The History of Nintendo

Comprehensive look at the vast history of the multinational company known as Nintendo Co., Ltd. It all started in 1889, when a small based card shop would eventually emerge slowly but greatfully throughout many decades.

With many interesting changes for Nintendo happening, shifting from markets again and again, and learning from mistakes and successes, they kept rising steadily. Personally I already knew a few bits of information before 1980 regarding Nintendo's history, including the hanafuda cards, the first 2 Color TV Game Consoles, some of their toys such as the Ultra Hand and Chiritori and interesting bits of trivia such as investing into Walt Disney, love hotels and a taxy company. 

But The History of Nintendo provided for me, as a dedicated fan, a whole new perspective of historical moments and products to read into. They created so many kinds of cards, many kinds of toys, many kinds of board games, many kinds of electronic toys, a vast amount of card games and even produced miscellaneous stuff such as rice, cane-prams and photocopiers!

Some of the most interesting new stuff I learned in here was amongst other things the Love Tester, the N&B Block, the Laser Clay System, the Shooting Simulations, the Kosenju weapons, the Kosen Denwa LT and the brief insight into Nintendo's most influential president; Hiroshi Yamauchi. There is no doubt for me that any fan of Nintendo's uncountable video games, whatever games they like, should definitely consider learning much more about their large, often forgotten era of emerging.

This is only the first volume of a series of books concentrated around the company. The second volume deals entirely with the Game & Watch games, and it's easy to think where they would go next with the third one.

Rating: ***

Why Traveling is Good for You

I simply had to quote this impressive list of reasons as to why traveling is good for anyone. Credits go to Airtreks.com. Consider this another lazy blogpost, but whatever, I've written quite a few long articles already if I may say so myself:

"It’s invigorating – If you are open to it, travel will simply make you a more well-rounded human being. Which is really the goal, isn’t it?

It will create lasting relationships – People you meet while on the road usually become some of the most valued ones in your address book, giving you points on the map to visit later on. And people met on the road give you a momentary glimpse outside your hometown circle of friends, forcing you into a new and refreshing perspective on things.

It will develop skills you didn’t know you had – The satisfaction you get when reaching the top of the mountain, or crossing a gorge, or helping a villager clean up after a storm, or simply getting what you wanted at restaurant in rural China, these things all allow access to skill sets you didn’t know you had. And better ones too than setting up a home entertainment system.

You could learn a language – There’s something satisfying about being able to throw around a few words of Greek, knowing how to say hello and thanks in Thai, pulling out that long dormant Spanish to book a room in Santiago, or simply hearing a language you didn’t know existed just a few weeks before.

You’ll learn geography – In order to travel effectively it’s vital to know how long it takes to get from place to place on the world map. Your around-the-world trip will do nothing if not teach you basic world geography.

Gives you adventure – No one looks back fondly on a trip to the dry-cleaner. But after ziplining over the jungle canopy in Peru, successfully navigating the alleys of Marrakech, the speedboat ride in New Zealand, or Jeeping out with the grazing animals in Tanzania you get a feel for what being an active human being is like (again). The need for adventure is hardwired; travel lets you tap into it.

Gives you perspective – Meeting folks from exotic cultures will teach you that the way you look at the world (perhaps through the lens of mass media) is not the way everybody does it. That you could in fact be dead wrong about it. Seeing it for yourself brings a healthy dose of reality to your so-called higher thinking.

As a transition – If you happen to be between jobs, schools, kids, or relationships, a round-the-world trip can be a perfect way to separate these life stages, give you insight into your next phase and provide closure on the last one. Plus there’ll be a nice time stamp on that moment in your life.

For education – Seeing the world provides a source of education absolutely impossible get in school, teaching you things like economy, politics, history, geography and sociology. While not an accredited institution, the school of travel is currently taking applications.

The challenge – Getting your daily Starbucks not nearly interesting enough for you? How about finding an address in downtown Tokyo. Bet you can’t.

