Probably my favourite thing that didn't come up here: If you finish the main storyline without capturing Riddler yet, then when you're going around finishing off sidequests, Riddler will contact you, going, basically "Oh, yes, very clever how you tricked everyone into thinking you're Bruce Wayne. Everyone but ME! I know you're not Really him, because I'm too smart to fall for it!"
Chase: I think that the Arkham Knight is Jason Todd because of all this evidence. Neil and Monty, in unison: No. Y'all really embodied Rocksteady here.
Monty touched on it, but to expand on Harley's role in Jason's torture, the Arkham Knight comics show that out of jealousy for how much attention Joker was giving Jason, she used her psychology training to make Jason think Batman was the one that branded his face, and she drugged him with hallucinogenics and made him kill Catman dressed as Batman, which is his first kill. She's also the origin of the "Arkham Knight" name, he's "Arkham's knight in shining armor," because she wanted him to direct his rage at Batman, be the one that kills him, and then she'd have Joker all to herself. My headcanon is that Jason takes that name, and internally flips the meaning to be "a knight forged/created by Arkham, and he uses Batman's rogues gallery against him," as a mirror of how Batman is the Dark Knight because he was forged by darkness and pain, and uses them as tools and motivation for his mission. That's probably just me looking to make more meaning out of it than there is, though.
I’ve always interpreted the mental battle between batman and joker as the effects of scarecrow’s toxin taking effect and causing a different personality to rise. First time batman is injected directly, he lives his worst nightmare: joker taking over. This allows the joker to actually take control. Since joker is now in control, the second time scarecrow injects him (after joker laughs about gotham’s demise and announces an encore), we enter joker’s worst nightmare: being forgotten. This allows batman to take control back.
Four awesome little details: -After you capture Ivy and put her in the GCPD, there is an NPC cop who walks around the room. If you talk to him as you progress through story missions, it becomes increasingly clear that he's been infected by Ivy's pheromones. He starts by saying "Man, i might be going crazy, but Ivy's kinda hot, right?", then "Man, I'm gonna go around the precinct and water all the plants." Then, he writes an absolutely dreadful poem for her and it takes like four or five dialogue conversations with him to get through it all. After she dies, he is super sad and talks about wanting to leave Gotham and get back in touch with nature. Finally, near the end of the game it wears off. He realizes he was being manipulated and vows to go home and eat a salad. It's my favorite arc in the whole game, it's such a riot. -if you do a New Game Plus, then during the iconic crematorium scene, after you get to the requisite amount of time applying the incinerator to the Joker's body, you get a jumpscare where Joker opens his eyes, leans up towards the camera, and laughs hysterically. The Gordon line of "This is how it happened. This is how the Batman died." is replaced by Joker saying "This is how it happened. This is how the Joker died." -You run into a pair of militia members behind an electric barrier. Of course, you can hack your way in or glide through the windows in back, but when you approach the barrier, one of the guys starts bragging and taunting the Bat. The other guy is like "WTF are you doing?? You don't taunt the Batman. What the hell is wrong with you??" The first guy gets nervous and says "uhhh, you know I'm just messing around Batman, right? I'm just doing my job, it's nothing personal. I'm sorry. Please don't be mad." If you walk away, the 2nd guy is like "Do you have a death wish? Why would you egg him on? The guy bashes heads for a living, and you just handed him a reason on a platter." and the first guy says "Nahh man, we had an understanding just now. He won't bother us no more, you'll see." It's a funny and charming little bit. -During the fear toxin sequence where you play as Joker killing everybody, you get some fun dialogue of Penguin, Riddler, and Two-Face trying to bargain for their lives. You definitely need to kill Riddler and Two-Face cuz they shoot you if you try to pass them, but Penguin cowers behind a huge pile of cash and begs for his life. You can actually walk past him, sparing him, leading to a quick line of dialogue from each of you. Even better, if you walk past him and get that dialogue, you can absolutely walk back and shoot Penguin anyways, leading Joker to say "HA, changed my mind 😂." Amazing.
Sometimes, during the Riddler fight, when he goes to attack you, he'll shout, "DIE FATHER! I mean, Batman!" When he was young, his dad would always put him and his academic achievements down. This is part of why he turned into a villian.
@nexusaquarian9281 people thought he did because of his photographic memory. I also like to think it’s because he went to a Gotham public school when he was younger. Given how bad everything in the city is, him cheating on a riddle tournament seemed like the most logical conclusion.
Officer Owens doesn't order apple pie, he orders waffles with a side of bacon and asks the waitress not to tell his wife because he normally orders salad. .....I really like this game lol. Great video, gents. I'm so glad you covered this franchise and I hope you get some adult juice and cover Suicide Squad.
55:32 “We’re both better without that loser” Chase: “True” Said the Batman comic book readers in the 80s as it was fans who literally VOTED to kill him off. People did not like Jason Todd at the time. Nowadays he’s a lot of people’s favorite.
The established canon for the Batmobile getting out of the water here not totally clear from the game but the real answer is that Batman’s unicorn friend, Sparkles, recovers the Batmobile offscreen and places it on a nearby roadway
So about Tim Drake becoming Robin. From what I know about the comic canon (this may have been retconned later, I wouldn't be surprised), Batman *really* did not want another Robin after Jason's death, for obvious reasons, but Tim Drake quasi-blackmailed Bruce into accepting Tim as Robin, as Tim had figured out that Nightwing was actually Dick Grayson due to being a fan of the Flying Graysons and recognizing one of Dick's move while he was in the Nightwing costume, and from there pieced together Batman's secret identity. Tim did this because he saw that Batman *needed* a Robin, even if Bruce didn't want to admit it. Of course, it's still fun to make fun of Batman just adopting another Robin like he was catching Pokémon.
