This is just a mini info dump from an Arab batfamily fan because I find Damian calling his siblings Akhi... adorable (for me as a native speaker watching a writer use Arab words) and, not painful, just... itchy, it URGES me to make a pptx with 300 slides and just? Talk about Arabic?
So... أخي, Akhi, Brother.
It's not incorrect. The word is used in the right place and delivers its intended meaning. Other Arab speakers might not find a problem with it. They'd feel odd like I did but will likely go "eh" and carry on. But I'm an Arabic enthusiast, so...
Like with every language with geographically widespread users, the Arabic tongue kind of- deviated from its roots. The language has naturally branched out into so many dialects I myself can't keep track of.
Arabs from different regions can understand each other. They use the same words but for different purposes and with different pronunciations.
The original root language that holds them all (Quranic Arabic) was simplified into an easier, standard version that is used for formal speeches and as a communication bridge (seeing that you can't, say, translate something to Arabic and say it's for all Arabs if you use a certain dialect. Because an Arabic dialect is an identity at this point, tell me somebody is Syrian, and I know them already)
Now, with the fun part.
See, no Arab calls any sibling of theirs Akhi, I myself would burst laughing if mine did.
Yakhoi يَخوي (nonstandard, everyday Arabic for o, brother) , maybe, if I'm calling a stranger from the streets or an offender I'm going to give a piece of my mind.
Or, hold your breaths, my brother is crying, and the lights are out and I NEED to use the tenderest, most loving, most adoring, most revering tone I could muster so he just knows he is loved and family. Y'know? This specific situation.
And other Arabs might just say, no, I use it when, I use it when, I don't use it, etc.
The point is, nobody will mention Akhi. Because it's a Standard Arabic word, a formal word, and a word used in translated texts and stories when a foreign character we don't consider part of us call their brother. It's weird, it's devoid of emotions, and it's like watching a robot trying to be emotional, but it's a translated text. That's what translated texts use, and it's fine.
It is fine, Standard Arabic has been used for stories so much that nobody questions its influence on a character's characterisation.
I'm not saying Standard Arabic shouldn't be used for story writing, quite the opposite, in fact. I'm just saying that if Arabic is used to represent an Arab, its usage should also consider an everyday Arab experience and manners.
Now to Damian.
Akhi is robotic. Damian's personality does allow him to fall under that category. If for his well refined manners and polite, formal speech.
But even the King wouldn't call his brother Akhi.
He'd call him by his name. For my community (and most, I'm sure) siblings are called by their names, and if we look up historic Quranic (Root) Arabic speakers, they, too, call their siblings by their name. Yes, even the Sultan.
If not by actual name, then either endearing or demeaning names.
Arabs LOVE endearing names, but they're dipped in a pool of honey I don't think Damian would like to dive in.
Talia, on the other hand, would most certainly call Damian Mama. Arab parents call their kids by their own titles. It's the ultimate expression of parental love of all times, in my opinion.
(Don't make Batman call him Papa, though. Pretty sure Damian would malfunction)
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Well, I said all that, but watching writers include Arabic words in his vocabulary is still sweet. Tt is not even a word, but it's such an Arab thing it's my favourite.
If only I could make subtitles of everyday Arab talk and show you, their speech is heavy with, excuse my English, word softeners, it's like they're talking in a TV drama and not the real world.
Watching Damian adopting it would be interesting :D
Oda always does this man he introduces some annoying pervert that’s supposed to be comedic relief except the comedy is just creep behavior. And just as I open my mouth about how I don’t like them, he hits me with the most tragic, heart wrenching, soul sucking back story I have ever seen. And it starts clicking, I see the self loathing behind every word they say, start thinking maybe the pervertedness is an act to keep the serious questions away. Maybe they will never act on these words because they don’t think themselves deserving of anything, much less love.
Then I have to look back and think wtf happened to me?? How did I get here? Why am I crying. Why am I ordering a poster of the pervert? When did I make a million posts about how much I love the pervert?
Jason: You became a fucking cop?! Ew.
Dick: Is that really worse than being a gang member or a terrorist?
