#david cain

[casscainmainly]

The state of Cass' parents right now 😔

[lazypiratesofaking]

Uh. Shiva left her kid to this psychological fuck up so she can die by its hands. I would not call her mother of the year or good parent.

Wait. Why is Shiva an aberration?

I think a lot of people who haven't read Batgirl (2000) and only know Cass from her appearances in other characters' books or online summaries miss something very essential about the root of why she's such a good fighter.

Yes, Cassandra was trained in martial arts from birth, learning from some of the deadliest assassins and mercenaries in the world. But that was not the core of what David Cain was doing with her, nor is it the real root of what makes her so dangerous. People who were raised from childhood by assassins to be dangerous fighters are not particularly uncommon in the DCU. Even in the Bat Family alone, Damian, Jean-Paul, and Helena were all trained to be assassins from childhood. The reason why Cass is still presented as a much better fighter than them isn't inconsistency though, it's because their training lacked something very important.

Cass wasn't an apprentice or an heir to David, nor was she a weapon to accomplish his agenda. She was first and foremost a science experiment. David didn't have a kid and decide "now I'm going to make you into a killer like me". He had a child specifically for the purpose of having a blank slate of a person that he could use to test his theories about the role of human body language in combat.

Yes, she was trained to fight. Yes, he planned on having her go on assassination missions. But these were ways to prove his concept, not an end unto themselves. David was convinced that if someone's entire development was influenced by communicating solely through body language that their brain would develop so that they were more adept at combat than any normal person could actually learn, regardless of their level of training, and he was right*!

Cass has mastered a bunch of combat styles, at least offensively, but she's also able to pick up new styles almost instantly, and react defensively against skilled opponents without needing any technical knowledge of defensive styles. She can coordinate and react far more efficiently than is humanly possible for anyone else, because her brain just works differently due to the unusual circumstances of her development. THAT'S what makes her an unparalleled* fighter, not her level of training.

*Shiva being an aberration which should not be counted

[alicepooryorick]

David Cain must have been pissed finding out about Shiva. Like, for 17 years he thinks he proved his theory on human language interfering with combat. Then Lady "I subject Richard Dragon to the WORST jokes known to man" Shiva shows up, completely equal to Cass, and leaves only to come back later AFTER Cass was more proficient with language trying to talk Cass into killing her.

[aingeal98]

Cass slipping up and initially calling David Cain her father before quickly just using his name instead. Oh you want so badly to be defined solely by the family you have chosen and not your biological parents and yet your instincts will not stop betraying you.

[ditzybat]

i love the headcannon that both tim and cass look scarily alike, to the point they could be twins.

like they both share the same general lithe build, they’re the same short height, cass has a short bob while tim has his baby mullet, their training is similar due to their backgrounds with lady shiva and the loa, and (depending on your headcanon) both waisan- so i can definitely see instances where they’re confused for each other or where they mess with everyone around them.

cass on patrol in red robin gear so tim can go on a date with bernard:

random thugs seconds away from being one hit k.o’d: yo since when did red robin start melting into the shadows like an eldritch horror?

jason: hey tim -

cass: wrong.

jason: no, im pretty sure you’re tim, i gave you that scar right there in your neck

cass: nu-uh, this is from cain

jason:

cass:

jason: well this got awkward…

steph hugging tim from behind: hey babe

tim: wrong wayne

steph: ew, i should’ve known, your ass isnt nearly as —

tim walking away with his fingers in his ears: lalalalala im not listening to you

damian: i think you’re the only one in this family i respect

tim who has been silently hanging out with him for the past 3 hours: aw thanks damian, i’ve come to love you like a brother too

damian: drake? i thought you were cassandra, my apologies, i retract my previous statement

tim: don’t care, you love me, don’t try to deny it

lady shiva hugging both tim and cass: my beautiful twins, such well trained weapons, unfortunate that you both ended up with cain

bruce pulling his children back: tim isnt yours…

shiva: well that cant be right, he’s s the spitting image of my sister carolyn, and that birth was far too painful to only produce one small child

tim: woah full circle, my drag-sona is called caroline, maybe you are my mom, i wouldn’t put it past janet drake to adopt

bruce: tim no, you’re not even the same type of asian

cass: too late, we’re blood

shiva: see!

[batboopp]

the most fucked up thing about cass and david’s relationship isn’t that david treated her as only a weapon and completely stole her of any personhood, it’s that he genuinely loved his daughter while doing all of that to her

[daughterzell]

cassandra cain

drawing content that specifically caters to me again yay

Close Ups

[xnyu09]

edit: i removed the caption ^^ i dont want to cause any more discourse over the topic.

i want to be clear on my stance that i do not excuse the abuse that david cain did to cass, nor do i want to downplay cass’s experience as a victim. i drew this from a personal space so apologies if anyone was offended ^^

[noirecheris3]

cassandra cain I could’ve raised you

[getthembees]

i do think it’s funny how cass’s parental issues are so insane that shiva wasn’t even involved in her life until she was an adult and was literally challenging her to death matches and Actually Killed Her Once but david has set the bar so fucking low that shiva still wins the better bio parent award on account of Not Showing Up

[damian-navarro-art]

CASS! i haven’t shared here yet any of all the drawing i’ve done of her last months but you can check them out on my Instagram if you like ;) …. But in the other hand, here is the first time im sharing this, i madly love Cass <3

[winged-bat]

nothing hits harder than a daughter and her complicated feelings on her father - like I know you’re a terrible person but I can’t help but still love you

[littlemissonewhoisall]

David Cain goes on drunken rants in the comment sections of "body-language expert" Instagram accounts about how they could never truly read body language because their brains are tainted with spoken language and his daughter could beat all of them at rock-paper-scissors.

[alicepooryorick]

Who did a better job at raising cass (minus babs and shiva)

david cain

bruce wayne

the pack of wolves that she ate an animal with

My vote is the wolves.

[lingrimmart]

[eldritchdemonfox]

why does everyone seem obsessed with making the batkid’s bio parents either an afterthought or worse than they actually are?

I mean, in some cases they did actually have bad parents, like Arthur Brown and David Cain

But like…

Stephanie’s mom is still alive and they have a pretty good relationship.

Duke’s parents are still alive, albeit comatose. He loves them.

Tim’s parents were not as criminally neglectful as fannon makes them out to be, and it really impacted him when they died.

Dick’s parents are the REASON he chose Robin as his name, and he still misses them.

While Willis Todd wasn’t a great father, he did at least want a better life for Jason in some cannons. And Catherine did the best she could. The only person really deserving of hate is Sheila. Fuck her fr.

Shiva might not be a good mother, but she and Cass actually have a weirdly positive relationship.

TALIA TRIED HER FUCKING BEST FOR DAMIAN AND SHE IS NOT A RAPIST

Babs LITERALLY STILL HAS A DAD. WHO SHE LOVES. Justice for my man Gordon.

I mean CMON