No double standards! No half measures! No compromises!
Batman: Broken Promise is 2022 fan-animated short by YouTube user Trumble Animation
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Batman is investigating the overdose death of a CEO and the trail seems to lead him to Scarface and the Ventriloquist. But appearances as they say, are often deceiving.
Can be watched here.
This film contains examples of:
- Arc Words: Promises.
- Berserk Button:
- Two-Face absolutely loses it when he Batman steals his coin, and goes crazy trying to get it back, even attacking his thugs so they can't shoot him before he makes the choice with the coin.
- Scarface also has his traditional button: when people talk to the Ventriloquist instead of him, he gets pissed, as he's the one in charge, not his dummy.
- Bittersweet Ending: While the Ventriloquist and Two-Face are both apprehended as he doesn't compromise against his coin landing heads up, Harvey is still a shadow of his former self but Batman still has hope for him.
- Car Fu: Batman takes care of Two-Face's goons by remote controlling the Batmobile.
- Color Contrast: A gorgeous red and blue color pallet is used for a lot of scenes, mainly the later half of the video, when Two-Face is revealed.
- Corporate Samurai: Two-Face’s henchwoman certainly dresses the part and even carries a katana.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: Two-Face’s plan basically amounts to kill half of everybody regardless if they’re rich or poor. Hell his gang consists of both street thugs and sharply dressed men and women.
- Facial Horror: While Two-Face was never really a looker to begin with, here his scarred side is even more grotesque, looking more akin to a zombie.
- Guns Akimbo: Two-Face attempts to do this as he's fighting with Batman, however because he's trying to unholster his other gun while he's in a fistfight with Batman, ends up being more trouble than its worth.
- Knight Templar: Two-Face’s plan is to poison half of Scarface’s drug shipments so that everyone from the rich higher ups to the lowest of lows and everyone in the middle would have the same chance to be poisoned and die as a form of equal justice.
- Meaningful Echo: "No double standards, no half measures, no compromises." Harvey gives this line twice, first during his political speech promising his tough fight against crime on all sides, and later, as Two-Face, explaining the motivation behind his extremist plan to kill anyone who takes the poisoned drugs.
- Motive Rant: Two-Face gives a epic one.Two-Face: Everyone says they want to fight the War on Drugs, no one tries to win. If I can’t control the crime, I’ll control the punishment. And in my solution there’s no hypocrite law makers, no corrupt judicial system, no mass incarceration economy. My gangs sell to the whole city! The high and the low, yuppies and junkies alike. No more 1%, no 99% just a fifty percent chance…you won’t wake up. The nuclear option. I’ve done what the authoritarian fascists and limp dick bleeding hearts never could! Take over the swamp and poison the water. And once I had the idea, you know I didn’t have a choice.
- The Mole: Scarface finds out too late that Arnold Wesker was in with Two-Face to poison half his drug shipments.
- Mythology Gag:
- The scarred side of Two-Face looks akin to his portrayal in the The Dark Knight, being mostly composed of burnt and exposed muscle.
- While fighting Two-Face, Batman briefly holds the cowl-over-face pose used for promotional material for Batman: The Animated Series. The final shot of the video recreates the end of the series' intro, lightning bolt and everything.
- Room Full of Crazy: Under the blue light in Scarface’s hideout, we see disturbing drawings and rantings of Two-Face.
- Verbal Tic: Scarface here is unable to articulate his b’s properly, instead replacing them with g's, much like he did in the comics.
- Waistcoat of Style: Instead of wearing a full suit, Two-Face dons a rather snazzy assymetric waistcoat with one side glowing red under bluelight.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After Wesker shoots Scarface, Two-Face has his goons aim their guns at him. While he's willing to leave his fate up to a coin toss, it's clear he doesn't really care much for what happens to him. When it seemingly lands on the scarred side, his thugs open fire but luckily Batman intervenes to save the Ventriloquist.
