YOU Player name: Rae Contact: gothmoth#3738 @ the disco(rd) Referral: my own dang self Current characters: no one yet!
THEM Character Name: Jason Peter Todd, aka the Red Hood. He may also give "John Doe" as his name, if he's feeling like being a complete shit. Character Age: 22 Canon: DC Comics, broadly; specifically, the Batman: Under the Red Hood animated film. Canon Point: Post-end-of-film-building explosion, plus time in Entranceway and Sixth Iteration.
@ Entranceway: - Jason arrived injured and angry, and made a number of public complaints over the network. His identity was outed immediately by Damian Wayne, who recognized Jason and introduced himself as Bruce’s son and the new Robin. Jason was hurt but not surprised that he’d been replaced.
- Jason also spoke with Tim Drake over the network, but did not know him (Tim isn’t included in the film at all), and since they both gave fake names, Tim didn’t recognize Jason at first, either (Tim’s canon point was from before Jason’s return to Gotham, so they hadn’t met). He pieced together who “John Doe” was from the clues Damian provided, though, and approached Jason, which did not go well. To Jason’s credit, he managed to restrain himself to only threatening to break Tim’s face on his fist, rather than actually attacking the boy, as his comics counterpart did in canon. Jason later looked after Tim when they were both aged down in an event and afterwards, decided to treat Tim as a potential ally instead of a bitter rival.
- Two other important connections were made that first day, one of which was Jonathan Kent, a young, compassionate Superboy who became Jason’s friend by tapping into his dormant sense of empathy – Jason is especially protective of children, and the horrors of Wonderland are something he believed Jonathan shouldn’t be forced into coping with alone. The other was Cissie King-Jones, an ex-masked vigilante who’d worked with Tim Drake and knew of Jason, but never personally met him before their time in Wonderland. She became Jason’s friend simply by being nice to him without reservation, with no strings attached, and supported him when as a result of in-game events, he was reverted back to his 16-year-old, freshly resurrected self, and has just as hard a time coping with it as he did the first time. She was later instrumental in Jason’s decision to view Tim not as a rival but a potential ally and friend.
- Perhaps the most important connection Jason made in Wonderland was with another version of himself, a Jason Todd who wasn’t murdered when captured but rather tortured for a prolonged period of time by the Joker and went on the become the Arkham Knight instead of the Red Hood. Through comparison of their lives, Jason was forced to accept that what happened to him was not the worst possible outcome.
@ 6I: - Jason was not best pleased at finding himself tossed into another weird dimension, this time a rustic village/human-sized ant farm for a group known as Observers to - well, observe the inhabitants. He at least managed to refrain from throwing a public tantrum this time.
- The first and most important connection he made was with Stephanie Brown, another ex-Robin who believed she’d been killed in Gotham at the hands of Black Mask prior to being brought to the village. Jason saw a lot of his own experiences working with Batman echoed in Stephanie’s story, and he became fiercely protective of her, even inviting her to move into the house he’d claimed for himself. Although never stated outright, he sort of adopted Steph as a sister, and let down many of his defensive walls with her as he revealed his own history.
- Jason made himself useful in the low-tech setting, learning how to hunt with a bow and arrow from Marian Hawke and offering to train in hand-to-hand combat and spar with other villagers, including Natasha Romanoff, who soundly kicked his ass the first time. Jason didn’t hold it against her and even came to consider her a friend.
- More important people Jason knew showed up in the village: Cissie King-Jones, the same one who’d befriended him in Wonderland; and a slightly older Tim Drake, who did not spend time in Wonderland but knew Jason from the terrible antics in Gotham committed by the Jason Todd of that reality.
- During an instance where some of the villagers were spirited away to a shrine a good distance away from the village, Jason bonded with Billy Kaplan and Nida Nomura - as one does, over intense trauma. The shrine displayed memories like film recordings, one of each of the trio, and the memory that was shown for Jason was of his death at the Joker’s hands. Despite an initially rocky first meeting, Jason and Billy became friends, and Nida decided to adopt Jason as a brother. Jason gained a second adoptive brother in Seifer Almasy, who had previously been adopted by Nida; though they didn’t interact much, they bonded a bit over similarities in their traumatic histories.
