#save bruces kids 2021'

[72-votes]

Tʜᴇ Kɪʟʟɪɴɢ Vᴏᴛᴇ

Thirty-five years ago, DC Comics opened a phone poll to kill Batman's child sidekick, Robin.

The poll was open to paying callers in the U.S. and Canada for a window of 35 hours, starting on 15 September 1988 at 9AM EST. There were two premium-rate phone numbers—one for Robin's survival, and one for Robin's death. Each paying caller could call multiple times. The results were decided by a margin of 72 votes out of a total 10,614 votes—the difference was just under 0.68%.

Now you decide.

KILL ROBIN

Jerry Smith of Covington, Kentucky claims to have sold his Mercedes-Benz to pay for votes to kill Robin

"Who Killed Cock(y) Robin? I Killed Cock(y) Robin" article by Glen Weldon (2008)

"1-800-DEAD-ROBIN" autobiographical comic by Tony Wolf (2015)

"We killed Jason Todd" feature by Matt Markman (2021)

SAVE ROBIN

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), a noted Bat-fan and scholar, denounced the episode as a "Roman gladiator-like readers vote."

"I loved him [...] I personally voted for him to live 100 times, and my mom flipped when she saw the phone bill," says magazine writer Savas Abadsidis.

MJG6 said: I was dead broke, working my way through college, but I voted. My first job was at a comic book store, making me an OG fan girl, I guess, and I encouraged people to vote to save him. [...] Because killing a teen, in a role kids are supposed to identify with, that was just sick.

Further Reading

"A Death in the Family, or: How DC Comics Let a Phone Vote Kill Robin" via r/HobbyDrama

"Living Dead Boy: Jason Todd vs. The Culture That Killed (and Resurrected) Him" on Women Write About Comics

"The Vote to Kill Robin" - trivia, misconceptions, opinions by comic-commentary

Some fan letter columns from Jason's later times as Robin

No Birds Allowed: Batman without Robin

"A lot like Robin if you close your eyes": Displacement of meaning in the Post-Modern Age by Mary Borsellino, an essay on dead Robins, sexism, and classism

🦞 The Tale of Larry the Lobster 🦞

Submitted arguments below:

Kill Robin

Anonymous propaganda IN FAVOR of killing the lobster the Robin!

I love Jason Todd. I love his post-crisis Robin days, I love his sense of justice and his adorable love of learning and his silly curly bangs! I say this to emphasize that I don't want him killed out of any dislike of the character.

I want him dead out of a love for storytelling that gets to stick to its guns and doesn't pull its punches. In context of the poll we readers have just seen Dick Grayson get kicked out of the role due to Bruce's fear of him getting hurt, then he turns around and gets a new Robin anyways because he misses him! I really like that Bruce is being messy and hypocritical! Let that have some real consequences please!

If there were no real consequences then Dick got shoved out of being Robin for what? Hairbrained overprotective worry? Why even change the way he graduated into being Nightwing so much then or heck why even kick him out in the first place?

One might argue that we haven't even given this Robin proper time to develop, that instead he might be taken in new and interesting directions as his own unique Robin shaping the mantle into a legacy rather than just something that was Dick's. I admit this is a very good point, and we are cutting off some possible interesting avenues. As I mentioned, I do like this character! But are we really going to get that?

If DC is already prepared to toss him out of this mortal coil and through the pearly gates after such a short while, do we really think we're going to get much more love and care applied to him?

I say let's roll the dice for something new! May the comics world and all these characters have to deal with the ramifications for many years to come!

Save Robin

robin’s death (and subsequent resurrection) is, frankly, an insult to robin fans of that era. to want to see this child get killed in a brutal manner for no apparent reason, to see jason essentially removed from the narrative so batman could go back to being gritty and depressed—this is awful to me. he hadn’t even been robin for very long!

but that’s not why he should’ve lived.

the resurrection of jason todd as the red hood was narratively interesting enough that it kept most fans of the original jason hooked, and it still does! he has become a prime example of a trauma survivor: his death changed him, and those who loved him have difficulty accepting that.

but there is no resolution to that story, nor was there a resolution to jason’s tenure as robin. dick chose to leave robin behind and take on a new mantle. tim, steph, both had robin taken away from them (and let’s forget about how tim is still robin, because that doesn’t matter right now). damian’s role as robin conflicts with his misconception of his role in the family. everyone else has had an ending, and jason’s death…well. after his resurrection, he has somehow remained stagnant and wildly inconsistent at the same time. this applies to under the red hood too.

at its core, utrh is a deeply classist retelling of jason’s life pre-death in the family. winick makes him a villain—albeit a sympathetic one—who fucks over or kills people that he would’ve thrown himself in front of to save as robin. in utrh, the implication is that jason had always been violent and angry (and morally compromised), and that he was destined to become worse.

it sometimes feels that jason’s transition into being the red hood (and all the characterization that comes with that) was a decision dc made for shock value. just from jason’s robin run, it’s difficult to imagine jason becoming the red hood. it doesn’t feel inevitable. it’s tragic.

ultimately, i believe that jason never should have died, and that his death was a stunt by dc for its shock value. jim starlin wanted jason dead because to him a child sidekick, in a medium that was originally made for children, was “sheer insanity”. he was fridged, plain and simple.

[dcficrecs]

In my last post, I mentioned a series called "Spark in the Dark" by paganpunk2 on FanFiction.net. The first fic in the series is a retelling of Dick Grayson's Robin origin story, and the first installment has 300k words and a hundred chapters. There are seventeen fics in this series, so I'm just going to put the links to all of them in order so I can reread them all in proper order later (the layout of FanFiction.net does not let you save a series as far as I know and it sucks) and in case anyone else wants to read them:

Firework - The story of how Dick Grayson was adopted by Bruce Wayne and starts his crime fighting career as Robin to avenge his parents' murder

Summer Shorts - Short stories about Dick's first summer under Bruce's care

Batfairy - Dick loses a tooth but doesn't believe in the tooth fairy (He is 8 or 9 in this fic)

The Princely Pardon - The Wayne family household has had this tradition of eating a freshly turkey every Thanksgiving, meaning the bird is still alive when it comes to Wayne Manor to be killed for dinner. Dick does not like that idea, so he does what he can to save the turkey

Of Friends and Foes - Dick is having a hard time at school making friends when he meets another young hero, Kid Flash

A Frivolous Holiday - It is Valentine's Day at Dick's school, so Alfred reluctantly helps him make some cards for his classmates.

A Weekend in Bruges - Bruce Wayne is required to go to Bruges, Belgium for a business trip while Dick is sick and Alfred is out of town. Bruce does not cope well with missing his son.

Turkey Song - Dick's pet is nearing the end of its life and he learns about one of the first cases the Justice League ever worked on, and the reason for his pet's sudden demise

Camp Batman - Batman, Robin, Flash, and Kid Flash go camping to help teach them some survival skills.

A Haunting in Central City - Robin and Kid Flash go trick or treating an encounter their first haunted house

Sick Day - Dick comes home from school sick, and Bruce spoils him

Hope - Clark Kent spends the new years with Bruce and Dick, written from Clark's perspective as if it were a journal entry

Instant Gratification - Bruce has Dick complete an exam every two weeks to enrich his education and help him as Robin. Dick becomes inpatient when Bruce is grading his exam.

Phenom - A group of aerialists come to Gotham and Dick watches the show with his best friend Wally West, also known as Kid Flash. Watching aerialists perform makes Dick sad about his past and his old family.

