I Hate To Say It But GOD Pompous Pep Is What I Wished Ra'sTim Was The Yearning, The Desperation, The

I hate to say it but GOD pompous pep is what I wished Ra'sTim was 😩🥵💕 the yearning, the desperation, the bitterness, the sarcasm!

The way in which Vlad *will* have Danny whether the boy agrees or not, and the way in which Danny won't stop getting himself inside Vlad's life in a selfish, bratty attitude disguised as hero work.

It's brilliant. Perfect dynamic.

LOSING MY SHIT ABOUT THIS WIKI ENTRY ON VLAD

IT MAKES ME FERAL HE'S SUCH A DIRTY MAN & HE HAS HER TRAPPED IN HIS HANDS!!! 😩

I was always so caught up on Sladin I also somehow never really processed the line about Terra like:

"What did you do to her?" "Nothing she didn't want."

BRO

For the ask game Ra'sTim (yes predictable I know but I just adore how you write them to the point where I want more information)

Ra'sTim

SHIP IT!!! 💚💚💚

Okay yeah I'm very loud about them but I'm still so so happy you asked about Ra'sTim! I'd talk about them all day. This is probably gonna be long 😅

P.S. Thank you! I'm happy you enjoy my work ❤️

1. What made you ship it?

Okay this is such an easy yet complex question. I have looked back and realized I was writing past/implied Ra'sTim on my fic notebook back on 2014 (give or take) when I was newly done reading Red Robin. I'm unsure exactly *how* is started because before 2020 I had been on an extreme Transformers fixation, and my memories are fuzzy. I believe I was shipping Ra'sTim as a background ship without fully realizing I was doing it (it should also be noted I started as a KonTim religious fan, and grew into a JayTim girlie). I actually read two of my fav Ra'sTim fics back in those years (around 2014-2015), which were in Spanish, but they had a Ra'sTim portrayal that would mark my views, as the characters make the dynamic very different to the most popular ships in fanfom.

It was at the beginning of 2020 when I went back to DC, and funnily enough climbed quickly from JayTim to BruTim and started writing an ongoing fic. While doing so, I re read past fics I remembered I used to love, and went back to read comics as well. Suddenly, after reading Red Robin again, I was looking at Ra'sTim through different glasses. And it was something happening to me in many levels, as I was also getting a bit away from Kon & Jason and more into characters as Babs & Jean-Paul. I wondered what *more* there could be to Ra'sTim, and started reading more of Ra's. As I read and explored Tim in my writing, I realized I wanted them together.

I'm unsure about how to call it. The feeling was almost of enlightenment, like suddenly seeing something that has always been there yet for some reason you couldn't distinguish its shape. Perhaps being a Megatron/Starscream shipper helped, because I saw the potential of Ra'sTim and decided to explore the possibilities and their tones of gray.

At first Ra'sTim wasn't my main ship (although I was already writing it), but as I explored them, the more I felt it was a dynamic that came naturally to me, and scenarios I found more enjoyable.

The more I read their comics and explored them in my writing, the more they felt *right*. Perhaps it was meant to happen, as I can admit they fall a lot more into my tastes in fiction. Ra's as a character drives me insane with his potential and lore, and Tim stays as my favorite bat boy and who I believe changed the Batman mythos.

And yet, everything was born from a simple panel. "You are a very dangerous young man."

2. What are your favorite things about the ship?

Oh, this is a tricky one!

I like their dynamic a lot, as I'm an open immortal/mortal sucker. And that does play a huge thing in my view of them and why I come back to Ra'sTim again and again despite having other fixations. The fact that Ra's has such a complex background and is not your usual western interpretation of an immortal (let's say a vampire) is also a fav thing of mine, as I think it allows stories with him to leave usual storytelling and challenge beliefs about good & evil. The fact that he believes he's *good* and a hero is particularly tasty as well, and mixed with Tim's need for helping others and guilt when he's not useful to the world (and Batman), gives a wonderful meal.

Their size difference is extremely hot too.

Aaaaand having a canon mutual interest where they are connected in a mysterious, unavoidable way, it's a cherry on top.

Lastly, I adore their contrast as characters and how they will allow the other to win a little battle in order to win another. It's a game of cat and mouse.

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I have unpopular opinions on most characters and ships. Some of them I feel comfortable expressing and others... Not much.

