To Never Again Walk on a Summer Day Some Place Where a Warm Hand Meets Mine

This is based on opinion. Please don't list it on a work'south trope case listing.

Other than being one of the better known Batman adaptations, Batman: The Animated Series has its ample share of tear-jerking moments, both on the Hurting Hero himself besides as enough of his adversaries.

Alarm: Spoilers are unmarked.

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• "Center of Ice". ALL OF IT.
  • When Mr. Freeze accidentally blasts i of his mooks in the legs with his cold gun, he orders his other henchmen to leave him behind. The other underlings protest he is one of them, but Freeze threatens to kill them if they don't hurry up and go out. The other minions are visibly heartbroken as they leave, with the man tearfully begging them non to become. Fortunately, Batman thaws him out and saves his legs.
  • The scene where Batman himself is horrified when he finds the video recording that shows him (and the viewers) how Victor Fries became Mr. Freeze via Corrupt Corporate Executive.
  • The "summer'south day" speech, and the conversation betwixt Batman and Freeze leading upwardly to it.

    Freeze: The snow is cute, don't you lot retrieve? Clean, uncompromising...
    Batman: ...and common cold.
    Freeze: Similar the swift manus of vengeance.
    Batman: I saw what happened to your wife. I'm deplorable.
    Freeze: I'm beyond emotions. They've been frozen expressionless in me.
    Batman: That suit you article of clothing — a event of the coolant?
    Freeze: Very good. A detective to the concluding. I tin can no longer survive outside a sub-nothing surround. Tonight, I mean to pay back the man who ruined my life. Our lives...
    Batman: Fifty-fifty if you accept to kill everyone in the building to do it?
    Freeze: (nods) Retrieve of it, Batman. To never once more walk on a summer's day with the hot wind in your face and a warm hand to concur... oh, aye... I'd impale for that.

  • The ending, where Freeze tearfully apologizes to the small dancing doll that represents Nora in his Arkham jail cell for not being able to save her or avenge her apparent death at the hands of Boyle, as a middle-wrenching music box rendition of his theme plays.

    Freeze: I failed you. I wish there were another style for me to say it. I cannot. I can only beg your forgiveness. (vox breaks equally he starts to cry) And pray you hear me somehow, some place... someplace where a warm mitt waits for mine. (lowers his caput in despair equally Batman sympathetically watches in through the window from a nearby rooftop)

  • Paul Dini once said if he were to practise the episode all over over again, he would take concluded it with Freeze weeping in his cell at Arkham, his tears turning to snowflakes that would so slowly settle on the musical figurine. Wow, Dini thought of a way of making this catastrophe even more than of a tearjerker!
  • Easily ane of the most gut-wrenching parts is the shot that comes afterward this, just before the credits. We zoom out of Freeze in his jail cell and see Batman standing on an adjacent edifice, watching him silently. He doesn't say anything, only because there'south nothing that you can say about this situation. Information technology'southward zero but a tragedy.
  • What makes it even worse is that, in this episode specifically, Freeze's married woman Nora was meant to be dead already. Due to censorship reasons, the producers weren't immune to state this, simply it was implied in how Freeze acts. He doesn't act like a man trying to save someone, rather trying to get vengeance for something he's lost. In later episodes, it was revealed that Nora survived, with adaptations like Batman & Robin and Batman: Arkham Metropolis taking the route that says Freeze is committing crimes to fund research to save Nora, which adds a light at the end of the tunnel of sorts for Freeze. But in "Heart of Water ice"? She'due south already dead. If you lot've never considered that before, re-lookout the episode and heed to everything Freeze says. He talks about the pain of loss, how it feels to lose something so dear to you. And just to hammer the point home; whorl up and read the quote under the epitome i more time, and consider that Nora is dead, and Freeze is talking near the afterlife. God dammit, that's painful.
• The bear witness'south Signature Scene in "Cypher to Fear", which acts as a codifier for the entire series. Bruce, as Batman, is exposed to the Scarecrow'southward fear toxin and, while hanging for his life from a blimp, sees a vision of his dead begetter which he rejects. It's a Moment of Awesome and surprisingly moving.

  Vision of Thomas Wayne: Bruce...you are a disgrace.
  Batman: No. No! You are non my male parent! I am not a disgrace! I am vengeance. I am the night. I AM BATMAN!

• As much equally information technology is Narm (albeit purposefully), Joker legitimately mourning Helm Clown and then furiously berating Batman for crushing him downward to a cube with a hydraulic printing in The Final Express mirth.

  Joker: (appalled) You killed Captain Clown... (yelling) You lot KILLED CAPTAIN CLOWN!

