Is Arkham Batman ACTUALLY a Good Batman?

Glad you enjoyed making the video! It’s nice to see discussions in fandoms that don’t immediately turn hostile and whatnot. Keep doin what your doin 🗣

This is the modern day equivalent of Socrates and Aristotle debating

"We don't know how many people die in Arkham city" Clownpuncher: it might seem crazy what about to say

Arkham Batman's worst quality is that he keeps pushing his allies away and does things himself, but he does this to delegate tasks and so they don't get hurt.

You shouldn't feel empathy for people who do atrocities because they have trauma. Trauma is no excuse for doing horrible acts. Take Professor Pyg: The god-awful things that his mother made him do as a child sounds like an episode of Law & Order: SVU, but that's no reason to do any of the things that he's done to innocent people. He, of all people, should know how anyone would feel on the matter. Batman is a shining example of how to turn your grief and trauma into a force for good. He'd fit in perfectly with his rouges gallery if he was a serial killer, but he's a hero instead!

7:43 man reference

with the jason thing, you cant blame batman for being bad when he “replaces” him. Its common batman lore that tim finds batmans identity and essentially finds his way into the batcave. Batman doesnt actively go out searching for a new robin (not that he ever has) Additonally, its known that alot of the arkham guards (primarily officer balls🗣️) were on jokers payroll and making sure the abandoned wing was not being investigated. Batman knew arkham asylum was still up and running, and if its a facility you know is working perfectly fine why on earth would you think to look there? It’s also not ever stated that batman DIDNT look for jason, i dont know where this notion comes from. All we know is he stopped searching after joker sent that tape. I dont get the criticism that batman should still keep searching even though he was sent footage of joker shooting him. He has no incentive to think joker wouldnt kill jason. Then for the whole origins and character regression thing, arkham knight was already in development by the time origins was released and even being worked on. Rocksteady most likely did not know about the story of that game before it was too late, hence why the origins references are all in side missions. Last thing, how he treats tim in city SEEMS bad because of conroys line delivery. But if you simply realise what hes saying to tim, hes being alot more father-like then you originally think. Especially with the reassuring hand on the shoulder, a small gesture but to he honest it means alot.

I’m glad that this whole debate can be friendly. I think at the end of the day we all love Batman. They’re just trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t this specific version of the character, and it’s so refreshing to see that things seem to be relatively civil here. Normally us Batman fans can be very “intense”.

In regards to the question about should we see guys like Zsasz as humans, heres my take. I don't think we as fans have to see it that way. It's totally understandable for you as a person to think Zsasz is a degenerate freak with no hope, but Batman should always believe they can be helped. And to have Batman think that about someone like Quinn but not Zsasz would be wildly out of character. Batman doesn't pick and choose. His moral code applies to everyone no matter what. It's why he won't kill at least the Joker despite there being a very strong argument for doing so. A weak (or even normal) person bends and breaks their morals when convenient, but Batman isn't weak, or even normal. He's above and beyond

I think a big point your missing is that every time we see this Batman it’s during one of the hardest nights of his career so it would make sense why he’s so locked in, also we can asses the amount he would save the east coast of America is around 120 million people he saved and was happy to sacrifice himself doing it

I agree with the point that Bruce is cold from asylum to knight without much to show otherwise. But I always thought the point of knight was that he was that he was giving up batman because of the negative effect of his legacy on his loved ones. I excuse it mostly because it's part of the story. Also, with the parts about Tim, yes, he does train him after the death of Jason. But it's always mentioned in his file that Tim is a genius and found out batmans identity. Tim is meant to be a smarter person than Bruce in general. Bruce does use Tim's knowledge of biology for both city and knight with the Jokers blood. Both games do enough to show that Bruce doesn't want Tim to die in the field, even Dick to some degree by telling him to go back to bludhaven.

Again, he stopped protocol 10 before getting Talia. Hugo and ras die. There’s no more helicopters Also we don’t totally demonize villains becuz they were forced into it? You know even killer croc had a choice not to eat people right?

Arkham Batman is one of my all time favourite versions of Batman. He’s not perfect but he’s still a great and goated Batman. That’s the point of his character, even though he’s this force to be reckoned with, a man who has reached the absolute physical and mental peak, he’s still human. He still makes mistakes like the rest of us, he’s failed on multiple occasions. He’s not the perfect hero, no hero is. Superman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Wonder Woman all of them have made mistakes and they are more powerful than Batman. It’s not about how much you’ve failed it’s about how you get back up, dust yourself off and move forward, you try again. The moment you give up is when you’ve truly lost. No matter what version, that is Batman to his core, he never gives up, he always finds another way out.

7:11 I'm not entirely sure what you meant here but in the Flip of a Coin dlc Tim never mentioned or showed any hatred towards what Bruce did to him. He was definitely angry in the campaign but I believe overtime he understood Bruce's decision and why he did it. So Bruce never "lost" Tim. However, if you meant that Bruce lost him because he was kidnapped by Scarecrow at the end of the game then you would be correct. Once again, I'm not sure what you meant.

There’s bunch of comics were the villain redeemed themselves so Arkham Batman thinking that’s possible isn’t a stretch at all

7:01 it’s not really an excuse tho the fear toxin is bringing Bruce’s worst fears to life and to the forefront of his mind which is losing his family again and because of that and the situation he’s been put into he decides to keep Tim safe by locking him is one of the safest places in the city and his concerns are pretty valid when you think about how every single person he loves besides Alfred literally get kidnapped and almost die

Honestly I think you made valid points. Like I still think this version of Batman is great overall. I'm not crazy but there are some flaws in his writing that people apparently don't really want to accept. Also this guys points about Batman's lack of empathy at the villains just mades me think he blatantly misunderstands the whole point of Batman and his no-kill rule.

To be fair, we only see Talia for 1 night, and according to Barbara whenever Talia is involved Bruce "instantly become makes her the most important person in his world" and after you beat Ra's Talia is scolding Bruce for lying to her and Bruce says "Talia I" before she cuts him off, it's pretty clear Bruce was most likely going to say he loves her. About Tim becoming Robin, we don't know what picture Joker showed Jason, it could've been similar to the comics where Tim suits up without Batman's knowledge and before he started training him. And Batman didn't know Jason was in Arkham (how? I don't know!)

I find it baffling to this day that people still harp on the Under the Hood scene, as this is only one of many explanations of Bruce’s philosophy. I do not doubt for a second in my mind that he’s afraid of the kind of person he’d become if he did start killing. This is even the main point in many Batman stories before Under The Hood. Such as Death in the Family, The Killing Joke, Knightfall, Ego, and several minor stories. Batman’s a complex person. So ofc his methodology and ideals have many facets to them

“If you can't imagine your version of Batman comforting a dying child, that's not Batman, that's the Punisher in a funny hat" every iteration needs to follow this.