I often forget that a majority of the characters in my favorite stories are actually rich white kids. And then I'll get one of those tiktok slideshows about their aesthetic and I'm reeling a little because of all the rich white 16yo tiktoker energy in them. And yk what they're technically not wrong sometimes. It's just that I forgot and now I have the ick for my favorite character because irl I would avoid their vibes with a 10 foot pole.
Bruce: Why pouting?
Clark: You had a kid and you didn't tell me.
Bruce: I had plenty of kids. You need to be more specific.
Clark: You had a kid of your own, and you didn't tell me.
Bruce: Are you making differences between bio kids and adopted kids? 'Cause I have some big news for you, alien boy.
Clark: You had a son with Talia al Ghul.
Bruce: Listen, it was an accident-
Clark: Are you telling me you just happened to get Talia al Ghul pregnant?
Bruce: You knocked up Lois!
Clark: We were engaged? She's not my arch-enemy?? I didn't keep it from you???
Bruce: Hey, cut me some slacks! I was a bit shocked! I mean, how would you react if you found out to have a secret child with Lex Luthor?!
Clark: *nervous laugh*
Bruce: ???
Clark: What an odd choice of words...
(BRB gonna use this dialogue in my Superbat WIP)
Had to quickly draw this out!
Ref picture under the cut off
how the fam find out Jason's still alive
Dick, looking through old photo books: aw, it's such a shame Talia didn't tell B about you until recently Dami, I'd have loved to see photos of you as a baby
Damian: ? I can get baby photos if that is required in this family
Dick: what, how? Talia doesn't seem like the baby-book kind of woman, no offense.
Damian: She was not, however after my brother was brought out of the Lazarus pit he was given a few old cameras in an attempt to make his mind focus on something not harmful to himself and settle down. He took a lot of photos of our family during his training.
Dick:
Bruce:
Both, simultaneously: your what now?
-later-
Damian, walking into the room with an old box: Alright so I broke into his current safe house while he was working and took one of the boxes. I believe these should suffice for your 'baby books'
Bruce: hold on you broke into his- your brother lives in Gotham??? there's a trained league assassin working in this city and you didn't tell me? Damian we need to talk about your habit of withholding important infor-
Dick: Bruce.....
Bruce: -mation. what?
Dick: look at the.... photo...
Bruce, leaning over to see a photo of Jason Todd holding baby Damian up at the head of a meeting table like in the lion king, red smear on his forehead, while Ra's Al Ghul stares at them both from his seat looking Tired Of Jason's Shit™:
Damian, peering at the photo: yes, Todd got quite good with the timers on those cameras, he took many a photo holding me like that. I believe it was a special campaign designed to get on grandfather's nerves enough that he'd agree to watch the movie with us.
Bruce:
Dick:
*screaming*
bonus:
Tim: you know some of these photos are actually really good, like the angles and tones you used
Jason: you steal Robin, I steal photography.
Tim:
wally and dick doodle bc I love them and experimenting with outfits
This is the funniest batfam meets JL crack fic I've read. Nightwing joins JL, they suspect him because he's close to B and it turns into the batfam doing a home alone on the JL. It's unserious and hilarious I was crying laughing and I really needed that after all the angst I've been consuming recently
write on the wall
where is that video thats like "working class characters written by middle class writers" or something. that's what a good 60% of yall sound like when you talk about jason
Wip to this song
“My sweetheart’s piano is rat-filled and mine is infested with bugs”
I still seriously can’t draw hair so I would appreciate any advice or suggestions
Highly referencing panels below
Imo this is good writing of a flawed older sibling trying not to repeat his father's mistakes but making new ones. We see that Robins value the solidarity between robins in the form of treating each other like equals and keeping each other informed. Because they all have a deep need for personal freedom and are all control freaks to some extent. Bruce's only action to show he cared or in their eyes to punish them for a "miss", was to take away their means to "fix that miss", leading to them freaking out over a loss of control.
It's giving a child the respect and autonomy they want vs doing what is necessary for them even if they can't see it. And the biggest problem with these two options is that neither involve the adult following the rules they set. Batman will not stay back from vigilantism for the injuries a Robin would be benched for and so any rules set are inherently seen as demeaning and proof of a lack of trust in the Robin.
