I’m So Obsessed With How Martin Blackwood Casts Himself As Pylades/Horatio/Samwise Gamgee, Deciding

the levels of deranged evan has reached just to not be gaslit on this cursed ass tv world... not on prime time baby

Soren tries to fall off of the Storm Spire. Which is where Viren died the first time.

Something about how Viren met his doom there because he was so focused on gaining power. He was perpetuating the cycle of violence. He was using people as his pawns, manipulating them, and being manipulated and used as a pawn in return.

On the opposite side of that, Soren broke free. He broke free from his father’s manipulation. He broke from the cycle of violence and abuse. He helps others and lets them help him.

(The rest is under the cut because this got out of hand)

Rayla literally shoves Viren off of the mountain. But she gets rescued because she broke from the cycle.

Viren falls. There’s nobody there to catch him.

Soren is chasing after Claudia. Somebody he has always chased after, when given the opportunity. “How easily he’d chosen to chase the dark instead when he’d found his sister still lurking there” and all that. He admits that in the moment on the Storm Spire in season 7 he’s not sure if he’s chasing her in an attempt to harm her or what.

But regardless, Soren is not alone. He has people who care about him. He has Corvus. Somebody he’s not afraid to rely on, lean on, ask for help. He doesn’t have to use people to help him, like Viren did.

Corvus and Soren at the beginning of S7E2:

“If you were in trouble, why wouldn’t you just yell, ‘help me!’”

“That could be anyone asking for help. The whole point is that if you hear ‘rickety snickers,’ you’ll know it’s me. And it’s serious.”

And what does Soren shout later on in that episode? “Rickety snickers.”

And who is the first person to show up to help?

Corvus.

Something about how Soren could so easily have ended up like Viren. Alone, falling off the side of a mountain. But instead, Soren changed over those past years. He grew into a better person. He trusts those around him. He believes someone will have his back, even without turning around to check.

“I got you.” “I know.” Actually sums up Soren’s character growth quite well.

something i adore about mismag2 is how aabria has repurposed the never stop blowing up system’s potential for insanely high rolls to have a completely different tone. in action hero land, the busted rolls were comedic and unbelievable. they switched on looney tunes laws of physics and made the players laugh at the absurdity. in mismag, with the process of breaking their items to push and succeed, in the intensity of stakes and consequences that aabria is so keyed into, rolling a 100 feels not stupid or ridiculous, but awe-inspiring. it makes you want to stand up and cheer and tear up at the feeling of magic itself. the crazy high DCs at the beginning and a blown up arm set up the weight of the miracles these people are trying to work, so that when we come to episode 10, we understand the sheer command that the characters have come to grasp over their environment. we believe that they can do the impossible, and with a bit of luck, we watch it happen. i love this world and this story so much.

Eddie posts a Tiktok of old home video. In the video, Steve is standing in the kitchen at the trailer with the phone wedged between his shoulder and his ear as he made coffee for two.

Someone must’ve answered because Steve perks up and says, “Hi, yes. I’d like to request a song. It’s - yes, the new Corroded Coffin song called….well, how was I supposed to know you have caller ID, Christine? Can you play the song or not?”

Steve hangs up the phone and immediately picks up his walkie-talkie like, “Earth to Dustin, use *67 when you call. They’re memorizing phone numbers. Over.”

Eddie behind the camera says with so much amusement, “You do this often?”

Steve smiles at him, finally bringing the coffees over to Eddie, “Every day. Gotta get your song out there so more people can hear it.”

Masterlist of Comic Knowledge Posts

(To be expanded upon as new posts are made, but for now, here’s a place you can find any big questions I’ve answered or comic info I’ve dug up)

DC Timeline Powerpoint

Batkid Nicknames Powerpoint

Batkid Hero Names/Undercover Aliases Powerpoint

A Crash Course in the CW Arrowverse

What Was Jason Like As Robin?

The Significance of Jason’s Bat Symbol

Damian’s First Canon Interactions With Each Batfam Member

The Brady Bunch

What Instruments Do the Batkids Play?

