#look Damian canonically makes terrible first impressions

[bitterrobin]

I've realized as I write CHIROPTERA that a lot of the interactions/first impressions about Damian boil down to:

Dick/Tim/Barbara: damn. this kid sucks

Cass: *cringe*

Bette: noooo he's just a little guyyyy. he's just a babyyy

Tom: ok he sucks but he's funny when he insults people

Rory: ok he sucks but also, counterpoint, all kids suck and no that doesn't say anything about me-

[aingeal98]

Thinking again about the al Ghuls and how DC deliberately tanked it's own writing to turn them into ooc cartoony villains because the anti Arab racism post 9/11 was just too potent for them to resist. You take a villain whos love for his family is one of his core characterisations, he's sexist and evil and runs a cult but he forgives his daughter every time she betrays him to help Batman. He lost his godson fighting nazis in world war two, he wants Batman to be his heir, to be family. Because he respects Batman's mind.

And DC looks at this and gives him a Jewish daughter who Ra's left to die in a concentration camp because in Death and the Maidens he found the Nazis to be useful allies. Nazis, who not even Joker would team up with. Who Ra's had talked about fighting against in older continuity. Whoever came up with that plotline needs to never work in comics again.

Nyssa tortures Talia into insanity and turns her into a willing member of the LoA who believes in Ra's vision for the future. Because it wasn't bad enough to assassinate Ra's, every single Asian character in DC had to be one dimensional racist evil villains. It's no coincidence this was the time period they tried to make Cass Cain evil too.

In Cass's case, the backlash to the awful writing forced them to retcon it. In the al Ghul's case, Morrison used it for Damian's story as if evil Talia and evil Ra's who didn't care about his family at all were always canon, and not just a disgusting racist retcon. And now it's the go to characterisation for them. Talia drugging Batman is still what a lot of dc fans assume is canon, even though it was retconned. And there was no reason for it to exist in the first place other than racism.

For DC to actually fix the al Ghuls, they'd have to acknowledge that Talia was brainwashed into being evil, and come up with some retcon for Ra's oocness. The Lazarus Pit is right there as an excuse. Robin Son of Batman managed it with Talia.

But instead DC seems to be working off the impression that their shitty writing for the past 15 years was the character's natural state. It's why "holding Talia accountable for her crimes" doesn't work any better than holding Cass accountable for all the terrible things she did during the garbage evil era.

DC needs to hold itself accountable instead of the characters. More of Ra's Talia and Damian bonding. Ra's runs a cult he is not a good person and it's a good thing that Damian got out but if you can't show that without relying on racist stereotypes and 00s character assassination then why are you even a writer lol. More clarification that what the Ra's and Talia did was not in character for them. Less "I helped torture baby Damian as part of his training but I felt really sad about it." That's never been what gave the al Ghuls their complexity.

Basically, stop trying to add nuance to the racist post 9/11 al Ghul characterisation and just give us back LexCorp era Talia and pre DATM Ra's. You're one of the top two comic book brands in the industry surely you can find someone who can make Damian's backstory work without destroying the rest of his family in the process.

[baticorngirl]

Okay, so. I know we all know about all the Talia-demonizing in Episode 13 of Wayne Family Adventures, and it totally sucks. Now, I'm not saying that it was okay for the webtoon to spring on such claims, some of which aren't even true in the modern canon, much less in-character for her,,,, BUT I've thought of some ways Damian might have said them without them necessarily meaning she's actually a terrible parent in this universe.

I know I'm not going in order but we're starting with this one:

We all know this just blatantly isn't true. Goliath exists, after all.

So, I propose to you... Maybe it's not true? Maybe Damian's not even saying the truth?

I know this sounds wrong, and bad, and I'm not trying to say Damian's a liar, but consider-- he is nine. Barely nine, in fact. He cannot be expected to be the slightest bit mature, and we've already seen him exaggerating or under-exaggerating things when a parent says no.

