Wanted to talk in depth about some of the Arkham Asylum staff because a lot of them actually show up multiple times instead of just being one-off characters like I previously assumed.
*Will be adding more of them.
- He first appears in the Intensive Treatment when you chase after the Joker. He’s knocked out at first but when he wakes up you can talk to him and he’ll try to get the door open, however this is optional and you can just run past him.
- After the door is open, he watches the Joker Toxin kill everybody trapped in Decontamination.
- He returns near the end of the game when you’re going after Poison Ivy. He is one of the two mind controlled guards who attack you. It’s implied he headed to the Botanical Gardens after escaping the Intensive Treatment, likely because he thought nobody would go there.
- He survives the events of the game, and you can find him resting in the Botanical Gardens during the endgame.
- He also appears in Arkham City as a police officer in the Church. He is the one who tells Selina to go away if she tries knocking.
- First appeared alongside Quincy Sharp at the start of the game, guarding the Warden. He insults the Joker as you pass by.
- He’s the only survivor of Frank Boles’ shootout, having hid in a nearby office and locked the door after grabbing another guard. Unfortunately the other guard is already dead. It’s implied the nameless guard was a close friend of his, hence why he likely grabbed him specifically.
- When Batman arrives he waits until Batman clears out the Joker thugs before finally unlocking the door and talking to Batman. After which he checks on his dead friend and tells him he’ll “Take care of Maria.”
- At some point he heads to the Botanical Gardens, probably to hide thinking they’d have no reason to come here. There he regroups with Eddie Burlow.
- The next time we see him, he’s being mind controlled by Poison Ivy with Eddie Burlow. After you beat the game they both wake up and don’t remember a thing, thus making him one of the few guards to survive the night.
- He also appears in Arkham City as one of the officers in the Church.
- Louie is one of the more memorable guards because he has a unique face. A lot of the guards share faces with Eddie Burlow, with only a small handful being unique (Louie, Boles, North, Franklin, Henry, Maria.)
- He first appears outside during the start of the game, patrolling the area in a raincoat. He’s one of the many guards outside who missed the breakout in the Intensive Treatment and believe that they can handle whatever will happen.
- At some point he is kidnapped by Harley Quinn and tied up above electrified water in the Penitentiary. It is unknown if he went to the Penitentiary and she grabbed him there or if she grabbed him from his patrol. Considering that between Batman’s first chat with him, and all the patrolling guard members disappearing it’s likely Harley grabbed him from his patrol and killed everybody else.
- Franklin first appears during the Zsasz tutorial. He is trying to rescue Mike but can’t without Zsasz killing him.
- After Batman saves Mike, Franklin takes time to mourn his deceased coworkers. Some time after this he safely escapes the Intensive Treatment.
- When Aaron Cash and Doctor Young head over to the Arkham Mansion, they meet Franklin on the way. He decides to follow them as it’s safer to stick together.
- He ends up getting stuck with Aaron Cash in the Mansion when Ivy poisons the lower floors. Ultimately he ends up surviving the night with Cash and some other Arkham Staff.
- He also returns in Arkham City, appearing in the Church.
- He is one of the guards at the start of the game who leads Joker through the Intensive Treatment. He comments on Batman choking Joker in the elevator, on the stance that the Joker deserved it.
- After the Intensive Treatment he doesn’t show up for a good while. He is next seen in the Botanical Gardens, having been captured by the Joker.
- Once Batman arrives, two things happen. If you haven’t turned the electrified water off yet, then Batman tells Joker to let him go and he drops him in the water, killing him. If you already turned the power off, it skips the cutscene, and his corpse does not show up, implying he survived.
- Steve is a minor guard who you save near the start of the game. It is likely he survives the events of the game however it’s unconfirmed.
- An Easter egg that plenty of people miss in the Intensive Treatment is a woman calling asking for her husband Steve. The Joker answers her call and tells her that all he could find was Steve’s head. It’s very likely that this is the same Steve that we saved moments before, and that the Joker was just lying. Then again, it is a common name.
- Henry is one of the many guards watching the Joker at the start of the game. After Joker left, Henry returned to normal and stayed behind to guard the elevators.
- When Batman heads there to follow Joker, Henry is almost killed by Harley Quinn dropping the elevator before Batman saves him.
- Henry doesn’t appear again until the Medical Facility where he is alive.
- An interesting detail however, is that many of the games nameless corpses reuse his model. It’s not uncommon for the guards face to be reused, like 70% of the guards have Eddie’s face, but Henry has a unique model to himself. It’s likely just reused assets, and canonically Henry survives, although he isn’t important enough for it to really matter.
- Unlike the other Arkham survivors, he doesn’t reappear in Arkham City.
- Bill, like all the other Arkham Guards, was watching Joker’s institutionalisation at the start of the game.
- Some point afterwards he ended up in the Arkham Mansion, where he was captured by the Joker and held hostage. Him and an Arkham doctor were tied up.
- Eventually Batman rescued them and the two of them remained hidden there for the rest of the game, surviving the night.
- He also returned in Arkham City as part of Cash’s team.
- Maria is an odd one I wanted to bring up. She appears only once in the entire game and it’s at the very start. She is one of the many guards watching Joker get escorted in, however more specifically she is one of the guards protecting Dr Young.
- She has a few voice lines but they’re easily missable.
- She is the ONLY female guard in the entire game.
- According to her name badge, she is also a trainee, which could explain her brief appearance.
- It could be a coincidence since her name is very common, but William North promises his late friend that he will take care of Maria. Whether this is the same Maria is unknown and could just be a shared name. If it is her, that means she was canonically dating or married to another of the Arkham guards.
- Since she only appears at the start it’s very likely she survives the night, as it’s unlikely she would’ve been around when Joker initiated his breakout. We never see her again so she might’ve been killed.
- An interesting little tidbit is that in the Character Trophies section, the Arkham Guards has three characters shown. Aaron Cash and Thomas Armbruster are shown alongside Maria who again ONLY SHOWS UP FOR TWO SECONDS.
