Latest Posts by beheadeddemon - Page 3
i loveeee talia's old outfits.... hoping to see her in pink this year......
"You're not Talia. Talia smells of Jasmine and Rose of Taif"
Found this collecting dust in my drafts so here ya go
2 TALIA DRAWINGS IN THE SAME MONTH??? OMGOMGOMG
made some more talia al ghul art!
DC gals
Happy Mother’s Day!
She’s living my dream right in front of my eyes.
Another poem w brutalia vibes
The reason Talias eye color is never consistent is bc they’re hazel so they just always change
This poem giving Brutalia like either one of them could be saying it either way
Listen…. Shes hot
CEO Talia
talia: you’re all fucking idiots and i cant believe i have to work with you. not you damian, you’re my perfect baby and i love you
This dress from the Heaven Gaia 2020 SS collection was so gorgeous. The entire collection was gorgeous.
“And you would help me avoid such a fate, Talia?”
“To the death— a better end than quitting”
“But why do you want to help? Because... you love me?”
“Yes, but more than that— Because I would rather die in your world than live in his.”
[Batman #400 “Chapter 6: Barred”]
Baby Damian woke up and chose violence
Forgot the hashtags again
Aight so I’ve been thinking long and hard about Talias fighting style thanks to a prompt from the homie @hadariwizard and I think I have enough figured out to finally write something on it
It’s a bit difficult for me to figure out power scaling. I don’t want to say that she should be stronger or better than another character because I could be totally wrong about it. But I think she should be on par with Batman when it comes to her capabilities as a fighter. I think she could be easily compared to characters like Black Widow or Gamora from Marvel comics.
Like for one just look at them real quick
Then compare the fact that they’re both trained from young ages RELENTLESSLY to be basically living weapons. They’re both experts at various forms of combat, mastery over various weapons from melee to firearms, expert tacticians with a mind made for battle, like I can literally keep going.
And now Gamora and Talia
Gamora is raised by the mad Titan Thanos. Talia is raised by The demon Ra’s Al Ghul. These men manipulate their daughters into aiding in their evil plans, and for the most part these two women desperately want to make their fathers proud. Raised and trained to be weapons for their fathers, occasionally shown affection and love to keep them on their side. Not to mention them both having a sister who’s tried to kill them.
As for her comparisons to Batman, that just seems clear. Talia has more training than him, and has trained for a longer time. They both receive training from the same/similar people. From what I’ve seen, she’s not really seen as a person who fights frequently, so people tend to underestimate her capabilities. In reality, it just makes her seem stronger in my eyes.
Talia knows when a fight is needed and when she can get her way with WORDS. She’s clever, and a master manipulator. Like I’m talking Azula level liar. She can use her wit to get her way without ever having to lift a finger, but when she DOES fight she is a DEMON. Come on now!! I think as annoying as it is to be underestimated, it also has a very clear advantage, and Talia uses that effectively. Never let your enemy know the full extent of your power.
One fighting scene I keep imagining in my head is her in this long flowing dress with a slit down the side. She’s got one hand behind her back and the other holds a chalice of red wine. Three thugs move to attack her and she uses her legs to swiftly take them down, never spilling a drop, looking down at them and taking a sip from her drink.
Another is one where she’s fighting alongside Batman and has promised to not kill anyone so she’s taking down these armed guards and dismantling their weapons at the same time, then using the pieces as a blunt object. That sort of stuff has been done before I just think it’s fun. Like she can definitely take a gun apart blindfolded and put it back together in 30 seconds.
Aight so I’ve been thinking long and hard about Talias fighting style thanks to a prompt from the homie @hadariwizard and I think I have enough figured out to finally write something on it
It’s a bit difficult for me to figure out power scaling. I don’t want to say that she should be stronger or better than another character because I could be totally wrong about it. But I think she should be on par with Batman when it comes to her capabilities as a fighter. I think she could be easily compared to characters like Black Widow or Gamora from Marvel comics.
