#rose wilson-worth
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The top two characters will be eligible to proceed into the bracket!
Propaganda under the cut.
Black Canary was submitted without propaganda.
Poison Ivy:
She started as a villain, but it's getting harder and harder for the writers to keep her in that position because she's literally correct.
Environmentally conscious and eco-friendly. Favours plants, is passionate about their growth and habitat, uses all natural fertilizer (it could be you! Visit Gotham now for more info)
Catwoman:
One of the original morally grey fandom girlbosses, she’s been breaking and entering and doing whatever she wants since the 40s! She’s a villain, she’s an antihero, she’s a love interest, she’s a manipulator, she’s got it all! Simultaneously one of the most iconic bad guys AND superheroes. Catgirl supremacy >:3
Harley Quinn:
She’s thee antihero
She's not a bad person. She does bad things sometimes, she does good things sometimes. Don't let no fixed morality hold her down, welcome to Gotham baby!
Ravager:
Shes the daughter of famed mercenary murderer villain deathstroke. She has historically toed the line between hero and villain. One of DC Comics' best antiheroes. She has more daddy issues than anyone else alive. She has a homoerotic rivalry with not one but two superheroes named cassandra. Shes willing to do what has to be done. Her dad mind controlled her at times and she went back to being evil. She has precognitive powers and enhanced healing. Shes deeply paranoid about her place in the teen titans when shes on the team. She totally wants to fuck wonder girl. she leaves the teen titans and works with the terror titans as a double agent. she wants to not be like her father. she wants to kill her father. shes a great fascinating character consistently done dirty by writers. shes a hero but shes done bad things and is a morally complex and fascinating hcaracter. i love her sm
Oracle:
im not even the peak babs stan and im sure theres other people who can explain it better but shes a really complex and interesting character and an undeniable girlboss. as the information centre of the superhero world as the mysterious oracle after being paralysed by the joker, she takes up a central role working alongside the infamously morally grey suicide squad with the dubiously villainous amanda waller, before becoming a core member of the bataman family in the 90s and 00's and leader of the birds of prey. shes tried to shoot people before despite working with batman. she manipulates her teammates. shes deeply morally complex and has an interestng relatonship with batmans code. she deserves to win because dc has done her horribly for the last decade plus, erasing her competence and her disability to regress her from a mature and complex woman and a cornerstone of the superhero community alongside some of dc's only disability representation; to a rookie hero or nightwing's arm candy. she fucking rules. dont hate.
#poll#tournament poll#qualifiers#dc comics#dceu#dc universe#dinah lance#dinah laurel lance#black canary#pamela isley#poison ivy#selina kyle#catwoman#harleen quinzel#harley quinn#rose wilson-worth#rose wilson#ravager dc#barbara gordon#oracle dc
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In a silly little mood and made/remade some more icons on pic crew for the ladies that appear in the my story is mine to write series
Enjoy!
Credit: https://picrew.me/image_maker/707090
Little detail - the mothers are all dressed to kill, perhaps in the literal sense too
Adeline Kane - Former soldier in the army, and later mercenary. Mother of Grant and Joseph (Joey) Wilson, and Slade's former wife. Remarried once afterwards and currently a socialite with many, many connections...
Worth Family
Lillian Worth - aka Sweet Lili. Former Cambodian princess. Ran a bordello for some time before crossing paths with Slade. Mother to Rose Wilson-Worth. Currently resides with her daughter in New York and runs a brothel.
Rose Wilson-Worth - Former street racer (to the relief of her parents). Slade Wilson's eldest daughter and current holder of the alias Ravager. Besides Joey, Rose is the only other one of her half-siblings to inherit more than enhanced senses/healing from their father.
~~~~~~~~~~
Wu Family
Cassandra Cain-Wayne - loves ballet as much as Medea loves figure skating. The daughter of David Cain and Sandra Wu, though estranged from both parents. As of currently, Black Bat operates exclusively in Gotham.