How Tim Lost His Spleen

When and Why Tim Changed His Color Scheme to Red and Black

Batkids + Major Injuries

The History of Damian’s Skin Tone in Comics

Is Dick White?

Crash Course on Bart Allens’ Death

The Batkids + Swearing

Duke Thomas’ Personality and How to Write It

My Cringey Old Tim Drake + Depression Masterpost

“I Don’t Hit My Kids” Yeah Okay Old Man

If You Were Wondering Whether Dick and Tim Like Pineapple On Pizza, the Answer is Yes

Remember the Time N52 Bart Was a Psychopath

Batkids + Their Last Words When They Died

Every Panel of the Batkids Referring to Each Other As Siblings That I Could Find

Damian and Selina’s Current Relationship

Tim is a Health Nut

The Aftermath of Bart’s Death

Every Panel of Bruce and Dick Being Referred to As Father and Son That I Could Find

Every Panel of Bruce and Jason Being Referred to As Father and Son That I Could Find

Every Panel of Bruce and Tim Being Referred to As Father and Son That I Could Find

Every Panel of Duke and Cass Being Referred to As Bruce’s Children That I Could Find

Bruce’s “Death” and Battle For the Cowl Explained

The Confusing History of Ra’s and Talia’s Eye Colors

Jason Suffers From Chronic Pain, Y’all

Damian Nicknames

Wally West’s Dating History

That Time Dick Was in the Mob

What the Public Knows About Jason’s Death

Why Does No One Remember That Dick Was Raped When He Was 16

The Dark Origin of Jerry the Turkey

The Batkids + Mourning Each Other’s Deaths

Jason is a Canon Book Nerd

No, Dick Did Not Try to Throw Tim in Arkham

Dead Robins Club Members

Bruce + Calling the Batkids His Children

Which Batkids Have Been Raped/Assaulted?

Talia al Ghul Before and After Grant Morrison Got Their Hands On Her

All the Times Tim Was Down With Murder

Tim Not Sleeping is a Canon Thing

FOR THE LAST TIME, JASON WAS INDEED THERE DURING BATMAN: HUSH!! IT WASN’T CLAYFACE THE ENTIRE TIME!!!

Batfam Deaths and Resurrections: A Timeline

All the Barbara Gordon (w/ Batfamily) Hugs I Could Find

All the Bruce Wayne (w/ Batfamily) Hugs I Could Find

All the Cassandra Cain (w/ Batfamily) Hugs I Could Find

All the Damian Wayne (w/ Batfamily) Hugs I Could Find

All the Dick Grayson (w/ Batfamily) Hugs I Could Find

All the Duke Thomas (w/ Batfamily) Hugs I Could Find

All the Jason Todd (w/ Batfamily) Hugs I Could Find

All the Stephanie Brown (w/ Batfamily) Hugs I Could Find

All the Tim Drake (w/ Batfamily) Hugs I Could Find

Dick and Damian’s Relationship

The Timeline of Jason’s Death and Resurrection

The Timeline of Jason’s Return to Gotham

Tim + His Parents: One Big All-Encompassing Post Covering Tim’s Relationships With Jack and Janet Drake

Tim and Jason’s Pre-52 Relationship + Jason’s Winning At “How Many Times Can We Try to Kill Tim” Bingo

Jason is Good With Kids

Dick and Cass: Canon Interactions

Is Tim Really Into Photography?

Tim Being Depressed/Suicidal

Dick Grayson and Tarantula: A Hella Toxic Relationship

timkon stans stop tagging(!!) and whining about bernard challenge impossible

three of swords (heartbreak, sorrow, grief)

plus the lines because i still prefer the clean look of it

At least two major artists (Lady Gaga and Chappell Roan) making a point to vocally support trans people the Grammys is a big deal in this political climate.

