#and then i saw how he wrote Ari and Steph | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

incoherentbabblings · 4 years

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I love timsteph but it's depressing trying to find fics where they aren't exes or the main pairing isn't batcest or some other tim and stephanie ship with other people. I found some anti saying it was boring and steph was irrelevant unless she was with tim, that the shippers were annoying and they hated her. Their username is corefour on AO3. Can you please tell me why you ship timsteph and why they work well together, that anti's toxic rhetoric really brought me down and I like your timsteph.

I know that feeling anon. I remember when it was still common to call Steph Tim’s beard and how angry that used to make me. I saw that fic. Do your best to not engage with things that make you sad. They can post what they like, and as much as I wish it wasn’t in the pairing tag, these things happen so best just let it pass you by. I got back into fic writing because YJ#5 just made me so happy, and yeah there are days when I come back from the office and I don’t get any writing done, but if I could not work a 9-5 job rest assured I’d be writing all day to clean up the pairing tag (and doing my cross stitch… and playing my nintendo games… and cooking mac n cheese)

To help cheer you up, here are some things I love about Tim and Steph as a couple.

Okay, so there’s this tie in issue to Batman Brave and the Bold cartoon series and it’s just a little side story where all the robins are called across time to help Batman out and aside from a great moment where Damian tells Jason that yes Dick is in charge so suck it up (he’s Dami’s Batman after all) Dick pairs of Tim and Steph to watch over Bruce whilst he Jason Damian and Carrie go get help. Anyway here’s my two favourite panels:

So in these couple of panels, you have Steph’s inferiority complex rearing its head, which she always reacts defensively to, Tim reassuring her. Then you have Dick noting that yeah she’s good but paired with Tim they are a pretty solid pair. Like this is a solid trope - Red Oni, Blue Oni, Leader and Lancer… like that’s a tried and tested formula that works well, and those two fit it to a t.

When Tim is honest with Stephanie, she is a non judgemental voice for him to voice his concerns to - she’s the only one who knows him for every aspect of his life, and can still give an outsiders perspective. She’s protective over him from Bruce’s treatment, she isn’t really keen on Jack.

When Stephanie is honest with Tim, he pulls her back to what actually is the core of the issue, as she tends to always assume the worst in folk (low self esteem yello) and he gives her a lot of help when she’s first getting started. Equipment, training, missions with him.

You can argue that Tim wasn’t supportive of Steph but honestly I dunno. He has been extremely supportive of her since the reboot right from the word go (before then… he was one of the only people taking her social media warnings seriously), Jon Lewis wrote Tim and Steph are like… a unit, and Chuck Dixon had most of Tim’s complaints about Steph be so superficial as the aim was to show that Tim really actually was enjoying Steph’s company more than he was willing to admit to himself at the time. Tim’s just…a happier person with Steph in Gotham. Besides, Tim grew up and realised that with Batgirl came a lot of maturing for Steph. All he does is compliment her after the initial hurr burr I told u no costume hurr burr argument.

He respects her space, and so does she. Honestly before the arc leading up to the name reveal she never nagged him about who he was, Tim just would blab to her because, as I mentioned, she’s a good listener with an outsider’s perspective and Tim would often slip up and let things slide like Ari or his friends or even Bruce. The more he did this the more Steph grew head over heels for him. This boy? This brave, gentle, kind, earnest boy chose her. And he can’t tell her everything though it’s obvious he really wants to… so she’ll listen, and be what she can for him.

Listen, I love them both because it’s two teenagers who have grown up in emotionally difficult circumstances, either through outright abuse or neglect, finding out what it’s like to be in love with someone who loves you back for the first time and neither of them are very good at accepting that fact, and Steph’s insecurities get the better of her to the point where, yes, it does wreck the relationship, and by the time she works her way through them and pays the city back for what happened during the gang war Tim has started to emotionally shut down. And that’s heartbreaking for them, as Tim wants to be with her but she sees someone who just isn’t stable or open enough to see it through.

And yet, she gets through to him every time, and he knows he can call on her for help. And then in Convergence it’s still Steph saying “Look you have to talk to me, please.” and Tim providing her with a physical comfort she can’t find elsewhere.

Post reboot it’s just two teenagers completely head over heels for the other and even then it’s because the two of them are one hundred percent supportive of the other and Steph sees Tim a legit madman who’s her best hope of helping people whilst also having a much better life then what her parents would have given her and Tim is so head over heels for her he drops Cassandra ‘literal demigoddess’ Sandsmark in favour of this homeless hobo girl who: a) probably hadn’t had the chance to shower in days and b) punched Owlman in the face screaming that she was Batman. What a legend. I would go full heart eyes too for her.

The tragedy for both of them is that they kind of want that white picket fence life, they want to be selfish. But they can’t ever turn away from people that need them and that’s kind of what I love best about them. They’re just two people who want to do well by others. How can I not love them?

#dc #ask and i'll babble #timsteph #tim drake #stephanie brown #Anonymous #timsteph meta

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