Star’s Obsession Pit

A lot of Jason fans fall for this claim, but let's see what exactly is Jason's request regarding the subject:

Batman: Under The Hood

"[...] not talking about Cobblepot and Scarecrow or Clayface. Not Riddler or Dent..."

"Just him [Joker]."

"[...] because he took me away from you."

And there we have it. UTH was never about Bruce killing his adversaries after all, at that precise point it's not even about Bruce killing his adopted son's murderer. What Jason aims with his actions is to question Batman's methods, to confront his adoptive father on his inaction, and to ask for him to finally make a choice:

Batman: Under The Hood

You either let me kill my murderer, or you kill me. Choose which one's the hardest for you to live with.

Is that a reasonable request? That's subjective, and perhaps that's the point. He's a master strategist, trained, ruthless, cunning, the comic proves all of that explicitly; but he's still human, young, victim of murder, and someone's son. Even a master strategist is allowed to be unreasonable, to be emotionally raw, to be emotionally involved.

So what's wrong with Bruce from Earth-51? He did make a choice, but what was it? And what's Jason reaction?

Countdown To Final Crisis

"[...] I wasn't just taking revenge... I was going to war."

"[...] I've got friends up there! You think I'll just sit on my thumbs while they fight and die?"

"He [Earth-51 Bruce] couldn’t deal with my death and turned rogue. You just turned away."

For Jason, it's not about killing any and all villains.

What is it about then? Practicality.

It's not about giving up entirely on justice and people's rehabilitation and ressocialization, it's about being capable of putting a definitive end to the suffering and losses when they reach a certain unforgivable point. But commit no mistakes, nothing and no one gives Jason (or any other character for that matter) the "right" or "authority" to decide who gets to live and who gets to die. That's hardly a question that matters though. Nobody cares, just like nobody cares who gives Batman or any other superhero the "right"/"authority" to do what they do. Jason believes it needs to be done, and so he steps up, it's as simple as that.

That last line about Earth-51 Bruce turning rogue and our Bruce turning away, that's the crux of the matter that most people ignore. Jason doesn't want and never wanted Batman to become a rogue, a villain, a mere executioner. UTH is more than just Batman killing or not, it's about a son wanting justice served by his mentor, teacher and father, it's about a child wanting his unfair and cruel death to mean something to the only person it could've meant anything at that point.

Post-death Jason is, first and foremost, I would say, the Batman mythos' absolute judgment. The dead come alive to judge Batman's actions. He sees what was done for his victimhood using the Bat's MO, and he harshly disapproves of it. Points it out in a way no other character can quite manage because none of them are Bruce's adopted son, Bruce's family, Bruce's responsibility, that he let die, that he distrusted without proof (read: The Diplomat's Son and Consequences), that he marred the name of immediately after his death despite his biological mother using her dying breath to praise his goodness.

Jason is, secondly, I would also say, a counter-argument to Batman's methods. Everyone knows his limit, everyone can and do play with it, everyone knows he won't ever put a definitive stop to it, so what's the point? To make them afraid? They're not afraid. They know nothing he does will stop them forever.

So to conclude this needlessly long ass post (I love writing sorry), Jason isn't being a hypocrite for the simple fact that he himself doesn't want to kill all villains/rogues, doesn't see a need for that unless they step over the line (and yes, it's a nebulous, malleable line based on personal principles, which adds to the complexity (or perhaps mundane humanity) of the character). Not just that, but also because Earth-51 Bruce killing Joker wasn't about his love for Jason nor for justice, it's merely a symptom of his own mental instability (and your usual "Batman won't stop killing if he kills once" narrative that DC loves for some reason). Jason doesn't want that, he wants to matter. Most of all, he wants shit to change. Enough weak excuses against killing homicidal bastards. Enough making killing rogues about the heroes' feelings and/or lack of spine and not the suffering of the people vulnerable to their actions. He wants victims (himself included) to get their justice/revenge (and yeah, I think for him those two things can mingle and may just be one and the same in some cases).

Tl;dr: Earth-51 Bruce is sort of the opposite of our Bruce. Where our Bruce's sins lays in his inaction and ineffectiveness, Earth-51 Bruce's sins lays in his extremist actions and principles. Jason cares for neither, he cares for practicality and justice for the ones who are cruelly victimized like he was.

It still felt far too real.

Stumbling out of bed, he began to make his way towards the bathroom. Washing his hands would help the sensation dissipate sooner.