• Poor, poor Mary Dahl aka Baby Doll. "Why couldn't you just permit me make believe?!"
  • For further explanation: Mary Dahl is an extra who was Non Allowed to Abound Up—literally. She suffers from systemic hypoplasia, a rare disorder that completely stunted her growth and doomed her to look similar a 5-year-erstwhile kid forever. She initially found success on a sitcom called Love That Baby, simply when the ratings failed, and then did her career—no one would cast her in anything considering of her artless appearance. The rejection, coupled with her concrete status, drives Dahl insane and leads her to presume the persona of "Infant Doll," a deadly little girl. Dahl eventually becomes so desperate to recapture the simply happy memories she ever had that she kidnaps the actors from Love That Baby and forces them to return to the studio for a "reunion." After Batman gets involved, Baby Doll leads him on a hunt through a fairground, where, in a hall of mirrors, she encounters a reflection of the woman she truly is—a beautiful, 30-something actress who looks her own historic period. Upon seeing information technology, Dahl realizes that her entire life is "made-up and pretend," and goes on a wild binge, shooting mirror after mirror in a desperate attempt to defeat Batman. As she turns to the mirror that contains her adult reflection, she starts to silently weep every bit she utterly destroys it. Batman then approaches her as she stares into space, clicking her now-empty gun and helplessly sobbing like a little girl. She presses herself against Batman's leg, weeping for the future she'll never have and the by she can't go back to, and utters her old catchphrase from her testify: "I... didn't mean to."
    • When Batman gives the villain a downplayed Cooldown Hug, you lot know it falls into this category.
  • And consider this: Nosotros have the Caped Crusader, robbed of his childhood, comforting an actress who can't escape hers.
  • Then when she came back, returning to a life of criminal offence because she thought Killer Croc loved her...just to find out Croc was, true to form, playing her for a sucker the whole while. It sent her and then far over the Despair Event Horizon that she decided to wipe out all of Gotham via nuclear meltdown.
  • In the original ending of "Infant-Doll", Batman would take shed a tear while comforting Baby Doll before handing her over to the law. They cut it considering DC said Batman isn't allowed to weep.
• "Growing Pains," where Robin helps a scared amnesiac girl named Annie run away from a super-potent human being. Turns out the man is Clayface and Annie is actually a part of him that he'due south trying to have merge back with him.
  • Robin's reaction to this reveal; he tells Annie he'due south going to save her. Her response is "Save what? I'thousand non real." Just then despairing resignation in her voice, and Robin's vehement denials that she is real.
  • Clayface succeeds in absorbing Annie when she tackles him to save Robin. Robin can only watch, and so threaten Clayface with lethal solvents to bring her back. Clayface reveals he tin't, which means he finer murdered his child.

    Gotham Policeman: We'll book him on the robberies and B & E, right? Annihilation else?

    Robin: Yeah. Murder.

  • Information technology was worse if you actually read the comics at the time. At that point, Tim/Robin was still early in his solo series and he had a Honey Interest his age for whom Annie was a expressionless ringer and who had a like name. For someone watching who thought the show was bringing her from the comics to the screen, the ending is an even bigger daze.
• Really, Batman: TAS was very proficient at this. Other especially distressing episodes include "Mad as a Hatter," "Mudslide," "House & Garden," "Deep Freeze," "His Silicon Soul," and "Robin's Reckoning." Additionally, it is very difficult to call up of a grapheme on the show who doesn't have a Backstory that'southward really sad. Except the Riddler, maybe.
  • Riddler doesn't seem too tragic a character at first, just Word of God and background data exterior his on-screen appearances makes him very sympathetic and pitiable. Extremely intelligent and frankly quite an oddball, Edward Nygma was ever a social outcast, but hoped to brand something of himself by utilizing his intellect in designing a hugely successful video game... but for his greedy boss to cheat him out of the credit for it and fire him when he tried to sue. Is information technology really any wonder Nygma sought revenge as the Riddler? And so in that location'southward his obsession with outsmarting Batman that pushes him back into villainy after an attempted reform.
  • Every bit it stands, at that place are peradventure iv villains — Sewer King, Dr. Emile Dorian (detailed beneath), Firefly (since he crossed into the Moral Outcome Horizon early on), and the Joker — who don't have a terribly sad backstory.
    • Merely Joker does speak of his abusive begetter. Too bad he'southward probably lying. He might have a tragic backstory... just he's gone through so darn many of them, no 1 would believe him if he told the truth. Which, in itself, is actually kind of sorry.
    • DCAU's Scarecrow doesn't have a tragic past, either. He just liked to frighten things as a kid and that lasted into adulthood. Though he does get some lamentable moments in The Batman Adventures comics.
• The evidence'south re-imagining of Jervis Tetch/Mad Hatter. In the comics and Adam Due west series, he was a gimmicky villain with an Alice in Wonderland theme. Hither, he's depicted as a lonely genius who'due south developing Mind Control technology for Wayne Enterprises, just his immediate supervisor treats him similar clay. Tetch falls hard for Alice, a secretarial assistant at the company who'south the only one to treat him pleasantly, but she has a fellow named Billy. Jervis refuses to infringe on their relationship... but when she has a fight with Baton, he sees his hazard. He plans to woo Alice, but decides that she would never fall for someone like him; he instead develops the Hatter persona to impress her, giving her a grand night on the town, albeit toeing the Moral Event Horizon by using his engineering science to educate people, thus creating the illusion that he's a wealthy loftier-society gentleman. Unfortunately, he is shut downwards when Baton comes back into the movie with an apology and a proposal. Enraged, Tetch crosses the line firmly by mind-controlling Baton into breaking off the engagement, and then abducting and brainwashing Alice. He's somewhen bested by Batman in an Alice in Wonderland theme park. Then, as Tetch is lying beneath the claws of the Jabberwock, he's forced to picket as Alice (who can't even bear to look at Tetch anymore) runs into Baton'south artillery, moaning out very softly...
  • Somehow made even sadder by the final shot of the weeping Mock Turtle statue.
  • What makes it worse is that we get to run into Tetch's mental breakdown over the whole situation. At the beginning of the episode, he admits that, from a sensible perspective, his interest in Alice is incorrect and that he should let her go... merely he simply tin't. When he briefly brags that his mind command devices could easily brand her forget Billy, he stops himself and remarks that brainwashing her in that style would be cruel ("That would reduce her to a soulless trounce... no. Non my Alice"). Unfortunately, the combination of briefly assertive that he finally has a shot, using his devices on actual human subjects, and being rejected again breaks his mind. By the end of the episode, he'due south completely reversed his previous position and go a violent, obsessive psychopath deeply in denial, blaming Batman for what'due south happened to Alice.

