Tear Jerker / The Batman

"Being summoned to pick you up has never been a good omen, Master Bruce..."

• "Traction," where Bruce is critically injured after his first fight with Bane. Despite that, though, he's determined to get back out there in his new exoskeleton suit, but Alfred (who's pretty much raised Bruce since the deaths of the Waynes) is this close to walking out on Bruce rather than watch him risk his life like that again.
  Alfred: And you are doing what?
  Bruce: What you suggested, Alfred— getting on with my life.
  Alfred: Interesting interpretation, but know that if you intend to face this Bane again, sir, you may need to find another butler-slash-physician-slash-getaway driver!
  Bruce: ...I understand, Alfred.
  • And the hardest part of this scene is, Bruce is quite prepared to continue the fight alone, injured as he is, while the closest thing he has to a second father figure is about to abandon him. Then Alfred looks back at one particular moment when Bruce, struggling to tighten a screw on the exoskeleton with a wrench, groans in pain from his injuries... one has to wonder, in that moment, if he can really leave his surrogate son to face such a deadly foe alone and in his condition. And then...
    Alfred: Oh, very well, then. Let's get to work, shall we?
  • After the first fight against Bane, we get a scene of Alfred tending to a badly beaten Bruce's wounds, which leads to a flashback of young Bruce at the police station after his parents' murder.
    Alfred: Being summoned to pick you up has never been a good omen, Master Bruce.
• Clayface's origin. He's essentially this show's Two-Face. The worst part was when he first mutates, leading to him stumbling out of his apartment terrified, begging for someone, anyone to help him... only for people to run screaming at the the sight of him and his fellow officers to attack him, thinking he's a monster.
  • Then there's his Face–Heel Turn in "Meltdown".
    Clayface: Being Ethan is hard, really hard. But being Clayface? It's cake. So say your goodbyes. This is the last you'll ever see of him.
• In "JTV", we see that Yin is still hit hard by what happened to Ethan, and the blatant ignorance of her new partner, Cash Tankinson, doesn't help, especially when Joker sets his sights on him as his new "co-star".
  Cash: Hey, come on, Yin, doesn't some part of you wanna slap that grin off of Joker's face? At least for Burnett?
  Yin: Bennett. (to herself) I'm not losing another partner to this madman…
• The end of "Strange Minds," where we see The Joker of all people, curled up in a corner of his cell at Arkham, and crying.
  • And earlier in that same episode, the brief scene where while Batman is in Joker's mind, he comes across the man Joker once was before he fell into that vat of chemicals. And unlike his previous incarnations, where he was part of a gang, it's heavily implied that this version was just a plain office drone who dreamed of making people laugh, until that "one rotten day" transformed him into the crazy crime clown we know now, which makes what little we know of his backstory downright tragic.
    Past Joker: Let me guess, you're looking for the detective.
    Batman: You're...!
    Past Joker: The only shadow of his former self left in this crazy place? (gives a tired smile) It's my day job. (wistfully) What I really want is to make people laugh...
• From the Season 3 opener, Barbara watching her friend Pamela Isley become Poison Ivy, and ultimately being the one to have to defeat her, is a rather heartbreaking parallel to Bruce and Ethan.
  • In "Batgirl Begins Part 1", Barbara's attempt to talk some sense into Pamela after finding out she hired Temblor, and Pamela's refusal to listen.
    Barbara: Pam, it's not too late. You have to stop this! …I don't wanna have to watch my dad read you your rights!
    Pamela: And here I thought we were two peas in a pod. Should've known I couldn't trust the Commish's kid.
• The ending to "Riddler's Revenge."
  Batman: When is a villain... not the villain?
  • Also the scene where it shows how Riddler lost his job at Gotham University. It's heart-breaking to know that Edward had a chance at a normal, possibly even successful, life. And then the later reveal that Julie was the one who sabotaged his invention makes it even worse.
    Riddler: I was ruined. In that moment, I lost my only chance to...
    Batman: To what?
    Riddler: To not be The Riddler.
  • Riddler's reaction to finding out that Julie, the one person he trusted and even revealed his Dark and Troubled Past to, was the one who sabatoged him.
    Riddler: I thought you understood me!
    Julie: I understood that you were a psychopath. One that would ruin any chance of success!
