#bruce: they are all really robin.

[redsray]

the funniest part of any Robin meeting the JL is that every Robin is so distinctly different from the previous one in terms of personality and vibes that the league literally gets backlash. and like, I don't blame them. not to mention that they are non-meta children that dress as a traffic light and fight crime alongside batman in gotham on a nightly basis. i'd also be a bit concerned. Batman, literally The Night of Gotham personified in the League's eyes, coming into a JL meeting: This is Robin, my crime-fighting partner. 11-year-old Dick Grayson, dressed in the brightest primary colours possible, vaguely hidden murder behind those eyes, never stops moving even for a moment: Hi! Superman: That's a child. That's-- Bats that is a child. You let a child--? Batman, deadpan: You try to stop him. Would you rather he try and murder a grown man with a wire?

Batman: This is Robin. 12-year-old Jason Todd, with the biggest grin on his face, about 3 books in his hand, stars in his eyes and a distinct street-kid drawl: Hey!!! Green Lantern: That's ... that's a different child. What?? Jason: I stole his tires :) Batman: Tried to. Jason, stage whispering to the League: basically did. Green Lantern: that is a different kid, right?? I'm not seeing shit??

Batman: This is Robin. 14-year-old Tim Drake, bo staff clutched in his hand, a wary and tired expression on his face, more on the quiet side, the literal walking definition of don't judge a book by it's cover: hello Flash: Where do you even find these-- Tim: I found myself.

Batman: This is Robin. 17-year-old Stephanie Brown, literally blonde, with a shit-eating grin, eyes full of nothing but mischief and the most explosive personality you've ever seen: hiya!! Superman: I give up. Stephanie: I know, I have that amazing effect on people.

Batman: This is Robin. 13-year-old Damian Wayne, a literal wet cat that will hiss at you, has a sword, the most judgemental stare you'll get from a teenager, ready to jump anyone there: Green Lantern: WHY DOES HE HAVE A SWORD?! Batman: ... he came with the sword.

[p1nkshield]

Superman: Are you sure this is the right spot? I mean who robs a bank in the middle January in Gotham?

Batman: Yes I’m sure. My informant is never wro- hn?

Nightwing: Open up please I’m cold.

Batman: …

Nightwing: …

Batman: *opens cape*

Nightwing: thank you!

Superman: uh..

Red hood: Move over I’m freezing out here!

Red Robin: Nightwing get to the back! You gotta make room!

Superman: ???

Spoiler: Agent A was right! I should have taken the winter suit! Excuse me, pardon me!

Orphan: … scoot.

Signal: T-thanks, B!

Robin: Fools! The lot of you! I have a legitimate reason to seek shelter! My winter suit is in need of repairs!

Batman:*Sigh*

Superman: How were you able to all fit under there?

Red Robin from inside the cloak: Hammer space! Ow!

Nightwing from inside the cloak: Don’t joke about that!

[inamindfarfaraway]

Batman fun fact! Did you know that Scarecrow’s toxin doesn’t always cause fear? Sometimes it does the opposite! In Detective Comics #571, he wields a variant that completely inhibits the biochemical fear response, preventing people from feeling any concern for themselves or using basic common sense. He runs a racket administering it to star athletes, who take huge risks and get badly injured. Then they’re willing to cough up a lot for an antidote. Batman and Robin - here Jason Todd - catch on, but Bruce is dosed with the reverse fear toxin; since his intelligence is his greatest strength, being too overconfident and reckless to think twice about anything makes him his own worst enemy.

This premise was adapted in the Batman: The Animated Series episode “Never Fear”. There we see that with no fear of losing his moral integrity, Bruce becomes cold and merciless to criminals. Robin - here Tim Drake - has to catch somebody he leaves to fall off a building, tie him up to stop him endangering himself and others and give him the antidote to prevent him murdering Scarecrow.

But in the comic book, Jason is kidnapped by Scarecrow. (He gets gassed, and hallucinates Bruce dying and telling him that it was his fault.) He isn’t around to keep Bruce in check as he goes to rescue him through a series of death traps that he can’t resist cutting it as close as possible in. So how does Bruce not go off the deep end? How does he not lose sight of what’s important? Not lose himself?

