tag the ship
do you guys also have this ship but you like them as exes more than actually being in a relationship?
Yes
No
DICKROY DICKROY DICKROY ROYDICK ROYDCIK BELOVEDS THEYRE SO TOXINC I LOVE THEM
Xuebing Du
Mike Driver
Cosimo Galluzzi

pixel skylines
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me

@theartofmadeline

shark vs the universe

JBB: An Artblog!

JVL

ellievsbear
Cosmic Funnies
Peter Solarz
art blog(derogatory)
Show & Tell
Sade Olutola
Acquired Stardust

roma★
Keni
Misplaced Lens Cap

Kiana Khansmith
seen from Malaysia

seen from Uruguay

seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from Honduras

seen from Netherlands
seen from Canada
seen from Brazil

seen from United States
@red-capped-robin
tag the ship
do you guys also have this ship but you like them as exes more than actually being in a relationship?
Yes
No
DICKROY DICKROY DICKROY ROYDICK ROYDCIK BELOVEDS THEYRE SO TOXINC I LOVE THEM
You Know Doors Lock For a Reason, Right?
The Cruswade wages on. Here’s another Matt/Wade fic. Sort of.
5 times Peter walks in on Matt and Wade in questionable situations and one time they walk in on him
batman (1989) #441
bruce trying to save a kidnapped kid about to be blown up and accidentally calls him jason 😶
DC fic recs: Jason Todd edition
Please mind the tags
Dirt in the Sewer (T, 4k) - Arsenal & Red Hood team up with Black Canary & Green Arrow, and a bit more comes out than intended about Jason's relationship with his father.
hearts and (safe)houses (T, 4.5k) - Dick & Jason breaking into each other's apartments. Very soft, 3+1, there are kittens
no nightmares tonight (T, 2.5k) - Dick & Jason fluff
Saturday Family Dinner (T, 4.9k) - Role reversal fic where the Waynes are a mafia family & Jason is trying to live his best life under the radar. They find him despite his best efforts
sunny days mock me (G, 1.2k, Major Character Death) - Rena graduates high school. Jason does not.
DON'T STOP (THINKING ABOUT TOMORROW) (G, 2k) - Some softness for the Todds. They're very sweet 💜
To My Brother (G, 7.7k) - Jason misses his brother during Lost Days and starts anonymously sending Dick postcards from wherever he is in the world.
all my closets of backlogged dreams (and how you left them all to me) (G, 3k) - By all accounts, how UTRH should have gone if Bruce were a parent to Jason instead of Batman
Hearth and Home (G, 1.5k) - Jason gets a minor dose of fear toxin & talks to Dick
Prologue, Redux (T, 4.6k) - At two point in his life, Jason visits Gotham University with Bruce
door, opening (M, 110k, Graphic Depictions of Violence) - the Dick & Jason fic of all time!! If you enjoy them having a horribly complex but also deeply loving relationship, this is the fic. It's so afkskgsfjajf you know?
MISSED TARGETS. (T, 2.3k) - Jason and learning to handle a gun; as Robin and as Red Hood
The Drag of Fate (T, 13.3k) - Jason is Shiva's kid AU where Jason & Cass go on a sibling road trip to get answers
What Eurydice Felt (T, 3k) - Orpheus & Eurydice retelling with Bruce, then Dick, as Orpheus and Jason as Eurydice. Honestly very much a favorite, as is its companion piece that's in my Dick fic list.
Safe Space (G, 4.5k) - Jason & Bruce are not on the same page about who's supposed to be taking care of who in this arrangement
citrusy sweetness (T, 2.7k) - Jason & Dick & peeling oranges as a love language
The Cardboard Box (T, 4.7k) - the story of some of the other contents of Jason's box of papers from DitF. It's also one of my favorite Willis fics of all time
miracle (T, 3k) - Catherine-centric fic about Jason's early years. A very sweet look at the Todd family
inclement weather (T, 5k) - Willis-centric fic about a sliver in time when things weren't too bad yet. Also briefly guest-starring a young Cassandra Cain
Hope is the Thing with Feathers (T, 13k) - In which Jaybin gains time travel powers & Dick is always his destination. Has a really interesting disjointed chronology. One of my all-time favorite Dick & Jason fics 💜
sentimental (T, 2k) - Dick calls Jason while drunk with the Titans and they have a conversation about names & legacy (but like. In a slightly unserious way. Dick is very much plastered. It's sweet though)
To See the Stars (G, 2k) - Jason & stargazing, over the years
Daffodil (T, 8k, Graphic Violence) - Jason gets hanahaki & nearly dies of it
two birds on a wire (T, 6.5k) - Jason gets in trouble at school, Dick picks him up, they (eventually) talk
Parallel lines (T, 15.8k) - follow-up to Batman: The Cult!!! You know that if The Cult fics are out there, I'm gonna find them, this should be expected. Anyway the second chapter is alright but the first chapter is where the The Cult stuff is :)
Take Two (T, 4.2k) - Jason kills the Joker. It works out okay for him.
Flatline (T, 8.9k) - Jason gets injected with a drug that slows his body to the point he appears dead. He has to witness his family being convinced that he's dead, then fighting to save him once they realize he's not.
Back to Back (T, 11.5k) - Dick and Jason carrying each other to safety a lifetime apart. Really sweet brotherly feels & also they're both very injured both times if you're into whump.
wretched little recipes (T, 2.6k) - Jason triggers himself repeatedly searching for a sense of control, because as long as he's hurting himself, no one else can.
