updated C&C app JUST IN CASE omg shut up I can't quit anything ever
[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Jillian
AGE: 25
JOURNAL: dayofjudah
IM: in arkham ego
E-MAIL: exprophet (at) gmail
RETURNING: Harry Osborn, Jonathan Crane
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Jason Todd
FANDOM: DC comics
CHRONOLOGY: pre-Batman RIP
CLASS: Anti-hero
SUPERHERO NAME: Red Hood
ALTER EGO: n/a
BACKGROUND:
Once upon a time, there was a boy called Jason Peter Todd. His father, Willis Todd, was a petty crook who did not return to his family after serving a prison sentence. His (adopted) mother, Catherine Todd, was a drug addict who died, leaving Jason alone. Accustomed to ripping off car parts for cash, Jason, as an enterprising young man who knew an opportunity when he saw one, attempted to steal the tires off the Batmobile. He managed to get one before Batman caught him. Though he didn't have the first Robin's acrobatic skills, Batman saw that he could help Jason by channeling his anger and drive into crime-fighting.
After six months of training, Jason became the second Robin. Also unlike the first Robin, Jason was a street kid whose attitude towards criminals was much darker. He was portrayed as the "rebel" of the Robins, prone to smoking and cursing and being headstrong. In one incident, it was actually highly ambiguous whether Jason may have caused the death of a serial rapist - Felipe Garzonas fell 22 stories to his death, possibly because as Jason said, "I guess I spooked him. He slipped." It's possible that Jason let him fall, or actually pushed him. Jason also used excessive force on criminals, apologizing when it got in the way of investigation but maintaining that they deserved it.
And then he died.
The story behind it, involving his birth mother, the middle east, and the Joker, is convoluted and not all that important. It ends with the Joker beating him half to death with a crowbar, then leaving him next to a bomb which finished the job. Dead. So very dead. Batman was devastated, created the memorial which would be broken a billion times for dramatic effect, etc.
And then Superboy Prime punched time.
Jason woke up six feet under, suffering from the injuries he'd sustained at the time of his death, screaming for Batman. He eventually managed to use his belt buckle to claw his way out of his coffin. He then spent part of the year in a coma, before waking up and managing to escape to live homeless and brain damaged in the streets of Gotham. Someone saw him pull a move they'd once seen Robin do, and managed to contact Talia al Ghul, who took Jason in and ultimately dunked him in a Lazarus Pit to restore him. Then she kissed him and pushed him off a cliff, not even kidding. She had arranged all sorts of identity paperwork for him, and continued to help him even though her father was angry at her. One thing she had told him was NOT to contact Batman before he learned the truth - that he "remained unavenged." And when Jason found out that Batman hadn't killed the Joker, it kind of hurt. A little bit. He set out on a global journey similar to the one Batman undertook when he was first training to become Batman, and eventually came back to Gotham for the events of Batman: Hush, the plot points of which are convoluted, but basically amount to the fact that he found Batman did not express regret for not killing the Joker. At this time Batman was made to think that Jason was actually Clayface.
After War Games comes the Red Hood, an identity lifted from the Joker. The Red Hood didn't come to Gotham to fight crime, but to influence it. He called a meet with the top street dealers in Gotham and informed them that he would be running the drug trade from now on. He did this by showing them the heads of their top lieutenants he had killed. The new rules were simple ones: he would get forty percent of the profit, and they would not sell to kids. If they broke that last rule, he would kill them. This was done to antagonize Black Mask. Some time after this, he located the Joker and beat him almost to death, as the Joker had done to him. The Joker was part of his plan to make Batman choose between saving the Joker or killing Jason. Batman ended up throwing a batarang into his neck, so Jason did the calm, mature thing by blowing up the building.
Infinite Crisis happened, after which Batman, Nightwing, and Robin went on this journey around the world for an entire freaking year, so for a while, Jason masqueraded as Nightwing, albeit a much bloodier, tends-to-kill-people-with-his-signature-kris Nightwing. Dick came back to tell him to knock it off. This led to a highly regrettable storyline where Jason temporarily turned into a tentacle monster, ate someone, then threw them back up. We do not speak of it.
Jason's involvement in Countdown had to do with traveling through the Nanoverse and then the Multiverse searching for Ray Palmer. He first witnessed the death of Duela Dent by a Monitor, and was nearly killed himself before another Monitor stopped the first one. He, Donna Troy, initially Ryan Choi, and later Kyle Rayner, traveled with a Monitor Jason nicknamed Bob from earth to earth. At one point, he pretended to betray the group in order to save them, which didn't go over well as he had to shoot Donna to do it. While many of the earths they visited were a little warped, the last earth they visited was almost perfect, apparently because here, Batman had wiped out most of the supervillains after Jason's death. He gave Jason the Red Robin costume. This Batman was killed by Ultraman, which subsequently led to Jason killing that earth's Joker when he laughed about it. In the end, however, Jason gave that costume up. It was later found and used by Tim.
