Reverse Robins - Blog Posts

i think it’d be very funny and also very angsty if in my Reverse Robins au, dick still kills the joker

like, it’s a year after jason was killed, and the joker kidnaps Rumor/Tim. Robin arrives, the joker convinces him Rumor is dead, and then he taunts Robin about Batboy/Jason’s death

atp bruce is gone, presumed dead (lost in time), jason died a year ago, and dick is still recovering from his parents deaths. he can’t handle losing anyone else. so he just… stops holding back. he does the quadruple flip, slamming into the joker at 80mph, and breaks the bastard’s neck. no one revives him. dick doesn’t regret it one bit.

and the joker is forever known for being defeated by a fucking 12 year old with anger issues

Big fan of the Reverse Robins AU because not only does Dick Grayson deserve a break from his eldest daughter syndrome but also imagine Dick Grayson as the baby of the family? He’d have them all wrapped around his finger.

I love the Reverse Robins au but everyone always forgets Steph, because if you go with the whole “second Robin dies thing” Steph as Red Hood would be sick as fuck. I’m begging someone to draw some Steph Hood.

I think what I love the most about Reverse Robin AU TimJay is the absolute potential for hero worship with Jason toward Tim. In canon we often forget that Tim didn't really care for Jason as Robin, meanwhile as I never shut up about, Jason has been weirdly respecting and obsessed with Tim since finding out about Tim's existence. So if you flip their order, make Tim Red Hood and make Jason Red Robin, there's so much room for hero worship from Jason.

As Robin, Jason has always teetered that edge of being pro-murder or not. Whether you believe he killed Felipe or not, even in his Post-Crisis introduction as Robin, he almost kills Two Face. Those concepts of lethal justice have always been brewing inside him, just reigned in by Bruce. So if you have Robin!Jason witnessing Red Hood!Tim start killing people and quickly making noticeable change in the landscape of gangs in Gotham, Jason would take quick notice. I think Tim as Red Hood would still be lethal, but there'd be a different application than Jason's Red Hood. Heads in duffle bags isn't Tim's style, even if he kills. I think you'd see something much more akin to that time Tim almost killed Boomerang, where it's such an elaborately thought out set up, it realistically doesn't even look like Tim killed anyone. It'd take months for Bruce to connect this string of deaths as anything other than coincidental, let alone link them to Red Hood. And Jason is wickedly smart, even as Robin. Jason, putting those pieces together before Bruce does and witnessing the undeniable positive change for Gotham it's enacting? Robin!Jason would be incredibly drawn in by that, and then even more-so, a Red Robin!Jason who has to grapple with being replaced to make room for the next Robin would I think, in anger, turn to Red Hood. And Tim would push him away at first, his plans don't have room for a scorned teenager who's trying to get back at Bruce and Nightwing!Damian like this- but I think Jason would wear him down. Prove to Tim that Jason can think on his wavelength.

Slightly related, what interests me about Red Hood!Tim is how it'd implicate his closeness to Ra's. Jason is taken into the League by Talia in Lost Days and Ra's doesn't necessarily approve of Jason's presence, especially not of Talia dunking him in the Pit, but Ra's has always canonically been A Little Weird about Tim. I think in a world Tim dies as the second Robin, it would be Ra's who dunks Tim to preserve his mind that Ra's thinks shouldn't be wasted, and you have the potential for 'apprentice of Ra's' Tim wrapped up in it all, even without him experience the Red Robin arc. So when it's Jason as Red Robin, instead of him going to Ra's when he's scorned by the Batfamily, he goes to Tim. The person he once idolized, because I think Tim would've been Jason's Robin. Smart, competent, a strong legacy to live up to. And now he's back, and he's pro-killing, an edge that Jason has always teetered on and would feel even closer to when he's replaced by a young Dick. I think Tim wouldn't ever be able to get rid of Jason.

Then on Tim's side, I think his reaction to being replaced after his death would be a complicated one. Objectively, being the Robin who believes Batman needs a Robin, he'd respect the logic and know Bruce was always going to replace him eventually. But still, there's always going to be that instinctual emotional reaction of betrayal and replacement. I think he'd view Jason at first with anger and distance, but then, seeing Jason as this street kid with begrudging potential, I could see Red Hood!Tim testing Jason. Constantly throwing things at Jason, seeing how he reacts, if he lives up to being Robin. Tim has a need for analyzing people, understanding their strengths and weaknesses. And he seems the Robin mantle very uniquely, he'd need to have it proven to him that Jason can handle it.

So you would have this dynamic of Jason hero worshipping Tim, slowly believing in Tim's methodology. While Tim is at first dismissive of him, but then starts to test him, see what makes this kid tick. And I think the TimJay potential of Jason trying to prove himself to Tim could be Neat.

I don't know if this is just me but I really want to see reverse robins fanart and fanfics where after, years of living with Bruce and Alfred, Damian has mellowed out a lot. (He's still himself but way less violent and more quiet and stoic and an awesome big brother)(tim came a few years after Damian and by then Damian was better than when he had first come to the manor but still just a ball of anger and violence so tim has a lot of story's from that time that the younger batfam members have a hard time believing but still do sorta). Like Alfred would probably have a photo book and show it to Jason and Dick and be like: "and this was master Damian's first time out on patrol. He was banned and grounded for 3 months and put on house arrest. This is master Damian's first day at school. We ended up late because we had to take away knives from him, and even then he still had about five that, luckily, he did not use when he got into a fight with another student." "Oh and this is his first gala. He tried to stab 10 different people. Master Bruce stopped him thankfully before he could" and as he is telling these stories about young Damian Jason and Dick are like

They hear about 10 other stories about young Damian being an angry stabby child (they don't know that he was an assassin because I feel like Damian left that part of his life behind and doesn't tell anyone and Alfred wouldn't breach Damian's trust because he loves him) and now when Dick or Jason are setting the table they don't give Damian knives or when anyone else sets the table they both steal the knives until they realize that Damian doesn't know it's them and thinks that Alfred is taking them and thinks that Alfred is mad at him and doesn't trust him 😭 so they confess and apologize)