Sweet Tea

She/they. Loves Cartoons, poc, and respecting women!!!♊🏳️‍🌈🎵✌🏾

[tea-tree-earl]

Quick reminder that Duke was NOT IN A GANG. Duke did NOT lead a gang. We Are Robin was NOT A GANG, and Duke DID NOT START IT.

We Are Robin was an activist group designed to protect gotham in the absence of Batman, and it was started and run by ALFRED PENNYWORTH, who recruited primarily low income kids of color (easy targets), INCLUDING Duke under the false promise of helping him find his parents who were jokerized at that time. We Are Robin was started to fill the void left behind my gothams missing heroes, not to forcefully take over a city like a gang or cartel.

And even when Duke fought people, he used his fists and his words, NOT GUNS. The only real time Duke was shown with a gun was when he disarmed Red Hood during a spar, and even then he didn't fire it!

So, any posts that make Duke out to be a gunslinging gangbanger not only go against Duke's character, but perpetuates harmful stereotypes that black people are still working to remove today.

So please, be better.

[tizeline]

Valentine's Day special! Featuring TSAU Capril!

I've mentioned a few times now that I've been planning for April and Casey to end up together in the AU. Romance isn't really a focus of a AU's story, so I haven't gotten around to drawing it yet, but dammit it's valentines now I want some sapphics

Anyway, I imagine they catch feelings for each other properly between season 2 and the invasion. Almost everyone are getting along well enough with each other and April and Casey specifically start growing closer. Casey specifically has no idea how to handle romantic feelings like a normal person and goes a little bit crazy with trying to impress April, to everyone's shock and horror is actually works.

Mostly Donnie's shock and horror though, let's be honest. He has High Standards for whoever his future sister-in-law is gonna be and Casey does not meet them lmao. He tries to recruit everyone else to join him in sabotaging Casey's and April's relationship, but he's not very successful so yeah he's kinda on his own with this haha.

[persehpone]

You good ?

[yannaryartside]

When you think about it, it's wild that Richie only got a share in the restaurant because of Sydney. He has been participating in mob activities with Michael and even asked Jimmy to get a bigger insight into the business in Fishes. He was told no.

He was offended that Mickey didn't leave the restaurant to him, and we know Carmy had a legal say in which person could be in the ownership of the place. So did Natalie, and neither of them even suggested it.

That's why he thought Sydney was doing it out of pettiness, because that's the way he is constantly being treated. Even if Donna also speaks of him as a son, and how much Carmy assures him he is more than a cousin, because yes, he has always been "one of them," but never on paper. There was always an invisible line, and he was right to feel it. Sydney basically signed the adoption papers Richie has been waiting for his whole life.

I love them so much

[aloneinthetwighlightzone]

my bear theory is that carmy is never gonna be satisfied with the lamb until he realizes his feelings for syd because he unconsciously ties that dish to her in his mind. He’s either gonna realize his feelings when working on it & leave to go tell her, or they confess how they feel and they’ll work on it together and he’ll finally be satisfied.

[bigsigma88]

☀️If you ain’t yearnin’, you ain’t earnin’! ☀️

Duke Thomas shares his tips n tricks on the loverboy hotline!

This is very inspired by those chaotic 2000s teen magazines, and it was really fun (and frustrating😭) practicing graphic design with the layout!

(Ive also been reading “Jason Todd’s Guide to Unauthorised Guardianship of One (1) Superpowered Teen” by NocturnalAnomaly on Ao3, and a scene in ch.5 inspired me to finish this GO READ ITS SO GOODDD!!)

These are the song names listed bcz some get cut off:

Can We Talk - Tevin Campbell

If I Ever Fall in Love - Shai

All I Do is Think of You - Troop

Breakin’ My Heart (Pretty brown eyes) - Mint Condition

Don’t let Go - En Vogue

Pretty Girl - Jon B

So Anxious - Ginuwine

Weak - SWV

Inspo pics below vv

[mellosdrawings]

Hey DC, do you know what you could do if you wanted another team of all black characters on top of the Power Company, AND wanted to make do on that surprisingly self-aware joke in WFA about how every single batboy (Bruce included) somehow ends up in a team that includes any combination of Amazon-Kryptonian-Speedster members?

BAM! Duke, Ace, and Tanya! Signal, Kid Flash, and Power Girl!

Ace and Tanya already showed in Deathstroke Rebirth that they can have a good chemistry, and Duke was literally made to be part of a community.

MAKE THEM A TRIO!

I'm not kidding when I say I'd sell a kidney for that.

~Commissions open~

[casscainmainly]

Okay Bruce LOVES Duke that is undeniable, but when Bruce screw up he screws up BAD. Thinking about this line from Bruce to Duke in Batman Secret Files: The Signal:

Obviously in Bruce's head this translates to "I have so much faith be all that you can be," but what he says is maybe the worst possible sentence for Duke to hear. Duke has repeatedly expressed being unsure about Bruce's intentions with him - that he's just an 'experiment', that he doesn't belong on his own merits (see 'Insecurity' section of this post). Bruce shuts this down whenever Duke brings it up, but then asks Duke to "prove the naysayers wrong" and to "prove my investment in you... correct." Bruce asking Duke to prove himself, to justify his existence as a Bat (and note the business-like use of "investment," obscuring any personal connection between them), throws all of Bruce's earlier reassurances out the window.

