feels like he can try not only to protect Damian but also to connect with him. gifts, conversations, memories. but in Gotham, when he sees Damian getting his own place in the family, becoming closer to Dick, seeing him as someone so, so close, he minimises their contact (again, for many reasons) and ends up just becoming his shadow. he protects him quietly, from afar. he gives subtle hints to Bruce and Dick about Damian, things the boy would never tell aloud to others. he kills his enemies, helps him out from afar, but never actually gets closer; not anymore.

but is he still Damian's big brother? yeah, of course. i think Damian just has no idea how to communicate with him, especially considering that Jason himself is not cooperative unless something happens. perhaps Jason failed to become a brother he wanted to be for Damian (not for the lack of trying), but he is still his brother. and he can offer him something others do not necessarily can — full understanding. they are opposite sides of the coin, but they are still a one.

and i also wrote it once in another post here, but i feel like this summarises their struggle with being Bruce's sons, real ones, or not:

p.s: i love talking with you, too, omg. your asks are always so on point and interesting to discuss :3 i wouldn't mind if you gave yourself a short nickname/emoji to put it by the end of asks, so i could know that it is you, he-he.

[queenvsbarton]

i haven’t read any of his recent comics so idk how old he actually is in canon rn but i’ve got this idea in my head of 15yo damian, about three days from quitting robin entirely, getting punted across the multiverse to a Bruce Fucking Sucks au where dick is like 8 years old, freshly orphaned, and being abused by the batman. and damian absolutely can’t just stand by and watch it happen, star trek prime directive be damned, so he stages a rescue mission and maybe gets to beat up and lecture the asshole version of his dad a little for funsies (maybe maim him some, depending on the kinds of things he’s been doing) and save someone who needed it while he’s stuck here

damian’s got about half a plan to leave the kid on gcpd’s doorstep with a file folder of evidence pinned to his chest before he learns a) how horrifically bad the abuse was (thinking very dead dove on this one), b) how wildly the moral compass is flipped in this universe to the point where he can’t find anyone who is both i) alive and ii) an adult he can trust with the kid, c) how absurdly dedicated this batman is to trying to find and retrieve what he sees either as “his” or as a threat to his secrets, and/or d) how thoroughly attached to him this traumatized baby dickie has gotten in the short time they’ve been together

and then damian’s time in this universe is running out quick, like he’s got five minutes to round up his equipment and jump through the rescue portal or he’s gonna be stuck here forever, so on complete impulse he kinda just. accidentally kidnaps his baby big brother. like he couldn’t just leave the poor kid there, what else was he supposed to do?

(once damian gets everyone up to speed and they’ve all calmed down, many jokes are made about bruce’s adoption problem being genetic or damian finally upgrading to a child after countless pets)

[castillon02]

Bruce Wayne is the ultimate party host

It starts with Tiffany and the other models who, after comparing notes, agree that they have NEVER had any trouble at a Wayne party that didn't end with Bruce accidentally-on-purpose spilling his drink on someone. With one particularly repellent guest, he bumped someone into an entire drinks tray (the guy had to get the glass picked out of his ass).

"Is Bruce Wayne going to be there?" Tiffany start asking, and the other models follow suit. Everyone assumes it's just that Bruce is good in the sack.

Whenever someone tries to bring hard drugs out while Bruce Wayne is at a party, one of two things happens. 1) If it's at the Manor, Alfred the Butler swoops down with a handheld vacuum cleaner, remarking that it seems a little dusty. Powders and pills are mercilessly sucked into the maw of the TurboBlitz 4000. Anyone who dares to complain to Bruce gets shrugged off with "Ah, butlers. They're so passionate about cleaning! What can you do?" or possibly "I think it's a British thing, so I can't stop it. You don't want me to be racist, do you?" and then he escapes while they're figuring out what their response to that should be.

2) If it's at a private venue, Bruce Wayne earnestly remarks that he has KIDS now, and it's all very well to smoke a spliff or sniff some poppers, but cocaine??? he has to set an EXAMPLE. By the way, do you know what his child did the other day??

Bruce's proud parental anecdotes (and, if other parents are present, innocent questions about their own offspring) tend to kill the hard drugs mood. "Wine?" Bruce offers hospitably at the end of his spiel, knowing that they're so desperate for him to go away that they'll agree to anything.

(Especially when it's good wine.)

Through the power of positive reinforcement (top-quality alcohol and/or less-addictive drugs) and negative reinforcement (removing his proud parent lectures), the Gotham elite are trained to stop bringing fucking cocaine to the goddamn Batman's parties. Jfc, Cheryl, he knows exactly what was in that particular shipment and that powder is not "100% pure."

Consensual sex at Bruce Wayne's parties? Totally fine. "I'm just glad everyone's having fun!" he says earnestly while people fuck in the background. Then he goes back to giving A+ oral.

