Matt Reeves’The Batmanhas evolved the character ofBruce Wayne like no other Batman film has. The film heavily focuses on the rage within Bruce that drives him to obsess over vengeance but creates an arc forBatmanthat vengeance isn’t necessarily what’s going to help the people of Gotham, the people around him, and most importantly for himself. Instead, he needs to be an inspiration of hope to Gotham if he is to help his city be what he hopes it can be.
This arc begins with an echo of the past in the form of the murder of the mayor by The Riddler when the movie introduces Batman to the Mayor’s son, who Bruce obviously sees as himself. It’s almost a perfect replication of crime alley, the single moment that influences Bruce in everything he does in every single Batman story ever told. It is through the inclusion of the mayor’s son that viewers see how Bruce sees himself. He is still that innocent child traumatized and alone driven to punish those he deems guilty with his rage and anger from that day.
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Throughout the film, Batman and Bruce see the child at the crime scene and the funeral, which brings up his own traumas and anger. In the final arc of the movie and the final arc of Bruce himself, he saves the child by showing the kid the version of Batman the criminals don’t get to see and the one version of himself he’s learned that he needs to be for change to truly begin in Gotham. By leading them from the rubble throughthe flood of The Riddler’s destruction, he gives the child and the people of Gotham a sense of hope, and ostensibly shows himself what he needed when he was the same age when his parents were killed.
What Bruce needed at that moment in his life was hope and someone to guide him through his emotions, and he has finally grown to see that, but it is a little too late. His actions have caused its consequences and there is no going back from that. That is why now is the perfect time for him to pass that on to a character many fans haven’t seen on the screen in years.
Robin is a massive part of the Batman mythos, so much so that Dick Grayson’s Robin has been around longer than Batman’s biggest villain, The Joker. At any point inBatman comics, Grayson has a presencewhether it is right front and center or as a background player while he does his own thing as Nightwing-which is why it is strange that filmmakers have rarely included the Boy Wonder at all. No matter what, he is there, and he is an important presence for Bruce Wayne as he means so much to him. For Bruce, Grayson is both his second chance and his greatest success as Batman. It’s the chance for Bruce to look in the mirror of the trauma he went through and to help that child turn out better than himself.
That is why introducing Dick Grayson is the next logical step inthe Pattinson-led Batman movie franchise that will inevitably happen. Now that Bruce has grown through his character arc, he can now pass that on to prevent Dick Grayson from doing the same thing. It works perfectly with Dick Grayson because like the mayor’s son, they are almost identical, with both of their motivations coming from their parents being killed and seeking vengeance for it.
In some ways, Bruce teaching Grayson what he had learned at the end ofThe Batmancan be his salvation and closure from him focusing so heavily on vengeance. It would make sense for Bruce to feel guilty about everything that happened inThe Batman, especially since a lot of it was from his own actions influencing others, just with more sinister ways of going about it. Grayson is Bruce’s course correction for his earlier actions and can be the solution to the cycle continuing.
But Dick Grayson isn’t just a course correction for Bruce, he is his actual family much like Alfred Pennyworth is. Just like Bruce learns who he needs to be for himself and Gotham inThe Batman, he also learns that his biggest fear is still losing his family-like mentioned earlier, he is still that child in the alley. Having a son-like figure for Bruce is a way to further explore his fear of losing his family but also losing the better version of himself.
More than any other Robin, Bruce throws all of his lessons and hopes into Dick Grayson in the hope that he doesn’t turn into what he had. Thusly, Dick Grayson knows more about Bruce than anyone else, especially being almost a mirror image of himself, and having him there is a way to get even further underneath the cowl and explore the humanity and hope of Bruce Wayne that was shown at the end ofReeves' amazing rendition of The Caped Crusader,The Batman.
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