Bart and the definition of family
Jul. 18th, 2006 02:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fasterthanthoughtLong puzzled essay on Bart and family, what real family means to him and how he perceives camp family dynamics.
To start, Bart’s introduction to family and legacy is engrained in his personality. Who he came from defined him even from birth. He was stolen from his family by Dominators and then rescued by EarthGov, placed into a VR machine to live out his short lifespan while they took notes on him to create a race of superspeed soldiers. He would have died within three years if it weren’t for his Granma Iris and his great-grandparents breaking in to save him.
Iris is the first person Bart really learns to care for (although Dox was his first friend, he was expected to care for Dox since that was part of the programming in the VR world). She saved his life because he was “her only grandson.” And she is still his most important person. This is the first time he experiences thought outside of programming and he attaches meaning to Iris’ act because she is family. Why else would she risk her life and leave the time where she was comfortable for a complete stranger except for that? Bart, desperate to reciprocate, connects family with selfless, unconditional love and his first act of identity is making sure he can return the sacrifice Iris made for him by following in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps.
This comes to the other part of the family equation: Wally, who complicates Bart’s views. Wally is related to Bart indirectly, as he is Iris’ nephew and inherited the mantle of Flash after Barry died. But Wally and Bart are technically not blood-related (long story involving adoption and time travel, moving on) even though Bart acknowledges “they say we’re cousins or something.” Bart’s second introduction to relationships came when Iris brought Bart to Wally to fix his metabolism...by hitting him so hard he is forced to slow down and then reorganizing his connection to the Speed Force.
The complication arises when Wally risks his life to save Bart, but makes a quick impression that he only views Bart as someone Iris cares for, and a potential inheritor to the Flash mantle because he’s Barry’s grandson. At this time Wally was in danger of dying from his use of the Speed Force, he didn’t even question the consequences of Bart’s newfound displacement in his attempt to groom him to succeed him as the Flash. Bart, naturally eager to be like his grandfather and immerse himself in the feeling of family, agrees but his immaturity and his inability to view things with real world consequences made Wally doubt he could ever become a good superhero, much less take on the responsibilities of the Flash.
When they argue during the Chained Reaction arc (I think it was that one, either that or Ride the Lightning), Wally abdicates his role as the Flash and tells Bart that because he was too immature he’s decided to make Jesse Quick the next Flash. Bart is understandably upset, as Wally had given him the impression that he would be the natural pick for it, that it was his legacy to inherit, and then he gives it to an outsider—someone who is neither an Allen or a West. But the main point is that in the same breath Wally removes Bart from his Granma Iris’ care, saying that because he wasn’t responsible enough he should be given to Max Mercury to train. It should also be noted Wally never really intended to give the Flash mantle to Jesse because of legacy issues, he was just revoking it from Bart to get him to wise up. Because Wally is a complete asshole here.
This is where I think Bart gets his family complex from. He is told that because of his blood and who he is related to he’s expected to become a successor for the Flash. This fits into his blood-defining-family overcoming everything/unconditional love ideal as set by Iris. However, Wally pulls rank with his relationship with Iris and removes Bart from her, the only sense of stability he’s ever known, and then reasons it as a failure on Bart’s part to measure up. Bart doesn’t falter in his love for Iris, to his eyes she is still his center and he never doubts how she feels about him. But this sets the main wedge between Wally and Bart, and leaves Bart with the hidden fear that if he fails he’ll be abandoned and disowned by everyone if it’s bad enough, and the only connection that is ever permanent is that of “real” family, but even then that can be taken away by other forces. To him, Iris, and of course the memory of Barry, are his only infallible connection.
