The WASTED POTENTIAL of Batman's Greatest Villain

Scarecrow's goal of understanding fear gives us so much room to explore other Batman villains too. Imagine him going after other villains in the name of his twisted curiosity.

It's really sad how scarecrow is a plot device so often. From his voice, (usually) to his costume, to his backstory, to his weapons. He is AMAZING. I can tell why he's your favorite villain. My love of this character is enhanced from a real life story that made me TERRIFIED of scarecrows when I was younger

I feel your pain Pastra. I've had similar issues with Killer Croc over the years. Most comics and media depict him as a brutish thug that embraces his animal nature and depraved gruesomeness, when that's the opposite of how he's meant to be depicted. The point of Croc is that he's someone pressured and abused into becoming a monster, hating what he is and what he's become but feeling there is no other path for him. He tried to be good. He tried to be normal. But everyone everywhere beats him down till he has no other option but to lash out at the world. This is only worsened when he starts to lose control of himself, blacking out into the feral monster people think he is only to be horrified at the carnage he's caused by mauling people. That's how Croc should be, at least IMO.

Imagine a version of Scarecrow who is sort of on the same level of Batman, in that he's also an urban legend. Like, the people of Gotham City don't know if he does or doesn't exist, and everyone has a slightly different version of him. Some believe him to be a psycho in a costume, some believe him to be a spirit possessing a scarecrow, but nobody really knows. His calling card is that he always either leaves someone crazy from fear, or he beheads them and puts a pumpkin in place of their head. Scarecrow would usually only go after people who've hurt him as Johnathan Krane, getting his revenge in a cruel manner, forcing them to fear him as he once feared them. Though, he isn't against hurting innocents to further his research on fear. Scarecrow only has two goals. Get revenge on those who once scared him as a lesser man, and learn to weaponize fear. To use it. It'd be kind of neat if he was actually inspired by Batman, in that way. He wanted to learn to use fear the way Batman does, but he wants to push it further...

Idk if this has been done before, but it would be a cool detail if Scarecrow says that he’s “immune to his own fear toxin” but actually isn’t because his worst fear is always right in front of him. There could also be a foreshadowing scene where he addresses Batman, but only Robbin is there.

I feel another issue with Scarecrow is when it feels he is beginning to get the spotlights another villain like the Joker steals it from him. To me alot of writers feel scared to experiment with other villains like Scarecrow and Bane just because they are known for their single Gimmick.

The best scene that Scarecrow had in Arkham Knight was when he confronted Batman and Commissioner Gordon at the rooftop overlooking Founder’s Island. Not one particle of fear toxin used in the entire scene. Just Scarecrow talking and playing into Gordon’s greatest fear of someday failing to protect his daughter, using that fear as leverage to get him to do what he wanted in exchange for her safety, and, once Gordon subverts him and does something he didn’t want, forcing Gordon to face that exact fear. Overcoming his adversaries not by spraying their face with fear toxin, not by injecting it into them. Just simply playing his way into their minds with what they fear the most and using it in his favour. I wish there was more of that in the game instead of “guy that says scary stuff over broadcast and tells the Arkham Knight what to do and sometimes uses his conflict toxin on Batman to make the clown an antagonist again.”

In the myth of Hercules, Herc is poisoned, starts hallucinating and accidentally kills his loved ones. I fell like you could easily adapt that to Scarecrow, have the fear toxin make someone hallucinat and kill a loved one.

My biggest gripe with scarecrow is that he never built up an immunity to his own fear gas. Because of this, he loses the same way over and over lol

Never in my life did I expect Pastra to make a video on Batman. Here it is, and I’m not complaining. Here's hoping Scarecrow shows up in The Batman 2, with maybe Willem Dafoe playing him!!!

Imagine how incredible a Scarecrow and Mad Hatter team up would be. Batman would be standing in a mock up Wonderland created by Mad Hatter, only to inhale the Fear Toxin, and wander through a horrifying version of Wonderland. This needs to be a movie!

The idea that scarecrow views Batman as just as insane as everyone else is such an interesting idea for a motive

The closest thing the BTAS version of Scarecrow had depth is in a tie in comic when he’s on parole, where it’s shown that he has a soft spot for his students. When he learned that one of them was sexually assaulted by her boyfriend, Scarecrow forsook a chance at parole to get revenge on the boyfriend.

