I Find The Whole Topic Of Dick’s Emotional Competence Really Fascinating Because It’s Clear That

I like to imagine a scenario where humanity just never developed energy guns and has stuck to kinetic weaponry forever and at some point some alien species thinks about messing with the wrong apex predator species.

Alien 1: "Captain, I assure you, our ships can't be breached by anything weaker than a concentrated proton beam. They barely have lasers. We'll be fine."

Alien 2: "Sub relativistic projectile incom-" gets hit by a railgun shell at mach fuck

IVE PEAKED ILL NEVER MAKE ANYTHING BETTER

Santa knew that death would come for him one day and he would not be able to avoid it.

He did regret traumatizing those young heroes.

As a final gift, Santa imparts his Christmas magic to Young Justice who witnessed his death. As a result, during Christmas, Young Justice is basically invincible, not that they realize it. They also have the compulsive need to deliver Christmas presents and never quite realize that they've only take a night what used to take them three months when they first tried to fill Santa's boots.

The first time YJ can't deliver gifts because of dimensional shenanigans and a new Santa arises, YJ still retains the Christmas magic/invincibility without the impulse to deliver gifts to EVERYONE as the new Santa has that impulse now. They still haven't figured this out. They always attributed the gift giving thing to guilt.

However, they do retain the urge to deliver a gift to one specific person each year.

And so Darkseid continues to receive his yearly lump of coal and he still cannot defeat the one or ones who deliver it.

Santa giving the YJ OP powers one day a year so they can deliver coal to Darkseid is a beautiful hc.

I bet YJ signs up for the Christmas shift after they find out about the powers because of their need to be useful and "good."

I also love the idea that YJ was chosen as temp Santas until they failed at their assigned job. Santa could've been created to fill that role at any point, but the magic of Christmas waited until the teens couldn't fulfill the need.

There are fics out there with Santa meeting Tim, but it'd be cool to see Santa chatting with all of YJ

Richard Roxburgh and Kate Beckinsale in Van Helsing (2004)

One thing I find interesting about Dick and his superhero identity is that, he doesn't have a public persona like Brucie Wayne. He is just Dick Grayson always, with or without the mask.

Also, considering he is the adopted son of a millionaire, he is pretty discrete. We don't really get reporters trying to find things about his life that often (it happens I think once and she is killed by Blockbuster ?) and most of the time, people don't know who he is at all when he is not living in Gotham, he is just the kind guy who live in the apartment upstairs.

Plot armor but it’s Bruce Wayne’s wealth.

Bruce is one of the richest men in the world. Bruce does not want to be one of the richest men in world.

He starts by implementing high starting salaries and full health care coverages for all levels at Wayne Enterprises. This in vastly improves retention and worker productivity, and WE profits soar. He increases PTO, grants generous parental and family leave, funds diversity initiatives, boosts salaries again. WE is ranked “#1 worker-friendly corporation”, and productively and profits soar again.

Ok, so clearly investing his workers isn’t the profit-destroying doomed strategy his peers claim it is. Bruce is going to keep doing it obviously (his next initiative is to ensure all part-time and contractors get the same benefits and pay as full time employees), but he is going to have to find a different way to dump his money.

But you know what else is supposed to be prohibitively expensive? Green and ethical initiatives. Yes, Bruce can do that. He creates and fund a 10 year plan to covert all Wayne facilities to renewable energy. He overhauls all factories to employ the best environmentally friendly practices and technologies. He cuts contracts with all suppliers that engage in unethical employment practices and pays for other to upgrade their equipment and facilities to meet WE’s new environmental and safety requirements. He spares no expense.

Yeah, Wayne Enterprises is so successful that they spin off an entire new business arm focused on helping other companies convert to environmentally friendly and safe practices like they did in an efficient, cost effective, successful way.

Admittedly, investing in his own company was probably never going to be the best way to get rid of his wealth. He slashes his own salary to a pittance (god knows he has more money than he could possibly know what to do with already) and keeps investing the profits back into the workers, and WE keeps responding with nearly terrifying success.

