History NightmareFuel / BatmanArkhamKnight

'''Jason''': ... Of course, sir... It's--\\
'''''BANG.'''''

-->'''Jason:''' (shoves his gun into the mook's face) ''Do I look. Like Batman. To you?''

--> '''Joker''': What's the big secret, huh~? His name. ''Tell me.''
--> '''Jason''': ... Of course, sir... It's--
--> '''''BANG.'''''

** Which makes you wonder... is Batman's brain rotting apart too?

* [[UnscrupulousHero Jason]] being the new guardian of Gotham, and he doesn't play by [[AvertedTrope the same rules]] [[ThouShaltNotKill as Batman]].
** Imagine this: You are a criminal in Gotham City. For ten years, most punishment you'd get for any crime was a beat-down and some jail time. Now, with Batman seemingly dead, you might get motivated to commit more crimes. You do something illegal with a bunch of pals and, suddenly a hooded figure wearing the Bat Symbol comes out of nowhere, and slaughters everybody else before moving onto you… Worse yet, Jason clearly enjoys his job as he makes jokes after takedowns, so Gotham is now protected by a scary, masked Batman-like figure who makes fun of your death like the Joker would.

*** It's possible to break a Dollotron's mask through an environmental takedown. Whatever the fuck is under there, it's probably for the better not to see it. Part of it is a strange mass of lumpy flesh at the top of the head.

*** During Joker's rampage, a muffled transmission can be heard occasionally. Right after Joker shoots and kills the Rogues, he walks outside to see Gotham, burning down before him, relishing the sight as his finest work. The transmission plays again, in full clarity...and it turns out to be Alfred, sounding ''utterly fucking terrified''.

** Imagine this: You are a criminal in Gotham City. For ten years, most punishment you'd get for any crime was a beat-down and some jail time. Now, with Batman seemingly dead, you might get motivated to commit more crimes. You do something illegal with a bunch of pals and, suddenly a hooded figure wearing the Bat Symbol comes the fuck out of nowhere, and slaughters everybody else before moving onto you... Worse yet, Jason clearly enjoys his job as he makes jokes after takedowns, so Gotham is now protected by a scary, masked Batman-like figure who makes fun of your death like the Joker would.

** Better yet, the same fate might fall upon supervillains, as Black Mask demonstrated. Given that Jason lacks any empathy towards criminals, even [[LiteralSplitPersonality Two-Face]] might get killed by him eventually.

-->'''Militia 1:''' You okay, man?
-->'''Militia 2:''' Yeah... it's just earlier, for like an instant - like, half a second - I think I breathed in a tiny bit of Scarecrow's gas.

-->'''Militia 2:''' Nothing. Nothing, at first. But I, uh, keep hearing them.

-->'''Militia 2:''' There were some prisoners. Back when I was in the army. They'd killed, like, ten of our guys. So we, uh, gave them what they deserved.

-->'''Militia 2:''' I know, right? But since I let that gas in it's like, it's like they're right behind me, still screaming. And...

-->'''Militia 2:''' And I think they want to hurt me.

* One of the Gotham City stories explains how Joker captured Jason in the first place. He ''bombed a kindergarten'', blowing dozens of ''toddlers'' to pieces, then sang ''Humpty Dumpty'' over the intercom as the parents were left stunned in the wreckage. It was when Jason watched a grief-stricken mother scoop her baby's remains out of rubble that he realized Joker needed to die, so he tracked him down to Arkham without Batman where it turned out to be a trap. You really can't get more evil than Joker.

-->'''Batman:''' The blood's gestated too long. It's altering them. They're becoming..

--> '''Joker''': Look at him... No different than the creep who killed your parents. You need to ''do'' something. ''You need to '''stop''' him.''

* The moment when the last remnant of Joker, fighting for dominance in Batman's mind, has to come to terms with a terrifying reality: He will, eventually, fade into obscurity or get lost in the shuffle, his presence no longer feared by Gotham, his name no longer admired and hated by his fellow criminals. Unlike every other defeat he's faced before, he's gone for good this time, and can't ever return to bedevil Batman again; he's only a bad memory, sealed away in the brain of a dying man, isolated forever. When Batman finally arrives to lock him away for good, the once-arrogant villain who sneered "I can't stand groveling" is begging and pleading, near tears, unable to lose Bruce again.

** As Joker in a first-person shooter situation, some stone statues of Batman go full [[Series/DoctorWho Weeping Angels]] on you, complete with BrownNote musical cues at all the wrong times.

* As if the Joker hallucinations weren't bad enough already, there's the FridgeHorror in that we don't know how much of it is the mutation and how much is Batman's own subconscious. Bits like the Joker's extremely predatory attitude to the vulnerable Catwoman and his telling Batman to leave Nightwing to his fate because of the lack of respect he showed by leaving and taking on his own costumed identity become even worse if you consider that Batman himself might be the origin of those thoughts, and the Joker aspect is merely giving them a face and a voice.

