History VideoGame / BatmanTheTelltaleSeries

*** In Episode 3, Vicki sums up her interview with the Children of Arkham's leader as "a lot of posturing and grandiose monologuing... not great from an investigative standpoint". [[spoiler:In other words, carefully chosen to give Batman no clues as to the real identity of Lady Arkham.]] She is also far more critical of Bruce when speaking to Batman than she is when speaking to Bruce. She also downplays the violent methods of the Children of Arkham, even though they threatened her life at the debate, and tries to make them look better by highlighting their intentions

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The Pact is shut down, the Joker is sent back to Arkham regardless of whether he became a villain or vigilante, and Waller pulls the Agency out of Gotham, promising not to reveal Batman's identity. Alfred, however, can no longer stomach working for Bruce (fearing that he is turning into what his father became), and leaves unless Bruce gives up being Batman. Selina also either leaves Gotham again (even if she and Bruce are on the best of terms), or is roped into working for Waller in the vigilante path if Bruce doesn't negotiate her release.]]

* CentralTheme: "KeepingSecretsSucks," and the inversion, "Honesty and trust yield rewards" is significant throughout the second season. [[spoiler:Amanda Waller threatens to reveal Batman's secret identity if he doesn't play by her rules, and putting Bruce in mortal danger when he must infiltrate a gang of supervillains. On the other hand, if the player chooses for Batman to not isolate himself, he will stay on Gordon's good side, Tiffany Fox will follow in her father's footsteps as the Bat-family's tech expert and eventual vigliante rather than join the Agency and follow Waller's ruthless example, and Selina will become a full ally and [[RelationshipUpgrade something more]].]]

* RedHerring: [[spoiler:With their similar costumes and use of mind-altering chemicals (including one that seems to specifically induce fear in the victim), one could be forgiven for thinking the Children of Arkham's leader is a proto-Scarecrow. It could also have been mistaken for Bane as the chemicals cause rage like steroids. The MacGuffin in the beginning of the story has a Black Skull on. Finally, the sniper job could have been Deathstroke. In reality it's an original villain, the sniper was a mook, the drug doesn't cause enhanced strength, and fear has nothing to do with it.]]

* AdultFear: Finding out your father was an absolute bastard and unrepentantly evil.

* LeftHanging: With Telltale's closure, it's unlikely that any of the remaining plot threads from this season will be resolved. That being said, Telltale has been picked up by LCG Entertainment as of August 2019 and they have back catalogue rights to Telltale Batman and ''Videogame/TheWolfAmongUs'', meaning there's now a chance of revival.

* RealityEnsues: Given this has a more realistic take on Batman, this is to be expected.
** There are some injuries Batman gets that Bruce has to explain away, but Selina manages to figure out his identity almost immediately. Even solid excuses can be brushed aside when people make the connection, as Alfred warns Bruce.
** Batman cannot be in two places at once, unlike most Batman media where he is always able to save both people, the '''Arkham''' series especially used it. As a result, when Batman has to save someone and he has to choose, the other person he did not save winds up dead or maimed.
** Unlike most other incarnations of Batman, who strictly operate at night, Batman has very little trouble working during the day if he absolutely must.
** Batman's preferred method of interrogation, going into JackBauerInterrogationTechnique, suffers especially harsh treatment. While it will get answers, being too brutal with thugs will result in Batman's relationship with Gordon suffering, and even if Batman is relatively gentle, the technique can still hurt.
** If Batman decides to pay a visit to Mayor Hill, Batman suffers a major hit with Gordon. Despite the fact everyone knows Hill is corrupt, he is still the Mayor and even if Batman is very restrained, and never threatens Hill, he still is threatening the person who runs the city.

* CriticalPsychoanalysisFailure: Averted. [[RealityEnsues Turns out]], when trained psychologist Harley Quinn meets unstable, erratic John Doe, she's a bit better at manipulating him than vice versa, even if he's smarter than he seems and she does have feelings for him. [[spoiler:Subverted later on; Joker's influence may not be what drives her insane, but Harley does have genetic mental problems that appear to be eroding her sense of self. When John starts asserting himself, there are signs of their traditional relationship being set up]].

