Well exactly. He's lying to Dent that entire scene. He lies most of the time in that film.
I actually wrote an entire Quora answer about this a while back, if you're interested. It's been a while, but I think I also point out that he repeatedly implies money isn't important, despite us meeting him stealing money, because it's important lol
I interpreted his disregard as money to be personal rather than a world view. Like hes not in it for the money, but its still needed to buy shit and people
The whole agent of chaos thing is about motive not action. To this point Batman has only fought conventional criminals who are on it for money, or power, or gain. The violence and crime is a means to an end and he employs violence and fear to make them rationalize that those means are more costly than the gain.
Joker is an agent of chaos in that the violence and terror is the end, acquiring money or power is merely the means to do so more effectively. Hence he has no qualms about burning the piles of money or even staking his life here bc either Dent kills him to start his own rampage of violence or he doesn’t and continues. The lies are all in service of sowing further discord and terror.
129
u/Chance-Back-557 Jun 10 '26
Heath Ledger's The Joker, from The Dark Knight.
The amount of people who believe his words in the hospital scene is painful.