Panel by panel, for maximum clarity. But mostly because I’m insane.

I can’t touch on this scene without first praising the absolutely breathtaking art by Carlo Pagulayan. His work on all of the Ghost Stories flashbacks is show-stopping, and deserves so much more recognition. I especially love his skill with expressions (most of all in the Argentina flashback) and the way that he draws Bruce.

But onto the analysis…

This opening line establishes that Bruce and Khoa have a routine. Bruce is not surprised to see him, and Khoa doesn’t need to so much as speak for Bruce to know exactly what he wants. His greeting/rejection is to-the-point, blunt, but not angry. He isn’t upset by Khoa’s arrival, he’s busy.

The first thing I want to focus on here is not Khoa’s dialogue, but his appearance. Flashback-wise, the last time we saw him (Dublin, in the previous issue) he was dressed very casually: a t-shirt, jacket, jeans, and sneakers. He and Bruce fought hand-to-hand; Khoa was unarmed. There, the only hint of the Ghost-maker we saw in present-day Gotham was a white and black mask.

Here, we’re presented with much more of a Ghost-maker in progress. The cape and the pants are clear prototypes of those eventually included in his completed suit, and more crucially, he is now wielding two katanas. He isn’t just older than he was in Dublin - he’s stronger, more experienced. Starting to properly sharpen the image of what he’s been training all this time to become.

“That’s not how this works” confirms what was first implied by Bruce’s greeting— they’ve done this before, much more than once. Khoa actively seeks Bruce out wherever he is in the world, and they spar with each other. There are unspoken rules to their game, and Khoa prods at Bruce to follow them.

I described Bruce’s previous line as a rejection before, but it isn’t, really. Bruce is delaying the fight, not turning it down. Here, he officially agrees to the duel - just again, “Not tonight.”

I adore these panels. The absence of dialogue as Khoa makes the silent decision to stay, simply in order to talk. He doesn’t put his swords away— he stands them up in between himself and Bruce. Not only disarming himself, but placing his weapons within Bruce’s reach. While he still wants to spar, he’s conceding that he can’t - or simply won’t - force Bruce into fighting tonight. The decision is left in Bruce’s hands, for him to make at his own pace.

Khoa literally lowers himself to meet Bruce where he is, sitting down beside him in the sand. It brings them to the same level; they are equal with each other, on even ground. For all that he denounces emotion, Khoa is the one who opens up the conversation to Bruce’s feelings, encouraging him to share his thoughts. Bruce’s answer is dry, but again, it isn’t hostile. The specification that Khoa almost sounds concerned makes this a deadpan, low-effort kind of teasing, playing off of the fact that Khoa doesn’t feel empathy. Bruce isn’t telling Khoa to leave again. He’s responding to him, allowing his presence, and acknowledging that Khoa will not be approaching his emotions from a place of compassion.

Ever emotionally constipated, Khoa immediately denies having any personal investment in Bruce’s wellbeing. He excuses his actions as being in pursuit of fun, and readily complains about the inconvenience that Bruce is causing him. Still, again, he encourages Bruce to explain why he’s upset. He wants to understand him.

This response is leagues away from Khoa’s gleeful mockery of Bruce in Dublin. Bruce has confirmed his preoccupation with the very trauma that Khoa tried to kill him over, and yet all Khoa gives in response to it here is a simple, monosyllabic acknowledgement. Bruce has answered the question - Khoa fully understands why he’s behaving this way now.

With this reminder, Khoa is grounding Bruce in the present, and in his goal. Bruce is there to train. He’s supposed to be practicing a form of meditation, but instead he’s dwelling on his past. On his parents.

Bruce looks at Khoa for the first time since he arrived, recognizing what Khoa has actually just admitted to him. Any pretense of Khoa having traveled to “win” a teacher - the goal of their fight in Dublin - is gone. He has long since mastered what Bruce is here to learn.

This is my favorite ghostbat panel of all time. Bruce and Khoa sit in silence as they both acknowledge why Khoa is here. Why he comes to Bruce at all, time and time again. He wants to change Bruce’s mind…for Bruce’s sake. Khoa had nothing to gain from returning to Gobi, but he values his relationship with Bruce and considers Bruce worth his time and investment. He wants Bruce to adopt his way of thinking so that he can succeed as Khoa intends to succeed. So that they can be the best, together.

And Bruce is fully conscious of that fact.

