#seriously i cannot emphasize enough how much of a massive mistake it was for me personally to base my view of this gen on yellow

[perenlop]

never thought id say this but i think i understand genwunners a bit now

[popwasabi]

What “The Dark Knight” says about our bad politics

Waaay back in the summer of 2008, me and my dad drove up to Northern California to attend San Jose State University’s freshman orientation.

It was a long drawn out process where first-year students basically were told and shown a bunch of things they would forget and relearn by their first day anyways and culminated with all of us spending one night in the campus dorms so we could all get a taste of the “campus life” experience.

I wanted it to end badly for a couple reasons. Being an introvert, I was not comfortable sharing a room with anyone, let alone a stranger, for a night but more importantly, I was being kept from the biggest movie premiere of the year that day: “The Dark Knight.”

As soon as I woke up the next morning, I rushed my dad to find the nearest theater and purchased tickets immediately for a late-night screening. I was already a huge fan of “Batman Begins” but every trailer to Christopher Nolan’s epic follow-up indicated we were in for an even bigger blockbuster than before and I was beyond pumped.

(Me getting the fuck off campus to watch “The Dark Knight” that day.)

Two and a half hours later I left the theater blown away by the experience. “The Dark Knight” was everything, at the time, I was hoping for in a comic book movie; angsty, dark, edgy (all things I thought I was as a teen), cinematically sharp, thrilling, a fantastic score once again by the legendary Hans Zimmer, and fulfilled just about every fanboy wet dream I had at the time for a perfect Batman movie.

To this day it remains the most satisfying theatrical experience I’ve ever had seeing a movie, not that it’s my favorite movie of all-time anymore, mind you, but that I have never gone into a movie with such high expectations and had them blown away quite like that since.

(Conversely, this^ was my most disappointing experience...)

I’m a different person now, of course. If you were to wipe my memory of the film and had to watch it again today I doubt I would have the same fanboygasm I had then as the cynical 30-year-old I am now but I’ll argue that “The Dark knight” still remains a high mark, if not the standard, for comic book movies today.

That said, parts of this film have definitely not aged well. Visually the film still holds up, the action is still exciting, the performances are all stellar (though Bale’s Batman voice is still bad) but what hasn’t aged well, for me, are the movie’s politics.

“The Dark Knight” is, of course, a post 9/11 movie, in fact, it’s arguably the definitive one as its pop-cultural footprint dwarfs pretty much all within its sub-genre. This Nolan sequel deals heavily in themes of terrorism with its iconic villain The Joker, played maniacally by the late great Heath ledger, wreaking havoc across Gotham with various explosive devices. Though the Clown Prince is more an anarchist than someone with an ideology, like those in Al Qaeda or the Taliban, the results of his beliefs/non-beliefs are more or less the same; cause pandemonium and fear in the masses. Batman, representing the power of justice and order, does battle with this in a war to save Gotham’s soul and again this is still a damn entertaining and thrilling story.

(Seriously, it’s still a rock solid entry in the comic book movie genre.)

But where the film’s 9/11 politics become problematic is toward the end of the film when the Joker begins his final act to plunge Gotham into unstoppable chaos. Batman becomes desperate; The Joker has eluded him at every turn, always two steps ahead of him, escaping justice no matter what Bruce Wayne does so he concocts a plan to finally to locate and stop the Joker for good.

He creates an elaborate sonar system using every cell phone in Gotham, effectively creating a massive surveillance state to spy on its citizens in order to locate the Joker.

(And it’s the only time we have ever got the real Batman eyes on screen, damn it!)

Lucius Fox, played by Morgan Freeman, appropriately calls this out telling him he’s wrong and that he cannot support this but Batman insists that it’s the only way. Fox reluctantly agrees and tells him he’ll resign once this is over as he can’t morally support such a system. The sonar, of course, works and Batman is able to stop the Clown Prince once and for all and upon Fox entering his name into the sonar computer the program dissolves and is deleted presumably for good.

This is of course to wash Batman’s hands of this deed to the audience. Our protagonist knows this is wrong, the audience is told it is wrong but by ending the surveillance he shows he would never abuse such a program, that sometimes good men have to do terrible things to defeat evil and that makes it ok.

For years, as a bleeding heart liberal (at the time) who grew up in the Bush years but loved the hell out of this movie, I tried to reconcile with this part of the story because Batman was the hero. I thought maybe this kind of action is ok because if the “good guy” is in charge bad stuff is fine because he/she won’t abuse such power. That’s real justice, right?