Because even a drug designed to shut down stress at the most fundamental level can’t overpower his true worst fear. The Dark Knight might feel fearless…

but a parent never is.

[ghost-bxrd]

Just read the comic where Joker runs into Robin!Tim for the first time post Ethiopia and starts raging about “How are you back!? I killed you! I killed you! No matter, just gotta do it again then!”

And it got me thinking again about how similar Tim and Jason must have looked in costume and just—

(Look I’m not saying there was a part of Bruce that was comforted by having “Jason” close again but—-)

[caicie]

Jason: Do you ever wonder what life would’ve been like if you’d never met him?

Tim: What kind of question is that?

Jason: A ‘yes or no’ one.

Tim:

Jason: …yeah. Me too.

[the-purple-possum]

You know something?

I want to headcanon that Bruce has spent so much time around Alfred that he accidentally uses British insults and terminology.

For instance, he's at a gala, hes having a conversation, and the person says something so infuriating that he calls them a Pillock, and since its America, everyone just stops and looks very confused.

Dick finds this hillarious, until he starts doing it too. He'll accidentally ask someone for a 'rubber' and everyone looks horrorfied.

Tim has learnt from Dick's mistakes, he phases out the English terms, except every now and then he says a word with a very posh English accent. Mostly words he's heard Alfred say a lot, such as 'dinner', and he has to stop and resound that word until it sounds right.

Jason on the other hand, he comes back to Dick slipping all over the place, he finds it hillarious, especially as he tried to fight Nightwing, and out of nowhere he hears the word 'twat'. He can't take it seriously. He doesn't even know where Dick heard it, especially as Alfred never swears.

[seagull-scribbles]

But they’re out of their head when Splinter’s not around

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[bruciemilf]

Re-watching Spiderverse. My curiosity wills me to make an AU where Jason gets thrown in an intricate mess of multiverses where he's adopted by almost all Bruce variants.

"So let me get this straight,"

of course, he's god's most hated freak, and the ONE person who can guide him through this mess is a small, annoying, cartoon version of Dick.

"This is a network of intricate, interdimensional realities stitched to a 'canon' tapestry. And Batman has to lose me in every single one to hold it up."

"Sure! There's a less idiotic way of putting it, but I like your enthusiasm. "

Jason's urge to squeeze this funko pop motherfucker until the life slowly bleeds away grows. It can wait, thought.

Currently, he's trying to help with neutralizing a version of Bizarro. Poor guy must've gotten lost again. Very strange that only one Bruce accompanied him, thought.

"So how many Batmen are there, exactly? Seems like one's enough." He mutters, refusing to let the familiar warmth infest his body when thinking of how they look at Jason.

Like the universe ends and starts with him.

"Oh there's a whole bunch! We have 80s Batman, cowboy Batman, Batman who cries, Batman who sings opera, Looney Toones Batman, -- a personal favorite, -- really the numbers are unlimited!"

Jason watches with strange sense of unease as this one variant handles Bizzaro. "And that's who? Biker gang leader Batman?"

Nightmite gets quiet for a second. Jason pauses, because THAT’S strange.

This eery nervousness only springs when this Bruce, -- not as old as everyone, hell, not even as old as JASON, -- glues a green device on Bizzaro's chest and leaps away.

"That's, uh...Batman who kills."

Jason doesn't have time to react as a booming explosion overwhelmes his senses. His knees are weak. And not just because the ugly stench of burning flesh invades his senses.

But because this Bruce, this Batman, is aiming for him and quick. That mask sends him right on edge. He hates the way it only covers Bruce's mouth, forcing Jason to gaze into sharp, brutal blue eyes.

"Jason?"

"What the fuck is wrong with you," Jason snarls before anything else. "He was detained! He wasn't a threat anymore!"

"He got roofed with red kryptonite and destroyed half a neighborhood. What did you want me to do?"

