phoenixkaptain

[phoenixkaptain]

Catwoman: “When are we going to get married?”

Batman, an empath: “Something tells me that Catwoman likes me…”

#the inane ramblings of a madman #dc #batman #detective comics #catwoman #bruce wayne #selina kyle #i love the 60s #catwoman literally quit crime and got batgirl to quit #so that batman would like her #and batman is like #‘hmm’ #‘mayhaps she may feel some affection for me’ #‘what do you think robin?’ #bruce wayne everybody

[phoenixkaptain]

He looks like a kid who has to choose a parent in the divorce

#the inane ramblings of a madman #dc #batman #robin #batgirl #bruce wayne #dick grayson #barbara gordon #comic panel #detective comics #look at his face #literally :T

[phoenixkaptain]

most baffling and annoying type of person in fandom will always be the ones who are deadass like “i hate literally everything about this dogshit thing but i’m still gonna complain constantly instead of dropping it and you have to take my opinions on it seriously bc i’m a fan too”

#oh hey what’s that? #i see a #a smoke clous in the distance #rapidly approaching #it’s it’s OH GOD #it’s american cnovel fans #oh no they got started on sworn brothers #everyone run!!

[phoenixkaptain]

No third answer. No it's complicated. I want to know the truth. Reblog for sample size so I can gain the truth.

#it really does depend on my mood (coughhyperfixationcough) #but star trek was my first love #and i can’t help but smile whenever i remember #a piece of the action and the trouble with tribbles #and his overdramatic falling! #he’s like miette in human form #or charlie x when he has the most Disappointed Mom expression #and i can’t help but love spock #i mean have you seen him #but also star trek is just so #optimistic about the future and humanity #it’s like: one day we’ll do better #one day we’ll be able to teach other how to be more accepting #also it has progressive kirk played by the most … irritating man alive #and it is the best example of death of the author when it comes to actor intent #honestly it’s just wonderful #star wars is wonderful too #but i have thing for uniforms so- #polls

[phoenixkaptain]

I love Tim’s first appearance in comics. I love it. I adore it. God it’s so perfect in every single way.

First of all: stalking. He’s stalking Bruce, he’s taking incriminating pictures (this is where the photographer Tim thing comes from), he’s stalking the Teen Titans, he knows where Starfire lives. Good golly he’s stalking everyone. Like a little mini Bruce, stalking away. Kori: “How did you know where I live?” Tim: “No time for questions, I’ve got to find Nightwing.” Kori: “???”

I love that Kori’s kind of creeped out. I would be too! A kid just knocked on my door and basically said “Yo, Starfire, do you know where Dick Grayson, known to some as Nightwing, is? No? See ya.” Kori’s right to be creeped out.

(God god god I want I need I yearn please tell me the first time Starfire sees Robin III she says something like “I feel like I’ve met you before…” I need Starfire to realize that Tim is the creepy stalker kid. I need Starfire to be like “Dick, not to judge you or your family, but what?” I neeeed iiiiittttt)

Tim 1.) knows about Dick living with Kori, 2.) knows that Dick kept another apartment, 3.) broke into the safe in Dick’s apartment then replaced the wall that was in front of it, and 4.) it’s heavily implied that he has been doing all of this on his bike with a backpack. Tim has been biking across the country with his dumb little coat and his not very big backpack or, at the very least, he biked all the way to where Haly’s Circus was set up. Maybe he did both! This kid is an absolute maniac and I adore him.

I love that Tim makes every single thing he says as ominous as possible! He’s just: “Dick. You need to return to Batman. He needs your help.” No wonder Dick is confused and a bit concerned and kind of creeped out!

Also, I really like the Haly Circus bit, if only because Tim spends most of his parts of the comic internally fanboying over how cool Dick is, and it’s super cute. Tim at one point is just like “Wow, Dick Grayson really is the very best!” and he’s so happy to spend time with Dick, why is he so cute???

Tim saving Batman and Nightwing from the rubble of a building is a very good visual representation of Tim’s ongoing thematic struggle to keep Bruce and Dick from collapsing under the weight of Jason’s death. It’s hanging over both of them, everything is different, Bruce keeps trying to lock Dick out and pretend everything is find and Dick is trying to help him but can’t do anything because Bruce never gives him the opportunity to. Bruce is on the second floor and Dick is in the basement and Two-Face blows up the building and they’re nearly crushed under the rubble.

Tim coming in at this point is great, because he uses a mixture of what Bruce and Dick both did to enter the house. Dick comments, in the comic directly before this one, that he’s too big to fit in the coal shaft, a narrative mirroring of Dick being too old to be Robin anymore. He doesn’t fit in the costume, but more than that, he doesn’t fit in the role anymore, and nothing can force him to fit. He goes in through a window instead.

