#is this the first time someone acknowledged that Tim literally had it good in canon?

[arabian-batboy]

Please check up on your fanon Tim's stans friends who genuinely believe that he's the most oppressed wet kitten in the DC universe, they must be going through hard times after this panel dropped.

[lemotmo]

You gave an answer to this already and she seems to be very much in line with your thoughts as well but I love the episode speculation! And I sadly agree about Helena so I sent it to get your thoughts on this as well. Hope you have a lovely day!

Q. The last thing this show needs is yet another Bobby begins episode. Bobby isn't lacking in story focus can we please pay some attention to someone else. Eddie needs the story focus.

A. I'm going to follow the lead of some of my mutuals and only answer one ask on this topic. First of all I absolutely agree that we don't need another Bobby begins again episode. We have seen plenty of them so I understand your frustration. But I don't think that's what the episode is going to be. The episode title alone somewhat gives away what I think the overall theme of the episode will be. Mother in the literal sense of the word, specifically Bobby AND Eddie's relationships with their respective mothers. And the other mother that I think will play a part in the episode, mother nature. The show has made a point of paralleling Eddie to Bobby from the moment Eddie arrived. Having their separate storylines play out within the same episode makes perfect sense. I'm going to preface this next part by saying this is sheer speculation on my part. Based on the very little bit of information we have, the overall history of the show and how they tend to like to tell stories. Now for me, if the arc ends with Buck and Eddie together I do not care how the show chooses to get from point A to point B. But this is my theory.

I think Helena is going to get redeemed. I just do. If either Bobby or Eddie is getting the cut my bad parent out of my life story, it will be Bobby. Bobby is the shows tragic hero. He's their Batman. If they decide to have one of them walk away from that relationship for good, it will be Bobby. Eddie's entire arc has been framed as him finding his joy. The show is going to see him cutting Helena out of his, and Christopher's life, for good as a tragic event. They will avoid that if they can. Ryan has said numerous times that Eddie is not Bobby. Yes they have parallels, but the decisions that are right for Bobby are not necessarily right for Eddie so I think the outcome of the episode will be different for both of them regarding their relationships with their mothers moving forward. Eddie wants a relationship with his parents. He does. He wants to feel good enough for them. It's canon that Eddie doesn't view his parents the way he views the Buckley parents.

I'm almost completely convinced that Eddie is getting injured at the end of that episode. What I'm not sure about is whether or not Helena will also be injured. That depends on how the show wants to redeem her. Does she finally recognize the error of her ways or does the show injure her to the point that the audience, and Eddie, absolves her of her past misdeeds and agrees to move forward differently now? Story wise she needs to acknowledge her wrongs and work for the forgiveness so I don't want her injured, so in my theory she won't be injured. I believe Eddie will be driving his truck, for maximum Helena guilt let's say it's post an argument he's had with her, in a rain storm (rain is the Buddie theme, it is their visual element). Lightening will hit a tree (Tim spoiler) causing the tree to fall onto Eddie's truck. The universe has been screaming at Eddie for years now and he hasn't been paying attention so this time mother nature will make him have to listen. Using lightning and rain, just like they did for Buck, ties them together yet again. The universe is telling them the same thing. That is how the episode will end. We won't know Eddie's condition until episode 12. Which is also the episode that will give Buck focus. We know it appears to be a pretty call heavy episode so my guess is the calls will all tie into Buck's emotional state in some capacity, outward examples of what he's struggling with internally. Calls that appear to be callbacks to previous calls he had with Eddie. All the while we see the hospital stuff in El Paso with Eddie. Buck is most likely still Eddie's emergency contact, but I think the show will have either Christopher or, because she will be in the middle of being redeemed, Helena call Buck. I think Buck will go to El Paso at the end of episode 12. I still think episode 13 is the episode but I think it happens in El Paso and not L.A.

Buck cannot be a passive participant in them getting together. He has to actively choose it and work for it just like Eddie. Buck's entire relationship history pattern is him falling into them. He has to be an active participant in getting the relationship with Eddie. Buck choosing to go to Eddie is pretty necessary. We can see him spiral about his realization but if Eddie needs him Buck will not hesitate to go and that's important. We have all seen the director photo from episode 13, yes it appears to be Eddie's rug but that is not Eddie's house. So they either repurposed the rug for someone else, something they have not done before, at least not that I can recall, and doesn't really make sense to do. Or it is Eddie's rug at his place in El Paso. Thanks to the amazing work of another blog we also know she tagged the photo #buddie #buckandeddie, and then hid the tags when she posted the pic. Why did she do that? I do believe it is a Buddie related scene but that it takes place in El Paso and not in L.A. I think episode 13 is the go episode. Again this is all speculation on my part. But this makes sense to me from a story perspective. Again, if they go another way I won't be mad. But this fits what they like to do and what they've been doing with Buck and Eddie for a while now.

Thank you Nonny! I had a lovely day. Hope you have a wonderful day as well. 😋

Yeah, I already talked about Bobby and his mother in a previous post and I agree that both Bobby and Eddie can share an episode. You can find my full thoughts on this here.

As for Helena? I actually talked about the Diaz parents as well in another post. You can find my full thoughts here. But to summarise: Yeah, I do think they'll end up redeeming the Diaz parents as well, just like they made some very weak-ass attempts to redeem the Buckley parents. 🙄

I don't like it, but if it means that Eddie will get to be even happier because of that? Then fine... I'll take it. If he feels that he does need approval and he finally gets it? I'll learn to live with it. For Eddie's sake. 🤷‍♀️

The 'Eddie having an accident of some sort' theory is something I've read about in a few metas now. It's interesting, because we can't know for sure whether or not Tim meant the 'falling tree' comment literally or not. It could just be a metaphor for Eddie having the realisation that he doesn't see Buck as 'only a friend'. That would be quite an emotional shock for him and it would almost feel like something heavy fell on him, like say-- a tree? The tree of realisation! 😋 So yeah-- I don't know about that one. Both are possible at this point. Only one will eventually happen. I just love that we don't know all that much from 8b. It's all a big mystery! 😄

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If you are interested in more of Ali’s posts, you can find all of her posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

[allovesthings]

god, why do i keep getting fanon-based dc posts in on my page, WHY

The post was trying to defend bruce against allegations of never loving Jason and only taking him in a replacement to dick. Which is fair and completely valid. BUT their reasoning of it was based on almost no canon except pre-crisis. Which would also be fine if they were using that continuity’s characterisation and relationships for other characters too, which they weren’t. the post basically said that jason was the only one who made bruce laugh????? and they used that one panel of dick telling tim that you can't force someone to be happy (referring to bruce) as proof that dick could never make bruce smile?????? the post said something along the lines of “Jason immediately did what dick often failed to do” referring to making bruce happy (the incident being bruce laughing at Jason stealing his tires, which is obviously a good moment for Jason and bruce but how does that mean that it was the first time bruce ever laughed with a kid ever???). I don’t want to copy paste direct quotes from the post because I don’t want anyone to flock to that post and send that person hate but god, the urge is strong because the whole post just felt like intentional cheery-picked reading and almost conscious misrepresentation of every other character.

The post claimed that bruce felt obligated to take in dick because he “feared what dick would become” [the whole angry murderous robin dick reasoning which I hate because its fanon that sucks the complexity out of both, dick and bruce and also demonizes a literal 8 year old] and that Jason was the “first and only family member that bruce chose ever since his parents died”. The post was so insistent on calling Jason his only proper family, using the reason of his fast adoption as proof that bruce cared more about jason than anyone else. literally outright said that the other robins are “good robins”  but jason was a “good son” and the tone heavily implying that jason was the “only good son”. The post didn't seem to acknowledge that jason's adoption doesn't actually occur pre-crisis (despite the legal battle with nocturna and is actually stated to have happened post-crisis in the argument dick and bruce have after jason's death) and that bruce has also gone to court to keep dick in early pre-crisis.

I am not saying they need to read all the comics ever written to have an opinion but maybe just...i don't know, research the comics for at least the points you wish to address?????

The post also mentioned that while dick was bruce’s pride, Jason was his joy???? So I guess according to the poster, bruce didn’t feel joy in his nearly 10 years of raising dick-‘the creator of robin i.e. the light to the darkness i.e. “he gives me hope just by existing”’-grayson. And what is their source for Jason being 'every last bit' of  bruce’s joy? Only pre-crisis panels where jason’s backstory and (mainly) personality is directly a repetition of dick’s and Jason is a different person on a genetic level because his parents are circus acrobats Joe and Trina Todd, not catherine and willis todd.

The post was so insistent on Jason not being a replacement for dick but then also directly said that Tim was a “replacement son” for jason. It claimed that dick felt replaced because of personal insecurities but used the pre-crisis version of him becoming nightwing and leaving willingly????? Why would pre-crisis dick feel replaced if he willingly became nightwing and gave Jason Robin himself and even wanted to adopt jason himself????????? Also pre-crisis dick and bruce had a mostly happy relationship. If you are so opposed to bruce viewing a kid as a replacement for another why are you putting that on a different kid then????????? Also, Tim literally has both his parents when he started as Robin, why would he immediately be a “replacement son” to bruce who knows that he does have parents who do love him????????? Bruce would feel attached to Tim, sure, but to go and say he is a replacement son is just so weird.

I understand wanting to defend bruce against claims of never loving one of his kids because I do believe that he did love all of them but trying to prove that by insisting that he only loved that one kid or loved that one kid so much more than any of his other kids isn’t exactly a very good defence of bruce. It is not even a strong defence if you need to cherry pick dialogue from comics AFTER Jason’s death already worsened bruce’s mental state to smitereens and panels from when Jason's personality was dick Grayson 2.0 to prove that. 

Why do people needs to put down other characters to prop up Jason ? like... Why is that a thing ?? You can talk about your favorite without putting down others.

The post claimed that bruce felt obligated to take in dick because he “feared what dick would become” [the whole angry murderous robin dick reasoning which I hate because its fanon that sucks the complexity out of both, dick and bruce and also demonizes a literal 8 year old]

He didn't feel obligated. That's complete misunderstanding of Dick and Bruce ? Bruce made the choice to be what he couldn't have for another child when he was 8 ? He saw someone else with a very similar tragedy and said: "'ll take him in and give him the tools I didn't have" (did he succeed ? the Titans might say no). if Dick didn't have Bruce, he wouldn't be murderous , he would just be closer to Batman as a superhero.

Also, it is kinda funny people are trying to argue that Dick was an 8 year old "murderous and Bruce feared what he would become" using pre-crisis as his origin story though. Because... Dick's first reaction after his parents' death pre-crisis is this:

yeah, I can see the murderous intent and vengeance here.

Also Sidenote: he is so cute there

and that Jason was the “first and only family member that bruce chose ever since his parents died”

That's Dick, though ? that's just taking Dick's story and giving it to Jason ?

literally outright said that the other robins are “good robins” but jason was a “good son”

Okay. That's... just...I'm gonna go touch some grass now.

the post basically said that jason was the only one who made bruce laugh?????

What ??? That kid is not making bruce laugh ?

That goofy dork ?

okay...I like it when the ood around Dick as a n adult is a little bit more serious and grounded. But Dick ? Dick himself ? he is funny. Like, that has been part of his character that he is quippy and funny since forever.

Also,the entire point of Robin is to be a contrast to batman. The wilson to his sherlock, the colorful the light to Batman's dark knight. Dick as Robin is joyful by nature of being the first Robin.

Also pre-crisis dick and bruce had a mostly happy relationship

Pre-crisis Dick and bruce were mostly happy...though by the end/the beginning of New Teen Titans,they kinda were fighting a bit (mostly about college, it wasn't about Jason at all). also as you said, Dick wanted to adopt Jason pre-crisis.This is really the wrong version of Dick to take if you are going to add insecurities to Jason and Dick's relationship.

The post was so insistent on Jason not being a replacement for dick but then also directly said that Tim was a “replacement son” for jason.

Again, Tim had alive parents at the time. He was Dick's brother before he was Bruce's son (and actually the debate on whether Bruce should take in Tim after his dad's death was around the time of Jason's return which is funny to me). I'm not saying he didn't see Bruce as a father figure but Bruce didn't actually take a replacement son when Tim came into his life.

They really said: I'm going to defend Bruce as a good parent by somehow making him a bad parent in a different way than what he sometimes is in canon.

Thank you for the ask and sorry If I answered a bit late <3

[jooniely]

Reading mha fanfics and I gotta say some of yall don't really understand why all might refused midoriya at first and how aizawa would have done the same. I come across too many fics that bash all might for what he said and make aizawa someone who would have accepted midoriya. Let's get this straight:

We are told in the very first line of mha that people aren't created equal. This isn't a story about how you can still make it in a very dangerous field without having powers feel good type of story. It's about unfairness. It's about the reality that there will be things that are too dangerous for you if you don't process certain traits or skills. Going up against ppl with powerful quirks as someone without one is the number 1 way to die or become a victim that then needs saving.

This is what aizawa drills into midoriya's head the first time he meets him. So why would this man tell a quirkless midoriya that he can be a hero? He's realistic and blunt. He would tell him that he wouldn't get very far. He would have said the same thing all might said. All might even tells midoriya that there are other ways to be heroes and he isn't wrong!

After the sludge villain incident, all might changes his mind because he says a hero's soul in midoriya. Aizawa? He would be wary. He would also see that midoriya has a hero's heart but you know what happens in the incident? He helps bakugo and becomes someone who also needs to be saved. This is the exact thing aizawa warns midoriya about. He would acknowledge that izuku is a hero but reckless. He might even admit that izuku is someone who will continue getting intro trouble by throwing himself into fights to help people but recognize that it would get him killed. Would he then offer training to him? Idk. Realistically? Probably not but maybe he would have a word with inko about her sons recklessness.

I also see inko being made to look bad by not encouraging izuku's dream. What mother would encourage her child's dangerous dream?? Izuku is already a target for being quirkless, imagine he goes up against literal villains? The fact that she wanted to pull him from UA is realistic and understandable. This is her child who has had countless near death experiences, who's now a target!

