#metropolis vs gotham

[factual-flittermouse]

Bruce: Dick, what’s this I’m hearing about you trying to send Tim to Arkham?

Dick: For the last time, I NEVER said that!

Tim: As good as!

Bruce: *disappointed dad voice* Really chum, I can’t believe you would tell your brother such a thing.

Dick: I didn’t! I just suggested therapy!

Tim: *scoffs* Yeah, in METROPOLIS.

Bruce: *Gasps*

Jason: *Gasps*

Damian: *Betrayed*

Alfred: *Too proper to gasp so loudly, but almost fumbles his antique feather duster*

Dick: Oh come on, it’s not that bad! It’s close, it’s relatively safe, and their PHDs are less likely to go rogue.

Jason: *Cover’s Damian’s ears as he backs them both out of the room, still loudly gasping in offense like the theater kid he is at heart*

Bruce: I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed.

[spectral-phases]

A major contributing factor for the Gotham and Metropolis rivalry from the Gotham side is that Metropolis is in fucking Delaware, and as Jerseyan, no Gothamite can let that slide send tweet

[mistress-of-vos]

Gotham Pride: So many WE sponsored posts that are bland and tacky. A bunch of cops with night sticks. Very boring. Bi Robin and lesbian Batwoman aren't even there. People are literally getting maced in the crowd. Police warned Catwoman not to go.

Metropolis Pride: There's a whole ass LOD float. Lex Luthor was in drag, got kissed by Superman AND Lois Lane. It lasts for a solid 4 days. No crimes are committed because no one wants to be called homophobic by the Superboys. Dreamer and Supergirl lead the parade. Everyone is having the time of their lives. Bi Robin was found dancing with Superboy and Impulse.

[bruciemilf]

Lol, I just read the 'cigarette mom! Thomas' and now I suggest to you....

.

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.

....

Rebellious daughter! Bruce as a consequence of Thomas and Martha's odd ways of parenting...Bruce may have un(he very much did)intentionally made a harem for himself(every single person you see him with)

PLS!! It’s such a shame Thomas died before he could meet Clark :(( Because that boy would’ve melted from one look lmao. Even better if Pa Kent used to be Thomas’ number one enemy at Metropolis vs Gotham games :)))

let’s imagine for a second that Thomas and Martha didn’t die and Bruce still became Batman. He definitely brings all the boys to their yard and it’s TIRING.

“…Wait a goddam second…That accent ain’t no Metropolis. Boy, where you from?”

“Oh, I’m from Kansas, sir :D”

“…Who’s your daddy?”

“Joseph Philip Kent The Second, sir ^^ I believe he mentioned you a couple of times! Boy, you sound like a fun loving guy—“

“GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE!”

[mrmanbat]

I’ll be the first to admit that DC has a lot of downfalls that Marvel doesn’t. There’s a reason Nightwing ain’t a household name but your grandma has a crush on Harry Osborn.

But holy shit, our geography? So much better than theirs.

What do you mean every single hero, villain, and morally gray weirdo is located in NYC?? Huh?? You’re telling me none of the gazillion heroes noticed (one of) the freaky ninja assassin cults fully operating in their own city?

At least in DC, we get variety. Sure, most of our fictional cities are based on like three real ones (one of them is also NYC), but they exist as separate, distinct places in-universe. AND they all have different vibes!!

[soonamisapphire]

Rabid Dogs Bite, Especially When those Dogs are Thirty Foot Long Fire Breathing Lizards - Conartist170 - Batman - All Media Types [Archive of Our Own]

Gothams people are not human

[nfcomics]

JUSTICE LEAGUE VS GODZILLA VS KONG no.2 (of 7) • cover art • David Nakayama [Nov 2023]

Legendary's Monsterverse has been unleashed on the DC Universe, and cities are threatened across the globe! From Metropolis to Gotham City to Themyscira, the Justice League scrambles to protect the citizens from these raging titans!

What role has the Legion of Doom played in all this monster madness, and how will the tide of battle change…when a hero falls?!

(W) Brian Buccellato (A) Christian Duce (CA) David Nakayama

[irrationalbalids]

I love the juxtaposition between Danny Fenton in Gotham vs Metropolis

Danny in Metropolis: Nice young man, working a dead end retail job to get food and rent. It's so obvious he has powers that everyone who goes to the store knows, but no one cares cause he's just so nice. Clark gets a coffee there every morning just to say hi.

Danny in Gotham: Batman is Losing his MIND trying to figure out who this new dangerous meta is. No one has a clear list of his powers and that's an issue. His gadgets don't work near Danny. If this one meta got through unnoticed how many others are here. Everything is falling apart. Why does Gotham have so many ghosts!

[rapplesart]

Dc x Dp prompt - Danny vs. The weird dude that let's him pickpocket everything of his.

