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The Joker (Arthur Fleck)

From The Codex
"Mature Content"
This character or verse has mature themes and concepts, thus those of young age are ill-advised to look through these.
How about another joke, Murray? What do you get when you cross a mentally ill loner with a society that abandons him and treats him like trash?! I’ll tell you what you get! You get what you fucking deserve!
~ Arthur before killing Murray
Have you seen what it's like out there, Murray? Do you ever actually leave the studio? Everybody just yells and screams at each other. Nobody's civil anymore. Nobody thinks what it's like to be the other guy. You think men like Thomas Wayne ever think what it's like to be someone like me? To be somebody but themselves? They don't. They think that we'll just sit there and take it, like good little boys! That we won't werewolf and go wild!
~ Arthur to Murray
When you bring me out, can you introduce me as Joker?
~ Arthur upon becoming Joker
I used to think that my life was a tragedy, but now I realize, it's a fucking comedy.
~ Arthur upon killing his mother
For my whole life, I didn't know if I even really existed. But I do, and people are starting to notice.
~ Arthur
You don't listen, do you? I don't think you ever really hear me. You just ask the same questions every week. "How's your job?" "Are you having any negative thoughts?" All I have are negative thoughts.
~ Arthur

Background

Arthur Fleck, later known as Joker, is titular villainous protagonist of the 2019 film Joker.

Arthur was an amateur stand-up comedian and a professional clown. He lost his job as a clown after being framed by a co-worker. He was later repeatedly assaulted by various people and unsuccessfully tried to resurrect his career.

Arthur also lost access to his medication and therapist, causing him to succumb to madness as he killed his deceitful mother and took on the identity of the Joker.

This dropdown contains the synopsis of Arthur's story. Read at your own risk as you may be spoiled otherwise!

Biography

Joker

Born in Gotham City on November 21, 1946, Arthur had a difficult childhood, suffering bullying from his peers as well as enduring abuse when he was a child. He lived with his mother Penny Fleck who had possibly adopted him. Enduring his abuse, Arthur was found tied to a radiator, bruised and malnourished; he suffered severe head trauma that was believed to have given him his laughing disorder. His disorder caused him to laugh involuntarily at inappropriate times, heightening particularly when he was tensed. He was a very lonely individual whose only company was his mother, but he longed for a romantic relationship- something he was unable to form due to his mental illness.

Having suffered memory loss of his childhood, Arthur could not consciously recall his abuse and spent the majority of his life living with his mother whom he took care of in her old age while he worked jobs to keep their rundown apartment. Longing for a loving father figure in his life, Arthur saw the likes of talk show host Murray Franklin and billionaire Thomas Wayne as his father figures, even daydreaming about being on the Murray Franklin Show and Murray telling him he wished he had a son just like him.

Working as a clown, his job suffered when he was jumped by street punks and the property manager’s signboard was destroyed. His life of crime began after his co-worker, Randall, gave him a .38 revolver as a means of protecting himself from future attacks. Growing more lonely, Arthur romantically fantasized about his neighbor Sophie Dumond, even following her to her daughter's school one day and on the subway train to work. When Sophie later confronted him about it, he admitted to following her and invited her to his stand-up comedy show. During his comedy routine, Arthur was overcome by nervousness, which combined with his laughing disorder, made him laugh hysterically in front of the audience as he struggled to tell jokes. However, to his delight, Sophie had shown up and seemed to be amused by his jokes.

Arthur struggled to maintain a steady pace at his job, and was eventually fired when he accidentally dropped his .38 while doing a clown act for children at a children's hospital and his co-worker Randall lied to their boss about Arthur having wanted to buy a gun from him.

On the subway train home, Arthur, who was dressed in his clown costume and make-up, suffered another episode of uncontrollable laughter when three Wallstreet men were harassing a woman on board. As the woman left, they turned their attention to Arthur, taunted him about his laughing condition and beat him up. Arthur shot and killed all three, thus, beginning his slow, downward spiral into insanity. The so-called murderous clown on the subway train gained local fame, and also infamy within the wealthy. It soon sparked a riot in Gotham City with the motto "kill the rich", where the working class began wearing clown masks in salutation to the anonymous subway killer and looked down on the likes of Thomas Wayne who degraded the poor on public television.

Arthur's sanity dwindled further after losing access to his therapy and psychiatric medications. He later came to believe Thomas Wayne was his father after reading a letter written by his mother in which she claimed he was her and Thomas's son. What followed was a heated argument between Arthur and Penny about her lying to him all those years. Penny held her beliefs that Thomas was a good man and that he could help them financially.

Arthur visited Wayne Manor the next day, where he met Thomas’s young emotionless son, Bruce. As he tried forcing a smile on Bruce's face when he saw how expressionless the child was, a then young Alfred Pennyworth intervened. Arthur stated his mother, Penny, had once worked at Wayne Manor and claimed Thomas Wayne was his father which Alfred denied saying that he knew Penny to be a psychotic and delusional woman who had lied about having an affair with Thomas. Angered, Arthur choked him, reaching from behind closed gates, but spared his life noticing young Bruce was watching and fled the scene.

