Scarecrow's goal of understanding fear gives us so much room to explore other Batman villains too. Imagine him going after other villains in the name of his twisted curiosity.

It's really sad how scarecrow is a plot device so often. From his voice, (usually) to his costume, to his backstory, to his weapons. He is AMAZING. I can tell why he's your favorite villain. My love of this character is enhanced from a real life story that made me TERRIFIED of scarecrows when I was younger

I feel your pain Pastra. I've had similar issues with Killer Croc over the years. Most comics and media depict him as a brutish thug that embraces his animal nature and depraved gruesomeness, when that's the opposite of how he's meant to be depicted. The point of Croc is that he's someone pressured and abused into becoming a monster, hating what he is and what he's become but feeling there is no other path for him. He tried to be good. He tried to be normal. But everyone everywhere beats him down till he has no other option but to lash out at the world. This is only worsened when he starts to lose control of himself, blacking out into the feral monster people think he is only to be horrified at the carnage he's caused by mauling people. That's how Croc should be, at least IMO.

The best scene that Scarecrow had in Arkham Knight was when he confronted Batman and Commissioner Gordon at the rooftop overlooking Founder’s Island. Not one particle of fear toxin used in the entire scene. Just Scarecrow talking and playing into Gordon’s greatest fear of someday failing to protect his daughter, using that fear as leverage to get him to do what he wanted in exchange for her safety, and, once Gordon subverts him and does something he didn’t want, forcing Gordon to face that exact fear. Overcoming his adversaries not by spraying their face with fear toxin, not by injecting it into them. Just simply playing his way into their minds with what they fear the most and using it in his favour. I wish there was more of that in the game instead of “guy that says scary stuff over broadcast and tells the Arkham Knight what to do and sometimes uses his conflict toxin on Batman to make the clown an antagonist again.”

The closest thing the BTAS version of Scarecrow had depth is in a tie in comic when he’s on parole, where it’s shown that he has a soft spot for his students. When he learned that one of them was sexually assaulted by her boyfriend, Scarecrow forsook a chance at parole to get revenge on the boyfriend.

I think the best part about scarecrow in my opinion is that, unlike many other batman villains who are doing their crimes for money or due to an insane obsession or just insanity, Scarecrow is just doing it for science and because he enjoys hurting people. He was considered perfectly sane, he was just incredibly evil.

Imagine a version of Scarecrow who is sort of on the same level of Batman, in that he's also an urban legend. Like, the people of Gotham City don't know if he does or doesn't exist, and everyone has a slightly different version of him. Some believe him to be a psycho in a costume, some believe him to be a spirit possessing a scarecrow, but nobody really knows. His calling card is that he always either leaves someone crazy from fear, or he beheads them and puts a pumpkin in place of their head. Scarecrow would usually only go after people who've hurt him as Johnathan Krane, getting his revenge in a cruel manner, forcing them to fear him as he once feared them. Though, he isn't against hurting innocents to further his research on fear. Scarecrow only has two goals. Get revenge on those who once scared him as a lesser man, and learn to weaponize fear. To use it. It'd be kind of neat if he was actually inspired by Batman, in that way. He wanted to learn to use fear the way Batman does, but he wants to push it further...

Imagine how incredible a Scarecrow and Mad Hatter team up would be. Batman would be standing in a mock up Wonderland created by Mad Hatter, only to inhale the Fear Toxin, and wander through a horrifying version of Wonderland. This needs to be a movie!

I feel another issue with Scarecrow is when it feels he is beginning to get the spotlights another villain like the Joker steals it from him. To me alot of writers feel scared to experiment with other villains like Scarecrow and Bane just because they are known for their single Gimmick.

Idk if this has been done before, but it would be a cool detail if Scarecrow says that he’s “immune to his own fear toxin” but actually isn’t because his worst fear is always right in front of him. There could also be a foreshadowing scene where he addresses Batman, but only Robbin is there.

In the myth of Hercules, Herc is poisoned, starts hallucinating and accidentally kills his loved ones. I fell like you could easily adapt that to Scarecrow, have the fear toxin make someone hallucinat and kill a loved one.

The idea that scarecrow views Batman as just as insane as everyone else is such an interesting idea for a motive

My biggest gripe with scarecrow is that he never built up an immunity to his own fear gas. Because of this, he loses the same way over and over lol

I actually really enjoy the Scarecrow storyline in Gotham; it's a look at how grief affects people and the lengths they'll go to in order to numb themselves to it. He's not some generic scary guy in a Spirit Halloween costume, he's a person warped by loss who genuinely believes he's helping people by "curing" fear. In the end, he's just a delusional narcissist who ends up destroying the only valuable thing he had left. That to me has way more to explore story-wise than some generic revenge plot.

