Bernard Dowd & Tim Drake: Robin Analysis Masterpost
Oh god, I've made so many of these I need a central listing. Next I'm going to make a video essay or something. Help
Here's a list of posts I've made about Bernard Dowd and the Tim Drake x Bernard Dowd ship, usually about his appearances in Batman Urban Legends and Tim Drake: Robin! I'll throw a little descriptor in, too. They're sorted in (mostly) chronological order of posting. Hopefully these will be useful touchpoints for people looking to do fic or something????
Bernard Dowd and the Art of Recontextualization
A general overview of the writing sleight of hand used in Urban Legends and TD:R to characterize Bernard and reward rereading the run with a new eye.
The Continuity of Bernard Dowd
A more focused exploration of how Bernard's scenes in the 2000s, which didn't have much to them, were retroactively given depth because of the TD:R run's characterization choices.
"Does He Know, Chat?" - The Conflict of Timbern
After writing a lot about Just Bernard, I zoom out here to talk about how TD:R's central conflict revolves around both Tim and Bernard's perceptions and misunderstandings about each other, which takes a reread and the context that the run was prematurely cancelled to really understand.
The Conflict of Timbern: More Thoughts
I go a bit more into the signposting of the conflict in the post above and talk about how the narrative foreshadowing in the existing issues gives us hints of what was to be in the Timbern dynamic before the run was cancelled.
Bernard as Mirror to Early Tim
A shorter post pointing out a really cool aspect of Bernard's intro and subsequent characterization - that he mirrors the motivations of Tim in his original run origin story, but towards modern Tim himself.
the Coin Flip brainworm has yet to die. this wasnt even a commission i just cant stop thinking about it. @chronicdelusionistsart you need to pay for your crimes
"I, uh," Bernard says. Or, rather, fails to say. Tim's eyes are so blue, and so striking, and kind of hypnotic. He feels like his soul is being laid bare.
"I've meant to ask," Tim says, slowly. "You've said a lot of things, and…"
Bernard's cheeks are burning.
"…I don't always know when you're joking about things…"
Tim's eyes flick down to Bernard's lips.
"And I think that… you, um…"
This is dangerous, he thinks, over and over, but Killer Croc couldn't pry him from where he is right now with a crowbar, scant inches from Tim's face. Something's building, taut as a wire between them. He wants to lean forward and kiss him. He wants to tell him everything. He wants Tim to figure him out. He wants -
Beep-beep-beep.
Just finished Sol Cesto, an indie dungeon crawling roguelite! The general conceit, for those who don't know it, is that you manage your HP and chip away progress in the dungeon by landing on random squares in one of several rows. Definitely more fun in practice than it sounds on paper lol. It sucked me in so bad I had to take a break for my wrist
I'm not going to spoil things per se, but I really love games whose story is told through and reinforced by the gameplay. And achieving Sol Cesto's most difficult, capstone ending is very much a masterclass in using the gameplay to tell a complete arc from start to finish.
It's also got just GORGEOUS art direction. Can't recommend it enough for roguelite fans!
Family Dinner with the Wayne’s in where Bernard is trying his best at pretending as if he doesn’t know everyone’s secret identity, he drops enough hints to make everyone question his knowledge but he is so silly, so normal, there is no way right, right?
"The wine poster shows Bern is still contented to the cult/Dionysius"
Counterpoint: the little shit decided to buy it as an homage to their first date (and for Tim's reaction when he sees it and has to try to pretend to like it/that he's not overanalyzing the shit out of it)
My funniest read is that Bernard's trying to overcome his trauma about things related to Dionysus with a form of self styled exposure therapy because he wants to be a chef and they're prying cooking with wine out of his cold dead hands!!!
Dark type, Evil type, whatever. They'll never do it but can we talk about how the most effective and faithful translation to English would actually be Dick Type
Sucker Punch? Dick Move
False Surrender? Dick Move
Knock Off / Thief / any other held item fuckery? Dick Move
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Bernard Dowd, the newest kid to take on the Robin mantle, has big shoes to fill. With Batman still mired in grief after the death of Jason Todd, a new villain over the horizon gunning for Batman's life, and coincidence after coincidence pointing to a grand design, he'll have to solve a deadly array of happenings and get down to the bottom of it all: Who is Moriarty? And what is his connection to Robin?
At least he doesn't have to worry about it at school, where his best friends Tim and Darla are blissfully unaware of his nightly activities. But change comes to all things, and unbeknownst to Bernard, Tim has his own secrets...
fuck it. Timbern Bernard is Robin and Tim is a villain AU GO
I finally actually sat down and watched Batman '66 the movie yesterday. Absolutely peak comedy. Is there anything I can say about it that hasn't already been said in sixty years? Probably not. But maybe my favourite part is where Catwoman says "purrfect" while undercover like three times just to hammer home that not recognizing someone with a mask off is patently ridiculous LMAOOOOO
I thought about this more and I think I nailed down what makes it for me. Adam West Batman is a brilliant series because its satire of Batman hits at the very conceit of it. And again, I'm sure I'm not the first to say any of this but it's soooooooo
Batman stories are thrilling, often emotional, dramatic, and sometimes even comedic. BUT ☝️even the funniest normal Batman stories require you to suspend your disbelief and accept the conceit that there's a really smart and competent rich guy that dresses as a bat to fight crime.
