#to say nothing of Tim or Jason

[spectral-phases]

The Night Blüdhaven Exploded

I don't see enough people talking about what the Chemo attack on Blüdhaven must have done, as just everything was going wrong for Bruce and his boys that night.

For starters, Bruce is already fighting his dead/ressurected son who came back as a crime-lord villain who has been blowing up so, so many goons/criminals in Gotham for a while.

Then he sees Blüdhaven explode in front of his very eyes, and Jason then taunts Bruce, saying that Dick must be dead and insists on forcing Bruce to choose between killing Jason and killing the Joker not 2 minutes later. Bruce, as we all know, refuses to allow either, and stops Jason with a Batarang to the neck/shoulder, depending on your angst factor (or possibly aiming for Joker, but Joker moves and gets it to hit Jason on purpose/by accident ymmv).

(Batman 1940 #650)

And then, after all of that, the Joker sets off some explosives, surely killing Jason/the Joker (This makes the second explosion the Joker is going to no-clip his way out of, and Jason's learned that skill this time as well)

(Batman 1940 #650)

But wait! There's more! I know in the Batman comic they only mention Bruce being concerned for Dick, but Tim was living in Blüdhaven at the time too! Tim was fresh off of his father/girlfriend dying and didn't want to be adopted by Bruce, so he invented a fake Uncle Eddie (hiring an actor to play the role) and moved to Blüdhaven, where his comatose step-mother was being treated. Tim is only out of the city at the time of the explosion because the Titans came and said something was wrong with Conner, so they needed to leave to help save him. On their way out of the city in their jet, they only get far enough to avoid the blast, but not far enough that they avoid the resulting shockwaves as it renders their navigational systems offline, and likely their comms too. So not far enough that Bruce, who has been chasing Jason and Black Mask all night, could reasonably be aware of this fact.

(Robin 1993 #147)

So Dick and Tim very well could have been in that explosion and then Jason gets exploded! Amazing! That's 3 for 3 remaining Robins possibly killed in an explosion in one single hour.

We have no idea where Jason gets to, but we'll assume that he is unable to find the body because of the new no-clipping into the backrooms skill Jason must have (Jason was meant to die here, again. In another explosion set off by the Joker, so Bruce will have to assume Jason is dead even if he turns up alive later. How? Who the fuck knows).

Speaking of ol' Richard "Dick" Grayson, aka Nightwing, how is old boy wonder doing? Well, he's been having a rough go of it the past six months, between Blockbuster targeting him and destroying everything he cares about, Tarantula killing Blockbuster after successfully convincing him to just let her kill Blockbuster (while he walks away and has a panic attack...and...other things happen...TW: SA if you look it up), and then basically playing "suicide by cop" through the job following that and being a double agent of the group that just nuked Blüdhaven, uh...he is straight-up not having a good time by the time Chemo blows up Blüdhaven, and he's only getting worse. He tries to go to the center of the explosion, and Superman, fortunately, arrives on the scene to save Nightwing and put him up on the shelf to avoid dying (I love how Superman keeps trying to save Nightwing from himself in this era and Nightwing is just...no, thank you).

(Nightwing 1996 #116)

Unfortunately, this is the "Flying Grayson" himself, so no shelf is high enough to prevent Dick from going in there, and his mental state is so bad that certain death while saving others is probably more tempting to him at the moment than a deterrent. He "Duly Noted"s his way back into Blüdhaven, helps get the police to control the panicking crowds of survivors towards an escape route, saves the few remaining friends Blockbuster didn't kill recently, and goes directly into the most radioactive area of Blüdhaven to try and save some rouge who might have been there. We see Superman fighting Chemo's core in the background throughout his rescue attempts, so Dick's close the entire time to this heavy radiation. Dick notes that this is the first time he's able to breathe easy in months, saving people from the ruins. He's eventually taken out as a door explodes with the Chemo green gasses while trying to locate the rogue while reflecting on his recent failures.

