I’m gonna go on a tangent rn about the one and only,
Pawbert Lynxly
Pawbert, my god, his betrayal comes right on scene with one warning, Judy (and funnily making fun of the betrayal trope that everyone saw coming with him) and he stabs her! His betrayal comes on scene and for a split second I felt like, “aw man, the betrayal came! I should’ve seen that coming.”
But then he catches her
And the entire time he’s apologizing while dragging Gary onto the snow to die, pleading for them not to hate him.
Instantly he becomes such an interesting character, instantly we start to see him in a new light that isn’t “wow ok, twist character what’s new.” He’s conflicting with his role right out the gate! He betrays her but cares for her??? He stabs her with venom that will surely kill her but doesn’t let her fall too harshly??? Fascinating!!!
Judy starts pleading for him that he could still change and Pawbert, looking into her eyes, sad but honest, says “I don’t want to be different.” He instantly transformed from a kid trying to do good despite what his family is, and into a kid who was raised with neglect and fear, wanting desperately to belong. He outright states that actually!
He looks into her eyes and basically tells her, “There’s nothing you can do to stop me from killing your loved one and I’m sorry you had to be caught up in this.” All with his eyes!!! His face!!! He genuinely feels sorry but it’s not gonna stop!
Then it pans over to this glorious scene
I won’t lie, I forgot he was a predator. Yes the first movie made it clear on the racism between predators and prey and the like but during the second movie, I forgot? about it? It wasn’t in the forefront of my mind and it became instead a small part of their characters (ofc I know it’s not small, the movie just did a good job in making me focus on the plot).
It wasn’t until this scene, with him shrouded in darkness, with only his yellow iris’s glowing, stalking towards the light, that I was harshly reminded that he is a predator. The scene succeeded in making me feel threatened at that moment. At that singular, small moment, he wasn’t the awkward dork I was coming to love, a harmless animal who could never harm anybody, he was a predator with the intent to kill. (And technically already did with how he just left Judy and Gary with nothing)
He quickly finds the Beaver and he pulls the awkward, trusting guy act again! Almost easily in fact! It disarms the Beaver just long enough for him to strike. And I especially love the way they did it. They didn’t take forever for him to stab her. He stabs her immediately (we see him moving his arm!!!) and proceeds to keep trudging on, not even looking back!
Another thing I love is how the creators put in is the detail of him continually changing out the cartridges of poison. In a way it further cements the cold hard fact that he is continuously making his choices. He reloads the syringe, (not even looking at it mind you!), and proceeds to hunt for Nick.
Every move he makes, every step he takes is purposeful. He doesn’t feel like a villain who needs a good talking to from the main character to redeem himself. He doesn’t even feel like he’s one step away from backing out. Even though he obviously doesn’t like causing unnecessary harm to Judy or Gary, (or even the beaver,) he has a purpose and it makes him even scarier, even more threatening and it’s beautiful.
There’s a point that’s made when Pawbert is being thrown across the room by his father in the next scene. We saw glimpses of his abuse from his retelling of his relationship with his family and when we first meet them. It’s what I love about this scene, that they don’t shy away from how uncomfortable and sick it is. You even see the two sibling’s in the back not enjoying it. They are victims too. They just were able to get Daddy’s approval. It’s the way Pawbert still seeks out his fathers approval even after getting tossed across the room that pulls at my heartstrings.
The slow descent into insanity is pretty funny, especially with the “The Screaming” reference, but regardless, in the end he doesn’t change. He became the twist villain and he didn’t even fully remove his defining characteristics. He kept his awkwardness, he kept his kindness, and he kept his one true goal; the goal he told us from the beginning in fact; he wants his fathers approval above anything.
Thanks for reading, I made this cause of the one scene of his eyes glowing and I knew I had to talk about it. :>
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Chapter 9 of @tree-reads and my AU 😊 @maribat-get-in
Link to AO3
Worlds Collide
One long, and emotionally messy, conversation later, Marinette and Damian finally understood as much as they could about their pasts. Marinette had explained about how, when she was young, Damian’s parents had admitted to her that she wasn’t theirs. That, in spite of them raising her, it hadn’t been their choice because Talia had stolen him away and left Marinette in his place with a note threatening something if they didn’t comply. Marinette wasn’t able to explain that fully because she’d never been privy to the contents of said letter, but neither of them doubted Talia’s capability of striking appropriate amounts of fear in Tom and Sabine.
Damian had decided to give her an unsanitised version of events from his side, only omitting that which would implicate secret identities that he was sure she wasn’t aware of. If Talia had sent her away because she wanted her to be safe, she wasn’t going to give her the dangerous knowledge of who precisely wore the cowl. The green tinge on her face when he described his early childhood was enough to let him know that she was horrified by what he had endured.
