Remy LeBeau/Gambit | X-Men '97 1x01 (2024)
I hate Bruce's "I don't kill because once I start, I wouldn't be able to stop"
Like I simply do not buy it. Murder is not a potato chip Bruce. I think he is full of shit and a messy bitch who lives for the drama. I am certain Bruce has some kind of valid reason for not killing, but I don't believe that this is it.
No no let’s dig into this. And let’s not go into the obvious of, “murders bad” or “he’d feel guilty” like let’s try to find another reason to why this bitch man doesn’t kill anyone, including his son’s murderer
So there are generally around 5-6 "big reasons" traditionally given for why Bruce doesn't kill his villains, many of which have been explored in comics and others of which have been discussed and debated ad nauseum around the internet. Here's the four I tend to find most compelling:
- Bruce's moral code that prohibits killing is ultimately what separates him from those he fights against. He follows a very strict deontological viewpoint of "killing is wrong, regardless of intentions or consequences." Jason, by contrast, has a "ends justify the means" consequentialist mentality of "if you kill a criminal, you prevent more crime, so the killing is justified." The ethical dilemma surrounding this issue is that who are you, random quasi-legal vigilante on a self-imposed quest to end crime, to decide when you are or aren't preventing "more killing/crime" by killing a criminal? What makes Bruce qualified to determine who should get to live and die? He doesn't think he is, so he's simply said "I don't have that right. I'll instead work to save everyone, regardless of who they are/what they've done (to me or anyone else)."
- Bruce's "if I start killing, I don't think I'd be able to stop" is less "murder is a potato chip" and more about the rationalization it would take to take that first step off the edge. Essentially, if he kills Joker, why not kill Two-Face? What makes killing Joker fundamentally different from killing Two-Face? From killing Penguin? From killing Harley, Ivy, Killer Croc, etc? Why is killing the Joker okay but killing say....Victor Zzasz isn't? When does a villain commit enough illegal and morally reprehensible acts that extrajudicial murder is an acceptable solution?
- Part of the point and purpose of Bruce being Batman in addition to Bruce Wayne, CEO of Wayne Enterprises, is the flexibility he has in pursuing justice, rehabilitation, and re-education. The entire point of Batman is preventing the Wayne Family Tragedy™ from happening to anyone else. Bruce's entire mission in life is creating a world where "no more children lose their parents to some punk with a gun." Batman is supposed to prevent more children from becoming orphans, more wives from becoming widows, more husbands from becoming widowers, more parents from losing their children. What does killing do except perpetuate that cycle of violence and undermine his core mission?
- How is Batman any different from the cops if he kills? Batman can't be a figure to inspire reform in the criminal justice system (and specifically the GCPD) if he kills, because how does that make Batman any better than the corrupt system he claims to want to make better? Batman killing doesn't inspire hope that there is a better way; it would just be an extension of how Gotham's "justice system" works anyway. By refusing to cross that line Batman as a symbol encourages Gotham to be better than they are.
As an expansion of #2, you could very reasonably make the point that "but it's the Joker! He's different!" But is he? Is he really? He's certainly done more permanent personal harm to the Batfamily than most other villains (Babs and Jason specifically), but what about Two-Face smashing Dick to pieces with a baseball bat in Robin: Year One? What about Black Mask torturing Steph to death during War Games? What about Shiva killing Cass in Batgirl (even if she brought her back)? What about Ra's nearly killing Tim in Red Robin? What about Talia murdering Damian by proxy (via Heretic) in Batman Inc.? What about Bane murdering Alfred in City of Bane? Where's the line?
Bruce has seen 3-4 people he's either legally or nominally responsible for die on his watch, another 3 tortured to near-death conditions on multiple occasions, 1 permanently injured, and had a villain murder the man who raised him and leave his body for Bruce to find, and yet the only thing anyone really ever talks about re: Bruce killing is Jason and the Joker. If the line is torturing one of his kids (or those flying under his banner) half to death, by all rights he should have killed Two-Face and Black Mask for what they did to Dick and Steph. If it's killing a 'family' member, he should have killed Joker, Black Mask, Bane, and Talia (also Lex Luthor and...technically Jacob Kane, considering everyone thought Tim was dead during the Rebirth arc).
It's not just the Joker at stake here: if we start saying "Batman should kill the Joker because of what he did to Jason [and everyone else]," you start getting into really thorny questions about well...a lot of Bruce's villains have done some ridiculously morally reprehensible stuff, including mass murder and irreparable personal harm to someone he considers family. What makes the Joker's mass murder different from Ivy's mass murder (and yes, canonically they are both mass murderers) that justifies the Joker's death but not Ivy's?
You can of course justify that by saying "but Ivy's not unredeemable! She can be reasoned with and rehabilitated!" but...what if Bruce had made the decision that she was unredeemable and worthy of death before her No Man's Land-era redemption arc kicked off? It loops back around to #1, that Bruce doesn't feel personally qualified to make that moral and ethical decision about who gets to live or die, because he thinks everyone has the personal capacity to change (and what right does he have to take that possibility away from someone?)
....also personally I think "they deserve to die" and "I deserve to kill them/let them die" aren't morally/ethically equivalent statements and Bruce can certainly think Joker deserves to die without also thinking he is morally allowed to kill him (or morally allowed to let someone else kill him when he has the ability to stop them).