The culmination of Bruce Wayne's reputation for great catering and clearly established boundaries is that he gets invited to be the Dungeon Master at the First Annual Gotham Charity Kinkfest, organized by Tiffany. Half the money goes to charity and half the money goes to Poison Ivy, the star guest, who's donating her chemical and bondage expertise. Pam and Tiffany were roommates in college.

"Are you gonna do it, B?" Robin asks.

Bruce smiles. "It's for a good cause, old chum." If he had drunkenly rambled about the idea to Tiffany, who he'd known would take the idea and run with it, well, no one had to know.

"You just want to see Ivy dangle those idiots by their ankles and literally shake their money out of their pockets to get help with climate change."

Bruce's smile widens. This is Party Boy Brucie's magnum opus. "And if I'm lucky, it'll happen again next year!"

[brucewaynehater101]

Oh, I have a thought about the Eldritch Gotham AU! Maybe it's the City who resurrects Jason (because let's face it, the superboy prime punch thing is crazy even by DC standards). My thoughts are:

Jason dies off city limits. This is important, because there's absolutely nothing Gotham could have done to prevent this. It's also a betrayal of sorts to her. "Oh, Bruce is not enough so you ditch Gotham to go to your 'real mom' I see how it is".

Still, he's buried in Gotham's soil. Bruce is broken, Batman is straying from the mission in his grief. There's a new robin trying to help him but he's untrained and Gotham protects her vigilantes, but Jesus, she's working overtime now. The circumstances and motivation is there.

Gotham straight up makes a deal with Bruce: the life of his child but one of them must always remain within her limits. They are allowed to leave (for missions, business) but they must all live in Gotham and there must always be a Bat in the city. Bruce accepts because, honestly, there's no price he wouldn't pay.

Now here's the interesting part: Bruce may already have some experience with Gotham as a living entity (maybe he's aware of the boons she's granted him) or he's still unaware. Most likely scenario is that he dismisses the entire thing as a dream either way (too good to be true). But you could have a really funny moment of Bruce driving in the middle of the night to the cemetery with a shovel so he can meet Jason halfway.

Jason does come back catatonic and I think in this period of time he's being tested by Gotham "Do you really want this? Are you going to run from me the next time someone dangles candy in your face?". Bruce has signed his deal, but Jason needs to agree too.

If Bruce picked him from the graveyard or Jason comes to an agreement with Gotham quickly he could skip the entire LoA plot (maybe he trains with them later, but no pit madness!). I think there would still be angst though, particularly about Bruce agreeing in the name of everyone. Especially because the Joker is still free, so you could have done all that only for him to die again.

Tim would be Robin all through Jason's catatonia but once he wakes up he'd immediately give it up. I don't think Jason would take it (he died in those colors), but there would be tension and competition between them. Jason would resent Tim for being so good at following rules (or at least pretending to), and Tim would feel inadequate next to the guy that got resurrected by Gotham

Basically, Jason thinks Tim is B's favorite and Tim think

I've been excited about answering this ^^

Since it got cut off, imma just link this post to the second one and answer the second one.

Imma back edit this so there's a link to the second one as well ^^

[celaenaeiln]

Hi! I really love all your takes and character analysis. I'm new-ish to Batman so these are always so educational for me 😅 I was wondering, in your opinion, of all the batkids, who would you say would make the most terrifying villains? And who, canonically, would you say exercises the most self control to prevent exactly that from happening? Like every day, they have to work to prevent themselves from crossing that line.

...(Is it Dick? I feel like you're going to say Dick)

Thank you!

You got me!! Those are good questions!

I had to think a lot about this honestly.

So for most terrifying villain, I would say Dick. Mostly because it's just canon. When Dick was the villain both times in New Order and in DC vs Vampires, he practically eradicated the world based on who he felt needed to go. In DC vs Vampires he didn't care for anyone so by the time he was done there were no humans left. In New Order he lost it when the heroes accidentally killed Bruce and thus destroyed the entire justice league and remade himself as the head of all military operations under the government. Dick also knows exactly how to kill Bruce and he's terrified of it (Nightwing: Knight Terrors). Kory once told him during the Teen Titans (2003?) comic that Dick could stack up all the Titans and could take on the Justice League if he wanted to but Dick states that he knows and that's exactly why he's scared.

Also the way he manipulates every single person in existence in both his typical Nightwing runs is just a hint of the brilliance. Many times when his partners want to chase after a villain, he makes them let them go so that he grab the lizard, its hiding spot, and its family rather than just the tail.

Grayson Annual #3

Dick is not reckless in anyway either, he plans and analyzes and calculates as he moves which makes him a fantastic strategist, detective, and doer all in one.

Or actually I change my mind, I choose Cass. I forgot about her initially. Cass can beat everyone in the world (except Harley). Batman has admitted it too.