I think the main problem is that The Scarecrow possesses a pretty high skill floor to write effectively on account of his background in psychology as his association with fear. Whereas Batman has an easier association with fear in that it's baked into his superhero identity, The Scarecrow requires some understanding of the subject or practice of psychology in order to get the most out of his potential, which Kings of Fear did correctly by framing the conflict between Batman and The Scarecrow as a therapy session.

I wanna see a comic that explains how Scarecrow is immune to his own toxin. Perhaps he was able to overcome all of his greatest fear, thus giving the toxin no fear to use.

Arkham Knight will always be one of my favourite depictions of Scarecrow. His desperate desire to unmask Batman to take away his ability to create fear.

I would like to paint a picture of what could be a rather interesting Scarecrow story. Basically, it starts out similarly to this, where it starts in Arkham Asylum, the typical beginning to a Batman story. Except, of course, things go awry, and Batman shows up to inspect the chaos and put an end to it, but finding himself in a bit of an odd situation when he sees the Joker running around, not saying anything and just laughing. As he chases him down throughout the asylum, he finds himself losing his breath, going in circles, and generally seeing signs that he's hallucinating, causing him to immediately suspect Scarecrow. And he's right, but he's not given time to process this before he is knocked out by the gas. When he awakes, he is strapped to an operating table behind a two-way mirror, with Crane on the other side. The two share some conversation, Crane is a mix between calm and giddy, as he's excited to start his experiment. He has a plan in mind, and a point to prove: he's going to put the other rogues (that are in Arkham anyway) through his version of extensive therapy and treatment, or in other words, extreme torture with fear toxin in the mix. All of this is to prove a point, that being that, no matter what Batman or anyone else does, the rogues cannot be cured, they cannot be rehabilitated and Batman's moral decision to try is inherently naïve, though it's also to simply eliminate the competition among Gotham's criminally insane underworld. So he starts the experiment, mixing cruel torture with genuine therapy methods to use on the other rogues and making Batman watch. And at the end of each torture session, he would ask each individual rogue if they felt they were ready to reenter society, and their first response is usually to either just say something along the lines of 'No fuck you I'm crazy', or just threaten him. This continues for some time until he reaches the Joker, who he's both excited and terrified to do this to. He sees Joker as the prime example for why Batman's methods will never work, and gets to work. By the end of the session, he asks the question, and expects the same results as before. However, Joker has stopped smiling, his face seems defeated, yet elated, as he states he's unsure, but that he feels different. Crane is shocked, and unstraps Joker from his operating table, and inspects him momentarily before seemingly being *ecstatic* that he was the one who cured the motherfucking Joker of his insanity. Behind the mirror, Batman is also astonished, as Crane has essentially proved Batman's point: that with enough time and usage of the correct methods, without torture they could eventually be cured and rehabilitated. This also proves that Scarecrow is capable of rehabilitating other patients at Arkham, which also proves that he himself is capable of being rehabilitated through these good actions, even if he didn't intend them to be good. Such a shame that it was all a ruse on Joker's part, and he uses his newfound freedom to stab Crane with a scalpel. Fortunately for Crane though, Batman had also escaped his straps, and broke through the mirror to stop Joker from killing him, and knocks out the clown. The day is saved, Arkham is brought back into order and Crane is in the medical ward, where Batman visits him. Their conversation might go as follows: "Do you get my point now?" "What *point?* He wasn't cured, he was merely lying." "That doesn't detract from what you did. Joker didn't prove my point, you did. Despite your intentions, you tried to cure them." "That changes nothing! You're wrong, it was for my own gain." "Still. You proved to me that, among the monsters of Gotham, there are indeed some that can be saved." And he walks out of the room, leaving Crane to grumble to himself.

Back in 2014 I made a Scarecrow costume, complete with the "needle glove". It was so realistic that children became frightened, with one girl actually hyperventilating.

Dude, I am WAITING for Scarecrow to show up in the next The Batman movie. He's an absolutely perfect fit!

It’s adorable how you can hear just how excited pastra is when talking

For your consideration: A version of Scarecrow that (for whatever reason) is unable to feel fear, but desperately wants to understand it. As such, he is always catching people up in absurd situations to study their fear response. Standing in a weird gray-area where he targets both heroes and villains.

