Batman The Animated Series / Tropes E to M

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E

• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • In early episodes of the first season, color television is available, but later in the same season, all television seems to be exclusively monochromatic.
  • Scarecrow's first appearance gave him a really scrawny head and mask that magically widened to normal size when he took his mask off at the end of the episode. Later appearances redesigned his mask to be the same width as his head.
  • Robin appears in "Christmas With The Joker", but doesn't appear again for a considerable amount of time.
  • For the DCAU as a whole, there's the fact that Gotham seems more like a retro-futuristic version of the 1940s, with people wearing period fashions and hairstyles, rather than the "modern, but fancier" look of later entries. It's implied that Gotham was slowly gentrifying in TNBA, with Joker finding it impossible to stay and operate in Gotham like the old days, and other criminals such as Penguin moving up the crime ladder, and by the time of Batman Beyond, what used to be "Old Gotham" is more or less an abandoned ghost-town that only Bruce Wayne feels should still be invested in (with his middle-class apprentice Terry mocking his sentimental paternalism).
  • Likewise, Batman in the early episodes is not quite the grim, super-serious gruff Deadpan Snarker he would later be in Justice League, he smiles, displays warmth, has an affable Cool Big Bro dynamic with Robin (especially in "Christmas with the Joker"). Indeed, as part of his overall Myth Arc, Batman becomes a much colder, darker, and asocial person, alienating his allies, showing the true cost of his "war on crime".
  • Harley Quinn made her first appearence here, and is a lot different from how she would later become. Mainly, her villainy and general craziness is due to a combination of Love Makes You Crazy and being abused into going insane and being a villain by the Joker, and is portrayed as rather tragic. The later comics and DCEU movies would up her craziness considerably (with some claiming she was crazy even before she met the Joker), and, more troublingly, treat her mental illness as more of a cute personality quirk than a disease.
• Easy Amnesia: "The Forgotten"
• Eat the Camera: Happens several times throughout the show.
  • In Harlequinade, Batman struggles against Harley's pet hyenas, one of whom eats the camera while pinning him down. Later, as Harley grapples up with Batman, the camera zooms out from behind Harley's swaying uvula when she screams.
• Edible Ammunition: The Condiment King in "Make 'Em Laugh".
• Embarrassed by a Child: In an episode, Clayface disguises himself as an elderly lady and gets on a bus. When his disguise starts to slip, a child says "Mommy, that lady has dirt all over her!"
• Empty Quiver: "The Lion and the Unicorn" revolves around Red Claw's hijacking of a nuclear missile.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Gotham's new District Attorney blames Batman for the city's problems. When the villains capture them, put Batman on trial and force the DA to serve as his lawyer, she ends up defending Batman and he later returns the favor.
  • In "Harlequinade", Batman recruits Harley to catch Joker before he blows up the city. Being Batman, he handcuffs her to the Batmobile.
  Harley:...I sense a lack of trust.
• Episode Title Card: Every episode save two in the first three seasons: "The Laughing Fish" and "The Demon's Quest", plus one from The New Batman Adventures, "Joker's Millions." Even more impressive than the title cards, every episode has its own theme song.
• Establishing Character Moment: The original opening titles of the series, which feature Batman foiling a couple of bank robbers. Numerous people have noted that within the minute-long sequence, you learn everything you need to know about Batman not only without any dialogue or captions being used, but without the name 'Batman' being mentioned even once.
• "Eureka!" Moment:
  • In "P.O.V.", Officer Wilkes hears one of the captured criminals refer to "Doc," and Officer Montoya hears another criminal refer to "Hathcock." It is only when she is taking the train home later that she makes the realization that 'Doc' is 'Dock', and she goes to the Hathcock warehouse at Gotham Harbor.
  • In "Beware the Gray Ghost", when the evidence points to Simon Trent being the Mad Bomber, since he has all the merchandise and knows all about the episode, he told Batman he had sold everything to the toy collector.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Rival crime bosses Rupert Thorne and Arnold Stromwell are locked in a bitter, violent gang war for control of Gotham, but when Stromwell's son goes missing and he accuses Thorne of being behind it, Thorne points out that he never goes after a person's family. Thorne is actually planning to kill Stromwell right then, betraying him at a peace summit, but he is legitimately shocked at the accusation and is completely sincere in his assertion of innocence.
  • In "Almost Got 'Em", The Joker reveals his intent to draw out Batman by having Catwoman ground up into cat food. Poison Ivy, Two-Face, Penguin, and Killer Croc (really Batman in disguise) are visibly disturbed.
  • Done hilariously in "Joker's Millions". Joker is a psychopathic criminal who commits heinous crimes on insane levels, but he won't commit tax fraud.
    Joker: I'm crazy enough to take on Batman, but the IRS!? NOOOOOO thank you!
• Evil Laugh:
  • Mark Hamill as The Joker refined this into an art. They talked about the art in an interview for the DVD.
  • In "Mad Love," Batman manages to churn one out — it creeps out Harley Quinn, at any rate, and given that she works for the Joker...
• Exact Words:
  • In "Harley and Ivy," Ivy loudly proclaims that "no man can take us prisoner." Enter, stage right: Renee Montoya.
  • In "Blind as a Bat", the Penguin has stolen a highly advanced stealth helicopter and is threatening Gotham for ransom. After Batman approaches him with a plan, Mayor Hill goes on television to announce that the Penguin has won, and if he returns the helicopter to the agreed drop-site, "you'll get everything that's coming to you."
  • In "Joker's Favor," Joker uses this to mess with the poor bastard he has been stalking for two years. He said he would send Charlie home, not send him home ALIVE.
  • Also used behind the scenes when the executives would try to edit a scene to make it less scary; the creators had a policy of following the instructions to the letter and making the scene scarier in the process.
• Expressive Hair: Harley's "hat."
• Expressive Mask: For everyone who wears a mask, particularly the domino crowd.
• Expy:
  • Summer Gleeson was a recreation of Vicki Vale, a reporter and love interest from the comics.
  • Josiah Wormwood of "The Cape & Cowl Conspiracy" is essentially a prototype Riddler for the show—a deathtrap specialist who uses riddles in his crimes and has an obsession with knowing secrets and matching wits. A few episodes later, the legit Riddler made his debut.
  • A rather blatant one of Johnny Cochrane shows up as one of the Joker's lawyers in "Joker's Millions." He turns up again in "Over the Edge."
  • While Calendar Girl has additional gimmicks, she is obviously a Gender Flip and stand-in for Calendar Man.
  • "Mean Seasons" also features the GWB network, which even has a WB-style water tower.
  • Grant Walker could be described as "Evil Walt Disney."
  • The Sewer King from "The Underdwellers" seems to be based on Captain Hook from Peter Pan, in some rather interesting ways- he resembles the Disney version, albeit is missing an eye rather than a hand. He has two pet crocodiles that saved him from deep water (as opposed to Hook being pursued by one that wishes to eat him), and while he doesn't lead any pirates, his enslaving of the children could almost be regarded as Hook enslaving the lost boys.
• Extreme Doormat:
  • The Ventriloquist deals with all the abuse Scarface inflicts on him, until his final appearance when he stands up for himself.
  • Harley Quinn is this for the Joker, but even she stands up for herself from time to time.
  • The true winner is Sid "The Squid" Debris, who only complains that "this is not fun anymore" when the Joker puts him in a Death Trap, and when Batman confesses to Sid that he used him as a pawn through various MookHorrorShows, Sid only says:
    Well, glad to be of service! See ya!

