rose of taif

every story has a spine. i break it to see what it’s made of.

🗞️ Lois Lane | An Introduction 🗞️

"You want honesty? Here it is: People lie. Systems lie. Power lies. I don’t. And that’s why they hate me. The world turns on stories—who tells them, who believes them, who fears them. I tell mine loud enough that no one can pretend they didn’t hear."

lois lane, investigative reporter, survivor, relentless seeker of what others bury. a woman who has stood in war zones, boardrooms, alien frontiers—and never once backed down. this blog explores her tenacity, her victories and scars, and the stories she refuses to let die.

༝๋࣭ ⭑ ༝ 📰٠ ࣪⭑ here's what you'll find:

✧ character-driven writing – slightly canon-divergent & multi-verse interpretations.

✧ open to all interactions – i welcome both spontaneous and plotted threads. non-rp blogs are welcome to send asks or interact with posts.

✧ versatile storytelling – whether through quick exchanges or long-term narratives, i enjoy exploring different dynamics.

✧ original characters & crossover friendly – i’m happy to interact with original characters and explore crossovers beyond dc canon.

✧ ship & character neutral – no biases against any particular ship or character, though i may choose not to interact with a particular dynamic if it conflicts with ongoing plotlines, lore or interests.

✧ mature themes - while I do not actively write nsfw content, i am open to engaging with suggestive ideas. i am also comfortable exploring darker or sensitive themes where appropriate, with necessary content warnings.

༯,⋆.˚ tags i use:

#behind the byline (general character-related posts)

#on the record (asks)

#ooc musings (general ooc commentary)

#field report: live (action-based threads)

#between front pages (softer interactions)

#off to print (the daily planet-related posts)

#verse (roleplay settings)

#thread (roleplay thread)

༯,⋆.˚ interaction and roleplay tags:

#open starter (open rp prompts)

#closed starter (threads written for a specific rp partner)

the page turns. dare you read on? [ @qalbalghul ]

[ @alghulras ]

[ @ruhalghul ]

[ @theleagueofassassins ]

THIS is what canonically happened in red robin #5. ra's has no interaction with tim's spleen and barely even talks to him twice.

he's not "weirdly obsessed" with tim. please let go of that. not only does it make absolutely 0 sense and does not hold up at all, it contributes to a variety of harmful stereotypes surrounding the characterisation of the al ghuls.

tim drake is an interesting character and definitely has the potential to do well if he's written correctly, but i don't see the need to bastardise ra's al ghul (a character that predates tim) for it..?

Seriously, what is this? She wouldn't say that. You can tell this man has no respect for her characterisation in The Question (1987).

this is a list of comics to understand the basics of her character! ive seen a lot of people who didnt know where to start to read so ive compiled this list to make it as easy as possible for new readers to get into stephanie brown

who is stephanie brown?

daughter of the criminal and abusive father cluemaster (arthur brown), she became the spoiler to ‘spoil’ her father’s robbery and overall to protect herself and her mother from him. eventually she digs the vigilante life. she becomes robin briefly and is currently one of the batgirls!

as SPOILER:

⟢ secret origins: 80-page giant

this comic /technically/ is set in the future and is steph ‘telling the story of her childhood’ but honestly i find it pretty suitable even with no context and a must read in my eyes to understand her motives and character

⟢ detective comics 647 - 649

her first appearance… with the iconic brick in the face 😭 this comic is not set in a precise timeline, just post-robin 1991 and pre-knightfall so you can read it with no context as well!