Sandra Wu - operates as Lady Shiva, world's greatest martial artist and looking for that final fight. Hires out her skill as an assassin. Mother to Cassandra Cain and Medea Wilson. Learning how to co-parent with Deathstroke.
They say that Lady Shiva is just as deadly with or without a weapon.
Medea Wilson - The baby of the family and holder of many, many nicknames. Notable ones include being her father's 'princess' and her mother's 'little witch'. Only child of Sandra Wu and Slade Wilson, her father's youngest child/daughter.
Current aspirations: to become the best figure skater.
~~~~~
Jade Nguyen - Operates as the assassin, Cheshire. An acquaintance/friend/partner/??? of Grant Wilson and has a soft spot for his sister, Medea.
Medea hasn't figured it out yet, but she swears she will get to the bottom of it. Soon.
#my story is mine to write au#adeline wilson#adeline kane#lady shiva#sandra wu#cassandra wu#cassandra cain#medea wilson#medea is slade's bio kid#and shiva's bio kid too#female jason todd#jade nguyen#cheshire#lillian worth#rose wilson#rose wilson-worth#ravager#wip
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the way jason doesn't have to do anything—his flirting game to rose is almost none—and slade is basically approved him as his future son-in-law is just so funny to me
#jayrose#jason todd#rose worth wilson#rose wilson#red hood#ravager#slade wilson#deathstroke#dc comics#“son. you can date my daughter. just don't try anything funny or she'll end you herself.”
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a lost family photo
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I think Rose Wilson should get a solo and new swords and her mother's necklace and cigarettes and a one night stand with a girl and a 21st birthday and to kill her father and-
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Hi Hello here's the clean version of the art piece I made for the lovely nyxkvistad and averia, specifically for their @wilsondick-winterexchange ! It's gonna be a blast yall should participate :D
Thank you so much for commissioning me guys, I loved to work on this. Tendinitis tried to stop me but I prevailed \m/
#look at that disgusting old man with one hand on Adeline's leg and the other on Dick's he needs to be beaten with a stick#I'm talking about Slade ofc#he's the horrible little meow meow of my heart#my art#my commissions#dick grayson#sladick#slade wilson#joseph wilson#grand wilson#rose wilson#there are too many help#aight I can do this#adeline kane wilson#lillian worth#william randolph wintergreen#wilsondick exchange
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Sign-ups open with a surprise for all of us! 😍 Feast upon the wonderful WilsonDick fanart @zeroducks-2 created for this event!
SIGN-UPS ARE NOW OPEN ON AO3.
Please see our How to sign-up form and reach out to us if you have any questions!
💠Timeline💠
Sign-ups Open: NOW
Sign-ups Close: September 30th
Assignments: October 4th
Check-In: November 4th
Fanworks Deadline: November 27th
Posting Fanworks: December 4th to 6th
Creators Revealed & Celebration: December 11
We encourage you to sign up and create new content for Dick's relationships with the various members of the Wilson family in any platonic, monogamous, and polyamorous forms and flavors.
Dick Grayson may be paired up with the following Wilsons:
Slade Wilson, Joey Wilson, Rose Wilson, Grant Wilson, Adeline Kane, William Randolph Wintergreen, Lillian Worth
Please like, reblog, and share with folks who enjoy these pairings!
#wilsondick#sladick#joeydick#dickrose#dickgrant#addiedick#billydick#lilydick#dick grayson#slade wilson#joey wilson#rose wilson#adeline kane#william wintergreen#lillian worth
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Rose attempts to reach out :P
Teen Titans #90
#dc comics#fade reads dc comics#damian wayne#rose wilson worth#ravager#robin#teen titans 2003#teen titans
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Me reading Gotham War: Red Hood #2
If you're a fan of JayRose, you will have a good time, but mostly this is a bridge issue filling in the gaps, and what's in those gaps is absolutely. Bananas.
Not in a "holy shit wow" kind of way, but maybe a little??? Because I just... they really packed all that in there, huh?
