#and no this will mostly just be a dick list bc i hate batfam<3 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

autisticcassandracain · 3 years

Note

I don't follow you yet but I saw you reblogged the ask me anything post. Top 5 first Batfam members, then DC chars?

Asdghjk don't worry you don't have to follow me, I appreciate the ask either way!

Top 5 Batfam Members:

Cassandra Cain: I adore Cass with my whole heart. I think her introduction is one of the strongest character introductions I have ever read, and her Batgirl solo was by and large amazing. In particular, I love how it developed her perfectionist complex and low self worth, and how it showcased her sense of humor. Her character is complex and compelling and I love her.

Damian Wayne: Little shit (affectionate). It's a shame he almost never gets written well, because he might've had a serious chance at dethroning Cass. As it stands, I love him when he's written well, and can often enjoy him even when he isn't. His character arc of coming to question his upbringing and actively working to redeem himself and learn compassion is extremely compelling, and I adore the fact that he's a loudmouth arrogant little brat. Half of R:SOB lives in my head rent free. Actually tied with Duke but for the sake of this list he's two and Duke's three.

Duke Thomas: he has SO MUCH potential!! Bc he's a newer character his characterization has been pretty consistent with no major duds imo, which is nice for a change, but more importantly than that, he feels unique and compelling. I DESPERATELY hope DC starts actually exploring the concept of a daytime vigilante in Gotham and Duke's light powers, because both have SO MUCH potential. I really love his daredevil tendencies, natural smarts, and connection to the concepts of Gotham vigilantes and villains (long explenation necessary and im on mobile) as well!

Stephanie Brown: every day I kick myself for not getting off my ass and reading through the reading lists I have saved for her. I've liked her in everything I've read, from her more cynical Spoiler to her hopeful Batgirl, and I enjoy her backstory and personality a lot. She deserved better than to get fucked over by everything and everyone including the writers.

Dick Grayson: I tend to like Dick when I read him, though I admit to enjoying him the most when he's written as a flawed character with a tendency to push people away and lash out in times of stress than the emotional support batfam member. I like his style of heroing (when written as both flippity and sociable but calculating and hypercompetent), and think his sense of humor is fun. that said it's hard for me to get truly invested in him because, like most characters who've been around for very long, his characterization is highly dependent on the writer, and his history so vast it's nearly impossible to get through.

Top 5 DC Characters in general:

Koriand'r: Listen. She's the actual love of my lide. I ADORE her. The simple concept of 'alien from a planet that doesn't censor emotions' done beautifully, resulting in a truly unique character whose love and hate are deep and intrinsically intertwined. I love her stubborn love of life even in the face of all the horrible things she's experienced just as much as I love the hatred born out of them. Queen of my heart.

Cassandra Cain/Damian Wayne/Duke Thomas: tying them to cheat this list a little, but Cass is #2 and Damuan/Duke a shared #3, for reasons listed above.

Bette Kane: I just think she's Neat! I have a soft spot for both minor character and female characters fucked over by writers, and Bette hits both. I think the fact that she's an attention-seeking B-list hero mostly in it for the fun is a fantastic breath of fresh air, and I really appreciate it especially when she's also written as confident, competent, snarky, smart, kinda manipulative, and loyal to her friends.

Jaime Reyes: His 06 solo and particularly the Reach arc is a masterpiece. Admittedly, I haven't read terribly much of him outside that, but I adore the way it develops him and sets his character. He's such a staunchely heroic and kind individual, but is still vety much a teenager who gets angry, petty, and frustrated. His powers are cool as hell and his relationship to Khaji-Da stellar. I love how they had him learn strategy and rely on smarts, not because he's underpowered, but BECAUSE not all problems can be solved with power, especially not non-lethal power. Also the fact that his family knows his identity makes for brilliant and unique interactions and I hate all versions of him that remove it.

Diana of Themyscira: she has all the problems with popular characters that have been around for forever, and it does make it hard for me to feel like I truly know her or get invested with her, but I just ADORE her character as a concept, so I actually enjoy seeing different takes on her! I'm a greek mythology nerd and adore the world of Themyscira and Diana in general, her lasso of truth is a fantastically interesting weapon, and I think her base personality traits of very compassionate, truthful, yet a true warrior are very compelling.

