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Always enjoy some questionable, dysfunctional old man yaoi during Pride...

Also I needed to do a dooble of them since they lost that fuckass poll.

Ko-Fi Bluesky

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but now i plead, just take the deal

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Here's the thing about Alfred he's a old English butler and if you don't know anything about English classism then you might just look at that and go "oh how cute old man employee/dad figure" when in actuality you don't become a butler (at least the type Alfred is) without really believing in the class system as to become a butler you have to learn all the arbitrary old English rules about etiquette and really play into all the pompous shit rich people believe in

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for fellow glowy!Jason enthusiasts and potential converts, have an all-blades concept

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Gotham city dash simulator

🏙️ gothamyyte follow

Family are we confused

🗺️ rogue-daily follow

Always something in this damn city

🌅cherryhills-photos follow

Why were you reading don falcone rpf

🗺️rogue-daily follow

Do you know what website you’re on

🎹batgrrrrl-fan follow

Can we talk about how fucked up it is that the doj literally let his whole family believe he was actually dead. Is this not wildly unethical. I feel like I’m going insane

🌠totallyofficialstarcity follow

I dont even go here but wtf was the food budget in witsec bc whatever they were feeding him he is TOO DSMN BIG 😭😭😭

💾 savedbythe-bat follow

🩻fuckyeahbruciewayne follow

I think we’re all glossing over the fact that bro came back to life (IK that’s not what happened but it’s funny) to like. A handful of new siblings. Kind of hilarious

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Jason Todd & Critiques of Child Vigilantes

I've always found it interesting that as early as Bruce's opening monologue in Batman #428 - before he even finds Jason's body - DC had already started victim blaming Jason for his death.

Admittedly, I'm cherry-picking a bit here. There rest of the monologue does involve Bruce blaming himself as well, for all the choices he made in raising Jason that led up to this. In The New Titans #55, Dick makes a similar claim - this is Bruce's fault, for letting Jason be Robin before he was ready.

Except then Tim Drake picks up the mantle.

And the victim blaming settles in as the narrative DC's pushing. Jason was reckless, he was angry, he was impulsive. He jumped into this situation without thinking, and that's what got him killed.

And it's obvious why, right? Because Jason Todd dying, Robin dying, is about as effective an argument against child vigilantes as you can get. Because if it isn't Jason's own intrinsic failure, then the blame turns to Bruce. It's Bruce's fault for putting a kid in a costume, for putting Jason in a position where the Joker had cause to kill him.

(Sheila only sold Jason out because he was Robin. Joker only set the bomb because he wanted to avoid Batman's retaliation.)

Because if we really start critically thinking about the implications of child vigilantes in this world, it starts unraveling at the seams. And the first obvious loose thread is Bruce letting Tim pick up the Robin mantle, after the last one died.

Anyway, this post isn't about how blame is shifted onto Jaybin post-death to avoid criticizing child vigilantes. This is about the Red Hood and how he does the same damn thing.

Jason, after his resurrection, has a habit of harassing various heroes and monologuing a whole lot in the ensuing fight. Relevant to the conversation here are the arcs with Tim Drake and Mia Dearden.

It's worth noting that Jason is projecting in both cases, specifically taking his own relationship with Bruce and assuming that the same is true of Tim & Bruce and Mia & Ollie. This is obviously not the case, but it is relevant because it gives us insight into how Jason views Bruce, and where he feels the blame lies.

Life and Death - Teen Titans (2003) #29

TT #29 is the comic featuring Jason Todd's infamous attack on Titan's Tower, in which he fights Tim Drake for 8 pages. While we're here: no Jason wasn't trying to kill Tim, it was a fair fight not a one-sided torture fest, no throats were slit, and while that Robin costume may have been homemade I refuse to believe it was cheap. Jason is not wearing a cheap Halloween costume that thing is fully functional as a vigilante costume I will fucking FIGHT YOU -

Jason repeatedly brings up Bruce during this fight (emphasis mine):

"[Bruce] let you find him. And I bet he said the same thing to you that he said to me, didn't he? That you had the talent to make a difference in Gotham. That he needed someone he could trust in his war on crime. That you're one of a kind. The light to his darkness. Robin, the Boy Wonder. Now... let me show you what the Joker did to me." "Still. You do realize, the whole idea of training a teenager to fight against something he'll never eradicate is a mistake. It didn't surprise anyone when I died. When I failed."

