Pretty, Fizzy Paradise

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Thursday, May 18, 2006

My interpretation of Robin a.k.a Don't Overreact Yet

Okay, so I've noticed a lot of anger among certain Batgirl fans all over the Internet right now. Having finally read Robin, I can see why.

But I'm surprised too, because it's pretty damn obvious to me what the ending of the story will probably be. And I'm really surprised no one else seems to see it the same way I do. I mean it's practically *telegraphed*.

Don't panic too early guys. This is what I think is going on:

(WARNING: CONTAINS MASSIVE SPOILERS!!!)

You guys aren't looking at the right cliche.Think about it for a second. Cain has another daughter. Cassandra is batshit crazy. And upset because she thought she was the only one he loved and that kept her going as she was learning to kill.

Does that *sound* like Cass? Of course not. It's very out of character for Cass. But this *isn't* DC screwing you over guys, not yet anyway.

That doesn't sound like Cass because it's NOT CASS.

Think about it. Cain's very systematic right? And there were attempts made before Cass to get this whole perfect-warrior thing to work, according to Batgirl comics, right?

he figures he needs a genetic component too, which is when he ends up having Sandra Woosan's sister killed and making a deal with her. How sure are we that she had a single birth?

When "Cassandra" rants about having found and killed Annalea, Cain says, "Another one lost, poor Annalea." He's not talking about Annalea. He's talking *to* her. Cain is clever. He's figured it out. The rant about being sure she's the only one he loved is probably true for Annalea.

It's the evil twin replacing the good cliche. We don't see any flashback images of Annalea because then we'll see that Annalea will probably look identical to Cassandra. I'm guessing that the girl we saw killed in the previous issue wasn't Annalea at all and was some kind of trick to throw someone off. Or was yet another spawn of Cain. She never did seem to have the chance to confirm what "Cassandra" said.

Cassandra herself is probably the black gloved girl who dropped things in front of Robin's informant. The actual messages to him. If you notice, that took place while Robin and Cain were about to be surrounded by Assassins. If that's the same woman as the one with the Assassins, Cassandra must have lost her mind and gained the ability to teleport at the same time.

Probably, what happened was that Cassandra found out about a sister. And seeking the familial connection, sought her out. Annalea flips out at not being the only one, tries to kill her. Possibly puts her out of commission for a few months. Whereupon, Annalea takes her identity. Now as for how how she can talk? You got me there. For her part, Cass is the shadowy person trying to contact Robin because she knows Tim is smart enough to figure things out and help her reclaim her life/stop her evil twin.

I'm quite honestly surprised at the outcry. It's obviously a trick, guys. It's *telegraphed* I really don't think trying to screw you over here. *Relax*. Wait and see. If I'm wrong, I'll by you all cookies in consolation. But I seriously don't think I am.

Cass is fine. That's not Cass. It's gonna be okay. :-)

25 Comments:

  • At May 18, 2006 5:48 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    That makes great mucho sense. Thank you so much.

    I was thinking that she was talking way too smoothly to be Cass. No broken diction, good grammar... I was thinking some sort of body switch. But the Evil Twin scenario works, even better.

     
  • At May 18, 2006 6:01 AM, Blogger kalinara said…

    :-) It's the sudden inclusion of a sister thing. As soon as any comic/movie/tv show mentions an unknown sibling who happens to be dead. They are end up to be an evil twin out to replace you or they're going to be that person sitting across from you.

    Which is how it should be. :-)

    And the comparitive diction is a nice touch. "Cassandra" is very fond of her own voice.

    Don't get me wrong, I completely understand why Cass fans are up in arms about this. If my favorite comic was cancelled and the lead character seemed to be acting completely against how the character should be, I'd be upset too.

    Here though, I really think we're looking at an evil twin thing and that people are panicking prematurely. :-)

     
  • At May 18, 2006 8:55 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Hmmm, would Annalea know Navajo, though, and moreso that Robin would also know it? Or did that message actually come from the "real" Cassandra. I might need to reread that part.

    Still, I think your theory is quite plausible. Evil twins are indeed a staple of most drama at some point.

     
  • At May 18, 2006 10:02 AM, Blogger CalvinPitt said…

    The person with black gloves, you don't mean the one that dumpred a boomerang at that one person's feet telling him to give it to Robin do you?