To do something new – It sucks to be stuck in a rut. Everyone knows what that’s like. Travel can be the perfect solution. And what’s not new about being in Bolivia?

Dreams come true – If you want to do it now you’ve probably always wanted to. You imagined it, daydreamed about it, envisioned it. Guess what? Now’s the time to do it.

The cool stories – Don’t fancy yourself a storyteller? You’ll be the life of any party with the stories you come home with. Even if they seemed trivial when they happened, nostalgia will create a epic spin around getting your laundry done.

You will eat food like you never have – Enough said about this. You will be constantly surprised at the flavors exploding in your mouth.

To prove to yourself you can – If you’re the kind of person to dream big, and simply by reading this website you’ve proven that you are, you’re probably also the kind to reach for new challenges. Finishing a trip gives you the satisfaction that you were able to accomplish what you set out to do. And to give you energy to set up the next challenge too."

Traveling has certainly enriched my life. I hope that I will see as many countries with highlights as possible in my life!!

Germanic Countries

This summer, I had yet another astonishing vacation trip, and this time it was with friends and it was located in the middle of Europe, divided between 4 different countries where we visited interesting and diverse towns. Here's several of them, with the somewhat exception of Bolzano which isn't Germanic but rather a bonus entry:

Innsbruck, Austria

Largest city of western Austria. Plenty of restaurants, malls and older looking streets during this rainy visit.

Samnaun, Switzerland

Tax free, cheaper and supposedly a rather isolated town from the rest of Switzerland, Samnaun was pleasant with higher as well as lower degrees of temperature. This is only the first of several cities of this unusual country I will want to see in the future, including Bern, Geneva and Zurich.

Vaduz, Liechtenstein

I actually am surprised to have visited Liechtenstein given it's microstate status and location. It's really not my kind of tourist spot seeming as there was about nothing of extraordinary to see, but I suppose seeing the famous landmark castle and the capital Vaduz from above made the trip worthwhile despite the prices here being absurdly high.

                                                   Bolzano, Italy  

Just after passing by the border on a pretty large mountain and descending it, Bolzano is not far ahead, and featured impressive architecture here and there, and surprisingly a lot of green nature was featured inbetween and around the city.

Is the Blue Bomber Dead?

Criticizing about a franchise that is temporarily on-hold regarding unannounced games aside from one currently exclusive to Apple's iOS platform might seem like a bad idea for a post. But looking back at the cancelled games in recent time plus Capcom's behaviour surrounding them might seem on the contrary instead.

Seeming as I am a very big Mega Man fan, this has concerned me recently. After the cancelled games Mega Man Legends 3 and Mega Man Universe, I was dissapointed, sure, but I held onto myself that the developers needed either a break or more time with the entire franchise.

Upon learning that Capcom stated that it was the fans fault for cancelling Legends 3, I got confused. Even after completing the so called prototype version, which would be available on the e-Shop on 3DS, this would be their official statement regarding cancelling it.

In Street Fighter X Tekken, Mega Man was then announced as a guest character, but as is always the case, the fans wondered which form of him would appear. No one expected to see his cover appearance from the very first NES game. I could understand the humor perfectly, but others saw this as a decline of some sort.

This year, the 25th anniversary of the franchise in December is approaching steadily, and recently, a "social RPG" has been announced as said before for iPhones. Called Mega Man Xover(Crossover), it brings the main playable characters from each sub-series together, but other details are scarce at the moment.

It's too early to say how good this game will be, but judging from the screenshots only, the fact that it's a social RPG, an exclusive to iOs platforms and looking at the graphics, Xover has been received terrible by communities so far.

Street Fighter X Tekken,

and Mega Man Xover. Are you mocking us Capcom?

Right now, people are worried if this is supposed to be the only thing worth celebrating about it's anniversary. Like Metroid's anniversary, which by the way was not celebrated officially, Mega Man might suffer the same fate or even worse depending on how high your hopes are for Xover or anything else that might spontaneously still happen before or in December.

