Batman: Arkham Knight's Panessa Studios holds a lot of rich Gotham City history. After the events of Batman: Arkham City, it is learned that Batman and several individuals have been affected by Joker's blood, which was also tainted by the TITAN formula introduced in Batman: Arkham Asylum and the cause of Joker's death.
Narratively, the abandoned premiere film studio serves as Batman's base of operations where he keeps these individuals captive in order to determine a cure. In gameplay, the studios offer an elaborate level where Batman and Robin take down these individuals as they run amok, but one of the individuals, Henry Adams, murders the rest after finally exposing his suppressed symptoms. Panessa Studios is left soon thereafter, but there is a considerable narrative reference in Batman: Arkham Knight to behold there if players return once the story has ended.
YouTuber GoodPerson is the latest Batman: Arkham Knight player to discover a reference that players would have only witnessed themselves if they had decided to spontaneously return to Panessa Studios after the main narrative's conclusion. If returned to, Panessa Studios will have a large red bat symbol emblazoned across the floor between the patient cells, the patients' corpses, and the Batcomputer. This explicitly indicates that Jason Todd had been there and offers context to how he knew Batman was taken by Scarecrow in Batman: Arkham Knight's third act.
Players learn that Joker had kidnapped Jason and tortured him through Batman's hallucinations at the studio, which comes as a surprise since Jason is not mentioned once in the trilogy before these hallucinations. As Batman finally reaches out to him after their climactic battle, Jason abandons his Arkham Knight persona at the end of Batman: Arkham Knight and takes up the moniker of Red Hood, where the red symbol becomes his new insignia.
When Batman is being transported to the ruins of Arkham Asylum, Alfred mentions to Batman that someone is tracking him, which Batman says he predicted. This reference in Panessa Studios then supports the theory that Jason tracked him from the Panessa Studios Batcomputer and followed him to the asylum.
In the same room at Panessa Studios, GoodPerson examines Robin's shurikens and broken quarterstaff, which are part of a visual riddle when scanned in Detective Vision. GoodPerson also interacts with Harley Quinn sitting in one of the cells to show that she has no new dialogue with respect to Red Hood's visit. This has no impact on Batman: Arkham Knight's story after the fact, but it depicts Rocksteady Studios' attention to detail and further adds context and connections throughout each of Batman: Arkham Knight's dynamic environments.
Batman: Arkham Knight is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
