Blueberry Pancakes fucked around with this message at 21:25 on Mar 7, 2014

• If Catwoman was able to get free, why did she let Two Face come close to killing her with that acid? It's not like she's not used to fighting a large number of thugs, and actually does so in her DLC.
  We can safely assume Catwoman was planning to escape until Batman arrived. For much of the time up until that point she has both had a gun to her head and is surrounded by mooks. She would still have died in the end if batman didn't stop Two-Face's second gun.
  
  
• Catwoman says there are rumors that Strange and Joker are working together, but there are no rumors of Strange and Penguin working together despite Penguin having superior weapons to Joker.
  Penguin is established as having already stockpiled weapons and resources in the Iceberg lounge, which was his base of operations before Arkham City was built around it.
  
  
• The end of the game reveals that the Joker who appeared as "Deceased" in the chair was the real one. It's never explained how he tricks Detective Mode.
  Valid, unless they stopped his heart for a bit. Gosh, stopping the heart to fake death, that sounds familiar...
  
  
• Why does Batman keep being a dick to the people he needs help from? In Arkham Asylum, he antagonizes Poison Ivy when he was planning on stopping the Joker, which would've helped Ivy's plants and possibly prevented her from being antagonistic towards him that night. In this game, he takes it further by jerking Freeze around after he got cooked alive in an oven and then rips the life support system out of his chest and spills some of it on the floor. Wouldn't it have just been easier to explain that he could save Nora if he had the cure? Or that Freeze would be in a better position to do it if Batman could get his equipment back from Freeze? Instead, he just mentions Freeze looks unwell or something.
  Batman in the Arkham games avoids bargaining with or rationalizing with villains at all costs-it validates their motivations and gives them power. His attempts to do so in AC toward the end of the plotline are meant to indicate how dire the situation has become.
  
  
• How did Robin get into Arkham City if the perimeter wall has mounted guns and the TYGER Guards are supposed to be vigilant enough to watch out for Batman and his allies?
  The perimeter isn't actually a problem- Batman can also get out of Arkham. He's choosing not to.
  
  
• How are Joker's thugs able to explore Old Gotham if Batman needs the Line Launcher and a glider cape to get around?
  Joker's thugs always appear in positions accessible from the surface, either directly or via Tyger doors they have been given access to.
  
  
• Why does Batman insist on working alone while poisoned and having near death experiences? He could have at least called in Nightwing while Robin handled the blood stuff.
  Nightwing doesn't appear in AC. If he exists, he's in Bludhaven and plot-irrelevant.
  
  
• Ra's al Ghul wants Batman to kill him and take over for him. Wouldn't that mean that Batman would be Strange's master?
  Ra's is trying to pit Batman and Strange against one another. It's not that one is the master of the other- it's that one wins, and that's the one Ra's is interested in. Ra's is really rooting for Batman the whole time, though. He's mostly using the Arkham City setup to establish a new Pit to feed his addiction and as a giant, burning powerpoint for why he is right about humanity and Batman is wrong.
  
  
• Why does Mr. Freeze destroy the only thing that could keep Batman healthy enough to save his wife?
  Freeze is crazy. Joker has his wife. He believes the best way to get her back is to let Batman die and do what Joker wants.
  
  
• So neither Batman nor anyone in Joker's gang found it odd that Harley Quinn was tied up and gagged in the middle of the Steel Mill?
  Joker's gang can't access the location Harley Quinn is tied up at. I believe she is meant to be an Easter Egg, since the fastest route through the Mill goes under her, not past her.
  
  
• For that matter, why didn't Talia kill Harley considering all her dialogue about wiping the scum of humanity clean?
  Talia doesn't know where Batman is, and is trying to find and save him.
  
  
• Why didn't Talia just stab "the Joker" and save Batman from under those rocks if she knew he was dying and had the cure?
  Talia doesn't think she can take the Joker one on one unless he's distracted. When she arrives, the Joker has Batman at his mercy. She's counting on distracting the Joker long enough for Batman to recover. There also may be an interaction with Ra's implied- I need to study that part of the game again.
  
  
• Why does Joker win if Catwoman doesn't save Batman? How did his goons survive Protocol 10 and outgun TYGER? Was Strange really dumb enough to supply Joker with weapons that are superior to TYGER's?
  First off, almost all the inmates getting killed by the first part of Protocol 10 are the gang-unaffiliated guys who don't have access to shelter. In particular, it's shown that a bunch of Joker's men are hiding in the sewers and subways. Joker will get access to the Lazarus Pits unless Batman stops him. Strange is counting on the later parts of Protocol 10, which presumably involve a sweep of the city to clear and kill the inmates who survived the bombardment. This is presumably a workable plan, until you dip the Joker in a material that makes people super insane and gives them incredible powers of regeneration. Note that Strange has no idea the Lazarus Pit exists.
  