He's just that kind of kid. This is a different kind of lie, though, and a very severe one at that, but consider-- Damian's desire for batmobile-driving is NOTHING compared to his love for pets. He's bound to overreact to her boundaries on the matter, even if, as we know Goliath exists, that boundary technically isn't actually zero. Maybe she simply said two pets or less, or something along the lines of that.

But is our little animal-obsessed sweetheart okay with that? No. Not at all. He keeps tracking down these poor little pets to take in and that HEARTLESS MONSTER is making him just give them over to a shelter.

So anyway, upon being reminded of this limit by the new dog, Damian is simultaneously reminded that his mother is, obviously, a HEARTLESS MONSTER for not wanting the house to be flooded with kittens, hence the remark on her not wanting him to have attachment to living things.

Basically, what I'm saying is that.. Since when is Damian not petty?

And maybe he's just too young to fully comprehend how inappropriate his lie his. As I already said, he is a child!

On to the other remark:

This one took me a little longer to come up with a reasoning for, not gonna lie. But I figured a story out, so here we go--

Now, first of all, maybe if we think of it as less of her "running at him" and more him chasing him. It means pretty much the same thing, anyway, but the latter is just a more common, casual way of phrasing it. I want you to consider-- is it wrong for a parent to chase after their child? No. Obviously not.

As long as they're not chasing their child with a weapon and/or to hurt them, that is... which, unfortunately, it does appear this remark is referring to. But what if she wasn't doing it with any ill-intentions? It never said "to attempt my murder". it just said she ran at him with some kind of impressive swords.

But she's still running him with a weapon, right? That seems wrong, right?

Well, I'm going to start at the beginning of the story.

Damian had to start training with swords at an extremely early age, as we all know. Somewhat because it is expected for him to do some assassin work in the future, and somewhat just because Talia wants him to be prepared and safe in dangerous situations.

But swords are sharp, obviously. A child, especially if not being closely supervised, could EASILY land himself in the hospital with one, or even land himself in a grave. It's just not safe for a child to handle something so sharp. But how the heck can he get anywhere in his training without even using the weapon he's training for?

That being said, it's the wrist movement he's learning, not the actual blade's cut. All he needs is an adequate handle, not an adequate blade.

So, it's possible Talia got him some kind of training sword. It had the same handle as a regular, and on the outside looked mostly the same (in fact, it's possible Ra's wasn't even aware Damian was using a fake at all), but the blade was completely dull. Yet, despite it not even being real, Talia made sure it was embedded with jewels and fancy designs. Her little baby couldn't have a basic sword, could he? Of course not, he was too special for that!

But Talia would play games with Damian sometimes, obviously. Sometimes, they'd play simple games of tag or, rather than a proper 'you're it' game, she'd simply chase him around playfully. At some point, the training sword had been nearby, and just as a joke, Talia had chased him with it. It started a thing, where every time she wanted to chase him, she'd pick up the sword and use it as prop.

Damian wasn't scared, though. As I already mentioned, that sword wasn't even a real weapon with such a dull blade, and although she could still hit him with it, it was pretty obvious every time that it wasn't her intentions. Considering the fact that Talia was always smiling or even laughing softly, and Damian had gotten used to the chasing enough to recognize that every time, it ended with hugs, tickling, gentle jokes, "I love you"s, or some mix of the four, he had no reason to be upset by the behavior.

In fact, it got a little kid's giggle out of him, too. It was just a game. Even when she did it because he was refusing to go to bed or some minor misbehavior of the like, it was still just to scoop him up in a cuddle as she brought him back to his room to sleep.

Obviously, though, he did graduate to a full sword not too long later, once he had proved himself responsible and well-trained enough with his fake set. Yet, their chasing still continued. In fact, at that point, the little games were the only thing that the fake one was being used for.

So, right before Damian left for his father, that was really what he knew the training sword as. Not as his old training sword, but as the "swords mother used to run at me with".

Upon seeing the crossbow, he obviously immediately wants to insult how unimpressive it is. So, what better way to insult it than compare it to his freakin' training-wheels sword from when he was a tiny thing??? That's one solid insult right there.

