Whovengers

I’m a prince of the north, a Stark of Winterfell, almost a man grown, I have to be as brave as Robb.- Bran, “A Storm of Swords”

I must be brave, like Robb, she told herself, as she took her lord husband stiffly by the arm. - Sansa, “A Storm of Swords” 

Arya remembered now. “I’ll be as strong as Robb. I said I would.” - Arya, “A Clash of Kings”

i think what turns me off, really, to a lot of late preboot stories is that they’re just so damn cynical about everything - i don’t love superheroes because i’m infatuated with the idea that Everything Sucks And Everyone Is An Asshole To Each Other All The Time, i love superheroes because i want to believe the world can be fixed. i love cape comics because they elevate characters who have idealistic worldviews above those that don’t, i love cape comics because it’s a world where idealism is never a lost cause.

i’ve talked about this issue before, but there’s a reason my favorite batman story of all time is detective comics #500’s, “to kill a legend.” in it, phantom stranger offers batman the chance to go save his parents’ lives in another dimension, and batman accepts. as batman and robin investigate the world they’re in, they discover that this earth has no heroes, not even fictional ones. they’re in a world that can’t even conceive the idea of a hero, much less actually harbor them. so robin makes the argument that maybe they shouldn’t save batman’s parents, because this is the only shot the world has at having a hero - and doesn’t the good batman will do outweigh the price of just two lives?

it’s the sort of moral dilemma that we see fairly often today, but ‘tec #500 shoots it down ruthlessly. batman, of course, saves his parents, and the waynes of that dimension remain a whole and happy family. you’d think that batman had just selfishly saved his own parents and cost the world its last chance at a hero. but bruce wayne becomes batman anyway, because 'tec’s argument is that it is never a bad thing to save someone’s life. the lives batman saves will go on to save other lives. the great ouroboros of comic books isn’t infinite sadness or infinite dickery, it’s infinite potential to do good. batman raises robin who becomes nightwing who will become batman who will redeem another robin, and morrison’s run told us that batman and robin will never die, which means they never fail; their belief in doing good never once fails them. the lives they saved always turned to save more lives. to quote batman #700, “no matter when. no matter where. no matter how dark.”

i love cape comics because the very concept of them rewards hoping against all hope. superheroes by nature reward the idea of genuine belief; believing enough in a cause that you will splash it across your chest and put yourself on the line to make it happen. and in a world where everyone is competing to see who can give less of a fuck, it’s a very powerful thing to read about being praised for believing in “naive” or “childish” ideals like hope and truth and justice. i’m not here to read about how everyone really hates each other and everyone is the worst and everyone dies and everything is bad forever and ever. i’m just not.

I mean...apparently the Gaonas exist in the DCU, so you wouldn’t be the first person to reference real life people in relation to dick grayson’s circus background 

I have so many stupidly niche headcanons that I usually don’t even notice myself having.

Like, okay, so Flash villain The Trickster and Dick Grayson both come from aerialist families, right? And it’s a pretty small community. (I think Trickster might have gotten a different background in the last reboot but I super don’t care.)

Anyway I headcanon they both know Nik Wallenda due to circus community ties and turn up sometimes when he does stunts like crossing Niagara Falls on the high wire, to show moral support.

If Dick notices James he pretends not to. They’re not on the super-clock.

Poem Bangkok pre-fall 2020 “Celestial Sin”

I think the major reason why so many depictions of Batman rub me the wrong way is because, imo, the major character trait of Bruce shouldn’t be his anger or his darkness or his inability to move on from the death of his parents or whatever. It should be his empathy. His compassion. Those are his major flaws. No, seriously. They’re the reason why everything keeps going wrong in his life.

Because he can’t seem to delegate and prioritize? He has that sort of wide-ranging empathy that covers everyone, and it leaves no room for the people closest to him in his life. He cares, and that’s the issue, because he cares too damn much and it’s spread so thin that it goes right back to making him look cold and emotionless and detached. There’s no way he can save everyone, to be what every single person needs, but he tries anyway. And he can’t stop doing what he does because there’s always something going on, and he doesn’t have time to take care of himself or take care of those around him because that’s selfish! Because there’s always someone who needs him, someone who needs saving, and what right does he have to slow down? What right does he have to take a breather, to take a rest from The Mission when he can be out there making a difference?

