At Paladone we love delving into theories surrounding movies, comics and games. If you haven’t read our fan theories article part 1 yet, then what are you waiting for? Below we have outlined a few more interesting fan theories.
DC Comics
The Joker is not insane. This theory is already raising eyebrows but there is a lot to support the argument that the Joker is not insane but is in fact “super-sane”. Firstly, the Joker has far too much empathy and understanding of human emotion to be psychopathic. Whilst his countless murders may suggest otherwise his ability to play with people’s emotions in order to manipulate them demonstrates high levels of empathy. Empathy that he used to turn Harleen Quinzel into his murderous sidekick Harley Quinn. A top of this, Joker’s powers of persuasion and understanding of people’s emotions have allowed him to manipulate even the most brilliant of minds such as Lex Luthor, who he has persuaded into doing his bidding by playing to his hatred of Superman and lust for power. The Joker cannot be psychotic if he doesn’t suffer psychosis which he doesn’t. He is not known to have auditory or visual hallucinations and shows little to no signs of being delusional.
So, the Joker is not a psychopath but is he insane? Insanity is a legal term and when an insanity plea is entered into court ultimately it comes down to a jury to decide whether or not the accused is insane or not. In real life, an insanity plea is used in fewer than one percent of cases and is successful only a fifth of the time which makes it particularly strange that the Joker has been found insane after many of his crimes although they show no actual signs of genuine insanity.
The Joker’s actions where described by one Arkham physician as meticulously calculated and not the workings of a mad man but someone who is perfectly sane and that the Joker should be sent to prison and executed not sent to Arkham asylum. However, since the physician transpired to be Harleen Quinzel whom later became Harley Quinn all of this information was dismissed.
Arkham psychologists classed Joker as a special case and unofficially diagnosed him as “super-sane”. The Joker himself is referenced as being “differently Sane” and ahead of the curve. In its simplest form the term “super-sane” just means that someone has the ability to break the 4th wall, like Marvel’s Deadpool.
Joker knows he is a comic book character which explains him winking directly at the camera when in animated form and grabbing speech bubbles, talking about his audience despite being alone and even once asking the artist to stop drawing Batman when on the pages of a comic. Such things have previously been passed off as clever jokes but this theory suggests that there is more to it.
In the comic “Going sane”, believing he has killed Batman the Joker leaves behind crime to become a normal functioning member of society. This shows Joker reassessing his belief that he is a comic book character as a comic would not kill of the main character. Joker stops second guessing himself once he realises Batman is not dead and takes up the mantle as the clown prince of crime once more.
Also, after using the Lazarus pit which causes temporary insanity to its user the joker ended up being temporarily normal, relaxed, rational, and sorry for his actions. The Lazarus turning Joker sane was actually the Lazarus pit taking him one level of sanity below what he is, the same thing it does when turning sane people insane.
The inconsistencies in his back story only aid this theory after all it doesn’t need to make sense if he is a comic book character simply fulfilling his role as the main villain. In addition to this, the Joker’s 4th wall breaking abilities would explain why he was able to identify Spider-man in a Marvel / DC crossover comic from a previous crossover comic despite it not being canon.
Through his many years in the pages of comics Joker has been laughing and trying to tell people about life’s biggest joke – what if the joke is how much people care for the countless people he has killed because they don’t see that they are not real people but mere comic book characters.
These quotes from a conversation within a comic all but confirm this theory as fact. Whilst locked in an isolation tank Joker was chatting away and when asked what he was doing he replied, “I was entertaining my fans”, continuing to say “I make people laugh, not everyone is here to see the Batman ya know”. When told that he was not a clown entertaining his audience but a murderer he retorted “it just so happens that I have a very demanding public, I’m constantly striving to meet their expectations, do you have any idea how much pressure I’m under”. The doctor in the conversation asked Joker whether he had considered that his “fans” were figments of his imagination but the Joker just replied “has it ever occurred to you doc that we’re just figments of theirs?”
Disney
There are many theories around how various Disney films are connected and how characters from those different films are linked – one such theory is that Tarzan is Anna and Elsa’s younger brother. The theory is that Anna, Elsa and Tarzan share the same parents. During Frozen Elsa and Anna’s parents leave on a ship, and as some theorists believe they are going to the wedding of Rapunzel. As part of this theory it is believed that Rapunzel is Anna and Elsa’s cousin which is why they came from Germany to attend Elsa’s coronation. As seen in Frozen the ship was caught in a storm and Anna and Elsa’s parents did not return. It is possible that the parents however, did not die on the ship but made it to an island. The island where Tarzan is set.
Instantly there are continuity issues such as the ship in Tarzan being on fire, which is still possible as whilst the ship in frozen took on water, we never saw it sink and in the midst of a lightning storm the ship could easily have caught fire. Of course, the biggest problem with this theory would appear to be that Tarzan, who was on the boat at the beginning of the Tarzan movie would have to have been born during the voyage to be Elsa and Annas brother. It is also very possible that the child is not Anna and Elsa’s parent’s but was on the ship with them and they rescued and raised him, until they were killed by a jaguar and gorillas took over the role as parents. This would make Tarzan Anna and Elsa’s adopted brother in a round about way.
Whilst this theory may seem far-fetched the continuity issues exist only on the screen. When stripped to its bones as the base story there is no problem and whilst the visuals may not match up perfectly it is to be expected from films made 14 years apart especially when they were not created in chronological order or with the initial intention of being linked. The concept for Frozen wouldn’t have even been conjured up when Tarzan was released. When ignoring that Tarzan was on the boat at the beginning of the film the plot falls together nicely which when talking about films created so far apart we can forgive the minute potential plot hole caused by the short opening scene in which Tarzan is lowered from the burning boat after all the movie is just one interpretation of the story.
Further connecting Frozen to other Disney movies is the idea that the ship from the shipwreck at the beginning of The Little Mermaid is the same ship that Elsa and Anna’s parents where on, which is an intriguing concept since Frozen was created over two decades after The Little Mermaid.
These are just two of many intriguing fan theories which make you view the films, animations, and comics in an entirely different light. As well viewing characters differently, who would have thought that the Joker might just be the sanest character in the whole of the DC Universe.
