#sorry im in a very garth mood i will be exclusively talking about garth for like the next week at least

[floralovebot]

yknow i think a really fundamental misunderstanding current dc writers have with garth is that he genuinely wasn't a child soldier like dick or wally. sure he definitely comes from that era and there Are undoubtedly aspects of his character arc and relationship with arthur that are similar to the classic mentor/mentee relationship, but their core relationship didn't start with that. arthur originally only brought garth along because they were just besties. arthur was living it up homeless style with this random orphan he found and they got into some hijinks together. then shit happened, he becomes King, but he's not going to abandon garth so he continues to bring him along.

part of garth growing up was him having to take things more seriously and learn to handle hero shit. like. he was really just randomly thrust into that world because arthur Became a big hero, not because arthur intentionally took on a protégé.

so when i see dc writing rebirth garth or even yj garth as this Cool Kid who was taken under arthur's wing and trained to become a Cool Hero, it's just,,, it's a Huge misunderstanding of garth himself but especially their relationship. his daddy issues are amplified because he always saw arthur as this cool older man who took him in as a son, not as a student. unlike a character like dick who has issues with bruce because bruce himself treats him as both a son and student, garth really became the student in response to arthur's duties, after they already had an established relationship. and even then, garth was never meant to be arthur's protégé in the way the other kid sidekicks were.

like. garth became arthur's sidekick because he wanted to be there. he wanted to be with His Dad and help him on these important missions. he didn't want to be alone anymore, and if that meant risking his life for arthur then fucking whatever, he'll do it. while arthur did take on the role of mentor and garth was very much his sidekick, garth was never the Child Soldier or the Protégé like the other sidekicks. like i'd say that's actually a huge part of his character arc. current dc writers will Never be able to capture garth in the right light if they continue to paint him as the same kind of sidekick the other titans were.

#sorry im in a very garth mood i will be exclusively talking about garth for like the next week at least #ajhladg #anyway #like im sorry but you can't turn the aquafam into the batfam you just can't #they have a fundamentally different relationship #like that was also a huge aspect of garth's relationship with the other titans #because they thought he was a coward and not cut out for the hero life #and that's because he literally Was Not trained for this! arthur took him in and it Just Kinda Happened #his training really consisted of him following arthur and arthur teaching him shit in the moment #and later on arthur does get more serious about it but again very big difference from the other titans #like literally garth has more of the classic mentor/mentee relationship with atlan than with arthur #garth of shayeris #a huge part of garth's character arc is him feeling like he doesn't deserve to be a hero because he Wasn't trained like the others #he didn't have as many skills didn't have the same confidence etcetc #the other titans were intentionally taken in to be a protégé or became one very Very early on in their life #garth was just going along for the ride man #like i think a really important aspect of his relationship with arthur is that garth never really saw him as A Mentor #he saw him as a dad and role model who occasionally taught him how to do cool shit #arthur was the one who pushed that mentor/mentee relationship and it blew him up in his face because that Wasn't them