“I don't believe Jon could love Damian and like Damian's parents at the same time. Especially when you consider how Jon grew up. However, Jon knows that Damian loves his parents deeply, and he would never speak ill of them.”
THANK YOU. Can you please further your thoughts on Damian’s parents?
Okay please nobody jump me but...I don't think Talia and Bruce are good parents.
I think portraying her as pure evil, and as someone who does not love her child is oversimplifying her character. She loves and cares for Damian. But love and healthy parenting is not the same thing...
Even if Talia was convinced, deep down, that she had to act the way she did to ensure Damian’s survival, the result was that Damian grew up with severe emotional and social difficulties. As a mother, your Job is to protect your child from harm. She had the opportunity to hand Damian over to Bruce back when he was still a baby—And she chose not to. Damian was being beaten, tortured, emotionally and physically abused in horrible ways, but she keep him there for the first ten years of his life. She also didn't just decide to give Damian to Bruce one day because of bad grandfather Ra's. Damian had wanted to meet his father for years. But he was only allowed so after he had defeated her in combat. So I can't really give her any credit for that, and even if it had genuinely been her decision...I’m sorry, but that came a good ten years too late. The damage is already done.
Also, a good parent generally helps a child develop empathy and respect for others and I hope we can all agree that ten year old Damian— for all the love I have for him— did not have that. Wich wasn't at all his fault, he was juts a baby, in a foreign country, with people he didn't know and nobody was explaining shit to him. Talia prepared him for neither life in America nor for his father. She just dropped him into the cold water and he had to figure it out himself. Anyway, Damian was arrogant and a little asshole and he was struggling Immensee to form social Connections.
She is undoubtedly a tragic character. She has been through a lot of shit. Given the way she herself was raised, you can hardly expect her to be a good mother. In my opinion, she is a woman who genuinely loves her son, yet she did not break the circle of abuse...
Not let's get to Bruce omg...
I love writing Bruce as a good but flawed parent. Very flawed.
Bruce is emotionally unavailable, and I think that he was also just overwhelmed by raising Damian sometimes. All of his children, but I think Damian in particular, needs a lot of reassurance and safety, that is something Bruce, unfortunately, was unable to give him, even though he tried. Instead of a vulnerable kid needing guidance, like Dick etc, Bruce is confronted with a highly trained, aggressive, ideologically opposed child soldier. Bruce needed help, helping Damian and Damian needed a whole lot of therapy that he probably didn't get. Bruce is also not as affectionate—which is something Damian really needed. I just think that Damian was emotionally very neglected.
So yeah, it's again— he tried his best, but his best was not enough.
I know I said more about Talia but I think the whole "is Bruce a good dad or not" thing had been around enough. And I'm tired of typing ToT
