#sheila haywood is the actual worst

[ravenclawshermione]

New Chapter - Mother's Day

“You know, I’m not sure what I expected, but it wasn’t this,” I said, shooting Jason a wry smile. 

He’d taken us to the mainland, to the fancy stretch of Gotham where the truly elite have their fancy sprawling manors. We were at an estate that one of Jason’s brothers apparently owned, out on the grounds in a dirt field, standing under a well lit metal pavilion.

There were tables covered in breakable objects, some that looked ridiculously expensive, others that were from the dollar store. Off to the side of the pavilion were various pieces of furniture and an old beat up car, all lit up with floodlights that made it nearly bought as day. To the other side there was an area paved with asphalt that had a large concrete wall in the center, lit up with more floodlights.

The table next to me held some safety gear, several gallons of paint, a box of what looked like spray paint, a few baseball bats, some metal rods, a blow torch, and a crowbar with a pink bow stuck on it. Jason had rolled his eyes at that last one. 

“Best therapy there is,” he said, grinning, “First, you break shit until you break down or until the feelings aren't so loud. Then, you make some art.”

“That ‘you’ had better be a ‘we’,” I said, inspecting the bats.

“Oh absolutely,” he agreed, picking up one of the metal rods and twirling it like a baton, “Breaking shit is what I’m best at.”

I didn't agree, but I didn't have the energy to argue the point. Opting for one of the metal rods, I let him take the lead, following him to one of the tables of breakable objects. He set down his rod and pulled a cardboard box out from under the table. 

“Alright, load this up with anything that looks like it might be fun to break,” he said, getting to work adding things in. 

I picked at random, avoiding anything that looked too expensive. If it was here I was sure that it was probably okay to break, but the idea of destroying something worth more than one of my paychecks felt weird. When the box was full, he carried it over to the wall and set it at the far edge of the asphalt, next to a pedestal.

Jason pulled a fancy vase out and set it on top of the pedestal, “Now there’s obviously no rules on how to break the shit. Steph likes to chuck it at the wall. Personally, I prefer this.”

He took a swing at the vase, shattering it, sending shards flying in the direction of the wall. I felt a strange sort of anticipation as he gestured for me to take my turn. I dug out a ceramic statue of what was probably supposed to be a mom and daughter hugging and set it where the vase had been.

“Here goes nothing,” I said, taking a deep breath. 

The moment the rod made contact I felt the same rush that I’d felt that night at the cabin, when I’d made a bullseye with my first arrow. It was incredible, the sense of freedom and power the action gave. The dissociative fog that had settled over me was still there, but as ceramic shards went flying I felt a hint of something that wasn’t just the pain I’d expected. Something almost like anger.

“Better than state therapy?” he asked, his voice light and teasing. 

“Hell yes.”

[kaithonks]

So I’ve had some Thoughts about From the DC Vault: Death in the Family: Robin Lives!

Warning: Spoilers 

My mistake with From the DC Vault: Death in the Family: Robin Lives! was thinking that the story would actually be about Robin. That was on me. I should have known better, but I let my excitement of finally getting more Jason Todd, Robin content get away from me. I set up poor expectations, and it’s not the comic’s fault for not meeting those expectations. 

Everything else is, though. 

I know I’m biased, and I am probably writing this too soon after having finished Robin Lives to really give myself time to think critically about the story. But, I also feel rather offended by the end and feel the need to strike while the iron is hot. Recently, I talked about fans and writers needing to have respect for each other, as they can’t exist without each other. I also mentioned having a respect for the history of the comic. On that, I don’t get the feeling that J. M. DeMatteis has much respect for the history that was Jason’s Robin run. Granted, this isn’t mainline canon. It is more of a ‘What if?’ So DeMatteis wasn’t “entrusted��� the same way but, there was still a line of basic respect that feels very lacking. Now, DeMatteis has been writing since the 80s and has written a lot for both DC and Marvel so he is a part of comic history, but this doesn’t really translate into respect for characters. Or for fans.