As he walked through the darkened house, he reflexively lightened his footsteps to be near-silent. He didn’t actually need to sneak here, but old habits die hard. Only once the bathroom door was closed behind him did he flick on any of the lights.

Green eyes met his from across the small room.

Danny stumbled back with a yelp, crashing into the wall behind him. Then, finally, his mind caught up with him.

It was just the mirror. The green was only a brief illusion from the light reflecting off his eyes—a phenomenon that has occasionally occurred ever since the portal incident. Damian isn’t there.

The familiar sounds of a lock unlatching and the electrical fizzle of the ghost shield shifting to adjust sounded from the door as a tray of “food” was slid through.

After a few moments, he pushed himself to his feet with a grown and plodded across the cold cell floor to pick up the tray. As horrible as the slurry of who-knows-what he was given tasted, he did need to eat.

But as he considered the bowl, he paused. He hadn’t even touched its contents yet, but a feeling in his gut told him something was different this time.

He lifted the bowl to take a sniff, and noticed a small scrap of napkin that had been hidden beneath it.

Looking closer, he noticed the scrap had something on it. Writing. Tiny, but legible.

‘Added E.Dejecto. Will briefly disrupt shields tonight. Good luck. I’m sorry’

With every word he read, Danny’s eyes widened more and more. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, he felt a flicker of hope.

Cautiously, he took a small sip from the bowl, and felt some of his strength finally returning to him.

The writer had been telling the truth. There was no faking that feeling blooming in his core. This was real. He wasn’t dreaming.

He fought to prevent a grin from stretching across his face. He couldn’t risk giving anything away yet, not when he finally had the possibility of escape within his reach.

For now, he just sat the tray down in his lap and leaned back against the wall, feeling the hum-buzz of the shields within. He had no idea what time it was or how long it’d be until nightfall, and he didn’t want to risk the Ecto-Dejecto wearing off too soon.

So he would wait.

Ending the ghost king had changed some things for the better. The lower level ghosts were too scared of him to harass amity anymore.

But the damage to his schooling was already too far gone to recover. Between the years of bullying and the year of hell that was his first year as a ghost, he would graduate with very few prospects.

Vlad was ended when he released Pariah. He was officially considered missing, and his personal assets were frozen until he his status was resolved. His company had been forcibly split by investors, and was apparently under investigation.

But...

Pariah's attack had accelerated anti ghost sentiments and completely turned the town against them. The GIW got official government support. His parents were even more manic as Jasmine got into a university far away from Amity. Sam and Tucker had been taken from Amity after their respective possessions.

He flips the coin, his last gift from Clockwork after the truth was revealed.

Danny Fenton didn't really exist in this world. He was a stolen embryo to create the perfect weapon against Pariah. Placed in the perfect world to prepare him for the challenge. Stolen from a soul that was breaking from grief. Grown from the dna of a dead boy.

All he had to do was snap the coin and he'd get to meet his mother, who'd apparently managed to pull themselves together after their mad science breakdown.

He was struggling to find a reason to stay.

He plays with the coin, bag phased into his body, and grabs each half.

AKA "Danny moves to Gotham. 2 weeks later, the Riddler blows up his apartment. The bats now have to contend with a very petty civilian who is determined to make the Riddler's life miserable." DPxDC prompt idea! TW: Discussion of a bomb, no injuries.

Okay, so, walk with me: Danny moves to Gotham to attend Gotham-U and finds a cheap apartment on the border of Crime Alley. He's due to start college in a month and he's orienting at his new job at Batburger (surprisingly, it has good benefits and a fair wage, courtesy of one philanthropist Bruce Wayne). He's actually having a really good time in Gotham - he's made his first apartment a home he's where finally comfortable, finally safe, and he's proud of it.

And then he comes back from work one day to... nothing. His apartment building just... isn't there. There's a pile of crumbled debris, half-melted steel beams, and the general impression of what was probably the first floor. Danny is absolutely devastated. His first apartment, not even 2 weeks in, and it's gone. He hadn't even known. (He takes a moment to mourn his greatest possession: Franke-Nin-Fen-Do, his specially made Fenton-tech-approved Nintendo. He, Tucker, and Sam spent months putting her together - she was the best creation he ever made. She shall be dearly missed.)

The news comes out that it was a bomb set by the Riddler in a ploy to make Batman choose between his newest Robin's life and Danny's apartment complex. The bats evacuated everyone in the building, but the bombs still detonated and left dozens of families without shelter. Thankfully, Gotham-U offered to house all affected students in their campus dormitories and Bruce Wayne found housing for the rest. Still... Franke-Nin-Fen-Do has to be avenged.

