This Initially Might Seem Weird If You Haven’t Read The Play But The Magnus Archives Is Very Comparable

under the clarity of i have still not slept and it’s half past 4 in the morning, i can safely say that i was wrong:

jason would have a plan for being caught, in fact he would have a whole speech prepared complete with citations. this doesn’t mean that at this point he wouldn’t crumple like damp paper as soon as bruce tries to bring him home, either going with him or running away, but he’d give a valiant effort. (maybe, secretly, he was hoping or even relying on being caught here, making him all the more at a loss when faced with the detonator in the actual comic.)

lost days jason being picked up by the scruff of his neck after batman accidentally catches him planting the bomb on the batmobile. jason immediately goes to attack but because he’s not trained to kill as well as he is later on he’s disarmed quite easily. jason looking so young, not having killed anyone yet, and not being in control of the situation through careful planning meaning bruce is more likely to accept him but jason’s emotions are completely raw to where his actions are just fully calculated fury and hurt. also this is before wargames and stephanie’s death so that would make bruce have less emotionally vulnerable because his lack of fresh grief and guilt.

yet another reason why queer romance in media that is very subtle or more queer-coding than actual explicit rep is so much more compelling than the wealth of straight stories that are out there is bc I think a lot of romance writers forget that you have to like. show not tell. and imply things. and if you hustle things along and put two characters together for the sake of it instead of really working to build their relationship and show how well they work with each other it's not really going to be as interesting to people. and for some reason, a staggering amount of people do not know how to write romance properly so you get a very bland forced dynamic that either feels like an afterthought (he's a boy and she's a girl, hey they could be together because that's what happens!) or the only thing that matters about their characters (see her? she's the Love Interest. that is all she's there for)

however if you're being censored and you literally can't make your characters say "I love you" or kiss or maybe even hold hands you're going to have to come up with more creative ways to tell your audience that they're in love and that usually results in the most poetic beautiful stuff you've ever seen that's SO much more interesting than two characters who make eye contact and go into the slow-mo rose petals scene that's basically screaming at you "hey look at these two. they're in love. you're supposed to be invested in their relationship now. do you get it?" eye contact held for slightly too long in an emotional scene is more compelling. a hand very lightly touching their back is WAY more compelling.

and might I add this is not even impossible to achieve with uncensored straight romances at all like Pride & Prejudice is wildly popular for this exact reason. how many times have I seen people going insane over the hand flex scene. they didn't even kiss in that movie unless you count the extended ending. and everyone loves it. because it's done RIGHT.

tldr; romance is hard to write and you have to put in the effort if you want people to care about your ship. now go forth and imply something

QUICK EDIT TO ADD ALSO when things are more subtle that gives people more space to interpret the dynamic as whatever they want. something might be subtle because that's all they're allowed to show, but something might be subtle because that literally what it's supposed to be. as an aroace person I personally see a LOT of queerplatonic vibes from more subtly played relationships and it's so incredibly exciting and heartwarming for me. and that's a whole new realm of relationship that I think should also be given more attention

Star Sapphire Jason Todd, but the ring shows up after the Batarang Incident as his people are dragging him to Leslie’s clinic, which results in

Ring: Jason Todd of Ear-

Goon 1: Dude, you can’t just say that, don’t you know ANYTHING about vigilantes?

Goon 2: Yeah, when he’s in the suit he’s Red Hood, get it right

Ring:

Ring: Red Hood of Earth,

Goon 3: “Of Earth?” That’s weird, man

Goon 1: Yeah, if anything he’s “of Gotham”

Goon 2: Nah, Hood’s “of Crime Alley”

And Jason is sitting there trying not to laugh as his people bully a fucking Lantern Ring, because he’s still bleeding and Leslie would genuinely eviscerate him for moving before she’s done with his stitches. Eventually they end up forcing the ring to explicitly lay out everything that accepting the ring would entail like it’s a work contract, and he’s actually kind of proud of them because it meant they were listening, and he doesn’t have the heart to tell them he already knows what a Star Sapphire is (though he did technically learn a few details he hadn’t known before, so it was probably good they did it anyway).

Anyway, the ring eventually makes its offer (calling him Red Hood of Crime Alley in a bid to not be interrupted), and Jason waits as his goons debate the pros and cons, wondering when the ring will realize he can’t actually give verbal consent at the moment due to the, y’know, recently slit throat.

He eventually does accept the ring, once it’s determined that he can choose his outfit and won’t draw too much attention to himself by glowing. It’s probably pretty good timing, since even though Leslie did a good job putting him back together (while all of this was going on, the ring refused to leave him and his people were adamant on fighting for his legal rights against the cosmic entity, which she tolerated as long as they helped and stayed physically out of the way), his throat still hurts like a bitch and the healing magic that rushes through him is pure relief. Anyway, due to the way they had the ring word the proposal, the newest Star Sapphire is logged officially as “Red Hood of Crime Alley,” and Hal immediately starts sweating, absolutely dreading having to tell Spooky that his Crime Lord Problem just got significantly more complicated.

Leslie bargains to have Jason use healing magic on more severe cases, and they set up a schedule for him to work shifts at the clinic, and then she immediately goes to beat Batman’s ass for what happened since she is well aware of who Jason Todd is, and the goons may have already forcefully ejected his name from their minds in respect, but she still hasn’t forgiven Bruce for forcing her to perform an honestly pretty irrelevant autopsy on the kid. She can ask him how he came back later.

Jason is just trying to see how accurately he can form construct versions of his guns. The pink is a bit much, but the unlimited ammo is pretty sweet

jason todd would love lady macbeth

“Well I’ve walked on water, danced through fire

Can’t seem to take it anymore

It was me, more for me, waiting for me this time

Hoping for something more, hoping for something else

Hoping for something kind, hoping for something more

Waiting for me this time”

the fact that these were changed lyrics of new dawn fades in their last concert haunts me

Batman and his robins but it’s ‘I’m Your Man’ by Mitski (other than steph maybe because bruce was just awful to her)

adding onto this, it’s so important to me that jason was chosen for his heart even when classist stereotypes would expect him to be naturally violent, cruel, and selfish.

he only becomes more aggressive and bitter the more time he spends as robin BECAUSE of robin. he saw all the injustice first hand in violent crime and the ineffective, corrupt system and he became frustrated. he wanted to kill two face because he killed his father; he wanted to attack the pimp because he directly saw him beating up a woman; he might have killed garzonas because he had to witness gloria’s dead body and garzonas would walk free to do that to other women, just out of america.

jason’s not naturally violent and cruel, it’s what he’s learned is the only way to protect other victims in a world that perpetuates suffering.

i know starlin is seen as the main post-crisis jaybin writer but jason writers PLEASE read collins

(pictures are from batman #409 and #411)

the fact that jason verbalising the idea of bruce killing him over the joker is what finally makes jason break into tears causes me think that this is the moment he understood that it was truly possible for bruce to kill him

spot the difference! (level: impossible)

The body of a post is where Hamlet talks to Claudius. The tags is where Hamlet talks to the audience