#of having to be helena wayne

[the-best-of-waynes]

“It’s fine,” Karen lies, waving it off. Anything is fine, as long as she’s around Helena. Maybe it’s co-dependent, maybe there’s some stuff there that needs to be unpacked, but she’s fine not doing it. She’s fine. She is. All of this is fine.

There’s a fond, genuine, if small smile that comes at Helena’s concern. Her grumpy, bristly porcupine of a best friend, who will treat almost all affection like poison, all care and vulnerability like a gallows sentence, but can’t help putting everyone before herself, especially Karen. “Absolutely!” She says cheerily, widening her smile, before realizing how easily Helena will see through the facade, and dropping it back to the genuine, much smaller and softer smile. “I want to hear about you. Be involved in your life. I’ll take whatever you’re willing to give. You’re my best friend, Len. I don’t want to lose this, lose you. I know I broke your trust, and I will do whatever it takes to regain it, regardless of if the end result is us dating again or us as friends again. If you’re even okay with that. I just want to be part of your life again, but I won’t force myself on you. I won’t do it against your will. You matter to me, L.”

Karen pauses, blinking as she tries to process the information. “You’re faking your death?” It comes out a little strangled and a large part shocked. The rest clicks in to place, and she frowns. “And you told me because you don’t want me telling anyone that you’re alive when Huntress is active while I’m crying at your funeral.”

-@brightest-starr-girl’s most recent post

Helena, Len, Lenny, whoever she is with the only person who knows her, catches the lie but lets it pass. It’s not like Karen hasn’t let her own lies past in this conversation, not with her ability to hear Lenny’s heart speed up as she does so.

The “Absolutely!” is one of the fakest things Lenny has heard out of Kare’s mouth in… years, honestly. It hurts a little (a lottle), knowing that she’s not trusted well enough to count as someone her best friend can be real with. Her ex seems to notice this, dropping the charade the next second.

Lenny doesn’t know what to do other than reach out and grab Karen’s hand tightly, still staring straight ahead. She swallows back a lump in her throat. “Thanks, Ren,” she responds huskily. There’s a long beat of silence, breeze gently wrapping around them in an embrace, before Len can manage to speak. “You… you didn’t break my trust. You cut off some unhealthy overgrowth that would’ve made it collapse in on itself from overweight.” She’s not sure the analogy makes sense, but it does to her, so she keeps going. “Which, yeah, it hurts, because cutting anything off is going to cause bleeding. But better to bleed a little now and have it heal with a small scar than suffer from a collapse and have the bones never fully grow back right.” She blinks, eyes watering from the cold air and not the struggle of dredging all of the hurt back up and laying it out to heal. The pain of absolution. “I still love you. A lot. I would marry you in a heartbeat. But… I don’t think it would be healthy for us to date.” She squeezes K’s hand, not sure if she can force the words out. If she can make herself say them. If she can be willing to face the facts or not.

She closes her eyes, pictures Karen’s teary face that last day they saw each other, half a year ago. I love you, Len. I don’t know that I know how to stop loving you. But I don’t know how to keep this up when you’ve changed so much. When you’ve left being the person I love and become someone I don’t even recognize anymore. Because that’s what’s happened. You’re not you. You’ve changed and… some of it has been good, but you’ve lost the warmth. You’re still gentle and loving, but it’s- it’s cold. I don’t know that I want to love someone so cold. But I also don’t know that I know how to stop.

That’s what gives her the final push to say it. To put the words out there, to confront the truth. “Maybe ever.”

She waits another beat, unable to look at Karen, dropping her hand from the Kryptonian’s out of guilt. “And if I say that, how is it fair for me to move on? To make you feel like I only did it because I liked someone else? That I put you in second place, when you’re not? Because you matter to me, K. So, so incredibly much.”

She purses her lips at the truth of the situation, at the way Karen cut through the fluff to the heart of the matter so incredibly quickly. “Yup,” she mutters dully. Quieter, she adds, “And that way the funeral tears will be fake.”

[topical memes below the cut]

Martha Wayne Foundation’s Midwinter Gala

open to anyone who wants to join!

Helena takes a deep breath and a shallow sip of champagne. Her family isn't here, so it's not like they can take it away, and no one else cares, because she's not getting drunk and pretty much everyone above the age of fourteen at a gala drinks.