With Ra'sTim I have many of them, but mostly, it's that I loathe how other ship fandoms use Ra's as a random villain to hurt Tim and prop up another ship. For me, that's almost insulting, as Ra's is already a hurt character broken by many writers at DC. For me Ra'sTim it's never about "evil, mean Ra's hurting Tim because villains do that" and even less would I do it for another ship. I enjoy dark Ra'sTim, but never to hurt the characters.

My unpopular opinion then would be about the characters, perhaps. I don't see Ra's being cruel to Tim without reason, because in my mind, Ra's feels *love* and he cares for Tim. And Tim loves him back. They are just messy and won't communicate well, but that doesn't mean Ra's will go full evil and that Tim is a damsel in distress needing saving.

I don't see Ra's as an abuser. Neither do I see Tim as a helpless victim. And I believe this narrative hurts all characters involved without real motive besides wanting to prop up someone else and being too lazy as to read a less known villain or writing an original one.

I made something to convey my feelings on episode five

Timber / timsteph? (I personally hate them, with good reason, of course! but I'd like to know ur opinion on them.)

I'm gonna do these two together! But this time I won't tag the ships as I don't want 🐜 interacting plus I don't really think it would be nice to put my hate on their tag lmao 🤣

TimBer:

Hate it. Loathe it. Rather than not ship it I'd say I want to destroy it.

1. Why don't you ship it?

It's terribly written. It's an ooc Tim with a self insert of the author and not even the most bland straight ship writing of DC is at this level of awful. It has done nothing but make Tim a terrible character and ruin him; currently Tim is a no one at DC and I blame this ship 100%. Amazing that what Slade's comics did so easily with Jericho was something impossible for Batman editorial.

2. What would have made you like it?

It would have to be written by another author. Someone who understood Tim completely, someone who wasn't afraid of real queer experience, someone who wasn't sexist as hell, and someone who didn't destroy years of a character's legacy.

B would have to be the old, original version. And his messiness should be kept, because that's literally the only interesting thing he had going on.

3. Do you have anything positive to say about it?

Sadly no. B current character sucks, which is a shame because his old version was kinda funny and definetely had the vibes of "mean, rude boyfriend". This B is nothing but a self insert and is closer to a woman than to an actual queer man, which also sucks. Tim has been made something he isn't, and it's horrible.

The fandom is disgusting. It's full of sexism, racism, and most people have zero media literacy which means they spend their time harassing people who create content for other Tim ships.

I really hope DC buries this ship down on the grave.

TimSteph:

Huh, 50/50?

1. This is a complex ship for me. I think my problem is that I was very satisfied with their situation at the end of New Earth: I see them dating, caring for each other deeply, and eventually going their own ways but still being friends. Not even as bitter exes, no, I genuinely enjoyed Tim & Steph still trusting the other and being friends. I do enjoy them as two teenagers who feel attraction to the other and try it out. Now, this is usual verse. As you know, I play with Tim's gender quite often, and when I write Timothea/Thea, I really enjoy TimSteph more and feel like it's a sad but real romance.

Perhaps my feelings are too complicated for a single post. I see Tim as a queer person who loves strongly and not always in conventional ways. I think he loves Steph and Tam and Pru in different yet similar ways, and with the first two there was an attraction. It's just that it wasn't meant to be. That being said, I would really prefer Tim to be dating Steph or Tam in current canon (as long as it didn't do the girls any disservice) rather than his current love interest, but if it were up to me, Tim wouldn't have a canon love interest and Steph and Tim would be friends (not to be confused with family).

Plus I think a deep part of me was really confident Steph was gonna come out as bi or lesbian before Tim did because her story resonates a lot with wlw people who stay in the closet for different reasons (such as her past pregnancy) so... 😅

Idk! I don't want them to get married or anything like that but I think them dating is and can always be part of their story and something they look at with a smile. No need to ruin their friendship or push any of them as "evil".

2. If Tim were Timothea in canon I would be definitely obsessed with TimSteph. Something something make them the DC version of the manga NANA and have them reject heteronormativity.

3. Steph is a character unfairly hated most of the time and I think it goes hand on hand with people's own sexism and DC's awful writing for her. It makes me mad that we have so few moments where Steph actually shines and is allowed to be a more complex character. This is why I say I really would prefer if she and Tim had been allowed to stay single and as friends, because both of them deserve better than current DC.

"I am an artist! I have a vision of an Earth as clean and pure as a snow-swept mountain... or the desert outside!"