The Dark Knight Rises Nolan succeeded in making a sympathetic villain.

Is he sympathetic? Yeah. Is he a villain? Yes. Despite doing good things, the crux of his whole plan did come down to nuking Gotham. You can't overlook that major part to his character, even if he didn't come up with the plan himself.

 

That's why I wish the bomb part wasn't in the movie. Bane could have just been Bruce from the other side of the mirror, ruling Gotham as such.

 

I didn't think of Bane as sympathetic at all. He was true evil.

Two-Face was the best and only sympathetic villain of this series to me.

 

Ummm Two Face anyone? He was much more sympathetic than Bane, who I didn't see as sympathetic at all. He seemed whipped. He was to Talia what Renard was to Elektra King.

 

How can someone who's plan it is to kill millions of people so a girl can exact petty revenge on one person be sympathetic?

 

Bane is not a sympathetic character.

He cracks peoples necks like they're wishbones. He got his ass kicked in prison then got angry at the world. He didn't even escape the prison, he had to be found hunched in a corner. Then, after all this, he thinks he has the right to belittle Batman.

 

Ummm lets see now, the man who lost his fiancee and got half his face burned away killing the people he thought were responsible for that vs a brutal mercenary who was going to kill millions for the daughter of the leader of a gang who kicked him out because he was too extreme.

Gee I'm torn with indecision on who is more sympathetic.

 

Bane had a sense of sympathy from me. His actions, though evil, weren't purely an act of power. His reasons for his actions were that of respect, loyality and love. The only problem was, it was for someone who seeked out revenge. Had he saved Bruce as a child all those years ago, Bane's fate and path of life may have been different. And that's the point..the opposite of Bruce, Bane is a creation of an event and that sent him down a certain path in life.

But all of that doesn't make what Bane did sympathedic....his REASONS for doing so are sympathedic...not his actual ACTIONS. Which is very much the same way I look at Two-Face. His reasons for doing so are understandable and sad..but the actions due to those reasons..are unaccepable.

 

I felt bad for Crane honestly.

He looked like he had so much paper work to do.

 

Spoiler

The people who opted to walk over the ice had no shot at survival. If they'd gotten past the ice (doubtful) the military would've shot them to death. He was giving them false hope.

 

He wasn't sympathetic at all. you almost sound like you fell for his plan?

He wanted to build up the people of gotham before destroying them. So he messed with their heads into thinking they "had full control" of the city when it was really the same as stuffing a pig before killing it.

I agree with everyone else Dent was the only sympathetic villain.

 

Two Face was sympathetic.

Bane wasn't. Bane was a purely evil character -- possibly Nolan's only purely evil villain. (Ras understood the problem, but was wrong about the solution. Crane was a twisted lackey. Zsasz might've been purely evil, I guess. Joker was chaotic and psychotic ... but driven more by amusement than by evil. Two Face was on a somewhat justified revenge kick. Catwoman is a thief, not an evil villain. The mobsters were mobsters -- profit, not evil.

Spoiler

Talia was on a revenge kick and wanting to finish the job her father started).

Bane was driven by evil. He wanted to break. He wanted to cause suffering. He wanted to destroy. He used the language of liberation to enslave and flatten a society. Not profit, not chaos, not fear for a purpose ... just pain.

KBZ

 

I agree slightly-though the only scenes that come to mind are the flashback to Bane in the pit and the Talia reveal with Bane/Batman; those scenes gave him some sympathy.

 

Well just because people here have enough class not to result to name calling doesn't mean your original argument was sound.

Again how do justify bane's final plan with being sympathetic? What did the people of gotham personally do to him that he would build them up with hope and revel in their destruction?

 

I'm not even sure Bane was sympathetic before he was imprisoned and injured.

Wasn't he a mercenary working for a warlord?

 

Bane wasn't sympathetic. He was a terrorist. A monster with no other goals than to destroy Gotham and bring chaos. Not exactly a guy I'd feel bad for.

 

Bane may not have been sympathetic, but when he cried it certainly caught me off guard.

 

Yeah. Bane crying threw me for a loop. I would've never imagined a evil guy like him showing emotion.

 

Renard at least got to execute the evil plan and died at the hands of the hero, plus managed to generate a little sympathy with his relationship with Elektra, which was actually believable.

 

It was great because you feel bad for him a little in that moment only, but are also happy/excited when Catwoman rockets him away.

 

Never felt any sympathy for Bane. And his role in the destruction of Gotham during a relative time of peace doesn't even exemplify the purpose of the LOS. Ra's plan may have been extreme but it came at a time Gotham was thought to be completely lost. It became a plot of revenge that ultimately shifted away from him and unto Talia.