buggery | a brief tutorial on Robins

I had this conversation with

unovis_lj the other night, after I posted In Lieu of a Lecture. And forgot about it until she mentioned it in her comment on the story, at which point it occurred to me it could serve as useful background for other people, too, and would require only minimal effort on my part converting from chat-log format.

Unovis: I don't know dick, but I really liked your dick/tim story
Unovis: that didn't come out right --
the Jack: ::snicker::
the Jack: the wonderful thing about being a dick fan is the unending dick jokes.
Unovis: ::imagines unending dick::
the Jack: well, and the pretty, and the woobie, and the hot gay sex.
Unovis: liked the story quite a bit, all the same
the Jack: thanks!
Unovis: and I'm not a big boysex fan (youngish boysex)
Unovis: but thought it was hot. Not sure I know who Tim is, though
the Jack: tim is the third robin.
Unovis: the young obnoxious one on the tv series?
the Jack: ...sort of. the toons blended jason and tim, which just, well, really doesn't work.
the Jack: here, let me 'splain.
the Jack: dick was robin until he had a close call when he was 18 and bruce told him he had to stop being robin (because bruce was terrified of losing dick, though he couldn't bring himself to admit that, and so dick wound up feeling like he'd failed in bruce's eyes).
Unovis: this is in the comix, right?
the Jack: yes.
the Jack: dick kept being robin for a short while after that -- with the titans, who are sort of a junior justice league, not anywhere near gotham or bruce -- and then recreated his crimefighting identity as nightwing after a chat with superman.
the Jack: meanwhile, back in gotham, batman runs into a young street hood, jason todd, who's brazenly trying to steal the tires off the batmobile.
the Jack: he initially tries to help jason turn around within the system, but... well, that didn't work out. so eventually he just moves jason into wayne manor and adopts him.
the Jack: now, he had taken dick in at age 9, but never even brought up the possibility of adopting him. which makes the situation just that much more fraught when dick finally comes back to gotham because he's heard there's a new robin.
Unovis: mmm
Unovis: this I had not known
the Jack: it gets better...
the Jack: dick trained for a long time before bruce let him go out in earnest as robin. jason's training was cursory by comparison. and jason was impulsive, aggressive, short-tempered... not ready emotionally or otherwise to be robin. so dick's just like, okay, you couldn't endanger me by having me fight at your side after i was an ADULT, but this half-cocked kid gets the bat-stamp of approval??
the Jack: strain and tension. though it all eased somewhat eventually, especially between dick and jason -- dick knew better than anyone, after all, how maddening bruce made it to be robin.
Unovis: so was Nightwing in Gotham as well?
the Jack: no, at this time dick was living in new york. he went to ~~nyu~~ 'hudson university' briefly, then just did the titans thing full-time.
the Jack: he led the titans. it was good for him. they were like a second family, and he needed one with the falling out with bruce.
the Jack: so, anyways... then jason discovered that the woman who he'd always thought had been his mother had in fact been his stepmother (she and his father, a two-bit crook, were dead). and he went on a globe-trotting expedition in search of his REAL mother.
the Jack: bruce just trailed him for awhile, wanting to be there for him but not to interfere if it wasn't necessary. then, in ethiopia, they stumbled onto a scheme involving theft of famine relief supplies, which the joker of all people turned out to be involved in.
the Jack: bruce told jason not to try anything on his own. jason, being jason, didn't listen.
the Jack: joker beat him half to death with a crowbar, and then left him in the warehouse with the incriminating evidence and a timer-rigged bomb while he made his getaway.
the Jack: bruce didn't make it there in time. he found jason's body in the wreckage.
Unovis: this sounds familiar
Unovis: I remember a cover with batman holding robin's body
the Jack: if you've seen my "I love my dead gay Robin" icon, that's bruce cradling jason's corpse.
Unovis: heh
the Jack: so... then there was tim.
the Jack: tim drake had been at haly's circus the night the graysons (dick's parents) were killed. he was all of maybe 2 or 3 at the time, but he was profoundly affected by both the acrobatics and the ensuing tragedy. young dick's signature quadruple somersault made quite an impression.
the Jack: so, when some years later tim caught a glimpse of batman and robin in action, and dick executed another quadruple somersault, it got tim wondering.
Unovis: yes, this is sounding familiar,too --he figured out robin and batman's identities
the Jack: yep. did his homework. quite the little detective.
the Jack: but he just kept it to himself... until "robin's" second disappearance, which coincided with jason's death.
Unovis: was jason/robin's death made public?
the Jack: afterward, bruce was half-mad with grief and self-recrimination, and it was making him too dark and violent -- he was less effective as batman.
the Jack: jason's had to be, robin's couldn't be.
Unovis: ah, the intricacies of secret identities
the Jack: so, tim decided he had to do something. he tracked dick down and tried to convince him to go back to being robin -- 'because batman needs a robin.'
the Jack: of course, what he -couldn't- have deduced was all the interpersonal drama that made that impossible.
Unovis: so how old are dick and tim at this point?
the Jack: dick turned him down flat. so tim broke into the batcave, took jason's costume out of its display case, PUT IT ON and confronted bruce.
the Jack: tim was 13. dick was... i'd have to look it up, but i think 22 or 23.
Unovis: very young --
the Jack: well, dick was 10 when he started.
the Jack: and bruce made tim take time to be fully trained, or as much as possible, before he got to put a robin costume on for real.
the Jack: he didn't start his official careeer as robin until he was 14.
the Jack: and he got to have long pants -- dick and jason had both worn the green-panties-bare-legs outfit.
Unovis: never liked that costume when I was a kid --
the Jack: anyway, 15 years later, tim is now 16. ah, comix time dilation...
Unovis: yes