The Boy in the Box - Clark Kent gave Bruce a flash drive containing what he called "Dick's childhood," which was performances of The Flying Graysons

The Ache of Cowardice - This is the only entry in the Spark in the Dark universe that's rated M for mature, and for good reason. HEAVY TRIGGER WARNING AHEAD: It has graphic depictions of sexual abuse against children and child trafficking. The story is that Dick gets injured as Robin and is forced to go to the hospital (as a civilian), Bruce Wayne almost loses custody because of an evil person who has his own malicious motives. While this is happening, Batman uncovers an absolutely disgusting ploy in Gotham

To Catch A Predator - Bruce, Dick, and Alfred go on a family vacation to a small town known for it's fishing scene and find evidence of crimes being committed that only Batman and Robin can solve, only Batman and Robin left their uniforms at home. Despite the title, this fic is not rated M and does not have any depictions of the crimes committed in the show with the same name

The final fic was last updated 12 years ago in 2012. Although the account was last updated in 2021, nothing has been added to this amazing series. Even though it is incomplete, it doesn't really end on a cliffhanger so if you do choose to read it, you don't have to worry about that. Wherever you are, paganpunk2, I hope you're doing well :)

[celaenaeiln]

Hi! I loved your posts about Happy Robin Dick. The one thing that surprised me was about Dick's school/civilian life — can you elaborate on that? The few instances I've read where his school and peers were brought up, I got the impression he didn't fit in (off the top of my head, Robin & Batman (2021) #2)? If you have any reccommendations, I'd love to hear them! Clearly I've got a lot more reading to do! No pressure obviously if you're done talking about this :)

No worries I would love to talk about it more!

I spoke a little bit about this in this post and @northoftheroad as correct as always expanded more on it and I like the way they explained it.

Usually the bullying is a plot point that's used to cause drama or tension because of his rich boy status but by the end of the comic he finds friends and etc. It's also only ever used in the beginning of his school years like first couple days at the elementary school or new middle school or new high school depending on what age he is to make things more interesting before they settle down. I know it seems like I'm taking it lightly but Bruce used to get bullied and he's Bruce Wayne. So it's just like real life where it doesn't matter who you are, someone's gonna bully you anyway cause they feel like it.

Overall though he was pretty popular among everyone.

I want to use this perfect opportunity to elaborate on a specific point I mentioned earlier where I said "He was actually the one who went out of his way to help troubled kids because of his kindness, goodness, and empathy."

I actually had a specific comic in mind when I wrote this and it's this one:

Batman (1940) Issue #192

Where a guy Dick's looking to recruit for his basketball team starts squaring up with Dick because he hates rich kids. There's a whole story that takes place but in the end,

Batman (1940) Issue #192

Dick could've chosen to take revenge on him. Loomis hit him and he got his friends to jump Dick in civies before another friend of Dick's saved him. But instead he fought off the guys that were going to attack his friend and says,

"As Robin, I talked him into going out for the basketball team! I pointed out that if he's a star player--As he can be-- He'll become a celebrity quickly enough! After all, he just wanted folks to think he was a big shot!"

Robin Dick was a role model to everyone. There's several instances in the Teen Titans comics where Dick and the Teen Titans literally negotiate peace between the kids and the adults. They acted as a liason with Dick being the negotiator in charge. His empathy, understanding, and kindness let him do that.

First another quick example of Robin and the Titans being role models to troubled teens specifically:

Teen Titans (1966) Issue #5

And here's one of many times he and the titans took over peace talks

Teen Titans (1966) Issue #8

Teen Titans (1966) Issue #9

I got a little off topic but this is the kind of person Dick was. And this personality bled over into his school life too which is why he was so popular. There's another comic where Dick's in Hudson University and there's a conflict between the school and students and he in his civilian identity tries to negotiate between the students and the police. The students listen to him because he's popular and has influence.

[everyones-least-favorite-bard]

hey uh actually its time for me to vomit some thoughts on ghostbat

i really do love all the content out here for them in the vein of like divorced-core bitchy snarking and whatnot its funny its classic fandom behavior so its got that nostalgia factor its real fun to see but (non derogatory) but! i feel like thats such a watered down way of observing them. a reflection of a reflection of a reflection if u know what i mean

like obviously this isnt a new thing fandom is doing dynamics get dissolved into the simplest, most consumable caricatures of themselves possible all the time. its like a rite of passage at this point. but there are truly so many fascinating directions you could take ghostbat in particular and seeing it dissolved into just. gesturing at the above paragraph. that. is kind of sad.

i think (and this is just my observations from reading batman the knight and vol 3 of batman inc) one of the keys to their dynamic that really gets me is how modern-era (for lack of a better term) ghostmaker is consistently chasing bruce's shadow. i would say most of his actions can be described as being motivated by a desire to understand and be understood by batman.

like. hes living in batman's shadow not because batman's reputation precedes him or because batman is more capable than he is but because there is something fundamental in batman that ghostmaker believes he lacks. it's a key part of the infamous pseudo-break-up-in-the-rain in issue 105 of batman (2016) when bruce leaves khoa for gotham: bruce says, “you’re sick. there’s a part of you that’s broken and you’re angry that it’s not broken in me.” and khoa is reasonably incensed by this and takes a swing at him. they devolve into a fight that ends with the agreement we saw dick reference obliquely in issue 104.

of course, this assertion is categorically false—bruce himself points it out later in the 2021 batman annual. ghostmaker discusses his latest take-down of a major portion of his rogues gallery and how his successful defeat of all of them makes him a fundamentally better crime-fighter/vigilante than batman since he’s doing it without any of the personal vendettas and attachments bruce has.

but the key is that in his recounting of his battle he inadvertently reveals that he does in fact have a connection with each of them: madame midas and kid kawaii in particular. madame midas took down his fathers business when khoa was young and we see in his memory that this is something that deeply upset him and something he never forgot. in his actual take-down of her he brings it back up when he delivers the killing blow (batman annual 2021). with kid kawaii hes visibly upset by her physical appearance being that of a child and regularly does his best in their fights to take her down in a way that can hopefully allow whatever child-like portions of her remain to be saved (batman 108). i believe one of his battles with her actually contributed to her creators having to put an emotional inhibitor in her since some of what he'd said last time they fought got through to her (batman 107/108).

and bruce points this out!! he's somewhat subtle about it, of course, but he points out that no actually, khoa isn't free from this fundamentally very human part of him that wants to help people because it's good and that wants justice for wrongs slighted against him. still in the batman annual issue, he says, “you spent years focused on a single crime lord. that dedication isn’t about glory or efficacy. there’s a reason why this victory matters to you. a reason why you care.” and khoa (after a flashback) gives an embarrassingly flimsy defense in response to this but it’s still very, very clear that he does, in fact, suffer from the same bleeding-heart syndrome bruce does—if perhaps not as intensely.

obviously i have my gripes and whatnot with khoa being tagged as a psychopath since it seems kind of flimsy at best but i don't know enough about aspd-spectrum disorders to really pin it as definitively good or bad but still!! still!! he does have the personal stake in vigilantism that he condemns bruce for having (not even touching on the whole phantom one/clownhunter arc). at the end of the day ghostmaker believes hes missing this unnameable quality of empathy/desire for justice and he thinks that's what separates him from bruce and what makes them incompatible as partners (vigilante partners but also like. take that as you will): it is not.

the reason they cannot work together is because khoa believes he is missing this part of himself and as long as he continues to believe he's incapable of these things he's never going to measure up to his ideal of batman in any of the ways that matter.

on the batman end of things i feel like bruce is most characterized (at least in the batman the knight era of their relationship) by his desire to see khoa “fixed,” for lack of a better word. he initially takes khoa at face value for things, so when khoa gives his whole "i’m a vigilante for the art, the drama" speech he believes him.

it's actually a very sweet kind of naivete—like, of course, why wouldn't khoa know why he's doing this? bruce is very clear in his convictions regarding his motives for vigilantism and he and khoa are at the very least intellectually matched, so why wouldn't khoa be honest? why wouldnt he know the reason why he fights? if minhkhoa khan, the ghostmaker, says he fights crime because he believes in the aestheticism of a job well done, why wouldn’t bruce believe him?