    Tetch/Hatter: I'll cutting that cowl off your neck before you'll take her! I've waited my whole solitary life for her!!

    Batman: So all you've waited for is a puppet! [Tetch briefly hesitates] A soulless little doll!

    • Taken even darker in "Trial" where he admitted that if he couldn't take her, he would equally soon kill her. When that confession is compared with his early remark about refusing to even consider brainwashing Alice, we realize only how far Tetch has gone. He even looks legitimately horrified after he realizes what he's said.
  • Maxim Mad Hatter had a tragic backstory when he obsessed over a girl and didn't respect that she only liked him as a friend is really pushing it, although she never made it explicit that she only liked him equally a friend and seemed as oblivious while out on their "date" after she and Billy had broken up. It's also possible that she just didn't see Tetch equally a possible suitor at all, instead misinterpreting his kindness as the deportment of a good friend... whether or not that makes information technology worse is upwardly to you.
    • YMMV, but it's not entirely unreasonable to sympathize with a lonely person who gets picked on by their boss and has an unrequited crush. He handles information technology extremely poorly, and that's what makes him a villain, but where we see him at the first of the episode is a relatable place for a lot of people. And made far worse when Paul Dini revealed that this version of the Hatter was based on a human being who'd committed a workplace shooting for similar reasons.

      Dini: With the Hatter, I made somebody who is technologically brilliant, merely who lives in this dream world and was probably ridiculed as a kid; everybody used to telephone call him names because he looked geeky and looked like the Mad Hatter. He really had a affiche of the Mad Hatter upwards. He liked Alice in Wonderland. When he came upwards with a way of decision-making people, suddenly, they were able to do his will, and he loved it, and he was able to bring his fantasies of Wonderland and living happily always after to life. But the main reason he did it was he was in dearest with somebody, and he didn't want to apply that power to control her because he knew that he'd lose her, only ultimately, he had to. That drove him over the edge and drove him crazy, and so there's an element of sorrow to that graphic symbol—unrequited dear taken to the nth degree.

  • By "The Worry Men," Tetch has completely embraced his Mad Hatter persona, which reduces him to petty thievery. Batman Lampshades this.
• Dick'south goodbye to his circus friends in "Robin's Reckoning: Role 1" has e'er brought tears to Bruce Timm's eyes.
  • While Dick'due south parents' expiry is pretty strong, what's really strong is Bruce and Dick's flashback talk near the terminate of Role 1, when Bruce sees quite a bit of himself in the acrobat.

    Bruce: You lot keep thinking..."If only I've done something differently. If only I could've...warned them." But there isn't anything y'all could've done. There isn't anything either of us could've washed.
    Dick: [looking at Bruce'south parents' portrait] Your mom and dad?
    [Bruce nods]
    Dick: Does the hurt ever go away?
    Bruce: I wish I could say "yes." Simply it will get better in fourth dimension. For you. That I promise.
    [The 2 hug]

• "Deep Freeze" has two particular moments, the beginning being where Victor, having finally establish the means to cure Nora, realizes that he has to requite information technology upward so that she won't lose the world she loved. The second is where he decides that he'd rather stay behind in Oceana to dice with her than save himself.

  Freeze: We're together over again...my dearest...

  • And there's the function where he tries to talk Walker out of the procedure.
    • In "Cold Comfort," Freeze finally realizes his dream of Nora being revived, except at this point he'south a complete crush of his former self, thinks himself too much of a freak to reveal himself to her, and can simply sentry from the shadows as his former wife (possibly an amnesiac at this point) falls in love with her md; all of this shatters any humanity he had left.
• "Old Wounds" is one of the worse tearjerkers in the DCAU as information technology shows the events leading up to Dick's split up from Bruce/Batman. The worst part is if yous go back and lookout the serial from the commencement, you tin can actually see their relationship slowly pause down over fourth dimension due not just to the disharmonism in their personalities and ideologies, but also Bruce'southward growing obsession and struggle with his own inner darkness. Truth exist told, past the fourth dimension Dick returns to moonlight in Gotham every bit Nightwing, he isn't then different from Bruce, simply it's as well late to salvage whatsoever relationship they had and he's generally seen working with Tim and Barbara or else on his ain, and then Batman Beyond reveals that Bruce and Dick never truly reconcile, and while the elderly Bruce will occasionally reminisce almost by adventures with Barbara and Tim, he never talks about Dick. In one episode where Terry asks to borrow a adapt, he comes across a coat with initials on the inside.

  Terry: (sees initials in glaze) Who's "D.G."?

