Everything changed on a particular night.
The Laughing Bat's expression gradually turned ugly.
It was nearing Christmas, and Jason's illness had largely improved. Spider Man was decorating the final Christmas tree, but after hanging all the ornaments, he realized the tree wasn't bright enough. It lacked some lights and seemed a bit dim, resulting in a poor effect.
But the next day was Christmas Eve, and most stores would be closed, so it would definitely be too late to go shopping then.
So, Jason and Spider Man decided to head out that evening and buy more colorful lights to make the Christmas tree brighter.
While walking on the road, they engaged in yet another debate between superheroes and ordinary people, roughly about how the current peaceful times are rare and should indeed be cherished. They thought that dreaming about being a hero can wait, there's no hurry until after Christmas.
Everyone could clearly hear that by this time, the young heroes' thoughts had started to favor pursuing an ordinary, happy life, and in fact, The Laughing Bat's scheme had already succeeded.
But then, another problem arose. If that were the case, then The Laughing Bat would no longer need to skip those 20 years, because if the script continued in this way, everything would be correct.
The young heroes, indulging in pleasure and forsaking their heroic dreams, facing disaster in middle age and then suddenly coming to a realization—the development of the first half went very smoothly. But if things just continued this way, what was the need to tweak the timeline?
Everyone knows that the screen going black and skipping 20 years is a rather elementary technique, rarely used in TV dramas anymore.
Even if it were used, it had to make sense, for instance, the male and female leads part ways, each living through 10 years separately. Those 10 years aren't the juicy part of the show; audiences don't want to see how they lived apart, but rather, how they reconcile after they meet again.
Therefore, this plot section can only be skipped, otherwise, it would lead to a watered-down storyline lacking focus and would cause viewership to decline. Hence, skipping time with a flash of the screen is a better choice.
But if the director wants to showcase reconciliation, and the audience wants to see reconciliation, and then you describe how shattered each of them is after parting and 10 years pass with a flicker of the screen, and the two get married, having skipped the reconciliation itself, just see whether the director doesn't get bashed for it.
The Laughing Bat's design was precisely to depict the heroes' change of heart from youth to middle age. Although the sudden repentance in middle age is important, you can't just skip over the changes in their youthful perspectives—what kind of movie is that?
Jason had been ill for a while, his mind unclear, so it's natural for someone weak to yearn for a peaceful life, a unique notion under special circumstances that doesn't have universal applicability.
Previously, Peter was also being bullied; he was in a somewhat abnormal state of life. It's normal for his views to be distorted during that time, which lacks sufficient persuasiveness.
Moreover, both of them were rather solitary individuals, without a normal social environment around them. The choices they made were the only ones they could at that time; there were no other options, so the state they presented could only be such.
Changes under these circumstances are not called self-awareness, but being pushed along by society and fate.
But now things were better. Both had escaped their previous environments. One could temporarily forget a past riddled with trauma, and the other finally possessed the great power he longed for. Additionally, they kept each other company and built a new network of relationships, finally living normal lives.
So they also finally began to have the energy to think about the future, like most ordinary people standing at a crossroads making a choice.
They were discussing this and didn't completely agree; they were still struggling, hesitating, and confused.
And then with a snap, that process was skipped. They had made their choices, and the choices were the very ones the movie's main theme wanted to highlight. Is this a joke? Why did they choose that way? What right did they have to choose that way?
You as a director painstakingly design a series of plot conflicts, placing them in a normal person's environment, becoming more like an ordinary person, just to make their discussions about choices resonate more with the audience, right?
Wasn't it to let the audience as ordinary people feel, "I think he is right because that's what I thought at the time," or "I think he's wrong because that's how I saw it back then"?
Only by finding resonance in the characters can an audience project it onto themselves and be incited to think. Even if their ultimate decisions are different from the audience's, at least they would have shown a new possibility to the viewers.
As a result, the speculative part was skipped, and both made certain choices, which could make one feel that this wasn't the characters' choice, nor the audience's choice, but the director's choice.
It's as if the director was using a loudspeaker to play on loop, "This path is right! This path is good! No matter how much you discuss or contemplate, you'll all end up on this path!"
Audiences hate being represented.
Moreover, this also deviated from the original intention of the show. The Laughing Bat introduced the real-life Jason to prove that young heroes could also be corrupted by a comfortable and happy life, eventually giving up their ideals and dreams.
If you just skip the part about why he gave up and directly control his memory loss and choice, why not just fabricate a character who's completely under your control?
Those present all felt The Laughing Bat was foolish, but surely he couldn't be foolish to such an extent, could he? Such an obvious contradiction—couldn't he see it?