Both Jason and Dick’s character have a rough time in this 4 issue series. While the series called “Robin Lives” mostly focuses on Bruce and his regret, by doing that it makes Jason and Dick more like props for Bruce’s guilt than actually characters with their own agency. Bruce outright denies Dick’s choice in becoming a Robin and even later Nightwing. In this guilt, Bruce totally takes away the fact that even as a child, Dick did choose this, and he chose it again when he became Nightwing. So Bruce’s guilt serves no one here. And this problem gets worst with the Robin Lives ending. Dick becoming Batman, is an incredibly weak ending to start. Because most of Dick’s history is him growing out of Robin and then trying to break out of Bruce’s shadow. Yes, Battle for the Cowl happens, but it’s more complex than Dick just becoming Batman. And it’s easy to see how pointless all of Bruce’s guilt was when he decided to leave his role as Batman, only for Dick to take it up again. It really feels like Dick is only a prop for Bruce’s journey. Dick is here for Bruce to feel guilty about, but then to also relieve him of the duty that also makes him feel guilty. 

And it is so much worse with Jason. This does sort of come back to me setting up poor expectations and the fact I thought this would be about Jason’s recover, but it was glossed over. We simply jump to Jason now being okay, which is a choice, if on the unbelievable side. What is worse, though, is how Bruce and the comic, makes Jason’s trauma about Bruce. Because yes, to an extent Bruce holds fault for the events leading up to Death in the Family. But he mainly holds fault in the form of negligence. He didn’t properly check out Sheila Haywood's background before for deciding she was a safe person to leave his son with. I am boiling down the issue of character interaction between Bruce and Jason (and outside influence that puts Jason’s last issues into context), but my point still stands that Bruce and Jason still made choices. For Jason’s part, he chose to trust Shelia to try, and save her. And in reality, Joker and Shelia hold the blame for Jason’s trauma. The fact Shelia was only briefly seen in a hallucination and “saving” Jason, again feels like DeMatteis has a lacking appreciation for the history of Jason’s Robin, and it’s context. Yes, Shelia saving Jason would be something Jason would want, but the event after this takes away everything that would make Jason still want Shelia’s affection in some way. With the ending and Jason becoming the Joker to Dick’s Batman, shows this. It ultimately feels like both Dick and Jason were used as stage props to re-establish some kind of status quo for a series that was only planned for only four issue. The run very well could have ended with the Joker’s death and everyone going to live happy lives but for some reason no. 

Now, one could see that as DeMatteis having a respect for Batman’s history as a whole and a path for a continuation. I would argue, though, that it shouldn’t come at the cost of other character’s agency. The leap in Jason’s “madness” is awkward, and when I say leap I mean a massive leap. This goes back to my problem with the story not focusing on Jason. We spend so much time in Bruce’s grief that when it is about Jason, everything goes sideways and ends up with being a “What the hell did that happen?” Especially since in the context of the story, Jason should have gotten a lot more support from Bruce, now retired, from Dick, now living back in Gotham, and from Dr. Sarawarti Dev, a psychologist. Having Jason still become the Joker after all this, not only feels like all of those people continued to fail him (especially as Bruce and Dr. Sara get married, which was a strange addition), but that he never really had any choice.  The story didn’t take the time to show us this, to show us how or where Jason became the Joker. He even denied becoming like the Joke in early issue 4. A point might be made that killing the Joker made Jason the new Joker, but a counterpoint Why? Jason already had the choice and decided? Why did he go back on that? Jason was Robin, Robin has the role of bringing hope, and being more compassionate, countering the fear Batman brings. We see Jason’s compassion before he died (or was injured in this case), when he still tried to save Shelia after she betrayed him. We see it in this comic with him still wanting her affection in his hallucination. So where did that compassion and care go?  

The answer? It didn’t go anywhere.  It was forgotten for the sake of a convoluted twist to make a reader gasp. Robin Lives spends its whole four issue run taking away the choice and agency of Robin. Robin does not live here. He becomes a puppet of the plot not to move outside of its designated story, he only can become Batman or the Joker. But never his own being. For anyone who’s ever enjoyed Robin, be it Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, Damian Wayne or any other Robin, past or future, Robin Lives is an insult.

