CT: Avatar Rises

[espanolbot]

Kind of spoilers for both Dark Knight Rises and Legend of Korra

By Me


Seriously, I can't be alone in seeing the simularities between the protrayals of Amon and Bane, as well as numerous other things within the show/film themselves?

Alternative link if the first breaks,
http://espanolbot.deviantart.com/art/CT-Avatar-Rises-semi-Korra-and-DKR-spoilers-317058067

Comments

[celestialchild]

HAHA this is great!

I never drew a connection between Amon/Bane (except for maybe they both have ridiculously cool voices), but now that you mention it, I can sort of see the parallels.

[espanolbot]

It is kind of bizarre, considering the multiple parallels with Batman that Korra and the rest of her supporting cast seem to have.

Complete with a scene where Amon/Bane "breaks" the hero in a way that they never expected them to recover from.

Plus the things like occupying a city, preempting the attack with huge ground-level explosions, specifically targetting the police first to ensure they can't interfere, kangeroo courts...

[akodo_rokku]

Does TDKR also leave you feeling horribly disappointed at the end because you hoped about 3 episodes in it would get better and instead it got steadily worse to the point how you question how its creators ever made its predecessor?

...I may be projecting a bit.

[espanolbot]

No, with Korra I thought that if they were allowed to have more episodes and a confirmed season series before they started, the storyline wouldn't be as rushed as it was.

Though how Korra came to the Avatar State did fit with established canon, and wasn't the asspull people thought. At least I thougtht that it did anyway.

[akodo_rokku]

My problem with Korra reaching the Avatar state the way she did has nothing to do with canon and a lot to do with it being lame. There's a gif floating around that expresses my feelings... a ha!



Also there was the horribly wangsty romance angle (revolving around Mako, who has as much personality as a cardboard box), WAY too much time spent on pro-bending, the constant passing of the idiot ball (Lin held it a lot, as did all her police, Tenzin held it more than his fair share) the total non-mystery of Amon's identity (it wasn't a mystery because mysteries can be solved and that reveal was a total asspull) and the following bloodbending/airbending deus ex machina... I was apologist about the series originally but the further I get from the ending the more ticked off it makes me. "We were rushed" just doesn't cover everything wrong with it. I can only hope they somehow fix things in the remaining 40 episodes, but it won't get rid of the awful taste Book One left in my mouth.

[espanolbot]

Those do seem to be actual criticisms about DKR that I've read too, don't really agree with them either.

[mrstatham]

I think DKR's the best of the three. It resolved every story-based problem had with TDK, it felt like it lightened the mood significantly despite the stakes being so much higher, and I really enjoyed it.

I'll be honest, I couldn't give a shit if, ten years from now, The Dark Knight Rises is perceived as like, the Return of the Jedi of Nolan's trilogy. I thought it was fantastic. And Hardy was great - better than Ledger, IMO.

[espanolbot]

I'm personally surprised as to how divisive the movie has turned out to be. I pretty much agree with what you said, though a lot of people seem to be annoyed at perceived conservatism in the movie (it's more centrist, showing the negatives of both the superrich and anarchistic society), and the fact that "Batman Quits" (he kind of doesn't, and the reasons used actually make sense (injury, depression about Rachel Dawes' death, and he thought that Gotham and Wayne Enterprises was safe in Gordon and Fox's hands)).

There's also people saying that the villains' plan was unfocussed, though they kind of do explain why they did what they did. Guess their attention wandered in the exposition scenes.

[mrstatham]

Yeah, I honestly don't get the political criticisms of the film - Do people not get that Bane's rallying the poor 'to take back their city' is a villain's plot, and designed to generally make Gotham tear itself apart at the seams? It's basically the same as Ra's plan in Begins - He's going to make Gotham (and Bruce as a result) suffer before he destroys it entirely. It's not siding with the poor, because it still shows that the rich have some nobility. I mean, that also covers the supposed lack of focus in the plan - it's designed to just be cruel. To make people suffer, even if they don't realise it. To let them aspire to something a little better before snuffing out the light permanently. But.. Hey, Bane never states this directly. Subtlety is obviously a thing some don't get.