"Come up with another plan! Trap him, knock him out! Blowing him to pieces doesn't solve anything!" Jason yells, Nightmite looking incredibly worried and hiding behind his shoulder. "Try TALKING to him. Show him some fucking mercy."

"We tried that before. It's not working." He says, "Mercy doesn't get results."

"It gets you HUMANITY."

"If your Batman thought you that, he already failed."

[donnatroyyyy]

Dick genuinely doesn’t have a favorite sibling, he’s like the parent that says “I love all my children equally” and you believe it, he actually loves them all equally. He’s been trying to convince them that for the last few years, they don’t believe him, so he does what he has to, he says it’s Steph and let’s her deal with it.

[foeofcolor]

everyday i think abt the differences between how superfam and batfam interact. And how it translates into their relationships with 3ach other

how clark is SO fucking lonely sometimes and how he keeps people at arms length and how most of the time like maybe 5 people know both his identities and . fucking. his BASE is called the fortress of SOLITUDE. Whereas the batcave, while still exclusively, is.. shared! Like Bruce is rude and mean and a lot of people in Canon do know his identity and it's like. So many thoughts

Like.. its about how deeply he wants to be normal and how he's afraid he'll hurt people and how that restraint and fear is baked into his very soul and it's about how much TRUST he has in someone to tell them his secret identity because he's spent his life hiding it and leading a double life that very very few people actually know about. Whereas almost fucking everyone in the batfam knows who batman is and it's like.

It's about how clark's so friendly and open and he uses that to keel people at arms length !!

Like people talk abt bruce being a loner but like. In Canon, he usually does work with people! He has an entire family of people who do vilgante stuff with him and keep in contact with him, for better or worse.

But Superman usually! Works alone! Like yes superfam is a thing but they very rarely interact with each other and unlike batfam who are connected, through love or through malice, superfam is a group of people who are connected but don't really talk to each other all that much and they're all very repressed. They're just better at covering it up.

[scarletackrmn]

In Beast World, you see Tim in the big ass crowd of heros as Starfire is telling them about Starri right? and then he doesn’t show up again at all, even in the Gotham side issue.

Like we searched long and hard to find out if anything happened to him. We see a lot of the other family, and then comes the last issue and there he is in the background of a group thing like wtf?

My wife, our comic book store guy, and I have collectively decided that he just decided to fuck off to another universe for this whole thing and then return at the end like no one would notice.

[alliemontgomery02]

Gonna pull this out next time someone wants to argue that Bruce Wayne isn’t a dramatic ass bitch

[batcavescolony]

Detective Comics #389

Batman: Hey, Commis-

Robin: CAN WE NOT!!!

[ghost-bxrd]

Prompt:

Damian isn’t happy about father’s rule not to hurt the gaggle of false kids he has acquired. How is he supposed to prove to him that he is the only one worthy of the title of heir now?

But fine. Most of them are stupid enough they’ll end up dead sooner or later. Damian just has to play the long game. Establish himself as the only constant.

But then father’s wayward son, Todd, comes home… and it’s so much worse than Damian expected.

He remembers this man. Remembers him from hushed whispers in the League, from mother’s creased eyebrow, and training halls drenched with blood.

And he’ll take one look at Damian and know. Know that he’s a threat to his position.

And the worst thing: Damian isn’t allowed to defend himself.

[phoenixkaptain]

I just want to say that the repeated mentions of Tim being like Bruce - Dick telling Tim that “you’re more like Bruce than I ever was” and even things as small as the other members of Young Justice assuming that Batman is literally Robin’s dad - mean so much to me because like-

Tim is so similar to Bruce. They are both rich kids, only childs, people like them but they never let anyone truly know them. Tim’s deductive ability is so often likened to Bruce’s, and even his combat prowess or leadership skills are more often compared to Bruce’s than Jason’s or Dick’s. Despite being Robin, and the third one at that, Tim really takes being the Batman of the group to an entirely new level with just how much he really is like Batman.

