#like jason had a whole fucking character arc come on

[mysterycitrus]

I keep hearing people say to ignore Devin Grayson’s Nightwing but I also see people reference it. I feel like I’m getting mixed signals. Should I avoid it or read it? Are there specific issue I should avoid or read? is the avoiding advice only for people who are new to the comics? Or should I really just avoid the whole thing?

short answer — u do not have to read devin graysons nightwing run. i wouldn’t recommend it to new readers, and there isn’t anything significantly important that happens so like. it’s an easy pass. i do encourage people to at least read what she wrote about, though, because devin accidentally kickstarted the next twenty or so years of bad writing in nightwing books.

the long answer — devin grayson was a writer for nightwing volume 2 from like….. issue #70ish to #115ish. she did a lot of weird things during her run — her takes on dick’s relationships with bruce and slade and helena come to mind — but the most popular talking points wrt her writing are issue 93 and maaaaybe the renegade arc but that is literally the tip of shit mountain.

it’s funny u say that people are telling u not to read it cause based on my experience in fandom it is very, very clear that very few people have read any of the run at all, or even #93 and it’s preceding issues. which is fine, because it’s bad. but it’s important to understand why it’s bad, and how it’s affected dicks characterisation in both canon and fanon.

nightwing #93 is the issue people say to avoid because it features dick’s assault at the hands of a former ally that devin refused to acknowledge was rape until like… 2014. it’s bad. the build up to this point — haleys is set on fire, dicks apartment is destroyed killing everyone inside, dick watches this ally kill a man on his behalf while he is helpless to stop her — is rarely discussed in the context of the scene. it’s a lot, but because people haven’t read it they misunderstand the dynamics that devin had created.

the worst parts about nightwing in the present — his lack of conviction and competence, his sexualisation and dehumanisation, the fundamental lack of empathy for his retconned bg as a poc — all started with devin. literal ground zero. i cannot emphasise how her i incapability to understand that she’d written an assault arc with her self insert as the instigator has played into dick’s status as a character in the 2020s. many people accidentally engage with the same tired, racist tropes that devin herself contributed to, because people simply do not know (or care to know) what she’d written. think about much fanon content revolves around dick being an accessory to his own assault, or being literally unable to advocate for himself, or relying on jason fucking todd to kill his rapist. it’s like im rereading nightwing vol 2 all over again, and that’s not a good thing.

however what people also tend to forget about is the racism. devin grayson introduced dick having rromani heritage into canon, sure, but she did it because she thought it was sexy. we see this with her writing for roy’s navajo heritage too — a lack of research and care, though dick’s was clearly egregiously fetishistic. she retconned the character that assaulted dick into a latina character, and retconned her into being an aggressively sexual and violent person that was at significant odds with her og characterisation. that seems to be a trend with nightwing writers — wolfman did the exact same thing like fifteen years earlier with about the same degree of nuance and empathy.

ig my answer is that nightwing vol 2 is very much a pick and choose run, make ur own adventure type experience. bizarrely, u can get better nightwing characterisation in the titans 1999 run, or batman plus arsenal, which were both also written by devin (heartbreaking, the worst person u kno just made a good point). id be wary of people telling u to avoid it entirely, because i think ignoring its existence just exacerbates the problems devin created. just be discerning, ig. but also read nightwing vol 2 #118-#124 (just after devin leaves) because it is gd hilarious

[mamawasatesttube]

Sorry, I know you don’t really like people bringing up Jason but I’m very curious. I read Straight on Till Morning several times before really joining Tumblr and I was surprised by how much you seem to dislike him compared to how nicely he was written in said fic. Is it cuz it’s a future fic so he can be more chilled out than in current comics or something?

Feel free to ignore me if you want. Curiosity does not owe me answers.

no worries, i don't mind polite questions! :P

so there's two things. a) sotm was written when the only real comics i'd read were sb94, yj98, tt03, batgirl (2000), and nightwing '96 (iirc - i might be forgetting one or two but the point is, when i was pretty new to comics). at this point wfa had tricked me into thinking jason actually had a consistent character arc that i simply hadn't read yet, and i assumed it would be weird to write a fic where dick, tim, and cass were all around as kon's friends + damian was there being jon's friend in the background, but jason didn't get mentioned, so i worked him in bc i thought that was like. gonna be weird if i didn't, even tho i didn't know what he was doing in postcrisis yet. i mostly just wanted to write about kon and did not yet have the strong "actually i do not care for 99% of post-rebirth comics" feelings i have today. if i were to do the sotm rewrite in my mind, jason would actually still be in his villain to antivillain era because that's my actual favorite era of him. i think it's fun when he's hanging around being like... a vengeful ghost who's just determined to make his problems Everyone's Problem. i'm not really interested in soft angsty daddy's boy jtodd or whatever sdkjfh and that seems to be the most popular version of him i see. it's either soft angsty daddy's boy jason or it's power fantasy cop-adjacent jason who has never done anything wrong in his life and is completely valid in every decision he's ever made. neither of these interests me.

which brings me to b) it's not so much that i dislike jason todd as a character so much as that his fans are so fucking annoying to me. that chapter of sotm? multiple people in the comments were there ONLY to talk about jason, even though the fic is literally about kon and not about jason and he just happens to appear for PART of one scene that chapter. it made me get sick of hearing about him. like theres soooo many jason todd fics out there can you go read those. i want to talk about kon! and i've had people bring him up on my completely unrelated fics too like he doesn't even get MENTIONED like one fic is about clark kon and tim, and someone was in the comments like "omg i bet clark was thinking about jason here" and i was so ... dude. read the room. or the fic even. it is not about him.

but even more than the way a lot of jason fans have this apparently compulsive need to make him the main character of the entire universe, i really can't stand how many of them i've seen spout literal straight up copaganda and/or defense of the death penalty. like they will bend over backwards so hard to defend why he was right to put 8 heads in a duffel bag or why it's morally correct to kill rapists that they start spewing right-wing talking points. and the constant need to make him the perfect imperfect victim ("he's angry and loud unlike GOOD victims--") and all of that just... it really turns me off of 99% of fan content about him that i've seen. it makes me genuinely kind of uncomfortable. like if you think there's a category of criminal that it's okay to execute (without a trial, even) i want nothing to do with you. can you guys just say it's sexy when a man is covered in blood after murdering a room full of people without having to be like "and he was right to do it too!!" because i promise he was not. and if you SAY any of this people will come up with a whole thing about how you must hate victims and/or poor people or some shit. its... really something.

all of that being said - i think there are interesting things you COULD do with his character. i think he can be a fascinating character! with stories worth telling! the family tragedy, the horror story, the vengeful ghost! but at this point with how rancid i find his fanbase i just really only want to see jason takes from people i know will not start spewing copaganda at me + people who i know appreciate tim kicking him in the balls (bc he kicked dick in the balls and tim is a bitch).

anyways. bring back tentatodd 2k25 who's with me

[stressedanime]

my new favourite headcanon is ace jason grace, and i think it would just fit so well into his character so lemme explain (also creds to @snoelledarts who helped me write this)

As we know, his overall character arc is about struggling against the expectations put on him because of his birthright, being the son of Jupiter. 

This presented itself in two ways: The inherent stigma of being the son of Jupiter/Zeus, and the pressure Camp Jupiter had placed on him to be a perfect soldier/leader

To talk about the stigma first, I want to focus on Jason and Piper’s interactions with Achelous, because it really makes my heart hurt for him.

“Poor thing. Another girl stuck with a son of Zeus.” “Wait a minute,” Jason said. “It’s Jupiter actually. And how does that make her poor thing?” - pg. 335, the Mark of Athena

To summarize: Achelous describes to Jason and Piper how Hercules' died, how he took after Zeus by having affairs and flirting with anything that moved. Then, after catching wind of her husband's infidelity, Hercules’ second wife killed him out of jealousy. Then Achelous warns Piper about Jason being a son of /Zeus/. 