Thank you. Scarecrow is my favorite DC villain, and the issue with Batman’s Rogue’s Gallery is that only Joker is allowed to do anything of note… and it has resulted in Joker-fatigue. Scarecrow is one of the coolest, most intriguing villains… and imagine if, in his obsession to _understand_ Batman, he starts attacking other villains, getting into their heads, possibly making some stable and others more insane(which would have their own consequences), and maybe spread into other heroes, and perhaps end in a decision to either continue to master fear and obsess over gaining knowledge; or become an anti-hero to try and “understand” why heroes save people.

There was an issue of the BTAS tie-in comic that actually approached Scarecrow from a unique perspective - Crane escaped from Arkham just to return to the world of academia and be an educator again. And he was happy for a while, even forming a strong friendship with one of his students. But when that student was abused by her boyfriend, Crane returned to his criminal persona to dispense his own brand of justice...

I love that Simon was used for this video, he’s incredibly expressive and I love how he uses his tentacle arms in the way Clyde arms are used for his expressions since Simon’s arms are fake

I wanna see a scarecrow story where crane is angry of using fear toxin because he thinks it’s a crutch and wants to find a way to use fear naturally without chemicals like Batman

a *great* depiction of Jonathan Crane is in Batman: The Audio Adventures. I think he's portrayed very well, and he finally gets a chance to be properly scary

Never in my life did I expect Pastra to make a video on Batman. Here it is, and I’m not complaining. Here's hoping Scarecrow shows up in The Batman 2, with maybe Willem Dafoe playing him!!!

Love how lots of Batman's villains reflect some aspect of his identity towards himself, and Scarecrow's use of fear as a weapon, opposed to Batman's use of it as a tool, is a perfect example

The thing I find the most interesting about this comic (which I still owe myself to read) is that it seems to highlight one of Crane's most underrated least exploited aspects: the fact that he *is* a psychologist, meaning that he *knows* how human mind works. That is the key aspect to me that makes Scarecrow so compelling as a villain.

You took everything that Scarecrow fans like myself are thinking, and made it into a masterpiece of a video. Applause and kudos to you good sir

One of my favorite Scarecrow stories had Dr.Crane nearly destroy Gotham not by making everyone afraid, but instead use an altered version of the fear toxin to remove ALL fear. The result was everyone in the city was making reckless and dangerous actions without hesitation.

I feel like an unexplored avenue for Crane is the idea that he is a master manipulator. He understands people and their fears so his schemes should be centered on playing those fears against his enemies rather than just hitting em with gas. Like, use psychological manipulation to throw Gotham into a frenzy, using their fears to make people act irrationally.

A great backstory for Scarecrow could have been that he was horribly mistreated and abused in his past and grew to constantly fear those around him due to trauma, and his way of taking power back was to inflict fear on those who did it to him, and then begun doing it to others. It would have been a much better motivation and backstory than what they gave him. Then, while still being evil, he isn't just evil for the sake of being evil. He has his own twisted sense of justice and revenge, being too far gone to save, but the root of his cause being very human and relatable.

It's too bad Alan Moore or Grant Morrison never wrote any Scarecrow stories. Scarecrow's look has changed more than any other Batman character and it's nice to see some really unique visuals some artists have given him.

YES! THANK YOU!!! Justice for Jonathan!!!!! As a writer, it is mind-boggling that they have all the tools on front of them, but they STILL don’t use the character correctly. I feel as though it would be interesting to bring up his fascinating backstory, which adds to the battle between the monster/man dichotomy. He was raised by his grandmother, and has trauma from his experiences, eventually becoming obsessed with inflicting the pain he suffered from onto others. You could play with his inability to show compassion: Is he COMPLETELY psychotic? Can he be redeemed? What ARE his motivations? So many interesting writing prompts that could create a Shakespearean character….and yet we get NOTHING. When will the writers ever learn he is more than his gimmick?

One of my favorite ways I’ve seen scarecrow is in the injustice game, he comes into the stage as the skinny frail man we know, but then using the fear has he becomes a scarecrow monster that you then fight with, his whole set is just really cool, and I love it when scarecrow actually fights with his gas, using it to disable and fight what would be a one sided fight.

I genuinely want to see a possible team up between Scarecrow and Bane. Two scarily intelligent characters who have the potential to be the most dangerous enemies not only to Batman himself but Gotham as a whole. Not to mention the potential of Bane somehow tweaking his Venom to incorporate fear toxin somehow or the other way in which scarecrow uses Venom to amplify his fear toxin (potentially making Crane vulnerable to his own toxin in which we can get a deeper look into his mindset)

I'm glad you gave "Kings of Fear" the spotlight here. It's definitely one of the best Scarecrow stories ever written.