Bart and Max get off to a poor start, and Bart is mainly resentful that Max, who he has no connection to, is suddenly in charge of him. They fight, Bart frequently seems to question why Max keeps him around and Max questions himself. Even though they grow closer and Bart accepts his role as Max’s ward it seems obvious that Bart wishes he could be with his “real” family instead. When his mother shows up, who Bart has no memories of at all, he immediately decides to return to the future with her and leave Max and his entire life behind. No questions asked. In a few dream sequences, we see Bart imagine living with Barry (and presumably Iris) because it was “the only natural thing to do.” When Bart gets powers to control all of reality he brings his father back because he can. All of these demonstrate that Bart would prefer to live with his blood family, mainly because he assumes they will always be there for him. Regardless of whether or not it’s a childish idea, his view of being wanted is explicitly tied into natural family.
Now, family is not entirely a matter of being born into it. Bart later learns his mother’s side is the Thawne family, who long ago declared a blood feud on the Allens, and when Bart finds out his mother is a Thawne his reaction is to say that he’d never stop loving her because she was his mom. It’s not blind devotion to his ties, but they’re important in how they relate to him. Likewise, he doesn’t always accept all family the way he did his mom, as he initially was distant with his cousin Jenni, but she soon fell into that category to the point where he breaks up a Legionnaire meeting because he thinks she’s in danger and waves off their complaints because Jenni was more important than that. Likewise, he can see how non-blood becomes closer, like the way he indirectly comes to think of Helen as family, because while she only had blood ties to Max, she accepted him. When Jenni tells Bart how the future mentions Max adopting him when he was thirty, Bart freaks out because he sees that as an acknowledgement that Max is his “real” family in that act.
He won’t initiate adoption, or call anybody a family title beyond uncle/nephew by his own impetus, since that is the universal code for “person who I am vaguely responsible for but cannot admit ties” in the superhero lingo. Max is, by their cover, his uncle. Superman became “Uncle Clark” and Aquaman was “Uncle Arthur” when they came to visit and his friends stopped in. So Bart calls himself Kal’s uncle, but at the same time he can blanche at the idea that anyone would seriously consider Kon and him brothers.
In short summary, Bart is messed up about family. No matter how devoted his ties to others, they are not family if they aren’t official by blood or some kind of significant symbol like legal adoption, marriage, cultural ritual, etc. This doesn’t mean he can’t love people with every fiber of his being, just that he won’t be defined by them to the degree he is by Iris and Barry and Meloni. The relationships he forms are all based on merit, tenuous in their conditions and easy to lose track of in Bart’s eyes.
To start, Bart’s introduction to family and legacy is engrained in his personality. Who he came from defined him even from birth. He was stolen from his family by Dominators and then rescued by EarthGov, placed into a VR machine to live out his short lifespan while they took notes on him to create a race of superspeed soldiers. He would have died within three years if it weren’t for his Granma Iris and his great-grandparents breaking in to save him.
Iris is the first person Bart really learns to care for (although Dox was his first friend, he was expected to care for Dox since that was part of the programming in the VR world). She saved his life because he was “her only grandson.” And she is still his most important person. This is the first time he experiences thought outside of programming and he attaches meaning to Iris’ act because she is family. Why else would she risk her life and leave the time where she was comfortable for a complete stranger except for that? Bart, desperate to reciprocate, connects family with selfless, unconditional love and his first act of identity is making sure he can return the sacrifice Iris made for him by following in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps.
This comes to the other part of the family equation: Wally, who complicates Bart’s views. Wally is related to Bart indirectly, as he is Iris’ nephew and inherited the mantle of Flash after Barry died. But Wally and Bart are technically not blood-related (long story involving adoption and time travel, moving on) even though Bart acknowledges “they say we’re cousins or something.” Bart’s second introduction to relationships came when Iris brought Bart to Wally to fix his metabolism...by hitting him so hard he is forced to slow down and then reorganizing his connection to the Speed Force.
The complication arises when Wally risks his life to save Bart, but makes a quick impression that he only views Bart as someone Iris cares for, and a potential inheritor to the Flash mantle because he’s Barry’s grandson. At this time Wally was in danger of dying from his use of the Speed Force, he didn’t even question the consequences of Bart’s newfound displacement in his attempt to groom him to succeed him as the Flash. Bart, naturally eager to be like his grandfather and immerse himself in the feeling of family, agrees but his immaturity and his inability to view things with real world consequences made Wally doubt he could ever become a good superhero, much less take on the responsibilities of the Flash.
