#i dunno bruce's fuckin soulmate over here

[phoenixkaptain]

Tim proving himself through facing Scarecrow is so good. You don't understand: it's the setup, it's the layout, it's everything.

Of course Tim has to go against Bruce to prove he's ready to be Robin, that's a staple, every Robin doe sthat, but Tim specifically facing Scarecrow is the nail in the coffin, the significance is magnificent, it's Tim overcoming the fear because he isn't like Bruce

That's the whole thing, that's the detraction of Tim's character, you hear it all the time, "Tim's just like Bruce" and you aren't wrong but you're missing the fundamental part, the little piece that keeps Tim separate so dramatically and that makes him and Bruce a dynamic duo:

Bruce was crushed by his parents' deaths. In a way, he never overcomes the fear that gripped him. Scarecrow is his biggest threat in this and just about every other issue precisely because Bruce knows what he's most scared of and he can't just walk it off. He's so emotionally entangled that it's almost impossible for him to walk it off. It's almost impossible for anyone to walk it off.

Except for Tim.

Because Tim's greatest fear isn't his parents dying. Even at his mother's funeral, he's mostly apathetic. I doubt he came to terms with it was he said he did, but he was more upset by the lack of trust Bruce was putting in him by assuming that Tim would be so emotionally unbalanced he wouldn't be able to handle being Robin. Tim's greatest fear isn't his parents' death or his own death or anything else along those lines; his biggest fear is disappointing Robin. As in, he fears misusing the name, misrepresenting the colours, misunderstanding the role.

Tim walks off his fear because he isn't as emotionally attached to his mother as Bruce was his parents. He seems almost apathetic because he is apathetic. Does that mean it doesn't affect him? Of course not! Of course it affects him! They were his parents after all.

But Tim's only connection to his parents is that blood connection. While Bruce has blood, he also has memories of his parents genuinely loving and caring for him. He has fond memories of his parents. He never doubts that his parents loved him. He had an emotional connection, and when they died, it crushed him emotionally, physically, mentally...

Tim just doesn't have that same connection. His mom dying hurts him, but it's just that. It doesn't crush him. It can't crush him, because there was no real weight behind their relationship.

Where Bruce and Tim are similar, they are very similar. But in this, in the face of fear, Tim can overcome it when Bruce finds it difficult. Tim isn't afraid of loss. He never had it to begin with.

But he fears losing Bruce. He fears losing the connection he's built with Bruce. Bruce told him that coming out meant he would never be Robin and Tim wants so desperately to be Robin that he tries to convince himself that Bruce'll be fine, Batman is always fine, but he can't convince himself because he's too scared of losing Bruce.

Tim is scared of letting down Robin's legacy because Tim views Robin's legacy as protecting Batman. In his mind, it's Robin's main role: keep Batman safe. That's why he's so adamant that Batman needs a Robin in the first place - he wants Bruce to be safe, even from Bruce himself.

Tim doesn't go in the Robin suit. And this too is how scared he is of losing Bruce. As if even if he is wrong and Bruce is fine or if he's right and Bruce isn't fine, Bruce only told him not to go out as Robin, and he didn't go out as Robin, so even though Bruce will lose trust in him, surely he'll be able to see that Tim made an attempt to follow the rule, that Tim tried not to upset him?

And Bruce obviously is like "??? Why aren't you dressed as Robin?" Because bro knows his ass was so totally grass before Tim got there like-

I've said it time and again that Tim and Bruce are so similar yet so different and this proves it, this is all the proof, this is so good the way they are because-!

Bruce plays with the rules. Vigilante justice is a crime? Okay. See if he can't pay bail. See if he can't afford a fancy mob lawyer. If you even catch him in the first place.

Tim sidles along right next to the rules. "You said not to go out tonight, but I'm inside a car, so it can't really count."

And while the comic proves their differences, it still goes out of its way to prove their likeness because Tim uses fear to lure guards into traps and Tim ultimately smashes Scarecrow into Scarecrow's own fear gases, implying that Tim really just scared Scarecrow out of his own game. Scarecrow's gonna have nightmares about short people in red ski masks for weeks after this.

Tim uses fear as part of his strategy like Bruce and he disappears from the scene before the cops can catch him like Bruce.

And even as Tim assumes he blew his whole chance to ever even think about being Robin, he still went through with it because his biggest fear is always going to be losing Bruce over anything else. Whether that be losing Bruce's trust or Bruce losing his life.

I guess it can be summarized thusly.

Bruce became Batman because his parents died in front of him and he knew he would probably never catch the actual murderer, so he tries to make up for that by catching every other criminal in the city. And he knows that it will never really make up for it, but he has to do something because he felt powerless then, and he doesn't want to feel powerless ever again. Which is also why he takes in both Dick and Jason, two boys who are powerless but still try to fight back despite their situations. He teaches them power to keep them from feeling powerless again.

Tim became Robin because he saw a boy's parents die, he had nightmares about it for months, nightmares that he never shared with his parents, and the part that stuck out was that when the boy was at his lowest, his saddest, Batman saved him. And watching Batman became caring about Batman became wanting to be there when Batman was at his lowest, his saddest, to provide the same comfort to Batman that Batman provides to everyone else.

TLDR: Batman #455-457 are pretty good issues and I would recommend them to any Timmer fans. Personally a fan of how Tim thanks Dick for being at his mother's funeral, and while Dick and Bruce are thinking about how depressed and torn apart Tim must be, Tim is casually talking to a random guy in the background. I don't think I can ever emphasize enough how much Tim just. Feels nothing. It is both amazingly depressing and funny only to me. 10/10. Coulda used more Dick.