Getting A PHD Literally Anywhere Else: Wow! Congratulations! What A Great Achievement! Amazing!

Getting a PHD literally anywhere else: Wow! Congratulations! What a great achievement! Amazing!

Getting a PHD in Gotham: Wow! Amazing! You're now on several Government, Civilian, and Bat watchlists.

So if any of the Wayne kids get a PHD, then the entirety of Gotham would be squinting at them suspiciously. They're rich, so resources, and most likely already insane with all the shit they pull.

What I'm saying is if Jason went and got himself a Doctorate in Literature, the whole city would anticipate the appearance of his villainsona called the Dead Poet(emphasis on the dead) or Bookkeeper or something else similarly nerdy and themed like that for sure.

I just know that it would turn into some Gotham inside joke with memes abound, and everytime Jason would, I don't know, give more funding to the neglected Arts Departments in Gotham University, or go to a school for read alongs to encourage kids to read, Gotham social media would go crazy and be like:

"The Dreaded Villain Dead Poet Reads Alice in Wonderland to Children! How Despicable!"

"Villain Dead Poet Lambasts Government on Banning Books! Leads Librarians to Riot!"

"Dead Poet Ramps up his Villainy by Establishing Educational Programmes in Crime Alley! Uplifting the Poor! What a Dastardly Villain!"

"Dead Poet Goes on Live Ranting About his Favourite Books! Favourite Author is Jane Austen! Is this the Feminist Agenda?"

And so on! It's a meme that refuses to go away. His siblings actively participate, and make the situation worse.

Dick held an online Gotham Villains and Anti-Heroes Poll and Dead Poet came out on top, over Red Hood. Jason is an actual Gotham crime boss, but his crowdfunded villainsona is more popular. No he's not salty about it at all.

Duke would create a montage of Dead Poet sightings.

Stephanie would make a Dead Poet meme compilation.

Tim would arrange Wayne Enterprises to donate to local libraries after allegedly being threatened by the heinous villain Dead Poet. (Jason did ask Tim to do that but not like that)

Barbara created an extremely popular Villain Watch account for Dead Poet.

Cass tweeted out Jason's favourite books as the villain Dead Poets reading list telling people to avoid them 'wink wonk', causing a massive uptick in the sale of those books ala Bigolas Dickolas.

Damian of all people tweeted out a pic of Jason playing with Alfred the cat accusing the evil villain Dead Poet of attempting to kidnap his cat.

And thats not to mention all the shenanigans they pull in their batsonas.

God bless Gotham and it's home grown, organic, not even remotely ethically sourced, free range chaos.

I love your Stephanie Brown post. It verbalized this feeling I've had about her character for awhile but didn't quite know how to phrase.

Just wanted to thank you for that!

ah thank you <3

yea to me, the super frustrating thing is that dixon's sexism gives her flaws that i find super narratively compelling and interesting and 3-dimensional and overall strong in a way that other writers somewhat miss the mark for me (i actually have a lot of criticisms about bg2009 and how bqm wrote her--overall i find it a very surface level girl power story veneered over pretty standard 2009 era sexism wrt the dynamics between women that has not aged super well and doesn't do much for actually giving steph interesting depth as a character & i find it's weakened by the fact that it is a doylist apology for the absolutely horrific way editorial treated steph prior to her death (which. she does deserve an apology and to be treated better), but also by doing that it makes almost every other character such as babs seem unreasonable and bad for their very understandable watsonian response to being wary of steph for many valid reasons and also makes it hard to actually give steph any flaws that aren't just quirky or clumsy--she's not perfect because she's adorkable). dixon steph has so many problems, being written by dixon, but she's truly my favorite flavor of steph because despite how horrid dixon is, you can absolutely tell how much he truly cared about her as a character. like. i bet if you asked him, he would have nothing but positive things to say about her personality and other characteristics. in fact, i believe a lot of the letters to the editor that talked about her back in the early robin issues had a lot of super positive things to say about her! like he created her! she's his blorbo! he wants to put her through the struggles!

