Batman: Arkham Series – The Joker / Characters

The Joker

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/joker_city_1829.png

"I just wanted to bring down your grim facade, and for once let you see the world as I see it, giggling in a corner and bleeding!"

^{Joker in Arkham Asylum}

^{Joker in Arkham Origins}

^{Joker in Arkham Knight (spoilers)}

Voiced by: Mark Hamill (Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, Arkham Knight^note, Arkham VR^note), Troy Baker (Arkham Origins, Arkham Origins Blackgate, Assault on Arkham) ^{Other voice actors}

"Welcome to the madhouse, Batman! I set a trap and you sprang it GLORIOUSLY!"

The Joker is the Batman's deadliest and most personal foe with an unknown past, terrorizing Gotham City with his insane, unpredictable, and sometimes hilarious (but dark and twisted) schemes, one of the infamous ones including posing as Black Mask and hiring eight assassins with a bounty reward for killing the Batman (whom he hasn't met yet) on Christmas Eve. It was their first conflict against each other and eventually, after his defeat, became the Dark Knight's personal foe.

Throughout all his time fighting Batman, and looking Faux Affably Evil in the process, he developed a disturbing habit of blowing stuff up. With bombs. And dynamite. He also commit a lot of personal crimes towards the Batman, such as ( supposedly) killing his sidekick, Jason Todd AKA Robin II and crippling Barbara Gordon.

After being caught once again by Batman, he is taken to Arkham Asylum, where he proceeds to escape custody and take over the island the asylum is located on. His scheme is foiled by Batman, but not before dozens of guards, doctors, and inmates have died and the Joker contracts a deadly illness from a TITAN overdose.

After escaping to Arkham City several months later, the Joker realizes that he is dying, and sets about looking for a cure while setting one last plot into motion to defeat the Dark Knight, while also trying to find a cure to get rid of his condition.

For the iteration of The Joker featured in the spinoff Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, see the page for ARGUS and Task Force X

