I mostly see people saying that someone set up a trap to kill them. And to be fair to those people, Batman and Alfred barely entered the mansion when everthing blew up. I still thought it was very clear that he wanted to forge their deaths though; it only made sense, since Batman kept saying the entire game that the Batman could no longer exist after that night, and he wouldn't just kill himself as well as Alfred lol.
It’s utterly bizarre! The man who’s NUMBER ONE rule is: no killing, is going to kill his FATHER? ‘ Cuz that’s what Alfred is: along with combat medic, researcher, and role-play assistant, Alfred has been Bruce Wayne’s father about 4X longer than Thomas Wayne. One if the many things Arkham Origins did well was show the depth of Bruce Wayne’s feelings for Alfred. Don’t people know what a ‘protocol’ is? It’s just a fancy wors for a PLAN!! ‘Here’s our PLAN if my identity is exposed!’ It probably includes false identities and money for Dick and Tim as well, since their cover is blown right along with his. It was obvious at the end: he’s incorporated Scarecrows fear gas into his arsenal, as he did with Mr Freeze’s tech. Why people need this spelled out is beyond me!🙄
From my understanding, Batman never died. He faked his death and abandoned his life as Bruce Wayne and Batman. The whole world thinks he's dead. He did this to stop people from attacking him or his allies. He still secretly fights crime but using fear toxin he created this myth that Batman is now an undead ghost. He left his allies to do their thing fighting crime to honor his legacy. From the looks of it, he's been to Metropolis secretly working with the Justice League. This means that when Brainiac invaded Metropolis and took control of the Justice League, he did so to Batman too.
Anyone who thinks Batman needs a fear toxin and would swoop so low is kinda nuts I mean tbh. before anyone ask who the bat monster was at the end well it could be anyone, criminals likely see their worst fears that being Batman after they had prolonged exposure to the gas while it was out in the city during night
@@PurplePaddy Batman has done far worse in any canon than using fear toxin. Main continuity Prime Earth Batman literally had plans to merc all of his friends of necessary, he created Brother Eye, he lies to everyone constantly, he recruits teenage boys into his crusade against crime, he sends people to the Arkham/Blackgate infirmary on the daily. Using fear toxin is mild and would make sense given Bruce's mental state at the end of AK.
I thought the reason Batman asked Nightwing to protect Bludhaven was mostly to let Grayson be his own man, instead of being forced to follow in Bruce's footsteps - and to prepare a potential Bludhaven video games series. Maybe with appearances from the Teen Titans.
@@Mwest_ The potential of a shared video game DC universe, maybe one day just like the MCU we'll get a game franchise where every new instalment will lead into an Avengers- esque finale.
@@itusjr69Well James Gunn did say that the DCU will be interconnected through not just movies, but tv shows, animated movies, and even video games so there's that.
@@KingOfTheMonsters07 That's really cool, however I gotta say I hope that doesn't go to shit, cus right now the movie that the whole GunnDC franchise depends on The Flash and that movies a giagantic bomb.
I think over the course of the Arkham games Bruce came to the realization that he was no longer effective as Batman. The low level criminal element of Gotham may still be terrified of Batman but to the ring leaders he became a feature of the city. He was just something they had to occasionally encounter and not much to fear in the grand scheme of things. He was far too known and familiar to the likes of Poison Ivy or the Penguin. Knightfall protocol was Batman wiping the slate clean and reasserting his lost mystique.
Batman was very effective. But now the everyone knows who he is he's no longer effective. And the fact is 90% of Batman's rogues gallery are literal psychopaths. In the beginning Batman fought gangsters, thieves and robbers and somewhere along the way he started having to fight mutants and dudes hooked on super steroids. Most of his villains are mentally ill
@@PaladinThizztrue, but the biggest part that makes batman scary is not knowing shit about him. Even if they didn't know his identity, they knew all about the bat.
@@Anonymous-hx3pu the scariest part about Batman is the fact that he swoops down from the sky and breaks people's limbs. If they know where he lives they can attack him while he sleeps
@@Anonymous-hx3pu Batman was operating in Gotham City for over 10 years. They wouldn't be afraid of him anymore if they only were because they didn't know anything about him. Before he gained his reputation, no one took him seriously at all
@@PaladinThizz They knew of him and his existence, they didn't know what all he could and couldn't do. As far as they knew he could be a fucking god or a vampire. Once he lost his mask though, they knew exactly what he was. Just a man.
My personal theory is that while he could be using fear micro-darts to stealthily inject criminals with toxin, i feel his Nightmare or Ghost personality is like BvS Batman, especially with the mental toll he sustained during the Arkham games. He was already reaching peak brutality in Arkham Knight and i think knightfall protocol was the straw that broke camel's back. I think this time he's forced to be almost on Red Hood's level just to keep criminals scared, people beaten almost death, mind destroying fear toxin, and a suit that inspires more fear than any other.
My personal theory is that the 240% suit is what the Knightmare suit actually looks like without the fear toxin. It makes getting that suit actually make sense (and be a bit more satisfying) and it explains the emblem standing out as much as it does
my personal theory is that its batman zur en arrh, batman's more aggressive and alternate personality, i know that so far there is no evidence of this personality in arkham games, but if it was arkham personality bruce, alfred wouldn't be too worried as bruce would still be connected with his allies in secret, but batman zur en arrh is the most aggressive batman who would rather see his allies as expendable soldiers instead of his family, hence making alfred more worried, he was worried that he would never see bruce ever happy again and that now bruce would be more dangerous to everyone including his allies, that's probably why bruce also told nightwing to stay in bludhaven. and at the end scene, even though the thugs were shown to be effected by the fear toxin, that leaves the civilian woman to be unaffected and report to the police as batman saved her, making it sound like a myth that a new batman using fear toxin have taken over bruce's place, but if that was true, everyone won't be referring to him as the ghost of batman, but since that didn't happen, i think it might be safe to say that maybe the woman too got a dose of the fear toxin but on a smaller scale, something bruce wouldn't do, but batman zur en arrh wouldn't mind at all, as bruce said to selena, batman died to give way for something more worse, batman zur en arrh, the batman so aggressive and brutal that wouldn't mind even using fear toxin, who wouldn't mind cutting ties off the
Thinking about it, the Knight suit could very well have been destroyed to really sell that he died, or at least was left in the wreckage to make sure people thought he was gone. It would explain why in the comic you cite, he's wearing an older suit, too
Ima make a head cannon that Arkham batman lost some tech and gadgets and some suits when he faked his death however this can probably be explained in the new suicide squad game or degenerate jay
A more damaged Batsuit could be an intentional choice. Fear toxin is difficult to make a universal dosage for. By wearing a more damaged suit, He projects the image of a tattered more broken Batman to any thug that the toxin is less effective on.
My head canon is that same thing, but also that it seems like the Arkham Knight suit seemed like a very last resort type batsuit in case of an emergency like an entire army invading Gotham. And now that his job is finished and that all the threats are taken care of, that suit can now be locked away only to be worn again when it’s absolutely needed
I think the knight suit might be the under armour without the mesh City’s armour had around it. What gave me this idea was concept art of the damaged Battfleck suit, the mask had an arkham knight styled mask under the rubber material.
When I think of this ending, I think that it's something like the ending of The Dark Knight Returns. He fakes his own death, even to his closest friends and operates underground with a small team. I think Bruce and Alfred are probably in one of the secret caves Bruce made working full time.
My theory is very similar In Arkham city after defeating ras al ghul, Batman tells Alfred he’ll have to ‘investigate this lazerous technology further’ Perhaps he refined a combination between lazerous and fear toxin to create this ‘nightmare Batman’
He may have actually used some kind of Lazarus treatment to survive the bombing, but only be resurrected after his body was recovered and shown to everyone that he was well and truly gone. Alfred has spy history, so he could have faked his own death much less spectacularly and gotten whatever resurrection method to Bruce's body much later. Although Jason's story doesn't involve it, we do know that Ra's Al Ghul Lazarus doesn't necessarily have to be used immediately or even all that soon after death.
@@Xman42635your theories don't make any sense. Batman is not using a Lazarus pit. And Lazarus pits don't work like that. It was a controlled explosion. It's heavily implied the entire knight that Batman will fake his death. There's no other way. There's no Lazarus technology to bring himself to life. Someone has to carry you to a Lazarus pit. You can't just drink some and come back. You have to be submerged in it. And it would take decades to change that. Between Arkham Asylum and Arkham Knight it was only 1.5 years. Batman didn't need to escape the explosion. It's not hard to believe that after an explosion like that you wouldn't recover a body. They obviously went into the batcave and didn't suffer any effects from the explosion. Batman blew his house up because he knew there'd be reporters on scene and he needed everyone to believe Bruce Wayne was dead
I love the idea that Bruce took inspiration from his childhood hero as his next persona. Choosing an identity is probably one of the most important things a hero must consider if they are going down this path, the identity one chooses must be meaningful. I’m sure Simon Trent, if he’s even met Bruce in this universe, would be proud of him for continuing the Gray Ghost legacy in a way, as long as he doesn’t kill. Also People saying that Bruce killed Alfred in the explosion is just downright stupid and proves they don’t understand Batman’s character at all
I agree that Bruce wouldn’t willingly kill Alfred (because Alfred’s the closet thing to a dad that he’s had since his parents’ death), but may I present the thought that IF (I don’t think he did, BTW) he killed himself as part of Knightfall Alfred MIGHT insist on joining him? My reasoning is because Bruce would’ve been the son he never had and the GCPD/media would be ALL OVER Alfred for answers. Also, what would Alfred do post-Knightfall? Again, I don’t actually think this what happened. I’m just presenting a hypothetical. I like Degenerate Jay’s theory and I think it pairs well with Knightwing01’s theory that “Bruce” died mentally and the Joker completely took over, but was then locked away by the “Batman” persona who is now “off the leash and unrestrained”, hence his stone cold emotionless demeanor when injecting Scarecrow and then his later use of Scarecrow’s toxin on criminals. Lastly, “Knightmare Batman” is a horror/mystery/thriller that I would LOVE to see.
I didn’t know people were even still making theories about this. From my first play through I thought it was HEAVILY implied Bruce started using fear toxin to fight crime after his death
I always though this was out of character to him "Yes alfred im gonna drug every criminal i find with something that requires years of therapy to recover if the person even is able to recover at all" Its obvious that is what happened but to me that something bruce would never do
@@valletas He was taken over by the joker toxin though that was a major part of the game he never found a legitimate cure so he's mind got warped as a result. That's not to say he is the batman who laughs now but he has become far more cruel in his methods due to how the toxins affected him.
That's pretty much my interpretation of the end: Bruce remade himself into a Scarecrow fear gas weilding mythical figure while leaving enough plausible deniability to make folks think that Knightmare Batman is NOT Bruce Wayne but rather his ghost.
