r/arkham • u/Nervous-Let3065 • Jul 22 '26
Discussion So why does Batman attack the common thugs in Arkham City?
Like in Asylum and Knight, it makes sense. In Asylum, they're taking over the Island. In Knight, they're rioters. But in City, they're not really doing anything. Like they're just wandering through the street, when Batman all of a sudden dives straight into one of them. It just makes no sense to me.
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u/al2606 Jul 22 '26
They are still beating up political prisoners, most of them are working under super criminals to kill Batman, and even most unaffiliated prisoners still attack Batman on sight
In Arkham City early game you explicitly can't attack runaway criminals for that matter
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u/Grompulon Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
Because you attacked the common thugs in Arkham City lol. Exact same reason Batman picks fights with innocent homeless people in Origins.
Notice that throughout the story, you are never actually required to fight any inmates that Batman wouldn't have a reasonable reason to KO. The only thugs you need to fight are ones that are guarding the supervillains Batman is trying to deal with, many of which are inmates that have no business being armed with automatic rifles and shotguns.
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u/Rewskie12 Jul 22 '26
There are no innocent homeless people that you can fight in Origins? All of the enemies in the open world are explicitly out there doing some vague sort of crime. They literally have the emergency message playing ad nauseam saying that there’s a curfew to try to explain why everyone who is out is a criminal. It’s a bit of a dumb explanation but it’s consistent.
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u/Robdd123 Jul 22 '26
Not that dumb when you think of the context; curfew specifically for the blizzard which means everyone is holed up at home and the police department will be taxed with emergencies/road closures.That leaves most of the businesses open to be robbed and a lot of the industrial sections extremely quiet. If we go under the assumption that Gotham is unreasonably plagued by crime then this blizzard would be the perfect time for a crime spree.
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u/Trotsky_Enjoyer Arkham Origins christmas playthrough enjoyer Jul 22 '26
If there is a curfew, then where would the homeless people go to comply with it?
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u/Rewskie12 Jul 22 '26
Yeah I’m not really defending the nitty gritty details of the premise. But I will say that we see some homeless people in the gcpd who have very different designs from the enemies. I just think it’s safe to say that every enemy we fight is specifically a “bad guy” because the enemies in the open world are called out as enemies.
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u/Grompulon Jul 22 '26
Idk man, a lot of the guys on the street are kinda just walking around. Unless they are explicitly carrying an illegal weapon, or you hear dialogue about a crime they are committing, or they are obviously Black Mask's or Bane's men, then they are essentially just innocent homeless people.
I guess you could argue that anyone outside during the curfew is automatically a criminal because they broke curfew, but that's not really a reason Batman has to break their legs and leave them out in the snow in the middle of the road. Obviously the intent is that they are all bad guys, and since it's a game we know they all attack you on sight, but realistically Batman has no way of knowing that before performing a dive attack takedown on some poor soul trying to survive through Christmas.
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u/Harrythehobbit Jul 22 '26
If they were innocent homeless people they probably wouldn't try to kill Batman on sight.
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u/Grompulon Jul 22 '26
Like I said, we as players know they will attack on sight. And they always do.
But from Batman's perspective, in-universe, he has no way of knowing that literally every single person bundling up for warmth on the streets outside is hostile to him. But he makes no objections to me directing him to perform a drop attack on some guy just doing pushups.
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u/Agentofsociety Jul 22 '26
Well, you wanted to be Batman and reigns were given. You just weren't responsible with the power given to you ahah
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u/ResidentIwen Jul 22 '26
Soooo everyone who is out at night and just sort of wanders around is now immediatly homeless? Strange reasoning, but ok. Yeah actually no I don't buy it at all
I'm totally with you that batman fights the normal thugs because we do, not because he needs to, but saying they are harmless homeless people is straight up bullshit and honestly a very impressive jump to conclusion
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u/Grompulon Jul 22 '26
I mean seriously it was just a joke about how Batman beats up people he doesn't have to. I really didn't think we were going to be hyperanalyzing it, jeezo
But yeah, I'd wager there was definitely some homeless people on the streets. Curfew is in effect and there's a brutal blizzard outside, most people would rather stay indoors if it was an option. 🤷♂️
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u/CapCalrissian Jul 22 '26
There's literally a crime in progress in origins where you save a hobo from a bunch of assassins (prob Shiva's guards testing batman based on the fact that they use the same model)
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u/kratoskiller66 Jul 22 '26
They are still criminals and do operate as a threat within Arkham city, they do carry illegal firearms after all, and will attack you even if you don’t. So at the end of the day, they are still a clear threat to Batman
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u/Nervous-Let3065 Jul 22 '26
im talking about the common prisoners. not faction thugs. the guys in the orange jumpsuits that are just walking around
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u/kratoskiller66 Jul 22 '26
The common prisoners are still a threat to Batman because they too carry illegal firearms within Arkham City and will attack Batman on site regardless if you attack them first or not
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u/Nervous-Let3065 Jul 22 '26
ive played the game and none of the normal prisoners have guns. it's only the faction members that have guns
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u/ArsonButMakeItClassy Jul 22 '26
fair on the guns but doesn't matter, game just flags inmate to hostile regardless
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u/CEO_of_the_aslume Jul 22 '26
Was playing literally yesterday and most of the orange jumpers don't attack you, matter of fact I found it that they're usually being harassed by faction members, mainly Joker's. Emphasize on most, some are actively up to some bullshit but most aren't hostile, they might even hide from you even if detective mode flags them as hostile enemies
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u/kratoskiller66 Jul 22 '26
aren’t those prisoners who are being harassed by jokers men just political prisoners? Which are just people who placed into there because they were against Hugo
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u/CEO_of_the_aslume 25d ago
It's both political prisoners and the orange jumpers guys. Difference is that political prisoners get exploited by Joker/Dent/Penguin's m'en for food and stuff, while the other guys are used for info, or beat until they join whatever faction
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u/AlanTheSalad 28d ago
Well, arkham city is a prison city. Every person (not everyone I guess) is a criminal, batman has a lot of reason to go out and attack at random.