And that’s probably the reason why so many people keep flocking to him, especially those in vulnerable positions like orphaned kids, because they see it. They see his kindness, his compassion, his genuine desire to help, and they know that it’s real. They know, because Bruce takes the effort to show them. Because Bruce is great at being kind to strangers! We’ve seen it demonstrated over and over again in every piece of media he appears in. He’s great at winning people over, great at getting them on his side, but it soon becomes apparent that they’re not his priority? And it’s okay when they don’t really know each other, but then he becomes a friend, a father, and he still doesn’t make time in his day for them. Still doesn’t hold them in higher standing than the rest of the world, because he can’t prioritize the people he likes. What right does he have to choose?

I just… I can’t see Bruce as being inherently selfish. I can’t see him being cold and unemotional when he wakes up every day (or night) and keeps fighting for a city that doesn’t seem to want to get better. That doesn’t scream logic to me? That screams of someone who feels deeply and intensely, who values hope against all else. Even if he’s pragmatic and pessimistic and a bit (a lot) of a mood-killer, there has to be faith holding him up.

And yk… emotional doesn’t mean he’s good at showing them. Doesn’t mean he knows how to show them. Bruce seems to have that neurodivergent and/or PTSD thing where the stronger, more intense his feelings are, the harder it is for him to actually show them. Maybe because he’s scared, or maybe they just paralyze him, whatever. So you’ve got this odd dichotomy where he can comfort strangers, he can make little kids smile both in and out of costume, but the closer you get to him the more he seems to withdraw from you. Because he feels too much. Because the words get jumbled in his head, and they don’t come out right, or heck, they just sort of… stop, somewhere, or maybe they just don’t even form. We’ve got so many examples of him saying the right thing to strangers, to acquaintances he only knows the name and face of, and so many examples of him phenomenally fucking up when it comes to his kids or anyone that he loves.

Dick Grayson and Trapeze

Okay, so I’ve been getting into DC for the past year or so after growing up entirely on Marvel and even more now that I can’t do anything else, and I love Dick Grayson! Because he is awesome, and also a circus person, and I am also a circus person. I’ve done circus for years, I worked at a circus school, it is a huge part of my life, circus is great! But oh my god almost all of the details are inaccurate and it’s finally gotten to me enough that I had to find and dust off my tumblr so I could post a rant about it. Will anyone care? Who knows! But I feel better now.

1. flying trapeze is not a solo act. Flying trapeze is not even a two-person act. Flying trapeze is at minimum a three-person act. You need a catcher, a flyer, and someone on board. Most historical flying trapeze family acts were four people (often siblings, or siblings and spouses) although of course that number varied I’ve included a picture of a rig below that I labeled so you can see what i’m referring to when I say flyer, board, catcher. 

-this is why I am all for the young justice canon where it was dick’s father and uncle and their wives, and then once they grew up dick and his cousin. Siblings and spouses is an absolutely classic makeup of a trapeze family. Alternatively, you could imagine that john and mary worked with other trapeze artists they weren’t related to.

-dick is not old enough to be the third person here. He’s old enough to fly – my school had a minimum age of six for people taking classes, but staff children were exempt from that. Part of the reason for the age was the kids needed to listen, and part was they needed to not freak out. Obviously this doesn’t apply to Dick. But one of the other things is height. With smaller kids (on our rig, anyone under 4’6 I’d say, although you can adjust rigs to the height of flyers to a certain extent) you could not hold onto the bar and keep your feet on the platform. It was too far away. Small kids would grab the bar and their feet would dangle in the air and I’d hold them back by their safety belt. There are a couple of ways around this, including rises, but point being, could dick fly and throw tricks? Sure. Could he work board or drop a return bar? No way.