When they argue during the Chained Reaction arc (I think it was that one, either that or Ride the Lightning), Wally abdicates his role as the Flash and tells Bart that because he was too immature he’s decided to make Jesse Quick the next Flash. Bart is understandably upset, as Wally had given him the impression that he would be the natural pick for it, that it was his legacy to inherit, and then he gives it to an outsider—someone who is neither an Allen or a West. But the main point is that in the same breath Wally removes Bart from his Granma Iris’ care, saying that because he wasn’t responsible enough he should be given to Max Mercury to train. It should also be noted Wally never really intended to give the Flash mantle to Jesse because of legacy issues, he was just revoking it from Bart to get him to wise up. Because Wally is a complete asshole here.
This is where I think Bart gets his family complex from. He is told that because of his blood and who he is related to he’s expected to become a successor for the Flash. This fits into his blood-defining-family overcoming everything/unconditional love ideal as set by Iris. However, Wally pulls rank with his relationship with Iris and removes Bart from her, the only sense of stability he’s ever known, and then reasons it as a failure on Bart’s part to measure up. Bart doesn’t falter in his love for Iris, to his eyes she is still his center and he never doubts how she feels about him. But this sets the main wedge between Wally and Bart, and leaves Bart with the hidden fear that if he fails he’ll be abandoned and disowned by everyone if it’s bad enough, and the only connection that is ever permanent is that of “real” family, but even then that can be taken away by other forces. To him, Iris, and of course the memory of Barry, are his only infallible connection.
Bart and Max get off to a poor start, and Bart is mainly resentful that Max, who he has no connection to, is suddenly in charge of him. They fight, Bart frequently seems to question why Max keeps him around and Max questions himself. Even though they grow closer and Bart accepts his role as Max’s ward it seems obvious that Bart wishes he could be with his “real” family instead. When his mother shows up, who Bart has no memories of at all, he immediately decides to return to the future with her and leave Max and his entire life behind. No questions asked. In a few dream sequences, we see Bart imagine living with Barry (and presumably Iris) because it was “the only natural thing to do.” When Bart gets powers to control all of reality he brings his father back because he can. All of these demonstrate that Bart would prefer to live with his blood family, mainly because he assumes they will always be there for him. Regardless of whether or not it’s a childish idea, his view of being wanted is explicitly tied into natural family.
Now, family is not entirely a matter of being born into it. Bart later learns his mother’s side is the Thawne family, who long ago declared a blood feud on the Allens, and when Bart finds out his mother is a Thawne his reaction is to say that he’d never stop loving her because she was his mom. It’s not blind devotion to his ties, but they’re important in how they relate to him. Likewise, he doesn’t always accept all family the way he did his mom, as he initially was distant with his cousin Jenni, but she soon fell into that category to the point where he breaks up a Legionnaire meeting because he thinks she’s in danger and waves off their complaints because Jenni was more important than that. Likewise, he can see how non-blood becomes closer, like the way he indirectly comes to think of Helen as family, because while she only had blood ties to Max, she accepted him. When Jenni tells Bart how the future mentions Max adopting him when he was thirty, Bart freaks out because he sees that as an acknowledgement that Max is his “real” family in that act.
He won’t initiate adoption, or call anybody a family title beyond uncle/nephew by his own impetus, since that is the universal code for “person who I am vaguely responsible for but cannot admit ties” in the superhero lingo. Max is, by their cover, his uncle. Superman became “Uncle Clark” and Aquaman was “Uncle Arthur” when they came to visit and his friends stopped in. So Bart calls himself Kal’s uncle, but at the same time he can blanche at the idea that anyone would seriously consider Kon and him brothers.
In short summary, Bart is messed up about family. No matter how devoted his ties to others, they are not family if they aren’t official by blood or some kind of significant symbol like legal adoption, marriage, cultural ritual, etc. This doesn’t mean he can’t love people with every fiber of his being, just that he won’t be defined by them to the degree he is by Iris and Barry and Meloni. The relationships he forms are all based on merit, tenuous in their conditions and easy to lose track of in Bart’s eyes.
