#on arthur

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Venom

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Champagne tap

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Openings

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Gunshots and slices

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Metal and sinew

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hi, i've been following you since 2019 when the first Joker movie came out and being able to analyze Arthur, write about him and read what other people write about him (especially your writings in particular) has been a very rewarding experience. i don't think i've ever immersed myself in fandom like that before. so thank you so so much for dissecting every little bit of Arthur and for making me consider things i'd never considered about a character (and real life people in general) before ♥️

anyways, my question is: how did you cope with Arthur's canon death? i know characters live forever, in a certain way but seeing him dead in canon felt so melancholic. he really felt like an old friend to me, as weird as that sounds. thank you for answering and thank you for sharing your art and your thoughts with us for the past 5 years

Thank you so much! I am pleased to know you've enjoyed yourself with Arthur… That what I make inspired further engagement is wonderful. Fandom is an interesting creative space. We are all rubbing against one another's preferences and interpretations and this can be seen as either a benefit or a downside. I really enjoy being made to see a character in a light that is outside my scope or personal interpretation, even if I disagree with it, and I am happy knowing that others are out there who are also drawn to new or different perspectives. Vacuuming up a large collection of character interpretations feels beneficial… it feels additive.

As for the meat of your question:

Learning that Arthur dies convinced me to see the film. I had no intention of seeing it until reading a synopsis.

I personally like stories where main characters die, especially when that death is narratively, emotionally, or visually satisfying. Arthur dying was pushed toward and hinted at in the first film (it could be said that he metaphorically died before his physical transformation into Joker) and the story consistently argues that Arthur is incapable of surviving within a society that is hostile toward him. The sequel takes this idea further by being creatively antagonistic, attacking Arthur physically and mentally in precisely targeted ways. He gets everything he wants but everything he wants torments him until, ultimately, he resigns himself to being himself. The worst fate of all; it represents a relinquishment of hope for something better.

The way it is shot is sadistic compared to the more sympathetic framing of the first, we aren't given much opportunity to be in Arthur's shoes, we're positioned as bystanders or even as participants in his abuse. This is most obvious when contrasting the subway car attack to the prison rape (these are twin scenes: Arthur is stripped of an identity and assaulted). And, importantly, Arthur does not fight back. Arthur accepts absolutely everything that is done to him very passively as if he deserves it, including his own death.

I loved the ending. The mystery visitor suggesting new connections that are immediately made irrelevant. The prolonged, silent, struggling bleeding out. I've always felt that Joker should have ended in graphic public suicide, but that couldn't happen because the film is weighed down by its primary narrative intention being an origin story. I'm happy they found a way around that. For me, part of loving Arthur also involves the undiluted themes and arc of his story, so the missing piece that was his (suggested) death felt like I was being denied something important. But now he is actually dead… what is there to hope for next?

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Dissect