samiralula01 - Tumblr blog

[samiralula01]

For Dick the Batman & Robin reborn era really was just. Your father is dead. He means more to you than anyone has ever meant. They will not let you bury him, because the man can die, but what he means can't. This is no time to mourn. Step into his shoes and hope they fit. Fail and you will be the last knife in his chest, but succeed and be consumed by his legacy. Guide his son. He is the only piece of your father that stays at your side. The rest you wear on your back. Bearing this will crush you, but hope will kill you. Grit your teeth and smile. You must be the only one who suffers, or your suffering means nothing. Your father is dead. He is haunting you.

[samiralula01]

So. I’ve been thinking about Tim Drake a lot. Like. So much. So, here’s another rant/analysis/commentary on him.

Here’s the thing. Tim Drake is, and I mean this in the fondest way possible, an asshole. He’s cocky and arrogant and smug. He always has to know everything and he always has to be right. He has NO respect for dumb things like boundaries or privacy. He views emotions as just another variable, something that is to be accounted for and addressed when needed in both himself and others. But protecting people’s feelings isn’t a priority. Yes, Batman’s emotional spiral triggered the events that led him to become Robin. But he didn’t help Bruce which his grief because he saw someone he cared about hurting and wanted to help. He did it because Bruce’s grief threatened to destroy Tim’s understanding of reality. Batman being a hero was one of the only good stable things in his life. He wanted to protect that, and he wanted to protect Gotham’s citizens from both Batman and anyone who would run wild if he died. It was a calculated decision based on numbers, not Bruce’s feelings. Not to say that he doesn’t care, because he does. So much. But he tries not to let it control his decision making. An example being when he didn’t tell Tam that Lucius’s death was fake. A more extreme example from when he really goes off the rails is the entire Titan of Tomorrow storyline.

Anyway— point is Tim understands and cares about the emotional wellbeing of the people around him but he tries very very hard to hide it and not let himself think to hard about why. Because then he’d have to confront that if other people’s feelings are important then his are as well. And that everything his parents taught him was wrong, therefore he is wrong. And as I said, he always has to be right. Because so much of his self worth is tied to his intelligence. Oh. That’s why I relate to him… okay im gonna stop before I have anymore revelations.

[samiralula01]

favorite comic character meme ✦  [3/3] platonic relationships: talia al ghul

“Good-bye, Jason. I’m certain we’ll see each other again”

[samiralula01]

Its like fairly accepted that Bruce needs a Robin but like sometimes it doesn’t feel like people apply that to Jason. Like it slips their mind that Jason made Bruce a better person too, that they helped each other, that they needed each other, Batman and Robin isn’t a one way street

[samiralula01]

By the way if you're going to bring up this quote from Winnick? I think the context of this being an interview of Winnick when he was hired to do the last two Jason issues for Morrison's incredibly ooc Jason run is important.

This is not Winnick talking about Under the Red Hood, specifically.

And I think that's pretty important context. Even in the middle of probably Jason's most outright villainous moments in the comics, Winnick was still openly saying Jason doesn't want to kill everyone and Jason believes this is justice.

Additionally, yes Winnick did say he loves writing about Jason's hypocrisy. He also said he loves writing about Oliver Queen's hypocrisy. Winnick just likes looking at characters and seeing where he can pull them apart and make them contradict themselves, it's not a Jason specific trait.

I'm a pretty big "i don't care about the author" person but if you're going to use this interview when talking about UTRH for your meta but not mention the actual context? Hm.

[samiralula01]

Wally and Roy referring to Hal as their uncle.

Feel free to add more

[samiralula01]

Green Arrow V2 #21 // Batman Plus Arsenal V1  #1 // ❔ // Green Arrow V3 #21 // The Flash V5 Annual #4

Just a few panels of Ollie and Roy calling each other father and son that I had at hand

'Cause guess what? They are father and son and they do love each other

There are many more besides these, plus looots of moments of Roy calling Ollie "old man", Ollie calling Roy "my kid"/"my boy" or just... The two of them loving each other. Surprising huh?

[samiralula01]

Two of my absolute favourite Robin Jason stories are the two missions he goes on with the Titans he's so happy to be hanging out with the cool big kids and the titans are all just having the normal young adult breakdowns

[samiralula01]

I hate Bruce's "I don't kill because once I start, I wouldn't be able to stop"

Like I simply do not buy it. Murder is not a potato chip Bruce. I think he is full of shit and a messy bitch who lives for the drama. I am certain Bruce has some kind of valid reason for not killing, but I don't believe that this is it.

