I Refuse To Become Another Goddamn Mystery

Who let me reread outsiders (2003) instead of studying for my finals. I’m crying all over my laptop

rogue fans and nightwing fans need to unionize bc i truly cannot stand the inordinate obsession with their asses anymore. we need to start killing people

Hey do you know a canon summary of Jason’s plotline/ development? Or if you don’t at least what you think his development is? I saw your Damian and Jason being league bros rant and I really liked it. Idk shit about jack that’s canon I just see family vibes in fanfic and my trauma says awooga

Hi hi

Yes yes

Okay so my big issue with the league bros Jay and Dami brotherisms

Is that yes Jaybin was a sweetie (I wouldn’t say he wasn’t reckless or that he was the kindest or nicest Robin bc I think that’s a gross exaggeration but he was a sweetie)

But he just? Wasn’t that? When he came back? He was rightfully angry and violent. He gave into the violent tendencies he had as Robin (which unpopular opinion I think were COMPLETELY JUSTIFIED BTW)

but like? Jay had a bat habit of murdering all his teachers when they were done with him

He killed his goons and low level players in his race to take over the Gotham underbelly and like? Idk he just wasn’t? The current red hood or the past Robin.

Like since I am a dick Grayson stan account I’ll use them to demonstrate.

But Jay and Dicks relationship is awful when he first comes back

-he steals dicks nightwing suit and kills people in it ruining dicks standing and making him a target for more anti-hero ‘vigilantes should be killed’ stuff that was happening at the time

- he killed like 100 people in black gate bc he was like ‘well i wanna kill criminals and here i am surrounded by criminals whatever shall i do’

- then there’s all the WEIRD ASS STUFF he did to Dick and Damian when they were Batman and Robin (stripping them naked and trying to reveal them that way to the world??)

Anyway Jay was a fucking VILLAIN

And then after all this, the reboot happened, they gave Jason a collection of very fucked up and traumatized folks that he couldn’t just murder his way out of

And he like actually had to have dimension and he was moved from being imo one of the most interesting Batman/ batfam villains to being a pretty cool anti hero more in the line with batwoman or like the new Harley Quinn

But he didn’t start out that way

He was a murderer with sociopathic tendencies who remembered what it meant to give a fuck through a lot of shared trauma and experiences and now. His relationship with the bats (I’m talking specifically about the batlings rn like dick, Tim and Damian) is much better

Dick helps him clear his name when he’s accused of murder

Tim and him work together on cases

He’s trying to be there for Damian

And this whole dynamic gave me the ability to watch my precious baby boy beat the shit out of Bruce Wayne during Gotham war (I just love angry Grayson lemme live)

Right

But if you think for a SECOND THAT OG VILLAIN JAY TODD WOULD HAVE BEEN LET AROUND TALIAS BABY??

Not happening

Now a lot of people are gonna be like “oh you’re picking and choosing” or “oh you’re ignoring Talia’s characterization in morrisons and using jays” and yeah I think that Talia’s characterization in dicks Batman run was awful and while I think certain things Jason does in the comic he wouldn’t have done if written by someone else. It 100% is more fitting than the racist nonsense Talia Stan’s had to deal with. 

Anyway I think if you want sweet and fuck brotherisms/siblingisms/ other bat relationships (since you don’t read canon and some of these are lowkey ignored by the fanon i 100% you check out like any fanart/ fanfic of them)

Dick Grayson and any younger Robin is always adorable

Tim and Damian in Gotham war

Jay and Damian in the Robin run

Tim and Duke whenever they’re together

Tim, cass and Steph also have a very fun dynamic (the angst potential here goes crazy tho)

Jay and Dick as red hood and nightwing are very very fun

But also nightwing and Jaybin is fucking adorable (cue dick trying to take Jason Todd from Bruce like YOU FUCK UP IM ADOPTING HIM MYSELF)

Jay and babs (we ignore that one time they tried to make them date we IGNORE IT)

Outside of the Batfam batkid relationships are also so fluffy

Jay and bizzaro have a very cute relationship

Tim and the young justice team are fucking adorable esp him Cassie, Kon and Bart

Supersons can be read as platonic or romantic but they’re fucking adorable and I loved the supersons comic so so so much

Dick and the fab 5 trust me Dick and Donna sibling fluff hurts my teeth.

