High C wrote:Really!?! Batgirl was 'far too capable?" Is that why, time and time again, she would go into a villain's lair with no backup, announce her presence, and then get ambushed and captured?
Yes, really

. Certainly Batgirl rushed into danger and was routinely ambushed and captured! And Batman and Robin did not? It would not be much of a show if they were not all getting themselves into trouble all the time!

Batman (and this is not a criticism-it is part of his charm) was quite the over confident one. He routinely went out of his way to cut the police 'out of the action', even when the circumstances cried out for them. He was big on the dramatic entrance. He often underestimated his foes. And you could even make a case that Batman was guilty of child endangerment, putting Robin into a constant stream of life-threatening situations (of course, no one in the wonderfully insane universe of TV Gotham would think so!). Batman always continued to bring Robin although he was often a liability (getting beat up in lots of Batfights and needing to be rescued, not to mention his status as 'Robin the Boy Hostage' as the Joker says). Batgirl generally made more logical choices especially in her investigations (I say 'generally', not 'always')-perhaps Charlie's counsel was very wise

. I have read many articles that agree that Batgirl often made Batman's investigative methods look illogical and foolish (and that she also undermined their status simply by being able to capably stand beside them).
High C wrote:But all of your 'backstory' on Batgirl is speculation and has little to do with what actually appeared on screen, given all the times she proved herself to be a liability by being captured easily. That happened in episodes featuring Riddler and Siren, King Tut, Egghead and Olga, Ffogg and Peasoup, Catwoman and finally, Louie the Lilac,
No, this statement is incorrect. Some is certainly speculation (most of the stuff I prefaced with 'maybe' or 'perhaps'). Obviously trying to 'fill in the blanks' involves nothing but speculation, because if it does not appear on the show, then that is indeed all it is (and they are currently doing a lot of that in the 66' Batman comic).
But some things are well established on the show. Mr. Gordon and Barbara did indeed have a very close relationship, evidenced in many, many episodes. Barbara did have a college degree in southwest Asian history. She clearly has access to a good level of funding and technology. What you do is take what you do know and try to extrapolate logical conclusions from it-that is what we often do in Treasury CI. For example, as a pediatrician and child psychologist, I took what I know about the typical father-daughter dynamic to arrive at a possible motivation for Batgirl. Certainly it is only one of many possible stories, but it is one that makes sense and fits the evidence. The same with her hideout, gear, and funding.
So that is my story, and I will be sticking to it...until someone comes up with a more amusing one

!