The Dark Knight Rises introduced Tom Hardy as Bane, a villain that designed schemes for Gotham's reckoning that could have surpassed those of Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight. Bane worked to provide meaningful social change for Gotham, but an overused villain trope ultimately lessened his impact as a character and thwarted his designs. Regardless, both of the final two films in The Dark Knight trilogy feature compelling villains with complex plans.
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Ledger delivered an unhinged, maniacal, and disturbing performance in The Dark Knight as Joker. This Oscar-winning portrayal aligned perfectly with director Christopher Nolan's vision for the character, as Joker's goals are to test Gotham's morality by introducing an element of chaos. Joker's thought experiment near the conclusion of the film is refreshingly original and exemplifies the allure that he possesses as a villain. Although Joker claims not to be a schemer, every element of this ploy is meticulously crafted, down to the scripted lines he reads to the two Gotham Harbor ferries. His actions seem illogical and unpredictable, but underneath that exterior is a measured approach to breaking the spirit of Batman and Gotham.
While Bane may not have possessed the same level of complexity and nuance as Joker, his intricate plan for Gotham's demise in The Dark Knight Rises is debatably better than Joker's in The Dark Knight. At the end of his first fight with Batman, Bane reveals that the location of his base of operations is directly beneath the Wayne Enterprises compound. Bane has undermined Gotham from the inside out, in a manner that provided the opportunity for authentic class solidarity. As well thought-out as Bane's plan was, the insertion of a recurring villain trope held his plan back. Bane's idealism is somewhat reasonable, as he dethrones the corrupt and places means of autonomy in the hands of working-class people. This is all fine and well, until he attempts to decimate the city with a neutron bomb. Contrary to his typically calculated nature, this choice is irrational and eliminates almost all audience agreeability with Bane. A near-perfect mirror of this stale villain arc is exemplified by Paul Dano's Riddler in The Batman. Riddler solely targets rich and amoral citizens, with the aim to prevent injustice related to Gotham City orphans. But, any credibility Riddler previously held is eliminated through his efforts to flood the city. Although Riddler and Bane are undoubtedly villainous in nature, they both arguably do more for the city of Gotham than Batman in their efforts to combat corruption in the city, right up to the point where they both decide to senselessly destroy the city.
Is Bane’s Plan Better Than The Joker’s?
Bane's sewer-based network of operations was multi-faceted. Not only did it allow him to seize weapons and materials for his cause, but it also provided labor for a community severely lacking in opportunity. Most of this opportunity is coveted by the rich and corrupt citizens of Gotham, those which Bane targeted with his attack on the stock market. Further, Bane crippled Gotham's network of power and authority by immobilizing Batman and trapping the police force below ground. Additionally, Bane exposed the hypocrisy of the force's leader, commissioner Jim Gordon. Bane continues to win over Gotham's unfairly oppressed citizens with the revelation that their imprisonment under the Dent Act was built on a lie fabricated by Gordon. After severing the city's bridges and infrastructure, Bane holds them at bay under a new system of "justice". He conducts dubiously fair trials for the citizens of Gotham, holding them in a state of limbo as the threat of a neutron bomb looms.
Ultimately, however, the key distinction between The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises isn't the performance of the villain, it's the execution of their plan. The shift in objective from providing Gotham with the means for new beginnings to uncharacteristic mass destruction was Bane's downfall. While the Joker's plan was cliché-free, Bane's was problematic due to a trite writing room trope. This decision not only dispelled nearly all agreeability with his character but also foiled Bane's plans for Gotham City's demise, with Batman riding off into the sunset with Bane's precious MacGuffin in tow.