Monday, June 24, 2019

All Caste: Mind and Soul

The focus on the mind and soul has come up a few times.

When Talia arrives with Jason in tow one of the things she tells Ducra is that he returned to life without a soul before she put him in the pit. Later on he manages to defeat "The Devourer of Young Souls." Jason does this while his body is kept in a pond which seems to indicate it was done via astral projection. Which isn't a stretch since we see him fight with Essence using that method in the same arc. It's something that's seen a lot when I used to read Marvel, mostly with telepaths in X-Men. Astral projection is defined as a term used to "describe an intentional out-of-body experience that assumes the existence of a soul or consciousness called an "astral body" that is separated from the physical body and capable of travelling outside it throughout the universe."

After having enough of Jason's rudeness during their first meeting Ducra claims she could even teach him while he was unconscious, a claim that I thought was a weird boast until we get confirmation about them using astral projection. At the beginning of RHATO Jason is able to see Essence when no one else can and see Ducra when she's a ghost. (*1) I think the Untitled might have had trouble reading thoughts as they originally needed to take organs but under Tynion at least one could read thoughts. Since Ducra and Essence are (unwilling) members of the Untitled themselves they could have figured out and refined the ability over time.


The Chamber of All is a strange place that seems to have reflections of the Outlaws minds as it leads them down the right path (for example you can see traces of Joker in the background.) To get access to the chamber the guardian S'aru has to take a person's most cherished memory. It's implied that the fact Jason never got back his memory might have negatively affected him.

In RHATO #18 Vol.1 Jason is able to tell what Bruce and Alfred are saying even though he was in a medically induced coma. He has more awareness of his body than most as he's able to tell what his heart rate is while under the influence of the drug Venom in #36 Vol. 1 He thinks the latter is due to coming back from the dead but both might have something to do with his training. It's still not confirmed if his nightmare was just a dream or Ducra warning him.

The All Blades are weapons Jason uses to battle magic that are a manifestation of his soul. When he fought the Devourer of young souls he was able to form dozens (if not more) at one time which present day Jason claims is because he had a lot of soul back then. Currently Jason has only been shown with two All Blades which he couldn't maintain for long in his battle with Akila because they were weakening him.

There have been a few mentions to Jason having some training when it comes to combating telepaths. In Red Hood/Arsenal #10 the H.I.V.E. Regal attempted to enter his mind but couldn't which Jason claims is because of his training with Ducra. While this didn't stop him from being drawn into a fantasy involving his friends and him as children at Christmas (RHATO Annual #2 Vol. 1) he was able to snap himself out of it. He didn't seem to think he could face H.I.V.E. Queen without threatening her should she attempt to mess with his mind and she still managed to read something Jason himself wasn't aware of.

Under Pfeifer Jason makes a jarring statement when Roy is taken. He says that Roy hasn't been answering any from of communication he's tried including "the unconscious psychic trapdoor" he set up with his teammates. (*2) I'm not certain how much of the Tynion run and the Pfeifer arc tie into what Lobdell planned but this would imply that Jason somehow has some kind of psychic power. (Granted the same arc also had Starfire form some type of force field which I'm pretty sure she can't do.) And while Jason might have trained with the All Caste that doesn't mean he can do everything they can. (*3)

The focus on the mind/soul might tie into the All Caste being able to see past, present and future all at once. It's a little vague at present how that works but way back in the first volume Jason thanked Ducra for teaching him this. He's said to be the only human that was taught that didn't go insane. However this is possible it would give Jason a unquie perspective that the rest of the bat family can't understand. None of them, with the possible exception of Tim (*4) seem to know who trained him. Is this something he can control? Does it make his PTSD worse? Does the future shift?








*1 It was never shown if Kori or Roy could see ghost Ducra.

*2 He claims he did it through the League of Assassins but that makes even less sense. If it's something the LOA did for Jason (which is what it sounds like in the text) it means he would trust them to do it. I used to believe he meant the LOA taught him but that doesn't work either. The All Caste teaching him would actually make sense.

*3 He is still the first human to successful master their training. But he had to ask Essence to heal Roy from near death which suggests that he can't do everything she does.

*4 Tim mentioned that the All Caste taught Jason in the DOTF Teen Titans tie in but I think Fabian Niceza did the scripting for that arc. I'm not sure if that was intentional or if Tim understood what being trained by the All Caste meant.

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