[mzminola]

Okay so fandom's down with the idea of Sheila Haywood being a lying liar who lies and not actually Jason's birth mom, partly because she's an embezzler willing to work with the Joker, so when the son of Bruce Wayne shows up calling her "Mom", her simply rolling with it to see how she could take advantage of his mistake fits her character.

And partly because her dying words to Batman were "[Jason] must have...really...loved his...mother..." which is a weird way to put it and gives us some ambiguity.

ANYWAY our other two contestants were Sandra Wu-San (Lady Shiva) and Sharmin Rosen.

As Cass-Jason Twins AU/headcanon fans know, Batman gave Shiva a truth serum and she claimed to never have had any children. Over a decade later she was stated to be Cassandra Cain's mother. So either the truth serum didn't work or she was so good at compartmentalizing that it functionally didn't work. Either way the truth serum retroactively is not a reliable indicator of "Shiva isn't Jason's mom."

Rosen, meanwhile is described by the narrative boxes as "There was Sharmin Rosen, who'd emigrated and become an Israeli secret agent".

Batman & Robin help her take down some weapons smugglers, and then do the world's worst job at asking about her past. Bruce asks nothing, and Jason just asks "Have you ever been to Gotham? Ever had a baby there?"

"No. Not in Gotham City."

That's. That's such an evasive answer! Did you have a baby in another city, ma'am? In the suburbs that are part of the Gotham sprawl, but don't count as the city itself? Why don't Jason & Bruce ask follow up questions? Were the writers trying to leave this shit ambiguous, so they could bring the Who Is Jason's Mom plot back later if they wanted?

This character is perfect for an Outsider Perspective Case Fic.

From Rosen's perspective, two American vigilantes crash her mission, save her life but also ask a very personal question, then within a few days a Gotham Rogue is causing international problems and Jason Todd has been found dead in Ethiopia.

(Does she know what happened to Willis? Did she know Catherine?)

Please imagine this pissed off, grieving Mossad agent with no reason to trust Gotham capes, arriving in town to get to the bottom of this nightmare, and Bruce is forced to regret covering up the cause of Jason's death.

Now put it in the span of weeks/months before Tim showed up to reel Bruce in, and this could get very messy, very fast.

[electricprincess96]

People who say "Jason did it to himself" regarding his death are people with ZERO reading comprehension OR haven't read A Death In The Family. Have only read modern comics interpretations of what happened. They say he was always bad at following orders eh... nope Jason was no better or worse at following orders during his actual Robin run than any of the other Robins. Dick was easily the worst for following orders as Robin, that was literally why Bruce ever allowed Robin to be a thing cause Dick was the violent disobedient one who needed an outlet or else he'd end up killing someone or getting himself killed. Jason's Robin was not depicted like that until many years AFTER his resurrection. The Joker and Sheila Haywood are responsible for Jason's death. Not Jason, anyone with two braincells to rub together would know that.

But its popular in this fandom to blame a child for getting killed. DC writers do it. DC fans do it. Because they think it makes them look clever. They do the same with Stephanie. Because obviously the poor kids will be the family fuck ups. They won't be good enough. Reeks of classism.

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

i am not there; i did not die (epitaph of jason todd-wayne)

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/XQpq3hj by sacersanguis Jason Todd-Wayne died during his visit to Ethiopia, thanks to a kidnapping attempt gone extremely wrong, on 27th April, 2009. He was only fifteen years old.   (Robin died inside a dingy warehouse in Ethiopia after rushing to rescue a civilian not knowing it was a trap. In the end it was not hours of enduring Joker's brutal torture that did him in, but the explosion and excessive smoke inhalation that killed him.) Jason does not truly remember the events that cascaded prior to his untimely death. Jason would rather not comment further upon this, honestly. Words: 2173, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: DCU (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics), Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010), Batman: death in the family (Comics) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: Gen Characters: Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne, Mentioned Dick Grayson - Character, mentioned Alfred pennyworth - Character, mentioned Barbara Gordon - Character, Joker (DCU), Sheila Haywood Relationships: Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne Additional Tags: Jason Todd-centric, Jason Todd is Robin, Jason Todd dies, boy can't catch a break, really uncle clark do you have to go to space the one week i'm living through my worst nightmares, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, or tries to be, too bad he's too late tho oops-- ╮(︶▽︶)╭, dc let the clown DIE challenge, is it bad ending when you know how this ACTUALLY ends folks, this is my first fic folks be gentle, no beta we die like men under guillotine, Rated T for the swearing & themes read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/XQpq3hj

