#robin duke

[coolthingsguyslike]

[oldshowbiz]

Definition was the all-Canadian game show. It lasted fifteen years and continued in repeats for a good five years after its original run.

[msfcatlover]

Moonbeam Duke (Reverse Robins)

Duke was... tough. There's not nearly as many differing designs to draw on for him, and frankly I don't like a whole lot of them. I do like the mainline Signal costumes I've seen (both the black symbol w/ full-face helmet, and the glowing symbol w/ jaw exposed) but they really have more "Independent Hero" vibes.

(These designs are all dope, but not great sidekick material.)

Digging through reference images led me to realize that even in his Elseworld appearances, Duke almost always gravitates towards those knightly vibes. Boy likes his armor with a little fantasy-flair.

("Future's End" & "White Knight" a bit less so, but I still get cyberpunk-knight vibes from both—maybe it’s just me.)

Those that aren't all knightly tend to be stylized but durable street clothes, that are just out there enough to pass for a costume but could just as easily be worn by someone in their everyday life.

(Last one is this redesign by @sufroyo, but gods do I love it!)

Duke will probably want some of that knightly vibe, but Moonbeam is kinda my Robin figure in this AU; he needs to look like the less-experienced partner to Gotham’s Dark Knight, rather than a Knight in his own right. And I should combine that with his preference for practical, durable, almost-understated fashion.

So… streetwear-squire. Let's see what I can do.

First off, we can get both sets of vibes by starting with a gambeson as our base. Go for a shorter one to emphasize that jacket look, and while they come in a whole variety of styles, I think off-center clasps looks just a little bit more modern. I'd also say he doesn't buckle up his neck, giving it that popped-collar look Duke seems to like.

(Off-centered clasps, as well as a couple casually worn gambesons to show the kind of effect you can get. Duke's is definitely the kind that covers the hip to brush the top of the thigh, but given most people think of gambesons as being knee-length, that's still short.)

And, hell, if Robin can wear bright colors then so can Moonbeam. Using the "It'll help you learn to sneak better" excuse, Duke's gambeson is cream colored. (It also looks better contrasted to Batman's black.)

I like the idea of the gambeson having built-in gloves like in Duke's "Final Knight" costume, but I don't really like the look of Final Knight’s Duke design(s). Erm, any of them. I'd define the difference on the sleeves a little more by giving him hand & arm bracers to wear over the top, probably some simple pauldrons, and maybe a gradient on the arms from cream to grey.

(Not 100% on the gradient, just think the fully light sleeve might not work even with the bracers. Keep the metal simple & understated, though, and remember the lines in the sleeves are from padded fabric rather than any kind of wrappings.)

Still, that's a long stretch of one pretty plain color. The main body needs to be broken up, and Duke should probably have a bit more protection, but we don't want to hamper his mobility. Let's add a demi-brestplate (also called a demi-cuirass or "heroic armor") on top. That protects the upper chest without going past the rib-cage, to avoid hampering movement.

(I really, really like this fluted design, but can't find anything smiliar in a demi. I've also always liked the look of breastplates which are 2 pieces held together by straps under the arms. The last one is just to give you a better idea of the size/form of the thing.)

And a steel-grey utility belt, obviously.

(...I should probably mention, none of this metal should be highly-polished. It's not glinting like a mirror whenever Duke's not redirecting light away from him, it's just a step or two above matte-finishing.)

I'd say Duke's symbol is an iridescent/opalized circle right in the middle of his chest, representing a full moon (or the bat signal minus the bat.) So it looks white, but it shimmers rainbow when it catches the light. Probably has either a black or gold ring around it to help it stand out.

(A normal opal, and opalized glass with light shining through it. No, the ring does not seem to exist outside of pinterest.)

There's also a matching smaller "jewel" on the back of each gauntlet, and Duke claims he uses them to focus his light powers. Whether he does or not, I don't know.