  (Bruce walks off without answering)

  • Worse still, Bruce is noticeably colder with Tim than he was with Dick. He obviously cares for Tim, but their relationship never had the father/son vibe that Bruce had with Dick. It's not until late in Batman Beyond with Terry that we run into Bruce showtime to accept that sort of trust and fatherly relationship again.
    • This could also be a tearjerker for a different reason. Before being taken in by Bruce, Dick was raised by loving parents, but Tim'southward male parent was a neglectful lowlife. Bruce/Batman, who was ever a master at reading people, saw that Tim would but respond to a father figure who was cold and distant.
  • As well one thing that many people very likely missed is a certain detail when Tim becomes Robin. He borrows Dick's suit that Batman keeps on display, but Dick beingness an developed, it shouldn't fit Tim. That's considering the suit on display is kid-sized. In other words, Bruce had happier memories with Dick every bit a kid than an adult, which is why he put that arrange on display rather than the adult ane.
  • There's besides the part where we see Dick was gonna propose to Barbara. Just then he finds out that Barbara is Batgirl and have secretly been working with Batman. Dick was so upset with this revelation that he broke-up with her. Despite the Will They or Won't They? moments since he returned every bit Nightwing, they obviously never got back together equally shown in Batman Beyond.
• In "Perhaps to Dream," already a highly emotional episode if ever in that location was one, ends with the Mad Hatter launching a tirade against Bats when he asks the Hatter why he trapped him in a platonic dreamworld. The Hatter is quite mad, but information technology's delivered with such anguish...

  Batman: Why. Why did you do it? Why?
  Mad Hatter: Yous, of all people, take the gall to enquire me that?! You lot ruined my life! I was willing to give you any life you wanted... just to go on you lot out of mine!

  • Bruce accepting the dreamworld as reality, and for about a couple minutes of screen time, we go to see him truly happy for the first time...ever. His desperation every bit he searches for a coherent book as well as the look of pure anguish as he realizes which is his true life is tear-inducing.
• "See No Evil," aside from being prime horror. We have Lloyd Ventrix, a creepy ex-con whose old wife and immature girl have a restraining order against him. So he steals some textile that allows him to make an invisibility adjust, poses as his daughter'southward imaginary friend Mojo, swipes valuable jewelry for her to gain her trust, and finally attempts to kidnap her. Batman intervenes, Ventrix is exposed and foiled; and the episode ends with the girl telling Batman that she and her female parent are going to move away, where "Daddy" will never find them. The whole episode is heartbreaking.
  • The scene where Batman tells Lloyd'due south ex-wife Helen what'southward going on, which makes her realize who "Mojo" actually is. She runs into her firm to check on Kimberly, merely to find to her horror that's it's besides late. The window to Kimberly's room is wide open, and Kimberly is gone. Helen desperately crying out her daughter's name before breaking downwards in tears in gut-wrenching.
• Information technology's impossible to non get teary-eyed in the catastrophe of the episode (and Trope Namer) "Mad Love." Poor Harley Quinn.
  • The tearjerker value of any episode featuring the Joker mistreating Harley will be increased afterwards seeing "Mad Honey."
    • Subsequently Harley manages to housebreak Batman on her own, she states that she wants him out of the way so she and Joker can exist happy together, leading to his laughing at her naivete and this exchange:

      Batman: You little fool. The Joker doesn't love anything except himself. Wake up, Harleen—he had you pegged for hired help the infinitesimal you walked into Arkham.
      Harley: That's not... no. NO! He TOLD me things! Surreptitious things he never told anyone!
      Batman: Was it his line about the abusive father? Or the one near the runaway mom? He's gained a lot of sympathy with that one.
      Harley: Terminate it! You're making me confused!
      Batman: What was information technology he told that one parole officer? Oh, aye. "There was only one fourth dimension I ever saw Dad really happy. He took me to the Ice Evidence when I was 7."
      Harley: (Tears up) ...Circus. He said it was the circus…
      Batman: He's got a million of them, Harley.
      Harley: ...You're incorrect! My Puddin' does love me, he does! And now you lot're gonna die and make everything right!

    • Batman manages to convince her that Mr. J won't believe her without his torso as evidence. She and so calls the Joker, who's infuriated at her, providing the moving-picture show and line for this. He then pushes her out a third-story window onto some crates in the alley beneath. Afterwards a few lines of dialogue between him and Batsy, the camera then pans onto Harley's broken body...

      Harley: My fault... I didn't get the joke.

  • And it goes From Bad to Worse. At the end of the episode, it looks like Harley is almost to swear off the Joker for good and reform...but to find a blossom in her jail cell proverb "Feel ameliorate soon - J."

    Harleen Quinzel: Never once again. No more than obsession, no more than craziness, no more Joker. I finally encounter that slime for what he is: A murderous, manipulative, irredeemable...
    [Notices the flower on the nightstand]
    Harley Quinn: ...angel!

    • The original comic had a more haunting line that was more than direct in the passive-ambitious battered wife syndrome parallels (and the final line is an homage to the song "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Osculation"), the musical Carousel, and the phase play Lilliom that explores those dark themes:

      Dr. Leland: So, tell me, Harley—how did it feel to be and so dependent on a human being that you'd give up everything for him, gaining nothing in return? [leaves]

      Harley: [bitterly] It felt like...

      [sees blossom with "Feel amend soon - J"]

      Harley: [dreamily] It felt like a osculation.