This blathering doesn’t affect 80% of Bart’s camp relationships, because they are just good friends. However it does effect how he plays with his two main groups: those who are his close teammates and his Cabin 10 roommates.
Firstly, Cabin 10 and how the camp’s imposition of a family affects Bart’s preconceptions. Because Bart...really, really loved being unofficially “adopted” into the cabin. This doesn’t make them family, not entirely, but it means the members who have been in his so-called family have partial amnesty to Bart’s abandonment complex. As dysfunctional as Cabin 10 can be sometimes, Bart has only seen how regardless of how much they might bicker or make mistakes, they don’t leave. Although Bart does stupid things like pie people in the face, shave his head, and probably leaves the room a mess sometimes he doesn’t have the same worries about it as he does with others disengaging their relationship because of that. Because in his unconscious mind, even if one of them were mad at him they’d still be his cabinmates and his “brother/sister/parent unofficially” which is a sense of stability for Bart.
I tried to work Bart’s reaction as nervous before settling into a semi-playful habit of seeing them as family-in-name. He mentioned to Shinn that he’d be good for big brother things, and quickly justified it as like playing house. Meanwhile he asked Xander for advice as a little brother would, his newfound protectiveness for Yzak and Oscar were mixtures of superhero protectiveness and a genuine unspoken “don’t mess with my fam—cabin okay” feeling. This grew as a toddler he merged family titles to their names: Papaku, Mamajima, and Bigbro ‘ander. Bart doesn’t seriously see them as his family to the same level of his grandparents or even Max, but they are people he grows to care about with titles, which makes them less nebulous than the rest of camp.
Depending on if relationships stay stable and nothing causes upheaval, Bart may indulge in imagining family ties over time. Again, never to the point of his blood relations unless there were years of development, but he’d be more likely to accept calling Xander a big brother than calling Buffy a big sister, because camp told him that Xander was designated that way and Buffy remains Buffy. Also, the Cabin 10 bunch becomes Bart’s refuge for dealing with situations where he fears losing respect or trust over with his closest friends, which has become a bigger fear in camp.
This brings up his other close group of relationships. This group originates with his teammates, Robin and Superboy. There are canonical best friends. Above everybody in camp, Bart loves them best. Likewise, the people they care about greatly, Bart loves in a mixture of indirect affection and on their own merit. However, while Kon has Buffy and Robin has Lady, Bart’s close friendships aren’t wound through him. Meaning, Bart doesn’t expect Kon and Robin to pay the same amount of attention to those he cares about independently of them the way he cares for Lady, Buffy, Terry (and to some degree Clark, but there are complications there).
Ironically, despite Kon and Robin being first for Bart, he already assumes they don’t reciprocate because they have created “real” family at camp. Brainy is also included, except Bart feels that since he’s not a Legionnaire and Brainy is Brainy, obviously the feeling isn’t as mutual. However, initially Kon and Robin and Bart were on the same equal footing as best friends. But now Robin has Terry, who Robin assumes is like a younger brother/uncle/whatever because he naturally sees the Bat-family like the Flash-family, and Robin probably connects with Terry in a deeper natural bond anyway. For Kon, it’s Buffy, which was an official adoption when he asked her to marry him. Both cases these are real family bonds as opposed to Bart's psuedo-family for the cabin or his friendship, no matter how deep, with others.
Bart loves that his best friends have family in camp. Because family is awesome and they make his friends happy and he wants his friends to be happy above everything else. At the same time it makes him feel a little lonely, and a little more prone to playing pretend with Cabin 10. He doesn’t feel like he’s intruding per se when he finds Terry/Robin or Kon/Buffy unless there’s reasonable evidence to suggest that it’s an inopportune moment like Kon and Buffy being…uh, intimate, or mutual batglares of death. However, he doesn’t feel like he’s on an equal level with them. This isn’t conscious, but if Kon were to debate leaving with Buffy, or Robin becomes a little more closed off about his secrets to talk with Terry, Bart would assume that was the natural course of things.