Bruce breaks through the front, through a window, as subtly as a bull in a china shop (thank you, Dick Grayson, for your incredibly on the nose comments in times of great crisis). Bruce is trying to hurt himself, he’s been trying to hurt himself for the past issues since Jason’s death, and this is just compounded by the way he’s chasing the feeling of being happy again, the feeling he gets when he swings through the air, the feeling that isn’t the same without Jason by him. This is furthered by him mistakenly calling a young boy “Jason,” and him almost calling Nightwing “Robin” multiple times. He’s stuck in the present while the past haunts him and the future looms in front of him, and he wants to be happy again but can only see making himself happy as hurting himself.

Tim doesn’t take out Two-Face, but Tim does sneak into the rubbled building through the coal shoot that Dick couldn’t fit in (and he’s in the Robin costume! He’s so cute!!). Then, when he finds Batman and Nightwing stuck under the rubble, he’s forced to brute force his way out and move the rubble off of them. It’s a mixture of how Bruce and Dick handled things, but more than that. Bruce went in through the window, a distraction, in a Robin-like move. Dick snuck in through the window, in the shadows, in a Batman-like move. Tim manages to take both roles and mix them together, coming in sneakily but brute-forcing when there’s no other option. Tim has always been the Robin the most similar to Batman, but it all begins here, with Tim being the most prepared character in the comic. More than just the most prepared character, he’s doing the opposite of what Bruce and Dick are doing. While Bruce and Dick keep disappearing without another word, Tim keeps appearing right when the narrative has forgotten him. Instead of being an outright distraction like Dick and Jason were in the past, Tim plays a diversion.

Tim’s whole character in this storyline is someone desperate for things to be balanced again. He’s scared for Bruce because Batman is his hero. He’s scared for Dick because he doesn’t want Dick to hate him. Tim doesn’t want anyone to hate him, which is why, earlier, he’s very polite even as Dick is like “Alfred, this is Tim, he showed up after stalking me for a while and he knows our secret identities.” Tim wants Bruce to keep living. Tim is the one who says the hard truth to Bruce, that he isn’t acting normal and that everyone’s noticed. Tim says it because Alfred and Dick both tried and failed.

And the panel of Tim, in the Robin outfit, standing shadowed by Bruce as Batman is just a brilliant piece of visual storytelling. Even without the captions, you can see that Tim is standing up to Bruce, is out-stubborning Bruce by being simultaneously brutally honest and clever. Tim is supposed to be the ray of light at the end of the tunnel, the light in the darkness, the Robin to Batman, and it’s so good.

Anyway, I really liked this storyline and I really liked Raven appearing to just be like “btw Nightwing, we all love and support you, but we’ll back off if that’s what you really want.” Also the throw-away line in front of Commissioner Gordon: “he found it out while he was inside of your body.” What was Gordon thinking right then? I love it.

I also love Tim, but that much is obvious, let me explain. He took a bunch of pictures of Batman being beat up by Ravager just to show them to Dick to get Dick to realize there’s a problem. Tim does not actually interact with Batman or Bruce Wayne in any way until he rescues Batman and Nightwing. Tim doesn’t set out with the intention of becoming Robin, he sets out with the intention of making Dick Robin again because he believes that Robin is what Batman needs. Batman needs something that makes him stop and hesitate. Something that reminds him that he’s more than just Bruce Wayne.

It also has the unintended side effect of Tim saying the funniest fucking line in the whole storyline: “This was the best day of my life.” Like, excuse me??? You almost died! Multiple times! You drove from Haly’s Circus to Bruce Wayne’s house in the morning, presumably in awkward silence because you told Dick you’d tell him everything on the way to Gotham, but only actually tell him anything when he’s with Alfred. When Dick shows up with Tim, Dick tells Alfred that he barely knows any more than Alfred does! Alfred just met the kid, he only knows his first name! Tim did not tell Dick one single thing on the entire ride to Wayne Manor, he didn’t even tell them his name was Tim Drake! Every single bit of information they get out of Tim is pushed and prodded and pulled out, Tim is the least forthcoming character of all fucking time.

Dick shows Tim the Batcave. For what purpose did he do this? Just to storm out dramatically? I have no idea, why did Dick show the child this, I’m lost. Tim has been sitting with Alfred for hours by the time he finally convinces Alfred to drive him out! Alfred gets a single phone call from the Teen Titans and Tim is still there, so we know he didn’t leave or anything. What were they doing? Did they talk at all? Or was it another Nightwing situation where Tim just sat there in awkward silence?

