I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about how self shipping isn’t a performance and you shouldn’t be obsessed with how many notes or asks you get etc. and that’s all well and true, but some of it honestly sounds like it’s shaming people for feeling that way

and I just wanna say it’s okay to feel jealous or insecure or unappreciated. it isn’t wrong to feel those things, and it’s okay to just hold those feelings for a while until you can process them and continue on

Which Dick ship(s) do you like the most out of dickbabs, dickkory, dickroy, dickwally, dickjoey and dickhelena? Also curious, do you watch Titans?

Of those? Dick/Kory for sure - I have so much fondness for this ship and how good they were for each other when they were ALLOWED to be...and I maintain that the vast majority of their problems and the reasons they didn’t work out had nothing to do with their lack of compatibility or things they couldn’t work through, but were all external based and motivated by DC’s desire to split Dick off from the Titans and migrate him BACK to the Batfranchise after originally doing the same thing in reverse to take him AWAY from the Batfranchise and centered more in the Titans. 

But they are EQUALS in the way Clark and Bruce are equals despite the massive power differentials (to me the real Trinity of the Titans generation would be Kory - Dick - Donna, with Kory in the Superman niche that would be Supergirl’s if she’d been centered more in their generation of heroes instead of so frequently off on her own.) 

But anyway, they are POWERFUL, they are RESPECTED, they are PASSIONATE, they balance each other and complement each other so well but also they challenge each other and change each other for the better. 

She’s a Princess of Tamaran, he’s a Prince of Gotham, but for all the heights each of them have been raised to at times in their lives, they’re just as familiar with being sent plummeting to the pits of what life can have in store for anyone. In the rare times when their stories ALLOW them to think about something other than desperate struggles of life and death, they know how to seize the hell out of life and live a day to its fullest, milk every last drop of enjoyment out of it, because they both also know better than to take anything for granted, trust any moment of joy to linger instead of being fleeting. I really feel that Kory’s one of the only people who’s never actually taken Dick for granted (except for a couple instances of wildly OOC behavior) and I think Dick’s one of the only people that’s ever managed to make Kory feel both safe and protected and dangerous and protective all at the same time, like...even when she didn’t know what she wanted or needed at certain key times, he managed to be it anyway. 

They were together at a VERY confusing time in both their lives, with a lot of huge changes thrown at each of them rapid fire, and it wasn’t so much that they were a rock of stability or a lifeline for each other or anything like that, it was more that like....they both changed so much while with each other because they both wanted so badly to BE with each other, and it wasn’t even about shaping themselves into specific things it was more about like...in order to be together, to be good for each other, they needed to figure out who they themselves were....and so they were like...each other’s reason to keep working towards figuring out who they were and who they wanted to be, even when everything was so confusing and constantly changing it would’ve been easy to just say fuck it and just....let go and react to wherever life took them rather than always working towards staying and being proactive, wrestling back control of their own fates and destinies.

And then DC went and fucked that all up because who wants happy couples am I right? LOL.

Dick/Joey is next - like.....pre-death Joey and Dick were just...so good. They had so much respect for each other, and were so comfortable around each other and like...the chemistry was real. And I maintain that there was subtext between them and that if Dick hadn’t been with Kory for pretty much the entire time Joey was a member of the Titans up until he died, like....they could’ve been a couple in a heartbeat. Hell, I maintain they could easily have been an angsty love triangle with Kory, or a happy threesome with Kory as well. There was so much potential based on stuff that was already there between Dick and Joey...and also plenty of foundation for more interactions and a heightened dynamic between Joey and Kory as well.

Dick/Roy is next - they are my ultimate angst ship because they are both geniuses but they are also dumb boys who insist on being dumb. Like...they clash, a lot, and all of their clashes are clash of the titans, pun intended because like....they are both BIG personalities. And VERY opinionated. But also loyal as hell, even if that loyalty spans years of not even talking to each other, but one phone call and the other would drop everything to be racing to the side of the man the last time they spoke, it was nothing but strings of four letter words shouted at each other and punctuated with “yeah well your face!” 

But then they grow up a little and Roy has Lian and Dick is AMAZING with kids and she’s Roy’s kid, how could Dick NOT instantly love her, but the angst still reigns supreme because just because Dick is and could be the best thing to ever happen to Lian and Roy, try convincing him that, and he’ll come up with a thousand reasons to stay away because he’s convinced he’ll screw up and Lian will get hurt emotionally and that’ll be the final straw between him and Roy because that’ll be the one thing Roy couldn’t forgive, because Dick knows he wouldn’t if it were him. 

But the thing is, its not like I don’t think they could be good for each other....they absolutely could and would...it would just be a long and winding road to get there, because they are both DRAMATIC as fuck, even while insisting that they aren’t, and they just....sometimes they just don’t know HOW to not make life difficult for themselves, and I feel like a large part of that is because of the double edged sword that is how often the best things in their lives have come from the worst tragedies they’ve endured....I think on some level, they both tend to self-sabotage because they don’t TRUST anything to be easy, and like, they both convince themselves that shit’s gotta hit the fan before anything worthwhile can come their way.

Also, to reiterate - they are both absolute dumbasses who absolutely fuel each other’s dumbass energy and they are That Couple that doesn’t HAVE a voice of reason in the pairing. Its just like DICK YES! and ROY YES! and enabling each other’s worst ideas because they’re just. Like that.

