For me I felt like the whole adoption showed up how sloppy they were already being. Because she's a great character and had a great history and relationships, but it really wasn't a history of being Bruce's daughter or a sister to the others the way that Jason, Dick and Tim always had elements of that with each other. It felt more like Beecham had this idea that at the end of his arc he wanted Cass to have proved herself and wanted some symbol of that and chose Bruce saying "I'm starting adoption proceedings!" Unlike with the boys where he really was saying "I consider you a son" or "I will be a father to you." It's comparatively weak.
Absolutely. I think it was absolutely a cheap gimmick of the 'hero's reward' offered to fans at the end of a bad arc. It kind of felt like a move to redeem the entire story: All this crap happened, but here. Hero's reward. Sloppily done, indeed. I cannot argue, and I hated Beechan's series very much. Silly. Silly stuff. Cass and Dick were completely out of character for the sake of a badly told story.
And yet, still, I'd love to see Bruce adopt Cass. He's totally a/n (admittedly very, very flawed) father to her in BG series 1.
(But It IS probably doomed as an empty gesture. Which is a shame (and also, really, really odd. Because why put it out there without follow through if... well.)
BUT, I've been rereading (and for some issues, first-time reading) the BG original arc? And I'm fascinated by the relationship she has with Bruce. It's very much Robin-tastic, although a special-ed/idiot savant/I don't know what to call her Robin. And I am mesmerized. There's extreme love and family there between them. Not any weirder in some ways than the depiction of his relationship with Robins starting around um... in this current, Batman is a freak age. But... it IS weirder, because of her language capabilities and Bruce's way of dealing with the language inabilities. Or something.
No, can't be a traditional nuclear family. Anymore than say, Jason can be included in the traditional family sense. But at least he did get adopted, right?
I don't know. It's really interesting, and all of the Batboys and Bruce and especially her are incredible characters. Individual and fascinating. I'd like to see them do things together.
We've seen Bruce and Cass, and (sadly, in Beechan's case, Dick and Cass) but I'd be so fascinated to see a take on their actual characters that was actual interaction versus straw men and needless bickering as a substitute for character study.