Fanfic / one day at a time (Nyame)

one day at a time (FFN Link) is Batman Fan Fic by Nyame, the author of To Hell and Back (Arrowverse). It's an Alternate Universe Peggy Sue story about a future version of Jason Todd, who, through a series of tragedies, was forced to become Batman, and now finds himself several decades in the past after his death.

It was completed on June 8, 2020. A sequel, the superhero game, and a Spin-Off, those good old days, are both currently ongoing.

Official Summary:

Jason Todd is Batman.

Jason Todd was never supposed to be Batman.

Jason Todd never wanted to be Batman.

(Or, in a depressing-but-not-entirely-terrible future, Jason Todd is the third "official" Batman after the deaths of Bruce and his brothers. Getting into his old age and diagnosed with a terminal disease, he passes on the Cowl to his chosen successor, Terry McGinnis, and spends his last years in peace.

And then wakes up on the day Talia threw him into the Lazarus Pit.

Death called it a gift. Jason can only hope to make the most of it.)

---

Tropes:

# to D

• Abusive Parents:
  • The original Bruce Wayne. It wasn't intentional, obviously, but when it came down to it Bruce was not the most emotionally stable individual and whenever he was hit hard by something, he tended to act very cruelly to his children (as well as Stephanie). When he meets Jason in limbo and his son starts berating him for his poor treatment of them, Bruce doesn't even try to defend himself (going as far as to list all the horrible things he did to them) and calls himself a terrible father.
  • Lady Shiva and David Cain, as in canon. Shiva only views Cass as an "investment" and hates her because she holds Cass responsible for her sister's death. Cain does love Cass, but he's Vicariously Ambitious, projecting his own desires onto her instead of sincerely considering what she wants.
  • Cluemaster, judging from the way that Stephanie talks about him.
  • Slade Wilson pumped his daughter full of drugs to keep her reliant on him and, in the previous timeline, stuffed a chunk of Kryptonite in her empty socket despite knowing that her healing factor wasn't strong enough to stave off the cancer-inducing radiation. After he murdered her boyfriend for a job, she finally killed him.
  • Ra's al Ghul. No matter what he says, any unbiased person can tell he only views his family as tools for his ambitions. He tried to take over Damian's body when his own finally started failing him, and he tortured Talia for information about Jason after she betrayed him one too many times.
  • Past!Talia did murder Damian and did prepare him for his role of being a meat puppet for Ra's, though she also loves him. Subverted with present one, who allowed him to leave with Jason to save him.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Jason had absolutely no relationship with Carrie Kelley, Helena Wayne, or the McGinnis brothers in any canon due to either being dead or not existing. Here, he's their adoptive father and their Batman when each of them were Robin.
  • Damian's relationship with his siblings is a lot better, attributed to his young age and the different circumstances that are forcing him into his father's care. The only one he tries to kill is Jason, and that's to see if Jason is capable of protecting him.
• Adaptational Backstory Change:
  • Subverted with Carrie Kelley. Her backstory is relatively the same, up to and including becoming Robin after she saved the current Batman's life.
  • Helena Wayne's backstory is a remix of her Pre-Crisis and New 52 origins. Here, Bruce was dead before she was born, causing Selina to give up being Catwoman and flee Gotham under an assumed name. She raised Helena alone for the next ten years, until Black Mask II tracked them down and tried to force Selina to work for him. Selina refused, then went back on the run with Helena in hopes of getting Jason's help; however, Black Mask's men cornered them in Gotham. Before she was killed, Selina sent Helena to find Jason, who immediately realized who she was and took her in upon her mother's death.
  • Terry McGinnis' origin story is modified so his parents were murdered back when he was kid, leaving him and his younger brother orphans. Talia, however, ensured they wouldn't be manipulated any longer by killing both the assassin and their employer, and then arranged it so they would meet and be adopted by Jason.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Jason himself. While Comics Jason is badass in his own right, this Jason ended up becoming Batman, staying in the role for twenty years and only quitting because he developed lung cancer.
  • Implied with Terry McGinnis, who is a former Robin in this continuity and thus has years of more training and experience by the time he becomes Batman.
• Affirmative-Action Legacy:
  • Jason's first two Robins were both female, and both of them were asked about being his successor long before Terry was.
  • Lian Harper is a twofer, being a woman of Vietnamese and Navajo descent who became the third Speedy and the third Green Arrow.
  • Felicia Bell is the first, and thus far only, female Joker.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • Everyone exclusively addresses Cassandra as "Cass". Even the narration prefers to call her that.
  • Jason playfully calls Dick "Dickie" frequently.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Surprisingly, the Drakes. Janet Drake never got away from the stigma of being Nouveau Riche and the failure of her social ambitions led to her constantly joining her husband on his archaeological digs. Not only did this stigma pass on to their son, it also directly led to their Parental Neglect and the eventual destruction of their marriage. Tim is very much aware of all of this and understandably more than a bit bitter about it.
• Alternate Timeline: Subtly implied. Jason is immediately alerted to the differences in the timeline when he meets Damian for the first time again, and realizes that their age difference has increased from six years to ten. More changes begin piling up, some of which disturb him. The sequel confirms this to be the case.
• Amicable Exes:
  • Jason and Artemis. So much so that Jason didn't ream her a new one for hiding their daughter from him for ten years.
  • Dick and Barbara. Mostly because they found they were happier as friends than as a couple.
  • Ironically, it's this dynamic that eventually led to Dick and Kori getting back together in Jason's timeline. Because almost all their initial history was romantic, they had to work very hard at being friends, to the point of making a promise to always see and accept each other as the person they are now. Because their friendship hinged on always being in the present, it meant their renewed romantic relationship never fell into the Loving a Shadow-pitfall that ultimately doomed Dick's relationship with Barbara.
• Anger Born of Worry: While sympathetic, Bruce, Jason, and Alfred are all furious with Tim after he runs away from the Manor and tries to take on the Joker by himself to avenge the recently-deceased Jack Drake, with Bruce going as far as to bench him from being Robin for the foreseeable future. Tim, to his credit, acknowledges his fault in the situation and accepts the punishment.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • The Joker to the entire Bat-Family, but especially to Jason. After dealing with six Jokers, each of whom gave him a specific reason to hate them, it's safe to say that Jason hates the Joker even more than Bruce does.
  • Ra's al Ghul is also this to Jason. He's the one person Jason never regretted killing. In fact, the only thing Jason ever regretted about Ra's' death is that he didn't dismantle the League of Assassins right afterward. In return, Jason is the one member of Bruce's family Ra's never approved of, because he knew Jason would kill him if given the chance, which he eventually did. Twice.
  • Lady Shiva, to both Cassandra Cain and Richard Dragon. In the previous timeline, Shiva never gave up trying to force Cass into killing her, going as far as to challenge Jason and try to kill him to enrage Cass into finally giving her what she wanted.
  • Lex Luthor is Tim's. Given Tim's best friend is Conner Kent, Luthor's biological son and pet obsession, it should be no surprise they clashed often. Their enmity ended in a mutual kill, with Tim killing Luthor to save Conner and shortly after, succumbing to the injuries Luthor inflicted.
  • Mara al Ghul to her cousin Damian Wayne. Mara was the one who arranged the circumstances that eventually led to Damian's Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Dick has several, outnumbering even Jason, despite probably being the nicest member of the family. Granted, he tends to share them with any number of the family.
    • Deathstroke to Dick Grayson and his daughter Rose. In the original timeline, he murdered Rose's boyfriend for a job, which was the last straw that finally drove her into killing him in return.
    • The Court of Owls to the Bat-Family, but especially to Dick. It was during Dick's tenure that they were finally removed from Gotham permanently.
    • Future Tim to Dick. And to Damian, but mostly to Dick. Future Tim came to hate Dick so much that he went back in time specifically to murder him, even though his Dick had already died trying to contain the chaos in Gotham after Blight's meltdown.
• Arc Villain:
  • Lady Shiva for the first flashback arc and Stephanie's introduction arc.
  • The Court of Owls for the gala arc, though they're more of a background presence.
  • The Joker for the post-gala arc.
  • Future Tim for the second flashback arc.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Wayne Hall, the Wayne Family's personal party venue. Modeled after the Acropolis of Athens, it's almost the size of a football field, has its own parking lot, supports a massive underground industrial kitchen along with a large storage area and a lounge for employees, has an in-built concert stage, stained glass windows, and a gigantic hanging crystal chandelier that puts even the one in the Manor to shame (for comparison, that chandelier was able to support a sleeping eight year old Dick Grayson without collapsing). It's also extremely expensive to maintain and thus rarely ever ventured in outside of an annual spring cleaning. Prior to Jason's return gala (which also celebrated the adoption of Cass and the arrival of Damian), the last time an event was held there was Bruce Wayne's own return to Gotham after his five-year training trip — thirteen years ago.
• Awful Truth: Jason spilling everything that happened in his original timeline is enough to cause a full breakdown among the Bat-Family.
• Bad Future:
  • Zigzagged. Jason's future saw Bruce, Dick, Tim, and Damian all dead before Jason was even thirty, leaving him and Cass behind to carry on with the Mission. On the other hand, the first chapter makes it clear that they were both able to move on and live happy lives. As the summary itself states, the future was "depressing", but "not entirely terrible".
  • As it turns out, there was a more traditional one in the original timeline where the supervillain Blight had a meltdown and destroyed most of Gotham, which indirectly led to Dick's death when he tried to contain the ensuing chaos. Tim, who had advocated killing Blight before this could happen only for it to be rejected by the rest of the Bat-Family, promptly went insane, killed Damian to claim the Batman mantle, and then killed the rest of the Bat-Family when they refused to follow him. After the Justice League found out and started hunting him down, he went back in time to try and brainwash the world with Brother EYE to prevent all of this from ever happening, and to personally murder Dick.
• Bait-and-Switch: Right before the first flashback arc starts, it's implied Jason broke the Rule to spare Cass from having to kill Lady Shiva. He didn't — in fact, the whole debacle with Shiva is what led to him recommitting to the Rule for good. David Cain is the one who killed Shiva.
• Bar Brawl: The first flashback arc sees the bar Jason and Cass find David Cain in erupt into one just as the three were about to leave. An exasperated Jason notes that this happens every time he enters a bar.
• Balancing Death's Books: According to Jason, immortality is unnatural; everything has to die in the end, and while they may come back once or twice, in the end they'll still die and stay dead. It's a fundamental law of the universe, and immortality directly flouts it. While Death is far more tolerant of it these days, she still obviously doesn't like it. Her younger self hated it so much she created a weapon whose purpose is to kill immortals. It was named the Balance, after this trope explicitly.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • Jason's greatest wish is to see his family again and apologize for his initial poor treatment of them. His soul then travels back in time and merges with his younger body, allowing Jason to reunite with a family that barely knows him.
  • Bruce gets his second son back, seemingly reversing his greatest failure — only to learn that said has time traveled back from thirty years in the future, where he and three of his children are dead.
• Better as Friends:
  • What Dick and Barbara decided they were in the end, in Jason's timeline.
  • Bruce and Talia. They acknowledge that they'll always love each other, but as a couple, they simply aren't meant to be.
• Beware the Nice Ones: After Jason informs everyone about the Bad Future he came from, the Bat-Family plus Clark and Diana are left discussing what to do. When Alfred finally speaks up, it's to loudly berate all of them for saying anything other than "love him unconditionally" and he proceeds to lecture everyone for even having the conversation at all. Notably, even Superman and Wonder Woman are left hanging their heads in shame once he's finished.
• Big Bad: Ra's al Ghul.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Once he gets out of his initial Heroic BSoD, Jason's knee-jerk reaction is to go back to Gotham immediately and relieve Tim of being Robin so Tim won't have to suffer the countless tragedies that transformed him into a borderline Sociopathic Hero. One of the reasons he didn't go through with it is because he knew that, despite everything, Tim never regretted becoming Robin.
  • The other reason is because Tim was actually the safest of his siblings since he has Bruce at his back. Dick, meanwhile, is old enough and skilled enough to take care of himself; the same cannot be said for Damian and Cass, of whom Jason makes top priority to collect as soon as possible with Talia's help.
  • Jason hates Lady Shiva with a passion because of this reason. In his timeline, Shiva continued tormenting Cass and trying to force her daughter into killing her, despite knowing that Cass will never willingly kill again. This eventually led to Jason trying to kill Shiva (the first time he's attempt to kill anyone in seven years) to protect his sister. This is also the reason why he offered to train Tim — he didn't want Tim anywhere near Shiva.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family:
  • The first generation Waynes. As Jason points out, none of them had a normal childhood. To wit:
    • Bruce saw his parents murdered when he was eight and was raised by a butler as the sole heir to one of the largest fortunes in the world.
    • Dick is a former Circus Brat who also his saw parents die right in front of his eyes.
    • Jason grew up in Crime Alley with an abusive, wannabe-henchman dad and a junkie mom. After they both died, he lived on the streets for a couple of years before Bruce took him in.
    • Tim's parents were absurdly neglectful, leaving him alone at home for months at a time while also juggling through several different boarding schools for him to attend.
    • Cass was trained since birth to be the perfect assassin, leaving her completely illiterate. After she abandoned her father, she too lived on the streets for several years, constantly on the run from him.
    • Damian was also trained from birth to be an assassin, but also the heir to his grandfather Ra's al Ghul, which simultaneously included being abused, neglected, and spoiled rotten.
