Christopher Nolan’s Out of the Ass ‘Robin’

[Anarchy]

If you haven't yet watched The Dark Knight Rises and wish to preserve some surprises, you may want to stop here. Spoilers ahead!

I recently watched TDKR (The Dark Night Rises) and came out of it thinking it was a good movie that wrapped up the Nolan Trilogy. To be honest I didn’t like the fact that they had Bane in the movie; they could have implemented other villains, although I guess the Bane/Talia al Ghul story helped connect all of the movies together. A tangent to the topic of this article, I know - back on topic.

Christopher Nolan stated that Robin was a dumb character, and claimed he wouldn’t put him in any movie. Surprise! Nolan puts a strong reference (at least) to him in the final movie. I guess this was Nolan’s way of back-handing fans that were unhappy Robin wouldn't make an appearance; why create a ‘false’ Robin character throughout the plot and then reveal him near the end of the movie?

Nolan gave more life to John Blake than his ordinary comic character. John Blake is a young upcoming police officer in the movie, and comes from an orphan background story. He is somehow clever enough to find out who Batman is just by mere facial expressions. After hours of "subtle" references to comic book Robins Nolan goes for the home-run at the end of the movie and pulls real big thing out of his ass - he reveals Blake is actually ‘Robin John Blake’.

An article on Forbes said...

Blake has the background of Jason Todd and Tim Drake, for the most part (his father is murdered due to a debt, and he later deduces Batman’s identity while still a young kid), but then grows up to have Dick Grayson’s adult life (being a police officer and ally of Batman who has dealt with the tragedy in his childhood in a more productive and healthy way than Bruce dealt with his own tragedies, plus that whole chalk emblem, all adds up to a “realistic†incarnation of Nightwing). Then, we find out that his actual legal name is Robin. So I’d argue that yes, he definitely served the role of Robin in The Dark Knight Rises. Meaning he was ALREADY Robin, he isn’t going to become Robin in the future.

Forbes goes on to suggests that Blake becomes Batman. Obviously this is idiotic as there is no canon where Jason Blake turns into Batman.

For one, John Blake can’t be Robin... and will never be Robin. Why, you ask? Because he isn’t a Robin in any form of the comics, so why would he be in the films? The only records of Robin are:

[*]Dick Grayson (becomes Nightwing/[batman temporarily])

[*]Jason Todd (becomes Red Hood)

[*]Tim Drake (becomes Joker [in comics and Batman Beyond]) or (also becomes Red Robin)

[*]Stephanie Brown (becomes Spoiler)

[*]Damian Wayne

There are only 3 people who dawn the cape and name of Batman

[*]Bruce Wayne (Original)

[*]Dick Grayson (First Robin)

[*]Terry McGinnis (Batman Beyond)

Jason Blake’s full name in the comic is ‘Jason Blake,’ and adding Robin to the first part of his name does not turn him into the character. He may act like a Robin-esque character, but he will not be Robin or Batman in any sense of the matter. Some people may say that this is a Batman Universe that Nolan imagined and this was his version of Robin, and he may have lead many stupid people to believe that it was Robin by just simply adding those lines at the end of the movie... But do you know what? Who f@#$ing cares? Because he isn’t Robin.

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[Jake]

I stopped after 3 paragraphs because I haven't seen the movie yet, and am afraid of spoilers. How many are there?

[Anarchy]

I stopped after 3 paragraphs because I haven't seen the movie yet, and am afraid of spoilers. How many are there?

what do you mean how many are there?

[Blake]

what do you mean how many are there?

Spoilers I'm guessing. I'm also curious about the subject, but you know, yet to see it.I blame the fact that the only person who would see it with me that hasn't already that I would actually wanna go with has cancer in his knee. No that isn't a Skyrim joke. He really has cancer in his knee.

[David]

I know this is a late reply, but I just went through it all again while I was updating the articles.I think you should provide more evidence as to why Blake can't be Robin other than there's no canon for it. You're right, of course, but new canon has to be created at some point and this IS Nolan's own universe.The article seemed to be taking the belief that John Blake was just a reference to Robin instead of Nolan trying to actually put the character into the movie. I could be wrong, of course, but if that's the case it should be explicitly stated at the end or somewhere else (I may have edited it in when I thought there were strong hints to it, not positive).I also noticed that you said there was no canon for Robin to become Batman, but right after that you list "Dick Grayson (first Robin)" as becoming Batman. As someone who is not very familiar with the comics I was very confused because it seemed to contradict what you just said.I think at the end of the day Blake was just Nolan's take on Robin's character in his own universe.

[Blake]

I also noticed that you said there was no canon for Robin to become Batman, but right after that you list "Dick Grayson (first Robin)" as becoming Batman. As someone who is not very familiar with the comics I was very confused because it seemed to contradict what you just said.

I think he meant "Robin" as in John Blake, not Robin the character in general.

[Tynisa]

Meh.

 

It is what it is, its open-ended enough for people to assume what you want to assume.

 

Its not like film-makers never changed anything from the comic or book they were made from.