#hope whoever reading this also has a good day✌

[mxddyhero]

HELLO you know who it is, I am here to submit Jason and Bruce for the ask game!!!!! Pretty please!!! 🍒

IM SO SORRY TUMBLR ATE THE FIRST TIME I DID THIS I LITERALLY THREW MY PHONE BUT YES OFC LETS FUXKING GO

Also disclaimer I've barely been into dc a year and am nowhere close to reading everything there is on Red Hood/Jason, let alone Bruce so I might just be chatting pure shit but here's hoping I convey some semblance of coherent thought <3

describe their canon relationship/dynamic

Error 404 not found tbh,, their relationship is strained and hostile at best. I do think that when Bruce first took Jason in, he had the best of intentions and he genuinely cared for him like a son in a way he maybe hadn't with Dick. Like, he related to Dick and saw himself in him, but Jason was Gotham personified. Jason was a street kid through and through; determined and calculating, adaptable and resilient, and I think in Bruce's eyes, saving him meant a step towards his ultimate goal of making his hometown a better place. But as time went on, Bruce ultimately came to appreciate Jason for Jason. Which is why their relationship now is so fucking sad, really, because Jason is still the same in many ways. He still cares deeply about the less fortunate citizens, he makes sure his guys don't deal to kids (and if they do, they pay the ultimate price for it). He's controlling crime better than Batman could've (would've) and he even forgives Bruce for not being able to save him that night. And Bruce just. Calls him angry and violent and shuns him and acts as though none of it ever mattered. Calls Jason a criminal, gives him the same label as the man who killed him, and tries to take the moral high ground because he let the Joker go on to hurt more people. Jason, moments after bearing his heart and soul to Bruce, ends up with his throat slit with a batarang and just like that all hope, all possibility of their reconciliation is gone.

your ideal/headcanon version of it? how does it differ from how it is in canon & why is this your favorite version? any other alternate versions of it you enjoy?

Honestly, WFA is basically it. And yeah, I know wfa isn't canon. I know it's a silly, light-hearted webtoon. BUT IT'S SO FUCKING GOOD AND CATHARTIC. Not even just for Bruce and Jason, but everyone in the batfam.

But main canon? I'd love for Jason to step away from Batman for a while. Like, I'm glad Jason's been making progress with Dick, teaming up with him on cases etc., but. I think he should realise that he truly has nothing to prove to Bruce. Until the Joker is dead (killed by whoever), and Bruce is okay with that, I don't see how they can have a functional relationship. Because like, even when Dick killed Joker, Bruce brought him back. So the clown needs to go, and Jason needs to figure out what he truly wants and not trying to gain Bruce's attention and approval again.

ALSO DC I'M ON MY HANDS AND KNEES BEGGING, PLEASE STOP CALLING JASON THE ANGRY ROBIN, THE VIOLENT ROBIN ETC., I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE- is pulled off the stage

what do you like about their relationship, why is it interesting or enjoyable to you?

It's not enjoyable <3 it brings me copious amounts of pain every day <3

But interesting? Not to overshare, but I have no relationship with my father either, and a rather negative view of my bio dad much like Jason so it's more like. I can relate to him and see where he's coming from on a lotta fronts. I can project ✌

what about the individual characters involved? what does this relationship mean to them, what makes it unique among their relationships?

I think that despite it all, they still mean a lot to each other.

I said it before, but the fact that Batman was willing to give Jason, a street kid from Crime Alley, lit a fire in Jason. Jason always had hope, he went out that night to get a meal for him and his mum and I don't think Bruce necessarily gave him that drive necessarily, because the kid was hell bent on surviving no matter what. But Bruce showed him he didn't have to just survive, but he could do more. Without worrying where his next meal was coming from, he could actually focus on himself as a person and what he wanted to do, and had the means and opportunity to actually do it. It made him feel like the future was limitless, like he was capable of anything and everything instead of narrowing his sights to living day-by-day and Bruce encouraged that for him. Hell, he even told him he could quit being Robin after he got hurt because he only wanted what was best for him but being taken in was the best thing that could've happened to him...

