Barbara Gordon - Blog Posts

Guys, I don't think you understand how badly I want a batfam show. Don't ask me who our big bad is, I don't know. But I wanna see the nuances of their relationships and see them grow closer. I wanna see Tim and Jason working together on a mission to gather info, I wanna see Duke and Cass and Barbara work together to get into a villain safehouse. I want to see Dick being the self sacrificing oldest sibling who basically raised his siblings for the entire time Bruce was lost in time. I want to see Damien get to be a child, I want to see Steph find her place somewhere where she can trust her family. I dunno, I want feels and mystery solving and nuance and AGH.

How small must the world be for both Bruce and Tim to witness John and Mary Grayson's deaths

Or for 10-year-old Duke to crack the Riddler's puzzle before Batman swoops in and saves the day, long before his powers came into play

Or for Sheila Haywood to leave her son only to end up assisting his killer a decade and a half later

Not to mention the popular fanon concept of Jason knowing baby Damian in the League of Assassins

Now imagine how many other invisible strings could've tied them together

Like what if Tim and Jason went to the same school when Jason was Robin but all they shared was the occasional bump and "excuse me" in the busy halls

Or what if Babs was a tutor and helped an elementary-aged Steph finally understand her homework only for the Browns to cancel after a couple sessions because they couldn't afford it

What if the first person to buy Cass a hot meal was Kate on one of her travels

What if Alfred witnessed young Selina shoplifting groceries but chose to turn a blind eye

What if Jason lived on the same streets as the Row siblings and gave little Harper tips on how to use tools and defend her brother

What if Steph and Duke shared the same school bus, only he sat in the front while she was toward the back

What if the first person to teach Tim how to tie his shoes was Bruce at a gala because Jack and Janet were busy talking to someone important

What if Bette did a DNA test for fun and found a connection in Nanda Parbat but just assumed the results was faulty because she knew her whole family, right?

What if 8-year-old Dick, the day before his parents died, stayed at a cheap hotel near Crime Alley and found 4-year-old Jason wandering alone and said, "I'll be your big brother for tonight"

What if the universe knew they were made for each other and wouldn't rest until they realized it too

i take your kardashian batfam au and give u idol! batfam au where the wayne kids became a jackson 5-esque-idol group

the wayne kids decided that being an idol group is the BEST cover yes sir cause there's nothing that could go wrong with that no sireeee

i only had in mind that someone joked about the wayne kids having enough siblings for an idol group and dick decided that was so ridiculous, it was perfect

then he roped everyone else in it, somehow convincing them with one reason or other

[...]

"who would believe that nightwing has an idol day job?? ... don't answer that BUT NOBODY WOULD THINK /THIS ROBIN/ OR /RED HOOD/ WOULD!!"

[...]

dick: so-

cass: im in

dick: but-

cass, putting her hands on his, her eyes burning in passion or smth: im. in. :)

dick: ... can you convince tim?

cass: :)

[...]

"i KNOW you want to join steph but you need to be adopted into the family officially for that!"

steph joins after blackmailing dick with one thing or another, idk but jason helped her, she's the new lead rapper

[...]

duke: yk... when i joined this family, i didn't know what to expect *looks at all his adopted siblings in sparkly outfits, ready to perform, then down to his own where he got manhandled into one and was about to be introduced as not only the newest wayne but the newest member* but i can tell you for certain, it wasn't this...

[...]

when bruce is asked about it, he just says to take it up with the kids' managers, who is babs, and everyone is lowkey scared of her.

