#i have a weird relationship with timkon cause i just | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thattimdrakeguy · 3 years

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Why Kon now is just Tim's sweet, soft boyfriend, like, now that's Conner's only personality trait in the fandom.

I like timkon, personally I don't ship them because I'm hardly interested in romantic things but, oh I like it.

Now the fandom only asks that in the next comic in which they appear they already declare and marry in the same issue.

As if that was good writing when in reality it would just be cheap complacent writing.

Because--like, well, basically the fandom sanitizes everything to the point they’re deeply defensive and sort of pseudo-ignorant of the personality and actions of their own proclaimed favorite characters.

Rather it’s their favorite doing genuinely bad things, or just their favorite actually having quite a different relationship with somebody else. Some people are aware and just having fun and all that, but others will just flat out deny a bunch of stuff.

Nothing wrong with having fun, and this isn’t just a thing only in this fandom, it’s in every fandom. It’s just an any-fandom type of thing.

People read Teen Titans and liked how close Tim and Conner where and decided to ship them together, because they had the same kind of caring relationship that people like to see in romantic relationships, they seemed like the most important people to each other even from their own romantic relationships. An understandable ship, and if it wasn’t for that series mucking their characters and personalities up I probably would generally-speaking ship them.

(I don’t really ship anything though. I’m not pre-disposed to like romantic stuff. I’m not a romantic, or sexually based person. Plus I read early Tim mainly, so he’s like--thirteen in my head and I just think that’s weird to do then cause it’s so young.)

But on a place like Tumblr where most people don’t read comics, (And for the most part understandably why. It’d get expensive collecting everything and it’s illegal to just pirate them.) and so they’ll see the more tender panels of Tim and Conner and base everything around that, and more or less just that.

Along with that time period, in general, changing Conner from teenage celebrity with a kind but misguided heart, sleazy sense of humor, and mega sized sex drive, to a moody, uh, broody, but still kind and sort of sensitive-ish-but-in-a-good-way farm boy, complete with a total change in fashion even when he’s Superboy and not disguised as a civilian--for--for some reason.

As well as Tim going from a dorky, insecure, empathic, kind-hearted, mildly clumsy (for a crime-fighter I mean), perseverant, situationally temper having, clever, small-fry, boy scout-y, kid into a sort of loner, broody, moody (he was moody and broody before but in a relatable way not a CW way), show off-y mega-genius kid.

So as their aesthetics and general personality change the fandom decided to further flanderize that into Tim being a tiny (which he is, but still), emotional, pretty emo boy that needed his big, strong, compassionate, boyfriend, that’s always there for him.

(Important to say that a lot of fandom changes aren’t like that. And arguably more just leave them as bros that decided to date and stuff like that, but this isn’t really about those kinds of fans.)

Which leaves Conner being awfully super freaking boring, with not a lot of character. Mostly just for the service of Tim, who still has a lot of fans purely from his Red Robin run. Where he was turned into even exaggerated of the Geoff Johns portrayal, where he was even more woobified, and so forth.

And just to say it, people can enjoy what ever they want obviously. That’s how it more or less came to be into this spot.

Conner has just been widdled down into Tim’s compassionate boyfriend who he needs oh-so-much, and doesn’t seem to have much interest of his own, unless he’s also being used to be Jon’s brother, which while barely depicted, people love the idea of because it’s very soft. And a lot of Jon’s popularity came from him being a large-eyed, cute little kid.

Fandom just uses Conner for the services of others, and I feel like I rarely ever see people actually liking Conner for who he is himself.

Which is similar to how Tim is commonly just used at the service of others by being some kind of wacky, mildly deranged coffee addict, for the other person to have a quick one liner about. Or to force him into what ever unfitting trope they want. Or just Stephanie’s girlfriend, which is quite the switch from the comics just using Steph as “Tim’s boyfriend”. Because I guess letting her have her personality back and be able to move on is just too hard for writer’s, when you can have laziness instead.

But for Conner, he gets it even worse than that, because despite Tim’s fandom personality being totally wrong, Conner doesn’t have any personality beyond “fashionable, compassionate, kindly fellow”. Besides for a few posts that might actually try to use his personality.

Which him being used as just “the other guy” saddens me a lot, because even though Conner actually isn’t on my list of favorite characters, I still care about him given that he is in comics I do care about (if not his solos), and know that he deserves better than that.

Now fans only want to see him be used in such spots, with no interest in him having his own unique arc most of the time as far as the more general view is concerned.

Shipping doesn’t by default mean that, but for some fans that’s only what they view Conner for is what I’m basically meaning.

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ghostwriterofthemachine · 3 years

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Tagged by @jasontoddiefor, thank you!

