#jason is an english major

[bruciemilf]

It’d be so fucking funny if Jason fought so hard to intimidate Harvey after the Lazarus pit.

Look here, here’s 8 heads in this duffel bag, aren’t I such a scary and dangerous crime lord?!

Harvey laughs, actually so amused by Jason’s audacity.

“Oh. Oh that’s so cute,” hands on his hips, dad stance on. He’s this close.

“Hey, jackass, THOMAS WAYNE was my father in law. Also, I remember when you were 11, in your little Wonder Woman pajamas, knocking on my and your dad’s door like ‘ I tHrEW uP—“

“shut up SHUT UP SHUT UP—“

[damianwaynerocks]

i know everybody's like "jason todd would've gone to college for english if he didn't die" which is awesome. like i love that headcanon don't get me wrong. but i feel like he would've went for social work.

jason peter todd, who grew up defending his SUDS mother from his abusive father, who lived on the streets when he should've been in elementary school, who was so poor and hungry that he was literally stealing tires off a fancy car to sell so he could eat?? that man would absolutely have worked in child welfare. whether as a foster care case manager or a community case worker helping at-risk youth, i genuinely think he would've gravitated towards helping kids in situations like his.

[dceasesd]

why juni ba’s the boy wonder has my favorite jason characterization of any contemporary comic run: a needlessly in-depth analysis (pt.1)

oh boy oh boy am i excited for this one buckle up boys it’s gonna be a long one. analysis under the cut (WITH PICTURES!!)

i, like many others, have many thoughts and opinions about juni ba's the boy wonder that i'd like to express. i was having trouble formatting my rant, though, so i decided that it was easiest to just address some of the common complaints i've seen about the comic and jason's characterization and insert my ramblings throughout it. so far i've seen three main complaints:

the typical boiling down of jason's character to "the angry one"

his lack of strategy going into the fight with the demon is out-of-character

the neighbor's kid interaction

to start with the first one-- when introducing jason's character, in both the second and first issue, ba uses the descriptors "coarse", "bitter", "hardened", "brash" and, of course, "rageful".

so, yes-- i understand where people are having issues with this characterization. however, even if it's overplayed, it's still important to remember that jason is angry, and is driven, in part, by his anger at bruce and the joker. and, as ba highlights, he deserved to be! completely erasing jason's anger is just as bad as defining him with it.

i also don't think it's wholly accurate to say that ba is boiling jason down to just his anger. it might seem like that when only considering the dialogue and narration, but jason's behavior in the comic doesn't perfectly align with how the narrator describes him. while the narration describes him as "rageful" and could be an instance of generalization, jason's actions throughout the comic are more aligned with two other emotions/motivators: fear and despair. we never see jason get actually, properly angry; the closest we get is when he's seemingly annoyed by damian (which i believe could be performative) and when he becomes violent, accidentally hurting damian.

even in this instance, though, he is not driven to this violence by rage, but rather fear. so, while ba states in the narration that jason is driven by his anger, he contradicts himself by highlighting how jason's sadness and terror motivates his character. this could be interpreted as lousy writing on ba's part, but i'm not going to attribute the paradox to that inference. to me, it actually represents a critque of the "jason is the angry robin" generalization, because it calls to attention the discrepancies between how one is described versus reality, an issue that jason both faces in the comics (bruce using him as a cautionary tale when dying WASN'T HIS FAULT) and outside of the comics, as mentioned previously.

furthermore, this highlights the difference between what jason believes about bruce's perspective and bruce's actual perspective (according to damian). jason believes himself to be a "failure", but damian refutes this by describing his conversation with bruce concerning jason, a conversation that does not align with jason's belief. if you couldn't tell by now, perception versus reality is a BIG theme in this comic (and for jason's character in general!)

i was really fascinated by ba's take on jason, because it veered pretty far from a lot of contemporary comics, most of which do, unfortunately, play with the angry robin jason generalization. they've been doing a bit with his fear, too, which has either been pretty fun or the most awful thing ever (i'm looking at you zdarsky. gotham war was fucked up), but what makes ba's jason stand out to me is how he grapples with his grief.