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A-F

Actually Pretty Funny:
- Almost spoken word for word to Batman in the last scene of Arkham City, after Batman admits that even after all the suffering Joker has caused, Batman still would have saved the Joker's life had Joker himself not destroyed the cure in a bout of paranoia.
- Done again in Origins where he at first considers Batman revealing that he failed to kill someone "not funny". But after he's beaten and had time to reflect on it, he laughs himself silly at the whole notion, stating "That IS pretty funny". Ironically, since the game is the first timeline-wise, that would make his last lines in City more of a Book End.
Adaptational Villainy: In the comics, his role in the death of Jason Todd amounted to just beating him with a crowbar and blowing him up. In Arkham Knight, he actually kidnapped Jason and brutally tortured him for a year in an abandoned wing of Arkham Asylum, going so far as to brand his left cheek with a J.
Admiring the Abomination: His hallucination takes great interest in Professor Pyg, citing that he's completely insane, yet "too good for [prison]", vowing to let him out first in the event of him taking over Batman and staging a breakout.
Alas, Poor Villain: Downplayed in that both instances of his demise doesn't make him any less of an irredeemable and unsympathetic monster who definitely had both fates coming to him, but they are still view with some pathos:
- At the end of Arkham City, despite his veritable laundry list of terrible crimes, his death is treated as a somber affair as Batman carries his lifeless body out of the theater.
- In Arkham Knight, the credits scene features him trapped in an Ironic Hell in Batman's subconscious, and as his sad singing and sobbing tells that his final defeat, along with the knowledge that he'll be forgotten, has utterly broken him.
Alas, Poor Yorick: In Arkham Asylum, his profile on the status screen shows him holding up a bloody skull in reference to Hamlet.
And I Must Scream: Not the case for the Joker himself (possibly), but this is the fate of the hallucination in Arkham Knight, literally being locked away in a cell somewhere in Batman's mind never to be seen again.
Arch-Enemy: To the Batman, in terms of the sheer hell and personal cruelty he unleashes on him and his allies. He crippled Barbara and shot Talia and tortured Jason Todd for a year and sent Batman a video where Joker shoots Jason in the face. He's Batman's real litmus test for Thou Shalt Not Kill; if Batman won't kill him after all the stuff he's done, he won't kill anyone.
Are We There Yet?:
- Asks this in the prequel comic to the first game, while handcuffed in the Batmobile. Batman's response is simple but effective.
- Yet again in the prequel comic to the second game, as he's being transferred down the hallway while strapped in a wheelchair. The guard takes it in stride. Probably because he and the boys were planning to slice Joker up for all the guards he killed last time.
As Long as There Is Evil: A variation. As long as Batman was unable to move past Joker, he would always have some echoing hold in Gotham, to the point where he nearly took hold of Batman's body in a split personality born of a lingering infection and Batman's pervading memories. Thankfully, before Bruce allegedly hangs up the cowl, he seals away the last fragment of the Joker in the deepest corner of his mind, for good.
Hugo Strange: Look at the Joker. Would he even exist if it weren't for you?
Attention Whore: Knight reveals him to be this. As the last remnant of Joker within Batman struggles to take control of his body, it is revealed that his greatest fear is that he will eventually be forgotten by everyone, including Batman. Batman exploits this fear to lock him away in the deepest part of his mind.
Atop a Mountain of Corpses: In what is probably a Shout-Out to The Killing Joke, at the end of the first game, Joker is seated on a throne resting on a mound of dismembered mannequin.
Ax-Crazy: To call him psychotic would be putting it lightly. This is especially apparent in Origins, where his funny components are played down in favor of making him an absolutely terrifying Mood-Swinger.
Backstab Backfire: After losing his chances at immortality, Joker begs for the cure. Batman tells him that he'll most likely start committing crimes again anyways. Joker, interpreting it as a refusal, then stabs Batman in the shoulder, causing Batman to drop the cure vial, which shatters on the floor and ruins any chances of Joker's survival. It gets even worse when Batman says immediately after the vial was broken that he still would have given Joker the cure.
Back from the Dead: If The Joker seen in Arkham Knight is truly a reborn Joker haunting Batman, given certain evidence, (i.e. knowing things Batman did not know personally, such as the crippling of Barbara and the faked death of Jason) then he's basically achieved a form of this. While he doesn't achieve a full version of a living breathing body, he's able to take control of Batman a few times during the game, which could count as a revival of sorts. Naturally at the end of the game, Batman gets rid of this Joker remnant for good.
Badass Boast: Delivers one in his final confrontation with Batman in Origins.
"You had a chance to let me die! (laughs) I bet right now you're wishing you had. I've killed... a LOT of people, (giggles) I've brought the city to its KNEES, CRIPPLED the police force and it's not even time to unwrap our presents!"
Badass Bookworm: Joker's intelligence, combined with his unpredictablity, is truly his most lethal weapon.
Badass Longcoat: Sports a trenchcoat in Arkham Origins.
Badass in a Nice Suit: As always, Joker sports his classic purple suit. It looks a lot more damaged in Arkham City.
Badass Normal: He's not superpowered like Clayface, but that doesn't make him any less dangerous.
Bad Boss: Threatens his men with death if they don't succeed at following his orders... and then muses that killing them would probably be fun anyway. Lampshaded, since after these announcements, many of his men can be heard grumbling about how much it sucks working for the Joker.
Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: In Arkham Origins, one of the ways he taunts Batman is how he managed to make more progress against corruption in Gotham in a few days than Batman managed in a few years, just because he's The Unfettered. Judging by a flashback Batman has later, this taunt was actually pretty effective at getting under his skin.
Joker: Isn't it amazing how much you can get done when you don't concern yourself with right or wrong. When you just... do things for a laugh.
Bald of Evil: Not obvious, but aside from his receding hairline, Joker in Arkham City is missing patches of hair all over his head due to his condition.
Berserk Button:
- A consistent one in these games seems to be insinuating that he's not as important or unique as he claims, which ties in with his extreme Attention Whore tendencies. He is much more easily triggered over minor infractions in Origins, however.
- In City, while he's happy to string Hugo Strange along with a supposed origin story for himself, when Strange demonstrates he's actually starting to piece together some of the truth for himself, Joker turns deadly serious. He reveals he knows more about Strange's plans than Strange realized, and warns him to stop poking his nose into the Joker's past unless he wants a lot more people to find out.
Beware the Silly Ones: He's Laughably Evil and loony like anyone would expect from Joker, but he's always Batman's Arch-Enemy and a manipulative criminal mastermind responsible for many atrocious acts.
Big Bad: Of Arkham Asylum.
- It could be argued that he's the Big Bad for the Arkham Series as a whole: in City his machinations completely overshadow Strange's plot and the Bad Ending reveals that ultimately without Batman's intervention Strange's plan ends in failure with the Joker rampaging on the streets of Gotham. In Knight he's the driving force behind the Arkham Knight's crusade against Batman and the only reason Scarecrow is able to go as far as he does is because of the powerful hold Joker still has on Batman. Tellingly, when Batman finally breaks free Scarecrow doesn't last two minutes.
Big Bad Duumvirate: Joker works alongside Bane in Arkham Origins in his plot to break Batman, proving more effective together than the seven other assassins after Batman combined.
Big Bad Ensemble:
- With Hugo Strange and Ra's al Ghul in Arkham City.
- In Knight, alongside the Scarecrow. Despite not being the main threat, his legacy is everywhere. He eventually shows up as a hallucination, acting much more directly than usually befitting this trope.
Big "NO!":