As much as she hates these things, she is willing to suffer through if it means her dad and brothers get a little break. Maybe it'll help with the guilt a little. After all, it's the least she can do, considering...

Nevermind. She's nauseous once more.

She spots a server unobtrusively making his way through the crowd and immediately begins weaving through to reach him. The food is the only redeemable thing about a gala, other than the dancing; it might be small in size, but the number is unlimited, the selection varied, and the taste exquisite.

So focused is she on her goal of canapes that she completely misses the person she bumps into.

"So sorry," she apologizes quickly.

[outfit under the cut]

[uncharted-constellations]

It’s been a minute, (both post wise and design wise) so decided to update the fam + a couple additions compared to last time

[littlefankingdom]

How fandom portrays the Batfam's reaction to Bruce not murdering the Joker after Jason's death:

Bruce: I can't do it. I just can't.

Alfred: Kill the Joker.

Barbara: Kill the Joker.

Tim: Don't, but my mind can be changed.

Dick: Kill the Joker.

How it is actually in the comics:

Bruce: I really want to kill the Joker, but I shouldn't and I will not.

Alfred: Don't.

Leslie: Don't.

Barbara: Don't.

Jim: Don't.

Tim: Don't.

Jean-Paul: If you had killed him, your son wouldn't be dead.

Dick: Don't, and I'm going to beat that blond bitch that thinks he's a better Batman than you.

[ehliena]

Someone: black hair and a trust fund? You must be a Wayne.

[pokeberry5]

tfw u're on the verge of tears bc too many people are talking at once

sketchdump (again, mostly tim, bc even when i dont set out to draw him, i end up drawing him anyway):

dick & tim from gotham knights issues #8-10 have my whole heart

my friend got me a new pen:

and i've been reading a lot of upswings and havendance's fics where tim keeps showing up at people's apartments, as is his due (let him in!!)

tim using his cape as an emergency blanket!!

this stupid image has been haunting me for months:

if it wasn't clear from honeypot and the red dress comic, i like a very specific aesthetic

i wanted a red hood charm too:

(chibi catwoman tim from a old, larger spread "the latex spread" that i absolutely cannot post the full version of o7)

some really ancient doodles (proof that long hair tim has been important to me since the beginning):

roughs of my red dress comic:

[autisticrosewilson]

It's not that I hate fanon or that I think fanon is inherently less intelligent or morally wrong, but a LOT of fanon is based in racism, misogyny, and classism that I feel like a lot of you accept without question.

WHY is Duke (Daredevil, son of a god, has never once allowed himself to be defined by anyone's actions but his own) relegated to a background role, only characterized by reacting to the whims of other bats?

Why is Babs - Birds of Prey leader and backbone of the hero society, tells Bruce to fuck off and die 4 times a day and is constantly ruining her relationships by being biased and unhinged - Gotham bound, the mature responsible mom of the group who never argues with Bruce and never gets in trouble?

Why is Dick, both a tactical genius and master manipulator, a himbo only appreciated for his sex appeal? Especially when he is both Romani (group of people demonized and condemned as hypersexual by their nature alone) and an SA victim.

WHY is Damian "feral" and "uncivilized" despite being raised as a literal prince? Half of you treat him like a sociopath with no hope of redemption for an unfunny three second joke and the other half of you go full throttle into Bruce's white savior bullshit so that Damian can be "redeemed". Y'know when you're not villainizing Talia and acting like Dick is his other parent, actually.

WHY is Stephanie - extremely intelligent detective who can't stand Bruce and has a living mother she loves - lumped in as another member of the Batfam, a blonde ditz who only cares about prank wars and emotionally supporting Tim?

WHY is Cass - intelligent, a grown adult, suicidal perfectionist - emotionally intelligent, primarily existing to support the characters around her, immediately accepting of everyone she meets regardless of her own morals?

Why is Bruce the golden standard? Enough so that though everyone in the fandom could agree that he's an emotionally unstable wreck, being considered "the most like him" is seen as a compliment and not the HIGHEST insult? Everyone would agree if I said that Bruce purposely self sabotages his relationship half the time and the other half he simply does things without caring about the emotional impact it will have on people because he has to be the smartest in the room, but if I said that makes him a shit partner and emotionally abusive parent the fandom would bend over backwards to argue with me.

