#babs vs fandom nonsense

[armed-with-a-waffle-iron]

Barbara Gordon's Age

The claim that Babs was "de-aged" to accommodate a romance with Dick Grayson is bullshit, illiterate and frankly sexist.

Babs was first "de-aged" in Secret Origin #20 during a time where nothing romantic was going on between Dick and her. So as of 1987, Babs was already around 18 when she became Batgirl. Barbara was portrayed younger to introduce the theme of Babs as a "gifted child", and the adversity and complications that come with that. Meanwhile, Dick, who became Robin at around 11/12, was already a Teen Titan and well into his Robin career when Batgirl arrived on the scene. So give or take, Post-Crisis Babs was only around 3 years older than Dick, more than 10 years before any romance plot-lines were planned.

1997 gave us Batman Chronicles #9, depicting Babs and Dick's first team-up and the 1987 age-gap seems to hold even though their flirty back-and-forth of the 1970s has returned.

Batgirl (2000) #45 confirms that Babs was Batgirl at 18. It is possible that she became Batgirl when she was younger too.

Babs' age then changed slightly during 2003's Batgirl: Year One. But again, this age change is to serve her story, not her romance with Dick. So a few things are important here when it comes to Babs' timeline.

First is her height. Babs is tall and always has been; standing at 5'11".

5'11"! That's taller than Dick too! And yet, during Batgirl: Year One, she is rejected from the GCPD and FBI for "not meeting the minimum height requirement".

This means that Babs must have become Batgirl before she stopped growing. So she is at most 16 when she became Batgirl. Again, Dick is already an established vigilante and Teen Titan in Batgirl: Year One. So, per Batgirl: Year One, Babs is at most 2 years older than Dick. Batgirl: Year One, although it isn't afraid to play with it, is not centred around Babs and Dick's romance; it's centred around Babs' journey to establish herself as Batgirl. The age change is there to introduce further adversity and amp up Babs' tenacity and skill, as it did in 1987.

There are two more clues, one from Detective Comics: 1) Despite their more than palpable chemistry, Babs initially saw Dick as too young and reckless (Batgirl: Year One #8). 2) Babs and Dick ended up going to "high school prom" together (Detective Comics 1940 #871).

For both of these things to be true, I'd say Dick is between 1 and 2 years younger than Babs and probably graduated high school young, just as Babs did. OR, Babs didn't go to prom in her own senior year (maybe because she was young) and "her high school prom" was actually at Dick's.

There's no further age retcon from here and age retcons were never about pairing her with Dick anyways. I get that some people don't ship these two, that's fine, but it's no reason to make aggrieved, sexist and illiterate claims about Barbara.

#barbara gordon #babs vs fandom nonsense #dc comics #batgirl #oracle #batman #bat family #dick grayson #robin #batman and robin #batfam #nightwing #birds of prey #comics #dickbabs

[detective--reed]

10-13

Questions for the Mun

10. How do you feel about the interpretation of your character vs the fandom?

/big shrug/ I have an idea of how I’d l like to rp him, but since this blog is like, two days old, I haven’t had the time to test that out. He’s an asshole, not some tortured soul who just wants a hug. So that we’d likely disagree on, but he has his reasons behind it. Yeah, maybe they’re petty, but not every character has to have good motivations. He works hard and wants that recognition. I also don’t see him as an idiot, at least not when it comes to his job. He’s worked hard to get to this point in life and it shows.

11. What’s a thread you’d like to do in the near future?

I would really like to delve into his history with Hank. Hank earned some fame before he lost his son, so Gavin would have definitely heard about it and would seek him out to learn more from him. That relationship, however brief, would be very interesting to explore. 

12. Do you have fun RPing?

Oh loads! I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t enjoy it! 

13. Three of your favorite threads.

Since this blog is just a bab, I’ll just hypothesize? 1. I honestly just need somebody to be fed up with his BS and lay into him. A good long shouting match where everything gets hashed out and someone is left with tears.2. Some Tina interaction! She’s the only coworker he can tolerate, and he’s very protective of her for that. 3. Some domestic nonsense. I HC him as a very good cook because he’s learned most living skills on his own. The boy grew up in this decade, you know he youtubed some Gordon Ramsey tutorials.4. Just because I really want this, somebody needs to realize that he has terrible habits when it comes to taking care of himself. Gavin that’s your tenth cup of coffee today are you okay? You can’t come in to work with a fever that high how are you standing? He’s motivated af and won’t let himself stand in his way.

#gavin please sleep #Anonymous #Gavinisms #bring me a meme (answers)

[sparatus]

the sad thing is the freaky nonsense the shippers get up to in this fandom ain’t shit compared to what i saw when i was a wee bab in the hetalia fandom. even sitting in my usual underappreciated characters corner i wasn’t safe from the stupid ship wars. sh-nko vs sh-k-rian vs sh-ara comes close but nothing can live up to the absolute warzone that was my time in the hetalia fandom

#councilor's notes #listen i try not to acknowledge i was ever into that anime cause Yikes #but sometimes....... sometimes im forced to remember