yourwakingnightmares

[yourwakingnightmares]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: DCU (Comics), DCU Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Roy Harper/Jason Todd Characters: Lian Harper, Roy Harper, Jason Todd Additional Tags: Febuwhump 2024, Febuwhump 2024 alt prompt: killing game, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Homecoming, Kidnapping, A/U Series: Part 7 of WakingNightmare's Febuwhump 2024 Summary:

She doesn’t remember about her life before.

  It’s… it’s complicated. She can remember some things. Little things. But nothing is clear, and everything… it’s fragmented. Everything from before is either jumbled or messy or foggy or all of them combined, and it makes her chest hurt if she thinks about it too much, so she tries not to.

#febuwhump2024 #febuwhump2024 alt prompt #prompt: killing game #Lian Harper #Roy Harper #Jason todd

[yourwakingnightmares]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Batman - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Characters: Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd Additional Tags: Febuwhump 2024, Febuwhump 2024 Day 6, Prompt: You Lied To Me, lying, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Anxiety, Childhood Trauma, Bruce Wayne Tries to Be a Good Parent, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms Series: Part 6 of WakingNightmare's Febuwhump 2024 Summary:

All in all… Jason is as close to perfect as Bruce can imagine a child being… Except for one small caveat.

Jason is a pathological liar, when he thinks he’ll get in trouble.

#febuwhump2024 #febuwhump2024day6 #batfam #Bruce Wayne #jason todd

[yourwakingnightmares]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Batman - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Characters: Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne Additional Tags: Febuwhump 2024, Febuwhump 2024 Day Five, Prompt: Rope Burns, PTSD, Guilt, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Jason Todd is Not Okay, Bruce Wayne Tries to Be a Good Parent Series: Part 5 of WakingNightmare's Febuwhump 2024 Summary:

Jason is staring up at the ceiling of the Cave when Bruce walks in.

  It catches Bruce off guard a bit, if he’s being honest. He doesn’t show it -he trained himself out of his startle reflex years ago -but it still surprises him. Jason very rarely comes to the Cave without a fight, and when he does, he leaves as quickly as he can. He doesn’t stick around.

  “‘Sup, B?"

#febuwhump2024 #febuwhump2024 day 5 #febuwhump2024 prompt: rope burns #Batfam #Bruce Wayne #Jason Todd

[yourwakingnightmares]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Batman - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Major Character Death Characters: Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd, Clark Kent, Dick Grayson, Alfred Pennyworth Additional Tags: Febuwhump 2024, febuwhump day 4, Alternate Prompt: Last Words, Major character death - Freeform, A Death in the Family, Child Death, Grief/Mourning, Denial, Bruce Doesn't Do Emotions Well Series: Part 4 of WakingNightmare's Febuwhump 2024 Summary:

“Hey, B, can we talk?” “Not now, Jason; I have to go on patrol.” “But -” “And you’re benched. We’ll talk in the morning when I get back.”

#febuwhump2024 #febuwhump2024 day 4 #Febuwhump 2024 alt prompt: Last Words #Batfam #Bruce Wayne #Jason Todd #Major Character Death #I actually made myself cry so.... #You've been warned?

[yourwakingnightmares]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Batman - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Characters: Damian Wayne, Jason Todd, Dick Grayson Additional Tags: Febuwhump 2024, Drowning, Self-Sacrifice, Brotherly Bonding, Febuwhump Alternate Prompt: Human Shield, lost at sea, Febuwhump Day Three Series: Part 3 of WakingNightmare's Febuwhump 2024 Summary:

He’s being pulled and pushed, unsure of which direction his body is even going in, the tide and the current yanking him in different directions as he struggles to try and see anything in the darkness He isn’t sure which way is up, and everything hurts. He wasn’t aware that lungs could hurt, but his are burning, and it feels like his head is about to explode from the inside out.

#febuwump2024 #febuwhump 2024 day 3 #Febuwhump altprompt: Human Shield #Batfam #Damian Wayne #Jason Todd

[yourwakingnightmares]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Batman - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Characters: Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, Jason Todd, Damian Wayne, Ra's al Ghul (mentioned) Additional Tags: Febuwhump 2024, Prompt: Solitary Confinement, Reverse Robins A/U, Captivity, Kidnapping, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Unreliable Narrator, Food Deprivation Series: Part 2 of WakingNightmare's Febuwhump 2024 Summary:

Dick isn’t a baby, alright? He’s ten years old, dammit, and he knows stuff. He’s been Robin for almost six months now so he knows… He knows that this probably isn’t gonna end well for him or his brothers.