[...]

kpop community would know about this best but listen yall know those variety shows where idols go on often and sometimes do random challenges for coupons?? yeah. that.

the bats are already insanely competitive. that's all i'm gonna say :)

Forever trapped in each others orbits but gravity keeps us away (DickRoy)

Immediately followed by

Dick Grayson x anyone remotely morally ambiguous (I see u tiger, JGJ, Kori, Helena, Joey I see you and I love you)

Jason Todd x completely normal civilians (bc it would be so funny)

Or

Jason Todd x women that can kill him (asphyxiation via thighs or actually will shoot him)

Put Tim in a throuple as long as Kon is there (Bernard or Bart is ur choice)

Damian must follow his fathers footsteps and date dangerous women I fear (or a Superman what who said that)

And Stephanie brown should date me actually so no one

Me: I really like dc canon and frankly I think that fanon flanderizes the characters to the point where they are unrecognizable

Also me: Dick and Jason are drinking buddies,

Tim has put kon, Bernard and Steph in a gc called “the roster” and dipped.

Dick is not allowed to meet Barbara’s friends bc they all like him too much and then it’s rlly hard to bitch about him. (This is actually kinda canon thank u Dinah lance in birds of pray lmao)

The reverse of this is also true but for Dicks exes and Barbara like they get along TOO well.

Babs and Kori are friends.

Babs and Donna are sworn enemies. (Mutual)

Dick gets a different signature food with each of his siblings except Steph cuz they get smoothies. 

Dick keeps trying to get Steph and Donna to meet up but Everytime he tries Gotham gets blown up

Damian refuses to sneak pets in a trench coat bc it’s bad for them to be squished.

Duke is the only bat who knows about the mpreg joker story

Tim and Jason’s only texts to each other are “help” or “you lil shit what did you do!!?!”

Tim, Jason, Cass and Duke all like the discowing suit

Steph and Damian hate it

Damian says he’s spending the weekend not with his dad and everyone assumes Bruce and talia are trying split custody but he needs to bitch about Bruce so he goes to bludhaven

Donna and Dick get drunk together and get progressively more and more sappy about how they should move in together and how much they love each other, you’re amazing no you’re amazing.

Roy and Dick are besties who text like a divorced couple trying to coparent

Dicks exes are in a discord server called “raw. next question” and they have channels called “red heads only” “also dated his brother” “tried to kill him” etc

The redheads don’t have names in this discord “redhead 1” “red head 2” “redhead 3” and so on

They also don’t discuss dick in this server at all

Bruce calls dick for ideas about the Brucie Wayne persona and also when he just doesn’t get why people are mad at him.

Dick calls wally for help with menial tasks

Tim is a big big big fan of THC (same)

Dick goes to raves

Jason is actually the DARE Robin

An image of Dick at a rave went viral on Twitter and Bruce had a mental breakdown so did Jason

Stephanie will never ask Bruce for anything but she buys a 10$ coffee every morning on his card bc of that video of people saying young people can’t buy houses bc of Starbucks and avocado toast.

Jason has a video of 19 yr old Dick spitting at a police officer and he sent it on the family gc when he found out dick went undercover as a cop. It is one of 5 messages he has sent.

Everyone of the Bats is some shade of bisexual

Dicks house is the defacto Bruce is being a lil bitch for the bats and literally everyone who is affiliated with Bruce as long as you bring liquor you’re welcome

Garth and Dick watch sad movies together

Tim and Bruce watch all the bond films together

Damian and Dick watch bird documentaries together

Jason doesn’t watch tv bc he’s a secret hipster (he doesn’t have a tv they keep blowing up.)

Linda has absolutely asked Dick to swing with her and Wally and Dick told Wally about this and Wally’s only reaction was…”soooo is that a yesss or a no?”

The fab 5 titans all hate each others exes, refuse to acknowledge any guilt their friend had in the matter , and will absolutely pretend none of them have dated (they have all dated)

Bruce is in absolute denial that his children date. Like he knows dick has dated people but he assumes that it is kindergarten dating “ah dick spent the night at Barbara’s they must really like holding hands” “Bernard and Tim are moving so fast I mean I saw one of them kiss the other on the cheek??” Meanwhile he has traumatized all robins to ever Robin bc him and Selina Kyle can’t keep their hands right themselves

Also me: cognitive dissonance thank you for your service

Dick has like 25million ig followers, donna does his photos

Tim has a very popular shitpost account on Twitter from his pre Robin days that has statements like “if i was Batman I would simply barricade Arkham” and “stalking Nightwing rn we are up to 120 flips and 30 quips…. There is no else here”

Bats on Christmas (where are they?)

