LogFAQs > #884746386

Before I get into this part, I want to make something clear. I'm aware that John Doe is The Joker. The reason I dance around using "The Joker" is because in the initial trailer/interview piece, the Telltale staff have been calling him the proto-Joker and stuff like that. I think this take on The Joker has some sense of humanity, and a life outside of his monstrous dick moves as The Joker - so until we hit that point where he snaps and starts to call himself The Joker, I'm thinking of him as John Doe or the proto-Joker.

Now, with that being said - how does the proto-Joker come back into the picture? He shows up at Lucius' funeral and starts cracking inappropriate jokes to his bereaved daughter. I know you're meant to hate him, because he's being telegraphed to become the Joker, but I found it to be in incredibly poor taste from a meta standpoint. Introduce a shitty legacy character, kill off the old one, then have someone attend his funeral and make it all about them. Fuck that story decision, Lucius deserved better.

Also, I'm not hot on the Joker storyline. For what it's worth, the way Telltale have been doing the story so far? I commend them for it. They're not afraid to fuck with canon in order to tell their version of a Batman story. I also acknowledge that with John Doe's existence, a Joker story was inevitable - hell, even if he didn't appear last season, a Joker story was inevitable because he's one of the most well-known aspects of Batman. Despite that, I mention it because we all know the way that Joker stories go - one of the reasons I appreciated season 1 is because they made something of an effort to make a compelling Batman story without the Joker, and I appreciate letting Lady Arkham take the main stage instead of shoehorning The Joker in right at the very end. It was the Children of Arkham's show through and through, and they made a great choice by not letting the Joker hijack it. Now we're doing the Joker story, and while I like where it's going and acknowledge that it was going to happen sooner or later, I can't help but be a bit wary because I've already seen how this goes more than once. This is more of a YMMV nitpick if anything, but I thought it bore mentioning.

Really, the most egregious thing about The Joker taking centre stage is that he had to kill off The Riddler at the end of episode 1. What a waste - Robin Atkin Downes' Riddler was a delight, and it sucks to see him check out so soon. I think, whether the season ends up being good or bad, that this season's Riddler is going to stand out as one of the better aspects of it. It's a great depiction, IMO.

There are a couple things I didn't get to mention, like the kickass music, the new Relationship aspect and Alfred's re-design, but I think I'll leave it at that. I really enjoyed this episode, and I hope the season is good, but fuck what they did to Lucius and I hope that the rest of the season's villains can carve out their own niche independent of John Doe. I recommend grabbing it if you liked season 1 of Telltale's Batman, but be prepared for some story fuckery if you do - the Telltale canon was pretty benign and even awesome in Season One, but so far in Season Two it's been hit and miss.
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