All that to say is that horikoshi writes his adults as responsible (to a degree) yet fanon makes them irresponsible. None of these 3 in good conscience would have sent izuku to his guaranteed death. And I need yall to understand this cuz not all of you tag your inko or all might bashing in ur fics and too many of yall get aizawa wrong.

Also last thing I wanna mention is that I know there are fics where izuku becomes a quirkless hero. Those are fun! And I would understand his discontent against the adults in his life for not supporting him but fans need to understand it and adults izuku would def understand it given, like I said, his first words are: not everyone is created equal. So make your batman/fanon tim drake type midoriya izuku fics but keep canon characterizations in mind or please please tag properly 🙏

[bigskydreaming]

Doing some writing today off and on between errands and work, and jumping around various Kings of the Sky installments, specifically Dick, Jason and Cass stuff, so probably gonna post snippets from a bunch of them as I go. 

(Kings of the Sky is an AU that goes canon divergent from the point of Jason calling Dick for advice for dealing with Bruce after the Garzonas case and where things end up going dramatically different from that point on. Including Jason not dying, being part of his own lineup of Titans between Dick and Tim’s, Dick being adopted not long after the Church of Blood incident, Cass being the third Wayne kid to be taken in and adopted and with Tim and Duke being next and then Damian coming along later once they find out about him. This is basically my ‘the family’s alright’ AU with largely ‘Good Dad Bruce’ except for Dick and then Jason yelling some sense into him about the other, respectively, in the first two installments, just FYI).

Anyway, this bit is from a story called “In Their Shadows Grow Trees Of Good and Evil,” set about a year after Cass has been adopted, when she and Jason are both sixteen and Dick’s twenty-one. Also just FYI, because canon has never been specific about what ways Cass is neurodivergent due to the comic-book style ‘rewiring’ of her brain so that she could learn to speak later in life, I tend to go with her being dyslexic and having aphasia. She sticks exclusively to sign language and being a silent presence in her costumed personas, so that there’s no chance of people connecting the dots between Black Bat and Cassandra Wayne, as she mostly speaks verbally in her civilian persona and doesn’t hide her aphasia. The reason there’s not likely to be any obvious signs of aphasia in the snippets of her I post is because I wait until I complete something to choose words at random to replace with aphasia-born mixups, so its more realistic and I’m not gearing her dialogue towards deliberately placed moments. Just in case you were wondering.

In Their Shadows Grow Trees of Good and Evil

“Hey Todd,” sneered an exquisitely obnoxious voice. “Why’s your sister so fucking weird?”

Jason sighed the sigh of a soul a mere century into its eternity of damnation as he rose from the lunch table he’d been studying at and crammed the rest of his books into his backpack. Then he pasted a cheerfully bland smile on his face and turned around, geared for academia warfare (teenage prep school edition).

“Hey Craig,” he said brightly. “Why’d you come out of the womb so ugly your parents had to tie a piece of steak around your neck just to get the family dog to go near you? Mysteries abound.”

The advancing junior slowed a step, momentarily rocked by his truly impressive return volley. The grimace Craig’s already gargoyle-esque features twisted into made his face even more unpleasant to look at than usual, which was quite the feat. Jason would have applauded if just looking at it hadn’t already turned him to stone.

But the bargain basement basilisk kept on towards him rather than turn tail and skulk off to pop his emotional blisters, so Jason sighed a sequel to his first one. Looked like it was one of those days where Craig felt up to powering through. Guess someone had eaten their self-esteem Wheaties that morning. Joy.

“You think you’re pretty hot shit, don’t you, Todd?”

Jason shrugged. “I mean, to be honest I kinda have a one track mind, so right now I’m mostly just thinking about punching you in your mistake.”

“My what?”

“Your face,” Jason elaborated with exaggerated patience.

“Huh?”

“Oh my god, I’m saying your face is a mistake. See, its not as fun when I have to stop and explain it to you. Ugh, you ruin everything.”

He neatly sidestepped the older boy as R2-Dumbass stayed frozen, smoke coming off of his internal CPU while trying to catch up. For a second Jason thought he was home free, but then he remembered the universe fucking hated him so haha, sucks to suck. Also, a small crowd had gathered to witness the verbal jousting match, and nothing invigorated an asshole like Craig more than an audience of like-minded peers. So there was that too.

“Whatever. Laugh it up all you want, you little shit,” the junior rallied. “But just remember, mocking your betters will never change the fact that you were born street trash and you’ll be street trash until the day you die.”

Honestly? Not his best effort. Jason almost felt bad using any of his good material. Seemed like overkill at this point. But he did have a strict Scorched Earth policy to maintain, so.....

“Yeah but my dad could buy out and ruin your dad so that means I still win, right?”

He smirked as the barb landed and Craig’s face set into a sunset vista of strangled purple and furious red. Bam. Direct hit.

“Listen, you - “

“Oh for fuck’s sake, it was rhetorical,” Jason interrupted. “I don’t actually care what you think even a little bit. Nobody does. You don’t matter. Please go be irrelevant elsewhere, you’re fucking dismissed, you loser.”

“Speak for yourself, charity case.” Oh goodie, Craig’s backup singers had finally arrived. Now if only he could remember to care enough to learn their names in the first place. Seriously, who told the extras they could have lines? “All the jokes in the world can’t change who and what you are.”

Jason shrugged and continued nonchalantly up the hill to where his sister was standing with arms crossed, staring down at something on the other side.

“True genius is never appreciated in its own time,” he tossed back over his shoulder. “I’m sure I’ll be immortalized in song eventually.”

The mob of morons deigned to let him go without further incident. Though he suspected that had less to do with his scathing wit and more to do with him being headed towards Cass. She was immaculately presented as always, wearing the Gotham Academy uniform like she was born to it despite hating its uncomfortable stiffness every bit as much as he did. But that was just Cass for you. 

For all that she still struggled at times to engage verbally or speak up in social settings, her mastery of body language remained without peer. She could chameleon-camouflage her way into matching poise and posture with anyone - a skill that had allowed her to walk into school on her very first day with her head held high as though she owned everything in her sight. Exuding so much Queen Bee Intimidation Factor even the other hive queens were afraid to approach her  themselves. Sending forth their drones to try and woo her into an alliance, only to see her remain oh-so-casually above it all, a slightly contemptuous smile adorning her lips.

Basically, she scared the shit out of their classmates without them having anywhere close to a true understanding of why, and Jason was outrageously jealous. Rude. Unfair. Why did his siblings always get all the cool toys when all he had was his rakish charm, scintillating intellect and debonair.....nah, who was he kidding. He was fucking awesome. 

“Sup, sis,” he said, cresting the hill to stand beside Cass. “Just FYI, I just took a popularity bullet for you, which means you owe me your dessert tonight. Its a family rule that’s totally a real thing and definitely not something I just made up right now because Alf is making chocolate soufflé.”

She made no acknowledgment and remained stock still, a Colossus at Rhodes peering down into the shifting shadows of the parking lot below.

He peered down as well, though with absolutely no idea what they were looking at. Solidarity, yo.

“So are we staring fixedly at anything in particular, or should I just pick my own spot and commit?”

His humor was totally wasted on her as always. Instead of laughing and telling him what a lovable goof he was, she just inclined her head in the direction of a blonde girl where she was standing next to the driver’s side door of a Mercedes-Benz, dictating final commandments to her peons before departing. Well, probably. Jason was just guessing, based on his own body language reads, and like, general disdain for literally everyone at this school that wasn’t related to him.

He made a face. An extra special one reserved just for this classmate in particular. “Ugh, Madison Dunleavy? She’s the worst.”

Cass raised a cool eyebrow. “I thought Craig Hendricks was the worst.”

“He is. They’re both the worst. Its a hotly contested position here at Gotham Academy.”

She rolled her eyes and nodded back down at the Queen of Air and Darkness. “So. You know her?”

“Nope,” Jason said. “Come to think of it, I’ve actually never seen her in my life. No idea who that is. Can’t help you, sorry. Shall we go home?”

The Eyebrow of Inquisition speared him with clear intent. Who the fuck needed words when you could pack the Encyclopedia Britannica into a single facial expression?

Jason sighed gustily. 

“I had a slight altercation with her freshman year that led to her declaring her undying enmity for me until the end of time. The word nemesis may or may not have been thrown around once or twice. I can’t recall.”

The Eyebrow of Inquisition lowered nary an inch. Ugh, she wanted more? Why did everyone in his family hate privacy, with the obvious exclusion of himself when snooping through Cass and Dick’s rooms for blackmail material, which was actually intel-gathering and thus another matter entirely.

“Okay so basically what happened was my first week here I overheard her talking shit about me and not even twenty minutes later she was pretending to kiss my ass in homeroom, like probably because of Bruce, y’know? So I just busted out laughing and told her to fuck off and die and she has inexplicably loathed me ever since.”

Avoiding further Eyebrow Inquisition-ing, he made a show of peering around aimlessly. When the silence extended and it was clear Cass was absolutely not going to break first, Jason waved a hand in dismissal and took to peering oh so casually at his fingernails. "I suppose I was less tactful back in those days.”

He chanced a look up, finally, and saw his sister’s eyebrow had somehow managed to mighty morphin power ranger its way into a configuration evoking both judgment and disbelief, with the latter perhaps aimed at the idea he was significantly differing in the tact department these days either.

“I don’t love the implications your face is making right now,” he told her.

She ignored him, because of course she did. 

“Does she know Dick?” She asked instead. Jason shrugged.

“I mean, maybe? She’s probably seen him around at one of those stupid galas we have to go to, and actually I think maybe she has an older brother who was either in Dick’s grade or like, one above or below it? I don’t know.”

Now both eyebrows were doing the dance of disbelief. Okay, so maybe that was poor situational awareness on his part, since it wasn’t like Gotham Academy was a big school with a ton of other kids and also he’d only been in the same class as Madison for like over two whole years, but whatever. There were extingent circumstances.

“Look, she’s a total snob who’s always looked down on me and in return I willfully ignore both her existence and that of everyone and everything even tangentially related to her. Its called equality, Cass.”

She pursed her lips and went back to the peering, because of course in the mind of Cass it made total sense that the Grand Inquisition didn’t need to be followed up by any explanation on her part, what the hell. Like was he supposed to have inferred it?

“What’s this all about anyway?”

“I heard her talking about Dick earlier,” she said without peeling her eyes away from her personal recon mission. “I don’t know what she said though, I just heard her say Grayson, and then I was busy looking at what her body was saying. I know it was about Dick because she shut down when she saw me. And I didn’t like the way she....looked....before that happened. The way she was talking. It was.....”

Jason frowned but held back any follow-up questions while he waited - with total patience because he wasn’t an absolute cad, thank you very much - for his sister to find the word she was hunting for. It was a major source of frustration for her, that whatever neural map her brain followed put body language and spoken language in totally different regions of her brain, separated by a fairly great divide. Meaning she usually had to make a conscious choice to focus on body language or conventional languages - whether verbal or sign. But it tended to be one or the other; she’d yet to master taking in and comprehending both forms of ‘language’ at the same time. And none of them had quite figured out how to convince her that she wasn’t actually missing anything when she chose to focus on one specific form of communication - that she was still observing far more than most people ever would.

“Proprietary,” Cass settled on at last. She nodded her satisfaction with her choice of word, and Jason waited a whole two point five seconds before sticking  his whole foot in his mouth.

“Proprietary?” He asked with a scrunched nose as he weighed that for possible context and implications. “You sure?”

She glared. He winced. It was a whole thing.

“Yeah, I know, sorry, sorry, I heard it the second it was out of my mouth. We don’t actually have to experiment with the legitimacy of if looks could kill.”

Cass rolled her eyes, but eh. That could’ve gone worse.

Jason swiftly redirected attention anyway. Discretion is the better part of valor, after all.

“So. The Queen of Air and Darkness was talking about our big bro, and her mood was.....proprietary, huh?” He recapped while digesting the info like a boss. “Well. Definitely not loving that, I gotta say. Hold please.”

Pulling out his phone and pulling up his most recent texts, he began typing furiously.

“What are you doing?” Cass asked.

“Texting Tom,” he replied, because duh. Hah, now it was his chance to have the answers that should be patently obvious and thus make with the ‘are you kidding me’ when she asked obvious questions she should know the answer to! How do you like them apples, sis?

“Why are you texting your boyfriend right now?”

Jason rolled his eyes, because fair is fair, but never ceased texting for a moment. Time was of the essence here, probably. Well, maybe. Okay probably not. But it’d still been like half an hour since he and Tom had last texted and that’s a very fucking long time in teenage years.

“To be our getaway driver tonight, obviously.”

She stared at him. He didn’t look up, but he could feel it anyway. He was very intuitive like that.

“What?”

Jason heaved another sigh, one keyed to tones of ‘oh my god, do I really have to spell this out,” exasperation. He was just racking up the bonus points here. It was really too bad this wasn’t an actual competition he could actually win and this was all just pettiness taking place wholly in his own head. Lame. 

“Well, clearly we now have to go snoop in Madison’s house aka lair to see if its actually a house or a full on lair. Because she’s either a creeper or like, legit evil, and its important to know which one before we proceed, because obviously we can only bust her for being a weird creeper about our brother as Jason and Cass, whereas if she’s legit evil, that’s gotta go down as Robin and Black Bat. I’ll handle the snooping, you’ll take look-out, but we still need a wheelman and that’s why I’m texting Tom. This is all very mission-oriented, okay. I’m a professional.”

“Right,” she affirmed, while sounding anything but convinced. “Why don’t we just tell Bruce?”

Without looking up or breaking stride, he said: “I’m going to give you til I finish typing this sentence to figure out what was wrong with what you just said. Remember that we are talking about hypothetical danger to our brother, and also Bruce’s idea of a proportionate response to any of his children being in even hypothetical danger. And also our brother’s idea of a proportionate response to Bruce’s idea of a proportionate response. Look, you’re still new so I’m gonna need you to just trust me on this one. Its gonna be a no on telling Bruce without further intel.”

