#bruce.zip

[boyfridged]

and if bruce is leslie's monster because he's the mirror of her guilt then isn't jay bruce's monster. and how it hurts to be someone's fault

#core texts #leslie.zip #bruce.zip #jay.zip

[boyfridged]

"a very bright boy, but he's been yawning in class and--" "yawn" "excuse me... but it must run in the family."

"but... i thought jason was adopted." "environment, not heredity. listen, i don't mean to be brusque, ms. collins, but i'm familiar with the problem..."

batman (1940) #383. story by moench. art: colan & alcala

#one of my favourite scenes and issues of all times. #this is what wfa is trying to be #oops who said that #the panels tag #pre-crisis #bruce.zip #bruce wayne #jason todd

[boyfridged]

i'm in a certain mood, thinking about all the letters that people sent about jason dying both before they knew what the results of the vote were and after- and about the fact that most readers were convinced that it would be followed by either bruce murdering the joker or a retirement arc. and it makes me think about how it seems no one thought there was any dignity or courage in persisting in this case. perhaps there are situations in which you are not supposed to keep going, the same as you used to. what does it say about bruce? what does it say about him that he never stops.

#straight out of my dms. #noa's wonderful addition being: everyone thought something would change! jason is not crazy for thinking something would change! #this is not bruce bashing this is about the horror of enduring #this is about events so sad it baffles you they are not endings #about events so tragic it offends you there's another day to come after them. #bruce.zip

[boyfridged]

What do you think about bruce wayne?

that is such a broad question… but i guess i rarely talk about bruce specifically, in isolation. and i love bruce dearly, despite despite despite… despite the fact that it took me so long to get there even, because for years of reading dc comics he was a nuance to me. but i am now tremendously interested in bruce wayne. i have a soft spot for pre-crisis bruce, his geniality and zest, that easy affection. but i’m also interested in bruce of the “dark” post-crisis era, and where their personalities meet at…

so i’m interested in bruce wayne who took the idea of “grief work” too literally. in how he invented a myth for his tikkun olam and did it wrong. and hence in a myth that grows hungry and implicates others in tragic cycles. in bruce wayne whose kindness makes him project on people that would be better off without it. all to say, i’m mostly interested in how batman sees a man, dead in crime alley and thinks: that could be me. my beginning and my probable end. and who ought to rectify that opinion later, by admitting he thought he’d be a victim of his own mission, but it was his son instead.

his biggest trouble: he perfected the vigilante-civilian lives compartmentalisation, but it lasted no longer than a few years, only for his newly-found family members to enter the picture and mess his brilliant system of identity split… because with children, there’s no dichotomy - they will be his in cowl and out of it, and there will be a price to pay. and bruce realises that, when his abandonment issues also come into play - when he pushes his sons away to protect them from a life of his own invention.

i want these narratives to be complex; i want stories in which his love, just as his grief, gets ugly. and his grief, just as his love, becomes graceful and merciful. however that quote went, about being like gd -- loving everything/everyone and therefore nearly no one/nothing. not a comparison too out of place, since the whole world bends to his personal story.

but i also want the real, breathing thing, ordinary. i want bruce wayne a socialite that truly enjoys high society, as per old canon, that bristol man who drags his body through gotham whole, one with it and yet separated through the numbers in his bank account. i’m interested in bruce wayne rich and a rehabilitationist and therefore worryingly liberal-leaning-conservative. bruce wayne and his stupid, soft robes, and reading glasses, and barbecue parties, and that mini-golf in his WE office, having all of that while playing an every-man.

but that doesn’t answer the question, does it- i suppose what i think of bruce wayne is that: he’s wrong about nearly everything but that love matters. and he's most compelling when put in opposition to leslie, who reads him like an open book and thinks of him: a monster of her own.

#and that doesn't nearly cover it all. #because what of bruce wayne the lover for example... married to a woman he nearly never sees because everyone knows gotham comes first #sorry this was just me rambling<3 #is it even comprehensible at all #can you guys tell. i love batman very much... #can't believe i wrote a bruce wayne love letter #outbox #core texts #bruce.zip

[boyfridged]

i love when media introduce an event so salient and traumatic that it becomes almost a secondary origin story for a character. i am obsessed with how in many ways, jason's death overshadows the death of bruce's parents. i am obsessed with the cyclicity of it, with how ouroboric it all is-- i'm obsessed with the fact that jay's first post-crisis appearance seems to be positively overwriting the story of their demise by his meeting with bruce taking place in the alley where they were murdered. i am obsessed with how their passing inspired bruce to become a vigilante and how later vigilantism contributed to his son's death. i'm obsessed with the myth demanding further sacrifices.

#i don't love it for jay #i love it for bruce though #but that's also why bruce should get fridged next. #bruce.zip #bruce.txt #walking backwards #core texts

[boyfridged]

the way leslie blames herself for how bruce's youth went; for what she perceives as her failure to act as the mother she was supposed to be. the way she blames herself for allowing him to enter the path of vigilantism. the way bruce never read it as anything else than love and being offered freedom he desperately longed for in his grief. and the way he stops himself from reaching out to dick, as he wants to give him that same liberty. and "i didn't have the right to call you back." "the right? i'd die for you, bruce."