And for Bruce well. I dislike a lot of how Bruce interacts with Jason post-resurrection, to put it simply. I like to think it's because after he lost Jason, he gave up on letting people in. He cared for someone and like before, it ended in violence and a life ended too soon and he had to mourn over something that he felt was his fault again. Jason was gone for years, and he had to be pulled back from the brink by Tim, so we know he wasn't coping well and I need to think that the only reason he treated Jason so coldly when he returned was because he so desperately needed for all those years of mourning and grieving not to be for nothing or I'll go insane. It makes sense that Bruce being confronted with that fact that he couldn't keep himself in check alone after losing Jason, he preferred to just shut down instead of engaging with the feelings that seeing his son back brought. God idk if that makes any sense hsgugfs,,

I also wanna talk about Dick, even though you didn't ask but I swear it's relevant to Bruce and Jason's relationship-

Dick said growing up in the manor with Bruce was lonely, which I think is because Bruce saw himself in Dick. Bruce didn't have many people growing up, and he turned out fine (you are not fine, sir), so I think he thought that Dick could handle that way of living too to deflect his own issues. He wanted to raise him the same way he was because he was projecting, if you get me. But in Bruce's eyes, Jason had had people before. He had his mother, and the other kids from the alley and people who looked out for one another because you had to in a place like that. Of course, Dick had that too. A mother and father, the extended circus family, a lot of fans from the circus, but Bruce was too fixated on seeing himself in Dick that he forgot that because he needed to channel Dick's anger right away. Jason might've been wary and callous, sure, but he had time, so Bruce was more tactile and patient in his approach with Jason and I think that's why Bruce saw Jason more of a son than Dick, anyway-

favorite interaction they have in canon

God despite it all, there are a few.

Of course UTRH gotta be here because AAAAAAAAA (sound of wailing)... like please Bruce, he just wanted to hear how much he meant to you and to stop the Joker from being able to do anything like that again... I like to think that as much as Jason was hurt by what happened (because of course he would be, mans literally died), he was hurt on Bruce's account too, because Bruce chose to care for and open his life to someone again, and Jason was taken from him just like his parents. Like... Jason knows that pain (albeit in a different way since Willis was a piece of shit and Catherine ended up being dependent on drugs), and Bruce gave him a second chance despite everything they'd both endured. I think he wanted to prove to Bruce that it was worth trying to care for and love someone again, even despite losses, or even because of them, because Bruce gave that chance to him. And he was just. Shut down. This is sad but it's one of my favourite moments.

God this fuxking sjdghsvsjsbs 😭😭😭 LIKE YOU CAN'T TELL ME THAT JASON GENUINELY HATES BRUCE... I simply do not believe it. I think he's angry, betrayed, resentful... but he still deeply cares for him and IT HURTS.

And listen. Listen to me. Grabs you by the shoulders. This fuxking chapter was so good. It means everything to me. It was everything I could've ever hoped for and more. 🥳 HEALTHY AND OPEN COMMUNICATION!!! 🥳 EMOTIONAL VULNERABILITY 🥳 god it makes me so fucking shsvhdvdjd ;;;

favorite interaction they have in your head/a situation you want to put them in

Family therapy 💖But uhm fr? I want to see Jason and Bruce talking about how much Tim has grown. Talking about Damian being in the titans and complaining that he can't take his 284 pets to the tower. I want Clark to just casually drop Jason in conversation because he visited Lois the other day and they talked about the decline of modern literature. Just. Normal family shit that isn't too heavy but also not so trivial it can be overlooked as being "not relevant to the plot" or "out of character". Despite it all, they are family. And I want that to be shown more. Please.

Lin I'm so fucking sorry this is so long........ and that tumblr ate it the first time bcs the first one was so much more cohesive and concise then almost refused to post it again so I dm'd you on dsc... collapses. Tumblr in its joker arc fr rn...

#half of this is incoherent rambling im so fucking sorry #also not tagging the charas bcs i dont want it in the main tags... #d*c fans please dont come for me this is all interpretation <3 #ask game #beloved mutual #7-oh-ta1 #lin if u read all this im proposing to you 💍🙇