| “ | How many more bones will you crush? How many more lives will you destroy in pursuit of what you call "justice"? You are the product of everything you fear: violence, darkness, helplessness. All that remains is for you to watch, as I drag your beloved Gotham into oblivion. | „ |
| ~ Scarecrow's speech to Batman in the Arkham Knight reveal trailer |
Dr. Jonathan Crane, better known as the Scarecrow, is the secondary antagonist of Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham franchise, which is based on the DC Comics superhero Batman.
He is a former psychiatrist and sadistic criminal mastermind who serves as one of Batman's greatest enemies. He is determined to break his mind and as well as the minds of every citizen of Gotham City.
Realizing the power he could gain through controlling people's fears, he invented a fear-inducing chemical that douses his victims with crippling anxiety before using it for a life of crime. He later commands an alliance of supervillains in his master plan to finally destroy Batman once and for all.
He was voiced by Dino Andrade in Arkham Asylum and by John Noble in Arkham Knight.
His Qualities[]
What Makes Him Entertaining?[]
- His design in both games is very spooky and cool. While he looked a lot more cartoonish in Arkham Asylum, he looks far more dark and sinister in Arkham Knight, where he shows his face being disfigured after his encounter with Killer Croc.
- John Noble does a great job voicing him in Arkham Knight, and easily succeeds at making Scarecrow the most terrifying and dangerous threat in the series with a calm and ominous voice. While Dino Anrade wasn't as good as Noble he did a good job too.
- His hallucination parts in Arkham Asylum are considered to be the best parts of the game, because Batman (and more specifically the player themself) ends up tormented by the death of Bruce Wayne's parents and feels completely alone and powerless in front of the giant Scarecrow figure that can kill the player in one move.
- The most memorable part of the hallucinations was when the game fakes being crashed, and then shows the exact same opening cutscene except that now it's the Joker driving the Batmobile with Batman as his prisoner, tricking the player into thinking that Joker took over the asylum. There is also a fake game over screen where Joker shoots Batman and the latter wakes up from a tomb after being "killed" by him.
- No matter how wicked he is, he shows to be a sophisticated mastermind who managed to fool Dr. Young so that he could contiune his horrific experiments, and also convinces all the villains of Gotham to join him and gather an entiere army to take down Batman once and for all. This gives Crane charisma and intimidation on top of his fear toxin.
- When Batman corners him inside Stagg's airship, he blows up the wall behind him and uses it to escape thanks to the Arkham Knight's chopper. He also replied to Batman that there was no need to run when he told him that there was nowhere left to run.
- He manipulated Jim Gordon into turning against Batman under the threat of his daughter.
- At the end of the game, he came extremely close to win as he unmasked Batman's identity on live television and kept injecting him fear toxin.
What Makes Him Detestable?[]
- Even before becoming Scarecrow, he was still vile enough to perform unethical experiments on inmates in Blackgate Prison, something which Dr. Quinzel calls him out on.
- He tested his fear toxin on several inmates in both Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, driving them insane with his painful and grueseome experiments.
- He psychologically tortures Batman all the time, reminding him of the death of his parents and trying to make him look weak and vulnerable by unmasking him in front of Gotham.
- After escaping from Arkham Asylum, he planned on unleashing his fear toxin into Gotham, which could've resulted in millions of deaths. He also planned on using it on the whole world as well.
- He had the Arkham Knight kidnap Barbara Gordon and then used her and fear toxin to trick Batman, Jim, and Robin into thinking that she killed herself, devastating the three of them.
- He released the Cloudburst into Gotham, driving insane countless of thugs, and then caused Poison Ivy to sacrifice herself to stop it, with Scarecrow taunting her efforts to stop the Cloudburst.
- He blackmailed Jim over his daughter, turning him against Batman, and when the commissioner shot him off the roof, Scarecrow broke his word and decided to throw Oracle off the roof, who was just a crippled and defenseless young woman. Thankfully Gordon never truly turned on Batman, intentionally shooting the most durable part of his armor so he would survive, allowing him to save Barbara.
- He forced to Batman to surrender by kidnapping Robin, forcing Jim to unmask him on live television in front of Gotham's population, causing now everyone to know Batman's true identity and forcing Bruce to activate Knightfall Protocol to fake his death to protect his loved ones.
External Links[]
- Scarecrow on the Villains Wiki
- Scarecrow on the Pure Evil Wiki
- Scarecrow on the Arkhamverse Wiki