#lets be fair tho all the people in the batfam how hurt tim have at least since regretted and either apologized for it

[why-this-kolaveri-machi]

dick grayson fic rec post

i’ve read a fair amount of dick grayson/nightwing-related fic over the last few months–and have so many favourites that i revisit frequently!–that i thought it was about damn time that i made a rec post. feel free to add on any gems that you think i’ve missed.

s/o to @cautiousamber who actually inadvertently got this ball rolling, and who is just awesome in general.

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these fics are listed in no particular order. almost all of them are sourced from ao3 and a lot of them feature dark themes, blood and violence. i’ll put fic-specific warnings next to each title, but make sure to check out the tags on the fic itself before reading in case i missed something that you’d rather not read.

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like a rubber band until you pull too hard by @perissologist Summary:  Morgaine le Fey curses Dick Grayson to absorb the pain of everyone he loves.

Warnings: Violence, blood & gore, whump, some swearing. Also, it’s Jason Todd/Dick Grayson, tho that’s not the focus and more or less subtext until the last few paragraphs of the fic.

this is a gloriously simple h/c premise that packs in so much potential that i’m still kicking myself for not thinking of it before. the writing is wonderful, the interactions between dick and his family are heartfelt without being sappy, and the writer treads a fine, fine line between jason’s general standoffishness and the aching core of his love for his family so damn well. 

Half Lost, Half Found by takadainmate Summary:  Driven underground, Batman fights to keep Nightwing alive.

Warnings: Violence, blood & gore, graphic descriptions of injury, some swearing. And it’s, uh, incomplete, and likely to remain that way.

this… THIS is the fic that truly inspired me to make this post, because everyone needs to read it. rich in detail and full of glorious h/c, it manages to give us a nuanced, dynamic portrayal of bruce and dick’s relationship even while ratcheting up the tension as batman struggles to keep a gravely injured nightwing alive and save them both from Peril. it lacks the final chapter where (presumably) they are rescued and finally get a chance to recover, but i would 100% recommend reading what’s there even if you aren’t a fan of incomplete fics.

Black and Red by Eboni_A Summary:  Jason Todd is the Boy Terror to Dick Grayson’s Boy Wonder and proud of it. Where Dick is graceful, Jason is brutal, but they work together like clockwork. When a serious illness takes Dick down, Jason makes it his duty to watch over him. Jason loves his adopted brother and will kill to protect him.

Warnings: Violence, chronic illness, blood and gore, swearing, dick is fourteen and jason is twelve and they go through a lot of Shit. first person perspective.

this is nominally set in the young justice universe but there are a lot of changes–with jason todd adopted far earlier than he has been in other batman media and working as a batman sidekick of a different name while dick is still robin. given i’m not a big fan of reading robin-era fics (literal children in Peril makes me squirm) or first-person perspective, this fic still managed to win me over with how well-rounded and sympathetic it made an angry and prickly jason todd feel. dick also has to deal with a fairly serious medical issue, but despite spending most of the fic in hospital, his humour and charm and bravery shine through.

Collar Me (Don’t Collar Me) by CaramelMachete and spread_my_wings Summary:  A basic patrol ends in a common injury. However, complications may turn a simple broken arm into something potentially career-ending. Dick copes as best as he can. Until he doesn’t. His family tries to help.

Warnings: blood and injury, serious complications of said injury, descriptions of surgical procedures and discussion of permanent disability. some swearing. a work in progress.

i am obsessed with this fic. spoiler: the complication is compartment syndrome, and the way the fic approaches not just dick’s ways to cope with this, but other members of the batfam and several of dick’s friends ring very true to their characters. it’s emotional without being melodramatic and wonderfully written. an update on this fic ranks among the highlights of my day, honestly.

through sandstorms and hazy dawns by Makalaure Summary: “Robin,” Bruce grinds out, “stop talking. You need to stay sharp.”

Dick knows he is walking a fine, fine line. “Aw, come on, B,” he says, going for cheerful but feeling like something in him, something he has kept carefully in check till now, is about to snap.

