I've been a part of the MariBat fandom for years now, and more recently become a part of the BatPham fandom since it grew into a full fandom of it's own.
In all that time I have been sitting on an idea for another crossover with DC that I think has just as much potential to become something entirely its own.
So, allow me to present the idea of Tales of Arcadia x Batman, which I've been affectionate calling the BATHUNTER crossover in my head.
More ramblings and fic recs under the cut.
So, first and foremost:
We have a bat bait, blue eyed, black haired, protagonist with trauma. Comparing this to the other two fandoms we've already hit the ground running.
We also have a reason for them to be in Gotham. At the end of Trollhunters we have Claire and Jim going with the trolls to find a new heartstone in New Jersey. Gotham is in New Jersey.
The trolls traveling across the country and founding New Trollmarket right in the Bat's territory doesn't even require an explanation beyond 'They found the new heartstone under Gotham City.'
The opportunities for identity shenanigans are still just as present as ever. If you stick to the full canon of the Tales of Arcadia universe, sans the time travel reset, then Jim, Claire and possibly Toby are both human and the bats could meet them as human civilians and as vigilantes who go around with glowing face covering armor and the ability to just disappear.
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of canon past the first half of wizards. So I like the idea of Jim using a glamour mask to go to school while being a vigilante in his half troll form. Make the bat's even more confused.
I also feel like the dichotomy between the three rules of trollhunting and Batman's usage of fear as a weapon and no killing rule would be fascinating.
Just:
"Fear heightens your senses. Fear keeps you alive. Arrogance gets you killed."
-vs-
“You prefer to call me Batman. But the reason you can never escape me … is that my name is fear. And I live within you.”
“Always finish the fight.”
-vs-
"Heroes should never kill a villain, no matter the depths of his villainy."
They would probably agree on rule three, though: “When in doubt, always kick them in the gronk-nuts.” Since Batman identifying weakness in both his teammates and villains is a whole thing.
Lastly, the potential for bio-dad aus is fascinating to me. Specifically, not with Bruce as the bio-dad, but with Commissioner Jim Gordon.
For anyone who hasn't happened on Jim Gordon's backstory, allow me to give some context. Jim Gordon's wife was named Barbara Eileen Gordon. They had two children, Barbra Gordon and Jim Gordon Jr. Barbara Eileen divorced Commissioner Gordon because she wanted to get her son out of Gotham.
From what I understand, in canon she keeps the name and eventually moves back to Gotham after her son becomes a serial killer and inmate of Arkham Asylum.
But this is an AU, canon is what ever we want it to be and Jim Lake being the biological kid of Commishionre Gordon and little brother of Barbra Gordon aka Oracle has some real potential in the right author's hands.
Fic Recs:
Loose Lips, by NerdofSpades
Batman wants answers. Jim wants to be left alone, so he can go back to his not so normal life. Too bad those two things aren't at all compatible with each other. At least Jim gets some new friends out of all of this. Probably. Maybe.
One of my favorite fics in general. Jim becomes friends with the Young Justice team while trying to convince Batman that he's 'just a civilian'.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
three teenagers are loose in gotham (what will they do), by clayr_of_the_lillies
sometimes you become a vigilante deliberately. sometimes its twitter's fault.
aka a tales of arcadia/batman crossover that wouldn't leave my mind.
Very funny and well thought out. I particularly like this interpretation of Gotham's trollmarket and the friendship between the trollhunters and the batfam.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
In Their Blood, NerdofSpades
Barbara Lake saw an uncomfortably familiar pattern in the behavior of James Lake Junior. She saw it in almost everything he did these days. She had seen it in her friends growing up. She had lived it herself. She just wasn't sure how to help him, so, instead, she calls in a friend.
Another fun one by NerdofSpades. Barbara, having been Batgirl, recognizes Jim's behavior in herself. It's a shorter one but still a lot of fun
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
I'm also working on a couple of my own fics set in this crossover, but their still WIP for now
A fun thing about computer skills is that as you have more of them, the number of computer problems you have doesn't go down.