Detective Comics (2016) Issue #951

She's unstoppable. So unless the Batfamily sends in Harley, in a straight fight where no one runs away *cough* Batman Issue 137 *cough*, then Cass would win. After her though, in a tactical and fighting sense combined it would be Dick.

Jason is canonically the one who struggles with self-control everyday. But unlike some people, I don't think this a fault of his that should be changed or erased. To me, each robin represents a certain characteristic of society.

Dick - the hope of the people.

Jason - the anger of the people.

Tim - the morality of the people.

Stephanie - the safety of the people.

Damian - the rights of the people.

Dick says the meaning of robin is helping the good. And all the robins do this in their own ways.

Jason's robin represents the rightful anger by the people against the injustice. Like the Boston Tea Party against Britain's taxation, Jason was born and raised in Gotham so his love for the common people on the street is overwhelming. He wants to help every woman and child find a better life and survive because it's reflective of the life he and his mother were forced to face. So when he sees a man sexually assaulting a woman or beating a child or selling drugs, his anger bursts out. And in Gotham, there's a lot of that everywhere. So take a good person and put in him the skills and fuel for hurting the bad and you get Jason Todd. That's why from his Robin days he has struggled with self-control.

"He was a drug dealing pimp."

Batman (1940) Issue #645

"I'm sorry...but that doesn't mean he didn't deserve it."

Furthermore in the Batman Urban Legends comic also in the Batman and Robin Eternal comic it shows that Jason's greatest wish is the Joker's death and that coupled with the Gotham War and Selina's interference, Jason has the most trouble with self-control. But I believe it's rightfully so.

I think after Jason it's Dick who struggles with self-control. Not as robin but as Nightwing. Especially during his darkest days of the Nightwing (1996) comic and the Outsiders comic, Dick has been shown to forcibly stop himself when someone hurts his friends or family.

Okay, the difference between Jason and Dick's struggle with self-control is that Jason feels it all the time because his motivating factor is ever present while Dick only struggles with it when someone hurts the people he loves because that's Dick's motivating factor.

Damian is the one who has the most trouble after that. Then Stephanie, Tim, Cass, and Duke. Although if you're including Stephanie's robin days, she would be tied with Jason.

[the-booty-crusader]

I saw a few comic panels about Cass' adoption and Robin!Tim almost as tall as Bruce, but then in the Red Robin run, we could see that Tim reached a few centimeters below Bruce's chin when the two hugged, like why did you shrink?!??! 😭😭

Truly wild how inconsistent Tim’s height is. Like you’ll see random shots of him as an adult at the exact same height as everyone else and then he’ll get a solo moment and he’s 3’4” on a good day like MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!!

Also I find it a funny thought that for his entire run as Robin he was just a small little fella and then after the whole Brucequest thing he gets his last growthspurt and catches up to— if not overtakes— Dick. I always find the “oldest child is the shortest” concept funny :3

[cyb-by-lang]

I kinda already commented and it felt weird to do it again? So I thought I’d ask here instead:

I just saw a post on tumblr that Batman did try to kill Joker and Superman stopped him??? And it was because Joker was somehow linked with Iran, and couldn’t be killed cuz it would start a war. And other Batkids also tried to kill Joker???

I’ve honestly always thought Batman didn’t kill Joker cuz he’s too popular a villain so it was just sort of waved off because of ‘Batman rules’ and publication reasons.

Is Batman almost killing Joker included in your fic? I have very little knowledge of the comics and hearing about newer versions overwriting previous stories makes me even more confused.

Congrats to you for having unlocked a secret level of rambling through deciding to send an ask rather than a comment. This would totally have ended up on AO3 below your comment. :p

And it is going below the cut because it's long as hell.

The scenario you've heard about was from the original run of A Death in the Family, which is the story arc where Jason was killed back in the 80s. In the aftermath of Bruce finding Jason dead (and Jason's birth mother dying shortly thereafter), he hunts for the Joker after realizing that the warehouse explosion didn't, in fact, kill the clown. Somehow (racism!) the Joker ends up being appointed as the Iranian ambassador to the UN. This was later retconned to the fictional country of Qurac, because even DC realized that was a step too far. In the scene after that fun little reveal, Superman is on hand to try and keep shenanigans to a minimum, the Joker predictably tries to gas the entire UN assembly chamber anyway, and then flees via helicopter. Batman, who has been trailing along this entire time in a rage, pursues.

He's planning to kill the clown. Superman, for reasons related to "we don't whack ambassadors and start wars," has been holding him back for the arc thus far. Helicopter pursuit turns into a helicopter fight, during which the Joker's henchman fires a spray of bullets that kills the pilot while everyone is on board and having a bad time. Batman exits the aircraft alive, intact, and furious, and doesn't give a single shit if the Joker died when the chopper hit the sea.

