Personally, I think that Bruce's dickery is not so much in firing Steph - he did, after all, say right at the beginning that 'if you disobey orders during probation, you're out.' Sure, one could argue that he's being way too restrictive in his standards, but he IS just going on what he said. He even tries to be nice about it - well, nice for him - with the 'there's no shame in that' comment. No no, what is dickish about his behavior is that he doesn't just ban her from being Robin - which is, after all, his prerogative; he can fire his sidekick if he wants to - it's his blanket condemnation of ANY other superheroic roles for her. What does he mean, she can't be Spoiler anymore? Who the hell gave him that authority over her life? It's her role, she created it, she made her own costume and everything, she's been training her ass off, integrating herself into the crimefighting community, doing her absolute best - and all of a sudden, it's 'no, screw all that, I'm the Batman, this is MY town, and you're not going to fight crime without my approval'? I mean, good grief, what a jerk!