I have a friend who showed me a video about a fan fiction where the Addams family moved to Gotham city. In that series, the Addams use scarecrows fear toxin as a designer drug. It was so effective that Wednesday actually smiles. It got so bad that Crain had to fut them off.
I think I saw that series I remember a bunch of jokes about bruce no longer being the most goth billionaire, as well as people assuming gomez is batman
It was a swries of short sketches/tiktoks i think, i stumbled across a compilation on youtube and absolutely loooved it. Also Morticia almost killing the joker after she found out what he did to Harley
plantainsame2049 wait shit theyre both inspired by zorro super rich goth well intentioned but with a motif of fear in their appearance they literally could swap and i dont think most would be the wiser outside of batman now using a sword
@@armaslohemadu Morticia and Gomez EXIST for love. If anything could turn them violent, it's twisting that into a weapon. I gotta look up this story it sounds fantastic.
My interpretation of Scarecrow is that in addition to intellectual fascination of fear he uses it as a power fantasy to compensate for his own youth when he was made to feel fear by the bully’s at school who mocked him for his appearance. He wants rule over everyone with the same fear that ruled over him.
That could very well be true. They never really got into his childhood in BTAS or the tie in comics, but it would make sense to me if that was the case.
@@jacktoma21 A man who causes fear to make sure nobody else will frighten him. Yeah I agree that it's a lot more effective motive. There's a tiny bit of that in "Fear of Victory" when he confronts the bookie's enforcer, but not a lot else.
There's also detail in modern stories that Crane's father was also a sociopath who used the son in experiments involving the fear toxin, which makes Crane transformation into the Scarecrow an irony, since he pretty much becomes the same monster as his father (representing how victims of abuse can end up becoming abuser themselves).
the thing with hallucinations being able to be dismissed as not real is like. you can harbor a feeling deep down that these are not real. but for them to be hallucinations you feel they are real even if another part of you can say they're not for one reason or another. i get the idea of like ouhh u should be so strong of will that it wouldnt affect u - but even me whos relatively good at mentally recognizing my various episodes caused by my bipolar and understanding what exactly theyre doing it doesnt stop me from feeling existential despair or the extreme focus that mania brings.
It's like the duality of the irrational and rational parts of our minds when it comes to anxiety. The rational part of our minds _knows_ the anxiety is ridiculous, but the irrational part insists that it's not.
There's a great episode of the 2003 Teen Titans where Robin hallucinates the big bad returning, and the fact that only HE can see him rattles the team and tears away at his psyche.
Exactly. I got a little upset when he said that, cuz it's like, it's just not that simple. The mind makes it real. You can't tell someone that what they're experiencing is harmless, it sure isn't harmless to them!
@@Chadius God that episode was great. Slade was an absolute menace to the Teen Titans. The part when Raven goes into Robin’s mind for a bit to help calm him down and it works for a second, before she too sees Slade and is also attacked by him was crazy.
@@mr.j3rs3y The episode works well because Slade hadn't been seen for half a season and was presumed dead, buried in a lava flow. It also starts from Robin's POV so as far as you know Slade is back. It isn't until other people interact with him that you realize something is terribly wrong with Robin. Raven peeks into his mind and you briefly see his parents falling from the trapeze. Then Slade jump scares Raven and Robin goes full tilt.
@@WobblesandBean Yeah like, if I was able to ignore when depressive thoughts or anxiety attacks started happening, I would, but it’s just not that easy.
Anyone who's ever suffered from panic attacks knows you can't "just ignore it". Scarecrows toxin literally affects your brain chemistry and spikes your adrenaline. It's not like mysterious with his special effects illusions. Scarecrows toxin coukd legit kill you with fear induced heart attacks.
The thing with hallucinations is that, even if we know they aren’t real, they’re still real. Take the Scarecrow hallucinations from Batman: Arkham Asylum. We the audience know they aren’t real, but to Batman, they become reality. Obviously, there isn’t actually a giant Scarecrow spinning in circles trying to find Batman as he runs around a little 2D platformer. But from Batman’s perspective, that’s exactly what’s going on. He knows it’s not real, but needs to fight it to prove it to his mind. And the same thing can be said for the various hallucinations in Dreams in Darkness. We know the hallucinations are fake, and Batman knows they’re fake. But he still needs to prove to himself that they’re fake by fighting back. That’s kind of the whole schtick with fear toxin in later-years Batman stories. He knows that he’s under the effects of the toxin, and that he won’t be seeing things clearly, and yet he’s still going to be fighting for his sanity because a part of his mind is still not convinced (see Joker hallucinations in Arkham Knight). That’s the real scary part of fear toxin. You can know it’s not real, but it will still be real to you until you can fight back against it.
That’s also how Scarecrow’s entire character works in Injustice 2- the monstrous form participating in the fight is a fear gas hallucination, but he hurts the opponent all the same
Never read the BTAS tie-in comics, but the story with Crane punishing his student's victimizer is intriguing. The Scarecrow usually comes off as a sociopath that cares for no one but himself. That he would do something like this would have humanized him. Of course, a story about sexual assault wouldn't have made it into a show like BTAS in the 90s. Still, it would have been ironic if the man's fear was to be locked up, and they had Batman assure Crane that his worst fear would come true. I could see such a story ending with Crane in his cell in Arkham smiling, warmed by the fact that his would-be victim was suffering his greatest fear. The one time you would be happy the Scarecrow won, even if it was a small victory.
Trust me when I say this, those comics are better than the TV series. The stories are less conventional and there's more violence. Even Paul Dini said they are better.
Ooh, highly recommend them, apart from the Justice League tie-ins and most of Adventures in the DC Universe, which seem to be set in different realities.
8:37 In real life the drugs (deliriants not psychedelics) that cause these sort of hallucinations often make you forget that you've even taken something in the first place.
One of the reasons why Scarecrow has been my favorite villain of all time is that he's fulfilled nearly multiples villain archetypes despite not being as pervasive as the Joker. He's been the mad scientist. The pathetic lackey. The evil from a person's past. The rival with the same mentor. The plot device. And even the mastermind villain. While this does make Scarecrow's personality kind of inconsistent I see it more as an evolution of his character. The more he embodies the "Lord of Fear" persona that he so desperately wants to evolve into the less human he becomes. We see this transformation within the current comic run, The New Adventure of Batman, and the Arkham series. While I doubt it's deliberate I always see it as Crane sacrificing his own humanity to achieve something accursed. Batman and Scarecrow's parallel is that they both use fear to get what they want and are vengeful. But Crane doesn't understand that Batman needed help to achieve this level of status. Batman evolved and incorporated his humanity to become a better Batman. The identity of Crane devolves the longer he becomes Scarecrow. Until: "There is no Crane. Only Scarecrow." He hates himself for his weaknesses.
As someone who suffers from panic disorder but has never experienced outright hallucinations: I'd imagine that exposure to Scarecrow's fear toxin induces what could be a form of sensory overload due to a negative feedback of hormones such as serotonin, adrenaline and the like, which is one of the triggering factors for fear. For me panic causes what's best described as feeling like my lungs don't work and that I'm going to die of suffocation. As in your own subconscious takes control which can be difficult to override, hence why Batman having such strong reactions to the hallucinations caused by the fear toxin, since his subconscious is actually overriding his ability to think logically.
11:56 Kinda feel for the Scarecrow in that issue, he just wanted to turn his life around and become a professor again, but a scumbag jock did horrible things to one of his students led him to donning the mask again.
