Alex: Bane
While both plans were excellent and as villainous as they come, the Joker’s plan simply doesn’t hold a candle to Bane’s for one main reason: the scale.
With the Joker’s plan, the death would have been coming from two main boats of people, with Bane’s all of Gotham was in danger. And with Bane, there was nothing the people of Gotham could do about it. Sure they could agree to follow the rules of the militaristic state without question or resistance, but that doesn’t change the fact that they were all going to die when the bomb went off.
The rest of Joker’s plan that didn’t involve the boat didn’t really involve all of Gotham either. Sure, people were terrified of who he was going to kill next, but it was usually important people dying. The day to day lives of normal citizens wasn’t all that much worse off. The whole scheme was to mess with Batman, and it would all fall apart by Batman simply revealing his identity. Bane’s plan was better off with Batman out of the picture, because he was trying to destroy every bit of Gotham, not just make some creepy videos and kill a few public officials.
The rest of the country took note of Bane’s plan, not just Gotham. The president even commented on it, but there was simply nothing the army or the national guard could do. They make a false move, the bomb goes off, they invade, people die and the bomb goes off. It’s a completely hopeless situation.
As much as The Dark Knight Rises talks about the worst situations being those where hope is still present, what is much worse than that is a totally hopeless situation where the feeling of hope is still remembered. There was no way the people of Gotham were going to survive that bomb, and they knew it, meaning they were just biding their time until death, with only a fool’s hope that they would survive.
In The Dark Knight there was little doubt that the characters were going to make the right decision and not kill each other, and while that was going on the Joker was busy getting pummled by Batman. In The Dark Knight Rises, it wasn’t up to the citizens, all they could do is speed up the process towards death. Batman was long gone (or so he should’ve been if Bane’s scheme went according to plan) so there was no savior to swoop in and destroy the militaristic dictator who had taken control of the city.
It also wasn’t just Bane that the people need to be afraid of, it was all his followers as well. With the Joker, his henchmen were simply that – henchmen, guns for hire. They were afraid of the Joker, and certainly didn’t trust him. On the other hand, Bane’s followers were fervent believers in the cause. They were willing to sacrifice whatever it took to make sure the fire would rise.
And rise it did. Bane’s plan was way, way better for the destruction of Gotham City.
The arguments have been made! Now it’s your turn, head to the comments section and weigh-in on which villain had the better plan.
And if you enjoyed our arguments, perhaps you’re interested in some of our past ones, such as:
Twilight Battle! Team Edward Vs Team Jacob
Battle Brad Pitt! Aniston Vs Jolie
