#my brother described this movie as 'the cinematic equivalent of a run-on sentence.' and yeah

[autismmydearwatson]

This has been on my mind a while but I do think Heath Ledgers Joker is the best. Not in a redditor neckbeard "I'm just like him" way, I'm speaking as someone for whom The Dark Knight is actually my FOURTH Favorite Batman Movie (after Batman Returns, The Batman, and The Lego Batman Movie of course). The genius of Heath Ledgers Joker is that he sort of reveals what I think are the bare bones of the Jokers character and reveals why the Joker movie failed. The Joker isn't SUPPOSED to have a backstory or a reason. He's not SUPPOSED to make sense.

This is summed up in what Alfred says. "Some men can't be bullied, bargained, or reasoned with. Some men want to watch the world burn." And the Jokers quote "this is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object." "Do I look like the kind of guy with a plan? I'm a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it!"

When Batman fights the Joker, he's not fighting a person whose motives you can pick apart and analyze. When Batman fights the Joker he is fighting the physical manifestation of the chaos Gotham fears most. Gotham is already gripped by crime. What if the criminals stopped having reason? What if money couldn't appease the mob? What if crime truly became cruel and indiscriminate.

With this interpretation of the Joker, it makes sense why he changes his story every time he says how he got his scars. Why no one can pinpoint where he came from or why he showed up. Why Batman can never really defeat him. The Jokers whole character concept at his core is that he's not so much a character but a mask given to an abstract concept. And the Dark Knight is the Batman movie that I believe best represents him as this unstoppable force.