But because Damian remembers it most recently from their little games, he simply refers to it as that instead, because in his head it doesn't matter-- they're the same thing.

Now, I know what you're thinking-- how could a dull sword be considered impressive? It's not even a real weapon!

And to that I remind you that Damian could've just as much meant simply the fanciness of the "weapon" in appearance. As he came from such a rich family, even the fake sword had jewels encrusted inside. It's definitely impressive, especially compared to such a simple crossbow!

In conclusion, this appears to be the perfectly insulting remark to Damian. Yet, he's just so used to the little games of tag being a part of his life that it has not occurred to him at all how horrible that sounds from the outside. Especially when you consider that the League of Assassins, where he was raised, LOVES swords. Nobody cares what you do with them as long as you use them lol. They're much more normalized in that society than in the society 'the Waynes' live in.

Now, I know this is a really complicated, unlikely situation. There's just so many things adding up to the misunderstanding that don't seem realistic, huh? Well I want you to consider-- are your own family's inside jokes simple? How easy are they to explain?

In real life, routines happen based off of so many things. This could've happened. It's not what Wayne Family Adventures was hinting, obviously, but hey, if it really did happen, it makes sense with what he said! More sense, possibly even, than him trying to use "not even as impressive as the swords my mother runs at me with" because there's an actual reason they shouldn't be impressive.

Besides, anything makes more sense than Talia, a character originally eternally loving and a good mother according to all the pre-morrison AUs that show as her as one, running at her own child swinging a sword at him!

(Also, I am aware he said "swords" not just "sword". He probably had more than one training sword, even if I only referred to it as a single object.)

Anyway, just some ideas! If anyone wants to add on, feel free!

[catxsnow]

REPLACED part two

Summary: Part 2 to replaced. It was Damian’s time to train you, this time you were ready

Warning: mentions of blood, canon violence, Bruce being an ass 

A/N: Had this requested a few times lol. Here it is! Also I’m rewatching The Witcher and 🥵🥵

Part one

Word Count: 2.3k

"Again."

Sweat dripped down your body and you were heaving for breath. The cold training room now emanated with heat just from your movements. It had to have been hours that you were down there, working until you had perfected your motions. Hours of blood, sweat, and tears, but that wasn't going to make you stop.

You rested on your hands and knees, trying to catch your breath. Today had been harder than the rest, you had been pushed far past your limits. Frustrated tears gathered in your eyes from not being able to get this down packed. Again and again you failed miserably - just like you had for years before.

"Again!" Damian repeated louder. He stood over you with his arms crossed and a nonchalant stance. Sparring with him was terrible. You never won and he never held back. You would leave the training room with bruises and cuts every time. He was ruthless, just as he was trained to be when he was a child.

Damian had taken you up on your offer to train you. Unfortunately, he only knew one way to do it. Damian wasn't patient like Dick, he was frustrated the second that you fell to the mat. He didn't worry about you or your feelings like Tim did. The only thing that he did do, was teach your more than Bruce ever had.

Your hands clenched into fists at his anger towards you. You swore that the only reason that Damian kept this up was because he liked to win so often. In your months of working together, he never seemed to gain any more like towards you. Not that you were surprised about it, his heart was cold.

Every muscle in your body screamed at you not to get back up and fight. You needed rest from this. It drained you more and more every day but if that meant that you would get to go out on patrol, to prove everyone wrong, it was worth it. You had improved so much with Damian's help.

"Get. Up!" Damian yelled.

"I can't," you finally whispered. Your voice was broken. Damian had barely heard what you had said. He dropped his sword onto the mat beside. Instead of walking off like you had expected him to, Damian grabbed the collar of your shirt and heaved you up to his eye level. You were startled by the movement.

"You get up or you get out," Damian threatened. His eyes were narrowed as he waited for your response. He wasn't going to waste anymore time if you weren't willing to put in the effort needed. He had spent years being pushed by his grandfather, his skills didn't just come naturally.

Damian was letting you off easy with his version of training. Had it been his mother instead? You would never have made it past the first day. He was stern, but he would never treat you as he was treated. No one deserved that.

