How do you characterize Jason Todd in your fics, both as himself and the Red Hood. You're definitely more knowledgeable about him than I, so I was wanting to know if you had any tips.
I may be slightly biased in how I deal with him. XD I love him lots, so I prefer to treat him as fairly as possible, and I also try to highlight the good in him as much as possible. I probably make him a lot softer and kinder than he would be in canon, because I can’t stand people being unnecessarily mean.
Okay. Trying to actually categorize it here.
I usually try to make Jason’s strengths:•His intense brand of compassion; this kid would bleed out for someone else if he cared about them or if they were an innocent being threatened. He cares deeply and doesn’t do things half-way once he is invested, which leads into….•His strong sense of justice, which can lead into a flaw where he takes it too far, but generally speaking I think valuing justice is a good thing.•Capable and responsible when he chooses to be. •I’d say as a general rule, I view Jason as a principled, intense individual who is admittedly ruled by his emotions sometimes but makes up for it with a ragged but kind soul.
His flaws, I like to think, are:•Intensely self-centered when it comes to family disagreements. How much of this is his fault and how much is the Lazarus Pit, I don’t know. It’s kind of hard for me to reasonably explain a consistent and logical break-apart of this trait of his, but basically it’s that when something terrible happens, whether to him or someone else, he has this tendency to come up with a position to hold about it, slam down onto it with a death grip, and refuse to let go of it, even if it’s inaccurate. He thinks of himself or his own conclusions first and does not make an effort to think of someone else’s actions objectively before reacting to them. This leads to a lot of his poor relationships with his family; his and Bruce’s misunderstandings are exactly that. Bruce does something, Jason assumes what he meant by it without thinking deeper than his initial hurt or anger, latches onto that as the “facts” of the situation, and between his anger and Bruce’s obliviousness to Jason’s conclusions (in Bruce’s defense, Jason’s conclusions sometimes are pretty out there and he cannot be expected to read Jason’s mind) leads to a repeating cycle of dysfunction between them. •A general tendency to want to keep to himself and avoid bringing others in. When you’ve been through certain things, trust is both difficult and exhausting, so if there aren’t people in your immediate circle you already trust (which is also rare because you sometimes lose trust for people you had previously trusted) you’re not motivated to try and form new trusting relationships with other people. There’s too big of a chance of more pain and it’s just easier to go it alone. •Reacting quickly and recklessly. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it can become a bad thing when he runs into a situation based off a perception which may or may not have been correct.•Stubbornness. Can be a virtue if used right, but when it’s built up as a sort of shield around him against fixing himself, a bad thing. •Resentment. Holy wow does this kid hold a grudge. It’s understandable but after a certain point it just hinders him and everyone around him. •Protects himself by lashing out viciously when threatened or questioned on things he doesn’t want to discuss.•A bipolar position on self-preservation. He might protect his life a bit more than when he was a kid, before the concept of death was really solidly in his psyche, but at the same time, a combination of the Joker’s abuse and Bruce’s confusion—which he interprets as abandoning disapproval—probably brought some of his childhood mindset of being a worthless burden to the foreground. This could make him angrily protect his life and his place because he subconsciously believes he has to, or it’ll be ripped away from him because he doesn’t actually have a claim to it.
I would add that I view the Red Hood as kind of being Jason’s outlet for his own ideal version of himself; one that doesn’t need Batman or anyone on his six, one who doesn’t have any compassion or fears or inabilities to hold him back. He’s attached to the identity because he sees it as something that’s solely his that he took and made for himself, and it gives him the ability to assume a confidence which he doesn’t really have consistently. As Red Hood, he doesn’t have to hold himself back or reign himself in, because he can convince himself that whoever he’s roughing up deserves it, and it might even be true. He doesn’t have to toe a line to avoid rocking the boat. Anything goes, and he can act as he usually does; without much pause for thought, fast and hard and ruthless.
anyway I don’t know if this is actually helpful or just a lot of rambling about how much I love Jason Todd, but maybe it’ll be helpful. XD
