There’s a weird kinda gross undercurrent I keep noticing in the happy robin angry robin debate, and it’s been driving me insane, so I’m gonna rant about it and hope someone else sees what I’m talking about.
It seems like most of the debate has nothing to do with cannon, but the part that really bothers me is how often people are only arguing about it because they’re using angry child and bad child interchangeably, which leads to some concerning sentiments about mental health.
Like yeah, a heavily traumatized child isn’t always going to be in control of their emotions. A regular child hasn’t fully developed the parts of their brain they need to regulate their emotions or learned the coping skills adults use to process those feelings. Then you add trauma, which makes it hard for adults to keep a handle on their emotions, and they’re not gonna be doing great 100% of the time, which is sometimes going come out in messy ways. It’s the adults’ job to give them the tools/resources/safe spaces they need to heal, not the kid.
I’ve just been frustrated with the number of comments I’ve seen, almost treating it like a moral debate, like “my robin is better than yours because they’re more well behaved” (it’s a small group, at least I hope, but I still see it more often than I’d like). There’s a weird blame game with them too, where when their trauma affects them in ways that make them act out people blame the robin instead of acknowledging the fact they’re in a triggering/violent environment (I especially see this with modern Jason comics where he gets more aggressive around drugs and is deemed a bad kid despite the narrative showing us it’s a trauma response and he’s scared)
Now of course this isn’t meant to discount more nuanced debates around how classism/racism may play into how these characters are written, but I’m not so much trying to talk about that as I am talking about how people discuss the already existing cannon in inaccurate ways to justify one or the other robin being “better”. I will also fully admit to my bias, I love the version of Jason where he is angrier and lashing out because he’s scared (I think Robin and Batman Jason Todd 2025 by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen is such an interesting depiction of how his trauma affects him and how the adults in his life failed him). Trauma isn’t fun and I fully believe there’s room for respectful depictions of that without veering into classist stereotypes or removing it entirely. I also just don’t like how often it seems like Jaybin’s trauma is acknowledged by the fandom but treated as something which either doesn’t affect him (which isn’t a thing) or only affects him in ways that fit a perfect sad boy aesthetic and don’t really interfere with his life. Idk maybe that’s me being too nitpicky or overthinking this but as I said I’m just ranting and hoping someone else is picking up what I’m putting down.
I pretty much just mean to say, a kid experiencing emotions doesn't make them a bad kid, please stop putting moral weight on emotions. Also, one character being happy doesn't make the other angry or vice versa, they don't only exist in reference to each other, sometimes they're going to share traits.
(Not sure if any of this makes sense or if my tags are quite right, but I tried so give me a heads-up if they aren't)