PERSONALITY:
Jason Todd is an anti-hero of a contrary nature, possessing a perverse sense of humor. He's ruthless and violent, but we also see a part of him that greatly desires allies - somebody to understand the quest he's on, whether it's reaching out to Donna Troy, Mia, or even Tim, who he once beat up rather badly. Though strong and determined, he can also have moments of emotion that distract or undo him. It's speculated among fans that being dunked in the Lazarus Pit (while Ra's al Ghul was sitting in it, even) may have adversely affected his sanity. Certainly, as Robin, Jason had what is persistently referred to as a "mean streak", but as a young adult, it seems to border sociopathic at times. However, Jason has a strong sense of what's morally right and wrong... it's just not the conventional sense of what's morally right and wrong. He won't abide murderers and rapists (despite the fact he himself has killed quite a few people, but he would tell you that they're all justified), and he'll use drug dealers to influence the underground as long as they don't sell to kids.
While his characterization suffers from inconsistent writing, it seems that Jason is depicted, prior to "Lost Days" (a miniseries detailing some of his exploits directly after his resurrection) in the following ways: a) an intelligent, dangerous opponent who isn't afraid to kill to accomplish his goals but ultimately only wants Bruce to kill the Joker b) an unstable, jealous young man who carefully makes sure the Titans cannot interfere while he confronts Tim, though in the end he develops a grudging respect for him c) an embittered and brutal vigilante who enjoys messing with his "older brother" and is apparently not phased by sprouting tentacles or eating people d) a grumpy, violent individual who is nonetheless capable of empathizing with and being romantically interested in Donna Troy e) a total nutbag. In my interpretation, Jason is still capable of all these things, but he must be pushed a lot before he achieves fucknuts crazy status. His general demeanor defaults to alternately grumpy and mocking, a blend of "Under the Hood" Jason and "Countdown" Jason.
"Lost Days" covers an ambiguous amount of time from his resurrection six months after his death at sixteen to about nineteen years of age. The greatest addition it makes in terms of Jason's personality is the exploration of Jason's moral boundaries. After he poisons Egon, his assassin instructor, because he'd been trafficking in children sex slaves, he calmly drops the kids off at an embassy, then returns to burn the whole place down (Egon included). He and Talia have this conversation about it (important parts bolded): TALIA: This is an odd turn. I find you a teacher, and you murder him.
JASON: "Murder" sounds a bit fancy. I didn't orchestrate whacking him over an inheritance. I spiked his bug juice because he was a dirtbag. He was a killer for hire who made more money on a single job than most people in the world will see in their lifetime. But he still thought he needed extra cash, so he kidnapped children and sold them as sex toys.
TALIA: Why not just walk away and call the authorities?
JASON: I heard stuff. He had connections to the cops. Had a few politicians who he did work for. He wasn't gonna get locked up. But he was greedy. No lieutenants. Just muscle. The operation went through him. So, if it was going to end, it had to end with him. I didn't "murder" him. You murder people. I... put this reptile down. Don't tell me the world isn't better off.
He goes on to kill a few more of his teachers: his surveillance instructor was a pedophile, the small arms expert sold bad drugs, his close combat master was planning on killing her husband and children, and the mercenaries he may or may not have been learning from were "scum." He shows no remorse for any of their deaths, or for beating up his demolitions teacher Shurik barely a day after he'd been amiably drinking with him. Nor does he give a crap about the Russian mobsters he manages to kill while in London. But all these deaths are tempered by his use of the code. He doesn't kill the helicopter pilot even though he's a mercenary because he's "just the driver." He kills the Russian mobsters only after he spends all day gathering and disarming the bombs they planted in a bid to make English security focus on a fake middle eastern threat, and then only because they attack him.
It should be noted that by the end of his training, however, he seems to have (selectively) changed his mind. Telling Talia about how he had the Joker at his mercy, but chose not to kill him, Jason says (important part bolded): "He would've been dead. A quick, agonizing death. And this world would have been a much better place for it. But I don't really give a crap about the world." It's at this point that his emotions, or rather, his desire to force Bruce to confront his decision not to kill the Joker, takes precedence over the code.