The writers of Adam West Batman went like
Note: anyone can fucking say this. It's not a new observation. The real stroke of genius was when they went "what if we just never let you forget that?" and proceeded to make it as stupid as possible on purpose forever while otherwise obeying every structural rule of a standard Batman serial.
It's not just called the batcave, it has every little thing in it labelled neatly. There's a bat water dispenser. Batman's super smart and solves the Riddler's riddles right away - by spouting fucking nonsense, shattering the cheap trick often used to make Bruce look smart where they just have him arbitrarily know things the reader couldn't have known to solve the riddle. Adam West delivers the trademark stoicism of the Batman persona with gravitas equal to the most dramatic and tearful moments in the comics while fighting a villain who is, at this moment, tripping over their own feet.
What is insane to me is that that thing? That structure thing? That part is the reason that this incarnation of Batman is still exactly as funny as it was in '66. The fundamental building blocks of Batman stories are largely the same even now. The satire is fucking evergreen! Actually, the darker in tone average Batman is at the time you revisit Adam West Batman, the more relevant and hilarious it is.
So this is why it's so hated even half a century later. Imagine being so good at making fun of comic books that the thing you made was still accurately making fun of them decades later. God damn.
hello, my constituents❤️ this is technically a response to this post but im directing it towards the timbern community as a whole. and let me preface this by saying im not trying to argue with anyone. i like tim and bernard too. please don't think im saying you're wrong for how you feel. im writing this out of genuine interest in sharing my thoughts and having a conversation w you all, because i am seeing the same sentiments recycled over and over and i think there is a better mindset to have about these issues....
imo we are putting way too much weight on other people's opinions regarding a character and pairing we enjoy
if you're a fan of bernard and/or timbern and struggle to separate your enjoyment from the criticism, you're going to internalize comments meant for bernard (the character) or timbern (the pairing) as personal attacks even when that isn't always the case.
like. if another DC fan says they find timbern boring, it doesn't automatically mean they are calling you boring by extension for liking them. they are just giving their subjective opinion about their dynamic. and while it's natural to want others to share our same enthusiasm for him, at the end of the day we are all experiencing these characters and ships individually. the things we appreciate in characters or ships are often tied to personal taste, which can vary widely. so one person's enjoyment for bernard or timbern shouldn't be seen as a condemnation of another's lack of interest, nor should vice versa be viewed as an attack on someone else's preferences. they have their opinions, you have yours. neither makes anyone inherently better or worse as a fan.
so yes, someone can deny that bernard is good for tim. yes, someone can treat bernard as if he were the antichrist. yes, someone can believe bernard needs to be removed so their preferred pairing can become canon. yes, someone can be reluctant to understand bernard's character. yes, they can think he's boring and absolutely they can act like bernard killed their mother, dog, cat, etc. etc. if they want to.
none of these perspectives are necessarily wrong because… those are their opinions, shaped by their personal perspective on bernard. and there doesn't even need to be a concrete reason for disliking him, actually. sometimes, that negative feeling just happens. they can dislike him for no apparent reason at all if that's just how they feel. and those feelings, while maybe uncomfortable or conflicting with yours, are still valid emotions.
and you, as a fan, are entitled to disagree, dislike, engage or not engage with their perspective but those feelings will always exist and will always be real. everyone gets to have their emotions about a character. everyone gets to have their emotions about a pairing. with or without a reason.
and yes, sometimessss, people's judgments on characters and pairings are actually directly linked to judgments on you. for example, someone might attack you for liking timbern (e.g., "timbern fans are stupid"). and in that case, shit, man! we're getting clowned on! we're being ridiculed! and no one enjoys being made fun of or being told their taste is bad. it's natural to feel upset. but beyond the initial sting… why does proving them wrong matter so much?
pouncing to defend a character/pairing you like plays right into the hands of those who may or may not be already looking for reasons to not like them. it becomes less and less about the content itself and more about an "us vs. them" mentality.
bernard haters vs. bernard lovers. timbern haters vs. timbern supporters.