That's what I'm thinking as remember when u turn scarecrow in notice how his toxin pack is gone all which means he took some for himself and was able to figure out how to make his own and remember batman knows how to make very advanced stuff ahead of its time I bet he made a fear disrupter using the disruptor he was given by night-wing but shoots fear toxin darts and when that secne plays with the ghost I bet u that for maybe 1 frame u can see that ammo shot on those thugs which in turn makes them see Batman as that knightmare bat as I call it because its actually a subconscious fear remember Batman been around 10 years and for 10 years he still knows how to scare the criminals even before he supposedly dies so I wouldn't be surprised that fear toxin batman is how all people saw Batman as a mystic force or a ghost if u will
I would also like to mention that in the suicide squad batman reveal trailer, you can see everything around batman go red, which is similar to the nightmare batman effect
Like you said, I wonder if Batman was already secretly working with the JLA and had built an experimental version of the teleportation tech of the Watchtower. So when Wayne Manor exploded he and Alfred were already gone. Having access to tech like that would virtually allow him to appear and reappear whenever and wherever he chooses. This, Batman’s nearly inhuman skill level, along with a refined fear toxin would extrapolate the myth of this nigh supernatural “Ghost”.
One thing doesn't make a whole lot of sense in this scenario. Let's say it is Bruce Wayne under this new cowl, how would his family not know? He distances himself from everyone in the Batfamily, and you argue that no one other than Alfred knows it's Bruce. With the first sighting of this new vigilante, the Batfamily would rush into the streets of Gotham and not rest until they find out who this is.
Who knows what's going on? I'm a bit curious that after the Chip Zdarsky Batman run, if they use that as an excuse to also somehow include Joker in the Suicide Squad game since it's stated in the last issue of that run that the Jokers that had died in the universes visited by the Red Masked Man all came back to life and the ones that hadn't died just bacame even worse.
Knowing Rocksteady, they’ll probably say that the comic is non canon to their Arkham universe or say the Arkham Batman that Batman from earth prime met is just a multiverse stand in and not the Arkham Batman that we’ve been following from all the games. Rocksteady has made many statements on comic books and the animated movie to be non canon and the only things that are canon are only the games. I’m not being a trust me bro source, I’m basing my info from many UA-camrs like Knightwing01 and others so I could be wrong you might have to watch his video on the Arkham timeline to be sure.
@@MinecraftJimmy7951 It could be like in the Spider-Verse comics. In their initial run to 'clean up' all the alternate Spideys, they killed off the Spider-Friends, which is like Morlun, the most vicious cosmic villain main Spidey ever faced killing off the deliberately nerfed (but still fun) version of him from the restricted early 80's. After some backlash, they said that the versions they killed off were one set of Spider-Friends, and that somewhere out there, the cartoon versions were alright. To wit for here: This Arkham Batman might not be the Arkham Batman, and maybe after that alter Arkham-Joker came back, Waller had Deadshot pop him so Gotham wouldn't be a headache once again - or something. Multiverse means by definition that even the alters have alters.
As I recall, Lucius and Dick have an amused exchange about the 'ghost' in his DLC vs Penguin, with at least Dick (maybe also Lucius, been a while since I played that DLC) wryly hinting that he knows it has to be Bruce (and not his ghosts).
Yeah it was a pretty obvious ruse, and only a complete idiot wouldn’t have seen through it. I thought a better ending would be for the knight fall protocols being to open up all his resources to the bat family and gcpd. Bruce Wayne gets shot by some random nobody looking to make a name for himself, Gotham has a night of terror as all the criminals celebrate, the bat family, gcpd, and random civilians tired of living in fear take inspiration from Batman’s example and shut it down with extreme efficiency. Jason Todd in a version of the Arkham knight outfit that looks even more like high tech Batman breaks into prison brutally murders Batman’s killer and tells his cell mate to let everyone know Gotham has a new dark knight. Gotham no longer needs Batman because his symbol serves its purpose of inspiring others.
Another thing about this is of course it's not nightfall but "Knightfall, Knight's within literature are bound by code and morality, but a "Ghost" a "Wrathful spirit" of one could get away with a bit more, not dispelling the myth but enhancing it to even higher levels and making the world think that the city he once protected is the most haunted place in the world, to those with malice in they're hearts
You people just make up fan fiction and bullshit. A knight has nothing to do with morality or codes. In real life knights were bastards who raped and pillaged and murdered peasants. You read too many romantic novels. Real life is often much different than those chick novels. They call him a ghost because of the effects of the fear toxin and the fact that Batman moves like a ghost.
Something you forgot to mention: in one of the DLC's, (I think Nightwing's?) Alfred is speaking over comms. This should let him know that they are not dead. If Alfred survived the explosion, he would definitely think Batman survived.
Well, Nightwings DLC technically takes place before Arkham Knight so I do believe you, but it might be a different DLC you're talking about. To your point, though, they definitely would have mentioned Alfred being dead in one of the many DLCs that take place after the game. I don't think that's something they would just gloss over, so you're completely right about that.
@@DegenerateJay Actually, I just checked, and the Nightwing DLC takes place AFTER; because he talks about Tim + Babs are on their honeymoon, and there are posters that say Jim Gordon is running for Mayor, and there are newspapers that say Poison Ivy is back from the dead.
I suspect that bruce did fake his own death, but the nightmare isn't really him. I think Bruce set up a network of hologram projectors and fear gas despensers around gotham. This would let him create this conceptual being who literally only exists in the minds of the citizens and villains. A version of batman that can never die and vanishes like a ghost. I think he would want to really sell the idea that he really is a ghost so that the villains would have no means of fighting him and act as a natural deterent to anyone wanting to become a villain.
That is a good guess. I personally think that the "Ghost" is actually the Nightmare Batman in the concept art. I can imagine this creature actually crawling out of the remains of Wayne Manor. White-ish gray skin with sharps teeth and fangs (Like in the concept). A supernatural Batman is what I can describe.
Except a hologram can't fight bad guys. The most logical explanation is Batman reverse engineered the fear toxin, just like he's done to several other things, and created a new costume and a new identity to fight crime. Batman didn't kill himself or die. Alfred said to him "Are you sure you want to do this Master Bruce?" And he replied "it's the only way to protect them." Right before his house blew up. Meaning, he knew his house was going to blow up. The fact is, no one could break into his house. When Catwoman said she was going to make sure Bruce Wayne's doors were locked or something Batman said "good luck with that" meaning he knew for a fact ain't nobody getting into his house. I do believe it's fear toxin being used
@@davidbailey6917that doesn't make sense. DC does have supernatural happenings but Batman didn't kill himself and no one killed him. He faked his death and became something new
On the Batman Beyond idea: we know Bruce uses the high tech suit before he retires, so I’d like to think the red logo on Nightmare Batman is a hint towards it being an early version of the Beyond suit.
I am just going to say it. It was VERY obvious that the Nightmare Batman is still Bruce. And in my opinion he made sure people knew he would no longer be around after that night and that they needed to accept that and that Gotham needed a darker more violent hero to put an end to all the crime that caused all the terror in Arkham. He couldn't defend it as Batman because he swore an oath to not kill or use the kind of drugs that scarecrow used as often as he used them. Those methods just don't fit his style. BUT he had to fake his death so he could continue being Batman but on a much more aggressive manor. After Nightfall Protocol he could dedicate all of his time as Batman and he uses plenty of gadgets so it is always a possibility that he built a dart transmission system to shoot criminals with scarecrows toxin to instill fear right from the start. You could argue he wouldn't use that toxin on the normal citizens but if even the citizens see him as the nightmare than there would be nobody to given conflicting reports or have other variations of the same story talked about amongst the criminals. He needs EVERYONE to see him as the nightmare so that way he could defend the city in a more aggressive and violent manor. Kind of like a setup to Batman Beyond how when the first episode start we saw Batman use a gun and it scared him so bad he went into retirement. The next game or story could have seen him get so violent that he once again goes into a second retirement as he crosses a line he never thought he would cross a second time by him killing someone other than the Joker.
Batman doesn't kill and he has no problem using fear toxin against folks. Batman just doesn't kill. That's the only thing he doesn't do. He needed everyone to believe he was dead because if they didn't they'd go after everyone close to him. You can hear a thug say "suddenly everyone who knows Bruce Wayne just got caught in the crossfire" the fact is, if Bruce Wayne didn't die then no one who knows Bruce Wayne would be safe. Batman was forced to give up his identity to protect his friends. So he faked his death for the same reason. It has nothing to do with how effective Batman is.
When did Batman kill the Joker in the Arkham series? Batman tried to save the Joker in Arkham City, but Joker stabbed him, causing him to drop the cure. And even had Batman not given him the cure it wouldn't be his fault Joker died. Joker not only shot Batman with that Titan toxin in Arkham Asylum but also himself and while Batman used the antidote, Joker didn't. It's his own fault that he died. They just blame Batman but we all know what really happened
I think the Arkham City suit is a wartime suit, not the most advanced suit or the every night suit, but one for a 48 hour sludge to make it to the end of the crisis. And the Arkham Batman back in it for the resurrection of Joker would be in war mode
Literally in the DLC of Knight- there is ABSOLUTELY NO mention of Alfred. IF Bruce actually killed em both the ENTIRE bat family would be mourning over him the same if not more than Bruce. I love that subtle detail but remember, Batman STILL has his cave on Arkham Island. He’s probably using it since it’s overrun and unlikely to have criminal visitors again(since they “upgrade” to blimps)
Could this ending be inspired from the Dark Knight Returns? Since Bruce fakes his death blows up Wayne Manor and Alfred dies. It's probably Bruce himself using a less dangerous version of the Fear Toxin
Part of me was hoping that when you were asking who could be pretending to be a ghost and capitalize on the superstitious nature of criminals, that you'd jokingly say Jin Sakai.
Maybe he’s wearing the same suit he wears in Arkham city as a thing because he has a connection to that suit since it’s the one where joker died and also his girl
Fantastic breakdown of all the evidence. But him going back to normal Batman in Suicide Squad and the comic feels like it defeats the whole purpose of Arkham Knight’s ending
to be fair, literally all we know about Bats in that game is that he's in it. maybe when the suicide squad fights him, he could utilize the fear toxin as one of his abilities and during those moments he appears as the nightmare form we see in AK, while when it's not in use he's just Batman as we know and love
Or maybe it doesn't. The Nightmare Batman concept must be the "Ghost". Could you imagine a vampiric version of Batman with this fiery aura around it as it spreads it's wings? Just like in the ending. So there would be two Batmans. The original joining the Justice League fulltime and the Nightmare Batman is the new Batman that stays in Gotham. That's how I would make since of this.
I've always thought Batman was using a modified fear toxin. At the beginning of the game, Batman is impressed and surprised that Oracle was able to break down the toxin to its basic elements, meaning they hadn't been able to do that before.