[samiralula01]

I liked the post and lost the post, so I can’t remember which of you talked in tags about the pit’s influence on Jason having nothing to do with anger and being more about a blunting of his compassion–

But upon skimming back through Lost Days I am pretty sure that is not only a valid interpretation but also, like, literally exactly what we are supposed to understand to be true.

There’s nothing in the stories around Jason’s return to indicate he’s experiencing any uncontrollable anger–or even uncharacteristic anger at all–let alone some kind of green-out “pit rage”. The way he acts on his anger is extreme and uncharacteristic of the kid he used to be, but the sources of his anger and the moments it gets triggered are all…pretty reasonable for someone in his situation? (Feeling like he’s been replaced, been forgotten, hating that Joker is alive, etc.) Maybe not all are fair, but the emotions are totally understandable.

On the other hand, there are a number of moments in Lost Days where it’s mentioned–by Talia in particular–that Jason IS uncharacteristically uncaring. The vast majority of his revenge planning is done not with wild bursts of anger but with this very cold, calculated focus.

And I’d argue we keep seeing that pattern, if from a more external pov, in UtRH and similar stories. Red Hood Jason hates all the same things Robin Jason hated, and he’s mad about all the things a traumatized kid would be mad about…but, unlike Robin Jason, he also doesn’t really care who gets hurt in the pursuit of his plans.

And that is the concerning behavior.

(We also do see brief moments where that old compassion cracks the surface: Jason going out of his way to not just kill child traffickers in Lost Days #3, but also help the kids after the violence is done. Jason being totally ready to blow Bruce up, and then unable to go through with it when actually he sees Bruce in person. And I imagine if we’d ever gotten a good redemption arc, instead of the new 52 reboot just kinda jumping past it, it would be about focusing on those moments where he still managed to care about something, and drawing them out, and redeveloping his compassion even though it is hard and scary and sometimes painful.)

[samiralula01]

Jason Todd’s strategy abilities

I noticed that there’s lack of recognition of this side of Jason’s character which is shame so I’m gonna show it.

Keep reading

[samiralula01]

jason todd is incredible

Not for his character or anything, but because I don’t think I’ve seen anyone shoot themselves in the foot with a single character half as badly as DC did with Jason.

He was, during Under the Red Hood, one of the biggest gamechangers they could have thrown at Bruce Wayne’s Batman. Here was an intellectual equal to Batman and superior to the Joker and Gotham’s entire criminal underbelly. A tactical nuke primed to devastate Batman both emotionally and ideologically. Physically, ridiculously dangerous. exceptionally well-trained. a match for Batman in every way. He’s a character that Bruce can’t fight properly, and, worse, one that punches holes in Batman’s modus operandi in ways that instinctively makes sense to the audience.

Bruce’s son, his greatest failure, returned from the grave as an agent of vengeance. Batman, through a mirror darkly.

sounds super interesting, huh. 

Unfortunately, characters like Jason are also the agents of introspection and change. He would have forced Bruce to reflect and, worse still, readers to start second-guessing Batman’s morality. How many people walk away from Under the Red Hood thinking “holy shit, they should have killed the Joker”? Most, right? Jason would have changed Gotham’s status quo irreversibly and, unfortunately, Gotham can’t really change. progress can’t be made, villains can’t die forever, Batman can’t be wrong. 

Because it sells that way, obviously. The Joker will never die, no matter how heinous he is, not really. Not while he’s selling merch. 

So once it turned out that Jason was also super popular, what could DC do? He would shake things up too much if allowed to stay on course. He’s too dangerous, too strong. and so… character assassination! Keep the aesthetics of the angry shooty red helmet daddy issues clowns-bad man while changing the internal workings - fans won’t notice, right? 

Strip away his competence, reduce his skillset, make him an idiot, a lunatic, a brawny shoot-first-don’t-think meathead! He’s not a strategist, he’s stupid, he charges in headfirst. Change his approach to vigilantism. He was always a bad Robin - he was violent and petty and dangerous and he and Bruce never jived in the first place. Keep him out of Gotham as much as possible and when you can’t do that, either quietly pretend he’s on good terms with the batclan or have him and Bruce run around in circles.

And, most importantly, he has to be wrong. He has to be unreasonable. He needs to be the screwup that needs to be sanitised, put in his place, and come crawling back to Bruce so he can be safely assimilated into the family.