I just loved, personally, that Nolan basically kicked sand in the face of people who thought that the Batman and Gordon who decided to lie at the end of TDK were making the right choice. I was so satisfied with how that was handled across the film as a whole, because, well, justice based on a lie isn't justice. I thought that was great.

[espanolbot]

I think that if there were any deliberate Bush Era sentiment on display in the Dark Knight, with the Dent Act apparently standing in for a kind of anti-supervillain Patriot Act in-verse, then DKR is a kind of statement that a lot of attempts to stop terrorism just make things worse in the long term.

For example, such as the CIA's attempts to combat the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1970s or 80s, lead to them providing weapons and training for the likes of Osama bin Laden. So decisions made in a time of emergency accidentally came to bite them in the ass years later.

Interestingly, the novelisation of DKR implied that the Joker was still around, though no one knew where he was (the Dent Act resulted in Arkham being shut down as the insanity plea was removed from the table for violent offenders, resulting in ALL criminals ending up in Blackgate. Except for the Joker, who either remained in the Asylum as it's lone inmate OR escaped at some point in the chaos of Bane's attack).

[mrstatham]

Yeah, I think I get it. As it is, I still just struggle to regard anything except Batman's really rather immoral observation system in TDK's finale as politicised, and Nolan still did it really rather lightly with that, given Batman actively chooses to destroy that system once his work against the Joker is done.

But at the same time, I don't really see much real-life politics inspiring the idea of the Dent Act, personally. Maybe I don't follow these things closely enough, but the choice Batman and Gordon make didn't really feel like one made by say, a sleazy politician. It felt like they genuinely felt it was the right thing to do - not inspired by say, money or personal gain, but that it was morally the right choice, even if we knew it was not. And whilst it frustrated me to see a lot of fans basically go 'yes, that IS Batman' with regards to him taking Harvey's crimes on his back - I understand that Batman is partially about personal sacrifice for the greater good - I was still satisfied, again, with how Nolan dealt with that. The idea that Gordon's family left him because he was willing to preserve a murderer's reputation was really powerful, and it was just evident that this choice - this wrong choice - had basically destroyed both him and Batman. So I just loved that message Nolan put across - which is perhaps a little politicised - in that the peace built on a lie isn't true peace.

[bradygirl_12]

I really disliked the choice they made at the end of TDK. It seemed like misplaced nobility to me on Bruce's part, no matter what he tried to tell himself, and Jim wanted to nix the whole thing right at the beginning and should have. He had eight years to tell the truth and he didn't. I doubt it set well with his conscience, though.

[mrstatham]

The thing is, I think we're meant to dislike it. On the one hand, it's the preservation of something that keeps hundreds of criminals behind bars, and on a simple level, it's a victory. On the other, it actually means that despite their struggle across the whole film, Batman and Gordon (not Joker, guh) actually LET the Joker win because they are prepared to compromise their integrity for a murderer. I think Batman actively thinks he's making the right choice, and yet even Gordon knows that it isn't the right choice, but.. How can he oppose it? Because otherwise a flood of criminals would come back onto the streets, and the act they're able to pass means more criminals are put away. For what it's worth, though, I think it's plain that Gordon is just meant to be a human being, who makes some difficult - occasionally wrong choices. And it does clearly weigh him down, despite his protests to Blake when Bane is reading his speech - And whilst it's never specifically stated, I think it's clear Gordon's wife left him because of what he did.

So I think we're able to understand why Gordon and Batman make that choice, even if Nolan goes on to show us that they were wrong.

[bradygirl_12]

*nods*

I agree! And Jim looked plainly worn down. So did Bruce. It was a choice that in the end backfired on them.

[blackruzsa]

SPINES.
Goodness.

[darkblade]

"So um is that like Blood Bending? I feel like I'm missing something here."

[espanolbot]

After Amon debends Korra,

K: Why don't you just kill me...?
A: Your punishment must me more severe.

[darkblade]

Of course the TV Bane shows Korra will be showing the live action "Last Airbender".