Vast And Unknowable!

If not just for the lyrics then because Jason Todd is still 15 and pop grunge at heart.

But also the lyrics are sooooo apt like what?

“I’m so insecure I think that’lol die before I drink”

Please my god your honor this is 15 year old Jason

Also

“ And they’d all be so disappointed. Cause who am I if not exploited?”

Oh are we talking about whole life turned into a cautionary tale Jason Todd????

Also “I wish I’d done this before and I wish that people like me more”

Plus “ I only have two real friends” your honor this is the boy that flew halfway across the world because the only people in his entire life where a brother that was off world a father he was mad at and a butler that worked for and always sided with said father. I will always 100% believe that Jason wouldn’t have died if he felt like he had even 1 other person that he could trust to actually listen to him.

And finally the nail in the coffin

“Cause I love people I don’t like”

It’s not enough for you to just respect his rules you have to believe and you have to believe with your being. It’s not just enough that you don’t kill you have to feel bad if literally anybody dies in your presence you have to carry that guilt no matter how terrible the person was how much evil they’d done. It’s the whole basis for the fight he had Jason had over Felipe it didn’t matter whether Bruce believed Jason pushed or didn’t push him Jason’s biggest crime that day was that he didn’t particularly care that Felipe died, he wasn’t torn up about a soul being lost and Bruce couldn’t fathom it couldn’t fathom why his 15 year old didn’t seem to care that a rapist who got of completely unpunished by Justice fell to his death.

But then when you try to acknowledge this with Jason and Tim suddenly there’s a problem. I don’t know enough about canon Tim to speak a whole lot about this but I remember finding out that Jack and Janet Drake where not for the most part horribly verbally abusive neglectful monsters that Tim needs to be save from by Bruce, imagine my shock. Infact from what I can tell he flip flops from being on relatively good terms with them (whether they were alive or before they died) to being just kind of estranged from them the worst I’ve seen was when he was Bruce’s ward in Rebirth and I don’t know if the why was ever explained. But anyway classist and distant yes borderline abusively neglectful not that I can see (you know except the part in which they didn’t notice their teenage son was sneaking around being a superhero and spending a lot of time at the house of a grown man) but anyway.

With Jason there’s just always a hint of that classist mindset. Nevermind the Willis Todd was an abusive piece of shit characterization (color me surprised to learn that this is also a relatively recent retcon) but atleast it has some basis in canon. In almost if not every version of Catherine Todd I’ve seen in canon she loved Jason very much and while yes her drug addiction and Jason having to take care of her when she was ill would have been very traumatizing to a small child he loved her just as fiercely he loved both his parents very much and we just don’t get enough acknowledgement of that for the space trying to be made for Bruce in his life. Hell one of Jason’s first big blow ups as Robin was when he found out that Two face killed his dad, who Jason had been waiting to come find him, and he also finds out Bruce knew and hid it from him. He literally tries to beat two face up because of it he loved his dad and that’s okay! Just because he spent some time on the streets before Bruce found him doesn’t mean that he doesn’t love his parents like Dick loved his. Doesn’t mean that he suddenly wants Bruce to replace that for him. He loved his parent and he doesn’t want Bruce to be his replacement dad that doesn’t mean that Bruce can’t still be his father, his parent.

I think this also plays into the nuclear family guardrails that is sometimes obsessed over in the found family fandom. Like sure the characters don’t have to be related by blood but they must all still fall neatly into these very nuclear family arrangement of father and child brother and sister. Despite it just not working for the actual characters. Characters like Jason can’t have two dads unless it’s whoever Bruce is romantically involved with and whoever Bruce is romantically involved with has to become the kids other parent. Bruce just can’t be his dad in a completely seperate way than Willis is his dad Willis has to be declared an unfit father to leave an unchallenged position for Bruce in Jason’s life.

And this happens all the time not even just with the batfamily. Characters parents suddenly being fanonized into suddenly being horribly violently abusive people to clear the way for [insert mentor figure usually male] to come into their lives and save them and show them what a real father should be and what real love looks like. And it’s tired.