Circling around to Urban Legends, Jason and Bruce’s dynamic has completely flipped. Jason is the one that has to change for Bruce’s conditional love, rather than Jason setting the terms Bruce has to meet for Jason to trust him again. Jason is the one that has to learn a Very Important Lesson about the flaws in his morality and align himself with Bruce’s - bearing in mind that Jason developed his worldview after experiencing, firsthand, the flaws in Bruce’s.

Jason is no longer a mirror forcing Bruce to think and develop and grow. He’s one of two things - a stupid, unreasonable villain or Just Another Graduated Robin that Bruce has to control and keep in line just a touch more than the others. His post-reboot arc is him trying to move past his trauma and grow but losing it all and returning, battered and beaten, to Bruce’s side. He’s rapidly losing what made him interesting in the first place and fifteen years later Bruce still hasn’t learnt a damn thing.

jason could never be jason for an extended period of time. villains would die, gotham would change, batman would evolve, and DC is too scared to try (hell, they can’t even let bruce stay dead). a braver industry might have made something amazing out of him but unfortunately DC comics just ain’t it

[samiralula01]

Y'all can joke about the Jason Todd memorial duck pond, but I'll just stay crying about Bruce funding and sponsoring educational programs after his son died as a way to cope with losing him.

-- (Batman #450 - Wildcard!)

And he doesn't just throw money around for school trips and leaves it like that either. He's very involved in supporting education and sponsors kids from Crime Alley personally. (Wonder why there, hm?)

In Batman #465 - "Debut", Batman and Robin come across two of these such kids on patrol attempting to rob a store before Tim decides to just scare them off, seeing as they were just nervous and new to being would-be-criminals anyway.

Batman is visibly upset by this upon recognising them and Tim, who is still new to the whole gig, thinks he did something wrong himself at first before Bruce corrects him and says that he knows the boys.

So while Tim is off biting his tongue about that, Bruce cuts patrol early and drives down to Crime Alley. (Though I guess he learnt his lesson since then about leaving a car parked around that area since he brought a driver this time 😆...😢)

It's not difficult to see why Bruce wanted to sponsor these kids personally especially after he had Jason give him a rude awakening about what it's like to live in such a hopeless place like that. Not that he's around to do that anymore for him...

-- (Batman #408 - Did Robin die tonight?)

So yeah, I'll stay crying. Pre-Jason Bruce used to only go to Crime Alley once a year, and now he stops by as often as he can to help the kids in the neighbourhood go to school and support themselves. Tell me he's not doing it for his son.

[samiralula01]

Deadman: Dead Again #2 - The Death of Jason Todd Revisited

+

Green Arrow Vol 3 #7 - Jason Todd In Heaven 

Man, these panels make me so emotional. I mean, I knew that Jason still tried to save his mom even after he betrayed her, but knowing it and seeing it in action is truly heartbreaking. And then “… she betrayed me to the Joker, got us both blow up– But I’m not mad at her.” 

And Deadman. I love how he’s known Jason for less than five minutes, and he’s ready to fight Batman for not finding Jason in time. And Jason stops him, because he doesn’t blame Bruce. He thinks it’s all his fault, even though it really, really isn’t. 

And that tear, when his mom says he was a good kid. The small “thanks mom.”

And then he get’s to go to Heaven and be happy. At least for six months—till he’s brought back in the most brutal way possible only to find out that he’s unavenged. 

[samiralula01]

Dick Put Jason in Arkham!

Yeah! That sounds horrible with zero context. And I’ve been seeing an influx of posts recently acting like Dick is a terrible person because he did this…but I just wanted to clarify what happened in canon, because honestly he wasn’t being cruel or horrible. 

First thing to keep in mind is the characterization of the Jason that Dick was dealing with. He didn’t throw Rebirth anti-hero Jason Todd into Arkham…he was dealing with a Jason that had beaten Tim nearly to death twice, one who had nearly killed Bruce on several different occasions. 

Batman: Battle for the Cowl #2 Jason attempts to kill Tim, and believes he has with no remorse. It is only luck that allows Tim to survive. 

In fact, Jason had nearly killed Tim very recently before Dick put Jason into Arkham. After Bruce’s death, Jason was written as really unstable. He wasn’t depicted as an anti-hero, he was pretty much a villain. He even describes himself as such: 

Batman and Robin (2009) #23 Jason talks to Bruce about transferring to another prison facility. 

