Nolan's Bat-Trilogy: Why is it so good? PART 2 THE BAD GUYS

Undoubtedly bat-villains are always one of the best parts of the whole Batman universe. In the case of Nolan's movies we are presented to some of the strongest ones and, above all, the archenemy...

1. Ra's Al Ghul is introduced at the very beginning of the 3-movie saga, but it's the character that will lead Bruce all the way trough the journey of transformation from an angry boy to a top hero. Not all the way, maybe, but the part in which Bruce faces his fears and decides what he wants to do with it. Liam Neeson shows his regular very good skills as a double-faced tutor that sees the apprentice overcomes and confront the master. He's such an important piece of the construction of Batman that Nolan has confirmed his appearance on the final film of the trilogy.
2. Scarecrow is somewhat the mascot-villain of the trilogy, reason why he can appear in the third film, even if just for some seconds. In BEGINS he plays a major role, but as a pon of Ra's bigger plan for Gotham. However, he's important while undressing all of Gotham's worst features. In TDK he's the sign of new times coming to town, such as Batman's copycats and violent mafia wars. In the end we all see he was just the weakest of all Gotham weirdos. Murphy is OK, but he can do better.
3. Two-face is a hard-to-define kind of bad guy. He is crucial as attorney and he's too damn important as an enemy. Too bad we have just a glimpse of what could be Two-face as a real challenge to the Bat. His importance to the story is more related to Joker's plan of turning Gotham's last hope into another one of its lunatics. Aaron was a very good choice: the ordinary (at same time obstinate)american looking for justice.
4. Ladies and gentleman, the key-role in all Batman mythology is based on the crime clown, the Joker. Nolan gets deep on the analysis of what's most important in the story: nobody is totally sane, nobody is completely insane. Ledger goes epic showing that when chaos subjugates we all turn into animals. Most of all, shows that a guy dressed as a bat can be as freak as anyone of us. Of course, the fact that Joker's plan is just to "watch the world burn" gives a huge force to the film depth.