I don’t get why more fans don’t do this. I was surprised by how dramatic some people were being. Comicbook fans should be use to it. Just because Tom King’s Batman is bad doesn’t mean Scott Snyder’s Batman is ruined even though they are technically the same.
@@inshal6420 I do agree but on the other hand I was a big “How I met your mother” fan. After watching the final episode I couldn’t even watch the show anymore. Perhaps knowing where the path leads can ruin the journey.
There is an incredibly easy fix to this. Reveal it to the audience right at the start, invincible-style. That way the audience would get their plottwist (though rather early), can focus on Batman’s surprise being fully convinced Jason is dead AND not be called idiots by the devs for having it be way too obvious the whole time. It would also allow you to have Jason’s interactions with Barbara as an actual cutscene giving Jason much more depth.
@@SoyboyPeter The other guy was saying that audience should know that Jason is the Arkham Knight (cuz every1 saw it coming from 10 miles away) and batman himself should have figured it out in the end. Kinda like how it takes a long ass while for mark to figure out who omniman truly is in invincible but the audience had known that omniman was a villain from the start, thus increasing the tension in th overall story
Batman should have known the Knight's identity from their second meeting. Arkham Batman is literally written to be stupid so that they can have that obvious reveal at the end of the game.
This is the same company that gave us the clayface reveal, so they are capable of high quality storytelling they just didn’t put their best foot forward in Jason’s instance
Well I mean, Clay face was just for shock if anything, sure you could say what Joker said, " it's important to keep up appearances." But ultimately it still was for shock.
There should’ve been some interaction between Jason and Tim. It’s mentioned in the database that Tim actually came to Batman, having deduced his identity. Since then, it’s always been my head-canon that Bruce only took him on because he hoped that Tim's detective skills would be useful in helping him find Jason. There’s no other scenario where Batman takes on another Robin while Jason is still MIA. It's also worth mentioning that Jason's database entry specifically mentions that he deactivated his tracker when he went after Joker. Compare to Dick, who gets captured by Penguin. Batman is able to rescue him within minutes because he still has his tracker, even as a solo hero. It's another missed opportunity that Jason never reckons on-screen with the culpability he has in his own fate.
it’s not that jason was MIA it’s that he believed he was dead sure he was looking for him and once joker sent the film to batman to quite literally get him to "abandon" Jason he thought jason was just straight up dead and then tim found out about bruce and then batman saw that tim’s detective skills were comparable to him he adopted him as robin thought in the comics it’s a little more thought out like in the comics and even mentioned in the game database that tim was there that night when nightwings parents died too
thought it is pretty stupid that jokers film alone would’ve persuaded batman into believing he was dead cause realistically batman would try to at the very least find a body to give him a proper burial but just another example of weird choices with the writing in arkham knight
@@dummyalex4781 The time between Jason's initial disappearance and when the videotape was delivered is what I'm referring to as him being MIA, and that's when I think Bruce would have brought Tim into the fold.
Honestly, if they wanted Jason to work, they shouldve had him be the tutorial, make you feel helpless and pathetic. Show off the torture he went through, have joker monologue putting seeds of doubt in some nightmare sequences, and really have you just be in pain for Jason. That would’ve at least made you understand who this character is and why he makes sense for the narrative they were going for.
@BrightLord3019 those were not flashbacks, those were allucinations from the fear toxin. The only real flashback was the scene when Joker was recording his fake killing of Jason, because Batman obviously watched that tape. Looks like you didn't pay attention to the story.
@@mattmark94 because the two previous hallucinations are what precipitated the third one, it’s Batman interpretation of the torture Joker must’ve put Jason through.
Honestly that’s a great idea. Getting to play as him in the tutorial and playing out his escape during the events of asylum and having him look to the batwing as it flies away triumphantly and see the hatred in his face could have been a great setup. That and giving him a bigger part post game would have justified the title of the game.
@@mattmark94i think the torture of jason is basically both a hallucination of batman’s mind mixed with joker taking over but also i think it’s actually what happened like basically the writers way of giving both because a lot of joker torture methods also coincide with how jason is presented in the game like joker putting the J on his cheek and also his much more slouched appearance because of the barbed wire that forced him to slouched and it’s kinda of proven because nightwing has a perfect spinal position (aka no slouching/standing perfectly balanced and upright) and everybody else is something more natural and slightly more slouched while jason’s back is insanely slouched and messed up
I'm angry we didn't get a better boss fight with Jason. He isn't just some thug or gunman, he's Batman's former sidekick. He's strong and smart. Not quite on Batman's level, but close enough that with support, he could easily give him alot of trouble. Imagine a predator sequence where instead of the militia having anti-cowl cloaking, HE had it and stalked around as you tried to get the drop on eachother with militia roaming around, to gain an advantage for a short, origins deathstroke type 1v1 before any remaining militia close in, and then he retreats to the shadows with a flashbang to blind you. Imagine him being able to track your cowl when you scan the militia, faster than the guys who can normally track you, and his search radius gets smaller and closer to your position the longer you use it. Hitting max tracking or performing a loud takedown would alert him to your exact location and he'd rush you, making it impossible to get the advantage without a counter landed with VERY tight timing or managing to get out of there on time. They could have made him a slightly weaker version of the player, with the added militia support to make life harder for you and have him put up the fight we'd expect someone like him to. I mean, he DOES actually resist an attempt by Batman to get the jump on him, so it would have been nice to have him actually live up to the hype of being a serious threat by making him a challenging and unique fight.
This honestly reminds me of the boss fight near the end of The Last of Us Part 2 where both the player and the enemy are sneaking around each other. One mistake in that fight whether it be brushing past some chains or stepping on glass was enough to get the player killed. If you havent heard of the game I highly recommend playing it, it is easily my favorite game of all time.
@@kinorris1709 that's true, but i feel like what you described might be a bit too hard for. On my first playthrough, even on normal difficulty i was having quite a bit of trouble. But it's still a very good idea
Rocksteady completely forgot how to do a boss fight while making this game. You'd be hard pressed to find good one in the core game. Defeating Deathstroke in a cutscene after a fucking tank battle after all that buildup was just the sick icing on top!
One of the problems with Jason as the Arkham Knight is the flashbacks. The moment you see the first one you know the identity because there's no other reason to have flashbacks in a game unless it's related. That gave away the mystery behind Arkham Knight. Also the Red Hood figurine was the first give away
Granted, he also experienced a prior flashback to Barbara getting shot by the Joker. If looking at that sequence without the idea of the Knight being Jason, they tie together as Joker messing with Batman about bringing his friends into this little game of theirs, leading to him being afraid of losing Tim after Harley's attack on the studios.
@@davidbeer5015 You're right but with the Red Hood figure and dlc I was almost sure that the knight would be Jason and not just me, others may have guessed it as well
@@seynpurrp Calm down man, I didn't say the game was bad or anything, I was disappointed by the reveal that AK was Jason and this is my and 45 other people's opinion who have agreed with me with their likes. And yes everything about AK is cool, from the way he talks to his swagger and the way he walks with the only problems being the ones that I mentioned above
I have a headcanon that bruce knew that it was jason, he just didnt want to accept it. Maybe thats why the scenes of jasons torture happened, it was bruce's fear of it being jason and his mind trying to fight off the thought of it being jason
Honestly I think a good idea would’ve just been to have Jason reveal his identity to Bruce at ACE Chemicals at the beginning of the game. Then deep dive into how that affects Bruce throughout the rest of the game (more flashbacks and such) instead of Bruce searching for his identity. Jason is openly psychologically tormenting and torturing Batman via the fact Bruce knows it’s his fallen son throughout all of it, that’s causing the mass devastation and chaos With Jason’s identity know by the Batfam as well you could include more interactions between him and the other members, where he challenges them over their loyalty to Batman There should’ve been an actual fight with Jason in the game as well, where it feels like you’re fighting another Batman. Combining all the elements of before games bosses (Freeze, Deathstroke, etc.) and having Jason basically damn near know your every move
Why would he reveal his identity when that would risk scarecrow betraying him? Having the reveal take place at ace chemicals is completely arbitrary when the Arkham Knight reveal is supposed to serve as the culmination of Batman’s arc in the game.
I honestly think arkham knight shouldve been anarky from origins. He was just a kid in origins, he rallied a large number behind him, and he not only was onto batman by calling him "just another spoiled rich kid", but also says something that could be the driving motive of the arkham knight, by suggesting that batman is the reason the city has gone to hell. Bringing the argument of batman making his own enemies to light. In arkham knight, Cash's logs state that anarky got snatched by the government. Deathstroke was taken by amanda waller, she couldve grabbed anarky too. He trains with deathstroke, rallies an army, studied batman. Batman doesnt even suggest that anarky could be the knight, b/c hes a kid that got lost in this system, and you can argue that batman failed him.
That might have worked in other Batman adaptations? But in the Arkham universe, a majority of Batman villains were either already villains beforehand or their origins were not influenced by Batman. The only exception to this would have been Joker
@@retr0prime_812 personally I still disagree. If Anarky was to make that argument of Batman creating his villains, the inclusion of Jason would not change the majority. It would only be Joker and Jason that Batman created. And even then an argument could be made that it was Joker would made Jason a villain, not Batman
One idea I had was instead of Jason being the Arkham Knight. An interesting idea would be to reveal that Damian Wayne, in his early 20s, could've been Arkham Knight. I think the idea of an older Damian being the Arkham Knight would've been intriguing, and maybe he became the Arkham Knight as a way to avenge his mother, Talia. Damian blames Bruce for failing to save her. Damian would've used his resources from the League of Assassins and teamed up with Scarecrow to secretly double-cross Scarecrow in his misguided revenge against his biological father. Maybe Bruce could've stopped him, and Damian could've gone down a character redemption to become the next Batman in a hypothetical Batman Beyond game?
That was an idea I had for this story have the Arkham Knight be Damian Wayne. If you want Jason Todd then have the Red Hood be a consultant for the Arkham Knight. Which he tries to help Bruce because he too believed Scarecrow killed Barbara with his explanation for why he was helping them being “I just wanted to do something special to prove you wrong not to get Babs killed!” and like with Nightwing you team up with him to take out Militia HQ’s. For Damian have him play with Batman, have him toy with the Dark Knight, and when he manages to get the drop on him have him leave calling Batman Detective something Ra’s would have called him to get Bruce thinking the Arkham Knight is some disciple of Ra’s. Only to then in their next encounter after a one on one boss fight he escapes with him calling him Bruce. Which would then Shock him into realizing this isn’t just some random League member, but someone who was close to Ra’s and to Talia. Then when he reveals his identity he isn’t called Damian Wayne, but Damian Al Ghul. With Damian in the fight removing Bruce’s masking and when looking at him looks at his reflection realizing that him and Bruce look a like revealing that Damian was forbidden from looking at his reflection. As Ra’s in the Arkham Verse didn’t want Damian to know who his father was so he didn’t know Bruce was his Father, and at the end of the game when Bruce his unmasked it isn’t red hood who helps Bruce, but Damian now with a modified Arkham Knight suit to look more like the Batman Beyond suit. Is this cheese? Oh most definitely, is it better then what we got? You got me I’m just some guy who just thought of something.
@@ParrotPentester Damien Wayne would be about 10 years old at most, and where would he get the money the hire the Millita ( not from the villains ). Also Joker killed tailia not Batman so what reason would he have for killing Batman. He would be raised to kill criminals if anything
@@Kainewall It's a different universe, the age can be whatever they want to make, Jason got the money from the villains aswell, he didn't earn them. Joker killing talia and then Batman blamed himself for both joker and talia's death, and damian would kill batman because to him he killed his mother, jason was also raised to kill criminals. Your whole comment doesn't make sense at all.