⟢ showcase ‘95 #5 (second story)

PLEASE READ THIS i never see it in reading lists and its sooo important to me. it shows steph’s strained relationship with her mother when her dad is not in the picture and briefly some of her school life!

i’d say read robin (1993) afterwards because it consistently features steph, as much as it is ‘tim’s solo run’, but here THE most important stories (they were very hard to pick)

⟢ robin (1993) #3 - 5

her first appearance in the monthly! and lordd the timsteph here makes me sick. tim being saved by steph 🫶 also more on her and her mom as crystal is starting recovery from drug addiction

⟢ robin (1993) issue 15 - 16

not gonna lie, a huge part of me wants me to suggest it because you get to see arthur get his ass kicked by steph (sweet revenge) but theres also steph being saved by tim for a change and more on steph’s relationship with her dad

⟢ robin (1993) #35

this story for me conveys properly the impact that steph’s upbringing had on her sense of justice and morality being fundamentally different from batman and robin’s, something tim and bruce just can’t understand

⟢ robin (1993) #40 - 41

warning / implied SA (ariana ☹️) the story is a two-parter, steph’s side in issue 40 uses diary entries to explain how she feels about the whole vigilante ordeal. issue 41 is more timsteph oriented but it shows tim finally acknowledging his feelings for steph

⟢ huntress/spoiler: blunt trauma

this story happens during cataclysm but its not necessary to read the whole thing + dean’s first appearance 😒 he is the scumbag bastard ‘father of steph’s child’ + helena and steph linkup!!

⟢ robin (1993) #54 and 56-57

BAD CASE OF THE STEPHS MENTIONED + steph and crystal bonding and tim and steph getting together!!! + robin 57 as guilty pleasure :3 their first official date

⟢ robin (1993) #58-65

warning: dixon tackling teen pregnancy. we all know how that goes. remember dean? well steph got pregnant! and that guy bailed on her. dean when i get you. this arc breaks me everytime, steph you deserve the world ☹️

⟢ lewis era robin (1993) aka robin #100 - 120 HEAVY ON ROBIN 111

warning for SA / glimpses on steph’s childhood + dealing with the fact that her father is dead etc etc that will just make you think we should all just kill ourselves yk!!!!

as ROBIN:

⟢ robin (1993) #126 - 128

warning: debatable writing. robin steph! but take everything with like 5 pinches of different salts 😭 its bad y’all but it is essential. dan didio when i get your ass. dan didio when i get youuu

⟢ steph is dead! arc aka batman 634, detective comics 800 and 809, batgirl 62

i fucking hate war games so im not putting y'all through that. here instead: tim being so overcome by grief he can barely react to steph's passing, bruce remembering steph and cass hallucinating her as she is about to die

after that please just imagine that steph came back cause about every issue after her death was the worst ooc writing ever so, again, not putting you guys through that (its tough for stephanie brown fans)

as BATGIRL:

⟢ batgirl (2009)

i wanna say im conflicted about its writing but its about the best thing steph had post-revival. they constantly insult her spoiler legacy so not a fan of that!! but it is essential and i mostly like the rest so whatever :3 steph’s uni arc!

This page is so fucked up, if you stop and think about it a little. Batman, the hero of Gotham who protects everyone, the hero who comforts children with lollipops, intended to send his own 10 year old son to an abusive place.

In this context, Talia is a horrible mother who can (and did) willingly kill her own son. Damian didn't even meet her until he was eight. He was deprived of a mother's and father's love. Talia was an abusive and evil character, a cartoonish, a two dimensional villain.

In this context, League of Assassins wasn't an organisation that wanted to make world a better place for animals and plants. They gassed Damian's pets because apparently they were a weakness. They were a cult who terrorised everything and everyone with only evil intentions.

And Bruce Wayne, Batman, wanted to send his son, a ten year old child who didn't know anything other than pain, death and suffering, to this abusive cult and to his abusive mother just because he saw a dream of an evil Batman. He didn't even know it was Damian, he just assumed it was. And it took Damian's death to prove him that it actually wasn't him.

Bruce might have not abused Damian with his own hands, but sending him to League of Assassins, even while Damian said that he wanted to stay with his father, begged him to not send him to his mother, even while before this, Damian still had chosen Bruce over Talia, is abusive.

Writer tried to justify it by saying, "Oh, yes, this child will be a very evil adult when he grows up.". But that's also fucked up in it's own. No one should be punished for something they didn't do.

You see a dream in which your child allegedly becomes a villain in the future. So instead of, you know, raising him to be a better person and teaching him to be a hero, you sent him to a villain organisation where he will be a bigger threat by being a worldwide villain, not just a Gotham villain. Great idea, Bruce 😃!

