i have asked in the past but i must know: what would make tim drake bearable to you (no wrong answers obvs, if you say "stuff him in a bin" that's from the HEART)
If they had him age out of Robin and take on an entirely new vigilante identity of his own, a long time ago. I think it’s a bit unfair that he didn’t necessarily want to be Robin in the first place and only did it because Dick wouldn’t, and to just keep him there forever and never truly let him be anything else. Even as Red Robin he was still a Robin, and also red robin is a stupid name.
I think had they had him become Robin, enjoy the vigilante thing, but understand that Robin was never really supposed to be his calling, and come up with his own hero identity beyond being a Robin once he got a little older, he’d be more bearable.
to forever have Tim pinned to a sidekick’s role and for fans to say stuff like “Robin is all tim is” and “robin is all he has” and “tim IS robin!!!” as if it’s his calling, it makes it hard to see him as the fully fleshed out character/hero that that also claim he is. He’s being delegated to sidekick, child, second, etc. And then it becomes annoying because if he’s going to be Robin, then he’s going to have to appeal to younger audiences and stay young forever.
Even when DC brought him back in to the spotlight it was as Robin. Genuinely, grow him from that and make him feel like a standalone character and not a forever sidekick and let Damian or any new young character be the next Robin for a while. Give Tim longevity and stop keeping him forever 18 or just on the cusp of being too old to be Robin. He doesn’t need to be Robin forever. He can be the Robin that stepped in when Batman needed one and now that Bruce is out of that dark place he is free to be his own guy and take the skills he learned and be something bigger than Robin.
And while I’m at it i hate Bernard soooo much. I hate their relationship. What would have made it feel better was to slowly reintroduce Bernard (or any other character), and have them develop a close friendship, and then have feelings develop. Like, give Tim a new identity that will give him longevity as a standalone hero, reintroduce Bernard or a new guy to befriend him as this new identity gets established and starts to solidly itself in comics. Make this character important to Tim’s growth. And then after Bernard (or just the boyfriend in question) has been a solid part of Tim’s story for a decent amount of time and has built up that connection with readers, they can start tossing little romantic moments in there and build until there’s a good ground for feelings to be admitted and for a relationship to be established.
Bernard’s reintroduction was so sudden as was him becoming Tim’s boyfriend and it’s praised for the representation but I feel like their full blown relationship took up a lot of space that was needed for growing Tim as a character since it happened so soon and with little buildup. I also think it’s weird they chose the guy that used to hit on tim’s step mom and then they call back to those old comics but then have Bernard say that Tim was his “gay awakening???”. Man…
And LASTLY. If people stopped trying to act like he was somehow important to Ra’s al Ghul. Ra’s don’t give a fuck about that boy they haven’t interacted in comics in such a long time please let go of that fuck ass red robin run please forget about the spleen #FREERA’SALGHUL
