oof, okay, sorry y’all, but I’m gonna.... have to delete all my asks... bc I just... cannot muster up the brain power to answer any of them. Again, sorry, but new opportunities will appear to send asks when I’ve moved everyone to the new blog.
I'm thinking about Dick's suits (more specifically the Nightwing suits) again, and I think I'm gonna ramble more on what I was getting at with this post, cause I do think the changes of his suit, especially the more modern ones, can be seen to have more behind them than just modern tastes changing
To preface, we all know how the Robin suit was based off of his Flying Graysons costume and the og Nightwing (Discowing my beloved) was based off of his father's older costume. I think it's pretty clear that those influences were central to the design of these suits. Dick grew up as a circus acrobat, dressed in and surrounded by bright colours and eye-catching costumes, it's really no surprise that he'd want to bring in these elements to his suits
But, the angle I think is interesting is how these suits could also be a reflection of him/his mindset in the eras he wore them. I'll admit right now, I'm gonna be working with my own interpretation of canon/timeline here, a headcanon or five tossed in, so feel free to take this entire post as more of a headcanon than an analysis. I still think the broad points are applicable no matter how you understand the canon/timeline, though, so hopefully it'll still have some value from that perspective. Now, onto the suits (below the cut cause damn this got long) (oh, and I know you wanted to see this @jorolle, here you are!)
Little Robin was bright and passionate, all emotions out and easy to see (at least compared to Batman), so alongside with the obvious influence of his costume, it really makes sense that his suit reflects that passion. He is a Grayson, originally out to catch the man who killed his family, but now bringing that energy and fervor to catching all criminals alongside Batman. A nod to his family that also reflects his mindset at the time
The change to Discowing comes with massive upheaval in his hero life, but not who he is as a person. He needs to disconnect from Batman, and he feels he has to leave Robin behind to do that, but he doesn't have to leave behind the influence his parents have had on him. So he leaves behind Robin, even the colours of his family's costume, leaves behind the 'era' of him being a sidekick, but he keeps an eye-catching outfit directly inspired by what his father wore. He's still a Flying Grayson, still a performer who wants to dazzle and entertain even as he fights. I'd also venture to say that, even despite all that he's been through up until this point, he's kept a fairly solid support network with the Titans that helps to keep him feeling like he has a grip on who he is, what he does, and why he does it
Then we get the modern Nightwing suits. The dark, mainly black with a splash of blue suits. I like to imagine he has two versions, one with just the bird emblem, and one with the fingerstripes (and thus more blue). To keep it simple, I'm gonna call them the Emblem suit and the Grips suit (since the fingerstripes are like gymnastic grips, which is important to this ramble/headcanon, I swear)
I personally like to imagine the Emblem suit came first, and came after what I like to call The Worst Year™ for Dick. My (extremely loose) interpretation of The Worst Year™ is it's the year Jason dies. I have no fucking clue what specific events happen that year too besides Tim becoming Robin because I desperately need to read the comics from that era, but I am aware that towards the later end of his involvement with the Titans (as a core member), his life starts going to shit. I know at minimum Mirage happens, he and Kory break up, pretty sure Donna dies too? And I think he quits? (I really need to wrangle my ADHD and read these comics, but I digress) Whatever events do and don't happen at this time, I'm aware that his life is starting to spiral downwards, so the angst gremlin in my brain said "put all these events in the same year" and I did. However, this change doesn't necessarily have to happen during The Worst Year™, but I do believe no matter what it's crucial that it happens when Dick leaves the Titans, and thus his support network
All of that context rambling aside, Dick has tossed away Discowing and taken on the Emblem suit because this is a point in his life where he's just really losing his sense of who he is, what he does, and why he does it. He knows it all logically, but the emotional buy-in has been whisked away by getting trauma after trauma dumped on him at the same time as losing his support network. He no longer feels connected even to his sense of self as a Flying Grayson, as a performer. He had his era as a dazzling performer, and it's come crashing down around him. Just as the Robin suit was attached to his time as Batman, the Discowing suit was attached to his time as a Titan and a rebel to Batman's controlling nature, and that time is over now. So he puts that distance between himself and that time, makes a new suit, but the influences from his family, from who he is as a person, are practically non-existant. No more acrobat costume influence, only the smallest splash of a bright colour because really, after all of this, he feels so dull. Of course, he still is a performer. He won't let anyone see how lost he feels. But the Emblem suit reflects it, and reflects this new era of his life perfectly too