We might be considered even lucky if you look at it in a different perspective. Technically, the blue bomber isn't dead, but Capcom's faith in the franchise seems to be. As many of us know, Capcom is a business company that attempts to gain profit as many times as possible with re-releases, expansion packs and ports.

Next to saying that, Keiji Inafune, one of the designers of Mega Man and a large figure in the Japanese industry, had left Capcom after criticizing the same industry in public, saying that developers have been making awful games in comparison towards Western developers and that "Japan is at least five years behind".

And, after remembering an obscure Korean MORPG called Mega Man Online, which is unlikely to release any time soon, this leaves me towards the franchise's current status. Is the blue bomber dead in a certain way? Is Capcom's mascot unfitting anymore?

When will we see a 3D breakthrough of Mega Man similar to Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy and others, if ever? And by breakthrough, I mean a global critical and commercial success, despite the minor success of Legends or X8.

I think that it's time that Capcom will have to re-invent Mega Man once again despite having so many incarnations already. Come up with a new formula, reaching out for larger audiences, hell just look at Metroid: Other M''s physics for an example of how smoothly and fun a new 3D game could become.

But before that, it's really time for Capcom to take Mega Man serious once again. The fanbases in both the West and the East remain passionate as far as I know, the need is still there. Just once you announce a serious Mega Man game once again, stop pumping out titles every year, atleast that is something I am currently grateful for. Give it some time, like, right now. Huh.

Funny I should end like that.

Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

 (Mild)

 

The Nintendo DS has plenty of graphic adventures and visual novel games, some of them still perking my interest for trying them someday. I have also played all available titles for a particular franchise I will be talking about soon. But today, I'd like to focus on 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, developed by Chunsoft.

You wake up on a sinking ship, unable to remember how or why at first. Soon after, you meet up with the 8 other “contestants”: you have been put inside the “Nonary Game”, orchestrated by Zero, their mysterious mutual foe.

999 felt a bit like a Saw movie, and the dialogue starts out slow and rather dull, but once the first incident happens, the game is on a roll with its intelligent writing, bringing up scientific and historic topics occasionally, most of the time being relative towards their current insane situation. So it takes a while to build up, and I can easily imagine that some of the gamers will be put off by the speed of the text appearing. 

However, there is no need to rush in actual game time if you want to progress, even though you have basically only nine game hours to survive. The characters are dull at first, but progressively start opening up their personality and interests, creating teamwork but also conflicts.

Surprisingly there is a lot of cursing to be found here, I’m usually reading things like “darn” in adventure or RPG games, but not here. Some perversity here and there as well, not that I mind. And there are some disturbing images hidden. 

Multiple endings with extreme different results make it a replayable one, especially the first time for me, as I had acquired the bad ending where practically all the nine persons died with no revelations, tempting me very much to start over again, because a fast forward button and “memories” from the first playthrough were now available. 

The puzzles were quite fine, with their hexadecimal numbers and digital roots alongside mysterious music to back you up throughout the trials. They even became quite difficult the farther you came. I wouldn’t say that it’s a humoristic game in general, but it exists. 

Anyway, after beating the game, and most likely leaving you behind with finding out about the truth, the next time I beat it, under the normal ending, many twists were revealed, however, the game once again ended unexpected, or let’s say, not wrapped up.

And as I started on my third fastened playthrough, even more twists, theories, mysteries and clues dropped by, resulting into 999 being a very well written mystery plot, given that you have what it takes to beat the game three times. 

Thankfully, my urge to find out about the mysterious murderer who after all killed all people the first time around motivated me to speed through the two upcoming playthroughs that followed until the respective new events emerged. No doubt was I left with curious questions even after beating it completely.

It's rare for me to be interested into beating it consecutively three times, but 999 had me quite interested by finding out the motivation and the purpose of this all. I'd say that it's a very good graphic adventure with a strong narrative plus plenty of suspense and drama moments to fill in your experiences.