F

• The Faceless: We never did see what the crime boss from P.O.V's face looked like.
• Faceplanting into Food:In "Pretty Poison" Haver Dent falls face-forward into his food after being poisoned by Poison Ivy.
• The Fagin: The Sewer King.
• Fairplay Whodunit: In "Shadow of the Bat", Robin realizes that Gil Mason is complicit in the scheme when he ducks before the shots are fired at his staged assassination. This clue was animated and included for the audience to see earlier in the episode.
• Fake Static: Bruce pulls this on Barbara in ''Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman" after she starts hinting about wanting them to go out while she is home from college.
• Faking the Dead: Clayface pulled this in an epic fashion at the end of his introduction episode.
• Falling Chandelier of Doom:
  • In "Two-Face," stray machine-gun fire during the show-down between Two-Face and mob boss Rupert Thorne severs the rope of a chandelier and it falls on Thorne. Sadly, it is quite a small chandelier and he survives.
  • In "Harlequinade," Harley swings atop a chandelier with a significant suspension cord, severs it, and sends it crashing onto baddies with an accuracy worthy of the Batman himself. Naturally, this was also a non-lethal chandelier crash.
  • Batman himself uses this tactic on no fewer than five separate occasions; victims include the Penguin, Two-Face, and the Mad Hatter.
• The Family for the Whole Family: In the Penguin's first appearance, he and his henchmen are continuously foiled by the local children who have Batman in their basement. This is one of the reasons that the production team does not think very highly of this episode, since they were hoping the series would avoid kid heroes and bumbling villains.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: Averted in most cases. Some supervillains, like Mr. Freeze, would carry more fantastic weaponry, but many of Batman's foes used normal firearms. In one episode, Gordon was shot, and actual blood was seen. In the director's commentary of one episode, one writer wonders aloud how they got away with one big shoot-out scene, and one of the directors says because they were using machineguns instead of handguns, it was considered "not imitatable."
• Family-Unfriendly Death:
  • Though many episodes are dark in tone, few can compete with the episode where the Joker manages to infect all of Gotham City with his Joker poison on April Fool's Day, rendering all residents of Gotham City into laughing fits with huge, grotesque smiles as they slowly die.
  • Clayface lent himself to scenes like this. Two most shocking examples were when he absorbed Batman, and we see Batman's silhouette flailing around inside him, and almost not making it out alive, and when he absorbed his "daughter," a creation of his clay that had mutated into its own personality. The episode with the "daughter" is made extra disturbing by the fact that although she has a totally separate and distinct personality she is still a part of Clayface, which allows him to find her no matter where she runs. It also doesn't help that at the end of the episode, Robin observes that Clayface has essentially committed murder in a way that cannot be prosecuted.
  • So the Ventriloquist has a split criminal personality manifested as a Demonic Dummy, Scarface. Scarface technically isn't alive, so he would get butchered in various methods, onscreen. He's been shot up by machine guns (twice) and shredded repeatedly. It was a Running Gag that the showmakers would inflict all the horrible stuff on the dummy that they couldn't do to living people.
• Family-Unfriendly Violence: The makers have stated that since they could not show a character getting killed, they took revenge by demolishing The Ventriloquist's puppet, Scarface, in ever-more-gruesome ways, ultimately having him be ground up in a ventilation fan.
• Fanservice: It is frequent throughout the series for both men and women.
• Fan Disservice: Only slightly less frequent.
  • Any time we had to see the Joker without his pants on. Or in just his sleeveless undershirt. Or (most horrific of all) a bathing suit. (Yes, it was a 1920s bathing suit, but it still didn't cover enough.)
  • Poison Ivy's deliciously curvy body melting down into a puddle of steaming green goo. ^note  Actually not Ivy herself, but a plant-based clone she had used as a decoy to escape.
  • Clayface had a few moments.
    • Toward the end of "Feat of Clay", we get to see Matt Hagen naked (although in profile, of course). Then we see his body go all clay-ey.
    • Another scene in "Feat of Clay" showed Hagen masquerading as a sexy dark-haired girl. "She" began to giggle...and then her squeaky laughter became more like that of Jabba the Hutt as Hagen's golden, pupil-less eyes appeared...
  • Zoologist Francine Langstrom is pretty cute. But not as the female Man-Bat.
  • Hunky Anthony Romulus turns into a werewolf. But that's not nearly as horrible as when he turns into a half-werewol.
  • Randa, one of HARDAC's stunningly humanlike robots, is a dead ringer for Marilyn Monroe - and wiggle-walks like her, too. Then she gets half her face blown off, and we learn that she resembles a T-1000 under there. Throw in freakish robot strength and more than a little of the Uncanny Valley, and you've got a surprisingly effective lower-tier villain.
• Fashion Show: "Mean Season" opens with one.
• Fat Bastard:
  • Detective Harvey Bullock, who is rude, filthy, in love with donuts and a general mess. His only saving graces are his fundamental loyalty to Commissioner Gordon and tendency to get results (which is why they keep him on the payroll).
  • One-Shot villain Boss Biggis in "The Forgotten." Morbidly obese (The voice-actor acually ate while recording his lines to give the proper feel for the character) and running an actual slave labor camp, where he has his men kidnap homeless men off the street to work in his mines.
• Fear Is Normal: This is a subtle but recurring Aesop throughout the New Batman Adventures episode "Never Fear", as the Scarecrow's new fear-removing toxin inflicts significantly more disturbing effects on Gotham than his usual tricks, even bringing Batman to the cusp of breaking Thou Shalt Not Kill. It's Robin, who remains unafflicted, who ultimately has to pull his mentor back from the brink.
• Femme Fatale: The only female villain that does not fall into this in some way is Baby Doll, on account of her bearing the physical form of a five-year-old.
• The Fettered: When fighting the Sewer King, Batman rescues him from being run over by a subway train. When the Sewer king asks why he didn't let him die (and remember, this guy had kept a bunch of runaway children as his thieving underlings), Bats simply states " I don't pass sentence; that's for the courts! But this time...this time, I'm sorely tempted to do the job myself!"
• Fiction 500: Wayne Enterprises, which funds Bruce Wayne's exploits both as himself and as Batman. This series also shows Wayne taking an active interest in the day-to-day business of his company more often than other Batman shows, having high-level meetings with other corporate executives (and wealthy socialites such as Selina Kyle) and sometimes rubbing shoulders with various plot-relevant subordinates.
• Fictional Disability: Baby Doll suffers from "systemic hypoplasia"^note Real medical terminology for a non-existent condition (hypoplasia is when someone is born with an organ that isn't properly developed), meaning that she can never grow up, and resembles a little girl despite being well into adulthood.