So I know that there's a lot of temptation to compare Bruce as Batman to Dick or Damian, and Dick as Batman to Damian, often with a "oh well obviously Bruce was meaner/Dick was nicer", but I do think they have a neat contrast that fandom often overlooks (as well as some parallels).
Robin: Year One #3
Batmatn #408
Batman and Robin #6
Dick and Bruce both will deal with whatever current threat exists, before fully helping wounded Robin, getting a verbal "I'm fine" confirmation. They clearly do care about Robin. But they also have an obligation to protect people Bruce tries to physically stop joker. Jason's not fighting Dick, but he is trying to talk him down and talk him into getting help, like he did in Battle for the Cowl. The characters also generally avoid a wounded Robin -- it's just easier to see for Bruce, because Leslie calls Bruce out on it "you're leaving (to go deal with this?)" whereas no one questions Dick leaving Damian once he's got medical care and doing his own mission to revive zombie bruce. I imagine this is partially from guilt (we do see Bruce blaming himself for Dick's close call, and Dick framing Damian as his responsibility in Battle for the Cowl) and also possible due to the whole 'batman has a job, robin's physically OK now so time to help protect people' thing.
A strong difference is after the character's get injured and treated. Bruce becomes overprotective, and continues being emotionally distant, which understandably upsets Dick. He is so overprotective he benches Dick each time he is wounded seriously, and that creates friction between them.
Robin: Year One
Batman #408
Contrast this to Dick's general lack of protectiveness. Nothing changes when Damian gets wounded as Robin. Which works well (emotionally) for Damian and it works for the conventions of the genre.
Dick is generally not portrayed as very emotionally overprotective when Damian is injured, and when Damian is captured, he often expresses more verbal concern for the people who captured Damian than Damian himself.
Batman and Robin #9 - Damian, with a new metal spine, got thrown off a building by the zombie batman dick accidentally revived.
Batman and Robin #13
Detective comics annual #11
I should note: I think it would be uncharitable to assume that Dick expressing more verbal concern that Damian will hurt the supervillains who have him kidnapped means Dick doesn't care about Damian. We see in Batman and Robin some of Dick being worried when Damian is shot, and we see Dick telling Azrael they need to find a quicker way to get to Damian when Azrael is talking about how to find the guys who took him. And also, you know. I just don't think Dick would care more about the supervillains that Damian. But Damian is regarded as a tough kid, he'll be fine no matter what, and he represents a threat to other people (interestingly, something I've seen fans accuse... Bruce of doing to damian? Even though Bruce was much more protective and wasn't worried about Damian killing Nobody when Damian was going with Nobody, or Damian killing the Saturn Club guys when Damian let himself by kidnapped by the Saturn club guys to find civilians to rescue)
But I am analyzing here the actions he does and the words that he says, and what the writer dedicates panel time to. I think it's interesting that Bruce and Dick's similarities with regards to Robin getting injured involve emotionally removing themselves from the situation and focusing on cases, and then their differences are in the follow up. Dick often maintains a status quo, which is satisfying to the Robin character (he does not feel like he's being fired or judged) and fits with the conventions of the genre. Bruce often becomes overprotective to a degree where the Robin character feels estranged from him, and is excluded, resulting in alienation from robin and coming across as the "bad guy".
I find it very interesting that Dick avoids repeating mistakes of the past that Bruce made (becoming overprotective of Robin to an alienating degree and firing him) by doing things that would be read as callous or uncaring to the reader if he wasn't Dick, I guess.
P.S. I know some people say this is why they regard Morrison's Dick as OOC, but I didn't have any place to fit that acknowledgement in the above paragraphs, but I think it's important to note that this was not just Morrison's Dick. In general Dick as Batman era was way different than Nightwing Rebirth era Dick or even post 2011 Dick.
Patch | She/Her | 22 | தமிழ் 🇮🇳🇺🇸 | I'm learning to draw so occasional fanart | Current Obsessions: One piece and Batfam
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