#thinking about that quote that’s often miss attributed to hemingway—you die a second death that last time someone says your name

[kindlingkeen]

you know those instances when the pain of losing someone is too much and you consider forgetting them altogether? that, but Bruce chooses NOT to forget. instead, he'd rather remember Jason incorrectly. gaslighting himself is his coping mechanism. it's literally the opposite of honoring the dead

Oh, anon, you are really tugging on my heartstrings with this one. I completely agree. Honestly, to me, Bruce’s response to Jason’s death is unforgivable (not the immediate grief, but the way he rewrote the narrative). He destroyed Jason’s legacy, the piece him that should have lived on forever. Fifteen year old Jason Todd hardly had a chance to make a mark on the world. As Robin, he made a difference, he gave everything he had to making Gotham a better place, to standing up for people who didn’t have anyone else behind them. The public didn’t (couldn’t) know about Robin’s death, so the only keepers’ of that memory, of that legacy, was Jason’s family. And for completely selfish reasons, Bruce didn’t just obliterate it, he tarnished it beyond recognition. And he spread that poison to the next generation. As you said, it’s the opposite of honoring the dead.

To me, the true tragedy of Jason’s story is not that he died, that Batman didn’t save him, that he was a collateral damage in Batman’s crusade, that even after he came back begging for his Dad to choose him he still lost, that ultimately his death meant nothing. It’s that his father, the person that was supposed to love him most in life, made it so his life meant nothing. It’s heartbreaking.

I will never understand how dc decided to go from these two boys who loved each other so much (Batman #383):

To a father, who, almost in the same breath, could say his son was responsible for his own death (Batman Hush):

And then turn around and claim his son knew how much he loved him:

To a father, who claimed his son was nothing more than rage (Batman 614).

and recklessness (Detective Comics 790).

That is tragedy.