Scarecrow's goal of understanding fear gives us so much room to explore other Batman villains too. Imagine him going after other villains in the name of his twisted curiosity.
Or on the other hand, teaming up with other villains to put both of their strengths into the limelight. I'd guess the Riddler would be a good partner to Scarecrow. The two are both highly intelligent villains, and such gives way to what the toolsets could do when combined. Say for example, Scarecrow's Fear Toxin being used to enhance one of Riddler's big plots. Hell, it would even allow for Batman to show off one of the lesser shown aspects of his kit: him being the world's greatest detective. It'd make for a great battle of minds over a battle of fists. The Riddler and Scarecrow slowly unravelling Batman's psyche while Batman does the same to their plans. Who knows, even a robin like Tim Drake would be a good fit if the writer wanted it to be a 2v2.
Imagine a story where Scarecrow gets thrown into Arkham on purpose in order to study the other villains' fear. It wouldn't even need to feature Batman, it's the other villains trying to defeat scarecrow without their usual resources while terrified
It's really sad how scarecrow is a plot device so often. From his voice, (usually) to his costume, to his backstory, to his weapons. He is AMAZING. I can tell why he's your favorite villain. My love of this character is enhanced from a real life story that made me TERRIFIED of scarecrows when I was younger
You could even argue this is what happened in Arkham Knight depsite Scarecrow being the main threat. He's quickly overshadowed by both the Arkham Knight and Tyler Durden Joker lol
Scarecrow in a nutshell: "Hey did you know Batman's parents are dead? The guy's parents kicked the bucket! I can't believe this guy's parents are 20 feet in the ground!"
I feel your pain Pastra. I've had similar issues with Killer Croc over the years. Most comics and media depict him as a brutish thug that embraces his animal nature and depraved gruesomeness, when that's the opposite of how he's meant to be depicted. The point of Croc is that he's someone pressured and abused into becoming a monster, hating what he is and what he's become but feeling there is no other path for him. He tried to be good. He tried to be normal. But everyone everywhere beats him down till he has no other option but to lash out at the world. This is only worsened when he starts to lose control of himself, blacking out into the feral monster people think he is only to be horrified at the carnage he's caused by mauling people. That's how Croc should be, at least IMO.
I agree eintierly, & I think his depiction in the Season Of Infamy DLC for Batman Arkham Knight does this incredibly, finding out what the Warden did to him & the other inmates of the Penetientiary, it's almost heartbreaking to see him yell to him to change him back, if it wasn't for Nightwing's poorly timed quips.
To some degree I feel this with Grundy, he was written amazingly well in the animated show. The whole emotional scenes with hawk girl were amazing, showing that while he was accomplishing his main trope, the zombie, not massively intelligent but just enough so that he can speak and tell you want he wants and was able to make his own choices. Terribly inconsistent writing with Grundy.
I make the same connection but I will say scarecrow is always done wrong it is so inconsistent I’m surprised there’s not memes about it like oh what does scarecrow look like bag over his head no weird hat maybe actually looks like a scarecrow never I hate it so much😢 also I understand what you’re going through Az in no character is shown the right way
I feel another issue with Scarecrow is when it feels he is beginning to get the spotlights another villain like the Joker steals it from him. To me alot of writers feel scared to experiment with other villains like Scarecrow and Bane just because they are known for their single Gimmick.
@@lordinquisitor6233 at least bane kept the spotlight on him for quite a long time in Arkham origins, he literally had the most impact on the narrative imo
@@lordinquisitor6233 wdym he's still the main villian, I feel like he doesn't get overshadowed by anyone in the end he still takes the batman down and actually manages to break him after "killing" barbara. Although I'll admit AK story gets too convoluted for it's own good.
@@theshoe17 Scarecrow is supposed to be the main villain, but he's almost never seen outside of a screen of some sort save for what, three times in the entire game? Once in the Ace Chemical factory, once on the roof of a building, and once at the very end. Meanwhile Joker (who is supposed to be *dead* by the way) is throwing quips left and right and has an actual boss "fight", and Arkham Knight actually has more of a physical presence and impact than Scarecrow ever does in AK. And let's not forget how the writers used the extremely tired trope of Scarecrow being defeated by his own toxin. He should be 100% immune to it by now, if not straight up enjoying it.
Idk if this has been done before, but it would be a cool detail if Scarecrow says that he’s “immune to his own fear toxin” but actually isn’t because his worst fear is always right in front of him. There could also be a foreshadowing scene where he addresses Batman, but only Robbin is there.
He usually doesn't are for using his own gas or toxins on himself. The only thing he supposedly fears is batman himself of which he tends to face that fear regardless. He is usually immune to his own fear toxins because he doesn't fear anything besides batman
There is a comic book fact that says that he is immune to his own toxin from overexposure but still fears the batman which is exactly or somewhat similar to what you are saying
The Arkham games also go into this in the bios for him, stating that his obsession with batman is due to him being the only one that can still cause him fear.
Well, I know most Batman fans really don't like the show Gotham, but in that show, Scarecrow's father overexposed himself with fear toxin in small amounts to conquer his fear that his dead wife (who died in a house fire) blames him. Scarecrow's father conquers fear successfully, and starts this treatment on his son. When the police and Jim Gordon show up, Scarecrow's dad injects the amount required to make Jonathan immune to fear. But, this just causes Jonathan to overdose on fear toxin and makes him afraid all of the time, with a literal Scarecrow being the first thing he sees. Scarecrow's dad, having conquered fear, approaches the police. But since he has no fear he acts super dumb and is shot and killed. Jonathan is placed in hospital. Being constantly afraid, he gets simply used to fear, and that's why the toxin doesn't affect him. Not because he's not scared, but because he is just constantly scared.
The best scene that Scarecrow had in Arkham Knight was when he confronted Batman and Commissioner Gordon at the rooftop overlooking Founder’s Island. Not one particle of fear toxin used in the entire scene. Just Scarecrow talking and playing into Gordon’s greatest fear of someday failing to protect his daughter, using that fear as leverage to get him to do what he wanted in exchange for her safety, and, once Gordon subverts him and does something he didn’t want, forcing Gordon to face that exact fear. Overcoming his adversaries not by spraying their face with fear toxin, not by injecting it into them. Just simply playing his way into their minds with what they fear the most and using it in his favour. I wish there was more of that in the game instead of “guy that says scary stuff over broadcast and tells the Arkham Knight what to do and sometimes uses his conflict toxin on Batman to make the clown an antagonist again.”
I prefer Scarecrow when he just uses his toxin to help him out. Scarecrow studied the human psyche. He should also be able to use the fear of people without his toxin
Scarecrow was a freaking menace, he pretty much orchestrated the entirety of the game, made the rouge gallery behave for once in their lives for the greater goal, and played everyone on Batman’s side like a fiddle, slowly but surely breaking the Batman until he succeeded where everybody else failed, he effectively killed Batman and reduced him into a mortal man after unmasking him, he might had been defeated, but the damage was done and the war won, he destroyed the Batman symbol. And even if Joker managed to steal the spotlight, Scarecrow was the reason Batman was having those increasingly more intense hallucinations to the point he made Batman mentally ready to kill.
I wanna see a comic that explains how Scarecrow is immune to his own toxin. Perhaps he was able to overcome all of his greatest fear, thus giving the toxin no fear to use.
Depends what version of him it is, sometimes he's not immune and it's actually used against him to help defeat him. I think he's immune to the gas toxin but not to direct injection, as shown in the Arkham games
@@3Ayz I always saw it as Crane being afraid of the Batman in general. The whole game of Knight is about Crane trying to tear down the legacy of the Batman. Batman has power over crime through fear. Fear is his legacy. Almost like Crane is trying to prove the Batman is nothing more than a man. Nothing to fear.
I think the best part about scarecrow in my opinion is that, unlike many other batman villains who are doing their crimes for money or due to an insane obsession or just insanity, Scarecrow is just doing it for science and because he enjoys hurting people. He was considered perfectly sane, he was just incredibly evil.
@@Bards.98 Insane and mentally ill aren't the same thing. Insane people don't experience reality the same way you and I do, they sometimes do bad things because something is wrong with them and they need help. They can't control it. Scarecrow knows that what he's doing is wrong and disgusting, and he is perfectly capable of stopping himself, he just doesn't give a fuck.
I mean, Batman IS pretty insane. He constantly puts massive threats in an asylum, only for them to break out and kill people. His form of vengeance inspires bad people to become worse people. His "No kill" rule has led to thousands of unneeded deaths and yet he thinks that he can still get the villains to change or stay imprisoned. The saying "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting change" isn't correct, but it very much depicts what Batman does.
Love how lots of Batman's villains reflect some aspect of his identity towards himself, and Scarecrow's use of fear as a weapon, opposed to Batman's use of it as a tool, is a perfect example
I actually really enjoy the Scarecrow storyline in Gotham; it's a look at how grief affects people and the lengths they'll go to in order to numb themselves to it. He's not some generic scary guy in a Spirit Halloween costume, he's a person warped by loss who genuinely believes he's helping people by "curing" fear. In the end, he's just a delusional narcissist who ends up destroying the only valuable thing he had left. That to me has way more to explore story-wise than some generic revenge plot.
In the myth of Hercules, Herc is poisoned, starts hallucinating and accidentally kills his loved ones. I fell like you could easily adapt that to Scarecrow, have the fear toxin make someone hallucinat and kill a loved one.
Agreed. It's one of the reasons I keep coming back to his videos as a whole, especially when it's something he loves. You can just hear it in his voice how much passion, love, and respect he has for the subject at hand, and it makes me happy to know without a doubt that he's doing what he loves.
Never in my life did I expect Pastra to make a video on Batman. Here it is, and I’m not complaining. Here's hoping Scarecrow shows up in The Batman 2, with maybe Willem Dafoe playing him!!!
Imagine how incredible a Scarecrow and Mad Hatter team up would be. Batman would be standing in a mock up Wonderland created by Mad Hatter, only to inhale the Fear Toxin, and wander through a horrifying version of Wonderland. This needs to be a movie!
They could definitely do so much with Pattinson’s Batman that doesn’t involve joker like scarecrow, mad hatter, professor pyg, and clay face But unfortunately we’re getting another joker
@@lawerencejuge4110Zasz would be perfect for The Batman because there's no gimmick to him, he's just an unrepentant serial killer. His only quirk is that he cuts himself for every victim so his body is covered in scars.
@@lawerencejuge4110They probably won't do another Joker. Nando V Movies made a concept for Hugo Strange, and I think that his concept would be a great jumping off to show just how badass this version of Batman can be against a group of mentally exploitative villains. And then Zasz can come in as the one villain that will test Batman's ability to face off against a villain he shouldn't hold anything back because they're not going to hold back themselves. Maybe we could even have Robin face off against Zasz. Maybe, though Jury should still be out on that.
In the yellow lantern story he becomes numb to fear and is trying to make a fear toxin that can make him feel fear again. Eventually he gets the ring and the plot takes off.
Imagine a story where scarecrow gets hit with his own gas and just laughs, but eventually grows terrified of batman just outright without the gas involved.
He actually used to have an immunity in his earlier appearances, however, it got reconned to the point where he’s not immune, even though he should be from testing it on himself so many times. Other than Blackest Night, there hasn’t really been a story where he IS immune to his fear toxin.
Imagine a version of Scarecrow who is sort of on the same level of Batman, in that he's also an urban legend. Like, the people of Gotham City don't know if he does or doesn't exist, and everyone has a slightly different version of him. Some believe him to be a psycho in a costume, some believe him to be a spirit possessing a scarecrow, but nobody really knows. His calling card is that he always either leaves someone crazy from fear, or he beheads them and puts a pumpkin in place of their head. Scarecrow would usually only go after people who've hurt him as Johnathan Krane, getting his revenge in a cruel manner, forcing them to fear him as he once feared them. Though, he isn't against hurting innocents to further his research on fear. Scarecrow only has two goals. Get revenge on those who once scared him as a lesser man, and learn to weaponize fear. To use it. It'd be kind of neat if he was actually inspired by Batman, in that way. He wanted to learn to use fear the way Batman does, but he wants to push it further...
Actually before I see this I was thinking of this idea It was set around some kids outside of Gotham in a farm talking about the legend of scarecrow but there's someone watching them...
There was an issue of the BTAS tie-in comic that actually approached Scarecrow from a unique perspective - Crane escaped from Arkham just to return to the world of academia and be an educator again. And he was happy for a while, even forming a strong friendship with one of his students. But when that student was abused by her boyfriend, Crane returned to his criminal persona to dispense his own brand of justice...
@@regularshowman3208 The problem is he didn't do it for any moral reason, he did it because he saw an opportunity to watch somebody suffer without consequences.
I think it depends on who’s writing Scarecrow Either he’s just a normal villain or a complete lunatic. I think the version your talking about isn’t the latter. Deep down I think he cares for people who are like him, having grown up with an abusive aunt (post crisis) and father (post flashpoint), this time he can do something and teach that thug a lesson in fear. I love villains like that, they still have their morals and don’t need to kill people to feel like they’re doing the right thing.
I love that Simon was used for this video, he’s incredibly expressive and I love how he uses his tentacle arms in the way Clyde arms are used for his expressions since Simon’s arms are fake
@@bing_crystal4831 he’s a veldigun for dreams of an insomniac, the reason he didn’t talk about him in the mascots video was because it was for the characters that could have been the mascots for the channel and not just all his OC’s
I think the main problem is that The Scarecrow possesses a pretty high skill floor to write effectively on account of his background in psychology as his association with fear. Whereas Batman has an easier association with fear in that it's baked into his superhero identity, The Scarecrow requires some understanding of the subject or practice of psychology in order to get the most out of his potential, which Kings of Fear did correctly by framing the conflict between Batman and The Scarecrow as a therapy session.
Arkham Knight will always be one of my favourite depictions of Scarecrow. His desperate desire to unmask Batman to take away his ability to create fear.
I like his calm tone, even when Batman is totally destroying him he heeps his calm and that's really cool about him. He really changed and he is no more that little gremlin he was in Arkham Asylum.
YES! THANK YOU!!! Justice for Jonathan!!!!! As a writer, it is mind-boggling that they have all the tools on front of them, but they STILL don’t use the character correctly. I feel as though it would be interesting to bring up his fascinating backstory, which adds to the battle between the monster/man dichotomy. He was raised by his grandmother, and has trauma from his experiences, eventually becoming obsessed with inflicting the pain he suffered from onto others. You could play with his inability to show compassion: Is he COMPLETELY psychotic? Can he be redeemed? What ARE his motivations? So many interesting writing prompts that could create a Shakespearean character….and yet we get NOTHING. When will the writers ever learn he is more than his gimmick?
