We have continued to talk between the two of us about how much we love “villains” of pop culture. We wrote a post about why Thanos is the best Avenger a long time ago, and decided to start a series. We recently watched The Dark Knight again (…again again, it’s a classic for a reason..) and we enjoyed Heath Ledger’s Joker so much that he got the kick-off spot for the series.

It’s an amazing movie, and ultimately it centers around the conflict between two moral codes: The Joker as an agent, or engine, of chaos, and Christian Bale’s Batman, who fights for justice, fairness, order, and self-sacrifice.

… at least it appears that way at first.

There are going to be spoilers for The Dark Knight in this post, but given that it’s about 13 years old, we figured that was probably fine…

Ledger won an Oscar posthumously for his work, and to be honest the character was a spectacular piece of acting. If you haven’t seen it recently enough that it’s fresh in your memory, stop reading this blog and just go enjoy it. Or, if you want just a vignette, watch this scene:

It sums up the character nicely.

So here’s the thing – a lot of people really loved the character of The Joker in this film. It’s one of the most iconic villain characters ever, and was arguably the best portrayal of The Joker until Joaquin Phoenix gave it a go (whose version of The Joker we will likely talk about in another Our Favorite Villains post). But…why? What’s so interesting and appealing about this character who could be described as a madman and a terrorist? What about The Joker in general – why is he an iconic villain, and a foil for Batman? What makes the Batman universe such a good fit for this kind of character?

Things We Love About The Dark Knight’s Joker

“Plans, everybody has plans.”

The Joker says some interesting things about planning, strategy, and execution – all reasons that we loved Thanos as much as we did. It’s clear from the opening scene of the movie (below!) that he’s thought out this heist step by step.

The arc of the movie follows his strategy to take over the finances of the mob, and use the control that having their money affords him to seize the reins of the battle between Batman and the criminal element of Gotham City. Interestingly, while the strategy is sound and he executes it well, the plan to manipulate and control is not one of our favorite pieces.

One key piece of this arc, and probably our very favorite scene, is The Joker trying to build a relationship with Batman in the jail scene. Basically, just like The Joker in The Lego Batman movie, this Joker needs Batman in order to be a supervillain. In a world without Batman, the Joker is just…bored.

Our conclusion from this is that despite The Joker saying he doesn’t make any plans to Two-Face, he does in fact make and execute plans. He outsmarts everyone, with plans that flex and build until the real end of the movie (more on that later).

The Joker stays committed to his stated goal: to bring clarity to people about who and what they are.

He’s playing a game, the real game, by real rules, when everyone else is playing a false game with made-up rules.

He’s clear – and clarity is success.

A lot of people in this movie hide who they really are. Bruce Wayne pretends to be Batman – or maybe more accurately, Batman pretends to be a playboy billionaire named Bruce Wayne. Batman also pretends to be an agent of law and order, when actually he’s an agent of chaos and his vision of justice, which is by definition outside of the law. The mob pretends to be invincible, but are actually paper tigers. The mayor pretends to be brave, but actually is full of fear. Gordon pretends to be dead, breaking his family’s hopes and hearts. Batman also pretends to be a guy who doesn’t do murder – but it’s a little hard to believe that all of the violence he does doesn’t kill anybody. Shooting high caliber autocannon rounds off the batbike in an urban environment is, we’re sure, totally safe. (</sarcasm>)

There’s also a whole subplot about who the real Batman is – in fact, it’s part of The Joker’s plan to force Batman to “come out,” as Bruce tries to wrestle with his default stance of hiding.

Contrast all that with The Joker. He shows up, he lays his cards on the table (…pun absolutely intended), and he tells everyone from the get-go that he’s here to bring clarity to the world. He’s here to show people that the rules they think they live by are moral forgeries. He also habitually lies about how he got his scars, which is a fascinating element of hiding in his personality. Generally, though, he is clear and he deals with the people around him in transparent, if off-putting, ways.

He’s committed.

Commitment was one of the things that we loved about Thanos, in the previous post that we mentioned. That theme holds true here, too. A climax of the “Joker controls the mob” subplot of the movie is when we see that The Joker has “recovered” all of the mob’s money. He had previously negotiated with them that if he could recover their funds, he’d get half – and when we see him with the literal pile of money, he proceeds to light it on fire.

“Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
– Alfred, trying to explain The Joker to Bruce

The Joker is committed to his plan, which is, again, clarity. He enjoys bringing clarity to the world. He doesn’t care about the same things other people care about – in this case, money – and that causes confusion and fear in its wake. The Joker pretty much only cares about the joy of being himself and helping others see clearly.

He’s crazy, but…not wrong.

There’s an interesting question here, underlying The Joker as a character – is he completely insane, or…is he just living by different rules than everyone else?

At first glance, it definitely appears that he is erratic or just crazy. But we think there’s a deeper truth, that he is in fact just living by different rules than everyone else. This makes a person appear crazy, but it’s actually something more like a strong cultural difference. To him, not living in a fake world is more important than obeying laws, or being seen as a “nice person.”

