The people have spoken. I'm writing that essay.
Damian is very popular as an artist, I mean Andy Warhol or Iris van Herpen level of household name, his paintings are so highly regarded that people around the world look at this crime-infested city and go 'I'd rather get stabbed in an alley than miss Wayne-Head's exhibition.' Gotham's tourism skyrockets, especially after Damian's installations become part of the city architecture. Damian 100% percent sneaked some city protection mechanisms in those installations. They're like transformers but it's post-modernism, so it looks nice, it goes really well with local gothic buildings Somehow, Wayne-Head is just that good, but the thing about post-modernism is that you have no clue what it is supposed to be depicting. I also think Damian would be real interested in architecture. At first, he doesn't want to go to college, and is doing really well as an artist, because he's been interested and studying this stuff for a Very long time anyway. But when he's in his late twenties or thirties he goes 'I want to design buildings. Everything is so damn ugly here.' And they are your regular degular hospitals, libraries, stadiums, schools and orphanages Wayne foundations build all the time. But Damian is so over the top with their designs, they are honestly cooler than the older more esteemed establishments rich kids go to. And no one can say a word to Damian, they're just like 'Let the man get it out of his system, it's fine, he’s paying anyway.'
Damian reconstructs the Gotham Zoo so that it's more accommodating to the animals' needs. He got over trying to kidnap or adopt every single animal he comes across, but he is still very big on volunteering. The residents of Gotham still remember those episodes fondly though.
Dick finally gets to do his job properly. What are you gonna do with him if he’s onto you? Shut him up? Threaten his family? Pfft, do you have a death wish? All of his siblings can buy and sell and then buy you back double the price, are you crazy? If you try anything, Tim Drake and his army of lawyers will sue you out of house, home and both kidneys. Drake has your accounts frozen, he sent your wife incriminating photos of you and your secret paramour and now she’s leaving you, all the colleagues you screwed over get anonymous tip offs of what you did, and now you're also wanted by the mob. You'll be so screwed, there will be only one lawyer that could possibly get you out of this. And guess who that is. English Lit majors can become lawyers after ONE year of training. That's right, it's Jason Todd, and not only is he not allowed in the process, as he is, you know, related to Grayson and would anyway laugh at you at best and what would happen at worst you are too afraid to even think of. Oh, you're hoping to get your prison sentence cut short with the help of that one loophole Gotham crooks keep exploiting. Haven't you heard? We have a new mayor now, and he abolished that paragraph altogether. What's his name? Why, his name is Duke Thomas. Ring any bells?
So politicians are usually men in their late thirties and up, and by the time Duke becomes a candidate, he's already compiled a portfolio longer than the list of Joker's victims. He's from the Narrows, he's one of the Waynes, he's been a social worker for over a decade, and a good one, he is charming, passionate, takes no crap from anyone, a lot of adults remember him as that guy who helped them in their childhood years, so it is a no brainer who wins the election that year. And the next election too. Because the new mayor somehow survives every single kidnapping and assassination attempt ever. And there are a lot of them. At first, Duke is kind of bummed, because he came here to make a change and get some rest from superheroing, the gig is great, but he just wants some peace and quiet for a change and some actual progress in Gotham infrastructure too. But nope. Duke here severely miscalculated and is sitting tied up in some dilapidated apartment. And he'd kind of out himself as Signal if he does something about it. At least, he always gets rescued fast, because he always has a panic button linked directly to the bats, and he's tougher than all previous mayors as he is a meta, so Gotham has some actual stable and fruitful administration for two whole terms. People want him for the third one too, but Duke is really done at this point. They had to redo that one election, because people just crossed out all the candidates on the bulletine and wrote 'Duke Thomas' with a pen.
Tim Drake is Tim Drake, and Tim Drake is terrifying. He gives off such strong supervillain vibes, no one ever draws a connection between him and Red Robin. The perfect disguise.
Every third gay man in Gotham pointing at the Wayne Industries billboard with Tim in an Armani suit on it: 'This was my sexual awakening.'
