Hot Take: Dick Grayson Taught Damian How To Be A Person But Stephanie Brown Showed Him How To Be A Kid

Hello Neil, I've just finished "A game of you". It's a wonderful book (thank you), and it broke me utterly. I haven't cried myself to sleep over a story in years. The gravestone and the funeral were devastating on a very personal level (I'm trans, too, and I imagine my relatives would act exactly the same). A lot about Wanda hit home, but it also made it the hardest Sandman tale to stomach for me, so far.

I was curious if there was something specific that inspired or shaped her storyline? And in retrospective, is there something about it you would change or handle differently?

P.S. for fairness sake, I did make you a whale. Just a two-dimensional and rather awkward one

It began with my friend Roz Kaveney telling me about her friends who were being buried under their deadnames, hair cut, in male clothes, and my anger about that. I had no idea that happened, and it seemed wrong. Roz and the late Rachel Pollack were both good friends, and I realised that I wasn't seeing any trans women in fiction in 1989, so I wrote my own.

I made a few changes for the Audible adaptation.

Thank you for the whale.

so I've been rewatching Static Shock because of @bearsspace 's Duke and Virgil art, and I'm not even a season in and its already so clear how good they'd get along.

Like Virgil's story focuses on not only actual racism and systemic issues, but the allegory of race within the bang babies/metahumans. Duke's story also does this with We Are Robin and Robin War; the robins are a group of mostly disenfranchised kids who rise up to protect themselves and their communities while being targeted by cops. WAR also makes direct comparisons to racism/systemic issues.

Besides their stories having some similar themes, they're also similar in the way they interact with their communities directly. (Let me mention here that Duke's mom and Virgil's dad are both social workers). Both Duke and Virgil are able to talk and connect with the people they're saving, and this includes the "villains" they encounter who really just need help (ohoho! another part of their stories connected to systemic issues).

Of course a lot of heroes do this but it's special for Virgil and Duke. Virgil's able to connect and help his foes not only because he's a bang baby, but because the standing he already has in his community. Like he spends a lot of time at the community centre and it means a lot to him. One of the things I really love about Virgil is that if he wants to get info on someone he starts knocking on doors and talking to people. It's special for Duke because not only does a big part of his story centre around bringing a community together to protect itself, but in contrast to the rest of the bats, his whole thing is LITERALLY being in the daylight. Like the whole premise of his character is being a beacon, Duke will always have a connection with the public the rest of the bats can't.

I also think it's really funny how both of them almost immediately become superheroes the first chance they got. Like Virgil's bestfriend is like, "You could be a superhero!" and he agrees instantaneously and does it. Duke's kinda just like, "Ugh, I GUESS I'll join this group of vigilantes if you REALLY want me to!" and "What? You want ME to lead this vigilante group? Aw shucks well SOMEONES gotta do it!" and "Not like being a vigilante is important to me or anything but I will literally let nothing including Batman's trained sidekicks stop me." then he jumps out of a moving cop car off a bridge.

I think bringing up "it/its" pronouns is a good test for people who claim to be "trans allies" because it so easily weeds out the people who are only doing it superficially. I've seen so many people who will post "Punch your local TERF #transrightsarehumanrights" and then turn around and be like "If someone says they go by 'it/its' pronouns it's actually good to misgender them because they're just teenager trenders"

Rating band names based on their accuracy:

(I keep updating this list so check back later)

The Beatles: 3/10. None of these people are beetles, they’re just a bunch of fruity guys from Liverpool with matching haircuts

(Edit: changed from 0/10 to 3/10 because John Lennon beat his wife)

Pink Floyd: 4/10. There is not a single person named Floyd in the band, but some of the members do arguably look kinda pink

Nirvana: 10/10. Getting high and listening to Nirvana is roughly what I imagine actual nirvana to be like

Foo Fighters: either 0/10 or 10/10. I have never seen foo in real life so either they’re pretending to fight a problem that doesn’t exist or they’re doing an absolutely fantastic job of fighting it

The Eagles: 0/10. Same as the Beatles, there is not a single eagle in this band. The name is misleading and we have all been lied to

Queen: 6/10. Partial points for Freddie Mercury

Led Zeppelin: 0/10. I don’t think any of these guys have ever even seen a zeppelin, let alone one made of lead. A lead balloon would crash faster than my hopes and dreams

The Rolling Stones: 3/10. There is not a single stone in this band. Some points added because I’m pretty sure they rolled quite a few