[fantastic-nonsense]

literally hate it here, why did I do this to myself

[avaoracle]

Batfam Descriptions pt.1

Bruce "Because I'm Batman" Wayne: Has never moved on from his parents deaths, probably never will, copes by dressing up as a giant bat and pummeling people instead of just going to therapy. Smart as hell when it comes to everything but meaningful communication and how to handle interpersonal relationships, has the emotional bandwidth of a stale loaf of bread. -Is addicted to collecting dark haired orphans/near orphans/probably better off if one or both their parents were dead (lookin at you Talia) Loves all his kids- though he loves Cass most and it's totally obvious.

Dick "You can take the boy out of the circus but you can't take the circus out of the boy" Grayson: A guy who enjoys a pretty casual relationship with gravity for a guy who is technically only human. Pun master, 'third times a charm' older brother- turns out taking out bat daddy frustration on your first bro (largely from being fired from Robin and then replaced), and firing your second bro from Robin and then replacing him (with a demon child that tried to kill him) isn't something siblings appreciate, go figure- He cares though, one of the only bats at least somewhat capable of expressing his feelings with words and actions rather than just repressing them and brooding (Bruce).

Jason "Remember that time I died?" Todd: Angry zombie boy with daddy issues, mommy issues, batdaddy issues and crowbar issues...Really just issues, lots of issues, covers with inappropriate jokes about his own death that make everyone but Roy, Steph and Damien uncomfortable...actually mostly just Dick and Bruce are still bothered by it. Just wants to be loved and accepted for who he is, won't admit it but he still wants Bruce's approval but they're both to stubborn and communication challenged to actually have a productive conversation about their relationship and how to fix it-instead Jason antagonizes Bruce who misses that this is obviously Jason's cry for help/way of getting his attention because he just wants Bruce to love him- and instead somehow always manages to handle it in the worst way possible every single time (like beating him up).

Timothy "More espresso less depresso" Drake: One of the smartest people on the planet when it comes to everything but self care (and realizing his feelings for Kon...Like he tried to clone the guy back to life-that's not friendship love, that's love love). Literally runs on caffeine and spite, probably holds some world record for most shit done on the least amount of sleep. Terrifying badass master manipulator, could totally take over the world if he actually wanted to, probably has more contingency plans than even batman.

Cassandra *Stares directly into your soul* Cain-Wayne: Could beat up every member of the batfamily without even breaking a sweat and they all know it-literally one of the most skilled combatants on the planet. Is more fluent in body language than most people are in their native language. Is probably the only member of the batfam who actually knows how Bruce feels about her, really how he feels about all of them. Totally knows she's Bruce's favorite but isn't a Dick about it (pun fully intended- because before her he was the favorite and he was far less graceful about it)

Damien "You are all imbeciles" Wayne: Started out as a little turd with a massive superiority complex and mommy issues (and granddaddy issues) Is now somewhat less of a turd with worse mommy issues, batdaddy issues and a little less of a superiority complex...I think, he's had some humbling moments in the last few years, my favorite of which was when he started a fight with Jason and Jason kicked his ass into the next century. Still it's not fully his fault he is the way he is, he was raised as an assassin by an immortal lunatic and the world's worst mother (well she might have to arm wrestle Lady Shiva, Sheila Haywood and Shado for that title)