I don't like the look of Duke's "We Are Robin" helmet in-context, but I think it could work here. Match the grey to the breastplate & gauntlets, match the stripes to the gambeson, replace the eye-slits with a thin, one-way visor, lose the ear-circles.

(I did consider having the colors be the other way around, but that felt a little too close to Ghostmaker's look for my liking.)

Give him some dark grey cargo pants, a pair of these sports boots (minus the logos), and some metal knee-pads to finish the look.

______________________________________________________________

A handful of these characters I do actually have a degree of costume evolution in mind beyond just changing identities; Duke is one of them. In this case, it becomes more knightly as time goes on.

In particular, I think Duke swaps the gambeson for a chainmail tunic and the demi-breastplate for a laminar chest piece.

(I like the short sleeve tunic style, and I'm picturing Duke's "White Knight" armor as the basis for the chest piece. I can’t seem to find any laminar reference photos that have that same look; I’m almost picturing a scapular, but made from metal plates.)

The sports boots become combat boots, the knee-pads & bracers get swapped for splint greaves & splint bracers over black leather gloves. The “jewels” are now on the back of the gloves directly, rather than the metal, as the new bracers don’t cover his hands.

He also adds the Bat ear-points to his helmet, adds a dark undersuit to the top to replace the sleeves, and generally ups the contrast by darkening the greys & either polishing the armor or painting it metallic white (if the latter, the chainmail is probably a light, brassy brown to make them pop.)

(These colors, I believe would depend on the artist; it seems like one of those things people would disagree on.)

All of which helps evolve the look toward the Signal's "motorcycle gear meets knight armor" mash-up.

[wanderingmind867]

I've seen close to 4 seasons of SCTV, and I think I know what they should probably do (or what I would do) if they did a reunion special: I'd want to do a Mockumentary film or miniseries. A where are they now type thing. Since I think I've heard the show ended with SCTV going off the air because they didn't have enough money, I think it'd make sense to do a fake documentary covering what happened to all their many stars. I could still see a comedic tribute to John Candy and his characters being written in, because I could see Johnny LaRue dying in some embarrassing way (like David Carradine).

I really think I'm onto something here. At the very least, it seems like a fun idea. Who wouldn't want to see where SCTV's many personalities ended up?

[2ndaryprotocol]

The comedy classic ‘Groundhog Day’ starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell charmed moviegoers this week 30 years ago. ❄️⏰♾️

“𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚙𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚏𝚞𝚕. 𝙰 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚙𝚎𝚘𝚙𝚕𝚎 𝚏𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚣𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚋𝚞𝚝𝚝𝚜 𝚘𝚏𝚏 𝚠𝚊𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚙 𝚊 𝚛𝚊𝚝. 𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚊 𝚑𝚢𝚙𝚎. 𝙶𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚑𝚘𝚐 𝙳𝚊𝚢 𝚞𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚖𝚎𝚊𝚗 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚘𝚠𝚗. 𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚞𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚙𝚞𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚐 𝚘𝚞𝚝, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚞𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚎𝚊𝚝 𝚒𝚝. 𝚈𝚘𝚞'𝚛𝚎 𝚑𝚢𝚙𝚘𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚜, 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚘𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞!”

[camyfilms]

GROUNDHOG DAY 1993

What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?

[jellllllo-bowl]

gotham rainy nights

i firmly believe in Duke doing silly things with his power

hiding under your dad's cape when it's pouring outside can be something very special + bat-rain-poncho, several years later

[ultimate-marysue]

It's raining nonstop where I am so I'm just picturing the Batfam during a flood.

Red Robin uploads a TikTok from the safety of a roof saying "watch him go!" As Red Hood keeps trying to drive his bike against the current. A big wave comes by and he's slowly dragged downhill. The caption reads "don't drive during floods".

Batman and Robin are on the ground helping civilians out of cars when the intensity doubles and in minutes Damian goes from wading knee deep in the water to swimming. The emergency batfloaties get triggered and he floats away as Bruce fails to grab him by half an inch. "Robin serenely drifting in the current" becomes a meme.

