Summary: Commissioner Gordon tries to convince himself that there is still good in a world without heroes.
A/N: First off, a shout-out to Alice's Restaurant for your review. Thanks for your kind words! Secondly, this was not the second piece that I originally wrote for this collection; that one is being edited right now. However, it does make sense for this one to follow "Taking the Fall" because it presents a different perspective on the same topic. This isn't my favorite vignette in the collection because it rehashes a lot of what Gordon says at the end of the movie. Nevertheless, it's a nice compare-and-contrast character study (to satisfy the English major in me), and I kind of bring up a reason besides grief/anger that led to Harvey Dent's downfall (it didn't come across as well as I would've liked though). Finally, I felt compelled to include a quote from Heroes, especially with this season's characters constantly switching from hero to villain.
--Hana Li
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Batman or Heroes.
Fallen Heroes
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"A child is born to innocence. A child is drawn towards good. Why then do so many among us go so horribly wrong? What makes some walk the path of darkness while others choose the light?"
- Mohinder Suresh, Heroes
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Although he didn't always agree with Batman, Jim Gordon had faith in him. The vigilante did what Gotham's "finest" could not: bring justice back to the city and make it a safe place to live. Now, in return, Gotham would offer its cloaked guardian neither justice nor security.
All for what? A dead district attorney who, in one day, lost his sanity and negated every decent act he committed with a vengeful murder spree.
Pity Harvey Dent ended his life like this– as the two-faced man he was accused of being. He had been Gotham's hope, a status that even Batman couldn't achieve. He refused to endure the violence outside and ignore the degeneracy within. This hard-headed mentality, for all the good it brought forth, led to his downfall. Because what happens when you lose faith in men? Dent proved that in this age– in this city– gallant heroes didn't exist
Only Batman was incorruptible. Even if he was taking the law into his own hands, he always had the city's welfare in mind. Gotham should be grateful, but instead, it cast him out into the shadows.
Perhaps it was better this way. White knights like Dent had no place here. Gotham needed a new type of savior– one that lived on the edge, away from the disease that infected Gordon's own men. It needed a new knight that was as dark and fallen as the city itself. Batman would be this hero, and his crusade wasn't over just yet.