#leader dick

[frogaroundandfindout]

Let it never be forgotten that dick grayson apparently just had this inside his pants. Like that is not a pocket grab, that is a fingerprint dusting kit in my waistband grab

[frownyalfred]

Just imagine a JL and YJ team up where no one knows the connection between nightwing and Batman

And Batman gets seriously hurt, everyone is shocked and scared but no one expects nightwing to go

Either 1. Catatonic or 2. Into a cold and precise fury standing protectively over batman

Yeah!! Agh, the outside pov of Nightwing sprinting over to Batman and somehow knowing how to unlock the complex series of clasps and switches on his armor in perfect sequence. He doesn’t get shocked, he pries open that chest plate like he’s been doing it his entire life. He opens Batman’s belt and pulls out bandages without needing to guess which compartment had first aid supplies. He grabs Batman’s wrist comm and knows how to use the gauntlet buttons to call for an evac. He orders Superman around like he’s taken on Batman’s authority in the interim (he has) and Superman listens without question. He is Batman’s second in command, and no one in YJ can fully process that revelation before they’re evac’d back to Gotham.

[mysterycitrus]

popular perceptions of dick grayson being a desperate touch-starved dude who has to beg people to hang out w him when every time roy or donna or wally or tim show up outside his apartment to recruit him into doing something he’s

[weirdo-from-bonesborough]

yeah no duh dick's a perfectionist. the first image of him for readers to ever see included the tagline "The Boy Wonder" with Batman proudly presenting him like a shiny new car. this man literally can not exist as a character without expectations placed on his shoulders.

[twistpixel]

Trying to make canon make sense and just over and over coming to the conclusion that Bruce had a lot of misplaced confidence in his parenting ability. based off of how well Dick responded to him. B was coasting off of Mary and John’s hard work that even Bruce’s mistakes in mentoring/fathering couldn’t completely break down and then with Jason it’s like why the fuck aren’t you easy.

[potatounicoorn]

Long-haired Discowing supremacy>>>>

(Later on Bruce would get a letter with a middle finger sticker, that he to this day doesn't know who it was from)

[littlefankingdom]

The Fandom: Try to force traditional family roles and the nuclear family's format on the found family that is the Batfam. Cannot accept Barbara and Steph as Batfam's members because "they're not Bruce's daughters!". Cannot accept that characters that aren't Bruce's children wear bat symbols (pls have you ever consume any Batman media??? The bat is a symbol, it's not about Bruce!!!) See Damian and Dick having a deep relationship and it must be a father/son relationship!

The source material: Bruce LITERALLY telling Damian that the bats living in the Batcave (and Gotham as a whole?!) aren't his pets, they are his family. His nuclear family got killed in an alley, wild animals are family too now.

[farshootergotme]

Hot take, anyone who thinks Dick Grayson has a persistent case of anger issues just doesn't know what anger issues are.

Does he get angry? Yes (I sure would hope so since he's a human being). Would I call it anger issues? No, not really.

[fantastic-nonsense]

one of my favorite comic fun facts is that Dick turned 20 on another planet during the Tamaran political marriage fiasco and he canonically spent most of the day telling Joey about his childhood and worrying about what his purpose in life was

"I'm twenty years old today, and I'm trying to figure out what my life's been about up till now...and where it's going!" -Secret Origins (1986) #13

[the-crooked-library]

what I learned from season 2 of IWTV is that a distressingly large amount of people cannot tell the difference between a consensual BDSM dynamic and assault/abuse, nor do they know anything about how kink actually works

it’s not unhealthy for Armand to be submissive or delve into maître/slave kink dynamics. in fact it’s something people do to explore and get past their traumas all the time irl. additionally, he is like five times older and more powerful than Louis, he wasn’t being forced to do anything, nor could Louis ever actually force him. the kink was probably the healthiest aspect of their relationship, what fucked them over was a jumble of commitment issues, a lack of trust, and eventual murder - which is something that would cause problems in any relationship ever, no matter how vanilla.