Someone takes a picture of a very flustered spoiler trying to squeeze the water out of her cape. The second she lets go the weight of the water makes her fall ass over backwards. Black Bat ends up giving her her waterproof cape.

Signal makes mirages of sharks in the water to scare the shit out of any criminals. Oracle uploads the recordings with Benny hill as background music. Bludhaven escapes the worst of the storm and Nightwing sends pictures to the group chat patting the barely wet concrete just to rub it in. He still slips on a puddle and eats shit, Barbara sends that to the group chat.

[amorkuku]

[frownyalfred]

things that make Gotham criminals say “oh shit”:

Batman showing up to the hideout and not asking any questions

Nightwing cracking his escrima sticks together with 0 witty banter or foreplay

Red Hood when his hands are shaking

Injured Robin and Batman known to be in near proximity 

Any sightings of Batman on Robin II’s death anniversary

Superman in Gotham without an escort

Batman speeding through the Narrows on a motorcycle and not the Batmobile

Red Hood abandoning his guns and throwing punches instead

Robin fighting with a sword and 0 supervision

Jim Gordon trying to quit cigarettes for the 19th time on the night shift

Any captured Batkid too injured/tired/frightened to taunt the responsible criminals

Batman bleeding and/or missing any major parts of his armor

Any Bat vigilante other than Duke outside during daylight hours

[everwalldigan]

To anyone who thinks Bruce has a clear and consistent favourite child I raise you this: it is infinitely funnier for Bruce to have a complicated and elaborate “ranking” system of his kids that only he’s privy to.

Picture this: Batman, dosed with truth serum, gets asked as a gag from one of the goons holding him captive who his favourite bat-vigilante is and instead of giving a straight answer, he launches into this whole explanation about the ranking system and who’s in the current lead, who’s hanging behind, etc. At some point (this is a mystery to everyone involved) a whiteboard appears and he starts explaining his system like he’s a football coach before an important match. Out of nowhere he starts pulling out little cardboard cutouts of his kids and pins them to the board. At some point the red string comes out.

Jason hasn’t killed someone in a week? Automatically promoted to favourite. Tim hasn’t caused an international incident in the past month? Puts him a few points ahead that keep decreasing the longer he refuses real sleep (20 minute power naps don’t count Tim! Says powernap inventor Bruce Wayne). Cass gave him a hug this morning and wished him a good day? Favourite until he gets a call from dick telling him (without shouting!!!!) that he’ll be there for this week’s Sunday dinner. Duke accidentally scratches the Batmobile? Demoted to the “in trouble” zone (which, honestly, that’s where his kids spend most of the time in😭). Damian did not attempt to free all the animals in the zoo they visited? Favourite. Until Bruce found out he was just trying to conceal the cat hidden in his room that Bruce explicitly forbade him from keeping.

Dick arrives at the family dinner with a busted shoulder and a bruise the size of Texas on his face? Gets demoted so far down that even azraeil scores higher than him. He’s in the “in trouble” zone for a constant month after that. Oh one of them survived an almost death? Favourite for at least the next week. At least. Multiple people survive an almost death? EVERYONES the favourite. The least favourite is the growing grey hairs on his head.

The end of day results are decided by who bothers to wish him goodnight and if all of them have fucked up in some way the past week then Jon (Kent) becomes the automatic favourite until someone cracks a joke that Bruce actually finds funny.

The favourite child changes daily, hourly even, and his kids are aware this system exists and keep trying to crack the code but he always Knows and just smirks smugly.

[weewoow-20706030]

The batfam trauma candy salad would go absolutely insane.

Dick: Hi. I'm Dick Grayson and when I was 8 I watched my parents fall to their death in front of me, then I had to move away from everything I love and spend the rest of my life in some weird American city. And I brought the sour gummy worms.

Jason: This is so stupid- my mother used to kick me out when he drug dealer would come over so I didn't see her spending our very small amount of money on drugs.

