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inamindfarfaraway · 2 years

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If we can’t have Batfamily movies and all Batman movies must be set in the early years before Robin, at least let us have one about the Gotham Justice Triumvirate. With Harvey Dent in the central role. Here’s my pitch:

Badass DA and wonderful person Harvey.

Harvey and Jim Gordon and Batman’s friendship. Jim and Harvey are friends! They’re two normal humans hanging out with a vigilante/living shadow cryptid who has no concept of normal human interaction! Think of the in-jokes they must have! Near the beginning, after Batman pulls his trademark disappearing act on them Harvey asks if Jim thinks he’ll ever say goodbye to them. Jim’s reply is some form of “when hell freezes over”, maybe even “Yeah - when he’s seeing you off to Arkham and me to Blackgate.” They laugh.

Harvey and Bruce Wayne’s friendship.

The fun and dramatic irony of writing Bruce and Batman as completely separate characters.

Depending on the timeline, possibly a cameo of newly fostered little Dick Grayson! To whom Harvey is like an uncle.

Gilda’s character being fleshed out. Exploring her side of the marriage and views on her husband’s career and mental decline and alliance with the Bat.

Harvey and Gilda’s relationship. And her and Two-Face’s relationship! He doesn’t care for Bruce, but he does love her equally while she apparently doesn’t even know he exists prior to him killing people. That’s an interesting dynamic.

Mafia intrigue and drama as the heroic trio finally bring down the previously untouchable Maroni empire.

Judicial, political and police force intrigue and drama as Harvey and to a less examined extent Jim fight to preserve their moral integrity in and reform their deeply corrupt institutions.

“For Gotham” is a key phrase, and may be the title. It’s said by each member of the triumvirate at different points when demonstrating or discussing how far they’re willing to go and how much hope they have for their city and its people.

Accurate, in-depth DID representation with Harvey and his protector alter not yet named Two-Face, who, reasserting himself after years if not decades of repression, resentment and ingratitude by the person he’s only ever wanted to protect slowly grows into a persecutor. Now Harvey’s wary, dismissive treatment of him is very understandable because of how terrifying DID can make life when you don’t understand it/your alter(s), and the need for control and excessive responsibility his childhood of abuse and neglect has cemented in him. But it’s still damaging. Other than lash out sometimes at people making Harvey feel threatened (Pre-)Two-Face hasn’t really done anything wrong before the events of the movie. They’re two sides of the same badly scarred coin each just trying to survive and make sense of their pain, equally sympathetic and valid… at least at the start. An element of the tragedy is that Two-Face could have healed and been a true friend to Harvey, if different choices were made and different chances were given. But the pressure of the Maroni case, a lifetime of unresolved trauma and post-traumatic stress from their father and each other, some plain bad luck and some mistakes lead to him becoming another abuser and a supervillain besides.

Music! Harvey has a theme, Two-Face has a theme. They hit opposite beats and parallel each other a lot yet never quite harmonize well. The coin (and the destruction and despair it represents) has a leitmotif that slowly rises to prominence in both. This motif is also associated with Christopher Dent. Harvey and Gilda have a love theme. Bruce and Batman have distinct themes that complement each other perfectly when played together, and when Bruce’s emotions shine through in Batman or Batman’s grimness peeks out of Bruce elements from the other piece are mixed in. The concept that Gotham’s ‘soul’ can be saved and humanity is worth fighting for has an uplifting theme, the main theme of movie and an antithesis to the coin’s, that has sections and elements woven into each member of the triumvirate’s themes and is repeatedly reprised in different tones.

Harvey’s external plot is making Gotham a better place, specifically via dismantling the Maroni crime family. The structure of most of the movie builds up to the climax of the trial of Salvatore Maroni himself. Maybe there are even recurring shots of Harvey’s calendar with an increasing number of days crossed out, to really drive the countdown home. To the main characters, it’s a beacon of confidence; a chance to prove law, and law for the good of the people, does hold power in Gotham, to send a message to everyone that things can and will get better. Nothing (and no one) is beyond redemption. To the audience, it’s a doomsday for Harvey we’re helpless to stop that taints every victory and happy moment on the path toward it.