  • The al Ghuls, who are even more dysfunctional than the Waynes. It's telling that the original Damian stuck with his father's family than his mother's despite the initial shoddy relationships he had with all of his siblings.
• Blue Blood: The First Families of Gotham, especially the Wayne family. The Waynes are considered the closest the city has to royalty.
• Breaking Speech: Jason delivers one to to the entire League of Assassins in the penultimate chapter of the story, partly to break their devotion to Ra's and partly because he's pissed at all of them. He does this by revealing the sad fates of several of Ra's' most prominent assassins, culminating in Talia's post-mortem disownment of her father. Judging by the horrified looks everyone gives him when he's done, it works.
• Breather Episode: After the tense and angst-filled Joker arc and Future Tim arc, the family has a Christmas Episode full of fluff and humor. The arc after that, which is the final arc, then deals with the story's Big Bad, Ra's al Ghul.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Jason spends Chapter Two shattering Damian's faith in his grandfather, mother, and the League of Assassins with his Brutal Honesty.
  • Played for Laughs in the case of Tim, who Damian instantly dislikes because of his inability to keep his head together during their initial meeting. He was even planning to call Tim "Timothy" before settling on "Drake" instead, and says he will have to re-earn that privilege now.
  • Dick and Tim. After Dick took Robin away from Tim, their relationship shattered to almost beyond repair. It took years for them to really reconcile, and that was only after an embittered, evil version of Tim traveled back in time to murder Dick.
• Brutal Honesty: Jason gets by lying using Exact Words and Half-Truths. When he's allowed to tell the truth, however, he pulls no punches whatsoever.
• Butt-Monkey: Rose Wilson. Nothing ever goes right for Rose. Every time she tries to get into a fight she's defeated in a humiliatingly easy fashion.
• Cain and Abel:
  • Ironically, despite his abrasive personality, Damian Wayne ended up the Abel in at least two instances: his cousin Mara, and an evil future version of his older brother Tim. Future Tim even brainwashed Original Tim and ordered him to murder Damian as another possible example.
  • Dick was also the Abel to Future Tim, who went back in time specifically to murder him. Future Tim also murdered the rest of the Future Bat-Family in his time (including the aforementioned Damian), essentially making him the Cain to them as well.
• Came Back Wrong: Those healed/revived by the Lazarus Pit are inflicted with Pit Madness, which is vaguely described as a green haze urging the victim to commit violence and murder. While the effects diminish with time, it never completely goes away — Jason suffered it for the rest of his life and had to develop a method for fighting bouts of it off. It's for this explicit reason that Damian begged Jason not to bring him back with the Pit.
• Cerebus Rollercoaster: The story switches a lot between fluff, angst, humor, and genuine plot and action.
• The Chains of Commanding: According to Jason, Gotham must always come before family for the Batman. This is one of the reasons why chose Terry over either of his daughters to succeed him, despite his young age — he was the best choice to succeed Jason.
• Chocolate Baby: Much like in canon, Terry and Matthew are the biological children of Bruce Wayne and look as much. Unlike in canon, Terry noticed the similarities early on (having been trained in the detective arts by Jason and his sisters) but never actively questioned them, figuring that the truth didn't matter in the long run.
• Chores Without Powers: During their visit to the Kent farm, after Jon and Damien end up fighting, Jason punishes them by having them clear all the manure out of the barn without Jon using his powers. However, he didn't say no to using the manure vacuum... which Jon figures out. Since Jason had been listening in on them and knew they'd learned their lesson and become friends before Jon came up with this idea, he congratulates them on their clever thinking.
• Civil War: The League of Assassins entered one after Ra's al Ghul's death. It lasted close to a decade, depleted the organization's resources and effectively caused the man's empire to crumble. It even decimated his blood family, including killing his grandson Damian, who had rejected them in favor of paternal family years ago. Ultimately, the winner was Talia, but she barely had even a fraction of what she was fighting for and the personal losses she suffered because of it (including the death of her son, the aforementioned Damian), caused her to soundly reject her father's legacy.
• Comically Lopsided Rivalry: Jason and Rose. Rose develops a strong grudge against Jason after he curb-stomps her during the first meeting in Bludhaven. Jason barely acknowledges her as a threat and usually either curb-stomps her when they fight or has someone else do it in his stead.
• Cool Big Bro:
  • Jason to Damian and Cass, and what he clearly plans to be to Tim as well.
  • In turn, this is how he views Dick. When they finally meet again (which, for Jason, is the first time he's seen Dick alive in close to twenty-five years), Jason allows himself to finally release some of the pent-up emotions he had since finding himself in the past, knowing that Dick will be there to catch him.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Jason deals out several of these to Tim during their first training session while searching for Tim's weapons.
  • Once he bothers to actual fight her, Jason takes out Rose in under a minute with minimal effort. This becomes a Running Gag with Rose, who loses every fight she has in the story in a quick and humiliating fashion.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Even slightly exhausted and in a much weaker body, Jason is able to give Deathstroke a decent challenge in a swordsman duel. Even so, Deathstroke was currently out of his league and if it wasn't for Nightwing Jason would've eventually lost outright.
• Curse Escape Clause: Discussed regarding the Jokers; as the third Joker was triggered when the second was temporarily killed by Nightwing, it raised too many questions about what the curse would consider a 'death', with the result that the only solution was to permanently lock up the Joker, even in the face of alternatives like sending them to the Phantom Zone or leaving them in a medically induced coma.
• Cute Mute: A young Cassandra is rather quiet — as her speech is atrocious — and utterly adorable.
• Dances and Balls: Jason's return gala is given a lot of focus, and is used to explore the intricacies of Gotham politics, which will be pivotal in taking down the Court of Owls over the next few years.
• Dating Catwoman: Deconstructed. As Jason explains to Helena, her parents did love each other, but were plagued with doubts about their relationship because they didn't know where'd they stand without being Batman and Catwoman. It led to a cycle of self-sabotage that left them both unhappy in the end. He repeats this explanation to Bruce, and straight out tells him that if he still wants a relationship with Selina, they need to figure out where they stand as Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle first.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Subverted. Jason liked Damian Kent perfectly fine and fully approved of him as a suitor for his daughter. He just hated the idea of Helena dating in general.
• A Day in the Limelight: After having Jason as the main POV character for the vast majority of the story, the second flashback arc shifts the main POV to Dick, as the arc primarily centers on him and takes place during his tenure as Batman. Jason is specifically cited as a supporting, static character during these events.
• Deadpan Snarker: One of the ways Jason deals with everything is by snarking. Liberally and without remorse.
• Death by Origin Story:
  • Selina Kyle, for Helena Wayne. As it was Black Mask II who killed her, Helena developed a particular hatred for organized crime as a result.
  • Warren and Mary McGinnis, for their sons Terry and Matthew. While they were avenged (by Talia al Ghul of all people), the fact that neither him nor his brother were the ones to do it drove Terry to become Robin, and eventually, Batman.
• Death Is Cheap: Lampshaded by Slade. Including when Jason revives himself in the penultimate chapter, Jason has technically died and come back to life a grand total of four times.
• Deathbed Confession: Jason makes an implicit one to Terry by revealing that all of the secrets of the family will be his to access on the Bat-Computer once Jason is dead.
• Decadent Court: Gotham's high society is portrayed this way, with an entire chapter dedicated to educating Stephanie, Damian, and Cassandra about the various maneuverings of the city's upper class.
  • At the very top of the structure are the Waynes, who are the closest Gotham has to royalty. Jason's return gala, which is the largest gathering of Gotham socialites in over a decade, is even stated by the narration to be the Waynes' version of holding court.
  • Slightly beneath the Waynes are the other First Families (Crowne, Kane, Elliot, Cobblepot), who aren't as rich as they used to be but are still highly respected. While the Crownes have died out and the Cobblepots barred (because their sole heir is both a criminal and hates Bruce Wayne), the Kanes and Elliots are both venerated still, as Martha Wayne was a Kane and Tommy Elliot grew up as a Childhood Friend of Bruce's.
  • Followed by them are the major families (Vreeland, Galavan, Vanaver, van Dahl), who aren't quite as distinguished as the First Families but are almost as old. Their fortunes haven't diminished as nearly as much and some of them are obsessed with usurping the First Families, making them the biggest threat to the Waynes.
  • Then there are the Mob families, who were only really invited because the other families are scared of them. Usually, however, only the top family is invited to functions, and thanks to the mercurial nature of the underworld, that family is constantly in flux. After Batman broke the Mob's hold on Gotham, however, they've been barred from upper class social gatherings and too distracted by their own diminishing power to complain.
  • At the very bottom are minor families (Nouveau Riche families that only come into their fortunes recently), individual socialites like Selina Kyle and Jezebel Jet, and city officials like Commissioner Gordon. The other classes tend to look down on these ones, either causing the families to stay of Gotham (like the Drakes, Tim's parents) or make them Social Climbers.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best:
  • In the previous timeline, Selina Kyle, who went straight to raise her daughter Helena. Helena has nothing but good things to say about her even long after her death.
  • Subverted with Bruce. While Jason and Cass and the others all loved him, most of them weren't afraid to admit that he was a pretty bad father.
• Decon-Recon Switch: Kid Sidekick. A lot of kids died being sidekicks because of the inherent danger of fighting supervillains, especially those with no morals like the Joker. The Robin mantle is a specifically cited example; of the first four Robins (plus the female interim Robin), only the first didn't die or suffer horribly or both during their tenure. However, many of those kids (including the ones that died and then came back) thrived in their roles and grew up to be great heroes as adults that replaced their mentors when said mentors retired or died in the line of duty. With the latter being the more common fate, and the ever-increasing danger of supervillains, this means that despite the danger, kid sidekicks are a necessary component of superheroism. This is made all the more obvious when Jason Todd, who was the one to suggest the initial retirement of the Robin mantle to his older brother Dick Grayson, was forced to bring the mantle back during his own tenure as Batman because he had only one possible successor: a sister who was the same age as him. He made a last-ditch effort to make both the Batman and Robin mantles unnecessary by cleaning up Gotham and making the city no longer reliant on them, only to ultimately fail due in large part to the actions of Joker V, who forcibly activated the metagenes of a number of people, creating a whole new Rogues' Gallery for Jason and forced to concede that he would have to train a successor via Robin.
• Determinator: According to Jason, the biggest requirement for becoming Batman is being too determined to let the job break you. It's strongly implied that Dick Grayson didn't have this stubbornness, and it may have played a part in his Heroic Sacrifice against Brainiac.
• Despair Event Horizon: Jason nearly crossed it after Damian died. Carrie Kelley was the one to pull him back and give him a reason to live again.
• A Dick in Name: Damian is pretty nonplussed about his eldest brother wanting to be nicknamed after an euphemism for testicles.
• Disappointed by the Motive: Tim is furious to learn that his father Jack Drake was murdered during the events of Identity Crisis (2004) because a bitter divorcee wanted her ex-husband to crawl back to her.
• Disappointing Older Sibling:
  • Courtesy of Tim being overwhelmed by Jason's return, Damian firmly believes Drake is nothing but a complete dumbass and openly voices it.
  • Jason was this to Tim in the previous timeline before they patched things up between them. In the current one he's firmly a Cool Big Bro from the outset of their relationship.
  • A much more serious example is Dick and Tim. It's implied that Tim's faith in Dick shattered after Dick took Robin from him, and that their relationship never quite recovered from the blow. In the second flashback arc, this is confirmed in the case of Future Tim. Original Tim and Dick, however, managed to reconcile, mostly because of Future Tim.
• Doppelgänger Gets Same Sentiment:
  • Discussed. Tim points out the current Bat-Family isn't the family Jason grew to love so deeply and as such would be a mere substitute. Dick notes that it doesn't seem to matter to Jason, and Alfred retorts that people are always changing, and alternate dimension or potential future be damned, they are the Bat-Family.
  • In practice, it's zigzagged. While Jason does acknowledge they aren't the family that he's lost and frequently points it out himself whenever they start blaming themselves for what their counterparts did, it doesn't really stop him from loving them any differently from their counterparts. Ultimately, when he meets the originals during his Near-Death Experience, they're fully acknowledged as different people, and while Jason longs to stay with them, he returns back to the mortal plane because his current family needs him too.
  • Future Tim projected all his feelings about his version of the Bat-Family onto their past selves, including himself. He honestly thought that the original Tim would've enjoyed murdering Damian, having completely forgotten that Damian and him had long buried the hatchet by that point and had come to care for each other.
• Downer Beginning: Zigzagged. While the story begins with Jason's death by lung cancer, it's shown that despite the grief that came from losing so much of his family so young, he went on to live a happy and full life.
• The Dreaded:
  • Damian is completely horrified to learn that Cass is related to Lady Shiva. Jason himself wants to avoid Shiva's attention altogether.
  • The Joker. It's fairly obvious Jason fears the Joker as much as he hates him, and that would also apply to almost all of Gotham. In particular, the Arkham Massacre caused a massive drop in supervillainy because none of the rising criminals at the time wanted to become supervillains and potentially face the Joker's wrath for distracting Batman from him.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Jason went on a three-day bender after Tim died. The fourth day saw him with the worst hangover of his life, and it still wasn't enough to drown away the pain.
• Dying Wish: Damian's last request to Jason was that he not be revived via the Lazarus Pit. Jason, knowing how much his own revival via that method screwed him up, didn't have the heart to refuse him.