Danny is homeless in metropolis ( because let's change it up from batman alright). The kryptonian population of the city actually served as a decent cover up for any glowing green weirdness. It was easy to just blame it on the big bad of the day.

However, compared to crime ridden Gotham next door it is way harder to find good paying work as a undocumented teen with a questionable background and set of skills. So yes, Danny is homeless.

Of course he is not the only homeless person in the city. Homeless people are everywhere and somehow he ends up getting involved in a gang of pickpocketing kids. The deal is simple : you can join their shelter, a decent uninhabited house that the city forgot to turn the water off from, in exchange for a percentage of your weekly steals. Additionally you also have to pay a General protection fee.

It's realistically a bad deal of course but compared to the unprotected streets of metropolis, a city where laser beams and alien invasions are part of the daily hazards, it's the best you're gonna get.

On Danny's first two weeks of stealing he's being trained by a few of the older ones. They show him how to spit easy targets, how to distinguish between tourists and locals and how to run if you get caught.

Danny gets the hang of it quickly with a little bit of ghostly touch.

On his first day alone he spots someone who seems to be the perfect target. An Office worker with neat clothes so he obviously has a stable form of income, therefore a better chance for good loot. The guy also looked nerdy with his thick glasses, bad eyesight also being an advantage when tricking someone off their money. The guys steps seem clumsy his back is drawn to itself in a way that made him look clumsy in his own body rather than protective if his things.

All in all the guy screamed target. So Danny makes quick work of bumping into him, snatching his wallet and taking out the cash. The 70$ he finds are am excellent treat that would guarantee food and shelter for the week if he was careful. However, part of him still felt bad, the guy didn't do anything wrong after all.

In the end Danny only takes 50 and returns the wallet pretending to find it on the street. He really didn't think about the interaction afterwards, instead choosing to focus on some rich looking tourists next.

Except two weeks later Danny was struggling to meet his quota. It was raining heavily and he couldn't afford a week on the street. No tourists came out in such weather and it was hard to find a good target. Until he spots the man again. This time bumping into him from behind.

In all honesty it was sloppy work. He was tired, wet and hungry. Danny could see the moment the guy clocked him as a thief, the slight tense of muscles when the man was ready to strike for the stealing kid. Danny knew he couldn't outrun this so he was prepared for what's to come. Except the guy relaxed and deliberately moved in a way that made the wallet MORE accessible. It was strange.

Once again he only took a portion before returning the rest. But this time he couldn't stop thinking about the encounter.

The next time he saw the guy he deliberately chose him and once again the man conveniently moved to make his valuables accessible for pickpoters.

Danny took it as a challenge. Stealing a wallet from the man became stealing the watch, phone, ipod, coffee, belt, shoe. Each time the items became more and more ridiculous but teh man just kept letting Danny steal his things.

It mad the halfa wonder how far he could take it.....

[vigil-antes]

Do you like have any good comics recommendations or anything to do with the bat fam, I don't have many DC friends so idk where to start

hiii omg ive been WAITING for this. you didnt give me any kind of parameters for what kind of fics you want so im going to list some of those i like most. its going to be a long one so buckle up:

My DC Fic Best Pics:

Short & Sweet (Oneshots/Less than 10k words)

Send to All: Crack, the bats have a sex pollen release form

glucose guardian: Funny, Tim being the caped community's accidental sugar daddy

A Brief Interview: Sweet, Damian & Tim Ageswap

curiosity and the cat: Cute, Timbern Catlad AU

Dead Meme: Crack, Jason centric, Jason keeps referencing dead memes

Have I Told You About Minnie?: Sweet, Bruce&Steph

Multi Media Marketing Mistakes: Crack, Social Media AU

an inappropriate explosion: Funny, Superman calls Batman to reel in his unruly son (Red Hood)

though your eyes will need some time to adjust: so sweet GAH, Bruce&Steph

Girl what were YOU doing at the devil's sacrament?: Funny, Timbern after the disaster with the chaos cult

Tim Drake: Bisexual Awakener Extraordinaire: Funny, YJ experiencing the mandated Robin-Induced sexuality crisis

Brotherhood: Tim&Damian, Damian Time travels right into Jason's attack on Titans Tower

Priceless: Crack, Nightwing&The Bats messing with Bane

User SuperRob: TImBerKon. Need I say more?