Piper doesn’t even look at Jason after this. She fears for herself, and for what Jason could possibly do just because of his birthright. How do you think that affected Jason at this moment? The horror and fear that he could hurt the people he loves? That it could be inevitable for him to follow in his fathers footsteps? Especially when Piper doubts him at that moment, how could he also not doubt himself? 

Even though at the end of this conflict she shows her dedication and belief in him, that she believes he is better than the people he’s related to, I fear that the doubt was already planted in his head.

Moving onto the pressures that the Romans placed on him, I think it’s important context to look at what happened BEFORE he made it to CJ 

When he was abandoned by his mom at the Wolf House, she promised that she would come back to him, but she never did. 

His mother’s unkempt promise was at the core of who he was. He’d built his whole life around the irritation of her words, like the grain of sand at the center of a pearl. People lie. Promises are broken. That was why, as much as it chafed him, Jason followed rules. He kept his promises. He never wanted to abandon anyone the way he’d been abandoned and lied to. - pg. 31, the Blood of Olympus

So from the absolute beginning of his time in the Legion, he felt a strong need to follow rules, even though another part of him so desperately wanted to break free of them. 

And we know he struggled against the expectations about being a son of Jupiter because of the glimpses we get about his time in the Legion.

This had been the story of my life, he thought bitterly. Everyone had always watched him, expecting him to lead the way. From the moment he’d arrived at Camp Jupiter, the Roman demigods treated him like a prince in waiting. Despite his attempts to alter his destiny–joining the worst cohort, trying to change the camp traditions, taking the least glamorous missions, and befriending the least popular kids–he had been made praetor anyway. As a son of Jupiter, his future had been assured. - pg. 30 the Blood of Olympus

But I want to look at these expectations in a slightly different lens than just being destined to lead. Specifically, I want to look at this in terms of hegemonic masculinity, which is a specific social identity or performance of masculinity that is virtually unattainable. 

This masculinity was very likely part of the pressure that the Romans put onto Jason. This includes the idea that men, ‘real men’, need to be physically superior, money makers, have political power, be conventionally attractive, and use those looks and charms and status to have sex, like a Real Man™️should. 

You just KNOW that these warped ideals, mixed with the expectations of being the son of JUPITER aka horny menace #1 created some fucked up ideals in his head and pressure from others about how he should act.

All of this leads me to the conclusion that an ace Jason Grace would be a natural, and fitting identity, as well as add so much depth to his character

First of all, realizing he’s ace would be a huge relief

Apart from the “oh i’ve finally found language that describes me and my experience” (bc i feel like he’d hear one of his friends mention it during conversation and he’d be like what’s that? and then when they explain it he’d be like huh. interesting. very interesting. and then go home n scour the internet for resources to explain more)

There’d be that part of him that’s like, relieved that there’s a piece of him that inherently separates him from Jupiter’s legacy, in both the way way that Achelous outlined, and the one forced on him by the Romans

Jason who rejects that side of being related to his father, to being Roman, to being this glorified version of himself that doesn't exist. Jason who gets to relax and live without the fear that he's anything like his father. 

Also, this could work completely with how his and Piper’s relationship played out. They truly did love each other despite the godly meddling, but their circumstances didn’t set them up to last.  

And maybe… maybe their relationship worked so well for Jason, because of Piper's sexuality. 

Piper isn't really into guys like that (Jason maybe being an exception because of the memories from hera or because of specific circumstances/the kind of person Jason is), and Jason isn't really... into people like that and so he doesn't see anything weird about how Piper is either?

They're both not correct about their sexualities and maybe trying to cover it up which is what made their relationship kinda functional for a while because neither of them were pushing for anything super romantic or over the top or sexual

I feel like I could even pull from the Cupid scene to support this

If this invisible guy was Love, then Jason was beginning to think love was overrated. He liked Pipers version better - considerate, kind, and beautiful. pg. 289, the House of Hades

Considerate is SUCH a specific word choice. Especially when we know that considerate is the antithesis to everything Jupiter is. 

AND it’s the antithesis to everyone else in Jason’s life. Do you ever think the Romans were ever considerate to him? Likely not. They just expected him to perform, like a son of Jupiter should.

Therefore, his relationship with Piper was perfect for him, because she didn’t see him as a son of Jupiter. She saw him as Jason Grace, her best friend.

And if he ever does find a partner, he’d have the confidence and ability to be upfront about his sexuality because he won’t be pressured by expectations like that again. 

The relief of knowing intimacy looks a little different for him, and the relief of like, letting people be gentle and soft, with him and that’s all that’s expected. That's all he needs, and no one else feels he needs to go further either. He can just breathe.

That’s what Jason Grace deserves.

[gffa]

This is still my favorite character arc for Bruce to go through and this was so good for me. The whole experience of Gotham War and everything that's been happening in Zdarsky's Batman comics, with Failsafe, with Zur-En-Arrh, with Bruce's mind fracturing to pieces, with him pushing his family away and trying to retreat into "Bruce Wayne is the mask, Batman is the real person", with the horrible things he's done to his kids--it all comes around to this. Bruce struggles with his humanity because he's so afraid of the hurt that comes with it, because he experiences loss so deeply, that every loss is reliving that trauma that defined his life. He retreats from his family, from his humanity because it feels like the only way to protect his heart, when he feels it so deeply. And he has to learn all over again that that's wrong. That he has to risk the hurt and the loss and the pain, to stay human, to stay with the family that he's built after the loss of his parents. It's only partly about the apology, what this scene is really about is Bruce opening himself back up to being human, rather than the cold, distant Bat. That what his children deserve isn't words or regret, but a willingness to hold them close to his heart again. This is what all the bonkers bullshit that's been going on in comics has been leading up to. What he did to Dick, to Tim, to Damian, to Jason, all of it was bad, a lot of it crossed a fucking line, but what they want from him isn't punishment or anguish in his soul or whatever, they want him to come back to hope, humanity, faith, and the light with them again. They want him to move forward with them again, as a family, to be let back in. Even Jason, that's what he wants, he's done some shitty things, too, and at his core, what he wants is to be able to move forward. I can buy that Jason forgives Bruce about this because he knows what it's like to do horrible things and to want to atone for them, to move forward from them. (Jason's got a lot of other shit to work out in other areas, both as someone who's done bad things and had bad things done to him, but in this instance, I can buy it for this particular event.) It doesn't mean that everything is all solved now, it's the core issue that Bruce will struggle with all his life, there's always progress and relapses, just like any of us sometimes slide back into our worst parts of ourselves and have to claw ourselves forward again. But at the heart of it, this is what Gotham War and Zur-En-Arrh and Failsafe have led up to--Bruce not retreating into the mask, not retreating into excuses about how he doesn't have to acknowledge his role in it, not saying that he'll deal with it alone even when things are rough between them all. He doesn't want soldiers who are only useful when they follow his commands exactly, he wants family. Even with all the pain, the mistakes, the hurt, the fear, it's all worth it for how he gets up every day to do it for them, because they are the light when the darkness creeps in.

[redhoodinternaldialectical]

Having spent the last few weeks un-fridging Catherine Todd, let me tell you, I NEVER want to see another motherfucker complaining about how Jason was """fridged"""

Like, sorry folks but he just fucking wasn't!!! Even if he had been a female character, that would not have been a fridging. The narrative at all times was deeply concerned with his internal experience of the world, his motives and emotions, and always considered him a human being whose agency and autonomy needed to be considered and highlighted. At least half of Death in the Family is about Jason's wants and needs and his attempts to fulfill them. Jason constantly makes decisions that alter the course of the story.

"Oh but his death was used for the development of the other character and the tone of the narrative as a whole" yeah, no fucking shit, of course it was, that is the entire fucking point of killing a character off! When a character dies, they stop developing through their own story arc, so they can only effect the arcs of other characters. The fact that this is done disproportionately to women is only one part of what the concept of fridging is about and reducing it down to only that ignores the real meat of why fridging matters.

Fridging is about the way that female characters are killed off in ways that disregard their agency, write off any choices, emotions, or motivations they might have had as not worth examining, and pointing out that the reason female characters are so often killed this way is because women are thought of as being less capable of agency and less fully people than men.