Grave Pretender (T, 4k) - Jason forgoes his elaborate revenge scheme in favor of being a petty drama queen, then gives up on even that to just go home.
things that make it warm (T, 4k) - Dick & Jason hang out, and Jason reflects on how much he loves his brother.
Under the Bridge (G, 29.5k) - A minor investigation spirals into something much worse when an enemy from Bruce & Jason's past resurfaces
Ricochet (Or, The Side Effects of Bring a Bibliophile) (Not Rated, 49.6k) - In which Jason joins a book club, lights his life on fire, has to deal with everyone else adding gasoline to his on-fire life, and eventually managing to put it out. Everyone just kinda sucks in this, it's great :)
I will leave the water like someone about to forgive (T, 10k) - Jason gets transported back in time to a few weeks before he died and attempts to save himself. Whatever magic brought him there disagrees with this plan.
Recollect, re-collect (T, 94.4k) - Jason gets hit with a spell gone awry and gets an opportunity to reflect on Robin, legacy, family, and what it all means to him.
Meaning (from the back of my broken hand) (M, 1.7k) - Dick finds Jason at an unexpected grave on Mother's Day
Bats in the Belfry (T, 5.7k) - In a time loop that isn't actually a time loop, Jason picks up the ghost of Dick Grayson hitchhiking on the side of the highway every night
Little Wing and Big Bird (T, 16k) - Jason goes to Dick for help when Bruce & Alfred attempt to kill him (really fun case fic w/ appearances from Kory & Barbara)
jigsaw falling (into place) (T, 7.6k) - Jason hears a rumor that the Bat is out of commission - he's been magically blinded. He decides to scope out the situation himself
The Bruce-mood (T, 47k) - Thanks to a stupid bet with Dick, Jason realizes that he has a secret weapon against Bruce: hugs.
A Better Choice (T, 18k) - A very canon-compliant Jason Lives AU of DitF featuring Dick Grayson hopped up on more Dayquil than is probably healthy
late to the convo but jason's relationship with barbara in three jokers, while ass on top of ass, gave some interesting insight into his character. i doubt it was intentionally done because Lord knows almost no post utrh authors intentionally give him depth. buttt i was really intrigued by the way he pines over barbara after they share a little kiss and how affected he is by barbara rejecting him.
considering it was barbara who initiated the kiss (i think, could be wrong-- kinda irrelevant tho), i don't think he actually was romantically into her but rather, he was taken by her display of care for him. he himself admits that nobody has ever treated him the way she does at that moment. above this screenshot, barb talks about how she was able to heal from the joker because of her support system, which jason blurts out that he's never had before.
they kiss right after this and then barb says that it shouldn't have happened. imo, jason showed no romantic interest in her up until this kiss (which is more a flaw of the heterosexual storytelling that authors can seemingly never resist) and then following this moment, he's sort of just trailing after her like a little puppy. he's very obviously starved for affection/care/love, which is what i think makes him ask barb for more of an actual relationship between them. it's not that he's genuinely into her.
neither of them were really into each other but jason especially wanted something with her because she showed him something he hasn't been given in a while- a sort of love and attention/concern. she gives a shit about him, talks to him like a fellow human being, sees him and his problems (ignoring her annoying outlook on it in this comic)-- and that's what seems to get jason.
his pining after her felt very much like he would've done anything just to continue being treated gently and with understanding. which is why i think he pursues her. sexual, romantic-- he doesn't care what their relationship would be. its kinda implied he would do anything for her to have him, even give up red hood (bad writing lmfao), and this really only shows how starved he is for love.
"i can be something else. or i can be just jason" is pretty heartbreaking because it gives insight into his self esteem and how he views himself. clearly he doesn't hold himself to a high standard if he's offering to be someone else entirely just for barb to keep giving him those little bits of affection and care. he refers to himself as "just" jason like he isn't much to begin with.
he got some affection from barb, was told something that any of the bats could've said, and immediately latched onto it like it was a lifeline. i feel like he confuses the types of love. now understandably, if i was kissed on the lips, i too would think there was a romance sparking between us, but jason just seems unable to distinguish between his feelings.
he's not romantically interested in barb but he's chasing after that care/concern/attention she gave him and will clearly do anything to experience it again. he just happens to think the only way for him to experience it again is through a romantic relationship with her.
"i will devote my life to making you proud" what a sad statement LMFAO but i think it captures a part of the kind of person jason is. a boy starved for love. that same little kid who wants bruce, alfred, dick to be proud of him. he wants to be seen.
