In a nutshell, Batman: TAS was not afraid to go dark.

I remember watching House and Garden with the plant monsters, Batman's eyes going wide when he discovered what they really were, and them dissolving with weed killer... true nightmare fuel.

But that's part of the reason the show is so popular - it wasn't afraid to go dark or crazy (remember when Catwoman actually became a cat?)

They missed the episode where Tim Drake's friend was a misplaced part of Clayface.

And it loved having non-human characters to fight (robots, plant monsters, ventriloquist dummies)... because then the writers could come up with horrifically graphic ways to eliminate them that the censors wouldn't allow if they were human.

Wasn't there an episode or two where Joker uses some kinda gas on people that not only kills them but leaves their corpses with a rictus grin? I remember being very creeped out by that imagery. Definitely not something they would put in Saturday morning cartoons anymore.

In the early seasons that aired of FoxKids, it only made them laugh non-stop (they weren't allowed to show corpses). Then the 4th season on WBKids and the film Mask of the Phantasm actually showed his Joker gas killing people.

It was and remains my favorite animated show. It beat The Simpsons and Futurama in my nerdy ass brain.

Over the Edge is my favorite episode.
Short synopsis: Batgirl fucking DIES and the inevitable fallout ruins Batman’s life. Commissioner Gordon learns his daughter is Batgirl and it ruins his friendship/partnership with Batman. (As it should, because it’s a total dick move to keep that from someone you supposedly trust) And using his daughter’s computer Gordon learns that Bruce Wayne is Batman and the entire police force raids Wayne manor to arrest him. It’s a great fucking episode.

Ya know, if the Gotham PD went after the actual villains with the same ferocity they do Batman in this episode (or whenever he's wrongfully accused like in "Mask of the Phantasm" or "On Leather Wings")... they wouldn't need a Batman.

There were brilliant episodes like 'Silicon Soul' as well. Or 'Return of the Grey Ghost'.

And Bruce Timm wanted to make it even darker still. Hence what he plans to do with his new series, and what’ll be great is that we’ll get to see him start and progress as Batman.

Heart of Ice still holds up too. They made Freeze into a tremendously sympathetic, complex villain.

And it was all a bad dream caused by Scarecrow's gas.

I've always thought this plot line would be a fucking amazing story to put on film one day.

Obviously much later down the line of any given iteration, but it felt like it actually had stakes. Ironic given how it ended.

But it still captures my imagination of what could be, several years later.

killer croc was this close and batman knew it

> https://np.reddit.com/r/DCAU/comments/um4fpq/i_threw_a_rock_at_him/

I love the scene at the end where Bane goes "to the death then?" and Bruce says something along the lines of it doesn't even matter. I don't know why but how understandably defeated he sounded there always stood out to me.

His soul of silicon is a fucking masterpiece, it really portrayed a robot fighting its own directives by 1-Programming and 2-personal experience

New series‽

Ya it’ll be feature on HBO Max with JJ Abram, Bruce Timm and Matt Reeves producing it.

Didn’t they retroactively make that story canon since it was so good?

In a way, the nonstop laughing thing is kinda worse...

It's ironic because in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, the laughing gas was considered the tame way for Joker to kill someone. He kills one of the goons at the start of the movie when the goon argues with him. In the censored version of the film, the goon gets gassed to death with the grin on his face and everything. In the uncensored version, Joker just straight up shoots him in the chest.

They implied it leads to permenant insanity if not immediately treated (as was the case when Alfred was infected by it on April Fool's Day).

As opposed to simply dying of exhaustion due to the laughing.

I think they’re not going fwd with it on HBO Max because merger bullshit but shopping it around to different platforms now. It’s by far the DC project I’m most excited for, it had better not get cancelled

Yeah, I remember Bats followed up on a criminal that was in a hospital who had been dosed with the toxin and he was terrifyingly exhausted

The DCAU always frusterated me by how often it dipped its toes only halfway into dark themes. Everything dramatic that happens always gets reset back to the status quo(everytime the show teases the possibility of harley having character development i want to scream) . And if something DOES change the status quo, it always happens offscreen, in between series (dick leaving, joker's death, ace's death) and is only shown in a flashback LONG AFTER youve already gotten used to the effects of that event, so nothing ever feels too groundbreaking; youre never left wondering what the hell is going to happen and what the reprocussions of what just happened are going to be.

It felt like the writers really wanted to make a serialized style of story, but were held back by the standards of the time.

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That ties into why they need Batman in the first place though. The GCPD is rampant with corruption and cops looking the other way. Of course, they're going to go much harder on the guy that's often rooting out that corruption and making them look bad than the actual villains they're often on the payroll of.

There are several episodes that would really make amazing movies, in my opinion.

Young me was so mind fucked. I legit started doubting if my friends were real

Having Babs fall like 40 stories onto the hood of her dad’s car while he’s pretty casually driving by was a wild way to start an episode

I don’t remember that part where Jim discovers Bruce is Batman. Just that Jim randomly showed up at the manor with Gotham police

Batman: TAS knew what was up.

ACAB

>And Bruce Timm wanted to make it even darker still. Hence what he plans to do with his new series

Bruce Timm is a creepy hack, Paul Dini and the rest were the ones making the shows good.

I hope his show gets cancelled.

I wasn’t an avid watcher of the show as a kid, but this was the episode that really stuck with me.

A lot of stuff from btas became canon in the Batman franchise. Harley Quinn is a big example.
Killing off Bruce timms dcau is one of the biggest mistakes DC ever made. It could honestly rival MCU in some regards if it was given the resources

I remember the first TAS movie I saw as a kid cemented the love for Batman for me... It was Mask of the Phantasm... The music, the story that was heartbreaking and the whole dark gritty atmosphere... made a lasting impression on me

Barbara hitting the windshield is one of the most hardcore things I've ever seen in a TV show, whether it's for kids or adults or live action or animated.