Scarecrow has always been my favorite Batman villain, and I am so happy that you covered him!!!

Scarecrow is such an awesome character. If I worked at DC I would literally write an entire series rectifying his character. Like Crane has some combat skills but rarely uses them in any media like the dude has a scythe for christ sake.

I think one of my personal favorite iterations of the Scarecrow is in Batman: the Audio Adventures, in which Jonathan Crane acts as a calm and collected, yet very chilling individual, who's main interest is to study fear and how it works. *(spoiler for season 2 in the read more section)* (spoiler) My favorite scene with him in the podcast is when Crane is serving as the psychiatrist treating Harvey Dent (Two Face), and Crane gives Dent an antidepressant made using a subdued version of the Joker's laughing toxin. Crane finds that this manages to completely eliminate Dent's crippling acrophobia, but does nothing when Crane gets rid of Dent's coin, causing him to be sent into a crippling panic over not being able to make any more choices. All the while, Jonathan Crane just calmly observes and revels in the study, of learning more about fear and how it works, concluding that the Joker-antidepressant is able to eliminate fears and phobias not determined by an individual's psyche, but not fears that are intrinsic to the person's psyche or their very identity. In this iteration, Jonathan Crane utilizes more than just his fear toxin and a spooky costume. He uses psychological torture and manipulation to get what he wants, which makes him far scarier than just the scarecrow. He is a man that knows how to get into someone's head and defeat them from the inside by driving them to madness.

This is a lot of fun, and clearly a labor of love. And I think this concept, to explore the untapped potential of Batman characters, has a lot of legs. The story you outlined here is clearly the tip of Scarecrow's iceberg. And that's the interesting thing about Batman, and the thing I think that makes so many of us go back to the character again and again. He and all his rogues' gallery have potential that's theoretically limitless. Batman himself is a paradox of a character, a criminal who fights for law and order, a hero who's also an anti-hero, a good guy who dresses like a monster, a rich man who's lost the one thing money could never buy. Through all these paradoxes, endless stories emerge. And each villain tends to express a similar paradox. Joker is a monster who dresses as a children's entertainer. Riddler is a genius that never admits when he's wrong, making him a fool. Two-Face is torn between choice and fate, thinking that the coin-toss decides whether a bad day turns you into Batman or the Joker. And Scarecrow, here, worships fear because he's riddled with it. His anxieties, insecurities, and superstitions seem to have shaped his entire sense of self. So presumably, he thinks of these various kinds of fear as the building blocks of identity.

Scarecrow is currently my pick for a replacement nemesis, since joker has been deeply over saturated. He is the fear Batman distills in crime, but instead of using it as a tool, he reveres it, wants to understand every facet, and even sometimes treats it as a god. A perfect foil.

I remember one of my favourite Scarecrow stories was one about how he was sick of that people only saw him as his fear toxin, so he starts on a mission to make the entire city of Gotham terrified of him, without fear toxin. and he indeed wins, even though batman stops him in the end, he succeeded in his goal of making Gotham once again terrified of the Scarecrow.

Cillian Murphy's depiction of scarecrow in Batman Begins had potential in my opinion. I wish i could get more of it.

One of the first pieces batman media i consumed was accidentally watching the Audio Adventures podcast (I thought it was a different podcast i saw online). Listening to that podcast not only got me into batman, but it made Scarecrow my favorite villian because of the way he was potrated. He was a legitimately scary threat, doing some major damage and not just with his toxin. In the podcast Batman also didn’t know Crane was Scarecrow, so while Batman was fighting Scarecrow, Bruce Wayne was interacting and even working with Crane.

