Maria's experience was not actually that complicated. She had simply been ruined by the Joker she once knew, and then become a Joker herself.
But from another angle, her story was not so simple either. If falling into a chemical vat and Batman's gaze had been all it took, she would not have become a Joker so easily.
Maria had been an ordinary bank clerk. But before becoming one, her upbringing had naturally not been smooth sailing either. In summary: an abusive father, a mother who ran away, a bastard brother, and her, doing her best to rise above it.
For someone from that kind of family to find a stable job, it was clear just how hard she had worked.
What was even more admirable was that Maria had not chosen a life of crime. Instead, she had seized every opportunity to struggle forward, carefully minimizing mistakes, and thus won the battle for survival.
Perhaps many people had experienced this: when someone struggled to survive for too long, they easily lost themselves. They operated every day like a lifeless machine, until even their soul gradually disappeared. After achieving things that had once seemed unattainable, they no longer felt much joy.
Maria was like that. She had turned her life into a template, similar to Rose yet opposite to her.
Rose had relied on criminal means, hardly anything honorable, but had ultimately reached a lofty position. Maria had not become a criminal. Through hard work, caution, and a little luck, she too had attained the peaceful life of an ordinary person.
Yet they had both faced the same problem: they had hit the ceiling above them.
Whether through crime or hard work, neither of them had any way to climb any higher.
Rose had chosen to accept her fate. As