I personally think Bruce has a satellite Batcave hidden somewhere, and Alfred is helping him to function as Batman Unleashed. Bruce is now a Batman without any restraints, operating and living as this new version of Batman. For all intents and purposes, Bruce Wayne died, but his new alter-ego will step in and be a new, deadly version of Batman.
I always knew the death was a fake-out, my thinking for why he's back to being Batman proper in SSKTJL is mainly cause Brainiac showed up and the JL hell the world needed'im
Well it was obvious that that Batman was Bruce Wayne, but the suggestion that he modified the scarecrow´s gas to make everyone that looks at him see him as a kind of demonic ghost, that was nice.
I think one more piece of evidence is that when batman says goodbye to catwoman, he doesn't say Gotham needs someone more powerfull as will ever be but instead more powerfull as he is now, which includes the fact he might become this new hero himself
Another thing that ties in suicide squad kill the justice league to the arkhamverse and it taking place after knight is Harley Quinn clearly calling batman Bruce in the batman trailer, as well as the arkham signs shown in the trailer.
in the arkham comics batman spoke to alfred about dick and tim, how they seem to make batman happier and that he doesn't want them to get hurt(i think it's been a while since i read it) but after the conversation batman thought of the knightfall protocol , so i think when he said ''it's the only way to protect them'' he meant them since they are connected to bruce wayne as his wards
A little off topic but one thing about the ending to Arkham Knight I think about is, it's possible that Bruce may have made the fear toxin into an invisible vapor, and so on that night we see in the end he must have thrown a tiny vial onto the ground somewhere near the thugs, which explains the way he appears when the camera pans up. It's the result of the toxin at work. That's the one theoretical detail that sticks with me the most about this ending and nothing else really.
another cool idea of the nightmare batman existing is that because Bruce Wayne Batman was around in Gotham for such a long time making a huge, meaningful impact, when Bruce Wayne Batman was taken out of the equation, Knightmare Batman acts like an imprinted version of Batman. It feels like it shows how Batman is just apart of Gotham now and that its impossible to have a Gotham city without a Batman existing there.
Keep doing what ur doing, my guy. You're my favorite arkham youtuber. Keep it up! I also love your videos with the entertainment industry and the secrets of companies.
theres only one thing i wanna understand. what about jason todd. ever since the protocol. events later he had a dlc that took place afterwards where he ended up going after black mask. since now he turned into a anti-hero vigilante doesnt that mean “ the new and improved batman” aka ghost batman is Coming after him for killing villains. i wonder how that will tie in. because red hood will come after the whole rogues gallery
I thought the "Failsafe" arc by Zdarsky was pretty great but this most recent four or five issues have been borderline unreadable to me. Which is crazy because Chip is normally one of my favorite writers. His Daredevil run has been fantastic. But I'm all burnt out on the multiverse trend. Plus, the secondary artist isn't my style.
I thought failsafe was convoluted. No way there's a machine built that can take out the JL. It's a plot device. Everyone seems to forget Superman doesn't have to be a melee fighter and has multiple abilities. He is also faster than any machine could ever be! Only thing faster is the flash and he could literally phase failsafe out of reality. Then Bruce is "shot" into the multiverse Darkseid style? It's stupid
@@Theuglyconcretefinisher Failsafe was made by Batman to specifically take him out if he ever crosses the line in killing someone. He's built countermeasures in the machine to take out Superman such as kryptonite.
Two things. 1: revealing batman as Bruce Wayne also gives away the bat family ID. 2. The end with nightmare batman also kinda resembles batman during the dark knight returns when he's fighting two faces thugs on top of a building surround by his version of the scarecrow fear toxin and a smoke bomb
Never completed the entire game (hated that Riddler fight, UGH!). Bruce Wayne becoming Bat Ghost seems to make the most sense. I was also thinking Azrele (sp?) but you have convinced me that's not the case. Again , not having completed everything, I was thinking of a few others, however UNLIKELY; Bane(as he supposedly disappeared after Arkham City), Deathstroke (again just a guess). Great work
The secret of the Riddler fight is to just let him keep changing the color of the robots until they are all one color and then attack with whichever one matches. That way you can avoid hitting the wrong color robot. It’s a lot of flipping and such to avoid them, but it works. 😊
Arkham Knight is my 2nd favorite in the Arkham series(my favorite is Origins). However the only 4 things I didn’t like in the game is: 1. Way too many riddler trophies 🏆. Seriously man I don’t have time for that. 2. The boss fight with Jason was very boring(I was hoping for an epic & emotional fight). 3. The Slade fight was disappointing in my opinion(I was hoping for an arena fight similar to Origins). 4. The weird bat ghost thing was so confusing.
The bat ghost thing is the one thing I disagree with. Rocksteady left it up to interpretation who or what the Bat Ghost is. Which I think is fitting for the Dark Knight.
@@BrandontheAwesome I don’t mind leaving certain things in an ending to interpretation but the way they handle it here was very bizarre(and it doesn’t give a whole lot of closure to Bruce). I’m not asking for some drawn out Fallout epilogue here but at least give us a small hint of what’s going on(especially after this massive journey they put us on)
@@evilzdeadite honestly I think they’re all boring and tedious. Don’t misunderstand me I’m fine with video game collectibles but man these Arkham games put a ridiculous amount(and the backtracking is infuriating lol 😂)
Statistically speaking, if a real-life person were to beat people down as savagely and as frequently as Batman does, a certain number of those people would inevitably die. Someone's going to fall off the edge of a building, take a hit in just the right spot that they die from the blunt trauma, get clipped by the Batmobile at high speed, or some other thing that carries a genuine and significant risk of non-survival.
Which is why they stopped teaching Batmanning 101-104 classes at the prep schools rich people send their kids to.....well, that and the Supermanning and Aquamanning classes went badly when the flying and swimming curriculum started😂
I strongly agree with all this which makes his return as normal Batman in KtJL all the more baffling personally. Like, just putting yourself out there again as normal Batman just puts a target on anyone that has ever been associated with Bruce Wayne/Batman. The point of making a new Bat ghost legend is that people AREN'T supposed to know if it's Bruce Wayne doing it again, or hell, if he is even real. Edit: Also, in the Batman reveal trailer, Harley said something like "We all know you don't kill, Bruce." which would imply that Bruce has discarded his Bat ghost identity for some time. If this was the first time Batman came back because he was brainwashed by Brainiac, one would expect a more petrified reaction due to the fact that he shouldn't exist AT ALL.
In my mind the Arkham universe batman, with Kevin Conroy and mark Hamill, is the definitive batman universe. You get every single villain, the best story lines, and THE best versions of batman and joker
We almost got something similar where you play as Damien Wayne in the Batsuit but it got cancelled. There would've also been newer versions of old villains (Black Masks daughter, new Poison Ivy, ect) and new villains (Gorilla Grodd, White Rabbit, ect).
Here’s an interesting take on it: Batman can use the fear toxin and the Lazarus Pit that is beneath the city. That way he can essentially defy old age and continue to protect Gotham, thus his “ghost” and legend lives on
I wonder if people like Gordon, Barbra, Tim and Dick found out eventually Bruce faked his death. Like I’m sure they definitely did some investigating into the nightfall protocol and eventually found out he faked his death. Especially someone like Gordon and Barbara, they’re very smart and would’ve done some investigating
Jay, you silly goose, Bruce Wayne did die. . . But Batman did not. Clever quips aside, something to note, in the "to kill the justice league" trailer, perhaps batman didn't kill that guard and instead used fear toxin on the squad. Which is poetic, since the scarecrow sections of Arkham Asylum was so praised. Batman changing his myth from "guy in a bat costume with gadgets" to "a spirit of fear and justice prowling the city" is far more batmany. So much so I'm surprised he hadn't done this before.
Nice video! You explained everything well and brought together enough proofs to make sense of an otherwise partly ambiguous ending. I’m still unsure of what you think the knightmare Batman really is, as you rejected the fear toxin theory-how else could he take this form?
Why would Arkham Batman switch suits for the comic? His newest suit is torn up, and his resources are probably limited by people thinking Bruce is dead. He's gone into hiding, and that suit is probably just what's available to him.
I say Azrael is the nightmare Batman. I think it makes sense for him to be that vengeful angel once again but being that warrior that guardian Gotham needs. Seeing that he can't be Bruce but be something else. A true terror
That technically could work, but the one issue I see with this is that Azarel's side mission ends with a player's choice, leaving three possible endings. Two of them involve him leaving, but one involves Batman knocking him out and taking him to the GCPD.
I can imagine Arkham Batman through a letter telling Tim to become essentially Red Robin separate from the Batman persona. Though in hindsight; with Red Hood Jason Todd, he's just tieing up loose ends as if he figured Bruce activated some contingency, he's not gonna let the most dangerous rouges go free to cause harm to Barbra, Dick, Jim, or Tim tho he'd hold a little resentment to Tim about taking his place as Robin.
Only issue with this ending that i dont understand, is nightwing is still around, robin and redhood, they're gonna catch wind of the "ghost of batman" and most likely investigate this rumor, they know bruce aswell as anyone and should know that bruce wouldn't just kill himself or get taken out so easily, so how does bruce stay hidden from them in the long term is my biggest question I still believe this ending as cannon, just curious how exactly something like this would work out
I like this explanation. It's nothing new that I've heard, but it's my favorite end. Batman is dead, because Batman relied on the Bruce Wayne alter ego to exist and although Batman is Bruce Wayne's secret identity, it was Bruce Wayne that got in the way. It was Wayne that loved Selina, Wayne that took in and trained the bat family and he just wanted to be Batman. But now he is the Batman he always wanted to be, he doesn't have to pretend to be a billionaire, his philanthropic work can be handled by his estate, now it's just focusing entirely on who he wants to be
I've always believed he faked his death, because that's exactly what he did in Dark Knight Returns and also had a burned down manor. But I still thought it may be possible the new batman could be azrael because it's called the knightfall protocol.
That is a good guess, but it is unclear if whether or not Azrael is still interested in being the new Batman. He also left Gotham to hunt down the Order.
I don't think the comic appearance of the Arkham style Batman is the same version from the Rocksteady games. It doesn't specify when the things took place, just that they did. We have no precedent in the Arkham games for Batman reverting to an older suit. Given that the suit we see in the comic looks almost identical down to the placement of wear and tear as that of the Arkham City version, then I think that this is an Arkham Batman universe in which all of that Joker mind stuff took place during or shortly after Arkham City, and not like it did in the Rocksteady game version that featured Arkham Knight events. Bruce and Alfred definitely survived the Arkham Knight ending though. New ghost batman on the field lol.
