Batman: Arkham Knight - 10 Big Story Moments Fans Will Debate For Years
8. Oracle's 'Death' - Was It Even Necessary?
Third act aside, Barbara Gordon wasn't really given much to do in Knight's story - other than play the victim of course. For a character as strong as Oracle her abduction, 'death' and subsequent rescue felt very inappropriate - her suicide especially. This was a scene that exuded tragedy, but the act itself combined with Bruce's muted reaction completely killed any purpose it may have had. This is a character who is 'killed' solely for the purpose of illustrating Scarecrow's danger to the player - to mask it as anything else would be a desperate attempt to defend the story. Barbara's death is used as a motivational device to encourage the player to take down Scarecrow, and being one of only three female protagonists in the game only harms the story further. It wouldn't have been inexcusable had Barbara done more prior to her kidnap, but her damselling in Knight's opening act left a very bitter taste for the remainder of the campaign for many fans of the first Batgirl.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
