Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here - Warning You Should Heed Before Becoming A JT Fan

We are in desperate need of Death in the Family rewrite, instead of trotting out a horribly racist and bizarrely paced, thematically confused story like it’s one of the greats just because it’s load bearing. This is what i’d want from it.

Bruce is again the POV character, but he is explicitly a biased and unreliable narrator. We don’t hear Jason’s narration outside of a few key moments, but we are shown what he’s doing in direct contrast with Bruce’s theorising about his spiralling. Bruce never explicitly asks. Him and Alfred make well meaning, overbearing decisions on his behalf.

Jason is struggling with Batman and Robin’s catastrophic mishandling of several sexual assault cases in a row. I haven’t decided if we’re alluding to Jason being a victim of this himself, that might be overselling it. Either way he is deeply affected by these, and he is the only one. There’s a sense of isolation and injustice around him. He thought bruce cared. He thought batman was a solution.

Jason leaves to find his birth mother, leaving only a note and no explanation. Bruce sees the robin suit is missing and is annoyed. He doesn’t investigate, prioritising the hunt for the joker.

The death and build up happens exclusively in Africa, in a country with its own local vigilante, who wants to know what this American is doing here. (I don’t know enough about DC’s African heroes to know who it should be, but it needs to be one who is already established and competent in his own right.) Batman is in a state of awkward overreach with a patronising tilt to the way he hoards knowledge in the pursuit of the joker in someone else’s backyard. They agree to a partnership that in practise is unequal in Batman’s favour. We are externalising the themes here, mirroring Bruce’s personal relationships with his professional ones.

Jason and bruce run into each other by accident once again. Both are surprised the other is there for a different mission. They opt to combine forces anyway, since they’re both here. Bruce is touched and naively optimistic about Jason’s search for his birth mother. He is projecting. For a moment it is blazingly obvious bruce identifies as a fellow orphan to his sons first, and a father second.

There are local victims, arguably of the joker but it’s not definitive. Their deaths aren’t just numbers. They are real people. The local vigilante is very angry. Jason sympathises heavily, but he too is an outsider here. He sits apart from the funerary rites, listening in, uninvited, unable to mourn, unable to move on. Batman calls him to continue working the case.

Bruce isn’t blind, Jason is struggling. He makes a plan to reach out to him if they don’t find his mom, which will of course negate the need for action.

They find Sheila.

It all falls apart in the same way as the original. Jason does not try to take on the joker, although that is how it’s interpreted after he’s dead. He is trying to rescue his mom. She gets clobbered over the head by a joker goon on the way out and bleeds out while the bomb’s timer is still ticking down. Jason dies, alone, trying to shield the body of his dead mom.

None of the post-death UN stuff. Stupid.

Bruce disguises the death for publicity’s sake. He changes Jason out of robins clothes and hides the joker’s presence there to protect batman’s identity.

Time skip. The African vigilante knows he has been lied to. His country’s legal system paid off, and justice perverted. He comes to Gotham in pursuit of both the Joker and Batman, looking for justice.

At this point Bruce is in deep grief, swinging wildly between rage and self hatred. He is shutting out everyone. He loses track of a human trafficking case in crime alley to focus on the joker and the other vigilante.

The ending is an echo and inverse of the climax of Under the Red Hood, but nobody has set it up, it’s just the way a messy fight between the three remaining players works out. Bruce must choose between inaction and saving the joker. He doesn’t choose. He is frozen, and we do not know if it’s a choice or if he shut down too much to act. He is not in control. Joker appears to have died.

Joker is found, injured but alive, and gets locked in Arkham. The vigilante goes home, disgusted, having gotten what little justice Gotham offers.

The human traffickers escaped in the background of the fight. It isn’t called out, just a detail in the artwork.