-there is a type of trapeze called swinging trapeze that is a solo act and uses a similar rig setup to flying trapeze, but you don’t leave the trapeze

-there is also a flying trapeze style called bar-to-bar, which is when instead of flying to a catcher you would catch the bar yourself, and is actually what jules leotard did when he first invented trapeze, but it is very rare (like, the only time I’ve ever seen this is catchers returning to the board) and you’d still need someone to drop the second bar for you. Here is a video of a catcher returning to the board. If you’re doing bar-to-bar instead of having a catcher, then you’d have a different rig set up than with a catcher, with a platform on either end of the net. If you want to compare them, here’s a really cool company that uses a cross setup which has both a bar-to-bar rig and a bar-to-catcher rig incorporated. In Nightwing: Year One, the Flying Graysons are shown using the more traditional bar-to-catcher set up, but Deadman (and presumably Dick when he joins the act) seems to be doing bar-to-bar.

2. you cannot “work your way up” to flying trapeze. There is no mini trapeze, there’s no slow version, there’s no flying trapeze but low to the ground (there are different types of rigs and cross training and if anyone wants me to go into detail I will, but still). “Working your way up to it” in flying trapeze means starting in safety lines and then taking a trick out of safety lines (step three, for the graysons, would be doing it without a net). Even in lines, you have to jump off the platform 20 feet in the air. That is step one, and you just have to dive right in. Feel free to come yell at me about how this influenced Dick as he grew up because I can’t put it into words right now but there’s something in there about Dick’s ratio of planning-to-look before leaping.

3. One of the most common mistakes new flyers make is trying to grab the catcher. This is a no-no. Flyer’s job is to fly, catchers job is to catch. As a flyer, your job is to be there, arms out, hands flat, and easy to grab. The catcher is responsible for grabbing you. If you make grabby hands or try to grab onto them in return before they’ve caught you, you will miss. It’s a disconcerting feeling if you’re starting out – when you’re following through the air, you want to grab at the person reaching for you. You cannot. You have to trust them to grab you.

           -think of this, Dick, who has been raised with this mindset, watching his parents fall. Thing of this, Dick, who has decided it’s his job to catch everyone. Think of this, Dick, falling and hoping someone catches him. Think of the angst. Think of the fluff! The possibilities are endless! (please someone right this and also feel free to ask me questions about this I have feelings)

4. Look, all flying trapeze is built on timing and trust okay!! I remember my hair getting loose and in my eyes halfway through a trick and it’s weird because you’re flying through the air and you can’t see anything and you really would like to be able to see things but it doesn’t actually matter. It didn’t change what I had to do, which was listen to my catcher and let go when they said. I didn’t need to see them, I just needed to trust them and listen. It was a perfectly fine catch! Just, ugh, it’s all about trust!!!!!!

5. While wearing a leotard with bare legs is definitely ridiculous if you’re planning on running around fighting crime, it makes total sense if you’re a flyer and you’re doing any sort of legs catch. (Not if you’re a catcher. Wearing a leotard with no pants is just asking for pain if you’re a catcher. Lots of catchers wear two pairs of leggings so they have extra padding.) Look, one of my friends tried to do a legs catch in full lengths leggings and even though she could connect she slipped out of the catcher’s hands every single time. Every single god damn time. Her form could be absolutely perfect but as long as she was wearing those pants that catch was not going to happen. Bare legs all the way for legs catches. (If you’re not doing leg catches, go nuts. If you’re a beginner, you definitely want the back of your knees covered because you’ll have your knees on the bar a lot. I’ve definitely flown in shorts before, but I also spend a disproportionate amount of time in knee hangs. If you’re not used to doing if, hanging from your knees when it’s just bare skin *hurts*, and having them covered helps). The Flying Graysons poster at the top shows Dick doing what is actually probably a double angel return, not a legs catch, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say the Graysons had that trick in their show. (I realize that the video I linked shows a legs catch with long pants, so this is obviously a flexible rule, and depends on the material as well. Basically, whatever you want the costume to be, go nuts!)

