Special:Badtitle/NS90:User talk:DocColress/The Great Big Examples Suggestion Topic 3: Snake Eater/reply (2)

So on the topic of Batman, I've completely finished Batman: Arkham City and have finally beaten the Riddler's long sidequest, and I'm starting to think I've made a premature judgment on putting Riddler on the Non-Examples list. I hadn't finished his sidequest and wrote him off as "Darker and edgier, but not as heinous and not treated as seriously), but now I feel that I'm pretty much wrong there. So I think I'll make a write-up and let you decide.

'''Who is the Riddler? What has he done?': As we'd know, Edward Nashton a.k.a Edward Nigma a.k.a the Riddler is a smug, insufferable genius who commits crimes and leaves clues and riddles at the crime scene for the police and Batman to solve, both as a compulsion and a way to test his brain against Batman's. He doesn't do anything noteworthy enough to qualify in Arkham Origins, Assault on Arkham, or Arkham Asylum, but in Arkham City he ups the ante and becomes a whole'' lot worse.

Basically, as revenge for Batman humiliating him on Arkham Island in the previous game (He set up tons of trophies to find and riddles to solve, Batman found them all and revealed his location to the Gotham City police), the Riddler kidnaps all of Arkham City's medical staff and their security guards (Who unlike Strange and his TYGER guards are good, ethical people) and puts them in horrifying Saw-esque death traps that he's sure Batman can't get them out of.

The first hostage isn't in a death trap, but was taken to Two-Face's territory by an agent of Riddler's to be executed. The second is put on an elevated ceiling that would be lowered onto an electric floor, shocking the guy to death. The third is strapped down in a chair and put under a container that is shuffled along with two others in a parody of the common "Find the ball" street game. However, the Riddler cheats and moves the guy under the containers to get Batman to lose. If Batman guesses wrong, the guy is burned alive, and you have to watch as it fades to the game over screen. The fourth is simply tied to a chair, with her intended fate kinda unclear (Given the huge amount of water in room, her fate may have been drowning to death, but I couldn't tell). The fifth is in a situation similar to the second, but with a huge grinder along with the electric floor. And the sixth is on an elevated floor like the second and fifth, but is tortured with electric shocks while you're trying to save her, forcing you to listen to her screams of agony until you save her.

After all these hostages have been saved, you enter the Riddler's hideout where he's currently brainstorming new death trap ideas. His other hostages (Which I don't know the exact number of, but I counted around nine for sure when I played) are forced to walk in circles with bombs strapped to their heads. If they stop moving, the bomb goes off, and according to a list of the names of Riddler's hostages, around two have died to this already. Thankfully, when you nail Riddler, he gets his and gets forced into a karmic punishment where he has to do what the hostages were doing (His bombs are defused, but he doesn't know that).

And this may not really add to his evil since it is targeted towards the hero, but unlike in Arkham Asylum he does have a few trophies for Batman to find in areas that are secret death traps (There's two that I've found so far: one that is meant to suffocate him with steam, and one that kills him with an electrified floor).

Is he heinous by the standards of the story?: This is the hard part. Among the side villains, he's up there with Hush and Zsasz as the nastiest by far, and outdoes Hush with his body count (Same with Zsasz, but only by victims you see. Zsasz is implied to have killed plenty of other people before Batman initiates his side-quest, and that's not going into what he gets up to in Arkham Asylum). As for the other side-villains, he beats out Bane (No body count, his only intended victim is Batman), Deadshot (Three victims with two intended ones, just a hired gun for Strange), and sort of beats Mad Hatter (His interview tapes with Strange imply that he's had his fair share of victims, but he's delusional and insane to Obliviously Evil levels. In his mission proper, he's brainwashed around eight random thugs as well as an attempt on Batman). When it comes to the bigger storyline villains however, while he beats out Two-Face, Clayface, Harley Quinn, and especially Mr. Freeze, but also has to compete with Joker, Strange, and the Penguin when it comes to the established Complete Monsters. Even without them, there are other non-Complete Monsters he'd potentially have to compete with like Ra's al Ghul (I'm a bit torn here. Ra's was Strange's superior, but Arkham City was Strange's idea and it's made clear that Strange is in charge of the city while Ra's watches from the shadows) and Quincy Sharp (Who was in cahoots with Strange, but insane, a bit regretful at the end, and ultimately Strange's puppet).

Verdict?: To me, I think so. In the canonical order of the games, he seemed to have some positive traits in Origins and Assault on Arkham, but they're long gone by the time of Asylum and City, especially in City where he puts a lot of people in terrifying situations (And outright cheats with one) just so he can prove that he's smarter than Batman and stroke his ego. His arc isn't over as he's set to appear in Arkham Knight, but I doubt he'll do anything to better himself there (Though as they say, never say never). However, I know that heinousness will play an issue in this so that's why I want to know your thoughts.