How many works do you have on AO3? 41

What’s your total AO3 word count? 151974

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1) Things that Haunt Our Hallways 2) Etiquette Lessons (Type A, Type B) 3) not the place that I was born in (doesn't mean it's not the place where I belong) 4) With Our Shadows Twisted 5) Unasked For and Freely Given

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I do not, because I have a huge anxiety block about it and trying to do so causes me a lot of undue Distress so I have stopped trying. I will answer a comment if I am asked a direct question, but rarely other than that.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Honestly, probably Steal the Soil of Her Life cause it’s pretty much canon and true.

Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Crossovers live only in my head so far and usually include Daemon AUs for everything I’ve ever seen and also Digimon AUs sometimes because I love Digimon.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I’ve received hate on a larger fandom project before, not really a specific fic. I sometimes get passive-aggressive comments about my characterization of certain characters but nothing worth noting.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Nah, cause I’m bad at it, but I wouldn’t rule it out sometime in the future I guess? As a personal challenge.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I had a fic blatantly plagiarized from my old ao3 account years ago, where they basically rewrote my idea with minimal changes. I confronted the author and they credited me and deleted the most egregious parts. I was 16 and it was a weird situation.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, a few of them, and one more is in the process of being translated now!! I think it’s great and I love it a lot :))

What’s your all time favorite ship?

Hmm, hard question. TimKon is up there? E/R from Les Mis is also up there? Let’s leave it at that for now.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Screams. Many. But probably this one SW fic that takes place in a happy-ending-to-the-clone-wars!AU which focused on Anakin being trapped in a nightmare state. I got like 4k words in and then totally lost any and all inspiration for it, but I really love that 4k which exist already. I’m constantly debating on whether or not I should just post those 4k words so it’s no longer sitting in my docs and Mocking Me.

What are your writing strengths?

Interpersonal relationships!! Hurt/Comfort!!! Descriptions and making things sound pretty!!

What are your writing weaknesses?

Long-term plotlines. I just wanna write Vibes, it’s why all my original work is poetry.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Go for it! I study languages and think bilingual elements in all fiction is awesome. There are also definitely ways to do it so that it’s more and less alienating to the reader, so I’d do some googling first before you go all in.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Digimon, when I was 13 years old, on a FF.net account which I hope and pray is lost to time.

What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written?

God this is a difficult question. I always say I have a soft spot for Outside Aid cause it was really satisfying to write and something I wrote pretty much only for me. i wait for you (like a empty house) is also something I am deeply, deeply proud of writing and finishing. But I love pretty much all my story-children very very much.

Tagging uhhh. UHHH. Open tags?? Please whoever wants to do this jump in <3

#tag meme answer #about me!!!

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awhitehead17 · 5 years

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It’s Not You, It’s Me

TimSteph, TimKon, Miscommunication, Communication, they talk things through, Break Up, T Rated.

Summary: What looks like to be a promising night for Steph completely turns around when she notices something is up with Tim. It turns out Tim's not the only detective in their relationship.

A/N: This is done for ‘Steph Brown’ on my Batfam Bingo card. There is implied sexual content in this just as a warning though nothing explicit happens. There is implied cheating and cheating acts, it just depends on how you see it. Also I am not bashing the TimSteph ship with this fic, I actually do like them together and Steph is the second person I ship Tim with after Conner!

Also on AO3

Enjoy! :D

The last thing she expected was to be attacked in her own apartment, so it was understandable that her reaction to the threat was a little delayed. However she still had post-patrol adrenaline running through her which allowed her to react without thinking about it too much.

She spins around and fakes a punch before kicking her leg out to try and connect to the intruders stomach. Her punch was easily dodged and her ankle was grabbed, the sudden stop in her momentum causes her to stumble but she’s able to right herself and frees her leg from the grip. She makes a move to punch yet again but this time her wrist was grabbed and before she could react a hand was against her side and forcing her to turn back around.

As Steph spins an arm appears around her waist, locking her free arm against her side and the hand trapped in her intruders grip was tight and didn’t let go which forces her arm to bend in an awkward angle causing her discomfort. She tries to kick out but then she was being pulled backwards until her back hits something soft but yet firm. It wasn’t until a chin hooks over her shoulders and a soft gentle voice saying, “hey, hey, it’s just me, okay” that she realises who her attacker really was.

She lets out an annoyed huff as her arm is let go and as the arm wrapped around her waist disappears. Steph forces herself away from the body behind her so she could turn around and scowl at them, hands on her hips and everything.

“What the fuck Tim!” She demands looking at her boyfriend. “You of all people should know not to sneak up on someone like that!”

Tim has the audacity to look a little ashamed and Steph finds herself unable to stay made at him for long. After a moment she drops her hands to her sides and gives him a weary look. “What are you doing here Tim? I thought you were with the Titans for the weekend?”

“Yeah I was but you know…” he reaches forward and before she could stop him, he was pulling her towards him until their bodies were pressed together, leaving hardly any room in between them, “I missed you that’s all. Wanted to come and surprise you.”

