Originally Posted by
Arctic Cyclist
I know that you don't read anything with Damian in it, but Damian has been shown to have earned the role of Robin. All of his skills were shown being learned and hard earned as a child, and his accomplishments, when taken as a whole are unrealistic for his age, broken down individually fit into what child prodigies and Olympic gold medalists do in the same age range. He's consistently shown to have the same drive that is characteristic of prodigies and Olympians, notably the gymnasts, which Tim never has. Nothing Damian has is unearned.
Moreover, people had been waiting for Damian since before Tim was created. Son of the Demon, despite how quickly DC moved to strike it from continuity, was an immensely popular story. That's why both Ibn and Tallent were eagerly received in their books, and the boost in sales from Damian's introduction was shocking and resulted in his integration to the stories. Furthermore, a Sue/Stu stymies other canon characters and invalidates other stories. Damian doesn't, rather his introduction took stories such as Cass leading the League of Assassins which didn't make any sense whatsoever prior based on her skills and the long established rule that it had to be a male heir, and justified it by introducing Damian as the young male heir who could eventually be controlled by a future lover/wife like Margery and Tommen in Game of Thrones. It takes all the weirdness of the late Cass stories and cleans them up into logical character motivation, all the way to Cass getting out of Gotham to avoid the child she participated in grooming and then abandoned in order to allow Stephanie to grow. It even provides fantastic character development and motivation for Nyssa and Talia's relationships with each other and Cass.
Dick back in 2006 was almost killed off because he was no longer relevant as a character due to Tim. Damian's introduction took Dick from being stymied by Tim and reestablished Dick as an extraordinary leader, mentor, and detective.
Jason was full on villain struggling with the idea of redemption. Damian's presence with his past as an assassin allowed for us to see Jason decide to start taking on proteges and approach the character we see in Flashpoint, which is an inherently noble person who works hard to get people out of crime and into safe, new lives. Prior to that, Jason had to die in order for Tim to be created, and then he was always put down as a failure in order to prop Tim up.
Stephanie due to Tim going out of town and no longer being an issue in her life is shown growing and taking up the role of pseudo big sister to Damian, as does Kara in Super Girl. She ceases to be a love interest and grows into her own character, no longer a prop to show how wonderful and supportive Tim is.
With Bruce, we see him face down the prospect of being a parent by abdicating the role to Dick and running off to screw Selina. We see him on three separate occasions tell Damian he can't be Robin and can't live in Gotham. We see him finally start spending time with Damian because Talia says, "F&#%ing A. The kid had to fight me on his birthday every year since he was four in order to meet you, what does it take to get you to spend time with him? A half a billion dollar bounty? Let's try that. Then maybe kill him because screw it, this is messed up and we should not be parents."
We see Bruce and Dick constantly reminding Damian that he is replaceable, we see Bruce replacing Damian as Robin in everything but name first with Duke and now with Jarro. We saw in Damian: Son of Batman and Injustice: Gods Among Us that Bruce will kick Damian out of the house without hesitation. We also see Damian forcing Bruce to move on from his parents deaths...at least until Tom King took over the reins. There is nothing outside of Tim's narration to indicate that Damian destroyed Robin or invalidated by being Bruce's son, rather we see that Damian is held to a higher standard than other Robins while at the same time receiving less attention and affection from Bruce than other Robins.
At no point does Damian stymie any characters, like a Sue does, or outshine them in their own books. He doesn't really even outshine them in his own books, aside from Tim. War of the Robins shows Jason acting like an adult who understands that Damian's just an upset 10 year old looking for attention, as does Dick. Neither man comes off looking weaker because of Damian. Tim curb stomps Damian in Red Robin despite Damian's skills as a fighter being generally depicted as superior to Tim's. Tim is a stagnant character, and that has nothing to do with Damian as he has been used effectively to grow all the other characters he has been written with.
You are calling Damian a Stu simply because you don't like him, not because Damian meets any of the definitions of a Stu. When people say that Tim is a Stu, it's because Tim does meet many of the definitions of a Stu, including the blocking of other characters, outshining them in their own books, and having them go on and on about how wonderful and perfect he is, which is definitely not something that happens with Damian. Dick regularly says that Damian is an annoying little @#$ and Bruce warning people that Damian is a pain in the butt before they meet him is a running theme. Unlike Tim, Damian has never blocked a character's development or growth, had other characters sing his praises and downplay themselves in comparison to him, or was just handed the Robin role because he showed up and rang the doorbell. You have to have read Nightwing, Battle for the Cowl, and Azrael to know this, but Damian's becoming Robin was a result of negotiations between Dick and Talia along with the fact that Dick looked at Damian, saw himself at a similar age, and understood that Damian needed someone to save him from the darkness.
Tim becoming Batman is a bad thing. That is a fact. But Damian didn't block him as a character or destroy Tim's success, as we see other characters become more popular and successful because of Damian. Tim could have, should have grown. That he hasn't has less to do with Damian and more to do with the fact that he's a fundamentally flawed character who is rooted in Stu traits as a self insert for fans, and the fans won't accept him as anything but what Tim was in 1998.
1998 was a bad year, most of the wine from that vintage was corked.