Damian was desperately trying to gain his father's approval, he was desperate for his father's love. He tried, repeatedly, to prove himself to Bruce. And in return Bruce did this. And yes, Damian died because of this. Because he wanted to show his father that he could be good. Thus, this made it his end.

And no one around them said that it wasn't a good idea to send a child to his abusive mother. So they are not blameless too.

before i even begin dissecting everything wrong with this exchange (a herculean task that could take a lifetime), let’s talk about the irony here: of all the forms of shakti, talia aligns most closely with the archetype of goddess sati.

kali, the fiercest manifestation of adi parashakti, is the destructive force—the wrath, the end. even durga, the warrior goddess, would arguably be a closer match. (also, with the league's stronghold in calcutta, i imagine talia has witnessed the nine days of durgo pujo at least once.)

but no, it’s sati—dakshayani, “daughter of daksh”—who fits talia’s essence. torn between her love for her ascetic husband, shiv, and her devotion to her father, daksh prajapati (literally, “agent of creation”), sati embodies the eternal conflict talia carries. like talia, she is a beloved daughter, bound to a father whose cruelty eventually leads to tragedy.

sati left the opulence of her palace to live on mount kailash with her husband. the cold, the unyielding and the divine terrain is to shiv what gotham is to batman.

shiv himself is the all-forgiving, the redeemer, the eternal constant, above all else. doesn't that sound familiar? shakti, whether as sati or her other forms, his eternal consort and equal, is his balance and his strength.

the cruelty of daksh has such a clear mirror with the needlessly villainous way ra’s al ghul is often written.

talia could also align with goddess parvati—“she from the mountains,” the reincarnation of sati. parvati, with her rational and supportive father himavan (the personification of the himalayas), is the one who brings shiv back from his reclusive despair after sati’s death. in prayers and chants, lord shiv is titled as "parvati pyaara" — parvati's beloved. two forces, bound eternally, drawn together and balanced in ways neither can fully resist nor escape. the layers! the symbolism! and yet, here we are.

kali represents the dark feminine: detached from familial love, consumed by unbridled fury. in mythology, shiv is often depicted lying beneath her rampaging form. after she slew countless creatures following the battle against raktabīja, shiv intervened, placing himself in her path. in her blind rage, she struck him, only to be shaken and embarrassed when she realised her mistake, subduing her fury by cutting out her own tongue.

while kali’s untamed rage is a powerful metaphor for destruction and rebirth, it is incompatible with talia’s narrative, which thrives on the delicate interplay between love, duty, and sacrifice. framing her solely through this archetype reduces her to a force of chaos rather than a woman of agency and purpose.

kali is a goddess of finality, a breaker of cycles; talia, on the other hand, embodies the struggle within cycles—caught between her devotion to her father, duty to her son, and her love for bruce. her choices are not made in the absence of emotion but in the overwhelming presence of it: torn loyalties, quiet sacrifices, and the endless tug-of-war between her upbringing and her desires.

sati and parvati’s journeys speak to the qualities that truly reflect talia. their love is not without pain, but it is rooted in endurance, choice, and balance. sati/parvati’s creation was brahma (“the creator”)’s response to shiv’s detachment from the world—just as talia challenges bruce’s obsessive singular focus on the mission. they bring balance to men consumed by isolation, drawing them back into the fold of worldly connection.

to equate talia with kali alone serves only to distance her from the possibility of a shared, grounded life with bruce. the comparison implies that a woman’s anger or independence must alienate her from love or normalcy, erasing her complexity and reducing her story to a one-dimensional tragedy.

kali is wild, untamed, and disconnected from earthly attachments. like goddess durga, talia, however, is not a symbol of unrestrained rage but of calculated strength: a mother’s love tempered by a warrior’s resolve. 

 reducing her to a singular force of destruction, flattens talia’s character – when she is so much more. she is a woman of contradictions—yearning for connection yet shaped by violence, defined by her sacrifices for damian and her attempts to reconcile the violent world she was born into with the gentler one she wishes to build.