Tim Drake's initial Robin storyline is basically one of those 'everyone says this horse can't be ridden but I'm going to tame it with the power of love and win the big race' horsegirl movies, except tim is the girl and bruce is the horse. And then Tim joined young justice and we basically got the same story again, except this time tim is the horse and it's superboy and wondergirl trying to bribe him with oats, because it turns out he's at least as deranged as bruce, he just hides it better.
To answer Chase's question, no, you can't put ashes in the Lazarus Pit. In "Shadow War" from 2022, Ra's gets blown up in such a way that he's reduced to ash, and Damian loses his shit, because Ra's can't be revived in a Pit, in that state. Damian should know enough about the function of the Pits, to safely assume that a body needs to be intact, for it to work.
Might be a strange pick but Johnny Charisma’s fight is my favorite boss in the game. Mark Hamil’s legitimate great singing performance as Joker, the cool setting, getting to play as Robin in a really cool stealth segment. It’s simple but it’s so effective!!!
I think it's because while the others were kinda joker in how they acted charisma was the joker style. Obviously not all iterations would do that but I could imagine some jokers legitimately doing that in the comics
I believe in idle dialogue on the race tracks, Riddler will mention that he has a Riddler mobile that is totally 100% better than the Batmobile and every way and is conveniently always in the shop so you can’t put that to the test
Aww shame you guys didn’t cover the other end to the leagues ending.The way Ra’s rasps out” Detective. proud …of …you” still sticks in my head 4 years since I played this game
Another fun detail: you might be wondering why Scarecrow gave a warning to Gotham, giving everybody time to evacuate. Doesn't seem very super-villainy, right? It is revealed that the reason why he did this was so that the militia could effectively invade, secure, and hold the city with minimal resistance. Additionally, this allowed them to buy off the cops patrolling the Ace Chemical factory and infiltrate the facility unseen, allowing them to mass-produce the toxin on an industrial scale. It is this level of mass production that allows the Scarecrow to create a blast that will coat the entire eastern seaboard of the US, which is why he didnt care that citizens were leaving; they wouldnt be able to outrun the blast anyways.
I subscribe to the theory that Batman wasn’t infected but it was just the fear toxin affecting him. He never shows the other signs ie the white face or green hair and he’s the one with the blood for the longest. Tim seeing the eyes could just be because of the amount of fear toxin in his system. Plus Batman is extremely paranoid so even though he knows he took the cure he still fears himself turning into Joker. Also it makes more sense that if it’s something mental that he beats his fears and paranoia with willpower rather than a blood disease that would physically alter and change you.
I think me getting around to this after finishing Monty's Suicide Squad review was ideal. Even though that spoiled some of the plot twists from Arkham Knight, it also paints a very clear picture of how not to interpret this game's ending.
Monty, I need to commend you on your absolutely amazing voice acting through this series (and the others). You gave me chills at some points. When are we getting the Arkham Series: Monty Edition where Monty Zander voices EVERY character? Also I'm playing the Remedy series because of this channel and your Barry is off but I love it more than the game. How I would expect a Scott to do a NY accent. I'm from Texas so I can't talk. Your Bioshock voices are 10/10.
I always thought the Cruetzfeld Jakob thing was neat because i took that as, part of the reason they consistently failed to rehabilitate joker was because there was an underlying neurodegenerative disease that had gone undiagnosed
i got through all the arkham dumps todzy, and i have to say...Monty, your voice work in all of these episodes is fantastic, absolutely fantastic. as always boys amazing work. i cant wait for the next series.
I absolutely love this podcast. It is my go to to put on in the background while doing...well basically anything. Ive listened to most of the episodes like a dozen times over, and the newer ones at least a handful of times each. Just wanted to let you lads know how much I appreciate you guys getting together and being your goofy and charming selves for our entertainment. I really hope you guys enjoy doing these as much as I enjoy listening to them, which it sounds like you do. Much love lore dump crew
Funny thing about Gordon knowing Batman's identity is that he didn't know until that night, and he only found out because he was just awkardly sitting off to the side during the whole Bruce / Jason confrontation.
They really should have made batman the one not affected by the brainwashing in suicide squad i mean he was affect with something that had no cure and was slowly turning into the joker and yet he beat it by pure willpower yet he got brainwashed easily
Oh I'm scared. AK is my favourite AK Game. It got me Into Comics. And because of this lore dump I replayed all Arkham Games so far with all side quests and am currently on AK and I love it. So I hope this Lore Dump is full of fun, jokes and does not face palm me with all the plot holes my dumb brain always ignored all those years.
@@somedudewatchintv5297 highlighted reply and a like from Monty. My instincts say yes but it could just be coming from um actually or game changer shorts
57:43 I’ve played through these games nearly a hundred times, platinumed them too. And I have never noticed that the Batmobile tire treads are in the shape of a damn bat.
Monty, you haven't put in the content warning in the description of the video. I personally don't need them, but letting you know so it's there for those who need it!
I seriously can’t tell if Chase is joking about the whole Ivy being green thing. They say she doesn’t look green when she’s clearly green and then they say she’s finally green when looking at the least green picture of her in the entire game.
I REALLY should get around to playing this game. The reminder that Mike "Here's What You're Gonna Do" Ehrmantraut plays Gordon is just further motivating me to check it out. But i got so many games downloaded that I'm trying to get through (Final Draft playthrough of Alan Wake II, Metal Gear Solid V. And I've recently gotten into Fortnite cuz me and my friend play together. She and I both have Alan Wake skins 💀)...
I respect that montys favourite robin is red hood but ill die on the hill that damian wayne is pinicle robin The animated movies with him are probably my favorite bat content
I know its not the preferred theory, but i always suspected that the end was that Batman faked his death, then started using Scarecrows fear toxin, mainly for 2 reasons 1, Batman said to Carwoman "Gotham needs something more .... something WORSE" 2, The whole night aside from Arkhem Knight,Scarecrow he's trying to find a cure for the "Joker" disease, now what Neil and Monty mentioned each of the other "Joke alikes" represent a trait of Joker Obsession with Batman Maniacal rage Showmanship Calculating /planning genius So ..... what trait did Batman get? .... my theory .... Jokers unfathomable cruelty. And i think he may have already been "effected" by that trait before the hallucinations, i really think when the game starts when you see him gazing upon the city, it wasnt just "how can i stop these crimnals" it was also "i can use this stuff ...."