His internal plot is grappling with his severe psychological issues rooted in his nightmarish childhood. He goes to therapy, he’s in a good place right before the start. But the first scene is… rough.

He visits his alcoholic father Christopher in the cheap hotel Chris, reduced to a pathetic old man, is staying in. Though he still calls him Dad and wants to try to reconcile, it’s clear he understands his regular, brutal beatings and otherwise generally neglectful parenting style (at least half the time) were wrong and he’s uncomfortable and tense. Chris solemnly presents him with a coin. The coin he would flip every night to ‘decide’ to beat him or not, which always, always came up heads for punishment. He said it was fair and that paradigm - that that his desires and actions don’t matter, he was just always bad inside and always deserves to suffer, in short that Harvey’s fate isn’t in his control - shaped the system’s entire personalities and worldviews, Harvey striving to prove it wrong and over years of bearing trauma and triggering experiences, his much more cynical protector internalizing it. With trembling fingers Harvey picks up the coin and looks at both sides. Two heads. The music cuts out. Dolly zoom on him that makes the room appear to close in around him, as a boy’s pleas, cries and screams of agony echo and he dissociates. Two-Face, who always acknowledged the flip was rigged, switches in. He smiles ruefully and says in a calm, quiet voice, “I understand.” Then he lunges to his feet, punches Christopher to the ground, grabs him by the throat and slams him against the wall, right fist raised to strike. He is now anything but calm. “Why? Why did you do it? Not the beating, that was just because you’re a sick bastard and took your anger out on the person least able to do anything about it. But why use the coin, why make it a game? Why lie? To shift responsibility even more? Just for fun? Tell me! Why would you bother to put a little spark of hope into your son’s eyes only to crush it? Answer me!” Instead of answering, Chris notes he’s bleeding; his right fist is closed so tight his fingernails have punctured his skin and the coin inside it is cutting into his palm. The shock of seeing that damn coin literally, physically hurting him brings tears to Two-Face’s eyes. He looks back up at his father, full of only raw grief and sadness for himself and his alter. His voice breaks. “Why, Dad? Did you really… not feel anything good when you looked at me?” “Did you really believe every time?” is all his father can say. Two-Face’s expression hardens, his fists clench again and he squares his shoulders. “Only half of me did. Goodbye, Christopher,” he says bitterly. The second he slams the door his facade of strength crumbles. He falls to his knees, sobbing and heavily dissociating. Cradling his head in his hands and raking them through his hair smears blood on and in the right half of his face and hair. Cue title card!

So yeah, there are only a couple of months between that day and the Maroni trial. He can’t bring himself to throw away the coin despite knowing he probably should. Gilda can’t understand why and urges him to leave it behind. He says it’s “too important” and “a reminder”, although of what, he can’t verbalize. The coin eventually ends up being habitually fidgeted with and kept on his person like a lucky charm. He’s trying to ‘redeem’ his trauma, turn it into something good, by drawing on it to motivate him to fight for justice, but the coin in practice is just a trigger. His PTSD, guilt complex and self-worth and control issues are dragged to the forefront and he dissociates more frequently. He falls further and further into obsessive workaholism. Loses sleep. Misses therapy sessions. All that matters is giving the absolute most he can to his city. Rest can wait, quality time with his wife and friends can wait, Harvey Dent the person can wait until the case is closed. Until after the trial. Everything will be better after The Trial.

The Trial happens. Everything is not better.

Maroni unscrewing his flask occurs in the background of the shot out of focus. When the acid is thrown, it sprays through the air in slow motion. We see Harvey and the witnesses’ (including Gilda and Bruce) shock transitioning to panic and horror as he flinches away too slowly, the coin in his hand flung into midair revolution and a wayward drop of acid approaching it. With a last close-up on his wide left eye reflecting Maroni’s smirk, cut to black. The most tortured screams you can imagine ring in our ears. No music in any of this.

