#Batman pointing to Dent: you do know he's killed people | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bet-on-me-13 · 1 year

Text

Danny runs for Mayor P.2

kgned3Part 1

Some more snippets of the Gotham Mayor Danny AU!

...

Danny would absolutely try to hire some of the Rouges as his Mayoral Cabinet, I can just imagine Waylon Jones, the Killer Croc, in a Suit and Slacks sitting in a the Mayors Office while awkwardly holding his resume.

Danny: So, Mr. Jones, why do you think we should hire you? Waylon: Well sir, I have something of a reputation and I feel like I would be an amazing Bodyguard. Danny: OK, one question though. What is your opinion on Clowns? Waylon: I don’t like them. Danny: Hired!

...

Danny: Now, Mr Nygma, what do you think you would bring to my office? Edward: Well sir, I am fairly well known for my expert planning and timing skills. Also I can give you fun riddles whenever you want! Danny: Hmmm, that’s definitely a good point. One question, if needed, will you attack a clown on sight? Edward: Yes? Danny: Hired!

...

Danny: Now, I can see that you used to have a very reputable resume Mr. Dent. Harvey: Thank you sir. Danny: I can’t see any reason to refuse your application, but I do have one question. Do you like Clowns? Harvey: Uhm...yes? Danny: I am sorry dir, but I am going to have to reject your application for a job in the Mayors office. Mr Jones, please escort this man out

...

Danny would absolutely do an amazing job in decreasing the crime rate, just by virtue of the fact that his very presence is destabilizing the Curses put on the City.

But at the same time, his policies are also very efficient, based on Gen Z Humor/Ideas

Danny: As my new Law states, every year the most rich person in the City will be forced to give up 70% of their assets to Charity. You can avoid this by donating as much as possible in the weeks leading up to the Sacrifice Day, whoever donates the most is exempt from the choosing even if they are the Richest, we will then move on to the second Richest, and so on Reporter: Sir, isn’t this just the “Winner Of Capitalisms” Prompt from Tumblr? Danny: Yes.

...

Batman: Why did you just pass a Law that states that all Vigilantes are given the right to kill? Danny: Because I accidentally hired every villain in Gotham, so now there is nobody to try and bribe me. And if nobody tries to bribe me, then nobody realizes that I will only accept bribes if the Joker is dead, like I said in my Campaign. I know that you guys have a no-kill rule, but I know at least one of you who would jump at the chance Batman: *realizes that Dick has already killed the Joker once, Jason is actively attempting to every day, Tim is chaos incarnate and would do it to feel included, and Damian just really wants to let loose* Well played...

...

Danny: Vlad, I am serious. Leave me alone or I will put you in Soup Jail for 3 months! Vlad: FINE! I’ll just go possess another Billionaire to force them to give me their company again Batman, listening from outside the window: What the f-

...

Danny in every conversation with the Batfamily: I re-respect your decision to not tak-take a life...but I must insist you kill the Joker...for the good of the peephol-People! He is not a good inf-influence on this city and he must be des...troyed. Batman: *Wondering why he sounds like he is reading from a script* Um, I don’t think thats a good idea? Lady Gotham: *Standing behind Batman with some Cue Cards, trying to communicate with her Knights through Danny* *Thumbs Up* Danny: Also I wanted to say that you need to- oh um, ok- to get over the deaths of your parents and grieve in a healthy way instead of adopting every child you see. You are doing a great job kid, parentheses, do not read this par- Oh-Oops. Batman: Hm. I’m not even going to question that anymore.

...

Tag List:

@skulld3mort-1fan @kgne-k @deatlive @alcorbearson @we-ezer @auralykos @dakkapel @alinmenttreasure @lord-of-0blivion @countessdragon @naluforever3 @fylylowo @shadow-otaku20 @dannyphantomphan @heirxofxtime @ourrechte-blog @fantasticbluebirdfan @imnotgrimmjustagrumpyreader @mssagoberattare @elvesandlanterns @space-dreams-world @lizz-blizt @stargirl1331 @totallysmores-blog @screamingtofillthevoid @malice-of-the-sunrise @olivethetreebitch @addie-lover-of-stories @thatonegaybitch68 @asphyxia778 @top7879 @biance-hooks123 @runfromthemedic @dionysuss-big-naturals @the-legal-shipper @icepopstar5105us @

4K notes · View notes

blueteehood · 2 years

Text

I was thinking about Under the Red Hood again and this scene:

[ID: four panels of the Under the Red Hood comic. Jason Todd’s monologue, as he holds the Joker at gunpoint and confronts Batman: "I’m not talking about killing Cobblepot or Scarecrow or Clayface. Not Riddler or Dent… I’m talking about him. Just him. And doing it because… because he took me away from you”. End ID]

The real heartbreak of the comic is this scene. I have seen people take Jason’s monologue and run a marathon with it arguing that Batman should kill the joker because otherwise he’s responsible for all the deaths caused by the Joker yada yada. My brother in the DC comics, that’s not the point. Jason knows Batman doesn’t kill. Jason knows that Batman won’t ever kill as a way to stop crime. He knows that. This is not Jason asking Batman to kill the Joker in order to become a better or more efficient vigilante. This is a son asking his dad to prove that he loves him by avenging him. The “Just him” is important. That’s why when Batman says he can’t cross that line because it would be too easy and that he would never come back from that, Jason is so furious. Because he’s not talking about Batman changing his way to fight crime. He’s not expecting Batman to kill anyone else. For Jason there shouldn’t be a line to be crossed, because the Joker already exploded that line when he killed Bruce’s son. Jason is asking for one thing, and Batman’s answer is about something else entirely - the big picture that Jason can’t even consider, because nothing should be more important than your son. Nothing. The heartbreak of this conversation is that Jason and Bruce couldn’t understand each other until the very end.

And it ends in tragedy.

#I'm not even going to elaborate on the batarang to the neck bc that one is fucking hard to swallow #friendly reminder that this is just my opnion #my interpretation of the comic #anyways imagine following comics back in the day then this issue dropped and everyone went insane #batman: under the red hood #under the red hood #utrh #jason todd #batman #dc stuff

574 notes · View notes

deathmetalunicorn1 · 11 months

Note

Can I request Yandere Platonic Two-Face, Harvey Dent and Batman/Bruce Wayne with Kanao Reader? (Harvey and Two-Face are split personalities, Harvey the Lawyer who wants to do right and Two-Face a violent mob boss to his enemies but gentle to those he loves, ex: His wife and his daughter, Reader)

Awhile before Harvey became Two-Face he discovers a young girl who can’t make any decisions for herself unless she’s told to (So he came to adopt her and gifts her one of his coins to help her make some decisions for herself if she’s unsure about what to do) and discovers Reader makes his darker personality much more tame (As they both have a kindred relationship when it comes to making decisions using a coin) unless she’s harmed or targeted in any way

However after he became Two-Face, Bruce Wayne takes Reader in to raise her (As a way to keep her safe until he can find a way to help Harvey come back) only to discover she has incredible fighting abilities and takes her in as another sidekick of his under his wing (She wears her Demon Slayer Uniform but has a mask to hide her identity)

Bruce has hope he can help Harvey after Reader shows she’s learning to make decisions without her coin as her crutch (Thanks to Robin)

-Harvey Dent remembered the day he found you, a little girl, lost in the dirty streets of Gotham, you were filthy, bruised, and emotionally numb from the abuse you had to deal with from your father, before he threw you out into the cold to survive on your own.

-You couldn’t have been more than six, but Harvey was never sure, because you were so malnourished and frail looking.

-He took you home, originally with the intent of cleaning you up and taking you to the police, but once he saw how emotionally fragile you were, he felt a tugging in his heart, one that led to him adopted you.

-The healing process took a long time, he cleaned you, tending to your wounds, and gave you plenty of food, all while treating you so gently, being a real father to you.

-Harvey discovered, later on, that you never seemed able to make decisions for yourself, you could never choose between things, be it movies or food.

-The day he gifted you a large silver coin was a turning point in your life, teaching you how to flip it, and telling you to make your decisions by flipping a coin.

-It was a slow process at first, but you were learning and Harvey was patient, and so was his wife, your adoptive mother, who nearly went feral after seeing the state you were in when Harvey first brought you home.

-You were showered with love with your new family, but when Harvey had his ‘accident’, becoming Two-Face, things changed.

-It was like he had two personalities, the gentle, loving father you’ve come to know and love over the years, and the other was a cruel mob boss who wouldn’t hesitate to kill another, usually using his coin to decide one’s fate.

-However, to you and your mother, Two-Face was soft around, being much like Harvey, but different, a different person, he was still gruff, but he would still always treat you with such gently kindness that you didn’t really care that your father was now two different people.

-Two-Face was only soft for you and your mother, you two were his weakness, and he protected those weaknesses fiercely, your home was always guarded, whenever you went out you had armed bodyguards who treated you like the princess you were, as they know if anything happened to you, it would be their heads.