Since spending almost two years in the City, he's basically calmed down a lot and been forced to take it easy. He doesn't care about the City the same way he cares about Gotham, he's made some friends, and he's finally come to the conclusion he needs to stop obsessing about Bruce and Batfamily in general and just move on with his life. That... isn't going to happen, at least not right away, but he's making the effort to do things that aren't vigilante-like activities (though tromping around Africa killing people isn't all that different??) and find something resembling a life for himself. It both hurts and helps that he's guiltily attached to Carrie and her Robin-ness. He's romantically interested in Miho but she's not really girlfriend material and he's aware of that. Then there's Danny, who was basically too nice to tell Jason to fuck off and then they went through shit together and are too mutually man-clingy not to be friends, even if Jason pretty much aggravates Danny 24/7. He's on okay terms with Selina, he's still mad at Dick and Tim for being Dick and Tim, he pesters Catman, he likes Manchester Black for being sensible... he's on his way to becoming something like a real person instead of an anti-hero stereotype.
POWER:
An expert combatant, Jason is versed in several forms of martial arts. His reflexes, stamina, and endurance are comparable if not superior to an Olympic athlete's. He routinely uses high-level civilian and military-grade weaponry, including firearms, explosives, rocket launchers, and advanced computer equipment and gadgetry. A gifted marksman, he is also trained in stealth and disguise. His favored hand-to-hand weapon is a dagger which resembles a kris and can cut through body armor; it is apparently so sharp that he manages to stab Onyx in the shoulder with it without her noticing right away. In terms of skill, he is shown being able to hold his own with Nightwing and Batman. Along with the kris, he carries at least three modified glocks with him in shoulder holsters.
His two powers from before are (1) the ability to make any kind of sandwich at any time without any sandwich materials and (2) semi-sentient tentacles that sprout out of his back when he's upset/angry/in danger. There are eight of them and they are huge, each capable of lifting a car, and operating without his conscious control. Thus far they've only appeared once and Jason has no idea what the fuck happened or why, as he was drugged and then unconscious for most of it. So he's not going to be busting them out every chance he gets, he basically has no control whatsoever.
[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE: C&C posts
LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE: C&C posts
FINAL NOTES ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER: I don't anticipate there being any overlap between Jason and Crane, since Jason is now actively trying to avoid Batfamily and Gotham-y/vigilante concerns.
NAME: Jillian
AGE: 25
JOURNAL: dayofjudah
IM: in arkham ego
E-MAIL: exprophet (at) gmail
RETURNING: Harry Osborn, Jonathan Crane
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Jason Todd
FANDOM: DC comics
CHRONOLOGY: pre-Batman RIP
CLASS: Anti-hero
SUPERHERO NAME: Red Hood
ALTER EGO: n/a
BACKGROUND:
Once upon a time, there was a boy called Jason Peter Todd. His father, Willis Todd, was a petty crook who did not return to his family after serving a prison sentence. His (adopted) mother, Catherine Todd, was a drug addict who died, leaving Jason alone. Accustomed to ripping off car parts for cash, Jason, as an enterprising young man who knew an opportunity when he saw one, attempted to steal the tires off the Batmobile. He managed to get one before Batman caught him. Though he didn't have the first Robin's acrobatic skills, Batman saw that he could help Jason by channeling his anger and drive into crime-fighting.
After six months of training, Jason became the second Robin. Also unlike the first Robin, Jason was a street kid whose attitude towards criminals was much darker. He was portrayed as the "rebel" of the Robins, prone to smoking and cursing and being headstrong. In one incident, it was actually highly ambiguous whether Jason may have caused the death of a serial rapist - Felipe Garzonas fell 22 stories to his death, possibly because as Jason said, "I guess I spooked him. He slipped." It's possible that Jason let him fall, or actually pushed him. Jason also used excessive force on criminals, apologizing when it got in the way of investigation but maintaining that they deserved it.
And then he died.
The story behind it, involving his birth mother, the middle east, and the Joker, is convoluted and not all that important. It ends with the Joker beating him half to death with a crowbar, then leaving him next to a bomb which finished the job. Dead. So very dead. Batman was devastated, created the memorial which would be broken a billion times for dramatic effect, etc.
And then Superboy Prime punched time.
