I agree wofford, Batman did every thing he could to negate what Joker did to Harvey. By becoming the villain in Gotham's mind, he became more than a hero. Which was a wonderful conclusion to such a dark story. Though, assuming Two Face is dead, the situation Joker set up did force Batman to break his one rule not to kill. We shall see about that in a third film I suppose.
Well I will say that your assessment is well thought out and worded, but I think we'll just have to agree to disagree.
With the Joker as a self proclaimed agent of chaos, I think there's only so much planning he can make. Obviously there's a good deal of planning for each "event" (setting up Rachel and Harvey for example) but as situations change, he changes and rolls with it. I do believe his plan was to kill Batman and then toy with the mob and the rest of Gotham, until he saw that Batman was his only real challenge and in the end his ultimate nemesis, yin to his yang or opposite sides of the same coin (Ha-Ha).
That's cool. I just don't think there's anything specific within the film to point to that supports the idea of Joker changing his mind about anything including his attitude towards Batman. He's a static character who believes the same things about himself, humanity, and the Batman and the end of the story that he did at the beginning of the story, though he is surprised in the end that Batman was truly uncorruptable, which fascinates him.
I think The Joker had already made up his mind about Batman being an equal, a worthy adversary, a kindred freak like himself, as soon as he heard about him, sometime off screen during the first film, long before we even see Joker appear in TDK. He decides to show his "brother" how wrong he is in his foolish pursuit of justice, to force his hand and make him admit what a monster he really is under all of his ethics and rules, even if it means his own death at Batman's hands. When Batman asks "why do you want to kill me?" Joker seems genuinely shocked and amused that Bats doesn't understand. "I don't want to
kill you! You complete me." The implication is that The Joker also completes Batman, which Batman does not realize and is unwilling to admit.
If he really wanted Batman dead he would go about it completely differently than approaching the mob. He'd set a trap and simply kill him while he was distracted with someone else. As we later see, despite his insistence to "get paid for what he does well", The Joker has no desire for money.
The Joker is after something far more difficult to achieve than simply the death of Batman. He doesn't want Batman to die a martyr or hero, believing he was right in his battle against criminals. He wants to break Bats, for him to acknowledge his own corruption, to know his pursuit for justice, his entire existence, his life, is meaningless, that it is a JOKE.
No offense to your view point, but I think the reading of Joker as impulsive, changing his mind and making random, off hand decisions as he goes along is the shallow and "at first glance" view of what is really a very calculated plot to test the "good" people of Gotham. He uses and encourages the general perception of himself as a lunatic or haphazard, mad dog against his foes, catching them, as well as the audience, off guard and masking his true, carefully planned motives, most notably in manipulation of the police at the station so he can get to Lau and escape.
I believe Joker's speech to Harvey about "do I look like a man with a plan? I'm just a dog chasing a car. I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it" is complete BS. Joker has many small plans which fit into a larger overall plan from the get go. As you say, the bank robbery, getting the mob on his side, the attack on the judge, commissioner, & mayor, the Harvey & Rachel kidnapping, his capture and escape from the police, the hospital bombing as cover for Two face escaping, the overall terrorizing of Gotham and bombs on the ferries, etc are all carefully thought out plans, and each sets up the next. All part of a much larger plan to corrupt the peoples' heroes, Batman and Dent, eventually corrupting and winning "the soul of Gotham", proving his point about humanity and the belief that life itself is just one sick joke.
