Arkham Knight - One Mistake from being the Greatest Villain

This is what I will remember as Arkham Batman’s true ending. Not the travesty we recently got

No one was more done dirty than Hush after the exciting intro in City which led to a single-button-press mission in Knight

There is an incredibly easy fix to this. Reveal it to the audience right at the start, invincible-style. That way the audience would get their plottwist (though rather early), can focus on Batman’s surprise being fully convinced Jason is dead AND not be called idiots by the devs for having it be way too obvious the whole time. It would also allow you to have Jason’s interactions with Barbara as an actual cutscene giving Jason much more depth.

This is the same company that gave us the clayface reveal, so they are capable of high quality storytelling they just didn’t put their best foot forward in Jason’s instance

One of the problems with Jason as the Arkham Knight is the flashbacks. The moment you see the first one you know the identity because there's no other reason to have flashbacks in a game unless it's related. That gave away the mystery behind Arkham Knight

There should’ve been some interaction between Jason and Tim. It’s mentioned in the database that Tim actually came to Batman, having deduced his identity. Since then, it’s always been my head-canon that Bruce only took him on because he hoped that Tim's detective skills would be useful in helping him find Jason. There’s no other scenario where Batman takes on another Robin while Jason is still MIA. It's also worth mentioning that Jason's database entry specifically mentions that he deactivated his tracker when he went after Joker. Compare to Dick, who gets captured by Penguin. Batman is able to rescue him within minutes because he still has his tracker, even as a solo hero. It's another missed opportunity that Jason never reckons on-screen with the culpability he has in his own fate.

2:56 love how Jason stops the Fear Takedown

Honestly, if they wanted Jason to work, they shouldve had him be the tutorial, make you feel helpless and pathetic. Show off the torture he went through, have joker monologue putting seeds of doubt in some nightmare sequences, and really have you just be in pain for Jason. That would’ve at least made you understand who this character is and why he makes sense for the narrative they were going for.

I'm angry we didn't get a better boss fight with Jason. He isn't just some thug or gunman, he's Batman's former sidekick. He's strong and smart. Not quite on Batman's level, but close enough that with support, he could easily give him alot of trouble. Imagine a predator sequence where instead of the militia having anti-cowl cloaking, HE had it and stalked around as you tried to get the drop on eachother with militia roaming around, to gain an advantage for a short, origins deathstroke type 1v1 before any remaining militia close in, and then he retreats to the shadows with a flashbang to blind you. Imagine him being able to track your cowl when you scan the militia, faster than the guys who can normally track you, and his search radius gets smaller and closer to your position the longer you use it. Hitting max tracking or performing a loud takedown would alert him to your exact location and he'd rush you, making it impossible to get the advantage without a counter landed with VERY tight timing or managing to get out of there on time. They could have made him a slightly weaker version of the player, with the added militia support to make life harder for you and have him put up the fight we'd expect someone like him to. I mean, he DOES actually resist an attempt by Batman to get the jump on him, so it would have been nice to have him actually live up to the hype of being a serious threat by making him a challenging and unique fight.

I honestly think arkham knight shouldve been anarky from origins. He was just a kid in origins, he rallied a large number behind him, and he not only was onto batman by calling him "just another spoiled rich kid", but also says something that could be the driving motive of the arkham knight, by suggesting that batman is the reason the city has gone to hell. Bringing the argument of batman making his own enemies to light. In arkham knight, Cash's logs state that anarky got snatched by the government. Deathstroke was taken by amanda waller, she couldve grabbed anarky too. He trains with deathstroke, rallies an army, studied batman. Batman doesnt even suggest that anarky could be the knight, b/c hes a kid that got lost in this system, and you can argue that batman failed him.

In Batman’s defense, he DID think that Jason was dead, so why would he assume he’s the Knight?

Honestly I think a good idea would’ve just been to have Jason reveal his identity to Bruce at ACE Chemicals at the beginning of the game. Then deep dive into how that affects Bruce throughout the rest of the game (more flashbacks and such) instead of Bruce searching for his identity. Jason is openly psychologically tormenting and torturing Batman via the fact Bruce knows it’s his fallen son throughout all of it, that’s causing the mass devastation and chaos With Jason’s identity know by the Batfam as well you could include more interactions between him and the other members, where he challenges them over their loyalty to Batman There should’ve been an actual fight with Jason in the game as well, where it feels like you’re fighting another Batman. Combining all the elements of before games bosses (Freeze, Deathstroke, etc.) and having Jason basically damn near know your every move

One idea I had was instead of Jason being the Arkham Knight. An interesting idea would be to reveal that Damian Wayne, in his early 20s, could've been Arkham Knight. I think the idea of an older Damian being the Arkham Knight would've been intriguing, and maybe he became the Arkham Knight as a way to avenge his mother, Talia. Damian blames Bruce for failing to save her. Damian would've used his resources from the League of Assassins and teamed up with Scarecrow to secretly double-cross Scarecrow in his misguided revenge against his biological father. Maybe Bruce could've stopped him, and Damian could've gone down a character redemption to become the next Batman in a hypothetical Batman Beyond game?

I don't think Jason's reveal is as bad as people say, sure everyone saw it coming but only because we know Jason Todd comes back as Red Hood and because of the Joker tourturing Jason cutscenes, the player is obviously gonna think that if we're being shown this that means it must have some sort of story relevance, but from Batman's perspective, Jason is DEAD, he has been for years and as such he has no reason to even CONSIDER that he's even connected to the Arkham Knight, plus the fact he was trained by Batman means it's fairly reasonable no info could be found about his identity by Alfred, how do you think no one knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman? The reveal works well for completing Bruce's arc throughout the story as well as perfectly explaining how he knows so much about his tricks, it's not meant to surprise the player because the Jason kidnapping cutscenes kinda spell it out

Alfred is the only member (except Batman) to not be kidnapped or held hostage once

To that "The greatest detective couldnt figure it out but the audience could" No duh, we live in a real world with prior knowledge to Batman and Batman lore, we know Jason Todd came back to life, Batman thought Jason was dead, why would Bruce think his son who "died" came back to life, gained a giant army and trained them to kill him? Put yourself into Bruce's shoes here for a moment.

if they just did a hand to hand combat fight, one like origins deathstroke, it wouldve been great

damian wayne would've made more sense as the arkham knight, thalias death would've made perfect sense as the motivation for his character hating batman, also thalia mentioned that her and bruce spent a night together in metropolis once. jason todd has never been referenced in any of the other arkham games and they made it too obvious that it was jason with the way they marketed the game

Batman doesn’t even consider Jason cause he saw a video of him literally getting shot straight in the face

I have a headcanon that bruce knew that it was jason, he just didnt want to accept it. Maybe thats why the scenes of jasons torture happened, it was bruce's fear of it being jason and his mind trying to fight off the thought of it being jason