the Point of the tragedy is that they were on the precipice of something happy, but Louis hesitated for too long and Armand couldn’t recognize when he was loved, and the kink had nothing to do with it, for fuck’s sake. Louis wasn’t abusive and it’s not bad or wrong for Armand to want to be a sub -

[frogaroundandfindout]

I love every time Dick reminds people how long he’s been doing this shit for. I think it happened in New Teen Titans Vol 1 too with beast boy changeling

[visenyaism]

The committee to restore stannis to the throne (made up solely of davos and melisandre) caught hiding dragonglass candles in the war room at the lannister camp at the inn at the crossroads in an attempt to listen in on their conversations after forgetting to remove the extremely heavy mediaeval doorstop they were using to keep the door unlocked

This is the real history that the maesters don’t want you learning about in school☝️

[whatareyoureallyafraidof]

But, hey; as long as your Dear Leader is safe.

[hood-ex]

Ah so Dick is taking a break from being the leader and has passed leadership over to Donna. Laughing because they already have their first crisis after making this decision, and Dick is immediately like, "You're the leader now, Donna! What are our orders?" LOL.

[austenpoppy]

Dick and Bette Kane - part 1

I started writing this as an answer to the people who claim they love Dick's "petty" side/him not being welcoming to specific people he supposedly has a grudge against. The problem is, those same people tend to mention Helena Bertinelli or Jean-Paul Valley as examples of that happening, when it doesn't reflect at all the relationship he had with either of them in the New Earth continuity (which is generally the one being referred to).

I will do a breakdown of Dick's relationship with those two in separate posts, but it got me thinking about a "heroic" character Dick's been consistently uncomfortable around in that same continuity, and one he openly doesn't appreciate much : Bette Kane, a.k.a Flamebird. Yet people do not seem to ever list her among the characters Dick's not very fond (for very good reasons).

Bette Kane's an interesting concept as a character, because she's not a very good super-heroin, but she's extremely competent in other areas of her life. As a teenager, she began playing tennis in competitions, and she was so good at it she quickly became "a pro", and was considered something of a celebrity.

Yet Bette dreamed of something very different. She openly admired Robin (Dick) and wanted to imitate him by becoming a super-heroin of her own. She even designed her costume as a tribute to him, and chose the code name Flamebird. That's somewhat ironic considering Flamebird was originally Nightwing's partner back when Nightwing was an identity Superman had used.

Bette as Flamebird's New Earth origins are recounted in Secret Origins, vol. 2 annual 3, which is focused on a mental attack Dick suffers at the hands of the Gargoyle. Here Gargoyle narrates one of the first acts Bette did as Flamebird, which was saving Navy men hanging to lifelines attached to an air-craft carrier that was being lifted into the air. Other super-heroes helped resolve the situation, and that teamwork is what prompted the creation of Titans West.

Secret Origins, Vol. 2 Annual 3

Interestingly, you can see that Dick wasn't really aware of how much he'd inspired Bette, and this mental fight with the Gargoyle happened several years after his first meeting with Bette as leader of the Titans, and years after his first meeting with Bette at all.

At first glance, this may seem surprising, given that Bette was obsessed with Robin and wasn't remotely subtle about it. After becoming Flamebird and rescuing the Navy men, she was part of the unofficial first meeting of Titans West along with Gar, Hank, Dove, Charley, and Lilith. And her first reaction was to be delighted at the idea of seeing "Robin" again, calling him "a cute hunk". When Lilith asked her to tone it down and be serious, she instead went further by commenting on Dick's legs.

Secret Origins, Vol. 2 Annual 3

Then when it became clear the newly formed Titans West would have to seek help and go see the official Titans in New York, all Bette cared about was that she was going to work with Robin.

Secret Origins, Vol. 2 Annual 3

When the two teams finally met, it wasn't love at first sight. Once they finally started discussing the case they were working on, Dick suggested a plan of action that involved the two teams splitting up. Bette cut him off as soon as he said it to contradict him and affirm that she was going with him, which she ended up doing.

