crowsaresocool
i'm insane about stuff. i also have know idea how this app works lol
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Latest Posts by crowsaresocool
"a girl is damned if she does, damned if she doesn't" - my professor
if this isn't stephanie brown......................
The Reluctant Victor, inspired by The Reluctant Bride by Auguste Toulmouche - I just thought that this painting was SO perfect for Katniss and I had to draw it!
for some reason, i'm thinking about an alternate version of events where haymitch figures out the gumdrops are poisoned before it's too late, and then spends the rest of his life taking the first bite of everything lenore dove eats. just to make sure. and of course he's paranoid.
it would be such a delicious parallel to snow. the man willing to poison himself to kill others vs. the man who's willing to poison himself to save someone he loves.
and then it's an even more powerful image, in a way, because katniss and peeta did it with the berries, too.
"batboys" where's duke
"robins" where's steph
"batman's kids" where's cass
No but the Hunger Games really said "what do you hate more- the atrocities or the people who commit them against you? Because like it or not there IS a difference. If you hate the people who commit acts of pure evil more than you hate the acts themselves, what will stop you from becoming just like your enemies in your pursuit of justice? What will keep you from commiting those very same acts against THEM when the opportunity arises? And what then? The cycle of pain and suffering will never stop. Round and round it'll go. Nothing will ever change. But. BUT. If you hate the atrocities. If you hate the vile, senseless acts MORE than you hate the people who did them to you. If you are able to see that evil is evil regardless of who does it... The cycle ends with you. No, you may never get justice. But you will never be responsible for making others, even your enemies, suffer the same crimes you have. The atrocities will never be committed by you, never by your hand. And that's the way you change the world. It's the ONLY way" and that's why I am sure it will never stop being one of the most relevant works of fiction ever created
thinking about how in the og triology katniss says her mother forbid her from singing "dangerous songs", thinking about how snow probally banned the songs of the covey to finally get rid of them, thinking about burdock singing them in his house to his daughters, thinking about katniss singing to prim, to rue, to the rebellion, thinking about how snow tried so hard to get rid of the songs only for them to survive everytime and with them the covey themselves, because as long as their songs get sung they can never be completly gone, can they?
His first real birthday
Can we talk about the attack on the Foxes and exactly how many triggers that's going to set off?
How much do you want to bet that Lane swung for Neil's ribs first because he'd mouthed off in the interview and revealed that Jean had had broken ribs? How long until Jean puts it together and blames himself for the fact that he and Neil now share matching rib fractures from the Ravens? (Neil doesn't care. He'd do it all again).
Andrew has a broken collarbone so bad it needed surgery, and he's going to have to wear a sling for several weeks. He's immobilized and unarmed (literally if he can't wear a knife on his injured arm. A knife in the armband of his working arm would do nothing because he can't draw it with one hand). And Andrew has an immense fear of being too weak to defend himself, especially with a broken bone to make him a target.
Kevin. He's finally grown a spine and this is the first time we see him literally fight the Ravens. He throws hands in defense of his Foxes, and Neil in particular, when Kevin from a year before would never have. But he saw Andrew, his protector, his shield, the man he promised he would make Court, with a hand dangling limp and useless at his side thanks to a broken bone. How many hours did it take before they got Andrew into an x-ray and saw that it was fixable? How long did Kevin stare at Andrew's limp hand, memories of Riko and his own broken bones going through his mind?
Allison was off the court, but that's the part that's going to kill her. Only she, Renee, Nicky, and the freshmen were off the court, but the freshman don't count. Allison had to watch through plexiglass walls as her team was hurt, unable to do anything to help, and she probably thought how many times is this going to happen? How many times am I going to be sidelined while my friends are hurt? how many times will I be useless in protecting them from the Ravens? (It's been one year since Seth died. Since Allison let him go out and lost him and she's never stopped wondering if things would have gone differently if she had been there that night.)
Nicky is also stuck outside the plexiglass, watching as Andrew is the first to go down. He remembers Andrew fighting for him outside Eden's, remembers how Andrew never regretted defending Nicky even when it got him put on those hated meds. And he can't help but feel like a useless guardian because he wasn't there when Andrew was attacked at Thanksgiving (he was the reason Andrew was in that house) and he isn't there now. All he can do is watch.
