I Think At Some Point Jason Said “No Guts. No Glory” While Not Looking At An Explosion And Posing

Welcome to my unpopular opinion but I am so, so tired of people and just the fandom as a whole vilifying the Drakes to an obscene amount. Like, were they the best parents in the world? No, but they weren't the abusive and neglectful monsters most of the fandom tries to write them as.

Jack and Janet were fully under the impression Tim was being taken care of when they were gone because he was in boarding schools, a responsible and logical place to put a child if you knew your work would have you traveling a lot. The only reason this wasn't true because Tim was the one to make it so. Tim was the one sneaking out of boarding schools and not telling his parents what he was doing.

Every time in the comics when the Drakes came back, Tim was excited and actually did spend time with them. We are given multiple accounts from Tim of him hanging out with both of his parents when they are back in town while Tim is being robin.

The Drakes also very much cared about Tim. The first thing Jack does when he finds out Tim was in a dangerous situation (being Robin) was get Tim out of it. Yeah, it sucks that Tim's opinions and thoughts were acknowledged, but Jack did what any loving and responsible parent would do the moment they find out their son was risking their life and doing something extremely dangerous and reckless and that's get him out of it! Jack moved Tim away from potential danger to keep his son safe. The moment Tim went missing Jack dropped fucking everything he had in terms of influence and fortune to get his son back. Is that the behavior of someone who couldn't give a shit about their son? Someone who clearly doesn't care about their safety and existence? No. It's not.

Besides, not even Tim himself vilifies his parents. Time and time again in the comics, Tim is shown missing his parents, talking fondly of them. Literally during the whole saga where Tim was traveling through time and the multiverse to find Bruce during failsafe, Tim embraces his mother and just enjoys being with her. Tim's ideal world and life is his parents being alive, it's Tim being with his Dad and Mom.

The Drakes are not evil monsters, and honestly, Tim's story and dynamic with Bruce is so much more interesting when the Drakes are loving and caring and Bruce isn't 'saving' him from his parents.

Hey so actually I might be a little obsessed with how Tim is Dick’s only real brother.

Like hear me out. HEAR ME OUT!

Dick’s relationship with Jason is full of regret and guilt. They might be building something now but their past is full of inflicting rotting wounds (metaphorical and often literal) on each other. Dick started the pattern first when he rejected Jason as Robin. And later Jason raging against Dick after his return. Jason’s semi-valid villain crash out ending with Dick putting him in Arkham because Jason was a straight villain pre-rebirth. And even then it takes rebirth remixed canon to allow Jason some family bonding time. I say they have a handful of months — and even then how often did Dick visit! He didn’t start reconnecting with the BatFam until after the Killing Joke and Death in the Family — they got along before shit got worse.

Damian is Dick’s BABY! That is his firstborn! Dick might have had some adoption tendencies pre-crisis with Jason but they realized that shit with Dick’s (Second? Third?) time in the cowl. Dick saw this small murderous child and was like “I can do it better than Bruce” and did. And yes they might be settling into a brotherly role with Bruce stepping the fuck up.* But I promise you having witnessed siblings with a 10 year age gap — even when the parents are perfect and emotionally available — that older sibling quickly becomes a third parent. With Dick, he was the first second and third parent. No way Damian and Dick could ever just be brothers and I love that for them.

So that leaves Tim! The little baby brother he started calling little brother YEARS before Bruce ever adopted Tim.** Timmy, the freak who broke into his apartment to track him down and drag him back to Gotham. Timmy who Dick follows back to Gotham and — through his growing relationship with Tim — reconnects with his second family.

He spent his early 20s with Tim! He comes into his own as Nightwing with Tim as Robin. He literally grows into his adult self with Tim as his witness.

How many lows has Tim helped him pick up after? How many falls has Dick caught Tim after (metaphorically and literally)?

But that’s the sweet sappy shit.

Tim is the one brother Dick doesn’t have to be responsible with. He eats shitty pizza with Tim. He has movie nights and hang outs and poor-tasting inside jokes with Tim. They race each other across rooftops! They play fight in the streets. Dick booby traps his apartment so Tim can have fun breaking in.*** Dick complains about his messy love life to Tim while Tim mocks him!

THEY ARE BROTHERS YOUR HONOR!

With Jason there is too much pain. With Damian there is too much responsibility. With Tim, Dick gets to be his age and just hangout with his brother!

There is a reason Dick calls Tim his equal. Dick loves his brothers, he’ll always be there for them. But Tim is the one Dick doesn’t have to watch or monitor or hover over. Tim is his brother, not his regret or his child.

20 years in real time and 4 years of comic time put Tim and Dick through the ringer. No Man’s Land. Knightfall. The nuking of Bloodhaven. Contagion. Try to name a tragedy Tim and Dick haven’t witnessed and weathers side by side! But no matter how they fight or have to disappear for the mission, they always find each other and trust each other and believe in each other. Because they are truly brothers!

(So context… I’m very much reading the 90s and 2000s run. I’m like chronologically in 98. I’ve heard modern comics have dropped this FOR SOME FUCKING REASON (they forget Tim exists, I guess). But I refuse to believe that rebirth got rid of their brotherly bond. Just as Tim’s “friendship” with Kon-El transcends timelines so does Dick and Tim’s brotherly bond! They are family bonded through the fires of time and comic book bullshit!)

* How much this is true take with a grain of salt. I’m not reading modern yet. I’ve read some cause Damian just slaps and I love him. But there’s so much!

