Who is the Arkham Knight?

Outside of, "Is this really the last Batman game?" I think it'd be safe to say that the question of who the man behind the mask of the Arkham Knight is the biggest one. It's certainly the greatest mystery. Seeing as how few of Batman's rogues dress up like he does, especially in the "Arkham" franchise, it's difficult to see who it is.

There have been various guess, I won't even legitimize them as claims, as to who the Arkham Knight really is. I've heard from Thomas Wayne to Thomas Wayne's clone to Thomas Wayne Jr. to Batman's clone to the Joker to Jason Todd and even maybe he's the Scarecrow.

Well, friends, I don't have the answer. Heck, my guess is as good as yours. I'm just hoping it's nothing over the top stupid, like if it's Alfred as the Arkham Knight. Though he would put up a good fight.

No, today I'm just here to speculate on who I think it could be. I've managed to widdle it down to a single person as to who it could be, but I've made room in my mind for a second and third possibility.

I firmly believe that this game will not only reveal that Thomas Wayne Jr. is the Arkham Knight, but that it's the Court of Owls who has been behind the destruction of Gotham. Think about it, it makes a little sense in both the continuity of the comic, the movies, and even the game.

In Batman Begins, Scarecrow is working for the League of Shadows, under Ra's al Ghul's instruction. In this game, he may be working with the Court of Owls, sort of serving as a first course for them much as how Deathsroke did in Arkham: Origins. Within the continuity of the game, it would make sense that the Arkham Knight is from a newer organization because, if memory serves correctly, the League of Assassins is out of play for now, and any other crime organization is probably running for their lives from the newer, more powerful Scarecrow.

Within the comic book, the Court of Owls is an underground organization that essentially built Gotham and then sought it's destruction once it got out of hand. As it turned out, Bruce's father had a second son, Thomas Wayne Jr., who came to lead the Court of Owls in the battle for Gotham against Batman. It takes up the first two collected editions of the New 52 Batman and I highly recommend it.

While the Court of Owls storyline served as a great opening to this new Batman I also believe that it could serve as a good closing. The Court of Owls destroyed Batman, they tore him down basically to the last shred of his sanity and strength, and still he was somehow able to defeat them and his brother. I think that would be a very interesting angle to take the game.

Having the Arkham Knight be someone as secretly close to Batman as his brother would be an interesting way to go about the story. Does it have to follow the comic directly? No, and I don't think it will. I do think that this game needs to be big not only in scale but in story. We need to expose Batman to his greatest challenge and what greater challenge is there than family? Based off of the first trailer, there could be a loose interpretation that Thomas Wayne is trying to get Bruce to protect the legacy Bruce's grandfather had in forming some of Gotham's greatest landmarks, hiding the Court of Owls. Not only that, but Thomas Wayne Jr. might be coming to Gotham to finally take what is rightfully his, and if not, he'll use the Scarecrow to destroy it.

Or, they could just not follow the path of the Court of Owls and just have the Arkham Knight as Bruce's brother, which is still a good villain, as long as he stands alongside everything Batman doesn't.

To me, it seems that the only logical person to be the Arkham Knight is indeed Thomas Wayne Jr. Now I don't know the full depth of Batman's rogues gallery but I'm assuming that it wouldn't be someone who is relatively unknown, it'd have to be someone big, someone that will leave people talking for a while much as they did about the Joker in Arkham City. Remember: this game is trying to outdo a masterpiece.

And for every masterpiece video game, there is always something great and destructive to stand in the way of the hero. What if that force is the hero's brother?

Food for thought.