I love age reversal verses. They're so limited, though. Why
does it always have to be Damian as the oldest and Dick as a baby Robin?
There's so many other options. This is just me ruminating on how the various
Bats would handle being the second Robin, dying, and coming back.
Dick: Dick would feel abandoned, and he wouldn't blame just
Bruce. He'd blame his friends (even if he wasn't around long he'd have made
superhero friends, he's DICK), he'd blame Superman, he'd blame Nightwing and
Batgirl – everyone he knew would be a target. He wouldn't have complicated
plans to save Gotham and do what Batman couldn't, he'd have very personal plans
to hurt people like they'd hurt him. He'd become emotionally manipulative and
no matter how many times he betrayed people they'd find themselves believing
that THIS time he really was trying to do the right thing. Dick would still do
heroics, and he wouldn't kill, I don't think, but his heroics would often be
part of his act. Bruce would be completely crippled by FEELINGS so I think
Nightwing would take a lot of responsibility for keeping him in line, since
he'd be a bit harder to ignore than Jason.
Babs: Babs would find the loss of control the pit-rage
causes to be unacceptable. She'd isolate herself, so no one could see it. Get
into computers because they let her control her environment. She'd focus on
individual criminals she felt needed to be dealt with, and DESTROY them. Deal
with her nightmares by giving them to other people. I don't think she'd be able
to acknowledge her anger at all, so she'd try not to think of or interact with
the Batfamily, or her father.
Tim: Tim would direct all his pit-rage inwards. He'd
consider his death his own fault, and his replacement entirely logical (I think
his main problem with Damian is he was being replaced by someone who had tried
to kill him and had none of the characteristics he considered necessary to be a
good Robin, not the replacement itself). It wouldn't make sense to blame Bruce,
so any hurt he felt he'd redirect into self-hatred. The pit-rage doesn't seem
to be entirely controllable, so he'd deal with it by self-harming. He'd avoid
the Bats, because he didn't ever REALLY belong, it's not like he was Bruce's
son, but would devote himself to saving Gotham. Sneakily. He'd buy, rebuild and
revitalize key locations. Demolish (explosively, he needs to do SOMETHING
illegal) problem areas. Kill certain villains. Not many, and he wouldn't make a
big deal of it, but a few mob bosses, Szasz, and of course, the Joker, would
quietly disappear. He'd be the easiest to drag back to the Manor, but the
stress of dealing with the Bats would just make him more self-destructive. How
do you help someone if talking makes them hurt themselves and punching seems
kind of redundant?
Steph: Steph would probably be the most like Jason. She
probably would have just started trusting Bruce when she died. She comes back
angry, wanting revenge, feeling betrayed that Bruce didn't do more for her. But
instead of focusing on gangs and human traffickers, she'd focus on the costumed
criminals – people like her father and the Joker/Black Mask(depending who
killed her). This would bring her into conflict with the Bats more.
Cass: I see Cass dying trying to save one of her 'sisters'.
She'd just discovered that Cain threw away his failures and tried again with a
new child. Then she wakes up and Bruce has a new Robin. She'd have nowhere to
go, would probably kill for Ra's for a while, but wouldn't be able to stay away
from Gotham. And then she'd stop killing, unless one of the Bats was around.
Because, like Tim, her anger would be directed inwards. She would see that they
don't hate her like they should and would need to convince them. Killing is the
worst thing she could do, so Cass couldn't stop herself when they're around.
Damian: Damian would feel like he failed. I can't see Ra's
or Talia treating him well after he died, and Bruce found someone else, so
Damian would feel he had to prove himself. He still wouldn't kill, because
killing meant failure while he was with Bruce, but all that anger would have to
go somewhere. I can see him getting more and more violent with criminals, maybe
even torturing them. Unlike the others, he'd still be openly desperate for
approval, but sure he couldn't go back until he'd proven himself. He'd need to
clean up Gotham before he could be accepted. Any disapproval of his methods
would be a sign that he's not trying hard enough, but tacit approval would mean
he needs to keep doing what he's doing. The only person he'd listen to is
Bruce, and you know how good Bruce is at talking...
I'm not sure how well I did for the girls. Everything is
extremely subjective, of course, but I wanted to focus on how people handle
anger very differently, so not everyone would hate Bruce like Jason does. And
you don't get a lot of self-destructive anger in fiction, but that's how I deal
with things and I wanted to explore that.
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