#but erratic behavior doesn’t magically erase your core values

[jostenneil]

i’m genuinely confused by people who think talia’s portrayal in the last issue of the lost days isn’t a direct product of racist writing and reducing her to a pawn in the narrative between jason and bruce (and even ra’s). like who comes out of that issue thinking there’s anything realistic about ra’s conveniently dying off the page so talia can retaliate against bruce by sleeping with someone whom she’s been looking over as a pseudo mother figure for the entire run before that. i don’t care that winick explains it away by saying that talia and jason are fucked up people so that’s why they do it. talia has had her share of grievances with bruce before but she doesn’t use them to retaliate against him, and there were even inconsistencies with how she was characterized in lost days as a whole—hardly reacting to jason mentioning a sex trafficker or other criminals she used to be loudly critical of in her original portrayals, ra’s saying she was caring for jason to get bruce to love her back when bruce’s love for her is never something she’s doubted bc she knows their obstacles are largely circumstantial—so it’s not like people (or at least me lol) are just picking the one issue to have a problem with. i like the potential the lost days sets up for a dynamic between talia and jason bc with regards to bruce there’s a lot that they can relate to each other on. but it’s shitty that some people think it can’t be explored just bc of that one issue that sought to mischaracterize and render her into a predator when it was entirely unrealistic for her as a person regardless of whatever issues she had with bruce. what kind of entitlement is it to tell someone they can’t pick and choose what canon to accept when racist writing is something present across a lot of a character’s portrayal? there’s not a huge amount of liberty available to cleanly accept entire runs or events as acceptable portrayals of characters of color. ofc we have to pick and choose even within runs themselves bc that’s how shitty white writers are

#talia al ghul #dc #mine:media analysis #like i’m sorry but what a load of crap 😭 #not everyone runs with the potential of a dynamic just bc the run itself is flawless or something #like honestly lost days as a story is flawed in a lot of ways #but the premise of a dynamic between them is interesting and deserves to be explored! #esp by someone who doesn’t make a mockery of their characters #like i didn’t even mention jason but there were parts of his characterization in lost days that i didn’t get at all either #esp in the last issue #it felt completely antithetical to everything he’d been built up as when he was robin #and yeah i Get that pit madness could contribute to erratic behavior #but erratic behavior doesn’t magically erase your core values? #and jason’s core values have always centered on keeping people from harm #even if it means taking the killing route #he’s a very empathetic person that’s what makes the whole struggle with bruce difficult bc it’s two sides of empathy fighting each other #but anyway yeah i’m not listening to a bunch of asinine white people #tell me what i can’t pick and choose from a run for a character victim to racist writing #like please fuck off 😭