Batman goes back to work in an empty house haunted by the dead. Jason’s grave stands alone. Everything has changed. Nothing has changed. Batman won, and everybody loses.

in depth analysis of the (beginning of the) final confrontation of batman: under the hood

batman goes in with the mindset of trying to appeal to jason and get his son back and/or with the motivation to save the joker. is batman trying to save the joker out of his belief in the sanctity of life or to stop jason from murder, saving him from himself?

jason is taunting batman with memories of who they once were, drawing on how poetic it would be for that bond to become severed in the very same place. it has the effect of making batman more emotionally fragile and reminding him that the person he sees before him is still the same boy. it confronts him with the care he tries to hide and the effect of his actions on the innocent kid jason once was. however batman still tries to hide under his cowl and his mission, not indulging in jason’s taunts and shortly as possible asking ‘where is he?’ knowing that the ‘he’ would be correctly interpreted as the joker.

jason continues to assert his knowledge and control of the situation using his prolonged speech whilst further flaunting his suffering as a way to hurt bruce and make him vulnerable. batman hides once again and tries to combat jason’s control by being to the point and focused on the joker, not even using the jokers name or recognising any familiarity with his son. then both of them give up on communicating verbally and resort to the language they’re used to- violence.

jason puts a face of apathy over the death of a whole city, presumed to include his adopted brother. instead of horror he opts to rub in the grief that batman has now been confronted by the past and present failure of his mentees. but the ellipsis may show his true vulnerability or may be a way to further make his mocking dramatic. whilst the blowing of bludhaven was not intentional on jason’s part, this works in jason’s favour the most in terms of making batman hurt and vulnerable.

batman tries to save his son in vain, mostly because of his ill timing once again. jason sees his own confrontation between him and batman as taking priority, using cold rationale that there’s no saving ‘Dickie’ and taunting of batman’s moral code to ensure batman stays in the most effective way. batman has now lost his cold demeanour in desperate heartbreak, fatherhood prevailing as he pleads ‘Jason please, I-‘ in an extremely uncharacteristic manner. he finally acknowledges his son by using his name, says ‘please’, putting himself as inferior, and finally doesn’t even finish his sentence as he’s completely lost his composure. it’s extremely cruel but jason’s response is his own way of showing his desperation to keep his father in his place and maintain his control over the situation. jason isn’t denying that batman cares for nightwing, just as he wouldn’t refute that batman cares for him, in fact he weaponises that care to show that it’s futile; no matter how hard he tries to save them, they still end up dead because he won’t remove the problem at the source and continues to risk them for his moral code and idealistic hope.

jason continues being talkative as a way to maintain control, to distract, and show how vindictive he is now that’s he’s changed from the innocent robin. he brags about his underhanded techniques that are far from the technical greatness that his opponent taught him and begins to patronise in a way to undermine him and further prove how he is the ‘better batman’ in his mostly un-theatrical and practical costume. he also recognises and mocks batman having to improve after jason revealed a weakness of his previously. batman finally gives into the fight talking and takes the upper hand once again by revealing jason’s hypocrisy in his critique of batman’s reliance on weapons by burning his jacket. this serves as an act of showing that he’s not holding back, no matter how much he may care for jason.

batman knows that he failed his son but he incorrectly presumes the failure that jason is caught up on. he presumes jason’s issue with him is more unsalvageable, that being the fact that he wasn’t saved from being murdered. batman projects his own guilt of not being enough to save jason on him and can’t imagine any other reason, namely the way jason’s whole existence was erased as if he never existed, and most importantly that the joker has had countless more victims since. the ellipsis shows his hesitance and attempt to be gentle with his appeal to his son, perhaps being unsure how to ever ‘fix’ jason’s hurt over being murdered. ‘I tried to save you’ implies that batman thinks jason believes he wasn’t cared about enough in life for his father to stop his murder or he’s trying to make jason see the logic that it wasn’t batman’s fault- here he names jason to show that he’s attempting to talk to him as ‘bruce’ to ‘jason’ with a sense of familiarity. the ‘I’m…I’m’ when talking about ‘trying to save you now’ shows his struggle with emotional vulnerability and an awareness of how cruel it is to claim that he’s trying to ‘save’ his son by looming over his crumpled body after beating him to a pulp. batman had never tried to truly talk to jason other than when it seemed he was physically and dynamically in control and this is only after resorting to violence first (although he was goaded into it), the exception to this being when nightwing was at stake. jason only responds to this meagre justification with desperate anger, pointing a gun pathetically at him and responding incredulously with the rhetorical questions ‘this what you think this is about? you letting me die?’ at every point previously jason had seemed to perfectly predict batman’s intelligent yet emotionally stunted thought processes however he is truly caught off guard at batman’s lack of deduction. he then goes on to question which side of the man has failed his ‘judgement’- the guilty father/hero or the narrow and single minded man on a mission. he criticises his ‘antiquated sense of morality’ that being a reference to his repellant to death at all costs, both jason’s and the joker’s equally as suggested by the past and present ways of trying to save jason from death and murdering. for the first time it jason addresses bruce without a hint of mocking behind the name and tells him earnestly that ‘i forgive you for not saving me.’ this carries the implication that jason knows that bruce is at fault for his death in some ways but that his main concern wasn’t with the things that bruce couldn’t control about his death, perhaps seeing a grudge as useless or genuinely forgiving even without a direct apology. jason forgave bruce and sheila in his final moments, knowing that the circumstances of his death of a fatal combination of fear, helplessness, and coincidences. he died a hero, he just wished he was remembered as one by being worthy enough to make batman stop the joker for good, not a victim who projected his hurt over dying on the one who failed to save him.

