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spicyhamsamson · 2 years ago

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I am. So fucking tired of Batman being portrayed as a bad parent and a toxic person. And it’s so goddamn widespread. Fuck, it might be as bad as the whole “Superman being a kindhearted Boy Scout is boring” take.

I get it, the man’s not exactly stable, he watched his parents get murdered in front of him and spent years of his life training to fight crime dressed like a giant scary bat, of course he’s not perfect.

But to say that Bruce Wayne isn’t caring, isn’t empathetic, to call him abusive…it just misses the point of who the character is to me.

Why do you think he fights crime? Yes, part of it is because he’s bitter and sad because his parents were cruelly ripped from him as a child, and he’s lashing out against the corruption of his city. It’s arguably the focus of his earlier years. But he learns to become more than that. He learns to bring hope, a chance to be better.

Harleen Quinzel is the Joker’s right hand lady, but she’s also a victim of an abusive relationship and a woman with a surprisingly strong moral compass and a love for animals, and wants to get better. That’s why we see time and time again that he has a noticeable soft spot for her, because he knows that she’s a good person at her core.

Harvey Dent is a man who will decide someone’s fate on a coin toss(and a pretty inaccurate depiction of DID), but he’s also Bruce’s close friend who clearly needs help learning to live with his condition, rather than try to get rid of it, and someone who he still goes out of his way to visit, even after everything, because he recognizes he’s not just a criminal with a weird gimmick, he’s a man who is struggling with a condition that he’s mishandled his whole life.

Victor Fries is a cold, emotionless man who will callously discard allies and blame them for being careless, but he’s also a man who’s either lashing out because he had the love of his life taken from him, or just desperate to make sure she isn’t taken from him, and is willing to do anything just to guarantee her survival. Of course Batman would understand, his whole life was defined by having people he loved taken away from him.

Even the Joker, arguably one of the most morally bankrupt characters in all of fiction, is someone that Batman has offered a chance to. After the guy shoots the daughter of his friend, a girl he cared for like she was his own kid, and paralyzes her from the waist down, he tells the Joker that he doesn’t want to hurt him. He wants to get him help. He looks at this monster who has taken countless lives and says “You don’t have to be alone.”

For fuck’s sake, he sat with Joe Chill in his last moments so that he wouldn’t be alone. Joe Chill, the man who murdered his parents, who took so much from him, the person responsible for all of the misery and suffering he’s gone through. And he sits with the man to comfort him while dies. Do you know how much emotional intelligence and maturity that must take? To comfort someone who arguably ruined your life?

And you’re gonna tell me the man who did that would abuse his kids?

That he’d hold up the young man whose death was his greatest failure, the boy he grieved, and say this?

That he’d look his goddamn son in the eyes and say this to him?

Why the FUCK do you think he took in Dick Grayson in the first place? It wasn’t because he saw the kid and thought “Ah. A potential soldier.”, it was because he saw a boy experiencing the same heartbreaking loss he had so many years ago, and wanted to make sure he didn’t end up as bitter and miserable as he was.

Why do you think he smiled when Tim Drake presented him a broken watch for Father’s Day? Because he was just happy to see the boy alive and safe.

DAMIAN LITERALLY POINTED AT A COW AND SAID “I’m keeping her. She’s Bat-Cow.” AND BRUCE JUST WENT WITH IT. DIDN’T EVEN NEED TO ARGUE WHY BRUCE SHOULD LET HIM KEEP HER. HE SAID “this cow is my pet now” AND BRUCE SAID “aight, bet”.

The thing about Batman is that he wants to make sure nobody else ends up feeling the way he does. That’s not just about stopping a mugger so a boy’s parents aren’t gunned down. It’s about giving his loved ones the support and care that he couldn’t have, because it was taken from him. It’s about comforting someone who just went through a traumatic experience and letting them know that they’re going to be okay. It’s about going to someone locked away in a cell who thinks that they’re a lost cause and a burden to society and telling them that he wants to help them get better. It’s about EMPATHY and COMPASSION.

That’s what makes him a HERO. He’s meant to inspire us, to show us that we can have that same empathy for others around us, that we can turn our suffering into hope for a better future.

I just wish more people at DC would start recognizing that. But I might as well follow that example myself. Maybe through this struggle of having to see this hero mistreat the people around him and act like a grade-A jackass, people will start to recognize that missing compassion, and slowly but surely, it might come back. After all, what is this post, if not trying to bring attention to the matter in the hopes of fixing it?

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celaenaeiln · 1 year ago

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One of Dick's greatest strengths is his ability to manipulate every single person in existence.

Genuinely I think this makes him the smartest person in the room. Not only is he a brilliant detective, but the fact that he's able to outmaneuver and control virtually everyone including other geniuses and masterminds makes him the most terrifying. There's a reason why his enemies have give up using intelligence against him and simply resorting to brute force.

Now hold your horses before you bring your crowbars and let me explain.

Dick once said, "On an even playing field, I always win."

And it's true. But how do you even the field if your enemies are geniuses, detectives, or metas?

"Well, if you don't like how the table is it, turn over the table."

And that's exactly what Dick does.

Let's begin from his younger years. Dick is 19, newly out of Batman's wing and in no position to take on a skilled mercenary on by himself. But the mercenary isn't going to stop just because he says please. So.

DEATHSTROKE WAS CLEARLY NOT EXPECTING TO GET OUTPLAYED BY A 19 YEAR OLD.

"You're right Slade, he's not a fool so choose a dumber kidnapping victim next time."

Ofcourse this is the least of his abilities.

This cover is perfect because it shows how two of them are literally in a constant game of chess. And evidence of Dick's tactical expertise was never more obvious than the bombing of Bludhaven.

By all means Dick had won.

And he's right. Dick is incredibly intelligent, and he has to be given how he maneuvered the entirety of the world to save him city. Not just the heroes and villains, but everyone - the heroes, the villains, the government, the civilians, the organized crime - everyone. He ruled the freaking world at that moment.

@haroldhighballjordan actually made a post about this that explains this scene so well

But yeah Slade knew he lost so in his petty vengeance what he basically did was set the whole fucking chessboard on fire.

The perfection to which Dick had calculated and moved millions of people to force Slade into abandoning their game and leave him shrieking and seething in rage over his loss. Another reminder that this game only happened because Dick manipulated Rose away from her father, away from his control to a better life.

Spyral is one of my favorite comics because it shows just how good of a manipulator Dick Grayson is.

One of Dick's coldest traits is his ability to manipulate a situation to fit his needs.

In the beginning Dick wanted to calm the meta down and take him in but the second his opponent let out the slightest hint of weakness, look how fast he flips his words. This man is brilliant.

And his planning came to fruition as the meta wore himself out, allowing Dick to take control of the situation and the opponent with no harm to himself-a quick, two second exit. He can manipulate emotions, thoughts, and people to get what he wants like he's playing chess with a child.

But it's not just other people- he can completely change himself to become a whole new person. In the earlier chapters, Dick is learning how to shoot a gun for the agency.

Dick's a terrible shot. Not a single bullet lands in the center of the target-there's no way he's ever going to shoot well....or atleast that's what he wants you to think-

"Yeah, well, that's what spies do."

"We lie."

He's a puppet master and the final boss.

part 2

#dick grayson #nightwing #comic panels #manipulative dick grayson #part two coming soon #slade wilson #deathstroke #tiger #spyral #dc #batfamily

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maxwell-grant · 2 months ago

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The Penguin: Episode 1 Breakdown

Thank you Lauren LeFranc, Mike Marino, Colin Farrell and Matt Reeves, we owe you the world for this, good God. It's finally here everyone and I've decided I'm gonna give each episode it's own post/breakdown of thoughts, because hahaha holy shit you guys this is beyond what I even dreamed of, and we're gonna be covering this for a while I think. I've worked out enough madness about this out of my system by talking with friends and I can't seem to be able to work on anything else till I get this done, so let's do it.

Bottom line: This isn't even just a must-watch if you like the Penguin or if you like The Batman, this is something I'd recommend to just about anyone in a heartbeat, something I can point to when people ask "why do you like The Penguin so much" and, instead of the elaborate nerd ramble that usually turns them off, I can just tell them to watch this. A friend of mine (who already loves Batman and digs the Penguin quite a bit) even told me as much, that he's starting to get why I love the character so much, and truly, is there a better feeling than this? Well, there is, and it's watching the show. Let's dig into this first episode:

Right upfront I'm gonna say that this doesn't really seem to be the Sopranos rip-off that people have been calling it before release, although there are definitely Sopranos comparisons to make here. I've spent the past months finally watching The Sopranos in order to get the comparison and definitely want to talk about those comparisons after I finish it (and this show ends). This thing aims to stand on it's own legs as a crime show and it's smashing out of the gate with an extremely promising first episode.

So this just casually opens with the reveal that all along, there was a second rich Gotham the whole time that was completely unaffected by everything we saw in the movie, already throwing a great twist on the events of that movie, and further reinforcing how fucking full of shit The Riddler was. All we saw Batman and the others deal with in the movie was just affecting the poorer parts of the city. All Eddie did was drown rats, and make life worse for the people already in the bottom, while never even getting close to targeting the systemic rot that ruined his life. He retains ideological worshippers in subways obsessed with the corruption of the city without doing anything to actually improve it, and because of him, the streets of Gotham are waterlogged shitholes while the rich Falcone suburbs are doing just fine, peachy even.

I said a while back that, in spite of having about 6 scenes/10 minutes of Penguin runtime, The Batman managed to squeeze impeccably controlled Penguin Trademark Scenes, and this show opens with the last one they didn't get to then: Penguin killing someone for making fun of him. In the movie, he tries doing that with Falcone and is beaten to the punch, so here he gets to actually do it to disastrous consequences.

Fucking adore that the inciting incident of the show is based on the fallout of Oswald killing someone for making fun of him. He pours his heart about the dream he lives his life for, his new boss makes fun of him for being an embarassment to their profession and then he does the most typical Penguin thing by killing him for it and laughing afterwards. And then he realizes how badly he fucked up, and then we get a fucking perfect titledrop with his musical theme, the exact moment we finish The Batman and enter The Penguin.

God it is so fucking cool how the make-up/lighting, the scar across his face, makes it look like he's got a genuine beak from certain angles, how they're able to achieve that effect without giving him a more literal beak for a nose. Everytime they talk about the character, Reeves and Farrell always emphasize how integral the make-up was to them figuring out what to do with Oz, how little they knew what to make of his six scenes until Marino created their monster and suddenly everything fell into place. Mike Marino fully deserves co-credit for the creation of Oz.

Pretty amusing that Victor, as designed to be Penguin's Robin, has exactly the same origin as Jason Todd, a poor street kid trying to steal the hubcaps off the Penguinmobile (I'm sure this bodes very well for his odds at survival), as is the way in which Oz goes on about his recruitment. He press-gangs this kid at gunpoint to help him bury a body arguing with himself and eventually the kid why shouldn't he just kill him to be safe, while trying to impress the kid with his car and air freshener and later that bullshit about "What, you think I hire any schmuck off the street?". From the tile drop onwards, he's doing everything on the fly while also spinning long-term plans set in motion as soon as he's on screen, he's taking this kid in out of sympathy and because he enjoys a power dynamic over someone weaker than him and because he very much needs someone to help him get stuff done. I'm extremely interested in exploring Penguin having a mentorship dynamic and I'm beyond curious as to what happens with Victor from this point onwards, but that poor kid is in for a terrible fucking time.