Jason woke up six feet under, suffering from the injuries he'd sustained at the time of his death, screaming for Batman. He eventually managed to use his belt buckle to claw his way out of his coffin. He then spent part of the year in a coma, before waking up and managing to escape to live homeless and brain damaged in the streets of Gotham. Someone saw him pull a move they'd once seen Robin do, and managed to contact Talia al Ghul, who took Jason in and ultimately dunked him in a Lazarus Pit to restore him. Then she kissed him and pushed him off a cliff, not even kidding. She had arranged all sorts of identity paperwork for him, and continued to help him even though her father was angry at her. One thing she had told him was NOT to contact Batman before he learned the truth - that he "remained unavenged." And when Jason found out that Batman hadn't killed the Joker, it kind of hurt. A little bit. He set out on a global journey similar to the one Batman undertook when he was first training to become Batman, and eventually came back to Gotham for the events of Batman: Hush, the plot points of which are convoluted, but basically amount to the fact that he found Batman did not express regret for not killing the Joker. At this time Batman was made to think that Jason was actually Clayface.
After War Games comes the Red Hood, an identity lifted from the Joker. The Red Hood didn't come to Gotham to fight crime, but to influence it. He called a meet with the top street dealers in Gotham and informed them that he would be running the drug trade from now on. He did this by showing them the heads of their top lieutenants he had killed. The new rules were simple ones: he would get forty percent of the profit, and they would not sell to kids. If they broke that last rule, he would kill them. This was done to antagonize Black Mask. Some time after this, he located the Joker and beat him almost to death, as the Joker had done to him. The Joker was part of his plan to make Batman choose between saving the Joker or killing Jason. Batman ended up throwing a batarang into his neck, so Jason did the calm, mature thing by blowing up the building.
Infinite Crisis happened, after which Batman, Nightwing, and Robin went on this journey around the world for an entire freaking year, so for a while, Jason masqueraded as Nightwing, albeit a much bloodier, tends-to-kill-people-with-his-signature-kris Nightwing. Dick came back to tell him to knock it off. This led to a highly regrettable storyline where Jason temporarily turned into a tentacle monster, ate someone, then threw them back up. We do not speak of it.
Jason's involvement in Countdown had to do with traveling through the Nanoverse and then the Multiverse searching for Ray Palmer. He first witnessed the death of Duela Dent by a Monitor, and was nearly killed himself before another Monitor stopped the first one. He, Donna Troy, initially Ryan Choi, and later Kyle Rayner, traveled with a Monitor Jason nicknamed Bob from earth to earth. At one point, he pretended to betray the group in order to save them, which didn't go over well as he had to shoot Donna to do it. While many of the earths they visited were a little warped, the last earth they visited was almost perfect, apparently because here, Batman had wiped out most of the supervillains after Jason's death. He gave Jason the Red Robin costume. This Batman was killed by Ultraman, which subsequently led to Jason killing that earth's Joker when he laughed about it. In the end, however, Jason gave that costume up. It was later found and used by Tim.
PERSONALITY:
Jason Todd is an anti-hero of a contrary nature, possessing a perverse sense of humor. He's ruthless and violent, but we also see a part of him that greatly desires allies - somebody to understand the quest he's on, whether it's reaching out to Donna Troy, Mia, or even Tim, who he once beat up rather badly. Though strong and determined, he can also have moments of emotion that distract or undo him. It's speculated among fans that being dunked in the Lazarus Pit (while Ra's al Ghul was sitting in it, even) may have adversely affected his sanity. Certainly, as Robin, Jason had what is persistently referred to as a "mean streak", but as a young adult, it seems to border sociopathic at times. However, Jason has a strong sense of what's morally right and wrong... it's just not the conventional sense of what's morally right and wrong. He won't abide murderers and rapists (despite the fact he himself has killed quite a few people, but he would tell you that they're all justified), and he'll use drug dealers to influence the underground as long as they don't sell to kids.
While his characterization suffers from inconsistent writing, it seems that Jason is depicted, prior to "Lost Days" (a miniseries detailing some of his exploits directly after his resurrection) in the following ways: a) an intelligent, dangerous opponent who isn't afraid to kill to accomplish his goals but ultimately only wants Bruce to kill the Joker b) an unstable, jealous young man who carefully makes sure the Titans cannot interfere while he confronts Tim, though in the end he develops a grudging respect for him c) an embittered and brutal vigilante who enjoys messing with his "older brother" and is apparently not phased by sprouting tentacles or eating people d) a grumpy, violent individual who is nonetheless capable of empathizing with and being romantically interested in Donna Troy e) a total nutbag. In my interpretation, Jason is still capable of all these things, but he must be pushed a lot before he achieves fucknuts crazy status. His general demeanor defaults to alternately grumpy and mocking, a blend of "Under the Hood" Jason and "Countdown" Jason.
