#But its called 'you'll feel my fingers down ur back' and im spitecentral on ao3

[countingduketagdukefics]

You are doing the Lord's work lol.

But it's insanely frustrating how hard it is to find good Duke centric (or at least feature him prominently). A few days ago I sent an ask to a Batfam blog, because I found out that FF.Net, something which I rarely use for a variety of reasons, doesn't have a Duke Thomas tag. Like, they have one for Carrie Kelly but not him? And the bad part was one of the reasons I was there instead of AO3 like always is because with only four character tags, it can at times be easier to find content where a minor character has a significant role.

I don't get why Duke isn't more popular because as a newer (like over a decade since his first appearance is new) character it's a lot easier to find and get into his comics then for a lot of the other members of the Batfam (also We Are Robin has absolutely gorgeous art). Plus, between the fact he has living parents and extended family he loves and as the only meta he holds such an interesting place in the Batfam. Like why does no one explore how Duke reconciles his two families when both are still around even if his first isn't able to care for him fully. And as the only meta in that family, that has to affect his relationship to the rest of the family like.

Sorry for yelling about Duke Thomas in your inbox, but I have many feelings on the topic. Thank you for your time both with this blog and for reading this ask. I hope you have a wonderful day! -♡♡♡

No I love getting asks and you're 100% correct. I didn't know ff.net doesn't have a Duke tag?? It's an absolute DISGRACE and just goes to show you how ignored he is by the fandom.

And yeah Duke's by far the easiest batfam character to get into?? It took me like 2 days to finish his reading list (by @duketectivecomics, easy to find and follow). Granted I had a lot of free time, but even with that free time it's not uncommon for it to take me weeks to finish a reading list. And the quality is pretty good too; his worst characterization was probably in Batman & The Outsiders, but that still had some good stuff and did care about him as a character. And the worst quality thing overal he's been in was probably the new Secret Files, but even then I've seen ppl who are not me who liked that, so. Pretty sure Tim's Robin solo ALONE has more issues than all of Duke's appearances combined; if not, the difference isn't big. And you practically stumble over Tim fics. Sure, a lot of ppl write for this fandom without reading comics, but if you can do that for Tim, you can do it for Duke!

And Duke has so much potential, there's so much to explore with him, but he also has a solid character base so that you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Which should make for PERFECT fanfic material! Literally the only difficult thing here is that he didn't exist in preboot canon, but ppl usually don't care much for timeline compliance anyway.

Obviously not every character will appeal to everyone, but like, it really doesn't make much sense for Duke to be as unpopular as he is. He has a lot of interesting and appealing backstory elements that SHOULD make him more popular. But he's black, so of course fandom doesn't care.

#Also not to toot my own horn but I do have a fic that deals with duke reconciling both his families #Idk if its what ur looking for bc my interpretation of duke's place in the wayne family is a bit controversial #And its not JUST about that #But its called 'you'll feel my fingers down ur back' and im spitecentral on ao3 #Might fuck around and do a rec list a t some point actually #Asks #Not counting #Duke thomas #Long post