The problem is in the real world, at the top, there really aren’t any good guys and they are counting on you to believe that they are when they get a hold of such power because that’s how we are programmed.

The Patriot Act, which was the signature Bush-era reform post 9/11, created our current surveillance state. In the interest of national security and ensuring those “dern turrists don’t go killing lil’ Timmy riding his tricycle out in Des Moines, Iowa” our elected leaders, both republican and democratic (make no mistake), effectively signed away our constitutional rights to “ensure our safety” by spying on us basically without warrants. The proponents proudly claimed its necessity in fighting the “War on Terrorism” and those naysayers either shouldn’t worry “if you have nothing to hide” or worse were un-American Taliban sympathizers.

For progressives, of course, this was an evil violation of our civil liberties but for many conservatives, this wasn’t a big deal. They are just trying to keep us safe after all. 

But conveniently ignored by many on the left still today is the complicity they had in bringing about this era in warrantless surveillance. Yes, this policy started under Bush, of course, but it continued to be re-upped through the Obama administration and the Trump administration, not to mention revolving majorities in the House and Senate, showing no matter who was in charge they all liked the idea of keeping an eye on all of us with or without reason.

Considering the Patriot Act was made to win the “War on Terrorism” our leaders were never going to relinquish this power anyways because you can’t win a war on terrorism. Terrorism is not a country or a people, it’s an ideology behind many different ideologies. The US, no matter how you see it, be it as liberators or oppressors, will always have enemies and that’s all the reason they need to keep this power it seems.

Having the data on our lives mined like oil can easily be used against us in a variety of ways regardless of if any of us have terroristic or even criminal intentions. But for many in this country, it was only a problem if the wrong guy wielded that power. As soon as their “good guy” got in though, suddenly it was no big deal. I wonder why...

“The Dark Knight” puts forth a problematic view on who can and should wield supreme power, that even terrible choices can be made as long as the “right” person is the one making them.

Liberals are notorious for justifying them when it’s one of them who does it.

It’s a lie. A lie that both parties use to their advantage because they want you believe everything they do can be justified because you happen to be a part of their party; the “good guys” once again. But there is something extra cynical about the way liberals wield it as they parade themselves around as paragons and moral pillars against the Jokers of the Republican party.

For all the platitudes liberals give, that would make some superhero speeches seem benign, they wear masks about as well as the vigilantes do but not for the same reasons. When confronted by this blatant hypocrisy, liberal voters justify all kinds of horrible things as long as the other “bad guy” isn’t the one doing it. For all the shit Bush gets, and rightfully so, for plunging us into a military, financial, and humanitarian quagmire in the Middle East, Obama gets almost zero real pushback by liberals for effectively drone bombing the hell out of the same people. During these past three years Trump has more or less allowed ICE to run rampant on immigrant communities sure and liberals have been critical, again as they should, but who made the cages they were thrown into and who deported more of them during his first three years in office than Trump did?

(And once again, and I can’t emphasize this enough, Andrew Cuomo is NOT your fucking friend...)

Liberals often like to present themselves as the moral purveyors of good in the face of conservative opposition and they use it to their advantage to more or less do many of the same foul things those with R’s next to their name do. Sure, not all their actions are equally as evil but even then, we rarely truly hold either of our leaders feet to the fire because we believe their actions are somehow better because they have a “D” next to their name.

These horrific policies and actions will never see justice as long as we keep justifying them because the “right” person is behind them.

No, this is not an all sides are equally bad take. That discussion requires more nuance and for a different time, but I will say both sides are varying degrees of bad that should be taken seriously instead of not at all and can’t be pushed aside again and again and again because “the other guys are worse.” 

We are running into the same situation today as our presidential election features a credibly accused rapist, sexual predator, who supports Bush-era tax cuts, who takes money from major corporate lobbyists, who is against Medicare for All, has open disdain for millenials, and not only supports but openly bragged about the aforementioned The Patriot Act.

Hmmm, sounds an awful lot like someone we know, huh?

You could argue that one of these two men mitigates, or even vastly mitigates, harm if in office and I’m not here to necessarily scold you for making what you feel is morally the least awful choice but the point still remains; we are justifying evil again because our “good guy” is in charge.

Being liberal, just on its own, does not vastly minimize the problematic nature of a bad person.

Regardless of how you feel about this election and what choice you plan to make this November (and again, I’m not here to tell you what to do), bad things and bad policies will be continued to be enacted by bad people because that’s what choices we’ve been given. There isn’t a good one and the most vulnerable will be hurt the most by it regardless of who wins. There is a reason so many are disillusioned with voting and it’s not just voter suppression laws.

