oo do you have examples of issues that very clearly show jokers avoidant attachment style? I would guess on some level the ending of death of the family?
Well, I said that both him and Bruce rather fit the disorganized attachment style, which is also known as fearful-avoidant-- but Bruce has more "fearful", Joker has more "avoidant".
Bruce, despite all his misgivings, has multiple long-term meaningful relationships. But in Joker's case... intimacy and affection are simply out of the question. Humanity is out of the question, like in the example you've given with Death of the Family. The only person we know for sure he cares about is Bruce, and even in Bruce's case he wildly fluctuates between declaring undying love and genuinely trying to murder him out of spite and resentment. The second closest person to him would be Harley Quinn, and I do think on some level he cared about her, but his relationship with her was manipulative and abusive-- and he tried to kill her too. All of his relationships, outside of the one with Batman, are shallow, and it's because he keeps them shallow. People are something to kill, use, or make fun of, not persons to connect with. If there's any sign of emotion, Joker considers it a weakness. Caring gets you broken above a vat of acid at ACE Chemical factory, with a bat from hell scaring you into committing suicide.
Though I don't think Joker started out so avoidant, much like Bruce... who also started out as something else. Personally I see Bruce as having had an anxious/fearful attachment style prior to his parents' death. But then the loss pushed him into avoidance, and ultimately resulted in him displaying a disorganized or fearful-avoidant attachment style as an adult. Joker might've been fearful-avoidant to begin with, if we go by the likeliest background for him: growing up with abusive parents, then living in orphanages and foster homes, etc. Even the one interaction (remembered reliably or unreliably) with Jeannie in The Killing Joke points to a fearful-avoidant attachment:
Batman: The Killing Joke
He's blowing up at Jeannie, projecting his own self-hatred on her, and then immediately swings into begging for forgiveness. In the end, the core thing about disorganized attachment is... instability. Growing up, the child does not feel like their caregiver is reliable, there to provide food or shelter or the most basic emotional validation. Parents who fluctuate between moments of love and affection and moments of violence and abuse teach their children that love is a minefield. One wrong step, and the landmine blows-- and you never know what sets it off, so you wildly overcompensate or avoid. And Jack acts more like this towards Jeannie: he explodes with anger, gets scared she'll react badly, and then begs for forgiveness. It's also clear that he thinks his value is based in what he can provide. If he doesn't have anything to give Jeannie, will she still love him?
But where Jack was more classically fearful-avoidant, Joker is a lot more avoidant. Even though his life-defining trauma happened as an adult, it profoundly affected his view on the world. As Joker, he still has a need for connection (otherwise we wouldn't have Batjokes)-- but he also hates it and is actively trying to snuff it out. It's a bit ironic that essentially, only with Bruce is where the fearful/anxious part of his attachment style still comes out. Just like with Jeannie in that example, we constantly see him go between "It's your fault I became a monster! I hate your guts and I want you dead!" and "I do all this because I love you! I'm the only one who understands you! Please don't leave me!"
Why did batman save joker's life numerous times? Yes he also left him to "die", but he did so knowing that he would survive, and yet it seems nonsensical to save joker when it would almost free the world from a lot of suffering, he could simply actually leave the joker to be killed but he refuses to. Its actually very funny, what is batman excuse to THAT?
In all fairness, Batman has saved the lives of the other Rogues too, when he could've just let them die -- though indeed none as frequent as Joker. There are many examples of it, ranging from low-level thugs (e.g., Batman: Shadow of the Bat #30) in the employ of more major Gotham villains, to the A-listers themselves. Bruce has saved Riddler's life (e.g., Batman Confidential: #26-28), he's saved Freeze's life (e.g., Detective Comics #1013), Catwoman's (obviously; e.g., Batman: Heart of Hush), Scarecrow's (e.g., Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #141), Black Mask's (e.g., Batman #519)... and so on.
So, what exactly makes Joker different? I'll put my explanation under the cut, for the health of everyone's dash, as always.
As we all know, Bruce has a sacred pattern. If someone is in direct danger of dying, he saves them. It does not matter who it is, criminal or innocent. It's an emotional compulsion rather than an ethical choice: when Bruce saves someone, he's saving his parents, in all the ways he was too weak to as a child. However, life is never that simple. When Bruce has to save criminals he despises, he expresses how much he hates that he does it; except that his need to save life, to overwrite the trauma of his childhood, is bigger than the hatred he holds for all evildoers. (Though not always. As I mentioned in my previous answer going over Bruce's no-killing rule, certain circumstances can stifle his need to save just enough for him to leave someone in mortal danger -- but there have to be enough degrees of separation so he can justify it.)
So, him saving Joker's life, no matter the circumstances, is genuinely driven by his no-killing rule and his core compulsion to save people. It's not just an excuse. Joker knows this... Hell, everyone knows this. It's something many villains take advantage of in their fights with Batman. Make him choose between chasing the perpetrator and saving an innocent life, and bam; he saves the innocent life, you get the time to escape.
But is Joker just part of the pattern? Is it just unfortunate that Joker's life needed to be saved so many times? Aaaaand... here's where the funny (tragic?) part comes in, because obviously, the answer is no. It's one thing that Bruce refuses to let anyone die, it's one thing that he's saved Joker more times and more passionately than anyone else -- but the thing is, he's saved Joker to the detriment of innocents. And this is where his no-killing rule becomes an excuse, as you call it, rather than the truth.
The Joker: Devil's Advocate has Joker condemned to death by law, but because it's for the one crime he didn't commit, Bruce goes nuts trying to save Joker's life.
