#somewhat a joke

[smlgglestyle]

HOP OFF MY DICK DYLRIC ANTIS.

dylan was erics bottom bitch and thats FINAL

[c0mmander-rudboys]

I have crippling depression.

//same

[jewishbarbies]

Me when someone who I respected says they blocked Noah Schnapp for being a zionist/supporting zionism:🙃

it’s okay bestie I’ve got the chair who are we smacking down

[adam-n-dog]

People who chew gum with their mouth open should not allowed to have gum, I think

[sukimas]

WATCH MORE SHOWS AND PLAY MORE GAMES. MADOKA IS FOR DEEPLY UNWELL 11 YEAR OLDS EXCLUSIVELY

human sacrifice is morally correct as long as you do yuri about it

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Knowledge Revenge.

[spaceistheplaceart]

more ford and mabel bonding because i said so :)

bonus ford under the cut:

[franeridart]

more dragon

[gimmickblog-taxonomist]

How do you become a gimmick blog?

step 1: think of a gimmick

step 2: blog

[gay-david-tennant]

Things you can do now that Trump is gonna spin this into a martyr story:

VOTE! FUCKING VOTE! DO NOT GIVE UP! GET EVERYONE ELSE TO VOTE TOO!

Remind everyone at any time and as much as possible that the shooter was Republican. The shots were literally fired from his own house.

VOTE! YEAH, HIS CULT WILL PROBABLY BE EVEN MORE RABID NOW BUT THERE ARE STILL ENOUGH REASONABLE PEOPLE OUT THERE.

[casscainmainly]

A Deep Dive Into Why Cass Threw Dick Out A Window

If you've been here long enough you've probably seen or heard of this moment, which is super hilarious and iconic. It's mostly discussed in reference to Dick and Cass' relationship. However, in my opinion Cass throwing Dick out a window had very little to do with her opinion of him, or even of Barbara; it has more to do with her understanding of romance and love. I briefly touched on this in my gender/sexuality post, but I'm going to explain more in depth my interpretation of how Dick functions in Batgirl (2000) as a whole. (This moment is very open to interpretation though, this is just my opinion!). So let's try to answer Dick's question: what was that all about?

Love, Language, and DickBabs

While Puckett's run is notable for not having Cass date anyone, romantic love does play a role in Cass' early understanding of the world. It's the impetus that spurs her to write: in issue 2, she sees a wife read a letter from her deceased husband, and her reaction affects Cass so strongly she immediately starts trying to write. (She also kisses the husband on the cheek earlier, which may or may not be a crush). Romance, and the ability to communicate your love, is a fundamental part of Cass' desire to learn language.

So we have Cass, who has experienced neither love nor language, living with Babs, who's in a relationship with Dick. This telephone conversation in #4 (the issue where a metahuman changes Cass' brain into understanding language) again links romance to communication. Dick and Babs are talking on the phone, unable to see each other but understanding each other perfectly; Cass and Babs, on the other hand, live together and can't understand each other at all.

"She can't talk, so it's not all that different [to living alone]." Babs is telling an eavesdropping Cass that her inability to speak prevents her from love and connection - a love and connection symbolised by one of the first romantic relationships Cass is consistently around, Dick and Barbara.

Dick as an Ideal

There's a debate whether Cass likes Dick or not because half the time they're friendly, and half the time she's punching him or throwing him out windows. This disparity makes sense if you consider that Cass strongly associates DickBabs with communication, understanding, love - very idealised notions - but she does not associate Dick as a person with them. Her interactions with Dick (sans Babs) are cute and normal - Batgirl #29 and Nightwing #81 feature some very adorable Dick-Cass moments, with no real tension whatsoever.

It's only when Cass sees Dick in a romantic light (as in associated with Babs) that she makes him into a symbol.

Cass often tries to copy Babs, thinking it's the 'correct' thing to do - in DC First: Batgirl/Joker, she goes after Joker because that's what Barbara did; later in Horrocks' run she'll wear Barbara's outfit. In a way, Cass' affairs with Tai'Darshan and Kon - as much as I do think Tai'Darshan was genuine attraction - is another way to 'copy' Barbara. In #42, Cass stares at a picture of Dick and Babs while asking if Babs likes boys. Obviously Cass knows the answer is yes, but see what she asks next, and how Barbara responds:

She shifts from 'like' to 'love', and Babs responds that she 'care[s]' about him. For Cass, whose arc in Horrocks' run is about parsing out the nuances of attraction, understanding the difference between like, love, and care is incredibly difficult. She struggles to separate familial from romantic (Bruce in #50) or romantic from platonic (Kon, and in somewhat the reverse way Steph). In this conversation, Cass comes to associate Dick with like, love, and care - DickBabs becomes not just a symbol of romantic love, but of any connection whatsoever.

