Al Ghul Family Values 🗡️
(2015 vs 2024 redraw under the cut!)
OGs might remember this one!!!!!!!!!! Someone somehow found this old ass post and the notification reminded me of it… but i still thought it was funny tbh🤡 so i wanted to redraw it!!!!!
im obsessed with the idea that gothamites 100% know who all the batkids are, like “ for sure Dick Grayson is nightwing #thebuttsmatch” and they figured out all their identities and who it correlates to, “ofc the newest robin with all the swords is Damian Wayne!!” but they refuse to even consider Bruce and The Batman being the same guy. it just doesn’t make sense?? Brucie Wayne, dressing up as a bat and calling himself vengeance???? as if???? also he’s from bristol???? can’t possibly be Brucie. Like they genuinely believe that Bruce is the father to a whole gaggle of themed vigilantes and just doesn’t know it. Anytime his kids disappear during a gala, he gets a bunch of pitiful looks and he can’t leave bc everyone’s looking at him now??
This actually works into a lot of ppls theories that Brucie is The Batman’s sugar daddy, bc clearly they’re together and co parenting the batkids??
i want to believe that the other batboys get so caught up in how damian NEVER acts like a normal child, that whenever they see him engaging in regular kid activities™ everyone is on high alert whilst trying to preserve the moment.
tim's with kon and they walk past jon's room to see him and damian playing toy cars? they start walking faster until they're a safe distance away, to stop in their tracks and share a mutual "what the fuck???"
jason and damian are arguing, something jason says strikes a nerve, and damian just stops and breaks the stoic act. jason has NO clue what to do with himself, because nothing he's ever said has gotten a non-violent reaction out of the kid.
dick's taking damian to the cinemas, and lets him pick what they watch. damian picks a kids movie, and doesn't make comments about it seeming 'childish' or 'boring', instead he looks genuinely interested. dick goes along with it but is really taken aback.
damian's patrolling with the other boys, and sustains a mild injury. everyone's used to him fixing himself up and never making a big deal out of it. they've seen him break bones and refuse medical attention, mainly because of how the league trained him. so when they get back to the batcave, and are all getting fixed up in the infirmary, everyone's shocked when damian, sitting to the side about to patch himself up, starts crying, because he's exhausted and hurt.
whenever the boys see damian asleep anywhere but his room, they make sure to tip-toe past and tell the others not to wake him. usually when this happens it's because he's been so exhausted, that he's sat down to watch a show, been playing with titus, or doing schoolwork, and he's just fallen asleep in the middle of it. afterwards, dick especially, makes sure that damian's sleeping enough, which is hard, because no one can tell that he's tired until he physically passes out.
I know it in my soul that whenever Damian has to play violin for school and needs an accompanist, he fucking drags Dick out of Blüdhaven and back to Gotham to play piano. Dick has not practiced piano since Aunt Harriet stopped bugging him to attend his lessons when he left the manor, and he doesn’t even like playing piano. But for Damian? Sigh F i n e, he’ll play the accompaniment.
He’ll drag out his dusty practice books to refresh himself on proper hand posture and what the fuck an F looks like on the staff. Yes, yes, he’ll look up whatever squiggly abomination is on his sheet music that music experts claim is “modern notation”.
Bruce, who knows how to play piano, or can otherwise contact professional piano accompanists, is like “son, please. leave your brother alone. he hasn’t even played in years.” And Damian’s like “NO. I will settle for nothing less than Grayson.”
“Son, that’s such a low bar.”
But Damian will have his way. He will perform with his brother, goddamnit.
I like to imagine that if any of the Bat-Kids are out in public, whether they be getting food, shopping, patrolling, just walkin' around, whatever, that if they see the Bat-Signal pop on it's an unspoken rule between the siblings that they have to throw on their costume and try and find/deal with the trouble before Bruce gets there. Just to annoy him.
Batman: "Commissioner Gordon! I got here as fast as I could.. What's the situation?"
Commissioner Gordon: "Oh, Batman, thank you for coming.. It's alright, though, it's already been taken care of by these fellows."
*Gestures to the side where there's a couple of muggers sitting tied up next to Nightwing(He has pink, glittery shopping bags hanging all over his arms), Red Hood(He's rummaging through the bags Nightwing is holding, trying to find the black nail polish he just bought to touch up his nails after the fight), Red Robin(He's sipping a cup of coffee that he accidentally stole because he ran out of the cafe so quickly that he forgot to pay), and Robin(He's chowing down on a kids' meal from Bat-Burger)*
everyone talks about how bruce talks about his 'babies' as if they're just sweet little kids, when they are OBVIOUSLY not (shocking everyone who meets them). but i think dick would do the Exact Same Thing:
dick: "and you're gonna LOVE my baby brother jason, he's so smart, and has such a sense of empathy. but god does he just get bigger every day, they grow up so fast"
enter 6'5 literal mountain jason todd, who looks like he's going to snap someone's neck if they so much as look at him the wrong way.
dick: "sometimes i'm just blown away by tim's genius. i'm always so proud of him when he accomplishes new things, but every time it just reminds me how independent he's getting. he's so full of life too, it's hard to keep up with him."
enter tim, who looks like he's met death and bears all of the world's secrets. although perpetually battered and worn down, he is also, not a baby.
dick: "oh and damian... he's the littlest one, and he's just the cutest, always learning and wanting to be just like his big brothers. he's so sweet too, not a mean bone in his body"
enter damian.. this one fits the size description at least.