I can already hear some of you screaming “OH MER GERD pURiTy TeStS,” but this is far more cynical a standard we have than simply choosing a less than perfect candidate. Many are already making rather tone-deaf comments about people being “privileged” for choosing not to compromise their morals anymore. What’s “privileged” is voting for the guy who will do less harm for you but ultimately still disproportionately harm more people of color no matter who is in office.  

(The country and the world can really begin to truly heal when a Democrat is in charge of one of these Freedom Machines once again!)

Yes, I might agree that one is probably a net positive for the world at this point but to act like someone choosing to not participate anymore in what is effectively a never-ending cycle I can’t say I blame them either. At some point, our society has to draw a real line in the sand on these things with our leaders and force a more moral standard for our government instead of the status quo.

We can’t go on this endless “pragmatic” path picking “the lesser of two evils” until we gradually just become evil. You can make the argument that maybe the time isn’t now, and you might be right but when? These folks at the top are COUNTING on us accepting circumstances and justifying terrible beliefs and actions over and over again because of the state of our politics.

“The Dark Knight” believes that sometimes bad things must be done to defeat evil but the real world can be so much less cynical if we stopped compromising on our beliefs. It’s not entirely too late for us to do the right thing. We can’t go on forever letting bad behavior go because the “good guy” will be the one doing it instead of the other one.

Taking money from corrupt billionaires is wrong. Extra-judicially drone bombing the Middle East endlessly is wrong. Throwing migrants in cages like fucking animals is wrong. Rape and sexual assault are wrong. Mass warrantless surveillance is wrong. Doesn’t matter if its Batman or fucking Superman doing any of these things; immoral behavior cannot and should not be ever justified.

Otherwise, we really will live long enough to see ourselves become the villain...

Looking forward to the comments on this one...

[dorkindustri]

WARNING! WARNING! I’M DEAD SERIOUS THIS TIME, IF YOU HAVE READ THE PREVIOUS SHIT, GO READ IT BEFORE READING THIS.

THIS IS GOING TO BE INCREDIBLY FUCKING LONG. LIKE, SERIOUSLY, RIDICULOUSLY LONG. I CANNOT EMPHASIZE THIS ENOUGH. SET SOME TIME ASIDE, THIS IS A FUCKIN’ DOOZY.

OKAY, I THINK I GOT THE MESSAGE ACROSS.

LET’S DO THIS SHIT.

Everything has lead up to this moment. Every battle, won or lost, every line of Discord RP... everything.

Leading to a small, white-haired twintail staring down a massive being of complete darkness.

After a moment of staring, a large fist comes down, with Naneru immediately launching herself out of the way, now moving along the floor at high speeds. She swiftly raises a hand as she strafes around Noctus, a magic circle materializing in front of it, and starts rapid-firing mana bolts at him. Starting simple and going from there.

Naturally, though, the hulking Perfect Shadow shrugs off the attacks, swiftly turning and attempting to backhand the much smaller human, only for her to jump right over his arm, and add a laser to her assault.

“What, out of things to say? I’m surprised you’re not trying to manipulate me. Piss me off, not that it’d accomplish much since I’m already plenty pissed, try to get me on your side, shit like that.” She hops over another attempted backhand.

“Do you really think you can beat me?” He slams a fist against the floor, generating a dark shockwave along it. Which Naneru casually hops over.

“Well, your attacks are fucking wimpy, to start. Also, I have more mana than every mage in Gamindustri combined, probably plus an order of magnitude or more. So yeah, I do think I can beat you.” She now generates a large orb of mana and promptly chucks it at his face, resulting in a humorous explosion. In the face.

This naturally results in an angry growl from Noctus, as he responds in kind with a large orb of darkness. “I have defeated countless mages before you, multiple CPUs at once, and you seriously think a small girl like you could defeat me? Your chances don’t even exist, brat.”

Nyoom, out of the way she goes! Out comes multiple explosive mana bolts! “Really? Then riddle me this, batman. You really think I haven’t caught on? Interdimensional signals aren’t gonna be hampered by some fucking rock. You set up that underground section as a trap in order to split us up. You knew you stand no chance against BOTH of us. So clearly you planned around that to improve your odds.” Zoinks, she figured it out.

Time for another shockwave, this time accompanied by dark orbs launching up as it progresses! “I’ll give you that one, I did intend to separate you to make this easier. Make no mistake though, I did not do it because I ‘don’t stand a chance’.” Liar.