She looks up at him to find him staring back with piercing blue eyes, all of his attention purely on her and absolutely nothing else. It makes her shiver but also makes her heart-beat in anticipation. “You’re a hypocrite, I hope you know that. You’d hate it if I surprised you like how you just did.” She tells him with a fake frown. She wasn’t happy about how he surprised her but then again she wasn’t going to be angry at the chance to see her boyfriend.

Tim grins at her, showing his white teeth. He starts bending down towards her as he says, “Yeah I know, but you like me anyway.”

She couldn’t help but smile back, starting to lean up towards him so they could meet halfway, “For some stupid reason yeah.”

Their lips meet and Steph finds herself melting against him. She wraps her arms around his neck and grips his shoulders tight as their lips dance. Steph makes a humming sound as she feels his arms wrap around her, drawing her in impossibly closer.

Tim makes a loud groaning sound against her and if she was in the right state of mind she would have realised that would have been her first clue. However she wasn’t in the right state of mind because Tim was suddenly lifting her up off the ground, his hands holding firmly onto her thighs (when did they get there?) and taking them over to the bedroom.

She lets out a squeal as Tim chucks her onto the bed with strength you wouldn’t think he would have, then she lets out a laugh as she watches Tim climb onto the bed towards her, only stopping when he’s directly above her.

She reaches up and cups the back of his neck, dragging him down for a kiss. Tim immediately responds and much more eagerly than Steph was expecting. His tongue forces its way into her mouth and begins to map it out causing Steph to moan at the action. After a while he pulls up from the kiss, which has left her breathless, and begins to kiss her neck and collar bone.

Steph squirms at the attention on her neck but doesn’t push him away, instead she laughs and clings onto him tighter, “Who are you and what have you done with Timothy Jackson Drake?”

Tim huffs against her neck in amusement, she could feel him smiling against her skin. “Still here, I just missed you that’s all.”

“Well, I’m certainly not complaining.” Steph says arching her neck to give Tim more access to the skin there.

As Tim ravishes her neck she takes the time to run her hands over his shoulders and down his back. As she does she feels all of his firm and lean muscles, feeling how tight and tense they were. She frowns momentarily, they can’t have that now can they?

She reaches for his face, pushing him away from her neck so they could kiss once again. She takes in a sharp breath as they do, it’s hot, needy and passionate. Whatever was going on with Tim, it was certainly affecting his sex drive that night. As they kiss Steph starts trying to massage his back, trying to get his muscles to relax underneath her touches. However it seems to do the opposite to what she wanted, they become even more tense as he goes ridged above her but he keeps on kissing her like there’s nothing else in the world.

Seeming to have enough of kissing Tim breaks away and starts on her neck again, this time running his hands down over her body as he does. Steph couldn’t help the gasp that escapes her as he runs his hands over her breasts, over her abs and down to the waist band of her armoured pants.

It’s when he starts easing them down her legs that she gets the first (but actually second) sign that something wasn’t right. Now Steph was all for Tim taking control of their sex, she enjoyed it but it was unusual for him to be the one in control when they’re in the bedroom. Normally that’s down to her, Tim is so shy and bashful that he usually follows her lead and does nothing without getting her confirmation first but right here and now he’s just doing it.

It takes her back to the groan he done against her just now, then how tense he was feeling under her hands and now how he seems to be really into it more than usual. Something was up with him, perhaps the past few days have left him feeling super stressful? Maybe he’s using sex as a distraction of something?

That thought doesn’t please her, though it’s not entirely surprising either as it wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened.

She tries to clear her head of the arousal that’s built up inside of her, it certainly doesn’t help when Tim starts peppering kisses all over her body as he travels down towards her waist and hips. Eventually she’s able to get enough sense to reach down and pull his face up towards hers, she leans forward and kisses him yet again, this time it’s a little less demanding but just as passionate as before.

That’s when she gets her next clue that something was off with Tim. As they kiss she opens her eyes up and looks at him, she finds his eyes clenched shut and not in the good a good way. They’re clenched shut so he can’t see what he’s doing, so he can’t see his surroundings, like he’s trying to force himself mentally away from where he actually is.

That’s enough to make her break the kiss. She cups his head and holds it steady as she pulls back. With his eyes still closed he frowns, she even hears him make a confused noise.

“Tim.” She says gently trying to get his attention. He doesn’t look at her. “Tim look at me, please.”

This time he opens and looks down at her, blinking in confusion. “Why’d you stop?” He sounds breathless and genuinely confused.

Steph frowns back at him, no longer feeling aroused as she once was but now feeling concerned. “Because I think we need to talk.”

Above her Tim stiffens up, becoming even more tense than before. She pushes against his shoulder carefully, telling him to let her up. He does so without any words and moves so he’s sat on the edge of the bed, looking down and playing with his fingers. Steph uses this opportunity to climb off the bed and change into her pyjamas but also to collect her thoughts together and to give Tim the chance to do the same.