• Fighting Fingerprint: In the episode "Night of the Ninja," the titular ninja figures out that Bruce Wayne is Batman after fighting him, because they both studied martial arts under the same master in the past and had fought before.
• Film Noir: To date, possibly the best example in Western animation. Or animation period, really.
• Finger in a Barrel: During the climax of "I am the Night," the criminal Jazzman has made his way to Gordon's hospital room and is about to shoot the man when Batman throws a batarang that blocks the barrel of the gun, causing Jazzman to drop the weapon.
• First Time in the Sun: In the end of the Sewer King episode, his captured orphans are brought into the sunlight at last.
• Flashback: Used often—at least half of the episode "Mad Love" is one.
• Fluffy Tamer:
  • Harley Quinn. To everyone else the Joker's snarling pet hyenas are a menace; to her, they are her "babies."
  • Exaggerated with Farmer Brown's daughter Emmylou and his genetically-modified farm animals in "Critters".
• Fog of Doom: The cloud of Joker Venom that the Joker doses Gotham with in one episode could qualify as the 'insanity-inducing' variant... But you had to be exposed to it for a long time in order for the insanity to take effect.
• Forceful Kiss: Seymour Gray, the quiet mousey guy who has not spoken up in his eighteen years at Wayne Enterprises, grabs and kisses Sarah, Bruce Wayne's secretary, after barging into Bruce's office, shouting out his ideas and then loudly quitting the company.
  • When Poison Ivy decides to "seal Batman's fate" her killer flytrap, which'd already ensnared him with it's Tentacle Rope, accommodates her by rotating him and tightly wrapping two tendrils around Batman's head, holding him in place, making it easier for Ivy to pull him in for a smoldering kiss.
• Forgot About His Powers: Supergirl in "Girl's Night Out". Several times she could have really used her heat vision (such as when she's pinned by a giant plant) but she never thinks to, not even when Livewire accidentally set one on fire.
• Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Not really the costumes, save for Ivy's and Harley's. Plus the shirts they wear when not in costume.
• Formula-Breaking Episode:
  • "I've Got Batman in My Basement," a "lighter" episode in which Batman is actually out of commission for most of the adventure (after suffering a poison gas attack) and a group of suburban kids are forced to protect him.
  • "Showdown", though it features Ra's al Ghul, is ultimately a story about Jonah Hex and his quest to arrest Arkady Duvall, who is the son of Ra's al Ghul.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Our first ever glimpse of DA Harvey Dent in "On Leather Wings" is him sitting in a chair repeatedly flipping a coin.
  • In "Pretty Poison," Bruce, Harvey Dent, and Pamela Isley are having dinner together. We see them laughing at some anecdote, while Bruce says, "You should have seen Harvey's face!"
  • In "Two-Face" Pt. 1, during Harvey Dent's hypnotherapy session there is a brief lightning flash; during the flash a split-second shot of the left side of Dent's face is hideously scarred.
  • Early on in "Harlequinade", when the mayor is on the phone, one can see that his sleeve is purple...
  • In "Zatanna," the eponymous magician offers young Bruce Wayne a spread of cards and asks him to pick one, offering to predict his future. She guesses the two of hearts, hoping for romance, but the card he pulled was The Joker.
  • From the cutscenes of the Sega CD game, which plays like an episode of the series (they were animated by the same studio), we have Poison Ivy's plant monster that looks like Clayface, and when Rupert Thorne smashes the boat's console in anger his hands do not bleed despite breaking glass with his bare hands. Those are easily overlooked until Thorne reveals he was actually Clayface the entire time, behind the other villains.
  • The second Man-Bat's pink pants foreshadow the fact that it's actually female.
• Fourth-Date Marriage:
  • "Pretty Poison" has Poison Ivy induce Harvey Dent into proposing to her a week after they first meet.
  • In "Chemistry", Veronica Vreeland marries her fourth husband after two weeks of dating. And Bruce proposes to Susan on their second meeting. Ivy's behind both of these couples, as well.
• Franchise Codifier: While the IP had already gone on and been repeatedly adapted for decades by the show's premiere, The Animated Series set the definitive template for most later takes on the franchise, both in and out of the comics (beyond the occasional Silver Age throwback, and even many of those take a page or two from this show's book). The "Dark Deco" visuals, character designs, dark yet optimistic tone, and characterization all had an extensive influence on subsequent adaptations, most heavily represented by Mr. Freeze's Adaptational Sympathy being incorporated into all following takes on the character and series original Harley Quinn becoming a Canon Immigrant who the franchise treats with the same level of importance as the Joker himself.
• Freak Lab Accident: The Joker, Two-Face, and Mr. Freeze all feature this in their origin.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The closest thing we get to a definitive date for the series is Leslie Thompkins's yearbook in "Paging the Crime Doctor", which identifies Matt Thorne's graduating class as 1901 (and since he can't be much older than his early sixties when we meet him, this would strongly suggest that the stories are taking place in the 1940s or earlier - roughly the time Batman was created).
  • In "Joker's Favor," Charles Collin's drivers license can be seen with an expiration date of 03-17-95.
• Freudian Excuse: While it's played straight with most of the villains (most notably Mr. Freeze, whose revamped origin made him a Canon Immigrant to the comics), the Joker uses this to get out of trouble and manipulate Harley.
  Harleen Quinzel: It soon became clear to me that the Joker, so often described as a raving, homicidal madman, was actually a tortured soul crying out for love and acceptance. A lost, injured child trying to make the world laugh at his antics. And there, as always, was the self-righteous Batman, determined to make life miserable for my angel.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: In the episode "Trial", Gotham's new District Attorney, Janet van Dorn, blames Batman for the city's problems; she believes that Batman created each of the city's villains and wants to put him on trial. The inmates of Arkham kidnap her and Batman and put Batman on trial, accusing him of creating them, and Janet is given the task of defending him. Throughout the trial, she disproves that Batman is to blame for their crimes, finding that the villains would either blame Batman for their problems when it was their own fault, or denied or downplayed their crimes. At the end of the trial, after showing a successful defense, in her closing argument Janet realizes that she was wrong about Batman "creating" the criminals - even without him, the Rogues would have most likely turned out the same way. While Batman may have inspired some of their costumes and dramatic poses, they made their own choice to become criminals. To her own astonishment, the jury finds Batman not guilty, with the Joker congratulating her.

