How the Arkham Knight SHOULD HAVE been Handled 

Either make it Jason and reveal it in the first scene or make it Prometheus and build him up as an antagonist the whole game.

The difference between Under The Red Hood and Arkham Knight is that in the movie, the emotional fallout of Jason's return and its consequences for both characters is the center focus, with the reveal being the final nail in the coffin. The movie doesn't try to hide that it's Jason behind the mask, but rather that Bruce is in denial that that's who Jason has become. While in Arkham Knight, too much time is dedicated to the mystery of who Knight is, rather than exploring what it means for Bruce as a person. The question should have never been about who is behind the mask, but rather what the return of Jason mean for Bruce and his psyche. Especially now that he's on his way to become Joker 2.0.

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. 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?

Something I would’ve like that happened that’s not entirely unrelated is that, when we get the flashback sequence of Crime Alley, instead of Bruce finding his parents corpses AGAIN, he instead reminisces of the first time he met Jason back when he tried to steal the Batmobile’s tires Because one, it would take away the reoccurring memory of Bruce’s parents that I personally feel was really repetitive in the games, and two, we would see another hurtful memory of his Remembering the boy he he loved like a son, who made him laugh in the same place where he suffered his greatest tragedy and who he eventually lost I know it probably wouldn’t had changed the "twist ending" in the end, but it would’ve made for a nice change of pace

The arkham Knight was never supposed to be a mystery. Once you see the flashbacks of jason, the game told you who he was. The question then becomes "How will Batman deal with this revelation?" and not "I wonder who he is." Batman also didn't even want to figure out the knight's identity, as he would then be confronted with his biggest failure. Bruce made sure to not acknowledge obvious clues, and didn't want it to be true.

Speaking as someone who had the twist spoiled for me long before I played the game, I can definitely save, revealing it earlier would’ve helped. I knew that Jason was the Arkham Knight, but I kept wondering “why does he hate Batman? If half of Gotham believes Batman killed the Joker?” Then we got to see how much Joker tortured Jason, and made the former Robin believe Batman, abandoned him, and then my biggest question was answered. That’s how they should’ve gone about it. The question shouldn’t be who is the Arkham Knight, but why is he the Arkham Knight?

That dialogue between Barbara and Jason was really sad and the fact jason asks how Alfred is shows how much he cares for him and Barbara. Also it was the first time I’ve heard it even when I used to play AK

I always wondered why they didn't just make the Red Hood DLC also include the story of the tie-in comic where it's explained how he both survived Joker's torture, and how he decided on the name Arkham Knight as the beginning, and then also include him as the Robin for the Batgirl DLC. It's a lot of patch work after the fact, yes, but it still could've worked as it is now.

A perfect example of revealing the villain early in the story is the tinkerer from miles morales, the twist was predictable and we all expected it and that's why they revealed her early to have more emotional scenes in the story and the final boss fight hitting so much harder after seeing all the happy moments they have shared! This is how the arkham knight should have been done!!!

Before the game came out, I liked to think of the Arkham Knight as a result of Scarecrow's Toxin, Batman's greatest fear; an unbeatable enemy, always one step ahead, who knows everything and anything about him, his tactics, his gear, and can instantly adapt to whatever Batman does. Plus, having an army that occupies Gotham, while negating Batman's way of fighting back, like the Road Blocks and Mines for the car or the Rooftop Checkpoints so that he can't use the buildings, even the Batwing is useless bc of the flying Drones, and even the GCPD can't help due to the Tanks. The dude thought of everything. And who could think of everything when it comes to dealing with Batman and his city? Noone, but Batman always was afraid of it!! His greatest fear, that Scarecrow's Toxin gave life to, is that he can't protect his own city because of this guy he can't defeat. And he's bearing the name of perhaps the most important place in Batman's mind: Arkham. The prison that was closesd off for so many years until the Joker first showed up and Blackgate almost collapsed. The place where Joker's "party" happened and he got infected, and then the city-wide prison that almost scarred Gotham and resulted in innocents being killed and his archnemesis dying (and bc of him in his mind). Even when Jason was revealed I still thought it was some kind of Fear Toxin trick.

