how must the Dick -> Jason Robin switch have looked to the Gotham Rogues. it’s not as if they did a formal ‘attention, Robin has quit his job and will now be operating as Nightwing’ announcement. like after a certain point it must have become like a Known Thing that periodically Batman gets new sidekicks. but that first changeover must have messed w people’s heads right??
like. you are a B-list Gotham Rogue. You haven’t seen Robin in months. You’ve asked around and no-one else in the circles you move in has seen him either. You’re starting to get worried but you aren’t sure if you have the kind of relationship with the Batman where it would be appropriate to ask after his sidekick’s wellbeing. Every time he shows up Robin-less you get progressively more stressed out.
you are a B-list Gotham Rogue. Batman has Robin again but he is very clearly a different, significantly younger boy. This suggests that the OG Robin being gone is a permanent state of affairs. You’re starting to fear the worst. You’re like 85% sure Robin died and Batman quietly replaced him with a different child in the same costume. You’ve been asking around to see if someone killed him but no-one will admit to knowing anything. You really want to ask but you don’t feel comfortable asking the Batman if his sidekick got murdered, especially not with the new kid right there.
you are a B-list Gotham Rogue and you’re fighting Nightwing for the first time, he’s usually over in Bludhaven so you haven’t crossed paths with him before. And wow this guy’s voice sounds really familiar but you can’t place it - wait Robin??Oh my god Original Flavour Robin is that you?? Hey buddy how’ve you been?? Love the new costume! We’re so relieved we all thought you’d died!! :D Hey ow-
*B-List Rogue has been apprehended by the Batman and is sitting around waiting for the police to show up*
B-List Rogue: hey you know you could have told us the og Robin was Nightwing now
Batman:why the hell would I do that
Batman:waithow do you know that?
B-Lister:I’ve met you guys a bunch of times? I know what his voice sounds like and what most of his face looks like? so I recognised him?
Batman:
Batman:ok but why would we tell you? do you not understand how the whole masked vigilante with secret identity thing works?
B-Lister:you son of a bitch I thought he was dead??he straight up disappeared and I thought he’d died or something?
Batman:what the hell do you care
B-Lister:………………I rob banks and do museum heists and you knowall my methods are non-lethal, so yeah I care??
B-Lister:I don’t want your kid sidekick dead??
Batman:alright but I don’t understand why you assumed he was dead just because he stopped being Robin.
B-Lister:
B-Lister:he disappeared for months and then you partnered up with a similar looking kid in the same costume, do you have any idea how creepy this whole situation looks from the outside??
Jason, who’s been standing off to the side throughout this entire interaction: I’m getting kind of uncomfortable
B-Lister:…yeah that’s fair I’ll shut up
B-Lister:
Jason:
Batman:
B-Lister:so did you end things or did he end things or what
I want a Batman story where he starts off as a cheerful and a bit socially daft guy. Where Bruce Wayne is a complete goof and hopelessly romantic fool. He tries to court Talia or Selina with the extravagance and thoughtfulness of a man with the means and mind to try to give his love the most fantastically romantic time ever. He’d be so proud and happy for Dick and his team of superheroes, and all he can imagine is the good they’ll do when they become the next Justice league. Even the criminals in Gotham aren’t too violent, just people looking out for their own.
Then Jason comes into his life, He loves this child so much. The kid adores Alfred and follows him around like a duckling and is quietly delighted with all the toys, books, schooling, ect. that Bruce can provide. He’s smart, studious, sassy, curious, and adorably enthralled with magic (magic!Jason) practically a prodigy but still playing little pranks here and there. He can imagine Jason fitting in very well with Justice league dark if he wants to follow his big brother’s footsteps. Though that plan doesn’t quite play out as he’d hoped.
(I’m just so done with Jason only ever being destined for death and nothing more, and the death of a child being treated like no biggie or a goddamn joke. That shit should be goddamn traumatic and serious.)
However Jason is mercilessly murdered by the Joker, then Barbara is paralyzed, Talia doesn’t want anything to do with him, and Harvey well…Harvey went insane chasing shadows before killing himself. Bruce then starts to spiral into his dark and broody, emotionless, cold and calculating Batman. Turning paranoid and controlling, because if he could have planned for everything then he would have prevented the worst from happening to the people he cared about.
I want Batman’s closed off and harsh personality be a result of his life getting to a point of falling apart instead of the insanity of “dead parents” because frankly I’m sick of those damn pearls. I get it as a motivation to start being a hero but the rest of why he’s a dick to his allies and so damn standoffish about being in control all the time shouldn’t be tied to that. I think it should be a process of him losing his hopefulness to the thoughtless acts of cruelty later down the line.
Give me a batman that starts with everything to lose, a hopeful man who believes that people can change for the better if they were given a proper chance. That goodness is inherent because superman who has all the power to do anything still decides to do good. A batman who thought people were only evil because of desperation, or needed/wanted something but is proven so wrong that it slowly breaks him, into the batman we’re familiar with.
(the kind of batman that lashes out at Dick, ignores or doesn’t care for Tim and Steph, beats & banishes Jason from Gotham, and makes contingencies & plans to be able to take out his JLA friends)
Maybe even have the parents be secretly not the best people. I’ve been thinking about Martha Wayne being a high ranking member of the court of owls, and his father sharing a hand with Hugo strange to make Arkham asylum a hell on earth.
Lemme know what you guys think because frankly I kinda hate how toxic Batfam is and I really don’t care for trying to pretend it’s a good time to be with the kind of batman we have. Straightup fanon gooddad!Bruce is so far away from what Batman is, I can’t imagine them being the same person at all. At least with this kind of timeline I feel like it could possibly work.