It's not implied, it's directly stated that if left untreated, it will lead to permanent insanity

Mask of the Phantasm. God that's such a good movie

Yeah, Freeze was just a generic cold-themed villain before that episode, and after it came out, they folded that origin into the comics

It was a big rock.

Gotham PD knows Batman won't kill them, and they also know the villains will

All Cops Anger Batman

Even their new DCAU stuff is pretty good, has some flaws but is much better than the DCU.

Thanks for reminding me to watch it again, it's been too long since my last viewing

Yeah they didn't show that happen, he just showed up and at some point said that "Five minutes on Barbara's computer told me everything" or something to that effect

Ed Brubaker is the head writer, shit would be really good.

If it ever makes it to air. HBO Max passed on it, they're shopping it around.

People have lost their minds about this.

After learning his daughter was Batgirl he does some detective work. Apparently on Barbara’s computer was evidence of Batman’s identity.

>People have lost their minds about this.

Bruce Timm being a creepy hack?

That's just a fact but go on lol

I mean, real cops are willing to kill other cops to keep them from squealing. So it’s pretty realistic.

Counterpoint though. Lex Luthor. Justice League wildly changed up his status quo a few times. His first appearance rocked his status quo as a billionaire philanthropist and CEO. He gets exposed, loses everything, and has cancer for the next few seasons. Forms an Injustice League. Actually finally goes to prison. Eventually gets a pardon. Pretends to be an upstanding citizen for a bit and runs for President but it's all a ruse to become a god. Achieves it via Brainiac. Then after being separated, suffers from hallucinations. Joins the Legion of Doom, slowly becoming pissed off on how it's run, shoots the head of the Legion at point blank in a meeting (becoming its leader). Then he fights in a Legion of Doom civil war, revives Darkseid, and ultimately sacrifices himself to save Superman and the planet from Darkseid while kinda achieving his goal of being 'beyond human.' Not all of these are dark changes to the status quo but they kept this character on an actual arc once they brought him over from STAS into JL and JLU.

Calm down lol, it’s a cartoon. You’re making this sound like it’s Citizen Kane

That's... the entire point of Batman. In the 80's and 90's police corruption was so ridiculously rampant Batman turned into the caped crusader. A complete vigilante power fantasy that frequently saw himself in the crosshairs of dirty politicians, journalists, criminals AND cops. He was a one man force for good against a completely rotten, immoral society.

I always felt the censored death of Joker electrocuting himself was darker than Robin shooting him.

Citizen Kane? Calm down dude that’s just a movie. You make it sound like it’s Macbeth or something.

The ending ends up highlighting that Barbara’s fears are unfounded though, right? That evening, after the Scarecrow’s fear toxin works it’s way out of her system, she has dinner with her father and seems ready to tell him the truth, only for him to ask her to hold her tongue and that he supports her decisions, and gives her a knowing wink that he seems to already KNOW her secret.

unga painted a lion on the cave wall you gotta check this shit out man

> Over the Edge is my favorite episode. > Short synopsis: Batgirl fucking DIES and the inevitable fallout ruins Batman’s life. Commissioner Gordon learns his daughter is Batgirl and it ruins his friendship/partnership with Batman. (As it should, because it’s a total dick move to keep that from someone you supposedly trust) And using his daughter’s computer Gordon learns that Bruce Wayne is Batman and the entire police force raids Wayne manor to arrest him. It’s a great fucking episode.

Literally convinced me to go find and watch this right now.

Any other favorite episodes you can put on my radar?

Heart of Ice is one of the most famous episodes. It turned Mr. Freeze from a campy 60s villain to a tragic figure. Most people don’t even know that Mr. Freeze’s sad origin story came from this episode.

The introduction of Clayface, which I think is a two-parter. Tragic story, great animation, unbelievable score.

We get it, you’re overly defensive about a cartoon because you have a funko collection and have to speak in hyperbolic terms about things you’re hyperfixated on

>I've always thought this plot line would be a fucking amazing story to put on film one day.

Part of me hoped they were gonna steal a little bit of it for Dark Knight Rises. Bane reveals Batman's true identity and Wayne goes on the lamb but still must save Gotham.

I’m being hyperbolic?
You’re the one that compared it to Citizen Kane.

the "I know you are, but what am I" defense. Very bold.

We get it, people genuinely enjoying things shows a level of sincerity and vulnerability that makes you uncomfortable. Just pretend they're liking it "ironically".

I'm all for enjoying things, but to act like it's a narrative marvel and pretend like it's something it's not is nostalgia nerdbaiting at its finest

Look, I get it. You don’t have a lot going on right now so you’re bored. Nobody invites you anywhere and you’re too shy to talk to women. You compensate for your lack of social life by making fun of others, even if that means joining a conversation about the Batman cartoon and acting like everyone else is childish for liking Batman cartoons.

Thank god we solved police corruption

But your friends aren’t real

The intro of villains in season 1 was like children’s twilight zone where the faults of individuals lead them to cruel fates as villains

To this day I think what happened to doctor freeze, clayface, Two Face was just unfair

Bless up thanks Batman

For real though, it's leagues better than it was when I was a kid.

They did an homage to this in the Harley Quinn show, but it wasn’t as traumatizing.

The one with clayface's hand? I didn't know that was supposed to be an homage.

And that particular scene at the end of part 2 that's fucking nuts when you remember it was done by hand.

Yeah that’s the one. I think it is, Harley Quinn has been pretty good at reincorporating prior stories and plots and generally making fun of them. It’s just the animated series isn’t really meant to be funny, it’s very serious. So they took a serious moment and made it funny because it would be very out of character to have such a dark moment in an otherwise colorful bright fever dream.