There’s a feeling inside of her telling her that she knows what is up with him. She really hopes that the feeling is wrong and how it could just be her being slightly paranoid about Tim’s odd behaviour. He goes to the Titans for the weekend and comes back early, which he hardly ever does, and then suddenly seems to be really into having sex with her. That just wasn’t Tim.

She admits that there’s been something bugging her about Tim for a long time, for several months, but she hasn’t paid attention to it because it just didn’t seem necessary, why create fires when you don’t need to. But now it seems like she needs to address this with him and try to work out what’s going on.

She goes back over to the bed and sits down next to Tim, taking on of his hands in both of hers and strokes his knuckles with her thumb in a soft caress. She watches him not look at her at all, watches as he actively avoids meeting her gaze.

They sit together like that for several minutes, but Steph quickly becomes bored of the silence and turns around so she’s sat facing him, curling one leg up underneath her. She squeezes his hand. “What’s going on Tim? What’s with your weird behaviour?”

Tim doesn’t respond to her for a long time, she sees the way he goes still at her question and the way an invisible mask of no emotions appear on his face. Eventually he’s squeezing her hands back, “There’s nothing wrong Steph, I just missed you.”

He wouldn’t meet her eyes. She raises an eyebrow unimpressed with his answer because that’s such bullshit, they’ve known each other long enough now that Tim should realise that he can’t bullshit to her like that anymore.

She presses the issue. “Look Tim there has to be a reason why you left the Titan’s early, and not because you ‘missed me’ which by the way is sweet but we both know it’s bullshit. You never leave your team early, especially on your allocated hang out weekends. Something happened didn’t it? What was it?”

Tim still wasn’t looking at her, his eyes were purely down on the ground and his face mostly void of any expression.

“Did one of them get hurt?”

That gets her a quick side glance from him. “What? No. No. Nothing like that. They’re all fine.”

“Then what’s going on Tim?” She couldn’t help how annoyance had slipped into her tone. Tim was so frustrating sometimes, it’s like talking to a brick wall. Well actually a brick wall would probably be more cooperative than her boyfriend right now.

Having had enough of him not looking at her, she releases his hands and grabs his face, forcing him to turn and look at her. As expected Tim doesn’t make eye contact. She squeezes him gently, “Tim what happened?”

When he does finally look at her Steph could see how glassy his eyes looked, like he was going to cry and was trying to stop himself from doing so. The concern in her rockets up and she frowns at him. “I’m sorry Steph I don’t know how but it just happened. I’m sorry I didn’t mean-”

She caresses his face gently, stroking his cheek softly. “Why are you sorry Tim? What did you do?”

A lot was running through her head at that moment but there was no way she could just single out one thought. What had Tim done? What had ‘just’ happened? Why is he almost in tears? Should she be scared? Concerned?

“I – I,” He takes a deep breath and yanks his face out of her hands and buries it in his own with a low groan. When he next speaks it’s all muffled. “Jesus Steph it’s all so fucked up right now.”

Still not knowing what he was on about Steph simply places a hand on his hunched back and rubs her hand up and down trying to offer some form of comfort. After a minute he was speaking again.

“Kon and I kissed Steph.”

Steph does a double take on that. Blinking at him unsure if she heard him right. “You - you and Conner kissed?”

He looks up at her with a mixture of guilt and worry, his eyes were still looking glassy as he blinks at her clearly trying to gauge her reaction to the news.

“Yes. Conner and I kissed.”

“You and Superboy kissed?”

He sits up straight and glares at her annoyed, “Yes Steph, how many more times! Kon and I kissed.”

She carries on blinking at him, trying to work out what she’s feeling about it.

Tim had kissed his best friend and clearly by his reaction it just wasn’t a friendly peck on the cheek like some dudes do. She wants to be annoyed, she wants to be angry at Tim for this. He practically cheated on her, even if it was just a kiss, with his teammate and best friend.

However she finds that she can’t be entirely angry with him because the news wasn’t very surprising, like at all. Tim and Conner had always been close, two peas in a pod type thing. They may not have gotten along with each other when they first met but over time they just became inseparable. Anyone who’s around the two idiots for more than five minutes could see that they share a close bond and connection. It also doesn’t help that Steph could kinda tell that Tim wasn’t entirely straight, she had a feeling that he was at least bi over the last few years after seeing him interact with Conner.

The annoying thing about it is this is exactly what she thought might have happened earlier, she had a feeling that it was something to do with the Titans, something more specifically to do with Superboy.

“Steph?”

She brought out of her head when Tim’s voice breaks through her thoughts. “What?” He gives her a pointed look and she sighs, running a hand through her hair she tells him, “Tim I don’t know what to say to that. I want to be angry, I want to scream and shout at you because you basically cheated on me with your best friend.” She doesn’t miss the expression of guilt and shame that passes over Tim’s face as she talks. “But I’m not entirely surprised by it.”

She smiles at seeing Tim’s shocked expression.

“You’re not the most subtle person in the world Timmy. Anyone could say that you and Conner have a very, very, strong connection. It kinda was only a matter of time before something was bound to happen.”