Harvey and Two-Face’s mental health sinks to rock bottom during their hospital stay. Gilda, Bruce and Jim’s visits comfort Harvey little, especially since Batman duty calls Bruce away at a critical point (remember, nowhere in the script does it say Bruce is Batman). They’re given the coin back and discuss that life isn’t fair, but it should be… if they played their dad’s game now, it would be fair. All that work, all the blood and sweat and tears Harvey put into Gotham and this is how Gotham thanks him. He was never going to change things. Not playing by the rules of a rigged game, at least. It was never up to him. He never had it in him to be good, to be someone not worthy of punishment, let alone to improve other people’s lives. Flipping the coin, Harvey whispers with shattered eyes, “I understand.” Of course, seeing their scars is the last straw. Two-Face switches in, literally locking an anxious Harvey in a dark repressed chamber in their inner world to stop him getting in his way, and escapes hospital. Gilda, on her way to his room, begs him to stop and he hesitates but, genuinely sorrowful, decides his quest for justice takes precedence and runs into the stormy night, the shadows and rain obscuring his trail. She calls him, phone in a death grip. Fade out to its continual ringing.

This might be too weird and artsy but what if from the Fuck My Life I’m Listening To A Coin Now toxic epiphany onward, the shot composition is roughly pretty much symmetrical? Within shots or with shots mirroring each other. Not perfectly, obviously, but like. Rewind looking for it and it’s there.

The penultimate scene is another rooftop rendezvous and this time Harvey isn’t present; we and his friends feel his absence. Batman regretfully tells Jim and shows him footage of a new criminal taking the underworld by storm: the fledgling Two-Face. Jim is first disbelieving, then devastated and turns his back so Batman won’t see him cry. He angrily tells Batman not to comfort him, and to leave now that he’s given him the shitty news, because that’s all he ever does for him. We pull back to show Batman is staying, pained, guilty and truly having no idea how to proceed. Jim assumes he’s already silently vanished. Once he collects himself and goes inside to inform his subordinates, Batman lingers in front of the Batsignal where they took their shared vow. “Goodbye, Harvey,” he says softly.

The epilogue is Two-Face’s confrontation with Maroni. Several months later, the Mafia don’s out of prison already thanks to the, again, incredibly corrupt legal system. Two-Face acts venomously calm and civil while holding him at gunpoint. He remarks how long and hard Harvey worked just to bring Maroni to court, and how now with some broken laws and spilt blood here Maroni is in front of him in a fraction of the time. Helpless, like he was in that courtroom. He explains his “fair” game to kill him or not in a speech clearly quoted from Christopher, shows him both sides of the coin, tosses it and stares at the unseen outcome in his hand. “Lucky,” he announces, making Maroni slightly relax - a little spark of hope put into his eyes, you could say. Suddenly Two-Face shoots him twice in the heart. “For Gotham, not you.” Harvey switches in (implicitly his alter’s guilt is a positive trigger for him as his anger is for Two-Face) to find his alter has committed murder, with a smoking gun in his right hand and flecks of blood on that hand and his suit. He staggers back in horror and drops the gun and coin. A pang of practically physical pain interrupts his calling Jim to turn himself in, because he can’t choose that, can he? He falls to his knees. With trembling fingers he picks up the coin and, pleading under his breath to just have this one chance, flips it. It comes up scarred. Two-Face resumes control. He smashes the phone under his heel and stands. The final shot is him walking purposefully toward the camera so it zooms in on the vertical divide of his suit jacket.

#i have. a VISION #you want pain dc? you want to make your characters suffer? you want dark depressing endings?#fine!#i’ll play your game #AND characterize harvey and two-face better than at least 75% of comics they’re in #let’s go full greek tragedy #also i love parallels and where are they more suitable than the story of the Duality Duo?#gotham justice triumvirate #bruce wayne #batman #harvey dent #two-face #jim gordon #comissioner gordon #dc comics #dc #gotham city #sal maroni

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crossroadsserpent · 8 months

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Dangerous Love. (Part one)

Gotham!Salvatore Maroni x GN reader.