It's a flimsy excuse, because Bruce breaks laws left and right, by his own admission; it's always about justice, not the rules. And yet now the law matters? Bruce very well knows Joker is guilty. He might not have committed this crime, but he's done all the others before it, and he deserves to die for those ten times over. Why not let justice follow its course, when so many innocent lives would be saved by having Joker gone (not to mention how many avenged)? You can't even argue it's about Bruce's compulsion to save lives, because I don't remember him trying to save every single criminal put on death row.
Interestingly enough, Bruce then justifies it differently towards Alfred and Tim:
Huh. You mean that you can't let Joker take the fall for this crime first, and then use the evidence you collect because you 'loathe mysteries' so much (a valiant effort on Alfred's part to justify Bruce's behavior, tbh) after, to bring the real killer in? It's not even like he'd have to wait long...
So, Bruce can't let Joker die for a crime he didn't commit because it's against the law. Then, he can't let Joker die because it allows for the real criminal to go free, and that would kill innocents. But also, his detective mind just craves solving the case so badly, and that's the reason he's doing this.
First excuse was dismantled by Gordon himself. Second excuse still does not explain why he's so urgently trying to solve the case, before Joker's death day comes around. Third excuse explains it even less, because he can just solve the case, sate his curiosity, save the innocent lives and stop the criminal-- and not hand in the evidence to save Joker's life. Just hand it in a minute later!
And here we have the fourth excuse, which actually goes against what he told Gordon. Bruce tells Joker himself that it's about justice. All different reasons, and some of them contradicting each other! But finally, the narrative directly calls him out on simply caring, where before we get comments from other characters ("I have never seen him look so... grim," says Tim. "He hasn't slept in days," says Tim.)
It truly is quite funny to me how all of Bruce's justifications don't manage to explain how desperate he is to beat the clock, don't manage to cover up the fact he's solving the case to save Joker's life; not to protect innocents, not to abide the law, not to sate his detective instincts. And if there's still any shred of doubt that Bruce is doing this for utterly selfish reasons, this is what Bruce does after he manages to get Joker pardoned literally seconds before he gets fried in the electric chair:
The comic is full of Joker's victims advocating for him dying! Full of people asserting how Joker deserves to die, because of the people he's killed, and because of how many people will die if he keeps living. And yet, after all of that, Bruce goes to Joker's cell to brag to him that he owes his life to Batman. Unhinged! Unhinged, your honor! You can't really explain Bruce in this comic in a way that makes sense without admitting that Bruce is personally invested in Joker, and that's that.
Which leads me to the most bonkers example of him choosing Joker over someone else... Batman: Under the Red Hood.
(Fucking hell, Bruce. At least go to Jason and try to help stop the bleeding.)
Just for comparison's sake. Here's Bruce stepping away and allowing for Jim Gordon to potentially kill Joker after he murdered Sarah Essen-Gordon, but then Jim shoots him in the leg (Detective Comics #741):
What is the difference between these two instances? Why didn't Bruce let Jason shoot Joker -- arguably, someone much closer to him, someone who's like a son to him, someone who Joker killed?
It's because Jason would've shot Joker for sure. When it comes to Jim, Bruce trusts that he has the same code as himself; even in The Killing Joke, after Joker crippled his daughter, Jim told Bruce that he wanted everything done "by the book." Bruce knew that in letting Jim point a gun at Joker, the risk to his life was unlikely. However, none of this applies to Jason. Jason would have 100% pulled the trigger. It's the same as Devil's Advocate; Joker's death was a certainty, not a risk or a possibility. And in those circumstances, Bruce chooses Joker in spite of everything else. He endangers the life of his adopted son by slitting his throat (actually, it's more or less canon he actually killed Jason) to save the life of the man who murdered him. (...Look. I ship Batjokes, but I also like the Batfam and Jason especially, and this makes me feel so bad for him it's insane. Sometimes I think about RHatO #25 and Batman & Robin #20 and really wish I could punch Bruce in the face. I say this as a Bruce fan.)
And here you have it, anon. Yes, it is nonsensical for Bruce to keep saving Joker, especially within this specific set of circumstances, and especially because of how many lives are lost because of it. It's nonsensical because, underneath the surface of the no-killing rule, it's due to selfish emotional attachment. Like I said elsewhere, Bruce is just as obsessed with Joker-- he's just better at hiding it.
I recently got my hands on a pre-shooting draft of a Talented Mr Ripley screenplay so here is my first Tumblr post!
It has all the deleted scenes that you can see remnants of in the movie's trailers and set pictures. I've put it on internet archive in case any of the other three people in the fandom wanted to have a read.
Distressed Rat by @the-scungles-of-crungles
me: it's wrong to assign children stigmatizing labels due to antisocial behavior implying they were born with some sort of evil condition when in reality these behaviors result from abuse, neglect, peer influence, or a combination and can be best resolved with proper support before the child reaches adulthood. instead these children are isolated and punished at school and have trouble seeking help later in life.
someone: op this is a lie I literally know a 5 year old who is actually a sociopathic narcissist
If you ask me, a pack of wild dogs is the most iconic thing to be torn apart by
“When Insects Rule the World” series by Bill Mayer
The Talented Mr. Ripley is the the most homosexual movie I’ve ever seen
What comics would u recommend me to read if i want to see the sexual tension between batman and joker?
Batman Europa #1 #2 #3 #4 / Joker switch. Batman #1 / Death of the family / Batman #649 / Batman ; Last knight on earth / batman Odyessy # 6 #2. injustice ground zero #6. Batman ego. Batman deadly duo #1 Joker devils advocate. Action comics. #719 / Legends of the dark Knight 2020 #2 / Batman #139 2024. Batman confidential / Batman the killing joke / The dark Knight returns #2 / legends of the dark Knight #200 / The man who laughs /
THERE'S MORE, BUT THAT'S ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT RIGHT NOW.