1. The Knight's intimate knowledge of how Batman operates. 2. The Knight calling him Old Man. 3. Having a sample of the Knight's voice. Had he processed it as an intelligent person would have done, then he would've gotten to hear the Knight's voice unaltered.
@@r0bw00d shit that’s actually a really good point… but I mean if a random guy I didn’t recognize called me "little man" I wouldn’t go straight to "holy heck my dad’s back from the grave." But I’m not Batman, and I’m dirt poor so yeah. Batman could’ve tried a little harder.
@@r0bw00d 1. Ras. He has a significant knowledge about Batman. Telltale Penguin did a similar thing,so it is not stupid or out od place to think Ras has knowledge about Batman's suit and his other gadgets. 2.Still not convinced. Damian also calls him an old man. 3.His voice filter is probably a spesificall type. Where it is hard to processed the actuall voice.
When I first experienced Arkham Knight I didn’t know what a Jason Todd was but when I saw the Jason torture hallucinations I instantly knew “oh this Arkham knight guy must be this dude being tortured” the reveal was weak af but my god I love Troy Bakers performance with Jason
I don't think Jason's reveal is as bad as people say, sure everyone saw it coming but only because we know Jason Todd comes back as Red Hood and because of the Joker tourturing Jason cutscenes, the player is obviously gonna think that if we're being shown this that means it must have some sort of story relevance, but from Batman's perspective, Jason is DEAD, he has been for years and as such he has no reason to even CONSIDER that he's even connected to the Arkham Knight, plus the fact he was trained by Batman means it's fairly reasonable no info could be found about his identity by Alfred, how do you think no one knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman? The reveal works well for completing Bruce's arc throughout the story as well as perfectly explaining how he knows so much about his tricks, it's not meant to surprise the player because the Jason kidnapping cutscenes kinda spell it out
@@melancholyentertainment to be honest, I really don't care if the devs expected people to figure it out early or not, the scene works really well either way
THANK YOU I feel like videos like this are just a bunch of nerds thinking like nerds do, not knowing that you’re supposed to come at these sequences and villains as if you have 0 prior knowledge. Like of course these guys can sniff out that it’s Jason Todd but Batman was CONVINCED that Jason was DEAD. He would never ever think for a second that his biggest threat was not only his dead sidekick, but from Batman’s perspective he tried and FAILED to rescue him.
@@brandenboggess6672 exactly, its a really well written story if you just have the right perspective on it but it seems most don't ever think to consider it from that angle
One idea I heard that I think was GREAT is that Jason's identity should've been revealed early on. That way the dialogue, the audio tapes, and especially the visions of Jason's torment would've been WAY more impactful, and seemed less random. Plus it would've given Troy Baker more opportunities to flex his acting muscles more. I mean, in the one brief cutscene where Jason's unmasked, I got choked up. His ability to convey emotion is INSANE, and I wish we could've gotten more of that.
They couldn't even give Deathstroke such a fight in this game!! You take him out with a fucking bat-tank! 😂 It's sad that Rocksteady, who pioneered hand to hand combat with Arkham Asylum, couldn't think of a single creative way to build on and top their Arkham gameplay with what was THE hyped next-gen Arkham game at the time.. It kills me to this day.
Apparently, its theorized that batman already suspected and feared that it was jason todd from the moment they met at ace chemicals, hence why joker taunts him with memories of Jason being tortured, and why he had alfred looking for someone else to fit the description in hopes that it wasnt him.
One thing I think doesn't get brought up enough is that one of the main problems with Jason's motive is that going to Scarecrow was HIS IDEA. Why is he complaining to Scarecrow about wanting to kill Batman when he knew from the beginning that Scarecrow had no intention of doing so and he said he wanted Scarecrow to help him Batman suffer... The biggest issue with Jason as the Arkham Knight is that Rocksteady wanted to have their cake and eat it too. They wanted to have this emotional story but rather than reveal his identity early and then delve into it as the game goes on they decide to instead have this dumb mystery. Even after his reveal they have one little conversation and, disappears and has a change of heart offscreen...like bruh. You'd think that the mystery would at least be interesting but nope...Alfred does all the work offscreen and the mystery itself barely matters in the grand scheme of things. Really wanted to see what Rocksteady could have done with an original character...such a waste of an awesome design too.
2:40 it is not about that batman didnt knew from the start, he acutally knew but he didnt want to belive in it that is why he hoped that alfred would find someone else, same with joker he never cared about his indetity but he cared about knigth's
I was one of the few that was shocked that it ended up being Jason, because I was certain it wouldn’t be *THAT* easy to guess. I had recently read the court of the owls story, which came out shortly before the game, and was 99% sure AK would be Bruce’s secret twin brother that was running the Court at the end of that story, since a lot of that story matches what we knew about Arkham Knight: knows Batman’s moves, knows who he is, is physically capable of fighting him head-on, etc. Plus, the devs straight up said ITS NOT JASON/RED HOOD and I took them at their word lmao. Ngl was kind of disappointed they went with the Jason route, but its not like Bruce’s brother was ever set up in the series before either so Jason makes more sense for AK at the end of the day. I was, however, glad to shocked and surprised my first play through, something that seems to be a unique experience to me lmao. Overall, very glad I read that comic at the time and convinced myself it wasn’t gonna be Jason, made this games story a lot better the first run 😂
Even in the original Red Hood story, Jason’s focus was on proving Batman’s methodology wrong. Jason even states that he forgave Bruce for not saving him but was angry that he left Joker alive. Arkham Knight could have been a criticism on Batman’s methods, morale code and impact. The goal could have been to undermine Batman’s legacy like the Scarecrow did.
To that "The greatest detective couldnt figure it out but the audience could" No duh, we live in a real world with prior knowledge to Batman and Batman lore, we know Jason Todd came back to life, Batman thought Jason was dead, why would Bruce think his son who "died" came back to life, gained a giant army and trained them to kill him? Put yourself into Bruce's shoes here for a moment.
And that's why it did not work, in the original comic he was dead, we saw Bruce buried the body. In AK, we just have to believe that Bruce accepted Jason is dead just by a vague video Joker had sent ? And Batman of all people, the goddamn Batman would never retrieve the body and give him a proper burial ? See how stupid it is
@@onglanh5329 God you're not very bright. Comics aren't canon. Batman didn't know what abandoned wing it was. He looked through Arkham. We've seen this in multiple instances in AK. Hell, even in asylum the most we possibly got was the drawings in the cells. Do you not pay attention? Do you not even understand how grief works? 🤦
@@onglanh5329Batman doesn’t know where Jason is. And even if he did, he was (though to be) dead and they could have just tossed his body into the ocean
@@GlitchingRobin good answer, its been a while since i played all the Games. Can u explain what exactly we saw or to be more precise, what exactly do u mean by what you saidy i cannot remeber Batman lookin for jason in the games we played…
2:30 I saw an interesting point the other day about how Batman being utterly fixated on his identity was probably a result of Batman actually *knowing* it was Jason the whole time, but was in denial, and the adamant panic-induced search was because he wanted to somehow prove to himself that it *wasn't* Jason. After all, Batman doesn't care about the identities of any other villain, even the ones that know his true identity. That's just not relevant to him, and he objectively has no reason to focus on fixating so much on Arkham Knight's identity since it isn't really relevant to defeating him. It's also clear Jason is very much on his mind because he'll accidentally slip up and call Dick Grayson Jason for example in clear emotional distress, and having hallucinations and flashbacks about Jason in the theater, etc.; basically a lot of people criticize Batman for somehow not knowing it was Jason, but they don't consider the fact that it was actually Batman trying to convince himself that what he knows is wrong, because he desperately wants it to NOT be Jason.
I didn't like how Jason played a role in killing the people of Gotham / trying to destroy the city. If Jason's problem was with Batman only, he should have just focused on that instead of being a terrorist warlord. Seems out of character for Jason to become like this, only to pivot into the Red Hood after his final fight with Batman where he just talked to him. That being said, still one of my favourite games. I play it at least once a year.
no Junior's a great villain, but this would be misusing him my initial theory was the Knight being Jean Paul Valley, the OTHER Azrael, the one who became Batman after Bane broke Bruce's back, someone skilled enough to match the threat level, self righteous enough to imitate Batman, and psychotic enough to be an impactful villain, and considering that the Order of St. Dumas and Azrael(Michael Lane) were introduced in City and the side mission for that ended with the foreboding warning, I almost expected a twist that the Militia WERE the order in secret, using Scarecrow's plan as a convenient means to retake Gotham. This not being the case was something I was initially fine with until I read all of Batman: White Knight and saw how they used Jean Paul Valley
As someone who played the game that only knew about the Nolan trilogy (I know a lot more than that now lol), I was shocked to find out who Jason was. I thought Joker killed him in the flashbacks too.
How great would it be if events played out like this.. - Jason reveals his identity maybe 1/4 into the game like you suggest here and pushes Batman mentally with guilt - Scarecrow uses this to distract Batman for much of the game until the Cloudburst is ready - Just before the fear toxin is released and Jason has served his purpose, Scarecrow turns on him and takes Jason captive again in the asylum to cause further suffering for Jason and Batman - The finale of the game is Batman fighting through streets crowded with fear toxin-induced civilians, reverses the toxin with the help of Ivy, and then goes to Arkham - The last missions in the game is going through the familiar Asylum where it all began fighting off patients crazed by the toxin - In the end, Batman agrees to reveal his identity in exchange for Jason’s freedom - Jason sees he was wrong and Batman was always willing to do anything for him. Jason then returns to help Batman. **In this version, let’s cut the Joker subplot and let Jason/Scarecrow take center stage. Joker was great in this, but we’ve had enough of him by this point.
part of me wishes that arkham knight was more like kraven from spider-man 2. he comes to gotham to kills all the villains and save batman for last to prove he’s a better hero than him.
I get what you mean, but after Spider-Man 2 I can’t see kraven as anything other than a Pathetic Thrill-junkie, addicted to the adrenaline and dopamine he gets from the hunt, I can’t even properly compare him to other addicts because unlike them he’s not worth saving as his life is so empty and devoid of meaning that his pathetic addiction is the only thing that has meaning in his life. It no wonder he acts like it some sort of glorious act, full of purpose. Edit: I apologise, I went on a tangent there for a bit, tbh I just needed to get that out of my system.
They should’ve cut back on the amount of torture scenes for Jason and added one for Tim. That way along with the VR game they’d show Batman directly or indirectly hurting every member of the bat family instead of focusing so much on Jason.
From someone who's first experiences with Batman were the Dark Knight trilogy and the Arkham series, I thought this was a brilliant way to reveal that the Arkham Knight was the second Robin. To someone intimately familiar with Batman, this wasn't a surprise, but it still shocked me as a kid.
damian wayne would've made more sense as the arkham knight, thalias death would've made perfect sense as the motivation for his character hating batman, also thalia mentioned that her and bruce spent a night together in metropolis once. jason todd has never been referenced in any of the other arkham games and they made it too obvious that it was jason with the way they marketed the game
Its kinda ironic that the arkham knights story completely revolves around HEAVY abandonment trauma, yet his story was kinda pushed to the side by the writers
I think keeping things mostly the same but Getting to play as him in the tutorial and playing out his escape during the events of asylum and having him look to the batwing as it flies away triumphantly and see the hatred in his face could have been a great setup. That and giving him a bigger part post game would have justified the title of the game.
