the "everything is the same but jason was a low-key horse girl AU" (bear with me here this is what i call....niche)
jason doesn't take anything for granted when he's newly minted as bruce wayne's newest ward, fresh ink on his adoption papers and no complaints towards the long hours of training that it takes to be molded into robin, boy wonder. he's granted access to everything he could ever want, everything he ever wanted to be. his biggest hurdle is the private school, with the children of the upper echelon, who cannot and do not want to relate themselves to him aside from what bruce's name gives him. the feeling's mutual; he can't relate to them any more than they can to him, and he oftentimes struggles with social situations. it's incredibly isolating at times, but he's batman's robin, so most days, it's enough.
batman and robin end up working on a case with a string of animal thefts when a murder turns up at the local stable yard not far from wayne manor. when batman is investigating, or interviewing the nightcheck crew for the yard, robin ends up having a moment with one of the horses who hangs his head over his stall door and tries to nip and nibble on robin's hair, his ear (tickles), his cape, his costume, until jason relents and gives him attention.
"sorry," one of the night checkers says, when robin barely stifles a laugh as the animal lips at his cheek, "he can be a handful."
this becomes a habit for the duration of the case -- if robin is looking for clues, or in general in the vicinity, he will seek out his nosy-ass four-legged friend with quiet eyes and a penchant for being too in his personal space.
all of this does not go unnoticed by the batman.
bruce, for what it's worth, has minor investments in the racing industry. it's a good way to get leads on bookies and crime cases, as horse racing tends to be rife with corruption and embezzling funds in gotham city -- that, and the first boy wonder saw 1979 classic The Black Stallion and briefly took an interest in horses himself when he was small enough to entertain the idea of jockeying. the wayne family had a string of polo ponies in the early 40s and 50s, and alfred grew up watching foxhunts in england. bruce is also aware how beneficial equine therapy can be, and in jason's case, how it may help him have an outlet that is not violence but is also not a thinly veiled attempt at networking through sports like tennis and lacrosse.
bruce asks one morning at the breakfast table, "would you like to learn to ride?" and at first, young jason snorts and waffles a little on his answer, because it's mostly girls at the stables, and he would encounter the same issues of upper echelon, but bruce simply says, "it could be a good skill to know," framing it in context of their other work, and it's enough for jason to be convinced that it's alright to want to be at the stables.
so he takes lessons after school, once a week first, then quickly switches to twice when he learns fast and outgrows his first lesson horse. alfred takes him -- he quickly becomes the old butler all the horses recognize with nickers when he comes down the alleyway, because he carries peppermints in his pockets, and where jason is, alfred-the-treat-bringer usually follows. bruce comes to watch here and there when he can, but he also wants it to be something jason has to himself. something jason enjoys, not because bruce asked him to do it.
jason finds that he does -- he likes riding. he likes the smell of the hay, the sound of animals chewing grain, the science of biomechanics in riding and how the horses are usually better companions than people. he starts helping out here and there at the stables where he can, and the workers grow fond of the wayne heir. he likes being there when he needs to cool down after a long day of school, he likes sneaking out to sit in the loft after a night of patrol or maybe the unsettling arguments with bruce. he sits in the stalls and he listens and even, yes, still gets harrassed by the same horse that initially introduced him to horses. it helps him regulate his emotions more when he's robin. it gives him the outlet bruce hoped it would.
moreover, he's good. he can ride out hot horses without fear, channel that abundance of energy into something productive and competitive. people start asking him to take on problem cases, or timid riders ask for tips from the fearless kid with guts and a velcro seat. the first time he ever competes, he sweeps his classes. even dick hears about it when alfred sends him a photo of young master jason, smiling and proud and holding a blue ribbon next to his infamous cheeky horse, and then another photo, when jason's face is buried in the neck of his horse, because bruce revealed that he bought it for him.