"if you're not with us you're against us!" cue fighting! and, you know, 99.5% of the time when people start hating ships it's because of the fans more so than the actual character or pairing itself. i'm sure you all can think of a ship you don't like because of the fans
here's a popular example: timkon fans hating on timbern fans and vice versa.
we should all be more aware of groupthink and how it functions. like, let’s be so for real. just say you prefer one over the other, or say you like them both and go. what is the point of arguing?
there's no end when it comes to debating subjective tastes. it's about the dynamic that speaks to YOU. focus on enjoying what YOU love. people ship for an uncountable number of personal reasons, and if you spend too much time justifying your ship it will make it harder for you to enjoy other ships because then you might start expecting others to justify their ship for all the same reasons and with the same intensity.
we all have those takes that get under our skin. pet peeves are a thing. a comment about bernard or timbern may irritate you, but it's important to keep that judgment in its proper context. understand it for the subjectivity that it is. you might think, well, there's a less antagonizing way they can convey their opinion. and yeah, true! but that doesn't necessarily make them wrong for how they said it initially, just different. that's how they feel. you can disagree. there are plenty of people who make critiques, salt about and/or who plain just don't like characters i love for their own reasons because we all look for different things from the stories we engage with and enjoy. we can come to different conclusions, and also have different tastes. know what you like. own it. cool?
this is easier said than done, i know. venting is okay. other people's views can impact our feelings, as i mentioned before. i like to vent privately to my twin or my friends when i see a take that frustrates me. do your best! fully overcoming negative reactions takes time!
if you still find yourself snapping back against haters of bernard or timbern, cut yourself some slack. having those moments doesn't define you as a fan and doesn't mean you won't get better at handling disagreements moving forward. everyone slips up now and then, so be kind to yourself in the process. and with practice, you'll improve your ability to not give a fuck and focus on the positive aspects of the character and pairing that you love.
i still roll my eyes everytime i see a bernard "nothingburger" dowd comment. and then i scroll because…. so what? i like bernard. he works for me
here are some of my bernard opinions that you may or may not agree with:
i do think bernard is attracted to women in some way. he did legitimately have a crush on darla, and he has dated at least one girl (linda).
timberkon is okay, but not for me. it's purely a taste thing. i don't discount anyone for shipping it. i still enjoy content about them because i like hearing people talk about things they like even if i don't have the same feelings and wouldn't create content for them myself. i am happy people find their potential dynamic interesting…! good for you!
i don't like superblond. i don't have a reason.
last but not least if the goal was to make the audience like him, i believe immediately throwing bernard (a side character who hadn't appeared in over ten years) into m/m relationship with a title character within the same 3 part story that he was reintroduced in was a poor writing choice to make. i don't think it's an issue that the majority of the fandom finds bernard shallow. they shouldn't have to read all of his appearances collectively to understand him. to me, that's not a good thing and means the new writing isn't standing up on it's own. it didn't do a good job introducing the n52 character (bernard) or the relationship (timbern).
if i didn't read bernard's past appearances, i would have no idea why bernard even likes tim. seriously!
wow that's a tangent. um… i hope this is helpful to at least one person. i think it's good for us to be aware of our own biases about characters and pairings we enjoy, even the ones we really don't want to have, and examine that within ourselves. a little self study yk
life is really reallyshort. if u like a character and a particular pairing, have fun and enjoy yourself. if you like to analyze and think about the big picture, do that too. they're not mutually exclusive. you're engaging with bernard and timbern because they resonate with you. that's the only validation needed.
why are we doing triple double jack-knife backflips to validate our enjoyment of timbern to people who (largely) don't care when the act of…. liking timbern should be enough? we don't have to silence the haters. we are spending energy trying to prove bernard to others like the strength of his character is measured by how well we can defend him.what!!!!!!? huh?
babes im going to put my hands on your shoulders when i say this okay……bernard doesn't need us to prove his worth. the story has to prove his worth. because he is a character. the haters are running laps around us. put that frustration into creation
Broke: Nintendo needs to (bring back megas permanently / stop making open world / scale gym leaders / literally any gameplay thing)
Woke: Pokemon games should be legally mandated to include an example of how each region's possessive grammar works. Kantonian? Kantonese? Kantese? Fuck you, we're not telling
I was pointed to the Kantonian Gym thing from SuMo and I should clarify that I mean like they should sort this within the generation that the region comes out. However I'm not above repeating this joke wrongly several more times going down the region list until I've gathered all the weird places they put these references from beleaguered lore fans correcting me
This is something that thankfully is starting to be done *now* with the other regions (Alolan forms, Galarian forms, Paldean fates, etc), but it's never been applied retroactively and that's a problem.
So what do we do for GR Island, Gamefreak? My experience is ruined until we have a concrete answer.
Broke: Nintendo needs to (bring back megas permanently / stop making open world / scale gym leaders / literally any gameplay thing)
Woke: Pokemon games should be legally mandated to include an example of how each region's possessive grammar works. Kantonian? Kantonese? Kantese? Fuck you, we're not telling
I was pointed to the Kantonian Gym thing from SuMo and I should clarify that I mean like they should sort this within the generation that the region comes out. However I'm not above repeating this joke wrongly several more times going down the region list until I've gathered all the weird places they put these references from beleaguered lore fans correcting me
This is something that thankfully is starting to be done *now* with the other regions (Alolan forms, Galarian forms, Paldean fates, etc), but it's never been applied retroactively and that's a problem.
So what do we do for GR Island, Gamefreak? My experience is ruined until we have a concrete answer.