E to H

• Easily Forgiven: Subverted. From Dick's viewpoint, this is what Jason's forgiveness for his failures as an older brother are. In reality, Jason's already heard the apology before and didn't forgive Dick that easily. Even then, it's been literal decades for him since then, so any anger he might have at Dick is long gone. He's just happy to see Dick alive again.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Jason may have dedicated himself to becoming a hero again in the previous timeline, but he still has somewhat of a grayer morality than Bruce and Dick. Even so, he has a fair few standards of his own:
    • Whatever dislike he had for Harley Quinn, he did not condone the Joker's Domestic Abuse of her. It's strongly implied that Harley's death at Joker III's hands is one of the things that led to Jason killing him.
    • He flatly admits that he has no intentions of letting the Arkham Massacre happen, no matter how much the original incident technically benefited the Family in the previous timeline. It's implied to be because the Joker murdered all the members of Bruce's Rogues Gallery ( the spinoff those good old days reveals that only four were spared because they weren't in Arkham — Catwoman, Black Mask, the Penguin and Poison Ivy), including those that weren't actually evil and needed genuine help, as opposed to just psychopaths like Victor Zsaz.
    • Jason at his worst would never think to use the gun that killed Thomas and Martha Wayne against anybody, let alone Bruce, Dick, and the others. Nor would he try to take over the world just to prove he was right about something. Both of these things are things that Future Tim did with no remorse, which made Dick declare him Beyond Redemption.
    • He's sickened by the way Ra's al Ghul treats his family, and makes it clear he pities all of them for having to deal with him. It's confirmed this is the reason why he never managed to hate Mara al Ghul, even after she led Damian to his death.
  • Any consideration the heroes have for Ra's al Ghul dies after they learn about his torture of Talia. If that didn't cinch it for them, his murder of Jason while trying to kill Damian definitely seals the deal. Combined with the fact that, in the future, he tried to steal Damian's body, no one holds it against Jason for killing him, not even Bruce.
• Evil Power Vacuum:
  • A constant problem with Gotham City's Mob. When Bruce was a child the top criminal family in Gotham were the Calabreses (led by Rex Calabrese), who were then usurped by the Bertinellis (Helena Bertinelli's family). The Bertinellis were then slaughtered by mafia families outside of Gotham, and were supplanted by the Falcones. The Falcones then entered a war with the Maronis, only for both families to have their hold on Gotham broken by Batman and see their leaders (Carmine Falcone and Sal Maroni) executed by Two-Face. This broke the Mob's hold on Gotham and greatly diminished the amount of organized crime in the city for several decades, but in turn led to the rise of the city's supervillains.
  • Gotham had a massive drop in supervillainy in the wake of the Arkham Massacre, which saw the Joker butcher almost all of the first Batman's original Rogues Gallery. In the wake of that travesty, no one wanted to become a supervillain and replace them for fear of suffering the same fate. This led to a resurgence of normal crime and organized crime in particular, in part due to the arrival of Black Mask II. After Jason stamped the latter out and was posed to clean up Gotham enough to consider permanent retirement, Joker V got involved, and forcibly activated the metagenes of hundreds of people in order to create a new Rogues Gallery for him to fight.
• Expy: The fight club champion Jason fights in the first flashback arc is an obvious pastiche of Brock Lesnar.
• Failure Montage: The Robin Interlude is series of flashbacks depicting how each of Jason's kids convinced him to make them Robin. By the time he hits Matty, Jason has finally given up trying to stop any of them and point-blank tells Matty he'll only start training when he's eleven and not a moment sooner.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Jason fully planned on having the Batman legacy die with him and Cass. His kids thought otherwise, and ultimately they were more stubborn than him on this matter.
• Feeling Their Age: A major theme during the first flashback arc. The arc begins with Alfred stuck on bed rest, age having finally caught up to him and leaving him no longer able to help with the family's vigilante activities. Other characters that appear during the arc (Richard Dragon, David Cain, and Lady Shiva) are similarly noted to have gotten older and therefore weaker, indicating that while they are still dangerous, their primes have long passed them by.
• Fight Clubbing: In the first flashback arc, Jason and Cass find David Cain at an illegal fight club in Vietnam. Jason later participates in a match against its champion in order to get the current location of Lady Shiva from its owner.
• First Love: Artemis of Bana-Mighdall was this to Jason, though they eventually drifted apart and parted on amicable terms. The relationship even produced a daughter, named Penelope, who was raised by Artemis on Themyscira and didn't meet Jason until he was on his deathbed.
• Foil: Original Bruce and Jason. Both of them lost almost all of their original families to crime, which resulted in them becoming Batman, and eventually built new families by taking in orphans and strays. The difference is that Jason was willing to move past his trauma and losses in order to become a better parent for his kids. Bruce wasn't, instead electing to emotionally repress himself to focus on his mission, and almost destroyed his relationships with all of his children, causing his death to leave all of them with more than their fair share of baggage. Jason himself points this out, and tells the current Bruce that if he really cares about his family then he needs to at least try to move on and learn to be vulnerable around them.
• For Want Of A Nail:
  • How Terry and Matthew McGinnis landed on Jason's doorstep. The person who executed the scheme was Lyla Michaels, Amanda Waller's successor, and she had no problem hiring an assassin that would actually go through with the act of murdering their parents. Unfortunately, the person she stole the DNA from to make the boys biologically Bruce's was Talia, who promptly murdered her and the assassin in question before putting the boys in a situation that would allow them to meet Jason.
  • In the backstory, the events of Batman Eternal never happened due to this story taking place in the Pre-Flashpoint continuity, meaning that Stephanie Brown was Batgirl at the time. Harper Row was the one to discover Arthur Brown / Cluemaster communing with the other C-List villains, and was able to pass the information to Stephanie. Since Stephanie was Batgirl, she didn't need to run from her father — instead, she beat the crap out of him and took him to jail herself instead, preventing Cluemaster from framing Jim Gordon and kicking off his plot.
  • Much like in the backstory of Batman Beyond, Derek Powers attempted a hostile merger with Wayne Enterprises in Jason's timeline. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't dealing with an embittered, uncaring Bruce Wayne, but rather his son Jason Wayne, who was obsessed with keeping the company under his family's control. Not only did he stop the merger, he kicked Powers out of Gotham entirely. Powers later moved to Metropolis and married Lena Luthor to merge Powers Technology with the ailing LexCorp (which had fallen apart after the death of Lex Luthor).
• Foregone Conclusion:
  • The first flashback arc. We know that Jason and Cass will survive those events, that Lady Shiva will die during them and that Alfred will die one year after them. Everything else is fair game.
  • The second flashback arc. We know that every member of the Bat-Family will survive the arc and that Dick's decision to retire the Robin mantle will ultimately not take when Jason is forced to revive the mantle during his tenure as Batman. We also know that something will happen that will cause Dick to choose Jason over Tim as his successor, and make Tim amenable and even supportive of that choice.
• Foreshadowing: The presence of mercenaries like Deathstroke and Merlyn providing backup for Lady Shiva foreshadows that this was about more than a simple Death Match between her and Cass. Jason notes that there is a very short list of people that can manage to sneak in that many high-profile assassins into Gotham under the noses of both Batman and Oracle, and there's only one that would have the resources to hire all of them at the same time: Ra's al Ghul. The last arc of the story confirms this, with Ra's admitting to having sent those assassins to discreetly test Jason to confirm his status as a time traveler.
• Former Teen Rebel: This is how Jason's gradual transition from Red Hood to Batman is portrayed. He even calls his younger self "an angst-ridden mess stuck in a constant phase of delayed teenage rebellion".
• Franchise Original Sin: A rare In-Universe example with the Robin mantle. While being Robin worked out just fine for Dick Grayson, it went horribly wrong for all four of his successors. Jason Todd was brutally murdered by the Joker, Stephanie Brown was tortured and forced to fake her death by Black Mask I, and Damian Wayne was murdered by his insane, artificially-aged clone at the behest of his mother. They all came back (though in Jason's case it wasn't all that great at first), but the fact that any of that happened at all doesn't speak well of the situation.
  