A good way to tell if a character has been fridged is to ask yourself "Hmm, if this woman was replaced with a literal bitch, an actual four legged puppy dog, would the narrative meaningfully change?"

Catherine Todd was fridged for Jason. She has no opinions, no meaningful personality traits, no agency in her own story or basically anyone else's for that matter. She is sad. She is addicted. She is dead. That is the whole of her character. Her entire purpose is to be a bullet point of angst in Jason's backstory. If you replaced her with a dead dog, none of Jason's story would be meaningfully changed.

"Oh but she was a parent, all the Robins have dead par-" They why was it Willis Todd that got resurrected in order to turn Jason into the 'Damned Prince of Gotham' and not her? It's because misogyny. If you come to any other conclusion why Scott "Known to Write Misogynistically" Lobdell didn't make Catherine Todd the one to come back, you are fucking kidding yourself. She is a female character and was therefore not given the same consideration as the male characters, it is as simple as that.

We all have every right to rail against the way Jason was killed off, the way the narrative blames him for his own death, the ways that he has been badly mishandled. He's even a character that's suffered due to prejudice! The classism in the way he's handled is really strong! I also think there's a ton of value in an analytical comparison between the ways that Jason's mental health is treated and the origins of mental health stigma that are rooted in misogyny. The Jason Todd Hysteria Essay is a frequent reread for me.

However.

None of this makes him "female coded" and any serious comparison of how female characters are treated and how he is treated must inevitably run into the truth that he does benefit from all the privileges that a male character gets for being male. He is treated in classist and ableist ways, and both classism and ableism intersect with misogyny, but the fact of the matter is that he does not have direct misogyny wielded against him and the female characters around him suffer from misogyny to his benefit.

You can call his death obnoxious, a callow cash grab, poorly thought out, bad for his character, of overall detriment to society, et.c. and be perfectly justified in doing so

But if you claim that he was fridged you are factually incorrect and for the crime of ripping the label off of a feminist theory (and failing to learn what it means beyond the most reductive single sentence 'definition' possible) for the benefit of a male character I sentence you to having all of your socks dipped in musty ass bog water.

[cleromancy]

still thinking about (always fucking thinking about) what i posted here, on mia's explicit on-page murder vs. jason and felipe and how it's treated both by ollie and bruce respectively, and also by their respective *narratives*.

one of the things i loved about winicks ga/ga&bc run in general was like. it was so uninterested in punishment. when someone did something harmful the emphasis was on the consequences--material and emotional--rather than issues of Right vs Wrong. it focused on who was hurt, where to go from there, how to fix it, and i found that especially 🥺 when it came to mia killing.

because the reaction is so compassionate to her. like, no one is like shaking their finger at mia like You Did A Bad Thing, it's like ollie and dinah *both* immediately are horrified by the fact that she's going to have to live with this for the rest of her life and moreover that ollie put her in that position in the first place.

i already posted these panels but. look again.

and mia and jason as characters were in conversation with each other from the instant mia started being built up to be the 2nd speedy--the same way roy and dick were always in conversation with each other (because everyone knows the REAL second robin was the first speedy). and doubly so when winick took over and tweaked her backstory so she was also homeless. (gonna make a post on the HIV development at some point and how starlin openly talked about wanting to give robin AIDS...)

but like. look

vs

*Jason* couldn't handle it so now *i* can't keep him as my partner compared to. the blame falling directly, and rightly, on ollie for putting mia in that position in the first place... *and* this is the arc preceding the one where mia actually takes the speedy mantle! she wasn't speedy yet! she killed someone on her test run! and she still becomes speedy! and she does a fucking phenomenal job as speedy! tied for first fucking place if you ask me and roys my most favoritest and specialest guy!

and like. god. they don't linger on whether or not mia was wrong to kill that man. ollie clearly thinks there was another way, but he's not going to drill that into mias head, unlike someone else we could name, *bruce.*

"consequences, robin, such as me accidentally crushing a man to death by climbing a teetering stack of cars like a moron. for some reason i am heavily implying that this is your fault."

like ... come *on.*

and yknow. a lot of this is just that starlin was a fucking hack. but what we have here is still that bruce would rather bash jason over the head with moral lessons than ever give more than a cursory consideration to how hes fucking feeling.

(which is also, btw, such a stark change from how bruce still was in the contemporaneous tec run or even the batman run directly preceding it where when bruce screws up by not telling jason willis was (probably) dead, he admits he screwed up and apologizes. like, its such a tangible, jarring shift from bruce being a flawed but loving dad into whatever the hell this is. --lets not start on wolfman here because he did a better job than starlin, not that thats a high bar. im not opposed to the bad mentor/dad bruce character development *in principle*, its about the execution.)

but yeah, like, just the way like... its about who put mia in that situation. its about how jason just wasn't good enough. its about how mia gets to keep trying to be a hero. its about how jason is benched (<- he was supposed to stay home in 425; officially benched in 426). its about how it didn't matter whether or not jason killed felipe, because jason "couldn't handle it." its about how it mattered that mia killed someone, because she shouldn't have ever been put in a situation where she felt like she had to.

the discourse about ga 69-72 is always so tedious and always so thoroughly misses the damb point. but putting aside the whole like yes yes naughty jason he shouldn't have done it or at least shouldn't have done it like he did it--namely scaring the ever-loving crap out of her--what happened was jason came to her while she was in uniform (<- NOT EVEN KNOWING ABOUT THE MURDER!! HE DIDNT EVEN KNOW!!!) and among other things that was him going, i'm like you, what happened to me could happen to you, and she said i'm nothing like you and it won't, and he said, are you sure.

but when it comes down to it if mia died and came back and set up an elaborate murderous rube goldberg machine scheme to get to ollie it wouldn't work because the first damn thing ollie would do when he saw her would be to give her a famous arrowfam hug and blubber all over her. and. i mean. come on, the jokers ass would be grass, you know it i know it, ollie would have rather caused a diplomatic incident or whatever the fuck than let the man who killed his kid live. (<- i say kid over daughter deliberately btw. genuinely don't think mia was in the market for another dad after the first one. ollies still her family, shes still his kid, thats how it is. i probably wouldn't be so inflexible about this if fandom wasnt fucking obnoxious about insisting that she *is* and *must be* his daughter, but they are so i am.)

anywayyyyyyyy speedy sweep! wahoo

[flashfuture]

I think it's really interesting the perception that after Crisis on Infinite Earths, Dick and Bruce just hated each other the whole time and were in a non stop fight and could never get along again.

And while it is true the 1986 Crisis was used to make Dick Grayson's parting from Robin a more brutal severing of a relationship and less willing passing on of the mantle as he grows up. This fight did not last forever. Jason was dead by 1988. And when Dick went to confront Bruce about this they had a massive blowout again. But by late 1989-1990 Tim Drake had come in to try and get Nightwing to work with Batman. Which is where Nightwing gives us pretty much his pre crisis reasoning for leaving which is he's just too old to be Robin but Tim on the other hand... And so Tim was used as a way to bridge the gap between Bruce and Dick.

The prodigal arc in the mid 90s was a brand new fight where Dick was annoyed he wasn't asked to be Batman for Bruce and Bruce thought he couldn't ask it of Dick. And it was a really defining moment for them as grown ups working together. They were close again after this.

In the beginning of the 2000s with say Bruce Wayne Murderer? arc Dick was near zealous in how he defended Bruce from the accusation like almost went insane about it.

Then was some tension over cop Dick + wariness over Cass. And then Dick left for a bit after War Games and Steph's "death" in 2004. But by Infinite Crisis + Under the Red Hood in 2005, Dick and Bruce were already working together again. And after that had next to no arguments.

And in the New 52 world the largest crazy ass fight they had which was ooc as fuck was after Forever Evil to force the weird spy arc. But nothing in New 52 was in character anyways.

