Two Faces of Power

Two Faces of Power

Why does an unstoppable force meet an immovable object?

Gotham city; soon this infamous city would be tagged by Superman as a nightmare built out of metal and stone. The city remained in the control of organised crime and a dark veil remained across its stratosphere all the time. In this feature, Batman, a brooding young boy and Joker, a mere reflection of what he would later become, studied together in 6^th grade. Young Bruce was well loved and respected in school, while his future arch nemesis, a Young Joker - if you could indulge the whisper - was a brat, always teasing and pranking his classmates. Joker was too excited most of the time to remain calm. He hated school and even more so, rules. Tests only tested his patience but his ingenuity pronounced itself in his flair to torment students and teachers alike. Only one kid could foil his plans. Obviously - you guessed it - it was the righteous Bruce.

One such day when Bruce has just foiled the Joker's plan to douse Vicki in cranberry juice, Batman returned triumphantly back to Vicki after chasing the Joker away. He bent down to check on Vicki, offering to help her get up. Something strange happened that day. Bruce's gesture of kindness was met with a scoff. "Bruce," said Vicki, "you spoilt my dress, and look - my homework has mud on it." Bruce was a bit surprised and pleaded, "But I did not do it. The Joker..."

"Yes, Joker is an irritating nuisance. But you pushed me. Couldn't you be more gentle, Bruce? You act like a Hero but honestly I think you both just enjoy chasing each other. Please understand you are not a Hero I need." She noticed Bruce perplexed and added, "Don't worry, I am just mad that I lost my homework and have a messy dress. You are sweet for trying to help me. Thanks. Now I need to go to the ladies room. Meet you in class? Hmm?"

This was not what was strange about the day for Bruce. He had noticed that his friends seemed to be tired of Joker's antics but recently they have been a bit short tempered with him as well after he saves them from minor misdemeanours. What was strange was that he no longer wanted to be a beacon of righteousness; he wanted to be responsible for everyone and have everyone respect him for it.

Little known is what transpired later in a seedy little room. Well, the room was not really seedy, it was the cafeteria. However, the conversation and the deal made in that room would be unsavoury. A lot of unsavoury things have passed through that cafeteria before but none so vile. Scratch that, vile stuff had passed through that cafeteria as well. So a very normal thing happened in that room that day which not many people know about. Bruce called Joker after school for a te-te.

"Why do you like being the class Joker, dude? Why do you keep pranking people?" Bruce asked. He had no particular need for an answer to this question. What he was looking for was to initiate a dialogue with Joker. Bruce wanted to relate to Joker since it seemed his classmates were making some connection he did not completely understand. Indeed, he spent a lot of time thwarting Joker but he was also the class president, a star student and Most Likely to Succeed. Then why was Vicki angry at him when he helped her? She should be angry at Joker, not at him for saving her. Ok, so he did push her onto the ground. But he pushed her away from the spill as well. What was he? Hmm? Is he like a super man or something who either knew the plan from before or gently pushed in the heat of the battle?

Bruce was being taken over by his inner dialogue and realised that both of them have not spoken for a while now. Clearly Joker seemed confused with the question, so he added "What joy do you get out of it?"

Joker, on the other hand, was tired of Bruce always being onto him. Like any normal teenager, all he wanted was attention and would even be satisfied with a piece of the pie. He was brilliant too and smart but just because he is unconventional, he should not be ignored. What he wanted was to be the Bruce of the class; however, since that job was already taken, he disrupted everything to get attention in the next best possible way. He himself had no plan, didn't stand for anything and would accomplish nothing, so he just stood for everything that was the opposite of Bruce. A one-man Bruce opposition party. That also worked for him really well. He did have a very silent fan-following. Sometimes even the good kids would covertly discuss with him how nauseating Bruce is. A lot of them also encouraged and promoted him to be a nuisance, something that Bruce did not know.

The question, "What joy do you get out of it?" sprang the Joker back into his surroundings. "Joy? Joy? Ha ha ha.... You are so clueless, Bruce. Did you know that everyone is tired of YOUR antics? Always helping others, being nice, obedient and responsible. You are like an annoying little Bat boy in a baseball match. I want everyone to acknowledge me too, you know. But nooooo..." The Joker's inner sassiness revealed itself and he quickly collected his form. "Ha ha ha. Everyone is tired of Bruce. I will be the class president soon. Then everyone will recognise me, even if it is just to reject YOU."

"Ok then", said Bruce.

As we slowly pan out from close frame on the two of them to a wide shot of the Cafeteria with the Dark Knight theme song playing in the back and Bruce explaining something to the Joker while he listens intently, we are not able to fathom the importance of this poignant movie ending shot. This is because nobody had told us Bruce and the Joker went to the same school. Or that Vicki Vale also somehow went the same school and for some reason they were all in the same class - Vicki playing out the Damsel in Distress, Bruce the Hero and Joker the Villain. All these seemingly impossible things somehow happened, but more importantly, nobody told us that Batman and Joker had a conversation in a seedy cafeteria. Because if we knew, all their future comical story plots would make sense.

A fog covered metropolis Gotham city which is also the breeding ground of most super villains. At some point in its timeline, in a squalid cafeteria, future Batman and Joker hatched a clever plan. Batman and Joker both wanted power and recognition; one was ready to accept infamy while the other was not. Batman, however, was tired of people wanting more and more out of him. Isn't saving someone's life good enough that they will also complain about how he did it? He theorised that people do not like stability for too long. As Freud noted "We are so made, that we can only derive intense enjoyment from a contrast and only very little from a state of things." Hence he was convinced that people inherently like to complain. And since he cannot keep getting better, all he had to do was change people's condition so that good is always better. That is when Joker comes in. Joker also wants recognition and power but while Bruce is around all he can be is the opposition party. So every once in a while when people start wanting Batman to be better, Joker will come and rule the populace. He isn't there to do teach anything, solve anything or change anything. He is there to satisfy the homo-sapien urge for disruption. Once they get a taste of Joker, Batman seems better again.

They completely understood each other and never again spoke about this. The last locution of this meeting was the Joker asking "Why do you want this?" To which the future dark knight answered "Who do they think I am? Superman?"