Film Analysis: Jason's Transition Into The Red Hood

Jason’s eventually transition into the Red Hood persona, would be in response to his death at the hands of the Joker. Like the deaths of Bruce and Dick’s parents, Jason’s death set the foundation for the person he would become once he was resurrected. Jason was not shot by a mugger in the street like Bruce’s parents, and he was not killed by a sabotaged circus act like Dick’s parents. He was savagely beaten to death by a madman wielding a crowbar who Batman could have killed years before but never did. So, when Jason becomes Red Hood he vows not to stop criminals by the same means that Batman uses, but to be the better Batman. He is no longer focused on doing what is right, but what he sees as a necessary. When he confronts Bruce at the climax of the film, he says : “I don’t know what clouds your judgement worse, your guilt or your antiquated sense of morality. Bruce, I forgive you for not saving me. But why? Why on god’s earth? Is he still alive?!” Jason can except Bruce not rescuing him from the Joker that day of his death, but what he cannot forgive, is Batman putting his morality over his life. He will not

To become like him, to become a killer. What makes this scene carry even greater weight is when he hands Bruce a gun, and the latter stares at it like it is the very same one that was used to murder his parents. Jason then tells Batman to either shoot him in order to stop him from killing the Joker, or to kill the Joker. Batman turns away from this, and of course finds a way out of it, that looks incredibly awesome if not a little unbelievable. The most interesting thing to occur in this scene is Jason aiming and firing at Batman, the man who was once his mentor. He does not aim his gun at the Joker, he aims it at Batman. So the question is, why? Nothing is outright stated, and the movie gives the viewer a chance to decide for him or herself whether or not Jason being brought back from death itself has driven him