This is my official Batfam Magical Girl AU Masterpost (everyone clapped)
(Updated 6/26/25)
Iâm going to do a brief overview and then go into more details for those interested.
Bruce being from old money (and apparently being connected to Camelot) inherited a mysterious mineral with unknown properties. In its raw form itâs very unassuming, but when cut like gemstones and added to accessories it can be harnessed into a tool. By altering the mineral into a wearable item it allows the magic within to be channeled. The magic of the mineral connects with its wielder to create an outfit and (typically) a weapon. These outfits do not grant the wearer special abilities outside of the transformation and the weapon, but when worn the wearer is granted (what is basically) hammerspace and a nearly impenetrable outfit. The uniform granted is not something they can alter the appearance of but will change gradually overtime to reflect how the wielder has grown.
This mineral will henceforth be known as Arcanium. It operates on Kryptonite logic in that itâsâ allegedlyâ super rare but also shows up whenever the plot needs it. (Iâm aware it shares a name with a card game, but I wanted my Kryptonite spoof)
Martha Wayne unknowingly started the cycle by turningâ what she thought was a rare gemstoneâ into a brooch. She died shortly after having it made and Alfred held onto it in her memory. Like canon Bruce goes on his journey of self-exploration to train. When he comes back he enacts his plan the way he does in Batman: Year One, where he goes out in basically just make-up, and it goes poorly. He wanders his manor trying to formulate a strategy and is drawn to his parentâs room and finds his motherâs brooch. Cue the first magical girl transformation. From there he alters the brooch to fit his bat aesthetic and the Batman Brooch is born.
Dick comes into his life the same way as canon. Bruce takes him in as a ward, Dick tries to track down Zucco on his own, etc. Bruce decides to use the other raw sample of Arcanium to turn into a second magical artifact. He lets Dick pick the theme, and thus the Robin Pendant is born. The rest is history.
(Before I continue I want to warn that Iâm making shit up as I go, so some of this is subject to change as I move forward.)
The Robin Pendant is passed down from Robin to Robin. Each Robin got their own unique look while using it. Following canon, Dick and Bruce have their falling out and Dick gives up the Robin Pendant in a moment of anger. In this au I think Dick, not having the pendant to fall back on, tries to lead a vigilante-free life, but of course falls back into it. During a fight he somehow manages to stumble across Arcanium in its raw form. Recognizing it he takes it with him. Like Nightwing: Year One he has his conversation with Superman and decides to become his own hero. Using his knowledge of Arcanium from his years with Bruce he creates his own magical artifact and becomes Nightwing.
This is a good place to interject that Iâm not changing any of their hero names. I was asked about it a couple times due to the caption, âRed Bow & Sailor Nightwingâ on my Dick and Jason designs. It was just a silly caption, because I didnât want to simply state âJason and Dick Magical Girl au.â But being serious, I donât really see a reason to change their names, with the exception of maybe Red Hood, seeing as I didnât give him a red hood. My au operates on Sailor Moon logic where despite the lack of masks no one recognizes them, and itâs just vaguely explained by magic. I think it would be funny if Bruce chose to wear a mask anyway because heâs that paranoid, but weâll see when I actually design him. Anyway point is Red Hood is lacking a red hood, maybe he secretly has a red hood on his jacket or maybe he really does go by Red Bow, Iâll leave that up to interpretation.
Arcanium does not just accidentally appear. At the end of the day itâs still a mineral and itâs not sentient, but the magic has an element of âthe wand chooses the user.â Itâs not so much a âchosen one thing,â so much as the magic can sense intention. It doesnât care about the morality of the user, the magic is more seeking a symbiotic connection. (Meaning yes rogues can in fact wield artifacts.) Simply put, it wants a host that will be able to wield it. In its raw form the magic is dormant but it seeks to be⌠not dormant, so when it finds those who actually have the potential to create an artifact and use it, it reveals itself. It was not a coincidence that Martha had the inclination to have the brooch made, it was not a coincidence that Bruce was drawn to his parentâs room, and it was not a coincidence that Dick found Arcanium in the alleyway.