Ahmad Abu Shamla, a Palestinian man, was killed by Israel in Rafah. He had been working for France since 2002 in the French institute.
Wanna know why he was still in Gaza? Because France refused to put his 4 oldest sons in the list of people allowed to evacuate through Rafah. Because of his job France could repatriate him and his family but they chose to put only part of the family in the list and refused to put his 4 older sons. Ahmad told the rest of his family who were on the list to leave and he stayed behind with his 4 sons and on Saturday he died because of his wounds after the house he was staying at was bombed. He was killed by Israel because France expected him to leave his sons behind.
It’s just so fucking disgusting I wanna throw up.
France 100% killed him. Who in their right mind would expect a parent to leave 4 of his children behind knowing perfectly they might not survive? They knew that by denying entry to 4 of his sons either all of the family would stay in Gaza or part of the family would stay.
It took France a whole month to evacuate them cause they were evacuated only in mid November. And while Ahmad was in Gaza, Reem, his wife who evacuated with their nieces and their 2 other sons, was fighting to get their 4 sons on the evacuation list that way Ahmad would be able to come with them.
Some representatives are sending letters to the ministry of foreign affairs telling her to evacuate Ahmad’s 4 sons so his death wouldn’t be vain. But the fact that he had to die for his story to even be public.
This man worked for France for 2 fucking decades.
France killed him.
Allah yarham shouhada.
To this day people will cry over the knowledge and works destroyed when the library of Alexandria was burned down.
And yet no tears are shed as Palestinian archives and libraries are bombed.
Saint Porphyrius Church, built in 1150 and the 3rd oldest church in the world has been bombed.
It's not an accident.
Israel aren't simply killing Palestinians, they are trying to erase that there ever were Palestinians in the first place.
Destroying their livelihoods, trying to to destroy their culture and history and pretend this land was never there's.
It's easy to deny someone's existence when there's no record of them.
Which is why it's so important to look at the atrocities and bear witness to what's happening.
But to also recognise that Palestine is more than it's suffering.
There is a living breathing culture, of art, history, literacy which all come from the Palestinians.
Traditions they've carried for centuries.
So while we mourn the dead, we shall fight for the living. Fight for the preservation of their crafts, amplify their voices as they speak on their culture.
Palestinian history and culture is alive. And no matter how much the world wants to erase that, they cannot and will not.
israel is now demanding that the al quds hospital is evacuated. the hospital currently holds 400 patients and 12,000 people seeking shelter. there is almost nowhere to go. israel has been conducting air strikes near the hospital for the last few days and this demand to evacuate is their ‘warning’ before they bomb it.
the patients cannot leave, plenty of them are in critical condition. healthcare is being targeted by israel and this is one of the last standing hospitals.
this is horrifying.
updating to inform you all that the hospital staff have refused to evacuate patients, nor will they be leaving their patients behind and evacuating for themselves.
there is nowhere else to go, not for the patients who need care and not for the tens of thousands seeking refuge there. the estimated number is patients at al quds is now 500.
there are pregnant women, elderly people and children sheltering there & being treated. there are also patients in intensive care (most of which are children) and on life support. even if there was anywhere to go, it would not be feasible to evacuate thousands of people, many being kept alive by machines, nor would any shelter they found be truly safe.
in announcing their receipt of the evacuation order, the palestinian red crescent simultaneously stated that israel has ordered the evacuation of multiple schools. unsurprising to no one, following condemnation from WHO, us representatives and other political figures, israeli news outlets now report that israel has denied that they sent any of these orders.
i find this difficult to believe due to .. well, their history, but especially given the fact that israel also told them to evacuate the same hospital last week. this was the same day al ahli hospital was first struck, and 3 days before the catastrophic bombing.
i will update this if i learn of anything further regarding the situation. please continue to spread the word — a repeat of what happened to al ahli hospital would be completely devastating, and with all those who have taken refuge in the hospital, the amount of injuries & casualties would likely be much higher.
Literally such a funny concept
This is better than all Black mirrors combined.
Happy martin birthday
Elektra
the love between two siblings
Palestinians are not "animals."
They are not "children of darkness."
Little kids are rescuing cats and trying to comfort them when they themselves are terrified.
A doctor broke down when his father and brother came into the trauma unit.
And several of his colleagues hugged and gathered to comfort him.
Journalists are playing with babies.
Doctors are refusing to evacuate hospitals because their patients can't and refuse to leave them.
There's a little boy who gives tea to the journalists and thanks them for spreading their stories.
He's displaced at the hospital, his home is gone.
A kid was asked what he wants to be when he grows up and he said kids in Gaza don't grow up.
Kids are writing their names on their arms so they can be identified.
Momin Kireka is a Palestinian journalist who was disabled by an Israeli attack in 2008.
And despite the difficulty in moving around, he vows to continue to show the world the truth.
Awni, a young Palestinian boy has a gaming YouTube channel he loved so much.
He was killed in the bombing.
Mohammed Sami was an artist who's dream was to open an art gallery.
He was playing with the kids to raise their spirits. And the next day he was killed.
They are victims.
They are going through unimaginable horrors and still find it in their hearts to be kind.
They have hopes and dreams just like you and I.
They are people.
And they deserve to be remembered as such.