#not really knightfall

[onewomancitadel]

Sometimes I do worry that my blog seems like a Knightfall outreach program. But I think the Knightfall shippers who were here before me would tell you most of them don't want much to do with me and generally speaking I keep to myself.

I also unknowingly made fun of a prominent fantheory in the Knightfall fandom which was major impetus for a lot of people shipping it. So I'm definitely not winning any brownie points.

That being said I know the Knightfall ship community is not a huge one and I don't exactly want to be making enemies. But do we really have anything in common if it's not coming from a place of serious canon speculation?

This is why I don't really engage with shipping fandoms at large and is one of many reasons I ignore the rest of the R/WBY fandom. I mean, a few blogs here and there I'll check out on the odd occasion and my mutuals, but you know what I mean. It's the direction you end up going when you've hopped fandom to fandom long enough, I think.

[pokeberry5]

here, wait—take this!

(a mulletwing <3)

[littlefankingdom]

~ Batman: Knightfall

Mistake even a baby knows not to make: trusting the Joker.

[sweetandglovelyart]

Knightfall in Dream Land - Page 9

Meta learns that he is a Star Warrior, decides to stay on Popstar, and prepares to duel the king of Dream Land.

[roobylavender]

im really sorry if this question ends up being repetitive: but, if not for bruce’s over reliance on dick to regulate his thoughts and emotions, why would dick grow up into feeling like he needs to repress his emotions so much and his eagerness to act as people’s support? i know youve spoken about wolfman and his altering of their relationship but if ntt is generally an accurate portrayal of an adult dick, to me this nevertheless sounds like the consequences a parent-child relationship where the responsibilities are titled too much towards the child

i suppose this could also segue into asking for recs that would help me better understand your interpretation of their relationship 👀

not repetitive at all! to me the irony of wolfman's depiction of dick lies in that it is simultaneously something you can logically ascertain from prior canon but not for the reasons actually presented by wolfman. if that makes sense. he does extra work that isn't actually necessary to help explain why dick would act the way that he does because there's plenty of reasons for it without rewriting his history with bruce to have always been suppressed and edgy and dark. to me it makes far more sense to capitalize on the inevitable disconnect between bruce and dick as an adult and a child. batman: full circle is a good example of that dichotomy (and although it was published in the early 90s it built on mike w. barr's prior understanding of the relationship between dick and bruce that he wrote into the early 80s). bruce's primary concern for the people he works with is never standards or finesse but safety. he worries constantly about others coming to harm under his watch and with a child in particular those worries were exacerbated. he ran a tight ship not because he believed dick had anything to prove but because the only way dick could keep being robin was if he went about it safely. that was obv easy for an adult to understand. but not so much for a child

to bruce these worries were practical and par for the course (as well as an expression of his love and protectiveness) but for dick their consequences formed the crux of his entire world. as a child he idolized everything about bruce. his heroism. his work ethic. his skill. his resolve. his preparedness. if dick couldn't live up to the standard he set for himself in idolizing bruce then what could he ever hope to amount to? that was the thought constantly going through his head. and it's why the bulk of his childhood and primary tenure as bruce's partner was so precariously protected by the fact that nothing bad ever really happened during it (and admittedly this framing is convenient because even chronologically speaking nothing very significant happened in their history with each other until dick left for university in 1969) (i know dixon opted to write that whole shtick with dent in his version of events but personally i never found it necessary to do so). there is enough there in the idea of dick working hard for the course of a decade to embody who he believed bruce to be that lends itself to it eventually being difficult for him to healthily express himself once the rift between them actually began to emerge

because what about bruce was there to actually see that was broken and dark before dick became an adult? i know a lot of dick fans hate batman #408 because they don't like that it enforced "retirement" upon dick (which i personally believe is a conclusion they come to because of the way batman #416 re-framed the same scene) but to me that's an inaccurate reading of the text. batman #408 was about bruce (admittedly far too belatedly) recognizing that he could not in good conscience continue to ask dick to go out and be a vigilante on what he considered to be his own "orders". he viewed dick's close call with death at the hands of the joker as something directly of his own making. although their tenure with each other had been wonderful if dick wanted to continue to be a vigilante it had to be on his own terms and of his own volition. obv that was logical to bruce and it was something dick managed to accept in the moment. but it's still hard to go from always having a purpose alongside someone you idolized to finally being entrusted entirely to forge your own