Now that he has Bruce’s attention, Khoa begins to make his case— starting with an expression of sympathy. Bruce points this out, even insinuating that Khoa is being disingenuous. But Khoa shoots him down, framing the statement firmly within his psychopathy. It is him making the choice to speak Bruce’s language, not attempting to manipulate him with an emotional appeal.

This isn’t mockery, and it certainly isn’t a threat. It’s a warning. “You are letting your emotions make you vulnerable.” Khoa considers Bruce’s weakness to be voluntary - something that Bruce would fully be able to overcome, if only he’d listen - rather than an immutable flaw.

There’s no uncertainty here. Khoa is stating a fact: Bruce understands. He knows that Khoa’s goal isn’t and has never been to defeat him, but instead to elevate him to his full potential. As he is now, Khoa doesn’t just think Bruce is susceptible to attack - he knows it, because he himself is making the active decision not to take advantage of Bruce’s weakness. Instead, Khoa is advising him as a peer, because he believes that the path Bruce is on will end with him being killed.

As Khoa delivers his thesis statement, Bruce finally initiates the duel, silently picking up the sword that Khoa set out for him. Khoa only moves to reciprocate once Bruce is already standing up. With Bruce successfully coaxed out of his own head, focused on the present instead of the past, they’re now ready to actually talk.

The wording here is everything. If Bruce was trying to intimidate Khoa, he could easily have just said something along the lines of “I’ll prove it.” Indeed, when we last saw him in Dublin, Bruce’s final line to Khoa was “Now shut up and fight me.” The focus was on the combat, not remotely on the conversation. But in Gobi, Bruce is waiting - however expectantly - for Khoa to cooperate with him. It isn’t “I will,” it’s “let me.” An invitation instead of an assertion, opening a dialogue between them— much like what we see in their final sword fight in Batman #105, which results in them getting back together.

I…love this scene. I consider it a cornerstone of ghostbat’s relationship - proof of their mutual respect for and understanding of each other, long predating the reconciliation at the end of Ghost Stories. These are two people longing to win each other over. They want to be on the same page, pursuing the same goal, and they will fight each other again and again and again if it means that they might just agree in the end.

As I continue adding to my analysis of Batman: the Knight, I’ll delve into why I find the Ghost Stories flashbacks (and Ghost Stories as a whole) to be irreconcilable with Bruce and Khoa as they appear in BtK. I didn’t initially intend to do an isolated breakdown of this singular scene, but it seemed like a good way to clarify my thoughts for easier referencing in future analyses.

• Robin #14 (2021)

ok so im not really sure if he refers to his ASPD this way because Khoa just personally identifies with "psychopath" or the writer didn't realize that psychopath isn't a diagnosis(depending on what year he was 8 in he probably wouldve been diagnosed with conduct disorder that later developed into ASPD). Anyways I wanted to talk about Khoa's neurodivergence. A lot of people either ignore his neurodivergence or vilify him for it and I don't see a lot of people talking about the sanism Khoa experienced as a child and how he internalized that. his school teachers showed their fear around him and his parents talked about being frightened by what he could become (said this while he was in the room). He's harmed his classmates and what I think happened was the adults around him responding by enforcing the idea that he's done this because he doesn't have the ability to care or fear and that empathy = morality(it doesn't, empathy just means you don't feel what others do. you can not know how someone feels and recognize an injustice has occurred.) so anyways Khoa has it reinforced that when he violates the rights of others it's because of his disorder and he cant have a real moral compass because of it so why would Khoa decide to stop harming others? Khoa's neurodivergence is apart of his identity and because of what he was told at such a young age he believes it is destiny for him to not be bound by what others feel. and when he harms others he might not feel bad about it, he might not feel guilt but he is NOT amoral and he is not incapable of recognizing other's pain(because that's not what low empathy means). He made the active choice to do something that (he at least believes) is fixing the world. every kind thing he does is framed through the lenses of just being manipulation so he does not claim there is good will behind his actions. he makes it clear he does this for himself and he claims he only cares about himself. he doesn't want to imply there's good will in him, it's unlikely people would even believe him

i think he does care though, in the sense that he wants to do good. regardless on if you think his methods are a moral good or productive, I do think he thinks he's doing right. I can't believe so many people can't see through the mask. He does have emotions and he does have morality. You just fell for the mask!

Batman 2016 #104