The Candlelight Oath:

For reference I am collating every occasion I can think of that the candle oath comes up, particularly in terms of the wording of it. I know I'm skipping over some but I'm also restricted in terms of how many images I can have.

(Detective Comics #38)

(Batman #213)

(Detective Comics #484)

(Untold Legend of Batman #2)

(Secret Origins #13 1986)

(Batman: Dark Victory #13)

(Batman: Gotham Knights #11)

(Dark Crisis #1)

(Batman #138 2016)

I love the words. I love the echoes and repeats and the patterns of what people use and where they focus their attention.

Also I die over Zdarsky's version actually, it's one of the best of all, especially as it has Dick saying the words himself, rather than swearing to affirm Bruce's words.

Some of the early ones are so very heavy with exposition: Detective Comics #484 is hilarious in terms of going"'your parents died! as did mine! Let's swear to fight crime to avenge their deaths!" Good job there, Bruce. That's the level of subtle also heavily noted in the time you asked Tim if you could adopt him and started with "your parents are dead. You have no one."

It's interesting in terms of its placement, because the oath almost always comes when Bruce first takes Dick back to the Cave as Batman, and reveals his identity. Before Robin. Before Dick begins training. During the hunt for Zucco.

But it's so important to both Bruce and Dick, and echoes for both of them. It's a password that they use. And Dick's memorised it, as if he's said it many times in remembrance of the first occasion.

Endlessly interesting to me that no other Robin has taken this oath, knows the origin of the costume, or the origin of the name (at least as far as I'm aware).

Interestingly we do know Barbara swore a version of the oath.

(Batgirl Year One #9)

Steph was at the swearing of an oath, but it’s not the candle oath and I refuse to count it in this tally as its intent and phraseology is actually COUNTER to the self-sacrifice and pursuit of a higher ideal that Bruce and Dick’s oath is:

(Batgirl #3 2009, do not get me started on this, it’s NOT THE SAME)

I think Tim is a character that is highly likely to end up adopting kids.

Not just because he was adopted, although I think that would be involved as a conversation, especially if he adopted a non-baby, which I think he would. (Like he'll tell Bruce how much it meant to him to be taken in and feel wanted after everything that happened and he also wanted to give a kid that kind of feeling, too. And Bruce will get this like, Face, where you know he's actually super emotional under the surface. But Anyway...)

But because regardless of that, much of his life has been marked by family-seeking behaviors, on every level.

So I think that's a natural progression down the line.

I don't know how many years it would take, but in my head, I think eventually, he'll have more than Bruce. I wanted to explain this in words, but it just makes sense. With their respective personalities. That Tim would have more. Just Tim Being Tim Things.

More Family = More Success

Incredibly successful Tim.

Danny that breaks into Tim’s apartment after a mission gone wrong but it’s actually Timber’s apartment and Tim and Danny are both awkward abt it bc lowkey there’s still something there and Danny feels like an intruder Tim feels guilty but Bernard. Bernard sees only opportunity

HELP yeah. he adds him to Tim’s list too bc he has eyes, thanks, we don’t need your input on this one, tim

Finally broke down and looked up "67" on wikipedia today, and i love that wikipedia had to include the fact that people are using the meme as evidence of "brain rot" in younger generations because of how low-effort it is. And like, i have no horse in this race, i'm clearly out of touch enough with what the kids are saying that i have to go look up memes on the internet to understand them, but brain rot? I'm pretty sure kids have been saying random numbers as memes since... like, the beginning of language. the beginning of numbers. I'm guessing that some time around 15,000 years ago in hunter-gatherer tribes all around the world a scene played out where one kid shouted "hey look, four rocks!" after seeing a few rocks on the ground, and every other kid in the tribe shouted "four rocks! four rocks!" and the adults just stood around like "what the fuck are the kids on about now?" and then had to live with the kids saying "four rocks!" every time they saw four of literally any object together. Like, this does not seem like a new phenomenon.

You make a compelling point. Especially because "four rocks" IS hella fun to say. Thanks for the new way to confuse my friends when hiking!

four rocks!!!

four rocks!!!

A reader of Hourman 1999 wrote in a letter, "I also like the fact that Snapper, not Tyler, narrates the action. It's difficult to see growth in yourself, and it makes it easier for us to see Tyler's personality growth through Snapper's eyes." And he was correct. That's exactly what the narration is doing. The series is a coming-of-age story, of sorts, so the narrator is the hero's best friend/"spiritual brother," someone uniquely qualified to observe and record character development as it happens.