  Tim Drake's tenure as Robin started out fine, but it ended with him suffering several debilitating personal losses that jaded him before being fired by Dick, causing a massive rift in their relationship that still hasn't completely healed years later. To say nothing of the countless other sidekicks for other heroes that followed Robin's lead and found themselves dead because the villainy around the world kept on evolving and increasing. By the time of Dick's second stint as Batman, even he has come to view the mantle of something of a shame and doesn't protest when Jason suggests retiring it. When Jason was forced to bring it back years later, he notched the standards considerably higher than what they originally were, specifically because of the danger associated with it.
• Future Me Scares Me:
  • Bruce is haunted by the possibility of shutting down emotionally and becoming borderline abusive to his children like his future self was. As it later turned out, Jason was downplaying how bad his future self was. Original Bruce was downright cruel to his children, to the point that when Jason finally called him out on it during his Near-Death Experience, Bruce didn't even try to defend himself.
  • Tim is horrified to learn that there are two possible futures where he becomes Batman and turns evil. His original self had the same reaction, to the point that he banned himself from ever becoming Batman.
• Generation Xerox:
  • When you look at Jason's life after he became Batman, it eerily parallels Bruce's. A line of tragedies that killed off most of his family with only one member left (Alfred for Bruce, Cass for Jason); an optimistic Robin that pulls them out of the darkness (Dick for Bruce, Carrie for Jason); and overall a life that sees them juggle being a father, a businessman, and a superhero all at once. This was lampshaded by Talia during one of her visits to Damian's grave, whereupon meeting Jason there, she claims he turned out to be just like his father.
  • Played with, but ultimately defied in the case of Jason and Terry. For years Jason feared that his tragic relationship with Bruce would repeat with him and Terry, who shared a lot of similarities with a younger Jason (not helped by the fact that they met in almost the exact same way Jason met Bruce). In the end, however, Jason wasn't Bruce, and Terry wasn't Jason. Their relationship remained strong, with Jason eventually choosing Terry as his successor.
  • Jason claims that Damian and Jon's friendship was exactly like their fathers', and expects that to remain the same in the new timeline. He's proven right when Damian and Jon meet in Chapter 13, immediately get off the wrong foot, fight, and then bond during their subsequent punishment.
  • Lady Shiva tried to invoke this in the previous timeline by killing Jason in a Duel to the Death to drive her daughter Cassandra to kill her and succeed her, just like how her own sister Carolyn was murdered by David Cain for the sake of her own potential. It fails, thanks to Jason and, ironically, Cain.
  • Dick Grayson and Helena Bertinelli, the first Nightwing and the first Huntress, had a sexual relationship with romantic undertones. Literally decades later Damian Kent and Helena Wayne (Dick's younger sister/niece), the fourth Nightwing and the second Huntress, also started a relationship. Unlike their predecessors, however, they went all the way, becoming engaged just before Jason died.
  • Stephanie Brown and Carrie Kelley, who were both grounding influences and lights of hope, but also both carry the distinction of carrying the same mantles — barring Spoiler.
• Given Name Reveal: This is how Jason reveals Helena's biological parentage to Bruce. Initially introducing her as Helena Magdalene Wayne, when Bruce fails to react, Jason amends it and reveals her full name to be Helena Kyle-Wayne.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • While Jason has recommitted to the Thou Shalt Not Kill rule, he does admit to Bruce there is one kill he doesn't regret, and, if given the chance, would commit again regardless of what his father thinks. Bruce is surprised and distressed to learn that this kill is not the Joker. The last chapters of the story later reveal it to be Ra's al Ghul, who Jason does ultimately kill again in the second-to-last chapter.
  • Jason reveals that extreme measures of imprisonment are the only way to deal with the Joker, as the fact that the third Joker was 'triggered' after the second Joker was briefly killed by Nightwing during "Last Laugh" raised too many questions about what the curse would consider a 'death'.
• Good-Times Montage: Chapter 39 is basically a montage of the happiest moments of Jason's life in the previous timeline.
• Guilt Complex: Bruce keeps on blaming himself for all the tragedy in Jason's timeline, even though he has yet to do any of those things yet in the current timeline. He even blames himself for events he was long dead for, such as the orphaning of his biological children Helena and the McGinnis brothers.
• Has a Type: Each Batman prefers a certain type of woman, which varies between each of them.
  • Bruce Wayne: Bad girls with a streak of good in them. Examples include Selina Kyle and Talia al Ghul, both of whom he had children with.
  • Dick Grayson: Redheads. Examples include Barbara Gordon and Koriand'r, both of whom, according to Jason, are the only two women that currently have any chance of settling down with Dick.
  • Jason Todd: Strong, powerful women who are tempered by kindness and compassion. Examples include Artemis of Bana-Mighdall (who he had a daughter with), Donna Troy (who was the love of his life), and Death of the Endless (who Jason actively had to prevent himself from falling in love with).
• Hated by All:
  • The Joker. Even the most corrupt courts in Gotham don't take association with the Joker lightly.
  • Ra's al Ghul in the previous timeline. His own daughter not only disowned him, but swore off more children just to end his bloodline.
• Heir Club for Men:
  • Subverted. Jason was perfectly fine with either of his daughters succeeding him as Batman, and notes to himself that one of the reasons why he ended up as Batman is because Cass didn't want it either. Neither Carrie nor Helena wanted it, so it went to Terry instead. That being said, he does recognize that it would be hard for a woman to be Batman if only because they don't have the body for it which would diminish the overall innate theatricality of the role. That still didn't stop him from naming Cass as his primary successor in his will in case anything went wrong.
  • Played straight with the League of Assassins. Jason plainly tells Damian the reason he's Ra's' heir is because he's Ra's' only male descendant other Dusan al Ghul, who is both disgraced and crippled. And even then, "heir" is really a euphemism for "back-up body", as seen in the previous timeline when Ra's' own body finally gave out on him.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Jason enters a minor one once he realizes that he's traveled back to the past. He manages to push it back in order to devise a plan to get Damian and Cass, but that only causes him to have a straight up meltdown when he finally gets to the Manor and explains everything to Bruce and co.
  • Right after hearing Jason's whole story, Bruce is so traumatized he outright says his children would have been better off if they had never met him.
• Heroic Lineage:
  • Helena, Terry, and Matty are the biological children of Bruce Wayne, the first Batman. Helena is also the daughter of Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman.
  • Jason himself sires a daughter with Artemis of Bana-Mighdall named Penelope who, according to Word of God, has her own great destiny to fulfill. The sequel the superhero game has Donna speculate that she'll be the third Wonder Woman, and the spinoff those good old days confirms it.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Deconstructed. Jason points out that while making one is a noble and selfless thing to do, it also leaves your loved ones alone with barely any time to have closure with you. This is one of the reasons why Jason never sought one out after he found out about his cancer diagnosis; he wanted to use the time he had to make peace with all his loved ones.
  • When you look at it closely, it's obvious Jason is speaking from experience. All three of his brothers died via this method: Dick during one of Brainiac's invasions, Tim while trying to rescue a friend from Lex Luthor (it ended with Luthor dying too, at least), and Damian while trying to save Bludhaven from Mara al Ghul. Jason was only present for Damian's death, and only long enough to comfort him during his last moments.
  • Clark Kent died sealing Darkseid away in the Source Wall. His successor Conner similarly died (again) saving the multiverse. Considering how close Jason was to both of them, that too no doubt played a factor in his opinion about this trope.
• Hero of Another Story: Dick's tenure as Batman is treated like this, culminating in Dick being the main POV character for the second flashback arc (as those events focus on Tim and him and took place when Dick was Batman).
• Hero-Worshipper: Young Tim still has this regarding his immediate predecessor as Robin. As Jason is much nicer to Tim than he was when they originally first met, it sticks... until Jason reveals his training for Tim involves a diet plan.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners:
  • Jason with Roy Harper, then with Conner Kent. He explicitly stated that losing Conner felt like losing another brother to him; which, considering how many siblings Jason had already lost before Conner's death, shows how much he valued their friendship.
  • Also with his older brother Dick Grayson. He served as The Confidant to Dick and was even entrusted with the ring Dick was going to propose to Kori with, showing how close the two had gotten before Dick's untimely death.
  • Damian Wayne and Jon Kent. So much so that after his father died, Jon refused to become Superman because he and Damian had made a promise to take up their fathers' respective mantles together. He only relented after the death of the second Superman (the aforementioned Conner), knowing there was no one else suitable to succeed him.
  • Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain. Cass was the godmother to Stephanie's children in the previous timeline. In the current timeline, Jason deliberately engineers a meeting between them knowing they'll hit it off and become friends again.
• His Story Repeats Itself:
  • Jason met Terry and Matty in almost the exact same way Bruce met him all those years ago: as Batman, in Park Row, with his future children trying to steal parts of the Batmobile. Just like him, Terry became Robin, and became increasingly violent, leading to a confrontation with the Joker where he almost died. Unlike him, Jason's love for Terry managed to reach him, and not only did Terry not follow the dark path Jason did, but also proved himself to be the true successor to Jason as Batman.
  • David Cain killed Carolyn Wu-San to "free" her sister Sandra, the woman that would become Lady Shiva. Decades later, he kills Shiva to "free" their daughter Cassandra from their legacy, finally allowing her to live her own life.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen:
  • In the first flashback arc, David Cain. Formerly a master assassin, The Dragon to Ra's al Ghul and the man who created Lady Shiva, in the present he's a Jaded Washout well past his prime who regularly gets his ass kicked at the local fight club for money. Cass, who still loves him despite everything, is saddened by his current state, while Jason, who is far less sympathetic, finds it so pathetic he almost pities him.
  • The First Families of Gotham were once the five richest and most powerful families in Gotham, who helped the city recover from the American Revolution. Fast forward three hundred years later and only the Waynes are still thriving. The Crownes have died out, the Kanes are on the verge of dying out due to only having two female heirs, and the Elliots have only one male heir who has shown no interest in continuing the family line. Worst off is the Cobblepots, who lost almost all of their fortune by Bruce's time and have diminished to one male heir like the Elliots. That one male heir then rebuilt the family fortune with his connections as a crime boss and a supervillain, permanently shaming the Cobblepot name and ensuring that history would only ever remember them as a family of crooks. In Jason's timeline, all of the families (sans, of course, the Waynes) went extinct by the next generation.

