WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Telltale's Batman: The Enemy Within.
Save for the Dark Knights first few years, Robin has always been a part of Batman's history. Despite this, the various Bat-themed video games have never really touched upon their relationship in any real substantial way, mostly because they're action-oriented games that place an emphasis on the feeling of having Batman's power rather than the man behind the mask.
With Telltale Batman: The Enemy Within, this problem is rectified -- but with one big twist that makes things very different. In the game, which details Bruce Wayne's early days as a masked vigilante, the first apprentices that Batman takes on are not any of the characters we're used to as Dick, Tim, Jason, Damian and Stephanie do not yet exist in this universe. Instead, our first Boy Wonders within the universe that Telltale has provided are Tiffany Fox... and the Joker.
RELATED: Batman Teams Up with [SPOILER] to Fight the Batman Who Laughs
OK -- they don't go by the boy (or girl) wonders' iconic moniker, but they totally fill the role Robin has over the decades, including being the first sidekicks the legendary hero takes on. And it works, as Telltale plays with this canon shift in some interesting ways.
Over the course of two seasons, Telltale Games' Batman series has made some big changes to the Batman mythos. Under the developer's watch, Thomas and Martha Wayne became criminals that used Arkham Asylum to commit anyone who spoke out against them, and the Dark Knight's classic roster of villains have thus far met him as Bruce Wayne before meeting him as Batman. As a result, this means that when he first meets the Joker (currently not yet a Clown Prince, but a pale weirdo named John Doe with a creepy laugh), it's as Bruce Wayne, after he's been committed to Arkham Asylum in the middle of Season 1.
Throughout Enemy Within, Bruce has the option of bonding with the future Clown Prince of Crime, or shooting down every attempt he makes at camaraderie. Every encounter with John is just plain uncomfortable; even without knowledge of who he'll end up being, John knows that there's something inside him aching to get out. Sometimes the game will make decisions, usually involving the radically different Harley Quinn, that push John closer to the edge towards being the Joker. Making it Bruce's duty to pull him back from the ledge as a friend or just make him your worst enemy is one of the things the game does well, especially in later episodes when John starts calling you out on how he feels like you're using him. The urge to make him not the monster he'll inevitably be is high, if only because he's a victim of constant abuse and neglect.
Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='How%20Telltale%27s%20Not-Robins%20Still%20Fill%20The%20Robin%20Role']
It's not too hard to associate John or Tiffany with respective Robins Jason Todd and Tim Drake, even Telltale didn't intend for that to happen. The John association is almost comically heavy-handed. Not only does John use a crowbar at one point early in the season, he's almost as violent and impulsive as the Joker's eventual victim; as the finale starts, he's already calling himself the Joker, whether he's a vigilante or a criminal. With the vigilante option, we went about having Batman be a guiding hand and helping him control his violent impulses in a way to delay the inevitable and try to turn him into something greater. Suffice it to say, it doesn't work in the slightest: Not only does Joker shank Bane after being wrongfully accused of killing the Riddler, he went into a rage after we made a deal with Amanda Waller to get her enigmatic Agency out of Gotham and tried to ensure the safety of him and Catwoman.
When Batman and Joker face off in the ACE Chemical Plant halfway through the episode, the failing vigilante decides to verbally rip into the Dark Knight while putting a knife to Amanda Waller's throat. The conversation and subsequent battle has shades of the final fight in the Batman: Under the Red Hood film, forcing Batman (and the player) to confront the clear warning signs being given and decide if they ever really even tried to make John anything more than a pawn. He doesn't need to fall into the chemicals to become mad and disillusioned with the world, because Batman made certain that would happen.
While John was always destined to become Joker, Tiffany has no set future, in the game or in the comics. She's a relatively new character DC debuted during Batgirl's Future's End comic in the New 52 era, and hasn't really been mentioned since. The lack of any real canon has allowed Telltale to do whatever they want with her in Enemy Within, which is most noticeable when she confesses to killing Riddler for revenge. When the option is presented to continue training her or turning her in, the former seemed like the safest option. Not only does she know who Bruce is and how he had a hand in her father's death, she just had a bad day not too dissimilar from Bruce's.
Watching the two of them fly through Gotham together is a welcome sight, showing that a bright future awaits them both. Even as we had Bruce make the choice to give up being Batman if it meant Alfred wouldn't leave, there's a sense of hope that Tiffany will be taught well and pick up the slack in protecting Gotham. It shows why Batman needs someone like a Robin or Batgirl by his side.
Telltale likely isn't done with Batman after Enemy Within, and the relationships the Dark Knight has formed and broken with John and Tiffany color the way he'll interact with his future apprentices. There's something to be said about a world where the Robins exist and work with Batman some time after he tried and failed to turn his greatest enemy into a hero. Jason Todd may never show up in these games, but it's easy to imagine how a Joker who knows Batman and his alter ego so intimately could deeply mess with that particular Robin. The Batman may be the one who creates the freaks in Gotham, but Enemy Within shows that he can create heroes too -- they just need the right guiding hand.