#basically you should read this comic if you haven't because hoo boy

[redhoodinternaldialectical]

5 and 8 for Jason, and 19 and 21 for Tim?

Hello laufire :D I've seen you around in my notes a fair few times, thank you for the ask!

Jason first bc I am predictable 😌

5. First song that comes to mind for this character?

Dana Dan by Bloodywood! I had it as his theme song long before I started headcanoning him as religiously Hindu and the music video feels all the more appropriate now that I do!

There are a LOT of runners up, sixteen in specific I could name off the top of my head bc I made a whole character playlist for him and I listen to it every time I drive (burned CD in my car :3)

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

Hoo boy, that competition is FIERCE lol I try my best not to talk about it in terms of complaints though. That's just not the energy I wanna have most of the time. That being said, since you asked for some salt ye shall receive hehehe!

I think the through line of the most annoying stuff is that people will point at something Jason did in his villain era and twist it wildly out of proportion into something unequivocally EVIL and then everyone else will (incorrectly imo!!!) claim that it's out of character and due to writers that hated him and we should throw it out.

The worst example of this by far is his fight with Mia Dearden

First of all, it was written by JUDD FUCKING WINICK so yeah this was not a matter of an unfavorable writer!! Second of all, I think it's a goddamned masterpiece of a comic, and THE successor to UtRH

So like you have the second Robin, born into grinding poverty, having to commit crime to survive, joining up with a vigilante mentor, and killing someone for the greater good, and then being utterly destroyed... and then you have the second Speedy, born into grinding poverty, having to commit crime to survive, joining up with a vigilante mentor, and killing someone for the greater good, and then growing from that to become a fully fledged hero in her own right! So similar and yet their paths have been so different with Mia healing and becoming even stronger and Jason having been isolated and pushed to villainous extremes.

Then during that confrontation each of them know about the other through hearsay and research, but have never met before. Each make their own assumptions and then prove that they are more than what was assumed of them! Jason makes a deeply flawed but earnest attempt to try and connect with Mia and she rejects it because she has the support he never did and therefore has already long ago grown passed what has destroyed and consumed him!!

And some people REDUCE their fight to just "evil scawy Jason trying to hurt poor widdwe Mia"???????????????????????????? Might I challenge those responsible to a duel of paintball rifles at dawn?!?!?!?

Kinda the entire fucking point of an antagonist is to let the complexities and nuances of the characters shine, and that's doubly true of antagonists that used to be protagonists! Mia and Jason are such amazing narrative foils for each other, and tbh, Jason himself is an extremely good foil in general! On top of that the Arrows have long been foils of the Bats, so Bruce and Ollie also foil each other in the background brilliantly as Jason runs rings around them both!!!!

I would need to start pulling up pictures of comic pages and write a full length essay to get into proper depth with it (And I do intend to eventually!!) but the way they each interact with that fight and with their own histories going into it is great for both characters and it's just... gah... basically my favorite comic ever and it's stuck in this meaningless tug of war over "characterization" from two sides who both mostly haven't read the damned thing, let alone properly dug into the analysis of why Jason did any of that or what it might mean to Mia beyond just being unpleasant...

I would KILL to get DC to let me write a Mia and Jason comic. There's so much fun shit that they could do together, no matter if they were allied or enemies, I'm gonna have to write it as fanfiction tbh, but the fact that Green Arrow (2001) #69 - #72 is completely ignored until someone wants to use it as flat proof of 'Jason bad and ur bad for liking him' is just...

Le sigh...

Anyway what the fuck was I doing? Answering an ask lol??

Okay here we go: Timmy Time!

19. A relationship in canon that you don't like?

Its gotta be Steph simply due to how badly it was mishandled. As usual with female characters, I feel like Steph's nuance and strength as a character was in direct conflict with how the authors implemented her narrative role as a love interest. The fact that Tim was flat out casually misogynistic to her for her whole introduction and it wasn't treated properly as a flaw is a deal-breaker for me. The amount of Steph's Wikipedia biography that's Tim's love life makes me want to commit arson. The ship itself in isolation from much of the canon may have potential, and the canon material itself isn't all bad by any means, but to me the relationship still feels like a net loss.

21. I do indeed write, uh, a considerable amount of fanfiction about this dude, so: What's your favorite thing to do in fics when it comes to this character? Something that you don't like?

I like making him more unhinged. Or rather, I interpret his early actions as having been spectacularly unhinged, and like to imagine he kept that energy up into later years. I'm so not interested in Tim being a well adjusted person tbh I want him in my wonderful little Freak 4 Freak ship being spectacularly messed up and incredibly weird with nonsensical ideas about how boundaries work

For what I don't like... Hmmmm, this one's a little hard to answer because most of that falls into the neutral category of stuff I have no interest in writing at all, and so I just don't lol

I suppose I don't like to do apologies, though I have written one. I like to get down into the messy depths of sympathy and resentment by having him talk about those conflicts with the allies that have hurt him. However, I think the direct contrition and simplicity of apologies has less and less appeal to me the more I develop as a writer. Apologies retroactively cement an idea of fault and blame. I think there's more room for exploration in having the characters talk through all of the components of the issue without ever having that particular kind of confrontation.

