[ SECRET POST #2598 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2598 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 031 secrets from Secret Submission Post #371.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[rubbertea]

Yeah, it's like the Batman-can't-ever-just-bulldoze-the-Joker problem
I don't see why heroes having a bit of a darker (and sending criminals to jail isn't even a 'dark' thing to do ffs) side is so scary to creators. I mean, people tend to like it, even, so what's the big deal?

[intrigueing]

Uh....I have no idea what you're saying? Holmes sends tons of people to jail. The times he DOESN'T send them to jail are exceptions. If anything, his 'dark' side comes out when he decides "okay, this murderer was justified" like in Devil's Foot or Charles Augustus Milverton.

[rubbertea]

The way the secret's worded made it sound like he freed more people than that.

[intrigueing]

Oh I see! Well...no. He's freed quite a few people, but it's still the exception to the rule. ;)

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know. Prisons are scary, scary places even today, rife with physical and sexual violence, drug trafficking and dangerous rivalries. Prisons in Victorian England... well. I don't imagine they were much nicer.

Don't forget this was also a time period where the law enacted much harsher punishments for what we'd consider more minor crimes, like theft where nobody is hurt/killed. You could be hanged for a petty crime, for example. In contrast, getting deported to Australia for stealing was the "light" punishment.

So yeah, sounds rather dark to me.

[intrigueing]

Yeah, in the blue carbuncle Holmes even points out that sending the guy to jail will make him a thug for life, whereas sparing him might allow him to change his ways and make something of himself.

[(Anonymous)]

Deportation was finished 30 years before Holmes was written. I agree with your general point, though.

[(Anonymous)]

More like 21 years, actually.

[darkmanifest]

In Joker's case, I don't think it's so much the creators being afraid, as the Joker being such an inspirational goldmine as the villain who's challenged Batman the most. So there's some paltry excuses provided for why Bats doesn't just off the guy, when we all know that in-universe he would have done it by now if not for fourth-wall necessity.

[intrigueing]

Eh, I would say in Batman, they started as paltry excuses, but the writers managed to turn the paltry excuses into a really facinating character trait.

[darkmanifest]

Oh, true, that's part of Joker's inspirational goldmine. We get to see the conflict and consequences of Batman refusing to cross that line (such as with Jason Todd) and those stories are worth all the frustration of Joker not being in a well-deserved hole in the ground.

[blunderbuss]

I do love those stories - Under The Red Hood is one of my favorite comics of all time - but I disagree that they're worth the frustration. It explains why Batman won't kill the Joker or will allow him to be killed, but they never explain why no one else in the whole universe doesn't do it themselves. Even though everyone in the world knows that the Joker can escape whenever he wants and knows that he will just kill again, not a single person takes steps to prevent the inevitable.

Heck, I never really understood why Jason never kept trying to kill him, even if it took blowing up Arkham.

[darkmanifest]

That's a good point. It's not like Batman is the only game in town.