#robin!duke

[y0-yo-yo]

which robin would make a grown man cry the first by simply using words?

Dick Grayson

Jason Todd

Tim Drake

Stephanie Brown

Duke Thomas

Damian al ghul

they combine forces and end that poor person's life

Voting ended onAug 30, 2025

[cloudtaleblog]

Reverse Robins AU

If you're curious: Duke takes Dick's place, Steph takes Babs' place.

+ a steph doodle as an older batgirl

[pixiatn]

The Reverse Robin au except the first Robin is literally just a big chunk of Gothams youth population, like just several teens ranging from 13 to 19 dressed up in red, green, and yellow clothes committing mass acts of vigilantism, identifying as one individual. They're somehow organized as fuck and have a lil scheduling system which only allows 10 Robin's out per night. Eventually Bruce is like "ok this fucking ridiculous, we're choosing ONE Robin" and all the other Robins nominate Duke. And while this point forward (at least till a couple years later) Duke is Bruces only Robin, it doesn't stop Duke from having Robin family reunions in the Wayne Manor backyard

[msfcatlover]

Moonbeam Duke (Reverse Robins)

Duke was... tough. There's not nearly as many differing designs to draw on for him, and frankly I don't like a whole lot of them. I do like the mainline Signal costumes I've seen (both the black symbol w/ full-face helmet, and the glowing symbol w/ jaw exposed) but they really have more "Independent Hero" vibes.

(These designs are all dope, but not great sidekick material.)

Digging through reference images led me to realize that even in his Elseworld appearances, Duke almost always gravitates towards those knightly vibes. Boy likes his armor with a little fantasy-flair.

("Future's End" & "White Knight" a bit less so, but I still get cyberpunk-knight vibes from both—maybe it’s just me.)

Those that aren't all knightly tend to be stylized but durable street clothes, that are just out there enough to pass for a costume but could just as easily be worn by someone in their everyday life.

(Last one is this redesign by @sufroyo, but gods do I love it!)

Duke will probably want some of that knightly vibe, but Moonbeam is kinda my Robin figure in this AU; he needs to look like the less-experienced partner to Gotham’s Dark Knight, rather than a Knight in his own right. And I should combine that with his preference for practical, durable, almost-understated fashion.

So… streetwear-squire. Let's see what I can do.

First off, we can get both sets of vibes by starting with a gambeson as our base. Go for a shorter one to emphasize that jacket look, and while they come in a whole variety of styles, I think off-center clasps looks just a little bit more modern. I'd also say he doesn't buckle up his neck, giving it that popped-collar look Duke seems to like.

(Off-centered clasps, as well as a couple casually worn gambesons to show the kind of effect you can get. Duke's is definitely the kind that covers the hip to brush the top of the thigh, but given most people think of gambesons as being knee-length, that's still short.)

And, hell, if Robin can wear bright colors then so can Moonbeam. Using the "It'll help you learn to sneak better" excuse, Duke's gambeson is cream colored. (It also looks better contrasted to Batman's black.)

I like the idea of the gambeson having built-in gloves like in Duke's "Final Knight" costume, but I don't really like the look of Final Knight’s Duke design(s). Erm, any of them. I'd define the difference on the sleeves a little more by giving him hand & arm bracers to wear over the top, probably some simple pauldrons, and maybe a gradient on the arms from cream to grey.

(Not 100% on the gradient, just think the fully light sleeve might not work even with the bracers. Keep the metal simple & understated, though, and remember the lines in the sleeves are from padded fabric rather than any kind of wrappings.)

Still, that's a long stretch of one pretty plain color. The main body needs to be broken up, and Duke should probably have a bit more protection, but we don't want to hamper his mobility. Let's add a demi-brestplate (also called a demi-cuirass or "heroic armor") on top. That protects the upper chest without going past the rib-cage, to avoid hampering movement.

(I really, really like this fluted design, but can't find anything smiliar in a demi. I've also always liked the look of breastplates which are 2 pieces held together by straps under the arms. The last one is just to give you a better idea of the size/form of the thing.)

And a steel-grey utility belt, obviously.

(...I should probably mention, none of this metal should be highly-polished. It's not glinting like a mirror whenever Duke's not redirecting light away from him, it's just a step or two above matte-finishing.)