- Does it twice in Arkham City, once after seeing the Lazarus Pit get destroyed, and once after stabbing Batman in the shoulder ends up causing the vial containing the cure to drop to the floor and shatter.
- And before that in Arkham Asylum, when he is defeated as the Titan Joker by Batman.
Big Ol' Eyebrows: Has quite a bushy pair in Origins. By the time of the earlier games, he's apparently groomed them down to simply Evil Eyebrows.
Black Comedy: He's the Joker, it's his schtick. His hallucinatory appearances in Knight in particular are an endless font of horrific anecdotes and cruel jabs about Bruce's dead parents that make for some hilariously pitch black comedy.
Body Horror: Big time with this incarnation. In Arkham Asylum, he takes a huge Titan dose and transforms into a huge, hideous Titan monster with his spine poking out of his back, his ribs protruding from his sides, and a grotesquely long fingers. And in Arkham City, he's extremely sick, and his face is one large, disgusting rash.
But for Me, It Was Tuesday: The digital comic Arkham City: Endgame reveals that Joker inverts this, as Batman finds a diary in Joker's cell that reveals he wrote down the names of everyone he killed through memory.
Card-Carrying Villain: Joker doesn't deny that he's evil. (Quite the contrary, in fact - he loves every minute of it.)
Character Development: In the prequel Arkham Origins, Joker is much more subdued and uses mostly normal weapons. His motive is notably more materialistic and less focused on Batman. This is shown to symptomatic of his general apathy for life and overall lack of purpose or meaningful goals. Then Batman saves his life...
The Chessmaster:
- Let's see: he organized the development of a secret Titan project, arranged for the supervillains he needed to be at Arkham during his plan, arranged for Blackgate to be burned down, and planned his own recapture and escape, doing most of this from his own jail cell. After his escape, he manipulated Batman into wandering around Arkham until he was ready for their final confrontation.
- His skills are apparent even after his death, he had Jason Todd tortured into hating Batman for a year, and then fooled Batman into believing that he killed him while ensuring that Todd gets Death Faked for You and becomes a mercenary/assassin, with the intention of eventually unleashing him on Batman sometime later.
Cloud Cuckoolander: Does not even begin to describe him in his less sociopathic moments.
Combat Pragmatist: He's got no problem with fighting dirty, be it poking out eyes, using guns, an extendable boxing glove or anything else.
Combat Sadomasochist: Especially apparent in the chapel during his and Batman's (very one-sided) fight in Origins. Joker may be trying to stab Batman, but it doesn't stop him from enjoying each and every bone broken by Batman.
Complexity Addiction: His plan in Origins - kidnapping Black Mask, impersonating him for weeks, and hiring eight assassins from around the world to kill Batman for a huge cash payout is outlandish even for the likes of him. He even took advantage of Black Mask's paranoia to stage his murder by killing his double, and Penguin accidentally framed himself by leaving evidence at the crime scene.
Composite Character: He's based on the comics' Joker, including having his appearance being affected by falling into a vat of chemicals and wearing a tuxedo and has the voice of his DC Animated Universe incarnation in Asylum and City. His face is also similar to Jack Nicholson's, his suit is in poor condition and his red "lips" extend past his actual mouth like Heath Ledger's, and mugs like Cesar Romero. His plot in Asylum also ends with him turning himself into a monster with an offshoot of Bane's Venom like he did in an episode of The Batman. His look in Origins evokes his outfits from The Dark Knight and Joker.
Cop Killer: A number of Arkham guards died during the events of the first game and much like in The Dark Knight, one of his first acts in Origins is the death of Gillian Loeb. The Non-Standard Game Over part of the Catwoman subplot in City also has this.
Create Your Own Villain: The only consistent thing in all the stories he makes up about his life pre-crime is that Batman pushed him into madness. And if Arkham Origins is anything to go by, before he was just some maniac doing wanton acts of destruction for kicks, not even caring if he lives or dies. Once he meets Batman and sees that he won't kill him no matter what he does, he considers Bats his equal and now has a purpose to keep living for.
Cruel and Unusual Death: Dying slowly from blood poisoning that makes your skin look decayed and riddled with scars must've been a pretty unpleasant way to go.
Curtains Match the Window: He has green eyes and green hair.
Dance Battler:
- In the PlayStation 3-only downloadable Joker missions of Arkham Asylum, the Joker seems to use mostly a combination of Capoeira, Drunken Boxing, and lethal novelty toys.
- And in Origins, the Flashback!Joker you play as can be this, since his fighting moves are the same as in Asylum, while his moves are somersaulting and leap frogs. And all this takes place in the Comedy Club, set to the tune of "The Thieving Magpie Overture" by Gioachino Rossini, doubling as a Shout-Out to the hallucinatory fight scene in A Clockwork Orange.
Darker and Edgier: Portrayed as this in Origins. His comical aspects are considerably toned down in favor of making him a terrifyingly violent Mood-Swinger who'd kill you for the most miniscule slight.
Dark Lord on Life Support: The Joker has to be kept on life support because he's dying from Titan poisoning. The Titan serum that mutated him and gave him superhuman strength at the end of Arkham Asylum actually had unforseen side-effects; he has a sickness that is slowly killing him. The game ends along with his life.
Deader than Dead: He was killed by the effects of Titan overdose, and then his body was cremated. Even when he nearly pulled one last Joker Immunity from beyond the grave, these remnants were snuffed out by Batman's willpower. By the end of the series, Joker's not just gone, he's been wiped out of Gotham's memory.
Deadpan Snarker: While usually overlapping with Black Comedy, several of his jokes have him casually snarking at every opportunity possible, mainly towards Batman of course. For example in the first game if the player takes too much time to rescue Dr Young, causing her to be killed by Zsasz, a special Joker message will appear announcing "Now that was unexpected ! Who'd have figured the deranged murderer would kill the poor little doctor ?"
Deal with the Devil: Between Joker and Hugo Strange, on either end. Joker's interview tapes reveal that he's willing to work with the guy in exchange for making his last days of his life "more comfortable" (such as kidnapping and smuggling doctors to treat the Joker's incurable condition which leads to their inevitable deaths). While it's implied Joker got this, and weapon shipments, through blackmail, it's later revealed that Hugo wanted Joker to revolt to get approval to use his worst-case scenario plan: Protocol 10.
Death by Irony: His death in City was a Hoist by His Own Petard; believing that Batman was going to just let him die given his hesitation, he unwittingly helps him with such by stabbing his shoulder and destroying the cure. After Batman clarifies that he, after everything, would have saved Joker, he found it Actually Pretty Funny; and thus he went out with a smile.
Death Seeker: Origins portrays him this way. He tells Batman that he is a monster who deserves to die, and tries to shoot himself in the head, but is stopped by Batman for reasons he cannot comprehend. In the finale, he straps himself to an electric chair for a convoluted gambit that has a one-in-three chance of frying the Joker.
Die Laughing: His toxin causes this to happen in Arkham Asylum and Arkham Origins. Also happens to the Joker himself at the end of Arkham City when he finds the hopeless situation to be Actually Pretty Funny.
Dies Wide Open: At the end of Arkham City, combined with Go Out with a Smile.
Distressed Dude: The aforementioned run-in with the guard and his crew. He's only rescued at the very last second by an incognito Harley Quinn.
Domestic Abuser: Assault on Arkham shows he still treats Harley like crap.
Do Not Go Gentle: His "Game Over" screens in Knight are meant to encourage and motivate Bruce like this.
Dragged Off to Hell: In the ending of Arkham Knight, Batman brutally beats the clown and forcibly drags him into a prison box, sealing the Joker away forever. Appropriately, the word "Hell" is written inside, among many others.
The Dreaded: Everyone in Gotham, even Batman, is scared of the Joker.