Found it very funny how much he half-asses the murder threat to Victor. Like it's his first time actually doing it and he's trying to be serious, but not too scary because he's already seeing himself in the poor kid with a stutter and wants the kid to think he's also a cool guy like he wants everyone to think he's a cool guy. I also think having Victor as the POV helps to sell moments like these, because it's still terrifying to him. Even as we follow their stories, these power players of Gotham are still big scary monsters to people caught in the dregs and Victor helps to reinforce that.

I enjoy Oz being friends with sex workers and drag queens off the street as much as I enjoy Oz being depicted as the kind of guy who deludes himself into thinking the prostitute he's with actually likes him, Lauren and Farrell launched into a bit about in on the podcast and I'm curious to see what's going on with him and Eve here.

Lots of perfect funny little character moments across the whole thing. Oz insulted by the idea of taking extra pickles off a poor kid's dirty mouth, but with zero hesitation whatsoever for picking jewelry off his boss' corpse. Dude is governed by principles even as he actively has to break them to survive.

"Technically it's plum." "He is the - or was the - new kingpin", "He's got nurse-like qualities." The show is not overtly trying to get you to find Penguin likeable as much as it wants you to find him engaging - making you think he's likeable is Colin Farrell's job and he's masterful at it, definitely a lot more matured within the character compared to the movie.

If there's anything in particular I'm thankful for regarding Gotham (well okay Gotham led directly to Telltale Penguin which was the basis for this one, so really I do have a lot more to be thankful with Gotham), it's the decision to give him a legit waddle via the broken foot, but the way they incorporate it here with the club foot does so much for him, so much as a modern day reinvention of The Penguin. Adds so much to why he's never been a serious candidate for mob leadership, why he kinda had to spend all his time in the Lounge, why he actually needs someone to help him run affairs, why he has such a gaping ego wound and is so murderously angry at people making fun of him / calling him a goddamn penguin, adds so much validation and so much darkness and nuance to Oswald's overwhelming anger and bitterness over how the world treats him (and so much power should he opt to reclaim it, in turn). It's the kind of thing that frankly feels like it should have always been part of the character, like what all the previous versions were itching closer to or trying to get at. Of course this is a guy gets called a penguin and he hates it badly enough to murder people over it, of course.

This gets to really highlight how differently Oz acts depending on who he's with. Traditionally, one of my favorite things about The Penguin, and one of the things that puts him above the other villains, is that, due to his position, he has to interact with a lot more people than the other Bat-villains. He has to manage a lot more relationships and dynamics, he has to play peacekeeper and puppetmaster. he's the only one in the United Underworld who's regularly interacting with and recruiting other villains to do business with. He's the guy who you pin stuff on like the Gangland Guardians, Team Penguin, doing betting pools with the Rogues taking cover in his Lounge while Joker War is happening, having to rig games to keep good standing with Maxie Zeus and Frenchy Blake in Batman Audio Adventures, and so on. So I greatly enjoy this beat here of him talking about how makes himself smaller before the Falcones, and that moment of him adjusting his outfit and practicing expressions in the mirror before meeting with them. How he contorts himself is present in all of his relationships, and retroactively adds to the way he carries himself in The Batman.

It seems that Oz is functionally regarded as the Paulie Walnuts of the Falcones: useful muscle, loyal for the most part and amusing to keep around, but largely an unstable self-serving dumb asskisser kept where he belongs, a liability if not kept on a short leash. I think the show does a good job of highlighting all the reasons why Oz has never been seriously regarded as a viable option for a boss, even putting aside his disability. He is a fundamentally embarassing person for these serious respectable criminals to be around and of course, the joke is ultimately on them..

Of course, there is only two people in the show who actually know what he's capable of, Francis Cobb and Sofia Falcone, said to be the central relationships defining the show moving forward. Both of them also a defining commonality with Oswald, being people who are looked down on and dehumanized, and characters who are underestimated until it's time to bear their fangs.

Extremely invested in where they're going with Sofia Falcone, Cristine Milioti's been killing it, and will in fact not stop killing it. What a perfect villain for Penguin they've set up with her, someone who has his Kryptonite: she does not underestimate him. Although we know in advance that Oz is going to live and be in the next movie, the question here isn't even so much who's going to win the gang war, and rather how much damage these two freaks will do to the city until Batman gets back. In many ways, Sofia represents the shape of things to come just as much as he does.

She is this embodiment of both the pristine unfathomable wealth and privilege and power that he both detests and strives for, as well as this brutal new breed of madness and violence attacking the streets that he has to survive against and make deals with (and is himself very much a part of, however he denies it). She is Falcone's legacy in every way that matters, both a Kingpin of Gotham whose existence creates the oppressive conditions under which a Batman or a Riddler are created, as well as the Arkham Rogue, the larger-than-life sadist with a tragic origin and a signature torture-murder method and an embarassing name for the papers.

Even the fact that she is The Hangman, and Carmine was defined around his penchant for brutally strangling women - regardless of whether or not she did the crimes that got her in Arkham, she's become this larger-than-life themed expression of a violent obsession in a way that sets her up as every bit the Batman villain that The Penguin is. The two champions of the two Gothams, duking it out in this new world The Batman and The Riddler made, The Penguin vs The Hangman.

I am so glad Lauren LeFranc made the call for binning Alberto in the first five minutes so the rest of the show can focus on Sofia and make a real character out of her in a way nobody's ever really done before, every step of the way so far LeFranc has been perfectly on the ball about where to take these characters and their conflict. And speaking of those,

I feel very confident in saying that this is the first time anyone's ever really had something worth doing with Oswald's mother as a character in her own right and not just a source of anguish for Penguin (Gotham was almost onto something with Gertrude, but not nearly enough). When it comes to Penguin origin stories, my favorite's always been the Pre-Crisis one, where he's poor and bullied but happy with his mom and birds until she dies and the government seizes everything he has, which doesn't necessarily involve her much. But here? Francine Cobb is a real character in what little time we get to know her, and what a character she is. We quickly understand the role she's playing in Oz's life, not just as his mom and person he loves and strives to protect, but the person who's sculpting him into the man he's going to become.

She is vulnerable and she does need meds and she's not quite all there, and Penguin's need to care for her is visible in other actions of his. But then they turn it around by showing how strong and demanding she is, how she is fiercely ambitious and pushing him to be something he would otherwise not be, how much she loves him and sees greatness in him. She knows he's a people pleaser, she knows how to push his buttons, and she wants him to be more, so of course he's going to be more, because he lives to please his mom.

Related to this is this absolute bullseye of a summation of The Penguin, that Lauren LeFranc delivered in the podcast: "Perhaps his greatest fear is that love is transactional. And that yet, everything he does, every decision he makes, is as if that's true. As if "love is transactional" is a truth he abides by". Oswald's conception of power is being loved and revered like Rex Calabrese, and the love he wants most in all the world is the one from his mother. So in turn this, and all extensions of it, drive him to greater and darker lengths.

He doesn't have that ambition quite down yet, it's his mom that does. She who's pushing him to take over the city and not just be a guy scraping by for survival. He's smart and ambitious and extremely good at slipping out of trouble, but she's pushing him to be the guy who will be taking the city by the horns because that's what he has to be for their sake. Her legacy to her son is nurturing him having that dog in him that will make him the supervillain who picks fights with Vengeance. She is the force that's turning Oswald into The Goddamn Penguin and I can't wait to see how she's developed.

Of course he reprimands Victor in that scene for lacking ambition, who do you think he gets it from?

Really love what they've done with Sal Maroni in here so far. I like adaptations that take these throwaway Batman backstory gangsters and make something out of them, in this case, with Clancy Brown lending his power and voice and reputation as The Grand Boss of Villainy to play the last Respectable Gangster of Gotham, this intimidating principled old tiger who's inversely proportional to how much of a petty and scummy piece of shit Carmine Falcone was. Extremely a guy I'd want to see playing a hand in the creation of Two-Face. Just as crucial is the fact that he is the one who gets the most effortlessly outplayed by Oz here, because this is The Penguin Show: no room for traditional or respectable gangsters anymore, their purpose is to be crapped all over by our wacko birdman.

There's a lot about this that re-contextualizes his behavior in The Batman and the one I'm gonna point out is: even though he can't be sure his plan didn't completely go to shit, he is still keeping his wits and not being terribly scared about being beaten up and tortured and staring down the scariest Falcone with a gun shoved in his throat. But he craps his pants at the sight of the Batmobile. He gets pain, he gets indignity, but he doesn't get Vengeance, what kind of sick freak would come up with the stuff that guy does. A gun in his mouth and Falcone torture is just Tuesday, but a car that wants to eat his soul is some psycho shit he's just not ready to deal with.

It is the delicious tasty fucking irony that Oswald thinks Vengeance is this weird freak who doesn't play or bend to any rules and is here to fuck up everything, just like the madman who flooded the city, and thinks of himself in turn as a justifiable guy standing for the respectable old-fashioned empathetic way of doing things, instead of the exact same thing that Riddler and Batman are. Only Sofia gets what he really is, the same thing as her, and that's why she is the arch-enemy / the biggest thing he's gotta defeat in life for now.

God, how fucking PERFECT it is that he gets caught and tortured because he, after stabbing out a man's eye and causing him to get run over by a schoolbus, stops to wave at the kids in that schoolbus while covered in blood. Just the Rex Calabrese of it all, the self-image, this guy who's both a mean nasty son of a bitch and also a real bleeding heart softie and in ways that ruin his life and allow him to slip and wriggle his way out of shit he has no right to, as demonstrated by the finale.

Thinking about Sofia chastizing Oz saying he thinks she is a toy to play with, while rattling off the ways in which she owns him and everything he has, all the ridiculous little accessories her daddy let him play him, and he in turn is a ridiculous little accessory for the family she is twisting until it breaks. Perfect fucking villain for him. Can't wait to see how badly these two are gonna burn Gotham.

I knew deep in my heart that all I wanted out of a Penguin show, the thing that I simply needed to have in it, was Penguin pulling a heist set-up in advance, and it fucking delivered. He doesn't even complain at Victor for being late, because if anything, getting captured and tortured while the car crashed was even better for him. No, he complains at Victor for not being sufficiently gruesome with the body. See, unlike other cowardly anti-hero reinventions of Bat-villains, the show never wants you to forget that Oz is a weird freak and a disgusting piece of shit, even if he is a very likeable and even aspirational one. Only by the most random stroke of fate it wasn't Victor that he fed to the wolves at that moment, that he sees himself in the kid isn't exactly ensuring that he's gonna make out of this in one piece.

Mr. Vengeance gets Nirvana, and Mr. Boniface gets Dolly Parton, perfect credits.

In conclusion: Out of everything they could have done following the thunderous success of The Batman and it's ensuing influence over the DCU, out of all the offers Reeves must have gotten to helm their new universe after delivering a megahit reinvention of their breadwinner blockbuster character, Matt Reeves went "Nah, I listened to my crew, and what we really want to do is 8 hours of television about the waddling freak who's in my movie for 10 minutes", and he and his crew deserve the world for that. I dreamed as a kid of getting to make a big Penguin story or show, a wild impossible idea that would never actually happen, and now it's here and it's better than anything I'd ever imagined.

I'm fit to burst with joy and riding a high of no longer having to hunt for scraps and washing away decades of put-downs for the character and enjoying a Penguin renaissance like one I never imagined happening. I am extremely not an unbiased reviewer here, this show rules and I've waited for it since I was a kid and it's here, drink it the fuck in cause it's only the beginning.

#dc comics #dc #the penguin #penguin #oswald cobblepot #oswald cobb #hbo #max #the penguin hbo #matt reeves #lauren lefranc #mike marino #colin farrell

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phoenixkaptain · 1 year ago

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My favourite part of Dick Grayson as a character is that he is never afraid of Bruce.