“I am simply homicidal. Will I kill again? Sure. Am I a bad person? Oh yeah.” I would not say that this the characterization for Jason I prefer (not at all), but a psychotic, unhinged Jason Todd was the one that Dick was dealing with at the time all this went down. 

Keep reading

[samiralula01]

No, I'm not lying awake at night thinking about the fact that Bruce never confessed to Jason what his greatest fear was because it eventually came true...

(Detective Comics #571 - Fear for $ale)

I'm just thinking about the fact that death didn't change Bruce's fear at all.

(Batman #496 – Die Laughing)

[samiralula01]

Things Bruce Wayne Never Did Again After Jason’s Murder

I was just thinking about how drastically different Bruce became after Jason died. Like, this man just stopped doing so much, especially when it came to his familial bonds and relationships.

Correct me if I’m wrong, (because I’m just spitballing here and maybe I just haven’t read a comic where it did happen) but there’s a couple things I’ve never seen Bruce do with the other kids in the comics after Jason died.

Being (emotionally) close with his children:

I’ve noticed Bruce point this out from time to time in his thought boxes; that letting people get close to him, by admitting that he cares about them, is what gets them killed. Or at least the fear of that doesn’t allow him to form attachments anymore.

Which I find interesting, because Bruce was so terrified of losing Jason during his run as Robin. Like, it was actually concerning to me how often this man would hallucinate or dream about Jason getting hurt or dying in the eighties...? Heck, Bruce’s mind on fear gas still went to Jason even after his death. But that didn’t prevent him from creating a bond with Jason during his child years (as you’ll notice his name wasn’t mentioned with the others above). 

So I’m wondering if his murder was the point where this became a realised fear for Bruce and made him push people away because it came true. 

Being easy with physical affection:

Bruce is always so stiff these days when it comes to patting his kids on their shoulders or head, or heaven forbid, giving them hugs if they look traumatised enough. He is just a very awkward man. Like, what happened to that other guy? The one who was always ruffling his son’s hair and tucking him under his arm like it was the only natural thing to do. 

Being playful with his kids:

This one hurts. Like Bruce could be so fun with his first two kids. He teased and wrestled with them, played video games, took them out to movies and games and racetracks, and it was 90% completely non-mission related. Heck, he even made puns himself sometimes. He enjoyed spending time with them and put effort into doing just that.

After Jason was murdered, I never saw that again. Tim was always doing his solo thing, and didn’t really spend time with Bruce outside of cowl; (of course, he wasn’t exactly his son then like his predecessors were, so that might have come off as weird); Bruce and Cass have a very mission-focused (obsessive) relationship and Damian...oh, Damian. Yeah, Bruce wasn’t taking him out to the zoo or anything on weekends.

Driving the kids to school:

Well, Cassandra never really received any formal education as a child in a public school setting type-a-way, but I don’t believe Bruce has ever driven Tim or Damian to school. It was always Alfred who chauffeured them. I wondered if the thought bothered Bruce. Hence, I’m putting it down on the list of things Bruce stopped doing after Jason.

Calls the kids by nicknames:

I’ve never seen Bruce refer to Tim, Cass or Damian by any sort of nickname, despite the fact that he always seemed to be affectionately calling Dick and Jason some form of “chum,” “lad,” or “sport,” while they were Robin. Heck, I think Bruce might have even used “Jay,” more than Jason’s actual name when he was a kid.

Allowing the Robins to wear their uniforms upstairs.

This one was a three A.M thought to me. I know for a fact that Dick and Jason used to chill in the Manor in full or partial uniform during their runs and even kept their uniforms in their bedroom closets, but then when Tim became Robin, Bruce all of a sudden strictly implemented the rule of ‘no uniforms upstairs.’

Part of me wonders if he was trying to separate “Robin” from the family home aspect as a grieving thing. Like he needed to keep the two separate after Jason. 

Celebrate Holidays

So apparently, "holidays aren't a thing," anymore during Tim's era according to the Bat-scrooge. Which is actually kinda funny, considering he would put up a full-on Christmas tree in the cave only a few years prior or at least make some effort so that his kids could have a jolly christmas despite unhappy circumstances.

However, I must note that although they (especially Bruce,) never celebrated in the Manor, the other Bats did attempt to have the holidays together on their own which is really cute. And good for them! Who cares about that scrooge Bruce?