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The Art Shift between BTAS and TNBA...
...coincides with a Tone Shift. Where BTAS dealt with more noirish elements and crime activity, TNBA could somewhat be argued to focus more on straight superheroics, delving more into the DCU outside Gotham and pitting Batman against his more colourful rogues—as opposed to straight mobsters like Thorne, or Corrupt Corporate Executive types like Daggett and Boyle. BTAS showed Batman's success at decreasing certain criminal elements in town while simultaneously giving rise to more outlandish adventures with the Arkham Regulars. In a way, it almost mirrors and presages The Long Halloween and that story's central theme: the passage of time.

In "Perchance to Dream" Selina Kyle was actually about to offer Bruce a handjob at the office to cheer him up.
In a dream induced by the Mad Hatter, Selina visits Bruce at work because his mother called her and said Bruce "could use some cheering up." She perches on his desk and purrs, "Who better for the job than the woman you're marrying next week?" while slowly removing one of her gloves. She begins to reach out to him with her one ungloved hand before pausing and noticing that he really is upset. Putting this here rather than Radar because I'm not sure if I just have a dirty mind or if this was actually implied.

Andrea Beaumount has supernatural powers, specifically communication with the dead.
In the animated Batman: Mask of the Phantasm she explains that she can imagine what her deceased mother would say if she talked to her. Perhaps she didn't know it at first, but she really could talk to her loved ones in the great beyond.
  • She also claimed she was closer to her father than ever, even he had been dead for some time.
    • She could have used this power to bargain for other powers, or learn to develop others such as teleportation.
      • However at the end when she says "I am alone", she may have meant that she lost her communication power as a result of her crusade.

Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn are not lesbians
I realize it's far-fetched and I don't have any evidence to back it up, but I get the feeling there is at least a one in a million chance that they are just friends. Now if you'll excuse me, there is a mob of angry fanboys outside my door with torches and pitchforks.
  • Perhaps Harley Quinn is bisexual. She has a serious crush on the Joker, who is male, and had grandchildren in Batman Beyond (though her kid may have been in-vitro or adopted).
    • Harley suffers from Single-Target Sexuality. She is hopelessly obsessed with Mistah' J. When he throws her out (literally) she immediately focuses on the very next person to show her kindness: Ivy.
  • In Poison Ivy's case, it seems a bit obvious. In "Eternal Youth", she was chasing the rich lady through the woods and probably enjoys every minute of it; later she sits on another rich woman's butt. In "Trial", she was staring at Janet Van Dorn and gives her a Psychotic Smirk. She was checking out Dr. Joan Leland when she walked pass her in "Harley's Holiday"; Harley noticed, when she said "What are you looking at?".
  • Jossed. Paul Dini has since confirmed that Harley and Ivy's relationship was indeed romantic, but could never explicitly say so because it was a kids show. Plus Harley is confirmed to be bisexual in the comics. Ivy I'm not sure about.

Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, for all their sexual hang-ups, are actually Heterosexual Life-Partners with each other.
In keeping with being modeled after the Poison Ivy of the mainstream comics, the animated version of Poison Ivy sexuality pretty much involves anyone, including some of her plants in some cases (and not just the ones she's anthropomorphized to look human). However, in both the comics and the cartoons, the only times we ever see Ivy do anything sexual is when she's hurting people: in both Harvey Dent's case and Batman's, she was kissing them in order to poison them. (In one comic where she kissed Supergirl, she was—you guessed it—trying to poison her too.) In other episodes where she uses her pheremones to seduce people (of both sexes), she's scamming them and leading them to their death and destruction. For all that she does love her plants collectively and want to preserve them as a species, she also uses and disposes of the individual ones just as heartlessly as she does her human victims: consider how many of them she used up in "Home and Garden" just to have a "family" on her own terms.

Harley Quinn, however, is Poison Ivy's personal project, almost a Morality Pet, the only human to whom her otherwise extreme misanthropy does not apply. She really does love Harley Quinn—but in a "Sisters Before Misters" way (as confirmed by the writers in Ivy's "Arkham Files" segment on the BtAS Vol. 4 DVD extras). As such, Harley Quinn is the one and only human in the world with whom she would never do anything sexual, not even so much as a kiss on the cheek (even while not wearing her poisoned lipstick and having given Harley Quinn immunity to it anyway), because Poison Ivy can only see sexuality as a way of hurting people, and she would never do anything to hurt her best—not to mention only—friend.

