It’s very easy to be swayed by people who are in the public eye. We form teams. We take sides. We are Team Edward or Team Jacob. We are Team Riddler or we are Team Batman. We are inspired by people who take action, sometimes even if the action isn’t good. We wear Joker shirts, or get tattoos of his face. The disenfranchised and the downtrodden follow the Riddler’s every command. We are influenced by what we see. 

I was thinking about this while I watched “The Batman” for the second time last night. At the first viewing, I watched the scene with the mayor’s shell-shocked son, who discovered his father’s body, and my heart broke for that kid. I thought of how Bruce Wayne saw himself in that child. I saw Bruce trying to “save himself” when he pushed the mayor’s son out of the way of the car running into the church at the memorial. I got the parallel storyline.

The second time, though, I thought of “Joker.” I watched those people cheering for a murderer with their signs and their chants, and I thought about how celebrities influence us and who our role models are. The Batman doesn’t kill. That’s one of his rules (that he’s stuck with to varying degrees over the years). I thought of that kid again, who sees this superhero and whose life is changed by him.