The Foxes have a long road to recovery and they've definitely survived worse. But with so many old scars torn open, this year might be just as rough as the last
love letter to cassandra cain (/wayne/gordon) and stephanie brown and barbara gordon. babs you will always be more than batgirl and steph you will always deserve robin batgirl and more and cass you will always be worthy of the batsymbol that means innocence and no-killing. my fav tech hero my fav robin my fav batgirl. they truly do it all
i got batgirl (2009) #2!!
also this is an awesome idea!!!
steph nation!! i've seen a lot of newer fans who only know steph from her (very watered down imo) rebirth appearances, and have bought into the genuinely distressing dogma that early steph isn't worth reading. so i want to celebrate steph's colourful history pre-flashpoint!! come play a game with me – spin the wheel to get a random pre-flashpoint issue where steph appears and reblog with your favourite steph panel from that issue <3
i got Robin #71!!
please help if you can
🚫Beware of PayPal links🚫 Scammers steal all the information and images and create a PayPal link.
I only have the campaign link on the Chuffed website.
✅️Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #381 )✅️
‼️ its time to help ‼️
🍉 The ceasefire was stopped 🍉
⚠️ don’t ignore my text ⚠️
I am Mahmoud from North Gaza, studying computer engineering. I was working in a programming company during my studies. I got married a day before the war started and I was living in my house with my wife, but because of the war, things changed and I lost my house, my job and my father. 💔
It is very unfortunate and now my family has no breadwinner, so I desperately need your help. My wife is pregnant and we are suffering from famine. My child is my only hope in this world. I am asking you for a small donation so that I can provide food for my pregnant wife, please
✅️UPDATE 17/01/2025✅️
After the ceasefire in Gaza, hope has returned to us once again, giving us the strength to rebuild our lives.
now my wife is five months pregnant. She requires full care, including medications, vitamins, and medical attention.🤰👼
I beg you to help me and save my first child.🫀
My hope is for my child to come into better circumstances than these.
It is incredibly difficult for a child to be born in a tent, in the worst conditions, surrounded by insects and germs.
Please, help me build a new hope for this small family 👨👩👦
please make a donation 🙏
any amount will make difference to us
$0 Raised Of $30,000
sometimes i think about cass and how to her father figures she has always been a daughter second and the perfect tool first:
david cain, who saw her as The One Who Is All, his perfect assain
batman, who sees her as himself Batgirl, his perfect soldier
what if instead of cassandra cain it was cassandra sane and she decided to be mediocre for a life time
i would tell you who this is but that's a spoiler.
Stephanie Brown ACTUALLY having the character arc that fanon pretends Jason Todd had (plus a defence of canon Jason)
What I'm really saying is that Stephanie Brown is underappreciated, Jason Todd is often misinterpreted, and, though it should go without saying, ignoring canon is poor media literacy. So let's actually analyse canon and get to the bottom of what the stories are trying to say and how they use their characters to tell this, as opposed to just which character should we stan.
I'm arguing that Stephanie Brown's story actually features a redemption arc that sees her transform from a violent, almost murderous teenager into the most unwaveringly hopeful of heroes and that Jason's story is about a villain who we're meant to empathise with to expose the cracks in the Batman's heroic facade; a Frankenstein's monster if you will. Here's a numbered list:
Part 1: Outgrowing Violence, Anger and Murder
A big part of Stephanie Brown's growth in canon is her learning not to kill or use excessive force. But it's not as simple as just killing is wrong, don't question it.
Let's begin with the narrative's relationship to violence, anger and murder. Why doesn't Batman kill? Because "[those] who [fight] with monsters might take care lest [they] thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you". If he kills, he's playing god, choosing who gets to live and die. No one deserves that kind of absolute power and absolute power also corrupts. Batman doesn't want to lose sight of himself or his cause. Deliberate murder is treated VERY negatively in the Batman mythos.
Enter Stephanie Brown.
