to the world we dream about and the one we live in

I’ve talked in the past about why I don’t like the fact that Young Justice made Dinah’s occupation being a therapist (like since they aged down Zatanna she’s arguably the only adult who truly inherited a legacy from a young age even if she was legal before she actually became a hero, they didn’t have to make her a legit therapist for her to be a guiding resource for the Team) but I’ve realized why it makes me so mad that fandom has taken that and run with it.

It’s literally the only time I see her consistently brought up anymore. 

Maybe I’m just in the wrong parts of fandom (which tbf I am not as active as I used to be and I think pm all the BC/BOP blogs I used to follow are mostly defunct or changed fandoms completely) but like, unless it’s an Arrowfam blog, she literally just comes up as group therapist for not only the Batfam but also the Justice League. She’s one of the most well connected heroes out there, with a great history, lots of friendships and is one of the best hand to hand fighters, and y’all only ever bring her up when she’s being a therapist to other characters. She’s only there to further other characters storylines or jokes to y’all and I am TIRED of it.

I love Arrowfam, they’re great and I love Dinah as a part of the Arrowfam, but like also, she’s not defined by her relationship with Ollie either, considering they’ve probably spent more time broken up or straight up like widowed than together, even if they are one of the DC power couples. Dinah has been part of a shit ton of teams and line-ups and friend groups.

Like, she doesn’t need to be in Batfam stuff or anything, but like she has more connections to the Fam as a whole than as their therapist (and if we go by the old Battle of the Cowl rules, she is a Batfam member), considering she’s genuinely good friends with at least a third of them, and has mentored at least half of the batkids at some point. She’s a JL founder in some origins and otherwise is the leader at different points in time, including like actually very recently (I’m not caught up enough to know if she is still in a leadership position but she was as recently as last year! Current JL run!), and she just like, knows so many people having been in the business or connected to the business since birth. 

Idk like I want more respect for her as a character on her own, especially letting her be a real characters with messy habits and flaws, as a post going around points out people don’t let female characters be themselves, but also like, I’d LOVE if she showed up in more things across the fandom!! But not as people’s fucking therapist goddamn, let her be messy, or a crazy martial artist, or the one you want at your back in a bar fight, or the one who has the WEIRDEST exes outside of like Constantine, or the one you go to when you need info about old school heroes and the JSA. So many possibilities!

I don't mind Black Canary having other jobs that aren't being a florist or a Professional Superhero (as she technically is in the Gail Simone run of BOP) but like, her being a therapist in YJ, and the entire way she's portrayed in YJ is so?? Put together?? She's like 26 in YJ- mid 20s Dinah isn't exactly the chaotic horny Dinah you see when she first starts out like in JLA Year One but it is about the age she was in JLI which is like peak feral Dinah

Like obvi her JLI characterization is very influenced by the decade it is in (as it is obviously poking fun at best, making fun of at worst, the feminist movement of the 70s and 80s, as much as I love the characterization) but while Dinah has always been a very good hero (she has too many mentors to count she was literally raised by the like entirety of the JSA in most recent characterizations before nu52) shes not really great at being a adult person??

Like don't get me wrong, Dinah is a Gotham Hero, even if they tried to erase that in some verses, and she is very dedicated to honing her craft. She loses her meta abilities at one point and after dealing with the trauma a bit, says fuck it and relies on her hand to hand instead. Even when she gets it back she still says fuck it, training montage and goes to all of her hero friends and asks to get trained in all their different martial arts and weapons specialties, and ends up becoming one of the top fighters in the world. (And I mean that literally, preboot DC had a ranked list of top fighters with various heroes, vigilantes, anti heroes, and villains vying for that too spot.) She lead the justice league at one point!

But this is the same Black Canary who ACCIDENTALLY became the sugar baby to Ras Al Ghul, who when she and Helena are together are always at a risk for bar fights, who has no problem thirsting after literally every member of the league, and who when Batman one punch KO'd Guy Gardner, got so excited that she faxed pictures to Superman and Wonder Woman.

Idk! She's a great big sister and mentor character, and is the one who tries to help Roy when Ollie kicks him to the curb, etc. But like also, she's extremely chaotic and the only reason she normally looks put together is because they keep putting her next to characters like Ollie and Hal who are somehow worse than her.

Let Dinah Lance be feral!!