Rating: 8.5

Surrealism Cinema

Surrealism is a cultural movement from the 1920's that has touched various fields such as literature and music, philosophically being about anything but reality. Considered as being abstract and non sequitur, as well as regularily using symbolism, it is an interesting topic for me.

With that said, let me talk about some of my favorite surreal movies briefly, using strange scenes as examples, but admittedly, I have summarized some of them in this post already, without regrets.

The Man in the Planet, as depicted here from Eraserhead(1977), is thought to represent many things by us. Some say that he symbolizes God or Satan, others see him as the personification of Henry's fear, or perhaps he is just some kind of a machinist pulling the levers who happens to be inside a planet. Is there an explanation for this or any other scene in the movie? Only David Lynch knows the truth, because many scenes can be interpreted in different ways.

This odd dream picture isn't necessarily surreal visually, but Monanieba(1984) has several scenes that seemed out of this Georgian movie's world, such as knights being present in certain scenes. Otherwise than having an interesting story about a family's political influence with strong dialogue and philosophy, Varlam Aravidz's mere presence alone seemed more grand than the boundaries of Monanieba. I especially loved his speech towards the majority, because it's highly convincing to follow this trembling man. In any case, it was a strange yet good anti Soviet movie for sure.

Conspirators of Pleasure(1996) is a strange Czech film about unusual humans featuring their own songs plus there is absolutely no spoken dialogue present. Each of them have their own personal pleasure habit that is so bizarre at times because of the given imagery that it becomes fascinating as well as disturbing for some of us. As if having no conversations or the odd behavior of the characters wasn't enough already, once you arrive at the second half of this surrealistic and perverted journey, you are officially in the weird zone of cinema once again. 

Just to point out some noteworthy scenes, a man and a woman create effigies of each other and they proceed towards torturing and punishing them in their own ways, a police agent accompanied by opera music is obsessed with objects touching his body, a postwoman created bread balls and pops a ton of them inside her ears plus nose and a newsagent constructs a machine that lets him masturbate whenever his favorite newsreader comes on the television. But perhaps the best scenes of these characters is their look of complete bliss and satisfaction upon achieving their pleasures.

As with the previous film, and also being directed both by Jan Svankmajer, this Czech re-visioning of Alice in Wonderland also uses beautiful stop motion techniques in order to present us the plot. Illogical objects and strange themes play through this world famous literature. It borrows heavily, but adds its own way of cinematography, depicting a surrealistic take which builds up slowly, yet strangely.

Neco z Alenky(1988) is a unique take mostly because of the effects being put to use, considered as creepy by some. The White Rabbit plays a larger role in this escapism, rather small area of rooms. Not many other prominent characters appear until near the end, but nonetheless do give this a try if you are curious. The architecture was indeed comforting and frightening according to others, hence being bizarre surreal cinema and all. I have also probably never seen so much stop motion scenes at once in a feature film.

One of my most favorite movies out there is The Holy Mountain(1973), a Chilean film by Alejandro Jodorowsky which has a ton of absolutely crazy scenes, and it is by the way also most definitely not a movie for everyone. A Christlike figure wanders through bizarre, grotesque scenarios filled with religious and sacrilegious imagery. He meets a mystical guide who introduces him to seven wealthy and powerful individuals, each representing a planet in the solar system. These seven, along with the protagonist, the guide and the guide's assistant, divest themselves of their worldly goods and form a group of nine who will seek out the Holy Mountain, in order to displace the gods who live there and become immortal.

This summary was stated according to IMDb, and it's all true, but these freaky scenes alone are worth seeing for those who are open minded, who wish to be enlightened and who want to have seen one of the most "out of this world" movies ever in my opinion. Best of all perhaps for me is the ending, which will explain the entire movie fundamentally.

