The Skills or the Talent

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I don't actually understand what they ("they" being people like Bruce and Babs) mean when they say "She's not like us"[1] or "You don't have the skills or the talent"[2]. While they undervalue the person in question and set the speakers up as superior, the phrases just seem--empty and arbitrary. Like the core Bats are weakly trying to justify

Comments

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Yes, agreed on Tim's Bat-ness. Maybe he can be Batgirl while Cass is away on that secret mission from Batman where she has to pretend to be evil? What denial? I do agree that the reason Batman is both more and less harsh on Tim is that he's not exactly expecting Robin there. It might help if someone told Tim that! Although maybe not, given how "??? NO" he is over becoming Batman right now.

What I meant to say is that while I don't think Steph could ever be as...not good, really but, efficient, maybe, at this as Tim... she was a better Robin.
Actually. I noticed a lot of "ARGH WTF STEPH AS ROBIN NO" feeling, and wondered if people like Steph as Robin better these days, now that it doesn't threaten Tim. :D (My first Robin was Dick, not Tim, and I feel very much like Dick is the One True Robin; I can only imagine that people who started out with Tim would feel similarly about him.) Like, if it was a kneejerk reaction rather than a real objection.

But, yeah. When I say Steph could be better, I mostly mean 1) at the physical aspects of fighting and 2) as Robin. I can't see her rocking the stealth & silent intimidation & crime solving quite so much as Tim. :D

They should have made Steph Robin and Tim have a Nightwing-like transformation and everything would be awesome.
The only reason I can see that not working is if Tim's still in denial about the costumes being for life. He might think he can retire happily if there's a new Robin there to take over the job he only took out of necessity. (Really, I just want to see Tim as Gotham's new mobile Oracle-replacement, while Steph is not dead actually we swear. :D)

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anything that threatens him... is not liked by me
Yeah. My favourite characters have historically been antagonists, against the hero in some other way, comic relief, or the love interest who won't be chosen in the end--I seldom love the creator's darling--so I'm used to their getting the short end of the stick. But my feelings about Batman (for instance) are closely inversely related to how much of a dick he's currently being to Robin, Steph, or any TT/YJ kid, which is exactly the same thing. :D

I'm glad it's just the replacement thing, actually, because it's almost definitely not just you. I mean, I'm sure some people (inexplicably!) hate Steph or Steph-as-Robin, but it can't be as many people as it seemed.

After War Games started (and even more now), I don't think that's true anymore.
I'll take your word for it. Er, and read that sincerely rather than dismissively, :D. Tim's got way more opaque to me in terms of motivation, as he's grown older, than pretty much any other character.

I'd think War Games could even be salvaged if they wrote out the deaths--I don't see that they actually served a purpose that couldn't be done better in another way. (And while I am biased, Runaways has killed my favourite twice now, and I'm retrospectively glad for it.) Although, in all honesty, I haven't done more than skim that storyline--there's only so much literal torture of my favourite character I can stand, especially knowing she's doomed & not yet back.

Almost losing another kid should have just as much impact as its actually happening, and it'd make reactions since (like Jason's memorial as the Robin Batman lost--since he is still lost to Batman) make so much more sense. And, hey, if Steph's still around but having come out of that, there's so much reason for Tim to help bring her up to standard. (They can do it in Bludhaven if Batman insists on working the solitary pain of an unappreciated vigilante angle!)