he stays with the bats, with bruce, no matter how shitty they treat him and no matter how abusive bruce is to him because he can't distinguish between his feelings. doesn't know love from disdain or concern from abuse. he wants someone to be proud of him, to love him. and if he has to get hurt in the process, get beat on, isolated, yelled at-- if he has to give up some part of who he is just to get that sliver of affection and love-- then yeah he'll do it each time. he knows nothing else.
it doesn't make sense for jason todd to have white hair from being resurrected because no other undead characters have it, right? and the pit should have healed any physical injury and restored him to his prime, ie, no white streak. clearlyyyyy he got it from the intense and sustained stress of founding and running a gang with zero experience as a teen. it would also explain why some issues have the white streak and others don't; graying due to stress can be reversed!!! and this post indicates that jason's solo stories go fully black hair while his stories with with bruce, dick, or tim tend to give him the white streak. presumably white hair makes him more identifiable in stories with lots of black-haired bats, but the implication is that he's stressed the fuck out whenever he's with his dad
PLEASE say more about your queer Luke thoughts 👀👀👀
OMG THIS ASK IS EVERYTHING TO ME :))!!! Okay so prefacing with this is only my interpretation, AND I'm not going to label Luke's sexuality specifically but more explore how queerness can be read throughout his story and in his character. But anyway let's get into it!
Being The Only (Straight) Son
I talked before about how Luke is a character constrained by societal expectations; he is the 'only' Fox son (this was before Jace was created), and he deals with all the expectations that entails. He sums it up like this (first panel):
Batwing #20
He had no "room for self-exploration," no time or place to figure out who he was. I think this makes him not knowing he's queer until now plausible, since he's never had time to think about it. And gender explicitly figures into this inability to explore himself. Luke doesn't mention being the oldest, he mentions being the "only son," which Lucius echoes when he tells Luke he needs to be a "responsible man" (emphasis mine). Being the eldest son means adhering to traditional notions of masculinity, which ofc entails heterosexuality.
You see this with Luke's relationship to Zena. I do think Luke likes Zena (and I think Luke is attracted to women), but their relationship is mired in strict expectations of masculinity:
Batwing #21
Zena lists things "a man" is supposed to do which Luke doesn't. He was a bad boyfriend but it's interesting that the text repeatedly highlights how Luke fails to live up to masculine standards, that he sucks at being a "son," a "man," a boyfriend. I also included the line where Luke says him and Zena haven't had sex because it hammers home how little time he's had to explore his sexuality. After Zena leaves, Luke has the interesting thought that "Zena Zlenko is the total package. Even my dad likes her." Luke's relationship with Zena ultimately leads back to Lucius' feelings, meaning part of him is constantly thinking about how his dad will perceive his relationships. This makes Luke's ghosting of Zena particularly compelling - Luke becomes Batwing to escape Lucius' desire for him to just be an office worker, but perhaps he's also escaping Lucius' desire for him to settle down with Zena as well.
i feel like a lot of fandoms pride themselves on being gayer than the source material but have they considered being less racist and less misogynistic than the source material as well . could be revolutionary
I think in the same way there's a 90/10 rule with horror and comedy (horror works best when it's 90% horror and 10% comedy and vice versa) there's a 90/10 rule for some relationships in fiction that's like. Wholesome and fucked up. A good friendship is at its most compelling when it's also 10% a bit fucked up. Fucked up relationship is at its most compelling when there's at least 10% of something actually sweet and substantive within. Do you get me
“fandom etiquette” people when you tell them that the racism and misogyny that is intertwined in their fandom practices/communities/the media they enjoy should be critically examined and treated like a genuine issue that reinforces systemic biases and oppression rather than ignored to preserve their perception that they don’t have to take responsibility for their part in perpetuating racism + misogyny
fanfic isn't an act of activism by the way. it's a fun hobby. writers write whatever they want for themselves as their silly little getaway/self-care. if you want "more representation" of something in fanfics, then you write fanfics about that thing you want. nobody is stopping you. but saying other fanfic writers as a whole are "the problem" or are "to blame" for "not including xyz" or "not writing about xyz" just isn't how fanfics and hobbies work.
