Arkham Asylum: Patient Files

Two-Face

FULL NAME
Harvey Dent

OCCUPATION
District Attorney (formerly)
Professional Criminal
Crime Lord

BASE OF OPERATIONS
Gotham City

AFFILIATIONS
Batman (Formerly)
Hugo Strange (Formerly)
Robin (Formerly)
James Gordon (Formerly)

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

HAIR
Brown/Grey

EYES
Blue

HEIGHT
6' 0" (1.83 m)

WEIGHT
182 lbs (83 kg)

District Attorney Harvey "Harv" Dent was one of Batman's strongest allies in Gotham City, until Carmine Falcone threw acid in Dent's face, and hideously scarred him. The wounds fractured Dent's psyche, and he was reborn as Two-Face: a schizoid criminal mastermind, obsessed with duality. His former good-luck charm, a "two-headed" trick silver dollar, was damaged on one side from the attack, and Dent had seized on it as a reflection of his half-scarred visage.

Two-Face flipped it to decide the fates of his victims. Despite Batman's efforts to reform his former ally, Dent was consumed by his fixation on chance, and his crimes were designed to prove out his diametric philosophy. In other words, his crimes usually revolved around the number two; for example, he would rob the Second National Bank on February 22nd.

Harvey Dent was raised in a violent household. His father was an abusive alcoholic who repeatedly beat the boy and his mother, and often used a double-headed coin to give the child a "chance" to escape a beating. Dent spent much of his early life suffering from various mental issues, notably bipolar disorder and paranoia. Harvey wanted to make a difference in Gotham City and became a lawyer, rising as high as Gotham City's District Attorney.

Before the events on Christmas Eve, Harvey was presumably running for D.A. He likely won the elections on the day of Christmas Eve, as the newspaper inside the GCPD Building was of that day.

Personality

Thought to be the "White Knight" of Gotham, Harvey Dent was selfless, moral and extremely dedicated to cleaning the crime in his city. His dedication to justice and unwavering sense of right and wrong was almost unfounded in politicians and officials by Gotham City standards, most of whom were flooded with corruption. Because of this many people believed that he was the Batman during the beginning of the vigilante's career. His fall from grace after being horrendously scarred by acid thanks to the Falcone crime family, resulting in the loss of half his face and fracturing his psyche proved to not only be a blow for Gordon and Batman, but for the entire city.

Dent became more twisted and psychotic every year after his accident, as well less sympathetic and redeemable in the eyes of Batman, who used to be his close friend. However he did show pity on him while taking him to GCPD and Aaron Cash even states that he "felt bad about booking him" in the Evidence Lock-Up. Dent's dependency on his two-sided coin leave him with scarce loyalties, should it come up bad for someone he would kill them without so much as a hesitation. He is capable of making decisions by himself but normally under pressure or in a forced situation. He is much more reliant on the prospects of fate and destiny than calculated decisions, perhaps a reason of him losing the Arkham City gang war; he would much prefer to follow the coin, blindly even if the decision was a poor one than genuine strategy. This unpredictably can also be considered an advantage as it leaves him hard to place while dealing with his enemies.

Dent is not without his inner battles, at times the Harvey and Two-Face personas conflict each other. This is shown in the courtroom where discussing the fate of Catwoman, Harvey attempted to give her a fair trial as they were in a "place of justice" whereas the Two-Face aspect argued to kill her as to gain fear and respect in Arkham City. His own self-opinion after his accident varies between games. During the Interview Tapes with Strange he is given the opportunity to either be cured or set free into Arkham City and he chooses to remain the same, either showing he is comfortable with himself or he was either pressured to make a decision. In Arkham Knight he admits to Batman while being taken to the GCPD that "[he] wished [he] was dead" revealing a self-loathing aspect of his personality.

Despite it being years, and Two-Face has mostly absolved his old personality and identity, he shows traits of the man he used to be. Dent showed incredible determination, displayed when even while his face was being scarred by acid he still attempted to fight the Falcone's. He possesses some degree of compassion, and considered giving Catwoman a fair trial at the courthouse but quickly decided against this. Because of his former job as a District Attorney he still has a sense of justice but has now become horribly warped. During Catwoman's her trial he uses multiple layman' terms, that being what a judge would do. He once contemplated cutting off her hands, perhaps an ironic punishment. Similarly, he stated after the first bank robbery was foiled that the banks he was targeting were the ones the Mob had previously used to launder money, implying that at least some of his crimes were motivated by justice, albeit an extremely warped view of it.

His obsession with duality has become the insignia of his crime empire, to match his own scars he makes his men wear outfits similar to his appearance. This is also shown by the way he carries two guns, pay his men twice his salary if they killed Batman, halved Catwoman's stolen loot and manner of killing, cutting one of his men in two with a saw. Despite this cruelty all of his men have unwavering respect and loyalty, if not fear for Dent.