#this was not worth the 4 dollars#but#Jasons really going through it y'all#in a way that's kind of hilarious#jason todd#dc#red hood#gotham war#why was he passed out in the building you ask#now you'll know#the answer may surprise you!#it certainly knocked me over#jayrose#rose wilson#ravager
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its all about lili to me. she was the only person rose was close to for the first 15ish years of her life, then she dies and rose has no one left except wintergreen who she barely knows but he sort of knew her mom so she stays with him. she hates slade because she blames him for her mothers death, she hates herself because her mother died saving her but she refuses to think about that too hard and directs all her anger toward slade and wade. she cant talk about lili to anyone because a part of rose that shes buried deep deep down blames herself for her death, so its so much easier to deflect and never talk about it. she clings to scraps of hope that her mom is alive because if she is it means she didnt kill her, and the only person shes ever let herself love is still alive
and lili was never fully open with her, she always wanted to protect her and keep her away from danger so there was so much rose didnt know. and once lili's dead rose realizes that there was so much she didnt know and now she never will, so she tries so hard to connect with her because its all she has!!! she avenges lili's death by killing wade multiple times but its not enough and she has to know more about her but now theres nothing of lili's because their home was ransacked and she has nothing left. and rose throws herself into trying to understand her mother. she joins slade--even before he drugs her, even though she hates him--because hes giving her the chance to avenge her mother (again), and lili always had good things to say about him on the rare occasion she actually talked about him, so rose wants to know what lili knew because there had to be some reason that she loved him, and she just wants to understand her. and the drug makes her think less about her mother, makes her want to be more like her father instead of her. but the closest she ever feels to her mother is when slade is carrying her to safety after she gets stabbed in the throat, because maybe he IS kind and caring in the way lili used to describe and she finally feels like she knows the version of slade that her mom talked about. but then slade implants radioactive material in her skull and she thinks lili was wrong about him, but the bright side is now she knows what its like to love slade for what she wishes he was instead of who he is, just like lili did.
but she doesnt know what lili was really like. lili put up a wall when she was with rose because she wanted her to be safe and didnt want her to be involved with her father. so she would always keep her close but never tell her everything, so the person rose knew as a mother wasnt who everyone else knew lili to be, and rose will never know because she refuses to talk about her. but rose IS her mother's daughter. she says in fresh hell that growing up, she knew what traits she got from her mother and just assumed that the rest were from her father. but she doesnt know that she got (some of) those traits from lili too. she says that she imagined her father was "defiant, aggressive, and cunning" because she doesnt know that was her mother. lili never let rose see that side of her because she needed to keep her out of danger, and rose didnt see what lili was like when someone she loved was in danger. rose didnt see what lili was like when rose got kidnapped. and now rose spends the rest of her life worrying about how she's her fathers daughter because she'll never know that she is truly and completely her mothers daughter. all she knows is that the life rose is living was never what lili wanted for her, so she thinks shes disappointing her. and in a way, shes right.
#GOD#dont even get me STARTED on fresh hell#the way lili saving her girls in cambodia can directly parallel rose saving the girls in angelsport#not to mention deathstroke 2016 when she goes to vietnam with no purpose or plan. she just wants to connect with her mother#and she thinks she finally found her moms family in minneapolis. and she thinks she finally has the connection she needs.#just to find out that slade was paying them all along#fuck#i miss lili so fucking much#rose wilson#lillian worth#dc
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thinks about how insistent both rose and eddie are on the teen titans being a family despite consistently feeling excluded from the team and how desperately they both want somewhere to be loved and belong .. i need a minute hold on i just n
teen titans 2003 #62 / don't remember the issue i'll update later
#lillian worth aunt marla parallels is this anything#dot txt#ok im done. argh#eddie bloomberg#rose wilson
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"Losing control together. What about it, Tara? After all this time, maybe we should undress—" "We're late."
