MANETGLAZER

GREAT FANTASTIC LOVELY QUESTION. WHICH I AM ANSWERING IN A TIMELY MANNER (LIE). i keep proper diagnoses for characters sorta vague (esp Jekyll cuz that's kinda The Vibe RLS had going on), but when I am writing I do work with a few things in mind to steer characterization. Bruce Wayne my dearly beloved is an unfun concoction of PTSD and depression with a lovely dash of 'tism. Bruce's problem is that he varies so wildly from different comic runs so it's always a bit difficult pinning him down and keeping him from squirming away into sociopathy or a paranoid personality disorder or OCD. A LOT of comics also sorta veer into narcissim. BUTTTT my personal take (for Ego Death, at least) is autism + PTSD + depression + OCPD. Talk about comorbidity. I lean into OCPD heavily for his pretty rigid moral code, plus also the PTSD + depression because of the whole.... literally everything that's happened to him. This is me super dumbing everything down but you get it there's about 100k words about this shit on ao3. BUT ALSO Ego Death is about an older Bruce who has had time to sit with himself but ALSO has constructed a system (read: stole children) that somewhat actively promotes a concious approach to his mental health. In other words, he's encouraged by the presence of loved ones in his life to do SOME introspection. I can't remember if I've vaguely alluded to it at all in Ego Death so far, but he's a Bruce that's received a weeeee bit of professional health but is also ultimately a man that is untherapizable (TO A DEGREE) because he knows all the tricks.

I’ll try to translate the divine message as eloquently as I can but I’m afraid some things will be lost in translation 💔. Also I will be excluding some things cuz… it will be expounded on in ego death trust ☝️☝️☝️ you will get my full thesis fleshed out through flowery ass prose in the fic when… we get there. 👼👼🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

Vulnerability is something that comes difficult to a man afraid to be seen for what he is.

Mental/emotional, physical/sexual, etc. Literally any vulnerability comes difficult to Henry Jekyll (in Ego Death). If he can’t imagine being emotionally vulnerable with someone, there’s no way in hell he would do anything in a romantic/sexual context with them. Vulnerability/touch is inherently intimate to him (and not necessarily romantic/sexual), and it’s due in part because of him just being… himself, but also some lingering Victorian standards.

I say ‘vaguely’ ace/demi because it’s .. vague, and you could also interpret it as him just being afraid of human connection. To me Henry’s both in this case lol.

Literally stealing my own quote from another fic rq. Being loved is about being known, and Henry Jekyll has never been truly known (or when he has, it’s resulted in. Not good things). It’s partially why I think he eventually rejects religion (at least in Ego Death; there’s literally five thousand reasons why he gives up on religion in my damn fic)— God is omnipotent, omniscient; all-knowing. How could a man like Henry Jekyll be known by any creature and live to tell the tale?

‘Sexual deviant’ or ‘undiscerning lover’ Jekyll/Hyde interpretations are cool and all, but I genuinely believe that he’s a character that wouldn’t be able to do one-off relationships or sexual flings. One: his ass probably couldn’t even get it up. Two: There has to be some sort of connection with a solid foundation and at LEAST scaffolding before he’s going to want anyone. Three: a very strict avoidance of intimacy, both as a societal standard of the time and a genuine FEAR of being intimate. Even long-term relationships with a foundation I believe be would have difficulty with, because he doesn’t WANT to be vulnerable but he also WANTS to be vulnerable. It’s just his brain chemistry but also the fact that genuine people in the Victorian era were always out of stock, or at least were tucked away for the holidays as being an out of season product. Idk why I’m using metaphors. GENUINE VICTORIAN PEOPLE WERE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN SO IT WAS DIFFICULT TO CONNECT!! And Henry Jekyll was one of the many disingenuous people. Also, it further removed him from Victorian society (even though it was prudish) where people were expected to court, fall in love, then bang it out and make babies or whatever it is ppl do. Me when my fave is an outcast for five billion reasons.

So it’s a basis on a concern of genuine connection, difficulty even developing romantic feelings, and the fear of being known. Henry Jekyll’s two greatest fears to me are 1. Being known and 2. Never being known.

Also blah blah connection to Bruce Wayne (at least REPORTEDLY or ACCORDING TO THE PRESS) having empty flings to present a false idea of himself to the world. It’s difficult for Bruce to have his own close relationships because they would have to know him, wholly, as a pre-requisite to anything genuine, or the relationship wouldn’t actually be with Bruce, but with a facsimile. And maybe he’s vaguely demiromantic and bisexual. Vaguely. Or whatever. But this isn’t about him u asked me about Henry 

It’s sort of a throughline in my writing. Like not even only in fanfic, but my personal fiction. I like to pick stray characters up by the scruff and shake them around and if they would at all have difficulty being vulnerable, I make them vaguely ace/demi.

So I tend to write vaguely ace/demi characters lol 🥸

YOUR MIND!!! SOCKED CATBERT OH MY GLOB….

the curse of catbert fic vocab… I actually laced that shit with a real spell that would make u mutter concerning things at work. ALSO OUT OF ALL THE QUOTES?? ‘YOU’RE AN ECOTERRORIST’ SPOKEN RANDOMLY OUT OF CONTEXT IS INSANE. but also real asl Herman was spitting straight fire during those scenes I was kicking my feet n giggling while I was writing them. Like yes Herm speak ur truth lil buddy snap back silly style. my grown ass man lil buddy 🫶🫶