Batman as a symbol

Of course, but to whom?

In Batman Begins Bruce Wayne spends a lot of time talking about fear, justice, and how Batman is supposed to be a symbol. Symbol this symbol, symbol of justice, it does not matter. Everything can be had.

But in a world without All-Might, fair enough. Let's take a look at everyone's favorite comics movie, The Dark Knight and see what Batman is the symbol and to whom.

To Mob Bosses: A Nightmare

For Gotham Organized Crime, Batman is a nightmare . Batman is not a contingency in any operation that the crowd can plan. If it shows up, it will destroy your day, but you do not know how, when, or even if it will occur. At the beginning of the film, they actively avoided and avoided it, largely thanks to Lao the accountant, but Batman stalking them, and they are worried, from where the boss encounter that the Joker crashes. They just can not beat it, and it always has a length in advance. Really a man to fear.

To street criminals: a job killer

They may work for the crowd, but that does not mean that they like it The presence of Batman in their city means that their job security is decreasing every day. Those Batman does not put in jail continue their criminal ventures with a smaller team and get caught or give up on life and try to go straight. Which means that Batman, the symbol, works, even if it's through fear. The world of public welfare and multiple minimum-wage concerts can be cold, but it's hotter than prison. These are the guys who, according to Harvey, "can not afford to get out of the street" and "cut the markets".

Young people: an urban legend or superhero

There are many different types of young people in Gotham, just like in real life. But we have glimpses about the attitudes of at least two types of young people towards Gotham; the young drug dealer considers him an urban legend, while his client, who pleases him, is openly afraid of him. Youth who are already part of the organized crime machine may be skeptical, since Batman does not always come down on top of all the little drug dealers, but at-risk or more fearful young people are required to do so. system deviation by Batman. I would say it's a victory!

Children, like Gordon's son, see Batman with the same superhero cult that one would expect of children to a benefactor dressed in a crime … filled city. These children grow up to become the young orphans of The Dark Knight Rises who still believe in Batman; Joseph Gordon-Levitt was probably their leader before becoming a cop (inspired by Batman). These children were too young to truly understand events morally The Dark Knight . They just know that there was a terrorist situation and that Batman saved the city by hitting the Joker in the face. Of course he killed Harvey Dent, but that means that there is no school on Harvey Dent Day

For adult citizens: an equal or lower

Obviously, adults are concerned about what will happen to them. Shape and get their hands on all this cool technology only for the purpose of fighting crime directly, at night, with punches. The mere presence of Batman may have caused many Gothamites a midlife crisis, which seems to occur with the fake Batmen with rifles that appear in the first scene of The Dark Knight . "If anyone else can do it, why not me? What did I do all my life?" Harvey Dent took an attitude like this and turned him into positive (later on him), but I'm sure this guy's wife in the leggings A real article to "inspire" her husband.

For their part, it seems that the rich of Gotham (those whom called the Dark Knight Rises ) did not pay attention to Batman, but he did not affect their own lives since They were largely isolated from the crime by the nature of the system anyway. Heck, at least some of them thought of him as below themselves, noticeable in the dinner conversations that Bruce Wayne often finds himself in the first two movies. As shown The Dark Knight this is only when the negative consequences – namely the scary serial killer whose publicly televised motive was the unmasking of Batman – began to raise their ugly heads as the public began to vote

To Harvey Dent: an idol

"You will die of a hero or you will see him become the villain."

Harvey got in trouble with what he was doing and was trying to control him. a … complicated relationship with Batman. He was clearly inspired to do good by Batman, given his admiration for the Caped Crusader (revisit quotes like "We [appointed the Batman] When we sit down and let the scum take control of our city"). Unlike the hockey player, Dent seems to have applied a sense of common sense to his sudden desire to see Gotham justice and use his law degree, instead of a few hundred dollars in a drug store. 39 sporting goods.

However, Harvey does not seem to see his position or his actions as worthy of praise. Uniquely, he seems to see the moral code by which he must work as an obstacle and is jealous of Batman that way. From his interrogation of the Joker shooter, he clearly sees due process as an obstacle to the true justice that he envisions. While Batman sees Dent as a pure and good paladin, ready to take up the torch of justice while Bruce runs away with his girlfriend, Dent sees himself as a mere player in Batman's support network to imprison criminals that he captures. He is even ready to see Batman's legacy continue; this gives a whole new light to his comments on Batman's retirement and successor. He did not mean himself, as a symbol of justice. He meant the permanence of The Batman, the symbol of fear (as played by himself, perhaps, if he is up to it). In a way, Harvey's ability to do justice, and even his idea of ​​justice itself, is obscured by his Batman idolatry.

To Commissioner Gordon: A Real Hero

"I think you are trying to help me, but I was wrong before …"

He may have won the trust of Batman by acts of kindness done years ago, but Gordon knows nothing of Batman. Not his secret identity, not his funding, just a motive: "I'm someone who will rattle the cages." When they start working together, Gordon has no idea if Batman does this to avenge himself as a normal vigilante or an altruistic cause or just because he's crazy; he even compares Batman to the Joker at the end of Batman Begins, presumably when the latter is a new player in Gotham's organized crime game. But by the end of The Dark Knight he seems to have full confidence in Batman and to regard him as a true hero, masked only by the literal physical mask and not by the urban legend or fear that affects the perceptions of the Rank

Gordon probably knows Batman better than anyone else than Alfred and Rachel, and perhaps even better than them because he sees Batman as Batman, not like Bruce Wayne. . For Gordon, Batman's alter ego as a billionaire playboy does not matter; he does not even know it. All Gordon knows, is that he's working with a mysterious, super-fit, surprisingly well funded guy, who's crazy enough to dress up like a bat and jump on the rooftops from Gotham. But it's the kind of guy who would do anything to save the city, and for Gordon, that's all that matters.