Why is Tim "the best Robin" when Dick Grayson invented the mantle, it is impossible for someone to embody the spirit of Robin better than him because he made it and he created what being Robin means. Maybe Tim is the best in Bruce's eyes, but what Robin means and who has the right to give it over was a significant thing they argued about. Tim the high school drop out, and yet also somehow the smartest? Tim "the most like Bruce" except no he's not, that's Cass. Poor neglected, abused, victimized little Timmy (the rich boy at the elite boarding school with loving albeit busy parents and almost every instance of him being victimized by another character has either been racist bullshit - The Al Ghuls and Rose Wilson- or a complete 180 for the character that made no sense when examined through the lens of prior characterization - Jason for instance.)

Almost every fanon trope that gets passed around like gospel seems to deliberately push POC characters and women into the background and strip them of interesting complex traits and stories, usually for the purpose of fitting them all into bite sized incorrect quote character types and uncomplicated narrative roles that are not only completely divergent from canon, but primarily exist to prop up the two rich white boys.

Also the insistence that Bruce, a 20 year old at the time, should actually be excused for how much he mentally and emotionally fucked Dick up because really they're more like siblings! While deciding that Dick at the same age was actually the perfect candidate to be Damian's new parent/guardian...have you lost the fucking plot you don't even make sense to yourselves.

Okay I lied at the beginning, I do hate fanon. You guys are so uncritical about the media you consume it is BEYOND just letting people enjoy things and have fun. I guess it's one thing if you KNOW this stuff isn't canon and UNDERSTAND why these tropes are problematic and you engage with it as such, it's fine read and write what you want, but just spreading the same nonsense around and parading it around as "better than canon" (version of the character so bland and boring you've somehow made the old white men at DC look like geniuses in the art of representation) is just infuriating.

[not-another-robin]

Im thinking about Helena and old(er) Alfred... pap pap and grandbaby

[gaywineauntsstuff]

saw someone said dick should apologize to jason in the comics for having putting him in arkham

i am sorry i think the f*ck not 😭 like i love jason as much as the next guy dmw but come on guys

“Jason was in Arkham”

“Dick wanted to put Tim in Arkham”

I sincerely apologize to my whump friends but I fear yall don’t know Jason Todd’s game

First let’s not talk about the fact the only person Dick put in Arkham who was miserable was himself. We aren’t gonna talk about it. Or the Arkham reform thing he was doing a the time or the other 600 things that were going on

Hell I won’t even talk about what Jason did in blackgate (WHWRE HE WAS INITIALLY) b4 he killed a hundred people to end up in Arkham we don’t need to talk about it

I won’t talk about the menace that is the hottest version of red head Jason Todd okay we have, as a society moved past that.

But genuinely for a second can you imagine that conversation

Dick guilt ridden: Jason, I- I owe and apology

Jason cleaning his crowbar: ….

Dick: I never should’ve put you in Arkham I’m so sorry being near the joker-

Jason: was literally part of the whole plan? Why the hell do you think I TRIED to get into it

Dick: exactly! I shouldn’t have indulged your worst impulses, fuck I should’ve brought you home or kept you with a league member

Jason: I would’ve killed Tim and kidnapped Damian to use as a barter tool with Ra’s Al Ghul. You know this. I need you to tell me that you know this

Dick: fuck Jay you were nineteen! That’s basically a fucking child

Jason: I’m so sorry weren’t you ENGAGED TO BE MARRIED AT 19? Didn’t you run the league for a couple months at 18? Do you think you could do more than I could at 19 dickface.

Dick: No Jason you don’t understand-

Jason: oh perfect Grayson just because I chose to become a crime lord and YOU decided to do the cringe fail hero gig. Which was really. Cringe and fail since it’s so obvious you either wanted to be dead or a supervillain

Dick: wha-that’s not true!

Jason: sure sure go say hi to Donna Troy’s grave for me

Dick:…..

Jason: ANYWAY just because I spent my teenage years outside of spandex building a criminal empire DOESNT MAKE IT LESS IMPRESSIVE THAN YOUR STUPID TITANS GROUP R I C H A R D

Dick quietly: I’mstillsorry

Jason: well im not sorry for the fact i strung you and damain up nude to reveal your identities, im also not sorry for stealing your suit and killing people in it, while we’re on that topic im also not sorry for STEALING BRUCES SUIT, im not sorry for beating tim up that shit was funny as fuck and I’m also not sorry for laughing when bludhaven blew up.