'Fear is power.' And when someone is feeling scared or insecure about something, sometimes the fear of others is the easiest security blanket to reach. He reflects Batman in other ways too, relying on fear to keep his enemies off-balance and much weaker without his mask. I remember an old story in the comics where Scarecrow actually turned this against Batman by spraying him with a toxin that amplified others' fear of him *too* far, to the point where Commissioner Gordon, Robin and even Alfred were too scared to work with him and turned on him. Bruce had to take the costume off to get anyone to listen or see him as anything other than a nightmarish monster.
The thing about fear is it’s very personal, a heat of the moment appeal to fear is intimate, but shared, it’s lessened. This is why Stephen King or Lord Dunsany can be positively terrifying pressed between the pages, but good luck communicating that to screen. Simply observing Professor Crane, from a second hand perspective lessens him, but reading his comics, or even playing video games with him adds audience interaction, and I think that is the key to making him scary.
Yes, I think that interaction is key. It’s why the hallucinations in the Arkham games are enjoyable to play, while watching Batman writhe around in terror in films or cartoons can fall a bit flat.
9:00 I've not hallucinated very often, but I've had a pitched fever a time or two that caused hallucinations. Your mind is not in the right state to know it's not real when it's happening.
I had hallucinations from something mundane as sleep deprivation. That shit looks real, sounds real, and is only not real when you physically interact with it.
@@fishyfishyfishy500akabs8 yes me too, I've had those weird whispers and visions at night when trying to sleep and been very tired and that shit can be scary Mainly because it's not something you expect, and even when you think you got used to it and start to find it as fun there is something new and weirder than anything you had seen/heard before, and that's shocking/unnerving. Caughts you off guard.
@@jdcp8976 mine didn’t happen at night. They happened during the day. Sometimes I’d see people that don’t exist. Sometimes I’d see things move by and people that aren’t there, things being said that weren’t said, get stuck inside my own head with terrifying daydreams, etc.
I had surgery a few weeks ago and in the first week after I had super strong painkillers and I hallucinated all the time. That was a rather interesting week. I still can't say what really happened during the week and what didn't.
Sure, Crane is weak, but he can nearly break even the strongest of people without so much as laying a finger on them. That's what makes him among the most dangerous of the Rogues.
I think the thing of the hallucinations is that their fear is amplified. Its not that Batman has no fear, its that he's usually able to will himself through it. I think showing just how potent the Fear toxin was if Batman of all people fell so hard to the amplified fear it produced.
I was bummed that the scarecrow never got a 'The Batman' appearance. I would have loved to see what their creative team would have done while putting their own artistic flavor on the character. I grew up on BTAS but appreciated the different stylistic take of the batman series.
The zombie episode was, according to Matsuda, supposed to be the Scarecrow episode, but they weren't allowed to use him because Scarecrow was tied to the Nolan trilogy. Funnily enough, I suspect that the episode wouldn't have been _nearly_ as memorable if they were allowed to use Scarecrow, since Strange using fear toxin is such a deep cut that it wasn't as obvious as it would've been if they'd used Crane. Though I'll admit, that would've been the perfect opportunity to introduce his homemade martial art (Crane Dance) to a non-comic medium.
I’m no neurological expert, but fear is a chemical signal in the brain. If Scarecrow has the kind of expertise in fear that we are told he does, then he is probably using a set of chemicals that the brain typically uses to communicate fear and trigger the fight or flight response (possibly with a hallucinogen for added effect). People can be afraid without an object of fear. Anxiety and paranoia are examples of this. But it’s very hard to show a guttural and intense fear without an object of fear in media. The straight up panic we see in the show is more common when there is something that a person can point to as the thing they are afraid of, which is why a hallucinogen would be an effective addition to the fear toxin cocktail. Fear is not necessarily something that can be shown to the senses, and when you cut the senses down to just sight and hearing then it becomes even harder to show. The hallucinations we see as the viewer are the animators’ attempts to show us the fear that characters are experiencing, which is different than trying to scare the viewer. So Batman can’t just “remember that they are hallucinations” because his mind is probably being flooded with chemical signals that tell him to be afraid.
And yet, that’s exactly what Batman does in Nothing To Fear. He tells himself that the hallucination of his father isn’t real and the things it says to him are not true because he is vengeance, he is the night, he is Batman.
@@SerumLake well, if you’re only way to show the audience fear is through hallucinations, then your options for showing someone overcoming that fear are also limited.
I think the biggest problem with Scarecrow is the role he's given in shows. With a character as unique as this (a villain who doesn't want to take over the world but study it) you need to give him a role specific to his qualities. Honestly him as a Hannibal Lector style character who passively observes would be more beneficial to him. There's only so much variety in his crimes so counter that you have him be an analytical character who dresses down other villains.
2:30 I remember hearing a version that mixes the original version with the later versions fear gas. Basically, he was the 60's villain the Bookworm in goals of building the greatest library of books with the methodology of a more contemporary version of Scarecrow driving people mad with fear. On a side note, fear gas is one of the things in Batman's world that could exist in ours. Imagine a hallucinogenic drug like LSD, but is also directly effects the areas of the brain that involve fear.
DCAU Scarecrow was better portrayed in the tie-in comics than the show. The idea of Crane still seeing himself as this professor who cares about the growth of others is interesting, with the fact he uses fear to "teach a lesson" to others helping to make Scarecrow a dark reflection of Batman and what he could become if he abuse the way he uses of fear as weapon
Excellent video! Scarecrow is a different type of villain- each person’s fear is personal- he is less chaotic and usually less violent than most other villains- imagine if you (the viewer) were not allowed to “see” the person’s personal fears - it would be pretty boring
@@jackofallclaws6672 Danke, more or less knew the Attorney, and figured that Academic would be either Crane or Nygma, just had no clue on that last one.
Every time, EVERY TIME that shot of Robin almost getting hit with the Batmobile makes me flinch. I have seen that episode many times; I SHOULD go in knowing it's fake, but there's just something so viscerally effective about it. Also, I really enjoy hallucination plotlines when they're used as a psychological exploration of the characters, which is mostly how they are in these Scarecrow episodes.
I think Scarecrow could be a major villain with a good writer. The fear toxin can be used for more, HE can be used for more. He has made people off themselves with words alone. Imagine a captured Scarecrow in the Justice League Watchtower and he TALKS his way out and back to Earth, just manipulating heroes fears to learn what he need and gets what he wants. So many people aren't willing to look fear in the face, imagine someone who studies it so regularly and how much they just KNOW.
Robing shouting "Think of the Children!" at Scarecrow, and Scarecrow breaking down in tears, crying through his mask... I never realized it, but I NEED to see that in live action.
My favorite version of him is probably from Arkham Knight, he seemed the most menacing there. Tho his design in the new batman adventures is still undefeated in my opinion.
Scarecrow was my favorite Batman villain as a kid and still ranks pretty highly. In fact he might even still be my favorite. I'm an a arachnophobic, and I've always wondered how fear works and why I'm afraid of something 1/100th my size. Yeah they're venomous and can kill me, but I'm not afraid of bees or wasps. I also very much enjoyed the hallucinations because I felt the depictions were creative. The gun barrel tunnel, or gunnel as I like to call it, is probably my second favorite visual in the entire series, only behind the visual of Freeze holding the snow globe at the end of "Heart of Ice". Also, probably unpopular opinion, but of his BTAS designs, I prefer the bag head from the first episode because it looks less like a human can fit in that. It's unnatural and uncanny, especially when you take off the mask and you see how big his head is. Of course the TNBA design is better than baghead but that's why I specified the BTAS designs.
I feel like a lot of people are dismissive of hallucinations or illusions as easy to tell are fake. But it's more like looking at one of those images that seems to move due to the pattern. Even if you know for certain it isn't, your brain will constantly try and tell you that it is. Our entire world is only constructed by how we sense it, and something hijacking those senses is terrifying.
