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At the end of the Gates of Gotham storyline, there appeared to be the culmination of a storyarc that's been slowly building between Cassandra Cain and Tim Drake for literally years. This is kind of subjective, and probably not planned to have turned out this way by the numerous creators over the years... but despite that there is actually enough here to suggest the growth of a relationship between the two.

Basically, there can be said to be a narrative that runs all the way from Cass' solo series all the way through her evil years up until the reboot that actually makes sense with the evidence that's suggested. So Cass and Tim (maybe) getting together just before the world ended isn't quite so out of left-field as you'd expect...

The seeds of this begin all the way back in Cass' solo series, where Tim displays on numerous occasions an attraction to Cass, albeit on a physical level. From the off this isn't necessarily the brother/sister relationship that some people see their relationship as, mostly due to them being more like colleagues than dual proteges of Bruce like the other Robins are.

Examples of this can be found in Cass' crossover with Conner Kent's Superboy series, where Conner asks what she's like, and Tim gives his answer.


This is before the Cruise storyline which sparks the Conner/Cass storyline, FYI.

Conner's attraction to Cass is referenced elsewhere as well, for example in the issue where she borrows Barbara's costume to do some retro-crimefighting.









This is the first time he admitted that he thought she was hot to her face, though the Conner instance presumably was forgotten at this point. However at this point neither really acted upon this, because 1. Tim was dating Cass' best friend (Stephanie Brown) at this point, and 2. Cass still saw him more as a colleague.

His words did stick with here though, as in the next issue a hallucination of him was reduced just to talking about her physical appearance.



At this point, there should probably be two issues that should be addressed as they may colour the proceedings somewhat. Firstly, due to Cass' upbringing and the following eight or so years as a homeless person wandering the world with an ingrained inability to process spoken or written language, a lot of her emotional development had evolved along different lines as a result.

Meaning that when Barbara decides to force Cass to wear a bikini, resulting in Cass getting leered at, Cass is more painfully aware what's going on in any potential romantic partner's mind, and initially that made forming romantic bonds with people difficult as she interpreted it as JUST sexual attraction.





Her figuring out the difference between "aw yeah, that person is hot" and "AW GOD, I'M SO ALONE" was the basis of her relationship with Conner Kent. In that they decided to be just good friends rather than sexual partners (yes, they had an issue dedicated to this) for this reason.

The second reason why Tim's attraction to Cass is kind of strange in hindsight, is that back when Tim first began his career as Robin, Lady Shiva (Cass' mother) came onto the then 14/15 year old Tim numerous times. He declined, but it is a touch interesting that he'd be attracted to Cass and Sandra before knowing how they were related to one another...



Ultimately, Cass and Tim's relationship prior to War Games boiled down to her seeing him as a colleague and him thinking that she's hot, but at the same time kind of terrifying. They were never close as, Tim and the other Robins for example.

Once the events of War Games happened, resulting in every Bat Family member except Bruce having to temporarily leave the city. Since Tim's dad ended up dying several days after Steph (this is canon), this resulted in him forging papers for a legal guardian that didn't exist and moving to Nightwing's old stomping grounds (Bludhaven) in an attempt to keep Bruce from adopting him.

Bruce, rightly seeing for once that someone going through all that emotional trauma alone isn't healthy, sends Cass to stay with Tim in order to make sure that he's alright. Their relationship is somewhat strained at first, due to a combination of Tim thinking that she's kind of creepy and the fact that Bruce sent her to check up on him.

Eventually though, they come to bond over their relationship to the Job and Steph's death.











It's at this point that the seeds of a relationship between the two could have been formed, more out of a mutual respect than Tim inheriting's Gotham's Babsgirl Fetish (see the "Killer Boobs!" Cop in Birds of Prey for more of that). Whether or not anything romantic began to happen between then isn't exactly known, but according to Tim and Cass' series they apparently hung around together off panel to the extent that he was okay with her crashing at his apartment occasionally, despite Alfred arranging for her to have her own house in the City.

So, by the end of Cass' series it's been established that Tim has an attraction to Cass, with the two now on friendlier terms than they had been for a lot of their interactions. The catalyst for how this may have developed further comes in the next section, which deals with THAT period of Cass' life, with the connected fallout.

Note: Cass' semi-boyfriend Zero will be discussed in the next section.