#at himself

lex being scared to even hold Bruce’s girls because he’s so terrified of messing something up. And he’s trying to explain this to Bruce or something like. No he doesn’t think he’ll drop them. No he won’t take his eyes off them if he’s watching them, but- it just feels wrong. Like hes tainting something so good by being close to them. Like he’ll do the same thing to his own pup. It’s a never ending intrusive thought that he can’t escape. He’s *wrong* and shouldn’t *be here*. Lex has decades of healing ahead of him, but they all do and all know what that’s like even if different circumstances.

*slaps future fic on the hood* yeah this baby can hold SO much pregnancy angst in it

Realistic he knows his plan wouldn't work.

But Drake looks really out of it today and his back is turned toward him and vulnerable to attack-

Damian pushed Tim.

(Ugh sorry this ask is jumbled as hell)

I haven't made a post, anon! But I agree. I actually think that was a case where Rio, uhhhhh, re-wrote history, haha.

I think in the moment of it he wasn't thinking about pushing Beth to realise her own capacity at all; rather, I think he was on edge from Nick getting closer to her, then felt the hit to his pride when Beth made the jab about him doing what Nick says, and I think he wanted two things. He wanted to be back in control, and he wanted a reaction out of her, and taking the money gave him both.

The way he circled back at the end of the episode to me felt like he regret his own impulsivity in that scene (and the way he gave in to the demands of his ego), and my read of it was returning the money was his regret, returning the furniture in the same beat was an apology, and taking a t-shirt was about course correcting from the original exchange. Appealing to Beth's need for validation in that sense too was about shifting the tone of what had happened altogether, and trying to move it away from a petty punishment and into the quasi teaching moment that Rio tried to make it instead.

And personally, I kind of love that for his character, haha. In a lot of ways, it felt like this incredible emphasis on the way that he knew her because he knew she'd respond to all of it, but he especially knew that she'd respond to him taking the money. Flipping it then feels too like an emphasis on Rio's character, as he's someone who regularly manipulates and massages context to create something that works best for him. He flipped the moment from putting her in her place to a moment that was instead about inviting her to take up space, because he wanted to walk back what he'd done.

Or, perhaps more accurately, he tried to twist his impulsive, petty and punishing choice into one instead that was patient, supportive and empowering to fix it.

I don't really think it worked, haha, but I do think Beth read the apology in it, despite herself, especially with the return of her furniture and the cash, and I also do think it was an apology that Rio meant.

This is a slight deviation too, but I actually think there's this sort of interesting area in here too where, in Rio's eyes, he's likely seeing Beth respond to Nick in the way she responded to him back in s1. She's wide-eyed and responsive, letting herself be guided to the areas where she's most of use to Nick, and while we know she's playing him, Rio doesn't at that point. I think the thought of losing her in the process of that, like you said, absolutely was a part of Rio's s4 arc (after all, if patterns are repeating, Nick has a clean slate with her in a way Rio can never have), but I also wonder if it partially was making Rio reflect on the way he handled Beth in s1 and used her in s2. In that sense, I can really see it compounding Rio's frustrations and complicated emotions in those later season eps.