04/03/2015 14:05:50 ¶ ●

## Obviously I understand your stance on the kill Joker thing in general, but like, the Joker's been the instigator of like 40+ years worth of violence and crime and bad shit for pretty much no reason, sooooo..? (I don't really care about any Batman thing, so I might be mistaken, feel free to correct me)

yxoque:

> qtplatypus:

> > yxoque:

> > > sam-keeper:

> > > > Honestly though I don’t understand how one looks at the screwyness of that setup and status quo and says “what we really need to do here is look at this from a realistic perspective, that will certainly get us good results, and the only realistic way of looking at it is Extrajudicial Murder Rocks.”

> > > To be honest, what we really need is to drop a ton of concrete from orbit to obliterate Gotham.
> > > Or, you know, an actual max-security mental institution. But that doesn’t even happen in real life, so that’s not all that realistic.

> > The thing is the only reason that the Joker gets free from Archem is because of the power of narrative causality. If the reality switch got switched on procedures and physical security could be made sufficient to keep gothum safe.

> > However killing the Joker sort of missed the point of Batman. If batman kills the Joker wins. Getting Batman to kill him is one of Joker’s goals because he knows that once Batman kills he stops being the batman.

> Doesn’t explain why nobody else just shoots him.

Because if you turn on the reality switch the Joker ceases to exist. He’s a psychologically damaged man in clown makeup with unhidable tics, a reputation for unpredictability and a tendency to turn on/kill his underlings who somehow has access to an endless stream of minions and funds that often seem to outstrip even Batman’s (in spite of having no apparent source of income other than his oft-foiled capers). Noting that Batman is stupid for not killing him is like noting that someone living in an ever-burning house is stupid for not breaking a window to get the smoke out.

EDIT: Nolan’s the Dark Knight is a completely different story where the Joker A: has a less defined past that allows him the funds and lack of bad reputation he needs to do (some of) what he does (he’s still unrealistic, but not so much in these ways) and B: Incarcerating him actually seems to work, once in Arkham, he largely ceases to be a problem.

Also, a disclaimer: I am neither an ethicist nor a batmanologist.