Stephanie was a working class latchkey kid who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. She had an abusive, criminal father, who was in and out of jail, and a mother struggling with addiction, who Steph became a carer for at just 15. Steph also became pregnant with the child of her horrible ex. At 16, she gave birth to that child and had to give her up for adoption. Steph is also a survivor.
The world was never kind to Steph and left this teenager with a hell of a lot of bitterness and rage which her vigilante career became an outlet for. You can tell by the way she fights since Steph fights DIRTY; she'll tug hair and spit in your eyes and strike below the belt and catch a kick to twist your ankle and dislodge your already broken nose. On the one hand; the narrative tells us Steph is resourceful. She's 5'5", 130 lb and has zero powers, but can always find an opening even when going up against Gotham's grizzliest. It's telling that quick thinking, savviness and spontaneity become her thing when she becomes Batgirl; Steph is the wild card. On the other hand, she was a real diamond in the rough and a complete loose canon. In her first arc, it's Batman who stops her from making the biggest mistake of her life; killing her dad. To deliberately kill; to play god, is to lose yourself, remember. Her first arc is about not being defined by who your parents are and about not giving up on yourself. Batman basically tells her, there's hope for you yet Stephanie Brown, by getting her to spare her dad. And she does. And so began her superhero career.
Nonetheless, it's never that simple. Steph is still a bitter, angry teenager, no matter how many jokes she cracks. It becomes a personal crusade when she, now Robin, discovers that The Penguin is using children as runners. It takes Cassandra Cain to stop her from inflicting anything she may regret.
The narrative wants to show us how cruel the world can be and that it isn't black and white, either. The story ends with an angry Stephanie lamenting "why". It's a "why" she is asking herself too. Why does she do what she does? And it informs us that she, and maybe us the reader too, still have a lot to learn. Murder's not the answer but what is?
Stephanie later saves Bruce by almost murdering serial killer Victor Zsasz. Bruce reprimands her and she cries, quite honestly, "I don't get it, I really don't", following on from where we left off in Batgirl. "There are always other options than to kill" asserts Bruce, forget not being on the same page, they're reading different books. The thesis of the story is what Bruce should have told Steph when she was an angry 15 year old about to murder her dad; "[those] who [fight] with monsters might take care lest [they] thereby become a monster". The world's cruel, Steph, but that doesn't mean you have to be too. "Are you firing me?" "No, I'm teaching you".
Over 2 years down the line, an around 19 year old Stephanie, establishing herself as the new, hoping-inspiring Batgirl, is now teaching a brash Damian Wayne what she's learned.
"To murder or not to murder" is just a plot device to the themes of overcoming your own anger at the world's cruelty to contribute good, coming to terms with shades of grey, not giving up on yourself and staying hopeful in the face of adversity and horror. These are Stephanie's arcs and as a consequence, she goes from would-be-murderer to Gotham's cheeriest caped crusader.
Part 2: Double Standards and Second Chances
Another huge part of Stephanie's story is her overcoming double standards and doubters, to earn her own second chances. Her resurrection and rise to the role of Batgirl were choices made to hammer home this theme; it's never too late to turn things around.
There's some juicy metatext to analyse here too. DC editorial's treatment of Stephanie during War Games was horrific and panned by both fans and writers. To reperate for these harms, Steph was retconned back to life and then made Batgirl during Batman: Reborn. Here's a quote by Batgirl (2009) author Bryan Q. Miller on what his run aimed to bring out of Steph:
The whole point of Stephanie's resurrection and take over of the Batgirl title was to give her a redemption arc.
In text, Stephanie was unfairly treated too, notwithstanding that she was brash and had a massive violent streak in her Spoiler and Robin days. Tim Drake constantly condescends her and tells her to give up vigilante life, even though she was ALWAYS a match for Tim according to Convergence: Batgirl. Cassandra Cain constantly underestimates Steph. Bruce Wayne tells his allies to cut off ties with Steph and then later fires her as Robin for DISOBEYING HIM as if that's not the first thing Dick Grayson ever did as Robin. Barbara Gordon tells Steph she has a death wish. Dick deems Steph too reckless (moments before he resurrects a zombie Batman). And Damian is an entitled brat who gives her a hard time for no reason. Everyone doubts Stephanie and it generally says more about the doubter than it does Stephanie.