Like for one just look at them real quick
Then compare the fact that they’re both trained from young ages RELENTLESSLY to be basically living weapons. They’re both experts at various forms of combat, mastery over various weapons from melee to firearms, expert tacticians with a mind made for battle, like I can literally keep going.
And now Gamora and Talia
Gamora is raised by the mad Titan Thanos. Talia is raised by The demon Ra’s Al Ghul. These men manipulate their daughters into aiding in their evil plans, and for the most part these two women desperately want to make their fathers proud. Raised and trained to be weapons for their fathers, occasionally shown affection and love to keep them on their side. Not to mention them both having a sister who’s tried to kill them.
As for her comparisons to Batman, that just seems clear. Talia has more training than him, and has trained for a longer time. They both receive training from the same/similar people. From what I’ve seen, she’s not really seen as a person who fights frequently, so people tend to underestimate her capabilities. In reality, it just makes her seem stronger in my eyes.
Talia knows when a fight is needed and when she can get her way with WORDS. She’s clever, and a master manipulator. Like I’m talking Azula level liar. She can use her wit to get her way without ever having to lift a finger, but when she DOES fight she is a DEMON. Come on now!! I think as annoying as it is to be underestimated, it also has a very clear advantage, and Talia uses that effectively. Never let your enemy know the full extent of your power.
One fighting scene I keep imagining in my head is her in this long flowing dress with a slit down the side. She’s got one hand behind her back and the other holds a chalice of red wine. Three thugs move to attack her and she uses her legs to swiftly take them down, never spilling a drop, looking down at them and taking a sip from her drink.
Another is one where she’s fighting alongside Batman and has promised to not kill anyone so she’s taking down these armed guards and dismantling their weapons at the same time, then using the pieces as a blunt object. That sort of stuff has been done before I just think it’s fun. Like she can definitely take a gun apart blindfolded and put it back together in 30 seconds.
The Psychology of Talia
For throwntotheair, who has a few questions about Talia. :) I’m grouping this under a few broad questions that should bleed into answering some of the others you mentioned.
The preface of this, of course, is that all of my answers are based in the character of Talia al Ghul prior to Grant Morrison writing her. So the 30+ years of content and development we had beforehand. Grant largely ignored the fundamental pieces of her character that were recurring themes over the years, turned her into an infanticidal rapist and, generally speaking, made her as 2-dimensional as possible. His interpretation also gave Talia wildly inconsistent motives, so he is not a good measure for delving into her character.
What are her motives?
Talia has always been motivated by one thing: love. Love for her father, love for Bruce, love for Damian. Even love for the planet (though less so than Ra’s). Each step of her journey has love somewhere in the why. The primary conflict for her, especially early on, was the tug-of-war between acting for good (because of her love for Bruce) or acting for evil (because of her love for her father).
The animated series still gives one of the best summaries of Talia’s goals, too: she says that she believes in her father’s vision for the world, but not in his means (namely mass genocide).
Even in dealing with Damian (Morrison, again, notwithstanding), I think she meant everything for love (I’ll explain more in the ‘why did she raise him this way’ section).
When she throws Jason into the Lazarus Pit in Lost Days, her letter to him says that she has done this “for love.”
Despite her badassery, Talia is actually a very loving, empathic person (though sometimes she denies it). Either way, love is at the core of what she does. For her father, that love spills over into loyalty…most of the time.
Why the loyalty to Ra’s (Why has she never stood against him?)
Wellllll this is two parts. The first question: love and indoctrination. The second question: she has.
First we have to understand that Talia is pretty much a psychological trainwreck. In Batman Chronicles #8, we see one of the only stories that’s specifically from Talia’s point-of-view. This and Lost Days are as close as we really get to such direct access to her thoughts.
Yeah. She’s messed up. We should note that Ra’s, despite his being just about Worst Dad Ever, does genuinely love Talia, in his own way.
Realize that Talia has been raised exclusively in Ra’s in environment (like Damian) and that the way she raised Damian was A LOT like she was raised. She’s in a place where he father is viewed as a deity, it’s this massive, powerful cult, and so there’s a level of indoctrination going on.
But that said…Even from the beginning, Talia was defying her father.