Snapper rather than Tyler as the primary narrator makes sense. Tyler has no reason to be telling or recording his own story, and while he is very self-conscious, he is not initially very introspective. He is, after all, only two years old in terms of existence, for all his adultlike appearance and phenomenal cosmic power. The human disguise that he sometimes takes on was designed to reflect his mental state/self-perception and thus is the persona of an awkward, naive fifteen-year-old boy. If Tyler were to narrate his own story, his narrative would lack a certain maturity.

Snapper, on the other hand, does have reason to tell the story. He's a sporadic writer who has written accounts of his own time with the JLA, and his instinct after experiencing something unusual is to jot it down in his notebook. So the narration of the series is not merely Snapper speaking to a hypothetical audience but excerpts from the journal he's keeping about his time with Tyler.

Hellenistic Greek Cast Glass Pomegranate Vase

2nd century B.C.E. — 1st century C.E.

GLASS.

To People Who Specifically Prefer Tim As Robin

That is you

I made a discord server so we can hang out maybe, we'll see how it goes

And once again

This server is for people that like Tim specifically being Robin, anyone that prefers he have a different name or "move on" or "leave the Bats" or "leave Gotham" should consider this server is not for you. It's not just about Tim being your favorite Robin (he doesn't even need to be, actually), it's about PREFERRING HE BE IN THAT ROLE.

I do have all channels besides the first one role locked, you do need to say something to affirm you understand this for access, which is the only reason I'm allowing this to be a public invite, don't make me regret it

Link (expires in 7 days)

We'll see how it goes

New invite link: https://discord.gg/aybRwNWT

Just in case anyone would still like to join that sees this

your local anxious president and the overqualified usps guy

Csevet and Maia, my beloveds!

~ Knightfight

Is there an equivalent term for queerbaiting when, instead of baiting you with a relationship that could have been queer, it's about other elements of the story that could have been different? Because, this is how it feels. This page is literally "We could have given you Bruce going into (fake) realities where the girls or Duke were Batman, but instead you get the 4 batboys."

It is making me insane. We could have an issue of Bruce and Batman Steph. Of Bruce and Batman Cass. Or Bruce and Batman Duke. But no, why the hell would they write Bruce's relationships with the girls, or black men, or Azrael, when they can use the same 4 batkids again and again to sell comics?! Why give us Bruce interracting ONLY with one of these character for a whole issue, with the theme of their relationship to Batman and him, when they can give us the same batboys again and again and again?!

I would kill for a Batman Steph and Bruce's interraction about them only.

Bernard: so are you going to tell me more about Danny orrrrr

Tim: listen you’re better off asking him tbh I haven’t seen him since I was in school and then he got kidnapped into being a cult leader so -

Bernard: kidnapped by a cult you say

Tim: bear

Bernard: haven’t seen him since high school you say

Tim:

Bernard: this is a really really niche type to have congrats

You know, I just went back and fixed some of my information about Robin #124 in my post about that alt cover and it just struck me how absolutely ridiculous that time period was around the notion of Tim quitting.

Because okay. To start with, 124 isn't actually the issue that he's forced to quit, that's 125. 124 is the issue where Jack finds out and threatens Bruce at the end.

HOWEVER

It also happens to be an issue where Tim had been considering quitting, because from the previous issues, he thought he killed Johnny Warren (which, he didn't), and in this issue he ACTIVELY DECIDES NOT TO and actually gets reinvigorated. Before in 125 he is forced to anyway.

And this was all a scant few issues after 120, which was the end of the 16th birthday arc, in which he also flirted with the idea of quitting.

And and even with the basically being forced and making a PROMISE to not do Robin stuff anymore, he still comes back to Robin a few issues later. And then actively doubles down on his commitment to it.

Anyway

Tim Drake can threaten to quit, he can think about quitting, he can even quit temporarily under duress, but he can't stay quit.

Thanks for coming to my Tim Talk.

Most officers: Fire Lord Zuko is great!

Ozai loyalists: Zuko? More like. Sucko. Go Ozai

Admiral Chan: That motherfucker invited himself to my son's party, broke my mother's vase because he was jealous, was told to leave, left, and then came back to burn down my vacation home.

Zuko: i keep telling you it was a rough period in my life

OP youre hiding gold in those tags

I can’t even build a normal one and he’s out here doing this

when brandon sanderson talks about villains in his famous free youtube writing class video lectures he'll say 'what's the difference between gollum and sauron' and of course he means the villain that's present in the narrative and characterized in a way the audience can potentially relate to or sympathize with vs. the looming threatening anonymous far-off force (among other things). but every time he asks that i think 'well one of those guys tracked down frodo and got his ring back'

Brandon Sanderson: What's the difference between Gollum and Sauron?

OP: Skill issue.