#‘what was that long ramble in the middle there kacie?’

[phoenixkaptain]

I feel it’s a disservice to the character to make Dick out to be younger than he actually is.

Dick Grayson is a power fantasy, same as Bruce Wayne is, but he’s a very different type of power fantasy. This is mainly because he isn’t for the same type of audience. He isn’t for adults to relate to, he’s for teens to relate to.

What do I mean? Well, I don’t think we actually get many confirmations on Dick’s age. When he joins Bruce, there are a few clues to his age, but nothing really substantive. He’s old enough to know that his parents are dead; he has an understanding of what death is. He’s young enough that while adults seem to like him, they don’t take him very seriously. He isn’t particularly tall, but when he’s shown around actual children, he is quite a bit taller than them, I’d say at least a foot, and he is portrayed as a bit taller than most of his peers (peers that aren’t superheroes! Dick is always very nearly the shortest member of Teen Titans, but that’s not fair to judge him on because superheroes are huge) He’s young enough to attend a private boy’s school for undercover, and he’s young enough that younger children seem to trust him enough to do what he tells them to.

If I had to make a guess as to how old I thought Dick Grayson was, I would say 13-15, but leaning heavily on the 15 end. His personality is pretty set for most comics you read him in (barring extremities) which implies he’s developed a good portion of it already. And, to be honest, even if Bruce and Dick first met when Dick was 13, he didn’t become Robin until he was 14. He’s portrayed as either being taken in but trained for several months (I’d give him a low estimate of six months. He needs to learn science. He may be physically fit, but that doesn’t mean that he’s mentally ready) or taking a period of time in an orphanage, being taken in, then spending several months training. Dick becoming Robin wasn’t instant. I always assume he’s 15 when I read early comics because Dick’s brand of petulance - being annoyed at something Bruce said and snapping back with verbal quips, taking Bruce’s instructions and patiently listening to them for all of, at most, an hour before running off to do the opposite, judging Bruce for going out without him - feels like a mid-teen.

So, why is Dick a power fantasy? Well, he’s the embodiment of teenage desire:

Adults listen to him.

The main one is Bruce. Bruce Wayne, who is rich and notoriously a loner and who is considered a detective on the level of Sherlock Holmes, listens to Dick and never doubts him. He takes what Dick says at face value, he talks to Dick to spitball ideas at him, he answers any question Dick asks him and he never seems particularly impatient in doing so. He tells Dick that they’re partners and equals, and he treats him as a partner and an equal.

And there are other adults. Robin is famous in early canon. Everyone knows who he is. Adults in other towns don’t listen to their own children, but they listen to Robin because they kind of have to. I assume people who bully Robin are sent Batman’s patented, ‘live bat in a box mailed to the door.’ (I assume this because it’s funny, mostly.) But no matter why they listen to Dick - they do actually actively listen to him and try to improve in the ways he suggests.

This is what every teenager dreams of. Dick Grayson, a mere teenager who probably can’t legally drive a car yet, has the respect of adults around the globe.

Robin almost always has the respect of at least one adult, that being Bruce, no matter who is actually Robin at the time. I haven’t read many Jason comics, so I can’t say for sure on him, but Bruce treats Tim as an equal. He listens to him, and while he’s protective of him, he trusts that Tim can do things alone.

The only real example of Bruce treating Robin like a child comes with Damian. And even in the cass of Damian, he still makes an effort to listen to Damian and not ignore him. Which, the reason he treats Damian differently is because Damian is a child. I don’t think Damian is even 10 when we first meet him, let alone 13. I think, later on, he’s around 11-12, but Damian just doesn’t start as old as every other Robin. It’s necessary for Bruce to treat him differently.

“Well, what about comics where the adults, including Bruce, are terrible and don’t listen to Robin at all?”

I consider these an example of we in the intellectual world call: bullshit.

I’m sorry, but nine times out of ten, Bruce listens to Dick and praises Dick and believes in Dick ten thousand percent. The Bruce who doesn’t listen to Dick just isn’t Bruce. I don’t know who this poser is, but it’s literally impossible to him to be Bruce. It’s worse than bad writing, it’s blatant mischaracterization and a lazy plot device. Bruce would die for Dick without a second thought, he loves and respects Dick more than anyone. This man cannot physically or mentally resist the urge to listen to Robin and pat his back and say “we all make mistakes, chum, don’t worry about it.”

I need to emphasize here that Dick does the complete opposite of what Bruce tells him to multiple times, and end up kidnapped or in a tight spot for his efforts, and Bruce just isn’t upset. He’s worried, but he doesn’t even fucking care. He doesn’t get mad at Dick, I feel like he can’t even look at Dick without feeling a bit happy, there’s no way- are you really trying to tell me that Bruce goddamn Wayne would blame Robin for not preventing a crime that DiCK WASN’T EVEN PRESENT DURING?? He wasn’t even fucking there, he was off getting a police officer! You know, an adult! Because there was a crazy gunman shooting up a rally, what the actual fuck is Robin, a mortal child, supposed to do against an adult gunman twice his fucking height??? What did you want him to do, Bruce, get fucking shot? Because that’s what would have fucking happened, you absolute lunatic piece of shit, you want him to goddamn die to save one fucking person-

Ahem.

For the majority of comics, Dick represents teenagers. He fulfills that desire that teenagers have, the desire to be listened to and trusted. Dick is the first person in comics to ever know that Bruce Wayne is Batman. And while timelines shift and change, Bruce and Dick’s mutual respect for each other doesn’t. They get mad at each other later on down the line, but for a good 40 years, Bruce talked to Dick more than his own fiancée.

Dick isn’t a child. He and Bruce never met when he was a child. Dick also isn’t an adult. He still has a few years that he needs to spend growing into an adult. He’s that middle ground we all faced. That awkward period where adults expect you to act like an adult but don’t treat you like one. The power fantasy inherent in the character of Robin is that adults treat him like an adult while allowing him to make mistakes and act like a child.