Duke, Jason, Damian and Cass who only knew Kon and Tim during their “I would burn down the world for you” era asking the rest of the family how Tim missed their obvious chemistry, how he’s been oblivious to the person he’s been in love with since the day they met.
Steph, Dick, Bruce, Alfred and Babs, who all got a taste of their initial Young Justice years where Tim was one second away from framing Kon for murder, just exchange amused looks.
i think it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking ‘oh well obviously Alfred is the only normal one in the Batfamily’. do not be fooled. Alfred may have a calm & professional exterior but this is a man who’s been going along w Bruce’s buck-wild nonsense for years. this is a man who could leave and have a normal life whenever he wants to. this is a man who has, almost certainly, killed before and will kill again. this is a man who is choosing in the 21st century to work as a butler. this is not a normal man.
THIS PORTRAYAL OF BRUCE IS SO GOOD–he snoops through Dick’s journal and creates a Robin suit based off Dick’s ideas, he intends it as a good thing, that he wanted to honor Dick’s parents’ memory and Dick’s love for them, he wanted to give him a surprise gift, and Alfred’s right, he was trying to connect.
But it was still a massive invasion of privacy and Dick’s a kid who really needs those boundaries respected, he needs a place to vent that his paranoid guardian-slash-potential-father-figure won’t read everything he says, and as much as Alfred tries to gently defend Bruce, he also got the kid a journal with a lock on it to make a point.
But more than that, Bruce apologizes. He fucks up, he’s got a giant truckload of trauma in that fucked up head of his and he has no idea how to connect with someone in a healthy way, but Dick’s a kid, it’s not on him to understand that, Bruce is the adult here, and he has to work to be better. And he does.
This is where I live with Bruce, where he makes mistakes that genuinely hurt people, but he does it because he genuinely cares and because he is such shit at connecting with people in healthy ways. He apologizes, even when it has to hurt that he was trying to do something good, because other people’s pain does matter to him, even through the five million layer deep onion of trauma and pain that is that guy’s mind.
This is why I defend Bruce as a pretty good dad in comics, because he loves his kids, because he keeps working to get better when he fucks up, and he genuinely wants Dick to honor his parents’ memory, he wants Dick to have something that means something to him, he wants Dick to be safe, he wants to connect with Dick, not just train him. Bruce has never isolated because he doesn’t like other people, he isolates because he cares so much about them and it threatens to destroy him, but he still keeps getting back up and still reaches out and that’s why so many people are ride or die for Bruce Wayne, because he can be an asshole, they’re not obligated to forgive him, but they do because they know him, they know he keeps trying to do better and keeps trying to connect, even though he’s so bad at it.
Anyway, I am EMOTIONAL about Bruce making a Robin suit for Dick based on his private designs, like what a creeper, but also what an amazing emotionally stunted dad, I LOVE HIM ALMOST AS MUCH AS HE LOVES HIS KIDS.