-The only time he wasn’t soft around you is if you were threatened or hurt, then he was no holds bars until the threat had been taken care of, then he would turn back into a giant teddy bear, doting on and comforting you.

-Batman noticed the slight change in Two-Face, seeing that he wasn’t being as brutal as he normally would be, it made the crime fighter curious as to why the change.

-He investigated and couldn’t believe his eyes when he found Two-Face with a child, a young teenager, holding onto your hand on his Harvey side, out shopping together.

-He had no idea that Harvey had a child, but after a bit more digging, Batman figured out that you weren’t his biological child, as you looked nothing like him.

-Batman was concerned, after tailing you for a while, seeing how emotionally numb you were, but he knew Harvey and Two-Face had nothing to do with it, as he had seen his enemy treating you so carefully, so gently.

-Not willing to risk your safety, knowing how volatile Harvey could be, switching back and forth between personalities in only moments, Batman whisked you away so you could be safe until he brought Harvey back.

-You weren’t really sure what to make of this weird, masked man, he said he took you from Harvey, until he could get the help he needed, so you would be safe.

-He said you had something called ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ when you told him that you were already safe with your father, that he was always nice to you and never once, even after becoming Two-Face, did he make you afraid of him.

-Batman didn’t believe you, keeping you at a massive mansion, keeping any and all ways from you trying to reach out to your father, who was currently tearing Gotham apart looking for you.

-After meeting Bruce, Batman’s landlord, or at least that’s what he told you, he found out more about you, that Harvey found you as a child and took you in instead of taking you to the police or the orphanage and he’s raised you since there, almost six years now, and he helped you learn, gave you lots of food, and you became healthy and happy, or as happy as you were able to portray.

-The Bat Fam was a little thrown off by how much of an airhead you were, thinking Batman, Robin, Nightwing, and the others were just tenants of Bruce, who lived with his butler and various adopted children, not putting two and two together.

-Damien was quick to cling to you over the three months you were trapped, teaching you how to make decisions without your coin, it started off small, like chocolate or vanilla ice cream, and while you did appreciate his assistance, you still wanted to go home to your father.

-Bruce was stunned by your skills with a sword, after Damien wanted you to learn how to defend yourself, just in case, you looked so natural with a sword, like it was a missing piece of the puzzle.

-Batman tried to recruit you, but you refused, not wanting to be another one of his sidekicks, not liking the idea because you knew it would lead to you fighting your father and his men, which you refused to do.

-That is, until you realized that this was your chance to get out of the cage that Batman and Bruce put you in, and while not mistreated, you couldn’t leave.

-You felt bad, trying to deceive your new friends, like Robin, who was strangely similar to Damien as far as personalities went, and they all found it hysterical you couldn’t figure it out.

-You went out, wearing a black and white uniform with tall boots, looking similar to a Japanese officer’s uniform rather than a suit like Batman’s, using your sword, and you did have to admit, beating up bad guys was rather fun, as it gave you peace that bad people like this weren’t on the street anymore.

-You made the realization one night that your dad was one of these bad people, and it rocked you to the core, sending you into a near panic attack.

-You didn’t want to believe that he was a bad guy, until you realized that he was doing stuff these other bad guys were doing, sometimes even worse things!

-He was always so nice to you, he never yelled at you and made sure you were safe because he wanted you protected!

-Two-Face’s heart broke when he found you, laying a trap for the Bat Fam, and he immediately recognized you, removing your butterfly mask, and he froze when you recoiled from him in fear for the first time in your life.

-You asked him why did he do bad things, why was he a villain, and he was quick to point the blame to Batman, claiming he tainted you, turning you against him, brainwashing you!!

-You don’t remember the fight, having a breakdown as the two sides tried to attack one another, falling into a dead faint.

-Harvey, seeing you had fainted, took over and rushed to your side, cradling you close as Batman approached with the intent on taking you back and locking him up.

-Batman could see the anguish on Harvey’s side of the face, seeing that he didn’t want to lose you again, before Two-Face took over, “You’ll have my daughter over my dead body!” Batman could see that you were the one thing the two agreed on, that they were going to keep you safe.

-Bruce arranged for your dad to get the help he needed, promising you that once he was deemed sane, you and him could go home together, and Bruce would bring you to see your dad.

-The first visit you had with him you had leapt into his arms, sobbing loudly, showing the first real emotion in basically your whole life, as you felt so guilty for calling your dad a bad guy, but he didn’t blame you, and just held you close.

-It was going to be a healing process together, but Two-Face was willing to do anything to keep you by his side. Anything.

#kanao reader #two face #harvey dent #batman

73 notes · View notes

betterthanbatman1 · 7 months

Note

bman and jason have a seriously strained relationship as is, and our braindead coma patients at DC have no interest in fixing it because Drama Sells, so what do you think would genuinely help these two get back to something real?

Ooh, great question, Anon! Thank you :)

So, right if the bat (pun intended) we know that Bruce and Jason don’t get along well, specifically because of their dissimilar morals.

In DC comics, Bruce only sees in a black or white, this or that way of thinking. It’s either ‘continue to fight crime and leave the rest to the justice system’ OR ‘focus on controlling crime and killing criminals to protect others’. Jason on the other hand sees both of these as opposing morals, and he also recognizes that there is a middle ground which is ‘get rid of the absolute worst of them’. Because Jason understands Bruce, he knows that nothing will make Bruce take a life or do things differently (I mean, his own death didn’t make a difference to Bruce’s morals), but Jason also believes that Bruce doesn’t have to change who he is, he just needs to accept that Jason’s methods are right for Gotham. Ultimately Bruce killing Joker for Jason would have helped their relationship, because Jason would have known that he was loved and his life was worth more than the clown’s. And in UTRH Jason says “I’m not talking about cobblepot or riddler or Dent… I’m talking about him, just him” Bare with me, I know that Jason says this regarding Bruce killing Joker for a different reason being -Joker’s crime was a lot more personal. However I still feel like regardless if Joker hadn’t killed Jason, Jason would still feel the same way about Joker- meaning he’d still think Joker deserves to die because of the sheer brutality and sadism and absolute power the clown has on Gotham & it’s people. (More than any other Gotham city rogues!)

So back to the point, if Bruce acknowledged (like Jason does!) the middle ground of killing the worst of the worst, then that would bring the two closer together.

Listen, I get that Bruce killing would forever change ‘The Batman’, but Bruce doesn’t have to kill people to accept the ideology because he knows Jason is right, he knows crime is down because of Jason. But NO!, DC has to make him beat the shit out of his son instead of having a fucking conversation.

Which brings me to this point. For some reason DC seems to think that these two have to fight no matter what. If they went to have soup with Alfred they’d still end up punching each other for whatever reason. It’s ridiculous. Is this what they think readers want? I completely agree with you, Anon. Drama sells, unfortunately.

The next point is that Bruce needs to actually have faith in his son because guess what?, Jason needs his father’s support to do good. Actual good. Bruce second guessing Jason and not trusting him with missions is exactly what gets Jason frustrated, causing him to feel inferior, worthless, or unlovable in Bruce’s eyes. From a psychological perspective, if Bruce trusted Jason and told him he trusted him, Jason would feel so much better about himself and their relationship. It’s so much better for a child to prove their parents are right for trusting them (motivating them positively) than having a child strive to prove their parents wrong (motivating them negatively). Bruce needs to stop being so condescending and Jason will finally feel heard. Bruce treats him like a child which is just so wrong and demeaning.

Last point is that Bruce needs to spend more time with Jason as Bruce and not as Batman. Sometimes Jason needs his father and that’s okay. It’s up to Bruce to be there for him. Whether Jason is an adult or not, he should be able to feel like he can call or visit or ask for help from Bruce without Bruce getting angry or telling him he’s off the mission.

At this point DC just needs to get the whole family seeing some therapists.

In conclusion, things that would help mend Bruce and Jason’s relationship:

Finding a common middle ground among their morals

Bruce should not beat his sons regardless if they are ‘criminals’ in his eyes or not

Bruce killing the Joker (this would bring Jason closer to Bruce, but it does cause some changes in Bruce’s character).

COMMUNICATION (this is the first step in therapy probably)

Having them be partners and act like partners. Bruce needs to get off his high horse and stop being so condescending to Jason.

Similar to the above-Bruce needs to trust Jason and make sure Jason knows Bruce trusts him.

Spend more time outside of crime fighting. Idk go watch a baseball game or go fishing. Have some family dinners and talk about the times when things were easy and fun and silly, before everything went to shit. Jason deserves his dad and Bruce deserves his son.

Therapy (The whole family would benefit).

