History Recap / BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE30PerchanceToDream

** The main clue that the Mad Hatter is behind the events of this episode is the fact that his theme plays in this episode's title card.

* InUniverseFactoidFailure: Bruce explains to the dream version of Jervis that dreams are mostly formed by the brain's left hemisphere while the right hemisphere is responsible for understanding written text. This is actually backward and a very rudimentary understanding of the brain's complexities even beyond that.

* TheFinalTemptation: Batman is caught in a virtual dream world by the Mad Hatter (who fortunately cannot observe the dream itself) living a life as playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne, with his parents alive and well (and thus he has never become Batman). In the dream he is engaged to Selina Kyle (who is not Catwoman) and the mysterious Batman is someone ''else'' who has just shown up in Gotham. His friends and family in the dream almost have him completely convinced he has created his real life as a delusion to escape his feelings of not having accomplished anything on his own, but the illusion falls apart when he discovers he can't read anything.[[note]]Trying to read something in a dream is a trick used by lucid dreamers to detect whether they are dreaming. Unless you have a photographic memory, your brain will have some trouble trying to remember or imagine a page full of text.[[/note]] Suffice to say, he does ''not'' appreciate the MindScrew when he wakes himself up.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* SpiritualAntithesis: This episode is one for the comic "ComicBook/ForTheManWhoHasEverything" (later given an AnimatedAdaptation in fellow DCAU show ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''). Both stories are about a hero who is placed into a LotusEaterMachine and given a dream about [[IJustWantToBeNormal mundane life as a "normal" person]]. Superman, as TheCape, has a HappilyEverAfter fantasy. Batman, as TheCowl, dreams a PsychologicalHorror fantasy.

* AGlitchInTheMatrix: The Mad Hatter traps Batman in a LotusEaterMachine where [[DeathByOriginStory 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.

* BerserkButton: Mad Hatter's scheme hit this for Batman. When the latter wakes up, he looks like he's about to ''strangle'' the poor bastard, before Mad Hatter's VillainousBreakdown left him too pathetic for Batman to even bother.

'''Mad Hatter:''' "Why?" You of all people have the ''gall'' to ask me that? ''[[NeverMyFault YOU RUINED]] [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE27MadAsAHatter MY LIFE!!]]'' ''[BrokenTears]'' I was ''willing'' to [[PetTheDog give you whatever life you wanted]], ''JUST TO KEEP YOU OUT OF MINE!!''

'''Mad Hatter:''' "Why?" You of all people have the ''gall'' to ask me that? ''[[NeverMyFault YOU RUINED]] [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE27MadAsAHatter MY LIFE!!]]'' ''[BrokenTears]'' I was ''willing'' to [[PetTheDog give you any life you wanted]], ''JUST TO KEEP YOU OUT OF MINE!!''

* ArtisticLicense: Batman figures out he is trapped in a dream when he is unable to read the books or newspapers; he later explains this by saying that the parts of the brain responsible for dreaming and reading are on different hemispheres and that it's impossible to read in a dream. This is a myth--the brain is far more complex than that, and it is entirely possible and completely commonplace for people to read in dreams. However, if you read in a dream, the text on the page rarely ''stays the same'' between two looks. So given "realistic" limitations on the dream machine, he could very easily have found out almost exactly the same way in real life, too--it just wouldn't be quite as obvious. For a twenty-minute cartoon, the way they did it is a reasonable shorthand to save time and simplify it for the target audience.