they're not acc for sale sry

[babyshoesforsale]

on tim leaving the role of robin:

i absolutely understand the pov that it's a bit ooc. but i also think that two of the main reasons tim drake became robin were to fill his empty life and to preserve something he loved and deemed important. basically, being robin was a means to an end goal. neither of those things, neither of his goals, are in jeopardy anymore, at least not in the way that being robin would fix. we've seen different versions of tim pivot when his goals changed before, so in that way, i don't think this is ignorance of his character. it also shows how his reasons for being a vigilante (outside of fighting the good fight, which is obv one of the main ones for every bat) are different from Bruce. Where Batman is Bruce's way to cope with grief, guilt and trauma, Robin was Tim's way of coping with the lonely uncertainty or life and morality (which he clung to the mission as a way to defend against). Now, in a more stabilized time, it isn't completely ridiculous for Tim to change the end goals of his life.

REMEMBER LAST TIME HE QUIT BEING ROBIN? EVERYONE DIED AND TIM DRAKE GOT A YEAR FROM HELL THAT RESULTED IN A WHOLE LOT OF CHARACTER WORK AND THE POTENTIAL FOR REALLY INTERESTING GROWTH. if bernard is evil or gets slimed or something it'll kickstart a new era of tim drake that we all have been asking for for forever. realistically, tim can't stay away from vigilantism for long. he's tim drake. i doubt that's what matt (or any future writer) has planned for him. the possibility of a "normal life" being thrown off the table and shattering to pieces could reaffirm this idea we like to attach to tim, this idea that he's predisposed to the bat life, that his purpose lies in the work and mission. and in the process of rebuilding that purpose/ identity, there's a lot of room for growth and adjustment to his character.

a new version of the batman and robin dynamic between bruce and damian could be interesting if matt locks in and quits the mild character regression in his portrayal of damian.

obv im sad we don't get more of tim's robin for the foreseeable future but i'm not super angry about this turn of events.

[babyshoesforsale]

fanboy!timdrake au where jason doesn't die so tim never becomes robin so instead he grows up and becomes the most kickass detective like ever so that he can maybe work with the batman. jim gordon regards him highly harvey bullock begrudgingly respects him but thinks hes too trusting of the bat. barbara knows him and brings him up to bruce all the time until bruce finally agrees to drop in and talk to him. tim is so ecstatic he almost forgets to act like he doesn't know batman is bruce wayne. batman becomes overly fond (and almost paternal) of the young detective.

[babyshoesforsale]

in my ideal world barb stayed oracle and cass stayed batgirl and steph became some third separate thing (not spoiler or batgirl or robin. her own thing.)

imo barbara's writing has always had to problem of changing to suit the needs of bruce or dick, and oracle was cool because of what it showed about her character. not just rising back up after getting shot by the joker, but filling out such an important and far reaching role. oracle didn't just assist batman, she was integral to nearly the entire superhero community. plus, shes also a grown woman now, and has been for a while, so it makes sense for her to not be "batgirl" anymore.

i like cass as batgirl not only bc i adore her batgirl (2000) run but also because as a character i feel like she represents exactly what batgirl is supposed to represent w/o it hindering her character. since batgirl is a legacy, i really like how she inherited it from barbara considering their maternal/ mentor-mentee relationship. she's also batman's daughter legally and in that she adopted his mission and code, so having the symbol tied to her doesn't feel diminishing at all. i feel like on cass the role of batgirl, being not a sidekick but a sort of representation of how the symbol of the Bat has extended past bruce himself, is most realized. (i rly dont mind black bat either, esp for when she was operating out of gotham or maybe for when she's older and "girl" doesn't fit anymore. idk if this is a problem for anyone else but i js dont like "girl" on a grown woman.)

and finally steph. i liked spoiler when she was first starting out and became a vigilante specifically to "spoil" her father's plans, but now i feel like her motivations and work as a vigilante extend so much further than that. i don't like robin for steph because bruce was awful with her and because robin is distinctly batman's sidekick and i don't think she functions well as that. and she wasn't a bad batgirl, but 1. her motivations for vigilantism isn't as rooted in the Bat symbol. she picked it up on her own. and 2. she also didn't really inherit the name from barbara, who fully disapproved of her taking up the mantle at first. i think creating a whole new identity for herself would be a good representation of her character arc, growing out of being spoiler and not really fitting as a legacy character (robin or batgirl).