[tenpintsof-sundrop]

You are and will forever be the supreme authority when it comes to Jason Todd. I genuinely don't want to listen to anyone but you talk about him. "Nobody gets him like I do" nah nobody gets him like YOU do

omg this literally made me blush. this is literally the highest compliment to me omg

and okay - last night while I was trying to fall asleep, I was literally 'writing out' this big long Titans analysis post in my head (nothing like some good old fashioned hyperfixation to help ya fall asleep past the chronic pain) - and so - I will treat you to some of my Jason thoughts <33 because I was thinking about his character arc through the whole show and how it works SO WELL (except for the ending... I hate how he ends up alone. I mean it weirdly makes sense for him but I still HATE IT)

so - at first glance, his character from Season 1 and then him from Season 2 and Season 3 (and even the short bit that he was there during Season 4) can come off as completely different characters. Season 1 Jason is happy, excitable, smiley, and Jason in the other seasons is grumpy, emo, traumatized, etc.

but when you look closer, it makes so much sense.

it's about Dick.

Jason is excited to meet Dick. it's actually heavily my theory that Jason lied about getting the 'go head' from Bruce to meet Dick, and he probably used his privileges on the Bat Computer to find Dick via the tracker - especially because Jason says to Dick "you don't remember him putting it (the tracker) in?" - so Jason has memories of Bruce putting the tracking device in him (which, Bruce putting tracking implants in Jason and Dick as if they are fucking zoo animals is a whole different level of weird, but Bruce doing it to Dick while he was UNCONSCIOUS and didn't know about it - Titans!Bruce Wayne is a whole different BREED like omg)

so - Jason tracks down Dick because he wants to meet his hero. he admires Dick, he is excited to meet him - and what does Dick do? acts annoyed the entire time Jason is there, tells Jason that Bruce is not someone admirable and that he doesn't really 'know' Bruce - and like yes, Dick was right about this, but Jason was 19 at the time and he had previously been a street kid. it's brave and kind of an asshole thing for Dick - who is in his 30s, well established, has a good job and has a lot of options in life even without relying on Bruce for money (which he still very much does even when they are emotionally distant), it's a very ironic and asshole thing for Dick to tell Jason that he should get as far away from Bruce as possible when before meeting Bruce, Jason was homeless or being shuffled around between abusive foster homes.

IN FACT (this is something I LITERALLY JUST considered) - Jason is 19 at the time that he meets Dick, and he said that he was taken in by Bruce a year ago when he tried to steal the hubcabs off the Batmobile (which is a detail/origin taken from other places) - presumably, he thought the hubcabs would make him a lot of money as collectors item or just as an expensive car part to sell. he was 18 at the time, and he was probably homeless after ageing out of the foster system when he turned 18. like HELLO

it's one thing for Dick to try and warn Jason that Bruce is not a great person and he's not what he seems, but for Dick to tell Jason to 'get out while he can' when Jason's financial dependence on Bruce is way higher than Dick's ever was... like ooff. BOY. especially because - yes, Dick losing his parents was very tragic, but he never knew homelessness or abuse in the way that Jason did

Jason has even more of a hero complex toward Bruce because Bruce saved him from homelessness and starvation (and not just modestly, he gets to live in a fucking mansion now) and then asked him to become Robin - which to someone who is 17/18 is conceptually the coolest thing ever.

so - Jason is giggly, smiley, talkative and over excited because he is psyched to meet one of his heroes. and then that hero spends the next day crushing his spirit like a fucking slap-chop

and something that GET'S MEEE

okay - one. the 'brews'. the second that Jason gets into the safehouse, he says that he needs to 'check out the brew sitc' - and I think he's only using the word 'brew' instead of calling it 'beer' because he is actively trying to look cool in front of Dick. but ALSO - during the entire car ride, Dick has been glaring at him, has been very tense, is NOT excited to see him (even after Jason SAVED HIS LIFE, he's not thankful at all), and then Dick seems more angry when he finds out that he's no longer on the biometric lock system - but Jason is. and during the entire elevator ride, he berates Jason for wanting to be Robin instead of choosing 'his own' identity, even though Dick claims he doesn't want to be Robin either

so - to me, it feels like Jason wanted the beer to calm his nerves. like he goes for it AS SOON as he comes in the door, and for the rest of the scenes, he is seen clutching onto the beer bottle for dear life - as though it's calming his anxiety to have it. and we find out later in the episode that his family has a history of substance abuse that he is VERY casual about, including the fact that he was around alcohol and heavy drinkers from a young age because of that history.

(AAAAAND - this is a huge part of why the shift in his character makes so much sense to me. because they throw down the 'foster kid bullshit' lore and the story about Uncle Ray so flawlessly - like it's a joke, like Jason can joke about his past as if it's funny, but substance abuse is a problem for his family and it later becomes a problem for him.)

also - Jason having a fake ID trying to get into the bar (meaning that he has used it to buy booze in Gotham or has used it to get into bars in Gotham - so he drinks) - and when he sneaks into the bar, he picks up the drink on the bar that appears to be some kind of hard liquor and takes a sip of it without flinching??? - he is definitely a drinker, and it's definitely something he does to soothe his nerves. (especially because he is feeling rejected by Dick as a big brother/hero/mentor figure and he is looking to cope with the stress of that through alcohol - but in S1 it's played off as a joke.)

okay I wish I could find a gif of the exact moment I'm thinking of - and there is so much I could go into about Jason's S1 outfit - how he's wearing green and yellow with touches and red THE ROBIN COLOURS, clearly in admiration of his hero, and how his outfit is youthful and playful and colourful and in every other appearance (aside from the actual Robin costume and Red Hood) - he wears all black and wears very plain clothing - almost funeral like and very clearly emo

but okay there is this moment around ^^^ here where Dick tells them all to shut up and then Kory tells them to sit down, and when Kory and Dick go to the bathroom to check on Adamson, Jason very visibly sags. his whole posture sinks into himself and he doesn't try getting chatty with Rachel and Gar like he was with Dick - it becomes so clear that because Dick left the room, he has stopped trying to impress anyone. he just glares and sips his beer. (probably because he knows he is not being received well and he knows he wants to leave.) and this is such a huge taste of S2 Jason

and eventually the whole episode culminates in the big fight about Jason beating up cops - which only further drives home the class gap that Jason and Dick had growing up (I'm not sure want kind of monetary situation Dick had living with his circus family, but it's pretty clear from the way he acts that he's never really struggled for anything, so I have to say it wasn't bad) - Dick thinks all cops are innocent and uwu (and no, Jason shouldn't use Robin as an excuse to beat up cops because that makes the general public feel unsafe around Robin and it's about the principal and reputation - but Jason is soooo right when he says ACAB) - and he was homeless and he experienced the wrath of cops because of it

and the ending of the episode rips the bandaid off of Jason's hero complex toward Dick. so when we pick back up with Jason around Trigon - he wants to save Dick to rub it in his face, and because he 'owes' him - clearly, he wants Dick to be ON GOOD TERMS WITH HIM. he wants to save Dick so they can be friends, at the very least, even if the hero illusion is broken

(I am getting tired and my arms are getting worn out - fuck chronic illness, so here comes the end of the in depth analysis)

Donna telling Jason that he's not a real Titan, Hank calling him an asshole (even if he's joking), Trigon Dick telling Jason that he has darkness inside of him and he needs to be 'exterminated' because of it, Jason feeling like going to live at the Tower is a demotion - all of it really adds to a great transition to his mindset in season 2. and I think it's all really well informed if you look at the details

anyway - blah blah sad boy. he deserves a hug and Dick should have been first in line to give him one

[caliburn-the-sword]

winter thoughts up to chapter 14

frankly. not enough scarlet. but i only had the time to read a handful of chapters

iko is so dramatic and i love her. ik she's meant to be the fairy godmother figure, but honest to god with how much she wants to be human and imitates humans (like pretending to faint cause of kai) she honestly seems like a pinocchio type character here too

now that i'm playing association games of aligning characters with other characters, i realised that cinder is technically the huntsman from little red riding hood since she saved scarlet from getting eaten by wolf. since there is a huntsman in snow white as well, that makes me wonder if she might therefore play a similar role in winter's story. that would be very interesting

"I'm on your side," he said. "No matter what." this smells like foreshadowing that he will in fact NOT be on her side no matter what. through no fault of his own of course. levana brainwashing arc when???