in general i like the idea of dick the adult becoming privy to all of the personal problems and conflicts that come with being a vigilante. he was conveniently shielded from a lot of those problems as a child because all he had to do was be bruce's partner and hope to live up to the title. bruce had no reason to trauma dump on him or talk about his worries and concerns at length with him because it was never supposed to be dick's job to field those worries and concerns in the first place. he was a child. the only thing bruce wanted to do was to help channel his emotions through an outlet and provide him with a home to grow up in. but when you become an adult often that dynamic shifts. you're still not responsible for fielding those worries and concerns but you can perhaps be trusted with them. that's why i like the framing in batman #408 of dick now being a man. it's a subtle way to frame the double-edged sword of adulthood. the world is in your hands now but so will be the horrors that come with it. coming to terms with the real world that bruce lives in should be hard for dick. coming to terms with who bruce is when he's not perfect should be hard. coming to terms with how quietly bruce kept his grief because he did not see fit to overwhelm a child with it should be hard. that dichotomy of dick both wanting to be bruce's brother and his son should form the crux of their conflict with each other because you can't hope to be someone's equal and someone's protected at the same time in that kind of relationship. for dick to transition into the position of equal he has to expose himself to the fact that bruce is not in fact an idol but someone irrevocably human. and that should interfere significantly with his head and his own standards for himself

[swordofazrael1992]

sometimes i think about my old jp/az opinions like wow i used to be wrong about so many things…

[mysteriousbeetle]

i feel like jpv meeting lady shiva could be interesting if done right. like she could come to gotham because she's heard about azrael's fighting skills and then she meets jpv instead, maybe when jpv is trying to take a break from becoming azrael. and maybe there could be exploration of how while shiva is skilled when it comes violence, she is also skilled at healing and how while azrael is skilled at violence, jpv likes to help out leslie at the clinic.

[havendance]

Of mixed opinions about Batman #9 but this recap of Bane’s backstory slaps.

[lonniemachin]

in the mail today :)

[grayson-euphoria]

"Should I go to Nightwing?"

For future references Tim... The answer to that question IS ALWAYS YES for me. Bring my boy! I love reading about Nightwing! Why focus on Azrael and make a whole ass story about him when we could have Nightwing? T-T

I mean I'm happy they respect his boundaries and respect the fact that he is doing his own stuff now but... In this story specifically... I really feel that they should've called Nightwing

[pokeberry5]

I just love ur drawings of Tim smiling, him as Stray, and the video of Tim being all cat like smiling, do you think he and Selina are close (like mother and son)? Also are you okay with fanfics based off ur drawings?

thank you!!! i'm very fond of kitty tim so im glad you like him too :)

to be honest, i don't see tim and selina as very close, unless im reading a fanfic where that's the specific setup--i do enjoy that trope

i actually like the dynamic i've seen a little of in the comics (i'm thinking of batman: contagion), where tim is willing to work with catwoman but is still wary of her, while selina is fondly contemptuous of the new little robin. i like tim as the annoying but earnest kid who still manages to grow on people. like mold <3

and yes! i'm ok with fanfic based on my drawings as long as you link back to the original piece (and maybe let me know if you're comfortable with that :])

[littlefankingdom]

~ Batman: Knightfall

Just, Bruce beating some lords with his cane to defend an activist (? Would that be the right word to use?) who ruins their hobbies because fuck the aristocracy. And yeah, it's Bruce in disguise. And look at that, the activist is the Hood. There's a reason I called him a punk, he's always fighting against the system, even without the mask.