Maybe if you become a writer for a Batman show, you can write Scarecrow in such a way. Yeah, that's probably a bit ambitious, but it could never heart to try.
Back in 2014 I made a Scarecrow costume, complete with the "needle glove". It was so realistic that children became frightened, with one girl actually hyperventilating.
@@brodyratliff7441 Dude, I felt bad about it. She was my daughter's friend who'd come over to play. I'd just completed it and came out to show the wife. That poor girl ran into the kitchen, hid behind the cabinet and was hyperventilating and starting to cry. I genuinely felt like crap over having scared her that badly, and yes, she is VERY afraid of needles.
One of my favorite ways I’ve seen scarecrow is in the injustice game, he comes into the stage as the skinny frail man we know, but then using the fear has he becomes a scarecrow monster that you then fight with, his whole set is just really cool, and I love it when scarecrow actually fights with his gas, using it to disable and fight what would be a one sided fight.
Scarecrow is such an awesome character. If I worked at DC I would literally write an entire series rectifying his character. Like Crane has some combat skills but rarely uses them in any media like the dude has a scythe for christ sake.
Mostly because it doesnt really fit his whole asthetic and design He uses gas to create fear so he can manipulate others to fight amongst each other or collapse in fear avoiding direct con Hes also built like a rake and like his inspiration hes meant to intimidate but have very little physical threat
@@primary2630 its hard to make someone scary when you know his only threat is to appear scary, hes the embodiment of his breath is worse than his bite Alot of batman main stay villians tend to reflect an aspect of batman Bane = physical prowess Two face = duality Joker = a direct inversion and counter balance Riddler = intelligence and ridgedd obsession Scarecrow = fear as a weapon Penguin = inheritance used for your personal desires So having him be physical kinda undermines that but the joker and riddler movies showed you dont need to be physically threatening to be an incredible villian Scarecrow just defaults to Step 1. gas em step 2. Cause fear step 3. ??? step 4. profit If his fear was a means to an end or he had something more than just using gas he might be a more fleshed out villian Like hes a twisted anti villian who wants to fix gotham but thinks that can only be done with fear and then have him do more than just gassing people like make him intimidating and inciting fear
@@conradlorgar5508 The idea of Scarecrow as an anti-villain is something I wish they would do more with. I think it would play out like Half-Light from Disco Elysium, like he’s purposefully making people face their fears and become stronger, but in doing so tears apart their psyche.
For your consideration: A version of Scarecrow that (for whatever reason) is unable to feel fear, but desperately wants to understand it. As such, he is always catching people up in absurd situations to study their fear response. Standing in a weird gray-area where he targets both heroes and villains.
I was thinking of a similar though different interpretation as well, I feel like conceptually he should be a "neutral" party within the cast of villains. Messing with anyone any everyone, it'd make him more fearful I think. Alternatively instead of being motivated by study I like the idea that instead he sees himself enlightening others by forcing them to confront their worst fears. And that he disgusts those who do everything to avoid it. It'd give him twisted ideology behind his actions packaged with his intelligence and background in psychology to manipulate and gaslight his opponents like in the Kings of Fear. I think it opens up interesting ways to approach and deconstruct him as a character, like his disgust at other's fear coming from insecurity that he projects onto others, only hating it because it reflects back on him.
@@Spooky_Magooky There's actually a real life disorder where you can't feel fear. It's called Urbach-Wiethe disease. You can easily retcon Crane's story to add this into him.
Nah, man. Any villain other than the joker sucks. We have to make scenes of the joker outsmating all the other stupid villains so that he could stay relevant. Heck, why stop at batman villains? Let's have him outsmart people like lex luthor and make him a threat to the entire justice league because why not???
Personally i like Mr freeze, while I’m more of a marvel nerd and Like the Reptile (Look at my profile take a wild guess why) Dr freeze is one of the more tragic villains in my opinion
I feel like an unexplored avenue for Crane is the idea that he is a master manipulator. He understands people and their fears so his schemes should be centered on playing those fears against his enemies rather than just hitting em with gas. Like, use psychological manipulation to throw Gotham into a frenzy, using their fears to make people act irrationally.
Exactly. Make Scarecrow this slimy, silver-tongued bastard who not only uses Fear Toxin, but also his knowledge of the human mind and phobias to strike fear into his victims and talk those he comes across into submission and manipulates them into doing his bidding.
I know this is a 5 month old comment, but if you’re still looking for this I highly recommend the Batman Arkham Knight video-game. It really fits what you just described, but is unfortunately not what Pastra was looking for. Kinda disappointed that it wasn’t mentioned at all honestly.
Thank you. Scarecrow is my favorite DC villain, and the issue with Batman’s Rogue’s Gallery is that only Joker is allowed to do anything of note… and it has resulted in Joker-fatigue. Scarecrow is one of the coolest, most intriguing villains… and imagine if, in his obsession to _understand_ Batman, he starts attacking other villains, getting into their heads, possibly making some stable and others more insane(which would have their own consequences), and maybe spread into other heroes, and perhaps end in a decision to either continue to master fear and obsess over gaining knowledge; or become an anti-hero to try and “understand” why heroes save people.
I'm so sick of Joker... in everything. I do enjoy the character, but he needs to be benched ASAP. This is slowly starting to extend to Harley as well. Give Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze second chances, let Scarecrow take the spotlight, introduce a more obscure villain... anything but Joker again
I get not wanting to box yourself into making Batman content, but if you wanted to make them, I'd absolutely watch more of these for other villains. This was super well made
“Crane’s Asylum” honestly sounds like a cool TH-cam channel, focusing on the horrors that are the human mind and experiments. Although if he does decide to do more Batman content, he could use that name as a playlist title.
One of my favorite Scarecrow stories had Dr.Crane nearly destroy Gotham not by making everyone afraid, but instead use an altered version of the fear toxin to remove ALL fear. The result was everyone in the city was making reckless and dangerous actions without hesitation.
The thing I find the most interesting about this comic (which I still owe myself to read) is that it seems to highlight one of Crane's most underrated least exploited aspects: the fact that he *is* a psychologist, meaning that he *knows* how human mind works. That is the key aspect to me that makes Scarecrow so compelling as a villain.
Scarecrow has always been my favorite villain across all of media. I’ve lived most my life with pretty severe panic attacks that have made living a normal life pretty difficult. Especially when I was a teenager, I lived in intense fear about getting another panic attack and began to shut down as a person. I feel myself as kinda similar to Scarecrow by constantly exploring the things that cause my panic attacks as a way to conquer my fear of them and move on from that fear. Fear is a concept that transcends humanity and applies to almost all living being on the earth and I think its an extremely fascinating subject to write characters around.
I think another issue with Scarecrow is that he almost always plays second banana to another villain, in particular the Joker. In all forms of media Scarecrow is many times portrayed as a lieutenant or buddy of the Joker who does what he wants as a secondary antagonist for Batman. This was seen in Lego Batman, The Dark Knight, Batman Arkham Asylum, the Gotham tv series and the Harley Quinn tv series. Also not to mention Scarecrow is sometimes hyped up as the main antagonist but again gets pushed to the side by the real main villain. This was seen in Batman Begins and Batman Arkham Knight
I agree but I think that in Arkham Knight he is very much still the main villain, Arkham Knight is just his pawn whom he is manipulating with the idea of revenge, Joker is present a lot but is still the secondary threat behind Scare Crows fear bomb and in that game Scarecrow doesn't just use the toxin but uses his knowledge of people to manipulate or instill fear as seen with him and Gordon on the roof.
@watchdogj yeah I see what you're saying. I think I should rephrase my argument about Scarecrow in Arkham Knight where he is indeed presented as the main threat throughout the game and is the final foe Batman faces in the end. I think the issue though is that while Scarecrow is the immediate threat that Batman faces in the game, for the 2nd and 3rd acts of the story he gets sidelined in favor of Batman's emotional and mental battles against the Arkham Knight and Joker. Going back to my original argument is that the game set up Scarecrow to be the main villain but again the Joker is inserted into the game to steal the spotlight. Like Im sure the story could've been written without Joker or even the Arkham Knight being present and for more crucial moments to center around the Scarecrow and Batman's battles throughout the game. Arkham City had a good story focused on the Joker and it was shocking to see him die and so that left Scarecrow to return as the next psychologically dangerous foe for Batman in the build up for Arkham Knight. And so I remember being put off that once again Joker played such a central role in the story despite not even being the main villain of the game and having his story end in the previous one. As Pastra says in this video: Scarecrow is a plot device. It feels like he was there to create the scenerio Batman goes up against in Batman Arkham Knight but the writers chose to focus more on Joker and Arkham Knight
@@Spongebrain97 yeah I can agree with that. Scarecrow is there in Ace but then the joker shows up and Scarecrow is just taunting you for a little bit and that is all he does till he shows up again.
I would like to paint a picture of what could be a rather interesting Scarecrow story. Basically, it starts out similarly to this, where it starts in Arkham Asylum, the typical beginning to a Batman story. Except, of course, things go awry, and Batman shows up to inspect the chaos and put an end to it, but finding himself in a bit of an odd situation when he sees the Joker running around, not saying anything and just laughing. As he chases him down throughout the asylum, he finds himself losing his breath, going in circles, and generally seeing signs that he's hallucinating, causing him to immediately suspect Scarecrow. And he's right, but he's not given time to process this before he is knocked out by the gas. When he awakes, he is strapped to an operating table behind a two-way mirror, with Crane on the other side. The two share some conversation, Crane is a mix between calm and giddy, as he's excited to start his experiment. He has a plan in mind, and a point to prove: he's going to put the other rogues (that are in Arkham anyway) through his version of extensive therapy and treatment, or in other words, extreme torture with fear toxin in the mix. All of this is to prove a point, that being that, no matter what Batman or anyone else does, the rogues cannot be cured, they cannot be rehabilitated and Batman's moral decision to try is inherently naïve, though it's also to simply eliminate the competition among Gotham's criminally insane underworld. So he starts the experiment, mixing cruel torture with genuine therapy methods to use on the other rogues and making Batman watch. And at the end of each torture session, he would ask each individual rogue if they felt they were ready to reenter society, and their first response is usually to either just say something along the lines of 'No fuck you I'm crazy', or just threaten him. This continues for some time until he reaches the Joker, who he's both excited and terrified to do this to. He sees Joker as the prime example for why Batman's methods will never work, and gets to work. By the end of the session, he asks the question, and expects the same results as before. However, Joker has stopped smiling, his face seems defeated, yet elated, as he states he's unsure, but that he feels different. Crane is shocked, and unstraps Joker from his operating table, and inspects him momentarily before seemingly being *ecstatic* that he was the one who cured the motherfucking Joker of his insanity. Behind the mirror, Batman is also astonished, as Crane has essentially proved Batman's point: that with enough time and usage of the correct methods, without torture they could eventually be cured and rehabilitated. This also proves that Scarecrow is capable of rehabilitating other patients at Arkham, which also proves that he himself is capable of being rehabilitated through these good actions, even if he didn't intend them to be good. Such a shame that it was all a ruse on Joker's part, and he uses his newfound freedom to stab Crane with a scalpel. Fortunately for Crane though, Batman had also escaped his straps, and broke through the mirror to stop Joker from killing him, and knocks out the clown. The day is saved, Arkham is brought back into order and Crane is in the medical ward, where Batman visits him. Their conversation might go as follows: "Do you get my point now?" "What *point?* He wasn't cured, he was merely lying." "That doesn't detract from what you did. Joker didn't prove my point, you did. Despite your intentions, you tried to cure them." "That changes nothing! You're wrong, it was for my own gain." "Still. You proved to me that, among the monsters of Gotham, there are indeed some that can be saved." And he walks out of the room, leaving Crane to grumble to himself.
What you said about Scarecrow and his effect on Batman in "Kings of Fear" makes me realize something. Scarecrow is the ONLY person whos capable of ending Batman's never-ending mission. Batman's mission is to rid Gotham of crime forever, a task so incomprehensibly large that he will never complete it. It's impossible. But Batman keeps going because he convinced himself that he HAS to complete it because it's the only thing that keeps him going. Villains have tried breaking Batman before, in many horrible ways, but while Joker is trying to make Batman as mad as he is, or break his no-killing rule, Scarecrow is digging deep into what Batman fears most, and FEEDING those fears more and more. The idea of Scarecrow FEEDING fears is very interesting to me. He understands EXACTLY what makes Batman tick, setting him apart from Joker and the other villains. He knows exactly what to say to make Batman's fears grow and grow until it's the only thing occupying his brain, with or without fear toxin. That's what makes Scarecrow such a prominent threat because he knows EXACTLY how to break Batman down, piece by piece. Scarecrows manipulation can be some of the most effective ever used on Batman. If anyone can break down the hero, the hero who is clinging to the hope that he will fulfill his parent's impossible legacy and whose *fear of failure* is pushed down so far because it's the only thing that can possibly stop him, if ANYONE can stop that hero, it's Scarecrow. What is fear, if not crippling hopelessness?
Akrham Knight shows this perfectly. Whereas not exactly amazing it definitely let's scarecrow shine. He wins. He beat Batman.. but the jokers blood changed everything, if it wasn't for what the joker had done Batman would have been killed by scarecrow and the best part is that scarecrow didnt want to run Gotham, he didn't want money, he didn't want revenge, all he wanted was to ruin Batman and he put together a plan that combined all the things to do so.. but the joker ruined it all, despite being dead, the joker will forever be the voice ringing I batman's head no matter how hard bane, Mr.freeze, the riddler or even scarecrow try. Scarecrow might be able to mess with Batman and make him quite his mission but Batman would never kill Scarecrow. (All of this is from what I'm aware of, if Batman has ever killed scarecrow or anything please do tell me, I'm curious)
I genuinely believe that Scarecrow is Batmans most threatening villain. The more Bruce forms relationships, (the various Robins, Barbra, Commissioner, Catwoman, the other hero's, ect) the longer he is Batman, and the more he protects Gothem. The more he has to fear, the more vulnerable he is to fear. The fear of losing everyone and everything. The more Batman grows, the more threatening Scarecrow becomes.