Stalker(1979) is one of the slowest moving films alongside the other Russian movies of Andrey Tarkovskiy about the mysterious Zone, a room which is able to grant wishes. It's a deep philosophical movie with 3 entirely different characters coming together to approach the Zone. There isn't much else to say, other than some of the movie's iconic scenes, including the transition from black and white to colorful graphics, the long take river and rainfall scenes and the telekinesis scene at the ending. Stalker is most of all a movie to experience in patience, wisdom and concentration.

Last but not least is one of the most beautiful surreal movies I have ever seen, which is Sayat Nova(1968), an Armenian movie. Also known as The Color of the Promegranate, it features juxtaposition scenes sticking out, immersive images, a curious pace and unbeatable symbolism for me. You might have seen pieces of it during Juno Reacter's God is God video montage, but otherwise, consider this one of the lost diamonds from the 20th century of cinema.

It's a visual masterpiece for me personally because of the surreal and religious objects being portrayed so exquisite, not to mention the sounds. The movie was done before I knew it, I cannot praise the immersion enough. About the storyline? Really, it doesn't matter, it's all about the experience. This was such a mysterious and beautiful movie for me, that it has become an inspiration source for me.

Nolan's Trilogy

Christopher Nolan is a world renowned director that has directed some of the best movies from the last decade and in present time. Although the words brilliance and geniosity are of the highest complimentary words, they do apply for him, because not only do I praise almost every one of his films released so far, the world thinks the same as well.

Memento(2000) was his first masterpiece, a critical acclaimed psychological thriller that dazzled the viewers with an original take on delivering a story. The Prestige(2006), what seemed to be filmed in such a short time, made an outstanding narrative structure that dealt with the three stages of performing a magic trick. And Inception(2010) was such an unusual amazing sci-fi about the complexity of the phenomena of dreams that I was just speechless once the credits rolled.

But the post of today will concentrate on Nolan's trilogy concerning Batman, the world famous comic book character. He has rejuvenated the reboot of the dark knight's film history so largely, that it will be almost impossible to top it off with another eventual reboot in the future.

The three movies are designed so wonderfully, as this comic book world situated in the fictional Gotham City has come to life through these dark and long crime thriller movies. Especially now, looking back at them, it's a great feeling, knowing that Batman has been restored completely.

Batman Begins

  

"When a forest grows too wild, a purging fire is inevitable and natural."

Uncover the beginning of a young billionaire, his parents taken from him at an early age, and the story about how he overcomes his fear. Batman Begins introduces to us the key characters for the rest of the trilogy. Bruce Wayne travels the world, and is then offered by Ra's al Ghul in Bhutan to join him in the League of Shadows, who are dedicated into bringing justice.

It is here that his martial arts, escapology, stealth and disguises are trained professionally, but Bruce does not fully agree with the goal of his fellow colleagues. Back at home after years of learning more about the criminal underworld, with the help of Alfred the loyal butler and Fox the technologist, he creates his crime-fighting persona, Batman.

Batman is the spotlight of this film because his backstory has been developed in such depths, and his ideals and his normal human character are clearly fleshed out as well, which makes it such a joy to see him starting a rebellion against the criminals and the corrupt.

As he creates a new partner relationship with Sgt. James Gordon as well as meeting Rachel Dawes again, Gotham City is steadily learning about the arrival of the Batman. A large conspiracy between the mob, an insane psychologist named Dr. Jonathan Crane and the League of Shadows is heading its way towards destroying the city, and it is up to Batman to stop this from succeeding.

The story is told in a much more serious tone than previous Batman films and Nolan has stated and shown numerous of times that he desired it to be taking place in a realistic world, allowing for rational events to happen, while still keeping the comic touch intact.

It is the beginning of a legend.

The Dark Knight

"You thought we could be decent men in an indecent time. But you were wrong. The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased. Unprejudiced. Fair."  

Words of wisdom engulf abound this highly graphical movie. This sequel has raised the bar of superhero movies beyond recognition, and The Dark Knight delivers entirely with it's chaotic story, the brilliant and engrossing characters, an epic soundtrack and an unbelievable great climax and ending.

