So I had a thought, inspired by this post:
Imagine how things would have been if this actually happened. How tortured by his own mind and circumstances of his life Jason would finally feel loved and missed and wanted by the man he deemed his only family after being betrayed by his birth mother, after losing Catherine. He thought he had a parent that wanted him in the family. Despite circumstances Jason most likely died with an illusion of having a family still, even after betrayal, an illusion that was shattered when he came back to see that, in the long run, his death meant nothing: Joker was still alive and running free, Batman was still operating as usual and there was yet another Robin. As if he meant nothing.
Yes, the loss of Jason was so detrimental to Bruce because he has in fact lost a son for the first time. Jason wasn't his flesh and blood but he was Bruce's son nonetheless. And he lost him. He lost his child, somebody he had a special bond with. It wasn't anything but the loss of Jason that pushed Bruce the closest to what he fears of becoming. But Jason did not see it.
And despite all, despite alternative universes for all and any taste, we were never given this reunion, and, we will never see it in canon for one simple reason: neither Jason nor Bruce as characters would exist if that was to occure.
Basically, if you look at it with squint eyes, the fight scene in Arkham Knight is the closes we've ever gotten to this reunion. Jason switched sides and "returned" to the family when he painted his chest with the red bat symbol and saved Bruce from Scarecrow. All after Bruce got to him through a conversation during this fight. Did they reunite? Did they have a happy ending? No. Bruce dies before having the luxury to embrace his son again. Bruce dies before giving Jason the closure of being wanted and welcomed into the family despite all he is, all he's done, the closure he deserves. They never got to reunite truly and never will be able to for Bruce is gone.
You'd be wondering why we never saw such thing ever again. But look at it this way. Would Jason continue on being Red Hood the way he is if he actually received this reaction from Bruce? Would he put on a helmet and mend Gotham's crime scene the way he did? Or was he trying to prove a point? Is the lack of acceptance from Bruce at the very beginning of his coming back story vital for Jason to be Jason we know and Red Hood that we have in canon?
I have no doubt it is. One of the biggest part of Jason's character is not the disagreement with Bruce on subject of how to handle crime, but the tragedy of father and son losing each other and a torture of not being able to reunite properly due to the disagreement and lack of explicitly communicated wish to have each other back in lives as a family. Some of you might argue that in some modern comics Bruce does tell Jason to come back and offers to mend things, but it is not the right time. Jason needed to hear it when he came back as Red Hood. But Bruce?
What about Bruce? Why didn't he just tug Jason into a hug tight enough to tell him everything that was needed to be said? Because the loss of Jason was so intense for Bruce that not only he got... "harsher" as Batman, he got harsher as a human. The pain of loss was so strong that it damaged a very much tortured soul that experienced the biggest loss before. The second time he is crushed by loss is seeing something no person ever wishes for, seeing his child dead. I would allege that Bruce shut off his feelings to soothe his pain and never let it get to him again. Never let anyone in again. Not only because of his own pain, but because of responsibility in front of everyone in Gotham, responsibility to protect that he failed and failed again when he turned violent. Another loss like this could have pushed Bruce over the line of no killing he drew, who knows. And Bruce understood it. Despite his wishes, he wouldn't be able to tackle ressurected Jason into a hug. Pre-Jason's death Bruce would; but post-Jason's death Bruce simply couldn't.
Arkham Knight!Jason was the only Jason that received so desired "we can fix this, together" line from Bruce, so desired by Jason in UTRH to see that he was still loved, wanted and welcomed back into the family. So desired line that he never has gotten to hear when it was important.
The falling out of Jason and Bruce is just as inevitable as Jason's death. And it's the cross they both have to bear and we have to witness.
