Scarecrow (Arkhamverse)

"Remnants of Gotham: I have messages for you all. To the vandals who stayed behind to pick the still warm flesh from Gotham's bones: Have your fun. You are under my protection. To the cowards quaking behind the police department's walls: You will not be spared. And to Batman: I have already won. Emptied your city with a vial of toxin and a few threatening words. That's how little the safety you provided was worth. And when the dawn comes, when Gotham lies in ruins and I turn my gaze to the world beyond... the legend of the Batman will be worth nothing at all."

- The Scarecrow Scarecrow, real name Jonathan Crane, is the tertiary antagonist of Batman: Arkham Asylum and the main antagonist of Batman: Arkham Knight where he commands an alliance of super-villains, being a former psychologist and sadistic criminal determined to break the minds of Batman and every citizen of Gotham City.

The doctor was obsessed with human fear, and realized he could gain power if he could control it. He then invented a fear inducing chemical that douses the victim with crippling anxiety before becoming the professional criminal known as the Scarecrow.

He is voiced by Dino Andrade in Arkham Asylum and John Noble (who also portrayed Henry Parrish and Walternate) in Arkham Knight.

Batman: Arkham Asylum
When the Joker escaped and released the inmates in Arkham Asylum, one of them was the Scarecrow. During his attempt to recapture the Joker, Batman encountered the Scarecrow on multiple occasions. The first time Batman encounters the Scarecrow is when he entered the Asylum's morgue. However, due to his gas, Batman started to hallucinate. The first hallucination Batman had to endure is that he thought that Commissioner Gordon was killed and that he failed to save him. When he entered the morgue, he kept on hearing multiple voices telling him to leave. When he does, Batman was still in the morgue, only this time, Batman comes across three body bags. The first two he opens revealed the corpses of his parents. But when he opened the third one, The Scarecrow jumped out of the bag, causing Batman to collapse in fear. When he woke up, Batman ended up in a different "world". In this world, The Scarecrow is gigantic, and Batman must avoid his gaze while getting to the batsignal in the twisted broken down mess of his psyche. After Batman managed to reach the batsignal and gaze on the Scarecrow, the villain exploded into light, defeating him and granting Batman a clean mind, where he found out Gordon wasn't dead at all.

The second time Batman encounters the Scarecrow is when Batman exits the Mansion. While walking through the hallway, Batman began to relive his parents' death. After which, Batman fights Scarecrow in the same world, now being a broken down mansion instead of hospital, and must do the same thing in terms of defeating the criminal. But now, The Scarecrow summons an army of skeletons to fight the Batman, and after reaching the batsignal for the second time, the vigilante managed to fight off the Scarecrow's Fear Toxin, and somehow wound up in the Clock Tower.

The third time Batman faces the Scarecrow is in the intensive treatment halls, but this time, he hallucinates that the Joker and the other villains are running the asylum and all heroes are inmates of Arkham. During which, Batman gets shot by the Joker and appeared that he had died. But Batman roses from his grave, and arrived in Scarecrow's twisted world of a voidful prison. Batman had to do roughly the same thing as he did previously, but when Batman was about shine the light upon Scarecrow, the latter decided to inject more Fear Toxins inside his rival. After which, Batman ended up in a different world where Scarecrow was watching him fighting off skeletons that he summoned. After dealing with a certain amount of minions, Batman was finally able to beat his foe by shining a trio of batsignals upon him.

Defeat
"Too late, Batman! One step closer and this goes into the water...the caves will fill with your deepest, darkest nightmares and you will never reach your precious venom roots."

- Scarecrow's last words before being attacked by Killer Croc to Batman

Shocked that Batman was able to fight off so much toxin, the Scarecrow retreated to the sewers via an elevator. Batman managed to reach Scarecrow in the sewers, and the latter threatens that he'll release the gas in the sewers if he came any closer. But then, Killer Croc emerged from the sewers, grabbed Scarecrow and prevented him from dropping the Fear Gas in the waters, dragging him deep into the sewers.

Despite him appearing to be killed by Croc, it's revealed that Crane survived the attack. During one of the three endings in Arkham Asylum, a crate of TITAN was floating around the sea harboring Arkham Island. Then all of a sudden, one of Scarecrow's arms reemerge out of the water and grab the crate, hinting that he escaped Killer Croc's grip somehow.

Batman: Arkham City
"You will pay for what you have done to me. I will return Batman. You will pay for what you have done to me"

- Decoded messages from Scarecrow, foreshadowing his return.

Though Scarecrow doesn't appear in Batman: Arkham City, there are brief cameos all through the titular prison, indicating that he was alive, and that he has something big planned. It has also been confirmed that Scarecrow did survive Killer Croc and is alive, via decoding a message at the end of the sequel.

Revenge against Batman
"How many more bones will you crush? How many lives will you destroy in the pursuit of what you call justice? You are the product of everything you fear: violence, darkness, helplessness. All that remains is for you to watch, as I drag your beloved Gotham into oblivion."