 Reverse Robins A/U

#Febuwhump2024 #febuwhumpday2 #prompt: solitary confinement #Batfam #Reverse Robins au #Dick Grayson #Jason Todd #Tim Drake #Damian Wayne

[yourwakingnightmares]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Batman - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Characters: Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne, Joker (DCU), Roy Harper (mentioned), Sheila Haywood (Mentioned) Additional Tags: Febuwhump 2024, RHATO 25, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Violence, Febuwhump Day 1 Prompt: Helpless Series: Part 1 of WakingNightmare's Febuwhump 2024 Summary:

The last time Jason felt this amount of pain, he was fifteen and being beaten to death with a crowbar. He supposes there’s irony in that, that some modern Shakespeare would have a field day with this whole thing.

#febuwhump2024 #febuwhumpday1 #Prompt: helpless #Batfam #Jason Todd #Bruce Wayne

[yourwakingnightmares]

So here's the thing I want fans to consider (also, this isn't an anti-Bruce post, please read all the way through before spazzing).

I want you to imagine, for a moment... Bruce mind-fucking Tim, then leaving him to cry in a corner, because it was 'for his own good'.

Imagine, for a moment... Bruce beating Dick half to death, smashing his skull against the concrete again and again, not stopping until someone makes him stop.

Imagine, for a moment, Bruce looking at Damian, and saying, "I never should've believed in you. You're worthless. It ends here."

This attitude towards Jason Todd in the comics is a hold over. Jason has become DC's whipping boy every time Bruce is upset about something. Like... He just casually abuses or belittles his middle son whenever he's upset with him. He just mind-fucks him, ending his career as a vigilante, before leaving him to cry, because it's for his own good.

These are classic excuses used by abusers. And while I think Bruce Wayne is many, many things... I don't think it's in his character to abuse his children even if, as one person I saw put it 'it's only Jason'.

I think this stems from the original death vote in the 80s. People didn't particularly care for Jason for a multitude of reasons (classism, and a love of Dick Grayson being the two I see most predominantly). And that stupid vote went through, and hey... We got some good emotional content out of it, right?

And that just carried right on through. We need some good emotional content? Fuck up Jason. Why not? It worked before, right?

But the problem is, it fucks with the entire character of Bruce Wayne as a person. Could we stretch and maneuver and contort ourselves around to it? Sure we could. But if we have to to get to Bruce abusing his own son...

Maybe we should consider that it's bad writing, and just... not do that anymore. Especially when its unimaginable that Bruce would treat the other kids the same way. That right there tells you it's just lazy writing for overused shock value.

#batfam #batman #jason todd #poor writing

[yourwakingnightmares]

Totally non-canonical, but I love the idea that when the Outlaws first start making their mark, first start getting their 'press'...

Bruce and Ollie start proud-dad'ing aggressively at each other.

"Hood is clearly the leader, Arrow; didn't you see the footage from their jailbreak last week?"

"Ha. Like Hood would even be functional if not for Arsenal's tech. The only reason they could escape was because of Arsenal."

"Ah, yes, not because Hood punched his way through a wall."

"Because punching things requires such skill."

Then they see the rest of the League just staring at them, and sort of awkward shuffle.

"But they're criminals."

"Indeed. Terrible, really. Breaking out of jail."

"It's all Hood's fault."

"What?! Your spawn..."

And it just devolves from there, while the rest of the League knows Jason and Roy would've fallen apart and tripped over their own two feet if Kori wasn't keeping them safe.

#jason todd #batman #roy harper #the outlaws #red hood and the outlaws

[yourwakingnightmares]

Related to this...

Stop telling people something isn’t ‘real’ literature. Manga is literature. Harlequin romance novels are literature. Action adventure novels are literature. True crime books are literature.

If people are reading, leave them to it. Don’t look at the kid reading and tell him he’s doing it wrong.

According to a Pews Research survey, only 17% of kids will read more than one book a year out of school assignments. So if a kid is reading, leave them to it. Don’t discourage them because you don’t like the genre they’re reading.

we are in a media literacy crisis

#literacy #literature #education

[yourwakingnightmares]

Okay, DC, but like...

Imagine if you didn't make a 97th movie of Batman having to stop Random Rogue #32?

Imagine a movie where early 20s Bruce Wayne, still trying to figure out this whole 'vigilante' shtick, and why he's doing it, takes a singular night off, and goes to the circus -because he remembers going with his parents once, and he wants this reassurance -only to meet Dick Grayson. His moral struggles now include the morality of helping a nine year old get vengeance for his parents, while trying to navigate, "Am I big brother? A father? What am I?" And the two of them trying to find a middle ground with each other.