- When the village became overrun with sinister doppelgangers and some of the villagers were kidnapped, Jason joined the rescue efforts to find Tim and Cissie. Working with Steph, he tracked down their kidnapped friends and they began to return to the village. However, during the journey back, they encountered a double of John Wick, who was determined to prevent them from leaving - by lethal means, if necessary. Jason urged the others to continue toward the relative safety of the village while he distracted the clone, engaging him in a close-range fight that he ultimately lost when Mr. Wick shoved a knife through his throat. Jason knew it was possible that he would lose this fight, but he was willing to die protecting the people he cared about. His body was not recovered by the villagers.
Personality: Jason’s personality is best summarized in the following dialogue exchange from the film itself:
BRUCE: Do you remember how [Jason] was when I found him? ALFRED: Of course, sir. Fearless, arrogant, brash - and gifted. BRUCE: Yes. Different than Dick [Grayson, the first Robin] in so many ways, but still so full of potential and power. But I knew, even from the beginning, he was dangerous. If I hadn’t made him into Robin, he would have grown to do wrong.
Fearless, arrogant, brash, gifted, and dangerous - quite a combination. Let’s take a closer look.
There’s no question about the levels of fearlessness Jason possesses - only someone with nerves made of solid iron would dare steal from Batman, a masked vigilante crime-fighter who has built his reputation on being the scariest bastard in town. Starting with his tenure as Batman’s junior partner Robin, Jason is shown running head first into danger, performing death-defying leaps from buildings at great heights, even charging unflinchingly at thugs firing bullets straight at him. It’s not recklessness, per se; his movements are both intentional and calculated (and, OK, a little bit reckless). This tendency only intensifies when he takes on the moniker of the Red Hood; he goes toe-to-toe with Batman without even blinking, and we are treated to quite a few scenes of Jason performing breathtaking stunts like diving for a rooftop out of a free-falling helicopter and racing Batman and Nightwing around skyscrapers like they’re an obstacle course. He is a brave person, not afraid to take risks.
On the charge of arrogance - and stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before, Bruce - we can say Jason is guilty of believing, with deep conviction, that his methods and ideas are best, and that he is also incredibly strong-willed. As Robin, Jason doesn’t easily fall in line under Batman’s authority; they’re shown arguing post-dustup in which Bruce chastises Jason for his use of excessive force and Jason justifies his life choices by saying the criminal whose collarbone he shattered deserved it. Even once he has returned to Gotham as the Red Hood, Jason comes to verbal - and later, literal - blows with Bruce about whose methods of fighting crime are better:
BRUCE: You’re becoming a crime lord. JASON: Yes! You can’t stop crime. That’s what you never understood. I’m controlling it. You wanna rule them by fear. But what do you do with the ones who aren’t afraid? I’m doing what you won’t. I’m taking them out.
You can argue about whether it’s misguided to take the law into your own hands, and that’s a tricky line to walk with Batman, of all people, but it’s another story entirely to decide that you alone are fit to act as judge, jury, and executioner for criminals. Believing that you know what’s best for an entire city is the height of arrogance, and Jason demonstrates it in spades.
Jason definitely has a strong personality, and that’s where Alfred’s description of brash shows best. Jason doesn’t mince words; he is as much a verbal bulldozer as he is a physical one, saying exactly what he means and doing exactly what he wants, regardless - or perhaps in spite of - the consequences. He has the outright nerve to sass Bruce goddamn Wayne; he spits blood in the Joker’s face, during a brief intermission of being beaten to a bloody pulp with a crowbar, and grins about it; he has a quip ready for every criminal, assassin, and opponent who crosses his path.