Dual Wielding: He does this in Origin's multiplayer mode with the Ace of Spades and the King of Hearts.
Dual Boss: In the A Matter of Family DLC in Knight, he is the final boss and is fought alongside Harley.
Duel Boss: In Arkham Origins: Blackgate, Joker fights Batman alone, armed with nothing but his revolver and a stun baton. Against your average cop, effective. Against Batman? It's bringing a knife to a gunfight.
Enemy Mine: Although just a hallucination, he serves as Batman's constant companion throughout Knight and even provides some useful, plot-relevant information that humours some Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane speculation. However, when the Joker's influence begins to overtake Bruce's personality, they once again come to blows in Batman's mindscape.
Enemy Within: Serves as this to Batman in Knight. Thanks to a combination of Joker's blood within Batman and Scarecrow's fear toxin, Batman is slowly driven insane by visions of Joker, who relentlessly taunts him about his failures.
Electric Joybuzzer: A traditional quirk of his, except that it is a lethal joybuzzer that is capable of frying the human body. It also serves as one of his takedowns in his Asylum PS3 DLC.
Emerging from the Shadows: Does this in City when he first appears in person to Batman, revealing his Titan infection in the process.
Empowered Badass Normal: After injecting himself with Titan in Asylum, he briefly gains superhuman strength, durability, and size.
Establishing Character Moment: Within the Arkham canon, his murder of Tiffany Ambrose, Roman Sionis's moll, in Origins. After fully reconstructing the crime scene at Lacey Towers, Batman pieces together that he was brutal enough to slam her head on a countertop, intelligent enough to anticipate Roman's decoy entering the apartment and shoot him dead, and such a sadist that he planned a scenario where Roman would have no chance but to shoot Tiffany himself rather than watch her burn to death.
Batman: What kind of monster forces a man to kill the ones he loves...?
Evil Tastes Good: Multiple times, he refers to Scarecrow's fear gas as "delicious."
Eviler than Thou: Joker is far more ruthless than Black Mask in Origins, which leads to Joker's rise From Nobody to Nightmare and allows him to slowly turn Black Mask's gang into his own. Ditto to Strange in City, who thought he had him completely under his thumb only for the Bad Ending to reveal that without Batman's intervention, his plan would have ended in failure with Strange dead and Gotham City set ablaze by a rampaging, immortal Joker.
Even Evil Has Standards:
- Shortly after releasing the lunatics in Arkham's penitentiary ward, he gives one or two PSAs describing them as "REAL psychos"—as in, crazier than he is. He also advises his henchmen to go kill them even if they aren't doing anything dangerous.
- Hallucination!Joker gets another case of this in Arkham Knight when Batman confronts Jokerized-Henry Adams. At first he's on board with his potential successor, but once Henry kills one of the other successors right in front of Batman, Robin and Harley and shows off the corpses of the others, his opinion of Henry quickly changes.
- And again in Knight, after defeating Professor Pyg and carting him off to the GCPD, Joker will comment on how he believes him to be worse than some of Gotham's other Rogues Gallery. However, he meant it as a compliment, feeling Pyg is too good to be locked with the rest of the villains and promising to break him out if he gets control of Batman's body.
- During the final Hallucination!Joker sequence, during which time you gain control of him with a shotgun, when you go to the Joker's wake Harley is the only character who the game will flat out prevent you from shooting ^note. In fact, Joker won't even point his gun directly at Harley. It seems even the Joker realizes that shooting his grieving widow at his funeral is not funny.
- As shown in City, Joker has no desire to unmask Batman and expose him to the world - that would take all the fun out of their little tete-a-tete that they have going on. All that matters is their merry dance.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
- He just can't see why Batman would save him even after all of the horrible things that Joker's done. At first, he gloats about how it's a sure thing Batman will do it, but after Batman hesitates while in a Heroic BSoD, he figures that Batman actually is going to let him die after all, and tries to stab him and take it in desperation.
- Origins shows that this is actually one of the things that starts off his long obsession with Batman. He's downright amazed, to the point where he's not sure what to think, that Batman would save the life of someone like him, even when Joker's trying to kill him.
Evil Laugh: Regularly, and with gusto; his laugh is always a bombastic cackle- whether he be alive, deathly ill or as a hallucination. This is the Joker we're talking about, after all!
Evil Sounds Raspy: In all of the Arkham titles to differing extents, the Joker has a gravelly voice. However, his voice is much clearer in Origins owing to his younger age and correspondingly younger voice actor. In Asylum, the voice we hear is reminiscent of earlier Joker characterizations but still maintains more of a growl than in Origins. In City, Mark Hamill takes this trope to its limits as he is at his most growly and raspy, signifying the Joker's declining health. In Knight, the Joker's voice sounds close to Asylum era Joker who was free of illness and thus sounds relatively close to normal.
Evil Wears Black: He's pure evil and wears a black top hat in Knight DLC A Matter of Family.
Face Death with Dignity: Zigzagged. After Joker causes Batman to shatter the cure vial and lose his last chance of saving his life, he's reduced to a pathetic, groveling mess as he frantically attempts to lap up the last droplets of the cure. Then when Batman shares the irony of the situation with him Joker acknowledges the humor in it, sharing one last laugh before laying down to die.
Facial Horror: In City, his face is covered in boils and sores, and it just keeps getting worse throughout the game. Just compare this to this.
Fame Through Infamy: In Arkham Knight, it's revealed that the Joker's entire motive is be remembered as the greatest supervillain in Gotham and his greatest fear is being forgotten. When a Jokerized-Batman is dosed by fear toxin, his Joker hallucination is subjected to see his grave abandoned and rotting, his funeral only attended by Harley, and the press forgetting his name and giving the status of Batman's Arch-Enemy to the Penguin instead. All of this is enough for the Clown Prince of Crime to lose control of Batman's mind.
Faux Affably Evil: He's so damn entertaining, yet at the same time is completely monstrous.
Fighting Clown: His fighting style in his playable appearance in Asylum's exclusive challenge maps is absolutely ridiculous and unpredictable, yet he can gracefully beat up whole squads of enemies with as minimal ease as his nemesis. His bizarre arsenal of slapstick attacks includes kicking groins, poking eyes, saluting faces and generally flailing his limbs around. However, when put up against Batman in a one-on-one combat situation, he rarely stands much of a chance.
Fire Keeps It Dead: In-between City and Knight, Batman and Commissioner Gordon have Joker cremated, just so they can Make Sure He's Dead.
First-Name Basis: His hallucination calls Batman "Bruce" or "Brucie" several times, and never stops rubbing in about his parents' deaths throughout the game.
Foreshadowing: He spoils the ending of Arkham City if you choose not to jump out of the church immediately when he activates the bombs.
For the Evulz: He is the trope image, after all. The trope is slightly deconstructed In Origins. When he first established himself in Gotham, he was just a no-name maniac committing acts of wanton destruction simply because it amused him, unfazed by morality or the prospect of death, and viewed the Batman as a distraction at best. This is actually what led him to being a Death Seeker—it all seemed so pointless. But after Batman saves his life and he realizes Batman won't kill him no matter what he does, he comes to view Batman as a rival he could play his endless sadistic games with and thus has a purpose to keep living for. He also keeps demanding that Strange send him more doctors and makes it blatantly obvious that he is going to kill them.
From Nobody to Nightmare: As shown in Origins, he's not even considered a big enough issue that most people even know he exists. This is precisely why he is able to outwit Black Mask and take over his crew: nobody ever suspected him. Neatly encapsulated in this conversation between Black Mask and his girlfriend:
Who is the Joker?
Nobody that matters.

