"Bruce never reveals his secret identity to mind readers or the Lasso of Truth because he truly believes he's Batman and Bruce Wayne is just the mask-" WRONG. Bruce Wayne is so fucking good at lying, both at the mental and physical level, that he allows himself to truly believe whatever he's saying in that fraction of a moment and THAT'S why no one can ever force him to reveal his identity.
Bruce has been lying for SO long that he can drill down to the tiny ways his body needs to breathe, move, etc and the way his mind feels when it's telling the truth. And then he tells himself, just for a moment, that whatever he's lying about is the truth. That he doesn't just need to believe it, but that he does.
Of course when someone asks him, in that moment, who he is -- the answer is "I'm Batman." Because in that moment, that is the only answer. It's the truth.
IMO he’s not lying. He’s codeswitching.
Not one of us has only one identity or one style of communicating. Not one!!
I am lurkinglurkerwholurks. That is me. I have other names, other labels, other ties that shape me. I have a job with a title. I have contexts that shift how I communicate and present myself as do we all.
Bruce just took it to an extreme, as he does with everything else. To stay balanced, he has to maintain a consistent self of sense but consistent is not the same thing as flat or one-dimensional.
He is Bruce Wayne. He is Batman. He is Matches. And he is many other things as well. All of these are the truth. None are a lie.
