okay so I lied to @mollyhats because I do, in fact, have meta to write on this fight. HOWEVER, it's less "deep introspective meta" and mostly just me waxing poetic about how emotional this fight makes me every time I think about it.
Because look, literally everything about Dick and Tim in Resurrection makes me super emotional. Dick's general unwavering devotion to and explicitly stated love for Tim throughout the arc...Dick immediately running to the Manor the second he hears Tim might be in trouble without even asking for an explanation...Dick's first words to Tim when he gets there being "are you okay?"...the "for Tim, a thousand ninjas is just the start of what I would do" line...his first priority when Tim and Damian are taken being "I'm coming to save you Tim"...all of those make me go 😭 even on a good day, right?
But Dick and Tim's fight at the Pit really takes the cake.
Tim is grieving. Dick knows Tim is grieving. He knows Tim's lost a frankly ridiculous amount of people in an extremely short time (his school friend Darla, Stephanie, his dad, Conner, and his stepmother Dana, just to name a few). But Dick really thought Tim was doing okay, or at least getting to a place where he could truthfully say he was doing okay. Tim's just been adopted, they've just spent a whole year traveling the world together with Bruce, and they've clearly been keeping in regular contact with each other, as Robin #156 points out:
"Oh hey, Tim. How's it going? No, you're not catching me at a bad time, I'm just getting in.......Hey pal, it's totally cool...there's plenty of time for me to sleep. Talk to me..."
Except Tim is clearly very much not okay, and it's also pretty clear that he's been hiding that from..........pretty much everyone in his life:
"Beware. My father collects people like children collect toys. To play with. Sometimes for the simple pleasure of destroying." "I...I don't care about what happens to me. Can he bring back the dead?"
"What right do I have to deny my loved ones a chance to live again? And what right do I have to live...while they're still dead?"
"Tim doesn't say anything. And I realize...he doesn't care. He's been so hurt this last year and a half...lost so much...I thought we'd gotten past it...or started to deal with it...were Bruce and I just believing what we wanted to?"
So for Dick to show up at Ra's' base to rescue Tim and beat up multiple squads of ninjas while looking for him, not knowing that this is the mindspace Tim's in until he finds Tim at the Pit? No wonder he reacts like this:
"He might not try to stop you, but I sure as hell will!"
And then of course...we get the fight. Putting aside for a moment the fun philosophical discussion they have in-between blows on the revolving door nature of comic book death, it's vitally important to me that Dick never once tries to invalidate Tim's feelings and the grief he feels over the many people that he's lost. His entire focus is on trying to help Tim move forward into a place where he knows the Pit isn't a solution to the pain he feels, but he never tries to deny the pain exists. Again: 😭, every single time.
And to Dick's credit, he tries very hard to figure out where Tim's head and heart are at here. He first tries appealing to Tim's logical nature, thinking if he just makes a solid enough point about how the Pit won't actually give Tim what he wants it'll snap him out of it. When that doesn't work, he brings up his and Bruce's own losses, obviously with the thought that reminding Tim that they've all faced incredible loss and moved forward despite it will help Tim move forward as well. That doesn't work either, and his last-ditch effort is an emotional appeal, trying to tell Tim exactly what Cassie told him when she discovered his attempts to clone Conner: that he wouldn't really be bringing his friend back. But Tim seemingly doesn't care, and so Dick is finally left at a loss about how to help him in this moment.
Then I Ching intervenes, noting that they both have good points that come from valid places and that they must find the balance between those points:
"...Robin, you cannot face life if only seeing death! ....yet Robin only seeks balance. You should see this, Nightwing. How then, to attain balance when balance has been lost?"
I Ching also reminds Dick that (like his own comment to Tim that "to fight you is only to harden your resolve") he can't make Tim's choices for him, and so Dick decides to make a leap of faith, put his faith and trust in his brother on the line, and give Tim his choices back. He says "I trust you," holds out his hand, and waits...trusting Tim to make the right decision even as he doubts whether that trust is warranted.
And it's only when Dick stops fighting him and stands back, giving him the space and explicit, verbalized trust to make his own choices, that Tim truly wavers. Because Tim knows Dick is right; he knows that the Pit won't give him what he truly wants. But he still wants the people he's lost back so badly that for a moment, he's still willing to risk everything to get it...even the love, trust, and faith of the precious few family members he has left.
He walks all the way up to the pit and gathers the test vials of water....and then he looks back at Dick. And it's that glance back, that long look into his brother's eyes, that finally breaks him. Because Tim loves Dick, and he values Dick's words and love and seemingly unconditional trust in him enough to pour the pit water back out. Tim makes his choice, and he chooses the harder path: to face life in the face of unbelievable levels of death and loss. And it's only then, when Tim has clearly made his choice, that Dick swoops in to reassure Tim (both physically and verbally) that he made the right one.
Sidenote: Dick's soothing words+the hug and the forehead kiss (!!!) get me every time. I think I'll be dead before I stop having emotions over how much love and care is packed into those three panels, tbh.
Anyway, every time I think about the Resurrection arc my mind always comes back to how much love and care Fabian Nicieza put into showcasing Dick and Tim's relationship in Nightwing #139-140 and frankly I owe him my life for doing so, because I'll never be over them as long as I live.