G-L

Game-Over Man: It's obvious he acts as one if you die... even when he is very sick in Arkham City, or he's a ghostly hallucination in Arkham Knight. It's especially obvious that he becomes more horrified, concerned, or shocked in the latter.
Glass Cannon: During his playable sections in Asylum, Joker's moves hit harder than Batman's by dint of him having no problems killing his enemies and he packs two powerful one-hit kill weapons in his chattering teeth and gun, but he lacks Batman's durability and goes down a lot faster.
Go into the Light: One of the Game-Over Man speeches in Knight has him tell Batman not to go into the light: "They'll never let me in!"
Go Out with a Smile: Pun aside, Joker's last words were a weak, amused chuckle and claiming that Batman's statement that despite what he continuously does, he still would have saved Joker had he not attempted to knife Batman in the back, was actually pretty funny.
Greater-Scope Villain: He's one in Arkham Knight. The Joker may be long dead at this point, but his shadow looms over Gotham and his legacy is more alive than ever. His blood "Jokerizing" people and appearing before Batman as a hallucination only seem to cement this. He also turns out to be behind the creation of Arkham Knight/Red Hood. He's not behind the Scarecrow's plot, but he's a large reason why it was made at all.
Greek Chorus: He's constantly commenting on plot-relevant events in Knight, usually in his own cruelly irreverent way.
Groin Attack: Some of his finishers invoke this trope.
Gross-Up Close-Up: The first time he reveals his mangled face in Arkham City.
Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: Joker has a full head of hair in Origins as opposed to the receding hairline he has in the Rocksteady titles, due to him being younger.
Hijacked by Ganon: In Origins, trailers hyped up Black Mask, a relatively unknown villain to non-comic fans, as the Big Bad who hired eight assassins to kill Batman. It was really Joker pretending to be Black Mask the whole time. Joker is arrested and sent to Blackgate Prison at some point while some of his assassins and other villains are still roaming free, but he causes a prison riot and is the final opponent of the main storyline.
Hoist by His Own Petard: What ultimately kills Joker is his own nature. His poisoning being caused by his own serum was just the start, and ultimately, Joker's obsession with torturing Batman results in the cure he needed being destroyed. Batman even lets him in on the irony that had the Joker not stabbed him, he would've followed through with curing him.
Humans Are the Real Monsters: As stated in the Joker's Motive Rant in Origins, his core belief is that it is humanity and the flawed, corrupt legal system it created that caused him to become the monster he is today. He also believes that it's the same thing that caused Batman to be who he is today—and he's not entirely incorrect.
Joker: You just can't get it through your thick skull?! We both exist because of them!
The Hyena: He never misses a chance to laugh manically.
Identity Impersonator: Has been impersonating Black Mask for several days without being noticed by most by the time of Origins. He gives up the façade when the real Black Mask calls him out in front of Batman.
Imaginary Friend: In Arkham Knight, Batman ends up exposed to some of Scarecrow's new fear toxin and winds up seeing him as a hallucination through the game commenting on his actions and slightly hampering him as well.
Incurable Cough of Death: Thanks to his Titan poisoning, his coughing gets more pronounced as Arkham City progresses on until the end, until he can barely get a line in without a full five seconds of wheezing.
Insanity Immunity:
- Most people transformed into Titan mutants become dumb, atavistic brutes. But the Joker remains mentally unaffected during his time as a Titan mutant.
- Ultimately subverted in Knight. After first receiving the injection of fear toxin, he shrugs and laughs it off; however, given that Bruce's body is still unchanged, Joker slowly starts to feel the effects, and it's what helps Batman wrest away his control of Bruce's mind in the end.
Intercom Villainy: Whether he's taken over a prison, a hotel, an industrial district, or even a water park, the Joker will take the time to publicly crack jokes, tell stories, and threaten people if he gets his hands on an intercom. This is most notable in Asylum, where the Joker provides non-stop commentary on Batman's progress throughout the entire game.
Ironic Echo: The "New Game+" playthrough of Arkham Knight (which, as always, you can only unlock after completing a normal playthrough) begins with a Jump Scare of Joker suddenly waking up as he's being cremated and echo Commissioner Gordon's opening line with a twist:
Joker: This is how it happened. This is how Joker died.
I Surrender, Suckers: As stated in the Trojan Prisoner section, this is the reason he was able to take over Arkham Asylum in the first game. Also done in the second game, where Joker seemed to give up easily in three knockdowns and claim that Batman won, only for him to then realize that he meant that Batman should beat him and his goons (including Mr. Hammer and a Titan-powered Mook).
It's What I Do: Towards killing, shown in one of Batman: Arkham City's interview tapes.
Hugo Strange: What made you do it?
Joker: Fish gotta swim, bird's gotta fly. Besides, it was worth it to see the look on her face. Hey, you know what? I think I got a piece of it here in my pocket!
Joke Character: Not so much in the combat challenges (his gun functioning as a One-Hit Kill actually makes them easier), but in the predator ones, you're gonna have to bring your A-game between not using gargoyles and having to stand still while using the X-ray glasses.
Joker Immunity: The Trope Namer, but ultimately defied; Joker dies from his Titan poisoning at the end of the second game, and stays dead for the rest of the series. Though to be fair, in Arkham Knight he comes damn near close to pulling one posthumously. Arkham Origins show him trying to defy this trope as well, though Batman saves him on every turn. This would then lead to the birth of Joker's fixation on the Bat.
Jump Scare: Three times in Arkham Knight.^note
"Just Joking" Justification: In the first game he pulls one as one of his looping taunts after beating challenge mode.
The Joker: While you were fighting, I've had everyone you love BRUTALLY MURDERED! hehehe... Only joking.
Karmic Death:
- He created the Titan formula that made him sick, and his final attack on Batman destroys the last of the cure.
- In Knight, the Joker hallucination constantly taunts Batman by telling him he'll end up a prisoner in his own body. At the end, this remnant of Joker is locked away in a dark corner of Batman's memories.
Karmic Shunning: This will become the ultimate fate for the Joker, while being the one form of karmic retribution that he actually fears. The last remnant of the Joker will forever be trapped inside Bruce’s mind with the full knowledge that everyone in Gotham will eventually forget him and move on, despite having committed his horrific deeds in an effort to always be remembered.
Kick the Dog:
- Shooting Talia in City and then gloating about it to Batman.
  Joker: You're making me late for my spa treatment! I mean, it's not like you've got a girl to save anymore, is it? [laughs] Oh, I'm sorry. Too soon?
- His whole role in Knight. Batman begins seeing visions of Joker, who constantly taunts him over his failures.
Killed Off for Real: At the end of the Arkham City, and confirmed several times in all content that takes place after City.
Lack of Empathy: He kills people for a cheap laugh.
Large Ham: A deliberate contrast to Batman.
Large-Ham Announcer: He takes up the role of announcer in Asylum.
"Harley tells me the Batman's car is still parked right outside Intensive Treatment. We can't have him up and leave us! Every thug, villain, murderer, and kindergarten teacher that isn't carrying out party orders should head there now and smash it to pieces!"
Last Day to Live: Thanks to his Titan overdose in Arkham Asylum, by the time Arkham City starts, Joker has contracted a deadly disease, leaving him with only months to live. He's dead by the end of the game.
Laughably Evil: He does provide the page image after all.
Laughing Mad: It wouldn't be The Joker if he wasn't cackling insanely every other sentence.
Lean and Mean: He is very skinny and lanky, which is a big contrast to the more muscular Batman.
List of Transgressions: A full glossary of his crimes is finally revealed in Arkham VR; unlike most thugs and villains, who have two or three different types of felonies catalogued, the Joker ranks at 45^*, with little to no context for any of them.
Literal Split Personality: The five people infected with Joker's blood each end up becoming twisted replicas of the Joker himself, each of them exhibiting a specific personality trait. Christina Bell gains his obsession with Batman, Albert King adopting his sadism and lust for violence, Johnny Charisma gaining his megalomania and showmanship, and Henry Adams gaining his ego and skills in manipulation. Batman became more ruthless and stubborn, but it was not until he was hit with Scarecrow's new fear toxin did the infection start to manifest, a hallucination of Joker haunting him, slowly gaining control the more gas he is exposed to.
Locked into Strangeness: Joker's hair was dyed green by his dip in the chemical bath.