  Janet: I used to believe Batman was responsible for you people, but now I see nearly everyone here would have ended up exactly the same, Batman or not. Oh, the gimmicks might be different, but you'd all be out there in some form or another, bringing misery to Gotham. The truth is, you created him.

  Joker: Well done, counselor. You've proven that Batman didn't create us. That we in fact messed up our own rotten lives.

• Friend to Psychos: Most of The Joker's minions (save for Harley Quinn) don't seem to share his psychosis, but help him pull off his crime sprees anyway.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: The Series. Basically, if you trouble or fire someone with an ironic name in Gotham City, you're asking for serious trouble down the line:
  • Temple Fulgate is a prissy company owner who loses a court case after being made late one morning, turning him into the murderous Clock King.
  • Dr. Victor Fries goes from unassuming Gotham Corp scientist to the cold-hearted villain Mr. Freeze.
• Funny Background Event:
  • In the episode "Heart of Ice", as the reporter is finishing up on Mr. Freeze's latest crime, you can see several kids run up to the snow and start playing with it. A policeman chases them off, as this is a crime scene. However just as he shoos them away the kids pelt him with snowballs.
  • In "Almost Got'Im," after Poison Ivy swipes Killer Croc's chair, in the background you can see him throwing another bar patron out of his chair, grabbing it and coming back to the table.