Then the next movie kicks off with a late twenties, early thirties Bruce, trying to figure out what happened, and why Dick has gone NC, and moved. He goes out as Batman, only to come back and find Jason Todd stealing his tires. This frightened child, trying to be big and tough, and Bruce can't help but see himself, trying to be big and tough, to hide his fear. So he brings Jason home, and by trying to help Jason heal, and feel safe, he starts to heal himself. They laugh, and he gets flashes to what he had with Dick once. All the things he did wrong, he's determined to do right this time around. But then small flashes of the same things that happened with Dick. Wanting their independence, wanting to be a partner rather than a sidekick.

The next movie starts with a mid-thirties Bruce Wayne, drinking in the BatCave, before flashing to Batman, putting criminals in the hospital, taking stupid risks, and nearly dying, while in the background, we see a kid taking pictures. And we realize, we've seen a kid taking pictures before, in the previous two movies. Tim forces his way into being Robin, because he needs Batman to be okay. We see him so desperate for attention, for love, for family, that he just goes along with whatever Bruce wants, and him and Bruce just feed off each. Bruce needs a chance to make his relationship with his previous sons right, and Tim needs someone to love him.

Because lets be real here: nobody becomes obsessed with Batman to watch him fight Mr. Freeze, or Two-Face for the ten hundredth time. We read to see the interactions, the traumatized people trying to navigate their lives, and the morality of what they're doing, of trying to figure out how to function.

That's why Batman movies keep flopping. Because they focus on Batman vs. Villain, rather than Batman as a deeply flawed man, just doing his best to keep his head above water.

#Batman #Batfam #Bruce Wayne #Dick Grayson #Jason Todd #Tim Drake

[yourwakingnightmares]

Bruce Wayne's Parenting

So here's the thing. I don't think that Bruce Wayne is a bad person.

He's just a bad parent. He cares about his kids; we see that over and over in what he's willing to do for them. We see how Jason's death devastated him, how Damian's death devastated him, how violently he reacts when his kids are in danger.

He does care... he just sucks at being a father.

The problem is, Bruce is himself a traumatized child. He never really left that alley that his parents died in. He buried what he felt, all his emotions, all his trauma, down underneath the Bat costume.

Viewed in that light... Bruce saying cruel things to his kids makes more sense. Bruce being physically abusive to his kids makes sense. (please note: I'm not justifying any of these, I'm giving explanations).

Bruce reacts to things like an an angry teenage boy does. Even his quips and one-liners are the sort of things you'd expect to hear from a fifteen year old in high school. He never developed, emotionally, beyond that state.

When viewed in a parent-to-child light, most of his actions with the BatFam are incomprehensible. Like... Bruce, my dude, what were you thinking? Why?

But if you view it in the light of an older teenage sibling, stuck babysitting younger siblings... It makes so much more sense. He has no idea what he's doing; he's been left in charge of these kids who just won't listen, and he's angry and frustrated, because when are teenage boys not angry and frustrated about things? What teenage boy likes having their authority challenged?

Think about 90% of teenage guys you knew back in high school. The posturing, the lashing out when someone challenges them, the need to prove that they're the toughest, baddest guy in a room.

Yes, they can be sweet. They can be loving. They're also prone to anger, prone to posturing, prone to jockeying for position, to being the top dog as it were.

It doesn't make Bruce a bad person. It just makes him a bad parent.

#Batman #Batfam #Bruce Wayne

[yourwakingnightmares]

True, but he was also mad at Bruce about adopting another child.

An important part of Jason’s character is that he was abandoned. Over, and over. His father was in and out of his life, until he essentially disappeared, his mother died, and we’re given snippets that his home life even before his parents left was -at best -disruptive and neglectful.

Then comes Bruce. And Bruce loves him. Takes him in as his son, gives him a place to belong, something steady. The first stability Jason probably ever had that he could remember.

There were two parts to Jason’s rage. The first was yes: Batman refused to learn that dressing kids up in skin tight outfits, and sending them to fight psychopaths who killed on a whim was a bad idea.

But there was also the fact that Bruce, the closest thing he ever had to a good parent (and hell, that statement alone is sad), adopted another kid after his death. Just... went and got another one. For a kid who grew up like Jason did, then found someone to care about him, that would’ve been the ultimate knife in the back.

It’s sad that all of Jason’s problems with Tim, had absolutely nothing to do with Tim as a person, and everything to do with Bruce Wayne. It could’ve been anyone under that costume, any kid that Bruce took in, and Jason would’ve reacted the same.

