If You're Thing Is To Hate And Dump On People - Blog Posts

this is like.. everything i don’t have the patience or experience to say. this is wonderfully written and TRUE. worth the read

Why Tim Couldn’t Stay In Gotham After Bruce Died:

Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of posts to the effect that Tim deserted Dick once he became Batman. Tim should have let Robin go gracefully and become a Nightwing-like hero who could help Batman keep Gotham safe (or at least as safe as Gotham could ever be). The idea is that Tim could easily have stayed on and still become an independent hero.

[For the sake of argument, I’m going to ignore the fact that Morrison wanted Dick and Damian to be Batman and Robin for five years. To that end, Mr. Morrison basically arranged to have Tim put on a bus out of town, never to be seen again. Holding my nose at the utterly crappy way DC handled Damian becoming Robin, I’m going to stick to what actually ended up happening in cannon.]

The idea that Tim and Damian could peacefully co-exist in the same city, never mind the same house, was never going to happen. To understand just why, let’s go back a bit. Remember when Damian first came to Gotham? Tim did try to be nice to the kid.

Keep in mind that Damian was a literal child raised by his psycho mother and grandfather to be a killing machine. Expecting anything else out of him at this point was wishful thinking at best.

Despite Damian attempting to murder him, Tim helped Damian when he ran into trouble. When Tim once again tried to reach out Damian the kid thanked him by shoving Tim off the dinosaur, letting him fall to what Damian hoped would be his death.

Here we see basics of the early Tim/Damian dynamic at work. Remember that this Damian was still fresh from the League of Assassins: a murderous death cult where it was perfectly acceptable to lob off someone’s head if they cut you in the lunch line. A few weeks with Bruce and Alfred were not going to undo a lifetime of indoctrination.

If Tim had actually stayed in Gotham, after Bruce “died” it’s quite likely that Damian (when Tim inevitably ticked him off) would have tried to kill him again. Dick would then have been forced to choose between them (and does anyone else wonder what Dick would have done if Damian had managed to seriously injure or kill Tim?). Tim had good reason to believe that Dick would choose Damian over him. After all, from his point of view, Dick had done just that with the Robin mantle.

Tim simply wasn’t safe around Damian. Yes, Tim had a barnful of mental health issues at that point. Those issues were made worse by living in an atmosphere when Tim could never let his guard down. Tim had no other option but to leave.

Before anyone says that it’s not true, that Tim would’ve been just fine at the manor, let’s remember that Damian tried to kill him after Tim got back from his Quest-For-Bruce. Damian was angry that he was included on the “Hit-List.” Despite having grown emotionally while working with Dick’s Batman, Damian fell back on his League training without blinking an eye.

You can’t really blame Damian for behaving like this. His childhood with Talia was one long, unending trauma of horrific abuse. This was how Damian survived long enough to come to Gotham, by removing those he considered a threat to his position. That said, it’s also not hard to understand why Tim couldn’t stay around waiting for Damian to stop making attempts on his life.

It was inevitable that either Damian or Tim would have to leave. Dick didn’t want to push Tim out, just the opposite. He was worried about Tim. Ideally Dick wanted to bring Tim home and work everything out.

Despite what fannon likes to imagine, Dick never suggested that Tim be put in Arkham. Dick wanted Tim to see a therapist in Metropolis. Grieving Bruce’s loss, Dick was desperately trying to keep what was left of his family together. He couldn’t see that having Tim and Damian in close proximity was a recipe for disaster.

Why was Tim the one to leave and not Damian? The answer again, lies in an abusive childhood. Tim spent years being emotionally neglected by his parents. He was constantly being pushed aside for something or someone deemed by his parents to be more important than he was. Tim was used to be the one left behind, the one who always came second (or third or fourth). If anyone in the family was expendable in a search for Bruce, Tim knew it was him.

Tim and Damian still don’t get along very well but they have settled into an uneasy acceptance of one another in the Rebirth continuity.

The bottom line is that these two will never be best buddies and that’s okay. Not not all siblings end up as good friends. That they can manage to stay under the same roof without bloodshed is a vast improvement over what they used to be like. Could that have happened when Damian first became Robin? Oh hell no. 

Tim had to be the one to leave. There really was no other choice.