You had no response. Getting back up seemed impossible to you. Defeating him seemed impossible. Damian scoffed at you lack of motivation. He dropped the collar of your shirt, letting you fall back to the ground. The echo of his footsteps walking away rang through your ears.

Just another person giving up on me.

No. No, you had come way too far for someone else to give up on you. You needed to do this, not for everyone, but for yourself. Proving that you could do this is the one thing that you always thrived for. Giving up couldn't be an option anymore. This was your time to become who you were always meant to be.

Damian paused as he heard the clank of his sword being picked up. You stood tall and proud, the heavy metal tight in your grip. Damian turned back to face you, a smirk on his lips as he saw you wipe away the blood from your busted lip. As long as you weren't going to give up on yourself, he wasn't going to give up on you.

"Again," you parroted his words. It was the first time that you held his weapon. For some reason, it felt at home in your palms. Maybe you had been taking this whole training from the wrong perspective. You were always trying to be like Bruce, and even Dick. Maybe if you were going to be trained by Damian, you needed to use the same kind of weapon as him.

Just from mimicking the moves that you had seen him do time after time, you had moved so much more effortlessly. It seemed almost natural to swing the great blade around, like you had been doing it for years.

Damian ruthlessly attacked you, giving you everything that he had left in his system. For once, you had been able to hold you ground. You felt confident in what you were doing - both on offense and defense. Damian was shocked by your sudden skill - he hadn't even considered that you wished to use a weapon like his.

Damian had jumped up to get a higher angle against you. It was as if every gear turning in your body had been perfectly in sync - you knew exactly what you needed to do. Just as Damian was mid-air, you had landed a perfect kick right into his abdomen. It had caught him so off guard that he didn't have time to catch himself before hitting the mat.

You stood above him, the tip of his own blade pressed lightly against his skin. After months of training, you had finally taken him down. You removed the sword, spinning it around in your hand before offering him help up. Damian accepted it, along with his weapon that you handed over.

His usually angered scowl was replaced with a prideful smile. It was the first time he had looked at you like this. You had genuinely taken him down without going easy on you. Damian was impressed, which didn't happen very often.

"You did good, (L/N)," he congratulated you. Of course you still had a long way to go, but if you continued to progress at this speed - you would be just as good as everyone else. "I believe it's time to test the new suit."

Your eyes widened in shock. With Damian taking your place as Robin, you had to create a completely different persona. This one, suited you far more than Robin ever would have. You hadn't gotten the chance to go out to the streets to use it, Damian still deemed you unready. Until now.

Bruce was out of the city that week - it would be just the two of you out there. For some god forsaken reason, it didn't scare you anymore. Being by Damian's side out there excited you.

"I'm ready."

><

The smile on your face wouldn't disappear.

After coming back from patrol you had been ecstatic about it. The night had gone perfectly smooth. Snobbish criminals were out and about - the perfect candidate for your first night out. Damian would watch from above, ready to swoop in if you ever needed help. There was only once where you had been far too out numbered.

A couple bruises here and there but nothing that was going to slow you down. You would have been out until dawn if he would have let you. Being out there, saving people, it made you feel alive. There was nothing more that you wanted than to go back out. Saving people, it was a whole thrill you didn't realize you were missing out on.

Damian could see how happy you were to be out there. When under Bruce's training you had gone out a few times here and there, but each time you were to stand by, never to dive in unless necessary. Damian had let you take the lead all night, it was a learning curve that you needed to accomplish.

Even getting back to the cave, you were still vibrating with excitement. As soon as you hoped off your motorcycle, you had flipped all around the cave. Damian only watched you - even though you were several years older than he was, it felt as if he was the adult. This whole time training you it felt as if he was older.

"That was incredible, Damian!" You grinned, stopping in front of him. The high of your night wasn't going away any time soon. It had gone well tonight, but Damian dreaded to see you after the hard nights. The nights that you couldn't save everyone. He suddenly felt protective of you, not wanting you to see how cruel it really was out there.

