#poking fun at each other

[applejongho]

truly the best end to a day is like, giggling and laughing so hard w a friend over a stupid thing she did. like yeah this is love

[popfizzles]

They mean well, but Cuphead being around makes it hard for Mac to stay on task!...

[hey-hey-j]

little Fizz! bonus comic

[delicatebatharmony]

Who was Tim's Robin? Who was Duke's Robin?

No, no, no. This is all we need to worry about:

Teen Titans (2003) #92

[watchthekittycatcher]

I can't tell you how refreshing it is to see a Minecraft server whose spawn is actually nice. Where the houses and roads are well-designed and well-lit, and there aren't creeper holes left right and center. It's cool to see this game being played by a group of people who actually care about how the things around them look and who actually maintain their surroundings.

[cellgatinbo]

love how so much of these three being together has just been them poking fun at each other's relationship struggles

[silverwhittlingknife]

hi Silver! o/ because that fanart made me wonder - would you happen to know when/where Dick's stuffed elephant plush Zitka turns up in the comics?

GREETINGS CAM <3333 THAT ART WAS SO CUTE

Yeah, I think your instincts are right - it's a truly adorable bit of transformative fandom, but I'm 95% percent sure it's not comics canon. Barbara has canon plushies, but I don't think anyone else does.

I got kinda invested in the investigation (it's hard to prove a negative!) and I ended up typing out an entire History of Elinore/Zitka, so, uh, if you're curious, meet me below the cut for:

Where does Elinore / Zitka - the animal - appear in comics?

Did Dick ever have a stuffed elephant toy in comics?

Where does Elinore / Zitka appear in comics?

We're gonna go in chronological order!

Dick's circus elephant friend was first created for practical reasons: in Batman 436, Marv Wolfman does a big expanded flashback to Dick's circus backstory as a way to subtly show us Tim before officially introducing him (so that we can have a technically-solvable mystery-of-Tim's-identity in LPoD). In this comic, there's an elephant named Elinore who loves Dick:

Aww. Such a cute elephant!

Batman 436 comes out in August 1989. New Titans 60 comes out a few months later, in November, and guess what? When Dick visits the circus, he is suddenly surprised by an unexpected blast from the past! It turns out that even though it's been years, Elinore still remembers him!

Here's the part where Elinore remembers Dick:

SUCH a cute elephant. I love her.

(Guess who else still remembers Dick even though it was so long ago. Guess which other character is about to be an unexpected blast from the past. Guess which character Elinore is directly paralleling guess guess guess sorry everything is about Dick and Tim in my mind but I can focus I swear)

Four years later, in 1993, Batman: The Animated Series retells Dick's origin story. They like and keep Wolfman's elephant, but they change her name to Zitka:

Wolfman doesn't return to the elephant beyond those two appearances, and a few years down the line, New Titans gets cancelled and Wolfman's not writing Dick anymore anyway. So the animal gets abandoned for a while, until Devin Grayson, a fan of both Wolfman and B:tAS, revives the Wolfman-era Titans team in JLA/Titans and then the ongoing series Titans 1999.

Grayson then brings back the elephant in a flashback to Dick's past in Titans 16 (Jun 2000), where she imports the B:tAS name. Sometimes I'm skeptical of TV-to-comics imports, but honestly, I endorse this one. You lose the alliteration, which is a shame, but IMO Zitka is a better elephant name than Elinore.

Here's Dick with the newly-christened Zitka in Titans 16:

Grayson also briefly references the elephant in Gotham Knights 20 and - in a final angsty callback - in Nightwing 88 (Feb 2004), where Zitka tries futilely to comfort Dick in the midst of his trauma conga line:

... And... honestly, I think that's it for comic appearances? The two Wolfman comics plus the three Grayson comics.

Both Wolfman and Grayson are writing multiple titles - Batman, New Titans, Titans, Gotham Knights, and Nightwing between the two of them, spanning a big chunk of Dick's post-Crisis canon - and both writers use the elephant for heartwarming moments of nostalgia, which means if you're doing a post-Crisis readthrough for Dick, Elinore/Zitka feels memorable. But I don't think she actually shows up that much.

