#several years now. even the inclusion of jade as one of roy’s most important people in that infinite frontier content two years ago

[roobylavender]

green arrow #5 is where jade interacts with roy (it’s only a couple of pages, though). there aren’t any interactions between jade and lian on-panel yet, but williamson has changed lian’s perspective on her mom quite a bit, and not in a good way imo

omg this is so.. loveless, would be the word. what always really struck me about roy and jade’s interactions prior to their relationship going completely downhill is you could tell how emotional it was for both of them. every word spoken to each other dredged in so much grief and yearning for a life they could never actually share together. and i think what made it esp striking is that roy wanted that life. that one mini-series where he and dick kidnapped lian back bc jade had temporarily stopped allowing him to see her was a bit of a road bump obv but there was always this undercurrent that he would believe her before anyone else believed her. he was always willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and despite knowing so little about her own history he was determined to help her believe that she could get better. and you could tell how much that both frightened and burdened her, bc she felt like she couldn’t live up to the expectation. the sudden rescission of that emotion from jade after roy officially cut her off (terrible, terrible useless issue that i hate with all of my heart) and the increased sexualization of her relationship with him instead was so disheartening to watch unfold. like the conversation they’re having in ga #5 is so unfathomable to me. i hate the way lian was killed in the first place obv but i could understand jade being angry bc she left lian with roy for a reason. and yet her admonishment of him here is so.. closed off. clinical. more of a derisive sneer than a bereaved accusation. and all that aside i simply cannot ever believe there’s a universe where she would find out their daughter is alive and keep it from him. like that’s the most unrealistic thing about her i have ever heard, jade is not talia doing complicated mental gymnastics in a power bid to protect bruce and the world from god knows what, she’s an emotional mother, she loves her kid to pieces, roy is her one remaining connection to her own humanity who keeps drawing her back in regardless of the nature of her work, etc etc. that’s the thing about her and roy specifically, if anything. bruce and talia are a lot more protective of their own emotions over time bc it makes them uncomfortable to appear emotionally vulnerable in front of each other, but roy and jade tend to lay all of their cards on the table for each other, and the conversation in this comic doesn’t read like that at all. what it actually reads like is an angry mission debriefing between colleagues who piss each other off

also omfg i forgot to touch on the fact that she said she trained lian like what. whaaaaaaat. as if one of the most important things jade and roy agreed on for years wasn’t literally their desire to keep lian sheltered from the vigilante life and this is precisely what made her death all the more heartbreaking..