Ra’s (pronounced “rashe”) Al Ghul and Talia, from the Batman: TAS show bible.
I am not here to put down Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight Trilogy”. I haven’t seen the third one and don’t plan to because I didn’t think the other two movies were what I was looking for in a Batman story. This is especially true for the second film, The Dark Knight. People look at Heath Ledger and praise his performance. I look to the writing and make-up and ask when the acid-bleached showman became a schmuck in poorly applied clown white who “just wants to watch the world burn”. I like parts of Batman Begins, but I have issues. For example….
YES, HE DOES HAVE TO SAVE HIM BECAUSE HE’S BATMAN AND THE NO KILL RULE ISN’T JUST HIM NOT KILLING BUT HIM SAVING LIVES BECAUSE HE ISN’T JUDGE AND JURY AND BELIEVES IN THE SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE! THAT’S WHY HE’S A SUPERHERO!
And that’s the only one I have on DVD so I got enough enjoyment to hold on to that one. The second I thought was well made but not the best take on the characters and had no interest at all in the third movie. As for Nolan’s take on the League Of Shadows, Media Zealot did a video that at over 40 minutes is a bit long for a quickpost. Since I’m pressed for time and topic today I’m going to save my sanity and make post time with this installment of his “Villains Too Stupid To Win” series and let him explain why the League Of Shadows, Ra’s and Talia Al Ghul, and Bane all deserved to lose beyond their questionable (or in Bane’s case horrible) adaptation status. Obviously, spoilers for all three movies if you haven’t seen it yet.
Near the start, Zealot points out the big problem in trying to have your fictional villains secretly responsible for real world tragedies to show how eeeeeeeeeeviiil they are. They can’t all be Ms. O’Leary’s cow, which should be the trope name if it isn’t. Sadly a quick bit of research has the actual term “ancient conspiracy, which is accurate but mine’s more fun. It not only makes the actual events and deaths seem like they don’t matter because it was a long time ago but you better get your history straight or someone’s going to call you out on it. It’s one of the reasons why I can’t get into the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
I actually like it when the villains create their own enemy. It’s a bit of karma, and it could only be worse if the League was responsible for the Waynes’ death. Going that far however would have been as stupid as having the Joker do it in Tim Burton’s movie. Batman doesn’t need one of his enemies to be responsible for his parents. Whether or not Batman finds Joe Chill the point is that an ordinary criminal was responsible. I miss seeing Batman go after smaller crime like mobsters or crazed people like Limehouse Jack because not every Batman story has to be high stakes “the fate of Gotham City” stories. One of my favorites are the smaller cases because they’re worth investigating as well.
We need more of this Batman.
One of the problems with the League Of Shadows, not as characters but in universe, is that they so believe in their form of justice that they believe anyone who claims to believe in justice should by all right side with them. It’s the kind of extremist point of view that I used to think impossible to gain traction…but I live in 2023. As for Bane, even the comic version wasn’t this sadistic to the point of stupidity. It’s what made him an interesting villain. He isn’t just muscle, he’s also smart. He deduced Batman’s identity, came up with a plan to weaken him, and would have succeeded in taking over the Gotham underworld except he wasn’t prepared for Jean Paul being as if not more cruel than he is. From this video it doesn’t even sound like Bane had the same goals as Ra’s or the centuries-long history of the League Of Shadows so how did he end up in charge?
Not that Talia’s any better. Why is the League following these two? Ra’s isn’t using the Lazarus Pits in the Nolan movies because that’s too fantastic for Nolan’s more “grounded” take on Batman (I’m getting so tired of “grounding” heroes who weren’t designed to be or long since evolved past their version of what that means) so he’s not immortal. That means he couldn’t have started the League Of Assassins. He’s just the latest guy in charge when the first movie began. Why follow two people who were against the view of their entire organization and history.
Bane’s voice is somehow worse than the Batman voice used in these movies. Do we blame Nolan or the actors? Either way they’re mistakes.
Even though this is about the stupidity of the villains, it’s not like the heroes are doing any better in these movies, as the host shows. If he had a series for Heroes Too Stupid To Win I wonder what the events of The Dark Knight, the only movie not featuring the League, would look like. At least the Joker is supposed to be insane.
I think Nolan and the other screenwriters were more interested in having a huge threat than a good threat, and that along with the many, many, MANY adaptation errors of this trilogy is why I don’t sing its praises like many others do. I’ve seen these characters done better for years so when it comes to this version it just doesn’t stand up for me. I know what these characters are supposed to be, and the ones in these movies aren’t them.
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