I don't remember all of his appearances in the New Adventures series but I remember that one episode where he creates a toxin that makes you have no fear. Towards the end he tries to kill Crane after he was exposed to it and they do the moral of 'a little bit of fear is what keeps you from doing stupid things'. Come to think of it I think that's another reason why it's hard to use Scarecrow. Too many of his plots revolve around him Poisoning the whole city with something. I guess it's hard to make him an actual threat.
Do not forget that Scarecrow appeared in Challenge of The Super Friends cartoon by Hannah Barbara. The one episode that stands out the most which is from the series, The Super Powers Team, and it's called " The Fear", where Scarecrow uses Batman's fear of Crime Ally against him and yes, he uses the skulls that causes people to hallucinate their worst fear like two security guards at a bank to hallucinate giant lizards and Wonder Woman hallucinate that the walls are closing in on her. What's more surprising is that Scarecrow crossed over into The Scooby-verse where he appeared in Happy Halloween! Scooby Doo! SCOOBY DOOBY DOO!!!
The thing with hallucinations is that your knowledge of them being in your head is buried due to their nature if that makes sense. This probably isn’t the best thing to put here since I’m advertising something (even if it isn’t mine), but there’s a RUclipsr called Pastra that has an underutilized potential, and how he feels like a regular crook with just a gimmick, pointing out how none of the effects of his fear never really linger, especially in BTAS (although that’s more so due to the shows format and audience).
Weirdly, I think the best reform of Scarecrow would be similar to clayface, as a bat member. Imagine what they could do by merging investigation and field-application, without the need of innocent guinea pigs.
That's the thing I liked about Batman: The Animated Series was the show gave us a fallible, human Batman as opposed to the comics versions where The Batman is well-nigh God-Like, as exemplified by the oft-cited quote "I'm Batman." when he is asked for an explanation for his solutions to problems confronting him and/or the JLA.
I actually always liked Scarecrow, he never tried to over power or out smart Batman but trying to beat Batman with his own tactics of instilling fear into your enemies.
While the Joker may arguably be scarier in other ways, I really like that part near the end of Batman: Arkham Knight, where Scarecrow’s fear toxin indirectly defeats the Joker. When even the Joker can be gradually deconstructed and broken by the fear toxin’s hallucinations, that is an impressive feat by Scarecrow, even if it is a feat which ironically saves the day.
As someone whom has been in an altered state of mind, illusions and sounds you experience may not be real. That doesn't stop your mind from reacting to the audio or visual in that initial moment.
I like how scarecrow is like this mad doctor and he scared people with his fear toxin for so many years and then he was fired and he said “ I want M O N E Y” and then boom scarecrow but there’s 1 weakness of his *Lock up* and his own toxin because the name. “Stop hiding behind your toys and fight like a man!”
You forget that Bruce is still human and even if he rationally does not believe in what he us seeing is real it is no less terrifying. And I think most kids would have been scared and would not think any of the crane episodes were ",dull" as you make them out to Be. Scarecrow has always had potential to be a great villain but writers are lazy and always use him as a cheap prop instead of a compelling badguy. During no man land there was a Scarecrow story where he drove a small community into wild paranoia and all without his fear gas! He uses his skills as a psychologist to prey on their fears. Why can't more writers make him more like this?
as someone who suffers from auditory and visual hallucination's and know that i do i never makes them feel less real so "just ignore it" is very hard to do
I always assumed the fear toxin acted like many recreational drugs, in which the brain becomes very bad at discerning reality from imagination. Granted, the story is melodramatic fiction so I can see how you may expect a simpler solution. In real life though, that's exactly how hallucinations are - not fleeting ones that make us question things for just a moment, but sustained hallucinations. There's the drug example from above, but prescription pharmaceuticals can have hallucinatory side effects that make people question reality. And I've read accounts from people with medical conditions who KNOW they are experiencing something unreal, but their brain and body will still react instinctively. It's just like being in a nightmare - even if you know it's not real, you can still be totally overwhelmed if you can't wake up. Heck, phobias are irrational fears. Someone can know a spiders are 99% harmless, but the rationality doesn't stop then from panicking. As for Darkseid... Ooh, I cannot wait for Luke's assessment. We end the season with a truly cosmic terror in the God of Tyranny. I have chills jsut thinking about it. One of my favorite villains ever, and Michael Ironside is the voice in my head when I read his dialog in comics.
If you ever get around to the Justice League era, I would love it if you took a look at the DCAU verse of Scarecrow's cellmate, John Dee, aka Doctor Destiny.
What makes scarecrow interesting, is that, as much as Bruce tries to hide it, he is terrified, his parents died for essentially no reason and he can never really win any of his fights, he has to keep fighting, he can never stop, but he’s scared, he masks it, literally, with the Batman persona but he will never be ok, he’ll never be calm or happy, he has a deep, cloying anxiety about being lost and never finding love, and if he does he’s afraid he won’t be unwell enough anymore to keep being Batman
4:39 - okay, I guess I have to be the one to say it: BtAS Jonathan Crane looks like an adult Montana Max. Call me a liar. Also, the plot of _Fear of Victory_ was retooled for the novel "Fear Itself". In that story, Scarecrow (and his book-original henchman) are approached by a prospective horror novelist who wants to lace his books with a variation of the Scarecrow toxin to give the books an extra "punch". The change to a touch-transmitted formula ends up causing the toxin to linger in the victim's system until they encounter a situation similar to the books, at which point it kicks in with a vengeance. Scarecrow is so fascinated by how much stronger the delayed reaction is that he decides to learn the art of fear through storytelling from the guy who used his toxins. It's actually a pretty good read, and really leans into the idea of Scarecrow as an intellectual who just wants to understand fear with no concerns for how his studies affect others.
Quick slightly off topic statement. The SCARCROW segment of Batman annual 1 WAS done by Klaus Janson a fantastic comic artist. And deserves a quick mention. I know it's a bit protracted from the topic . But still.
His look in TNBA really does instill fear because you don't know if he is wearing a mask or if just had a run in with some batch of chemicals. His dead western inspired design is the best and let's not forget Jeffrey Coombs voice!
The comic that had Scarecrow use a signal to disrupt the ability to read seems like it was adapted for the Batman Beyond episode ‘Babel’, where Shriek projected sound waves that disrupted speech, literacy, and even affected animal behavior.
I didn't know about the comics you mentioned but man that changes a little how I look at him. Makes me think how a scarecrow reformed episode could go 🤔 Thank you for another awesome vid 🙏😃
You didn't really explain how he is a weakling. Unlike some late 90s comics, this Scarecrow is rather a sociopathic bully with a code for knowledge and study. Phisically, Fear of Victory showed him unafraid. He was completely indifferent to the assault of the Loan Shark and of Batman. He intimidaded the first and kept going for the tube of powder as if it was just a rat race. The only episode in which he is shown intimidaded and weak is Lock up... And that was the point, the Scarecrow and Scarface are themselves intimidators seeing them intimidated was shocking.
BTAS Scarecrow feels a fair bit like the Riddler & Joker--sharing their narcissism, and seeming more focused on getting the better of Batman, or satisfying his own personal interests, rather than his supposed scientific pursuits. The fear toxin is treated as a tool in his revenge on Dr. Long; he personally invests in the games, by betting on them; and his long-winded speeches about how spooooky he is. He wants to be the object of eveyone's dread, in the same way that Riddler wants to be the smartest person in the room. TNBA Scarecrow (for his one and only real episode) seems a lot more dry, cold, and calm (which of course made him much more terrifying). He was less theatrical, and less personal, and it seemed like he was actually more interested in his experiments. Sure, he makes a video to the mayor to ransom the fear antidote, but I interpret it as part of the test to see if the mayor was willing to follow through--in addition to observing the gotham populace without inhibitions. I choose to interpret this as Crane getting over or around some of his personal insecurities, for the sake of his mission in studying fear. And it's tragic we never got an episode of him meeting minds with Hugo Strange.
