#damian is a character i tangentially enjoy but for this i would go to war for him. the boy deserves to be the only person holding

[mindshelter]

if we're being entirely honest, "sum of our parts" (ie. tim's feature in batman: urban legends #4-6) was not particularly exceptional in terms of writing, even while it accomplished the remarkable feat of establishing tim as bisexual. that being said, the coda ("carol of the bats," batman: urban legends #10) was excellent. it did a wonderful job at portraying tim and bruce's relationship for what it was: ultimately loving, but clouded by expectations, real or imagined. it established that tim's use of the robin title, at this stage of his life, was a consequence of tim inadverdently locking himself into a box because of how he thinks he should be, and a desire to see bruce happy—it would be a point of pride, after all, to make bruce happy. clearly, there's a double meaning here: tim is restricting his own growth and personhood over abstractions (valid ones founded by experience, but abstractions nonetheless). it's time to figure out who he is, now.

then, somehow, mfitz managed to shell out some or the worst writing young justice has ever received (and teen titans vol. 3 exists) and tim continued to split the robin mantle with damian. damian's robin run ended prematurely, and td:r was launched via solicits that described tim as "the best robin." like damn... ok...!

#tim is my favourite batfamily member mind you but anyone who pretends all of this has nothing to do with damian being brown #is kidding themselves. let's be for real #comic blogging #is this a hater post. i guess it's a hater post #damian is a character i tangentially enjoy but for this i would go to war for him. the boy deserves to be the only person holding #the robin title for more than five seconds!!

[bigskydreaming]

I actually really liked We Are Robin, and not just because of Duke, like it had a lot of great characters I wish were used more. And as a concept, it makes sense for the kids of Gotham to develop a movement inspired by the Robins, and it doesn’t really carry for me the same issues that I have with others ‘officially’ using Dick’s name and mantle without his involvement, because like....these are kids just working off what little information they have and there’s no reason for them to view Robin as anything other than a source of inspiration for them. 

And I also actually liked Robin War for the most part because I enjoy the hell out of stories that have Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian all working together and more or less getting along, and it helped that they were busy enough that the others threw way less shit at Dick about the Spyral stuff in that than they did in Batman & Robin Eternal.

But what kills me is Alfred’s involvement in the whole thing. Firstly, because its so opposite pretty much every other instance of a new Robin being brought into the fold, with the exception of Tim - and the fact that Alfred was in favor of Tim becoming Robin was IMO heavily influenced by the fact that he was grieving for Jason as much as Bruce was, and simply was at a loss for how to help Bruce himself and so was desperate for anything that might work. But in almost every other instance, Alfred has been deeply hesitant about more children getting involved in Bruce’s ‘night work’ out of concern for the children.

And it just...never really went anywhere, examining the repercussions of the fact that Alfred essentially recruited these kids, and enabled their involvement in things they were woefully unprepared to deal with, compared to ANY of the other Robins or Batgirls, and which there were definite consequences for. Kids got hurt, one was manipulated into killing someone, etc, etc.

And the other aspect of all this I hate there not being more fallout over, is.....I may not think its an issue that all these kids were calling themselves Robins in an earnest attempt to help their city, inspired by the Robins, and I don’t think Dick had an issue with it either beyond simply feeling responsible for them, due to it being him who was the ultimate source point of their inspiration here...

But there ABSOLUTELY should have been fallout between Dick and Alfred, every bit as much on the level as Dick’s initial fallout with Bruce over his taking his mantle away and later giving it to Jason without involving him. Because Alfred knew damn well what it was and what it meant to Dick, and he also knows better than just about anyone how deep Dick’s guilt complex runs and how much he lets even things he’s only tangentially related to weigh on him as his responsibility....and even if all this started when Alfred literally thought Dick was dead after Forever Evil, and it was in a sense his attempt to honor Dick’s memory....Dick absolutely IMO would be like wtf, why would you ever think THIS is something I would want?

Because Robin War wasn’t even all that figurative...it essentially was a war of children, against the police and the Court of Owls, and the non-official Robins were little more than cannon fodder, in the end. And for Alfred of all people to be involved in essentially mass producing the Robin mantle and recruiting kids with no real training or background in specific skillsets, to basically BE child soldiers in a way that Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian NEVER were, even if that phrase gets tossed around in regards to them a lot....and with there being no real way to frame the We Are Robin movement differently than that, given that the only thing that’s ever really KEPT the other Robins from being JUST child soldiers is the mantle’s identity and bond between them all, as an indicator of family, tracing back to its origins....something that categorically wasn’t a factor in the matter of however many kids were recruited under the We Are Robin banner....

Like. I just think there should have been repercussions for all of that. Its a hell of a thing to just kinda slide under the rug and never examine, because in a lot of ways, it turned the Robin mantle into something it was never ever meant to be, and not just by a third party viewing it all from a distance, but under the direction of a member of the family who MOST clearly knew what it had meant to all the members of the family who had worn it since its inception...

And like, that was a big deal, that was never allowed to be a big deal, and I think that was a huge oversight, and one of the most egregious examples of how much goes unacknowledged and never gets addressed as a direct result of like.....never acknowledging what Robin means to Dick in specific, compared to every other time its used.

Its like in Robin War, when Dick manipulates things so they all get locked up where he feels they’ll be safe while he goes to confront the Court of Owls himself, since he’s the one they’re always really after....Dick said, flat out, that he wasn’t sorry for doing that because he feels all of this is his responsibility, every single one of those kids and everything that happened to them was on HIM more than anyone else, because Robin began with him, and without him, none of this would have ever happened....

And I’m just like......gah, stop making ONE person feel responsibility for EVERYTHING that’s ever happened to everyone to wear that title, 90% of them without ANY involvement, permission or inclusion from him himself.....

While at the EXACT SAME TIME.....giving him none of the BENEFITS that should go hand in hand with that much responsibility and guilt....ie, like....actual RECOGNITION as the source point of that title, and as such acknowledgment as the rightful person to dole it out or not, at his discretion - if he’s going to end up saddled with the guilt for whatever happens to a Robin anyway, he should at LEAST get a say in when and where there’s someone wearing his mantle while undergoing things that he’s likely to feel guilty about.