did you let me die in your arms in the timeloop
I keep thinking about this post. Did you let me? As in did you not save me? and Did you let me? as in did you allow me the comfort of your embrace at the expense of your own pain, knowing tomorrow I would be back and fine but you’d still be feeling my blood against your skin?
Did you let me die in your arms?
And when I break it's in a million pieces this song fits dick grayson so well its not even funny
Big bird's about to go on a date and asks his bros if he looks ok.
They got scared instead
What's better than the Trinity riding on unicorns, you ask?
Well, the fact that Batman named his Biscuits.
(Yes, I'm choosing to believe Clark)
SHUT UP I'M NOT EMOTIONAL about Bruce wanting Dick to give cucumber sandwiches a try, in part because things don't always come easily at first, that you have to keep trying and not give up on them when it's not perfect at first, but also because his own father loved them and Bruce wanted to share something of his own parents with this kid, that this kid who was already squirming his way into Bruce's heart as his own son, YOU'RE EMOTIONAL about Bruce wanting to share something his father loved with this kid he was already beginning to see as his son.
I love 80's Batman because he's coherent. Like there's this guy that after losing his entire family, started dressing up like him and killing criminals and instead of Batman getting mad and all hypocritical about it (like many others would), he just gets the guy and have his own version of softly saying "he get's it".
"Who am I but just another guy who thinks he's the Batman?
hate hate HATE film bros when they talk about batman… they’re like “he’s Vengeance. he has to step in where the police can’t.” like sweetie no that’s a deranged cop without a gun and without accountability (not that different from a regular cop then huh). batman hasn’t been vengeance since he took in dick as the first robin. he’s ALWAYS been hope since then. a batman that strikes fear in the children of gotham is a batman that shouldn’t exist
Batman (1940) #423
more for the collection
Detective Comics (1937) #568
Detective Comics (1937) #486
Batman (1940) Annual 9
You keep thinking, ‘If only I’d done something differently. If only I could’ve warned them.’ There isn’t anything you could’ve done. There isn’t anything either of us could’ve done. Your mom and dad? Does the hurt ever go away? I wish I could say yes. But it will get better in time, for you. That I promise.
Imagine the neck strain of looking up at the batcomputer for hours
How the tables have turned
thematically, Batman needs to be a good father. 'but he's the dark knight! but he's vengeance and the night! but he's a loner!' yeah sure whatever, but that's over looking several crucial factors of his story. Batman's real enemy is societal corruption, it's what killed his parents, it's what makes it impossible for him to only throw money at Gotham to fix it, it's the source of basically all of his rogues. and you know what flies in the face of societal corruption? kindness, compassion, a willingness to try to improve oneself. Batman fights it on the ground, dismantling large crime families as much as he stops muggers and rapists. Bruce Wayne fights it with money, with charm, with charities riddled with more good people than bad. the societal corruption Batman and Bruce Wayne is fighting is a wealthy, white, uppercrust aristocracy. and you know what's a part of that aristocracy? toxic masculinity and a near pathological refusal to be close to people. if Batman is really going to be a story about fighting against society and a rich man trying to use his privilege for good Bruce Wayne has to be shown fighting that influence even within his own home, by reaching out to his kids and being soft and sweet with them and not a bullshit toxic male fantasy that punches them in the face to prove a point (looking at the fucking court of owls dick grayson issue) he doesn't have to be perfect but he HAS to be more good than bad.
you can make the argument of Batman seeing them as soldiers and Bruce Wayne seeing them as his kids and the inherent conflict between the two but he has. to be. a good. father.
For real though.