* RealityEnsues: A lot, surprisingly.
** [[spoiler: John Doe's stint as Vigilante Joker rapidly goes south, as he goes from HeroicWannabe following Batman's lead to a KnightTemplar who Batman has to stop. It's made clear numerous times that the one thing keeping Bruce from becoming the criminals he hunts is his self-restraint and his strict adherence to his code and morality. Joker, being TheMentallyDisturbed, doesn't have either of those, and his crusade against the Agency quickly devolves from an effort to clean out corruption to essentially just lashing out at whoever he thinks wronged him.]]
** Much like in canon, Waller [[spoiler: gets to form her Suicide Squad from Bane, Harley Quinn, and Catwoman, who she tries to put to use against Batman and Joker in Episode 5. Given however that her squad is formed of a bunch of barely restrained supercriminals who hate both her and Batman, they can charitably be described as loose cannons: Bane quickly turns on and tries to kill his handler the first chance he gets, Harley ends up abusing her new authority in Waller's absence to try and intimidate Batman and the GCPD, leading to Gordon arresting her, and, depending on your choices, Batman uses the leverage he has on Waller to force her to release Catwoman.]]
** In order to successfully infiltrate the Pact, Bruce is forced to break into his own company at gunpoint. A security guard gets assaulted, and Alfred changes the footage to hide it. Unfortunately, the guard still goes to the police with the incident, and Gordon easily sees through the false footage. As a result, Bruce gets arrested before Waller steps in. In the Villain Route, Bruce nearly loses his job again, unless he tells the Board he was working undercover with the feds. Regardless of the fact he was made a fed sting operator, Bruce was still associated with evil criminals.
** Alfred still has PTSD from being kidnapped in the last season. [[spoiler:He later realizes this is actually not the case, but that being Batman's closest ally causes him so much stress that it causes him physical symptoms. He understandably decides to retire when he realizes that he's getting too old to withstand that amount of pressure, and that if he keeps watching over Bruce he is going to die from it]].

** Bruce himself plays with this- he has several scars from his excursions as Batman, but only sports three very small scars on his face after being clawed by Catwoman, which aren't always visible on his character model. [[spoiler:However, this can be averted if you chose to have Batman unmask himself to Lady Arkham. During the ensuing fight, Lady Arkham blasts Bruce in the face, removing a good chunk of his right ear (if you don't do this, Alfred loses his eye instead), either of which will carry over into Season 2.]]
** Also averted with [[spoiler:Lady Arkham]], who gets various cuts on her face.

** First, John at one point confesses to Bruce that he has fallen in love. One of the possible dialog options is "With me?". It's actually Harley, but it definetly wouldn't have been OutOfCharacter for John if it was Bruce.

* LeftHanging: With Telltale's closure, it's unlikely that any of the remaining plot threads from this season will be resolved. That being said, Telltale has been picked up by LCG Entertainment as of August, 2019 and they have back catalogue rights to Telltale Batman and Videogame/TheWolfAmongUs, meaning there's now a chance of revival.

** There are some injuries Batman gets that Bruce has to explain away, but Selina manages to figure out his identity almost immediatly. Even solid excuses can be brushed aside when people make the connection, as Alfred warns Bruce.

* UndyingLoyalty: A meta-example: well over 90% of players chose to keep funding Harvey Dent's campaign despite him telling Bruce that he needed to distance himself from him and even publicly badmouth him. A similar number of people [[spoiler:refuse to resort to violence when Harvey believes Bruce and Selina are having an affair in Episode 3. [[YourCheatingHeart Especially since a good number of those people just got done sleeping with Selina]].]]

* YouCantThwartStageOne: [[spoiler:Batman can and does in fact. The Children of Arkham planned to spray Gotham with PsychoSerum using a train that goes through the busiest parts of the city. Batman blows up the train and their supply of PsychoSerum. This combined with Dent's extreme actions against the Children of Arkham basically scuttles all their plans. Ultimately, Lady Arkham is forced into a plan B which is to cause a jailbreak at Arkham Asylum. This is little more than petty revenge as the police round up nearly all the escaped inmates rather quickly and Lady Arkham herself gets crushed by falling debris beneath Arkham Asylum.]]

* {{Irony}}: Naming a hospital after his parents in the hopes of helping the mentally ill is ''much'' HarsherInHindsight InUniverse when Bruce finds out [[spoiler:his father had someone fraudulently institutionalized.]]

* BrokenAesop: In the final scene of Season 2, [[spoiler: Alfred calls Bruce out on creating the villains that he has to fight, and Telltale clearly [[WhatTheHellHero wants the player to be hit hard by it.]] The only problem is that in Telltale’s continuity, Batman is only responsible for the creation of Joker and Two-Face, and even then, the level of responsibility is dependent on the player’s choices]].

* SuperheroTrophyShelf: By the first episode, Bruce has already begun to form his usual collection of mementos from past enemies and case files. [[spoiler: If you bring Selina to the Batcave, she is a bit surprised to see her old goggles there. However, she tells him to keep them.]]