Dick: with the titans, has been pleasantly buzzed since 8 am. Phone has been off since midnight. Ate his weight in Christmas dinner and candy. Will meet each of his siblings one on one every day after (Jason and him get shitfaced on new years) but currently his head is on Donna’s lap and his legs are on Roy’s and he’s in a constant state of almost sleepy bliss (no one is dead shush)

Jason: binging Xmas movies him and mom used to watch at his apartment. Alfred sent him a full spread (listen in my country we do turkey and fix ins for Xmas idk what Americans do on Xmas) and he’s just been enjoying a quiet day in a nice apartment (bc I refuse to acknowledge or accept anyone being ok with Jay not having a nice warm apartment. If Dick Gave him a safe house he bought with mob money or he actually kept his drug lord money idc he has a very pretty apartment idcidc)

Tim: with Steph and Bernard, they’re shit talking him to bond, him and dick will meet and exchange presents the day after Xmas and he’s panicking bc he completely forgot to buy dick a gift so the three of them are at the mall while Tim gets increasingly worried

Damian: mad he’s not with Dick, at the Kent’s instead. Got the most presents bc all his siblings gave him stuff and both Dick and Bruce bought way too much stuff

Bruce: doesn’t do anything for Xmas and hasn’t since Jason died. His mom was Jewish so until the kids it just wasn’t a good time for him (for obvious reasons) and now his kids don’t really come home so he had a very peaceful night in and unlike literally any other time Christmas is surprisingly quiet in Gotham.

Steph: has collected a bunch of embarrassing Tim photos and is showing and telling Bernard info Tim wouldn’t let be known on his death bed while Tim is panicking over dicks gift. She spent Xmas eve with her mom so now she’s just chilling bc she already bought Dick, Cass, Damian and Tim gifts so she’s safe.

Cass: with babs since her dad has to work they’re having a very small and quaint Xmas together but it’s nice and them

Alfred: actually goes to mass

Dick Grayson ships in order of how toxic you should write them as adults in an established relationship imo (no batcest and we can discuss the harem at a later time)

Least

Dick X Wally: this is the quintessential friends to lovers story it’s adorable. Naturally a lil bit of toxicity bc nightwing is not a healthy person but still the ratio is 99% cute and 1% angst as adults. Feel free to angst away with the Robin/KF thing

Worlds where this is cute: young justice, earth prime pre Wally meeting Linda.

Dick X Kori: listen to me, if you ignore all the shitty writing (yes the babs wedding thing) they r perfect <3. The only person who I believe can be the lights light ya know. The broke up because they both took hits they couldn’t recover from but they still love each other and they’re my favorite canon pairing they should get back together and have a kid and be a cute lil family.

Worlds where this is cute: TT, Earth prime, DCAU, injustice, titans tomorrow, Lego Batman (every single earth actually)

Dick X Zatanna: cute, childhood crush turned sweethearts turned friends nothing to say here I just don’t think it would be toxic

Worlds where this is cute: young justice

Worlds where this should never happen: all the rest (she dated his dad)

Dick X Joey: I love them so I’m biased their relationship is on par with Dick and Wally taking field trips in the 80s. Also this is joeys most popular ship and that makes me laugh. BUT ANYWAY they’re just very homoerotic and I feel like they respect each other enough the toxicity would be on the lower side.

Worlds where this is cute: literally anytime before he possesses his dad’s body.