(Hello! It's been a while! I had writer's block and a full schedule but I'm back! And hopefully for good! This is sort of a request from

@samantharaevelcher who commented on my last Sal Maroni post "Not A Sugar Baby")

Summary: You went completely against your mother's wishes and joined the mafia. Once she got word she kicked you out on the streets in the pouring rain, but don't worry, someone very important steps in.

Warnings: violence, gang violence, DV (Reader's family toward reader), cursing, blood, weapons, sh**tings and other forms of unaliving.

You were sure your mother wouldn't find out about your joining the mafia, she avoided that stuff like the plague especially after divorcing your dad. Your dad was in the Mafia too, told you stories, showed you how to fight, and taught you to bargain. You loved your dad and the stories he would tell about how they'd get money out of people that owed, you never understood why your mother always yelled at him. She always spoke I'll of him, especially in front of him, so when they got divorced you were happy for the quiet. It doesn't stay quiet for long though, shortly after the divorce your mom starts dating again and the fighting starts once more.

Truthfully you joined the mafia to not only escape your home life but to follow in your dad's footsteps and prove your mother wrong. You started out doing pickups and drop offs, simple shit, but as you gained trust you started getting to do more of the fun jobs. Your favorite was intimidation.

Unfortunately this good feeling couldn't last. Your mom somehow managed to find out that you were in the Mafia and She. Blew. Up.

There was screaming, cursing, crying, things being thrown, and walls being hit.

"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO US?! I TOLD YOU TO STAY AWAY! HOW DARE YOU DEFY ME! I AM YOUR MOTHER AND YOU OBEY ME! I DON'T CARE IF YOU'RE IN YOUR 20's!" She shrieked as she threw more things at you. You were trying to make it to your room and dodge whatever was flying at you. You didn't even try to plead your case, just try to get to safety or at least grab something to defend yourself.

"YOU LITTLE BITCH! GET THE FUCK OUT OF THIS HOUSE!" Her screams pierced through your eardrums and before you could even reach your door her new boyfriend bodyslams you into the wall, knocking the wind out of your lungs. He held you in place as your mom screamed in your face, repeatedly punching the wall right next to your head. It took you kicking your mother's boyfriend in his manhood to get him to let go of you so you could run. And run you did, right out the front door and down the street, your mother screaming at you from the door way to never come back.

A block away from your house you slowed to a walk, it was then you realized just how bad it was raining. Thunder roared loudly as lightning lit up the sky like a terrifying firework.

Walking through the streets of Gotham alone and in the pouring rain could strike fear in the hearts of even the strongest of people, never knowing if there's someone following you or waiting in an alley for you to pass by. You kept your wits about you and continued walking, hoping to at least make it to the 24/7 gas station that you frequented almost daily.

You wouldn't even make it there.

You were waiting to cross the street when a car pulled up infront of you. The back seat window rolled down and there was your boss, he head of the mob you joined.

Don Maroni.

He looked at you and shook his head with a chuckle "Walkin' in the rain without a coat huh? You tryin' to prove something? Or are you just outta your mind?"

"I'm just enjoying the rain, is that a crime?" You retorted, still keeping up your façade.

"It is when it's 10 pm in one of the most dangerous cities in the world." The Don laughed "Why don't you get in and I'll take you home." He opened the door and moved over so you could get in, which you do gratefully.

"I've gotta be honest here... I can't go home." You admit, your façade dropping slightly.

"Oh? Why not?" The Don asked, giving you an odd look "you don't live by yourself?"

You shook your head "no, the person I was living with lashed out and kicked me out of the house."

The Don gave a nod of acknowledgement "I'm guessing they didn't wanna live with a criminal huh? Well I'll handle the living situation in the morning."

