#im formulating this au in my head based off of titans S3 and the red hood arc

[galaxythreads]

Bc your takes are always lethally on point and scorching hot:

Thoughts on the relationship between Tim and Bruce during his time as Robin? Im talking especially early days, post Jason death.

And! On jason's attack on titans tower. How do you think this impacted bruce?

I have not read many comics yet, but based off of the content I have seen, here's my thoughts:

I think Bruce, ultimately, did not want another Robin, but he desperately wanted another kid. Bruce is a compulsive carer, and he wants to be needed, and losing that sense in his personal life was very scary and like a gaping gaping hole. Bruce adopted Jason with the intention of adopting Jason Todd, not making Robin 2.0, y'know? Like Bruce wants Dick. Nightwing is nice, but at his heart, the honest part of Bruce Wayne doesn't want to be needed as batman, he wants to be wanted as Bruce. But the only way he can concieve being wanted is by being batman, and it creates a pretty nasty cycle in his head that messes extensively with his self worth.

Tim, however, only wanted to be Robin at first. He wasn't looking for parents, he was looking to fix batman, his hero. His unhealthy fixation. I don't think Tim really saw Bruce as a person until he got to know him a little better, he was this idea in Tim's head that couldn't be tainted. And since Tim and Bruce went into Robin with vastly seperate goals, I do think their relationship kinda stuttered and stopped before picking up. I know by the time Dami rolls around Bruce is willing to kill for Tim, and he adamantly refuses to pick between his kids.

There's a lot of fics out there where Bruce doesn't give a shit about Tim as a person and only cares about Robin, and I love those, and I respect that interpretation, but I personally see it swinfing violently in the other direction, where Tim was severely underprepared as Robin, because Bruce kept trying to take care of Tim. So Tim's over here experiencing actual parental supervision for the first time in his life and Bruce is like damn I really need to not get this kid killed too and I am getting too close and crap I'm banishing him to training for months.

Bruce cares a little too fast, too easy, and too hard. He's awful at expressing it. And He's terrified of that and pushes back on it violently.

Tim and Bruce's early relationship fascinates me tbh. There's so much to unpack and explore and so many ways to look at it.

Titan's Tower, though. I think that was devestating to Bruce. I in no way shape or form believe that Bruce was trying to replace Jason, and the last thing he wanted was for that, but he also had no idea Jason would be back. Like there's two warring parts to this, there's Bruce's intial protective instincts around his robin, and then there's the parent. Jason is his kid. Like some comics -outlaws cough cough - are way too trigger happy with Bruce and beating up his kids, but in my heart, Bruce Wayne could never. Jason is his baby and he has to forgive him because that's his baby, but Tim is still a kid, and that's his baby too. Like I think Bruce would be capable of forgiving Jason for it once he understands his headspace a bit more, but I think him trusting Tim with Jason would take a long time. Bruce loves them both. I don't think if push came to shove he could pick between them.

But yeah. Titans tower. Bruce would not be okay. Jason would have a pretty big uphill battle with recovery from that with him.