#sighs. i have the exploding hammers ready for any bad actors. lets do this

[convictsinterim]

Key Differences in Prime Earth (PE)/New Earth (NE) Jason's

Jason's own cognizance and awareness as a whole has been canned within PE. Jason worked in NE because of his metatextual awareness of the never-ending slaughter of victims. People created specifically to be statistics, to brush aside. That's why he confused some people who read the story—it's a Batman comic where nameless people die all the time, it's a part of the genre. Why are you challenging the genre?

This is obviously absent from PE Jason, down to Jason having fully lost his greater awareness or purpose as a character. He's nearly aimless. He's more like Dick than he has ever been, in that he is a complacent yes-man; sure he'll kick his feet or argue or get beat-on when times are tough and Bruce needs to let some steam off, but he does capitulate. His attitude about Bruce has also shifted more towards Dick's as well—he does not recognize what Bruce does as abusive at all. He does criticize Bruces actions but he's so quick to forgive/forget that nothing sticks.

Jason NE's entire purpose as a character was to actively challenge The Batman and Bruce, in what was one of the most brilliant decisions to be made with character resurrections—he wasn't just some ally who came back, he was Bruce and Batmans fucking son. He was Robin. Now he's Batmans antagonist.

Jason PE has lost that greater purpose. It's why he is so aimless and a part of what makes people so sick of him, enough so to get blisteringly vitriolic as to crow on and on about him. He is toothless, he is fangless, he does not challenge Bruce in a way that matters. He fakes Cobblepots death, Bruce puts him into a coma, and Jason and Bruce hug it out later. Zero emotional resonance. No meat at all to this story. Bouts of tonal whiplash delivered with the kind of writing that bores you to sleep.

Jason NE was disruptive to the Pro Status Quo propaganda comics churns out all the time, Jason actively centered the so-called 'collateral' damage, the statistics, the never-changing cyclical nature of Gotham. How he died 18 years ago real-time, and 3 years ago in-universe time, and nothing at all has changed—and in fact there's a new lamb for the slaughter.

Jason PE is now part of the pro status-quo propaganda. Just as Dick always has been. The capitulator. The same as everyone else. His sparkle is gone </3

Jason PE is defanged and devoid of any sort of real politics; internally he rarely delves into the quandaries and thoughts that Jason NE did. He doesn't even have the core of Jason NE's concerns—child sex trafficking, rape, drug rings, the structure of organized crime and the desire to control it, Jason PE has no greater goals. Genuinely honest to fucking god it's like he's never wanted anything a day in his damn life other than Bruce to be niceys to him. Jason NE also wanted the niceys but he had more conviction than that god damnit xD

Jason NE was refusing to squander his own morals, his own ethics, his own convictions, in chase of some false magnanimous makeup. He knew it wasn't going to happen and he didn't care to neuter himself to get it. He tried reaching out when he could. He was strangely respectful to them, even when making disparaging comments his high regard shone through. His disregard for the bats comes from a philosophical standpoint far more than a personal one. The personal issues he has with Bruce are part of it, yes, but it's bigger than that and always has been. His Robin tenure was rife with his views! He was doubtful and unhappy with Bruce AS ROBIN because he did not feel Bruce was accomplishing enough or doing enough.

Jason PE seems to just… He hasn't killed in the better part of a decade. He killed that one singular abusive dad and that's… about it really. His attitude towards death and the act of killing is (un)shockingly unexplored.

Jason PE doesn't have a super explored philosophy. Because RHATO is a hackjob. Other writers have touched on it, briefly, like the one who wrote about Jason PE pondering desk-murderers, or how Jason PE is in Task force Z, or elseworlds like the Boy Wonder one. Beastworld, too. Though none of these, not a single one, is reminiscent of Jason NE. All of them try to psychoanalyze Jason PE. Boy Wonder and Beastworld especially were reductive lenses on Jason as a whole.

Broadly speaking, Jason has just been victim to the corporate-sloppification, enshittification, sludge that has been rebirth for the bat-colony. Everyone knows what Tom Taylor's done to Dick's characterization. The superficiality, the even less-than-skin-deep writing. That. That is where Jason PE is at. Just with more whump/angst material, instead of happy go lucky drivel. They're like two sides of the same shit coin at the moment.

Speaking of Rebirth as a whole, there is also an acute risk-aversion evident. There hasn't been a single damn thing in DC like NML since it came out. A year long arc that effects literally fucking everything in Gotham. I cannot even begin to imagine DC publishing something like that current day. Can you imagine someone trying to get that story greenlit?

Jason NE was written by taking a huge fucking risk. The UTH story ends with Bruce being wrong. Having failed. There is no third option. He just failed this time, and he is culpable. Bruce died (yet another fake out but still) for a long time. Dick was fucking Batman. They switched Robins. Tim got a new Identity and kept it. BFTC was a huge risk to take as a story. It sucked fucking shit, but that's because Tony Daniels wrote it. And then Morrison took another risk and went back to fucking Camp-Batman but used Jason NE as the vehicle for that.

Even when Jason NE was being narratively… pummeled for existing, he was still being written with teeth. Jason PE can't leave tooth marks or claw marks on anything. He does not have the implements to do so. He just has scramble to hold on while he's always slipping away. All Jason PE is, is soft-underbelly.