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    Batman

    Character » Batman appears in 23535 issues.

    Bruce Wayne, who witnessed the murder of his billionaire parents as a child, swore to avenge their deaths. He trained extensively to achieve mental and physical perfection, mastering martial arts, detective skills, and criminal psychology. Costumed as a bat to prey on the fears of criminals, and utilizing a high-tech arsenal, he became the legendary Batman.

    Why does Batman always struggle with thugs?

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    deactivated-5bb6a6f86dc65

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    In almost every single incarnation of him, he always seems to get knocked out/hurt/tagged by simple street thugs. I'm talking about the TV shows, movies, comics, etc.

    Why? It just makes him look extremely unimpressive. Why would thugs even fear him if they can give him a fight?

    There needs to be another reason other than attempted realism.

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    RabumAlal

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    #2  Edited By RabumAlal

    Attempted realism, "Batman is just a man without powers!"

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    Rurgandy

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    Because stories are driven by conflict and adversity? Because a story about Batman defeating everything in his sight without breaking a sweat is dull and boring?

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    theredhood44

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    @dirtytree333: Bale batman wasnt very impressive, the other versions before hom couldnt be done because of the technology at the time, and batfleck doesn't struggle

    -hood

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    deactivated-5bb6a6f86dc65

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    @theredhood44: Right. Re-watch the warehouse fight.

    Literally every single incarnation has lost to or struggles with fodder, it's not a silly question at all.

    Is he purposefully bad and are the writers making him weaker?

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    SC

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    #7 SC  Moderator

    Can be influenced by subjective variables. Like do the heavy majority of people who experience the story conclude that "Batman looks extremely unimpressive here" or are you in a minority, potentially small minority of people who think that way? Or imagine if someone told you they though everything in fiction made all characters look unimpressive… okay?!? May not be a fast magic way to get them to think otherwise.

    Depending what you mean by struggle, I rarely see Batman struggle with thugs, he does have to exert himself a little, and this could exist for many reasons. It creates a scale for context. Despite having many impressive moments against more intimidating threats and opponents, Batman is still a human, who has to rely as much on timing, analyzing and assessing threats carefully, being opportunistic, skill, resilience, taking hits and getting back up, so on. Grit. So for many writers, its a balance of conveying martial arts prowess and fine conditioning, with grit, resilience and perseverance traits. Wouldn't see many people viewing Batman as being bad or weaker, so outlier interpretations (yours for example) may not be catered to as much unfortunately.

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    theredhood44

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    @dirtytree333: he wasn't really struggling considering there were like 30 of them and some of them(if not all) were trained, plus that was batmans first real thug fight in years

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    deactivated-5b2121a0a9a00

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    DCEU didn't struggle, in fact he killed them.

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    brucerogers

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    Yeah this is a bait thread.

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    Eto

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    Yarva

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    That's interesting because I don't see him struggle at all with thugs. He's usually one shotting everyone. The only time I see him struggle is when he's fighting a top notch fighter or when he's fighting dozens and dozens and dozens of enemies for days straight.

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    infantfinite128

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    #13  Edited By infantfinite128

    He was trying to boost their self-esteem. Lots of special snow flake thugs.

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    deactivated-5bb6a6f86dc65

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    Bump, it happens a lot more than one would think.

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    Percy_Scott

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    #15  Edited By Percy_Scott

    Generally speaking, you don't see Bruce struggle with thugs in the comics or in the films. Even Nolan's Batman, who is often viewed as unimpressive (he isn't, in my opinion, but it is a popular view) takes thugs out with ease. Aside from the obvious reasons (writing relies on drama, which doesn't exist without challenge and adversity), there are two logical explanations for why he seems to perform better against more powerful opponents than he does against more human ones.

    1. The more powerful an opponent, the less he (or she) tends to rely on intelligence and skill, making them more able to be outmaneuvered by someone with skill and intelligence.

    2. Bruce holds back more against opponents of human durability because, with his physical prowess and skill, he could easily kill them with one blow if he isn't careful. This is one of my theories as to why he struggles so much with the Joker, aside from the Clown Prince of Crime's own genius and unpredictability -- he wants to kill him for what he's done so much that he has to be even more careful than normal. It would only take a momentary loss of control for him to end him, given how much he hates everything he stands for.

    Of course, there is also the fact that you are assuming the thugs who he 'struggles with,' as you see it, are unskilled. Just being able to strike Bruce, or almost strike him, takes impressive physical prowess or martial skills. I'm not going to say I've never disagreed with his portrayal in a fight against minions, but overall I don't see the situation the way that you do.

    As to the Animated media, any entertainment aimed largely at kids (even if mature enough for adults to enjoy) sometimes undersells characters in order to create drama without complicated plotlines.

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    batofgotham2000

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    Realism. You can't have a live action or even animated version stomp 10-50 people the way bruce does in the games/ comics.

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    lillion1

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    Because if 10 nerds (me included) stop reading this page on comicvine and decide to gang up on McGregor, they would most likely win. Numbers win against skill. Every fucking time. Unless it is some Hollywood movie, anime or comic of course. Here, the protagonist just struggles and wins. A story has to be sold after all.

    Think of it this way, if he did not struggle it would look fake as fuuuu.... Warning evaded. At least with a little bit of struggle it looks more realistic, while making the sotry more fun

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    deactivated-59d51c127082b

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    Anaioyu

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    Because plot tries to make him look more human.

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