system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[DC Comics] Why did the Waynes walk through a dark alley instead of having Alfred pick them up in their car? Also, why didn’t they have at least one bodyguard walking around with them?

Gotham wasn’t exactly safe, even back then.
gpt
There's a lots of different minor variations, but the oldest one is that they didn't really walk through an alley. It was a street, and Chill intercepted them (sometimes coming out of an alley intersecting it).

Also crime in Gotham was getting worse, but in a frog in boiling water kind of way, that most people didn't really realize until the Waynes got murdered, which was one of the things that made their deaths a big deal to the city in a 'loss of innocence' kinda way.

Other factors to the story that have been added and subtracted over different iterations:

* Alfred simply wasn't around back then
* The Waynes were familiar with the neighborhood and felt safe
* The Waynes wanted to go out as a 'regular' family in Gotham
* They were planning to meet Alfred a short distance away
* Bruce naively wanted to cut down the alley/street and they were following/chasing after him
* They were walking to Leslie Thompkin's clinic a short distance away
* They were leaving the show early so exited through the back door to avoid disturbing people
* The Waynes simply never felt the need for a bodyguard
* Thomas Wayne was dumb and the thought it was a good shortcut
* The Monarch theater was privately rented out by Bruce's parents for the movie and they though the entire area was empty.
* Chill was a hitman hired to kill them so he was following them the entire time and they couldn't have avoided him without knowing it no matter which path they took.