Gifted is probably the most complimentary of the handful of words Alfred uses to describe Jason. He is, without a doubt, good at what he does, and whatever he puts his mind to, he ends up accomplishing, even if it is something like an elaborate murder/potential suicide revenge plot. Even as a child, Jason had “potential and power,” as Bruce says, which is ostensibly why he recruited Jason to fight crime by his side as Robin - because Bruce saw that potential in Jason, saw his gifts of both body and mind, and wanted to put them to good use.
Let’s move on that last descriptor, though - dangerous. It seems almost like an understatement, given Jason’s actions, to call him dangerous. As the Red Hood, he is lethal, an unrepentant killer, viewing the other criminals in Gotham as nothing more than “scum” and entirely expendable pieces in his own private war against Black Mask, Batman, and the Joker. His own body count throughout the film is impressive, if that’s the sort of thing that impresses you; he also shows complete lack of disregard for public safety, whether it’s by leading Batman on a merry high-speed car chase through the streets of Gotham, dropping a helicopter full of weapons from a great height onto the population below, or blowing up a building in his quest for revenge. Jason favors utilizing excessive force, dating as far back as his Robin days; his methods of violence are more often brutal than not, as in the example where he takes a taser to an assassin’s cybernetic face mask, causing the electronics to short out and the assassin’s head to literally explode. He is ruthless, and while he doesn’t lack empathy entirely, he applies it selectively, to those he deems worthy - which excludes criminals.
Bruce could see early on that Jason’s potential and power could easily be turned toward a life of crime, and he did try to mold Jason into something better. However, Jason chose to follow his darker impulses. He is deeply flawed and terribly misguided, but he isn’t irredeemable.
● strengths: Compassionate: One might think that a brutally violent criminal/antihero with a large kill count like Jason would lack compassion entirely, but it’s actually one of his greatest strengths, although he’s selective in how he extends it to others. Even before he became Robin, Jason displayed a desire to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves, like his drug-addicted mother, and once he became a vigilante, he also became a champion of the disadvantaged, such as women and children, as well as victims of crimes like sexual assault. As the Red Hood, he mercilessly targets and eliminates criminals who prey upon those who are unable to defend themselves, seeking to help those who have been in a similar disadvantaged position as himself.
Determined: Jason possesses an ironclad will and a resourceful attitude, and once he sets his mind to a task, there’s very little that will stop him from achieving it. This die-hard work ethic means he gets the job – any job – done, and he gets results, though it’s sometimes questionable as to whether those results or the any-means-necessary path he takes to achieve them are right.
Passionate: Jason has strong feelings about a lot of things; he’s a person who, in general, feels pretty intensely. That intensity is what drives him to action, what keeps him going when others in his position might give up, what fuels the decisions he makes and the beliefs he holds, even though he often hides his true feelings under a shell of dry sarcasm and snarky bantering. Jason is a particularly striking example of the “’I don’t care,’ I say, caringly, as I care deeply” meme.
● weaknesses: Emotionally volatile: The flip side of having intense, unchecked feelings is that Jason’s emotions are extremely volatile. He is frequently angry, and never developed good coping skills for dealing with his rage at the world and his place in it, his parental abandonment, his death and subsequent replacement, and the continued, compounded injustices he sees. He’s like a walking raw nerve, and he (mis)manages his anger by lashing out with brutal violence. Jason’s emotional volatility also often makes him and his (re)actions to emotional distress difficult to predict, which makes him a dangerous opponent and sometimes places him in unpleasant situations.
Stubborn: Where Jason’s determination is a strength, it turns into a weakness in the form of stubbornness. Jason can be extremely bull-headed when he’s got an idea in his mind, accepting no compromise, such as his stance that repeat criminal offenders should be killed rather than left to slip through loopholes in the criminal justice system. Time and again, he’s butted heads with Batman over such issues, and neither of them is willing to back down, which is one of the roots of their contentious relationship. He also uses any methods necessary to achieve his goals, even illegal and arguably immoral ones, and fails to consider the costs of his actions, especially for himself.
