One of the things about Dick and Tim is that fundamentally they are extremely similar in opinion and outlook - they are the most similar of any of the Bats by a long shot - and so when you do have a story that looks at their differences those dividing lines are highlighted to show where there are differences. Stories like their argument over whether Bruce was guilty in Murderer/Fugitive, or over Damian being Robin in early Red Robin, or over if Tim should go to rescue a missing Bruce or leave him to cope on his own in Zdarsky's Batman.
And in a situation where the audience is familiar with how close they are, and how they're just pre-Crisis conception of Robin and post-Crisis conception of Robin, Big Robin and Little Nightwing, then that highlighting gives you something really interesting to consider in a relationship that the audience knows is close and loving and stable; differences that help you distinguish fine details of their personalities.
But in a situation where the audience is far less familiar with them as a duo, and may only know of the conflict, the differences highlighted in the story take on outsize importance, because they don't realise that focus is like a spotlight or a magnifying glass to distinguish between two very similar paint colours, rather than one being red and the other blue, different primary colours.
Because for most of the OTHER Bats, the differences between them ARE on a far bigger scale. You don't need a magnifying glass to see the differences in approach and beliefs between Tim and Damian and Jason, for instance. It's extremely obvious in any story you put them in. And that relative ease is translated onto for instance Red Robin as a huge thing, because clearly the scale of Dick and Tim's differences there should be as obvious and fundamental that they're different characters as for instance Tim and Damian's first meeting, or Jason and Tim in Titans Tower. It should be obvious and super easy to tell apart, like the Robins War issues of Batman & Robin 2011 where Damian set out to prove he was the best Robin in noticeably different ways to the other three boys.
But for Dick and Tim is ISN'T that obvious, because they are so similar, and acting like they should be hurt and distant long term when 99% of their worldview and motivation and character is so in tune and modelled off the other (because every modern Robin!Dick story is using the modernised conception of Robin developed through Tim, even as Tim as a character was created to be the modern answer to Dick). They're so alike.
It's also a case that for some of their differences, the setup was that Tim still holds beliefs that Dick discarded: that Robin is Batman's partner and equal, and that Bruce needs help to save him when Bruce gets all tangled up in his own head. So they're beliefs that both of them have spent a lot of time thinking about and obsessing over.
But it's not necessarily that Tim's holding an immature belief and that Dick has the mature belief; it's that Dick and Tim have developed different perspectives on these ideas from the contexts they saw them in. Because even as Dick experienced the traumatic letdown of needing to escape to find himself (whether he quit or was fired) because Bruce was having trouble adapting to a working relationship with an adult partner, Tim was there watching as Dick and Bruce found a way to develop an adult working relationship. So Tim believes in that partner equality more than Dick does, because Tim's seen how it functions, and sees it more as "Robin means I'm always there for Bruce to turn to" and a new identity like Nightwing has that level of separation from the day to day.
These are the aspects of two very similar characters that give them differences, different stories and trajectories. That allows them to both have space to exist within stories, because for these points Dick and Tim make different choices. Because if they DID agree, then especially now that Tim's an adult, the justification for having two characters who are so similar becomes harder and harder. Why do we need both? And these different perspectives are that separation, that justification for why.
Because Tim would travel the world to find Bruce. He'd hunt through time and through dimensions, tracking him down. He'd see Bruce pushing everyone away and disappearing back into "there is no Bruce, just the Bat" and worry about Bruce's mental health and help drag him back out.
Because Dick wouldn't. Because he knows that Bruce will find a way to cope if he's left on his own, that Bruce will always come back, that he can walk away and trust Bruce to be safe.
ellievsbear
izzy806
gracieabrams
areudirty
stormborns
theartofmadeline
snowghoul
pixelskylines