The Mystery of the Superboy Shirts: TimKon, Tim keeps stealing Kon's SB Shirts

Thicker Than Water: Funny, Batbros slice of life-ish

Big Bird, Commence Attack!: Crack, Jason's revenge plan involves dressing up as Big Bird

World’s Saddest Breakfast Club: Sweet, Batkids Bonding

red chrome: Funny, Tim's health is concerning enough to stop Jason from attacking him in Titans Tower

Hot Dog, French Fries: Tim&Damian, Damian gets dosed with truth serum

#SoftRobin: Funny. Damian-centric Social Media AU

Hurry Up Don't Take So Long: Sweet, DamiJon through the years

Paris vs Gotham: Crack, Social Media AU Ladybug crossover (no ships)

Can I tempt you?: TimKon, Light angst, Sweet

Bedtime Stories (15-50k Words)

Baby Birds and Bat Caves: SO funny, genuinely one of the best fics ive read, Tim-Centric, Meta(?)/Cryptid Tim, inspired by Welcome to Nightvale

Gotham Knockoff: Tim-Centric, Alley Kid Tim pretends to be the Drakes' kid to get closer to the Bats

In This or Any Other Universe: Nightwing ends up in the The Batman (2022) Universe

Dangerous and Noble Things: Kid Tim gets kidnapped by the League of Shadows. No one realizes until, four years later, the Bats notices something wrong

In this Town We Call Home: Kid Tim attracts Batman's attention to get adopted

With Violet Light: Jason finds a ring of power and becomes a Star Sapphire

Little Birds’ Wings: Jason&Other Batkids, Jason comes back from the League to a drastically different Gotham

the pact of our youth: Reverse Robins Au, TimBerKon after Tim dies (and comes back different)

Pretty Boys and Identity Problems: Sweet, TimKon, To get away from his crush on Robin, Superboy gets entangled with Gotham pretty boy Tim Drake

let's get mischievous: TimBern, during the chaos cult ritual, Bernard gets possessed by Dyonisus

It Wouldn't Be Make Believe (If You Believed In Me): DamiJon fake dating AU where they don't know each other and meet while Robin is investigating a case in Metropolis (they're uni aged btw)

I’m Pretty Sure Tim Steals Clothes: An Elaboration In The Form Of A Long Fic: Cute, TimKon, Tim keeps stealing Kon's SB shirts

Into the Deep Dark Night: Tim-centric, Tim&Jason, Tim dies as a kid and loses a bit of his humanity

Alcatraz, But On Hardmode: Sweet, Tim-Centric, A YJ mission goes wrong and Tim has to rely on Jason to get him and his team out.

His Head is Bloody, but Unbowed: Jason-centric AU where he never stole the batmobile tires, but ends up meeting the Bats anyways after he saves Robin

A Good Place: Very soft, Damian&Bruce, Damian time travels to Batman's first year of activity.

Fairy Godbrother: Sweet, The batboys time travel to each others' pasts and help their brothers when they were younger

best laid plans: Tim&Jason, Tim finds Jason after he crawls out of his grave, bt they get goth taken by the league

Mystery Man: Cute, BirdFlash, The bats aren't known to the JL, Different first meeting

One Eternal Round: Super original, Bruce&Robins, My Hero Academia crossover where Aizawa, Midoriya, Kirishima, Todoroki and Bakugo remember their past lives as Gotham vigilantes

A Meditation on Railroading: Tim-Centric, Tim's dad leaves him stranded away from Gotham with no way back. Jason finds him and brings him home

the ship of theseus: Jason-Centric, Percy Jackson crossover, Jason and Percy are secretly twins

Why They Shouldn't Have Social Media: Crack, Social media AU

Cracked Foundation:Soft, Jason&Damian, They get stuck under a collapsed building together

Monolith: Bruce&The Batfamily, The birds aren't known to the JL, The JL meeting each member of the Batfam for the first time

Loading and Aspect Ratio: SO GOOOOOOD, Batfamily, The bats use wing prothesis but everyone think they're metas

Three’s a Crowd (But I’m Here if You Are): Cute, Funny, TimBerKon

A Softer Gotham: Steph&Bruce, Steph-Centric, Steph time travels to a time before Batman, becoming Gotham's first vigilante

greatest of ease: Dick-Centric, POV Outsider, Dick Grayson as seen in the eyes of the people surrounding him

Yesterday's Voices: Bruce&Batkids, Bruce's memory of the past five years gets erased leaving behind a softer man, one who doesn't remember Jason's death

show me yesterday, for i can’t find today: Jason-Centric, Jason&The Batfam, Robin!Jason and Red Hood switch places

Eat Your Heart Out, Social Life (50k+ words)

Vultures, Squirrels, and Other Flying Menaces: So good, AU where instead of becoming Robin, Tim hires Deathstroke to kill Joker, leading to the assassin adopting him and the other Batkids.

I’m alone here, I think: TimKon, Witch Tim, Tim is erased from everyone's memories and leaves Gotham. Kon finds him anyways.

