Ugh you just reminded me how stupid it was that they had Tim narrating how he had more training and was smarter than him when Jason had more training than Tim. Honestly, I see a lot of fanon that tim admired Jason but from what i've seen canonically it seemed like he admired Dick and didn't have a high opinion of Jason but that was also due to the writer's view of Jason as well.
Oh Iām so gonna use that ask to do some more ranting against DC, thanks for that gratuitous occasion.
I think as Robin Tim did have some more training (what with Shiva etc, the writing insisted more on his formative days than with Dick or Jason) but saying, like was often the case, that Jason was thrown on the field before he was ready or that he was āthe dumb brash Robinā is indeed part of the retcons that he suffered.
Jason was ready. Jason was an excellent Robin. And a very bright kid at that with an interest for detective work. None of that was ever put into question before Starlin waltzed in and casually retconned the character to fit his child-murder agenda. The mere idea that Bruce āI prepare for every contingencyā Wayne wouldāve let an ill-prepared kid on the streets is one convenient overlook of his character.
Honestly out of all the legends that surround Tim, the one that has him idolizing Jason always confused me the most. Dick was indeed the one Tim idolized. And itās not just that Tim didnāt admire Jasonā he was more touched by the fact that Robin died, and he worried about the effect it had on Bruce. But Jason himself? Lmao no shit given. Tim only showed the slightest bit of respect for Jason once, in āTec #618. Every other time he mentions Jason itās more in that tone.
And there starts DCās bullshit because not even considering that they conveniently kept Starlinās āJasonās default mode is angerā, itās Sheila who caused Jasonās death not his anger but look, looook how absolutely nothing is there to contradict Tim, if you read the full scene then not even Bruce tells him anything, no character ever puts Tim into question when heās trashtalking Jason, Sheila will never ever be mentioned again in preboot and thatās not a frickin coincidence, I hate it
Even under Niciezaās dodgy āpartnershipā the whole writing consists in making Jason incompetent af, insisting on how much Tim despises him, and emphasizing that he freed him of prison for Bruce & that he regrets it.
Part of Timās role as a character was to establish in the readerās mind that heās better than Jason, that Jason had some fatal flaw that caused his own death and wasnāt worthy for the Robin legacy (read: the childās violent death is not DCās or even Bruceās fault) & that Tim wouldnāt repeat his mistakes. DC went as far as to instrumentalize other characters to drive that point through.
(I thought I remembered other similar mentions of Jason in Timās solo but I couldnāt find them. 183 issues man.)
Tim showed more respect to the memorial than to the person it was supposed to commemorate; he was introduced as worried that Robin would die permanently but not particularly touched that a child had died; he merely worried on the disastrous effect itād have on Batman/Bruce. I think A Lonely Place of Dying made all of that pretty clear.
DC just couldnāt have Tim empathize with Jason, lest the readers themselves start empathizing with him too much which DC absolutely didnāt want. As a result Jason was used as a device to further prove Tim was dedicated and took Robin seriously (as if that wasnāt clear enough), and Tim came off as highly dismissive & disdainful of Jason on more than one occasion because itās literally how DC wanted the reader to feel about Jason.
Tim was written in an era that constantly and viciously victim-blamed Jason. It impacted Timās portrayal and his view on Jason too. There are ways to exploit thatā Tim was just a kid and never got to know Jason before his death, itās not completely aberrant that he mightāve had misconceptions about him & I wouldnāt blame the character for it. But I blame DC a hell of a lot for framing Timās opinion as the absolute truth.
Tim idolizing Jason is a cute idea, really, and itās a convenient place to get started if you want them to be pals in a fanfic. But as of post-crisis itās completely fanon. It also pushes DCās shittiness under the rug while they really donāt deserve their decades of ill-meaning and manipulative writing to be exonerated or simply forgotten.
And for all that I want Jason and Tim to get along (and Jasonās characterization is inconsistent enough that you can select the parts thatād make it work with Tim), Iām not a fan of how reboot went fanservice mode to make Tim & Jason best pals out of nowhere⦠especially at the cost of Timās and Dickās dynamic.
Plus, how interesting would it be for Timās character growth to involve a change of mind about Jason? Timās usually pretty self-aware and knows to recognize his own inadequacies or faults. When the writer wants you to consider thereās no fault to speak of, though, it sure doesnāt help.