#Thank you for the ask :)#I love this ask so much #My brain literally just switched all of my senses off and I wrote this as fast as I could type #Absolutely love being able to turn off the world and hyper focus on bat stuff #bruce wayne is a good dad #Unless he’s written by DC #DC thinks we want the pure masculine energy of a man beating another man who is his son who is also a villain #I have to say though:#As much as I’d love Bruce and Jason to have a better relationship #I also don’t trust fanon to write them #it’s either Bruce beating Jason in DC or Bruce and Jason falling asleep crying and hugging each other in fanon #I just want a middle ground where they still love each other but also act like how a fathers’ and sons’ relationship would be #DC I just want them to have at least a semi functional relationship I’m not asking for them to read books before bed every night-#it shouldn’t be that hard!!#I’m going to make a post about Bruce killing Joker and how that would affect them/their relationship #don’t tag as ship 🔪#jason todd #Batdad #red hood #batfamily #batman #bruce wayne #batfam #dc #dc comics #character analysis #asks #feel free to ask!#I spend too much time in the tags smh #Red rambles

35 notes · View notes

phantoms-lair · 11 months

Text

Batman Exalted thing - The First Exaltation

Bruce sometimes wished he crafted the identity of a reclusive hermit rather than a media darling. All he wanted to do was buckle down on the imminent attempt at a dimensional invasion and try to think of a way to solve it without relying on a power up from the enemy.

But instead here he was in an interview, talking about his company and charity work. "There's been some criticism of the Martha Wayne Free Clinic as of late. Some are skeptical about the noted criminal cliental." asked the interviewer.

Bruce fought back his annoyance. "My mother believed, as do I, that no person is expendable. Some have made poor decisions. Some had poor decisions made on their behalf without their consent. Some are children. All of them, all of them are entitled to medical care. The moment you start adding restrictions, it becomes all too easy to add more and more until only people who have been chosen as the 'right' people can gain aid. And there is nothing more abhorrent to me. Everyone in Gotham deserves care."

Will you protect all the people of Gotham?

Something twinged in his mind as wrong about the question, but he answered anyway. "Every last one." Bruce reaffirmed.

"That's quite a statement, given Gotham houses individuals like Scarecrow and the Joker." The interviewer pressed.

"They're still human. If Scarecrow had a heart attack in Blackgate, he'd still receive life saving care. Outside should be no different."

"But should that be the case? Do people like that deserve to be saved?"

Will you save them?

Bruce fought the urge to scowl. "Of course. And if I can save their minds too, I'll do it. I refuse to give up on anyone."

"MmmHmm." The interviewer looked at him like she'd figured something out. "You had a well know friendship with Harvey Dent. Between that and your charity clinic serving villains, it seems you have some connections to the wrong side of the tracks. Maybe the squeaky clean image of Bruce Wayne is hiding something else?"

Is your philanthropy really to help others, or just a cover?

He stood up, letting a sliver of his anger slip through. At this point it would be stranger not to take offense. "I watched my parents die in a mugging. It would have been so easy to act like you. To judge and look down on people I could easily blame for my grief. But my parents loved Gotham and wanted to see it rise above it's own ashes. And in trying to see their wishes granted I grew to love the city too. All of it. Good and Bad. And I will never give up on it or stop fighting to make it better."

Do you think you can protect the city?

"I will protect Gotham till the day it kills me." Bruce snarled, rising to his feet. And he knew something wasn't right. Something was feeding into his emotions. But it was too late to stop it. The screens cut to static as Bruce Wayne exploded.

The Bats had gotten their first, because of course they did. Jim was listening to his radio as he made his way to the studio, not saying a word.

Some of the reports were positive. Everyone else had made it out of the studio. Whatever had caused Bruce Wayne to explode in a dizzying array of light hadn't affected anyone else. This being Gotham, every had evacuated quickly. And the studio didn't seem to be catching ablaze. Small mercies.

From the radio he heard that most of the Bats had shown up, despite it being the middle of the day. They'd sealed the place tight, with Spoiler and Signal bodyguarding the entrance, saying only Gordon himself could get through. His men had tried to force the issue and they'd threatened Black Bat in retaliation.

Jim pulled into the crime scene that was likely the death spot of Gotham's Favorite Son. Spoiler was at the door, arms crossed, while Signal was talking to the EMTs. When she saw him she nodded and moved aside.

Jim didn't know what he was going to find inside. But whatever it was, it wasn't this. Despite video of the explosion going out before the feed was cut, Bruce Wayne seemed to be alive and well, sitting of the set with his head in his hands.

The power literally rippling off him was new. A bright blue energy flowed from his eyes and into a beautiful display rippling around him. It was Gotham, not any one part of it but a rippling view of the city from Park Row to Bristol ever shifting and changing, leading into a night sky with bats flying around. All contained in a very familiar, albeit larger than life silhouette of a sharp eared cowl and cape. The imagery plus his being there for the first conversation with Quill made it obvious.

Bruce Wayne was Batman. And he'd just Exalted, publicly, while in his civilian persona.

"Does one of you powers include seeing the future?" Nightwing asked someone on the other end of the phone. "Then I don't think not being able to accurately get into the mindset of a manipulative sociopath is a personal failing."

"What does Quill say?" Bruce asked in a completely exhausted tone.

"That you're an Exigent, like her. You're in 'Iconic' or 'Bonfire' anima, which is a representation of your soul and power and it's going to take a while for it to calm down. Also that in retrospect it makes sense as he wants a throne to be a power behind and Batman would never accept a throne but Bruce Wayne is more vulnerable. as well as already being a power in the city."

"Nightwing!" Robin hissed, glaring at Nightwing,

"He's involved." Bruce said in the same tired voice. "He's been involved since before you were born. We can trust him, and against Ketchup we need all the help we can get. The question is, what is our next move?" "If you want to kill off Bruce Wayne, now is the time." Red Robin said idlily. "Drake!" Robin shouted reprovingly. It wasn't just Bruce. It was Bruce's whole damn family. "What? He can make a new identity easily. All the paperwork is in place for Uncle Eddie if we need something in a pinch. But this would allow him to devote his time to his actual interests rather than juggle a very public identity that mostly annoys him." Red Robin shrugged. "Most people don't change identities like a coat, Baby Bird." Nightwing said, gently. "They need to get on my level." Red Robin sniped back.

"Killing off Bruce Wayne is not an option. I can feel the ripples of my death having an affect in the city. People are already planning to use it to roll back a lot of the philanthropic works I've done." Bruce blinked. "That interviewer was accepting a bribe to discredit me."

"How do you know?" Gordon asked. "I just do." Bruce sounded more bewildered than tired.

"Can an Exigent be the chosen of a location, like a city?" Nightwing asked Quill. "She says yes." Bruce sat up straighter. "Ask Quill what we should say. Her whole power revolves around stories and that's what we need right now."

"Okay, give her a minute." Nightwing instructed. "Okay, send out word that Bruce Wayne is alive, but under some kind of magical effect. Unknown, but a curse hasn't been ruled out. Bring in Justice League members know to work with magic as cover. Have them recommend isolation until the effects are fully known, which will give Bruce the privacy he needs to get this under control."

"I'll get on the official story then." He was going to get answers out of Batman, out of Bruce, but later. "If news of your survival isn't slowing down the plans, let me know. Nightwing, I take it you can call the Justice League." "There's someone else you need to call first." Bruce reminded Nightwing. "He's panicking right now with the news, but won't admit it."

"Oracle's already keeping Agent A informed." "Not him. R2." Nightwing snorted. "And he pretends he doesn't care." Jim saw himself out. And much as it still burned a little that something was obviously being kept from him, Bruce had said nothing to try to hide his own secrets or that of his children's. Which meant R2, whoever that was, was likely someone else's secret that Bruce didn't feel at liberty to say, like Oracle and Agent A. So fair.

That was for later. They all had work to do.

#Batman #Exalted #Ghost Writing #Bruce is still be cagey about Jason because Red hood is wanted for multiple murders

41 notes · View notes

caesariawritesstuff · 6 days

Text

Hostage

(Arkham! Riddler x Fem!Reader)

● Ao3 ● X ● Retrospring ● Read on Ao3 ●

You were the perfect target: as the sister of Bruce Wayne, Edward had been watching you for some time. The stupid, billionaire playboy would do anything to get you back. Besides, Bruce could stand to lose a couple billion, couldn’t he? It surely wouldn’t put a dent in his massive fortune, but it’d be enough for Edward to fund his next scheme against the Batman. He sent his goons to watch you closely and study your schedule over the last few weeks, but Edward wasn’t surprised to have his suspicions confirmed: you were a spoiled brat.

His goons reported back all about your fancy lunches with stuffy-suited business men, your extravagant shopping sprees. This wouldn’t be hard. You’d be just like the rest: a screaming, crying mess, begging for your life. He wasn’t interested in killing you so much as getting his money and using you as bait for Batman, to pull the Dark Knight into his next series of conundrums. He spent several weeks planning his scheme, gathering his men, procuring weapons from Penguin. And when the time finally came, Edward’s stomach filled with excited knots. How wonderful it would look when he pulled this off and everyone looked at him like he was the most superior, greatest mind in Gotham. Which he was, of course.

