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Context Recap / BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE39HeartOfSteelPart2

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1[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/heart_of_steel_part_ii_title_card.jpg]]
2Batman and Barbara Gordon, who's realized that something is very wrong with her father, set out to stop H.A.R.D.A.C.
3
4----
5!!Tropes in this episode include:
6* AbnormalLimbRotationRange and ExorcistHead: Both features of H.A.R.D.A.C.'s robots when they aren't bothering to pretend to be human.
7* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Batman uses a batarang to cut off Robot!Bullock's head after its flesh is burned off by the batsignal.
8%%* ArtificialIntelligence
9* CombatStilettos: Randa keeps her high-heeled little shoes on even when fighting, and never loses her balance. She is probably a more justified example than many, bearing her superhuman nature in mind.
10* DeceptivelyHumanRobots
11* DramaticIrony: Early on, Batman says he's going to search the house for any clues Randa may have left behind, because, after all, "she's only human." As the audience already knows by this point, [[DeceptivelyHumanRobots she really isn't]].
12* EffortlessAmazonianLift: Once Rossum is disabled, Randa picks him up and carries him away with no apparent effort.
13* {{Foreshadowing}}: Barbara deciding to help out Batman, hinting at her becoming Batgirl later on in the show.
14-->'''Jim Gordon:''' I'm getting too old for this stuff.\
15'''Barbara Gordon:''' I thought it was kinda fun.
16* ExactlyWhatIAimedAt: While fighting the robotic Gordon, Batman throws an explosive which the robot dodges. It turns out, however, that the explosive was actually thrown at one of H.A.R.D.A.C.'s cores. Not only does the explosion destroy the robot, but it causes a chain reaction explosion that destroys the building and H.A.R.D.A.C.
17* IronicEcho: In the previous episode, Batman returned to the Batcave with a damaged hang glider, and Alfred quipped, "I wish you wouldn't play so rough with your toys." In this episode, after one of Batman's own robots attacks him, Alfred quips, "I wish your toys wouldn't play so rough with you."
18* JumpedAtTheCall: This is the first time we've seen Barbara Gordon really involved in a Batman type case, and she refuses to take a back seat.
19* KillAndReplace: The evil computer H.A.R.D.A.C. has decided that humans are too dangerous due to their imperfections and begins replacing them. While it is planning on killing its victims once it has extracted all the information it can, they are ultimately rescued before it can do so.
20* LaserGuidedKarma: Randa summons an elevator to decapitate Batman while she holds him in the entrance. He flips them both in and jumps out, then she gets crushed.
21* MetaCasting: Creator/WilliamSanderson playing a near-{{Expy}} of [[Film/BladeRunner J.F. Sebastian]].
22* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Rossum's reaction to H.A.R.D.A.C. going beyond his control. Earlier in the episode, right before he tries to pull H.A.R.D.A.C.'s plug, Rossum realizes his mistake of trying to make a "perfect" world populated by androids instead of humans, where such things like his daughter getting killed in a car accident would never happen.
23* NeverSayDie: H.A.R.D.A.C. describes Rossum's daughter as being deactivated. Justified by the term being appropriate for an A.I.
24%%* NotEvenHuman
25* OhCrap: The robotic Gordon makes a subtle instance of this when it realizes that Batman's explosive he lobbed wasn't aimed at it, but one of H.A.R.D.A.C.'s systems. It tries to throw it away in time, but doesn't make it.
26* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: At the end, when Rossum despairs that he didn't think H.A.R.D.A.C. would go so far, Hamilton Hill assures him that the investigation will prove his innocence of the computer's actions.
27* RedEyesTakeWarning: When Bruce is lured into the Gotham Club, all the Rossum Replicants start up their glowing red eyes.
28* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Randa Duane, who even jokes (coolly but unmistakably) with the captive and soon-to-be-replaced Bruce Wayne, when this serves no utilitarian purpose. She seems to have at least some traces of a non-affected humanlike personality--which is not necessarily gratuitous in her case, as she was made to pass as a long-term human agent.
29* RoboticReveal: Two. The first when Harvey Bullock is thrown into the BatSignal, burning off his flesh to reveal the robotic skeleton, and the second when Randa Duane, the sexy lady Bruce has been flirting with the whole episode, has her skin burned off by an explosion to reveal her electronic circuits.
30%%* RobotMe
31* ShoutOut:
32** ''Franchise/TransformersGeneration1'' (Cybertron Industries)
33** ''Film/TheTerminator'' (Randa Duane's eventual fate)
34** Commissioner Gordon's ending sentence "I'm getting too old for this kind of stuff" is very similar to "I'm too old for this shit", made popular by Roger Murtaugh in the ''Film/LethalWeapon'' series.
35* SuperPrototype: Randa is the only robot capable of successfully mimicking a human in any real way; the rest are all combat dummies.
36* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: When Rossum decides to end the "Plan" and reprogram H.A.R.D.A.C.--who resists.
37-->'''Randa Duane:''' [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight You have immobilized the Maker.]]\
38'''H.A.R.D.A.C.:''' His human imperfection endangers the Plan. He must be improved upon.
39* WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: "He felt a great quantity of this emotion called love."
40* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: On the commentary, the producers explained that the censors and Bureau of Standards and Practices would not object when they harmed or destroyed robots, so not only did they use them as foes to be destroyed, but made their destruction as violent as possible. The destruction of "Gordon" (falling on a grenade Batman throws near H.A.R.D.A.C.) and "Duane" (crushed by a descending elevator) stand out.

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