#i also think racism plays into bruce's inability to see duke as a robin

[casscainmainly]

Ship anon just voted and was pleasantly surprised to see StephCass rack up a 9-ish% lead. In other news, you are truly not wrong about Bruce starting out his Cass mentorship on a harmful foot by trying to prune any bits of femininity he noticed. That portion of their dynamic is uniquely fraught in ways unmatched by Batdad's friction with Dick, Damian, Timbo or even Jason-and in large part *because* Bruce was otherwise over the moon about her skillset & dedication. Crossed wires galore.

StephCass SWEEP they made it to the finals of the relationship bracket!! Unfortunately it's an all-Cass matchup between Babs + Cass and Steph + Cass, so vote whatever your heart desires (I did Babs + Cass but honestly either way Cass is a winner AS USUAL).

And yep absolutely about the Bruce-Cass femininity thing. I do think the sexism makes their dynamic super unique, because it's an exploration of Bruce's privilege in a way that's realistic (he's not trying to be sexist, but he can't shake his masculine gaze all the same).

I think Bruce-Damian has the potential to reach this kind of complexity too, if writers dug more into Bruce's race-based assumptions about Damian. People have written great metas about Bruce's fear of Damian being so like him, but I think a lot of his fear is also based on the ways Damian isn't like him, which is influenced by his Asian-Arab heritage. Idk more relationships should be as complex as Pucketts + Horrocks Bruce-Cass.