BOSTON LEGAL 1.05 "An Eye for an Eye"
#my summerboy my rose-colored dream!#I miss them :(#they are endgame. to me.....#james spader#alan shore#boston legal#tara wilson#*#gd he is BEAUTIFUL here#I already love season 1 but like even if it sucked it would be worth it just to stare at him#soft sweet pursed lips. big bewildering gaze. that boyish faux innocence doe-eyed thing he does which makes it all sleazier. even sexier#beautiful cartoonish guy in his 40s. my favorite kind of guy#his shoulders sans jacket... for him that's basically naked#no way this boy is kosher for pesach. and yet. and yet. 😋
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The Age Old Question: Can we get a ___?
Slade having to deal with his children asking for a pet throughout the years
~~~~
Grant (Age 6)
“I want a dog.”
Truly a boy after his own heart. He did too. But Adeline didn’t like dogs, and Slade wasn’t home as often to argue that he could take care of it. Rather than giving Addie another burden, he shook his head in the negative. “No.”
“Pretty please?” His eldest stares up at him, eyes pleading and by God did it feel like a crime to refuse his request.
It takes everything to not give in. "The attractiveness of the word please won't change my mind."
~~~~
Joey (Age 9)
“Can I get a cat?”
Addie liked cats. But she was also allergic, which meant that a cat was out of the question at her place. “And who's going to take care of the cat when you’re away at your mother’s?”
“I’ll bring them along with me,” signs Joey.
“Your mother’s allergic.”
“Medi wouldn’t mind having a cat around the house. She said so.”
“She’s four, Joey. She’s going to agree to whatever her brothers suggest." Slade can already see his younger son's next argument and nips it in the bud. "And before you ask, I travel too much to also take care of a cat.”
~~~~
Medea (Age 5)
“I want a dragon,” announces his youngest without any preamble.
“Okay.”
“With wings.”
“Alright.”
"Oh! Oh! Can it be golden too?"
"If I can find one, sure."
At his words, Medea beamed and launched herself at him. "Thank you!"
''
While Medea had wandered back to sit by Joey, Slade felt a pair of eyes staring him down. “Hmm?” He lazily looked in that direction to find the stare belonging to his eldest. “What is it?”
“I wanted a dog and you said no because it was too messy. But you’re saying yes to a dragon?”
He shrugs. “And?”
“Pops! That’s unfair!”
Would Grant throw hands with a toddler? Absolutely. Something Joey noticed as he inched himself closer toward Medea. But if it was his five year old sister? Probably not. Right?
Bonus: 2 weeks later
Medea’s dragon in question: a plushie
Grant: 😒
Medea: 🥰
~~~~
Years later with Rose...
Rose (Age 16)
"You know, I've been thinking," trails off Rose.
Slade merely raised an eyebrow at her. It was obvious that she was angling for something, but the question was, for what?
"Since you know we’ve missed out on quite a few years of presents. I was thinking we could just get one gift to make up for everything."
"Like?" This better not be what he thought it was.
"I want a bird."
"No. Your mother told me that you’re not allowed any more pets."
``
"And why not?" Rose huffed, hands on her hips.
"I seem to remember a certain Mr. Wiggles having an unfortunate accident." He bites back a smile at how red his daughter had turned.
"I cannot believe Mom told you that!"
#my story is mine to write au#my story is mine to write#slade wilson#grant wilson#joey wilson#rose wilson#rose wilson-worth#medea wilson#female jason todd#jason todd#medea is slade's bio kid
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lovey dovey jayrosey 🔫🌹❤️
i cannot believe i finished this. this is where brainrot gets me. still 5 days after rose's birthday so consider this is my late art of her 🫶🏼
anyway, inspiration under the cut!
this was popular like half year ago
#jayrose#jason todd#red hood#rose wilson#ravager#rose worth wilson#dc comics#wallyslinda draws#(amateur work literally first digital fanart i have ever finished so...)#(don't ask me which red hood gear i based this on i just looked at jason (when he's with rose) panels that i have on my phone)
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Some fun doodles of the little outlaws, they give the grown-ups such a headache sometimes! Well, hope you like it!
#DC Comics#Jason Todd#Rose Wilson#Eddie Bloomberg#Bruce Wayne#Lillian Worth#Marla Bloom#my art#Training Wheels au#haven't posted art in a while#been busy with life#gonna post more soon tho!