Duke "I'm part of this insanity too" Thomas: Only meta member of the batfam, which is a big deal. Patrols during the day because he's the only one not damaged enough to face sunlight. Probably the most well adjusted member of the family, maybe because he had good parents and didn't loose them until he was older than the others and thus did not spend his formative years with: a.Bruce-Wayne's-C-minus-Parenting, b.on the streets/with Batdad/ getting murdered because of birth mom's betrayal, c. alone in a mansion wayyyy to often by traveling parents/Bruce-Wayne's-D-minus-immediately-post-Jason's-death-parenting/coma-mom/finally-actively-parenting-basically-because-he's-paralyzed-and-his-wife-is-comatose-dad/the assassins trio, d.evil assassin dad who only had you to create the perfect solider and kept you from even learning to speak/Bruce-Wayne's-C-plus-Parenting/assassin mom who wants to kill you for being a better fighter than her, e.Talia, just everything about Talia/ Bruce-Wayne's-D-Plus-Parenting/Dick Grayson doing his best

[renaroo]

In the final analysis, was Jason, in fact, "too brave to become a man"?

Jason Todd, in his actions of Death in the Family, was written in a way that the presumptive audience was meant to take as reckless, insufficiently grateful, and undeserving of the situation he found himself in. In writing that perspective, there was a failure to recognize any audience putting themselves in Jason’s shoes and actually living the story through his perspective rather than Bruce’s.

If you are one of the readers who exists in the latter camp, the actions of a young teenage boy who is a product of every crack in the foster care system and still wants to be a hero for other people, acted on the very naivety and sense of personal responsibility that adults unfairly demand of his age. He did so without a proper legal guardian/adult fully acting on his behalf to protect his interests in the nuanced and matured way that could not be expected of him at that time. Because of that failure to protect his innocence, he was taken advantage of by adults with bad intentions and hurt in some of the most intimate ways possible. 

This is why, in my book, Sheila Haywood is still one of the worst and most irredeemable people in comics. Which is saying something in a story where the Joker dresses like an Iranian diplomat and tries to suicide bomb the United Nations. God. Do people even remember the last act of Death in the Family? And still argue it’s good? Damn.

So in my book, again coming as someone who.... pretty much has a career now of teaching and looking out for kids who are literally the age Jason was when he died, Jason’s only crime was being tasked with something that required maturity and skepticism beyond his years. It was unreasonable to ask it of him, and as much as I don’t necessarily like playing the blame game on this subject with Bruce, there is more of an argument to be made about Bruce having been too distracted looking for the Joker to accurately assess Sheila and investigate her obviously very fake story and explanation. 

On the scale of people who should be blamed for what happened to Jason, obviously the Joker first and foremost. But then it is always Sheila without question. 

After them, Bruce to an arguable degree. 

Jason doesn’t make the list at all, in my book. 

[bigskydreaming]

Tbh, I spend a lot of time thinking about the ironic fact that for two people with as much history with supervillains as Dick and Jason have.....and with as many reasons as Dick and Jason have for hating various supervillains just on the grounds of how they themselves have been hurt by them personally......two of the people who have actively been catalysts for some of their greatest individual traumas, are just two ordinary people who never set out to be actual supervillains or take over the world or similar crap themselves. 

Who in fact, ironically, are two of the people who should have been least likely to hurt them, at least as far as society tends to claim of people in their positions. Who in fact were two of the people ‘supposed’ to help them, rather than harm them....who by virtue of the roles they played in both boys’ stories, not to mention their chosen career paths, should theoretically have never been remotely connected to some of the most painful things in either Dick or Jason’s histories.....let alone directly responsible for what happened to them. Purely because they were supposed to care, supposed to want what’s best for them....and just flat out didn’t.

Basically I’m just saying that even if they never talk about it, right up there alongside the likes of the Joker, Two-Face, Slade, Black Mask, and various other supervillains who star in Dick and Jason’s memories and nightmares as faces they’ll never forget or separate from some of the worst periods of their lives....there’s two other relatively innocuous faces.

For Dick....its the social worker who took him away from what friends and family he had left despite all their protests and his own. Who briskly told him it was for his own good, and who then didn’t display a single backwards glance after dumping him in Gotham’s juvenile detention center. Let alone an ounce of remorse or compassion when she arrived to pick him up a month later and hand him off to yet another stranger to Dick. And although this time she actually did leave Dick in the care of someone who actually wanted to do right by him......this was through no actual doing of her own. And in fact was a gripe of hers, as she couldn’t imagine what Bruce Wayne wanted with the likes of him, nor did she think Dick deserved to be the child who benefited from Bruce’s compassion and personal patronage. 