LMAO WOLF KNOCKED HIM OUT COLD. favourite trope ever fr

completely agreed cinder. i love a man that's battered and bruised fr

NOOOO don't tell me that thorne is TRYING to make cress jealous. cringe. gross. i'm throwing up in my mouth in the middle of my studies of religion class

is it just me or is thorne flirting with kai?? that is frankly much more preferable since they're both adults to kaider or cresswell honestly

nevermind it's some weird alpha male bs they're trying to one up each other and make them feel insecure about their girls. so basically the whole percy/jason leader thing but w o r s e

why do i want to write an au where cinder grew up as princess selene and she and kai have an arranged marriage and enemies to lovers relationship. i need to stop coming up with fanfic ideas when i've got important exams coming up in 2 months. it's bad enough i even decided to binge this entire series in the first place LMAO (but also it's so worth it). i bet i could find hundreds of fics with this exact premise on ao3 so maybe i'll save myself the effort

yes kai pardon thorne for theft so that you can correctly try him for being a damn pedo

don't mind me immediately connecting the kai has stockholm syndrome joke to beauty and the beast and realising that between cinder and her glamour (the lunar glamour obviously being the beast part btw) then she and kai could also technically be beauty and the beast. forgive me it's the ouat instinct

thorne was SO real for pointing out that kai is a rich royal bastard. not to spread my republican agenda (reminder that i am aussie and when i say republican i mean fuck the brit monarchy not racist trump nonsense) but the eastern commonwealth should TOTALLY do away with kai and bring back democracy. that's why i disagree with the characters calling for his forced abdication because they're just gonna instate ANOTHER royal eventually instead of getting rid of that shit altogether. while we're at it, instead of retaking the throne cinder should DESTROY it and ALSO institute a democracy

damn didn't realise thorne was having sad boy hours about leaving his crew disbanding. me too because i HATE it when the found family breaks up

"most of them even call me Captain" iko and cress is only two people. i think thorne needs to go back to school and retake maths because that is NOT most

EWWWWWWWWWW JAIL FOR THORNE JAIL FOR A THOUSAND YEARS

winter is embroidering. i am emotional

help this jacinter scene was nice and super romantic until "There were times when she stood so close that he was amazed at his own ability to keep his hands to himself" WHAT???? rocking myself back and forth in my seat reminding myself figure of speech figure of speech figure of speech. YIKES

@eddisfargo @francforever @winterrhayle @winterpinetrees @shellyseashell

[ivysangel]

Omg I’m watching yj rn cuz I haven’t seen the show since maybe 2012 or 2013 so it’s been a while for this girl and I have no one else to talk to about this.

~Mild spoilers ahead for those who haven’t caught up~

But I just have to say that the writers are gonna be fending off more then just these hands for the bloody time skips they did. When s1 ended I was so excited for season 2, and then after a quick recap of the new years scene we get blasted 5 years later!!!?!?!?! uHMMMM HELLO?!?!???? WTF IS THIS ??? I WAS EXPECTING TEAM BEHAVIOUR AND THIS IS SO NOT TEAM BEHAVIOUR!!! I WANTED GROWTH!! I WANTED TO GET TO LIKE THESE CHARACTERS MORE AND UNDERSTAND THE RELATIONSHIPS!! And they hit us with the oop aqualad is now an enemy, yeah Tula joined the team but died, Dick and Zatanna aren’t together but he’s with Barbara now, Barb is also disabled, Jason was a part of the team for a while but of course died, etc etc like it was huh after huh after HUH cuz a lot can happen in 5 years and I’m cheesed we didn’t have season 2 to ride the wave a little longer with the team while they were midteens before we got a switch up and suddenly they’re in their 20s and mentoring, and we got introduced to a new team like 2 or 3 times

And with each time skip I’d just get more and more steamed cuz this feels like when you have a friend that you’ve known for ages but suddenly decides to drop new lore and you’re like 👁️👄👁️ what do you mean you were pregnant at 15 and found out at a Wendy’s bathroom????? Like it felt like being hit with a truck hearing all the things that happened during the time skip cuz as of right now I’m on the latest season and there’s queer relationships that were dropped like a bomb. Don’t get me wrong I’m not mad about it at all but with kal I was like who?when?? And with Lagoonboy I was like aww he looks so happy with her! Wait did she just say husband??? But that’s not….. omg this dude is a home wrecker!!! ohhhhh ok he’s in a poly relationship…. WAIT A MINUTE A POLY RELATIONSHIP??? It was just coming out of nowhere unless I missed hints being dropped in earlier episodes or seasons. Probably the sap in me but I would’ve liked to be introduced to these other characters and see how they caught feelings and got together instead. We’ve had a few episodes about Halo figuring herself out both with sexuality and gender preferences, and her religion as well which does make sense when you were previously a living machine. But nothing for Kaldur or lagoonboy???? I would’ve loved to have seen that unfold instead of some other episodes that were more of a snooze fest for me

hihihi sorry this has been sitting in my inbox for so long, i got this crazy influx of yj related asks that were all so long so i've been spacing out my responses!!

but you are so right, the time jumps are so heinous because half the time we don't even get flashbacks to supplement any of the missing plot. they fully just drop bombs on the viewers and expect everyone to just accept it. it's very jarring to get attached to a team and then see the whole team split up the next season with absolutely no warning.

(also idk why this just came to mind but does anyone else remember when orm was camped out in that house trying to kill everybody at that birthday party???? what the fuck was that about??? was that crucial to the plot...did i miss smth)

BUT YEAH. there's a whole lot of "did i miss something"s floating around for s2-4. i would literally sit in front of a paused screen and try to figure out if any dots connected bc i was so lost.

i also really liked how we got halo's sexuality and gender identity arc but i do wish they had done the same for kaldur since he's such a massive part of the show. i wouldn't be mad at one for lagoon boy either, but his plots generally don't mean as much for me since he was really only there as a piece of the m'gann + conner plot.

[ambeauty]

Titans Final Thots & Feelings

Hi Family! We’ve come to that time where I have final processed my journey with Titans. I started Titans in 2020! Thanks to you folks on here giffing the gorgeous Brenton & Anna smiling next to the Jeep at the end of s1! I was trying to figure out what the hell that show was for probably a year and it was finally available on a streamer I had access to! And s1 sucked me in immediately! I watched TTG a bit but other than that I was completely unaware of the depth and beauty of the stories the Titans had. And of course I was deeply smitten with the romantic story blossoming between Dick & Kory. But I also loved the group dynamics of everyone and that continued in s2! I honestly was okay with Kory having her own journey to go on separate from Dick, because that was what they decided to do before “trying it again sometime.” And I loved Slade as the villain! I truly believed he was going to fuck the Titans up and tear them apart. Now the ending with Donna was a mess but otherwise the villain arc was so well done! And then we come to 3! And I had been watching Titans virtually alone up until that point and then I discovered there was a whole community of Titans fans on Tumblr/Twitter and we all got to commiserate together about how bad Jason/Crane were, DickBabs unnecessary romance, and Dick being a total loser! A fun time was had by all. And then after much anticipation we get to s4!

Season 4 opening was damn near perfect! I literally had no notes! Opening scene Kory! Next scene the fam goofing off and Dick and Kory on their own private mini date. Dick was TALKING! FLIRTING! DOING ALL THE THINGS WE EVER WANTED HIM TO DO! He and Kory displayed the perfect balance between co-leaders and tiptoeing around their budding romance. And then Jinx entered the picture and I just wanted to ask why. Not as a character but as Dick’s ex? I reiterate again that it was just another opportunity for DK antis to find another person to ship Dick with. Now it was very obvious how annoyed he was by her but still a completely unnecessary plot and I feel like the tone and momentum shifted in 3&4 that I just did not like in terms of DK’s development.