I do think Jason is the best choice but if they didn’t go Jason, here’s a couple other options they could’ve done: 1. Anarchy: The villain from Arkham origins returns and teams up with scarecrow to “free” Gotham from the restraints society places upon it. After all with everyone evacuated, those who stay behind are the ones who “enjoy the chaos” and then the fear to, and will just bring out their pure animalistic nature. Of fear and anarchy. So why the new identity? Well, maybe he got sent to Arkham and was experimented on by Hugo Strange, warping his mind even further than it was. Combine that with his run-in with Batman, and he would be convinced that to truly make Gotham into the anarchist utopia he wants, he will need to become his own symbol of fear, so he does his best to emulate what Batman. 2. Talia: She is brought back from the dead by use of the Lazarus pit and has finally accepted that Bruce will never join the league of assassins and “save” Gotham so she decides to do it for him. 3. Random no-name henchmen: This third one may seem a bit odd, but hear me out. After over a decade of Batman being the terror of criminals a small group of henchman decide enough is enough and they want to bring down the Bat. But if they want to do that they are going to need to combined their efforts and all of the information they’ve discovered about over the years. Batman has knocked them out, broken their bones, and struct tear into their hearts enough times that they have started to see the patterns and in addition, they’ve been chatting with their fellow henchman to get even more information. Once they feel that they know the Bat well enough, they create an identity that they can share amongst each other. That way, even if one of them gets taken out, the others can take up the mantle and continue the mission. So they have several duplicates of the costume prepared. as you face off against the Arkham Knight, each time you can subtly see that the way he acts is a bit different. His voice modulator may keep his voice relatively, the same, but his way of talking, his movements, and his fighting style changes with each encounter. One of them may be better trained with guns. One of them may be better with hand to hand combat. One of them may absolutely suck in a fight, but he’s good at operating tanks and ordering other henchmen to assist him. But by the end you go up against all of the Arkham Knights at once, in a huge predator encounter in which no single takedown will work twice because they have learned from one another. In this version there would be singular Arkham Knight: THEY ARE THE ARKHAM KNIGHTS!

We should of gotten a full blown arkham knight boss battle like the deathstroke battle in origins

Man, I'm still honestly surprised you haven't made it to a 100k subs yet. I thought you had more than 200k by now. Your content is so good and you deserve many many more subs. You'll do it til the end of the year for sure

Another W vid, you always be making the beat vids about the Man Ham universe.

Crazy how its 2024 and you can still put the arkham series interesting even after the suicide squad flop

i honestly thought the jason flashbacks in my first playthrough were just the effects of fear toxin, Joker messing with him and showing him his worst fear: losing someone he loved the twist works well for any unassuming player

I love Jason as the Knight, and I lovee thinking about alternate reveals. They definitely should've revealed him earlier or at least have Batman suspect something (maybe annoyed at himself he compares this mystery man to his presumed-dead son). I DO wish there were even more emotional scenes, I love stuff like that. And yeahh, Joker talking about Jason more and him as Robin flashbacks!! I also love his audio tapes. I wish soo much we got that big talk with Jason and Bruce. And I bet you'll get that 100k sub goal, your videos are fantastic.

I'm already subscribed weirdo. And i watch all your videos five times a day.

The missions in Panera Bread were awesome though

Image dialogue with nightwing with Bruce telling him Jason is alive. Or you play into the Bruce not trusting his family fully and dick learning it on his own when he encounters the knight and then goes to Bruce angry that he hide the fact Jason is alive

It probably would’ve been better if someone who’ve been tied to the Arkham bloodline to be the Arkham Knight who would blame Batman as to why the Arkham Legacy had been tainted, while Jason is established as Red Hood having a side quest with Harley Quinn as he tries to stop/kill her, officially putting Joker’s legacy to a close.