That’s an interesting lesson, because laws, and perception of “niceness,” are not morality. Also, what is moral is not always what is legal, or what is nice. Slavery was legal. Racism was enforced by law. Many victimless crimes are currently illegal, such as growing particular species of plants.

As always, we love Reality quite a lot, and it was refreshing to see people have to think hard about what they really believe as the result of a chaotic person’s actions. Not that we’d know anything about that…

The RULES, and “all it takes is a little push…”

One key piece of this arc, and probably our very favorite scene, is The Joker trying to build a relationship with Batman in the jail scene…
– us, earlier in this post

In particular, we love this part of the jail scene:

The Joker: …their morals, their code… it’s a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They’re only as good as the world allows them to be. I’ll show you, when the chips are down, these… these “civilized people?” They’ll eat each other. See? I’m not a monster, I’m just…ahead of the curve.

Batman : [grabs Joker] Where’s Dent?

The Joker : You have all these rules and you think they’ll save you!

Lt. James Gordon : [as Batman slams Joker into the wall] He’s in control.

Batman : I have one rule.

The Joker : Oh, then that’s the rule you’ll have to break to know the truth.

Batman : [getting impatient] Which is?

The Joker : The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules.

Generally speaking, we are not fans of rules, which is probably why this appealed to both of us. We’ve also both been the targets of people who valued the rules over us, or over other people, which…hasn’t changed our opinions about rules in general. What The Joker says here is not entirely correct, and…he knows it. The Joker doesn’t follow their rules, but he does follow his own. He’s…consistent. But he points out a legitimate thing – it makes sense, it should make sense, to look at the rules that one follows and ask oneself…okay, but why?

What is my motivation for following the rules? Do I even understand that I’m choosing to follow the rules? What happens if I stop?

The Joker pushes the Batman, the mob, the police, and society as a whole, to stop doing what they’ve always done. He pushes them to look at the world in a new light, where old motivations (money, power) are challenged and the old rules of safety and control are broken.

Batman, as a counterpoint, spends the whole movie trying to control things into being safe. He tries beating everyone up. He tries giving up his identity. In the end, he even sacrifices the ideology and the very idea of Batman as a force of good, in an effort to control the perceptions of the people in the city.

The Joker pokes at peoples’ rules, points out the sheer ridiculousness of them, and then…lets them choose. He’s happy with whatever they go with, he just wants to put people in situations in which they can see the world in a new light. That, and he really wants to burn down what they perceive as their safety.

The Joker and the End of the Movie

The last time we watched the movie, we kicked around the real motivation of the movie. This is a Christopher Nolan movie – this is the same director who did Inception, and Memento, and Tenet. He is not what you’d call a traditional thinker. Up until a certain point in the movie, the movie itself is wildly consistent:

This movie is a love story to chaos, and a warning against (and biting satire of) the patterns of institutional and personal control and fear.

And then…that stops. The Joker suddenly cares about a particular outcome, not, as we said above, simply showing people that they aren’t actually bound by their rules. The Joker targets two ferryboats’ worth of people – one boat of prisoners, and one boat of Average Citizens. He tells the boats that they will both be blown up as of a time, unless one boat blows up another. The prisoners decide not to blow up the Average Citizens’ boat. The Average Citizens take a vote, which lands on “yes, blow up the prisoners,” and then ultimately can’t do it. During this time, The Joker and Batman are fighting and The Joker insists that one boat will definitely blow up the other. When that doesn’t happen, The Joker tries to blow up both boats anyway, despite it not being quite the time limit yet.

If The Joker were consistent with himself as per the rest of the movie, he would have accepted that people are not as broken and twisted as he thought, and adapted. Or, at a minimum, he would have waited until the time limit was up to blow up both boats.

The Joker and Purpose, Clarity, and Commitment

As always, we love Reality quite a lot, and it was refreshing to see people have to think hard about what they really believe as the result of a chaotic person’s actions. Not that we’d know anything about that… 
– us, again from earlier in this post…

When we have strong emotional reactions to things, we try to figure out why. Why did it resonate? What does it teach me about myself, or about God, or about other people?

We are both what could be described as chaotic – if you use the D&D alignment definition, chaotic means valuing “freedom, adaptability, and flexibility. On the downside, chaos can include recklessness, resentment toward legitimate authority, arbitrary actions, and irresponsibility. Those who promote chaotic behavior say that only unfettered personal freedom allows people to express themselves fully and lets society benefit from the potential that its individuals have within them.”

We firmly believe that God makes people exactly as he needs them to be. Neither of us tries to be chaotic, or to see the world in different ways than…it seems like most other people. In fact, thanks to the soul scars of trying to live this way, we’ve both tried various things not to be chaotic. This version of The Joker exists, for us, as a form of representation – we aren’t criminals, but we are wildly committed to the things we think are right. We’re good at making and executing plans. And we definitely think that clarity is success, and that people follow rules for reasons that are mostly fears of how they will be hurt if they don’t.

That representation, and the reminder of how God makes people, mattered to us because living your life in a way that’s consistent with who you actually are, how God made you, helps you find and execute your purpose. Also, it’s just…fun. It’s how you find joy in your life, and how you find people who feel joy in the same things, and in you.