History TearJerker / BatmanTheAnimatedSeries

** Made even worse with the RealitySubtext, as Sela Ward, who voiced Calendar Girl, was told ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sela_Ward#Career the exact same thing]]'' when auditioning to become a Bond Girl[[note]]"What we really want is Sela, but Sela ten years ago"[[/note]] (though, thankfully, she didn't go crazy as a result).

* "[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE13MeanSeasons Mean Seasons]]." The reveal that Calendar Girl's face is perfectly normal and beautiful, but she's so psychologically screwed up from the way the modelling industry treated her that she only sees the flaws in it.

* Bruce's guilt-fueled dream in "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE11TwoFacePart2 Two-Face, Part 2]]." "''Why couldn't you save us, son?''"

[[caption-width-right:350:[[TragicVillain I failed you. I wish there were another way for me to say it. I cannot. I can only beg your forgiveness, and pray you hear me somehow. Some place...]] ''[[TragicVillain someplace where a warm hand waits for mine.]]'']]

* Tim overhearing that his father is dead in "[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE2SinsOfTheFather Sins of the Father]]."

* While the episode leans heavily more towards the comedic, "The Man Who Killed Batman" hits a lot differently after the death of Creator/KevinConroy on November 10, 2022.
** Joker's reaction when even he starts to believe Batman is dead is especially hard to watch, knowing how close Creator/MarkHamill and Kevin were in real life. What makes the following line hit harder is how Hamill has sworn off voicing the Joker without Kevin.
--->'''Joker:''' Without Batman… crime has no punchline.

** The scene where Batman [[ExplainExplainOhCrap tells Lloyd’s ex-wife Helen what’s going on, which makes her realize who "Mojo" really is]]. She runs into her house to check on Kimberly, only to find to her horror that’s it’s too late. The window to Kimberly’s room is wide open, and Kimberly is gone. Helen desperately crying out her daughter’s name before breaking down in tears in gut-wrenching.

** 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 ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' with Terry that we see Bruce start to have 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's father was a neglectful lowlife. Bruce/Batman, who was always a master at reading people, saw that Tim would only respond to a father figure who was cold and distant.

Other than being one of the better known ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' adaptations, ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' has its ample share of tear-jerking moments, both on the HurtingHero himself as well as [[JerkassWoobie plenty of his]] [[TragicVillain adversaries]].

--->'''Freeze:''' I failed you. I wish there were another way for me to say it. I cannot. I can only beg your forgiveness. (''[[BrokenTears voice breaks as he starts to cry]]'') And pray you hear me somehow, some place... [[TogetherInDeath someplace where a warm hand waits for mine.]] (''[[DespairEventHorizon lowers his head in despair]] as [[SympathyForTheDevil Batman sympathetically watches in through the window from a nearby rooftop]]'')

** What makes it even worse is that, in this episode specifically, Freeze's wife Nora was meant to be dead already. Due to censorship reasons, the producers weren't allowed to state this, but 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 ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' and ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'' 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 Ice"? She's already dead. If you've never considered that before, re-watch the episode and listen 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; scroll up and read the quote under the image one more time, and consider that Nora is dead, [[DeathSeeker and Freeze is talking about the afterlife]]. God dammit, that's painful.

--->'''Freeze:''' I failed you. I wish there were another way for me to say it. I cannot. I can only beg your forgiveness. (''[[BrokenTears voice breaks as he starts to cry]]'') And pray you hear me somehow, some place... [[TogetherInDeath someplace where a warm hand waits for mine.]] (''lowers his head in despair as Batman sympathetically watches in through the window from a nearby rooftop'')

--->'''Freeze:''' I failed you. I wish there were another way for me to say it. I cannot. I can only beg your forgiveness. (''voice breaks as he starts to cry'') And pray you hear me somehow, some place... [[TogetherInDeath someplace where a warm hand waits for mine.]] (''lowers his head in despair as Batman sympathetically watches in through the window from a nearby rooftop'')

