Titans Season 3 : Why Scarecrow Plan Is All Down To Batman’s Obsession
In the final episode of Titans season 3, Scarecrow plans to destroy Gotham City, but hasn’t the actual evil been Batman – and his pompous trophy obsession – all along? Titans’ Jonathan Crane has exhibited renewed enthusiasm as a member of Batman’s infamous Rogues Gallery after Jason Todd showed up outside his cell door. Scarecrow, who had been imprisoned as a perma-stoned convict, took advantage of Jason’s vulnerability, staged an escape, and quickly resumed his pre-Arkham activities. Scarecrow’s first major move was to dupe Starfire into poisoning Gotham’s water supply with an anti-fear medication, thus shutting down the city. But there’s something much more nefarious in that straw mind.
Jonathan Crane has reconnected with his Scarecrow character
Since taking up residence at Wayne Manor, scarred his face instead of wearing a mask and dusting up the old sickle. Scarecrow, channelling his inner strawman, has devised a new fate for Gotham City: kill everyone. Crane intends to finish the work he started before his incarceration, according to Nightwing, and after bringing Gotham to its knees the first time, he’ll be sure to succeed this time. While Scarecrow thrives as the city’s foreteller of doom, Bruce Wayne is just as much to responsible for Gotham’s predicament.
Bruce’s worst crime
Is hoarding the large quantity of fear gas that Batman and Robin confiscated when they stopped Scarecrow years ago. “Bruce grabbed Crane’s weapons and put them in the Gotham Armory to examine them,” Dick Grayson confirms in Titans season 3‘s penultimate episode. He and Jason then go to a warehouse where they find the Penguin’s umbrellas, the Riddler’s cane, the Joker’s chattering teeth… and a box of fear poison that has gone missing. Scarecrow would never have been able to regain his old stockpile if Batman hadn’t been such an obsessive collector of supervillain memorabilia, and duplicating the scheme Batman & Robin foiled years earlier would be impossible.
It would be easier to blame Batman for Gotham City’s current problems in Titans season 3 if Bruce’s motives were solely scientific, but that isn’t the case. Crane’s fear toxin was apparently maintained for research purposes, which makes sense given how important it is to understand harmful substances in order to find an antidote. However, Batman kept Scarecrow’s full payload and had not disposed of it years later. What’s more, what scientific basis exists for preserving Catwoman’s goggles or Penguin’s machine gun umbrellas? The obvious fact is that Bruce collects trophies not for “science,” but for his fixation with the Batman lifestyle and his colossal ego. That bad habit has now come back to haunt him, as Gotham is threatened by a new foe… all because Batman is a hoarder.