And then a month later the fucking clown comes back again like nothing happened. Only the entire setting has undergone a serious tone shift since Jason's death, which means you're gonna see a lot heavier, dramatic stories that have more significant body counts. Batman cannot get over the death of his son, because no, and eventually Tim Drake pops up in the middle of that death spiral with a hypothesis: "Batman needs a Robin."

He's not wrong.

He also doesn't go about it super gracefully, including an attempt to convince Dick to come back to the Robin mantle that goes nowhere, but eventually he convinces the Dark Knight to take on a third Robin. Unlike Dick and Jason, Tim is locked the fuck down for training and not allowed out in the field willy-nilly. And when he does go out, he is ferociously competent.

Incidentally, this is because the writers/editors realized that after the child murder storyline they'd just done, Batman had to have one hell of a reason to ever take on another kid sidekick. And they needed to try and drag the Robin role's popularity back up, since killing a kid sidekick was also a symptom of DC's tanking sales at the time; the whole thing was ultimately a publicity stunt. It was a bad idea and now we just live with it.

So Tim is, broadly, never portrayed as incompetent in any aspect aside from maybe high school socializing. I don't think he gets kidnapped even a tenth of the number of times Dick did during his decades-long career as Robin. Certainly never falls for a honey trap plot or anything like that.

But yeah, the meta reason why the Joker never dies is because he's an iconic villain who drives plots. But unless you step out of the main continuity, he's also never just been a "no-frills funny" villain since.

ANYWAY.

As far as the rest of the Batfam taking a swing at the Joker, there's one incident that I can recall off the top of my head.

Dick Grayson, currently Nightwing, wasn't especially close to Jason while he was alive. During Jason's original run, they had a cordial (if brief) relationship, but they basically didn't get any storylines together, so it's hard to really tell how strongly they bonded. After Jason died, Dick began experiencing...I wanna call them chronic night terrors. The idea is that a boy in a Robin costume is falling, and falling, and Dick can never save the kid.

I'm sure it has nothing whatsoever to do with his dead brother, no sir.

So, some time later, the Joker gets told he has terminal cancer by a psychiatrist who assumes that if the clown was convinced he was going to die, he might try reforming or something. A terminal turnaround. Lots of people do that, right?

He assumed wrong.

The Joker goes on an utter tear, doing all sorts of escalating villainy that starts with gassing everyone he can get his hands on, including other Arkham inmates. Somewhere amid this rampage, Robin III goes missing and the Joker cheerfully tells Nightwing that yeah, he killed the kid. And he has the gall to bring up Jason in the middle of all the gloating. By name. (The Joker knows Jason's name due to some nonsense involving Crane and Fear Toxin hallucinations and Batman in a prior story arc.)

And Dick

fucking

SNAPS.

Pummels the Joker right there on the floor. Barehanded. No sticks, no pausing, just beats him to death.

Two seconds later, a very alive (if hurt) Tim manages to get there and go "oh god what happened." Because Dick is not doing well! He has a crisis about killing a dude, no matter how terrible. He never thought he'd go that far.

Batman swoops in and resuscitates the clown. In the time between Jason's death and The Joker's Last Laugh, he has apparently decided that it's more important to keep Dick from suffering a breakdown than it is to kill the clown. DC editorial was gonna keep him alive either way, but whatever.

And now for the third part of my ramble.

As for Under the Red Hood, Jason's death is seriously streamlined for the film. In this version of events, none of the UN chicanery happens. Ra's al Ghul hires the clown for a distraction job while trying to crash the world economy (again) and whoops, the clown killed Batman's son. Crowbar, bomb, whatever. Before Jason's body can be buried, the League of Assassins steals it, hucks Jason into the Lazarus Pit, and now he's alive again!

Except, given how he died and how long he spent dead and how that interacts with the magic, he wakes up as a berserk ball of rage and pain, kills two of Ra's al Ghul's guards with his bare hands, escapes, falls into a river, and disappears.

...So much for making that whole thing up to Batman. The League of Assassins just quietly lets Bruce bury a latex dummy and doesn't ever bring it up.

Cut to Gotham, years later, when Red Hood is tearing up the place and Batman goes "Ra's al Ghul, what the fuck" and the whole story comes spilling out.

In A Ninja's Guide to Gotham, Jason's dropped hints in his narration that he was actually with the League of Assassins for a while, even before going 'round the world training with assassins and stuff. The Lazarus Pit just got him back to full functionality. So, you can assume it leans more on the comics' "spontaneous resurrection" scenario.

If Bruce ever tried to kill the Joker while Jason was dead, Jason doesn't know about it. And because we haven't been in Bruce's head, there's no indication either way.

