Warbler said:

DominicCobb said:

I'm paraphrasing here, but a wise man once said "an immature man dies nobly for a cause. A mature man lives humbly for one." In TDKR, Bruce Wayne is prepared to die to save Gotham. But then he matures.

I feel if he kept fighting or died it would have left his character unchanged, which is usually considered to be an element of bad storytelling.

"and I spear by the spirits of my parents to avenge their deaths by spending the rest of my life warring on all criminals. "

That's also the comic where Batman runs around with a gun in a leotard.

Clearly you can't hold to these details so harshly. Bruce became Batman for as long as he realistically could. I think you are also holding on too hard to the idea that Bruce is going to spend the next forty years of his life vacationing in souther France. Just because he's not Batman doesn't mean he still can't fight injustice. It's in his DNA, it's his obsession, and while he can let go of Batman (because he has to) and finally find time for himself, that doesn't mean he's just going to be sipping iced teas on the beach for the next half century.