This general convo is always going around in my fandom spaces (mainly poc, queer but like all encompassing, people who like women as like people etc), and we always talk about the systemic issues that feed into what people are interested in or choose to engage in and we have really productive, important and hopeful discussions… then I leave that bubble and people on the whitest website on earth are like “critiquing white supremacy and misogyny in fandom is silly and mean and pointless, bc we’re just having fun😊”
Robin
Tim Drake
Stephanie Brown
"This chapter was terrible! It really mischaracterizes Tim. He would never have left Robin's post to focus on his civilian life! Bernard just ruins his lore! The Tim of the old comics would laugh at his current self, because the DC writers completely changed him!"
Are you sure you actually read comics and understand the character, and aren't just homophobes who hate Bernard and Tim's lore for no reason?..🫠
More things I fully believe are true:
Jason Todd is either fully aroace or like very very low grayro
This takes him a very long time to figure out, if he ever does, because he goes the 0+0=2 route & thinks he's bi
The main reason he thinks 0+0=2 is that while he experiences little to no romantic or sexual attraction, he does experience high amounts of aesthetic & sensual attraction
In addition, he also has a long-standing love of romantic media and wants to fall in love, so he's kinda in denial about the fact that he just doesn't feel that way about anyone he dates. It's... it's close enough, right? What he does feel? It's not like what literally anyone else describes, but it has to be the same thing, right? (wrong)
He is and always has been desperate for love in any form. Even if he eventually realized he was aroace, I don't think he would ever come out or use that terminology for himself for fear of further isolating himself
I love that in Bruce's wildest fantasies his parents can live but the Graysons do in fact have to die because he cannot fathom living without his emotional support orphan
I constnaly think abt this. Dick wouldn’t trade what he has for the past. And (not shown in this panel) he thinks Bruce would.
And I just, it kinda devastates me just thinking abt it, abt how much love and devotion Dick has for Bruce, and sometimes he thinks it’s not reciprocated and he thinks Bruce would trade his current life for his parents life and he kinda made peace with that.
With feeling like maybe he will always love Bruce more
My brain made a record scratch sound as soon as I read Dick's inner dialogue in The New Titans #113.
"I’ve been fighting for so long. Have I forgotten what it is to live? Is that what came between us, Kory? Have I been immersing myself in work so I wouldn’t have to think of anything else? Have I been trying to control everything and everyone so things wouldn’t… slip through my fingers again. That somersault [the one he performed the night his parents died] was my rosebud, my last moment of real innocence. When that awful gunshot rang out, my childhood instantly ended. I was still in tears when he [Bruce] took me into his home. He gave me a new life. A good life. Maybe it wasn’t the kind of carefree child’s life I had till then, but it was thrilling and scary and fun. And even now I wouldn’t trade it for anything… except if I could just see my parents one last time to let them know how much I love them. And still miss them."
Because even though Dick admitted he would want to tell his parents he loved and missed them one more time, he didn't mention bringing his parents back to life, which immediately made me think of Devin Grayson's inner dialogue for Dick in Batman: Gotham Knights #14.
"You’re not an easy man to be close to, Bruce. As much as you may care about any of us, I know you’d trade it all in a heartbeat if you could have your parents back. And I’ve never really admitted this to anyone, but I don’t think I would. Trade, I mean. And I don’t think I’m ready to see your face if I told you that, which is why I’m never gonna send this letter. But I wouldn’t trade this for the world. Love, Dick."
Which then reminded me of this scene from Infinite Crisis #4.
while im on my annoying asian sjw comics fan soapbox: there’s a big, weighty chunk of underexplored material about cass and race that feeds into cass’s relationship with her parental figures and the mantle. three of her four parental figures are white! the other batgirls are white! david cain did a lot worse things to cass than simply not give her a heritage, but the man certainly wasn’t teaching cass about her background or culture at all, and filling that in wasn’t something barbara or bruce were expected or able to do. she didn’t meet shiva until she was a young adult, so she went her entire childhood, however you may define it, without any grounding in her chinese heritage
and i think this is so striking for cass, a character who was conceptualized as being a young asian girl before literally anything else. cass being mixed doesn’t mean she has to ‘look mixed’—genetics are weird and people can come out a carbon copy of one parent—but its interesting that a character who is so visibly asian and has this reputation irl for being a minority hero and asian representation is actually culturally alienated to a startling degree. being visibly asian/nonwhite/other while completely disconnected is a real experience a lot of people have and it gives a lot of dimension to how cass might place herself in relation to the world and her loved ones.