The cure was made with Ras Al Ghoul's blood mixed with the Lazarus pit stuff. Plus The dynesian stuff that Batman's getting for Ras was a purer version of the Lazarus pit.
Yes! Been looking forward to this one for a long time! I have loved every second of this series as it’s one of my favourites in gaming! Also, I just wanted to say thank you to Monty, Chase, and Neil for starting and continuing lore dump so far down the road! I’ve had the lowest point in my life ever for a while and things are finally starting to look up and this is part of what helped with that is the dynamic between you three being awesome! Can’t wait until the next series!
JULY 12th 2023- In the Lore Dump Discord server. I said while in the suggestions thread, "oh god.. Chase is doing Yakuza, isn't he? Everybody get ready for an other 30 hours dissertation " All MONTY COULD DO WAS STARE IN HORROR!!! I foresaw into Chase's mind and could only see shiny darkness with bright lights... but dim smiles... and funny Karaoke and horrible consumerism... He's going to have fun with the names. So I don't think Chase is still checking comments for this but my next guess for him after Yakuza... it's a soft guess. I wish I knew if Chase likes tactical role playing games... *windup* .....Fire Emblem up in another year from Chase... maybe... lol
After watching this series again I came to the realization that Neil stated in origins that Batman learns to accept help from allies and then forgets that lesson. But it actually makes sense now that I think about it that he doesn’t forget it, he rejects it cause accepting help is what got Jason “killed”. And it’s not until Jason is back that he learns the lesson all over again.
I had never played or even heard of the Arkham games when Knight finally came out, but I was ENTRANCED. The amazing cold open, the beautiful city, the fluid animations, the excellent detective mode, the tanky Batmobile, and some of the most intriguing storylines I have heard of in a superhero game. Absolutely stunning game, so glad the graphics and story still hold up. I think there were lots of satisfying and suprising conclusions, but there are still some weird cliffhangers as sequel bait. Still, a gorgeous game, a captivating experience, and I am so glad Chase got to learn about it!!!
Bloody brilliant episode from our favorite lore masters!! Knight is definitely my favorite story, with City being my favorite game play. Loved this series. And that tease at the end!! Can't wait. Thank you, Monty, Chase and Neil for this amazing podcast. I relisten to the Remedyverse, Bioshock and Arkham episodes frequently. It's such a comforting, good listen. Love you guys and please keep them coming!! ❤
1:52:06 The problem is the game treats it like Ivy's redemption. As if getting rid of the Cloudburst gas excuses all the people she killed in her obsession with protecting plants.
50:00 I'm quite certain that as a part of the audition for Troy Baker, for the role of the joker, he had to read the killing joke monologue. He wasn't told which character he was auditioning for, but he recognized it (cuz ofc, it's an iconic Batman story) There's a video of him reading that monologue at a comic con panel. It's on UA-cam, check it out if ya like!
Once again Monty, so damn impressed with the para-learning and background research you've done. Who else would be thorough enough to read through the Azrael comics for this game?
Yakuza next, let's gooooo! As excited as I am for my boy Majima to make his loredump debut, I've absolutely loved this series - I played the first two games when they came out and loved them, but then didn't have a PC that could run Origins, and ended up bouncing off the series, so I never got to see the conclusion until now. Kudos to Rocksteady; for all its flaws (tim drake's hair being chief among them), this really does feel like a proper Batman story, and one of the better AU versions of Jason's backstory. (Certainly better than the Nu52 version!)
This was a fun series. I'm sad there was a few details monty didn't get into but I kinda realize Chase probably wouldn't care about those details because they aren't a comic fan and Neil probably already knows them
I dont think people bring anough attention to The hallucinationer with the Gun and the necksnapping in crime alley. Crane broke Batman Twice this night.
I'm so glad Chase liked Arkham Knight's story the most. From the beginning, I was anticipating him not liking how serious, dark and intense Knight is, in comparison to the relative levity of Asylum, given the franchises I know he likes, so glad to be wrong.
34:16 - 45:44 is Joker being introduced & how Gotham changes with him in Batmans mind scene & 1:44:03 - 1:45:47 is Batman being revealed as the final Joker infected plus 2:11:39 - 2:16:08 is Jason being revealed as the Arkham knight with 2:21:43 - 2:30:36 is Batman being in Arkham Asylum by Scarecrow with the Joker gone & him saved by Red Hood to Knightmare Batman scene!!!!
14:23 I was going to comment something mentioning how Arkham Knight was my 2nd favorite game of all times, despite its glaring flaws/shortcomings. But instead I wanna focus on this. See? I never thought of that, I just soft of dismissed it as 'video game logic' but I guess, in terms of lore it does kinda show Bruce is getting much hands on protecting the city. edit: 16:27 _sometimes foreshadowing is relatively obvious_ edit: 28:12 *[Insert Leonardo pointing meme]* edit: 1:33:05 I understood that reference edit: 2:23:53 he goes: "Tsk, Alfred! are the ears too big? I think they are too big >:(" just like the episode of the HQ show. That whole sequence was really funny. Suggestion for future Lore Dumps: [some of them might have been covered already, need to check] [Prototype] & the sequel. The Darksiders games. Mass Effect Dragon Age. Baldur's Gate franchise. Dead Space Yakuza Hitman Subnautica The Amnesia games
Every single time you guys pretend not to know who Bruce Wayne is, or that Batman is Bruce Wayne, cracks me up in this episode. 2:22:45 is the funniest of them all.
for me each robin represent a different aspects of batman, dick grayson represents batman's good and kind side (heart), jasond todd represents batman's anger, tim drake represents batman's intellect and pragmatism and damien represents batman's darkside, since damien is trained by league of shadows and has no problem with killing, batman has to deradicalize damien, it's that internal struggle that batman has (no killing rule).