A common misconception I see with jason todd is that he was mad at tim drake for replacing him when he died. That is incorrect. Jason was mad because Tim being robin meant that Bruce hadn't learnt.

Jason was mad that Robin still existed and that it just wasn't enough that he died and he had to involve more children into his crusade.

That's why him beating up Tim in the robin costume (while being goofy as hell) was so crucial to his plan. It wasn't about Tim, it was about Bruce and robin.

#Jason Todd #Tim Drake #Bruce Wayne #Red Hood

[yourwakingnightmares]

As much as I adore some of Wayne Family Adventures (and prefer it to almost everything since the New 52), I don’t understand the appeal of the Bat Family as this flanderized, happy, perfect, rich family living in a mansion by day and beating up petty thieves by night. 

I like my grungy, complicated, fucked up, impossible-to-label, tangled web of a Bat Family from Post-Crisis/Pre-New 52, where love for one another was hard earned but no less beautiful, everyone noticeably comes from wildly different social backgrounds (mostly working class) and each walked through different circles of hell, everyone’s moral codes and politics contradict ever so slightly, and everyone stands on their own as a hero first and isn’t just another member of the bat clan. EVERY relationship is messy and complicated but that doesn't mean that each relationship can't be sweet and fluffy too.

Edit: my main gripe is portraying the batfam as this perfect rich family.

Besides Bruce, Tim and Kate, almost every member of the Bat Family had a WORKING CLASS background, upbringing, and that's majorly influenced who they are. Dick was a circus kid, refused to take money from Bruce then worked jobs like bartending, teaching acrobatics and museum curating. Hyper-independent Babs grew up in a broken home to a cop dad and worked in the library as a teenager. Steph's dickhead dad was in and out of jail, she had to take care of her substance-addicted mother, she had a baby at 16, and she struggles with college finances. Cass and Jason literally spent years homeless.

Next, part of what's so beautiful about the Bat Family is that it's not a happy-go-lucky perfect found family. None of these relationships can be easily described in one word and each of them, despite their difficulties, can give me a different, unique reason to smile.

I admit, this is a personal gripe too. I feel represented and seen when I read Post-Crisis Bat Family because of own life and background.

[yourwakingnightmares]

rip to all the “fuckyeah___” blogs that carried our society at one point </3

[yourwakingnightmares]

Okay, so I get that canonically, the red-hair thing doesn't work. I also understand that red hair is incredibly hard to dye over, and it would've been a ridiculous amount of time and effort for Bruce to keep up. Nor do I think that Bruce would've forced Jason to dye his hair continuously for 3 years. So, in essence? I am not a fan of the idea as a concept.

BUT....

Lawdy lawdy but does red-haired ginger Jason do things for me.

#Jason Todd #Batman #red haired Jason Todd

[yourwakingnightmares]

The idea of Reverse Robin A/U’s is very hard to pull off, I will admit. But the idea is to keep the *origins* while swapping their backstories. Would Tim do what Jason did as Red Hood? No.

But the idea of emotionally repressed Tim Drake taking a dip in the Lazarus Pit? What would that do to someone who had spent years pretending they didn’t have emotions?

That’s the point of the Reverse Robin A/U’s. I’ll admit, it’s hard to pull off well, but it’s exploring how different things would’ve been, and when it IS done well, it’s amazing.

theres nothing i hate more than in when reverse robins, they make tim red hood

like you missing out on the whole point of jasons character!!!! tim and jason are fundamentally different people and characters and they wouldnt make the same mistakes or have the same reactions to things!!!!! jason is a much more emotional character!!! everything about him is driven by emotion (note that that doesnt mean hes reckless or mean that he doesnt think thing through - hes incredibly patient and methodical about things)

tim and jason had different upbringing! and NO tim going into gotham when he was younger to take photos is NOT the same thing as jason growing up on and being heavily influenced by growing up in one of the most dangerous parts of gotham

god i like tim too but christ hes trustfund central and yall act like hes had it horrible (again we shouldnt be comparing trama - hes shouldnt have had to grow up with so much neglect but folks it not the same)

(also, fanon is fun but dont forget the source material)

tim is highly logic driven and motivated by the people around him, his friends and his family! imagine how damian and tim would interact in this setting! imagine how tim would act with a different set of friends and the titians at this point in time! would the titans even exist? would he be the one to make and lead the new young team of superheros?

theres so many optionsssssss

yall have the opportunity to make entirely new stories!! tim already needs a new name to go by and this is a time to try things out!! the batfam essentially become entirely new characters! yall crank out some great fanfic and fix the shit cannon we get from dc, use some of that brain power on this!!!

#Batman #Robin #Reverse Robins