The BATS episode "Showdown" gave me the idea that perhaps Ra's Al Ghul had a son, and the son was more into training the men in the League Of Assassins, while Talia trained the women. The brother was willing to accept Batman into the family, but since both Ra's and Talia wanted Batman to someday take over the league... that drove him mad. Then having Batman fail to save Talia's life -- *that* totally made him snap. The writers of the game could have made a new character, and it's the son of Ra's, and folks would see it's a massive revenge plot. With that said, your video was a good idea. Just reveal it's Jason early on (probably before the Ace Chemicals explosion), and then build up the emotional beats from there. If only Paul Dini had written this, just as he wrote the first two Arkham games...

2:48 Panera Bread😂

Plot twists can either be a reveal for the audience, or a reveal for the characters. Its always interesting when the audience knows something the characters don't

What if Scarecrow captured Jason and gave him the suit? The mask feeds him fear toxin to make Batman look like the Joker to him. As for the boss fight, I want Arkham Knight to actively hunt you with his own disruptor and smoke bombs. You have to beat him at stealth with some hand to hand combat mixed in.

i saw that "panera bread" lmao

6:26 Am I the only one who thought the floor was lego first?

I agree for the most part because I think that if you reveal the Knight as Jason when Batman first meets him at Ace Chemicals, then it opened the game up to more conversations between them (such as if Jason slices into Batman’s comms and having him taught Batman throughout the game, especially after he kidnapped Barbara). They could’ve also had more cutscenes where Batman is begging Jason to talk and even a mini boss fight before the final fight between them. Then we would’ve gotten the relationship a lot more

me personally i loved the Arkham knight my friends that had no idea loved the plot twist and for me and the friends that knew loved how it played out

Maybe I'm being too nice with the game by saying that, but the fact that Jason tells Batman "You really have no idea, do you, Bruce ?" just before the "twist" kinda saves the way that the AK mystery was handled for me. It doesn't feel like a sentence that a character would say if the twist was supposed to make the player surprised and shocked. This and the Panessa Studios scenes feels like the game didn't want to treat that as a unpredictable thing for the player, but as a mystery that tortures Batman throughout the story. A lot of people knew who the AK was even before the game came out, but Batman still doesn't just before the reveal because he can't or refuse to imagine that Jason is somehow alive despite what he saw in Panessa Studios, so Jason turns his sentence almost like "Do I really need to tell you ?", like he would tell to the player and Batman.

Awesome video as always! I like how you brought up the idea of using the best of both worlds, and I think your ideas work very well. From what I've seen from other fans, it seems there are two groups. Some fans either don't mind the twist or were shocked by the twist, and the value of having Jason Todd in the game out weights any inconsistencies in the execution. For others, the character is an absolute disaster and one that is either extremely lame or disappointing, or both. I'm somewhere in the middle. I love that Jason is in this game, and I appreciate his inclusion but I also see the potential and realize that we could have gotten so much more.

Not having the torture scene might have been better it would take away from the elephant in the room

I always thought about the idea of Red Hood being the Arkham Knight’s Robin. Maybe have Tim being the one who has to fight Jason and reasoning with Jason in the end.

Dosent need fixing. The reveal makes perfect sense and was never meant to be a suprise, hence why they teased it.

Since joker is dead , I think scarecrow can fill the same role like in the under the red hood , where Jason betrays him threatens to kill him unless Batman stops him at the end

