chastmastr:gailsimone:… I’m sure a lot of you already know...

chastmastr:

gailsimone:

… I’m sure a lot of you already know this, but Kilmainham Gaol is a real place, a prison built in Dublin, Ireland, built right around the year 1800. At the time, it was considered quite ‘humane’ and progressive, even. It’s been out of commission since, I think, the 1980’s, and is now a museum.

It’s disturbing as hell, and was one of the least ‘humane’ places I have ever been in. It held, at one time or another, nearly all of the imprisoned Irish Nationalists, and at one time, public hangings were held right out in front, later, the executions were no longer public.

There are things about it that are very haunting…it’s several levels, the main room is shaped like an oval, so a few guards could see every cell. Doors did have this design, that of an eye with a viewing hole in the center, on the cell’s interior, so that the prisoners felt they were being watched 24 hours a day by both the guards and by God, never a moment’s privacy. They were made to feel like hopeless sinners. No peace, even in sleep.

They were also not allowed to speak, not even to themselves. …

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Is it troubling that I think Bane is really rather hot in this, with his tearful longing for “the captivity, the security and routine” as something “glorious”?  Mind you, this is speaking from a consensual-kink worldview, and a thousand miles away from the genuinely brutal horrors described in the real history of the Gaol (much more is on original blog; this is an excerpt) described.

I don’t usually judge people for what they find hot in comics, it’s really their business.

My thinking on Bane in story is that, he was born in prison, prison nurtured him, and even though he would fight like hell for freedom, he found something comforting in being imprisoned…in a way, it’s where his family is.