The moral of Mask of the Phantasm is that sexism is bad.
If Bruce (having already learned Andrea was his equal if not better at martial arts) hadn't assumed she would "always be at home waiting for me" but thought of her as a possible partner, he wouldn't have felt forced to choose between love and crime-fighting. Most likely, he would have shared his secret with her earlier; maybe they would have been able to save her father from the mob together. Finding a woman who could handle his secret if not fight alongside him (instead of one whose worry would be a burden) never occurred to him, and that is the only reason he ended up alone/resigned himself to being alone.
  • To be fair, the only time Andrea's by his side during a fight (when they run into the bikers harassing the guy with the box full of jewlery) she just stands on the sidelines pulling concerned faces and actually distracts him during the fight, leading to him taking a baseball bat to the ribs with enough force that the bat breaks. Considering how her attempt to fight of Salvatore's men when they arrive to threaten her father results in one hiya noise before she gets a taste of Standard Female Grab Area, it seems that Andrea's status as a potential partner in crimefighting wasn't really viable until after her dad got killed, which presumably led her to supplement her self defence class training with Bruce-style Training from Hell.

Killer Croc's theory about Batman being a Robot isn't just him being stupid.
Remember it actually did happen in one episode! Croc probably had an offscreen encounter with the Batman Android, and that's why he thinks Batman could be a robot.
  • Never mind that he was actually Batman in disguise at the time.
    • Meh, details...
    • Remember though, Joker told him not to bring it up "again", so this isn't the first time it's come up.
    • Worth noting that "His Silicon Soul" was produced and aired after "Almost Got'im".

The girl with red hair in "Legends of the Dark Knight" is actually Carrie Kelly
She fits the physical description from the books, and how else would she know about the events in TDKR? She time traveled or dimension-hopped or something.
  • She is Carrie Kelley. But she was never Robin, and her story never happened, it's just her own view of what Batman is like. She likes to put herself in the story; and made herself wrong when she thought Robin is a girl.

Those guys in the opening sequence didn't do anything wrong.
There was an explosion and they ran away, took it to a bit of an extreme by climbing a roof, then ran into Batman who was probably just scowling at the city from that particular roof top. He looks at them like he's going to attack, so they pull their guns to defend themselves. The rest is history.
  • They pulled guns. On BATMAN. If that's not doing something wrong, I dunno what is.
    • They tried to pull a bank robbery which had gone wrong.
      • They were outside the building when the explosion went off — possibly they were lookouts who ran for it when things started to go wrong. That would explain why they carried guns and pulled them immediately when their escape was interrupted.
      • Maybe they were working for the bank owner, blowing up the bank to collect insurance.
      • Which I believe is legal in Gotham.
      • Not to Batman.
      • I think the implication is that the bank owner was pulling an insurance fraud scam, which isn't legal even in Gotham. Legitimate demolitions aren't usually scheduled during the night.
      • Or they were bank robbers, just incompetent ones who'd severely overdone it when they tried to blow open the bank's vault.
  • So blame whomever's driving the squad car that was chasing them for the mistake, not Batman. He just maintained pursuit of suspects the cops had already singled out, rightly or wrongly.

Matt's story about his uncle meeting Batman and Robin did happen.
Only it happened during Batman (and Robin)'s early crimefighting career. It happened not too soon after Joker first appeared. Batman also wore the "Golden Age" costume in the flashback of "Robin's Reckoning". The Robin in the flashback was Dick Grayson, soon after he found out Bruce is Batman in the flashback, but in this flashback he's been Robin for a while. His uncle was half-asleep at the time, which explains the Art Shift and the cheesy dialogues, since that's how he recalls. Batman did say "old-chum" (despite one of the kids thinking it's ridiculous), he also called Juice that too (albeit in sarcasm).
  • He wore the same suit in the flashback of Robin's Reckoning that he wore throughout the entire series up until The New Batman Adventures
    • Incorrect, in those flashbacks and during Bruce donning the mask for the first time in "Mask of the Phantasm," he wears a suit similar to the TNBA one but with no glove spikes.
    • Matt's uncle was drunk on the job. Shameful, but it happens.

Dr. Joan Leland is doing drugs.
She's the most mellow Arkham employee seen in any medium. She's definately on something. My vote is either a lot of pot or opium.

Simon Trent knows Batman's secret identity.
Bruce Wayne is way too smart to say the same thing he did as Batman ("As a kid, I used to watch you with my father. The Gray Ghost was my hero.") to somebody unless he wants them to know who he is. It's a fairly common trope in the series note , and he pulls it with Simon out of his profound respect for the man. Simon's astounded reaction ("...really?") can be interpreted as either...
  • He is amazed that someone like Bruce Wayne - a billionare philanthropist - would be such a huge fan...
  • ...or the gears turned in his head and he realized Bruce is Batman.
  • Is this really a WMG? The implication was very obviously that Bruce deliberately said that as a means to let Simon in on his secret.