Monty Long Halloween was great but my personal best batman *story* Is Batman Adventures issue 33 (i think) "just another night" Where Bruce is out with his girl of the week and her son, having just seen a movie...they are cornered by a mugger with a gun. He takes their money and the kids baseball cap. Bruce goes home and flips out. Scouring the city as batman until he tracks down the goon and retrieves everthing, and returns the cap to the young boy. When he gets back to the cave its to a message from her, leaving him because he wasn't there when they needed him in the aftermath of the incident. Alfred asks him if he is okay, as he very much liked this young lady. He sits in the dark, alone, and says. "Its fine...no one got hurt" To me ... Thats the soul of Batman.
38:41 Exactly. It was just a really forced way to bring Joker back despite killing him off in City. He shouldn't have been in Origins either. As a prequel that should have been a Year One type game set before Batman and Joker met not the exact night they met.
Maybe a hot take but the Batsut V7.43 that you start the game with is WAY better in my opinion than the Batsuit V8.03 that you have for the majority of the game. I kept the V7.43 on the entire game because it felt way more Batman to me though it did cause some visual glitches because every time he was supposed to take off his helmet in a cutscene, he didn’t actually remove it and his hair started clipping through his helmet. The final level of the game though where he’s unmasked has him in the V8.03 no matter what, assumedly for this very reason.
The powerpoint still realy dont give the game credit how beautiful its graphics and style are. God I really dont understand why SSKJL does not look as good. They already had it! (I know game dev is more complicated than that. But I just want to rand here, leave me alone!)
So, I remember reading somewhere (I don't remember where, so this may be wrong) that the Arkham Knight was meant to be an entirely original villain, a character created by Rocksteady to be used in future comics if anyone at DC wanted to. And then DC wanted to push Red Hood, so made a mandate that the Arkham Knight just be him instead. And if thats true, I think it's a real shame.
Between when the Arkham origins episode was uploaded and now, I went and 120%'d Arkham Knight because it has been sitting unplayed in my steam library for years and I wanted to watch this. Very good game, I enjoy. Asylum is still my favorite though.
Spoilers for the suicide squad game ish if anyone cares but man literally the only thing that I’ve heard about suicide squad which I even remotely like is that apparently there’s some small bit of lore somewhere that confirms cat and bat met up after the knightfall protocol and became an actual thing and that is all I will take away from that game.
2:12:40 "He comes back to life through Lazarus Pit shenanigans." -- Nope! Nope, nope, nope, sorry, Monty, tell the truth: Jason Todd came back to life because Superboy-Prime punched the walls of space-time and changed reality. (To anyone who thinks I'm joking, I am 150% serious, this is what "Infinite Crisis" establishes as what happened. If that sounds unutterably stupid, that's because it is, and no amount of Lazarus Pit papering over of the situation is going to make me not roll my eyes at everything to do with Jason's edgelord bullshit as Red Hood (/ Arkham Knight).)
And finally it end's. Honestly been my favourite series of Lore Dump so far. _And I've listened to the Metal Gear/Bioshock Series at nauseum at this point!_ For my opinion on Knight: Very much a solid game and ending to the Arkham Series, faults and all. But still doesn't reach the peaks of City for me.
I almost cried when game gave me a choice to save Ra's al ghul because I didn't think game would give me a choice, and Nyssa's such a unreliable narrator, saying Ra's a zombie when he's clearly lucid enough to talk to Batman. :'D
Wait a second, how deep are you going into Yakuza? Youve got 6 Kiryu games, 2 Ichiban games, and 2 Judgement games. That's like 10 games and some of those sidequests are crazy.
Probably my favourite thing that didn't come up here: If you finish the main storyline without capturing Riddler yet, then when you're going around finishing off sidequests, Riddler will contact you, going, basically "Oh, yes, very clever how you tricked everyone into thinking you're Bruce Wayne. Everyone but ME! I know you're not Really him, because I'm too smart to fall for it!"
`'why not give up" dismantles like 90% of gaming and I love it
Give up, skeleton.
It dismantles 90% of fiction as a whole😭
2:20:35 "It's that fated place where Batman was born... THE KEYBLADE GRAVEYARD!"
That final, "I am VENGEANCE. I am the NIGHT. I AM BATMAN!" is just *chef's kiss*
RIP Kevin Conroy
Chase: I think that the Arkham Knight is Jason Todd because of all this evidence.
Neil and Monty, in unison: No.
Y'all really embodied Rocksteady here.
Monty touched on it, but to expand on Harley's role in Jason's torture, the Arkham Knight comics show that out of jealousy for how much attention Joker was giving Jason, she used her psychology training to make Jason think Batman was the one that branded his face, and she drugged him with hallucinogenics and made him kill Catman dressed as Batman, which is his first kill.
She's also the origin of the "Arkham Knight" name, he's "Arkham's knight in shining armor," because she wanted him to direct his rage at Batman, be the one that kills him, and then she'd have Joker all to herself.
My headcanon is that Jason takes that name, and internally flips the meaning to be "a knight forged/created by Arkham, and he uses Batman's rogues gallery against him," as a mirror of how Batman is the Dark Knight because he was forged by darkness and pain, and uses them as tools and motivation for his mission. That's probably just me looking to make more meaning out of it than there is, though.
I’ve always interpreted the mental battle between batman and joker as the effects of scarecrow’s toxin taking effect and causing a different personality to rise.
First time batman is injected directly, he lives his worst nightmare: joker taking over. This allows the joker to actually take control.
Since joker is now in control, the second time scarecrow injects him (after joker laughs about gotham’s demise and announces an encore), we enter joker’s worst nightmare: being forgotten. This allows batman to take control back.
"I don't remember that being in Spider Man."
Legit made me lose it with laughter.