I imagine that it's more like the old batman v superman, bat ghost is still directly tied to batman and Bruce, however the batman we see is not entirely the og batman, maybe it's someone new who was trained, or a secret contact for someone new to take up the mantle
Alfred's main concern has always been the manor and what it means to the Wayne family. For Bruce to become "worse" he needed to cut himself off entirely to lose himself in whatever the toxin's gonna do to him, possibly with Fox's help to make fail safes while keeping everyone away so there's no way to try to snap him out of it and possibly get hurt in the process. It makes sense, but it still doesn't explain where Alfred went to or what Bat's plans for him were/are.
I just wanna say i knew all this information previously but this video was layed out in an interesting way and well written so i watched it anyway! Great video :)
He made everyone believe that Bruce Wayne/Batman died... but came back as a vengeful spirit that will truly never rest or leave criminals alone, forever haunting Gotham City.
Before it was announced that the suicide squad game was set in the Arkham-verse, I had a theory that batman indeed faked his death, but it was so he could indeed become something worse. My theory was he created a formula based on the fear toxin of scarecrow and the Man-Bat syrum to transform him into a living nightmare. He became something worse than batman. He became a monster that would terrify criminals into line more than any mere man ever could. He made everyone he cared about think he was dead, as he wasn't sure the effects the syrum would have, and didn't want to endanger them. He allowed Alfred to know as there wasn't an easy way to get it past him, and Alfred could be trusted that if something went wrong, to stop him with lethal force. As a monster, he wouldn't have to put on a facade as Bruce Wayne. He could become the horrifying protector the city needs.
been a Batman fan ever since my Dad got me into Batman when i was given some coloring books of the animated series or before that... but as i got older i got even more into him in the smart ways of him being a detective
Ive never played Arkham Knight, just seen bits and pieces from clips, but this always made the most sense to me, for basically all the reasons you listed. In addition, this basically mirrors the end of Dark Knight Returns. Honestly the only other explanation i feel is appropriate is that it really *is* the ghost of Batman. Either way, he basically tell Selena that whatever replaces Batman is going to be, in some way, a darker entity. I think its the other reason he distances himself from the Batfamily and Gordon. They might try to stop him if he keeps them close
I tried to finish the game and I actually almost had it 100% which was gruelling, but there was this one Riddler, using the tank to shoot things in the right order puzzle that, I swear to you, is actually impossible to complete using a gamepad, because the cursor simply does not move fast enough to do it. With a mouse it would be easy, but the cursor physically doesn't move fast enough using the stick on a gamepad
Yeah I agree, a mouse is certainly easier and I’ll never master my Xbox controller. I think I know the puzzle riddle you mentioned. You have to connect to the winch point that’s behind you to charge your weapons so that you can use your missiles when all the question marks need to be shot at once. You just need to be upgraded to the 10 missile level. I end up shooting the last two on the left at the same time. 😉
@@leon_redgrave yeah I tried it several times with just shooting and it’s impossible. I had to look it up to see what the secret was. There’s always a trick to whatever you’re trying to do in video games it seems. 😉
@@leon_redgrave oh god, I’ve lost track of how many times I cussed the game designers for being cruel. lol But mostly I just sucked until I got better. 🤣
To anyone who makes the claim that it was someone else who detonated the manor, the Batwing with the Batmobile attached blows up at the same time as the mansion, so it was definitely done by Brucey Boy
It’s crazy how people seem to think Batman would swoop so low he started to use fear toxin, hell it’s more likely that the people of Gotham who where in the city during knight and got hit with toxin from the real scarecrow attack and messed them up permanently or for some time after the game, it’s dumb if he used toxin after trying to spend a whole night trying to take it off the streets basically ahha😂, just makes more sense for criminals to see their fears even after the game especially if they were in that cloud of gas
Actually, Batman has used fear gas before in the comics. He just doesn't use dosages that are damaging nor does he do it often. He actually used it a few years ago I believe during a flashback scene to his earlier days as Batman during detective comics, and he was shown to use a similar substance in the Dark Knight Returns, both the animation and the comic book, when he's going after Harvey Dent and uses it on thugs who are working for Harvey. I find it a bit of a weird comparison to say that's stooping though unless he was actively trying to damage someone's mind with it. We have seen Batman use different gadgets, technology pieces and more throughout these games and the comics before. He doesn't really make a habit of using something like that but it's not like he has some kind of sworn vendetta against it. I think it would be different if he was going the scarecrow route of causing mass hysteria or overdosing people with it to the point where they were killing each other. That's not really what we're talking about though.
@@DegenerateJay it just seems weird for this version of Batman, to lean on the toxin after having this stuff in his system and knowing what it does even if he has diluted it, the whole thing seems weird for him to just go straight to that and only that seemingly after the nightfall protocol, it definitely makes more sense for criminals who stayed in Gotham while getting gassed to has lasting effects but that doesn’t ever get brought up as a theory when really it seems like that would make more sense for this universe but hey idk just always seemed strange
Probably because he respects Nightwing well enough to not want him to put on the costume or he knows criminals won’t be afraid of him as Batman because he isn’t the same Batman that Bruce was.
I can't believe people are still debating this to this day. It always seemed obvious to me the first time I played that he faked his death. But... I do feel like the Suicide Squad game is gonna kinda retcon this ending. Which will be dumb.
Yeah, it was pretty obvious they did not die. No way in hell would Bruce kill Alfred, especially considering the events of Origins. He basically had to fake his death, because his identity was revealed to the world.
All of the criminals of Gotham were permanently affected by Scarecrows fear toxin since none of them were underground to hide. So just like Joker infested Batmans psyche, Batman will forever haunt the criminals of Gotham, even though he isn't actually there.
Really enjoyed this video, reminded me of the games I haven't touched in so long. The vibe of batman fully surrendering to a god of justice and becoming an avatar like D&D is how I felt about it. I had a summary of all three games that batman came to realize after dealing with each; it was something like: Some men don't fear, Some men can't be reasoned with and some are no longer men. And despite his best efforts with the knightfall protocol; this isn't working start from scratch eliminate the weaknesses and do better. As for why he told people to stay out of gotham? It is because they would get in the way and he doesn't want them to see what he is about to do out of shame. We are talking about a billionaire with a proficiency to plan for the worse case scenarios. Regardless of how it was left, it was left to be something more and between GK and SS:KtJL it will *ALWAYS* remain a mystery to me. The question will always be better then the answer, is he real?
Yea this is pretty much it. I also thinks it's very interesting that Batmans biggest rival Joker never managed to cause as much chaos and actually succeed in their plans as scarecrow did. And scarecrow did that through using fear toxin. Through Batmans injections with fear toxin he managed to beat it. The biggest threat was never scarecrow himself, he's weak and an easy threat to beat which is shown in the climax. The real climax was Batmans own fear, that was the true threat all this time. Batman realized this, being controlled by letting his friends down, involving them into his problems and him becoming no better than the joker. If fear was the only thing that could beat him, he realized fear would also be the only thing that could beat the criminals. Fear managed to empty Gotham of it's citizens, so fear will also be able to empty Gotham of it's criminals. And so Batman kills himself and lives on as fear, a threat greater than he could ever be.
I still can't believe some people actually think batman killed himself and alfred
Yeah I don't get how people play these games and get that out of it.
I mostly see people saying that someone set up a trap to kill them. And to be fair to those people, Batman and Alfred barely entered the mansion when everthing blew up. I still thought it was very clear that he wanted to forge their deaths though; it only made sense, since Batman kept saying the entire game that the Batman could no longer exist after that night, and he wouldn't just kill himself as well as Alfred lol.
It’s utterly bizarre! The man who’s NUMBER ONE rule is: no killing, is going to kill his FATHER? ‘
Cuz that’s what Alfred is: along with combat medic, researcher, and role-play assistant, Alfred has been Bruce Wayne’s father about 4X longer than Thomas Wayne. One if the many things Arkham Origins did well was show the depth of Bruce Wayne’s feelings for Alfred.
Don’t people know what a ‘protocol’ is? It’s just a fancy wors for a PLAN!! ‘Here’s our PLAN if my identity is exposed!’ It probably includes false identities and money for Dick and Tim as well, since their cover is blown right along with his.
It was obvious at the end: he’s incorporated Scarecrows fear gas into his arsenal, as he did with Mr Freeze’s tech. Why people need this spelled out is beyond me!🙄
people just aren't media literate bro cuz wtf 💀
He did it in the Dark Knight Returns
From my understanding, Batman never died. He faked his death and abandoned his life as Bruce Wayne and Batman. The whole world thinks he's dead. He did this to stop people from attacking him or his allies. He still secretly fights crime but using fear toxin he created this myth that Batman is now an undead ghost. He left his allies to do their thing fighting crime to honor his legacy.
From the looks of it, he's been to Metropolis secretly working with the Justice League. This means that when Brainiac invaded Metropolis and took control of the Justice League, he did so to Batman too.
I mean it would make sense if Batman were using fear toxin for a little. Heavy armor, fear gas micro-darts.
@@Roadman1000 but wouldn't it be longer to just shoot a criminal with fear gas and then confront him? I would just fight them.
Anyone who thinks Batman needs a fear toxin and would swoop so low is kinda nuts I mean tbh. before anyone ask who the bat monster was at the end well it could be anyone, criminals likely see their worst fears that being Batman after they had prolonged exposure to the gas while it was out in the city during night
@@JaceHill69 Sure but then again, Batman is trying to make sure people think he's dead, it doesn't matter if it's extra work, he'll do it.
@@PurplePaddy Batman has done far worse in any canon than using fear toxin. Main continuity Prime Earth Batman literally had plans to merc all of his friends of necessary, he created Brother Eye, he lies to everyone constantly, he recruits teenage boys into his crusade against crime, he sends people to the Arkham/Blackgate infirmary on the daily. Using fear toxin is mild and would make sense given Bruce's mental state at the end of AK.
I thought the reason Batman asked Nightwing to protect Bludhaven was mostly to let Grayson be his own man, instead of being forced to follow in Bruce's footsteps - and to prepare a potential Bludhaven video games series. Maybe with appearances from the Teen Titans.
Same.that what I thought also it would be cool to let Grayson get his own Arkham series
@@Mwest_ The potential of a shared video game DC universe, maybe one day just like the MCU we'll get a game franchise where every new instalment will lead into an Avengers- esque finale.
@@itusjr69Well James Gunn did say that the DCU will be interconnected through not just movies, but tv shows, animated movies, and even video games so there's that.
@@KingOfTheMonsters07 That's really cool, however I gotta say I hope that doesn't go to shit, cus right now the movie that the whole GunnDC franchise depends on The Flash and that movies a giagantic bomb.