Only Ivy is bisexual. Harley is more If It's You, It's Okay.
I don't recall Harley being attracted that way to any other women. (If I'm wrong, please note it) And I know it's not Single-Target Sexuality because she kissed Batman in one episode.

Harley, at some point in the past, slept with the Scarecrow.
The Mad Love comic strongly implies if not outright states that Harley got through university primarily by sleeping with the male teachers. Jonathan Crane was a teacher at Gotham University, and they treat each other with some odd politeness in the interaction in Harley's Holiday, especially considering Crane's general attitude towards other people.

Grant Walker from "Deep Freeze" was working with Ra's al Ghoul
Walker's Evil Plan in the episode (freezing the planet in order to destroy the evil influences corrupting it) seems too close to a Ra's scheme to be coincidental. As to why he and Ra's needed Mr. Freeze for the scheme: Remember all the Lazarus Pits had just been destroyed at the end of "The Demon's Quest" two-parter and Ra's needed a new way to sustain his near-immortality before the aging problems seen in the Superman: The Animated Series episode "The Demon Reborn" would set in. Ra's let Walker be the first one for Freeze to re-create the accident that created him and gave him his immortality in sub-zero conditions because he (Ra's) wanted a guinea pig to prove that it could work.

Penguin had cosmetic/reconstructive surgery
In TNBA he suddenly has proper hands. Regardless of the art shift explanation, he's also rolling in cash at this point. Provided he had the proper separate bones in his hands, the surgeons likely reconstructed them. He wears gloves all the time because it's not a perfect cosmetic job- he might not have fingernails and they don't look like proper hands so he hides them. He could've also fixed his nose, but probably kept it because it was recognizable.
  • He does have normal hands in one episode, shown with the gloves off. But this is a cartoon operating on TV rules, so the surgery explanation likely still holds weight.
  • Or he always had normal hands, he just suffered an injury off-screen that'd required his fingers be taped together in pairs while they healed. He didn't want the unsightly bandages to be obvious so he wore a couple of modified mittens until they got better.

'Big Bad Harv's' presence in Harvey Dent's mind was exacerbated by his encounter with Poison Ivy.
Granted, this is just probably a casualty of the fact that Harvey is basically a plot device victim to establish Ivy in the DC Animated Universe, but consider the fact that Harvey doesn't seem to have any 'Big Bad Harv' breakouts or show any signs of having problems in 'Pretty Poison'. In 'Two-Face Part One', he has about four incidents in an incredibly short period - attacking the thug, the incident during his therapy session, nearly attacking his assistant, and attacking Thorne and his men when confronted with his stolen psychiatric report - it's five if you count his initial nightmare; So while the physically toxic and lethal effects of Ivy's poison were removed by the antidote Batman obtain, Harvey's mental issues were exacerbated by the poison, making Big Bad Harv a more frequent presence in Harvey's mind.

Don't forget how in "Almost Got 'Im" his two personalities agree for a change when they see her, and both want to kill her.

Two-Face is STILL pissed at Ivy in "Trial". They're almost like an old (ex)married couple.

Alfred Pennyworth is Bruce Wayne's biological father.
In "Nothin to Fear," Alfred says, "I know your father would be proud of you because...I'm so proud of you."

The thrift shop worker from "Beware the Creeper" is a grown up Buttercup.
They have the same hair, they both wear green, and they're both voiced by Elizabeth Daily. And why isn't she afraid of the Creeper? Because, having been a superhero in her youth, she's Seen It All.

The Clock King is a Retired Badass.
Yes, Fugate says that he studied Batman's fighting style thoroughly but that alone shouldn't have been enough for him to do so well against him. Other villains have also tried to study Batman's fighting style in various continuities to no avail. What makes Fugate special? In the course of the fight, despite being clearly into his fifties, Fugate proves that he is at least as fast and as agile as Batman, not to mention capable of quickly identifying the way Batman telegraphs his attacks. His swordsmanship - a distinctly odd thing for an efficiency expert to have - is also curious. He even survives unscathed when the Clock Tower crumbles around him! This implies that he may be much tougher than he looks, and that his suit may be hiding some wiry muscle. Short of supernatural elements, the only possibility is that Fugate was never merely an efficiency expert. He had combat training, possibly even as a marine if he can go up against Batman, retaining his athleticism and penchant for logistics/tactics well into his later years. This also presents an alternate explanation for his general stoicism beyond the commonly speculated (and oft overused) sociopathy. Military training would help him remain cool under pressure.