* And, the most unsurprising part of this page? Everything that doesn't happen in the aforementioned missions or story! Think about it. Just patrolling the city streets of Gotham by itself and witnessing first hand on what a capable villain like Scarecrow would do when there is no Joker to keep him (and many of the other fellow rogues) distracted and in place. You take notice of rioters parading through the streets, a private militia that steam rolls ''ALL'' the government officials and social workers and keep them in check with dread of force or death, many factions of hoods chasing down and antagonizing any officers on the streets and you have one man out there orchestrating this whole thing behind the scenes with one goal in mind... Destroy the Batman. And, no matter how many times you patrol the city. No matter how hard you ambush thugs, no matter how brutal you escalate within the night's war on crime. ''It is all an inevitable end.''

** The mission to destroy the Cloudburst is even worse. Whilst enduring both visual and auditory hallucinatory effects of having the fear toxin-induced criminals show as clones of Joker along with subtle trademark [[LaughingMad laughter]] echoing in the background throughout the entire fight. It's hide and seek against seven Cobra tanks, and the Cloudburst Tank itself is the worst of all, as it has '''four''' weak points you need to sneak up and shoot, and whenever you get one, it chases you for longer and longer periods through the city, not to mention that, for a tank its size, it's a '''very speedy''' hybrid of a tank when it chases you after destroying one of the four aforementioned weakpoints. Then you have to take potshots at the tank itself while dodging missiles, while the Arkham Knight gets increasingly furious over enemy radio transmissions.

[[caption-width-right:350:''"[[WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants Rocksteady likes to mix it up.]] [[SurpriseCreepy Keep you]] [[ParanoiaFuel on your toes...]]"'']]

** If that's not scary enough, it has ''another'' eye on its back, only it's ''enormous'' and bulging with veins. Add that to the blood-red color and the thin, vertical pupil, and the thing looks downright demonic. The way its angled makes it impossible to see the whole thing, [[NothingIsScarier which just makes it worse.]]
* In the "Nightwing: GCPD Lockdown" DLC, you start off at the Penguin's base in Blüdhaven. There, you'll find a giant aquarium tank that belongs to, you guessed it, ''Tiny''. Get close to the tank and [[JumpScare the enormous shark will appear out of nowhere and slam into the glass]].

* "Beneath the Surface" is Killer Croc's side mission, and as you'd expect from having to venture into a giant crocodilian cannibal's lair, things are ''tense.'' Croc is larger than ever before, and the first area of the airship has Batman navigating a partially flooded holding area to rescue trapped guards; at one point, the level requires you to grapple up to a high ledge, ''just'' skipping off the water that [[ParanoiaFuel Croc may or may not be lurking under]].
** The mission proper details just what happened to him during the capture described in his Gotham City Story; after being stalked for months in the marshlands, subdued by a team of armed soldiers (many of which didn't survive the encounter), and given a massive tranq dose, he was hauled off in the enormous Iron Heights Penitentiary airship, the closest place strong enough to hold him. When he eventually threw off the effect of the sedatives, he proved strong enough to ''bring down the zeppelin by himself'', and now lurks inside the wreckage in the bay with an army of freed prisoners.

** When Batman goes deeper inside the airship, he finds out just why Croc has mutated as badly as he has, and why he's so furious: it was an adaptive response to the agony of the sadistic medical experiments Warden Ranken was putting him through, including ''sawing off his hand'' with a buzz saw to see if it would grow back, all in an effort to reproduce and weaponize his condition in Iron Heights' other prisoners; Nightwing is so horrified at seeing this that he doesn't even try to condemn Croc's actions. Worse still, Ranken shows no signs of repentance or remorse for what he's done, only disgust with his charges and fury at their rebellion. Batman's very justified in calling him the true monster.

* One of the Gotham City stories explains how Joker captured Jason in the first place. He ''bombed a kindergarten'', blowing dozens of ''toddlers'' to pieces, then sang ''Humpty Dumpty'' over the intercom as the parents were left stunned in the wreckage. It was when Jason watched [[Main/AdultFear a grief-stricken mother scoop her baby's remains out of rubble]] that he realized Joker needed to die, so he tracked him down to Arkham without Batman where it turned out to be a trap. You really can't get more evil than Joker.

''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'' isn't just the GrandFinale for the ''[[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries Arkham series]]'' , it's [[NightmareFuel the scariest]] ''Batman'' game ever made.
If ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'' is [[DarkerAndEdgier darker and spookier]] than ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'', Arkham Knight is one step further beyond.

