#jaydante

(aka: Gotham’s newest nightmare is Batman’s personal aneurysm trigger)

Dante “Dan” Nightingale has too many titles and absolutely zero chill: Avenger of the Damned. Embodiment of Insanity. Guardian of Inevitability. Reincarnated Echo of Fallen Empires and Murdered Tyrants.

And unfortunately for Gotham, he finally decides to live up to all of them.

After Lady Gotham sends yet another stack of death reports—Joker kills again, a rogue massacres civilians again, the usual Tuesday—Dan snaps. Or… un-snaps? Re-snaps? It’s hard to tell with him.

Point is: He decides to actually avenge the damned.

Which, in Dan-language, translates to:

Kill. Every. Major. Rogue. Personally.

And oh boy, does he start speedrunning Gotham’s villain population like he’s farming XP.

The Bats notice immediately.

The Problem?

They can never prove anything.

Dan appears where a big rogue dies, but:

• No murder weapon • No fingerprints • No DNA • All cameras fried • All witnesses mysteriously unconscious • Dan looks like he just walked out of a shampoo commercial featuring blood-resistant boots

They even tried turning him in to Gordon a few times—Dan just ends up walking out on bail with a “😊” like the world’s most smug eldritch golden retriever.

Batman is losing YEARS off his lifespan. The rest of the Batfam? Meh. Jason? Jason has a crush the size of Arkham Asylum and could not care less.

Worst of all?

Dan knows. He knows exactly how much it drives Batman up the walls. And he leans into it like it’s a competitive sport.

Scene of the Year:

Batman: You just killed Scarecrow.

Dan—standing in a puddle of fresh, warm, unmistakable Scarecrow blood: “No I didn’t."

Batman: You’re literally STANDING in his blood.

Dan: “Show me one piece of proof that I killed him and I’m not just an unlucky civilian standing in what I believed was red Kool-Aid.”

Batman: Why would you stand in Kool-Aid?!

Dan: “Why are you judging my hobbies, furry?”

Jason, from the shadows: “He’s got a point.”

dante and jay napping together on his bum-ass floor

oh god where do i even begin?

well the short and simple is that i tend to gravitate towards rarepairs/crackpairs in general for maximum shitpost potential. jay and dante have very few interactions but they were enough to grab my attention. their dynamic is "complete dumbass" and "guy who is also a dumbass but pretends to be above it." dante in the series tends to have to be the one who deals with everyone's bullshit. not to say he isn't capable of causing some of this shit himself but he usually has to play the voice of reason. which would definitely contrast with jay's irrationality and openly impulsive behaviour. the idea of jay causing so much chaos and dante trying to get him to stop is really funny and cute to me.

but to get into the thick of it i think jay and dante have some personality traits and character arcs (more apparent for dante) where i think they mirror/clash with one another in interesting ways. like so much so i wish it was explored a little bit. (clarification that the next section is purely my own perception and opinion do not take this as gospel or extremely canon-adjacent. i also know that i may be wrong on some of the information provided so PLEASE CORRECT ME!) when it comes to wanting intimacy and relationships, i think the both of them struggle immensely with surface level attraction. the difference being that dante pretends to be above this impulsive want. compared to jay who is pretty honest about this to himself and it's pretty clear that he operates on his own terms openly.

dante is always desperately chasing for women who are unavailable and abandons the relationships that seem the more stable in favour of trying to chase the unattainable. in the first clerks movie, his relationship conflicts with caitlin bree and veronica lougrahn. veronica is his more stable relationship at the beginning of the film and pushes him to try and go to college with her, inciting change in his life. but dante can't help but be hung up on caitlin and still cling onto the past through his infatuation with her and also shows how he yearns for what he can't have. especially with the knowledge of her getting married. he's like pathetically desperate for her despite, again, having a stable-ish relationship currently.