I to O

• I Hate Past Me: It becomes blatantly obvious early on that Jason does not like his past self. At all. So much so that when he's forced to take on a new vigilante identity, he refuses to even consider becoming Red Hood again, even though Red Hood eventually became a superhero identity in the original timeline.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
  • Jason with his Second Love, who is heavily implied and eventually confirmed to be Donna Troy. This is because Donna's First Love, Roy Harper, who was Jason's best friend in the previous timeline, is alive.
  • Ironically, the original Roy retroactively gave his blessing for their relationship when they meet again during Jason's Near-Death Experience.
  • Platonic variant with David Cain, who kills Lady Shiva and sacrifices himself to finally free their daughter Cassandra from their legacy.
• I've Got an X, and I'm Not Afraid to Use It!: In a flashback to his second daughter's prom night, Jason uses this threat on Helena's boyfriend, the Kryptonian clone Damien Kent (AKA Dam-El, the third Superboy, fourth Nightwing at the time of the flashback, and eventually fourth Superman), to ensure he doesn't try anything with Helena while keeping her happy.
  Jason: "And a quick reminder: I have a vault full of Kryptonite downstairs, and I'm not afraid to use it."
• Immortal Breaker: The Balance, a sword forged by Death of the Endless to kill immortals and make sure they stay dead. Anyone who's is killed by it has their soul marked by Death, ensuring that they can never come back to life.
• In Another Man's Shoes: Jason is a lot more sympathetic to Bruce after spending so long as Batman himself.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Terry McGinnis still becomes Batman.
  • Damian still feels aversion at first sight for Tim. On the other hand, it's less "You're a threat to my inheritance, now die by my hand!" and more "You're such an idiot, I feel ashamed to be related to you".
  • Jack Drake is still murdered by a supervillain, though instead of Captain Boomerang, it was done by the Joker.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Jason's reaction when he's finally reunited with Nightwing. Dick is completely understanding due to the circumstances.
• Last of Their Kind:
  • As far as the world knows, Helena Wayne was the last Wayne heir by blood after the death of her much older biological brother Damian (who Helena, regrettably, never had the chance to meet). In truth, her two surrogate younger brothers Terry and Matty are also Waynes by blood, though are publicly known as Jason's adoptive children alongside Carrie Kelley.
  • Jason's death in the previous timeline made his sister Cassandra the last surviving member of the First Generation Wayne Family.
  • On a wider scale the Wayne Family was the last surviving member of Gotham's First Families in Jason's timeline. The Crownes died out generations ago, the Kanes officially died out after the deaths of Jacob Kane and Kate Kane and the marriage of Bette Kane, the Elliots died out after Thomas Elliot was interred and later murdered at Arkham Asylum, and the Cobblepots died out after Oswald Cobblepot was murdered by Ricky Sionis, aka Black Mask II.
  • By the time he was murdered by Black Mask II, Oswald Cobblepot was one of, if not the last of the original Batman's Rogues Gallery, as most of them had been slaughtered by Joker IV in the Arkham Massacre almost a decade prior. The other survivors, Selina Kyle and Pamela Isley, had given up their villainous ways years ago; even so, Selina had also been killed by Black Mask II for refusing to work for him.
  • After the League Civil War, Talia al Ghul was the last surviving member of the al Ghul dynasty. By that point, she had become so jaded with her father's legacy that she decided that the bloodline would die with her.
• Legacy Character: Many. Thanks to the dangerous nature of the superhero profession, many of the heroes of Bruce's generation were eventually killed in the line of duty or retired and succeeded by their various sidekicks/proteges during Jason's heyday. By the time Jason died, the same applied to his generation as well, with two of his own children having long since become independent heroes in their own right.
  • Jason Todd, of course, is the third Batman after his adoptive father Bruce Wayne and older brother Dick Grayson. In turn, he's succeeded by his younger brother/adoptive son Terry McGinnis.
  • The Robin legacy continued with Carrie Kelley, Helena Wayne, and then Terry McGinnis. Matthew McGinnis was set to become Jason's fourth Robin until the diagnosis came in, forcing him to become his older brother Terry's first Robin instead.
  • Stephanie Brown succeeded the deceased Kate Kane as the second Batwoman. After she retired, the mantle passed to Carrie Kelley. The spinoff reveals that Carrie later retired and passed the mantle to Helena Wayne.
  • Helena, like her Earth-2 counterpart, became Huntress, succeeding Helena Bertinelli.
  • Damian Wayne succeeded Dick as the second Nightwing. After his death, he was succeeded by his best friend Jon Kent, while the protection of Bludhaven was taken over by his sister Cassandra Cain. Jon himself was eventually succeeded by Damian's namesake Damian Kent as Nightwing after he was forced to take up the Superman mantle.
  • Conner Kent became the second Superman after Clark Kent died sealing Darkseid into the Source Wall. After his death, he was succeeded by Jon as the third Superman.
  • Lian Harper became the third Speedy and eventually succeeded her father as the second Arsenal. She later succeeded Connor Hawke as the third Green Arrow.
  • Diana was forced to retire as Wonder Woman after the death of Hippolyta. She is confirmed to have a successor, though who it is hasn't been stated yet. It is, however, strongly implied to be Donna Troy. The sequel confirms this.
  • In a villainous example, Ricky Sionis, the son of the deceased Roman Sionis, succeeded his father as Black Mask II.
  • By the time Jason died, there had been six Jokers. First Jeremiah Valeska, then Jack Napier, followed by Arthur Fleck, Robert Song, Felicia Bell, and Jake Chill.
  • Bart Allen permanently succeeded Wally West as the Flash after the death of both the latter and of Barry Allen. Wallace West (aka New 52 Wally) is confirmed to be his successor, though no mention is made of what happened to Bart. The sequel reveals that he sacrificed himself sealing Inertia, who'd himself become a Legacy Character by taking the mantle of Zoom, into the Speed Force.
  • Garth became Aquaman after the death of Arthur Curry. It's strongly implied he was succeeded by Kaldur'ahm. The sequel confirmed this.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Deconstructed. Dick finds this highly unnecessary and doesn't understand why heroes keep on doing this despite all having the same goal of protecting people, and concludes that heroes do this because this is what heroes have always done when first working together.
• Life Will Kill You:
  • Lampshaded in the first chapter. Jason didn't die from "one of the hundred gazillion ways the various rogues of Gotham regularly tortured the city's populace nor some reality-breaking catastrophe that seemed to affect the universe every couple of years", but from lung cancer, as a result of his old smoking habit which he kicked decades ago. Oddly enough, he actually seemed to be okay with that, which may have to do with how most of the members of his family died.
  • Unlike the rest of Jason's lost loved ones, Alfred died of old age. Jason even admits that Cass and him knew it was coming for a while, which did not help Jason's faltering emotional state after Damian's death. In fact, one of the reasons why Jason was so intent on bring Cass home as soon as possible in the first flashback arc is because he knew Alfred didn't have much time left.
  • Carrie Kelley's parents died in a random car crash. The author even goes on to say that the car crash was completely unrelated to any super-crime; it was just a plain old car accident, the same kind that happens everyday.
  • This is why the First Families have few heirs — wars, disease, murder, and plain old accidents killed off members one by one, reducing each family to their fragile state in the present.
  • Joker V, Felicia Bell, died from breast cancer. This was actually partially invoked, because she was locked up in Arkham tighter than a drum and watched 24/7 to make sure that she wouldn't escape and wouldn't die violently like her predecessors. It actually worked to Gotham's advantage, because once word got out she was dying they were able to put themselves on lockdown sooner and prepare for the next Joker's appearance.
• Living Emotional Crutch: The rest of the Bat-Family was this to Jason after Damian died, especially Cass, who was technically his only remaining sibling at the time.
• Loving a Shadow:
  • Selina left Bruce at the altar because she was scared he would give up being Batman for her. As their Dating Catwoman dynamic was the core of their relationship, they had no idea where they actually stood as Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle, and ultimately too scared to find out.
  • This was the cause of Dick and Barbara's first break up. They kept on falling back into who the other was when they were kids instead of focusing on the person their partner was in the present. Even after they worked past that, all their attempts to get back together just kept on giving them more grief. Eventually, they realized they were happier as best friends than they were as lovers and broke up for good.
    Jason: Nightwing was in love with Batgirl. And Oracle was in love with Robin. And once one of you realized that, it was over.
• Luke, You Are My Father: In Chapter Nine, Jason reveals his three middle children are biologically Bruce's. Bruce is understandably horrified to learn that he left behind three more children that his oldest surviving son and daughter had to raise as their own.
• Make Way for the New Villains: Ricky Sionis purposely invoked this to make a statement by murdering Oswald Cobblepot, one of the last surviving members of the original Batman's Rogues Gallery. It's implied that this was also the reason why he killed Selina Kyle after she refused to work for him.
• Marriage of Convenience: Jack and Janet Drake. Janet wanted a husband with a respectable profession and Jack needed money to fund his archaeological digs. Tim believes that they were genuinely fond of each other at first, though.
• The Matchmaker: Defied. Jason refuses to use his future knowledge to set up members of his family. He'll tell them how their relationships with possible love interests went in the previous timeline and give advice if they want it, but that's as far as his involvement goes.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Jason's tentative vigilante identity and new suit is extremely reminiscent of Batman: Arkham Knight.
  • The incident that led to Ra's al Ghul's permanent death in the previous timeline in the backstory is a Whole-Plot Reference to the Batman Beyond episode "Out of the Past".
  • There are numerous references to Gotham, such as the Galavans, one of the major families who are considered by some to be the new fifth member of the First Families and count Silver St. Cloud among their descendants. In Gotham the Galavans (under their previous family name of Dumas) replaced the Cobblepots (who were never an Old Money family in that continuity) as one of the First Families, with Silver, Theo Galavan's niece, sent to befriend Bruce as a Puppy Love Honey Trap.
  • The first three Jokers were Jeremiah Valeska, Jack Napier, and Arthur Fleck.
• My Greatest Failure:
  • Damian's death is implied to be this for Jason. Jason was only present in the aftermath of Bruce's and wholly un-involved in the respective incidents that caused the deaths of Dick and Tim due to being busy with other pressing situations when they happened. Cass and him, however, were there when Damian made his Heroic Sacrifice, ending in him dying in their arms. Jason privately admits that out of all his siblings, Damian's death was always the one he regretted the most.