G - H

• Genki Girl: Harley Quinn.
• German Expressionism: Exaggerated architecture is reasonably common throughout the series, and is especially prevalent in the episode "Growing Pains."
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: The writers occasionally found ways against BS&P's absolute rule against killing. As story editor Michael Reeves said in Animato magazine regarding the episode "Mudslide", which ends with Clayface slipping through Batman's fingers as he melts::
  Since Warner Brothers was paying for the series, Fox could give suggestions, but we didn't have to take them. The only people we had to listen to was Broadcast Standards and Practices and their only flat-out taboo was that we couldn't kill anybody, and we even got around that a couple of times. In this episode Clayface went off that cliff and melted. He's dead.
• Gilligan Cut: A dramatic example: the end of "The Terrible Trio" has the rich playboy Warren declaring his family's lawyers will undoubtedly get him off as Batman apprehends him. The very next scene is him being pushed into a jail cell.
  • A less dramatic example:in "Eternal Youth," Bruce offers to let Alfred and his friend Maggey attend a free spa weekend in his place. Alfred insists that it's out of the question. Cut to Alfred sitting in Maggey's car as they drive off to the spa.
    Alfred: I've been shanghaied.
• Girl's Night Out Episode: Trope Namer, featuring Batgirl and Supergirl going up against Livewire, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn.
• Girlish Pigtails: A villainous example in Harley Quinn — but not at first. The earliest she's seen out of costume, she's just in a ponytail.
• Giving Them the Strip: In "Christmas With the Joker", Batman attempts to grab the fleeing Joker, only to end up holding the Joker's cardigan, complete with a false set of arms.
• A Glass in the Hand:
  • In "Joker's Wild", the Joker is dealing at one of the casino tables as if he's a costumed employee. After being trolled by Bruce (to distract him while Bruce gets a good look and confirms that he's the real Joker), he crushes the chip Bruce tossed him as a tip.
  • In "Joker's Millions", Batgirl suggests that Joker might give up crime now that he's rich. Batman snaps a gadget he's working on in half.
• A Glitch in the Matrix: In "Perchance to Dream", the Mad Hatter traps Batman in a Lotus-Eater Machine where his parents are still alive and well, and some other guy is out there beating up crooks in a bat costume every night instead of him. The way he realized he was dreaming was that the newspaper he was reading was gibberish. Then he remembered that the brain hemisphere used for dreaming was not the one used for reading. While that's nonsense (both hemispheres are used for dreaming, and he got it the wrong way around about which is used for reading), it is true that dreams typically fail to produce readable text.
• A God Am I: Maxie Zeus thinks he's the god of the same name. This delusion kicks the trope into effect when he gets a hold of electron discharge weaponry and mistakes it as his own ability to summon lightning. At the end he is taken to Arkham, which he thinks is Mount Olympus. He also thinks the other inmates are various Greek or Roman gods.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: Inverted when Batman survives the Riddler's death-trap, but will not tell him how he did it. The episode ends with Riddler ranting and raving as he tries to figure out how it was done.
• Go Out with a Smile: As Harley Quinn falls to her death, clinging to the straw of a giant neon soda bottle, she remarks that at least she is going out on a joke.
  "Talk about grasping at straws."
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: Standard issue for the Batfamily. Harley tries to get in on the action, but just ends up conking herself on the head.
• Gratuitous Laboratory Flasks:
  • In "On Leather Wings," when Batman confronts Dr. Kirk Langstrom, there's a long table covered in lab glassware, in particular two huge globes of purple liquid that connect to one another and nothing else, seemingly serving no purpose. Langstrom uses nothing on the table, instead taking the formula he uses to become ManBat out of his Lab Coat Of Science And Medicine. When he transforms, he of course smashes everything on the table, then picks up the table itself and throws it at Batman for good measure.
  • An ever more complicated-looking array of flasks, test tubes and beakers connected by spiraling glass tubes is seen in "Terror in the Sky." Oddly, all the liquid in them is green (perhaps the colorists were lazy). Once again, Langstrom doesn't do anything with them, but at least this time, they don't get smashed.
  • Vertigo's laboratory in "Off Balance" isn't quite as elaborately equipped, but its shiny glass apparatuses are even more completely incidental to the plot.
• Great Detective: Batman. In fact, Ra's so respects his skills that he solely addresses the vigilante as "Detective."
• Green Gators: Zig-zagged. The Sewer King's Sewer Gator minions are green. Killer Croc, however, is a more realistic pale gray color, at least until the Art Shift.
• Groin Attack:
  • Poison Ivy kicked The Joker in the balls after his attempt to poison her failed — and she kicked him hard enough to knock him onto his back. He gives out a high-pitched remark before collapsing again. He does recover rather quickly.
  • Another episode features Robin nut-punching one of Ra's Al Ghul's cronies. You don't actually see the impact, but the look on the mook's expressive mask is unmistakable.
• Grudging "Thank You": Bullock gives one to Batman in "A Bullet for Bullock".
• Hanging Judge: The Joker takes on this role in "Trial".
• Hear Me the Money: In "The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne," a thug thumbing money to his ears was appropriately named "Numbers".
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Usually when a villain does this it is either temporary or a fake. However, Catwoman's is particularly notable in that happens in her second appearance and she remains genuinely reformed for a majority of the first series until she reverts to thievery in her last two appearances in the original series. The comics based on the series also particularly have the Riddler.
  • Also, Arnold Wesker, when he's finally free from Scarface.
• Heist Clash: In "Harley And Ivy", Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy meet when they simultaneously rob the Gotham Museum of Natural History. Instead of fighting, they team up to escape the police (It helps that they are there to steal different things). They become partners in crime for the rest of the episode and remain good friends or possibly more for the rest of the series.
• Hello, Attorney!: Janet Van Dorn, at least in "Trial." In "Shadow of the Bat, part 1," Van Dorn looked more like a frigid, 40-something old maid. But "Trial" was a Paul Dini episode, so Van Dorn gets a Hello Makeover.
  • Harley passes herself off as one - even giving her name as Harleen Quinzel, demonstrating that Bullock never bothers to read files on supervillains apparently - to bail out Sid the Squid. She even makes a risque joke at Bullock's expense when he wonders if he's seen her before.
  Harley: "I think I served you a subpoena once. It was a small... subpoena.
• Heroic BSoD: Batman gets a brief one in "I Am the Night" after he blames himself for Commissioner Gordon getting shot.
• Heroic Build: Anthony Romulus in "Moon of the Wolf". To be fair, he is an Olympian athlete.
  • No one, even the aforementioned Olympian, seems to really notice that Bruce Wayne is built on approximately the same lines as a dumptruck.
• Heroic Bystander: When the Mad Hatter sends his People Puppets after Batman to keep him from rescuing Alice, Batman is initially overwhelmed until he manages to disable the mind control device on one of them. The man he frees is Alice's boyfriend Billy, who returns the favor by removing the rest of the Hatter's devices.
• Heroic Fatigue: Batman in "I Am the Night".
• "Hey, You!" Haymaker: Batman does it to a mook in the pilot/promo. This short is included on the DVD set of the first season.
• Hidden Eyes: Annie from Growing Pains has them as soon as she realizes she's a part of Clayface.
• High-Class Gloves:
  • In the background of society events, a fair number of the ladies will be wearing fancy gloves.
  • In "Perchance to Dream", Selena appears as Bruce's fiance. She's dressed like a society lady, and her outfit includes white gloves, which she takes off when she's affectionate to Bruce.
• Hollywood Homely: Invoked; the prevalence of the trope drives the plot of one episode. Page Monroe is a former supermodel-turned-villain who was fired when she was viewed as "too old." However, once unmasked, both Batgirl and Batman comment that she is still startlingly attractive, but she considers herself ugly, which Batman states is because she can only see her minor "imperfections." This is also a case of Actor Allusion as Page Monroe was voiced by Sela Ward, who was famous for having been dumped as a model in favor of younger women.
• Hollywood Kiss: Say what you will about Poison Ivy, but the woman knows how to kiss. Every time she's forcibly locked lips with Batman it comes across less like a homicide in progress and more like two lovers in a tender, romantic embrace. Her passionate moaning as they kiss doesn't help.
• Homage:
  • A shot where Batman (seen only in shadow) takes apart Poison Ivy's plant monster with an axe perfectly mirrors Mickey's destruction of the broom in The Sorceror's Apprentice.
  • In "Fear of Victory," the football player Brian and what is revealed of his life seems to be a reference to the book and film Brian's Song.
  • In "Mudslide," Clayface reveals the first name of his accomplice when he shouts... "STELLAAAAAAA!", and "Dr. Bates once owned a motel..."
  • Fictional example, Batman based the layout of the Batcave on his superhero idol "The Gray Ghost."
  • "Legends of the Dark Knight." Four kids share their views of the Bat. One boy says he is a metahuman with wings. Another says he is a cheery guy who calls Robin "chum." The girl retells an iconic scene from Batman: The Dark Knight Returns: with Darkseid's voice.
  • In "Perchance to Dream", Gordon says to Batman "Any idea what it [the mind-control helmet] is?" and Batman deadpans back the final line of The Maltese Falcon:
    Batman: Yes. The stuff that dreams are made of.
  • In "Almost Got 'Im", Poison Ivy's hat and coat (and the general atmosphere of the underworld club they're in) is a shoutout to Ilsa's in Casablanca. Especially the way shadows fall across her face, with that hat.
  • "It's Never Too Late" has a homage to the gangster film Angels with Dirty Faces—the two boys, one of whom becomes a priest (Michael), the other a gangster (Arnold Stromwell). And the scene on the railroad tracks alludes to a similiar scene in the film.
  • "Heart of Steel" has a boatload — Blade Runner (Karl Rossum, "Duplicants"), Metropolis (Randa Duane's jumpsuit), Terminator (Randa Duane's eventual fate), and The Killing Joke (The scene at Commissioner Gordon's house). "His Silicon Soul" was the premise of Blade Runner, with Batman's replicant believing it was Batman.
  • Lupin III's The Castle of Cagliostro is given an homage with a battle in a clock tower that has many similar shots.
  • In "Over The Edge", when Gordon is hanging off the roof, the shots are mimicking Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo.
• Homemade Sweater from Hell: The Joker wears a rather subdued example for his "Christmas special."
• Hope Crusher: In "Cold Comfort," Mr. Freeze has lost his wife, and his entire body from the neck down, so he spends the episode destroying the things people hold most dear to them, including the skeleton of a dinosaur an archaeologist discovered, and the mangum opus of a painter.
• Horrifying Hero: This version of Batman strikes so much terror into evil that he's often seen as a monster outright rather than man, as shown for example in The Forgotten.
  Poor Random Mook (Running into bosse's office, terrified out of his wits): A Bat!! A GIANT BAT!! HORRIBLE!!
• Hotter and Sexier: Compared to most other saturday morning cartoons from around this era and especially previous animated Batman shows this series was decidedly far more sexually charged, with special mention going to the numerous very attractive, very seductive villainesses who all look like Old Hollywood styled sexpots. Poison Ivy in particular seeming and sounding like a flirty temptress straight from a black & white noir flick. After all, it isn't every female baddie who makes her debut in an episode wherein she passionately makes out with the hero against his will. Aired on networks primarily marketed to kids no less.
• Human Popsicle: Nora Fries, wife of Mr. Freeze, was placed into cryogenic stasis in order to save her life from her terminal disease.
• Hurricane of Puns:
  • The Condiment King only has one single scene, but he slips in about a dozen condiment-related puns in that short time.
  • The Riddler's hints in "If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?"
  (Batman and Robin come across a sign that says "Loser's Ahead.")
  Robin: "Loser's Ahead?"
  (The duo turns a corner, two giant shurikens come out of nowhere, and the duo ducks just before the blades lob their heads off.)
  Batman: Loses a head. I don't know what's worse, the traps or the puns.
• The Hyena: The Joker, as brilliantly played by Mark Hamill.
  • He even keeps two actual hyenas as pets!

