“Well I’ve Walked On Water, Danced Through Fire

Cass' love language is indeed tactile and touch and it particularly manifests in hugging and embraces - thinking of how touchy Steph is in her death visions, the way Cass touches Bruce after their fight, Bruce's hug when he adopts her, the various Babs-Cass hugs and the way Cass touches her when they reconcile after their fight (which is very similar to the Bruce post-fight touch as well). Even in New 52, Cass sees two people hugging and tries to replicate it. Hugging represents love and connection in every iteration of her character. But at the beginning of it all is a little girl who has just killed for the first time, staring at the person she loves most in the world waiting with open, welcoming arms - and she runs away.

every time i see a post that only references a character named tim i need to do a massive double take to figure out if it’s tim drake or tim stoker

yet another reason why queer romance in media that is very subtle or more queer-coding than actual explicit rep is so much more compelling than the wealth of straight stories that are out there is bc I think a lot of romance writers forget that you have to like. show not tell. and imply things. and if you hustle things along and put two characters together for the sake of it instead of really working to build their relationship and show how well they work with each other it's not really going to be as interesting to people. and for some reason, a staggering amount of people do not know how to write romance properly so you get a very bland forced dynamic that either feels like an afterthought (he's a boy and she's a girl, hey they could be together because that's what happens!) or the only thing that matters about their characters (see her? she's the Love Interest. that is all she's there for)

however if you're being censored and you literally can't make your characters say "I love you" or kiss or maybe even hold hands you're going to have to come up with more creative ways to tell your audience that they're in love and that usually results in the most poetic beautiful stuff you've ever seen that's SO much more interesting than two characters who make eye contact and go into the slow-mo rose petals scene that's basically screaming at you "hey look at these two. they're in love. you're supposed to be invested in their relationship now. do you get it?" eye contact held for slightly too long in an emotional scene is more compelling. a hand very lightly touching their back is WAY more compelling.

and might I add this is not even impossible to achieve with uncensored straight romances at all like Pride & Prejudice is wildly popular for this exact reason. how many times have I seen people going insane over the hand flex scene. they didn't even kiss in that movie unless you count the extended ending. and everyone loves it. because it's done RIGHT.

tldr; romance is hard to write and you have to put in the effort if you want people to care about your ship. now go forth and imply something

QUICK EDIT TO ADD ALSO when things are more subtle that gives people more space to interpret the dynamic as whatever they want. something might be subtle because that's all they're allowed to show, but something might be subtle because that literally what it's supposed to be. as an aroace person I personally see a LOT of queerplatonic vibes from more subtly played relationships and it's so incredibly exciting and heartwarming for me. and that's a whole new realm of relationship that I think should also be given more attention

spot the difference! (level: impossible)

“He would not fucking say that” except its the badly written source material so he did, in fact, say that

under the clarity of i have still not slept and it’s half past 4 in the morning, i can safely say that i was wrong:

jason would have a plan for being caught, in fact he would have a whole speech prepared complete with citations. this doesn’t mean that at this point he wouldn’t crumple like damp paper as soon as bruce tries to bring him home, either going with him or running away, but he’d give a valiant effort. (maybe, secretly, he was hoping or even relying on being caught here, making him all the more at a loss when faced with the detonator in the actual comic.)

lost days jason being picked up by the scruff of his neck after batman accidentally catches him planting the bomb on the batmobile. jason immediately goes to attack but because he’s not trained to kill as well as he is later on he’s disarmed quite easily. jason looking so young, not having killed anyone yet, and not being in control of the situation through careful planning meaning bruce is more likely to accept him but jason’s emotions are completely raw to where his actions are just fully calculated fury and hurt. also this is before wargames and stephanie’s death so that would make bruce have less emotionally vulnerable because his lack of fresh grief and guilt.

I know I take Jason too seriously but there is just something about like. Being the ultimate image of a voiceless victim: a murdered child. Being something that everyone in the family was able to project their tragedy and beliefs onto, a glass case mirroring their thoughts.

And then to come back, furious and sharp and nothing like the silent grave. To have a voice again and be screaming.

the creature (frankenstein) and jason todd parallels:

associations with death and therefore transgression

negative influence of father figures

questions of nature vs. nurture

sympathetic killer and antagonist

a ‘rebirth’ that leads them into vengeance against the neglect of their father figures, along with giving them agency through education or cognisance after being deprived of the ability to realise their suffering- the delaceys and lazarus pit

being rejected of their one morally questionable wish towards their father figure

goes on a path of vengeance that leads to their deaths

lower class or representative of them that is given a ‘voice’

dismissed from their emotions because of their violence/intimidating stature

strange niche of characters who would read frankenstein and cry because they related to the creature

this is pure evil

happy 46 years since the release of Unknown Pleasures!!