based on the headcanon(?) that Jeremiah got his affinity for makeup from watching his mom put it on [+] her design is vaguely based on the 10 second clip of her body [+] she would get Jeremiah to gossip/make fun of the other families at the circus (especially the mothers) as a drunken pastime - bonus points if he said something particularly cruel [+] was considering including Jerome here too but it's pretty fitting for Lila to pretend she doesn't have another kid apart from her "golden boy", even though they're identical...
Gorgeous art! You somehow completely nail both of Jeremiah’s appearances, and Lila looks fantastic too!
I don’t much care for Lila - as it has been well and truly proven outside of Jerome’s testimony that she was indeed abusive - but your wonderful art helps to humanise her a smidge. She haunts the narrative a fair amount, like a minor and mostly ineffectual Rebecca, but very little is known about her. She’s a drunken whore who slept around and beat her sons, but who was she really? Who was the woman who created two of Gotham City’s most prolific monsters? What would she think of her sons if she could see how they turned out?
This just scratches the itch in my brain a bit. So many opportunities for speculation lurk in Jerome and Jeremiah’s backstory - we know so little, so really anything goes. While I doubt Jeremiah made it out of his childhood unscathed by the wrath of his mother and uncle, he was definitely the favourite. Maybe it’s a sort of (much less creepy) Norman Bates situation, where she loves and adores him, but doesn’t necessarily treat him well.
I don't have anything intelligible to say in response to this, but I truly, deeply adore your analysis here and the April Fool's day concept is so, so perfect! I've always had a weird consideration for Jeremiah's grief concerning his mother, especially with it being so two-pronged with her abuse and neglect of the twins. It's mostly just based on his "You killed our mother," line and how he acts there, and Lila's (at least, visual) extravagance being something they share. Even pre-gas Jeremiah was very, very concerned with his appearance - wearing a custom suit in an underground bunker when he was in hiding, for instance. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say he may have inherited that from a mother who was vain, and overtly focused on what she looked like, so she could attract who she wanted. That isn't to say he didn't hate her too, but it is exceptionally hard to 100% despise a parent, even when they are objectively cruel, and it is just as easy to share traits with them. Which does tie into Jeremiah being the 'favourite'. I can see Lila pitting him and Jerome against each-other when they were younger, and Jeremiah learning to use Jerome as a scapegoat, which escalated to him hatching his plan to leave. Playing into that role surely gained him praise from her, and heavily fed into the narrative of Jerome being 'the bad one'. Even Jeremiah leaving for St. Ignatius sort of solidified him as superior, in her mind (fucked up dynamic, huh?), though it was ultimately to escape. While that is by no means a good thing, I imagine it fed into Jeremiah's over-inflated sense of self. Sorry to bring up Wayleska under an unrelated post, but his obsession with Bruce kind of ties into this; he made him feel special. For someone so insular and reserved (at first) I think Jeremiah wants people to be aware of how impressive he is, or at least his intellect is. Which is why complimenting him on the generator ended up getting him out of his bunker... This is purely head-canon at this point, but that could have been rooted in Lila elevating him over Jerome at a young age. He wants to be picked above everyone else, and cannot stand it when he isn't. Case in point: inserting himself into the middle of Bruce's trauma. He wants to be the star of the show. It's with Jerome this act or expectation(?) sort of drops off. Since Jerome doesn't view Jeremiah as a saint, or a tragic figure, he just sees his shit-heel brother. Being identical there's this sort of immovable equality to the two of them (though I imagine they do not see it that way at all!), which is why Jeremiah is so fixated on their rivalry. It is exceptionally hard to best someone who can indeed think like you (case in point: Jerome easily navigating the bunker). Sort of went on a tangent, not entirely sure what my original point was. Thank you for this reblog ^^ it gave me A LOT to think about, I'm sure I could go on...