This quote directly follows Bruce calling Duke "Gotham's best," one of many superlative compliments Bruce showers on him. Duke, who is used to his parents' solid, warm, honest love, has to contend with Bruce's terrible communication style where he shows Duke so much admiration and then follows it up with "prove the naysayers wrong". Ofc Bruce intends this as motivational, but when Duke is bombarded from all sides (literally all the time) with people saying he is too weak for Batman, that he doesn't belong, Bruce asking him to 'prove himself' in any capacity is the last thing he needs.

Duke doesn't verbally react to Bruce's words, but Izzy says he "zoned out", and then look at his expression in that second panel 💔. Duke is not someone who hides how he feels, but he has already talked to Bruce about his feelings and has accepted his (I think genuine) apologies and promises multiple times over. Given this history, him not saying anything in Secret Files is kind of frightening (I am reading this as in character for angst purposes, though another post could argue this is OOC). It's almost like he's realising talking to Bruce won't change anything. This hopelessness gets worse at the end of Secret Files:

Bruce PLEASSEEE. He tells Duke to allow himself to heal (yay!) diagnoses his problems with We Are Robin (okay?), says Duke has mental scars (true), and then goes "can't wait for you to get to work :)". Of course Duke wants to go out again, so Bruce is likely trying to show support by being like 'you should heal but also you're independent I support you no matter what'. But again the warmth does not come through - it kinda sounds like Bruce needs him to overcome his mental scars and get back to work, back to 'proving' himself. Duke watches him walk away without saying anything, and then shuts down any conversation with Jay or Izzy at the end.

Look how sad and defeated he is in the second panel :((. And also see how Batman diagnoses his problems - he says that Riko & Dax feel like Duke 'traded one family for another', but that is not all Riko said. Riko called Duke a 'diversity hire', accusing him of selling out his neighbourhood, friends, and parents by siding with Batman. Bruce is unwilling or unable to comprehend the racialised and class-based issues in play, collapsing the issue into a 'trade' (which suggests the two sides are equal). Duke has always been aware of the fact of Bruce's privileged Whiteness, but Secret Files is the comic that maybe most explores how exhausting it is for Duke to love and be loved by someone who will never truly understand him.

[casscainmainly]

I wanna know the Duke thomas plotlines that went nowhere.

@natwrites-shit

List of Duke plotlines or elements that have been dropped or forgotten as of April 2026:

Dre being in Arkham juvie + Dax and Riko turning on Duke

His dad being an immortal magical being named Gnomon

Whatever the hell Gnomon was doing in Batman & The Signal

Doug Thomas' entire existence

Elaine Thomas healing + Duke living with her now (?)

Implied training with Shiva at the end of Batman & The Outsiders

Repercussions of the livestreaming in Batman: Brave & The Bold #10

Duke seeing 'Joker toxin serum' in Secret Files

Duke's relationship with Mr. Bloom/Daryl Gutierrez

All the other colours besides black in the Cursed Wheel

Duke's relationship with Isabella Ortiz

The tease in B&TS about Duke going to school

Danny pressing the signal Duke gave him in Gotham Nights #8

Everything in Power Company: Recharged

Duke's relationship with Damian Wayne, his cousin Jay, Dick Grayson, etc. etc.

This is not including some of the errors in Duke's continuity:

Elaine and Doug being listed as DECEASED (???) in DC Power 2024

Duke's invisibility powers. Is it from his SUIT or is it BIOLOGICAL and does anyone at DC talk to each other

Duke's powers being photokinesis when that was not his original skillset... I KNOW it's canon that Duke gets new powers but the way they absorbed his earlier more distinctive sight-based powers into just 'photokinesis' does annoy me if I'm honest

This is not including plot points that WERE wrapped up but in ways that I feel were not adequate:

I am 99% sure Tony Patrick did not want the Elaine missing arc he set up in Secret Files to be wrapped up in a two-part Urban Legends story, AND there are incongruities between what he set up and the payoff that make this whole arc really bizarre

Duke's shadow powers arc is absolutely baffling because it's set up (really poorly btw) that he gets shadow powers that suppress his light powers in Batman & The Outsiders, and it's resolved in ONE SINGULAR PAGE in Dark Nights Death Metal Robin King

This is what happens when they refuse to let Duke have an ongoing... save us Duke Thomas ongoing 2026 save us

[ditzyblues]

"got any plans for valentine's day, jones?"

casey's nonchalant alpha reaction: NO EW GROSS! AS IF!

[napp861]

Is this pie really that good, Duke? 🤔

Just wait till Jason finds out that Alfred's pie has already been eaten lol 

This is sketchy-art that I'm too lazy to finish, so I decided to share it now 

[nick-malc]

The boy!

[kishi07]

A little collab we did with @rufwooff

Big Mama: Sketch - me Line - @rufwooff Colour - me

Karai: Sketch - @rufwooff Line - me Colour - @rufwooff

[ninjasmudge]

as his bestfriend and big sister shes obliged to ragebait him at least once a week

[pinkfoolery]

I forgot I drew this but it still hold! Sakura you can do so much better than this emo freak pls

[castanovas]

happy mother's day, elaine thomas. you've never been more happier than now

[ashcremated]

Winter, spring, summer and fall, four seasons, four loves

(i did this art for the zukka week of a couple of years ago but zukka still real and true 🤟🔥)