"What the hell were you thinking?" A sudden voice bombed through the cave. You and Damian were on high alert, weapons raised as to who was angered at you. Bruce stood at the entrance of the cave, his suit on and cowl lowered. You could see the scowl on his lips and feel the anger that radiated off of him.

He must have come back early from his trip. Bruce came home to an empty cave with both your suits out of their cases. He had known about your training with Damian, your sudden rebellion against him. He never imagined that Damian would be so reckless to take you out on the streets without him.

When he noticed the matching swords in your hands, he had only gotten more angered. Bruce hated Damian's choice of weapon - it was deadly and if used incorrectly could do more damage than it was worth. To have you pick up on his bad choices as well? It had enraged him. In the short time that he was gone, it seemed like you had betrayed him more than ever.

"Father-" Damian tried to explain.

"(Y/N) could have been killed because of this reckless behavior! Innocent people could have been killed!" Bruce shouted. He stormed towards the two of you. Whatever mission he was on must have gone bad, he was angrier than usual. "They're not ready! You had no right to lead a patrol without me knowing like that! It was irresponsible and-"

"Enough!" You yelled. You were tired of Bruce treating you like a little kid still. It was like he still saw you as that weak child that showed up to his home. You had grown, far more than ever in these few months. Bruce couldn't accept that you were old enough to realize what you could handle and what you couldn't.

Bruce and Damian looked over at you in shock at your sudden outburst. Ever since that fight with Bruce in the library, you had been giving him the cold shoulder. This was the first time that you had outburst to him in a long time.

"Damian's trained me better than you ever have Bruce," you narrowed your eyes at him. Damian noticed as you stepped between him and his father, as if you were protecting him. "You just don't want to accept that your son is better than you will ever be! I'm ready to be out there! I'm ready and you just can't fucking admit that it wasn't you who got me here."

"Dick, Jason, Steph, they were all right about you," You continued. "You raised kids as weapons, and as soon as they defy you, you can't handle it. Everyone left you, Bruce! Can't you see the pattern! It isn't because they're grown, it's because you're too fucking stubborn to see things any other way."

You scoffed at him and his ridiculous anger for thinking that he still had control over what you could and couldn't do. Damian watched as you stalked away from the both of them, slamming into Bruce's shoulder as you passed. Just like the rest of the kids that he had taken in, it was your time to leave as well.

Even if you appreciated everything that Damian did for you, you couldn't stay in that house anymore. Having Bruce watch over you, waiting for you to make one mistake so he could revoke your privileges, you couldn't handle it anymore. Bruce was the one holding you back for years, now that you were liberated, you weren't going to let it continue.

"(L/N)," Damian called out for you. He was jogging to catch up, leaving his father in the cave to ponder your words. It wasn't time for him to leave his father, not yet, but he understood where you were coming from. Bruce was the one to hold you back, you needed to be free of his reign to grow even more.

You paused for Damian, wondering what he had to say to you. You wished him to join you, the two of you could become your own dynamic duo. Damian would do better with you then he ever would with Bruce. Even if you had much to learn from him, he too had so much to gain from you.

"I just wanted to say," he awkwardly coughed before finishing. "I'm proud of you. For learning, adapting, for standing up for yourself. Whenever you wish to train more, I would feel honoured to help. I wish you the best of luck."

"Don't worry, Dames. I could never replace you."

[wesavegotham]

I think what a lot of people who didn't pay attention to Teen Titans since Glass took over don't know is that all those terrible things that have happened to Damian in the last 2-3 years that should have had a strong impact on Damian are not actually adressed as being triggers for Damian's behaviour in Teen Titans.

Damian feeling devastated after Dick got shot by KGBeast?

Nightwing annual 2

Damian feeling sad after discovering that Jon is almost an adult now and things are definitely not the same anymore?

Superman 16

Damian feeling neglected by Bruce?

Detective Comics 1017

Damian blaming himself for Alfred's death (even though he was just following Bruce's orders)?

Batman: Pennyworth RIP

So yeah, we have canon evidence that Damian does care about these things...none of it is used to explain his actions in Teen Titans though.