  • "Mad Love" is probably i of the greatest episodes in the series because information technology doesn't back down on abusive relationships. While almost of the interactions between Harley and Joker are Played for Laughs (the final deed in "Harlequinade," for example), "Mad Love" shows just how obsessed Joker is with getting Batman in ways that "The Man Who Killed Batman" only hinted at. And to come across him snap at her the way he did was horrifying because she is a fan-favorite and the writers and animators tried hard to make her cute, quirky, and adorable. Unremarkably when she's happy, it makes at to the lowest degree some fans hearts melt and when she finally sees the Joker for what he is...the Joker knows just what to do to brand her come running back. "Mad Love" wasn't the first episode to show their calumniating bike, but information technology didn't hold annihilation back in showing how devastating abuse tin can be.
    • The animators and writers taking their time in fleshing out Harley earlier this episode is a reminder that people who are trapped in the bike of abuse are existent people with hopes, dreams, and unique personalities who fell in honey with the wrong person. Refrigerator Horror sets in when you lot learn that some abuse victims end upwards severely injured or even dead.
• Bruce'due south guilt-fueled dream in "2-Face, Role 2." "Why couldn't you lot save united states, son?"
  • The Two-Confront arc is absolutely heartbreaking. With the first episode, information technology starts uncomfortable equally we come across the angry side of Harvey coming out more than and more. It ends with his face getting scarred and so badly that it destroys his heed, and the scene where he walks out and is seen by his fiance Grace is the capper. But it gets worse in the second role, whether it be his constant thinking about Grace and longing to be with her, Grace's stupor at realizing that she accidentally led Thorne to Harvey which was further proof to Harvey that life is ruled by adventure, and capping information technology with his complete psychotic breakup when he can't find his coin, having a closer resemblance to an beast than a man. It finally ends with Batman going to a fountain after telling Gordon that there's e'er hope, wishing Harvey luck, and so flipping the money in as it lands heads up. The arc rivals "Heart of Ice" for the biggest Tear Jerker of the serial.
  • Bruce'south line "I volition salve you" after having the nightmare of Harvey and his parents is a huge Tear Jerker for two reasons. One for people who have read the comics earlier and know that in that location's no real promise for Harvey. And the second is for people who take loved ones suffering from severe mental illness and know that they can't save their loved ones from their inner demons every bit much as they long to.
  • And how nearly the very terminal time nosotros run into Harvey? He goes even crazier and develops a second alternate personality called The Judge, a personality so separate from his "normal" ones that it tries to impale him. Batman stops him eventually and sends Harvey dorsum to Arkham. We see Harvey in his cell, in a straitjacket, as he plays out a court scene with himself on trial, saying "The People versus Harvey Dent. How does the defendant plead?" And all poor Harvey tin do is brokenly say over and over again, "Guilty... Guilty... Guilty..."
    • And this IS (was) the last time Harvey Dent appears in the unabridged DCAU, bated from an alternating universe version, leaving the viewer with the impression that he spent the remainder of his life in that cell, proverb nothing else.
    • Justice League vs. The Fatal Five offers an extremely minor ray of hope - he's yet in Arkham Asylum postal service JLU, simply Harvey seems to be somewhat in command, and tries to assistance Starboy fit in.
  • What was notable nigh this show was that the transformation episode was non Harvey'due south first appearance in the serial. He was a recurring graphic symbol in a few episodes that showed him to exist an honest man working for the good of Gotham and a great friend to Bruce Wayne. This made the events of "2-Confront" even more than heartbreaking.
• "Over the Edge," menses. Even though it'south All But a Dream, it is even so possibly the well-nigh emotionally intense episode. From Batgirl's death to Gordon and Bruce's reactions, to Bruce telling a teary-eyed Tim to exit for his own good. And in the concluding scenes of the dream, seeing how broken both Batman and Jim had become just upped the sadness.
  • 1 of the more poignant parts is that it'due south subtly implied that Gordon is well-aware of how his vendetta against Batman is both irrational and turning him into a monster himself, but subsequently sacking Wayne Manor and ordering the arrests of Alfred, Dick, and Tim, there's no going back, and he knows it. All in all, let'southward just say in that location's a reason information technology's said no parent should ever have to coffin their child.
• "Feat of Clay"

  Matt Hagen: I'm not an actor anymore, Teddy. I'm not even... a man.

  • The final confrontation in Part 2. Batman defeats Clayface by showing him headshots and product photos from his ruined acting career, which confuses his transformation ability and sends information technology out of control. To stop information technology, Clayface rips into a nearby control panel and electrocutes himself. He collapses and, for a moment, changes from the monstrous Clayface to the handsome Matt Hagen. Then he morphs into his disfigured postal service-accident face up, the face he started all of this to try to get rid of. In the end, it's even so the face he ends up dying with. His death ends upward being a "scene", simply in the moment, it'southward extremely heart-wrenching.
• Clayface's final moments in "Mudslide." Equally his only hope of redeeming himself or always beingness human again melts away, he miserably looks up at Batman and admits defeat:

  Clayface: Too late, Batman. Curtain's going downwardly... for good this time.