Way too late for that now
I think over the course of the Arkham games Bruce came to the realization that he was no longer effective as Batman. The low level criminal element of Gotham may still be terrified of Batman but to the ring leaders he became a feature of the city. He was just something they had to occasionally encounter and not much to fear in the grand scheme of things. He was far too known and familiar to the likes of Poison Ivy or the Penguin. Knightfall protocol was Batman wiping the slate clean and reasserting his lost mystique.
Batman was very effective. But now the everyone knows who he is he's no longer effective. And the fact is 90% of Batman's rogues gallery are literal psychopaths. In the beginning Batman fought gangsters, thieves and robbers and somewhere along the way he started having to fight mutants and dudes hooked on super steroids. Most of his villains are mentally ill
@@PaladinThizztrue, but the biggest part that makes batman scary is not knowing shit about him. Even if they didn't know his identity, they knew all about the bat.
@@Anonymous-hx3pu the scariest part about Batman is the fact that he swoops down from the sky and breaks people's limbs. If they know where he lives they can attack him while he sleeps
@@Anonymous-hx3pu Batman was operating in Gotham City for over 10 years. They wouldn't be afraid of him anymore if they only were because they didn't know anything about him. Before he gained his reputation, no one took him seriously at all
@@PaladinThizz They knew of him and his existence, they didn't know what all he could and couldn't do. As far as they knew he could be a fucking god or a vampire. Once he lost his mask though, they knew exactly what he was. Just a man.
My personal theory is that while he could be using fear micro-darts to stealthily inject criminals with toxin, i feel his Nightmare or Ghost personality is like BvS Batman, especially with the mental toll he sustained during the Arkham games. He was already reaching peak brutality in Arkham Knight and i think knightfall protocol was the straw that broke camel's back. I think this time he's forced to be almost on Red Hood's level just to keep criminals scared, people beaten almost death, mind destroying fear toxin, and a suit that inspires more fear than any other.
My personal theory is that the 240% suit is what the Knightmare suit actually looks like without the fear toxin. It makes getting that suit actually make sense (and be a bit more satisfying) and it explains the emblem standing out as much as it does
@@Vinesusthats just the original suit with a golden emblem
@@SpaceStationTunes well yeah, in the same way that the city suit is the asylum suit with a different logo shape
@@Vinesus clearly your a homosexual bro
my personal theory is that its batman zur en arrh, batman's more aggressive and alternate personality, i know that so far there is no evidence of this personality in arkham games, but if it was arkham personality bruce, alfred wouldn't be too worried as bruce would still be connected with his allies in secret, but batman zur en arrh is the most aggressive batman who would rather see his allies as expendable soldiers instead of his family, hence making alfred more worried, he was worried that he would never see bruce ever happy again and that now bruce would be more dangerous to everyone including his allies, that's probably why bruce also told nightwing to stay in bludhaven. and at the end scene, even though the thugs were shown to be effected by the fear toxin, that leaves the civilian woman to be unaffected and report to the police as batman saved her, making it sound like a myth that a new batman using fear toxin have taken over bruce's place, but if that was true, everyone won't be referring to him as the ghost of batman, but since that didn't happen, i think it might be safe to say that maybe the woman too got a dose of the fear toxin but on a smaller scale, something bruce wouldn't do, but batman zur en arrh wouldn't mind at all, as bruce said to selena, batman died to give way for something more worse, batman zur en arrh, the batman so aggressive and brutal that wouldn't mind even using fear toxin, who wouldn't mind cutting ties off the
Thinking about it, the Knight suit could very well have been destroyed to really sell that he died, or at least was left in the wreckage to make sure people thought he was gone.
It would explain why in the comic you cite, he's wearing an older suit, too
Yeah or it just continuity error where they used the most known and iconic design
Ima make a head cannon that Arkham batman lost some tech and gadgets and some suits when he faked his death however this can probably be explained in the new suicide squad game or degenerate jay
A more damaged Batsuit could be an intentional choice. Fear toxin is difficult to make a universal dosage for. By wearing a more damaged suit, He projects the image of a tattered more broken Batman to any thug that the toxin is less effective on.
My head canon is that same thing, but also that it seems like the Arkham Knight suit seemed like a very last resort type batsuit in case of an emergency like an entire army invading Gotham. And now that his job is finished and that all the threats are taken care of, that suit can now be locked away only to be worn again when it’s absolutely needed
I think the knight suit might be the under armour without the mesh City’s armour had around it. What gave me this idea was concept art of the damaged Battfleck suit, the mask had an arkham knight styled mask under the rubber material.
When I think of this ending, I think that it's something like the ending of The Dark Knight Returns. He fakes his own death, even to his closest friends and operates underground with a small team. I think Bruce and Alfred are probably in one of the secret caves Bruce made working full time.
This is what I am hoping for/assuming as well, it fits so perfectly that I HAVE to assume that's what Batman would do.
My theory is very similar
In Arkham city after defeating ras al ghul, Batman tells Alfred he’ll have to ‘investigate this lazerous technology further’
Perhaps he refined a combination between lazerous and fear toxin to create this ‘nightmare Batman’
thats a scary thought, almost like living fear toxin
He may have actually used some kind of Lazarus treatment to survive the bombing, but only be resurrected after his body was recovered and shown to everyone that he was well and truly gone. Alfred has spy history, so he could have faked his own death much less spectacularly and gotten whatever resurrection method to Bruce's body much later. Although Jason's story doesn't involve it, we do know that Ra's Al Ghul Lazarus doesn't necessarily have to be used immediately or even all that soon after death.
@@Xman42635your theories don't make any sense. Batman is not using a Lazarus pit. And Lazarus pits don't work like that. It was a controlled explosion. It's heavily implied the entire knight that Batman will fake his death. There's no other way. There's no Lazarus technology to bring himself to life. Someone has to carry you to a Lazarus pit. You can't just drink some and come back. You have to be submerged in it. And it would take decades to change that. Between Arkham Asylum and Arkham Knight it was only 1.5 years. Batman didn't need to escape the explosion. It's not hard to believe that after an explosion like that you wouldn't recover a body. They obviously went into the batcave and didn't suffer any effects from the explosion. Batman blew his house up because he knew there'd be reporters on scene and he needed everyone to believe Bruce Wayne was dead
I love the idea that Bruce took inspiration from his childhood hero as his next persona. Choosing an identity is probably one of the most important things a hero must consider if they are going down this path, the identity one chooses must be meaningful. I’m sure Simon Trent, if he’s even met Bruce in this universe, would be proud of him for continuing the Gray Ghost legacy in a way, as long as he doesn’t kill.
Also People saying that Bruce killed Alfred in the explosion is just downright stupid and proves they don’t understand Batman’s character at all
I agree that Bruce wouldn’t willingly kill Alfred (because Alfred’s the closet thing to a dad that he’s had since his parents’ death), but may I present the thought that IF (I don’t think he did, BTW) he killed himself as part of Knightfall Alfred MIGHT insist on joining him? My reasoning is because Bruce would’ve been the son he never had and the GCPD/media would be ALL OVER Alfred for answers. Also, what would Alfred do post-Knightfall? Again, I don’t actually think this what happened. I’m just presenting a hypothetical.
I like Degenerate Jay’s theory and I think it pairs well with Knightwing01’s theory that “Bruce” died mentally and the Joker completely took over, but was then locked away by the “Batman” persona who is now “off the leash and unrestrained”, hence his stone cold emotionless demeanor when injecting Scarecrow and then his later use of Scarecrow’s toxin on criminals.
Lastly, “Knightmare Batman” is a horror/mystery/thriller that I would LOVE to see.
I didn’t know people were even still making theories about this. From my first play through I thought it was HEAVILY implied Bruce started using fear toxin to fight crime after his death
There will always be theories if an official explanation is never given. It shouldn't be that surprising.
I always though this was out of character to him
"Yes alfred im gonna drug every criminal i find with something that requires years of therapy to recover if the person even is able to recover at all"
Its obvious that is what happened but to me that something bruce would never do
@@valletasbro he puts them in physical therapy for years like have you seen Arkham Batman? He is the devil
@@scottyminnow😂😂😂😂
@@valletas
He was taken over by the joker toxin though that was a major part of the game he never found a legitimate cure so he's mind got warped as a result.
That's not to say he is the batman who laughs now but he has become far more cruel in his methods due to how the toxins affected him.
That's pretty much my interpretation of the end: Bruce remade himself into a Scarecrow fear gas weilding mythical figure while leaving enough plausible deniability to make folks think that Knightmare Batman is NOT Bruce Wayne but rather his ghost.
That's what I'm thinking as remember when u turn scarecrow in notice how his toxin pack is gone all which means he took some for himself and was able to figure out how to make his own and remember batman knows how to make very advanced stuff ahead of its time I bet he made a fear disrupter using the disruptor he was given by night-wing but shoots fear toxin darts and when that secne plays with the ghost I bet u that for maybe 1 frame u can see that ammo shot on those thugs which in turn makes them see Batman as that knightmare bat as I call it because its actually a subconscious fear remember Batman been around 10 years and for 10 years he still knows how to scare the criminals even before he supposedly dies so I wouldn't be surprised that fear toxin batman is how all people saw Batman as a mystic force or a ghost if u will
What does Disney starwars and the suicide squad have in common? The fans have decided they aren't cannon
I laughed so hard when I read this I nearly shit myself.
Exactly 😂😂😂🤣🤣
I would also like to mention that in the suicide squad batman reveal trailer, you can see everything around batman go red, which is similar to the nightmare batman effect
It is probably just him messing with the lights
Like you said, I wonder if Batman was already secretly working with the JLA and had built an experimental version of the teleportation tech of the Watchtower. So when Wayne Manor exploded he and Alfred were already gone. Having access to tech like that would virtually allow him to appear and reappear whenever and wherever he chooses. This, Batman’s nearly inhuman skill level, along with a refined fear toxin would extrapolate the myth of this nigh supernatural “Ghost”.
One thing doesn't make a whole lot of sense in this scenario. Let's say it is Bruce Wayne under this new cowl, how would his family not know? He distances himself from everyone in the Batfamily, and you argue that no one other than Alfred knows it's Bruce. With the first sighting of this new vigilante, the Batfamily would rush into the streets of Gotham and not rest until they find out who this is.
or they could just.... Stay away out of respect for Bruce?
Yeah i do feel like they 100% know he isnt dead, but also dont want to interfere with whatever hes planning
I'm sorry, but where in the video did he argue that no one other than Alfred knows it's Bruce?
@@rifath815233:51
Who knows what's going on? I'm a bit curious that after the Chip Zdarsky Batman run, if they use that as an excuse to also somehow include Joker in the Suicide Squad game since it's stated in the last issue of that run that the Jokers that had died in the universes visited by the Red Masked Man all came back to life and the ones that hadn't died just bacame even worse.
hello Andrea
Knowing Rocksteady, they’ll probably say that the comic is non canon to their Arkham universe or say the Arkham Batman that Batman from earth prime met is just a multiverse stand in and not the Arkham Batman that we’ve been following from all the games. Rocksteady has made many statements on comic books and the animated movie to be non canon and the only things that are canon are only the games. I’m not being a trust me bro source, I’m basing my info from many UA-camrs like Knightwing01 and others so I could be wrong you might have to watch his video on the Arkham timeline to be sure.
