#captainragtag

no no you understood correctly. it's been a huge point of debate for YEARS because texas is one of the only states where lawmakers are only technically part-time. they get $600 a month and i believe a per diem during sessions (and there are some states where i'm pretty sure ALL they get is a per diem, not even a base salary) and this usually means these people HAVE to have other jobs outside of legislation

which is why it's almost always impossible for working-class people to run for office here. the system will almost always favor the wealthy individuals who can afford to take the time to run and serve and not feel the impact of a measly $7200 a year lmao. texas has resisted making politics a full-time and/or well-paid profession for FOREVER, since they like to frame it as a form of public service rather than an actual career. which i'd agree with, in theory! if it didn't often end up in more corruption and biases lol

what i will say is the benefits and the pension after retirement (which considering the fickle nature of local politics, happens far quicker than most other professions) are usually cited as like. The Real Reason to become a legislator here because they're pretty good. there's a lot of math involved and a ton of legal loopholes from what i understand that makes it lucrative, but otherwise they're looking at around at least 8+ years of virtually no salary

but going back to the issue at hand fjasdlkfj, it's also one of the biggest reasons why house democrats fleeing the state is such a big deal. they're technically part-time workers. a lot of these people have full-time jobs they've left behind to do this. y'know, their actual source of income. it's why i keep emphasizing the importance of donations. they're being fined what they practically make in a month every day they don't show up to this session. but they're actually doing something! they've finally grown a backbone! and they've got the entire country listening!! donations and/or calls to local representatives expressing approval and gratitude over what they're currently doing makes sure they're aware their constituents WANT this. that this is exactly what we expect them to do when our democracy is being threatened.

oooh hard mode, lol.

okay, i actually love that it confirms how badly fucked up eddie still is about shannon - not just about her death, but about how that relationship went down in the end. i love the way that he's still trying to relitigate their divorce, and that after spending basically their entire marriage never listening to her about anything, culminating in telling her to be silent when she was dying, the thing he desperately wants from her isn't sex or even romance but another chance to have that conversation with her, to say and hear something real.

and i love that it completely fails with kim, and would have even if chris and marisol hadn't walked in, because kim is not shannon, and doesn't know shannon, and doesn't know what that marriage was like except through eddie's eyes, so all she can give him are apologies that ultimately ring hollow.

...Honestly, it kind of doesn’t!

Edit: good point in the comments makes it make more sense. lol i was so tired when I wrote this.

I don’t necessarily keep track of how many days pass within each episode, but I do keep track of general timeline mentions, and from what I noticed:

The last time Eddie talked to Bobby was 2 weeks before Bobby died, about a deal on a slow cooker (8x17). That’s around April 3rd, the air date of 8x13. This is if we interpret Eddie’s statement as saying the text was sent 2 weeks before he looked at it again right after getting the news.

In 8x13, Eddie makes dinner in a slow cooker; I have to assume Eddie texted Bobby about that deal earlier the same day or the day before that scene in 8x13.

So 8x13 should be two weeks before 8x14–8x15.

The contagion arc of 8x14 and 8x15 take place all within a few hours. Bobby dies on April 17th, 2025, according to his funeral program in 8x16 (Apr 17th is the air date of 8x15; they’ve used air dates for deathdates before with Shannon dying in 2x17 aired on May 6th, 2019, matching her gravestone in 6x15).

8x16 begins “almost two weeks” after Bobby’s death, so it’s around the end of April.

In 8x16, Athena says “the funeral’s next Tuesday” — so that’s either Tuesday, April 29th or Tuesday, May 6th.

The day of the funeral, Eddie arrives in LA and Chimney says it’s been two weeks since Bobby died, implying it’s around May 1st (which is the 8x16 air date).

Possibly the best case for the funeral is if it’s actually Tuesday, April 29th, which is....not quite 2 weeks, it’s 12 days, and it means the episode really started 1 week and a few days after Bobby’s death, not really almost 2 weeks.

8x17 seems to start at least a few days after Eddie arrived in LA on Bobby’s funeral day, based on how Eddie talks by saying “the other day” and staying longer than planned.

(Unrelated, did Eddie book a one-way flight to LA for the funeral?? or cancel his return flight???)

Below is the funeral program I mentioned, it’s from the scene where Athena arrives to the funeral.

Ooooh okay this is fun <3

So OKAY this is kind of stream-of-consciousness musing.

First thoughts:

Dick and Tim are both people who

1) started out pretty emotionally-expressive

2) grow up in environments that emphasize being a team player / going along to get along / community harmony (Dick's circus and Tim's boarding schools are very different places, but I think both share a strong "don't make trouble / be a people pleaser / grin and bear it" ethos that is IMO meaningfully different from, say, Jason and Damian's upbringing where you've gotta be able to stand up for yourself or people will shove you around and take it as weakness

3) Dick and Tim both get wayyyy more repressed over time, partly because of Trauma and partly because of the roles they play (they both become team leaders and though Dick treats the job especially seriously, Tim shares the same assumption that as leader he has to be the Responsible One)

So the thing is, I feel like the "no inhibition" spell would have really different results depending on the exact circumstances and their moods at the time.

Because Dick and Tim are inhibited about a lot!

They're both pretty private about emotions; they tend to repress anger and grief, but also they repress positive emotions. They're both people who have really intense loyalty to their friends, but in ways that their friends don't always see. (See for example: when Bruce gets caught keeping files on the JLA, Dick and Tim's respective teams are suspicious of them. Dick does spy on his teammates behind their backs sometimes, and Tim will later look into Conner's DNA without getting permission, but I don't think either of them would ever do the Bruce-style takedown plans for their friends. Their teammates, OTOH, are less sure of that.)

