Batman Should Kill The Joker

Thanks for accepting.How People View BatmanTo the city he is trying to save, Batman is a symbol of hope. He is one man who has taken a stand against the crime and corruption within Gotham. And he does so without compromise. He maintains an unwavering code no matter how much it weighs on him at times. He is the epitome of human restraint, whereas The Joker is fittingly the exact opposite. I contend that Batman is viewed as a hero by most people and inspires them to see the hero in themselves because of the way he goes about fighting crime. Think about it. Gotham is full of perceived lunatics, and if Batman were to start stooping down to their level, he would begin to be seen as a lunatic himself. It is his moral uprightness and refusal to kill that makes him admirable in the eyes of the people he's trying to protect.A vigilante who takes lives into his own hands is often perceived as out of control and arrogant. Who is this guy who is going around killing people? What are his standards? Who will he kill next? Can we really trust him to fight for our city, or is he just a crazed man fulfilling his need for blood whilst fooling himself with the cover of 'justice'? These are all thoughts that could come up if Batman took a life. It is the fact that he refuses to take a life that allows him to be respected by the people. He looks like a man who has boundaries. It gets back to the idea of restraint. The people of Gotham can trust Batman because he is incorruptible in his code. And from trust comes respect, and from there hope for Gotham's better days. The hope Batman inspires brings out the best in Gothamites. They stand up for and help each other. That is what Batman is, a sign of hope for people to rally around. He is that symbol because he is incorruptible.I do realize that most of that is centered around why Batman shouldn't kill in general, but my next section will increase the above section's relevance. RestraintWhy does Batman show such restraint? I have outlined very clearly one good reason above, but I believe there is a reason that is more personal for Batman. He has a serious darkness inside him. You may have heard Batman and Joker called two sides of the same coin, and I believe this is because they both have a darkness. They both just express it in different ways. This darkness within Batman is seen all throughout Batman stories[1][2][3], it is a prevalent theme.I believe that Batman is aware of this darkness. In fact, Batman is the darkness inside Bruce Wayne, but in a restrained form. Aware as he is of his inner demons, he won't let himself cross that line and kill. He doesn't know where that will take him, what kind of person that will make him. There is good reason to speculate though, that after he kills once, it will become easier.I mean, if he's going to kill The Joker, it'll be under the justification of, "It saves lives." So maybe he continues that route, starts killing other people who are extremely likely to go on to kill more. Reference that idea with the above section. Yeah, not good. If Batman starts taking lives into his hands, he goes from an incorruptible symbol of hope and strength, to a man dressed as a Bat playing judge, jury, and executioner. The unity that was once provided by such an untarnished symbol now fades, and as the city loses its rallying point, it will fall back into the darkness that Batman once rescued it from.It doesn't just stop there. Eventually Batman may take his concept of "It'll save lives" so far that it becomes, "it could save lives". That is a dark path. It suggests killing people on the chance or off chance that they will do more damage. The moral implications at this point on the path are iffy. Will Batman actually be saving more than he kills if he starts saying, "It could save lives"? And even if he is, if we reference again back to the first section, Batman looks even worse than before in the eyes of the people. And as Batman spirals further down this road of life-taking, he may even reach a point where life has barely any meaning to him. He may leave his enemies as corpses behind him as he stops crimes, killing people that may have never committed a crime again. At this point, a utilitarian argument that lives are being saved can no longer be made. Add that to how this look with the first section, and we see why this would be a bad place for Batman to be.RecapBatman is a symbol of hope to people. He remains such a strong symbol because of the way he fights crime. He shows to people that there is a way to fight the enemy without becoming as bad as the enemy. He shows that he has boundaries, that he can be trusted, respected, depended upon to be Gotham's moral center. Yet he also has a darkness within him, and if he gives that darkness full rein in killing The Joker, not only will that severely damage his role as a symbol of hope, it will also likely take his inner demons down a darker and darker path until he is no longer a trusted protector of Gotham, but rather a psychopath in a cape.Sources:[1] [2] [3]