Cass said nothing in response to that, which meant that she was conceding the point and recognized the wisdom of his words. Or maybe that she was just gonna go ahead and do what she wanted anyway and just wasn’t bothering to fight about it, but it was probably that first thing.

“Well you better not just make out with your boyfriend all night,” is what she said at last, and that got his attention reeeeeal quick like.

“Umm. Wow. Okay. So, first off, you’re not the boss of me and who I make out with and when, so jot that down. And second, now I’m definitely going to make out with my boyfriend extra hard, with the exception of when we are actually on our recon mission because as previously established, I am a professional. And also, again, you’re not the boss of me.”

Jason ignored her Eye Roll With Extra Emphasis, and instead just held up his phone to Text With Extra Emphasis, as he read along with what he was typing.

“By the way babe, we have to make out extra hard tonight,” he said, tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth while he dragged out his dictation with the kind of focus that usually led to Bruce asking why he couldn��t apply as much intensity to training as he did to pettiness. “Cass has suddenly decided she can dictate terms to me and I need to shut that shit down ASAP, so thank you in advance for your assistance in this matter. Smoochies and other gay stuff to the best boyfriend ever.”

Jason frowned as a response pinged back seconds later. 

TheCatsMeow: ....the things I put up with for the sake of your weird family dynamics.

TheOnlyRobinThatRocks: Yeah, yeah. You’re a saint among were-panthers. Must you mock? Why can’t you just tell me I’m pretty instead?

TheCatsMeow: Sorry. Let me try again. OMG you’re so pretty Jase how did I get so lucky xoxo.

TheOnlyRobinThatRocks: No. Its too late. It feels forced and unbelievable now. You’ve ruined it forever.

TheCatsMeow: Got it. From now on I will only tell you that you’re repulsive and hideous.

TheOnlyRobinThatRocks: I’m breaking up with you.

TheCatsMeow: But after I help you with your mission tonight.

TheOnlyRobinThatRocks: Obvsly. I’m a professional. Why do people keep forgetting this?

TheCatsMeow: And also the making out to spite your sister.

TheOnlyRobinThatRocks: Yeah we should do that first too. I mean we already penciled it in.

[raviposting]

Okay so I’ve seen a lot of conflicting responses to Buddie this episode, from it being clear to people that they’re getting together, to thinking the writers have unintentionally messed things up to thinking it’s purely queerbait.

And I get the different responses, I do - tbh I’m somehow in two camps, where I simultaneously believe it’s a slowburn but I also think it’s bait. And those are two very different opinions to have and it got me thinking about why we have these different responses as fans to the possibility of a queer ship (namely two men who would presumably be bi/pan) being canon. 

While people talk about how it’s just people wanting two characters to kiss or entitled fans - sure, that’s existent in every fandom, but I think there’s also a very real fear from queer fans who don’t want to get their hopes up and I d on’t love how the conversation has shifted to calling queer fans stupid for having hope, so I kind of wanted to break it down into 3 aspects that I’ve noticed: 

How writers portray bi characters and why that makes fans hesitant to have hope

What queerbait actually means as a concept

How much “slowburn” has changed in procedurals

1. How writers portray bi characters

Something I’ve thought about a lot are the bi characters I’ve seen on TV - Darryl (CEG), Sara Lance (Arrow), Lucifer (Lucifer), just to name a few. These are great characters imo and I think you’d have a fun time watching but a thing to note is that all these characters were established as bi within the first season of their respective shows and they all fairly quickly fell into a clear romantic ship as well (with the exception of Sara as she spanned multiple shows). It may have taken time for them to say the word bisexual, but it was still clear these characters were queer fairly quickly on. You could maybe argue that Lucifer was a slowburn, but then (while it does not take away from him being bi/pan so do not use this as an excuse to be shitty about him) it’s a m/f ship which is still not the point of my post, to find a m/m or f/f ship that has that same treatment.

Some writers have done it - like for Valencia in CEG, or Petra in JTV - when they saw that fans read them this way, but trying to find those characters were few and far between, and when I looked at popular queerbait ships (whether or not they actually are queerbait) it’s usually ships where the characters are largely viewed as bisexual. A lot of times this also comes with pushback from both straight and to be frank, other queer fans as well. Straight fans don’t always see the signs that queer fans do, so to them a queer character who hasn’t been explicitly clear from the start comes out of nowhere. And what I’ve seen from certain queer fans are concerns that people aren’t appreciating the canon queer characters in a show - and I think there is a conversation to be had about that, but I don’t think the response should also be about then demanding less representation for people either. 

If we go back to 911, people talk a lot about how it has canon queer characters, which it definitely does - Michael, Hen, Josh, Karen, and David are all canonically gay/lesbian and that’s awesome, and we absolutely should talk about fans (white fans in particular) ignoring these characters. It also does not change the fact that none of these characters are bisexual and that is the representation people are looking for. Both of these things are true - these characters are often under appreciated in canon AND people deserve bisexual representation. They don’t contradict each other and to act like one negates the other does a huge disservice.

And even if a character was made bisexual in the canon text we don’t get that slowburn. This may be true for things like Leverage, or LOK, but there’s also a real fact of censorship that affected these shows and the fact that general audiences may not understand the queer text tjat the writers intended. It doesn’t make the writing any less wonderful or the ships any less poignant or beautiful or important, and there’s ofc shows like She Ra that made this more obvious (or the.....mess that was Supernatural that made it. Half true?) but these are still real things that should be acknowledged on why people are so hesitant to call it slowburn - because it’s something most queer fans haven’t SEEN DONE, because m/f ships will get that care for slowburn when it’s done but it’s not done for m/m or f/f ships in that same capacity.

2. What queerbait is

This one’s fun because I don’t think many people understand what it is, but queerbait is very dependent on the intentions of the writers/creators/etc. - which tbh can be hard to gauge, because a genuine intention that ended up not happening or someone baiting fans or someone trying to support all ships and not be rude all have very different intentions but to a fan who only sees bits and pieces of this person on social media, it can be hard to gauge.

Honestly with how much the 4th wall gets broken because of social media now I’d personally say we’ve probably moved into a different definition of queerbait - unintentional vs intentional - because we’re at a point where a show knows what ships are popular and at what level of excitement fans are for it - but that being said, there’s still a clear spectrum of intent. And imo? I don’t think 911 has that intent of queerbait - whether it’s a slowburn or they have a different vision for buddie that I (probably) won’t agree with remains to be seen, but this show usually treats its storylines with care. Are they perfect at it? No, definitely not, I definitely think that they’ve dropped the ball a few times (especially with just how many characters they have lmao), but they also clearly do their storylines with earnest and with genuine care for these characters.

Is 911 getting them together? I want to say yes. I don’t think this was always the plan, just something that they decided along the way, but I also don’t think that changes anything about the ship. A lot of people point to Tim Minear being vague about the ship, or the actors and their interpretations, but 1. We have no idea what they’ve been told about Buddie moving forward and 2. No show runner is going to spoil their show that much. 911 may be keeping quiet because they have a different plan for buddie, sure, but also maybe because they’re still figuring out how exactly they want to do this and/or they want to make this slowburn and don’t want to give it away.

3. Slowburn in procedurals

I feel like this is something that procedurals have started shying away from, but slowburns used to be very common - Bones, Castle, their ships didn’t get together for literal years, but that’s just not something that many shows do nowadays, even for m/f ships. Even things like Deckerstar will have the characters get together after ~3 seasons and explore the relationship onwards, whereas a few years ago, y ou’d pr obably be watching a sh ow and it’d take them 7 seasons to get together. My assumption for this is that shows are afraid  of getting canceled, but there’s been a pretty big shift in getting a couple together after say, 6 seasons to now getting them together about halfway through the show. I don’t think either one is bad or good - in good writers’ hands, either can be amazing - but that shift has made it so that a lot of younger fans in particular, I think, don’t fully recognize slowburn when they see it.

911 as a show tends to run pretty fast - it kind of has to with its depth of characters they have - but when they do have slower running storylines they really do make use of that as well. Bobby’s addiction is something that’s always going to be present in his character, May’s suicide attempt was brought up again front and center after 3 seasons, even Chim’s dynamic with the Lees was brought up again and it was reinforced again that they’re his family. There are certain storylines that have to be continuous and aren’t a one and done type of thing, and that includes Buck and Eddie, especially if you want to establish them as queer to a general audience who doesn’t think about these things.

And honestly, despite my fears, I think they are laying groundwork there. We have Buck learning to be more confident in his relationships, we have Eddie ready to date and learning to follow his own heart, we have Buck and Eddie both establishing that Buck is family and will always be there for Christopher. These are pretty big steps to do for a ship and we’ll obviously have to see how the show goes forward but they’ve already insinuated Eddie and Ana are breaking up, I’m sure Taylor and Buck may last a season and be over, but we do have to see what this next season brings. Do I think they’d say this? No, definitely not.

tl;dr: 

911 is a show with good viewership, but there’s always a possibility they can’t continue with their season and then their promises would feel like a lie. Or they may still be hammering out the details as this season hasn’t been written. Or they may just simply not want to spoil their show,  or they don’t want people criticizing a story before it’s finished, all of these could be reasons. The showrunners, writers, actors, ultimately they owe nothing to us as a fandom to potentially spoil their series, or do something, change it or their schedule for it, and get accused of bait. 

But it also doesn’t change why fans are wary of this storyline either, and I wish people would have more nuance and compassion for fans who are worried about queerbait (whether they think it’s not queerbait and dislike people worrying about it or if they do and are calling people idiots for believing it). There’s a lot of reasons why fans are wary and don’t want to have hope, and it’s not necessarily about 911 specifically as it is a pattern of writing seen in other pieces that have fans worried. These things can all coexist and I wish we as fandom in general could acknowledge that, because pretending that they don’t and criticizing each other/people’s intentions or knowledge when they have certain expectations also doesn’t do much to help.

[cardentist]

this isn’t a proper discourse post, I Agree with a lot of what the op said but there’s specific things about it that get under my skin in a way that makes me want to talk about it, but I don’t want to engage with that post both because I don’t want to speak over the point that’s being made and frankly because I don’t want to be misinterpreted because of the point that’s being made in it.

so for context, I’ll just say that it was a long post about how a lack of engagement with women characters in fandom spaces is tied to misogyny. just be aware that I’m responding to something specific and not criticisms of this in general. (feel free to dm me if you want to see the post for yourself)

the rest of this is going to be rambly and a bit unfocused, so I want to get this out the door right at the top: it is not actually someone’s moral obligation to engage with or create fan content. all other points aside, what this amounts to is labeling people as bigoted for either not creating or engaging with content that you want to see, and while the individual may or may not be a bigot it’s not actually anyone’s job to tailor their fandom experience to cater to you. 

fandom is not activism. it’s not Wrong to point out that a lack of content about women in fandom is likely indicative of the influence of our misogynistic society. and suggesting that people examine their internalized biases isn’t just fine, it’s something that everyone should be doing all the time. but saying that it is literally someone’s “responsibility” to “make an effort” by consuming content about women or they’re bigoted is presenting the consumption of fan content as a moral litmus test that you pass and fail not by how you engage with content but by not engaging with all of the Correct content. 

judging people’s morality based on what characters they read meta for or look at fanart for is, a mistake. it Can Be Indicative of internalized biases but it is not, in and of itself, a moral failing that has to be corrected.

if you want more content to be created about women in fandom then you do it by spreading content about women in fandom, not by guilting people into engaging with it by saying that they’re bigots if they don’t. you encourage creation Through creation.

okay, now to address what Mainly set me off to inspire this post.

this post specifically went out of it’s way to present misogyny as the only answer for why this problem exists in fandom spaces. and while I absolutely agree that it’s a Factor, they left absolutely no room for nuance which included debunking “common excuses.” which, as you can probably guess, contained the things that ticked me off.

first off, you can’t judge that someone is disconnected from women in general based on their fandom consumption because the sum total of their being is not available on tumblr. 

people don’t always bear their souls in fandom spaces. just because they don’t actively post about a character or Characters doesn’t mean that they see them as lesser or that they don’t think about them. the idea that you can tell what a person’s moral beliefs are not based on what they’ve said or done but based on whether they engage with specific characters in a specific way in a specific space can Only work on the assumption that they engage with that space in a way that expresses the entirety of who they are or even their engagement with that specific media.

what I engage with on ao3 is different from what I engage with on tumblr, youtube, twitter, my friend’s dms, and my own head. people are going to engage with social media and fandom spaces specifically differently for different reasons. you can’t assume what the other parts of their lives look like based on this alone. 

second off, there can be other factors at play that influence people’s specific engagement with a fandom.

they specifically brought up the magnus archives as an example of a show with well written women. which while absolutely true, does Not mean that misogyny is the only option for why people wouldn’t engage with content about them as often. for me personally? a lot of fan content is soured because of how it presents jon. I relate to him very heavily as a neurodivergent and traumatized person, and he faces a Lot of victim blaming and dehumanization in the writing. sasha and martin are more or less the only main characters that Aren’t guilty of this, and sasha was out of the picture after season 1.

while this affects my enjoyment of fan content for these characters To Some Extent on it’s own (I love georgie, I love her a lot, but I can’t forget that she looked at someone and told them that they were better off dead because they couldn’t “choose” to not be abused), the bigger issue is fan content that Specifically doesn’t address the victim blaming and ableism as what it is, even presenting it as just Correct. 

this isn’t exclusive to the women in the show by any means, this is exactly why I avoid a lot of content about tim, but it affects a lot of the women who are main characters. that isn’t the Only reason, there’s more casual ableism and things that tear him down for other reasons (the prevalent theory that elias passed up on sasha because he’s afraid of how she’s More Competent In Jon In Every Single way. which comes with the unfortunate implications of jon being responsible for his own trauma because he just wasn’t competent enough to avoid it) but that’s the main one that squicks me out.

