"From the patient files of Jeremiah Arkham, Director of Arkham Asylum."
Arkham Patient Sessions is a series by Mr. Rogues
. It focuses on Jeremiah Arkham, director of Arkham Asylum (later replaced with Hugo Strange), interviewing several members of Batman's Rogues gallery, and trying to analyze them.
The videos can be found on his channel or this playlist.
Tropes showed in this work:
- Adaptational Wimp: While Polka-Dot Man was a joke character in the comics, he still had an array of superpowers. The Polka-Dot Man in this series was just a petty thief who got tackled by an old lady.
- Ambiguously Evil: Jeremiah Arkham appears to wish to help his patients. However both Black Mask and Scarecrow think he is no different than them, and he also uses electroshock therapy against Riddler. His comic-book counterpart is a straight-up villain who even becomes the second Black Mask.
- Bedlam House: Arkham, as usual. While the hospital isn't shown much, Jeremiah is known to use electroshock therapy.
- Book Ends: The first episode of Series 1 starts with Jeremiah analyzing Scarecrow. The last episode has Scarecrow analyzing Jeremiah.
- Breather Episode: Polka-Dot Man's episode comes after Firefly (a man who set his house on fire) and the Straw Nihilist Serial Killer Victor Zsasz.
- Electric Torture: Jeremiah does this to Riddler to try to stop his obsession with riddles.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: At no point does any character appear onscreen; we just have their voices.
- Lethal Joke Character: Dr. Death is treated with less respect than Polka-Dot Man, but he ends up freeing all the patients of Arkham
- Literal-Minded: Mad Hatter behaves this way. When Jeremiah asks how he is doing, he asks what is it he is supposed to be doing.
- Mythology Gag: Black Mask tells Jeremiah that his "true face" would look similar to Black Mask's. In the comics, Jeremiah becomes the second Black Mask.
- Once per Episode: "From the patient files of Jeremiah Arkham, Director of Arkham Asylum" is said at the beginning of almost every episode. In Scarecrow's second episode, Jeremiah Arkham is replaced with Jonathan Crane.In Series 2, Jeremiah was replaced with Hugo Strange starting with the latter's debut episode. At the end of Batman's video and the beginning of the last video in the whole series, Dr. Arkham's introduction was heard.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Jeremiah Arkham delivers a brutal one to Dr. Death after the latter proves to be a bit too full of himself.Dr. Death: I am ze greatest supervillain ze city has ever seen! Ze first supervillain! Ze original! I shouldn't be locked avay in zis verdammte madhouse! Do you remember, Herr Doktor? Do you remember mein brilliant crimes? Ah, ze good old days. Zat time I released a deadly mist upon ze entire city; infected everyone. Only vay zey could get ze antidote vas if ze city gave me $10 million! [chuckles] I would've gotten avay vith it, too, if only it vasn't for ze Fledermaus. Zese other so-called super villains, the ones who came after me, vat are zey? The Joker, a stupid clown! Stupid clown with stupid jokes! How can he be called Batman's nemesis? He's ridiculous! Is ein insult to me und ze Fledermaus! Und The Riddler, vat ein dummkopf! Reveals his crimes beforehand, most incompetent idiot I've ever seen! Und vat about zat Two-Face? Can't even make up his mind! Have you seen him play vith zat coin, Herr Doktor? Like ein kinder! I tell you, Doktor, zese foes, zey aren't-
Jeremiah Arkham: Oh, SHUT UP!
Dr. Death: Was?
Jeremiah Arkham: I said shut up! I'm so tired of your infernal babbling!
Dr. Death: Was?
Jeremiah Arkham: You always do this! You always go on about the old days, how you terrorized the entire city, and how you're a much better criminal than all the other lunatics in this place! Well, I've got news for you, Karl: No one cares! No one cares about you! No one even remembers you! The Joker, The Riddler, Two-Face... everyone knows of them, but Dr. Death? More like Doctor Who! Get over yourself, Karl! You're a loser, a has-been! Sure, you terrorized the entire city... eight years ago! I doubt even Batman remembers you now!
Dr. Death: Now, wait a minute...
Jeremiah Arkham: I mean, look at you! What are you compared to them? They have longevity. They're all unique, each with its iconic gimmicks and personalities. And you... You're a generic Mad Scientist! You're dime-a-dozen! You even have the stereotypical German accent! What a joke!
Dr. Death: I thought you were here to help me, not insult me!
Jeremiah Arkham: You say you want out of here? Well, why won't you just escape like everyone else does?
Dr. Death: I tried many times, but...
Jeremiah Arkham: Oh, please. You haven't really tried. If you did, you'd be out of here by now. You know what I think, Karl? I think you're afraid to escape.
Dr. Death: That is ridiculous! Vhy vould I be afraid?
Jeremiah Arkham: I think you're afraid that everything I just said will turn out to be true! You'll turn out to be a generic mad scientist has-been, not enough to cut it in today's Gotham! I think you're afraid that once on the outside, you'll finally realize once and for all that you really are nothing compared to the other supervillains! You're afraid that you'll be no match at all for the Batman! You're afraid he'll just laugh in your face! - Revisiting the Roots: In another video, Mr. Rogues expressed disappointment with the fact that Black Mask in the comics had his mask gimmick dropped in favor of being a Torture Technician. Here, Black Mask is still obsessed with Masks and revealing people's true faces.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Downplayed. Dr. Destiny is a Justice League villain who was sent to Arkham with all the Batman rogues but is still noted to have just fought the Justice League.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Black Mask knows Batman's secret identity, but claims Batman doesn't know he knows.
- Small Name, Big Ego:
- Polka-Dot Man delusionally claims to be Batman's greatest villain, despite never even fighting him.
- Dr. Death declares himself greater than all the other Rogues just because he was the first Supervillain, even though he's been locked in Arkham for 8 years and never escaped.
- Speech-Centric Work: The videos consist entirely of the dialogue between Dr. Arkham and his patients, though there are sound effects to convey actions taking place offscreen, and these actions usually do have importance in the story.
- Superhero Paradox: This is the reason why Hugo Strange has Batman locked up because he believes that Batman makes more criminals come out of the woodwork.
- Wham Episode:
- Dr. Death ends with Dr. Death releasing all the inmates of Arkham, and Scarecrow finding Jeremiah.
- The next episode The Scarecrow #2 has Scarecrow be the one analyzing Jeremiah.
- The first episode of Season 2 establishes that Hugo Strange is now the director of Arkham Asylum, as it’s revealed that Jeremiah Arkham committed suicide since we last saw him.
- Black Mask #2 ends with Hugo Strange revealing that he knows Bruce Wayne is Batman.
- Dr. Hugo Strange has Hugo talking with the Ghost of Dr. Jeremiah Arkham.
