Baseless Nolanverse Speculation: What is the legacy of Harvey Dent in "The Dark Knight Rises?"
Up until today, I couldn't bring myself bring myself to summon up any feelings stronger than mild anxiousness mingled with dull apathy. As far as I was (and still am, generally) concerned, maybe it'll be awesome, maybe it'll be crap, maybe it'll be a shambling monster fiasco of a film, but I can't bring myself to care.
Even years later, I still feel burned out from both the hype for and fallout from The Dark Knight, especially with my conflicted feelings about how Harvey was handled. I really need to update those thoughts, since some of those critiques have changed with time, but they're more or less the same as how I still feel Nolan's take on Harvey. As such, I'm really not sure how to feel about the fact that not even death is going to keep Harvey entirely out of TDKRises, as evidenced by this new bit of viral marketing.
HARVEY DENT DAY! And there's a parade, too! Wait, is this a solemn occasion, or a celebration? Wait, why can't we have it both ways? That's the true meaning of Harvey Dent Day! You can read the rest of the fake newspaper over at Comics Alliance, where you'll find more possible clues about TDKRises along with a couple very unsubtle product placements for Mountain Dew products, since they're the ones handling the viral marketing now. I hate that, honestly. And while there are no more references to Harvey, I can't help but feel like some of those horoscopes sound a wee bit like Two-Face in theme, although that's almost certainly just me reading too much into things.
So as the end of TDK indicated, Harvey is now a martyr, and Batman has taken the blame for his crimes. Not too long ago, I read about Nolan saying how Commissioner Gordon actually created something called the "Dent Act," which he used to successfully clean up Gotham City over the eight years between TDK and TDKRises. Of course, Gordon and Batman have suppressed the full truth of Harvey's actions, a lie which it appears that Bane might expose based on this photo of Bane holding a smaller photo. I understand that he actually tears up this image, meaning that either Bane knows the truth about Harvey, or else he's just symbolically destroying the image of Gotham's martyr because he's evil and crap. Either way, he's using Harvey's legacy to his own ends.
But it turns out, Bane isn't the only one. Another piece of viral marketing revealed a fake press release from Gotham Mayor Alpert Eyeliner Bat-Manuel, which actually explains what the "Dent Act" does, and thus sheds new light about how Gordon and Batman have used the dead Harvey to further their own agendas:
It sounds an awful lot like Gordon--with the Mayor's endorsement--has used Harvey's memory to turn Gotham into something of a police state. If so, this is a troubling prospect indeed.
While Harvey was willing to bend the rules, he was never the type to outright support the removal of rights such as parole. It makes you wonder just what else has been taken away in the name of enforcing law and order, especially unrest and protests similar to the Occupy movement seem to be a central part of TDKRises' conflict. If the government and the heroes have "saved" the city through extreme order, then it's no wonder that Bane seems to be rallying together his own army of citizens in response. At least, that's what I'm getting from this image.
If the people in that poster as well as this one indeed are angry Gotham citizens rather than Bane's (or perhaps Ra's, maybe possibly?) own private army, then it looks like the reckoning that Bane represents is the response to the oppressive war on crime that Gordon and Batman have waged in Harvey's name.
And that's when I thought of something which actually gave me chills. If my deductions are correct, then maybe, just maybe, Nolan still has something to say about Harvey after all. If all this is true, then the real legacy of Harvey Dent is a city at war with itself, on the verge of being torn in two.
Holy. Crap.
Now, I don't think that idea honestly would have occurred to Nolan, since he had no interest in exploring any of Harvey's internal conflict or any of his psychological duality or anything like that. Hell, I don't even know if the Dent Act really does result in a police state, or if there's any social class unrest as a result. This is the main reason why I haven't been playing the speculation game with TDKRises, simply because this could all be empty wanking on my part, and I will have worked myself up to be excited about something which won't actually be there in the final product.
Ultimately, there's only one thing I can do with certainty, and that's make fun of how ridiculous Bane looks. Hey, did I ever mention how much I thought he looked like a certain crazy alien lobster doctor? Well, good news, everyone! My brilliant thinking actually inspired someone to start up an entire Tumblr of "ZoidBane!"