so it becomes a point of contention between them for a very long time because bruce believes this kind of selfish method/motive and the incompatibility between them because of it will eclipse any relationship they have and, looking at the notorious issue 105 rain fight, it technically has. in their first mini-divorce arc in issue 6 of batman the knight in which they have a fistfight in the snow and khoa leaves bruce after beating the shit out of him he spends much of the fight talking, again, about the artistry of crime-fighting and how he enjoys the challenge of it more than the justice. when he wins the fight, he stands over bruce with a gun and contemplates shooting him (contemplates being used generously here: he stands over bruce visibly anguished before dropping the gun) and his excuse for not finishing bruce off is just that it would be, “too easy" (batman the knight issue 6). again: bruce has no reason to question this—even in a brutal physical altercation khoa continues touting his vaguely hedonistic motives behind joining bruce’s crusade. there is no reason why bruce shouldn’t believe him.

its only when he comes back in issue 8 and leaves with bruce towards the league of assassins that we see bruce kind of begin questioning how true khoa’s cited motivations are. obviously he's still pretty deeply embroiled in his Woe: I the Bat am Alone theatre kid bullshit—“this can’t last. and i think we both know it.”—so he spends most of their time together more observing the idea of khoa he has in mind and convincing himself that anything he sees outside of his established framework isn’t real, but we see when they escape ra's and blow up a major league of assassins headquarters that the illusion is starting to slip (batman the knight issue 9).

in their one-v-one combat for the position of demon’s heir (demon’s heart in bruce’s case) bruce’s monologue switches out of his doom-and-gloom khoa and i are incompatible talk into more of the space we see him in around the issue 105 break-up: during their fight bruce says, “there’s nothing to you! there’s nothing there! you know what’s in me?! everything!” which is a less accusatory version of the 105 quote but still in the same vein (batman the knight issue 10). so we see bruce has moved past taking khoa at face value regarding his joy in “the artistry of crime-fighting” but he still hasn’t quite shifted further into recognizing khoa’s other/true motives.

the rain break-up on bruce’s end, then, shows a further evolution of his interpretation of khoa’s behavior: he believes khoa’s desire to continue working with him is founded from a desire to keep bruce on his level—an action rooted in jealousy over something he will never be able to obtain. khoa believes this as well since, as stated before, he hits bruce in the face immediately after it’s pointed out. but even then he is still taking what khoa says at face value: he still believes khoa is only motivated by his thirst for a challenge and that khoa wants bruce by his side more so he isn’t alone in his empty hedonism than for actual wanting of bruce himself. this informs his reaction in issue 104 after he and robin chase a criminal to singapore: after his undisclosed argument with khoa he is visibly upset over the state of their relationship but believes it irreparable due to the differences in their morals.

i think from there though, bruce only begins picking out the gaps in the mess that is khoa (that we see anyway) when khoa’s telling him about his grand exploits after they meet up again. while their earlier conversations (ie; batman asking ghostmaker to stay in late issue 105) definitely reveal bruce’s newer perspective on khoa, it’s really only the batman annual 2021 conversation where we see bruce make the jump to further filling in what khoa is (very loudly) not saying. another tumblr post also mentioned the scene being the first recorded mention of bruce saying khoa’s name after the rain fight—which considering the last time we saw him say it was The Fucking Rain Break Up Again, sort of thematically implies he’s reached another level of understanding with khoa.

so i’d say on batman’s end he very badly wants to understand khoa, but he’s also only just starting to realize that he doesn’t have enough of the pieces.

this got away from me tbh but the point being: ghostbat has more nuance than a lot of incorrect-quote-y type content has room for.

[good-rwbyaus]

Currently stopped at March 24, 2021. Will continue going through them. These are organized by mod and put in reverse chronological order (most recent). Once I see writings of a mod, I'll add the mod name there such as Mod Red, Mod Violet, Mod Pink etc.

Posts I've reviewed will have the mod name tagged in if it wasn't already added.

Warning that I don't know a lot of the crossovers.

I may start putting like a tag for post length cause some are like less than 30 words while some are huge. Any ideas for a good cutoff for small, medium, large?

Posts under the cut. - mod lilac

Mod Green:

Ozcury AU - Mercury mentoring Ruby in a kick-based style

Berta Beef - (LetterKenny reference)

Ozcury AU - Watching Penny and Ruby interact has Mercury convinced they're dating

Ozcury AU - Mercury whacking Cinder while pulling off SAO Abridged Kirito's "humans are a write-off as a species" lines

Mercury and Emerald with a kid AU - Mercury's bad choice of movie material for his daughter

Kobayashi Dragon Maid AU starring Saphron and Terra Cotta-Arc

Vampire Mercury Black AU - Emercury

Crack Ship One-Shot Neo x Penny

Dog Faunus Jaune AU One-Shot

Mercury Meets Deadpool instead of Cinder after killing Marcus AU

KonosubaAU! character's comments on Darkness!Pyrrha's masochism

Yang embarassing Ruby at her wedding.

Crack!Alternate ending of the Fall of Beacon for Pyrrha discovering she's a Salem clone.

Star Trek Fan AU

Vampire Mercury Black AU - Mercury's casual convo with Emerald about hunting

Vampire Mercury Black AU - Mercury on Witches and Necromancers

Vampire Mercury Black AU - Meeting Tyrian

Ozcury AU - Sass-off while fighting back to back with Ironwood

Salem finds it awkward and disconcerting to talk to Oscar

Ozcury AU - Not quite fully in control.

SAOAbridged!Kirito Mercury doing the Bridge speech.

Ozcury AU - seeing Penny in Atlas

Mama Black, the Winter Maiden

Singer Mercury

Ozcury AU - nsft - Not quite asking the right questions with Jinn

Ozcury AU - awkward meeting with Ironwood

Weiss chasing Jaune AU

Conspiracy Theorist Raven AU

Mod Yellow:

BatFamAU - Emerald after meeting the Joker the first time and the BatFam's reaction

BatFamAU - Fanart of Em from thatfreak03

BatFamAU - Batgirl Emerald facing the Joker for the first time

BatFamAU - Batgirl Emerald taught Bruce's bad tastes in companionship

BatFamAU - semblance descriptions for the BatFam

BatFamAU - Battle of Haven (I think this is Mod Yellow's but I'm not sure since it was untagged.)

BatFamAU - Emerald Wayne's first gala

BatFamAU - ModAsk: Waynes' Thoughts on the Schnees?

BatFamAU - ModAsk: Is Season 1! Ruby a fan of the Batfam?

BatFamAU - ModAsk: Lazarus Pit?

BatFamAU - ModAsk: Emerald's Thoughts on Other Batman Characters

LazyTownAU (Crack AU)! Pyrrha alternate ending to Fall of Beacon

Accidental Pun Master Raven (it puns in the family au)

Remnant saved by Salem getting a cold (Sick Salem AU)

BatFamAU - ModAsk: Did Batfam intervene at the Grimm invasion?

Bleiss AU nsft: "This isn't a nude beach!"

Redemption AU - Ruby and company unwittingly getting Emerald and Mercury to defect

CampCamp AU - Harrison is Ozpin's son.

BatFamAU - on the Fall of Beacon

BatFamAU - Emerald and thoughts on the other Batgirls

BatFamAU - ModAsk: Who is Azazel?

BatFamAU - Emerald and thoughts on the other Robins. Also, the Tim Test

BatFamAU - ModAsk: Ironwood's thoughts on Bruce Wayne

BatFamAU - ModAsk: Is Bruce part of the Ozpin's inner circle?

BatFamAU - Training and Bruce Wayne

BatFamAU - Which Kingdom is Bruce Wayne in?

Crack!The Real Reason why Salem hates Oz

Ozpin picks Nora as the Fall Maiden instead.

BatFamAU - Bad habits die hard.

Everything is the same but ruby speaks in owo and uwu UVU ovo

BatFamAU - Emerald meets the Batman

Mod Lilac:

Untitled Piece - The end of a dream and Ruby's attempt to make it right.

