ok so. my thoughts re: the detective comics 619 panels i shared this morning.
Leading up to these panels, Bruce rushes in right after he gets back from patrol, anywhere between a couple hours and a day or two since finding out Tim's parents are in trouble. He ditches casework, and only stops to take food from Alfred to bring to Tim, and they have a small exchange where they both agree Tim will appreciate the gesture more from Bruce.
Bruce gets to Tim as fast as possible. Doesn't even take the time to enforce his general identity barrier of not wearing the cowl in the manor. To him, he's doing his best to prioritise Tim's emotional needs and be there for him. Informed by the loss of his own parents, and being with Dick after the death of the Graysons.
He even offers to take the following day off to stay with Tim. And I think, depending how you read it, this even extends to the "night job." Bruce is offering to drop everything, his usual proceeders, the facade of not accepting another child into his life after Jason, and his obsessive work, all to be there for someone important to him.
But to Tim, Bruce has kept the cowl on intentionally. It's a barrier. (The mask is always a barrier to Tim, even for himself, as we go on to see in Robin 1993.) To Tim, Bruce could not be bothered to take the cowl off for the conversation. He sees Bruce as still hiding, and still uncaring. Tim sees Batman treating him with kid gloves, like an overbearing parent staying home to hover and fuss over a sick child. (Though at this point I imagine any parental behaviour would seem overbearing in comparison to the experience Tim's had.) He sees the mask as Bruce putting on an act, Batman giving the same speech he might give any distressed child in passing, rather than being honest and open with his partner, his Robin.
So Tim puts up a wall, dismisses Bruce's attempt at vulnerability and support, instead bringing the mission to the forefront. And Bruce slams right into it, and kind of internalises "I don't need to do all that, actually, maybe I don't need to talk emotions over the mission".
It's easy to see how they each reach these conclusions, to see where they're coming from. To see Bruce's growth appear to be for nothing, and to see why one might react in a way that unintentionally dismisses and negates that growth. Fandom and DC like to talk big about Bruce and Tim's similarities, but I think their disconnects reap more interesting fruit, and define the legacy and impact of their tenure as Batman-and-Robin, both on their own lives and relationships, and on the audience. (Basically they each continually misinterpret eachother which leads to habitually bad communication *out of the field* and each of them reenforcing/perpetuating the others' flaws and insecurities.)