Over the next couple of months (since Danny started school and had to multi-task between college classes, working at Batburger, and vengeance), the bats are notified of increasingly worrying threats being sent to the Riddler. The latest? A bright screen sticky note with chicken-scratched Sharpie.

Dr. Edward Ngyma, I'll never forgive you for taking her from me. You're a homewrecker and the worst type of human. I'll show you what it's like to lose something you love. - Dr. Frankenstein

More writers have to think about ghosts as the persecuted minority they canonically are, and think about how Danny, as someone who passes for human, might not be totally cool with telling people he’s one of them- even if we as the writer might think we would do that in that situation, tell the authorities every minute detail, that’s never what anyone does and it’s not something that someone with severe trust issues like you’re going for would do.

“New assignment from the higher ups.”

Flipping through the first few pages, the engineer suddenly paused at the words in the headers. “Turing implants? Seriously? What, we’re chasing conspiracy theories now?”

“Is it really that much crazier than ghosts?”

“We know ghosts exist. I think I’d’ve heard if the Russians managed to make telepathic super-spies,” he replied drily.

The agent smirked and tapped the papers. “Evidently they got a lot further than you’d think.”

He sighed. “Ugh, whatever. Fine. But even if they were onto something, what’s that got to do with our work?”

The agent shrugged. “I wasn’t told too much about the specifics. Something about trying to tap into the signals used by ghosts to communicate?”

“But ghosts aren’t sentient, so why would we particularly care about whatever gibberish they spout?”

“Look,” the agent replied, a little forcefully. “It’s your assignment. Just do it. Read the file, and get back to me with whatever material requests you’ll need later. Okay?”

“Alright, alright,” the engineer replied, raising his hands placatingly. “I’ll take a look.”

Okay, so, to explain what I’m referencing:

The Turing Implant was a device from the comics that was designed by the Russians to allow people to intercept and hear all sorts of radio signals and even read people’s thoughts. It did sorta work, but it had pretty serious shortcomings and the only survivor of the project was a woman named Isabelle Cheranova (who’s a minor villain in at least one Batman comic).

Also the device couldn’t isolate the signals on its own, meaning the user would be constantly bombarded with an endless cacophony of noise unless they had an additional other device to solve that, but I’m not really touching on that aspect here.

Danny shuddered involuntarily as he stepped out of the plane and onto the soil of Gotham City.

Mentally, he was already crossing Gotham University off his list of potential colleges. He wasn’t even into the city proper, and he could already feel that there was something wrong with this place.

But he had promised to check the place out, so he couldn’t turn around just yet. ‘Plus,’ he thought sardonically, ‘It’s not like my ticket leaves yet anyway.’

Exiting the airport, the feelings only strengthened. His breath caught in his throat, his ghost sense almost but not quite going off. Or maybe that was just the air pollution he’d heard rumors about.

If it was the air, getting into a cab didn’t make the feeling subside in the slightest. Though luckily it didn’t make it worse either.

After he told the driver the address of his hotel, the ride began to pass in silence. Danny was thankful for the driver’s choice not to attempt to strike up a conversation, though the absence of music was a bit more awkward.

And then he started to hear whispers.

“What was that?”

“Huh?” The driver glanced back at him. “Didn’t say anythin’.”

“Never mind.” Danny replied, then mentally added, ‘Guess I’m just going nuts, then.’

He turned to look out the window, and nearly jerked back in surprise. He hadn’t been paying attention to their surroundings, but at some point they’d entered an area almost filled with pale, translucent figures.

Yet no one else seemed to react to them, or even to notice their presence at all. Cars and pedestrians alike passed through them as if they weren’t even there.

Were they ghosts? But if so, why were they so… lifeless? The ones he’d fought in Amity were all so animated, absolutely filled with the emotions that drove them. Yet these figures barely seemed to move at all, their voices speaking only in whispers. He couldn’t quite make out what any of them were saying, but it their words seemed almost rhythmic, like they were repeating the same phrases over and over again.

Maybe he really should have turned around and left immediately, promises and plane tickets be damned. But he knew he wouldn’t be able to get these memories out of his head.

If batman and Danny phantom were in the same universe Jason Todd would fall head over heals in love with mr lancer

The man swears in Jane Austen novels and has a level of weird tolerance that pushes even bat limits.