[babyshoesforsale]

dick grayson suffers from eldest daughter syndrome in that he will always feel the weight of the things he did not do and cassandra cain suffers from eldest daughter syndrome in that she will always feel the weight of the things that she did, and they are the same in that they will forever strive to make up for their perceived failures, will forever chase the high of feeling like they're finally doing the right thing.

[babyshoesforsale]

the allure of jason todd is that in every universe no matter who he is or what he does he will always die because the narrative requires it. he's tragic in such a deeply unavoidable way and for the rest of his life he will have to cope with the fact that he was never going to survive.

the allure of tim drake is that none of it needed to happen to him at all. but, in every universe, he chooses it anyway, so, maybe, in a way, the tragedies that follow are equally unavoidable. not because of the narrative, but because of who he is.

[babyshoesforsale]

sometimes i forget how weird dick grayson's lore gets. like we all remember the ric and batman eras but also remember when he faked his death and was like. a super spy.

[babyshoesforsale]

sometimes damian misses his mother the way you miss the winter chill when it's scorching hot outside. sometimes damian looks at his oldest scars and remembers talia's hands wiping the blood from them instead of the blades that created them. sometimes damian watches lois fuss over jon and wonders what talia might've been like if she was his mother without also being ra's al ghul's daughter.

he doesn't talk about it. he thinks bruce understands anyway.

[babyshoesforsale]

"I'm sorry. I tried to tear time apart for you..." oh my fucking god

[babyshoesforsale]

a dick grayson who went from being no less than ten feet away from someone who loves him all the time to alone in a huge mansion. who swings on the chandeliers and cries when they break- not because he's hurt or because he feels bad but because no one's around to hear the sound of it and check on him. a dick grayson who's a disruption at school and a disruption at home. a dick grayson who picks fights with bruce because he's not really sure if the man's trying to be his father at all. (a dick grayson who was a ward for longer than he was a son)

a jason todd who's quiet and prickly at first. a jason todd who doesn't accept any gifts from bruce for a long time. a jason todd who sleeps on the floor and hides food he snuck from the pantry in his closet. a jason todd who went from having nothing to having more than anyone could imagine. a jason todd who just can't believe he gets to go to school. a jason todd who slowly starts laughing and chatting and smiling more. (a jason todd who had finally eased out of survival mode when he learns that life is lost a lot faster than it is won.)

a tim drake who was hired, not taken in. a tim drake who was prepared to be a partner and not a son. a tim drake who got attached anyway. a tim drake with fluctuating grades and friends who think he secretly hates them. a tim drake who had two parents that tried their best at loving him until he didn't any more. a tim drake who had everything and then had nothing. a tim drake who forced himself to be an exception. a tim drake who just can't believe Dick Grayson is becoming his brother. a tim drake who must be asked to stay. (a tim drake who grows roots in the concrete.)

a cassandra cain who eats off bruce's dinner plate sometimes. a cassandra cain who squeezes into the crevices of the manor to wait for someone to find her. a cassandra cain who leaves and comes back without ever telling anyone where she went. a cassandra cain who cries sometimes without knowing why. a cassandra cain who forces out a goodnight every night whether someone's there to hear it or not. a cassandra cain who speaks to her classmates in movie quotes. a cassandra cain who sneaks into Bruce's room sometimes to sleep at the foot of his bed. (a cassandra cain who has to relearn her own name.)

a duke thomas who knew batman before he ever knew bruce. a duke thomas who doesn't think he'll ever consider bruce his dad. a duke thomas who laughs and smiles easy and only cries when no one else is around. a duke thomas who wanders the manor's grounds and stares at the sun until it threatens to blind him. a duke thomas who sometimes sees his parents in a way that has nothing to do with his powers. a duke thomas who indulges his friends' questions about billionare bruce wayne and laughs when they say he's lucky. (a duke thomas who had a life and isn't sure what to do with this one.)