U2: 0/10. Despite what the name says, I am not a member of this band

Metallica: 9/10. Naming a metal band “Metallica” is like naming your dog “doggy”

Red Hot Chili Peppers: 2/10. These guys are not chili peppers. They’re not even that hot, let alone red hot

Guns N’ Roses: 0/10. How the fuck could a gun or a flower play music

Backstreet Boys: ?/10. Depends entirely on their current given location

Simon and Garfunkel: 10/10. No notes

The Doors: 1/10. Jim Morrison is kinda shaped like a door tho

Chicago: 4/10. The number of people in this band does not come even remotely close to the population of Chicago. Points added because it originated in Chicago

Earth, wind, and fire: 2/10. This is even more innacurate than Chicago. Points added because wind instruments were often used

Def Leppard: 3/10. There is not a single leopard in this band. Some of the members are probably kinda deaf by now tho

The Beach Boys: ?/10. Accuracy depends entirely on location

The Black Eyed Peas: 6/10. Not sure what the hell an ‘eyed pea’ is but the black part is pretty accurate

Imagine Dragons: ?/10. Depends entirely on whether or not they’re thinking about dragons.

Cage the Elephant: 1/10. Why would you do that. Let the elephant go

Green Day: 0/10. They’re not even green

The Police: 0/10. There is not a single cop in this band

KISS: 5/10. I’m sure they probably kissed sometimes

The Monkees: 0/10. Are you fucking kidding me

We Butter the Bread with Butter: 8/10. I can’t verify this but I have no reason to suspect that they’d lie. Butter seems like the most logical thing to butter bread with

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard: 0/10. I got really excited about the concept of a lizard wizard only to be let down. My disappointment is immeasurable

They Might Be Giants: 5/10. I googled everyone in this band’s height, the tallest guy’s only 6’1 so I wouldn’t exactly consider him a giant. Then again, I can’t really argue because the claim was only that they MIGHT be giants

The Presidents of the United States of America: 2/10. None of these people are Joe Biden nor are any of them former presidents. This is incredibly misleading. I’m pretty sure “Lump” was written about my first girlfriend tho so I’ll give them a point or two

Gorillaz: 2/10 Not quite but we’re kinda close genetically so I’ll give them partial credit

The Killers: ?/10. I have no way of verifying if they’ve actually killed before but the fact that they’re not in prison tells me probably not

The Offspring: 10/10. These guys are definitely somebody’s offspring

Arctic Monkeys: 1/10. They are neither monkeys nor are they from the arctic

Thirty Seconds to Mars: 1/10. It takes WAY longer to get to mars than that

Beastie Boys: 8/10. They’re pretty beast on the guitar

Jimmy Eat World: 1/10. Slow the fuck down Jimmy, you’re biting off way more than you can chew

Hole: 9/10. One point deducted because I’m pretty sure they had more than one hole

Rage Against the Machine: 10/10. They did exactly that

Alice In Chains: 0/10. This is illegal. Let Alice go

The Band: 10/10. This could not possibly be more accurate

Nine Inch Nails: 1/10. I can’t find any good pictures of their feet but from what I can tell their fingernails definitely aren’t nine inches long

Bush: ?/10. Not quite sure about this one, felt uncomfortable asking

The Who: 2/10. I’m not dealing with this “Who’s On First” bullshit

Radiohead: 0/10. Not a single person in this band has a radio for a head

Queens of the Stone Age: 0/10. This band should be called “five random dudes from the modern era” but FRDFTMA is a bit of a mouthful

Soundgarden: 2/10. Sound does not grow in the garden

Sonic Youth: 5/10. They’re not exactly youth anymore but the sonic part checks out

Talking heads: 8/10. There’s more to the band than just a bunch of disembodied heads but the heads do tend to talk

The Cranberries: 0/10. Decent music but I only added them so that the Beatles and Freddie Mercury weren’t the only fruits on this list

The Wiggles: 8/10. They do tend to wiggle a lot

Blue Man Group: 10/10. Yep!