For post-2011, I am not as well-informed - throwing this out to the dash? anyone know? - but I feel like Zitka the heartwarming symbol of Dick's heartwarming circus past is, uh, thematically very at odds with the Court of Owls evil!circus vibes, so my instinct is that this story element was almost certainly dropped in the reboot.

Did Dick ever have a stuffed elephant toy in comics?

In WFA, yes; in main comics continuity, no. Technically, I have not read every comic ever published, so I could be wrong!! But I don't think so.

Below, find my rambling reasoning on the tonal vibes of pre-Crisis, post-Crisis, and post-2011, and why this particular story element doesn't seem right to me for the first two.

Pre-Crisis (...okay, mostly the Silver Age): stuffed animal, yes or no?

tl;dr no, requires too much background knowledge on the part of the reader, plus the elephant wasn't a thing until later

Elinore doesn't get created until post-Crisis, but also just generally, pre-Crisis callbacks are more along the lines of this reference in Batman 129 (published in 1960), where, wow, Batman and Robin are hunting jewel thieves - and it turns out Robin recognized this strongman! BUT HOW?!

The comic goes on to recap Dick's entire origin story in flashback, on the assumption that you may not know it.

(BTW, if you'd like to know more about Haly's Circus throughout the years, nightwingology has a great post here summarizing a lot of fun plotlines and characters!)

Basically: Silver Age comics are very self-consciously episodic and kid-friendly; they're not generally gonna do overly-elaborate callbacks because they don't know what comics their kid readers may have randomly picked up or remember.

By the time of post-Crisis, comic books were being written for an adult audience buying from the direct market, i.e. readers who are collecting whole runs & don't need or want Dick's origin story to be recapped to us in full every time it's referenced. That's why in post-Crisis, we get stuff like "hey, neat, this particular soda brand is getting mentioned in several different books!!" or "in order to understand this story arc, buy SIXTEEN DIFFERENT COMICS in FIVE DIFFERENT RUNS and read them ALL ACCORDING TO A NUMBERED ORDER and also you better be following the individual plotlines and recognize these five minor characters who we don't bother to introduce!! Good luck!!" But the elaborate post-Crisis plotlines - and subtler worldbuilding like a stuffed animal callback to Dick's backstory - don't make a lot of story sense UNLESS you're imagining your readers as completionist adult fans.

So IMO a stuffed animal wouldn't be a pre-Crisis thing unless it was The Episodic Story Of the Week, and I don't think a stuffed animal is action-adventure-y enough for the fast-paced storytelling of the Silver Age. (Unless it, like, came to life and tried to eat you or something.)

Post-Crisis: stuffed animals, yes or no?

tl;dr: no, Dick's a manly tough guy, he's not gonna have a stuffed animal, that'd be lame, like something Tim might do

Part of the edgy grimdark adult vibes in 80s/90s comics is that some characters who used to be kinda silly & goofy & lighthearted - like Batman and Robin - get reimagined as Serious and Angsty and Edgy in a Tough Cool Manly Brooding Way. This massively affects characterization for Bruce, Dick, and Bruce and Dick's relationship.

(I obviously love this change & love the tense Bruce-and-Dick interactions, but plenty of fans of the earlier fluffy comics really disliked the edgy retcons of Miller / Wolfman / Starlin / et al.)

The upshot is that post-Crisis is a period when you could have a recurring reference like a stuffed elephant, but you wouldn't have a stuffed elephant, not for Dick. I think a toy like that would be too cutesy / childish / effeminate to give a male character in post-Crisis, unless you were poking fun at him.

Now, you could probably let Tim have a stuffed animal, because Tim is sometimes cool but also sometimes a tryhard loser who is faking being cool and not entirely pulling it off (see e.g. the Robin comic where he practices tough-guy faces in the mirror, or the Teen Titans comic where Conner discovers his cringy Enya CD, or when he's fanboying over Connor and it's awkward, etc etc.). A stuffed animal would be deeply embarrassing, and you'd have to be careful to compensate by having Tim do something cool afterward - but Tim's character concept allows for "he's kind of a loser sometimes."

