remember tim drake

Excerpt from the second half of Introduction to Tim Drake Studies, now posted here on ao3!

_

“Tim,” sighs Bruce with a parental gentleness that his third child still has trouble processing even after all these years, “would Conner like to join us for dinner?”

The third Robin flounders, peeking over his shoulder and then back again.

“Who?” He asks in a tone scarily believable for a lie so embarrassingly horrible. Kon picks that moment to reappear, now with socks, straightened glasses, and more presentable hair. He leans around Tim and extends a stiff arm out to Bruce.

“Mr. Wayne. Sir,” he greets, trying not to look surprised or terrified in any way when his boyfriend’s father accepts the handshake with a grip that simply cannot be human. Bruce nods.

“Conner.”

The handshake lasts horrifyingly too long. Once he escapes Bruce’s death grip, he surveys Dick and Jason standing on either side of their father and goes with his Kent-brand Southern instincts.

“Mr.-” he pivots his arm out to Dick, continuing after the slightest pause, “Wayne.”

Dick looks over to Jason, then Bruce, and finally at Tim, who seems to be seconds away from crumbling. He shakes Kon’s hand. The teen pivots once again, quicker this time.

“Mr. Wayne,” he addresses Jason, who’s quick to return the gesture.

“Mr. Kent,” Jay draws as he shakes Kon’s hand far more aggressively than necessary.

“Stephanie Brown,” the girl calls from her place at the dinner table where most have already sat down again in attention, “heiress to the Wayne fortune. But you may call me Ms. Leech.” Damian looks to be much too frustrated with his own confusion for a biting remark. His arms are crossed as he grumbles about dinner invitations and “just letting anyone march in now.”

“Hey Steph,” Kon greets with a smile and a small wave as Tim breaks out of his embarrassed stupor enough to ask Bruce, “Wait, you actually wrote her into the will?”

_

absolutely OBSESSED with the way jason is looking at dick here. i can only imagine what his inner monologue is like during this scene:

“ew is that seriously a man-bun? who are you, 2012 chris hemsworth?”

“alfred left you a billion dollars but you couldn’t even spring to get us a fucking pizza, how embarrassing”

GO VOTE FOR THE ROBINS ON TWITTER IF YOU WANT MORE OF THIS COMIC!!!!

IF YOU VOTE FOR THE ROBINS I WILL PERSONALLY REWARD YOU WITH A CAT PICTURE AND MY ETERNAL GRATITUDE OK LET’S MAKE IT HAPPEN PEOPLE

https://twitter.com/DCComics/status/1389973329293971457?s=20

It’s a relatively unassuming wall toward the northwest corner of the bat cave, one that’s subtly shadowed by the giant penny but nevertheless a blank canvas. 

So it’s not that surprising that even in a family full of detectives, the single post-it note stuck onto the rough concrete went unnoticed until a week after its placement. 

It read: RED ROBIN SLIPPING ON ICE AND FALLING FIVE (5) SEPARATE TIMES DURING ONE FIGHT

Tim was slightly perturbed but not surprised; his lack of balance in his suit’s newly designed boots was particularly egregious that night. He retaliates the only way he knows how.

The second post-it is what grabs the attention of the rest of the bats. 

It reads: JASON STARTING THE KEURIG BUT FORGETTING TO PUT HIS MUG UNDER SO COFFEE FLOODED ONTO THE FLOOR

Was Jason the culprit who stuck the first note onto that wall? Unclear. But that didn’t matter. The deed was done.

Soon the wall was deluged with every color and shape of post-it note, detailing every mishap, small or large, committed by any member of the family. The following is an itemized collection of a selection of entries.

STEPHANIE TRYING TO BLEACH HER EYEBROWS AND ENDING UP WITH CHEMICAL BURNS ON HER FACE FOR TWO WEEKS

DUKE FALLING ASLEEP ON PATROL EVEN THOUGH IT WAS THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY

CASS LETTING STEPHANIE CUT HER HAIR

DICK FORGETTING THE MIRANDA RIGHTS BUT KNOWING EVERY LYRIC TO THE ENTIRE MAMA MIA SOUNDTRACK

BRUCE.

BARBARA FORGETTING SHE REGISTERED FOR A CLASS UNTIL THE DAY OF THE FINAL

DAMIAN FAILING A HISTORY TEST BECAUSE HE NEVER WENT TO CLASS AND ALSO FORGOT WHO GEORGE WASHINGTON WAS

It's been some time since the pioneering post-it stuck alone on the relatively unassuming wall toward the northwest corner of the bat cave, one that’s subtly shadowed by the giant penny but nevertheless a blank canvas.