“It just happened Steph, I wasn’t planning to do it, he wasn’t planning it either, as cliché as it sound it literally just happened. We were just sat down, playing video games and eating pizza when we looked at each other, both of smiling and then – then we were kissing. I don’t know if he leaned in first or if I did but it just happened.”

She watches with rapt attention as Tim talks, watching the way a blush forms on his cheeks as he describes the kiss he had. It was then, as she watches the way his eyes goes distant as he relives the moment of Kissing Conner, that she realises that their relationship just wasn’t there. It wasn’t as it was once before. It hurts her to think it but she knows it true.

“Tim.” She says getting his attention. She reaches out and cups his cheek, smiling softly as his hand overlaps hers. “Do you love Conner?”

There’s a moment of hesitation on Tim’s part but he’s eventually swallowing and nodding his head, when he speaks it’s in a hushed whisper. “I think I do, yeah.”

She swallows the lump that’s formed in her own throat at the quiet admission. “I think you know what’s going to happen now right?” She speaks just as quietly as he did, as if speaking loudly is going to cause some form of explosion to go off.

“Yeah. I hate it, but – but it’s the right thing to do. I don’t want to hurt you anymore Steph.”

“And I want you to be happy.” She could feel her own tears pooling up at the side of her eyes, all of them threatening to fall down as she stares at him.

He nods accepting it. “We’re still friends right? Because I don’t want to lose you Steph, we may not be what we were before but I don’t want to lose you.”

She shakes her head, “Of course we are Tim and no, you’re not losing me, you’re not going to lose me just as I’m not going to lose you alright.”

There’s a pause between them but then Tim is speaking up, whispering once again. “I’m sorry.”

Steph grips his face tighter, “There’s no need to be sorry Tim, feelings and emotions aren’t something you can control. This is probably for the best anyway and at least we’ve sorted it out before it got to far.” She gives him a look then, raising an eyebrow in question, “It was just a kiss you shared right, it didn’t go any further than that?”

That gets him to huff out a laugh, “God no. It was just a kiss. One awkward but excellent kiss. After we split apart we were both in shock, like saying ‘did that really just happen’ before we both quickly parted ways. Knowing Kon he went back to the farm and I came straight here.”

She feels a little relieved that Tim didn’t go all the way with Conner, not that it really makes the situation any better. That’s when something catches her attention. “Wait if you kissed Conner just before coming here, were you going to use me as a distraction? Like having sex with me to try and forget about the fiasco with him?”

“No?” he sounds unsure and she sends him a glare, once again feeling annoyed with him. “Maybe? Okay fine yes. I just thought that the kiss is a one time thing and I thought if I spend a night with you I could get rid of those feelings about Conner, act like they’re never there.”

She crosses her arms scowling at him. “You’re an asshole.” She states firmly. So the sex they were about to have was going to be a distraction for him. Great, that’s just great.

He looks away shamefully and frowns. “Yeah that was really shitty of me, I thought I could just forget about it, but obviously not.”

She narrows her eyes at him before looking away still feeling annoyed at him for that move. “It’s okay.” It wasn’t okay, far from okay, but that’s just how it’s got to be now isn’t it?

A relationship can’t work if it’s only one person putting in the effort. It’s not fair on either party so breaking up is the best option. It’s awful and they hate it but they both know it’s the best option.

She glances at him before looking at the TV in her room. “Since we’re not doing that then and since you’re here, fancy watching a film? We’re still friends after all and like good old buddies we can still hang out and watch crappy movies.”

He smiles at that, “Yeah that sounds good.”

She gets up and chooses a film from her small collection before going to the kitchen to grab a few snacks. What’s happened that night may be awful and not what she expected (or wanted) but it’s for the best. Tim’s heart is beating for someone else and it’s not fair on her to try and pursue a relationship between them when he’s not fully committed to it. At the end of the day, they’re both strong individuals, they can get through this. It may be hard but they’ll somehow manage, she’ll somehow manage.

#timsteph #timkon #Tim Drake #Stephanie Brown #miscommunication #cheating #sort of #communication #fanfiction #t rated #break up #sorry for the long a/n note #batfam bingo 2019

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dccomicsbookshelf · 6 years

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The Love-Life Habits of Bats

This is probably going to be the only time I talk about this, since this isn’t really a topic I a) care that much about or b) feel all that comfortable talking about.

As a result of the above, these are less “headcanons” and more “my interpretation of canon” (and as such are not as varied or colorful as a lot of other people’s hcs on the topic) and a lot of my opinions are sourced from me seeing interpretations in fandom and canon that feel wrong to me for whatever reason. So here we are, something I never thought I’d actually post about but just so that y’all can know where I’m coming from. (Or just enjoy free-standing)

BatFam sexual orientations and miscellaneous notes concerning relationships and sexualities

(+ one mini-rant on behalf of Dick Grayson.)