Heck, that's a really good point. At first, during the video, it occurred to me that his use as a plot-device was, itself, limited to a one-off, as you can only rehash Batman overcoming the trauma of his parents' murder so many times--but (leaving aside for now the requisite effort to make sure he's not JUST a device for this) as you say, the more Batman overcomes his isolationist tendencies and forms connections, the more vulnerable he can get to Scarecrow's tactics.
@@egekazkayas8968 That's baloney!! Cranes put scars on batman's body and mind, and you don't need to kill a bat family member to be above push over status. Hell the only reason bane got away with breaking batmans back the first time is cause batman was tired as hell catching fughting all the villains bane let out so he could get softened up first. *including scarecrow.*
Scarecrow is currently my pick for a replacement nemesis, since joker has been deeply over saturated. He is the fear Batman distills in crime, but instead of using it as a tool, he reveres it, wants to understand every facet, and even sometimes treats it as a god. A perfect foil.
literally every single major Batman villain is a foil to some part of him. Riddler matches intelligence, Penguin and Court of Owls mirror his wealth, Two Face shares two personas and a sense of justice, Bane parries his strength. And so on and so forth. But they're distorted in some way. Riddler uses his intelligence to justify his ego, the Court uses their wealth to protect their status and privilege, Bane doesn't hold back on his strength and is the monster Batman only pretends to be. Etc. And that's why they're all so great. They could all reasonably be his perfect "arch enemy" depending on the context of the story. They are a perfect mirror to some part of him.
@@cstick2664 Fair enough, but I think Scarecrow shows a far more important facet of Batman then his intellect or his wealth. Fear is Batman’s purpose. Bruce doesn’t want to beat every single criminal in Gotham every time, his goal is to instill the fear of the bat into anyone who would even think about it.
It's too bad Alan Moore or Grant Morrison never wrote any Scarecrow stories. Scarecrow's look has changed more than any other Batman character and it's nice to see some really unique visuals some artists have given him.
@@QUBIQUBED Then please tell me, how should I readjust my comment to get the message across that I enjoy the somewhat off-topic content? Aditionally doesn't he literally say "I may be a horror oriented chanel (...) but (...)"?
@@YourNeighborhoodDegenerate not the commenter you’re referring to but maybe change it to non game centric video because that’s where the divergence actually is
A great backstory for Scarecrow could have been that he was horribly mistreated and abused in his past and grew to constantly fear those around him due to trauma, and his way of taking power back was to inflict fear on those who did it to him, and then begun doing it to others. It would have been a much better motivation and backstory than what they gave him. Then, while still being evil, he isn't just evil for the sake of being evil. He has his own twisted sense of justice and revenge, being too far gone to save, but the root of his cause being very human and relatable.
Ironically, in some of the comics, he did have an abusive household that used fear as a weapon against him. However, he was more fascinated by the feeling, rather than afraid.
I remember one of my favourite Scarecrow stories was one about how he was sick of that people only saw him as his fear toxin, so he starts on a mission to make the entire city of Gotham terrified of him, without fear toxin. and he indeed wins, even though batman stops him in the end, he succeeded in his goal of making Gotham once again terrified of the Scarecrow.
@@PieRat765 needed to dig a little trough my comic collection, but luckely I found them fast enough. It's called: Absolute Terror, from Detective Comics 835 & 836, from 2007
I feel like it IS a pretty big deal that scarecrow, someone who's stories are constantly dealing with trauma and fear, isn't a sympathetic character. One of the things I love about some batman villains is that they're not evil people, they're broken.
Absolutely. Even Joker has a sympathetic backstory in The Killing Joke. Scarecrow stands out among the A-list Batman villains because he's just a soulless monster. He has his trauma just like everyone does, but deep down he loves seeing people scared for their lives and that's why he does it.
@@yurifairy2969 depends on what era of comics, because before Flashpoint to new 52 and rebirth- they were pretty adamant that joker lies constantly and nothing he says about his past is true. Which i thought was interesting that the Phoenix version addressed most of his alternate origins
Idk i don't think scarecrow is very sympathetic. He had an obsession, which he in turn used for power. And even if you humanize him or someone like joker- their origins are not so tragic that you feel very understanding of them in lieu of how many ppl they murder in the most gruesome and painful ways
I think one of my personal favorite iterations of the Scarecrow is in Batman: the Audio Adventures, in which Jonathan Crane acts as a calm and collected, yet very chilling individual, who's main interest is to study fear and how it works. *(spoiler for season 2 in the read more section)* (spoiler) My favorite scene with him in the podcast is when Crane is serving as the psychiatrist treating Harvey Dent (Two Face), and Crane gives Dent an antidepressant made using a subdued version of the Joker's laughing toxin. Crane finds that this manages to completely eliminate Dent's crippling acrophobia, but does nothing when Crane gets rid of Dent's coin, causing him to be sent into a crippling panic over not being able to make any more choices. All the while, Jonathan Crane just calmly observes and revels in the study, of learning more about fear and how it works, concluding that the Joker-antidepressant is able to eliminate fears and phobias not determined by an individual's psyche, but not fears that are intrinsic to the person's psyche or their very identity. In this iteration, Jonathan Crane utilizes more than just his fear toxin and a spooky costume. He uses psychological torture and manipulation to get what he wants, which makes him far scarier than just the scarecrow. He is a man that knows how to get into someone's head and defeat them from the inside by driving them to madness.
When I first saw Pastra using Simon as a mascot for this episode, at first I though it was Clyde dressed up in a costume. When I figured it out I was really excited! Simon is one of my favorite of the Veldigun. I really hope Pastra will feature some of the other Veldigun is later videos!
We all know he was terribly wasted in the Harley Quinn show. But he had a genuinely amazing introduction as a threat, and both that and his final dialog with the Joker made me realize he'd be a fantastic foil for Harley. Every facet of their characters and gimmicks I can think of compliment one another as either a direct mirror or opposite. They could be really cool as both partners in crime and enemies, and I think him constantly trying to take advantage of her well known insecurities - maybe trying to be a wedge between her and Ivy for good measure - could catalyze a lot of interesting development in Harley. Meanwhile, those manipulations are him matching wits with a psychological peer rather than lobbing a plot device into the story, which is a far more interesting showcase of his character.
well its not a serious show its basically just a comedy show that has dc characters i wouldnt even consider them true dc characters just their looks and names
@Josegdumbniglet_1 Most are pretty accurate I'd say barring Harley but NGL this is a way better portrayal of her in media. Can't stand Tara Strong's Harley voice.
a *great* depiction of Jonathan Crane is in Batman: The Audio Adventures. I think he's portrayed very well, and he finally gets a chance to be properly scary
One thing I want to point out is that his fear gas is such a crippling ability it would be easy to simply write a two parter episode, giving both scarecrow *and* batman screentime and allow him to be fleshed out.
I never really thought about the Scarecrow other than his fear toxin, but you've really put in a good case into why he is and should be treated as more than it. Guy's got a lot of potential mileage outside of just letting us explore the Bat Fam. Maybe something akin to Saw could be tried. Maybe Scarecrow is fascinated with those who see fear, true fear, and then fight and grow from it. Like how many of Jigsaw's previous victims eventually agree with his ideology and aid him, maybe the Scarecrow goes around testing his fear toxin on people, looking for those willing to grow from it and help him in finding others strong enough to defeat fear, bringing them to Batman, the other king of fear. Batman relies so heavily on fear and intimidation that a gang of people strong and determined enough to stand through it and fight him may make him consider whether his terror over Gotham's underworld only strengthens those he wants to stop. Idk, like I said I haven't thought about Scarecrow much till now, but there's a lot of potential here I didn't see before.
Why does this channel talk about literally everything i love? Pastra, dude, you have to be one of the best creators on this platform, thank you for what you do!
I love listen to fellow ND people talk about their special interests like this! the amount of care you put into all your videos is lovely to see, especially with things like this that you're so passionate about! :]
I really like the fact that in Kings of Fear, they had Scarecrow be both completely in control of the situation and completely falling apart depending on how strong the toxin's hold on Batman is. It's like they're both struggling to be able to beat each other.
Imagine his study and infliction of fear becomes his own addiction, and therefore him constantly chasing the dragon, even as he becomes more and more numb not just to his own fears, but the fears of others and how fear fits into how we behave in society and interaction with others. Fear and shame are big motivators for some and how they treat others. Just a spitball thought
It's like you've read my mind dude, from all the problems with him being treated as a plot device rather than a character, to the abundance of potential he holds as both a villain and mirror to Batman. It's just relieving to see someone else be so interested and excited by his character!
I wanna see a scarecrow story where crane is angry of using fear toxin because he thinks it’s a crutch and wants to find a way to use fear naturally without chemicals like Batman
@nateoverthehorizon1176 that story already exists. Detective comics 835 & 836 "absolute terror". Which would've made a much better fit for this video than "kings of fear"
One of the first pieces batman media i consumed was accidentally watching the Audio Adventures podcast (I thought it was a different podcast i saw online). Listening to that podcast not only got me into batman, but it made Scarecrow my favorite villian because of the way he was potrated. He was a legitimately scary threat, doing some major damage and not just with his toxin. In the podcast Batman also didn’t know Crane was Scarecrow, so while Batman was fighting Scarecrow, Bruce Wayne was interacting and even working with Crane.
I've always thought the same thing about Mysteryo from Spider-Man, I've always found him to be a very interesting character, the illusions he creates through his experience with special effects are one of the most potent skills in comics in my opinion, especially when it comes to in consideration of the fact that he is constantly fighting a guy who has as one of his main powers a danger sensor,he was one of the main founders of the Sinister Six and was even responsible for the meeting between Peter and Miles,but like Scarecrow, generally the illusions he creates and his character itself are used as a tool for the plot and most of the time he does something impactful or has a much more prominent and main presence is not even in a Spider-Man story, for example when he almost drove Daredevil crazy in Guardian Devil and managed to make Wolverine kill his own colleagues in the Old Man Logan story (and as much as Mysteryo's abilities were well portrayed in Far From Home, let's be honest, in that movie Mysteryo is a Iron Man villain and not Spider Man one), I find it even a little ironic that the characters that have the most potential but are almost always used as a tool to advance the plot are characters that usually mess with the human mind (Mysterio and Scarecrow)
The Scarecrow was one of my favorites as a teen and I still love him, and i’m SO GLAD someone made a video about him! He really is kinda wasted potential in a decent amount of comics, I feel a lot of writers don’t play with Crane’s own character and how he connects to the concept of fear itself. I especially love when they give him a backstory where he’s trying to conquer his own fears, as a kid with Generalized Anxiety Disorder I had very little control over where my own mind went. I desperately wanted control of my own fear and Jonathan was doing just that. I could kinda live through him.
I shouldn't be surprised that your favourite Scarecrow comic is one drawn by Kelley Jones - his artstyle is so uniquely compelling and fits the theme of fear perfectly. I like the Scarecrow's design here when usually I don't find him credible when they make his suit so, well, scarecrowy, all straw and rags. But here it just fits. Great video, super interesting!
Thank you for making this video. Scarecrow is my all time favorite villain, and I 100% agree with you. He is such an amazing villain with so much potential, but he never is written well. My favorite rendition has been the Arkham videogame series, but he was once again used as a plot device for the Arkham Knight. I have been writing a story centered around Scarecrow, but it's more of a passion project as I have such a close connection to him.
THANK YOU! Scarecrow is a great character and he’s so underrated I only recently really got to know about him. My favorite portrayal of him is Cillian Murphy (definitely biased for me lol) but I love how he can be seen in so many ways. I love the idea that he can just have an alter ego, or in irony having mental issues despite being a doctor. He also causes almost as many problems for Batman as Joker! Technically he should be the scariest character too, considering fear is his whole shtick, but he’s often undermined. I enjoyed him in the Nolan movies since it made him feel more complex at least and give him more qualities besides a loser who is obsessed with fear in my opinion😅from what I’ve seen in the comics it’s not as consistent or fun to see him, which really sucks considering his potential as a villain but also just a cool character who could have really intense development in order to become the Scarecrow. Also, his old style scarecrow theme is unbeatable!
I also have a soft spot for Murphy's portrayal of Scarecrow as this seemingly clean-cut college professor (initially at least) with academic motives. It would have been nice though, to have had a bit more as to how his fanaticism got to the level of creating a city-wide 'experiment' XD
@@welshlout3400 I know! Again, he wasn’t the focus so I see why but I also appreciate his outfit-I love the scarecrow look but it’s funny to imagine a dude dressed like that, it’s so goofy. With more love it could’ve been a lot more perfect for sure. Justice for Murphy’s Scarecrow!
The Study Hall story is one of my top fav scarecrow stories and it focuses on the human side of Jon and his attempt to do good that's really the only way he can do things, by fear.
YEEEESSSS! Finally, someone who loves this character as much as I do, if not more so! I have always loved Scarecrow, from the moment I learned about him as a kid. I've always found him such a uniquely terrifying villain, and not just for the fear gas. To me, Scarecrow is unique in that he is a villain who could pick someone apart and worm his way into their brains without lifting a finger, he'd just need time and the opportunity to talk. He's a master not only of fear but of psychology and the mind, he knows how people think and how to use the power of fear to get into people's heads. Fear, unlike any other emotion, is chronic, it's lingering, it stays coiled around your brain and waits to strike like a snake. Scarecrow knows this and knows how to take advantage of it perfectly. One of my favorite versions of the character and his motivations is from the game Batman: Arkham Knight. Admittedly, for most of the game, his goals are muddled and not much deeper than "Cause chaos to break Batman" but in the final third of the game, it really becomes clear WHY he's doing it. He wants to break Batman not by just making him afraid, but by unmasking him to the world as a man who can be beaten and broken, because then the world will know that if Scarecrow can conquer the Batman, he can conquer ANYONE. One of my favorite quotes of any Batman villain comes from this part of the game; "Fear isn’t true biology, Batman. It’s more than instinct. True fear is the absence of hope. And hope is the spread wings of a bat, shining in the clouds." Scarecrow knows that in order for Batman to feel true terror, he must know what it means to fail, and that the entire world will know terror when it sees Batman fail. And in the end, Scarecrow wins. Sure he gets his own toxin injected into him and sent to jail, but [SPOILER ALERT], consider how the true ending of the game plays out. After Batman is unmasked, criminals aren't afraid of him. Sure, he still kicks the snot of them, but even lowly street thugs laugh and mock him, calling him Bruce and saying they aren't afraid of some rich boy. The mystique, the shadow of Batman is stripped away, leaving only a man, albeit a very skilled man, in a costume. And in light of this, in light of knowing that the shadow of the Batman isn't enough anymore, Bruce devotes himself to being something more. Something worse. He kills the Batman and rises from its grave as a ghost, a monster that cannot be touched, let alone killed. And, at least in my understanding of the ending of the game, he does so by using Scarecrow's own toxin in order to do it, to twist the minds of criminals into seeing not a Bat, but a true demon. In every sense, Scarecrow wins; he burns the Batman to the ground and even if Gotham still has a protector, it is not a Dark Knight, but a Bat out of Hell itself. Anywho, sorry for rambling and gushing, I just really like this character lmao
I can just highly recommend the Batman audio adventures season 2 with him as the central villain and plot device. They're so so good and honestly I think he's one of the creepiest and yet funniest. I feel like he was one of the better ones.
