Bruce Wayne is a public figure, and like all celebrities, especially those open about their sexual orientation, he's received his fair share of slut-shaming over the years.
Vicky Vale wrote entire articles about the Wayne's promiscuity, and more than a few saw it more as the resentment of an ex than the serious work of a journalist.
If Bruce had sued everyone who'd slandered him over the years, he'd become the world's first trillionaire.
Because it's not just journalists or Gotham's elite: everyone he knows has commented on his sex life or insulted him for it.
And that was fine, really. It hurt when his kids joked about it, when they ended up calling him a man-whore or making other slurs about his sex life when their arguments got out of hand.
He didn't say anything. He'd learned years ago that it wouldn't help. The jokes continues.
At first, Tim saw nothing wrong with joking like the others about how Bruce was a man whore, or that he'd slept with everyone at least once, and that he was easy.
They were just jokes, right? But then he got together with Kon shortly after her relationship with Bernard ended, and the journalists started grilling him, denigrating him, questioning his seriousness, wondering how long it would take him to tire of his new toy before moving on to another, and that, after all, he was still his father's son.
And the others were certainly not supportive, teasing him mercilessly, crossing every boundary because that's what they'd gotten used to, and even if Tim fought back, they wouldn't stop, because Tim was the one who couldn't take a joke.
Bruce intervenes: Bruce sued the newspapers that denigrated Tim, it's Bruce who defended Tim's public image, and it's he who has always defended Tim from others, too.
A grace no one has ever granted Bruce.
When things finally calm down and things get back to normal, Tim can't even look Bruce in the eye.
For a few weeks, he was going crazy during this shitstorm, hating everyone, and his sanity was suffering.
What does it mean that Bruce had been dealing with all this for years? What does it mean he doesn't hate everyone for how he was treated? How could he still want to defend Tim after years of insults?
Bruce shouldn't have done anything.
He should have let Tim deal with this alone, without any support, because it would only have been fair.
When he mentions this to Kon, his boyfriend looks at him strangely.
Kon: Honey, it makes sense that Bruce would help you. He's your father, right?
Tim: No, it doesn't make sense. You weren't there, you don't know what I called him, all the times I shamed him when one of his relationships ended, or... how I insulted him for things I had no right to talk about... why didn't he just ignore it?
Kon: Tim... how could he ignore it? He loves you.
Tim: But I don't deserve this, don't you understand?! We've all put him through hell, always judging him, as if we were better... it's not fair that he helped me and I've never done anything for him.
In short, just Tim who doesn't know how to deal with the knowledge that Bruce loves him more than he deserves, and doesn't know how to live with this new awareness, especially after years spent sabotaging any remotely healthy relationship with his father.
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