this boy is so sad. ba's jason might actually be the saddest rendition of him i've seen in canon content. we've seen jason grapple a little bit with the despair rooted in his death and resurrection, mainly in lost days, where he cries 3 (?) times, fresh out of the pit and very traumatized.

even in this comic, though, he reacts to his grief with anger more prominently than sadness. that obviously doesn't mean the despair isn't there, though-- anger is just an easier outlet for it (which i could really get into the masculinity aspects of that, but then this would be wayyyyyy too long).

ba's jason, though? that motherfucker is so. sad.

christ he's depressing. AND THAT'S SUCH A FRESH PERSPECTIVE!!!!!!! THANK YOU JUNI BA!!!!!!

now i'm pretty sure some people would argue that this rendition in out of character because he's so sad. to me, though, he's still the same jason; he covers up his sadness with anger and pettiness, redirecting his own insecurities onto those around him to mask his true feelings.

ba quite literally illustrates this in the comic. whenever he is being his snide, normal self, he has his red hood mask on; but when he actually opens up to damian and expresses himself truthfully, the mask is off. ba is highlighting how the classic jason anger and bitterness is, in part, a performance and coping mechanism.

this post is already too long, so i'll go over the two other critques in a different post, which i will link below (eventually). if you guys have any thoughts you'd like to share or discuss, my dms and asks are completely open! if you made it this far, i hope you enjoyed my ranting. look out for another post soon! :))

part 2 / part 3

[notmoreflippingelves]

Actually going insane over the implications of Jason asking Dick to be the Robin to his Batman in Battle for the Cowl.

Like I initially took it at the purely surface-level of Jason wanting a partner in the general sense. Which made sense, it's a huge responsibility and a lonely one so an assistant/sidekick/partner seems a no-brainer if you can get one.

But then I really thought about it, because Jason is not asking Dick to be his partner in the general sense; he's not even asking Dick to be his Nightwing. He's asking Dick to be his Robin.

And they both know exactly what Jason means: "Be the light to my darkness. Be the smile to my scowl. Be the hope to my fear. "

He's saying "Be 'Robin'; be the embodiment of Love and Justice and Goodness. Be the exceptional person that you have always been. Be the slightly-less exceptional person that I was when I wore your colors. Be the person that I was in the process of becoming and might have been (or might still be), if only Joker hadn't clipped my wings."

He's saying "I am prepared to become vengeance, become the Night. And I will go further than Bruce ever dared to, because it is what is needed. I will be the necessary evil. But you don't have to be. If Batman is Gotham's curse, Robin has always been its blessing. I will be the brutal punishment to our world, and I am asking you to be its incandescent gift."

He's saying, "Be for me, what we were for Him. Be my anchor, my comfort, my hope. Remind me what it's all for, why it's all worth it. And remind yourself as well."

He's saying "Be 'Robin' again--for both of our sakes."

[casscainmainly]

I headcanon that Jason, Cass, Barbara, and Duke are the major lit lovers in the Batfam, but they have very different tastes. Jason's taste leans toward British literature, stuff like Shakespeare and Alexander Pope (and Austen of course), but he also enjoys dystopian novels like Brave New World, 1984 etc.

Cass loves contemporary novels, including romance (stealing this from Shadow of the Batgirl!). She prefers stories with happy endings, and she also loves detective fiction, specifically British/American Golden Age - I think she'd adore Agatha Christie's cosies.

Barbara has the most diverse reading taste, and is the only one who can discuss books with the others without it devolving into a fight about whose taste is better. Her specialty is feminist fiction, stuff like Virginia Woolf, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Audre Lorde. She's not big on poetry, though.

Duke is THE poetry fan. He's a big defender of contemporary poetry, particularly poetry by POC authors, and loves Hanif Abdurraqib, Toi Derricotte, and Ocean Vuong. He does love Harlem Renaissance too, but makes fun of Jason if he brings up Langston Hughes (along the lines of 'oh is that the one Black poet you know?'. Jason, as a genuine Hughes fan, hates this). Duke, like Cass, loves detective fiction, but he prefers hardboiled noir over cosies. Cass and Duke get into tons of fights about this.

