dick for character ask game
Sorry this took so long! Was going through some things and JTW took over things for a while, but it's here now 😁
- Favorite thing about them : oi... this one's hard to articulate properly. Let's see... I mean, I like the quips. The whimsy. The acrobatics. Dick at his base is just such an interesting character. Getting more involved, he has soooo much heart. Even to a fault. Because that boy thinks that everything bad that ever happens is his fault 😭. He's loyal. Even when his relationship with a loved one is on the outs. He can be so, so angry with someone and still love them with all of his being, even when it hurts so damn much. He would die for those he loved. He's even shown if pushed to the edge he'd also kill for them, even though it would break him- as seen with how he killed Joker over Tim, and even more so when he just let Tarantula kill Blockbuster. The guilt absolutely ate away at him- because Bruce has drilled his code into him so deeply that the not preventing = might as well pulled the trigger himself.
- Least favorite thing about them : sort of the flip side of the above. He's fully willing to destroy himself- because he believes he deserves it, and nothing is able to convince him otherwise. And that's... so very heartbreaking.
Dick has a lot of amazing one liners, but this one from the UtRH movie just really gets to me 😂
- BrOTP : I mean, Tim obviously. Tim brought him back into the fold, and after how he handled things with Jason and felt had he done better Jason might not have died, he DID do better when it came to Tim and 100% viewed him as his brother. Up until everyone's world imploded with Bruce's death, he was Tim's person. Dick was determined to keep him as safe as possible, was concerned about Tim's mental health after everyone died. Talked him out of using the Lazarus pit to bring back the dead and potentially trading himself to Ra's to do so because he was spiraling. Killed the Joker- though it was only temporary, because he thought Tim had been killed. That's was his baby bro. But he also wasn't in the right head space after Bruce's "death", and made bad decisions, or just executed decisions in the worst way possible for how Tim was also crashing, and put a serious strain on their relationship. He thinks Tim had gotten delusional, and begs him to see a psychiatrist in Metropolis, because he cares and is concerned- not that Tim registered much past "Dick doesn't believe me, he things I'm being crazy, and he already took the one thing holding me together away- so I guess I'm doing this one my own whether anyone likes it or not" 😭 but even after all of that... Dick and Tim had such a strong bond that even after all that hurt :
Prior to Tim, Dick's ride or die was Roy. That's not to say that they weren't close later, but that relationship wasn't nearly as involved after Dick quit the Titans, moved to Bludhaven, and Tim was Robin. Which honestly was probably BatFam propaganda and sigh worthy writing choices at the time. Because they were super bros during their Titans years.
- OTP : oof... well, my technical official stance on this for Dick is "Dick x Happiness". Because that's what he needs and deserves, with whoever is able to give him that. Lord knows he needs it. Needs someone that will care for him, have a HEALTHY relationship with him. Who can handle the fact that he's generally not okay... and that no one hates Dick more than he hates himself. Because let's face it, most of the time everyone drops the ball in that regard.
Unofficially, I guess my typical endgame ship for him ends up being Babs? Because I think she can be that person for him, when bad writing choices aren't made.
I used to be evenly split between Babs and Kori, but then I marathon read both runs of New Teen Titans and then New Titans and... well, their relationship was actually pretty unhealthy throughout, and rather toxic at times? Kinda broke my own heart there 😩
- nOTP : *distressed noises* I mean... Mirage? Tarantula? I guess those are the obvious ones?
99.9% of the time I also say Tim, because they have always viewed each other as brothers since Tim finally officially donned the Robin suit. But in a no-Robins no BatFam AU where they still met at the circus...yeah, they'd still have that intense bond and I truly believe it could express itself the other way when not auto placed in a family relationship.
I want to say Bruce- because the man raised him (from what age depends on the era), but I also can't deny that their relationship has always been "other" with lines blurred between son/brother/friend/mentor/work partner, and regardless of the when or where they're incredibly unhealthy about each other. I also can't deny the canon subtext that I'm icked about DC constantly allowing to get through editors, or the long history of people shipping them pretty much since the 1940's, right at the beginning, but especially during the Burt Ward era. I don't personally ship it, and can't think of a scenario where I would, but when I see it I mostly heavy sigh and scroll past. I don't have the tag blocked, and it doesn't give me the same ick as some other ships.
- Random headcanon : He'll always think of Alfred as another father rather than the grandfather figure everyone always assumes. Because it was only later on that Bruce became more of a "dad" to him, after Tim was well settled into being Robin. Because before all that? When he was Robin to Bruce's Batman, they were more brothers, more equals, because neither of them knew how to view each other in any other dynamic. Dick had to suddenly be older than his years, while his presence forced Bruce to handle and experience child and teen things that he'd never let himself process between his parents dying and all the training. Which is why they were so damn codependent, and fought so nastilly. So yeah, Alfred is dad to him, very much in the same way that he's dad to Bruce. So when Dick was suddenly Batman, and Damian was Robin, and Alfred was his- in that same way he was to Bruce as Batman... it made him feel a special sort of way, that perhaps only Alfred himself could fully understand. Because as much as Batman and Robin were the dynamic duo, Alfred was also very much a vital part of that dynamic too.
- Unpopular opinion : oh holy hell do I get the ick from the major sexualization of Dick. I can't look at any of the sexy fan art, or the pin-up esque variant covers, despite me not having the same issue with other characters. I'm grossed out by how often he had his clothes blown off other than across his crotch in the 80's, and his overall over sexualization compared to pretty much a every other male character. This isn't me saying that the across the board same treatment of female characters isn't worse, because it is, but that doesn't change the specifically weird treatment of Dick on the male end- for decades. The added fact that female readership has only been on the rise for the more recent history, meaning this was all done by male writers/artists for male readership making that all the more disturbing, especially when this started while Dick was still in the short pants and under the age of 18. His standard skin tight Nightwing suit is fine, it doesn't produce the same response in me. Nor does his OG Robin suit, because that's just him, the acrobat, wearing his clothes. But this is a man that's been SA'd twice (Mirage having sex with him while wearing Kori's appearance where everyone victim blamed him, and the whole Tarantula mess), three times if you count the statutory relationship before Kori in Pre-Crisis. And everyone's just all "oooo Nightwing's ass!" and "Look how pretty he is! 😏" including a bunch of the male staff at DC. 🤮.
- Song i associate with them : "In The End", Linkin Park
- Favorite picture of them
This pic is just so... Dick. Very pretty, but sad looking, while trying to look happier than he is. He's suited up, but has his mask off, so he's both Dick AND Nightwing simultaneously. He's also not super pale here, and he doesn't looke like a younger Bruce clone.
Asks are of course still open!