The official reason Damian gives to us in Teen Titans for why he acts the way he does is that he's sick of the villains escaping Gotham's prisons all the time and killing innocent people over and over again after witnessing the owner of his favourite restaurant getting murdered (guy was never mentioned before and was never mentioned again), which is why he builds his own secret prison where he plans to lock up criminals for all eternity under inhumane circumstances. That's pretty much it.

The prison fails because of course it does. Criminals escaping prison to fight Batman or in this case Damian again is necessary for how comics work. Damian was doomed to fail.

So after the prison failed Damian and Djinn start mind wiping criminals to make them forget about their previous life and manipulate them into peaceful members of society, but rob them of their free will in the process.

After Djinn's departure from the team (and her accusing Damian of having used her, which isn't what actually happened, but the story suddenly acted like it is at the end of #41) the mind control is also lifted, meaning that approach also failed.

Dick, Jon, Alfred, none of this matters in Glass's run. It's only about Damian being unhappy with Batman's methods.

Which brings us to Teen Titans 42. This is the first issue written by Robbie Thompson alone after taking over completely from the previous writer Adam Glass. At this point in time I can only talk about the preview for issue 42:

Together with the solicitations for the next few issues and Glass' confirmation that Damian will definitely lose the robin mantle in the annual we have to assume that Damian's insistence on not going far enough (already stated by him at the end of #41) in his war against crime probably means he wants to hunt down criminals to kill them, breaking Batman's sacred no kill rule.

I guess I appreciate Thompson finally adressing Damian's grief for Alfred in this and that he's alone, but the way he does it is rather peculiar.

Instead of making Damian angry at Bruce for being the one at fault Damian had to watch Alfred die and finally adressing that Bruce hasn't taken care of Damian in months the book chooses weird things for Damian to complain about.

The lack of guidance is attributed to Alfred's death in this preview, not to Bruce's neglect, even though Alfred was very much alive during most of the events of Teen Titans and didn't try to guide Damian either. He also didn't pressure Bruce into taking care of his estranged son at any point in time. Alfred is actually pretty useless in this storyline.

Thompson also makes Damian accuse Bruce of only reacting to crime and not fighting against the cause of crime, which is kinda ridiculous when you consider the amount of contingency plans Bruce has for everything and the fact that he's currently rebuilding Gotham from the ground up in hopes of lowering Gotham's crime rate permanently. Bruce is very much proactive in his war against crime.

So why doesn't the book use valid points of criticism against Bruce and why doesn't it use the recent terrible events in Damian's life to explain his actions?

My personal impression of this storyline and how it treats Damian is that we are not supposed to sympathize with him, we are not supposed to feel like he has a point. Damian is not the tragic protagonist of this story, Damian feels like the antagonist.

He's the person on the team who lead the others astray and he's the only one of them who refuses to learn and see that this path is wrong. The official reasons Damian has for leaving Bruce's side are not valid because this isn't really about Damian proving Bruce wrong and finding a more effective way to combat crime, this story is just a tool for DC to justify Damian getting kicked out of his position. Bruce isn't supposed to be the bad guy in this, Damian is.

DC isn't interested in making Damian actions feel reasonable and they're also not interested in making Bruce the true antagonist of the story. We fans might look at this differently, but DC tries to paint a different picture.

[plasticdxntshine-blog]

PLOT + CONNECTIONS CALL !!! for cady heron

BLUE CREEK

fellow grad students ( studying data science or related subjects, fellow teacher’s assistants )

students she tutors ( specifically math or biology related )

ex-significant other ( no preferred gender, dumped cady because she was not her true self )

crush(es) that she is constantly trying to impress

close friend(s) that give advice ( both good and terrible advice accepted and blindly followed )

MEAN GIRLS

any and all canon characters ( especially janis, the plastics, damian, and the north shore crew )

random north shore students ( who knew her mostly in her peak plastic days, potentially idolized / looked up to her )

like this post & i’ll dm you ( either on here or discord ) OR if you like to make the first move, my discord is caroline#6199

[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)