You wanna know something I noticed but haven’t seen anyone talk about in “The Boy Wonder” by Juni Ba?
In the fourth issue of The Boy Wonder: The Demon’s Cradle we get a bit more of an in depth look at Talia Al Ghoul and I’d argue it’s one, if not the best, characterizations we’ve got of her in years.
Anyway, in two of the panels, we see Talia refer to Damian as “My heart,” but what I think most non-Arabic speakers won’t pick up on is that it’s an Arabic term of endearment.
My heart = “Albi" or “Qalbi"
It literally translates to “My heart”
It’s such a quiet way of calling someone your life force. Talia is basically calling Damian the very thing that keeps her blood running, the thing that keeps her living, and arguably the only person she ever loved more than her father.
I also think that it’s very important to recognize that in “The Boy Wonder” when Talia is visited by a djinn he tells her that she will go through three trials in her life with the representation of a “cup”. However, I think it’s a very fair claim to make that the “cup” is the three most important people she loves, and trials of that love, that she will experience throughout her life.
All three are represented by the three most important men in her life: Her father, Bruce, and Damian. And throughout the issue we can see how each one of them represented the three trials throughout her life
“One will shackle it” – Ra’s Al Ghul shackled Talia’s heart to him and his ideologies/cause, which inadvertently shackled Talia to forever being the right hand of the Demon’s Head - whoever that may be - and never allowing her to actually become the head herself.
“One will dent it” – Bruce Wayne dented Talia’s heart when he became respected by Ra’s Al Ghul and wanted by him as well to become the successor and future Demon’s Head. Bruce also dented Talia’s “cup” when he rejected the position of becoming Ra’s successor as well as swearing to destroy what Ra’s and Talia created (The League of Assassins).
“One will mend it” – Damian Wayne mended Talia’s heart by essentially becoming the one thing she loved more than her father and his cause. Talia dedicated a portion of her “cup” (A portion of her life) to her father and his ideologies; the importance of both of those even trumped her love for Bruce, but when it came down to it, Talia still chose Damian above it all. Even against her father’s wishes.
She sent him away because she couldn’t bear the pain of putting her son through all the hurt that she went through just to be molded into someone else’s idea of what he “should be”.
She "forfeited her right to watch over him” because she knew she couldn’t take care of him anymore because she had gone through so much over the previous years
MOST IMPORTANTLY she felt PROUD OF DAMIAN when he
Went against Ra’s wishes to continue on being the weapon he forged Damian into
Apologized to his nanny - Wen - for allowing him to take the blame for Damian breaking something of Ra’s’ which resulted in his nanny ending up dead because of it
He also set Wen’s soul free so he would no longer be trapped because of Damian’s actions
When he apologized to Silas Smith for killing him, taking away his children’s father, and the life he wanted to create so him and his family would be better off
ALL OF THESE TRAITS WERE TRAITS DAMIAN DEEMED AS WEAKNESS OR PATHETIC BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT HIS GRANDFATHER INSTILLED IN HIM BUT TALIA SAID SHE WAS PROUD OF HIM AND SHE WANTED DAMIAN TO BE PROUD OF HIMSELF TOO!!!!!!!!!!!
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SO HOW DOES THIS CONNECT TO HER CALLING DAMIAN “albi” or “My heart”???
There’s so much mischaracterization when it comes to Talia because of racist writing and so much damage has been done to her character because of it. I think it’s so damn beautiful that Juni Ba, a person of color, was able to do so much justice to her character in a single issue than has been done for her in a fucking decade.
Talia is a beautifully flawed character, who didn’t always know what to do, but it’s obvious that when done correctly, she can easily become more than what racist RETCONNED writing has done to her.
I absolutely love seeing the Al Ghul family being characterized with Arab traits, including Arabic sayings. I love it even more when she’s characterized with them WITHOUT HER FULFILLING SOME RACIST ARAB STEREOTYPE, and I think it’s so sweet, honestly, that it’s just subtly slipped in there, and I really hope we get to see more writers like Juni Ba for Talia Al Ghul. She deserves so much more than what she’s been given, and I love her so much you couldn’t even understand
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