Cassandra Cain is the elusive princess of Gotham, the most private Wayne, as in no one’s sure what she does most of the time. But her social media accounts are active, and her following is huge. On the photos she's mostly on the day and night outs with her siblings, or practicing ballet moves, and ballet is her HOBBY, can you imagine what kind of exciting things she might be up to the rest of the time? Somehow, Cassie is 'The Ideal Influencer', as her fans call her, because her feed is very aesthetically pleasing, she gives the best content lifestyle and wellness-wise, but she NEVER does ANY sponsorships. And when someone in the internet tries to dig deeper, her fans become real protective, they are varying degrees of polite when they explain how you should respect young women and their privacy, and that Cassie owes them no explanations as she's just living her life. Perfect disguise as she is the next Batman (gender neutral). Cassandra's posts are actually pretty sweet and the captions are always emojis. She is in the wellness sector of social media, because she just has this very calming effect on people for some reason. Like watching a waterfall.
Stephanie Brown has the 'I'm the doctor' card, so if she tells you 'Sit your ass down and don’t touch the bandages' or 'Go to sleep NOW', the batkids are obligated to listen. Overall, she's like that cleric in DnD campaigns who'd rather whoop ass rather than heal, but, okay, fine, she can do both. She and Jason at some point were the Only batkids with a degree. They were Insufferable, because would you look at that, Bruce, Richard, Timothy. Then Duke got a degree, but he just joined them. Damian broke the cycle, but by that time the three had the 'We are adults and do not care for such childish things anymore' going on, but that was just to piss Damian off.
And now, the moment you were waiting for.
Let's talk about Jason Todd.
After his stunt with the Iceberg Lounge, he has a bit of a reputation. He came out of the ordeal completely unscathed legally speaking, because what's Cobblepot gonna tell the judge? That he got so scared of some teenager, he hid in his office for months? His business is shady, and Jason uses it to his full advantage twisting the narrative so that neither Penguin or Batman can’t do shit. But he was still involved in the scandal nonetheless, so the people of Gotham are wary when he enters the legal system as a professional. Some think he's a nepotism baby, some that he's involved with the mob, some that he's involved with the bats when he starts off. But here's the thing. A year passes, two, then three, and, at some point, we have a man at the peak of his career as a prosecutor and Gotham criminals still have no clue on whose side he‘s supposed to be. The Bats say 'Prosecutor Todd', each one with different feeling, distrust, disbelief, disgust, all the disses, so he's probably crooked, right? So you go to him, the bribe hot in your pocket, but instead of disposing of the evidence like you asked he's managed to gather even more stuff on your guy on the next day and unleashes a firestorm that's turned a fifteen years sentence into a lifetime one. Okay, maybe he isn't crooked, let's put a pin on that one. But later the bats catch some meta or new rogue or some goon and demand they be sent to Arkham or Blackgate, but Todd is now on the defence and what a defence he's built up. Or even better, some of his clients are now suing Arkham Asylum. Well, maybe he's working for one of the rogues or criminal families. And it just keeps going. One day he's putting one Maroni in jail, so maybe he is with the Falcones, but tomorrow he is prosecuting against them. Pleads Nygma's case in the morning, and fervently insists on death sentence for the Joker in the evening. Sometimes demands thousands of dollars for his services, but occasionally some nobody from Park Row gets them virtually for free. This guy just doesn't make sense.
Once he got some cultist on circumstantial evidence to admit to everything. One moment the guy's defender is sitting there all smug while his client is just droning on the rehearsed answer, and you know what happens next? Todd looks him straight in the eye and quotes a Bible verse. Everyone is too stunned to interrupt him, and the verse is a long one, and that man just recites it at the top of his head. When the judge is about to dismiss him, the cultist bursts into tears and starts confessing to everything, from stealing a chocolate bar from his aunt’s shop to burying twelve corpses in the woods. Yes, I managed to include a sprinkle of catholic Jason into this, what are you going to do about it? I think he'd make a very well-versed lawyer, okay? He's eloquent and knows where to be aggressive and where to be empathetic. Okay?!
I'm done. Thank you for coming to my Todd Talks.
Edit: I got asked about Barbara and Bruce, and I kind of left them out on purpose so that you can interpret their future to your liking.
But if you need my full take, Barbara already has an established civilian life and she is indispensable as Oracle, so she keeps going and living her best life. Oh, and when people try, TRY, to go after the Waynes, mainly Dick and Tim, obviously, they get relentlessly cyber attacked;)
Bruce has to retire EVENTUALLY. He’s a proud retired father.
Batkids at first think they’ve broken him, but, nope, this man just wants even more unhinged children under his roof.
Now go write your fics, shoo, shoo.
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