Impulsive: Although Jason is entirely capable of strategizing, he often acts impulsively instead, with his heart instead of his head, especially when it comes to anything concerning his family, either birth or adopted.
EXAMPLE APP: jason todd | dc comics (crau) - 1/2
Player name: Rae
Contact: gothmoth#3738 @ the disco(rd)
Referral: my own dang self
Current characters: no one yet!
THEM
Character Name: Jason Peter Todd, aka the Red Hood. He may also give "John Doe" as his name, if he's feeling like being a complete shit.
Character Age: 22
Canon: DC Comics, broadly; specifically, the Batman: Under the Red Hood animated film.
Canon Point: Post-end-of-film-building explosion, plus time in Entranceway and Sixth Iteration.
History/World: DC COMICS IS A GODDAMN MESS, Y’ALL. However, the film is a little easier to parse/more self-contained.
@ Entranceway:
- Jason arrived injured and angry, and made a number of public complaints over the network. His identity was outed immediately by Damian Wayne, who recognized Jason and introduced himself as Bruce’s son and the new Robin. Jason was hurt but not surprised that he’d been replaced.
- Jason also spoke with Tim Drake over the network, but did not know him (Tim isn’t included in the film at all), and since they both gave fake names, Tim didn’t recognize Jason at first, either (Tim’s canon point was from before Jason’s return to Gotham, so they hadn’t met). He pieced together who “John Doe” was from the clues Damian provided, though, and approached Jason, which did not go well. To Jason’s credit, he managed to restrain himself to only threatening to break Tim’s face on his fist, rather than actually attacking the boy, as his comics counterpart did in canon. Jason later looked after Tim when they were both aged down in an event and afterwards, decided to treat Tim as a potential ally instead of a bitter rival.
- Two other important connections were made that first day, one of which was Jonathan Kent, a young, compassionate Superboy who became Jason’s friend by tapping into his dormant sense of empathy – Jason is especially protective of children, and the horrors of Wonderland are something he believed Jonathan shouldn’t be forced into coping with alone. The other was Cissie King-Jones, an ex-masked vigilante who’d worked with Tim Drake and knew of Jason, but never personally met him before their time in Wonderland. She became Jason’s friend simply by being nice to him without reservation, with no strings attached, and supported him when as a result of in-game events, he was reverted back to his 16-year-old, freshly resurrected self, and has just as hard a time coping with it as he did the first time. She was later instrumental in Jason’s decision to view Tim not as a rival but a potential ally and friend.
- Perhaps the most important connection Jason made in Wonderland was with another version of himself, a Jason Todd who wasn’t murdered when captured but rather tortured for a prolonged period of time by the Joker and went on the become the Arkham Knight instead of the Red Hood. Through comparison of their lives, Jason was forced to accept that what happened to him was not the worst possible outcome.
@ 6I:
- Jason was not best pleased at finding himself tossed into another weird dimension, this time a rustic village/human-sized ant farm for a group known as Observers to - well, observe the inhabitants. He at least managed to refrain from throwing a public tantrum this time.
- The first and most important connection he made was with Stephanie Brown, another ex-Robin who believed she’d been killed in Gotham at the hands of Black Mask prior to being brought to the village. Jason saw a lot of his own experiences working with Batman echoed in Stephanie’s story, and he became fiercely protective of her, even inviting her to move into the house he’d claimed for himself. Although never stated outright, he sort of adopted Steph as a sister, and let down many of his defensive walls with her as he revealed his own history.
- Jason made himself useful in the low-tech setting, learning how to hunt with a bow and arrow from Marian Hawke and offering to train in hand-to-hand combat and spar with other villagers, including Natasha Romanoff, who soundly kicked his ass the first time. Jason didn’t hold it against her and even came to consider her a friend.
- More important people Jason knew showed up in the village: Cissie King-Jones, the same one who’d befriended him in Wonderland; and a slightly older Tim Drake, who did not spend time in Wonderland but knew Jason from the terrible antics in Gotham committed by the Jason Todd of that reality.