Personally I would have restructured the story as a whole, making the Arkham Knight a separate character from Jason. I think there's a way better story potential if the villains are laid out like this: -At the beginning of the game, establish the 3 key players as a group calling themselves The Scarred (or smth like that). This group consists of three villains who feel that Batman harmed them irreversibly in different ways: Scarecrow, Hush, and Red Hood. Each of the three serves a different role in conquering Gotham. -Red Hood, like in his original appearance, takes control of the gang/mob scene in Gotham, making them follow his rules in exchange for protection from the Batman by using his Militia. Hush gathers together all of the super-villains in Gotham while pretending to be Bruce Wayne, acting like Bruce has become a villain and promising to use his resources and wealth to fuel their escapades as long as they all get together and do a "favor" for him. This not only unites the villains but also destroys Bruce's reputation. Scarecrow essentially does the same thing as before and threatens to use fear toxin on all of Gotham. All 3 of these villains are working together and perform these things in the days leading up to Halloween. The Arkham Knight would be the mastermind behind the whole thing and in charge of "the scarred" and be hinted at as Batman investigates them and finds new Chronicles of Arkham throughout the city during the knight. After the 3 villains have been defeated (Red Hood choosing to join Batman and help him defeat Scarecrow and Hush) the Arkham Knight reveals himself to begin the final phase of the story. He claims to be the true spirit of Amadeus Arkham, who on the night of All Hallows Eve shall finally purge Gotham of the deranged degenerate filth that has plagued it for so long. At the climax, the Arkham Knight breaks into the GCPD lockup and is ready to kill all of the villains that Batman has conveniently grouped together for him (almost like the Knight knew it would happen like this). Batman, Robin, Nightwing, Azrael (who would have some kind of role in the main story) and all of the villains the player has captured (main story and sidequests) team up to take down the arkham knight who has brought an army of wonder city robots with him, some modified to be bulkier or have other power-ups. At the end, it's revealed that the Arkham Knight is himself a robot as well, created by the League of Assassins decades ago, but had the "soul" of Amadeus Arkham uploaded into him after he died. He worked with Ra's al Ghul and the League in implanting in Hugo Strange the idea of protocol 10, used some psycho-crap to control Quincy Sharpe (hence the supposed "schizophrenic delusion" he had of being the spirit of Arkham). Now that Ra's is dead (temporarily as always, but Amadeus was unaware of the events surrounding the Shadow War sidequest) he decided to step out of the shadows and purify Gotham once and for all, just like he and Ra's planned. Anyway that's just what I would have done, I know it's far from perfect but I feel it has more potential than the way the game handled it in the end. I still love Arkham Knight regardless and would totally keep the Joker hallucinations as imo that was the best part of the game and one of my favorite incites into Batmans character ever.

Idk, I think the execution was cool to me. But they could’ve had us explore a darker side of the Rocksteady’s Arkhamverse. Like, how Jason got caught and stuff and his torture.. all that led up to this post.. I didn’t wanna read it, I wanted to experience it through gameplay

We all agree that the game lacked the interaction with the bat family. With Dick, Tim and Jason all being in Gotham along with Barbara during the events of AK, with Tim dating Barb and Jason returning after so many years, a lot had happened during the time when Jason was killed. Hence, it would have been so cool to see all the members of the bat family reuniting (maybe they could have hinted at the possible later addition of Damien, though that might be too much.) Especially since that never happened in the previous games. It was a similar case as the Dark Knight Rises where the expectations were very high after the success of Arkham City and hence there was a lot of pressure on the devs to replicate the success hence, they couldn't deliver properly. However, they did make up for it with their refined gameplay and the much better open world.

My idea to “fix” it (even though AK is my favorite Arkham game and I don’t have much of a problem) if it was to be a mystery would be to make no mention of Jason until after the reveal. Then dose Batman with some fear toxin and have him hallucinate the torture scenes, or do an Uncharted 4 type flashback where you play as Jason and escape the Asylum.

I think that when this game came out I knew it was him I just really didn’t want him to be, so I kept wiping it from my head and telling myself “it’s a new character, why would they go to such lengths for a character everyone would immediately guess. It’s too obvious” I am a fool in a man’s shoes

I knew it was jason todd when they annouced the red hood story pack as a pre-order bonus.

