Tacticians' Skirmish

With the summer creeping up and nerd-tastic San Diego Comic-Con approaching rapidly I think it’s high time we talked about the most anticipated film of 2012: The Dark Knight Rises.  Christopher Nolan screened a four hour rough cut of the film recently for Warner Bros. meaning that the film does actually exist and it’s not all a big hoaxThe Dark Knight Rises itself will be dropping a week after San Diego’s most coveted nerd festival ends (July 20) so people are speculating that the man himself Christopher Nolan will be making a personal appearanceGotham enthusiasts speculate that a fresh new trailer should hit soon so stay posted.  What exactly is The Dark Knight Rises all about you ask?  Well basically, two Artisans going at it.  Or more specifically, two Tactical Operators.  Let’s take a look shall we.

“These tough-minded Operators are masters of the expedient use of anything that can be adapted to their immediate intentions, which is to say they instinctively know where they want to go and the fastest way to get there.”  — Please Understand Me II, p. 41

Bruce Thomas Wayne had the unfortunate luck of witnessing his parents murder when he was a child, an event that birthed his life goal of ridding Gotham City of evil.  Bruce has since evolved into an arrogant billionaire industrialist and notorious playboy by day, and a ruthless masked vigilante by night.  Characterized by his physical prowess and technical ingenuityBatman ‘strikes terror into the hearts of criminals everywhere’.  Indeed Bruce Wayne is a martial arts ‘prodigy’ and spent his youth on a global sojourn acquiring a variety of useful tactics and skills including chemistry, criminology, forensics, martial arts, gymnastics, disguise, and escape artistry.  Bold, daring, and audacious with a strict adherence to utility The Caped Crusader is a great example of a Promoter Artisan.  Indeed Batman has a thick skin and is a hard-nosed utilitarian, doing whatever it takes to get the job done.  The Dark Knight knows all too well however as most Promoters do, that “he who travels fast, travels alone”.

Bane spent his childhood and early adult-life in prison, serving a sentence for his fathers crimes.  Bane’s ‘natural abilities’ allowed him to develop ‘extraordinary skills’ within the prison walls including a plethora of brutal martial arts.  Bane has since evolved into a ‘super intelligent world-class fighter’ and a ‘tactical genius’.  Bane is most known for causing a prison break to overwhelm Batman, and then breaking his back while he is weak and tired.  Impulsivefearless, and ridden with brute strengthBane is a classic Crafter Artisan.  Certainly, Bane like all Crafters communicates primarily through his actions.  Bringing his prison mentality to Gotham City, Bane decided to go after the man that everyone fearedBatman.  Indeed a physical specimen, actor Tom Hardy packed on 30 pounds of muscle to play the role.  Like his fellow Crafters, Bane is ‘fascinated by weapons of all kinds’ and wields them with ‘lethal virtuosity’, like for instance this everyday run-of-the-mill ‘doomsday device’.

Artisan’s love good competition, especially from other Artisans.  The sports world is dominated by Artisans, and rightly so, as no other temperament is more competitive.  And thus bitter rivalries between Artisans are commonplace, and much to the enjoyment of the Artisans themselves.  The other three temperaments of course have no problem watching all the fun from a safe distance, and every once in a while might join the fray.  At the end of the day however, Artisans more than any other temperament are the ones who truly relish a good old-fashioned dog fight.

Aritsans spend a good deal of their time seeking stimulation because they need it.  As much as possible, they live in their five senses, and they seem to like their music a little louder than the other types, their clothes a little more colorful, and their food and drink a little stronger.”  — Please Understand Me II, p. 58

Quote1.png Everything’s impossible until somebody does it. Quote2.png

Bruce Wayne (New Earth)

Quote1.png  I know strength.  Such as the strength one gains from knowing his enemy’s weaknessesCheckmate. Quote2.png

Bane (DCAU)

4 thoughts on “Tacticians' Skirmish”

  1. The Riddler is a great example of a Rational. Bruce Wayne is a Mastermind who acts like a Promoter by day and Inspector by night.

    1. Yes I suppose the hard part is that villains are mad or “insane” so you have to consider that. The Riddler is definitely a Rational but I still think the Joker is also a Rational. Inventor perhaps? Again, you have to take his insanity into account. Your assessment of Bruce Wayne is spot on the question is which one he actually is.

      1. Joker seems an Inventor to me as well. Riddler as well. Riddler’s narcissism makes him seem more extraverted, the desire for attention to his intellect. Bruce Wayne in the comics seems like a Mastermind in the more modern storylines. In the earlier ones, he was an Inspector.

  2. Bruce Wayne seems like an Inspector to me. At least in the Nolan films. He’s protecting and preserving Gotham because it is seen by Bruce as his parents’ legacy. Look at when he battles his enemies. He doesn’t get some intuitive sense of how to stop them. He learns from experience. He even says so in “The Dark Knight” when he was stitching up his arm from dog bites. When Bruce dealt with the Joker, he knew Joker was something different. Instead of going after money, he was just creating chaos. In The Dark Knight Rises, when Bruce failed to climb out of the pit and fell, he remembered falling in the well as a child. He connected the present to the past, a case of introverted sensing, the dominant function of the Inspector.

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