Enter The Lesbians

Phia Saban reflects on Helaena's pregnancy and what it means to her

"The best and the worst." So one of us is like to live in song. "And a few who were a bit of both. Like him." – A Feast for Crows

Aegon? The queen says he's dead. And that you killed him. Though I do not know how much of that to believe.

Very interesting question!! Actually I'm quite fond of their current dynamic which seems to be Duke ribbing on Jason and Jason fondly taking it gsldkbgd. I go back and forth with my ideal Duke & Jason dynamic, so I'll answer only what I'm feeling right now!

I think Jason's views on Duke are pretty simple - imo he really likes him! Tbh my ideal Jason is more outside the Batfam than he currently is, but even then I think Jason would like Duke a lot more than the other younger bats. Not only is Duke free of a lot of the baggage of early RH era, but he's also open & honest in a way I think Jason would appreciate. And Jason calling Duke 'Narrows' is a fun way to signal that he connectx to Duke's upbringing. I think Jason would respect Duke forging his own mantle as the Signal (being a bit more 'outside' the Batfam than, say, Batgirl or Robin), and also he would looove Duke's Dick haterisms & the way he stands up to Bruce.

On the other hand I think Duke's feelings about Jason are complex. When we see them interact they are cordial, but when Duke talks to others he's overtly negative - he calls Jason a villain in All-Star Batman & Batman (2016), and is critical of Red Hood in DC Rise of the Power Company. I don't think these are contradictory, but rather a showcase of the way Duke interacts with heroes in general. You see this most clearly with Bruce, where Duke & Bruce have a vastly different dynamic than Batman & The Signal. Duke may like Jason on a personal level but he clearly dislikes Red Hood as a symbol & his vigilante philosophy. He is acutely aware that Jason's Whiteness enables him to get away with things he himself would never get away with, and this inevitably colours how he views Red Hood.

then we have the comparison between sansa and lyanna pleading with ned - both sansa and lyanna go south hoping for a new life, only to get a twisted version of what they wanted (being held hostage by joffrey/dying in the tower of joy) and ending up trapped in their former paradise. sansa’s illusions of chivalry/an idyllic south are shattered by joffrey’s violence, and he’s now threatening to steal her very sense of self through the execution of lady. she’s pleading with her father to stop them, to save lady, to save sansa, just like lyanna pleads with her big brother to save the only thing that is still hers (jon, the baby boy who looks just like her, the only family she has left besides ned and benjen). rhaegar has shattered her illusions of the south just as much as joffrey shatters sansa’s - lyanna tries to escape her fate and ends up trapped as the princess in a tower anyway (similar to sansa, who imagines a romanticized version of this and later experiences its true horrors).