- Scarecrow to Batman.

Scarecrow has made a confirmed appearance in the upcoming gaming title Batman: Arkham Knight as the supposed main antagonist. After surviving Croc's attempt on his life in Arkham Asylum Crane returns to Gotham with a vengeance. He gathers all of the remaining supervillains in Gotham city with one plan in mind: kill Batman. Crane seems to have suffered severe injuries from his encounter with Croc, as his lips and nose appear to have been torn or eaten off, as well as apparent blindness in one eye.

Downfall
Towards the end of the game, Scarecrow has captured Batman's ally, Robin (Tim Drake) and forces Batman to give up his tools and turn himself in at the now abandoned Arkham Asylum in order for Robin to live. At the asylum, Scarecrow forces Jim Gordon to take off Batman's mask to show the world who he really is. Once the mask is taken off, Scarecrow knows that Batman is Bruce Wayne and he plans on breaking Wayne with fear toxin and face people hurting Wayne's loved ones and himself. But Batman overcomes Scarecrow's toxin and overpowers Scarecrow with the help of a now redeemed Arkham Knight. Batman then infects Scarecrow with his own fear toxin. Scarecrow is now scared of Batman and everything around him. He is then taken out by Jim Gordon and taken to GCPD for incarceration. Broken and trembling with fear in front of Gotham police officers, Scarecrow ironically ended up as the very same thing he had hoped and failed to turn Bruce Wayne into: a frightened and cowering man for the entire world to see.

Profile
The Scarecrow also has an entry in the Character Bios. His profile states: Taunted and bullied as a youth, Jonathan Crane vowed to overcome his fears through the study of psychology and biochemistry. Kicked out of his university for experimenting on human subjects, Crane then adopted the identity of the Scarecrow and armed himself with a specialized fear-inducing gas that makes a person’s deepest phobias become frighteningly real. His ongoing criminal reign of terror makes him one of Batman’s most psychologically dangerous foes.

Quotes

 * "There is no Crane...only Scarecrow!"
 * "Poor little Bat! You're in my world now!"
 * "What are you doing, little Bat?"
 * "I will break you!"
 * "Oh, there you are!"
 * "Everything you see is under my control!"
 * "Is your mind playing tricks on you? Or am I?"
 * "What are you, Batman? Chicken?"
 * "Dare to step into my gaze!"
 * "Tell me, what Demons do you have left to beat? Shall we see?"
 * "You're fighting back. Good. It can only weaken your resolve."
 * "You cannot escape my gaze! You will die here!"
 * "Look around you! These are the broken fragments of your mind!"
 * "Your mind will shatter like glass!"
 * "I see you, Batman."
 * "What was that?"
 * "You're in my realm now. Everything is as real as I choose it to be."
 * "What are you trying to do?"
 * "Stand still. This won't hurt."
 * "No, his not. We really should feel sorry for him. He never fully got over his parent's death. It left him quite insane."
 * "I THINK YOU NEED A LITTLE MORE!"
 * "He's all yours, Joker."
 * How are you doing this? You've ingested enough toxins to drive ten men insane! What Are YOU!?
 * "Why fight it, Batman? You're as crazy as the rest of us. You need us as much as we need you. And to prove it, I'll flood the catacombs with enough Fear Gas to break the minds of everyone in Gotham for a 100 years."

Batman Arkham Asylum

 * "And at the end of fear...oblivion."
 * "You failed, now suffer!"
 * "Now madness takes you, forever."

Batman Arkham Knight

 * "Die knowing that I will make them suffer, every one."
 * "Didn't you know, Dark Knight, you can't fight fear?"
 * "Prepare yourself, Batman. My reign of terror starts now."
 * "You die here, and your legend dies with you."
 * "This is the end, Dark Knight, you've got nothing to be afraid of anymore."
 * "You have failed to stop me, Batman, now Gotham will fall."
 * "I wanted more than your death and Gotham's destruction, but you forced my hand."

Trivia

 * This is by far the darkest version of Scarecrow and the only that is a Complete Monster.
 * Scarecrow has some traits similar to Freddy Krueger:
 * Both wear a glove with claws.
 * Both are Dream Masters.
 * Both are Fearmongers.
 * Both are Mind-Breakers.
 * Both are Complete Monsters.
 * From a certain point of view, Scarecrow won his last battle against Batman, as the Dark Knight's identity was revealed to the world, which forced Bruce Wayne to fake his death, though his legend was kept intact. His remark of this night being Batman's last was ultimately correct. His unveiling of Bruce Wayne's identity to the people of Gotham and presumably the world gives him the distinction of not only being the only incarnation of Scarecrow to do so, but the only Batman villain in any medium thus far to succeed at this(although he only did it with the combined efforts of himself, Arkham Knight and Joker).