The following contains spoilers for Titans Season 4 and Gotham Knights Season 1.
One of the big draws when Titans began was the presence of Iain Glen's Bruce Wayne. It came when Warner Bros. wasn't keen on Batman across multiple platforms. However, Bruce was used without showing the veteran crime fighter dressed as The Dark Knight.
Instead, he was retired, grumpy and engaged in a feud of morals and ethics with Nightwing. Since then, they've patched things up, but Batman keeps looming like a shadow. Unfortunately, as Season 4 of Titans wraps the series, it is evident the show never had a handle on its Caped Crusader the way Gotham Knights does when it comes to the absent father angle.
Titans Couldn't Escape Its Batman
On Titans, Dick kept calling Bruce for help after they healed their rift, which got old quickly. The moment Bruce and Dick repaired the bond, Bruce should have cut ties for good to let Dick be his own man. With the rise of Brother Blood, and the Titans being short on numbers, Batman not showing up to help Nightwing doesn't add up.
Dick phoning Oracle would have felt more natural to the story, given her past as Batgirl and all the connections they made. Admittedly, Scarecrow or Red Hood killing off The Bat in Season 3 would have helped, teaching Dick about consequences. And more so, it'd have inspired him to be a better father and allow Jason to atone for the betrayal. This way, an absent Bruce would have been a bigger symbol.
What also doesn't work for Nightwing and Co. is how the show kept harping on Bruce's villains. Season 4 tried to force Shimmer into leaving Riddler-like ciphers when Jason trains Tim as the new Robin. It doesn't feel organic, as the show's clearly trying to give them a Bruce-esque journey. Instead, Titans' villains such as the cerebral psychic, Psimon, or the deadly assassin, Cheshire, would have made sense. Sadly, Titans keeps trying to have Bruce as a shadow, not sure how to move past him.
Gotham Knights Used Batman as a Smarter Foundation
Come Gotham Knights, the idea of using Batman as a platform and then lifting off is executed much better. Turner Hayes has to solve Bruce's murder, and Duela and the Rows are there helping him to clear their name, too. However, the show moves past the Batcave and Bruce's gadgets pretty quickly, letting Carrie Kelley carry the mantle to teach about vigilantism.
As Robin, she leads the way Bruce would, passing down his code. Even Bruce's diary is just browsed now and then for hints about the Court of Owls, allowing the team to carve their own identities. While the Court does lean a lot into the books, the series actually breaks from the source material in a clever way to make its characters more relatable. Carrie, for example, moves from having a neglectful family and being overly dependent on Bruce to someone hiding from her mom that she's not a "normal" teen.
Not to mention, Turner acts as a young detective in his own way, realizing he and Bruce were just two different people. They don't even discuss his adoptive dad that much, despite being obsessed with the case. Sure, Harvey Dent as Two-Face and the Court are linked to Bruce, but after Gotham found out he was The Bat, the show didn't bother to be bogged down in the past. Instead, the Owls' corruption is the main focus, thereby creating new heroes. Ultimately, the Gotham Knights feel like their own people, while the Titans just felt like a poor imitation of a Bat family that couldn't let go of the Wayne legacy.
All four seasons of Titans are available on HBO Max. Gotham Knights returns May 23 at 9 pm ET/PT on The CW.