every new ‘vigilante idea for tim drake’ away from robin fundamentally sucks because there are reasons why he should quit robin but no real reason why he should still be a vigilante when he could be anything else instead that actually makes sense for his character. ‘cardinal’ ‘grey ghost’ do any of these mantles mean anything to tim’s character or are they just cheap ‘we need him out of robin’ aesthetics?
i maintain he should not be robin still but it sucks that a character created to say that ‘everyone can be a hero’ HAS to be a vigilante. its why i came to despise modern comics because older comics actually allowed characters who werent stock vigilantes to get relevant stories from their own unique perspectives as civilians and i ask myself why cant tim drake get that? why must he stay a vigilante? he never chose to be a vigilante, he chose to be ROBIN because someone had to. he stayed as robin because he lost everything else and personally i think a great chance to make him quit robin is by reestablishing his connection to his civilian life and making something out of it. i am not a fan of td:r but we just established a new piece of gotham for tim to take care of, a plotline about the civilians being evicted was awkwardly introduced. is it not a good chance to prove that tim drake can still save people even as tim drake? that robin doesnt define him? can’t he save the people of marina as a civilian, perhaps as a detective or gotham’s future district attorney or whatever?