** The mission to destroy the Cloudburst is even worse. Whilst enduring both visual and auditory hallucinatory effect of having the fear toxin-induced criminals show as clones of Joker along with subtle trademark [[LaughingMad laughter]] echoing in the background throughout the entire fight. It's hide and seek against seven Cobra tanks, and the Cloudburst Tank itself is the worst of all, as it has '''four''' weak points you need to sneak up and shoot, and whenever you get one, it chases you for longer and longer periods through the city, not to mention that, for a tank its size, it's a '''very speedy''' hybrid of a tank when it chases you after destroying one of the four aforementioned weakpoints. Then you have to take potshots at the tank itself while dodging missiles, while the Arkham Knight gets increasingly furious over enemy radio transmissions.

** The mission to destroy the Cloudburst is even worse. It's hide and seek against seven Cobra tanks, and the Cloudburst Tank itself is the worst of all, as it has '''four''' weak points you need to sneak up and shoot, and whenever you get one, it chases you for longer and longer periods through the city, not to mention that, for a tank its size, it's a '''very speedy''' hybrid of a tank when it chases you after destroying one of the four aforementioned weakpoints. Then you have to take potshots at the tank itself while dodging missiles, while the Arkham Knight gets increasingly furious over enemy radio transmissions.

** When Batman goes deeper inside the airship, he finds out just why Croc has mutated as badly as he has, and why he's so furious: it was an adaptive response to the agony of the sadistic medical experiments Warden Ranken was putting him through, including ''sawing off his hand'' with a buzz saw to see if it would grow back, all in an effort to reproduce and weaponize his condition in Iron Heights' other prisoners; Nightwing is is so horrified at seeing this that he doesn't even try to condemn Croc's actions. Worse still, Ranken shows no signs of repentance or remorse for what he's done, only disgust with his charges and fury at their rebellion. Batman's very justified in calling him the true monster.

** The mission to destroy the Cloudburst is even worse. It's hide and seek against seven Cobra tanks, and the Cloudburst itself is the worst of all, as it has four weak points you need to sneak up and shoot, and whenever you get one, it chases you for longer and longer periods through the city. Then you have to take potshots at the tank itself while dodging missiles, while the Arkham Knight gets increasingly furious over enemy radio transmissions.

* Some of the later missions against the Arkham Knight definitely qualify as this before you get the hang. Namely, the Cobra. The Cobra is a huge tank with search beams that can only be destroyed by sneaking up behind it and waiting until the target focuses so you can fire the cannon. One mission has you playing hide and seek with four of these, and if you destroy one, then another is inevitably drawn to your location. Worse still, they can take out the Batmobile in TWO SHOTS if they get you directly. This leads to frantically driving away if you get spotted, which can easily bring you into the line of vision of another Cobra tank.

* Time for an organic one. Try going to Founders' Island when you can't take the Batmobile, and run around at ground-level with Militia tanks swarming around you. It's nerve-wracking trying to stay away from them, whilst not being seen by footsoldiers either. And if you think you're completely safe in the air above Founder's Island, '''think again'''. There's aerial drones there as well as '''invulnerable''' emplaced camera turrets set around skyscraper-height locations, the Serpent aerial drones give off a '''very uncanny''' vibe to the infamous HK-Aerials from the {{Franchise/Terminator}} series, and they quite neatly fit said role if you're too inattentive in the skies above said island...

* Time for an organic one. Try going to Founders' Island when you can't take the Batmobile, and run around at ground-level with Militia tanks swarming around you. It's nerve-wracking trying to stay away from them, whilst not being seen by footsoldiers either. And if you think you're completely safe in the air above Founder's Island, '''think again'''. There's aerial drones there as well as '''invulnerable''' emplaced camera turrets set around skyscraper-height locations, the Serpent aerial drones give off a '''very uncanny''' vibe of the infamous HK-Aerials from the {{Franchise/Terminator}} series, and they quite neatly fit said role if you're too inattentive in the skies above said island...

* Time for an organic one. Try going to Founders' Island when you can't take the Batmobile, and run around at ground-level with Militia tanks swarming around you. It's nerve-wracking trying to stay away from them, whilst not being seen by footsoldiers either. And if you think you're completely safe in the air above Founder's Island, '''think again'''. There's aerial drones there as well as '''invulnerable''' emplaced camera turrets set around skyscraper-height locations, the Serpent aerial drones give off a '''very uncanny''' vibe of the the infamous HK-Aerials from the {{Franchise/Terminator}} series, and they quite neatly fit said role if you're too inattentive in the skies above said island...

* Time for an organic one. Try going to Founders' Island when you can't take the Batmobile, and run around at ground-level with Militia tanks swarming around you. It's nerve-wracking trying to stay away from them, whilst not being seen by footsoldiers either. And if you think you're completely safe in the air above Founder's Island, '''think again'''. There's aerial drones there as well as '''invulnerable''' emplaced camera turrets set around skyscraper-height locations, the Serpent aerial drones give off a '''very uncanny''' vibe of the the infamous HK-Aerials from the [[Franchise/Terminator Terminator]] series, and they quite neatly fit it too if you're too inattentive in the air above said island...