What Happens Next: The Dark Knight Rises (SPOILERS)

Hello everyone and welcome to the first installment of what I like to call what happens next. Here's how it works, many of our favorite films have interesting ways of ending one particular story but in some cases they leave us guessing on events that would happen afterwards. In this segment I attempt to fill in the blanks. Now of course this contains major SPOILERS so stop reading now if you haven't seen this movie.

Today I'll be talking about a movie I've been looking forward for about 4 years now, The Dark Knight Rises. Being the third installment of Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy it promises to end the story of both Bruce Wayne and Batman, which it does but in a way that's garnered a mixed reaction from what I've seen online.

Now let's recap the ending. In the movie Batman heroically sacrifices himself to save the citizens of Gotham. However with some nice hints to his friends he shows that Bruce Wayne is actually alive and well living a peaceful existence with Selina Kyle. But we're not going into that too much since what we really care about is what happens to John Blake. You see even though Bruce is alive he's considered legally dead so in his will he leaves John (or Robin if you can believe that little reference Nolan inserted that makes me question what parents would name their boy Robin Jonathan Blake) the directions to his Batcave, implying heavily that he wants Blake to take over the mantle.

So let's talk about what happens next...which includes John Blake found dead in an alley wearing a Batman costume. I'm sorry for anyone who thought he'd be in his own spin off movie franchise as Nightwing or something but odds are he'd either not be Batman (since he's not crazy like Bruce) or he'd try and fail miserably as the legendary Dark Knight.

I know that this has been a popular assumption from a lot of fans that the mantle would be transferred since what Bruce said in the first movie about Batman being a symbol. However think about it from the basis that John doesn't have training nor the will (as Ra's pointed out in the original) to achieve anything like what Bruce did, thusly meaning he would probably die.

Let's start off with the training. With Bruce he literally devoted 7 years of his life to training in the arts of ninjitsu, ju jitsu, criminology, and pretty much anything else that would help him fight the criminal element. John Blake on the otherhand has only had 6 months worth of training at a police academy, so unless they make their recruits train night and day to teach them how to be ninjas at the Gotham Police Academy (by the way thats an awesome title for a movie) he'd be horribly unprepared to take on criminals as Batman. He can't go globe trotting like Bruce did because that only worked for him in this universe because he lucked out by finding the League of Shadows, which by this point is no more. So he'd be going out trying what a full fledged ninja did with, at best, some Krav Maga training he picked up on the side at a local YMCA.

In terms of motivation, which the franchise pointed out was more important, he'd still be lacking. Bruce grew up in a time when crime was at an all time high in Gotham. As a matter of fact I'm pretty sure that the city was only slightly less crime ridden then Detroit (sorry Detroit I couldn't resist). It didn't even get better when he grew up. Only when he began risking his life as Batman did the city improve. Blake on the otherhand was a kid when Batman retired and the Dent Act was implemented. So by the time he joined the police force the city was so clean that he himself jokingly said that soon they'd be devoting their time to hunting down overdue library books. Sure this takes place in the time when Bane was rising to power but that was only because he was trying to get revenge on the Batman meaning becoming Batman would probably encourage another super tough villain to come in and fight him, making it more likely Blake ends up as bloody pulp on the side of the road.

Now I know you guys assume that Robin in the comics grew into crime fighting at an even younger age than Blake and was rather effective but that was under different circumstances. First of all the main Robin, Dick Grayson, was a professional acrobate before taking up the mantle of Robin meaning he had much of the training needed to fight crime already covered with Bruce there to help fill in the pieces. Second he had the motivation as his parents died in the same manner as Bruce's in a time when crime was still at an all time high. I'm not even sure if Blake's parents were killed by criminals (correct me if I'm wrong). And lastly the Robin in the comics had Batman there to help him if he screwed up. So yeah that's why comics Robin actually can function and why Blake would die horribly.

Heck, he doesn't even have access to the gadgets that Bruce did. Sure he gave Blake access to the Batcave and whatever he left in there but it can't be that much. The Bat as well as all the gadgets Batman had on him at the time were either destroyed or he took them with him when he left, odds are Selina took the Batpod with her when she left, and all that would be left in the cave are maybe a few extra Batsuits with some explosives and batarangs. Even with all that Batman could do naturally he still needed those gadgets to function in the city as an effective crime fighter. Now it's possible that Blake could try to get some gadgets from Fox but why would he supply Blake with them? There was a reason why Fox helped out Bruce in the movies and that's because Bruce owned the company and everything was his anyway. Bruce couldn't have given Blake a stake in the company since it was pointed out in the movie that he couldn't attend the shareholder's meeting so he had nothing. so in otherwords Blake has no gadgets or awesome vehicles and would surely die.

There's my theory on the fate of John Blake at the end of The Dark Knight Rises. Now I'm not saying that I hated this movie in any way. In fact I really enjoyed it, though not as much as The Dark Knight. It's just that the ending lead to a huge plot hole if you think about the future of the franchise that a smart guy like Nolan should have thought about.

There's my first edition of What Happens Next. Like if you liked and place a comment about what you thought would happen next. Please also mention any movies you would like to see in a future chapter in What Happens Next. Check in tomorrow for my list of the best comic characters in movies not owned by Marvel or DC. See you then.