History Headscratchers / TheBatman2022

** Many organizations, even perfectly legal ones like sports organizations, have written and unwritten codes of conduct on what people can do and what might cross the MoralEventHorizon. The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conventions Geneva Conventions]] are an attempt to at least try and curtail the horrors of war by establishing certain "rules" that everybody agrees to abide by. Less formal examples are [[https://sabrenoise.com/2013/09/24/hockey-code/ "the code"]] in UsefulNotes/IceHockey and {{Kayfabe}} in UsefulNotes/ProfessionalWrestling. For the Mob, one of those rules is "snitches get stitches", in that you don't sell other criminals out to the cops. If you do, you forfeit any rights you might have had under the code and you're set up to be killed. That's why real-life governments have WitnessProtection as an incentive for potential informants to talk to them. In Falcone's case, he is a "snitch", so he'd be lucky if all he got were stitches. As said above, if the Riddler hadn't killed him it'd only be a question of which other mobster like Cobblepot would get to him first.

** Many organizations, even perfectly legal ones like sports organizations, have written and unwritten codes of conduct on what people can do and what might cross the MoralEventHorizon. The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conventions Geneva Conventions]] are an attempt to at least try and curtail the horrors of war by establishing certain "rules" that everybody agrees to abide by. Less formal examples are [[https://sabrenoise.com/2013/09/24/hockey-code/ "the code"]] in UsefulNotes/IceHockey and {{Kayfabe}} in UsefulNotes/ProfessionalWrestling. For the Mob, one of those rules is "snitches get stitches", in that you don't sell other criminals out to the cops. If you do, you forfeit any rights you might have had under the code and you're set up to be killed. That's why real-life governments have WitnessProtection as an incentive for potential informants to talk to them. In Falcone's case, he is a "snitch", so he'd be lucky if all he got were stitches. As another troper said, if the Riddler hadn't killed him it'd only be a question of which other mobster like Cobblepot would get to him first.

** It's also very possible Falcone deliberately killed the journalist to have the Waynes under his thumb.

* It's worth noting that it's Halloween. They probably thought he was some guy in a costume instead of the real thing.

** The Riddler's ''stated'' goal is to expose the corruption at the heart of Gotham, but his ''real'' goal is simply to lash out and punish the world that, in his mind, neglected and abused him as a child only to then cast him aside and completely forget about him. Deep down he's not really the crusader for the 99% that he presents himself as and believes himself to be, and is in fact a lot more self-centred; his initial targets are indeed rich and powerful, but they are also just emblematic of the system which was supposed to protect him but didn't; he frames it as striking a blow against a corrupt system, and in part it is, but it's ultimately more about revenge for what happened to him. Really, he nihilistically believes that pretty much ''everyone'' deserves to suffer because he suffered. Like Catwoman, when it comes to the crunch he doesn't really believe that Gotham is either salvageable or worth salvaging, and basically thinks that pretty much everyone except himself, his followers and (initially) Batman deserve to be washed away for what happened to him. It's all about him, ultimately. This is essentially the fundamental difference between him and Batman -- Batman initially lashes out at the criminal world because he wants vengeance for what happened to him, but ultimately comes to realise that this is a futile and limited goal and comes to embrace helping and protecting others, while Riddler presents himself as a champion of the oppressed and downtrodden but is ultimately self-centred and just wants vengeance for wrongs against him. They've essentially switched places by the end.

** This one's simple; Falcone being exposed as a police informant is damaging because it means that he ''can't be trusted''. Professional criminals tend to be suspicious and paranoid people at the best of times; they kind of have to be, because they live their day-to-day lives in ways which leave them open to arrest, serious criminal charges and the possibility of lengthy periods spent in jail (or even execution). Ergo, they are ''especially'' distrustful of the possibility that the other criminals they deal with might expose their criminal acts to the authorities for their own advantage. However, in the world of organised crime they still have to work together to some degree (it's kind of there in the name), so to the extent that "honor among thieves" actually exists, it's pretty simple; it's essentially an agreement that "I won't tell if you won't." It's the whole idea behind [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omert%C3%A0 omertà]]; you keep quiet about my crimes, I'll keep quiet about yours. The fact that Falcone informed on Maroni means that basically any chance that any other criminal might have trusted him is dead, because if he informed on Maroni, he'd inform on them.

** This one's simple; Falcone being exposed as a police informant is damaging because it means that he ''can't be trusted''. Professional criminals tend to be suspicious and paranoid people at the best of times; they kind of have to be, because they live their day-to-day lives in ways which leave them open to arrest, serious criminal charges and the possibility of lengthy periods spent in jail (or even execution). Ergo, they are ''especially'' distrustful of the possibility that the other criminals they deal with might expose their criminal acts to the authorities for their own advantage. However, in the world of organised crime they still have to work together to some degree (it's kind of there in the name), so to the extent that "honor among thieves" actually exists, it's pretty simple; it's essentially an agreement that "I won't tell if you won't." It's the whole idea behind omertà; you keep quiet about my crimes, I'll keep quiet about yours. The fact that Falcone informed on Maroni means that basically any chance that any other criminal might have trusted him is dead, because if he informed on Maroni, he'd inform on them.

** This one's simple; Falcone being exposed as a police informant is damaging because it means that he ''can't be trusted''. Professional criminals tend to be suspicious and paranoid at the best of times; they kind of have to be, because they live their day-to-day lives in ways which leave them open to arrest, serious criminal charges and the possibility of lengthy periods spent in jail (or even execution). Ergo, they are ''especially'' distrustful of the possibility that the other criminals they deal with might expose their criminal acts to the authorities for their own advantage. However, in the world of organised crime they still have to work together to some degree (it's kind of there in the name), so to the extent that "honor among thieves" actually exists, it's pretty simple; it's essentially an agreement that "I won't tell if you won't." It's the whole idea behind omertà; you keep quiet about my crimes, I'll keep quiet about yours. The fact that Falcone informed on Maroni means that basically any chance that any other criminal might have trusted him is dead, because if he informed on Maroni, he'd inform on them.

** This one's simple; Falcone being exposed as a police informant is damaging because it means that he ''can't be trusted''. Professional criminals tend to be suspicious and paranoid at the best of times; they kind of have to be, because they live their day-to-day lives in ways which leave them open to arrest, serious criminal charges and the possibility of lengthy periods spent in jail (or even execution). Ergo, they are ''especially'' distrustful of the possibility that the other criminals they deal with might expose their criminal acts to the authorities for their own advantage. However, in the world of organised crime they still have to work together to some degree (it's kind of there in the name), so to the extent that "honor among thieves" actually exists, it's pretty simple; it's essentially an agreement that "I won't tell if you won't." The fact that Falcone informed on Maroni means that basically any chance that any other criminal might have trusted him is dead, because if he told on Maroni, he'd tell on them.