So I just noticed this in the Joker+Scare Toxin scene. That entire scene is showing us Joker’s worst fears. We see a destroyed statue of himself, an empty wake, and Vicki Vale hosting a radio show in which no one remembers him. And in the same scene, there’s this newspaper.
So does this confirm that one of Joker’s greatest fears is losing Harley? To not be remembered by even her? Harley is the one person he can always count on to remember him, and the thought that she of all people would move on, terrifies him. This is more than “someone took something of his”. That’d be anger. No, he’s genuinely terrified that now that he’s dead, Harley will forget about him and move on.
I agree. I think the idea of Harley–one of the only two constants (the other being Batman) in Joker’s chaotic, impulsive, violent life–ever moving on to the point where all the years she spent with Joker become nothing more than a faded memory disturbs Joker just as much as seeing his “property” (using his own terminology here) alongside another dude.
It goes beyond him telling Deadshot in Assault on Arkham that he “doesn’t like people touching his stuff” after learning that he hooked up with Harley, because Harley was still very much conflicted over her feelings for Joker and hadn’t straight-up forgotten him like his nightmare in Arkham Knight implies. Having someone who spent years beside him, who gave up everything–including their education, career, and entire life–to be “his” only to just completely forget about him has to be the ultimate insult for Joker, because to him it means that all those years of obsession, all those life-altering sacrifices Harley made, all those tripping-over-her-own-feet attempts to please him ultimately meant so little to her that she traded in her mourning for a new family with someone else.
It’s undoubtedly an ego thing, yeah, but I think the thought of Harley moving on instead of continuing to devote her life to him like she did when he was alive scares Joker for more reasons than just seeing his girlfriend with another man.