jason gets up from his position on the floor and aggressively and indignantly gets to the point of his confrontation- why is the joker alive? the repetition of ‘why’, use of ellipsis, the exclamation of ‘on god’s earth’, and excessive use of punctuation all express how unthinkable and rage inducing it is for the joker to live, adding to how baffling it is to jason that batman thought his problem was not being saved. it implies that jason had the full assumption that batman would kill the joker- it was not a special demand but an expectation- so the fact that the minimum for being cared for after his death wasn’t fulfilled or even understood further hurts and enrages him.

here jason truly tries to be persuasive by being as open as possible in his criticism, a change from his previous snarky comments, insults, and arrogance. by beginning the speech with what he is supposedly ‘ignoring’ various points before listing them out furthers how valid his point is, showing his empathy and desires are rooted not only in himself- perhaps implying that bruce’s are- but also the wider suffering caused by one man. the list begins with the more distant, more inconceivable picture of ‘entire graveyards’ and ends with a reference to barbara, going from a more logical quantity of suffering to the more personal pain and responsibility over a loved one. there’s an appeal to ‘the past’, showing his expectation of killing is not based on character or the supposed worth of the joker but as vengeance and prevention of suffering in the future as implied by the phrasing of jason being ‘the last person you’d ever let him hurt’; this both could mean the joker should have died after ‘killing’ jason or that he never should have lived long enough to ‘hurt’ jason at all. through the phrasing of ‘let him’, jason makes it so that batman is responsible for the jokers actions through his own inaction in killing him or preventing his atrocities. the repetition of ‘i thought’ before revealing how mistaken he was in having faith in bruce shows his vulnerability and hurt, maybe seeing now how futile his arguments are against the cold expression of batman’s cowl as suggested by his hesitance to declare his own care. the emphasis on ‘me’ is both a way to convince bruce to see what he should have been valued as a son and a plea to be affirmed that he was enough of a son at all. jason then goes on the express his own care through the conditional of ‘if it had been you’ and how unexpected it was that the same was not done for him in reality. the violent imagery and blunt language of a ‘bloody mass’ is a reminder of the suffering that jason went through other than the bomb and his actual death- this is a more vulnerable and vivid imagining compared the unrealistic references to your own death. this comparison also seems more cruel on the part of bruce because whilst jason’s unreciprocated feelings of care in vengeance can be seen from the lens of batman and robin as a partnership, it’s also on the level of a parent and child with the scenario of a child going after his fathers murderer compared with a father not being willing to do the same for the other. there is the emphasised ‘you’ which contrasts to the previous ‘me’, which shows that despite how much reasoning jason may give, his issues are about bruce not valuing jason as much as he thought he did. the hyperbolic language of ‘search the planet’ and excessive pejoratives of ‘pathetic pile of evil, death-worshipping garbage’ ends his argument with a tone of anger, reflecting his conviction in his hypothetical actions if bruce were to be the one to be murdered. the whole time jason is kneeled over the joker whilst pointing a gun at a hunched over batman. this reflects the levels of power of each of the people in the room through the visible heights, along with their attitudes, with batman being closed off and shameful, jason being aggressive in his attempt to have power over batman through weaponising his words, and the joker just gleefully observing. the bottom left panel has batman coldly looking at jason, with his cowl acting as a facade to his emotions, contrasted to jason who is angry almost to the point of tears and splattered with his own blood. the backgrounds mirror all of this with batman having a white background, not restricted to a panel and holding the most power, emotional composure, and moral superiority, this juxtaposed with jason only having a fraction of his face showing on the bottom right. jason looks straight forward whereas batman looks at jason, maybe implying that jason’s message is just as much for the reader as it is for batman or just representing how open he is with his emotions.

