Batman With Half Broken Cloak Lens.

Instead of a playboy persona, I feel like this iteration of Bruce Wayne would be a disaster celebrity that people love because he's such a mess all the time. There are listicles like 'Top Ten Moments Bruce Wayne Was All of Us' and it's him falling asleep at the opera or dropping his coffee on the street and staring at it, clearly on the verge of tears. He'd get memed constantly and understand none of it. A WE publicist makes him a twitter account and he posts like a fifty-year old man, he just tweets 'Hello. I am Bruce Wayne.' or some shit and it goes viral.

I see no difference

Who is the best animated Batman? Can the Supermen convince you that it's theirs? (Alt: Who is the most whipped animated Superman?)

Bruce is insecure about his position in his family.

The seed was planted from the beginning, when he first met Dick and was turned down as a father.

At that time, he himself didn't think it was a big deal. Dick is a traumatized kid who has yet to know him. But as the time passed, it became something Bruce would lie awake thinking about. Should he ask again? Would Dick be mad if he did?

And then Dick leaves.

That cements it in Bruce's heart. He isn't Dick's father, and his relationship with Dick is dependent on they being Batman and Robin.

Because he was not a good enough Batman, he lost Robin, and with Robin, Dick too is gone.

Next, Jason. Bruce has a new son, one that is legally his. This time I will do everything right, he swore. Then Jason is gone.

When Jason returns, he refuses to return to Bruce because he was such a failure as Batman.

Tim came to Bruce because of Batman. Tim wants Batman and never Bruce.

Even when Tim's parents are being awful. Even when Tim needs a parent, Bruce will never be a choice Tim considers. That much was clear.

Tim admired Batman but never wanted anything to do with Bruce.

Cassandra is his daughter. She even seems to like being his daughter. But with how low the bar for her father's position is, he can't help thinking about how she would want to leave him too when she knows better.

At least there is no way she can find a better Batman, even if she finds a better father.

Damian is his biological son. Damian is proud of that fact. He feels like he should be more secure in his position as Damian's father, but he just can't. Dick is a better father to Damian than he is. He can see it. Everyone can see it. Day after day, he feels like he's losing Damain's respect little by little, each time he can't understand him or be at ease with him like Dick. To make it worse, Damian's Batman is Dick before Bruce. Damian sees Batman as something great, and Bruce is Batman, but he is still not Damian's Batman.

He doesn't know what he would do if one day Damian looked at his version of Batman and found it lacking.

Batman needed to be perfect or he would lose his family.

(If he ever told his children about this, they would scream for hours about how false it was. For years, they have seen Bruce as their father. For years, they desperately wanted Bruce to be a father before Batman. But Bruce doesn't know.)

Tim takes photos of Bernard all the time. Steph was his first serious relationship, but there are rules; no photos in suits.

Now? He can't help himself. Bernard Dowd, a wacky character, a ray of sunshine in Tim's life whos smile ignites every inch of Tim's body. He can't stop himself from capturing gentle moments, Bernard's wide smile when he explains his most peculiar theories or perhaps his burst of laughter when he finally beats Tim in Mario Cart.

Bernard was hardly aware of it at first, but as time went on he found himself becoming flustered, a blushing mess when he saw Tim's bedroom, a heart shaped collage coating one wall, a mural to Tim's lover.

There is nothing funnier to me than Bruce deciding to go to a circus to have fun for once in his miserable brooding life only to relive his childhood trauma and adopt a child

Bruce: I’m proud of you

Steph:

Bruce:

Steph, crying: It’s been so long since any sort of father figure said that to me

Bruce, also crying: You think of me as a father figure?

doodled this while i was thinking about his newest costume :)

young bruce wayne has the same energy as natasha romanoff but especially when she makes pop culture references in her jokes and then awkwardly explains it bc he does that with gen-z and the justice league

listen listen listen i GET the humor and the delight of bruce being awkward mumble autism dad to baby Dick Grayson but also after that first week or so? the magic thing about having kids as an autistic parent is that sometimes they sort of just. rewire your boundaries and become exceptions. like sensory overload? still happens. but the kid can crawl all over me some days even if i don't want anyone else to touch me. my socially avoidant, quiet in public autistic husband? he is LOUD with our kids. they have their own entire culture of in-jokes and puns.

so what i'm saying is, i love mumblecore autism bruce. i do. but i also think the galaxy brain take is when Dick Grayson slips in as his exception. the person who doesn't exactly count as "socializing," that he has jokes with and talks to sometimes for hours (mixed with those long silences), and spends a lot of time carrying around on his back when Dick is clingy. it doesn't need to completely change him or how he acts in public, but he can also be comfortable enough to have fun with Dick Grayson, quiet or loud.