Maybe YOU should make a comic for the scarecrow. You have every resource to make one and I think it would be really cool to see your take on a perfect version of the threat that scarecrow actually is
I really do hope Pastra reconsiders doing those Batman villain analysis videos, if they're anything like this, showing how the character ticks, how they're portrayed, & their best stories, i'd absolutely love videos like this for the more underated of Batman villains, like The Riddler & Killer Croc
Have you seen No Fear from the Gotham Knights/New Adventures of Superman and Batman seasons? It was a great example of them experimenting with Scarecrow's methods by having him take fear away rather than give it, ending with an interesting twist. There was also a comic where Crane was mocked about his reliance on gas, then proceeded use his psychology training to talk two immates into suicide, terrify the rest and eventually escape to go on a murder spree just to prove them wrong.
I’m planning to make my own video on this and I 100% agree with your points. Scarecrow is also my favorite Batman villain and it’s so frustrating how over his existence in media has been poorly utilized sometimes both in and out of the comics. And it’s also annoying how he’s either an underling to someone else (like the penguin) or he’s a plot device. I adore him in no man’s land/fear of Faith. Most of his interpretation rely too much on him, being a master chemist, and completely forgot that he’s also a master of psychology of fear. Fear of Faith shows that beautiful with him just using his words alone to instill panic and fear amongst the priest flock. And he did all that simply as an experiment not because he has any actual goal.
I genuinely want to see a possible team up between Scarecrow and Bane. Two scarily intelligent characters who have the potential to be the most dangerous enemies not only to Batman himself but Gotham as a whole. Not to mention the potential of Bane somehow tweaking his Venom to incorporate fear toxin somehow or the other way in which scarecrow uses Venom to amplify his fear toxin (potentially making Crane vulnerable to his own toxin in which we can get a deeper look into his mindset)
Scarecrow has always been my favorite Batman villain and it sucks how little chance he gets to shine. Even in his own comic event, The Fear State, he barely gets to do anything and gets sidelined almost instantly. He has so much potential and I would love to finally see it fully realized. (I think one cool option would be to make slasher horror movie featuring Scarecrow as the primary antagonist who tortures his victims with fear gas, kills then and then stuffs their decapitated heads into jack o lanterns).
Exactly, Fear State definitely wasn't worth my money. I'm one of those readers that just looks for and likes specific villain arcs and FS was a major disappointment on the Scarecrow front.
Pastra, I am so happy to see you jumping onto the growing, "Scarecrow is underrated" train. He has always been my favorite villain of the Dark Knights and I genuinely believe that if he were utilized better, he could be up there with the Joker in terms of popularity
Why are we not talking about the lasting impact and also the character design of Arkham Knight scarecrow. He literally unmasked Batman on live television
I've always loved scarecrow because of how he is so similar yet opposite to batman, they both use fear as their main method of accomplishing their goals, only batman puts fear into his enemies to protect everyone in and to end crime in Gotham, while the scarecrow uses fear to _commit_ crimes
Your music choice for the background is so lovely, it gives me such strong memories of Ib. The somberness in its tone is PERFECT for a video essay on wanting an understanding anti-villain who seems to get stuck in his "own" (the writing) fears in what stops him from pursuing his goals. I love this therapist/scarecrow take
I really like the idea of Scarecrow as a yellow lantern, and i don't know why they only try this idea like one or two times. LITTERALLY the whole point of both, scarecrow and sinestro corp is FEAR
That is honestly a terrifying thought, god knows what Scarecrow would be able to make using the lantern constructs. Might even overshadow Sinestro at that point.
That would be awesome but I'd be sad to see him leave Gotham. He's carved out such a little niche in the rogues gallery, he'd be missed - Actually that could be a fun story on second thought. Scarecrow leaves for the stars and the other Rogues kind of miss him because they all have a weird found family bond and Gotham's just not the same without good ol' Crane, so they all decide to go after him. They all want their mutual "friend" back, but they say they just want to tear him down to save face ~ Space antics ensue. Anyway, Gotham is freaking empty and Batman finds himself more free and peaceful than usual. The bat family doesn't know what to do with themselves, so they have to make sense of their restless in this brief reprieve. Anyway, the rogues manage to drag Scarecrow back, either kicking and screaming in protest or content because he was just so touched that people actually cared about him. The status quo is restored and the Bat fam go back to being High-stress workaholics.
I absolutely love the design of the scarecrow, thinking him to be one of the most unique villains we have been able to see in the Rogue Gallery. I had been thinking about what I would be interested in seeing from the wheatie-boy myself, and thought up the concept of what if, after an Arkhem breakout, Scarecrow essentially disappears. Doesn't go on a crime spree, doesn't make a big fuss, or any fuss at all. And after some time, even Batman get's curios as to where he is. He isn't making himself a threat, but yet by his existence he is. Batman begins to search and search for Scarecrow, becoming obsessed with it. Yet, he can't be found. And matter of fact, no crime can be. Gotham is a pristine, crimeless city. Joker, Riddler, Penguin, Catwoman, all of them are just not around. Not pulling a stunt, not playing the game. Turns out, Scarecrow had figured out how to isolate his fear of the Batman, and how to inject it into the other Villains, and he is hidden, posing inside of the Asylum. Simply waiting for Batman to break. I do think this story is rough, and needs some tune ups. But heck, playing into Batman's now ingrained fear of how his actions aren't needed into the city by giving Batman the exact neat, crimeless city his actions seem to inherently want only for Batman and Scarecrow to realize that Batman fears being useless and so the crime is necessary for him to feel secure is brilliant imo.
Scarecrow is definitely one of my favorite batman villains, the fact that he uses fear as a weapon is really interesting, I wish they would have done more with him, like... Idk make him a yellow lantern? That sounds cool.
as someone who loves psychological horror and loves learning about fear and the psychology of it, Scarecrow is one of my favourite villains of all time, what a wonderful video about him!
Seeing this and your security breach review makes me want to see you do more talking about the complexities of characters/enemies in fiction, I would love to see you talk about the level of complexities for something like the Left 4 Dead infected or even your favorite antagonist from non horror related franchises you may have played, just your positive and deep out look is amazing to watch!
I have always thought it would be an interesting concept to have a story following one of his students during Jonathan Crane's last year as a professor. The story isn't told from Professor Crane's point of view, but instead from a student who is slowly growing more and more concerned about their mentor's declining mental state. It could even follow the aftermath of Professor Crane being fired and, probably, arrested. It would make sense for the police to want to question his students to see if they knew anything. I have been thinking about this idea for a long time and have so many possible ways it could go, depending on what exactly the student is like, if they have had him as a professor before, what fears they might have. It would also heavily depend on what exactly Professor Crane's past was before becoming a professor. What are HIS fears, why does he have them, and how exactly do they correlate to his passion for fear? Does he have a past similar to his Year One counterpart? If so, how could we work with that? Could we change it in some way and experiment with his character that could explore a side of him we haven't seen? Could the treatment from his great-grandmother have caused some of those fears? Sure, he has a fear of crows due to that version of his backstory, as well as his grandmother, but what other fears could he have gotten? Would it affect how he treated his students outside of his obsession with fear? There are so many questions and opportunities that could be explored, but DC never does so.
Here's the thing with scarecrow, he needs another villian to play off of to be effective. Either working together or antagonizing each other. Scarecrow and riddler would make a great duo, and scarecrow and killer croc are another good team up duo. Bane vs Scarecrow would be an interesting and compelling piece of Batman story telling.
This is a lot of fun, and clearly a labor of love. And I think this concept, to explore the untapped potential of Batman characters, has a lot of legs. The story you outlined here is clearly the tip of Scarecrow's iceberg. And that's the interesting thing about Batman, and the thing I think that makes so many of us go back to the character again and again. He and all his rogues' gallery have potential that's theoretically limitless. Batman himself is a paradox of a character, a criminal who fights for law and order, a hero who's also an anti-hero, a good guy who dresses like a monster, a rich man who's lost the one thing money could never buy. Through all these paradoxes, endless stories emerge. And each villain tends to express a similar paradox. Joker is a monster who dresses as a children's entertainer. Riddler is a genius that never admits when he's wrong, making him a fool. Two-Face is torn between choice and fate, thinking that the coin-toss decides whether a bad day turns you into Batman or the Joker. And Scarecrow, here, worships fear because he's riddled with it. His anxieties, insecurities, and superstitions seem to have shaped his entire sense of self. So presumably, he thinks of these various kinds of fear as the building blocks of identity.
I really adore how every each character shown on the screen has their own background, it really shows a personality with charaters, and the these sprites, THEY ARE TOO GOOD
I'm so glad you covered a batman villain! The scarecrow has wicked amounts of potential as a villain, and this video definitely gave me pointers on how to better characterize him for a batman rewrite/overhaul project I'm working on! Very well done, as always!
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Scarecrow's goal of understanding fear gives us so much room to explore other Batman villains too. Imagine him going after other villains in the name of his twisted curiosity.
Or on the other hand, teaming up with other villains to put both of their strengths into the limelight. I'd guess the Riddler would be a good partner to Scarecrow. The two are both highly intelligent villains, and such gives way to what the toolsets could do when combined. Say for example, Scarecrow's Fear Toxin being used to enhance one of Riddler's big plots. Hell, it would even allow for Batman to show off one of the lesser shown aspects of his kit: him being the world's greatest detective. It'd make for a great battle of minds over a battle of fists. The Riddler and Scarecrow slowly unravelling Batman's psyche while Batman does the same to their plans. Who knows, even a robin like Tim Drake would be a good fit if the writer wanted it to be a 2v2.
Imagine a story where Scarecrow gets thrown into Arkham on purpose in order to study the other villains' fear. It wouldn't even need to feature Batman, it's the other villains trying to defeat scarecrow without their usual resources while terrified
@@emeraldmoon8393 Shippers would agree with you on the Riddler thing lol
Reminds me of the scene in injustice 2 with scarecrow and harleu quinn
Hugo strange
It's really sad how scarecrow is a plot device so often. From his voice, (usually) to his costume, to his backstory, to his weapons. He is AMAZING. I can tell why he's your favorite villain. My love of this character is enhanced from a real life story that made me TERRIFIED of scarecrows when I was younger
You could even argue this is what happened in Arkham Knight depsite Scarecrow being the main threat. He's quickly overshadowed by both the Arkham Knight and Tyler Durden Joker lol
@@misterdewott8766 Yeah thats a fair point
"Goddamn it, dutch, I told you I didn't want you to make scarecrow a Bad villain" -Arthur Morgan, 1899
Scarecrow in a nutshell: "Hey did you know Batman's parents are dead? The guy's parents kicked the bucket! I can't believe this guy's parents are 20 feet in the ground!"
Yeah... I will say, joker does this a lot too.
I feel your pain Pastra. I've had similar issues with Killer Croc over the years. Most comics and media depict him as a brutish thug that embraces his animal nature and depraved gruesomeness, when that's the opposite of how he's meant to be depicted.
The point of Croc is that he's someone pressured and abused into becoming a monster, hating what he is and what he's become but feeling there is no other path for him. He tried to be good. He tried to be normal. But everyone everywhere beats him down till he has no other option but to lash out at the world. This is only worsened when he starts to lose control of himself, blacking out into the feral monster people think he is only to be horrified at the carnage he's caused by mauling people. That's how Croc should be, at least IMO.
I agree eintierly, & I think his depiction in the Season Of Infamy DLC for Batman Arkham Knight does this incredibly, finding out what the Warden did to him & the other inmates of the Penetientiary, it's almost heartbreaking to see him yell to him to change him back, if it wasn't for Nightwing's poorly timed quips.
To some degree I feel this with Grundy, he was written amazingly well in the animated show. The whole emotional scenes with hawk girl were amazing, showing that while he was accomplishing his main trope, the zombie, not massively intelligent but just enough so that he can speak and tell you want he wants and was able to make his own choices. Terribly inconsistent writing with Grundy.
@@Skopokes disagree. Every time Solomon gets revived he changes personalities
I make the same connection but I will say scarecrow is always done wrong it is so inconsistent I’m surprised there’s not memes about it like oh what does scarecrow look like bag over his head no weird hat maybe actually looks like a scarecrow never I hate it so much😢 also I understand what you’re going through Az in no character is shown the right way
Personally I disagree, I think I prefer the current killer croc not gonna lie
I feel another issue with Scarecrow is when it feels he is beginning to get the spotlights another villain like the Joker steals it from him. To me alot of writers feel scared to experiment with other villains like Scarecrow and Bane just because they are known for their single Gimmick.
Basically what happened in Arkham knight
@@lordinquisitor6233 at least bane kept the spotlight on him for quite a long time in Arkham origins, he literally had the most impact on the narrative imo
Joker is way too overused I feel. Other villains need their spotlights too.
@@lordinquisitor6233 wdym he's still the main villian, I feel like he doesn't get overshadowed by anyone in the end he still takes the batman down and actually manages to break him after "killing" barbara. Although I'll admit AK story gets too convoluted for it's own good.
@@theshoe17 Scarecrow is supposed to be the main villain, but he's almost never seen outside of a screen of some sort save for what, three times in the entire game? Once in the Ace Chemical factory, once on the roof of a building, and once at the very end. Meanwhile Joker (who is supposed to be *dead* by the way) is throwing quips left and right and has an actual boss "fight", and Arkham Knight actually has more of a physical presence and impact than Scarecrow ever does in AK.
And let's not forget how the writers used the extremely tired trope of Scarecrow being defeated by his own toxin. He should be 100% immune to it by now, if not straight up enjoying it.
Idk if this has been done before, but it would be a cool detail if Scarecrow says that he’s “immune to his own fear toxin” but actually isn’t because his worst fear is always right in front of him. There could also be a foreshadowing scene where he addresses Batman, but only Robbin is there.