** Tim was adopted for like a year before being emancipated. WILD! What fatherless behavior!

*** What feral menaces! I love them!!! I just need to scream. Not important. Carry on. ^>^

by Bannai Taku

Idk if anyone will read this post but I've been trying to learn a bunch about different characters. And I've so far been learning about Tim. He's got so much content to sort through. I think only Dick (in terms of the Robins) has more content than him. So here are my thoughts while reading through some of Tim Drake's Robin run.

Part One:

Next

Batman 468-469:

Tim has really been set up to be the "Robin who Saves Batman." Because Tim is a Robin who does not have an internal desire to run around as a caped crusader, "why is Time Drake a hero" seems to be an essential question to his existance from the beginning:

This is after Tim has lost his mother and his father is paralyzed and unable to care for him. As such, Tim is staying at Bruce's manor (though no offical adoption has taken place. In fact his living situation is not explained beyond him just living with Bruce. So i assume a fostering situation?) Already, we see Tim stepping in to care for Bruce and remind him he's not invunerable.

I'm really enjoying the 90s action vibe they give Tim. His first nemesis is King Snake who'd feel right at home in a Jackie Chan movie! The fact that this 14 year old boy has the "second greatest figher in the world" (right after Lady Shiva) shaking in his boots is WILD even though its King Snake confusing Robin & Lady Shiva haha

This is after Tim has lost his mother and his father is paralyzed and unable to care for him. As such, Tim is staying at Bruce's manor (though no offical adoption has taken place. In fact his living situation is not explained beyond him just living with Bruce. So i assume a fostering situation?) Already, we see Tim stepping in to care for Bruce and remind him he's not invunerable.

I'm really enjoying the 90s action vibe they give Tim. His first nemesis is King Snake who'd feel right at home in a Jackie Chan movie! The fact that this 14 year old boy has the "second greatest figher in the world" (right after Lady Shiva) shaking in his boots is WILD even though its King Snake confusing Robin & Lady Shiva haha

I get why he had the longest running Robin solo act.

Bruce is very very protective of Tim in this arc. Makes sense since he just lost his old Robin and was spiraling because of it. We're -- time wise -- about a year and a few months since Jason's death. It makes sense that Bruce is having a hard time since another boy in danger, especially in a situation where that boy is being targetted by the big bad of the run. I guess they have to get Bruce to a point where he'll let Tim run around without as much helicoptering (and eventually found the Young Justice!). Its a really fun emotional core.

Batman 470

Just fun romps. I know I should switch to Robin II (Robin I covered his training with lady shiva & meeting king snake which i wrote about here) to keep learning about Tim. But I do like the Batman comics. I do not understand the difference between the Batman & Detective Comics. Like I get the Detective Comics are the original Batman comics but they're both about Batman so like.... why have two batman runs about the same guy and characters in the same universe? Just put out more detective comic runs? Makes no sense (plus having dual Batman v Detective Comic runs really fucked over Jason's time as Robin. I'm excited they're putting out the Batman & Robin: Jason Todd comics soon so we can finally have a definitive Jason Todd Robin characterization.)

Batmna 471:

WTF! Killer Croc oh my god! You poor thing!!! He just wanted to hang out with his family and watch cable tv!

Okay. Switching to Robin II series to continue to learn about Tim Drake!

(Side Note: Thoughts about the Batman comics though. I dislike that they stopped in 2011. I mean this comic series has been running since the 1940s! Its cool for a character to have that much history. Honestly, they shouldn't have rebooted the OG lines like Batman/Detective Comics/Superman/Action Comics. They're such long running series its more fun to let them just keep going. Especially since they ended up rolling it all back anyway. Its just a weird choice to decide the shit that kept your company alive from the 1940s doesn't matter anymore?)

I know we all live the “Batfam isn’t allowed to go to crime drama watch parties or mystery shows because they crack it in five seconds” trope, but hear me out:

They’re terrible at it, because they’re trained for real life, and real life lacks all the drama. Worse. They can’t interrogate suspects themselves, check the crime scenes, follow their normal protocols.

They’re not invited because they keep complaining about what they would do.

They still excel at escape rooms, but that’s because of the riddler.

Pls enjoy the first drawing I’ve worked on in four years. It’s my sister’s player character from my kids on bike’s campaign set in my high fantasy novel that I’ll finish one day :P

| Last Night

I remember being so embarrassed when I drew this! I’d never drawn anything slightly sexual before.

My favorite details:

Anyone got some toxic timkon fanfic recs? Any variation and TimKon are together in the end. Obsessive/possessive behavior is appreciated.

| Welcome Home, Sweetheart

You know that feeling when you're writing a fanfic idea for a tumblr post but then that fanfic idea becomes 4k long and you start wondering if it might be easier to just write the damn fic.

But hey! Get ready for some Dark!Bruce Wayne, Time Travel, Fix-it fic with some glorious Manipulate, Mansplane, Malewife vibes.

Here is a teaser:

While he was waiting for Haly's Ciricus to come to town, Bruce wasted no time checking on Jason. Batman spent several weeks sweeping through Crime Alley until he'd managed to peer through the right apartment window. Jason is a precious three year old. He toddles around the apartment with a confidence that suited him at every age. His step mother, Catherine Todd, is quick to follow him around, laying out strategic pillows to keep Jason from bruising his knees when he toddles too fast and falls. She's sober -- for now. In fact, according to the records Bruce found, she had yet to become an addict.  This is unacceptable.  Even if Bruce jumps the gun and puts Willis in jail -- it'll be so easy, too easy really -- Catherine is still a suitable, if poor, mother. So Bruce makes plans and then contingency plans, all on paper, all to be burnt at the minute of completion.