I love the trope that Damian is always dropping Jason lore on accident to an unsuspecting bat family, but I raise you this: Damian starts dropping little facts bc he's pissed that the rest of the bats are so clueless when it comes to his brother

-

Jason: idk why Alfred started making more italian lately but this is the best week of my life

Damian, who recently informed the family of some of Jason's favorite recipies: maybe he's having a phase

-

Jason, off-handedly to Damian exactly one (1) time: yeah, i just run cold these days, side effect of being dead I guess

*several weeks later*

Damian: hello

Jason, staring at the frankly appalling amount to soft and cozy blankets piled in the living room: hi????

@sasheneskywalker i love when you enable me to ramble about things because oh my god do i have thoughts.

so recently, i made a post discussing the phenomena of DC x DP and DC x MLB crossovers and why they exist and part of that post was discussing how largely speaking, at least half, if not more of the Batfamily fandom doesn't read the comics. if they interact with canon DC material, it's adaptations that are their own sequestered universes and oftentimes not remotely comic accurate or seeking to be. the most obvious example is the Young Justice cartoon. i'm adding a cut to this post because it just got so long i'm so sorry.

a lot of times, when people are discussing the "why" of this oversaturation of fanon-only fandom, they blame Wayne Family Adventures. and i think, to a point, i agree WFA is responsible for a boom in this fandom. but as someone who's been in the fandom long before we had WFA, to me it's the other way around. WFA was DC's way of meeting the demand for this easy-to-get-into, easy-to-consume content about the Batfamily that predicates itself on the comics just enough to be vaguely the same characters, but has a more sitcom, slice-of-life sort of vibe so DC could profit off of this section of the fanbase that otherwise wasn't consuming its primary material. and well, it's definitely worked. not only that, but i have a weird theory that the decline in the MCU also led to the rise in the Batfamily fandom. when you consider the fan content that made the MCU popular within fandom, it's that 2012 "they all live in Avengers Tower and Thor is eating poptarts and Clint is in the vents and there are movie nights every Friday" sort of vibe. those were the fics that were a hallmark of the fandom. and as the MCU has strayed from well... quality content in general, but specifically well-thought-out crossover content where characters can have their own arcs but also exist in a wider story where they clearly care about each other, that fandom was sort of homeless. so where do you go, if you like a superhero found family where you can have villains for angst but also stick them all in one big family-like home for silly crack and have a plethora of options for gay ships? well. you go to the Batfamily. if you write a crack/fluff Batfamily genfic with silly vibes and low stakes instead of say, a fic about a very specific comic issue even if it's a popular comic, you're *going* to get more traction for the former. because the fanbase largely just isn't reading the comics.

and i feel... complicated about this. because on one hand, Don't Like Don't Read has been a tenet of my fandom experience. i'm very pro-fandom and that includes fandom content i don't like. and to an extent, i do think this sort of should apply to Batfamily fanon. i enjoy having my moments with other comic purists, giggling over exceptionally painful OOC headcanons or even facepalming in pain over some content but it is on me to not interact with that content. you don't make fandom a better place by being hostile to fans who engage with canon in ways you don't approve of. and frankly? we as comic readers are not going to get non-comic fans to read the comics by being asshats to them. no one is going to want to pick up any comic if we get a superiority complex about it. and also, i feel like we're all lying to ourselves a little bit insisting comics are so, so easy to get into. they're not. we can just all agree, they're really not. i've been single-handedly helping my sister get into comics, specifically Wonder Woman and no matter how simple i make it, i watch her get frustrated trying to understand what pre-Crisis and post-Crisis and New-52 and Flashpoint and all these things mean and what a retcon vs a reboot is and what a Crisis Event is and what the hell Diana's current backstory even *is*. sure, you can give someone a beginner list of comics to start with and slowly dip their toes in the water but sooner or later, *something* is going to confuse them. comics as a medium straight up aren't going to be everyone's cup of tea. and if someone *just* wants to read silly fluffy fanfiction about the Batfamily, i can't entirely begrudge them for not wanting to take the hours and hours out of their day to understand this medium. it's not an accessible medium to get into. "read this and this, but this run is out of print and this run wasn't collected in trades at all but also make sure you read that event in order and this is a good comic but the backstory in it is retconned and you *have* to read this it's so important but it's also really bad because the author kind of sucks" sounds. ridiculous for someone who like. just wants to read some stuff about Nightwing. sometimes, we all make reading comics sort of sound like a chore, not a hobby.