batman now faces forward (now in the position of giving his view to the reader), bares his teeth, and gives a short vague reply telling jason that he doesn’t ‘understand’, either implying jason never saw the true purpose behind the dedication to never kill, bruce himself, or the idea of batman and it’s incompatibility with killing. jason once again starts asking rhetorical questions, both showing he is more open to understanding bruce and that he still does not ‘understand’ by assuming what bruce is talking about at all despite bruce implying that he can’t have thought of it. jason thinks it’s a matter of ‘moral code’ and it’s harsh limits, maybe mocking his deontological views on the lack of reasoning behind not killing other than not being allowed by an abstract ‘line.’ bruce, with a downturned head, mournfully replies ‘no’, emphasised by the repetition, ellipsis and phrase ‘god almighty’ showing his true vulnerability for a moment. then batman shockingly says that killing the joker would be ‘too damned easy’, revealing his innermost temptations as a figure defined by his closed off stoicism that threat to completely destroy his control over his mission if he even gives in once. the use of black, white, and the walls of the building are symbolic of the emotions of the moment. in the 1st panel, batman has one black eye and one white showing through his cowl, in the 3rd it is completely black but concealed through the shadow created by his downturned head, and by the 4th, both of his eyes are shadowed over. the 2nd and 3rd panel looks as though batman is projecting darkness over the scene and almost reaching jason with it (with jason’s outstretched arm reaching back), contrasting to the white background he inhabited in the previous page and perhaps representing his darkness, shame, sadness, or emotional vulnerability. the 1st panel and 5th mirror each other through the use of a dark and light eye and flip the dynamics of their positions in the previous page, with jason now looking coldly to the side. the broken mask shows jason’s conflict residing both in vigilantism and personal relationship, his facade of cruelty and his authentic tears, his role as an antagonist and his position as a sympathetic son.

the creature (frankenstein) and jason todd parallels:

associations with death and therefore transgression

negative influence of father figures

questions of nature vs. nurture

sympathetic killer and antagonist

a ‘rebirth’ that leads them into vengeance against the neglect of their father figures, along with giving them agency through education or cognisance after being deprived of the ability to realise their suffering- the delaceys and lazarus pit

being rejected of their one morally questionable wish towards their father figure

goes on a path of vengeance that leads to their deaths

lower class or representative of them that is given a ‘voice’

dismissed from their emotions because of their violence/intimidating stature

strange niche of characters who would read frankenstein and cry because they related to the creature

hey guys have you ever heard of THE CHARACTER. i’m thinking about THE CHARACTER. honestly can’t even get shit done because i’m thinking about THE CHARACTER. i’m listening to a song and imagining THE CHARACTER. all i know and love is THE CHARACTER

jason todd would love lady macbeth

“Jason’s approach to justice is right wing” we need to force people to actually read.

Claiming Jason is more right wing than Bruce the actual fucking billionaire is crazy. 

for some reason dick & jason's relationship is often written as if jason was supposed to know plenty about dick even before they met for the first time, but in canon he knew close to nothing other than the fact that he was the previous robin (or rather, not even that, but i sort of refuse to believe that the topic did not come up even *once,* no matter how much bruce would like to avoid it). hence, i think upon hearing that dick used to be in a circus, jay should (completely seriously) ask him if he was a clown

Fanon batfam fans are scary man. Why are they always fantasizing about Tim or Jason telling Damian, “if u don’t shut up i will sleep with ur grandpa/mom. Already did it.”

Like, telling a minor (who’s usually depicted as 10-11 in fanon) about ur sexual activities (with his OWN FAMILY MEMBERS) is actually weird as hell… Especially when they say it as soon as damian opens his mouth to say legit anything…

lost days jason is just so good. I love him. He tries to be badass and cool and full of revenge and he just can’t. He keeps going on sidequests to help innocent people and kids. He’s like “talia I wanna kill the joker and Batman” and she’s like “of course, here’s a lot of money” and he comes back to have tea with her and bitch about the joker and Batman and also tell her about how he saved London from getting blown up. like obviously he got his stuff together by the time utrh rolls around (sorta), but man, lost days was a hard time for a very compassionate man trying to be ruthless

strange niche of characters who would read frankenstein and cry because they related to the creature