Me, myself and why...

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Bruce knowing he and Dick have a special relationship but not really characterising it as father and son because it has been so long since he had a father figure who was willing to acknowledge it in a positive life. Alfred didn’t acknowledge it at all. He was Bruce’s employee, not his father. Ra’s wanted to fill the boots of Bruce’s father in a way that tainted what it meant to be a father.

And Bruce figures that mentor and apprentice is enough. Mentors protect. They guide. Historically apprentices lived with their mentors too. And that’s what he is for Dick: a mentor.

And then there’s a horrific crime and kids are involved and thankfully Dick is at home with the flu so he doesn’t have to see it. But some cops are talking and one of them says that all he wants to do is go home and hug his kids. And Bruce realises all he wants is to go home and hug Dick, to hold him and know he’s safe. And Bruce realises that Dick is his son in every way that matters.

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Spoilers for the events of Batman: Wayne family adventures 214 below!!

I think that Penguin might have been employed by the Court of Owls to steal Wayne Enterprises from under Bruce to weaken him. We know Penguin is working for someone and that he is hiring criminals to help him do it. But he specifically talks about having Mr Freeze as protection from his employers, suggesting he not only fears these people more than upur typical Gotham Rogue but thinks Mr Freeze is the best weapon for that.

And which big bad is susceptible to the cold? The Talons who work for the Court of the Owls.

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Bruce Wayne has never been the sort of person to pull the 'do you know who I am card' (most of the time in doesn't even need to) but When Dick Grayson was in his peak chaos demon phase (about 9 years old) he used to scream that he was being kidnapped whenever Bruce tried to take him somewhere he didn't want to go. Like Bruce trying to take Dick to quickly stop off at the office after getting ice cream. Or Bruce insisting Dick go to the dentist.

And the people of Gotham take that stuff seriously. If a kid is screaming about being kidnapped, they're grabbing baseball bats and coming to that kid's aid. So Bruce was forced to start being like 'No, I'm Bruce Wayne. This is my ward. It was on the news. The courts said I could keep him and I stupidly thought that was a good idea'.

Bruce was only ever hit with baseball bats twice.

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Dick and Bruce have been banned from playing family games on the same team. Any game that requires understanding or predicting the other person, they are just too good at. One time, they were playing codewords and Bruce got Dick to guess every word with just the clue of 'Cat'. Jason once held Dick's arms behind his back while they were playing charades and Bruce was still able to guess 'Sound of Music'.

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Do we ever see Bruce telling the rest of the kids Dick died while Dick is on his Spyral mission? Because most of the hero community assume Dick is killed shortly after being unmasked but Tim correctly deducts that he is still alive. I am curious to know what story Bruce told them too. Because he knows what his kids do to people who kill their siblings so did he tell them Lex Luthor killed their brother? Or does he say Dick was dead when they arrived or what?

Any information would be helpful

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The Teen Titans are captured, the world is being overrun and every tool and plan the Justice League try is being preempted by their enemy. But slowly they begin to make up grow, and slowly the League turns the table. And then they bust in, Batman finds out how their enemies were able to know all the Justice League secrets: Dick Grayson. They'd recognised Robin is so often sitting in the back of League meetings and joining them on the field and visiting their bases and wired him into their mainframe, using his mind and his detective skills to patch together information that he was even allowed to hear or catch enough glimpses of to fill in the gaps himself.

And when the League finally take the threat down, Dick is left in a coma while his brain recovers from being essentially part of a super computer. And Bruce is left feeling like he failed because his son only knew all those things that got him weaponised and comatose because Bruce let him see and hear them. And by the time Dick wakes up, Bruce has come to the conclusion thay the best way to protect Dick from every one who wants Justice League secrets is to keep the boy at arms length. Which means Dick wakes up to a world where Bruce is keeping him at arms length and not even letting him down into the cave unsupervised and Dick just wants a hug from his dad and for things to go back to normal.

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Bruce Wayne be like: This is not my circus but that is now my acrobat.

