[Captrek]

Agent Richard07 wrote:

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I'm not going to read spoilers about that 8-year gap, but I've been thinking about it. I've been wondering if the gap is in the movie itself.

No spoilers ahead, just my speculation...

Maybe Batman is crippled by Bane, then "rises" again 8 years later. Just trying to piece together the events we saw in the trailers. Batman appears to be seriously injured by Bane, but then he appears to be well enough later on to team up with Catwoman. If this is what happens, it doesn't seem like something that can take place over a short period of time.

Also no spoiler just speculation, but I'll tag it as you did...

I was under the impression he retired immediately after the events of the previous film because he was troubled by the vigilantes with the hockey pads and shotguns, and others like them. After Harvey Dent went all serial killer, he feared everyone would want to be like Batman and nobody would want to be naïve fool who trusted the system. In the process of creating a symbol to terrify the bad guys, he inadvertently created a terrible role model to "inspire" the masses. So he preserved Dent as the positive role model and turned Batman into a villain and retired him in order to destroy the dangerous role model.