(Bruce makes mention of how easy it would be kill the Joker in the film, but that he could never come back from doing so. It is not specified if he made the attempt or just thought about it a lot.)

I've been holding back on Jason's and Bruce's accounts of events because they're both owed a moment of dramatic catharsis (and shouting). You can generally rest assured that it'll be more likely to be a mix of events than a pure account of any one take on what happened in the warehouse that day.

Thanks for setting off an exposition bomb~

[rubydubydoo122]

Batfam Band Au

Jason Todd and Tim Drake are so Conan Gray coded. Proof? here,

Maniac - Jason: 'People like you always want back what they can't have, but I'm past that and you know that so you should turn back to your rat(bat) pack tell 'em I'm trash' Jason to Bruce after Bruce victim blamed his death Tim: 'Tell all of your friends that I'm crazy, and drive you mad, that I'm such a stalker, a watcher, a psycopath' Tim's speaks for itself, but like... probably Tim to everyone

Fight or Flight - Jason: 'something's gotten into you, you don't really look at me the way you used to' Him to Bruce. no explanation needed, 'Every single rumor that I've heard of you say, you were out with someone that I don't know' Jason when he saw the pictures of Tim as Robin 'fight or flight, I'd rather die than have to cry in front of you. fight or flight, id rather lie than tell you I'm in love with you' him with bruce. Him With Bruce. HIM WITH BRUCE. Like god, he's just a scared kid that wants his dad, but he'll never admit that, 'Now there's someone at my door, someone i've not met before, they've got, eyes like mine, a pretty smile and they've been crying for a while, cus they also didn't know' Jason with Tim after Damian became Robin (or a while after that ig, whenever they started to get along)

The Cut that Always Bleeds - Tim: 'Oh I, can't, be, your lover on a leash, every other week, when you need, oh I can't be, the kiss that you don't need, the lie between your teeth, the cut that always bleeds' Tim realizing that maybe being Bruce's emotional support child is no bueno for his mental heath. 'Say you love somebody new and beat my heart to black and blue, and they leave and it's me you come back to' Because Tim became Robin to essentially be Bruce's crutch until he could get back on his feet after Jason's death, and the problem with that is Bruce will never really get back on his feet because he's still limping from his parents death, 'But even though you're killing me, I need you like the air I breathe, I need, I need you more than me, I need you more than anything, please, please.' and that's kinda the case for all the Robins. Bruce pushes them so hard, almost to the point of breaking, and when they want to break away, Bruce gives them a sliver of validation creating a never ending cycle of them craving Bruce's approval.

Astronomy - Jason: 'cus socially speaking, we were the same, with runaway fathers and mothers who drank' Jason to Steph probably 'From far away, i wish i'd stayed with you. but here face to face a stranger that I once knew. I thought if I wandered, I'd fall back in love, you said distance brings fondness, but guess not with us' Jason to Bruce during UTRH, because Jason's death changed both of them so much, to the point where they can't recognize each other anymore . And maybe Bruce missed Jason while he was dead, but now that he's alive...'Stop trying to keep us alive, you're pointing at stars in the sky, that've already died, stop trying to keep us alive, you can't force the stars to align, when they've already died' Him to himself about continuing to forgive Bruce and running back to Bruce time and time again after all the shit Bruce has pulled

Footnote - Tim: 'I say if I waited, could that maybe help, you told me that patience won't change how you felt, for me' Tim to Bruce, knowing that he'll never be Jason, yet still yearning for that father/son dynamic (sh sh, Ik Tim doesn't actually see Bruce as his dad, but lets shift slightly into fanon) 'So I'll just take a footnote, in your life, and you can take my body, every line, I would right for you, but a footnote will do' Tim's entire Red Robin run, mainly to Dick, who is a little too busy trying to balance grieving and a feral child 'You taught me a lesson, that feelings are reckless, it's just like the novels, side characters end up alone.' Tim after loosing almost everyone he cared about within a year and turning cold and distant.

Winner - Literally this whole song is for the both of them and their parental issues Tim: 'Packed my bags at 14, I hadn't planned on leaving, but you haven't been back home for days' Like... we all do agree that Tim's parents were neglectful. They were literally never around. 'You don't really wanna hear the truth, do you? it's obvious to anyone who ever knew you. that all you ever want is to be right, even if that means you gotta lie to do it,' This is probably more fannon, but like Janet and Jack Drake Jason: 'Bask inside your victory, my heart that once was beating, bleeding in the palm of your hand' Under the Red Hood. batarang to the throat, 'Yet you have the nerve to miss me, how do I somehow feel guilty? when you're the one who let it get this bad' JASON TO BRUCE LIKE, TELL ME I"M WRONG. Bruce will claim to miss Jason, but then blame him for his own death in the same breath. "You don't really wanna hear the truth, do you? it's obvious to anyone who ever knew you. that all you ever wanted was to FIGHT. I WAS ONLY TRYING TO SURVIVE YOUR CHAOS!! WELL LOOK AT HOW IT"S PAID OFF' Jason got caught up in Bruce's "war on crime" AND HE DIED. HE DIED FOR IT. HE DIDN"T SURVIVE BRUCE"S CHAOS, HE"S STIL STUCK IN IT AND HE CAN"T GET OUT.

