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aalghul · 3 years

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Sorry rambling thought, but there was some tags between one of our reblogs about how those "Everyone changes sides to Jason cos of the Batarang" fics being unsatisfying and I agree.

So I ended up thinking about how the characters might more realistically respond to it while avoiding status quo is god or everyone just being like, awful and here's my take:

Barbara is furious, she doesn't approve of Jason's crime lord stuff, but even ignoring what the Joker did to them both, she grew up around cops and she tutored Jason and has long since outgrown fanish devotion to Batman. Culturally, personally, ethically she is not gonna be OK with any of this and likely cuts all ties to Batman outside of 'world is ending' necessity and may at least try to reach out to Jason, though she wouldn't tolerate him 'falling off the wagon' into crime again. and may not be able to shrug off what he did as Red Hood.

Dick is similarly angry, he did care about Jason, and likely has no small amount of guilt for how things went down for him as a kid. Not helped by his elder sister syndrome making him feel he has to compensate for Bruce's failings. He likely stops talking to Bruce entirely except to try and pressure him to quit being Batman and also tries to get any sidekicks or kids away from him and 'may' reach out to Jason but would prioritize Tim and Damian.

Cass. Is. Livid. She feels he betrayed his own ideals and the symbol and wants him to step down now. She doesn't have an interest in contacting Jason except to send him to prison, but Batman taking seemingly lethal action (Regardless of how fucked up his head was or the richoete) would feel like a betrayal, especially if he never told anyone and made no effort to help Jason.

Steph has no ties to Jason, but probably 'gets' him and his ideas better than most and so would probably be like "if I see him on the street and he's not committing crime I'll be nice" but otherwise she mostly just loses whatever affection she still had for Bruce and cuts ties to the symbol unless Cass takes over.

Damian... Is complicated, but given he has no ties to Jason, I think his main takeaway would be something like. "If we betray fathers oath, he will put us down for this betrayal" cos that's the kind of thing Ra's would do and he'd be a lot more leery of Bruce afterward and self conscious.

Tim, that's harder to say, if Jason did go and beat him up (Which always felt weird) He'd probably be less bothered than most. And even with or without that probably still less bothered given he has leaned into potentially killing on more than one occasion and is very devoted to Batman. He's not above taking issue with Bruce for perceived betrayals, but those tended to be personal over ideological s (Shrugs)

Alfred would probably be disappointed, but given my disinterest in "Alfred is the best" and the fact he tends to prioritize Bruce or Tim over most of the other kids... Yeah I don't see him jumping ships. Or if he did, he'd just quit and retire again over do anything more complicated. Though given he is willing to kill he might be less put off by Jason than some of the others.

Bruce... Honestly no idea how he'd react to being called on this.

The writers never really seemed to think it was a problem and while it can be seen as an accident born of him being at the end of his tether (waves hand) its kind of a mess and feels very off given his previous obsession/guilt and love for Jason, poorly expressed though it was.

I wrote a whole thing in reply to this and then tumblr ate it cuz I forgot to draft it but whatever. The condensed version: Exactly! This is perfect and in character for every character. I can assure that because I hate it! I 1000% agree that this is how the canon version of all these characters would react. Dick will always prioritize Tim and Damian, Cass doesn’t give a fuck about Jason but has her own code independent from Batman, etc. Alfred hurts my heart cuz my (totally fanon) version of him loves Jason but yeah. Absolutely correct. Bruce wouldn’t be able to tell us how he would react so I don’t blame you.

The whole thing is an insult to Bruce’s love for Jason, and Batman’s skill cuz why is he suddenly fucking up a shot in such close proximity? It was garbage but it happened so if we’re addressing it at all then do it right.

#it’s such a difficult thing to discuss that i think ppl should just Not if they can’t

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