I'd like to preface this by saying that this is from my - brown, first-gen, oldest kid/basically third pseudo-parent - perspective and that because of it, it may affect how I view the parent-child relationships as opposed to other people, even those like myself.
I'd argue that Bruce is a good parent objectively, definitely has a lot of faults and made more than enough mistakes, and that me saying so shouldn't be as controversial as it is. (It should be noted that many of the most obvious and glaring examples of Bruce's mistakes or moments of being just a bad parent are ooc or can be explained, not excused, through context. Don't get it twisted though, some of the shit he's done is inexcusable point blank, cause I know you girls like to tussle and bring in shit that's not even relevant. 😒)
I say it shouldn't be controversial because what I'm saying is really not anything that outlandish. Like I'm not saying he's a great and/or flawless parent. I'm basically calling him mid.* 😭
And a lot of people can't see that because their own parental relationships affect how they view Bruce's, because they're projecting onto certain characters, even if subconsciously. And that's fine, I just wished people would be more aware of when their own relationships affect the how they write or interpret Bruce's and his kids relationship.
(Idealistically, I'd like for people to clarify that they make bad dad Bruce content because of their own experiences in some capacity -like by saying itself self indulgent- but people shouldn't even feel like they should air out their issues for the sake of my comfortability.)
Enough of me being an idiot for the sake of comfort, the point is Bruce is not a bad parent, intentionally.
Don't get me wrong he fucks up a lot but a good amount of the shit he fucks up is cause of how socially inept he is, some of it could literally be fixed with better timing, and he really loves his kids even if he doesn't express himself as freely (loose use of the word freely) as he did before Jason's death.
(I do wish the Batman writers would get off their self indulgent power fantasy by not only having Bruce, and themselves, acknowledge what he did wrong, even if down the line, by having him apologize in a Brucey sense. That being physical touch or like many immigrant parents, like my own, through things like food.)
* You guys do remember that good is literally not a big stretch. Its literally saying he's average, not bad but not great, just kinda in the middle. 💀
Also don't bring up that "BUt hE lEtS tHE KiDS FiGHtE cRimE" cause:
1. That man not only implanted the idea but dedicated himself to the idea of stopping all crime in Gotham -so that others wouldn't have to go through the loose of loosing a or loved ones, like he did- since he was 10 and in some shit started training and preparing for something along the idea of crime fighting at that age as well. (In more modern stuff he started as a teen but that still means he was a kid when he started this concept.)
2. He was doing literal vigilante shit as a child/teen too. (Again depends cause DC hates consistency.)💀
3. It's a fucking comic, while it's based in the real world it make no secret of ignoring a lot of real world logic/aspects for the sake of story telling. Like, the reason why kids are vigilante or out crime fighting is for the reader (target audience of kids) to enjoy. It's the definition of literally not that deep.
"BUt hE'S tHe ADuLT, hE sHOUld NoW bETTer-"
1. That man both grew up too quickly but never grew up as well, he's very idealistic and thinks like a kid sometimes. More often than not you see his own family and friends describe him as a frightened child that never let go.
2. He was in his early twenties when he took in Dick (having a 10-14 yr age gap depending on continuity, making it hard for him to not think of him as both as son and/or brother when the role fit. 😭) and he really thought he was helping Dick by training him instead of the kid going out on his own, if he refused, to take down Zucco because he didn't want him to end up like him.
3. Why go only after Bruce? 🤨 I literally don't see half the flack Bruce gets for any of the shit I've previously talked about with other heros, even when what they've done has been worse. 😒
(Listen, I get it, the fanboys and male who project themselves onto Bruce as their power fantasy are fucking annoying, it's a reason why I hate a particular sector of Comic writers/runs and a lot of the live action shit. -Looking at you Frank Miller, wtf are you taking cause I think the government needs to sample it or smth. What is with the fucking meows, Tom King? -)
Extras:
1. Also, just as a reminder cause some of you mfs be blind, Bruce pushes for his villains towards rehabilitation. (He doesn't just want to beat him up, but comic book nerds would be damn if they didn't see some violence. )
Like there's a reason why he helps out the common people as Bruce and Batman a lot, because he genuinely wants Gotham to be better to be a good and most importantly safe. And he goes about it by funding the city and a good portion of the people within. (You can literally find multiple examples of him going up to people as Batman and giving them a card or telling them to ask Wayne Enterprise's for a job because they are guarantee to get one.)
2. Cause I know some people are gonna bring up Rhao.
Fyi, don't take anything Rhao Jason says that seriously cause a lot of the thing is either ooc or inconsistent, and it's only Jason saying it without backing from anyone else in the family. (It also doesn't match with what we see of his training or Robin days so why use it for an argument. ☠️)
3. We need to have some Non-misogynistic writers rewrite Stephanie's time as Robin cause the writers really seem like they hated her and you can see it with how they wrote Bruce. (Note Bruce was also really harsh with her cause he wanted her to not get involved in that life but that doesn't excuse it.)
4. An argument can be made that Jason is Bruce's favorite child because none of the other kids would get away with half the shit Jason has done. (You could also argue it's because Jason is the first kid Bruce took in with the intention of being a parent/parental figure for.)
Heads up: This isn't my main so my replies would hypothetically be through reblogs. So yeah. 😭