Clearly, there was more to it.
Just as Jason and Spider Man were stepping out to buy lamps, they heard a cry for help. It was a little girl's scream coming from the alley next door.
From the way the two turned and ran, it was evident that they acted purely on instinct, rushing over the moment they heard the scream, and then they saw The Clawed Killer's terrifying figure standing in front of the little girl.
Jason, who was still not fully recovered after a serious illness, instinctively rushed to embrace the girl, while Peter, with his great strength, tackled the Killer devil to the ground.
The Killer devil quickly vanished, and the two consoled the little girl, whose cries echoed in the alley.
The two had a sleepless night.
The next morning, they left the house early without even hanging up the lamps they bought the night before. They bought a bunch of newspapers featuring The Clawed Killer and collected all the recent news about him, seemingly determined to locate the despicable criminal.
Wait a minute, isn't there something off about this plot?
Oh, everyone suddenly realized; it's not that Laughing bat wanted to skip these 20 years, he had no choice but to skip them.
Because if he didn't, this would again be a superhero movie about young heroes fighting crime.
After all the previous setup of getting sick, being bullied, and breaking their toy bear turned out to be pointless. As soon as the girl cried, they couldn't wait to tear that damned criminal to pieces.
"Human race is emotional," Shiller said. "It is only when they are not in an emergency, not heated, not in a survival crisis, and not under environmental pressure, to be precise, when they are fed and full, that they start to think philosophically."
"Moreover, it must be the right time, right place, and right people, with no mishaps and no misfortune, that they might possibly smoothly follow the path they have determined for themselves."
"Any accidents at all, and it's completely impossible," Shiller shook his head, put down his pen, and said, "If everyone could plan a path for themselves at 20 years old and successfully follow it to the end, human society would not be like this."
"Ultimately, those mishaps boil down to momentary passion, lack of rationality, slow thinking, unclear logic, or knowing what is right or wrong but just lacking the self-control to make the right choice."
"The same applies to young heroes. Even if they rationally know what's best for themselves, they can't control themselves."
"They might have spent the previous evening contemplating the harm their actions might cause to others, analyzed it clearly and thoroughly, and decided to repent and reform, but the next day, as soon as they see a robbery, they still rush in and beat the criminal without any regard."
"For the reasons behind this, even the world's most brilliant psychologists can't explain, and can only say it's none of your business to inquire about human affairs."
Everyone then understood; The Clawed Killer, manipulated by Shiller, was just a decoy. This was a classic shell game.
The Clawed Killer committing crimes wasn't actually about disrupting the city's situation or ruining the backdrop of the story so it couldn't continue; the real killer move was actually the little girl played by the Doll Master.
It was a very simple logical trap; a horror murderer who's all over the news and reports, and a group of innocent children who are just pitiful victims— who looks more like the troublemaker?
Because Laughing bat is such a Killer devil, always ruining a cosmos's background story, so naturally, he applied his logic to others, believing that whoever tried to disrupt him must also want to do the same.
And in the end, this Killer devil definitely wanted to turn black into white, to whitewash himself as a just individual, to remind the young Superhero protagonists of the story, to make them wake up and rise up in rebellion, and to stop the play, because Laughing bat had done just that before.
He told all the Robins and Batmen he had corrupted that their cosmos was going to be destroyed, that someone else was responsible for the destruction, and that he was there to help them, which is why those people followed his directions.
But Shiller did not; from beginning to end, The Clawed Killer maintained the role of an antagonist, and even the real killer move, the little girl, was not to make the heroes come to their senses but precisely to make them act on emotion, completely disregarding their previous reflections and discussions.
The essence of a Superhero is to act on a whim.
They never chose this path because of gain or loss but because they couldn't stand seeing others suffer or seeing the law unable to punish certain super criminals, so they chose to be Superheroes on the fringes of social order.
If they truly considered order and loss, they should go to the police academy to become policemen, study law to be lawyers, go to medical school to heal and save people. It is because they can't think so much and act purely on passion that they become Superheroes, not police officers, lawyers, or doctors.
Therefore, the best way to make Laughing bat pull out a shocking mess in this play is not to reason with Jason and Spider Man, but to stimulate their passion.
As expected, in just one night, the two young heroes had forgotten all previous discussions and were planning to fight the super criminals again, leaving Laughing bat utterly exposed on the spot.
Ignoring previous protocols, ignoring the main theme of the play, and even giving up on his mind games with the real Bruce to show who was superior, he chose to intervene directly.
This was exactly Shiller's intention.
Because he forced Laughing bat to reveal his true nature—he had ability, but no talent.