Telltale's Poison Ivy (Villain Proposal for S2)
When Bruce Wayne first meets Pamela Isley in season two, she is a struggling plant geneticist trying to perfect a revolutionary formula that would accelerate the growth of crops in various third-world countries, the first real step to eliminating world hunger. However, her efforts have been constantly stymied by amoral pharmaceutical corporations who believe her breakthrough would put a dent in their profits. She's even begun to fear for her life.
In stark contrast to the sleek femme fatale of the comics, this Pamela starts out as a dumpy, unattractive woman with no romantic life to speak of.
Tragedy strikes when Jason Woodrue, the chief CEO of one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in Gotham, secretly hires The Joker to terminate Pamela and raze her lab to the ground. The Joker shows up at Pamela's lab with his clown henchmen. Batman arrives and tries to take Pamela to safety, but in the struggle, she's splashed with a dangerous, potentially lethal mutagenic variation of her chemical. In all the confusion, Pamela flees into the night, and The Joker escapes, although the rest of his gang is rounded up by the GCPD.
Pamela's fate is unknown for almost a full episode, until she suddenly appears at the front door of Wayne Manor, undergoing a horrific mutation. Too terrified to go to the police or the hospital, she begs Bruce for sanctuary. (There could be an indirect allusion to the classic "Beauty and the Beast" fairy tale of the ugly old crone asking for shelter inside the castle of a handsome prince.) Depending on the player's choice, Pamela could either take refuge in one of the mansion's guest rooms or be turned away by Bruce. This is a pivotal decision that will determine their relationship on a permanent level.
If the player allowed Pamela inside the manor, she continues to mutate, eventually growing a kind of seed pod around herself. The next morning, she cracks out of the pod, now fully incarnated as the beautiful, green-skinned villainess we know from the comic books. But her personality has been altered along with her body. Where the previous Pamela was kind and soft-hearted, "Poison Ivy" is cruel and venomous. Depending on the decision described above, Bruce could be the only one who can break through to whatever's left of Pamela's humanity (much like Harvey in season one), or she treats him with the same misanthropic contempt she dishes out towards everyone else. Either way, her original plan to exact revenge on Jason Woodrue and The Joker escalates into a grudge against ALL humans, and she begins work on a terrifying new strain of tropical fungus that could kill every last animal in the city - human, cat, dog, bird, you name it - within twenty-four hours.
Comments
I like the general idea. This woud be great and make players sympathise with her.
I really dig your ideas. Take notes Telltale.
But unlike they did with Harvey, let us bang her!.
That's actually really impressively thought out, I do love the idea of introducing Pamela before being Ivy in that way, and I like using it to bring the Joker into her origins as well. And I like the idea of her personality shifting slightly depending on your choice in dealing with her as Bruce too.
It would also be a great way of introducing Harleen Quinzel as the new intern at Arkham treating the emerging Ivy (and possibly Harvey as well depending on your choice in his capture) rather than just straight on going into her relationship with Joker defining her.
That's good, focus on the important things here.
At the end of the season/mid season you could send her to Arkham,
there she'll get therapy from non other then the lovely Harleen Quinzel. This could also set up the Joker subplot with Harley Quinn... it all fits.
Edit: Just noticed the post above this one... beat me to the punch, bravo.
All for Poison Ivy. But Harley? Keep her away!
I am not proud to admit that I kind of like Poison Ivy. Not the one from Batman & Robin though. Ack. Hopefully Gotham City Sirens does her character some justice.
I actually made a similar thread for her being in Season 1, well, wanting her at least. I think I would make her a Wayne Enterprise employee. She would work in something like the Botany Sciences whatever division be the director of it. Bruce would bring some poisons or whatever to her, probably from the Joker, so she could analyze it. Whatever happens from there, I'm not sure what would happen from there.
I hope that they take a lot of inspiration from the comics, and also give her the green skin. Though I hear Megan Fox might be up for the role... (Shudders)
I like the idea of her being in Wayne Enterprises. She could be part of a new emerging science division Bruce and Lucius are doing to get bright minds involved, with two other members being Jonathan Crane (not involved in Arkham here, though still fascinated with the concepts of fear, maybe secretly experimenting on the Children of Arkham's surviving serums) and Victor Fries (a brilliant if often distant man helped by his wife Nora, who is revealed to be suffering during the series and starts the road to Mister Freeze).
Maybe a choice could be deciding who works on certain projects, which affects the tech or toxins a possible future villain might have.
Genius! Make it happen!
I like it. I guess my big question mark is what the overarching theme of a second season would be and how she might fit, unless they keep it going with the masks thing. But for discussion's sake, what would you say are the two sides to Ivy's character? What's her mask, beyond her physical appearance? Is there one significant duality she maintains both prior and after her metamorphosis? I'm sure I could make some guesses here, but I'd like to see what you and others think
I think in a lot of takes I've seen of Ivy, two things which define her are a desire to help recognise nature, even before her transformation, and something of a subtle feminist mind set, since she seems more at ease with her fellow woman than the guys she seduces. I also love the Harley/Ivy relationship (as BFF's more than straight romantic, get your tongues off the floor), more so in fact than the Joker/Harley relationship really (which is usually one sided and often abusive, though I loved Hamill's TAS Joker with her).
Right on, the nature versus civilization element is where I'd start, or more simply, the natural versus the artificial. I could imagine a lot of ways to flesh her out and with a unique spin just based on that. What if there was something artificial about her, and she resents that, for example? What makes it personal as much as a broad idea?
In season one, it seems to be up to the player whether Batman or Bruce Wayne is the real mask. In season two, Pamela is forced into wearing a "mask" she can't take off. She's gained physical beauty, but at the cost of her inner beauty. Maybe Bruce could make her realize this in another climactic moment similar to Batman and Lady Arkham's final throwdown.
But The Joker is kind of a contradiction. Despite being Batman's most popular enemy, he has no "duality" to speak of. Besides THE KILLING JOKE, we've been told next to nothing about The Joker's past, and even what we know varies from continuity to continuity. The Joker's never had his own version of Bruce Wayne. I wonder if Telltale will try to work around this problem.
Agreed. Maybe it's because she's already so prominent in the Rocksteady games, but I'd like Telltale's Joker to be a loner again, as seen in Tim Burton's '89 movie and "The Dark Knight."