Like, Jason has his fear of disappointing him, Tim is a bit intimidated and has his hero worship, Damian fears that Bruce’ll kick him out the way he thinks Talia did, but Dick?

Dick is so unconcerned about Bruce at every possible moment. Even the earliest comics had Dick calling Bruce lame to his face. Dick works with Bruce and his partner for years and they understand each other on a deep level and Dick multiple times calls Bruce a fucking square.

Dick does not tell Bruce anything. He does not write home. If Bruce wasn’t in the room with him when Dick got called to go somewhere, I’m pretty sure Dick would not have informed Bruce that he was even leaving, let alone where he was going. The Teen Titans joined the Peace Corps, they were in Washington for at least a few days being trained, and Bruce finds out that Robin joined the Peace Corps from a newspaper. Dick does not tell him anything.

Dick and Bruce have such a fascinating relationship to me because Dick really doesn’t treat Bruce as his dad so much as he treats him like a particularly obnoxious older brother. Bruce treats Dick like his little baby bird who he cares about and doesn’t want to get hurt, but Dick is over there like “ugh, Bruce is so overdramatic” while he nearly drowns for the fifth time.

In early Teen Titans, there’s no question that Robin is physically the weakest member. Aqualad and Wonder Girl both have super strength, Kid Flash’s speed means that he doesn’t need super strength, but Robin is by far the easiest to capture. He gets caught very consistently through the early issues, albeit people can only catch him if they take him off guard, but it’s a lot easier to catch him off guard in early comics. Robin is the brains of the group, the others look to him for direction and depend on him to make plans that will work and panic when Robin gets nabbed because what will they do without Robin??

Robin gets captured a lot in early Batman comics too. Robin is the ultimate damsel, but he’s never really in very much distress? Like, Bruce and the Teen Titans are distressed, but Robin just looks maybe a bit surprised and bored. Robin never seems to take his own mortality into account when he does things, meanwhile literally everyone else does.

Dick only ever really gets annoyed with Bruce. He bever gets mad at his teammates, even when they question his ability. For the most part, Dick doesn’t even respond when they underestimate him to his face. I have no idea what’s going on in Dick’s head, but he isn’t a part of Aqualad and Kid Flash finding each other and him annoying in their first team ups and he never gets upset when they don’t believe in him.

Then, on the other hand, Bruce calls the music Dick is listening to noise, and Dick immediately is annoyed. Dick and Bruce having a turbulent relationship is more apparent later on in the comics, but Bruce is truly the only one in all the galaxies who gets under Dick’s skin as much as he does.

And it’s funny because fandom likes to paint Dick as bitter that Bruce didn’t adopt him, while I think Dick would have blown his top if Bruce even tried to adopt him. Dick had parents, he never views Bruce as a parental figure. Don’t get me wrong, Dick loves Bruce. Bruce does so much for Dick and Bruce is protective of him and Bruce is open about his affection, but Dick just doesn’t view him as his father.

I really think Dick views Bruce as more like a guard dog than a father. He talks so casually to Bruce, but he’s more formal to other adults. He complains about Bruce not trusting him, but doesn’t care when his teammates don’t trust him either. He views the rich billionaire vigilante who can take down a god in a fight as fucking lame.

Their relationship is amazing. They get along great. They’re a perfect duo, they work in tandem, they’re absolutely unstoppable together. If Bruce talks too much Dick will roll his eyes. They trust each other with their life. Dick is never telling Bruce anything. Bruce says “I guess I can spare Robin for a minute” and Dick is like “I would be perfectly content to never return home for the rest of my days.”

Of all the Robins, Dick is absolutely the one who respects Bruce the least. He loves the guy, but he just canNOT take him seriously.

(Do you think it was the time Bruce sent a box of bats to someone? Or the times Bruce gets captured and has to be rescued by his damsel side-kick? Or the way Bruce is like an overprotective mother, coming this close to reminding Robin to wash behind his ears? Or the way Bruce lets Robin say whatever he wants and never gets upset or offended or even hurt?

Or, maybe, Batman tripped on his cape once, and Dick just can never forget.)

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punkeropercyjackson · 9 months ago

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Related to my prev post:

I don't give two shits if Bruce is written like a bad dad if it means we get good writing for everybody else since i think minorities are more important than a white cishet male nepotism baby unlike his butch lesbian counterpart who's judaism is an actual fundamental part of her character and since he's been written as abusive so consistently over the years it's in-character anyway

Dick can be both bi/pan and demisexual and there's more evidence for the latter than the former so making him be sexually loose is aspec erasure and mspec stereotyping and he dosen't have a thing for redheads,he has a thing for black women and to me the only guy he seems to like romantically is Roy and that adds on to his demisexuality since they're childhood best friends

'Catholic guilt Jason' is a shit headcanon that misses the major and critical part of him being Red Hood that he didn't feel the slightest bit bad about killing people and the point of his redemption was learning remorse,afrolatino Jason isn't based on stereotyping but him filling out so many black and latino cultural aspects and if any hcs for him are stereotyping it's the one that he's a slut because he's a very handsome and hot and cute goth punk man

Tim is perfect the way he is and dosen't need power ups or to get 'punished' for the oh so horrible crime of being a realistic teenage boy,he's not JUST huge a loser or a super cool dude but both at once and it's bad writing and fetishistic to ignore his wide range of relathionships that consists of mostly of women to make him a 'guys guy'

Stephanie is heavily autistic and bpd-coded so she's far from a 'normie',much less an 'it girl' but people see blonde hair and blue eyes and throw away everything else about her because that's all she's worth to them or call her an abuser and a pick me just like they do irl bpdtistic women and she's also canonically pastel/indie punk and a Team Mom but gets her presentation switched to basic and made out to be a womanchild instead

Cass had a million times more moral conflict than Jason ever did,would never in her LIFE wanna be feminine even in the chinese way and would be butch in it instead,turning her scattered speech into sign language is ableist not unlike(but not on the same level as)changing Babs' type of wheelchair disability and she'd be a better Batman than any male character in existense

Duke is only a golden child in the sense he has a yellow motif and is as disruptive and authentically quirky as his siblings,We Are Robin is a better team than the canon Outlaws,his powers are cooler than any Al-Ghul ones you could come up with,he has more femme energy than Tim does and Carrie Kelley ain't shit and only gets brought back to replace him because DC is antiblack

Damian's introduction mentality was a result of not only child abuse but also psychological grooming to get him to dehumanize himself and all his bigoted comments are explained either by him being like 12 or his writers trying to demonize brown people and anybody who thinks he's a bad person is a super-sized pissbaby with no sympathy for kids of color,shipping him with Jon is making a bisexual man into a ped0phile and Jay is good even if aging Jon up wasn't and he should be friends with Maya,Suren,Nell,Colin,Kathy,Maps,Tai and Miles,Gwen,Peni,Pavitr,Hobie and Margo from Atsv and Nico and Hazel from Pjo instead of Billy Batson or Danny Fenton or ANY Mcu characters

Talia is super hot but should be drawn in accurate arab clothes instead 'sexy assasian gear'(not that these two can't co-exist but you get what i mean),her personality is extremely rich and her stories are mega interesting,she's a good mom to Damian and literally never 'took advantage of Jason' seeing as That Scene In Lost Days was decanonized by it's writer who said it was ooc for her on his part,she should've been a mom figure to Stephanie in her Robin Days too since they would get along and she deserved her own run where she takes over Lexcorp to transform it into a force for good and become Superfam-adjacent to free herself from having only male connections

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izunias-meme-hole · 2 months ago

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My Top 10 Batman Villains (Revamped)

(Because I currently need to get this off my chest, also a lot of these are just in my opinion)

Honorable Mention: Bane (Various) - Despite being misrepresented as a dumb brute and the fact that one of the best adaptations of him somehow gets his voice and nationality wrong, Bane is a villain with QUITE the deserving reputation. A walking tank with a luchador mask that has the brains to match his brawn.

Number 10. Scarecrow (Nolan Trilogy) - Crane wasn't a big villain in the grand scheme of the trilogy, but my god Cillian Murphy does a great job with the character. Like I wish that his supervillain outfit wasn't just a bag over his face, but Scarecrow manages to be quite the dangerous and cowardly loon with a mask of sanity in Batman Begins, an active member of the underworld in The Dark Knight, and the guy actively sending folks to their deaths in The Dark Knight Rises. Could we have had more of him? Yes. Did he use up his screen time well? Absolutely. Though his fear toxin could've been infinitely wilder.

Number 9. Mr. Freeze (BTAS: Heart of Ice) - I feel like this is a "to the surprise of absolutely nobody" moment, but this show reinvented Mr Freeze as a tragic and vengeful figure, and his debut was a perfect example of that.

Number 8. The Phantasm (BTAS) - The Phantasm is one of the best darker counterparts to Batman a lot of levels.

Number 7. Harley Quinn (BTAS) - The minor side villainess turned breakout character of the show. If anyone has seen B:TAS and then seen the rest of the media she's in, then you know why this is the best version of her. A good amount of things about the character being based around her actress (R.I.P Arleen Sorkin), her interactions with half the cast, Peak HarIvy content, the best representation of how bad her situation with her abusive ex was, and the perfect mixture between being a not-so-great-person and a precious lil' thing who deserves better.

Number 6. Ra's Al Ghul (Various) - Ra's Al Ghul may be a more international threat in comparison to the other antagonists I've listed, but he's undeniably one of Bruce's greatest foes. A very rich and powerful older man whose mission and persistence is similar to that of the caped crusader. Though unlike Batman, Ra's is willing to do more than just kill, he's willing to commit genocide, and he's willing to use other harsh and controlling methods in order to create his ideal world. Ra's is pretty much the the worst elements of Batman shoved into a singular self-righteous figure, and when done well he's easily one of the greats.

Number 5. Two-Face (Various) - Harvey Dent is a man split down the middle, a two-faced dude in more ways than one, and an irredeemably tragic figure no matter the perspective, though funnily enough he's always a victim of chance. He's a victim of the one worst possible outcome that had just as much of an opportunity to be the best possible outcome. It's part of the reason why he makes choices based off a literal coin flip. Chance put Dent in the circumstances to become a villain, and as he surrenders his entire being to chance as Two Face.

Number 4. Oswald "Penguin" Cobblepot (Various) - He's just a pathetic and horrible little man. No I'm serious. Oswald has had various portrayals over the years, but they can all be summed up at "pathetic and horrible little man wanting respect" and its great to see in action because despite the fact that he can be legit menacing and sometimes tragic, Oz is just inherently ridiculous on some level. It's great.

Number 3. Catwoman (Various) - Selina, Selina, Selina... she's cool. Sure she is a classic example of a "femme fatale," but aside from that Selina has always been a thrill seeker in some way or another. Be it as a jewel thief who proudly shows this, or an anti-hero that covers this part of herself with actual justifications, there is always an aspect of Selina that enjoys what she does when she puts that mask on. Mrs Kyle is enjoyable, idk what else to say.

Number 2. The Riddler (Various) - Genuinely impressive intelligence and creativity mixed with an ego as big as 3 Russias and as fragile as a glass bottle. That's what you're always bound to find in Riddler. Be it in the 60's show, BTAS, Batman Forever, The Arkham Series, Gotham, or The Batman, Riddler is a Redditor with the theatrics of a gameshow host and the resources of John Kramer.

