damian idolized his father beyond belief, he spent all his early years striving to be his mother’s top student just so he could get to meet bruce. not because he was his father but because batman was the absolute peak of perfection. that’s what ra’s and talia kept reminding him all his life

and then he meets bruce, and he meets alfred, and he meets the rest of them, and there’s conflict and he doesn’t fit in because this isn’t how he imagined the great detective’s daily life to be. he didn’t imagine these people to be… a family. to care about each other. to care about him. this isn’t how he was raised, what he had experienced so far. talia cared but she didn’t make sure he ate breakfast, lunch and dinner for any other reason than that of staying in shape and never allowing his body to fail him, to fail her. she didn’t ask him how she liked her cooking or if he needed a quick stitching up of his suit. she watched him when he was fighting but that’s because she wanted to make sure his technique was perfect. batman watched him, always watched him, and even though it was a silent look, he cared about his safety

and bruce dies and dick takes over and agrees to having damian as his robin, and he actually respects him? he cares about his opinions and even though he won’t admit it, damian realizes the few times he’s held back is because dick knows what’s good for him. and later, his own mother starts attempting to kill him and suddenly these people he hasn’t known all his life, these people he’s argued with and couldn’t understand, they give their everything to protect him because he isn’t just batman’s son, a title and a prize for the al ghuls, he’s bruce’s son, he’s their brother and a friend and family. he’s damian wayne, not a tube test that went right and wasn’t discarded like all the other failed projects of talia