About those people not believing in Batman:

Don’t forget about that one thug in Knight who says “I was at Blackgate, the Asylum, Arkham City, never seen Batman. Not once. Just lucky, I guess.”

That means there is a guy who went through Joker’s chaos at Blackgate, the riots in Arkham Asylum, and survived Protocol 10 while never actually seeing Batman.

Imagine living in New York, seeing all the crime and chaos, then it dies down for some reason. You have no idea why, but you hear about some masked guy going around the city beating the crap out of criminals. You partake in some occasional robbery, but only the cops give you trouble. This masked vigilante you hear so much about in the news never shows up to your crimes. I’d be skeptical about their existence too.

21:15 In Sharp’s Bio in Arkham City, his crimes as “The Spirit of Arkham” are mentioned, and it’s stated that Hugo is using the Evidence of those Crimes, are used as Collateral to make sure Sharp plays along. So it wasn’t COMPLETELY forgotten.

It's one hell of a introduction for new players to Arkham asylum. Without croc it would look like a bland walk with joker.

The funny answer for why Croc had to show up at the start was that one dev was really proud of the design and insisted that the player see it before Croc's Lair.

That's why Bruce was protesting Arkham City, he was going to unveil the Arkham files.

Croc IS a patient with human rights whose sewer cell is more for security than punishment, so it makes sense that he is occasionally taken out, whether for psychological treatment, physical medical examination, meetings with attorneys/parole board or just to get him some fresh air or exercise. As for how he got back in his lair, he was chained up, had the shock collar, was surrounded by guards with shock sticks and, I believe, was on sedatives. It also makes sense that as soon as the crisis started, the large guard contingent around Croc would prioritize getting him back in his cell, given his status as the most dangerous individual inmate. Maybe the guards that Boles ambushes were coming back from doing that. As for why he doesn't leave earlier, it took those sedatives a bit to wear off, and I was under the impression that he was locked in the area (that's why he punches the door in his earlier cameo). When Batman first goes to the auxiliary Batcave, I think the Joker goons there are either talking about whether they should release him or have been ordered to but are so far unable.

That's all in-universe. Out-of-universe, Croc's early cameo is clearly to make the Asylum feel more alive, and also to foreshadow him as a threat, by letting the player see just how big he is and how much security he normally warrants.

This may be fanon, but I swear I once heard that the Asylum's gargoyles were in part installed as a part of a big renovation funded by Bruce Wayne (alongside actual security measures, of course), with the implication that Batman installed them specifically to help him sneak around there.


Regarding the Spirit of Arkham... Batman really doesn't have solid proof that Sharpe has committed any crimes. He found some coded messages scrawled on rocks around a facility famous for having delusional people. Even if one accepts Batman's decoding of the scrawling, they never actually SAY that Sharpe wrote them. The scribble that he left in the penitentiary is proof for us, but hardly enough for a court. Batman probably told Gordon of his suspicions, but they didn't have enough to move against Sharpe before he won the election and began the Arkham City project, which then consumed their attention. By the time Bruce Wayne has been arrested and Protocol 10 is hours away, Sharpe's administration is engaged in such immediate misdeeds that it's not worth Batman or Oracle mentioning the suspicion that he's also murdered asylum patients. (The writers also probably didn't want to spoil the reveal at the end of a mysterious sidequest in the previous game.)

My headcanon is that the party list was just an excuse to keep Harley busy looking for them

6:01 what If the shock collar activated automatically when he tried to live the Island. And with no other option he return to his lair

19:08- I hate how Sharp says 'Continue my work' twice. It's no longer a request, it's a demand. Gives me chills every time.

6:28, Croc eating Scarecrow in his first appearance would have been one hell of an entrance.