I know there's only so much you can do with Scarecrow in something aimed more directly at kids. Which is why I appreciate how he's used in Batman the Audio Adventures and being referred in Batman: The Caped Crusader.
Apart from many characters in BTAS who recieved periodic redesigns, it suits Crane better. Of all of the Rogues Gallery Scarecrow seems the most like to completely redo his costume on a whim. Helps keep the scares fresh, doesn't it?
Although rarely noted, Professor Crane's human guise, was inspired by Ichabod Crane. His lengthy features, the elongated nose that takes up a majority of his face, are all there. Its also kind of funny he was a School marm, responsible for educating the youth in the local town, while Professor Crane was the lead researcher that was once respected!😂🎃
Nolan must’ve been a fan of tas scarecrow as he has scarecrow from Batman begins use the same plot to put his fear toxic in Gotham’s water supply. Also some fans have noticed similar lines from some of the Batman tas comics used for similar lines in the dark knight trilogy.
I’m with you on the hallucination front there. I used to do lots of shrooms and the like but never freaked or anything. Was always in a good enough mind to know they weren’t real. Just sort of sit back and enjoy the show. And the things I saw looked as real as real life. The real danger is just about as bad as being blind when that stuff overlays with real life. Scarecrow might as well be shining lasers in peoples eyes
I remember when I rewatched BtaS, I got bored of Scarecrow really quick. His episodes were always about how he was going to make people scared with fear gas and would always end with him getting dosed with his own toxin. I did enjoy the direction they took him in the New Batman Adventures though.
Scarecrows changing costumes made the character better, darker, and not to mention appear that he was going through an evolution of some sort. Was taken back by that comic book issue of Scarecrow defending a girl who was assaulted. Talk about being somewhat of an antihero at one point. Would’ve been interesting to hear if he had somehow helped the young lady with her trauma.
Scarecrow used the fear-inducing skull devices The Super Power Team: Galactic Guardians (formerly Superfriends) episode "The Fear". This episode was the first time that Batman's origin, including the death of his parents, was depicted in animation (or, I think, on TV in general, having only been mentioned briefly in the Adam West show).
I have to say, My personal favourite origin for the Scarecrow is actually the New 52 one. I thought the angle they took with his father was really fascinating and much better than what had come before for the character.
Love that The Brave and the Bold musical ep. Succeeds where the Joker sequel failed, and leaves a more positive mark compared to that Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical ep.
I remember in the comment section me and big Mikey p we're discussing how to really flush out the Scarecrow in the unique way that doesn't make him seem so gimmicky. I came up with an idea, that Professor Crane lacked fear, but was always mesmerized all its effects on others! Even to the point where he admired those who feel it's gribbling hold as he conducts his experiments those unsuspecting foes!🎃 * You'd would think the master of fear would terrify any of the rogues around him, or even Batman for that matter! I'm glad he got a revamp in the new adventure series, but I always enjoyed his second costume the best! It was pretty unique with an awesome mask!
This has me curious to see what you'd think of the equally psychological threat of Hugo strange from the batman 2004. I'd love to see you start cover villains from that continuity, and Hugo strange is by far the best villain done better than in btas. Other than him, id love to see you cover it's version of clayface, or perhaps it's different takes on villains like me freeze, firefly, or penguin!
Hey I just like to say I really enjoy your work Batman tas is one of my favorites of all time you should jump into Teen Titans (the original )hahaha The Scarecrow episodes scared me a lot as a kid keep up the good work
I still have a soft spot for Scarecrow's second design, even if the new adventures version is more beloved. Both of them use abstraction in different ways, with the former being more twisted and hyper expressive and the latter being more cold and uncanny. Though I do ultimately think that he works better when he's written as an calm calculated pyschopath instead of a guy who just happens to use a fear toxin to rob people.
Interestingly, Scarecrow barely appears in his best episode as the primary villain. I am, of course, talking about "Over the Edge." That was one heck of a dream he caused for Batgirl!
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Someone jumping out of a bush, saying boo, and shooting you is a lot less fancy, but still very effective tbh
yeah, it'd make me jump out of my skin!
Might be enough to make you jump back lol
Hey, it worked, didn't it? You try coming up with a gimmick in Gotham City.
@ianfinrir8724 hell onomatopoeia does this and it's 10x funnier
Why is professor Crane so good at being the Scarecrow? He's outstanding in his field.
Woah there Sans, since when did you use an alt profile?
👏
Dahaha 😂 that's corny but good
Perfect.🤌
the joke flew right over my head
I have a friend who showed me a video about a fan fiction where the Addams family moved to Gotham city. In that series, the Addams use scarecrows fear toxin as a designer drug. It was so effective that Wednesday actually smiles. It got so bad that Crain had to fut them off.
I think I saw that series
I remember a bunch of jokes about bruce no longer being the most goth billionaire, as well as people assuming gomez is batman
It was a swries of short sketches/tiktoks i think, i stumbled across a compilation on youtube and absolutely loooved it. Also Morticia almost killing the joker after she found out what he did to Harley
plantainsame2049 wait shit theyre both inspired by zorro super rich goth well intentioned but with a motif of fear in their appearance they literally could swap and i dont think most would be the wiser outside of batman now using a sword
@@armaslohemadu Morticia and Gomez EXIST for love. If anything could turn them violent, it's twisting that into a weapon. I gotta look up this story it sounds fantastic.
My interpretation of Scarecrow is that in addition to intellectual fascination of fear he uses it as a power fantasy to compensate for his own youth when he was made to feel fear by the bully’s at school who mocked him for his appearance. He wants rule over everyone with the same fear that ruled over him.
That could very well be true. They never really got into his childhood in BTAS or the tie in comics, but it would make sense to me if that was the case.
@@jacktoma21 A man who causes fear to make sure nobody else will frighten him. Yeah I agree that it's a lot more effective motive.
There's a tiny bit of that in "Fear of Victory" when he confronts the bookie's enforcer, but not a lot else.
@@lexofexcel886 I’ll admit, I was talking more about Scarecrow as a character in general then btas specific
It's fascinating to see Scarecrow's obsession with fear stem from a lack of power in his youth. The guy really equates being scary as being powerful.
There's also detail in modern stories that Crane's father was also a sociopath who used the son in experiments involving the fear toxin, which makes Crane transformation into the Scarecrow an irony, since he pretty much becomes the same monster as his father (representing how victims of abuse can end up becoming abuser themselves).
the thing with hallucinations being able to be dismissed as not real is like. you can harbor a feeling deep down that these are not real. but for them to be hallucinations you feel they are real even if another part of you can say they're not for one reason or another. i get the idea of like ouhh u should be so strong of will that it wouldnt affect u - but even me whos relatively good at mentally recognizing my various episodes caused by my bipolar and understanding what exactly theyre doing it doesnt stop me from feeling existential despair or the extreme focus that mania brings.
It's like the duality of the irrational and rational parts of our minds when it comes to anxiety. The rational part of our minds _knows_ the anxiety is ridiculous, but the irrational part insists that it's not.
There's a great episode of the 2003 Teen Titans where Robin hallucinates the big bad returning, and the fact that only HE can see him rattles the team and tears away at his psyche.
Exactly. I got a little upset when he said that, cuz it's like, it's just not that simple. The mind makes it real. You can't tell someone that what they're experiencing is harmless, it sure isn't harmless to them!
