headcanon: violence and killing

Although I’m a Nolan-based Selina blog, I’m going to go with my limited knowledge of comic canon on this, since we really don’t learn much about Selina from TDKR. Unlike the classic comic canon in which Selina is seen not to have really dealt in any murders or killed anyone, the Selina I play is not against such deeds. Depending on different versions of Selina’s past as a teenage prostitute/dominatrix – it’s seen that she either simply punches her abusive pimp Stan and leaves him; or she kills him gruesomely, clawing his face (in a catlike manner) to make her mark. I’ve gone with the latter. This means that Selina was only in her teens (approx. age 16) when she made her first kill. This will stay in her memory for a long time.

As seen in both comic canon and in the Nolan portrayal, Selina is quite obviously skilled in handling a weapon, as well as skilled in hand to hand combat. She’s trained well in both aspects – which makes her a rather formidable figure when it comes to thieving. One wouldn’t expect a classy cat burglar to soil her hands with the blood of the expendable. Although Selina does do her best to avoid any situations in which she has to kill and dispose of a person, she’s not exactly against it. With friends like hers… it’s not unlikely. However, that’s not the driving factor behind her reasons to kill.

It started with the ruthless murder of her abusive pimp Stan. At the age of sixteen, Selina had acquired her first taste of blood. She didn’t learn to kill through manipulation or tampering of the environment like others in the Gallery had. She killed face to face, scoring mark after mark with her own hands – hands that had seemed to her to be stained red for days after the kill. She doesn’t enjoy the art of murder, at least not like the elation that some of her fellow Rogues seem to feel upon taking a human life. Of course, having killed Stan, Selina felt a sense of victory and smugness that had later disgusted her. But that fleeting justification was enough to get her killing again.

Selina picks her victims with almost the delicacy that she chooses her targeted heists with. She doesn’t find joy in picking off any random human being in the multitudes that inhabit the dark city of Gotham. She has a twisted sense of morals in this sense. Perhaps it was what had drawn her to Bruce – and his ’no guns, no killing’ code. She’s not a killer. She’s a thief first and foremost, and killing only comes when it is needed. She kills the oppressors, those who stand on others’ shoulders in order to elevate themselves. She kills the murderers, the rapists, the abusers. She has a code to kill by. And even then, her targets are few and far in between. She has killed no more than five people over the years, barring the events of the Occupation and the need to stay alive during those days. It is no wonder that murder, besides that very first kill, has never surfaced on her criminal records. Selina has valued independence and has set it among one of her most prized possessions; and it is for that factor that she will strike.

In a way, she sees herself as a liberator. But not quite. Selina is selfish as she has always been. In the scene in TDKR where she has her pistol at Daggett’s temple: she wouldn’t have shot. She wouldn’t have killed him in reckless frustration for the Clean Slate, something that she covets despite her very emotion driven actions. He isn’t worth it – despite her hatred of people like him who stand on the shoulders of those with less, those who prize money above all. But she has killed the kind of men like Daggett before. There’s no saying that she won’t do so again, despite her nature.

Selina is selfish. She’s learned to trust no one but herself, and in that way – she always puts herself first and foremost. In order to survive, she takes care of herself as most important. She’s reckless (dangerously so), and too emotionally driven. Killing is not something she is beneath, for all her seductive smiles and carefully crafted exterior. In the events of TDKR, she probably has killed people when Bruce was not around, purely because of instinct. But only because it was last resort. Usually she just subdues and moves on.

Everyone has their inner monster. Some just show it more than others; such as the artists that make up the Rogues Gallery. Selina’s is pride, stubbornness, selfishness. She never regrets her kills – and it is an ugly truth to the beauty that is the Catwoman. It is what ultimately will cause Bruce and her to come to an end. He doesn’t kill to justify, he doesn’t kill as an end to a means. She does.

The Batman may prefer behind bars; but Selina Kyle prefers six feet under.