I get not wanting to box yourself into making Batman content, but if you wanted to make them, I'd absolutely watch more of these for other villains. This was super well made

Scarecrow being the embodiment of fear, which is needed for the horror genre, fits well as a topic for Pastra to cover

I love listen to fellow ND people talk about their special interests like this! the amount of care you put into all your videos is lovely to see, especially with things like this that you're so passionate about! :]

He’s my favorite as well, and despite his actions not having a ton of weight to this story, have you seen him in Green Lantern’s Blackest Night arc? He gets a power ring and becomes a Yellow Lantern, all of whom are nightmarish alien creatures who can inflict great fear. The ring initially went to Batman but he denied it, and it found its way to Crane

I think another issue with Scarecrow is that he almost always plays second banana to another villain, in particular the Joker. In all forms of media Scarecrow is many times portrayed as a lieutenant or buddy of the Joker who does what he wants as a secondary antagonist for Batman. This was seen in Lego Batman, The Dark Knight, Batman Arkham Asylum, the Gotham tv series and the Harley Quinn tv series. Also not to mention Scarecrow is sometimes hyped up as the main antagonist but again gets pushed to the side by the real main villain. This was seen in Batman Begins and Batman Arkham Knight

What you said about Scarecrow and his effect on Batman in "Kings of Fear" makes me realize something. Scarecrow is the ONLY person whos capable of ending Batman's never-ending mission. Batman's mission is to rid Gotham of crime forever, a task so incomprehensibly large that he will never complete it. It's impossible. But Batman keeps going because he convinced himself that he HAS to complete it because it's the only thing that keeps him going. Villains have tried breaking Batman before, in many horrible ways, but while Joker is trying to make Batman as mad as he is, or break his no-killing rule, Scarecrow is digging deep into what Batman fears most, and FEEDING those fears more and more. The idea of Scarecrow FEEDING fears is very interesting to me. He understands EXACTLY what makes Batman tick, setting him apart from Joker and the other villains. He knows exactly what to say to make Batman's fears grow and grow until it's the only thing occupying his brain, with or without fear toxin. That's what makes Scarecrow such a prominent threat because he knows EXACTLY how to break Batman down, piece by piece. Scarecrows manipulation can be some of the most effective ever used on Batman. If anyone can break down the hero, the hero who is clinging to the hope that he will fulfill his parent's impossible legacy and whose *fear of failure* is pushed down so far because it's the only thing that can possibly stop him, if ANYONE can stop that hero, it's Scarecrow. What is fear, if not crippling hopelessness?

Arkham Knight is definitely my favorite Scarecrow appearence. He's not looking for a ransom by gassing the city, he's not looking to take over the world, he just wants to torture Batman and remove his ability to strike fear in people.

I shouldn't be surprised that your favourite Scarecrow comic is one drawn by Kelley Jones - his artstyle is so uniquely compelling and fits the theme of fear perfectly. I like the Scarecrow's design here when usually I don't find him credible when they make his suit so, well, scarecrowy, all straw and rags. But here it just fits. Great video, super interesting!

I genuinely believe that Scarecrow is Batmans most threatening villain. The more Bruce forms relationships, (the various Robins, Barbra, Commissioner, Catwoman, the other hero's, ect) the longer he is Batman, and the more he protects Gothem. The more he has to fear, the more vulnerable he is to fear. The fear of losing everyone and everything. The more Batman grows, the more threatening Scarecrow becomes.

Scarecrow has always been my favorite villain across all of media. I’ve lived most my life with pretty severe panic attacks that have made living a normal life pretty difficult. Especially when I was a teenager, I lived in intense fear about getting another panic attack and began to shut down as a person. I feel myself as kinda similar to Scarecrow by constantly exploring the things that cause my panic attacks as a way to conquer my fear of them and move on from that fear. Fear is a concept that transcends humanity and applies to almost all living being on the earth and I think its an extremely fascinating subject to write characters around.

Imagine his study and infliction of fear becomes his own addiction, and therefore him constantly chasing the dragon, even as he becomes more and more numb not just to his own fears, but the fears of others and how fear fits into how we behave in society and interaction with others. Fear and shame are big motivators for some and how they treat others. Just a spitball thought

The first time I ever saw Scarecrow was in the Nolan trilogy and I loved him immediately, then I read the comics and he instantly became my favorite comic character of all time. Coincidentally the first comic I read was Kings of Fear lmao it really is so sad that he never gets a chance to shine like other Batman rouges

I really like the fact that in Kings of Fear, they had Scarecrow be both completely in control of the situation and completely falling apart depending on how strong the toxin's hold on Batman is. It's like they're both struggling to be able to beat each other.

I personally really like these "non-game-centric" videos of yours and I would love to see more of them

I’m making my own video on this and I 100% agree with your points. Scarecrow is also my favorite Batman, villain and it’s so frustrating how over is existence in media has been probably represented both in and out of the comics. And it’s also annoying how he’s either a underling to someone else (like the penguin) or he’s a plot device. I adore him in no man’s land/fear of Faith. Most of his interpretation rely too much on him, being a master chemist, and completely forgot that he’s also a master of psychology of fear. Fear of Faith shows that beautiful with him just using his words alone to instill panic and fear amongst the priest flock. And he did all that simply as an experiment not because he has any actual goal.