I was heavily invested in this game before release and Rocksteady specifically said that it wasnt Jason Todd. DC even backed them up by saying it was a completely original character made in collaboration between DC and Rocksteady.
I actually think Batman figured it was Jason towards the beginning of the game, because it’s the only way the Knight would know everything about him. He makes Alfred search for another possibility in desperation that he might be wrong. This also explains the hallucinations of Jason in the movie studio. It’s all inside Batman’s head, therefore at this point in the game he is suspecting that he could be Jason. I agree, it wouldn’t make sense for the greatest detective to figure it out after us 😂
To me and probably a lot of people it was obvious that Jason was the knight was the sense from the movie studios. And rocksteady seemed liek they knew they were making it obvious. So they made joker shoot Jason to make people think he was actually dead and that he's not the knight. They tried to throw off the player but it still made it more obvious.
What’s really sad is that Tim stole the Robin suit… meaning that when joker photographed Batman out with the new Robin, it’s not because Bruce had moved on
The arkham knight fight needed to be something spectacular. I thought a constant shift between hand to hand, and Jason switching from vantage point to vantage point whilst hiding trying to get the spook on batman. Almost like fighting batman himself, since jason was so well trained, but it was just generic. If that bossfight was good, that alone was enough to transform the quality of his villian arc.
ngl I played this game for the first time when I was a lot younger (I'm 14 now so probably when I was like 10) and this "mistery" thing completely worked on me, also because at the start, when The Arkham Knight takes off his helmet I still didn't realise he was Jason. Now that I think about it I find it kinda funny
I wonder if the Arkham Knight’s identity being Jason was easy to figure out because we know of Jason being alive is something we know of because we know of the story of the red hood.
One of the funniest things to me personally is in Panessa movie studies, when Batman hallucinates Jason Todd, it is the same voice actor. Obviously, you can see Jason Todd being the knight due to these hallucinations by itself, but the fact rocksteady didn’t go out of its way to just change the VA is hilarious to me
They should have had him be Hush or someone else. Jason Todd fundamentally does not belong in Arkham Batman, he would have been mentioned in Asylum and City, likely with the Joker mocking him. I think it's a function of the devs/writers trying to cram in as much Batman lore and fan service into the series without regard for the established narrative. Although an interesting idea would have been to have nightwing or the current Robin is kidnapped, tortured and brainwashed after city and take the role of the knight.
In a city combat challenge map, if you play as Robin, Joker says something along the lines of "Didn't i kill you already?" And i think he says something about batman needing a sidekick in asylum.
@@VergilDMC Doesn't count at all, if Todd existed in the prior game, he would be explicitly mentioned especially with the Joker's phone call in Arkham City. Paul Dini was actively going for Hush being the villain in collaboration with Scarecrow in Arkham Knight, until he left.
@@jorgizoran4340 So the evidence that disputes your point "doesn't count at all" despite it being made by the developers? Seems you simply can't handle someone disagreeing and backing themselves up with evidence.
They could have had red hood in side missions. A deadly vigilante taking out the knights forces. Maybe have it come to a head in the movie studios with the other "jokers". The flashes of what happened to Jason could happen maybe b4 a face-down with red hood.
i don’t mind the arkham knight being jason and i think a lot of fans were let down by it and found it so obvious cause we already know jason isn’t dead but batman doesn’t we only know because we’re fans of the story
Or a mix: 1st part stealth - but you have to find Jason, he’s actively hunting you and hiding and you have to hide and set traps 2nd part hand to hand - Deathstroke type fight w/ waves of militia 3rd part vehicle to final hand to hand - but then you’d be out of the compound so idk But sort of a way to make it call back to Mr Freeze and Deathstroke
The thing that bothers me the most about the Arkham Knight is that Batman had more than enough information to deduce his identity fairly early on into the story, but had to break character for the sake of the dramatic tension. Worse, anyone familiar with Red Hood which was going to be a big portion of the Batman fanbase to begin with is likewise connecting those dots really quickly. A simple fix I think would have been for Batman to consider Jason early on, but not have full proof. So instead of going most of the night trying to figure out the Arkham Knight's identity, he develops the Jason hypothesis early on and spends a small period of time after that finding proof. Additionally, rather than a cliche "I'm going to kill you!" revenge plot, I feel like it would have been more impactful if he was manipulating Batman into "sacrificing" the Bat Family for the sake of the mission, one by one converting them over to his side. First Oracle, faking her death and having her believe that Batman left her to die. Then Robin, having him believe that Batman kept what happened to Oracle a secret from him, and then finally Nightwing, perhaps in a more direct confrontation. This would leave Batman in a position in which he needs to win the Bat Family back over to his side. This would I think require Jason to have been intending on betraying Scarecrow all along, a secret he shares only with Barbara, Tim, and Dick. His plan could be not to kill Batman or even to turn him over to Scarecrow to let him do it, but to teach Batman how it feels to be betrayed so that he may see the error in how he carries out his mission, and then prove his own superiority by being the one to take down Scarecrow with his intention for it to be permanent by putting lead in him. As Batman slowly wins the individual members of the Bat Family back over to his side, he slowly becomes more privy to Jason's plan and it becomes his goal to stop Jason before he crosses the line, all while having to also figure out a way to stop Scarecrow.
For what would've saved this games image would've been a different name. "Arkhams Ghost: the Red Hood" would've basically explained everything you needed to know. Fans would know what this was about, people not in the know would be intrigued, and Rocksteady wouldn't have kicked themselves trying to pretend the Arkham Knight is someone else.
You guys probably realised this already, but what I think it could make Batman: Arkham Knight's plot even better, was showing the origin of Jason Todd in the Arkham Universe which is a far more brutal and tragic origin compared to The Death in The Family, like adapting what we saw in the Arkham Knight comics, showing all the tortures Jason endure and the events of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City through Jason's perspective, in the same way of the flashbacks we saw in the Panessa Studios.
Honestly for how bad the execution of the Arkham Knight/Jason Todd mystery was, i absolutely love the confrontation between bruce and jason when its revealed, honestly one of the best written scenes in the Arkham franchise
Damn when you was talking about what if he started playing more into emotional manipulation of the family to side with him showing them batman is flawed I was like "let him cook"!
Rocksteady remake this game: 1st- less tank battles 2nd- More unique Boss battles 3rd- Give a Real DeathStroke vs Batman fight mano a mano 4th- reduce the riddler trophy numbers it gets boring 5th- More detective mode sidequest 6th- Make the Hush sidequest valuable make it longer and interesting 7- Give us a Real RedHood boss battle not that pick a boo in the sewer with tanks, we want strategic take down, 1v1 fights . This game couldve been the best game ever but no it was a tank simulation
They literally did give us a strategic fight with red hood. Btw not even 25 percent of game is spent in the Batmobile. Even if you cut the Batmobile from Arkham knight, you still spend even more time as Batman than the entirety of Arkham city’s length.
I feel like one of the main problems was that AK never felt like that much of an actual match for Batman. Sure he had him playing catch up, but that was only due to a difference in resources, not because he was actually smarter or stronger. Playing as Batman, I always felt like it was a matter of time before I caught this guy (when he ran out of mooks and tanks), and I would’ve much preferred to feel like I was up against this insurmountable obstacle. Have me get outsmarted at every turn and have AK beat the shit out of me, I promise my bruised ego will manage.
Watching an antagonist operate, see the impactful actions taken and understanding why said character is doing this will always be far more engaging than. "Gee I wonder who this guy is"
If it was the mystery aspect of the Arkham Knight they wanted to focus on, they should’ve chosen Hush instead of Red Hood. But the way that you presented this makes much more sense given that it’s Jason
This video gave me an idea I never considered until you brought up the audio tapes: I know you said reveals and information shouldn’t be relegated to audio tapes if they’re regarding main characters, but imagine if, instead of beating the player over the head with “hints” that Jason is the Knight, part of the story had Batman accidentally/intentionally finding the audio tapes of Barbara and Jason before he knew it was Jason. Barbara saying Jason’s name, and their conversation after, would’ve been such a better reveal than what they did
Ok on the games defense As a dude who originally only contact with Batman as a character was the Nolan films and then the Arkham games. The reveal is still pretty unexpected
The funniest thing about the arkham knight identity was people knew who it was before it came out. The mystery of him knowing batman's moveset just confirmed it for everyone.
it wouldve been cool if they had a section were you try be stealthy in the bat cave with the malisha there whilst the arkham knight tracks you down cheking and going through vents and even sneaking up behind you and doing stealth take down and then you get a 1v1 boss fight with him after you disarm his guns were he can stun and zip kick and counter you. this would make him way more of a threat and really make it feel like he knows all your moves stalking you using the same tactics you do and adapting accordingly
Honestly out of all the theories I wish it had been an original character. I figured out it was Jason from the gameplay trailers but head cannoned that it was someone who got obsessed with Bruce during his education or early training years and lost a sparring match or whatever. Then followed him in his escapades and travels after school trying to understand or emulate the guy. Following the same trainings and taking in the same experiences but sometimes getting the wrong lesson out of them maybe even scarring him and blaming Bruce. Eventually becoming the second student of Ra's and besting even him and then going back to Gotham during Year 2 and studying the mythical Batman for years from the shadows while scrubbing his identity along the way. Basically just wanted to best him and show him he's not shit and there was someone above him in the food chain. Just a jealous petty and angry man with John Wick levels of capability and precise obsession.
13:10 You think it's a dick move until you remember that he's been infected too. That at some point, he could become the Joker. If he did, it would be over for Gotham. It really makes that he does that to Tim. Because he's desperate.
See this is directly countered by the theory that Batman ALWAYS knew it was Jason, hence why after Arkham Knight's line "Don't worry Bruce, I kept some secrets to myself". He doesn't call Alfred or anything like he does every other time, at this point he has to accept that what he believes is true. Batman has had Alfred looking for a name to try and prove that what he believes is wrong and that it can't possibly be Jason.
I feel like batman knew that it was jason but he refused to think it was him and didnt want it to come down to that so he looked for every possible way that it was not jason but he knew it was jason causing him to be in a sad state
For me personally this is the best take for Jason as in the comics he is always trying and trying to take control in Gotham to stop crime ....trying to get the job done regardless of morality and reason....I also get it this version got sidelined and Scarecrow took the spotlight...But what if Batman figured it out quicker about the Arkham knight's true identity...would it change anything?...Even so this character is contagious his personality can easily be overwhelming and has alot of scope which for most writers it becomes challenging
Interesting video. I'm reminded of how in Arkham City, Batman wanted to save Talia from Joker but he is blocked by Alfred and Oracle who tell him that saving Gotham is the priority. So in that case, they are more mission oriented than even Batman! "You know I'm right" Alfred.
I was hoping for some Origins Deathstroke type of fight against the Knight, especially when they made it obvious that the Knight was Jason. Batman fighting defensively wanting to just talk some sense into Jason while the latter fights in a bloodlusted way, all the while they're talking while exchanging blows. Batman overpowers him and stops his punch while looking at a resigned Jason. Then we get to the scene where Jason points a gun at Batman, who has his arm extended wanting to help him. Then Jason puts down the gun in defeat then just hauls ass. I'd want that.
