How (most) Batman villains are twisted aspects of his own character

A thread...

Joker

Both Batman and joker are stitched from the same cloth, both victims of Gotham, a city that breaks and destroys people. After the death of Bruce’s parents he chose to help change the city that ruined his life while joker chooses to mock it. Life something that is valued so

much by Bruce has no value in the eyes of the joker, his willingness to kill for simply no reason at all with zero remorse is a constant reminder to Bruce as to why he cannot allow himself to kill. It raises the question of how many lives most one take to be numb to the feeling

of taking it. A question that Bruce hopes to never know the answer to. While Batman restrains himself with his moral codes joker loses any sense of morality and instead chooses to embrace his darkest inhibitions

Two face

The split personality of Harvey dent and two face is a clear parallel to Bruce’s split personas as billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne who helps the city through funding charity’s, building housing, and establishing stronger foundations throughout Gotham and Batman who

Uses fear, intimidation, and violence to fix the things in Gotham no ordinary man can. Harvey dent much like Bruce is someone who wants to help Gotham through a systematic level by working in line with the law while two face seeks to take the law into his own hands with his own

Unique definition of justice similar to Bruce taking the law into his own hands as batman. Two faces struggle between personalities is a dark reflection of what Bruce can become if he lives his whole life under two masks never revealing his true face

Penguin

Penguin is a dark reflection of Bruce’s playboy persona, where Bruce uses his mask as playboy Bruce Wayne to help Gotham from a financial standpoint penguin benefits from its destruction by profiting off of selling the same weapons that took the life of Bruce’s parents

All those years ago. Cobblepot shows what could have happened to a Bruce without Alfred someone who after the death of his parents detaches himself from people and his city looking only to better himself with little to no consideration for others.

Ra’s al ghul

Bruce and ra’s both believe that simply a man cannot change the world, something greater is needed to stop the spread of crime. Ras uses the league of assassins to help destroy crime and restore order, he believes in the idea that fear breeds change

His never ending war against crime is similar to bruces, the difference between ras’ crusade and Bruce’s is that Bruce believes in the good in even the worst of people, he believes that to change the world you have to change the people in it not the things around them

Ras on the other hand does not value all life and instead seeks to weed out those that refuse to change. Both of their dedication to their missions are unmatched with both cheating death time and time again to complete them.

Mr freeze

Mr freeze quite plainly shows what could become of Bruce without his support group. The bat family is what keeps Bruce stable it is what allows him to ground himself. Without them he would truly believe himself to be Batman, he would become cold, calculating, and hell

Bent on completing his mission with no consideration of what will become of him in the process, in all senses without his family and friends Bruce would lose his humanity, he would lose his morality and would only care about completing the mission. After losing Nora freeze was

Alone driving him to stop at nothing to get her back, losing his soul in the process. One similarity between both freeze and Bruce is there unwillingness to let go something that has been stated time and time again. Both freeze and Bruce are unable to let go of the ones they lost

Killer croc

Killer croc shows what could become of Bruce if he embraced the monster inside of him. Jones’ disfigurement caused him to be labeled as a monster his entire life, so in turn he became one. Similarly Bruce is seen as a monster that stalks the dark alleys of Gotham

Spreading fear to criminals of its underworld, but that is not who Bruce really is, Bruce is kind, compassionate, and hopeful, that Is what makes him Batman, it is why he doesn’t leave Gotham because he believes it can change, if Bruce ever became the monster that the criminals

Of Gotham see him as he would lose that and become merely an empty husk searching for vengeance, spreading fear to not only those he fights but to those he swore to protect. Waylon became the monster that Gotham made him, while Bruce strives to be something greater.

Scarecrow

Scarecrow is a simple one, he represents Bruce’s deep rooted connection to fear. The driving force behind batman is fear, without it batman as a concept would not work. But while Bruce uses fear as a tool, while crane forms a fixation with fear, allowing it to control

Every aspect of his life, his obsession with fear and how to use it against others becomes an obsession. Similar to how Bruce uses Gotham as a testing zone for his “experiment” as Batman crane uses it to experiment on fear. With Batman’s guinea pigs being the criminals of Gotham

And cranes being it’s citizens. Both use fear after lifelong traumas, but cranes obsession with it shows a possible dark reflection of Bruce and his identity as the Batman.

Riddler

People always love to point out how Batman is unbeatable with prep time but it is simply true that Batman’s preparedness and protocols are part of his character. His high intellect and him being a master strategist are some of his defining traits. Even I. The most

Inescapable of situations he always seems to pull through. Which is what makes Edward nigma such a perfect parallel. With nigmas high intellectual prowess also comes his fixation with being one step ahead, he may not be a physical threat but he challenges Batman mentally

And of course is always bested in the end. If there is one thing nigma cant stand it is being outsmarted, similar to a certain caped crusader who seemingly has a protocol and procedures for every occasion.

Bane

After undergoing a childhood of trashed similar to Bruce Wayne after the death of his parents, bane trains his mind and body to the peak of human conditioning. He like Batman perseveres through any challenge, banes strategical mind can be easily compared to Batman’s

With him famously taking down the dark knight with barely having to fight him. Both bane and Bruce share a hunger for vengeance, bane was Imprisoned for his fathers crimes, he escapes pena dura and goes to Gotham hell bent on destroying Batman to rule the city like he ruled the

Prison. Unlike Bruce bane grew up with no compassion and no love. Where Bruce had Alfred bane had nobody. Bane chooses to take control of both pena dura and Gotham to compensate for his lack of control for his awful childhood, when he was imprisoned from birth for a crime he did

Not Commit. Bane serves as a possible example as to what would happen to bruce if he had never known the love of his parents, a Batman without compassion that loses faith in his city seeking only to control it as Batman.

Catwoman

Catwoman is an interesting one, Selina makes it clear that her reasoning for committing crime comes from excitement and thrill. She robs and steals but after a while she doesnt HAVE to any longer but she continues to do it for the rush she gets from putting on the suit

While Bruce puts on the cowl due to a sense of responsibility, he seeks to honor a promise that he was never asked to make. Selina not only shows a possible dark reflection of Batman being used out of a sense of catharsis for Bruce rather than a promise he made on his parents

Grave. The idea of a Batman that does what he does for fun seems strange and even freighting, much more akin to daredevil than Batman. A hero that uses violence to cope with the tragedies of life. But Selina also poses the question of, if Bruce’s mission was completed would he

Continue to patrol the streets, or would his mission never truly be over, would in his eyes his promise never be fully fulfilled?

Poison Ivy

Ivy is an interesting case, she shares a love for life similar to Bruce, the catch is its plant life, when it comes to humans ivy holds a cynical view. She has no care for humans and in her life has not been treated well by humans, having emotionally distant to

Abusive parents, and being pushed aside in many aspects of her life, humans have caused ivy nothing but pain. It’s easy to see how Bruce could have fallen down this rabbit whole as well. His parents who did nothing but help the citizens of Gotham, where gunned down in an alley

By the very same people they were trying to help, it’s not hard to see how Bruce could become cynical towards humanity and especially the citizens of Gotham after that. But strangely Bruce does the opposite, he protects the city and aims to help it. Two characters who have

Been wronged by humanity, but one seeks to destroy it while the other seeks to preserve it.