M-R

Mad Bomber: The Joker's plans in the Arkham Series usually involve a lot of explosives. Harley even uses a cache of them in "Harley's Revenge".
The Mad Hatter: He beats out Mad Hatter himself in this regard.
Made of Iron:
- Or silly putty. Regardless, this is a villain that will take a beating and will not stay down. In Origins, he takes the most horrific beating Batman dishes out to anyone, bar Bane, and just keeps laughing. For all that he never really offers Batman a physical challenge in himself, you get the impression that he only stops fighting because he thinks it would be funny.
- During their final confrontation in Arkham Origins, Joker is kicked across several pews, thrown against a window, endures a beatdown sequence that last for 20 seconds longer than it normally takes to take down a thug and involves multiple takedowns, is thrown back to the altar, slammed to the ground, briefly strangled, and finally punched in the face. It's a miracle Bats didn't kill him by accident.
Make Sure He's Dead: In the comic series, Arkham City: End Game, and the opening cinematic of Arkham Knight, Batman, in a world of Lazarus Pits and who knows what other unknown things that may or may not bring Joker back to life, ensures that Joker is cremated and Deader than Dead.
"No more laughs."
Malevolent Architecture: After his first hallucinatory appearance in Arkham Knight, the Joker will "infect" random statues, billboard advertisements and pieces of architecture with a distinctive Joker makeover, but if you look away and look back again, the objects will return to normal. As far as Easter Eggs go, this may be the most paranoia-inducing.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Knight doesn't make clear what the Joker is, and how he exists in Batman's head. It's mostly implied to be a Split Personality developed as a result of Batman's infection by Joker's blood in City, which he suppressed until he got dosed with Scarecrow's new fear toxin and the Joker personality began to break free. It's also shown throughout the series that Batman himself is repressing some powerful negative emotions and a "true self", and he's imagined being the Joker in Asylum and hallucinated him during the battle with Mr. Freeze in City, which is further evidence that Batman's alternate persona is his own creation and is manifesting as the Joker. However, the Joker hallucination consistently acts like it is the Joker reborn. While that may just be how Batman perceives it, the Joker persona knows things that Batman couldn't possibly know, like branding a J on Jason Todd's cheek, which implies some sort of genetic memory could be at play, or that it really is the Joker's spirit manifested through Batman. Then there the Battle in the Center of the Mind at the end of Knight, where Joker has a different reaction to Scarecrow's fear toxin than Batman does and is unaffected by it until he's injected while in control of Batman's body, implying there's something to him beyond the biological and psychological.
The Mentally Disturbed: According to Penelope Young, he has traits of borderline personality disorder, narcissism, and anti-social personality disorder. This makes sense, as the Joker has spontaneous mood swings, sadistic tendencies, manipulative skills and an unbridled taste for killing and hurting people.
Monster Clown: As well as his normal state, he becomes a literal one at the end of the first game, after shooting himself with the Titan formula. His appearance in the second game also seems to come close to a literal interpretation of the trope, given his disease-induced deformities.
Mood-Swinger: In Origins, since he doesn't even have his obsession with Batman yet, he is even more terrifying because there is no way of knowing what little comment will set him off on a homicidal rage. For example, when he's about to kill the Electrocutioner:
Joker: [calmly] I'm the guy with the money... and the gun. So, when I hire you to kill the Batman... [angrily] you shut the hell up and KILL the Batman!
Motive Rant: Gives one near the end of Origins, complete with Humans Are the Real Monsters and "Not So Different" Remark.
Multiple-Choice Past: Just like how he is depicted in the comics, the Joker is implied to have told multiple renditions of his childhood, one of which involved Retirony in regards to his father's cop status. During a session with Hugo Strange, he tells a story that sounds remarkably similar to that which was shown in The Killing Joke, leading one to assume that some of it might be true. Hugo doesn't believe him, however, and accuses Joker of using this as an excuse to never face up to the truth of what happened to him and what he's become. Joker doesn't seem too bothered by the accusation and he doesn't seem too sure whether his story is true or not. In Batman: Arkham City, he even quotes the comics, saying a wise man once told him to go for the multiple choice option.
- As shown in Origins in an interview with Harley, his own mental version of his history is, at least at the time of the interview, The Killing Joke. You even play as the first Red Hood.
Murder Is the Best Solution: During City, he calls Batman out on constantly being sidetracked from finding the cure for the Titan poisoning by the various mooks and villains, openly proposing that he stop wasting time fighting them and just kill them. Unsurprisingly, Batman refuses.
Murder the Hypotenuse: Joker attempts to murder anyone who distracts Batman from their rivalry, and his most vicious plots are saved for anyone who takes the mantle of "Robin." Just ask poor Jason Todd...
Never My Fault:
- Played with in Arkham City. The Joker seems to blame his impending death from the poisonous side-effects of the Titan Super Serum on Batman, because he "left [him] to die" after their climactic battle at the end of the first game. He then immediately acknowledges that Batman probably doesn't remember it that way, and then just moves on with trying to constructively fix the problem without wasting any more time. Given that the Joker is the Trope Namer for Multiple-Choice Past, it is unclear whether he truly thinks he remembers Batman leaving him to die, or if he's just screwing around (and possibly Lampshade Hanging the villain's tendency to use this trope).
- A more clear-cut example happens during the ending when Joker stabs Batman, causing him to drop the cure. His last hope for survival lost, Joker bitterly asks Batman if he's happy now, as if Batman had done it on purpose. Also mentioned in Knight, when in his Villain Song, he sings to Batman, "That was the night you let me die", as if trying to place the blame on the Dark Knight himself.
- Hugo Strange also lampshades this, pointing out while he has a Multiple-Choice Past, he blames Batman for his origin in every one. Joker insists that it's Batman's fault he got doused in chemicals.
  ""I'm sure he'd say he tried to save me, but we all know he didn't."
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In Batman: Arkham Origins, the Joker's second riot at Blackgate accidentally snaps Batman out of his Heroic BSOD after Alfred almost dies. Batman was about to give up being a hero until the Joker's threat convinced him that he needed to be a hero in order to prevent more death and destruction. So the Joker is at fault for making Batman become the hero that Gotham needed.
Noodle Incident:
- It is unknown how, but one Arkham City doctor was left dismembered near Hugo Strange's office. Other doctors that were sent to treat him simply vanished without a trace. We're not sure we want too know.
- In Knight, it's revealed he ran for president once, complete with TV ads. No one's quite sure what that was about.
  Militia: Y'know they never found out how he got on the ballot?
- At one point, Joker brings up the idea of apologizing for an incident at the Church of Gotham involving holy water being replaced with hydrochloric acid. All we know of what happened is it resulted in "one hell of a baptism". Unlike the others, while we don’t know the exact details, the elements essentially spell out what actually happened.
Nothing Is Scarier: Just what he did to Jason for an entire year. All we know is that by the end, Jason, who had been captured because he tried to kill Joker, is so broken that he calls Joker "sir" and doesn't even fight when he's released from his shackles.