It might be just paranoia. No crimes have been tied back to the group, nor has there been an uptick in crime that might potentially lead back to them. By all accounts, they seem like a relatively normal group gaining traction among the city’s disenfranchised.

But even if some of the vigilantes think it’s not anything worth worrying about it, some of the others are suspicious of it. And so, they’re going to get to the bottom of things.

So! We all know the typical Vivisection AU, right? Danny is revealed to his parents and they take it in all the wrong ways. They capture him, Vivisect him, and eventually he manages to escape with the help of his friends.

But what about his Rouges?

Sure, we all like to think of some of the more friendly ones like Ember, or Sydney, or Johnny 13 and Kitty, but he has WAY more Evil Rouges than good ones.

Without Danny there to reign them in, the Rouges spread out across the world to fulfill their obsessions, unhampered by the Heroes and Villains of the world that have no means to fight them.

And Danny? He feels responsible. He was the one to open the Gate, he was the Sacrifice, the one to let them through. And when the going got tough he just up and left? No, that won't do.

His Obsession is Protection for a reason, and nothing has changed. All he needs to do is expand his area of focus a little.

Danny, after healing up, starts wandering the world in search of the Ghosts who have escaped into the Mortal Realm. He battles all of his old foes, as well as many new ones who he hadn't met before.

His travels take him far and wide.

He defeats Skulker in Metropolis, as he is trying to hunt down the Super Family for their pelts. They are the last of their race after all, so he is inclined to try and hunt them. Honestly dealing with Skulker was easy, dealing with the Rich Asshole who was funding him was a nightmare.

He chases down Spectra in Gotham as she tries to feed on the misery of an entire City. (Thanks to @impyssadobsessions for the idea, this Prompt specifically). She is actually a very tough fight, especially powered by both the Misery of an Entire City as well as his Own Misery, but he manages.

He defeats Technus is Central City, as he tries to Raid Star Labs for their advanced Tech. It actually took a while to beat him after he amped himself with all that Power, and he did need help from the Local Hero to deal with him. He's just thankful Technus is one of the more "Harmless" ones.

After every Victory, he sends them back to the Realms using the Banishing Spell that Sam taught him a while back (the only bit of magic he ever really managed to master).

He knows they'll eventually find their way back out, but it's all he can do anymore. It's his eternal Punishment for unleashing them out into the World in the first place. He was the Catalyst for this Situation, now he was tasked with Fixing it, no matter how long it took.

...

The Justice League is caught in a tricky situation a the moment.

In the past few months, they have been encountering more and more of these Extra Dimensional Beings known as Realms Ghosts across the World.

Justice League Dark has had some success in battling them, but even they are getting tired of having to deal with every single incident alone.

They did get approached by a Government Agency known as the Ghostly Investigation Ward that seemed to want to help, but it didn't take long to realize that their main Aim was to Genocide the entire Race. The JLA had quickly cut ties after realizing that, and took what little Tech and Information they had been able to gather.

Still, it wasn't easy to deal with these Entities.

Thankfully, they have had some outside help. An Unknown Being has been routinely showing up whenever a Realms Ghost appears and defeating them, before using a (as described by Constantine) "Rudimentary Banishing Spell held together by willpower and luck" to send them back to their home Dimension. There's honestly no way it should be functional, but he did make it work either way.

They don't know much about this Unknown, aside from the fact that he seems to be the only one able to consistently damage the Realms Ghosts. His Powerset leads them to belive he may be from the same Dimension, or at least drawing his power from the same Source, but as he actively avoids the League and takes every opportunity to not talk to them, they know they aren't getting any answers any time soon.

Over the past few months, they had affectionately started referring to him as Unknown, creative they know, because they could never get his Real Name. Sure, some of the Realms Ghosts seemed to recognize him, but they always called him stuff like "Whelp" and "Punk" and "Usurper", which were not very good names to use when referring to him. Although the last one was a bit concerning.

They had only managed to trade a few quick words with Unknown in the past few months, but it was enough to get the Gist of it. He was just doing his job, sending the Realms Ghosts back where they belonged. There was apparently a Tear in Reality letting them through, but he seemed hesitant to reveal what he knew about it.

After a few months of sparse interactions, they eventually managed to convince him to at least take an Emergency Communicator. Just in case. They even let him take it apart to look for any Tracking Devices, which earned them a small bit of trust. They took whatever wins they could.

Fortunately, it seemed he never did need it. In fact he was getting more and more efficient with every battle, defeating his foes in half the time it would have taken before.