Exactly how much time? Who's to say. There was a short-lived push for a uniform dating system, which never quite caught on due in equal parts to natural proclivities for rule-breaking and an unresolvable conflict between the unflappable believers in day/month/year and the diehard month/day/year loyalists.

All this to say that there's a lot of new post-its on the wall, and a respectable number of non-post-it materials for shaming, which include:

index cards where you can still see the shoddily-erased physics 101 vocabulary terms

the backs of redacted files that 100% should have been shredded

Jason's death certificate (forgery)

name tag stickers

old demerit slips

a photo of Batman autographed as "Bruce Wayne" (authentic)

and at least two (2) receipts from the closest Red Robin chain restaurant (in South Central PA, ~2.5 hours away from Gotham) with totals amounting to exactly $420.69

There's some sort of complicated archival/lamination system that no body else apart from Barbara, Tim, and potentially Alfred (?) understands but works nonetheless to keep enough space open for new notes without spilling over into a more visible area of the cave and to generally prevent devastating water damage.

The following is an itemized collection of selected entries not included in the first update.

DUKE ATTEMPTING TO RECREATE THAT B99 COLD OPEN DURING AN ACTUAL POLICE LINEUP AFTER REPEATED WARNINGS NOT TO DO THAT EXACT THING

& immediately below:

JASON BEING IN THAT POLICE LINEUP AND LEADING 4 JOKER GOONS THROUGH EVERY. SINGLE. VERSE. OF "I WANT IT THAT WAY" TWICE. & ALMOST BEING ACTUALLY ARRESTED FOR DELAYING AN INVESTIGATION

DAMIAN AND BRUCE TELLING REPORTERS WILDLY CONTRADICTORY COVER STORIES AT THE EXACT SAME TIME, MAYBE 5 FEET AWAY FROM EACH OTHER

TIM FLYING TO SAN FRANCISCO FOR HIS FIRST WEEKEND OFF IN (???) YEARS & WAKING UP TO 75-80% OF THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS OUTSIDE HIS WINDOW

BRUCE OWING FAVORS TO 75-80% OF THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS AFTER MOBILIZING THEM TO HELP FIND HIS SON, WHO "FORGOT" TO TELL ANYONE HE WAS SPENDING THE WEEKEND IN CALIFORNIA (note: unrelated to previous entry)

DICK CONTINUING TO MAINTAIN A 1 FOR 3 AVERAGE IN YEARLY SPACE MISSIONS WHERE HE DOES'NT UNINTENTIONALLY COMMIT THE SPACE EQUIVALENT TO A FEDERAL-GRADE CRIME

STEPH HAVING TO PRETEND SHE'S BRUCE'S ILLEGITIMATE DAUGHTER IN COLLEGE AFTER SAYING THAT, "I AM WEARING A PURPLE SHIRT" (SHE WAS) AND "I AM BATGIRL" (STILL IS, MIRACULOUSLY) DURING 2 TRUTHS AND A LIE ON THE FIRST DAY

CASS STRAIGHT UP PUNCHING A GUY WHILE ON THE NEWS & REALLY HAMMING UP THE "OH! MY KNUCKLES! OH, THEY HURT! I'M FRAIL! A FRAIL HEIRESS WHO HAS NEVER ONCE KNOCKED A MAN CLEAN OUT BEFORE IN MY LIFE!" ACTING PERFORMANCE AFTERWARDS

“Dick Grayson’s concept design for Damian’s Robin uniform.”

From Batman Files.

DICK DESIGNED DAMIAN’S UNIFORM, GUYS. WITH NO DISCO COLLARS. OR FEATHERS. 

DICK GRAYSON DRAAAAAWWWWSSS!!

WHHAAAAAAT?!!!

And omg he drew his brother. Do you think that’s how he began bonding with Damian? Aaaand maybe Damian gave him some pointers. Aaaaand Damian stared at his brother’s work with something approaching respect. Because he didn’t realize Grayson was also an artist. He hadn’t know the schematics of that old Gotham building actually didn’t come from the library. That Dick is actually quite brilliant with technical drawings and design. That, in the beginning, he helped Bruce, design a lot of their equipment and locations. Maybe even Titans Tower and defensive weaponry and vehicles.