IMO (other people might disagree) Dick is a bit more likely to be circumspect about affection, whereas Tim's more likely to bottle up grief and anger. They both do both, but I do think there's a bit of a character difference here. Think for example of their two different unsent letters. Dick writes a very sweet sappy letter to Bruce, but chickens out of sending it (implicitly because he's not sure of the response he'd get). Whereas Tim writes a bitter letter to his dad, and burns it rather than give it to him.

This is getting a bit long, so below the cut:

More thoughts on Dick (+ best/worst case scenarios)

More thoughts on Tim (+ best/worse case scenarios)

Final thoughts!

Thank you! Yeah, I know what you mean. (And, god, there is a point where fanon!Tim is so insecure that I’m like “well shit this kid shouldn’t be Robin because this much insecurity is a blatant liability.”)

I don’t think I would really use “insecure” to describe Tim’s overall personality, though he certainly does have insecurities. I’d also note that the younger he is, the more uncertain he is. He gets progressively more sure of himself as time goes on.

E.g., most of the moments I can recall of Tim comparing himself negatively to former Robins are from his early days, many of them before he even officially became Robin. And that’s a major arc for him in the story where he gets the mantle: he doubts himself, tries anyway, realizes he is good enough, and becomes confident enough to contravene Bruce’s orders and stand by it. Hooray, arc solved.

When he compares himself to others later--particularly to Dick--it reads as more matter-of-fact to me. Sometimes a little jealous, but not really set on cutting himself down. (I’m thinking, like, Robin #10: Tim meets a time displaced young Dick Grayson and notes he’s better at a lot of stuff, but doesn’t get caught up in the thought or turn to self-pity. Or Nightwing #6: talking about the ways Dick is better than him, not as an expression of insecurity, but to say that Dick is doing great as a solo hero while Tim only feels up to sidekicking.)

I don’t see a lot of insecurity in Tim about his skills either. In his younger years, he is well aware that he’s not the best fighter of the bunch and has no problem admitting when enemies are out of his weight class. Towards the end of his time as Robin, into Red Robin, he’s both gotten better and thinks more highly of himself--if anything, Tim can be a little too sure of his expertise.

Overall, I think Tim really internalizes his role as Robin. He doesn't wonder if he’s good enough to be Robin because, well, he is Robin. That’s half his life.

So imo Tim’s hang ups tend to be more along the lines of "am I, Robin, able to solve this problem.” Especially when said problem is about saving someone. Tim puts a lot of responsibility on himself (absolutely unsurprising for a kid whose major adult influences are Bruce and Dick), and stresses over managing it all.

He also carries a lot of guilt when he fails, or interprets himself as failing. (Once again, much like Bruce and Dick before him.) Expect insecurities to suddenly ratchet up after a failure. And that’s a pretty rational thing to be scared of when your job is life-or-death, but it’s still a lot of stress for a teenager (or anyone!) to be under. You can see him beating himself up to the point of moroseness any time he fails to save someone as Robin.

Outside of life and death dangers, this is also a regular feature of his relationship with his dad. Tim usually prioritizes Robin over his civilian life/dad. (The only real exception I can think of is the big one, quitting Robin--but even then it's arguably not even an exception, considering Tim did it as a negotiation to keep Bruce's identity safe.) And he also sometimes does stupid unnecessary stuff like "fly to another country without telling your dad."

It’s complicated, because some part of Tim is aware that his dad is not always a great parent, and a little piece of him is even angry about that--see this coming to a head just after Jack’s recovery in Robin III. But he also loves his dad and desperately wants their relationship to work, and really believes Jack is trying and changing. Tim puts the blame for it not working on himself regularly. So I’d say Tim has a lot of guilt and damage about (in his eyes) not being a good son.

In an unfortunate parallel, the other thing Tim does remain hung up on for many years is the worry that Bruce will fire him. (Ironic, considering he’s the only Robin who Bruce has never tried to remove as a sidekick.) Despite Tim internalizing that he is Robin, he also very clearly thinks of Bruce as the ultimate arbiter. And considering Bruce’s whole personality, it’s not surprising that he (like every other batkid) worries about living up to Bruce’s expectations.

I think it would be reasonable for Tim to also worry that if he’s not a vigilante, Bruce won’t want him at all. Especially considering the history. They met through the work; Batman is the most important thing to Bruce; and when Tim had to quit, Bruce didn’t talk to him the entire time he was away. However, I can’t think of a point where that’s actually brought up and confirmed (or denied) in canon.

Last thing, where ymmv. After Damian’s introduction (specifically, before Bruce dies and Damian becomes Robin), there’s a serious inconsistency in how Tim takes it. In most books, he’s largely unaffected? He and Bruce are in a great place, having recently become legal father and son, and while Tim doesn’t like Damian, he doesn’t really seem threatened. imo this makes sense, because Tim has been secure as Robin and at that point there is zero inclination from anyone to make Damian Robin, no matter how much Damian himself campaigns for it.

However, in Grant Morrison’s Batman, Tim is portrayed as very insecure over Damian’s arrival and position as Bruce’s “real son,” and desperate to prove himself. And, look, I will fully admit here that I am biased. I hate GM’s writing. I hate the way they slightly warped a bunch of characters to fit their new storylines. So it may well be that bias speaking, and you are welcome to disagree! But personally, I find this extreme, outright insecurity to be out of step with Tim’s usual characterization.

Finally, in his Red Robin era, Tim starts with a whole lotta damage about worrying he may be on a wild goose chase for proof Bruce survived, knowing his grief may be coloring his beliefs. Actually finding that proof does a lot to temper his fear, and he gets more confident and bolder again as the quest continues.

Batty, I have seen exactly one half of an episode of Veronica Mars and I’m assuming this means I’m dogged, intrepid, curious, and plain old obnoxious. At least one of those thing is true, surely.