#willingham....when i get u and ur military obsession...

[scintillyyy]

honestly though. while there are some very crunchy jack & tim bits in war games after tim's return to robin, i do hate that the jack finds out tim is robin story was written by willingham in general. because. now we're stuck with like. jack finds out when he finds out tim isn't actually on football at a parent teacher conference & then goes over to point a gun a bruce's head with a bunch of implications that the drakes are somehow this military family (tim's grandpa being a war hero, jack being implied to have served at one point to make the ~tim is a noble soldier~ comparison). and while i ignore all of the stupid willingham military stuff because it doesn't make sense for them in any way, shape, or form overall as a story of 'jack finds out' in unmasked it's very weak as far as actually exploring the father-sonisms-tensions with bruce that *should have* arisen from this very scenario (which is why the conversations between them during war games proper are much stronger).

because tbh i think it should have gone more of a route of jack figuring it out/recognizing his son *in the act* vs him finding out tim is lying to him via a parent-teacher conference. because wrt to jack and tim the tension is supposed to be that jack is with him, but he still doesn't really see him, right? so idk, i feel like jack finding out/being hit with the fact that his son is lying to him should have been much more direct--jack has to finally see tim in order to finally deserve the truth, or something.

so if it were me i would have put it like. i would put it after brentwood & the marriage & the loss of money but instead of jack gets depression, i'd go with jack tries to be a super present dad again (because that's all he can do atm) & he and tim are like doing more? so tim has to use the school excuse more. and so jack thinks everything is going well with him and tim & that they're super super close again. and one night, he's out for dinner with dana when something happens, like the restaurant gets attacked. we see jack think something like "thank god tim isn't here tonight bc he had football practice"--and then robin shows up & tim has no idea jack and dana are there at that restaurant & jack has never really seen robin in action (there was that close call at the rainforest charity thing poison ivy attacked but tim got sent out after the anti-toxin instead of staying with the victims. this is also a good callback to that--can tim deal with his family in danger & not let it affect robin). and like. tim is able to act professional, and dana doesn't recognize him...but jack does. and then they're on their way home and dana is like "wow, sure glad we got saved" and jack is just sitting there silently because everything is coming together. and he's now finally seen the truth.

and i would put jack's depression arc here? like. he shuts himself in his room at first to wallow in what he did wrong that tim is robin. & i'd probably make it so tim is the one trying to reach out like "dad is something going on? you okay?" in a role reversal and then tim leaves one night (to do robin stuff) and jack is sitting awake in his bedroom and hears it & he's been slowly getting angrier over the past few weeks & only then does he go out to confront bruce about it directly. and. i probably wouldn't do the whole 'threatens bruce with a gun' thing, but i would go with a lot of yelling and screaming followed by breaking down into tears by jack. so then when jack says tim needs to quit. what else can bruce and tim do but agree. and then something happens & tim is called to return to robin and jack has to let him bc that's his son finding his calling & being a hero. how can he not let tim save the world.

#jack drake #tim drake #willingham....when i get u and ur military obsession... #lewis when i get u....(2 good moments but overall wrong vibes for the drakes....) #the drakes as they are in my head...i have so many thoughts and stories for u...