#they just interest me less for batcest.

[necrotic-nephilim]

What's so fun about BruJay as a ship is Jason's sheer obsessive devotion to Bruce. Jason is possessive over Bruce, to the point he doesn't care about the deaths of others so long as he has Bruce's attention. A part of the UTRH arc this isn't talked about enough is that Bludhaven fucking explodes mid-way and Jason won't let Bruce see if Dick is alive.

batman (1940) #650

A lot of discussion about UTRH paints Jason as this anger-driven cold, calculating machine up against Bruce when it's so clear that his love for Bruce is what drives him at his root, even if he won't acknowledge it. He says it himself, he would've done anything if it was Bruce who'd died instead of him and his anger is rooted in that possessive devotion not being reciprocated.

batman (194) #650

BruJay as a ship always to be, to some level, unrequited. Even if Bruce loves Jason back in that way, he'll never be that obsessed with Jason. Jason will always view Bruce's love for Dick or Tim to be a distraction, proof that Bruce isn't dedicated enough to him. Jason has the need to always have Bruce's attention, even when it could come at the cost of Bruce's other loved ones. Something something cannibalism as a metaphor for love in how Jason wants to consume Bruce's whole existence. He can't let Bruce leave him again, can't let Bruce love or grieve anyone else. Forcing Bruce to choose between Jason and the Joker isn't just about confronting Jason's killer, it's about confronting the other person who exists as this duality with Bruce and consumes so much of Bruce's life. That's the role Jason wants to fill, calling himself Red Hood and forcing Bruce to look at what he's become. But still loving Bruce and wanting more than anything for Bruce to reciprocate that love in the way that Jason understands. I just think it's good soup and rife with Dynamics that are underexplored with them.

[zeroducks-2]

I’m coming back to the DC fandom after a break for a few years and it’s genuinely a baffling experience of like when the fuck did we start calling things batcest??? I don’t remember that ever being a term?? When did my popular basic staple ships that were everywhere (BruDick, JayDick, JayTim, etc) become like controversial?? When did this become a nuclear family??

I feel like I’m going a little crazy watching this wackass uptick in purity culture that feels especially palatable to me in the Batman/DC fandom. Like I was gone off to dabble in other fandoms and I came back and Tim Drake was canonically bi but everything else was on fire with a guy stabbed in the leg. Like people are banning me from my own house kind of situation.

You and many others anon, me included.

Not only they turned the bats and birds into a nuclear family and started harassing everyone who ships them, but they're also actively trying to do revisionism of fandom history by saying that the ships you mentioned have always been "controversial", and that it was a fringe community that used to ship them rather than the majority of people. Which couldn't be more false of course, but these people do not care about what's actually true or not and will keep coming up with more or less prettily worded bullshit to further their moral purity agenda.

We ARE talking about very basic ships which indeed were the foundation of the fandom (especially Brudick and Jaytim), and now shipping them earns you the "freak" badge, and the moment one of your ship posts goes above the 100 notes you're at risk of receiving mild to heavy harassment in the form of insults to suicide baiting to threats of doxxing. If it happens on Discord you might as well delete your account and start anew. This isn't in any way discouraged by tumblr itself - more and more anti harassment, "free shipping" blogs get termed while the censorship lovers thrive nearly as much as on twitter.

"Zero what are you saying twitter is way worse" Twitter is undeniably worse because its very format encourages misunderstanding and vitriol, but we can still post whatever we want on twitter. Whereas on tumblr showing one nipple is considered VM18, and if you even just mention your own history of childhood abuse you can get termed without previous warning, because a website in which CSA is even just brushed on is not safe enough for advertisers. I'm saying this because this culture of extreme censorship encourages anti-ship mentality and also encourages young queer people to police themselves, convinced that being perfectly pristine and sanitized is somehow the morally correct thing to do.

Oh and DC is at fault too. I talk about it at length here if you're interested in more of my yapping.