#meta: character development

[lysical]

new talent showcase: role call

I really liked the Role Call story because it wasn’t just good bonding, it had some great character exploration. 

From Jason identifying that he and Duke are of similar backgrounds and setting up a special training, playing at mentor in a ‘you know how the real world works, don’t always follow Batman’s rule or you’ll die’ way, to just waiting out the fake Joker’s attack to see if Duke would go for the kill shot like he wanted, to Duke going for the kill shot and what that might imply-- it was full of interesting exploration of these two characters and their parallels. 

They have a natural, organic chemistry as well which makes me hope that DC does more with them together. 

Linking Selina in at the end was also interesting, which might show that DC is really committing to keeping her close to the Batfam with this wedding thing.

[lysical]

This is weird but if Jason and Tim somehow did become friends or bond or whatever how would that even start? I was thinking bc they never give us anything on it in the comics (obviously bc they pulled it out of their ass bad writing and all) but like.. if they could some how bond how would that even happen??? I can't see it?

Realistically, I see them gravitating more to others. I fundamentally don’t see them as two people who would gel and become great friends naturally. They don’t have to, narratively it’s actually interesting to have teams and groups where not everyone is close or even likes each other. 

For them to get past the hurdles and start to bond, however much one decides they want them to bond, I’d do it either of two ways: 

1. Long term, slow development. They warm up just from having to suffer each other’s company so much and don’t so much as deal with the baggage as push it aside eventually. Much awkwardness and use of others as intermediaries. 

2. Extremely short-term, crisis-mode. Dump two characters who hate each other in a situation where they need the other to survive, add conflict, high stakes and watch the explosions. Intriguing mostly because they would be a interesting pair to deal with each other in that kind of scenario (realistically and without the new 52…whatever) and at the end you can either have that development stay or completely regress it, as wanted/needed. 

[lysical]

i know that dick has said he doesn't want to join the justice league permanently but do you still think there's a chance that he'd become their official leader one day? in post-crisis of course

I don’t know what reference that is from for him not wanting to lead it permanently, but it feels kind of the same as the late Post-Crisis ‘reluctance to be Batman’ which was used to engineer Battle for the Cowl. Nightwing, a pillar of the superhero community, as it’s inevitable leader is something that makes logical in-universe sense. There’s obviously a separation of Nightwing as a character in DC Comics vs how he’d be realistically in an organic world that lets characters age and change. At some point a fair few of his Titans friends were on the Justice League, so it’s not even a big stretch. 

Personally, even out of universe Dick’s functioned in team books better than isolated in a solo (half the problem is that the writers do end up isolating him away from his actual friends).