Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Bane and Fire?

Flame On!

What's the story to Bane and fire? Fire seems almost a religious motif in Bane's motivating ideology. Ignore his public speeches to the Gothamites, full of specious guarantees assuring that the people will live, and Gotham survive. He means to burn it up, as he admits to Bruce Wayne, or as he assures one of his fanatical followers who has to die in a plane crash:
Bane: No! They expect one of us in the wreckage brother!

Follower: Have we started the fire?

Bane: (nodding) Yes, the fire rises!
That convinces the follower to go down with the plane. Why? Now, maybe one or two men could be persuaded to die for Bane's aim of burning down Gotham, but Bane has a rather larger number, each intent on dying in the flames. Politics can motivate fanatics, of course, but religion generates greater fanaticism . . . usually.

What is it, then, about Bane and fire? Any link to the name "Ra's al Ghul," which I noted yesterday means "Head of the Demon," demons being associated with fire?

Labels:

2 Comments:

At 10:04 AM, Blogger Kevin Kim said...

I don't think I can answer your post's final question, but the collocation of the words "bane" and "fire" reminds me of Stephen R. Donaldson's fantasy series, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. In the Second Chronicles, there's a phenomenon called the Banefire: a torrential column of magical energy that thrives on the blood of the surrounding populace.

I haven't seen the new movie yet, so I don't know whether there's a direct connection between Bane and Ra's al Ghul. Is there one?

 
At 10:20 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Banefire? Interesting.

There's a direct connection, and an indirect one, but I don't want to give away specific plot-spoilers.

Jeffery Hodges

* * *

 

Post a Comment

<< Home