After rewatching the entire Titans series with the exception of the last few remaining episodes of season 4, I’ve come to love the characters, some more than others, one of the standouts has been Jason Todd. His introduction to the series was fantastic and even more so when he turned dark.
Jason turning dark wasn’t simply because of being killed, or resurrected, or even by Jonathan Crane, his turn was because of how the Titans group treated him throughout multiple episodes of the show and you can really see that in the Deathstroke arc.
Throughout the series, you can see Jason argue with Dick about how things should be done, how criminals should be taken down and just trying to do things the more brute force way. Dick disagrees and easily hits Jason.
Jason and Gar would go to search for Doctor Light and Jason would unexpectedly run into Deathstroke who kidnaps Jason. Deathstroke then sets a trap in which Jason is bound to explosives and Dick and Kory fail to prevent the explosives from going off causing Jason to fall from a skyscraper, but saved by Connor.
Being a young hero would ultimately traumatize any young hero, it doesn’t matter if you have been trained by Batman himself, this would leave a mark on your mental state, and you can truly see this with Jason in the next batch of episodes.
This is where things in the Titans tower start happening. The Titans find several objects implanted in their rooms bringing painful memories back to each member and of course, Jason is the one they all gang up on and blame, even though he’s basically crying telling them it wasn’t him. Dick arrives and tells them it was Deathstroke but Jason disappears.
Jason would later develop nightmares to the point Bruce wakes him and asks if he’s ok before sending him to see Dr. Leslie Thompkins. Jason wants to be Robin so badly that he visits Scarecrow in Black Gate. He begins to help Crane eliminate the fear that he has. Crane would ultimately manipulate Jason into going after the Joker and getting himself killed.
After his resurrection, he became Red Hood and began to work with Crane full time going after the mobs in Gotham as well as the Titans.
In this arc, he goes after the Titans at full pace, typically outsmarting them and being so brutal to the point he lures Hank out of the tower and plants an explosive in his chest with a timer set. He kills Hank.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I believe Crane, the resurrection, and the fear toxin that he was taking all played a huge part in his dark side turn, but I believe it fully stemmed from the Titans not believing him, not allowing him to be Robin, and just generally not caring for him.
This is why the turn is so important, so perfect, and brilliant that it works. It was needed but ultimately, it was the Titans who forced Jason to turn.
Honestly, seeing Jason go up against the Titans as Red Hood was absolutely god tier episodes and seeing Red Hood vs Nightwing in live-action was so incredible to witness.