Times this is concerning: post possessing nightwings body (anyone remember that happening I just ignore it now, cuz I hate the whole evil Joey thing but if you wanna take this ship from 30% toxic to 140% write it post possession with the dude who had autonomy issues)

Dick x Kara: I just feel like the hero worship would get in the way a little bit

Worlds where this is cute: worlds finest

Worlds where this isn’t: the rest

Dick x Roy: I love them sm ur honor (despite how low I’m putting this, it’s one one my top ships) listen Dick and Roy adore each other and would die for each other, but the baggage?? The years of expectations?? The fights??? The fact that Dick gets more and more closed off when he’s mad usually but him and Roy in the same room and fists fly?? But the only people who can talk to Dick when he’s spiraling are Roy and Donna. Like ROY HARPER is one of Dick people!! You don’t understand how much I love how they can hurt each other while loving each other so so so much. They cause me pain. I don’t believe they’d ever mellow out Dick and Wally tho bc they’re whole relationship is heated they have never had a chill emotion about each other in their history of being characters that exist in the same space.

Worlds where this is cute: literally any world where the titans exist/have existed with speedy and Robin as core members

Worlds where no?: new 52 (I hate new 52 and ignore it tho so no universe sucks bc new 52 isn’t real and can’t hurt me)

Dick X Harley Quinn: see I hated this ship and I hate it in canon but I once read a fic that was good enough I now ship it on the dl and think it would be good for Harley to be with someone who can be a safety net. But like this is AU rare pair type shit and it’s low bc I literally cannot picture a canon universe where this isn’t the most toxic thing ever.

Worlds where yes: DCAU (AU) not even the canon one like the AU of the AU that is the DCAU (take a shot Everytime I say AU)

Dick X Shawn Tsang: I’m sorry yall Shawn was such a boring character I forgot she existed but I remember that she broke up with him after he lost his memory cuz she thought he was ghosting her and like not only does it feel like she just existed to give dick a love interest. Also this comic featured the character death wing and so it’s so low not bc the ship sucks except it does bc why dick?? Are you dating someone who hates heroes?? Why r u like this??? Stopppp but also bc imo the ship has a white bread type of content that is toxic to me personally and that’s more important.

Dick x Bea Bennet: I loved them sm in the beginning, best part of the Ric Grayson arc and then they added the spyral ties and made her a pirate and tbh that ruined it for me. Dick and Bea only work as a cute relationship if Bea is a way out or a window into the outside world like something to ground the man who is always trying to get his feet off the ground. It would be interesting. But now she’s just another another relationship where he didn’t know who he was dating and tbh I don’t think he’d be down for that post literally everything that’s ever happened to him romantically after the age of 16

Dick Babs: yes it’s this low, no I will not change it. It should be lower but I used to ship this so it’s only my fond memories keeping it this high. Babs slept with his father after dating him in at least 2 universes. Dick left Gotham for freedom and she quite literally drags him back Everytime they’re together it feels like about 30 years of Dicks character development is erased. And let’s not talk about Barbara used to be a congress woman Gordon. They deaged her to make her a decent love interest for someone who was a kid when she was running for congress. And because of the fact their characters don’t naturally balance out the way some of his other canon ships do (Bea, Shawn, KORI(the best canon ship imo), hell even Helena) it leads to the characters becoming flanderizations of themselves. Dick is a loveable himbo whose only defining characteristic is his ass and I hate to say it Barbara Gordon literally just turns into female Bruce and I hate it so much but genuinely read though some of their older stuff it’s like..ugh. Anyway I hate this ship I think it’s bad for both of them and while I’m not babs biggest fan I still like her and she and Dick should be best friends who get drunk on weekends and shit talk the bats and their respective teams (titans, birds of pray)

Dick X Helena bertinelli: yall wtf is this ship, if this is your main ship? Why? Tell me? Like what?? Helena??? Esp prime earth Helena?? He has more chemistry with midnighter than her (but we are not discussing the harem so I will remain silent)

Now the most toxic ship that isn’t incestuous is so obvious bc no one has ever pictured this ship with a modicum of health in it except its creator (derogatory) I’m 99% sure every single fic tagged this also has the domestic violence tag

Dick X Catalina Flores. Yeah no a billion times no this shit is so toxic the jack Napier fell into it and became the joker. This shit so toxic it only serves as a trauma boat for another person to swoop in and get him out I hate this so much.