@@MinecraftJimmy7951 It could be like in the Spider-Verse comics. In their initial run to 'clean up' all the alternate Spideys, they killed off the Spider-Friends, which is like Morlun, the most vicious cosmic villain main Spidey ever faced killing off the deliberately nerfed (but still fun) version of him from the restricted early 80's. After some backlash, they said that the versions they killed off were one set of Spider-Friends, and that somewhere out there, the cartoon versions were alright. To wit for here: This Arkham Batman might not be the Arkham Batman, and maybe after that alter Arkham-Joker came back, Waller had Deadshot pop him so Gotham wouldn't be a headache once again - or something. Multiverse means by definition that even the alters have alters.
@@shoresean1237 idk what causes a bigger headache, time travel or the multiverse.
i'm pretty sure the game was already done (at least story-wise) before the Zdarsky run which I think happened last year so we should be good
As I recall, Lucius and Dick have an amused exchange about the 'ghost' in his DLC vs Penguin, with at least Dick (maybe also Lucius, been a while since I played that DLC) wryly hinting that he knows it has to be Bruce (and not his ghosts).
Yeah it was a pretty obvious ruse, and only a complete idiot wouldn’t have seen through it.
I thought a better ending would be for the knight fall protocols being to open up all his resources to the bat family and gcpd. Bruce Wayne gets shot by some random nobody looking to make a name for himself, Gotham has a night of terror as all the criminals celebrate, the bat family, gcpd, and random civilians tired of living in fear take inspiration from Batman’s example and shut it down with extreme efficiency. Jason Todd in a version of the Arkham knight outfit that looks even more like high tech Batman breaks into prison brutally murders Batman’s killer and tells his cell mate to let everyone know Gotham has a new dark knight.
Gotham no longer needs Batman because his symbol serves its purpose of inspiring others.
@@kyriss12 That would have been pretty epic! -- and sort of like the Gregory Peck western "the Gunslinger".
Another thing about this is of course it's not nightfall but "Knightfall, Knight's within literature are bound by code and morality, but a "Ghost" a "Wrathful spirit" of one could get away with a bit more, not dispelling the myth but enhancing it to even higher levels and making the world think that the city he once protected is the most haunted place in the world, to those with malice in they're hearts
You people just make up fan fiction and bullshit. A knight has nothing to do with morality or codes. In real life knights were bastards who raped and pillaged and murdered peasants. You read too many romantic novels. Real life is often much different than those chick novels. They call him a ghost because of the effects of the fear toxin and the fact that Batman moves like a ghost.
Something you forgot to mention: in one of the DLC's, (I think Nightwing's?) Alfred is speaking over comms. This should let him know that they are not dead. If Alfred survived the explosion, he would definitely think Batman survived.
Well, Nightwings DLC technically takes place before Arkham Knight so I do believe you, but it might be a different DLC you're talking about. To your point, though, they definitely would have mentioned Alfred being dead in one of the many DLCs that take place after the game. I don't think that's something they would just gloss over, so you're completely right about that.
@@DegenerateJay Actually, I just checked, and the Nightwing DLC takes place AFTER; because he talks about Tim + Babs are on their honeymoon, and there are posters that say Jim Gordon is running for Mayor, and there are newspapers that say Poison Ivy is back from the dead.
@@DegenerateJaywhat's the challenge map at 6:56 really wanna play it
Lucius fox is at comms
I suspect that bruce did fake his own death, but the nightmare isn't really him. I think Bruce set up a network of hologram projectors and fear gas despensers around gotham. This would let him create this conceptual being who literally only exists in the minds of the citizens and villains. A version of batman that can never die and vanishes like a ghost. I think he would want to really sell the idea that he really is a ghost so that the villains would have no means of fighting him and act as a natural deterent to anyone wanting to become a villain.
And occasionally he could jump in and actually beat them up and vanish, making it even more confusing.
but it is said in the dlcs that "the ghost" does fight thugs
That is a good guess. I personally think that the "Ghost" is actually the Nightmare Batman in the concept art. I can imagine this creature actually crawling out of the remains of Wayne Manor. White-ish gray skin with sharps teeth and fangs (Like in the concept). A supernatural Batman is what I can describe.
Except a hologram can't fight bad guys. The most logical explanation is Batman reverse engineered the fear toxin, just like he's done to several other things, and created a new costume and a new identity to fight crime. Batman didn't kill himself or die. Alfred said to him "Are you sure you want to do this Master Bruce?" And he replied "it's the only way to protect them." Right before his house blew up. Meaning, he knew his house was going to blow up. The fact is, no one could break into his house. When Catwoman said she was going to make sure Bruce Wayne's doors were locked or something Batman said "good luck with that" meaning he knew for a fact ain't nobody getting into his house. I do believe it's fear toxin being used
@@davidbailey6917that doesn't make sense. DC does have supernatural happenings but Batman didn't kill himself and no one killed him. He faked his death and became something new
On the Batman Beyond idea: we know Bruce uses the high tech suit before he retires, so I’d like to think the red logo on Nightmare Batman is a hint towards it being an early version of the Beyond suit.
I feel like people don’t talk about Arkham Origins enough, game was 🔥 to me.
I wish it would get a proper remaster like Asylum and City.
I am just going to say it. It was VERY obvious that the Nightmare Batman is still Bruce. And in my opinion he made sure people knew he would no longer be around after that night and that they needed to accept that and that Gotham needed a darker more violent hero to put an end to all the crime that caused all the terror in Arkham. He couldn't defend it as Batman because he swore an oath to not kill or use the kind of drugs that scarecrow used as often as he used them. Those methods just don't fit his style. BUT he had to fake his death so he could continue being Batman but on a much more aggressive manor. After Nightfall Protocol he could dedicate all of his time as Batman and he uses plenty of gadgets so it is always a possibility that he built a dart transmission system to shoot criminals with scarecrows toxin to instill fear right from the start. You could argue he wouldn't use that toxin on the normal citizens but if even the citizens see him as the nightmare than there would be nobody to given conflicting reports or have other variations of the same story talked about amongst the criminals. He needs EVERYONE to see him as the nightmare so that way he could defend the city in a more aggressive and violent manor. Kind of like a setup to Batman Beyond how when the first episode start we saw Batman use a gun and it scared him so bad he went into retirement. The next game or story could have seen him get so violent that he once again goes into a second retirement as he crosses a line he never thought he would cross a second time by him killing someone other than the Joker.
Batman doesn't kill and he has no problem using fear toxin against folks. Batman just doesn't kill. That's the only thing he doesn't do. He needed everyone to believe he was dead because if they didn't they'd go after everyone close to him. You can hear a thug say "suddenly everyone who knows Bruce Wayne just got caught in the crossfire" the fact is, if Bruce Wayne didn't die then no one who knows Bruce Wayne would be safe. Batman was forced to give up his identity to protect his friends. So he faked his death for the same reason. It has nothing to do with how effective Batman is.
When did Batman kill the Joker in the Arkham series? Batman tried to save the Joker in Arkham City, but Joker stabbed him, causing him to drop the cure. And even had Batman not given him the cure it wouldn't be his fault Joker died. Joker not only shot Batman with that Titan toxin in Arkham Asylum but also himself and while Batman used the antidote, Joker didn't. It's his own fault that he died. They just blame Batman but we all know what really happened
I think the Arkham City suit is a wartime suit, not the most advanced suit or the every night suit, but one for a 48 hour sludge to make it to the end of the crisis. And the Arkham Batman back in it for the resurrection of Joker would be in war mode
Actually the suit evolved with the requirements in the field and as technology progressed
@@roger5555ful So, a war.
@@concept5631 Yes🥲
Literally in the DLC of Knight- there is ABSOLUTELY NO mention of Alfred. IF Bruce actually killed em both the ENTIRE bat family would be mourning over him the same if not more than Bruce. I love that subtle detail but remember, Batman STILL has his cave on Arkham Island. He’s probably using it since it’s overrun and unlikely to have criminal visitors again(since they “upgrade” to blimps)
Good point on Alfred. That's not even something I specifically thought of.
his cave on arkham island got destroyed by ivy remember
@@drew_lg2132 yea so? Ivy is dead so he could probably repair it somehow
They translated the damaged Arkham city suit to the page really well
It looks really awesome
It does look really cool.
Probably just laying low in the watch tower if the justice league exists in the arkham verse lol
Why is that apart of the arkham verse? lol
@@RavenLimitedi think rocksteadys upcoming game kill the suicide squad has the justice league and arkham batman, not sure if its canon though
@@BrutalCarnage As it turned out... It ain't canon at all🤣
Could this ending be inspired from the Dark Knight Returns? Since Bruce fakes his death blows up Wayne Manor and Alfred dies. It's probably Bruce himself using a less dangerous version of the Fear Toxin
Yeah it was a blatant rip-off of that.
@@thefonzkiss how else did you want him to fake his death? Shoot a blank into his head on national tv?
@@javierv.g.5231 that would've been awesome ngl
@@javierv.g.5231 sorry for offending Batman fanboi.
@@thefonzkiss thanks for answering homosexual
Part of me was hoping that when you were asking who could be pretending to be a ghost and capitalize on the superstitious nature of criminals, that you'd jokingly say Jin Sakai.
Wouldn’t make sense for it to be anyone else.
Maybe he’s wearing the same suit he wears in Arkham city as a thing because he has a connection to that suit since it’s the one where joker died and also his girl
That’s plausible but it’s pretty common for heroes (especially Batman & Spider-Man) to rotate through costumes and go back to old designs
@@Dreadwing1000 True but it would be cool if that’s the reason why he is in a Arkham city costume is for the reason I said before
@@BonziBunny oh no it would be cool for sure
Fantastic breakdown of all the evidence. But him going back to normal Batman in Suicide Squad and the comic feels like it defeats the whole purpose of Arkham Knight’s ending
to be fair, literally all we know about Bats in that game is that he's in it. maybe when the suicide squad fights him, he could utilize the fear toxin as one of his abilities and during those moments he appears as the nightmare form we see in AK, while when it's not in use he's just Batman as we know and love
Or maybe it doesn't. The Nightmare Batman concept must be the "Ghost". Could you imagine a vampiric version of Batman with this fiery aura around it as it spreads it's wings? Just like in the ending. So there would be two Batmans. The original joining the Justice League fulltime and the Nightmare Batman is the new Batman that stays in Gotham. That's how I would make since of this.
