I FINALLY ARTICULATED WHY I LIKED JASON'S ARC IN FUTURE STATE
so the thing with future state is that jason becomes a peacekeeper for the magistrate, which is basically a rent-a-cop/bounty hunter for a deeply corrupt company that's trying to control gotham through an authoritarian police state. and at first, it's like wow, okay, jason has COMPLETELY given up on morality, right? but then we learn that jason is the only peacekeeper that doesn't kill. the peacekeepers act as bounty hunters, bringing in "criminals" like the masks/vigilantes, and the thing is that they have the option to bring them in dead or alive, and jason ALWAYS brings them in alive.
which, on the surface, is a breach of what jason does in a narrative, right? he is almost ALWAYS the voice advocating for more violence, more permanent ends. so then, why the fuck has he suddenly become this jim gordon figure who is trying to work within and reform this incredibly corrupt system from the inside?
but i think... i think that's the key of it. jim gordon, the one honest cop in the whole of gotham city, the man who championed a one-cop crusade against the unstoppable flow of corruption in her streets, is the blueprint here.
because jason is, in some ways, always the underdog. the scapegoat or the black sheep or the powder keg--however you want to frame it, he's usually a dissenting voice. he has no qualms about standing in opposition to everything and everyone around him. which is why his stance of not killing ANYONE in future state makes so much sense. when the whole world has become okay with killing indiscriminately, when there is basically a genocide happening in gotham's streets, of course jason is going to fight back against the complacency.
jason todd isn't a killer. it isn't that the red hood decided to kill in UTRH/lost days, and so that's his personality now--no, what he ACTUALLY does in a narrative is challenge it. when batman shows too much hope for the villains, when the bats refuse to kill them even though it would reduce the (high!!!) numbers of their future victims--THAT is when jason grandstands about killing rogues. but when there is no hope, and everyone in power is happy to wipe out whoever comes up on the naughty list... well, then that's when jason REFUSES to kill. it's not that he's contrary, or that he's wishy-washy, or that he has no morals--jason todd red hood is, in essence, a critique of the system. when the system forgives, jason asks why. when the system murders, jason asks why. and i think, looking at it through this lens, i can see why jason is the perfect jim gordon figure. after everything, it makes perfect sense that future state!jason has decided that there's been far too much blood spilt, and thus is trying to do something about it.
at the end of the day, jason todd is the voice of the victim. his role in the story just depends on which victim(s) need to be heard the most.
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