She thinks for herself and, growing through the years, she becomes increasingly agitated, worn down and plain ol’ fed up with her father. I would argue that in most cases, she betrays him for Bruce (or Jason, or Damian) because she knows he’s wrong.
(Prior this panel, Batman asks why Talia is betraying Ra’s, and if it’s because she loves him:)
Doesn’t she seem to be lacking independence?
Here’s where I think there was a massive missed opportunity. Talia, after being shot for betraying her father in Tower of Babel, nopes out and goes off on her own. She’s fed up with both Bruce AND Ra’s.
Ra’s shows up and has Talia kidnapped to bring her back. She winds up rescuing Bruce one more time before leaving BOTH of them and heading off to Hong Kong, where she becomes a successful businesswoman in her own right.
At the time, Lex Luthor is about to run for president. He shows up at her door:
Talia becomes CEO of LexCorp. I wish so much that more happened in this era for her. She butts heads with Superman a few times (and even teamed up once and it was awesome), but it was so under-utilized. In the end, though, she runs the long con on Luthor, willfully bankrupts LexCorp and sells off the assets to Wayne Enterprises. Mostly just to spite him.
She hates Lexcorp mostly because she’s an environmentalist. And because Luthor.
So she’s this awesome independent businesswoman who manages to trick one of the smartest men in the DCU.
Unfortunately, her half-sister shows up during this era in Death and the Maidens. She kidnaps and tortures Talia by murdering her over and over and bringing her back with her Lazarus Pit. This goes on until Talia’s psyche shatters.
Nyssa brainwashes Talia, first with intent to kill Ra’s. Ra’s eventually kills Talia.
When Nyssa kills Ra’s, she and Talia both continue with Ra’s mission (with Nyssa as the Demon’s Head until her death). Then Talia, still brainwashed, becomes the Demon’s Head and leads into the modern area (as with Villains United which ran pretty close up to the New 52).
Why did she raise Damian in that environment?
To put it short: because it was how she was raised and because she knows it’s the only way for him to survive. When Talia was 18 (her first appearance) she was kidnapped by an enemy of her father. Her entire life has been violence, danger and bloodshed. Her father is a powerful, dangerous man in a dangerous world.
If Damian had not been trained, in her mind, he would not have survived. I think she believes it was the best way for him to be able to protect himself. Some indoctrination bleeds through (as her raising him would be post-brainwashing, though the timeline is a bit wonky).
I hope that helps! I’ve got a lot more essays in on my blog, plus one that’s a comprehensive account of Talia’s history.
Why I always gotta become infatuated wit characters that no one else likes as much as me DAMN
Losing my mind over this dude
Batman: Son of the Demon
Btw Damian has Talia's kind of autism not Bruce's kind of autism
Yknow Selina and Talia could also bond over their love of animals specifically cats. Talia could show her her various wild cats she has on the sanctuaries she runs, and Selina can show her all the strays she takes in. And whenever Talia sees a stray cat on the street she’ll be like “Oh there goes Sebastian.” Bc she hangs out with Selina and the cats so much yknow? Like she can help fund animal shelters in the city and provide staff that will work 24/7 dawg. It’d be cute idk
I’ve been thinking about writing a Catwoman x Talia fanfic for a minute, in which Talia needs something precious to her people retrieved from an underground tomb and hires Catwoman to help her. Selina would be suspicious at first, but Talia is extremely wealthy, and the idea of lost treasures does peak her interest. So the two embark on a journey through a jungle and into a dangerous booby trap filled Indiana Jones type place and become closer as the time passes. Catwoman tries to fluster Talia every once in a while and Talia usually just brushes it off because she’s focused on the mission. But once they’ve retrieved the items, Talia flirts back and flusters Catwoman!!! Shit like “I can see why Bruce would like you, you are as alluring as any gem in this place of wonders. A wonder all on your own.” Bc you know that bitch is a real romantic. And Catwoman would just be thinking like “Oh? Unexpected but also… not unwelcome?”
