I'd like the Riddler to just be the Riddler, much like the Joker was just the Joker. I honestly don't want to see him as an FBI, former cop, journalist or anything along those lines. I haven't really seen in the Nolan films alot of background history of the characters (except I suppose a bit for Ras). The first 2 films seemed to focus on the baddies trying to destroy Gotham, or battling for the soul of Gotham. Perhaps the 'Riddler will continue this tradition or maybe he'll just zero in on the Batman right off the bat (pun intended). Somehow or some way, the third movie I believe will have Batman's redemption made at the expense the Riddler
Both movies had a villain that was 'just a villain' (Joker, Scarecrow) and a villain where they went deep (20+ minutes of screen time) into their history, motivations and relationship with Bruce (Ra's, Two-Face)... If Riddler is the 'just a villain' then the other villain will not be, and lets face it, there's no reason for Riddler to have a relationship with Bruce.
There's a lot to work with in this angle. I love it. Every one of the bat villains finds their character by perfectly exemplifying the height of a certain type of pathology that batman himself needs to resist in his own mind.
Ras was an eye for an eye vigilante. Crane abused and enjoyed his power to instill fear in others. Harveys dual life fractured and perverted his mind. Joker is a dark mirror to the ridiculousness of Batman's costumed theatrics.
Riddler could easily distinguish himself from all these villains with a philosophy of "the dumb must die". Batman would be torn since he is hated and hunted in the third movie by, essentially, the dumb people of gotham. The very people he is trying to defend. Riddler would be trapping swarms of civilians in situations where only their intelligence will let them live. Bats would have to defend the ignorant on principle. This could escalate and escalate escalate, bringing up a ton of questions bats will need to take a hard look at.
What are the answers to all these riddles that I have to solve to keep these people from dying? And why am I even doing this in the first place?
That is the ultimate riddle. Bats will wonder, 'Is what I'm doing as batman the right thing to do?" This has been the biggest weight on his mind throughout both films so far. In the process of taking on the riddler, he will finally cement in his mind why he does what he does. This will be the "completion of the story" Nolan mentioned in the LA times. Batman will finally find the answer to the question that has plagued him from the beginning: is Batman right for Gotham? How fitting that the enemy himself is the embodiment of ambiguity that batman needs to defeat.
So many questions!
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This IS awesome. A great way to finish up the body, soul and mind aspect of this trilogy. It's more than just Is Batman right, but he has to ask himself, are the other people wrong, and do they deserve to die for being wrong? Which even comes back around to criminals, and that's the imbalance. Where do you draw the line of justice, if you don't draw it at lawbreakers (which Batman obviously doesn't)... Riddler takes it to the logical extreme of survival of the fittest, and by facing him, batman has to justify his 'charity' to all the dumb masses that are too dumb to live, sadly, and easily swayed. A great intellectual argument.
I'd like to see Riddler's traps move beyond the idea of trapping people in rooms, to be a bit more epic. This isn't a great example, but something like delivering a red and blue pill to each home.
If Riddler is the 'just a villain' villain, then his backstory should be pretty simple, and he should just storm onto the scene as a hacker turned domestic terrorist, attracted to the idea of Batman, and the deconstruction of it. Perhaps he shuts down the FBI (not the GCPD) investigation on Batman personally and tells them 'I'll take it from here.' Even though he's #1 on their most wanted list. Perhaps that's part of his game, Riddler holds the heat off of Batman as long as Bats 'plays the game.' Let him have the clock-king-sherlock-holmes like mind while Batman is just... a good detective, not noticing anything the audience isn't capable of noticing as well.