You know I really hate that some people say that Steph is more willing to use lethal force than the rest of the Batfamily or that she’s willing to kill because no??? She’s not??? There’s been literally a handful times in her 27 years in comics where that’s even been close to the case not counting canon alternate universes.
The first time was in her first appearance where she nearly kills her father but is talked down by Bruce and honestly to be fair she has ever reason to have wanted Arthur dead after a literal lifetime of physical abuse from the man. Like please remember Arthur Brown physically hit Steph and her mother and locked Steph in closets, brought home men that would try to sexually assault Steph and call her a liar when Steph tried to tell him about it. Not to mention that Arthur going in and out of jail most of Steph’s life and driving Crystal to drugs caused Steph to have to grow up far too fast and be the sole provider for her household like Steph at fourteen had jobs to take care of herself and her mother. Steph has every reason to want Arthur dead and she still didn’t try to kill him until after he tried to kill her first and was talked down by Batman almost instantly.
The second time was very early in her character appearances and it wasn’t even that she was willing to kill she just suggested that she and Robin leave some unconscious criminals behind because the place they were in was dangerous and Tim was like ‘no they’ll freeze to death’ and Steph didn’t understand why Tim was willing to risk their lives for people who were literally trying to kill *them* five seconds ago. A lot of people forget that Steph started out as a very jaded character not only because she had to be self sufficient as a child but also because every adult she grew up with was either a criminal or completely wrote her off as a ‘bad kid’ simply because of her environment there are several times where characters are like ‘are you sure about that girl :/’ to Tim and talk about Steph’s social background but never talk about Steph as a person. Steph has literally every right to be jaded in her early character because she’s literally only ever been able to rely on herself it’s only after she starts dating Tim and becomes friends with Cass that Steph learns to trust people and learn that there are genuinely good people in the world.
Then there’s Steph’s Robin run where she tries to beat Penguin to a pulp but Cass stops her but that’s because the case they were dealing with hit Steph incredibly close to home with Penguin’s workers who had kids were using their kids to commit a crime and that brought up Steph’s own issues with her dad and Penguin gloated in front of Steph and Cass that his Lawyers could get him out of anything so Steph punched him but as I said this is playing directly into Steph’s trauma and every member of the Batfamily has tried to beat Oswald to a pulp at one point or another so he doesn’t even count.
Steph does use lethal force once against Zazz and that’s to protect Bruce from being killed Zazz had not only nearly killed her but he was about to kill Bruce and Steph tried to protect him. Considering that Cass was shown that all it took for her to be willing to kill was Batman dying no one should judge any of the Batkids for acting out when Batman’s life is on the line.
Lastly is Blackmask who not only killed a man in front of her but chained her up and tortured her for five days. That’s right she was left alone with a man who tortured her, straight up tortured her took an electric drill and drilled into her skin and bones, took knives and scalpels and and made her watch as he carved up her flesh, made sexist comments towards her (a victim of sexual assault) and told her he would never forget the sound of her bones breaking. She went through all of that managed to break free and took Blackmask’s gun away from him as he tried to shoot her. When she took the gun Blackmask goaded her into shooting him told her that he’s killed so many people and he’ll continue to kill people if she doesn’t kill him and Steph points the gun at the man who brutally tortured her for five days whose daring her to pull the trigger and she goes “no I don’t kill”
Like how can any one even dare to say that Steph’s more willing to use lethal force after that!?!? This beautiful kind girl who grew up seeing the worst of people, treated terribly by ‘heroes’ and she still wanted to help people still risked her life continually for others. She tried to jump out of a window to save someone once and hand to literally be held back because she would have died if she did. She saw Gorilla Grodd hurting Cass and she literally said ‘take me instead’
Like this girl? This girl is more brutal than the rest of the Batfamily? Are you serious Tim tried to beat a guy to death because he hurt and the guy only survived because he was like magic, the last issue of Red Robin was Tim literally making a murder plan to try and kill Captain Boomerang. As mentioned before Cass was shown to be willing to kill when she thought that Batman was dead (but she doesn’t WANT to kill). Dick has a temper and has been shown to use brutal force before, Jason was a crime lord and Damian is well Damian he’s come a long way. Alfred has mentioned he has no rule against killing and Bruce has come close to crossing the line a bunch of times but those are mostly Joker incidents so you know fair. Heck Helena had to be tricked into not killing people if anything Steph is one of the people least willing to use lethal force second to Cass.
Once when Greta was literally threatening to kill her Steph defended herself and thought she might have accidentally killed Greta and freaked out about the idea of killing her and I’m supposed to believe that Steph’s ruthless.
In a canon alternate timeline where Catherine Todd never died so Jason never became Robin and Tim never became Robin to stop Bruce from spiralling after Jason’s death, Steph became the second Robin after her dad literally murdered her mother in front of her Steph started getting in the way of his crimes by giving tips to the police and when Steph confronted her father he tried to kill her and Steph defended herself and freaked out when she thought she’d killed him that’s how Batman literally met Steph in that universe finding her trying to save the life of the man who murdered her mother and literally tried to kill her.
Steph is a kind, caring, loving girl who has a lot of anger at the unfairness of life and the way she’s been treated but every aspect of her is a hero through and through. (Steph has never done anything wrong ever in her life so jot that down)
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