This is because as a beginner, you have troubles because you don't have much knowledge.
But then you learn a bunch more, and now you've got the skills to do a bunch of stuff, so you run into a lot of problems because you're doing so much stuff, and only an expert could figure them out.
But then one day you are an expert. You can reprogram everything and build new hardware! You understand all the various layers of tech!
And your problems are now legendary. You are trying things no one else has ever tried. You Google them and get zero results, or at best one forum post from 1997. You discover bugs in the silicon of obscure processors. You crash your compiler. Your software gets cited in academic papers because you accidently discovered a new mathematical proof while trying to remote control a vibrator. You can't use the wifi on your main laptop because you wrote your own uefi implementation and Intel has a bug in their firmware that they haven't fixed yet, no matter how much you email them. You post on mastodon about your technical issue and the most common replies are names of psychiatric medications. You have written your own OS but there arent many programs for it because no one else understands how they have to write apps as a small federation of coroutine-based microservices. You ask for help and get Pagliacci'd, constantly.
But this is the natural of computer skills: as you know more, your problems don't get easier, they just get weirder.
I think we need to appreciate Stratt as one of the female characters of all time. Morally complex. Hero. Not sexulised. Dutch. No love interest. Stoic yet not one dimensional. Criminal. Nuanced.
"The No Kings rallies don't REALLY do anything" Cool. Do you know what message it sends to the people in power if less and less people are showing up to protest their actions? Cause let me tell you, it's not "More people are going to do other things instead". It's "the American public is slowly getting used to our regime and we should keep it up until they wear out".
Because if you can't stand next to people for a couple of hours chanting and waving signs, you aren't gonna be doing anything that would actually disrupt the regime. Protests aren't "permitted dissent". They're that ankle bar that you have to step over where it's not impressive if you do it, but it's really indicative if you can't even manage that much.
Went to an Oedipus Rex adaption today and my friends were debating whether the Oedipus/Jocasta age gap was problematic. Like guys…I think their relationship has bigger issues
can you imagine what it will be like the day it finally happens. no one will be posting about anything else. category 10 posting event. if it happens because of someone else their gofundme page will reach over $500,000 within a day. #hopecore
Stratt, on one hour of sleep in the past three days and 37 cups of coffee: Okay thank you, I—one minute—where are we on the research grants?!—ok—you, have you contacted—hold on—no I’m not available right now—NASA where are we with the ship?—good—yes I need all of them here—no, redesign that—I cannot talk to the press right now—hand me those charts—why is the patrova line up 4%?!—and you do not have clearance—no time for that right now—the button is over there—do I look like I have two seconds—one minute everyone I’m getting another effing call—WHAT?!
Grace, on the other line: Carl and I made a baby :D
Hey guys this is my AmeriVerse OC, his name is Tanner Michaels and he is a Senior in a Frat House at Townsville College- Go Tigers!
His girlfriend Amanda has a cheerleading scholarship and is the Vice President of her sorority, and is so good at Hazing Freshies!
Campus Police are always trying to ruin his good time, but he knows he can count on his good friends Hunter and Cooper to secure him some Illegal Marijuana 😉
This year, he's telling his parents Mark and Joanne that he's going skiing with Amanda and her parents- little do they know, he is spending Spring Break in Mexico with his Boys!
But wait- what's that? Crime Scene Investigation Federal Agents Chris Smith and Jack James, here to investigate an Urban, Inner-City Terrorism?
Sorry Tanner, it looks like Hunter and Cooper are going to be Living La Vida Loca without you THIS time. Special Agents Smith and James are sending YOU to Marine Fighter Boot Camp, to become the perfect Spring Break Special Agent!
Will Tanner be able to get his act together in time to Protect and Serve under His Nation's Best And Brightest? Or will he Fail to Protect the Greatest Country On Earth?