Having lost his job on the same day that the subway murders had taken place made Arthur a possible suspect, and so two detectives Burke and Garrity came in to question him at his apartment about it. However, Arthur was away at the time, and Penny suffered a stroke during the brief questioning and needed hospitalization. Later, footage of Arthur's stand-up comedy was broadcast on the Murray Franklin Show, but Murray had used it to ridicule him and his laughing condition, which deeply displeased the failed comedian, further fueling his internal rage.

With clown-masked demonstrators protesting outside a charity theater show where Thomas Wayne was, Arthur sneaked into the theater and confronted Thomas in the bathroom about him being Arthur's father. Thomas denied it and asserted Arthur was adopted and that he had never slept with Arthur's mother, alleging that she had been committed to Arkham State Hospital in the past for psychosis. Arthur grew defensive of his mother and asked why Thomas was lying and why people were so rude to him, as he desperately pleaded for Thomas to be a father to him. At Thomas's insult toward his mother, an extremely upset Arthur began laughing in hysterics, much to the annoyance of the billionaire, who then punched Arthur in the face and threatened to kill him if he ever touched his son Bruce again.

Falling into a deeper depression, Arthur enclosed himself in his refrigerator after emptying its contents. A representative from the Murray Franklin Show later phoned him and asked if he would like to appear as a guest on the show to which Arthur said that he would. After discovering his mother’s records at Arkham State Hospital in a folder he had stolen from the clerk at the hospital archives, he uncovered the hard truth that he had been abandoned as a child, adopted by Penny Fleck and abused by her boyfriend when he was a boy and that the head trauma from his injuries might have had caused his laughing condition. Extremely depressed and having lost his sanity altogether, he returned home and broke into Sophie's apartment, the door to which was left unlocked. Terrified, Sophie pleaded for him to leave for the sake of her daughter. Through this, it is revealed that every other moment featuring Sophie was just in Arthur's head as he was imagining happier possibilities.

Back alone in his apartment, Arthur sat alone and smoked, laughing painfully as if unable to cry. Deeply disturbed and enraged by the reveal of his past, he felt as if he had been mistreated and lied to his whole life by the only person he truly loved, his mother. Returning to her at the hospital, Arthur smothered Penny to death in her own bed with her pillow after speaking about how he had thought his life was a tragedy, but now he believed it was "a fucking comedy". He later rehearsed his arrival on the Murray Franklin Show wherein his intention was to commit suicide on live television by shooting himself after pretending to say a joke.

Arthur's former co-workers, Randall and Gary, came to visit him in his apartment in an attempt to cheer him up following his mother’s death. However, Randall's true intentions to visit him were to hear what Arthur had told the detectives about the subway murders so he, Randall, could keep himself out of trouble. Arthur, who had held a grudge against Randall ever since he had got him fired, proceeded to stab the much taller and larger Randall with a pair of scissors before repeatedly bashing his head against the wall near his apartment door and killing him. Arthur spared Gary's life and allowed him to leave unharmed, saying he was the only one who was ever nice to him. Having dyed his hair green, Arthur donned a red suit and wore clown makeup as he got ready for his appearance on the Murray Franklin Show. The two detectives from before caught him dancing down a flight of stairs on the streets and pursued him into a subway. As Arthur slipped into the crowd on the subway train, clown protesters beat up the detectives, allowing him to escape.

Appearing on the Murray Franklin show as ‘Joker’, Arthur exited the curtains as he had rehearsed before. Murray proceeded to mock him a few times as Arthur pulled out a personal journal of his in which he wrote his jokes. The audience were shocked as Arthur told them a dark joke about a drunk driver killing a man. He apologized for the inappropriate joke but confessed to the subway murders along the way. When the audience reacted negatively, he argued that they only cared about the victims because Thomas Wayne had spoken for them and that if it were Arthur in place of the victims, he would be ignored and walked over. A heated argument between Arthur and Murray ensued in which he asserted he found Murray to be awful because he had invited the troubled comedian just to ridicule him. Losing his temper, Arthur shot Murray on live television point-blank in the head, causing blood to splatter against the wall behind. As the audience scattered in terror, the news of Franklin's murder spread fast. Arthur shot the now dead Murray a second time before grabbing the camera lens and saying, "Goodnight! And always remember, that's life!"

Thomas and Martha Wayne were murdered the same night in front of Bruce by a clown protester shortly after they had left a movie theater, thus birthing Batman. Upon Arthur being driven to jail, two clown protesters in an ambulance rammed into the police car which was carrying him and helped free him from being incarcerated. The protesters, finding the two policemen in the front seat dead, brought out Arthur's unconscious body and placed him on the hood of the car. Arthur, coughing up blood, regained his consciousness and stood up on the hood, surrounded by an excited crowd of protesters, all cheering for him loudly. The newly found Joker rose as he smeared the blood from his nose across his mouth and formed a bloody smile, standing amidst the admiration he had longed for all his life. As Joker took full shape, Arthur Fleck was no more.

