Todd Phillips explains SHOCKING CLIMAX of 'Joker: Folie à Deux', reveals Arthur Fleck acceptance of his true identity

Having stunned the audience with its overwhelming and shocking ending, 'Joker: Folie à Deux', a sequel to the hit movie 'Joker' in 2019, director Todd Phillips has finally broken silence on the climax of the movie. This was a tragic ending to the film, which did not live up to the fans' expectations as it did badly at the box office during its opening weekend.Arthur Fleck, aka the Joker, died in an unexpected twist while he was set to be assassinated in a bomb explosion during his murder trial. The explosion would also kill everyone in the courtroom, thereby bringing his story to an end.
During the trial, Arthur refused to have an attorney, stating that the Joker was not another personality or split personality. He had shown that he was guilty of the killings on which he was being tried and confessed that he had never had a separate identity known as the Joker but always had been the Joker. He explained in an interview how Phillips had finally realized that everything around him-from the world to Gotham City-was pretty rotten and irredeemable.
However, Phillips claims that Arthur came to this conclusion, realising that only a final, all-consuming flame could purge this rot and bring it down. In turn, Arthur realized that he needed to confess to his crimes and to be true to himself rather than to lead such a lie. He understood that all this excess bedlam, costumes, or makeup was not going to improve this society that he belonged to.
Arthur admits that he never was the figure that Gotham made him to be. Instead, he was always himself. Gotham had put him up on a pedestal as something of a symbol or icon, but Arthur never wanted to live as something false again. For Phillips, Arthur further realized that he never meant to become a symbol of resistance or some sort of rebellion. He wanted to be honest about his identity, but at the cost of accepting himself as having dark deeds.
According to Phillips, it was only when Arthur became aware of the injustice surrounding him that his transformation was complete. He was stirred by an incident where guards shot a child in the hospital, and in that very moment, he entirely understood that all he had done so far-not wearing makeup, not acting as the Joker-did not mean anything. The Joker became himself, but deep inside, he was Arthur Fleck, and he could no longer pretend to be what he wasn't.
In the end, it is the tragic death of Arthur which reveals he has become the man he so desperately was trying to be-accepting himself for who he truly was, without the disguise or role that had been thrust upon him by society.