Number 1. The Joker (Various) - Come on. We all knew this was gonna happen. The Joker is a crook who fell into a vat of chemicals and got a clownish makeover, who ended up becoming the nemesis of Batman. While the other rouges have their particular danger levels, they all have some type of cause they're fighting for or they're purely out to benefit themselves. Joker just causes chaos, death, and suffering, for the sake of his twisted sense of humor. He is willing to kill and ruin lives in the most creative way possible, so long as he finds it funny. Yet despite how twisted he is, this evil ass clown actually can be funny. Not only that, but he's the most effective contrast to Batman, even more than the other rouges. Batman is a frightening figure with a semi-demonic visage who suffered one bad day in his youth, yet he is a hero dedicated to the cause of justice and protecting the innocent citizens of Gotham City. Joker is a colorful figure with a big 'ol grin on his face and a jovial demeanor, yet he is perfectly okay with causing as much unwarranted harm to others for the sake of artistic chaos. Ultimately, the Clown Prince of Crime is a villain that's managed to last for decades, despite the ever marching clock, for these exact reasons.

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sardonic-sprite · 2 months ago

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Dad!Tim AU pt 6

Bc Q keeps randomly knocking down my door and screaming EIRA every few months/aff

Part 1

Within a week the family has worked together to craft an official statement for the press

If it weren't for goddamn ras tim would be advocating the "keep all reporters and paps the fuck away from my baby" approach, but as it is he just has to try to minimize damage

They hold a small press conference in Wayne tower, where they've got absolute top security around, and Bruce is right by Tim's side expressing unwavering support and 0 judgment as Tim states that he's stepping down from his position (not CEO he was in charge if like R&D since Bruce came back)... in order to care for his infant daughter

Dead silence. Wide-eyed stares

Tim takes a deep deep breath and says

"Her name is Eira Bahar Wayne. Her mother is my best friend *he's a bit choked up, because he's never going to get them to understand exactly what steph is, more than friend, other than lover, one of the most amazing women in the world* and if you will all take a moment now to turn off any flash or recording lights... they'll come out and say hello."

It was a calculated move, introducing Eira literally in Stephs arms. Tim's the famous one, no one will forget that he's a teen parent, that he claimed this kid. He's also eiras literal biological father, she has 23 chromosomes from him and sooner or later that's going to become apparent

She also has 23 chromosomes from a woman who is not steph.

There can't ve any doubt in the publics mind that steph carried and bore Eira, tho, or ras has an in. So Eira meets the world this way, so that the very first pictures to exist of her are *with her mother*, with Steph smiling so lovingly and holding her totally correct, eiras blanket and stephs dress even subtly matching and complimenting Tim's suit.

That's why he goes to meet them, arm around stephs back, and brushes eiras little Itty bitty curls that Tim thinks are from his mom, and they step forward as a unit

He thinks it works

Camera shutters are GOING OFF (thankfully no flash, he didn't want to go red robin on them) and several reporters are awwing and sighing

They ask a few questions, to Tim and to steph. They share facts - eiras birth height and weight, how long Tim and steph have known each other - but not stories - how long wad the birth, did you decide to have a child or happy accident?

Tim kind of wants to punch the guy who asked that but he forces a laugh and says it's rude to ask a lady such things

And then it's over and the next day 3 different newspapers have it as the headline story

Eira becomes a celebrity overnight. All of Gotham is SCREECHING about how adorable she is, how adorable their family is, how Tim is now a DILF (he blocks that tag) how lucky steph is to have Tim and eira

(There's other screeching too, about teen parents and recklessness and gold digging and debauchery and-- Babs keeps all that off Tim's and stephs feeds, monitoring it herself to ensure it never gets too loud)

Tumblr has an EIRA WAYNE PROTECTION SQUAD blog with over a hundred followers, #eiratheadorable is trending on Twitter, and they've recievied probably fifty handmade baby things in the past 2 months - blankets, hats, mittens, an empty scrapbook to fill, a nursery-appropriate superheroes painting

It's a little overwhelming but it's kind of nice

Tim and steoh make sure to go out and be seen every few weeks, together or apart, with eira on their hip, in a baby sling, in a stroller. For the most part people keep a respectful distance as they beam and coo and wave, and anyone who doesn't is quickly blocked by Cass or Damian, or dick when he's in town

(Jason isn't supposed to be alive and Bruce was found to be way too over protective. Tim AGREES but daaaad stop, you can't give away your batman voice bc one idiot had his flash on)

And exactly 3 months after eiras announcement, the perfect amount of time to cement her as part of the family, cute and tiny and lovable, an ideal in Gotham imagination...

Bruce and Talia announce their marriage and the date for a public, FANCY, vow-renewal, and take the people by STORM

Ta da?

#sprite said #sprite wrote #dad!tim au #eira wayne #tim drake #stephanie brown #enjoy ig

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zeroducks-2 · 1 year ago

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Okay Zero, who's the worst. Eobard or Joker?

Joker is the worst when it comes to Batman. He's Bruce's narrative foil and his raison d'être, he's the embodiment of everything Batman fights (and abhors) and in a meta sense, he's also queer, flamboyant and immoral while Batman is straight, serious and righteous.

However, Joker is also someone Bruce can't live without.

He's possibly the only one who truly, intimately understands Batman and why he does the things he does. And he doesn't even judge him! Joker is happy that Batman is Like This™, the good and the bad, wouldn't want to change him, accepts him exactly the way he is, whereas Bruce's loved ones will always have something to say about who Batman is and how he does what he does.

And for all his talk about how wrong everything Joker represents is, also the other way around is true. Bruce understands Joker (so much so that sometimes he's scared by this) and at this point in his "career" basically needs him to function.

Eobard is the worst when it comes to Barry. He's is so fast and so unhinged that when he's involved, it's an All Hands On Deck situation and all the other speedsters need to come and help stop him. He is the Reverse Flash, literally, but not just because of the Negative Speedforce - where Barry forgives, Eobard holds perennial grudges. Where Barry gives a second chance (and a third and fourth and a fifth and a sixth and a-), Eobard will declare you're his mortal enemy at the slightest offense. Where Barry is full of unconditional love, Eobard has no idea what does it even feel to love and be loved and cannot simply conceive it. Which is part of why Eobard wants to be Barry (he has a perfect life), but also wants to have him (no one should ever be close to Barry but Eobard himself), but also hates him so much: everyone loves Barry, but how can Barry possibly love everyone back?

For Eo love is a quantifiable thing, and it's quantified in the attention you give, and so it's impossible that Barry is sincere when he claims to love all the people he loves. It's just not possible. He must be lying.

But Eobard is also the person who knows Barry better than anyone else. Eo is the cause of a lot of his pain and turmoil, and recognizes this. Where other people belittle Barry's feelings and don't take his suffering seriously, urging him to just get over it, Eobard understands. Barry is the reason why he exists and in his distorted, psychotic way Eobard is devoted to him like to a divine being, and will never let him go, and will always feel for him what he can't feel for anyone else, because there isn't enough room in his heart for anyone but Barry.

If the question was "who can make more damage between Joker and Eobard", then obviously Eobard. If we don't count the meta stuff that applies only to Batman, Joker is just an unpredictable serial killer. Eobard is a chronomancer who can fuck your life up starting from when you weren't even born (in fact, he can make it so you never will be born at all), and change the literal course of time. Then there are also all the average speedforce abilities.

If the question was "who did more awful things between the two", then I'm going to have to use a meta answer and say Joker - Eobard doesn't appear in all that many DCU medias, while Joker is everywhere, and so going by numbers he did more damage because he had more chances to. But his reach is human, Eobard can erase an entire timeline if he so wishes, so it's two very different ballparks anyway.

#such is the nature of nemesis #when they're done properly #my asks #my meta

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rpking99 · 4 months ago

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So I've seen this stupid conversation pop up on the Twitter sludge space again and.... Wanna put my two pence in since I am me and a nerd.

Who should be the next Batman.

....

If you guys know me, you know my answer. So, first, I'm gonna go over the other options.

Dick Grayson

First Robin. Nightwing. Ass that claps and don't quit with a red head addiction he has no intention on quitten.

He's what many people out there see as being the natural next Batman. Because... Well... He was the first Robin. He's the oldest, he knew Bruce the longest. And he's been Batman a few times when Bruce is injured

All of that is true.

....

But let's take a step back for a moment

Dick was angry when he was Robin, that's the misconception many have. That Jason was the angry Robin when it was actually Dick. He was very similar to Bruce in a way, and that's part of how they got along so well. But they also kept each other at a distance, Bruce not wanting to replace Dick's parents while Dick didn't want Bruce to feel like he was pushing

You all know the story. The first kid is the one you make the most mistakes with

But those mistakes, ironically, helped Dick in the long run. Because in Dick coming to outright HATE Bruce at times, he realised... He didn't want to BE like Bruce

Hence his evolution to Nightwing. The smiling jokester. The high flipping, wise cracking, pain maker of the world. All of the skills and abilities of Batman, but with the inspiring hope of Superman

He HATES being Batman and it's what he doesn't WANT for himself. It's the bad end for him because it means he's been reduced back into that cave of darkness to continue the cycle he'd broken free of.

Jason Todd

Robin number 2, goes by Red Hood. The kid who thought being Robin gave him magic powers, he was that eager to help people. Only to fall into rage and darkness after his death and revival....

Yeah... Yeah

Here's the thing

If Jason never died? Then yes. He could TOTALLY become Batman. If he was still the rather cheerful, if at times a bit morally grey, Jason Todd who stole those tires from the BatMobile? He'd be raised right and the perfect one to take over the cowl. To be a brighter Batman who was STILL Batman.

But... After the lazerus pit? After the anger?

Even after all the healing... He's not the right kind of person to be Batman. And even he knows it. Because while it is not always his first option, he IS too eager to squeeze that trigger...

Tim Drake

Tim Tim. Tim. Timmy Tim Tim.

Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne.

Tim.

Robin III, the one who's never REALLY growl out of the role, and the only one who WANTED the role. The second most common cry of who should take the cowl because he "wanted to be Robin" and he is "just if not a better detective than Batman"

...

Yes. He wanted to be ROBIN. That's the thing. ROBIN.

Multiple times we see futures where Tim becomes Robin. And guess what? All are terrible where he turns into a murderer and a psychopath!

Being Batman BREAKS Tim because he is TOO NICE of a person!

Robin is Tim as a hero. And if he graduates from it he either becomes the next commissioner, the next Luscious Fox or the new Oracle. No other option

Damian Wayne

The blood son. The hellspawn. The son of Talia. Blood of the demon and the detective.

The one who sees Batman as his BIRTHRIGHT.

...

And yeah. That's the issue there

Damian sees Batman as something that belongs to him. Or at least, he did. Way back when. Not something he had to earn, not something that held value. Just some property connected to his liniage

But his story since being introduced? Growing away from that. Learning how he doesn't NEED to be what was layed out for him. How his life is HIS choice for HIS path

Personally? The second Nightwing. That's what I see Damian as.

Also.... We've got future Damian is Batman stories and Gotham is literal hell on earth.

....

...

So, that's the BatBoys out the way. Who's left?

....

...

....

...

....

...

DA BOSS BITCH CASSANDRA CAIN!!!!!!!!

First off, she is a better fighter than Bruce is. Has been stated multiple times. Could beat all her siblings at the same time

Second, she's not AS good of a detective as Tim... Doesn't mean she's stupid. She's a good detective. Heck she's the one who helped solve the murder mystery that framed Bruce Wayne, when everyone else was ready to give up on him!

