"Oh Bruce Is A Good Dad If You Think He's A Bad Dad You Don't Engage In Canon"

Nvm I’ve somehow clutched a pass I will learn nothing from this stressful lesson

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

"I have depression." - character who has been through extensive therapy.

"I feel dead inside all the time and nothing helps!" - character who does like, regular introspective thinking and is aware of the concept of mental health.

"Leave me the fuck alone I'll be fine once I get over my stupid shit." - repressed character.

"It's fine I'm just having an Empty Time. What? Yeah, empty times, you know, when everything is like bzzzzzz in your brain and you don't shower for two weeks. Why, what do you call it?" - ooooughhh now we're talkin

I just saw someone say that Tim was the only member of the batfamily who didn’t suck at math.

With the exception of Dick (acrobatics) and Cass (body language) none of the Batkids are THAT much better than the others at a certain skill

Yes Jason is a better shot

Yes Tim is a better detective

And on a technical level they’re much better

Sure

But that means that if they have a 0.001% chance of cracking a case or making a shot. There will be a noticeable difference between Tim being the character or say Damian.

Otherwise

Not particularly.

Think of each skill like a normally distributed curve okay with the mean being your average hero/olympian/hacker/genius

Right

The Batkids will be at the 96th percentile in the skill

With the exception of 1 of them being at the 99th percentile range

Unless you are writing something you can comfortably say is complex/difficult enough to warrant drawing attention to the 3% difference. It’s annoying to bring it up

I exclude Dick and Cass

Because Dicks introduction is the fact he can do something the rest of the kids can’t to the point where it’s an identifier within his own story. It’s how Tim found him, a signature only he can do.

And Cass because she is genuinely cartoonishly cracked in her own storyline and in batfamily stuff she’s borderline a mind reader

(Could also argue Jason for supernatural stuff and the all blades)

These are exceptions because yeah

If you told me Jason, Dick or Steph cracked a difficult case in a run I wouldn’t treat it as shocking information

If you told me Tim, Dick or Damian managed a tricky shot with a firearm in a dire situation (like what happens in the Grayson run) it would be interesting, surprising but like not? Shocking?

If you told me that Jason did a quadruple summersault off a building and landed on his feet I’d be confused as shit

And even WITH Dick and Cass the other kids are still FREAKISHLY good at D&Cs special skills but they both have unignorable signatures

This is a very long winded way of saying when an author simplifies a character down to

“Oh look nice flippy one”

“Smart one”

“Angry gun one”

“Pet collector”

It’s annoying because you basically ignore all the interesting overlap

Like guess what Dick literally has a habit of collecting strays (see the rabbit and 3 legged dog he lives with in his apartment in the new run)

Tim is fucking badass and is very good at dealing with explosives

Damian is canonically currently thinking of leaving the family business and no longer being a hero to maybe focus on helping people in other ways

Jason occasionally works with magic and demon bullshit

And every single one of them is a genius okay literally every single one of them could get a masters in physics, chem, bio and history in like 2 weeks flat.

Their stats are stacked

All of them know enough info to be able to do 99% of a task and yeah someone might call Tim or Dick in for detective help or Jason for muscle and restraining backup but in 99% of cases THE OTHER CHARACTERS SHOULD BE EQUALLY competent

I have 10 wips rn so here is an excerpt of one.

Dick knew once Bruce told him the story of his parent's murder, in the acerbic light of the juvenile detention hall that served as the place for their second meeting, that they were not same.

Even if Bruce believed they were.

Bruce told his story in the hushed tone of morning light. His eyes shining with the pain of memory as he detailed the moment he saw Martha Wayne, his mother die in front of him.

Dick knew as soon as Bruce uttered that final fateful sentence, a recounting of watching his mothers pearls scatter onto the blood-soaked ground, only to roll away to places he has searched time and time again and never found.

That Bruce was far-far luckier than him.

Because Bruce might have trained all around the world but Bruce was not raised by the watchful eyes of hundreds of men and women who didn't speak a shared language but still called each other family.

Bruce did not spend his time being babysat by Hala, the widower of a pearl diver who once held Dicks hands and told him, with the gentle reflection of the night sky in her eyes, tone alight with pride at her history, her life, her late husband, how she had made jewellery out of the pearls and sold them.