Warnings:  mature themes, mentions of forced prostitution, homophobic language, implied paedophilia, implied past abuse, and exoticisation. panic attacks.

this is a beautiful fic, dealing with all the highs and lows of the earliest stages of bruce and dick’s relationship–both of them utterly out of their comfort zones but learning all the same. being batman’s first robin is so much more of a struggle than dick ever lets on later in his life, and in spite of everything, their growing love for and wonderment at each other shine through like a beacon.

Yellow Submarines by jerseydevious Summary: A collection of Batfam prompt-fics.

Warnings: there’s some swearing, violence and blood in some fics, but mostly harmless, i think.

not all of these are dick-related, but each and every one of these 52 fics have made me cry like a lost child. i love this author’s batfam–they’re softer, more open, and utterly unafraid to love each other with all their heart. it helps that the writing flows so well, too–there are some phrases here that will stay with me for a very, very long time.

Atropa Belladonna by Embleer_Firth0323 Summary:  A routine traffic stop sets off a domino effect that will forever shatter Officer!Grayson’s entire world–transforming a once temperate existence into a lurid nightmare of obsession, deceit, violence, and finally murder.

Warnings: Rape/non-con, abuse, suicide. suicidal thoughts, violence, blood and gore, multiple character deaths (none of the batfam), discussions of pregnancy and miscarriage, swearing, first person perspective. i’m sure i’m missing some warnings; please check the tags for the fic. there are also chapter-specific warnings in the notes that precede the chapters.

HOKAY. this is a VERY long, very soap-opera-y retelling of the infamous tarantula arc from the comics. somehow, it is even darker, but hopeful in that all of the damage it inflicts on dick and those close to him is actually acknowledged and addressed. the world around this particular version of dick is rather nicely fleshed out and full of likeable people… bar catalina, of course. catalina flores plumbs the depths of awfulness and digs even further when it comes to her relationship with dick, but even at her worst, her anguish and trauma is always palpable. it’s a long, difficult, but extremely engrossing read. 

i would recommend reading this author’s other novel-length fics as well, but beware that they deal with very, very heavy topics, and not always with the deftest or most sensitive hand.

Come One, Come All and The Only Thing To Say by incogneat_oh

both of these are really cute fics where members of the batfam care for/spend time with an injured!dick. they are sweet, rich in detail, and honestly a delight to read. warnings-wise, i can’t think of anything beyond the odd swear-word.

Little By Little by paramountie Summary:  Six times Tiger found himself stuck in Bludhaven.

Warnings: swearing, blood and injury, mind control, violence. Tiger/Dick. 

this fic builds on all the the strengths of the Grayson comic series–a breezy tone, spy/thriller content, and tiger and dick’s fun dynamic. this fic is very funny and kind of heartbreaking in turns. my only caveat is that this dick tends very much towards the happy-go-lucky, quippy, emotional, a-bit-of-a-disaster characterisation that tends to plague him in fanon–but to be fair, that is the persona he put up while at Spyral in Grayson.

O Clouds Unfold by lowflyingfruit Summary:  Over the years, Alfred tries to introduce the younger members of the Batfamily to the noble sport of cricket.

Warnings: none that i can think of, really.

THIS FIC DELIGHTS ME ON SO MANY LEVELS. little snippets of alfred bonding with bruce’s adopted kids over the years by trying to introduce them to cricket–alfred’s voice is consistently amazing, and it is charming af from beginning to finish. 

i’d recommend all of this author’s batfam fic tbh.

Tectonic Doom by paganpunk2 Summary:  Dick and Tim head out for a week of brotherly bonding in the wilderness only to find themselves caught up in a scheme to put humanity on the ‘extinct’ list.

Warnings: violence, blood, injury and gore, minor character death

this is a lovely, long, plotty fic–with a wonderfully imaginative premise that’s brought out in rich detail, with so much glorious, glorious Dick/Tim bonding. there are way, way too few fics that focus on these two.

Ducklings on the Freeway by pentapus Summary: Jason worries about the younger Robins. He doesn’t worry about Dick – Dick’s untouchable, and even if he wasn’t Jason wouldn’t care.

(Or Dick gets hurt, and it freaks Jason out more than he expected.)

Warnings: swearing, injury. Jason/Dick, but more subtext than anything.

jason’s voice in this fic is so perfect–the tentative ways in which he reconnects with his family, and especially dick, while still dealing with a fuckton of trauma and resentment ring very, very true. and tired-but-knowing!dick is a delight as always.