Family Line - THIS ONE!!! THIS ONE!!! I LITERALLY CRY EVERY TIME I HEAR IT BECAUSE IT FITS THE BOTH OF THEM TOO WELL Jason: 'My father never talked a lot, He just took a walk around the block, 'Til all his anger took a hold of him, and then he'd hit. My mother never cried a lot, She took the punches, but she never fought' Willis and Catherine. 'Scattered 'cross my family lineI'm so good at telling lies, That came from my mother father's side, Told a million to survive,' Father meaning Bruce. Lies meaning Robin and secret identies and stuff 'Scattered 'cross my family line, God, I have my father's mother's eyes,' Sheila's 'But my sister's when I cry, I can run, but I can't hide, From my family line' Do I have to explain this? Tim: 'It's hard to put it into words, How the holidays will always hurt, I watch the fathers with their little girls, And wonder what I did to deserve this, How could you hurt a little kid? I can't forget, I can't forgive you, 'Cause now I'm scared that everyone I love will leave me' I can just imagine little baby Timmy following Batman and Robin, and then casting a glance at a family lighting a minorah, while he knows his family's minorah is sitting in the closet because his parents still haven't come home from their trip. Jason: 'Oh, all that I did to try to undo it,' All the crimes he did to survive, made him try so hard as Robin to undo that, 'All of my pain and all your excuses, I was a kid but I wasn't clueless' Maybe it's how he feels about Sheila now that he's grown. Jason was alone on the streets before Bruce. He even empathized with Sheila, and tried to help her. Jason was optimistic, not naive. Tim: 'Someone who loves you wouldn't do this' Jason: "All of my past, I tried to erase it,' His time on the streets, his time as Robin, Sheila's betrayal, The LOA, his villain era, 'But now I see, would I even change it?' Because all of those things shaped who he is now 'Might share a face and share a last name, but We are not the same' He would've never done what Sheila did, he would never do what Bruce did, or Talia, or Wilis or any of the other adults in his life who have let him down.

Anywho, yeah, Conan Gray writing music for Jason and Tim is on my mind a lot.

[flashfuture]

do you think Damian is being regressed again?

Genuinely no. And I know people compare it to Batman and Robin right now and say see look. But what Batman and Robin shows us is Damian wants to work with Bruce so badly. Damian's solo run as Robin showed us he was willing to go to a tournament of death to prove himself. Siding with "Batman" over all his siblings is just him further trying to prove himself. The only way Damian is 'regressed' is if you want him to be an adult already. Every single Robin has a lost identity inside of Batman and Robin. Every Robin struggles with who they are outside the mask.

Dick had 44 years to be Robin. He defined redefined and undefined what it meant to be a kid sidekick. And becoming Nightwing was his answer out. There were quite literally no child sidekicks around before him he invented the concept of the role and nothing his brother's go through isn't anything he hadn't thought of doing already.

Jason had ~5 years if you count his pre crisis self and then he Died. And Jason is barely even over that so his entire 19 years of returned life is about who is he really did he come back as the same boy.

Tim has been a version of Robin for 35 years. Tim defined who Robin was without Batman. And so they still don't know what to do with him. Because Damian came on the scene while he was still alive and still a pretty popular character. So for the past 14 years they've been trying to juggle both characters on top of outrageous retcons and reboots. And it's true Tim could use Something to do outside of Robin but they don't know what that is yet.

So Damian is 14 and is going to make mistakes because DC does not have their child heroes be good. Dick was knocked unconscious and kidnapped every other issue till he became Nightwing at like 19. It's a tried and true sidekick tradition to suck until you're an older teenager. And everyone in this run has been beyond dumb as rocks letting that robot run around but hey we just have to go with it