"Frog" from Underdwellers is Jason Todd.
Or at least the Jason of this universe. Note, that the time between BTAS and TNBA is referred to as the "Lost Years" plural. During that gap time, Batman reencountered Frog who had a hard time fitting into society after his time in captivity with the sewer king, and took the boy in. Naturally, his experience shaped him and caused him to behave as we saw in the comic, leading to his eventual death. The reason no one brings him up is simply a matter of My Greatest Failure. As for Frog's brown hair, in comic book canon, Jason was originally a red-head and dyed his hair black.

Ivy in this series is an ordinary human with no powers.
In BTAS, Ivy is a human mad scientist who bring plants to life using chemicals. She becomes a meta-human later in TNBA.
  • Implied further in the TNBA tie-in comics. She alludes to having experimented on herself with plant mutagens.

Jervis Tetch is the actual Mad Hatter from the Lewis Carroll book.
Jervis isn't some crazy guy who thinks he's the Mad Hatter, he really IS the Mad Hatter. He was accidentally teleported to Batman's world a long time ago. Unable to go back home, Jervis has no choice but to live his life in this new world. He miss his Wonderland friends so much, he dress his henchmen up as them. The co-worker Alice reminds him of the actual Alice from the book.

Lock-Up is the reason behind Scarecrow's new look and personality in season 4.
Because of Lock-up's torment and cruelty, Professor Crane decided to become more cold and ruthless than before. Tired of being a joke and a weakling, he created a more terrifying costume.

The brainwashed villains in "Make 'Em Laugh" chose their own themes and gimmicks, in a way.
Though it's revealed they were brainwashed by the Joker so he could sabotage their careers, the mind control chip that made the three comedians become the Condiment King, the Pack Rat, and Mighty Mom only tapped into their subconscious minds to instill a compulsion to want to create their own alter egos.

Rupert Thorne had Candice killed.
The episode "Bane" was her last appearance. Thorne had her whacked after Batman played him the recorded tape of her betraying her boss.

The Phantasm was inspired by Batman.
In a way, Batman created the Phantasm. Andrea saw Batman on the news, and decided to create her own dark avenger.

One of the criminals in the show's opening sequence is the man who became the Joker.
Just a thought I had out of the blue. No real evidence to support this, but it would be pretty cool.
  • Alternately, they're the DCAU versions of the two crooks from the beginning of the 1989 film.

Clayface had a Villainous BSoD some time after absorbing Annie.
Whether Annie was "real" or not, she was still an extension of Clayface and represented a more sensitive side of him he usually ignores. Note how in most of his appearances after this episode(including the Gotham Adventures comics) Hagen is a bit less violent and more reluctant to be a villain. One issue even has him helping a kid with a similar condition look normal again. This is because he got smacked with all of "Annie's" memories and realized how cruel he was becoming. However, he doesn't join the heroes because he still resents them (especially Batman) for supposedly keeping him from a normal life.

Bruce Timm came up with the idea of Batman Beyond from Carrie's story.
Remember the 'Dark Knight Returns' story Carrie told? Notice it takes place in the future, and techno music was playing in the background.
  • In the first episode, Bruce chose to retire the Bat mantle, with the line from the comic: "Never again".

The Riddler was killed in "Judgement Day".
The giant book actually killed Nigma. "Judgement Day" was his last appearance. He does appear in Batman Beyond, but he was a training robot.

Scarecrow in TNBA is not Jonathan Crane.
Aside from the different voice and costume, he's never explicitly called Crane in TNBA, nor is his mask ever removed to show his face. Crane is either dead or so heavily medicated that he can't slip out of Arkham again. Meanwhile, some other deranged mind has taken up the mantle.

Roxy Rocket was an early test subject for the toxin Scarecrow used in "Never Fear"
But that first version's effects were untreatable, and permanent. Scarecrow needed an antidote so he could hold the city for ransom.

Gil Mason wakes up from his coma, but lost his memory of Batgirl's secret identity.
He ends up becoming a small-time criminal to get by since he was kicked out of the police force.

Randa Duane from the "Heart of Steel" two-parter was modelled off how Karl Rossum believed his daughter would look like if she'd managed to live to adulthood.
Unlike the rest of H.A.R.D.A.C.'s duplicants, Randa doesn't seem to be modelled off of an actual human being, given that unlike Gordon, Bullock, Hill, and Rossum, her body isn't placed in suspended animation. Rather, she was an actual robot created by Rossum himself, based on how he believed his daughter would have grown up to look like if she hadn't been killed in that car crash.


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