(Nightwing 1996 #116)

I do think the appearance of Batman as Dick passes out isn't real, Bruce was in Gotham, either reeling from the explosion or looking for Jason or something. There's no way he got to Blüdhaven already, and the legs of Batman are hazy, blending into the smoke.

I also think after Chemo is stopped that Bruce probably still hasn't heard anything about Nightwing, because I don't imagine he took the time and resources to call the Veteran in a communications blackout (who has been historically trying to poach Batman's Robins, and nearly got Tim killed trying to convince Tim to leave Batman and join up his forces. Batman and the Veteran are not on good terms, is what I'm saying) just for Tim's step-mother and fake uncle.

(Robin 1993 #147)

By this time, he is talking about Tim as if he's alive, so he's probably gotten something from the Titans base confirming that Tim's alright, so he's gotta be taking the time and effort to call the Veteran for Dick.

Bruce, being Bruce, gets into a fight with Dick as soon as Dick is brought back to the Batcave and wakes up, while Dick is being treated for severe radiation poisoning/burns. I am willing to forgive this because he's had a time of it, even if he's being hostile and pissy and unsupportive. Definitely not winning the Father of the Year award for this, I'm afraid (Worst Father of the Year award is going to Deathstroke, for embedding a known radioactive carcingenic material into his daughter's eye, but Bruce is in the running for this and Jason).

(Nightwing 1996 #117)

I am awarding this to Bruce for trying to reassure Dick.

But. Anyway. Yeah.

Rough night for everyone involved. Absolutely everything going wrong all at once.

[rainpunk07]

hear me out, danny speaking russian (dc x dp hc)

so i was just watching a video about space, right? allegedly, turns out if you (an american) wanna board the international space station you must speak russian fluently since the only way to get there is by a russian shuttle and pilot (nasa apparently ended their own shuttle program way back when??) (don’t quote me on this)

so picture danny learning russian at a relatively young age for the sole hope of going to space and such, and it coming out every once in a while when he’s mumbling or something like that (it’s basically second nature to him)

so danny ends up at gotham for whatever reason (demon twins, reveal gone wrong, idc, they’re all cool) and he wants to start anew, so he pretends to only speak russian?? ig?? it’d make for some funny/interesting BatFam interactions i suppose

i don’t know where i was going with this but i want to read prompts of danny speaking russian

[jennrypan]

Jason: Yo, Tim wanna see something?

Tim:..Against my better judgement, sure.

Jason, staring directly at him and then suddenly he disappears just to appear next to him:

Tim: WHAT THE FUCK? WHAT WAS THAT?

Jason: I dunno, something I did once..I think I can only do it twice..that was the second time.

Tim: WHA-? WHAT DO YOU MEAN?

Jason: I can't do it again, that's the last time I'll be able to do that

Tim: ..Then WHY the hell did you show me that!?

Jason: Cuz if you tell anyone else, they'll never believe you and you can't make me show them.

Tim: What's wrong with you?!

Jason: Timmy..I will do anything and everything..just cuz it's a little funny to me.

Tim:

Jason, holding his hand out and suddenly the All-Blades appears: I also have this but I won't use it again for the same reason

Tim: WHAT THE FUCK!!

[ghost-bxrd]

Prompt:

Jason, after coming back to Gotham and taking over the criminal underworld— is burnt out.

He’s exhausted, he can’t sleep, he’s pretty sure he broke some ribs somewhere along the two month mark of being the Red Hood and he just wants to go home.

So he does, entering the Cave near deliriously while Batman and Robin are out on patrol, shattering the stupid memorial he comes across while he’s at it, and— huh, well, that actually looks like a pretty comfy spot to take a nap. He’s just gonna— one minute. He just needs one… minute…..

When Bruce and Tim return to the Cave it’s to a dead boy passed out in the shattered remains of the memorial case, wrapped up in the tattered cape Bruce pulled from the rubble in Ethiopia.

[littlefankingdom]

Bruce is the kind of parents teachers hate, because he always takes his child's side. Dick started a fight? His boy would never, the other kid probably started it and deserved it. Jason felt asleep in class? Well, maybe stop being boring. His kids are angels who can do no wrong.

