I actually wanted Williamson to write Damian like Bakugo in Season 1 of MHA: an uber-talented kid with anger issues and overconfidence, who actually has the skills to back it up.
Then he went to Yuuei and saw that he was just a big fish in a small pond. He was gradually demoralized over like 2 episodes, and saw that he wasn't as special as he thought he was. He even admitted he couldn't beat Todoroki in a 1v1 and that he agreed with Yaoyorozu that he made stupid mistakes in his fight with Deku.
I can kinda see that here with the Robin series. He's already been demoralized by Flatline, Connor can be his Todoroki and I'm sure he's gonna be berated/laughed at by Rose.
They should've saved the cliffhanger for the second book. Like if he fought King Snake in the Lazarus tournament itself. It would have more meaning, and when the time came for his victory, he'd have his conflict with killing/not killing the father of Alfred's killer(Is it mandatory on the Island to kill? WILL he kill King Snake? Find out next time in Robin: Son of a B***h).
It may have been more impacting if book 1 built him up to be this overconfident badass, and book 2 ended with the girl stealing his heart. But, shock value sells and keeps people asking questions so...