“Yeah, yeah, be proud about it. Doesn’t change reality.” Hops over the shockwave again, this time taking care to avoid the accompanying orbs. “End of the day, if I hit you enough times, you’ll go down eventually. So let’s get real!”

With that, NYOOM, Naneru takes off at high speeds, now hopping on the wall/ceiling and sprinting along it... and leaving behind magic circles as she does so. All while firing off a large, continuous laser at Noctus.

Naturally, in response, Noctus throws a punch, aiming a bit ahead of Naneru, in hopes of either crushing her with his massive fist, or her running into it at high speeds.

What happens is neither of those things. No, instead she comes to a halt as his fist impacts the wall, LAUNCHES HERSELF ACROSS THE ROOM, AND SOCKS NOCTUS ACROSS THE FACE, before landing on the opposite wall and resuming her sprinting and laser. “Nice try, dumbass!”

With a shout of anger, Noctus now drags his fist along the wall at high speeds, intending to backhand Naneru again in a different way... only for her to sidestep and KEEP GOING.

“You seem to be having problems.” Please do not piss him off. Oh, wait, he’s already pissed. Keep going. “Maybe you should try not making your attacks hilariously easy to dodge.”

“SHUT THE HELL UP!” Now comes the dark laser! AIMED RIGHT FOR NANNER.

“GOTTA GO FAST!” ...SHE NOT ONLY MEMES, BUT NYOOMS EVEN FASTER JUST TO OUTRUN THE LASER. And as she makes a full circuit of the dome, she launches off the wall again... purely to clock Noctus with the other hand. And THEN launch a high-power mana bolt at him as she lands on the wall (this time higher), just to hit him in the face and add insult to injury! And also knock him over, which is a nice bonus.

Side note, she’s been generating more magic circles on the dome as she goes, but none of them have been activated. Interesting.

Noctus now lets out a roar of rage, firing off a barrage of dark orbs in Naneru’s general direction... AND ALL DIRECTIONS, FOR THAT MATTER.

“Now we’re talking! In which case, I THINK IT’S ABOUT TIME I DID THIS!” Snap of the fingers... and four large multi-layered magical circles appear on the floor. AND SUDDENLY, MUSIC STARTS PLAYING. Meanwhile, she starts weaving through the barrage, firing back her own mana bolts in response. “I HEARD YOU HATE ELECTRONIC, SO I BROUGHT SOME WITH ME, FUCKER.”

“Oh, aren’t you a smartass?!” This of course prompts more concentrated fire, which prompts Naneru to go even faster, and before too long the entire dome has been painted with magic circles.

“Eat shit, asshole!” She now launches herself straight downward from the very top of the dome, multiple magic circles appearing along her path to accelerate her further... before she slams fist-first into Noctus’ face, bringing him straight down into the floor with incredible force. Good thing the floor’s nigh-indestructible!

Naneru now backflips away, landing near the door, as Noctus dissolves into dark smoke for a moment, before slowly reforming again- clearly, that hit stunned him briefly... but he gets up, just seeming even more pissed.

“So, I bet you’re wondering what all those things are for.” She points upward at the magical circles covering the dome. “Allow me to show you!” Another snap of the fingers.... AND EVERY SINGLE MAGICAL CIRCLE FIRES THREE HIGH-POWER MANA BOLTS RIGHT AT NOCTUS. EACH. 200+ circles. 600+ projectiles. All hitting in rapid succession. The only reason this attack isn’t severely injuring Naneru as it happens is because she expended the mana for it as she was placing the circles. Needless to say, though, this creates quite the cloud of smoke. “How do you like them apples, fuckhead? You’re not the only one who can play with assloads of projectiles.”

She now watches as the smoke slowly starts to dissipate... and then a fist suddenly shoots out of the cloud, straight at her.

“SHIT-” She barely has time to put a barrier around herself, before the punch connects, sending her flying into the door (and shattering the barrier in the process).

And as the smoke clears... well, Noctus is still standing. Well, actually, he’s presently moreso in a sitting position. But you get the idea. “Did you seriously think that was going to do me in? It was certainly a powerful attack... but it’s going to take a lot more than that to kill me.” He’s now starting to get up, which fortunately gives Naneru a bit of a break... only a bit, though.

“...S-Shit...” She now stumbles to her feet, having basically faceplanted after that punch. “D-Definitely don’t want to be taking another hit like that.” Pause. “...Astraea, can you get any numbers on how much power I’ll need to beat him?”