- During an instance where some of the villagers were spirited away to a shrine a good distance away from the village, Jason bonded with Billy Kaplan and Nida Nomura - as one does, over intense trauma. The shrine displayed memories like film recordings, one of each of the trio, and the memory that was shown for Jason was of his death at the Joker’s hands. Despite an initially rocky first meeting, Jason and Billy became friends, and Nida decided to adopt Jason as a brother. Jason gained a second adoptive brother in Seifer Almasy, who had previously been adopted by Nida; though they didn’t interact much, they bonded a bit over similarities in their traumatic histories.
- When the village became overrun with sinister doppelgangers and some of the villagers were kidnapped, Jason joined the rescue efforts to find Tim and Cissie. Working with Steph, he tracked down their kidnapped friends and they began to return to the village. However, during the journey back, they encountered a double of John Wick, who was determined to prevent them from leaving - by lethal means, if necessary. Jason urged the others to continue toward the relative safety of the village while he distracted the clone, engaging him in a close-range fight that he ultimately lost when Mr. Wick shoved a knife through his throat. Jason knew it was possible that he would lose this fight, but he was willing to die protecting the people he cared about. His body was not recovered by the villagers.
Personality: Jason’s personality is best summarized in the following dialogue exchange from the film itself:
Fearless, arrogant, brash, gifted, and dangerous - quite a combination. Let’s take a closer look.
There’s no question about the levels of fearlessness Jason possesses - only someone with nerves made of solid iron would dare steal from Batman, a masked vigilante crime-fighter who has built his reputation on being the scariest bastard in town. Starting with his tenure as Batman’s junior partner Robin, Jason is shown running head first into danger, performing death-defying leaps from buildings at great heights, even charging unflinchingly at thugs firing bullets straight at him. It’s not recklessness, per se; his movements are both intentional and calculated (and, OK, a little bit reckless). This tendency only intensifies when he takes on the moniker of the Red Hood; he goes toe-to-toe with Batman without even blinking, and we are treated to quite a few scenes of Jason performing breathtaking stunts like diving for a rooftop out of a free-falling helicopter and racing Batman and Nightwing around skyscrapers like they’re an obstacle course. He is a brave person, not afraid to take risks.
On the charge of arrogance - and stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before, Bruce - we can say Jason is guilty of believing, with deep conviction, that his methods and ideas are best, and that he is also incredibly strong-willed. As Robin, Jason doesn’t easily fall in line under Batman’s authority; they’re shown arguing post-dustup in which Bruce chastises Jason for his use of excessive force and Jason justifies his life choices by saying the criminal whose collarbone he shattered deserved it. Even once he has returned to Gotham as the Red Hood, Jason comes to verbal - and later, literal - blows with Bruce about whose methods of fighting crime are better:
You can argue about whether it’s misguided to take the law into your own hands, and that’s a tricky line to walk with Batman, of all people, but it’s another story entirely to decide that you alone are fit to act as judge, jury, and executioner for criminals. Believing that you know what’s best for an entire city is the height of arrogance, and Jason demonstrates it in spades.
Jason definitely has a strong personality, and that’s where Alfred’s description of brash shows best. Jason doesn’t mince words; he is as much a verbal bulldozer as he is a physical one, saying exactly what he means and doing exactly what he wants, regardless - or perhaps in spite of - the consequences. He has the outright nerve to sass Bruce goddamn Wayne; he spits blood in the Joker’s face, during a brief intermission of being beaten to a bloody pulp with a crowbar, and grins about it; he has a quip ready for every criminal, assassin, and opponent who crosses his path.
Gifted is probably the most complimentary of the handful of words Alfred uses to describe Jason. He is, without a doubt, good at what he does, and whatever he puts his mind to, he ends up accomplishing, even if it is something like an elaborate murder/potential suicide revenge plot. Even as a child, Jason had “potential and power,” as Bruce says, which is ostensibly why he recruited Jason to fight crime by his side as Robin - because Bruce saw that potential in Jason, saw his gifts of both body and mind, and wanted to put them to good use.