of course not all fan content does this, and I Do engage with content about these characters, but sometimes it’s easier to just stick with content that centers on my comfort character because it’s more likely to look at his character with the nuance required to see that it is victim blaming and ableism. 

it’s not enough to say that the characters are well rounded or well written and conclude that if someone isn’t consuming or creating content about them then it has to be due to misogyny and nothing else.

there’s also just like, the Obvious answer. two most prominent characters are two men that are in a canonical gay relationship, which draws in queer men/masc people on it’s own but the centering of their othering and trauma Particularly draws in traumatized queer people that are starved for content. georgie and melanie are both fleshed out characters in and of themselves, but their relationship with each other doesn’t have nearly as much direct screen time. and daisy and basira have a lot more screen time together and about each other, but their relationship is very intentionally non-canon because of its role as a commentary on cop pack mentality.

people are More Likely to create content for the more prominent relationship in the show and be drawn into the fandom through that relationship in the first place. I have no doubt that there Are misogynistic fans of the show, but focusing on the relationship and the characters that make you happy isn’t and indication that you’re one of them.

which brings us to the big one, the one that sparked me into writing this in the first place (and the last that I have time for if I’m being honest). the “common excuses” section in general is, extremely dismissive obviously but there’s only one section that genuinely upsets me. 

without copying and pasting what they said directly, it essentially boils down to this: while they recognize that gay and trans men are “allowed” to relate to men, they’re still Men which makes them misogynistic. Rather than acknowledge Why gay and trans men would engage with fan-content specifically that caters to them they present it as a given that it’s 100% due to misogyny anyways. they present queer men engaging with content about themselves as them treating women like they’re “unworthy of attention,” calling it a “patriarchal tendency” that they have to unlearn.

being gay and trans does not mean that you’re immune to misogyny, being a woman doesn’t even mean that you’re immune to misogyny, but that’s engaging in bad faith in a way that really puts a bad taste in my mouth. 

queer men aren’t just like, Special Men that have Extra Bonus Reasons to be relate to boys, they’re people who are more likely to Need fandom spaces to explore facets of themselves. and while you can Relate to any character, it feels good to be able to explore those aspect with characters that resemble you or how you see yourself.

when I first started actively seeking out fandom spaces in middle school I engaged with content about queer men more or less exclusively. at this point I had no concept of what trans people were, and wouldn’t begin openly considering that I might be a trans person until high school. I knew that I’d be happier as a gay man before I knew I could be a gay man, and that’s affected my relationship with fandom forever. 

I engage with most things pretty casually, reblogging meta and joke posts when I see them, but what I go out of my way to engage with is largely an expression of my gender identity and sexuality. I project myself onto a comfort character and then I Consume content for them because that was how I was able to express myself before I knew that I needed to. it’s not that girl characters aren’t “worthy” of me relating to them, it’s that I specifically go to certain fandom spaces to express and work through my gender and sexuality. that’s what I use those fandom spaces For.

I imagine that I’ll need this crutch less when I’m allowed to transition and if I ever find a relationship situation that works out for me. but also like, why should I? it’s not actually hurting anyone for me to explore my gender and sexuality through fanfic until the end of time. nor does it hurt anyone for me to focus on my comfort characters. 

fandom is personal comfort and entertainment, not a moral obligation. people absolutely should engage with women in media and real life with more nuance and energy than they do, but fandom spaces are not the place to police or judge that. 

[acefrogmonarch]

HC pt. 2

Some of these might have been on the other HC but if it is, don't worry there's is a lot of new ones.

Take this as canon to my story. Season 3 in MLB. It didn't happen but I'll acknowledge some things and change a lot. Like a lot.

Them as vines!

The only time Tim has used bruces money was to buy a hoverboard to go around the house saying whatever they had for lunch or dinner. In the simplest form of that meal.

"We are having Chestnut bisque for dinner." Tim is the first one to know and he gets to his hoverboard and gets a ladle. "We got Soup!" His hand has a motion of scoping up some soup as he rides.

Damian recording as Todd drives, singing, and blasting white girl music.

Dick was going to surprise Damian by taking him out of school for the day, his phone was already in his hand because he didn’t tell him before. He spotted Damian, just in time to see him throw Jon against the lockers.

Tim has a set of keywords that activate the law and order sound. Any speaker around him is put up in the highest setting and blast it through the air.

Ace doesn’t let Tim touch anything Damian has. For one week Tim hasn’t touched the bat computer. He’ll never forgive Ace.

Ace accidentally biting bruce’s dick. It was the first dinner with Marinette and they all wanted to make a good impression. They were all eating dinner and Bruce, mid-bite just makes a noise.

Marinette looks over and he’s looking at Damian, who was also mid-bite. "Dog.” It’s all he says, its chaos after that.

The boys scramble to look under the table. After they do, they can’t stop laughing and Marinette doesn’t move from her spot.

Okay, I want to clear this up for my self, Marinette found out that Damian was robin on accident.

Marinette and Damian didn't interact at all but he has been seen outside of school waiting for somebody. Lila had this 'grand idea' to set them up together. Alya, the 'master' setup. Dragged a delirious Marinette to Chloe's hotel.

"Come on Mari, it's a sleepover!" Marinette couldn't handle this. Just before she had texted Adrien that she was going to Chloe's place for a "sleepover". But Mari didn't believe it. It was 2300 and her 'bedtime' they knew not to bother her. She already took her medicine and it was kicking in.

Alya opened the door and shoved Marinette in, stumbling back, she fell on her butt. Looking around she saw the bathroom light on, but immediately noticed how small it was to Chloe's usual room.

Stumbling to look at her she couldn't help but drag to the bathroom. Opening the sewing kit in there and sticking a needle in her inner thigh. She woke up and carried it around.

"What did you do this time Lila." Groaning as she got up, she limped out to the foyer in time to hear someone open the window.

Turning around She found Robin, mask in hand to be Damian. Damian, on the other hand, didn't understand how this could happen. He was supposed to be alone in his hotel room. Why was Marinette here? It doesn't matter gotta 'fix' this.

At first, Damian attacked her to keep her silent but once she attacked back, they were at a stalemate.

They kept up with each other for hours.

Marinette slipped into the night, leaving him as people knocked on his door. For months, they didn't speak, nor did they meet up as their alter-egos.

Mari actively went out of her way to ignore him. She was furious at him and Damian couldn't care less about her feelings, only mad that he couldn't threaten her to keep his identity secret.

It wasn't until Nightwing talked to Mari. It wasn't until Chat Noir went to fetch him for a bad fight with an Akuma. It wasn't until Ladybug had revealed to be Marinette.

"you know, with someone having a superpower of 'Luck'. You sure make a mess of yourself."

"Whatever. You know my secret and I know yours. Do what you will with it."

They get closer once everything was resolved. Damian got better at handling people, Mari went tougher on people. Slowly falling in love, over the years.

But that's a story for another time.

Before reveal maybe year 2 to 3 italics are in English or another language if it isn’t in English, I’ll clarify

How Chat Noir and Selena first met. “Did you steal my look?” Chat grabs his tail looking her over and he dramatically throws his tail in disgust. “No kitty cat, you stole mine.”

Selena doesn’t realize that she’s been on Marinette’s roof for months. But she does notice how the same ravenette helps kids and kittens in need and sneak some snacks if they look often enough. She’s okay in her book.

The first time Marinette and Selena meet, she was on her balcony caring for her plants. Spray bottle of water on her hand, she hears a heavy ‘thump’ on her roof. Calling out Marinette points her bottle as a gun, just in case. “Chat?”

Selena pokes her head through and sees this small little girl look at her. “This was supposed to be an easy job” Confused, Marinette tilts her head slightly. “What was easy?” Marinette barely began studying English, now she’s thankful that she’s taken the subject seriously.

Marinette was about to be mugged the second time they interact. Chat Noir had been on patrol while Catwoman was on her way to another job. “Hey, there little lady.”

That stopped Catwoman in her tracks. Looking over in the opening of the alley, low and behold, there’s Marinette. Clutching her purse for dear life. Perched on the building behind the mugger is Chat Noir.

They both jump at the same time, noticing each other as they nod in understanding. Before they reach the ground, Marinette already has the mugger on the floor, groaning in pain.

Yearly road trip!

At first, it was the fair or occasional Carnival just outside of town but once the boys grew in numbers and added their interest, they started to fight who’s turn it was yearly.

When Damian joined, it was Tim’s turn and like the year before they got ready to go to another cluster of conventions in L.A. for weeks

Jason would suggest Disney world but always go to Universal Studio for Harry Potter.

Dick goes to stupid places that are weird, like the “Worlds Biggest Yarnball!” Other than that he takes pictures of food in his mouth and post it on Instagram. One moment he’s in New York City with a rainbow Bagel. The next he’s in Canada eating Timbits.

Yes, that’s an actual food item in Canada. They look like doughnut holes but better.

Go soccer baseball! (It's kickball to you, Americans.)

Anyway back to HC.

Babs doesn’t go half the time, but she always down when it’s her turn and she goes all out. Babs mostly goes for the tech conventions but once Dick, Tim, and Steph saw drone racing in Dubai.

They always went to Dubai after that. Damian thinks the drones are mini helicopters and get fascinated by them. He’ll never admit it.

They bribe Lucas to make a custom Duck boat if Lucas gets to go one time. “Y’all are white rich kids, but take me some time.”

Babs decked it out with Video games on the bilge (lower layer of the boat) while where the girls stay on top of the fantail.

They take the road trip very seriously. And literally. They drive. Everywhere.

In the open water, Babs keeps a bucket of chum to throw in the water to attract sharks. The first time it happens dick and Jason ‘freak out’ and reenact Jaws. Tim gets annoyed very quickly, he just wants to play video games. Bruce always stayed in at the wheel.

He can't choose between the boys and girls so he stays there. Once Marinette joined she switches constantly but once she's tired, she stays with bruce to nap.

Steph would go to places outside of the US for Instagram worthy food. Like Dragons Beard in China and Jiggly Cheesecake in Japan.

Cass likes to visit quiet places. Like the renovated Opera house turned Library. No one argues as much on her trip, and they enjoy the peace and scenery. Templo Expiatorio del Santisimo Sacramento, Mexico has been on her list but she always spots something else.

Marinette wants to go to Milan, Italy for Fashion week but she doesn’t plan the trip, the rest of the batfam does. They get her to spill where she would go if she ever got the chance.

They also don't tell her until they show up at the Bakery doorsteps. Honking in a custom Duck Boat, there's Dick Grayson, hanging out of the side yelling “Get in loser we’re going shopping.”

"THE BoWlS MARI. THE BOWLS!!"

"I won't even attempt to try this much effort with anyone else, just marry me instead, Mari. Don't let me indulge to stand another second of insufferable humans." This is how Damian proposes.

Damian having a mild innocence.

Like not knowing what tampons or pads are used for, and asking Bruce about it. Bruce panics for a solid minute before answering. "I'll tell you later." He doesn't.

Jason and dick don't think it's true so they tease him. Dick tried to be subtle by saying Steph was on 'her time of the month.' Jason bulldozed through saying she was stocking up on tampons.

"What are tampons used for." They tell him it's to cover women's vagina. He'll never admit to them that he thought they were to cover battle wounds.

Damian is very weirded when he finds out that Dick or his father having sex with a stranger.

 "You're not supposed to do that." Is his immediate thought.

"Dick, stop having sex with her if you don't plan on marrying her!"

Damian promptly leaves the room. "Where are you going little D?”

Stomping away, "To plan a wedding." He slams the door.

The first time Marinette tries to cuddle Damian, he freaks out.

"Woah, Angel, wait till marriage." Marinette just looks at him confused.

"What do you mean???? This is perfectly fine before marriage."

"Not in my culture!"

Jason and Dick weren't afraid of Marinette before. But ever since 'the Kitchen™" incident' they haven't walked in when she visits.

The Kitchen™ incident as followed.

Sleep-deprived Mari! & Tim! Mari still had ingredients out, she was making coffee cake for them since Tim asked for some "fre sh a voca do" for their desert.

M: Could you put the Ingredients away?

T: What dog? When did we get the dogs in here?

M: What?

T: Did you not say dog?

M: I thought you said you wanted to eat a dick.

T: What?! Mari I don't eat ass.

They were surrounding the island, both were crouched

M: You're not getting my milk.

Tim was moving his arms around and flipped over the island and grabbed the milk, he ran out with Mari following him.

M: No my MALK!!

Damian walked in much later to see where Mari was.

T: Do you know the muffin man?

D: The Muffin Man?

T: The Muffin man

Mari left to find Dami and heard that as she was coming in.

M: Shes married the muffin man.

Damian promptly forgot why he wanted to find her in the first place and leaves. Just silently going "wtf"

They would laugh so much they laid down on the floor, once the timer beeped, Marinette stumbled her way to the oven, accidentally stepping on Tim as well.

Why do they do that?! Both dick and Jason didn't wanna witness any more of this weirdness.

Every time, anybody in the bat fam is hurt, there is a speaker nearby with the CoD 1 zombie 'Game over' soundtrack. Ready to play. It's why common crooks stop hurting them because they can't escape the sound.

Tim did it on accident because he was sleep-deprived but he just kept the algorithm.

His usual response when attacks don't hurt him is. "Mothertrucker dude, that hurt like a buttcheek on a stick"

Jason and Tim mess with Penguin, once penguin caught on that they were only attacking at dusk. He started calling them Dusk Boys™.

"God damn dusk boys. Get off my lawn!"

Mariette witnesses it and coined the term, "Dusking it up." whenever someone was a little shit.

Damian got a kazoo one day, someone 'gave' it to him as they ran away. "It's a social experiment!" More like throwing it in his face. Once he got home he played it. Marinette was visiting for a while.

