Oops Forgot To Link The Fic! It's Definitely On Ao3, Here You Go:

Oops forgot to link the fic! It's definitely on ao3, here you go:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/57542074/chapters/146407723

"Welcome back to the land of the living, B."

It's a blessing. It's a deep breath for the first time, after so long in the water, half-drowned and landing on the shore. But-

But...

"Where's Stephanie?"

Tim smiles, softness in his dark-rimmed eyes.

"She's right there. Dinah's talking with her right now, but I’m sure you’ll see her soon.” He hasn’t. “She’s alive, Bruce. It wasn’t a dream.”

Alive. A sterile, windowless room in the Watchtower. The emptiness of space- sitting in the kitchen in that patch where the afternoon sun bathes the air in molten gold.

“Where’s Jason?”

-The Protector chapter 10: "The Hero"

You say "Jason's main writer was Sterlin who hated him" and like that's obvious, but were there others? Because I can't find the writers but I remember stories about Robin! Jason being really heroic (Jason offering himself as a hostage for Two-Face and Jason going out to protect the heroes after being almost killed by a mob with a broken arm and leg come to mind, he was so cute standing protectively in front of Wonder Woman- these are the main that spring to mind but there were others). So like, is the point that he was apparently an asshole about it (because my outlook on stuff makes it hard to grasp sometimes when the story goes "oh yeah you're not supposed to empathise or agree that character is being rude and I don't like him"), or is that cause these stories were written by other writers?

wheelies away

man, jason todd.

writers can't seem to work out who jason todd was and what they want him to be to bruce this far out from "A Death in the Family."

jason's principal writer during his tenure as robin was jim starlin, who notably did not like robin and wanted batman to primarily be a solo hero. starlin was mostly empowered by editor julius schwartz, who didn't fuck with robin much either. they tried to "fix" robin during this dark, edgy comics era by making him a violent little freak who'd do shit like beat pimps within an inch of their lives or, at one point, implicitly kill a dude after diplomatic immunity kept him from facing legal consequences for sexually assaulting and murdering a woman.

many of the bat-stories of the era, but most notably "the cult," sought to define jason as distinct from dick grayson as a vulgar, violent, paul veerhoven style character.

beyond that, he didn't really have a character, not in the same way tim drake did during his time as robin, with solo stories and all that bullshit. this is not due to jason being a weak character, but because of different priorities in the writer's room. jason existed at the peak "robin is lame, batman should shoot dudes" era (there are like 3 different stories where batman shoots a lot of people in the bat-tank around this time), before bruce timm and paul dini's animated series really redefined bruce wayne as a tragic, shakespearean character who isn't all violence all the time in the public mind. to the audience and in the minds of starlin and schwartz, he was an uninteresting relic of goofy golden age comics, and when their attempt to edge him up didn't work for them, well 🤷

imo, you can see the absolute height of their disinterest in jason in how horribly shit "A Death in the Family" actually is as a story. we remember joker, crowbar, "i'll save you, mom," bomb, batman lifts his fucking somehow intact body from the rubble.

the rest of it has a lot of... i mean, a lot of it is sincerely,

and let's be honest, when you're using a superhero story to show lebanese people are inherently evil and israel is some kind of bastion of modern civilisation in a barbaric east, well, it's clear your priority isn't telling a real story about the characters involved. you're lost in the sauce, just like the famous bigby "i'm going to mansplain israel to the season one archvillain instead of mentioning anything remotely relevant from the preceding arc" scene. sidenote, if you're ever wondering why dc uses euphemistic fictional countriesl like "qurac" to showcase racist america first bullshit, haha, look no further than how they used to behave when using real countries. holy fuck.

in a better world, jason todd was a voice of empathy and compassion for the downtrodden on bruce wayne's shoulder, the billionaire hero's lifeline connection to the impoverished that he spends his time policing. instead of vulgarity, violence, spitefulness and - at times - what seemed to be suicidal depression (just look at the stories leading up to "A Death in the Family;" jason is NOT doing well), jason could've been the one who teaches bruce why people become addicts, what the desperation and hopelessness of poverty does to people, and what things people actually need - not a positive attitude, but simple material security - to prevent crime.

there has never been a character in comics done dirtier than jason bartholomew todd, and the dim "the gist is" revisionist attitude we see when veteran writers like loeb invoke him is a product of that dirtydoing. what else can they say about jason without invoking the extremely weak writing around his death?

additional reading important to understanding "A Death in the Family" and why cool writers with hot dicks who fuck amazing struggle to engage with it:

1: https://www.jstor.org/stable/42980513 - Holy Islamophobia, Batman! Demonization of Muslims and Arabs in Mainstream American Comic Books

2: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1994.2801_123.x - Arab Images in American Comic Books

If someday someone illustrates my fics I might begin to cry but quickly the spontaneous combustion will evaporate the tears

Actually, all artists will go insane if you draw art of their art. The same goes for fic writers. It could be a stick figure and we'd still love it. We're also kissing you on the lips

Jason and Cass' opposing views on murder is so interesting. Their conflict is not purely moralistic - that is to say, it's not purely that Jason thinks murder is okay, and Cass doesn't. It's their identities, their original and most fundamental worldview. Jason is a murder victim and Cass is a murderer. Yes, Jason kills people as Red Hood, and yes, Cass dies multiple times, but this never truly erases how they see themselves. Jason will always have been murdered, and Cass will always be a murderer. They are unable to fully extricate themselves from those roles, and thus will never approach life or death the same way.

Lord of the Green Lantern Rings be upon ye

eldritch green lantern ideas:

ring slowly starts fusing with the finger it's on until one day the finger just glows, there's no more ring

bleeding green (duh)

so willful that reality tends to bend around them in small instances, like coffee always being warm or never having to wait for the elevator, or someone nearby tripping

the ring stops translating other languages because they just start understanding/speaking them eventually

the constructs chosen by Earth Lanterns stop looking like Earth items and more alien, older, ancient

Lanterns slowly forgetting to take off their uniforms and just start wearing them all the time

separating them from their ring will cause very, very bad things to happen

not eating or drinking for several days, then several weeks, then several months at a time without noticing

unintentionally feeding (mentally) off of strong-willed people, and even encouraging disagreement just to sit in the middle of it and feel something almost warm again

"Welcome back to the land of the living, B."

It's a blessing. It's a deep breath for the first time, after so long in the water, half-drowned and landing on the shore. But-

But...

"Where's Stephanie?"

Tim smiles, softness in his dark-rimmed eyes.

"She's right there. Dinah's talking with her right now, but I’m sure you’ll see her soon. She’s alive, Bruce. It wasn’t a dream.”

Alive. A sterile, windowless room in the Watchtower. The emptiness of space- sitting in the kitchen in that patch where the afternoon sun bathes the air in molten gold.

“Where’s Jason?”

-The Protector chapter 10: "The Hero"