  • The death of Joker III. Jason considers killing the third Joker to be the biggest mistake of his life, because it led to the rise of Joker IV, who ultimately killed Bruce. He fully admits that there isn't a day that goes by where he doesn't think about what life would've been like had he never pulled that trigger. It was this event that caused Jason to become more family-oriented and, most noticeably, give up killing.
  • Dick's first great failure during his tenure as Batman were the deaths of Kate Kane and Renee Montoya during the Bat-Family's war with the Court of Owls. It's all but stated that their deaths are what drove Dick to be so obsessed with removing the Court from Gotham.
  • Dick's other, more noticeable failure is the deterioration of his relationship with his brother Tim. In one timeline, this led to Tim making a Face–Heel Turn and traveling back in time to both brainwash the world and personally murder Dick.
  • When Death of the Endless first forged the Balance, the first wielder she chose was a warrior of great renown who she instructed to kill all immortals. He did exactly that — and then started murdering innocents to keep seeing her, as he had fallen in love with her. A horrified Death promptly marked his soul when he died so he would be Deader than Dead and chose the next wielder much more carefully.
• No Animosity in the Afterlife:
  • Heavily implied in Jason's Near-Death Experience. None of the people he meet are mad at him for the choices he made in life and completely understanding of his reasons, allowing him to reconcile with all of them.
  • One of the last things Jason sees before he comes back to life is Bruce and Selina lacing their hands together, suggesting that despite their rocky relationship in life, the two were finally able to reconcile and get back together when they reunited in the afterlife.
• Nouveau Riche: Most minor families in Gotham, particularly the Drakes. They're not very respected by the older families.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Apparently there was an incident at an alien space bar that Kyle Rayner brought Jason to a year after the events of the first flashback arc. Whatever happened, it caused Jason to swear off bars for good.
  • The incident that led to Jason killing Joker III. It's not explained what exactly Joker was planning, only that it would have ended in the deaths of thousands of people plus Tim, Cass, and Damian. Joker also killed Harley Quinn and Deadshot — and almost Poison Ivy as well — during this incident. That led to Ivy's Heel–Face Turn in her grief over Harley's death.
  • The Arkham Massacre, which saw Joker IV slaughter almost all of Bruce's original Rogues Gallery. It's not explained how he did this, though the why is implied to be because he was jealous of sharing Batman with his other rogues.
  • In the previous timeline, there was an incident that forced the League to send Hal Jordan to babysit the next Titans mission. That led to another incident that apparently caused Jordan to develop some sort of phobia against hot dogs.
  • Damian's first Christmas in the original timeline. Whatever happened, it caused Jason to preemptively ban Cass and Tim from ever taking Damian to the zoo.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Part of what makes the Joker Curse so terrifying is that there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it — as soon as a Joker dies, the next one just awakens on the spot, with no apparent cause or way to predict it. Notably, with Joker IV (Robert Song), Jason managed to trace his pre-Joker life hour-by-hour for an entire month, and there's still nothing that indicates why he snapped. As far as everyone can tell, one second he was fine, and the next he was throwing himself into the chemical vat for literally no reason.
• Nothing Personal: Deathstroke, as a Consummate Professional, holds no real grudge against Jason and doesn't take his rivalry with Dick as seriously as Dick does. Notably, with Jason, the feeling is mutual — while Jason doesn't particuarly like Slade, he doesn't hate him nearly enough to get into a serious fight with him (especially when he's in a weaker body) and tried to buy him off when the man was sent after him. Unfortunately, it turned out Slade wasn't the one who took the contract; Rose was.
• The One That Got Away:
  • Donna Troy is strongly implied to be this for Jason. Whatever their relationship was, Jason refuses to divulge on it any further, even to Dick.
  • Stephanie Brown deeply regrets the fact that she and Tim Drake never tried to repair their romantic relationship after its epic blowout, especially after Tim died. She did eventually move on however, marrying and having children with someone else.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted.
  • An extreme example would have to be Helena Wayne and Helena Bertinelli, who not only share a first name but also a mantle, with the latter being the former's mentor. There's also Helena Sandsmark, but she's hardly a character in the story.
  • A similar case is present with Damian Wayne and Damian "Dam" Kent, who both became Nightwing. Though, the situation isn't nearly as bad since Damian was dead by the time Dam entered the picture.
  • Cassandra "Cass" Cain and Cassandra "Cassie" Sandsmark, who are differentiated by their nicknames.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: Death of the Endless chooses the wielder of the Balance personally. Typically, she chooses protectors — those who tried to sacrifice their lives to save others.
• Only Sane Man:
  • Dick, in the original timeline. Deconstructed, as it meant Bruce relied on Dick to keep everything running smoothly whenever Bruce managed to piss off one of his other kids (which was often), and then forced Dick to take over as family head when he died for real. This put a lot of undue stress on his son, which is heavily implied to have contributed to his death. The original Bruce even admits to Jason that one of his greatest crimes against his children was forcing most of his responsibilities as a father on Dick.
  • Jason in the current timeline. While Jason's current situation does cause him a lot of angst, ultimately he's now the most well-adjusted member of the family (excluding Alfred, of course). And unlike Dick, he has no issues being the big brother and caring for his siblings because he's already raised four kids, who more-or-less turned out alright.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Dick notes that Alfred yelling at everyone for trying to discuss options after Jason reveals the Bad Future he comes from is the first time he ever saw the butler get genuinely angry. Unsurprisingly, everyone in the room, including Superman and Wonder Woman are left hanging their heads when he's finished.

P to S

• Parents as People:
  • Jason warns Damian of this for when he finally meets Bruce. Later commentary on Original Bruce's parenting made it clear that while he loved his children, he was not a good parent. His emotional constipation, and more importantly, his refusal to grow past it led to him neglecting and even abusing his children on both the emotional and physical level. It's implied that his children eventually grew sick of it and cut him out of their lives until he finally got his act together. When Jason confronts him over this during his Near-Death Experience, Bruce has enough self-awareness to fully admit that he was a terrible father and apologize to his son for everything he put him through.
    Jason: Expect greatness when you meet him, but never perfection. He might be a great man, but he is still just that — a man.
  • He also tells Damian the same thing about Talia. According to Jason, while Damian shouldn't disregard everything Talia has taught him, he should take into account that his mother was trying to reconcile her love for Ra's and her love for Bruce (two figures with diametrically opposing ideologies) when teaching him. Indeed, while Talia did her best with Damian considering the circumstances, in the end she is even more damaged than he is and ultimately can't be the mother he needs right now. That is why she elects to leave at the end of the story; without Ra's, she has no idea who she is anymore, and that is something she needs to figure out on her own.
  • David Cain is a nuanced case. While there is no question he was horrifically abusive to Cass, he also provided her more emotional support than any of her siblings' biological and even adoptive parents ever did. He did genuinely love her, but he was also Vicariously Ambitious, and thus projected his desire to have the perfect assassin as a partner through her, convincing himself that having her 'fulfill' her destiny is what was best for her. In the end, however, his love for her won out, and he gave his life to save hers and finally allow her the chance to live her own life.
  • Crystal Brown loves her daughter, but she's also a Triple Shifter and a recovering drug addict, so she doesn't have a lot of time for Stephanie. This is one the reasons why Stephanie bonds so easily with the Waynes.
  • Even Jason himself fell into this. While by all accounts he was a model father and adored by his children, the trauma over losing so much of his family made his overprotective instinct go in overdrive. Flashbacks show that his daughter Helena that was deeply annoyed by this to the point of causing at least one argument, and it nearly caused him to alienate both his sister Cass and his son Terry.
• Peggy Sue: In this case, it's Jason Todd.
• Practically Different Generations: One of the reasons Jason ended up raising Helena, Terry, and Matty as his children instead of as his siblings is because he was literally old enough to be their father, whatever their legal relationship was. This also would've applied to their oldest brother Damian Wayne, had he managed to live long enough to meet any of them — the smallest age gap is between him and Helena, who is fifteen years younger than him. Matty, his youngest brother, is thirty-one years younger than him.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: The story takes inspiration from various adaptations of DC, mostly due to the writer's limited knowledge of the comics, though the comics are the main base. Primarily, it seems the story takes place in the Pre-Flashpoint continuity with flavorings of the New 52. There's an implication that Flashpoint did happen, but that most of the effects were reversed. This was later confirmed in the second flashback arc, where it's revealed that the Pre-Flashpoint timeline was more-or-less restored but with some New 52 elements (such as Wallace West, who would succeed Bart Allen as the Flash).
• Precocious Crush:
  • It's implied Damian has one on Stephanie. Confirmed in the last chapter, after Tim and Stephanie get together.
  • In turn, it's implied Lian has one on Damian. Much to Roy's horror.
• Promotion to Parent: Carrie and Penelope are the only ones of Jason's children that are genuinely his (albeit, Carrie is adopted). Helena, Terry, and Matty are technically his siblings who he raised as his children since they're biologically Bruce's, though only Helena is legally and publicly known as Bruce's daughter; Terry and Matty are legally Jason's adopted children because it would be hard to explain how Bruce sired two sons years after his death. Despite that, Helena clearly sees him as a father instead of a brother and is disgusted when Jason points out their legal relationship.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Mara al Ghul had the chance to control half the League of Assassins after her aunt Talia expressed the desire to end the bloodshed and made overtures for peace. However, she wanted the entire League and tried to take her cousin Damian hostage in order to force Talia to surrender by threatening to destroy Bludhaven. Even after Damian handed himself over, she tried to destroy Bludhaven anyway over the petty childhood grudge she still had against him. End result? She manages to kill Damian, but Bludhaven is not destroyed and an enraged Talia ends up killing her to avenge her son's death.