Accidental Cult AU - 6. Blaspheme (and maid!Ruby's reaction)

Actors and Actresses AU - The Schnees Play Monopoly

Accidental Cult AU - 5. Worship

Accidental Cult AU - 4. First Recruit

Fleeting AU - Ozma returns to the Beginning with nothing but a whisper to come. Everything changes.

Accidental Cult AU - 3. Ruby meets Weiss again

Accidental Cult AU - 2. Chance Encounter

Accidental Cult AU - the Church of Weiss Schnee / Maid Ruby AU

WinterMaiden/ Untitled Goose Game AU - picture

Dabbing is the real reason why the worlds ends Crack AU!

Persona AU picture - Ozpin as Igor

Unnamed Crack Time Travel AU Part 3 - Featuring Chronic!Backstabber!Syndrome!Cinder

Evil Ozpin AU - except Ozpin is more "this is hella inconvenient evil"

Prankster Summer Rose

Crack!Blake writes very terrible smut. Jaune likes to use it to interrogate his enemies. Poor Tyrian.

Uncle Crow AU - Intermezzo

Unnamed Crack Time Travel AU - part 2

Ozma lets Salem play out her megalomania fetish. She gets tired of it very quickly.

Unnamed Crack Time Travel AU - part 1, features ChronicBackstabber!Cinder and DonewithEverything!Ruby

Misc (Submissions, Reblogs or I don't know who wrote them aha):

Crack!Headmistress Ruby AU - unknown

Adopted Mercury Arc - submission by plaidgamer64

CosmoKyrin's collection of nuts n dolts - them as animals.

Young Headmaster Ozpin AU - "now unlock it"

No one believed that Jaune has a girlfriend, not even his family - moistmailman

[ao3feed-drstrange]

Birds of a Feather

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/SqXC0U2 by howls_library Peter is used to things not really ever going the way he plans or hopes. So when Doctor Strange is casting a spell to make everyone forget who he is as part of his last ditch effort idea to save his world and the multiverse, deep down he not surprised to end up head first in a dumpster. He is also not surprised to see that through his blinding headache, New York does not smell or look anything like what he is used to. He does know one thing though, and that is that he now hates the concept of the multiverse to his very core. or When Doctor Strange's attempts a spell to make everyone forget who Peter Parker is, Peter ends up across the multiverse in the city of Gotham. Confronted by different members of who he learns to be the BatFamily, he has to try and blend in. Unsure of what to do, Peter is plagued with his conscious desire to help the people of Gotham (because right now it looks like they desperately need it) as Spider-Man or to try and figure out how and if he can get home without being seen as a complete lunatic. Why not both? Besides, help might be in places he never even thought he could look. Words: 1810, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: DCU (Comics), DCU, Batman (Comics), Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Comicverse), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Categories: Other Characters: Peter Parker, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, Barbara Gordon, Selina Kyle, Cassandra Cain, Alfred Pennyworth, Stephanie Brown, Helena Bertinelli, Michelle Jones (Marvel), Ned Leeds, Stephen Strange, Wanda Maximoff, America Chavez, Karen (Spider-Man: Homecoming) Relationships: Dick Grayson & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson & Peter Parker & Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Batfamily Members & Dick Grayson, Peter Parker & Damian Wayne, Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Michelle Jones, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Stephen Strange, Barbara Gordon & Peter Parker, Stephanie Brown & Peter Parker, Cassandra Cain & Peter Parker Additional Tags: Peter Parker is a Little Shit, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker Needs Therapy, Multiverse, Some headcanon involved, actually a decent amount of headcanon but very heavily influenced by the canon, Dick Grayson Needs a Hug, Batfamily (DCU), Jason Todd is Good With Kids, Jason Todd is Bad at Feelings, Bruce Wayne is Good With Kids, Dick Grayson and Richard Parker (Marvel) are the Same Person, Multiverse of Madness happens before this story takes place, Bisexual Disaster Dick Grayson, Damian Wayne is a Little Shit, Tim Drake is So Done, Stephen Strange is So Done, Protective Dick Grayson, Golden Retriever Peter Parker, Minor Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne, Minor Dick Grayson/Wally West, America Chavez Needs A Hug, Mentioned Gwen Stacy, Not Canon Compliant With Movie: Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), Wanda Maximoff & Peter Parker Friendship, Not MCU 616 or 199999, Peter Parker is a potty mouth, Mr. Freeze - Freeform, Joker - Freeform, Harley quinn mention - Freeform, Clayface - Freeform, Dick Grayson is a good dad read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/SqXC0U2

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Velcro

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/mNG8fM5 by ill_llighted Batman had been limping- ever so slightly- the entire time since Clark had first greeted him entering the Watchtower. Even now, as he stood at the head of the table talking in that deep tone like nothing was wrong, he was lightly leaning his weight off of one foot. An ever so slight lean, one Clark might never have noticed if he wasn’t so familiar with the man- spending the most time with him than he did with any other Leaguer (save a few exceptions). //Batman is elusive about what’s bothering him, and Clark finally gets him to tell him. Words: 1589, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics), Superman - All Media Types, Superman (Comics), Superman & Lois (TV 2021) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen Characters: Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, J’onn J’onnzz Relationships: Clark Kent & Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson & Clark Kent, Dick Grayson & Clark Kent & Bruce Wayne Additional Tags: Clark Kent is Superman, Worried Clark Kent, Caring Clark Kent, POV Clark Kent, Clark Kent Doesn't Know Bruce Wayne is Batman, Clark Kent is Good With Kids, Protective Bruce Wayne, Bruce Wayne is Good With Kids, Good Parent Bruce Wayne, Soft Parent Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson is Robin, Dick Grayson is a Ray of Sunshine, Dick Grayson is A Clark Kent Fan, Dick Grayson is a Gift, Dick Grayson Has a Good Time, Fluff without Plot, Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, i just really like early era Robin read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/mNG8fM5

[clay-cuttlefish]

Into Infinite Frontier. It's bad in here.

The Next Batman: Second Son

I really don't like the direction this takes Renee, it's a nasty piece of character regression, but I like Jace and the Fox family drama enough that it's not too bad of a time.

Jace gets deadnamed constantly. He's not trans, but he's repeatedly referred to by his birth name in order to upset him and because his family won't make an effort/think he's making a big deal out of nothing, so...

It starts almost promising, like Renee's seriously considering if she's willing to put herself back into policing to prevent whoever else might become the Commissioner from doing something worse, but nope. She's just On Board With Cop Shit again.

Sure, she's ~conflicted~ about being the Commissioner, but it always feels like either a worse version of how she developed in Gotham Central or like a completely different character wearing her face.

Hadiyah my friend Hadiyah. She hasn't had much room to breathe, but I have a lot of thoughts about how she could develop, ideally once Renee gets her development back.

Batman #107-110

It's frustrating. This is meant to be a rough patch for her, Bruce tells her not to forget how to ask the right questions and she's obviously conflicted, but that never gets developed properly. She just gets More Cop about it.

It hasn't actually been that long, but two years where she's regularly showing up and it sucks feels a lot worse than two years mostly offscreen.

DC Pride 2021

I wish I lived in a world where this story had an impact on canon. A former defence attorney turned city councilwoman is exactly the kind of love interest who could anchor a longer Question story.

I Am Batman #0

Hi Hadiyah <333

Justice League #68-71

Genuinely what the hell is Vic's job in Checkmate, other than Oliver Queen nepo hire.

He talks but he's barely a character. Literally just hanging out.

I Am Batman #2

This is the moment where Renee goes from "a bad job at following up on her character development being restored" to a full on "she would not fucking say that".

Fear State

God it's just so frustrating. I don't know what else to say. It's frustrating and miserable.

"You don't know how to turn the clock back, and you're too afraid to let it tick forward." Scarecrow means this as a criticism of Renee the person, but I think it's a better criticism of the writers. She had a way forward, she had connections and places to go, but no.

I Am Batman #4-5

I Am Batman is at its best when it's doing soap opera drama. The cop shit sucks, the action scenes are solid but not super notable, I am here for the Fox family imploding while Jace rams headfirst into danger.

