#batfam thoughts

[urrottingkitten3]

Im just thinkin ov how different batfam characterz wud fight like depending on wut they first learned, like how their style wuz formed n shyt. Like 4 example!: jason wud totez b a brawler dude, cuz he probably learned by experience on the streetz n shiet, dick wud obv b acrobatic n stuff, I think bruce probably fightz n in a super tactical n military style cuz he probably first learned 2 fight frum alfred who i think(?) served n wuz an agent n shiet, tim wud probably b the closest 2 bruce in style cuz i dun think he had any other pretext on that stuff, maybe he’d fight all smart n stealthy tho cuz i think the yearz ov stalking since childhood wudve maybe probably definitely had an effect lawlez. steph definitely haz the same shyt goin on az jason, probably even more potent tho, this girl fightz w her HEART lol, dami wud also obv b all assassin-y n shi, but like military assasin-y cuz hiz papa. My brain iznt quite functioning enuf 2 think aboot the rest, thatz abt it my lovez

[kindlingkeen]

not ‘baby jason was a sweet little cherub, way easier to deal with than his predecessor’ or ‘baby jason was an unhinged murderchild imitating the violence he viewed as normal due to his poverty’ but rather ‘baby jason was a snarky, clever, extremely eager to please kid and when he was triggered he fought with everything he had to protect himself and others’

🤨 Did you sneak a peak at the outline for my baby Blue Jay AU that I keep pretending doesn’t exist, anon? Seems like you and I are on the same wavelength. Baby jason was a snarky, clever, extremely eager to please kid and when he was triggered he fought with everything he had to protect himself and others is exactly how I think of the little guy.

Canon actually supports this version of him. In fandom, the tire theft origin story gets a lot of attention, but the canon details of what came after are so important. After Bruce gets his tires back, he makes a deal with Jason not to turn him over to the cops or social workers if he goes to stay at Ma Gunn’s School for Boys (Batman #410).

Turns out the school is a front for criminal activity.

Jason nopes right outta there and gets picked up by Bruce again for boosting tires (Batman #411).

Jason tells Batman about a plan to steal from the museum. Then Jason shows up to foil the crime himself because he didn’t think Batman believed him. It’s after this that Bruce takes him home.

Bruce likes to talk about how he tried to put Jason on the right path, but really Jason’s heart was already there to begin with.

[ito-itonomen]

Mitski's Townie is very Dick Grayson coded ngl

[turtleworm]

I'm glad more people have been writing dp x batfam lately, my two blorbos together at last.

[redstarfish-art]

Me: I wonder what's happening in comi-

My Brain: Remember what happened last time you wondered what's happening in comics?

Me: I no longer wonder what's happening in comics.

[kindlingkeen]

just read a post that said Jason could have prevented so much grief in Bruce's life had he just come home akshdggsjf i wanna k word myself

Because, clearly, the most important thing for Jason to think about upon being traumatically resurrected and effectively abandoned in the world again, was the grief Bruce was going through. The man earning the most entitled, self-centered, oblivious, A+ parent award of the decade. 🙄🤮

Anon, I saw the notification for this ask right after you left it, scoffed angrily and composed a scathing response in my head. Then I think my mind blocked the whole thing out in a trauma response, because I never actually answered the ask. I'm just seeing it in my inbox again while answering another ask. So, sorry for the delay, better late than never I hope.

[kindlingkeen]

you know those instances when the pain of losing someone is too much and you consider forgetting them altogether? that, but Bruce chooses NOT to forget. instead, he'd rather remember Jason incorrectly. gaslighting himself is his coping mechanism. it's literally the opposite of honoring the dead

Oh, anon, you are really tugging on my heartstrings with this one. I completely agree. Honestly, to me, Bruce’s response to Jason’s death is unforgivable (not the immediate grief, but the way he rewrote the narrative). He destroyed Jason’s legacy, the piece him that should have lived on forever. Fifteen year old Jason Todd hardly had a chance to make a mark on the world. As Robin, he made a difference, he gave everything he had to making Gotham a better place, to standing up for people who didn’t have anyone else behind them. The public didn’t (couldn’t) know about Robin’s death, so the only keepers’ of that memory, of that legacy, was Jason’s family. And for completely selfish reasons, Bruce didn’t just obliterate it, he tarnished it beyond recognition. And he spread that poison to the next generation. As you said, it’s the opposite of honoring the dead.