He usually doesn't are for using his own gas or toxins on himself. The only thing he supposedly fears is batman himself of which he tends to face that fear regardless. He is usually immune to his own fear toxins because he doesn't fear anything besides batman
There is a comic book fact that says that he is immune to his own toxin from overexposure but still fears the batman which is exactly or somewhat similar to what you are saying
The Arkham games also go into this in the bios for him, stating that his obsession with batman is due to him being the only one that can still cause him fear.
@@smartstuf1026 In Arkham Knight it states that due to overexposure Scarecrow is immune except when Batman is involved.
Well, I know most Batman fans really don't like the show Gotham, but in that show, Scarecrow's father overexposed himself with fear toxin in small amounts to conquer his fear that his dead wife (who died in a house fire) blames him. Scarecrow's father conquers fear successfully, and starts this treatment on his son. When the police and Jim Gordon show up, Scarecrow's dad injects the amount required to make Jonathan immune to fear. But, this just causes Jonathan to overdose on fear toxin and makes him afraid all of the time, with a literal Scarecrow being the first thing he sees. Scarecrow's dad, having conquered fear, approaches the police. But since he has no fear he acts super dumb and is shot and killed. Jonathan is placed in hospital. Being constantly afraid, he gets simply used to fear, and that's why the toxin doesn't affect him. Not because he's not scared, but because he is just constantly scared.
The best scene that Scarecrow had in Arkham Knight was when he confronted Batman and Commissioner Gordon at the rooftop overlooking Founder’s Island. Not one particle of fear toxin used in the entire scene. Just Scarecrow talking and playing into Gordon’s greatest fear of someday failing to protect his daughter, using that fear as leverage to get him to do what he wanted in exchange for her safety, and, once Gordon subverts him and does something he didn’t want, forcing Gordon to face that exact fear. Overcoming his adversaries not by spraying their face with fear toxin, not by injecting it into them. Just simply playing his way into their minds with what they fear the most and using it in his favour.
I wish there was more of that in the game instead of “guy that says scary stuff over broadcast and tells the Arkham Knight what to do and sometimes uses his conflict toxin on Batman to make the clown an antagonist again.”
Wow, what a take
@Higgs Monaghan A pretty accurate take though
I think his lack of presence made him much more threatening
I prefer Scarecrow when he just uses his toxin to help him out. Scarecrow studied the human psyche. He should also be able to use the fear of people without his toxin
Scarecrow was a freaking menace, he pretty much orchestrated the entirety of the game, made the rouge gallery behave for once in their lives for the greater goal, and played everyone on Batman’s side like a fiddle, slowly but surely breaking the Batman until he succeeded where everybody else failed, he effectively killed Batman and reduced him into a mortal man after unmasking him, he might had been defeated, but the damage was done and the war won, he destroyed the Batman symbol.
And even if Joker managed to steal the spotlight, Scarecrow was the reason Batman was having those increasingly more intense hallucinations to the point he made Batman mentally ready to kill.
I wanna see a comic that explains how Scarecrow is immune to his own toxin. Perhaps he was able to overcome all of his greatest fear, thus giving the toxin no fear to use.
Depends what version of him it is, sometimes he's not immune and it's actually used against him to help defeat him. I think he's immune to the gas toxin but not to direct injection, as shown in the Arkham games
@@blazesalamancer8767what’s his fear when he’s effected
@@liar-888 Play the game and find out, if you can't be asked its Batman defeating him essentially
@@liar-888 mmmh...in my interpretation its more a fear of facing the consequences of his actions, in the form of scary batman lol
@@3Ayz I always saw it as Crane being afraid of the Batman in general. The whole game of Knight is about Crane trying to tear down the legacy of the Batman. Batman has power over crime through fear. Fear is his legacy. Almost like Crane is trying to prove the Batman is nothing more than a man. Nothing to fear.
I think the best part about scarecrow in my opinion is that, unlike many other batman villains who are doing their crimes for money or due to an insane obsession or just insanity, Scarecrow is just doing it for science and because he enjoys hurting people. He was considered perfectly sane, he was just incredibly evil.
So an insane obsession
@@Bards.98 no obsessed but not insane
@@Bards.98
Insane and mentally ill aren't the same thing. Insane people don't experience reality the same way you and I do, they sometimes do bad things because something is wrong with them and they need help. They can't control it.
Scarecrow knows that what he's doing is wrong and disgusting, and he is perfectly capable of stopping himself, he just doesn't give a fuck.
@@Bards.98 he IS sane
he's just a jackass
If he wasn't insane why was he in Arkham?
The idea that scarecrow views Batman as just as insane as everyone else is such an interesting idea for a motive
I mean, Batman IS pretty insane. He constantly puts massive threats in an asylum, only for them to break out and kill people. His form of vengeance inspires bad people to become worse people. His "No kill" rule has led to thousands of unneeded deaths and yet he thinks that he can still get the villains to change or stay imprisoned. The saying "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting change" isn't correct, but it very much depicts what Batman does.
Love how lots of Batman's villains reflect some aspect of his identity towards himself, and Scarecrow's use of fear as a weapon, opposed to Batman's use of it as a tool, is a perfect example
I actually really enjoy the Scarecrow storyline in Gotham; it's a look at how grief affects people and the lengths they'll go to in order to numb themselves to it. He's not some generic scary guy in a Spirit Halloween costume, he's a person warped by loss who genuinely believes he's helping people by "curing" fear. In the end, he's just a delusional narcissist who ends up destroying the only valuable thing he had left. That to me has way more to explore story-wise than some generic revenge plot.
And then his son had a kick ass costume lol
I wrote something similar, its criminal he wasnt at least mentioned in this video.
Wasn't the son Jonathan Crane aka the Scarecrow, and his father developed the first version of the fear toxin?
@JF_ kein_K yeah, the show in general takes huge liberties with villains backstories, but in this case I would say it's for the better
@@jf_kein_k8590 yes, and by the end of the debut episode, injects Jonathan with the fear toxin.
In the myth of Hercules, Herc is poisoned, starts hallucinating and accidentally kills his loved ones. I fell like you could easily adapt that to Scarecrow, have the fear toxin make someone hallucinat and kill a loved one.
Literally Injustice whole plot
@@saxonflynn8885with a fear toxin
@@saxonflynn8885It was still fear toxin though I'm pretty sure. He stole it from Scarecrow.
This kind of reminds me of the Batman Who Laughs
Yet another reason to never mess with Hera...or be the product of that😅
It’s adorable how you can hear just how excited pastra is when talking
It's a big part of why, I ALWAYS COME BACK.
I'm sorry lmao.
Agreed. It's one of the reasons I keep coming back to his videos as a whole, especially when it's something he loves. You can just hear it in his voice how much passion, love, and respect he has for the subject at hand, and it makes me happy to know without a doubt that he's doing what he loves.
@@thegrandxbunny2073 according to the video, this took 11 minutes to make. It doesn't even look that good. Why did I do this
Hearing people get giddly and silly excited B A S E D
Never in my life did I expect Pastra to make a video on Batman. Here it is, and I’m not complaining. Here's hoping Scarecrow shows up in The Batman 2, with maybe Willem Dafoe playing him!!!
Love ur pfp :)
For real, especially on one of my favorite villains!
I would adore Jamie Campbell Bower playing him.
Dafoe is always great at playing da foe
Honestly while i usually think any good actor can do a role i have to agree with Dafoe playing Scarecrow he's just got that vibe
Imagine how incredible a Scarecrow and Mad Hatter team up would be. Batman would be standing in a mock up Wonderland created by Mad Hatter, only to inhale the Fear Toxin, and wander through a horrifying version of Wonderland. This needs to be a movie!
They could definitely do so much with Pattinson’s Batman that doesn’t involve joker like scarecrow, mad hatter, professor pyg, and clay face But unfortunately we’re getting another joker
:O
Bro thats genius
@@lawerencejuge4110Zasz would be perfect for The Batman because there's no gimmick to him, he's just an unrepentant serial killer. His only quirk is that he cuts himself for every victim so his body is covered in scars.
@@lawerencejuge4110They probably won't do another Joker. Nando V Movies made a concept for Hugo Strange, and I think that his concept would be a great jumping off to show just how badass this version of Batman can be against a group of mentally exploitative villains. And then Zasz can come in as the one villain that will test Batman's ability to face off against a villain he shouldn't hold anything back because they're not going to hold back themselves. Maybe we could even have Robin face off against Zasz. Maybe, though Jury should still be out on that.
My biggest gripe with scarecrow is that he never built up an immunity to his own fear gas. Because of this, he loses the same way over and over lol
In the yellow lantern story he becomes numb to fear and is trying to make a fear toxin that can make him feel fear again. Eventually he gets the ring and the plot takes off.
@@Squirreltasticqueen And then the writers were so afraid of him being too OP that they had Lex Luthor steal it.
Imagine a story where scarecrow gets hit with his own gas and just laughs, but eventually grows terrified of batman just outright without the gas involved.
@@HKtraidon something similar happens in the arkem knight.
He actually used to have an immunity in his earlier appearances, however, it got reconned to the point where he’s not immune, even though he should be from testing it on himself so many times. Other than Blackest Night, there hasn’t really been a story where he IS immune to his fear toxin.
Dude, I am WAITING for Scarecrow to show up in the next The Batman movie. He's an absolutely perfect fit!
Willem Dafoe would make a GREAT Scarecrow in my opinion.
@@JRexTheKing Willem DaFoe is perfect in most Batman villains lol
YES
Let’s hope The Batman 2 does him justice like they did The Riddler
@@nightey975 Riddler kind of sucked tho
Imagine a version of Scarecrow who is sort of on the same level of Batman, in that he's also an urban legend.
Like, the people of Gotham City don't know if he does or doesn't exist, and everyone has a slightly different version of him. Some believe him to be a psycho in a costume, some believe him to be a spirit possessing a scarecrow, but nobody really knows. His calling card is that he always either leaves someone crazy from fear, or he beheads them and puts a pumpkin in place of their head.
Scarecrow would usually only go after people who've hurt him as Johnathan Krane, getting his revenge in a cruel manner, forcing them to fear him as he once feared them. Though, he isn't against hurting innocents to further his research on fear.
Scarecrow only has two goals. Get revenge on those who once scared him as a lesser man, and learn to weaponize fear. To use it.
It'd be kind of neat if he was actually inspired by Batman, in that way. He wanted to learn to use fear the way Batman does, but he wants to push it further...
Actually before I see this I was thinking of this idea
It was set around some kids outside of Gotham in a farm talking about the legend of scarecrow but there's someone watching them...
kinda reminds me of the riddler from the batman tbh. But still distinct, they should try that out in a new film
They should do that for the Batman part ll
I really want Batman to have more rivals that can fight him 1 on 1
Joker being his ONLY rival is boring as spit
There was an issue of the BTAS tie-in comic that actually approached Scarecrow from a unique perspective - Crane escaped from Arkham just to return to the world of academia and be an educator again. And he was happy for a while, even forming a strong friendship with one of his students. But when that student was abused by her boyfriend, Crane returned to his criminal persona to dispense his own brand of justice...
I mean honestly in that case good for him. If he's gonna target anyone, shitty abusive boyfriends seem like pretty good ones.
@@regularshowman3208
The problem is he didn't do it for any moral reason, he did it because he saw an opportunity to watch somebody suffer without consequences.
@@yurifairy2969 I mean yeah, I figured as much, but hey, still not the worst target to pick lmao.
Do you remember the name of the comic?
I think it depends on who’s writing Scarecrow
Either he’s just a normal villain or a complete lunatic. I think the version your talking about isn’t the latter. Deep down I think he cares for people who are like him, having grown up with an abusive aunt (post crisis) and father (post flashpoint), this time he can do something and teach that thug a lesson in fear.
I love villains like that, they still have their morals and don’t need to kill people to feel like they’re doing the right thing.
I love that Simon was used for this video, he’s incredibly expressive and I love how he uses his tentacle arms in the way Clyde arms are used for his expressions since Simon’s arms are fake
Wait I thought it was just Clyde dressed up like a scarecrow.
Update: after finishing the video I have discovered that it is Simon
Who’s Simon? I know Pastra has other characters, but I don’t remember him talking about this guy.
@@bing_crystal4831 he’s a veldigun for dreams of an insomniac, the reason he didn’t talk about him in the mascots video was because it was for the characters that could have been the mascots for the channel and not just all his OC’s
@@RogelioALoya where can I see simons normal design?
@@RogelioALoya Interesting. Then again, I don’t know everything about them.
I think the main problem is that The Scarecrow possesses a pretty high skill floor to write effectively on account of his background in psychology as his association with fear. Whereas Batman has an easier association with fear in that it's baked into his superhero identity, The Scarecrow requires some understanding of the subject or practice of psychology in order to get the most out of his potential, which Kings of Fear did correctly by framing the conflict between Batman and The Scarecrow as a therapy session.
Arkham Knight will always be one of my favourite depictions of Scarecrow. His desperate desire to unmask Batman to take away his ability to create fear.
I like his calm tone, even when Batman is totally destroying him he heeps his calm and that's really cool about him.
He really changed and he is no more that little gremlin he was in Arkham Asylum.
@@sexyironicmen1485 "do you really think you've won? Fear makes you predictable. I am in complete control." Chilling.
Ehhh they still had Batman punk him at the end
@@ChangedMyNameFinally69 yeah cause that's what Batman does
@@cameronhodgetts920 Then it makes Scarecrow look pathetic
YES! THANK YOU!!! Justice for Jonathan!!!!! As a writer, it is mind-boggling that they have all the tools on front of them, but they STILL don’t use the character correctly. I feel as though it would be interesting to bring up his fascinating backstory, which adds to the battle between the monster/man dichotomy. He was raised by his grandmother, and has trauma from his experiences, eventually becoming obsessed with inflicting the pain he suffered from onto others. You could play with his inability to show compassion: Is he COMPLETELY psychotic? Can he be redeemed? What ARE his motivations? So many interesting writing prompts that could create a Shakespearean character….and yet we get NOTHING. When will the writers ever learn he is more than his gimmick?
Maybe if you become a writer for a Batman show, you can write Scarecrow in such a way. Yeah, that's probably a bit ambitious, but it could never heart to try.
When will you learn! That your actions have consequences!
Back in 2014 I made a Scarecrow costume, complete with the "needle glove".
It was so realistic that children became frightened, with one girl actually hyperventilating.
You really exposed that girls fear of needles.
@@brodyratliff7441 Dude, I felt bad about it.