“...approximately... 22.8 GigaMEVI. You have approximately 341.1 GigaMEVI, but there’s no reasonable span of time where you’d... be able to put out that much at any safe rate..... oh dear.” She already dreads where this is going.

“...there’s no way I’d be able to survive that long. Any chance of backup?”

“...almost no one has the firepower to get through that dome in time. Odds are... currently stationed at 0.2%.”

Meanwhile, Noctus has now stood up, and is now laughing. “Do you see now? You stand no chance against me. You came recklessly charging in, and now you’ll die without success.”

“...how much damage would a detonation of 341.1 GigaMEVI of mana do to the surrounding area?” OH NO.

“...you can’t possibly be thinking of-” “NOW, ASTRAEA.” “Major damage would only extend as far as a few kilometers. No one is in that radius except you, Noctus, and Aurelia, and where she is, she should be isolated from most of the blast. Potential airblast damage only as far as the very edge of Planeptune.”

“...” And now the music playing has switched over to a different track... and additional magic speakers activate outside the dome, just to blast the music outside, too. “...looks like I have no choice, then.”

Noctus now growls, taking a step forward. “You intend to try and sacrifice yourself to defeat me?”

“At this rate, I’m dead either way. So if I’m going down, I’m taking you with me, fucker.” And just like that, she TAKES OFF AT ABSURD SPEEDS. She already knows exactly what Noctus intends to do.

“LIKE HELL I’LL LET YOU!” Naturally, he immediately starts summoning minions to go after her, as she takes to the walls again- along with repeat punch attempts. Keyword being ATTEMPTS.

“Naneru, please reconsider this course of action! You-”

“DO YOU THINK I WANT TO DO THIS?!” Oh, look, she’s starting to glow. As she continues her high-speed dodging, along with blasting any of Noctus’ minions that come close. “IF I HAD ANOTHER OPTION, I WOULD’VE TAKEN IT ALREADY! I’D RATHER DIE TAKING OUT THE SINGLE BIGGEST THREAT IN THE HISTORY OF GAMINDUSTRI, THAN BEING CRUSHED LIKE A BUG UNDER HIS FIST!”

She’s slowing down a bit, but that might partially have to do with the trail of blood coming out of her mouth. “...I’m breaking a promise I made to Cynthia, you know. I promised I’d never used this spell again. Do you think I enjoy breaking that promise? I don’t want to do this at all... I’ll lose my friends, my new family, my girlfriend... everything.” She’s getting emotional, but she’s still going, even with Noctus throwing everything he has at her. “...but.”

“...I’d rather die with dignity, knowing I’m protecting, not just them, but EVERYONE IN GAMINDUSTRI by killing this fucker! IF I’M DYING, IT’S GONNA BE ON MY TERMS, DAMMIT!” Cue another launch off the wall to clock Noctus one last time! This time with more force than ever before!

Noctus now stumbles from the punch, temporarily forgoing attacking Naneru as his rage takes over. “I AM NOT GOING TO LET SOME PUNY FUCKING KID WIN. I HAVE BEEN GOING AT THIS FOR HUNDREDS OF MILLENIA, I WILL FUCKING BE DAMNED IF I LET A WHELP LIKE YOU DEFEAT ME!” Villainous breakdown, anyone? He now throws one final punch at the currently stationary Naneru...

“DON’T YOU EVER CALL ME A WHELP!” AND SHE PUNCHES RIGHT BACK, EVEN HARDER. How’s that punch recoil working out for you, Noctus?

The massive Perfect Shadow now falls back, now just... glaring at Naneru. “...I don’t even know who you are, but I fucking hate you.” Seems he’s accepting his fate!

And now Naneru’s glowing quite brightly! And also coughing up quite a lot of blood. Not that she cares. “Can’t hate someone when you’re dead.”

A few seconds later, from outside the Umbra Stronghold, one can see the dome starting to glow a bright white-blue... THEN VIOLENTLY EXPLODE, unleashing a massive blue-white explosion, easily demolishing the entire Stronghold (and making the crater deeper), leveling the surface level of a sizable amount of nearby area, and generating a shockwave powerful enough to reach far enough to shatter windows on the edge of Planeptune. And all the while, the remainder of Doomsday Party continues to play, now audible across the entirety of Gamindustri.

And as the dust settles, all that’s left is... nothing, really. Minus the underground section, the entire fortress is gone, outright vaporized, with Aurelia now wandering out of the rubble of the aforementioned subterranean halls to observe the absolute destruction.

No sign of Naneru or Noctus.

She sacrificed herself to destroy him, once and for all. And she certainly succeeded.