(this also leads to dick showing jason the same movie that had enamored him as a kid, and for a brief moment jason thinks of alec ramsay washed up on that island all alone, and feels in some kind of way a kindred spirit.)
even when bruce and jason begin to butt heads, and the fights increase in both frequency and tenacity, jason still finds solace in the stables. he never stops being offered horses to ride. he makes the time to compete, even when he has to get up at 6 a.m. to braid his horse's mane, but patrol ended at 4. his anger doesn't reach him in the smell of hay and sweet feed.
and then he dies.
bruce never sells the animal. can't make himself do it.
he doesn't visit -- visiting the stable aisles feels like visiting a crypt, and he can't snuff his grief long enough to reach the golden plaque that engraves JASON TODD as the owner of the horse. alfred comes by every once in a while, but not as often as he used to. the horses stop turning their heads in recognition.
when jason comes back as red hood, it takes him a long time to make himself go back to the yard. but when he does, an old friend still turns his head to him, ears pricked, eyes quiet but looking for attention all the same.
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I need to talk about Julian's whole thing with Sloan in Extreme Measures cause it does actually make me feel a certain kind of rabid
Extreme Measures is a great episode for the Julian/Miles dynamic and has a lot of great moments with them but I think an underrated element of the episode is how it very plainly shows just how much the Dominion War has changed Julian, and how his morals have shifted into a much greyer area
Julian in this episode is very callous towards Sloan even as he's literally dying. he has no issues violating Sloan's mind, and when Sloan dies, the only reason he actually cares is because the answers and secrets Sloan has will die with him. truly cannot emphasize enough just how deeply Julian fucking hates Sloan, and sheer hatred isnt something we really see all that much from Julian, especially not to the degree he was with Sloan
even with that, though, Julian has never been like that with another patient. Julian doesnt let his personal feelings get in the way of being a doctor, and always treats his patients with the utmost care and his best work. Julian was willing to find a cure for the Jem'Hadar's addiction, simply because they asked for help, even if it meant potentially making them into a much bigger threat than they already were. Julian treated Tain in Camp 371. and, sure, Julian does treat Sloan, but he does so explicitly because Sloan has information they need, not because he has any care for Sloan's life
and I think that- his willingness to violate Sloan's mind to get what they need, and how he didn't particularly care that Sloan died- is a really bleak look at just how much the war has changed Julian and how much it's shifted his moral compass. throughout the war, Julian has been ordered time and time again to compromise his morals. add to that several traumatic events- multiple of which are orchestrated by Sloan- and a slide into deep depression, and it's no wonder he gets to a point where he can do the things he does in this episode
and I dont think it hits him until much later. I think one day, long after the war has ended and theyre still rebuilding everything that was broken, Julian lays awake at night and remembers how bad it got and what he became willing to do, and it makes him sick to his stomach
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"Thrawn only joined the Empire to help the Chiss!"
Okay sure but have any of you bothered to self-examine why Thrawn chose to join the Empire instead of, say, the Republic, when that was still around? Or why he didn't chose to throw in with the Rebellion, put his tactical mind to use helping them overthrow the Empire quicker?
Could it be... perhaps... that maybe he values the Empire's military strength... more than he cares about the authoritarian tyranny with which it oppresses its own people?
Is it possible that he thinks the Empire's main problem is that it isn't effective enough, too much politicking getting in the way of sound strategy, but if he's around (and in charge) he can guide things so that those annoying little wrinkles (AKA the pockets of discontent and rebellion and fully justified anger at their rights and freedoms being trampled on) are all smoothed out and the overall Imperial machine is better, more in control of its assets, a stronger more unified bulwark against the outergalactic threat of the Grysk or the Vong or whatever.
Is it perhaps just a bit self-centered of him to only care about the Empire's ability to service his own goals and desires and be apathetic (at best) to the way it makes people suffer daily under its inherent systems? The Twi'leks and Wookies being constantly kidnapped and sold into slavery? The careless industrialization of arboreal worlds? The socialization and absorption of all private industry, forcing everyone to work through and with the Empire if they want to work at all? The systematic persecution of anyone remotely Force Sensitive? Is it not the mark of some kind of soul rot to be aware of all of that and go, "Yeah, but I don't care, they have the bigger guns, which is what I need."?
Maybe... just maybe... Thrawn has some Machiavellian tendencies and opinions and maybe this just might... make him not entirely a good person?
And maybe y'all should think about that before you come back and whine about his portrayal as a villain, as if all he has to do is explain to people that he did everything for a good reason and he gets an automatic narrative pardon for all of the shit he did while Grand Admiral that still needs to be addressed and answered for.
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