Thinking more about my post about the Core Four growing up (as I've now got Tynion's Detective Comics under my belt as the lead in to Young Justice 2019, and I still think the narrative that the Core Four need to move away to grow up like Dick's Titans did is flawed, because of how this narrative is shaped.
Tim spends all of Tynion's run playing with the idea of moving away, going to college outside Gotham to 'grow up' and find himself.
But he can't do it, and he realises he doesn't want to do it. And instead...he discovers he has a missing past, and 'leaves Gotham' as he goes to Zatanna to have his memories restored.
Tim's growth in finding himself is...restoring his childhood and teen years. It's in finding his old friends.
And similarly, through Young Justice 2019, there is a read on the text that for Tim and Cassie in particular, this is a period of restored memories. Their growth and change is regaining their pasts and their friends. You see this via Bart's return, where he escapes the Speed Force and then goes looking for his friends and family, and you can see some characters suddenly remember who he is by encountering him. Cassie in particular seems to literally regain her memories of Bart just by being in proximity to him at the start of Young Justice 2019. It feels like Speed Force shenanigans, in line with the ones that have variously been used on Donna and Wally in particular over the years to restore their existences, and given that as precedent, it's almost got to be a side effect of the fact the Core Four are lighting rods for Bart, even though I don't think that's ever been outright stated on panel.
And then Cassie and Tim have the same experience again while locked up by Opal in Gemworld, where they (and only they) sense something 'familiar' right before Conner appears and tears the top off the oubliettes they're trapped in. They can feel his TTK and they recognise it. By being near Conner they 'get' Conner back.
And this all happens in Gemworld, which is a setting of narrative about growing up for Amy herself. They grow up by restoring their old friendships and connections...and then returning home to their families.
And Bart manages to reintegrate by the Speed Force smoothing things out in terms of his family's memories being restored of him.
And Tim goes back to Gotham and slides back into being Robin in the aftermath of it all, as he knows who he is now.
And Conner has to rebuild all of his connections as he's once again a person without a past to all of the Supers, and his storylines are firstly about becoming part of the family again and then about pulling back away to check he still has family backing him up.
And Cassie goes back to the Wonders and has to navigate her feelings over being replaced because unlike everyone else this is the first time it's happened to her, but she's got her best friends back.
They didn't need to leave home to find themselves to grow up. They left home to find each other, and then returned, comfortable in their connections, to take their places in their communities and families as their sign of growing maturity.
annaxmalina
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