Each of the Bats have their origin moments with their own magical artifacts. I donât have the whole timeline down, but I will say there was a lot of drama between Tim and Damian, because Tim was forced to hand over the pendant. Even though he technically relinquished it, emotionally the connection wasnât severed. No one was sure if the transition would work, but Arcanium responds to whoever needs it more and therefore who will use it more. Like canon, Tim is having an awful time during that era. On top of all of it heâs had his title stripped from him and he canât even argue because if it wasnât the right move the pendant wouldnât have responded to Damian. Dick tries to comfort him by telling him that Arcanium will appear for him when heâs ready, but Tim is furious and impatient. So like a well-adjusted person he decides heâs going to engineer his own magical artifact artificially. It goes as well as his attempt to clone Kon does. Itâs not until Tim starts to get back on his feet that Arcanium presents itself to him. My thinking is that while Arcanium finds its users when they need it most, Timâs case is abnormal. His acquisition of the pendant was unconventional from the start since he showed up and demanded to take on the Robin role. Arcanium is drawn to individuals who will actually use its properties. Tim tends to rely more on his own detective work, which renders the pendantâs properties pretty moot. Especially when heâs going off the deep end, he becomes a hermit meaning a) he wouldnât really need/use Arcaniumâs properties and b) he inadvertently limited his own chances of stumbling across it âin the wild.â
In a similar vein I believe Barbaraâs journey is abnormal in that she forged her own Batgirl artifact that operates a little differently than the others, seeing as she made it without Bruceâs influence. After the accident she shelved it, maybe she passed it down to Cass, but eventually she gets it back. She created the Oracle identity without it, and for a long time the Batgirl artifact is something she avoids using, until she gets the idea to combine it with her computer to create a magic computer⌠sort of. She gets a uniform that is basically connected to the computer.
Going back to Damian needing the Robin Pendant more, its reaction to his acquisition was unique. As I mentioned previously the suits typically provide a weapon, well Damian is the exception. Unlike all the other Robinâs Damian didnât need more weapons in his life, what he needed was guidance. For the first time the pendant granted Damian a magical animal guardian, which is how he gets Alfred the Cat in this au. Despite being an animal lover Damian is extremely pissed at this development. He wanted dual swords or a scarier animal at least. He canât formally communicate with Alfred the Cat but he understands him intrinsically, though Alfred the Cat seems to be able to understand human speech somewhat. Only Damian seems to be able to truly understand Alfred the Cat. (Cue the antics of his siblings trying to figure out what the cat means or trying to control him in any capacity.) Besides being an animal, Alfred the Cat is also unique in that he doesnât dissipate when Damian isnât in uniform the way that the weapons do. Like the weapons he can be summoned by the pendant, but he seems to have existed prior to the pendantâs creation. (Iâm toying with the idea that while in uniform, the cat would also get some sort of uniform.)
Before I get into Duke and his abnormalities, I want to address the Speedsters in this au. Itâll make sense after.
So the Flash. I want to say I donât know if I will get around to creating full designs for them. I do have plans for Bart and maybe Wally, but I have determined how I want their mechanics to operate in the context of the au. Not all the heroes in this au are âmagical girls,â in fact Iâve made the executive decision that you have to be human to wield an artifact. Arcanium may have magic in it, but it doesnât grant its user magical abilities beyond the uniform itself. The speedsters retain their canon origins, hit by lighting blah blah blah, only with one key difference: they had Arcanium on them when they were hit. Instead of engineering an artifact Arcanium fused with their bodies granting them powers. I want to keep the magic transformation aspect (because itâs not a magical girl au without it), so instead of using a physical artifact as a channel for their powers, itâs instead the act of transforming that serves as a gateway to their speed abilities.
To me it was always important to maintain Batmanâs identity of not having super powers and having to rely on engineering, which is why the Batfam have to physically build their artifacts. In a similar way I wanted to retain the integrity of the Flashâs identity of being meta but also still human. Which brings me back to Duke. I know in canon that Duke inherited his abilities, but for the sake of the au Iâve decide that he either had an accident when he was young in which traces of Arcanium fused with him or his parents had it in them and he inherited it from them, but regardless itâs less potent, but operates similar to the Speedsters. For years he couldnât fully transform or use his powers and it wasnât untilâ with Bruceâs guidanceâ he was able to create an artifact that allowed him to channel his abilities and transform. Even though he is a meta I wanted him to still have some of those Batfam qualities in there.
