In this episode, we review the stories told in the Arkham video game series, starting with Arkham Origins and Arkham Asylum. The series further develops the mythos of Gotham City’s “institution for the criminally insane” and is fundamentally grounded in themes of chaos, instability, and institutional corruption. With Batman as your third-person, over-the-shoulder protagonist, gameplay involves interaction with asylum guards, orderlies, and psychiatrists throughout a multi-faceted campus of medical buildings and specialty units such as intensive treatment centers, operating rooms, and, of course, a vast subterranean system in which Killer Croc can jump-scare the hell out of you. In addition to tracking and getting caught up in the Joker’s constant mayhem, you encounter a consistent demeaning and discriminatory attitude held by professionals in how they handle and treat  “violent, incurable psychotics.” The games often revert to an “us vs. them” dynamic – sane vs. insane, free vs. incarcerated, good vs. evil, with Batman frequently panicking that he’s on the wrong side of these dualities.