Bruce: Is aggressively heterosexual for the most part. Not in the hur, hur, no homo, dude! sense, he just...really likes women. It’s one of the aspects of Brucie that is true for Bruce as well. Yes, a lot of his one-night stands are ostensibly about keeping his cover as a playboy billionaire as part of the Quest for Justice, but he is genuinely very sexual. He tones it down a little as he gets older (and acquires more children) He actually desperately wants a serious and stable relationship (and is also terrified of the prospect) which results in a frustrating combination of overbearing clinginess and emotional pushing-awayness. It’s part of why Talia broke off their engagement. He was smothering her. Is also mildly bicurious and has probably experimented a few times.

Selina: Pan with high standards (and Bruce). Has not, despite popular rumor and speculation, been part of a threesome with Harley and Ivy. She doesn’t have that kind of a relationship with them. (Doesn’t mean they don’t all three have fun feeding those rumors on occasion.)

Kate: Look, this has been very firmly established in canon so I don’t think I need to say much. She’s a lesbian, Harold.

Barbara: Bi and ever so slightly aromatic. She’s not romance-repulsed but she doesn’t really initiate unless it’s a situation that would be super important to her partner. Her workaholicness probably has something to do with it tbh.

Dick: this one is gonna be super long because I have some Opinions to say. Imma start with what he isn’t. He’s not a man-whore. Not an exhibitionist. Not a flirt.

The only times he’s slept with someone outside a committed relationship (i.e. Kori and Babs) were either...

That weird one night stand with Helena that was WAY out of character for both of them.

Mirage and Tarantula. If I have to explain why these don’t count then humanity needs to burn already.

He’s actually pretty shy about PDA. He grew up with a firm divide between the “public” and the “personal”, first with the circus then with Bruce. When you have an audience, you perform. When you are with your family and friends, you take the masks off. With his family in particular there was the idea of “our love for each other is not for someone else’s entertainment. It belongs to us.” He loves holding hands and hugging in public, but more than that and he starts getting uncomfortable.

He gets called a flirt a lot but he rarely is actually flirting. People just assume he’s flirting when he’s really just being friendly and/or polite and barely tolerating them.

All of this is a really long way to say that Dick Grayson is so demi it might as well be his middle name. (He has a very strong preference towards women. And he has a type.) But because he’s pretty and friendly, people make assumptions because people are egocentric, entitled assholes.

Cass: Is pansexual and aromantic in the sense that she actually finds romance adorable until it involves her, then she finds it vaguely awkward. (She is also toppy as heck.) She has to trust someone before she’ll get intimate with them though. Generally speaking she doesn’t go looking for relationships. She prefers spending time with her family and friends. (She mostly has FWB kinds of relationships anyway, since she and Superboy stopped dating. The closest to a “relationship-relationship” since then was her almost-thing with Steph.)

Jason: Ace and either bi or pan-romantic. (He doesn’t want to sleep with you but he will romance the heck out of you! His methods of romancing vary depending on his Pit-Madness status.)

Steph: Bi. After her pregnancy she’s been a lot more choosy about her partners. Part of it is “been there done that” and part of it is that she’s a little self-conscious about her stretch marks and steadily growing collection of scars.

Tim: Is straight and awkward at romancing unless he’s deep in a persona, then it varies. He tends to be, like B, overbearing and kind of classist/elitist which has caused him some difficulties (understandably) but he’s getting better. As he gets into his late teens his sexual/romantic life has picked up quite a bit.

I must correct myself. He is straight with one potential exception.

Look, I don’t even ship TimKon myself but that subtext (in the actual comics) is one comma splice away from being text.

Damian: I haven’t thought much about him tbh because he’s ten. All I really know is that if there is a word for “sexually attracted by competence” he’s that. Definitely sapiosexual. Refuses to enter a relationship with someone he cannot trust and once he does enter a relationship he throws his whole heart and soul into it. His first breakup was devastating.

Duke: Is low-key bisexual. At one point decided he will only date outside the masked and caped crowd as he has the basic requirement of “sanity” for a partner. This makes it complicated because relationships with civilians come with their own host of problems.

Alfred: Was a theater actor in-between being special forces and a Bat-Butler.

#BatCanons #BatFam #Bruce Wayne #Selina Kyle #Kate Kane #Barbara Gordon #Dick Grayson #Cassandra Cain #Jason Todd #Stephanie Brown #Tim Drake #Damian Wayne #Duke Thomas #Alfred Pennyworth #Rain Rambles

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sweettsubaki · 7 years

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Do you think Lobdell was doing it on purpose when he gave most of the Teen Titans rather major and blatant personality disorders? The line between bad writing and purposeful but misinformed writing of mental illnesses is so blurry. This is especially blatant with poor Kon and his magically appearing and disappearing ability to feel emotions.

