Random Thoughts

[Enigma!]

Damn. It's been too long since I last visited here.

J.T., is it strange that I had the Bogey Man as my first imaginary friend?

[J. T./Jessica]

...I am not a good tool to measure the strangeness of things, Daniel.

Though it makes a kind of sense. Most young kids are scared of the Bogey Man, so by not only accepting him but making him your friend you give yourself a level of power and protection that they would lack, if only in your mind - of course, of all weapons and defenses the mind is the most powerful, so if anything that would make it even more effective.

...This has been Psycho-Minute, with the resident psycho...

[Enigma!]

Eh, I wouldn't go that far with it.

It just seemed to me that there were more frightening things than some monster that my mom couldn't even describe.

[J. T./Jessica]

I know... You'd think they'd at least come up with some kind of description to use instead of just the generic term "Bogey Man". I don't know about you, but that conjures to my mind the image of a pile of snot with limbs - disgusting, but not frightening.

[Enigma!]

Ooooooh Star Trek. This is where I regain my geek street cred by knowing way too much about it. It's a show I love to hate. The Prime Directive is the worst- my favourite analogy is this:

Let's say that in 1780 the United States transforms itself into the Federation- they solve poverty and hardship, they create a wonderful utopia that is free of slavery, religion, inequality, and all other unscientific things. They also write the Prime Directive into the constitution- no American can cross the Appellation frontier and risk interfering with the primitive people living in the North American interior. They dare not risk poisoning their "natural evolution" with technology that the Indians aren't ready for. The American navy (newly outfitted with phasers to make them the strongest force in the world) has regular contact with other fleets and goes out to explore new islands and territories without ever conquering them, but will not trade or sell or give technology to anyone.

Now hopefully you can already see the sort of problems that will develop- the Natives are free from the threat of American invasion, but what's to stop the Spanish, British, and Russians from colonizing the American interior? For that matter, how exactly does the American Federation government stop its own citizens from walking across the mountains and settling in Illinois or killing random Natives or worse yet showing them how to make rifles? What the hell does "natural evolution" mean when we are talking about members of the same species over time periods of mere decades and centuries? Who decides if the Cherokee are ready to build printing presses and iron foundries? Do the Cherokee get to decide that, or the Americans?

I once had an idea for a story all about a Star Trek-like federation that used this sort of rhetoric as a way to in fact keep down "primitive" species and maintain their own hegemony. I'll probably never write it, though, because it's frikken Star Trek and nobody cares.

I dare someone to make a fic like this. NOW.

[J. T./Jessica]

Mm...

Harry Turtledove.

[Enigma!]

How to Bogey:

• As the Bogeyman, you are the servant of the goddess of justice, and must do her bidding.
  
• You have the power to see into people's hearts and know what evils they have done and their worst fears.
  
• Once you have chosen a target, you cannot transform back into human mode or stop bringing their fears to life until they have fully payed for their transgressions.
  
• You cannot attack anyone who has not willingly committed a serious offense against humanity.
  
  • You may not use your powers against someone who has the intent to commit an offense but has not done so yet.
    
  • Murders committed in self-defense, robberies, and accidents do not count.
    
  • Offenses committed while under the influence of drugs, or while insane, or forced into committing by someone else do not count.
    
  
  
• You can transform into whatever the target offender fears most and use it to assault and frighten him until the goddess of justice feels he has been punished enough or he goes insane with fright. Whichever comes first.
  
• If the offender fears nothing, your powers are useless against him.
  
• Your powers will not work within ten meters of sacred ground (places of worship, graveyards, houses of just and pious church leaders, Stonehenge, etc.), or in daylight.
  
• If you are exposed to sunlight for longer than five minutes while in Bogey mode, you will spontaneously combust and both you and the Bogey Man will cease to exist.
  

[J. T./Jessica]

Sounds interesting and something I wouldnae mind reading if ya ever get around to writin it.

[Enigma!]

Random thought # 20000000:

With all the times the Joker appeared to have died in the comics and animated series, it doesn't seem likely he could have survived all of those...