so my point is, i do extend some grace to Batfamily fanon for existing. i think my biggest gripe is, as i said in my other post, misuse of tags (if you're not creating content about comics, maybe you don't need the comics fandom tag on Ao3, just the all media types umbrella tag) and my far bigger gripe: when panels are taken out of context to support fanon only headcanons. if i could impart *anything* onto the Batfamily fandom as a comic fan it'd be this: if you haven't *read* the comic, don't spread the panel. if you don't even know what comic it's *from*, don't spread the panel. it's fine to use comic panels to discuss your headcanons, but so often i see someone spreading a comic panel from a comic they haven't read, and when asked where it's from, they can't source it. a silly example that comes to mind is a post going around, taking a panel where Dick, in his internal monologue goes "here comes the sun. do do do do." and the post is claiming it's from him getting buried alive. when that panel comes from Nightwing (1996) #140, and he gets buried alive in Nightwing (1996) #127, two completely different moments frankensteined together. if you're going to not read the comics, that's completely fine, but unless you're sure of the source and the context, panels shouldn't be spread around. i'm sick of this specifically happening to Red Robin (2009), with ppl claiming Tim has totally killed people because he blew up some of Ra's' bases, when those panels within context, make it clear he gave everyone time to escape. and in a later arc in that very comic, Tim grapples with the idea of murdering Captain Boomerang, and *specifically chooses not to*, because he doesn't agree with murder, even against the person who has hurt him the most. if you'd like to write fanfiction where Tim is pro-murder and has done some sketch things, i'm totally on board and would probably like to read it. but there's no need to pretend it's canon from a few panels you saw out of context.

beyond that, i think it's not *entirely* correct to say that fanon is harmless. whenever i see very WFA-positive posts, they often default to the argument that WFA is fun and silly, and comic fans are killjoys for not liking it. which. i think is complicated because the issue is, WFA and fanon don't exist in a vacuum. if you like WFA power to you, i don't think it's the worst thing ever, but i do think it's degrading to these characters because honestly? they feel incompetent in the webtoon. it's one thing if WFA was solely a slice-of-life sort of deal, just having silly episodes where Bruce is taking on a PTA mom or they're all fighting for the last cookie. but when WFA attempts to take on more serious plots with these characters, it *fundamentally* falls flat in understanding them. i get it, Bruce comforting Jason having a panic attack because a noise reminded him of the crowbar felt cute in a microcosm, but i'm so serious when i say that storyline destroyed how like. half of this fandom understands Jason Todd's relationship to his trauma. it doesn't understand how he reacts when he's triggered, what coping mechanisms he seeks out, and how he would handle Bruce comforting him. even if i can believe for a brief moment Jason *would* be triggered by something like that, him running and trying to hide and then getting a hug from Bruce to make it okay is just. painful. WFA needs everything to be wrapped up in a nice, neat little bow. so even when it starts to tackle interesting concepts, it makes them fall flat with its need to be soft, low stakes, hurt/comfort. there was a two-parter episode that dealt with the complicated mutual hatred/jealousy between Tim and Damian that *almost* really interested me because for once, it felt like the webtoon wanted to explore canon messy dynamics. but of course, it had to be fixed with one conversation and a hug. you don't mend the *years* of issues these characters have like that. WFA isn't in character because these characters are hyperbole cartoonified versions of themselves to fit within the medium and be a cute happy family.