Third, she follows all of Batman's principals even harder than him. Her No Kill Rule is more ferocious, her loyalty is to the symbol and what it represents NOTHING else

Fourth, she WANTS IT. It's what she genuinely wants as it's what she sees her next step in life being. Her goal, her future, her desire. Her destiny.

And finally? Her hero identity is nothing but light to her dark world. Her siblings have their heroic lives marked by pain (Dick becoming a hero out of rage at the loss of his parents, Jason's death, Tim loosing... Almost everything as he became Robin, Damian with his legacy and the league/BatClan's personal battles) but... Cass? She killed someone at age 8 as Cassandra Cain. It had nothing to do with the Bat, with masks, with Gotham, with anything. It was purely independent trauma and so being a hero IS her light.

And that is why Cassandra Cain should be Batman after Bruce Wayne finally retires

#mun talks #nerd talks

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simpforfandoms · 2 years ago

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Would they be a soldier, poet, or king?

masterlist

no one asked for this but I need to get this out of my head this is just the 4 most popular batboys but trust me when I say I got love for Duke, Luke, Cullen, etc. too.

Dick Grayson: probably a unpopular opinion but I think Dick would be soldier. The way I see it a soldier is someone who is filled with rage but not necessarily consumed by it. A soldier is someone who will continue fighting not because they want to, but because it’s all they’ve ever known. They crave that familiarity. There are many times in canon where we can see Dick’s anger but he doesn’t let it consume him. Yes there’s times where all he can feel is anger but he uses that to fight. Dick has been Robin since he was like 10. It’s all he really knows. He’s been a vigilante longer than he knew his parents. He knows he can stop at any time, but he doesn’t. He might not want to, but he feels that obligation. No matter how much he wants to stop he won’t. He dreams of a life where he can settle down, but he knows that will never happen. Dick will never stop fighting, and that’s what makes him a soldier.

Damian Wayne: A king is someone who has had their destiny written long before they were alive. A king is someone who was told to do things and they did. A king is someone who often wonders who they would be if they didn’t have all those responsibilities. Damian fits this perfectly. His fate was decided at a very young age. He was to be the heir of the Al Ghul throne. However, when he met Bruce his fate changed. He was now expected to be the next Batman. To be the perfect little robin. A little part of Damian expected it of himself to. Which is the saddest part. He feels that he’ll always have to be responsible for something because he doesn’t know who he is without it. The ideology that if he wasn’t fulfilling something for someone he wasn’t worth anything was installed to him at a very young age. He carried that thought with him everywhere. He is nothing without duty. So he continues his life trying to live up to everyone’s expectations never once trying to live for him. He only knows how to exist when he is needed. Damian Wayne is a king.

Jason Todd: Probably another unpopular opinion but Jason Todd is a poet. If we think in it in a more literal sense, his pain is literally for others entertainment. I mean poets often use their pain to create entertainment. Jason Todd’s death was and is still used as a punchline and entertainment. In a more metaphorical sense, Jason Todd needs his pain to mean something. He needs it to make a difference, because if it doesn’t what was it all for? That’s why he’s Red Hood. That’s why he doesn’t agree with Batman’s no kill rule. While all the pain and hurt are eating him up from the inside, Jason doesn’t want it to go away. Truth is, he loves the pain. He wants to live it. He wants to be reminded of all the trauma so he has a reason to do what he does. Because he has to have the pain mean something. He convinces himself that his pain is beautiful meaningful art. Which maybe it is.

Tim Drake: Maybe yet another unpopular opinion, but Tim is a soldier. He’s filled of rage. No one really knows why, but if I had to guess a large factor is probably due to his dads death. But the fury had been around since he was child. He does a good job of hiding it though. He burries it deep inside. He decided that his anger needed to be his biggest weapon. Anger is hideous if it righteous, so he used it to fight. He’s been fighting for as long as he can remember. He fought to become robin. He fought to be taken seriously. He fought his own voices in his head. Tim Drake is fighter. Like Dick, he wants to stop fighting but he can’t. It’s almost like it’s an addiction. It’s like he’s dependent on the fight. He won’t stop fighting til all his rage is released. Which lets be for real, might be a while.

#dick Grayson #Jason Todd #headcanon #Damian Wayne #dc comics #batfam #batman #red hood #nightwing #soldier poet king #tim drake #robin #dc

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celaenaeiln · 11 months ago

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you know whats even more insane tho? is that dick’s desire to be independent stems from the fact that he wants to be taken in as equal again by bruce—like yes he does feel restricted and hurt and suffocated by the insane amount of controlling that bruce did/do, but also hes equally as unhealthy as bruce bcs he sees that as bruce not considering him to be an equal anymore, that he doesnt trust him as much anylonger, etc. they are soooo unhealthy over each other bruh

Yes!!!!

Batman (1940) Issue #13

Perfect anon! This scene here is shows exactly what's going on with Dick's mentality.

On Bruce's side, he's really worried because "It isn't right for a kid like you to be chasing around and getting into fights!" and this is where Dick's mentality stems from - from the fact that Bruce lied to get Dick to drop it but he never clarified it. He made it out like Dick was the problem which I believe is the start of all his issues with Batman and why Dick's so overcompetent in everything- he feels like he has to prove himself.

After sobbing his heart about, Dick literally says "I'll run away and show him I can take care of my self!"

Bruce is so toxic sometimes. He blames Dick on incompetence because he's worried about moral issues of letting a child fight adult villains. wow.

In layman's terms, Dick seeks academic validation where he thinks his self-worth is tied to his academic achievements or in this case, how much of an equal he is to Batman.

Kori once said in a Titans comic -

Teen Titans and Outsiders Secret Files and Origins 2005

Considering how much of a free spirit Dick and Bruce consider Dick's robin, she's not quite right but she's right in that he thought his achievements would make Batman see him as an equal. When Bruce didn't treat him as such, Dick got really mad and started working harder and breaking his own records so Bruce would acknowldge him.

Meanwhile, Bruce was having a moral crisis and he's under the impression that if he kept pretending that Dick wasn't his equal, then Dick would eventually give up and quit. But this results in the paradox: Unstoppable force meets immovable object. However there is an answer to this riddle. When an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, the immovable object is moved because it lacks any force for holding it in place.

Hence, Dick continued being Robin until Dick got fed up with Bruce trying to cage him. At the beginning Dick had free reign but as he grew older, Bruce kept trying to press him under his cape but Dick wanted to be free. He didn't want to be a sidekick, he wanted to prove to Batman that he was equal and worthy of him.

So the ultimatum was set and as Dick's eighteenth birthday drew closer, so did Bruce's dread that Dick would leave him behind so he fired him first. He would rather haunt his mind in anger than be forgotten and left behind.

In summary I can say Dick's addiction to becoming Bruce's equal is the result of an intentional misunderstanding by Bruce to protect him only it didn't go the way Bruce planned.

However because Bruce let this feeling fester for so long that now, even when Bruce tells Dick that he surpassed him and means it, Dick will never believe it because in his mind he will always be that 8 year old boy that Bruce once said wasn't good enough.

Bruce certainly feels guilty for it but there's no doubt that a small part of him is satisfied that because of what he did, Dick will always come back to him in the end. Even if it's not out of willingness, it will be out of sheer need to prove Bruce wrong and he's okay with that no matter how bad it makes him feel.

And that's why these two are addicted to each other in the most unhealthiest ways possible.

#dick grayson #nightwing #bruce wayne #batman #robin dick grayson #koriand'r #starfire #cl anon asks #thanks for the ask!

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mistress-of-vos · 2 years ago

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My favorite part of this it's the very obvious attempt of Manchester to make Lex mad. I haven't have time to read the whole arc but just by these panels you can see that he wants Lex to be angry, he wants Lex to lose control, he wants Lex to be hurt.

(Warning: A lot of text)

"He doesn't think of you" it's a very clear lie. Again and again Superman (Clark) has always thought of Lex as the one behind any crime he comes across with, not to say that Clark also keeps an eye on anything Lex does because he assumes there's a second intention (and I mean, usually there is one). It reminds me a bit of Batman&Joker, with Batman constantly going to visit Joker at Arkham and ask about the crimes outside because on Bruce's mind there's no way Joker isn't involved.

For two heroes who insist they aren't obsessed with their villains, they sure tend to think *a lot* of them and constantly blame them for any crime that happens. Almost as if they wanted them (Lex&Joker) to be fighting once again.

And sure, Clark's emotions about Lex aren't equally intense. Clark is resigned and has been like that for years at this point. Clark convinced himself that Lex couldn't be saved or changed (which is hilarious considering that just some years ago DC did a whole run of Lex playing hero). Clark closed that door of memories and moved on. Clark had to move on, which doesn't mean he hadn't wanted to tell Lex the truth at some point (Smallville explores this so much better that I could do in here).

Lex, in the other hand, *has* to be in a position akin to obsessed. After all, Superman is what stands between him and ruling the world to finally make it change to his image of perfection. However I think here's where Lex is different from Joker: Joker is capable of living without Batman, turning into an agent of chaos and definetely losing his main objective, but he *can* and will keep going without Batman - see Return of the Joker for an example -. Lex? Lex would be lost without Superman.

Not in a literal matter, no. Lex is more than capable than being alive without Superman, and it has been showed that, if given the chance, Lex could create an almost perfect society. But what do you do when you finally have all you want? Lex wouldn't turn into an agent of chaos like Joker does without Batman. Lex would finally create his perfect society, he would have anything he wanted, he would be the most powerful creature. And what would he do then?

What would someone with a mind as intelligent as Lex's do when there's no challenge to defeat? This is also why hero!Lex can work so well: Lex likes to be challenged, his mind too active as to live a normal life as a business man or even president. He needs to be obsessed with a goal, whether it be kill Superman, achieve a perfect world or save people.

Anyway, I find extremely beautiful that even if it was just for a few panels, we got to see this emotional side of Lex again: Clark was his friend, and if you ask me, his soulmate. Clark and Lex were a perfect pair, and both of them ruined it in different ways, yet it was Lex who kept being bitter and kept mourning, while Clark decided to stich up his heart and move on.

Have I told you that Lex's canon reminds me a bit of the new canon regarding Talia? If you look at comics before n52, it was Lex who came off as an ex who was still in love and couldn't quite keep on, while Talia was written as still caring about Bruce but caring way more about her and the world (hence why she tries to destroy Lex). She had moved on and had her own things until recently where writers decided to write her as never getting over Bruce. It's interesting to see as a Lex fan, because Lex 100% has never been able to let go of Clark.

I'm talking too much and it's all to say that I think these panels were brilliant. Lex is exactly the type of person to break down at a lie as big as Clark's identity (again, watch Smallville!) and he would not be able to forgive this. Not easily, at least.

Clark has also been obsessed with Lex, Clark has also been hurt by Lex's lies. But there's something captivating about the proposition that the humble farmer boy decided to heal while the most intelligent man of the world decided to mourn forever.

Lex is the smartest creature of Earth, perhaps even one of the smartest of the universe, and yet he still misses his best friend. He mourns, he craves, he screams for Clark so loud that it hurts him. And he doesn't even know it, because Lex *refused* to see that Clark (his Clark!) was Superman. Lex decided to be blind, and it only made everything hurt so much more when Clark told everyone his secret.

I think that deep down, Lex knew the truth. There's no way he looked at Kon's face and didn't see Clark's soft features. There's no way Lex didn't notice that same smile on Kon that Clark used to have in Smallville. But it was easier to be blind, it was easier to pretend he didn't know.

So yes, of course Lex would get mad. He has been hurting for Superman (Clark) all these years and he gets told that the man doesn't think of him? It's natural that he would get mad. And Lex, as smart as he is, can't see that it's a half-life.