    'Cause I got a pretty good idea who that is, and it ain't Cass.

    As for Cassandra, I got a slim prayer that I know what's going on, but with DC's track record with characters I like, I think it's much more likely they've just made her Generic Batshit Crazy Villain #3947.

     
  • At May 18, 2006 12:36 PM, Blogger kalinara said…

    Vincent: Might be from the real Cass. Might be something learned from the real Cass. I mean if Cass happened to tell her sister about using it as a code...then the sister could find out in a book (presuming she's literate) how to do it.

    Calvin: Might be. Hand looked feminine to me. Could be Cass warning about something later. Or maybe he's using the real one as a messenger.

    Or Owen has really girly hands.

    Regardless though, I'm pretty sure that it's gonna be the evil twin thing. There's still an issue left to the story after all.

    And they mention a sister. It's like that rule: never show a gun in the first act that won't be fired in the third. Well, we'll find out in a month for sure.

    And heck, the thing about there being a sister is that if this does turn out to be Cass now, which really doesn't fit the tone/arc of the story at all by this point, but it could happen...

    A later writer could still retcon this Cassandra into being Annalea if he/she wants to bring Cassandra back. It's really a perfect scenario.

    So what's your theory as to what's going on? (The not generic batshit villain one, I mean)

     
  • At May 18, 2006 7:48 PM, Blogger kalinara said…

    In her handbag of course. *Female* evil twins are smart enough not to keep those things in plain sight.

     
  • At May 18, 2006 10:31 PM, Blogger Marc Burkhardt said…

    As I've said elsewhere, I hope you're right. Although I wouldn't mind a morally ambiguous Cassandra, I've no interest in yet another psychotic female antagonist.

    But, I think the unseen helper is Shiva - who's feeling a bit of guilt about dumping her girl in a lazarus pit and stirring up - bad things - within the onetime Batgirl.

     
  • At May 18, 2006 10:35 PM, Blogger kalinara said…

    Could be. Heck, at least the Lazarus pit thing would allow for some plausible deniability for Cassandra later. If she's crazy, she can't be responsible, and is thus redeemable as a hero/anti-hero again.

    But i still think we've got an evil-twin thing. :-)

     
  • At May 18, 2006 11:10 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Mr. Palmer, I enjoy your blog immensely, but I am compelled to point out that the goatee is not the hallmark of the Evil Twin, it is the hallmark of the Evil Alternate Universe Doppelganger.

    Also, I am intensely aware of the utter geekiness required to even *think* this, much less post it... and let's not even discuss the fact that I'm still trying to figure out a way to work Vulcan in there somewhere.

     
  • At May 19, 2006 12:38 AM, Blogger kalinara said…

    Toby, that's easy. the fact of the matter the normal universe Vulcans, shall we say the 616 or Earth-1 version, can not grow beards. It's a trait that has been selectively bred out of them since Surak taught that aggressiveness and illogic were tied with the genes that allowed men to grow facial hair.

    Any male Vulcan capable of growing facial hair is clearly a throwback. Now as it's possible that Spock's half human heritage would bestow upon him the ability, there is no way the proper Spock would ever do something so against Surak's teachings.

    However, as the Vulcans evolved differently in the parallel world, facial hair, again being associated with aggressiveness and illogic, has become a symbol of virility and masculinity.

    Now stretching that, now all parallel doppelgangers have facial hair because Spock is God.

    That is all.

     
  • At May 19, 2006 3:49 AM, Blogger kalinara said…

    Yes, but it would be blond, regardless of the race of the person in question.

     
  • At May 19, 2006 7:34 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    My laptop died recently (posting this from work) and so I missed all of the hype about this until I got the comic on Thursday ('New Comics Day' in the UK) and yes, proceeded to tear my hair out.

    I'm pretty sure the guy with the boomerang is the new Captain Boomerang, not Cassandra, and the Robin solicits seem to confirm this.

    As for the identity of 'Cassandra', well, we'll have to see, won't we. Sadly though, I'm far more confident that DC just decided to screw up a character just because she's not starring in her own book any more. The fact that this 'Cassandra' is far more eloquent than she should be was my first clue that something may be up, but once again, people may be reading conspiracy where there is just poor usage of Ms Cain's character. Once again, I say we'll see nex month.