Jason(Crime Lord, recognized publicly in several nations as a terrorist): Yeah?
I love when ACAB gets brought up in batfam fics and people dog on nightwing like this dumbass hasn’t been using the same technique since the 80s.
-the mob is bad… I’ll join them and ruin it inside out
-the cops are bad… I’ll join them and ruin the corrupt system
-spyral is bad …. I’ll join them and ruin it inside out
-the court of the owls is bad… I’ll join them and ruin it from the inside out
-deathstroke is bad …. I’ll raise his kids and ruin their relationship with him from the inside out.
-Aliens want to take over planet… this is bad… I’ll send someone to join them and ruin it from the inside out
Dick saw the BDP and went … yep the same routine I use for terrorists, spies, aliens and mobsters work.
AND YALL THINK DICK LIKES THE COPS?
Bro is just a professional cuckoo let him liveeeee
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I love seeing Robin and Brook bond over dark humor. Literally everyone else is really concerned but they’re having a blast
batfamily thought: we need to bring back where the boys really don't follow anyone else besides their dad. They can work with others and lead a team very well. But unless it's for a mission, they do not follow anyone else's orders besides Bruce or Alfred. Especially if they're a person in a position of power they have zero respect for. The boys give batman a hard time and feel safe enough to question his orders or his methods (especially Jason), but at the end of the day he's their teacher. It's just built in the respect they have for him. Everyone else, if the bats don't respect you or don't need to fake respect for you they are full chaos gremlins. The worst is Dick. Because he is full of disrespectful while he has a flirty smile on his face. It's just this air of hidden superiority Dick has. Dick has been with batman the longest, someone he considers the "best". He can count on one had the people he's met that should be considered the "best". Yet Bruce is not fully aware of the type of loyalty he inspires.
Dick, tilting his head to the side painfully slow, eyebrows ever so slightly raised: “I’m sorry. Was that…a request?”
Oliver Queen, just now realizing the stupidity of trying to give Nightwing SON OF BATMAN a direct order:
The heart pirates (Law’s crew) are not doctors?? Wdym “should we give a pill or a shot or something”?? Am I the only one that thought they were all medical professionals? Are they literally just regular people? Picking a fight with some of the most dangerous people in the sea for shits and gigs?
For some reason I truly fully believe that Kuina’s death wasn’t an accident. We know her dad was misogynistic and thought she would never become the world’s greatest swordsman. And that she was a skilled martial artist who could win fights against adults in the dojo with ease. We hear gossip amongst people at the funeral that she “fell down the storehouse steps apparently” which is just hearsay.
You expect me to believe such a talented young martial artist just slipped down the stairs and died?? No. I suspect foul play.
I refuse to accept that the canon is supposed to be an accident.
people who act like batman isn't "judge jury and executioner" because he doesn't kill people are like. genuinely so funny to me because. they're very obviously thinking of "executioner" as like. the stereotypical guy with axe who chops people heads off, and not, yknow, the literal definition of the idiom itself, which is about someone who has the ability to judge and then subsequently punish someone unilaterally. which is quite literally what batman does.
he has the ability to decide what is a "crime" to him, he is the one who decides whether people are guilty of those crimes, and he is the one who executes their punishment. the severity of the punishment doesn't matter - he is unaccountable to anyone else, and indeed is allowed to commit as many crimes as needed to reach his arbitrary ideal of "justice."
the ideal of batman is this: a man who is so fundamentally changed by an act of senseless violence that he takes it upon himself to fight back against the rot and corruption in the world. he does this not through political activism, not through ridding himself of his wealth in favor of a greater good, not through community outreach, but through an individualistic fantasy of being a hero.
and you'll say: charlie, but he does do that !!! he donates his money all the time, he funds social programs, hospitals, orphanages, gets people jobs -
and i will say this: so why don't things get better?
because here's the base of it. gotham, at its core, can't get better. no matter what bruce wayne does, there will always be more crime, more villains, more death, more people for batman to beat up in back alleys. because that's what sells.
reoffending rates don't matter in gotham, prison reform doesn't matter in gotham, what actually causes crime doesn't matter in gotham because that doesn't sell books.