I agree. I didn’t have problem with Jason being the Arkham knight. I think it was such a cool idea. His design was so cool. Just I think they should reveal him early and actually spend time developing him as a threat of a villain and having that emotional connection between him and Bruce. They could have developed a lot of emotional scenes like the boss fight with him but I feel they just rushed him that’s why there was no connection and I guess why people felt let down by Jason’s character in the game. We needed more moments like his great tapes with oracle. Just really wished we get more of that because that really would make people connect to him and understand why he’s doing all this as the Arkham knight. ❤❤

It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out who he was, but once i got Jason Todd's Bio i compared it with the arkham knight and low and behold they had the same stats

He should have been like aural appearing randomly with batman wondering who he was then showing up in Arkham knight

i would like a chacrater that have a grudge against Bruce Wayne be the AK. At the finale it will reveal that Jason was the one train the AK and manipulated him to become a big villian that batman force to kill. The reason why is like in the vid said "force batman to kill to see the error in his way"

Nah, this idea makes sense. I also like the idea that Jason adopts and has Damian Wayne as a Robin

The game's tie-in novel states that batman knew it was was in denial (it's not Canon I know) but it gives us an idea of batman's thoughts for the events of the game.

I think Jason should have been the Robin in the matter of family dlc, also I always thought it'd have been better if batman figured out it was Jason sooner possible after Barbara is taken but before she "dies" sometime within that part of the game

Personally I never had an issue with the Arkham Knight, I mean we already knew who he was once we first saw him. But my biggest issue with the Arkham Knight was his boss fight, like seriously you grappling up on a gargoyle just to stop to him from shooting you just so Batman can say a few words to him. They could’ve done better with him especially when it’s revealed that he is Jason Todd. Like just imagine using all the skills and gadgets you used on every enemy in-game only for Jason to counter them all, it would’ve made his boss fight more immersive and extremely difficult.

One thing I love about Arkham Knight is that all of us comic book experts knew it was Jason Todd but the average superhero fan (who isn't an expert) didn't so it was a surprise to them and I think that's what makes it so good

The scene where that officer confronts the dude smoking in the back of the diner (Jason) I think if they revealed his face there everyone would be like oh it Jason! Even with the “J” on his face.

If Jason was revealed as the Arkham Knight earlier, the video of Joker "killing" Jason would have been brought up more. Remember, Jason said he was held in the asylum for over a year, and his armor was still good enough after all of that time to help Jason survive Joker's "killing" shot.

I was lucky enough to be 11 years old when it came out and I never heard of Jason before. Never even heard of Red Hood at that point. Only Nightwing and Tim. So the reveal for me was quite cool but yes looking back on it, it’s just so………. Disappointing???? Also the Arkham Red Hood was my introduction to him and he has been my favorite comic character since.

Make him a bruce wayne clone as a way to explain his predictions of batmans every move

Yes, I can't wait for SSKTJL to launch so I can finally play it!!! Waiting is torture!!! At this point, I had been waiting for another Rocksteady game for almost 9 years. Regarding the Arkham Knight topic, I agree with you. It would be more interesting if the reveal was at the beginning of the game.

I remember Rocksteady saying that the Arkham Knight was a "new character". Alright... I think Paul Dini would have come up with something more interesting.

arkham knights story isnt as good as people think now. and thats perfectly fine its a comic book story it doesnt need to be amazing

I feel like the reason we care so much about arkham Jason Todd is because we haven't seen much of him

They should have made Jason Todd into Hush instead of arkham knight, it wouldnt have been guessed so easily

I usually don't comment a lot but I just wanna say , i really like your content , and to be honest I can't stop watching, even when I play arkham knight 😂😅

I played this game for the first time in grade 7 when I was 12, the twist was shocking to me, I remember my brother walking in on the Panessa studios part and him saying what if it is Jason Todd, I proceeded to tell him Jason is dead and he’s a dumbass. I am now in grade 12 and I’m 17. I’ve payed this game 9 times, city 4 time, asylum 3 time and origins once. As of now I am a huge dc fan.

4:30 you should use the face cam more

doesnt seem like they were trying to not make it obvious

I liked the idea of jason being the arkham knight, but unfortunately i think the game drops too many hints for the player. It should have been executed like a mystery in game for the player, more subtle hints.

Either way They have made more better To see Jason Talk with Scarecrow in opening scene. I mean Jason Todd is my favorite Batfamily character, Honestly We never See Jason and Batman Talk about no killing rule. We could get Reveal from begin the game.

