Batman: Arkham City Critique - Breaking the Bat

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Something I've always loved about Arkham City is how much weight it gives to the Joker's death. The power of that shot of Batman carrying joker out of Arkham City holds so strongly in your memory that even when Joker comes back as a hallucination in Arkham Knight it serves more as a way to highlight his physical absence in the story than it does a way to bring back the character.

In the Arkham games, I feel Batman's fatal flaw is his inability to place his trust in his friends. He refuses Robin's help, which leads to him going down into Wonder City without backup. He never thinks to call in the help of the myriad of other heroes and vigilantes he calls allies. He mistrusts Mr. Freeze, leading to the fight that allows Harley to steal the cure out from under him. In the sequel, he makes mistake after mistake in his belief that he has to shoulder the burdens of the world. He never thinks that maybe, Atlas should shrug, and share the weight of the world with another.

"take my blood. I wish someone would. The stuff is killing me" one of my favorite lines

For me, Batman's fatal flaw is his isolation. Often, Batman keeps pushing himself to be alone over and over again because he doesn't want anybody to have the same tragic day be did when his parents were murdered. As a result, he goes into most situations alone after a certain point because he doesn't want any of his family or friends to be hurt. Often times leading to himself and others being hurt much more. How many times in this game would it have been useful for batman to do one thing and either of his Sons to do the other? Personally as well, as demonstrated by your catwomen example, him opening and up and being happy would effectively kill the batman. As a human, he needs to be happy. As the bat, he must be alone. To me saying Batman's tragic flaw is his no killing rule betrays the point of Batman. No one deserves to die. If not for the life of the person but for those who are scarred from it. After all batman was scarred by the murder of his parents, it sent a wound larger than any gunshot. If he killed joker, would Harley take her own life? I think so. If he killed penguin, would a power vacuum cause a gang war claiming dozens of more lives? I think so. Batman to me represents the end to a cycle of death that murder and killing brings with him. To me, It'll never be a flaw that batman never takes a life. It is the ultimate strength that makes him not just the world's greatest detective but the world's greatest hero. And to you my Scottish YouTuber pal. I found your channel through your Arkham asylum video and it has single handedly gotten me back into reading comics again. I cannot describe how grateful I am for that, it's a medium like no other that tells stories no one else can. And it's touched me in a way I will never forget. So thanks for that

I’ll never forgot opening this up on Christmas morning in 2011 when I was ten unaware of how much impact it was going to have on my life. A masterpiece through and through

Babe, wake up, new Monty Zander video

I always found it very bizzare how Talia was handled in this game. Bruce is willing to let hundreds/thousands of people die despite knowing that any number of people have been thrown into Arkham unfairly, himself included, let alone the fact that Batman has such a strong moral compass that he won't even let The Joker die if he can help it. Yet at the very end, when Talia dies, he practically forgets about her and she completely disappears from the game right before the Clayface reveal.

Thank goodness youtube recommended me your bioshock infinite critique out of the blue, you've quickly become one of my fave channels to go and watch in the background while working on art (and also to sleep, not that the content is boring I just have ADHD and need to have something on lol) I think you're also the first content creator to actually make a joke about that and go "sweet dreams" which made me go from half asleep to wide awake in .5 seconds

Arkham City is such a great superhero game. After liking Asylum... I LOVED City. In a lot of ways, the jump felt like the jump from Uncharted 1 to 2. From a decent, exciting start to a fully-fledged, groundbreaking display of a cohesive vision. Bigger and better in every way. And I always get weirdly excited to see just how fucked up Batman's suit gets over the course of the game lol

If I had to challenge one thing you said, it'd be that Batman's hamartia is less his inability to kill and more his inability to make a meaningful, lasting change. As you touched on earlier, he saw the corruption in the asylum and did nothing about it. It apparently just washed off of him. Throughout the games, Bruce has a tendency to be somewhat dismissive of the criminals or insane as people as well, with even Oracle pointing out that it's okay Deadshot is shooting people because "they're all bad guys". Bruce doesn't counterattack that Strange is just as likely to have thrown minor offenders into Arkham City as murderers or that even the worst of the worst don't deserve to just be gunned down like animals, but instead talks about the innocent people that have been locked up instead. Even in Arkham Knight, should you manage to lock up Riddler before the Joker Hallucination is gone, it mocks Bruce to point out that beating up Edward is a much easier solution than doing anything to actually address his mental illness to prevent him from finding value in his supervillain persona.

