User blog comment:Thailog/Ep. 207 "Depths" discussion/@comment-112.203.91.238-20120610144243/@comment-86.23.36.187-20120610184002

I lead more toward Tula's death being real. Which really did affect Aqualad badly, perhaps badly enough to leave the team, and then a little later when Kaldur had recovered, rather than him rejoining the Team they come up with the plan (assuming he found out about his real father before or shortly after Tula's death).

I also think it plays a large part of why Wally wants himself and especially Artemis out of the superhero game. He doesn;t want what happened to Tula to happen to Artemis.