Stephanie was never great with authority or criticism so she still went out there and earned her second chance. And it felt rewarding when her doubters came around too.
Stephanie was brought back from the dead to be redeemed and man did she take that chance!
Part 3: What is Jason Todd's Story Meant to Tell Us and My Defence of Canon Jason
Jason Todd returns from the dead as a ghost of Batman's past; he is the living embodiment of Batman's greatest mistake who couldn't stay buried and is back to haunt him. He's a character we are meant to empathise with but he's a villain nonetheless. He's not irredeemable but for the most part his story is not really about redemption. Succinctly, it revolves around the idea that "we are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell” to quote Oscar Wilde.
When we first meet the resurrected Jason, he's a cold-blooded murderer who's slinging guns and using The Joker's old moniker. These choices are made to emphasise that he went down the wrong path; he's breaking Batman's "don't play god" rule and his actions become eerily closer to those of the Clown Prince of Crime than Batman's. In fact Nightwing and Batman spend some quality time together in the next two issues because Nightwing is the foil to the Red Hood; he's what Bruce considers his greatest success. Remember that thing about "those who [fight] with monsters might take care lest [they] thereby become a monster"? Well Jason DID become a monster. And if he's the monster, then Bruce Wayne is Frankenstein.
We're not supposed to think "yes, kill the The Joker, Jason", we're supposed to think "good god, please Jason, it's not too late to turn your life around". Here's Dick and Jason being the exact opposite of each other, an issue apart.
So what was Jason's villainous return trying to say? For one, that people are the products of their circumstance, lest we forget Jason was once an eager and studious Robin who just wanted to be part of something greater when life, but specifically Bruce, sent him awry. This is also a story about Bruce which tells us says that our mistakes have consequences that don't stay buried, and that we will always be forced to reckon with our histories or it becomes everyone's problem. This next panel shows this best. All of Jason's killing and torture and fear-spreading and chaos does not come down to some "murder or not to murder" debate, it comes down to his relationship with Bruce. He is the monster that Frankenstein created who's back to haunt him and no one is safe.
Jason's initial Red Hood arcs were never supposed to pose the question "should Batman kill The Joker or not?". The answer is no and always has been. They are supposed to show us how Bruce's poor fatherhood of and partnership with Jason Todd led to all this horror. And Bruce can't turn back the clock, he has to reckon with the consequences of his actions in the present or more people will get hurt. It's significant that these first arcs don't end with Jason returning to the manor and seeking help surrounded by family.
We then see Jason and his issues with Bruce threaten the lives of others like when he beat Tim half to death twice, tried to blow up Mia Dearden and then tried to become a murderous, gun-touting Batman after Bruce's "death".
Once Dick Grayson becomes Batman, the narrative sheds a bit more light on how Bruce's Frankenstein created a monster in Jason; Bruce wanted Jason to be another Dick Grayson.
The red hair is a perfect metaphor. Jason is naturally red-haired and he is now balding because Bruce made him dye his hair black so he'd look like Dick as Robin. That sums it up for me. Bruce really created his own demon here and Dick, as the new Batman, is trying to make amends with the sins of the Batman's past. Jason's a great choice for a Dick Grayson villain because of their histories, considering Dick Grayson is the legacy Batman.
"I tried really hard to be what batman wanted me to be...which is you." Jason tells Dick.
That line is so painful and way more recognisable and relatable than anything fanon has produced.
"But this world...this dirty, twisted, cruel and ugly dungheap had...other plans for me."
Look no further, this is who Jason Todd is.
That's a powerful story if you ask me, and this is why I like Jason Todd as a character; a villain I pity deeply, who is portrayed as a product of their circumstances without diminishing their agency and who makes me see the cracks in the hero's facade because they are the monster our "hero" created. He's also a very nuanced foil to the ever-shining light that is Dick Grayson. The appeal to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein isn't that the monster murdered people. I also would never swap canon Jason out for, I dunno, Wayne Family Adventures Jason who's the amalgamation of 3 or 4 common fanon tropes. This is my two cents.