Clark thinks of him. But he doesn't think of Lex as someone to be saved anymore: He thinks of Lex as someone who has to be stopped.

#clex #clark kent x lex luthor #clark x lex #clark kent #lex luthor #dc comics #shipping #meta #analysis #batjokes #kind of

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lily-drake · 2 years ago

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If you're still willing to take story ideas, I got one! Ra's and Talia are up to no good again and try to create a new heir with some leftover DNA of Bruce's. Only they don't have enough to make a male heir. Little Marinette does her best to please them during her years with them but things changed when the League base she's in is attacked and she's found by her other family, aka the batfam. "I'm gonna be Pixie's fav! Bet." "She's of my blood Todd! I am." is said once home

Stab or be Stabbed

I’m SO sorry this took so long! This has literally been sitting half completed in my doc for nearly a year now. I finally revisited it, and I then needed to make lots of changes because I didn’t like it anymore. But here it is, so please enjoy!

Damian had failed, he was flawed and easily swayed. They needed to restart, they needed a new heir that would not and could not be so easily turned against them. They still had some of Batman’s genetic material, but it wasn’t enough for a male heir. Instead, they got a female heir with Bruce’s hair and eyes while she had Talia’s bone structure and facial features. Ra’s was very disappointed when he found out, but he would make sure that she would be the perfect heir for The League of Assassins. In the end, her gender did not matter, only the greater purpose she would serve.

Marinette was forced to train more and harder than Damian ever had. Not that she knew who Damian was, in fact she didn’t even know that Talia was her mother. She was raised by her weapons master Sabine Cheng; which meant that she always had to be on guard in case a stray knife tried to find its way into her gut or head. It could have been worse though, it could have been poison master Omar. She shivered at the thought; none of his students had lasted more than three months before they either died or deemed worthy enough to continue on their training.

Marinette was moved around a lot between Nanda Parabat, Lazarus Island, and Infinity Island. She was trained in the coldest parts of the mountains, the hottest parts of the islands, she was even trained under the water. She was trained barefoot, in heavy armor, in loose clothing, Talia made her learn to fight in dresses, and sometimes she was even forced to train fully naked; she hated that training most of all. She was trained with every weapon imaginable: guns, swords, canes, throwing knives and needles, bladed fans, hand to hand, bo staff, etc. The training that she hated the most was that of heightening her pain tolerance, but Talia and Master Cheng said it was of utmost importance that she go through it. Afterall, she would need to learn how to stay silent no matter the cost if she was ever taken by someone with ulterior motives.

Marinette had many scars depicting her battles and failures, and it wasn’t until she was 8 that her true test came. She had been transported to Infinity Island to undergo her annual desert/jungle survival training where currently, she was hidden under the dark canopy of the rainforest as her training started as soon as she stepped off the boat. Suddenly, she saw people fall out of the sky from something invisible which triggered the scheming part of her mind. Marinette had hidden weapons all around the jungle in case her masters sent assassins to try and track her again. It looks like she would now be using those weapons to defend her island as a whole rather than purely herself!

Quietly she crept around and watched as the people in dark suites with strange symbols stared at each other, communicating without saying a word. There were 5 people: a blonde girl with long blonde hair in a ponytail carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows strapped to her back. A dark skinned man markings swirled around his arms. A tall muscular black-haired man with a dark t-shirt with a bright red ‘S’ in a red triangle in the center. A green skinned alien with fiery red hair (she’d need to be extra weary of her). Finally a muscular yet lean man with a completely black suit with a dark blue bird centered on his sternum that spread out behind the back of his suit. The last man set alarm bells ringing through her mind. Mistress Talia had warned her about him. She had ordered her to stay as far away from him, and a few others similar to him, as possible at all times. She was told that he would kill her if he ever caught sight of her, that he wouldn’t rest until he had caught her, and she could under no circumstances fall into death’s hands.

She made slow steady steps back, she would have to tell her headmaster that invaders were on the island. She made sure her steps were light and that her path was clear so she would not step on anything that would give her away. But she always kept her sights on the people, and when she had to look back for just a second because she heard a rustle in the trees, they were all gone.

Marinette cursed silently as quickened her steps as she ran towards the sanctuary. She had to warn the base leaders! If she didn’t get there in time and they found out she knew, they would send her back to the basement. She hated the basement! It was dark and the screams echoed everywhere, and someone in the dark always hurt her and she never knew who! She could still feel the sharp bite of a blade digging into her skin or the flames that bit her feet, and if she cried it would become so much worse! Master Cheng said she had it easy, she said that other people would do worse to her if things were different, even if she didn’t know what that meant. All the kids she saw on missions, they were just better at hiding their pain, and wasn’t that humiliating?! Random children who were never trained by anyone were better at hiding their pain than her. And despite the pain they must have all been in they were still so happy! She was pathetic, but she would be better, she had to be!

As she ran something, or rather someone, dropped in front of her in a stance that showed they were ready for a fight. Marinette glared and gripped at the dagger she had unburied from a nearby bush when she had first seen the people drop from the sky. It was the man that Mistress Talia warned her about, the man that was going to kill her if he ever laid eyes on her! But maybe she could kill him before he killed her. Yes, that’s exactly what she would do! She would defeat him and show Mistress how strong she is and that she is a worthy opponent.

The man’s body seemed to freeze for a second, and that was the only weakness she needed as she launched into her attack. The man recovered from his shock and quickly dodged her strike. His face was covered in a deep frown, and she couldn't help but wonder what his eyes looked like as they were covered by a black white-lensed mask. Did they look at her with fury, hunger, disgust, malice? He seemed… hesitant, which confused her as it didn’t make sense with how Mistress Talia had described him. It didn’t matter though, because that would just make this victory so much easier to obtain. She let the wind help guide her movements so that she would be able to gain more velocity at an accelerated pace as she gracefully let her body fall into the motions of battle like she had been trained to. He seemed to move just as swiftly as her though, always just avoiding her, and that’s when it hit! This was a distraction, he was just keeping her from alerting her masters! She needed to find an opening to warn The League right now.

So she launched again, but instead of attacking like the man predicted as he moved out of the way, she kept moving forward towards the base. She moved through the path in seemingly random patterns, hoping that it would throw the man off her trail. She had thought she had gotten ahead and lost him, but when she was just meters away she felt arms encircling her waist and moving her high into the treeline. She struggled throwing her fists up, proud when she heard the person holding her grunt as she made contact with what must have been their lower jaw. She used the slight distraction of the pain inflicted to draw her dagger and stabbing it into where she believed the invisible being’s forearm was located. She watched as red bloomed seemingly out of nowhere, the arms around her letting go as the person screamed in pain. Marinette caught herself from fully falling down the tree, catching herself as she swung from the branches.

It didn’t take long for her to make it to the base after that, even shorter for her to find a patrolling assassin once she had made it to the fortress.

“Where are Lady Shiva and Mistress Cheshire?! There are intruders on the island, and we must warn them post haste!”

Marinette commanded, watching for movement in the corner of her eyes. She was pleased when the assassin let her in immediately rather than ignoring her request like many had in the past. She watched the assassin ring the alarm and once that was done she went to search for her current trainers.

She found Lady Shiva first, where she quickly reported everything that she had seen and everything that had happened as soon as she had noticed the mysterious people.

“You did well Marinette. You will receive a just reward for your actions, now wait here until I return for you.”

Marinette wanted to fight back, to say that she should be allowed to fight the intruders with everyone else. But she knew the consequences of questioning or disobeying a direct order, and it wasn’t worth it. Placing her fist to her chest she bowed her head and said,

“Of course my Lady.”

And with that she was left alone in the large study only being able to listen to the fight and imagine herself in it rather than participate in it herself.

It must have been hours as the sun had slowly begun to let a few of its rays shine through the small window on the far left side of the room, but it didn’t matter. She had followed orders, and the base had finally begun to quiet which meant that someone should be retrieving her soon. She could hear the steps before the door opened, but they were unfamiliar to her. Quickly she hid behind the desk, gripping a throwing knife in her fist. The door was pushed open and the person entered, and despite her curiosity, she didn’t dare to move, she barely allowed herself to breathe at this moment. The person began to creep around the corners of the room allowing Marinette to see the reflection of the person through one of the many mirrors at the wall. It was Mistress Cheshire. But something was…off. Not only was the sound (specifically the fact that she was making sound) and pattern of her footfalls different than usual, but there was the fact that if she allowed herself to make noise she would have been either mocking or gloating by now. She only stayed silent when she was stalking, and it was obvious she wasn’t doing that, which meant that this person was an imposter. Which meant that the intruders had breached the base!

Marinette would only have one chance to get this right, one chance to avenge her fallen comrades, one chance to rid of this imposter, and she needed to take it. Through the mirror she continued to watch the imposter, waiting until she was closer, closer, closer, and then the opening came. The imposter was a few feet from the desk and her back was now turned away from her. With silent grace Marientte let herself stand to her full height and silently threw the knife. The intruder suddenly turned, as if they could sense her, but it was too late. The dagger meant to hit the middle of the person’s back was now embedded in their sternum letting out a cry of pain. Marinette watched, expressionless. She watched as Lady Cheshire slowly faded back into the martian that had tried to grab her before. She must have some sort of fast healing ability, which meant she would need to act quickly. She watched as thick drops of red dripped from the wound. The red ran down the knife like a small steam as it dropped from the tip of the hilt to the cold stone floor.

The thought of taking her dagger back, ripping it from the martian, crossed her mind, but the reward of it wasn’t worth the risk. She still had many more weapons located on her person anyways. So on quick feet she fled the room, or at least she attempted to until the large muscular man stepped in front of her path, the look of pure rage written all over her features. Marinette could feel a shudder rip through her spine at the unadulterated malice that showed through him, but Marinette knew better. She just needed to find an opening and escape.

“You.”

The man growled, it almost didn’t sound human. But Marinette wasn’t cowed. The man was far bigger than her, but that meant that she would have an easier time dodging his blows as it would take more effort to train his attacks specifically on her. While he’s in the middle of an attack, or even recovering from one, she should be able to easily slip by. There were many other hiding places she knew of, places so small only she would be able to fit, places so seemingly insignificant they wouldn’t even think of looking there.

“Superboy!”

A voice yelled from down the hall. She needed to act now. :Before she could do anything though, she was suddenly brought to her knees by a seemingly invisible weight with her hands trapped at her sides. She looked behind her to see that the martian girl was already mostly healed, her knife tossed aside with blood still dripping off of it. Marinette tried to fight through the invisible force, but it was useless as the rest of the entire group formed around her.

So this was how she died. Ra’s and Talia would be so disappointed in her. She had tried her best to avoid them, had done everything in her power to escape while still being useful. But it was all for not. She wouldn’t die with her head lowered though, she wouldn’t die with tears running down her face, she wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. So as they looked at the other, still somehow communicating with each other with nothing but seemingly their eyes, she kept her head held high. She watched as the man with the bright blue bird slowly bent down to her level, hands raised seemingly in surrender. That threw her off.

“Hey there. You put up quite the fight there. Can you tell me your name?”

Marinette glared at the man, he must be taunting her. There was no way he didn’t already know it when he so desperately wanted her dead. So instead of answering the question she spat at him, almost letting her scowl turn into a smirk as the spit landed against his forehead causing him to frown in annoyance. The man quickly wiped the spit away putting up a too sweet smile.

“That’s alright, you don’t have to answer right now.”

Right now was the cue, he expected her to tell him eventually. That wouldn’t be happening though, she doubted that admitting her name would lead to anything good.