* JokerImmunity: But of course. Rather humorously, it can be lampshaded in Episode 5 when [[spoiler:Bruce asks Vigilante Joker how he survived the fall from the bridge. Joker says it was a high fall but he managed to grab onto a raft and drift to shore, which still doesn't answer the question of how he survived the actual drop]].

* JurisdictionFriction: Amanda Waller (The Agency) and Gordon (GCPD) have a ''very'' adversarial relationship, with Batman stuck in the middle. Waller views the GCPD as [[PoliceAreUseless inefficient, slow, and an impediment to the investigation]], insulting his tactical decisions, while Gordon is wary of the Agency's [[TheMenInBlack reputation for brutality and lack of administrative oversight]], outright telling Batman not to entrust any evidence with them.

* LoveTriangle: This season sets up a love triangle with Bruce, Catwoman, and Agent Avesta. John lampshades this in Episode 4, asking if Bruce is cheating on her.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The Agency's arms its field agents with advanced pistols that fire nonlethal electric shocks instead of bullets. Unfortunately, it also means their fancy guns are rendered useless by an EMP, [[spoiler:which the Pact exploits in their attack on the Agency convoy]] in Episode 2, while their henchmen's machine guns [[BoringButPractical work just fine.]]
* AnyoneCanDie: By the end of the first episode, [[spoiler:both Lucius Fox and the Riddler are dead, and depending on your choices, so is Agent Blake.]]

* BullyingADragon: [[spoiler: In the Vigilante path of Episode 5, the Agency has Bane in a shock collar. Considering Bane is now juiced up with improved Venom, he quickly loses patience with the agent giving him orders and tries to pancake his skull into the pavement when he shocks him one too many times. Whether or not he succeeds depends on if Batman saves him or the Joker goon he's struggling with.]]

* InterfaceSpoiler: [[spoiler:The silhouette on Episode 3's blurb is unmistakably Catwoman's, severely lessening the shock when she returns at the end of Episode 2.]]

** Much like in canon, Waller [[spoiler: gets to form her Suicide Squad from Bane, Harley Quinn, and Catwoman, who she tries to put to use against Batman and Joker in Episode 5. Given however that her squad is formed of a bunch of barely restrained supercriminals who hate both her and Batman, they can charitably be described as loose cannons: Bane quickly turns on and tries to kill his handler the first chance he gets, and Harley ends up abusing her new authority in Waller's absence to try and intimidate Batman and the GCPD, leading to Gordon arresting her.]]

** The ending of episode 4 -- [[spoiler:Either race back to Wayne Enterprises and stop the Penguin from gaining the secrets of the Batman, or race back to Wayne Manor and save it from Harvey. Stopping Penguin will give you back your tech, but Wayne Manor is burnt to the ground and Harvey later starts taking hostages. Saving Wayne Manor has Harvey imprisoned for his crimes (either in Arkham or Blackgate), but Bruce loses his tech and is forced to go the old-fashioned way. Then one you don't go after is dealt with in the beginning of Episode 5.]]

** The ending of Episode 2 forces Bruce to make a decision -- [[spoiler:either drive Selina away by failing to come to her aid, or watch his friend Harvey be horribly disfigured by Penguin.]][[note]]Since Harvey becoming Two-Face was treated as a ForegoneConclusion by most players, two-thirds of them chose to save Selina. Of course, while Harvey still develops mental health issues, it is possible to avoid the scarring.[[/note]]
** Earlier in Episode 2, Mayor Hill presents another one: [[spoiler:He'll only give Bruce more information about his dealings with Thomas Wayne if Bruce pulls funding for Harvey Dent's mayoral campaign.]]
** The ending of episode 4 hits you with a big one -- [[spoiler:Either race back to Wayne Enterprises and stop the Penguin from gaining the secrets of the Batman or race back to Wayne Manor and save it from Harvey Dent. Stopping the Penguin will give you back your tech, but Wayne Manor is burnt to the ground and Harvey later starts taking hostages, yet saving Wayne Manor has Harvey imprisoned for his crimes (either in Blackgate or Arkham), but Bruce loses his tech and is forced to go the old-fashioned way. Then one you don't go after is dealt with in the beginning of Episode 5.]]
** At the end of Episode 5, [[spoiler:Lady Arkham threatens to kill Alfred unless Batman reveals his true identity to her. If you unmask, Bruce gets a chunk of his ear blown off by Lady Arkham's staff. If you refuse and try to attack, Alfred gets free, but gets blasted in the face in the ensuing struggle; it's later revealed that he lost one of his eyes [[EyepatchAfterTimeSkip and has to wear an eyepatch]]. Either way, ''someone'' isn't walking away from that final battle without a permanent reminder...]]