#My posts #Asks

5 notes · View notes

bigskydreaming · 5 years

Note

Do you have actual good dick grayson fanfiction recs? I agree with so much of what you say about his character and the treatment he gets and im desperate

omg anon I know and I feel your pain. Umm, you should be alright going off my bookmarks page here, as a starting point:

https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlashInThePan/bookmarks

I haven’t read all of them recently, but I’m pretty sure I stand by all of them as being ones I’d reread and still enjoy. And there’s definitely definitely NO Batbro incest in any of those, from start to finish.

There’s only 18 fics on it but as you no doubt know, I’m suuuuuper picky about my Dick Grayson characterizations, like….in particular how Dick and Jason’s dynamic is treated is such a sticking point.

I know I have one fic on there that’s by audreycritter, who’s a popular writer in the fandom for how she writes a number of different characters, and like, I love her Jason, and I even love how she writes Dick a lot of the time too? But I only have the one fic by her on there, because like….she does stick with the whole “Dick was kinda shitty to Jason as a kid” take on things in general, and its not even that she doesn’t do it WELL, like she doesn’t paint Dick as a terrible person when she writes that particular aspect of things, its more just that I’m sooooo sick of that take overall, that I’m just like gah, I can’t, even if its done well, I still just…its not what I want to read, personally.

So I just raise that point to be like, if you’re less picky than me in that regard, you could probably still find some quality Dick Grayson fics by going through the various authors on that list and seeing what else they’ve written, cuz some of them have put out a TON of content.

Personally, the Four Horsemen of the Apocafics in Batfamily fandom, like the tropes that I just CAN NOT with, are:

1) Dick was an asshole to Jason as a kid/blames himself for Jason’s death bc he wasn’t there more AND NO ONE IN THE NARRATIVE CONTESTS THIS LIKE WTF HOW DO YOU PUT THAT ON A NINETEEN YEAR OLD KID WHO DOESN’T EVEN LIVE AT HOME BC HIS DAD IS BEING AN ASSHOLE WTF.

2) The Batfam being assholes to Dick because of the Forever Evil/Spyral stuff, like just NO. DO NOT.

3) Dick betrayed Tim by giving Robin to Damian and didn’t consider his feelings at all, which…no, not how that happened and ignores the EXTREME clusterfuck that was Dick’s life at the time too, like enough with characters talking about how perfect Dick is and then resenting him the second he makes a less than perfect decision or enacts a decision imperfectly. Same with the Dick throwing Jason in Arkham thing, again, way to erase all context cuz its not remotely how that makes it sound, and also if you’re going to keep Dick’s actions as canon but completely disregard everything Jason did in that run (where HE was written incredibly OOC imo) that LED to Dick making that decision, like….just admit you want a reason to hate Dick and show what a terrible brother he is to Jason and go.

4) Fics that emphasize everything Bruce has ever done wrong to Jason and Tim and Damian but gloss over the extreme wtf-ery he’s done to Dick at various points in canon and just go with the ‘Dick is the golden boy, Bruce loves him the most-est, he would never do this to Dick’ EXCEPT HE WOULD AND HE HAS. Like, its the double standard. If you want to play the Bruce Is A Good Dad to Dick then like….it doesn’t work to play the Bruce Is A Bad Dad with everyone else card. And vice versa. Dick doesn’t get the special treatment the characters and fandom like to pretend he does. In particular I can not staaaaaaaand when fics downplay how utterly FUCKED UP Bruce’s treatment of Dick was, when Dick came to see him after he found out Jason died. Like, how do you downplay Dick’s father in all but name punching him, blaming him for his brother’s death, kicking him out of his own home, all when Dick (who had plenty of reason to be mad at Bruce, given he didn’t even TELL Dick or leave a message about Jason and had the funeral when Dick was still offworld, even though the funeral was only like five people anyway and thus they could have waited) made a POINT when going there, to try and avoid a fight, keep things civil. Like that issue was such a fundamental breaking of Dick’s trust in Bruce on SO MANY LEVELS and people in fic are like ‘oh and Bruce punched him that one time and that was bad too I guess.’

Anyway, those are just my personal big four Avoid, Do Not Enter tropes in Batfics (in addition to no incest/pedophilia/rape fantasy fics of course), when it comes to Dick’s characterization.

It doesn’t matter how good the fic is or how well in the CONTEXT of those particular tropes that Dick’s characterized, its just a no go from me, because the takes themselves are just ones that hold zero appeal for me and mostly just end up being a large source of frustration. So I’m sure there are absolutely quality fics along those lines that are well written and characterized and I mean, its not like people aren’t ALLOWED to run with those interpretations of canon, lmfao, its just….they’re too opposite my own interpretations for me to enjoy. *Shrugs*

20 notes · View notes