whups feelings
this is a character-defining arc, to me. this is right after bruce puts tim through an elaborate hoax where he makes tim believe gotham’s heading for disaster and it’s the fault of one of the bats (starting on TIM’S BIRTHDAY, no less). tim spends the next few days sleeplessly going over the evidence, hoping and praying that it’s not true, but realizing there’s no evidence to disprove it and it IS the most plausible explanation. and he’s desperately, desperately trying to find a solution, because he’s been made to believe THE FATE OF GOTHAM rests solely on his shoulders. and then tim figures out it’s a hoax.
and then:
(god, what some of bruce’s other kids would give to hear those words.)
bruce’s explanation for the whole thing was training. putting tim through hell and making him question his already-shaky trust for people he loved, for training. he also goes so far as to criticize tim’s approach to the “training module” that tore him apart.
tim spends the next two pages in a state of shock. then he quits, see above, and it’s a perfectly understandable decision.
and then he goes crawling back, and it isn’t bc he forgives bruce, or agrees with him, or can’t give up the cape.
tim just doesn’t want to lose his family.
he thought if he didn’t go back to bruce, regardless of how he treated tim, he’d lose everyone. and he’s not willing to do that. so he goes crawling back and:
yeah. doesn’t even think he needs (deserves) an apology. and bruce accepts that as his due, because he’s an asshole.
tim sees bruce, and robin, as his link to his loved ones. and he’ll stick with it even when he’s questioning bruce—like he is now, and like he did in the whole batman was framed deal. back then, he said he thought robin had a duty to gotham outside of batman, although i’m pretty sure he was just covering his ass. this is different, though—it’s tim coming to falsely believe that no one cares about him except as robin.
and that’s part of why he was so upset when dick took robin from him (other than that it was the last thing he had left) and why he had to keep believing bruce wasn’t dead—tim CAN’T trust that with bruce gone, anyone will need him or want him anymore.