“We should delay introducing you to Tom and Sabine,” he said in an attempt to bring some humour to the situation, but even he could tell that it fell flat. Her eyes were dull and the smile on her face half hearted, and he wondered why she had described them as people who had raised her. And why, in spite of their obvious longing for a child, Tom and Sabine hadn’t had any pictures of her in their apartment. It wasn’t Marinette’s fault that Talia had done everything she had. “But I would still like you to meet Richard.”
“He’ll hate me,” she said, voice thick with tears again. His heart clenched as he took her hand and tilted her chin to look her in the eye.
“He will not. Richard knows everything about my childhood and has been the one by my side as we searched for my birth parents,” he explained, resting his forehead against hers in the hopes that it would help to ground her. “If anything, he will be angry with Bruce and Talia for putting the both of us in situations we could not control that hurt us.”
“You can’t possibly know that,” she breathed, her voice small and hurt. He could feel her start to pull away, to protect herself from the potential pain that was coming based on her experiences. And, without the words to prove he was right, he instead chose to press his lips to hers and tried to convince her he was right that way.
“I know and trust Richard, he would never fail me in such a horrendous manner as to be angry with you. And I hope that you trust me enough to at least try and meet with him, although I will understand if you cannot,” he said when he eventually pulled away from her.
“I do trust you,” she said immediately, her voice cracking only slightly. Then she sighed and let her head fall onto his shoulder as he wrapped his arms more tightly around her. “Okay. Let’s go and do it now, meet Richard and go from there.”
The entire walk back to the hotel was quiet, Marinette’s hand in his slightly clammy. Not that he would say that to her and risk her letting go altogether. If he thought it would help, he would fill the silence between them with random chatter, probably animal facts he thought would interest her. But if she was mentally preparing herself for this, he didn’t want to say the wrong thing and make her turn back.
There was a moment, when they re-entered the hotel room, that he thought she might run again. But then she took a deep breath and plastered a smile on her face that he worried might physically hurt her to keep there before Richard was upon them.
“Hey, you two!” Richard said in that excited way of his that ordinarily made Damian roll his eyes. “You must be Marinette. I’m Dick Grayson, Damian’s adoptive dad and best friend-”
“You are not my best friend, Richard,” Damian interjected, now rolling his eyes and pulling Marinette closer. “There are…things we should discuss. Perhaps we should sit down and order dinner as it might take some time.”
_ _ _
“Okay, I think this might be the weirdest situation I’ve ever come across,” Dick - he had insisted, in spite of Marinette’s initial surprise and embarrassment - said, throwing himself back on the sofa. Marinette braced herself for the inevitable desire to keep his son away from her, for the anger that she had had an easy life while Damian had suffered thanks to her parents. “I’m so sorry you went through all of this, Marinette.”
“I- what?” she said, blinking and glancing at Damian to confirm she hadn’t misheard. By the smug look on his face, she hadn’t. “Aren’t you angry?”
“Oh, I’m furious! I expect this sort of shit from Talia, for sure - no offence, I know she’s your mom - but Bruce? If he wasn’t absolutely on my bad side from how he’s been handling Damian, the fact that he kept you a secret from all of us would be the last straw,” Dick seethed, hand gripping his phone so tightly she was worried he was going to crack it. But his tone was mild, and if she wasn’t used to looking for signs of upset that people try to hide she wouldn’t have seen it. “You two are kids. What in the world was anyone thinking?”
“Marinette means you are not angry with her,” Damian piped up, apparently ignoring the frantic look she shot him. What if he put the idea in Dick’s head, and his anger with the adults had just distracted him from the fact that he could be angry with her. But she shouldn’t have worried because Dick immediately looked horrified.
“Angry with you? How could I be angry with you? Not only was exactly none of this your fault, you make lil D happy. I don’t think I could get angry with you if I tried,” he said, voice turning from shocked to gentle as he patted her on the head. It was sweet, in a slightly demeaning way, but she found she didn’t mind it that much. Still, she had to be sure her own blame wasn’t just being forgotten or pushed aside for the moment, so she pushed ahead with her reasoning.
“I mean, I did steal Damian’s life,” she said in as strong a voice as she could manage. She wasn’t brave enough to look at Dick, so she snuck a sideways glance at Damian only to find him frowning. “If Talia hadn’t swapped us, he would have grown up happy and safe with his parents, he would-”
“Okay, stop that right there, little missy,” Dick said sternly, pushing off the sofa he was on to crouch in front of her. “We’re not doing ‘what if’s, we’re not doing the blame game, we’re not upset with you. I mean, you were hurt by this too, right?”
“I was healthy and physically fine, you can’t tell me the same was true for Damian,” she shot back, guilt crawling up her throat and building heat behind her eyes. “I’ve been to where he grew up, it was no place for a child.”
