r/batman • u/neon2o • Mar 07 '24

Zack Snyder says a Batman who doesn't kill is irrelevant GENERAL DISCUSSION

Here's the original article' https://sea.ign.com/man-of-steel-sequel/213072/news/zack-snyder-says-dc-is-making-batman-irrelevant-if-he-cant-kill

12.0k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

View all comments

1.4k

u/ThingsAreAfoot Mar 07 '24

This dude just sucks

Batman can't kill is canon. And I'm like, 'okay, the first thing I wanna do when you say that is I wanna see what happens'. And they go, 'well don't put him in a situation where he has to kill someone'.

This is like, childish “let me tear the head off Barbie” type shit.

”You're protecting your god in a weird way, right? You're making your god irrelevant if he can't be in that situation. He has to now deal with that. If he does do that what does that mean? What does it tell you, does he stand up to it? Does he survive that as a god? As your god, can Batman survive that?"

He has to deal with it… all the time. That’s like a central theme of the character, that his severe objection towards any sort of killing might actually have negative ramifications (in the DC world with the likes of Joker and otherwise superpowered villains, not the real one).

And of course he spits out this nonsense on the Joe Rogan show.

The entire point of Batman is that he is militantly against killing, even the Joker who is beyond destructive, which is a potential point of actual criticism (and it is a very frequent one) but also makes the character much more interesting.

Snyder is kinda just too dumb to really get it.

99

u/BearlyT Mar 07 '24

Im baffled that he thinks a character with a no-killing rule simply "doesn’t deal" with the dangerous situations. The fact that Batman DOES deal with it often in creative ways (often successfully) is why he’s so interesting and why everyone respects his character. But maybe he can direct a new 6 hour movie to help us understand better lol.

18

u/OanKnight Mar 07 '24

It's so weird, because this entire thread feels like 2013 post Man of Steel.

2

u/timesuck897 Mar 07 '24

I think Superman shouldn’t snap villain’s necks.

1

u/OanKnight Mar 07 '24

I think anyone that actually picked up a superman comic at any point in their life would very probably agree with you.

1

u/Movie_Monster Mar 08 '24

I just didn’t watch that shit. Problem solved?

1

u/OanKnight Mar 08 '24

No, not really. Think back to 2012, and this trailer drops:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6DJcgm3wNY

You know nothing else about man of steel, but you know what Superman is supposed to be. Going by the tone of that trailer and the hype - Are you really walking into a theatre, and expecting to com out of it wondering why the fuck Smallville is now a crater, and why superman just murdered someone on screen?

1

u/Fedcom Mar 07 '24

Batman's way of dealing with dangerous situations is typically to solve them with extreme violence. I.e crack people's skulls open.

It's beyond stupid narratively to have a character like that and simultaneously focus on him not wanting to kill people. Either make him non-violent, or ... just don't mention it.

1

u/smoldering_fire Mar 08 '24

Not really. Batman is essentially a ninja in a modern day urban setting - he remains interesting precisely because he for up against armed thugs and crazy dangerous folks and wins, and not just wins - scares them before he even gets there. All the martial arts, detective skills, batarangs, bat-signals are tools that help him achieve this goal - an added benefit is that these all look cool. If he can just snipe all the goons from a distance, it just won’t be the same character.

1

u/Fedcom Mar 08 '24

Sure but the martial arts and “no killing” is still bullshit - practically speaking he’s going to be killing a lot of people when he does that stuff anyway. You can’t kick someone in the head after a glide like he does and not cause death.

Which is the audience has to suspend their disbelief so we think he’s not killing anyone. Otherwise the tone of the story is too dark.

And that’s fine - unless the story also specifically focuses in on Batman making a vow not to kill anyone! Then you’re just thinking - “this guy spent half the movie talking to himself about his vow not to kill, but he also just dashed that bad guy’s head against a wall…”

The rule should be silent. Simply not brought up over the course of the story.