The administration of Gotham Academy was so relieved when Dick graduated because they wouldn't have to deal with Bruce again, only for him to get another one. And once Jason passed away, they felt guilty to be happy to not have to see Bruce again, only for him to show up a year later for Tim. (I know, canonically, Tim went to another school, but this is funny to imagine) He isn't even the kid's guardian, but he justifies it with the absence of Tim's parents at the moment, how he is his neighbour and his son is very close to him, they see each others as brothers!

It's a bit different with Damian because he was raised differently than his siblings and could be quite arrogant at the start, but Bruce still does take his defense when he doesn't have his son's side.

Of course, once he is alone with his boys, he does ask what happens and lecture them if necessary, but in public, he gets protective. It comes from how he remembers feeling as a teen, angry and hurt but nobody listened or understood, just scolded him. He wants his kids to feel understood, to know they can express themselves to him. (It's canon that Bruce saw Jason's aggressivity as Robin as Jason being in pain. In older comics at least). It's also comes from how protective he is in general.

This also happens with the Justice League and other heroes. They have no right to criticize his kids, and he can lecture them himself if they really did something dangerous. Robin punched you? You probably deserved it.

His kids are perfect angels, ok?!

[oifaaa]

Ive come to the decision that my metric for determining if the new robin lives series is good or bad will be if Tim Drake shows up if he shows up then I hate it worst series 0/10 if he doesn't then it's the best thing I've ever read well done dc you nailed it

[rmbunnie]

Something kinda tasteless about the way that alongside the concerns of "Batman needs someone to rein in his aggression/edginess" (mostly a meta concern,) "Robin is a symbol of undying hope right alongside Batman, Superman, and the police system," and "now that the thought's crossed my mind I think being Robin would be pretty sweet actually," one of Tim's points for why he should be Robin at the end of A Lonely Place of Dying is "we need to show the criminals of Gotham that they can't just kill Robin and expect to get away with it!" Because. They can. That's exactly what happened.

Using that line of reasoning, Tim makes the claim that the idea of Jaybin's life as disposable and inconsequential is heinous and bad, his killing something impermissible, but instead of disproving said idea they allow it to become true and devote their energy to making sure it doesn't become widely known as such. By covering his death up, they actually are permitting his murder to go unaddressed and deeming it acceptable, even taking away the opportunity for it to be consequential to anyone outside of Bruce's inner circle by not spreading the news. As much as we say "oh Bruce was a great dad because losing Jason crushed him" and "he almost considered trying to kill the Joker one time," he in all tangible areas did not do anything about Jason's death. Setting aside the question of killing the Joker or not, it's still shown in Batman Year 3 that Bruce's reaction to Jason's death in the time til Tim showed up was to hide away everything Jason owned and carry on with business as usual, a little angrier. Bruce didn't make any changes or actually evaluate anything in a significant way after the warehouse and Jason's death didn't warrant any tangible consequence, that's evident from reading the comic. I know some may disagree, and I acknowledge the room for interpretation, but in order to discuss Tim's reason we have to concede that it is explicitly written into this specific comic as something Bruce and Tim both recognize as fact, because it serves as the foundation that this reason is built on: there is good reason for the criminals to believe there would no punishment for killing Robin based on the actions Bruce did or didn't take in response. The concern about the public realizing there are no consequences for killing Robin wouldn't be reasonable if it wasn't true, if there actually were.

While they recognize that Jason's death came to pass largely without consequence, the fact itself is less of an issue to both Bruce and Tim than letting criminals actually find out that it doesn't have consequence. They know it's unjust, the notion that Jason can be killed without repercussion (and in making an effort to minimize his murder confirm it to be true,) but their concern isn't for what actually happened to Jason or the lack of proper response. At least on the vigilante side of things, the problem is public perception and continuing to uphold an image of Batman as just and diligent while permitting him to ignore injustice against those close to him. There's no efforts taken to actually disprove the idea that killing Robin would lack impact, what Tim proposes is just making it harder to prove right.