“Talia was not a bad mother to me, not really,” Damian said softly, though Dick harrumphed. “Truly, she showed me as much kindness as she could in the League and she moved me to Wayne Manor as soon as was possible. And I cannot fault her for wanting to keep you safe, Starling.”
The resulting meltdown for Marinette was a mixture of guilt, self-hatred, and a small seed of hope that wanted desperately to believe that Damian meant it. By the time she left, she was exhausted and just wanted to curl up in her bed for several days, so she was glad when Damian reminded her that he was cancelling the lunch with Tom and Sabine the following day. She wasn’t sure she could take the emotional damage of being back in their home after everything else.
Damian returned from seeing Marinette home and collapsed in his bed. There had been too many revelations in too short a time and he wanted to sleep until everything had been settled without him. Unfortunately, he was going to have to call his parents to inform them of the change of plans and he wasn’t sure how they would handle it.
Bracing himself, he called. It was still early evening and he was optimistic that he would be able to speak to at least one of them to let them know that he wasn’t going to visit them the next day. If he was honest, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to visit them again at all. Because as much as he wanted to know them, and they clearly wanted to know him, they had hurt Marinette. She had explained, over and over, that they were mourning the loss of their true child, that she was safe and had a roof over her head for her entire childhood.
But he could read between those lines and saw a childhood far lonelier than he had had. In spite of Talia’s harsh mannerisms, she had shown him affection in little ways, bringing him books about animals and new weapons. She had given him a false history and future, but she had given them to him. And when he had found out he was not who he thought he was, Richard had been there immediately, and from that point he had only known the smothering comfort of being loved.
“Tom and Sabine’s boulangerie patisserie, how can I help?” came Sabine’s cheery customer service voice, the bakery sounding quiet in the background.
“It is Damian,” he began, and she immediately called for Tom, the line going quiet for a moment while they stood together. He cleared his throat when they asked why he was calling, trying to keep his temper even. "I cannot come tomorrow," he said, trying not to let his anger at them show in his voice. He reminded himself again that they were still his parents, they had still wanted him regardless of how they had treated Marinette. And that she would feel responsible if he denied them. "We will reschedule, for a time when my girlfriend is ready."
“Oh, is she unwell?” Tom said, sounding dismayed. It rankled to know that he probably wouldn’t sound so fatherly if he knew who Damian was talking about. “We could make some soup and bread for you to take to her, or-”
“I do not think that is a wise decision,” he cut in, a small amount of bite beginning to escape his tight grip. “Why did you not tell me that you raised someone else in my place?”
“It wasn’t important, Damian,” Sabine said after a pregnant pause, her voice wavering slightly. “The girl wasn’t ours, she was just left in our care and-”
“-and she was a child. She was innocent and you could have shown her the care you claim you had for me,” he said before he could help himself. He took a deep breath to centre himself and tried to salvage the conversation before he ruined any chance he had at a relationship with them. Marinette had been quite adamant that he not chastise them for her childhood, he just apparently could not help himself. “Apologies, I have had a lot of new information today. Perhaps we can reschedule a meal for next week, just for the three of us.”
“Whatever you want,” Tom said, no small measure of desperation colouring his tone. “And when your girlfriend recovers, we can arrange a new date for that as well. After all, we can’t plan a wedding cake without her input, right?”
“We shall have to see,” Damian said, stunned at the cavalier way they ignored his outburst in favour of trying to forget it and return to normal. He wasn’t sure he was ever going to be able to take Marinette back to their home, and that was going to strain the relationship no matter what. “It has been a trying day, I shall call you another day to arrange our lunch. Goodbye.”
“That sounded rough,” Richard said from the doorway, his shoulder leaning fully on it. “I still have to call Bruce, he’s not picking up. How’s Marinette doing?”
“She was overwhelmed and has not messaged since I left her at her apartment,” Damian replied, setting his phone carefully aside. “I do not understand anything. My parents did not treat her as I would have expected, based on our interactions, and Marinette does not want me to blame them. But I am so- so angry that she suffered. I do not know how to fix this for her.”
“You don’t have to fix it, Dames,” Richard said gently, coming over to sit on the bed with him. The hug was welcome, as was the assurance that he was doing everything he could. “You both suffered, in different ways, and you’ll work through those together. Or you won’t, and that’s okay too.”
“I do not want to lose her,” Damian whispered, burying his head in Richard’s shoulder and trying to think past the panic that thought invoked.
“For what it’s worth, I don’t think you will,” Richard smiled, squeezing his shoulders before letting him lean back. “As much as you love her, she loves you. And you have each other’s secrets now so-”
“She does not know about our nightly activities,” Damian interrupted. “And we will need to decide how to proceed once we return home. Perhaps she will wish to wash her hands of me after everything.”
“We’ll see,” was all Richard said, though Damian could tell from his tone that his hopeless romantic optimism meant he just assumed it would work out. Perhaps, for now, he could try and see from that same viewpoint.
