question-why-not - Tumblr blog

[question-why-not]

tumblr has rotted my brain because I just saw a tweet saying “which character can’t be topped?” and the accompanying image was Batman. to which I said “that’s silly, of course he can be topped, he’s actually very — oh.”

they meant like, topped as in no one can beat him.

[question-why-not]

You know the dread you feel when you see the villain/monster of a horror movie just standing out in the open? Waiting for the protagonist/main character to see them?

Sometimes Bruce does that as Batman — waits directly underneath a streetlight, or in the center of a day-lit alley. Waiting for their eyes to slip past him, only to dart back to his chest, shoulders, and head in sudden, trembling terror.

Because it’s not about hiding. It’s about being seen. About intentions being unmistakable, until the criminals find themselves wishing for the uncertainty of shadows again. Darkness, instead of the dead-eyed, blunt obviousness of daylight.

[question-why-not]

[question-why-not]

I’ll say it again, please just grit your teeth and vote for Biden…

[question-why-not]

New Orleans ❤

[question-why-not]

[question-why-not]

I love fics where Bruce's actions in under the red hood have lasting consequences.

The action being throwing a batarang into the neck of the Red Hood.

The Red Hood who we all including Batman know is Jason Todd.

His son.

The son he was too late to save that it haunted him.

Because that blow could have been fatal.

I don't care how smart batman is, throwing what is basically a knife into a person's neck no matter the angle is lethal.

And Jason lives.

Jason lives knowing his father chooses his killer over him.

And damn near killed him in the process.

He's told its a miracle be survived.

He feels like he's cursed.

And he knows Bruce... Knows there was no hesitation.

The wound scars.

Maybe he can't talk the same or at all.

His voice is gone.

Robin is gone.

And now Jason is gone.

Killed by his own father.

It's fitting in a way..

Poetic.

His mother sentenced him to his death and his father pulled the trigger.

At least when he died he had the memory of his father loving him.

... Now he wonders if that was a lie too.

[question-why-not]

Do you have Jason fic recs that specifically deal with the batarang to the throat?

hey, I absolutely do! it's a short list, but it's some of the best fics in my bookmarks. I'm sure there's more that I'll regret not adding later but that's how it always goes so

take care of yourself some of these fics can get dark

as if i would ever have a place for you is a short established jayroy fic written specifically for the prompt "batarang scar". it's mostly about boundaries within the jayroy relationship and how Jason relates to his own trauma, and I wish it was longer because I think it's very elegant in how it approaches these subjects

Say Something is a mute!Jason au, where the batarang to the throat actually damaged Jason's vocal chords. this is another jayroy, though in this one they start as strangers. it also touches on Roy's history with addiction. it's also relatively short at 3k I don't have much else to say, strangely soft get together tho

My Scars Aren't Silent (Selectively Mute Jason Todd) is, uh... well, what it says on the tin, idk what to tell you. this one's another au where Jason is mute as a result of what Bruce has done to him, and is also jayroy, but this one's a series! so that's different! anyway in this au everyone thinks Jason is dead for the second time, established jayroy come to live in gotham, the batfam slowly get to know this Jason, and he tries to rebuild his life. it's pretty emotional, actually.

finally, as usual saving the best for last, is to the red planet Mars. this is a relatively long 'un at 36k, but I've reread it multiple times. this one explicitly deals with Bruce's canonical physical abuse of his children in depth and while the other fics here deal with the aftermath of a single case of violence without ever showing it on page, we absolutely see Bruce beating Jason in this fic, so please take care of yourself. it's not an easy read but I love it a lot, and I think the rest of the series is pretty damn good too, but unfortunately it's not complete :/. Roy does show up but it's not a ship fic, I actually read this before I started shipping them, which seems weirdly impossible now.

anyway, yeah, dark subject matter and there's certainly more fics out there, but I actually started making a jayroy fic rec list (which you can really tell lmao) and realized I was making this list instead, so that one got delayed for now. enjoy and let me know if there's anything else anybody wants to read about!

[question-why-not]

the lamb of gotham

He knew what would happen even before he threw the gun to Bruce. Deep down, he’d always known. Even before he’d died, before Ethiopia, before Garzonas, he’d known. Jason Todd was second to the mission in the eyes of Bruce Wayne. 

Still, he tries one last time, desperation boiling his insides and green coloring his vision. He brings the Joker to Bruce, offers up the monster that took his son away and makes him choose. It was never a choice. 

It should’ve been enough years ago that the Joker killed and killed and killed without remorse or sign of stopping, but that wasn’t the point. The Joker took Jason from Bruce. Bruce should want to choose him- his son. Jason felt like the autopsy scars on his chest were splitting open, and his somehow beating heart was on display.  Look at what he did to me. He knew that Bruce would choose the mission, but he wanted Bruce to choose him.

Jason stared at the man who had once called himself his father. I’m not your father, Jason. He could forgive him for everything: all the hurt, all the pain, all the suffering. All Bruce had to do was choose Jason. He could come home, be his son again, make him proud. All Bruce had to do was choose Jason.