• "Second Take chances". The end. Simply watch it without a small drop.
• The bear witness even makes y'all care about Villain of the Week characters who never show up again. In "Tyger, Tyger," you're introduced to Dr. Emile Dorian, a deranged geneticist, and his creation, a true cat-homo hybrid named Tygrus. Dr. Dorian has Selina Kyle/Catwoman kidnapped to be transformed into Tygrus' mate. One can be forgiven for being indifferent towards the beast at the start, but then y'all find out he's sentient and capable of voice communication, he thinks of Dorian every bit his father, and pretty much the only reason he'south an adversary in the episode is considering Dorian told him that Selina would grow to love him in one case Batman was out of the way. He's eventually persuaded that Batman isn't his enemy, merely this angers Dorian, who ultimately blames Selina for "ruining" Tygrus and tries to shoot her. This, in plough, angers Tygrus enough to turn on Dorian, and he proceeds to tear the lab autonomously while Dorian desperately tries to calm him.

  Dorian: I but wanted you lot to be strong, to show no weakness, no pity!

  • Upon beingness confronted in one case and for all with the reality that Selina definitely does non want to remain a cat-person, he gives her the canister with the antitoxin and bids her bye. Selina tries to persuade him to come with them, saying there's nothing for him on the md's island anymore. His response is delivered in a vocalisation completely devoid of emotion, which somehow makes it even more than depressing:

  Tygrus: There'southward nada for me anywhere.

  • And this setting could have provided the perfect opening for Shazam!'s Mr. Tawky Tawny in the DCAU; a tiger human who refused to surrender to Tygrus' despair and sought out human society.
• There are scenes throughout the series that make it pretty clear just how strongly Bruce feels that his parents' deaths were his mistake.
  • A great case of that is when Batman returns to the spot where his parents were shot with Dr. Leslie Thompkins, the woman who originally helped to comfort him every bit a child.
• "Birds of a Feather": You lot will pity the Penguin. In this episode, Oswald Cobblepot is released, fully intending to retire from crime...and finding that, without his criminal friends, his life is pretty void of companionship ^note Also Truth in Television, equally this is function of why recidivism rates for crime and drug employ tin can be so high. He meets up with Veronica Vreeland, a shallow former Beloved Involvement of Bruce Wayne's, and a male person friend named Pierce Chapman (information technology's never shown whether they're romantically involved) who's an ever bigger Jerkass than she is. They decide to amuse themselves by pretending to like Penguin and bringing him into high club, being inspired by the fact that the most-talked about party of the year involved The Joker crashing it and holding people hostage. The Penguin falls for it, going so far as to plan to advise to Miss Vreeland. Even Batman congratulates him on the new management of his life (although still decidedly unconvinced that he's truly reformed). Unfortunately, Oswald finds out that they were playing him for a fool the whole time and goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Veronica and her Upper-Class Twit of a friend. Batman stops him and the saddened Penguin returns to prison, musing ironically to himself: "I judge it's true what they say. Society is to blame. High guild."
  • Afterward Oswald came to her defence and fought off some muggers, Veronica could really accept been falling for him, and the chat where The Penguin found out almost the program to use him was considering Veronica was chatting with Pierce about having 2d thoughts most the entire thing.
  • This line from Penguin, afterward he realizes he's been had and kidnaps Veronica and Pierce in revenge:

    Veronica: Oswald, if information technology'southward money y'all want, I can get you lot more than...

    Penguin: SHUT Upwards! All I wanted from you, dearie, was a little friendship. [sadly] That would take price you aught.

  • The expect on Veronica's face when the Penguin delivers his closing line while being arrested. The guilt she feels is going to haunt her for a long fourth dimension.
• A subtle one in "Animate being Act," in which Dick and Tim visit the former'southward circus home.

  Tim: This must've been a fun place to grow up.
  Dick: [looking upward at the trapeze] It was.

• Poison Ivy's introductory episode "Pretty Poison," where she accidentally kills her mutant flytrap plant, and then sets her whole greenhouse on fire. Yous actually feel pitiful for fiction's ultimate eco-terrorist when y'all see the look on her face at what she's done.
  • For that thing, even though she escaped at the end of the episode "House and Garden," where she tried to have some kind of a family and normal life (fifty-fifty though it was all a fake) left you feeling some pity for Pamela.
    • Somehow, it manages to become even worse. While Pamela does retire from being Poison Ivy at that point, she leaves behind 1 last vegetable creature to pose equally her in Gotham to distract Batman and go along Harley company, bookkeeping for her alter in appearance in-between the 2 series. At one bespeak during a fight with Batgirl, the new Ivy is striking with weedkiller and finds herself breaking downwardly. She attempts to seek out assist for what is happening to her and...
• Selina desperately searching for Isis in the early scenes of "Cat Scratch Fever."
  • Plus when she does this after, as she'south starting to succumb to the effects of the illness. To brand matters worse, she got infected after she was scratched by one of the infected animals at the lab... Isis.
• Almost all of "I Am the Night," which starts with Bruce despondent over how criminal offense will always exist no matter how many pocket-sized battles with it he wins, and his spiral of low getting worse when he blames himself for Gordon being shot.
  • Bullock doesn't make things whatsoever better. He tells Batman he should take been there for him and that Gordon was counting on him, fifty-fifty proverb that Batman is simply as responsible as Gordon's shooter. Feeling more than depressed, Batman swings away. And Bullock tells him it's not over, "I ain't talking well-nigh police force! Information technology'south near y'all and me!" Though Bullock seems like an insensitive jerk, he truly cares about Gordon as Batman does. His anger stems from his belief that Batman causes more damage than good to the city.
• In "Sideshow," Killer Croc escapes into the wilderness and is taken in by a group of ex-sideshow performers who call up he's escaped his ain brutal circus masters. Somewhen, Batman finds them and his true nature shows itself, and equally he'due south taken back to prison, the "seal boy" who first found him asks why he didn't just retire from his criminal life and stay with them in peace. Croc's response is surprisingly insightful (for him, anyhow): "You said you could exist yourself out here, call back? I guess that'south what I was doing: Being myself."
  • The sheer heartbreak of the seal male child, and the other well-pregnant ex-carnies, upon finding the peace of their village being violated, is pretty depressing unto itself. They seemed so happy to find a new friend.
• Tim overhearing that his father is dead in "Sins of the Male parent."
• "Mean Seasons." The reveal that Calendar Daughter's face is perfectly normal and beautiful, but she's and then psychologically screwed up from the way the modelling manufacture treated her that she only sees the flaws in information technology.
  • Fabricated even worse with the Reality Subtext, equally Sela Ward, who voiced Calendar Girl, was told the exact aforementioned thing when auditioning to become a Bond Girl ^note "What nosotros really desire is Sela, only Sela ten years agone" (though, thankfully, she didn't become crazy as a result).