He showed her first and Tim was with her in the living room, eating cake. After he played it, they both went batshit crazy. Once they aren't sleep deprived, Damian 'serenades' Mari with the kazoo. It's during the next patrol and its right after they beat up another criminal.

She was very surprised and so was everybody else. 1 they are usually so profession about this and not announcing their presence or joking around. It's why she got so much done with him. 

2 She kind of enjoyed it???

Marinette finds herself in Dick.

Since everyone went to the pair to vent or find advice. Marinette sees them struggling and slows down with them. Taking things from scratch, be it subjects they struggle with or talking about people.

Dick can relate because not everyone is willing to talk to others besides Dick. They share tips on how to help. Mari gets ideas on how to talk to others about self-love and dick gets advice that he is doing all he can and more. 

Jason and Mari patrol together and spar together too often. Like when they both don’t want to hold back. Afterward, they get ice cream.

Mari never takes credit because she doesn't want to seem like a brat. But she also doesn't want to turn people down because she loves to help.

So she does her work, invites them in and hangs out with them and doesn't shut them out. She sets a group chat for people struggling in math and science. She also has a weekly get together for emotional support, "It doesn't matter what it is, just say it!" She invites Chloe one time and they have deep conversations about family issues and attitude issues.

Monthly shows.

Mari, Adrien, and Dick sing (ABBA) and dress up, they just call it a show. But once Mari does parkour and acrobatic moves they go on the tightrope.

She doesn't push dick and always uses the net, once dick explains why he didn't want to go in the first place. They take it slow. Explaining moves on the ground and different verbal signals to call out for a new movie or stop.

"I played you like the cheap Kazoo you are." Damian when he gets played by Mari in a game. It was Risk.

They are all instruments. Every single one of them. But their price is on a very wide range. It all depends on their mood.

Some are cooking supplies. "What a tool." No one in the mlb crew likes it.

[distortingbones]

relistening to a guest for mr spider and i'm really struck by the parallels between jon and martin's upbringings-- martin's mother resented him because he reminded her of his father (who she despised), while jon's grandmother resented him because he reminded her of his parents (who she loved & mourned). both jon and martin carry a similar trauma, but because of that difference (hatred vs mourning) they present in very different ways.

keep reading for a big chunk of analysis of how this has affected them/their relationship throughout the podcast, as well as it what it means for current events in canon. 

more than anything, martin wants to distance himself from his father by becoming someone worthy of love, or, failing that, someone who people overlook. (better to be invisible than to be hated, he figures.) he structures his whole public-facing self around being a trustworthy, kind, caring person. 

he first develops feelings for jon while jon is mistreating him (season 1) because he sees jon as somebody who is in need of love and affection. he can bring jon tea, check in on him throughout the day, and jon gives him very little acknowledgment in return. although it would be a stretch to call jon abusive, this still mirrors martin's parents' relationship, where his mother was the victim and his father the abuser. if martin plays the role of the person offering care and jon doesn't reciprocate, then in their unequal relationship, martin is unequivocally placed into his mother's role. martin gets to be the giver, and he is satisfied that this means he is not acting out the role of his father.

sure, jon still dislikes him, but that's because martin is "annoying and incompetent" (in quotes because it's obviously not true), never because jon thinks martin is a bad or abusive person. to martin, that's what's important. it's part of why he's so horrified when jon accuses martin of lying to him (and committing murder) in season 2. martin suddenly realizes that jon sees him as someone who is manipulative and capable of doing great harm, and that's martin's worst nightmare. up until this point, martin has continued to care for jon, no matter how awful and paranoid jon gets, because to martin it's not about how jon treats him, it's about how he perceives him. (ultimately martin gets better at sticking up for himself, but this is his headspace during season 2.)

this is also part of why martin finds the lonely so compelling. without other people around, he doesn’t have to worry about how he is perceived, because there’s no one there to perceive him. he doesn’t have to worry about being a bad or abusive person, because there’s nobody else around to abuse. nothing hurts in the lonely, because martin’s primary source of anxiety and internal conflict is finally lifted. when jon rescues martin from the lonely, martin says, “i see you,” and comes back to himself. but really, it’s the fact that jon sees martin that saves him. in that moment, martin is sure that jon loves him, that jon sees him as somebody who is worth saving, sees him as somebody who brings goodness into the world. martin feels fully and completely seen by jon, and he is overwhelmed with relief and joy that the person jon sees is good.

okay, what about jon, you ask?

jon is desperate to live up to his parents, who his grandmother mourned. much like martin, he yearns to be “good enough”. however, while for martin “good enough” means "not being abusive”, jon’s goalpost is invisible and constantly out of reach. martin at least had a model of how not to behave (like his father), but jon didn’t. even if he had tried to imitate his parents, it would never have fixed the hole in his grandmother’s heart. it’s impossible for the living to measure up to the dead, because our memory of the dead is both fixed and idealized.

jon internalizes that he needs to be more, better, but he’s never really sure how so he just criticizes every aspect of himself. he’s constantly comparing himself to others, but even when the comparison is favorable he still doesn’t feel good enough.

(big sidenote: i have adhd and headcanon jon as adhd because he displays a number of symptoms, and it’s really common for people with adhd to develop a deep feeling of unworthiness. we grow up with authority figures telling us we’re not “living up to our potential”, as we alternate between hyperfixating and losing focus completely. for example, i was often chastised as a kid because i read YA fantasy novels voraciously, but sometimes struggled in school because i refused to read anything that didn’t hold my immediate interest. guess who else read nonstop but wouldn’t read anything he deemed boring?? jonathan jarchivist sims. i’d be willing to bet he developed a serious unworthiness complex from authority figures asking why he couldn’t apply himself to [x thing] the same way he did to his interests.)

he works himself to the bone trying to be the best archivist that he can, but of course elias really screwed him over by giving him a job that he’s not actually qualified for and doesn’t know how to do which even further degrades his already paltry sense of self-worth. he projects this fear of incompetence onto martin, which is why he criticizes martin so harshly. even if jon’s not great at his job, at least he can say he’s better than martin. for someone who constantly compares himself to others, this is at least a small source of comfort.

when martin shows kindness to jon in season 1, jon brushes it off, because he thinks love is something that has to be earned. at this point jon feels deeply unworthy-- he’s in way over his head with work, and is terrified by the eye watching him give statements-- so he thinks martin doesn’t have any reason to care for him, which means that martin’s affection for him is not valid. in season 2 jon even suspects martin has ulterior motives, because he can’t fathom why anyone would genuinely want to give him love.

this post will expand into even more of a monster if i if get into all the times that jon puts himself down for things he can’t control (it wasn’t stupid to break the table alright, he was doing his best). he also consistently internalizes the criticism of others even when that criticism is unfair/cruel (look at what happened with tim in season 3, or when his coworkers discovered that he was feeding on people, etc etc etc). jon is way too willing to believe that he is a bad, stupid, evil person.

he’s also always going above and beyond to prove himself. again, countless examples, but like the dude literally charged into the buried to save daisy just because he thought it might be possible to rescue her. she’s not really his friend at that point (in fact she tried to kill him), and also he’s not at all responsible for her entrapment. but he thinks it would be the right thing to do, and so he does it, and damn the consequences.

he says if he dies, the world just loses another monster. but also, his parents died and they were the ones his grandmother loved, so maybe if he dies doing what’s right then maybe he’ll finally be good enough too.

anyway, by season 4, martin is effectively gone, and this is when jon’s feelings for him really start to show. (you can probably argue that his love for martin was evident earlier, but i personally think this is when jon becomes actually aware of how he feels.) the primary model of love jon saw growing up was the mournful, longing love his grandmother felt for his dead parents. he wasn’t taught how to love somebody who’s there with you, but he does know what it’s like to love somebody who’s gone. he begins to not just want to be “good enough” in general, but also specifically good enough for martin. (i.e. it’s martin’s reaction to jon feeding on strangers that really makes jon feel ashamed.)

when jon follows martin into the lonely, elias tells him flat-out that he will likely not return. jon doesn’t hesitate-- after all, he’s well-versed in taking enormous risks to save others, and this is for martin, to whom he so desperately wants to prove himself. it’s only once he finds martin that jon finally feel worthy of his love, and allow himself to accept it.

when martin says “i see you” and begins to come back to himself, jon knows he succeeded, that he proved himself, that he is worthy of love. and martin knows that jon loves him and thinks martin’s worth saving. in that moment, they don’t just love each other, they both feel loved, something that seemed almost impossible for these two traumatized men.

and it would be such a beautiful wrap if that was where it ended, right? but instead the eyepocalypse happened and we have to deal with all the messiness that is season 5.

so, jon was manipulated into ending the world as we know it, and the guilt from that undoes the tenuous scrap of self-worth he developed via saving martin.  he’s thrust into a position where he doesn’t think it’s even possible for him to be good again, let alone good enough. the only morally pure thing that he can think of to do is to use his power to protect martin, the man he loves, which is why he’s so emotionally paralyzed at the beginning of season 5. he can be good enough within the confines of their cabin, he can keep martin safe there, but out in the world ruled by fears he knows that there’s no way to be the perfect person he so desperately wants to be.

he ultimately agrees to go try to stop the fearpocalypse because he knows it’s the right thing to do, and jon has never, ever shied away from doing the right thing, no matter how dangerous. but he’s forced to make a lot of messy, difficult decisions out there-- he feeds off people’s fear to keep himself going, he murders not!sasha, he will certainly have to kill even more. as far as jon’s concerned, he’s crossed the line permanently. there is no way he is ever, ever going to be “good enough” again, after the choices he’s made. it doesn’t matter if he’s doing the best he can, or if he makes a net positive impact, or even whether or not events are his fault, he’s proven that he’s not perfect so he will never believe he is good enough.

meanwhile, martin comes into season 5 feeling rather empowered. even after all the effort he spent pushing people away in season 4, jon loves him, and that makes martin feel pretty confident that he’s a good person. he has a solid sense of self-worth, which means it’s easier for him to act and make tough decisions.

he also has a less rigid view of morality than jon does (despite generally being nicer). he sees the entities and their avatars as creatures who abuse others and cause harm, much like his father. if he could have hurt his father to save his mother, you know he would have, and he’s wiling to murder in order to save innocents. also, because he’s secure in his belief that he’s a good person (thanks in large part to jon being such a loving boyfriend), martin is less likely to scrutinize his own actions the way jon does. martin is making choices based on what feels right, what he thinks will have the greatest net positive outcome, while jon just sees every single harmful thing he does as another item in the pile of reasons that he’s not good enough. jon looks at his actions individually, while martin looks at them holistically.

anyway, right now they’re functioning. despite his absolutely annihilated self-worth, jon is still able to find an anchoring purpose in the fact that he can use his eye power to defend martin. martin is able to move forward and act because he has the warmth and confidence of knowing jon loves him.

it wouldn’t take much to break them, though.

if martin died or was lost to a power, jon would absolutely crumble and lose all direction.

if jon stopped loving martin and told martin that he was a bad person, martin would absolutely crumble and lose all self-worth.

that’s what makes annabelle cane’s interest in martin so worrying. right now, martin is confident enough that her call doesn’t really phase him, he just hangs up on her. but if martin were to give in and join the web, it could ruin everything. jon would feel like he’d failed martin, and, knowing jon’s stance on avatars, martin might feel that jon thought he was evil. they would both fall apart completely and lose themselves to the entities they serve.

[yszarin]

see below for screaming and hopes for one day a whole bread on Panopticon

- as a general thing - please bear with me, early access delays mean that I have had no time to stew in this (well, I’ve had lunch, if you can call it that, and that’s it) and may thus be even less coherent than normal, if you can believe that

- ... so, Martin Won’t Let Monsters Talk About Tim? way to shatter my little Tim/Martin heart while also sticky-taping it back together, I love it so much.

- whoop half my OTP is... kayaking, in Egypt, so I really am easily pleased with my tiny breadcrumbs, apparently. @ canon pls more breadcrumbs. one day I may be able to assemble a modest loaf. (actually what is the minimum size of bread? how many crumbs will I need?)

- “that’s Leitner too!” Peter oh my god

- ohhhhhh! I was wondering a while ago about Not!Sasha being all Cask of Amontillado-ed in the basement and I’m so happy she’s finally out! doesn’t sound good for literally anyone but I am living.

- noooo Martin at least send a text

- oh dear Elias is back on his bullshit. not that he was ever off it, I suppose.

- oooooh will it explode heads? without an Eye connection? how is it messy, exactly? and how does Peter know it’s messy if Jonah’s been in there the whole time, I assume Peter is not as old? though I guess he could be.

- ahhhhhhh confirmation on the Jonah!Elias theory at last. and Elias and Peter can apparently bond over enjoying startling Martin.

- wow I cannot wait to find out how this happened. It sounds like Jonah’s eyes are in Elias’ body and that’s how the possession works, so - I don’t imagine they involved a surgeon? mechanically, how did they do that? was it like Operation?

- and this is Gertrude’s last stand, apparently - wow we are getting so much this episode. I hope this won’t be an end to hearing her statements - it feels like we still have a lot to learn from that era.

- I adore the way she’s saying Elias’ name right now, it’s so stabby

- I thought she was shot more than that? According to the transcript for Human Remains, she was shot three times, so... when did that happen, if it wasn’t then? did Elias decide later, “you know what, I’m still pissed, I’m going to go and do some overkill”?

- I really hope Martin does care about them still, somewhere. Or at least that the caring can be stapled back in at some point. I’m rather fond of the caring. I believe I’ve said before.

- Peter, did you read a book on villain speeches? “we’re the same” I swear. I guess being Lonely he’s not had much practice at them? but you’d think he could have put some work in with Martin, and Brian, and that.

- “I think I would” okay I am putting a lot of my emotions into that would, it’s a hypothetical not a certainty, come on Martin, don’t do it - YES WELL DONE GOOD BOY

- oh no the poor Institute staff! I hope Rosie’s okay, and Sonja, I’m not sure we have many other names but honestly, Trevor and Julia that is just rude.