** For further explanation: Mary Dahl is an actress who was NotAllowedToGrowUp--''literally.'' She suffers from systemic hypoplasia, a rare disorder that completely stunted her growth and doomed her to look like a five-year-old child forever. She initially found success on a sitcom called ''Love That Baby'', but when the ratings failed, so did her career--no one would cast her in anything because of her childlike appearance. The rejection, coupled with her physical condition, drives Dahl insane and leads her to assume the persona of "Baby Doll," a [[EnfantTerrible deadly little girl.]] Dahl eventually becomes so desperate to recapture the only 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 chase through a fairground, where, in a hall of mirrors, she encounters a reflection of the woman she truly is--a beautiful, thirty-something actress who looks her own age. Upon seeing it, Dahl realizes that her entire life is "made-up and pretend," and goes on a wild rampage, 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 cry as she utterly destroys it. Batman then approaches her as she [[ThousandYardStare 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 past she can't go back to, and utters her old catchphrase from her show: [[MeaningfulEcho "I... didn't]] [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone mean to."]]

--->'''Duplicant!Batman:''' [[BigNo NOOOOOO!!]] I've taken a life! I've killed a man. ''[goes back to the Batcomputer, which HARDAC has almost finished uploading itself into]'' My city...my people... ''[[HeelRealization What have I done!?]]''... NO!!! ''[destroys the computer]''

[[caption-width-right:350:[[TragicVillain I can only beg your forgiveness, and pray you hear me somehow. Some place...]] ''[[TragicVillain someplace where a warm hand waits for mine.]]'']]

* A blink-and-you-miss-it example, but in "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE2ChristmasWithTheJoker Christmas with the Joker]]," when Robin can't believe Batman has never seen ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'', Batman responds that he "couldn't get past the title screen." It says an awful lot about Bruce's life that he can't stand a movie title ''that literally says'' a wonderful life. Though after seeing it, he admit it has its moments.

*** In "[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE3ColdComfort Cold Comfort]]," Freeze finally realizes his dream of Nora being revived, except at this point he's a complete shell of his former self, thinks himself too much of a freak to reveal himself to her, and can only watch from the shadows as his former wife (possibly an amnesiac at this point) falls in love with her doctor; all of this shatters any humanity he had left.

** Joker's reaction when even he starts to believe Batman is dead is especially hard to watch, knowing how close Creator/MarkHamill and Kevin were in real life.

* "[[BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE64ReadMyLips Read My Lips]]." The dynamic between the ventriloquist (a heretofore unnamed Arnold Wesker) and his SplitPersonality Scarface, channeled through his dummy, is unquestionably a ''bizarre'' thing to watch play out. And yet this, their debut episode, ends in a tragic moment, when in the scuffle between Batman and Scarface's {{Mook}}s, the Scarface dummy is practically disintegrated by gunfire intended for Batman. The ventriloquist reacts with a '''[[BigNo blood-curdling scream,]]''' and collapses to the floor, holding whatever is left of Scarface, and [[BrokenTears crying his eyes out]] at the loss of his "boss." Suddenly, this isn't some weird spectacle anymore; it's the heartbreaking anguish of a man with serious issues, at a DespairEventHorizon, and in desperate need of professional help. (As the BittersweetEnding makes [[TheEndOrIsIt painfully clear]].)

* "Read My Lips." The dynamic between the ventriloquist (a heretofore unnamed Arnold Wesker) and his SplitPersonality Scarface, channeled through his dummy, is unquestionably a ''bizarre'' thing to watch play out. And yet this, their debut episode, ends in a tragic moment, when in the scuffle between Batman and Scarface's {{Mook}}s, the Scarface dummy is practically disintegrated by gunfire intended for Batman. The ventriloquist reacts with a '''[[BigNo blood-curdling scream,]]''' and collapses to the floor, holding whatever is left of Scarface, and [[BrokenTears crying his eyes out]] at the loss of his "boss." Suddenly, this isn't some weird spectacle anymore; it's the heartbreaking anguish of a man with serious issues, at a DespairEventHorizon, and in desperate need of professional help. (As the BittersweetEnding makes [[TheEndOrIsIt painfully clear]].)

'''Harley:''' ...''[[IgnoredEpiphany You're wrong]]''! My Puddin' ''does'' love me, ''he does''! And now you're gonna die [[MurderTheHypotenuse and make everything right]]!