No that wasn't on purpose, this is for sure. I think it's just that he writes stereotypes and doesn't know how to deepen them and make them their own person.Also under Lobdell Tim appeared to be slightly sociopathic but not completely (because of the Bats rules of keeping to themselves, which he did, the line was blurry on whether it was battish behavior or sociopathy), by the end of his run Sociopathy seemed to be The One which wasn't helped by how they used him as a Deus Ex-Machine. Pfeifer worsened it but Tim still seemed to be mildly sociopathic (him and the other writers of TT v5 mostly used Tim as a Deus ex-machina so there wasn't much else)But then everything changed when Tynion attacked. Tynion wrote Tim as a complete and utter psychopath bordering on a megalomaniac ever since he got his hands on him (his relationship with Steph is a good example of that, there’s a clear lack of empathy on Tim’s end of the relationship, it’s very unilateral).FYI the main difference between Psychopathy and Sociopathy is that Psychopathy is innate (+slightly developed) while Sociopathy is developed, often in case of childhood neglect, Sociopathy's kind of an emotional response. So one of the way you can differentiate between psychopaths and sociopaths in worlds like DC Comics is...the presence of PTSD. And N52 Tim sorely lacks PTSD responses to what he's been through (especially obvious when compared to pre-N52!Tim who PTSDs all over his books).

I honestly stopped reading Superboy comics at like the 6th issue 'cause I couldn't stand it so I'm only gonna go off the Teen Titans books, in which he doesn't turn down his emotions, or rather he's not sure what his emotional responses are so he tries to drown them. It's actually one of the only emotional responses of this book that makes sense. Kon is a clone that has only been alive for a few months and was used for as long as he's been alive and wasn't really permitted to feel or he'd be 'reprogrammed'. While his turn-around was strangely fast, once this is done it's normal for him to try and be detached because feelings are very new and the only person willing to help him is Tim who...well is obviously not the best person for the job. So he feels and tries to repress everything to pm repay his debt to the titans and tries to deal with his emotions one at a time but while he does that, his emotions pile up and it just gets worse and more unstable. That's why most of his "relationships" are purely physical. Except for N52!Tim, who he really got attached to (since for quite a while he was his only ally) but it's obviously one sided. And that's where the problem of psychopathy lies when it comes to interpersonal relationships because while Tim can get kinda attached there's no real emotion behind it, everything is more of an intellectual response, so Kon can't get his fondness back and is "tricked" -not really 'cause Tim doesn't seem to realize it- into loving Tim. Though in itself Kon got the only actual emotional response from Tim in N52 and Rebirth when he sacrificed himself (back when he seemed to be a sociopath)...It was so weird 'cause they were not close at all so why would he have this emotional response ? (it was obviously the authors trying to bring TimKon back but it didn't work...like Tim's staff and most of Tynion's changes when he got his hands on Tim.............It ends up making him looks more like a sociopath or a psychopath because having a low empathy brings an awful emotion regulation, which is common for sociopath but not really for psychopaths, though it's known to happen).

So Kon's probably the only one whose mental illness was actually on purpose...and it seemed to be understood fairly well over all (a lot better than half of his preboot authors understood it actually...and that's very sad), but due to bad writing it didn't really come out right.The others are just bad writing...only bad writing..... I honestly think they tried to write Teen Angst rather than mental illness

#Tim Drake #Kon El #Conner Kent #Scott Lobdell #James Tynion IV #Will Pfeifer #DC Comics #Tim Drake Meta #Superverse Meta #Answer #Anonymous

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thattimdrakeguy · 4 years

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What do you think about Tim's romantic relationships? I think he is always carrying and loving and probably doesn't make the difference between platonic and romantic love. He probably feels obligated to date this girls or thinks he loves them back. His parents weren't the best example so that didn't help him either.

I’m so freaking sorry for taking so long. I got caught up in other things yesterday so I couldn’t respond immediately as I can (even it seems like I take a while that’s normally me figuring out what to say or I was just busy and only saw it later, and my power went out for over half a day. So I’m really sorry for that even if that last part was out of my control.

But! I think that’s a pretty valid take to have honestly, because it’s actually an interpretation you can naturally get just from reading Robin.

Tim never seemed particularly romantically or romantically interested in Steph. In-fact, he kind of disliked her, even though he cared about her safety given he knew her. The boy could even be straight up passive aggressive because she put him in a sour move.

Which is one of the reasons I don’t even like the ship to begin with. It’s super forced, and putting him with a girl that sexually harassed him and kissed him in a way that could potentially be counted as sexual assault given it’s clearly sexually motivated despite what she says, is incredibly wrong to me given if you switched the genders people would flip. Like I know Tim kissed her first, but that was as a thank you, not sexually motivated. Just a dumb dated cliche. So that wouldn't be classified as actual sexual assault (according to a judge it would have to be sexually motivated. Personally I don't agree with that unless it's a culture thing, and I think thank you kisses are gross unless they ask for permission and probably shouldn't be a cliche because of that. But I'm me, not the law.). it isn't even one time Steph gives Tim a kiss against his will for her own sexual attraction to him.

