The Eternal Dichotomy Of Hating How Alfred Pennyworth Spoke About And To A Young Dick Grayson

found this reverse robin au, where like dick not being adopted first changes everything like there was no robin, tim cass and jason were never adopted ( dw cass still has babs) and like birds of prey exist but they don’t work with batman idk if i am explaining myself right here but it is just so good and like i genuinely think it would go down like this in a reverse robin au

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63476209

This was the best reverse robin AU that doesn’t exist in my head

THE ACCURACY!!!

The way that the BATKIDS find ways to do/be good outside of the bat even in shit situations

(Ahhh Jason how you will eternally doomed to exist on the spectrum of gray)

AND DICK AND DAMIANS RELATIONSHIP AND HOW GREY EVERYTHING IS BC WELL??? The LIGHT IN BEUCE WYANES LIFE ISNT THERE YET???

Also dick having an instant connection with Batman vs ‘weird adult I hope he’s not a creep’ and it’s billionaire playboy philanthropist Bruce Wayne. Like bro can just sense that something’s not right with that one??

Also this ties into my lil internal AU. That I will gladly share.

I like the idea that things just inexplicably lighten around dick Grayson. Bc I was looking for a reason in canon that would explain the silly goofy dick and Bruce Batman Robin adventures vs the current dark angsty shit. Bc in canon going ‘it’s been 80 years and media has changed’ doesn’t really work.

So I like the idea that even monsters take one look at Dixk Grayson and decide that yeah even they can’t fuck that up and good men who lose their way look at him and go ‘oh I was absolutely heading the wrong direction lemme just turn myself around and head back on track thank ya kindly’ ya know?

Also every wasn’t at the circus but they all met dick Grayson bro really said ‘multiversal constant’

Anyway this was phenomenal thank you my dear anon for the rec.

Everyone should read this? I will be following the author on all platforms 10/10 you should write the new Batman comics bc you get Bruce and dick better than the current ones do

i think the reason we haven’t gotten a proper adult fab5 titans comic since the early aughts is because it would simply be too powerful. roy and wally arguing about parenting pre-teens while garth looks his google calendar to check his kid’s birthday. donna and dick get into a shouting match and the universe explodes. everyone (but donna) is privately very mean about terry. wally thinks about fatherhood for a single second and vibrates through the earths crust. dick has decided to passively kill himself again and everyone gets upset at him. garth just wants to relax for one gd second. roy is actually pretty well adjusted, all things considered. any meaningful portrayal of that hyper-dependent traumatically bonded boundryless ouroboros of a friend group would melt the pages it’s printed on. there is something sincerely wrong with them

I love how severely Jason refuses to differentiate between Bruce and Batman while also refusing to acknowledge that Nightwing and Dick Grayson are the same dude

I miss my pets so here are the Batkids as different images of my pets

Dick :

Jason

Tim

Damian

Cass

Steph

Duke

Bonus:

Alfred pennyworth:

Sometimes I feel like us as the bat family fandom forget how starry eyed people get about Nightwing canonically.

Because with the exception of early era Tim most of the Batkids are like. lol that’s my loser older brother or some variation of yeah…he’s some guy I guess? He helps me with homework?

And Nightwing is the canonically a center of multiversal light.

When Heroes meet Nightwing they do the vigorous handshake and the “it’s an honor to meet you sir, I have heard so much about you oh my god”

There are so many character where they are literally shown giggling and kicking their feet whenever Nightwing talks to them.

Even the people who don’t have the celebrity level worship of him respect the hell out of him and call him as soon as they need help.

From raven to Starfire to Superman to Superboy to all or the flashes there is so much respect and awe given to this one dude.

And it is deserved

But imagine you are Damian Wayne and you’ve been working with what 90% of the people you’ve met (all bats) have been calling an embarrassment to your father’s legacy.

Your mother hates him and your Grandfather doesn’t feel that strongly about him.

The red hood calls him an embarrassment and a coward and he couldn’t even keep Red Robin from running away.

Your father tells him that he never should have been Batman

And you’ve worked with him and you know what you think everyone is full of shit about him and you and him the new Batman and Robin are the best no matter what anyone says.

And fuck it the fact he keeps going in a suit that everyone tells him he’s not good enough for is scratching something in your brain that you’re refusing to acknowledge because why would you feel that way? You are the circus freak have nothing in common (shut up)

And then you meet the justice league and all the extended teams.

And people are falling over themselves to listen to a word out of your brothers, your Batman’s mouth. They wait for a nod or headshake and dictate decades worth of planning on it.

Both Drake and Todd’s hero teams ask him for advice with or without their designated bats presence.

