That line could just as easily suggest that Robin's death at the hands of The Joker pushed Batman to becoming the cynical, more-violent Batman we meet in BvS. Taken at face value, the line simply suggests that Gotham has a corrupting effect on people. It takes what sense of morality and virtue you have and crushes it. Such as your arch nemesis murdering your partner/foster child and you feeling responsible for it.
The trailers have been pushing the fact that this Batman is more jaded.
"That's how it starts. The fever... the rage... the feeling of powerlessness that turns good men cruel."
"This bat vigilante is like a one-man reign of terror."
"He is not our enemy."
"He has the power to wipe out the entire human race. And we have to destroy him."
Bruce's line about "twenty years in Gotham" could very easily follow Alfred's line about "the fever." Alfred commenting on Bruce's cruelty, to which Bruce responds with justification for being that way. Twenty years in Gotham - witnesses atrocities and horrors that few can fathom. Is it really all that surprising that he's become more cynical during that time?
As for the Joker's marks? Pull up the best quality version of that photo. Those don't even closely resemble scar tissue, especially deep-tissue scars that bullet holes and meat hooks would leave. It simply looks like paint - perhaps from them applying the tattoos on Leto's body. The higher the definition, the more visual scrutiny can be placed on a photo. Hell, when Nicholson's Joker first reveals himself, he has purple paint on his neck. There's no story reason behind it. It's simply a makeup goof.
Besides, there's clearly a bullet hole on the abdomen of Robin's suit, among many other scratches and punctures. Where's the scar on Leto's stomach, or anywhere else that the Robin suit had been damaged?
The purple paint, and the overall shoddiest appearance of his clothing in the scene, stems from the suit having been stained and dyed on his body. So that is actually in the script.
Now, I'm going to try arguing that the JT=Joker theory is
weaker in a literary sense. I understand that trying to "prove" or "disprove" a theory for a film 12 months away is strictly an academic excercise, but it's one that has dominated this thread for a tiring amount of time. So, if you'll follow, I'd like to discuss the merits and weakness of the theory and the more "orthodox" approach that clashes with it. If you disagree, I would greatly appreciate an examination of why, rather than a "agree to disagree" reasonse. It's not that the "agree to disagree" response is invalid as an argument, per se, as much as it just encourages a logger-heads-style stalemate when I'd like to move the discussion along.
So, I believe that if Leto's Joker is Jason Todd, or Dick Grayson, or some other Robin, the storyline is naturally weaker than it would be to keep Batman's arch nemesis and his pupils apart.
The biggest advantage to the theory is that it allows for a plot thread to incorporate multiple references and precedents in Batman media in one single "twist." That's also its biggest weakness; each element of the twist dilutes just a bit of each element's potential, since the twist requires more elements to be used to construct it than other hybrid story lines:
1. Jason Todd/Dick Grayson/Tim/Damian/whoever becoming an antagonist has a lot of power in its most basic format, but would lose something of the turn was coached as Joker #2. The turn feels more derivative than having them accept a separate identity; when Dick and Tim had their turns as Joker-style anatagonists, it removed some of the gravitas of having Dick and Tim be the opponent and replaced it with Joker analogues who are just enemies. TDKSA's Dick was a shallow character who's reveal felt more perfunctory than anything else, and the moment lacked the gut punch it could have had because of how alien the character had become, while ROTJ's Tim was literally hijacked by the Joker, and the two were so wildly different that they were different characters, and the goal became
freeing Tim, instead of
stopping Tim. Jason's return as the Red Hood embraced the character's personality and nuance to make an emotional conflict the center of the story; all his flaws and virtues were the same as they'd been as Robin, but amped up.
2.Joker having an origin as Robin lessens the character's terror as an autonomous threat to Batman, while simultaneously adding an extra stain to the hero's reputation that isn't needed. If Joker recieved his training and skill set from training with Batman, than in effect, he's a home grown problem that Batman understands. Even if he's an insane and broken former Robin, he's still someone Batman knows well enough to manipulate or analyze, kind of like how a bunch of the protagonist-created supervillains in Marvel are defeated because the hero ultimately knows their weak parts. Iron Man understood most of his villains because they were all evil-geniuses or evil businessmen who he's personally aggravated in some way, or were based off his personality like Ultron, and he exploited his knowledge against them to beat them. A Joker who develops largely independent of Batman (aside from the chemical bath) or other heroes still has a mystery and unpredictability to him that makes him a better counter to a hero as reflective and calculating as Batman.
3. Combining the characters eliminates the potential keeping them separate gives you. The more an evil Robin resembles his old self, the more fun you can have with him being ticked at and hostile towards his successors, whether they're Tim or Damian, and the more his renegade actions can be tied to Batman's actual goals and M.O., kind of like the new Hydra in CA:WS. He can also more easily be turned to the heroes' side for extra drama, with more questions coming from whether or not such events will change him to be a hero.
Similarly, a Joker who killed Robin and got away with it is both a bit more threatening in a physical sense, but also a spiritual one towards any Batfamily members, particularly if the Robin comes back, as he has now proven he can twist you and he's still active.
So, keeping the characters seperate makes for a better story potential.