I

• I Am Not Spock: invoked Trent, who played the Grey Ghost when Bruce was a child, has trouble getting an acting job because he is so remembered as the Grey Ghost.
• I Am the Noun: A famous example.
  Batman: I am vengeance. I am the night! I! AM! BATMAN!
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Batgirl tells Catwoman not to kill Roland Daggett or else she will be no better than he; Catwoman just tells her to "grow up."
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Penelope attempts this with Maxie Zeus. It almost works.
  Maxie Zeus: Penelope? I... *the Zeus personality reasserts himself*
• Implausible Synchrony: In "The Clock King", before his Start of Darkness, efficiency expert Temple Fugate has four watches—a chain pocketwatch, and a wristwatch, and in his office, he has a grandfather clock and another clock at his desk. Being as obsessed with time as he is, it's not that implausible that they have the same time.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Several times from The Bat himself, like when Batman stops "the Jazzman" from killing Gordon by flinging a batarang right into the muzzle of his gun in slow motion.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Many, many Mooks, plus several of the main villains.
  • In "P.O.V.", a mook with a machine gun opens fire on Batman and Montoya at close range. Multiple ricochets spark off the wall behind them but neither of them are hit.
• Implausible Deniability: Harley Quinn really was trying to go straight, but after her first day out of Arkham ended with her taking a hostage she pointed out that, with her history, even she would not believe the story that it was all a big misunderstanding.
• Impossible Shadow Puppets: Sid the Squid makes a squid shadow on the wall, using just his fingers.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: As usual for superheroes and supervillains.
• I'm Your Worst Nightmare: Practically Batman's catch phrase when getting information.
• Incredibly Obvious Bug: Batman's standard tracking device, seen in multiple episodes, beeps and flashes. And it's shaped like a bat.
• Informed Ability: Apparently, Lock-Up is such a horrific guard that he has driven even the already-insane inmates of Arkham insane, paralyzing the Scarecrow, "The God of Fear," with fear. When his offenses against the patients are actually given, however, it is debatable as to whether they are extreme or standard asylum fare, apart from his mental abuse of the Ventriloquist, possibly because the show could not portray anything worse.
• Ink-Suit Actor:
  • There's two, in the episode "Beware the Gray Ghost":
    • Simon Trent resembles his voice actor, Adam West, who famously played Batman in the 60s TV series. Doubles as a Casting Gag.
    • Ted Dymer resembles his voice actor, Bruce Timm, TAS's head producer and showrunner.
  • Harley Quinn, the Joker's lovable henchwoman, was based on her voice-actress, Arleen Sorkin. The producers are apparently amazed that she still talks to them.
  • Although this version of the Penguin was based on Danny Devito's appearance in Batman Returns, he ultimately ends up looking like his voice actor, Paul Williams.
  • In "Prophecy of Doom", Ethan Clark is modeled after his voice actor William Windom.
  • In the H.A.R.D.A.C. Trilogy [(both parts of "Heart of Steel" and "His Silicon Soul") Karl Rossum is a dead ringer for his voice actor William Sanderson.
• Insane No More:
  • In "Harley's Holiday", Harley Quinn receives a clean bill of mental health and is thus paroled. Harley declares she is a Reformed Criminal and, thinking her outfit (rather than her pet hyenas) was freaking out passersby, she buys a new outfit but leaves before the security tag can be removed which sets off the alarm, so the clerk sends a security guard to remove the tag. Harley thinks she's being arrested again, panics and sets off a chain of events that cause her to kidnap Veronica Vreeland and subsequently return to crime. At the end, her psychiatrist states she is on a path to recovery.
  • In her Backstory episode "Mad Love", Dr. Harleen Quinzel diagnoses The Joker as Obfuscating Insanity. Though she believes his stories, falls in love with him and becomes his girlfriend/henchwoman, it's implied she's right.
  • In "Sideshow", Killer Croc was reclassified as sane and thus guilty of his crimes, so that he could be sentenced to a term in Levitz Prison instead of Arkham Asylum. However, he soon escapes from the train that was supposed to take him there.
• Insane Troll Logic: In "Trial", members of the rogue gallery explain how Batman created them. Batman's attorney points out how poor their excuses are.
• Inside a Computer System: Batman had to go in a virtual reality simulator to rescue Commissioner Gordon, who was held hostage in the computer by Riddler.
• Instant Knots: This trope is used All. The. Time. Even in situations it shouldn't really be needed, such as when he uses his Grappling Gun, the end of the line actually has a hook/claw on the end, and it still wraps around something rather than grabbing or hooking onto/into it.
• Instant Sedation:
  • Averted in "Sideshow". A tranquilizer dart takes a few minutes to affect Killer Croc at all, and he has plenty of time to stumble about looking for a place to hide before finally passing out.
  • Justified somewhat as a Magic Antidote in "Dreams in Darkness": Dr. Wu tells Batman that he has made an antidote that can eliminate the fear toxin in his body, but with one side effect: instant drowsiness that can render the antidote taker asleep for two days. Batman, however, decides to put the antidote on hold until he can stop Scarecrow and his evil plans of poisoning the water supply.
• Instrumental Theme Tune: Initially an adaptation of Danny Elfman's theme from the Tim Burton movies; Shirley Walker's own theme was eventually promoted to main title status. The series eventually had a soundtrack album released featuring its scores (though sadly Walker had passed away a few years before).
• In Spite of a Nail: In "Trial," the attorney defending Batman says in her closing statement that the villains — who are blaming Batman for their turns to villainy — would still have become villains without Batman, though she admits in some cases the gimmicks might have been different.
• Insult Friendly Fire: It would sometimes happens.
• Intercom Villainy: The Joker uses televised skits to threaten Gotham's populace and tell Batman jokes without walking into Batarang range. He does this as early as the second episode and famously does it again in "The Laughing Fish".
• Internal Affairs: The episode "P.O.V." revolves around an Internal Affairs investigation into a failed sting where the intended target, a Gotham drug lord, managed to escape and take the two million dollars in seed money that the police had laid in as bait.
• Intimidating Revenue Service: The Joker, like all other sapient beings, fears the I.R.S. above and beyond even Batman.
• Ironic Echo:
  • From the episode "Baby Doll." Baby's catch-phrase on the show (after causing some mayhem) was "I didn't mean to!" a la Bart's "I didn't do it." At the end, she's hugging Batman's leg and crying, saying simply "I didn't mean to..."
  • In the episode "Mad As a Hatter," Tetch asks Alice if she remembers the Mock Turtle's song, reciting "Will you, won't you, will you, won't you... won't you join the dance?" before dancing with her in the park. Later, as she is hugging her fiancé Billy, while the Hatter lies trapped in the claws of a Jabberwock, he moans softly, "Would not... could not, would not, could not... oh, could not join the dance" as the camera pans out to a statue of a crying Mock Turtle.
  • In "Two-Face, Part 2", Grace tries to talk Harvey out of his persona.
    Grace: Take control of your life, Harvey!
    • After Thorne reveals she led him to Two-Face, under the pretense of a police chase, Harvey walks away from her.
    Two-Face: So much for taking control of my life, huh Grace?
    • When he's about to kill Thorne:
    Grace: Harvey! What are you doing!?
    Two-Face: Taking control of my life.
  • Interestingly, this one is two episodes apart:
    • In "Appointment in Crime Alley":
    Bruce: Roland Daggett is up to something, Alfred.
    Alfred: That almost goes without saying, doesn't it sir?
    • "Cat Scratch Fever":
    Lucius Fox: You think [Roland Daggett]'s up to something?
    Bruce: That goes without saying, doesn't it?
• Is That What He Told You?: When Batman attempts to get through to Harley about the problems with her relationship with the Joker, Harley does her best to defend herself and her love, pointing out all the trust he placed in her when he told her his true history. Oh really? Batman heard that same "true story" years ago, and several different versions of it. ("Like any comedian, he uses whatever material will work.")

