Posts tagged cassandra cain

My Big Bat-Kryptonian Wedding (11979 words) by Airawyn
Chapters: 6/6
Fandom: Batman (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Tim Drake/Kon-El, Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne
Characters: Tim Drake, Conner Kent, Kon-El, Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson, Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain

Summary: Bruce and Clark are getting married, so Tim and Kon will be stepbrothers! Kon thinks that’s pretty damn cool, but for some reason, Tim’s not quite into the idea. Kon’ll probably ask him about it, if Kon survives the Wayne society events and his own personal Bat-training.

(Written for the Tim/Kon meme.)

READ THE NEW CHAPTERS HERE —> Chapter 5 | Chapter 6

I ended up getting three (!!!) fics for the Batfam fic exchange. I dunno how that happened, but I’m not complaining! Thank you so much to all the writers!

My Baby’s Rose - Cass and Steph talk about Steph putting her baby up for adoption.

He’s In My Territory - Jason and Damian have brotherly bonding in their own special way.

Eloping Was A Better Plan - Tim attempts to come out to his family.

I got a gift fic in the Batfam Christmas Exchange today! It’s called My Baby’s Rose and it has Cass and Steph talking about Steph putting up her baby for adoption. It’s a lovely little friendship fic.

angergirl:

This might make no sense and be absolutely flawed, sorry, but here we go.

Now, I love Barbara Gordon as a character. I love her as Batgirl and I love her as Oracle. She’s fascinating, particularly because as Oracle she was able to stare down Batman and win. She could subvert him at every turn. She was smart, capable, and willing to learn from her mistakes and the mistakes of others. She could tear down empires with her clever twist of mind alone.

And she still can. But I think that as Oracle, she was more threatening to the status quo than she is as Batgirl. At face value, anyways. As I said, she could take down Batman without throwing a blow. Her team didn’t just go about beating up villains until internal stresses tore them apart forever—when she saw that one method of leadership didn’t work (the subplot with Helena comes to mind) she had to use compassion and mindfulness to regain trust. She wasn’t just wickedly powerful. She was adaptable. Not only that—she had the ability to make other heroes adapt. And I think all of that—Her compassion, her bravery, her strength of mind and her willingness to change—made her dangerous.

Because what is more dangerous to a patriarchal set-up where burly, grimdark superhero fellas reign supreme than an all-knowing, veritable powerhouse of a woman spreading her influence all over the globe? Where the ultimate patriarch—Batman—has to shut up, listen, and take a slice of humble pie from said woman? Where he respects her as an equal—or rather more. And the fact that Babs was disabled played more of a role in her threat to this system than almost anything.

As Oracle, she was…dare I say it? Toxic.

Better that Oracle disappear, then, that Batgirl return with a safe, less imposing title (and a miraculous cure for her paralysis) that gives one the illusion that she isn’t as dangerous as she once was. And if you compare the three Batgirls and try to find the one who is the least “toxic” in terms of being threatening to the powers that be, then Babs is the one.

Cass is toxic because of her race and her strength and skill. Steph is toxic because of her pregnancy and the resulting “bad girl” stamp of disapproval, as well as her class. They are also marked down because of their vocal following of women and POC. Such fans are not the type of people DC is looking for. Babs’ Batgirl has a devoted following of men as well as many women—but we know which group DC really cares about.

So in my mind, Cass and Steph being called “toxic” means that they pose a threat to a system that fears them (and the people who love them) so much that they must be branded poisonous. It means that Cass and Steph are characters who are as dangerous, as powerful, as influential as Oracle was. The toxic characters are the ones who are going to fuck shit up. They’re the ones who are going to challenge the way we think about heroes, about people, about our perceptions of people. You say they’re toxic, DC? Good. That means they’re worth supporting.