You, Me, and the Humanity in Between: Soft and sweet, Bruce&His kids, Non-Human Batkids

cards on the table: Tim-Centric, Tim&Batfam, Tim's parents fake their death and leave Tim behind. He uses his stalking skills to become a fortuneteller scammer. Against his will, he ends up befriending the Waynes

Roasted: Funny, Cute, Dick-Centric, Talon AU, Dick&Batfam, Recovered Talon Dick opens a coffee shop that ends up becoming Rogue-Vigilante neutral grounds

Code Bat: Batfam, The bats aren't known, they have an emergency code to only be used in emergency case when revealing affiliation is inevitable (idk how to explain but its good trust me)

Minimum Height Requirement: SOFT, Bruce&His kids, Batfam, Batman doesn't let his kids become vigilantes before they turn eighteen

Running Headlong into My Arms: Soft, No Capes AU, even without Batman, Bruce finds his family

Liminal Space: Tim-Centric, Tim&Bruce, Tim&Batfam, Tim ends up in a softer and kinder version of his world

Robins and Other Flightless Birds: Bruce-Centric, Bruce&His kids, A Batman without kids is visited by another version of himself. He finds tha he, too, wants kids.

Laughter Lines: JayRoy, Soft, Jason helps raise Lian, before and after his death

Stars of the Forgotten: Bruce-Centric, Meta!Batkids, Bruce&His kids, on the search for a missing Barbara Gordon, Batman stumbles upon five metahuman kids in need of a home

Latchkey: Sweet, Tim-Centric, Robin!Jason, BatWatch!Tim, The Waynes get concerned with their lonely neighbor, Tim Drake

Ain't No Compass, Ain't No Map: Funny, Tim&Jason, Borderline abandoned Tim Drake gets taken in by Crime Lord Red Hood. CPS tries investigating, with little results

And that's it for today. If you're still here, thank you so much and seriously, some of these are so good, so read them, trust me!

Sorry i took so long to get back to you, i had to organize the mess in my AO3 bookmarks and compiling this took me ages.

Let me know what you all think, and if you ever want more!!!! (Yes i have more. It's a problem)

[insertcoolusernamehereee]

You've all seen the "Metropolis vs Gotham" stereotype ALOT right? And yeah, its funny, but i propose to you...

Metropolis and Gotham constantly odds, but its because Metropolis wants Batman, and Gotham wants Superman. Like, the people go OFF.

"Fuck Batman, he stopped a crime that i helped him with and he didn't even say HI. @Batman bet Superman would even invite me for coffee."

<Commissioner Gordon and 167 others have liked this post>

"Istg Superman needs to gets a new outfit. Like okay, blue and red is so yesterday. @Superman havent you heard black is in? #BatmanInMetropolis"

<Batman and 200 others have liked this post>

"Metropolis is so ungrateful, like if your kid goes 'Mom! i want to be like Superman' then obv, we all go 'Thats great billy!' but today my nine year old daughter told me she wants to be Batman and I- does anyone know any good therapist?"

<Damian Wayne and 654 others have liked this post>

"I was late to hanging out with my friends because Superman kept TALKING TO ME. BET I WOULD BE ABLE TO GO ON THE ROLLER-COASTER I WANTED TO GO TO IF BATMAN WAS THE ONE WHO SAVED THE DAY."

<Tim Drake and 321 others have liked this post>

I'm sorry, this idea was stuck in my head and I had to get it out loll

[yandereunsolved]

Accidental mob boss darling somehow ends up running for president in an even greater shitton of unlikely (un)lucky circumstances. (They made a comment about wanting to see Washington one day, it spiraled as usual). Fortunately their opposition comes in the form of Lex Luthor. Unfortunately they are also curious (into) Accidental Mob Boss darling. Bruce is probably VP. There is no running platform. it's just shameless fangirling and flirting. Somehow devolves into a social media Metropolis-Gotham war.

Amanda Waller has been destroyed down to the atoms from sheer confusion.

— Silly Anon

Accidental Mob Boss Reader vs Lex Luthor debate

They just wanted to travel! Then their goons decided the perfect present would be to put them on the ballot so not only would they be able to live in Washington D.C., they'd be able to run it!

Lex Luthor becomes obsessed, naturally. He begins planning an overtly elaborate plan that will end up in him marrying reader and creating the 'United States of Reader'.

Bruce Wayne puts a stop to Lex's plan with the help of his family. Also, who wouldn't be attracted to reader's campaign? They have the rich playboy as their VP pick.

There's a ton of TikTok edits and breakdowns. Memes spread across the globe. You know how everyone has been making those stupid pictures of Vance? It's that but with Lex Luthor. Lex Luthor and his VP pick Elonia Muskrat.

Lex is so downbad for reader. 😔 Silly ASMR is made about Lex begging Bruce to let him spend time with reader.

Metropolis-Gotham social media war breaks out. Only reader can tame it.

Vote for Accidental Mob Boss Reader today .ᐟ Still a better president than Trump.