I think the best way to word what comes across tasteless for me here (aside from the side commentary on the unstoppable might of the institution of police and how it's an exemplar of heroism) is that beyond Tim's victim-blaming of Jason during his stint as Robin, (discussed in more depth by people who can word it better than me,) in the base text of a Lonely Place of Dying, it is foundational to the initial premise of Tim as Robin that part of his motive for being Robin hinges on accepting what happened to Jason as something that cannot be allowed in their pursuit of justice or go unaddressed for reasons completely unrelated to the actual harm, and then intentionally erasing the event and the way in which it was allowed and did go unaddressed. No matter how much it's claimed in later comics that Bruce was faultless and Jason doomed himself, Tim's Robin came to be at least in part (in-universe) as a cover-up for the lack of action taken about Jason's death, and by extension as an effort to overwrite his time as Robin and an individual entirely. And thought it wasn't the way his character viewed it, Tim wasn't passively complicit in it or going along with a poor grieving man, the intentional and deliberate erasure of Jason as a murder victim and the injustice of his posthumous treatment was part of his opening pitch.

[stargazingdustbunny]

Snowy Shenanigans- Incorrect batfamily quotes/mini script fic

*Tim, Steph, Damian, and Duke are having a snowball fight in the gardens behind wayne manor. Tim throws a snowball that hits Duke in the forehead, and gets stuck in his hair.

Duke, growling: Hey!

Steph: You look like Jason now.

Duke, pointing finger guns and talking in a deep, gravelly voice: I'm the big scary Red Hood. I'm so angsty and I'm a crime -aaghpht

*Duke gets absolutely obliterated by a massive snowball to the face. Jason appears, hefting another snowball of the same size.*

Jason: Alright, whose next?

*a chaos of running bats and flying snow ensues*

[haveihitanerve]

Tim finally snaps.

“Its not my fault you and Bruce didn't work out! Its yours. Im done being the excuse for all your mistakes, all your misgivings. Im Robin now. And Batman is mine. I was willing to share him with you, I wanted to, because of what you meant to him. But im done jason. I am done.”

[kstarlitchaotics]

I find it hilarious and ironic that people will make the Bat kids paranoid about one another even though they say they're nothing like Bruce that they didn't inherit his paranoia traits canon or fanon

Proves that you don't have to be blood related to inherit such traits

[winepresswrath]

2000s batman was my first ever experience with "are the men ok" because the vibe would just sometimes pivot from noir adjacent detective adventures ft. broody but good hearted dark knight to

your dad is withholding.

it's presumptuous and needy for you to suggest that he's your dad.

he's legitimately not your dad.

it's a dadsuationship.

he's always disappointed in you but that's just because he has such high standards.

he's controlling but in a way that suggests it's less that he cares about you on an individual level and more that he's a perfectionist and you are a potential fuckup.

he does care about you on an individual level don't be silly. god you're so emotional and dumb

he's an impossible ideal that you're never going to live up to.

any negative feelings you might have about this are mostly on you for the twin sins of not being good enough and caring what he thinks.

but if you didn't care what he thinks wouldn't that be petty and ungrateful and indicative of poor judgement that will bring Disaster.

and then i'd conclude that only someone with daddy issues beyond my comprehension could have written this. like both the behaviour and the pervasive implicit victim blaming. that was unfair of me! in retrospect some of it was clearly just writers struggling with what i will generously call the complex cultural legacy of batman and robin. some of it was rank misogyny in terms of like, an inability to consider teenaged girls fully human and thus an inability to write batman as considering teenaged girls as fully human. some of it is that comics thrive on melodrama and it's easy to fall back on repetitively rehashing the same emotional beat. and i was a kid; it's possible that my take would be different today. however with these caveats i maintain that this was nevertheless not even worth asking who hurt you behaviour (it was dads).

