I meant that if your second line is indeed correct, how does that put a different bearing on Robin than what the first line suggests?
The claim I was refuting was that Robin adds "unnecessary light" to Batman. Since Batman is about
overcoming darkness, the light is
necessary.
It's just that to me 'being dark' and 'overcoming darkness' are for all intents and purposes almost the same thing for Batman.
I'm not sure how to respond to this, because it doesn't make logical sense. It's like saying being a child forever is the same as being a child and then growing to adulthood. "Being dark" is not the same as "Overcoming darkness" because the former is stagnation and the latter is progression.
I mean you're not saying that because he's overcome darkness he can run about in a rainbow suit, are you? Sorry, I know you're not. But he's dark because he's taken control of that within his own self. However IF at the same time he is overcoming his demons, doesn't Robin assist in that? The old logic; robin provides a focal point for the future, for personal company, for professional legacy, for soothing his own childhood pains, etc. To be at peace with what he's doing, and to even encourage a legacy of it in other people, isn't that evidence that Batman has overcome much that existential suffering?, i.e. he is no longer so 'dark' and endlessly brooding; he is committed, focused, nurturing and compassionate.
I'm unclear on how this paragraph is supposed to be a counterargument to what I suggested. I'm not trying to be a dick, I'm just not following the flow of our conversation right now.
Since I'm not sure what else to do, I'm going to clarify what I meant in my original point:
The argument I responded to originally was that Robin adds "unnecessary light" to Batman, as Batman should be "dark." This is a naive argument, as while Batman may
be dark, the theme of Batman comics has always ben
conquering the dark. The sacrifice Bruce Wayne has always believed necessary to do his job was that he could have no personal life, no happiness for himself. He has always believed, deep down, that it was an either/or chose: either he has a life, or he has the mission. More importantly, he has always wondered if it meant the sacrifice of his humanity--that he would have to be ruled by his darker nature, and even use the tools of evil to defeat it. Violence, anger, guilt. The purpose Robin serves, more than anything, is to demonstrate to Bruce that it doesn't have to be that way. Dick Grayson is the version of Bruce Wayne that was able to find balance, and still be dedicated to the mission without sacrificing his own humanity. Dick is, for all intents and purposes, a happy, well-adjusted,
healthy individual--everything Bruce doesn't believe he can be.
Batman
needs Dick, because nobody else can demonstrate this quality. Nobody else lives the life Batman does--
nobody except Dick Grayson. Nobody else has come from that same place of tragedy to take on that same mission. Accordingly, Dick is the
only person who can show Bruce that the life doesn't have to swallow him up. Dick is the person that Bruce wants to be, even if he could never admit it.
Consider how Batman felt about Hal Jordan until recently. Did anyone wonder why Batman seemed so distrustful, seemed to hate Jordan so much? It was because what happened to Jordan after Coast City was destroyed is exactly what Batman has always feared would happen to him: the darkness just ate him alive. In his struggle to fight evil, he lost himself to fear, hate, vengeance, and became a madman. Only when Jordan had proven that he had dug himself out of the dark did Batman accept him. The symbolism in Green Lantern: Rebirth was so thick you could cut it with a knife: only after Jordan had overcome Parallax, the sentient embodiment of
fear itself, did Batman accept him. He had to beat fear first.
The reason this is relevant is because Batman comics illustrate a struggle with our darker nature. That's guilt, that's revenge, that's anger, that's fear. A critical question that Batman has always explored is how do we enforce peace? How far do we go, what do we sacrifice? What means are justified by the end? This is why Batman is always the superhero to go too far; the brutal one, the uncompromising one, the paranoid one. The one who builds a ridiculous satellite to spy on his peers. How evil do we have to be to fight evil? How much of ourselves do we have to give over to guilt, revenge, anger, loneliness? Those are the questions Batman is always trying to figure out.
There always has to be hope, because that's what it's about, in the end: the
hope that we can defeat evil without losing ourselves completely. For Batman, defeating evil means being Batman. There is no alternative, which is why Alfred Gordon or anyone else will never be able to show him that you can defeat evil without becoming lost. Bruce needs to be Batman, but he also needs to believe that evil can be defeated without sacrificing ourselves, because what would be the point of defeating evil if all that is left of us after the fact is the dark part of ourselves? We still have to to be human when evil is gone, or evil has won anyway.
In a way, the struggle isn't purely "Can I, Bruce Wayne, defeat evil without losing myself," because if the defeat of evil means the loss of his own humanity, he'd pay that price readily. The struggle is "Can
the human race defeat evil without losing itself." Every time Bruce looks in a mirror, he sees that the answer is probably
no. But when he looks at Dick, he sees the answer is probably
yes, because Dick has already done it. Dick
never gave himself over to the dark the way Bruce did; he's always been able to keep that balance without sacrificing the mission. Dick gives Bruce hope that humanity can overcome evil without becoming it. If everyone was like Bruce Wayne, evil would be gone, but we wouldn't be human any longer. If everybody was like Dick Grayson, evil would be gone
and we'd still be human. And yes, somewhere Bruce also sees hope for himself in Dick, not just for humanity.
Bruce (in the comics) may never become like Dick, because that would make Bruce complete, and his story would be over. But the presence of Robin keeps Bruce from falling back into sad belief that the means humans use to fight evil will swallow us up in the end. He may not completely invest himself in what Dick represents; he's always teetering on the edge between hope and despair, but he's held on that edge, kept from falling backwards.
I, uh, kind of got carried away. I apologize if that was repetitive.