I've always thought Batman was using a modified fear toxin. At the beginning of the game, Batman is impressed and surprised that Oracle was able to break down the toxin to its basic elements, meaning they hadn't been able to do that before.
I personally think Bruce has a satellite Batcave hidden somewhere, and Alfred is helping him to function as Batman Unleashed. Bruce is now a Batman without any restraints, operating and living as this new version of Batman. For all intents and purposes, Bruce Wayne died, but his new alter-ego will step in and be a new, deadly version of Batman.
your channel is really growing man as a long time viewer i see your skills getting better and better and i appreciate the work you do
Thank you so much this really means the world to me and I hope that I can keep entertaining people!
I always knew the death was a fake-out, my thinking for why he's back to being Batman proper in SSKTJL is mainly cause Brainiac showed up and the JL hell the world needed'im
36:17 in one of the suicide squad trailers, we see a statue of all the league members and Batman is wearing his Arkham knight suit
James Gordon was wrong. That wasn’t the night Batman died.
That was the night that Bruce Wayne died…
Exactly.
Rocksteady should really add a fear toxin aspect of the Batman boss battle. It would really solidify all of this
Well it was obvious that that Batman was Bruce Wayne, but the suggestion that he modified the scarecrow´s gas to make everyone that looks at him see him as a kind of demonic ghost, that was nice.
I think one more piece of evidence is that when batman says goodbye to catwoman, he doesn't say Gotham needs someone more powerfull as will ever be but instead more powerfull as he is now, which includes the fact he might become this new hero himself
Another thing that ties in suicide squad kill the justice league to the arkhamverse and it taking place after knight is Harley Quinn clearly calling batman Bruce in the batman trailer, as well as the arkham signs shown in the trailer.
Bruce: *fakes his death and creates the "Ghost" from the ashes of Batman*
Also Bruce: *HALL OF JUSTICE TOURIST HOLOGRAM*
in the arkham comics batman spoke to alfred about dick and tim, how they seem to make batman happier and that he doesn't want them to get hurt(i think it's been a while since i read it) but after the conversation batman thought of the knightfall protocol , so i think when he said ''it's the only way to protect them'' he meant them since they are connected to bruce wayne as his wards
A little off topic but one thing about the ending to Arkham Knight I think about is, it's possible that Bruce may have made the fear toxin into an invisible vapor, and so on that night we see in the end he must have thrown a tiny vial onto the ground somewhere near the thugs, which explains the way he appears when the camera pans up. It's the result of the toxin at work. That's the one theoretical detail that sticks with me the most about this ending and nothing else really.
Looks like Nightmare Batman is in the recent KtJL trailer. Hopefully they use it to the fullest effect
another cool idea of the nightmare batman existing is that because Bruce Wayne Batman was around in Gotham for such a long time making a huge, meaningful impact, when Bruce Wayne Batman was taken out of the equation, Knightmare Batman acts like an imprinted version of Batman. It feels like it shows how Batman is just apart of Gotham now and that its impossible to have a Gotham city without a Batman existing there.
I seriously can’t believe Brainiac was so easily able to take control of this version of Batman. Joker already tried. We saw what happened.
He was studying crane's toxin in the beginning
Barbara isolated it to the singular molecule
Keep doing what ur doing, my guy. You're my favorite arkham youtuber. Keep it up! I also love your videos with the entertainment industry and the secrets of companies.
Hey thank you so much! Much love!
theres only one thing i wanna understand. what about jason todd. ever since the protocol. events later he had a dlc that took place afterwards where he ended up going after black mask. since now he turned into a anti-hero vigilante doesnt that mean “ the new and improved batman” aka ghost batman is Coming after him for killing villains. i wonder how that will tie in. because red hood will come after the whole rogues gallery
It's not just about preserving life. It's also about his (batman's) strict refusal to become a murderer...
Could have been the perfect backstory for the Batman who laughs
I thought the "Failsafe" arc by Zdarsky was pretty great but this most recent four or five issues have been borderline unreadable to me. Which is crazy because Chip is normally one of my favorite writers. His Daredevil run has been fantastic. But I'm all burnt out on the multiverse trend. Plus, the secondary artist isn't my style.
I thought failsafe was convoluted. No way there's a machine built that can take out the JL. It's a plot device. Everyone seems to forget Superman doesn't have to be a melee fighter and has multiple abilities. He is also faster than any machine could ever be! Only thing faster is the flash and he could literally phase failsafe out of reality. Then Bruce is "shot" into the multiverse Darkseid style? It's stupid
multiverse stuff is so lazy and overdone at this point
@@Theuglyconcretefinisher Failsafe was made by Batman to specifically take him out if he ever crosses the line in killing someone. He's built countermeasures in the machine to take out Superman such as kryptonite.
Failsafe might also be a candidate for "Ghost". Maybe?
Two things. 1: revealing batman as Bruce Wayne also gives away the bat family ID. 2. The end with nightmare batman also kinda resembles batman during the dark knight returns when he's fighting two faces thugs on top of a building surround by his version of the scarecrow fear toxin and a smoke bomb
Never completed the entire game (hated that Riddler fight, UGH!). Bruce Wayne becoming Bat Ghost seems to make the most sense. I was also thinking Azrele (sp?) but you have convinced me that's not the case. Again , not having completed everything, I was thinking of a few others, however UNLIKELY; Bane(as he supposedly disappeared after Arkham City), Deathstroke (again just a guess).
Great work
Something worse has to take Batmans place. GODZILLA!!!!
DARTH VADER!!! (Okay, I'm done)
Deathstroke was my idea but doesn’t really make sense with the fear toxin or the ‘ghost bat’ theory but then again no one really makes sense atm
The secret of the Riddler fight is to just let him keep changing the color of the robots until they are all one color and then attack with whichever one matches. That way you can avoid hitting the wrong color robot. It’s a lot of flipping and such to avoid them, but it works. 😊
I think an Arkham game about azreal fighting the order of Saint dumas with some appearances of some familiar characters would be cool
Arkham Knight is my 2nd favorite in the Arkham series(my favorite is Origins). However the only 4 things I didn’t like in the game is: 1. Way too many riddler trophies 🏆. Seriously man I don’t have time for that. 2. The boss fight with Jason was very boring(I was hoping for an epic & emotional fight). 3. The Slade fight was disappointing in my opinion(I was hoping for an arena fight similar to Origins). 4. The weird bat ghost thing was so confusing.
Agreed
The bat ghost thing is the one thing I disagree with. Rocksteady left it up to interpretation who or what the Bat Ghost is. Which I think is fitting for the Dark Knight.
There's less riddler trophies in knight then city. Plus, origins' "trophies" are super boring and tedious.
@@BrandontheAwesome I don’t mind leaving certain things in an ending to interpretation but the way they handle it here was very bizarre(and it doesn’t give a whole lot of closure to Bruce). I’m not asking for some drawn out Fallout epilogue here but at least give us a small hint of what’s going on(especially after this massive journey they put us on)
@@evilzdeadite honestly I think they’re all boring and tedious. Don’t misunderstand me I’m fine with video game collectibles but man these Arkham games put a ridiculous amount(and the backtracking is infuriating lol 😂)
What was the line:
The worse thing the devil ever did was making people believe he doesn't exist.
Statistically speaking, if a real-life person were to beat people down as savagely and as frequently as Batman does, a certain number of those people would inevitably die. Someone's going to fall off the edge of a building, take a hit in just the right spot that they die from the blunt trauma, get clipped by the Batmobile at high speed, or some other thing that carries a genuine and significant risk of non-survival.
Which is why they stopped teaching Batmanning 101-104 classes at the prep schools rich people send their kids to.....well, that and the Supermanning and Aquamanning classes went badly when the flying and swimming curriculum started😂
@@samspurgeon4222 damn how'd they teach people to fly. Did they just kinda go homelander style and yeet em over the edge of a building?
@@therealjoker2957 Homelander style😂👍
It’s also an Easter egg inside the clock tower. Every time you enter and exit the clock tower. There is a poster of ghost man.
I strongly agree with all this which makes his return as normal Batman in KtJL all the more baffling personally. Like, just putting yourself out there again as normal Batman just puts a target on anyone that has ever been associated with Bruce Wayne/Batman. The point of making a new Bat ghost legend is that people AREN'T supposed to know if it's Bruce Wayne doing it again, or hell, if he is even real.
Edit: Also, in the Batman reveal trailer, Harley said something like "We all know you don't kill, Bruce." which would imply that Bruce has discarded his Bat ghost identity for some time. If this was the first time Batman came back because he was brainwashed by Brainiac, one would expect a more petrified reaction due to the fact that he shouldn't exist AT ALL.
^^^ completely. Yes.
In my mind the Arkham universe batman, with Kevin Conroy and mark Hamill, is the definitive batman universe. You get every single villain, the best story lines, and THE best versions of batman and joker
Me too for me he’s the best version of Batman too
Imagine a game set in the future where you play as Batman Beyond (Terry McGuinness) called Arkham Legacy or Beyond Arkham. Take my money
I'll take 2 copies just to support a Batman Beyond product tbh. It's so sad they got 1 shot at a game with Return of the Joker and it was... Not good.
We almost got something similar where you play as Damien Wayne in the Batsuit but it got cancelled. There would've also been newer versions of old villains (Black Masks daughter, new Poison Ivy, ect) and new villains (Gorilla Grodd, White Rabbit, ect).
@@DegenerateJay agreed my friend
Here’s an interesting take on it: Batman can use the fear toxin and the Lazarus Pit that is beneath the city. That way he can essentially defy old age and continue to protect Gotham, thus his “ghost” and legend lives on
I wonder if people like Gordon, Barbra, Tim and Dick found out eventually Bruce faked his death. Like I’m sure they definitely did some investigating into the nightfall protocol and eventually found out he faked his death. Especially someone like Gordon and Barbara, they’re very smart and would’ve done some investigating
Jay, you silly goose, Bruce Wayne did die. . .
But Batman did not.
Clever quips aside, something to note, in the "to kill the justice league" trailer, perhaps batman didn't kill that guard and instead used fear toxin on the squad. Which is poetic, since the scarecrow sections of Arkham Asylum was so praised. Batman changing his myth from "guy in a bat costume with gadgets" to "a spirit of fear and justice prowling the city" is far more batmany. So much so I'm surprised he hadn't done this before.
Nice video! You explained everything well and brought together enough proofs to make sense of an otherwise partly ambiguous ending. I’m still unsure of what you think the knightmare Batman really is, as you rejected the fear toxin theory-how else could he take this form?
Why would Arkham Batman switch suits for the comic? His newest suit is torn up, and his resources are probably limited by people thinking Bruce is dead. He's gone into hiding, and that suit is probably just what's available to him.
Hard to believe he gets k!lled by Harley Quinn they screwed the pooch on that.