• Replacement Scrappy: Defied In-Universe example. This was one of the explicit reasons why Jason never hired a replacement for Alfred. Alfred was family, and Jason couldn't bear to let anyone take his place.
• Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Brutally deconstructed. As Jason repeatedly drills into Tim's head, awesome training is functionally useless if you can't take care of yourself.
• The Scrappy:
  • In-Universe example: the whole Bat-Family hates the Brucie Wayne persona.
  • Subverted with the Richie Wayne persona. That one is easier to swallow because it's basically Dick being ditzier than usual. This is only reinforced when Stephanie, upon seeing the act in practice, admits she doesn't see much of a difference.
• Second Love:
  • Jason and Donna Troy were this for each other. Maybe. It's implied, but not outright stated yet. Until Chapter 39.
  • Dick and Kori were a New Old Flame version of this. Technically Dick had a serious relationship with Kori before he got together with Barbara. Then after he and Barbara broke up, Kori and him reconnected romantically and restarted their relationship.
• Ship Tease:
  • Jason outright tells Dick that the only two women he stands a chance at having a working, healthy relationship with currently are Barbara Gordon and Koriand'r.
  • It's all but stated that Jason's Second Love was Donna Troy. Jason is shown to be extremely fond of her current self, including serving as The Confidant to her (notably, the only other people he's done that for are those he considers family, and Conner Kent, who was his best friend), and when Dick tried to probe him on their relationship, he outright refused to speak of it. Later on, when Jason has another episode of Pit Madness, Dick notes he mentions Donna's name at one point, suggesting a happy memory of her is strong enough to ward the Pit off. It's finally confirmed they were a couple in the previous timeline in Chapter 39, which sees them kissing right before facing off against a horde of monsters.
  • Tim Drake and Stephanie Brown. In the previous timeline Tim was The One That Got Away for Stephanie (though she eventually moved on), and in the current one they're shown to be fast friends and close. At one point Tim even says that he loves Stephanie, though it's later clarified to be because she managed to get some indirect revenge on Jason for him. Winds up being confirmed as legitimate attraction when Steph kisses Tim and he falls into it, just before Steph is sealed in the Bat-Cave to protect her from attacking ninjas.
  • Played for Laughs in the case of seven year old Damian Wayne and four year old Lian Harper, who Donna jokingly suggests might date in the future, much to the horror of Lian's father Roy.
  • Surprisingly, Jason and Death of the Endless. Jason admits that he had to actively stop himself from falling in love with her over the years because he knew a relationship would never work out. He ultimately does admit to loving Death upon his Near-Death Experience, and Death admits to loving him back.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • While Jason refuses to play matchmaker, he does subtly imply to Dick that he would prefer his older brother end up with either Barbara Gordon or Koriand'r. He also specifically singles out Helena Bertinelli as another possible love interest, though he also admits that a relationship wouldn't be viable until Helena calms down on the whole killing thing.
  • Humorously inverted with Damian Wayne, who tells Stephanie Brown that she can do much better than his brother Tim Drake. It's implied that this is because Damian himself has a Precocious Crush on Stephanie.
• Shipper with an Agenda:
  • The Galavans supported their niece Silver St. Cloud's romance with Bruce Wayne because it would finally give them the opportunity to stand at the top of Gotham's high society and take control of the Wayne fortune through a Galavan-blooded Wayne heir. When Silver broke up with Bruce for undisclosed reasons (she found out Bruce was Batman and couldn't handle it), they nearly disinherited her.
  • Most of Gotham high society assumes that Bruce will arrange his new adoptive daughter Cassandra to marry his former ward Tim Drake to make the boy he thinks of as a son officially family by making him his son-in-law. In reality, Bruce has no such intentions and both Cass and Tim are disgusted by the idea.
• Sidekick Graduations Stick: Yes. Because this is based on the Pre-Flashpoint continuity, there were a boatload of sidekicks who graduated to either their own mantles or their mentors' mantles or even both in the previous timeline, with Jason just being one of many. Just look at Legacy Character above to see how many that are mentioned thus far.
• Social Climber:
  • A great number of these are present in Gotham's high society. This includes those who are already close to the top, such as the major families, many of whom have been scheming to usurp the First Families for several generations.
  • Tragically, the Drakes. Janet Drake was desperate to rise up in Gotham's high society but was demeaned because she made her fortune in retail, and didn't have someone to help her understand the ins and outs of the upper class. This passed on to her son Tim, who was also made an outcast for the same reason.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil:
  • Every Joker is worse than the last one. Joker IV slaughtered most of Bruce's original Rogues Gallery and eventually killed Bruce himself. Joker V's first scheme was to recreate and amplify the earthquake that caused Batman: No Man's Land and eventually created an entirely new Rogues Gallery for Jason to fight by forcibly activating the metagenes in hundreds of people and unleashing them onto Gotham. Joker VI, the last Joker before Jason died, nearly murdered Terry, released the aforementioned Rogues Gallery and forced Jason to face them head on gauntlet-style, and then tried to launch Gotham into space, within his first month of being the Joker.
  • Also applies to the story proper. The first villains the story starts off with are a bunch of incompetent hotel hijackers. Then it goes into the relatively impersonal but still vastly more competent Deathstroke and Ravager. When it moves on to Lady Shiva is when the story truly starts becoming Darker and Edgier, both due to her general threat level and the personal investment and conflict she has with the family, particularly Cass. Then it hits the Joker, the family's walking Trauma Button, and Future Tim, who is the personification of the family's worst fears. It finally ends with Ra's al Ghul, who causes the most damage by far — he manages to kidnap Jason, Tim, and Damian from their own home, traumatize Stephanie with said kidnapping, torture Talia, and even (temporarily) kill Jason.
• Spanner in the Works: Damian Wayne is this to most of the schemers and social climbers in Gotham. As Bruce now has a blood heir plus several adoptive spares he no longer has any reason to settle down, while Damian himself is too young to even consider romance yet and wholly loyal to his adoptive siblings, who are all perfectly aware of what kind of snakes the rest of Gotham's upper class are. That leaves the Wayne fortune and name outside of everyone's reach for at least another generation.
• Spoiled Brat: Damian. Jason is exasperated by his behavior but experiences with his own children means he's mostly adept at handling him.
• Spotting the Thread:
  • Tim immediately pegs something is weird with Jason's reaction to him — that was too affectionate for a kid he's actually never met.
  • Bruce managed to figure out pretty easily that Jason was a time traveler. He just expected him to be one from the not-too-distant future, not thirty years from the future.
• So Proud of You:
  • Jason wonders if his family would be proud of him and his time as Batman. Cass, his sole living sibling, tells him that she knows they are — because she is proud of him.
  • He also reiterated as much to his own children while on his deathbed, outright telling Helena she doesn't have to make him proud because she already has.
  • One of Jason's bitterest memories is a dying Damian wondering if their late father and brothers would be proud of him for trying to be a hero in spite of his fucked up morals. Jason and Cass comforted him and told him they were proud of him, so their father and brothers would have been proud as well.
• Stepford Smiler: Zigzagged. Jason is genuinely happy to see his siblings again but he's also holding back a breakdown over the situation because it's the farthest from the ideal reunion he envisioned.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Helena, Terry, and Matty share a strong resemblance to their biological father Bruce and to their biological half-brother Damian. It's thanks to this resemblance that Jason was able to quickly realize who they were.
• Succession Crisis:
  • Discussed. After Bruce's first "death" proved that Gotham wasn't ready to move forward without a Batman, a succession protocol was devised, to be implemented in case the current Batman died and didn't name a successor in their will. It's implied that this was to avoid another Battle for the Cowl. One of the reasons why Jason's succession was never contested outside the Family despite his shaky reputation at the time is because he was both Dick's successor according to the protocol and according to Dick's will; only Tim had the clout to challenge him, and he wanted to be Batman even less than Jason did.
  • This is implied to be why Jason was forced to bring back the Robin mantle (which had been retired years prior after Damian graduated to the Nightwing mantle). After Tim and Damian died, Jason's only remaining successor in case of an untimely death was Cass. Cass is capable, but it's hard to be Batman when you're visibly female, and with a slim body to boot; not that it stopped Jason from making Cass his primary successor as Batman in his will for most of his career. Jason tried to resolve this by making Gotham so clean that it didn't need Batman anymore, only to fail because of Joker V. That's when he started taking the idea of having a successor seriously.
• Supreme Chef: Before Dick became Batman, Jason opened a diner in Crime Alley that was reasonably successful. He continued developing his cooking skills, especially after Alfred died, and is arguably the best cook in the family now. Even part of the inheritance he left behind for Carrie (who took over the diner from him years prior) are recipes he developed over the course of his life.

