Behavioural Study: Jason w/ Tim
In chatting with people in the first behavioural study post, I released that I’m viewing much of Jason’s behaviour as adolescent and inappropriate. The example I used was a elementary school boy hitting the little girl he likes because he doesn’t know how to express his feelings. Now originally I thought of this in the context of Under The Hood where jay is tormenting Bruce.
But it also works for his relations to the others as well. In this post I want to look at Jay’s attack on Timmy at the Titan’s Tower. In the TT issue, his motivation seems to be jealousy. I’m not saying that’s wrong. I think he was/is very jealous of Tim. After all, here is his replacement with everything that SHOULD have been his, the team, the respect, the self-confidence, the purpose….the LIFE.
Now lets look deeper. What is under the jealousy? In Jay’s case everything seems to come back to a fear of something, which is pretty human when you think about it. So what is he afraid of when confronted with Tim? It’s tempting to say that Jason’s afraid of seeing every way he failed as this new Robin succeeds. There might even be something to that. However I think it goes much further then that.
Tim is small (remember this is about around his sixteenth birthday or slightly before) and not anything Jay would see as powerful. If little Timmy was faced with the Joker and a crowbar….
What if the attack was motivated on some level in the hopes of showing Tim he’s outclassed and trying to get him to retire? To live a normal and SAFE life? What if in some perverse way, Jay was trying to help him?
The attack is still the work of a complete head case, but it gives what is otherwise brutal and senseless an interesting twist.
But it also works for his relations to the others as well. In this post I want to look at Jay’s attack on Timmy at the Titan’s Tower. In the TT issue, his motivation seems to be jealousy. I’m not saying that’s wrong. I think he was/is very jealous of Tim. After all, here is his replacement with everything that SHOULD have been his, the team, the respect, the self-confidence, the purpose….the LIFE.
Now lets look deeper. What is under the jealousy? In Jay’s case everything seems to come back to a fear of something, which is pretty human when you think about it. So what is he afraid of when confronted with Tim? It’s tempting to say that Jason’s afraid of seeing every way he failed as this new Robin succeeds. There might even be something to that. However I think it goes much further then that.
Tim is small (remember this is about around his sixteenth birthday or slightly before) and not anything Jay would see as powerful. If little Timmy was faced with the Joker and a crowbar….
What if the attack was motivated on some level in the hopes of showing Tim he’s outclassed and trying to get him to retire? To live a normal and SAFE life? What if in some perverse way, Jay was trying to help him?
The attack is still the work of a complete head case, but it gives what is otherwise brutal and senseless an interesting twist.