Tonight, you were hosting a fundraiser at one of Gotham’s art galleries; something about the underprivileged children of Gotham, Edward didn’t care much, they weren’t his kids anyways (not like he had any, but still). The gallery was bustling with people dressed to the nines, looking every so high and mighty and pompous.

“They’re just getting settled, boss,” one of his goons said through the walkie.

“Good. Wait until I give the signal,” Edward replied. He turned his attention back to the security camera of the van they were in, which he’d hacked into the gallery’s security camera feed only minutes ago. He gripped his cane tightly, watching the guests take their seats.

Moments later, you walked up the stage and took your place at the podium. Edward couldn’t hear what you were saying, but he watched you with a close intensity, rolling his eyes. What an incredibly waste of time, these charity balls. How…pedestrian. But he waited, checking his watch, and when the hand struck eight, he grabbed his walkie.

“Now,” he said.

His goons immediately moved in. He followed them out of the van, cane in one hand, pistol in the other hand. His men stormed the gallery, guns blazing. They fired shots into the air as people screamed, ready to bolt from their seats. But his men were outnumbered and out armed. Edward strolled into the room, flashing his best, charming smile.

“Now, now,” he said. “No one has to get hurt. But if any of you cretins move a muscle, my men won’t hesitate to shoot. So please take this as you’re only warning.” He peered around the room at the frightened faces of the fundraiser patrons, before his gaze flickered back to you.

There you were, standing in the spotlight. A glimmering, navy dressed hugged your curves nicely, something he couldn’t help but take notice of. Your hands were glued into fists at your sides, face white, lips trembling.

“Ms. Wayne,” he said, pointing his gun at you. “Come with me and no one gets hurt.”

You hesitated and looked around the room. He could just see the wheels turning in your stupid head. But…he found himself a bit taken aback. He’d expected you to run screaming by now. Instead, here you were. Holding your own.

“Very well,” you said, a bravery to your voice. He nodded to his men, who approached and grabbed your arms, yanking you down the stage steps.

“No – you can’t, Ms. Wayne—” an older man said. He was cut off as one of the goons punched him in the stomach, and he keeled over.

“Hey!” you cried. “You said if I come with you, no one gets hurt. I’m coming, aren’t I?”

Edward paused as a sly grin passed his face. “So you were listening. At least you know how to do that.”

Your nostrils flared, looking less than impressed with him. But he didn’t particualry mind or care.

“Now, take her away,” he said. People gasped around him as you were hauled out of the art gallery.

Edward nodded to the two other goons, who walked up to the center of the room and put down one of his contraptions. A little puzzle boxed addressed to Bruce Wayne. If the billionaire was smart, he’d answer the riddle correctly.

Edward smiled, resting his weight on his cane. “Oh, and if Bruce Wayne doesn’t solve my conundrums in thirty minutes, well…” He raised his brows.

The Gothamites seemed to get the hint.

Satisfied, Edward left the art gallery. As he returned to the back of the van, he found you sitting in the corner, hands and feet bound. But to his surprise, you weren’t screaming or crying. You were still, quiet, eyes searching for an escape. As soon as you spotted him, you glared.

Edward grinned. “So, my dear, can you guess why I’ve taken you hostage?”

You sighed. “The same reasons all criminals do. For money.”

“Precisely! You see, my dear, you are—”

“Bait. I know,” you replied. “Bait for Batman, because you’re going to put me in one of your traps, aren’t you?”

Edward paused. “Don’t interrupt me! I’m not finished!” he cried, scowling.

You sighed, shaking your head, and rolling your eyes. Edward found himself surprised, something he did not easily find himself. But…why weren’t you confused? Scared? Right about now, his other hostages would’ve been screaming for help. So, why weren’t you?

“Edward Nigma, right?” you asked.

“Ah, so you do know my name,” he said, flattered. Of course everyone knew his name.

“I was right in the middle of hosting a fundraiser for Gotham’s under privileged youths, and you come ruin it? I’ve been planning this for months. Do you know how many children are counting on me?”

Edward blinked, feeling the vehicle begin to rumble as it pulled away from the curb. Here you were, in the back if his getaway van…and you were more worried about the children?

“You’re seriously more worried about the children than your life?” he asked, raising his brows.

“Yes,” you answered. “And if this is about money, I can get you what you want. Just let me go and we have a deal.”

“But I…but you…” he tripped over his words. He’d never had a hostage act so calm before.

“You like games, right? How about we play one? If I get it right, I’ll give you the money and you let me go. Deal?”

Edward laughed. “Very well. Three riddles. Answer them correctly, and I’ll let you go. Ready?”

You nodded. Your lips were pursed together, your brows furrowed. The look of someone Edward knew didn’t have much going on in that empty head of yours.

“Without fingers I point, without arms I strike, without feet I run. What am I?” he asked, smirking.

“A clock,” you answered.

He frowned. “Oh. So you knew that one. Very well. Second riddle: My greatest of my strengths is that I know my worth. I hug myself so tightly at every birth. What am I?”

“A knot.”

His frown deepened, anger churning in his stomach, cheeks burning. “What falls but does not break, and what breaks but does not fall?”

“Night falls and day breaks,” you answered.

He scowled, jumping to his feet. “You’re cheating, aren’t you? Who’s helping you? Who’s giving you hints? There’s no way a spoiled, empty-headed little rich girl like you could get those correctly!”

“What? Did you think that because I’m a Wayne, that makes me stupid? Well, sorry to break it you to, Mr. Nigma, but I’m not,” you said.

You stared at him with such a level of defiance that Edward wasn’t sure what to do. His first impressions had clearly be incorrect. A simple miscalculation, that was all. It seemed you did have some shred of intelligence after all.

“Well,” he laughed. “How about that? So you can think for yourself. I suppose we do have a deal, don’t we? I expect cash.”

“That’s what we agreed to,” you said.

“But my dear, you forget: you didn’t say when or where I had to let you go,” he said, grinning.

“That’s not fair!” you cried. “Now who’s the one cheating?”

“I don’t cheat!” he cried. “I artfully obfuscate.”

You laughed, a sound out of your mouth he found himself liking. But just before he could respond, the van lurched to the left, and he stumbled forward. The screeching of metal filled with his ears and just as he collected himself, the back door swung open, and Batman stepped into sight. Edward reached for his pistol, but before he could pull the trigger, a Batarang knocked the gun out of his hand. He gasped in pain, and looked up just in time to see Batman’s fist flying through the air – knocking him out cold.

Later, when Edward awoke, he found himself in Arkham. Once more beaten, but not broken. But as he sat in the rec room, he knew you couldn’t have gotten those riddles right…Batman had to have cheated and given you the answers. But his eyes flicked to the TV, noticing you were currently holding a press conference to announce a generous donation and funding to a children’s program all throughout Gotham. But as you spoke, he suddenly found himself completely enamored.

Perhaps you were smarter than Edward anticipated. He’d never expected you to get his riddles right, to be more concerned with the people of Gotham rather than your own predicament…but a small smile touched Edward’s lips. Oh, yes. He certainly wanted to discover more about you.

And he couldn’t wait to see you again.

#caesariawrites #arkham riddler #the riddler #arkhamverse riddler #edward nigma #theriddler #arkhamverse #the riddler x reader #riddler x reader #riddler x you #riddler x y/n #edward nigma x reader #edward nigma x you #edward nygma #edward nygma x reader

19 notes · View notes

electricprincess96 · 3 months

Text

Deconstructions of Batman, DC Superheroes, the BatFam Dynamic etc. We're interesting once or twice. We've had near on a decade of Batman deconstructions to the point I don't know what they're deconstructing anymore, there's nothing of the original left.

"Batman is actually the problem." That's interesting the first few times. After 10 years of that message it just makes me ask ok then why are we still getting Batman comics then?

"Batman is an abusive father." Its interesting to look at Bruce's flaws as a parent every now and then. But making Bruce an abusive asshole strips some of the BatFams most iconic and impactful stories of their emotional hook. I love Jason Todd, he's my favourite DC character, his story is at its most interesting and tragic when you acknowledge that while his relationship with Bruce was flawed, Bruce loved him and his death greatly impacted him. Bruce likewise loves all his kids, the idea in modern comics (with some exceptions) that he doesn't is just stupid and fundamentally misunderstands what makes Batman interesting, the fact he embodies fear but actually does have so much capacity for love.

"Batman should kill and the fact he doesn't makes him a villain". No. Just no. Batman's complete opposite Owlman is a nihilist who believes no one can be redeemed and the world is doomed. That suggests Bruce is in fact an optimist who believes in the inherent good of people, the likes of Mr Freeze, Harley Quinn, Harvey Dent etc. They aren't inherently evil. Sure you can make an argument he should kill the likes of the Joker but Bruce feels himself if he does it once he'll keep doing it eventually to people who don't deserve it. Bruce has to believe in redemption for his rogues cause otherwise there's no redemption for himself.

Plus Batman isn't real, if he went around killing his whole rogues gallery we'd eventually run out of stories to tell.