But Dick isn't!! In post-Crisis, Dick's a tough / impressive / "cool guy" character, the kind of guy anyone would want to be, even in the flashbacks where he's Robin, and even in the stories where he's more lighthearted than angsty. It'd be kinda lame for Dick to have a stuffed elephant, so he wouldn't. I feel like Dick would be more likely to poke fun at it if someone had one, like when he's making fun of Wally for liking the Hardy Boys. Dick could have a Batman action figure, at most, and if he had one he would have it ironically.

Basically: in post-Crisis, a male character hugging a stuffed elephant feels more likely to be a punchline to me, not something poignant. (Even with Tim, Tim could have an embarrassing stuffed animal, but he couldn't hug it when sad - that's too far. Maybe Booster Gold might do this. Probably he wouldn't, but spiritually, he would. Sorry Booster ilu! <3)

Instead, Dick instinctively deals with his inner turmoil like the TORTURED ACTION HERO he is: by punching things and brooding and yelling and joining the mob and sleeping on rooftops and going on obsessive secret missions and acquiring Angsty Stubble!! Just like Batman!

(Technically I don't know if Bruce ever joined the mob but you know he would.)

Anyway as you know this is my favorite continuity and I am poking fun affectionately, but uh, yeah sdfsfdsfs. No stuffed animals.

Post-2011 / Infinite Frontier / Wayne Family Adventures: stuffed animals, yes or no?

tl;dr it's in WFA! Probably not anywhere else, but it could be.

Post-2011 stuff tends to be cutesier overall, most of all in the current Infinite Frontier era. So I don't feel like this would be tonally out-of-line with IF comics. Taylor tends to go for more meme-y references rather than fanfic references, though.

So the obvious best fit is WFA, which is aiming for a rough approximation of Silver Age family-friendly vibes - wholesome, episodic plots, Teaching Good Moral Lessons For The Youth, etc. - plus lots of Easter eggs for fanfic readers and some comic references.

And look, here we are:

Aww.

Whew - that's everything I could find!

Anyway as you can probably tell, I LOVE the elephant, so this was a very entertaining rabbit hole to go down, thank you <3

[hydralune]

always thinking about (alkaid voice) Beep

[fictionadventurer]

Why is this book about 1880s London Jews so relatable to the 2020s American Roman Catholic experience?

In Amy Levy's Reuben Sachs, you've got:

The community that is at once fully part of the modern world while having an insular nature (and the amount of modern vs. insular varies based on the person and family)

The people who ignore their religion 99% of the year, but wouldn't even consider skipping services on the important holidays

The ultra-traditionalists who go so intense on holding to traditions that a lot of other members of their religion side-eye them

The kids who go to services only because their parents force them to, or who rebel and refuse to go because they don't see the point or don't believe in God

The new convert who is more zealous than, like, 90% of the people who were born into this religion

A family with its very specific blend of religious opinions and inside jokes that's fully aware that they're baffling to outsiders

This book was apparently meant to be a realistic portrait of Jewish life (in response to Daniel Deronda and its (according to Levy) highly unrealistic and over-idealized portrayal of Jews), and my goodness, did she succeed in capturing what it's like to live in a culturally religious community in a rapidly secularizing world.

[daily-hanamura]

[002yb]

For as rough as his brother's hands can be, they're gentle with him. Even when Ace couldn't return the kindness, Luffy endured him; holding fast to clenched fists and knuckles that were split and swollen. Persistent, stubborn even after Luffy pried his hand into Ace's and grit his teeth through the ache of Ace's bruising grips. Whining because he was a crybaby and it hurt, but never pulling away. Only squeezing just as tight in playful retaliation. Smile wide as he coaxed Ace's fingers out of their vice grip to clasp their hands together - warm and soft in a way that made Ace flinch. Because while there was dirt beneath Luffy's nails, there was blood beneath his.

And in spite of that—in spite of everything—Luffy never let go of him. Whether or not Ace feels worth that love and tender devotion, Luffy holds on to him: hands clasped together as Luffy beckons him on new adventures, a reassuring squeeze whenever Ace wavers, a bruising grip when Luffy is overcome; nails cutting into Ace's skin until Ace soothes him. Lips ghosting over knuckles - swollen and split).