The Dark Knight's namesake has almost dealt with all of the organized crime in Gotham City by launching an assault onto the mob, but despite the efforts made alongside Gordon and Harvey Dent's actions, none of the involved could predict this agent of chaos appearing.

An insane psychopath with a sadistic sense of humor known only as the Joker uproars both the mob and the cops by introducing a little anarchy here and there with delightful joy, making the people's despair grow as he attempts to prove that chaos is fair.

While Batman is busy at first with the assault, eventually everyone must surrender together to bring down this unpredictable madman that fools and kills everyone. From liquidating police officers to kidnapping important people towards Bruce, the white knight Harvey and his love, Rachel, the conflict between these two opposites is best seen during the interrogation scene.

As it is at one point presumed that the Joker has finally been defeated, he cleverly escapes, while Harvey grieves and rages for the loss of Rachel as Batman came for the rescue. He is such a tragic character that once he has transformed into Two Face literally and mentally, which is shown in an intellectual way, you just can't help but to feel sorry and hateful for him.

With his state of dualism as well as his chance of luck attitude, he judges corrupt officials and mobsters and decides the fates of them who are responsible for Rachel's death. As his delusional crusade continues, the dark knight confronts the Joker one last time during a highly dangerous social experiment involving two ferry boats full of two different groups.

Exchanging out their ideals, Batman hurries quickly towards stopping Dent, and during an immense amount of intelligent dialogue happening, he ends the rampage. But because of the circumstances and Dent's murders, the dark knight decides to blame the crimes onto himself instead, allowing the police force to perform a manhunt on him, while hope remains protected.

Nolan really blew my mind when I watched this unfold at the premiere. I was never that intensified as before in any other movie when speaking of the performances, sounds, action scenes and memorable quotes. A very strong cast of actors made The Dark Knight a timeless classic and truly unforgettable for me.

The Joy versus the Dark versus the Fallen.

The Dark Knight Rises

"Ah! I was wondering what would break first: your spirit, or your body!"

In the end however, the best had still to come with Nolan's final Batman story. And saying that sounds unbelievable when looking back at Batman Begins and The Dark Knight already. But he really outdid himself once again after I understood the cycle of the trilogy.

As a vastly valuable conclusion towards Nolan’s trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises delivers in every way and ends satisfying. Batman has retired, and Bruce Wayne has lived reclusively for the last 8 years in his manor while organized crime has almost vanished away thanks to the efforts of commissioner Gordon and the Dent Law. 

However, a storm of a rising army is coming. The events that played in the previous films show their awful consequences in here, as the League of Shadows returns, and Gotham City has branded Batman an enemy since he took the false responsibility of the white knight’s murders.

Several new characters make their debut here. John Blake is a determined patrol officer about fighting crime and believing that the Bat will return. Miranda Tate proposes to the board at Wayne Enterprises about a new experimental project that promises to deliver sustainable clean energy for the whole city. And John Daggett, another board member, has plans to take over Wayne Enterprises, conspiring with others to achieve this.

Selina Kyle is a troubling jewel thief that knows how to protect herself and uses feminine ways to get to goals, while basically letting the plot progress by stealing Bruce’s fingerprints early on. And Bane is the new major villain, who is phenomenally performed by Tom Hardy, displaying intensive body language and eye stares that are hard to ignore, while delivering with an unusual voice that often sounds like an ironic gentle one, considering his insidious strength.

He is entirely menacing in a different way towards Batman because he is physically and mentally able to bring down the dark knight to the bottom, and on top of that, he has two grand plans for Gotham City as a refined strategist. One is to give the civilians and accused prisoners their city back from the oppressors, giving them false hope, because the second plan is to blow the city up with the neutron bomb that has been converted out of the clean energy device thanks to nuclear fusion.

There are reasons for his second plan of course. First is to make sure that no one escapes the island or should it all somehow fail. Second of all is to provide a social commentary onto the world during the uprising, letting a wrecked city’s citizens destroy it all by themselves in full despair, while the neutronbomb is a tool to further spread the anarchy and to keep the people in bay.