 If anyone has questions or thoughts, feel free to shoot me an ask. Also, if you’re curious about flying trapeze, circus is more accessible than most people think. Lots of places have circus schools where you can go and take a class, no experience required! (not now, obviously, because we’re in the middle of a pandemic, but in the future). I’m happy to answer questions about that as well.

MYTHOLOGY MEME

1/1 Mythology: Irish

Oh yeah, I’ve seen those takes too, and I’ve also never really got where there coming from either? Like you said, Dick’s experience would be different from Jason’s absolutely, but the idea that the Grayson’s would’ve had or would’ve left Dick a ton of money is so weird to me? Like, even in modern times (which Dick’s backstory is not originating from - comic books are weird) most performers are not paid amazingly well. Like, being a well known trapeze act is not the same as being a famous singer, those are in completely different stratospheres, which I feel like sometimes gets missed in the whole “the Graysons were the best at what they did” thing? Like they can be that and also poor because literally no one makes money in circus except for like, John Ringling, 100 years ago. 

[full disclaimer: I do/did (hopefully will again, although I’m in the US so probably not anytime soon 😓) perform/teach flying trapeze/silks/lyra, but I’ve never been part of a traveling show so my knowledge about those comes second-hand from family friends/people I’ve worked with] 

Definitely agree with you about Dick being a polyglot, which is actually canon (pre-New52/Rebirth at least - I don’t really read the post-flashpoint stuff). Dick brings up in one of the Nightwing comics that he spoke other languages (French, I think) before Bruce took him in. 

With the homeschooling, this might be one of the more modern updates, but I know a lot of travelling circuses now have schoolteachers who travel with them (at least, I know a couple of the major American ones did - your profile said Dutch so I’m assuming you’re experience is with European circuses, though I could be wrong).

That’s another nuance that I feel like gets missed, is the difference between European circus culture and American circus culture? Which obviously have similarities and crossover and exchanges, but are still kinda distinct things? And like, not even (or not just) in the fan stuff, but in the comics themselves. Like sometimes they’re on point and sometimes they are just soooo far off it’s laughable, and then fans pick up on that and perpetuate it.

Like one of the things I was thinking about recently because it crossed my dash was Devin Grayson claiming she “researched circus” and that was how she decided to make Dick Romani. And like, I’m not Romani, so I’m not going to weigh in on if people think that’s bad or good representation, since people who are Romani have done that on both sides, and they have more right to have a say in it than I ever will, but.

I don’t for one second believe she did any research. I don’t know enough to say about the presence of Romani people in European circus, or in American circus for that matter, but if I was a writer and I wanted to take a character with Dick Grayson’s back story and make them an ethnicity that was not white, I don’t see how with even 5 minutes of research you would miss the incredibly obvious answer of Mexican. There are so many famous flying trapeze families in North America that are Mexican, including Miguel Vasquez and the Vasquez family, aka the first person to throw a quad somersault (that trick Dick was famous for) in real life. And like, I would hesitate to do it now with Dick because I feel like that would play into the idea that representation is interchangeable, which it is definitely not, but if I was going to create a character with Dick’s backstory it feels like, given the prominence of Mexican and Mexican-American trapeze artists in defining and developing trapeze in the US, that would be the natural choice. (And, to be extra super clear about this, I’m not in any way suggesting Dick can’t be Romani. This is solely a comment on Devin Grayson’s terrible research and stereotypes when she decided to add that in. And also I’m annoyed that the Nightwing comic decided to reference the Gaonas but have Alex Gaona (or the madeup character who shares that name) be blond? Like, why?)

Anyway, your original post was super interesting, sorry for rambling on forever. I was just excited to talk circus and comics and circus in comics, and it’s way more fun talking to people than shouting into the void. I’ll stop now. 

People in this fandom have no fucking clue about circus life and the culture surrounding it. And it shows

Posters for National Theater of Korea's production of Macbeth, designed by Yuni Yoshida and photographed by Noh Juhan. [1][2]