Out of the four female characters to feature in the story, each and every last one is portrayed as a victim at some point in its running time. In the game's first act, Barbara Gordon is reduced to little more than a damsel in distress before being immediately killed off (or so we thought) in a very ill-constructed manner. Held hostage by Riddler, Catwoman even makes a self-aware quip about being little more than Batman's 'motivation' to win against Nygma, but if Rocksteady's writers were so aware of their portrayal of every woman being a victim, why didn't they take steps to rectify this? Poison Ivy is undeniably the exception to this rule however, with Pamela Isley being given one of her best portrayals in all of Bat-related media to date. Her death actually served a purpose outside of motivating the player to continue fighting against Scarecrow, but the immediate reaction evoked by her demise wasn't one of reflection but one of frustration instead, as players were still under the impression that Oracle had perished all those hours ago. At this point in the story, Gordon, Ivy and Catwoman had all been made a victim of its events, which isn't particularly good when dealing with a mythos that is inhabited by some of the strongest women in the comics medium. It is only when Barbara is given access to the Bat-Computer again in Knight's finale that she becomes a formidable ally, but by that point it feels as though she's been entirely wasted throughout the story.
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.
