History WMG / AmericanPsycho

[[WMG: Patrick Bateman is SelfDemonstrating/Deadpool.]]

[[WMG: Patrick Bateman is [[{{Home Alone}} Kevin McCallister, all grown up]].]]

*** Or, as someone once put it, Patrick Bateman hasn't killed anyone...''yet''.

The book's opening and closing lines, 'Abandone hope all ye who enter here' and 'This is not an exit' reference Dante's Inferno and Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit. Patrick is actually dead and in hell. Every other character in the book is a demon, and are purposely letting Patrick get away with his crimes, and acting like shallow morons to drive Patrick insane, as part of his punishment. The graffiti and the sign on the door at the end is basically the fabric of hell taunting Bateman by reminding him that there literally is, No Exit.

[[WMG: Patrick Bateman is TheJoker.]]

[[WMG: Patrick Bateman is [[{{TheSlenderManMythos}} The Slender Man.]]]]

----

** Further evidence: in several sequences, Bateman gets out a nail gun and uses it on victims. Nail guns are NOT self powered. Almost all nail guns are fired by compressed air. A very few are electric, but only some small ones, not the huge framing guns that he describes using. To use a nail gun, Bateman would have to have a good-sized commercial air compressor and a great big long hose in his apartment. Not only are these never mentioned, if they were actually present, he would have found a way to use them. New York Yuppie Bateman wouldn't know any of this. Secondly, to make a nail gun fire when it isn't pressed up against something requires fairly elaborate modification to remove the built-in safety features. Patrick Bateman is never presented as having any sort of technical/mechanical knowledge that would make this possible.

[[WMG: Patrick Bateman is a relative of [[{{Psycho}} Norman Bates.]]]]

[[WMG: Patrick Bateman, for some reason, has a [[DoctorWho perception filter]] on him.]]

[[WMG: Patrick Bateman is [[{{Animaniacs}} Boo-Rishnikov]]!]]

[[WMG: Patrick Bateman is a [[MageTheAscension Widderslainte]].]]
In [[MageTheAscension Mage]], a widderslainte is the reality-warping avatar of a dead [[EvilSorcerer Nephandus]], reincarnated into a human. Patrick is clearly a widderslainte on the cusp of awakening. He's not an unreliable narrator, instead his crimes are real, and literally defy reality (and law enforcement) because he's unconsciously using magic. The final speech is [[FridgeHorror his epiphany as he awakens]]...

** Further evidence: in several sequences, Bateman gets out a nail gun and uses it on victims. Nail guns are NOT self powered. Almost all nail guns are fired by compressed air. A very few are electric, but only some small ones, not the huge framing guns that he describes using. To use a nail gun, Bateman would have to have a good-sized commercial air compressor and a great big long hose in his apartment. Not only are these never mentioned, if they were actually present, he would have found a way to use them. New York Yuppie Bateman wouldn't know any of this. Secondly, o make a nail gun fire when it isn't pressed up against something requires fairly elaborate modification to remove the built-in safety features. Patrick Bateman is never presented as having any sort of technical/mechanical knowledge that would make this possible.

** Additional support for 'murders not happening': In several sequences, he gets out a nail gun and uses it on victims. Two problems. Nail guns are NOT self powered. Almost all nail guns are fired by compressed air, which then means he would have to have a good-sized commercial air compressor and a great big long hose to use the nail gun. Not only are these never mentioned, if they were actually present, he would have found a way to use them. New York Yuppie Bateman wouldn't know any of this. Secondly, To make a nail gun fire when it isn't pressed up against something requires fairly elaborate modification to remove the built-in safety features. Patrick Bateman is never presented as having any sort of technical/mechanical knowledge that would make this possible.

** Alternative theory:

[[WMG: We deserve a medal.]]
* For going this long on a WMG for once without mentioning Time Lords.

There's a description of an archetypal Cheiron hunter in the Hunter: The Vigil core book. Who happened to have a taste for torture, murder, and Phil Collins. They offered him a job, but it didn't take him long to figure out: this is not an exit.

[[WMG: Patrick Bateman is TheJoker.))

A big theme of AmericanPsycho is that very few recognise him at all, and several confuse him with other people or refer to Patrick Bateman as a different person. For instance, at the end, his lawyer congratulates him on the prank but notes that it was a flawed joke because no one would believe that dorky Patrick Bateman would be capable of murder; he seems to be referring to Patrick Bateman as a different person. Assuming the above two WMGs are correct and the main character is quite insane - literally! - this implies that he's dissociating beyond the point of doing crazy things and ''truly doesn't know who he is'' and simply believes himself to be Bateman.

[[WMG: Patrick is [[{{Heroes}} Sylar]].]]

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