"People fantasize about being a hero and helping someone in trouble. Batman is that fantasy realized-not just for Bruce Wayne, but for the audience. Inwardly, Bruce Wayne is still an adolescent watching his parents being murdered. That will never leave him. And people really relate to that"
About this Quote
The real turn, though, is the insistence that Bruce Wayne is “still an adolescent.” Conroy’s Batman (especially in the animated canon he helped define) isn’t powered by confidence; he’s powered by stuckness. The suit, the voice, the theatrics: they’re not just tactics, they’re coping mechanisms. Calling Bruce an adolescent isn’t a cheap insult; it’s a psychological diagnosis. Gotham’s most competent adult is emotionally pinned to a childhood scene he can’t rewrite, only replay with different villains.
That’s why the audience “relate[s] to that.” Not because everyone has watched their parents die, but because many people recognize the core pattern: trauma that becomes an identity, a private catastrophe converted into a public mission. Conroy, an actor who built a definitive Batman on vocal nuance, is also pointing to performance itself-the mask that lets pain sound like purpose. Batman endures because he turns grief into choreography, and invites us to imagine our own damage might be transfigured the same way.
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Conroy, Kevin. (2026, January 15). People fantasize about being a hero and helping someone in trouble. Batman is that fantasy realized-not just for Bruce Wayne, but for the audience. Inwardly, Bruce Wayne is still an adolescent watching his parents being murdered. That will never leave him. And people really relate to that. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/people-fantasize-about-being-a-hero-and-helping-161087/
Chicago Style
Conroy, Kevin. "People fantasize about being a hero and helping someone in trouble. Batman is that fantasy realized-not just for Bruce Wayne, but for the audience. Inwardly, Bruce Wayne is still an adolescent watching his parents being murdered. That will never leave him. And people really relate to that." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/people-fantasize-about-being-a-hero-and-helping-161087/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"People fantasize about being a hero and helping someone in trouble. Batman is that fantasy realized-not just for Bruce Wayne, but for the audience. Inwardly, Bruce Wayne is still an adolescent watching his parents being murdered. That will never leave him. And people really relate to that." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/people-fantasize-about-being-a-hero-and-helping-161087/. Accessed 7 Feb. 2026.


