Alright so I finished Arkham City the other day and the ending kind of took me by surprise, which then generated a need for me to talk about why this ending works for me. WARNING: SPOILERS APPROACHING!
Arkham City was a fantastic game and you don't need me to tell you that, there are plenty of sites and magazines ranting and raving about how amazing it is. I agree with them completely, I enjoyed the crap out of the game. Its not just limited to the game though, I loved the s tory that was told through the diverse cast of heroes and villains. Batman as a whole has always been grounded in the importance of life and the preservation of it in a severely broken world. Arkham City was no exception to this theme but it also served as the final story (I think?) in this specific Batman universe. The transition from the Asylum to the City was significant because it also represented the spreading chaos that simply could not be contained in such a small area anymore.
The cast of villains you encounter are all extremely brutal and the plot is filled with death and destruction despite Batman's efforts to prevent it (mostly by hoping that several broken bones is enough of a deterrent for most people). In the wake of this brutality lies death and oh boy is death a recurring theme throughout the story here. You'll see almost the entire cast from the Asylum make appearances here or at least get mentioned with the exception of Scarecrow (Killer Croc food) which is strange to me considering we go from a little death in Asylum to a whole bunch in City.
Kicking off the death train is Rah's Al Ghul or however his name is spelled with his whole life and death mean jack shit to me kind of attitude. This character is a major villain in the Batman universe and essentially is trying to annihilate everything from the world, starting with Arkham City. As it turns out he is behind the entire operation to wipe out every prisoner in the city and he even kills Strange and then himself as a result of his failure, thinking he can be revived in the Lazarus pit like usual, then Batman kicks Clayface into the pit and wrecks it....ha. So, Rha's ends up dead, potentially for good.
Next up is Talia, Rha's daughter and Batman's lover. Talia typically takes care of her father but after he tries to kill her she ends up kind of siding with Batman and even saves him from Joker by offering him immortality in exchange for Batman's life. Despite Batman's efforts to save her she still ends up getting shot by Joker and dying.
Hugo Strange is another villain that meets his well deserved demise in Arkham city at the hands of his ally, Rha's. He spent the entire game seeking wholesale murder and he ended up dead before he could realize that ambition.
Lastly we have the most important death. Joker. Throughout the game Joker engages Batman in a game of mutual destruction or benefit which culminates in a final showdown resulting in the death of Joker. Batman has a bit of a crisis when he sees Joker dying in front of him while he holds the cure to what is killing him. During this period of thought Joker takes the opportunity to stab Batman in the shoulder with a knife, making him drop the cure on the floor. Batman expresses his regret and tells Joker that even though he shouldn't he still would have saved him. The game concludes with Batman carrying the Joker's corpse out of Arkham City and walking off, conflicted. In the end, evil didn't need any help eliminating itself.
So why does this ending work? Well for me at least, I find that most Batman stories are constantly doing this dance with death leading up to a climactic end but it is fairly uncommon to see death on such a large scale. However, seeing death that much allows you to contrast it to the value of life expressed in most Batman series. Bruce Wayne's entire motivation to become what he is was fueled by death and in turn, the value of human life. Arkham Asylum/City was no exception to this, it is death that spurs Batman onward in order to protect life and while most of the time the bad guys just end up in full body casts for a while, they remain alive. Why did Arkham City kill off a good portion of the villains? It was symbolic of this series' end. Just like any story you are free to interpret it however you'd like but Arkham Asylum/City boasted some of the most depth in multiple areas such as character design, story-line, plot, and even the world's they crafted were incredibly complex and intricate. Upon seeing the undoing of the various villains I found myself feeling bad for them, victims of their own machinations.
Thanks for reading, there will be a more gameplay centered post later on!
