just saw a fic tagged ‘racist! bart’ and i am done im out i am quitting fandom
???
I guess I can imagine Bart being racist by being oblivious to specific issues most people know? Even though that goes against everything that makes Bart Bart and isn’t a direction anyone should take the character?
If he’s paired with Jaime, I’m assuming he’s probably TV!Bart. I can sort of theoretically understand taking that Bart in not-completely-pure-and-good directions. Maybe? NO. I can’t.
Bart is good and pure and sometimes oblivious but NEVER harmful in his obliviousness. Narrative conventions are required to bend to make sure that this always stay true.
Some characters may be interpreted in multiple ways. Bart is not one of them. Get your grimy fingers off him, dark!fic writers.
that sounds amazing. The two best teens in Justice League UNLIMITED? Hopefully they were gonna be sidekicks? Like, returning side characters for the major heroes? They weren’t going to be in the League?!
Ummm, apparently this was when they were trying to get Kids’ WB to go for the show, and Robin and Impulse (and I guess female Cyborg?) were part of trying to appeal to a younger demographic, so… they MIGHT have been part of the League proper? WHICH IS ADMITTEDLY ODD. But the Flash wasn’t on the roster so idk who would’ve even had Impulse as a sidekick.
So there are issues such as Bart potentially destroying the world without Max Mercury around to keep him (somewhat) in line, BUT if they could have worked them out…
I love you, Tara. And I am with you. I was going to say that he doesn’t work as well without the rest of the Core 4, but then I thought about him with Max, him with Joan+Jay (I am reading a really good story, but there is icky kissing that must be avoided), him with ANYONE – yeah, Bart is just always wonderful.
After all
that complaining about how I DON’T CARE about queer stuff, I should probably
feel ridiculous posting this. BUT.
I really,
really, want a fic about Bart having as much understanding of gender identity and
sexual attraction as I do of romantic attraction.
Bart coming
to Tim and asking about some aspect of dating, or why people respond badly to
homosexuality, or something else Tim is COMPLETELY unequipped to explain.
And Tim
carefully asking questions to confirm that Bart still doesn’t get why he’s
supposed to go in the men’s washroom or not wear skirts. Because he doesn’t
identify with any gender OR feel any dysphoria when labelled. He doesn’t care,
and because he’s BART, he has no clue that he SHOULD care. And he has never
felt attraction to either gender (Carol and future!Rose can still have happened.
I’m happily married to my best friend. You don’t need romantic or sexual
attraction for a relationship). He’s never got that it’s a thing different than
friendship.
I want Bart
getting the talk I never got. From the ground up. Describing gender to someone
who’s upbringing allowed him to avoid any opinions about it at all. Describing
attraction, both sexual and romantic. With super basic examples.
And Tim
being SUPER AWKWARD but also surprisingly good at it. Because he sees things
from the outside all the time, so I’d think he’d be good at describing feelings
that someone has never experienced to them in a way that would make sense.
I want to
see sexual and gender identity explained as if they were magic, or some other
concept that doesn’t exist and nobody is expected to know anything about. And
the little lightbulb moments with Bart, as some weird behaviour suddenly makes
sense and he excitedly asks Tim if this is why people do __.
Also, SO
MANY bonus points if at some point Tim is explaining asexuality and Bart is
like, that’s how you are, right? And Tim fumbles and then says something about
how he’s complicated, because there are a lot of outside factors (trauma, neglect,
being an awkward nerd, etc.) for him. In this fic, I want a Tim who isn’t
asexual, just really uncomfortable with sex and sexuality. Because that
interests me too.
Even more
bonus points for a coda at the end with Bart excitedly telling Kon what he now
understands and Kon having his own little Eureka moment. Because his upbringing
also leaves the possibility for SO MANY gaps in his knowledge base he might
never have even noticed.
Fun fact! When DC and Marvel mashed up into the Amalgam universe, there was an Impulse/Quicksilver hybrid named Mercury whose costume looked EXACTLY like that!
kiragecko 