Joining the war of bad parent Jack & Janet Drake on the side of bad parent Jack & Janet Drake
(I know the compressed quality is gonna make the cursive hard to read so I transcribed it 👌)
"Dear Dad, I wish we could go back and start over again! When I was a kid, I used to dream - to pray - that you and mom would stop travelling, forget business and just settle down. We'd be together, the way a family ought to be..."
"Now I have my wish. I'm going to be with you all the time. And it's tearing me apart."
"Funny, how once you never seemed to care - at least you never showed me that you did. And now you want to run my life."
"Do you really think we can start over...?"
"I've no idea who you think I am, Dad - but I'm not that boy. I had to fend for myself of a long time. I changed, Dad. I have a lot of... secrets."
"You couldn't be more wrong about Bruce Wayne. Despite what he seems he is the only truly great man I have ever known. He... helps people. And he never asks for anything in return."
"Sometimes I wish we could start over... but I know we can't. We have to take things from exactly where we are."
"to the Father I never knew"
I've seen people make the argument that ditching your kids for long periods of time was normalized back then, therefore they Jack & Janet weren't abusive, I disagree for a couple of reasons.
First of all just because something was normalized doesn't make it okay. There are a lot of things that used to be common place that I think most people can agree are morally wrong now and were morally wrong then.
Secondly, the narrative itself repeatedly insists that Tim felt neglected and abandoned by his parents, so even if it was normalized it still obviously negatively affected him.
This is kind of why I don't like the idea that some fans like to run with that Bruce was super cold & distant to Tim because of what happened to Jason.
Obviously you can write/hc whatever you want, but I feel like Bruce & Alfred being the some of the first people to actually make Tim feel cared for is a important part of their dynamic as well as Tim's story. Bruce was somewhat hesitant to take Tim on at the start, but after that he was extremely supportive of him.
I've always gotten the feeling that the reason Tim latched so hard onto being Robin is because Robin was the first time he felt supported & like he was a part of something even if it also brought him quite a bit of misery.
(Which is also why I think Tim realizing he can have that without being Robin makes a better story than him just being Robin forever)