The Old Costume

I've discussed elsewhere that Cass wearing Babs' old costume in #45 is a representation of her desire to be 'girly', and how she associates girlhood with someone other than herself, discarding her own costume for Babs'. But putting on a costume is not the only prerequisite for being a 'girl'. In Babs' speech to Cass, she emphasises being sexually attractive to men, with her final comment being about this "particular look Dick used to give [her]". For Cass, visual language is incredibly important; putting on Babs' costume is not about being or feeling like a girl, but about being perceived as one. Dick is symbolic of the perceiver: the one who can essentially 'grant' women their femininity.

But Cass is disgusted when Tim calls her hot, which adds to her confusion - why should Dick being attracted to Babs make Babs happy, but Tim (who's not a sibling at this time) perceiving her like that grosses her out? Cass' inability to feel good - to feel 'feminine' - through the male gaze is another sign, to her, of her failure to be a woman.

Which finally brings us to issue 46...

That Ableist Kon Comment

Cass finds out Dick breaks Babs' heart and then starts hallucinating on a drug. One of the things she hallucinates is Kon saying "who wants to date a cripple? Ain't that right, Nightwing?" and Nightwing responding "not me--at least, not anymore."

For the first time, we get to the heart of why DickBabs mattered to Cass: it was an example of a disabled person in a loving, romantic relationship. It goes back to that phone call in #4, where Babs implies that Cass is hard to care about because she can't speak. The Kon comment suggests Cass has carried that with her all this time, trying to find proof that she can be loved, no matter her disability. DickBabs showed her it could be done - the break-up shows her now that it can't be done.

Dick's hallucination mocks her disability: "look at her--she can't even read!" Attributing this mockery to Dick (whose real-life counterpart, unlike the other hallucinations, has never said anything remotely like this) shows that this 'Dick-as-ideal' is intrinsically tied to Cass' self-worth.

Honestly this whole post stemmed from me thinking about this one panel. There is no real reason, from Cass' view of Dick as a person, for her to think he's brave and noble and kind (more so than anyone else). But it's in the DickBabs context - that Dick seemed to love, wholeheartedly, a disabled woman - that makes Cass think this way. And now that DickBabs is broken up, it shows that she, too, is rotten to the core; that someone like her cannot be loved.

And so when Dick shows up, she throws him out the window.

Conclusion

In this moment, Cass isn't just reacting to Dick breaking up with Barbara, she's reacting to what it means to her. If Dick can't stay with Barbara, then that means Cass, as another disabled woman, is also unable to be loved. This all leads up to #50, which features another Cass punch to Dick's face, but more importantly is when Bruce and Cass reconcile through Cass' first language. It's a confirmation that though her verbal skills may not be fully developed, she still can communicate, and she can love and be loved.

I don't think a lot of the ideas I touched on here are fully developed, or conclude cleanly. For example, how does Cass' 'failure' to be a woman relate to her inability to be loved? Is she able to have a stable romantic relationship? There are lots more questions, but the role Dick specifically plays in Cass' understanding of romance is probably not going to develop further. I just think it's interesting how Horrocks uses the Dick-Babs relationship to explore Cass' identity.

[answermywearyquery]

great 😳 + dr. tyme's large equipment 😏

[undertheredhood]

AU where instead of becoming the red hood and taking over gotham’s criminal underground at 18-19, jason todd decides to go back to school and graduate from college, and just generally live the life his parents (read: catherine and willis todd) would have wanted him to have that they unfortunately couldn't have given him due to their circumstances.

and what does jason get his college degree in, might you ask? he graduates with full honours as a political science major, minoring in english with plans to work in public policy.

and y'know, after graduating and working for a couple of years, things seem to be actually looking up for jason. he has good friends, a stable income with a job that he actually enjoys, he owns a home, his romantic life is pretty decent, and he's actually healing from the trauma of his death. there’s nothing that could possibly go wrong in his life, right? not when it’s been the best it’s ever been in years, right?

well, that’s where you’re wrong because when he comes home from his 9-5 shift, jason finds the batman himself brooding in the dark while sitting criss cross applesauce on his very new leather sofa.

and just when jason thought he was having a good week.

(this idea was kinda inspired by this post that i made a while back, where jason goes back to school, and now i’m having too many ‘what would jason have become if he didn’t become the red hood?’ thoughts running through my brain because of it, lmao.)

[stxrrnightjxr]

Everytime I see something about Bartylus, Prongsfoot, Moonwater, ect. And the comments are ‘aww so best friends so platonic 🥰’ I start gnawing at the bars of my enclosure

[adobe-outdesign]

There was a period in Neopets wherein all the faeries were designed to wear bell bottoms for some reason and honestly I kind of feel like getting rid of them was a downgrade

enough dresses, have a faerie show up ready to bless your Neopet and then head out to the disco afterward

[guardian-angle22]

re-watching tarlos in 5.07 and dying at how Carlos is so amused at the owen vs. enzo dick measuring contest... when TK shoots him a little glare, he just kind of vaguely winks and smirks back at him.

then later when Owen asks him for his opinion, you can see he's still kind of amused by it all... but he takes one look at TK's face, reads his expression/body language and realizes, 'okay maybe now is not the time to make the joke that I'd like to make.'