Warning: Contains spoilers for Titans season 3 episode 11.
The changes that Titans has made to Scarecrow have worked to bring him into the current day, but they have also set him up as the perfect villain for Dick Grayson. Red Hood has generally been the bigger, flashier villain for most of Titans season 3. However, Scarecrow’s understated plot where he works from the shadows is part of what makes him the ideal foil for Nightwing.
Since Scarecrow (Vincent Kartheiser) was first broken out of prison he has used Dick Greyson’s (Brenton Thwaites) and Jason Todd’s (Curran Walters) fears and insecurities about parental figures against them. However, as Titans season 3 has progressed more of Scarecrow’s existing backstory becomes evident as he visits his mother and it is clear that she has disowned him and sees him as a failure and he kills her in response to her having contacted the police. In Titans season 3, episode 11 “The Call is Coming From Inside the House,” Scarecrow then hears Batman’s analysis of him as a villain and is sent into a rage by it.
This suggests that after failing to find validation from his own mother, this version of Scarecrow saw Batman, to some degree, as a father figure who he hoped to impress through his villainous deeds. Learning that even Batman pities him and sees him as ineffectual is too much for him, and all of this reflects one of the biggest struggles that Dick Grayson has faced throughout Titans. While he has moved on from his Robin identity and put distance between himself and Bruce Wayne, Bruce’s mandate to “be a better Batman” at the start of season 3 has put him back in the position of seeking validation from his father figure. Scarecrow is right when he tells Jason that he won’t ever really be good enough for Batman, or at least that it won’t be communicated to him. By having Scarecrow represent a lot of these insecurities and failures that Dick Grayson has faced, Titans gives them a physical form that Dick can symbolically defeat at the end of the season.
While Dick Grayson had managed to get to a healthier place with some of these issues and might have moved on from them if not for Batman reeling him back in, those issues are replicated and very much not addressed in Jason Todd’s Red Hood. This has allowed Scarecrow to project his own problems onto Jason and reinforce the ones that already existed there as all three characters feel the darkness of being in Batman’s shadow. Not only does Scarecrow represent those issues for Dick Grayson, but his new relationship with Jason highlights the less healthy aspects of the relationship between Dick and Bruce.
By having Scarecrow be the one to twist Jason Todd’s anger into Red Hood, Titans gives Dick an opportunity for another symbolic victory in his character arc. In season 2, Dick was never really able to move on or forgive Deathstroke for killing Garth. If Dick and Jason can team up to defeat Scarecrow, the symbol of their insecurities, together, then Dick’s arc can also see him learn some important lessons about forgiveness and acceptance towards Jason.
Titans releases new episodes Thursdays on HBO Max.
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