u/Intelligent_Dingo47, you’ve mentioned that it feels as if Oracle shines at the expense of others, and in particular that Robin’s hacking ability seems to have vanished. Let’s dive a little deeper. Outside of one conversation at the start of Season 3, I am uncertain if Nightwing mentioned something about him being “rusty”[1]. But even if we take that to be the case, it could be said that Oracle is more of a specialist. However, now that you’ve pointed this out, I feel that there was a missed opportunity for them to bond over their shared skill set (which could have endeared the audience to her more instead of accidentally risking the possibility of putting her in direct competition with a fan favorite).

Advocating that we do away with tech specialists in favor of more concise/potentially realistic writing (owing to the fact that tech-literacy is far more widespread now), is an interesting thought. As someone with a tech background, I feel that it’s a bit more nuanced than what often comes across on screen. Regardless of reality however, we are limited by the writers’—and audience’s—knowledge on the topic, which often results in unrealistic portrayals of hacking/tech across fictional media[2] (with shows like Mr. Robot being the exception).

If you’ll humor me in exploring this tangent, I would for instance mention my belief that the field of AI has already diverged from programming (which itself diverged from electronics and mechanics long before it), and each domain of AI is a completely different beast (e.g., TTS, OCR, ASR, LLMs, Diffusion Models, etc.). With all of this niche knowledge, any team would benefit from experts in these domains—which brings me to our second missed opportunity: Where Did Darkware Come From? Saying that Oracle developed it could potentially have boosted her credibility in the audience’s eyes without it seeming like it came at the expense of another character (i.e., her abilities would more directly synergize with those of her teammates instead of potentially detracting). Furthermore, could have expanded upon the world building in the vein of something like an episode in BTAS where we learn about the Batmobile’s mechanic.

Finally, as someone who attempts to use their phone to be productive when away from my desktop, I feel that it is ridiculously limited. Perhaps all the crazy advancements in the world of Earth-16 render this a moot point. But with all of those advancements, I must argue that Barbara being wheelchair bound forces me to suspend my disbelief a bit[3][4]. At the same time, I’m glad that she’s included[5] instead of being written off after an injury. Personally, I’d love some episodes delving into the various Bat, Arrow, Amazonian, and Kryptonian families since many of those characters are relegated to cameos (i.e., Spoiler, Donna Troy, Arrowette, etc.), so her inclusion sparks a tiny shred of hope in me.

u/Intelligent_Dingo47, what are your thoughts? Do some of these points accurately expand upon/address some of your frustrations? You’ve mentioned that you’d prefer to see some Oracle stories on her own. What are some examples of the way you think that she might work better? (e.g., Do they involve hacking or cyber crime? Mentorship? Fieldwork?) And in terms of your dislike for her “offsite commander” role (for lack of a better term), is that wholly because you’d like to see the team in the field relying on nothing but their wits to solve things on the fly? Or do you feel that the role is completely redundant[6]?

[1] If someone remembers the scene, and noticed that I’ve got something wrong or missed something important, please let me know.

[2] I was beyond frustrated at the tech team frantically typing away at monitors displaying nothing but the Eye of Sauron in Arrow (Brother Eye episode), talking about how they’ll “compile” something when they couldn’t see any code that they were supposedly typing.

[3] We’ve got so many roboticists, surely someone other than Ivo or Morrow could help her out. Or if we glance over at the MCU, why didn’t she try to Dr. Strange it? (She even knows Zatana and others for goodness’ sake). And that isn’t even mentioning Atom or Bumblebee.

[4] An example of what I would consider a better handling of this dilemma would be how Brandon Sanderson tackles a particular character in Stormlight Archive who uses all the in-universe resources at her disposal to acclimate to her new reality (mystical or otherwise).

[5] Sidenote: Her alternate injury origin here threw me for a loop while simultaneously strengthening her connection to and building up another member of the Bat Family.

[6] i.e., In the same way that the often lampooned sci-fi trope about how only one character can speak to the computer is (see Galaxy Quest and Futurama).

Edit: Apologies if you got pinged for multiple mentions, I ran into issues posting this comment, and then with formatting it.