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this is maybe ~33% of the recs i had in mind, but this post has gotten long and i’m tired, so. i’ll add more later. if you have anything that i’ve missed, please feel free to add it to this post!

[victoriousscarf]

For the impression meme : Dick Grayson; Damian Wayne

(I tried to insert this picture later in the post but honestly it makes such a good header for me babbling about Dick so I’m leaving it where it is even tho this was an ACCIDENT) 

Dick Grayson:

First impressionLike, I know I watched the old animated Bats show and watched the movies etc so probably the first real time I went “Dick Grayson is a character” was the Val Kilmer movie which like, kill me. 

But honestly the first time reading comics I remember sitting up and going oh this is a character, this is a person and I’m SO INTERESTED was reading Hush (again, good/terrible comic to read early) which means Jim Lee’s beautiful art (I may disagree with 90% of anything that man says or does and would like him to retire from DC as editor but man I can admit he draws so PRETTY) 

Yeah like that panel. And his snark about maybe this time the Joker won’t break out from Arkham for at least a month this time. 

And I was like yeah okay. This is good. Let me go add Nightwing comics to my massive library request list (All the librarians knew my name pretty fast okay)

Impression now

My FAVORITE. Like no I’m serious, he’s right up there with Luke Skywalker as all time favorite characters. And also this is why I’m so damned picky with him as a character because at his core, I think he’s an inherently optimistic character, not because he’s naive or stupid or sheltered, because he’s not. But despite the terrible things that have happened to him, and in fact despite his own nature (his temper, his distrust, his workaholic tendencies) and despite the terrible things that have happened to him over and over and over again, he still makes the conscious CHOICE to believe in goodness, in kindness and compassion, in the world being a better place. (And honestly he’s a lot like Luke “I am a Jedi like my Father Before me” Skywalker in this way). He’s still flawed, as I said he has such a temper, and is about as distrustful of people as Bruce is. But he can BUILD trust with people (unlike Bruce for like the majority of people) and everyone loves him for it. The superhero community trusts him in ways they don’t trust Bruce Wayne (which is fair considering how often Bruce like causes destruction simply due to his own massive trust issues, like the Tower of Babylon and Brother Eye). And yeah okay he’s my favorite, but there’s also this view of Dick in fandom and even the more recent writers that strips a lot of this complexity and shrewdness and leadership from him. And so like in current pre-Rebirth (I’ve been waiting for rebirth to settle a lot more than venturing in there) my impression is not great. And i dread what’s coming both there and in larger media. Favorite momentAh damn like where would I even start.

Like it’s sad that in some ways my favorite moment dealing with him ever actually doesn’t even feature him in it, and it’s Bruce talked with Earth 2 Superman and Supes saying that their world was so corrupt, so dark, so tainted compared to his and he couldn’t understand why this world survived when his own had been destroyed when it was much gooder and Bruce looks at him and you can tell he’s wondering that too and then he goes okay but what about Dick Grayson and Supes sorta goes eh? and Bruce is like if everything is so much worse here, is Dick Grayson tainted and corrupted compared to yours? And Earth 2 Superman says no, no he’s still good, and Bats goes great and fights him. You get the implication that if that hadn’t been the answer, Bruce might have been as willing to give up on this world as that Supes but no, Dick still was the same shining bright light, still such goodness in a dark world and that made the whole world worth fighting for. LIKE KILL ME. Kill me. 

And honestly I still love Dick being so good that even when all the other teen titans were down and Slade Wilson charges into his apartment even out of costume and with no warning Dick manages to jump out his window and escape where the element of surprise pretty much took down the rest of the team. That’s a classic. 

