Batman and the 8 dancing heirs: characters and backstory
Batman x Barbie and the 12 dancing princesses cross over
First Prince Richard Grayson: He was an acrobat with his parents when they had an accident and died. Bruce took him in spontaneously. First adopted when Bruce was still Prince and Alfred was the Regent King.
King Bruce’s closest advisor before the Duke and Duchess moved in. He is being trained and groomed to become the next king. He’s extremely restless, though, and tends to take over the castle with his acrobatic acts. He was taken in at 8 and is now 27 years old.
First Princess Barbara Gordon: Royal Detective Jim Gordon’s daughter. Bruce took her in as an appointed princess due to Gordon’s wavering health and his concern about what would happen to her when he died.
She stands on equal footing with Dick as an unoffical advisor. Even though she would be a truely skilled official ambassador but she’s simply expected to be a spare to Dick. She and Bruce have a friendship relationship more than a father-daughter one. She was “taken in” at 25 and is now 27 years old.
Second Princess Cassandra Cain: She was taken in a few months after Tim. She was a child assassin sent in by Joker. Instead, she hid in the castle for months, not wanting to take out the kind king. In one of the rooms she frequented, there was a note left by Alfred inviting her to dinner. When she came, Bruce simply smiled at her and introduced her as his new daughter and princess to the rest of the brood. She never looked back. She doesn’t know the person who hired her was Joker.
She’s a skilled diplomat but doesn’t conform to the feminine and passive princess she’s expected to be. She was 19 when she was taken in and is now 25.
Second Prince Jason Todd: Second taken in. Bruce was traveling through a nearby village and had taken only Alfred with him. They had wandered into a bakery, and when they came back, they saw Jason trying to bribe their carriage horses away. Instead of punishing him, Bruce took him in as a second son. When he was 15, he was trapped in a landslide on a low stake diplomatic mission he had taken over for Dick. He was critically injured, and if the neighboring kingdom hadn’t sent a guard group to follow him, he would have died. He managed to pull through but lost his left arm in the accident. The landslide was orchestrated by Joker, but was meant to kill Dick.
He’s a bookworm and hardly ever takes on official duties after his accident. He was taken in at 13 and is now 23.
Third Prince Timothy Drake: He was the prince of the Kingdom that had saved Jason from the landslide. He was considered a spare prince with ten older brothers. When the king and queen were assassinated, there was a brutal and bloody battle that followed for the throne. Tim was attacked by his eldest brother and barely escaped with his life, and was assumed dead. He survived on the street with Stephanie for a year before Tim was discovered. They escaped to Bruce’s kingdom and begged the king for safety. The king took them in at 15 but was suspicious of them for a year after, still raw from almost losing Jason. They’re not adopted until they’re 16 and are currently 19.
He’s learning along side Dick and Barbra how to run the kingdom. Unfortunately, he often gets distracted and is more interested in Gordon’s work, he wanders off a lot.
Third Princess Stephanie Brown: She was a runaway. Her father ran a giant criminal ring, and she wanted no part in it. She lived on the streets alone for years before finding Tim and helping him survive. Together, they managed to take down her father, but in the process, Tim’s royal status as the dead prince is revealed.
She avoids any royal training or teaching desperately and tends to spend her time exploring and cataloging the catacombs under the castle and royal capital.
Fourth Prince Duke Thomas: He was the last to be taken in. He lost his parents when a group of bandits had taken over his town. He and a group of teens who called themselves the Royal Robins managed to hold off the group for weeks until the fastest of them could escape and bring help back from the capital. Not only did they bring back a royal brigade, but also the King and his eldest son. He was taken in after they were impressed and sympathetic to him for leading the Royal Robins and becoming an orphan.
He is still finding his place in the family, but tends to spend his time with Jason and Damian. He was taken in at 15 and is now 17.
Fifth Prince Damian Wayne: The only blood son of Bruce. He was born after a tryst with the foreign princess Talia Al-Guhl when Dick was 12. Bruce didn’t know of Damian until he was 11 and was sent by himself with a royal crest and letter across the ocean.
Damian, in the beginning, was desperate to become the heir to the throne, but has calmed and found his own place. He shows minimal interest in becoming king and aims to become a healer. He spends his time studying with Jason, drawing, and collecting a wide variety of animals. He’s now 14.
Duke Jack “Joker” Napier: Bruce’s cousin and someone Bruce considered extremely close. Joker adores Bruce and is obsessed with him, insisting in his head that he needs to take over to control and care for Bruce. He’s constantly trying to stamp out anything unique in Bruce’s children or kill them to blend them into the background. He only married Harley for appearances, and she is useful for handling the princesses.
Duchess Harleen Napier: She was groomed by Joker to adore him and do anything he wants. She was originally an extremely promising apothecary before being kidnapped and stockholmed by Joker. She’s been poisoning Bruce to make him compliant and easy for Joker to control.
King Bruce Wayne: A kind and strong king who leads his kingdom by example. He adores all of his children equally, even if he is worried about what will happen to them and the kingdom once he’s gone. He invites Joker and Harley in to help prepare them for a future of leading the kingdom without him. He’s been sad and desperate for help ever since his beloved queen passed a year ago. His children have been running wild, and he’s been too busy with the kingdom to really do anything to rein them in.
Late Queen Selina Kyle: She was a thief whose mother was a witch doctor. Her mother was the one who introduced her to the magical realm. She first met Bruce when they were 17. He was crying on the balcony of his highest tower, and she had just finished a large heist. He was mourning the fact that he was going to become king too soon. She had taunted and teased him, stealing his attention. He knew who she was, the Cat Thief. They fell in love, and she left behind her life of crime when Jason was injured and realized she wanted to be able to be there for them when she couldn’t visit him due to her secret identity as the Cat Thief. She married him a year later and became Queen.
She helped to care for and raise the children, encouraging them to follow their wants instead of just focusing on their duties. Sadly, a year before the start of the story, she passed away giving birth to her and Bruce’s first bio child, the child didn’t make it either.
Butler/Advisor Alfred Pennyworth: He was a butler turned advisor turned regent king. Once Bruce became king, he stepped back from being an official advisor and instead acted as head butler. He still offers advice, but it’s much more casual and fatherly.
Cobbler Konal Kent: The royal Cobbler who’s in love with Prince Timothy. Before that, he worked as a low-level guard. He is an illegitimate son of the King of Metropolis.