It isn’t a shock when the Batarang slices his throat open.

[question-why-not]

I think 'the batfamily learns about the batarang™' Should be a tag just like 'the gaang learns about zuko' s scar' is a tag

[question-why-not]

in your fic “paint it over” is that how you imagine jason making it out of the explosion at the end of utrh? not exactly the events that follow, but the preferable characterization of bruce digging jay out of the rubble and carrying him to help. and how do you think jason made it out canonically (without the help of bruce) also!!! what are your thoughts on the specifics of jason’s scar and how he’d behave toward it. i liked the part of your fic where jason was temporarily unable to speak due to the trauma his neck received. i think the scar is something that rests on the junction of his shoulder/neck, and that can be hidden with whatever clothes he wears -> no one knows he has it (or how he got it) either. i like to imagine while bruce knows his batarang made contact with jason’s throat it’s never fully registered to him that it scarred until he sees it for himself (and while i believe bruce would turn the moment in head over and over again until it’s engraved in his brain, his delayed realization—to me—is due to his repression of the occurrence)

oh i adore this whole ask. some of it i explained in my notes, but this fanfic is quite dear to me, so i will elaborate.

short answer to whether this is how i imagine jay making it out of the explosion: not exactly?

the premise that i wanted to explore with paint it over is almost the opposite of a fix-it, and definitely not what i believe it should be in canon.

what i wished to explore there is, however, the part of utrh that is perhaps the most shocking to many readers: that bruce leaves jason to die.

in-universe, i think the answer why it happens is surprisingly simple enough: bruce does not come because he is just... not there. my understanding is, that in a way, the events of under the red hood did not happen. there is nothing to follow. that purple mist in the finale of the utrh, that is often read as a force resurrecting jason (not technically wrong, either)- i believe that is the timeline already rewriting itself, making the whole story into something that was not.

and the reason for the above is the infinite crisis. if i'm not wrong, it's also the inifinite crisis miniseries where bruce meets dick right after the explosions in (or of) bludhaven-- that in batman clearly happens in the background of his confrontation with jay. however, in infinite crisis (#4, just checked it now), bruce tells dick: "i wanted to make sure...you're alright... i was in new york when it hit. got here as soon as i could." which could be a lie or a matter of the editorial not being synced enough- but i'm willing to give them a benefit of the doubt given how it ties with that sudden, stunted ending of utrh.

this makes sense for canon for several reasons. in the animated movie, since it spares us the infinite crisis tie-in, bruce says of the whole incident: this changes nothing. it changes nothing because although aditf isn't, utrh is a tragedy; it changes nothing because since his death, jason is necessarily always pushed at the peripheries of the narrative, no matter how much the fate itself tries to fix it, becoming a tragic footnote. the dead have one right and it's the right to remain silent. and that is ironically ensured on a cosmic level, with his violent attempt at being seen hidden in the folds of the timeline. you can also see it clearly in canon -- i believe it was not until the infinite frontier that the events of utrh got just tangentially mentioned (before that, even lobdell barely touched upon it). other than that, they have no consequences; they are barely ever spoken of; they seem to slip out even from jay's solo comics.

this move was necessary for batman, as a character and as a title: let's say bruce does hold red hood as he does in the alt cover of annual 25 (and the cover of the deluxe edition of utrh.) that would implore a reckoning with his failure and his (suddenly non-productive) grief that would either reconstruct the whole myth or lead to some terrifying implications. these terrifying implications are, essentially, what paint it over is about. it's about the worst happening and about there being no way back from it. and jason, in receiving what he wanted (his father's love and care) wants to deny that reality. they both want to. yet even jay cannot ignore it completely -- and i chose to use the batarang injury to emphasize it.

and about the scar: i mentioned it briefly before, but in the au jason aggravates the wounds on purpose, hence it will scar worse and cause long-term issues for his voice. it's a theme i also keep in some of my other stories (to come...) and i very much think this is what would happen in canon if he had to take care of that injury. yet as it healed, i believe he'd take to hiding it, mostly. still, as it stands, my primary take might be that in canon (if it was to follow the interference into the timeline from the crisis at least) jason would simply end up with no scar at all, and only memories for evidence of what happened, which is perhaps worse for him too (but of course better for bruce. and as it happens, this is bruce wayne's story and everyone else is just living in it- or dies in it- for better or worse. and if we're ignoring that metaphysical timeline bullshit, as you said, i believe bruce would repress it all anyway.)