So WE is a no-go, and Bruce now has numerous angry billionaires on his back because they’ve been claiming all these measures he’s implementing are too expensive to justify for decades and they’re finding it a little hard to keep the wool over everyone’s eyes when Idiot Softheart Bruice Wayne has money spilling out his ears. BUT Bruce can invest in Gotham. That’ll go well, right?

Gotham’s infrastructure is the OSHA anti-Christ and even what little is up to code is constantly getting destroyed by Rogue attacks. Surely THAT will be a money sink.

Except the only non-corrupt employer in Gotham city is….Wayne Enterprises. Or contractors or companies or businesses that somehow, in some way or other, feed back to WE. Paying wholesale for improvement to Gotham’s infrastructure somehow increases WE’s profits.

Bruce funds a full system overhaul of Gotham hospital (it’s not his fault the best administrative system software is WE—he looked), he sets up foundations and trusts for shelters, free clinics, schools, meal plans, day care, literally anything he can think of.

Gotham continues to be a shithole. Bruce Wayne continues to be richer than god against his Batman-ingrained will.

Oh, and Bruice Wayne is no longer viewed as solely a spoiled idiot nepo baby. The public responds by investing in WE and anything else he owns, and stop doing this, please.

Bruce sets up a foundation to pay the college tuition of every Gotham citizen who applies. It’s so successful that within 10 years, donations from previous recipients more than cover incoming need, and Bruce can’t even donate to his own charity.

But by this time, Bruce has children. If he can’t get rid of his wealth, he can at least distribute it, right?

Except Dick Grayson absolutely refuses to receive any of his money, won’t touch his trust fund, and in fact has never been so successful and creative with his hacking skills as he is in dumping the money BACK on Bruce. Jason died and won’t legally resurrect to take his trust fund. Tim has his own inherited wealth, refuses to inherit more, and in fact happily joins forces with Dick to hack accounts and return whatever money he tries to give them. Cass has no concept of monetary wealth and gives him panicked, overwhelmed eyes whenever he so much as implies offering more than $100 at once. Damian is showing worrying signs of following in his precious Richard’s footsteps, and Babs barely allows him to fund tech for the Clocktower. At least Steph lets him pay for her tuition and uses his credit card to buy unholy amounts of Batburger. But that is hardly a drop in the ocean of Bruce’s wealth. And she won’t even accept a trust fund of only one million.

Jason wins for best-worst child though because he currently runs a very lucrative crime empire. And although he pours the vast, vast majority of his profits back into Crime Alley, whenever he gets a little too rich for his tastes, he dumps the money on Bruce. At this point, Bruce almost wishes he was being used for money laundering because then he’s at least not have the money.

So children—generous, kindhearted, stubborn till the day they die the little shits, children—are also out.

Bruce was funding the Justice League. But then finances were leaked, and the public had an outcry over one man holding so much sway over the world’s superheroes (nevermind Bruce is one of those superheroes—but the public can’t know that). So Bruce had to do some fancy PR trickery, concede to a policy of not receiving a majority of funds from one individual, and significantly decrease his contributions because no one could match his donations.

At his wits end, Bruce hires a team of accounts to search through every crinkle and crevice of tax law to find what loopholes or shortcuts can be avoided in order to pay his damn taxes to the MAX.

The results are horrifying. According to the strictest definition of the law, the government owes him money.

Bruce burns the report, buries any evidence as deeply as he can, and organizes a foundation to lobby for FAR higher taxation of the upper class.

All this, and Wayne Enterprises is happily chugging along, churning profit, expanding into new markets, growing in the stock market, and trying to force the credit and proportionate compensation on their increasingly horrified CEO.

Bruce Wayne is one of the richest men in the world. Bruce Wayne will never not be one of the richest men in the world.

But by GOD is he trying.

mutuals do this!!!!

The batboys have a weird approach to their masks…

Like we all know that the masks are more than just a mask: they are advanced communication devices, heat sensors, cameras, lenses, etc. etc.