I think the best part about scarecrow in my opinion is that, unlike many other batman villains who are doing their crimes for money or due to an insane obsession or just insanity, Scarecrow is just doing it for science and because he enjoys hurting people. He was considered perfectly sane, he was just incredibly evil.

Back in 2014 I made a Scarecrow costume, complete with the "needle glove". It was so realistic that children became frightened, with one girl actually hyperventilating.

I actually really enjoy the Scarecrow storyline in Gotham; it's a look at how grief affects people and the lengths they'll go to in order to numb themselves to it. He's not some generic scary guy in a Spirit Halloween costume, he's a person warped by loss who genuinely believes he's helping people by "curing" fear. In the end, he's just a delusional narcissist who ends up destroying the only valuable thing he had left. That to me has way more to explore story-wise than some generic revenge plot.

It’s adorable how you can hear just how excited pastra is when talking

I would like to paint a picture of what could be a rather interesting Scarecrow story. Basically, it starts out similarly to this, where it starts in Arkham Asylum, the typical beginning to a Batman story. Except, of course, things go awry, and Batman shows up to inspect the chaos and put an end to it, but finding himself in a bit of an odd situation when he sees the Joker running around, not saying anything and just laughing. As he chases him down throughout the asylum, he finds himself losing his breath, going in circles, and generally seeing signs that he's hallucinating, causing him to immediately suspect Scarecrow. And he's right, but he's not given time to process this before he is knocked out by the gas. When he awakes, he is strapped to an operating table behind a two-way mirror, with Crane on the other side. The two share some conversation, Crane is a mix between calm and giddy, as he's excited to start his experiment. He has a plan in mind, and a point to prove: he's going to put the other rogues (that are in Arkham anyway) through his version of extensive therapy and treatment, or in other words, extreme torture with fear toxin in the mix. All of this is to prove a point, that being that, no matter what Batman or anyone else does, the rogues cannot be cured, they cannot be rehabilitated and Batman's moral decision to try is inherently naïve, though it's also to simply eliminate the competition among Gotham's criminally insane underworld. So he starts the experiment, mixing cruel torture with genuine therapy methods to use on the other rogues and making Batman watch. And at the end of each torture session, he would ask each individual rogue if they felt they were ready to reenter society, and their first response is usually to either just say something along the lines of 'No fuck you I'm crazy', or just threaten him. This continues for some time until he reaches the Joker, who he's both excited and terrified to do this to. He sees Joker as the prime example for why Batman's methods will never work, and gets to work. By the end of the session, he asks the question, and expects the same results as before. However, Joker has stopped smiling, his face seems defeated, yet elated, as he states he's unsure, but that he feels different. Crane is shocked, and unstraps Joker from his operating table, and inspects him momentarily before seemingly being ecstatic that he was the one who cured the motherfucking Joker of his insanity. Behind the mirror, Batman is also astonished, as Crane has essentially proved Batman's point: that with enough time and usage of the correct methods, without torture they could eventually be cured and rehabilitated. This also proves that Scarecrow is capable of rehabilitating other patients at Arkham, which also proves that he himself is capable of being rehabilitated through these good actions, even if he didn't intend them to be good. Such a shame that it was all a ruse on Joker's part, and he uses his newfound freedom to stab Crane with a scalpel. Fortunately for Crane though, Batman had also escaped his straps, and broke through the mirror to stop Joker from killing him, and knocks out the clown. The day is saved, Arkham is brought back into order and Crane is in the medical ward, where Batman visits him. Their conversation might go as follows: "Do you get my point now?" "What point? He wasn't cured, he was merely lying." "That doesn't detract from what you did. Joker didn't prove my point, you did. Despite your intentions, you tried to cure them." "That changes nothing! You're wrong, it was for my own gain." "Still. You proved to me that, among the monsters of Gotham, there are indeed some that can be saved." And he walks out of the room, leaving Crane to grumble to himself.

For your consideration: A version of Scarecrow that (for whatever reason) is unable to feel fear, but desperately wants to understand it. As such, he is always catching people up in absurd situations to study their fear response. Standing in a weird gray-area where he targets both heroes and villains.

Arkham Knight will always be one of my favourite depictions of Scarecrow. His desperate desire to unmask Batman to take away his ability to create fear.