The Stories That Build Us
- Third Eye High Staff Writer
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
What Batman Reveals About the Fiction We Carry Into Real Life.
Sometimes the biggest questions start with the smallest conversations. A random comment.
A passing thought. A question asked from the back seat of a car. The kind of thing that should take ten seconds to answer. Then somehow follows you around for the rest of the day. That's what happened to me recently. My son asked, "What if Batman never existed?" Then he moved on with his life.
Meanwhile, my brain immediately started building conspiracy boards, connecting invisible dots, and treating the question like it was somehow tied to the fate of civilization. In other words... a normal day for me. At first, it felt like a comic book question. A nerd question. The kind of thing only Batman fans would care about.
But the longer I sat with it, the more I realized it wasn't really about Batman at all.
It was about influence. About identity. About the invisible fingerprints stories leave behind.
And once I started looking at it that way, the question got a lot bigger.
Stories Don't Stay Where We Leave Them
Most of us think of stories as entertainment. Something we watch. Something we read.
Something we finish. Something we leave behind. But I don't think that's what actually happens.
I think stories move in. Quietly. Without asking permission. A movie gives you a new perspective.
A book helps you through a difficult season. A character shows you a version of strength you hadn't considered before.
Years later, you don't remember where the lesson came from. You just know it became part of you.
Maybe that's why certain stories stick around for generations. Not because they're popular.
Because they're useful.
“The older I get, the less interested I am in whether a story was real, and the more interested I am in how the stories shape us.”
The Things We Love Quietly Build Us
The older I get, the harder it becomes to believe anyone is completely self-made.
We're assembled.
From experiences.
From conversations.
From mistakes.
From the people we meet.
From the things we love.
Every influence leaves something behind. Most of the time, we don't notice it happening.
Then one day you catch yourself reacting to something a certain way. Believing something deeply.
Holding onto a value you never consciously chose. And suddenly you realize...
that fingerprint came from somewhere. For me, Batman is one of those fingerprints.
Not because he's a superhero. Not because he has gadgets. Not because he's cool.
It's because somewhere along the way, I connected with the idea of endurance.
Persistence. Getting back up. Continuing despite the weight you're carrying. The older I get, the more I realize that's what stayed with me. Not the cape. The lesson. But Batman isn't really the point.
The point is that all of us have something like this.
A story.
A character.
A movie.
A song.
Something that quietly settled into our lives and helped shape the person we became.
Most of us just don't realize it until much later.
Nobody Is Entirely Self-Made
We love the idea of being self-made. It's a comforting thought. The belief that who we are is entirely the result of our own choices. But I don't think that's true. I think identity is collaborative. We're built from countless influences.
Parents.
Friends.
Teachers.
Failures.
Heartbreak.
Books.
Movies.
Music.
Conversations.
Moments we barely remember.
Every experience leaves something behind. Every influence adds another brushstroke. And eventually, all those brushstrokes become a person. Which means if you start removing major influences from someone's life, you don't just change what they like. You change the shape of who they become.
Not completely. But enough. Enough to create a different version of the same person.
And I think that's fascinating.
The Fiction That Feels True
Here's the strange thing. We know fictional stories aren't real. We know Gotham City doesn't exist.
We know these characters are invented. Yet somehow they still change us. Why? Because our brains don't just respond to facts. They respond to meaning.
The best stories aren't remembered because of plot twists. They're remembered because they reveal something recognizable.
Something human.
Fear.
Hope.
Purpose.
Loss.
Belonging.
Resilience.
The costume is rarely the reason a story survives. The truth underneath it is. That's why certain characters outlive generations. Not because they're entertaining. Because they help people make sense of themselves. And sometimes that's more valuable than entertainment.
“Maybe the characters we love aren't escapes from reality. Maybe they're tools we use to understand it.”
The Moon Theory
At some point during this thought spiral, I landed on a comparison that wouldn't leave me alone.
Removing Batman from culture feels a little like removing the moon. The world doesn't stop.
Life goes on. People still wake up and go to work. Everything technically functions. But something feels different. The rhythm changes. The atmosphere changes. The pull changes.
That's what happens when something becomes deeply embedded in culture. Its influence becomes invisible. Not because it's unimportant. Because it's become normal. And that's usually when we stop noticing how much weight it's carrying. The same thing happens with the stories that shape us.
Most of the influences that helped build who we are have become part of the foundation.
They're already baked into the structure. We don't think about them anymore.
Because they've become us.
Fiction Leaves Fingerprints
The longer I thought about my son's question, the less interested I became in Batman himself.
And the more interested I became in influence. Because every one of us carries fingerprints left behind by things that mattered to us. Maybe yours came from a comic book. Maybe it came from a television show. A song. A teacher. A grandparent. A book you haven't opened in twenty years.
Whatever it was... it's still there.
Part of how you think. Part of how you see the world. Part of how you move through life.
That's what makes stories powerful. Not because they're fictional. Because they're meaningful.
And meaningful things tend to stick around. Long after the credits roll. Long after the final page.
Long after the story ends.
Maybe that's why this question stayed with me. Not because Batman is important.
Because influence is. Because stories are. Because the things we love often become part of us long before we realize it.
So maybe the better question isn't, what if Batman never existed. Maybe the better question is,
who would you be without the stories that helped build you. That's a question I'm still thinking about.
And honestly... I probably will be for a while.
Stay Curious. Stay Lifted. Stay Third Eye High.
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