Anyone who knew a comic book at all knew who Arkham Knight was, saw it a mile away. Everyone knew but Batman. And they could have played on that, in the main scene you mentioned. The audio logs between Barbara and Jason could have been a cutscene. One we saw when Bruce enters the containment cell at first. I remember having to enter the cell like 3 times before the prompt to counter Tim pushing Batman inside appeared. After the first time, a cutscene between Barbara and Jason could have played as the audio logs said. This would give credence to Jason's words in real time, as after that cutscene you'd be taken to before entering the cell, where you'd be prompted to counter to then get Tim inside instead. Proving to us, the audience, that the Knight has a point. When it comes down to it, Bruce will place the mission first. In this case the mission was finding a Joker toxin cure, and preventing Tim from finding out about Barbara's kidnapping and supposed death.
I think most of the audience only really finds out it's Jason after the museum section with the Joker. To this day, I believe if that hole hallucination section was moved to after the reveal of the Arkham Knight's identity, the twist would have probably been better. Then, the Joker section would be more showing the things that Joker did and the contents of the tape.
I think part of the problem for me is that their relationship was never built up previously, so the reveal doesn't really hit that hard for the player because we never got to know him, so we have no connection to him.
For me it was the predictability of the Arkham Knight they painfully tell As soon as you hear him speak as he’s voiced by Troy baker as he voiced red hood in the pre order dlc
Ahhh you are missing someting, The Arkham Knight was hyped up to be a grand new villain. BEFORE the games release I might add. People immediately guesssed it, that it's Jason Todd!? And Rocksteady denied it. No no it's not Jason Todd, it's a new Villain trust us! The game released and oh shocker we were all right. This is the "let down" and lesson which has to be learned. Don't give away shit in trailers and keep your PR department on a short leash!
little detail that i like to belive is that batman knew the arkham knight was jason but refused to beleive this, you see this particually when batman asks about the arkham knight his voice changes to be more frustrated that it coudn't be someone else and how he coudn't beleive it was jason
they should’ve had the jason story at the beginning of the game and allow it to highlight him sacrificing barbara and tim almost turning the audience against him in some ways. This also would’ve done with the fact that i knew it was jason just from the timing of the cutscenes and how they were all back to back
Let's be honest, Batman is a near century old IP and a great deal of stories has been told with the cape crusader and it’s as though writers want to make the next "iconic moment" in the Batman's mythology. If you're a funny book reader you know Jason Todd dies and comes back as the super villain the Red Hood and it is considered by many to be an iconic moment in Batman's mythology. As an outside observer and consumer of the Bat Media it feels to me that the writers love the idea of the “plot twist” versus me being aware of Batman’s mythology so they want to deliver it in a way where the audience is surprised so they try to obfuscate what the audience knows by saying "it's this new villain called the Arkham Knight" and that's where it feels like the outside world is influencing the fiction. I liken it to "chasing a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow", it's the impossible venture and the reason why is that the writers don’t decide the next iconic Batman story, the reader does. It's a strange variant of meta-writing where the outside perception of being a writer makes it seem like they want to create the next iconic moment. However, the reality is that everybody has a different opinion on an "Iconic Batman story" and everyone is of a different opinion on which is iconic, it's a reader-to-reader basis. There is no hard rule to gain a story that iconic status. It's merely the result of a story resonating with a wide enough collective of readers that makes it transformative and thus becomes iconic. An this might be a tangent but it's baffling that the writing pushes Scarecrow to prominence for no reason. Jason is the one with the personal connection to Bruce and yet the writers inject this invasive plot about Scarecrow who disrupts the Red Hood/Batman dynamic. The most tentative connection between Batman and Scarecrow is "Batman uses fear to fight crime". There is no personal tether between the two. It's not like Batman feels as though he failed to save Scarecrow, the legacy of Arkham Scarecrow is he's some idiot who stuffs straw down his pants, straps needles to his fingers and then got mauled by Killer Croc that one time. If they never followed up on him after Arkham Asylum, I doubt outside of some fans of Scarecrow no one is going to be hard-pressed to demand a follow up on his story and I am speaking as someone who likes Scarecrow and thinks he has great villain potential but even this games plot had me laughing at him. He feels like he is in the game to justify bringing back Joker for a 4th game. Honestly, if the narrative wrote it more that the stress of failing to save Jason caused Batman to start hallucinating Joker, have Batman is just overworking himself, sleepless nights, weeks at work trying to deduce this "Red Hood" and maybe "how did I miss this? How did I let this happen to Jason?" and he starts to see the "ghost of his nemeses" and he is on the verge of a psychological break down that's way sadder and a bit more dramatic then the whole poison blood position plotline. You just have Joker show up for a little bit instead of him stealing the plot from Scarecrow. I don’t even recall if the writers explored Scarecrow having a desire for revenge against Killer Croc for mauling him, which could easily be a side quest where you have to save the large crocodile man from the idiot made of straw who is pumping Croc with so much fear toxin, he’s just a rabid animal that needs to unfortunately be put down. The main plot could be this new vigilante called the Red Hood arrives in Gotham, he's executing Batman's rogues with help from a partner named Lock-Up (who is a former Arkham officer so he could have been the one who saved Jason in the asylum and they share a similar mindset of vigilante justice and agree to "clean up Gotham") and the plot becomes Bruce needs to deduce who is this Red Hood, why does he use a nom de plume that the Joker once had, how does the Red Hood know so much about Batman, the bat-family and his tactics, how are his safe houses compromised, and explore themes of failed family: Bruce's failings as a mentor and father, Alfred's failings to protect Jason from Bruce's negligence, Jason's role as a brother to Barbara and Dick as caped crusaders and in a way child soldiers in the war on crime. Instead, because the goal feels like it's focused on the "twist" to circumvent the audience’s expectation of this game, which is clearly the storyline with extra steps, we get the Arkham Knight nonsense. I don't doubt that the twist that it's Jason Todd could surprise somebody, not everyone has read , but given that we live in an age of fast-track information it feels like a cursory glance on a Wikipedia about who Jason Todd is and the audience would be able to easily deduce the Arkham Knight is Jason Todd faster than Batman does in the game. At the end of this venture the game’s focus on the Arkham Knight narrative feels misguided. Instead of focusing on Jason Todd, the failure of Bruce Wayne, it's instead the writers want to conceive the next iconic moment in the Batman Mythos.
Honestly, I feel like they should have had the Barbara/Jason audio log as an in-game cutscene instead of what it was. I feel like that would have been a far more impactful reveal, and we'd be anticipating what Batman's reaction would be to Jason being alive, and antagonistic toward him and the way he's gone about his life's mission. Plus, the moment before this new version of the reveal would show a softer side of Jason, and better show his eventual rebound at the end of the game, showing that despite him wanting to hate Batman, he knows that they both want the same for Gotham -- justice and order, and that Bruce Wayne is still the man that loved him, took him in, and raised him like a son.
The player can realize who the Arkham knight is before batman because we know the red hood exists in other adaptations of batman. It's also theorized that batman suspected that Jason Todd was the Arkham Knight, but wasn't sure yet. This theory comes from the fact that when they first meet batman couldn't care less who he was, yet as the story goes on, he becomes more desperate to learn who he is. Then there was the fact that neither Batman nor Joker had any reaction when the Arkham Knight called him Bruce. As if batman already knew that the knight knew who he was.
I think Joker hallucinations are meant to show that idea of Arkham Knight being Jason Todd does come to his head, but it does not make any sense knowing how Joker operates.
when i first played the game my immediate thought was "oh, it's jason todd" but then i started second guessing myself thinking "no way they keep building up this mystery for it to be that obvious" and then they revealed who it was and i thought "oh... it's jason todd"
I think they should have revealed early on that this was Jason Todd. His identity was spoiled to me before I played the game since I got onto the Armand wagon a couple years after the series ended (counting kill the Justice League) so going in. I knew this was Jason Todd, but I wasn’t told why he wanted to kill that. So the whole time I’m wondering “why does he want to kill Batman? If half of Gotham believes Batman killed the Joker? I see the torture went through as Joker keeps telling him Batman is to blame, and it all made sense The mystery shouldn’t have been “who is the Arkham Knight ?” it should’ve been “Why did Jason become the Arkham Knight?
What I think would have been a better reveal, if it was Timm Drake, and they just hinted at current robin existing throughout the game. He has been put of and almost babied as a sidekick since he became robin. He had to leave anything he had before just to be babied and told to stay at home while bats was fighting crime.
No one was more done dirty than Hush after the exciting intro in City which led to a single-button-press mission in Knight
The rot was already taking over Rocksteady by the time they made Arkham Knight.
@@mattmark94ironic that u say that cause Arkham Knight went extremely well and most people love it
I respectfully disagree. Deathstroke.
@@lebayhsok9557deathstrokes boss was good, just not as good as what WB did
@@jaquan323 The Deathstroke boos battle in Arkham Knight was just another tank battle instead of a real melee boss battle we should've gotten.
This is what I will remember as Arkham Batman’s true ending. Not the travesty we recently got
Corny
I don’t get why more fans don’t do this. I was surprised by how dramatic some people were being. Comicbook fans should be use to it. Just because Tom King’s Batman is bad doesn’t mean Scott Snyder’s Batman is ruined even though they are technically the same.
@@inshal6420 I do agree but on the other hand I was a big “How I met your mother” fan. After watching the final episode I couldn’t even watch the show anymore. Perhaps knowing where the path leads can ruin the journey.
😔May all know THIS to be True😇
That's a given.
There is an incredibly easy fix to this. Reveal it to the audience right at the start, invincible-style. That way the audience would get their plottwist (though rather early), can focus on Batman’s surprise being fully convinced Jason is dead AND not be called idiots by the devs for having it be way too obvious the whole time. It would also allow you to have Jason’s interactions with Barbara as an actual cutscene giving Jason much more depth.
That’s an awful idea that completely ruins Batman’s arc throughout the game. Jason’s reveal was supposed to be the climax of Batman’s arc.
@@SoyboyPeter The other guy was saying that audience should know that Jason is the Arkham Knight (cuz every1 saw it coming from 10 miles away) and batman himself should have figured it out in the end. Kinda like how it takes a long ass while for mark to figure out who omniman truly is in invincible but the audience had known that omniman was a villain from the start, thus increasing the tension in th overall story
Batman should have known the Knight's identity from their second meeting. Arkham Batman is literally written to be stupid so that they can have that obvious reveal at the end of the game.
@@mattmark94 Why would he think Jason is the Arkham knight when he thinks Jason is dead? You definitely weren’t paying attention to the game at all.
@@vikrantburde8870 What you said made absolutely no sense at all. Why would Batman think Jason is the Arkham Knight when he thinks Jason is dead?
2:56 love how Jason stops the Fear Takedown
Was definitely a jaw dropping moment for me on my first play-through! Second time around I made sure to take out as many medics first.
This is the same company that gave us the clayface reveal, so they are capable of high quality storytelling they just didn’t put their best foot forward in Jason’s instance
City and asylum had a different writer
@@jawsdanFor the better considering how much superior knight’s writing is and considering how awful Dini’s plans were for Arkham Knight.
Well I mean, Clay face was just for shock if anything, sure you could say what Joker said, " it's important to keep up appearances." But ultimately it still was for shock.
@@SoyboyPeterwhat better those plans?
@@SoyboyPetersorry i meant what were
There should’ve been some interaction between Jason and Tim. It’s mentioned in the database that Tim actually came to Batman, having deduced his identity. Since then, it’s always been my head-canon that Bruce only took him on because he hoped that Tim's detective skills would be useful in helping him find Jason. There’s no other scenario where Batman takes on another Robin while Jason is still MIA.