Anyway I've been in a real DC Comics mood lately and been really annoyed with the nihilistic tropes I've seen being thrown around both by the writers and by fans when discussing Batman.

#dc comics blogging #batman blogging

18 notes · View notes

thealmostgoodartist · 10 months

Text

How Not Help Your Favorite Hero— a Guide by Tim Drake

I just updated my fic yesterday night… but then ao3 crashed which meant not a lot of people got to see the update! So, here are the first 3 (around 3,000 words) chapters.

Rating: T (for language, blood, and themes.)

warnings for major character death (aka. This is based on that one interactive movie in which Bruce dies instead of Jason).

Relationship: Tim & Jason, and Dick & Clark

Summary: The one in which Dick tries to hold his family together, Tim hates cardio, and Jason kidnaps a “whole child”

enjoy.

—-

He could call.

It wouldn't take much.

He had memorized the phone number of the manor just a few days after he had started living there.

He could call.

Barbara would track his phone number and he would be on his way back home.

Home…

He hadn’t thought of the manor as home for months now, but if Dick had been trustful— and he seldom wasn’t— it still could be. Dick had said there would be no repercussions— that they were only looking to rehabilitate him and integrate him back into the family— but Jason knew better.

The damned spot couldn’t be washed out.

He had a plan. He had to stick to the plan. It was already too late to go back.

The alarm beeped bringing him out of his mental slumber and he arose from his bed. He hadn’t slept at all— he hadn’t slept since Bruce died— but he didn’t feel tired. He didn’t feel much those days, but he had to keep pushing. He was so close, even though his list of names kept getting longer.

It would be all worth it in the end.

He had lost so much time planning for Two-Face— and he had had it! It would have been so easy to just pull the trigger if it hadn’t been for that kid— but now Harvey Dent was back in police custody. He now had to re-plan his execution for when he inevitably escaped from Arkham and maybe have to move some of the less important ones a few months—

It would cause some shifts in his overall schedule but it could be achieved.

—-

Jason had eyes on the creepy doll.

Bruce had always said that the thing wasn’t demonic and that it was just the user projecting into the dummy. Jason wasn't too sure about that, and just in case he had brought extra ammunition for his precision rifle.

The setup was ready and it was just a matter of time waiting for the perfect shot—

“Robin,” a voice called from somewhere behind him, and Jason almost turned around to tell B to “fuck off” and to let him work except….

B had been dead for six months now.

Jason felt the air rushing out of his lungs and a warm sting begin to form behind his eyes.

He had been over it. That's what killing Joker had been about. He had gotten his revenge.

It should have been enough.

Why wasn’t it enough?

“Robin,” the voice called again, and it took a moment for Jason’s brain to reboot and finally notice that it wasn’t the voice wasn’t the low, rough-sounding one he had expected, but that of a kid.

“Spooky kid?” Jason said having had turned around and taken in the sight of the ten-year-old that had stopped him from killing Two Face.

For two days, Jason had been seething over the fact, but now that he was face to face with the kid again he— well he didn’t know what he was feeling, but it wasn’t anger.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

The kid looked at him with the most determined face Jason had ever seen in someone so young and promptly pointed at the rifle.

“Robin, you have to be strong. Batman—“

“Yeah, no shit. You said the same thing in our last meeting,” Jason said, standing up from his crouched position and making his way over to the kid. “I mean what the fuck are you doing at 3 a.m. on a rooftop in the fucking Narrows? How— why?”

“I followed you,” the kid said bluntly.

And that somehow didn’t make Jason feel any better.

“How did you follow me?”

“I figured out what your most likely target would be.”

Jason decided to ignore the significance of what the kid said and instead turned his attention back to the scene below. If he didn’t take the shot soon, he would lose his chance and that would mean even more planning. But the kid—

Shit.

The kid.

He couldn’t just shoot someone in front of the kid— he had probably seen stuff like that before (this was Gotham after all) but still—

“Go home, kid.”

“No, Robin-“

“Go home, kid.”

“Jason!”

“What the fuck did you just call me?” Jason asked, his blood running cold.

The kid looked sheepish, but he didn’t falter under Jason’s glare.

“Jason,” he repeated, “this isn’t you.”

“Oh, fuck off.”

“You are not doing this out of any sense of Justice—“

“Are you going to tell me he isn’t deserving of this? He is the Ventriloquist—“

“Yes, he might deserve it, but it wasn’t like are not doing this because he deserves it. You are doing this because you are hurt.”

Jason felt a gut punch.

“How do you even know that?”

“I’ve been following you.”

And Jason had so many questions but the kid just continued—

“I know what happened to Bruce— gosh, I know how much he meant to you— but this isn’t the way. It isn’t what he would have wanted.”

—-

Being kidnapped was honestly a way better outcome than what Tim had expected. When he had stepped in the first time, he had just expected to get shot immediately but things had turned out pretty well.

Now, he had successfully stopped tie assassinations attempts and it wasn’t like anyone was going to miss him if he was gone for a bit longer.

The last time he had been kidnapped it hadn’t been for more than a week and his capturers had let him go after finding out there was no way to contact his parents for a ransom. Tim didn’t expect the Bats to hold him for too long.

Tim tried to not show too much excitement from where he was sitting down next to the Batcomputer as Nightwing— dressed as Batman— and Red Robin fought in hushed tones.

“That’s a whole child, Jason.” Dick was saying.

“Yes, and now he is your problem,” Jason said as he turned around and started making his way over to his motorcycle.

“Where are you going?” Dick yelled.

“Back to my safe house.”

“You should stay. We will talk more in the morning.”

“No way,” he said putting his helmet on, “I brought you the security problem, now I get to leave.”

The loud roar of the bike filled the cave, but just as suddenly as it had started it was gone.

Nightwing turned around and stared at Tim.

Tim stared back.

chapter 2:

“I told you this was going to happen!” The little kid barked at him.

“And I told you l would solve it,” Dick said removing his cowl, already feeling the beginning of another stress headache bubbling up in his skull.

“When I found you months ago,” the kid continued, taking no notice of his predicament, “I told you that Robin was changing. I told you that he needed your help, but you said that Robin was doing ok—“

“So, then what? You just decided you were gonna follow him?”

“It wouldn’t have been the first time—“

“We can’t afford to have civilians get involved in the line of work that we do. Especially not ten-year-olds.”

“I’m almost thirteen—“

“That doesn’t make it any better, kid—“

“I don’t want to cause any trouble. As soon as you help Jason, I’m out of here,” the kid said in earnest, “I promise. Just— Gotham needs Robin.”

Dick looked at the kid incredulously and was about to continue the pointless argument when a noise on the stairwell leading to the house caught his attention.

He turned his head to see Alfred coming down the stairs.

His mind raced for a way to explain the stranger in the Batcave, but before he could conjure up an explanation, Alfred broke the silence.

“What’s your name?” He asked the kid, uncharacteristically cold.

“It’s not important—“

“I asked for your name.”

The kid hesitated, but his resolve was broken quickly under Alfred’s glare.

“Timothy Drake, sir.”

“Wait,” Dick said, his brain recognizing the name from years prior, “As in our neighbor?”

The kid looked away, as Dick studied his face for any recognizable features.

And yup, that was the kid he had seen at the Wayne galas.

“Just—“

—-

Go home, kid.

The words resonated in his head just as his steps bounced back to him upon the once-pristine floors of Drake Manor.

He had avoided the house as much as possible ever since his father had fallen into a coma. He had spent the days next to his father’s hospital bed and the nights following Red Robin across Gotham.

He had expected that the time away from the place would have made him more sentimental toward it, but he guessed that that would have required an initial emotional connection. He felt nothing towards the place. No good memories were hiding in the walls, only the remnants of a lonely childhood.

The only reason he was back was that Mr. Pennyworth had offered to drive him to his home and he had thought it would have been impolite to decline.

He wished he had.

This place wasn’t home.

Home was the streets of Gotham when he would follow Batman and Robin.

Home was what Robin had back at Wayne Manor.

And Robin was good and thus he deserved his home.

Tim would make sure.

He just had to push a bit harder, and everything would be alright again.

Tim was sure.

—-

“Fuck off.”

“Jason, please—“

“I don’t need your help—“

“I’m not saying you need my help… just please come back home, little wing.” Said Dick in the same tone he had always used whenever he was trying to calm someone. It was brutally honest and it had always been something that Jason had tried to imitate. Dick was good at talking to people. It made Jason want to believe him.

But no.

No.

He had a plan…

It would make things better.

For everyone.

There would be no more need for vigilantes once he was done.

No more need and no more deaths and no more pain.

He turned away, unable to meet Dick’s gaze even with the cowl on.

Dick tried to say something, but his words were stifled by the sound of Jason’s grapple gun firing.

Jason flew away as Dick screamed after him, desperate. Yet, Jason couldn’t turn back. He had to keep going. Dick might not have seen it, but Jason knew soon he would understand.

After all, he was doing it all for them.