Why are we not talking about the lasting impact and also the character design of Arkham Knight scarecrow. He literally unmasked Batman on live television

I feel like it IS a pretty big deal that scarecrow, someone who's stories are constantly dealing with trauma and fear, isn't a sympathetic character. One of the things I love about some batman villains is that they're not evil people, they're broken.

I love how scarecrow can go from being a murder monster to... comical

I really do hope Pastra reconsiders doing those Batman villain analysis videos, if they're anything like this, showing how the character ticks, how they're portrayed, & their best stories, i'd absolutely love videos like this for the more underated of Batman villains, like The Riddler & Killer Croc

As a kid one of the first Batman comics I saw was one where bad students drove him to make an illiteracy spray out of frustration and that just seemed very relatable to me 😅

I absolutely love how passionate you are for single-handedly the best Batman villain to exist.

One thing I want to point out is that his fear gas is such a crippling ability it would be easy to simply write a two parter episode, giving both scarecrow *and* batman screentime and allow him to be fleshed out.

Actually I think his depiction in batman no man's land was an excellent example of him going beyond just being a gimmick he did use fear but he used it to actively stoke the fears and prejudices of the people he was among while he was staying at a church it was brilliant and it was frightening

Is it really a "wasted potential" when the characters do not ever go away? Untapped potential, perhaps. The potential is still present, and thusly not wasted.

We all know he was terribly wasted in the Harley Quinn show. But he had a genuinely amazing introduction as a threat, and both that and his final dialog with the Joker made me realize he'd be a fantastic foil for Harley. Every facet of their characters and gimmicks I can think of compliment one another as either a direct mirror or opposite. They could be really cool as both partners in crime and enemies, and I think him constantly trying to take advantage of her well known insecurities - maybe trying to be a wedge between her and Ivy for good measure - could catalyze a lot of interesting development in Harley. Meanwhile, those manipulations are him matching wits with a psychological peer rather than lobbing a plot device into the story, which is a far more interesting showcase of his character.

Scarecrow really made me realize just how destructive he can be when he unleashed the root beer float on the entire east coast in Arkham knight

Scarecrow is definitely one of my favorite batman villains, the fact that he uses fear as a weapon is really interesting, I wish they would have done more with him, like... Idk make him a yellow lantern? That sounds cool.

Here's the thing with scarecrow, he needs another villian to play off of to be effective. Either working together or antagonizing each other. Scarecrow and riddler would make a great duo, and scarecrow and killer croc are another good team up duo. Bane vs Scarecrow would be an interesting and compelling piece of Batman story telling.

I never really thought about the Scarecrow other than his fear toxin, but you've really put in a good case into why he is and should be treated as more than it. Guy's got a lot of potential mileage outside of just letting us explore the Bat Fam. Maybe something akin to Saw could be tried. Maybe Scarecrow is fascinated with those who see fear, true fear, and then fight and grow from it. Like how many of Jigsaw's previous victims eventually agree with his ideology and aid him, maybe the Scarecrow goes around testing his fear toxin on people, looking for those willing to grow from it and help him in finding others strong enough to defeat fear, bringing them to Batman, the other king of fear. Batman relies so heavily on fear and intimidation that a gang of people strong and determined enough to stand through it and fight him may make him consider whether his terror over Gotham's underworld only strengthens those he wants to stop. Idk, like I said I haven't thought about Scarecrow much till now, but there's a lot of potential here I didn't see before.

When I first saw Pastra using Simon as a mascot for this episode, at first I though it was Clyde dressed up in a costume. When I figured it out I was really excited! Simon is one of my favorite of the Veldigun. I really hope Pastra will feature some of the other Veldigun is later videos!

Your music choice for the background is so lovely, it gives me such strong memories of Ib. The somberness in its tone is PERFECT for a video essay on wanting an understanding anti-villain who seems to get stuck in his "own" (the writing) fears in what stops him from pursuing his goals. I love this therapist/scarecrow take

I'm so glad you covered a batman villain! The scarecrow has wicked amounts of potential as a villain, and this video definitely gave me pointers on how to better characterize him for a batman rewrite/overhaul project I'm working on! Very well done, as always!