This is Jason criticizing Bruce. This is Jason calling out Bruce for his failings as a parents, for the fundamental wrongness that is a child vigilante. Jason specifically frames it in the context of his own life. This is how he views Bruce's influence on him - his death is something that could have been predicted.

Except: This is DC. Child vigilantes are a genre convention, are a foundational part of how the world is built, and cannot be criticized.

So let's take a look at everything else Jason says:

"You can't be that good." "Now… let me show you what the Joker did to me. And let's find out how tough you really are." "I failed--but I'm still beating you. Do you think you're that good now?! Do you really, Tim?"

It's not about Bruce at all. Bruce is not the one in the wrong, here. It's about Tim. Does Tim have what it takes? Is Tim good enough to deserve this mantle? Jason looks at Tim and says: I was not good enough. What makes you think you are?

"I had to convince Batman to let me try this. All because he'll never stop blaming himself for what happened to you," Tim says. Tim implies that Bruce is wrong to blame himself. Jason's death? That was all on Jason. If Tim gets hurt, if Tim dies? Then it's all on Tim.

Jason also spends some time talking about how no one remembered him. However, this part of the conversation is initiated while they're in the Titan's Memorial Hall, which did not have a statue for Jason. I'm interpreting it as a comment fueled by the environment, and thus not part of the core arguments Jason's trying to make.

Seeing Red - Green Arrow (2001) #69-72

GA #72 is the comic featuring Jason kidnapping Mia Dearden, fighting her in her school's gym before blowing it up. While we're here: Jason was not trying to kill Mia, Jason was not bringing up Mia's trauma to throw call her disgusting or throw it in her face, and Mia was not horrifically traumatized by that encounter.

Let's look at what Jason has to say about Ollie and Bruce, first:

"Is that why you find it so hard to kill? Do you think life is so precious? Or do you have to emulate your new flawed 'Daddy'?" "My surrogate dad comes from the same damned pampered upbringing as your self-righteous mentor." "And I know that sometimes very bad things have to be done to do a great right. I don't think either one of our 'fathers' will ever understand that."

Yes, I'm reaching a bit here. However, there's the same pattern here of calling out Bruce for a specific way he failed Jason - by believing and pushing a specific moral code that he expected Jason to follow.

Even today, Jason killing is far more controversial than it is when other heroes do it, both in or out of universe. This is due to his relationship to Bruce. That expectation that he should align with Bruce's moral code, because he grew up alongside it. This is something specific to child vigilantes - other superhero team-ups where they're around the same age would not expect them to share the same code beat for beat.

It's not... a particularly strong argument, but if we run with it. Once again, Jason shifts the onus of responsibility from Ollie (Bruce) to Mia (himself).

It's a lot harder to find specific quotations where Jason says this, because a lot of it is implied, but throughout the fight Jason is trying to goad Mia into going for the killing shot.

"You're going to keep shooting your lawn darts at me but avoiding every killing wound. You know how easy this is when you limit your options. You're working the same thirty-three. Thirty-three angles, points--thirty-three shots. None of which will be a fatal blow. When that quiver is empty, you know I'm going to come for you!"

(He does not come for her. He gives her a pair of swords and makes her fight him again.) Jason compares himself to her ("You're a lot like me.") and then, after the previous quotation about how Ollie and Bruce will never get that sometimes you have to do the bad thing [kill], he says, "But you do."

Once again, it's not about Ollie. It's not about Bruce. It's about Mia, and what Mia chooses to do. It's Jason saying: Are you going to mindlessly follow what your mentor says? Or will you do what you know is right?