She was my daughter's friend who'd come over to play.
I'd just completed it and came out to show the wife.
That poor girl ran into the kitchen, hid behind the cabinet and was hyperventilating and starting to cry.
I genuinely felt like crap over having scared her that badly, and yes, she is VERY afraid of needles.
@@MrGunBunny13I hope your first name doesn’t also happen to be “Jonathan”
@@WuhHuh Nope. I'm Don, not Jon.
@@MrGunBunny13Donathan
One of my favorite ways I’ve seen scarecrow is in the injustice game, he comes into the stage as the skinny frail man we know, but then using the fear has he becomes a scarecrow monster that you then fight with, his whole set is just really cool, and I love it when scarecrow actually fights with his gas, using it to disable and fight what would be a one sided fight.
What helps that depiction of him is that he is voiced by fucking Freddy Krueger
@@chewie1172 never knew that pretty cool
@@chewie1172 I couldn’t think of a better choice for scarecrow
I was thinking the exact same thing!
Scarecrow is such an awesome character. If I worked at DC I would literally write an entire series rectifying his character. Like Crane has some combat skills but rarely uses them in any media like the dude has a scythe for christ sake.
Mostly because it doesnt really fit his whole asthetic and design
He uses gas to create fear so he can manipulate others to fight amongst each other or collapse in fear avoiding direct con
Hes also built like a rake and like his inspiration hes meant to intimidate but have very little physical threat
@@conradlorgar5508 and thus you're left with him being a plot device. They could overhaul his character and make him actually scary
@@primary2630 its hard to make someone scary when you know his only threat is to appear scary, hes the embodiment of his breath is worse than his bite
Alot of batman main stay villians tend to reflect an aspect of batman
Bane = physical prowess
Two face = duality
Joker = a direct inversion and counter balance
Riddler = intelligence and ridgedd obsession
Scarecrow = fear as a weapon
Penguin = inheritance used for your personal desires
So having him be physical kinda undermines that but the joker and riddler movies showed you dont need to be physically threatening to be an incredible villian
Scarecrow just defaults to
Step 1. gas em
step 2. Cause fear
step 3. ???
step 4. profit
If his fear was a means to an end or he had something more than just using gas he might be a more fleshed out villian
Like hes a twisted anti villian who wants to fix gotham but thinks that can only be done with fear and then have him do more than just gassing people like make him intimidating and inciting fear
@@conradlorgar5508 I mean penguin also ends up running the economy of Gotham more times then not
@@conradlorgar5508 The idea of Scarecrow as an anti-villain is something I wish they would do more with. I think it would play out like Half-Light from Disco Elysium, like he’s purposefully making people face their fears and become stronger, but in doing so tears apart their psyche.
For your consideration: A version of Scarecrow that (for whatever reason) is unable to feel fear, but desperately wants to understand it. As such, he is always catching people up in absurd situations to study their fear response. Standing in a weird gray-area where he targets both heroes and villains.
I was thinking of a similar though different interpretation as well, I feel like conceptually he should be a "neutral" party within the cast of villains. Messing with anyone any everyone, it'd make him more fearful I think.
Alternatively instead of being motivated by study I like the idea that instead he sees himself enlightening others by forcing them to confront their worst fears. And that he disgusts those who do everything to avoid it. It'd give him twisted ideology behind his actions packaged with his intelligence and background in psychology to manipulate and gaslight his opponents like in the Kings of Fear. I think it opens up interesting ways to approach and deconstruct him as a character, like his disgust at other's fear coming from insecurity that he projects onto others, only hating it because it reflects back on him.
@@Spooky_Magooky There's actually a real life disorder where you can't feel fear. It's called Urbach-Wiethe disease. You can easily retcon Crane's story to add this into him.
Scarecrow has always been my favorite Batman villain, and I am so happy that you covered him!!!
My dad does like Scarecrow as well, especially with the use of the fear gas.
Nah, man. Any villain other than the joker sucks. We have to make scenes of the joker outsmating all the other stupid villains so that he could stay relevant. Heck, why stop at batman villains? Let's have him outsmart people like lex luthor and make him a threat to the entire justice league because why not???
Personally i like Mr freeze, while I’m more of a marvel nerd and Like the Reptile (Look at my profile take a wild guess why) Dr freeze is one of the more tragic villains in my opinion
Control C Control V
@Lord Brian killer croc is pretty good
I feel like an unexplored avenue for Crane is the idea that he is a master manipulator. He understands people and their fears so his schemes should be centered on playing those fears against his enemies rather than just hitting em with gas.
Like, use psychological manipulation to throw Gotham into a frenzy, using their fears to make people act irrationally.
Exactly.
Make Scarecrow this slimy, silver-tongued bastard who not only uses Fear Toxin, but also his knowledge of the human mind and phobias to strike fear into his victims and talk those he comes across into submission and manipulates them into doing his bidding.
Like in Injustice where he just roasts everyone
Detective comics 835&836 "absolute terror".
New Batman comic “scarecrow roasts the city so hard it causes a frenzy”
I know this is a 5 month old comment, but if you’re still looking for this I highly recommend the Batman Arkham Knight video-game. It really fits what you just described, but is unfortunately not what Pastra was looking for. Kinda disappointed that it wasn’t mentioned at all honestly.
Thank you. Scarecrow is my favorite DC villain, and the issue with Batman’s Rogue’s Gallery is that only Joker is allowed to do anything of note… and it has resulted in Joker-fatigue.
Scarecrow is one of the coolest, most intriguing villains… and imagine if, in his obsession to _understand_ Batman, he starts attacking other villains, getting into their heads, possibly making some stable and others more insane(which would have their own consequences), and maybe spread into other heroes, and perhaps end in a decision to either continue to master fear and obsess over gaining knowledge; or become an anti-hero to try and “understand” why heroes save people.
I'm so sick of Joker... in everything. I do enjoy the character, but he needs to be benched ASAP. This is slowly starting to extend to Harley as well. Give Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze second chances, let Scarecrow take the spotlight, introduce a more obscure villain... anything but Joker again
I get not wanting to box yourself into making Batman content, but if you wanted to make them, I'd absolutely watch more of these for other villains. This was super well made
“Crane’s Asylum” honestly sounds like a cool TH-cam channel, focusing on the horrors that are the human mind and experiments. Although if he does decide to do more Batman content, he could use that name as a playlist title.
One of my favorite Scarecrow stories had Dr.Crane nearly destroy Gotham not by making everyone afraid, but instead use an altered version of the fear toxin to remove ALL fear. The result was everyone in the city was making reckless and dangerous actions without hesitation.
I also really love his design in that episode (if you're talking about what I'm thinking of at least lol)
The thing I find the most interesting about this comic (which I still owe myself to read) is that it seems to highlight one of Crane's most underrated least exploited aspects: the fact that he *is* a psychologist, meaning that he *knows* how human mind works. That is the key aspect to me that makes Scarecrow so compelling as a villain.
Scarecrow has always been my favorite villain across all of media. I’ve lived most my life with pretty severe panic attacks that have made living a normal life pretty difficult. Especially when I was a teenager, I lived in intense fear about getting another panic attack and began to shut down as a person. I feel myself as kinda similar to Scarecrow by constantly exploring the things that cause my panic attacks as a way to conquer my fear of them and move on from that fear. Fear is a concept that transcends humanity and applies to almost all living being on the earth and I think its an extremely fascinating subject to write characters around.
I think another issue with Scarecrow is that he almost always plays second banana to another villain, in particular the Joker. In all forms of media Scarecrow is many times portrayed as a lieutenant or buddy of the Joker who does what he wants as a secondary antagonist for Batman. This was seen in Lego Batman, The Dark Knight, Batman Arkham Asylum, the Gotham tv series and the Harley Quinn tv series.
Also not to mention Scarecrow is sometimes hyped up as the main antagonist but again gets pushed to the side by the real main villain. This was seen in Batman Begins and Batman Arkham Knight
I agree but I think that in Arkham Knight he is very much still the main villain, Arkham Knight is just his pawn whom he is manipulating with the idea of revenge, Joker is present a lot but is still the secondary threat behind Scare Crows fear bomb and in that game Scarecrow doesn't just use the toxin but uses his knowledge of people to manipulate or instill fear as seen with him and Gordon on the roof.
@watchdogj yeah I see what you're saying. I think I should rephrase my argument about Scarecrow in Arkham Knight where he is indeed presented as the main threat throughout the game and is the final foe Batman faces in the end.
I think the issue though is that while Scarecrow is the immediate threat that Batman faces in the game, for the 2nd and 3rd acts of the story he gets sidelined in favor of Batman's emotional and mental battles against the Arkham Knight and Joker.
Going back to my original argument is that the game set up Scarecrow to be the main villain but again the Joker is inserted into the game to steal the spotlight. Like Im sure the story could've been written without Joker or even the Arkham Knight being present and for more crucial moments to center around the Scarecrow and Batman's battles throughout the game.
Arkham City had a good story focused on the Joker and it was shocking to see him die and so that left Scarecrow to return as the next psychologically dangerous foe for Batman in the build up for Arkham Knight. And so I remember being put off that once again Joker played such a central role in the story despite not even being the main villain of the game and having his story end in the previous one. As Pastra says in this video: Scarecrow is a plot device. It feels like he was there to create the scenerio Batman goes up against in Batman Arkham Knight but the writers chose to focus more on Joker and Arkham Knight
@@Spongebrain97 yeah I can agree with that. Scarecrow is there in Ace but then the joker shows up and Scarecrow is just taunting you for a little bit and that is all he does till he shows up again.
I would like to paint a picture of what could be a rather interesting Scarecrow story.
Basically, it starts out similarly to this, where it starts in Arkham Asylum, the typical beginning to a Batman story. Except, of course, things go awry, and Batman shows up to inspect the chaos and put an end to it, but finding himself in a bit of an odd situation when he sees the Joker running around, not saying anything and just laughing. As he chases him down throughout the asylum, he finds himself losing his breath, going in circles, and generally seeing signs that he's hallucinating, causing him to immediately suspect Scarecrow. And he's right, but he's not given time to process this before he is knocked out by the gas. When he awakes, he is strapped to an operating table behind a two-way mirror, with Crane on the other side.
The two share some conversation, Crane is a mix between calm and giddy, as he's excited to start his experiment. He has a plan in mind, and a point to prove: he's going to put the other rogues (that are in Arkham anyway) through his version of extensive therapy and treatment, or in other words, extreme torture with fear toxin in the mix. All of this is to prove a point, that being that, no matter what Batman or anyone else does, the rogues cannot be cured, they cannot be rehabilitated and Batman's moral decision to try is inherently naïve, though it's also to simply eliminate the competition among Gotham's criminally insane underworld. So he starts the experiment, mixing cruel torture with genuine therapy methods to use on the other rogues and making Batman watch. And at the end of each torture session, he would ask each individual rogue if they felt they were ready to reenter society, and their first response is usually to either just say something along the lines of 'No fuck you I'm crazy', or just threaten him.
This continues for some time until he reaches the Joker, who he's both excited and terrified to do this to. He sees Joker as the prime example for why Batman's methods will never work, and gets to work. By the end of the session, he asks the question, and expects the same results as before. However, Joker has stopped smiling, his face seems defeated, yet elated, as he states he's unsure, but that he feels different. Crane is shocked, and unstraps Joker from his operating table, and inspects him momentarily before seemingly being *ecstatic* that he was the one who cured the motherfucking Joker of his insanity.
Behind the mirror, Batman is also astonished, as Crane has essentially proved Batman's point: that with enough time and usage of the correct methods, without torture they could eventually be cured and rehabilitated. This also proves that Scarecrow is capable of rehabilitating other patients at Arkham, which also proves that he himself is capable of being rehabilitated through these good actions, even if he didn't intend them to be good. Such a shame that it was all a ruse on Joker's part, and he uses his newfound freedom to stab Crane with a scalpel. Fortunately for Crane though, Batman had also escaped his straps, and broke through the mirror to stop Joker from killing him, and knocks out the clown. The day is saved, Arkham is brought back into order and Crane is in the medical ward, where Batman visits him.
Their conversation might go as follows:
"Do you get my point now?"
"What *point?* He wasn't cured, he was merely lying."
"That doesn't detract from what you did. Joker didn't prove my point, you did. Despite your intentions, you tried to cure them."
"That changes nothing! You're wrong, it was for my own gain."
"Still. You proved to me that, among the monsters of Gotham, there are indeed some that can be saved." And he walks out of the room, leaving Crane to grumble to himself.
Holy shit, this is such a good concept.
What you said about Scarecrow and his effect on Batman in "Kings of Fear" makes me realize something.
Scarecrow is the ONLY person whos capable of ending Batman's never-ending mission. Batman's mission is to rid Gotham of crime forever, a task so incomprehensibly large that he will never complete it. It's impossible. But Batman keeps going because he convinced himself that he HAS to complete it because it's the only thing that keeps him going.
Villains have tried breaking Batman before, in many horrible ways, but while Joker is trying to make Batman as mad as he is, or break his no-killing rule, Scarecrow is digging deep into what Batman fears most, and FEEDING those fears more and more. The idea of Scarecrow FEEDING fears is very interesting to me. He understands EXACTLY what makes Batman tick, setting him apart from Joker and the other villains. He knows exactly what to say to make Batman's fears grow and grow until it's the only thing occupying his brain, with or without fear toxin. That's what makes Scarecrow such a prominent threat because he knows EXACTLY how to break Batman down, piece by piece.
Scarecrows manipulation can be some of the most effective ever used on Batman. If anyone can break down the hero, the hero who is clinging to the hope that he will fulfill his parent's impossible legacy and whose *fear of failure* is pushed down so far because it's the only thing that can possibly stop him, if ANYONE can stop that hero, it's Scarecrow.
What is fear, if not crippling hopelessness?
Answer: not much
Akrham Knight shows this perfectly. Whereas not exactly amazing it definitely let's scarecrow shine. He wins. He beat Batman.. but the jokers blood changed everything, if it wasn't for what the joker had done Batman would have been killed by scarecrow and the best part is that scarecrow didnt want to run Gotham, he didn't want money, he didn't want revenge, all he wanted was to ruin Batman and he put together a plan that combined all the things to do so.. but the joker ruined it all, despite being dead, the joker will forever be the voice ringing I batman's head no matter how hard bane, Mr.freeze, the riddler or even scarecrow try. Scarecrow might be able to mess with Batman and make him quite his mission but Batman would never kill Scarecrow. (All of this is from what I'm aware of, if Batman has ever killed scarecrow or anything please do tell me, I'm curious)
I genuinely believe that Scarecrow is Batmans most threatening villain. The more Bruce forms relationships, (the various Robins, Barbra, Commissioner, Catwoman, the other hero's, ect) the longer he is Batman, and the more he protects Gothem. The more he has to fear, the more vulnerable he is to fear. The fear of losing everyone and everything. The more Batman grows, the more threatening Scarecrow becomes.