J — L

• The Jailer: Lock-Up.
• Jerkass: A lot of the villains, but especially arrogant richboy Warren, AKA Fox of the Terrible Trio. At least the other villains had reason for being so messed up and turning to crime. Warren, on the other hand, went to committing crimes and stealing even though he's already got such a cushy lifestyle and a more than sizable inheritance which ensured that he'd be set for life. So why hurt and steal from people when he doesn't even need or want what he robs from his victims? Because he was bored. He committed all those crimes just because he wanted something to do.
  Batman: "Scoundrels like these are worse than the Joker. At least HE had madness as an excuse."
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Batman seems like one, but the real example is Harvey Bullock who despite being a grouch, a curmudgeon, an uncaring selfish person who hates the Batman and a jerk, always does the right thing.
• Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Batman admits to toying with the idea when he catches the Sewer King, but his ideals prevail.
• Judicial Wig: A villain-of-the-week dubbing himself The Judge (actually, Two-Face's third personality) wears a long, white wig with curls when going after Gotham rogues with an intent to bring them to his particular brand of vigilante "justice".
• Jumping Out of a Cake:
  • The Joker during Harley's debut episode "Joker's Favor."
  • Harley did slinkily emerge from an oversized lemon custard pie in "Beware The Creeper."
• Just Like Robin Hood: Catwoman, who funds animal reserves and the like.
• Kangaroo Court: In "Trial", the villains of Gotham take over Arkham Asylum, where they kidnap Batman to face an obviously one-sided trial (with several villains as the jury, Two-Face as the prosecutor, and JOKER as the judge). Also, Batman's defense attorney is Janet Van Dorn, who was also kidnapped for this and happens to be anti-Batman. They actually DO win the trial, but since they're dealing with psychopathic villains, said villains were going to kill them off anyway.
• Karma Houdini: The Riddler gets away scot-free at the end of "If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?" The producers have stated that they let the Riddler escape as a testament to his intellect.
• "Kick Me" Prank: In "The Man Who Killed Batman", the criminals hold a funeral for Batman, who is believed dead. The Joker attaches a "Kick Me" sign to Batman's empty cape and cowl before it is to be sealed in a coffin.
• Kick the Dog: Mr. Freeze, trying to hit Batman, accidentally freezes one of his henchmen's legs. He then blames the accident on said henchman and leaves him for dead while the poor guy begs them to help him. It happens the same way to one of his ice maidens in "Cold Comfort."
• Knight Templar:
  • Ra's al-Ghul lies between this and Well-Intentioned Extremist.
  • Lock-up may be one of the purest examples of this, being a former head of security at Arkham who was fired for brutalizing the inmates, who comes back as a villain trying to imprison forever the "scum" that he feels represent the people that allowed Gotham to get this way (including the head doctor at Arkham, Commisioner Gordon, Mayor Hill, and Summer Gleeson). In true Knight Templar fashion, he has no idea that he's gone too far (he views Batman as a potential partner, much to the other's disgust).
  • Grant Walker. He plans to make a crime-free utopia and freeze Gotham thinking it's too corrupt to survive. Granted, he may have a point there.
  • Poison Ivy, as she is an environmentalist villain who considers killing plants to be as bad as murder, and thus thinks killing people who kill plants is completely justified.
• Large Ham:
  • The Joker
  "You're going to be cooked like a griiilled cheeeeese sandwich!"
  • Bane: "I must... BREAK YOU!!!"
  • The Creeper, but that just comes with the madness.
  • Even a mook working for Dagget in "Feat of Clay" was not immune to this, though, seeing as he was a professional actor alongside Clayface, this is justified.
  • Nostromos takes this up to eleven
• Laser Cutter: A surgical laser is ineffectively used as an improvised weapon.
• Leitmotif:
  • Most of the villains have their own theme tune and many of the heroes as well including Batman, Robin and Batgirl. At one point, the Joker actually whistles his own leitmotif.
  • Everyman Charlie Collins, protagonist of the episode "Joker's Favor", had a very upbeat, grating leitmotif consisting of unusually cheery whistling and trombones blowing in a manner reminiscent of Leave It to Beaver-esque, 1950's family sitcom background music. It becomes unexpectedly epic when it plays as he triumphantly walks away from staring down The Joker and wondering what his wife is cooking for dinner.
• Laughing Gas: The Joker has a laughing gas that can cause people to laugh uncontrollably to the point of pain. It shows up in several episodes, from Joker floating a barge filled with garbage laced with the stuff to poison anyone in range, to a mention in "The Man Who Killed Batman" when he uses it to distract the police after he realizes Batman isn't showing up to the scene of his latest robbery.
• Like a Son to Me: Alfred gives a double moment with a single line; in "Old Wounds," at Dick Grayson's college graduation he says that Dick is like a second son to him. Alfred is childless: His first "son" is Bruce Wayne. Earlier, in "Never Fear," there's his line when fear toxin has caused Bruce to hallucinate his father saying he's disappointed in how Bruce turned out:
  Alfred: I know your father would be proud of you, because I'm so proud of you.
• Lightning Reveal: Look at the page image. It's the single image from the intro that is -not- in black-on-red Chiaroscuro, which only makes it all the more dramatic.
• Limited Wardrobe: Honestly, you would think a rich guy like Bruce Wayne could afford more than one suit. In "Harley's Holiday" Bruce actually goes suit shopping with Veronica Vreeland, who points out that Bruce needs a better sense of style. Even one of the DVD commentaries joked about it.
• Little Black Dress: Loads of the socialites wore them.
• "London, England" Syndrome: When Alfred visits London and tells Bruce where he is, he explains there is only one London after Bruce exclaims "In England?"
• Longevity Treatment: Poison Ivy, under the guise of Dr. Demeter, offers this treatment to rich industrialists but in reality is turning them into trees as karmic justice for their environmental destruction. She has no qualms about going after their friends or loved ones as well.
• The Lost Lenore: Nora Fries.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: "Perchance to Dream" catches Batman in this.
• Love Makes You Evil: Prominent in the series, with both Harley Quinn and Mr. Freeze. In Harley's case it could be perceived as Evil Makes You Love.
• Lower-Deck Episode: A few of the episodes in the series shift the focus away from Batman and his Rogues Gallery to Gotham City in general. There's P.O.V. that looks at Gotham's police force, Joker's Favour that focuses on a Muggle named Charlie Collins getting involved in the Joker's scheme and The Man Who Killed Batman which deals with the underworld from the perspective of Sid the Squid, a one-shot character.
• Luxury Prison Suite: Downplayed, but Arkham Asylum seems pretty mild in general. Each of the inmates gets their own cell to themselves, and the cells are pretty roomy. The people in charge are even nice enough to let Poison Ivy have plants in her cell so she'll be more comfortable.

