I too was suprised by the whole, “I’m gonna start being crazy right… about… NOW! grrrrrrrrrr!!!!!! call me Two Face! grrrrrrr, I’m gonna kill your family.”

But then I thought about it. Harvey was crazy the whole time.

Gun pulled on him in court. “oh I’m fine. chuckle chuckle. don’t worry about me. so how bout them yankees”

Judges car blows up, kills judge. “oh darn… well we need us another judge. why can’t we find one? let’s keep trying to get this show on the road.”

His girl with a millionare. “well, you’re just friends, that’s what you said. I believe you sweetie”

all that sillyness aside…

while I’ve never had only half the skin on my face… I’m sure he’d have been on major drugs… adrenaline at some point would have worn off. I don’t think he would have been functioning that well…

so, yeah, two face was crazy. and the character was done poorly.

it’s like if I started to tell a story about this guy who

that’s the last sentence

the end.

Although this is a little off-topic, I would like to explain this part to those who didn’t understand it. The short answer is that the Joker lied to Batman and told him the wrong address to mess with him, since the person Batman chose to save would die. Second, the locations were on opposite sides of town so Batman could, as the Joker said, “only save one of them.” Gordon and his men were not fast enough to save Rachel, while Batman, using all of his tricks, is able to save half of Harvey.

Let me explain: a lot of supposedly “shining and wonderful” public figures are, in fact, sociopaths who get to the top through manipulation, decpetion, backstabbing, and bullying. The people above, anyone needed” to further the sociopath’s own ends, and the public aren’t aware of this: hence the manipulation. It’s actually a very common thing. The film even hints at this: Dent was called “Two-face” for years by his underlings, which is a very typical nickname for a borderline personality disorder sufferer (borderline is practically “two-face” syndrome, in fact). Borderline correlates strongly with sociopathy, and since these individuals have an unstable emotional base, and no conscience or remorse, all it takes is the right trigger to create true violent madness. As Ac described quite nicely, Dent got more than the right trigger.

Note that Chairman Mao, who killed over 70 million people during his regime (arguably the most tyrannical in all of human history), was seen by the Chinese public as a “saviour” or “messiah” – and still is by many. Mao had similar nicknames among his underlings, who usually knew better. So called “White Knights” often aren’t. A real “white knight” would never have had “Two-face” as a nickname. That’s the nickname of a borderline sufferering sociopath.

He didn’t necessarily turn “evil” in a blink of an eye. He was scarred, both mentally and physically. Not only was he helpless when his love interest died, but he also had to outright lie to her (Which he covers at the end of the film). Couple that with his physical pain (As he refused pain-killers), and his decent into madness is easy to comprehend.
Matt had a good quote (From the movie itself oddly enough), “Madness is like gravity, all it needs is a little push”).

And plus, “homicidal mania” is way off the mark. He went after those responsible for the kidnapping and death of Rachel, he had a very clear and acceptable motive.

Did you notice what he went through before the Joker came in? Read the comments on “Box of Jokers” because they explain it great there.

Also to misterdoode, I was actually saying, “Sweet I was wondering who the second villain was gonna be!” Then when I left I said, “I’m glad Two-Face wasn’t in for long because I wanted more scene with Ledger’s Joker anyway.”

The fact that Two-Face was in the film for 20 minutes (and that’s not even screen-time) should be enough to tell you that his character was given the shaft – and you comic nerds should be the first to admit that.

There was not enough character development for Dent at all, and he had SO much potential in this series. His turn into Two-Face should have had the audience screaming “Nooo!!” instead we were left saying, “WTF? Why is he crazy now?”

P.S. Rachel’s character was great in Begins – horribly different in The Dark Knight.