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#i got carried away but i am not apologizing – @crisis-on-infinite-batblogs on Tumblr
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Stop Killing Jason Todd

@crisis-on-infinite-batblogs

AO3 I started reading Batman comics for Jason, but I stayed for the angst and bad jokes.
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You have a terrifying icon.

Good job 😊👍🏻

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Thank you!!!!!! You did not ask for context, but I'm going to give it anyway because I think it's neat:

My icon is a panel from Robin #10, which is part of the Zero Hour story. The time stream gets a little bit wibbly-wobbly, so Tim gets to team up with Robin!Dick who gets transported from the past.

Dick starts asking questions, and it's all very innocuous, until a certain recently-dead Robin comes up and Tim totally freezes.

I was screaming when I read this. Nobody talks about Jason. EVER. Bruce and Nightwing!Dick are still reeling from the loss. They haven't even begun to mourn him. Tim obviously has his own small portion of grief, but he doesn't really know how to talk about it, so he just changes the subject.

Dick starts showing off and flipping around as he is wont to do, and Tim begins to feel extremely inadequate in comparison. He is too bold, and he makes a stupid mistake, which only adds to his insecurities. Dick has to rescue him, and then we get this page:

So now Tim is embarrassed on top of being jealous, and frustrated, and insecure, and amidst all these teenaged emotions, he goes to charge recklessly onward without a plan... you know... the exactly thing that Jason gets blamed for doing which (allegedly) causes his death?

Seeing all of this unchecked emotion in the other Robin, Dick tries to reach out and refocus him by asking his name. He tries to appeal to Tim personally and logically, but when that doesn't work, he evokes another name– Jason.

Dick doesn't know anything about this future, or what happened to the guy who replaced him, but he's still a detective. He's still Robin. There's no way he didn't clock Tim's reaction the first time this mysterious boy was brought up.

It was a calculated risk, but it pays off when Tim freezes just like he did before. Then there's that panel of him in silhouette, his eyes masked in the eerie green of the night-vision lenses. The drops of water that still cling to his skin foretell of the cold sweat that now comes over him. He's totally arrested by this sad mixture of fear and guilt that Jason Todd has come to represent.

Nobody talks about Jason. No one is able to mourn this boy because the tragedy of losing him is just too big. The pain and the grief is too big, and their silence somehow twists the story. Jason Todd becomes a cautionary tale used to frighten little birds.

That one panel contains so much tragedy, trauma, guilt, and fear, and you're right– it is terrifying, and I fucking love it.

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