Stuff

There are so many misconceptions about why Jason Todd was killed off, and I’m here to correct them to the best of my ability. 

First of all, I recommend you read this, as it’s very thorough and informative and I’ll be referencing it frequently. 

The vote was very close–5,343 for Jason’s death, 5,271 for Jason’s survival. That’s 72 votes, less than 0.68% of the total votes. Let’s not pretend Jason was killed off by a landslide. “Everybody hated him” is just…literally not true, and those votes aren’t all related to Jason himself.

There might have been one guy who really hated Robin (not necessarily Jason Todd) who voted more than enough times to sway the vote on his own. Alternatively, DC might have said that to cover their asses because this publicity stunt was not received well in the media or by fans. O’Neil later went on to rethink his entire career due to the backlash.

People did like Jason. We have the letters to prove it. Lots of letters! Granted, some were begrudging. 

One guy even wrote a eulogy for Jason after his death! It’s actually a bit heartbreaking. 

A lot of people really hated Pre-Crisis Jason for being a Dick Grayson clone, and didn’t realize that Post-Crisis Jason was a different character or still resented him for that. Some people, however, realized how much he’d changed after the Crisis and respected the new version. 

Some voters assumed that they were voting to kill Jason and the Joker, which is kind of different than voting to kill off Jason just for kicks. 

Some voted just to see if DC would actually go through with it even if they sympathized with Jason and liked him as Robin. 

Most of the voters were adults, not children, because voting on the phone cost money and it was a number similar to some not-so-appropriate phone lines or it was forbidden altogether. A little girl cried all day because Jason died, and DC consoled her by saying that Jason deserved it for disobeying Batman, as if that warranted a teenager’s brutal death. The vote was not representative of the readers, particularly the children. 

Some adult readers at the time weren’t keen on the concept of Robin, and I’m sure a lot of them also hated Jason Todd specifically, but that wasn’t the main issue. They were ushering in the grimdark era of Miller and really long pointy eared-cowls, where they saw no place for a Robin. 

Even then, Frank Miller called the stunt one of the “ugliest” and “most cynical” things in comics. FRANK. MILLER.

Jim Starlin’s particular issue was with Robin, and while I don’t think his viewpoint matches up with DC’s world, I do see his point. He doesn’t understand why Batman would allow a brightly-dressed child join him in a war on crime, in a city that was only becoming more dangerous each year. If this were the real world, everyone would be crying child abuse and endangerment, and they’d be right, but this is a world where child sidekicks are the norm.

O’Neil said that he tried to make Jason less likable because the fans weren’t responding well to him. What I find disturbing is that it worked and Jason’s “unlikable” behavior was based on him using excessive force against those who raped women and children and on acting like, y’know, a traumatized kid rescued from the streets. 

I can’t figure out if I hallucinated this or not, but I recall reading a letter from an employee of a group home saying that the kids weren’t surprised that Jason had died. These were kids who related to someone like Jason, and were probably ecstatic that even he could be Robin, only to get shot down in the worst way possible. Everyone deserves a hero. 

Classist bullshit. The next Robin was well-spoken, mild-mannered, and from a wealthy family, unlike Jason, whose speech was rough and attitude was harsh and defensive from living on the streets. I highly doubt that was a coincidence. 

No but honestly who votes for a 15-year old kid who is obviously traumatized by his parents’ deaths and living on the streets and overreacts to violence against women and children to be murdered? Even if people didn’t like Jason, that’s just…so unnecessary. 

Work pro tip 📢📢

Like okay so there is this very popular show, called Naruto about a little ninja/shinobi guy who is shunned by his entire village for reasons yet to be revealed but despite this wants to prove himself to them and become their super ninja leader president or Hokage, the show follows him, a girl he has a crush on, a traumatized boy with special magic eyes, and their chronically late sensei. This show is in two parts and has 720 total episodes, many of which are filler - so as for the ship: you meet Tobirama first... sort of, for like a couple of minutes in episode 69 and then don't see him again for another 521 episodes, as for Madara well we don't actually meet him until episode 322 of the second part (so 542 episodes in), the two of them do not appear on screen at the same time until episode 367 of part 2 (so 587 episodes in), which notably takes place in a flashback because - surprise every time we have seen either of them up to this point (which mind you is barely at all) they have actually been dead/reanimated corpses. Including both flashbacks and reanimation they talk to each other maybe a total of three times (and that is definitely a generous guess). Madara for sure most definitely hates Tobirama because Tobirama killed Madara's last living brother back when they were both alive and fighting on opposite sides of a war between their two clans. Madara is very unpersonable and only ever had one friend, that friend is Tobirama's older brother - his most displayed character trait is that he is very very strong, with a LOT of chakra and loves a good fight - also he is another person with super special magic eyes. Tobirama is also seemingly pretty unpersonable, and his biggest character trait is that he has the mind of a jurassic park scientist which he uses to create many questionable or chakra intensive jutsus (including the one that reanimated the both of them), he is also implied to be one of the greatest sensors of all time and appears to hold a big grudge against Madara's clan. so anywa-

I like drawing Jason’s arms.

14 years ago when I had recently moved to Alaska, I went hiking with an Aleut friend, and she pointed to a feather lying on the ground and said "hey that's a bald eagle tail feather, you should grab it!" and I was like "uhh I'm very white and that's very illegal" and she went "they're fuckin everywhere up here man. I have 20." so she grabs it off the ground and hands it to me and says "there, now it's a ceremonial gift from an indigenous person."

and I'm like, okay, cool, I guess this is how we do things in Alaska. nice.

so I keep this bald eagle tail feather around for years. display it in my home among other cherished memorabilia from places I've lived and visited, etc.

on a whim, I have just now looked it up. there is no exemption to that law for a ceremonial gift from an indigenous person. the last 7 years I lived in the US, I was technically a bald eagle poacher.

the law against 'picking feathers up off the ground' means that you can't go shoot an eagle then sell the feathers on etsy by saying you 'just found them'. you can't own them no matter where they came from, which makes sure that they're not going to come from any birds killed and then secretly disposed of.

How can I do this as a MAN?

Anyway apparently Mr. Eclipse made 5000 years' worth of solar eclipse graphics, which you can find the simpler versions of here