@@Chadius God that episode was great. Slade was an absolute menace to the Teen Titans. The part when Raven goes into Robin’s mind for a bit to help calm him down and it works for a second, before she too sees Slade and is also attacked by him was crazy.
@@mr.j3rs3y The episode works well because Slade hadn't been seen for half a season and was presumed dead, buried in a lava flow. It also starts from Robin's POV so as far as you know Slade is back. It isn't until other people interact with him that you realize something is terribly wrong with Robin.
Raven peeks into his mind and you briefly see his parents falling from the trapeze. Then Slade jump scares Raven and Robin goes full tilt.
The Scarecrow taking justice in his own hands for his student is uncharacteristically wholesome.
“Just ignore it” is so insane to say when people suffer that stuff irl due to mental health. Ultimately if you get gassed, you are less effective too
Right? It's such a reductive and pointless thing to say. "Just ignore it", oh gee thanks, my PTSD is cured.
I have PTSD too. I know it's not really happening or will happen, but I can't ignore it and just not have the anxiety.
@@skkahl3400 ignoring stress and anxiety also tends to make stress worse or makes you explode into an absolute mess later.
@@WobblesandBean
Yeah like, if I was able to ignore when depressive thoughts or anxiety attacks started happening, I would, but it’s just not that easy.
Anyone who's ever suffered from panic attacks knows you can't "just ignore it". Scarecrows toxin literally affects your brain chemistry and spikes your adrenaline. It's not like mysterious with his special effects illusions. Scarecrows toxin coukd legit kill you with fear induced heart attacks.
The thing with hallucinations is that, even if we know they aren’t real, they’re still real. Take the Scarecrow hallucinations from Batman: Arkham Asylum. We the audience know they aren’t real, but to Batman, they become reality. Obviously, there isn’t actually a giant Scarecrow spinning in circles trying to find Batman as he runs around a little 2D platformer. But from Batman’s perspective, that’s exactly what’s going on. He knows it’s not real, but needs to fight it to prove it to his mind.
And the same thing can be said for the various hallucinations in Dreams in Darkness. We know the hallucinations are fake, and Batman knows they’re fake. But he still needs to prove to himself that they’re fake by fighting back. That’s kind of the whole schtick with fear toxin in later-years Batman stories. He knows that he’s under the effects of the toxin, and that he won’t be seeing things clearly, and yet he’s still going to be fighting for his sanity because a part of his mind is still not convinced (see Joker hallucinations in Arkham Knight). That’s the real scary part of fear toxin. You can know it’s not real, but it will still be real to you until you can fight back against it.
That’s also how Scarecrow’s entire character works in Injustice 2- the monstrous form participating in the fight is a fear gas hallucination, but he hurts the opponent all the same
Never read the BTAS tie-in comics, but the story with Crane punishing his student's victimizer is intriguing. The Scarecrow usually comes off as a sociopath that cares for no one but himself. That he would do something like this would have humanized him. Of course, a story about sexual assault wouldn't have made it into a show like BTAS in the 90s. Still, it would have been ironic if the man's fear was to be locked up, and they had Batman assure Crane that his worst fear would come true. I could see such a story ending with Crane in his cell in Arkham smiling, warmed by the fact that his would-be victim was suffering his greatest fear. The one time you would be happy the Scarecrow won, even if it was a small victory.
Trust me when I say this, those comics are better than the TV series. The stories are less conventional and there's more violence. Even Paul Dini said they are better.
Ooh, highly recommend them, apart from the Justice League tie-ins and most of Adventures in the DC Universe, which seem to be set in different realities.
@michaelandreipalon359 The TAS Superman comics were good
8:37 In real life the drugs (deliriants not psychedelics) that cause these sort of hallucinations often make you forget that you've even taken something in the first place.
One of the reasons why Scarecrow has been my favorite villain of all time is that he's fulfilled nearly multiples villain archetypes despite not being as pervasive as the Joker.
He's been the mad scientist. The pathetic lackey. The evil from a person's past. The rival with the same mentor. The plot device. And even the mastermind villain. While this does make Scarecrow's personality kind of inconsistent I see it more as an evolution of his character. The more he embodies the "Lord of Fear" persona that he so desperately wants to evolve into the less human he becomes. We see this transformation within the current comic run, The New Adventure of Batman, and the Arkham series.
While I doubt it's deliberate I always see it as Crane sacrificing his own humanity to achieve something accursed. Batman and Scarecrow's parallel is that they both use fear to get what they want and are vengeful. But Crane doesn't understand that Batman needed help to achieve this level of status. Batman evolved and incorporated his humanity to become a better Batman. The identity of Crane devolves the longer he becomes Scarecrow. Until: "There is no Crane. Only Scarecrow."
He hates himself for his weaknesses.
As someone who suffers from panic disorder but has never experienced outright hallucinations: I'd imagine that exposure to Scarecrow's fear toxin induces what could be a form of sensory overload due to a negative feedback of hormones such as serotonin, adrenaline and the like, which is one of the triggering factors for fear. For me panic causes what's best described as feeling like my lungs don't work and that I'm going to die of suffocation. As in your own subconscious takes control which can be difficult to override, hence why Batman having such strong reactions to the hallucinations caused by the fear toxin, since his subconscious is actually overriding his ability to think logically.
Crane heard Joker talking shit about him, so he started lifting and that's how he became the ScareSwole in season 4
Publish it
That's . . . certainly an origin for Scarebeast, if anyone has the guts to dig him up from the ashes of _War Games_
Hoping he gets to make an appearance in Batman: The Caped Crusader. He’s always been my favourite villain in a world where fear is a constant.
Give that he gets name dropped twice in Season One, I'd be shocked if he didn't turn up
11:56 Kinda feel for the Scarecrow in that issue, he just wanted to turn his life around and become a professor again, but a scumbag jock did horrible things to one of his students led him to donning the mask again.
'Fear is power.' And when someone is feeling scared or insecure about something, sometimes the fear of others is the easiest security blanket to reach.
He reflects Batman in other ways too, relying on fear to keep his enemies off-balance and much weaker without his mask. I remember an old story in the comics where Scarecrow actually turned this against Batman by spraying him with a toxin that amplified others' fear of him *too* far, to the point where Commissioner Gordon, Robin and even Alfred were too scared to work with him and turned on him. Bruce had to take the costume off to get anyone to listen or see him as anything other than a nightmarish monster.
The thing about fear is it’s very personal, a heat of the moment appeal to fear is intimate, but shared, it’s lessened.
This is why Stephen King or Lord Dunsany can be positively terrifying pressed between the pages, but good luck communicating that to screen.
Simply observing Professor Crane, from a second hand perspective lessens him, but reading his comics, or even playing video games with him adds audience interaction, and I think that is the key to making him scary.
Yes, I think that interaction is key. It’s why the hallucinations in the Arkham games are enjoyable to play, while watching Batman writhe around in terror in films or cartoons can fall a bit flat.
He never scares any crows, he doesnt Boogie as a man, he's a sham
I know you’re joking, but he actually makes a point of scaring crows in the comics just for fun.
It’s in “God of Fear” if I’m not mistaken.
@@Victor-qx3vx okay that checks one thing off, however he has never boogied as a man (boogeyman) so he still is 50% a liar
9:00 I've not hallucinated very often, but I've had a pitched fever a time or two that caused hallucinations. Your mind is not in the right state to know it's not real when it's happening.
I had hallucinations from something mundane as sleep deprivation.
That shit looks real, sounds real, and is only not real when you physically interact with it.