“We’re gonna have to take you with us now.”

Marinette bared her teeth at that, trying once again to fight through the invisible force holding her down. She wasn’t sure if the weight was a mental black, so just in case it was she let some of her worst memories go through her mind. Letting the pain she felt, the sound of echoing cries, the humiliation of those experiences wash through her. Slowly the weight around her began to fade confirming her theory. A few moments later the weight was completely gone, but with that gone the man who was talking to her quickly replaced it, holding her wrists above her head as he let his full weight fall over so that she couldn’t even budge.

“This place is awful.”

The martian said in a horrified whisper as she stared at Marinette, tears in her eyes. It looked like she was looking at her with something akin to pity, and she hated it. The man quickly grabbed onto both of her wrists with only one hand while the other went to a pocket on his belt. Marinette struggled to escape, to find some room that would allow her some sort of advantage, but she was never able to find it. She watched as the man brought out a small syringe and brought it to her neck. She continuously tried to twist away from it, but someone held her head down. Tears of fear filled her eyes no matter how hard she tried to hold them back. She didn’t want to die, she wasn’t ready to die yet! But what she wanted didn’t matter because the needle was stuck into her neck and the substance pushed into her blood. A different type of invisible heaviness filled her, one that she couldn’t fight back with her memories, one that she would not be able to escape from because she was already asleep. ___________

Marinette’s eyes felt crusty and groggy. She must have fallen asleep in the trees again. Her throat was dry, and her head felt a little too slow. She didn’t like that. What she liked even less was the fact that there were other, unfamiliar voices above her. With that she quickly shot up, looking for a weapon on her that wasn’t there. If that didn’t make her feel like she was about to suffocate she didn’t know what would. There were hands on her shoulders trying to push her back down, but she wouldn't let them. Not killing her when they had the chance was their biggest mistake.

“As your older brother I command you to calm down!”

A distinctly male voice harshly commanded her. She wouldn’t have stopped fighting, but the “older brother” part threw her for a loop making her pause for only a moment. Once that moment passed she was back to struggling for her freedom.

“What on Earth are you boys doing?!”

An older, more British voice, spoke loudly as if he were chastising children.

“Now you back away from the young miss right this instant. I know for a fact you boys would not wish to be awoken this way if you woke up somewhere new with people you’ve never met.”

The air around her shifted as the people around her seemingly moved away. Slowly Marinette tried to catch her breath, her eyes clearing from this mist that was created in her blind panic. She was in a medical area as she was laid on a cot surrounded by different types of medical equipment. There were five men in the room with her, setting her on edge. Her skin itched as she desperately wanted a dagger or weapon, anything would do at this point to cease the incessant nakedness she felt despite the fact she was fully clothed.

She studied the men but only recognized one of them, the one who had drugged and kidnapped her.

“You.”

She growled, her voice thickly accented. Usually she would be able to hide her Arabian accent far better, but the drug was still running its course through her system causing her brain to be slower, even with the adrenaline.

He was unmasked now, and was wearing casual clothing that she had seen others wear in her missions. But she could now see his eyes, and instead of them holding some sort of gleeful cruelty, they showed sympathy and…worry? It didn’t make sense…

She looked at the others, the man next to him reminded her of the muscular man she had seen with other man, but it couldn’t be. This man was slightly taller, his hair shorter, face more scared and sharp edged, his eyes were also greener. It reminded her of Ra’s eyes after he bathed in the Pit. That thought made her want to shiver, so she quickly moved on to see a boy that looked like he hadn’t slept in a week. He didn’t appear to be the greatest threat to her at the moment so she moved on. They locked eyes, and Marinette couldn’t really think. He looked, but it couldn’t, but had the same, but surely Talia would have told her, but if he was here with the people Talia warned her about she doubted that she would tell her. Marinette couldn’t take her eyes off of him.

“I am Damian, we took a DNA test while you were asleep. I am your brother. If you do not believe me, here is the proof.”

He said while carefully handing her a small tablet. And there it was, she tried to check for any signs that this was fake, a trick. Was it hacked, was it photoshopped, was it all an illusion. But it wasn’t.

“I’m Marinette.”

“Do you know your last name?”

Damian asked, brow raised as surly she would know her status.

“I was told that I must earn the knowledge of my last name. I have not done that yet.”

Damian nodded as if he understood. Maybe he had to do the same, afterall, Talia had told her that other people lived worse lives than she did, punished worse than she. She wondered what he must have gone through, what these people put him through.

“What did you do to earn your name?”

She whispered, so transfixed on the eyes that looked exactly like Talia’s but had the same shape and features of her own. She was so transfixed that she hadn’t even noticed him coming closer and bending down before her. She blamed the drug for that because was always much more aware of these things.

“I was forced to kill all of the dragon bats, but thankfully one survived.”. He lives with us now.”

He said with sorrowful regret.

“If we truly are related, does that mean that we share the same surname?”

Marinette asked, filled with both hope and suspicion. She noticed from the corner of her eye that another man had entered the room.

“Yes. Your last name in the League would have been al Ghul.”

Marinette gasped in shock, truly she had not been expecting that. She was an al Ghul, she was Ra’s granddaughter, Mistress Talia’s daughter, or maybe mistress Nyssa’s daughter.

“Your last name here is a better one, one I doubt they ever told you about.”

Marinette didn’t understand what he meant. She should only have one last name, shouldn’t she?

“Your last name here is Wayne, and it is a far better name to carry. One that you should be proud to wear as it holds far more worth than al Ghul ever will.”

Marinette glared at him, wishing that she had some sort of weapon to rip out his traitorous tongue, but she didn’t and anything that she could have used in this room as a weapon was removed far away from her reach. They were smarter than she gave them credit for.

“Say that again and I’ll find a way to kill you in the slowest and most painful way I know possible.”

A high pitched whistle sounded behind them, where she looked up to see the tall muscular man smirking.

“She really is your sister. It’s a shame that I’m going to be her favorite brother.”

The man said arrogantly. Damian scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“As if. I am her blood brother, I shall be her favorite.”

Damian declared haughtily.

“Bet.”

The man who kidnapped her declared with a playful smirk on his face.

“I’m the one who rescued her, so I must be her favorite.”

The man who had just walked in sighed heavily. He was the second oldest after the older man watching from the sidelines. She studied him and his features felt familiar, but it was his eyes that caught her off guard. His eyes were the same as her eyes, but how was that possible? Unless…unless this was truly her father.

“Hello sir.”

Marinette said as she bowed her head, addressing the man that might be her father. The man slowly approached her, taking Damian’s place.

“Hello Marinette, it’s good to meet you, though I wish it was under better circumstances.”

He said softly, a small smile on his lips. He looked stiff and awkward, like he didn’t know what he was to do or say. Marinette didn’t shy away though, she made eye contact and didn’t dare look away.

“Why was I brought here? I was told that I would be killed if I was caught by you,”

Someone snickered at that in the background, but she ignored them.

“So why am I still alive, why am I not being treated like a prisoner?”

Marinette demanded. She could tell from all of their body language that they weren’t goin got hurt or attack her. They were unarmed, at ease, if not just a little tense.

“You are no prisoner here. In fact we are here to protect you now. You don’t have to fear any retaliation or purposeful acts of physical malice. I know you don’t believe me now, but everything will be okay.”

Marinette didn't know how to feel. Didn’t know what she was supposed to do now that she was surrounded by all of these people, two of whom claim to be her blood relatives. Marinette didn’t know what was to happen now, but if push came to shove, she would gladly take all of these people out and find a way to return back to the League. She did not fear these people, and despite the fact that she could tell that they didn’t fear her, she hoped that they would soon come to understand why they should.

Taglist:

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linkspooky · 2 years ago

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Got any fac superhero comic villain that isn’t Batman villains?

I mean… let’s be real here tho, most interesting and well written villains do mostly be from Batman.

But I am curious if you have any fav villains out side from Batman’s?

Okay, so the reason I primarily talk about batman and Teen Titans is they're primarily what I've read. I actually like villains from other rogue's galleries, flashes is good, superman's is good, but the thing is... I've read every Teen Titans comic ever so here we go.

3. Deathstroke.

One time I heard someone refer to deathstroke as the "Anti-Teen Dad" and no phrase has better captured his character. Deathstroke doesn't work as a batman villain, he doesn't work as an arrow villain, he is at his best as a Teen Titans villain because Deathstroke is someone actively harmful to children.

He represents the uncaring and horrible adults in the world these teenage heroes face as they are growing up, there's a reason Deathstroke's biggest arc is basically grooming and destroying any chance Terra had to be a good person (and other gross stuff but it's triggering I don't want to talk about it), there's a reason Slade's backstory by Wolfram is that he basically destroyed his family's lives, let one son die, let the other son's throat get slit, abandoned the third. He is the ANTI-TEEN DAD!

Christopher Priest who wrote the character's rebirth run put Slade's character into words better than I ever could.

I often had to fight City Hall and repeat, ad nauseum, that Deathstroke is a villain. In the first issue, Slade kills a bear in order to save his son. Then he goes back and kills the bear’s cubs because, to his thinking, it would be cruel to leave them without a mother. That is Deathstroke. But I had to fight to get that in because of concerns over the character’s likeability. This was the unfun part about writing this character, a guy who should have an even sharper edge than Wolverine. Please write this down someplace for future reference: Deathstroke is an ass.

I wrote this in my Joker analysis too, there's nothing good or redeemable about Joker, but he still has an extremely important role in the story because he represents the death that Batman is fighting against in the world, so for Dick Grayson who is trying to grow up and help all of his friends grow too, he's the perfect counter and opposite someone who not only destroys his kid's lives but targets other children too. "Please write this down someplace for future reference: Deathstroke is an ass." Any attempts to make Deathstroke more honorable and more honorable just kind of fall flat, his name is DEATHSTROKE, he represents the force of uncaring death and danger in the world that's utterly hostile to teens and these kids have to deal with.

2. Blackfire.

I talk about Blackfire's character more in depth here, but her character works best if you consider her the "Red Hood" to Starfire's "Nightwing." Her character itself starts out as just kind of an evil sister who is one dimmensionally obsessed with killing and hated Starfire and was jealous all her life. The wicked sister to Starfire's Cinderella. However, she gets a lot more depth over the story.

I don't want to undermine how much Blackfire did in fact commit sibling abuse on Starfire, but there's a really good "Generational Abuse" storyline in both Starfire and Blackfire. I think a lot of people want to talk about the cycle of abuse in storylines but don't want to really read stories where characters who are abuse victims end up perpetuating abuse which like... how do you guys think the cycle of abuse happens then? Anyway, Blackfire's extremely messy especially since there's really bad shit she does in her early writing when she's more one dimmensional.

HOWEVER! Literally everyone complains about "I hate how in every marvel movie, the villain is just evil version of the main character" Blackfire subverts that whole trope in fantastic and brilliant ways. The story allows Blackfire to be right, and have a point of view outside of Starfire's that's equally as valid. Blackfire has an entirely different take on her childhood because she was neglected horribly by her parents. She says the true source of the abuse in their family was her parents and she's right. She advocates for stronger leadership in Tamaran because her parents are wishy washy and can't defend their own parents and she's right there again. In later versions of her character, Blackfire's bloodthirstiness and warlike personality didn't come out of nowhere, it's a survival mechanism that evolved out of necessity to survive and she's not conquering the planet for her vanity or ego she genuinely thinks she'll be a better leader. Honestly, a more three diemmnsional Blackfire is just more interesting because evil big sisters are just boring.

