Timmy-Todd switch? What do you mean?
ok so this kid who everyone knows from their childhood
is Tim Drake from the New Batman Adventures (or the fourth season of BTAS where they changed the art style). This is probably most people’s first exposure to “Tim Drake” and maybe even the Robin character outside of the Teen Titans animated series. But despite the name, this kid is NOT Tim Drake, he is Jason Todd with Tim’s name and I’ll never understand why they did that.
This Tim was a poor Gothamite kid living in Crime Alley with his scummy villain dad who worked for Two Face. He liked the idea of Batman but when his father is inevitably killed by Two Face, Bruce adopts him as his second ward and the new Robin. He’s a good kind, kind of surly and unrefined but very warm-hearted. He helps try to bridge the bad blood between btw B and Dick, he works very hard to keep people safe. He’s fun and snarky and loves being Robin. In the Return of the Joker Batman Beyond movie, it was revealed that he was kidnapped and tortured by the Joker/Harley and needed massive psychological reconditioning in order to become functional again. It marked the end of Batman’s tenure with partners and deeply affected the rest of his career and familial relationships.
Like..... every single word there is Jason Todd’s personality and storyline, all they did was switch the names and it drives me crazy. Not only does Jason deserve some goddamn credit for being the wonderful Robin that he was but its also a discredit to Tim who definitely was not a Jay kind of Robin.
The only reason I can think of is the NBA ran from 1997 to 99 which was the height of Tim’s tenure as Robin. He was a name kids would recognize if they went from tv to comics whereas Jason Todd was the dead Robin no one bothered to remember except for angst until Hush and then Under the Red Hood. Still, as much as I love BTAS and even that iteration of the character, I call him Timmy Todd NOT Tim Drake because he is Jason in everything but name and it will never not annoy me.