like so many of her struggles when he's writing her is so much due to his sexism (she's never quite as competent as tim, and shouldn't be because she's The Girlfriend--compare to characters like babs and dinah and helena that were women but also written as extremely competent and good at what they do) and also because he wanted to put her through the wars, give her adversity to overcome! like steph is treated horribly a lot. by everyone. but it's partially because he wants her to perservere through it because he likes her and wants her to succeed. like a couple of very common threads through dixon's storytelling for her are the following:

tim is condescending (because that's how boys and girls are. see also: every 90s tv show that had a beleaguered sensible man with a nagging, over the top, ridiculous woman who does silly things that the man Puts Up With) -> steph gets mad -> tim thinks to himself that he shouldn't be so hard on her and usually apologizes -> well, actually tim was probably right because steph did get into trouble but steph making constant mistakes isn't actually narratively seen as "hey, maybe she should stop if she's making mistakes" because dixon wants her to continue.

or

more experienced vigilante (male or female--tim gets a lot of flack, but honestly, almost every single vigilante in batbooks at the time seemed to think steph wasn't quite good enough--batman, dick had his reservations about her, barbara didn't really necessarily want to train her, *cass* straight up told her she shouldn't be doing this, dinah didn't want to be her mentor, etc) tells steph not to screw up -> steph screws up -> steph has to get bailed out by more experienced vigilante -> steph keeps trying despite this

like so many of her diary entries that steph writes involve some flavor of "i've been told not to do this, but i have to, it's something i need to do despite all the naysayers". and it's sexist! because chuck wouldn't necessarily write the 'screw up and overconfident which usually leads to needing to be bailed out but keeps trying anyways' kind of a narrative for a male lead character (male characters get the 'i'm super competent but insecure/humble about it and when i make mistakes i'm able to figure out how to fix them by myself' narrative). but at the same time, it's what he truly believed for her--that she deserved to keep going despite any naysayers. if he truly believed that steph shouldn't be a vigilante or thought poorly of her, she would have been written out and/or he would have written her as making a mistake so bad she wouldn't have continued her activities as spoiler and finally agreeing with everyone that she's not cut out for this. but he didn't. dixon writes her as not as competent as her peers because he has a worldview where girls are lesser and not capable of being as good as the boys. but he writes her with dogged determination to keep trying despite this because dixon truly thinks she deserves to keep going despite any mistakes he writes her making and that her perseverance should be rewarded.

like consider the arc where steph finds out tim's identity. dixon makes steph seem unreasonable for daring to change her mind and realize that yea, she does want to know the boy under the mask she's dating after all (because dixon thinks that girls are fickle and change their minds and boys shouldn't have to put up with that kind of nonsense behavior, not because this is a super valid thing to want) -> he has her go beat up an innocent boy named tito and stalk him in the hospital (because dixon is a sexist who things girls are just like this) -> tim does rightfully get mad about this and leaves in a huff -> batman tells steph tim's identity and she gets what she wanted?? -> tim is mad at her and batman until JLL when this is all swept under the rug and they go back to happily dating again + at this point everyone is open to training her/finally giving her a chance (until murderer/fugitive when she gets locked out again--which also leads into the era where dixon is no longer writing her--and after this is when we really get a lot of the really iconic unfair treatment towards her because at this point didio wanted her gone). and it creates this absolute interesting dissonance where you can see the overt sexism in dixon's writing and it's infuriating. and at the same time dixon also rewards her for the sexist way he writes her and she does generally get what she wants because dixon wants to give her the reward for her perseverance.

hell, consider the pregnancy storyline which is beyond overtly sexist and conservative but is probably the part where steph is most treated the best/in the right. tim and her mom are shown as in the wrong compared to her "correct" decision to keep the baby and they have to come around to support her. not just that, but for her to be given a teen pregnancy storyline in the 90s and not be shown as a Bad Girl for getting pregnant as a teen? dixon hates women and yet to him steph is a good girl who makes a mistake (something something he'll judge others, but when it comes to his daughter that's a different case. expections apply.) and she gets an ultimately supportive good boy boyfriend who helps her go to birthing class despite the fact that i'm sure dixon looks down on unwed teen mothers a lot.

it's just. i want to study it under a microscope. there's so much to unpack there.