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Bruce using a lift journey to smarten Dick up. Like it is the first time he is taking Dick to see the Wayne board and they get into the lift together and Bruce is just fussing. And then Bruce apologises because he doesn't want Dick to feel like he the board won't like him but Dick is grinning because before a show his mother would fuss over his costume and smooth out his hair and it makes him feel so loved.

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Batman: Human privilege?

Superman: Yeah, you know, how you are able to get your hands on a dozen kids with no explanation and no one is suggesting harem but I just exist and...

Batman: Some people think I have a harem.

Superman: Really?

Batman: Yes. People leave applications for joining it at police headquarters.

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The Justice League trying to implement dress codes with their teenaged hero teams, saying girls skirts have to reach their knee and such.

And they just get a photograph of Dick leading a team in his Robin costume mailed back to them.

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I feel like people focus on the idea of the Robins all being de-aged as this cute thing but I feel like Bruce would genuinely have met his match if all the Robins ended up de-aged to Robin age all at once. Like Dick and Damian are starting rival fractions. Stephanie has sided with Damian while Dick's got Tim on his side. Jason is running around trying to keep the peace. Dick has already stolen the Batmobile three times. Three different fires have been started and Bruce has only found the culprit for two of them. If he tries to supervise Dick and Damian who seem to be the ones inciting the most mischief, he can't watch them both because they end up trying to kill each other but passing one off to Alfred means that Tim, Stephanie and Jason aren't watched which means Tim and Stephanie are going to be launching rescue missions for their respective partners. And Jason might be peacefully reading in the library or he might have threatened to rat on one of the others to Bruce and ended up locked in a supply closet. And Bruce wants to call in back-up but who is he meant to call without it meaning he is admitting that he cannot handle these kids all at once.

(The answer is Barbara who takes Dick and Tim to the clock tower and fits them with ankle monitors so she knows if they try to leave)

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I think a teenaged Dick and Barbara would have made a short horror film using caves and tunnels off of the Batcave and Dick’s contortionist abilities to make him seem possessed. Even Bruce admits it is genuinely horrifying.

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Thinking about how Bruce made the Robin costume far more armoured after Jason's death and imagining how the moment Dick and Bruce were back on speaking terms Bruce quickly began pushing Dick to replace the Discowing suit with a more armoued and protective suit. And the moment Jason realises his death catalysed the fall of Discowing, he says it was a worthy sacrifice.

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Krypto obeying Bruce because he sees Clark also obeying Bruce and figures that makes Bruce leader of their little pack. And then seeing Clark, Conner and Kara kinda like his siblings who he gets to play around with and have fun with. And seeing all of the Robins and Jon as puppies so he is super gentle with them and obeys them in the same way a parent or uncle might obey a toddler shouting 'Uppies'

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I think a superhero (as a civilian) dating someone who is obsessed with finding out their secret identity is a little overdone but think about Damian dating someone who is convinced that there is an immortal war lord still alive today and that even the Justice League don't seem to publically acknowledge it. While Damian is just scrambling because how do you tell your partner that a) yes they are right, the Demon's Head is real and b) the Demon's Head is his grandfather.

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Answers Dickbin has given to the question 'Where's Batman?' while millionaire Bruce Wayne is in earshot

He's pregnant

He wants to get the next chapter of his self insert Superman romance fic finished for Valentines day

Explosive diarrhea

Put his back out playing squash

Date night with Lady Gotham

One of their many pet bats is sick

Bruce Wayne beat him for Gotham's sexiest man and Batman is livid about it so refuses to save him

Soft launching his retirement but sending out Robin alone more

Monthly meeting of the Vampire Covens of America

One long running lie was the Batman divorce saga in which Dickbin claimed Lex Luthor had tricked Batman into marrying him and was now trying to get the Watchtower and their stockpile of Kryptonite in the divorce. Dickbin even went so far as to have Bruce Wayne sign something in public saying that he thought Batman was a good parent so that he had character witnesses for a supposedly ongoing custody battle.

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Dick Grayson being haunted by the brother he failed to save (Jason) and Jason Todd haunted by the brother he failed to live up to (Dick)