Batman Villains - Fan Theories!

The Caped Crusader, the Dark Knight, the world's greatest detective, Bats

Whatever the name you know him by, I'm Batman. Batman has been a cultural phenomenon for 82 years and counting

But what about his villains? Have you ever really thought about them? I mean, really thought about them

Why did Harvey Dent switch races in Batman Forever? Did the Scarecrow actually create the Joker

Today we're taking a look at 10 crazy fan theories about Batman villains

And here we go. Number 10. The Joker is an immortal. The Joker is one of the most iconic villains ever created, and spoiler alert, he will show up in this list quite a few times

He's been Batman's arch-nemesis since the 1940s, and since then he's been shot, stabbed, beaten, broken, choked, and poisoned

At one point in time, he even cut off his own face, only to wear it like a mask. And let's not forget that this guy fell into a vat of literal acid

So how has he survived all of this? How is this even possible? There's one theory floating around that the Joker is actually an immortal metahuman

How else could you explain this rampant fearlessness and sense of humor in the face of death

Let's not forget about the existence of the Lazarus Pits, which are basically just magic pools of hot water that bring people back to life

If the Joker had access to an ultimate plot nullifier like that, anything is possible

Number 9. Bane wanted to help Batman in The Dark Knight Rises. The Dark Knight Rises is definitely the most polarizing film in the Batman world

The most common criticism from fans being that Bane's motives don't make a ton of sense

Seriously, if we wanted someone to ruin a football game with a microphone, we could have just called Maroon 5. So what were Bane's real motives? Well, what if we told you

that Bane was trying to help Batman the entire time like some kind of criminally insane Tony

Robbins? Unleash the vigilante within, so to speak. This fan theory is pretty elaborate

but if you think about it, Bane's plan could be interpreted as a three-step program to restore

Gotham's faith in the caped crusader. Step one, he convinces Gotham that they need Batman by

conquering the city. This forces Batman out of retirement. Step two, he breaks Batman's back

showing him that he is weak and can be broken, but also that he can heal

Step 3. He causes total and absolute chaos that only Batman can fix

By carrying out these three steps in Bane's PR campaign from hell, he restores the public faith in Batman as a symbol who protects the city Therapy and a publicist might have been a cheaper and less costly option 8 Alfred hired Joe Chill to Kill Batman Parents This one is a little dark and we hate to imagine it but could Alfred have hired Joe Chill to kill Thomas Wayne

Was Martha just some tragic collateral damage from a murder plot gone wrong

Well, who was the one person who knew exactly where the Wayne family was going to be on the night they were murdered

The answer, Alfred Murder Pants Pennyworth! Perhaps Alfred plotted this crime of passion out of his love for Martha and it went horribly wrong

After all, Alfred was the Waynes' personal valet. Did he arrange a pickup location for the Waynes that would lead them down Crime Alley on that fateful night

Why not just pick them up in front of the theater? This theory also explains Alfred's creepy emotional attachment to Bruce Wayne

Having inadvertently hatched the plan that would end up with the woman he loved being gunned down in the street

Alfred would raise Bruce Wayne as his own son as some sort of cathartic attempt to process his guilt

turning Batman's origin story into more of an erotic thriller involving a philandering butler

It could happen. Oh, you have no idea. Seven, Batman Begins, Ra's al Ghul is alive and well

At the end of Batman Begins, we get to see Batman work a really weird loophole into his whole

I don't kill people mantra by choosing not to save Ra's al Ghul from a crashing train

Don't tell Batman this, but that's kind of what murder is, or at least it would have been

if Ra's al Ghul had actually died. Why can't you just die

There's a fan theory floating around that the reason Ra's al Ghul closes his eyes before

plunging to his death is actually because he has died many times before. Remember when Roz refers

to himself as a mortal right before he burns Wayne Manor to the ground? Well, quite a few fans think

that he doesn't fear death because he knows the location of a Lazarus pit and has harnessed the

powers of resurrection. Screenwriter David S. Goyer has dismissed this theory, and with Christopher

Nolan no longer making Batman films, there is zero chance that we will ever see this theory get

resurrected ever again. Wham! Six, the Joker tries to find replacements for Harley Quinn. This one is

really subtle, but in an extended cut of a very bad film, Suicide Squad, there is a scene where

the Joker is sitting in a circle of knives. You know, like you do. But if you look closely

in this version, there is a woman sitting in a chair. Also pictured in the room is a spandex

Harley Quinn outfit. The theory is that after Harley Quinn's kidnapping, the Joker found women

who looked like Harley Quinn and forced them to pretend to be her After realizing that none of them could compare to Harley the Joker would just murder them and then move on to the next one Sound crazy Well it not Suicide Squad director David Ayer confirmed this to be correct on Twitter Number five the Scarecrow accidentally creates the Joker