[jasontoddenthusiastt]

The compelling thing about Jason as a character is that I never doubted that he cared about the world just because there weren’t panels of him being overly zealous about “restorative community care”

I’m not coming after anyone who wants to see that kind of stuff, but I do think seeking | that | as confirmation that Jason cares about the world is pretty narrow

[nenehyuuchiha]

Chapters: 2/2 Fandom: Batman - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Batfamily Members & Jason Todd Characters: Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, Leslie Thompkins, Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake, Alfred Pennyworth, Duke Thomas Additional Tags: Amnesia, Serious Injuries, Concussions, Post-Concussion Syndrome, Broken Bones, Brain Damage, Brain Fog, Unreliable Narrator, Jason Todd-centric, Resurrected Jason Todd, Headaches & Migraines, Lazarus Pit Side Effects (DCU), Mental Health Issues, Angst, Terminal Illnesses, implied eventual main character death Summary:

Shocking! Magic Death Pit's Rejuvenating Effects Don't Last! Local zombie boy’s body and life fall apart, onlookers concerned, read more within.

---

The Lazarus pit wasn’t a lasting solution. It takes much longer for Jason to realize or even admit this than it should. If you ignore your health issues long enough, they should go away, right?

[mikami1992]

I just saw a post of a FanArt of Richard Greyson winning gold medals at the Olympics…

so an idea comes to mind…

A crazy guy is stalking the US Olympic team, at first the classic letters from a disturbing stalker, worrying but not enough to do anything more than increase security and start an investigation, after all they are in the middle of the inauguration and there is not much that can be done…

they don't plan to cancel anything… until the truck where the athletes are leaving the event is sabotaged/attacked…

despite the vehicle overturning, most of them had a scare and some bruises… but there are several of them who were left with injuries that prevent them from continuing in the competition.

which should end with the withdrawal of some competitions by the United States… but luckily they meet some of the Wayne boys who came to see the event and they are willing to be substitutes, even if it's just to fill in the spots…

Meanwhile, the Batkids are taking some time off, and by unanimous decision (no one votes against Cas) they decide to go see the opening and some events of the Olympics, what they didn't expect was to find a case involving the Olympic team, where everything seems to point to someone within it, targeting other athletes.

So they decide to investigate from within.

[methoughtsphantom]

typical Bats-don’t-know-he’s-Jason Red Hood surprise kidnaps Robin but has to wait to do his dramatic monologuing because the little bird is unconscious from where Jason found him with human traffickers. Hours pass, and the kid not stirring begrudgingly makes Jason feel a tinge of worry, which no, he doesn’t appreciate. He’d planned to beat the kid senseless, and now he’s here stuck with him while not being able to, kid is hurt already. Aaand why was that really? The time is the factor that gives Jason the space he needs to really ponder over where exactly Robin had been when he’d found him, how easy it had been to take him and why Batman had not been there to stop him.

among many others just,, imagine Jason seeing Robin for what he is, for what he was, and having a mini crisis about whether is okay to be mad with a kid who in this sorta mirror scenario batman was also not here to protect and stop the man who kidnapped him in the first place. …he recalls how he used to feel when he was the one hiding behind Batman’s shadow and well, he’s cringing over wanting to see this kid who’s wounds he wrapped boded against him. Now Tim’s perspective,, poor kid is super confused in the little time he’s been awake because the man B has been worrying about for months is asking why wasn’t he with Batman?? asking if the man had forgotten what happened to the last boy who worn those colors? if he even cared?? really just, picture Tim having to hear this random crime lord sounding all angry and hateful and making allusions to his predecessor’s fate and run as Robin without even waiting for any input (like this is a version of the dramatic monologue let my boy ramble) and 0 to 100 passing from panic alarm fear you know who we are?? to what the fuck are you defending me?? you mad in my behalf?in Jason’s?? what is this shit

[oifaaa]

People bring up the fact that Jason (might have) beaten up Tim that one time like it's the worst thing Jason did ignoring that he literally shoots Damian point blank in the chest all the offence in the world to tim but imo boy got off pretty easy