Fully agree on the Talia point. Selina understands Bruce so much more and has less beef with him.

The Fact that Freeze isn't in the challenge map is ridiculous. They could've even had a few thugs thrown in to make it more difficult.

So a few things I want to say: 1. I am also not a big Talia as Batman's love interest guy but i do feel like in the Morrison Run (specifically Batman Incorporated vol.2 but honestly since the start of their run) she is actually a great villain because she becomes a Supervillain who's whole gimmick is being Bruce's ex which imo surprisingly works. 2. About Batman's hamartia. I'd personally argue that it's not that Batman is unwilling to kill but that he cannot accept any death at all. From fighting with Alfred about saving Talia because her life is more concrete then the nebulous victims of Protocol 10 to grieving over the joker to the point of retreating into himself like he did (that he was only barely able to shake off by saving Harley from the same grief) Bruce is still that small child who cannot fathom death due to the trauma of his parents death. 3. Also just wanted to shout out your short read of the Tom King Batman/Catwoman run/saga and how you get that the messiness and complexity is exactly what that run was going for which a lot of people seem to have missed. 4. unsurprisingly the two batman villains that only work in the one story they were pretty much created for are the two worst missions in the game? who could have seen that coming? Anyway great video as always. Very excited for the last video of the trilogy (maybe a detour through the cash-grab spin-offs as well VR and Origin?) and for everything afterwards

Now that I've finished the video, I have two take aways: 1. They definitely should've used Mask of the Phantasm as the core inspiration for Talia’s story. Imagine a strange masked figure saving Bruce a few times, he meets Talia/Andrea in Wonder City, he shares a couple conversations with the Phantasm, and Bats is saved again during that last struggle through the steel mill. That's when their identity is revealed and she makes a deal with Joker. It would even provide a stronger subversion of the expectations for the Fake Joker reveal, where she has a scene very similar to the one in MoP where she disappears with Joker, only for it to be cut off by the real Joker killing her. 2. I live in both dread and excitement for the day you get to Arkham Knight and Shadow of Mordor, two of my most nostalgic games and some of the few games I'll replay despite their flaws. Knight is still the most visually stunning game I've ever played, almost a decade later, and I think, for better and worse, it does a better job at establishing Batman’s emotional connection to those he loses or thinks he loses throughout the game. I just wish they didn't waste such a badass adaptation of Scarecrow on playing third fiddle to Ghost Joker and DEFINITELY NOT Jason Todd As always a great watch!

The fact that they didn’t put Robin’s Arkham City look in Arkham Knight as a DLC is a crime. They gave Batman his first suit from Arkham Asylum. Why not give Robin his?

8:01 Actually we also see Deadshot who is the thug waiting in line in front of Bruce Wayne. So many great details as always with Arkham Games intros

Remember when Monty Zander said 'It's critiquing time!' and critiqued all over the place? On a serious note, I am so ready for this video. I hope it gets all deep, philosophical, thought-provoking and shiet. Love you content, MZ!

There’s an aspect of Arkham City’s lore that a lot of people miss and it makes me sad because I think it adds so much to Ra’s Al Guhl’s character in the game. Wonder City was built by Ra’s Al Guhl 200 years before the events of the game and (in this universe) is where he first discovered the Lazarus pits. Ra’s overuse of the pit would wind up driving the citizens of Old Gotham mad. I really like this addition because it acts as a subtle implication for why Gotham is such a haven for the criminally insane and makes Ra’s come off as even more of a scumbag because it recontextualizes Protocol 10 into being less about “the greater good” and more about a petty man trying to wipe away his past mistakes without actually trying to do the hard work to fix them.

I really don't understand the complaint about the free flow focus; I believe it's a good trade off, everything slows down a little bit and can still use all non-gadget/special moves. Personally in a big group of enemies with shields, swords, stun batons, and armor that slow down helps a lot especially against ninjas. As with all combat encounters in the Arkham series it's best to take everything in and take your time