because that right there, is the crux of it. the Batfamily fanon seeks to simplify the Batfamily and force them into a nuclear family. there are so many fantastic posts on here discussing how the nuclear family-ification of the Batfam is eroding decades worth of complex histories so i won't go too far into that. but what i will say is that there's this need, in the Batfamily fandom, for the Batfamily to exist as a unit. they are a *family*. (honestly i think calling it the Batfamily is a misnomer and has been for years but we're in too deep now.) they exist to each other first, and any teams or friends they have come secondary to this family unit. you can *specifically* see this demonstrated in what headcanons are becoming popular these days. i have an entire lengthy meta in my drafts about how i *loathe* the "the Batfamily meets the Justice League" genre of fanfic because it makes no *sense*. in order to have this genre of fic exist, you must operate under the assumption that no one in the League, or adjacent to the League, knows the Batfamily exists and are thus utterly shocked to discover Batman has kids. and to make *that* work, you have to strip *every single Batfamily member* of such important dynamics and friendships so you can lock them all in Gotham for their whole lives. Dick can't have the Titans, Tim can't have Young Justice, Duke & Cass can't have the Outsiders, Jason can't have the Outlaws, Damian can't have the Supersons, Babs can't have the Birds of Prey, and so on. because if they had these relationships, they would be known to the League. the Batfamily fandom doesn't care about this, it's just "silly fanfiction", it's not trying to be serious. but how can you say you like Dick Grayson as a character if you don't understand the Titans *are* his family? at some points of his life, moreso than the Batfamily even is. it is constantly repeated to us in most comics with Dick how much the Titans mean to him. he *needs* them to be who he is. the same extends to every other Batfamily member, most of which have been full League members at this point. but in fanon, that doesn't matter. the Batfamily are a sequestered unit first, and all of those side relationships are secondary and easy to toss away, if it makes your fanfic work better.

and because they have to be a unit first, you have these forced relationships that dump years of actual canon material for the sake of making them get along. the Batfamily fandom has its favorites and well. it's no secret it's usually the boys. Jason and Tim by *far* stand out as fandom faves so, their dynamic is a heavily explored one. it does matter that in canon they don't tend to get along and especially don't see each other as family. what matters is that you can push dynamics onto them. and so fanon gets all twisted up about which Robin Tim actually idolized as a kid (Dick) and what member of the Batfamily is pro-murder but still an older sibling figure to him and looks out for him (Helena, or if you want the dynamic of once tried to harm Tim but they've reconciled, Jean-Paul) in favor of who's the most popular. Dick, Jason, Tim, and Damian are always going to be the standouts for popularity, but it's specifically Jason and Tim who are getting fanonized the most. and that's because really, we don't have much canon content of Tim that *isn't* the comics. for Dick you've got Young Justice (tv), for Damian you've got the DCAMU, for Jason you've sort of got the Under The Red Hood movie, but Tim sort of lingers in this limbo. (yes, he's in Young Justce (tv) and Titans (live action) but in neither is he the main character nor given much depth) so, he gets a *lot* projected onto him and has become fanonized. and even with Jason's animated movies, you don't see him interact with Tim, so people build it from the ground up how they want to see it, disregarding of canon comics. i think it's what makes him so popular in the first place- he's malleable into whatever you want or need him to be.

and of course, the fanon ignores other characters in the Batfamily it doesn't know about. i feel like you could create a tier list of Batfamily characters by their popularity, going from the fandom main characters: Tim, Jason, Bruce, Alfred, Dick, Damian. to the underrated: Steph, Duke, Babs, Cass. to the forgotten about unless they're convenient for a story: Kate, the Foxes, Helena Wayne, Carrie, Selina, Harper Row, Maps, Minhkhoa Khan. to the absolutely unknown: Helena Bertinelli, Jean-Paul Valley, Onyx Adams, the Clovers, Julia Pennyworth. it's not lost on me that the ignored characters tend to be women and people of color. which is both a canon and fanon problem, DC will continue adding interesting characters to the Batfamily, play with them for a few years, then drop them to default to the "Batboys" again. and it's a vicious cycle of the fandom only caring about the "Batboys", and thus people entering the fandom via fanon osmosis won't have content about the other characters, therefore, they won't be interested in those characters enough to create it, and it's just this ouroboros consuming itself, no matter how much canon content we have of these other characters. and it's ridiculous just how large the Batfamily is becoming because of this, which is why i'm a pre-Flashpoint fan, because then the Batfamily was contained enough to actually feel like a family with every character having nuances relationships with each other, but i digress because those thoughts could be their own post.