a damian wayne who never sits with his back to the doorway. a damian wayne who stays in his room until it's time to patrol. a damian wayne who misses his mother sometimes. a damian wayne who thrashes at any sign of affection. a damian wayne who sits at the opposite end of the table from bruce. a damian wayne who speaks lazy arabic to the houseplants. a damian wayne who polishes his sword when he's upset. a damian wayne who cried the first time bruce hugged him. (a damian wayne who must learn what it means to be loved as a son.)

[babyshoesforsale]

ill be explaining the batfam to someone and i'll get to jason todd and i have to preface it every time with "listen, this is who the character is in CONCEPT. he's acc not real because he changes every freaking run and has never had a consistent characterization, not even as robin." and "jason todd is one of my faves in CONCEPT. i actually hate reading him a lot of the time" and then they look me dead in the eye and ask for fucking recs and i have to painstakingly rack my brain only to come up w under the red hood and lost days. someone just come and shoot me already.

[babyshoesforsale]

dick and bruce are mother daughter angst

and jason and bruce are father son angst

and tim and bruce are father daughter angst

and damian and bruce are mother son angst

and no i will not elaborate.

[babyshoesforsale]

every so often i think about that set of panels where dick tells damian that he thought about adopting him, and i think about how they are father and son and brother the way bruce and dick are father and son and brother. and i think about how dick was damian's batman. and i think about how batman was never the good father that bruce might have been, not to dick. and i think that maybe in another universe where batman and bruce and robin and son weren't so viciously intertwined dick could have had damian as a son and a robin and they could stop missing each other like phantom limbs.

[babyshoesforsale]

saw a post that said dick would absolutely tear up beatsaber. this is me adding that damian would absolutely almost walk off a building playing pokemon go.

[babyshoesforsale]

i think it'd be kinda fun if bruce "fired" a, like, twenty year old tim, who clearly has the potential to be so much more than robin, so he can go on his own little journey across the world the way bruce did when he was becoming batman. and tim can be all angsty about it and he has to do his coming of age thing. and maybe the og young justice squad can pop in and out of the story and they can also be maturing. and maybe he can have a real arch-nemesis, and maybe he can save the world using the detective skills he's known for, and maybe we can get an actually good suit and mantle for him that isn't that ugly ass "drake" costume or red robin. idk i js think it'd be cool.

[babyshoesforsale]

peak timkon to me is when tim's been in love w kon for years so now being in unrequited love w him is as simple as breathing and- like a bat- he's also gotten really good at hiding and compartmentalizing it

meanwhile kon has just realized his feelings and is desperately looking for hints that tim could possibly feel the same way about him and is losing his fucking mind at every little crumb tim lets slip

[babyshoesforsale]

stephanie brown i love you i love your suit i love your humor i love how you just go for it every time i love how you make space for yourself i love how your thirst for approval never stamps out your ruthless independence i love how you come back after every misstep i love how you meet the eyes of anyone that looks down on you.

if stephanie brown has no fans im dead !! so tired of people sidelining her for the wayne boys she deserves more love and appreciation. her character growth is so beautiful and her role in the batfam is so important.

[babyshoesforsale]

so obsessed w the robins and their graduation gowns wdym dick heard a kryptonian legend and decided to name himself after him and dress in blue because he didn't want to be batman, he didn't want to be fear he wanted to be hope and wdym jason came back and stole the name red hood from the joker, becoming a walking reminder of what was lost and destroyed and what came back with new morals and a chip on his shoulder and wdym tim got thrown out of the role he'd shaped himself for, another tick on his growing list of griefs, and chose a mantle that was already tarnished, trading the weight of expectation for the weight of solitude. it's like a coming of age. it's growing pains. they're becoming their own men and at some point they looked in the mirror and stopped being surprised at the absence of an R on their chests.