Yes, this blog shall do well to tide me over until the Dent Day celebrations.
Even years later, I still feel burned out from both the hype for and fallout from The Dark Knight, especially with my conflicted feelings about how Harvey was handled. I really need to update those thoughts, since some of those critiques have changed with time, but they're more or less the same as how I still feel Nolan's take on Harvey. As such, I'm really not sure how to feel about the fact that not even death is going to keep Harvey entirely out of TDKRises, as evidenced by this new bit of viral marketing.
HARVEY DENT DAY! And there's a parade, too! Wait, is this a solemn occasion, or a celebration? Wait, why can't we have it both ways? That's the true meaning of Harvey Dent Day! You can read the rest of the fake newspaper over at Comics Alliance, where you'll find more possible clues about TDKRises along with a couple very unsubtle product placements for Mountain Dew products, since they're the ones handling the viral marketing now. I hate that, honestly. And while there are no more references to Harvey, I can't help but feel like some of those horoscopes sound a wee bit like Two-Face in theme, although that's almost certainly just me reading too much into things.
So as the end of TDK indicated, Harvey is now a martyr, and Batman has taken the blame for his crimes. Not too long ago, I read about Nolan saying how Commissioner Gordon actually created something called the "Dent Act," which he used to successfully clean up Gotham City over the eight years between TDK and TDKRises. Of course, Gordon and Batman have suppressed the full truth of Harvey's actions, a lie which it appears that Bane might expose based on this photo of Bane holding a smaller photo. I understand that he actually tears up this image, meaning that either Bane knows the truth about Harvey, or else he's just symbolically destroying the image of Gotham's martyr because he's evil and crap. Either way, he's using Harvey's legacy to his own ends.
But it turns out, Bane isn't the only one. Another piece of viral marketing revealed a fake press release from Gotham Mayor Alpert Eyeliner Bat-Manuel, which actually explains what the "Dent Act" does, and thus sheds new light about how Gordon and Batman have used the dead Harvey to further their own agendas:
It sounds an awful lot like Gordon--with the Mayor's endorsement--has used Harvey's memory to turn Gotham into something of a police state. If so, this is a troubling prospect indeed.
While Harvey was willing to bend the rules, he was never the type to outright support the removal of rights such as parole. It makes you wonder just what else has been taken away in the name of enforcing law and order, especially unrest and protests similar to the Occupy movement seem to be a central part of TDKRises' conflict. If the government and the heroes have "saved" the city through extreme order, then it's no wonder that Bane seems to be rallying together his own army of citizens in response. At least, that's what I'm getting from this image.
If the people in that poster as well as this one indeed are angry Gotham citizens rather than Bane's (or perhaps Ra's, maybe possibly?) own private army, then it looks like the reckoning that Bane represents is the response to the oppressive war on crime that Gordon and Batman have waged in Harvey's name.
And that's when I thought of something which actually gave me chills. If my deductions are correct, then maybe, just maybe, Nolan still has something to say about Harvey after all. If all this is true, then the real legacy of Harvey Dent is a city at war with itself, on the verge of being torn in two.
Holy. Crap.
Now, I don't think that idea honestly would have occurred to Nolan, since he had no interest in exploring any of Harvey's internal conflict or any of his psychological duality or anything like that. Hell, I don't even know if the Dent Act really does result in a police state, or if there's any social class unrest as a result. This is the main reason why I haven't been playing the speculation game with TDKRises, simply because this could all be empty wanking on my part, and I will have worked myself up to be excited about something which won't actually be there in the final product.
Ultimately, there's only one thing I can do with certainty, and that's make fun of how ridiculous Bane looks. Hey, did I ever mention how much I thought he looked like a certain crazy alien lobster doctor? Well, good news, everyone! My brilliant thinking actually inspired someone to start up an entire Tumblr of "ZoidBane!"
Yes, this blog shall do well to tide me over until the Dent Day celebrations.