Victor Zsasz (Batman: Arkham Asylum)

Victor Zsasz is one of the several antagonists in the 2009 video game, Batman: Arkham Asylum. Mr. Zsasz is one of the escaped inmates when the Joker takes over Arkham Island. He takes hostages that Batman must rescue, preventing him from harming innocent Arkham guards and doctors. He can also be fought in the battle rooms as one of Joker's thugs that Batman must defeat to earn points, fighting like the regular knife thug among Blackgate prisoners.

Biography
A true sociopath, Zsasz grew up in a life of ease but nonetheless became a serial killer. Indiscriminate in his prey, body count is the only thing that matters to Zsasz. He carves a mark for each of his victims into his own body, and is saving a special spot for the Batman.

Attributes:
 * Sociopath with no regard for human life
 * No pattern of killing, making him difficult to track
 * Compulsive need to kill others

Batman: Arkham Asylum
During the Joker's takeover of Arkham, Zsasz was loosed from his cell in the Intensive Treatment Center. Running free, he encountered two Arkham security guards in the Patient Pacification Chamber. After killing one guard who tried to stop him, he took hold of another guard named Mike, and strapped him to an electric chair. A third guard, Zach Franklin, came across Zsasz, and sounded the alarm, requesting backup on the radio. At least three more guards responded to the alarm and arrived with Dr. Gretchen Westler, Zsasz's personal therapist. He warned that he would kill Mike if he saw "anything that looked even a little bit like a bat" getting too close whilst the guards attempted to talk him down. Zach Franklin and another guard stood barred at the entryway to the Pacification area, but were able to see Zsasz pacing behind his hostage in the electroshock chair. Franklin tried to call for more backup in the Processing Corridor in dealing with the hostage situation, but found no answer on the radio, as most of the other guards in the vicinity had been murdered by the Joker after his escape through the area. A surviving guard, Eddie Burlow, picked up the call near the door to the Decontamination Chamber but was unable to respond. He directed Batman to the Patient Pacification Chamber. Batman arrived on the scene and met Zach Franklin, who informed him of the situation. Batman used the chamber balcony and grappled behind Zsasz on the gargoyles that lined the top of the room. He snuck up on Zsasz, taking him out and leaving him back in the care of Dr. Westler and the Arkham staff. He warned a doctor that it would take much time before Zsasz could be cured, if he could be cured at all. Soon after, Harley Quinn trapped the Arkham staff in the Pacification Chamber. One of the security personnel covered Zsasz with his shotgun to prevent any escape.

But yet Mr. Zsasz somehow escaped once again, killing three security guards above the Penitentiary in Arkham West. He then proceeded to prop them up like rag dolls around a table as if they were enjoying a game of cards. After the Joker's men had taken control of the Penitentiary, Zsasz proceeded to the heavily-guarded Arkham East. While the Joker's men wrestled the area from the guards, Zsasz invaded the Botanical Gardens. He entered the Botanical Glasshouse Entrance, where he encountered three more members of security at the doorway to the Botanical Glasshouse. Zsasz murdered two of them, arranging the dead guards in a lifelike pose around a park bench. After killing several more Arkham staff, Zsasz scratched out the tallies of his kills onto the bench. Shortly after, The Joker came across Zsasz in the Glasshouse Entrance with his latest victims. ("No doubt acting out some twisted fantasy", according to Joker) The Clown Prince of Crime took Zsasz to the Arkham Mansion after his men had captured Dr. Penelope Young in the Library, planning to torture the formula for her secret Titan drug out of her. Mr. Zsasz asked to be left alone with Young and successfully forced the secret out of her. Batman searched the mansion until he came across Zsasz, who was holding Dr. Young hostage with a knife to the throat. The Joker, contacting Zsasz via a monitor, tried to convince Zsasz to hurry up and kill her. Zsasz began to panic as he knew Batman would take him down if he did just that but he was also torn by his desire to kill her, slowly savoring her fright and saying that she was "just begging to be slaughtered". Before he could make a decision, Batman knocked him out with a Batarang to the head.

Dr. Young was driven to so many tears while Zsasz held her hostage and nearly killed her. She beat his unconscious body angrily, yelling at him "You monster! You evil, evil, evil monster!", while still crying. After Young was killed by an explosive set by Joker and Harley Quinn set her goons on Batman, Zsasz disappeared, suggesting that he escaped during the chaos, as no guards had arrived to detain him. His final appearance was in Batman's hallucination of a replay of the game's opening sequence caused by Scarecrow's Fear Toxin. Batman was placed in the captured position, with Joker capturing him, and Zsasz among the Arkham inmates escorting Batman in the patient handcart. After this, Zsasz had no further appearance in the game and his status remained unknown.

Batman: Arkham City
Victor Zsasz has been confirmed for the sequel and will have his own side quest for Batman to solve.

Arkham City Profile: Dr. Hugo Strange
There is no doubt that the world would be a safer place without Victor Zsasz, but why send him to the electric chair when he can serve to punish his fellow inmates at Arkham City? Zsasz's blood-lust continues unabated and rules his every action. Personnel are cautioned to avoid any form of contact with this enthusiastic and consummate murderer.