Four awesome little details:
-After you capture Ivy and put her in the GCPD, there is an NPC cop who walks around the room. If you talk to him as you progress through story missions, it becomes increasingly clear that he's been infected by Ivy's pheromones. He starts by saying "Man, i might be going crazy, but Ivy's kinda hot, right?", then "Man, I'm gonna go around the precinct and water all the plants." Then, he writes an absolutely dreadful poem for her and it takes like four or five dialogue conversations with him to get through it all. After she dies, he is super sad and talks about wanting to leave Gotham and get back in touch with nature. Finally, near the end of the game it wears off. He realizes he was being manipulated and vows to go home and eat a salad. It's my favorite arc in the whole game, it's such a riot.
-if you do a New Game Plus, then during the iconic crematorium scene, after you get to the requisite amount of time applying the incinerator to the Joker's body, you get a jumpscare where Joker opens his eyes, leans up towards the camera, and laughs hysterically. The Gordon line of "This is how it happened. This is how the Batman died." is replaced by Joker saying "This is how it happened. This is how the Joker died."
-You run into a pair of militia members behind an electric barrier. Of course, you can hack your way in or glide through the windows in back, but when you approach the barrier, one of the guys starts bragging and taunting the Bat. The other guy is like "WTF are you doing?? You don't taunt the Batman. What the hell is wrong with you??" The first guy gets nervous and says "uhhh, you know I'm just messing around Batman, right? I'm just doing my job, it's nothing personal. I'm sorry. Please don't be mad."
If you walk away, the 2nd guy is like "Do you have a death wish? Why would you egg him on? The guy bashes heads for a living, and you just handed him a reason on a platter." and the first guy says "Nahh man, we had an understanding just now. He won't bother us no more, you'll see." It's a funny and charming little bit.
-During the fear toxin sequence where you play as Joker killing everybody, you get some fun dialogue of Penguin, Riddler, and Two-Face trying to bargain for their lives. You definitely need to kill Riddler and Two-Face cuz they shoot you if you try to pass them, but Penguin cowers behind a huge pile of cash and begs for his life. You can actually walk past him, sparing him, leading to a quick line of dialogue from each of you. Even better, if you walk past him and get that dialogue, you can absolutely walk back and shoot Penguin anyways, leading Joker to say "HA, changed my mind 😂." Amazing.
Sidenote: Hearing Chase pop when Firefly comes up and *finally the appearance of Man-Bat!* made my day. _Out of everyone he remembers. _*_Garfeild!_*
Sometimes, during the Riddler fight, when he goes to attack you, he'll shout, "DIE FATHER! I mean, Batman!"
When he was young, his dad would always put him and his academic achievements down. This is part of why he turned into a villian.
@nexusaquarian9281 people thought he did because of his photographic memory. I also like to think it’s because he went to a Gotham public school when he was younger. Given how bad everything in the city is, him cheating on a riddle tournament seemed like the most logical conclusion.
Officer Owens doesn't order apple pie, he orders waffles with a side of bacon and asks the waitress not to tell his wife because he normally orders salad.
.....I really like this game lol. Great video, gents. I'm so glad you covered this franchise and I hope you get some adult juice and cover Suicide Squad.
55:32 “We’re both better without that loser”
Chase: “True”
Said the Batman comic book readers in the 80s as it was fans who literally VOTED to kill him off. People did not like Jason Todd at the time. Nowadays he’s a lot of people’s favorite.
The established canon for the Batmobile getting out of the water here not totally clear from the game but the real answer is that Batman’s unicorn friend, Sparkles, recovers the Batmobile offscreen and places it on a nearby roadway
Real Things you can say to describe Killer Is Dead's story.
So about Tim Drake becoming Robin. From what I know about the comic canon (this may have been retconned later, I wouldn't be surprised), Batman *really* did not want another Robin after Jason's death, for obvious reasons, but Tim Drake quasi-blackmailed Bruce into accepting Tim as Robin, as Tim had figured out that Nightwing was actually Dick Grayson due to being a fan of the Flying Graysons and recognizing one of Dick's move while he was in the Nightwing costume, and from there pieced together Batman's secret identity. Tim did this because he saw that Batman *needed* a Robin, even if Bruce didn't want to admit it.
Of course, it's still fun to make fun of Batman just adopting another Robin like he was catching Pokémon.
😅😅b8
Tim Drake's initial Robin storyline is basically one of those 'everyone says this horse can't be ridden but I'm going to tame it with the power of love and win the big race' horsegirl movies, except tim is the girl and bruce is the horse.
And then Tim joined young justice and we basically got the same story again, except this time tim is the horse and it's superboy and wondergirl trying to bribe him with oats, because it turns out he's at least as deranged as bruce, he just hides it better.
Jim knew Batman could handle the bullet shot into his chest armor. He shot Batman so he could save Barbara.
To answer Chase's question, no, you can't put ashes in the Lazarus Pit. In "Shadow War" from 2022, Ra's gets blown up in such a way that he's reduced to ash, and Damian loses his shit, because Ra's can't be revived in a Pit, in that state. Damian should know enough about the function of the Pits, to safely assume that a body needs to be intact, for it to work.
43:00 also regarding the cure stuff, Batman never fully cured the Titan stuff in himself either. So he's had a time bomb for a while
i love how these have gone from lore dumps to these three just showing off their voice acting skills
Might be a strange pick but Johnny Charisma’s fight is my favorite boss in the game. Mark Hamil’s legitimate great singing performance as Joker, the cool setting, getting to play as Robin in a really cool stealth segment. It’s simple but it’s so effective!!!
I think it's because while the others were kinda joker in how they acted charisma was the joker style. Obviously not all iterations would do that but I could imagine some jokers legitimately doing that in the comics
I believe in idle dialogue on the race tracks, Riddler will mention that he has a Riddler mobile that is totally 100% better than the Batmobile and every way and is conveniently always in the shop so you can’t put that to the test
Aww shame you guys didn’t cover the other end to the leagues ending.The way Ra’s rasps out” Detective. proud …of …you” still sticks in my head 4 years since I played this game
That was my choice. It made me feel....dirty.
