Workshop: "Writing Tim Drake/Rose Wilson" by Darkdanc3r
Today's workshop is by darkdanc3r and is covering the dynamics of pairing two characters from the current run of the Teen Titans, Tim Drake and Rose Wilson!
I’m still not sure what I was thinking when I said I could try a Tim/Rose pairing essay. When I sat down to write this, I stared at my computer screen for hours before giving up on that idea and just sitting down with a notebook and an early copy of my first Tim/Rose fic. Writing Tim/Rose has, for me, been something of a challenge, even now that I’m more familiar with my take on the pairing. Now here’s hoping I can explain why I can actually see the two of them working out well as a couple…
Relationships from Hell
Looking at canon, it’s obvious that neither Tim nor Rose have exactly had the best of luck with relationships. Really, it looks more like the writers were out to make these two characters as miserable as possible, and as maladjusted as possible. Rose has been tortured by her uncle, manipulated by her father (that, and in a fit of insanity she gouged her own eye out trying to make him like her better), and she’s been forced to deal with the distrust of far too many people. Tim’s relationships have almost always ended in death. He saw the Flying Graysons die, lost both his parents, lost his girlfriend and had his best friend taken from him in a battle to save the multiverse. With histories like those, it’s almost impossible to imagine either of them having normal relationships.
Or even remotely functional relationships.
Which is why they’re so much fun to write together.
A Sketchy Relationship Excuse
The only canon proof that I can find of even a remote possibility of a potential relationship is a few pages in Teen Titans #35. Up until the events of Teen Titans #45, Tim’s acceptance - the whole Team’s acceptance, really - has been… iffy. Of course, Tim wasn’t very happy with Rose after the events of #35, but the scenes within are also the only potential evidence of a relationship between Tim and Rose.
Although, really, if I were Tim, I wouldn’t have complained quite as much about being ambushed in bed by a beautiful naked woman…
Tim, however, is less than impressed. He’s agreed to have Rose on his team, as a favor to Nightwing, but he has absolutely no interest in being anything more than teammates.
Sad, really, there is so much potential there for fun, and really, the scene with the handcuffs lends itself entirely too well to interesting fic all on its own. Rose certainly seemed to enjoy being cuffed. I’ll bring that up later on.
At any rate, the most interesting point in this scene is Tim’s vehement protesting when Eddie sees him kneeling over Rose’s naked, handcuffed body. If the potential for something hadn’t existed, he wouldn’t have protested quite as hard - he’d have gone for the Robin voice. There’s certainly desire on Rose’s part, regardless of Tim trying to bury his emotions - and regardless of the fact that she’s been drinking.
Sadly, even by the events of Teen Titans #45, Tim seems to have held to his claim of only wanting to be teammates. Rose does have some hope, though, because Tim has claimed her - and Joey - as family, and we’ve all seen how easy it is to misconstrue the meanings of ‘family’ in the Bat-clan (even if most of that is just tweaking by fanwriters, yours truly included).
Relationship Angles
In my opinion, there are several angles that the Tim/Rose dynamic can take. They don’t have to necessarily be used individually, either.
Bad Girl/Good Boy
Considering Rose’s rather obvious enjoyment of being cuffed, there’s the ‘bad girl/good boy’ angle to be taken. This one is a favorite of mine, for relationship dynamics that aren’t necessarily intended to be permanent. Taking the ‘bad girl’ angle, Rose can tempt Tim into doing things he otherwise wouldn’t - up to and including having sex with her. All she’d have to do is find the best way to get under his prudish façade. Trap him in an elevator with herself and Superboy as companions and play with Kon until Tim can’t help but react. Convince him to go out to a club - or find out if he’s going to be at one as an undercover job - and dance just a little too close until he can’t resist any longer. The possibilities are endless with a little creative thinking… and a devious enough muse.
Pity Sex
Not one I particularly like, but it is certainly a viable option. Take him to bed - possibly by use of the means mentioned above - and have a one-night stand. Just a little something to make him feel something other than emo for a while. That whole ‘oh for God’s sake, if I sleep with you will you quit moping?’ I personally haven’t written this particular dynamic, but it’s out there.
Save (Blank) from Themselves
This could easily be misconstrued for the above, but for a couple minor differences. Firstly, there is likely to be a good deal more caring in a relationship like this. Pity sex is just that - a one time thing that more than likely won’t happen again, or if it does, it will be under similar circumstances. Saving Timmy from himself requires the person doing the saving to actually care about Tim’s mental health, and necessitates desiring to bring him back to himself permanently. Second, this is a relationship that’s likely to be more long-term than pity sex. Saving Rose from herself generally requires saving her from the reckless ways she’s grown accustomed to and, more importantly, saving her from her own attitude. As a defense mechanism against getting abandoned again (at least, that’s my guess), she’s made herself very hard to care for. Brash, border-line rude (or worse), and generally mistrusting anyone who tries to get too close. Rather like Tim’s brooding, Rose uses that harsh behavior to keep people from getting too close, so that she won’t lose them - or be manipulated by them.