[question-why-not]

i got comments and dms asking to explain certain parts of paint it over, which is a good excuse for me to provide you with directory notes. i understand the fanfic could be difficult to follow since i put a lot of meaning of this work into the minutiae (and it is a part of a slightly more expansive au). however, i also want to add that of course all readers are entitled to their own interpretation, so i encourage to skip this if you prefer it. but if someone is curious – a lengthy explanation can be found under the cut.

firstly, this fanfic touches upon a question that is often brought up in discussions of utrh: why did bruce leave jason to die in the end? this is something that is difficult to explain and seems completely unreasonable, especially if we don’t take into account the weirdness around the infinite crisis that takes place at the same time (the final panels in which it seems that the time wraps itself etc.) and so i asked: what if bruce acted more in character and looked for jason instead of abandoning him after the explosion? and- would that be a comfort or would it derail into something even worse?

and so the main thing that is happening with bruce in this fanfic is his attempts at fixing his reprehensible and impulsive decision of throwing the batarang (and partially even his failure in protecting jay as a child). bruce is authentically trying to repent and be a good father to jason. except the worst has happened and it cannot un-happen, and all of his actions; even the genuine acts of care, are tinged with the horror of it.

moreover, the tragedy of utrh and jason’s death itself is the loss of many years in which jason would grow up and emotionally mature in expectations and understanding of his father. trying to fix that stunted relationship puts them in a dream-like space of missed childhood and makes bruce revert to his past habits. the breakfast scene for example is an image based on post-patrol breakfasts in the silver age and early 80s, in which bruce often worn colourful robes and read a newspaper/sometimes even engaged in some puzzles like crosswords etc. post-crisis and post jason’s death especially, this habit seems to disappear from the comics for the most part. but here they settle back into it, which perhaps would be sweet in any other circumstances.

most importantly, when it comes to jason: the reason for which he is so passive almost all the time is twofold: first of all, he is just very depressed (as bruce says, he did not have any plans for the after of the grand finale of his red hood stunt with the joker. it was pretty much a suicidal mission and what happened was something he had no ways of predicting) and second of all, he does love bruce and wants to forgive him, believing it was an accident (this is mostly inspired by canon post-utrh, for example, countdown, wherein jason is eager to meet bruce and seems to have completely forgiven him the batarang. but it’s also inspired by utrh itself and his messy narrative in which he goes from blaming bruce for leaving him to saying he did not care about bruce not saving him, which suggests he really wants to absolve bruce of as much fault as possible).

however, there is still some internal struggle which i had in mind i wrote the ending of the breakfast scene; jason touching the bandage on his neck there is both a threat and a bit of an accusation. it is also something i wanted to emphasise because in a suggestion of the self-harm and refusal to get professional medical help, jason re-victimises himself too. despite in theory having what he wanted back: his dad, he still feels the wrongness of the situation and wants to keep the evidence of it. ironically, it only further challenges his autonomy, causing him to stay on soft/liquid diet and the neck trauma/mechanical damage leading to partial muteness.

this is his choice. it’s also tied to the detail of jason handing dick keys in the last scene. jason could leave anytime. he is free to do as he wants, something that bruce also indicates in the breakfast scene. i guess the question is how probable it is that he could act reasonably with all the baggage and trauma.

and finally, dick’s pov— dick arrives in gotham weeks after the events of utrh. he does not know of what (for example) the first week was like, something that bruce briefly mentions (the scene in the cave). in the wider context of the au, which is not explicitly mentioned here, the first week is the time when jason keeps aggravating his wound on purpose, especially when bruce says something he does not like (this is slightly hinted at in the breakfast scene too; bruce's quick reaction to jason's fingers lingering at the bandage). so dick also takes jason’s injury to be more serious because it’s not healed yet; but it’s because he is missing a piece of information. dick is also just understandably disturbed by the level of codependency that bruce & jason fell into. he thinks jason should get back on his own feet. this is of course something that becomes even more imperative when he learns the truth. so when dick talks of bringing jason to safety, it has more to do with the general environment and settling with him somewhere where he won’t be perpetually stuck in the place that serves as a reminder of what he has suffered. plus- less obviously, he also says that to calm jason down because ironically the idea of a tangible threat explains his decision better in the moment than telling his brother he cannot be staying at home with someone who slit his throat, intentionally or not.

i hope this clears things up a bit. this is of course not the one true reading and there can be plenty of more interpretations that i would love to hear about! i purposefully leave things unsaid to allow for this freedom. there are also things i have never properly mentioned, like alfred’s position in that all, but that’s a whole another topic that has to do with what happens in this universe after this fanfic. thank you so much for reading and your patience. i hope this was somewhat of an interesting read too.

[question-why-not]

Adding into my tiny list of hcs that Jason has a scar on his neck from the batarang Bruce threw in UTRH. And by some miracle it healed thin, pale. Not prominent.

So it caught Bruce by surprise the first time he saw it peeking from under Jason's collar as he threw his head back to laugh. And keeps catching Bruce off guard because it's so easy to miss, but the twist in his gut remains each time he sees that pink line. Jason even forgets about it until he's shaving, drying his hair, changing his shirt. Mundane moments that strike them both where it hurts the most.

A father's betrayal forever etched into his son's skin.

[question-why-not]

Seeing fanart of Jason with scars

[question-why-not]

[question-why-not]

A Palestinian journalist pays tribute to his little boy who was just murdered by 'Israel'.