Fear of Victory

[The Laughing Fish]

I'm looking back at the Scarecrow's second appearance in BTAS, the one where he poisons athletes and bets against them to get fast money as Robin also falls victim to his fear toxin.

I heard that Bruce Timm didn't like the first Scarecrow design he did for Nothing to Fear because he thought it wasn't that intimidating, and he was right. I prefer this design for the remainder of the series better because it looked more creepy, but still fit with the rest of the show's animation, and it allowed more room for imagination, such as morphing Scarecrow's face into a hideous monster as the screenshot below shows.



This was why I never cared too much for TNBA's zombie, noose-wearing redesign because you can't really distort it for complex animations. After all, Scarecrow wouldn't really need the fear toxin, just looking at his face alone would be quite terrifying.

The use of this show's black colour pallette and dark shadows gave it a distinctive, creepy vibe that definitely would've frightened younger audiences. I remember FOV being one of the many episodes that used to make me uncomfortable as a kid because of the eerie mood, music and suddenly distorted character reactions. For instance, you had these two instances where Scarecrow cackles as hides in the shadows and watches Robin's friend suffering a traumatic episode during the football game...



...and then the image is later recalled when Batman hides in the shadows at the very same spot while confronting Scarecrow.



This show even makes a dumb goon look disturbing, as he turns around half a second late and gives a twisted smile, after his bookie boss tells him to follow 'Lucky' to find out if he's fixing matches.


But the most memorably creepy moment would definitely have to be the scene where Batman suspects Scarecrow was behind the scam and visits Arkham Asylum to confirm his suspicions of his escape; passing by Joker, Poison Ivy and Two-Face while a corrupt guard begins to freak out. The chilling music wouldn't be so complete without a cameo of Two-Face's musical theme, and Joker's maniacal laughter at the end.

In terms of character arcs, I reckon Batman in Nothing to Fear was deeper because the fear toxin exposed his guilt for letting down the family name, whereas with Robin, I suppose his fear of failure was synonymous with an athlete's fear of choking in the heat of the moment. I only make this assumption because of Robin keeping his cool to catch Scarecrow's deadly vial as the Gotham football team recovers a fumble and scores the match-winning touchdown in the end.

[Catwoman]

I need to watch this again, been forever and I think I only saw it once as a child. That clip was awesomely freaky.

[The Laughing Fish]

I need to watch this again, been forever and I think I only saw it once as a child. That clip was awesomely freaky.

Try watching it in the dark, I dare you!

[The Laughing Fish]

According to the credits, Tim Curry was in this episode. He played the goon who was victimised by the Scarecrow. I never knew he was quite a talented voice actor.

But what's even more surprising is that Curry was originally cast as the Joker, NOT Mark Hamill. He even recorded a few episodes before getting replaced, but his Joker laugh made a cameo as a mechanical clown in the episode Be A Clown.

https://screenrant.com/tim-curry-joker-laugh-batman-animated-series/

I've read some conflicting information over why the showrunners didn't pursue with Curry, but the actor himself was recorded saying he was fired after getting bronchitis. That's pretty harsh.

But then again, if Curry came back to do Fear of Victory as a bit part character and later worked on Batman Beyond, I guess there were no hard feelings. I'm very curious to hear how his Joker voice would've sound like. Too bad we'll unlikely ever get to hear it. In contrast, we got to hear Clive Revill, the original Alfred for a couple of episodes (including the other Scarecrow episode, Nothing to Fear), before we got to used to hearing Efrem Zimbalist Jr. I suppose the showrunners wanted to establish a distinctive voice for the Joker, and didn't want to confuse the audience with a sudden a change of actors. Either that, or there was specific contractual agreements we're not aware of.