10 Movie Characters Who Had Every Right To Become The Villain

The titular vigilante found in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy doesn't half go through a rough ol' time in those game-changing pictures. In fact, Bruce Wayne is forced to deal with so much suffering and trauma during those movies, it's a wonder he didn't just throw in the towel or decide to launch a Batarang through his "no-killing" rule.

Hell, Bruce was only a few seconds away from doing that during the events of Batman Begins, with only a hitman getting their first stopping him from killing the person responsible for murdering Master Wayne's parents in front of him when he was a kid. This list isn't condoning murder, of course, but you can at least understand why Bruce was this close to literally pulling the trigger.

While he would eventually go on to dedicate his life to saving Gotham from the criminals trying to control it, it again wouldn't have been too surprising to see Wayne lose his head a little in the wake of his beloved Rachel being blown up by the Joker in The Dark Knight. Rather than snapping and killing the Joker when he had the chance, though, Batman refused to be corrupted and allowed the Clown Prince of Crime to live long enough to be arrested. 

Then, when given the choice of exposing Harvey Dent's own corruption thanks to the Joker's actions or taking responsibility for his murders to preserve Gotham's 'White Knight', Wayne opts for the latter, turning himself into the villain his city needed him to be - even though he proved himself to be anything but throughout the film.