[Thread]

Okay, cc anon. You win. I'll talk about this.

Why do I think Emiko Queen killed Deathstroke? And why is this something that *needs* to be defined?

Short answer: Because of Damian Wayne.

Long answer? Read on.

As you see in the panel above (which is from Teen Titans #28, throughout this whole arc, Emiko has been looking out for Damian. Previous hints to this are in Issue #26 and even as far back as Issue #20, the start of this new line-up

At the end of Teen Titans Issue #28, Deathstroke coolly tells Damian that he's only in the prison because he wants to be and that he's going to stay because he's going to "fix" Damian.

In Deathstroke #42, Slade manages to get out of the restraints Damian (and presumably Emiko) put him in. He proceeds to taunt Damian throughout the team's mission to neutralize Blackrock.

Slade's words messed with Damian's head and the boy confronts him after. Slade continues to taunt Damian which prompts Damian to ask him how Deathstroke plans on "fixing him."

Slade apparently means that he wants Damian to kill him.

Now, if you've been following Damian for a while, you'll KNOW how bothersome this statement is. Damian's come a really long way and he really shouldn't be the type to go back to being a killing machine. At this point, him killing Slade sounds like yet another character regression

The next keypoint would be Damian and Emiko's training session where Damian nearly snaps Emiko's neck. Slade's words from their last conversation are haunting him, causing him to picture Slade during their spar. Emiko head butts Damian pretty hard to get him to snap out of it.

Emiko state her observation that Damian had been distracted since the Blackrock mission. She points out that she saw his and Deathstroke's conversation and correctly deduces that the things Deathstroke said are the source of Damian's unease.

After Damian reminds Emiko that they were both raised to be killers and that they were both made to do things they're not proud of, Emiko asserts that they broke "those patterns".

(Remember this one. It'll come up again later.)

After her conversation with Damian, Emiko heads down to Slade's Cell to tell him to stop messing with Damian.

Deathstroke starts goading her the way he goaded Damian. He tells Emiko that she's going to be just. like. her. mother. An assassin. A killer.

(Remember this one too. It'll also come up again later.)

With Slade's words ringing in her ears, Emiko understands why and HOW Slade is messing with Damian... and what he wants him to do. So what does she do? She talks to the team member she believes has the strongest moral compass: Kid Flash

Emiko thinks* that if there's one person who can prevent Damian from killing Deathstroke, it's Walt. Damian was the one who wanted and needed Walt in the team in the first place. When she tells him the team needs him, Damian's name goes unspoken. It's already understood.

*this is just my analysis and how I'm interpreting the story

This brings us to the dreaded chapter in Emiko and Damian's story: Deathstroke #43

The issue starts off with a Flashback to one of Damian's training days. Damian's mother Talia Al Ghul has a very harsh way of training Damian to be better.

(Let's ignore the problems we have with this scene just for the purpose of this thread)

So brief gist of what happened: Deathstroke sets the prisoners free and activates the "Terminus protocol" that would essentially kill the prisoners should they step outside. Since Damian was the one who set that up, he would, inadvertently be responsible for killing them.

Damian instructs Walt to take out the rest of the prisoners while he confronts Deathstroke alone.

Damian goes up to confront Deathstroke (after making a few arrangements that would deactivate the stuff he put in the prisoners)

Deathstroke tells Damian p much the same thing as Walt: Damian's not actually mad at Deathstroke. He's mad at Talia.

With that said, Deathstroke hands Damian his gun and Damian points it at Deathstroke.

But before I continue, let's do a quick recap of how Emiko plays into all this

We established that Emiko was looking out for Damian from the very start of this run. Emiko was also the person who helped Damian with the prison and is the one Damian trusts to lead the team if he fails. She is also the person who understands his childhood+

because she herself has been through something similar. Emiko has been driven to become a hero and recognizes that same drive in Damian that seeing Deathstroke say that Damian is going to kill again prompted her to confront him. The confrontation+

makes Emiko realize that Deathstroke is dead (haha) serious so she confronts the person in the team with the most immutable moral compass to try and make sure that someone will be able to stop Damian from crossing THAT LINE again.

Which brings us to the present: Damian has a gun aimed point blank at Deathstroke's chest. KF is nowhere to be seen. She's standing behind him so she doesn't see Damian's face but Deathstroke's is clear. He'd been tormenting Damian, goading him to kill him and the moment has come

So she lets an arrow loose... And it sinks into Deathstroke's patched eye. Damian wouldn't be able to kill Deathstroke if he was already dead. Sound logic, I suppose. Damian's humanity is saved but at what cost? Hers.

So why is this so important? Why does it matter so much that we define WHY Emiko killed Deathstroke? Deathstroke is the world's greatest assassin so it was the only way to stop him forever, right? That's the only reason you need? No.

To say that's the only reason completely disregards Emiko's character arc. It disregards HOW this would affect her. It disregards HER.

"Every time you kill, you kill a part of yourself as well." Cliched statement often played up for dramatic effect? Yes. But it's also true.

Here's another thing. The last time Emiko has killed (as far as we know), was her adoptive father: Simon Lacroix a.k.a. Komodo. I bring this particular event up a lot because it was one of the most defining moments for Emiko.

You don't just kill someone and expect to feel fine afterwards, especially if that someone was the person you BELIEVED to be your father for p much your entire life.

Emiko's whole arc in Green Arrow vol 6 was about fully stepping into a heroic role. It starts with her having dubious loyalties, leads to her having a self-discovery arc, becoming the Red Arrow and ends with her proclaiming her mother that she is NOT an assassin but a hero...

Then she nearly dies trying to save Ollie, which was a very uh... stressful way to drive home her "I'm heroic, and self-sacrificial" point.

Now go back and take a look at the moments I pointed out that would be important "later on".

Go on. I'll wait.

Now even in Teen Titans, a series I have had some disagreements with, reiterated the fact that Emiko believes that she and Damian have broken those patterns. She did EVERYTHING she could to stop Damian from going down that dark path... bc it means that she could go there too.

Despite EVERYTHING she's done, EVERYTHING she's accomplished, she was still close to losing Damian, the boy who was probably her closest friend around her age and the only person who understood her. So Emiko did what she did best.

She sacrificed herself to save him.

This HAS to be defined bc if it was just about stopping Deathstroke, Emiko would have tried to find a better way. If you we dismiss her reasoning as simply "it was to stop him", it would run contrary to everything that's been established about Emiko.