Not Me This Time:
- Batman accuses Joker of being involved in Protocol 10. Joker, upon hearing it, denies any knowledge of it.
- Also, when Batman first finds Harley bound and gagged, the player might naturally assume that Joker is back to his normal abusive relationship with her. However, nearing the end of the game, it becomes especially apparent that this time, he wasn't responsible for Harley's predicament; rather, Talia was, who also was the one truly responsible for retrieving the cure before Joker had a chance to drink it.
- An unlockable story in Arkham Knight relates an incident where Batman was investigating the deaths of three children. He confronts Joker in his cell at Arkham Asylum, demanding to know how he had escaped. Joker informs him that he had nothing to do with it. He takes great joy in how paranoid he's made Batman.
"Not So Different" Remark: Aside from numerous lampshades in ''Asylum'' and ''City'', this trope is invoked, word for word, at the end of Arkham Origins, during the Joker's Motive Rant while holding Batman at gunpoint.
Obsession Song: A sort of passive/aggressive mix and a disturbing one at that (though considering that the song is from the perspective of the Joker, it's understandable), in Coheed and Cambria's "Deranged" off the Arkham City album.
Who will be your pretty, little enemy?
When I'm gone your world will prove empty.
I promise you will always remember me.
The joke's on you, poison me.
While you clean the streets of misfortune,
I pick the innocent from my dirty teeth.
We're one and the same...deranged.
- The Joker's "cover" of "Only You" by The Platters applies that famous track to his and Batman's Foe Romance Subtext:
  "When you hold my hand/I understand/The magic that you do/You're my dream come true/My one and only you..."
Obviously Evil: If his bleached skin, perpetual Slasher Smile, scowling eyes with dark eyeholes, frequent Kubrick Staring, maniacal laughter, and freakish facial proportions won't give away his alignment, you have a Horrible Judge of Character.
Oh, Crap!:
- His reaction in the final cutscene of Asylum when he sees Batman's fist — coated in explosive gel — heading right at his face.
- Some of his Have a Nice Death screens in Knight have him gloating over Batman's death, only to realize it means his death as well. One has him act like Bats is just Faking the Dead to lull the enemy into a false sense of security, then he takes a second look and says "...Oh dear."
One-Winged Angel: At the end of Asylum, he uses TITAN to turn into a monstrous, muscled version of himself. In City, the aftereffects did not bode well for him, eventually becoming his ultimate undoing.
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: It's rather noticeable in Origins when Troy Baker does his Black Mask voice. It sounds much like his own, only more of a Mafia gangster accent.
Outside-Context Problem: His first chronological appearance in Origins. He comes from completely out of nowhere to cause nothing but senseless death and destruction. Batman is taken aback by the sheer brutality and sadism of the crime scene where he first sees the name. After finally meeting him, Batman notes that while he's put psychopaths away before, The Joker is simply on a whole different level.
Perpetual Smiler: Though this goes away when things don't go his way, most prominently when the last of the Titan cure available is destroyed.
Person of Mass Destruction: The consistent thing in all of Joker's schemes is that he always ends up causing unspeakable carnage throughout Gotham.
- In Origins, him disguising himself as Black Mask and hiring the 8 assassins to kill Batman is the catalyst that spawns a horrific night of chaos, death, and destruction throughout Gotham that results in untold numbers of people being killed. As he himself Lampshades:
  Joker: I've killed... a lot of people. I've brought the city to its knees, crippled the police force, and it's not even time to unwrap our presents!
- In Asylum, his Batman Gambit to get into Arkham Asylum just so he could manufacture the Titan serum and create an army of mutants results in thousands of Arkham staff, cops, and inmates killed in the process. Lampshaded by Batman this time.
  Batman: Everywhere that madman goes, death is sure to follow.
Play-Along Prisoner: In the first game, he only lets Batman capture him so that he can take over Arkham and acquire the Titan formula. Batman is smart enough to anticipate that Joker is up to something.
Playing Sick: Subverted: Batman initially guesses that Joker was actually faking his illness after Joker ambushed him by seemingly using a Body Double to fake his death, only for Joker to reveal that he is in fact really sick, even going so far as to reveal the disease-laced sores on his face.
Plucky Comic Relief: While his constant presence is disturbing at first, Joker acts as this to Batman in Knight as he often injects some levity into otherwise tense or sombre scenes, with some added Dramatic Irony as he is invisible to other characters. It really draws attention how bizarre it is that Batman's deadliest nemesis is such a, well, joker. However, this is steadily Subverted as the game goes on and the Joker's growing influence on Bruce's personality becomes more of a serious problem.
Poison and Cure Gambit: In City, he poisons Batman with the same Titan disease that's killing him in order to make the Dark Knight help find a cure. Batman is initially fine with them both dying... until Joker reveals that he's also contaminated Gotham's blood banks with his infected blood to ensure Batman would help him. While Batman manages to find the cure and save himself and the rest of Gotham, Joker's impatience leads him to knock the cure out of Batman's hands, thus dooming himself.
Poor Communication Kills: In City, Joker could have saved himself a lot of trouble two times: firstly, at the very end by not interpreting Batman's hesitation as him deviating from his no-killing policy. The second situation is a little less obvious: Harley steals the cure and is then ambushed by Talia. Batman assumes Joker has the cure while Joker guesses Batman took it from Harley. Had Joker noticed that Batman was still sick, he might have tried to find Harley, learned of Talia who at the time was his prisoner and taken the cure from her. Oh well...
Post-Final Boss: In Origins, he serves as the final enemy to defeat, but his fight is more of a playable cinematic, while Bane serves as the proper final boss.
Posthumous Character: Very dead in Arkham Knight — the game even starts with his cremation. He still winds up appearing in flashbacks and repeated hallucinations caused by Scarecrow's fear gas, and plays a major role in the story.
Progressively Prettier: When Batman first begins hallucinating him in Knight, it's as the oozing, pustulant, sickly wreck that Titan poisoning made him. He slowly gets better over the course of the game as Batman is exposed to more fear toxin, until the end of the game, where Joker is back to his old healthy self.
Punctuated Pounding: Reprimands Black Mask for spoiling his fun while beating him with a pistol.
Joker: Can't... you just... play... along!?!
Rank Scales with Asskicking: Enforced at the end of the first game where he pulls a One-Winged Angel. Otherwise, he's more than capable of beating up a room of guards, including Cash and Gordon. Next to Batman, though, he's an Elite Mook with Contractual Boss Immunity.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: On their first night together, the Joker is amused by the Irony that his murderous methods has done more to eliminate Gotham's corruption than Batman's no-kill rule.
"You want to know the awful truth? I've only been here in Gotham for a few days - and I've already accomplished so much more than you in - what has it been - 2 years that you've been doing this whole costume thing? Roman Sionis? Gone. Loeb? Whoa. He was corrupt to the core. Got rid of him. That warden at Blackgate? Pretty sure he'll be facing charges after what I made him do tonight. (laughs). It's amazing what you can get done when you don't concern yourself with right and wrong. When you just... do things for a laugh. (laughs) That's your problem, Batman and it's hurting your efficacy: You're far too serious.

