Hot New Take, I Love It.

This would be tough to see, because on one hand, yes, if Tim as a familiar presence calms Damian from his immediate state of fear/aggression, then that is good and preferable to safety holds and restraints.

What's bad about it is using another child as a pacifier and putting that responsibility on them when there are adults around who should have some training in traumatized kids. They live. In Gotham. It's been years, it should be in the teacher's handbooks by now.

So, maybe this could work for the first incident, but if it continued, then it's not fair or right to turn Tim into a teenage parent whose education, hobbies, and friends are being interrupted by (and the implication that they're seen as less important than) his brother's episodes.

There's a difference between looking out for your kid brother at school and being their sole support unit. It would not be a healthy environment for either boy.

If it were to get written, I could suspend disbelief for light-hearted fluff or reluctant brotherhood, but I'd really like to see it done by someone with a good grasp of real life CPP and New Jersey school policies. I'd really want to sink my teeth into the complexity of social work and student accommodations for a student in both Tim (two-school-shootings-and-counting!) and Damian's (Tiger Mom Assassin) situations.

do you guys think considering the relatively small age gap between Damian and Tim (depending on the author) that they would have been in school together? because coming from a youngest sibling who went to school with older siblings, that would be really interesting to look into.

i’m imagining Tim getting pulled out of class because Damian’s thrown a tantrum and refuses to listen to any of the teachers and they need his brother to convince him to calm down, and it actually working because Tim is the only person Damian is familiar with and so will ever listen to. Damian having no interest in making friends with civilians so he ends up sat on the end of Tim’s lunch table while Tim eats with his friends. Tim getting bullies in Damian’s class to back off, and Damian scuffing his foot on the tiles of the school halls as he waits for Tim to get out of detention so they can walk home together like usual.

considering how strained their relationship was when Damian first arrived in Gotham, putting him in an environment five days a week where suddenly Tim is his only true familiar ally and he has no choice but to accept being on friendlier terms would be really fucking interesting. suddenly Tim is his protector, and although he refuses to let that effect their home dynamic, he does have to accept that at school at least, he needs Tim to be his older brother.

Every time I see someone complain about Red Robin's design, specifically his cowl, and that it's ugly and makes him look old...

Honey, This bitch has no spleen? He is planning ahead for his sick days when one of the other bats has to dress up as him. The cowl will be useful. And it's probably got at least a little protection and padding, which is a good thing.

I want y'all to remember how goofy Bruce looked in Nightwing's uniform when he pulled body-double duty for Dick. The dude was noble, but he was not serving Nightwing.

(Plus, can Bernard can wear it and they can have a sex scandal to distract people at any point in time)

I am 100% convinced that Talia al Ghul and Dick Grayson don't get along because when she was dating Bruce she absolutely would make comments about how they'd be a happy family once they had a real kid together. Always when Bruce was just out of earshot, little biting criticisms about Dick being lazy, or unintelligent, or demanding. I think when Bruce was around she would bring up topics like boarding schools or press Dick on his future plans in a way that implied that he'd be on his own once he aged out of the wardship.

All that probably contributed to Bruce and Dick's crash out later in life, too. I believe Talia didn't want to be a stepmom, but wanted Bruce, so did her best to separate him from his son.

A lot of people like to say Talia is a good mom to Jason and I don't see it??? She had him trafficked across the world and manipulated him? She knowingly put him under the authority of people he'd then kill because they were doing some fucked up shit? Sure, she had some pretty advice for a few pages, but keep in mind that Jason basically has "susceptible to motherly influence" stamped on his forehead. At the very most, she is affectionate towards Jason. He's a well-trained pet.

Talia al Ghul loves one kid and one kid only: Damian. That's it. Even then, it's a fucked up sort of love for the fucked up sort of life she was born into. She doesn't have it in her to allow for any more vulnerability than him and Bruce. She's a complex, fascinating character. An excellent look into the psyche of the loving abuser. I want to read psychology journals based on her.

(Art is by the amazing @dahtwitchi. This is a freeform collab with no real goal)

The Tobirama covered in seals isn't the only one to react to that voice. The youngest goes still and stares at gvMadara, eyes wide and unaccustomed to his body reacting to...it's just a voice. He's only talking, but for some reason, Tobirama wants to listen.

SugarTobi shivers and presses closer to the eldest, the hand around his waist moving into a lazy groping as he nuzzles the man's neck. He keeps his voice low, and his lips hidden as he murmurs, "Shit, yours does that too, huh? If you want to put on a show for them...I can do that, but you need to tell me now..." He glances up and is riveted at the sight of the elder SugarMadara slowly peeling his gloves off. He swallows thickly, eyes following the movements as best they can, "Because otherwise I'm going to take mine out of sight for a few hours..."

The youngest Madara might be looking from the responding Tobis to his oldest self and back with something like respect, "Ah...I see..."

SugarMadara smirks at the both of them and finishes casually pulling his leather gloves off.

"They all do respond so well to instruction, don't they? I have found that mine tends to enjoy a more hands-on approach to lessons..." His eyes catch his lover's gaze and holds it as he brings his naked hand teasingly to his mouth. SugarTobi might whimper into his alternate's shoulder.

"Bastard, he knows I like to suck on his fingers."

(Art is by the amazing @dahtwitchi. This is a freeform collab with no real goal)

Madara looks surprised and turns back to his alternate, but it's the youngest version that speaks. "Ah, really? And you still were eying our lovers, big Brother, even knowing that mine is yet untouched..."