He was an outsider— he had always been ever since Bruce had taken him in— but that wouldn’t stop him from trying to fix things for them— for the family that Bruce had created. He owed him that.

After all, he was the Robin that got Batman killed.

He landed on the rooftop with a muffled thud.

The impromptu meeting with Dick had messed up his schedule slightly. He was supposed to already be down by the docks. Maybe if he hurried he could still make it before the shipment—

“Robin,”

Shit.

Not again.

He had hoped that a meeting with fucking Batman would be enough to deter the kid, but alas, Spooky kid was back— great.

Jason turned around to continue his argument with the child—

He burst out laughing.

“Oh my god, what the fuck are you wearing?” He managed to say between wheezes and giggles.

“Robin,” the kid said in the most serious tone Jason had ever heard, looking at him with a scowl that could rival Batman’s.

Jason was tempted to stop laughing, but one look at the kid— dressed in dark clothes, with knee and elbow pads and a Batman helmet— send him into another wave of hysterics.

He hadn’t laughed in quite a while and it felt… it felt good.

“Ok, kid,” he said, finally managing to calm down, “what are you doing?”

“I am here to help you—“

“Pardon me?”

“I’m here to help you.”

“How— why are you dressed like that?”

“To help you,”

Jason looked at him confused trying to figure out how the two things were correlated.

“I am going to be your sidekick.”

“What? No.”

Was this kid actually insane?

“You are like ten! You can’t be a vigilante.”

“Yes I can,” the kid said, crossing his arms, “and I’m almost thirteen!”

“I don’t care you are ‘almost thirteen’!” Jason said, unable to believe he was fighting a child, “you can’t just— no.”

“Why not? You started at this age too—“

“I had training!”

“I have proven myself to be a good enough detective to figure out Bruce Wayne was Batman—“

“That’s not—“

“And I have been following you around for years and you haven’t even noticed!”

What?

“What?”

His phone buzzed, and he took it out to see a notification. The shipment had arrived. He wouldn’t make it in time.

If the kid had just—

He took a deep breath, trying to drown the rising anger. The kid couldn’t have known.

First Dick and now this! How much worse could his day get?

He took another breath.

“Why? Just why?”

The kid looked at him and for the first time, Jason noticed a deep anger in his eyes.

“You are going to get yourself killed.”

Jason fought the urge to roll his eyes. What did this kid even know? How could he look so convinced saying such lies? He must have known he sounded insane. He didn’t even know Jason, so how could he judge?

“Jason listen to me!”

Against his better judgment, he did.

“The path you are on will lead to nothing but your destruction. You can’t keep doing this— you can’t. You are acting irrationally. You are taking unnecessary risks and you are hurting not only yourself but everyone else who stands in your path.

“Gotham needs Robin. We already lost Batman, we can’t lose you too. If he kept us safe, you gave us hope, Jason. You need to be strong.”

And then, he wished he hadn’t.

“I thought Dick would be able to deal with you,” Jason said.

“He wouldn’t listen,” the kid said, sounding irritated, “So, I am your problem now. I am doing this either with your help or without it.”

“Where are your parents?”

“It’s complicated,” he said, “will you train me or not?”

Chapter 3

Bruce would have been so disappointed—

“I trained you better than this,” he would have said.

“I thought you would have done better,” he would have said.

And maybe, for once, Dick would have admitted he was right without arguing back.

Because he knew that if he had just stopped and looked like that small part of his brain was screaming for him to do… he would have noticed.

He would have noticed that Jason’s smile never reached his eyes; that he hadn’t cried once; that he was not sleeping; that he was not eating; that he was spending too long in the Batcave; that he was too eager to return to patrol… and that he wasn’t healing.

But maybe he had noticed… maybe he had noticed and decided it was easier to do nothing. Maybe he had thought that the problem would go away if he just ignored it…

This was his fault. He should have been there. He should have done something! Anything!

Jason had been in pain— it had completely overflown him just looking for a way to be released— but Dick hadn’t noticed. Or at least, he hadn’t been able to notice. There had been so much to do— so much to plan… the funeral… The Justice league… Bruce Wayne… Wayne Enterprises… the family…

Batman.

He thought he had it— he thought he was going to be able to hold onto it too— but Jason slipped right off his hand… and he hadn’t begun to try to catch him until it was too late.

Even the neighbor’s kid who lived a few miles away had noticed before him.

Why was he so bad at this?

He should have done better.

He was supposed to be better… but maybe he wasn’t.

“I thought I’d find you here,” said a familiar voice bringing him out of— what Jason had once called— his morose introspection.

He didn’t have to turn around to know the look on Clark’s face— it had been the same ever since he had returned from that mission. It wasn’t judgmental— even though Dick felt it should be— nor was it pitying; it was just kind, and so full of understanding and care and hurt and love and—

And Dick didn’t know how the man could still stand so hopeful even after the last six months.

“What are you doing here, Clark?” Dick said, hoping the alien with super-hearing wouldn’t notice the way his voice wavered.

“There was a Justice League meeting today—“

“Shit,” he said, “I— I had it marked and everything! I don’t know how I forgot— I promise I really tried to make it this time—“

“Dick, stop.”

And he did.

“Can you take that cowl off? Please?”

Suddenly there was a warm hand on his shoulder, and any argument he had begun to think of died immediately.

He took off his cowl and finally turned to meet the man.

The look he has expected was right there painted on his face and Dick felt the world begin to tear apart.

“Kid—“ Clark began and the world completely came apart. The ground opened and Dick was falling and—

The warm hand on his shoulder pulled him towards a warm body and Dick was enveloped in one of the best hugs he could ever remember receiving.

He buried his head in Clark’s shoulder, and he couldn’t help the sob that escaped his body as Clark did his best to comfort him.

He hadn’t cried in front of anyone since the funeral. Everyone had been hurting and they needed him and it had just felt unnecessary to plaster his emotions onto others. He had done a great job at it too… or at least he had thought he had. Jason proved to be an argument against that point.

“I have no idea what the fuck I’m doing,” he said after what felt like an eternity.

“Why didn’t you come to me?” Clark asked, “Or anyone? Dick, you have so many people that care about you and would have been here to help you. Rao, Wally won’t stop asking me to check on you since you’ve been ignoring his calls.”

“Not on purpose!” Dick responded, “I thought I had it! I thought I could handle this on my own— and I part of me still thinks I should… this is not what Bruce would have done— it not what Batman—“

“Kid, you are not Batman.”

Dick pulled away feeling indignant.

“What do you mean?” He asked angrily.

“You are not Batman,” Clark repeated as it was the most obvious thing in the world, “Bruce would have never wanted you to be Batman. He wanted you to be better— and you are! Your biggest strength lies in accomplishing what Bruce could never do: you were able to let go. That darkness he relished on? You do not have that. And that makes you so admirable and I’m sure anyone that knows you would say the same thing. You are Nightwing. You are not Batman and I’m so sorry that I wasn’t there to help you—“

“But Gotham needs Batman!”

Clark looked thoughtful for a moment.

“Maybe it doesn’t.” He said.

“What do you mean?”

“Bruce might have been a recluse-weirdo to most people, but he did manage to garner allies.”

Clark made his way over to the Batcomputer and brought up a list of names… a very long list of names.

“These are the ones only in Gotham, but of course, most of the JL, JSA, and the Titans would be more than happy to help. You are not alone here. We will help you keep Gotham safe.”

Clark turned towards Dick.

“You just go find Jason and bring him home.”

“I’ve been trying to do that, but I can’t find him. When I did he just ran away from me. I just hope I can find him before something bad happens.”

—-

“This is most definitely not training!”

“Actually, Spooky Kid, it is training,” Jason argued for what felt like the thousandth time as he slowed his pace again to make sure the kid didn’t faceplant to the floor. Again.

“If it is training,” the kid said, sounding extremely put together for someone with two scraped knees and who looked like he was about to throw up, “then when do I get to go out on patrol with you?”

“This is literally your first ‘training’, and you have proven yourself incapable of keeping up with me on a slow run.”

“That is only because you are taller than me.”

“It is not my problem that you are short.”

“I am not short. I am a perfectly good height for my age.”

“Yes, but you are ten.”

“I am not ten. I am almost thirteen.”

Jason studied the kid behind him for a moment.

“You see, I am convinced you are lying to me.”

https://archiveofourown.org/works/44748827

(9 chapters total. Unfinished.)

Chapters 4-6:

#batfam #batfam fic #tim drake fanfiction #jason todd fanfiction #batbros #kid Tim Drake #ao3 fanfic #dick grayson fanfiction #long post #ao3

24 notes · View notes

lunarsilkscreen · 6 months

Text

The Dark Knight

"I'm good with calculations" - Lau, the Calculator

"Some men want to watch the world burn." - Alfred the Imperialist

"You wanna know how I got these scars?" - Joker, being 100% completely honest

The two stories he tells, everybody talks about them like they couldn't be a part of the same story. A little bit of therapy, secrets, he tells to people he's thinking about killing. And just tailored enough that the people he's telling never know the whole story.

