How do u think it would’ve turned out if Bruce and Khoa stayed together to fight crime like Khoa wanted?
my first ask!! i spent quite a bit of time thinking abt this cuz it's a good question that I somehow hadn't thought about before.
to be honest, they would both have to compromise in some way. either they would go to gotham and bruce would let khoa kill (he himself wouldn't, obviously) or they would travel eurasia the way khoa does but khoa wouldn't kill. this doesn't necessarily have to break them, i actually think they'd have a lot of angry sex and/or angry sparring sessions about it when it particularly grates at them.
if they've chosen each other, altering their personal missions to fit each other, then I like to think khoa will see bruce's bleeding heart and want to protect it. less in a noble, knight in shining armor way; he just doesn't understand how bruce can both have such a darkness inside of him (something their shared teachers kept commenting on) but still hold such compassion and belief in redemption. because he's so fascinated by this, he wants to protect it. this makes it easier for him to follow bruce's no kill rule and not feel like a dog on a leash. he also just takes it as a challenge from bruce: to create meaningful and lasting change WITHOUT killing off every problem.
as for bruce, if he had to give up gotham, I think he'd be homesick but kept busy with khoa. he would never let go of that compassion, but I think khoa's efficiency and ghost-net would allow bruce to appreciate the art of his work more. the ghost-net is a lot more invasive (reading personal messages, tracking strangers remotely) compared to the kind of detective work bruce does, which is more hands-on. for example, in the joker wars (? khoa's first appearance, basically) khoa said he solved several cases and leaked information about corrupt politicians from his plane, before he even touched gotham soil. because there's a greater degree of separation compared to bruce patrolling the streets every night, I think it would be easier for him to appreciate his work as art and not feel guilty or like he's letting go of his humanity/compassion for it. bruce is still and will always be the hand reaching from the shadows to pull people from their darkest, blackest moments, that will never change.
together, they make a brilliant team. they're equal partners in terms of solving crimes and fighting, and they're practically telepathic. at this point, they've trained together since 13 (I'm not sure what the canon timeline is since in b:tk, bruce started training at around 17/18, but in the joker wars, bruce says he knew khoa from at least 15yrs. I like to believe bruce ran away at 13 and came back at 21), they've been tortured together, bled together, khoa killed a man and that still didn't break them apart. their minds are as close to one as it can get, with their inherent differences.
in my preferred vision of their future, they end up back in gotham AND khao doesn't kill (I want bruce happy, sue me). I find the idea of khoa and alfred clashing as two different "caretakers" of bruce really funny, especially with cultural differences. tea, food, clothes, etc. plus, khoa passive aggressively dismissing alfred as "the help" and alfred refusing to call khoa "master" or serve him the way he technically should lol.
I'm not sure how the adoption of the batkids would go, but I do love them so I'll make it work. it's easy with Dick, because khoa will watch the graysons fall and he's immediately turning to bruce to tell him no. unfortunately, bruce is already in front of dick and offering his jacket and shielding the boy from the audience's eyes. cue khoa face-palming. dick and khoa would be rivals since both want to be partners with bruce. even as dick starts seeing bruce as a father, he still dislikes khoa. unfortunately, they have a lot of respect for each other as vigilantes, since they've def had to save each other before.
with jason, it's easy. bruce is sad because he misses dick, so khoa picks up the first kid he sees on the streets. he orchestrates their first meet and pretends to be annoyed when bruce introduces jason. the things khoa does for bruce's soft heart lol. jason's death doesn't happen, not with khoa's crazy surveillance of everything related to bruce, including his kids. he kills the joker, and it's the first time in years that he's broken his promise to bruce. I do think bruce forgives it, given 1) how badly he wanted to kill the joker in canon and 2) his previous forgiveness of khoa's murder. the conflict after joker's death comes from bruce realizing he forgives khoa and getting scared of who he's becoming. he sees this as the start of a pattern, like he's finally lost his humanity, and he pushes khoa away as a result. he feels guilty for so many things, for jason being in such a bad position, for forgiving khoa, for pushing him away, for wanting him back.
this is kind of a crack-ish idea, but it would be incredibly funny if tim goes up to khoa and says batman needs a ghost-maker and tries to parent-trap them together. khoa finds this amusing and lets the kid try, going along with it. bruce is irritated but at the end lets it happen. he's finally realized he hasn't changed and let go of his guilt around forgiving khoa. perhaps, since tim went to khoa instead of dick as in canon, he becomes phantom-one and not robin? khoa does not want to be a father but he might just find tim interesting enough to want to see that potential bloom himself. he would be more tim's mentor while bruce would take the parental role.
i'm going to leave it at that. this was a lot longer than I was expecting, but also super fun to contemplate! i really appreciate the ask, if you have any thoughts about this (either things you think could happen or things that seem unlikely/ooc), send another ask! i'd love to discuss this more <3