I believe the Emblem suit sticks around from Dick leaving the Titans to him taking over the mantle of Batman when Bruce gets lost in the time stream (which I will be calling The Time Stream Incident™). What happens in this time? Fuck if I can give a clear, coherent, and fully canon answer, I once again desperately need to read these comics, and not just as random issues that pique my interest. But, I do believe that two key moments/events are Blockbuster/Catalina and Jason returning as Red Hood. I think the Blockbuster/Catalina event explains itself; his life has hit rock bottom, picked up a pickaxe, and kept digging downwards. His very first home, Haley's Circus, went up in flames, his apartment was blown up, Catalina happened, Bludhaven got nuked by Chemo (which I don't have the heart to use in my personal canon, but I'm aware it's canon and damn it it's good for making a point here), it's just an absolute shitshow, all while Dick is now also distancing himself from the Bats and cutting himself off from that support network too. Then at some point in all this mess, Red Hood pops up and it's a whole disaster he has to help with, and oh my god, Bruce has a tiny assassin child, and now Bruce is dead and... yeah, Dick is Not Having A Good Time™
So, all of this happens while Dick has his darkest iteration of his Nightwing suit, while his mental health continues digging down deeper and deeper, it feels fitting. It's a perfect reflection of how absolutely terribly he's doing and how lost and disconnected from himself he feels/is
I will give a brief honourable mention to his time as Batman during The Time Stream Incident™, because I do think it's important, even if the focus of this post is his Nightwing suits. Firstly, it is the darkest and heaviest suit he wears, once again a perfect reflection of how he feels at that time and the weight he feels he has to carry by continuing Batman's legacy because Bruce died. Secondly, the symbolism of wearing his adpotive father's suit and carrying on his legacy while feeling like he's wearing someone else's skin, it's too good not to mention at least in passing. But back to the Nightwing suits
The Grips suit comes about after The Time Stream Incident™. Dick gives Batman back to Bruce and focuses on trying to find himself again as Nightwing. I'm pretty sure a good chunk of character/friend deaths are undone at this time, so a support network is back and ready to make themselves his problem again (in the best way possible), and at least for myself, I like to imagine he takes a small pause in his vigilantism to just... break. He hides away somewhere, completely falls apart, and then starts to build himself back up again and reach out to a few others (Donna and Roy definitely, others I have no clue) as he does so. And as he does this, he feels his sense of self start to click back into place for him a bit. In a reflection of the darker mindsets he's been in and can never quite shake now, he keeps a base dark suit, but he lets nods to who he is as a person start to shine through again. Smaller, more subtle, but they're there in the finger stripes that mimic the gymnastic grips he'd wear as he practiced and kept up with acrobatics as he grew up, in the way he tries to add more accents of blue to his suit (I personally like to imagine a blue utility belt, mask, and feathered trapeze boot patterns on his boots, but that's just me) to bring back more pops of colour. He's still a Flying Grayson, and he still wants that to show in his suits, even if he's not as obvious about it as he was with the Robin and Discowing suit. He's tossing aside the Emblem suit era and all the trauma it symbolises for him, building himself a new suit and a new era that promises a return to his connection with his past, as subtle as those connections and symbols may now be
I don't want albums that sound scene-y. For a little while, you've been able to hear an album and tell what music scene it comes from. I want more records that just stand on their own.
Carlos O'Connell of Fontaines D.C. you have just described some of my favourite albums ever, including your own
3 seafoam, 5 stardust are currently on my hitlist. will i attack em all? probably not my energy varies drastically and i just have the goal of at least 4 this time since last time my goal was 3.
and i know better than to make massive scenes with backgrounds and stuff this time omo;; (burnt me out quick)
on another note if ur a mutual and have an a artfight, scream at me when you ACTUALLY UPLOAD SOMETHING- @bricc-the-brick I'M LOOKING AT YOU AND WAVING A NON EXISTENT STICK AT YOU
I WILL DO AMETRINE FOR YOU AT THIS RATE I SWEAR SO I CAN INFLICT "I DREW THE ORIGINAL PICTURE" ON YOU LIKE I DID FOR SPIDER
🌸｡*ﾟ+. Give this post a ♡ for a starter; Specify the muse you would like to interact with in the comments, and if you're a multimuse, specify which muse you would like it written for.
i love using songs to explain my muses because there's something so deeply jordan about this ... yeah
tfw your perception of yourself and your worth and the way other people perceive you is so deeply warped you have no idea how to conceive of the idea that someone might actually mean it when they tell you you're doing good & it must only be because you're doing something that serves them and their idea of what's right & good & has nothing to do with you & everything to do with their expectations ...
everything is transactional and Fake to jordan regarding affection, praise & love because he's never known it to be any different so when someone is being genuine it's like he can't hear them & like they never said anything at all ... yeah ... yeah !!!!! very hard for him to understand that when people say they're proud of him they mean they're proud of him for who he is and not that they're proud he's doing what they want ... as long as he listens and behaves and sacrifices everything for others he's good, perfect & wanted ...
i could go on about this truly but his perception of what it even means to be him is so warped because it took so long for him to even get a bit of the individuality he's been craving his entire life and it's so !!!!! he's always just been whatever other people want/need him to be and when he's not they're disappointed and their love disappears