This is an unhinged sentence but I wish Lucius had spent more time conflicted about saving his kid? He's a massive hypocrite when it comes to Jace, so I buy that he'd be quick to pivot from going along with murder to backing Jace's efforts, but it's so quick.

I Am Batman #6-10

I like the angle that Jace is a city employee a lot. He lives in a world where Gotham nearly implodes constantly, every spy agency in the world turned evil a couple years ago and it hasn't been fixed yet, and the multiverse is real and frequently in danger, so fuck it superheroics are legal.

Look, I get what they're going for with Strike Force Bat, but the ragtag group of unpopular cops worked for Gotham Central because they were all decent people (by cop show standards).

Hadiyah's been doing the thing where she drops the word Question into every appearance so far, but it's particularly obvious here.

Honestly the thing that keeps me from being completely sold on Hadiyah (aside from how bad the handoff is) is that she's already good at Question things. She's reflective, good at investigation, aware of her relationships and how they affect her, etc, which means there's less room for her to grow and find meaning. I think there are a lot of good angles for how wearing the mask will change her, but I'm not sure the story has one yet.

[adamwatchesmovies]

Sky High (2005)

If you’re making a movie about a high schooler torn between his friends and the popular clique, you’re not going to beat Mean Girls - so what can you do? Add an extra element to make it different. On their own, the high school and superhero elements of Sky High would be forgettable. Together, they make this the kind of movie you’d enjoy as a kid, fondly remember for years, revisit later on and be pleased to see that it holds up.

Will Stronghold (Michael Angarano) is the non-powered son of The Commander (Kurt Russell) and Jetstream (Kelly Preston), the world’s most popular superheroes. He hopes his first day at Sky High - a school for superheroes - will unlock his potential. Although he and his friends are relegated to the “Hero Support” (sidekick) department, he catches the eye of beautiful Gwen Grayson (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). When his powers finally manifest, he begins hanging out with Gwen and the popular crowd, just as Royal Pain - his parents' nemesis presumed dead for 16 years - reemerges.

You can probably see where this story is going. At the end of the day, the “cool kids” are not the people Will can depend upon; it’s his childhood friend Layla (Danielle Panabaker) who is secretly in love with him and can manipulate plants along, with the sidekick misfits: Ethan “Popsicle” Bank (Dee Jay Daniels) who can melt into a puddle of goo, Magenta Lewis (Kelly Vitz) who can turn into a guinea pig, and Zach Braun (Nicholas Braun) who glows in the dark. If Sky High deviated from the formula more, had richer characters, or took a few more chances, it would be a better film. The movie can tell us that sidekicks and heroes should be treated equally all it wants, but Puddle Kid won’t be saving the day anytime soon and the story fails to make him cool by showing him use his ability to crawl beneath doors to spy on people or combining his skills with smarts or martial arts. Similarly, it’s not like Will confronts his father and persuades him to apologize to Royal Pain for the anguish he made them feel while they were in school together; Royal Pain is just evil and needs to be dealt with the old-fashioned way. There’s another layer of depth and intelligence that could’ve been unlocked.

With that said, the movie has a good number of jokes and when the high school and superhero genre are blended, it works well. Bruce Campbell has a small role as Coach Boomer. He provides some big laughs as he puts the new recruits through trials and comments on their potential - or lack thereof. Equally funny are the scenes in “superhero support” class. The teacher, All-American Boy (Dave Foley) is so lame he deserves no respect. The dubiously useful skills he teaches are showcased in a couple of montages that prove this movie knows the superhero genre and has fun both referencing it and poking fun at a few aspects too.

Sky High is at its best when it’s making you laugh but the teenage drama stuff works fairly well too. In the cafeteria, Will has to contest with Warren Peace (Steven Strait) who holds a grudge against the Stronghold family for imprisoning his supervillain father. The story by Paul Hernandez, Bob Schooley & Mark McCorkle makes him more than just a bad guy. Not that the one-dimensional bullies (played by Will Harris and Jake Sandvig) are bad. Actually, they’re fun in a Bulk and Skull kind of way. I just wish the film blended its two genres more consistently in the second and third acts. There is substance in the scenes of Will and his father talking. His heroic abilities are our world's equivalent of being a star football player but the further we go on, the more detached from reality the characters and the story becomes. There are some twists along the way that make the conclusion quite a lot of fun, however.

While Sky High lacks originality, it uses its tried-and-true elements well. It’s good, family-friendly entertainment with a fair number of smartly written bits and some good character moments. (January 8, 2021)

[iffoundreturntosea]

April 26, Day 116/117

Day 116 2015

I love storms!

#storms #beautiful #spring #lightning #tornadowarning #mothernature #nature #rain #picoftheday #project365 #day116

Always feel so lucky when I catch a lightning strike!

Day 117 2016

The sun poked it's burning head out for a minute today.

#sun #clouds #sky #lookup #shadesofspring #pastels #april #picoftheday #project365 #day117

Day 116 2017

Bruce hard at play

#color #pens #waves #coloring #relax #bruce #shark #gooddaybruce #findingnemo #april #picoftheday #project365 #day116

Day 116 2018

Mealy Sage (Salvia farinacea)

#mealysage #flowers #wildflowers #texas #spring #nature #outdoors #april #bouquet #picoftheday #project365 #day116

Day 116 2019

All my kitties together!

#fbf #flashbackfriday #niece #kitty #cat #catsofinstagram #meow #love #snuggles #kid #shewouldratherbeacat #nationalkidsandpetsday #april #april26 #2019 #nationalday #nationaldaycalendar #picoftheday #project365 #day116

This is still one of my favorite pictures ever and I would love to be a cat too!

Day 117 2020

In times of anxiety and depression I love getting to the beach and watching the coquinas move through the sand and waves. I am missing this a lot right now. What do you do to calm yourself?

#serenity #calm #peace #beach #water #sand #animal #invert #shell #color #coquina #thingsthatstartwithc #april #april26 #2020 #picoftheday #project365 #day117

Day 116 2021

First time I’ve been able to see Donkey (& Nemo) play 😍

#donkey #playtime #tugofwar #animals #socute #equine #equinetherapy #april #april26 #2021 #picoftheday #project365 #day116

If you get the chance to spend time with a donkey, or two, do it...you won't regret it.

Day 116 2022

Pretty things are nice

#pretty #color #geometric #window #april #april26 #2022 #picoftheday #project365 #day116

Day 116 2023

Resting amongst the beach morning glory. This is just a small area where the City of Galveston is working on building the dunes back up along the seawall.

#beach #seawall #dunebuildup #nature #beachmorningglory #magnus #magnifynature #april #april26 #2023 #picoftheday #project365 #day116

Day 117 2024

It was finally my time to find an anemone to save! I found this guy washed up on the beach in the wrack line. He wasn’t attached to anything so I scooped him up in a shell and moved him to the seawall where there are rocks for him to cling to. He’ll have a better chance of survival anyway 😊

#time #dailytheme #finally #wartyanemone #seacreature #mermaidlife #april #april26 #2023 #picoftheday #project365 #day117

This guy wan't even an inch long when I almost stepped on him on the beach. I'm so thrilled I spotted him and was able to move him to a spot better suited to him!

[tumbling-turmoil]

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a 2009 American computer-animated science fiction comedy film produced by Sony Pictures Animation. Loosely based on the 1978 children's book of the same name by Judi and Ron Barrett, the film was written for the screen and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (in their feature directorial debuts), and stars the voices of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Bruce Campbell, Mr. T, Benjamin Bratt, and Neil Patrick Harris. The film centers around an aspiring inventor named Flint Lockwood who develops, following a series of failed experiments, a machine that can convert water into food. After the machine gains sentience and begins to develop food storms, Flint must stop it in order to save the world.

Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (known as Daniel Tiger's Neighbourhood in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and often abbreviated to Daniel Tiger) is a Flash animated musical television series aimed at pre-school children aged 2-4. It was produced by Fred Rogers Productions, 9 Story Media Group and 9 Story USA (which also produces Blue's Room and Super Why!). It debuted on September 3, 2012 on PBS Kids, eleven years after the end of production for Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and nine years after Fred Rogers' death. The program is based on the Neighborhood of Make-Believe from Mister Rogers, the long-running family-oriented television series created and hosted by Fred Rogers that aired from 1968 to 2001. In 2019, the series was renewed for a fifth season, which premiered on August 17, 2020 with Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood: Won't You Sing Along with Me?, a musical special that deals with the COVID-19 pandemic. On August 20, 2021, the series was renewed for a sixth season, which premiered on September 5, 2022. A one-hour television movie titled Daniel Visits a New Neighborhood aired on June 20, 2022.

The series centers around Daniel Tiger (son of Mom Tiger and Dad Tiger). The series also features other children of the characters from the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, such as Katerina Kittycat (daughter of Henrietta Pussycat), Miss Elaina (daughter of Lady Elaine Fairchilde and Music Man Stan), O the Owl (nephew of X the Owl) and Prince Wednesday (King Friday and Queen Sara Saturday's youngest son and Prince Tuesday's little brother). Two 11-minute segments are linked by a common socio-emotional theme, such as disappointment and sadness or anger and thankfulness. The theme also uses a musical motif phrase, which the show calls "strategy songs," to reinforce the theme and help children remember the life lessons. Many of the "strategy songs" are available in albums or as singles under the artist name "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood." The program is targeted at preschool-aged children; it teaches emotional intelligence, kindness, and human respect. Its content follows a curriculum based on Fred Rogers' teaching and new research into child development.

[reasoningdaily]

You could upload dead loved ones to your computer by end of year

You may soon be able to catch up with friends and relatives who have passed away — on your computer.

Dr. Pratik Desai, a Silicon Valley computer scientist who has founded multiple Artificial Intelligence platforms, boldly predicts that a human being’s “consciousness” could be uploaded onto digital devices by the end of the year.

“Start regularly recording your parents, elders and loved ones,” he urged Friday in a Twitter thread that’s since racked up more 5.7 million views and tens of thousands of responses.

“With enough transcript data, new voice synthesis and video models, there is a 100% chance that they will live with you forever after leaving physical body,” Desai continued. “This should be even possible by end of the year.”

Uploading a person’s consciousness would involve saving videos, voice recordings, documents and photos of the person you wish to reimagine to your computer. These compiled assets would then be uploaded into an AI system that would learn as much as it could about the deceased individual.

The ultimate goal: for users to create an avatar resembling their loved one before he or she passed — so this person could, in a sense, live forever on your screen.

Amid rising concerns about the growing global dominance of AI — marked by everything from “destructive” bot behavior to obsolete jobs to false criminal accusations — one company called Somnium Space is offering an AI-based “live forever” mode . “Start regularly recording your parents, elders and loved ones,” he urged on Twitter. Dr. Pratik Desai predicts that a person’s consciousness could be uploaded onto a computer by the end of the year.

“Literally, if I die — and I have this data collected — people can come or my kids, they can come in, and they can have a conversation with my avatar, with my movements, with my voice,” founder and CEO Artur Sychov told Vice.

He added, “You will meet the person. And you would maybe for the first 10 minutes while talking to that person, you would not know that it’s actually AI. That’s the goal.”

Another company, Deepbrain, has developed a program called “Re;memory” that allows users the opportunity to walk down a memorial hall dedicated to a late loved one and even interact with the person “through an actual conversation.”

Meanwhile, similar freakishly futuristic technology is already being used for celebrities.

Many believe that AI advancements — including ChatGPT — can be beneficial to humanity. However, scientists have warned that rogue AI “could kill everyone

Deepfakes use AI to manipulate videos and replace the genuine likeness of one person with an impossible-to-detect imitation, often to alarming effect. Many believe that AI advancements — including ChatGPT — can be beneficial to humanity. However, scientists have warned that rogue AI “could kill everyon,. Getty Images

One AI platform created a “digital twin” of Bruce Willis — who has been diagnosed with aphasia, a brain disorder that affects his ability to communicate — to allow the actor’s likeness to appear on-screen despite his retirement from acting.

The “Die Hard” actor’s deepfake has already made its debut, in an August 2021 commercial for MegaFon, a Russian telecommunications company, which “grafted” his face onto Konstantin Solovyov for a commercial for MegaFon.

The Willis estate has the final say on what’s created with his likeness and reportedly licensed the rights to use his face in the ad campaign.

In Entertainment Weekly’s “Around the Table” video series last December, award-winning actresses Jean Smart and Margot Robbie spoke about their concerns around potentially pornographic deepfakes.

“After you’re dead, they’ll go, ‘Oh, let’s put Margot Robbie in that movie,’ a hundred years from now, having her doing God knows what. And your estate will have to sue them. It’ll be horrible, Margot,” Smart, 71, said.

At the other end of the intellectual spectrum, many still argue that AI advancements — including ChatGPT — can be beneficial to humanity.

However, a group of tech experts — including Elon Musk — is urging a six-month pause in the training of advanced AI models, arguing the systems could have “profound risks to society and humanity.”

The CEO of Twitter and Tesla joined more than 1,000 experts in signing an open letter organized by the nonprofit Future of Life Institute, which is primarily funded by the Musk Foundation, the billionaire’s charitable grant organization.

The letter calls for an industrywide pause until proper safety protocols have been developed and vetted by independent experts — and details potential risks that advanced AI could poses if not placed under proper oversight.

Risks include the spread of “propaganda and untruth,” job losses, the development of “nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us” and the risk of “loss of control of our civilization.”

[scandalsavagefanfic]

Batman: Urban Legends, Cheer

I’ve talked a little bit about why Batman: Urban Legends is a bad story already, but I just saw a post talking about this panel and how well Bruce has been written in this story. And while the post didn’t really say anything about Jason, OP’s comments in the notes talked about how this seemed to be a direct response to people trashing Bruce for beating on the poor and disenfranchised, talking about how he’s finally “in character”, how he has a lighter touch and tends to think things through and how the story is teaching Jason a lesson about his “tendency” to brute his way through things without thinking about them, and how Jason wasn’t OOC.

My first post about UL touches on why that last bit is nonsense, but the stuff about Bruce reminded me of something else in UL that really, really bothered me. 

It’s the above panel and these, not just in the context that this story rewrites Jason as ALWAYS having been prone to violence and willing to wail on the weak, but also in the sense that Bruce, of all people, is the one chosen to teach this lesson to Jason. 

[that sentence ends in the next panel with “...stealing the Batmobile’s tires?”]

It’s just one more way DC keeps chipping away at what makes Jason (the Robin raised in poverty, the one who grew up with a first-hand insight into the way Gotham’s systemic corruption and crimes do the most harm to the poorest and least powerful people, and the only one to be personally affected by addiction) special and interesting. It’s just the most recent way they’ve bastardized his roots to villainize him (the poor homeless kid who was brutally murdered) so that Bruce (the billionaire) looks better, so that Bruce is absolved of all his responsibility in how Jason came to be the Red Hood.

Because in actuality, Jason taught Bruce that criminals can change.

Bruce didn’t listen. He stalked Penguin and when he found him, Bruce had to eat his words.

Penguin had actually tried to change. Bruce realized his mistake and tried to defend him after he was arrested, but the damage was done.

By the way, this is from when Penguin was just a jewel thief. Let that sink in for a sec. Go back up to the panel from Urban Legends with Batman and Robin in the alley and reread it.

And this, this story with the Penguin, is how it should be. Not that crap from UL. 

I don’t know why people have to keep saying this but Jason isn’t stupid. He’s incredibly smart and his actions, even his violence, are rooted in empathy and indignation on behalf of the innocent who are harmed, not rage. The above panels in UL are basically like saying that Cassandra Cain has suddenly changed her mind that everyone can be saved and decided to join Jason in killing super villains. This is the core of the character we’re talking about. It’s not the dumb little details like whether he likes coffee or eats cereal or whatever. It’s the heart of the character. It’d be like taking the circus out of Dick’s story, or the love of Robin from Tim’s, or making someone other than Talia Damian’s mother. 

