[Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Batman: Arkham Knight, and POTENTIAL SPOILERS for Gotham Knights.]
Gotham Knights is a spiritual successor, of sorts, to the Batman: Arkham games' depictions of the legendary Batfamily, but some of its characters are quite different from their Arkhamverse counterparts. This includes Jason Todd as Red Hood, who suffered a tragic fate in the Batman comics. Still, while the Batman: Arkham series and Gotham Knights have unique takes on Red Hood, each stays true to his origins and personality.
In the comics, Red Hood was once Batman’s second Robin, joining the family after stealing the tires off the Batmobile. Since Dick Grayson had recently matured into his own hero, Bruce recruited the spitfire youth into the role of his sidekick. Jason ultimately met his demise at the hands of Joker, then returned from the dead with the intent of murdering supervillains and quelling Gotham City's criminal element. Batman: Arkham veers from this storyline, but the specifics of Red Hood’s Gotham Knights story have yet to be revealed.
The relationship between Jason and Bruce Wayne has long been depicted as the most unstable of the Batfamily. Though Jason was initially excited to lend his assistance to Batman, his rough upbringing left him vulnerable to outbursts of anger and violence. His temper led him to use lethal methods to fight Gotham's rampant crime, breaking Batman’s no-killing rule regularly and severing the close relationship between the pair.
Batman: Arkham's Red Hood Survived & Gotham Knights' Perished
While Jason Todd’s origin sees the second Robin perish in a fiery explosion, Batman: Arkham Knight adopted a darker design for his story. Instead of actually dying, Jason was held captive by the Joker for over a year. The Clown Prince of Crime regularly sent videos to Batman, taunting his rival with documented torture. The final video depicted Jason being shot in the chest, leaving Bruce to believe he had died, but this was another trick by Joker, who continued holding Jason hostage and torturing him. Following Joker’s death, Jason escaped and took on the Arkham Knight identity. He then teamed up with Scarecrow and tried to kill Batman for failing to save him, but before Bruce Wayne’s "death" in Arkham Knight's ending, Jason became Red Hood and helped free Bruce from Scarecrow, beginning his crime-fighting career anew.
Gotham Knights’ Red Hood was not so lucky (or unlucky) and canonically reached a brutal end at some point before the game’s events. The official Gotham Knights website confirms Jason died "a violent death" and was "forcibly resurrected" later on. This matches the well-known Batman: Under the Hood comic, but a few twists are likely awaiting within Jason's new video game backstory.
Batman: Arkham's Red Hood Never Reconciled With The Batfamily
Batman: Arkham Knight provided an explosive conclusion to the Arkhamverse, revealing Batman’s identity to the world and forcing him to (hopefully) fake his death. Bruce had a few moments to talk with Jason beforehand, but he failed to fully heal the divide between his estranged son and the rest of the family. Though characters like Nightwing, Robin, and Oracle had their own connections to Jason, only Oracle knew of his continued survival, and post-game DLC doesn't mention any reconnection between them. The new version of Red Hood appears to be luckier in this matter, as he fights alongside the Batfamily in Gotham Knigths' co-op gameplay to keep the city safe.
Batman: Arkham's Red Hood Kills His Enemies & Gotham Knights' Doesn't
Batman follows a loose interpretation of the law, but his Golden Rule is never to take a life. This doctrine caused more than a few issues with Jason in several continuities, whose crime-fighting activities usually center on permanently eliminating threats. This violent trait was present in Batman: Arkham’s Red Hood, even after breaking free of the Arkham Knight identity. In post-game DLC, it’s revealed Batman’s supposed death didn’t change Jason's murdering ways, as Red Hood went on to kill Gotham's Batman: Arkham villains. His actions were in pursuit of justice, but it seems he didn't truly conquer his trauma.
Gotham Knights' Red Hood, on the other hand, has left his murdering ways behind. While it appears he once engaged in the same murderous rampage as Batman: Arkham’s Red Hood, his reconciliation with the Batfamily led him to take on his siblings' nonlethal methods. It’s unknown if this reconciliation included Bruce before his death in Gotham Knights, but the billionaire crimefighter would surely have been proud of his second son. Red Hood still uses dual-wielded pistols, though they are loaded with rubber rounds and paired with nonlethal melee attacks powered by Jason’s impressive strength.
Gotham Knights' Red Hood Suffers From Limited Amnesia
Ahead of its launch, many mysteries permeate Gotham Knights, from the Court of Owls' plans to the nature of Batman's death. One is much closer to Red Hood’s heart, however: Even Jason himself doesn’t understand the full circumstances of his Gotham Knights resurrection, as he has partial amnesia. As players progress and level up their Knights, they'll become privy to new information and uncover important revelations to each character’s backstory, presumably including how Red Hood was brought back to life.
Conversely, Batman: Arkham’s Red Hood suffers from the burden of his memory; the antihero’s awareness of his situation and the horrors he suffered define his character. Joker's brutal torture and Batman’s failure to save him craft a long-lasting trauma that this Jason can likely never heal from.
Red Hood has always played a unique role in the Batman mythos, fulfilling the "rebel child" archetype and demonstrating the brutal reality of crime. Each iteration of his story ends up profoundly impacting Bruce Wayne and Batman, but with its version of Batman dead, Gotham Knights could see Jason's origins influence other parts of the universe.
Gotham Knights is slated for a 2022 release on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC systems.