#lydiamartcn

I actually like Talia as a villain quite a lot! If I had any powers, I’d get rid of Ra’s completely and make her the cliche evil James-Bond-villain-I-want-to-kill-humanity-and-take-over-the-world-role in the Batman universe. She’s a skillful fighter, she’s not dumb, she’s very confident, and obsessive. She could be a kick-ass queen of the desert with megalomaniac ideas.

But the Talia I know is a plain pawn. She’s only defined by the men in her life: she’s Ra’s’ daughter, she’s Damian’s mother, she’s Batman’s fangirl. There’s nothing that makes her her own woman. To me, she’s daddy’s girl, desperately looking for ways to please her father and make him proud. That’s also where her sick obsession with Batman comes from. Ra’s wants Batman for his heir so he offered him not money, Bruce is fucking rich, but power and a vagina to lure him over to the dark side - as he did with Bane!

Ra’s and Talia are the best example for insanity (doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results): they’re always trying to convince Batman to join them despite knowing his morals and strong will, and using the same schemes over and over, yet they’re expecting a different result every time they’re up against him.

Ra’s is like Talia’s pimp, he uses her to achieve his goals and would even sacrifice her for them if she’s not of use to him anymore while Talia keeps idolizing him and would blindly throw herself off a cliff, strongly believing that her father loves her. Look at Batman Beyond - Ra’s literally used Talia as a vessel to survive, killing her in the process.

I share your opinion that she’s only interested in Batman and not Bruce. She wants the strong, resourceful leader who reminds her of whom? Her father of course. I doubt she could handle the real Bruce, the man between the Bat and the social Gothamite, whenever he was at his lowest. Ra’s probably never allowed her to show any weakness growing up and during training, so I think she’d feel very uncomfortable and helpless when faced with actual emotions like angst, self-doubt or guilt. She doesn’t understand the man behind the mask, she only wants the detective.

Talia would be a horrible partner for Bruce. It’s not just that she’s never down-to-earth but always displaying a princessy larger-than-life ego. (I loved Joker in Arkham City: “You want me to off this annoying woman, right? I mean, she does go on a bit with all that I am the great blah, blah, mystical mumbo jumbo.”) She can’t be trusted and trust is essential when it comes to Bruce! She has no problem with killing millions of people, she has no problem with Ra’s killing him because no matter what - she’ll always choose her father. She isn’t torn, she’s always picked Ra’s’ side and always will. And I almost pity her for not having a real personality or the ability to think independently. She was never allowed to develop as a person since all she had to do was to obey without asking questions. Ra’s didn’t have a son to take over his “kingdom” so he had to “work” with what he did have: a daughter he’s now using as bait to catch a worthy son-in-law, completely missing that he could have raised a worthy heir in Talia. What a sexist…