Dick/Helena is next - but like, pre-Flashpoint Helena, and not as an actual ongoing relationship, just a lot of dramatic hookups and then each of them recommitting the morning after to like...their view that this was Absolutely A Mistake and it’ll Never Happen Again...at least not until next time. They’re just too different ideologically and just in terms of like...what they want out of life, except the irony is they’re actually not...its just they’re CONVINCED they are, because they’ve always seen each other with blinders on and they’ve never taken those off and to be honest they probably never would, because like...they don’t talk much? LOL. They snark, they bite at each other, they squabble, they fight, they hook up...They Regret Everything, and they do it all over again. There’s not a lot of room in there for actually getting to know each other...but like, that’s not what they’re really looking for from each other. Sometimes you’re at a certain stage in your life where you don’t WANT something meaningful or lasting, you just want....passion and chemistry without the weight of worrying about it going anywhere because like...you don’t really even want it to.

But again, this is them pre-Flashpoint, because the thing is, I actually prefer the New 52 Helena in a lot of ways, but them as a pairing in the current continuity just does not work for me at all, because of the power dynamics given the nature of their relationship at Spyral, and like...the fact that so much of their interaction is rooted in betrayal and subterfuge and hidden agendas and lies. They’re this weird blend of they trust each other but also know better than to trust each other so maybe its more just that they WANT to trust each other so that makes them even more wary of actually trusting each other...bottom line is its messy and there’s not really any practical way through that, and any kind of relationship between them, even a casual one, is kinda doomed to hurt each other.

Dick/Wally is next - And in the sense that like....I don’t really ship them at all, and never have really? Like, they’re an ultimate BrOTP for sure, but I don’t really ever get romantic chemistry from their dynamics in like...any universe. They’re best friends, they have each other’s back, they can appreciate the hell out of each other’s aesthetics, but like....they just don’t go there, because they don’t need to, its not what they want from each other and they’ve always kinda known that and just accepted it as it is what it is, and that’s more than okay with them. Dick/Wally is the counterpart to Dick/Donna for me....it only exists in a platonic, familial way. They’ll die for each other, they’ll erase timelines for each other, but they’ll do it without fucking because like....that’d just be weird, bro.

And lastly Dick/Babs - lololol and I swear its not even because I’m a Dick/Kory shipper. I don’t see Kory and Babs as competition for each other and don’t like any narrative that has them see each other as competition. My issues with Dick/Babs are entirely separate from Dick and Kory’s relationship and actually predate my shipping the latter two. I just...don’t feel it between Dick and Babs, it always comes across to me as like...them trying to force it, or the writers trying to force it, its like....they keep trying because they WANT it to work, they’re convinced it SHOULD work, he’s the first Robin, she’s the first Batgirl, its iconic, they’re partners and best friends, they’re each other’s equals just as much as Dick and Kory are, just in different ways, like....all the ingredients are there! But put them all in a blender and stir it all up and the end result....is still just...not quite right, for me. 

I just think they are amazing as friends, they support each other, bring out the best in each other, challenge each other, don’t let the other pull any crap...but the second they get together as boyfriend and girlfriend, like...a switch is thrown, and suddenly they start bringing out the worst in each other, they start seeing problems where there weren’t any two seconds ago when they were just friends....idk. Its like...the writing always lacks something for me, because I feel like so many writers who put them together feel like...their iconic status and thematic compatibility just does all the work, and thus they don’t really need to put in any work writing them as a couple...and then even just when I think about tackling them as a couple and trying to write them together....again, there just always feels like some essential something is lacking...like they SHOULD work, but for some reason they don’t for me, and so I spend the whole time trying to figure out what’s missing instead of like...looking at what’s there. Idk. 

Sometimes there are people who are totally compatible, but just can’t make it work romantically, and they’re that couple for me. Maybe its that they know each other TOO well, and that includes each other at their worst as much as their best....and so even by the time they got together the first time, they already had these expectations and also these preconceptions about each other and how each other tended to act in their other relationships....so I feel like part of it is like....half the time they react to what they THINK the other is going to do, based on previous history, before the other actually even has a CHANCE to do things differently...because it would be different this time, given that its with a different partner...except the other had already boxed them into their previously anticipated behavior? *Shrugs* Like I said. I don’t even entirely get why I have such a problem with the two of them together, I just always do. I love Dick, I love Babs, but put them together and I usually end up being like...I do not like these people.

So yeah. That’s me on those various relationships lol. But also Dick/Kyle for the ultimate win, no the fact that they’ve only interacted like, five times total, like, does not matter to me in the least, look I am aware this sounds like a crack ship but it is REAL and it is a FUNGI and it kept growing and growing until it took over everything and its not my fault, I didn’t give them permission, they just did it.

As for Titans - I have trouble watching things streaming right now because of shitty wi-fi, so like....I’ve literally only watched the first few episodes of S1. All the rest of my knowledge of the show comes from keeping up with the spoilers and summaries and gifsets, lol. I very much WANT to watch it, I just...will have to binge it at some point. So I have a general knowledge of it and what’s going on, and peoples’ reactions to the episodes, and I have a basic awareness of the characters based on those first few episodes and like...matching their acting in my head to their gifsets and stuff, lol, but I can’t really do the kind of analysis of their characters and dynamics on the show as I do with the comic book versions because like....I haven’t really been able to watch all the way through to pick up on all the little stuff that forms the basis of so much of my thoughts and takes on things.