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Who is Lili? (1)
Rose Wilson’s mother’s backstory is primary revealed in Deathstroke #15 by Marv Wolfman. I’m going to do a close reading of the first half of the comic, with the addition of some panels from Deathstroke #48, also by Marv Wolfman, recapping the events. I’ll follow up with her actions in the current comic timeline in my next post.
Inherently, Marv Wolfman has crafted a story which relies on Lotus Blossom/Miss Saigon tropes around Asian women, and sexualises a survivor of political and military sexual violence. However, I think that even within the comics canon, it is possible to read the character of Lili differently by engaging directly with the text and putting aside authorial intent. To do this, I am treating Slade as the unreliable narrator he is. I am contrasting his narration with Lili’s on-panel art, dialogue, and actions, as well as a light touch of Cambodian history, to imagine a more rounded and human character. It’s creative criticism, rather than strict analysis.
Right from the cover, Lili is literally described as “exotic”, and sexualised with a torn dress and unrealistic proportions. She’s also helpless, clinging to a white man in fear and unable to help herself. As if to add salt to the wound, there’s a large, purple flower in the background, illustrating the tropical setting and connoting beauty and fertility. It’s not a lotus blossom - but it’s close enough.
But the answer to who Lili actually is gets more complex as the comic progresses.
CW: discussion of sexual assault and sexual imprisonment, discussion of the Khmer Rouge atrocities, discussion of sexist and racist tropes around Asian women
The drawings of Lili continue to be sexualised and orientalist, with her next appearance set in an imagining of an exoticised Cambodian brothel, a world away from the brutal realities of women’s experiences under the Khmer Rouge.
She introduces herself as “Sweet-Lili”. I’m not sure where this came from - it could be a ‘working’ name of some sort during her imprisonment, or a direct translation of part of her name, or a nickname. Whichever way, “Sweet” evokes the Lotus Blossom tropes of demureness and innocence set against sexual knowledge and experience. It also evokes her being consumable, even edible, for white men.
She is fluent in English, showing a high level of education and also that her word choices are very deliberate.
The next thing she says is “these are my girls” - this is where we immediately get introduced to the character’s priorities which will unfold over the next decade. In #48 it is revealed these women were once her servants, and have now been subjected to the same fate as her. Still, she never uses the word servants for them, throughout they are “my girls”. She equalises herself with them, emphasises their youth and innocence when Slade uses the derogatory “whores”. Most of all, despite being captives of the Khmer Rouge, they are hers. While she used to be their employer, in this dire situation where her nobility makes her a target rather than a social superior, she continues to lead them with a sense of responsibility. Now that a rescue party has arrived for only her, she isn’t going to leave her women behind. She steps down the stairs in front of them, opening her arms and making herself the centre of attention - she is relatively confident that Slade and his men are here to rescue them, but as these are women who have lost everything in a brutal civil war, I do think putting herself first is a precaution.
When she greets Slade, it is by putting her hand on his chest in a flirtatious manner, something which the other women mirror with his soldiers.
This is to show her sexualised nature, and suggest gratitude towards Slade which will develop into romance. However, as someone who has survived the (implied) killing of her family through her captivity in a brothel, this could be read as a deliberate action she takes to both flatter Slade, and encourage her women (who are not meant to be saved at this point!) to use the attractions of the American soldiers to help rescue them.
She interacts with Slade as a fellow leader, and he asks if she is the princess.
Slade calling Lili a princess is not his fault at first, it has been common historically for English translators to simplify the complex Cambodian royal titles into Prince/Princess even for very distant relations to the king, like Lili. (Without knowing her grandmother and mother’s titles I can’t work out what her exact title would be, or if she is entitled to one at all. Please tell me if you can work it out!)