Her job was to help someone like him find somewhere he’d be better off and able to recover and continue through what was left of his childhood as best as he could manage after his parents died......but her callousness and contempt for him and where he’d come from led her to feel justified in simply piling abuse on top of trauma. Compounding Dick’s tragedy with an entire month’s worth of more tragedies in a hellhole he only belonged in because she just decided he belonged there, no other reason whatsoever, and not actually needing one to make it happen. What little bureaucratic power she had was still more than enough to do as much harm to him as later villains would require actual superpowers to inflict on him.

At least when Dick thinks of most of the supervillains who have done great harm to him over the years, he can say they at least knew what they did. But whenever he thinks of her, I would bet he’d inevitably wonder if even twenty years later, she had even once thought of the role she’d played in shaping his life and nightmares and realized what exactly she’d done.

And then for Jason......that figure is Sheila Haywood. The mother who was supposed to care about him, want to protect him, if not because she felt any kind of maternal obligation towards him, then at least if only because she was a doctor by choice, someone who’d taken a vow to first, do no harm.....and he was just a scrawny, too-small-for-his-age fifteen year old boy. Who played as much a role in his actual death, his murder, as his actual murderer the Joker....and who ironically was only able to play that role because he’d left the home where he’d actually been safest and traveled across the fucking world just even on the chance that he might find her. And just even the hope that she’d want to know him even half as much as he so badly wanted to know her. 

So desperate for the love and approval of a total stranger just because as much as he tried to pretend otherwise, he was still just a kid who’d heard the story about how parents are supposed to love and protect and cherish you, just as much as any other kid....that he revealed he was Robin to her when the Joker was sighted. Just hours after meeting her, he broke one of Bruce’s biggest cardinal rules and one he’d never once thought of breaking in all three years as Robin prior to that......simply because he was so eager to help, to protect, to be seen by her as worth her love and approval.

Jason, a fairly jaded kid who’d already been dealt one bad hand after another in his life, dug deep one last time and pulled up all the hope and optimism and fucking innocence he had left in him and put it all on the line in one desperate bid to maybe fill at least one of the holes he felt in his life, due to his scarred childhood and the number of times people in his experience had proven untrustworthy and not worth hoping the best of. Knowing, even as he did so, that if he found his mother and she rejected him for whatever reason, it would destroy him.....and yet she still managed to top whatever his worst fears and anxieties about meeting her probably conjured for him while conducting his search for her. Exceeding even his ‘thought I’d already been fucked over all the ways it was possible to be fucked over’ expectations, with flying colors.

But I mean, like I said, I barely ever think about this. With as many commonalities as I harp on Dick and Jason having, common priorities, tragedies, and whatnot.......eh. *Shrugs* Barely ever crosses my mind that their respective childhoods and the people they became trace so much back to the feet of two people whose job was to care, and whose only superpower was how emphatically they just didn’t.

[iamfitzwilliamdarcy]

When the World Stops Spinning

Summary: Neither Bruce nor Jason can let go of the past. Mentions of murder and a drug OD. Title taken from Kyler England’s “When the World Stops Spinning”  (ao3)

There wasn’t supposed to be anyone else in the Cave when Bruce returned. Dick had Damian for the weekend (and Bruce had to stop thinking of that in terms of some weird custody agreement, no matter how many jokes the kids made; having a sleepover with your siblings was normal), and Tim and Cass had gone back to their own place hours ago.  

But someone was there—Jason, his helmet off, held in the crook of his arm, standing in front of his old Robin costume. He didn’t look back when Bruce arrived, but Bruce could tell by the way he stood he knew Bruce was there.

Bruce cleared his throat anyway, moved closer but still kept his distance.

“I didn’t kill anyone tonight,” Jason told him.

Unsure if he should praise or thank Jason, unsure of what he should say at all or what Jason wanted, Bruce just grunted in acknowledgement. There was something self-depreciating, something bitter, in Jason’s voice, so Bruce waited, cautious, for him to continue.

After a long while, Jason said, “But someone died. OD’d. Some new shit on the streets. Couldn’t’ve been older than seventeen.”

