Why Look: Another Post About Cassandra Cain

Over at CBR there's an interview with Adam Beechen, the writer best known around here for destroying Cassandra Cain. Let's deconstruct some of his quotes, shall we?

"Cassandra, having discovered she was not the only child to be raised by master assassin David Cain and that she'd essentially been lied to growing up, decided to become a force for the justice of her own definition, taking over the League of Assassins to use as her instrument."

Let me again reiterate something that every Batgirl fan has said regarding this so-called "motive": Cassandra already knew there were others. This was not something new. She discovered in the last arc of her solo series that David Cain had trained a great many other children in addition to herself.

She did not freak out. She did not go crazy. She did not start killing people.

And even if she hadn't known, why would that cause her to flip? The premise that she "discovered she'd been lied to" is absurd. Of course she'd been lied to. She already knew that. Her entire life was a lie. That's why she ran away from him.

And the idea that she'd become jealous of this other girl is even more absurd. Jealous because Daddy loved someone else? Ridiculous. Cassandra hates her father. She doesn't want anything to do with him. Why why why why why would she give a damn if he raised someone else in addition to her? Let's look at another quote:

"It's a big change, a fundamental change, and it represents a big twist in the longtime path of the character, her quest to overcome her upbringing. The way I think about it is, I know lots of people who've struggled against bad decisions or circumstances in their lives for a long time, only to suddenly backslide into their previous behavior."

Again, no. You can only "backslide" into a cruel, vengeful murderer if you were one to begin with. Which Cassandra Cain most certainly was not. She killed one person. She was sent to do it when she was a child -- she didn't know what death was. When she saw it, it horrified her, and she ran away. She never killed again (until all this awful OYL crap).

I'm sick of hearing all the bullshit about Cassandra being "a killer, born and bred." That is complete and utter crap. She was nothing of the sort. She was the child of killers and was trained to be a killer. But she was never a killer. Never.

And I will never accept any story that makes her into one.