But different versions have different capacities: canonically Dick has mentioned that Batman’s cowl has longer range than Nightwing’s maks.

Which makes sense considering the size and weight of Batman’s gear: as Dick puts it “this weighs a ton!”

For Batman, Mr I’m ready for everything, having such a crippling gear makes sense: he adjusts his muscle strength, his movements, his fighting style to work with that weight.

But for Robins, oh it gets ridiculous!

For starters, Dick prefers agility, greater visibility and flexibility over advanced capabilities. His tech is smaller, lighter, provides necessary technological assistance without being a burden for his acrobatics.

Jason followed the same route during his both Robin and Red Hood years, with a twist… You see Red Hood’s helmet is non-technological! It doesn’t have any tech on it… Jason still relies on his mask for the tech: the helmet is expendable! It’s a last resort hand grenade for goodness sake! And because he separated from Batman, his system is pretty lowtech: Bab’s highlights that a lot saying Jason needs better encryption and tech.

Tim, however, goes back and forth with favoring advanced tech and agility. His cowl? Has all the tech Batman usually has… With all the disadvantages… Later he goes back to the Robin-style emphasis on agility. He goes through the same process with his wings. Functionality of the wing, flexibility, help with movement and agility… Those “goofy wings” from Robin War? Those were TIM wings! His struggle to balance BatTech with Robin-Batics!

Things get beyond ridiculous when we get to Damian, Mr All Authentic Martial Artist! The guy prefers to work alone, hates constant babbing, goes on undercover off the grid missions, Lazarus Island, Superboy stories… What do we end up seeing? Damn paint!!! Just two circles painted on his face!!! The guy is like “Fuck advanced weapons! I’m an advanced weapon!”

Which is sooooo funny to me…?…

Like the most lighthearted Robin is the one that favors light-tech, the darkest Robin is the one that prefers no tech, the most Bat Robin fluctuates between BatTech and Robin-Batics, and the most explosive Robin (not sorry for the pun) literally goes for explosive tech!

I still can't get over how much I love the fact that The Batman didn't have Batman disguise his voice when in the suit. I know the choice was a practical one (and I'm glad Matt Reeves made that decision), but I also absolutely LOVE the way it aligns with this particular iteration of Bruce. This is a Bruce who is PHENOMENALLY uncomfortable in his own skin and his identity as Bruce Wayne. He's a reclusive, mentally ill, highly traumatized man who's extremely uncomfortable in every social interaction he has to endure as Bruce, and we can see that in every aspect of his presence. He's hunched, barely makes eye contact, and just generally gives the sense that he's trying his hardest to sink into the floor.

He's completely different as Batman. There's a confidence and physicality to his presence- he takes up undeniable space in an unapologetic way. Bruce is comfortable as Batman in a way that he isn't as Bruce Wayne. He's still quiet and soft-spoken, and the biggest change in his voice is that it's MAYBE a little deeper at times- otherwise it's just his regular speaking voice. It doesn't matter though because his physical presence is so vastly different as Batman compared to Bruce Wayne that he feels like a completely different person even with the same voice. Pattison's command over his physical presence in and out of the suit is masterful enough that even we as the audience get the sense that these are two different people despite KNOWING that Batman and Bruce Wayne are the same person.

More than that, I think letting Batman have the same quiet voice as Bruce actually ADDS to his physical presence. He's quiet and soft-spoken but he is goddamn THERE and his presence can't be ignored. It really highlights the comfort and confidence Bruce feels as Batman that he very painfully does NOT feel as Bruce Wayne, and I absolutely LOVE that we get to have this contrast. Props to Matt Reeves for making that decision and mega props to Robert Pattinson for being able to convey it all so well

Bruce Wayne wakes up in the past, five months after Jason Todd died, and spends most days sat beside the grave because he never found out exactly when Jason had come back and he wanted to be there to save him when he did.

From an outside perspective, everyone is extremely concerned.