She corrects him very politely, affirming she is royal and his target (“my father’s father was third brother to the king”), but not actually a princess. Despite this, both Slade’s narration at the very beginning of the flashback and throughout his recollections of her in #48, he uses the term “princess”. Once was a mistake, but his continual use, and later adaption of the term into an endearment for Rose, seems to replace the realities of Khmer Rouge’s political purges of the royal family with Slade’s Orientalist fantasy.
However she corrects Slade with the brilliant line “But I am princess only to my girls” [sic], which elides her position from one of blood to one of responsibility. He has been sent to save her because she’s a royal, but she is extending her own protection over these common women. While missing out “a” could be a translation error, given how good Lili’s English has been so far I doubt it. Instead, I think she is transforming princess from a noun into a more active term; she is a princess “to” them, and being a princess to women is an active choice and responsibility.
She quickly follows this with “You will save me now, yes?” which is just such a bold line in which she takes control of her own rescue.
And surely - without even thinking about it, the Americans save her fellow captives as well. She’s achieved her goal without Slade even realising what she was doing.
He does observe her leadership as they escape, “Sweet-Lili kept them in line”, and the women are able to cook “incredible meals” from the surrounding nature, showing how efficient and well-organised the women are, in large part due to Lili. Slade says he doesn’t think he “ever had better”.
And then we have the key key line, something which would be so easy to miss. “Could say the same for the nights”.
The American heroes, the oh so noble saviours, are sleeping with the women they were sent to rescue from sexual slavery. Not only that, but it’s viewed as idyllic and part of their reward. I think that Slade does deep-down know this was wrong, as when he recaps the story in #48 after Lili’s death he claims they “trekked through the night and slept during the day”. This doesn’t align with this quote, or the fact that the women cook during the day, and all of the panels of the party walking and fighting in #15 are in daylight. This could be a continuity error, but I want to be consistent and not assume authorial intent.
The women are so far from being safe from male sexual violence. Without guns, they can’t run into the jungle alone, so they have to stay with the “rescue” party and do what they want. What is an exoticised memory for Slade is any woman’s nightmare - including for Lili.
The party comes across the Khmer Rouge enslaving and murdering villagers, and sadly Lili is unsurprised by these conditions, telling Slade the exact diet of such prisoners. As Lili hasn’t experienced these conditions herself, I think this shows how she’s tried to stay updated on the suffering of her people, despite the brutal repression of information and killings of journalists. She feels deeply for every person suffering during the civil war. While she’s empathetic but unfortunately has to be practical - she doesn’t ask Slade to try to save these villagers.
However, when an American soldier cries out at the murder, their cover is blown and all the Americans other than Slade and the women other than Lili are murdered. Slade fights the most brutally of anyone, killing all the Khmer Rouge and trying to protect the women before succumbing to his wounds.
After years living alongside these women and protecting each and every one through their imprisonment, Lili watches them all be killed in front of her, by the very group which tortured and terrorised them. It’s horrific. These are the only people she has left from her old life, and they’re gone.
She protects Slade, who comes down with a fever, including from the Khmer Rouge - we are never shown her fights, because Slade was not conscious for that. This is a much-needed reminder that Lili is only shown from his perspective.
Over time, the two talk and share personal information, growing closer. I do think that she was honest with Slade about herself, more so than she could be with other people after the experience was over. She doesn’t have anything left to lose, is an ambush away from being killed, and Slade is a mercenary who cannot be shocked by anything she tells him. They’re going through a huge trauma together, and it forges a bond. He describes their relationship as “formal”, a strangely nice adjective from Slade which shows his respect for her (as much as Slade respects any women), and the fact that he did not make any advances before Lili did.
So Lili definitely still has some walls up.
One thing that never comes up is that Lili has her grandmother’s necklace on her the whole time. In Deathstroke #46 Rose runs to get it after Lili is murdered in the US, wanting her mother to be buried with it as it’s the only thing she has left of her family, so it’s clearly very important to her and was taken with her from Cambodia personally.
Now, it’s entirely possible that Slade does know about it but it isn’t important enough to include in the story. But it never appears on panel, nor does he ever mention her grandmother. I think it’s likely she kept it hidden, even as she dressed and undressed in front of him. It isn’t monetarily valuable, so she can’t have been scared of Slade stealing it.
