I’ve lost so much. I’ve lost everything I thought I was. Who am I now? How do I go on?
You have lost nothingthat matters. Now do you see?
[image: an edit from DC comic panels featuring Barbara Gordon. The first three feature her when she was able bodied. at first she’s dressed in the armored batgirl suit she had in the new 52 run, jumping off a building with her cape and arms outstretched. then, we see her in her civilian guise. she’s holding a coffee mug and in front of her is the joker, who is shooting her in the back. the final image has her as batgirl again. she’s posing with determination on a rooftop and the wind is blowing her cape and hair. her face is in shadow, making her look more mysterious. her hand is clenched in a fist. The text on these three images is “I’ve lost so much.” (with I’ve on the first, Lost on the second, and so much on the third)
then there’s a black background and plain white text. this reads “I lost everything I thought I was.” the background changes to gray and the white text shrinks, like she’s fading out. the text reads “who am I now? How do I go on?”
there are then two panels from barbara’s dream in Oracle: Born of hope. the background is red and there is (on one side of the image) a woman in an oracle mask with a cup of tea in her hands. the other side of the image has that woman having taken off her mask, revealing herself to be barbara gordon. she is green against the red background. the text between these two images reads “you have lost”
then, four images featuring Barbara in her wheelchair, as Oracle. First, we see her in an alleyway, hitting a man in a suit with a gun so hard he flies at us (the viewer) and a tooth pops out of his mouth. then, a close up of barbara’s chin as she speaks on a headset. then a picture showing barbara in her wheelchair, holding bloody escrimas, one of which has a knife sticking out of it. she is gritting her teeth and looking up at the viewer in a challenge. the final image shows barbara blocking a knife that is thrown at her face with an escrima. we see a close up of her eyes and she looks very unphased. the words on these images are “nothing that matters.“ the last image has a black background, a glowing green oracle face, and the text "Now do you see?”
end image]
i still had some hi def images saved from back when I had DC universe, so I made an edit to my favorite barbara gordon quote.
does anyone remember which issue of batgirl (new 52) had bruce comforting barbara after she got shot? I want to compare it to what we got in oracle: year one
ok here it is.
Batgirl (2011) #6
I’ve seen this used by batman fans to be like “see barbara doesn’t UNDERSTAND bruce she actually thought he’d say all those mean things”
(even tho most of the time, she has a REASON to think he’d do that)
But this just seems so much boringer than what we got the first time around (link)
Like in oracle: year one, bruce didn’t come to try to chew out Barbara. He’s not an asshole (or at least, not intentionally). he wanted to make her feel better, and he thought “if she knows the joker is in jail and can’t do this again, she’ll feel better”
but even tho oracle: year one barbara NEEDED comfort, she was allowed to be angry enough not to allow it. the scene was about her, about her agency and what she does. this re-written scene is just about batman and what he does.
(and yes, if this were the real world, the ideal option would probably be “barbara receives comfort”. but that doesn’t mean that this option is more narratively satisfying)
it just feels so narratively unsatisfying that the re-wrote it to make batman look better and barbara seem more of the ‘palatable’ victim (sad, not angry) and barbara unable to address the unfairness that was initially present in the text. a lot of times, when re-writing things, DC shaves off conflict of the batfam or they try to make things simpler than they were the first time, which is always very unsatisfying. they also will frequently try to make batman look better, despite the fact that they don’t retcon out any of the things the batfam did in reaction to his unreasonableness, which just makes the rest of the batfam look unreasonable in comparison
![he clasps her hand in both of his now and barbara thinks "he just stood there, holding me hand." end image]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/6cd932172f18e66bd0ff6da471ecadb9/ace944062a198e92-88/s640x960/c989f435ba1e795c962bee2f621b34acf49acccf.jpg)