Yeah but the people who actually make him lose things like Bane and Joker exist so scarecrow is kind of a pushover.
Heck, that's a really good point. At first, during the video, it occurred to me that his use as a plot-device was, itself, limited to a one-off, as you can only rehash Batman overcoming the trauma of his parents' murder so many times--but (leaving aside for now the requisite effort to make sure he's not JUST a device for this) as you say, the more Batman overcomes his isolationist tendencies and forms connections, the more vulnerable he can get to Scarecrow's tactics.
@@egekazkayas8968 That's baloney!! Cranes put scars on batman's body and mind, and you don't need to kill a bat family member to be above push over status. Hell the only reason bane got away with breaking batmans back the first time is cause batman was tired as hell catching fughting all the villains bane let out so he could get softened up first. *including scarecrow.*
You took everything that Scarecrow fans like myself are thinking, and made it into a masterpiece of a video. Applause and kudos to you good sir
Scarecrow being the embodiment of fear, which is needed for the horror genre, fits well as a topic for Pastra to cover
That's what I love about Arkham Knight. It shows his true competence against the villains.
Scarecrow is currently my pick for a replacement nemesis, since joker has been deeply over saturated. He is the fear Batman distills in crime, but instead of using it as a tool, he reveres it, wants to understand every facet, and even sometimes treats it as a god. A perfect foil.
literally every single major Batman villain is a foil to some part of him. Riddler matches intelligence, Penguin and Court of Owls mirror his wealth, Two Face shares two personas and a sense of justice, Bane parries his strength. And so on and so forth. But they're distorted in some way. Riddler uses his intelligence to justify his ego, the Court uses their wealth to protect their status and privilege, Bane doesn't hold back on his strength and is the monster Batman only pretends to be. Etc. And that's why they're all so great. They could all reasonably be his perfect "arch enemy" depending on the context of the story. They are a perfect mirror to some part of him.
@@cstick2664
Fair enough, but I think Scarecrow shows a far more important facet of Batman then his intellect or his wealth.
Fear is Batman’s purpose. Bruce doesn’t want to beat every single criminal in Gotham every time, his goal is to instill the fear of the bat into anyone who would even think about it.
@@goroakechi6126 Yeah, Batman employs fear as a means to an end, but for Scarecrow oftentimes fear IS the end.
As the old saying goes.
"Sometimes we shape our tools. Sometimes our tools shape us."
It's too bad Alan Moore or Grant Morrison never wrote any Scarecrow stories.
Scarecrow's look has changed more than any other Batman character and it's nice to see some really unique visuals some artists have given him.
He's a great character for redesigns. Its a patchwork costume. No 2 scarecrows look alike.
I don't need any more stories from snake wizard moore 😆
I absolutely love how passionate you are for single-handedly the best Batman villain to exist.
I'd say Riddler is a pretty good option for an arch nemesis
I personally really like these "non-game-centric" videos of yours and I would love to see more of them
Well, to be fair it’s horror centric, just not video game centric
This video’s literally about a character made of fear, and uses fear as a toxin. That’s horror.
@@QUBIQUBED Then please tell me, how should I readjust my comment to get the message across that I enjoy the somewhat off-topic content? Aditionally doesn't he literally say "I may be a horror oriented chanel (...) but (...)"?
@@YourNeighborhoodDegenerate not the commenter you’re referring to but maybe change it to non game centric video because that’s where the divergence actually is
@@RogelioALoya Thank you very much
A great backstory for Scarecrow could have been that he was horribly mistreated and abused in his past and grew to constantly fear those around him due to trauma, and his way of taking power back was to inflict fear on those who did it to him, and then begun doing it to others. It would have been a much better motivation and backstory than what they gave him. Then, while still being evil, he isn't just evil for the sake of being evil. He has his own twisted sense of justice and revenge, being too far gone to save, but the root of his cause being very human and relatable.
Ironically, in some of the comics, he did have an abusive household that used fear as a weapon against him. However, he was more fascinated by the feeling, rather than afraid.
I think Croc would relate.
he has 2 origin stories and both are him being abused or tested on
I remember one of my favourite Scarecrow stories was one about how he was sick of that people only saw him as his fear toxin, so he starts on a mission to make the entire city of Gotham terrified of him, without fear toxin. and he indeed wins, even though batman stops him in the end, he succeeded in his goal of making Gotham once again terrified of the Scarecrow.
any chance you remember what it was called?
@@PieRat765 needed to dig a little trough my comic collection, but luckely I found them fast enough. It's called: Absolute Terror, from Detective Comics 835 & 836, from 2007
@@The_Disturber Thank you :D
I feel like it IS a pretty big deal that scarecrow, someone who's stories are constantly dealing with trauma and fear, isn't a sympathetic character. One of the things I love about some batman villains is that they're not evil people, they're broken.
Absolutely. Even Joker has a sympathetic backstory in The Killing Joke. Scarecrow stands out among the A-list Batman villains because he's just a soulless monster. He has his trauma just like everyone does, but deep down he loves seeing people scared for their lives and that's why he does it.
@@yurifairy2969 That backstory fir Joker wasn't real.
@@zemox2534
It is never actually stated that it isn't real. Just Joker being vague about his past like always.
@@yurifairy2969 depends on what era of comics, because before Flashpoint to new 52 and rebirth- they were pretty adamant that joker lies constantly and nothing he says about his past is true. Which i thought was interesting that the Phoenix version addressed most of his alternate origins
Idk i don't think scarecrow is very sympathetic. He had an obsession, which he in turn used for power. And even if you humanize him or someone like joker- their origins are not so tragic that you feel very understanding of them in lieu of how many ppl they murder in the most gruesome and painful ways
I think one of my personal favorite iterations of the Scarecrow is in Batman: the Audio Adventures, in which Jonathan Crane acts as a calm and collected, yet very chilling individual, who's main interest is to study fear and how it works. *(spoiler for season 2 in the read more section)*
(spoiler) My favorite scene with him in the podcast is when Crane is serving as the psychiatrist treating Harvey Dent (Two Face), and Crane gives Dent an antidepressant made using a subdued version of the Joker's laughing toxin. Crane finds that this manages to completely eliminate Dent's crippling acrophobia, but does nothing when Crane gets rid of Dent's coin, causing him to be sent into a crippling panic over not being able to make any more choices. All the while, Jonathan Crane just calmly observes and revels in the study, of learning more about fear and how it works, concluding that the Joker-antidepressant is able to eliminate fears and phobias not determined by an individual's psyche, but not fears that are intrinsic to the person's psyche or their very identity.
In this iteration, Jonathan Crane utilizes more than just his fear toxin and a spooky costume. He uses psychological torture and manipulation to get what he wants, which makes him far scarier than just the scarecrow. He is a man that knows how to get into someone's head and defeat them from the inside by driving them to madness.
When I first saw Pastra using Simon as a mascot for this episode, at first I though it was Clyde dressed up in a costume. When I figured it out I was really excited! Simon is one of my favorite of the Veldigun. I really hope Pastra will feature some of the other Veldigun is later videos!
Saaame, I saw it and was so happy! I love Simon’s design
We all know he was terribly wasted in the Harley Quinn show. But he had a genuinely amazing introduction as a threat, and both that and his final dialog with the Joker made me realize he'd be a fantastic foil for Harley. Every facet of their characters and gimmicks I can think of compliment one another as either a direct mirror or opposite. They could be really cool as both partners in crime and enemies, and I think him constantly trying to take advantage of her well known insecurities - maybe trying to be a wedge between her and Ivy for good measure - could catalyze a lot of interesting development in Harley. Meanwhile, those manipulations are him matching wits with a psychological peer rather than lobbing a plot device into the story, which is a far more interesting showcase of his character.
True but it's a comedy show so his misuse didn't bother me as much there
I liked him there, wish joker didnt put him on a shirt
He got to doxx Batman, that's something lol
well its not a serious show its basically just a comedy show that has dc characters i wouldnt even consider them true dc characters just their looks and names
@Josegdumbniglet_1 Most are pretty accurate I'd say barring Harley but NGL this is a way better portrayal of her in media. Can't stand Tara Strong's Harley voice.
I'm glad you gave "Kings of Fear" the spotlight here. It's definitely one of the best Scarecrow stories ever written.
a *great* depiction of Jonathan Crane is in Batman: The Audio Adventures. I think he's portrayed very well, and he finally gets a chance to be properly scary
One thing I want to point out is that his fear gas is such a crippling ability it would be easy to simply write a two parter episode, giving both scarecrow *and* batman screentime and allow him to be fleshed out.
Cillian Murphy's depiction of scarecrow in Batman Begins had potential in my opinion. I wish i could get more of it.
I never really thought about the Scarecrow other than his fear toxin, but you've really put in a good case into why he is and should be treated as more than it. Guy's got a lot of potential mileage outside of just letting us explore the Bat Fam. Maybe something akin to Saw could be tried. Maybe Scarecrow is fascinated with those who see fear, true fear, and then fight and grow from it. Like how many of Jigsaw's previous victims eventually agree with his ideology and aid him, maybe the Scarecrow goes around testing his fear toxin on people, looking for those willing to grow from it and help him in finding others strong enough to defeat fear, bringing them to Batman, the other king of fear. Batman relies so heavily on fear and intimidation that a gang of people strong and determined enough to stand through it and fight him may make him consider whether his terror over Gotham's underworld only strengthens those he wants to stop. Idk, like I said I haven't thought about Scarecrow much till now, but there's a lot of potential here I didn't see before.
Why does this channel talk about literally everything i love? Pastra, dude, you have to be one of the best creators on this platform, thank you for what you do!
I love listen to fellow ND people talk about their special interests like this! the amount of care you put into all your videos is lovely to see, especially with things like this that you're so passionate about! :]
I really like the fact that in Kings of Fear, they had Scarecrow be both completely in control of the situation and completely falling apart depending on how strong the toxin's hold on Batman is. It's like they're both struggling to be able to beat each other.
I love how scarecrow can go from being a murder monster to... comical
Sounds like a certain more popular Batman villain-
holy crap where did 200 likes come from???!!!!
It’s like Arkham Asylum vs Arkham Knight Crane
Imagine his study and infliction of fear becomes his own addiction, and therefore him constantly chasing the dragon, even as he becomes more and more numb not just to his own fears, but the fears of others and how fear fits into how we behave in society and interaction with others. Fear and shame are big motivators for some and how they treat others. Just a spitball thought
It's like you've read my mind dude, from all the problems with him being treated as a plot device rather than a character, to the abundance of potential he holds as both a villain and mirror to Batman. It's just relieving to see someone else be so interested and excited by his character!
I wanna see a scarecrow story where crane is angry of using fear toxin because he thinks it’s a crutch and wants to find a way to use fear naturally without chemicals like Batman
Such a story does exist, though I can’t remember what it’s called. I’m wanting to say it was a two issue story back before the new 52.
There’s also somewhat the titans versions
don’t see the titans version
@nateoverthehorizon1176 that story already exists. Detective comics 835 & 836 "absolute terror". Which would've made a much better fit for this video than "kings of fear"
Read 'Fear in Faith' arc. It's him fucling with an entire community and using fear and distrust to break them as a sick experiment.
One of the first pieces batman media i consumed was accidentally watching the Audio Adventures podcast (I thought it was a different podcast i saw online). Listening to that podcast not only got me into batman, but it made Scarecrow my favorite villian because of the way he was potrated. He was a legitimately scary threat, doing some major damage and not just with his toxin. In the podcast Batman also didn’t know Crane was Scarecrow, so while Batman was fighting Scarecrow, Bruce Wayne was interacting and even working with Crane.
I've always thought the same thing about Mysteryo from Spider-Man, I've always found him to be a very interesting character, the illusions he creates through his experience with special effects are one of the most potent skills in comics in my opinion, especially when it comes to in consideration of the fact that he is constantly fighting a guy who has as one of his main powers a danger sensor,he was one of the main founders of the Sinister Six and was even responsible for the meeting between Peter and Miles,but like Scarecrow, generally the illusions he creates and his character itself are used as a tool for the plot and most of the time he does something impactful or has a much more prominent and main presence is not even in a Spider-Man story, for example when he almost drove Daredevil crazy in Guardian Devil and managed to make Wolverine kill his own colleagues in the Old Man Logan story (and as much as Mysteryo's abilities were well portrayed in Far From Home, let's be honest, in that movie Mysteryo is a Iron Man villain and not Spider Man one), I find it even a little ironic that the characters that have the most potential but are almost always used as a tool to advance the plot are characters that usually mess with the human mind (Mysterio and Scarecrow)
Two of my favorite characters….almost never used well
Highly intelligent antagonists that attack the mind are extremely hard to write as a whole, maybe this is why authors steer clear of using them
Mysterio successfully killed the X-men once, illusions are such powerful abilities and yet the dude is totally slept on.
@@notsae66 I didn’t know this pls tell more 🙏
Ultimate Mysterio seemed pretty cool
The Scarecrow was one of my favorites as a teen and I still love him, and i’m SO GLAD someone made a video about him! He really is kinda wasted potential in a decent amount of comics, I feel a lot of writers don’t play with Crane’s own character and how he connects to the concept of fear itself. I especially love when they give him a backstory where he’s trying to conquer his own fears, as a kid with Generalized Anxiety Disorder I had very little control over where my own mind went. I desperately wanted control of my own fear and Jonathan was doing just that. I could kinda live through him.
I shouldn't be surprised that your favourite Scarecrow comic is one drawn by Kelley Jones - his artstyle is so uniquely compelling and fits the theme of fear perfectly. I like the Scarecrow's design here when usually I don't find him credible when they make his suit so, well, scarecrowy, all straw and rags. But here it just fits. Great video, super interesting!
I love how Pastra is narrating about the Batman universe as dark, gritty and mysterious while having the Lego Batman intro playing in the background
Scarecrow really made me realize just how destructive he can be when he unleashed the root beer float on the entire east coast in Arkham knight
Thank you for making this video. Scarecrow is my all time favorite villain, and I 100% agree with you. He is such an amazing villain with so much potential, but he never is written well.