Now dick is an old character so he has about a billion other relationships. But these are either the recent ones (Shawn, Bea) or the ones that have a lot of ao3 clout (birdflash) or something that makes my heart soft (dick and Joey) plus his most iconic 2 pairing I will not be getting into characters like Daphne, Clancy or Betty or anything else or the creepy ones like the fact he’s had shit with both catwoman and taila.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk

Dick Grayson:

*runs the titans*

*works for the league*

*has a day job*

*solo patrols bludhaven*

*solo patrols New York*

*on call 24/7 for regularly scheduled Gotham crisis(es)*

*training at least 40% of new gen heroes at any given moment*

*infiltrating the current annoying cult, corrupt gov, spy organization, company, mafia group, evil underground ancestral foundations of a city and random corrupt modeling industry*

*monitoring drug pedaling in 3 cities*

*emotionally regulating 80% of his family bc why would they do it themselves? Nah let’s just ruin relationships for fun -cough Bruce cough-*

* maintaining civilian cover*

*canonically does volunteer work*

I am beginning to think nightwing doesn’t have anger issues he’s just overstimulated bc wtf

Like Dick take a break what is this?

————

Dick currently working on infiltrating the mob, after 4 days of 6+ hour patrols bc bludhaven has no chill an Arkham breakout, a performance review at work that took too long, organizing a titans outer space mission, just got back from training Jon Kent: no one call me plz god no one call me I can’t do this I have so much work no one. Call me plz

*phone rings* -it’s tim

He could ignore it but last time he left Tim alone for a month the dumbass lost his spleen and decided a cowl was a fashion choice (equally bad in his opinion)

Dick picking up the phone with his non broken arm: yello

Tim: so I accidentally maybe got kidnapped and maybe also started a cult around the concept of Batman and I’m out of energy drinks. (All equally dire in tims opinion)

Dick popping 4 caffeine pills: shut up I’ll be there in 30 don’t DO ANYTHing.

—————

Jason: sooo I might be engaged to an alien princess

Dick about to pop a Xanax: tell me it’s Kori or at least in this galaxy

Jason: nope

Dick: …. Can it wait

Jason: she wants to eat me, their species is like a praying mantis knockoff but with space and mind control.

Dick: yeah okay give me an hour I’ll call raven

————

Damian: hello Richard

Dick: what did you do.

Damian: I have been kidnapped by my mother

Dick: again

Damian: I feel it would be redundant to say anything

Dick: …….. alright I’ll call the nearest flying hero be there in a bit… keep ur spine where it is Damian or I swear to god-

——————

Bruce: cult

Dick who just got done with an undercover mission: anddd?

Bruce: we need someone to infiltrate it

Dick: I swear to god I. will. hurt. you

Bruce: hnnnn

——-

Babs: I have… acquired a child

Dick who is fighting deathstroke : …okayyyy

Babs who is watching the fight: she’s a little bit … traumatized

Dick, dodging a katana: preaching to the choir

Babs: can you do your whole, human empathy and kindness tell me ur life story I have puppy dog eyes.

Dick: ….

Babs: you owe me

Dick: … one day I will delete all your numbers and disappear

Babs cheerfully: you know no matter where you go I can find you hunk wonder see you in 3 hours don’t die before then!

Stephanie brown 🤝 Dick Grayson

Being the only likable bats

i have a problem called falling in love with red headed girls

Girl time

Still thinking about how Morally complex Babs truly is. I mean, let's think about what she's done that other heroes (that she is commonly associated with; Core Birds and Bats) don't.

1. She attempted to snipe Black Mask. This is the crux of my reeling but it's still worth mentioning. Yes, Helena has shot at people and so does Red Hood, but I don't think they ever did so from a distance like Babs was going to.