[roobylavender]

i know you’ve talked a bit about your own version of events that diverge primarily concerning damian’s origin (if i recall correctly) but i’m interested in how you would handle tim? would he still be robin, what would his arc look like, do you think he should’ve been robin at all ? (just cause i know some people believe he shouldn’t in canon)

i actually really enjoy tim's introduction as robin bc (next to jason) it's the perfect example of how ludicrous robin is as an entity. with dick while there's a day-to-day life he lives that we get to see in parallel in earlier comics, a lot of it is taken in jest. bruce and dick's adventures in the golden age and even parts of the silver age are mostly comical and there's little continuity to speak of so there aren't really any consequences to speak of until dick goes to college. with jason's run we only really get to see hard-hitting consequences once he dies, and most of his run prior to that is plot driven with very few moments spared to showcase what his civilian life is like (most of which can be attributed to mike w. barr). what i appreciate about tim's robin run (and what i imagine other people comparatively find mind-numbing and boring) is that it delves into all of minutiae of being a teenager and a vigilante at the same time. the bizarre sudden absences, the sleeplessness, the school situation, the danger, the rift with your parents because they don't know where you are or what you're doing, the pressures of keeping your identity secret from your peers when you're only a kid and you want to have relationships but you don't know how to maintain them. tim being an outsider to bruce's family is precisely what makes his robin run so striking and revelatory. unless it runs in the family (and even then there are problems) it's hard to be a kid vigilante. delusional almost. and this status quo is even more exaggerated for tim bc he happens to become robin at one of the worst period's in bruce's (and consequently gotham's) life. a thirteen-going-on-fifteen-year-old is led to believe he is one of the only pieces of duct tape holding all of this shit together to the point his activities merit his father moving them to an entirely different city for a while. it's crazy! and eventually, it is going to get to him! it literally did! and personally i think it should have stayed that way

tim became robin not as part of a long-form response to trauma (albeit the trauma of what happened to his parents obv factored into some things) but bc of his own misconceptions as to what gotham needed to survive. he was a child, acting like a child, thinking like a child, etc. and albeit along different parameters the same would apply to jason as well. robin was more like a temporary phase for either of them than it was necessarily as a central identity around which to develop themselves entirely (a la dick). it should not have been permanently in the cards, and while the concept of legacy within dc is certainly interesting, this is one area where the compounded history, imo, should have espoused every reason why not to continue the robin identity's existence. every question and concern posed at the onset of tim's transition into robin should have been resoundingly answered rather than forgotten and left to the wayside as he was plunged deeper and deeper into the abyss of vigilante violence and death. he was a kid! he had a misconception about his own place in the world. and little by little he realized that while he would always have an inclination towards saving others he wasn't sure that this was the way he wanted to go about his life. i'm not opposed to tim staying connected to bruce and everyone else, but i don't think he has to remain a vigilante to do that. in fact, that to me is one of the greatest crimes of modern batman canon in general: the idea that every relevant connection bruce maintains has to be a masked villain or hero of some kind. bruce used to be friends with socialites! reporters! doctors! and it's not to say he isn't still but they're certainly more severely peripheral than they used to be. every other major dc hero has a significant civilian cast but for some reason bruce's own collective either steadily dwindled or was recharacterized and manipulated into playing a part in the grand game (think vicki finding out bruce was batman and the whole blackmail and death shtick that happened after)

so. to address your first question. i do want tim to be involved in that time period in everyone's life, but i want him to be involved as tim. not robin. as someone coming to terms with what he's been through and what he can do going forward. kind of like a singular greek chorus if you will. an observer to the party who occasionally interjects with striking gravitas. someone who enters and exits the story at leisure. that guy over at the manor on a saturday while all hell breaks loose in the parlor (they've found damian, they know he exists, what are they going to do, what do they even say). that guy committed to his new life as a boring and ordinary teenager with a video game addiction but also a perpetual itch to scratch who breaks his abstinence rule one night to stalk the red hood and ask what the hell, man? you know bruce still loves you more than anyone, right? while jason (bewildered, bereaved) tells him to buzz off before he puts a bullet through him (he never would). that guy who meets up with cissie the first friday of every month to talk about what it's like to live with this void where they feel like they're doing nothing even though they know the horrors of picking it all up again are worse. that guy who has to sit with this weird pit in his stomach while his girlfriend comes to terms with her own place in the world bc he knows now that he can't do it for her any more than bruce couldn't do it for him. that guy who still visits barbara in the watchtower and does homework while they trade jokes and jibes about whatever gotham's got going on and maybe sometimes he gives a stray opinion. that guy who has to convince his dad that there's nothing out of the ordinary happening to explain why suddenly he's always here, he's answering phone calls, he's showing up for dinner. that guy who finds his old corkboard with photographs and newspaper clippings and pushpins and red string and goes to the store the next day to buy a camera bc hey, maybe there's no reason to stalk batman anymore, but he still likes the feel of a camera in his hands and someone told him last week there's an internship for a junior photographer at the local newspaper with vicki vale. maybe this is how he helps. maybe this is how he feels useful without sacrificing so much of himself in the process

[starwalker03]

I’m running out of questions so here is fanfic literature analysis that has been rummaging in my brain. in WMLP all the captured and enslaved characters were replaced besides for M’Gann. Robin’s been replaced twice over. Superboy and Aqualad’s mentors had actual sons. Green Arrow went back to Roy after losing Artemis. So much amo to get under their skin. And I bet it’s already under Dick’s. Dude hates the JL now and Slade would not miss the chance to show him Bruce replacing him.