[darkcrownninja]

Clark Kent vs Gotham’s Rogues

Superbat Idea

Batman’s enemies find out the Bat has a thing with Metropolis’ reporter Clark Kent. So decide to try to kill him (without success)

He is either always saved by Batman, the shots never land, he survives accidents without problem, the guns used to try to kill him always break or people suffer head injuries before landing their shots.

After so many failed attempts people begin to think Clark is a meta, but with some sort of Luck manipulation ability.

Clark and Bruce catch wind of this and go: task failed successfully I guess.

[fantastic-nonsense]

How would it change if Cass is under a different superhero's wing or her first encounter isn't Batman or Barbara Gordon but is with another superhero?

Sort of like, imagine instead of being taken in by Batman or Oracle, Cassandra was instead taken in by other superheroes after they encountered her. Like, a "what-if?" instead of ending up in Gotham, she ended up in other territories of different superheroes? (Martian Manhunter, Plastic Man, Wonder Woman, Superman, etc) exception of Batman. How would it changed in her life?

That would depend heavily on who she was taken in by. A Cassandra adopted by the Amazons looks very different from a Cassandra who runs to Metropolis instead of Gotham, and both of those Cassandras look very different from a girl who still came to Gotham but ended up running into someone that wasn't Barbara Gordon first (like for example, Dinah Lance) or a Cassandra who went somewhere else entirely.

How much the person knows about Cain and Shiva would heavily influence a lot of things, of course, but I think Cass would eventually become a hero in every universe; there's too much drive and desire to save people and too much personal motivation to 'redeem' herself for the sin of killing Faizul as a child there for it to not happen.

I do think most other heroes would have pushed Cass harder to develop her own self-identity before becoming a hero rather than the Batman method of "being Batgirl full time is fine. great even!" while Babs frutilessly attempted to interest her in a life outside of heroing in the background. Cassandra's noted canon disinterest in doing so prior to her death match with Shiva would probably still be there, but in absence of someone enabling her avoidance, she probably would develop an interest in doing that sooner.

Otherwise, I don't think I necessarily know what would specifically be different vs. what would stay the same, because I'd have to think of a specific scenario to give a more specific answer.

There's actually been a couple of fic writers who've explored this concept, so I'm also going to nudge you in their direction!

Dragon and Daughter, by Anonymous: Cassandra Cain isn't in Gotham during No Man's Land. She's in Canada five years earlier, and Richard Dragon is the one to stumble across her instead. 

freedom to be fools, by Hinn_Raven: Victor Sage meets his future daughter in a dumpster. Cassandra Sage is going to be a detective like no other. 

[ewingstan]

Worm and other media that won't just let you shoot the Joker, part 1:

Worm comments on the structure of stories, especially superhero stories, in some interesting ways. There's a lot of stuff that happen in superhero comics for no real reason than that it needs to happen for the story to be interesting; a huge amount of Worm's worldbuilding is devoted to taking these things and making the fact that they have to happen an explicit in-setting constraint. For instance, superhero stories tend to have more powerful heroes face off against much more powerful villains than their less-powerful allies, to the point where it seems like super-powerful threats are coming to earth every few weeks just because it wouldn't be interesting to read that comic otherwise. It gets weirder when you compare what villains end up visiting the cities of uber-powerful heroes vs the cities of less powerful heroes: Gotham mostly just has to deal with serial killers while Metropolis is a magnet for evil gods. Worm plays with this by having the Endbringers exist only because the big hero needed something to fight in-text: it changes "powerful heroes need powerful villains or else it wouldn't be interesting" from a Doylist justification to a Watsonian one. Then there's the fact that so much of the horrible conflict in Earth Bet is explicitly caused by Gods making sure the powers they grant people lead to increased conflict, the fact that one of the most powerful characters does what she does because the plot path to victory says she needs to, etc.

But the big one is Jack Slash, and how he's only able to get away with his bullshit because he has plot armor as a secondary power. As WB says here, "Jack's a reconstruction of the Joker type character in the sense that you can't have such a character take such a high profile position in the setting, without having there be a cheat." The Joker and similar characters are only able to keep being relevant threats in their stories because the narrative bends to let them win and stops them from being killed. Jack Slash is only able to keep being a relevant threat because his power makes the universe bend to let him win in the same way. Not only does this make for an interesting obstacle (its almost like they're fighting an authorial mandate!), but it skewers the use of similar character's plot armor and how unrealistic and unsatisfying it makes their stories.

But wait, what does it mean for a story to be "unrealistic" in the context of superpowers? Is being unrealistic in those contexts actually a problem? For that matter, what does it mean for a narrative to bend to let someone win? Its not like there's an objective way fighting the Joker would go, which the author is deviating from by letting him survive.