How her husband could not do it because you needed small, gentle hands to be able to tie a protective knot in-between each pearl as to make sure when the necklace breaks you will not lose too many if pressure causes the string to snap.

the rest of this will be on my ao3 eventually but for now~~~~~

oh look both of my writing styles in one post

On the one hand, I want to write complex, richly crafted characters and explore their psyches and what makes them tick.

On the other hand, I want giant set piece encounters where two people whack at each other with swords five hundred feet in the air, and just when it looks like one of them has won, the other guy pulls out an even bigger sword.

Baby

I feel like I made myself clear on the fact I do not like dickbabs as a ship

I love Barbara Gordon

My hatred of this ship is because Dick and Babs are stoppers for each others development

Babs is so much better with the birds of prey and her interactions with characters like Dinah lance are gold.

Her and Dick suck together. (IN MY OPINION)

And babs being with Bruce, Dick, Jason and Tim in a collection of canon and non canon works sucks not just cuz of the weird vibe but bc she is

And I am stressing this

Too good of a character for this

Shit

It’s why I don’t like when people still put Steph together with Tim

Steph is awesome

Tim is a professional gremlin

Let them stay friends

Anyway my hatred of DickBabs doesn’t mean I don’t love when these two interact I just firmly prefer it in the flirty banter of friends direction

Also and I cannot stress this enough

Don’t use my posts where I shit on their relationships to diss babs I love babs sm and she’s a great character just not for the dude they keep backtracking development on to keep together.

(I will say Tom Taylor has converted me on my distaste for what it does to babs somewhat not entirely tho I hate his Grayson characterization in general. Maybe the Dan watters run will bring me back around to this ship cuz last chapter the dickbabs was a highlight and not a detriment (cuz it used to be my favorite)

I’m fighting off Demons (an unknown virus) so here are the Bats various home remedies/ how they behave when ill

Bruce: can’t stop won’t stop moving if I die I die ig? Illness is a mindset for himself. For his kids? Give him 3 hours he’s synthesizing a cure his babies will never be sick in his presence how dare you.

Dick: makes the most bomb lentil soup and also has about 90 million metric tons of ginger tea with lemon and honey. He saved a beekeeper early on as nightwing so he gets really high quality very nice ethically sourced honey that all the Batkids keep trying to steal. He does the R&R except he’s an acrobat so R&R is doing paperwork while on coms

Jason: Lazarus pit + a childhood running around in very unsanitary environments means he’s never sick. But when he is he always just assumes this is the end for him and he won’t wake up the next day bc he everything hurts. (He has literally been ill like 4 times in his life he doesn’t know what to do here) so he just kinda finds a corner to die in like your elderly pet and he wakes up fine after a few hours and he’s always surprised.

Cass: has never been sick will never be sick

Steph: Steph is on top of her shit, she has a whole ass gallon of soup delivered, pre portioned and frozen in microwave safe containers. She also has a drawer of various vitamins, cough drops and syrups. She doesn’t have time to lay around so she tries everything to get up and at em as quick as possible. Sadly due to this she ends up with like a really weak residual cough for a few weeks even if she got 99% better after 5 days

Tim: L+ ratio + no spleen + has to be put in a sterilized room for observation if he so much as coughs

Damian: steals Dicks lentil soup, Steph’s vitamin gummies and cuddles with his pets if he knows illness wont transmit to pets. Or if he’s feeling really bad he gets very cuddly with his brothers but only Dick and Jason because they both run very warm and he must steal the warm. But also he rlly only goes to Jason when he’s delirious and in pain because he just doesn’t want the teasing. Bruce he’s a sick Damian wrapped up in a bunch of blankets with his arms around dicks neck sleeping peacefully and gets violently Jealous.

Duke: goes to doctor, takes his meds, it’s the only thing he’s normal about. His parents taught him well he’s not gonna ignore that.

I think Dick should be allowed to bite whatever DC character sexualizes him next :))))) as a treat :))))

Donna Troy cradling Dick Graysons face between her hands; I would die for you

Dick: I would die for you

Donna: I know hon, but it doesn’t mean the same thing coming from you

Dick, vaguely offended: hey!

Donna: Dickie baby, you’d die for a torn up piece or paper or something much less valuable like Bruce Wayne.

Donna: let’s face it, you dying for something/someone isn’t exactly a compliment, it means they’re breathing (optional)

Dick: …… I mean you’re not…. Wrong but i really don’t want to admit that

Donna now patting both sides of his face: dw I know you love me, even if you have a martyr complex