im gonna be so honest with you, i 100% think you're reading robin '93 wrong š is there tragedy? absolutely, it's part of what makes tim an interesting character; that he's faced with much tragedy and still chooses to help. and i think thats part of what you're missing in your interpretation of it. tim is robin cause he wants to help. he keeps going back because despite what happens to him, there's someone out there that he can help and thats intrinsic to who he is as a character. being "iced out" is only part of his motivation to go back, helping people is his throughline no matter what's happening in the moment.
also bruce is constantly praising tim? he tells him he's proud of him A Lot. are there terrible choices he makes for the sake of the mission? yeah, he's bruce batman wayne of course he fucks up and will continue to do so. but i think it's a disservice to both characters to read their relationship so one note like that.
anyway sorry for the essay, that's just my thoughts on it. ultimately you are allowed to interpret the story however you wish šāāļø
Iām actually so sure that youāre right but I want to defend what I said anyway
I donāt even like Tim (yes hereās ur excuse to disregard everything I say) but heās such a charming young lad in the first half of robin and even when heās annoying I say āaww heās 13/14. He doesnāt know anything š«¶ā so itās fine. Iām endeared enough to be completely bummed out by everything he does.
I know Tim is a hero who wants to help peopleā thatās an inherent trait for all the bats to do what they do but oh my god that issue in particular (the one when tim discovers bruce was behind the 16th birthday psychological torture) did not convey that. Tim was looking forward to his new life in his little monologue, and it was set up to make the reader feel so good and hopeful, heās sitting out in the sun with the girl he loves, planning to spend more time with her and his family and to actually get sleep and not be stressed out all the time, and the only ābutā was that he knew he wouldnāt get to casually visit/catch up with bruce or any of the other bats anymore bc he would be iced out for no explainable reason other than Bruceās ego. And even if thatās not true, for tim to assume that much says enough. With no further explanation, he was suited up in the next page, shrouded in darkness, with bruce telling him that heās not sorry and tim accepting that and then they just moved on. Ouch! That moment alone was so depressing and the explanation that āthat was just one moment, generally heās happy to be a heroā is only so helpful when I feel like Iām just watching him struggle and suffer to manage everything in his life for the whole back half of the series with no light at the end of the tunnel. (Which is another thing, Iām reading all of this knowing it ends with Bruce dying, Damian becoming Robin, and Tim losing his mind even more). Yeah heās shown genuinely enjoying heroing (and also genuinely suffering for it) but he canāt manage to balance any other part of his life bc heās so focused on living up to a certain expectation as Robin.
And Iāll even say that itās partially self imposed! Bruce liked Tim and wasnāt breathing down his neck criticizing his every move. But their relationship was fundamentally weird and unhealthy and when you put that on a 13-17 year old, it clearly (based on the Timās canon thoughts and feelings) has a negative effect on his self care and self worth and sense of emotional security.
Bruce does praise tim a lot and they have a lot of cute moments, but generally Bruceās characterization in this run isnāt,, great. I love bruce. Way more than I like tim. But my god man. I think a big part of the problem is that Tim had a solo series so Bruce for the most part is just a haunting presence that Tim is constantly thinking about, not a friend and partner. Not even a father. Just this unrelated dark presence dominating a huge part of Timās life and sometimes being genuinely abusive about it, and the fact that he often (very often, even!) also has those nice moments kind of makes it feel more like a toxic push-pull relationship.
Iām one to believe that bruce has good intentions and genuinely cares for all the ākidsā he just has an unhealthy way of showing it and Dick set a strange standard for how Robins are treated.
When people talk about Bruce and Dickās relationship, a common rebuttal is that Dick was designed to be a childās power fantasy and thatās why he and Bruce spent every night holding hands while fighting crime and warding off the advances of evil womenā which I wonāt get into bc Iām not talking brudick. But my point is, when Iām reading brudick comics, I do get that vibe that everything is happy and fun and Iām not supposed to read into it. But reading robin 1993, not even trying to read into a darker interpretation, just my initial reaction is the clone high ghandi looking out the window image for so many issues. They just bum me out and make me sad and I cheered when Jack confronted Bruce and made Tim quit.
So to conclude, Iām sure youāre right and dc doesnāt want me to root for tim to quit robin and stop making them money. But why did they write all that
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