Did they ever explain the motivation of The Court of Owls?

[LoneNecromancer]

Hey, remember that scene where the bat from Year One gets killed and presumably eaten by an owl? Classic Snyder.

[Mutant God]

It actually did make sense. At that gala, Bruce announces plans to invest in Gotham's infrastructure, including an improved public transit system and restoring some of the city's derelict architecture. That was the last arrogant straw for Bruce as far as the Court was concerned. They're like: You're not fixing a thing, we do things when & how we want them.

Batman learns too much too fast and discovers their lair and almost takes them down, so they up the ante and start attacking more openly (and to eliminate any do gooder officials left). Snyder said it was all about them asserting their Owl legend over Bruce's Bat legend as to who rules the Gotham.

This

Bruce wanted to get rid of some old buildings (Court of Owls owned buildings), The Court thought he was getting too close to discovering their existence so they tried to get rid of Bruce Wayne and with that they came into contact with Batman and friends.

Basically they almost like the illuminati, full of rich people who controlled who was successful and who wasn't.

I think the group should have been created after Batman retires and before Batman Beyond comes so the reason of why Gotham is so successful and futuristic but still corrupt and dangerous.

[FishyZombie]

This

Bruce wanted to get rid of some old buildings (Court of Owls owned buildings), The Court thought he was getting too close to discovering their existence so they tried to get rid of Bruce Wayne and with that they came into contact with Batman and friends.

Basically they almost like the illuminati, full of rich people who controlled who was successful and who wasn't.

I think the group should have been created after Batman retires and before Batman Beyond comes so the reason of why Gotham is so successful and futuristic but still corrupt and dangerous.

Okay thanks guys, I think I finally get it.)
(Or at least close enough)

[JBatmanFan05]

Okay, but that's a stupid plot point in a story that asks me to take seriously the idea that a clandestine group of rich sociopaths have secretly controlled a major American city for centuries?

I'm not talking about Batman. I'm talking about everyone else in the world.

Man, that's comic books. Suspension of disbelief. You're gonna read a lot more ridiculous things the more and more you read. Every Batman comic asks me to take seriously that a billionaire might be a genius and an orphan of murdered billionaire parents and trained in like all the martial arts and dresses as a bat and no one finds out and reveals his identity and the fed govt and the army don't arrest him for all his many many crimes and he defies physics and physiology by swinging between skyscrapers and enlists teens and boys to help him fight crime.

[Cipher]

Man, that's comic books. Suspension of disbelief. You're gonna read a lot more ridiculous things the more and more you read. Every Batman comic asks me to take seriously that a billionaire might be a genius and an orphan of murdered billionaire parents and trained in like all the martial arts and dresses as a bat and no one finds out and reveals his identity and the fed govt and the army don't arrest him for all his many many crimes and he defies physics and physiology by swinging between skyscrapers and enlists teens and boys to help him fight crime.

That's so reductive. I hate that argument. There are levels of suspension of disbelief, and there's a difference between suspension of disbelief in buy-in of the genre and suspension of disbelief in terms of the individual story's goals. This story asked me to attribute a serious threat to the Court of Owls, which, okay, but it never lines up in a way that feels convincing within Batman's world nor that matches the group's description and motivations.

The summary written above:

Bruce wanted to get rid of some old buildings (Court of Owls owned buildings), The Court thought he was getting too close to discovering their existence so they tried to get rid of Bruce Wayne and with that they came into contact with Batman and friends.

makes sense.

"Bruce wanted to get rid of some old buildings; the Court thought he was getting too close to discovering their existence so they decided to loudly and publicly kill every official in the city and with that they came into contact with Batman and friends" does not.

[Kingcrimsonprog]

Wasn't it a plot point that the court were a little lax and not that into-it in the last few years, until batman got them annoyed, so they killed all the politicians and stuff when they got interested again. Lines like.... "Something evil has RETURNED to Gotham" and "something bad is COMING BACK" and all that jazz keep coming up. So, the way I read it, some rich guy's dad was an owl (Powers family granddad and great grandad etc), and he himself was more interested in being a business man in modern society becuase who's a secret owl killer these days right? ....until Bruce plans to demolish his secret layer, and then he's all like "I'm in a secret killer Owl club for goodness sake, time to take advantage of this!"

[Cipher]

"I'm in a secret killer Owl club for goodness sake, time to take advantage of this!"

This also has more explained motivation then I think we get on-page, and also holy hell do I wish this had been an actual line of dialogue in the story.

[darkseidpwns]

What bothers me most about Snyder's work is how non committed he is to his own ideas, the Dealer for instance has been completely forgotten, the Court has no substance whatsoever, Lincoln March was left over and amounted to nothing in the end, the Joker seems to be the only one he truly cares for. 16 out of 41 issues exclusively written by Snyder have been about Joker.

[JBatmanFan05]

What bothers me most about Snyder's work is how non committed he is to his own ideas, the Dealer for instance has been completely forgotten, the Court has no substance whatsoever, Lincoln March was left over and amounted to nothing in the end, the Joker seems to be the only one he truly cares for. 16 out of 41 issues exclusively written by Snyder have been about Joker.

Snyder did more with the Court and Lincoln after Night of the Owls, see the Talon series and Endgame and (for Lincoln) Eternal. The Court idea always had substance and was actually original in that it's a counter myth/legend/symbol to Batman as far as who controls Gotham. And the run isn't over yet so who knows what we might see more of or not.

As for Joker, Mr 75th Anniversary, yes, Snyder treats Joker like the arch nemesis he is for Batman. "Extra" (I'd say due) care has gone to this comic icon.

[cgh]

What bothers me most about Snyder's work is how non committed he is to his own ideas, the Dealer for instance has been completely forgotten, the Court has no substance whatsoever, Lincoln March was left over and amounted to nothing in the end, the Joker seems to be the only one he truly cares for. 16 out of 41 issues exclusively written by Snyder have been about Joker.

In case you missed it, Batman Eternal was a 52-issue epic that concluded Lincoln March's story. You should probably check it out.

[darkseidpwns]

Snyder did more with the Court and Lincoln after Night of the Owls, see the Talon series and Endgame and (for Lincoln) Eternal. The Court idea always had substance and was actually original in that it's a counter myth/legend/symbol to Batman as far as who controls Gotham. And the run isn't over yet so who knows what we might see more of or not.

As for Joker, Mr 75th Anniversary, yes, Snyder treats Joker like the arch nemesis he is for Batman. "Extra" (I'd say due) care has gone to this comic icon.

I've read them all,Endgame was the only time the Court showed up in Snyder's own work proper and those few pages are hardly "doing something" with the concept. Lincoln only showed up in ONE issue of Batman Eternal,he's not even featured in any of the covers, Cluemaster was the real villain of that series,he did all the heavy lifting which Lincoln himself acknowledged and it wasn't even written by Snyder.
The Talon series could not flesh them out either, like Eternal it was not written by Snyder. It's Snyder's job to flesh out his own concepts but he seems more interested in the biggest,most nerdgastic thing EVAH. We still know next to nothing about the Court, why are they so interested in owls? other than "owls eat bats" they are faceless mooks with an army of generic assassins.

[darkseidpwns]

In case you missed it, Batman Eternal was a 52-issue epic that concluded Lincoln March's story. You should probably check it out.

When a writer introduces a character supposedly so important it's his job to flesh out that character, I dont want to be told to check out a 52 issues epic not even written by the said writer(of which 35-40 issues were just filler) to follow that character who only shows up in the final issue to get his ass kicked.