#the clench dc

[mae-kent]

tim fans can we talk about tim’s trauma that ISN’T his emotional neglect or dick taking away robin.

can we talk about his extensive history of SA?? dana winters??? contagion???? knightfall????? not only kon dying, but also bart and darla and steph and so on??????

[valrixian]

Idk how Tim is going to survive this one lmao

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I keep forgetting ab my tumblr acc, sorry guys😭🫶

[dailytims]

Batman Chronicles (1995) #4 (Beggar's Banquet)

[pokeberry5]

i can't believe alfred saw this and then let dick briefly believe tim was dead

ref panel + extra:

from DC #696/Contagion #8

i had to cover up dick's face bc of his domino and im kinda sad about it:

no text:

mushroom for encouragement while i drew:

[maskygirl55]

Can we talk about how underutilized 'The Clench' is in fanfics??

I'm not knowledgeable on what happened but from what I have gleaned from the very few fanfics that mention it and Google, basically a deadly virus is sent to Gotham and the corrupt mayor replaces Gordon with an incompetent person to prevent the GCPD from helping.

And guys, this shit is serious. You die within 12 hours by mutating until you're bleeding out of your eyeballs.

Tim got infected while trying to stop looters with Nightwing and one of them spit at him. Then experiences hallucinations of his family while he's dying and Alfred is treating him, and Bruce and Dick are trying to stop Ivy from mind controlling the infected. Like, this shit is crazy.

I didn't give a full rundown but guys, this whole series was a gold mine that we don't see enough of.

[shycorvid]

I'm admittedly not very familiar with Kon-el's backstory, just the vague details, but I got the idea of him somehow escaping CADMUS ahead of schedule, and winding up in Gotham, where he accidentally becomes one of Batman's rogues. He's just coming into his powers, and isn't quite sure what he's doing, just that he wants money (later he'll claim he gets that from the Luther part of his DNA and people just go along with it). Eventually Batman gets a sample of his DNA and realizes oh no, this kid that's been harassing him and his children (mainly Tim) is freaking Clark's. Suddenly it all makes sense. And then they have uncomfortable phone conversation.

Bruce- Kent. Clark- Hey Bruce. Is something the matter? Bruce- Depends. Clark- slowly Okaaay. Depends on what? Bruce- I’m hurt, Clark. Clark- What does that mean? You sound okay? Bruce- I thought we were esteemed colleagues. Clark- We’re friends. Bruce- Esteemed colleagues that tell each other when they’re seeing their mortal enemy. Clark- What does that even mean. Bruce- I tell you everything about Selina. And Harvey. And Talia. And the thing with Khoa- Clark- You’re not being very helpful right now. Bruce- But you didn’t tell me about Lex? Clark- What. Bruce- sends DNA results Congratulations, it’s a half-Kryptonian Gotham rogue. Clark- sputtering Bruce- Get him out of my city.

[lemonlimestar]

july 1st 2024 i want dc to shoot tim drake in the neck again. it’ll be fun prommy.

[fantastic-nonsense]

im soso curious, i need to know... why is tim a child of apollo? bless u for not going with fanon<3

[referencing how I decided who the Batfam's godly parents were in my PJO AU WIP]

People like to sort him into Athena because DC has spent the last few years emphasizing how smart he is and how he's better at the more “cerebral” and detective aspects of the job. But Tim’s most prominent pre-reboot traits are not actually his detective or tech skills: they’re his reckless, impulsive bravery, his ability to analyze and think very quickly on his feet in dangerous situations, and his "power of friendship" idealism.

He's a people person; it's one of his greatest strengths. Tim is like...physically incapable of going somewhere and not making at least one friend while he's there. Hell, when he ran off to travel the world on his "fuck you, I'll find Bruce on my own" trip he still managed to pick up his own little crew of assassin friends along the way. Making connections and talking to people and relying on others for help is how he successfully navigates being a hero, as he himself notes on multiple occasions:

"Did you think I was going to run all around the city, desperately trying to save everyone all by myself? I'm not Batman. I have friends." -Red Robin #12

Tim loves his family and friends, and losing so many people he's close to within such a small timespan sends him off the deep end in multiple ways (trying to clone Kon, fighting Dick to get the Lazarus water, isolating himself from everyone, fighting with Dick and running off to find proof that Bruce was alive on his own, etc).

At his core, Tim is an idealist who becomes a hero for no other reason than a) a broken man needs help and a broken family needs mending and b) if Dick won't go back to being Robin he might as well do it, because someone has to be Robin. He sees what will happen if Bruce stays on the path he's on and says "no. I'm not going to let that happen." He's a hero because someone has to help, and he's able and available to do so. He doesn't work on cold hard logic and facts. He works off of gut instinct and then uses his big brain to go find facts and logical conclusions that support those instincts.

Tim was never going to be an Athena child.

So I started thinking. At first, I wanted him to be a Hermes child; it seemed right to frame his parentage around being the child of the messenger of the gods given how he became Robin. But that's not really him, either. Apollo, within the scope of both classical mythology and the PJO-verse's depiction of him and his children, fits him better.

While modern culture tends to zero in a lot on Apollo's status as the god of music, poetry, and the arts (for good reason), Apollo in classical Greek mythology was first and foremost known as the god who (for lack of a better term) helps his people. He's the god of the sun, of light, of medicine and healing, of prophecy, of truth.

Tim comes into Bruce's life at a time when Bruce is at his absolute lowest point. Jason is dead. He's estranged from Dick. He's failing in his mission to save Gotham. He's highkey passively suicidal. And Tim takes it upon himself to fix that. And he does it by being a solid, bright, stable presence in Bruce's life and an extremely blunt, truthful messenger of the future he sees: Batman needs a Robin, and if Bruce doesn't have one he's going to die.

And I didn't abandon his intelligence in the calculations: Apollo is also the god of rational thinking, order, and knowledge, contrasting and working in harmony with Dionysus (the god of irrationality, chaos, and passion). He was also known to be the god whose job it was to interpret the will of Zeus to humankind, which I thought was appropriate for a boy who spends quite a lot of his time being the living communication translator between Bruce and everyone around him.

So. Apollo child.

............also I thought it was funny to make the god of youth the father of the boy DC refuses to allow to age.

[snottertooder]

[mzminola]

These parallels aren't going anywhere they just give me emotions.

[geneticdriftwood]

shoutout to the only panel in the cheshire contract where roy actually looks believably 22ish. you will always have a special place in my heart <3

[theatrebooknerd56]

Need more fics that acknowledge Tim's medical history and trauma

Cause that boys immune system is held together by elmers glue and spite. Not only has he almost died from the clench (which could come back) but he also lacks a spleen weakening his immune system

There's so much you could do with Immunocompromised! Tim Drake. Give me him only being vigilant about that aspect of his health. I just think more can be done

[pokeberry5]

Hi! For ur version of Tim, do you think he can cook? Or tries to put in the effort to learn how to cook?

pre-robin into early robin, i don't think he can. or like. he's not the completely incompetent "can burn water type"—he can follow recipes or instructions on boxes.

i think as he grows older, he's the sort of person who learns how to improvise a suite of dishes (usually that have sentimental value). which means, when he cooks, he's usually vacillating wildly between basic but decent dishes and Intense meals.

[hawnks]

Caleb being MCs adopted brother is not even dc to me like Twilight already went there it's fine

[shecarnionmyval]

here i thought only i got the new year’s miracle… seems like my enemy did too…….

[heroesriseandfall]

Discussing self contradictory comics timelines is all fun and games until someone comes up with a technically-possible timeline that completely goes against everything you hold dear.