Thank you very much again for the ask!!! I hope this was a fun read :3

[rithmeres]

a TON of notes from my reread of The Silver Eye (long post up ahead)

apen left on the two-year journey immediately after his encounter with enel in the capitol

avidan was wearing white in chapter 3 and i literally didn’t recognize him for a couple panels

NOAH’S BANDAGES ARE PRESENT IN HIS FIRST SCENE

‘noah’s a surgeon’ ‘oh i thought he was a hit man or something’ ICONIC

apen doesn’t like tea

the guy in 6x19 who is crafting (?) the silver eye??? he is important i can feel it WAIT HE’S ALSO IN 7x06 AND 7x07 IM?????? whomst is this

i think nathan is to enel what mr. st. claire was to bhatair. a body double who’s body is somehow connected (scars)

pidgeondove’s crush on noah is adorable.

the note noah sent to apen, to which apen responded “yes, absolutely”…. i need to know what it said best theory I’ve seen so far: ‘is nathan hot’

the more i look at the amphitheater fight scene, the more i’m convinced that there’s no way that man is bhatair. the theatre fight looks nothing like the fighting we’ve seen from velvare. ALSO its the only time we see him with a pipe (except the man in 7x13 who might be mr. st. claire and if mr. st. claire smoked, that might explain where noah’s cigar tendencies come from)

AXE MAN WAS THERE WHEN BAY FREED MELETE FROM HERARAT he has to be immortal ok wAIT WHAT IF AXE MAN WAS ANTIGONE’S HUSBAND HOLY FRICKKKKK

apen’s brother………….. i have so many questions like i hope its q OH SHOOT OK HERE GOES: aetius can’t cast syllor’s curse because he’s not from the direct shepherd line. IF he was antigone’s husband, then SHE was the one with all the power and SHE passed it to her descendants. so Q can do it because he’s the son of joshua shephard from the main shephard line GUYS

vel took off one of his greaves and used the gleipnir pen to cut a piece of his fancy sleeve to bandage apen’s wrist.

apen, a suicidal child, had the heart and strength to let vel keep ansam. #beautifulcinnamonrolltoogoodforthisworldtoopure

the runes on noah’s medical kit say “punch a hippie in the face.” I’m dying laura i really am

this pose is incredible:

“are you saying i’m less tough than a blind lady?” “AT LEAST SHE’S NOT TRYING TO BRING A STUFFED ANIMAL!”

i know noah “knows everything”, but im 100% sure enel is not his brother. but noah’s not stupid so i know he knows something about his father’s link with bhatair but the question is what does he know

the ‘get in the frame, apen’ panel:

velvare’s faith in apen being a better person than his father and even vel himself is... so good for all the rivalry between shephards and hollingsworths, vel cares so much for apen (he shows him a gentleness that i don’t see with anyone else) and he wants him to be the man he was meant to be

panels 1 and 2 of 12x16………. noah cut aetius’s head in half. with his own axe. he did that.

the panels where vels takes down the bridge with the silver eye are more incredible than my entire life has been up to this point and i am ok with this

“you rip out your stitches, i’ll kill you and make you sew them back yourself”

AETIUS HAS BACK TATTOOS. WHO ELSE HAS BACK TATTOOS? THE RULERS OF CEDULAN. BOOM. theory that he was antigone’s husband: proven.

thoth. thoth. who was thoth? a past ruler of gallitan? daniel’s father? (15x02 bay mentions daniel’s father. I’m guessing he’s thoth.)

does avidan know that enel is alive? or did noah lie to him too?

in the flashback when bay breaks up the fight between noah and the other kid…… you can see noah’s ribs. prominently. he’s dirty and starving. meanwhile, savannah is wearing pearls and a nice dress and she looks really healthy. what is going on here.

noah and apen’s relationship is so interesting. they have a mutual respect and understanding of the other person, even if they are iffy on the other’s motives. apen’s got noah’s back (like the ring incident), but he doesn’t question or overstep his boundaries. tbh that’s the kind of friend noah needs. noah cares for him (aggressively. with force. and much locking in closets and benches) but he does care. and apen!! “noah, i swear i will never use syllor’s curse on you…. because i am not my family and i believe people deserve human dignity.” (i wonder if that’s gonna come back and bite us in the blubber)

crisan st. claire made it across the deadlands + only nedarians (or those of nedarian ancestry) can make it across the deadlines ∴ crisan was nedarian ∴ noah and idony are nedarian but they don’t show nedarian traits

the only thing keeping the NovaCrew alive is the fact that their main pursuers are a yolo manchild and a literal 8 year old child

WAIT AETIUS WON’T TOUCH THE SILVER EYE BECAUSE IT WILL WEAKEN HIS IMMORTALITY CURSE OHHHHH I GET IT

noah grabs his clawed arm when marcus starts cutting limes under syllor’s curse

i can’t wait until january for this comic to continue this is torture