You guys you guys you guys!

[lettered]

You know what the world needs more of?

Batman/Gordon. Bruce Wayne/Jim Gordon, Bruce/Jim, Jim/Bruce, Jim Gordon/Bruce Wayne, Gordon/Batman. Do you see how I am like a tween dreaming of marriage to her chemistry class crush? Bruce Gordon. Jim Wayne. Bruce Wayne-Gordon. James "Jim" Wayne.

First of all, you guys, Commissioner Gordon. I read this quote about how in a place like Gotham City, it's easier to be Batman than Commissioner Gordon. It's melodramatic, but don't you think it's a little true? I mean, isn't the whole reason Wayne became Batman because he didn't see how else to do what needed to be done? And yeah, that's brave, and maybe cleverer, more productive, useful (in the short term. Who knows what it does for the underpinnings of society? I'm not even getting into the ideas of Gordon's actions being definitely more ethical, perhaps also more moral).

But Gordon's the one doing this thing he knows is impossible. And he's never going to stop, no matter how impossible it is. He's going to do it until it kills him, because someone needs to try.

I . . . don't know what's wrong with me.

I also don't know when RL is going to let up, but I'm hoping soon. I got a new job (still at the Science Center, different position), but I've finally done it a couple times now, and there's not extensive travel/visiting people for the next six weeks or so ... who knows. I miss you all. I do still read your journals, even if I don't comment. Looking forward to reading some fic eventually...!

Comments

[tkp.livejournal.com]

I feel that Bruce Wayne is Batman, so that would be kinda hard to pull off.

Anyway, despite stating the obvious, I'm not trying to be obtuse, here. I think Batman is mostly a symbol. Gordon could understand that he's a human being while Batman maintains that symbolism, but it would mostly be abstract knowledge. To really know him as a man, Gordon would have to know Bruce Wayne.

Now, the Bruce Wayne Bruce shows to most people is mostly symbolic as well. So there's a self Bruce mostly keeps hidden. It's the self that's fucked up and vulnerable and twisted enough to create and maintain Batman. That's the man behind who Batman really is. And while it doesn't have much to do with symbol!Bruce Wayne (the face Bruce Wayne shows to the world), it does have to do with facts that pertain to Bruce's real life: the fact that his parents were murdered, the fact that he's so rich and in the spotlight that he can't live a real life outside of Batman, the fact that he has to pretend so constantly that no one can know him, etc. Someone (e.g. Gordon) would have to understand these things to understand where Batman is coming from at all. Else he would just be a disembodied entity. You might like Batman's personality (though who would?) or even his principles but you would never know him.

And I think Gordon would demand to know these things. He might guess at the secret life Batman has to lead, and the secret wounds he bears, but not knowing the details makes Batman still an abstract, symbolic figure. On a personal level, I think that Gordon would be impatient with those abstractions, but be compassionate and empathetic with realities.

Lastly, I don't think Bruce himself would tolerate it. I don't think he wants to be unknown by the people he loves. There's a moment in Batman Begins which is very telling to me--when Rachel sees him behaving like a playboy fool in public. He tries to tell her he's more than what she sees, and she tells him to prove that with his actions. And then of course Batman lets her know who he really is. I think it was partly because she was a childhood friend, but I think part of it was he just couldn't stand someone he loved looking at him--and it was him, even if he had a different kind of mask on--in that way. I don't think he'd be able to stand that from anyone he loved in so strong a way. And I think it's sort of inevitable that Gordon and Bruce Wayne would at least have some moments of interaction, enough to make Bruce want him to know.