It's also worth mentioning that Jason's database entry specifically mentions that he deactivated his tracker when he went after Joker. Compare to Dick, who gets captured by Penguin. Batman is able to rescue him within minutes because he still has his tracker, even as a solo hero. It's another missed opportunity that Jason never reckons on-screen with the culpability he has in his own fate.
That's exactly my headcanon too!
it’s not that jason was MIA it’s that he believed he was dead sure he was looking for him and once joker sent the film to batman to quite literally get him to "abandon" Jason he thought jason was just straight up dead and then tim found out about bruce and then batman saw that tim’s detective skills were comparable to him he adopted him as robin thought in the comics it’s a little more thought out like in the comics and even mentioned in the game database that tim was there that night when nightwings parents died too
thought it is pretty stupid that jokers film alone would’ve persuaded batman into believing he was dead cause realistically batman would try to at the very least find a body to give him a proper burial but just another example of weird choices with the writing in arkham knight
@@dummyalex4781 The time between Jason's initial disappearance and when the videotape was delivered is what I'm referring to as him being MIA, and that's when I think Bruce would have brought Tim into the fold.
Tim became Robin off of his own back, because he was convinced he needed him.
He went on to convince Batman.
Honestly, if they wanted Jason to work, they shouldve had him be the tutorial, make you feel helpless and pathetic. Show off the torture he went through, have joker monologue putting seeds of doubt in some nightmare sequences, and really have you just be in pain for Jason. That would’ve at least made you understand who this character is and why he makes sense for the narrative they were going for.
They literally already did that with the flashbacks at the movie studios and during Jason’s reveal.
@BrightLord3019
those were not flashbacks, those were allucinations from the fear toxin. The only real flashback was the scene when Joker was recording his fake killing of Jason, because Batman obviously watched that tape. Looks like you didn't pay attention to the story.
@@mattmark94 because the two previous hallucinations are what precipitated the third one, it’s Batman interpretation of the torture Joker must’ve put Jason through.
Honestly that’s a great idea. Getting to play as him in the tutorial and playing out his escape during the events of asylum and having him look to the batwing as it flies away triumphantly and see the hatred in his face could have been a great setup. That and giving him a bigger part post game would have justified the title of the game.
@@mattmark94i think the torture of jason is basically both a hallucination of batman’s mind mixed with joker taking over but also i think it’s actually what happened like basically the writers way of giving both because a lot of joker torture methods also coincide with how jason is presented in the game like joker putting the J on his cheek and also his much more slouched appearance because of the barbed wire that forced him to slouched and it’s kinda of proven because nightwing has a perfect spinal position (aka no slouching/standing perfectly balanced and upright) and everybody else is something more natural and slightly more slouched while jason’s back is insanely slouched and messed up
I'm angry we didn't get a better boss fight with Jason.
He isn't just some thug or gunman, he's Batman's former sidekick. He's strong and smart. Not quite on Batman's level, but close enough that with support, he could easily give him alot of trouble. Imagine a predator sequence where instead of the militia having anti-cowl cloaking, HE had it and stalked around as you tried to get the drop on eachother with militia roaming around, to gain an advantage for a short, origins deathstroke type 1v1 before any remaining militia close in, and then he retreats to the shadows with a flashbang to blind you.
Imagine him being able to track your cowl when you scan the militia, faster than the guys who can normally track you, and his search radius gets smaller and closer to your position the longer you use it. Hitting max tracking or performing a loud takedown would alert him to your exact location and he'd rush you, making it impossible to get the advantage without a counter landed with VERY tight timing or managing to get out of there on time.
They could have made him a slightly weaker version of the player, with the added militia support to make life harder for you and have him put up the fight we'd expect someone like him to.
I mean, he DOES actually resist an attempt by Batman to get the jump on him, so it would have been nice to have him actually live up to the hype of being a serious threat by making him a challenging and unique fight.
Yeah
This honestly reminds me of the boss fight near the end of The Last of Us Part 2 where both the player and the enemy are sneaking around each other. One mistake in that fight whether it be brushing past some chains or stepping on glass was enough to get the player killed. If you havent heard of the game I highly recommend playing it, it is easily my favorite game of all time.
@@kinorris1709 that's true, but i feel like what you described might be a bit too hard for. On my first playthrough, even on normal difficulty i was having quite a bit of trouble. But it's still a very good idea
You know, even if it's not exact, this reminded me of the Khotun Khan final boss fight
Rocksteady completely forgot how to do a boss fight while making this game. You'd be hard pressed to find good one in the core game. Defeating Deathstroke in a cutscene after a fucking tank battle after all that buildup was just the sick icing on top!
One of the problems with Jason as the Arkham Knight is the flashbacks. The moment you see the first one you know the identity because there's no other reason to have flashbacks in a game unless it's related. That gave away the mystery behind Arkham Knight. Also the Red Hood figurine was the first give away
Granted, he also experienced a prior flashback to Barbara getting shot by the Joker. If looking at that sequence without the idea of the Knight being Jason, they tie together as Joker messing with Batman about bringing his friends into this little game of theirs, leading to him being afraid of losing Tim after Harley's attack on the studios.
@@davidbeer5015 You're right but with the Red Hood figure and dlc I was almost sure that the knight would be Jason and not just me, others may have guessed it as well
It doesnt fuckin matter wether u knew it or not the game was amazing, and they did his speeches and his suit masterfully well done.
@@seynpurrp Calm down man, I didn't say the game was bad or anything, I was disappointed by the reveal that AK was Jason and this is my and 45 other people's opinion who have agreed with me with their likes. And yes everything about AK is cool, from the way he talks to his swagger and the way he walks with the only problems being the ones that I mentioned above
@@rohambahraee im calm, i prolly forgot to say in my opinion but its wtvr, lol
I have a headcanon that bruce knew that it was jason, he just didnt want to accept it.
Maybe thats why the scenes of jasons torture happened, it was bruce's fear of it being jason and his mind trying to fight off the thought of it being jason
I like this
That’s my headcanon too. He knew, but he didn’t know.
Honestly I think a good idea would’ve just been to have Jason reveal his identity to Bruce at ACE Chemicals at the beginning of the game.
Then deep dive into how that affects Bruce throughout the rest of the game (more flashbacks and such) instead of Bruce searching for his identity.
Jason is openly psychologically tormenting and torturing Batman via the fact Bruce knows it’s his fallen son throughout all of it, that’s causing the mass devastation and chaos
With Jason’s identity know by the Batfam as well you could include more interactions between him and the other members, where he challenges them over their loyalty to Batman
There should’ve been an actual fight with Jason in the game as well, where it feels like you’re fighting another Batman. Combining all the elements of before games bosses (Freeze, Deathstroke, etc.) and having Jason basically damn near know your every move
Why would he reveal his identity when that would risk scarecrow betraying him? Having the reveal take place at ace chemicals is completely arbitrary when the Arkham Knight reveal is supposed to serve as the culmination of Batman’s arc in the game.
@@SoyboyPeterwell the Militia work for the Knight, he created it so I doubt they’d sell him out.
Bro please apply for creative director at rocksteady
Imagine you have a sick combo planned and Jason hits you with the Freeze-Batclaw-Explosion Gel.
This, Jason should have revealed his identity from the start or at least after kidnapping Barbara.
I honestly think arkham knight shouldve been anarky from origins. He was just a kid in origins, he rallied a large number behind him, and he not only was onto batman by calling him "just another spoiled rich kid", but also says something that could be the driving motive of the arkham knight, by suggesting that batman is the reason the city has gone to hell. Bringing the argument of batman making his own enemies to light. In arkham knight, Cash's logs state that anarky got snatched by the government. Deathstroke was taken by amanda waller, she couldve grabbed anarky too. He trains with deathstroke, rallies an army, studied batman. Batman doesnt even suggest that anarky could be the knight, b/c hes a kid that got lost in this system, and you can argue that batman failed him.
Me hubiera encantado que fuera el propio slade Arkham knight
That might have worked in other Batman adaptations? But in the Arkham universe, a majority of Batman villains were either already villains beforehand or their origins were not influenced by Batman. The only exception to this would have been Joker
@@CoOlKyUbI96no I could see it working because with the Jason flashbacks it would like a decoy and make the reveal more interesting.
@@retr0prime_812 personally I still disagree. If Anarky was to make that argument of Batman creating his villains, the inclusion of Jason would not change the majority. It would only be Joker and Jason that Batman created. And even then an argument could be made that it was Joker would made Jason a villain, not Batman
@@CoOlKyUbI96 fair point but it probably would have been nice to have anarky work under the Arkham knight.
One idea I had was instead of Jason being the Arkham Knight. An interesting idea would be to reveal that Damian Wayne, in his early 20s, could've been Arkham Knight. I think the idea of an older Damian being the Arkham Knight would've been intriguing, and maybe he became the Arkham Knight as a way to avenge his mother, Talia. Damian blames Bruce for failing to save her. Damian would've used his resources from the League of Assassins and teamed up with Scarecrow to secretly double-cross Scarecrow in his misguided revenge against his biological father. Maybe Bruce could've stopped him, and Damian could've gone down a character redemption to become the next Batman in a hypothetical Batman Beyond game?
That was an idea I had for this story have the Arkham Knight be Damian Wayne. If you want Jason Todd then have the Red Hood be a consultant for the Arkham Knight. Which he tries to help Bruce because he too believed Scarecrow killed Barbara with his explanation for why he was helping them being “I just wanted to do something special to prove you wrong not to get Babs killed!” and like with Nightwing you team up with him to take out Militia HQ’s. For Damian have him play with Batman, have him toy with the Dark Knight, and when he manages to get the drop on him have him leave calling Batman Detective something Ra’s would have called him to get Bruce thinking the Arkham Knight is some disciple of Ra’s. Only to then in their next encounter after a one on one boss fight he escapes with him calling him Bruce. Which would then Shock him into realizing this isn’t just some random League member, but someone who was close to Ra’s and to Talia. Then when he reveals his identity he isn’t called Damian Wayne, but Damian Al Ghul. With Damian in the fight removing Bruce’s masking and when looking at him looks at his reflection realizing that him and Bruce look a like revealing that Damian was forbidden from looking at his reflection. As Ra’s in the Arkham Verse didn’t want Damian to know who his father was so he didn’t know Bruce was his Father, and at the end of the game when Bruce his unmasked it isn’t red hood who helps Bruce, but Damian now with a modified Arkham Knight suit to look more like the Batman Beyond suit. Is this cheese? Oh most definitely, is it better then what we got? You got me I’m just some guy who just thought of something.
That would not make any sense like at all chronologically or otherwise
@@Kainewall elaborate.
@@ParrotPentester Damien Wayne would be about 10 years old at most, and where would he get the money the hire the Millita ( not from the villains ). Also Joker killed tailia not Batman so what reason would he have for killing Batman.
He would be raised to kill criminals if anything
@@Kainewall It's a different universe, the age can be whatever they want to make, Jason got the money from the villains aswell, he didn't earn them. Joker killing talia and then Batman blamed himself for both joker and talia's death, and damian would kill batman because to him he killed his mother, jason was also raised to kill criminals.
Your whole comment doesn't make sense at all.
In Batman’s defense, he DID think that Jason was dead, so why would he assume he’s the Knight?
1. The Knight's intimate knowledge of how Batman operates.
2. The Knight calling him Old Man.
3. Having a sample of the Knight's voice. Had he processed it as an intelligent person would have done, then he would've gotten to hear the Knight's voice unaltered.
@@r0bw00d shit that’s actually a really good point… but I mean if a random guy I didn’t recognize called me "little man" I wouldn’t go straight to "holy heck my dad’s back from the grave." But I’m not Batman, and I’m dirt poor so yeah. Batman could’ve tried a little harder.