The car started moving again just as The Don got a call. You glance out the window, the rumble from the car engine mixed with sound of the rain hitting the car windows made it easy to slip out of reality, The Don's voice growing muffled.

You weren't sure how much time had passed but the next thing you knew you were pulled back into reality by Don Maroni's hand on your shoulder "Come on, let's get you inside and in some dry clothes."

You looked around trying to figure out where you were, your eyes eventually landing on the large mansion like house that stood towering above the car. "Where...?" Before you could finish you were cut off by Don Maroni

"We are at my home, figured it would be better to just bring you here for the night instead of tryin' to find a hotel room at midnight" He chuckled "don't worry, there's security at all hours, so no one's gunna get to you." He said, holding his hand out to you.

You took his hand, allowing him to help you out of the car. He let you into the house and sent someone off to find some dry clothes.

"So, you wanna explain why you were wandering the streets alone in a thunderstorm? I know you said you were kicked out but... elaborate, who kicked you out? Do I need to have a talk with 'em?" He almost demanded.

"It was my mom and her boyfriend, they found out I joined the mafia and my mom lost her shit." You take a deep breath before continuing "her boyfriend bodyslammed me to the wall and she got in my face, punching the wall beside my head while she screamed. I had to kick her bastard in the family jewels just to get him to let go of me, and once I got outside she told me to never come back." You actually felt some relief getting that off your chest, but can't help but feel like you simultaneously triggered something much worse. You could feel the boss's energy shift as you explained what happened, you knew the mob treated eachother like family, and when someone hurts a family member the whole mob takes it personally. You knew you shouldn't have told Don Maroni what had actually happened, but you also knew that lying was off the table, so what were you supposed to do?

Before anything else could be said a man dressed in black emerged from a hallway carrying some clothes. Don Maroni thanked him before turning back to you "get changed, I'll have Louie here bring you to my office, we need to talk about some stuff."

Shit. Were you about to lose your place because of what your mom did?

Louie took you up to one of the guest rooms and left you to get changed, which you did rather quickly. Once you were done you stepped out of the room and met Louie at the end of the hall. He shot you a soft smile before leading you to Don Maroni's office where the Don sat at his desk looking over some paperwork. He looked up upon hearing the door open and smiled seeing you standing there "good, you changed, sit down, I think there's a few things we need to talk about."

You hesitantly sat down as Louie left the room, closing the door behind himself. Before the Don could speak you spoke up "Sir.. if this is about what my mother did, I am very sorry, I didn't know she was going to react that way, please don't let her actions reflect on me..." you were almost in tears, your voice shaking as you spoke. Don Maroni shook his head "Nah, that's not why you're here, you ain't losing your job, and you definitely aren't gettin' whacked for what she did. What really needs to be talked about is what her boyfriend did to you and what kind of punishment he deserves."

You were shocked to say the least "punishment?" Don Maroni nodded his head "What he did to you is unacceptable, he could have seriously injured you, or even killed you, I can't have a man that almost killed one of my best workers walking free without any punishment." His words brought a light dusting of pink to your cheeks, you were about to speak but he continued "I wanted to ask you what you think his punishment should be, but if you'd like I can leave it up to my men, let them get a little aggression out."

He sat back in his chair "What do you think?" That was a hard question to answer... did you really want him to suffer?

Of course you did. You would love to see him ripped to shreds.

But did you really want to tell the Don that? You knew he'd have it done with no hesitation but you weren't sure you wanted to be the one who ordered your mother's boyfriend's death.

You shook your head "I think your men would have more fun torturing him, let them have fun." He nodded with a smile and picked up the landline phone, dialing a number you couldn't quite see. He spoke with a man for a few minutes before asking you for your mother's address which you gladly gave.

End of part one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi this one has been in my drafts for quite a while and I'm sorry! I'm posting it now so please enjoy!

#gotham #don sal maroni #sal maroni #salvatore maroni #don maroni #x reader

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