To me, the true tragedy of Jason’s story is not that he died, that Batman didn’t save him, that he was a collateral damage in Batman’s crusade, that even after he came back begging for his Dad to choose him he still lost, that ultimately his death meant nothing. It’s that his father, the person that was supposed to love him most in life, made it so his life meant nothing. It’s heartbreaking.

I will never understand how dc decided to go from these two boys who loved each other so much (Batman #383):

To a father, who, almost in the same breath, could say his son was responsible for his own death (Batman Hush):

And then turn around and claim his son knew how much he loved him:

To a father, who claimed his son was nothing more than rage (Batman 614).

and recklessness (Detective Comics 790).

That is tragedy.

[kindlingkeen]

Hello!! o/ I was curious about your opinions on the whole Jason Todd is immortal idea, this post lays it out pretty well & kinda mentions him using it to his advantage:

https://www.tumblr.com/forestlingincorporated/672020812528779264/so-jason-todd-might-be-immortal

If in your asymmetrical warfare series he was immortal in this way (dies but comes back) would that change anything? Would he use that ability at all?

Thank you :D

Hello!! I’m very normal about this ask. 👀

Friend, I think about this all the time. Like this is my #1 go to I-can’t-sleep-let-me-ponder-the-nature-of-Jason-Todd’s-existence thought wormhole.

‘Cause here’s the thing. Batman 💯 killed Jason at the end of Under the Hood. This, right here, is undeniably, unquestionably, arterial spray.

He would have bled out in minutes from a severed carotid. This kind of blood loss is not a survivable.

And then ofc there’s the whole…

Argue in the comments with me if you want, but I will die (bloody from hypovolemic shock) on this hill. Bruce killed Jason with that Batarang.

But, clearly, Jay comes back. Somehow. Those purple space sparkles at the end of Under the Hood sure look a lot like the purple space sparkles that bring Jay back initially.

And then there’s that beautiful bit of narrative text that goes along with Jay’s initial resurrection:

“The strange truth of this anomaly, this wave that set so many bits of time on a different path did not change history … but set it right.”

To me, this says that there is a right way for Jason Todd to die, and Superboy Prime’s ripple in time isn’t going to stand for it going down any other way. Ethiopia was the wrong way. À la Batarang wasn’t right either. So, immortal? I don’t know. But there are definitely conditions in place surronding his exit from this plane of existence.

But how does that ripple fix Jason’s death, exactly? After Under the Hood, does Jay wake up buried in the rubble sometime later? Or has Jason’s initial resurrection become fixed in time—a nexus point, if you will, that keeps pulling Jay back in. Now that’s fun to daydream about. 👀

I agree with the Tumblr post you cited that it seems like DC was building toward something with Jason in that era, and then just dropped it. And it seems pretty in character for how Jason was being written post Infinite Crisis, that if he thought he couldn’t die, he would use that to his advantage.

So, those are my thoughts in a nutshell surrounding the possible immortality of Jason Todd.

If in your asymmetrical warfare series he was immortal in this way (dies but comes back) would that change anything? Would he use that ability at all?

Right now, AW Jason is on a path to reclaiming pieces of himself—to building something for himself outside of Batman and the Joker—things that canonical Jason didn’t have or do. I think all of that would make AW Jason less cavalier about dying, less willing to chance it, than what DC was implying for a post Infinite Crisis Jason.

It certainly hasn’t occurred to AW Jason that he could be immortal. If something were to change that, depending on the nature of those circumstances, well … I guess we’ll have to see.

Thanks for the fantastic ask, friend. Hope you enjoyed my ramblings. The implications of all of this in Asymmetrical Warfare are going to be buzzing around the back of my brain for some time to come. 🩵

Images from Batman: Under the Hood by Judd Winick.