#i've been thinking about the rogues today because i've been playing arkham asylum again

[finniestoncrane]

sometimes i think about how batman (not always, but usually, and to my preference) calls the rogues by their name. surnames, mostly, but sometimes their first name. while others around him use their chosen names, their tabloid given names, the names they use when they're committing their crimes, the names that take away their humanity

and then i think about liz lochead's poem, revelation. about loss of innocence, childhood fears, facing the unknown (or the sort of known), the line about the giant, menacing bull that the child is afraid of:

"They called him Bob – as though perhaps you could reduce a monster with the charm of a friendly name."

and then i get sad, about batman reducing the monsters by using their names. does he do it because he knows they're not monsters? because he's trying to take the monstrosity out of them, for their sake? to remind them of who they are, beneath it all? or is it because of his own fears? a child, scared of the monsters? trying to reduce them to their humanity so they're not as monstrous too him?