AES.

↳ as the batman in this arc he is less powerful in some ways , and practices compassion more than anger. suffice to say he is still a morally grey character (his choices constantly impact someone negatively even if he tries to save gotham).

gotham as a whole views him as a nuisance than anything else ; a year has gone by since the flood and gotham is still healing. the batman is trying to stop sofia and oswald from gaining power and also from a war breaking out in the neighboring boroughs. he is also gaining respect from criminal organizations as he disrupts their means of making money and also surviving the talons' (assassins) attempts on his life. his detective skillset is also building , and with each mis-step (because this isn't easy) he gains invaluable insights into who he must become and how he must work. *lucius fox for all intents and purposes helps with his missions and is his source for gear that is beyond anything that any other company is putting out at the moment.

*it starts with the re-emergence of thomas elliot , once a childhood friend of bruce wayne who has changed in the years. the two of them oftentimes being compared to twins , and brothers. thomas' background is riddled with abuse , neglect , and a family that is as old and cruel as many other founding families. thomas starts to envy bruce at a young age for being an orphan and having control in his life (thomas was very much controlled by his mother after his father died , since he is her last link to the elliot namesake). thomas then after a tragic accident involving his mother disappears from gotham at the age of 16 - (later found out by bruce that thomas killed his own mother). thomas' re-emergence marks the start of strange occurrences that weaken both bruce and the batman - all unknown to thomas. for thomas' goal is to take bruce's life and take his place in gotham , this has nothing to do with the batman. this jealously of course fueled by the court of owls as thomas has taken up with them and taken his rightful place.

↳ bruce at this time is experiencing blackouts , memories that have started to fade , and while he tacks it up to his nights spent as the batman he ultimately discovers that someone has been stealing his memories and replacing them. this is all tied to thomas unbeknownst to bruce who believes it is the court (which he's right). he fears that his mental illness is getting worse because what is happening is beyond his grasp. he is being hunted in every aspect imageable - nothing is safe.

this eventually leads (with plotting) to bruce landing up in arkham and thomas' successfully pulling off a switch ; thomas has kept out of the public eye , and looks exactly like bruce wayne. bruce then has to work his way out of arkham , and work with others to convince that he is truly bruce wayne and not thomas elliot. the asylum is made to play tricks on bruce - the staff mostly sofia falcone's planted men. the one person who does indeed know that bruce is in arkham is juliette king who , at this time is living with bruce wayne. she helps gather up people as well as herself to help free bruce but with jonathan crane's fear toxins and various other drugs it's difficult to get him out of his own nightmares (think shutter island). juliette at this time works out a way to bring him back at night and is able to bring him back slowly (this is with the aide of foxark medications and through work with lucius who starts to believe juliette but is still kept in the dark since lucius could wind up dead) , this though only enables him to be the batman , and fight against thomas elliot.

bruce has never met arthur , in my arc they are in two entirely different places currently. while bruce wants to meet arthur , and would want nothing more than an older brother - he is in no place to have that kind of relationship / wouldn't know how to. he is very aware of how the media has portrayed his brother , and in that portrayal he knows that nothing in gotham is as it seems. bruce does carry around a deep fondness for arthur , he will never go after joker as the batman nor wage a war with him.

gotham wants exactly that , she wants to turn brother against brother as does the court of owls. currently , they are also ensuring that the two brothers never meet - the court preferring to keep them separate and to take them each down.

nothing would be more powerful than the batman and joker working together ...

while bruce isn't at a point to reach out to arthur they do occasionally run into one another ; respectfully as the batman and joker. they never utter their real names when meeting up since they are both aware that the court is listening and conducting surveillance on them.

the fact of the matter is that bruce needs an older brother desperately ; - yet ? he cannot bring himself to admit to that idea , to him he's directly related to the people who brought so much hurt and ill-will into arthur's life. thomas' refusal of recognizing his elder son while having a 'legitimate' son is something bruce struggles with. the idea of thinking that your father is one way while coming to grips with the fact that he's not.

the anger isn't as destructive as it once was but , the grief is enough to swallow bruce whole. while it isn't guilt about his older brother's painful past , it's the idea of knowing someone you loved went through pain and you could do nothing to stop it. even through bruce wasn't born at the time nor could never do anything about it , it still lingers. their meeting outside wayne manor in joker (2019) is still something that's still ingrained into his brain and - also the idea that THAT was the only time he met his brother.

bruce is aware that parents are not wholly divine. that his mother struggled with mental illness and later his father's infidelity - this was at times taken out on bruce.

alfred is also gone from bruce's life after the reknewal scandal and also for keeping arthur out of bruce's life for all these years. while that decision alfred fully believes was necessary was not his call to make. alfred ripped from bruce a line to his father that he could have known.

alfred fully believes he did the best thing for bruce ; keeping him from a brother that had scarred him years earlier - it still was NEVER his decision to make.