Oh yes. Slade would have used Dick's replacement many times to destabilize him. and every other member of the batfamily, because before Dick there was no more family members. For all intents and purposes, it looks like Bruce only decided he cared for company and family after losing Dick, which Slade uses against him often. Dick hates the family he didn't know because of this, but ostly he knows it's not their fault. it's all Bruce's fault.

Roy's return to Oliver is a situational thing for sure, and anyone who knows them and knows the issues they've had can tell as much. Roy has to find his original, and also the team. He blames himself partially for everything that's happened. the easiest way to find and save everyone is to go back to the JLA and work with Oliver again. Artemis knows this is likkely how it went about. And she's happy for them. glad that they were able to get over differences. glad Roy was not so entirely swept up in his searching and forced himself to be alone.

At least Mera was already pregnant when Kaldur was taken. Lois, though? not as far as anyone was aware. When Conner found out he probably was so heartbroken that he would likely never meet this child. Moreover, Clark finally had a real son. Why would he care for the clone he lost when he has a baby to care for? and yet when COnner next sees Clark he looks just as upset to see Conner in his position. Conner can tell he is still missed.

M'Gaan has not been replaced, I suppose. But the current state of Beast Boy's existence in the world is a bit of a spoiler for an up coming chapter so we'll leave it there methinks.

[merchantziro]

This implies either-

A (Peak Comedy). Tim, despite being alive and well, is someone legally a member of the Infinite Realms because they thought he was haunting his own manor and later Bruce's manor. Ghosts probably showed up and saw him before he saw them and went, "Oops our B we thought this wasn't haunted yet, we'll just leave ya to your afterlife. Have a good day young ghost."

The fact he's been exposed to the Lazarus Pits so much and lives with Damian and Jason probably doesn't help with pinging as not dead, so ghosts just assumed he was one of their own and... Yeah Tim just has no fucking clue until he finds out and immediately begins wondering how to exploit this ghostly citizenship for X or Y related reasons.

Or B (Relatively Minor Angst). Tim himself is a ghost and unknowingly died years ago either as a child when he was left home alone and died of neglect or went off to follow the Bats in Gotham to take pictures where he either had that accident or had a bad run in with someone before he could even realize it. Just waking up feeling different but didn't really register anything that he just... Kept going on with a life that had ended.

Maybe it happened after he became Robin during the Titans Tower incident, or when he was going off to pull Bruce out of the Time Stream and just... Never realized he was a ghost, or maybe it was because of an incident with Damian who thought they killed Tim during one of his assassination attempts (like cutting his line) and believed Tim dead before seeing Drake the next day and both thinking Tim somehow survived.

Magic users so used to Tim and the Bats having an aura of ectoplasm from Lazarus Pits that they never noticed an Infinite Realms ghost was there. Tim continued to believe he was human and alive and just... Formed and grew that way believing he was human.

He never knew or used any of his ghost powers because he had no reason to believe he could walk through walls, disappear, and fly. No reason to think he was more unique than any other guy.

Dealer's choice on his and everyone else's reaction. Personally I think Tim would probably just go "Oh cool ghost powers" while completely ignoring the implications HE DIED, while everyone else in the Batfamily and potentially even the hero community just has a collective breakdown over Tim being dead.

Meanwhile Danny is just vibing this entire time while explaining shit he had to learn the hard way as a (half) ghost to Tim.

Fully haunting a building is easy when you’re a full ghost. It’s instinct, even!

Being a half ghost- can cause some problems though.

But Danny was lucky. He wouldn’t call this Fenton luck, because Fenton luck just meant bad luck. The murphys law of Amity, really. No- this had to be Phantom luck. Which also had never been very good- but it had its moments.

Or maybe the smarts his sister swears he has have finally pulled through.

Haunting the fancy manor in one of the most dangerous cities in the world was pretty easy, despite all of his occasional slip ups.

Who needs to worry about accidentally walking into a room fully human when the manors full of black haired blue eyed boys- and everyone’s mistaking you for someone else.

He’d been mistaken for “Tim” a handful of times! And when he finally met the actual dude, he seemed to be delusional from lack of sleep and had simply nodded and walked past.

The butler had called him “Master Wayne”??? But honestly, Danny can’t blame him. Wayne’s the last name of almost everyone living here, and he’s not sure he’d be able to keep track of that many people either.

And then there’s the interactions. What seemed to be the eldest son had ruffled his hair yesterday and tussled him up- the head of the house had draped a blanket over him when he fell asleep on the couch and dropped his transformation, and the butler kept passing him fruit platters?

Danny’s not even sure how long he has to haunt this place to get his official haunting license- but it’s starting to look like the perfect forever haunt!