Hey! Kristina here,
This week has been exciting for DKN with the MTV Special, episode 13, and episode 14 podcasts being released within days of each other. There are just tons of discussions and speculations this week with the release of the The Dark Knight Rises spoiler soundtrack list and its previews. In light of all this excitement, the Roundtable will be covering the themes of corruption and necessary evil. Muahahah! “LET THE GAMES BEGIN!”
Brandon Glitmen who wrote DKN on episode 14 asked:
“Do you guys believe that Gotham will learn the truth about Harvey Dent’s ‘Reign of Terror’? We’ve seen the picture of Bane on the camo tumbler holding up a picture of Dent in front of the broken out prisoners. However, we don’t know what he’s saying to them. Do you think he’s telling them about Dent’s crimes and convincing the prisoners to fight back against the city who put them there in the first place?”
Paul Rodney who wrote DKN on episode 14 asked:
“Could you discuss the role of Commissioner Gordon in The Dark Knight Rises, in which part of the movie does he (Gordon) and tells Bruce to come back and assume the role of Batman? If he (Gordon) will live to survive to the end of this movie?”
As for Harvey Dent, he was an example of a good decent man who became corruptible. Gotham’s “White Knight” who was incorruptible because he 
was not afraid of gangsters or the mobsters who could break ever bone in his body. The only District Attorney who could take them all on without a drip of sweat on his brow. Dent was truly a man of Gotham’s hopes and fighting spirit of goodness. However, as the Joker would have it. Dent fell from grace with a little push and tons of constant gravity luring him into becoming corruptible. Now what does that mean for Gotham, if they only knew? Bane is going to use Dent’s “Reign of Terror” as a way to cripple faith and hope in the system. He will enrage the citizens of Gotham because they have no one to look to, but themselves. This is similar to what the Joker said:
Until their spirit breaks completely! Until they get a good look at the real Harvey Dent, and the all heroic things he’s done. You didn’t think I’d risk losing the battle for Gotham’s soul in a fist fight with you? No. You need an ace in the hole. Mine’s Harvey.
All of Dent’s work, gone. Batman is a fugitive. This will leave Gotham into a state of shock so when Bane comes, he comes to corner Gotham. The people have no where to look to so they look onto themselves to take action. All they need is a reason, a fire starter. Someone like Bane to ignite the flames and Gotham will tear itself apart all on its own. If Bane is carrying out the League of Shadows motto, then this quote will show what will happen to Gotham:
No one can save Gotham. When a forest grows too wild, a purging fire is inevitable and natural. Tomorrow the world will watch in horror as its greatest city tears itself apart through fear. The movement back to harmony will be unstoppable this time.
Full circle is it not? Ra’s al Ghul stated this in Batman Begins while he was educating Bruce about the inevitability of bringing down Gotham. Possibly, Bane will somehow in his own way carry out Ra’s Al Ghul’s plan to destroy Gotham physically, emotionally, and mentally. Only this time, maybe it is not with toxins but the sheer idea of hopelessness and survivalism . If you take away hope, faith, and back someone up into a corner. Even the most civilized person will bite back because it is an act of survival of who is going to go first, me or you? It is interesting how the Joker got this right when he stated this:
They’re only as good as the world allows them to be. I’ll show you. When the chips are down, these uh, these “civilized people”, they’ll eat each other.
The quote did not mean the cops literally, it is meant for all men equally. The criminals, the elite, the people of Gotham. In the end, everyone gets backed into a corner and no matter how good a person truly is deep down. They will kill to survive because it is “true justice.” True justice is when you exact what has been wronged to you by taking back what is yours. The necessary means to survive. In order to survive you must feed yourself and if you are hungry enough, you will find a way to appease your appetite by any means necessary. So, does this create what is called necessary evil? When you strip away the criminals, the mobsters and the gangsters who are merely a third party creating hostility in Gotham. They were the evil in Gotham. Since those people are gone, you are left with the people of Gotham and the elite of Gotham, “the good people of Gotham.” How good can people actually be if there is no evil to keep good in check? Maybe corruption is not the criminals locked away, maybe it is deeper than those criminals. It could be the city because it is so corrupted that it creates evil with a different face. Evil has many different faces and names. If there is no evil, how can there be good? The existence of evil makes good making it necessary. It becomes necessary evil, in which we do not like evil but we know it has to exist. So, where in Gotham does evil lie? Where does corruption lie?
It is granted that there are good people. Commissioner James Gordon is one of the few who believe in the idea of good. Gordon’s role in Gotham is that he is an idealist who believes in hope and righteous. These idealists are the road blocks to stop evil, Gordon does not have to fake being good. He is a good man. Gordon is one of the reasons why Gotham has not fallen and continues to limp around. How can a man like him believe in a city that is just so damned to failure. Gordon is that anchor that keeps Gotham afoot just like he is for Bruce/Batman. However, is Gordon as corrupt as other criminals because of the fact that he covered up Dent’s “reign of terror?” Batman suggested that he take the wrap of Dent’s crimes to give 
Gotham a reason to believe in good. Batman and Gordon did what was necessary to give Gotham their reason to believe. So, are they corrupt even though their reasons were to save Gotham? Are they also necessary evil because Gordon and Batman did what they knew they would not like, but knew it had to be done? Batman became the vigilante who now runs from the law and Gordon must looks into the eyes of Gotham’s citizens for his corrupted lies. Maybe in the end, Gotham must be destroyed to exact harmony without corruption so there is no need for necessary evil.
Comment below or on DKN Facebook on what you think is necessary evil and corruption? Who is the face of evil in The Dark Knight Rises? Do the League of Shadows have the right idea to destroy Gotham to bring harmony? Is Batman and Gordon corrupt for covering up Dent’s crimes?
-Kristina
P.S. I do apologize to Paul and Brandon. If I misspelled their last names incorrectly. Please contact DKN to get your last names corrected. My sincerest apologizes.