[Stuff under readbelow contains spoilers fo, the movie Funny Games and the book Anybody Home?]

Maybe we could say that if characters like the Joker were real, and put in the situations they are in their stories, they would end up being killed really quickly. But is that a reasonable way to judge stories? A narrative where such a character is killed unceremoniously to satisfy a need for realism isn't any less an expression of the author's deliberate choices than a story where the character keeps showing back up to satisfy a desire for fan-favorite characters. And while Jack Slash's arcs help show why deviating from "realistic consequences" in the service of keeping a character alive can make a story exhausting and screw with an audiences' appreciation of stakes, it doesn't make a strong case against the concept of villains having plot armor in general. A story isn't necessarily worse just for being constructed to keep the villains alive—all stories are constructed, and sometimes being constructed that way makes for the best story.

That becomes more clear when you take the premise of Jack Slash as "killer who wins because the mechanics of the universe says so" and make clear just how much "the mechanics of the universe" really just means "the story". Which is how you get Peter and Paul from Funny Games.

I'd highly recommend watching Funny Games (though for the love of god check content warnings), as well as Patricia Taxxon's review of it that I'm cribbing a lot from here. But to summarize, Funny Games is a movie written and directed by Michael Haneke about a family's lakeside vacation being interrupted by the appearance of two murderous young men, who capture them in their own house and slowly torture and kill them off. At least, that's what it seems to be about initially. It marketed itself as a somewhat standard entry in the genres of torture porn and home invasion thrillers, and played itself straight as one for the majority of its runtime. But then one of the two villains of the pair, "Paul," starts talking to the audience.

It starts small: after crippling the family's father and revealing that he killed their dog, Paul has the wife look for its corpse outside. While giving her hints, he slowly turns back towards the camera and smirks, before turning back. In isolation, maybe it could be interpreted as Paul smirking at Peter, seeming to look out at the audience only because of clumsy blocking. But then it happens again. Paul tells the family, who are completely at their mercy at this point, that they're gonna bet that they'll all be dead within twelve hours. When the family refuses to take the bet, asking how they could hope to win it when he can clearly off them all whenever they wish, Paul turns towards the audience and asks "what do you think? Do you think they stand a chance? Well you're on their side aren't you. Who you betting on, eh?" The audience is being acknowledged; their role as someone invested in the story is being examined by the ones introducing the stakes.

But the biggest moment comes near the end, when the mother grabs the shotgun she's being threatened with and blasts Peter. Paul startles, grins, and then hurredly grabs a tv remote and presses rewind. The movie itself suddenly rewinds to right before the mother grabs the gun, and plays again with Paul grabbing the shotgun right before the mother reaches for it.

Its a truly incredible moment, in that its the perfect way to forcibly take away the audience's suspension of disbelief. It forces the audience to acknowledge that they're viewing a story, not something happening to a real family. After their moment of catharsis against the villains, Paul makes the confront the fact that the movie will end however the creators want it to, and if they want the villains to win they'll will regardless of how little sense it makes. Fuck you, we can go from being set in the normal world with normal rules to the villains traveling back in time with a tv remote, because a story does whatever its creators want. Haneke just decided to make that obvious in the most jarring way imaginable.

But maybe the best way to illustrate Funny Games effectiveness at this type of artful unveiling is comparing it to its less-effective imitators. I've recently finished Anybody Home?, a recently-published book by Michael J. Seidlinger. It has the conceit of being narrated by an unnamed mass-murderer, guiding a new killer in their first home invasion. I started reading it before I watched Funny Games, and even afterwards took a while to realize the unnamed narrator wasn’t just a pastiche of a Paul-like character but was actually supposed to be read as Paul himself. Seidlinger was having his book be a sort of unofficial sequel to Funny Games, narrated by its star. Once I realized, a lot of the books details suddenly clicked. The big one was the constant references to “the camera" and the idea of murder being a performance for an audience, one that needed to be fresh and original to make “the cults” enjoy it. Take these passages from page 77:

If it happened, it would perturb. It would create suspicion. It wouldn’t end up ruining the performance, and yet, it could have derailed our casing. The camera can have all it wants; either way, it’ll make it look better than it really was. It’ll strip away the cues and other planned orchestrations and it’ll show the action—the actuality of each scene, each suggestion…

This is a spectacle, above all. The craft pertains to keeping and maintaining a captive audience; behind the camera, you’ll never know how it happened—the trickery that made the impossible possible, the insanity so close to home. It is spectacle.

Through online activity, the son made it clear that something is happening at home, yet we cannot be certain if he has noticed the camera.