For the first one i accept your challenge!
My theory is that Waylon, despite his looks is by technicality a human being. As such he is entitled to certain special freedoms due to his condition. Im guessing that they cant keep him in that sewer all day because while it does keep him secure it likely worsens his condition. The guards might have been walking him to a nightly period of fresh air and sky before the chaos erupted. Its likely they hadnt even gotten him through customs before Joker sprang into action and they were able to quickly get him back to his cell as due to the collar Waylon wasnt a big threat. It would make sense as at night theres barley anyone around Waylon might hurt.
As for why he's still in his cell when Joker is controlling the asylum i think he is waiting for Batman to come to his lair for home feild advantage. It could be he was actually on his way out when he saw batman on the otherside of the door and decided to take advantage of the opportunity.
Thats what i think at least.

As for the last one, come on puncher, hes a politician under the employ of people who pulled strings to make him the mayor.

So, fun thing about point 3, DC had a policy for ages that Batman and his cohorts were to be treated as Urban Legends to the greater community. This game would've started development around the tail end of it, and the policy as a whole was abandoned for roughly the same reasons as are pointed out in point 3

I've always loved the idea that Batman finds out Sharp is a serial killer, then sits back and watches him become mayor and open up the most unethical prison of all time and doesn't ever think "maybe I should tell the police about how he's a psycho."  Not even the League's influence could sweep this kind of stuff under the rug

the last chronicle of arkham that reveals Sharp's identity as the spirit of Amadeus is not needed for the arrest of Riddler, so it isnt 100% confirmed that batman found out, just that he may have been close, he could've never completely solved it.

Sharp feared the Arkham Files so much he made Arkham City and arrest Bruce Wayne just to distract everyone from them.

I COULDN'T RESIST!!!

22:21 I think this has been a fact of life long before anyone at Rocksteady was ever born

Here are my attempts to answer these questions:

1) Croc was going to meet his doctor, but it was a different doctor than the one from the tapes because like you said, that doctor probably wanted nothing more to do with Croc. As for what happened after that, we know Joker had as least one guard (Boles) on his pay role so who's to say he didn't have more? The guards could have been moving Croc while being ready to set him free but as soon as Croc was free he just went back to the sewers because (at least in the comics) Croc is very much a ''just wants to be left alone'' type of character.

2) The BTS explanation is probably a cut plot line where those villains were meant to have more of a role but they just couldn't. The in-universe explanation is probably that none of the villains liked Joker enough to show up to his party (Batman villains hating the Joker is actually pretty common).

3) CP, it is 2026 and you still haven't realized that some people are so stupid that they just ignore obvious truths?

4) Well as for why Cyrus chose to build them, isn't a man allowed to have his cool gothic mental asylum?

5) Well to put it simply: Batman did look for Sharp but he couldn't find him. It's very possible that Sharp was staying on the low until he became mayor (an election Hugo Strange rigged for me) and by then, Sharp had the power of both the people and Tyger by his side so Batman was powerless to do anything until Sharp was locked in Arkham City.

Also, I would want to release the Arkham files but I don't want to be suicided

Maybe Harley's list was a tease for Arkham City? Two-Face, Mad Hatter, Catwoman, Penguin, Clayface and Croc was all in City.

Plus with the Warden's secret room with the blueprints to Arkham City maybe Rocksteady had already decided which villains they wanted in the sequel.

Nothing ever bad happens on an island with criminals and politicians #releasethearkhamfiles

To try to answer 2 of these questions I’ll say this,

1: Perhaps Croc was being taken on a night walk or was being transported to the Asylum’s yard to have some fresh air, and was luckily  locked up in his cell as the chaos erupted just in time, Croc didn’t escape cause he probably didn’t want to get involved and just wanted to be left alone until he noticed Batman then had a change of plans.
2: The list was probably ( as you stated ) part of Joker’s original plans for when he took over the asylum but things most likely didn’t go as he wanted, some of those villains must’ve already left the island during the chaos or simply weren’t in Arkham Asylum during the takeover on that night and joker was not aware. ( Also could be the developers just decided not to bring it up again for some reason )