Pro Tip:

i get so fucking frustrated by those fics where tim is being forcibly raken care of by the batfam. you know the type? when recently orphaned tim drake gets stuck with bruce wayne and then bruce just gets all weird and icky and parental and maybe it says sometHing about me that that type of interaction makes me so uncomfortable but it does. and i’m not talking abt fics where tim WANTS to be there. i’m talking like, Liminal Space (which is great you should check it out), where bruce just won’t let him leave.

like stop it! you are taking awya his agency! he is TRAPPED HERE! he does not WANT TO BE HERE! you are gross and icky and i know its supposed to sweet and fluffy and parental but ITS NOT its just wildly wildly uncomfortable. he is capable of caring for himself! i dont CARE if he “shouldnt have to” if he WANTS TO and if hes a legal adult (by age or emancipation) then LET HIM.

everyone talks about how YJ watched santa die but no one talks about how before santa showed up, YJ made a fucking suicide pact to take out the doomsday missile.

"DICK GREW UP AS AN ONLY CHILD AND GOT HIS FIRST SIBLING AFTER HE WAS A FUCKING ADULT! HE DOES NOT HAVE ELDEST DAUGHTER SYNDROME AND HE IS NOT THE SIBLINGEST OF SIBLINGS!!" i scream as they drag me back to arkham

i dare you to writr some soft percabeth fluff

debating whether or not to write some soft percabeth fluff

ao3 is being slow lately and its pissing me off because there’s a 50/50 chance when i click “kudos” nothing happens like let me appreciate a fic smh

i see no cons.

i volunteer as tribute.

This post is for ladies only. If you are a guy, GET out of here.

I bestow upon you this dagger. It is an ancient dagger. Use it wisely.

hey. hi. so.

might be a little obsessed with Tim Drake. this is not new. what is new, however, is the idea of timothy jackson drake being raised as a shield.

you know how some children are raised as weapons? that sucks. but weapons have a use. they're sharp, they're dangerous. sometimes they're respected in some capacity. some people have emotional attachments to their weapons. a weapon is valued for the threat that it is simply by being. a weapon is valued for the damage it can do. and that sucks. but a weapon is valued, pretty much automatically, because a weapon has a purpose.

but shields? their entire purpose is someone else. a shield is worthless without someone to shield. a shield is used until it breaks, and then it's immediately replaced. a shield is valued as long as it's stable, as long as it takes the hits meant for someone else. a shield is valued until it takes too many hits and it breaks. no one will repair that broken shield. it's never going to be as stable as it used to be. better to just get a new one.

anyways. tim drake is a shield, not a sword. at first he was shielding his parents reputation. then he was shielding Batman, both his reputation and his health- mental and physical. and he never stopped. he spent a year with the league of assassins to protect batman. to rescue him.

and when he gets back from that year? he's shielding Bruce by taking the brunt of work at WE.

to conclude: tim was raised as a shield instead of a child and i can't stop thinking about it.

ive got finals soon please god let this work

On Tim and Dick (specifically Dick giving away Robin):

Dick sees "graduating" from Robin as an honor. That is the source of most of his arguments with Bruce. Dick has spent so much time and effort trying to escape from Batman's shadow. When he "graduates" Tim, he sees it as an honor. An affirmation that Tim is Doing Good and has succeeded.

Tim sees "losing" Robin as failure. This is the source of most of his- I'm not gonna say arguments, but feelings toward- Bruce. He has spent so much time and effort to be deemed worthy to be even in Batman's shadow to begin with. When he "loses" Robin, he sees it as Dick telling him he isn't Good Enough. An affirmation of the bullshit Damian has been spewing about Tim's value as part of the group. (And I could rant about Damian and Robin and Tim, but that's for a different day.)

Back to the "Batman's Shadow" analogy: Dick became Robin in Batman's shadow. He was sheltered from the blinding light until he was old enough to take it on. When he was, Batman didn't want him to go. So he left the shadows himself. He sees being able to 'brave the light' as a victory, so he "rescues" Tim from the shadow.

Tim became Robin without Batman's aid. He became Robin with no one to shelter him from the light. And just when he finally feels secure in his role, just when he's granted a place in Batman's shadow, Dick shoves him back into the unforgiving light again.

Robin is a very complicated mantle with a lot of feelings attached to it, it's a very symbolic thing. Robin is not just a crime fighting vigilante, it is not just a suit, but it is- it is a place of belonging within the family. For Dick, specifically, Robin was to honor his dead parents. From the very beginning, Robin is for family. Jason uses Robin as a way to connect with Bruce and defend his first "family", the people of Crime alley. So in the second Robin, this idea stays clear: Robin is for family.

But with Tim? He wasn't family until the end of his run as Robin, but he still saw it as family. He was there for the origins of Robin, at the circus. He saw how Robin was for family.

And then Dick took it away.

notice how tim’s nightmare is being consumed by batman’s mission (batarang replacing hand) and no one caring. notice.