What makes it worse is that the stomache cutout was given soon after a plot where Helena was shot in the stomache multiple times. Also within her character is her need for control over herself and the sense of feeling in control and strong. She is the survivor of CSA and SA, and during this new era of her writing the comic makers decieded to have create conflict among the birds of Prey by making Babs a character who shut shames Helena. [I have a lot to say on that choice on both characters parts and the way that men have written these characters but that is for another day.]

One thing that makes it weirder (the costume) is that Helena is shown as a civilian to dress fairly conservatively (IE modest or more covering than revealing clothing) so it feels more out of place in many ways.

That's not to say I don't like impractical or silly hero costumes but I want it to feel like the character would actually wear it. Like they choose to put it on.

Can we take a moment to talk about how Helena Bertinelli is disrespected in the DC fandom (more specifically the Batman side of DC). Like this woman is one of the founding members of the modern Batfam and yet so many people don't even know who see is.

[Sidenote: Bruce Wayne/Batman didn't create the Batfam it was made by Tim, and to people who value the importance of a character with the extended Batfam by their connection to Bruce. I tell you that the characters connection to Tim should matter more. Tim brought Nightwing back into the fold, held up Batman, was the first accepting vigilante of Huntress, a major reason Babs got back into the fold, was the one most connected to Steph. Tim collected a lot of older sibling figures, an ex girlfriend and a failure of a father figure.]

Anyway back to Helena. The legacy that the stomache square hole has had on her costume is massive and the poor writing done in the mid 2000s still directly affects the writing on Helena now.

Anyway Helena is the better Gotham antihero and the one who made that mold that so many people like the put Jason Todd into.

The army of older siblings that Tim has collected throughout the years and the chaotic power of being the younger sibling it gave him.

Could I ask for Helena and Jason for the headcanon ask game?

Oh yeah for sure!

Headcanon A: Realistic

Helena: While in college getting her teaching degree she took classes on child psychology because she wanted to better able help the students she would be teaching. She applies some of what she learned while working as a vigilante.

Jason: He has a very particular order in cleaning his weapons and he sets aside the time to do it. If he's interrupted it sends his whole week into a spiral.

Headcanon B: While it may not be realistic it is hilarious

Helena: Before she was a full time teacher she was a substitute teacher and at some point she subbed for the class that Duke was in. Neither know it and probably won't know.

Jason: He leaves fully packaged decently nutrious foods in alley dumpsters and outside some of his old hangout spots. He knows someone will pick it up, but he doesn't want to be around to see anyone grab it.

Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends

Helena: She mourns every kid that she is unable to save, unable to help. She is able to push it off until she gets off the field but she breaks down. It's on those days that she sits down on the shower and just let's the water run until it's cold.

Jason: He has a hard time feeling present. Decerning between the then and now, and the imagined from real. When this happens he just ends up unable to move from where he is as his body seems to be trying to regain a sense of control. It sometimes gets worse because his memories while in such a state can be fuzzy.

Headcanon D: Unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own.

Helena: Helena is Tim's big sister. She didn't even realize she considered him an annoying younger sibling until she was making a homemade dish she normally saves for just herself, and hasn't been shared with anyone since he'd family died. She further down the line teach it to Tim. Or a more Helena only focused one: She is freakishly good at Wii sports. It started as a joke, but she has the highest points.

Jason: He loves to travel! Not often and not for long, but he gets a thrill out of planning a vacation and seeing places he never thought he would be able to see. He has a childhood bucketlist of places. Both in country and our of country. He's determined to see all those places.

Go and serve cunt, girl!