Originally Posted by
Lukmendes
That would actually be Red Tornado, who actually lived with them and bonded with them, Batman generally was just the "Hey guys, do this mission, Batman out", and maybe scold and congratulate them once a mission is done.
They don't live in his city and hardly directly work under him, even if a significant influence is there, it would not be anywhere near what other characters could have, and we still have Dick who explicitly made a point of "I don't wanna be like Batman".
Plus, M'gann is the least pragmatic among them and is still doing the Anti-Light nonsense, and Kaldur'ahm outranked him by being the League's damn leader, if he can't think by himself and just follows Batman's way, then he's a bigger joke of a leader than season 3 itself makes him sound like, and that season already makes him look like a bumbling moron.
Really? Because Batman's characterization in seasons 1 and 2 didn't hint at any sort of emotional manipulation, and if anything, he was far more considerate of people's emotions than anyone else there, even Superman, I don't see seasons 1 and 2 Batman pulling the kind of bullshit Dick and Kaldur'ahm did.
The way YJ wrote itself can actually make it sound like Dick and Kaldur'ahm came up with that first, then Batman emulated them, even if Barbara tries to pin on him and basically say "Oh that's classic you!".
Either way we have Barbara talking in a way that can make it look like she's trying to dodge responsibility, even if she claims otherwise, bad writing because of Batman's sudden change of characterization to be more in line with comics only makes it worse, since it ignores YJ's own damn context.
It still means they're willing to challenge him if they feel he's in the wrong, which they've done casually in season 1 even when they thought they'd be screwed by it.
Even if Batman has some authority over them, it's hilariously toned down compared to what other media could do given his pre season 3 characterization, plus he even made it clear they discussed those plans instead of him being the one ordering everyone, and Barbara dismisses that point by saying "But we're so used to your ways!", grow up, most of 'em are adults and they generally showed no doubt over what they're doing, Batman is arguably more at fault for trying to manipulate stuff, but everyone else who followed his nonsense without disagreeing are still very much at fault in huge ways, specially after Diana complains points out the bullshit they're trying to do.
The most excusable one there to be lil' puppet is Tim, 'cause he's not even an adult yet so it's questionable why he's even there (Maybe to make Batman look worse, which, yeah, in that regard, good job), everyone else knows better (Or at least they should), "We're all your protegés used to your ways!" is just a dumb excuse that doesn't really work if you think about the previous seasons, and their characterizations, even if Dick forgot his "I don't wanna be like Batman anymore", there's still at least Kaldur'ahm and M'gann who aren't even his protegés anyways, and again, Kaldur'ahm actually outranks Batman.