"I see my father in you" he tells one patron. Whenever he's telling these stories, he's honest, and he's telling them because he sees the people he sees.

A drunk father, to the mob boss. A mother/wife who can't love.

And the little bits interspersed here and there. Lau was the calculator (in gritty realism, it's better not to have a costume). But there's one calculation he didn't make; what if the good guy doesn't play by the rules? What if, and I'm just spit balling here, he'd been feeding mob information to his biggest customer "Wayne enterprises" the same company, that'd been making purchases from him on a secret para-military project codenamed "Flying Fox".

Bat butler's key words of advice in this movie, are that *some people cannot be understood* if of courses he were to take a wider perspective of his story about a thief who stole from a British museum to return the treasures to Africa, he would know that he is infact tainted by his British understanding of people who are not British. His understanding, his stereotype, is of the "British Custodian" a picture brit-land paints itself of course.

They can do no wrong as long as they are the stewards. Except for everything they do wrong in creating things they think need stewardship.

"These "civilized" people? They'll eat each other." - Joker

The Joker is much more agile at making decisions and calculation s, and his combat skills are on the level of Batman. He did something Batman, Harvey Dent, and the entire police force could not do. He got 500 mob members arrested, simply by robbing one of their banks.

And he let them take credit for it.

Why did he kill the people on his initial team? Because if he didn't, the mob would. And, as he says in the meeting with the mob "I know the squealers when I see them."

Who is really cleaning up the streets here?

The lawyer, Coleman Reese, who works for Wayne Enterprises doing an audit for the company's dealing with Lau is wearing a purple tie, he has the same swagger as the Joker, even does the lip licking thing.

The message was to Lucious Fox

How do you think he was tipped off for this? Maybe in another canon, he would be the employee who turns into the riddler. Fox didn't tell Bruce, because he lost faith in the project and was too afraid to do it himself.

Harvey Dent has a two headed coin, he threatens one of Jokers cohorts with "tails, you lose". Batman doesn't know this he says "You'd leave a man's life to chance?" -- "Well not exactly" he says with a smile.

The seeds of distrust in each other are already sown.

Poor Rachel Dawes, stuck in this lie where she lets both Harvey and Bruce think she's in love with them. She knew Joker's plan, to let Batman decide which to save, and knew if Batman didn't show up, she was dead. And here she is telling Harvey how much she loves him because she thinks he's going to die, and it'll make it easier on him.

I know what you might be asking: "When Lambo?" And the answer is 145:22. 1:25:22. You know what a recurring number in this movie is? 22, from the number on the school bus, Harvey Dent's coin has 1922 on it, the bomb in hong Kong is featured having 2:22 on it before the scene change.

Everybody suggests that it's just because it's the second of the Christopher Nolan trilogy. I think it's because it references every Batman Comic #22 up until that point.

"If Coleman Reese isn't dead in the next sixty minutes, then I blow up a hospital " - Joker sowing distrust in the populace AND giving credence to Reese's words. He knew the hospital would be empty, and he was going to blow it up regardless.

After a whole conversation about things going according to plan, which puts people's mind at ease; All according to plan.

When Batman tells Fox about the bat sonar, it's his suit turning purple.

"You oughta know, you bought it" - Joker to the Mafia about his suit

The reason the prisoner boat didn't blow up the other boat, is because a man would've rather died there than to live. (After convincing the warden to give it to him.)

The civilian guy says "They made their choice to murder and steal" as he contemplates murdering an entire ferry of people. Including the guards and bus driver. Before promptly returning the detonator.

The Batman doesn't kill him. Twice now, he doesn't kill him. No matter what he does or who he kills. The Batman won't Kill. He will make people suffer, break their legs, force them into debt over hospital bills. He'll make them want to kill themselves. But no, he won't do it directly.

And the Joker, well, he won't kill himself. And nobody seems to want to do it for him either.

The Batman tho... He nearly lost his life due to a technical malfunction because he couldn't trust his own eyes. If the Joker were just a little more willing to kill the Bat instead of sending a message, he could've owned the City.

The Joker, see--he thinks Bruce is lucky to have lost his parents at such a young age. If he hadn't, he might've had a few scars of his own to show off.

12 notes · View notes

redjaybathood · 1 year

Note

I really want a Jason Tood as Red Hood movie, but like, nearly classic Red Hood. Expressionless helmet, tiny white eyes, form fitting leather jacket, no bat on his chest and barely using guns.

Specifically I want him taking apart some CADMUS operation or other government thing making child soldiers. It'd be more in the vain of John Wick the first, than the usual action beat-em ups.

Though I do imagine him fighting Bane maybe solely for this exchange.

Bane: You stand against the man who broke the bat, what can one of his errand boys do? Jason: Yeah I beat him up too. Unlike yourself though I did not need to break out all of Arkham to wear him down first. But hey, we can't all be winners.

Also him hacking and erasing all the info and specifically choosing to kill the head scientist as he's the only one who has all the info memorized (its a back sight there are no back ups) and crush their head solely cos its pragmatic, showing his kills are strategic.

Yeah, okay, I'm a man of simple pleasures, like Jason moving through the crowd of enemies with whatever he has on hand. And taking down enemies bigger than him, with brains to rival the muscle.

But also, consider this, just a few suggestions to make a mess out of Jason's usual MO.

1) who guards the lab with child soldiers? Child soldiers. Now, suddenly he cannot mow the guards down

2) I humbly propose the following children: Cloud 9, Babe in Arms, DNA, Doomed, and Devour - as the child soldiers in question

3) Killing the head scientist will solve the problem with this particular lab, but not overall with the principle of the thing that someone, somewhere, signed off on it; put together a budget; provided supplies; etc etc. And killing those people, most of them paper-pushers, not all of them fully aware of what's going on, just being good soldiers, just doing what they're told and not asking questions... It won't solve the issue.

4) And, you know, sometimes dumping the whole thing on Internet and making public outrage do its thing is helpful, especially in a re-election year, but a Congressal hearing is a must, too. This one is going to be the biggest since MKUltra, bigger than Facebook even. Hopefully, more successful.

5) Jason doesn't trust the system but that's the thing, the system needs to be checked, and the system needs to be changed if found lacking. He can't do it alone, so he asks basically everyone there is for help, everyone who ever owed him a favor. The list of those includes, but is not limited to, the whole Batfam, Batman Inc, and misc Gotham vigilantes; Titans, late 80-s iteration; Talia al Ghul; Wilson family (Slade didn't wave the fee but he gave a discount because he also has a bone to pick with people who do experiments on children to turn them into weapons); Outlaws. From the legal side of things, Kate Spencer/Manhunter (hell yeah a US government vs Gen O lawsuit), from the political, Barbara Gordon, who was at this point the mayor of Gotham and is running for the governor.

The head scientist had died in a freak accident (very sad) but other scientists become the first ones to be prosecuted for illegal human experimentation. As does the guys from the government side who put them up to it.

(this could have ended very differently, bc at first I came up with a scenario where Jason has to give himself up for the case to move forward; he would then be tried as a terrorist and be given death penalty, where, after the sentence is carried out, he's found by Harvey Dent - and he decides to join him bc a) he's dead anyway and b) to go undercover and ensure no funny business here)

#asks #fic ideas

23 notes · View notes

hadesred · 6 months

Text

So if you’re reading this you’re gonna catch basically my head canons turned fanfic of Batman and how I think he developed through the years with my own fan art of the characters. Inspired by Matt reeves but the rest is my own twist on original characters and events.

Fanfic time

Firstly, In Batman’s first year it starts out as tabloids talking about vampires in Gotham. Gotham’s slums are strung out so no one believes a giant Bat could be on the attack in Gotham. In this time Bruce has yet to make a public appearance since the start of his “Europe tour”. Most people speculate he’s going to debut an album as most rising nepo babies do like Simon Stagg’s son or Lex Luthor Jr in the late 90’s. Other people think he’s going to “see his royal oats” before he ends up married to Mayor Wilson Klass’ daughter Rachel Klass-Beaumont (made up character that’s a mix of Rachel from TDK and Andrea Beaumont)

Secondly, this is the most brutal version of Batman in his years to come but not on purpose. Bruce had just left the league of assassin and truly doesn’t know how to not be fully lethal. Accidentally paralyzing two different criminals under Falcone. Bruce creates a foundation for paralyzed individuals through Alfred just to indirectly help them and their families in need while making the first truly good step to help Gotham.

