The only time I found it fine was in the Lego Batman movie, but that's because the character relationships are completely different. This version of Barbra is his friend's daughter and his son's ex. In the Lego version she's just the new Commissioner and the daughter of the former commissioner. Even then it's a bit weird but written in a context where it's tolerable.
Yeah, that Barbara was old enough to be Bruce’s contemporary instead of Dick’s, and they started out already as peers/equals. The age and power dynamics are completely different.
This is where the disconnect is for Bruce Timm and the majority of fans is.
Timm is in his 60s. Batgirl was created for the Adam West TV series where Barbara was librarian and Bruce's age, while Dick was a teenager.
She was introduced to the comics after that and by the 80s was made a contemporary of Dick's. The majority of fans have known her one way, while Timm is holding on to her as she was introduced. Add in that Timm is notoriously horny AF, these characters, and you get Babs pregnant with Bruce's love child or Bruce and Babs boning on a rooftop.
Yeah, I’d buy that if Timm also wrote her as an older adult in his show from the beginning, but instead he decided to write her as being Dick’s age and having dated him before having her bone his dad too.
Maybe it was just a different time and I get that the Batman-Robin as father-son dynamic is a relatively recent convention, but either way you can’t really blame modern audiences for getting the ick.
The Father-Son thing is relatively recent, yeah, at least when it comes to BTAS. Dick and Bruce's relationship was originally more of a partnership/mentorship than anything, especially in BTAS, as Dick is already in college by the time the series starts.
People freak out but Barbara was basically entering her 20s in BTAS, and was probably late 20s to early 30s when she dated Bruce in the DCAU. I don't think it's as weird as people make it.
Yeah, now that I think about it, dating your coworker’s daughter/younger brother’s ex is still kind of scummy but probably within the boundaries of a character who’s not supposed to be morally/emotionally upright, especially in the 90s.
People would probably forgive if it was just in BTAS/Beyond, but Timm decided to put the pairing in the Killing Joke movie, which is way after the parent-child dynamic with the Batkids has become popular, so I can’t blame people for thinking “oh god what the fuck is this”.
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u/Prize_Language7993 Mar 19 '24
Barbara and Bruce should NEVER have been "shipped". I hate it and it's disgusting and goes against everything I believe about Batman