2. She embezzles money from criminals to fund her operations. It's canon that she has stolen money from various crime lords including Blockbuster digitally. I would not be surprised if she also pinched some profits from various corporations as well. This funding is so extreme that it causes the Hunt For Oracle arc itself.

3. She was thrown in prison and shot a government agent. Thanks to someone recently posting them (I found them via a mutual follower reblogging them), she was thrown in prison after she took the bait and downloaded a file meant to catch hackers, and thrown in prison. She gets broken out and is only in 2 of 12 issues for The Hacker Files, but this is still huge.

And finally, 4. Barbara has actively worked with villains and morally grey assassins more than once. Lady Shiva, Savant, Poison Ivy and more have all worked with Barbara, and she has helped give Savant and Creote a second chance. Few of the Bats have done anything similar.

Tl;DR, Barbara is a Morally complex and fascinating character, and the fact that she basically had her soul torn out is horrific of modern DC. This is the Barbara we love and hold dear.

Oracle isn't just a name. It's an identity that is inextricably intertwined with Barbara Gordon reclaiming herself and her sense of agency over her body and life after becoming disabled.

The last 13 years of dedicated activism have gotten us back to a point where Oracle is acknowledged and Babs is portrayed as a competent adult woman, and I'm grateful she finally has her team back. But DC still refuses to acknowledge and uplift her as disabled, undermining the core thesis of Barbara's character in the modern era. And as long as she's not visibly disabled…she's still not Oracle.

Oracle was created because two people (Kim Yale and John Ostrander) saw a horribly misogynistic story and went "no. We can do better. We SHOULD do better." Oracle was a rebirth, a revitalization, a refusal to allow women to be relegated to the sidelines and margins of superhero comics regardless of physical ability.

To refuse to portray her as visibly disabled undermines everything that Babs as Oracle stood for, both in-universe and in real life. It betrays the identity's foundations as a reclamation of agency and heroism. It betrays her creators' intent as an avenue for disability representation and a revitalization of a character summarily discarded because the company saw no further use for her. It betrays the millions of readers who read her stories for nearly 25 years and enjoyed stories brimming with strength, independence, and heroism that depicted a disabled character at their center.

It's doubly frustrating because it's clear that DC is slowly moving Cass back into the "primary Batgirl" role, allowing us to have a semblance of Oracle back, but they seem to think of Oracle as an interchangable identity with Batgirl that Babs would have had even if TKJ had never happened. And outside of Batgirls (which ended last year), they won't even meet people halfway and make Barbara an ambulatory wheelchair user who uses forearm crutches and/or a cane when she's mobile.

Again: I'm grateful that Oracle is being acknowledged again. I'm grateful Babs is back to being a competent adult and team leader who has friends outside of Gotham. But I continue to be frustrated at the company-wide sexism keeping her from fully moving on from Batgirl and the ableism prohibiting her from being shown as visibly disabled.

A lot of people don't seem to understand what Barbara actually did as Oracle, so let me clear up some misconceptions. Oracle is first and foremost an information broker. She's a data nexus, a living hub of information that crimefighters around the world could reach out to for assistance and mission coordination:

"So how'd you become the data nexus for every costumed crimebuster in the world?" "That's gonna have to remain off the table too."

Yes, that role centers her gift with technology, computers and hacking, and that is the area where Babs most often shines. And yes, those tech skills are incredibly formidable and absolutely vital to her work! But the TECHNOLOGY isn't what makes Babs special.