But what about the Superfam? Theyâre not human so how do their transformations work? The answer is simple: Theyâre not âmagical girls.â At least not real ones, theyâre faking. Theyâre not human (Kon and Jon are technically half human but they still get their abilities from their Kryptonian DNA), and thus cannot forge a connection with Arcanium. Truthfully Iâm about to get sillyâ even sillier than this au already isâ but I have decided that Clark is a fake artifact wielder. I like the idea that Batman has been operating longer than Superman has, so when Clark decided to become a hero in his own right his only example of how to style himself was from the bat themed vigilante, who might as well be a cryptid, operating out of Gotham. Only blurry pictures of him existed, so Clark designed his outfit based on his Kryptonian origins and Batmanâs aesthetics. He had no idea about the existence of Arcanium or how it worked. This is also why Konâs design looks so much like his canon outfit with a few magical girl elements (and definitely not because I think the lines in his canon suit already lend themselves well to a magical girl aesthetic and didnât want to change much). Later when he gets to know Batman more he learns about the transformations, to which he panics and invents his own transformation using Kryptonian tech (ex: MAWSâs transformation). For years Bruce goes crazy trying to figure out Arcaniumâs effects on aliens and if it grants them abilities on top of the ones theyâre born with, and if Clark has plans to use it as a weapon, and how he managed to forge the connection in the first placeâ Clark comes clean as a fake once they reveal their identities to each other.
Side tangent but I find it hilarious that Green Lanterns areâ by technicalityâ already âmagical girls,â considering theyâre granted magical accessories that give them powers and transform their clothing. Hal is very clear with the JL that he is nothing like Batman and constantly feels the need to assert that he is not a magical artifact wielder. The non-human members of the team still lump them together anyway.
Things I havenât figured out:
- what each of the batfamâs weapons are
- what each of the magical artifacts are
- what to refer to magical artifact wielders as
Stepping outside the canon(?) lore of the au for a minute, obviously Iâm redesigning DC characters using inspiration from a genre, because thatâs what âmagical girlâ is. Itâs a genre. This is why I refer to it in quotes and donât call them magical boys, because I am always referring to it as a genre, which isnât a gendered thing. However, in universe they wouldnât call themselves magical anything, the same way the characters of Sailor Moon donât refer to themselves as magical girls, but rather Sailor Scouts. As of right now Iâm sort of just referring to them as artifact wielders, but I feel like Bruce would come up with a better name. On a similar note, throughout this whole thing Iâve been referring to Arcanium in itâs wearable state as an artifact. I donât know if thatâs the best term, but I canât think of anything better for the generalized form of Arcanium outside of itâs raw state. For now I guess it will be âartifactsâ and âartifact wielders.â
- how the wonderfam fits into this
I really canât think of a reason why Wonder Woman would be a âmagical girlâ in this au. She was born with abilities, sheâs not human, and I canât see her altering her uniform to match the aesthetic. A transformation would just be a waste of time for her. I could to see maybe Cassie or Donna wanting to match with their respective teams, and perhaps maybe thatâs why they would alter their uniforms? All I know is I want see Tim, Kon, Bart and Cassie as a matching âmagical girl set.â
Fin⌠for now.
[Iâm just going to put this here preemptively, because Iâve gotten messages about turning my au into fics or tiktok skits. Youâre free to use this lore HOWEVER you MUST credit me not just for the designs but for the creation of the lore. Iâve put a lot of time and thought into this and I love that people love it, so I just ask for recognition. If you want to make something thatâs inspired by my designs or loosely based on my au, just a simple credit for the inspiration is fine. Youâre free to change things this is just how my own au operates. Regardless I would prefer to be tagged so that people can find me but also because Iâd love to see otherâs work.]
