Titans Season 3’s Red Hood Reveal Repeats Nolan’s Bane Mistake

Many DC fans had a problem with Bane’s role in The Dark Knight Rises, and now Titans is doing something similar with Red Hood in season 3.

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Titans season 3 gives Red Hood the same mistreatment Bane suffered in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. Now streaming on HBO Max, Titans season 3 has so far earned a more positive reaction compared to previous runs, and Jason Todd’s transformation into Red Hood deserves a big chunk of the credit for that. Following on from Titans season 2, where Jason became paralyzed with fear after his humiliating loss to Deathstroke, Batman’s sidekick tries taking down The Joker by himself – a decision he quickly regrets as the Clown Prince liquefies Jason’s body with a crowbar.

Reports of Jason Todd’s demise were greatly exaggerated, however, as he returns under the new guise of Red Hood – a blend of DC’s “Death in the Family” and “Under the Red Hood” comic stories. With his new persona, Titans season 3 established Jason as an outright villain, cementing his turn through the explosive death of Hank “Hawk” Hall. But Dick Grayson suspects Red Hood has an accomplice, and the truth finally comes out in episode 4. The little crow whispering in Jason Todd’s ear is none other than Jonathan Crane.

A live-action Red Hood/Scarecrow team-up is certainly a tantalizing prospect – a formidable blend of brains and brawn. But the partnership also regurgitates a problem Batman fans will remember from Christopher Nolan’s 2012 trilogy-closer, The Dark Knight Rises. Is Titans’ Red Hood the new Bane?

How TDKR’s Talia Mistake Hurt Bane

Bane’s presence in The Dark Knight Rises isn’t always remembered fondly, not least because no one could understand him without subtitles. More problematic than Tom Hardy’s muffled vocal, however, is how Bane’s story ends. Bane is a terrifying and worthy villain for 90% of The Dark Knight Rises’ running time. His plan begins perfectly, remaining one step ahead of Batman and the GCPD at all times and keeping to the shadows until he decides it’s time to surface. Bane then breaks Batman in two, nullifies the police department, and successfully removes Gotham City from the national arena. Citizens are terrified by his ruthless displays of power (such as the football stadium bomb), and other villains (including Jonathan Crane, ironically) fall under his sway. Though he might not be as magnetizing or compelling to watch as Joker, Bane is the best villain for getting things done in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.

And that’s precisely why audiences were disappointed when the truth about Bane emerged. The Dark Knight Rises’ final act confirms (for the few who hadn’t already guessed) that Bruce Wayne’s latest love interest, Marion Cotillard’s Miranda Tate, is actually Talia al Ghul – daughter of Ra’s from Batman Begins. Talia is then unveiled as Bane’s master – the one truly seeking to corrupt Gotham City, using Bane as a glorified henchman. It was Agatha Talia all along!

This revelation retroactively makes Bane seem much less impressive. Yes, he broke Batman’s back and conquered Gotham City with an iron fist, but the masterplan belonged to Talia, who was manipulating events from the shadows. And this isn’t just an alliance between equal DC villains either – Bane is hopelessly subservient to Ra’s al Ghul’s daughter. The biggest dog in Gotham suddenly becomes Talia’s rottweiler, evoking those long-repressed memories of Poison Ivy’s Bane in Batman & Robin.

Jason Todd’s Scarecrow Connection Repeats The Bane Mistake

Titans season 3 follows an eerily similar pattern with Red Hood. In the opening 3 episodes, Jason Todd’s Deadpool cosplay is a veritable menace of an antagonist. Red Hood brings the various criminal gangs of Gotham City under his control, instigates a wave of terror by forcing innocent civilians to don the trademark hood and commit horrific acts in his name, then tricks Dick with a switcheroo bank heist. And that’s just his opening gambit. As the situation escalates, Red Hood concocts a deliciously evil plan to tear the Titans apart with Hank’s death, and almost kills Nightwing when the pair come to blows upon the grounds of Wayne Manor. Much like Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, a swift and unstoppable rise to prominence established Red Hood as a force to be reckoned with.

Also like Tom Hardy’s Bane, the credit for those grandiose misdeeds is taken away from Red Hood and attributed to another. As Dick Grayson interrogates Scarecrow, it rapidly becomes apparent that the twisted chemist is the real mastermind behind Red Hood’s achievements – the Talia to his Bane. Jonathan Crane must’ve been the one who devised the bank heist, the intravenous drug delivery system, the Arkham escape, etc. Just as The Dark Knight Rises took the exploits that made Bane a great villain and credited them to Talia, Titans season 3 shifts the glory of Red Hood’s awesome early achievements onto Scarecrow.

On one hand, this makes perfect sense. The Jason Todd of Titans season 1 & 2 can be best described as an idiot in superhero clothing, so of course there’s a puppet master orchestrating his movements in the background. But similar to how Bane didn’t feel so scary after The Dark Knight Rises revealed him as Talia al Ghul’s attack dog, Red Hood now just feels like Scarecrow’s hired muscle. Crane even accuses Dick Grayson of “overestimating” Jason, while Dick refers to him as a “protégé.” Short of patting Red Hood on the head and complimenting his outfit, the duo couldn’t be more patronizing. Scarecrow does concede that the Hank plan was Jason’s idea, but it couldn’t be clearer that Crane is the one in control. All of the excitement around Red Hood’s badass Titans introduction dissipates quicker than Hank’s insides did over Wayne Manor’s carpet

How Titans Season 3 Can Fix Red Hood

Titans season 3’s Red Hood holds one card up his sleeve that Bane didn’t in The Dark Knight Rises – the opportunity for redemption. Nolan pulled his Talia al Ghul twist right in the dying moments of the Dark Knight trilogy, leaving no time to redeem Tom Hardy’s villain, and after blink-and-you’ll-miss-it death courtesy of Catwoman, he was never spoken of again. By contrast, Titans’ Red Hood-Scarecrow link was confirmed in episode 4, which leaves plenty of time for their dynamic to change.

Now that Jonathan Crane has been liberated from Arkham Asylum (nicely done, Nightwing), he and Red Hood should be working more closely as Titans season 3 progresses. And, sooner or later, Jason will realize that Scarecrow is exploiting him even worse than Batman used to. The one thing Red Hood needs from his criminal conspirator is fear antidote, but since Jason was cooking the stuff by himself while Crane remained locked in Arkham, the drug might not be enough for Scarecrow to keep control over Red Hood for long. Like Jesse Pinkman eventually learning to cook blue meth without Walter White’s help, Red Hood could go solo in a future episode.

Betraying Scarecrow would reestablish Red Hood as the dominant villain in Titans season 3 (rather than just someone else’s lackey), and after a few episodes watching his new mentor in action, Jason might actually become a tactical mastermind without relying on Scarecrow’s smarts. Though episode 4 might’ve dampened that initial wave of Red Hood excitement by revealing his subservience to Scarecrow, Jason Todd’s villain could emerge bigger and better than ever by the time Titans season 3 reaches its endgame.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/titans-season-3-red-hood-bane-dark-knight-rises/