Can you talk about your headcanons about the Wayne's? Please, would love to read everything!
Thank you! Have a great day!
Anon, you've made my whole day. I love the Waynes and love the snippets of them we get occasionally. A lot of my headcanons go very well with canon, but there are a few places I diverge.
So firstly, I have always headcanoned that Thomas was very worried about not living up to his prestigious family legacy. His great-grandfather built the city, and Thomas faces a lot of pressure to measure up. But, he's kind of an idealist and a little naive from his upbringing (as the prince of Gotham, as his son will soon become). Thomas likes tinkering with cars, is a little afraid of his family, and becomes a doctor to serve people. In my mind, he's a very hardworking (see: obsessive) student who gets bullied/pressured into attending a party after his finals, where he meets the beautiful, notorious party girl Martha Kane.
So Martha also comes from a very rich, very powerful old-Gotham family, but she's more paranoid and less coddled, and her family is tarnished by scandal and controversy compared to the Waynes. She's artistic and loves to cook, and knows everything about the city.
Not to mention, Martha is always an activist and philanthropist and at first, she's a little unimpressed by Thomas' talk, but lack of action.
I think eventually they manage to get married because Thomas is utterly charmed by her, and grows on her. Their marriage is a scandal that dominates the tabloids for a while. But they're a very passionate couple, who fought a lot (but patched it up fast, especially with Alfred's interventions).
Professionally, Thomas struggles in the early days to get WE to do good, but Martha holds him firm to the principles they both care about. So Thomas tries to leverage Wayne Industries into doing good for Gotham, and it's Martha that plays a key role in establishing clinics in the Narrows and convinces her husband to work in them, which inspires their rich friends to pay up and curry favour with them by supporting these projects.
I feel like Thomas and Martha balanced each other out well, both charming and good at making allies, and there was no way Thomas ever let anyone insult his wife, who was kind of mocked for the fervour with which she championed Gotham's social causes, given her husband's capitalist-driven wealth. The wealthy elite of Gotham adored them regardless, because they were a class act, and clearly very devoted and honest.
And when Thomas makes his friends with gangsters or whatever, Martha isn't put off by it at all, she's used to operating in those parts of Gotham and merely invites them to dinner. She makes Thomas do crazier things, and he helps her with her occasional paranoia or nerves.
And I've also always hc'ed that Martha has some form of mental illness, which was long-running in her family (I think there's ample evidence of that) and I also think that she's beginning to struggle with it around the end of her life.
I see them as pretty gentle and indulgent parents too. However, Thomas is frequently absent on his many different endeavours in the city, and somehow balancing managing Wayne Enterprises too (which Martha disapproves heavily of, as that's how Thomas and her were raised and it sucked).
Additionally, Martha's family wants her to use her connections with the Waynes to better themselves, however, I think Martha's firmly against that (hence also the cutting off the Kanes for most of Bruce's childhood/not letting them have custody).