This isnât to bash LWJâs character but I donât think heâs as woke as people think he is đđ
LWJâs goal was to protect WWX and he never really wavers from that goal⌠he may understand WWXâs actions better but he still asked WWX to leave, to give up and come back to Gusu with him. WWX is the one who martyrs himself. LWJ isnât even really involved in any of the politics. The most he does is save Wen Yuan, which Iâm not gonna argue was purely because he was connected directly to WWX but it wasnât NOT that either. Hell, JGY did more to help improve their community.ďżź
Would LWJ have protected the Wens if WWX wasnât involved? Truthfully, did he ever protect the Wens? What exactly does LWJ actually do to fight the corruption of the cultivation world?
i donât fully agree with that youtuberâs video thatâs currently going around the genshin community but i feel like people are being purposely obtuse about it as well
mauvika and natlan as a whole faced a lot of criticism when it came out and that criticismed hasnât vanished
having a âplus sizedâ character (by genshin standards) and then making her a cow who eats constantly and sits on people to attack themâŚ. offensive to say the least
i thought âweâ all agreed the female characters had poor writing and were sexualized to hell and back
sigewinneâs design and writing is weird
and sure shitting on all the female characters while praising the male characters is very hypocritical but also the male characters are generally less sexualized and get more variety in their characterization
personally i think she mightâve not vocalized her complaints as well as she couldâve but why are we pretending that her criticisms arenât already well known things??
it continues to be hotter than hell in my apartment and thus I continue to ponder bathing suits
anyway just a silly hc but I like the idea that SY wasnât very feminine or concerned with fashion in her previous life and so when she tries to style herself like SQQ she opts for more cutesy looks because thatâs what she automatically associates with femininity while SJ would actually prioritize class and elegance
I love the idea that Shen Yuan dresses/styles himself how he thinks Shen Qingqiu would dress but he misses the mark in a bunch of little ways.
Like for instance, he assumes because Shen Qingqiu is a high ranking cultivator from a scholarly peak he dresses very fancy; everyday in the finest guanâs, the most layers, lots of flowing organza. When in reality Shen Jiu was more practical, more streamlined, pristine but not ostentatious. His hair is pinned up tightly so as to not get in his face, versus Shen Yuan who purposely lets strands frame his face, partly because he initially had trouble styling his own hair and partly because he thinks it makes him look more ethereal.
Iâm not sure they would wear make up daily but if/when they did Shen Jiu would wear eyeliner under his eyes, while Shen Yuan finds the eyeliner in his room and assumes it would be worn in more of a winged fashion because thatâs just how heâs used to seeing eyeliner worn. Shen Jiu might wear (the xianxia version) of concealer to cover eye bags. Shen Yuan would never even think to cover eye bags⌠also he sleeps enough. Shen Jiu would always wear a bindi and Shen Yuan would slip up and forget.
Shen Jiu looking at Shen Yuan: Whatâs the occasion?
Shen Yuan in the nicest hanfu Shen Jiu owns: TuesdayâŚ.
In my head over the years Shen Yuan would slowly get less extravagant, choosing comfort over impact as his goals change. I see him as someone who was never particularly fashionable or concerned with fashion outside of not standing out too much. So as heâs allowed to become more like himself and less like Shen Qingqiu, comfort would be his main goal once again. Heâd wear less layers, looser fitting things, and perhapsâ in the privacy of his own homeâ things that more closely resemble the things he wouldâve worn previously. Overall, wearing simpler clothes yet straying even further away from Shen Jiuâs image.
Shen Jiu would never be caught âhalf dressedâ or in âpeasantâs clothing.â Because at the end of the day he still had an image to maintain, and a desperate need to show his social status. Something Shen Yuan wouldnât ever sympathize with seeing as he grew up with money.
I love the idea that Shen Yuan dresses/styles himself how he thinks Shen Qingqiu would dress but he misses the mark in a bunch of little ways.
Like for instance, he assumes because Shen Qingqiu is a high ranking cultivator from a scholarly peak he dresses very fancy; everyday in the finest guanâs, the most layers, lots of flowing organza. When in reality Shen Jiu was more practical, more streamlined, pristine but not ostentatious. His hair is pinned up tightly so as to not get in his face, versus Shen Yuan who purposely lets strands frame his face, partly because he initially had trouble styling his own hair and partly because he thinks it makes him look more ethereal.
