Always on my badass, Batfamily agenda. (Discussion)
I think the reason there seems to be like a question of their intelligence is because we are interpreting their intelligence.
... I'm gonna explain that.
Bruce Wayne is kind of the blueprint for a human vigilante in DC.
He is absurdly smart, master of martial arts, really good at being a detective, speaking languages, etc.
It's kind of like you took all of what we consider impressive and then shoved it into a character.... since that's exactly what they did.
Then we have his kids who, depending on the comic either have the same skill set with a different personality. Or practically a carbon copy.
Don't forget to factor in depending on what comic you're reading that main character is going to kind of be the best or you're supposed to interpret them as badass.
Hello, main character syndrome, except they're actually the main character.
Dick Grayson I think it has been kind of butchered by writers or even the fandom but I think that's just again the topic, I always talk about. What is the point of the story?
Are you reading a fluffy batfamily fanfiction?
Are you reading a Batman comic?
What is the goal? What is writer is trying to tell you?
Dick Grayson in a fluff story does not need to be Batman 2.0. If his characters prerogative in that story is to bring the family together, we are not gonna lean into his emotionally obtuse aspect.
He might come off as dumb but in a Wayne family dynamic story he does not need to be leading essentially a battle.
That I feel like is where a bit of confusion happens because DC comics is not telling the story of the Wayne family. They are writing superheroes, yes the civilian life is important, but primarily readers are not looking for that. Nightwing and Batman are supposed to be kicking ass.
Not talking about their feelings.
Essentially time and place.
(Side thing I know I'm probably also guilty of this, but I noticed with characters that tend to have emotional intelligence. Other forms of intelligence are sacrificed
Bruce Wayne is a great example of this because it's a consistent characterization that he's a very smart but very dumb when it comes to emotions.
Dick is written as kind of dumb, but being very emotionally aware. Then you go into the comics he's not nearly as emotionally aware but he's very fucking smart.
Damian and Tim too usually written as a very smart in fanfiction could not find an emotion if it slapped them in the face.
Jason written as emotionally intelligent is also a moron for some reason. Very blunt. I honestly just think it comes off that way because people are catering to one aspect and it's very hard to do both at the same time.
Since, if everyone is super smart, you would think these miscommunications aren't happening. So someone has to be kind of dumb in order for this level of bullshit to occur.)
Back to my original point.
These people know an insane amount of shit.
We tend to interpret intelligence as sciences, mathematics literature, things like that.
Nevermind that DC themselves painted Tim as this really smart robin. Giving him tech abilities, detective work which is kind of the stuff Bruce has.
Majority of people would consider hacking a sign of intelligence versus being able to shoot a target.
(Thinly veiled classism/misogyny I say this because the bats are also trained in certain trades, right? I noticed those trades tend to be forgotten... We forget they can fix a car, we forget they can cook or do laundry. Electrical and even plumbing are kind of prevalent in Batman stories. We see him doing things, in that realm plumbing, maybe not so much but I kind of feel like realistically it makes sense. THIS IS A RANT FOR ANOTHER DAY AGAIN, I WENT ON ANOTHER TANGENT IN A TANGENT)
The average person might not realize the amount of bullshit that actually goes into being able to do these skills. Building a bomb is not easy, well it kind of is but if you do it right, it's not. Shooting a gun is not easy if you do it correctly. Running a mob, solving cases are not easy skills. Being able to take apart an entire car and put it back together again is not easy. Yes objectively you realize it's difficult but-
When you add all these skills together, it can kind of diminish how impressive each one is.
Every Robin was kind of trained by the same man yes some specific skills come from assassins or other individuals.
But they're very basic skills were given by this one man.
Eventually, they all kind of had to have something the differentiated them. DC gave you that but it circled back into what story is being told?
You focus on the intelligence, you understand or recognize as intelligence. Hacking, Tech, languages, mathematics sciences. I think that's why a lot of the times Bruce and Tim get propped up a little bit more even though Dick and Jason also do those things because these are primary things we see them doing. Depending on the story.
Cass is also affected by this because that body language thing is absurdly impressive but it doesn't tend to get recognized as exactly how genius that fucking is. Since it's not a common sign of intelligence.
The amount of debates about Tim and Bruce's IQ I think are really good examples of we have an idea of what it means to be smart so we recognize those traits easier in certain people. I'm also not oblivious that I do think there might be a racism aspect too, but I don't think fundamentally majority of the people who are doing things with these characters are racist, I think it's what you were taught is impressive so you look for that in these characters.
(Manipulation, and lying are also not easy things to do. Putting on a performance and going undercover is absurdly impressive. Things like that though because the fundamental of them is deception and a lot of the times when they're done in real life it's not a good thing. Turns it around into not being impressive when being able to actually manipulate or lie no problem is also a skill that is very hard to do. Both of these things Dick Grayson and Jason Todd absolutely excel at)
I went on so many rants. I do not think I made a lick of sense ADHD was ADHDing which I think is very clear by my amount of topic jumps. I don't mind explaining any of my points because I don't think I've made them very well..