This particular theme seems to turn up in a lot of pairing fics that involve the Bat family. I wonder why…
My Canon
My personal take on Tim and Rose starts at Tim’s protestations that nothing is going on and takes a left turn from there. Of course, that one scene doesn’t mean as much as what I can sense going on behind the scenes. Rose has to get the team - and therefore Robin - to trust her, which means being on better behavior. Certainly not best behavior - that would make people immediately suspect that something was up. Basically, she’d be trying to live up to that ‘good girl’ comment she made to Vic when he woke up and tried to strangle her. Of course, she also has to find a way under Tim’s skin.
This is where I start blending two of the angles I mentioned above - ‘bad girl/good boy’ and the ‘save (blank) from themselves’ - in this case, the blank is most certainly filled with Tim’s name. Rose’s own saving pretty much follows Tim’s. As he relaxes and gets more comfortable, so does she.
Anyway, Rose pretty much exudes ‘bad girl,’ even when she’s not trying to, but when she is trying to - and when she puts it to the correct uses - she can be devastating. Luckily, she does seem to have some sense of the appropriate, and acts in such ways as to get Tim’s attention without annoying him. Best way to save Tim from himself (in her opinion and in mine) is to distract him from his ghosts and keep him distracted until some of them can ease their hold on him.
That’s what I was going for in Absence of Thought, when I had Rose push Tim into sparring with her. One thing no Bat would ever willingly allow himself to do is fight distracted, and that’s what Rose was counting on. Get him focused on the match, so that he’s not brooding, and then pull out the bad girl behavior and start playing with his hormones while the fight already has him in a heightened state of awareness. (I personally believe that the only hero who doesn’t get hot and bothered from fighting is Clark, and that’s because it’s not the same passion for him that it is for others.) Anyway, sparring leads to sex. Frequently. Even with tactics like this - and Rose’s probable skill in bed - it’s doubtful that Tim would immediately be comfortable with the idea of sleeping with a teammate - or with the idea of leaving his ghosts behind.
Still, with enough time and effort, it is entirely likely that Tim would go willing to Rose without the need for sparring. At that point… he’s no hounded by his ghosts as often, and Rose might even get him to talk. Not the bawling, weeping, ‘oh God I’m going to break’ thing that a lot of professional romance writers adore, but talking all the same. Maybe get him to tell her stories, needle him for tidbits that nobody else knows, until its easier for Tim to remember the good times, instead of just the ache of loss. This is something I wish I’d covered better in my Love Around You arc, and I just might go back and deal with it, but some of it’s implied in some of the later chapters, I hope.
Throughout all of this, Tim isn’t the only one being saved. Rose’s been manipulated and pushed away all her life, but that first time with Tim in her bed - it’d give her at least a trace of hope that she might have a chance at something of her own. And every time Tim came to (and in) her, there’d be that much more proof that she’d found someone who wouldn’t leave her - or push her away, or manipulate her. To my knowledge, Tim isn’t one for manipulating people - situations, yes, when it’ll help his team, but not people. Its something stable and stable is what Rose desperately needs.
My whole reason for giving my Tim/Rose couple a child was to give them one more pillar of stability. Rose would gain another person who wouldn’t manipulate her into doing anything but loving her unconditionally, and Tim would gain a member of blood family (something he lost when Boomerang killed his father) and he’d also get someone who needs him too much to let him withdraw into brooding. Baby Desiree is also yet another layer of glue in their relationship, bonding them that much closely together. Tim would never consider leaving his daughter or the mother of his child, not when he’s lost so many loved ones already. Rose wouldn’t leave with Desiree - or leave Tim with Desiree - because she knows what it’s like to be pushed away and turned on, and she won’t do that to her daughter, or to her lover. Neither of them wants to be their parents, and they’ll work that much harder to make sure that Desiree has the childhood neither of them was allowed to have.
Notes
I’m sure there are other dynamics in the relationship that I’m missing, or that other people consider more appropriate, but it’s worked for me so far. It’s a relationship that could go so very many directions, and I love that flexibility. Of course, I’ve focused almost entirely on solely Tim and Rose together, without considering anyone else being added to the mix.
Like Kon.
Kon/Tim/Rose is probably my all-time favorite OT3, but that’s fodder for a different essay (and if I’m lucky, someone else will write it!)