Unfortunately, it didn't last forever. One day, the Communicator went off, a distorted voice quickly saying, "Need backup, some of them decide to Team Up" before cutting out.

They quickly rushed to his location, finding an active battlefield with no less that a dozen Ghosts battling Unknown. And he seemed to be on the ropes.

With their arrival, the combined force of the Justice League and Unknown eventually managed to defeat the Group of Ghosts. Justice League Dark volunteered to work on the Banishing Spells while the others cleaned up the damage from the Battle.

One of them approached Unknown to make sure he was ok, and froze.

During the battle, Unknown's Mask had been Torn off, and they could finally see the face of the Hero they had been working with for the past few months.

Can I just say that despite me not liking demon twins au so much I absolutely love the idea that Maddie was also in the league as a guard to Danyal because she was a trusted friend or ally to Talia but absolutely did not like Talia at all.

I love Maddie watching this soft-hearted child refusing to kill and trying so hard to get his brother's favor and his mother's love to learn more about his father wanting to be like him to the point where is Maddie said screw it and became his mother instead.

Not that anyone knows about it

Then the attack came and Maddie realized that Ras was planing on killing off Danyal and she was like fuck no took Danny by the arms and did a Tarzan sequence of escaping with the middle finger pointing at the assassins especially Ras and Talia.

So Maddie comes back with a child after being kidnapped by who knows who with Maddie proceeding to smile and say "Jack I came back and I brought a child with me meet our new son :3"

Jazz was ecstatic to have a new baby brother and proceeded to spoil him rotten

So when Danny comes out as phantom Maddie is the first to take his side and be like that's my baby boy screw you jack I don't care if you don't support him I will absolutely and you if you try to hurt him I do not care that is my child such as jazz.

Absolutely love Maddie being the most involved in her children's life than Jack because in the show he has been a bit of an idiot like yes scientifically he is a genius but I do like to think most of the time and everything else he's an absolute idiot so he needs Maddie by his side.

Let's say they moved to Gotham only for the bat clan to harass Danny about joining the family and Maddie is not having any of it to the point where she just takes the big gun goes to batman threatens him and tells superman that batman has harassed her son and for him to put some sense into him.

Safe to say that Bruce and Clark got into a argument before Clark learned the truth and just stared at Bruce so disappointingly like. "Bruce out of all the ways you could approach another long lost son that absolutely does not want to join the family you decide to harass him instead?"

Next time they try to get jazz too but that's when Maddie had enough and burst through the cave with a tank proceeding to beat the living crap out of everyone and get her children to safety.

I like to think that night was supposed to be the night that Talia came to visit Damien only to see this mess the cave and after she learns the truth she just nods

"I have long lost the claim of calling myself a mother to Danyal I'm glad Maddie is taking such good care of him"

But when that child shows hints of League of Assassins training, the Bat paranoia comes out full force. Bruce begin to look into his history, and the deeper he looks, the more concerns keep popping up.

The boy’s—Danny’s—paperwork was all forged, as he suspected. But so too were a significant portions of his mother Madeline’s. Was she a member of the League too? If so, what about the other two? Their documents did seem to be completely legitimate, except for the fact that Bruce couldn’t find any solid information on the city they’d supposedly spent the last several years in.

Oh, Amity Park did show up on the internet just fine, but something about it seemed off. It had everything that one would expect of a small midwestern city, but that was it. It all felt too clean, too normal. Something was being buried there, but what? He wasn’t aware of any important League activities in the area, yet they presence of their agents meant they must have been involved somehow.

But then why send a family from there to Gotham? Ra’s had to know that the Bats would notice them, would connect them back to Amity Park. Why reveal his hand? Did he want them to go there? Was it a trap, or was Ra’s intending to use the Bats to dispose of a discarded project? And what was Amity hiding, anyway?

Regardless of the situation, Bruce wasn’t just going to go in blind. The Fentons might not willingly surrender information on the League’s goals, but observing how they act—both on their own and during his questionings—would still be a valuable resource nonetheless. Plus, it guaranteed that no matter what plans they had for his city, he would be more than ready to stop them.

…Except for the two major things it turns out he was very much not ready for.

Firstly, the reveal that Danny’s genes were a genetic match for Damian’s—though mutated heavily enough by something that he couldn’t be sure if the boy was a clone or a twin.

And secondly, Madeline Fenton.

Often, League of Assassins agents prided themselves on precise martial arts and stealth. Bruce knew those, expected them. Had Madeline battled him on those grounds, he may well have won. But she didn’t.