M

• Made of Iron: The WB network's relative leniency regarding violence led to much more over-the-top action sequences in which the characters take impossible amounts of punishment. Even before that, though: in "The Man Who Killed Batman" a guy was punched across the room and hit his head on the front of a desk. The desk did not even have a dent and the guy did not even have a concussion. Similar examples, such as Batman surviving a cascade of platinum bars, abound.
• Mad Love: Trope Namers, Harley and the Joker; briefly, Baby Doll and Killer Croc.
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Farmer Brown's daughter. Added bonus that she wears short shorts.
• Magical Security Cam: When Batman watches a recording of Mister Freeze's origin the angle changes several times, despite their supposedly only being one camera. The creators admitted it made no sense when you thought about it, but it was dramatic.
  Batman: (after watching the video) My God.
  Mr. Freeze: Yes... it would move me to tears. If I still had tears to shed.
• Magicians Are Wizards: Averted with Zatanna. In the comics, Zatanna is the poster girl for this trope, but her appearance in Batman: TAS clearly has her as just a very talented stage magician. Although, she does gain magical abilities later on in the DCAU.
• Magic Skirt:
  • Barbara Gordon in The New Batman Adventures revamp.
  • Harley Quinn gets one at the beginning of the episode "Mad Love".
  • Baby Doll's skirt stays where it is when Killer Croc holds her upside down in "Love Is A Croc."
• Manipulative Bastard: Dick Grayson believed Batman to be this, which was why he quit being Robin and started his gig as Nightwing.
• Marrying the Mark: There was an episode where Poison Ivy creates a bunch of Trophy Wife plant people who control the rich and powerful men of Gotham via spores, Bruce Wayne among them.
• Match Cut: In "Mean Seasons", a dissolve from Batman in the field to Bruce Wayne in his office.
• Masquerading As the Unseen:
  • Barbara Gordon's career as Batgirl started by her impersonating Batman at a charity event.
  • An episode has the Joker going around as Batman committing crimes. No one seems to notice that this version of Batman is much skinnier.
• Master Computer: The computer HARDAC tried to take over Gotham City by replacing key individuals with robot replicas.
• McNinja: Batman himself, as well as Red Claw.
• Meaningful Name: But then, all Batman media have meaningful villain names, even for the original ones (Harley Quinn, anyone?).
• Mecha-Mooks: Robotic minions were thrown into the mix every once in a while, and the producers exploited this as far they could. Since the censors did not object when they destroyed robots they would make their destruction as violent as possible.
• Merchandising the Monster: In "Joker's Wild", a businessman unveils a new casino with a Joker-based theme. It turns out that his intention isn't really to exploit the Joker's infamy for profit — it's to provoke the Joker into destroying the casino so he can collect the insurance.
• Merry in Minor Key: Batman's leitmotif is an epic fanfare, usually played with trumpets, in D Minor. With its soaring, ascending melody, this tune is clearly meant to make viewers cheer. It plays in some of Batman's most epic moments, such as when he makes a dramatic entrance.
• Meta Casting:
  • See Adam Westing.
  • There's also William Sanderson playing a near-Expy of J.F. Sebastian in "Heart of Steel" and "Deep Freeze."
  • Surprisingly subverted in the episode "Baby Doll" which features an Expy of Cousin Oliver from The Brady Bunch introduced in the final season of the Show Within the Show, who in the present is a rock musician. Robbie Rist who played Cousin Oliver and is a rock musician in addition to acting is in the episode...but not as the Cousin Oliver Expy. Instead, he voices Brian Daly who played the brother on the show from the get-go.
• Mickey Mousing: Happens a lot during action or otherwise non-dialogue scenes.
• Milking the Giant Cow: Thomas Wayne during “Perchance to Dream” makes a giant swinging motion as he explains that he and "Martha" are going to go golfing. Evidently, the Thomas Wayne in this continuity REALLY likes golf.
• Mind Control: See Brainwashed.
• Mind-Control Device: The Mad Hatter uses various devices to control the minds of his victims.
• Minion with an F in Evil: Sid the Squid, a minor incompetent hood who accidentally knocks the Batman onto an exploding propane tank. He is a generally nice guy (he even apologizes to Batman when he accidentally hits him) and is so ineffective as a hood that he almost does not count as a criminal at all.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: The eponymous "Calendar Girl" views herself as a hideous and deformed person whose dreadful appearance has only been exacerbated by countless rounds of plastic surgery. Beneath her mask, however, she is a beautiful woman whose self-image was destroyed when she was kicked out of the modeling community in favor of younger women.
• Mistaken for Clown: In the episode "Joker's Wild", The Joker, after hearing that someone made a casino based on his likeness, goes to said casino to wreak who-knows-what sort of havoc... but another guy dressed as him shoves some chips in his hands and tells him to man the blackjack table.
• The Mole: Nightwing to Catwoman in "You Scratch My Back".
• Monster Clown: The Joker.
  • In "Animal Act", a particularly mischievous clown of Haley's Circus turns out to be the Mad Hatter incognito, masterminding a series of robberies using the circus animals as pawns.
• Monster of the Week:
  • An episode, "The Underdwellers", spotlighted a villain called the Sewer King who never appeared again. He was sufficiently creepy for a Batman villain, but it's just as well he never returned, since he was really only good for one story (that is, showcasing the evils of child slavery). He does however reappear in the 52 DC Comics reboot, where he is murdered by Intergang leader Bruno Mannheim, along with fellow obscure Batman villain Kiteman.
  • The same could be said of Baby Doll, as she only ever had 2 appearances, and was limited in both motive and ability compared to other, more menacing Batman villains.
• Mook Horror Show: In "The Trial," when Batman escapes his straight jacket after the light is broken the villains are in a dark room lit only by Two-Face's lighter. Batman circles around the edges of room, outside the lighter's light, and grabs the villains one by one. The Joker finally says it is okay to panic when he notices Harley suspended from the ceiling and bound with the straight jacket Batman had just escaped from. To make things worse for the villains, Harley was the one who was holding onto Batman's utility belt.
• Moral Myopia: In “Mad Love”, when Harley is reading a newspaper with the front page article titled "Joker Still At Large” and presents “Body Count Rises", she is more concerned for the Joker than for the victims.
• Most Common Card Game: Averted as the villains are seen playing poker in "Almost Got 'Im".
• Motive Decay: Mr. Freeze in "Cold Comfort". In his earlier appearances, he was committing crimes because he was absolutely determined restore to his ailing wife, who finally recovered after Batman And Mister Freeze Subzero. But by the time of "Cold Comfort", he's become utterly merciless, determined to destroy everything and everyone held dear to the people of Gotham City, after he apparently never got in touch with his wife, who eventually got tired of waiting and remarried. Batman and Batgirl lampshade it, as Batman notes "Nothing about Freeze makes sense anymore". Though they eventually learn that Mr. Freeze's body has almost completely deteriorated except for his head, and it has firmly convinced him he has no hope for a normal life anymore.
• The Movie: There were several DTV films, but general consensus agrees that the theatrical film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is the best. Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero is seen as what Batman & Robin should have been, and the less well regarded Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman is a competent production.
• Mr. Alt Disney: Grant Walker. A pioneer on animatronics and amusement parks owner, his design of an underwater utopia with no crime is loosely based on the original concept for Epcot Center. He also wants to be frozen like Mr. Freeze, a clear gag on the urban legend that Walt Disney is in cryogenic storage.
• Mr. Fanservice: Nightwing is, shall we say, quite a handsome fellow.
• Ms. Fanservice: Nearly all the female cast, particularly the villainesses.
• Mugging the Monster: "Fear Of Victory" features a bookie sending one of his cronies to rough up a gambler who's been winning a little too often. Unbeknownst to the bookie or his thug, the gambler is actually the Scarecrow using his fear chemicals to fix games, and what the poor henchman thinks is going to be a standard shakedown quickly turns into a terrifying encounter with the Master of Fear.
• Multilayer Façade: In one episode, a villain is hired to obtain Batman's cape and cowl. When he ultimately succeeds, Batman reveals a second mask underneath the cowl to protect his identity.
• Murder by Cremation: The Joker plans an acid bath variant for Sid the Squid.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Tygrus' solution to Batman and Catwoman's relationship in "Tyger, Tyger".
• Musicalis Interruptus: In "Joker's Favor", The Leave It to Beaver-esque Leitmotif used for everyman Charlie Collins suddenly stops dead as he realizes, with a look of horror upon his face, that two of Joker's underlings have managed to track him down to Ohio after living for two years in some form of peace and quiet under a new name.
• My Greatest Failure:
  • The death of his parents is the ultimate driving force behind Batman, as it is revealed at several points in the series that he blames himself for not being able to save them. This is compounded by Harvey Dent's transformation into Two-Face, which cost him a personal friend and crime-fighting associate, and which he views in same light as his parents' death.
  • Karl Rossum was distraught over what HARDAC has done, fulfilling the goal to replace humans with robots. Thus preventing accidental human deaths, which is what happened to Karl's wife and daughter. He regretted ever creating HARDAC in the first place.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In a flashback during part 1 of "Robin's Reckoning", one circus performer refers to Dick Grayson as a boy wonder.
  • In multiple episodes, the Joker's alias from before his transformation is given as "Jack Napier," which was his real name in the first Tim Burton movie.
  • In the Scarecrow's first appearance, Batman checked a list of places where the villain could have acquired the chemicals used for his crimes. Star Labs was in the list.
  • The girl in "Legends of the Dark Knight" is modeled on Carrie Kelley, the Robin from Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, and she retells a section of that series.
  • The fourth child in "Legend's of the Dark Knight" is an effeminate boy named Joel standing under a sign that says "Shoemaker", who talks about how Batman wears rubber armor and has a car that can drive up walls. The other kids dismiss his theories, and him, out of hand.
  • In one episode, the Joker gets his own car◊ with his face plastered◊ all over it.◊
  • In "Bane", Killer Croc wears a hat and trenchcoat, like in his pre-Crisis debut.
  • In "The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy", Woodwood said that Batman "is only human after all", which is what one of the Joker's henchmen said in the Tim Burton film.
  • In "Deep Freeze”, Sanderson the robot maker has a flying robot of Bat-Mite, who even says "I just want to help" after he malfunctions.
  • An extremely subtle one: "Double Talk" reveals that the warden of Arkham is named Crichton, the same as the prison warden from Batman.
  • Another subtle one (and possibly just incidental), but Batman's reason for giving Harley Quinn the benefit of the doubt in "Harley's Holiday"? "He'd had a bad day too, once."
  • A pretty grim one: in his debut episode, Tim Drake gets smacked once with a crowbar. In the comics, Jason Todd (whose origin story was embroidered a bit for this Tim) suffered a bad beating from the Joker wielding a crowbar as a prelude to his death.
• Mysterious Past: Unlike alot of other villains we never learn much, if anything, about Poison Ivy's background. She first appears in "Pretty Poison" already fully formed, with no word on what her life was like up to that point and what specific factors influenced her into becoming a costumed eco-terrorist vamp. It's left up in the air if anything from Isley's pre-show life mirrored her comic self's past or not.

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