The reveal by Bane at the end was far less impactful than it would have been in a healthy Gotham. People may have been disappointed or upset, but it hardly matters when you're living in a feudal state with the threat of a nuke over your head.
Bane and Talia were always coming, I agree. The whole motivation for the attack was revenge for Ra's, after all.
I never thought Batman and Gordon working together would have prevented that.
It likely would have continually drawn smaller threats, but that would have kept them at the top of their game.
My thoughts were that without the lie, maybe Gordon and Bruce were not as complacent, out of practice or sidelined as they were at the start.
Bruce would have been in fighting shape and probably beaten Bane, as he did at the end after recovering from his "breaking" and getting back to fighting fit.
The police would be working with him instead of against him ("He's drawing the cops off Bane") when he first reappeared.
If they had kept their eye on the ball and remained active and vigilant, they would not have stopped Talia and Bane from arriving, but Bruce should have noticed and likely prevented the mass constructions with explosive concrete leading to a direct confrontation with a lot less damage and loss of life.
Lot of great points and thanks for this conversation. I guess the let down for me was the whole 'lie'. In my mind I had figured that the tdk ending was a setup for tdkr. That the whole lie was going to be this huge deal when it would be exposed in tdkr, when in fact, it turned out to be a non event when it was exposed.
Here's a question for you. Bane's motivation. Other than helping out his love interest talia, was there any other real reason for his attack on gotham and batman.