While the police force try their best to fulfill their jobs, Batman had been defeated by Bane after breaking his back. Before that happened, he forcefully returned shortly because of various events happening such as the attack on the stock exchange building and Kyle’s activities. 

He resides in the same prison that Bane used to be in, and there, he must recover from his injuries, while learning of overcoming the prison’s challenge, which is attempting to rise out of it’s only exit, sitting above the complex and showing us the shining light.

In the end, everything comes to a close, as Batman miraculously returns after overcoming the challenge and his old fear, rallying and aiding Gotham’s protagonist forces towards the League of Shadows and their Black Gate Prison inmates. 

Gordon tries his best to track down the neutronbomb, the police force charges at the criminals and their stolen Applied Sciences technology, Lucius Fox, John Blake and Alfred Pennyworth support everyone in their own ways, Selina is sceptical about escaping or turning back and Batman encounters Bane in a final large battlefield. 

After so many previous action scenes, this was the highlight because here, the chaos was shown beautifully. Miranda betrays Batman after questioning Bane, revealing herself as Talia. Burning with revenge as she claims that Batman killed her father, she will first fulfill her father's draconian mission.

As Talia escapes with the neutronbomb, Bane recovers emotionally and ignores what she said towards him, attempting to kill Batman. Selina then blasts Bane to death, rescuing Batman, and he proceeds towards stopping Talia.

Intensively chasing her and facing off against two experimental prototype tanks, her father’s work is finally stopped after Batman destroys the truck’s route, letting it fall downwards, killing Talia but she is convinced that the bomb can no longer be stopped. The dark knight’s new batpod, which had been used several times in the movie already, quickly delivers the bomb away from the city and into the ocean next towards it, ending the nightmare.

In the epilogue, we see that all is well for the surviving characters, as Bruce and Selina are spotted in Italy by Alfred, the Wayne estate is divided up and changed into a child orphanage, believing Bruce and thus Batman to be dead, Fox discovers that the flawed autopilot on his aircraft had been fixed and Blake quits the police force, but inherits the Batcave, while revealing his true name to someone as Robin.

The Dark Knight Rises is an absolute worthy finale towards Nolan’s trilogy because Batman is no more, Bruce Wayne’s legendary story is finished here while he leaves his legacy towards Robin, partially.

It has once again an amazing soundtrack featured in all three films by Hans Zimmerman, a great cinematography supported by IMAX, strong established characters with deep connections towards others, a complex plot with a large scope and intelligent dialogue, writing and a pace that is unbeatable because despite running almost for three hours, it felt like the movie was over before I knew it.

Although the narrative gaps can be confusing, they did not hurt at all after giving them some thought. And most of the criticism towards the movie, just like with the previous two, is because of countless subjective arguments and suspend of disbelief moments that could easily had been explained by using your own imagination correctly. Because surely there are some minor plot holes probably, but definitely nothing extremely or hurtful.

Coining the term plothole around then as some people have done now upon the release of The Dark Knight Rises is a serious confrontation towards attempting to exploit any weaknesses, but in reality, there are no extreme gaping holes, as the stories are told in such depths, while background activities answer some burning questions as well. 

Even the relationship between Talia and Bane enlarged both characters for me, because they were a prominent team in order for the mission to become victorious. It doesn’t matter if you liked the twist or not, the twist mattered because it explained both characters even more, and so many questions before the climax got now answered, like a good twist is supposed to do.

The ending is fantastic, because not only did it stay partially true to the comics, it also stood partially true to the trilogy itself. Bruce was tired and aging, the flame had to be passed on. As a symbol, this was definitely achieved. As a successor, most likely because of Blake’s discovery. It was a fitting closure, yet at the same time, it showed us that the legacy could continue.

I deepfully praise Christopher Nolan and the casts for bringing these serious crime themed movies towards the public, for they all had a worthy story to tell about morality, symbols, dark emotions and difficult choices.