  
• Strange says he's untouchable when he says no one is untouchable at the beginning of the game? For that matter, why does he act so smug when he never does anything? He sees a distress flare and assumes it's Bruce Wayne instead of having a TYGER force investigate. He sees the Identity Thief's murders and doesn't care about what's happening. Several things happen over the course of Arkham City, but Hugo never does anything to try to maintain his control. He just sits back and assumes that everything will work out.
  Strange is really, really crazy. He's effectively convinced he has already won for pretty much the entire plot of the game. His messy fugue state belief that he is replacing/superior to batman via his grand master plan is only really fulfilled in his own mind if he doesn't have to do anything- if Protocol 10 is enough to erase Batman from existence and relevance at the same time. A large part of the point of Strange is that he's a puppet for the League- that for all his intelligence and control, his obsession makes him delusional and unable to function. This is common to later depictions of Strange in the comics, btw, and is where the whole dressup routine comes from.
  
  
• Why does it only take Oracle seconds after plugging into Strange's machinery to shut down Protocol 10? He spent a year planning and Batman could've taken him down in three seconds at any time had he not been sidetracked?
  Batman is plugging Oracle directly into the central command center at the core of the entire Tyger network.
  
  
• Why is there even a cancellation signal for Protocol 10 if it's the culmination of Strange's work?
  Valid. Possibly related to why Strange was sane enough to have a Protocol 11.
  
  
• If Strange has a Batsuit like it says in Riddler's tapes, why didn't he put it on and fight Batman if he's in such physically great shape rather than just letting Bruce headbutt him in the face and toss him around the room?
  I would have loved this so much! That said, Strange is in great physical shape, but he isn't indicated to have any actual combat training.
  
  
• How in the world did Strange, influence of Ra's al Ghul or not, expect to continuously create a bunch of Arkham Cities around the world, throw in any protestors to his plan, claim that the inmates magically got hold of firearms, missile strike the place, and then make new Arkham Cities elsewhere? Wouldn't Arkham City be seen as incapable after a certain point? Especially since they would result in the death of several minor criminals, people who have done their jail time, or innocent people?
  Strange is insane. So, importantly, is Ra's, but Ra's is also basically the anti-Koch brothers. Given the implausibility of the original Arkahm City, it's not out of the question that others would emerge- especially if it's part of Ra's broader plan to work toward a global human extinction event.
  
  
• Why doesn't Talia's elite guard actually guard Talia? From the moment they show up to the end of the game, they only appear around her in one scene in Wonder City, and that's after they return from scouring the city.
  She presumably ordered them away, or Ra's did. They actually will continue appearing in Wonder City in random encounters, BTW.
  
  
• How does Joker know that the area that Batman and Clayface are fighting in is the Lazarus Pit? If Talia never saw the real Joker and Clayface had her hostage the whole time, how did he know that was one? Did he just guess?
  Jokerface had an extended amount of time with Talia before Batman returns from Wonder Tower- enough time to take her hostage. It's clear from his other knowledge that Talia explained way too much about the whole process. Talia seriously underestimates the Joker.
  
  
• Why did Batman say he would save Joker when earlier in the plot he said he didn't care if both he and the Joker died? Ever since then, Joker only got worse and killed more people just to try to inconvenience or hurt Batman, so what incentive did he have to save him?
  I can't find this line in the script- maybe refresh my memory? If you're referring to the point immediately after injection, this is a continuation of not letting villains dictate terms, no matter the circumstances. This is a reference to The Killing Joke, like a lot of other things in the game. This is subverted and paralleled using Talia at the end of the game, as Batman bargains with, and then relies upon, his enemies.
  
  
• Bane is described as a strategist and a master planner in-game. Despite this, he tells Batman the exact number of TITAN containers in the City, outright says before his co-op fight that he collected the TITAN, shows Batman that he's collected the rest of the TITAN rather than lying and saying that he destroyed it or at least storing it somewhere safe until Batman left, tries to kill Batman by telling him that he's going to kill him, tries to kill Batman by running at him even though that failed in Arkham Asylum, and gets caught in a part of his own lair.
  Bane in AC is not the Bane of AO- he's had the rough equivalent of like 5 strokes since then, between the initial Titan exposure at the end of Origins and the experimentation/overdose he received in AA. He's brain damaged and in the thrall of late stage addiction.
  
