Bruce and sanity
It struck me recently that one of the many (many, many…) reasons why Bruce is my One True Character is the eternal issue of “How sane is he?”
That’s something we talk about, both fandom and creators and occasionally in the text. Often as a joke, most often by me. It’s never done in a serious fashion in the text, because if they did acknowledge it, they would have to deal with it. But it’s true all the same, even if we don’t always accept it.
In my mind, Bruce is high functioning, but he’s not entirely mentally healthy. He’s got PTSD, which we all know but no-one in canon seems to realise or I sure hope Alfred or Leslie would’ve advised him to find a doctor. In times of high stress, his dislike of guns blooms into full-fledged phobia. He has hallucinated Batman as a separate being and he has talked to him - at a time during which he was neither wounded nor under the influence of any drugs.
That makes him relatable to me for a variety of reasons. How much do I love that a hero doesn’t have to “sane” to be smart, rational, driven, concerned about others, heroic?
I wish creators would admit it, though. His not being a model of mental health does not make him not a hero, not any more than Cass’ learning disability prevents her from being one.
That’s something we talk about, both fandom and creators and occasionally in the text. Often as a joke, most often by me. It’s never done in a serious fashion in the text, because if they did acknowledge it, they would have to deal with it. But it’s true all the same, even if we don’t always accept it.
In my mind, Bruce is high functioning, but he’s not entirely mentally healthy. He’s got PTSD, which we all know but no-one in canon seems to realise or I sure hope Alfred or Leslie would’ve advised him to find a doctor. In times of high stress, his dislike of guns blooms into full-fledged phobia. He has hallucinated Batman as a separate being and he has talked to him - at a time during which he was neither wounded nor under the influence of any drugs.
That makes him relatable to me for a variety of reasons. How much do I love that a hero doesn’t have to “sane” to be smart, rational, driven, concerned about others, heroic?
I wish creators would admit it, though. His not being a model of mental health does not make him not a hero, not any more than Cass’ learning disability prevents her from being one.