Not the point, Tim almost gets beaten up by Two-Face, gets yelled at by his hero, has to berate his hero, and he’s still like “What a chamring time this has all been, thank you for the experience, hope Dick has fun being Robin again.” Tim is a maniac, he’s nuts, he’s absolutely buckwild, I love him more than oxygen.

Side note: I love when Alfred (while Tim is berating Batman, like you do) says “The kid would make a good politician.” And Dick says “He’d do more good by Batman’s side.” It made me laugh. I also love Dick: “I couldn’t let a twelve-year-old wander around a circus all by himself!” Tim: “I am NOT twelve! I am thirteen.” Tim also introduces himself to Alfred like “Hello, Mr. Pennyworth, what an honour to meet the man who Batman confides with, the stories you could tell!” and then walks in like that won’t raise any questions. Alfred is confused, Dick is confused, Bruce is confused, Kori is confused, the circus people are confused, the only one not confused is Tim himself because he’s a wild child and he probably had ten contingency plans up his sleeve, just in case.

10/10, pretty good storyline. Batman #440-442 and the New Teen Titans #60-61. It goes like: 440, 60, 441, 61, 442, making it a five parter. It came out in the nineties, I believe, and yes, Dick is wearing his silly little flared collar

#i have’t reblogged this in a year #but i want to #because i was going over symbolism a while ago #and i forgot how much i love the symbolism of tim being the light at the end of bruce’s tunnel #tim represents hope to bruce and to dick #it’s sweet it’s nice it’s good it’s great i love it #tim drake #the most normal child in ever ;)

[phoenixkaptain]

Reblog if you are okay with people giving you lots of boops!

[phoenixkaptain]

“Dick enjoyed spending time in his animal form. He scampered along the long hallways and climbed onto chandeliers and hid in the laundry until he could pop out and startle Alfred. As a human, he scampered along the long hallways and climbed onto chandeliers and hid in the rafters until he could drop down and frighten criminals. Really, very similar.

Alfred was only a bit annoyed that Dick practiced his “jump scares” on him. He couldn’t be too upset, since Dick helped him do that laundry after every time and helped him clean the kitchen and looked at him with the biggest, most innocent eyes. Alfred was beginning to realize that his biggest weakness was young boys with big blue eyes who he helped raise. A very specific weakness, admittedly, but Alfred was beginning to get used to Dick running around his feet in the evening, distracting him from getting any work done, so Alfred knew it was already a problem.”

#dc #my fic #batman #fic rec #robin #dick grayson #bruce wayne #alfred pennyworth #next chapter is barbara #>:) #i just have to read more babs first ¯\ _(ツ)_/¯ #i have such a good understanding of her character! #…in the 90s/2000s #so i’ll read more old school babs and get back to writing #ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

[phoenixkaptain]

drake?

[phoenixkaptain]

Where do you write your fics? One of your posts said you wrote a character study of Luo Bingge and I am starving 🙏🙏🙏

I post all my fics on Ao3! My username is PrinceJakeFireCake, and the fic in question is Try Again

Here’s hoping this will feed you 🙏

#ask #diced-ice #try again is both my longest fic #and my fic with the most hits #i like to think it’s because i’m funny #anyway please enjoy :D

[phoenixkaptain]

@inneskeeper this seems relevant to your interests

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! SHE DOIBLES DOWN!

#this is such a trip #but like #what a great trip it is

[phoenixkaptain]

““You aren’t concerned that someone might connect a bat-shifter to a bat-themed vigilante?” Alfred suggested.

“Not particularly,” Bruce said. “I’m hardly the only bat-shifter in Gotham. Most of the Drakes are bats, and most of them are bigger than me. People won’t be quick to assume that a microbat could be scary.”

“What if you’re wrong?” Alfred questioned.

“I won’t be,” Bruce stated, like there wasn’t even a trace of a doubt in his mind.

The worst part of it all was that he was right.”

#dc #batman #my fic #fic rec #robin #bruce wayne #dick grayson #alfred pennyworth #guess who got a job maybe #this guy #i’m so nervous i feel like i’m going to throw up #so here’s some batman to make me feel better #enjoy ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

[phoenixkaptain]

#11.75% animal flesh the highest #because i can’t eat something if there is an unexpected sensation in my mouth #if i take a bite and there’s something i didn’t expect amidst things i did #i can’t eat for the rest of the meal #other than that #is being allergic to foods being picky? #honest question #because i will die if i eat shellfish #but by god would i be willing to die if it tasted good #i’m so easygoing when it comes to food #or #it is also possible #that i care so little about my own personal health #that i would put anything in my mouth #i mean #i did lick gravel and linoleum as a kid #like i just #did not care #¯\ _(ツ)_/¯ #but it also depends on the day