    Batgirl: She'southward beautiful.

    Batman: She tin can't run into that anymore. All she sees are the flaws.

• "His Silicon Soul." Once again, the writers took something that could have easily been some other stock superhero show story and made it into something poignant and tragic. Duplicant!Batman is an Iron Woobie, you can't help but experience sorry for him/it. Just specially, peculiarly when the Duplicant's tomato gets squashed flat.

  Rossum: You don't empathise. Y'all're not a man'due south mind in a robot's trunk. Yous're a robot. Period.

  Duplicant!Batman: You're lying! It's not possible! I know my family and friends! I remember names, faces, birthdays! I have memories! A past!

  Rossum: Yous have information. Data. Nothing more than. Do you remember your beginning buss? Your favorite vocal? The last fourth dimension yous tasted a really skillful steak?

  • Fabricated worse when he believes he killed Bruce and is stricken by guilt. Realizing the scheme HARDAC built him to consummate will kill many more people, he sacrifices himself to foil information technology. Bruce wonders if this meant the duplicate had a soul of his own.

    Duplicant!Batman: NOOOOOO!! I've taken a life! I've killed a human being. [goes dorsum to the Batcomputer, which HARDAC has almost finished uploading itself into] My metropolis...my people... What have I done!?... NO!!! [destroys the computer]

    [Later, while Bruce and Alfred clean up]

  • Earlier the two above-mentioned scenes, in that location's Alfred fearfully backing away from Duplicant!Batman, assuming that something terrible has happened to Bruce shortly after discovering the duplicant in the library. When the duplicant starts moving toward Alfred again, Alfred attempts to assault the duplicant, merely the duplicant catches Alfred's weapon and tosses it aside, trying to assure Alfred that it's really him. The duplicant pleads with Alfred to assist him discover out how he ended upward as a robot, but Alfred activates the secret passage to the Batcave and flees inside, ignoring the duplicant's pleas.

    Alfred: You're 1 of Rossum's duplicants!
    Duplicant!Batman: Duplicants? What do you mean? [begins approaching Alfred once more]
    Alfred: What have y'all done with Master Bruce?! [attempts to strike the duplicant with the golfing club, just the duplicant grabs it and tosses information technology bated]
    Duplicant!Batman: Alfred, it'southward me! I need your assist. I accept to discover out what's happened to me. [Alfred begins backing away again] I'chiliad not going to last long like this! [Alfred backs into the clock, then reaches around the clock and feels effectually for the switch to activate the passage before he finds it and presses it and edges around the opening clock and into the passage] Alfred, await. Please!

• Any origin story. The BTAS villains are tragic.
• Re-watching the series after viewing Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Seeing Tim as a happy, cheerful kid and knowing what the Joker does to him is painful.
• A blink-and-yous-miss-information technology example, but in "Christmas with the Joker," when Robin tin't believe Batman has never seen It's a Wonderful Life, Batman responds that he "couldn't become past the title screen." Information technology says an atrocious lot well-nigh Bruce'due south life that he tin't stand a motion picture title that literally says a wonderful life. Though subsequently seeing it, he admit it has its moments.
• In the episode "Chemical science," Bruce has fallen in love. He tries to explain what he'southward going through to his partners:

  Bruce: Everything's changed for me in the past few weeks. The hurting of my parents' deaths... It'south still there, simply it seems smaller. And in that location'southward a new feeling now.

  Barbara: Which would be?

  Bruce: Information technology'due south a lightness. A sense that things will work out for the best.

  Tim: It's called happiness.

  Bruce: Whatever information technology is, I like it.