In Batman Begins, the Scarecrow exposes a large portion of Gotham City to a very potent fear toxin

How potent, you ask? Well, it almost caused Rachel Dawes to permanently lose her mind

It almost killed Batman. And it even caused the Scarecrow himself to be permanently afflicted with a profound fear of bats

So yeah, it's pretty intense stuff. Now, could it be that the Joker was just someone who was poisoned by the Scarecrow and never received the antidote

Is that why the Joker cut his own face? Are his ever-changing memories just based on drug-induced hallucinations

When he sees human beings, is he really seeing them as monsters? It's hard to imagine a world where the thousands of people affected by fear gas just magically got better without suffering from long-term trauma or psychological damage

If falling down a well can turn you into a bat-themed vigilante, then certainly inhaling spooky gas can turn you into a clown

4. Why Does Harvey Dent Switch Races? If you try to watch the 90s Batman films in chronological order

you might notice some sudden and drastic changes to the character of Harvey Dent

aka Two-Face. In Batman Returns, Harvey is portrayed by Lando Calrissian himself, Billy Dee Williams

Hello, what have we here? In Batman Forever, Harvey Dent is played by possibly the whitest actor on Earth

Tommy Lee Jones. So why the switch? Well, one fan theory is that Batman Forever is actually a movie within a movie

Here's how it goes. Bruce Wayne, being unable to cope with the death of Catwoman

comes out publicly as Batman. This leads to several multi-million dollar lawsuits

from the criminals he had thrown into prison, and from Gotham for causing millions of dollars worth of damage to city infrastructure

After bankrupting Wayne Enterprises, Bruce Wayne decides to sell his life story to Warner Brothers

who ended up making the film Batman Forever, thus explaining how Harvey Dent was able to seamlessly change race

We could have organized this, planned it, pre-sold the movie rights. This is also the only fan theory that allows you to cope

with how terrible the Joel Schumacher Batman movies are. Batman! Number three, Jared Leto's Joker is actually Robin

For those of you who don't know who Jason Todd is, he's the second Robin who was allegedly murdered by the Joker

We know that Jason Todd exists in the DC Cinematic Universe because in Batman vs Superman we see his costume in the Batcave covered in the Joker graffiti So what happened One fan theory imagines that after countless hours of being tortured by the Joker Jason Todd broke free killed the Joker and ended up going crazy

becoming him in the process. A key piece of evidence supporting this theory is the J on the

Joker's face. This actually matches a brand given to Jason Todd during his time in captivity in the

Arkham universe. It wouldn't be the first time, or even the craziest time, a Robin turned into the

Joker. In the 2000 film animated film Batman Beyond Return of the Joker, former Robin Tim

Drake was secretly infused with the Joker's DNA, which slowly transformed him into the clown prince

of crime. So just going crazy and beating a man to death seems pretty normal by comparison here

Number two, the Joker is the hero of the Dark Knight. The Dark Knight is widely considered to

not only be one of the best Batman films, but also one of the best action films of all time

The phrase, you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain

echoes throughout the film. But who is the real hero of the Dark Knight? Some fans have a theory

that the Joker is the real hero of the film. You see, Gotham was in such bad shape

they actually tolerated and supported a vigilante. A vigilante who doesn't really get a whole lot done, by the way

You got more chance of winning the Powerball than running into him. Crime was so bad in Gotham, they had sections of the city walled off

Who cleaned it up? The Joker. Who loosened the mafia's grip on Gotham

The Joker. Who ousted Gotham's corrupt leaders? The Joker. When you think about it

the Joker did more to eliminate crime and corruption in Gotham than Batman ever did. I mean, sure, he might be a raging psychopath who terrorized and murdered hundreds of people

and his ends certainly don't justify the means, but when you really think about it, do Batmans

Number 1. Batman is an inmate at Arkham Asylum The ultimate Batman fan theory is quite literally insane and imagines Batman as an inmate of Arkham

Asylum, and all of his villains are either other inmates or people who work there. Imagine this

scenario. Being unable to cope with the trauma inflicted upon him by the murder of his family

Bruce Wayne was forced into psychiatric care at an early age. Remembering his encounter with bats after falling into a well

Bruce instructs the hospital staff to refer to him as Batman. I'm Batman

The person whom he imagines as the Joker would just be a nameless inmate who can't stop laughing

Selina Kyle would be the name of a nurse. Mr. Freeds would be the guy who fixes the air conditioning

The list goes on and on, but it paints a pretty ugly picture of Bruce's fragile psyche

Could the entire Batman mythos be unraveling inside the mind of a severely disturbed psychiatric patient

So there you have it, 10 fan theories about Batman villains