The man of steel asks for child rearing advice and wonder woman cracks a joke about a spar

Newer heroes whisper about him in the halls

He’s literally your favorite hero’s favorite hero

And it’s breaking Damian’s Brain

Because well… he kinda gets slapped around in Gotham. He’s the butt of half the jokes the other Batkids make and Dick just smiles and takes it.

The rogues have a bounty on nightwings ass and he gets leered at by goons, rogues, civilians and anti-hero’s alike and he doesn’t say anything.

He lets oracle crack jokes about a pretty face and having to do everything herself

Let’s Jason run the alley despite the fact that apparently he knows how to take it back

Apparently he’s had 12 people tailing Drake since Paris and despite being the man Ra’s Al Ghul calls detective has yet to notice. (Because you can’t tell me Dick was just magically at the right place to catch Tim falling to his death on coincidence)

And necessary to peace talks because he’s the best they have at deescalation

Like imagine you are a child who was raised to believe power is this obvious, all consuming thing. That the ones who control the board are visibly larger than life figures who fought their way to the top and cling to power by even the thinnest hangnail if they had to.

People who ignore simpler morals or an overall greater goal or good

And then you’re taken in by the man who whispers the correct answers into the larger than life figures ear.

Like I feel like that would have such an impact because Dick didn’t take power from anyone to reach his goals, it’s why his siblings don’t really defer to him unless in crisis.

Dick didn’t take power, no people just looked at him and decided he was the best option to give it to.

Everyone basically looked at this kid and went, yeah you’re the future of all heroism.

And if that dude can’t even get Bruce Wayne’s respect what chance does Damian Wayne have

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdYMLKRh/

omg the symbolism like the first one and third walking like soldiers because they saw robin as a duty an obligation then the second one trying to walk like the first one cause he was a replacement and the first one ( dick) walking on a tightrope but someone pointed out how it looked like a noose so it could reference the time dick walked on those high electric cables as his city was exploding and also the way dick looks back at them like he feels guilty and his mother nickname for him slowly becoming the cause of children deaths and soldiers as it fades out in batman’s shadow ughhh

Stopppppppp

This is another thing the difference between those trained for duty, those not trained and those trained for showmanship.

Dick is gonna walk less seriously bc well! It ruins the magic doesn’t it? If he needs to concentrate on a tightrope?

If he can’t walk effortlessly it ruins the mystic of the whole performance? A child who can fly? Can only be impressive weightless so on and so on.

Also this was adorable!

Also MARY GRAYSON SEWING ON THAT LIL R FOR ROBIN ON DICKS UNIFORM???? The fact that that lil r has been made of metal since Tim vc the soft and careworn stitches Mary Grayson kept repairing over and over and over again?

Do you think that Dick stitched up the R on Jason’s costume when it ripped?

My feelings

:(

Kind of ironic how one of Xie Lian's titles is "The god-pleasing crown prince" when the one thing he does consistently without fail is piss off the Heavenly Emperor.

dick grayson to bruce wayne

No one

Not a single being

My brain at any given moment: polycule titans

Polycule titans polycule titans polycule titans polycule titans polycule titans polyculetitanspolyculetitanspolyculetiyanspolyculettans hejehehwhrhrjeieheudjhejdjdusjd

Can we please stop with the angsty everyone hates me Tim Drake stuff??

Tim is only fun as a dorky loser with the smartest mouth you’ve ever had to hear

Tim ‘damn sucks what happened to that not dick grayson Robin imagine getting blown up that’s so cringe fail lol couldn’t be me im just better ig?’ Drake.

Tim ‘it doesn’t count as cheating if I date one girl as Robin and one as Tim’ Drake?

Tim ‘me and my friends accidentally killed Santa and instead of telling anyone we all just work together to deliver Christmas gifts around the world so that no one notices’ Drake.

Tim ‘my parents love me and are busy Drake which means I must break into Dick Graysons and Kori Anders apartment bc I am a nepo baby who doesn’t need to make money and have nothing better to do that stalk people’ Drake

Tim skater boy Drake

Tim who definitely tells people he listens to indie music and pulls up arctic monkeys while actually listening to indie music he’s just doing this bc it makes purists cringe.

Dick and Tim are brothers and love each other (and yeah even though the Morrison run and Red Robin and spyral happened they still do)

Tim and Damian have a way better relationship now than when Damian was 10

Tim and Jason have the vibe that someone made Jason apologize for titans tower and Tim got so embarrassed cuz like tell me not everyone thinks the loser Robin beat him up that badly?? Like tossed him around sure, won…sure but it wasn’t that uneven? Right?

People would notice if Tim went missing the last time he was left alone unsupervised he lost a spleen and had a weird relationship with Ras al ghul. Also… they’re bats… they track everything??? They track the gram weight to the last digit of their protein powders in their heads.

Brother had one (1) angst arc. Okay

It’s done

Can we go back to slay fun Tim?? Plz