I personally hated the comic this happened in but if you’re not a big comic fan / you don’t care about pre crisis that Jay and Roy??? Adoptable

Anyway this is mainly based on my opinion I AM mainly a Nightwing reader so some of these things come from my Jay Todd Stan friends (cough cough cough you know who you are cough cough) so I’m sorry if I fucked up any details

me holding a gun to a mushroom: tell me the name of god you fungal piece of shit

mushroom: can you feel your heart burning? can you feel the struggle within? the fear within me is beyond anything your soul can make. you cannot kill me in a way that matters

me cocking the gun, tears streaming down my face: I’M NOT FUCKING SCARED OF YOU

Me with my female favorite characters: look at you my perfect perfect girl. I cannot say a single thing that may be misinterpreted so I will literally only say that you should be everyone’s favorite you can’t do anything wrong ever and I love you so much and you need more appreciation. Banned from my tags cuz if I have to read angst about you I will sob. And if you go through trauma in canon I will give you a story to healthily process these issues and learn and grow from them my darlings

Me with my male favorite characters: … you have so many issues already…. Give them more. I will find your worst moments and make sure everyone knows about them. Your least favorite trait of yourself is my favorite and I will use this to abuse you psychologically. Not only will I explicitly search for fiction that hurts you I will make it myself. I hate you (my beloved) you will never hear a compliment out of my you stupid stupid man I love you.

My favourite piece of Fanon that I live and die by despite there being -20 canon basis for it.

Dick Grayson loves whiskey so much, it's the only alcohol he'll truly over-indulge in. (its Slade Wilsons fault)

Jason cannot stand whiskey and is the most stereotypical millennial small brewery beer drinker despite not being a millennial. like im talking flavoured IPAs with the bottles that look like they're made for kids to wanna pick em up.

and whenever they go to a bar together they switch their orders around because Dick wants to seem friendly and approachable and Jason thinks saying 'whiskey neat' makes him seem really cool and fits his general aesthetic.

(Dick also emptied the manors entire reserve of whiskey when Bruce died and Alfred had to hold an intervention)

(the reason Jays loves these drinks sm is bc its what the titans had in the tower when he'd visit Dick as robin and its the first time he was around drinkers who were responsible and visibly being safe. Dick also let him have a couple sips of his beer and no matter how many issues you have, a cool slightly older relative offering you a sip of beer is just a staple of being not the oldest)

I am hijacking this post to rant about my fave one sec

AND this is why Batman’s greatest success in his opinion is Nightwing.

Because Dick Grayson is whoever you need him to be at that moment. While Batman can switch from a chemist to a physicist to a professor to a doctor to a billionaire. Fundamentally his character is the same he will not change or accommodate for anyone even his children. He is rigid in character if not skill. And he accidentally raised his oldest son to fill in those grooves, to alter himself perfectly to fit into the position required of him.

It’s why Nightwing as a hero is so revered. Because he is a leader, solo hero, spy, teammate, brother, father figure, son, support. He’ll erase the gaps that are flawed in the dynamic by changing his tone, behavior, skill set etc.

Superman needed to train his son he went to Dick Grayson

They needed to soften the assassin characters (Cass and Damian) dick was either a support or main presence in their initial development.

He’s the de facto leader of any of the second gen teams

It’s why he can still work well with his siblings bc while he won’t accommodate Jason’s killing he’s willing to work with him at a middle ground. Him and Tim have almost always had a phenomenal relationship because Nightwing is trained to cover up the gaps and the in between. The nooks and crannies of character compromises the other characters wouldn’t either bc of stubbornness or bc of simple inability to do so.

It’s why his undercover runs are so interesting

Bc he’s a chameleon character

Bc he needed to accommodate for Batman his entire life (ahh parentification our old friend)

The thing about “Good Dad Bruce Wayne” and “Bat-Dad” is….that’s the dream. I love any and all depictions of Bruce Wayne that prioritize him DOING THE WORK to be a good father to his kids.

I never look for reasons to criticize Bruce or his parenting. My frequent bitching and moaning about him and how he’s written comes from one place and one place only:

IMO a lot of the time, instead of writing Bruce putting in the WORK to be the PARENT, people just write him being 70% of the problem and only 30% of the solution and call that ‘good enough.’ Because hey, at least he’s trying to be part of the solution and fix his mistakes and be better for his kids, and isn’t that the most anyone can ask for?

Well, no. Its not. Especially since with the exception of Damian, Bruce chose each and every one of his kids with full knowledge of what he was doing. He doesn’t GET to do the bare minimum, even when his kids require more effort than the norm, like the situations with Jason sometimes are beyond the ordinary. There’s no quota to parenting. 