T to Z

• That One Case: The Joker Curse, for Jason. Never solving it was one of his greatest regrets, and when he's sent back to the past, he starts pursuing it again due to the time period possibly having evidence and leads that were destroyed in the future.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Or 'The Rule' as it's called. All of the Wayne family, Jason included, committed or recommitted to this rule in the previous timeline. Jason himself for the most part follows it (even though he believes that it's not completely effective), but he does admit he's willing to make one exception, though he doesn't elaborate on who that exception is. Until chapter 42, when it's revealed to be Ra's al Ghul. It's also revealed that immortals like Ra's are an offense against Death, and Jason is the latest wielder of a weapon she made specifically to be used against them; when used, it signals Death so she can personally come and mark the immortal's soul, ensuring they'll stay dead for real.
• The Time Traveller's Dilemma: As he starts meddling with the timeline, Jason painfully reflects it might end up with three of his beloved children — Helena, Terry and Matt — retconned out of existence. The sequel ultimately reveals that they still exist in the alternate universe he came from.
• Together in Death:
  • Jason outright states in the first chapter that he's not going to fight his cancer because he wants to see his deceased family again. Let's just say he got what he wanted, just not in the way he expected.
  • Bruce and Selina, and the rest of Jason's family. Right before Jason comes back to life again, Bruce promises him that they will all be together again one day — but not until Jason has finally lived his own life.
• Torment by Annoyance:
  • Carrie became Robin this way. She just kept going outside as Robin and fighting crime until Jason finally gave in. Admittedly, Jason only gave in after she saved his life.
  • Helena forced Jason to make her Robin by hacking the Bat-Computer to play the Lego Batman song ad nauseam.
  • Terry did the same by dismantling every model of the Batmobile in the Cave, right before Jason was about to go on patrol.
  • Averted with Matty. After he managed to take out a group of thugs that had invaded the Manor when he was seven, Jason didn't even bother and agreed to train him to be Robin when he was older.
• Took a Level in Badass: Jason became Batman. It's kind of a given.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Dick and Tim respectively have cereal and coffee. Alas for them, Jason intends to put them on a diet plan, and he's not afraid of unleashing Alfred on their sorry butts.
• Tragic Hero: Damian Wayne. Wanted to be a hero, to be Batman, to redeem himself for his childhood as an assassin (which was in no way his fault), and nearly succeeded, only for the crimes he committed during that childhood to come back and strike him down.
• Tragic Keepsake: Before he died, Dick was planning to propose again to Kori, and left the ring in Jason's possession for safekeeping. After his death, Jason gave it to Kori because "[i]t was never supposed to be [his]."
• Training from Hell: Zigzagged. Jason deliberately overloaded his Robins during their initial training to force them to learn self-care and time management. That being said, he never set an actual time limit to their training, so they could've theoretically taken several years to complete said training and still become Robin, making said training easier to swallow. All of them finished under a year regardless because they were that determined to go out on the field as soon as possible.
• Trauma Button:
  • Heavily implied with Clark and Diana's successors, who were the fellow members of Jason's generation of the Trinity. For whatever reason, Jason refuses to so much as think of their names, let alone speak of them. Clark's successor is later revealed to have been Conner, who was Jason's best friend and who died eight years before Jason did. There is no word on who Diana's successor is yet, but considering Jason's interactions with Donna Troy... The sequel confirms this to be the case.
  • The Joker, to the entire Wayne family. Other than revealing that he killed Bruce in the first timeline, Jason deliberately refrains from mentioning him at all. Considering what the Joker did to him and to Barbara, it's not hard to see why. It's heavily implied, however, that Jason doesn't like to talk about him for other reasons.
• Troll: Chapter Five sees Jason troll Bruce, Dick and Tim, mainly through all the things he told Damian and Cass during their time with the All-Caste (such as Tim being their brother, even though Bruce has yet to admit to himself that he sees Tim as a son). While it's mostly Played for Laughs, it's also a defense mechanism for Jason to deal with the stress of the upcoming reveal.
• Trust Password: Jason proves who he is by activating a protocol in the Bat-Computer designed specifically to deal with time travelers — specifically, time-traveling Batmen. He further strengthened his case by confirming it via Diana's Lasso of Truth.
• Ultimate Final Exam:
  • Jason refused to let any of his Robins out on the streets unless they passed a comprehensive exam (dubbed the 'Trainee Graduation Exam') that covers all of their training. Said exam is a series of tests that they can take at their own pace, and once they pass them all they're declared field-ready and officially become Robin.
  • He also designed two more exams the serve similar functions: the Robin Graduation Exam, for when his Robins are ready to leave the nest and become solo crime-fighters in their own right, and the Batman Succession Exam, which is only administered to a prospective successor for the Batman mantle. The last exam was actually the first one designed, used to test Damian to see if he was ready to succeed Jason. Damian died before he could complete it, and the exam was later updated and administered to Terry decades later, who passed it and became Jason's official successor. The other two exams are just watered-down versions of the original.
• Unexpected Successor:
  • It's outright stated in the summary that Jason was never supposed to be Batman. According to Word of God and the story itself, he only got the job after Dick's death due to Tim outright refusing the mantle for his own reasons. Even then, it was supposed to be temporary — Damian wanted it, but he was too young and inexperienced at the time to take it up properly. Then they both ended up dying a mere two years later, making Jason Batman permanently.
  • Subverted when it turns out that Dick actually did name Jason his successor. Jason himself however believes that if Dick had been thinking about Gotham instead of family, he would've named Tim his successor instead. In spite of that, Jason respects Dick for choosing him, because he was effectively choosing family over Gotham by doing so.
• Villainous Legacy:
  • Even after Jason permanently killed Ra's al Ghul in the previous timeline, he still continued to haunt the Bat-Family. The ensuing Civil War in the wake of his death for control over the League of Assassins culminated in the near-destruction of his entire house, with only Talia surviving when it was all over. Jason specifically points out Damian and Mara as victims as Ra's, implicitly noting that neither of them had to die and the only reason both of them did is because Mara couldn't let go of her childhood grudge against Damian — which only developed because Ra's deliberately raised them as rivals instead of family.
  • Cluemaster ending up leaving behind an outright positive one, since his poor treatment of his daughter, Stephanie, wound up motivating her to become a vigilante who by the time of her retirement was respected enough that she could be easily trusted with being left in charge of looking after Gotham in Jason's absence.
  • The Joker. Jason's entire life and the lives of his family were shaped by the Joker, one way or the other. By killing Joker III, he unwittingly enabled the rise of Joker IV, who murdered Bruce and most of Bruce's original Rogues Gallery, eventually forcing Dick and later Jason himself to become Batman. Joker IV later killed Joker V's husband during one of his rampages, leading to her murdering him in turn and forcibly replacing him as the next Joker. Through that, she caused Jason to accept Carrie Kelley as his first Robin and later created an entirely new Rogues Gallery for him to fight, ensuring that he could never retire as Batman. Finally, her death led to the rise of Joker VI, whose actions eventually led to Jason becoming interested in making Terry his successor.
  • Black Mask. While he never appears in the story proper and, as revealed in the spinoff those good old days, died in a gang war with the Penguin, his influence was still felt throughout Gotham. His son took up his name and tried to revitalize Gotham's organized crime, starting by murdering the Penguin, the last of Gotham's original rogues. More noticeably, he murdered Selina Kyle after she refused to work for him, leading to her daughter with Bruce, Helena, falling into Jason's custody. Helena would promptly become the sixth Robin and the second Huntress, with a major chip on her shoulder regarding organized crime.
  • Future Tim, whose appearance is what prompted Tim to preemptively ban himself from ever becoming Batman, ensuring that Jason couldn't foist the mantle onto him after Dick died.
• Walking Spoiler: The Joker. Everything about the Joker, including his actions during the previous timeline, changes the reader's perspective of the previous chapters almost instantly.
• Warts and All:
  • While Jason missed his brothers and father fiercely, he is in no way blind to their faults or how screwed up their relationships with both him and each other were.
    • He calls out Dick for his decision to take Robin away from Tim, pointing out that it was insensitive and even cruel. He also notes that Dick put too much on himself, expecting himself to be perfect all the time, which just increased his self-loathing when he made mistakes.
    • Jason regards Tim as the most brilliant member of the family, but is not blind to his self-esteem issues, his occasional arrogance, and his horrible self-care habits. He also admits that after losing Robin to Damian, Tim slid toward the edge of sociopathy, which, in at least one timeline, led to him making a Face–Heel Turn and becoming a Fallen Hero.
    • Damian might have grown into a true hero as he grew older, but as a child he was a Spoiled Brat who had the well-deserved nickname of 'demonspawn'. He also had major "Well Done, Son" Guy issues that lingered even after he grew past the Spoiled Brat phase.
    • With Bruce he's particularly brutal, constantly calling him "an emotionally constipated asshole" and acknowledging that while Bruce did, in fact, love them all, he was an incredibly poor parent, which is why took so long for all of them to work through their issues. Notably, it seems most of them managed that after he died, which is all the more damning hindsight.
  • Jason respects Talia greatly and will always be in her debt for giving him his second life. However, he hasn't forgotten how she once murdered Damian and even used it to convince her to hand Damian over to him after he time-traveled. He even calls her out on her attempts to draw Bruce to her side and tells her it will never happen as long as she follows her father's path.
• Wham Line: Chapter 19, and it's explained why in chapter 29, revealing that the kill Jason's talking about only made things worse for Gotham:
  Jason: Bruce, the Joker is probably the one kill I regret the most.
• Will They or Won't They?:
  • Deconstructed in the case of Dick and Barbara. Despite their genuine love for each other, the constant grief and pain from all their attempts at being a couple eventually caused them to decide they were Better as Friends.
  • Tim and Stephanie. The Ship Tease starts from the moment Stephanie is introduced into the story and continues until the last arc, where they decide to give it a shot.
• The Worf Effect:
  • Rose Wilson gets curb-stomped by Jason and later Cassandra. She might be enhanced like her father but she barely has a year's worth of training, if that. Jason is an experienced Batman stuck in a trained Robin's body while Cassandra is a Tyke Bomb that was raised since birth to be the World's Best Warrior. Do the math.
  • Tim Drake similarly loses to Jason several times during the first training session. Half the time the only reason he made it to three minutes is because Jason was trying to see how competent he was with the weapon he was using for the fight.
• You Are Not Alone:
  • What Jason's speech to Bruce boils down to in their first private talk.
  • He also says something similar to Dick in their talk, though it was in a more general sense.