You really did right by Steph in here. The Robin name has so much baggage on it and to be compared to Jason, arguably the heaviest of the bunch, couldn't be easy. This entire bit made me cheer:

Screw that. Batman didn't make a mistake when he picked Jason. And he didn't make a mistake when he picked me.

Let me tell you about Jason.

Jason Todd was born in the slums of Gotham City. His father was a crook, his mother a mess. He grew up on the streets. He ran and stole and fought and lied. Then he got a chance to fight everything that had made his world the hell it was before. He wasn't perfect. He made mistakes. He said the wrong things and he did the wrong things and he hurt people. But he fought for good and yeah, he screwed up a bunch of times, but he never quit, never, even though it killed him.

And people he was close to loved him.

So maybe I am like Jason.

But I don't think that's such a bad thing.

-

Rock on, Steph. Thank YOU very much for writing this.

I love Steph, and I have a soft spot for Jason. This is the best fic I've seen dealing with the two of them. Thanks for sharing it.

I... I think this is the most beautiful, most terrifying, most realistic and wonderful and sad thing I have read in a very, very long time. And about my favorite Robins.

This is canon. I don't care what anybody else says. I want to see this published.

This story is so absolutely breathtaking that I have trouble articulating my feelings about it. Stephanie slowly moving up the chain of people who knew Jason, from Tim to Leslie to Dick to Barbara to Alfred to the Bat himself, each time starting with the same simple question and getting so very much in response. That's structure, something a lot of writers ignore, and it in itself is perfect.

Not to mention the characterization and the voices and the interaction and the wow. Holy good writing, Batman. Incredible details, from the autopsy report to the difference between a roux and roulette. I was there for every second of it.

Stephanie moving from knowing nothing to knowing all that she could, and identifying with Jason so freaking much.

Eerie, man, just eerie.

If I weren't too shocked to cry, I would.

Wow. This is just amazing.

This is... good. That's not eloquent or encompassing but it's all I can say. It's hard to follow up three Robins especially when you're a person that reminds everyone of the deceased one (and especially when two of them were Dick and Tim). I always felt as if Steph and Jason were so alike, in the ways that counted. Jason was picked because Dick was gone and maybe that was a mistake. In my eyes, Jason was portrayed as who Bruce might have been if not for Leslie and Alfred. Steph was picked (perhaps in part) to lure back Tim to the mantle. I think she was shafted and I think Jason was too. He was so angry and volatile and no one remembers that in the last moments of his life, he was just loving his mom. Just like no one remembers Steph used to only (at first)don the Spoiler costume because of the Cluemaster.

This helped ease the part of me that detested what War Games did to the character of Stephanie and what One Year Later did to Jason.

Thank you.

I'm sure you've been told this many times before, but this is a beautiful story. You're very consistent in your characterization and you've made me care about Stephanie even (especially) with all her flaws.

I also wanted to ask you - I read a sequel to this a while back, or possibly just a story that followed a similar pattern. A returned Jason Todd tracking down the people that knew Stephanie and trying to figure her out. I was hoping that if it was a sequel, you might know where to find it?

Thanks, and once again, beautiful story.

A good story, and poetic. The continuing reference to Christopher Robin really tied it together. I admire how flawlessly you wrote Steph's character and voice. I liked her more after this
story, or understood her better. Excellent job!

This is wonderful. I love how Steph got to know Jason, and to respect him. She made her own decision about who he was, and in the end about what type of Robin she would be.

This is some fine post-foreshadowing.

My whole take on the Stephanie Brown character was the antithesis of the Batman.

See, to me Batman is the finest of iconic superheroes. All his supporting cast is a reflection of the facet of him:
Dick Grayson-devotion to the mission
Barbara Gordon-making the impossible possible despite no powers
Alfred Pennyworth-the mentoring
Tim Drake-the detective
Cassandra Cain-immaculate talent
Azreal-the psychotic obssessiveness
Huntress-the anger/righteous fury
Jason Todd-the audatiousness which was once very prevalent and relevant and is now gone/dead

Stephanie Brown reflected nothing of what makes the Batman. As soon as she was pregnant by some random guy, I knew she had to die. She was something I think writing the Batman had to communicate to the audience, "Us normal people aren't these superheroic people.". It's too easy for people to overidentify with Bat characters as opposed to S-shield or Flash characters because they don't have powers. Stephanie Brown was a very poor Bat-clan character but a very good "You can't do what they do." character. Real people have real problems and real capabilities to handle them with and often fail. Steph had real capabilities and real problems and tried to handle Batman level issues, hence died.

Spoiler was useless and rather irrelevant. The little Robin that couldn't was probably neccessary.

Now you got me thinking of all the Robins. Dick Grayson to me is the "Adventures of Batman and Robin" one. Jason Todd is the ghost as I've only read the death, the stealing of the tires, this whole Red Hood remake and maybe a little by accident. I really appreciated the Robin of DKR...until DKR2 which ruined just about every character in it. Tim Drake of Young Justice retains my agreement with Batman's choosing him as the proper heir to the mantle. Stephanie Brown's place is now proper.

I *like* this. A lot of writers gloss over Jason and dismiss Stephanie as a Mary-Sueish character, but the fact of the matter is, just because they made mistakes doesn't mean they weren't *Robin*. Yeah, they made **-ups (who in the Batfamily hasn't, except maybe Alfred?) and weren't always bright, shining beacons of goodness, but they *tried*. And while the road to Hell may be paved to good intentions, there really isn't anyone in Heaven who didn't care and/or try to do their best.

I *like* this. :) Because of the fact that it foreshadows Stephanie's death in such a way as to show that making mistakes doesn't draw away from everything *good* that she did.

And Jason, too. *salutes you*

ALSOME but verry sad it also made me cry. Check out my storys out if you want to. I'm on the new site!

SEE YAH LATER!

*lets out a breath she didn't realize she was holding*

God. God.

That was unbeleivable. You made me cry, and that is not an easy thing to do. You made me ache. You made me hurt.

You made me miss Steph, and that is an IMPOSSIBLE thing to do.

Well done.

That was a beautiful story, which I could actually picture being a Batman comic. Congrats, but now that Spoiler's dead this feels a little ominous...

Kick arse story. I miss Stephanie Brown like crazy [ still] and this was an absolute delight. You have a lot of talent, and a brilliant grasp of all the characters.