#And as a result his character suffers his writing sucks and absolutely zero positive changes in his relationships have occured

[adelinamoteru]

the problem with jason’s writing post resurrection is that like. you spend all this time while he was gone building up these batfam characters and their views and morals and way of interacting with each other and their world. and then you bring back this one character who’s been dead for however long, but an insanely long period of however long, and you’ve made it so his worldview has become drastically different than what he was being taught. then you dump the antagonist route completely and start trying to figure out how to bring him back into the fold.

but once again, you’ve spent around 15yrs expanding these characters separately from jason todd. so what do you do? you mold and reform what jason is meant to be post resurrection until he fits into those standards. its what makes sense to do. how can you justify the batfam characters doing an almost complete 180. maybe a 90. on their views purely because of one character? purely because of jason todd when nothing has set ever been able to set that change in motion beforehand? so now jason has to be the one to change. except the change completely contradicts all the beliefs he’s formed in his post resurrection plot-line.

and now jason todd as a character becomes bland. he becomes a victim to bad writing and character assassinations. he’s wishy washy. nobody knows what to do with him so his character and the characters he interacts with only continue to suffer as a result. everybody begins to stop taking him and his stances seriously. all because you’ll never remove him from the sources that led to the origin of jason todd.

a batfam character away from batfam? well now why would the writers ever think to do that!

[moiraineswife]

TOD SPOILERS/RANT BELOW

accidental-rambler replied to your post “I haven’t read so much as a page of T0D and I’m still disgusted at the...”

I don't even care about tog tbh but when I saw that she decided to do a quick switch with couples so that ofc Chaol ends with his healer because OF COURSE POWER OF LOVE CURES IT ALL and I mean, OF COURSE she would do that because having a disability is not sexy at all, right? How could she possibly write about Chaol not being able to walk and having to learn to cope with it in any interesting manner, THAT'S CRAZY, better to pull off a good ugly oldie like this trope.

Straight up, Chaol was my favourite character in that series but I have absolutely zero desire to read the bullshit that t0d appears to be. 

This could have been SUCH a compelling arc and story for Chaol as a character, and for representation of a young person finding themselves with a disability and learning how to cope with it and still grow and find happiness and fulfilment in their life but oh no.  

And I’m annoyed because again it’s that potential that sort of floods through all of her books. She has so much interesting and compelling set-up that she then resolves through tasteless cliches and painfully overdone tropes, you know? 

Like, before TOD came out I was kind of excited to see what this would do for Chaol’s story. It kind of reminded me of Jaime’s arc in ASOIAF? Both characters were kind of...defined by their physical abilities, you know? 

Jaime was the greatest swordsman in the realm, kingsguard knight, etc, etc. His entire identity, worldview and approach to life and everything in it was genuinely based around his status and ability with a sword. 

Chaol’s isn’t quite as extreme as that but...A huge part of his identity was dependent upon his ability to physically fight. His position as captain gave him purpose and pride, he lived for his job, for the honour he found there, and that was slowly starting to become undone in QoS with his worldview and perspectives changing...and he started using those skills for something else instead. But he still relied heavily on his skills as a swordsman and a warrior - it was the only way he felt he could act and contribute. 

And in both instances, the authors offer a story that involves their characters being stripped of that defining trait. They both suffer physical disabilities that makes it impossible for them to continue the things they’ve literally built their lives around. 

But then they both take...such different twists. Jaime gets...a truly beautiful character arc (in the books, idk wtf is going on with the show rn but we’ll not talk about that) that involves him learning how to cope with this. He becomes a much better man when he can no longer force his way through every single situation with brute force. He learns diplomacy, he takes his role in the kingsguard far more seriously, he forces himself to change and learn and grow. (And this is...Maybe this sounds like the arc/my view of its benefits is romanticising disability in some way, which is not my intention, nor I think is what happens in the books - I’m just talking purely from a literary/narrative/character arc point of view here, and what can be done for a fictional character and how this arc can be handled....better than in tog, anyway) 

But with Chaol it just....It doesn’t force him to change, it doesn’t force him to examine himself and explore different strengths and different aspects to his identity (which would have been SO GODDAMN IMPORTANT WITH THIS CHARACTER HOLY SHIT) there’s just...this magical solution which, as far as I’m aware, sets him back to where he was again and it’s just like...a magical undo button for his disability which....doesn’t exist and shouldn’t be considered as a ‘happy ending’ for this kind of arc, you know? 

But that’s not something i really want to talk about too much, mostly because it isn’t my place but...The thing that’s really, truly unnerving about this whole thing is, as far as I’m aware from the spoilers...Chaol’s health is literally bound to Yrene??? 

Like...If she’s tired/at a distance/drained of magic....He’ll be negatively impacted/physically disabled again and...I’m not physically disabled in any way, so I can’t really speak about it on that level but just...The idea that another person’s well-being/state of mind/whatever has any bearing whatsoever on my health is...terrifying. The idea that if a person connected to me is tired or exerts themselves one day...I’ll find myself with far worse health as a result of that is honestly and genuinely terrifying to me.   

And it creates this really horrible power imbalance as well? What if they fight one day and Yrene decides to spite him with this connection? What if they want to separate? What if she gets manipulated and hurts him through this thing? What if, what if, what if. I don’t care how much they love each other, or how well suited they are to each other, they’re human beings. Humans are flawed, they fight, they fall out, they change, they move on....and they’re tethered to each other in such a deep way that it’s just...This can never be healthy. Even if they’re guaranteed to be together and in love and plain sailing forever and ever....There’s this hideous power imbalance where she can literally control his health by her actions. 

And it sucks for her too??? Like...There’s this huge pressure on her to always be on the top of her game and always make sure that she’s healthy and functioning etc and etc because otherwise it’ll negatively impact him. And what if she falls out of love with him one day and wants to leave but can’t because of the guilt and the pressure because she knows if she leaves, she takes his health with her? 

It’s just so...Deeply unhealthy. It’s like feysan/d’s suicide pact at the end of ac0war on steroids. And not the good kind. And I’m aware that I may have gotten some of the details wrong here, and maybe I shouldn’t comment at all on this since I haven’t read it....but the idea of being entirely dependent on another person to sustain your health for you, giving them that level of control over you is just...It’s horrifying to me, it really is, and it’s messing me up because like...how did she EVER think this was a good story to tell?? (And it also throws up some...really uncomfortable metaphors for caregivers and loved ones which I...won’t try to comment on because I’m sure someone has a better insight than I do but its’ just...it just gets more and more messed up the more I think about it) 

SORRY FOR THE RANT. I JUST HAVE VERY STRONG FEELINGS ON THIS THING I DESPERATELY WANTED TO LOVE BUT HAVEN’T EVEN READ BC OF HOW BAD IT IS.