Idea for a story

I’m a sucker for aus, especially aus where the DCU is more or less the same expect Bruce didn’t raise Dick. There was one scan I found where an alternate Dick was raised by Zucco and honestly that haunts me to this day. Or a novel length exposition of the time he was a vampire hunter and Batman was a vampire who killed his parents and it ends with them being together in the night… forever. LIKE THESE ARE CANON AUS give me more of that weirdness. (A lot of Batman elseworld stories that are canon sorta downplay Dick and what I’m saying is don’t. Upplay him like crazy and how he effects Bruce at ever turn, in every world, how all the Robins exist with him through time)Unpopular opinionI hate him and Barbara. I mean, with caveats but I can’t ship it. Partly because I really got into comics around the time of Infinite Crisis, so when Barbara was blaming him for being sexually assaulted, (And there’s a lot of baggage in there because the author at the time was refusing to acknowledge it was rape so like there’s no way to deal with the aftermath of that if you’re not even saying it happened) he cheated on her (what) and I’m pretty sure they were engaged just in time for shit to totally blow up. And then we fast forwarded to one year later and like this stuff didn’t really come up or get worked through? But yeah it was just a period where i found them really messed up and unhappy with how it was written and all the new 52 stuff makes me want to scream and possibly tear my hair out.

Like okay the one time I really liked them was like in the 70s during Batman Family where like she has a phd and was at a congressional hearing and Dick came along as her assistant? Like, that was fun and cute and I really liked their dynamic. Modern comics? Not so much. Favorite relationship…. Yeah Dick and Bruce man. I’m reading this not as a romantic relationship but in GENERAL of any relationships ever nothing has driven my love for DC quite like Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson and their clusterfuck of emotions about each other, the fact that no matter how or in what manner, they are fucked up in love with each other and it is incredibly destructive to both of them. They can’t like settle down and just care, because of who they are they’re constantly butting into and hurting each other and yet at the end of the day they are still the most important to each other. Favorite headcanonDick is demi sexual fight me. 

Damian Wayne

First impression

Okay I read Batman and Son like when it first came out in trade, having NO CLUE who Damian was gonna be, or how his arc was gonna play out so like my first memory is him kicking Tim through the fucking cases and going WHAT IS THIS. Like, I was pretty peeved when he showed up. I was like ugh, of course Bruce having a biological son had to happen sometime and yeah Talia, because Son of the Demon but uuuugh. That was to change. Impression nowHe is precious and must be protected, 11/10Favorite momentI mean, there’s a lot. But one panel that always sorta stood out to me was the time that Hush got plastic surgery to look like Bruce Wayne and confronted Dick and Damian like that. And there’s just this panel of Damian, barely coming up halfway Dick’s chest, putting himself between Dick and Hush like hell yes I will take you on, how dare you. And how protective of Dick it was, even though Dick was Batman and he was Robin, that didn’t even matter. 

So yeah that one panel stands out because it encompasses so much but I also love every time he loves an animal more than most humans. Idea for a storyIdk, I really like future Batman Damian again, as Morrison introduced him a couple times, including in Multiversity. I’d really be interested in the downright apocalyptic future he becomes Batman in and how the batfam backs him up, and how he creates his own because as much as his father, he cannot really work totally alone.  

Alternatively he and Billy Baston go on a series of misadventures and it’s as terrible as that sounds like it should be but also GREAT

Unpopular opinion… It’s really funny I can instantly pin down things I disagree with fandom on with Dick Grayson but so rarely with other characters. Idk? I love him? 

I guess a thing I’ve seen a lot is people not really exploring how he will change as he gets older and just sorta transpose how he is currently on his future self and obviously he’s going to grow up a lot and change and I don’t see that coming up a lot whereas I’m like super excited to see him grow up/explore him grown up in fics. Favorite relationship*Sigh* Well obviously Dick and Damian. I mean, again, this doesn’t even have to run romantically, I just loved their dynamic under Morrison. I loved the switch of Batman and Robin where Dick, who was the brightest Robin became the dark knight, with a little nugget of rage as his Robin. I still love that comics cares about them together but I feel like a lot of their later interactions misses the edge Morrison gave them. Favorite headcanon

Him and Connor Hawke hang out a lot and go to vegetarian restaurants and bookstores together and have very philosophical conversations about religion and art and literature and faith and how they view being heroes (and Damian coping with his past vs Connor growing up in a monastery) and what their fathers mean to them. 

Damian is very protective of Connor is what I’m saying, he’s the only intelligent conversation he gets sometimes. (Sometimes, way down the road, Jason joins them for bookstore excursions, looking for first editions to send Alfred and Damian is sorta pissy but he’s grown, he can handle this)