  
• Mad Hatter is able to hypnotize Batman into believing that a tea set is the cure for his TITAN poisoning without making contact with him.
  This is what Hatter's Hat does. The masks amplify the effect, but he doesn't need them to introduce suggestions. This is also why he's able to make the clock work in Origins. (coindicentally, Hatter in City has a skeleton- why the hell didn't they import it for AO?) Hatter in the Arkhamverse would be one of the most dangerous/powerful people on the planet if he weren't insane. This is a running theme in the series.
  
  
• Mad Hatter's side mission makes no sense when the main story is over, because Batman is already cured.
  This is true for a bunch of side stories. Ludonarrative dissonance.
  
  
• Why didn't Deadshot shoot Batman instead of that political prisoner when he had the chance?
  Deadshot is defined by being an idiot who takes stupid chances because he has a death wish. He's also working to a strict timetable and schedule. The political prisoner is Jack Ryder- the next person on the schedule.
  
  
• Deadshot's side mission makes no sense after the main story is over due to Strange being dead and unable to pay him. Additionally, I doubt he would've been inclined to continue to work for Strange after he got shot at with missiles during Protocol 10.
  See above.
  
  
• Batman is unable to prove that he is not the Identity Thief in the second incident, but doesn't call backup from Robin or Nightwing to verify that he doesn't hurt more people if he is the killer.
  He doesn't think he needs to because he knows he isn't. For Batman, it would be a waste of time and effort. Also see the Robin/Nightwing answer above.
  
  
• How did Hush leave Arkham City in the span of five seconds?
  IIRC, Hush can only be completed after the story ends. He just has to do his Bruce Wayne impression.
  
  
• How did Hush leave Arkham City looking like Bruce Wayne, the guy a number of inmates want to hold hostage and the guy that TYGER and Strange would want captured at all costs?
  See above. It's also established that Hush has been an effective serial killer for some time, and is also psychotically obsessed.
  
  
• Batman not going after Hush makes no sense after the main story is over.
  Ludonarrative dissonance. Hush is a low priority compared to anything else Batman needs to do in Arkham, particularly since all other members of the bat-family are on notice that he's an impostor.
  
  
• Batman tells Azrael that he doesn't believe in fairy tales when the latter tells him about a prophecy, despite the fact that Batman has fought an immortal zombie that was revived ala Frankenstein, frequently fights against a guy who revives himself from death by hopping into a chemical bath, and frequently fights against metahumans like Clayface and Poison Ivy who have strange and unusual powers.
  A combination of not giving Azrael bargaining power over him (consistent with Batman's interaction with other villains), and that the other characters have quasi-plausible explanations that are not prophecy related, even at their most mystical. (Don't ask me to explain how Batman has fought Grundy before. I got no clue about the portable games and how their plots sync up with this.)
  
  
• How do the doctors Riddler places near the Steel Mill manage to get back to the church and over the destroyed bridge?
  Valid. It's also an issue for other goons. It's implied they have some way to do it- possibly by scrambling through the condemned buildings- but that it's really unpleasant. PRactically speaking, this was probably an oversight that was caused by placing the Riddler rooms into the map late in the game, and only then realizing the transportation issue.
  
  
• Poison Ivy and Catwoman argue about the fact that the latter didn't water some plants over the course of time it takes for Batman to get poisoned by Joker, infiltrate the museum, save some hostages, take down Penguin's gang, follow a ninja into the ruins of Old Gotham, take the Demon Trials, fight Ra's al Ghul, fly back to the GCPD, fight Mr. Freeze and infiltrate the Steel Mill.
  They're discussing an event that occurred before AC even started- implicitly, whent hey were living together, as a Gotham Girls reference. Ivy is a terrible roommate who holds grudges.
  
  
• Why does Two Face run from the museum after Catwoman beats him rather than try to pull his gang together? Aside from Black Mask, he was the only remaining gang leader and could've still managed to take control of Arkham City if he hadn't fled. Sure, he lost face due to getting beaten by Catwoman, but it's not like Two Face has never been taken down by a vigilante before.
  Each time Catwoman beats up Two-Face, he literally loses face- Selina deliberately tears up the pristine side of his face. This has a predictable effect on someone obsessed with his asymmetry.
  
  
• Why does Riddler leave trophies around Arkham City for Catwoman? What incentive does she have to pick them up?
  Valid, though I'd argue it was to flesh out the Catwoman exclusive content and not a big deal.
  

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 07:14 on Apr 8, 2014

Blueberry Pancakes fucked around with this message at 13:58 on Mar 8, 2014