im tired and a jerk

Titans Tower AUs typically happen like this: a 13-14y/o Tim is minding his business in the tower, Jason ambushes/tortures him, Tim begs for Jason to stop, and Jason snaps out of his “pit madness” to relent before Tim is killed. Tim is revealed to have been a huge fan of Jason and considers him “his Robin”, and over time Tim manages to bring Jason back into the fold through the power of familial love/brotherhood or whatever.

In these fics, the Lazarus Pit is used as a vehicle to remove Jason from responsibility for his choices. It wasn’t really Jason committing those actions, he was being influenced by “the green”. Side effects from the Lazarus Pit in canon are extremely temporary, but in these stories the Lazarus Pit gives Jason the permanent side-effect of near-uncontrollable anger and rage. He wasn’t in his right mind when he attacked Tim, so it’s not “really” Jason committing these actions, he wouldn’t have done it if it weren’t for “the green” clouding his vision. Due to this, Tim is subtly encouraged by the narrative to forgive Jason for what he’s done because Jason is also framed as a victim in this situation.

This is interconnected with the second aspect, which is how these fics change Tim and Jason’s dynamic. They are given a much larger age gap, with Tim being an early adolescent and Jason being around 18-20 years old. Compounding this is the way the relationship is portrayed more personally, with Tim always having admired Jason as Robin and Tim having his biological parents be both physically and emotionally abusive towards him. These end up changing the dynamic to be one of overt familial violence between an older sibling towards a younger one. Tim is separated from his mother and father by their abuse, and many times these fics already have Tim adopted into the family before Jason’s return. Jack and Janet’s abuse in these stories is often extreme to the point of parody, and makes Jason’s abuse look “not as bad” in comparison and the preferable option, despite whatever torture he puts Tim through. Canon Tim didn’t have a super high opinion of Jason, and the fight does not come off as Jason being an abusive sibling but rather just Jason being some asshole who pops up out of nowhere. Fanon also dials up the violence of the encounter to way, way higher levels than what canonically happens, having the throat slit from Hush happen here instead, which gives the entire story a gross, exploitative feel to it, at least in my opinion.

Lastly, and most importantly, “Good Dad Bruce” almost always forgives Jason for his actions no matter how awful the encounter was. Jason faces no consequences, at best Jason will give an apology (and sometimes not even that), and Bruce/Dick/Alfred and even Tim himself are happy to have their “Little Wing” back. Jason’s trauma is prioritized over Tim’s, even when the story is from Tim’s POV, and Jason is portrayed as a “good guy led astray” rather than as an abuser. The family acts as a means to reinforce the narrative that responsibility lies with “the green’s influence” and not with Jason, as well as having Tim himself advocate for Jason’s forgiveness. Tim and Jason become “brothers” and all past actions are forgiven. Dick’s canonical anger at Jason is rarely portrayed, and staunchly anti-death characters such as Cassandra are chill with it (if not outright excluded from the story because of the authors unfamiliarity with canon). Tim becomes the actor made responsible for Jason’s “redemption”, and while on rare occasion this will be pointed out, it’s usually brushed aside because Tim is proven to be right, and more often than not Tim’s goals are subtly encouraged by the story through their endings and/or narrative arcs. The victim of abuse becomes his abuser’s advocate.

These tropes combine to create a narrative about abuse. The story becomes not about redemption or forgiveness or family, but instead about how abuse can become excused through narrative and interpersonal/familial systems. Tim is the victim of a horrible, horrible crime that nearly kills him…and is forced to watch as his found family excuses, coddles, and forgives the person who did it to him because of their connections. His anger, his resentment is not allowed because responsibility is diverted away from the perpetrator and towards outside actors such as the Lazarus Pit or Talia, which serves to make the reader think Tim is justified in his own forgiveness towards Jason. Jason’s own tragedy is emphasized to muffle the heinousness of what he’s done, and to portray his actions as tragic instead of evil. Tim’s closeness with and admiration of Jason preempts him to forge a bond with his abuser after the fact, and this is not portrayed as a potentially harmful or unhealthy effort to undertake. Tim becomes a victim, Jason becomes an abuser, and the family is the means by which the abuse is normalized.

I have experienced this situation, I have lived it. I know what it feels like to have your own pain ignored and have empathy turned towards the person who hurt you, instead. I have seen how families excuse abuse when it’s done by someone they call their own, and I have seen how families use these methods to mitigate the seriousness of what was done, has been done, and will be done. “It wasn’t me, it was the alcohol”, “You know how he gets sometimes”, “I just have a bad temper”, “He didn’t mean to hurt you that badly”, etc. That is why I find Fanon Tim Drake so relatable, and I hope others feel the same way. These are not “Hurt/Comfort”or “Enemy to Caretaker” fics, these are stories of abuse and I wish they were advertised as such.

Obviously, I hold no ill will towards people who enjoy these types of stories or create them. I’m aware many of these people come from a similar background to my own. I’m aiming to have a discussion, not incite a mob. I want to look at these stories perhaps a bit more critically, and perhaps encourage others to limit the unintentional subtext some of these stories may contain, because I doubt every single one of these stories is aiming to portray the Batfam as abusive when the tags are “Good Dad Bruce” and “Dick Grayson is a Ray of Sunshine” and “Fluff/Angst”.