Let’s move on that last descriptor, though - dangerous. It seems almost like an understatement, given Jason’s actions, to call him dangerous. As the Red Hood, he is lethal, an unrepentant killer, viewing the other criminals in Gotham as nothing more than “scum” and entirely expendable pieces in his own private war against Black Mask, Batman, and the Joker. His own body count throughout the film is impressive, if that’s the sort of thing that impresses you; he also shows complete lack of disregard for public safety, whether it’s by leading Batman on a merry high-speed car chase through the streets of Gotham, dropping a helicopter full of weapons from a great height onto the population below, or blowing up a building in his quest for revenge. Jason favors utilizing excessive force, dating as far back as his Robin days; his methods of violence are more often brutal than not, as in the example where he takes a taser to an assassin’s cybernetic face mask, causing the electronics to short out and the assassin’s head to literally explode. He is ruthless, and while he doesn’t lack empathy entirely, he applies it selectively, to those he deems worthy - which excludes criminals.
Bruce could see early on that Jason’s potential and power could easily be turned toward a life of crime, and he did try to mold Jason into something better. However, Jason chose to follow his darker impulses. He is deeply flawed and terribly misguided, but he isn’t irredeemable.
● strengths:
Compassionate: One might think that a brutally violent criminal/antihero with a large kill count like Jason would lack compassion entirely, but it’s actually one of his greatest strengths, although he’s selective in how he extends it to others. Even before he became Robin, Jason displayed a desire to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves, like his drug-addicted mother, and once he became a vigilante, he also became a champion of the disadvantaged, such as women and children, as well as victims of crimes like sexual assault. As the Red Hood, he mercilessly targets and eliminates criminals who prey upon those who are unable to defend themselves, seeking to help those who have been in a similar disadvantaged position as himself.
Determined: Jason possesses an ironclad will and a resourceful attitude, and once he sets his mind to a task, there’s very little that will stop him from achieving it. This die-hard work ethic means he gets the job – any job – done, and he gets results, though it’s sometimes questionable as to whether those results or the any-means-necessary path he takes to achieve them are right.
Passionate: Jason has strong feelings about a lot of things; he’s a person who, in general, feels pretty intensely. That intensity is what drives him to action, what keeps him going when others in his position might give up, what fuels the decisions he makes and the beliefs he holds, even though he often hides his true feelings under a shell of dry sarcasm and snarky bantering. Jason is a particularly striking example of the “’I don’t care,’ I say, caringly, as I care deeply” meme.
● weaknesses:
Emotionally volatile: The flip side of having intense, unchecked feelings is that Jason’s emotions are extremely volatile. He is frequently angry, and never developed good coping skills for dealing with his rage at the world and his place in it, his parental abandonment, his death and subsequent replacement, and the continued, compounded injustices he sees. He’s like a walking raw nerve, and he (mis)manages his anger by lashing out with brutal violence. Jason’s emotional volatility also often makes him and his (re)actions to emotional distress difficult to predict, which makes him a dangerous opponent and sometimes places him in unpleasant situations.
Stubborn: Where Jason’s determination is a strength, it turns into a weakness in the form of stubbornness. Jason can be extremely bull-headed when he’s got an idea in his mind, accepting no compromise, such as his stance that repeat criminal offenders should be killed rather than left to slip through loopholes in the criminal justice system. Time and again, he’s butted heads with Batman over such issues, and neither of them is willing to back down, which is one of the roots of their contentious relationship. He also uses any methods necessary to achieve his goals, even illegal and arguably immoral ones, and fails to consider the costs of his actions, especially for himself.
Impulsive: Although Jason is entirely capable of strategizing, he often acts impulsively instead, with his heart instead of his head, especially when it comes to anything concerning his family, either birth or adopted.