History Recap / JusticeLeagueS2E11And12ABetterWorld

* HereWeGoAgain: The episode ends with Luthor mentioning an interest in politics. Kind of like how the Lords' StartOfDarkness began, but it also has serious repercussions in the next season.

* TryEverything: After breaking out, the Flash attempts to free Batman from his cell by inputting every possible password combination at superspeed. Luckily, Batman gives him some help by telling him his own password, deducing that Lord Batman's password likely would be the same.

* PuppetKing: After Lord Superman killed President Luthor in the Oval Office, he [[TakeThat appointed]] George W. Bush as his replacement. He's seen casually ignoring requests and protests for a free election, presumably having decided that after electing Luthor the people no longer know what's best for themselves.

* IKnowYouKnowIknow: This is the reason Batman doesn't try to escape from his Justice Lord counterpart's prison; anything ''he'd'' think up, the other'd anticipate.

'''Batman:''' [''*drops Batarang dejectedly*''] You win.

'''Batman:''' *drops Batarang dejectedly* You win.

* EmptyShell: Lord Batman's rogues gallery are barely above mindless zombies, placed in Arkham Asylum. It's truly disconcerting when the League meet the lobotomized Joker in an abnormally calm and docile state, but heartbreaking when the Flash happens to encounter the lobotomized version of Poison Ivy, who now has no signs of her former ambitions and no longer cares what happens to the world and its plants. Even though they were villains, the ruthless lengths the alternate Superman was willing to go through to maintain order places him squarely in MoralEventHorizon territory. Of course, the Joker states that just because he was lobotomized did not mean he was stupid.

* AffablyEvil: Poison Ivy in the Justice Lords universe

* AssholeVictim: President Luthor.

* KnightTemplar: The Justice Lords.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: The Justice Lords.

* WoundedGazelleGambit: Lord Batman is tricked into freeing the Flash because the latter raised his heartrate that made it look like he flatlined.

** When Batman got dosed with Scarecrow's fear toxin back in "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE3NothingToFear Nothing to Fear]]", he was terrorized by an image of his father calling him a "disgrace". Presumably Lord Batman has the same weak point, especially given the fact that he has much more reason to believe that his parents ''would'' be ashamed of him.

* BewareTheSuperman: The LawfulEvil Justice Lords, especially since the absolute nature of their control over Earth demonstrates how no-one would be able to stop them if they decided they were better off ruling Earth than saving it. This becomes a plot point in the Cadmus arc in ''Unlimited''.
** Creator/BruceTimm states in the commentary that the episode was originally supposed to be a straight up "Crime Syndicate" story, which involved characters that are almost-{{Evil Twin}}s-[[CaptainErsatz but]]-[[{{Expy}} not-exactly]], but fell in love with the idea of using actual alternate versions of a fascist Justice League.
** That Crime Syndicate story actually [[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueCrisisOnTwoEarths got made later]], albeit retooled into a non-DCAU canon movie.

* RoleReprisal: Mark Hamill, Clancy Brown, and Diane Pershing all reprise their respective roles as the Joker, Lex Luthor, and Poison Ivy. This also has the distinction of being Pershing's final performance as the DCAU incarnation of Pamela Isley.

* DevelopmentGag: The Justice Lords costumes. In the DVD Commentary, Bruce Timm revealed he had briefly considered giving the Leaguers matching uniform during early pre-production on Season One. While DC President Paul Levitz vetoed the idea, Timm revisited the initial design ideas here for designing the Justice Lords.

* DevelomentGag: The Justice Lords costumes. In the DVD Commentary, Bruce Timm revealed he had briefly considered giving the Leaguers matching uniform during early pre-production on Season One. While DC President Paul Levitz vetoed the idea, Timm revisited the initial design ideas here for designing the Justice Lords.

* TakeThatUs: According to the DVD Commentary, all the Superman Robots' dialogue in Part 2 is self-deprecation. They were almost all lines from Season One and was basically episode writer Stan Berkowitz mocking the corny Superman dialogue both creators and the audience had criticized the previous Season.

* TheWorfEffect: Who better to fight the Lords to show that they mean business than Doomsday?

* BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood: How the Justice Lords dealt with their RoguesGallery.
** Amusingly, when we get to see the alternate Arkham Asylum and the various lobotomized supervillains, the Ventriloquist has no lobotomy scars, but [[DemonicDummy Scarface]] ''does''.
*** Despite RuleOfFunny, it's actually justified given Wesker's psychology and how Wesker views Scarface's Dummy as an actual being. 'Lobotomizing' the puppet would, in Wesker's mind, 'kill' Scarface's personality (and make it unnecessary to lobotomize Wesker himself).

* DoppelgangerGetsSameSentiment: Exploited; the Justice Lord version of Batman panics when Flash fakes flatlining by speeding up his heart rate, because the Justice Lord universe's version of Flash was killed by Lex Luthor.

* {{Irony}}: In the Justice Lords' universe, Lord Superman killed Luthor [[ShutUpHannibal after he was given a]] HannibalLecture, partly because he killed their Flash, a series of events that leads to "[[NothingIsTheSameAnymore the end of the world]]." In the main universe, Flash tries talking down Lord Superman by invoking MoralityPet, but when Lord Superman [[IgnoredEpiphany refuses to listen and decides to kill him]], Luthor comes in just in time to save Flash and depower Lord Superman.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: After Lord Batman invokes HeelFaceTurn and helps the League return home, he disappears from the story -- not even showing up for the FinalBattle against the rest of the Justice Lords.

* EmptyShell: Lord Batman's rogue gallery are barely above mindless zombies, placed in Arkham Asylum. It's truly disconcerting when the League meet the lobotomized Joker in an abnormally calm and docile state, but heartbreaking when the Flash happens to encounter the lobotomized version of Poison Ivy, who now has no signs of her former ambitions and no longer cares what happens to the world and its plants. Even though they were villains, the ruthless lengths the alternate Superman was willing to go through to maintain order places him squarely in MoralEventHorizon territory. Of course, the Joker states that just because he was lobotomized did not mean he was stupid.

** When the Flash is flattered about learni ng how he's the conscience of the Justice League, Green Lantern calls him Jiminy, a.k.a. Jiminy Cricket, the conscience of WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In ''Unlimited'' it's heavily implied that Lord Superman went berserk primarily because Lex Luthor killed the Flash. But in the episode proper, Lex Luthor did [[RiddleForTheAges something]] so heinous that the world was on the brink of World War 3 so Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman storm the White House to apprehend or talk him down. Flash is dead at this point, but if Luthor was respnsible it isn't brought up once.

* EvilCostumeSwitch: In the teaser, the Justice Lords wear the same costumes as their Justice League counterparts. After Lord Superman burns Lex Luthor to death, though, the Justice Lords go through a costume switch that make them not so much evil, but rather fearsome totalitarian anti-heroes. Lord Superman's new costume is black and white rather than its traditional blue, red, and yellow to reflect his new black-and-white morality.

%%* AlternateUniverse[=/=]MirrorUniverse

* GodzillaThreshold: Invoked, as Batman tells Superman they're going to have to compromise their morals in ''some'' way to defeat the Justice Lords. Superman refuses to break his most sacred oath (ThouShaltNotKill) and instead has a different threshold -- asking Lex Luthor for help.

*** Her counterpart in the Justice Lords universe doesn't sugar-coat what she thinks of Lord Superman's new tyranny.