WARNING, THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS REGARDING ‘THE DARK KNIGHT RISES’

  I have mentioned Faux-Geeks in the past, those people who pretend to be geeks because it’s trendy. Well they have evolved now, and it’s for the worse.

  They have noticed how nitpicky real fans can be concerning the source material of an adaptation (like from comic-book to movie) and have concluded that it makes them sound more geek-savvy to mention that sort of thing. But they still don’t know what they’re talking about. They have become the Faux-Nitpicky-Geeks.

  Today I discussed ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ with someone. The person I was talking to suddenly said “One of my problems with it was that in the original version, Bane wasn’t smart. He’s supposed to be a big dumb brute.”

  I actually paused a moment as I tried to decide if he was making a joke or being serious. On one side, he’s completely wrong about Bane. On the other, he mentioned the ‘original version’ so he must clearly be making a joke… I wasn’t realizing that Faux Geeks are at that stage where they now know what to say to sound like us. He was serious. I then proceeded to explain that the original Bane from the comics is actually supposed to be as intelligent as Batman himself.

  Instead of realizing he didn’t know what he was talking about, he proceeded to add that Talia was not like in the comics at all either. In the comics, she doesn’t want Batman dead. I agreed it was a different interpretation but not THAT out of character really… I brought the argument that in the Nolan movies, Batman was responsible for Ra’s Al Ghul’s death before he and Talia ever met, so that would make their relationship different. But then he said “But the real Talia WANTS her father dead so she can take over!”

  At that point I sadly knew he wasn’t joking. I explained to him that no, Talia does not want her father dead, and that even recently in the comics when she took over his men and kept him hostage, she did not harm him. But he couldn’t let it go, going so far as to say “Well, it’s because I watched the cartoons as a kid, those are the versions of the characters I remember.”

  I just went “Ah, I see.” at that point because I wasn’t interested in continuing that conversation. No, in the cartoons of the 90’s the characters weren’t like he described.

  I don’t mind people being enthusiastic about these things while not knowing the mythos that much. What I mind is when they act like they know it. What I mind even more is when someone who actually knows that stuff tries to correct them and teach them something about it but they just don’t want to listen. It’s like they seem to think I’m doing the same as them, coming up with stuff I half-heard and misinterpreted from conversations and hurried wikipedia browsings and that whoever insists more will be right. But no. I am talking about FACTS about how these characters and stories are. I’m talking about the ACTUAL source material, because I don’t pretend to like it and know it, I actually do!!!

  O.k, rant over.