It is genuinely crazy that there was an entire, explicit, not like subtext but text text, multi-issue plot in Nightwing that was just detailing the time Dick was a victim of CSA that never got mentioned again.
Like, we begin with a homeless 16-year old
Being lured into a criminal child cult adjacent organization through mention of housing and support
Whereupon the female cult leader grooms Dick and coerces him into sex, then uses the pressure from that and more petty things heād already done to keep him ensnared
Only for him to be so damaged by this experience in the modern day that it has permanently affected how he deals with relationships.
And yet this never gets talked about again. Ever. Once. Nada.
Like I cannot emphasize how crazy it was that this was written this explicitly and concretely. Usually, events like this are either kept as implied or headcanon, motivated by interpretations of how characters act and think and react. But like there was a comic issue where these things just happened. Itās right there. You can point to the words.
And then we move on from it like šāāļøšāāļø yep yep chill chill cool cool wanna see me do a flip???
Yes yes yes this. I have sooooo many thoughts about the Liu-Eddie thing. This is probably gonna be super scattered and not make a lot of sense because I just have so many fucking thoughts.
I think one of the most harrowing parts of this as well is that when Dick is sort of telling this story of what happened, he paints himself as a naĆÆve kid who got groomed and then turned around and used Liuās predatory behavior as a way to take them down, and while I do believe that this is somewhat true, thereās also this:
Dick has been telling this story to Vigilante (and the audience) the entire time, and heās portraying Eddie, Liu, and himself in a specific way. But when heās finally alone, he admits āI did what I had toā
There are a range of possibilities and interpretations of what exactly Dick means by that, but for the purposes of this post Iām just gonna stick to these two:
1. Dick was aware the entire time that he had no choice in his relationship with Liu and he saw no way out of it, and he only stayed with Eddie and Liu because he felt like he had no other options. They never āfooledā him, they used their power to keep him stuck there.
2. Dick āhad toā believe that Liu and Eddie actually cared about him, ignoring any red flags, because it was the only way to keep his sanity. He had no other choice, because recognizing the truth would hurt him and he decided to protect himself by believing them instead. This aligns with what Dick is saying earlier about how he ācanāt live like thatā (without trusting people)
When Dick is eating dinner with Liu and Eddie as an adult, Eddie admits that he used the kids he was mentoring and Dick literally replies āWe let ourselves be used. The thought of being like youā¦was too strong to resist.ā However, Dick later tells Vigilante that he never wanted to be like Eddie, and that it made him sick/uncomfortable to be doing the stuff that Eddie wanted him to do. Dick saying the opposite to Eddie was likely him trying to earn Eddieās trust, but I think part of Dick also sees himself as complacent in his own grooming somehow.
Also in almost all of the panels with Liu and Dick, sheās the one making physical contact with him. Sheās taking her own shirt off. Sheās pinning him to the wall. Sheās on top of him. Her hand is on his back. Itās so fucking creepy.
That panel also sticks out because they are literally getting called creeps and predators, and Dick turns it into a conversation about friends and trust. He doesnāt even deny that theyāre creeps/predators, heās literally just like āWell at least I trust people and have friends! Canāt say the same for you.ā
He lashes out to Vigilante similarly throughout this entire issue, but more specifically after Vigilante pressed him about why he was protecting Liu and Eddie:
When they fight each over it, Vigilante defeats Dick in an eerily similar way to the way Eddie defeated him earlier when they were sparring, and Vigilante admits that this is because Dick is starving and dehydrated. He says this: āI was just tiring you out. Shadow Boxing. Playing.ā It can be interpreted that Eddie was doing something similar during their spar. He knew Dick was a tired teen who was still recovering from whatever time he spent homeless, so Eddie never saw him as any real opponent.
I also find it extremely interesting how Eddie and Liu are portrayed almost as a singular unit/person during the whole story. Like I would argue that it would make sense to think that Eddie was also involved in the CSA (even if his role was somewhat minimal) because of the way the entire thing is described (Eddie himself saying āI used you kidsā). Like yes obviously not all grooming is sexual and Eddie did want specific things from the kids (mostly to commit crimes and shit), but when you look at how Dickās relationship to the both of them is described, itās a little fishy at best. Like literally look at this:
āYou did anything to make him happy.ā āYou wouldāve done anything for her.ā āYou two became close.ā āThey had you deep in their pocket.ā
They, not she. Their pocket, not her pocket. The emphasis on Dick and Eddie being ācloseā and immediate discussion of Liu āmaking him a manā afterwards. In the earlier panel, Vigilante literally says āwhat they did to you.ā In one of the flashback panels Liu says āEddie needs youā¦.I need you.ā as she hovers over him in lingerie. Like she was talking about letting them break into W.E. but holy shit the subtext of that is justā¦like dude. Right before that flashback Vigilante also says (about Liu) āShe used you, didnāt she?ā And Dick says āShe tried to.ā Like that side-by-side with Eddieās admission of āI used you.ā and Dickās āWe let ourselves be used.ā THE IMPLICATIONS OF IT YOU GUYS.
And like it would make total sense for Dick to repress anything Eddie wouldāve done to him, because while Liu is the ghost that haunts his future romances, Bruce was the ghost that haunted his relationship with Eddie. Like you really canāt help but draw comparisons (which is probably very intentional). Eddie says he trained for 10 years with the Tibetan monks. He has his own set of justice and rules and acts (at least within his own mind/pov) as a safe haven for kids who need it. Heās tall, heās athletic and can fight, heās got black hair. Like even if he and Bruce arenāt a 1-to-1, the similarities are there. And Dick was introduced to Eddie right at the time when he felt abandoned or betrayed by Bruce and Eddie filled a huge fucking gap caused by Bruceās absence. Idk. I think if Eddie did do something to Dick, then Dick would repress it because Eddie reminds him a little too much of Bruce.
Iāve already talked about the fucked up Brucenessā¢ļø of Dickās trauma before, especially within the lens of Dick being a CSA survivor, but Iāll probably reblog this at some point to add onto it more because I do think Bruceās relationship with Dick also plays a major part in this whole ordeal and the aftermath.
I really do wish people (and DC) discussed this more in depth. Especially because Dick literally says heāll never forget that it happened.
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