15 Most Irritating Subplots In The Dark Knight Trilogy

12. Batman's No-Kill Rule

The Subplot: Throughout The Dark Knight Trilogy, numerous references are made to Batman's no-kill policy, that he will not kill any criminals in the pursuit of justice. He will leave them to be dealt with by the law, and this is remarked by several villains throughout the series, such as Ra's al Ghul and The Joker. Why It's Irritating: Because Batman kills many people throughout these movies, and Nolan treats it like it's no big deal. In Batman Begins, numerous members of the League of Shadows are presumably killed in the burning monastery (admittedly before he became Batman), he brings about the means for Ra's al Ghul to die at the end of the movie. He also kills Two-Face at the end of The Dark Knight, and he causes the accident that kills Talia al Ghul at the end of The Dark Knight Rises. It isn't Bruce's flagrant abandonment of his no-kill rule that's annoying, but simply that Nolan doesn't engage with it in any of the scripts. This seems to suggest that in Nolan's eyes Batman doesn't really kill anyone because it's always morally justified, which seems like a cheat, given how black-and-white Batman's policy was in most of the comics.