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The Shawn Tsang arc isn’t just important because of the pregnancy scare subplot (which I also love because it’s so personal and intimate). It’s also in how Shawn and Dick are both crucial to each other’s growth.
Like obviously for Shawn, her teenage encounter with him sparks in her the sense that her anger could be redirected to a better cause. But throughout the coverage of the Run-Offs and the subsequent events, Shawn presents a flaw in Nightwing/Dick’s philosophy. He has a psychological reason to fear anger and try to suppress it. But the way he almost demonizes it, to the point of fearing that their children will be angry like Shawn, is frankly a bias.
Because not only has Shawn NOT done anything harmful and destructive in that arc, her anger is actually an agent to push for change. She’s angered by how children from certain communities are treated so she opens a non-profit philanthropic center to help them. She’s angered by the prejudice towards former criminals (who really didn’t commit that heinous a crime) so she helps them deal with their past and settle into a new life. Because anger is NOT inherently bad. Anger means they care. Anger pushed for change. Changes that are systematic and long-term and not just “beating up one alien villain and saving the Earth THIS TIME.”
That’s why I think Shawn and Dick are so complementary to each other’s character arcs because Shawn has to learn to accept but also regulate her emotions and Dick has to learn that the world has never been and can never be black and white, and there are changes that needs to be done that he can’t do just by donning tights and a mask. That only ANGER can do. I wanted them to fight more. I wanted them to argue and then try to see it through the other’s eyes. I want them to hold onto the intensity of their relationship. But the comic gave them up. So I gave up on the comic.
🔥 + Shawn
my actually-unpopular opinion here is i think shawn tsang might be the best written love interest dick has ever had, and that their relationship would be a better endgame for him than dickbabs or dickkory
shawn’s redemption and growth from her teen-self is a really really cool backstory. it exemplifies nightwing's whole batman-but-better deal. she forces dick to face his biases in a way that helps him grow as a character, and it’s clear that more planning than just “we need a love interest” went into her character design
that's something i think it'd be nice for a defacer solo series to explore—how she transitions from kid-villain to adult-hero, with or without nightwing’s support
i also think shawn’s presence in nightwing let dick be an adult in ways he isn’t usually able to. it’s not just getting older and having a job, but also the change in maturity—the concept of dick thinking about kids Right Now As Nightwing rather than in a future timeline or an elseworld. god. that’s so cool <3 and it works so well with damian because there’s so much conflict and so many feelings and i just. <3333
behold, an image with no cisgender heterosexual explanation
