If I'm allowed to be a little extra here, something about the dichotomy between Jason and Tim and how they reacted to having to fully form their own moral codes far too early is so striking to me.
They were both ripped from the safety of Bruce's cape too early, but the way they reacted was fundamentally different, and showcases how they differ as characters.
Jason was spiteful and hurt and angry, and he rebelled. He outright defied Bruce’s One Rule, because he knows how harmful it can be. He raised hell because he felt nobody raised it for him. Jason lost his dad and his life and everything he cared for at the hands of a psychopathic murderer in some ploy to get at Batman. He died because of betrayal at the hand of the woman that gave him life, died trying to save her. He was forced to grow up far too soon, after being given the life of his dreams, and it was horribly unfair, he knows it was, and he refuses to let that injustice go. He had to be drawn back with bribes and pleas and promises and love.
Tim came back. He came back, even though he was a little more broken and jaded for it. Tim's adaptable, because he's spent his whole life learning how to change to fit what people want from him. Tim was ripped away by Bruce’s supposed death, and forced to grow up. Tim slunk back into Batman's shadow, content to be forgotten until he's needed, because he wants, craves, the safety of being under Batman's cape, being his Bird. So Tim pretends, and doesn't argue even when he disagrees, and carries out his plans quietly to avoid conflict.
They're both equally strong-willed and confident in their beliefs, except Jason welcomes big changes and detests small ones, because big changes meant the beginning of the end for him, while Tim doesn't mind a huge worldview shift every now and then, because huge changes have always ultimately meant good things for him, and small changes have meant nothing good.
Bruce asked Tim, "come back?" And Tim said, quietly and desperately, "always."
Bruce pleads with Jason, "please, son, come home. Please. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," and Jason spits, "give me a reason to."
Jason is burning passion, demands attention, demands everyone see the injustice of how he was hurt, the systems that failed him, and demands that it nobody ever forgets and never lets it happen to anyone else.
Tim is quiet fury, he hunts down those who hurt him and continue to hurt others, and he burns them to the ground.
Jason was failed by the narrative, and Tim was doomed by it.
Tim knew being Robin wouldn't be easy after Jason, and knew his story wasn't necessarily going to be a happy one, so he was upset but unsurprised when tragedy struck. Maybe it was circumstance, but if it wasn't Bruce being lost in time, it was bound to be something else. Tim's story was always intended to be one filled with tragedy, as the Robin after the one who died, and the thing about tragedies is that once the inciting incident happens, and after the character realizes they're in a tragedy and gains that self-awareness, it only gets worse. Tim knows his life is just going to be heartbreaking event after heartbreaking event until he's either dead or a broken husk of who he once was. And that's fine.
Jason's story was supposed to be one of happiness and love and hope and magic, and that's what makes what happened to him all the more tragic. Nobody deserved it, especially not him. Jason as Robin was a kind, sweet, intelligent, passionate little kid, and he deserved to grow up and find himself when he was ready. He didn't get to, and he coddles that resentment, feeds it, sends it to the best schools, dresses it in the best clothes, and holds it dear. Because he was supposed to be happy, supposed to grow big and strong and get braces and act in plays and grow into his own suit and read classic literature and find a team of his own and be happy and be loved. But he didn't. And why him? Why not any other kid, why did it have to be him? Why when he had a home?
They both deserved much more than they got. Their responses to their relative traumas is what makes them who they are.