Bruce moved closer, and Jason kept talking, his Gotham accent coming out thicker than usual. “None of his dumbass friends called an ambulance, so it was too late for him when I got there.  But I stayed with him, y’know, because I’m not total scum all of the time.”

“Jason–,”

“He threw up on me twice,” Jason said. He shook his head.

“I keep a good neurotic’s calendar,” he said. He finally looked over at Bruce, still wearing a domino mask, slid a glance that told him Jason was quoting something, but Bruce didn’t read like Jason did, so he waited to see where he was going with it. It was hard to tell. “It’s the anniversary of my mom’s death.”

“Catherine–,” Bruce started and Jason threw him a filthy look, as if he’d been asking a question.

“Of course, Catherine,” he snapped. “She’s the only real one, anyway. And, in case you’ve forgotten, Dr. Sheila Haywood and I have the same death date.”

“I know,” Bruce said. He hadn’t been asking.

“I don’t even know how long it’s been,” Jason said. “Dying really fucks up your sense of time, doesn’t it?”

Bruce couldn’t say. He hadn’t ever really been dead. Being lost in time was a close runner-up, he guessed, but Jason didn’t want to hear that. Jason snorted, shook his head again. “Sheila Haywood,” he says. “God, fuck.”

Bruce treaded cautiously. They never had a chance to talk about Sheila Haywood. “I know she wasn’t what you expected–,”

Jason laughed a little, and Bruce missed, suddenly, achingly, when his laughter wasn’t always so hollow, so bitter. “She fucking sold me out.” Slid a glance at Bruce, eyebrows raised, amused. “What, she didn’t tell you?”

Bruce shook his head. He hadn’t known—he hadn’t–

“Figures. Guess she was already dead, huh? Or you just assumed the worst.” Jason’s talking again.

“She said,” Bruce cleared his throat, started again. “She said you were better than she deserved. I didn’t—I knew you tried to save her. But I didn’t–,”

“Fucking waste of time,” Jason said. “She wasn’t worth it.”

“Jason,” Bruce started, reaching out to touch his shoulder, but Jason sidestepped him neatly.

“I don’t know why I came here,” he said. “Except I keep thinking about that kid and how in a few years I might’ve killed him anyway.”

And about his mom. Bruce tried again. “Jason, I—”

“Why do you keep that thing around?” Jason interrupted. He actually turned to look at Bruce, arm flung out sideways to point at his old Robin suit. “It’s fucking morbid.”

Jason knew why. It’s the same reason he’s here tonight. But he Bruce didn’t say anything and Jason continued, voice rising until he was raging.

“You look at that, what every day,  and you can’t let go of him. And you look at me and that’s who you expect to see!” Bruce, unprepared for this outburst, stepped back.

Jason, abruptly, turned and flung his helmet at the glass case. It bounces off harmlessly “That kid is dead and gone! Let him go! I have.”

Jason stood, chest heaving, glaring at Bruce. Bruce, once he decided he was done, shook his head. He didn’t have anything to say. They both know Jason’s a liar and he’ll never let Robin go; they both know Bruce can’t.

“I’m not him,” Jason said. His lips quirked into a half-smile, but his eyes burned with anger. He shook his head, scooped up his helmet and slammed it back on his head. “I shouldn’t have come here.”

He turned and stormed off, back to his bike, back out of Bruce’s life.

“Hood,” Bruce called after him. Yanked his cowl off, ran a hand through his hair. “Jason.”

He waited until Jason turned back to him, hating that he couldn’t see his face anymore. He could feel the anger, though, the self-depreciating smile, the bitterness.

“Jason,” he repeated, remembering, suddenly, the sensation of cradling his small, broken body, stripping that ruined Robin suit from him, fielding questions. He swallowed, hard, looked directly where he knew he could meet Jason’s eyes through the helmet, even if he couldn’t see. Said, voice steady, firm, meaningful, “I will never let you go.”

Jason stood still a moment, then turned, and Bruce watched him go.

[tzigone]

Just reading about New 52 -Batfam parents got bad overhauls, didn’t they?