Never forget it.
Aw man.... I finished 4 Lore Dumps in a few days and this one will be done soon, too. Then I gotta wait until April :[
I know.. we have to be here for each other until then 🫂
Another fun detail: you might be wondering why Scarecrow gave a warning to Gotham, giving everybody time to evacuate. Doesn't seem very super-villainy, right?
It is revealed that the reason why he did this was so that the militia could effectively invade, secure, and hold the city with minimal resistance. Additionally, this allowed them to buy off the cops patrolling the Ace Chemical factory and infiltrate the facility unseen, allowing them to mass-produce the toxin on an industrial scale. It is this level of mass production that allows the Scarecrow to create a blast that will coat the entire eastern seaboard of the US, which is why he didnt care that citizens were leaving; they wouldnt be able to outrun the blast anyways.
Man, I love Chase. "Why not just give up?" Should have been followed by "Are they stupid?"
I subscribe to the theory that Batman wasn’t infected but it was just the fear toxin affecting him. He never shows the other signs ie the white face or green hair and he’s the one with the blood for the longest. Tim seeing the eyes could just be because of the amount of fear toxin in his system. Plus Batman is extremely paranoid so even though he knows he took the cure he still fears himself turning into Joker.
Also it makes more sense that if it’s something mental that he beats his fears and paranoia with willpower rather than a blood disease that would physically alter and change you.
I think me getting around to this after finishing Monty's Suicide Squad review was ideal. Even though that spoiled some of the plot twists from Arkham Knight, it also paints a very clear picture of how not to interpret this game's ending.
Same, this is a series I’ve beaten a dozen times, it’s one of my absolute favorites.
5 games and I didnt believe them until now that Bruce Wayne was Batman.
I think Batman is actually Alfred Pennyworth.
That Batman speech to Nightwing to protect blood Haven Is at the end of the penguin side mission.
Monty, I need to commend you on your absolutely amazing voice acting through this series (and the others). You gave me chills at some points. When are we getting the Arkham Series: Monty Edition where Monty Zander voices EVERY character?
Also I'm playing the Remedy series because of this channel and your Barry is off but I love it more than the game. How I would expect a Scott to do a NY accent. I'm from Texas so I can't talk. Your Bioshock voices are 10/10.
Hang on, I'll fix your opening statement;
"The last real game that Rocksteady ever made."
There you go!
I always thought the Cruetzfeld Jakob thing was neat because i took that as, part of the reason they consistently failed to rehabilitate joker was because there was an underlying neurodegenerative disease that had gone undiagnosed
i got through all the arkham dumps todzy, and i have to say...Monty, your voice work in all of these episodes is fantastic, absolutely fantastic. as always boys amazing work. i cant wait for the next series.
I absolutely love this podcast. It is my go to to put on in the background while doing...well basically anything. Ive listened to most of the episodes like a dozen times over, and the newer ones at least a handful of times each. Just wanted to let you lads know how much I appreciate you guys getting together and being your goofy and charming selves for our entertainment. I really hope you guys enjoy doing these as much as I enjoy listening to them, which it sounds like you do. Much love lore dump crew
Funny thing about Gordon knowing Batman's identity is that he didn't know until that night, and he only found out because he was just awkardly sitting off to the side during the whole Bruce / Jason confrontation.
They really should have made batman the one not affected by the brainwashing in suicide squad i mean he was affect with something that had no cure and was slowly turning into the joker and yet he beat it by pure willpower yet he got brainwashed easily
Kinda funny, at 1:16:08, that description of the usage of money is more or less what happens in Matt Reeves' "The Batman."
I'm way too addicted to these videos. I listen to them all the time while I'm at work.
Oh I'm scared.
AK is my favourite AK Game. It got me Into Comics. And because of this lore dump I replayed all Arkham Games so far with all side quests and am currently on AK and I love it. So I hope this Lore Dump is full of fun, jokes and does not face palm me with all the plot holes my dumb brain always ignored all those years.
Do you have any background in acting? The way you read lines and emote with your voice is brilliant, Monty!
I'm glad this came out today. Need a good video to play while being called into work.
I'm surprised Monty didn't mention the New Game + intro.
"Get in the comments"
Okay Brennan
I get this
Do they watch Dimension 20?
@@somedudewatchintv5297 highlighted reply and a like from Monty. My instincts say yes but it could just be coming from um actually or game changer shorts
57:43 I’ve played through these games nearly a hundred times, platinumed them too. And I have never noticed that the Batmobile tire treads are in the shape of a damn bat.
Monty, you haven't put in the content warning in the description of the video. I personally don't need them, but letting you know so it's there for those who need it!
Thank you!!! I completely forgot in the wave of editing!
I have never been more happy to binge videos
I seriously can’t tell if Chase is joking about the whole Ivy being green thing. They say she doesn’t look green when she’s clearly green and then they say she’s finally green when looking at the least green picture of her in the entire game.
Ivy is so not green here lmao
@@yoogrldude Chase is that you?
I REALLY should get around to playing this game. The reminder that Mike "Here's What You're Gonna Do" Ehrmantraut plays Gordon is just further motivating me to check it out.
But i got so many games downloaded that I'm trying to get through (Final Draft playthrough of Alan Wake II, Metal Gear Solid V. And I've recently gotten into Fortnite cuz me and my friend play together. She and I both have Alan Wake skins 💀)...
31:51 Knight has my favourite Scarecrow design. He basically looks like a rotting corpse.
