#bam! inescapable toxic family dynamics!

[geneticdriftwood]

i’m having thoughts about batman vs green arrow, and how the central characters shape the stories their supporting casts are allowed

like, in batman comics, bruce’s story is about being permanently shaped by a grief he can never move on from (his parent’s deaths, and later jason’s death). the premise of batman, bruce’s unyielding dedication to his mission, requires that bruce always be living in the shadow of his formative trauma, always responding to it. structurally, he can never be allowed to heal (because a happy bruce wayne isn’t batman), which means he can’t really grow. his supporting cast can develop and grow in their own right, but they can’t leave (bc they’re batman characters), so they stay stuck in the same unhealthy dynamics with bruce. this creates a narrative paradigm where positive change rarely sticks, cycles aren’t broken, and the easiest story to tell is a tragedy. bruce isn’t allowed a happy ending, so nobody who loves him gets one either.

now compare this with green arrow, where ollie’s stories are so often about having the humility, courage, and determination to take accountability for your mistakes and change for the better. transformative change is his whole deal! it’s the point of the island! and his relationships with his supporting cast reflect this. ollie messes up, he learns from it, and his relationships with other characters develop and improve accordingly. the point of the story is that ollie changes, making change possible for everyone. and so green arrow books present a paradigm where characters are allowed to grow in ways that stick, where harm can be learned from instead of brushed aside, and where happy endings aren’t guaranteed but do largely feel possible. yk?

#is this even anything? idfk #apologies to arrow fans if i’m off base. i’m still pretty early in my ga reading but this is what i’ve gathered so far #this is a pessimistic take on batman but like. my favorite character is dick grayson so can you really blame me? #this is why batman comics accidentally do such a good job depicting the cyclical nature of abuse #bruce isn’t allowed to heal so he keeps hurting his kids in the same ways #and his kids can’t set boundaries that stick bc they have to come back and be his supporting cast again #bam! inescapable toxic family dynamics! #dick’s case is the most tragic to me on a meta-narrative level #because he’s a major character in his own right so he sometimes escapes being bruce’s supporting cast (and thus bruce’s abuse) for a bit #either as nightwing or in titans books #but he was bruce’s sidekick for irl decades and he'll never fully be allowed to break free #dc #bat tag #arrow tag #ollie queen #oliver queen #green arrow #dc meta #mine: dc #not main tagging this with bruce or batman bc that's hitting the hornets nest lets be real. #and anyways this is for ollie fans and my dick grayson tragedy enjoyer mutuals