...Wow. It could just be me, but if I’m reading it right it certainly seems as though Bruce had anything but either Jason or Dick’s best interests in mind by setting them up in that way, with Dick still unaware that he’d even been replaced. It even sort of reads as though he pretty deliberately orchestrated the entire thing at least partially to encourage a sense of competition and jealousy between them, or at least to shove the appropriation of Robin by someone else in Dick’s face and hurt him with it as much as possible. Even Jason’s abrasiveness towards Dick feels more like insecurity than a genuine conviction that he really is just that much better and more deserving of Robin.
I mean, I’ve never read this story in its entirety, so it’s completely possible that I’m misreading the motivations here quite a bit, and I sort of hope I am given that the Batdickery I’m seeing runs so thick on all sides that it really feels out of character even for Batman. Emotionally constipated manchild or not, I don’t buy that kind of needless vindictiveness from him.
I dunno. I like seeing Dick move beyond the immediate (and understandable) gut reaction of jealousy and anger to reach out to Jason a bit and big brother him some, but I think even on that I prefer the previous retcon.