I respect that montys favourite robin is red hood but ill die on the hill that damian wayne is pinicle robin
The animated movies with him are probably my favorite bat content
Damien is the best Robin, Dick is the best character who has been Robin
I know its not the preferred theory, but i always suspected that the end was that Batman faked his death, then started using Scarecrows fear toxin, mainly for 2 reasons
1, Batman said to Carwoman "Gotham needs something more .... something WORSE"
2, The whole night aside from Arkhem Knight,Scarecrow he's trying to find a cure for the "Joker" disease, now what Neil and Monty mentioned each of the other "Joke alikes" represent a trait of Joker
Obsession with Batman
Maniacal rage
Showmanship
Calculating /planning genius
So ..... what trait did Batman get? .... my theory .... Jokers unfathomable cruelty.
And i think he may have already been "effected" by that trait before the hallucinations, i really think when the game starts when you see him gazing upon the city, it wasnt just "how can i stop these crimnals" it was also "i can use this stuff ...."
The cure was made with Ras Al Ghoul's blood mixed with the Lazarus pit stuff. Plus The dynesian stuff that Batman's getting for Ras was a purer version of the Lazarus pit.
Yes! Been looking forward to this one for a long time! I have loved every second of this series as it’s one of my favourites in gaming! Also, I just wanted to say thank you to Monty, Chase, and Neil for starting and continuing lore dump so far down the road! I’ve had the lowest point in my life ever for a while and things are finally starting to look up and this is part of what helped with that is the dynamic between you three being awesome! Can’t wait until the next series!
JULY 12th 2023- In the Lore Dump Discord server. I said while in the suggestions thread,
"oh god.. Chase is doing Yakuza, isn't he? Everybody get ready for an other 30 hours dissertation " All MONTY COULD DO WAS STARE IN HORROR!!!
I foresaw into Chase's mind and could only see shiny darkness with bright lights... but dim smiles... and funny Karaoke and horrible consumerism... He's going to have fun with the names.
So I don't think Chase is still checking comments for this but my next guess for him after Yakuza... it's a soft guess. I wish I knew if Chase likes tactical role playing games...
*windup* .....Fire Emblem up in another year from Chase... maybe... lol
After watching this series again I came to the realization that Neil stated in origins that Batman learns to accept help from allies and then forgets that lesson. But it actually makes sense now that I think about it that he doesn’t forget it, he rejects it cause accepting help is what got Jason “killed”. And it’s not until Jason is back that he learns the lesson all over again.
I LOVE that reading!
I had never played or even heard of the Arkham games when Knight finally came out, but I was ENTRANCED. The amazing cold open, the beautiful city, the fluid animations, the excellent detective mode, the tanky Batmobile, and some of the most intriguing storylines I have heard of in a superhero game. Absolutely stunning game, so glad the graphics and story still hold up. I think there were lots of satisfying and suprising conclusions, but there are still some weird cliffhangers as sequel bait. Still, a gorgeous game, a captivating experience, and I am so glad Chase got to learn about it!!!
Bloody brilliant episode from our favorite lore masters!! Knight is definitely my favorite story, with City being my favorite game play. Loved this series. And that tease at the end!! Can't wait. Thank you, Monty, Chase and Neil for this amazing podcast. I relisten to the Remedyverse, Bioshock and Arkham episodes frequently. It's such a comforting, good listen. Love you guys and please keep them coming!! ❤
1:52:06 The problem is the game treats it like Ivy's redemption. As if getting rid of the Cloudburst gas excuses all the people she killed in her obsession with protecting plants.
50:00 I'm quite certain that as a part of the audition for Troy Baker, for the role of the joker, he had to read the killing joke monologue. He wasn't told which character he was auditioning for, but he recognized it (cuz ofc, it's an iconic Batman story)
There's a video of him reading that monologue at a comic con panel. It's on UA-cam, check it out if ya like!
Once again Monty, so damn impressed with the para-learning and background research you've done. Who else would be thorough enough to read through the Azrael comics for this game?
Is this a april first joke or.. no , this is for real. Thank god
Yakuza next, let's gooooo! As excited as I am for my boy Majima to make his loredump debut, I've absolutely loved this series - I played the first two games when they came out and loved them, but then didn't have a PC that could run Origins, and ended up bouncing off the series, so I never got to see the conclusion until now. Kudos to Rocksteady; for all its flaws (tim drake's hair being chief among them), this really does feel like a proper Batman story, and one of the better AU versions of Jason's backstory. (Certainly better than the Nu52 version!)
Love the energy, can't wait for the next series
This was a fun series. I'm sad there was a few details monty didn't get into but I kinda realize Chase probably wouldn't care about those details because they aren't a comic fan and Neil probably already knows them
I dont think people bring anough attention to The hallucinationer with the Gun and the necksnapping in crime alley. Crane broke Batman Twice this night.
So hyped for yakuza .Probably my favorite series of games
Owens originally ordered his usual (chicken salad with no dressing) but instead he changed his mind for waffles and a side of bacon.
I'm so glad Chase liked Arkham Knight's story the most. From the beginning, I was anticipating him not liking how serious, dark and intense Knight is, in comparison to the relative levity of Asylum, given the franchises I know he likes, so glad to be wrong.
I will give that series a try that Neil is covering but it's probably not a series I would like to play.
34:16 - 45:44 is Joker being introduced & how Gotham changes with him in Batmans mind scene & 1:44:03 - 1:45:47 is Batman being revealed as the final Joker infected plus 2:11:39 - 2:16:08 is Jason being revealed as the Arkham knight with 2:21:43 - 2:30:36 is Batman being in Arkham Asylum by Scarecrow with the Joker gone & him saved by Red Hood to Knightmare Batman scene!!!!
14:23 I was going to comment something mentioning how Arkham Knight was my 2nd favorite game of all times, despite its glaring flaws/shortcomings.
But instead I wanna focus on this.
See? I never thought of that, I just soft of dismissed it as 'video game logic' but I guess, in terms of lore it does kinda show Bruce is getting much hands on protecting the city.
edit: 16:27 _sometimes foreshadowing is relatively obvious_
edit: 28:12 *[Insert Leonardo pointing meme]*
edit: 1:33:05 I understood that reference
edit: 2:23:53 he goes: "Tsk, Alfred! are the ears too big? I think they are too big >:(" just like the episode of the HQ show.