  • At start information technology's funny, as Bruce regards happiness as a completely foreign emotion. Then you realize that Bruce regards happiness as a completely foreign emotion.
• In "Paging the Crime Physician," Bruce pays the bail for Matthew Thorne, a disgraced doctor (who used to exist friends with fellow doctors Thomas Wayne and Leslie Thompkins) with the misfortune of having a crime lord for a brother, request only that Thorne tell him well-nigh his father.
• Maxie Zeus's backstory is likewise pretty tragic. In this version, he has no "dark origin story" or Moral Outcome Horizon, and he isn't even really evil. He was just a regular businessman who seemed to have gone into delusional insanity overnight, though for one 2nd he seemed to have snapped dorsum to normal only for his insanity to have over again.
  • Getting electrocuted by his own weapon and falling on his head seems to have driven him permanently into insanity. When he's sent to Arkham, he believes he'due south returned domicile to the 'truthful' Olympus.
  • The story is even more tragic for his girlfriend Clio. She truly loves him and remembers the times when he was still normal (as shown in her pic of them), only she is powerless to help him and forced to watch his sanity deteriorate. The worst part? During the climax, she nigh manages to get through him and for a brief moment, Maxie seems to come dorsum to his senses... but for the Zeus personality to take over.
• "It'southward Never Also Tardily," the episode well-nigh the criminal offense boss and his priest brother. Seeing the flashback of how the priest lost his leg.
  • Besides every bit Arnold Stromwell's (the mob boss) horrified expression when he has said flashback and the way he ends up bursting into tears in his blood brother'due south arms. You can clearly encounter that the guy never forgave himself for the blow that price the leg of his brother.
  • In general, this episode can brand you sad for Stromwell in a Jerkass Woobie/Alas, Poor Villain kind of way. This guy is a textbook case of Being Evil Sucks. He'south a powerful criminal offense boss, has money and power. Good for him. His empire is also aging considering of the rise of Thorne's own criminal empire, he'southward divorced from his wife, estranged from his brother, and he is afterwards horrified to find that his son has become sick because of the drugs his ain system was selling. At to the lowest degree, his story ends on a rather happy note, as he'south convinced by Batman and his blood brother to surrender to the police and close downward his empire. He may end up in prison, merely he's at present at peace with himself and set to make amends.
• In "Harley's Holiday," it's pretty unfortunate that Harley was alleged cured and released from Arkham perfectly set up to kickoff a new life. Only for ane tiny misunderstanding ^note She buys a dress, but walks away with it before the clerk can remove the security tag, merely Harley doesn't hear her calling her to come up back because she's listening to music on her headphones, causing the alarm to go off as she leaves, causing security to deal with her, with her thinking they're accusing her of stealing the shirt apparel because of her reputation, causing her to snap and revert back to her psychotic means to disengage all of it within ten minutes.
• "Beware the Gray Ghost": During Bruce'south childhood, his idol and hero was The Gray Ghost who was portrayed by Simon Trent. But now, Simon is a man living in poverty in a one-room flat, unable to observe any piece of work because people only think of him as The Gray Ghost and don't take him seriously. Later on hearing he's been turned down once again, he angrily shatters the picture of him every bit The Gray Ghost and knocks over merchandise and mementos he had kept from his glory days earlier collapsing to the floor sobbing. The fact that he's voiced by Adam West probably doesn't help.
  • In fact, the whole episode was written for West to drive that nail in. Bruce Timm has stated that if they hadn't been able to become West to do the role, they'd accept scrapped the whole episode.
  • Trent's line "So, it wasn't all for nothing..." is simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking, especially with Westward's passing in 2017.
• "The Forgotten" had a surprisingly constructive moment where Bruce has a dream where he's walking through a homeless neighborhood and stops to give cash to some of the nearby people. Presently, more join in, begging for greenbacks, leading Bruce to simply stop and shed a tear at the realization that he can't assist them all. It really humanizes Bruce and drives home his sense of guilt and responsibleness for the people he'south unable to help, not just as Batman either.
  • That's by no means the only moment: When Riley and the amnesiac Bruce are stuck in the Box, slowly roasting live in the desert sun, Riley begins to have an emotional breakup, crying almost how he's beginning to forget things almost his family and how he'south never going to see them once more. And then, this flare-up gives Bruce's hidden the concluding piece of the puzzle it needs, and he remembers himself as a kid with his parents, but for the happy retentivity to be subsumed by their looming, disintegrating headstone.
  • Additionally, Fridge Horror sets in difficult when you call back the horrifically brutal and dangerous conditions in the army camp. Lethal cave-ins? A regular thing. That guy Boss Biggis fabricated an case of? Almost certainly expressionless.
• "Showdown": The restrained sadness in Ras' vocalism, as he explains that he took besides long to find his son, who is now ailing and beyond his means to restore.
• Man-Bat's sudden shift from ferocious snarling to cringing shame, when Francine enters the lab to detect her transformed husband attacking Batman. Bestial or not, Kirk's modify-ego still cares for her and conspicuously tin can't stand to have his wife see him like that.
• "Read My Lips." The dynamic between the ventriloquist (a heretofore unnamed Arnold Wesker) and his Split Personality Scarface, channeled through his dummy, is unquestionably a bizarre thing to lookout play out. And yet this, their debut episode, ends in a tragic moment, when in the scuffle between Batman and Scarface's Mooks, the Scarface dummy is practically disintegrated by gunfire intended for Batman. The ventriloquist reacts with a blood-curdling scream, and collapses to the floor, holding whatever is left of Scarface, and crying his eyes out at the loss of his "boss." All of a sudden, this isn't some weird spectacle anymore; it's the heartbreaking anguish of a homo with serious issues, at a Despair Upshot Horizon, and in desperate need of professional person help. (Equally the Bittersweet Ending makes painfully clear.)

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TearJerker/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries

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