Although, that’s against the point, I’m just annoyed to see people give people that don’t like the ship be given crap, when to me, it’s like-- it’s kind-of obvious why people wouldn’t like it. Even more than simple ship tastes. However I’m digressing again.

When the issue came where he acted like he was into her romantically, he was confused about which way he liked her to begin with.

He didn’t feel particularly happy when Ari tried to get her and Tim to mutually break-up together, which would allow Tim to date Steph guilt-free, as well as the context that Tim was gonna break up with Ari anyway. Which implies he still loved her even when he thought he wanted Steph. though break ups are always hard in fairness.

(I still find it pretty gross that Dixon actually rushed the Tim and Steph stuff so fast it’s half-way like he freaking forgot about Ariana and Tim were still dating. Like Tim would just leave her like that right after Ari’s parents thought Tim and Ari were doing dirty stuff and sent her away-- when Tim was avoiding that. So much contradicts Tim's character putting him and Steph together. It’s so badly written. Tim loves Ari, Tim's against cheating, Tim doesn’t like Steph and doesn’t like her flirting, yet-- suddenly Tim does and more or less cheats? Ech. He’s not supposed to look like scum for it going off the way it’s written. Feels like it’s not the intention because Tim wouldn’t do that, like they knew he wouldn’t and stuff, or Dixon was blind to what he was actually writing, but yet-- it happened.)

Plus, Tim actually naturally calls himself Steph’s friend rather than boyfriend. Like subconsciously that’s how he actually feels.

So it’s a very easy interpretation to make, and pretty on point. I imagine it wasn’t the intent from Dixon, but it’s so very easy. He doesn’t actually flirt much, if at all. Doesn’t seem romantically interested, like, sure they kissed, but if you’re convinced it's a romantic attraction, you probably will kiss. He thinks of himself as her friend first. Heck, he didn’t even like Steph that much since she wouldn’t stop being reckless and stop flirting with him even when she knew he had a girlfriend. Maybe he was lonely and just tried to convince himself he even liked being around her. Makes more sense then going from being anywhere from mildly to just plain passive aggressive to her cause he didn’t enjoy her presence, to wanting to date her.

Even with Ariana since he seems to at least slightly compare his feelings with Steph's towards his feelings with her is implying he could just subconsciously think of Ari just as a friend too, but that's only if you already have the interpretation that Tim deep down only thinks of Steph as a friend and is confused about his feelings. Which personally, feels more accurate to me (at least the Steph part) because of how it's written, but I'm not sure that's how Dixon feels, and I'm pretty sure not.

But once it's written, the interpretation is then up to the reader unless you’re just really forcing it or literally making it up, cause it isn't an interpretation then, just some active imagination. Which is good, but I think people confuse the two sometimes. Even this from my end might be that for all I know. I had four hours of sleep and many anxiety attacks today and last night. So this post is probably sloppy and I sincerely apologize for that. I try to always keep things to the same standards on this blog. It's just that the Tim and Steph relationship has really weird writing that contradicts previous character feelings, and has moments were you can easily read it as something else.

So it's up to your canon really in this case since it's so awkwardly written. Which I rarely say because I feel things are normally written more straight forward. But this actually has some evidence to it if you look to see it as it that way.

there's more stuff that can imply Tim might just look at Steph just as a friend, I just didn't have it screenshotted. I think a friend that's been reading through Robin might've taken it, but that's a lot to go through. It'll probably show up on a longer post about the Tim and Steph relationship's horrid writing and more.

Again, Dixon in an interview seemed to call it love, maybe true love, can't remember how specific it got. So it's likely not what he meant to write--

but it's really easy to interpret that, and it's how I naturally read it too. It makes more sense to me then Tim randomly going from not liking her given her behavior, to feeling like he wants to date her.

Personally I agree with you since it fits his character better and it‘s easier to read em as an example of that rather then what was probably actually intended.

Heck again, this post hasn't even talked about Zoe (who's probably my fav of his love interests because they actually seemed like they'd be a good couple together. I don't ship em per-say, I don't really feel like I ship anything with Tim truly deep down. I've said I've shipped timkon, but it's not actually a major ship for me. Just a casual thing, because I didn't really ship em cause I thought of it naturally) who he only went on a date with because she kissed Tim after being so excited he was alive after she saw him be kidnapped. Or Cassie who he more or less dated because they both loved Conner (in the same way or different ways, up to you I suppose), and ended up realizing they were just friends really. I think similar themes apply to him and tam too, but I honestly can't remember them, because I hate FabNic when he writes Tim. He's never truly got him right, and caused that friggin' "he can take over the world in a night" thing, that some fans of Tim has. tim's no wet-flower, he's clever and an incredibly talented martial artist, but that's dumb. I don't even think FabNic directly did anything like that, but I can't think of no other run that'd give anyone that impression.

I’m rambling again, I’m really sorry. this was so much longer than needed. I hope it isn’t too much of a pain.

#long post

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