And that’s why they work so well together! Tim and Bruce are so similar, but they’re fundamentally different! Bruce is afraid to get hurt again, afraid to feel connections to other people, afraid of revealing his emotional vulnerability. Tim is afraid of disappointing people, afraid to fail to rise to the standards other people set for him, afraid of revealing that he isn’t as calm as he appears on the outside. Bruce and Tim both begin fighting crime out of love, a love so strong that it would lead either of them to give up their lives for that love, but Bruce does so out of a love for Gotham City and his parents and the legacy they represent to him while Tim does so out of a love for Gotham City and Robin and Batman.

Their partnership is built on their similarities, but it’s improved by their differences. Tim is softer than Bruce. He wants to trust people, he doesn’t enjoy making lists of ways to kill all of his friends. He tries to talk, to draw things out, to banter, while Bruce is more straightforward. Which, honestly, being more subtle than Bruce is a talent in its own right, ngl

Tim is described a lot as the perfect Robin. And, I can’t help but feel like yeah, he is. The writers really made this character perfect for Bruce specifically. Tim is a person who understands what Bruce wants him to do, even if he doesn’t always understand why. Tim cares about Bruce, both Bruce Wayne and Batman, and that care knocks down a lot of Bruce’s walls. Tim wants to fight crime with his friends and enjoy himself, but he also has his main goal which is to protect Bruce, especially from Bruce himself.

And it’s a two-way street. Bruce knows Tim so well. Like, I can’t even begin to describe how well Bruce can read Tim. He can tell that Tim’s care is sincere, and he wants to reciprocate that care. He trusts Tim, on such a deep, foundational level, and he trusts that if Tim lies to him, then Tim has a balid reason for doing so. He’s protective of Tim, even more than Tim is protective of him (for obvious reasons), but he’s also proud of Tim. He’s proud of how Tim can work with people and how Tim can handle his own and how Tim can solve cases.

Bruce and Tim are such a dynamic duo, literally. The understanding they have of each other is amazing. The trust they have in each other. The care. Bruce treats Tim like his son, and Tim honestly treats Bruce like his dad, even while Tim’s birth dad is still alive. These two are great together, they work so well together, they fit each other almost perfectly because Tim was literally made to be perfectly suited for Batman.

And, of course, there is an obsession there. Tim’s obsession with Batman runs deep. He would almost certainly make a great Batman, no matter how you look at it, because he has moments where he reaches that ability to be threatening. Of the times I know that he played Batman, he didn’t do a bad job. He’s intimidating and frightening and he manages to have his cape pulled around himself so he’s just a shape, just like Bruce does, and that’s mostly because he also literally does that same thing as Robin. Tim prefers to be Robin, because he prefers to be partnered with someone else.

(To be completely honest, I think Tim’s first choice of who he would want to be paired with at any given moment is almost certainly Dick. Dude loves that guy. I haven’t seen if Batman Dick and Robin Tim interact in those respective roles, but Tim is almost equally made to be Nightwing’s Robin. Bruce is his second choice though, definitely.)

I have to assume the obsession goes both ways, because the story is a lot more interesting if it does. Bruce is protective of Tim, even as he trusts Tim with the fate of the entire planet. His protectiveness of Tim is funny, actually, because he doesn’t mind Tim fighting gods but he does mind Tim showing the other members of Young Justice his face. (I mean, I get that one of the members is named Impulse, but Bart himself said that Batman gave him that name, so I feel like Bruce bringing it up as a detractor is just a bit hypocritical)

All the times we see Batman with Tim in the Young Justice run, Batman is pretty chill. Like, during the Sins of Youth storyline, when Bruce is Robin and Tim is Batman, Bruce seems totally cool with it. He doesn’t seem worried about Tim messing up. His comments on Tim talking to much read more to me as banter than actual criticisms. Bruce trusts Tim to be Batman, and I find that both sweet and a bit funny for a variety of reasons.

We see Batman get mad when Arrowette says the Justice League doesn’t understand any of the Young Justice members, although even then he just glares at her, he doesn’t say anything. Bruce is like “Yes, I know I don’t understand the majority of human interaction, what of it?” Batman doesn’t say much during that whole comic, actually? Like, he shows up with the rest of the Justice League and he taunts Tim (literally like someone taunting a child pfft) but he doesn’t actually seem to think they won’t pull through? He makes a quip about them being late getting back, but it doesn’t go anywhere, it was him teasing Robin, why was he even here?

