Bruce Wayne and the Phantom of the Opera: A Case Study
Batman and the Phantom are both victims of childhood trauma. Each wears a mask and acts in supernatural ways, but they are even more different than they are alike. Batman is a less musical, more selfless version of the Phantom. It might not be fair at all to compare these two, as their lots in life are very different, but they are just make believe, so it doesn't matter. Batman (as depcited in the Batman Begins movie, I'm not a comic book purist, sorry if you are) falls in a hole and has bats fly by him. On top of that he witnesses his parents being shot in a robbery. These events are enough to strain anyone and greatly influence the course of their life. Batman chose not to let the trials conquer him; he saw the problems of society that cause his misfortune and decided to fight them. In a selfless manner he risks his life for the good of the whole. If I inherited billions of dollars, I'd probably be more willing to give as well. On the matter of selflessness, does Batman ever really give up his grudge? Maybe he isn't so selfless after all...
The rest of this post can be found in the Ajax's Whimsical Revolution ebook for Amazon's Kindle. The book is a compilation of my favorite posts, 78 to be exact, of which this is one. If you don't have a Kindle e-reader you can download the free Amazon Kindle app for PC or Mac.
Date Tricks for Guys that Truly Work
4 years ago
I was going to contribute to your philosophizing: copying your questions to a word document, copying your unsound claims to a word document, while forming my own questions and rebottles. But, it seems, you nailed the issue in your last few sentences. This is all nonsense and, really, meaningless. But, good lad, as you develop as a writer, you will discover that judgment calls, especially those were silliness is concerned, are best left to the audience to make. So without any more sentences, I give you, my silly rebuttal:
ReplyDeleteGood Sir,
You noted that the Phantom and Batman both break the law, which is undoubtedly true; however, you continued to note that they do so, I assume, to fulfill their own wants. Based of Batman's movies (of course, excluding all this actions in comic books), he seems to be a rather selfless fellow because he breaks the law not to fulfill his own wants, rather, he breaks the law to better the community. For example, that two faced maniac's reputation in The Dark Night remained intact because Batman took the bad rap for him. Reasonable, I hope it is safe to assume that most people are reasonable (though we both know that is silliness to assume something that absurd), people would want a good reputation so that they can feed their selfish desires: fast cars, women, helicopters, pools of jell-0 and the like. Batman decided to be the scapegoat so the city had a martyr of sorts. Batman put the community above himself. And, yes, one could make the argument that Batman is not reasonable, and, certainly, he is not, but he does exhibit a heap of characteristics that convey to the audience that he truly is a Dark Knight.
I suppose my only questions for you are the following: Do you hold the following claim to be true: Each aforementioned masked weirdo breaks the law to carry out their own form of justice, and by doing so, they both serve what he wants above others? If the aforementioned claim is true, Do these men inadvertently help the community as a whole despite serving no one but themselves? And lastly, what is Batman's grudge?
No, that, Good Sir, is silliness to a T if I do write so myself (and I did).
Lastly, what is going on with these Helium articles? What is that all aboot ('tis my Canadian in me coming out)?
ReplyDeleteYou make a fine argument in support of Batman. I guess I don't know that he is acting selfishly. I think I meant that Batman was selfish because he thinks he knows better than the police and courts, taking the law into his own unauthorized hands; he's a vigilante. But you can successfully argue that he is acting in the name of making the world a better place by cleaning up the streets of Gotham. And I'll go one further, since the law in Gotham is so corrupt, it is appropriate for the citizens to take over, if Bruce Wayne is the only one capable enough to do it, then that's why he's the only one doing it. I retract my claim that Batman is just being selfish in attempting to carry out his own brand of justice, though I'm not willing to give up on the theory that he is a narcicist. Except that he did give himself up to protect Harvey Two-Face, usually narcicists don't self sacrifice.
ReplyDeleteBatman has a claim at carrying out justice. The Phantom may believe he is doing so, but that is harder to understand. I reject it because he was hurting innocent people, or was he? He killed that smarmy dude with the chandelier, if I remember correctly. Perhaps that was as just as Batman stopping a criminal. Except Batman doesn't kill, intentionally. You've brought up some really valid questions.
Batman's grudge is against the common street thug, which represents the scumbag that killed his parents.