Goated

I think people miss the point of Batman: Arkham Knight it was never about the Arkham Knight it was about Joker taking over Batman's mind. My boy really went through it in that game I felt bad for the guy.

I thought Arkham Knight was going to end up being a Bruce clone from Amanda Waller…because Jason Todd was too obvious!

Batman: Arkham Legacy would've been a better title for The Arkham Knight Game.

Personally, I loved this character from day 1

i see no flaw in this video

Also he looks so bad ass

Only thing I hated about the game was that stupid Batmobile giant mine shaft industrial fan mission. That was so boring

I feel like arkham Knight is a great character. it's just that we all knew who it was

The more I've replayed this game, the more I've realized how whiny and annoying arkham knight is. He sounds like a child with a voice changer.

10:43 i thought the comics were canon?

Bateman Arkham knight

Hi

I still hate this game a trash sequel and the worst Arkham game to me

2 things 1 how did this take about 2 months to get out this does not seem over complicated to make and it seems yo intended to release this shortly after Suicide Squads release and 2 you don't seem like an intergalactic criminal so I don't think you lick door knobs

imma be honest. You shouldn't have did a face reveal. I enjoy your voice without the face as I watch gameplay as i'm listing to your voice during your video. But now since I seen your face, I don't have that enojyment anymore.

I can buy Jason Todd being the Arkham Knight. I don’t buy him being the militia leader. The Jason Todd in this game is emotional, high-strung, and hell-bent on killing Batman. He openly defies Scarecrow on multiple occasions for the sake of doing so. That man is not the man who spends what has to be years training and organizing a professional military force to conquer Gotham. This is what I liked about Deathstroke replacing Jason as the militia leader because that position suits his character to a T… boss fight notwithstanding. In my mind, the campaign would’ve worked much better with the following setups: 1) Deathstroke is the militia leader throughout the entire campaign. He’s got his own history with Batman (I.e. Arkham Origins) to draw on and is smart enough to figure out enough about how Batman conducts himself to design and implement specialized training on how to neutralize him. Basically, he is capable of doing everything Jason does in the game - just in a calmer, more methodical fashion. If you give him a similar persona to the one he had in Teen Titans on top of all that, 🤌🤌 2) Jason is a lone wolf chaotic neutral character that comes in to make life difficult for everybody in critical moments. On the one hand, he’s pissed at Batman for the same reasons he had in the original game and doesn’t hesitate to take shots at him when opportunities present themselves. In fact, what you can do is craft a series of encounters with Jason anytime the player does a side quest. To avoid becoming too predictable, it doesn’t always have to be at the end encounter with the villain of the quest. The point Jason is making is that Batman failed to save him simply because his way of doing things is too inefficient. He always has to keep everybody alive and always has to personally handle every little thing even if it means spreading himself too thin, wasting time, and presenting more vulnerabilities. Batman, are you seriously providing rooftop training sessions for Azrael in the middle of a hostile occupation with Barbara missing? On the other hand, since Jason is going to make this argument against Batman, he should practice what he preaches in between encounters. He’s not okay with the state of affairs either. So, the player encounters signs of Jason’s activities throughout the main story and side missions. You will hear thugs and militia talking about some gun-toting vigilante just ruining their business throughout the city. In a way, although he’ll never admit it, he’s helping Batman stay on task. You can be interrogating a Riddler informant when his head explodes mid-sentence due to Jason sniping him and when you go to chase him, he leads you to a militia outpost where your next main story objective is. When you’re in a fistfight against a group of militia, Jason takes a couple of potshots before leaving the last handful to you and dips. It all comes to a head when Robin is taken from Panessa Studios. Both Jason and Batman arrive around the same time in response to the security alert. The obvious choice is to work together to save Robin but Jason has to say it: he’s killing Scarecrow. If Batman disagrees, he’s killing him first. Any rationality Jason might have had prior to this point is gone. It was bad enough when Barbara was kidnapped before this but now, Jason is reliving his trauma from the outside looking in. Cue the boss fight of the century with fists, bullets, and emotional shots galore.

Can you do the same thing with Arkham origins please @gothampaladin