"Lost Days" covers an ambiguous amount of time from his resurrection six months after his death at sixteen to about nineteen years of age. The greatest addition it makes in terms of Jason's personality is the exploration of Jason's moral boundaries. After he poisons Egon, his assassin instructor, because he'd been trafficking in children sex slaves, he calmly drops the kids off at an embassy, then returns to burn the whole place down (Egon included). He and Talia have this conversation about it (important parts bolded): TALIA: This is an odd turn. I find you a teacher, and you murder him.
JASON: "Murder" sounds a bit fancy. I didn't orchestrate whacking him over an inheritance. I spiked his bug juice because he was a dirtbag. He was a killer for hire who made more money on a single job than most people in the world will see in their lifetime. But he still thought he needed extra cash, so he kidnapped children and sold them as sex toys.
TALIA: Why not just walk away and call the authorities?
JASON: I heard stuff. He had connections to the cops. Had a few politicians who he did work for. He wasn't gonna get locked up. But he was greedy. No lieutenants. Just muscle. The operation went through him. So, if it was going to end, it had to end with him. I didn't "murder" him. You murder people. I... put this reptile down. Don't tell me the world isn't better off.
He goes on to kill a few more of his teachers: his surveillance instructor was a pedophile, the small arms expert sold bad drugs, his close combat master was planning on killing her husband and children, and the mercenaries he may or may not have been learning from were "scum." He shows no remorse for any of their deaths, or for beating up his demolitions teacher Shurik barely a day after he'd been amiably drinking with him. Nor does he give a crap about the Russian mobsters he manages to kill while in London. But all these deaths are tempered by his use of the code. He doesn't kill the helicopter pilot even though he's a mercenary because he's "just the driver." He kills the Russian mobsters only after he spends all day gathering and disarming the bombs they planted in a bid to make English security focus on a fake middle eastern threat, and then only because they attack him.
It should be noted that by the end of his training, however, he seems to have (selectively) changed his mind. Telling Talia about how he had the Joker at his mercy, but chose not to kill him, Jason says (important part bolded): "He would've been dead. A quick, agonizing death. And this world would have been a much better place for it. But I don't really give a crap about the world." It's at this point that his emotions, or rather, his desire to force Bruce to confront his decision not to kill the Joker, takes precedence over the code.
Since spending almost two years in the City, he's basically calmed down a lot and been forced to take it easy. He doesn't care about the City the same way he cares about Gotham, he's made some friends, and he's finally come to the conclusion he needs to stop obsessing about Bruce and Batfamily in general and just move on with his life. That... isn't going to happen, at least not right away, but he's making the effort to do things that aren't vigilante-like activities (though tromping around Africa killing people isn't all that different??) and find something resembling a life for himself. It both hurts and helps that he's guiltily attached to Carrie and her Robin-ness. He's romantically interested in Miho but she's not really girlfriend material and he's aware of that. Then there's Danny, who was basically too nice to tell Jason to fuck off and then they went through shit together and are too mutually man-clingy not to be friends, even if Jason pretty much aggravates Danny 24/7. He's on okay terms with Selina, he's still mad at Dick and Tim for being Dick and Tim, he pesters Catman, he likes Manchester Black for being sensible... he's on his way to becoming something like a real person instead of an anti-hero stereotype.
POWER:
An expert combatant, Jason is versed in several forms of martial arts. His reflexes, stamina, and endurance are comparable if not superior to an Olympic athlete's. He routinely uses high-level civilian and military-grade weaponry, including firearms, explosives, rocket launchers, and advanced computer equipment and gadgetry. A gifted marksman, he is also trained in stealth and disguise. His favored hand-to-hand weapon is a dagger which resembles a kris and can cut through body armor; it is apparently so sharp that he manages to stab Onyx in the shoulder with it without her noticing right away. In terms of skill, he is shown being able to hold his own with Nightwing and Batman. Along with the kris, he carries at least three modified glocks with him in shoulder holsters.
His two powers from before are (1) the ability to make any kind of sandwich at any time without any sandwich materials and (2) semi-sentient tentacles that sprout out of his back when he's upset/angry/in danger. There are eight of them and they are huge, each capable of lifting a car, and operating without his conscious control. Thus far they've only appeared once and Jason has no idea what the fuck happened or why, as he was drugged and then unconscious for most of it. So he's not going to be busting them out every chance he gets, he basically has no control whatsoever.
[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE: C&C posts
LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE: C&C posts
FINAL NOTES ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER: I don't anticipate there being any overlap between Jason and Crane, since Jason is now actively trying to avoid Batfamily and Gotham-y/vigilante concerns.