Hot Take: Joker Was Killed in The Dark Knight Rises, But Not By Batman
We've seen many versions of the hero. In the most acclaimed interpretation, Bruce Wayne is not the killer, though he always acts at the expense of others or frames the situation to keep his hands clean.
Christopher Nolan 's The Dark Knight gave us an iconic on-screen confrontation between Batman and the Joker.
The clown's goal is simple: to force the hero to kill in order to destroy his moral world, even if the target is the antagonist himself.
The Joker doesn't care so much about committing crimes when he knows the masked vigilante won't come after him. But it all boils down to one simple rule — Batman does not kill.
Throughout the movie, the Joker tries to land the first punch on Bruce, but even when the billionaire has the opportunity to take out the villain in a vehicle, he doesn't. Frankly, it's not the first time this has happened.
In Batman Begins, the hero didn't kill anyone, he just jumped off the train at the right moment and Scarecrow was locked up in the asylum.
In The Dark Knight Rises, Bane was still alive despite a nasty blow to the head. Catwoman got her hands dirty, but the vigilante remained a law-abiding citizen.
The theory is that the movie raises the question of Batman's irrelevance in the city. Gotham repeatedly declares that it doesn't need the hero, it needs the law and order of the police.
The suggestion was based on the last scene in which the Joker appeared. At that moment, the SWAT team bursts into the building with the framed hostages.
The hero leaves the clown unarmed, so the audience is never shown that Batman delivered the final blow. Although the police have no such setup about killing someone.
After the Special Forces attack the building, the Joker is no longer on screen.
This theory once again confirms that Batman did not get his hands dirty until the Joker forced him to. But the scene with the SWAT team ruined all of the clown's plans, putting a fat point in his character development.
However, many fans disagree with this explanation. Some of them say that according to the official novelization of the movie, the Joker is imprisoned in Arkham.
Others declared that if that is the case, The Dark Night Rises should have focused on expanding the idea — if the Joker is still alive, why is he out of the last movie? There was no mention of him.
While the truth is hidden, the theory of Batman defeating the Joker is quite entertaining. The upcoming Matt Reeves version of the superhero will also introduce the clown villain.
And we hope to see more amazing encounters between these two.
Source: Reddit