and the thing about fanon is it doesn't exist in a vacuum. DC has started turning the comics to accommodate for what fans are asking for, because fans will beg and beg for content they're not going to consume. Tim Drake: Robin had Tim as a coffee drinker because that's the fanon accepted headcanon. and the resolution of the recent Gotham War arc was for Bruce to buy this new manor for everyone to move in and call him. nevermind that most of these characters have their own homes and have zero reason to be moving in with Bruce. Tim had his marina in Tim Drake: Robin, Dick has Bludhaven, Cass and Steph have their little side of town in Batgirls (2022), and so on. these characters are being forced together as a unit, as one big happy family living together, to appease what non-comic fans want and it's damaging comic relationships. Robin: Knight Terrors saw Jason and Tim team up and working together, which i've seen varying opinions on but i personally despised. their interactions made zero sense for any of their canon history, but it appeases them being this close sibling relationship that fanon acts like they are. also the fears they faced in their respective knight terrors didn't make sense for either character and *only* worked as a moment of bringing them together so they could reassure each other and have this weird dreamscape bonding moment. the canon is bending itself to the will of fanon rather than building on the pre-existing complex relationships. Tim barely even gets along with his most important team in Dark Crisis: Young Justice because it seems the only important relationships the Batfamily can have is with each other. and when we do see them outside of the Batfamily, it only seems to be to relive the glory days like with World's Finest: Teen Titans, instead of developing them as they currently exist. this isn't recent in the comics, it feels like you can trace it back to the New-52, but it does feel a *lot* worse over the recent years. WFA is fine when it exists in its own bubble, but the simple truth is, DC content never exists on its own. the adaptations will reflect back onto the comics. (the damage the Young Justice cartoon has done to some characters should honestly be studied) and so it does frustrate me a bit when fanon-only or adaptation-only fans act like we're being nothing but killjoys for being frustrated with this. since they don't read the comics, they don't see how the comics are suffering as a result of this.

people argue about what's out of character for the comics they don't even read. i'm sorry, but "bad dad Bruce" is consistently canon. that man is just kind of shitty. when you take someone who has the drive he has, who has this need for the Mission first, who needs a teenager in spandex next to him to keep him off the ledge, that guy is sort of going to be a shitty father figure. he just is. not on purpose or with malice, but when you compare him to any other dad in a big DC family, he sure takes the cake. it's why characters like Oliver Queen tend to *really* fucking hate Bruce for how he treats his kids. Bruce loves fiercely, but he doesn't do well with putting that love first. and his love is a controlling one, he is very particular about controlling how others in the Batfamily are "allowed" to operate. it's what drives the wedge between him and Dick, it's why Steph is never a true daughter to him. (besides the reason of her needing to be a love interest to Tim first, anyway-) i've never understood the massive outcry of people reacting to Bruce kinda being shitty in comics they're not reading. there are some moments that get ridiculously OOC with how cartoonishly evil he is (the whole Gotham War arc and that... complicated mess with Jason) but largely if you want sitcom loving nuclear father Bruce, you have to accept that is a fanon thing, not a canon one. the Batfamily being a nuclear family in *general* is fanon. most of the "Batkids" don't actually see Bruce in a particularly fatherly light and begging for moments where he calls them his kids or they call him dad outside of incredibly specific circumstances is just OOC.

it's getting harder and harder to exist peacefully in this fandom it feels like, if you don't comply to the standard fanon has set. i'm happy people are having fun with their blorbos, even if in ways i dislike, but that "harmless fandom fun" does ripple it's way back to canon, eventually. so i end up pretty tangled with my feelings because are fans at fault for DC making these poor decisions? probably not, but it certainly feels like an unfortunate cause-and-effect situation whether at the end of the day, nobody is happy. and of course, i know some fanon-only fans are striving to be more canon accurate and care about canon dynamics more than others, but for them it's always going to be an uphill battle with the above-mentioned out-of-context panels thrown around and ever-pervasive fanon overtaking anything that's truly seeking to be canon compliant. so really, it sometimes feels like we're all losing.