It's the same twist, again. It's not about what morals said mentor/father figures are selling, it's about the child's duty not to listen.

Conclusion

I've referenced a couple of times that DC can't have criticism against child vigilantes. I'm sure others have explained this better than I can, but the general reasoning is because child vigilantes are objectively bad. If you apply any real scrutiny, any level of realism, and you realize that having them is harmful. Harmful to the kids, and it is absolutely the fault of every single one of their mentors for letting this happen.

The kid sidekick is a genre convention. It's part of the landscape of superhero comics. This is the part of the story where you suspend your disbelief, you pretend that letting children fight crime is fine actually, and you enjoy the story that comes out of here. If we acknowledge in universe that letting kids fight crime is bad, you break that universe.

And that's exactly what Jason Todd does.

That's what he did as Robin, and DC responded with the victim-blaming narrative as damage control. It shifted the responsibility for his death from Bruce to Jason.

This trend continues into Jason as Red Hood. His very existence is an argument against child vigilantes. And so he brings it up, and in projecting on other characters he again underscores just how culpable Bruce is for his death. But we can't have that, so even as Jason brings up these points, he undermines them by shifting the focus to what the child is doing. After all, he's confronting Tim and Mia, not Bruce and Ollie.

(And in his actual confrontation with Bruce: "I forgive you for not saving me." Many have pointed out that this is not the same as it wasn't your fault.)

If you're a child vigilante or a kid sidekick, and you get hurt, if you die, that's not your mentor/parent's fault. It's on you. It's always been your own fault.

That's how it has to be.

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“So long, Robin. Be great.”

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it's ok, jay

(not ship)

[id: a drawing of jason todd and dick grayson. dick is in his nightwing costume without the mask, and jason is in a brown leather jacket. jason is doubled over dick in a tight hug. /end id]

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aough

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your presence haunts

black void version

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happy death day jason

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you’re a dog & i’m your man

i just... think…. that sofia falcone gigante and jason todd would be an insane mentor/student type of relationship. i think the parallels are wild and the paternal issues and hating oz and batman alike would be insanely funny.

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Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if Jason had been successful in saving Sheila from the joker and still died as a result of it.

Would he have finally been recognised for the true reason of his death? Would he have been hailed as the tragic heroic martyr he was, the one whose death was 100% preventable had he had a stronger support system? Would he have had foundations to support young heroes built in his name instead of being a vague boogeyman cautionary tale that mentors bring up to warn their young heroes against disobedience and acting rashly? I don’t think anyone could even think of saying half of the horrible shit they’ve said about Jason’s death if they had the undeniable proof right in front of them that someone was saved from death as a direct result of his “reckless” actions.

How would his mother react to the son she never knew dying to save her? Loving her despite never really knowing her? Would she even be able to live with that guilt? Would she snap and kill the joker herself no matter the consequences? Would the hero community still be able to play into the victim blaming narrative for Jason’s death when they have the literal person he died saving, living among them?

And I wonder what that would change in the training of the robins after him. Would their training have more emphasis on community and support systems than more extensive training because it would be “the last Robin died because to save his mother and if he just had ONE person to answer when he reached out for help, he would still be alive” Instead of “the last Robin died because he wasn’t good enough”?

So much in the in universe rhetoric after Jason’s death would be completely changed if there was a direct witness immediately shutting down the “he was angry, arrogant and rash, bit off more than he can chew and went after the joker by himself and that’s what got him killed” shit they were pushing out to justify this completely preventable death of a child who just wanted to do what vowed to do when he took up the mantle. Save other people at the expense of his own safety.

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I have like 2 different posts in my drafts trying and failing to articulate this but third time’s the charm: Bruce Wayne is a reflection of the American ideal of masculinity. This is part of why he is very often a terrible father

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they're taking me out back and putting me down today did ya hear? yeah they're gonna shoot me like a dog