and so here it is; dc has unintentionally created a world where batman can't win, but can't be wrong, and where thousands of nameless, faceless, only-created-to-die civilians must be pushed into the meat grinder that is gotham, to fuel bruce wayne's angst and vindicate his constant, tireless, noble fight against the forces of evil.
and then: a new robin, who is poor and who's parents are dead or gone because of this cycle; who is happy go-lucky and hated by editors and fans for being robin, for not being dick grayson, for being poor.
and this robin is written, unintentionally or not, to be angry at the ways in which batman's (the narrative's) idea of justice is detached from its victims. bruce seems perfectly fine to allow countless unnamed women to be at risk from garzonas in his home country, yet robin is the one who is portrayed as irrational and violent.
this robin is not detached from gotham in the way bruce wayne is: this robin is a product of gotham.
(and here's the thing. you can't punch aids. you can't fight a disease with colorful fights and nifty gadgets. and how would robin dying from aids add to batman's story; it would call into question the systemic changes that haven't been made in gotham. how does a child get aids, in batman's city?)
so robin dies, and then bruce (the narrative) spends the next couple of decades blaming it on him. it is jason's fault; he was reckless, he just ran in, he thought it was all a game. if only bruce had seen what was coming, if only he could have known that jason wasn't rich enough or smart enough or liked enough to be robin.
batman gets a little more violent, a little more self destructive. he hurts people more and almost (!!) kills a couple guys. this is bad because it's self destructive and "not who he is." it is not bad because batman should not be able to just beat people up when he's angry.
and then he gets a shiny new robin - who is all the things jason "wasn't": rich and smart and rational and he doesn't put who batman is into question. batman and robin are partners, and jason is a grave and a cautionary tale, and (crucially here) never right.
the joker kills thousands and it doesn't matter because they were written to be killed.
batman beats up thousands and it doesn't matter because they were written to be criminals.
and then jason comes back, and nothing has changed. there is a batman and a (shiny! rich!) robin and the joker kills thousands. (because it sells)
and jason is angry - he has been left unavenged - his death has meant nothing, just as willis' had, just as catherine's had, just as gloria's had, just as -
thousands. ten of thousands. hundreds of thousands. written to be killed.
but one of them gets to come back.
and he is angry - not only at the joker, but at bruce (the narrative) - because why is the joker still alive (when thousands-)
here is the thing - jason todd is right. not because the death penalty is good, not because criminals deserve to die, not because of everything he says -
but because of what he calls into question. why is the joker alive?
because he sells books.
and dc has written a masterful character, through no fault of their own, because jason knows what is wrong, and he knows who is at fault - batman. (the narrative)
so the argument that bruce can't kill because he's not judge jury and executioner; the argument that jason is a cop or that jason is insane or that jason is in the wrong here; they hold no weight.
batman can't kill the joker because the joker sells comic books.
and jason can't kill the joker because the joker sells comic books.
so he will beg and plead and grovel - he will betray everything that is himself, he will forsake his family and his city and kill himself - just so that bruce (the narrative) will let the joker die.
he was condemned to death by an audience, and after he came back he has spent his whole life looking us in the eyes and screaming, asking, pleading; why is the joker still alive?
why are thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands (the number doesn't matter, see, because they're just a number. not people. not real.) why are we expendable for his story? why did i have to die just for nothing to change?
and the answer is money. and the answer is the batman can never be wrong. and the answer is shitty writing. and the answer is -
nothing jason can ever change.
which is the worst of it all. he is a victim with no power, and no one else in the world can see it. he is raging and crying and screaming at his father and his writers and you - and it doesn't matter. jason doesn't matter. and he knows it.
bad influence
Crying that, the minute Dick and Babs get married and have a kid, Bruce is like, "Nope, I'm out, I'm a grandpa now and I'm going to be as laser focused on building my life around this as I was focused on being Batman." 0 to 100mph Granddad Bruce, absolutely no in between, I have no notes whatsoever.
Patch | She/Her | 22 | தமிழ் 🇮🇳🇺🇸 | I'm learning to draw so occasional fanart | Current Obsessions: One piece and Batfam
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