My favorite rendition has been the Arkham videogame series, but he was once again used as a plot device for the Arkham Knight.
I have been writing a story centered around Scarecrow, but it's more of a passion project as I have such a close connection to him.
THANK YOU! Scarecrow is a great character and he’s so underrated I only recently really got to know about him. My favorite portrayal of him is Cillian Murphy (definitely biased for me lol) but I love how he can be seen in so many ways. I love the idea that he can just have an alter ego, or in irony having mental issues despite being a doctor. He also causes almost as many problems for Batman as Joker! Technically he should be the scariest character too, considering fear is his whole shtick, but he’s often undermined. I enjoyed him in the Nolan movies since it made him feel more complex at least and give him more qualities besides a loser who is obsessed with fear in my opinion😅from what I’ve seen in the comics it’s not as consistent or fun to see him, which really sucks considering his potential as a villain but also just a cool character who could have really intense development in order to become the Scarecrow. Also, his old style scarecrow theme is unbeatable!
I also have a soft spot for Murphy's portrayal of Scarecrow as this seemingly clean-cut college professor (initially at least) with academic motives. It would have been nice though, to have had a bit more as to how his fanaticism got to the level of creating a city-wide 'experiment' XD
@@welshlout3400 I know! Again, he wasn’t the focus so I see why but I also appreciate his outfit-I love the scarecrow look but it’s funny to imagine a dude dressed like that, it’s so goofy. With more love it could’ve been a lot more perfect for sure. Justice for Murphy’s Scarecrow!
The Study Hall story is one of my top fav scarecrow stories and it focuses on the human side of Jon and his attempt to do good that's really the only way he can do things, by fear.
YEEEESSSS! Finally, someone who loves this character as much as I do, if not more so! I have always loved Scarecrow, from the moment I learned about him as a kid. I've always found him such a uniquely terrifying villain, and not just for the fear gas. To me, Scarecrow is unique in that he is a villain who could pick someone apart and worm his way into their brains without lifting a finger, he'd just need time and the opportunity to talk. He's a master not only of fear but of psychology and the mind, he knows how people think and how to use the power of fear to get into people's heads. Fear, unlike any other emotion, is chronic, it's lingering, it stays coiled around your brain and waits to strike like a snake. Scarecrow knows this and knows how to take advantage of it perfectly.
One of my favorite versions of the character and his motivations is from the game Batman: Arkham Knight. Admittedly, for most of the game, his goals are muddled and not much deeper than "Cause chaos to break Batman" but in the final third of the game, it really becomes clear WHY he's doing it. He wants to break Batman not by just making him afraid, but by unmasking him to the world as a man who can be beaten and broken, because then the world will know that if Scarecrow can conquer the Batman, he can conquer ANYONE. One of my favorite quotes of any Batman villain comes from this part of the game; "Fear isn’t true biology, Batman. It’s more than instinct. True fear is the absence of hope. And hope is the spread wings of a bat, shining in the clouds." Scarecrow knows that in order for Batman to feel true terror, he must know what it means to fail, and that the entire world will know terror when it sees Batman fail.
And in the end, Scarecrow wins. Sure he gets his own toxin injected into him and sent to jail, but [SPOILER ALERT], consider how the true ending of the game plays out. After Batman is unmasked, criminals aren't afraid of him. Sure, he still kicks the snot of them, but even lowly street thugs laugh and mock him, calling him Bruce and saying they aren't afraid of some rich boy. The mystique, the shadow of Batman is stripped away, leaving only a man, albeit a very skilled man, in a costume. And in light of this, in light of knowing that the shadow of the Batman isn't enough anymore, Bruce devotes himself to being something more. Something worse. He kills the Batman and rises from its grave as a ghost, a monster that cannot be touched, let alone killed. And, at least in my understanding of the ending of the game, he does so by using Scarecrow's own toxin in order to do it, to twist the minds of criminals into seeing not a Bat, but a true demon. In every sense, Scarecrow wins; he burns the Batman to the ground and even if Gotham still has a protector, it is not a Dark Knight, but a Bat out of Hell itself.
Anywho, sorry for rambling and gushing, I just really like this character lmao
I like him but he is never in things so he flies under the radar
I can just highly recommend the Batman audio adventures season 2 with him as the central villain and plot device. They're so so good and honestly I think he's one of the creepiest and yet funniest. I feel like he was one of the better ones.
Maybe YOU should make a comic for the scarecrow. You have every resource to make one and I think it would be really cool to see your take on a perfect version of the threat that scarecrow actually is
I really do hope Pastra reconsiders doing those Batman villain analysis videos, if they're anything like this, showing how the character ticks, how they're portrayed, & their best stories, i'd absolutely love videos like this for the more underated of Batman villains, like The Riddler & Killer Croc
I genuinely would love to see a scarecrow story written and story boarded in your style, I feel like you’d create something truly spectacular
Have you seen No Fear from the Gotham Knights/New Adventures of Superman and Batman seasons? It was a great example of them experimenting with Scarecrow's methods by having him take fear away rather than give it, ending with an interesting twist. There was also a comic where Crane was mocked about his reliance on gas, then proceeded use his psychology training to talk two immates into suicide, terrify the rest and eventually escape to go on a murder spree just to prove them wrong.
Which comic?
@@dulce1393 Its not a comic its an episode of Batman TOS specifically the new adventures era. Its awesome Jeffrey Combs does his voice.
I’m planning to make my own video on this and I 100% agree with your points. Scarecrow is also my favorite Batman villain and it’s so frustrating how over his existence in media has been poorly utilized sometimes both in and out of the comics.
And it’s also annoying how he’s either an underling to someone else (like the penguin) or he’s a plot device.
I adore him in no man’s land/fear of Faith. Most of his interpretation rely too much on him, being a master chemist, and completely forgot that he’s also a master of psychology of fear. Fear of Faith shows that beautiful with him just using his words alone to instill panic and fear amongst the priest flock. And he did all that simply as an experiment not because he has any actual goal.
My desire for a Crane’s Asylum series is so fricking strong PLEASE give us more Batman content I will GRACIOUSLY eat my meal
Seconded!
Thirded!
Fourthed
I genuinely want to see a possible team up between Scarecrow and Bane. Two scarily intelligent characters who have the potential to be the most dangerous enemies not only to Batman himself but Gotham as a whole. Not to mention the potential of Bane somehow tweaking his Venom to incorporate fear toxin somehow or the other way in which scarecrow uses Venom to amplify his fear toxin (potentially making Crane vulnerable to his own toxin in which we can get a deeper look into his mindset)
THANK YOU!! Scarecrow is singlehandedly the most underused batman villain ever. He is incredibly threatening if you do it right. He needs more media.
Scarecrow has always been my favorite Batman villain and it sucks how little chance he gets to shine. Even in his own comic event, The Fear State, he barely gets to do anything and gets sidelined almost instantly. He has so much potential and I would love to finally see it fully realized. (I think one cool option would be to make slasher horror movie featuring Scarecrow as the primary antagonist who tortures his victims with fear gas, kills then and then stuffs their decapitated heads into jack o lanterns).
Exactly, Fear State definitely wasn't worth my money. I'm one of those readers that just looks for and likes specific villain arcs and FS was a major disappointment on the Scarecrow front.
Pastra, I am so happy to see you jumping onto the growing, "Scarecrow is underrated" train. He has always been my favorite villain of the Dark Knights and I genuinely believe that if he were utilized better, he could be up there with the Joker in terms of popularity
Why are we not talking about the lasting impact and also the character design of Arkham Knight scarecrow. He literally unmasked Batman on live television
YESSSSS! Someone finally gets Scarecrow!
I've always loved scarecrow because of how he is so similar yet opposite to batman, they both use fear as their main method of accomplishing their goals, only batman puts fear into his enemies to protect everyone in and to end crime in Gotham, while the scarecrow uses fear to _commit_ crimes
Your music choice for the background is so lovely, it gives me such strong memories of Ib. The somberness in its tone is PERFECT for a video essay on wanting an understanding anti-villain who seems to get stuck in his "own" (the writing) fears in what stops him from pursuing his goals. I love this therapist/scarecrow take
I really like the idea of Scarecrow as a yellow lantern, and i don't know why they only try this idea like one or two times. LITTERALLY the whole point of both, scarecrow and sinestro corp is FEAR
That is honestly a terrifying thought, god knows what Scarecrow would be able to make using the lantern constructs. Might even overshadow Sinestro at that point.
@@emeraldmoon8393 That would be if anybody actually had the balls to write him for the potential Scarecrow has. Not me, I’m an artist not a writer.
If they make a Batman/Green Lantern crossover mini-series, they need to make Sinestro Corps Scarecrow the main villain
He became one, for a bit in the blackest night event iirc
That would be awesome but I'd be sad to see him leave Gotham. He's carved out such a little niche in the rogues gallery, he'd be missed
- Actually that could be a fun story on second thought. Scarecrow leaves for the stars and the other Rogues kind of miss him because they all have a weird found family bond and Gotham's just not the same without good ol' Crane, so they all decide to go after him. They all want their mutual "friend" back, but they say they just want to tear him down to save face ~ Space antics ensue. Anyway, Gotham is freaking empty and Batman finds himself more free and peaceful than usual. The bat family doesn't know what to do with themselves, so they have to make sense of their restless in this brief reprieve. Anyway, the rogues manage to drag Scarecrow back, either kicking and screaming in protest or content because he was just so touched that people actually cared about him. The status quo is restored and the Bat fam go back to being High-stress workaholics.
I absolutely love the design of the scarecrow, thinking him to be one of the most unique villains we have been able to see in the Rogue Gallery. I had been thinking about what I would be interested in seeing from the wheatie-boy myself, and thought up the concept of what if, after an Arkhem breakout, Scarecrow essentially disappears. Doesn't go on a crime spree, doesn't make a big fuss, or any fuss at all. And after some time, even Batman get's curios as to where he is. He isn't making himself a threat, but yet by his existence he is. Batman begins to search and search for Scarecrow, becoming obsessed with it. Yet, he can't be found. And matter of fact, no crime can be. Gotham is a pristine, crimeless city. Joker, Riddler, Penguin, Catwoman, all of them are just not around. Not pulling a stunt, not playing the game. Turns out, Scarecrow had figured out how to isolate his fear of the Batman, and how to inject it into the other Villains, and he is hidden, posing inside of the Asylum. Simply waiting for Batman to break.
I do think this story is rough, and needs some tune ups. But heck, playing into Batman's now ingrained fear of how his actions aren't needed into the city by giving Batman the exact neat, crimeless city his actions seem to inherently want only for Batman and Scarecrow to realize that Batman fears being useless and so the crime is necessary for him to feel secure is brilliant imo.
Scarecrow is definitely one of my favorite batman villains, the fact that he uses fear as a weapon is really interesting, I wish they would have done more with him, like... Idk make him a yellow lantern? That sounds cool.
as someone who loves psychological horror and loves learning about fear and the psychology of it, Scarecrow is one of my favourite villains of all time, what a wonderful video about him!
You can say all you want about scarecrow’s debut episode but, it did give us one of the most iconic Batman quotes of all time
Which was?
@@neonjoker "I am Vengeance, I am the Night, I am Batman!"
@@gaminggosling9230
Oh i thought it was
AHHHH ITS THE JOKER
I'm so happy to see someone who loves Scarecrow as much as i do. He's part of the reason i keep coming back to the series because i love him so much.
Seeing this and your security breach review makes me want to see you do more talking about the complexities of characters/enemies in fiction, I would love to see you talk about the level of complexities for something like the Left 4 Dead infected or even your favorite antagonist from non horror related franchises you may have played, just your positive and deep out look is amazing to watch!
I have always thought it would be an interesting concept to have a story following one of his students during Jonathan Crane's last year as a professor. The story isn't told from Professor Crane's point of view, but instead from a student who is slowly growing more and more concerned about their mentor's declining mental state. It could even follow the aftermath of Professor Crane being fired and, probably, arrested. It would make sense for the police to want to question his students to see if they knew anything.
I have been thinking about this idea for a long time and have so many possible ways it could go, depending on what exactly the student is like, if they have had him as a professor before, what fears they might have. It would also heavily depend on what exactly Professor Crane's past was before becoming a professor. What are HIS fears, why does he have them, and how exactly do they correlate to his passion for fear? Does he have a past similar to his Year One counterpart? If so, how could we work with that? Could we change it in some way and experiment with his character that could explore a side of him we haven't seen? Could the treatment from his great-grandmother have caused some of those fears? Sure, he has a fear of crows due to that version of his backstory, as well as his grandmother, but what other fears could he have gotten? Would it affect how he treated his students outside of his obsession with fear? There are so many questions and opportunities that could be explored, but DC never does so.
Here's the thing with scarecrow, he needs another villian to play off of to be effective. Either working together or antagonizing each other. Scarecrow and riddler would make a great duo, and scarecrow and killer croc are another good team up duo. Bane vs Scarecrow would be an interesting and compelling piece of Batman story telling.
This is a lot of fun, and clearly a labor of love. And I think this concept, to explore the untapped potential of Batman characters, has a lot of legs. The story you outlined here is clearly the tip of Scarecrow's iceberg. And that's the interesting thing about Batman, and the thing I think that makes so many of us go back to the character again and again. He and all his rogues' gallery have potential that's theoretically limitless. Batman himself is a paradox of a character, a criminal who fights for law and order, a hero who's also an anti-hero, a good guy who dresses like a monster, a rich man who's lost the one thing money could never buy. Through all these paradoxes, endless stories emerge.
And each villain tends to express a similar paradox. Joker is a monster who dresses as a children's entertainer. Riddler is a genius that never admits when he's wrong, making him a fool. Two-Face is torn between choice and fate, thinking that the coin-toss decides whether a bad day turns you into Batman or the Joker. And Scarecrow, here, worships fear because he's riddled with it. His anxieties, insecurities, and superstitions seem to have shaped his entire sense of self. So presumably, he thinks of these various kinds of fear as the building blocks of identity.
Yes yes yes!!!!
I really adore how every each character shown on the screen has their own background, it really shows a personality with charaters, and the these sprites, THEY ARE TOO GOOD
I'm so glad you covered a batman villain! The scarecrow has wicked amounts of potential as a villain, and this video definitely gave me pointers on how to better characterize him for a batman rewrite/overhaul project I'm working on! Very well done, as always!
I wished they played more around with Yellow Lantern Scarecrow. I think that would have a made for a really good Batman read.