     
  • At May 19, 2006 11:32 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    The nefarious nature of the Evil Twin requires that they lack major distinguishing marks - after all, they are a twin, and being easily able to tell the Good Twin from the Evil Twin defeats the purpose of their being twins in the first place.

    Consequently, an Evil Twin's Alternate Universe Doppelganger would indeed have a goatee, as they would be the twin of the normative universe's good twin's alternate universe doppel****........

    ***INSUFFICIENT MEMORY FOR THIS TASK: ABORT, RETRY, FAIL? __

     
  • At May 19, 2006 1:37 PM, Blogger kalinara said…

    jay: I admit I'm more inclined to give Beechen the benefit of the doubt because so far he's done wonderfully with Tim and Bruce and referenced past continuity and things like that. It seems very odd that he'd be so good at that and not have a purpose to fucking up Cassandra.

    He's writing a mystery, so I doubt it'll be clear till next issue.

    toby: Heh.

     
  • At May 19, 2006 2:23 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Personally, when I read this the only major comic-book cliche I could see is that Cassandra Cain hasn't really gone evil, it's just some elaborate test she's putting Tim through or...or something...

    Hmm, while this reeks of silver age Superman/Lois Lane, personally I prefer it to the evil twin theory.

     
  • At May 19, 2006 10:28 PM, Blogger Marionette said…

    I have to say whatever the outcome of this is going to be, it's still going to reek of lame cliche. The only ray of hope is that it might not completely ruin another decent female character.

    But since DC have a shiny new female Bat-character, I'm just surprised anyone even remembers Cassie ever existed. They didn't need any companywide retcon event to dropkick two Supergirls out of 15 years of continuity, just the arrival of someone else to take the name.

     
  • At May 19, 2006 10:35 PM, Blogger kalinara said…

    Well, we will see in a month. :-)

     
  • At May 20, 2006 8:50 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    The black-gloved informant is not Cassandra, it's Captain Boomerang Junior. He's referred to as "he" all the time, he drops a boomerang for 'Nilla, and Robin has got a fight scheduled with Capt. Boomerang Junior in 152.

     
  • At May 20, 2006 8:53 AM, Blogger kalinara said…

    *nod* Calvin believes that's the case as well. *points up*

    I personally think Owen's got really girly hands. :-)

     
  • At May 20, 2006 9:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    But the message he leaves is "tell Robin I'm looking for him - hell know who it means". And he drops a Boomerang. So what else could it ever mean other than Owen saying he's looking for Robin?

     
  • At May 20, 2006 9:02 AM, Blogger kalinara said…

    *shrug* Could be someone who's promised to keep an eye on Owen :-)

    I agree, the most likely scenario is that it's Owen or a messenger from Owen.

    But if it *is* Owen, he's got really girly hands.

    I'm just sayin'.

     
  • At June 23, 2006 5:18 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Wanted to give you a head's up, maybe you can help..

    www.savecass.com

    We're trying. Every letter helps

     
  • At June 23, 2006 6:58 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    It seems rather sad that this optimistic blog is now linked to Cassandra's wiki, where, unfortunately, it now has to be reported that things were indeed every bit as bad as people feared. It almost seems odd that people were this optomistic not long ago.

     
  • At June 23, 2006 7:03 PM, Blogger kalinara said…

    anon1: Ah, I'll consider it. While this entry has pretty much been proven false, I'm refraining judgement on the current situation. I'll see what they intend to do with it. :-)

    anon2: It's bemusing to be linked there. :-) It's just speculation...speculation pretty much proven false at this point. But like I said, I'll give it a bit. With the mention of craziness and Tim's own sympathies, they've certainly left enough leeway to bring Cassandra back to the good side. In general I've been liking what they've been doing OYL thus far (barring Nightwing), so I'm still optimistic.

    Nice for my ego to be linked at Wikipedia though. :-P

     
  • At September 07, 2006 10:17 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Heh heh, I LOVE evil twins! The only thing better was with Jean Grey, Madeline Pryor and Rachel, being the highly unnusual case of evil triplets.

     

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