Let’s talk about Roy’s abandonment issues!
So this is a thing I come back to over and over again when I’m writing Roy, and for me it’s a super crucial aspect of his character, and one of his biggest stumbling blocks in relationships.
Roy is a Good Little Extrovert, right? He’s charming and flirty and very very good at faking being okay, so it’s easy to miss the ways in which he falls into his own unhealthy patterns. (Especially because he tends to fall into them with people who have a vested interest in believing him when he lies and says he’s okay.)
You can trace Roy’s abandonment issues pretty clearly and consistently through his canon from “Snowbirds Don’t Fly” on, but there are three moments in particular that for me, really inform how he reacts to feeling abandoned, and why: the detox flashback in the Arsenal miniseries, his breakup with Donna in Titans ‘99, and his breakup with Jason in RH/A.
So! Arsenal #1!
This is the only time Roy ever says the inside thoughts out loud, and naturally it’s when he’s at his lowest possible point. (We do not speak of Cry for Justice or Rise of Arsenal in this space.) And yes, he’s a teenager, and yes, he’s detoxing, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true, and that doesn’t mean the feelings will ever fully go away. There’s a part of Roy that will always believe that he is fundamentally unlovable and deserves to be left. That no one will ever stay, because no one ever has. (It probably doesn’t help that not only did both of his fathers die, they did so by charging in to meet death head-first - Ollie specifically after Roy asked him not to.)
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