Wednesday, January 31, 2018

The tropes of "Came Back Wrong"

Recently I had a talk about a potential story connected to Bizarro's arc.

Potential SPOILERS AHEAD

I guess I'm technically late to the party discussing rumors about RHATO although I've mentioned the possible connection with Jason a few times on this blog. To sum up the rumor is Bizarro is protecting Jason like many of us assumed and it's tied to Jason's death/resurrection which will be explored more. Which would mean Willis somehow knew about it before Jason died and even became Robin? I mean it would have to mean that, right? That's the main thing Bizarro is worried about Jason finding out, whatever are in those letters. The implications for what this means about Willis and him having a greater importance to Jason's story will have to wait since that topic will take me off of my main point. Which is what such news could mean if it has to do with what's happening/happened to him.

Tv tropes (which I don't recommend going to unless you want to spent hours searching the site) has the trope of "Came back wrong" which has several sub tropes for what that could entail. How many of these fit Jason or might be the reason for Bizarro hiding the truth?



Soulless Shell: The loved one comes back, but without their soul.

This one seems like it already happened since Lobdell has the head trauma changed to a missing soul in his run. At least it was mentioned before he was put in the Lazarus Pit. In Futures End Jason mentions being ripped out of heaven kicking and screaming implying he was forced to return against his will. Is it possible for him to lose his soul again? Maybe, Jason uses the All Blades which are said to be powered by his soul and reaches his limit using them.



Damaged Soul: Both the body and the soul come back, but the soul suffered some damage along the way, often leading to madness, depression or sociopathy.

I think Winick was implying this to a degree. He made it vague, at times, whether he came back damaged. I don't know if Lobdell would use madness as he pretty much has Jason own up to his past mistakes. Sociopathy would go against how he's been portrayed by Lobdell. Depression ? It's been strongly hinted at although part of it was due to his isolation.



Monster from Beyond the Veil: Something goes really wrong, and the loved one comes back as an undead, demonic or Eldritch Abomination that now wants to kill/eat their resurrector.

The latter point about killing/eating doesn't seem to go with anything that's been mentioned in canon. There has been some implications that Jason either came back as some what inhuman or he at least views himself as abnormal. He has noted that he's more aware of his body to the point he realizes things he shouldn't especially under the influence of drugs.



Inhuman Human: The person's soul comes back just fine. The body, on the other hand, is a complete mess, with bad results for both the person and the resurrector.

In old canon Jason's body returned to how it was prior to his death by giving him the same damage. He seems perfectly fine when he comes back in Secret Origins and Talia says as much in another appearance. There hasn't been anything to suggest that will change but I guess you never know. Maybe his body changed in a different way?



Destination Host Unreachable: The body comes back, and the soul comes back, but the person can never see the resurrector again due to being shunted off somewhere/when else

At the moment we don't know who the resurrector is although Jason has been separated from his family a few times after his rebirth. First by Talia sending him off to train then by being at odds with them.



Sometimes there's also an Equivalent Exchange meaning that everything has a price. For example someone is brought back but someone has to die to make it possible. I could see that upsetting Jason as well as a number of other possibilities. I've always been curious how this plotline will play out but most writers don't want to acknowledge what I think could possibly be a great story.

No comments:

Post a Comment