Dick: ….

Jason: so shut your fucking ass up talking about ‘oh I’m so sorry Jason’ like we didn’t spend the past decade trying to ruin each others lives

Dick: I NEVER TRIED TO RUIN YOUR LIFE

Jason: MY LIFES DREAM WAS MURDER ERGO YOU NOT LETTING ME DO THAT RUINED IT.

Jason: we WERE assholes to each other past tense and I will 100% be taking advantage of your raging guilt complex to pretend those things are equivalent to each other and now that we are all happy family bygones will be bygones whatever I can fully abuse you to get out of league level shit.

Jason: anyway what are you gonna do next? apologize to Tim for Red Robin

Dick guiltily: he’s the next stop

Jason: omg your actually doing an apology tour

Dick: I FEEL BAD OKAY

Jason: dude you know what I’ll indulge you, go try and apologize to Tim but when he LAUGHS you out of the room for being a fucking dumbass I’ll be there with popcorn

Dick grumbling: Steph accepted my apology to HER

Jason: yeah because everyone in this family was a dick to Steph and she deserved better.

Dick: yeah she was a phenomenal batgirl i wish we worked together more now that she’s spoiler

Jason: did she really hit Tim in the face with a brick

Dick: yep

[fantastic-nonsense]

wait wait wait I think I can fix Lizzie AND the mess that Geoff Johns made of Helena Wayne, guys

consider: Trinity daughter trio of multiversal refugee orphans

[batboopp]

this is the first sign you see when you try to get into gotham

[internetgiraffekid1673]

Parallels Between the Girl and Boy Robins

I've been stewing on a thought for a while, and when I was messaging @redplanetlobster, I realized it's actually a good one worth sharing.

All 3 of the Girl Robins from DC (Helena Wayne, Carrie Kelley, and Stephanie Brown for those unfamiliar) have notable parallels to the last 3 Boy Robins (Damian Wayne, Tim Drake, and Jason Todd). Check it out:

Individual drawings under the cut, words/image description in the alt text.

Now, this isn't to say that anybody "stole" anybody else's gimmick---especially not the girl robins stealing the boys' thing: Carrie predates Tim by 3 years and Helena predates Damian by like 30 years. And obviously Jason was created long before Steph, although she was a well established character by the time Jason was resurrected.

But I do find these parallels fascinating. On the part of Steph and Jason, some of their similarities are intentional (mostly them being dead and having a rather strained relationship with Bruce), but many of them are not. And I don't think Helena or Carrie were even a thought in the writer's heads when creating Tim and Damian.

This is especially fascinating because, despite these similarities, these characters are VASTLY different from each other and I don't think they'd even GET ALONG with each other without some serious work.

Jason has no particular beef with Steph and sees her as proof of his point, but Steph thinks he's a conceited asshole who tried to murder her boyfriend. Tim and Carrie were trained by an obsessively paranoid Bruce and carry that paranoia with them---they can throw each other MUCH further than they trust each other. And while Damian and Helena may get along all right if it's later in Damian's arc, an early Damian would have SO many complexes about her existence and there WOULD be bloodshed.

Idk, I just think this is incredibly interesting and want a fanfic or a robin crossover event that explores it (and locks these pairs in a room for an extended period of time).

Btw, I do find it hilarious that Duke Thomas (most recent Robin technically) and Maps Mizoguchi (prooooobably gonna be the next Robin) are actually COMPLETE opposites lol.

[aingeal98]

Batman Chronicles 18 Cass seeing Bruce and Leslie, seeing her as Bruce's mother. Bruce admitting she's probably the closest thing he's had for most of his life. The way the Leslie and Bruce's dynamic foils Bruce and Cass's. Three generations of a family trying to help the world and the people around them, all carrying a very different relationship with violence. So much unexplored potential in that one issue.

[imnotlikeyall]

I feel like comic fans (especially dc comics fans) are inherently delusional about how annoying they actually are. Most think that their favorite character’s fans are the least annoying, that they’re “the good ones” for not liking certain character (or characters). for example: some Jason fans thinking Richard fans are more annoying than they are, and viceversa.

