Comments on: Is Batman Bored? http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/03/11/is-batman-bored/ A First Things Blog Wed, 19 Jun 2013 02:50:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Boonton http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/03/11/is-batman-bored/comment-page-1/#comment-92787 Boonton Tue, 12 Mar 2013 01:51:16 +0000 http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/?p=58923#comment-92787 I disagree, too much is made of Joker’s speech to Dent as well as Alfred’s speech. The best way to understand the Joker IMO is through the Book of Job. In his first speech to Batman in the jail cell, he makes it clear what he wants to do. He wants to reveal how hollow the morality is of people. As he says to Batman, “people are only as good as the world allows them to be”. Time and time again he creates elaborate setups where normally ‘good people’ are presented with an extreme threat they can only escape by an evil act.

Many of the cops he is able to corrupt to get at Dent and Batman are corrupted by threats to their families. The twerp who wants to expose Batman is the first explicit example. Either murder him or a hospital is blown up. The ‘easy way out’ is, of course, to murder the twerp. The climax with the two boats is an even better example. Both the ‘good citizens’ and the criminals are offered the chance to save themselves by murdering the other group.

Ultimately he wins with Dent, driving him to embrace evil after taking everything from him and while I don’t think the 3rd movie was done as well, even Batman and Gordon are corrupted by embracing a lie rather than the truth. What you have is the Book of Job with an ‘alternative ending’ where Job cracked.

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