Rough, but gentle with Ace. Always.

[capricioussun]

Inspired by the fucked headache I had last week I came up with a new hc - when home, Edge will use an eyepatch over his left eye whenever he has/is getting a migraine, since the pain is worse on that side due to the scar

He would never wear it in public but that's not usually a problem since he becomes very light sensitive with migraines and wouldn't be leaving the house for anything less than a dire emergency anyway

[tennessoui]

june ko-fi: pirate captains au

ok ok so tbh in my head i was sort of counting the third and final part of the mermay au as the june ko-fi upload because it was technically posted june 1st in celebration of mer...june, but i got a few asks about if i was gonna post a proper june ko-fi fic and i decided like. sure! i can do that! and then i did <3 and now it's posted on ko-fi!

unfortunately im still on my water loving bullshit though, so this ko-fi fic is set in an au where obi-wan and anakin are pirate captains of different ships (obviously the Negotiator and the Resolute respectively) and they have a bit of a history. mostly they're just attracted to each other like magnets. mostly i just wanted to use the words breeches and tankards cause i think those words rock tbh

here's a snippet!

“Hatred is a powerful motivator, Captain,” Anakin says, and Obi-Wan would usually pay attention, but he decides it’s not worth it. Anakin’s lips are soft and his thumb catches on the bottom one as Anakin speaks, slips slightly into his mouth. “I’ve found that many things are powerful motivators, Captain,” he replies as he takes a step forward, closing the distance between their bodies. “And some are much more pleasant than hatred." Anakin huffs out a laugh, lets him approach. Pushes closer. His eyes are dark in the moonlight. His eyes are fixed upon Obi-Wan. “I joined Dooku’s crew,” Anakin murmurs as if he thinks that they are still talking about his past. As if Obi-Wan is not interested in their future. “To find you again, Captain. To kill you.” “How very innovative of you,” he says and he removes his hand from Anakin’s face, drops it instead to his neck and curls it around his throat. It is not a threat.  Mostly. Anakin grins back at him. “You are an easy man to hate, Captain Kenobi,” he says. “I believe that your saving grace is that you’re also an easy man to want.” “And you want me,” Obi-Wan says, like it’s a fact. Like it’s a foregone conclusion. It feels as if it is.

as a quick reminder, these ko-fi fics posted in my gallery are only visible to monthly supporters (ps. thank you sm to my monthly supporters!!!!) - at this point, there are 13 fics there (all 4k-7k in length), with plots varying from 'what if obi-wan was a werewolf' to 'what if they were both mermaids and i wrote 20k about that specifically'. i'm always open to discussing these fics here on tumblr and i currently do not plan to post them onto ao3; if you sign up to support monthly and then cancel that subscription, you should retain access for a whole month anyway so you can read all of the fics there!

[tartagliatum]

thinking about wrio who doesn’t realize how many snacks sigewinne brings him until his day off when he’s absolutely starving despite eating his regular three meals. his stomach growls are loud enough that he spends the day getting teased or awkwardly apologising for his poor body’s audible demands ~

[impossible-rat-babies]

anyway banging the weird lil vampire guy

[raifuujin]

Could you imagine if Ran tried confiding in anyone about her suspicions about Conan being Shinichi?

Like. Combining her past suspicions with people asking odd questions about Conan (like Heiji and Sera). Maybe talking to Heiji about it, if only because it would be so funny to watch him struggle to cover for Shinichi. Which would have been funnier before Shinichi ever got to hang around Heiji as himself and not as Conan, because then Ran could have been thinking 'I know those two have become friends after the first few times we ran into each other, I don't want Hattori-kun to get too attached to Conan if he's really Shinichi. I might not know what's going on, but I doubt Shinichi would want to stay a kid if he somehow turned into one, and I at least want to check with another detective about what I've noticed'.

Heiji struggling because he's not good at lying, probably sending a text to Shinichi about it as soon as he can. Silently thinking that she's smart and noticed some really good points (because of course someone who's known him since he was an actual child could notice more) while also trying to go 'wasn't there that time when both Conan and Shinichi were together? Though, if he did turn into a kid, he's really good at acting like a real brat sometimes...'