I feel like I can trust you with Dick's characterization, unlike every dc writer; how do you think he'd react to what the fam did to Damian? And how'd he react to what Damian did? (it's the most terrible character assassination, but it still happened unfortunately)
The interesting thing about Dick’s situation is that he was there when Damian blamed himself for Alfred’s death (for people who don’t know, Dick had amnesia at this point). He knows how Bruce did nothing to actively comfort Damian or to offer him reassurance. Babs was the only one who stood up for Damian and told Bruce to go after Damian. Bruce, of course, didn’t.
This is such a huge contrast to how Dick reacted when Damian blamed himself for the whole Selina and Talia situation. (Yes, I’m aware that the two situations are wildly different from one another.) But instead of allowing Damian to stew in guilt, Dick comforted Damian and asked how he could help him. Then, instead of letting Damian go off to Khadym by himself, Dick went with him. Something that Damian was extremely grateful for.
Because of this (as well as other times where Dick is the one who’s there for Damian), I think that if Dick had been his usual self during all this, he definitely would have done something similar to Babs and given Bruce a verbal lashing for not going after Damian. I also think it would have been in character for Dick to go after Damian to talk to him about his feelings (or to say something comforting to keep Damian from leaving in the first place).
We’ve seen before that Dick and Bruce’s methods of dealing with Damian are different. When Damian disobeyed Bruce, Bruce easily gave up on the idea of working with Damian, and he told Damian to keep working with Dick instead.
On the flip side, when Damian disobeyed Dick, Dick quickly realized that Bruce’s method of “demanding” Damian to do as he was told wasn’t going to cut it. He tried a new approach instead. He pointed out what Damian failed to do, but he also praised Damian for what he did right.
Dick turned a negative into a positive. He also reinforced the idea that he would be there for Damian because they were partners. This was something Damian realized when Dick saved his life while dealing with Professor Pyg.
It was basically Dick’s silent way of saying, “Hey, you’re not getting rid of me, and I’m not getting rid of you. We’re in this together. I’m here for you.”
Bruce’s message to Damian was the exact opposite. It wasn’t, “Hey, I’m still going to be here for you even when you mess up.” Bruce’s message was to essentially say, “You’re too difficult to work with. I don’t want to try and make it work.”
Dick, knowing exactly how infuriating Damian could be, and knowing how hard it was to work with Damian, ended up defending Damian in that moment.
Dick knew Damian’s struggles. He knew Damian was insecure about the idea of Bruce taking Robin away from him. Damian had told him about it, and while Dick had tried to brush it off as a joke at first, he quickly became serious and tried to understand what was bothering Damian when he realized how upset Damian was.
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