This in a bit.


But that was another thematic clash. The age-old political debate between the constrained and unconstrained view of humanity. The latter perspective says "think of what good we can do with power" while the constrained visions warns "power can be used for evil too. Think of all the harm that can be done and try to limit or divide power so there are checks on it." Alfred was missing the point because he was trying to get Bruce to shed the burden of power. Throughout the film there is the consistent theme that concentrations of power are bad. The unconstrained point of view says "Let's build a super-reactor to give energy to the world." Batman's point of view was "That super-reactor can easily be turned into a weapon of terror." The point of the trilogy was all about the misuse of power and its corruption. The police have always been part of the problem in Gotham, and even at its best, there are still institutional flaws inherent in the department. That's the whole point of Blake's arc. Gordon, despite having cleaned up the department and by now, Gotham, still doesn't trust the bureaucratic and institutional methods and policies. He looks for individuals who can do the job and have the right attitudes and mindsets like Blake, and we also see that without Gordon's personal protection, the "hot-heads" get marginalized.

Does Bruce trust Gordon implicitly and would he trust him with his technology? Of course. He trusts Blake as well and in the end does turn over his tech to him. But he canNOT follow Alfred's prescribed course and hand over that power to the same department that marginalized and ignored Blake, the department that ignored Bane and the real threat to go on a chase after Batman, because they lacked the vision to see the threat of latter and acted according to bureaucratic dictates to chase the figure who didn't fit into their SOPs and regulations.

Gordon himself even sets up Blake's departure with his furious rejoinder to the latter's chastisement about the Dent lie, with the warning that "structures become shackles." The GCPD is one such structure and by empowering it, Batman would make it an even more restrictive shackle.

This is the follow-up and development of the issue that arose in tDK with Batman's eavesdropping machine that he destroys after using it to find the Joker.


His whole purpose was to save Gotham. What was he supposed to do, SUPER-save it? He became Batman not to top himself or to surpass his previous accomplishments, but as a combination of the retired fighter coming out for one last showdown and the technician going under the hood for one or two final tweaks before the finished project is ready to go or maybe the artist making one or two final touch-ups to his nearly complete composition.

But he was always trying to start a rebellion against the degeneracy of Gotham. He is made more awesome because he doesn't just go out and fight for the sake of fighting, but he fought to accomplish something and did. Unlike video games, the final battle does not feature the enemy at his strongest and most powerful, but rather a war tapers out as the winning side gains the upper hand. Gettysburg was in the middle of the Civil War, not the end. This is a conclusion to his career, not the climax or the epitome.

When you think about it for even a second, the physical hardships he overcomes in this movie make his getting up and walking a far greater triumph than the fisticuffs with Falcone's goons in the first film. His descent with Selina into Bain's lair is a demonstration of this. It looks like a stroll in the park, because he's so good that the various thugs in ambush are really no serious obstacle to him.

He was up against worse enemies, greater numbers and with more weaknesses. Any reasonable comparison makes this a lot more of a spectacular win. The draw of this trilogy from the first has been about a realistic Batman. An eternally young superhero bounding about the rooftops, winning fights with no cumulative damage to his body or psyche hardly fits in with that concept.

To cut his ties with his old life and let people do their own thing. To stay in Gotham would have meant sitting on his hands when every bad thing happened, or it would have meant becoming Bruce Wayne, Civic Leader, and the point of his refusal to share his crime-fighting tech or death-reactor was that such power should not invested in a polity or civic interests.

He didn't save Gotham so he could take care of it, he saved it to live its own life. Getting rid of Gotham's favorite son is the equivalent of kicking Gotham out of a nest it didn't even know existed. Bruce Wayne WOULD die, sooner or later, and then where would Gotham be, if he stayed and kept up his vigil?


That applies, at most, to Alfred. Period. And he did what Alfred wanted him to do. Alfred didn't WANT to be part of Bruce's life, he wanted Bruce to no longer need him. He wanted to know that Bruce would be fine on his own. The grief for a day or two was probably deserved payback for messing around with the Rachel stuff. Lucius wasn't so much a friend as a colleague, and by signing off on his repairs to the autopilot, he let Lucius know the truth in his own way. It's part of their thing that they never directly discuss the secret they share. Lucius knows, and Bruce knows he knows, but neither comes out and says it. No one else really knows. Gordon was friends with the Batman and he shows when Bruce reveals his identity that he really didn't know who Bruce was. Since the Batman is done and gone, so is Gordon's friend. For all intents and purposes, he WAS dead to Gordon. To Blake, he wasn't a real friend or person, he was the symbol and the fact of his true identity only highlights the importance of that symbol to Blake, because it just adds another layer of significance for him. By bequeathing Blake the cave, he gives him the symbol which is a better thing he could do for Blake than hanging around being intimidating. By giving him the tools and entrusting the legend to him, he is giving him a purpose and means to fulfill it, but without the original hanging around over his shoulder the whole time. If Bruce stays, BatBlake is forever second fiddle, which can't help his suppressed fury issues. Even if he only knows Bruce is still alive, he's still got to be thinking of what Bruce would want or looking to consult with him or all kinds of things overshadowing his own career.

He and Selina seem to think that McGuffin she wanted would prevent that. And who really knows him well enough to recognize that beyond a shadow of a doubt, THIS is the reclusive billionaire who was seldom seen by even his servants for the last 8 years, and who everyone KNOWS is dead anyway?

But was for this movie. What's the point of another cookie-cutter interpretation that ends up being the same old thing? The winding down of his career was what made this story realistic.