The thing about Jason Todd is I like to call him cathartic and he *is* but he's also...a sort of fantasy fulfillment, but not the one I think people assume.
Jason cannot be a Punisher type fantasy because his own victimization undercuts it. This isn't a tale about a hero avenging his family. This is the singing bones.
Because fundamentally, the fantasy in utrh is this: the victimized dead can rise again, screaming. Can cut a bloody path through the world and make the powerful listen. It doesn't matter if what he does is just or right, anymore, just that it exposes the wound.
In real life the dead stay dead and their abusers write their obituaries and get sympathy cards from their families and you bite your tongue and let the wounds rot and -
And then there's Jason, who comes back wrong because the world is wrong. Who comes back sharp and cruel, who makes himself a knife where there was once only grave dirt. Who tells Bruce, and by extension the audience itself, that *yes* you were grieving wrong. Yes you did allow this. You preserved peace over justice. You offered platitudes to a silent headstone while you ignored the screams of the living victims.
The fantasy of Jason Todd is this:
You have to look the corpse in the eyes, this time.
Part 9
Dick about his family in Nightwing #79: “I’ve always had someone to catch me if fell. My parents. My father. My other father. And my brothers.”
Jason in Detective Comics #975: “Being here, being one of all of you… It’s important to me. […] Family is family. I can make room on the black sheep side of the table if I need to.”
Bruce, Kate and Jacob talk about Martha in Detective Comics #978:
Part 11
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Pt2 to my previous post🤭
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Had someone on Tiktok being hateful so I drew this in spite
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Also referenced a miraculous ladybug scene in s6!
So as of today I have been writing fanfic for 6 weeks. I think it’s going pretty well!
I have published 67000 words and written over 80000.
5 fics published, one completed.
Several spam messages about people wanting to adapt my story into a comic (which, why? Also how much money do you think I have, I do this for free) but no major flames yet.
All in all, I’m having fun! Pretty sure I’ll keep going.
Jason Todd coded
obsessed with the concept of the anti-saint. you will suffer cruelties and humiliations that should be unthinkable and die pointlessly, and if you must be remembered at all, it will only be with revulsion, as if you were a festering scar on reality itself. neither resistance nor submission will redeem you. god will not save you. god has abandoned you. everyone has abandoned you. you are alone in an uncaring universe.
Mmmm tragedy. Love it
What if Jason died, got resurrected, started his whole rampage as Red Hood, but ended up losing his memories? Maybe he hit his head too hard, or the lazarus pit finally screwed his brain over, or he just woke up one day unable to remember anything except his time with the league so he goes back and instead of turning him into a weapon Talia gives Jason a choice to live the normal life he deserves. And Jason chooses it, of course, he does. He leaves Gotham, enters a University, and pursues an English Degree.
Years later, when Jason is an English Professor or maybe a librarian, Bruce sees him.
And Jason looks alive. Real. Glowing. He still has a white tuft in his hair, he still has scars, he's unable to explain, but he looks happy in a way Bruce hadn't seen him since the first time he put on that Robin uniform.
Bruce doesn't force anything. He makes small talk but then, out of nowhere, he asks, with wet, sad eyes, "Are you happy?"
Jason stares. Blinks. And then smiles, "Of course." And it wrecks Bruce.
Because he knows, he knows Jason wouldn't have died if he never met him, he knows Jason wouldn't have come back as a monster, he wouldn't have been cut open and stitched back wrong.
He knows Jason would've been happier, but knowing it and seeing it breaks him differently.
Because now Bruce is wondering: Would all of them be happier if they never met him?
Me rn. I should be writing Bat...man? or Beyond the walls but i dont wanna. The trans Jason Todd story demands to be written.
A non-comprehensive list of wrong words I've seen in fics:
Rogue and Rouge - very common in superhero fics
Offal and awful - only seen this twice, both in Harry Potter fics
Weary and Wary - to be WEARY is to be tired, worn out. To be WARY is to treat with suspicion.
Definitely and defiantly - I do this all the time and have to go back to fix it
Bare and bear - The character probably doesn't have a bear chest. Probably.
Passed and past - Also guilty of this one
Manner and manor - lots of Batman fics have this one
Bubble, bauble, bobble - I can't remember the fic but I saw all three of these used in a paragraph to describe Christmas ornaments
Dual and duel - Another common one for Harry Potter
Chord and cord - also weirdly common?
Scalding and scolding - Scalding hot, scolding voice
Loosing and losing - You can loose a knot but you lose a fight
Threesome and trio - I KNOW what the fic writer was trying to say but these days the two have very different connotations
Cryptid and cryptic - So often. SO OFTEN. Especially in Danny Phantom fics
Waste and waist - This always shows up in character descriptions and it transcends fandom
We all make mistakes but some of these are so common I actually googled to see if I was wrong XD
BEGGING Batman/Batfam ff authors to learn the difference between rouge and rogue. For my sake. Please. (I use a screen reader and it switches it into French half the time)
I love Tim and Dick bonding over their weird love life and Jason, I love them so much they are so cure… ALSO WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT BELITTLING DICK’AS AND KORI’S RELATIONSHIP LIKE THAT???!!!
Canon accepted
I have so many sounds perfect for them I am slowly making my way through them all.
Here have something silly! Steph crashing at Tim’s boat after a hard night of work, and Tim kind of forgot Bernard was also there 🤭