- “YOU NEVER TAUGHT ME” I really was not expecting to laugh out loud in this episode but here were are I guess.

- and another very well-deserved fuck for Jon

- Not!Sasha and the Hunters is my new band name (love their various ways of calling for Jon). I really want to know who’s going to win and how. 

- noooo Daisy! just leave it a minute! they might kill each other really hard! Daisy please

- I love that she’s the scarier though, listen to that growl that is excellent

- !!!YES MARTIN!!!

- “I mostly just said what I thought you wanted to here” please please mean that he’s not as far along as he implied

- god, Martin really is that “all my friends are dead” thing, isn’t he? someone get this man a dog.

- “trapped me into spreading evil” oh he did listen to Tim <3 </3

- also I like the acknowledgement of the Institute being evil - Martin describing it as that now actually gives me more hope for him not going full monster. at least, I can’t see him having said that and then wilfully becoming an avatar of evil, if that makes sense?

- hhhhh he did it for Jon my heart is all over the place

- I love that Martin’s outfoxed Peter Lukas through his special superpowers of being a disaster mlm with some real nasty self-worth issues. what an icon.

- oh no. bad static. D:

- and they’re talking about Jon so Jon going after Martin is clearly part of the plannnnn and I mean that bit I’m on board with I’ll never not be on board with Jon going after Martin but *squints* what are you doing Elias

- what a lovely evil laugh, I wonder if Ben practised (if so do recordings of it exist?) or if he can just do them?

- “I called you” was that the point of the Gertrude tape being left? to get Jon there? (“How do I summon my current Archivist? With a recording of me murdering the last one, works every time.”) Maybe the information about him being Jonah acted as a tie thing for him. and putting Peter in charge, has been all some sort of scheme to get Jon into the panopticon? feels like a Lot, I’d prefer if at least some of it was improv.

- “for Martin” oh just leave me here. “you want you to follow him” ugh.

- I mean I assume someone is going to make it out, we do still have two episodes. but this is presumably Doing Something for Elias. still vaguely concerned that this might be an attempt to actualise an entity - it’s as I say, vague, and a wild guess again, but if the Beholding and the Lonely aren’t that far apart then maybe Jon trying to bring Martin back will let something else (large, unblinking) through too? or maybe Elias just needs him to keep getting stronger.

- so, looking at the episode description - they’re referred to as having disappeared, which feels to me like a “won’t be back in the very near future, so is the next episode just going to be Basira on her own sighing a lot? can we have some of the other Institute staff? I’d really like to hear Rosie again. and from Sonja for the first time. then there’s Helen and Elias, still monsters on campus. Helen was doing a lot less spectating than I thought.

- are we allowed to have tape recorders in the Lonely? iirc we did hear a bit from Brian after he was whooshed, so it must be possible. I expect Jon’ll have one with him, they just tend to happen around him. just hope it turns on, I really really want Jon to finally get to yell at Peter and I want to hear it.

- anyway! I love this episode so much, it had so many things in it and they were wonderful, kudos to cast & crew as ever, RQ... very good. we knew that.

- also I’m still not over Martin Won’t Let Monsters Talk About Tim. I’m not going to be over it. I’m very short I can’t get over things.

[violetsmoak]

Pieces of April [5/?]

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21099044/chapters/50202530

Summary: On the anniversary of his death, Jason’s second life takes an abrupt new turn and he’s faced with a challenge that neither Batman nor the All-Caste prepared him for.

Rating: PG-13 (rating may change later)

Warning(s): Past Jason/Isabel, kidfic, minor canon character death (pretty sure you can guess who, not either of our boys!), I’ll add more warnings/tags as I think of them.

Canon-Compliance: Takes place in between the two RHATO series, so after Roy and Kori and before Artemis and Bizarro.

Author’s Note: And now, for a change in POV!

First Chapter

________________________________________________________________

Of course, right after Jason leaves, the baby wakes up.

And starts to wail.

Tim freezes, all of his reflexes seemingly dissolved by the unyielding sound that such a tiny creature should not be able to produce.

Whatever Jason said about him being calm, in actuality, he’s completely freaked out over this whole baby thing.

Over the whole Jason’s baby thing.

This whole situation is just not in his area of expertise, nor does it require any of his previous training. And he can’t really see a situation where, on the infinitesimal chance Jason decides to give up vigilantism and become a stay-at-home-dad, he’d ever ask Tim of all people to babysit.

But then, right now, Jason’s not here.

The nurse from earlier returns, offering him a sympathetic look.

“It’s about time for her next feeding,” she tells him. “Do you want us to take her, or would you like to do it?”

Take her, please, Tim wants to say but bites his tongue.

He wasn’t talking out of his ass when he acknowledged that babies needed to be held. Human contact is good (even if that wasn’t basic medical knowledge, his own semi-neglected childhood can attest to that) and he all but volunteered himself for this to help Jason. He should at least do what he can.

Holding down the fort apparently includes holding down the baby…

“If you could just show me…?” he suggests, a sheepish smile pasted on and hopefully hiding his inner unease.

As expected, the woman’s expression turns into a mixture of amused and charmed. She chatters, motioning for him to take the chair Jason was sitting in before; Tim sits and lets her arrange the baby in his arms, showing him a light, gentle rocking motion to try to calm her.

“I’ll be right back with her formula,” the nurse says, though Tim barely hears her over the furious wailing.

He squints down at the scrunched-up face, trying to figure out how he ended up in this situation. Also, what exactly possessed him to call Jason his partner?

Because it’s the first believable thing to come to mind that didn’t involve spontaneous resurrections?

And technically, it’s even true. Sometimes.

And he was worried about Jason.

They may not be brothers, but they are family, and with that comes a certain awareness of each other. He knew the minute he saw Jason outside the dive bar that he was freaked out. He decided he would help him then, and he’s not about to back out now even if things have become way more complicated than anticipated.  

The nurse returns with the bottle of formula, and as soon as she’s explained how to properly position and feed the baby—apparently there’s more to it than just sticking a synthetic nipple in her mouth and waiting for her to chug—and prevent gas, she vanishes again.

To allow them “bonding” time.

Not what I thought I’d be doing when I got up this morning…

Tim’s done the baby thing before—sort of. But Steph’s daughter was bigger when she was born. Jason’s is tiny, and Tim is half expecting her to break into pieces before his eyes. Whatever manufactured confidence he had before, had been in the moment—and mostly for Jason’s benefit.

It had been imperative to get the infant out of the other man’s arms while he was clearly on the verge of a panic attack. Especially since no one ever knows how a cornered Jason Todd might react.

Not that I think he’d ever hurt an infant, but he doesn’t exactly process shock the way normal people do. It never hurts to have contingencies.

As he watches the baby guzzle her formula with surprising gusto, Tim finds himself going over a mental list of things that have to be dealt with if they’re going to get through life’s latest curveball more or less intact.

Paperwork for the baby. Arrangements for the mother’s body.

Isabel Ardila.

He knows her name only from the files as the woman Jason was seeing prior to the Joker’s last assault on the bats. She was caught in the crossfire, forcibly dosed with heroin to play on Jason’s past traumas, and following her recovery, ended things with Jason.

Or Jason ended things with her, Tim’s not sure. He never asked and he doesn’t intend to.

However it ended, clearly there was enough estrangement that she didn’t bother to tell Jason he was a father. It’s a decision he can, unfortunately, imagine the reasons for, even if he’s not sure he agrees with them.

Not like we can do anything about that decision now, though.

The baby slowly goes limp in his arms, and Tim has a brief moment of irrational, paranoid panic—has she been drugged?—before realizing she’s just fallen back asleep.

“Right. Because that’s a normal thing that babies do,” he murmurs to himself, and carefully maneuvers himself over to her crib to put her down on her stomach, like he’s seen in countless television commercials.

Then, uncertain, he pulls his phone out of his pocket and does a quick internet search, balking at the sheer amount of SIDS related articles, and scoops her up again to reposition her on her back.

Should probably tell Jason about that when he gets back…

Assuming Jason comes back.

Or even wants his help.

Which, Tim decides, he’ll offer anyway. Though that may mean playing to his strengths more than anything, preparing for every eventuality and having a series of back-up plans.

He highly doubts Jason’s thinking of any of that right now.

Phone in hand Tim begins typing quickly, pulling up tabs in his search engines for whatever concern pops into his head as he reads.

He suspects Jason is too uneasy about the whole situation to want to keep the baby, so Tim’s going to have to research adoption agencies through official and unofficial channels.

Open or closed, not sure what option he’d go with.

And then, there’s always the small chance he will keep his child. It’s a possibility that seems as likely as Bruce’s sudden predilection for joining the Russian ballet, but stranger things have happened in the family.

He skims through several forums and advice blogs for how to care for a newborn, makes a list of important supplies they might need in the immediate future and forwards it to Tam.

It’s several minutes later that his phone chimes, notifying him of her list of replies.

- Why the hell did you send me a list with diapers?

- Is this for a baby?

- Omg, did you kidnap a baby?

- Is that a thing that happens?

-First ninjas, now baby-napping?

Tim sighs and rolls his eyes. Normally he’d find her bemused and slightly-panicked responses a little amusing, but he doesn’t have the energy to go into details, even if Jason hadn’t sworn him to secrecy.

-A friend of mine has an emergency. Drop everything off at my apartment, please.

There’s a beat, another chime, but Tim doesn’t get a chance to read the message as his screen suddenly switches. The air is filled with a generic ringtone that Tim hastily mutes, eyes flicking to the baby and back to his screen. The number flashes ‘Unknown’, but Tim recognizes the number from earlier that day.

He stands, wanders away from the crib to answer quietly. “What is it, Harper?”

“Jay called me,” the older man says without preamble. “Told me everything. About the kid, about Isabel.”

“Yeah,” Tim agrees quietly. “I’d say shock is an understatement.”

“No shit.” He sighs. “Listen, I talked him down as much as I could, but the rest is on you.”

“What? Why?”

“He says you’ve been helping him.”

“For now, until someone more qualified comes along,” Tim retorts, implication heavy in his voice.

Roy catches it because he lets out a bitter laugh. “Sorry to burst your bubble, bird boy, but that ain’t gonna be me.”

“What are you talking about? You’ve been in literally the same situation.”

“And I can’t right now. So I need you to be there for him.”

“He needs his friend,” Tim argues. “And he’s made very clear I’m not one of those.”

“Then you'd better become one fast, because I can’t.”

“Why the—” Tim’s eyes flick to the infant, and he can’t help giving in to the impulse to censor himself, lowering his voice, “—heck not?”

“Because I’m in a bad place right now,” Roy snaps. “I’m not in a good way for being around a kid, okay? I…” He pauses, like he’s weighing something, and then exhales. “I…fell off the wagon again.”

Tim's stomach sinks. 

“Roy…”

“Don’t tell Jaybird,” Roy orders. “I just…I need to sort myself out before I can be any kind of help for him. I show up there now, I’ll just add to his problems.”

“But—”

“This is you being tagged in, okay? Don’t fuck it up.”

There’s a harsh click in Tim’s ear, leaving him listening incomprehensively to the dial tone for several seconds.

“Are you…are you kidding me?!” he hisses after a moment, only just refraining from throwing his phone across the room in frustration.

He didn’t realize before Roy’s call just how much he was counting on someone else to step in and take over in the emotional support department.

I’m not cut out for this. This sort of thing…it should be Dick. Or Alfred.

He spends the next hour once again reviewing what he did to get roped into all this.

When Jason comes back—and something inside Tim unknots in relief that he did come back—he’s as ashen-faced as before. This time, though, there’s a determined set to his shoulders.

They stand and stare at each other in silence for a good five minutes before Tim realizes Jason’s waiting for him to speak first.

Right. Tagged in. Let’s do this. Ease into it.

“So, what are you going to do?”

Tim winces.

Yeah, that wasn’t exactly subtle.

Jason doesn’t seem to notice the awkward, though.

“No idea,” he replies heavily, leaning against the doorjamb and letting his head thunk lightly against it.

“Social Services is obviously an option.”

“No way in hell,” Jason snaps, straightening up and looking fierce. “I don’t trust them. And you can’t tell me with all the Wayne resources you’ve got access to, we can’t find something better.”

Tim expected that. He might not have had the exact same harrowing experiences with foster care as Jason did, but his very brief stint left him with a hint of that same disillusion with the system.

It’s not something I’d wish on any kid, least of all Jason’s.

“We can look into it. Organize the best possible adoption scenario without dealing with Social Services. There are actually a lot of couples in the community who would be willing to adopt.”

“No. This kid isn’t growing up anywhere near capes or masks or stuff like that.”

Okay, that’s understandable. It also makes it less likely he intends to keep her.

“Whatever we do, it will take some time,” Tim cautions. “Placing a child with a family isn’t going to be as easy as sticking someone in Witness Protection.”

Jason snorts and shakes his head. “Only you would think that’s easy.”

“So, now that that’s figured out—what are you going to do once the tests are finished?” Tim asks, focussing on the practical. “I don’t find a family within the next day or so, you’re going to need to bring her somewhere. Assuming you’re adamant about keeping the rest of the Family out of this?” That receives only narrowed eyes in response. “Stupid question, sorry. But she’s going to have to stay somewhere until then. I wouldn’t recommend leaving her here at the hospital, for a number of reasons.”

Jasons frowns, thoughtful. Then,

“I’ll keep her for now,” he decides with a heaviness that Tim suspects is caused more by fear than dislike of children. “Until we find a better place for her. Some family that won’t mind doing this in private.”

“Okay,” Tim nods. “On that note—where exactly will you take her?”

Jason falters, looking like he’s not entirely sure what to say to that.

“I…my safehouses aren’t exactly babyproofed.”

“I don’t think that’s an issue until they start crawling,” Tim replies, trying for humor but the very idea sparks another flash of panic in Jason’s eyes. He’s looking at Tim now with something dangerously close to expectance, and a realization hits Tim.