Jason is very aware that petty crime is often motivated by desperation. He literally lived that life. That’s why he’s never targeted people like that the way this book shows him to.

Even when he returned, he was never an indiscriminate killer and he was never violent for the sake of it. He didn’t beat the shit out of addicts because he was an impatient little bitch. He was methodical and calculative and he only killed people who preyed on the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless. 

Like the mob’s drug lieutenants who dealt to kids:

Like these bastards, who were deep in denial and broke Jason’s golden rule, no dealing to children. 

Because drug dealers purposefully target kids, relying on addiction to make them repeat customers for life.

Rapists and the scum who prey on people at their most vulnerable:

And nazis.

The fact is, Jason certainly has his faults, but he would never, ever, do this to an addict:

Writing him like he would is out of character. Drastically. 

Jason doesn’t go off half-cocked. He doesn’t jump in blind. These aren’t lessons he needs to learn in anything except this story which specifically wrote him as idiotic and mean as possible to squeeze him into the box the writer needed him to fit into.

Jason has never been written quite this bad before, but even if you take the few random instances over the last 15 years, where he’s been written as meaner and dumber than usual as his core character, how can you stand there and say that Bruce’s style is a calmer, more rational approach and say how he’s been written for the last 30 years is ooc????

For the kind of story Batman: Urban Legends seems to be telling, Bruce is literally the last character this message should be funneled through. Bruce is a billionaire (or... multi-millionaire, for now in the main continuity but who knows what’s canon for this). It’s so fucking tone-deaf to keep writing this kind of interaction between Bruce and Jason. 

Do I agree that Bruce should be written as more understanding and empathetic and less vicious than he sometimes is since the 80′s, by the way, this isn’t new? Absolutely.

Do I think this was a good example of that or a reasonable template going forward? Absolutely not. 

DC needs to stop sacrificing what makes Jason Todd interesting, what makes the character an excellent tool to tell meaningful, topical stories, for today’s audiences, just to prop up Bruce. 

For starters, Bruce doesn’t need that?

Their roles in this story don’t have to be swapped. There are ways to write this kind of stuff that doesn’t fuck up a character. See the above example with Penguin. And that’s from the fucking 80′s. How are Reagan-era comics telling stories about poverty, addiction, and reformed criminals with more nuance and tact and consideration than something in 2021????

I just think it’s fucking sad.

And extremely frustrating. 

[a-reader-and-a-writer]

Time Slows Down

Whumptober 2021: #26. Fallen

Fandom: Batman, Batfam, Batsis

Word Count: 970

People always say that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That you relive all the major moments that led you to your current situation. That you see your loved ones’ faces one last time. And maybe that’s why it was different for you. Because as you fell backwards off the skyscraper, propelled by the bullet now lodged in your stomach, you didn’t flash back to anything. Time just seemed to slow to a near halt. Then again, who needs to flash to a memory when the people you love most in this world are right in front of your eyes?

Damian was scrambling to the corner of the roof where the five of you had been forced to remove all your gadgets at gun point when you were first cornered. You figured your youngest brother was trying to get to one of their discarded grappling hooks in the hope of reaching you before you hit the ground. But you knew that the distance was too far and the building was too short. By the time he could make it back to the edge, it would be too late. However, it made your heart soar to know that he cared about you enough to try.

Though the five of you had managed to overpower most of the goons before you had been shot, Tim was expertly dispensing with the remaining few. You never did find out who these lowlifes worked for, but it seemed like the kind of thing Black Mask or the Penguin would orchestrate. However, ultimately, it didn’t matter to you anymore. As you watched Tim take down the last of the assailants, you knew that he would be able to solve the mystery. That kid’s mind was unlike any other you had ever encountered, even more impressive than Bruce’s. And you knew that, one day soon, he would accomplish amazing things with it. You were just sorry you wouldn’t be around to see it.

As your eyes shifted to the two remaining figures on the roof, your heart shattered. You sent a wordless prayer of thanks to Dick as you watched as he successfully kept a struggling Jason from leaping off the building after you. You can see the tears streaming out from underneath Dick’s mask, but he knows, just as you do, that it is too late for them to save you. Just as it was too late for him to save his parents from a similar fate all those years ago.

Then there’s Jason. You knew what your death would do to him. You knew what losing the one person who always had your back felt like. You once had to live through losing him, now he was about to learn that same pain. And you silently pleaded with him. Please, Jay, be better than I was. Don’t let my death destroy you like I almost let yours destroy me.

As you slipped farther down towards the ground below, you lamented not being able to see the one face missing from up above. You and Bruce had not been on the best of terms since Jason’s death. And while Jason’s return and his own tentative reconciliation with the Bat had helped repair some of the damage in your relationship as well, you knew the two of you still had a long way to go to get back to what you once had. And though you had been hopeful that it would happen one day in the future, you grieved the fact that you would never get that chance now. You just hoped that he knew, through it all, how much you really loved him and appreciated everything he had done for you.

You took one last look up at the family you had found, now just specks high above you. You smiled softly as you closed your eyes and waited for the upcoming impact.

You felt the breath ripped from your body as something slammed into you…however the impact came from the side not from below as expected. Cautiously, you opened your eyes and smiled, slightly confused, “B?”

Bruce gave you one of his rare smiles in return, “I gotcha little one.”

Somehow, he had managed to swoop in with his grappling hook and catch you mere feet above the ground. As he swung both of you soaring up into the sky once more, you snuggled your face lovingly into his chest just as you had when you were a child. It’s possible you’d just imagined it, but you thought you could hear your brothers cheering from the rooftop as they watched Batman’s last-minute rescue.

“How did you….?”

“Did you really think I wouldn’t notice when all five of my children go missing for hours while on patrol?”

He landed on the roof of a nearby building as lightly as he could but the impact still jarred your wound and a pained moan escaped your lips. Gently laying you down on the rooftop, Bruce examined the injury. “The bullet’s still in there but we need to get you back to the cave before I try digging it out.” He pulled a syringe from his belt. “This will help with the pain and stop any infections, but it will also knock you out for a few hours.”

As he went to inject you, you grabbed his hand. “Bruce……thank you. I know we haven’t been… that things are not the best….”

He rested his hand gently on your shoulder. “I know. But just realize, that no matter what happens between us, I’ll always be there for you.” He gave your shoulder a slight squeeze as he injected your arm.

As the sedative took over, one last thought ran through your mind. Who needs a knight in shining armor when you have a knight in black Kevlar?

[aceofwhump]

hello my dear!!! how are you? hope the new year is treating you well 💜💜 I'm wondering if you or your followers have any h/c fic recs for Bucky or Hawkeye?

Hello nonny! I'm doing very well! So far 2023 has been pretty great. Three days into the new I got a call to interview for a job I really want, had the interview yesterday and it went really well. So I'm really hoping that I'll get the next interview and hopefully the job! I've been trying for a long time to get a job and already 2023 is treating me better at the job search than 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 lol. I hope the year is going well for you so far!!!

Anyways, yes I do have a few fic recs for you! Love both Hawkeye and Bucky whump. Good stuff.

For Hawkeye:

Teambreaking by Arkada: The Avengers are supposed to be a team, but when the team turns into a sexual relationship, Clint just knows everything's going to fall apart, because he's asexual, and suddenly the team is something he can't be a part of. Being alone is the last thing in the world he wants, and he'll go to desperate lengths to keep his friends with him.

Coming In by Arkada: Clint's asexual, and he's been putting himself in Medical to keep it secret from the Avengers. Telling them makes things worse before they're better.

SOS Hawkeye aka 1001 Ways to Almost Kill Clint Barton by Sandylee007: Exactly as the title suggests. A collection of (mostly) independent oneshots or short stories where Clint Barton, alias Hawkeye, nearly dies.

