#I need to rant about the map design of Arkham Knight too someday

[frootertooter]

Really really long ass rant/ slight analysis? (I dunno what to call this) about Arkhamverse Scarecrow's progression, design, and Rocksteady's environmental storytelling:

I seriously love the world building/design/environmental storytelling around him so damn much- Especially with Arkham Shadows coming out (they better put some cool ass Scarecrow sequences in it since it's in VR), you get to see how he started out as just a guy in a stitched up gas mask. Professor Jonathan Crane in the fullest

Nothing over the top yet (might change, Shadows isn't out yet), until then we hit Arkham Asylum- This game shows us 2 Scarecrow costumes. The one presumably before his incarceration, and the one he wears while inside the asylum.

Inside the asylum, his costume is made of stitched up chunks of inmate uniforms, he's resourceful, he has a higher pitched, cackly voice at the time. He knows his way around the asylum and creates a makeshift secret lair within it. He also knows the doctors within, and uses his experience as a psychologist to trick them during the patient interviews. He even tricks the players when you first listen to the tapes, making you assume the person speaking is the interviewer, and not Scarecrow manipulating/ using the interview tapes as a means to experiment on the doctors. He's even hinted at to have possibly worked at, or with the asylum at some point before he became Scarecrow? (goon dialogue in Arkham Knight)

Favourite quote from the tapes: "I believe he is quite sane. Just evil"

His next change, like his Asylum design, was a result of him being forced to adapt. He gets mauled by Killer Croc in the sewers, barely surviving with his face ripped apart, leg broken, and presumably his throat torn.

Although not present in the second game, the environment of Arkham City shows that Scarecrow is planning on a comeback. There's his mask hidden away, a few goons of his scattered about, and cannisters of fear toxin that you can find in Riddler's rooms and Hush's lair. He's building up connections again, getting ready for the next game.

^^ Using his masterline figure bc it's the only brightened detailed full body image I could find of him (even his in game character trophy has the brightness turned all the way down sobs)

His Arkham Knight design reveals just how much damage Croc did to his body, and how much he's had to adapt. His left leg now has to wear a brace, giving himself a notable squeaking and clacking noise whenever he walks. His right eye is now glassy since he was blinded by the attack, and much of his nose had now been ripped off. So much of his mouth was ripped apart that he can't even close it anymore. Because of his adaptability however, he uses it all to his advantage. As hinted by conversations in game, Crane likely purposefully had his facial reconstruction surgery make himself look like his Asylum costume's mask-

The gas canisters attached to his face and the tubes attached to his throat is likely is what changed his voice into a low gravely tone. His skin now looks like ripped/stitched together cloth, with string tying his lower jaw to the top (don't ask me how he talks with no lips)- He now walks, talks, and acts menacingly, a far cry from his more cartoonish acts in the Asylum.

Yet despite that, he still draws back to his knowledge and familiarity from his Asylum days in Knight. Using his psychologist background, he appeals and teams with every supervillain he can in Gotham, just as the Joker had done back then. He builds his base at the Asylum, bringing Batman over in restraints and ending the game franchise where it had all started.

God I just- he's so cool, I love the world building in the Arkham games, I love the map designs, the character changes, etc. Rocksteady did such a good job at environmental storytelling

Even the foreshadowing bit with Scarecrow's speech on the blimp in Arkham Knight blew me away ksdkfd- "What can you see? A city engulfed in fear? Betrayed by those you trust the most? Your darkest secrets revealed?" He did all that, he tore Batman's legend apart, but even then it didn't break the bat :')

Ofc I still have my issues with Arkham Knight's story (WHY WAS THERE NO SCARECROW BOSS FIGHT...) but overall the series' progression based, environmental storytelling imo is phenomenal