O, HAMLET

Robin Jason Todd died– but nothing serious, usual routine. Honestly with all the times he is forcibly reminded by the Joker by now... Jason jokes about it as a form of defense. Be sure to joke 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 him, never about him. Warned! (THE ENTIRE VIDEO in on tiktok!)

Gotham is sentient. Gotham knows what is going on in. Gotham knows who is fighting for her.

So when the Batman proves himself of trying his very best nearly every night to protect his city, Gotham announces him her knight and shows him a vision. A vision of the future. Of who her next protector will be.

He calls himself the Red Hood. Not the same guy he had already fought, but someone who stands close to him. Who is not afraid to kill.

He is allowed one question.

"What is his name?"

"Jason Todd"

Maybe he can change things.

Not a name that strikes out. Nothing special. But he remembers it.

And then, one night, he meets a boy stealing his tires. He definitely knows how to defend himself, Bruce's bruised ribs are proof of that. But he doesn't have anyone.

So he puts him in Ma Gunn's school for boys. Maybe with some proper guidance he could become Gotham's protector without killing.

But the school turned out to be a crime scheme. Better to remove all variables and train the boy himself.

As the months go by, Jason feels save enough to put his walls down. To not play into the tough guy act anymore. He is positively overwhelmed because this boy is so sweet, so kind and nice and enthusiastic. So Bruce might be doing a good job apparently.

Until. Until the Garzonas case. Bruce has seen it. The man with the red helmet, the guns and the corpses and blood surrounding him. With the same eyes as his son. The knowledge of the future leads him to think that Jason HAS to have pushed Felipe.

Bruce blames himself, thinks he has wasted his time and resources. And it hurts because despite everything he has begun to love this boy. But he is just Batman, he can't change the future.

But then Jason dies. And that hurts more. Because now Jason never even has the chance to grow up to be Red Hood, doesn't have the chance to grow up at all. And he hates himself because sometimes he thinks about if this might be a good thing actually. He died as an innocent child. It's tragic, he deserved better. But maybe this is better than becoming a murderer and it is mercy.

Years later, Red Hood arrives in Gotham.

In front of him stands the man he saw in the future vision all those years ago.

Bruce reflects. If he had just left Jason alone when he first met him. But who knows if it would even have mattered? His biggest regret though is that he ever thought that a child dying might be something good.

After the debacle that was the Joker showdown, Jason multiplies his effort to help Gotham his way times ten. And that's when Gotham awards him with a vision, tells him that he is her paladin and tells him her rules, how he has one question open after seeing who her next protector will be.

Jason doesn't really care for the person in the vision, what happens in the future should stay in the future, because otherwise they were always doomed.

But then it strikes him. An idea. A terrible one but it seems logical. He has to word this carefully. "Has Batman known that I, Jason Todd, would become Red Hood?"

"Yes"

At their next encounter, Jason tells him how much of a savior complex he has. In reality, Jason is deeply hurt. Bruce treated him as someone that deserved to be cherished, to be loved. Treated him as someone valuable. But now he sees that Bruce had only ever seen him as broken, something to fix, someone doomed. Nothing more

jason todd you were so funny for this. they could never make me hate you.

ask game #5 if you could go back and change the outcome of the poll that killed Jason Todd, would you?

Oooh went for the tough one immediately. See this one is weird, because Jason's always been the Robin That Died and Returned to me (spoiled for me early, and I watched the Under the Red Hood animated film when I was still very little). I also think that really intriguing consequences and darkness arose from his death and subsequent return (depressing as it is that such a cute little guy got voted out). I'd be lying if he wasn't an easy character to use, along with Helena Bertinelli, for some complex storylines and ethical quandries. As well as just explorations of guilt, regret, losses of innocence (all around), and some really wicked meta analyses of what it means that the audience wanted that.

Eerie and Roman-like as it is that his death was voted for, I think I'd leave the outcome of the poll as is.

Thanks for the ask!

Dick, pointing to Jason's photo : This is Jason. He was our brother. He liked literature and was very good at school. People would've told you he was violent but he was the sweetest and would've never been on the wrong side.

Damian, who has seen Jason training in the League of Assasins to commit homicide and probably mass murder in Gotham : Okay

You can fight me on this, IDGAF, but "I'm not talking about killing Penguin, or Scarecrow, or Dent, I'm talking about him. Just him. And doing it because... because he took me away from you." is one of DC's most perfectly crafted short monologues ever. It sums up a whole character in a few, simple lines. It sums up Jason's motives, hopes, and pain.

katabasis

(click for better quality :3 also available as a print)

Half the time I'm like, "can we have jason todd media not all about his death"?

Then I realize. If I died I would never shut up about it.

"Can you get up and grab that for me?"- absolutely not. My legs are tired from death.

"Will you go to the store with me?"- leaving the house?!? What if I die AGAIN.

So yeah, anyone who thinks jason talks about his death too much. Be honest. We'd all do the exact same thing.

ok another floating thought:

Jason Todd does not tolerate bad eating habits.

Iced coffee for breakfast? Absolutely not.

6pm and you had not a single sip of water? Forget it.

Having a single slice of toast for lunch AND dinner? Naur babes.

You will be eating 3 square meals a day will allowance for snacks and 'happy foods' as he likes to call them.

As soon as you complain about a headache, stomachache, light-headedness, fatigue he will tell you to go fucking eat something with a glass of water, not coffee.

Its even worse if you live together like i strongly believe he would wake up early just to make you a balanced breakfast before you go about your day.

GOD BUT IF UR IN UNI??? babe be ready bc he will break into your dorm to bring u food that he cooked u himself. (he's a loverboy duh)

no time to cook or order? He's gotchu

too tired? already on the way

exam season with barely any time to take a breath? already on it babe he'll spoonfeed you while you revise your textbook

and plus, how else are you supposed to grow as big and strong as him when you're only eating half a meal a day?

I WANNA MUNCH ON HIS MOOSCLES SO BAD FUCKKKKK

my genuine reaction watching batman beat the ever loving fuck out of Jason in under the red hood when the only other batfam media I know is wayne family adventures

I’ve realized that the main reason I don’t give a fuck about Red Hood’s actual canon crimes is not that I think they’re justified, or reasonable, or even just funny. He has been shown doing very fucked up shit that at times has very little, if anything, to do with any reasonable moral code. But the reason I don’t care is that I’ve steadily become very critical of villain framing. It’s so very common to have a villain say something very reasonable like “poor people shouldn’t die” and then complement it with “and I will kill babies about it.” If the first statement is reasonable, and the narrative does not provide a reason that justifies the balls-to-the-wall batshit “solution” the character came up with, then I assume the author is either deliberately or subconsciously villainizing a specific group of people for no reason, and I don’t vibe with that. At that time I no longer care about what the author/narrative actually has to say and my reaction becomes “the narrator is actually a biased witness and anything they say about this person’s actions should be taken as exaggeration”. Oh, so Jason is an indiscriminate killer who thinks every petty criminal deserves to die? Wrong. They’re exaggerating and taking the facts out of context. So he killed a hundred people in prison with barely any provocation? It probably wasn’t that many and the ones he did were trying to kill him to begin with, with no intervention from the guards, so it was self defense. He attempted to kill a child? Wrong, that was a two-sided fight between two teenagers, he just won so the other one’s bitter. Like, I don’t care how much made up context I need to stuff in there to make it make sense, I will do it because the narrative decided to frame the homeless kid from a poor neighborhood as the villain against the nice and kindhearted humanitarian billionaire so its logic is fucked from the get-go

“Hood? Hood?? Do you copy????”

Gore warning Ngl idk