The Point of the News Stories
Was there any point of those news stories in Episode 1? Episode 4 introduced The Joker, and the inmates, orderlies, and doctors mentioned that he's been in Arkham for some time. Not to mention that nobody remembers when he got committed. Anyway, prior to the episode, I was hoping for a flashback detailing how Ace Chemicals was set on fire. But there isn't. Then Eric Stripe made it more clear on twitter that Joker has never met Batman before. So I ask again, what's the point of those news stories in the first episode, if they're not going to be brought up?
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Its just news stories, if a critical plot point is something you can only know about if you bother to sit down and watch tv in a video game, thats probably not the best way to introduce your plot point.
Also, Joker's origin doesnt need to be like the Killing Joke or have Batman involved.
Name one plausible origin that neither involves Ace Chemicals, nor Batman being involved. Then again, Telltale has been going all original with the backstories.
Well it's world-building. It gives you a better idea of what's going on in the city and how people are feeling. I particularly liked Harvey being anti-vigilante (at least publicly, he tells Gordon and Bruce he's glad Batman's out there in episode 2), people beginning to view Batman as a hero if he doesn't brutalize Falcone (but...half the city thinks he makes the city more dangerous?), people thinking Bruce left Selina for dead if he rescues Harvey before going right over to rescue her, and the bit about how Lady Arkham claimed she kidnapped Vicki.
They are entirely optional, just like the codexes, but I like the extra information. (Even if Harvey said he'd use my slogan and he always uses "put a dent in crime" which is only less cringe-worthy than a new face for Gotham because it's not brutal foreshadowing)
They also feel like a bit of an homage to The Dark Knight Returns, in which TV news broadcasts play a pretty key role. I could be reading into it too much, but I guess they're also there to ensure that our choices feel like essential fallout from the decisions we make. Whether you feel that they accomplish that or not is subjective I guess. I gotta admit, though, a lot of the time the news goes over my head, because I'm too focused on what's going on in the foreground. Maybe on my second playthrough, I'll focus a bit more on what's going on in the background.
Wasn't the ACE Chemicals news story in Episode 1 about the fire they couldn't stop? I didn't think it had anything to do with the Joker.
That's another good point. It's so much easier to do a big change in just a newspaper article or potentially news soundbite than to have substantive changes to the actual plot and characters.
And maybe I just missed it but I didn't realize that Bruce was in and out of Arkham in less than two days until I read the newspaper (because seriously, the city was fine, Harvey was apologetic about the attack on Bruce and freaking out about his other half and then we have a police state with Harvey completely fine or on the way to completely fine with murder on the other half's behest as well as killing Bruce and taking all his stuff. And like I know Gotham was iffy on Bruce at the end of episode three and he was on the news attacking Oswald and maybe some reporters but it still felt like a really quick road to universal hatred. Did the Children of Arkahm really go underground? Or had it just been two days since they attacked anything. Why did no one think they went underground in the week between the debate and the train thing?) I would have thought at least a week, possibly multiple.
That's true actually, now that I think about it. It was pretty abrupt, how everything went to hell a bit. In that sense, it definitely feels like Arkham was just a way to move Bruce and us forward toward an epic fifth episode. It needed to get us to a point at which Gotham was really on a knife's edge. I didn't realise it had only been two days. That is fast! Maybe Batman could have benefited from a six episode season like Game of Thrones? Although, that being said, I felt like Game of Thrones was tedious because of the extra episode order, so who knows really. Imagine, though, if it was a six episode season, and we played some of Bruce in Arkham but also played as Gordon while Batman was gone. Then we could have experienced everything else after Bruce's release in the fifth episode, leading up to a climactic finale.
I'm just speculating, haha, but I'm looking forward to what happens in episode 5 regardless. This has been a really solid story, and furthers my belief that everybody (outside of these forums) that claims Telltale has sold out and lost their touch aren't really paying attention to what they're putting out these days.
But they never said what caused it.