I've always thought the same thing about Mysteryo from Spider-Man, I've always found him to be a very interesting character, the illusions he creates through his experience with special effects are one of the most potent skills in comics in my opinion, especially when it comes to in consideration of the fact that he is constantly fighting a guy who has as one of his main powers a danger sensor,he was one of the main founders of the Sinister Six and was even responsible for the meeting between Peter and Miles,but like Scarecrow, generally the illusions he creates and his character itself are used as a tool for the plot and most of the time he does something impactful or has a much more prominent and main presence is not even in a Spider-Man story, for example when he almost drove Daredevil crazy in Guardian Devil and managed to make Wolverine kill his own colleagues in the Old Man Logan story (and as much as Mysteryo's abilities were well portrayed in Far From Home, let's be honest, in that movie Mysteryo is a Iron Man villain and not Spider Man one), I find it even a little ironic that the characters that have the most potential but are almost always used as a tool to advance the plot are characters that usually mess with the human mind (Mysterio and Scarecrow)

It's like you've read my mind dude, from all the problems with him being treated as a plot device rather than a character, to the abundance of potential he holds as both a villain and mirror to Batman. It's just relieving to see someone else be so interested and excited by his character!

Thank you for making this video. Scarecrow is my all time favorite villain, and I 100% agree with you. He is such an amazing villain with so much potential, but he never is written well. My favorite rendition has been the Arkham videogame series, but he was once again used as a plot device for the Arkham Knight. I have been writing a story centered around Scarecrow, but it's more of a passion project as I have such a close connection to him.

This was a treat to watch. You articulated everything that fascinates and frustrates me with the character of Scarecrow and how he gets used/underused in stories. Admittedly my first exposure to the character was watching Batman Begins and being distracted by how pretty Cillian Murphy is. I did dig the effects used to show what people saw while under the influence of the fear toxin though. I remember going down a wiki rabbit hole after that (and also admittedly a fanfic rabbit hole), being amused that in some variations, Jonathan Crane was a practitioner of White Crane style (an oddly appropriate pun). I also love that he was voiced by Jeffrey Combs in some iterations (will watch that guy in anything). I also saw in the comments that it's apparently canon that Harley Quinn was one of his former students and really want a dark academia-style prequel movie/book featuring that. I'll have to check out Kings of Fear. The idea of Batman in a therapy session with Scarecrow is delightful.

Why does this channel talk about literally everything i love? Pastra, dude, you have to be one of the best creators on this platform, thank you for what you do!

I love how Pastra is narrating about the Batman universe as dark, gritty and mysterious while having the Lego Batman intro playing in the background

THANK YOU!! Scarecrow is singlehandedly the most underused batman villain ever. He is incredibly threatening if you do it right. He needs more media.

I'm so happy to see someone who loves Scarecrow as much as i do. He's part of the reason i keep coming back to the series because i love him so much.

My desire for a Crane’s Asylum series is so fricking strong PLEASE give us more Batman content I will GRACIOUSLY eat my meal

Maybe YOU should make a comic for the scarecrow. You have every resource to make one and I think it would be really cool to see your take on a perfect version of the threat that scarecrow actually is

YEEEESSSS! Finally, someone who loves this character as much as I do, if not more so! I have always loved Scarecrow, from the moment I learned about him as a kid. I've always found him such a uniquely terrifying villain, and not just for the fear gas. To me, Scarecrow is unique in that he is a villain who could pick someone apart and worm his way into their brains without lifting a finger, he'd just need time and the opportunity to talk. He's a master not only of fear but of psychology and the mind, he knows how people think and how to use the power of fear to get into people's heads. Fear, unlike any other emotion, is chronic, it's lingering, it stays coiled around your brain and waits to strike like a snake. Scarecrow knows this and knows how to take advantage of it perfectly. One of my favorite versions of the character and his motivations is from the game Batman: Arkham Knight. Admittedly, for most of the game, his goals are muddled and not much deeper than "Cause chaos to break Batman" but in the final third of the game, it really becomes clear WHY he's doing it. He wants to break Batman not by just making him afraid, but by unmasking him to the world as a man who can be beaten and broken, because then the world will know that if Scarecrow can conquer the Batman, he can conquer ANYONE. One of my favorite quotes of any Batman villain comes from this part of the game; "Fear isn’t true biology, Batman. It’s more than instinct. True fear is the absence of hope. And hope is the spread wings of a bat, shining in the clouds." Scarecrow knows that in order for Batman to feel true terror, he must know what it means to fail, and that the entire world will know terror when it sees Batman fail. And in the end, Scarecrow wins. Sure he gets his own toxin injected into him and sent to jail, but [SPOILER ALERT], consider how the true ending of the game plays out. After Batman is unmasked, criminals aren't afraid of him. Sure, he still kicks the snot of them, but even lowly street thugs laugh and mock him, calling him Bruce and saying they aren't afraid of some rich boy. The mystique, the shadow of Batman is stripped away, leaving only a man, albeit a very skilled man, in a costume. And in light of this, in light of knowing that the shadow of the Batman isn't enough anymore, Bruce devotes himself to being something more. Something worse. He kills the Batman and rises from its grave as a ghost, a monster that cannot be touched, let alone killed. And, at least in my understanding of the ending of the game, he does so by using Scarecrow's own toxin in order to do it, to twist the minds of criminals into seeing not a Bat, but a true demon. In every sense, Scarecrow wins; he burns the Batman to the ground and even if Gotham still has a protector, it is not a Dark Knight, but a Bat out of Hell itself. Anywho, sorry for rambling and gushing, I just really like this character lmao