I'd say Duke's symbol is an iridescent/opalized circle right in the middle of his chest, representing a full moon (or the bat signal minus the bat.) So it looks white, but it shimmers rainbow when it catches the light. Probably has either a black or gold ring around it to help it stand out.

(A normal opal, and opalized glass with light shining through it. No, the ring does not seem to exist outside of pinterest.)

There's also a matching smaller "jewel" on the back of each gauntlet, and Duke claims he uses them to focus his light powers. Whether he does or not, I don't know.

I don't like the look of Duke's "We Are Robin" helmet in-context, but I think it could work here. Match the grey to the breastplate & gauntlets, match the stripes to the gambeson, replace the eye-slits with a thin, one-way visor, lose the ear-circles.

(I did consider having the colors be the other way around, but that felt a little too close to Ghostmaker's look for my liking.)

Give him some dark grey cargo pants, a pair of these sports boots (minus the logos), and some metal knee-pads to finish the look.

______________________________________________________________

A handful of these characters I do actually have a degree of costume evolution in mind beyond just changing identities; Duke is one of them. In this case, it becomes more knightly as time goes on.

In particular, I think Duke swaps the gambeson for a chainmail tunic and the demi-breastplate for a laminar chest piece.

(I like the short sleeve tunic style, and I'm picturing Duke's "White Knight" armor as the basis for the chest piece. I can’t seem to find any laminar reference photos that have that same look; I’m almost picturing a scapular, but made from metal plates.)

The sports boots become combat boots, the knee-pads & bracers get swapped for splint greaves & splint bracers over black leather gloves. The “jewels” are now on the back of the gloves directly, rather than the metal, as the new bracers don’t cover his hands.

He also adds the Bat ear-points to his helmet, adds a dark undersuit to the top to replace the sleeves, and generally ups the contrast by darkening the greys & either polishing the armor or painting it metallic white (if the latter, the chainmail is probably a light, brassy brown to make them pop.)

(These colors, I believe would depend on the artist; it seems like one of those things people would disagree on.)

All of which helps evolve the look toward the Signal's "motorcycle gear meets knight armor" mash-up.

[janestvalentine]

DC: So we’re doing a yet another Batman project, this time a kiddie show centred around his vehicles

Fandom:

DC: Duke and Cass are in it as Robin and Batgirl

Fandom:

[aalghul]

“jason and steph were barely even robin” “duke wasn’t actually robin” okay then why were they the BEST robins?

[incorrect-quotes-batfam-edition]

To Everyone Who Writes Reverse Robin AUs

Don’t be a coward. Make Duke the first Robin. Do it.

[pixiatn]

Au based I dream I had :p

Basically Duke is the 3rd Robin instead of Tim, Jason still has his whole thing about being replaced and wanting to kill his replacement and all that shit, until he somehow finds out (probably by stalking him, the fucking weirdo) that Duke (and his family) was also a victim of the Joker and is just kinda like "ah what :[" and is now torn between wanting to maim this kid for taking his place or maul the joker (and to an extent, Batman) for being a bitch.

THANKFULLY the hatred for the Joker is stronger and Jason takes a good long hard look in the mirror (or a puddle in crime ally) and kinda rethinks his whole thing with wanting to maul the hell out of this child and just takes a giant step back. This leads to Jason (stalking) watching over Duke from a distance on occasion. He thinks he's being sneaky as fuck but Duke knows he's there (bc of his x-ray/telescopic vision) and hes absolutely terrified but doesn't say anything cause Red Hood's not doing anything, he's just there several buildings away like,🧍🏽‍♀️

One night while Duke and Bats are patrolling separate areas, Duke gets cornered by a bunch of Riddler goons, and while hes doing relatively good on his own, there's only so much he can take, that is until Jason's scary ass swoops into help Robin, offering some advice to the young boy, banter, all that shit

After that night Red starts interacting more with Robin when ever he's patrolling on his own/is about to get jumped by a bunch of goons and it still terrifies/surprises Robin everytime he pulls up cause HOW and WHY is Red Hood in his corner

Eventually he figures out Jason is Red Hood and is just utterly distraught, while Jason is in the background like "hey best friend 😊"

They r a mess

Memes 4 the soul