A Hawk's Freefall by Sandylee007: On a mission that was supposed to be routine Clint/Hawkeye ends up getting badly injured. Has luck finally ran out or will the team and his own stubbornness keep him hanging on?

Thin Ice by AisforAWKWARD: For JadenGrace1's prompt, "While rescuing Tony, Clint falls through the ice of a frozen lake, river, etc. Cue lots of snark, angst, and more snark."

The Best Laid Plans by flashwitch: So, Clint's been rescued. But it's not all hearts and flowers. He's struggling in the aftermath, and the rest of the team are all struggling along with him. Latest in the OCD Verse. Follows on directly from Break from Routine.

Friends Check for Bullet Wounds by Ezra Cross: utter, shameless, clint injury. It's been a couple months since New York changed everyone. Bruce tracks Clint down in his room one night and finds the archer in dire straights. terrified to move with a ten inch steak knife stuck in his chest, what will they do to save him? And what sort of pain has Clint been hiding beneath the physical?Team bonding, Clint!whump, Steve/Thor revenge

For Bucky:

Bullets and Bandages, Tanks and Tents by OneStepShort: “It’s okay, I got it.” Sam doesn’t really listen to him. “What are you gonna do, pull it out yourself?” Bucky doesn’t answer. Sam finally stills. “You can’t pull it out yourself.”

Acceptance is the first part of Healing by Laevateinn: "You good?" Wilson asks him, after he fought against eight men. "You okay?" Wilson asks him, when they get to Sharon’s house. "You hurt?" Wilson asks him, when they get out of the car. Yes, Wilson. All good. Now if the guy could shut up and carry on, that'd be great. Why would he be anything but anyway? It's not as if anything that happened that day hasn't happened before.

Rest by HeartoftheWizard: Bucky refuses to sleep. Getting electrocuted in the warehouse while fighting Walker brings back traumatic memories for him. He can only go without sleep for so long.

pitch black; pale blue by freakymcgoo: Sam desperately wants to shove the idea back under and forget it existed; the swell of rage and fear tailgating the realization that Bucky is the merchandise, and all the underlying reasons why that even makes sense. He wants to cling to the last shreds of his denial, hold his momma’s hand like a scared little kid again, because in no world should that make sense. ---- Before the deal at the bar begins, Selby requires a demonstration from the Winter Soldier. Sam doesn't take it well.

Masks Required by FalconEye: It’s just a piece of cloth, so why can’t Bucky just put it on?

i don’t need serotonin if i can just have your hand by cyanica: "Can I… Can I hold your hand?” He reached out, human and warm in the sunlight that shone upon Sam in a kind of iridescence that was all-consuming. His eyes were half-lidded and glassy, the twilight dawn breaking all over the atmosphere as he watched it devote itself to Sam’s presence like each spec of dust caught within the sunshine were fireflies addicted to his glow. “Something – something else to know what's real if I wake up and can't remember.”

Hold Me Close and Hold Me Fast by gr0gu:

It's all too much for Bucky. The lights, the music - if you can call this music, the bodies rubbing against one another. He feels claustrophobic and like his body is on fire. It's obvious to him what's happening when he feels throat is closing up and his palm begins to sweat. He needs to get out of here before he does something stupid. Something dangerous. or - Sam helps Bucky get out of his head by dancing. Feelings ensue.

a glimpse into the lives of Sam and Bucky by Shes_from_the_Twilight_Zone: The evolution of Sam and Bucky’s relationship (told in no particular order) as told through some angsty and fluffy moments/one-shots.

A Star in the Western Sky by juniperwick: Sam wakes up on the flight to Riga to find Bucky's not okay.

[scootakip]

Pengu Survives Christmas

I've made an arcade highscore game based on Pengu Saves Christmas by STANNco on Newgrounds

This wasn't originally a Pengu game, it was actually an original minigame being made for the Neopets private server Neopets Classic. Titled "Jump Bruce", it had mostly the same gameplay and obstacles, just originally made using a Neopets skin.

The idea was for a pixel-art arcade game that would progressively get more difficult the longer you survived by adding more obstacles. I love those original score-based arcade games and I feel like it's a form of gameplay that a lot of these kids MMOs base their minigames on, so I thought it'd be fitting

These are some of the original assets. Pengu went on to replace Bruce, Quiggle was replaced by a piranha fish, and Pteri never got reskinned. Rather than having an enemy who flys through the sky, I settled on replacing Pteri with the seal from Pengu Saves Christmas, who now resides on the bottom platforms.

This brick got replaced with an icicle, and the fireball's sprite got remade and reused. The Brucicles would eventually become the varied Christmas treat pickups in Pengu Survives Christmas.

It's a real shame that none of these assets got put to proper use, because I'm fairly proud of how they came out. The game was actually near completion, but it unfortunately got canceled because the Neopets Classic developer that I had been in contact with decided to start ghosting me.

It was a nearly completed game that I thought had potential though, so I decided to reuse it for another now canceled project called the Newgrounds Bootleg Pack.

The idea of the Newgrounds Bootleg Pack was to make a Newgrounds themed minigame collection based on those bootleg NES game packs. Y'know, the ones that hilarious mistranslate and misname classic games, also sometimes containing some of the stankiest bootleg homebrew known to man such as "Angry Birds" or "Plants vs Zombies" NES roms. If you don't know what I'm talking about, look up some videos of them, they're hilariously terrible.

Anyways, Jump Bruce got reskinned to be "Fulp Hero", which was just a direct reskin of the game.

Rather than Bruce, you played as Tom Fulp's avatar and collected Beers

You'd avoid bullets shot at you by Pico

And dodge flying envelopes and Tom Fulp's cat, Sherbert. I kinda had a difficult time coming up with obstacles related to Tom Fulp and Newgrounds, but the strangeness of it fits with the bootleg theme in my opinion.

The Newgrounds Bootleg Pack was going to be released for April Fools 2022, but unfortunately wasn't finished in time. I might end up making a blog post dedicated to the bootleg pack itself just so I can share some of the minigames I made that never saw the light of day.

2 canceled remakes of my first released Newgrounds game Egg-Legs and 2 more canceled Christmas projects (that I cannot talk about right now because they might still be finished in the future) later, we've come to Pengu Survives Christmas. I really wanted to get something out for Christmas, and considering that Jump Bruce/Fulp Hero was already nearly finished, reskinning the game and releasing it for Christmas wouldn't be a very tall order.

Turns out I wasn't entirely right

The original code for Jump Bruce goes back as far as 2021, and dear lord I was a bum-ass programmer back then. A lot of the code was kinda buggy so I tried to fix it, but it was just so poorly made and shotty that attempts to fix it resulted in even more broken code. The organization and build of the project itself was so poorly organized that trying to navigate it to fix its issues was such a headache.

The jumping felt terrible and was such a pain to fix without rewriting it. My system for having platforms you can jump through the bottom of was just amateur, but the organization of the actual scene was so poor that I'd have to go through each and every physics object individually and fix each one. The platforms also weren't instances of one platform, but each an individual node. I'd have to fix each of the 5 platforms individually. Like what the fuck was I thinking when I originally made this.

Overall, I decided to simply remake it from the ground-up. I felt it'd be easier to make the game feel the way I wanted it to feel if I just remade it all rather than trying to sort through and fix my shotty work from over a year ago.

I don't know how entirely right I was to do this, if it really was faster and more efficient, but overall I'm proud of the product that I've made. In addition to remaking the original game (minus the flying enemy on the top of the level), I also added new obstacles in the form of the seal on the bottom platforms and the rising water. Overall, this version of the game feels and looks way better than any of the previous versions. It's also a much cleaner project which will make it easier to make additions to if I decided to update it in the future (which I'm already thinking of doing, as I'd love to implement a hard-mode and potentially more level layouts)

You can play the game here if you'd like, sign in to Newgrounds to be able to unlock medals and post your highscores to the scoreboard!

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