Duke and Jason both loathe BookTok, while Cass enjoys it. Barbara is neutral but prefers BookTube. They tried to form a book club once but Barbara didn't show up (she knew what would happen), Duke left halfway (he can be very elitist in his literature views), and then Cass threw Jason out a window (he insulted her reading taste).

These are just my thoughts, feel free to disagree/add on with any of your own!

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 248

Jason… wasn’t exactly planning on going back to Gotham.

Oh sure, back when he’d first gotten his head fixed up by the Pits and then utterly fucked by them he had been planning on a convoluted thing of revenge and getting Bruce to kill the joker and honestly he’s barely not doing that. But a literal six year old declaring your plan was stupid was downright insulting, even if they were correct. 

But he’s not going to drag this out. He’s only here for a few days, just enough to take care of things with a couple of Shadows loyal to Talia- and therefor him as well- before Damian is sent over. It was a thing he had argued with her for hours, the whole sending Damian here, but… But it was something Damian wanted, and well, she was paying for college for him. So. 

So Joker would die, would never get a chance to hurt his baby brother. It wouldn’t be his first kill- he didn’t regret his previous ones, not when the blood would have been on Damian’s hands instead- but hopefully it would be his last. 

[thesummerstorms]

okay, i will be the first to admit that I STRUGGLE with keeping comic timelines straight.

But Dick is here in Batman #436 saying that it's been two years since he left.

If I remember everything correctly.

Post-Crisis version of Jason hit in #408 and apparently trained for 6 months at least before he was allowed out as Robin.

Jason meets Dick in #416 at which point it's said that Bruce and Dick haven't spoken in 18 months.

Jason has one at least a few missions as Robin at that point, enough to get noticed by the news... I am again a bad judge of time, but lets say he's been doing the job at least a month for the news to make its way back to Dick via newspaper?

So it's maybe fair to say that he might have joined Bruce ~11 months? after Dick left??? Maybe a little earlier depending on how long you think it took for the new to make it to Dick.

Jason died in #428. I cannot judge how much in-universe time is supposed to have passed.

Then here in #436 Dick says it's been "two years", which we can read probably as "two years and some months" rather than "exactly two years".

Comic Time =/= Real World time, of course... but exactly how long does this mean Jason's tenure as Robin was supposed to be??? Because this feels like it could be measured in months as easily as years?

Like if we go with~11 months? after Dick left being his starting point (11 months of Bruce alone + 6 months of training + 1 month for the newspaper to get word to Dick= the 18 months Dick mentions)

Jason's been dead for at least several issues when Dick says it's been two years in this issue? again, taking the two years as rounding for anywhere from "exactly two years" to "two years five moths" (since Dick doesn't say "two and a half years")

This is definitely set at least a little after the show down in the cave in New Titans 55. Dick went back to the Titans for a while after that issue. He's in Kory's apartment with her worrying over him going to Gotham to see Bruce and in a therapy session thinking about his relationship with Bruce in New Titans #57. He tells the therapist that he can't "keep" avoiding the issue with Bruce, so it's definitely been more than a few days. We see him pull up to the manor in that same issue. He's talking to Alfred in New Titans #58, which is said to be set after Batman #437.

I'm gonna guess Jason's been dead a few weeks to maybe a little more than a month based on that?

So let's say two years really means "two years, 5 months ish" at most, subtract a month for Jason to be dead bringing it to 2y4m, so 28 months. And if Jason started as Robin around 11 months after Dick left, that would mean he had something like 17 months on the job? Or rather, 1 year, 5 months, slightly more than a year and a half.

Again, that's with the most generous windows I can think of for time passing, allowing for rounding and casual timekeeping. You could say that if we want to take Dick exactly at his word, only 6 months have passed since #416 and #436, which if we still think Jason was Robin for about a month before Dick met him would mean that Jason was only Robin for less than a year.

And I don't even want to do the math for how soon that makes Tim take Jason's place, honestly. Tim becomes Robin over the course of #440-#442. Out of universe, it's been slightly less than a year, but in universe??? 😕

(And before anyone brings it up- I don't think whatever the timeline for Tim in universe can necessarily be used to divine characterization for Bruce or Dick because it is very much a Doylist, editorial-driven decision. It isn't necessarily fair to treat it just as a character decision when the sales and marketing side probably played a heavy role.)