• The part in "A Matter of Family" where the Flying Graysons fall to their death. The audience is horrified, especially Bruce, whose reaction is gutwrenching, and then we see Dick crying; the funeral scene after that really cranks up the water works. Even Zucco's brothers were horrified at what he's done.
• One issue of The Batman Strikes has Poison Ivy escaping from prison to presumably steal a rare plant. At the end, when she's caught, she actually breaks into tears and says that she didn't want to steal it, she just wanted to see it since she's so deprived of plantlife at Arkham. It's moments like this that remind you this incarnation is just a kid.
• The ending of Seconds is incredibly depressing before the timeline changes at the end. Batman, Robin, Batgirl, and hundreds of innocent people are exposed to poison gas ... as is the killer's son, causing the young man to die in the arms of his sobbing, remorseful father.
• In the midst of the Nightmare Fuel from "Strange New World," we see Dick practically having a breakdown after the whole city gets infected. It gets worse for him when he and Bruce discover Alfred is infected too. The way his voice wavers when he laments that they're all alone and they can't save the city, it almost sounds like the poor boy is ready to cry because he's so scared.
• The ending of "White Heat". Even after everything he did, you can't help but feel bad for Firefly/Phosphorus. While the doctors at Arkham were able to surpress the fire powers caused by the radioactive isotope he had stolen, the physical and mental effects caused by it are practically irreversible. He's stuck like that. And to twist the knife even further, his girlfriend Blaze leaves him.
  Blaze: Garfield…
  Phosphorous: Blaze. You got my message.
  Blaze: I came in person to say… whatever spark existed between us… it's gone. (leaves)
  Phosphorous: Blaze, wait, I… wait…
• In "Two of a Kind", that one moment where Joker snaps at Harley for asking him a simple favor, telling her he's doing what she wants only because it was fun. She wilts at his verbal abuse, before he changes his tune and "forgives" her. It's a sobering reminder that this Joker is just as abusive as his previous incarnations.
  • Worse yet, the ending so painfully mirrors "Mad Love" from "Batman the Animated Series". Joker does something that ultimately shows how little he cares for her (throws her out a window/abandons her in a burning building). Batman sums up to Harley how Joker doesn't care about anyone but himself. A heartbroken Harley is faced with the sobering reality that he never loved her. But she only comes to her senses for a short while before "Mr. J" leaves behind a gift (a rose with a note to get well soon/A whoopee cushion telling her to keep smiling) that changes her mind. And thus, the cycle starts again and Harley Quinn is fated to remain the Joker's hopelessly lovesick, battered girlfriend.
• In "Fistful of Felt", the ending where the fight between Scarface and Mr. Snoots climaxes with both of them getting run over by a train, to the point where the two dummies are crippled beyond belief. What's heartbreaking was, Mr. Snoots was a better influence on Wesker. And the poor man is left weeping "He was the best, most wonderful friend in the world!" Batman can only hope that he's talking about Mr. Snoots, rather than his toxic friend Scarface.
  • Even worse is the fact that it's revealed that Hugo Strange deliberately sabotaged Wesker's rehabilitation, claiming that he was curious and wanted to put his therapy to the test, to see if "the criminal mind can really be cured". Batman isn't buying it, and vows that he'll be watching him after that.
    • And it's made even worse due to the fact the next time we see Wesker in the series, he's back with Scarface. Wesker had a chance of going straight and finally being free of his dependence on Scarface, and Strange destroyed it for no other reason than because he could.
• "Big Dummy" has Alfred encouraging Bruce to try out online dating and he sets up a date with a woman named Becky. Unfortunately, Bruce's Batman duties get in the way of that and Alfred has to go break it to the woman. She sounds utterly dejected.
• Wrath and Scorn aren't particularly sympathetic characters, but the sad, angry way Scorn talks about not even being able to remember his incarcerated parents is still affecting.
• One of the comics sees Riddler break out of Arkham and leave a series of clues leading Batman and Robin to find Joker with a kidnapped guard. The reason he does this? She's the person who usually brings him lunch and helps whenever he's stuck on a Crossword Puzzle and his OCD means he can't adjust to any changes in his schedule. To make matters worse, the guard quits after the whole experience, unwilling to risk getting kidnapped by any of the Arkham regulars again. The end of the issue sees Riddler slumped over on the floor, begging to have his old guard back and still stuck on "a ten letter word for 'sometimes spontaneous'".