My main issue with Dick is that he did not allow for Kory to be vulnerable with him in regards to her fears about the prophecy. He stopped being a partner and regressed back into old Dicholas out of fear! I wanted him to listen to her, even if he didn’t believe it or didn’t want to. That would’ve shown growth in his character. That he didn’t have to always be right and that he was emotionally strong enough to be Kory’s strength. It was a complete missed opportunity to have their vulnerability end with the end of 406. That being said 405 was the best episode of the season! THAT WAS A MOMENT I WILL NEVER FORGET! Even though it was a vision, seeing Dick, Kory and Mar’i and the entire family celebrating their baby’s birthday was perfect and what we deserved after everything.

They set part 2 up to be something that was going to be important and the fact of the matter was it just wasn’t. Brother Blood was still crying and throwing up over Mayhem. And he didn’t get his suit or real powers until the literal end. Gar’s episode was really special and I enjoyed it a lot! But it seems like all of his progress in the red went unused after the episode ended. Like they just did not care that he gained so much power after he and Kory got out of the red. And that just fell by the wayside. There was no reason why he didn’t shift to pull those cords or turn into multiple animals in that hallway fight in the finale. Make it make sense.

And then we get to my main gripe! Who was doing the actual writing in the room? Because Dick had the same lines every episode. “Kory” “It won’t happen.” “I thought I lost you.” As much as I love him calling out her name, he had so much more to say to her. Talk about how he wanted the future in the vision. How he was scared to lose her. How he couldn’t say goodbye to her because he didn’t want to do life without her. HOW HE LOVED HER! Y’all they never got to say that but he did get to insinuate he was ready to have that baby (which I loved) but also like where’s my love confession! They deserved that moment at the very least.

At first I was underwhelmed by the kiss but further investigation with gifs and stills it was really sweet. Their entire arc was sweet. Wholesome, but it wasn’t as intense as I personally expected it and need it to be. Chemistry was wasted on frankly elementary writing. Thank God for Brenton & Anna’s acting skills which allowed us to be able to read between the literally lines, but at this point, I have been so tired of having to interpret every damn glance and brush of the fingers against the face. LIKE GIVE THEM THINGS TO SAY! You could tell that imo the show runner did not want to do a romance between them and literally just did the bare minimum in order to shut the fans up. He says as much in the featurette. And in doing so, he destroyed his favorite characters ability to grow beyond just the muscle and man with the plan of the team. Kory deserved a partner who she could lean on. And Dick wasn’t always that, even when it was literally his only plot point of substance.

Also nobody expects this show to be a romcom or a DK porn. And it abhors me every time I see someone using that as an insult to DK Stans. What we did want to see them do is grow together authentically at a pace that matched what had been shown to us to the prior 3 seasons. We knew that Dick had feelings for Kory in s2. He was so upset that she left him in a vulnerable spot, he sent himself to jail! And in s3 he could barely keep his eyes off of her. Stalking her from high vantage points, completely sabotaging his date with Babs, and visualizing their daughter as a reason to come back to life. So WHY was there a need for them to literally snail drag to the finish line? My only reason is because the show runner wasn’t into it.

And I can say objectively that I enjoyed the fact that Kory was the center of the season. It literally started and ended (Conner scene aside) with her. She was the key to it all and the Titans got to help her, albeit frustratingly so along the way. I wish that Rachel, Gar and Kory all had equal time with a formidable villain like Brother Blood. It really would’ve ratcheted up the stakes for a Dick who remained completely delusional (although he was the manifestation warrior) the entire season. This season had no stakes whatsoever. Our family did the best the could with what they had but they could’ve been given so much more.

I don’t think we’ll see Titans at least in this form, in a very long time. Unfortunately DC is sitting on a goldmine with these characters and if they are done well could probably turn the profits for the company. I think if they touch them again.. they’ll be younger and probably not as diverse, but that’s me being pessimistic. My hope is that the impact our actors made on these characters is a lasting effect and if they choose to reboot the team that it is done by someone who has passion for the actual Titans. Let Batfam be batfam but let the Titans have their own thing. Our show put in the work to build a special fanbase and I want it to continue, but those people in charge, I don’t trust them.

It’s been hella fun with you all for the most part. I definitely got to see the ugly side of fandom, but what I love and take with me in this experience is the beauty. I have met so many wonderful and genuine people and I never thought at my big age that I would be making new friends who I genuinely love and respect. It takes a special type of person to be a titans fan and it’s clear that we all have way more in common than we think and that is the most beautiful thing of all. Never in my life did I think creative writing would come back to me in this way. That I would have supporters and partnership in this way. Just from a little DC show! I am still blown away and thank you all for making this hobby something so worthwhile and fulfilling in my busy life!

I have stories to finish and ideas flowing out of my pores so you guys got me for a long time to come!!!💜💙💜💙💜💙🖤💚🖤💚🖤💚

[coachbeards]

okay now for a tl question: as someone who also dislikes season three, i'm curious to know how you would have liked season 3 to end? i'm pretty sure you've talked abt it before but i'd love to hear your thoughts.

well, i think there are a lot of things that could've happened....but i'm not entirely sure, as i haven't seen the season since it aired. that means i can't give the biggest in depth answer to it regarding every single tl character, so i'll just give my thoughts on what i think should've happened............................................for beard

first of all, he should've broken up with jane after mom city. i've talked a lot about that, and how i believe that beard's forgiveness of nate should've been shown as a forgiveness of himself as well, and by extension beard finally beginning his journey of self-healing. because, no. forgiving nate didn't Heal beard, not by a long shot, but it helped fix a little bit within himself that would've paved the road to his breaking up with jane. realizing he didn't need to be punished anymore.

so, if there was no jane involved in the finale, there would be no wedding or beard choosing jane over ted.

HOWEVER. i think it would've been amazing to see beard choose richmond anyways.........finally making a choice for himself. he came to richmond in the first place because ted asked him to, and he was willing to leave richmond all because ted asked him to. ignoring the jane of it all, beard choosing to stay in richmond because he wants to....he wants to continue coaching the team, he wants to complete their mission of winning the whole fucking thing, he wants to nurture those relationships he made and be .,,,, well. his own independent person, something we never really saw considering he was either following ted or following jane. never on his own.

regarding the other characters,

JAMES DIDN'T DESERVE TO BE FORGIVEN. i am all for james's recovery arc, showcasing him in rehab and actively trying to get better. but just because a character is in recovery doesn't automatically erase all the harm they've done, nor does it mean their victims need to forgive them for anything. i think jamie should've been shown to grapple with what he wanted to do, forgive him or not, and come to the conclusion that he doesn't need to do anything. he doesn't need to care what james thinks of him anymore, he doesn't deserve to have that weighing on him. i think jamie should've been shown to be ... idk not Happy or Supportive, but be okay with james in recovery, but draw boundaries that he doesn't need to do anything past that. he should've had someone tell him it was his choice, rather than being told to forgive him.

roy should've been in therapy earlier on in the season than last second. i'm glad that roy is seeking help, obviously, but i think it would've bettered his arc if we saw more of it starting like,,,, 3x08 onwards. maybe. idk. again, i haven't seen s3 since it aired.

not sure about rebecca, since i didn't really pay attention to her arc that much in s3 (sorry to all) because i disliked the psychic aspect so much. i like her ending up with the dutch man! wish we got more of them between 3x06 and the finale, but i understand the romcom aspect of reuniting with someone you thought you'd never see again. i don't hate her ending !!!!

ted needed to go back to kansas, sorry. it wasn't dottie "forcing" him to go back, even though i will admit she's a pretty shit parent lmao. but it wasn't like that wasn't the plan from the very start. could it have been handled better? absolutely! should've jason played ted with way more emotion in 3x12? YES. but,,, come on. ted is a father first and foremost. before a coach, friend, romantic interest, etc. he's a father. and that's actually been a really big part of his character, so i never understood when people said that it "came out of nowhere" or it was so "out of character" for him.........to....be with his son? DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE HENRY LASSO HATE. i swear some of y'all forget the message of being curious, not judgemental lmao. ted was always supposed to go back to henry. i don't agree with the idea of uprooting a literal child to a whole other country, though i can picture there being a time where they do move back to richmond together! the door is left open, not closed! i could picture him going there as a teenager and going to school there, but again. he's like.....12 lmao. ted's arc always circled around his son...and he needed to go back.

also keeley just deserved better. i'm perfectly okay with her remaining single at the end of the show, as i do think that that could've helped her heal herself and her relationships with other people and her career. no, giving her a romantic ending wouldn't have impacted her career, but i think i like where she ended up. on her own, with her new friend of barbara and their company, her and rebecca, and even her and roy and jamie!!!!!!! i think there's chances for their to be romance, but like. i think considering how much of keeley's arc has revolved around romance, it's nice that she didn't end up with anyone. idk.