What if there's more than one Joker?

[J. T./Jessica]

That's a possibility - there's actually rumors in the Gotham underworld that there's not one Batman but rather a strike force of Batmen that answer directly to Gordon as his own personal S.W.A.T. team...

Let's see...
Died came back as a bio-computer chip using CADMUS technology that controlled Tim Drake (Animated/Beyond)...
Given the death sentence and executed, only to come back as a computer program to fight a Bruce Wayne/Bat-comp program, James Gordon II/Batman, and a new Robin and new Catwoman (Graphic novel "Digital Justice" - which is freakin' awe-SOME.).


Then there's the Jokerz in Batman Beyond, but since they're a lame copy gang and not the Clown Prince himself, I don't know if they count...

Then there's Dark Knight Returns, where he is more or less comatose at the beginning of the events, comes out of it to kill some three or four HUNDRED people, then commits suicide right in front of Batman's eyes....


Oh, and since JLU - "Epilouge" shows "Mask of the Phantasm" to be canon in the TAS/JLU/Beyond continuity, there's the fact that Joker appearantly survives the destruction of the ENTIRE FREAKIN' GOTHAM WORLD FAIR AND COMES BACK TO KIDNAP ROBIN (Re: Return of the Joker)...


....You know, Harley IS a formerly-licensed Psychiatrist... Maybe you're right, maybe there's not one Joker, maybe every time a Joker dies, Harley uses old Psychiatrist techniques combined with things like the Joker's 'die laughing' gas and assorted gimmicks to turn someone into a new Joker. I mean, she's a former Psychiatrist, so she CAN'T be a stupid as she seems in the Animated Series....

Not to mention that she and Poison Ivy are the ONLY members of Batman's Rogues Gallery that seem to be able to work as a team EFFECTIVELY. Think about it; whenever Harley and Ivy team up, Batman and Robin usually find themselves outmatched - it takes them, Babs and even Nightwing on occasion to win, they have to OUTNUMBER Harley and Ivy to beat them...

[Enigma!]

Yeah, exactly! As far as I'm concerned, the original Joker died quite some time ago. Most of the clowns Batman fights are clones made by Harley or someone else.

To be specific, I think the Joker thought far enough ahead to prepare a means to keep making carnage in Gotham and elsewhere if he ever bit the big one while fighting Batman. The ultimate joke: Joker's been dead for... years, and Batman's still fighting him.

[J. T./Jessica]

It's not like mind controlling tech doesn't exist, after all.

From any one of their dozen short-lived alliances, it would have been easy for Joker to get ahold of some of Mad Hatter's cards. Then he could just reprogram them so that instead of being loyal to Hatter, the victim would think THEY were the Joker....
Not really all THAT different from what he tried to do with Tim, really...


Or maybe it's the other way around, Daniel - the REAL Joker was in hidding, sending out clones and doubles to face Batman and they were who died. Too many...
So as a last ditch effort, he PERSONALLY came out to capture Tim Drake and turn him into the next Joker and that was when the real one finally died - only to have his mind engrams come back some forty or fifty years later in "Return of the Joker"...
Or maybe even before then - He took over the Jokerz gang rather quickly and troublelessly when he came back - maybe the Joker-chip had been semi-active all along and had been behind the creation, funding, etc. of the Jokerz...?

[Enigma!]

Very good points. But I think the Joker enjoys doing his dirty work himself too much to hide behind an army of clones like that. And one of the main points of the Joker is that he sees all life -including his own- as a big joke. Batman fighting a dead man would be a punchline he couldn't resist setting up.

[J. T./Jessica]

True, but one could say that is the reasoning behind the Joker-chip in the first place.


On a side note;
Mm... the Terry vs. The Joker scene at the end of Return epitomizes the differences between Terry and Bruce with the whole "He likes to talk; ignore it and power on through"/"Wait a minute, I like to talk too." thing...

[BloodAngel]

I'm going to sit here and hope you guys haven't just, oh, I don't know..

RUINED THE ENDING OF THE DARK KINGHT RETURNS FOR ME!