Practically everything I read about New 52 sounded bad to me, so I never read it.  But I heard Rebirth brought some improvement, so I started reading some of those (Green Arrow seems pretty good in the present-tense, btw; don’t like the flashbacks).  So I thought I’d read about some of the New 52 characters histories for the Bats.  Checked dc wiki , so sorry if I got any wrong impressions or misinformation.

Worst offender to me is Catherine Todd instead of Sheila Haywood being the one of set Jason up for death. Loathe it.  Firstly, the entire idea of the Joker being involved before Jason is Robin is one I dislike.  I like the weird stuff starting after.  Secondly, I really like the concept of Catherine as a parent that loved Jason, though she was neglectful due to her addiction.  Not a lot of solid basis, there, perhaps, but I thought it worked well with her acting as his mother even though she didn’t give birth to him and so on.

And Steph.  Her mom was an addict before, and got clean early in Steph’s run, and they usually had a good relationship, even if her mother didn’t stand up to her father like she should.  In New 52, her mother was part of her father’s violent criminal enterprises. And in old continuity, several times her father threatened her, even put her in danger, but he didn’t attempt to kill her, even when he could have.  At least, not when she was Spoiler the first time - haven’t read much after her return from the not-dead.  He was horrible, but not as horrible.

Also seems like Dick, Jason, and Tim all became less likeable in pre-Robin days (Dick and Tim both pompous and arrogant, and Jason stealing from someone who helped him, as I understand it).  And is Catwoman Dick’s age instead of relatively close Bruce’s?  Already read about how they treated the BatCat relationship and definitely did not like.  Though that’s one of the things I heard improved with Rebirth.

So not a New 52 fan, from what I’ve read.  I don’t suppose Rebirth helped with any of this?

Edit: I also dislike Tim’s parents’ storylines being erased.  Well, Jack.  As I said, I read the Robin series, and I like them rebuilding their relationships and getting close (they had a pretty good relationship for most of the run, with Jack trying to be a good parent, despite some very reasonable flareups on both sides).  I actually liked a Robin that wasn’t Bruce’s ward and Bruce not adopting all the Robins and the different dynamic that had - just for being different.  For having to “answer to two masters” (parents and Batman) and for not essentially having one person be the boss of him in every respect. And I certainly never expected to go back to that (no one else likes that - and people are way more forgiving of the addict-parents Catherine and Crystal that allowed abusive fathers or even Talia who trained her toddler to murder than they are of Jack and Janet and love to write fanfic where Jack and Janet are actively abusive or leave their child home to freeze to death and starve and so on, which really irritates me, as does extreme woobification of Tim).  I wouldn’t want to go backwards and make Tim living with Jack the new present-day, but I hate that that part of the backstory is altogether lost. 

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

i am not there; i did not die (epitaph of jason todd-wayne)

by sacersanguis Jason Todd-Wayne died during his visit to Ethiopia, thanks to a kidnapping attempt gone extremely wrong, on 27th April, 2009. He was only fifteen years old.   (Robin died inside a dingy warehouse in Ethiopia after rushing to rescue a civilian not knowing it was a trap. In the end it was not hours of enduring Joker's brutal torture that did him in, but the explosion and excessive smoke inhalation that killed him.) Jason does not truly remember the events that cascaded prior to his untimely death. Jason would rather not comment further upon this, honestly. Words: 2173, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: DCU (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics), Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010), Batman: death in the family (Comics) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: Gen Characters: Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne, Mentioned Dick Grayson - Character, mentioned Alfred pennyworth - Character, mentioned Barbara Gordon - Character, Joker (DCU), Sheila Haywood Relationships: Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne Additional Tags: Jason Todd-centric, Jason Todd is Robin, Jason Todd dies, boy can't catch a break, really uncle clark do you have to go to space the one week i'm living through my worst nightmares, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, or tries to be, too bad he's too late tho oops-- ╮(︶▽︶)╭, dc let the clown DIE challenge, is it bad ending when you know how this ACTUALLY ends folks, this is my first fic folks be gentle, no beta we die like men under guillotine, Rated T for the swearing & themes via https://ift.tt/XQpq3hj