I also have seen comic fans feel or act as if they were superior for not liking a specific ship or fanon couple, like Dickroy fans talking shit about Jayroy fans. At the end of the day, at least in my opinion, we all are a bit annoying, it’s part of being in a fandom. Liking a really obscure character that no one but you knows won’t make you better than a Superman fan, no matter how many of your oomfs on dctwt say so, you’re just making people don’t want to engage with a character you claim to like so much and making yourself look immature.

Saying that Nightwing fans are annoying won’t make people like Red Hood more. Saying Red Hood fans are annoying won’t make people like Nightwing more. Let’s focus that hate on batcest shippers instead.

yes ik i made many orthographic errors in my writing, dont correct me, i dont respect this language.

[littlefankingdom]

How the fandom portrays Bruce and Dick learning Red Hood (not knowing it's Jason) is 19-ish:

Bruce: Don't care, didn't ask.

Dick: OMG, he's just a BABY.

How Bruce and Dick would canonically react:

Bruce: He's still a teen. He's just a kid. OMG, I probably hit him too hard, shame on me. Maybe if I play my cards right, he will accept to be mentored.

Dick: Ok, so he is not a child. I can and will beat his ass.

[necrotic-nephilim]

for the ask game (1)

au where bruce is attracted to his robins and batgirls. he tries not to think about it or act on it, but it's getting more difficult with every new member of his team he acquires. does anyone know? do the robins and batgirls notice his weird behavior? what do they do about it? do they ever find out the truth? who would think it's terrible and who would find it strangely hot/comforting/nice? does bruce ever act on his feelings?

for the ask game!

oh my GOD do i have thoughts for AUs like this, i love this shit so dearly, dirtybadwrong Bruce who's trying to keep a lid on it my beloved.

i think the fun of this AU is if characters would notice Bruce lusting for themselves vs would they notice Bruce lusting for a different Robin/Batgirl. like does Dick pick up on it when it's just him and Bruce? no, because it's just. him and Bruce. he and Bruce are weird and complicated and hold endless bounds of nuance. that's just How Bruce Is, and Dick is the "test run", in a sense. he knows Bruce is new to this whole sidekick/family thing and is giving Bruce grace for being rough around the edges. but when Bruce starts looking at Jason or Tim or Cass that way, that's when Dick starts to notice. it's never enough of a suspicion he feels justified to bring it up, but the thought lingers. he's hyperaware and grows less and less comfortable with leaving them alone with Bruce. it's a weird game of chicken, Dick and Bruce staring each other down when Bruce's touch lingers too long. each waiting for the other to say something first. if Bruce ever broke and actually acted on his feelings, Dick would be eaten alive by the guilt of knowing something was up, but never saying something until it was too late.

obviously, Cass would know. there's no world where Cass *doesn't* know, the nature of who and what she is would immediately clock it. but the issue is, Cass doesn't have a good framework of what family looks like. she doesn't really understand familial vs romantic love bc she has no firsthand experience of what a parent's love should even look like. so she never calls it out. she just watches. i'm a fan of Cass believing this is normal and believing she too can express and act on attraction that's vaguely incestuous. maybe it's with Babs, maybe it's with Dick or Tim or Bruce himself. but she recognizes this as Normal and Accepted within the Batfamily, so it severely fucks up her understanding of familial love and i just. man it's my favorite thing about Cass in Batcest honestly, is how you can play with her lack of experience with love, boundaries, and sexuality.

Tim is the fun one for me. because my favorite flavor of BruTim is when Tim knows, as he agrees to be Robin, that there's a non-zero chance that Bruce is going to be Weird and agrees anyway because he's decided it's an acceptable risk. so Tim knows from the get-go because he's expecting it. if Bruce acts on his attraction, i think it's either with Tim or Cass first, because they're the most likely to confront him about it in a way that isn't entirely negative. Tim has accepted it's a possibility and Cass just seeks being loved and touched so. it leads to the first time someone's ever confronted Bruce about it. and the thing is, Bruce really doesn't like confrontation about his flaws. the first time Tim tries to imply he's okay with it, Bruce would lash out at the idea, tell Tim how inappropriate that is and benches Tim for a week. it'd probably take a united front from Cass and Tim to get Bruce to even *admit* to the attraction. still Bruce wouldn't allow it to happen and he brushes them off until finally, the dam breaks. it's fun if there's a cause like sex pollen, but i think it's *more* fun if it's just. a random fucking Tuesday and finally Bruce is at his limit. he has no real reason, there's nothing particularly different about that day's routine. he just sees Tim or Cass striping armor and sighs and gives in.