Steph *off screen*: what did you bring?

Jason: nerds.

Cass: I was raised to be a weapon, a murderer. I brought peach rings.

Steph: I'm Steph and My dad was an alcoholic who thought he could go head to head with batman and outdo the riddler. And I brought Reese's pieces.

Tim: I'm Timothy Drake Wayne and I had left the house to try and find some guy before he killed my dad, just for him to kill my dad when I was gone. I brought sour rainbow strips.

Duke: My parents are in a mental ward, high on joker toxin. No one knows if they'll ever get better. And I got m&m's.

Damian: I am a highly trained assassin and-

Steph: cut. Cut. Damian. Civilian identities. Ok. Restart.

Damian: My mother randomly dropped me on some weird man's doorstep when I was ten. I brought rock candy.

[oldshowbiz]

March 2001.

An Evening with Funny Canadians.

[we-r-robin]

Been on motorcycle tiktok… thinking about these two f-ing around on their motorcycles…

—

Duke: There’s a cop

Jason: Just drive away it’s fine

Duke: No s*** I’m already on the other side of the city

—

Bruce: We’re on the same side of the police, even if they’re corrupt we’re all for justice

Duke, a Robin during the Robin War, a motorcyclist, and a black teenager: Uh huh. Of course

—

Dick: There’s a motorcyclist going 200 in Crime Alley

Jason: Damn, that’s me

Dick: Sick, do a wheelie

[demonicsuffrage]

The justice league sees Batman periodically updating a database of his, at the oddest of times, and naturally they think it's got something to do with his contingency plans or a dataset about the Gotham rogues, but in reality it's just him keeping record of his many children's changing tastes

Superman: Woah, he's writing down with such concentration, wonder what could be in there, maybe a new villain in Gotham?

Bruce, writing: "Dick has refused his favourite Pb&J five mornings in a row. Delete from favourites. Ask for new favourite food."

"Jason didn't seem as Eager to read the new book by his favourite author, put it in neutral category."

"Tim chose a green shirt instead of a red one at the mall today. More research needed."

"Cass listened to arctic monkeys on repeat this week. Update to favourites."

"Duke expressed an interest in slam poetry and called band practice lame. Put poetry in favourites and band in neutral."

"Damian watched Bluey for a total of 50 hours this week. Update to favourites."

[incorrectbatfamandfriends]

Headcanon that since Jason can’t go out with his family publicly, what he does instead is show up in random disguises.

Bruce is chatting up some socialites at a gala, talking about the joys of fatherhood and how rewarding it is. Meanwhile he made eye contact with Jason disguised as a waiter twenty minutes ago, and is currently trying to stop his eye from twitching.

Dick is speaking to a third grade class as a part of the Bludhaven Police department outreach program, except when he walks in Jason is sitting behind the teachers desk, playing the role of substitute.

Babs can’t help but stare when Jason hands her a coffee from behind the counter of her favorite coffee shop. (His name tag reads Peter, and for a second she thinks she’s actually lost it).

Tim walks into Wayne Towers one day and on his way in, he waves to his secretary- lo and behold Marjorie has been replaced by Jason. It takes him three hours to notice.

Cass walks into ballet class to discover her teacher had to take a sick day- his replacement is Jason in a beret who talks in a terrible French accent the entire class, only to drop it at the very end to talk in a thick New Jersey accent. Her entire class talks about it for weeks.

Stephanie hails a cab on her way home one night, only to find Jason driving. She’s not sure how he pulled it off or how he got a cab, but her mind is effectively blown.

Duke is on a school trip to the natural history museum, and when the tour guide introduces himself, Duke can’t help but role his eyes. Jason gives a surprisingly good tour, even throwing in some tidbits about a robbery that went down just last week that the Signal stopped.

Damian’s encounter happens when he’s with Jon in metropolis. He’s watching Jon play baseball, and when Jon steps up to bat, he can’t help but notice a the umpire looks a little familiar.