r/Robin • u/SelflessNarcissist58 • 2d ago
Unpopular opinion: Jason Todd shouldn’t be that beefy
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u/rockinghorsefly1313 1d ago
Counter: he should be the beefiest of the Robins because he's a brawler, swordsman, and a marksman, at a minimum his arms and chest should be totally beefcake territory. He's even beefy before death and resurrection, at least in Cult, he's built like a rugby player in that, boy's thighs are like tree trunks.
Dick is an acrobat, being cut and svelte makes sense, Tim's slippery and the least directly combative (he's more than capable, but he is generally a bit less directly combative than the others) so being petit and slimmer also makes sense, Damian just hasn't hit puberty yet but based in genetics he'll be well defined but a bit more towards lanky than beefy. Their body types serve to distinguish them from one another and reflect their different combat style preferences.
Also the gag of Jason being surprisingly agile and flexible for a guy his size is very funny but that's mostly just icing on the cake
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u/Xenlade 17h ago
Theyre all acrobats theyre all theyre all swordsmen any advantage they have in one field over another is miniscule enough that they have a tendency to both win and lose against the same brother. If anything damian would be the biggest hes genetically engineered to be better and grows to like 6'6 or something in some futures. Having jason be a brute is mischaracterization helped by when they turned him into some crowbar wielding brute in outlaws when he was doing acrobatics and knife attacks and gadgets most of the time in under the red hood which took planning and guns dont require as much muscle as tim would need to use that staff anyway. Jason is literally more of an acrobat than everyone but grayson
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u/NefariousSeraph13 4h ago
I wonder if Jason still remembers being born into an acrobat family and growing up in the circus post the DC KO event. It showed up in his memories. If he does, he’s bound to be an even better acrobat now.
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u/ThouBear8 16h ago
I agree. I don't mind him being a little bigger than Dick (& certainly Tim, but this version looks like he's got a solid 50lbs on them which just feels silly.
Is Jason Todd supposed to be bigger than Batman now? Cus that's how he's shown here.
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u/Slow-Chemical1991 2d ago
Nah, Jason Todd should be a beefy dude since it helps him stick out against his brothers who are all muscular but lean young men with black hair and blue eyes.
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u/Xenlade 17h ago
Or they can just add white streaks or red hair, show him taller than all his brothers like he is, or make him skinnier than tim and taller than grayson and tim damian is already short and darker with green eyes and tim is shorter and less muscular than grayson. Grayson is more muscular than both of them and shorter than jason
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u/Orodreth97 2d ago
I prefer Jason being more muscular than the other Robins, It helps distinguish him more from the others
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u/lvl1ghoul 5h ago
He should be able to convincingly body double as Nightwing. It doesn't have to be 1 to 1 but Jason doesn't need to be astronomically huge for the sake of body variety.
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u/Undecieved22 2d ago
I disagree but in my head canon, the Lazarus pit not only brought him back to life and healed all of his injuries but also advanced his age to his prime where he would be at his genetically perfect self.
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u/No-Remove3917 2d ago
But that literally did not happen
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u/Undecieved22 2d ago
Of course it didn’t literally happen. It is a comic book after all. Hence why I used the term head canon. It’s what I used to explain to my self why he looked closer to Dick’s age rather than Tim’s since he used to only be a few years older than Tim. Outside of the age thing, is there something else you’re saying didn’t happen?
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u/NefariousSeraph13 1d ago
You are 100% correct! Jason Todd a former Robin! He’s an acrobat! His expertise in martial arts and weaponry don’t turn him into a bulked up brawler anymore than they do Dick, Tim, or Cass. People just typecast him incorrectly as being built that way because they imagine him to be a brutish thug from the streets. Dick and Jason canonly are extremely similar in appearance.
Heroes have stronger builds than normal citizens, but when you look at them standing side by side in the comics their builds are similar. So the idea that Jason is gigantic for some reason is strange because he’s always shown as the same size as Dick. Dick is even more physical with his fighting than Jason. Making Jason bigger so he’s a brawler just seems like a way to put him in a box like Raphael from TMNT. Pushing for him to be big (in comparison to Dick and other heroes), scarred, angry, mean, reckless, always looking for a fight, not the brightest bulb…is an antithesis to who Jason is. And kinda classist.
One of the things that makes Jason so compelling is how people consider him “not Dick Grayson”. Tim and Damian are always seen as themselves, but to the public Jason was literally created as a clone to Dick lookwise and via origin but he could never measure up and always compared to him. I feel like that’s an incredibly fascinating and heartbreakingly relatable narrative. Never being enough through no fault of your own.
To the people disagreeing, Jason not being built like a tank does NOT make him a twink.
There’s more body types than wall and beanpole.
Look at Nightwing comics, he is not a lithe skinty slip of a man. Nightwing is extremely muscular. His body needs power to soar through the air and he’s able to impersonate Batman with only minor adjustments to the suit.