@@fishyfishyfishy500akabs8 yes me too, I've had those weird whispers and visions at night when trying to sleep and been very tired and that shit can be scary
Mainly because it's not something you expect, and even when you think you got used to it and start to find it as fun there is something new and weirder than anything you had seen/heard before, and that's shocking/unnerving. Caughts you off guard.
@@jdcp8976 mine didn’t happen at night. They happened during the day. Sometimes I’d see people that don’t exist. Sometimes I’d see things move by and people that aren’t there, things being said that weren’t said, get stuck inside my own head with terrifying daydreams, etc.
I had surgery a few weeks ago and in the first week after I had super strong painkillers and I hallucinated all the time. That was a rather interesting week. I still can't say what really happened during the week and what didn't.
Scarecrow going from looking like a Disney villain in BTAS to a Boogeyman in TNBA will always be awesome to me
Not gonna lie there have been Disney villains with designs as scary as TNBA Scarecrow
I'm repeating myself, but to me Henry Polic II in the Pumpkinhead mask is my favorite Scarecrow, and I love his stories and appearances.
Sure, Crane is weak, but he can nearly break even the strongest of people without so much as laying a finger on them. That's what makes him among the most dangerous of the Rogues.
Plus he adapts. He's shown that he's quite capable even without his fear toxin.
I think the thing of the hallucinations is that their fear is amplified. Its not that Batman has no fear, its that he's usually able to will himself through it. I think showing just how potent the Fear toxin was if Batman of all people fell so hard to the amplified fear it produced.
Honestly? Scarecrow is one of my favorite because he's a psychological threat. It's something that you can't turn that shit off.
Except he once found a way to reverse the effect of his fear gas to leave someone with virtually no fear
I was bummed that the scarecrow never got a 'The Batman' appearance. I would have loved to see what their creative team would have done while putting their own artistic flavor on the character. I grew up on BTAS but appreciated the different stylistic take of the batman series.
Bummed? I thought it was quite a breath of fresh air.
The zombie episode was, according to Matsuda, supposed to be the Scarecrow episode, but they weren't allowed to use him because Scarecrow was tied to the Nolan trilogy. Funnily enough, I suspect that the episode wouldn't have been _nearly_ as memorable if they were allowed to use Scarecrow, since Strange using fear toxin is such a deep cut that it wasn't as obvious as it would've been if they'd used Crane.
Though I'll admit, that would've been the perfect opportunity to introduce his homemade martial art (Crane Dance) to a non-comic medium.
I’m no neurological expert, but fear is a chemical signal in the brain. If Scarecrow has the kind of expertise in fear that we are told he does, then he is probably using a set of chemicals that the brain typically uses to communicate fear and trigger the fight or flight response (possibly with a hallucinogen for added effect). People can be afraid without an object of fear. Anxiety and paranoia are examples of this. But it’s very hard to show a guttural and intense fear without an object of fear in media. The straight up panic we see in the show is more common when there is something that a person can point to as the thing they are afraid of, which is why a hallucinogen would be an effective addition to the fear toxin cocktail. Fear is not necessarily something that can be shown to the senses, and when you cut the senses down to just sight and hearing then it becomes even harder to show. The hallucinations we see as the viewer are the animators’ attempts to show us the fear that characters are experiencing, which is different than trying to scare the viewer. So Batman can’t just “remember that they are hallucinations” because his mind is probably being flooded with chemical signals that tell him to be afraid.
And yet, that’s exactly what Batman does in Nothing To Fear. He tells himself that the hallucination of his father isn’t real and the things it says to him are not true because he is vengeance, he is the night, he is Batman.
@@SerumLake well, if you’re only way to show the audience fear is through hallucinations, then your options for showing someone overcoming that fear are also limited.
I think the biggest problem with Scarecrow is the role he's given in shows. With a character as unique as this (a villain who doesn't want to take over the world but study it) you need to give him a role specific to his qualities.
Honestly him as a Hannibal Lector style character who passively observes would be more beneficial to him. There's only so much variety in his crimes so counter that you have him be an analytical character who dresses down other villains.
2:30 I remember hearing a version that mixes the original version with the later versions fear gas. Basically, he was the 60's villain the Bookworm in goals of building the greatest library of books with the methodology of a more contemporary version of Scarecrow driving people mad with fear. On a side note, fear gas is one of the things in Batman's world that could exist in ours. Imagine a hallucinogenic drug like LSD, but is also directly effects the areas of the brain that involve fear.
DCAU Scarecrow was better portrayed in the tie-in comics than the show. The idea of Crane still seeing himself as this professor who cares about the growth of others is interesting, with the fact he uses fear to "teach a lesson" to others helping to make Scarecrow a dark reflection of Batman and what he could become if he abuse the way he uses of fear as weapon
Excellent video! Scarecrow is a different type of villain- each person’s fear is personal- he is less chaotic and usually less violent than most other villains- imagine if you (the viewer) were not allowed to “see” the person’s personal fears - it would be pretty boring
Screw The 3 Jokers, here’s Batman’s TRUE Trinity of Terror:
The Academic.
The Attorney.
The Architect.
Who?
@@AnonEcho98
The Academic = Scarecrow.
The Attorney = Two-Face.
The Architect = Riddler.
@@jackofallclaws6672 Danke, more or less knew the Attorney, and figured that Academic would be either Crane or Nygma, just had no clue on that last one.
Every time, EVERY TIME that shot of Robin almost getting hit with the Batmobile makes me flinch. I have seen that episode many times; I SHOULD go in knowing it's fake, but there's just something so viscerally effective about it.
Also, I really enjoy hallucination plotlines when they're used as a psychological exploration of the characters, which is mostly how they are in these Scarecrow episodes.
I think Scarecrow could be a major villain with a good writer. The fear toxin can be used for more, HE can be used for more. He has made people off themselves with words alone. Imagine a captured Scarecrow in the Justice League Watchtower and he TALKS his way out and back to Earth, just manipulating heroes fears to learn what he need and gets what he wants. So many people aren't willing to look fear in the face, imagine someone who studies it so regularly and how much they just KNOW.
Yes!!
I always liked the villains with more going on than just "mordorhobo" or "sad mordorhobo".
I loved his design in "The Long Halloween"
Tim Sale was one of the greatest Batman comic artists. He's part of my Holy Trinity of comic artists along with Dick Sprang and Kelley Jones.
Robing shouting "Think of the Children!" at Scarecrow, and Scarecrow breaking down in tears, crying through his mask... I never realized it, but I NEED to see that in live action.
I always thought that in TNBA Crane soaked his costume in fear toxin to make a terrifying illusion.
My favorite version of him is probably from Arkham Knight, he seemed the most menacing there. Tho his design in the new batman adventures is still undefeated in my opinion.
imagine if they crossed the two by giving Zombie Scarecrow the syringe fingers!
Scarecrow was my favorite Batman villain as a kid and still ranks pretty highly. In fact he might even still be my favorite. I'm an a arachnophobic, and I've always wondered how fear works and why I'm afraid of something 1/100th my size. Yeah they're venomous and can kill me, but I'm not afraid of bees or wasps. I also very much enjoyed the hallucinations because I felt the depictions were creative. The gun barrel tunnel, or gunnel as I like to call it, is probably my second favorite visual in the entire series, only behind the visual of Freeze holding the snow globe at the end of "Heart of Ice". Also, probably unpopular opinion, but of his BTAS designs, I prefer the bag head from the first episode because it looks less like a human can fit in that. It's unnatural and uncanny, especially when you take off the mask and you see how big his head is. Of course the TNBA design is better than baghead but that's why I specified the BTAS designs.
Preferred look #1 myself.
I feel like a lot of people are dismissive of hallucinations or illusions as easy to tell are fake. But it's more like looking at one of those images that seems to move due to the pattern. Even if you know for certain it isn't, your brain will constantly try and tell you that it is. Our entire world is only constructed by how we sense it, and something hijacking those senses is terrifying.