[danny-chase]

Hullo. May I ask why Dick is blorbo? No real reason, I'm just a curious and nosy follower :D

1. Young Justice - this show was a big reason why I got back into DC, and when I was younger, Dick and Artemis were my favorite characters because they were humans among superhuman people, and I found that neat. Young Justice season 3 I liked Dicks character arc and also-

2. I'm a sucker for sadboys. I think characters look better with a bit of blood on their faces. Connecting back to young justice season 3, Dick is a major sadboy 😅 shortly after watching season 3 of young justice, i started working 60-70 hour weeks (just for 1 summer) and to get through the day i would make up stories about how i thought Dicks season 4 arcs would go (this really cemented him as blorbo)

3. An irl friend was also into young justice, she got into batfam stuff, I'd never read fanfic before, and seeing her read it at first i was like "pffft i wouldn't get into that lame stuff" and lo and behold i got curious and spiraled. There's a looooot of sadboy Dick fics out there. Like. A lot. But yeah i started out as a batfam stan rather than a titans one, and in my heart i love both and theres an internal battle that wages within me

4. At the same time (or before?) i started reading fics, i also got into the comics from Young Justice. Part of the reason i like Dick is because there's literally just so much content i can read, and i started reading and rereading his solo runs and eventually branched out into titans comics. Not all his comics appearances are good, but I like having a lot of content 😅 it helps spark ideas and gives me "i can fix it" disease

5. His relationships with people!!!! A core reason of why I love the character is all the great relationships he's had across canon. He's a big brother/mentor to Tim and Damian (with Tim i love the image of infallibility Dick has, and his slow fall off the pedestal, and with Damian they start at the bottom and build things up from scratch - i love how he has to earn Damians respect by putting in the work). His relationship with Jason especially pre-reboot is a gold mind of agnst (like. Little brother dies while you're in space and your dad doesn't bother inviting you to the funeral *screams* and blames you for his death to some extent) - the way he knew Jason and they got along fine, though they didn't interact like a ton (i see it as like. Older sibling who's in college) and then one day he's just gone, then comes back and wants to kill you and is so blinded by revenge on your dead father he will destroy everything in his path is just, so much potential here. His relationship with Bruce makes me scream. I liked the few interactions he has with Cass before she got yeeted by DC. And moving outside the family, the found family aspect of the Titans i literally love so much. I cherish his friendship with Donna, I'm a big fan of platonic m/f relationships being given importance and weight, plus again the whole "i love angst" thing was on fire when she dies. I love his relationship with Roy, the way they push one another and butt heads while still deeply trusting one another + the thinly veiled sexual tension between them (i say thinly veiled because Grace literally points it out in Outsiders). His friendship with Wally is also fun, i like reading their team ups. There's so many characters that he interacts with it just sets up so many possible stories, and i love how interconnected he is in the superhero community

6. Man vs world. I like that Dick is a (mostly - everyone has flaws, and Dick does fuck up in canon) well intentioned person struggling against the injustices of the world. That's the long way of saying "i like him because he's a hero". But part of that is like - a lot of his battles narratively fall into man vs world (especially in his solos), with a bit of man vs self here and there, and i like these categories. Most of his conflict is external, and while i like some internal conflict, i get a little bit bored when characters in comics are too introspective - like some of this i don't mind, bonus points if the internal and external conflicts are aligned in a satisfactory way, but DC comics only lets characters grow so much, so introspective stuff can get repetitive imo

There's probably more reasons but this is what i can think of off the top of my head

[gffa]

One thing I did like about the ending of Gotham War is that I feel like there's some potentially interesting analysis of Bruce's character to be had here, because I find this whole thing 1000% more interesting viewed through the lens of Bruce backsliding on his core classic issue: He's terrified out of his mind at how much he loves these people around him and he struggles with having relationships with people who have fundamental differences to him. I keep thinking of that Tini Howard quote about this arc and about how it's not about whether or not Bruce and Selina can get together, but that he doesn't really know how to agree to disagree with someone he loves when it comes to something deeply foundational to him. And I think that's the entire point of including everything with Jason--that it's Bruce at a low point, after too much stress coming too quickly, too many major psychological pummelings over the last several arcs, and hitting a point where he can't deal with shoving aside his fundamental disagreements with Jason anymore. But he can't just write Jason off either, because Jason is his son, so his ten simultaneous mental breakdowns all get together and decide that the only option he can live with, is to try to force Jason out of this life. That's why he tries to talk himself into forcing Dick and Tim and Damian to be caught by the police, so they'd be forced out of this life. That's why he crumbles in an alley and tries to talk himself out of loving these people. Because he doesn't know how to agree to disagree with them and still keep loving them, keep having a relationship with them.

Because everything that happened with Selina, that he really let himself believe that he could be with her, marry her, and still be Batman, that really fucked him up and I think Gotham War is more of the aftermath of that. That's how I'm (admittedly doggedly) interpreting the bit about Selina and him being the "parents" of this group, despite that Selina was never in that role--I think Bruce wanted them to be the "parents" of the group and let himself believe in it and, when it went pear-shaped, something in him backslid terribly and now we're all here. "I'm okay with me not having happiness." is a direct call-back to Bruce in the car with Alfred on the way to the wedding, asking with surprising vulnerability, "Am I allowed to be happy?" He opened his heart and got hurt again and it's been stewing for awhile and so much has happened since then--Zur-En-Arrh, Tim getting his throat cut, Dick coming to cheer him up after Selina and getting shot in the head and Bruce almost losing him, Failsafe, Insomnia, everything that's going on over in Gotham Nocturne, etc.--that it fractured something in him and the cracks have finally grown deep enough that it fell apart in this story. So now all of this is just mounting tragedies to him. Which means he can't stay connected to it because he's too afraid of losing them and he's unwilling to try after what his fracturing led him to do. He can't stop them from living this life, despite everything he tried. He can't stop loving them, despite how hard he tried. So, all he can do is walk away before he gets hurt again, trying to leave everything in Dick's hands. Dick who is "better than Batman", who is better than Bruce. That he wants Dick and Barbara to be the "parents", because that's what he was trying to be and felt he failed at it, like to me this ending isn't really resolution, this is a low point for Bruce as a character in his bigger arc, because I think Batman's character arc always has to come back to his trauma of losing his family when he was young, working to let a new family in, coming to love them, and struggling against how much it terrifies him that he might lose them, too, because he doesn't think he can survive that kind of pain again. He'll still be in Damian's life, still be Batman and Robin there, but I think he's making an exception there because so much of it comes back to being able to live with fundamentally disagreeing with someone--Dick and Jason and Tim are adults, he can't tell them what to do anymore. Damian is young enough that, even if they clash, he's still directly in charge of raising him.

Zur-En-Arrh does hang over this entire storyline, he's part of what's taking up too much space to allow Bruce any mental breathing room, but fundamentally I see this storyline as part of Bruce's issues: That he's terrified of losing those he loves, but he can't control them, he desperately tries to and it doesn't work, and he can't live with them taking different paths from his ideals, so he walks away, rather than get hurt further. Bruce is probably going to dig himself further down into this hole and he's being incredibly dumb about it, but I can see how this fits all things that he has always struggled with--and sometimes he loses that fight against himself. This event wasn't really about fighting with Selina or Vandal Savage or even his kids--this was Bruce's love versus his fears, and today his fears won.

[augment-techs]

Think this will be easier if I move through the characters involved, rather than the plot as a whole, because...reasons.