Weezer: 5/10. They all look like they definitely have asthma

Limp Bizkit: 3/10. While the visual image of baked goods playing the guitar is hilarious, Fred durst is not a biscuit. Points added because he probably has erectile dysfunction

Stone Temple Pilots: 0/10. None of these people are accredited as being licensed to pilot anything, much less an entire stone temple. Stone temples don’t need pilots anyways

Wasted Youth: 8/10. I guess it really kinda depends on how you frame it but yeah, they probably wasted a lot of it

Them Crooked Vultures: 3/10. These are people and not birds but Dave Grohl’s posture is kinda bad and John Paul Jones is so old that his neck kinda looks like a vulture’s so I added some points

Audioslave: 0/10. Slavery is illegal

Traveling Wilburys: 4/10. Sure, they traveled a lot but not a single one of those lying bastards was named Wilbury

D12: 6/12. There were only 6 people in this band

NWA: 10/10. I’m a little too white to safely comment on this one but I’d say they nailed it

Jet: 1/10. A real jet would be way too loud

Goldfinger: 0/10. Not a single person in this band has a finger made out of gold

No Doubt: ?/10. I can’t really be too sure how Gwen Stefani felt but I think it’s probably a safe assumption that she had some doubts

The White Stripes: 3/10. I bet if you stripped them down naked and made them stand shoulder to shoulder and squinted really hard they’d probably look more like white stripes

Screaming trees: 3/10. They scream occasionally

Garbage: 2/10. I think they’re being a little harsh on themselves, their music isn’t THAT bad

Butthole Surfers: 5/10. Not even gonna touch this one

Megadeth: 3/10. To be fair, some of the former members are dead but only a little amount of death, not mega death

Dead Kennedys: 2/10. Last I checked Kennedy was still dead but neither he nor his clones are members of this band

Cake: 0/10. The cake is a lie

Cracker: 8/10. Most of them are

Tool: 7/10. I don’t know much about their music but they sure look like tools

Counting Crows: ?/10. Is this what emo kids do instead of counting sheep? Accuracy depends on whatever bird they happen to be counting at the moment

Dave Matthews Band: 10/10. It certainly is

Oasis: 1/10. Their music is the opposite of an oasis

Blur: 2/10. They are not that fast

Barenaked Ladies: 0/10. If I wanted to be this disappointed I’d reestablish a connection with my biological father instead

Meat Puppets: 10/10. Technically, aren’t we all?

Live: 8/10. Apparently they still do live shows but I deducted some points because I’ve only ever heard their music on Spotify

ABBA: 9/10. I’m still not giving any points to Guns N’ Roses but that’s mostly out of spite

5 Finger Death Punch: 8/10 I guess it probably depends on how hard you hit them but this seems to be the usual amount of fingers to punch somebody with

All American Rejects: 9/10. They’re all rejects from America so I don’t really see any issue with this

T. Rex: 0/10. Even if any of these people WAS a T. Rex I don’t think their arms would be long enough to play their instruments

Free: 0/10. Unless you steal their music, in which case it becomes a 10/10

The Strokes: 3/10. To my knowledge, none of them have had a stroke but I still added a few points because the name was probably accurate for other reasons

The Smashing Pumpkins ?/10. Another thing I have no way of verifying but this seems like a waste of perfectly good pumpkins

Therapy?: ?/10. The hell are they asking me for? I don’t know their medical history

Twenty One Pilots. 0/10. There’s only two of them and neither is a licensed pilot

Finger Eleven: 0/10. Leave the poor Stranger Things girl out of this

Fall Out Boy: 9/10. I conferred with an expert on this one who confirmed that they are in fact boys who had a falling out

Cream: 8/10. Considering this was the OG supergroup I’m sure a lot of people did in fact cream when their music came out

hello trans girls, transfemmes, intersex & nonbinary people, and everyone who takes estrogen HRT, remember that estrogen can make you very tired and sleepy, so as much as you feel you need and often, don't push yourself, and remember to hydrate and get some electrolytes if you take spironolactone. i love u, have a great day

I live for the bats not realizing how intimidating they are out of costume.

Like, they know how they come across while suited up, but they have no idea how scary they are as civilians.

Like, Bruce has an inkling, that's why the Brucie persona is so extremely stupid.

Dickie has no idea

Jason has trouble imagining himself as anything other than a malnourished preteen

Tim isn't physically imposing, but he sets people on edge

Steph has the musculature to break every single bone in your body

Cass seems to read your mind

Duke is kinda uncanny

...

Damian THINKS he's intimidating while actually just being adorable

Kate is very aware of how scary she is at all times. It's intentional

Don't take my brain vomit too seriously

"3D printing clothes so they can be custom made to fit you" TAILORS THEYRE FUCKING CALLED TAILORS AND THEY DON'T NEED TO WORK WITH MELTED PLASTIC

Age regressor Damian Wayne my beloved <33

(You can pry this idea from my cold dead hands. And even then I'll pull a jason and come back to life just so I can snatch it back)