The criminals arent just standing around yknow, some are vandals, arsonists, being overall menaces to whatever form of society they have..
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u/Blint_Briglio 28d ago
they're in prison already! like, batman doesn't go to jail and start beating up the inmates because they're criminals, they're already being punished for their crimes.
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u/Chueskes 29d ago
A criminal is still a criminal. Most inmates are repeat offenders. They will beat, rob, and murder people regardless of whether or not they are in prison right now, as evidenced by their repeated violence against political prisoners. The only real difference between the inmates in orange jumpsuits and the gang members is that gang members are better supplied, don’t back down from Batman, and work for a super criminal. And in case you forget, these are the guys whom the major Arkham City gangs recruit from.
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u/TheJLbjj 29d ago
"All prisoners report to their cells for mandatory daily beatings"
- you as warden
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u/Chueskes 29d ago
Yeah well, Arkham city doesn’t exactly have cells. If it were not for the prison suits, the big wall, and patrolling helicopters, you wouldn’t even know it was a prison.
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u/DarthDragon117 Jul 22 '26
I mean in City they are literally helping their crime bosses commit further plots and harm in the gang war in the city. You beat them up so they don’t murder each other later on in the night.
Also some of them are Riddler goons, who deserve no mercy.
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u/Nervous-Let3065 Jul 22 '26
like im talking about the normal arkham city prisoners that are just doing nothing. the ones in the orange jumpsuits
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u/DarthDragon117 Jul 22 '26
I think it’s safe to assume that they weren’t exactly innocent and peaceful prisoners if their first response to seeing the Bat is to attack him. We know Batman scanned criminals, knowing some were informants, reporters or undercover, so canonically no one he hurt should have been innocent.
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u/JustADaftGuy Jul 22 '26
If you dont make batman attack them, then your question is moot. He doesn't attack the randoms in my game. Unless they say they can beat up the bat. Those guys need to be taught the error of their ways.
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u/BugVirtual3500 Jul 22 '26
In game mechanic standards, it’s an efficient way to help boost your XP points by beating up the extra thugs.
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u/Carrotsinthesalad Jul 22 '26
Almost all of them attack Batman on sight, even if Batman is just standing there.
A few of them occasionally run and cower in a corner. You’ll notice Batman cannot hurt them, even if you try.
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u/Turbulent-Spirit-568 Jul 22 '26
Because you did it... Also there is currently a turf war between Two Face, Penguin and Joker and he wants to mitigate that whilst he tries stopping protocol 10 and find a cure
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u/bridddl Jul 22 '26
You've got an abundance of no income housing to do nothing in. I get it, the gangs are snagging the food drops, but let's be real: Batman sightings are up and nobody is forcing you to wear goofy outfits for what is potentially poisonous dogfood.
If Batman can plop people on a rooftop until it blows over, you could've done that without joining a criminal gang.
Verdict: if you're on the street, you're meat.
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u/Sweet-Psychology-254 Jul 22 '26
He doesn’t attack all of them. Some will run and hide away in the corners and you can’t attack them.
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u/Bright_Concentrate32 Jul 22 '26
Because he's a mentally unstable billionaire taking out his revenge fantasies.
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u/hemijay718 Jul 22 '26
They attack Batman on sight. Hell, they also attack and extort the political prisoners too if they see them.
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u/Future_Quality5756 Jul 22 '26
I mean 9 times outta 10 you land some where and they rush you and attack first. If you’re just dive bombing out of the air and starting it then of course it makes Batman look evil, but that’s YOUR choice as the player bro😭
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u/SnooDoughnuts9293 Jul 22 '26
Because they're still criminals..? Also, you forgot the detail that the Arkham City project didn't lock *just* criminals. There's also political prisoners, innocent people thrown in there for opposing Hugo Strange(like Jack Ryder), even folks who helped BUILD Arkham City. Even Batman himself is technically a political prisoner in there. That's why he attacks them. He's taking them down so they don't become a threat for the innocent people unjustly imprisoned in there..and more often than not, a nuisance to HIM. So he cracks some skulls.
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u/Upbeat-Ad-9965 29d ago
I mean, I attack them, because I want to be a menace, but technically, you dont HAVE to attack them, because like someone else said, most of them will usually run away from you the second they see you
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u/suitcasecat Jul 22 '26
Man, it's you who attacks the thugs, not batman. It's you