The thing about Bruce Wayne is he is pretty much the most competent individual in the DC universe. He has more resources available at his disposal than any other parent can dream of. He has excelled at every thing he’s ever put his mind to….

Except, often times….being a parent.

And parenting is not somehow inherently more impossible than saving the world every other week. Its just not. It literally is just: put your kids first. 

And that is what Bruce is written as failing to do, time and time again. That is almost unilaterally where every single one of his conflicts with his children come from.

When he puts his own fear of rejection over Dick’s fear of abandonment, and refuses to reach out to Dick, beg him to come home, ask him to stay.

When he puts his own moral choices over Jason’s need to be understood, to have a father who can coexist with him and his choices when that very same father has at many times reconciled working with heroes with vastly different moral codes and even body counts of their own.

When he puts his own discomfort with emotional conversations and expressions of affection over Tim’s need for concrete gestures and reassurances that his parent needs and wants him in his life.

And so on.

These things are all actionable. They are all based on choices Bruce can make, and at many times just chooses not to. They all demand one thing and one thing only, the one thing that is expected of parents who take on the responsibility of a child that they and they alone are responsible for the wellbeing of:

Put. Them. First.

And falling short of that, when there’s every opportunity to do the work…is Bruce’s failure. It just is. Its not on his kids. He is the parent. Always and forever, with each and every one of them. That is what he signed up for. THEY did not. Kids don’t have the same power and choices about where they end up as the parents do when deciding that where they end up should be with them. And that can’t be disregarded. Bruce’s kids, as much as they love and appreciate him, are not ultimately the ones who arranged to be tied to Bruce for the rest of their lives, even if they all accepted that and wanted that in their own ways. He was the one with the actual power to make those choices, and to quote DC’s competition:

With great power comes great responsibility.

Bruce’s kids will always have less power than him purely in the context of their relationships with him, because the yearning for a parent’s approval exists on a wholly different level than anything a parent can need or get from their child - especially when they have multiple children but those multiple children each only have the one parent they’re all desperately hoping for the approval of. As well as when each of those multiple children arrive in Bruce’s life already burdened with issues born of abandonment and abuse and neglect that aren’t Bruce’s fault….but from the second Bruce stepped up and volunteered to be their parent, still very much became his responsibility all the same.

Bruce’s kids will always, always, always have more to lose, when there’s any conflict between them and their father.

And the thing that frustrates me so much about how Bruce is written in both canon AND fanfics….

Is how often the narratives cut corners and emphasize the blame and responsibility of his children and make them settle….for just ‘good enough’ from him. For ‘well at least he’s trying.’ For ‘he’s not perfect.’ 

He doesn’t need to be perfect.

But he needs to be the parent.

And personally, I will never be satisfied by narratives that feel like they make more attempt to coddle him and say its okay to just do the bare minimum, as long as he’s making an effort…than they do to make him step up and do the work, put his kids before his own issues.

He’s not the child. So stop treating him like one. Stop writing his kids being more mature than him. Stop saying his children are ‘equally at fault’ for him refusing to make them a priority and any issues of insecurity and abandonment and hurt they feel because of this. Stop expecting his oldest children to act as buffers for his younger children and do the parenting he refuses to do at times, and stop only treating them like his equal when it allows for them to victimize him in some way, with the story treating them like the aggressors and him the misunderstood recipient of their emotional harm and neglect.

Bruce Wayne has more social power and resources and skills and intelligence than just about any other human in the DC universe….his children included. Please can we just start holding him to the standards that kind of power should entail? Instead of looking to his children to always make up the difference for the times he refuses to be accountable, or a narrative refuses to hold him responsible for his own behavior and poor choices?

I WANT Good Dad Bruce Wayne.

I’m just tired of seeing ‘emotionally stunted surly teenager who makes his family’s lives far more difficult than they need to be and then awkwardly hugs them and grunts out an apology in the last paragraph to make up for it’….and being told: that’s Good Dad Bruce Wayne too.

No. Its not. I know what actual Good Dad Bruce looks like, and that ain’t it. Do better. Make him do better.

The funniest aspect of a child crime fighter is that sometimes they’re going to run into something that makes no sense because they don’t have the life experience. Because they’re nine.

Like Robin runs into a guy who works for The Penguin and the guy just throws his hands up like, “Don’t hit! I’m not an enforcer. I’m an accountant.”

