The thing with me is that I go into a fandom, pick a talented, traumatized, introverted character, become obsessed with them, and then make all the other characters as obsessed with them as I am. "Oliver/Arthur/Dinah/Sinestro/whoever wouldn't be obsessed with Bruce-" not in my books, in my books they all have a hidden obsession and idc how ooc it is. No one is allowed to be normal about Bruce
head canon that Bruce would wear an shutoff earpiece at home when Jason died, so when he responded to the horrible taunts and blame Jason's ghost would throw at him, he could simply say 'yes, I know' and Alfred wouldn't up his anti psychotics meds, without him knowing again.
A little seek peak into the first part my de-aged fanfic :p
'Despite it, he nodded. Having no choice but to let the older man run off before turning back to what looked like a young boy, shuffling closer to him. Not enough that he could reach out, but suitable to make a clearer figure of the kid—ignoring the blood seeping into his cheap shoes. The boy was a small thing, even with squnting—he couldn't have been any bigger than a mouse. Two larger bodies covered his frame, like they were trying to cover him. The first was a well-dressed woman—most likely his mother—draped on him with an enormous amount of her neck clean off, spinal fluid dripping into the pool of blood. A part of her spine was shattered into millions of pieces. The kid's pale hands were open in his lap and shaking, holding what looked like pearls and… a collection of bloodied teeth, two inbalmed into the skin. Then the man, wearing a matching suit to the woman, attempted to cover the boy fully, but he was more slumped on the wall. A clear bullet went through his back, where his chest should have been. His ribs were flared, at least Jim thought, because of how unnaturally large they seemed to be. His neck was bent at an awkward angle, broken at a level that seemed to be his wife's, almost protective. And then, there was the kid, the boy, the child, the victim. Pale, pale to the point of shining in the dark, almost glittery; tears stains going down his face, no motivation to see. The face didn't move an inch, but his eyes were wide open, almost like an owl's. Colored in a cold gray tone that seemed… almost otherworldly. Despite it, those eyes weren't aimed at Jim; it was like they seemed to beam right past him, not blinking. Only his mouth moved, murmuring something so softly that the detective couldn't start to make out a word. "Oh shit." '
This first chapter is lowkey killing me as it has soooo many character that I'm not the best at writing but I'm trying my best. This is a random part but I will take any critic.
Words cannot describe how much I appreciate the description. Way too many people minimize what happened to Bruce even thought it was deeply disturbing and traumatic.
This one a long one
What I find so... interesting about Alfred in Venom isn't just that he left Bruce while he clearly struggled with addiction - though that too, ofc, - but all the smaller details as well. Like this
This is his reaction after Bruce just finished telling him about how he failed to save a little girl. These are the first words out of Alfred's mouth. Not "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," or "sounds tettible," no. It's a sassy remark on how failure is inevitable. And like, yeah, I suppose the sentiment of not holding oneself to an impossible standard is something Bruce should hear, but like. At least try to comfort Bruce first? And then dive in with your sassy advice? Also, phrase it better, maybe? In a way that doesn't make Bruce think even worse about himself (a thought that you also immediately confirm)? And the way he immediately switches attention to the state of Bruce's clothing rather than yk. Any emotional impact this event may have had.
Or this. Bruce just returned from telling the father of the dead girl about her demise. Again, no consolation, no question about how it went, no nothing. Just sass.
Then we see that Alfred is aware that Bruce is torturing himself with his parents' deaths. Now, after Bruce clearly showed his bad mood, he finally asks how did it go. Bruce elaborates on what happened exactly, and... once again, Alfred only ackowledges the physical injury, but nothing else.
This is his reaction to Bruce self-destructing from the guilt he feels about the girl dying. Again, no comforting words, only a threat that he will leave. He either doesn't recognize that Bruce is spiraling, which is unlikely, since above it shows that Alfred knows that Bruce is prone to punishing himself due to guilt, or he simply doesn't ackowledge it.
When Bruce doesn't listen, he asks this. Bitch, do you hear him? Do you care?
Or this. Alfred has left Bruce at this point, and Bruce is affected by the drug, making him duller. And what does he say here? That talking to the bats is as good as it talking to Alfred is. That all they do is listen without answering, just like Alfred. And ofc, someone might say that clearly Bruce is only saying that because of the drugs. Maybe. But
When Alfred returns after Bruce asks, and Bruce locks himself up in the cave, what do we see? As Bruce said above, Alfred does not talk to him at all for the first 10 days. And when he does eventually break and speak with Bruce, it's just a check in. He wants to say words of comfort, but, as we've seen above, he clearly doesn't have the ability to.