I have to thank merfilly, ilyena_sylph and cero_ate for putting up with me griping about how in the world I was going to pull this off without sounding like a complete nut.
I’m still not sure what I was thinking when I said I could try a Tim/Rose pairing essay. When I sat down to write this, I stared at my computer screen for hours before giving up on that idea and just sitting down with a notebook and an early copy of my first Tim/Rose fic. Writing Tim/Rose has, for me, been something of a challenge, even now that I’m more familiar with my take on the pairing. Now here’s hoping I can explain why I can actually see the two of them working out well as a couple…
Relationships from Hell
Looking at canon, it’s obvious that neither Tim nor Rose have exactly had the best of luck with relationships. Really, it looks more like the writers were out to make these two characters as miserable as possible, and as maladjusted as possible. Rose has been tortured by her uncle, manipulated by her father (that, and in a fit of insanity she gouged her own eye out trying to make him like her better), and she’s been forced to deal with the distrust of far too many people. Tim’s relationships have almost always ended in death. He saw the Flying Graysons die, lost both his parents, lost his girlfriend and had his best friend taken from him in a battle to save the multiverse. With histories like those, it’s almost impossible to imagine either of them having normal relationships.
Or even remotely functional relationships.
Which is why they’re so much fun to write together.
A Sketchy Relationship Excuse
The only canon proof that I can find of even a remote possibility of a potential relationship is a few pages in Teen Titans #35. Up until the events of Teen Titans #45, Tim’s acceptance - the whole Team’s acceptance, really - has been… iffy. Of course, Tim wasn’t very happy with Rose after the events of #35, but the scenes within are also the only potential evidence of a relationship between Tim and Rose.
Although, really, if I were Tim, I wouldn’t have complained quite as much about being ambushed in bed by a beautiful naked woman…
Tim, however, is less than impressed. He’s agreed to have Rose on his team, as a favor to Nightwing, but he has absolutely no interest in being anything more than teammates.
Sad, really, there is so much potential there for fun, and really, the scene with the handcuffs lends itself entirely too well to interesting fic all on its own. Rose certainly seemed to enjoy being cuffed. I’ll bring that up later on.
At any rate, the most interesting point in this scene is Tim’s vehement protesting when Eddie sees him kneeling over Rose’s naked, handcuffed body. If the potential for something hadn’t existed, he wouldn’t have protested quite as hard - he’d have gone for the Robin voice. There’s certainly desire on Rose’s part, regardless of Tim trying to bury his emotions - and regardless of the fact that she’s been drinking.
Sadly, even by the events of Teen Titans #45, Tim seems to have held to his claim of only wanting to be teammates. Rose does have some hope, though, because Tim has claimed her - and Joey - as family, and we’ve all seen how easy it is to misconstrue the meanings of ‘family’ in the Bat-clan (even if most of that is just tweaking by fanwriters, yours truly included).
Relationship Angles
In my opinion, there are several angles that the Tim/Rose dynamic can take. They don’t have to necessarily be used individually, either.
Bad Girl/Good Boy
Considering Rose’s rather obvious enjoyment of being cuffed, there’s the ‘bad girl/good boy’ angle to be taken. This one is a favorite of mine, for relationship dynamics that aren’t necessarily intended to be permanent. Taking the ‘bad girl’ angle, Rose can tempt Tim into doing things he otherwise wouldn’t - up to and including having sex with her. All she’d have to do is find the best way to get under his prudish façade. Trap him in an elevator with herself and Superboy as companions and play with Kon until Tim can’t help but react. Convince him to go out to a club - or find out if he’s going to be at one as an undercover job - and dance just a little too close until he can’t resist any longer. The possibilities are endless with a little creative thinking… and a devious enough muse.
Pity Sex
Not one I particularly like, but it is certainly a viable option. Take him to bed - possibly by use of the means mentioned above - and have a one-night stand. Just a little something to make him feel something other than emo for a while. That whole ‘oh for God’s sake, if I sleep with you will you quit moping?’ I personally haven’t written this particular dynamic, but it’s out there.
Save (Blank) from Themselves
This could easily be misconstrued for the above, but for a couple minor differences. Firstly, there is likely to be a good deal more caring in a relationship like this. Pity sex is just that - a one time thing that more than likely won’t happen again, or if it does, it will be under similar circumstances. Saving Timmy from himself requires the person doing the saving to actually care about Tim’s mental health, and necessitates desiring to bring him back to himself permanently. Second, this is a relationship that’s likely to be more long-term than pity sex. Saving Rose from herself generally requires saving her from the reckless ways she’s grown accustomed to and, more importantly, saving her from her own attitude. As a defense mechanism against getting abandoned again (at least, that’s my guess), she’s made herself very hard to care for. Brash, border-line rude (or worse), and generally mistrusting anyone who tries to get too close. Rather like Tim’s brooding, Rose uses that harsh behavior to keep people from getting too close, so that she won’t lose them - or be manipulated by them.