S-Y

Sadistic Choice: In the finale of Origins, he tells Batman to either kill Bane or leave him alive, whereas the electric chair Joker's strapped himself to will be charged by Bane's heartbeat and fry him once it reaches full power. Either way, someone will have to die by Batman's hands to save the other. Luckily for Batman, the Electrocutioner's gauntlets null either of those choices.
Sarcasm Failure: Hallucination!Joker always has something smart to say. However, when Batman brilliantly reconstructs Stagg's handprint through combing CCTV footage and gathering forensics, all Joker can say is a sincere "That's genius, Bats. Really." It's a neat little reminder that Joker genuinely does respect Batman's intelligence.
Secret Identity Apathy:
- Unlike everyone in Gotham, Joker absolutely does not care about Batman's Secret Identity. Alone of all supervillains, he truly understands that Batman is the true face and not the man behind the mask.
- In Arkham City he stops Harley Quinn from removing his mask after they knock him out early in the game:
  Joker: No one's who you think they are, my dear, why spoil the fun?
- In Arkham Knight, a flashback shows that he tortured Jason Todd to the point that the latter broke and was on the point of revealing Batman's identity, when Joker seemingly shoots him dead, and then sending said video to Batman. Likewise, his hallucination gloats that if he had truly wanted to know, he'd have removed that mask ages ago, though he finds the revelation of Batman being "Gotham's least interesting socialite" an amusing surprise in his afterlife.
Share the Sickness: In City he forces Batman to find a cure for his TITAN-induced poisoning by giving Batman his infected blood as well as by sending packets of said blood to hospitals.
Shoot the Shaggy Dog:
- Joker has a moment which is almost perfectly this trope, but he's an antagonist instead of a protagonist. Despite all his plans to save himself from dying of Titan poisoning, he comes extremely close to manipulating Batman to bring him the cure. In fact, Batman has the cure and Joker is in the very same room as him when Joker stabs Batman in the shoulder, making him drop the cure and dooming Joker, who would have lived if he could have seen that Batman would never intentionally let him die.
- Joker's character arc in the first two games could qualify. His plan to tear down Gotham with Titan enhanced inmates is stopped by Batman; if the ending of Asylum is anything to go by, the Titan would've worn off in less than an hour anyway, so his goons probably wouldn't have reached Gotham in time to do any serious damage. Even if he killed Batman, Joker and his gang would've been rounded up once they turned back to normal and be arrested, thrown into Arkham City, and killed in Protocol 10, although Catwoman's Non-Standard Game Over instead puts forth the idea that he and his goons would have survived the protocol and overthrown Strange. In City, his plan to poison Gotham is thwarted, he ultimately didn't leave any offspring behind as seen in HQR, and he dies.
- That last part becomes crucial in Knight, there are now five new Jokers due to poisoning from his blood: Batman being one of them. However with these Jokers (besides Batman) dead, Joker being injected with the fear toxin causes him to see his true greatest fear: being forgotten. Batman exploits this to regain control of his body.
Slasher Smile: Does several especially in Origins.
Slouch of Villainy: In Origins, after Bane throws Batman into the Joker's office, he's seen sitting on an office chair with his crossed legs stretched out, his left arm resting on top of the backrest and his right elbow resting on the nearby table... while playing with a rubber ball.
The Sociopath: A staple for the character. As an erratic, manipulative slaughterer who would kill and endanger people for his idea of a joke without a shred of anything resembling remorse, it's hard to say otherwise.
Split Personality: Serves as this to Batman in Arkham Knight. It's actually his mind's manifestation of his mental illness from the Joker's blood transfusion, but it's real enough to engage in conversation and...
Split-Personality Takeover: ...take control, which is what it tries to do all throughout the game. He succeeds... just in time to take the brunt of Scarecrow's new fear toxin.
- Though in the case of the other Joker infected, he already achieved this.
The Spook: Mostly emphasised in Origins, where it's noted that no one knew of him before he made his appearance, and there's no information about him on any database.
Stealth Mentor: Inverted. Thanks to Joker's blood within Batman and Scarecrow's fear toxin, Batman begins seeing visions of Joker, who relentlessly taunts him of his repeated failures.
Straight Edge Evil: Though he's probably the farthest thing from Lawful Evil, he only orders a glass of milk when he goes into the Iceberg Lounge in Arkham City's backstory.
Sympathy for the Devil: Despite all that the Joker has done to Batman, including having just killed his Love Interest, The Batman still pities the Joker in the latter’s final moments, even saying that he would have saved the Joker had he not attacked Batman, which led to the cure being destroyed, sealing the Joker’s death.
Taking You with Me:
- Part of a gambit in the second game. He injects Batman with his diseased blood, also claiming he shipped it to a hospital across Gotham, knowing full well Batman will go looking for a cure. Even if he didn't succeed, he would at least take his hated nemesis down with him.
- He also attempted a variation that occurred at least a few weeks after Arkham City. Specifically, he arranged to have Clayface rig an isolation cell with explosives, and also had a radio tower within Arkham City rigged to release a message that anyone who manages to find his corpse and delivers it to Harley Quinn will be rewarded with a million dollars in order to incite a huge riot by followers, civilians, and cops alike for the expressed purpose of causing Gotham City to tear itself apart as well as the "revelation" that the walls were still wired with explosives that would release several of Arkham City's most dangerous inmates into the rioting streets in order to lure Batman into the isolation cell. He nearly won, but Batman survived.
Too Dumb to Live: It turns out that stabbing the man holding a fragile glass vial containing the only thing that can save your life was not a good idea.
Trojan Prisoner: Batman is convinced the Joker went down too easily during his capture at the beginning of the first game. He's right.
The Unfought: Technically. In City, That's actually Clayface you're fighting during the second visit to the Steel Mill. Although it's likely how a real fight against the Joker would play out since even Batman was fooled. Then again, Joker as a playable character is much more badass. When he is finally fought properly in the A Matter of Family DLC of Arkham Knight, averting this trope, he proves to more of an Elite Mook with Contractual Boss Immunity compared to the Bat-Family: He fights the way any Mook does, with slightly higher damage output and speed, but can keep getting back up no matter what.
Unholy Matrimony: One of the Joker's goons will mention that he heard that Joker and Harley Quinn got married, whereas the other mentioned that he heard that he dumped her several months ago. Given the fact that she's present with the Joker, and Harley may or may not be pregnant with what is implied to be Joker's child, it's implied that the former part was true, and more or less outright stated in '"Harley Quinn's Revenge" when Harley calls herself a widow.
Unperson: Knight reveals this to be the Joker's greatest fear; that he will eventually fade into obscurity and be forgotten by all of Gotham.
Villainous Breakdown:
- Begins lapsing into this towards the end of Asylum. Batman continually thrashing his plans begins to drive him up the wall, and by the end of the game he's almost completely run out of jokes. He does calm down for the final battle, though.
  Joker: Somebody better stop him or i'll... I'll.... I'll hurt you. Badly.
- In Knight, after realizing that he's doomed to eventually fade into obscurity and be completely forgotten by the city that once feared and despised him, he completely breaks down and outright begs Batman not to forget him. In the 100% Completion ending, he morosely sings to himself during the credits, sadly embracing his ultimate defeat.
Villain Has a Point: In Origins he points out that two of the thugs he just shot were criminals of the worst kind, and so is he. Yet Batman went out of his way to save the Joker's life several times despite knowing this and seeing everything that the Joker had done throughout the game.
Villain Protagonist: The Joker has had a few playable appearances throughout the Batman: Arkham series, ranging from being a playable character in the challenge mode for the PS3 version of Asylum, visiting the Joker's psyche where he's fighting in the comedy club and walking through Ace Chemicals while being evaluated by Harleen Quinzel in Origins, and finally, as a first person shooter segment with the now dead Joker running around in the deepest parts of Batman's mind in Knight.
Villain Respect: Villain on villain variant, as he gives Clayface major props for his portrayal of the Clown Prince of Crime during Arkham City.
Villain Song:
- A quiet, melancholy yet deranged version of "Only You (And You Alone)" by The Platters. It can be heard during the credits of Arkham City. It follows what seems to be Joker's final voice mail to Batman.
- Another Villain Song, this time an eerie version of "Cold, Cold Heart" by Hank Williams, is heard during the credits of Arkham Origins.
- The delightful original number "Look Who's Laughing Now" from Arkham Knight. And here's a sad, Dark Reprise of the song in the credits.
Villain Team-Up: With Bane, in Arkham Origins.
Villainous Legacy: Despite his demise in City, his actions are a huge influence on the plot of Knight. Those infected with Joker's Titan-infected blood are mutating into Clones by Conversion, Batman is haunted by a hallucination of him throughout the game that continually tries to hijack his body and very nearly succeeds, Scarecrow uses the resulting Evil Power Vacuum to perform a Villain Team-Up with the rest of Batman's Rogues Gallery, and the Arkham Knight, aka Jason Todd, was twisted into what he is now thanks to the Joker brutally torturing him for a year.
Villainous Widow's Peak: Goes beyond "Male-pattern baldness" and into "impossibly exaggerated" territory, especially in Arkham City.
Villains Want Mercy: Joker spends the majority of Knight taunting Batman over his various failures and gloating about how he'll soon pull off a Grand Theft Me on the Dark Knight. During their Battle in the Center of the Mind, when Bats gets the upper hand and locks him in a prison box within his subconscious, Joker loses his shit and desperately begs Batman not to leave him there.
The Virus: Or more specifically, the quasi-prionic infection. His transfused blood changes people into him over time.
Voice Changeling: Origins reveals that the Joker can do a flawless impression of Black Mask, right down to his distinct New York accent.
Waistcoat of Style: In Arkham Origins. It's never shown closely in-game, but it's also patterned with a playing-card motif◊.
Walking Spoiler: His post-Arkham Asylum appearances. Whether it's swapping places with Clayface before kicking the bucket for good, impersonating Black Mask for weeks and sending eight assassins to kill Batman or defying expectations by actually staying dead but continuing to haunt Batman in hallucinations, whenever he shows up it tends to be a Game Changer, befitting his Joker card motif.
- Zig-zagged in Harley Quinn's Revenge. The major spoiler already happened in City; he has a brief posthumous cameo using dialog from the vanilla game before Harley takes the spotlight.
- Inverted in Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, where his lack of involvement in the central Evil Plan could be considered a plot twist in itself.
Wicked Cultured: Joker has a good ear for old-timey '50s ballads, Hank Williams and The Platters to name a few. Cole Porter's I've Got You Under My Skin sung by Frank Sinatra even plays when he's cremated.
Wild Card: Strange supplies the Joker with a military arsenal so that the he'll give Strange a very public reason to wipe him and Arkham City off the face of the earth. However, a Non-Standard Game Over reveals that without Batman's intervention, the plan fails; the Joker survives Protocol 10 and uses the weaponry to overthrow Gotham.
- On a looser level, he's this in general even to his own plans. The Joker acts on pure fanciful whimsy, which means he's just as likely to impede Batman and try to get him killed as he is to withhold information from his own mooks, effectively throwing them into Batman's fists and gadgets for his own amusement. Joker's so much of an unpredictable nutjob that he'll have hundreds of people killed, but then be implied to send off an anonymous tip that gives Batman the chance to save Dr. Cassidy in time from Zsasz in a post-Asylum comic.
Worthy Opponent: He sees Batman as this. For all that Bats and Joker hate each other, Joker seems to be the one who actually respects all of Batman's skills out of everyone in his rogue's gallery. For one, Joker is the only one to understand that Batman is the true face of the man, not whoever's behind the mask.
Would Hit a Girl: He considers abusing Harley a "hobby" and has no problem crippling Barbara. He also kills Talia at the end of Arkham City.
Would Hurt a Child: One of the Gotham City Stories in Arkham Knight reveals Joker bombed and killed an entire kindergarten to provoke Jason Todd into coming after him.
You Are Better Than You Think You Are: You'd never expect it, but Hallucination!Joker very occasionally gives some sincerely nice words of encouragement to Bruce throughout the game, most visibly in his "Game Over" screens. That is, whenever he isn't cruelly mocking Bruce's failures and insecurities.

That actually is... pretty funny.

Characters / Batman: Arkham Series – The Joker

The Joker

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Characters / Batman: Arkham Series – The Joker

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The Joker

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