Robin:

Robin, squaring up: I don’t know what that is.

Birthdays

Dicks starts a tradition, for every first birthday one of his loved ones spends with him, he gives them a part of his heart.

Jason: Dick isn't there for Jasons first birthday at the manor because well... he isn't exactly welcome at the manor but he snuck Jason his number weeks in advance to make sure Jay would be at his crappy apartment the day after his birthday. And he gives Jason a collection of poetry his mother had written while they had traveled around the world. He had memorised all of them many years ago but he wanted to give Jason something tangible to connect them together. He might not be related to Bruce, he might not be Jason's brother by law or blood but Jason carries the robin name and Mary Graysons words so he is Dick's brother no matter what Bruce wants to say about it. Some of the poems aren't in English but they all flow beautifully and are written in the same black swirling script. Jason cries real tears and clings to Dick because this isn't something he can say he's had before. When Jason died, Dick took it from Jays room because he didn't allow it to be part of a mausoleum for his brother he wasn't going to let it be part of one for his brother.

After Jason comes back to life, and he's left Gotham he finds that familiar notebook in a safe-house he was sure Nightwing didn't know about with a post-it note on top reading.

I'm so glad you're back little wing

-DG

Tim: Dick and Alfred celebrate Tims birthday alone and Dick knows that Tim is struggling with who he is and his place in the family. Jason needed connection Tim needed purpose. Tim needed something to do to prove his value so on Tim's 13th birthday Dick teaches him the quadruple summersault. he teaches Tim the Full-Twisting Shaposhnikova his mother's favourite move on the bars and the moors. They spend all day practicing together until Tim can do a loose approximation of as many of his parent's signature moves as they can squeeze into one day. And every time Dick sees Tim for the next two months he asks for a spotter and they spend two odd hours practicing the moves. Tim never ends up incorporating the Flying Grayson's moves into his fighting style but he starts to follow Dicks habit of getting up high when he's stressed and working out all his frustration by practicing those moves over and over again until his body is pleasantly sore. Sometimes when Dick is on undercover missions, Tim will do one of the routines to help with the fact he cant reach his brother.

Damian: canonically Dick gave Damian a trapeze bar but that was long into his Robin tenure I believe it was after the Lazarus island debacle. So I think that by the. time Damians 11th birthdays rolls around, Dick and Damian have a pretty solid relationship and the first thing Dick would have given Damian was his father's unfinished sketchbook which contained the original designs for the robin costume. This book is Thick and its not like a modern sketchbook no, John Grayson found this leather bound monstrosity in Egypt and paid pennies for it. Its so dense that its filled with about 3 years of drawings and still has more the half of its pages a yellowed blank canvas. Damian, who is naturally talented at art and was encouraged by Dick to try and find non-vigilante methods of enjoyment has already taken up drawing months prior but this gets him to start practicing with fervour. He tries hard to mimic John Grayson's art style before eventually giving up at trying to create identical pieces and just incorporates various techniques the man used. For Dicks birthday that year he gifts him a portrait of his late parents but unlike the ones he's made for the manor, Dick's parents are in motion, with his John Grayson's grin stolen right off his sons face and Mary Grayson's boisterous laugh as she crashed into her husbands side could be heard in the famous cackle of her son.

now I wanted to do Cass or Steph or (maybe even Babs or Kori if I wanted to pivot from family to romance) but I genuinely the girl who has Mary Graysons wedding ring would

Donna Troy: Dick Gave it to her when they were still wonder girl and boy wonder. They were 14 and it was right after they had started the titans, back when it was a kids club more than a hero organisation. It was accompanied with a whispered confession of his identity, an identity the rest of their team wouldn't learn for another to 2 years. She wears it around her neck with a simple gold chain. She didn't take it off during her wedding or funeral, she was buried in it and came back with its barely there weight a comfort against base of her neck.

Who the fuck forgot to tell me that humanities and social sciences are fun??? Like I decided to take gender studies for funsies as an elective. YALL?? This shit is so accessible?? And nice???

Like they explain the theories to you in the same book and have references and citations are simple and I don’t need to Google to understand???

They don’t make memorize 500 brain areas and randomly critique capitalism as if it’s like a normal fucking thing that is known and okay and not out there I love you social sciences.

wtf do you mean academia can be accessible and fun and I don’t need to be on 60 milligrams of Ritalin to pass an exam bc my brain can’t focus this is PEAK

Fuck stem this is unfair