Her behaviour was honestly creepy. She cut off Dick just because she'd decided that she was going with him. She didn't refer to him by his code name, but only by the part of his body she'd commented on before, calling him "legs". She took his face between her fingers. And the sentence "I've waited too long for this", coupled with the nickname, would've made my skin crawl. It sounds like she'd fantasized about Dick for a while, was going to have what she wanted no matter what, and had no problem announcing it out loud.

Secret Origins, Vol. 2 Annual 3

After the case was over, the two teams had a fight over what team had done more to solve it, and over the legitimacy of Titans West. Wally criticized the way they'd come into the headquarters like they belonged, Bette said they did because they were Titans too, and appealed to Dick to validate her opinion - calling him "legs" again, which implies that this was the nickname she gave him the entire time they worked together.

Dick said he wasn't sure whether it was a good idea for the others to be Titans, because he wasn't sure he would be able to lead two teams, one of them long-distance. Members of Titans West were affronted by Dick's speech, including Bette. She went with the others, talking to Dick again to tell him that "[he'd] never know what [he'd] missed", making her departure partly about a romantic/sexual golden opportunity Dick didn't take. Appreciate the fact that she called him "Robin" again now that she was irritated by him.

Secret Origins, Vol. 2 Annual 3

Titans and Titans West had a couple other team-ups before Titans West disbanded, during which Bette learned Dick's secret identity. From the way Bette acted during the one team-up recounted in details in New Titans #56, we can deduce that every time she met Dick she kept trying to seduce him, persistently, relentlessly, in obnoxious ways that sometimes border on sexual harassment.

It was well-known that Bette was obsessed with Dick - not like Bette was trying to be subtle about it, she had no problem making her intentions clear and that publicly. There's a panel I couldn't include in which Hank scoffs at the idea that Lilith "trusts" Dick and tells Charley that "she's got the hots for him. Just like Bette."

I'm sad I couldn't include it because there's this hilarious exchange after in which Hank bemoans "Man. That burns me. What's he got that I haven't ?" and Charley answers "Look in the mirror and weep" (lmao).

But as I was saying, Bette kept trying to hit on Dick. In the panel below she asked him whether he needed help (the "sure" implying it's not the first time she asked the question), only to say that it was "[his] loss" when he said no. Dick was very polite in his answer, thanking her for her offer, but was turning her down all the same.

New Titans #56

Not long after, Dick told off Hank and Charley who'd gone in an argument over leadership and about their association with the Titans, before having the conversation about Dick I mentioned above. Bette immediately cheered him on, calling him "handsome" as she got close to him. Dick ignored her.

New Titans #56

During a fight she called out to Dick to warn him about an assailant, and had to sneak in a comment about his butt (whoever said this kind of things was recent was lying). Dick was clearly uncomfortable, answering with an embarrassed "Uhh, thanks, Flamebird" - the "uhh" plus the two commas in a three-word sentence indicate he didn't know what to make of her comment. He also corrected her to make sure she knew he'd seen the assailant she was talking about. It was a way for him to reaffirm his skills as a crimefighter (she's not the first one he said those things to), but also a way for him to reject her attention.

New Titans #56

She was also very physical around Dick. I can't include all panels of her, but she seemed to be near Dick most of the time, would touch his shoulder for no reason when they came in a lab, or, like in the panel below, latch onto his arm. Dick wasn't shown shaking her off, but he wasn't seen reciprocating either.

New Titans #56

So in the end, it's not a surprise Dick had no idea Bette'd wanted to become a super-heroin because she'd been inspired by him. Not when most of their interactions revolved around her attraction for him, not when she kept making comments about his looks.

As an aside, this is one of the reasons I can't take seriously anyone who says it's Devin Grayson's fault if Dick's been sexualized. Hard to do that when you have an entire character who could've been one of the best tennis players in the world but decided to become a crimefighter because she was obsessed with Dick, and kept gushing over his legs and butt. Dick's been dealing with that kind of things since the 80's, guys.

Part 2

Part 3

[acecroft]

SUPERNATURAL 7.23