Patient Interviews


Patient Interview #1, November 4th In his first recorded interview, Dr. Sarah Cassidy was assigned to Zsasz to try and reason with him through therapy. She told him that they should get to know each other, and he told her that he didn't need to know her, as "everything is meaningless". She thought that his view of life was very negative, and he asked if she read his file. She described how it said he was born to a rich family, how his parents died, and how he lost the money gambling. He simply said, "none of it matters", and that only the "mark" matters. He describes his "work" (tally marks) to her and says that he has a spot for her mark, asking if she would like to see where.

Patient Interview #2, November 19th In the next interview, Dr. Cassidy continued to discuss Zsasz's victims, and pointed out 20 women killed in Gotham and left in life-like poses. Zsasz referred to all his victims as "zombies", working through the "daily grind" and waiting for someone to "liberate" them, and said that the 20 women were all "lucky" to receive his "gift". He asked the doctor how she felt when she went up the elevator and into her apartment every day. He expressed knowledge of where she lived, mentioning the six locks to apartment 433 and pointing out that she forgot to buy her cat food...again. She asked how he knew that, and he went on to say how she sat in her favorite red chair, cat on lap, "waiting for something to happen". He told her that he could "make it happen", and that he was Sarah's "salvation".

Patient Interview #3, November 22nd Terrified and shocked by Zsasz's knowledge (apparently through stalking her), Dr. Cassidy went on leave from Arkham to get away from Zsasz. Dr. Gretchen Westler was assigned as Zsasz's replacement doctor. The doctor momentarily asked the security guards to leave them, but the warden had ordered them not to leave her in the room alone with Zsasz. She asked Zsasz to speak to her, but he was quiet. He told her that he was depressed. She asked why he was depressed, and he said that it was because of the "one that got away", the one he "chose" (referring to Dr. Cassidy). He said that he needed her "mark" and that he wanted it, in an angry voice. Patient Interview #4, December 12th Dr. Westler continued her interview of Zsasz later, but he would not reply to her, simply repeating the words "cutting and cutting and cutting" to himself. The security guards decided to take Zsasz back to his cell, but he turned on them. Revealing that he had a knife, Zsasz jumped on a guard named Bill and began cutting him. Panicking, the guards aimed their weapons at him and called for help apprehending the crazed Zsasz. The tape ended, and it remained unknown if Zsasz successfully killed the guard. However, Bill has appeared to have survived the attack, as he was present at the Arkham Mansion library during the Joker's later takeover of Arkham. After the incident, Zsasz was promptly detained and placed in isolation.

Case Study Notes, December 22nd In her next recording, Dr. Westler recalled Zsasz's isolation and was quite aware of his fixation on Sarah Cassidy. A security guard rushed in and told her that Zsasz had escaped. She was frightened, but the guard told her that it was safe and that Zsasz had definitely left the island. Relieved at first, Dr. Westler alerted the guard that Zsasz would need to kill again and urged him to warn the authorities. She quickly realized that he had gone after Dr. Cassidy, and called Sarah to warn her. Before she could tell her of Zsasz's escape, Sarah said someone was at the door. Gretchen yelled for her not to answer it and that Zsasz was free.

Road to Arkham
After the door was answered, Zsasz kidnapped Sarah. Zsasz took Dr. Cassidy to an Old County Hospital in order to kill her. An anonymous tip was found in Cassidy's office, leading Batman to the hospital, where he saved Cassidy from her gruesome demise. Zsasz was subsequently put back into Arkham.

Psychological profile (by Dr. Penelope Young)
"A Psychopath, Zsasz would fit perfectly into the desorganized asocial category of serial killer if not for his special fixation on the Batman. His motives are power and control, which he expresses quite literally by carving a scar into his skin to mark each of his victims. His obsession with the Batman is also manifested in a physical way: He is saving a special spot to scar when he kills the Dark Knight."

Additional Notes "It's rare than a asocial serial killer motivated by control would have no history of childhood trauma; the exact reason for Zsasz's behavior remain a mystery."

"His low IQ further hampers my attempts to treat him. He spent hours at a time ritualistically counting the marks in his skin."

'''Extremely unstable!!! Not a canditate for a new research.'''

Notes/Trivia

 * If the player takes too long in rescuing Dr. Young, Zsasz will eventually decide to kill her thus causing the mission to be failed and bringing up a special Joker message in which he sarcastically announces "Now that was unexpected! Who'd have figured the deranged murderer would kill the poor little doctor?!"


 * During Batman's first encounter with Zsasz there are actually many different ways to take him down.


 * 1: The player can easily perform a glide kick followed by a ground tackdown


 * 2: He can simply drop to the ground and knock him out from behind with a combo.


 * 3: Additionally the player can very easily knock Zsasz around the room and as long as they don't give him enough time in between hits to push the trigger they will not fail the mission. Sometimes Zsasz will actually try to fight back with his knives much like in the challenge mode. One particularly interesting way to defeat Zsasz is to use the cape stun attack on him repeatedly in order to push him around the room and into the electric barrier that barred your initial entrance to the room and the guards, however no matter where Zsasz falls after the cutscene his body will reappear next to the electrified chair.


 * Zsasz appears as sort of a 'boss' enemy in many brawling type challenge modes. He fights like a common knife enemy among the High Security Henchmen, but the taunts made are in his voice particularly. He will appear in the final round of melee challenge maps only and this time can be taken down any way the player chooses just like a regular thug instead of from a batarang or a simple takedown like in story mode.
 * All of the main enemies in the game have special messages if you lose in their levels. Zsasz, however, is the only enemy not to have a special message. Instead, Joker plays his messages if you lose during Zsasz's levels.