Lock-up - Tumblr Posts
The Lock-up episode of children's show BTAS really said "you know these villains who are seemingly never redeemed or improving? Well they're actually being horribly mistreated and abused in the mental institution that's supposed to help them by the American Police/Prison System made into a completely unsympathetic character :)" and made a more effective point about the state of most mental health institutions and the police than most things today.
I love this episode because it shows without a doubt that batman cares about these peoples lives and WANTS them to improve. He doesn't even humor Lyles bullshit, he just beats his ass up whilst telling him he has no compassion (based batman).
Because no matter how shitty people like Scarecrow(who has no explicit sad backstory in btas)are, they are still just people and need to be treated as such if they are to improve. You cannot expect someone to get better by treating them like vermin with no hope of change. They are in a mental institution. They are supposed to be treated with care to have any chance of rehabilitation.
Not like Lyle Bolton wanted to help them or see them improve anyway. He just wanted to feel powerful by abusing helpless people he had control over. And that's why people don't like Lyle Bolton while they do other villains. He isn't a fun concept. He's real. He represents a real issue. People like Lyle Bolton are real. As I'm writing this very post my father is watching a YouTube video in the living room from one of them. Abusers in positions of power complaining about being "censored" by the liberal media and how "those types" of people aren't people and don't deserve to live.
The entire trial scene is so hard to watch because even though the patients of Arkham are clearly being abused and threatened in front of everyone, no one (except Bruce) seems to notice. If Bruce hadn't instigated the patients freak-out, they never would have said anything about the mistreatment they were receiving from the very place that was supposed to help them. They literally end up huddling together, shaking in fear as Lyle, barely being able to be restrained, screams at them about how they're scum that deserve to be beaten to death. There's a theory that Scarecrow not only escaped to get away from Lyle Bolton, but to get help for the other inmates as well. And if that was the intention, well, I'm glad he succeeded.
The only unrealistic part of the episode is the fact that Lyle actually got punished.