@@r0bw00d
1.Might be got the knowledge from a third party.
2.Ehhh.
3.Thats what voice filter is for.
@@Vilgax00 1. [Raises eyebrow] Like who?
2. No, not "ehhh;" it's a tell.
3. You either didn't comprehend my comment or finish reading it.
@@r0bw00d
1. Ras. He has a significant knowledge about Batman. Telltale Penguin did a similar thing,so it is not stupid or out od place to think Ras has knowledge about Batman's suit and his other gadgets.
2.Still not convinced. Damian also calls him an old man.
3.His voice filter is probably a spesificall type. Where it is hard to processed the actuall voice.
When I first experienced Arkham Knight I didn’t know what a Jason Todd was but when I saw the Jason torture hallucinations I instantly knew “oh this Arkham knight guy must be this dude being tortured” the reveal was weak af but my god I love Troy Bakers performance with Jason
Alfred is the only member (except Batman) to not be kidnapped or held hostage once
I think it was only one time, but wasn't he by Bane in one or so comics?
Alfred in origins: *dies and gets revived*
Batman was held hostage by Harley in Arkham City.
@@altalia07yeah. In the City of Bane storyline he was kept as a hostage and he was eventually killed
Batman was literally held hostage at the end of Arkham Knight lol
Batman doesn’t even consider Jason cause he saw a video of him literally getting shot straight in the face
I don't think Jason's reveal is as bad as people say, sure everyone saw it coming but only because we know Jason Todd comes back as Red Hood and because of the Joker tourturing Jason cutscenes, the player is obviously gonna think that if we're being shown this that means it must have some sort of story relevance, but from Batman's perspective, Jason is DEAD, he has been for years and as such he has no reason to even CONSIDER that he's even connected to the Arkham Knight, plus the fact he was trained by Batman means it's fairly reasonable no info could be found about his identity by Alfred, how do you think no one knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman?
The reveal works well for completing Bruce's arc throughout the story as well as perfectly explaining how he knows so much about his tricks, it's not meant to surprise the player because the Jason kidnapping cutscenes kinda spell it out
Not to mention the voice acting is stellar
If it wasn’t meant to surprise the player they wouldn’t have tried everything they could to lie about it when people knew from the get-go 💀
@@melancholyentertainment to be honest, I really don't care if the devs expected people to figure it out early or not, the scene works really well either way
THANK YOU I feel like videos like this are just a bunch of nerds thinking like nerds do, not knowing that you’re supposed to come at these sequences and villains as if you have 0 prior knowledge. Like of course these guys can sniff out that it’s Jason Todd but Batman was CONVINCED that Jason was DEAD. He would never ever think for a second that his biggest threat was not only his dead sidekick, but from Batman’s perspective he tried and FAILED to rescue him.
@@brandenboggess6672 exactly, its a really well written story if you just have the right perspective on it but it seems most don't ever think to consider it from that angle
One idea I heard that I think was GREAT is that Jason's identity should've been revealed early on. That way the dialogue, the audio tapes, and especially the visions of Jason's torment would've been WAY more impactful, and seemed less random. Plus it would've given Troy Baker more opportunities to flex his acting muscles more. I mean, in the one brief cutscene where Jason's unmasked, I got choked up. His ability to convey emotion is INSANE, and I wish we could've gotten more of that.
if they just did a hand to hand combat fight, one like origins deathstroke, it wouldve been great
The boss fight is great a Father trying to bring back his broken son
They couldn't even give Deathstroke such a fight in this game!! You take him out with a fucking bat-tank! 😂 It's sad that Rocksteady, who pioneered hand to hand combat with Arkham Asylum, couldn't think of a single creative way to build on and top their Arkham gameplay with what was THE hyped next-gen Arkham game at the time.. It kills me to this day.
It’s not bad that’s he’s Jason, or thats it’s super obvious he’s Jason. It’s that they lied and said “It’s not Jason”
Apparently, its theorized that batman already suspected and feared that it was jason todd from the moment they met at ace chemicals, hence why joker taunts him with memories of Jason being tortured, and why he had alfred looking for someone else to fit the description in hopes that it wasnt him.
One thing I think doesn't get brought up enough is that one of the main problems with Jason's motive is that going to Scarecrow was HIS IDEA. Why is he complaining to Scarecrow about wanting to kill Batman when he knew from the beginning that Scarecrow had no intention of doing so and he said he wanted Scarecrow to help him Batman suffer...
The biggest issue with Jason as the Arkham Knight is that Rocksteady wanted to have their cake and eat it too. They wanted to have this emotional story but rather than reveal his identity early and then delve into it as the game goes on they decide to instead have this dumb mystery. Even after his reveal they have one little conversation and, disappears and has a change of heart offscreen...like bruh.
You'd think that the mystery would at least be interesting but nope...Alfred does all the work offscreen and the mystery itself barely matters in the grand scheme of things.
Really wanted to see what Rocksteady could have done with an original character...such a waste of an awesome design too.
Huh?
2:40 it is not about that batman didnt knew from the start, he acutally knew but he didnt want to belive in it that is why he hoped that alfred would find someone else, same with joker he never cared about his indetity but he cared about knigth's
I was one of the few that was shocked that it ended up being Jason, because I was certain it wouldn’t be *THAT* easy to guess.
I had recently read the court of the owls story, which came out shortly before the game, and was 99% sure AK would be Bruce’s secret twin brother that was running the Court at the end of that story, since a lot of that story matches what we knew about Arkham Knight: knows Batman’s moves, knows who he is, is physically capable of fighting him head-on, etc. Plus, the devs straight up said ITS NOT JASON/RED HOOD and I took them at their word lmao.
Ngl was kind of disappointed they went with the Jason route, but its not like Bruce’s brother was ever set up in the series before either so Jason makes more sense for AK at the end of the day.
I was, however, glad to shocked and surprised my first play through, something that seems to be a unique experience to me lmao. Overall, very glad I read that comic at the time and convinced myself it wasn’t gonna be Jason, made this games story a lot better the first run 😂
Even in the original Red Hood story, Jason’s focus was on proving Batman’s methodology wrong. Jason even states that he forgave Bruce for not saving him but was angry that he left Joker alive.
Arkham Knight could have been a criticism on Batman’s methods, morale code and impact. The goal could have been to undermine Batman’s legacy like the Scarecrow did.
To that "The greatest detective couldnt figure it out but the audience could" No duh, we live in a real world with prior knowledge to Batman and Batman lore, we know Jason Todd came back to life, Batman thought Jason was dead, why would Bruce think his son who "died" came back to life, gained a giant army and trained them to kill him? Put yourself into Bruce's shoes here for a moment.
And that's why it did not work, in the original comic he was dead, we saw Bruce buried the body. In AK, we just have to believe that Bruce accepted Jason is dead just by a vague video Joker had sent ? And Batman of all people, the goddamn Batman would never retrieve the body and give him a proper burial ? See how stupid it is
@@onglanh5329 God you're not very bright. Comics aren't canon. Batman didn't know what abandoned wing it was. He looked through Arkham. We've seen this in multiple instances in AK. Hell, even in asylum the most we possibly got was the drawings in the cells. Do you not pay attention? Do you not even understand how grief works? 🤦
@@GlitchingRobin Uh do you even understand what i was saying dude ?
@@onglanh5329Batman doesn’t know where Jason is. And even if he did, he was (though to be) dead and they could have just tossed his body into the ocean
@@GlitchingRobin good answer, its been a while since i played all the Games. Can u explain what exactly we saw or to be more precise, what exactly do u mean by what you saidy i cannot remeber Batman lookin for jason in the games we played…
2:30
I saw an interesting point the other day about how Batman being utterly fixated on his identity was probably a result of Batman actually *knowing* it was Jason the whole time, but was in denial, and the adamant panic-induced search was because he wanted to somehow prove to himself that it *wasn't* Jason.
After all, Batman doesn't care about the identities of any other villain, even the ones that know his true identity. That's just not relevant to him, and he objectively has no reason to focus on fixating so much on Arkham Knight's identity since it isn't really relevant to defeating him. It's also clear Jason is very much on his mind because he'll accidentally slip up and call Dick Grayson Jason for example in clear emotional distress, and having hallucinations and flashbacks about Jason in the theater, etc.; basically a lot of people criticize Batman for somehow not knowing it was Jason, but they don't consider the fact that it was actually Batman trying to convince himself that what he knows is wrong, because he desperately wants it to NOT be Jason.
I didn't like how Jason played a role in killing the people of Gotham / trying to destroy the city. If Jason's problem was with Batman only, he should have just focused on that instead of being a terrorist warlord. Seems out of character for Jason to become like this, only to pivot into the Red Hood after his final fight with Batman where he just talked to him. That being said, still one of my favourite games. I play it at least once a year.
What If: The Arkham Knight Had Been James Gordon Jr?
Now that is an interesting and intriguing idea, probably the best I’ve heard apart from him being a resurrected Amadeus Arkham.
no
Junior's a great villain, but this would be misusing him
my initial theory was the Knight being Jean Paul Valley, the OTHER Azrael, the one who became Batman after Bane broke Bruce's back, someone skilled enough to match the threat level, self righteous enough to imitate Batman, and psychotic enough to be an impactful villain, and considering that the Order of St. Dumas and Azrael(Michael Lane) were introduced in City and the side mission for that ended with the foreboding warning, I almost expected a twist that the Militia WERE the order in secret, using Scarecrow's plan as a convenient means to retake Gotham.
This not being the case was something I was initially fine with until I read all of Batman: White Knight and saw how they used Jean Paul Valley
As someone who played the game that only knew about the Nolan trilogy (I know a lot more than that now lol), I was shocked to find out who Jason was. I thought Joker killed him in the flashbacks too.
Same
How great would it be if events played out like this..
- Jason reveals his identity maybe 1/4 into the game like you suggest here and pushes Batman mentally with guilt
- Scarecrow uses this to distract Batman for much of the game until the Cloudburst is ready
- Just before the fear toxin is released and Jason has served his purpose, Scarecrow turns on him and takes Jason captive again in the asylum to cause further suffering for Jason and Batman
- The finale of the game is Batman fighting through streets crowded with fear toxin-induced civilians, reverses the toxin with the help of Ivy, and then goes to Arkham
- The last missions in the game is going through the familiar Asylum where it all began fighting off patients crazed by the toxin
- In the end, Batman agrees to reveal his identity in exchange for Jason’s freedom
- Jason sees he was wrong and Batman was always willing to do anything for him. Jason then returns to help Batman.
**In this version, let’s cut the Joker subplot and let Jason/Scarecrow take center stage. Joker was great in this, but we’ve had enough of him by this point.
part of me wishes that arkham knight was more like kraven from spider-man 2. he comes to gotham to kills all the villains and save batman for last to prove he’s a better hero than him.
I get what you mean, but after Spider-Man 2 I can’t see kraven as anything other than a Pathetic Thrill-junkie, addicted to the adrenaline and dopamine he gets from the hunt, I can’t even properly compare him to other addicts because unlike them he’s not worth saving as his life is so empty and devoid of meaning that his pathetic addiction is the only thing that has meaning in his life. It no wonder he acts like it some sort of glorious act, full of purpose.
Edit: I apologise, I went on a tangent there for a bit, tbh I just needed to get that out of my system.
I've had the exact same idea.
So should Jason have been revealed as the Arkham Knight before they do the flashbacks at the movie studios?
