Week 13 - Thoughts On "The Killing Joke"

I feel bad for the person Arthur Fleck was before he turned into Joker. He’s lived a life of bad luck and poor choices, and everyone processes trauma differently. Some people find the light at the end of the tunnel, while others can't escape that tunnel.

The highlight of this story is that both “good" and “bad” characters were faced with equally horrific situations. The difference was that the Joker succumbed to them while the head of the police was not nearly as fazed because he had established morals to live by.

Batman confronts the Joker with this genuine desire to rehabilitate Joker, I am convinced that the Joker was moved at that moment, as his final “joke” revealed how incredibly vulnerable he actually is. As much as he wants to be free of misery, he’s terrified to trust anybody, even if it is a friend. He would rather laugh off the pain rather than return to a life of potential misery.

Joker is an awful person, yet we refer to him fondly as a pop culture icon. I think it’s because we all have a little bit of Joker within us. When we’ve been hurt, we want sympathy, we want payback, but those who value harmony and growth know that two wrongs never make a right. 

I feel like superhero comics dabble in a lot of genres, a little bit of romance, a little bit of crime, but don’t really explore individual ones on a deeper level. Not that it’s really an issue, considering the success of the comics and movies as they are. After all, there’s a “balance” in each genre so that it can grab the broadest audience. 

I typically am not drawn to superhero stories, personally because I don’t like the action genre, but I liked The Killing Joke a lot because it was a character exploration. If The Killing Joke becomes a live-action movie any time soon, I hope it’s directed by Todd Phillips, who did an amazing job directing Joker.

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