He doesn’t want to be alone with this.

And it’s the fact he’s never seen Jason look so vulnerable that sparks a truly terrible idea.

I’m so going to regret this.

“I have a spare bedroom,” he offers, earning a sharp glance from Jason. “Just until you wrap your head around this and figure out the next move.”

He half expects Jason to scoff, or laugh in his face or say something insulting.

It’s decidedly worrying when the only thing that happens is Jason’s shoulders slump and he nods.

Jason’s shoulders slump, and he nods.

“Yeah. Yeah, that would be…good. Thanks, Drake.” He pauses, considering something, and then adds, “Tim.”

Next Chapter

________________________________________________________________

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[welcometoteamz]

Since there’s a new influx of iZombie roleplayers I figured I’d make a little PSA post to cover my bases; in case you can’t help but be a bit judgemental as you skim my blog in spite of yourself.

Relationship discussions/thoughts and such below~

I’m Tim. As far as I know, this was the first iZombie roleplay blog on tumblr. I created it March 25, 2015. The show premiered March 17th.

I don’t say this to humblebrag, bc honestly, who tf cares?

I just say this to provide some context. I’ve been here since day one, writing Blaine.

I was here during the literal year long hiatus between the end of S2 and the start of S3.

During that time I wrote Blaine’s amnesia as being a legitimate and lasting affliction. In many ways, he became almost a divergent character who was Blaine in face and name only.

He developed relationships with some characters (whose writers may or may not still be around) such as Peyton and Liv that don’t exactly reflect that in canon. So if you see something you kinda sideye, that’s probably why. Context matters. There’s backstory to certain verses that explain how and why.

THAT SAID! Though I have no problem writing canon divergent Blaine (or verses that skew off from points in canon I don’t care for) I’m also cool with/enjoy writing Blaine at any point in the timeline. S1 Zombie Blaine at his most despicable. S2 human Blaine. Amnesiac Blaine. Blaine faking his amnesia. Blaine with aforementioned permanent amnesia. Mid S3-S4 Blaine. A Blaine who is working with Major and Fillmore-Graves.

ALL THE BLAINES~ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

At the end of the day, I ship Blaine and chemistry. And just because he’s attracted to your character doesn’t mean he’ll actually catch feelings for them. In regards to canon Blaine, I refer to David’s comments and Rob Thomas’. His feelings for Peyton were real, and made him wish he had not done such despicable things in life.

Which is to say, yes, he had/may have regrets, but due to selfish reasons and not so much remorse.

Keep in mind, I’ll try to be respectful off all ships, and will refrain from publicly turning up my nose at any of yours. All I ask is that you do the same. I won’t force any ships on anyone, and I’m totally down for platonic and antagonistic relationships.

Here’s a guide tho, if it helps, to my thoughts on Blaine’s relationships as it would stand with a canon Blaine.

Thoughts on Blaine’s relationships:

-Peyton, while certainly recognizing the problematic elements. I was on board and then they pulled the rug out from under me. I have an explanation, from Blaine’s POV for why he lied, but in no way do I excuse it nor is it a justification. I won’t force this ship on anyone, I’m fine with it being platonic or antagonistic. If you want to write it, but only at certain points in time or canon divergent ones where he didn’t lie or whatever... that’s cool. Just let me know, because while I enjoy it, I know some people may be squicked out by it.

-Rita. No, they never met. No, she shouldn’t have died. Yes, I’m bitter. They didn’t meet in canon, but I can see canon Blaine being with her. As an annoyance/partner/eventual friend and possibly more. So I’m mentioning her. Mainly to promote @fairisfair, who writes her and is pretty much my exclusive Rita not that I really expect any others to pop up.

-Liv. Look. I know. In canon this is a special hell ship that would probably never ever ever happen.... but..... he enjoys her. As meddlesome as she’s been, I don’t think Blaine hates her. I think during his amnesia stint, he enjoyed and appreciated her friendship. In another world where he never killed anyone, and she didn’t see him with Boss’ goons? Who knows? Or again, developed after the amnesia and carefully done. IDK. That said I’m totally down for petty and antagonistic frienemy bickering.

-Ravi. Ravi irritates Blaine mainly due to the whole Peyton thing, but Blaine does respect and understand Peyton’s choice even if it bums him out. Ravi can be a bit nerdy and annoy Blaine, but I think Blaine has a tiiiny bit of respect for him whether or not he’d admit it. Ravi’s a good person and loyal to his friends and he respects that. Plus, his big brain. It’s also fun to rile him up.

-Major: Blaine and Major’s dynamic is so...??? Unusual? To go from trying to kill each other to unwilling alliance to Blaine being the reason Major found Natalie and Major understanding and not resenting Blaine for not wanting to remember and then now their partnership... like...we never got Major getting in Blaine’s face after it came out Blaine lied. Blaine was willing to let Major die, after Major basically was willing to be bygones and tease him about being a lounge singer. I like Maine. Not romantic Maine, but I find their relationship fascinating.

-Don E. Look, I can’t help but think maybe Don E. felt a little spurned by Blaine in addition to taken for granted... and that one sided feelings may have played a part in that. I mean he stood in the rain watching Blaine and noting Peyton, while Blaine sang about loving someone even though it hurts because they don’t love you back. But look. Blaine doesn’t treat Don E. like a lackey anymore. When those two goons in 1x04 tried to make their own brain business? Blaine killed them. When Don E. did it? ...not only do I think Blaine was impressed, but Don E. was all he had left. He was willing to forgive him stealing his clients and unfreezing Angus, and made him a partner, and appreciates him. Don E. is his only real and best friend. For all the wronging each other that went on towards the end of S2 and beginning of S3, when Angus died and Don E was there and comforting him yet saying what needed to be said? Feelings. Kissing him on the head, calling him dweeb, taking his face in his hands.

Risking his own life to save his, which had only been done before in the case of Peyton...

Blaine cares about Don E., and you can fight me on that.

Chase: Ok, this is where the bitterness starts. I would have loved a S4 of Blaine and Chase antagonistic over the fact that Blaine killed his brother but Chase can’t kill him because of the brain shortage. We saw Chase blackmail Blaine, but we never got to see Blaine call his bluff and remind him that he had him by the short n curlies as well. Be smug and lord the fact that Chase needs him now after turning down his earlier proposal, saying he had enough brains. I wanted to see them actually working well together, and coming to respect each other somehow despite hating what each stands for... culminating in a showdown.

We didn’t get that. Chase was just fine to let Blaine be after he found Mama Leone, and Harrison Graves is never mentioned, and they never have a scene again.

Angus: Ok Fuck Angus. Before we knew what a garbage human being the actor who played him is, I was mildly excited but the choice to make him a religious cult leader and the execution coupled with the fact he didn’t end up the big bad and it was just all a bunch of filler that made me have to look at that fuckface’s face?? ... not worth it imo. He should have been left to rot in the well, and in a world where he was played by someone else it would have been nice to see him take control by using Enzo to reach out to those in Fillmore Graves who were loyal to Carey Gold’s cause and staging a SHIELD/HYDRA esque coup. But that is another thread that they didn’t continue.

So alas.but in verses/threads that have to acknowledge him, the alternate faceclaim will be Robert Carlyle.

I’d include Blaine’s relationship with Clive but they’ve only had like four scenes together which go from Clive questioning Blaine/wanting to put Blaine away/questioning Blaine again/willing to let Blaine and Don E help on an investigation/questioning Blaine again....

[lemotmo]

Do we need to thank you for your service? 😂 Also I didn't even think about this and yeah that's going to suck.

Q. I'm excited but terrified for this episode. Yikes.

A. Full disclosure my work day sucked. I had to fire someone for the first time today and it was awful. As a result my emotions are pretty raw so I'm going to complain and then I'll be mature. First of all thank you to my lovely, and calm mutual, who I will not tag here because she gets enough complaining on her own blog so I don't need to send extra people from my space into her space, but she allowed me to complain and then very calmly, and rationally talked me down. You know who you are, lovely, and I thank you 🩷

I will die on the hill that from an ex perspective Taylor makes the most story sense. Period. She knows him far better than Tommy does. The show used what little screentime they gave him to very firmly establish that they didn't talk about anything substantial. They don't know each other well enough for Tommy to be the person who says it out loud to him. Yes, Tommy picked up on the whole BuckandEddie thing pretty quickly, and yes, Eddie haunted every aspect of that relationship, but Taylor was the first love interest to witness it in real time, and she was around their dynamic the longest. Plus the fact that Eddie very clearly disliked her is hilarious and should be pointed out in canon. Not only would verbally acknowledging Eddie's dislike for her be eye opening for Buck, it would also serve as another domino to fall for the GA as far as connecting Eddie to having feelings for Buck he hasn't yet reconciled with as well. Then there's the shooting arc of it all. Yes, FOX is the one who stopped the story of them getting together, but from a canon perspective you can make the argument that Taylor interrupted Buck on his way to figuring out his feelings for Eddie. She was at the hospital when they arrived with Eddie. Taylor literally cockblocked them. They're recreating all these parallels so it makes sense to recreate that one as well, only this time Buck won't get sidetracked by the distraction of her. It is by far the better story point. There is no story purpose to making it Tommy. There's just not, I'm sorry. The only reason he's there is to allow Tim to pick at a scab because it amuses him. Tommy having a dick doesn't make him the better story choice to point out the obvious for Buck. He's only there for Tim's amusement. It's entirely unnecessary. And the only thing it's going to accomplish is pissing off his cult all over again. They have firmly convinced themselves that this would be his reintroduction to permanentance. They are fully convinced. So everything we have gone through in the last year we will have to start all over again with these people because Tim thinks it's funny. So yeah I'm preemptively annoyed by this.

Now I'll be mature. There is zero proof he's popping up in this episode but Tim saying 'he's in Buck's romantic past for sure' does leave open the possibility of him showing up in some other capacity at some point. The moment he was introduced as the love interest he was going to play some kind of role in Buck figuring out the Eddie of it all. Regardless of my personal feelings for the actor who plays him, the character was always going to serve as some kind of catalyst regarding Eddie. So in that aspect I understand having Buck run into him. But that doesn't make it the better story choice. He simply wasn't established enough to carry that kind of weight. It was a relationship in name only. We barely saw any of it play out on our screens. That's my point. So if he is there it's not because it was the better story route, and I think that's unfortunate because they've been so good lately story wise. That's all. By the sound of the teases the episode sounds fantastic and I'm excited for Aisha. And I hope that both sides understand the assignment tomorrow night and congratulate and celebrate her in the manner she deserves.

Thank you Nonny! Much appreciated! 😋

All right...

Yeah, I fully agree here. There is no point of bringing T back. If he does come back, he will be there for one purpose only. He still needs to fullfil his plot device duty of getting Buck to realise that he cares for Eddie more than just a 'best friend'. But there are a million ways they could go about this that would make so much more narrative sense.

Ultimately though, no matter how they go about it? All roads lead to Buddie canon, so I'm willing to sit this story out and see where the road takes us. I know the destination. I can actually see it now, which is something that hasn't ever really happened before in seven seasons of shipping Buddie. So I'll go along with whatever story they are planning to tell.

Next to that, I'm pretty sure that tomorrow's episode will be amazing. I'm still convinced we'll get some realisations on Buck's side AND it was directed by the most amazing Aisha Hinds. With a combo like that? You can't go wrong! 🤗

IMPORTANT! Please don't repost this ask and/or a link that leads straight to my Tumblr account on Twitter or any other social media. Thank you!

Heads up! For anyone who is giving me the shifty eyes for reposting Ali's updates instead of reblogging. Read this.

Remember, no hate in comments, reblogs or inboxes. Let's keep it civil and respectful. Thank you.

If you are interested in more of Ali’s posts, you can find all of her posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

[vvitchering]

I followed you literally a few days before the name change cause you had a Witcher name posting Mandalorian content so I figured it was the best of both worlds! What are you most excited about on Mando S3 and Witcher S2? They both have a lot of story to tell! Shipping wise, love Cobb Vanth (and Tim Olyphant) but the possibility of more development in canon seems slim, while the potential for Geralt and Jaskier is there, even if just to try to fix the mountain scene + throw Eskel into the mix!

The name change was a bit out of the blue but I tend to do that whenever I decide to focus on a new fandom! I kept my twitter handle the same though, so I figured that was a good compromise :) 

Oh lord,,,,,I hope you are prepared for Opinions because I have many. So many I think I’ll put this under a cut to spare the dash lmao

Aight so let’s talk about Mando S3 first since that’s what I’m most excited about anyway. I actually just marathoned S2 yesterday for the millionth time so I’ve got it all fresh in my head. I’m still thinking they’re going to go in a more introspective direction with Din at first. Where we leave him in the s2 finale, he’s lost literally everything. 

He’s broken his creed beyond what he feels he can excuse away, he’s finished his quest but lost his son in the process, both his covert and his ship are gone so he’s effectively entirely homeless, and now he has Bo Katan breathing down his neck for the Darksaber that he doesn’t even want but can’t just hand over. 

That’s a lot for one emotionally vulnerable dude to handle. I think he’ll try to disappear for a while and give himself a chance to grieve. I like to joke that maybe we’ll see him in the background during The Book Of Boba Fett crying on a couch. I’d like to see him be able to take the time to process everything that’s happened, properly grieve, and be able to make an informed decision about what to do with the Darksaber. I don’t feel that Din would feel comfortable taking that responsibility on without something or someone influencing him in that direction. Maybe we’ll see the armorer again? Whether or not she’s going to continue to be a positive figure for Din remains to be seen. 

Regardless, I do think S3 is going to deal with themes of self discovery and focus at least of its time on Din’s personal journey into figuring out what being Mandalorian means to HIM, rather than trying to fit back into the ways he was raised in. I don’t see him giving up his faith or traditions. But I do see him and the show exploring these things in a deeper way and I hope that means we get to see more Mandalorian lore and culture :D Once he’s more secure in himself again, I can see him being an absolutely fantastic leader for his people.