If they wanted his “reveal” to be a surprise i feel as if they should’ve ditched the flashbacks as a whole
@@c4llon Yes, do the flashbacks RIGHT AFTER the reveal.
They should’ve cut back on the amount of torture scenes for Jason and added one for Tim. That way along with the VR game they’d show Batman directly or indirectly hurting every member of the bat family instead of focusing so much on Jason.
From someone who's first experiences with Batman were the Dark Knight trilogy and the Arkham series, I thought this was a brilliant way to reveal that the Arkham Knight was the second Robin. To someone intimately familiar with Batman, this wasn't a surprise, but it still shocked me as a kid.
damian wayne would've made more sense as the arkham knight, thalias death would've made perfect sense as the motivation for his character hating batman, also thalia mentioned that her and bruce spent a night together in metropolis once. jason todd has never been referenced in any of the other arkham games and they made it too obvious that it was jason with the way they marketed the game
Its kinda ironic that the arkham knights story completely revolves around HEAVY abandonment trauma, yet his story was kinda pushed to the side by the writers
I think keeping things mostly the same but Getting to play as him in the tutorial and playing out his escape during the events of asylum and having him look to the batwing as it flies away triumphantly and see the hatred in his face could have been a great setup. That and giving him a bigger part post game would have justified the title of the game.
I was heavily invested in this game before release and Rocksteady specifically said that it wasnt Jason Todd. DC even backed them up by saying it was a completely original character made in collaboration between DC and Rocksteady.
I actually think Batman figured it was Jason towards the beginning of the game, because it’s the only way the Knight would know everything about him.
He makes Alfred search for another possibility in desperation that he might be wrong.
This also explains the hallucinations of Jason in the movie studio. It’s all inside Batman’s head, therefore at this point in the game he is suspecting that he could be
Jason.
I agree, it wouldn’t make sense for the greatest detective to figure it out after us 😂
To me and probably a lot of people it was obvious that Jason was the knight was the sense from the movie studios. And rocksteady seemed liek they knew they were making it obvious. So they made joker shoot Jason to make people think he was actually dead and that he's not the knight. They tried to throw off the player but it still made it more obvious.
Yea lol it’s like if it’s not Jason then why add a flashback that introduces Jason’s existence in this universe when it was never mentioned before
What’s really sad is that Tim stole the Robin suit… meaning that when joker photographed Batman out with the new Robin, it’s not because Bruce had moved on
Easily one of my favorite Batman villains who had so much potential and still does. Wish they’d give him one more try
The arkham knight fight needed to be something spectacular. I thought a constant shift between hand to hand, and Jason switching from vantage point to vantage point whilst hiding trying to get the spook on batman. Almost like fighting batman himself, since jason was so well trained, but it was just generic. If that bossfight was good, that alone was enough to transform the quality of his villian arc.
ngl I played this game for the first time when I was a lot younger (I'm 14 now so probably when I was like 10) and this "mistery" thing completely worked on me, also because at the start, when The Arkham Knight takes off his helmet I still didn't realise he was Jason. Now that I think about it I find it kinda funny
I wonder if the Arkham Knight’s identity being Jason was easy to figure out because we know of Jason being alive is something we know of because we know of the story of the red hood.
It’s the story of red hood in general, the average Batman fan probably wouldnt know who he is, but hardcore fans would
I feel like the story of the Arkham Knight should have taken a little more priority over Scarecrow in a video game called Batman: the Arkham Knight
One of the funniest things to me personally is in Panessa movie studies, when Batman hallucinates Jason Todd, it is the same voice actor. Obviously, you can see Jason Todd being the knight due to these hallucinations by itself, but the fact rocksteady didn’t go out of its way to just change the VA is hilarious to me
To be fair Troy Backer voices multiple people in the series. In this game he voices both Robins and Two Face. In Origins he voices the Joker.
People literally guessed that jason todd is the arkham knight before the game came out and they denied it
This game is so underrated it’s great and also great content as per usual
They should have had him be Hush or someone else. Jason Todd fundamentally does not belong in Arkham Batman, he would have been mentioned in Asylum and City, likely with the Joker mocking him. I think it's a function of the devs/writers trying to cram in as much Batman lore and fan service into the series without regard for the established narrative. Although an interesting idea would have been to have nightwing or the current Robin is kidnapped, tortured and brainwashed after city and take the role of the knight.
In a city combat challenge map, if you play as Robin, Joker says something along the lines of "Didn't i kill you already?" And i think he says something about batman needing a sidekick in asylum.
@@VergilDMC Doesn't count at all, if Todd existed in the prior game, he would be explicitly mentioned especially with the Joker's phone call in Arkham City. Paul Dini was actively going for Hush being the villain in collaboration with Scarecrow in Arkham Knight, until he left.
@@jorgizoran4340 So the evidence that disputes your point "doesn't count at all" despite it being made by the developers? Seems you simply can't handle someone disagreeing and backing themselves up with evidence.
@@VergilDMC It was clearly just fan service jokes.
They could have had red hood in side missions. A deadly vigilante taking out the knights forces. Maybe have it come to a head in the movie studios with the other "jokers". The flashes of what happened to Jason could happen maybe b4 a face-down with red hood.
i don’t mind the arkham knight being jason and i think a lot of fans were let down by it and found it so obvious cause we already know jason isn’t dead but batman doesn’t we only know because we’re fans of the story
1 aspect that I find unfortunate is that there has never been any interaction between Tim and Jason...
To me the only thing that they should have 100% done is make his boss fight like Deathstroke’s in origins
Or a mix:
1st part stealth - but you have to find Jason, he’s actively hunting you and hiding and you have to hide and set traps
2nd part hand to hand - Deathstroke type fight w/ waves of militia
3rd part vehicle to final hand to hand - but then you’d be out of the compound so idk
But sort of a way to make it call back to Mr Freeze and Deathstroke
I think Batman knew but didn’t want to accept it. You can hear the desperation when he asks Alfred to find out who he is, hoping for a different name
The thing that bothers me the most about the Arkham Knight is that Batman had more than enough information to deduce his identity fairly early on into the story, but had to break character for the sake of the dramatic tension. Worse, anyone familiar with Red Hood which was going to be a big portion of the Batman fanbase to begin with is likewise connecting those dots really quickly.
A simple fix I think would have been for Batman to consider Jason early on, but not have full proof. So instead of going most of the night trying to figure out the Arkham Knight's identity, he develops the Jason hypothesis early on and spends a small period of time after that finding proof.
Additionally, rather than a cliche "I'm going to kill you!" revenge plot, I feel like it would have been more impactful if he was manipulating Batman into "sacrificing" the Bat Family for the sake of the mission, one by one converting them over to his side. First Oracle, faking her death and having her believe that Batman left her to die. Then Robin, having him believe that Batman kept what happened to Oracle a secret from him, and then finally Nightwing, perhaps in a more direct confrontation. This would leave Batman in a position in which he needs to win the Bat Family back over to his side.
This would I think require Jason to have been intending on betraying Scarecrow all along, a secret he shares only with Barbara, Tim, and Dick. His plan could be not to kill Batman or even to turn him over to Scarecrow to let him do it, but to teach Batman how it feels to be betrayed so that he may see the error in how he carries out his mission, and then prove his own superiority by being the one to take down Scarecrow with his intention for it to be permanent by putting lead in him. As Batman slowly wins the individual members of the Bat Family back over to his side, he slowly becomes more privy to Jason's plan and it becomes his goal to stop Jason before he crosses the line, all while having to also figure out a way to stop Scarecrow.
I just finished it again after so many years and all I can say is you’re 100% right
For what would've saved this games image would've been a different name. "Arkhams Ghost: the Red Hood" would've basically explained everything you needed to know. Fans would know what this was about, people not in the know would be intrigued, and Rocksteady wouldn't have kicked themselves trying to pretend the Arkham Knight is someone else.
"Batman's not about saving the innocent, he's about punishing the guilty" thats cooold
damn i never heard that audio log with Jason and Barbara it’s so chilling how he could’ve convinced her that Batman was going to betray her
You guys probably realised this already, but what I think it could make Batman: Arkham Knight's plot even better, was showing the origin of Jason Todd in the Arkham Universe which is a far more brutal and tragic origin compared to The Death in The Family, like adapting what we saw in the Arkham Knight comics, showing all the tortures Jason endure and the events of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City through Jason's perspective, in the same way of the flashbacks we saw in the Panessa Studios.
Honestly for how bad the execution of the Arkham Knight/Jason Todd mystery was, i absolutely love the confrontation between bruce and jason when its revealed, honestly one of the best written scenes in the Arkham franchise
Damn when you was talking about what if he started playing more into emotional manipulation of the family to side with him showing them batman is flawed I was like "let him cook"!
Rocksteady remake this game:
1st- less tank battles
2nd- More unique Boss battles
3rd- Give a Real DeathStroke vs Batman fight mano a mano
4th- reduce the riddler trophy numbers it gets boring
5th- More detective mode sidequest
6th- Make the Hush sidequest valuable make it longer and interesting
7- Give us a Real RedHood boss battle not that pick a boo in the sewer with tanks, we want strategic take down, 1v1 fights .
This game couldve been the best game ever but no it was a tank simulation
They literally did give us a strategic fight with red hood. Btw not even 25 percent of game is spent in the Batmobile. Even if you cut the Batmobile from Arkham knight, you still spend even more time as Batman than the entirety of Arkham city’s length.
What are you talking about? Rockstar made a smelly dump called Killda Justice league and you want them to remake this masterpiece?
Rockstar is a shooters studio they don't know how to make fighting games
I feel like one of the main problems was that AK never felt like that much of an actual match for Batman.
Sure he had him playing catch up, but that was only due to a difference in resources, not because he was actually smarter or stronger.
Playing as Batman, I always felt like it was a matter of time before I caught this guy (when he ran out of mooks and tanks), and I would’ve much preferred to feel like I was up against this insurmountable obstacle. Have me get outsmarted at every turn and have AK beat the shit out of me, I promise my bruised ego will manage.
Watching an antagonist operate, see the impactful actions taken and understanding why said character is doing this will always be far more engaging than. "Gee I wonder who this guy is"
If it was the mystery aspect of the Arkham Knight they wanted to focus on, they should’ve chosen Hush instead of Red Hood. But the way that you presented this makes much more sense given that it’s Jason
This video gave me an idea I never considered until you brought up the audio tapes: I know you said reveals and information shouldn’t be relegated to audio tapes if they’re regarding main characters, but imagine if, instead of beating the player over the head with “hints” that Jason is the Knight, part of the story had Batman accidentally/intentionally finding the audio tapes of Barbara and Jason before he knew it was Jason. Barbara saying Jason’s name, and their conversation after, would’ve been such a better reveal than what they did
Is no one gonna talk about the Lego floor 16:16
Ok on the games defense
As a dude who originally only contact with Batman as a character was the Nolan films and then the Arkham games. The reveal is still pretty unexpected
The funniest thing about the arkham knight identity was people knew who it was before it came out. The mystery of him knowing batman's moveset just confirmed it for everyone.
it wouldve been cool if they had a section were you try be stealthy in the bat cave with the malisha there
whilst the arkham knight tracks you down cheking and going through vents and even sneaking up behind you and doing stealth take down
and then you get a 1v1 boss fight with him after you disarm his guns
were he can stun and zip kick and counter you.
this would make him way more of a threat and really make it feel like he knows all your moves stalking you using the same tactics you do and adapting accordingly
Honestly out of all the theories I wish it had been an original character. I figured out it was Jason from the gameplay trailers but head cannoned that it was someone who got obsessed with Bruce during his education or early training years and lost a sparring match or whatever. Then followed him in his escapades and travels after school trying to understand or emulate the guy. Following the same trainings and taking in the same experiences but sometimes getting the wrong lesson out of them maybe even scarring him and blaming Bruce. Eventually becoming the second student of Ra's and besting even him and then going back to Gotham during Year 2 and studying the mythical Batman for years from the shadows while scrubbing his identity along the way. Basically just wanted to best him and show him he's not shit and there was someone above him in the food chain. Just a jealous petty and angry man with John Wick levels of capability and precise obsession.