That scene in dreams in darkness where batman sees joker on the computer screen is creepy foreshadowing to Batman beyond return of the joker!
Ooh, now that's one continuity nod.
I don't remember all of his appearances in the New Adventures series but I remember that one episode where he creates a toxin that makes you have no fear. Towards the end he tries to kill Crane after he was exposed to it and they do the moral of 'a little bit of fear is what keeps you from doing stupid things'.
Come to think of it I think that's another reason why it's hard to use Scarecrow. Too many of his plots revolve around him Poisoning the whole city with something. I guess it's hard to make him an actual threat.
5:40 In the DCAU Crane was a bully as a kid rather than a victim of bullying like in other continuities.
Do not forget that Scarecrow appeared in Challenge of The Super Friends cartoon by Hannah Barbara. The one episode that stands out the most which is from the series, The Super Powers Team, and it's called " The Fear", where Scarecrow uses Batman's fear of Crime Ally against him and yes, he uses the skulls that causes people to hallucinate their worst fear like two security guards at a bank to hallucinate giant lizards and Wonder Woman hallucinate that the walls are closing in on her. What's more surprising is that Scarecrow crossed over into The Scooby-verse where he appeared in Happy Halloween! Scooby Doo! SCOOBY DOOBY DOO!!!
I hope that you watched the video I made about The Fear with Ted from Watchtower Database!
I remember him in the Scooby-Doo movie, wasn't he there just because he wanted to meet Elvira?
The thing with hallucinations is that your knowledge of them being in your head is buried due to their nature if that makes sense.
This probably isn’t the best thing to put here since I’m advertising something (even if it isn’t mine), but there’s a RUclipsr called Pastra that has an underutilized potential, and how he feels like a regular crook with just a gimmick, pointing out how none of the effects of his fear never really linger, especially in BTAS (although that’s more so due to the shows format and audience).
Weirdly, I think the best reform of Scarecrow would be similar to clayface, as a bat member. Imagine what they could do by merging investigation and field-application, without the need of innocent guinea pigs.
11:38 I’m gonna be honest here… Scarecrows actions are 101% justified
That's the thing I liked about Batman: The Animated Series was the show gave us a fallible, human Batman as opposed to the comics versions where The Batman is well-nigh God-Like, as exemplified by the oft-cited quote "I'm Batman." when he is asked for an explanation for his solutions to problems confronting him and/or the JLA.
I actually always liked Scarecrow, he never tried to over power or out smart Batman but trying to beat Batman with his own tactics of instilling fear into your enemies.
How has Robert Englund never voiced the Scarecrow?! That's perfect casting!
Fun fact, he is voiced by Englund in the Injustice 2 game.
And the scarecrow design in the Arkham games clearly had some inspiration from Englund’s character Freddy Kruger
Englund voiced him in injustice 2. perfect casting! he excelled at the character.
My personal favorite interpretation of Scarecrow.
“Batman’s Spookiest Villain”
Well, he’s definitely scarier than The Joker ever will be!
Debatable but I can see why you'd believe that.
While the Joker may arguably be scarier in other ways, I really like that part near the end of Batman: Arkham Knight, where Scarecrow’s fear toxin indirectly defeats the Joker. When even the Joker can be gradually deconstructed and broken by the fear toxin’s hallucinations, that is an impressive feat by Scarecrow, even if it is a feat which ironically saves the day.
I think what makes the Scarecrow an intriguing Batman villain is how instead of attacking people physically, he does so mentally through fear.
Now 7:30 is what I call a Serum Lake! 😂😅
As someone whom has been in an altered state of mind, illusions and sounds you experience may not be real. That doesn't stop your mind from reacting to the audio or visual in that initial moment.
I like how scarecrow is like this mad doctor and he scared people with his fear toxin for so many years and then he was fired and he said “ I want M O N E Y” and then boom scarecrow but there’s 1 weakness of his *Lock up* and his own toxin because the name.
“Stop hiding behind your toys and fight like a man!”
You forget that Bruce is still human and even if he rationally does not believe in what he us seeing is real it is no less terrifying. And I think most kids would have been scared and would not think any of the crane episodes were ",dull" as you make them out to Be. Scarecrow has always had potential to be a great villain but writers are lazy and always use him as a cheap prop instead of a compelling badguy. During no man land there was a Scarecrow story where he drove a small community into wild paranoia and all without his fear gas! He uses his skills as a psychologist to prey on their fears. Why can't more writers make him more like this?
as someone who suffers from auditory and visual hallucination's and know that i do i never makes them feel less real so "just ignore it" is very hard to do
Surprisingly, this guy unmasked Batman.
I always assumed the fear toxin acted like many recreational drugs, in which the brain becomes very bad at discerning reality from imagination. Granted, the story is melodramatic fiction so I can see how you may expect a simpler solution. In real life though, that's exactly how hallucinations are - not fleeting ones that make us question things for just a moment, but sustained hallucinations. There's the drug example from above, but prescription pharmaceuticals can have hallucinatory side effects that make people question reality. And I've read accounts from people with medical conditions who KNOW they are experiencing something unreal, but their brain and body will still react instinctively. It's just like being in a nightmare - even if you know it's not real, you can still be totally overwhelmed if you can't wake up. Heck, phobias are irrational fears. Someone can know a spiders are 99% harmless, but the rationality doesn't stop then from panicking.
As for Darkseid... Ooh, I cannot wait for Luke's assessment. We end the season with a truly cosmic terror in the God of Tyranny. I have chills jsut thinking about it. One of my favorite villains ever, and Michael Ironside is the voice in my head when I read his dialog in comics.
That first Scarecrow version reminded me of Candlejack from Freakazoid.
If you ever get around to the Justice League era, I would love it if you took a look at the DCAU verse of Scarecrow's cellmate, John Dee, aka Doctor Destiny.
Oh he is on the list! Maybe next year's Halloween video?
That’s an interesting idea @lexofexel886
Now that guy is a far better DCAU Scarecrow, somehow.
What makes scarecrow interesting, is that, as much as Bruce tries to hide it, he is terrified, his parents died for essentially no reason and he can never really win any of his fights, he has to keep fighting, he can never stop, but he’s scared, he masks it, literally, with the Batman persona but he will never be ok, he’ll never be calm or happy, he has a deep, cloying anxiety about being lost and never finding love, and if he does he’s afraid he won’t be unwell enough anymore to keep being Batman
Amazing!🤩
Scarecrow has always been my Favorite Classic Batman Rogue. I love that he's been getting more love lately.
I will say this, the game INJUSTICE 2 def did a MIRACULOUS Scarecrow concept with great visuals and EPIC fighting style👍🏾
4:39 - okay, I guess I have to be the one to say it: BtAS Jonathan Crane looks like an adult Montana Max. Call me a liar.
Also, the plot of _Fear of Victory_ was retooled for the novel "Fear Itself". In that story, Scarecrow (and his book-original henchman) are approached by a prospective horror novelist who wants to lace his books with a variation of the Scarecrow toxin to give the books an extra "punch". The change to a touch-transmitted formula ends up causing the toxin to linger in the victim's system until they encounter a situation similar to the books, at which point it kicks in with a vengeance. Scarecrow is so fascinated by how much stronger the delayed reaction is that he decides to learn the art of fear through storytelling from the guy who used his toxins. It's actually a pretty good read, and really leans into the idea of Scarecrow as an intellectual who just wants to understand fear with no concerns for how his studies affect others.