i don't think Steph, Jason, or Babs would notice until anything substantial happened. not because they're not wicked smart, but just because none of them were looking for it. Jason put Bruce on a pedestal when he was alive, and when he came back from the dead he wasn't close enough to be noticing Bruce's interpersonal dynamics outside of his narrow scope. Steph has no real framework for what healthy fatherhood looks like, so if Bruce's touches linger, if he stares too long, she just shrugs and assumes it's how it is. and Babs was just never quite close enough to Bruce to notice. if and when she notices, is when actual sexual things start to happen between Cass and Bruce. because Cass would see no reason to hide it. Babs would be pissed, but it'd be tricky to navigate. Cass would be an adult, even if she's only 18/19, so technically, she's old enough to be consenting. if nothing else, Bruce is a careful man. even when he breaks and gives in to his desires, he covers his tracks well. he makes sure he has enthusiastic consent and there's no legal recourse that could be taken. age of consent and all that. there's not much Babs can *do* other than try to tell Cass (and/or Tim) that this isn't normal or okay. not that it gets her anywhere, but god would she try.

by the time Duke comes along (if we venture out of the pre-Flashpoint era) i think it's a sort of. open secret, in the Batfamily. talked about in nothing but hushed whispers and knowing glances. at some point, they've all had sex with Bruce, caving all for different reasons. some more than others. Tim sees it as a duty, Cass sees it as a way of seeking comfort, Steph sees it as getting Bruce's approval for once, etc. it's never forced on them, but eventually, they all come to Bruce sooner or later. and that's the fun irony of it, i think. they try to convince the others not to, but would go to Bruce on their own well. because complicated reasons they can't put into words. sometimes, Bruce is just a messy man who doesn't realize how prized his Attention to for the rest of the Batfamily. that weird duality of not liking him, but also wanting desperately for him to like you. all of them have dealt with it, at some point. so for Duke, it takes a while for him to understand this... whole dynamic. it's Cass who tries to explain it to him, and he's a little horrified, a lot confused. especially when Bruce starts staring at him a little too long as well. i think he'd only want to watch first but well. they all cave eventually.

also fun bonus if we venture into the Dark Knight Returns universe for my bestest girl Carrie Kelley: there's such a like, "i'm fucking around and i'm finding out" vibe to Carrie. like Tim, she's very proactive in just. deciding she's going to be Robin and she's ready for whatever that entails. (IMO canon Carrie is closer to fanon Tim than canon Tim is but *that* deserves its own post-) like she takes one look at the old man that is Batman and goes yup. he's never fucking getting rid of me now. if Bruce started having weird feelings about her, i think she'd have *fun* with it. she's decided she's in it for the long haul and for whatever being Robin means so. she's almost teasing about it, seeing how hard she can push before Bruce snaps. since it's an older, gruffer Bruce, i think he'd express open annoyance at it first, almost a sort of banter about how Carrie behave. but of course he caves and Carrie leans into it, because there's a fun in having all of Bruce's attention to herself. in the main timeline, Bruce is pretty split with so many Robins and Batgirls, but during their era, it's *just* her and him and she's very proud she's got him all to herself.

[puppetmaster13u]

Because there's a brand new dragon type, I did the batfam as Dusthide dragons. [Order at the bottom lol] Honestly I just enjoy dragon AUs and also like the whole predict morphology bit. Might make this into a proper AU because I also enjoy that. I mean, feral cryptid vigilantes (especially winged batfam) is my weakness

Order of Batclan Members: Alfred Pennyworth | Thomas Wayne | Bruce Wayne Kate Kane | Lucas Fox | Barbara Gordon Dick Grayson | Helena Kyle | Cass Cain Jason Todd | Harper Row | Stephanie Brown Tim Drake | Duke Thomas | Cullen Row Damian Wayne | Athanasia Al Ghul | Jarro Terry McGinnis | Matt McGinnis