The Best Ra's al Ghul?

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So, in the DC universe Ra's is one of the most formidable foes and complex characters that 'verse has to offer. Who does him best?


Batman Begins


DCAU/Comics



Arrow

Liam Neeson was effective, but David Warner's animated Ra's was the best for me.

I only know him from the animated series and the Nolan movies. And I liked them both, easiest my favorite batman villain. But in both cases they are portrayed in a different light, with different motives. In the animated series he was, if I remember correctly, a radical environmentalist. And I Nolan's movie you could argue that he holds to Traditionalist world view, including the cyclical nature of history/time (contrary to the linear view of history shared by left-wing political ideologies, which has its origin in Christian thinking).

Now I want to watch Batman begins again to see if missed something.

^^^ Interesting replies…

I think the common thread between all three depictions of Ra’s Al Ghul is that (whether his goal is order/justice as in Batman Begins & Arrow or safeguarding the environment as in the comics) he sees humanity as the problem and he’s willing to take extreme and ruthless measures to correct that problem…

I was really worried about Arrow’s depiction of Ra’s at first—especially after seeing the actor cast to play him (there was a rumor that Liam Neeson was sought but couldn’t do the role because of scheduling conflicts). I thought the guy looked like a ‘low rent’ copy of Neeson. However, after actually seeing him in action, I’m pretty happy with his performance. I think he’s written really well too.
On Arrow, Ra’s seems to be a mixture of the more grounded character from Batman Begins with some of the elements from the comics to amp things up a bit… It seems that this Ra’s, like the one in the comics, is very long lived. He mentions that he hasn’t been challenged to a duel in 67 years, for example. I also really like the dispassionate, philosophical nature of this version of Ra’s…

I thought his conflicted feelings about killing were very interesting—that he felt shame for robbing a man of such a precious gift, but also pride for confronting a foe and “replacing evil with death.” Also, I though the way he tried to console Ollie just before he killed him was a nice touch, and the way he ‘prayed’ over him before kicking him off the cliff.

Because of all that, I think Arrow’s version is my favorite for now. I really hope they can keep things at the high level they’ve set. I think they can. One of the best things about Arrow is the way they improve villains, much like BTAS did with Joker/Harley Quinn, Victor Fries, and the Ventriloquist.