The youngest Tobirama narrows his eyes, unsure whether he should oppose the Madara's claim of him as a lover. He glances at his alternates and sees a hint of mischief in their eyes. Purposefully, he looks down and away, stepping closer to the oldest version's side as if shy and trying to hide. He keeps his face as innocent as possible as he glances through the fringe of his white hair towards the eldest Madara.

Sugar!Tobi smothers his own amusement as he steps forward to playfully wrap his arm around the eldest's waist. "Mm~ that would mean that you were my younger self's age when your Madara began to pursue you..."

I feel like at this point we should have more fics featuring them both. I want to see Canon!Red Robin aged Tim with his boat and his boyfriend and his lower-to-middle class upbringing meet up with Fanon!Baby Tim who is a rich preteen out stalking vigilantes at night and rummaging through the trash because his parents forgot to arrange for groceries for the next month.

Bonus points if Damian immediately likes the Fanon version of Tim better. For funzies.

Cannon! Tim Drake was less “super smart fanboy kid with a camera” and more “internet message board conspiracy theorist with a wall of red string who has undiagnosed adhd and anxiety” and I think we should really be talking about that more

Yeah sure fannon Tim being a cute kid with a camera is whatever but what happened to “I watched a kids parents die and it traumatized me so hard that I hyperfixated on him to cope and now I make conspiracy theories about him and also his family”

I would like to announce that my little brother is a little bitch (nongendered) and I love him dearly.

I was texting him about a recent tragic realization about strawberries. And this little fucker who stole my height and testosterone from before the womb goes:

Little Bro: so that's bananas, pecans, milk, and strawberries

LB: all hurt your mouth

LB: gonna need to Kevorkian you with a banana split in a few years at this rate

Anyway I called him a cunt and I feel justified in that action. We love each other very much.

And that's very much how I see current Tim and Damien's relationship with each other. It's fun to playfully hate on a sibling who can bite back. It's flyting, but without the poetry.

I remember seeing a post a while ago which message was basically that you should force yourself to like female characters even when they're written to be mid or even just poorly because it's part of unlearning sexism or something, like you need to "learn to like them", and man, I really don't like this stance at all, because what it basically says is that you should lower your standards when it comes to female characters. But there are absolutely amazingly written female characters that you don't need to "force" yourself to like because you just do naturally, because they're just written right, and it doesn't require "work" and "convincing yourself to care" or anything like that. It is absolutely possible to write them, and I'm justified in wanting more of them instead of "forcing myself to like" poorly written characters whose authors couldn't even force themselves to care about them on the first place. It feels backwards to me that many people expect otherwise and call it misogyny when viewer isn't willing to do the writer's work in places where writer didn't do theirs. I do appreciate it and think it's really cool when people take poorly written characters and remake/expand on them within a narrative to be actually interesting and multidimensional, it is really cool that people do that, but also you can't expect that every person who interacts with original media will do the same kind of mental gymnastics and additional work and accuse them of terrible misogyny when they're interpreting the characters the way they were presented to them in original material as is.

I spoke to a guy at a convention who had written a Batman comic for DC. Genuinely don't remember who or which. But he said that he didn't have to do any reading for backstory or anything. Writers aren't expected to match the character progression of the other writers.

As long as the story can sell and fit in with the other planned projects, writers have a great deal of control over characterization.

I cry everyday because WFA doesn't give us any Bernard despite the WFA comic audience probably being more receptive of him. The current plot in it frustrated me so much cause like why do we get scenes in Tim's apartment and Bernard never shows up?! It could've been hilarious with Tim trying to hide Damis pets from Bear! And then Bear could've been like Tim's apartment version of Alfred and made everyone cookies! What are the WFA writers doing?!?!

They SISTER CODED Steph and Cass, they are actually having CASS consider KILLING, I honestly don't want them touching TimBern with a fifty foot POLL because they'd somehow brother code, friend code, and kill them both.

Like, I loved the first two seasons of the comic, but now they're attempting to UNDERSTAND CHARACTERS THEY NEVER COULD UNDERSTAND TO BEGIN WITH!? But I also hear you because HOW do you exclude Bernard from EVERY MEDIA!!!??? I wish season three was like the first two seasons and I wish we got a lot more TimBern, I wish Bernard was at least mentioned, but alas DC comics are to afraid now to be what comics are, PROPAGANDA AGAINST SOCIETIES EXPECTATIONS AND THE GOVERNMENT! Which is really sad, because I feel like comic book writers from the 60 maybe 70-ish to 90's would've loved having more freedom to make female characters and queer representation.

I'm no history buff, but I know comics have always been woke and now it's like they're borderline afraid to be??? Tim and Bernard deserve more and better, I hate that it's seen as forced or boring and not compatible because Tim Drake: Robin was cancelled, nobody ever really gave it a chance it feels like. Cass and Steph should've kissed by now, I'm sick of this forced sister relationship the writers are trying to push on them. I'm sick of Bruce being abusive or a sweet Dad, like the writers nor fandom can comprehend what a complex character is anymore. Also, Kory and Dick should've been married, and I'm tired of pretending like they shouldn't be.

When I say if I had the motivation to binge read hundreds of comics and write a fic that completely rewrote Batman from start to finish I mean I wish I had the free time because I WOULD BECAUSE UGH I LOVE THE CHARACTER'S AND STORY BUT THE WRITERS CAN LITERALLY EAT BRICKS!!!

This went several directions, my bad, I'm just so pressed lately about these issues DC has and the lack of TimBern in my life U_U

I think I've been reading Bernard's name with the wrong pronunciation for years. I didn't watch many shows and I haven't played the games so I haven't actually heard the canon pronunciation of Bernard and now I'm having a light existential crisis.

Because the second way is how it's pronounced in my region and the first way makes me think of Bianca from The Rescuers.