Talia can hire Catwoman to retrieve artifacts anytime she wants after that ykwim ☝️
Selina is a character I’m really fond of. I write her too, but of course not as much as Talia. In my writings, Selina is a morally grey neutral force. She does love Bruce, but she is simply not the type of person to be tied down. She isn’t in any committed relationships, instead she bounces around from person to person. Batman, Harley, and Ivy being the most frequent. She’s a bit of a swinger really. And I do heavily support the Talia x Selina fans. All three of you. There’s a very clear opportunity for some heavy sexual tension here. They’d just never be more than a fun time fling every once in a while TO ME.
Fr tho!! I really think Talia should shift away from romance and family conflict and her stories should focus on being a mother and how it’s changed her.
In my stories, Damian is the key figure that drives Talia towards a decision. For so many years she’d been towing the line between Good and Evil. Her lover or her father. But when Damian is born, neither of those things matter as much as making sure her child is okay. It’s why she makes the difficult decision of sending him away. She knows he’ll be happier with Bruce because she too would be happier with him, but her days of lying to Ra’s were over. She couldn’t make long trips to Gotham under the guise of “seducing the Bat.” Her father would see right through it. And Bruce grew tired of sneaking around. But sweet Damian… to hold him in her arms and tell him stories of the world. To watch him sulk and whine when she’d beaten him at a game of chess. To see his face light up whenever she came home from a long trip. Every little thing added up to something beautiful. In her heart, there is nothing she could possibly love more than her child. If Talia ever got the chance to grow as close to the other batfamily kids, they’d be right there alongside him. Even though it’s clear who her favorite is… Jason is second.
Thinking like Talia is probably more renown in Africa/Middle East/Asia since that’s where her family runs things the most. The public there treat her family pretty much like royalty, and that’s why she always seems really regal in the way she acts. The League of Assassins is large enough to be its own nation when you think abt it. Bc it’s not just them but their families. To me it would have started with Ra’s centuries ago, and a handful of men and women who would be brought up as warriors and then boom into something of its own. It’s extremely hard to get into and except for traders they don’t allow any outsiders. The land they live on is basically its own country with its own laws and defenses. So that might be a thing.
They have plots of land across the globe, but they’re specifically meant to converse nature. So especially places effected by wildfires and other natural disasters or places with a high amount of hunters or deforestation workers. Assassins are sent to either kill or scare these people from the land and rebuild what’s been destroyed. They’re all sanctuaries with a few people planted to protect the area. All the animals are tagged and watched closely, but only interfered with when it’s absolutely necessary.
I ALWAYS FORGRYBTHE HASHTAGS
Lighthearted Talia hcs rq
Her public image is drastically different from what is known underground. To most, she is seen as a figure of royalty. Daughter to the leader of a mysterious country. Equivalent in popularity to a real life royal, like Rania Al Abdullah. Much more popular in Africa/Middle east/Asia than the Americas, so when she’s over there on a public outing with Bruce Wayne people are often unaware of her status. Though the way she carries herself is certainly a tell, as everything she does is done with an air of regalia. Of course every world leader has secrets that few actually know.
Talia is a philanthropist through and through. She dedicates time and money to various projects that work towards a better world. She is often traveling the world rather than staying in one place because of the amount of sanctuaries she needs to check in on. She’ll often invite Bruce to these places for romantic getaways.
She is a Jack of all trades. Her intellect matches her strength, she’s witty and flirty, but stoic and serious when she needs to be. A master of traditional and modern weaponry and fighting styles (a more in-depth analysis of this coming soon.)
She goes against traditions much more than Ra’s. Where he strictly only uses weaponry like swords, Talia stays strapped when she needs to be. Where he almost always wears cultural clothing, Talia switches styles often.
My Talia is tall, like 6ft but always in heels because she can pull it off. So she’s practically Bruce’s height most of the time. She does love to look down at him.
I thoroughly enjoy the comparisons of Talia to Morticia Addams with Bruce being Gomez and Damian being Wednesday. It is very much canon to me. I love when Batman is written as a super simp because some of his old comics with Talia or so sweetly written and their interactions are so cute.