[sweetandglovelyart]

Knightfall in Dream Land - Page 8

Meta makes some new friends and learns some new things about himself.

[thebucketpail]

I love how in Knightfall Scarecrow tried to distract Batman by giving him fear gas but seeing Jason get beat to death just made him so angry he beat the shot out of both Joker and Scarecrow in like 5 seconds, despite being exhausted in all manners of the word, from running Bane's death gauntlet.

[roobylavender]

(Really long ask ahead i’m sorry!) I think your thoughts on dick and his similarities vs differences to bruce are so interesting! Personally i’m wondering how much of NTT played an influence on this kind of characterization bc i’ve never fully finished ntt but i read like nearly all the pre-80s batman 1940 issues lol and dick very much was portrayed as more idealistic than bruce in some ways while more no-nonsense (? For lack of better word) in other ways, like when it comes to batman easing up a little on selina for romance reasons LOL. Though ofc dick totally turns into - well, a dick - in team books, as i grow older i find myself far more compelled by a potential story of an 18 yr old who seemed to have the whole weight of the world on his shoulders (by his own perception) and breaking under his own impractically strong sense of duty and sky-high expectations for others, then realizing as he grows older that it doesn’t have to be that way esp after seeing the perspectives of characters like kory, wally, joey, roy, etc. Like personally as someone who never really had a huge interest in NTT anyway, i’m surprised at how desperately people want to hold on to the characterization of dick when he was 18-19 and never letting him grow past that, like it’s so difficult for me to believe that at age 25 he would be the same uptight controlling kid that he was at 19. Maybe i’m biased though bc i was like one of those insufferable INTJ internet stereotypes as a teenager, and while that worldview did bring me achievements i’m proud of like the fact that i’m in med school rn studying what i love, i still know that at age 22 i have changed SO much from when i was 18 and i can’t imagine any reasonably mature or normally-functioning person (let alone someone high-functioning like dick) not doing the same lol. Especially since dick is the kind of person who would literally die if he’s not constantly growing and evolving past his faults bc of his insufferable perfectionism, idk how he’d be willfully blind to the negative effects of his worldview in early NTT and refuse to grow from there. He even has a quote that’s like “i’ve spent years as a student of my own behavior” which i always found highly encouraging bc i know he really does want to improve himself even at his worst. It reminds me of that Marcus Aurelius quote: “if someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, i shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone; the harm is to persist in one’s own self-deception and ignorance.” But what are your thoughts? (Thank you for reading all this 🥹)

oh i absolutely agree! i cannot tell you how many times i think about the person i was a couple years ago and who i am now like i cringe so much omg.. maturity is an ever persistent process even if we don't recognize its effects immediately and it absolutely is crazy to think that anyone would remain in such a static state of mind for several years on end. esp when like you said dick is someone who wants to be better! so despite his several hypocrisies it is nonetheless in his best interests to look internally and analyze and evolve. and i feel like that very much could have happened had there been any actual segue between dick's breakup with kory and his re-entry into the batfam. i don't think there was much of a connection between these two sets of writers at all and so what you got is what felt like two very distinct parts of dick's life that didn't necessarily reveal a bridge point. so it's not entirely unrealistic that dick may grow to be the person (at least to some extent) that bat canon portrayed him to be in the years that followed but i certainly think as it stands it felt unearned and like all of his issues explored in ntt were conveniently swept to the side without any semblance of closure (albeit i do think some of these issues are addressed in outsiders '03 but in that dickheaded way that winick explores things generally. so i'm not sure it's the kind of closure people actually want). it's very sad and ig that's what people cling to more than anything. it's not that they're opposed to him growing to be a better person but that they're opposed to a version of dick who feels like he sprung out of nothing

[onewomancitadel]

I just found out the dollar amount an individual spent on trying to prove Knightfall wrong and it's actually mortifying. I would delete my entire Internet presence if my obsession ever got that far or the person I was trying to prove wrong found out.

Imagine spending that much money and not even getting the guarantee you want.

Point and laugh, ladies. Point and laugh.