I could pull put several comic and/or animated movie/show screencaps and clips that show Bruce Wayne AND Batman being a good father and showing/telling his kids that he loves them. (Especially Dick, Jason, Tim, and Damian cos some of y'all love acting like he's a shitty dad to one or all of them in particular for some reason)
Some people (fans and writers alike) put really heavy emphasis on Bruce Wayne and Batman being somehow entirely separate people. That Bruce Wayne is the "true mask" or whatever. But one Cannot exist without the other and still be meaningful. The whole reason Bruce Wayne became Batman in the first place was to try to keep what happened to him from happening to anyone else, and the best characterizations of him happen when he (and the writers) understand that the best way to do that isn't just going out into the streets at night beating up criminals in an armored bat costume. Batman is only able to accomplish his goal by also fighting against the circumstances and problems that lead to crime in the first place; and the desire to do that doesn't just come from nowhere inside a person.
Bruce Wayne took in Dick Grayson because he saw himself in him and wanted to keep him from feeling alone in the same way he did. Batman took on Robin to keep him from self-destructing to take vengeance on a grown man that probably would have ended up killing him. Both Batman and Bruce Wayne were distraught and lost after Jason Todd's death, something that he still (arguably) hasn't fully recovered from.
Batman/Bruce Wayne doesn't work as a character unless he has *compassion*. Gotham fucking sucks, and the only way it would make sense for someone to be a hero there is if they legitimately cared about the people in it; and that doesn't just come out of nowhere.
Bruce was loved by his parents before they died, and if he does all the things he does in their memory, then being a bad father/guardian/mentor would be completely out of the question.
you make it look easy. your speed. your agility.
favorite comic book character: six anything → fighting style
LITERAL CANON that Bruce makes Dick promise to get to safety if things go bad, even if it looks like he's about to die, Dick swears, YEAH I PROMISE OF COURSE :D And ten minutes later that chaos child is immediately not only breaking his promise, but diving face first into the literal firescape, dragging his mentor's 280lb of dead weight back to their Bat-tank, GETTING IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT DESPITE THAT HE IS TOO YOUNG EVEN TO HAVE A PERMIT YET and being like "jeez what're you so upset about?" when Bruce starts yelling at him for what he promised to do ten minutes agi. THAT CHILD HEARD "NO HESITATIONS" AND IGNORED THE REST, Bruce never stood a chance, that child could not be contained, honestly he's lucky Dick lasted ten minutes under that promise, TAKE WHAT YOU CAN GET, BRUCE. GOD, SOMEONE GIVE HIM A MEDAL FOR DEALING WITH THIS IMPOSSIBLE CHILD.
Anyway, I'm gonna cry about feelings how it's not just Dick pointing out what Bruce has built for his kids, how he's saved them, but that Dick is barging in on Bruce's feelings about his parents. The sacred, hallowed ground of Bruce's feelings about what his parents think of him--freshly thrown in his face, due to them actually being there via Time Shenanigans--and Dick stomps right over it, because that's how Bruce absolutely should be written: he's gutted by his parents' disapproval, but his kids' lives are just as important. Batman is driven by what happened to that eight year old little boy in Crime Alley, that's what started it, that's why he does this, to save others from what he lost--and that's why this conversation has such weight and meaning. Dick, the child who most mirrors Bruce's lost, forced to watch his parents die in front of him and forever wonder if they would be proud of who he grew up to be, the first one who barged his way into Bruce's life and brought new connection and new meaning, is the one who is barging right in on Bruce's feelings about his parents again. Dick is the one standing up to tell Bruce, yes, your kids matter to you just as much as your parents do. What you did for us is just as important as what your parents think of you, they'll come around and see that about you. And Bruce responds to that, because, yeah. His kids are just as important as his parents. The death of Martha and Thomas Wayne define so much of Batman's life, but equally as important to him are the sons that he saved, that he brought light back to, that brought light back to him. Batman's kids absolutely are just as important as his parents, they're just as essential to the core of who he has become as the one that created the Bat in the first place, and of course it's the first one who refuses to cede that importance, the one who stomped all over Bruce's isolation and grief in the first place, who shared it and understood it and still does, but also knows that what they have now is just as important. ANYWAY, BRUCE LOVES HIS KIDS JUST AS MUCH AS HE LOVED HIS PARENTS AND I'M NOT OKAY ABOUT IT.
