Line #25 TearJerker/BatmanArkhamAsylum


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maxresdefault_3796.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:"He's 8 years old and all alone! Money won't fix that!"]]
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4	Tearjerking moments in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum''.
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6	'''As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff as per policy]]. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''
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8	* The sequence where under the influence of the Scarecrow's fear toxin, you relive the death of Bruce Wayne's parents. Including a point where you turn into Bruce Wayne as a child and stumble past the corpses of your parents. Eight-year-old Bruce overhears a police officer that is [[{{Jerkass}} a dick]]: ("Oh, he'll be fine. Kid like that, with all that money? Yeah, I'm sure he'll be ''just fine''... His butler's coming to pick him up... Hear that? He's got a ''butler''.") Comissioner Gordon's the only one who takes pity on Bruce, which makes it all the more SugarWiki/{{heartwarming\|Moments}}.
9	** The worst part is towards the end, when we hear the mugger (with a darkly distorted voice) gun down Martha. Bruce screams, the gun fires, and Batman ''staggers''. He makes it to his parents' corpses and falls to his knees, and after a brief flash of light, he turns into his eight-year-old self. After a few moments, the Bat-signal shines down on the whole scene.
10	--->"Why did he do it, officer? Why?"
11	** It gets worse - if you turn the camera to look at the kid Bruce after he gets up, you can see that he's been crying.
12	* In a minor way, seeing Harley sobbing in her cell after Batman has subdued her kind of reminds you that for all her slavish devotion to the Joker, she's ultimately just a broken woman and another of Joker's victims.
13	** Until you look at her in Detective Mode and realize she's faking it (and looking up at you every so often to see if you're buying it)... She's even laid a trap for you, and she WILL gloat.
14	** There's still the moment that she has been locked away. She's telling Batman that "Mister J" will come for her, he'll see... Then she trails off, repeating herself in a way that says that she's trying to convince herself more than Batman. A part of her recognizes that the Joker is just using and abusing her, but she just can't break out of the cycle.
15	* Your first encounter with enemies with guns. An officer says "Please, I've got a kid! You don't have to do this!" After killing the officer, the goon says, "You're right, I don't have to. I just want to!"
16	* Seeing the dozens upon dozens of corpses of innocent guards and doctors throughout the game. Easily a hundred good men and women dead. [[https://www.reddit.com/r/BatmanArkham/comments/872u1q/arkham_asylum_final_body_count/ According to one investigative player, 168 people died during the events of the game.]]
17	** FridgeHorror and/or FridgeBrilliance is invoked once you recall this conversation from the intro sequence where you escort Joker through the asylum.
18	--->'''Security Officer:''' So, you're back. You killed three of my crew when you busted outta here.
19	--->'''Joker:''' Only three? I'll be sure to try harder next time. What say we aim for a hundred?
20	* Both this and Nightmare Fuel. Finding Bruce's parents in the morgue during the first Scarecrow encounter.
21	** The cracks in Batman's voice only make this all the more depressing.
22	* Same as above, both this and horror. While saving Dr. Young from Zsasz, she's crying with her whole heart out, even with smeared makeup. After the bomb blows up in her face, her body is left on the floor, with no one attending or taking it... just left there, all burned out and charred and bloodied. It would be normal if she just disappeared, like in any other game, but in this one, just the unconscious disappear, and because they left after waking up. But the dead stay there, even if they're cops or doctors or whoever else.
23	* Doctor Young's death in general is pretty damn sad, as she was in the middle of [[TheAtoner atoning for]] inadvertently helping the Joker make the Titan formula.
24	* The first Scarecrow sequence has Batman entering the lower levels of medical seeing several people freak out, including one of the feral patients that Joker will release later on. This patient is screaming a plea for help before dying from fright. Arkham City reveals that Strange experimented on these inmates to develop the mind control techniques he used on Mayor Sharp and his Tyger guards. That patient you see? He became sane enough for one last coherent thought, but only of sheer terror.
25	* Most of the Joker interviews are disturbing, but the third one is just sad. After the Joker plays the MultipleChoicePast card, Dr. Young tells him to focus on his real past. His response is one of the few times there's no manipulation or mockery in his voice: "What if... what if I'm too scared to remember? It hurts too much." It's still possible that he's just ballsing around again, but it's also possible that it's only just now he's finding out about the Titan Project - so maybe for once he's telling the truth?
26	** Taken even further in the ComicBook/EmperorJoker adaptation, from the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' animated series. It reveals that "Being sane and normal," is one of Joker's worst fears. So in a sense, these "Rehabilitation sessions" terrify him more than we would assume.
27	* So much happens in the Warden's office that you may miss this, but there's a plaque on the wall near his safe that has a dedication on it. "May this secret be as an oasis in a desert of insanity. --Daddy." It's not made clear who put this there, the Warden or Amadeus, but it serves a sobering reminder that, for all their flaws, they've suffered through just as much loss as Batman has.
28	* As you leave the Intensive Treatment, you run into one of the distinct guards William North. After he tells you about the death of his fellow guards (which you heard earlier thanks to the Joker) he goes to one of the bodies, which he dragged in with him when he took cover and says:
29	-->'''Officer North:''' Don't worry, I'll take care of Maria.
30	* Take a moment to look at one of the straightjacket clad maniacs Joker releases in the latter portion of the game with Detective Mode on. Their status is constantly listed as "terrified". They barely know where they are and what is going on, and are lashing out at what they think is a threat.

Context TearJerker / BatmanArkhamAsylum