But yeah... this may be a waste of time given how many times the timeline has been reset since this point. I have no idea how much of this even is still standing or still counts. AND! It's also a timeline that is somewhat warped by Infinite Crisis.

But it's personally weird to me because I always got the impression from fandom that Jason was Robin a lot longer than he was.

[landboundstar]

Using Lovecraft To Annoy Jason

I do support the headcanon that Jason is a English major or got an English degree. And I also support the much more niche headcanon - like the one in my head - it is possible to set him off by implying Arkham Asylum was not named after someone with the last name Arkham but that it is a Lovecraft reference. My theory is that Tim does this when he wants Jason to give him time to finish a step in his plan.

So.... "Now, we're going to - " "Or, I could just shoot him." "Sure. Just shoot the guy with a hostage who escaped from our Lovecraft Asylum." "It was not named after the asylum in Lovecraft's stories. It is named after the founder. Who happened to have the last name Arkham. Are you even listening?" Tim, who has taken this time to finish the step of his plan, whether he thinks Jason should shoot the guy or not. "Not really. Are we going in?"

[aprettyfeverdream]

I swear to god, the only helpful thing I’m getting from college English is good words for my Jason Todd fanfiction

[lapetitechatonne]

sick in bed and contemplating the complex relationship between Dick and Jason.

like they’re brothers. they’re strangers. they’ve almost killed each other. they’ve almost died for each other. they would kill for each other. they’ve known each other at their worst. at their best. seen what the other is truly capable of and refused to walk away. but they have walked away. and came back. time and time again, no matter what, they come back. they understand each others trauma because they lived with Bruce too, and Bruce is known to make the same mistakes. they crave family, but they’ve pushed away the only one they’ve ever known at times. Dick shines in the light and Jason thrives in the dark. they both want to be better than Batman and do what he never could, but they have fundamentally different views of what that looks like. Dick tried to fix the police from the inside. Jason tired to fix crime from the inside. they struggled to understand the other because at times, they are foils. but even in their differences they are so similar. because they’re brothers.

[witchofthewild]

Shameless Naraa thirst trap that she got her bf to take for her <3

[thevoidisscreamingbackatyou]

guys what would jason have his degree in(you know hed go to college hes a NERD ofc he would)

[mangoisms]

weird question. but in ur opinion, what major would tim do at college? I was thinking comp sci but making him a business major would be so funny

good question! to be honest.. i want to say it’s difficult to pin down any one major he’d choose, especially because i feel like he’s not exactly academically inclined, at least if he’s doing vigilante stuff? school was always a big issue for him hence him dropping out to focus on The Mission and that seems like All He Is Doing right now thank you dc editorial. but if he isn’t… comp sci is a good choice but for me, i lean towards maybe something like mechanical engineering? or electrical engineering? kinda feel like he has comp sci in the bag already from having to learn it/having learned it in his time as a vigilante (largely due to babs im sure!)

but mechanical or electrical engineering just because of how much stuff he created for his suit when he was robin and how he was always reconfiguring redbird and messing with all of it. although where those skills and that degree could be applied is Another Question Entirely. my best guess is — and this is probably super basic — with WE? or maybe if we want to have a little fun. somewhere like kord industries. or even STAR labs. or maybe a teaching position? could see him being down for that as he gets older

a little more indulgent would be photography but even if not a major i would like to think he at least minors in it or something!

business major would be SO funny because he would be miserable the entire time. i think.

but yeah! he’s just. idk. probably hates prerequisites. probably wants to take ten classes at once. he’d really need to slow down i think which is the goal. ultimately. for me. in any case This got very long my bad <3 i’m just. fascinated by him and his mysterious future

[dceasesd]

look i love and support the classics nerd jason headcanon as much as the next person but i know deep in my heart that rather than being a “i worship the ground austen walks on” classics nerd he’d 100% be a fitzgerald/hemingway snob

[thinkingofausername]

Me 🤝 Jason Todd

Being into english lit

[navree]

amber heard confirmed in the aquaman sequel, i hope every johnny depp supporter hangs themselves :) <3