And of course I want the show to give him his baby back!!! I want those themes of found family to remain strong and I desperately want to see Din acknowledge his paternal bond with Grogu in some more concrete way. Whether he formally adopts him in the Mandalorian tradition, or he’s called to wherever Luke took Grogu for training to help, I just want them to get to see each other again ;A;

My last feeling about s3 is it had better NOT try to shoehorn in a romance. Both s1 and 2 were so solid and satisfying without one and I would hate to see s3 replace the focus on familial bonds with romantic ones. We just don’t need it. I love shipping, but that’s my side hobby. I don’t need it in canon. Especially not this canon. 

And now we switch gears and talk briefly about The Witcher s2

So I am significantly less excited for this one, to absolutely no one’s surprise. From what I can tell, it’s heading into the story that takes place in Blood Of Elves, which I actually have read, so I have a good idea of what to expect plot-wise. They’re tossing in a few of the stories they didn’t use from The Last Wish too which could be cool. I’m looking forward to seeing if they manage to keep the whimsical nature of Nivellen’s story intact or if they’re DoomGloomGritting it like the rest of the story in the show so far.

I Hated the mountain scene for various reasons and I’m not getting into it again, but I would say not to hold your breath for the miraculous apology everyone seems to want for some reason. But if you like Jaskier angst/whump.....you’ll like this season. 

The one thing I actually am still holding onto some excitement for is finally seeing Kaer Morhen and the rest of the Wolves (+ Coen). I’m still not over Thue having to step down as Eskel and I’m Big Worried about how this new guy will do. I just can’t see it, he doesn’t have anywhere near the right look, imo. But makeup is a powerful thing so we’ll see. I’m very excited to see Lambert because Paul is Gorgeous and I think it’s about time the world got to have a Gorgeous Lambert. 

Again, if the show follows the book at all, we should be getting some lighthearted and cute witcher family scenes but I don’t really trust the show runner to not run off and do her own thing again, as she is so fond of doing. After that point, I got bored of the story and I don’t have any plans to finish the rest of the books so. Yeah. 

I’m hoping by that time I’ll be able to afford a PS5 and can play the remastered version of TW3 and get back into the franchise again through that. Despite my lack of faith in the show, I still do really love the characters and the lore! 

[bigskydreaming]

What are some Dick Grayson facts that you wish were talked about more

I don’t know about facts per se, but my biggest thing I wish was talked about more with him was just....flipping the script BACK from how its so often flipped on him.

What I mean by that is, Dick’s kinda unique in that the expectations that are layered on him both by characters and readers alike, means that most of his actions are judged by a standard of not whether they’re ‘good’ but whether they’re ‘good enough.’

Bruce, Jason, Tim, Damian....the stuff they get judged for is stuff they actually do in canon. Dick, the stuff that most commonly gets held against him....the framing of it is SPECIFICALLY that what he did wasn’t AS GOOD as what he COULD have done.

And that’s how we get things like when Jason was Robin, and there’s not really anything specific anyone can point to as proof Dick was a jerk or callously neglectful of him, etc.....so instead the thing that gets most cited about that time is that Dick’s efforts at being a brother weren’t good enough. That he should have done more, made more of an effort, should have tried harder.

Or the thing with Tim and Damian and Robin, even the most vocal critics of Dick’s actions there tend to agree that there wasn’t a real alternative that would have kept Damian from going back to the League of Assassins, so instead the criticism is kept this vague murky thing where how Dick handled it wasn’t good enough, and he should’ve done it better, even though at most the only thing anyone’s ever specified about how he could’ve done it better is saying he should have talked to Tim beforehand, and does that really track? Fans holding a grudge against a character for ten years because he....didn’t have a conversation ahead of time?

Or with Spyral, the takeaway is that even if it wasn’t Dick’s choice to let everyone think he was still dead and he was being unduly pressured by his father to do so, he should have somehow found a way to satisfy all parties, and keep everyone appeased, and failing to do so was him not doing a good enough job at...being Dick Grayson.

See what I mean? Pretty much all the greatest hits levied against Dick Grayson, unlike when other characters are cited as doing specific things they’re criticized for.....in Dick’s case, the criticism is almost always about him not meeting some arbitrary hypothetical BETTER standard.

And as a result....

The REVERSE never gets talked about.

The stuff that Dick actually DID.

And so with Jason as Robin, the focus is entirely on how whatever Dick did do wasn’t good enough....meaning nobody’s ever talking about what Dick DID do says about him....the fact that despite having no obligation to Jason, no responsibility for him, no reason to try and make something of a relationship with him despite Bruce doing nothing to encourage that and placing sizable roadblocks as to why Dick would even want to, Dick DID look past resentments he had about Jason being so easily adopted when he never had been, Bruce giving away the mantle he had no right to give away let alone take from Dick in the first place.....and Dick DID make an effort to bond with and be there for a kid who had everything Dick himself wanted and was being denied by their father, without taking it out on him. I mean, he took Jason skiing. Yeah, all we ever saw of that is a photo referenced in one story years later, but that’s not a small thing. 

Someone in Dick’s position being able to see past all the extremely valid reasons he had to be hurt and bitter right now, to just do right by this kid and take him out of town on a freaking ski trip that had them both smiling and taking photos together....is not a small thing. Its a clear point in Dick’s FAVOR in a situation and time period that has been flipped to be all about how he wasn’t a good enough brother....and this coming up more often in terms of Jason’s demise “I wonder if I had only been a better brother, if Jason would still be alive”....than even writers having Bruce wonder “if I hadn’t come down so hard about Garzonas or had tried harder to hear Jason out, would he have ever run off looking for more family”....even though BRUCE is the one that Jason actually lived with and interacted with and was affected by, day after day.

And same thing with Tim and Damian.....at most, its begrudgingly acknowledged that Dick was going through a lot at the time too, but its never actually taken all the way to being flipped to examine what Dick DID do during Battle of the Cowl....as in, he tried to meet every single one of his brothers halfway, and Damian’s the only one who ACTUALLY met him there and gave him a chance. Jason and Tim just rebuffed Dick’s efforts totally, because they weren’t ALL THE WAY in the direction of what THEY wanted and basically Dick just caving so they could have it 100% their way. Dick, despite the fact that being the eldest brother should never have meant having to solely step up into the role of Damian’s father, WE’s CEO, Gotham’s Batman and more, all alongside the abandonment/neglect of everything DICK had ever prioritized for HIMSELF, worked for, made HIS OWN personal mission and priority....Dick still tried to navigate a literally impossible situation and do right by everyone, its just he was mostly told nope, this isn’t good enough, and if its not good enough by my standards its not worth anything to me.

(I’d love for people to talk more about the absolute sucker punch Dick must have felt the way most people write Tim’s ‘side of things’ back then....with it being matter-of-factly stated that Dick took away ‘the one thing Tim had left’ by taking away Robin....as though Tim didn’t still have Dick himself, as his brother, the whole damn time, and Tim and his stans are the only ones who made that meaningless, acting as though Dick being Tim’s brother meant nothing unless Tim was Robin too. “You still have me, aren’t I worth anything to you,” I’d love to see more people write Dick thinking as the brother he’s given so much of himself to over the years, including his own NAME, walks away from him as though Dick means nothing to him unless things aren’t on Tim’s terms, the way Tim wants them).

But you see what I mean? So often, the script is flipped on Dick from the word go, so he’s not even being evaluated in terms of what HAPPENED, but in terms of what DIDN’T happen, and what a fan or writer/reader personally feels SHOULD have happened instead.

Because the reality is, what DID happen....is not grounds for criticizing Dick and rather speaks to how damn much of himself he habitually sacrifices for the sake of others, and that doesn’t work when the narrative people WANT is one that shows how Dick the Golden Boy is less than perfect....when they’re the only ones insisting he be judged and evaluated according to some arbitrary standard of perfection!

So that’s what I’d like to see talked about more with Dick....seeing the script flipped back to allow for discussion of what Dick actually DOES that’s to his credit in all these scenarios and more......instead of the conversation so often being dominated by a need to defend Dick from criticisms that essentially all come back to him not being good enough, or just flat out perfect.

[cliticalthinker-blog]

Will Harley Quinn’s Bisexuality Make It To Suicide Squad? (And Why It’s So Important)

Harley Quinn is having quite the supervillain’s year: though the movie’s not due out for another two months, Suicide Squad has already become one of this summer’s most hyped, Its first trailer already boasting 50 million views, and Warner Bros. has even confirmed that a Harley Quinn spinoff is in development.

Any time more Harley Quinn is involved, it’s great news for anyone who likes good superhero/villain movies, but possibly even better for queer women everywhere. It’s well-established in the DC Comics canon that Batman’s nemesis is bisexual, hooking up with Deadshot, the Joker (albeit in a sordidly abusive relationship), and Poison Ivy at various points in her arc. This latter relationship came as a relief to someone who found her way into graphic novels and then comics by way of Alison Bechdel, and then did not stop her very queer longing for characters like her.

As for Margot Robbie’s portrayal though, no one is sure yet as to how queer Quinn will allowed to be. Critics have speculated, (hoped), but such dreams were pretty much ruined when Will Smith, who plays Deadshot, told Empire magazine, “Harley’s the biggest troublemaker, but Deadshot’s kinda eyeing her a bit. There’s a pretty ragged romantic angle there.” We might move on from the worrisome idea of a love triangle involving the Joker, under likely naive presumption that Quinn’s history with abuse will be handled with nuance. I’d like to imagine a world where, say, she feels conflicted about her residual feelings with someone who hurt and manipulated her — which would be extremely valid and real.

But as to the threesome’s gender makeup, things definitely aren’t looking so good. Admittedly, composing the love triangle with Deadpool and Poison Ivy or the Joker and Poison Ivy would have its own issues. The former involves the messiness of appearing to “choose” a sexuality by picking a gender, (for further examples, see the first season of Orange Is The New Black). But the latter could also look like an invalidation of her relationship with Poison Ivy, characterizing it as simply a reaction to abuse (to be clear, still a legitimate response) and not legitimate attraction. An all-female love triangle is an option, but to my knowledge, there’s no precedent for it in the comics.

All of that being said, however, the impending bi-erasure is so important to take note of, not just because we’re talking about bury your gays, and not even just because straight-washing is everywhere. But comics in particular have a poor history of actually acknowledging a character’s queerness in book-to-screen transitions. Some cases like the openly gayGreen Lantern and bisexual Catwoman and Selina have an excuse, in which the characters weren’t formerly out until after their movies. For others, canons can be messy when franchises switch writers and/or span decades, as in the case of X Men, which features quite a few queer or queer-coded characters.

In the ’80s, publisher Jim Shooter told Chris Claremont he could not depict gay characters, but Claremont slipped in two lesbian couples anyway. At one point, Shadow King calls Destiny (aka Irene Adler) Mystique’s leman, from a Middle English word referring to a (female) lover. Storm’s relationship with Yukio is less explicit, but heavily coded — at one point, Storm is offered her “heart’s desire,” to run away from her responsibilities and shack up with Yukio and Tokyo. Even the modern Storm had a queer panel or two at a recent Axis event. Still, 20th Century Fox has not picked any of this up for the Halle Berry/Alexandra Shipp version of Storm, or the Rebecca Romijin/Morgan Lily/Jennifer Lawrence version of Mystique. If Psylockeever makes it in either, I doubt her relationship with Northstar would make the final cut either.

Again, some of these characters are hard to affirmatively claim as queer, because their creators haven’t said otherwise. Wonder Woman, for example, literally comes from an island of women, has a huge gay fanbase, officiated a gay wedding, and her new writers aren’t opposed to “delve into the Sapphic side of the Amazons.” Andrew Garfield made an off-the-cuff suggestion for a bisexual Spiderman, but there’s no precedent for it yet. The #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend campaignpointed out gay subtext between Captain America and Bucky Barnes. And Hercules, in both the original Greek legend and Marvel comics, has gay coding, but Mavel’s Editor-In-Chief Axel Alonso has confirmed that the demigod can only be queer in another universe, “similar to how Colossus was gay in the Ultimate Universe, but is straight in the 616.”

But with quite a few franchises, the decision to straighten up a character has been clear. In Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Ramona Flowers’ ex Roxie appears in both the comic and movie versions, but is described as just a phase. In the movie, this awful exchange actually happens:

SCOTT: You know her?

RAMONA: It was just a phase.

SCOTT: You had a sexy phase?

RAMONA: I was just a litte bi-curious.

ROXY: I’m just a little bi-furious!

DC’S bisexual detective antihero, John Constantine, was picked up some time ago by NBC for a series, but execs decided to place him with a female love interest. Just a few months ago, the otherwise fantastic Deadpool movie, which Tim Miller and Ryan Reynolds promised would openly acknowledge the character’s pansexuality, faced a similar fate, with only a few passing pansexual references and a peck on a man’s cheek. (His portrayal in the comics, though, is great.)

To be fair, there are other issues when acknowledging a certain character’s bisexuality in screen adaptations. Unlike comics which can spread out a long arc over many years, directors have to squeeze a finite storyline into an hour or two, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for many love interests, particularly if one relationship is already working quite well, or the movie does not become a franchise. If a character has many relationships or flings in a movie, it could perpetuate the slutty bisexual trope, or seem to further serve the characterization of a hero as erratic (those like Harley Quinn or Deadpool risk this). Even worse, with most of these movies being made from the straight white male gaze, any pairings involving queer women will likely appear to be fanservice for like-minded men. Especially since the actresses playing them are usually straight themselves (perhaps Harley Quinn could call on Enchantress, who will be played by Cara Delevigne). And with the exception of Storm, every possibly queer character mentioned here is played by a white actor.

So while the explosion of superhero movies over the past decade or so does not seem to be concluding any time soon, it seems we’ll have to wait a little longer for them to be openly queer on the big screen.