You know how drama can cause memory loss? Bruce, who doesn’t remember a huge chunk of his childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood because his brain went into overdrive trying to protect him.
I've mentioned it before, but it's my headcannon that it wasn't Martha's pearls Bruce saw scattered across the alleyway ground; it was her teeth. Bruce's brain changed it because seeing his mother get shot directly in the face rightfully traumatized him in unspeakable ways.
Alfred once mentions something Bruce did as a child, and Bruce is like, “I have no knowledge of this?” But nods along anyway.
He meets someone from his past, and he gets a vague feeling that he knows them, but he just can’t remember.
Bruce never mentions it cause it doesn’t really matter to him. He has all the important bits, like how his mother smiled, how warm his Dad’s hugs used to feel, the training he endured while traveling the world, and his kids.
Baby boy can’t reminisce on anything cause huge chunks are missing everywhere. Ages 8-14? Literally nothing but quick flashes. He’s got scraps of newspaper articles from when he was seen in public; even that’s very sparse cause Alfred didn't want him going out, not that he wanted to either.
Bruce saw a baby picture of himself and thought it was Damian till he turned it over and saw Alfred’s handwriting. He was so embarrassed that he never mentioned it, because he didn’t want to get laughed at, when in reality, they’d all be concerned.
Somewhat related to this, but I was reading @hells-favorite-fanfic-writer ‘s post where the kids find Bruce’s old diary of the horrific shit that happened in his childhood, and I couldn't stop thinking about it.
(This is part 1 go give it a read)
They bring the diary to Bruce and confront him, and the whole time Bruce is reading it and is like, “Ahhh! Oh my gosh, who wrote this??” Like that one trapceleb sound
The "teeth instead of pearls" theory actually makes a lot of sense, because high-quality pearl necklaces (I suppose Martha could have owned a cheaper one, but that would be strange) have knots between the pearls to keep them from spilling everywhere if the necklace breaks, and also to reduce rubbing between pearls so they don’t become damaged over time.