[phoenixkaptain]

Things I like about the 2000’s Batgirl run so far:

-Bruce has decided that this little girl is just like him and has semi-pseudo-adopted her without knowing basically anything about her

-Cass has decided that this old man is just like her and has definitively adopted him without knowing what adoption is

-Cass magically understands language (which sounds like a joke but is really how it goes) and is so excited to be able to talk to Babs that she forgets that she still can’t actually talk

-Bruce tells Cass that anything she does is is what he does and basically says he supports her (it leads to a lot of double-teaming moments between the two of them where they take turns vanishing into the shadows)

-Bruce thinks about Cass beating up a room full of thugs and says (paraphrased): “She knows how to kill them. She just knocks them out. She’s being so gentle.”

-Cass gently caresses Bruce’s face and he says “That’s not really necessary” and their relationship is basically a person who is physically affectionate and an awkward person who doesn’t know how to receive affection.

-Tim shows up for the first time because Bruce apparently asked him to research a decade-long cold case. Which he did, and well, I just think it’s funny he treats Tim like his little personal Oracle

-Especially since Babs asks how Bruce could possibly have gotten the specs to her room, only to mutter that it was Robin. Was it Robin? I have no idea, but the options are either Tim gave Bruce the specs like his little personal Oracle or Tim is taking the fall for Bruce. Either one is really funny.

-Babs is very awkward and uncomfortable around the illiterate, mute child that is now living with her. Bruce keeps popping up just to pop up, and I think that’s what annoys Babs the most about the situation

-Cass punches Lady Shiva in the face with a broken arm and I just wanted to add it because it was really cool and Cass is so cool and I support her so much

-Cass is a seasoned killer who has been killing for basically her entire life (I’m pretty sure Cain gave her a gun instead of a teddy bear and called it good) but she is also a sweet innocent bean who I wish to shelter from all the bad things in the world

#the inane ramblings of a madman #dc #batman #batgirl #cassandra cain #bruce wayne #barbara gordon #tim drake #dc comics #the art style is kinda wonky at times #but that’s just what comics looked like in late 90s early 2000s so #love cass she is my baby and i want to hug her gently #she is a miniature bruce and i love that for her #she and bruce are having such a good time punching each other #they’re bonding! 🥰 #cass makes him bleed and they both look so proud and cheerful #reading this really tells me #that my understanding of cass was better than i thought

[phoenixkaptain]

“Alfred looked very confused. Bruce felt very confused, but with an added amount of desire to find an answer. Alfred’s confusion stemmed from wondering if there was something in the tunnels that made people hallucinate penguins. Martha and Thomas had both also referenced the sewer penguins. The paper sometimes ran articles on people claiming they saw penguins near the abandoned part of the sewers. Either there was a very strange and concerning hallucinatory drug that caused people to see the exact same thing, or there were actually penguins down there.

Alfred wasn’t quite sure which option would be preferable.”

#dc #my fic #batman #fic rec #bruce wayne #alfred pennyworth #martha wayne #thomas wayne #heyo here’s chapter 2 #i’m not promising any set schedule i’m releasing chapters #because i will inevitably not follow it #but like #i find the chapters funny so they’ll all be out eventually

[phoenixkaptain]

Summary:

The Wayne family has had a long history of shifting into raccoons, the most prominent predator in New Jersey, and Thomas Wayne is no different. Martha Wayne comes from a family that mostly shifts into an incredibly small species of bat. Bruce has a fifty-fifty chance of being capable of shifting to a relatively large raccoon or an incredibly small bat.

He turns into a bat.

#dc #my fic #batman #fic rec #bruce wayne #alfred pennyworth #martha wayne #thomas wayne #heyo what’s up #this is my silly little fic about shape shifting #but this time #bruce is a bat #literally #look it’s mostly comedy the first chapter is angst to get it out of the way #well i mean #to get it out of the way until jason dies #anyway #enjoy :)

[phoenixkaptain]

They can reform or get killed off for good, but either way they’re going bye bye. Forever. No more comics about them, no more appearances in other media. It’ll be as if they never existed. Choose wisely…

#victor fries please #just #give him his wife back #she can go with him to therapy until he starts feeling up to going alone #it’ll be nice :) #follow up answer is ra’s al ghul #tim dares him not to commit crime for four weeks #and he discovers a love of gardening or smth idk #i just think he’d be the funniest one to quit crime #like what would make ra’s quit commiting atrocities??? #even death itself can’t manage to do that

[phoenixkaptain]

the “i had a good time” factor still the unbeatable metric in deciding if media is good