Drakkon: Still has delusions of grandeur, even while walking through the overgrown Angel Grove, with literally nobody around, flaunting his God Complex while also whispering things to himself with Kiya barely ten feet away from him at any given time. Also, there are implications that he believes that if Rita gets to him, he'll be put under her obedience spell again--which seems to be the one thing he's really afraid of? Is still grossly intrigued and focused on both Kim AND Jason, with that stupid pseudo-flirting and that stupid grin on his face. Also, he apparently WOULD have volunteered his White Tiger coin for the diffuser, but NEVER his Green? Bonus info: the White Light can't be diffused/split, which is why there also weren't any white sentries. Kiya: Kinda wants to help these people that have been turned into Lava-Zombies under the thrall of Dark Specter, and the survivors that got on her good side by attacking Drakkon first thing, but... Spent the entire time wanting to kill Drakkon, trying to hurt Drakkon, thinking about what would come next. And the first thing she did when powered up WAS try and kill him. Zack: Snagged by the legions of infected, possibly trying to save Kim as a last ditch effort to save them all. The only named Lava-Zombie, and possibly the defacto leader of the infected as he is the only one that seems able to form comprehensible phrases, mega-grow, and exude a strangely non-sinister aura even while on the attack. Scorpina: Got to attack and knock-around Drakkon on first contact after trying to dismiss some zombies that were mobbing on Drakkon and Kiya after a long walk out of the wilderness because Drakkon doesn't have very good aim with the Master Arc. She jokes with Trini now, and her Ranger Color is Black (lovely call back to Adam) with HORNS and a CAPE. Also, she and Trini hug~ Trini: Definitely flirted with Scorpina somewhere in the opening. Possibly had a deterioration in her relationship with Kim after Zack was lost to Dark Specter and it was revealed that Trini STILL had Billy's Coin and never told anyone. She would have added it to their arsenal and Finster-5's new diffuser voluntarily, but Drakkon wasn't patient and took the choice away from her. Jason: Returned to Angel Grove to live in the highest tower while the other survivors hid in the bunker beneath. Complete with shotguns and medication and MASSIVE, MASSIVE PTSD. He got one good shot in with Drakkon when he walked through the door. I'm a little sad that his mental health is so bad that he kept that fucking Prison Suit and the recobbled Power Coins inside of it, but there are implications that he'll have more to do later. And he kept that stupid fucking beard. Kimberly: Kept shooting at Drakkon, but also saving his neck from everyone else. Got him to bleed, unlike everyone else, though. Is suffering terrible extra guilt from losing Zack and everyone else, but is still also in leader mode from her time on the throne. Did not appreciate being called 'mine' or 'Ranger Slayer' but Drakkon, but still saved him as well as everyone else at the sacrifice of herself to the lava-zombies--mainly zombie Zack saying words that probably hurt her more than the inevitable transformation. Was gentle and understanding with Kiya, which is no surprise. Bulk: NEW RED RANGER for the charts! He's so big and so pretty and so humble when it came to receiving it from Jason--it comes with a cape, too; and that lovely knight type armor along his limbs~ Unfortunately, since shit went down with things that haven't been actually well outlined because of mystery mongering from the writers, it is very obvious he's become the heart that keeps everyone's spirits alive, which is maybe why he didn't let anyone know he was keeping lava-zombie Skull entombed in the sub-basement. I personally think Kim would have helped with the burden since it seems like they're still as close as they were in the Ranger Slayer one-shot... but, then, she and the other ladies didn't seem to hesitate in killing other zombies, so he had his reasons. Also I found it something to really look forward to in that he seems to be the only one that does not care how close Drakkon is to him physically. Like, at all. It was a little bit like he was brushing off the yapping of a small dog instead of a warlord with all of his power returned. Skull: *takes a deep breath in; lets it out* There is no safe place in canon for this man. It's worse than Hunter from Owl House at this point. At least that poor bastard wasn't implied to be burning on the inside, completely without personal will for YEARS (because there is also an implied time-skip going on here throughout), bound in chains by his bestfriend like some Walking Dead plotline, and then thrown around and asked "why he couldn't fight Him" by said bestfriend when he got loose because Dark Specter WILLED IT. Even Zack got more dignity, being able to walk around in the presence of nature healing and covering old battle wounds in the city. Can we give this man a fucking BREAK some time this century, please??

[approximately12lbs-of-ducks]

I posted 9,347 times in 2022

That's 5,987 more posts than 2021!

26 posts created (0%)

9,321 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@stillebesat

@jubiveeline

@rozugold

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I tagged 392 of my posts in 2022

#stranger things spoilers - 46 posts

#reed’s rants - 40 posts

#the ducks quacked about something - 38 posts

#a question!! :o - 14 posts

#reed’s shennanigans - 12 posts

#danny phantom - 3 posts

#yes - 3 posts

#green - 3 posts

#black - 2 posts

#blue - 2 posts

Longest Tag: 136 characters

#the way dodie says ‘i can finally see you’re as fucked up as me’ vs wilbur’s ‘shout at the walls cause the walls don’t fucking love you’

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Thinking about the way people say fuck. Like a gentle admittance. Like something tasting bitter. Something meant to punch. Something with reverence, like a prayer. Something with laugher still curling around it. Like a promise 

14 notes - Posted August 25, 2022

#4

I’m tired of being the weird kid. I’m tired of being your oddity to ogle at in the circus. I just want to be equal to the rest of you when I’m talking to you for once. I want to belong when I’m in your company. But maybe that’s on me. Maybe I need to stop trying to fit myself in with the audience when I’m the one on stage.

14 notes - Posted January 20, 2022

#3

See the full post

25 notes - Posted January 22, 2022

#2

By the way if anyone wants the events of c!Tommy’s exile arc on the dsmp. I am making a Comprehensive list of everything that went down (specifically related to Tommy’s mentality and how it shifts from beginning to end, and the specifics of Dream’s abuse) so if anyone wants me to make it a public document for reference just hmu  (Edit: it is now public! Link in the notes :])

27 notes - Posted July 12, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

*grabby hands* Danny Jason QPR gimme

AHA I wasn’t gonna write a fic but I also keep thinking about this every day so maybe I will lol. Premise of the story is they both have poisoned ectoplasm (no way they both have poisoned ectoplasm).

Danny (17) escapes the GIW who had captured him and were experimenting on him. One of the experiments was injecting him with a poison that feeds off ectoplasm (unknowingly). Danny escapes and runs around for a bit before settling in Gotham because he figures that the Bats won’t stand for a random group like the GIW coming into Gotham and being their destructive and unsubtle selves. He encounters Jason a couple times and they can Sense Eachother, usual dpxdc stuff. Eventually Danny saves Jason in a fight cause this is Ghost King AU and Jason is kinda Danny’s subject, and Danny obsession (which is again standard ‘protection’ vibes) extends to him because of that, so when Jason is about to get hurt, Danny is compelled to save him. N e ways Danny and Jason start interacting and hanging out more and eventually it progresses into a QPR. The poison in Danny’s system keeps getting worse until he caves and lets the Bats treat him - something he held out against for a long time b/c of his paranoia and trauma around medical stuff thanks to the GIW. He gets better n returns to Amity but visits Gotham frequently to see his partner and new friends.

I have a lot of other stuff bouncing around in my head too lol, Danny has very complicated feelings about not wanting Jason to get hurt and not wanting to hurt him, especially related to his poisoning, which I go feral over (It’s a two way street Jason feels the same way). Also have a whole subplot with Constantine and Danny and them confiscating books or things that tell how to summon Danny so the GIW can’t get their hands on kt. Tucker comes in near the end. I have lots of thoughts about how stressed Danny would be not being able to get back to the Ghost Zone to manage his responsibilities as it’s ruler. Also lots of thoughts on both Jason and Danny’s backstories (DC stands for disregard canon). I have a lot of thoughts about it all and about Jason and Danny maybe I should just write a fic. If u want me to elaborate on anything just send an ask I can talk about this all day lol!

Oh also I have Jason as 19 and Danny turns 18 in the fic (which definitely isn’t hard for him or for his friends and family back home who he hasn’t been able to contact)

102 notes - Posted November 25, 2022

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