That whole sequence was really funny.
Suggestion for future Lore Dumps: [some of them might have been covered already, need to check]
[Prototype] & the sequel.
The Darksiders games.
Mass Effect
Dragon Age.
Baldur's Gate franchise.
Dead Space
Yakuza
Hitman
Subnautica
The Amnesia games
Every single time you guys pretend not to know who Bruce Wayne is, or that Batman is Bruce Wayne, cracks me up in this episode. 2:22:45 is the funniest of them all.
for me each robin represent a different aspects of batman, dick grayson represents batman's good and kind side (heart), jasond todd represents batman's anger, tim drake represents batman's intellect and pragmatism and damien represents batman's darkside, since damien is trained by league of shadows and has no problem with killing, batman has to deradicalize damien, it's that internal struggle that batman has (no killing rule).
Monty
Long Halloween was great but my personal best batman *story*
Is Batman Adventures issue 33 (i think) "just another night"
Where Bruce is out with his girl of the week and her son, having just seen a movie...they are cornered by a mugger with a gun. He takes their money and the kids baseball cap.
Bruce goes home and flips out. Scouring the city as batman until he tracks down the goon and retrieves everthing, and returns the cap to the young boy.
When he gets back to the cave its to a message from her, leaving him because he wasn't there when they needed him in the aftermath of the incident.
Alfred asks him if he is okay, as he very much liked this young lady.
He sits in the dark, alone, and says.
"Its fine...no one got hurt"
To me ... Thats the soul of Batman.
38:41 Exactly. It was just a really forced way to bring Joker back despite killing him off in City. He shouldn't have been in Origins either. As a prequel that should have been a Year One type game set before Batman and Joker met not the exact night they met.
The Riddler Batmobile skin is DLC that you can buy and use.
Maybe a hot take but the Batsut V7.43 that you start the game with is WAY better in my opinion than the Batsuit V8.03 that you have for the majority of the game. I kept the V7.43 on the entire game because it felt way more Batman to me though it did cause some visual glitches because every time he was supposed to take off his helmet in a cutscene, he didn’t actually remove it and his hair started clipping through his helmet. The final level of the game though where he’s unmasked has him in the V8.03 no matter what, assumedly for this very reason.
Wooo ‘nother lore dump .Sad to see this game series off but what a great ride it has been
Honestly I don't get the (spoilers) batman is bruce wane reveal shock every time, but don't ever change lads.
The powerpoint still realy dont give the game credit how beautiful its graphics and style are. God I really dont understand why SSKJL does not look as good. They already had it!
(I know game dev is more complicated than that. But I just want to rand here, leave me alone!)
The end of another game or game series(as far as I'm concerned). Hope y'all are doing well lads.
I know I'm late, but the Joker blood turning others into Joker. This happened in Batman Beyond in a way.
I have a feeling that Yakuza is going to be the next Kingdom Hearts just because of how over the top it is. I hope Chase is the narrator for this.
He is, he's the only one that's played them
Chase don’t read this
Chase loves a good power vacuum story hmm? Let’s just say I’m very excited for Neil’s contributions later this year.
Hold up .. I just remembered..... though I guess it's no surprise..... THE DEATHSTROKE BOSS
So, I remember reading somewhere (I don't remember where, so this may be wrong) that the Arkham Knight was meant to be an entirely original villain, a character created by Rocksteady to be used in future comics if anyone at DC wanted to.
And then DC wanted to push Red Hood, so made a mandate that the Arkham Knight just be him instead.
And if thats true, I think it's a real shame.
Between when the Arkham origins episode was uploaded and now, I went and 120%'d Arkham Knight because it has been sitting unplayed in my steam library for years and I wanted to watch this.
Very good game, I enjoy. Asylum is still my favorite though.
Spoilers for the suicide squad game ish if anyone cares but man literally the only thing that I’ve heard about suicide squad which I even remotely like is that apparently there’s some small bit of lore somewhere that confirms cat and bat met up after the knightfall protocol and became an actual thing and that is all I will take away from that game.
2:19:42 Don’t mind me. Just timestamping this glorious moment.
I loved all the Arkham games pretty much equally. It was so disappointing to find out that this would be the last good actual game in the franchise
The best notification of the day arrive
5:10 speaking of rose marigold, how bout that batman self-insert fanfic jack ryder wrote, huh?
2:12:40 "He comes back to life through Lazarus Pit shenanigans." -- Nope! Nope, nope, nope, sorry, Monty, tell the truth: Jason Todd came back to life because Superboy-Prime punched the walls of space-time and changed reality. (To anyone who thinks I'm joking, I am 150% serious, this is what "Infinite Crisis" establishes as what happened. If that sounds unutterably stupid, that's because it is, and no amount of Lazarus Pit papering over of the situation is going to make me not roll my eyes at everything to do with Jason's edgelord bullshit as Red Hood (/ Arkham Knight).)
BEEN WAITING FOR THIS WOOOOOOOOO
And finally it end's. Honestly been my favourite series of Lore Dump so far. _And I've listened to the Metal Gear/Bioshock Series at nauseum at this point!_ For my opinion on Knight: Very much a solid game and ending to the Arkham Series, faults and all. But still doesn't reach the peaks of City for me.
Chase is SO CORRECT she does NOT LOOK GREEN in that pic 😭
I almost cried when game gave me a choice to save Ra's al ghul because I didn't think game would give me a choice, and Nyssa's such a unreliable narrator, saying Ra's a zombie when he's clearly lucid enough to talk to Batman. :'D
Wait a second, how deep are you going into Yakuza? Youve got 6 Kiryu games, 2 Ichiban games, and 2 Judgement games. That's like 10 games and some of those sidequests are crazy.
I can't wait for the Yakuza lore dump
The first episodes are up on the Monty Zander Patreon now!
2:37:09 “The writing was not okay.”