Babs' tech skills positioned her as one of the most prominent fictional women in STEM in the 90s/early 2000s and gave her the ability to do things like build a VR fighting simulation room (eg, a Star Trek-esque holodeck) from scratch:

"Maybe we should move back to Greenie play level." "But you designed this game, Babs. And this incredible virtual reality projection room." -Birds of Prey (1999) #19

However, those skills are all ultimately secondary to her real gifts, which are her eidetic memory and her ability to gather, analyze, synthesize and distribute information to people:

"What I believe happened to Batman is too important to rely on my photographic memory..." /// "Having been blessed with photographic recall, I studied a dozen newspapers, four dozen magazines, and my main haunt: the computer bulletin boards." -Showcase '94 #12 /// "I was nine when I realized I could ace any test without really studying. The photographic memory thing." -BOP (1999) /// "My memory is eidetic (i.e. perfect). It's my greatest asset." -Batgirl (2011) #35

Oracle wasn't just a glorified hacker. She was the crimefighting community's living computer and central information hub:

"There is little she doesn't already know. There is nothing she can't find out. If knowledge is truly power, Oracle is one of the most powerful people on the planet. Despite having her spine shattered by the Joker's bullet, Barbara Gordon refused to give up. Recognizing she could no longer be the kind of superhero she had been, she instead devoted all her time to developing one of the world's most complex and powerful computer systems and set to work accumulating information, renaming herself 'Oracle.' Blessed with a photographic memory, Barbara reads dozens of the world's top newspapers and magazines daily. She's also constantly gathering information from other, less public sources, such as the CIA's mainframe, not to mention the data networks of the FBI, NSA, and Interpol (all without their knowledge or consent)." -Secret Files and Origins (2000)

"Now as Oracle, she uses information as her weapon. With her vast computer network, Oracle is linked up to every hero on the planet and is always ready to help." /// "With a photographic memory, Oracle is considered information central in the superhero community. She's a computer specialist and expert hacker--and she has files on every villain and hero."

"But Barbara invented a new life for herself as Oracle-computer master and undisputed sovereign of data collection and dissemination. There is hardly a crimefighter on the planet that has not come to rely on her skills and dedication."

"I'm keeping the secret identities and home addresses of every superhero in the world from being stolen. Think maybe that's a little bit important?" -Countdown #39 /// "Oracle: The Living Mind of the Justice League. Oracle monitors and records the worldwide flow of information. She Analyzes. She Interprets. She Calculates."

It's part of why "Cop!Babs" is so insidious as a profession DC keeps pushing onto her, because Barbara Gordon is, at her core, a librarian. As Oracle, she gathered information and valuable resources and then coordinated with crimefighters around the world to help them access and utilize it. Her day job became her night job:

"From my days as Gotham's head librarian, I knew how to find out whatever I needed. If I could do that for citizens, I could do it for colleges, non-profit corporations, private investigators...and superheroes." -Showcase '94 #12

She's not "just" a tech geek; librarians are trained to have specific sets of research, information analysis, and communication skills that others don't have. And those are skills she has that the other Batfamily members do not, and they are skills she has regardless of whether or not she can walk:

"I was tired of being a victim. I had skills and abilities long before I was Batgirl. It was time to make them work for me again. It was time to stop being afraid." -Oracle: Year One

This skillset also served her well as the co-founder and leader of the Birds of Prey; contrary to semi-popular perception, she's not just the Birds' 'Guy in the Chair.' She's the Birds' Leader and Mission Control. She tells them where they need to go, what they need to do, and how to achieve their goals. To put it into James Bond terms, she's their "Q", but she's also their "M."

So if you look at Oracle and you only see "hacker and tech specialist," you are seeing a very limited picture of who Barbara is, what her skillset is and how she uses it, and what her role in the crimefighting community was.

Y’know that TikTok audio of that guy pointing at different people going “Daddy issues. Daddy issues! Chaos junkie, Mommy issues! MORE daddy issues. Obnoxious ASSHOLE issues. And YOU!… you seem kind of weirdly self-actualized as far as I can tell”?

Yeah, all of those apply to Cassandra Cain depending on which character you ask

Cass, coming back from her fight to the “death” with Shiva: “I lived bitch, and so did Shiva”

Babs: “I’m so happy you’re alive! but we really gotta unpack that later…”

So we've had "skill issue," we've had "lock in," we've had "where we droppin' boys" but I put forward that if there's any one piece of borrowed internet slang Cass would get constant use out of in her day to day crimefighting career it would be "I lived bitch."