I was always impressed how he managed to create one of the best and darkest episodes of the Batman animated series. Over the Edge. And all without even saying a single word!

The Study Hall story is one of my top fav scarecrow stories and it focuses on the human side of Jon and his attempt to do good that's really the only way he can do things, by fear.

Scarecrow has always been my favorite Batman villain and it sucks how little chance he gets to shine. Even in his own comic event, The Fear State, he barely gets to do anything and gets sidelined almost instantly. He has so much potential and I would love to finally see it fully realized. (I think one cool option would be to make slasher horror movie featuring Scarecrow as the primary antagonist who tortures his victims with fear gas, kills then and then stuffs their decapitated heads into jack o lanterns).

I am so happy to finally find someone else who loves this character. I was the only person I ever knew who would say the scarecrow when asked what my favorite batman villian was, and I know most of the other people gave me confused looks. Also, I gotta say, I love the talking sprites in this video. The right amount of creepy but somehow adorable.

They should do a scarecrow story where there was an original scarecrow that killed a kids parents in front of him traumatizing him and making him become obsessed with the original scarecrow, the fear he made him feel from his trauma and why the scarecrow did it. The kid should eventually replace the original scarecrow without even realizing it. He should meet the old scarecrow and while still terrified of him barley manage to ask him why he killed his parents and other people and the old scarecrow would just reply with “When you understand fear and what you can do when you master it or rather, what you have to do to master it, you’ll understand.” and have that be the last time the two ever meet but the new scarecrows motivation would be both trying to find the old scarecrow to get an answer on what that means and also trying to figure that out for himself without ever realizing he’s become obsessed with that goal. He would then do evil stuff like the original scarecrow and that’s how he would meet Batman who then made him afraid that someone else might understand the thing he’s been chasing all his life before he does. Batman would become another fear based obsession for him and he would never even realize he turned the man who would’ve saved him from his trauma and his parents lives, the thing that was once his driving point, into an enemy.

THANK YOU! Scarecrow is a great character and he’s so underrated I only recently really got to know about him. My favorite portrayal of him is Cillian Murphy (definitely biased for me lol) but I love how he can be seen in so many ways. I love the idea that he can just have an alter ego, or in irony having mental issues despite being a doctor. He also causes almost as many problems for Batman as Joker! Technically he should be the scariest character too, considering fear is his whole shtick, but he’s often undermined. I enjoyed him in the Nolan movies since it made him feel more complex at least and give him more qualities besides a loser who is obsessed with fear in my opinion😅from what I’ve seen in the comics it’s not as consistent or fun to see him, which really sucks considering his potential as a villain but also just a cool character who could have really intense development in order to become the Scarecrow. Also, his old style scarecrow theme is unbeatable!

Have you seen No Fear from the Gotham Knights/New Adventures of Superman and Batman seasons? It was a great example of them experimenting with Scarecrow's methods by having him take fear away rather than give it, ending with an interesting twist. There was also a comic where Crane was mocked about his reliance on gas, then proceeded use his psychology training to talk two immates into suicide, terrify the rest and eventually escape to go on a murder spree just to prove them wrong.

Honestly would love to see a series that analyzes Batman villains or something similar

Absolute W take, def would love to hear about more stories like kings of fear. I gotta re read it since it's been so long and I don't think I looked at it this closely.

I can just highly recommend the Batman audio adventures season 2 with him as the central villain and plot device. They're so so good and honestly I think he's one of the creepiest and yet funniest. I feel like he was one of the better ones.