Character traits

Arthur Fleck began as a lonely individual who had dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian. He longed for a romantic relationship throughout his life, that he seemed to never have gotten. He had a compassionate mother/ son relationship with his mother Penny, until he found out the latter had lied to him and abused him as a child. In the beginning, Arthur appeared to be a kind yet troubled man with a forgotten dark past. For the longest time, he went by his mother’s words that he was brought to bring joy and laughter. Arthur is depicted as a chain smoker with a poor diet. 

After he was pushed to the brink, and killed his mother in a fit of rage, he was willing to murder anyone who wronged him in any way. Arthur's empathy, along with his good nature, dissipated once he assassinated Murray Franklin on live television.

Codex Statistics

Tier: 10-A physically. 9-C with his .38 Smith & Wesson Special

Name: Unknown (His birth name was never founded), Arthur Fleck (Adopted name), The Joker

Origin: Joker, DC

Sex: Male

Age: 34 (According to his adoption documentation, he was born in 1946. The movie is set in 1981)

Classification: Former amateur stand-up comedian and former professional clown, Prisoner

Status: Alive

Alignment: Neutral Good initially (When Arthur was in denial of his sanity and lack of happiness, he still acted typically good without much problems. Even after getting ganged up by a group of kids, he forgot it about and dismissed it simply by saying they're only kids. He's been taking care of his adoptive mother for nearly his entire life. He generally just tries to get along with kids he meets for fun. When under the lie that his neighbor liked him, his perception was the two having a good time. Arthur initially only wanted peace and kept putting on a smile as told by his adoptive mother, having no general ill intent) to Chaotic Evil (Arthur for his whole life has been mentally unstable due to being abandoned upon birth and was abused very early on in his childhood from his adoptive mother. He committed his first crime after killing three men one by one, even chasing down one of his victims when at a point it would no longer be considered self-defense. He kept shooting repeatedly and merely danced off what he's just done in acceptance. He stalked Sophie, an innocent bystander. He's never been happy his entire life, and has only felt pain from it all. He later killed his adoptive mom inside a hospital as an act of revenge for the abuse and lies she's fed him. When hearing his doorbell being rung, his first instinct was to grab a pair of scissors to kill whoever came, that being Randall. He ignored the fact that he just committed another murder, only letting Gary live due to being the only person nice towards him. When two investigators were wanting to speak to him, Arthur ran away from the two. At an attempt to escape from them, he caused a fight in a subway, letting someone get shot for him to leave. This later caused the entire group to gang up and severely injure both investigators, to which Arthur found amusing and funny. His joke book contained dark "humor" about murder, to which he genuinely enjoyed. After admitting to the murders he committed, Arthur claimed he has nothing to lose and found killing people to be funny, later even joking about it. Arthur went as far to even shoot his former idol, someone who he's always wanted to meet. He laughed, shot the corpse again, then danced off the event. Arthur caused an entire mob to riot over Gotham, to which he claims the sight is beautiful. His actions caused people to commit crimes such as arson, destruction, robbery, or even killing cops and families. Arthur came to fully accept what he has done, and the group of people terrorizing the city. Even after being locked up in a mental asylum, Arthur proceeds to kill, such as his psychologist)

Dimensionality: 3-D

Attack Potency: Peak Human level (With just a single headbutt, Arthur can crack a window from a telephone booth. Punched a clock off of a wall with a few punches. Overpowered Alfred by choking him through a metal fence. Killed Randall, a man larger than himself, by bashing his head on a wall repeatedly. Killed his psychologist, despite being in handcuffs and having no weapons). Bone level with his .38 Smith & Wesson Special

Durability: Peak Human level (Took a hit from a wooden sign being broken on him. Was unharmed by breaking a telephone booth's window with a headbutt. Shrugged off a car crash, which broke its front window)

Striking Strength: Peak Human Class

Lifting Strength: Average Human level

Travel Speed: Average Human level (Outran two officers)

Combat Speed: Average Human level, Transonic with his .38 Smith & Wesson Special

Reaction Speed: Average Human level

Stamina: Above Average (Outran two officers after taking a car crash)

Range: Standard Melee Range, Hundreds of Meters with his .38 Smith & Wesson Special

Intelligence: Average


Powers and Techniques

Weapon Usage (Arthur uses his .38 Smith & Wesson Special to shoot various people, or a pair of scissors to stab)


Equipment

.38 Smith & Wesson Special

Optional Equipment: Pair of scissors


Other

Standard Tactics: Arthur will normally pull out his gun to shoot at someone, or use his scissors to stab them up close.

Weaknesses: Arthur is mentally ill.

Battle Records

None.

None.

None.