#officially
jason todd, with his clepto tendencies and hatredof men expressing anger with violence, probably taught bruce a lot about discipline. I mean I’m not saying young dick was a poster child, but come on. he was sweet, he wanted to be a good person, he didn’t have nearly as much drive to explore the dark possibilities as young jason did. I’m also not saying bruce used violence to express his anger towards his kids (maybe towards villains but NOT EVER his kids) but jason was just so different. the kid pissed him off. he stole from him, he defied him, he was wreckless and impulsive on missions. so bruce had his true first encounter with raising a difficult kid. he yelled, as almost all parents do, but upon seeing then the way it affected jason he wondered if maybe that wasn’t the right thing to do. he was confused, dick had never reacted to him yelling like that. but here jason was, pale and shaking, trying to hold back tears, not looking him in the eye. bruce learned to quiet his voice. he learned yelling signaled to jason that he was going to get hurt. and bruce being the person he is, decided he simply would not yell at jason. and still do this day, if he’s angry with him he doesn’t yell, sometimes he even softens his voice a bit. but every now and then he messes up. sometimes jason will stumble to the manor, shit faced, bloody, pockets full of cash, and bruce will care for him, but seethe on the inside. sometimes he raises his voice a little louder than he meant to, and even adult jason will flinch. but that’s another thing bruce has learned when it comes to raising some verytroubled kids. he knows when and how to apologize. sometimes he doesn’t want to. but he does. sometimes the kid should be the one apologizing but bruce still does it. jason, as full of anger and pain as he is, knows that despite bruce’s fuck ups. despite the past, his death, and their current rocky relationship, jason knows his dad wouldn’t hurt him. and he gets hurt. a lot. so it’s good for him to have someone to turn to. someone he knows won’t raise a finger against him.