And then, when Bruce is out of his self-imposed isolation, all Alfred does is ask a cursory "are you okay?" and then he goes right back to sass and worrying about the physical.
In the end we never see Alfred say anything really comforting to Bruce about this whole situation. I find it so interesting - after all, Alfred clearly does care about Bruce deeply, but he just. Can't express it in words like at all. He seems to be the type of parent that puts a lot of emphasis on meeting a child's physical needs, like keeping them fed and clean, but who wouldn't be able to really console the child or be emotionally close with them.
The reason I believe Bruce is so disproportionally criticized in the DC fandom is because he isn’t in a position they can easily romanticize or infantilize like the other characters in the Batfamily.
I think this is specifically because of his position as a father. A lot of people have this completely unreasonable expectation of parents to be infallible and perfect at all times. Because Bruce has made mistakes when it comes to his kids, he can never be seen as a good parent. He is considered “mediocre” or “flawed” at best.
A severely traumatized man isn’t allowed to make mistakes because he’s a parent. And society doesn’t view parents as people.
Bruce has been chronically suicidal since he was 10.
He has an ungodly amount of attempts, and he spent most of his childhood years in and out of Arkham. It got to the point where he wasn’t allowed to be alone at all. Alfred had set up a makeshift bed in his quarters where Bruce would sleep so he could keep an eye on him.
As he got older, and after he had Batman and the kids, it began to lessen. But it never went away entirely.
Whenever he gets really bad, he goes into Alfred’s room and sleeps in that same bed. He knows that no matter what’s happened between them over the years, Alfred would keep him safe.
New Parent Bruce learning that sometimes children are much more correct than adults by having Dick reignite his inner child.
Dickie: Can I have a chocolate AND strawberry cake for my birthday?
Bruce: *dead serious, writing on notepad* Both on one cake?
Dickie: No, two separate cakes. Ooh! What if we got FOUR cakes?! Two strawberry and two chocolate and two of them can have the other flavour of icing on them! Like a mix and match!!
Bruce: Four cakes?! No, I don’t think we can do that…
Dickie: Why not…?
Bruce: ……I don’t know why, actually… How big do you want those cakes to be?
Robin fandom really be like: But Bruce literally did [overexaggaration of what happened] and [never happened] and [he was mindcontrolled] and [the worst faith interpretation] and [i saw it once in a dream] and [not actually something bad but I dont like his vibes] and EVEN [thing I read once in a fic]. He is a monster!!!!!!!
It’s important to me that people realize Bruce didn’t become who he is just because of his parent’s death. He’s the way he is because everyone adult in his life failed him afterwards.
I think some of you need to remember that some people join fandoms just to have fun😭 like it does not need to be 100% canon accurate all the time. Those baffling incorrect quotes bug me too but instead of commenting like "☝️🤓" I just block the tag or the account and move on. Or when someone's headcanon isn't accurate you don't always need to correct them. Or if you get the urge to reply "this is already canon🙄" maybe just delete your account. Like there's a difference between sharing knowledge and being annoying and some of you dive head first into the annoying territory.
i think the real reason i hate jason is that he's EVERYWHERE in fandom while he remains utterly unimportant in canon for the most part except for recently when dc is starting to think they can profit off his popularity as if jason fans would go out and buy a comic in the first place
What pisses me off is that a lot of Jason Todd fans pretend like they understand Jason Todd, when really they’re using him to project their anger and parental issues.
Bruce isn’t unreasonable for not wanting to kill the Joker. Jason is unreasonable for insisting Bruce be the one to do it to prove he cares.
Yet some how it gets warped into Bruce being comically evil for… not killing. A belief he held long before Jason died.
The point is, you’re not supposed to believe that Jason is 100% in the right and everyone else is evil.
Why is so much of the fandom content surrounding Bruce and the Batkids just… the Batkids torturing Bruce?
They’ll be “pranking him” and it’s just borderline psychological torture, like pretending Jason died or something. Or they’re “arguing” and it’s just verbal abuse that doesn’t match the situation at all.
And it’s all under the guise of it being… a joke. Like it’s funny or something.
My theory is that you guys are taking your hatred of your parents/teenage angst out on Bruce lol
I wish people would delve into the fact that Bruce legit lost his son.
Losing a child is one of the worst things that can happen to a parent, but when it comes to Bruce, it’s like people really gloss over it.
It’s more than just him thinking he failed Jason. What about the nauseating knowledge of how painful his death must have been? What about the pain of being so close to saving him, but so far? What about the fact he carried his child’s bloody body? What about how quiet the manor must have felt afterwards?