13:10 You think it's a dick move until you remember that he's been infected too. That at some point, he could become the Joker. If he did, it would be over for Gotham.
It really makes that he does that to Tim. Because he's desperate.
See this is directly countered by the theory that Batman ALWAYS knew it was Jason, hence why after Arkham Knight's line "Don't worry Bruce, I kept some secrets to myself". He doesn't call Alfred or anything like he does every other time, at this point he has to accept that what he believes is true. Batman has had Alfred looking for a name to try and prove that what he believes is wrong and that it can't possibly be Jason.
I feel like batman knew that it was jason but he refused to think it was him and didnt want it to come down to that so he looked for every possible way that it was not jason but he knew it was jason causing him to be in a sad state
For me personally this is the best take for Jason as in the comics he is always trying and trying to take control in Gotham to stop crime ....trying to get the job done regardless of morality and reason....I also get it this version got sidelined and Scarecrow took the spotlight...But what if Batman figured it out quicker about the Arkham knight's true identity...would it change anything?...Even so this character is contagious his personality can easily be overwhelming and has alot of scope which for most writers it becomes challenging
Interesting video. I'm reminded of how in Arkham City, Batman wanted to save Talia from Joker but he is blocked by Alfred and Oracle who tell him that saving Gotham is the priority. So in that case, they are more mission oriented than even Batman! "You know I'm right" Alfred.
I was hoping for some Origins Deathstroke type of fight against the Knight, especially when they made it obvious that the Knight was Jason. Batman fighting defensively wanting to just talk some sense into Jason while the latter fights in a bloodlusted way, all the while they're talking while exchanging blows. Batman overpowers him and stops his punch while looking at a resigned Jason. Then we get to the scene where Jason points a gun at Batman, who has his arm extended wanting to help him. Then Jason puts down the gun in defeat then just hauls ass. I'd want that.
Anyone who knew a comic book at all knew who Arkham Knight was, saw it a mile away. Everyone knew but Batman.
And they could have played on that, in the main scene you mentioned. The audio logs between Barbara and Jason could have been a cutscene. One we saw when Bruce enters the containment cell at first. I remember having to enter the cell like 3 times before the prompt to counter Tim pushing Batman inside appeared. After the first time, a cutscene between Barbara and Jason could have played as the audio logs said.
This would give credence to Jason's words in real time, as after that cutscene you'd be taken to before entering the cell, where you'd be prompted to counter to then get Tim inside instead. Proving to us, the audience, that the Knight has a point. When it comes down to it, Bruce will place the mission first. In this case the mission was finding a Joker toxin cure, and preventing Tim from finding out about Barbara's kidnapping and supposed death.
I think most of the audience only really finds out it's Jason after the museum section with the Joker. To this day, I believe if that hole hallucination section was moved to after the reveal of the Arkham Knight's identity, the twist would have probably been better. Then, the Joker section would be more showing the things that Joker did and the contents of the tape.
I think part of the problem for me is that their relationship was never built up previously, so the reveal doesn't really hit that hard for the player because we never got to know him, so we have no connection to him.
For me it was the predictability of the Arkham Knight they painfully tell As soon as you hear him speak as he’s voiced by Troy baker as he voiced red hood in the pre order dlc
The batmobile was the true villan
Hahahahahahahahahha
Ahhh you are missing someting, The Arkham Knight was hyped up to be a grand new villain. BEFORE the games release I might add. People immediately guesssed it, that it's Jason Todd!? And Rocksteady denied it. No no it's not Jason Todd, it's a new Villain trust us!
The game released and oh shocker we were all right. This is the "let down" and lesson which has to be learned. Don't give away shit in trailers and keep your PR department on a short leash!
I actually didn’t know who he was, until I got to the movie studio and joker mentioned Jason Todd, it hit me like a bag of bricks
I REALLY like Jason’s voice in this game, hope we hear more of it
He's a whiny edge lord in this😂
little detail that i like to belive is that batman knew the arkham knight was jason but refused to beleive this, you see this particually when batman asks about the arkham knight his voice changes to be more frustrated that it coudn't be someone else and how he coudn't beleive it was jason
they should’ve had the jason story at the beginning of the game and allow it to highlight him sacrificing barbara and tim almost turning the audience against him in some ways. This also would’ve done with the fact that i knew it was jason just from the timing of the cutscenes and how they were all back to back
Let's be honest, Batman is a near century old IP and a great deal of stories has been told with the cape crusader and it’s as though writers want to make the next "iconic moment" in the Batman's mythology. If you're a funny book reader you know Jason Todd dies and comes back as the super villain the Red Hood and it is considered by many to be an iconic moment in Batman's mythology. As an outside observer and consumer of the Bat Media it feels to me that the writers love the idea of the “plot twist” versus me being aware of Batman’s mythology so they want to deliver it in a way where the audience is surprised so they try to obfuscate what the audience knows by saying "it's this new villain called the Arkham Knight" and that's where it feels like the outside world is influencing the fiction.
I liken it to "chasing a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow", it's the impossible venture and the reason why is that the writers don’t decide the next iconic Batman story, the reader does. It's a strange variant of meta-writing where the outside perception of being a writer makes it seem like they want to create the next iconic moment. However, the reality is that everybody has a different opinion on an "Iconic Batman story" and everyone is of a different opinion on which is iconic, it's a reader-to-reader basis. There is no hard rule to gain a story that iconic status. It's merely the result of a story resonating with a wide enough collective of readers that makes it transformative and thus becomes iconic.
An this might be a tangent but it's baffling that the writing pushes Scarecrow to prominence for no reason. Jason is the one with the personal connection to Bruce and yet the writers inject this invasive plot about Scarecrow who disrupts the Red Hood/Batman dynamic. The most tentative connection between Batman and Scarecrow is "Batman uses fear to fight crime". There is no personal tether between the two. It's not like Batman feels as though he failed to save Scarecrow, the legacy of Arkham Scarecrow is he's some idiot who stuffs straw down his pants, straps needles to his fingers and then got mauled by Killer Croc that one time. If they never followed up on him after Arkham Asylum, I doubt outside of some fans of Scarecrow no one is going to be hard-pressed to demand a follow up on his story and I am speaking as someone who likes Scarecrow and thinks he has great villain potential but even this games plot had me laughing at him. He feels like he is in the game to justify bringing back Joker for a 4th game.
Honestly, if the narrative wrote it more that the stress of failing to save Jason caused Batman to start hallucinating Joker, have Batman is just overworking himself, sleepless nights, weeks at work trying to deduce this "Red Hood" and maybe "how did I miss this? How did I let this happen to Jason?" and he starts to see the "ghost of his nemeses" and he is on the verge of a psychological break down that's way sadder and a bit more dramatic then the whole poison blood position plotline. You just have Joker show up for a little bit instead of him stealing the plot from Scarecrow. I don’t even recall if the writers explored Scarecrow having a desire for revenge against Killer Croc for mauling him, which could easily be a side quest where you have to save the large crocodile man from the idiot made of straw who is pumping Croc with so much fear toxin, he’s just a rabid animal that needs to unfortunately be put down.
The main plot could be this new vigilante called the Red Hood arrives in Gotham, he's executing Batman's rogues with help from a partner named Lock-Up (who is a former Arkham officer so he could have been the one who saved Jason in the asylum and they share a similar mindset of vigilante justice and agree to "clean up Gotham") and the plot becomes Bruce needs to deduce who is this Red Hood, why does he use a nom de plume that the Joker once had, how does the Red Hood know so much about Batman, the bat-family and his tactics, how are his safe houses compromised, and explore themes of failed family: Bruce's failings as a mentor and father, Alfred's failings to protect Jason from Bruce's negligence, Jason's role as a brother to Barbara and Dick as caped crusaders and in a way child soldiers in the war on crime.
Instead, because the goal feels like it's focused on the "twist" to circumvent the audience’s expectation of this game, which is clearly the storyline with extra steps, we get the Arkham Knight nonsense. I don't doubt that the twist that it's Jason Todd could surprise somebody, not everyone has read , but given that we live in an age of fast-track information it feels like a cursory glance on a Wikipedia about who Jason Todd is and the audience would be able to easily deduce the Arkham Knight is Jason Todd faster than Batman does in the game.
At the end of this venture the game’s focus on the Arkham Knight narrative feels misguided. Instead of focusing on Jason Todd, the failure of Bruce Wayne, it's instead the writers want to conceive the next iconic moment in the Batman Mythos.
Honestly, I feel like they should have had the Barbara/Jason audio log as an in-game cutscene instead of what it was. I feel like that would have been a far more impactful reveal, and we'd be anticipating what Batman's reaction would be to Jason being alive, and antagonistic toward him and the way he's gone about his life's mission. Plus, the moment before this new version of the reveal would show a softer side of Jason, and better show his eventual rebound at the end of the game, showing that despite him wanting to hate Batman, he knows that they both want the same for Gotham -- justice and order, and that Bruce Wayne is still the man that loved him, took him in, and raised him like a son.
The player can realize who the Arkham knight is before batman because we know the red hood exists in other adaptations of batman.
It's also theorized that batman suspected that Jason Todd was the Arkham Knight, but wasn't sure yet. This theory comes from the fact that when they first meet batman couldn't care less who he was, yet as the story goes on, he becomes more desperate to learn who he is. Then there was the fact that neither Batman nor Joker had any reaction when the Arkham Knight called him Bruce. As if batman already knew that the knight knew who he was.
I think Joker hallucinations are meant to show that idea of Arkham Knight being Jason Todd does come to his head, but it does not make any sense knowing how Joker operates.
8:20 “big stick”? 🤨
when i first played the game my immediate thought was "oh, it's jason todd" but then i started second guessing myself thinking "no way they keep building up this mystery for it to be that obvious" and then they revealed who it was and i thought "oh... it's jason todd"
I think they should have revealed early on that this was Jason Todd. His identity was spoiled to me before I played the game since I got onto the Armand wagon a couple years after the series ended (counting kill the Justice League) so going in. I knew this was Jason Todd, but I wasn’t told why he wanted to kill that.
So the whole time I’m wondering “why does he want to kill Batman? If half of Gotham believes Batman killed the Joker? I see the torture went through as Joker keeps telling him Batman is to blame, and it all made sense
The mystery shouldn’t have been “who is the Arkham Knight ?” it should’ve been “Why did Jason become the Arkham Knight?
What’s even funnier is that when you unlock Jason Todd after seeing him get tortured, he has the same height and weight as Arkham knight
Given the gimmick of hateful heroes “dying” and then coming back as a villain, I wasn’t surprised to see Arkham Knight was Jason Todd all along
What I think would have been a better reveal, if it was Timm Drake, and they just hinted at current robin existing throughout the game. He has been put of and almost babied as a sidekick since he became robin. He had to leave anything he had before just to be babied and told to stay at home while bats was fighting crime.
Theres nothing wrong with me