Jason Todd.
Yeah, I don't have nearly as rough a life as he does.
He's been through so much.But I find him to be the most relatable character for me, ESPECIALLY in Red Hood and The Outlaws.
I mean- he's the most human.
He got tortured to death by one of the most twisted villains in the verse at the age of thirteen.
He waits and waits and waits through it.
Believing, that Batman will come, that he's going to save him, that any moment now in he'll come crashing in through that door and he'll make it in time and he'll get here and he'll save him... And he doesn't.
He woke up and desperately clawed his way out of his own coffin, with all the injuries from his death still there, suffocating on dirt and bleeding out all over again.
He was scared and alone and young and confused and he had no one who cared for him around.
And what's worst is that he got found by The league of Assassins who felt the best way to help him process his PTSD was to immediately get him to kill people and try to make him a slave for 3 years. (which he resisted like hell and showed just how crazy indomitable his willpower is.) Not to mention coming back injected with lazarus pit sociopathy.
So then, having been through all that - he falls.
He starts killing criminals, child sex traffickers and drug lord monsters. And he does it because it's the only way he can think to really protect people from the life he got. Yes it's not 'Right' and Batman and everyone in his family when they find out he's alive - they aren't happy.
Because he came back broken. And he came back damaged.
And he broke the code.
He killed.
And true heroes don't kill no matter what. No matter their situation.
So he's blamed and he's called a failure because he didn't overcome what happened to him automatically.
Because he was lost.
And now, he's the Robin everyone hates, the robin nobody in the batfamily trusts, the robin that's used over and over and over again as the example of how new robins and batgirls should aim to never come. The cautionary tale of jason todd.
Who turned everything batman taught him against what batman stands for.
But yeah, so he struggles with angst and regret and with living with the fact that his adoptive father's always going to think of him as a mistake.
But.. he's so honest. And yes he faces things and messes up sometimes and acts out and makes the wrong decisions or loses control. But Goddamnit he TRIES, he tries so hard.
And nothing ever works out for him, but he learns to deal with that too.
And yes he does the wrong thing a lot, but he's never moany or pitiful about his situation- he just carries on and keeps on going, although everything and everyone in the world tries to get him not to.
He's the Struggler.
And he inspires all of his fans to struggle on, too.
Also literally any comic with Jason Todd in it involves character development, wonderful wonderful character development.
For both supporting cast members and mains.
So for me, for all his many imperfections, I'll always identify and relate to Jason the most of anyone.
He makes me want to keep going, even when no one else believes in me.
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