A Jester and a Clown

We had a lot of great films that has come out in the year of 2019. We had Avengers Endgame, John Wick 3, Yesterday, and so on. But between the big summer films that were dominating this year, there were two films I couldn't forget. One film is about a man who has a mental disorder who’s living in a terrible condition, and the other is about a poor soul who is abandoned and is alone in an isolated place for a long time. These two might sound the same, but the only similarity is the characters the two films mostly focus on. These two characters I'm going to talk about is Arthur Fleck and Spinel.

Before I talk about Arthur and Spinel, I first wanted to talk about the Joker and Steven Universe movie. The two films are completely different not only because one is live action while the other is 2D animated, but what type of films they are. Joker is a drama thriller in a comic book setting while Steven Universe: The Movie is a musical children film with some drama sprinkle around it. These two films have different style in terms of the way they are presented, influences, and tone. Joker is presented as a dark and gloomy film that shows Gotham as a disgusting and filthy, with characters that only care for themselves or those who wants to do harm. The color of the film is dark with mostly green, blue, and brown color coding. Its influence was from Martin Scorasse’s films like Taxi Driver and King of Comedy, with a tone of misery and hopelessness to reflect Arthur’s world view. Meanwhile, Steven Universe: The Movie is a colorful musical that shows characters making their own progress and changes after the original show run. Its colors are bright and alive. It’s influences from musicals and even some American cartoons add to the mix for most of Spinel’s appearances, with the tone is moving forward and accepting change. The two films may be different, but they each have their own unique look, tone, and influences to set the films apart from one another to give a different viewing experiences.

So after talking about the film and their unique traits, why makes Arthur and Spinel so similar, yet differs at the same time. Well we need to discuss who exactly are and their origins. Arthur Fleck is a man who has a mental illness that causes him to laugh for no reason who is mistreated, and has been wronged by almost everyone he knows in the society he lives in. His goal is to be a comedian and enter people which he starts by working as a clown. Spinel is a gem who only purpose is to entertain Pink Diamond as if she was a jester. So the similarity is there, with the two wanting to entertain who their audience is. But in this point of the story, Arthur is already dealing with hardship while Spinel has yet to face a serious issue yet. So Arthur has way more burden then Spinel, that is until Pink Diamond wants a colony. When Pink Diamond tricked Spinel to wait in the garden for 6,000 years, it starts to affect Spinel negatively. While she starts to feel left out, Arthur world is complete destroyed. He loses his job after an incident in a children’s hospital, the shocking discovery that Thomas Wayne could be his real father (which turns out to be false), and his mother and her boyfriend at the time abused him and caused him so much pain. Arthur is lost, alone, but most important of all, he’s broken and this is the turning point for him to become the Joker. And as Arthur starts off by killing his mother and a former coworker who framed him of his incident, Spinel world changes after 6,000 years of waiting for Pink Diamond, Steven's message appears revealing that Pink Diamond is gone and she was tricked by her. So this turns her into the villain of the film and this is where the two characters change from little entertainers to individual seeking those who did them wrong.

Now that we have established the similarities between the two characters’ origins, I also want to talk about the one subject they have, which has an important role in their goal of the films. This subject is the weapon they use. Arthur Fleck was given a handgun by the coworker, who caused him to lose his job after Arthur accidentally dropped the gun in front of sick children. Spinel uses the Gem Rejuvenator, which used to be owned by Pink Diamond as it is use to poof any gems and strip gems of their memories, causing them to revert to their original selves. These two weapons play a significant role in their separate story as these are the very weapons that leads them into a dark path. For Arthur, he uses the gun to kill Murray for mocking him in the Murray Show. As for Spinel, she uses the Gem Rejuvenator to poofed the Crystal Gems and almost destroys Steven’s gems.

So now we are almost to the end of the character study of Arthur and Spinel. These two suffer a significant loss of how they see the world they live in and how it greatly affect them in a negative matter. They have the same goals of hurting those who wronged them. However, only one manages to recover from the loss while the other remains in insanity. Spinel was only shown as a villain, then a sympathetic character who suffered abandonment, which allowed Steven to help her recover. Arthur was shown as a person who suffered mental and physical abuse, but had little to no support to prevent him. Spinel got a second chance to be with others who wanted her to be around. Arthur becomes the Joker to cause chaos to get people’s attention and finally get what he wanted. Spinel story shows her downfall and her comeback, while the Arthur continues his spiral into madness. Spinel became the good jester, while Arthur became the villainous clown Joker. And that’s the tale of a jester and a clown.