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In The Dark Knight Rises at the scene when Bruce first meets Blake (where the latter goes calling at Wayne Manor), the way Blake confidently asserts to Bruce that Batman is needed seems to suggest that he has more than hunch about Batman's true identity.

How did he come across that (it is later acknowledged by Bruce in the car scene, when he says that Batman could be anyone...), and why does Bruce accept his assertion?

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  • @Keen: You're right... 'Blake' and 'Bane' are too similar... they aren't duplicates. (I haven't seen the movie, I have no idea what the League of Shadows is)
    – Flimzy
    Jul 22, 2012 at 23:21

3 Answers 3

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Blake doesn't have a full confirmation that Wayne is Batman, but as he explains to Bruce, he always had an inkling.

Blake talks about losing parents is something no child can ever move on from, not someone stuck in an orphanage like him, or someone like Wayne, with boundless money and potential. Its a kind of unspoken comradery that only those in the situation can understand, hinted at when Blake says

Blake: No one knows how it feels to be angry in your bones.

From this, and from the time that Bruce visited the boys home, the boys always had a fantasy of Bruce being Batman, as a bit of a joke. But Blake could tell from Bruce's face that day, from the look and smile he gave everyone, that it wasn't just pure fantasy. As Blake also explains:

Blake: I know that smile you put on...its the same one I taught myself

From this, Blake has a gut feeling that Bruce isn't who he lets on to everyone, billionaire playboy extraordinaire. But something different.
Not to mention one big element from the movie, Bruce goes into seclusion almost around the same time Batman disappears. Putting these pieces together, Blake makes the assumption that Bruce is Batman, and confronts him with Gordon's shooting.

This turns out to be correct, of course, and garner's Bruce's trust because Blake is someone who can understand Bruce's situation, coming from it himself. And Blake is also someone who share's Batman's ideals, as he says:

Blake: I don't know why you took the fall for Dent's murder, but I'm still a believer in the Batman

Showing us and Bruce that he has, at least similar, ideals to how Bruce was when he first put on his cape and cowl. And also the reason why he trusts Blake with the cave at the end.

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    Yep. Spot on. Also it is demonstrated that Blake's a pretty smart cookie, it's not surprising he figured it out.
    – Nobby
    Jul 22, 2012 at 17:02
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    Awesome answer. No wonder he inherits Batman's legacy at the end of the movie.
    – Dredd
    Jul 22, 2012 at 17:53
  • Good answer. But I think Blake mentions to have seen Wayne, both as Bruce as well as Batman. Now we know, that the 'elusive' Batman was not filmed freely, talking and grinning, much like our Spidey. What I feel, that in the first part, when Batman goes to the narrows, a small boy sees him and Batman gives him his periscope or some sort of device. Is that little boy Blake?
    – Firee
    Dec 22, 2014 at 12:12
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The answer is found in the wearing of "masks." Blake, being an orphan, explains that he always put on a front or wore a figurative mask to conceal his misery and pain. He had to pretend to be someone else. When he met Bruce Wayne at the orphanage, with the two girls around his arms, he knew that Bruce was putting on a show. Blake understood the pain Bruce had experienced being an orphan. Since Blake's parents were murdered as well, he probably also understood the anger. He ended up putting two and two together.

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In the scene where Blake visits Bruce Wayne he tells Bruce about what Gordon had told him, the underground army and the masked man. Blake tells Bruce that the city needs Batman, and that he knows Bruce is Batman, he goes on to tell Bruce about his childhood as an orphan and seeing Bruce and recognizing himself in Bruce. In many different renditions of the Batman story the character of Robin (Blake in this case) will discover that Bruce Wayne is Batman and become his sidekick.

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