Thirdly, at this point Bruce is not the detective yet. Most of what helps him on any case that does happen is Alfred until one day Bruce sees a murder he could’ve solved as Batman if he had the investigative skills to find the murderer of Detective Gordon’s wife Barbara. This shuts Bruce down for a little while until Alfred decides to teach him since Alfred worked as an agent for the British intelligence agency having skills of deduction, code breaking, some criminology and forensics, and finally how to go under cover when needed (aka his matches Malone the criminal for hire, Lenny the Ace Chem dock worker, and every now and then if he needs to get into the GCPD Morgue He is Dr. John Carr)

Lastly, and kinda least importantly this Bruce had almost finished Med school when he left for his tour. Trying to take after his dad he wanted to heal the sick but he was clearly too nihilistic towards the medicine field seeing how many people are poorly treated when he was in he was in the hospital learning and under studying Dr. Leslie Thompkins before he was killed in a car crash while Bruce was on his trip. The last friends Bruce had were in his early college days. Pamela Isley, Harvey Dent, Thomas Elliot, and his on and off girlfriend Rachel Klass-Beaumont.

If you read this thank you I have another finished fan art and fanfic that I’m posting tomorrow with Batman’s first three rogues.

#fanart #batman #year one #dc comics #fanfic #headcanon #comics #batfam

4 notes · View notes

resurrectionist3 · 2 years

Text

So, tbh, I know not that many people interact with my account right now, and I’m cool with that. I’m cool with tumblr being the place where I just talk about whatever and maybe a few people will see it and respond to what I say. Better than wasting my energy somewhere else. This feels like a semipublic diary for me where I can just dump whatever I’m feeling atm and not be worried that my real life acquaintances are gonna ask me what’s up and try to be nosy, nor do I expect people to respond and then get upset and disappointed when they ignore me.

Im chill with sharing with several random strangers. That’s cool with me.

That being said, I’m remembering The Batman that came out earlier this year (2022) and I haven’t put much thought to it in a while until just now when I was watching a video about fan theories for the coming film(s) in this new more modernised version of Batman. And I have a few theories of my own that I low-key just wanna get out of my system and into the hands of people who might feel the same because I never get to talk about this stuff! :)

(this is gonna be a long post, so buckle up)

Potential Spoilers if you haven’t seen The Batman(2022)

I think Bruce should go to therapy, and I think it should be an important plot point, rather than just some comment in a passing conversation with Alfred or something. Bruce can then both learn to get over his crush/possible future obsession with Selena (catwoman) after she leaves at the end of the film, as well as work on his social skills. It might lead to him meeting a new love interest in a public setting and just generally coming out of his shell more and becoming the Bruce Wayne everyone is more used to. Maybe Bruce will even confesses to them that he's batman and it becomes a whole thing later on.

Harvey Dent HAS to be featured in the future. I even thought he would be introduced IN the first movie after the District Attorney was killed by Paul dano✨, (either we would meet him or he would be mentioned but not featured yet) I even whispered to my sister in the theatre that there's no way they ARENT setting up for harvey dent after that.

I WILL DIE IF SCARECROW IS NOT IN ONE OF THE COMING FILMS. I think he is SUCH AN AMAZING VILLAIN- and biases aside, I think he fits really well into the creepy, gritty, and complex universe that Matt Reeves is creating. Especially with his Fear Toxin/Fear Gas, we can have so many interesting scenes breaking down Bruce's mind and making him face his past in a film that may be about him trying to heal and change into a person he's more proud of (✨character development✨, we love to see it). Bonus points if bruce's therapist, mentioned earlier, is working for or is connected to scarecrow in some way.

I think Penguin will have a larger role in the coming film(s) than he did in the first, making him more of an actual villainous threat and less of an annoyance and obstical for batman to face when trying to reach the real threat. I just think he didn't reach his full villain potential in the first film and I think they could do soo much more with his character going forward. Maybe they did that on purpose and he really wont be much of a threat going forward, but the foreshadowing they did at the end of the movie (if you saw it, you know what I mean) was undeniable.

It's already been confirmed by Reeves that the joker does (unfortunately) exist in this version of batman. He's featured breifly in that one scene(again if you saw the film, you know what I’m referring to), and it was a secret at first who this character was but then it was later confirmed to be the joker. It's not that bad but we all know that audiences are immediately going to compare him to the previous jokers (Leto, Phoenix, and especially Ledger) and I'm afraid that'll take away from the film and it's story and plot (in the sense that audiences will be more focused on the joker than they will any other potential villains and the overall character development that bruce is having). It would have been refreshing to have a batman film trilogy without the joker as a character (personally I think the joker role is cursed for whoever dares try to portray the character but that's unrelated), but audiences would be ✨absolutely pissed to shit✨ if there was no joker/no mention of him. It would be hilarious if the cameo happened at the end of the first film and then nothing happened with it afterward, that would make me cackle. But maybe the joker won't even be in the second film. Maybe they'll save him for a third, or whenever some big final fight will be and I think that's a good plan.

And lastly, I might be ridiculous for this/I might be the only person who wants this, but I NEED the Arkham Asylum to be PROPERLY FEATURED in any upcoming films. Either it's visited during a scene and we get an IN-DEPTH and DETAILED VIEW of it and all the characters there, or the second or possible third film is all about it. I love the Arkham Asylum graphic novel, and I just wish we had more content about it outside of comics and the video games. It fits the creepy, gritty vibe, it's a cool place for a final fight/large threat to take place, and it'll introduce a lot of fan favourite characters and villains (a cameo from harleen quinzel, for example). It'll be a good place for that scarecrow content to happen, as well as open doors to other character features. **I'm also lowkey tired of Arkham just being mentioned and like one hallway and maybe a couple rooms are featured and that's it. I'm calling for justice for the arkham asylum because we deserve that sweet creepy content.

#the batman #robert pattinson #the batman 2022 #the riddler #paul dano #catwoman #zoe kravitz #dc batman #dc comics #dc #the joker #arkham asylum #fan theories #scarecrow

9 notes · View notes

kevin-day-is-bi · 26 days

Text

Embarking on watching all the live action Batman movies pt 6: The Dark Knight (2008)

I hate this movie so much that I had a whole argument about it four years ago that was so huge I managed to turn it into an officially structured school debate with two parts: is it an accurate Batman movie and is it sexist.

Good things first. The Two-Face sfx makeup is fantastic, the Jim Gordon characterization is great, and I continue to enjoy that Lucius Fox is a strong tertiary character. There's one shining comic-accurate scene, and that's the whole end Joker-trying-to-prove-humanity-is-evil bit.

Everything else...

The Falcone/Maroni crime families are too big of a topic to be relegated to a side plot. They are also enemies, and having them be the same removes a lot of the dirty money undercurrents that are important to their existence. Having Joker turn Harvey into Two-Face was done well-enough that if I wasn't an avid Two-Face fan, it would've been okay. However, it literally destroys the whole point of his character, which is that Harvey Dent was supposed to fight the secret monsters of Gotham while Batman fought the public ones, and then those secret monsters turn him into a public one. Removing that makes me ask questions like why is he specifically a DA? Why is he specifically going after the crime families? Also I don't like that they didn't make Harvey and Bruce friends. That plays a huge role in Bruce's guilt after the creation of Two-Face.

The Joker is...not a good Joker. Heath Ledger is a fantastic actor, the makeup is great, but the writing is just not comic accurate. Having him focus more on the machinations, having these plans and backup plans, working with the crime families, all of that sort of ruins what the Joker is. He's not a villain, he doesn't have reasoning, he's just evil. The two lines that I can see people pushing back on that are "it's about sending a message" and whatever the "chaos incarnate" line is, and that's fair, but the movie just doesn't back either of those things up. Time and time again, it gets played as your standard villain. Now, the reason that I can sort of see it working is because in this, the Joker is the second Rogue that Gotham has had. If you treat him as a normal villain, and put him alongside Riddler or Ivy, it raises the question of "why is he so hard to capture, then?", but because they made him an early villain, and Batman's struggles with the cops got in the way, it's not necessarily a disastrous change when it comes to the plot, just when it comes to characterization.

In terms of Batman, the character, Christian Bale continues to do an okay Batman. There's a little too much Bruce and Bruce Wayne in this, especially for something that has three villain story lines, but Bale continues to differentiate between Bruce Wayne, Bruce, and Batman perfectly fine. Not my favourite, but not inaccurate.

Plot wise, the movie is confused. There's too many side plots and tertiary characters, and very few of them get the spotlight. It dragged in a lot of places, to the point where I genuinely just considered skipping ahead (I did not, so I could be as accurate as possible). They put too much focus on Harvey's journey for the amount of changes that they made to it, and playing the three villain game in the way that they did just didn't work.

And then finally, the part of this argument that I lost in Spring 2020, is it sexist? Yes, so very much that I actually yelled at my laptop. There's one woman, she's a secondary character, she repeatedly gets saved by Batman, despite there being a tertiary woman this movie still does not pass the Bechdel test, nearly all of her scenes are romantic, and to top it all off, she gets fridged. For those who don't know, the term "fridging your women" refers to killing or injuring the women in your story to further a man's story line. She is literally blown up while talking about how much she loves a man, and then her voice over post-death is also talking about how much she loves a man.

1.5/10. It gets points for the Two-Face makeup and the nice Jim Gordon.

#hey guys i Really hate the dark knight trilogy #Embarking on watching all the live action Batman movies pt 6 #Batman reviews

1 note · View note