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Extending my DTIYS "Draw This In Your Style" to Tumblr! I drew a cute drawing of Summer and Luna for you to draw in your style! 💖✨ I encourage you to add your own creative spin if you'd like! Thank you so much for your love and support 💕💕 Tag me in the post!

*) And with 'shotgun' I obviously mean Tommy gun.

Alfred: "Pardon me, Master Bruce, but I fear I may have put a dent in the limo." Bruce: Staring with open mouth at the burnt out husk of his Limo, in the end of a trail of destruction.

Clark: "Lois, what have we said about guns?"

I really like the arthurian fisher king lens of viewing Batman, because it puts the characters - and Gotham - in such an interesting relationship to each other.

The king and queen of the realm worked hard during dark times to ease the pain of the people and raised the true heir of the throne to become a fair and just ruler, just like them. But, alas, tragedy struck and the young prince set out to forge his destiny not as the shining king or even White Knight destiny would have him as, but rather as a Dark Knight, tainted by the evil of the land and unable to lift his realm from it.

The True King and Queen: Thomas and Martha Wayne - deceased

The True Heir: Bruce Wayne, refusing the mantel. To all apperances an Unfit Ruler

The Dark Knight: Batman. (Stories that focus on the Fisher King aspect, i.e. that the state of Gotham is a reflection of the turmoil in his soul, likes to focus on the Dark part).

The Squires: the Robins and the extended bat family

Side note: There are basically four sources of power in this kind of stories:

Legitimate Power ('only the true king can draw the sword from the stone'). This is the source of Bruce's power, and by extension the power lended to those loyal to him, like Alfred, the Robins and Jim. There is also a certain amount of hirearchy here, where even bad rulers of various levels have power just by being rulers such as the Court of Owls and sometimes the Penguin.

Ilegitimate Power. (like the pagan magic of Merlin or Morgan, contrasted with the Christian power of God-chosen king Arthur). Forrest Witch Poision Ivy as well as chemically altered super villains like Bane, Clayface and (in some stories) the Joker and Mr Freeze. Also 'real' magic users, ghosts, aliens and extradimensional imps.

Virtue Power (like in most medieval saint stories). Ordinary people who by the power of doing the right thing gets rewarded with power over the forces of evil (or at least gets to be martured in a cool way). This is the origin story of pretty much every Robin, as well as people like Leslie Thompkins and Vicki Vale.

Personal Badassery ('the strongest man in seven villages'). This is where we find people like the Riddler, Catwoman, the Joker, Harley Quinn and most of Batman's Rogues Gallery. Although these people can be formidable, the story format still places this power source as lesser than the other three.

With no fitting ruler on the throne, the realm falls into disarray. The Corrupt Nobles (Court of Owls) scheme in the shadows while The Barons - mobsters and gangs (including the police) - bicker for power (Note that Jim Gordon is here framed as a Good Baron, a feudal 'middle manager' that's still loyal to the True Ruler, even in his current form). The rabble - the superstitious, cowardly lot - fight against each other and their betters. Wandering knights create order or chaos wherever they go, each after their own creed.

There is a shining light in the darkness, though. A White Knight in the form of Harvey Dent who promises to stem the tide of darkness. Alas, evil corrupts him - without the power of his virtue he is left as just another squabbling baron.

And just as we have a 'false' white knight we have false rulers. People who would claim the mantle of the true king and queen or ursurp the power of the prince. Hugo Strange fits here, and the Penguin in some stories (the Tim Burton movie, for example).

An interesting example is Ra's al Ghul who qualifies as a Legitimate Lord in his own right - a Dark King. That puts Talia on equal footing with Bruce - a Dark Heir - but unlike him she has not deviated from her path. She offers him escape from his twisted fate, a restoration to his lost nobility, but his creed and obligation keeps him in his sundered kingdom.

This reading works best on Gotham/Batman-centric stories, where the larger DC universe is kept in the background. But I suppose Wonderwoman and Superman could be seen as fellow lords as well.

I feel that this tag more than anything else summarises what a special dear-to-my-heart shithole Gotham is.

Someone from Gotham: "Oh yeah? Well OUR pollen mind controls us. And that's only if the smog doesn't get us first."

Someone from Metropolis: "Brrrrr. Winter is chilly this year."

Someone from Gothan: "OH YEAH? Ever heard about a little someone called 'Mr Freeze'?"

Central City Cousin: "Wow! Sounds intense."

Gothamite: "Hah, to you, maybe. For us it's just a way of life. Like, the other day when Killer Crock smashed my carpool and..."

Central City Cousin: "Just a minute..." * turns offscreen * "No, the energy crystals are in the other cupboard. Those are my M&M" * turns back * "Sorry, you were saying?"

Gothamite: "...energy crystals?"

Glimmer: “ I miss them. I was so awful to them the last time we saw each other… I’d do anything to go back and make it right.“

Glimmer: “…What about you? What would you be doing if we were back on Etheria?“

“I’d… Uh… Nothing. There’s… nothing for me on Etheria…”

Prime serves up food from long destroyed worlds. Which means that they can't be freshly sourced - they have to have been preserved and placed in storage at some point. And if these relics of dead worlds are, in essence, just being pulled from the freezer... then there's no reason to think they were prepared on the Glove.

Why go to all the trouble (and risk) of having "inferior" conquered peoples teach clones the complex, creative skills needed to turn component ingredients into a finished product... when you can just demand they provide prepared dishes as tribute (and then destroy the source, to ensure it's scarcity)?