#and basically being puppetted by the spirit of racism and sexism for years on end

[cologona]

Reminder that Lost Days was published 4-5 years after Batman annual 25 and should be considered the ‘more canon’ of the two stories. Yes they largely corroborate one another but they notably differ in how they frame the subject of 'romance' between Jason and Talia.

In the annual it’s typical Hollywood fare. Talia kissing Jason is mixed in with everything else and it's simply expected for the reader to understand that her doing so is not only okay, it makes Jason more impressive by virtue of being desired by a desirable woman. It is just assumed that Talia and Jason, being attractive opposite sex characters, ought to hook up.

In Lost Days the two are obviously very important to one another but there is no inkling of any romantic or sexual dynamic until they sleep together at the very end of the story (which is why it’s so jarring). When it happens, it’s at the same time that Jason is experiencing yet another tragic twist of fate: despite previously having done everything to prevent him from going after Bruce and encouraging his empathy in what ways she could, at the critical moment when Jason is finally possibly ready to move forward, Talia is no longer the same person. She points him right back towards punishing Bruce and the subject of his death, becoming yet another caregiver/authority figure to fail him. Although their relationship is not so clearly defined, she is also arguably another maternal figure Jason loses.

I understand the desire to read the text as-is regardless of author intention but I think it should be acknowledged when the text is... talking to itself.

Reading Talia as a straightforward manipulator throws out the rest of how she's written in favor of some cheap fingers to point at her, and worse yet it's an absolutely boring snooze of a story. Am I saying that it's easier to accept Jason and Talia having sex than their kiss? Yes absolutely. At least the sex fits into the overarching tragedy. I won't call either great writing because this is clearly a case of the writer failing to kill their darling but at least there's meat on that bone. (Maybe the reason why we don't see Talia and Jason together again is because Talia regrets it. Maybe Jason doesn't regret it and doesn't fully understand why she would. Maybe it feels like rejection to him. Maybe that presumed rejection was a factor in his mental breakdown after UTRH. See? Meat. Where am I supposed to go with cardboard-cutout evil Talia?)