(I like to think he kind of hoped Young Justice would disban so he could take Tim back. He obviously wants Tim around, he implies as much in the World Without Grownups arc, and he obviously enjoys Tim’s company, he seems to genuinely enjoy fighting crime with Tim, even when their roles are switched, and he lets Tim talk to Oracle all the time (he definitely could have cut that connection off if he really wanted to make it difficult for Tim during that whole bet thing) Like, Bruce believes that Tim is capable, I think he’s like Wonder Woman and thinks that the others (coughImpulseandSuperboycough) are bad influences. He is taking his boy wonder and leaving to get him good influences, like Nightwi- oh, wait, no, yeah, let’s let him hang out with Impulse and Superboy-)

This turned into a ramble about Young Justice, but I can’t help it!!! I really, REALLY wish that Batman had gone to the parent-teacher conference. Like, Nightwing showing up was wonderful on so many levels, but can you imagine?? Batman?? Dealing with Bonnie King-Jones??? Like, I think if he ever met her he would break the no-killing rule, full-stop, no hesitation. I want to know how the parent-teacher conference would have gone if Batman was there. I think it would have been mostly awkward silence while Batman lurked in the shadows and Red Tornado didn’t understand why everyone was so nervous, like, it’s just talking about what time he should feed their kids, why are you guys sweating-?

I love Tim and Bruce’s relationship. They’re so codependent. I don’t know if Bruce could ever not hold the next Robins up to Tim’s standard. Like, Damian trying to kill Tim makes a lot of sense if you look at it as Damian viewing the situation as “there only needs to be one Robin, and if there is a Tim to be compared to, I will lose.” Dick and Jason were great as Robin, but neither of them were Robin during the period of time in the nineties and early 2000s where Batman got a lot edgier and needed an edgier boy to be Robin. Dick was perfect for the 50s through to at least the 70s, and Jason was probably just fine too (still haven’t read Jason comics hrnng) but Tim fits Bruce perfectly because he was made for the more modern vision of Batman as a character.

Tim is a dweeb and a nerd, just like Dick before him, do not think that he isn’t, but he really works as a balance for Bruce. He was introduced to be that equilibrium, and he fulfills that role.

Tim and Bruce work so well together because they’re just on slightly different sides of a spectrum. They’re so close to being too similar, but they’re dissimilar enough that reading their dynamic is engaging and interesting. Tim really just is the Robin I understand people mistaking for Bruce’s blood kid, y’know? Before Damian, I mean. I feel like the Justice League members met Tim and went “whoa, shit, Batman knocked someone up, holy-“ The Young Justice members continuously genuinelybelieve that Batman is Robin’s dad (which makes it a lot funnier, because if he was Tim’s dad, Tim would essentially be saying: “my dad made me do this and won’t let me do this and to make things worse, my DAD moved us out!” Like, why would he just randomly mention who the subject of the conversation was again at such a pointed time? I understand that Superboy and Bart were not paying attention to him, but it’s just really funny to think that Tim would talk in such a strange way?) I like to think that Dick does not help matters, and instead goes out of his way to worsen them, because Dick is always the one telling Tim that he’s doing great and that he’s so similar to Bruce (he means it as a compliment, like Tim isn’t making the mistakes he thinks he’s making because he, just like Batman, just is unlikely to make mistakes) so I think Dick definitely tells his friends that Robin is Batman’s kid because it’s funny-

And this has gone from rambling about Young Justice to writing fanfiction mid-post, I should really stop while I’m ahead.

All in all, to sum it up, TLDR: Tim was made to be the best Robin specifically for Bruce as Batman. That’s why they work in harmony, but are ultimately entirely different instruments.

[taskforcebug]

I just think it'd be funny if Robin got a buncha those glow in the dark sticky stars and covered Bruce's cowl in them... When Bruce tries to take them off Dick immediately bursts into tears

Bonus Dickie throwing his tantrum under the cut: