TL;DR: Kill Alfred Pennyworth.
Poor Alfie. Now, this seems a bit too obvious and even a little mean, but it's really the pulling pin of a grenade.
But think about, what does Alfred do that Bruce couldn't live without? He keeps him in check. Alfred's primary function is to keep the Bruce in Batman, keep him human.
Alfred's the guy who patches him, sews him back together. He represents Batman's limits and humanity.
Legendary comic author Denny O'Neil, who's written more Batman comics than anyone else, once said:
"There’s Batman, there’s Alfred and there’s Robin. Without his butler and his boy sidekick, Batman is not Batman. He’s a lonely psycho leaving his mansion each night to play dress-up. He’s not grounded. There’s no humanity in him. There were no emotional stakes.”
( https://dixonverse.wordpress.com/2015/03/12/robin-redux-i-get-offered-a-batman-title-sort-of/ )
It's pretty common knowledge that Batman's greatest weakness is his loved ones, even the live action movies know this ("I wear a mask to protect the ones I love" -Christian Bale Batman). But Alfred is the very head of the Batfamily. He's closer than any Robin, Batgirl, League member, Commissioner, or love interest to Batman. He raised him, works with him, serves him, protects him, and occasionally has to save him. He is Bruce's father, and is the only consistent person who's always there for him.
In Scott Snyder's Death of the Family arc, the Joker kidnaps Alfred while Batman is out. Let's see how Batman, the same man who has taken down gods, begins to Panic
"Stop it". He can't even think straight. This is an incredibly rare occasion of Batman getting scared. Let's look again, at another time he lost Alfred:
My Cocaine's performance of Knightfall Alfred
And what happened very soon after:
*Record Scratch* *Freeze Frame* "Yup, that's me. The Batman. You're probably wondering how I got into this situation. Well, it all started when a Bat flew through my window one night..." *Friends theme plays*
Point being, in both the Knightfall comic and "movie" Bruce and Alfred come to different terms on Batman's limits, and they have to part ways. Like I said, it's Alfred's primary function to keep Bruce in check, and when he can't he's essentially removed from the equation.
So how do you kill Batman through Alfred? Well you have to kill him. It'll be most effective if Batman knows he's in danger, but isn't sure whether he's alive or not. It'll drive him nuts, he wont' think straight. But the other thing is the tricky part of the plan: Not stopping at Alfred: Go for sidekicks, lovers, civilians, etc. And you have to kill them as well, Batman must have absolutely no one to fall back on. And all the while, give him an ultimatum; "Surrender yourself or each day you don't I'll kill another or two" (But they're all already dead, a fixed game.). You'll need to be prepared for two things:
1. The Batman raining down absolute fucking hell on you, the type of which the earth has never seen
2. Being ready for the killing stroke when he does eventually stop
Because the thing is, the only time Batman ever stops is if it's for the good of others 9especially loved ones), otherwise he's unstoppable. Which is why this plan works.
However, like every plan there are some kinks to the Kill-Alf-To-Kill-Bat theorem; such as that Alfred has been killed before and it didn't stop Batman:
He actually died for a while in the silver age, though later he was obviously resurrected. But the point stands, Bruce didn't stop after that. He was Batman for another 6 months until Alfred was back. You could argue that this was only possible because Batman had Dick Grayson (Still Robin then) to support him after, so he wasn't totally alone.
But as the closest possible method to destroy Batman? Surely. It'd have to be my method.
Well that's all for this class. My ride's here:
See you whenever I feel like writing again. Or see that one dog character I love.