The best way to create something more dangerous than flesh and blood is to turn into a spectre or spirit of vengeance
I say Azrael is the nightmare Batman. I think it makes sense for him to be that vengeful angel once again but being that warrior that guardian Gotham needs. Seeing that he can't be Bruce but be something else. A true terror
That technically could work, but the one issue I see with this is that Azarel's side mission ends with a player's choice, leaving three possible endings. Two of them involve him leaving, but one involves Batman knocking him out and taking him to the GCPD.
It'snot Azrael
I can imagine Arkham Batman through a letter telling Tim to become essentially Red Robin separate from the Batman persona.
Though in hindsight; with Red Hood Jason Todd, he's just tieing up loose ends as if he figured Bruce activated some contingency, he's not gonna let the most dangerous rouges go free to cause harm to Barbra, Dick, Jim, or Tim tho he'd hold a little resentment to Tim about taking his place as Robin.
Only issue with this ending that i dont understand, is nightwing is still around, robin and redhood, they're gonna catch wind of the "ghost of batman" and most likely investigate this rumor, they know bruce aswell as anyone and should know that bruce wouldn't just kill himself or get taken out so easily, so how does bruce stay hidden from them in the long term is my biggest question
I still believe this ending as cannon, just curious how exactly something like this would work out
I like this explanation. It's nothing new that I've heard, but it's my favorite end. Batman is dead, because Batman relied on the Bruce Wayne alter ego to exist and although Batman is Bruce Wayne's secret identity, it was Bruce Wayne that got in the way. It was Wayne that loved Selina, Wayne that took in and trained the bat family and he just wanted to be Batman. But now he is the Batman he always wanted to be, he doesn't have to pretend to be a billionaire, his philanthropic work can be handled by his estate, now it's just focusing entirely on who he wants to be
I've always believed he faked his death, because that's exactly what he did in Dark Knight Returns and also had a burned down manor. But I still thought it may be possible the new batman could be azrael because it's called the knightfall protocol.
That is a good guess, but it is unclear if whether or not Azrael is still interested in being the new Batman. He also left Gotham to hunt down the Order.
“The Ghost” is actually a pretty badass vigilante name
I don't think the comic appearance of the Arkham style Batman is the same version from the Rocksteady games. It doesn't specify when the things took place, just that they did. We have no precedent in the Arkham games for Batman reverting to an older suit. Given that the suit we see in the comic looks almost identical down to the placement of wear and tear as that of the Arkham City version, then I think that this is an Arkham Batman universe in which all of that Joker mind stuff took place during or shortly after Arkham City, and not like it did in the Rocksteady game version that featured Arkham Knight events.
Bruce and Alfred definitely survived the Arkham Knight ending though. New ghost batman on the field lol.
I imagine that it's more like the old batman v superman, bat ghost is still directly tied to batman and Bruce, however the batman we see is not entirely the og batman, maybe it's someone new who was trained, or a secret contact for someone new to take up the mantle
I never knew about this ghost dialogue.
😮
Alfred's main concern has always been the manor and what it means to the Wayne family. For Bruce to become "worse" he needed to cut himself off entirely to lose himself in whatever the toxin's gonna do to him, possibly with Fox's help to make fail safes while keeping everyone away so there's no way to try to snap him out of it and possibly get hurt in the process. It makes sense, but it still doesn't explain where Alfred went to or what Bat's plans for him were/are.
I wish this aged well
I just wanna say i knew all this information previously but this video was layed out in an interesting way and well written so i watched it anyway! Great video :)
Man, so sad that Suicide Squad looks so bad.
Gotham knights just as bad 👎
He made everyone believe that Bruce Wayne/Batman died... but came back as a vengeful spirit that will truly never rest or leave criminals alone, forever haunting Gotham City.
I think it's interesting there's been a debate of who this Batman is at the end of AK since the game came out.
Agreed! Rocksteady probably did it on purpose to push the idea that literally nobody actually knows who this creature is.
Before it was announced that the suicide squad game was set in the Arkham-verse, I had a theory that batman indeed faked his death, but it was so he could indeed become something worse. My theory was he created a formula based on the fear toxin of scarecrow and the Man-Bat syrum to transform him into a living nightmare. He became something worse than batman. He became a monster that would terrify criminals into line more than any mere man ever could. He made everyone he cared about think he was dead, as he wasn't sure the effects the syrum would have, and didn't want to endanger them. He allowed Alfred to know as there wasn't an easy way to get it past him, and Alfred could be trusted that if something went wrong, to stop him with lethal force.
As a monster, he wouldn't have to put on a facade as Bruce Wayne. He could become the horrifying protector the city needs.
been a Batman fan ever since my Dad got me into Batman when i was given some coloring books of the animated series or before that... but as i got older i got even more into him in the smart ways of him being a detective
Ive never played Arkham Knight, just seen bits and pieces from clips, but this always made the most sense to me, for basically all the reasons you listed. In addition, this basically mirrors the end of Dark Knight Returns.
Honestly the only other explanation i feel is appropriate is that it really *is* the ghost of Batman. Either way, he basically tell Selena that whatever replaces Batman is going to be, in some way, a darker entity. I think its the other reason he distances himself from the Batfamily and Gordon. They might try to stop him if he keeps them close
I tried to finish the game and I actually almost had it 100% which was gruelling, but there was this one Riddler, using the tank to shoot things in the right order puzzle that, I swear to you, is actually impossible to complete using a gamepad, because the cursor simply does not move fast enough to do it. With a mouse it would be easy, but the cursor physically doesn't move fast enough using the stick on a gamepad
Yeah I agree, a mouse is certainly easier and I’ll never master my Xbox controller. I think I know the puzzle riddle you mentioned. You have to connect to the winch point that’s behind you to charge your weapons so that you can use your missiles when all the question marks need to be shot at once. You just need to be upgraded to the 10 missile level. I end up shooting the last two on the left at the same time. 😉
Yeah its easy once you find out
@@leon_redgrave yeah I tried it several times with just shooting and it’s impossible. I had to look it up to see what the secret was. There’s always a trick to whatever you’re trying to do in video games it seems. 😉
@@musicbreath6757 yeah i was there too brother xd
Questioning the gamedesign xd
@@leon_redgrave oh god, I’ve lost track of how many times I cussed the game designers for being cruel. lol But mostly I just sucked until I got better. 🤣
To anyone who makes the claim that it was someone else who detonated the manor, the Batwing with the Batmobile attached blows up at the same time as the mansion, so it was definitely done by Brucey Boy
It’s crazy how people seem to think Batman would swoop so low he started to use fear toxin, hell it’s more likely that the people of Gotham who where in the city during knight and got hit with toxin from the real scarecrow attack and messed them up permanently or for some time after the game, it’s dumb if he used toxin after trying to spend a whole night trying to take it off the streets basically ahha😂, just makes more sense for criminals to see their fears even after the game especially if they were in that cloud of gas
Actually, Batman has used fear gas before in the comics. He just doesn't use dosages that are damaging nor does he do it often. He actually used it a few years ago I believe during a flashback scene to his earlier days as Batman during detective comics, and he was shown to use a similar substance in the Dark Knight Returns, both the animation and the comic book, when he's going after Harvey Dent and uses it on thugs who are working for Harvey. I find it a bit of a weird comparison to say that's stooping though unless he was actively trying to damage someone's mind with it. We have seen Batman use different gadgets, technology pieces and more throughout these games and the comics before. He doesn't really make a habit of using something like that but it's not like he has some kind of sworn vendetta against it. I think it would be different if he was going the scarecrow route of causing mass hysteria or overdosing people with it to the point where they were killing each other. That's not really what we're talking about though.
@@DegenerateJay it just seems weird for this version of Batman, to lean on the toxin after having this stuff in his system and knowing what it does even if he has diluted it, the whole thing seems weird for him to just go straight to that and only that seemingly after the nightfall protocol, it definitely makes more sense for criminals who stayed in Gotham while getting gassed to has lasting effects but that doesn’t ever get brought up as a theory when really it seems like that would make more sense for this universe but hey idk just always seemed strange
A really cathartic watch! You did really well with this vid. Thanks for sharing 🙌
Why didn’t Batman just let Nightwing take over as Batman? Is he stupid?
Probably because he respects Nightwing well enough to not want him to put on the costume or he knows criminals won’t be afraid of him as Batman because he isn’t the same Batman that Bruce was.
@@MinecraftJimmy7951 it’s a joke bro
@@clipsdelosmajes it’s a joke dude.
@@clipsdelosmajes he ends up accepting it at The end, its his destiny.
@@thelazygamer2195it’s always a shock that the majority of arkham fans aren’t even familiar with the subreddit
I can't believe people are still debating this to this day. It always seemed obvious to me the first time I played that he faked his death.
But... I do feel like the Suicide Squad game is gonna kinda retcon this ending. Which will be dumb.
37 minutes to basically say batman is actually batman.
Yeah, it was pretty obvious they did not die. No way in hell would Bruce kill Alfred, especially considering the events of Origins. He basically had to fake his death, because his identity was revealed to the world.
All of the criminals of Gotham were permanently affected by Scarecrows fear toxin since none of them were underground to hide. So just like Joker infested Batmans psyche, Batman will forever haunt the criminals of Gotham, even though he isn't actually there.
Really enjoyed this video, reminded me of the games I haven't touched in so long. The vibe of batman fully surrendering to a god of justice and becoming an avatar like D&D is how I felt about it. I had a summary of all three games that batman came to realize after dealing with each; it was something like: Some men don't fear, Some men can't be reasoned with and some are no longer men. And despite his best efforts with the knightfall protocol; this isn't working start from scratch eliminate the weaknesses and do better. As for why he told people to stay out of gotham? It is because they would get in the way and he doesn't want them to see what he is about to do out of shame. We are talking about a billionaire with a proficiency to plan for the worse case scenarios. Regardless of how it was left, it was left to be something more and between GK and SS:KtJL it will *ALWAYS* remain a mystery to me. The question will always be better then the answer, is he real?
“Dick, protect blood haven”
Funny, that’s what my girlfriend tells me once a month I never knew what she meant
Yea this is pretty much it.
I also thinks it's very interesting that Batmans biggest rival Joker never managed to cause as much chaos and actually succeed in their plans as scarecrow did. And scarecrow did that through using fear toxin. Through Batmans injections with fear toxin he managed to beat it. The biggest threat was never scarecrow himself, he's weak and an easy threat to beat which is shown in the climax. The real climax was Batmans own fear, that was the true threat all this time. Batman realized this, being controlled by letting his friends down, involving them into his problems and him becoming no better than the joker. If fear was the only thing that could beat him, he realized fear would also be the only thing that could beat the criminals. Fear managed to empty Gotham of it's citizens, so fear will also be able to empty Gotham of it's criminals. And so Batman kills himself and lives on as fear, a threat greater than he could ever be.