"be the person you needed when you were younger"
i could write a goddamned essay on how this quote is the basis of batman as a concept and character
ok so bruce had his parents murdered in front of him, in an act of great violence and at the time, he wished someone could've saved them. stopped the criminal from getting away . so he became the person who could save them. he needed a batman when he was younger. he became that batman. he needed someone to tell him its will be okay, he'll survive. and you know what batman does? he tells people its going to be okay, that they will survive. (this comes from both of his personas, as bruce provides the money they need and batman provides the safety and security they need.)
so yeah. bruce became the person he needed. thats why batman, when broken down to his core parts, its a kind and caring person. you know who plays with the kids when the league is questioning a family? batman. (im not joking, in a comic he actually does this)
so yeah
#if allowed i would like to add that this is also why he allowed dick to become robin#because when he was young and seeking danger to take revenge for his parents deaths he needed someone to understand him and not stop him#but instead guide him to direct his anger and grief in a healthy way#thats what he needed from someone and he gave that to dick#you could argue that batman was irresponsible for letting dick become a vigilante but batman knows how dick feels!! and anyways he wasn't#open to the idea of dick putting himself in danger in the first place it was after a while he accepted that dick wasnt going to stop#which is why this is another way bruce is being the person for dick that he needed when he was younger#bruce wayne via @those-goddamn-bats
yea!! bruce wanted to make sure his kids had someone that they needed so they would develop in a somewhat normal and healthy way, unlike himself. so the reason he let his kids do what they do is because they were gonna do it anyway. so it really didnt matter, they needed someone to support them and guide them instead
There was an interesting comic back in the... Silver Age, I want to say? I've just looked it up to refresh my memory and the story was called "Batman: To Kill a Legend." Anyway, the gist of it was that the Phantom Stranger transported Batman and Robin to a parallel universe that was a few decades slower than their own, with the mission to save that world's Thomas and Martha Wayne.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, they do wind up saving the Waynes, and in the denouement we the audience get a peek into that world's future. Instead of being motivated by the tragedy of his parent's murder, that world's Bruce Wayne (who up to that point was a bit of a brat) is inspired by the "Bat-winged Creature" that saved his family, and throws himself into a regimen of mental and physical self-improvement, which will one day lead to him becoming his world's Batman. Inspired not by a tragedy, but by the prevention of one.
I just found that interesting, that there was a time when Batman was literally the exact person he needed when he was younger.