Firstly, Cabin 10 and how the camp’s imposition of a family affects Bart’s preconceptions. Because Bart...really, really loved being unofficially “adopted” into the cabin. This doesn’t make them family, not entirely, but it means the members who have been in his so-called family have partial amnesty to Bart’s abandonment complex. As dysfunctional as Cabin 10 can be sometimes, Bart has only seen how regardless of how much they might bicker or make mistakes, they don’t leave. Although Bart does stupid things like pie people in the face, shave his head, and probably leaves the room a mess sometimes he doesn’t have the same worries about it as he does with others disengaging their relationship because of that. Because in his unconscious mind, even if one of them were mad at him they’d still be his cabinmates and his “brother/sister/parent unofficially” which is a sense of stability for Bart.
I tried to work Bart’s reaction as nervous before settling into a semi-playful habit of seeing them as family-in-name. He mentioned to Shinn that he’d be good for big brother things, and quickly justified it as like playing house. Meanwhile he asked Xander for advice as a little brother would, his newfound protectiveness for Yzak and Oscar were mixtures of superhero protectiveness and a genuine unspoken “don’t mess with my fam—cabin okay” feeling. This grew as a toddler he merged family titles to their names: Papaku, Mamajima, and Bigbro ‘ander. Bart doesn’t seriously see them as his family to the same level of his grandparents or even Max, but they are people he grows to care about with titles, which makes them less nebulous than the rest of camp.
Depending on if relationships stay stable and nothing causes upheaval, Bart may indulge in imagining family ties over time. Again, never to the point of his blood relations unless there were years of development, but he’d be more likely to accept calling Xander a big brother than calling Buffy a big sister, because camp told him that Xander was designated that way and Buffy remains Buffy. Also, the Cabin 10 bunch becomes Bart’s refuge for dealing with situations where he fears losing respect or trust over with his closest friends, which has become a bigger fear in camp.
This brings up his other close group of relationships. This group originates with his teammates, Robin and Superboy. There are canonical best friends. Above everybody in camp, Bart loves them best. Likewise, the people they care about greatly, Bart loves in a mixture of indirect affection and on their own merit. However, while Kon has Buffy and Robin has Lady, Bart’s close friendships aren’t wound through him. Meaning, Bart doesn’t expect Kon and Robin to pay the same amount of attention to those he cares about independently of them the way he cares for Lady, Buffy, Terry (and to some degree Clark, but there are complications there).
Ironically, despite Kon and Robin being first for Bart, he already assumes they don’t reciprocate because they have created “real” family at camp. Brainy is also included, except Bart feels that since he’s not a Legionnaire and Brainy is Brainy, obviously the feeling isn’t as mutual. However, initially Kon and Robin and Bart were on the same equal footing as best friends. But now Robin has Terry, who Robin assumes is like a younger brother/uncle/whatever because he naturally sees the Bat-family like the Flash-family, and Robin probably connects with Terry in a deeper natural bond anyway. For Kon, it’s Buffy, which was an official adoption when he asked her to marry him. Both cases these are real family bonds as opposed to Bart's psuedo-family for the cabin or his friendship, no matter how deep, with others.
Bart loves that his best friends have family in camp. Because family is awesome and they make his friends happy and he wants his friends to be happy above everything else. At the same time it makes him feel a little lonely, and a little more prone to playing pretend with Cabin 10. He doesn’t feel like he’s intruding per se when he finds Terry/Robin or Kon/Buffy unless there’s reasonable evidence to suggest that it’s an inopportune moment like Kon and Buffy being…uh, intimate, or mutual batglares of death. However, he doesn’t feel like he’s on an equal level with them. This isn’t conscious, but if Kon were to debate leaving with Buffy, or Robin becomes a little more closed off about his secrets to talk with Terry, Bart would assume that was the natural course of things.