This particular theme seems to turn up in a lot of pairing fics that involve the Bat family. I wonder why…
My Canon
My personal take on Tim and Rose starts at Tim’s protestations that nothing is going on and takes a left turn from there. Of course, that one scene doesn’t mean as much as what I can sense going on behind the scenes. Rose has to get the team - and therefore Robin - to trust her, which means being on better behavior. Certainly not best behavior - that would make people immediately suspect that something was up. Basically, she’d be trying to live up to that ‘good girl’ comment she made to Vic when he woke up and tried to strangle her. Of course, she also has to find a way under Tim’s skin.
This is where I start blending two of the angles I mentioned above - ‘bad girl/good boy’ and the ‘save (blank) from themselves’ - in this case, the blank is most certainly filled with Tim’s name. Rose’s own saving pretty much follows Tim’s. As he relaxes and gets more comfortable, so does she.
Anyway, Rose pretty much exudes ‘bad girl,’ even when she’s not trying to, but when she is trying to - and when she puts it to the correct uses - she can be devastating. Luckily, she does seem to have some sense of the appropriate, and acts in such ways as to get Tim’s attention without annoying him. Best way to save Tim from himself (in her opinion and in mine) is to distract him from his ghosts and keep him distracted until some of them can ease their hold on him.
That’s what I was going for in Absence of Thought, when I had Rose push Tim into sparring with her. One thing no Bat would ever willingly allow himself to do is fight distracted, and that’s what Rose was counting on. Get him focused on the match, so that he’s not brooding, and then pull out the bad girl behavior and start playing with his hormones while the fight already has him in a heightened state of awareness. (I personally believe that the only hero who doesn’t get hot and bothered from fighting is Clark, and that’s because it’s not the same passion for him that it is for others.) Anyway, sparring leads to sex. Frequently. Even with tactics like this - and Rose’s probable skill in bed - it’s doubtful that Tim would immediately be comfortable with the idea of sleeping with a teammate - or with the idea of leaving his ghosts behind.
Still, with enough time and effort, it is entirely likely that Tim would go willing to Rose without the need for sparring. At that point… he’s no hounded by his ghosts as often, and Rose might even get him to talk. Not the bawling, weeping, ‘oh God I’m going to break’ thing that a lot of professional romance writers adore, but talking all the same. Maybe get him to tell her stories, needle him for tidbits that nobody else knows, until its easier for Tim to remember the good times, instead of just the ache of loss. This is something I wish I’d covered better in my Love Around You arc, and I just might go back and deal with it, but some of it’s implied in some of the later chapters, I hope.
Throughout all of this, Tim isn’t the only one being saved. Rose’s been manipulated and pushed away all her life, but that first time with Tim in her bed - it’d give her at least a trace of hope that she might have a chance at something of her own. And every time Tim came to (and in) her, there’d be that much more proof that she’d found someone who wouldn’t leave her - or push her away, or manipulate her. To my knowledge, Tim isn’t one for manipulating people - situations, yes, when it’ll help his team, but not people. Its something stable and stable is what Rose desperately needs.
My whole reason for giving my Tim/Rose couple a child was to give them one more pillar of stability. Rose would gain another person who wouldn’t manipulate her into doing anything but loving her unconditionally, and Tim would gain a member of blood family (something he lost when Boomerang killed his father) and he’d also get someone who needs him too much to let him withdraw into brooding. Baby Desiree is also yet another layer of glue in their relationship, bonding them that much closely together. Tim would never consider leaving his daughter or the mother of his child, not when he’s lost so many loved ones already. Rose wouldn’t leave with Desiree - or leave Tim with Desiree - because she knows what it’s like to be pushed away and turned on, and she won’t do that to her daughter, or to her lover. Neither of them wants to be their parents, and they’ll work that much harder to make sure that Desiree has the childhood neither of them was allowed to have.
Notes
I’m sure there are other dynamics in the relationship that I’m missing, or that other people consider more appropriate, but it’s worked for me so far. It’s a relationship that could go so very many directions, and I love that flexibility. Of course, I’ve focused almost entirely on solely Tim and Rose together, without considering anyone else being added to the mix.
Like Kon.
Kon/Tim/Rose is probably my all-time favorite OT3, but that’s fodder for a different essay (and if I’m lucky, someone else will write it!)
I have to thank merfilly, ilyena_sylph and cero_ate for putting up with me griping about how in the world I was going to pull this off without sounding like a complete nut.