Quick slightly off topic statement. The SCARCROW segment of Batman annual 1 WAS done by Klaus Janson a fantastic comic artist. And deserves a quick mention. I know it's a bit protracted from the topic . But still.
His look in TNBA really does instill fear because you don't know if he is wearing a mask or if just had a run in with some batch of chemicals. His dead western inspired design is the best and let's not forget Jeffrey Coombs voice!
Just started watching your stuff recently and just subscribed! Love your video essays while doing homework! I hope you have a great Halloween
Thank you and welcome aboard
The comic that had Scarecrow use a signal to disrupt the ability to read seems like it was adapted for the Batman Beyond episode ‘Babel’, where Shriek projected sound waves that disrupted speech, literacy, and even affected animal behavior.
I didn't know about the comics you mentioned but man that changes a little how I look at him. Makes me think how a scarecrow reformed episode could go 🤔
Thank you for another awesome vid 🙏😃
4:54 He probably started Crane Chemicals after being fired so he'd acquire ingredients without drawing attention.
You didn't really explain how he is a weakling. Unlike some late 90s comics, this Scarecrow is rather a sociopathic bully with a code for knowledge and study.
Phisically, Fear of Victory showed him unafraid. He was completely indifferent to the assault of the Loan Shark and of Batman. He intimidaded the first and kept going for the tube of powder as if it was just a rat race.
The only episode in which he is shown intimidaded and weak is Lock up... And that was the point, the Scarecrow and Scarface are themselves intimidators seeing them intimidated was shocking.
BTAS Scarecrow feels a fair bit like the Riddler & Joker--sharing their narcissism, and seeming more focused on getting the better of Batman, or satisfying his own personal interests, rather than his supposed scientific pursuits. The fear toxin is treated as a tool in his revenge on Dr. Long; he personally invests in the games, by betting on them; and his long-winded speeches about how spooooky he is. He wants to be the object of eveyone's dread, in the same way that Riddler wants to be the smartest person in the room.
TNBA Scarecrow (for his one and only real episode) seems a lot more dry, cold, and calm (which of course made him much more terrifying). He was less theatrical, and less personal, and it seemed like he was actually more interested in his experiments. Sure, he makes a video to the mayor to ransom the fear antidote, but I interpret it as part of the test to see if the mayor was willing to follow through--in addition to observing the gotham populace without inhibitions.
I choose to interpret this as Crane getting over or around some of his personal insecurities, for the sake of his mission in studying fear. And it's tragic we never got an episode of him meeting minds with Hugo Strange.
Loving this series Serum👍
1:22 Starts his lecture in college psychology with "gentlemen". Might need a update for modern times
Why does it feel like Scarecrow was in more episodes than he was actually in?
Same goes for Toyman exclusively in Superman: The Animated Series.
I know there's only so much you can do with Scarecrow in something aimed more directly at kids. Which is why I appreciate how he's used in Batman the Audio Adventures and being referred in Batman: The Caped Crusader.
Apart from many characters in BTAS who recieved periodic redesigns, it suits Crane better.
Of all of the Rogues Gallery Scarecrow seems the most like to completely redo his costume on a whim. Helps keep the scares fresh, doesn't it?
Although rarely noted, Professor Crane's human guise, was inspired by Ichabod Crane. His lengthy features, the elongated nose that takes up a majority of his face, are all there. Its also kind of funny he was a School marm, responsible for educating the youth in the local town, while Professor Crane was the lead researcher that was once respected!😂🎃
Nolan must’ve been a fan of tas scarecrow as he has scarecrow from Batman begins use the same plot to put his fear toxic in Gotham’s water supply. Also some fans have noticed similar lines from some of the Batman tas comics used for similar lines in the dark knight trilogy.
To be fair, if you want to spread around dangerous chemicals, infecting the water supply is one of the most obvious ways to do it.
I’m with you on the hallucination front there. I used to do lots of shrooms and the like but never freaked or anything. Was always in a good enough mind to know they weren’t real. Just sort of sit back and enjoy the show. And the things I saw looked as real as real life.
The real danger is just about as bad as being blind when that stuff overlays with real life. Scarecrow might as well be shining lasers in peoples eyes
Thanks for the video
Damn, that last SA story was sad... Crane is not a real monster here.
Need to read that 2nd BTAS tie in comic as it looks very enjoyable.
I remember when I rewatched BtaS, I got bored of Scarecrow really quick. His episodes were always about how he was going to make people scared with fear gas and would always end with him getting dosed with his own toxin.
I did enjoy the direction they took him in the New Batman Adventures though.
Scarecrows changing costumes made the character better, darker, and not to mention appear that he was going through an evolution of some sort.
Was taken back by that comic book issue of Scarecrow defending a girl who was assaulted. Talk about being somewhat of an antihero at one point.
Would’ve been interesting to hear if he had somehow helped the young lady with her trauma.
The scarecrow will always be my favorite character of all
Scarecrow used the fear-inducing skull devices The Super Power Team: Galactic Guardians (formerly Superfriends) episode "The Fear". This episode was the first time that Batman's origin, including the death of his parents, was depicted in animation (or, I think, on TV in general, having only been mentioned briefly in the Adam West show).
I have to say, My personal favourite origin for the Scarecrow is actually the New 52 one. I thought the angle they took with his father was really fascinating and much better than what had come before for the character.
Are you ever going to do a video on the Music Meister? He's one of my favorite villains and I don't think there's been any video essays about him.
Love that The Brave and the Bold musical ep. Succeeds where the Joker sequel failed, and leaves a more positive mark compared to that Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical ep.
Never say never!
I remember in the comment section me and big Mikey p we're discussing how to really flush out the Scarecrow in the unique way that doesn't make him seem so gimmicky. I came up with an idea, that Professor Crane lacked fear, but was always mesmerized all its effects on others! Even to the point where he admired those who feel it's gribbling hold as he conducts his experiments those unsuspecting foes!🎃
* You'd would think the master of fear would terrify any of the rogues around him, or even Batman for that matter! I'm glad he got a revamp in the new adventure series, but I always enjoyed his second costume the best! It was pretty unique with an awesome mask!
This has me curious to see what you'd think of the equally psychological threat of Hugo strange from the batman 2004. I'd love to see you start cover villains from that continuity, and Hugo strange is by far the best villain done better than in btas. Other than him, id love to see you cover it's version of clayface, or perhaps it's different takes on villains like me freeze, firefly, or penguin!
Never say never!
I love how in BTAS, Scarecrow made Robin afraid of heights when that was an exact plot point in the recent Nightwing comic book. The irony
Awww i was really hoping for an in depth look at the hangman redesign
It was such a 180 that i thought there had to be some good stories behind that
Ask and ye shall receive: ruclips.net/video/aPBoTTidPlA/видео.htmlsi=8SFXfwPJcUdi7GXM
Hey I just like to say I really enjoy your work Batman tas is one of my favorites of all time you should jump into Teen Titans (the original )hahaha The Scarecrow episodes scared me a lot as a kid keep up the good work
I still have a soft spot for Scarecrow's second design, even if the new adventures version is more beloved. Both of them use abstraction in different ways, with the former being more twisted and hyper expressive and the latter being more cold and uncanny. Though I do ultimately think that he works better when he's written as an calm calculated pyschopath instead of a guy who just happens to use a fear toxin to rob people.
Interestingly, Scarecrow barely appears in his best episode as the primary villain. I am, of course, talking about "Over the Edge." That was one heck of a dream he caused for Batgirl!
Even if it doesn't excuse his crimes, Comicbook Crane's colleagues were jerks.
Thug: (afraid)
Scarecrow: yes, show me fear!
Thug: (points behind Scarecrow)
Scarecrow: ...oh 😰
Batman: I'm here and I'm fear 🦇