With the ending of the Christopher Nolan Batman series coming soon I just wanted to reflect on something that I've been thinking about as I've looked back at his previous two movies and look forward to the last of his Batman films. I think that we can all agree that Christopher Nolan's representation of Batman in his films have been the best in the history of the character. But just as important if not more so as his portrayal of Batman are the portrayal of his villains. Out of the hundreds of villains that he could have picked from Batman rogues gallery he picked six major villains for his films (unless you really want to add the mob, the Arkham inmates including Zsasz, and the League of Assassins to that list): Ra's al Ghul and Scarecrow (Batman Begins), Joker and Two-Face (The Dark Knight), and Bane and Catwoman (The Dark Knight Rises). Why these six specifically well here is my theory to that:
1) These six villains are Batman's most significant enemies in their own ways:
Ra's al Ghul: Because of his mission to rid the world of 90% of its population in order to heal the Earth, Ra's al Ghul is clealy Batman's most dangerous enemy. Add to the fact that Ra's al Ghul has lived for hundreds of years already and could easily live hundreds Ra's al Ghul could easily live to see a day where there is no Batman, Superman, or Justice League to get in his way which means someday somehow Ra's al Ghul could see his dream realized. In fact Batman considers Ra's so dangerous that he says that Ra's "makes the Joker seem like a minor annoyance" (Detective Comics 700).
Scarecrow: Scarecrow is the only villain who can make Batman relive the most horrible events of his past like the death of his parents (Batman: The Animated Series "Dreams in Darkness" and Batman: Arkham Asylum video game) or the death of Jason Todd (Batman 496) as well as make his worst fears seem real.
Joker: The Joker is simply the Batman's greatest enemy. No one has caused more hurt for the Batman and his allies than the Joker. He alone has caused the deaths of Jason Todd, Sarah Essen Gordon and if you include other portrayals of the Joker the death of Batman's parents and the death of Rachel Dawes, the torture of Tim Drake to create Joker Jr. (Batman Beyond), the crippling of Barbara Gordon, and the disfiguration of Harvey Dent.
Two-Face: Harvey Dent was once Batman's best friend, but thanks to Maroni he is now one of Batman's greatest foes.
Bane: Bane is Batman's greatest physical threat. He was the only villains to singlehandedly defeat Batman in hand-to-hand combat and to seriously injure Batman in a fight through the breaking of his spine. And I'm sure if Bane tried hard to he could do it again if not worse.
Catwoman: Besides Talia, Catwoman would be a woman who would cause a great divide in his heart. Batman is greatly in love with Catwoman but at the same time Catwoman is a thief (or at least used to be) and Batman cant condone her behavior.
2) These six villains are the more realistic of Batman's villains
Ra's al Ghul is simply another Adolf Hitler only worse. Like Hitler Ra's wants to make the world a better place by making ruling it and therefore Ra's has to get rid of those that would get in his way which in this would be 90% of the Earth's population.
While I don't know of any real life case of this happening I'm sure it's plausible for some psychologist to go crazy and kill people, or for someone to use their victim's fears to kill them- There is another fictional killer similar to Scarecrow in the third season episode of Criminal Minds called "Scared to Death." The killer's name is Stanley Howard and he was a pretend psychologist who pretended to be treating people of their worst fears by getting them to face their fears during which time he would kill them. For example, Stanley drowned a person scared of water, suffocating a claustrophobe, and nearly killing someone who was scared of being buried alive before he was stopped.
I also don't know of any real life psycho murdering clowns like the Joker, there are people who are sadistic meaning that they get pleasure from harming or even killing others.
There are many cases of schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder similar to what Two-Face suffers.
Cat burglars like Catwoman are generally the more common kind of criminal.
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