Iâm not sure they would wear make up daily but if/when they did Shen Jiu would wear eyeliner under his eyes, while Shen Yuan finds the eyeliner in his room and assumes it would be worn in more of a winged fashion because thatâs just how heâs used to seeing eyeliner worn. Shen Jiu might wear (the xianxia version) of concealer to cover eye bags. Shen Yuan would never even think to cover eye bags⌠also he sleeps enough. Shen Jiu would always wear a bindi and Shen Yuan would slip up and forget.
Shen Jiu looking at Shen Yuan: Whatâs the occasion?
Shen Yuan in the nicest hanfu Shen Jiu owns: TuesdayâŚ.
So a few years ago I had this idea where SY introduces DnD to QJP as "strategy training" and SQH ends up coming over every week or so to be the DM. (Ofc all of the scenarios are written by SQH) (under SY's supervision bc you can't trust that man) and SY helps with monster-related stuff and convincing YQY to let SQH spend more time outside of An Ding Peak (or smth idk)
Anyway 3 years later here's a short comic inspired by this idea
(MF plays the wizard, NYY the barbarian, and LBH the paladin)
Meet Master Shen's loyal and trustworthy Watchful Eye!!! Reliable as always, Liu-shidi đ
I had sm fun figuring out a design for Witch!LQG and went with something sort of prince/knight inspired, since he's always given me that vibe in canon. Also an excuse for me to indulge in liushen crumbs!!!
Him and his sister are from a very established witch family and lived in the Great Hall for some time, until he got sick of it and left to go adventuring. He signed up to be SQQ's watchful eye after learning that he suddenly wants to move his atelier outside of the great hall, thinking he's up to no good (LQG still believes SQQ is SJ at this point). Little does he know that the SQQ he now lives with acts so different from the one in his childhood and unexpectedly becomes fond of him (as all watchful eyes do with the masters they protect, anyways)
It took him a while to warm up to SQQ's apprentices, though him and Binghe do not get along at all (how dare he get so close with shizun). They often get into petty squabbles which end up with both of them getting scolded by SQQ đ
crazy how much mxtx fucking knocked it out of the park with Luo Binghe. her first book, and he's perfect. my bpd princess who has committed every crime and has also done nothing wrong. he's incredibly cool and badass and is a pathetic crybaby. he's genuinely terrifying at times and also has the vibes of a sopping wet puppy abandoned in the rain. he's the most beautiful man alive and yet no one wants him except his husband who has been completely insane about him since before they even met. he took care of his shizun's corpse for five years and didn't correct anybody when they thought he was fucking it, when the reality was he was tenderly embracing it nonsexually to feed it qi, which is somehow weirder. he tried to blow this whole place up because he thought he would always be rejected. he's the narrative's favorite and this is not a good thing. he's bad at kissing and worse at sex and his dick is cartoonishly large. I Love Him.
people getting mad at bigger artists for not attacking enough/ not doing revenges/ only drawing their friends (who happen to be other large creators) ocâs is really dumb
this is an art gifting game not an art trade event these big creators owe you nothing also they prob have jobs
coming up with bs reasons to hate on them just bc you know itâs selfish to come out and say âi want big creators to draw my ocsâ is dumb and all it accomplishes is making you look immature
earlier i stumbled across this person who was getting negative anon messages on their strawpage and they were complaining bc they thought they had blocked that person but i clicked into the message to read what this person was saying andâŚ.. i straight up agreed with the criticism of mxtxâs writing đđ (they lost me at the end bc they started talking about white saviorism but the core of their argument was something iâve been saying for yrs)
like ok itâs never cool to be sending people hate or repeated negative content esp when theyâve already expressed how they feel on a topic but omg awkward
my least fav type of tweet is what i like to call the lampshading tweet where people will say something purposely inflammatory (usually a call out or criticism) that isnât really the heart of their issue, rather just something they cherry picked to be mad at bc theyâre aware that the thing theyâre actually upset about is dumb/immature/selfish/etc
bonus points for if they then try to backtrack in the comments bc ppl point out that their point is weak at best