#forgot to include footnotes... #the quote is from batman: prodigal #robin (1993) 13 more specifically #<- thank you for commenting to let me know!! #leslie.zip #bruce.zip #dick.zip

[boyfridged]

batman: dark victory (99) #1 / on earth we're briefly gorgeous (vuong)

#web weaves #bruce.zip #i was intentionally going to go with dick for this webweave bc of the age but. bruce fit better

[boyfridged]

this panel remains one of my all time favourites btw. the way he's unnecessarily posing, his bright red pants, him asking "why do we like to dwell on our misery, alfred?" and all of that because cps took away his child that he technically kidnapped (because he just never thought of informing the authorities that jason lives with him). this is why pre-crisis bruce will always win.

#still batman 376 btw #win what you ask. idk the place in my heart #bruce.zip #bruce.txt #bruce wayne #panels tag

[boyfridged]

"master dick was ready to leave-- your work with him was finished." "yes... and with jason it's barely begun. but i mean it, alfred..."

"perhaps misery cannot be escaped until conquered, master bruce." "yet i'm hardly putting up a fight here in jason's empty room..."

"of course, but... i just can't shake this feeling of being gloomy... depressed." "jason is a good, bright lad. and the light he's brought into your life has been taken away"

"and yet sir, even if your life is less without jason..." "can you afford to stop living?"

batman (1940) #376, story by moench.

one of these issues where the hysterics of it all seem a bit silly and funny given that jay is alive and well. but when you think about it through the lenses of post-crisis events instead--

#pre-crisis #jay.zip #bruce.zip #panels tag

[boyfridged]

there's such a lack of nuance in the discussion (and even dc writing nowadays) of bruce's relationship with his children btw. the dichotomy that has arisen – between the takes that 1. bruce is abusive and has always treated his children as soldiers and 2. all of bruce's children would be doomed without him & becoming sidekicks was the only way for them, is so reductive for all characters involved and the story itself. i really miss the 80s conceptualisation of the dynamics at play wherein bruce loves dick and jason dearly and sees himself in them but this love blends with his commitment to the mission, meaning that the children are dragged into it. vigilantism is both what binds them so closely and what causes conflict. bruce can compartmentalize everything in his life, but not his family.

#i'm always worried i sound like i'm bashing bruce #but let this man be a complex character he is. #he is not always without fault. he's human. #and takes like “jason would be dead if not for bruce” and accepting the narrative that it was the only way for jay to “channel his anger” #completely ignores the fact that in text. (dc 574 for instance) it's suggested that bruce is projecting and that it can lead to a tragedy #bruce.zip #bruce.txt #core texts

[boyfridged]

#these are both things that he would believe and things that could be said about him and the story from readers' perspective #i said batman rather than bruce-coded because i'm thinking more of the general mythos #dc #dc-core truisms #bruce.zip #bruce.txt

[boyfridged]

"and yet, sir, even if your life is less without jason..." "can you afford to stop living?"

batman (1940) #376. story by moench, art: newton & alcala.

#panels that look like they're talking about someone being dead. #but they're not jason is fine. read moench's run for context <3 #<- sorry that's my job. #bruce.zip #bruce.txt #jay.txt #jay.zip #pre-crisis

[boyfridged]

“brucie wayne persona” this is just an autistic man masking

#bruce wayne #i really need to get through my drafts don’t mind my silly posts #bruce.zip #bruce.txt

[boyfridged]

"there's nothing so savage-- as a man destroying himself!"

batman (1940) #402. story by collins. art: starlin.

#this could be so much nicer if not for starlin's art. #<- this isn't even about my general dislike for starlin it's just that his art is genuinely... well. it's not it. #panels tag #bruce wayne #bruce.zip

[boyfridged]

what did you think in that harley quinn episode was bad? (im not disagreeing or anything, i just personally thought it was alright and would love to hear ur thoughts!)

this is so embarrassing, i got this ask within 12h since i posted about watching it and i found out i did not remember anything, so i had to quickly rewatch it to try to recall what my grievances were... (perks of having the worst memory on earth)

i think my general impression was that it tried to deal with a story a bit too big for 2 x 20 minutes. or perhaps it would be perfectly fine if the writing was better. a lot of ideas appeared almost half-formed. now, of course it's not a serious production, but even within that format some minor changes could improve it.

the progression from bruce at first telling his younger self that he *has* to witness the moment of his parents' death being followed by him trying to resurrect his parents felt like such a creative imbroglio in terms of writing. obviously, it's not that the two negate each other; the common denominator in both of these situations was bruce's guilt; but sadly, i don't think this idea had a chance to resound properly.

oh also. i didn't like one of the final scenes in 3x10 when bruce decides to look away this time. it's a detail and i know it was there both as a comedic relief and because it would be really gruesome if he did decide to put an end to things himself but ough... i reckon even if he wasn't the one to do it, he would watch, still. there are situations when bruce does look away, but this should not be a one.

#outbox #bruce.zip #bruce.txt