These all point to the idea that the murders are being viewed by an audience rather than just by intruders, that this is a performance for said audience's benefit more than anything else. But notably, it also reinforces the idea of these characters having an existence outside of the camera: the camera shows the action and "strips away" the cues behind it, the victims have a life outside the camera such that they could plausibly sense that the camera is now here. The victims are sometimes described as playing into their role, but always metaphorically; always as if normal people start acting like characters when put in certain circumstances. Whereas Funny Games posits that characters will behave however the author wants them to, denying the claim that stories are realistic simulations of hypothetical scenarios.

The whole thing is predicated on the idea that there needs to be a guide, that the villain of a home invader movie is really in danger of something going wrong. Paul/The narrator keeps giving directions on what needs to be double checked, what needs to X, and its completely against the spirit of the role Paul served in Funny Games. If something goes wrong for the villain they should just be able to rewind and do it over, because the story was written for them to succeed. Anybody Home? throws out Funny Games theme of the story being on rails, of the winner being whoever the author wants it to be and the events following whatever the author wanted rather than what would "really" happen. It throws out the whole idea that it’s all just a story, by supporting the idea that the characters have lives not captured by the camera—or more relevantly, not captured on-page.

Because Seidlinger using the language of film in a book leads to different things going on with the fourth wall. The way Funny Games and Anybody Home? make the camera explicit are just different, and the former does it much more interestingly than the latter. Seildinger’s characters aren’t looking back at the reader, the fourth wall is never actually breached. Funny Games has Paul look into the camera to address the audience, making clear how it’s a story being set up for the audience's benefit. Anybody Home? invokes the idea of a camera tracking everything home invaders do in general, having it be a third-party force that’s itself an unseen character contained within the story, observing the intruder's crime rather than the reader. Why is it still a camera, if we're in a book rather than a movie? A character in a book talking about a camera watching them does not convey any of the same meaning as a character in a movie suddenly looking into a camera and smirking at the audience!

By the end, you realize that this is caused in part by the book's bizarro take on how horror movies exist in this world. It reveals that in its setting, all horror movies are adaptations of real home invasions, which get recorded by unseen mysterious forces. Killers enter a home and enact violence, are filmed by some supernatural camera, the footage gets leaked to the public, and then the killers sell the rights to the work to studios. The events of SAW really happened, but the movie was just an adaptation. Funny Games really happened, but the Paul in the movies was just an actor playing the Paul narrating this book. The killer's victims eventually realize that they're "victims," but not in the sense that they realize their characters in a story, only in a sense that they realize they got sucked into their world's magical realism bullshit.

Ultimately, while the book does the same trick of being all about how horror stories are “for” us, it gets rid of all the tricks that made it work for Funny Games. It even strips it's in-universe version of what made it special; Funny Games is just another adaptation of a real home invasion. All the meta stuff that makes it interesting in its genre are just gestured at as aesthetics.

So what makes Jack Slash in Worm succeed where the killers in Anybody Home? fail? Both are constructed to be entertaining for a 3rd party who stand-in for but aren't actually the audience; the entities in Worm, the cults in Anybody Home?. But Jack Slash doesn't mix his metaphors. Worm may turn various real-life factors affecting a work into in-story mechanisms of the world in the same way Anybody Home? does. But it doesn't also base itself off a text that takes in-story mechanisms and breaks them to force the audience to see the various real-life factors affecting the work. In effect, WB pulls off a trick Seidlinger tries and fails because WB wasn't taking another metatexual story and stripping it of what made it interesting.

Though that introduces the question: can such meta-moves be mixed? Can you have a text where story conceits become explicit plot mechanics the characters are aware of, while also having characters really look at the camera and tell the audience that its all just a story? Can you actually sell it and make it something interesting?

There is one story that tries this. I don't know if it pulls it off, but it certainly makes a lot of interesting moves that create a fascinating whole. It even comments on the Joker in the same way Worm does, having a character who seemingly cant die because the roll they play in the story is too impor—

Ah fuck.

Continued in part 2.

[sparkletastic-cookiedough]

Link Library

Literally just a link collection of all my tumblr writing.

Favorite Posts

Films that don’t exist

Batman: Killer Croc has an egg. Bruce Wayne is the father.

DPxDC: Danny Phantom fan Damian, best friends with Dash. (they hang out at an arcade, also BATNIPPLES)

DPxDC: John Constantine is Danny's comfort human

DPxDC Dick Grayson is investigating a travelling circus (my favorite prompt, but it's just a prompt)

DPxDC: Vlad masters is a lion? Completely centered around Zeke Morris, an OC.

DPxDC: Danny does his taxes.

DPxDC: Cardboard Danny AU

Danny Phantom: Jazz Fenton Gaslighting People (Short)

DPxDC: The Tangerine Pimpernel (Long)

DPxDC: Danny is applying for a grant with Wayne Enterprieses (The best dramatic irony)

DPXDC: Constantine taking care of baby Danny

DPxDC

Danny and Superman: inedible food buddies (NEW) (Short)

Demon Twins: Danny has trauma, Zatanna and Barbara Gordon are dating, and Damian meets a death cult. (NEW)

Entirely dead Danny’s grave is discovered. Sam meets Bruce Wayne, Jazz is suffering.