1. Terra.

Have I ever told you I love Judas Contract? I love Judas Contract. Of course there's a little bit of weird writing in Terra's character, where she's clearly a grooming victim, and also an abuse victim by her parents and a teenage runaway who's genuinely had a hard life and the writers go (no, just ignore all of that she was just born a sociopath, we aren't shaped by our traumatic experiences at all don't be silly).

However, SUBTEXT is a thing, even if the intention was to just write Terra as a flat sociopath the subtext is there that she is a really complex victim. Terra's entire character revolves around the fact she is a victim, but she's not an innoecnt person either. Her being groomed by Slade doesn't absolve her of all responsibility for her actions.

TERRA IS THE ULTIMATE BAD VICTIM IN COMICS, her entire character revolves around the fact that she was abused, and was not a perfect selfless angel about it, she didn't feel like helping other people, she hated the heroes around her because of how good and selfless they are when she wasn't, and yet she's still sympathetic. IT's a tragedy that she died, because human beings especially children no matter how amoral they may be or what their actions were don't really deserve to suffer to the extent Terra has. Terra's entire character revolves around the fact she self destructs. I believe there could be an arc where Terra was saved, or at least given a chance to be her own person outside of SLade, but the whole part of the Judas Contract is that the Titans as well meaning as they were just COULDN'T get to Terra in time b/c she didn't fit into their neat little boxes of what victims should look like. I don't think Terra is a bad person so much as, she never really got the chance to be her own person outside of the horrible tragedy that rocked her life because she died too soon. That's another thing, it's ALWAYS tragic when a child dies, especially since you can generally still reach those children at that age and when you cut off their future like that you cut off any chance they had to grow up. Like there's a lot of TERRA BROUGHT IT ON HERSELF, SHE DIDN'T WANT TO GET BETTER, like chill out dude she's sixteen. Anyway, Terra is my favorite comic book character of all time she's a bitch and I love her.

#askspookies #dc comics #dc asks #teen titans #ntt #judas contract #terra #tara markov #slade #slade wilson #deathstroke #captain boomerang #deadshot #floyd lawton #suicide squad #blackfire #teen titans meta

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blindrapture · 2 months ago

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it's time for DJay's Review Corner!

I've seen almost all of Christopher Nolan's movies now. just missing Following and Insomnia, which are also relatively obscure.

I am absolutely fond of his stuff. I even like The Prestige now, only took me three attempts. hell, I *love* it. such a cool movie with compelling themes. Tenet? takes a couple views, but there is depth in there, it is very much a less interesting Homestuck but it's also a lot more *impressive* for managing to convey the time travel stuff on film. Interstellar, took a couple views but it's an incredible space film, I kinda wish it didn't start with like an hour of Earth stuff but I wish the same about 2001 so that's just Space Film Tradition, and *unlike* 2001 I think Interstellar goes to a goddamn perfect place of human drama. Oppenheimer is, like, Actually A Perfect Movie, you don't need me to tell you that, it completely surprised me and shattered my expectations of how a biopic can be. Inception is Inception. the Batman movies are a whole-ass three-part opera cycle in modern times. Memento is okay! I'll like it more if I watch it a few more times.

but I am here to mention Dunkirk, which I just finished watching.

I don't know how long to spend rambling about it, as I don't know truly how much I care.

Dunkirk was.. cool! there were elements of it that got me engaged and kept me so. frankly it was the best world war 1 movie I've ever seen.

....what? it's supposed to be world war 2? haha, no, it'd be one of the *worst* world war 2 movies if that were the case. it rendered the warfare abstract, divorcing all politics and ideology from the matter (the, y'know, reason any of this was happening), and just instead focused *exclusively* on the viscerality and horrors of being there on the beaches, in the sea, in the air, leveraging any drama for the sole sake of suspense. it was a War Is Hell movie. and *that's* world war *one*, that was the War Is Hell war. world war *two* was the Ideology Is Hell war, where the Allies literally *chose* to put themselves back into the visceral Hell of war *because* of the *context*, the *fact* that their enemy truly seriously actually *was* that bad and *needed* to be stopped. to make a movie about a part of world war 2, have hardly any paratext, have hardly any *dialogue*, and never once even show a human from the opposing side, effectively make Cloverfield But With Humans.... well, that's just pointless, a movie that is already obsolete before even being created.

well. Dunkirk was that movie!

it is entirely true that I was not its ideal audience. I went into this movie having no idea *what* "Dunkirk" was. I did not know *when* in the war this took place. I could gather that "Dunkirk" was a *place*, but then I had no idea what was significant that *happened* there to warrant it being a.. self-evident name. like, people can say something happened "at Dunkirk" and everyone around them instinctively knows, "ah yes! you are discussing something that happened during the noteworthy evacuation of Allied Forces from the beach at Dunkirk in 1940!" before I watched this movie, I would not have instinctively known that.

*after* watching this movie, I would not have instinctively known that.

I just fucking looked it up on Wikipedia after the film.

the film did not just *fail* to communicate this context, it *had no interest to begin with*. that is a really interesting choice. not a choice I appreciate.

like. the film did at least communicate some things.

this was a War thing, taking place on a beach near a French town (there were signs with the word "rue" on them). I knew it was world war 2 because of the technology. the fighting had basically *stopped*, with a small number of German stragglers taking potshots at the 400,000 Allied soldiers who had lost interest in fighting ("no, there were definitely a lot of German soldiers, the Allies were losing" yes I know that *now that I have read Wikipedia*, I am telling you what the film, in a vacuum, communicated to me). honestly, if I didn't already know that the English and French were fighting against the Germans, I wouldn't have been able to tell from this movie either, as the movie *insists* on referring to the enemy as... "The Enemy." without fail, other than one implied exception during a rare instance of drama an hour and a half in. and, as mentioned before, we never even *see* The Enemy in this movie, so I wouldn't have been able to tell from their accent or anything.

so. beach near French town. the Allies want to retreat. there is a boat, but just one boat isn't gonna be nearly enough, so everyone has to wait indefinitely, hoping more boats will show up. is there a protagonist? yes there is! what's his name? I couldn't tell you! what does he look like? I cannot tell him apart from any other character! everyone in this movie is a narrow-faced soft-spoken English young man with short black hair, covered in mud and wearing an identical brown coat! well, what about his voice? oh the protagonist hardly speaks! this is not a dialogue film.

but wait, there's two other plots! this was pretty cool, I like having more threads to follow, keeps me engaged. the beach stuff was just plot 1, which the movie tells us takes place "one week." ....what? so like.. one week into a fight, I guess. plot 2 is boat stuff, taking place "one day," except when it.. skips forward in time, which I did not realize until the boat stuff was literally caught up to the beach stuff, because IT'S A FUCKING BOAT ON OPEN WATER, AND WE NEVER SEE IT AT NIGHT, IT'S ONLY EVER FUCKING DAY, I assumed it was always *the same day!* but at least the three characters *here* are very distinct from each other. they are on a civilian boat, this dingy little private yacht or whatever, that's on the way to Dunkirk to help evacuate. or. honestly when I was watching, all I knew was they were gonna deliver some life jackets. there's a young man who looks very similar to the Beach Protagonist, but he's not because the eyes are slightly different, and he dies off-screen after getting injured very quickly in a series of events that really could have been better explained (involving rescuing an Allied soldier only to LOCK HIM UP and NOT LET HIM OUT EVEN WHEN TOLD TO). the other two make it to Dunkirk and successfully evacuate a bunch of soldiers.

then there's plot 3, subtitled "one hour" even though I *highly doubt* the timing of that. three spitfires, planes up in the sky! above the water, and only ever at daytime, so similar problem with gauging passage of time. except we have a big clue this time-- one of the planes' fuel gauge is broken! at "one hour" he has about 50 gallons of fuel left, and periodically we cut back and it seems like fuel is dropping steadily, 5 gallons every..... hour, maybe? but he manages to not run out of fuel until his storyline catches up with the Beach, a fucking week later. anyway, most of this plot is just the other two planes getting shot down (one of those pilots gets rescued by the Boat protagonists!), and then at the end of the movie the guy without fuel manages to save the day, shooting down more planes above the beach even while he's cruising without a running engine. it's a great moment. I love that guy.

so then the bulk of the actual plot is Beach Guy, and his buddy who.. literally looks identical to him. one of the two turns out to be French, and I *cannot* remember which of the two that was. that whole scene was incredible, it felt like the movie acknowledging its own problem, as the whole point was all these other soldiers being like "WAIT THAT GUY, the protagonist, HASN'T SAID A SINGLE WORD, AND THE ENEMY HAS SOMEHOW FOUND OUR HIDING SPOT, HOW DO WE KNOW THAT QUIET GUY ISN'T ACTUALLY GERMAN, A SPY???" and they point guns at him and TWO FUCKING MINUTES OF THIS goes by before protagonist opens his fucking mouth and says "I'm French!" my guy, you *need* to *speak!* this fucking MOVIE needs to fucking speak!!! that scene was the one, the first moment, possibly the only moment in the whole film, where the word "German" is ever said!!! which just made me even more aware of this movie's aversion to, or even *fear of*, communicating any fucking REASON or MEANS OF THE VIEWER BEING ABLE TO DISTINGUISH anything at all.

this wasn't a fucking world war 2 movie! this was just a fucking war movie! as said before, this was Cloverfield!! context is entirely absent, you'd have to go looking on the internet to read up on all the lore. and we never see the antagonist, we just follow the Exciting Suspenseful Will-He-Make-It Action of protagonists, like, existing in the vicinity of explosions, then swimming in the sea, and listening to nearby soldiers say how scared they are or how not-scared they are.

and I *do* think this would have made for a brilliant format for a WW1 movie! that war is traditionally seen as, y'know, *horrific*, soldiers dying to gases and new machines, the *viscerality* of it all! WW2 *needs* the context! we did finally get a *tiny* bit of context at the end of Dunkirk, we got the Churchill speech, and, dammit, that did make all this a little more impactful, that emphasized how all this visceral panic amounted to *one losing battle* and they were gonna need to be committed to potentially a lot more of that. I think we needed even an *excerpt* from that speech given to us *at the beginning* of the movie. even just as text on a black screen.

(hell! this movie *literally started with* text on a black screen! and all it fucking told me was "ooh boy, these French and English soldiers, they're gonna need a *miracle* to get out of this mess!" ......fucking thanks???? literally redundant, literally something the cinematography was going to communicate. the movie needed some text telling us something the cinematography alone *doesn't* communicate!!! aaaargh!!!)

am I making sense here???

god at least it was only 106 minutes! that's like.. the shortest Nolan movie ever. that's a damn surprise to me. maybe this movie *should have* been three hours, just to put in some damn dialogue.

Dunkirk was *all* visceral, no way *in* for people who don't know what's going on. and then it was *hard to distinguish characters or even Times, Whens, from each other*, so even that fucking viscerality stumbled and lost its grip on my brain.

what a fucking *mess*.

will probably get better if I watch it more. especially now that I went and looked up the context *myself*. but dammit, even if this first impression disappears entirely and I end up loving the movie later, I think the shit I'm talking about has some *value*. it has... well, context.

#Christopher Nolan #movies #forgot to mention in post: so the Evacuation in the movie did not actually feel so significant.#it felt like a plot! an emergent plot. in a movie.#it felt like a Thing that happened in a war once. a thing that in fact regularly happens in all wars.#and while watching this movie I did not get the impression the movie was going to be About the evacuation #the evacuation just.. happened.#and actually with remarkably *little* suspense. the only actual threat to The Big Evac was the planes.#which were shot down in one single scene by a plane with no fuel.#this movie felt like a bunch of And Then This Happened.

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