If it is an amulet, her grandmother would have personally had a Buddhist priest bless it for Lili, and this 1970 article shows how important this traditional item became during the war. It’s the most sentimental item she has - and she never shares that part of herself.
The two share a moonlight kiss, after an in-depth discussion “about the war, about her, even about me [Slade]”. She is shown to be the one leaning in, and I do think that she genuinely wanted to kiss Slade and share that moment with him. Interestingly, this kiss is only revealed in #48, when Slade feels more sentimental as she has just been killed. It does not factor into his initial recollection, showing how his focus is on sexual, not romantic, memories of Lili, distorting his view of her. We will never know what she said “about her[self]” to this American mercenary who saves her women and sleeps with them, kills for money and for protection, and could be the last person she ever knows.
This is where we get to the most complex part of the recollection - the two sleeping together.
Unsurprisingly, I’m going to reject Slade’s reading of this as a natural development of their closeness which was romantic and spontaneous. However, I do think that Lili does consent, and would not have maintained a future sexual relationship and friendship with him if she had not.
One reading, building on what I’ve said above, is that Lili has been through these terrible traumas, is at risk of death or recapture, and has found a surprisingly sympathetic companion in Slade. As an unmarried Cambodian royal woman in the 70s, she would have been expected to be a virgin, and likely did not have much sexual experience before being subjected to repeated rape as a captive. The most positive reading of her relationship with Slade would be a reclamation of her own body and sexuality in a pursuit of fleeting joy in the most dire circumstances.
Alternatively, and in my view more likely, you can read Lili as engaging in self-protection. She is unlikely to be able to get to Thailand as a lone woman, even with Slade’s gun. Slade has already almost died, he could easily decide the reward isn’t worth the risk and abandon her, or sell her back to the Khmer Rouge. She can’t know what he’ll do, and therefore she maximises her chances of being rescued by having this sexual relationship, the same way she survived in the brothel. Either she initiates proactively, or he does, and she is in no position to safely reject him.
I don’t think this is antithetical to her conversations with Slade and continued relationship with him post-war. People are complicated, and ultimately Slade does save her, and would have saved her women, as well as being the only person who has shared her specific war trauma and heard her feelings at the time.
[It’s really important to note here that, textually, none of these arguments hold true. In the text of the comic, Lili’s body becomes a reward for the white American rescuing her, and why she would desire him is not a question that occurs to Marv Wolfman.]
“It took us another two weeks to make it into Thailand. Wish it’d took two years” is up there with the most heinous things that Slade has ever said.
It also shows that she didn’t keep a relationship with him the moment she got to Thailand and safety. Whether she was escaping him to freedom, or wanted to leave the unhealthy coping mechanism of him in the jungle, she did leave in the immediate aftermath of her rescue. Slade lets her, something which must have been a concern in the back of her mind after her previous imprisonment.
I’m going to go into Lili’s life post-Cambodia in my next post, covering themes including tropes around Asian women as sex workers, her success and wealth, and her loving relationship with Rose.
Here are some sources on representation and trope history I drew on to write this:
Before that, here's a post about her life between Cambodia and America and the Dragon Lady trope
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/03/26/asian-women-hollywood-portrayals/
http://unveilingthesilverscreen.digital.brynmawr.edu/tropes/lotus-blossom/
https://www.hercampus.com/school/american/the-dragon-lady-the-lotus-blossom-and-the-robot-archetypes-of-asian-women-in-western-media/
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/09/archives/amulets-are-a-vital-part-of-a-cambodian-soldiers-equipment.html
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/women-speak-out-over-khmer-rouge-sexual-violence/j5wwh30x1
https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2019/11/feature-survivors-of-sexual-violence-in-cambodia-speak-out
#rose wilson#ravager#lili worth#[i couldn't find the source for that surname so haven't used it so far]#lili#dc comics#this is so long but i wanted to do a really deep dive#and this is the edited and shortened version#i hope it's interesting!
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