Shamelessly reblogging myself:

So, Steph…

A number of her detractors tend to take ghoulish pleasure in posting this sequence. Wherein Steph as Spoiler asks Batgirl Cass Cain to train her and Cass proceeds to calmly, efficiently beat the tar out of her. It’s an image that does the rounds more often than I’d like, usually with the focus on that last panel, cropped out of context. Steph effortlessly getting swatted aside and beaten by a superior combatant…

And those people never post anything from the next page. Because it’s the next page that made me immediately love the character when I first saw it. It’s the page that made me respect her courage and determination. It’s the page that shows that you can knock her down, then she’ll pull herself back up again and try again harder. It’s the page that shows that Steph just doesn’t give up, no matter how much it hurts her. That the girl from the deprived and abused background will do everything she can to be better.

This is why I love her.

And chopping the one panel or page out of the sequence strips away the relationship with Cass too. It takes away Cass’  fond, wry little smile at the end. It erases their friendship (or romance, if you read it that way) by omission. It presents Cass starkly as the better fighter without any of the love or trust of their relationship, dehumanizing her. That’s not the Cass I love. 

And I love them both and this sequence always reminds me why.