And maybe he startes to bond with Damian through art, and is gracious enough to ask Damian for pointers or advice on how to tweak Damian’s Robin suit, which of course, makes Damian’s eyes widen and makes him pause and feel kinda cared for and he scoffs, because he has to save face, and then has an awesome drawing session with Grayson to “improve” the design and, of course, he eventually chooses what Dick designed anyway and ugh…so MANY FEELINGS.

And don’t you all find it funny how Damian’s Robin design is a call back to Dick’s first inspiration, Robin Hood?

And it’s funny how Dick is the one who designed it.

lskdkldjfkjdf thank u sm here r some related doodles!! 🥺❤️❤️

Bruce:

Percentage of the world that's white: 11.5%

that's male: 51.9%

that’s straight: hard to confirm given the number of places where it’s illegal, but estimated at approx. 94.9%

that's cis: harder to ID, but estimated at 99.4%

that's allo: again, estimate only, 94.9%

that's Christian: 31%

that's neurotypical: estimated at 97%

that has no disabilities: 85%

I wanted to put another perspective here on the percentages added above. I’ve been pretty interested in data visualization projects for a bit and because of that I’m always thinking about framing data/demographic precentages to most accurately present them within their specific contexts and nuances.

Just something to think about: the percentages here are taken from predicted world population data with a generous margin of error (as op stated as well). So this answer of 1.37% is 1.37% of the entire world population. I’m not sure what year(s) op collected data from but the tweet is dated for November 2019, so at least late 2019/early 2020.

The UN projected the world population to be around 7.713 billion at the end of 2019.

1.4% of 7.713 billion is 107,982,000. So in using these numbers and this logic system, the projected number of men with all of these characteristics is about 108 million.

But also none of this really applies to a great amount of fictional media. A book set in 2500 BC Egypt will have much different demographics than one set in modern day Denver, Colorado- y’know? It’s pretty much the same in real life, as in the predicted 1.4% of the global population will draw much more heavily from a Western European country like Ireland rather than South Korea, for instance, as anywhere with an Asian or otherwise non-white majority population naturally would have less- you guessed it -white people.

These are so vividly meant to be on the front page of some Gotham City $0.99 tabloid with a headline like:

FORMER CEO DEMOTED TO INTERN? BRUCE WAYNE CAUGHT FUMBLING WITH COFFEE DELIVERY RUN

“Oh no, what a shame. Whatever will Tim do without a fourth iced coffee for the day?” Says Wayne, after accidentally dropping the tray into a nearby trash can.

Let’s all appreciate Damian and Tim in the background of this week’s Nightwing issue

But even more, I like the idea of their dynamic forming without any other intention or motive besides being brothers. Like, there’s no “fixing” or co-dependency or anything because they’d find each other naturally when the barriers on either side have already been personally addressed, if that makes sense?

Sometimes combative relationships become more-so habitual as time passes, wounds heal, and people grow. [in general, not referencing any specific comic runs or issues] Tim and Damian's introduction to each other virtually guaranteed hostility. For ~15 year old traumatized Robin Tim and ~10 year old traumatized assassin Damian to be immediately civil with each other would have required levels of emotional maturity neither of them could possibly achieve at that time. 

I honestly don’t think either of them can be justifiably “blamed” or carry a huge amount of responsibility for their animosity. Certainly, anyone could try to use canon examples to argue culpability on either side, as in: Damian’s repeated use of physical violence, Tim failing to be “the bigger person” when he is the older brother, etc. But where’s the validity in holding traumatized children up to a strict standard of maturity? 

I suppose that’s the marvel in their growth, no? They were doomed from the start, failed by the adults that were supposed to protect them and all too familiar with fighting to survive. And then these boys- still young, still just kids with too many scars -find each other so naturally alongside their own paths to healing. 

The sheer amount of defiance needed to get to this point where they can decide their own narrative, the intrinsic improbability of two individual crusades to prosper over tragedy-- these two are self-made miracles. 

Becoming close brothers and allies wasn’t some final stop along a hero’s journey, or an unsustainable coping mechanism, or even an “I’m sorry; let’s just start over” situation. To anyone within or close to the family, their camaraderie could seem sudden, suspicious even, like the calm before the storm. The family’s continual demands of civility at every raised voice had expanded to mistrust in silence, so that eventually reconciling became hopeless and reprimanding became habit. 

And that’s the most intense, the most brilliant, visible radiance of Tim Drake and Damian Wayne: coming together is not a miracle, but it’s at the intersection of two. It’s these kids finding their brother at an impossible point and not turning back, but instead asking: “where to next?”