Out Of The Many Issues DC Has With Its Own Writing, How They Use Dialogue And Convenient Narration To

Out of the many issues DC has with its own writing, how they use dialogue and convenient narration to manipulate audience perspective is the one that makes me question why I keep reading these comics. Obviously, this isn't limited to DC, but it is one of the worst cases I've seen.

Let's take Batman and Red Hood, for example. Comics from Jason's perspective often portray the Dark Knight as being a distant, controlling, emotionally neglectful and even physically abusive as a Father/mentor-- And before any Batman stans come for me, he isn't the only one writers do this with. Bear with me and you'll see why this is a problem.

DC almost always purposely uses this as drama at the cost of inconsistent character writing. Most have agreed that the way Bruce gets written when any of his kids are in the picture is messed up. Read enough of them and you'll notice a pattern: He does something borderline abusive, the plot progresses, and you can practically feel the writers realize this might make their cash cow Bat look bad (God Forbid.) But instead of the comics calling him out or changing his behavior, they shift dialogue to try and manipulate the narrative as if Batman was correct the whole time, and anyone not doing things his way is just wrong.

This doesn't just happen to Red Hood, but staying on him as an example, there will be a turning point in the plot where every other character involved is suddenly adamant that Jason is being immature, stupid, reckless, etc, and whatever trouble he's in was his fault to begin with, even when he's been doing things Batman's way. Heroes, neutral parties, and even villains start mocking and condescending to him, sometimes for doing the exact same thing that Bruce gets praised for. However reversibly, Batman does something just as bad (or even worse) and the narrative is that it was completely justified or the outcome is retconned/changed in his favor. Yet when this hypocrisy does get called out in comic, Bruce gives his usual edgy "Exactly, I don't want you to be like me." As if the writers are trying to look directly at the audience and say "See? He's just a flawed character! He's relatable!"

This leads to people hyper-defending every action of Batman instead of criticizing the writing behind it. "Bruce respects his kids! He says so in issue #467889999--" Just because the writers put the words in Batman's mouth doesn't mean anything when his actions don't back it up.

There's a reason why Show, don't tell is such a crucial writing rule. Portraying Batman as controlling and abusive, only to twist the narrative that he was "right all along," by

- changing the rules last minute

-having everyone verbally discredit his opponent

- emphasize how "badass and right Batman was" in every goddamn exchange

is lazy and poor writing. "I respect Nightwing," means nothing when Batman undermines him, insults him, criticizes his choices or punches him for the sake of ✨️the drama.✨️

It would be like telling the story of Snow White, where everything is exactly the same except she regularly kicks small animals, and bullies the dwarves. But the magic mirror, the Hunter and the dwarves still all emphasize what "kind and gentle Princess" she is without ever addressing her actions. Inconsistent character writing means the drama loses its effect. If your character can just sidestep their convictions for the sake of the plot, especially in a character driven story, then there is no character. A game with no rules, roles or directive isn't a game. That's why DC fanon is usually more popular, because somehow an entire fandom has managed to create more consistency than a team of writers.

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Please help my family

My name is Aisha

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