Anonymous wrote:
robinās death (and subsequent resurrection) is, frankly, an insult to robin fans of that era. to want to see this child get killed in a brutal manner for no apparent reason, to see jason essentially removed from the narrative so batman could go back to being gritty and depressedāthis is awful to me. he hadnāt even been robin for very long!
but thatās not why he shouldāve lived.
the resurrection of jason todd as the red hood was narratively interesting enough that it kept most fans of the original jason hooked, and it still does! he has become a prime example of a trauma survivor: his death changed him, and those who loved him have difficulty accepting that.
but there is no resolution to that story, nor was there a resolution to jasonās tenure as robin. dick chose to leave robin behind and take on a new mantle. tim, steph, both had robin taken away from them (and letās forget about how tim is still robin, because that doesnāt matter right now). damianās role as robin conflicts with his misconception of his role in the family. everyone else has had an ending, and jasonās deathā¦well. after his resurrection, he has somehow remained stagnant and wildly inconsistent at the same time. this applies to under the red hood too.
at its core, utrh is a deeply classist retelling of jasonās life pre-death in the family. winick makes him a villaināalbeit a sympathetic oneāwho fucks over or kills people that he wouldāve thrown himself in front of to save as robin. in utrh, the implication is that jason had always been violent and angry (and morally compromised), and that he was destined to become worse.
it sometimes feels that jasonās transition into being the red hood (and all the characterization that comes with that) was a decision dc made for shock value. just from jasonās robin run, itās difficult to imagine jason becoming the red hood. it doesnāt feel inevitable. itās tragic.
ultimately, i believe that jason never should have died, and that his death was a stunt by dc for its shock value. jim starlin wanted jason dead because to him a child sidekick, in a medium that was originally made for children, was āsheer insanityā. he was fridged, plain and simple.
