History Recap / BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE25TheClockKing

* MustacheVandalism: One of Fugate's more benign attacks on Hill is to display a giant defaced poster of Hill after drawing a crowd onto the street by sabotaging the traffic signals.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Hill's attempt to help Fugate unwind results in him defaulting on his appeal after he loses his papers in the park fountain. Though it could be argued that it was more the direct fault of the children who were playing ball and weren't careful to avoid hitting him, [[MisBlamed Fugate still blames Hill]] as the catalyst for him being in the park to begin with.

* ShownTheirWork: The {{Jerkass}} judge uses all the correct terminology in ruling against Fugate. He's in default and loses in summary judgment.

* HateSink: Fulgate is such a [[EvilIsPetty petty]], [[DisproportionateRetribution vindictive]] asshole it's hard not to want to punch him the face.

--->'''Fugate:''' Comfortable, Hill? Well, you won't be for long. At 3:15 on the dot, [[DescendingCeiling those hands will come together and you'll be crushed like an insect]].[[note]]Interestingly, Fugate, known for his LudicrousPrecision, actually gets the math ''wrong'' here. Between every two sequential numbers on a clock, there are 4 tick marks, and since a clock takes 60 minutes to go from one number to the next, that means every 12 minutes, the hour hand moves to the next tick mark. So at 3:12, the clock's hour hand would have moved to the next tick mark, and thus the hands wouldn't have fully closed together until 3:16. ''The ScheduleFanatic was off by a single minute.''[[/note]]

* BondVillainStupidity: The big DeathTrap set for Batman is really well-thought-out, so much so that Batman looks pretty taken aback by it, except it also exposes a FatalFlaw with Fugate: he gets too cocky. Fugate knows Batman will show up in time to stop him from getting revenge from Mayor Hill; to prevent that, he gets Batman locked in a big vault and has all the oxygen sucked out of the room. But he can't resist pulling a JustBetweenYouAndMe with [[TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat a mocking taped message left behind]]; Batman manages to [[{{MacGuyvering}} repurpose the tape itself]] into one of the tools [[HoistByHisOwnPetard needed to escape]]. Had Fugate resisted the urge to rub it in and left no message at all, it's likely the DeathTrap would have worked, as Batman was ready to try getting out with a cutting torch until Fugate's message informed him that he'd thought of that already, and specifically made sure there wasn't enough time.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Killing a man because he recommended you relax, which wound up making you late? That's this trope alright.

* BondVillainStupidity: Fugate knows Batman will show up in time to stop him from getting revenge from Mayor Hill; to prevent that, he gets Batman in a DeathTrap. But he can't resist pulling a JustBetweenYouAndMe with [[TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat a mocking taped message left behind]]; Batman manages to repurpose the tape into one of the tools [[HoistByHisOwnPetard needed to escape]]. Had he left no message at all, it's likely the DeathTrap would have worked, as Batman was ready to try getting out with a cutting torch until Fugate's message informed him that he'd thought of that already, and specifically made sure there wasn't enough time.

* EvilIsHammy: Fugate, who is normally TheStoic and a SoftspokenSadist, but just when he reacheds a NearVillainVictory, he commits BondVillainStupidity, EvilGloating and EvilLaugh.

* ExploitedTrope: Temple Fugate is a sociopath whose only interest in the world as a ScheduleFanatic are ''clocks and time'': he timed a TimeBomb with a very expensive ''watch'', has an AbandonedWarehouse with a RoomFullOfCrazy ''Clocks'', and tries a BankRobbery with a ''time lock''. [[spoiler:All those tropes are exploited to get Batman LuredIntoATrap: Fugate knows about his obsession, and instead of trying to stop it he uses it against his enemies. The real]] EvilPlan is to use the ''clock hands'' of a ClockTower to crush someone to death.

* JustBetweenYouAndMe: Fugate leaves a TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat speech where he outlines his Evil Plan (the DeathTrap) to Batman, ''including information on how to stop it exactly when Batman needs to hear it''.

-->'''Temple Fugate:''' The Batman. It's about time you showed up.

* MisplacedRetribution: Rather than blaming, say, the person suing him, or the judge who upheld the ruling despite Fugate's tardiness being clearly the result of an accident, Fugate ends up blaming the whole incident on Hill, whose only crime was trying to help him. Hill's ''law firm'' had been the plaintiff in the lawsuit, but Hill had no idea, barely knowing Fugate from Adam, and wasn't even involved in the case whatsoever.

* YouCantThwartStageOne: All of Fugates plans work swimmingly, except for the last (and most important): killing Mayor Hill.

* MisplacedRetribution: Rather than blaming, say, the person suing him, or the judge who upheld the ruling despite Fugate's tardiness being clearly the result of an accident, Fugate ends up blaming the whole incident on Hill, whose only crime was trying to help him. Hill's ''law firm'' had been the plaintiff in the lawsuit, but Hill had no idea, barely knowing Fugate from Adam.

* ComicBookMoviesDontUseCodenames: Fugate never identifies himself as "the Clock King." (The closest he ever comes to it is his BadassBoast, noted above.) The only one who calls him that is Commissioner Gordon as a MythologyGag.

--->'''Commissioner Gordon:''' No trace of this Clock King, though.

* HighRiseEscape: The first time Batman confronts Clock King on a rooftop, Batman attempts to corner him only for Clock King to leap off the roof and land on the top of a train that he knew would be passing by due to his superhuman sense of timing.

* {{Homage}}: The climactic battle in the clock tower is similar to the climax of ''WesternAnimation/CastleOfCagliostro'', right down to someone (almost, in the case of this episode) getting crushed between the hands of the clock.

* MisplacedRetribution: Rather than blaming, say, the person suing him, or the judge who upheld the ruling despite Fugate's tardiness being clearly the result of an accident, Fugate ends up blaming the whole incident on Hill, whose only crime was trying to help him.

* SubwaysSuck: Temple Fugate has his first encounter with Mayor Hill in the Gotham subway. Seven years later, he will invoke the SinisterSubway with a TrainwreckEpisode.

* MeaningfulName / PropheticNames / StevenUlyssesPerhero: ''Temple Fugate'' sounds a lot like ''tempus fugit'' ([[AltumVidetur Latin for "time flies"]]).