Danny texts Jason by accident. Technus is behind everything.

Batfamily is infinite realms royalty, Damian tries to take advantage of that and fails.

Psychology Teacher Jazz Fenton vs Joker

Mr Lancer goes to a bar while his students visit Gotham.

Battle Coliseum

Danny in a Maid Dress

The Phantom Cafe (Short)

In Love With The Speed Force : Barry Allen is obsessed with a god. Also the Justice League gets high in this one.

Bartender Dan has a no bats policy.

The Justice League investigates Danny's box selling business. (Featuring the Bodacious Vibes detector)

The Titans discover Danny and Dani are different people

Danny has access to dead knowledge

The Fentons make arrows for Green Arrow (Short)

Trans Danny, mourned by Bio-sibling Damian

The one where Team Phantom destroys all conflict in the Batman universe

Dani is in Hally's Circus, Dick thought she died and now she's back

John Constantine "rescues" Danny from the ghost zone

Steph plans to prank Batman

Bodyguard Danny

Danny vs Plastic Man vs Nightwing: Who would win at Twister? (short)

Wes Weston gets ghost powers, Flash is concerned

Riddler kidnaps Danny, Batman has to answer a riddle to save him

Team Phantom produces a fictional movie on Amity Park

Danny is traumatized, the Batfam is traumatized, everyone is sad and traumatized. (short-ish, hurt/ comfort)

Danny can predict the future, thus Flash yells at god (again, more of a prompt than a full story, cause sometimes I only write the beginnings.)

Dani pranks the justice league

The DC universe is about to collapse, Danny has to herd them out. (Prompt, as I am addicted to beginning stories and never finishing them)

Danny's family reincarnates (yet another prompt.)

Tim has infinite spleens

Jason can see through the fourth wall, and is not down for this Phantom of the Opera nonsense.

The Bats investigate Jazz

Wes is investigated by Superman, Magical shenanigans occur.

Catwoman steals an artifact that has a ghost in it.

Danny putting on his own Brucie Wayne act as Bruce's secretary

Jazz as Damian's Babysitter

Zatanna interacting with a Liminal Gotham

Danny is Batman's Clone (Dramatic Irony, my beloved)

John Constantine accidentally adopts Danny

Jason is dating Jazz, gets Tim and Danny to meet (mostly just Jason and Tim fluff)

Dash Baxter, Metropolis Cop (short)

Queer Platonic Relationship Fluff with Tim and Danny (features a prompty cliffhanger that goes absolutely nowhere)

Danny runs over Kori with a car (featuring yet another cliffhanger prompt ending that goes nowhere)

Clone Adoption Agency

Tim gets his spleen back from Cujo

Danny runs a daycare in Gotham

Maddie is Jim Gordon's Sister (short as heck and not great, but it's the first one I wrote, so it's special to me)

Batman Crossovers (No Danny Phantom edition)

Batman and the Muppets

Miraculous Ladybug: Marinette in Gotham (Fic itself is short, use of ai by another user in the beginning, more of a prompt than a post)

Batman x Game Changer: Robins do Robin trivia

Batman x BNHA: Batgirl gets isekaied into BNHA universe (Like the first chapter of a hypothetically longer fic)

Just Batman (and other DC characters)

Superbat Ship: featuring Batfam Fluff.

Jason can see through the fourth wall (short, more of a prompt than a post, and a continuation of the AU from an above DPxDC post.

Batfam tries to steal the watchtower (based on art!!!)

Matchmaker Tim Drake (again, more of a prompt)

Neurodivergent Batfam Moments

Hero Swap (Based on ART!!!)

Bruce Wayne time travels (short)

Bruce wearing his kids merch (short)

Clark Kent covering Bruce Wayne's drama

Superbat ship stuff (Short)

Percy Jackson

Percy Jackson & Harry Potter Crossover: Percy Jackson Vs Potions Class

Percy Jackson Gods react to Hadestown (Short)

Percy Jackson and Danny Phantom Crossover: Nico wants the Ghost King as his twitch username, but it's taken.

Other Fandoms

Gravity Falls: Levity Rises - the portal incident.

Gravity Falls: The Stans end up College professors.

Just Danny Phantom: Jazz dealing with trauma (a bit of a character study, based on art)

Danny Phantom x BNHA crossover: Jazz and Nedzu meet.

BNHA: All Might and All for One completing to be the best dad. (Plot outline.)

BNHA: Izuku becomes a cult leader. (Plot outline)

Beetlejuice: cartoons episode plot outline based on someone’s art.