YMMV / Batman: Gotham by Gaslight

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Downplayed, but still is unclear if James Gordon suffered some type of Dissociative Identity Disorder or not. When Batman confronts Gordon, he is able to use his left and right hand while wielding a knife. He claims nuns had beaten him as a boy until he was right-handed, so he does "Jack's Work" with his left hand. Even if he claims that wives are "the worst whores of all" and he burned off half of his wife's face to "burn the sin" out of her, at least on some level he was afraid to kill his wife, if his dream is any indication.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: That part about worrying a 15 mph speed can be dangerous, and Hugo Strange reassuring a human body can handle up to 35? Based on a completely real concern about steam trains.
• Anvilicious: We get it, women didn't have many rights back then.
• Complete Monster: Jack the Ripper—in reality Commissioner James Gordon—is a psychotic Knight Templar and Serial Killer who believes in ridding Gotham of the "filth" of the streets, especially women. Kicking off a murder spree where he hunts down and slaughters numerous innocent women on the streets, the Ripper later tracks down and kills the kindhearted nun Sister Leslie. When he learns Dr. Hugo Strange has discovered his identity, the Ripper ambushes Strange and throws him to his own asylum's patients, who tear Strange apart. The Ripper then murders an old woman to frame Bruce Wayne for his crimes, and when Selina Kyle tries to prove his innocence, the Ripper targets her as well. The Ripper even regularly tortures his wife by burning the latter to "burn the sin away", until the latter has been utterly Driven to Madness. Utterly consumed by misogynistic fervor and a fanatic devotion to bloodshed, the Ripper showcases the true evil on Gotham's streets hiding within a human being.
• He Really Can Act: While Bruce Greenwood's performance as Batman was well received in Batman: Under the Red Hood and Young Justice (2010), this movie shows that he can handle the other side, Bruce Wayne, with just as much power and warmth, even with the Bruce Wayne persona having more screen time here.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Years after playing two different takes on Black Canary, Grey Delisle and Morena Baccarin once again share a Bat-verse character, Leslie Thompkins, with Grey playing Gaslight counterpart Sister Leslie and Morena playing her closer to modern day counterpart in the live action Gotham.
  • Ironically the story ends up as a spirited role reversal adaptation of Nemesis (Mark Millar) where the cape crusader is the heroic figure rather than the evil monster and the commissioner is the evil monster rather than the heroic figure.
  • Here, Batman goes after Jack the Ripper, one of the most infamous serial killers of all time who escaped justice, who is also in reality a vital character in the Batman mythos. 4 years later in The Batman (2022), Batman goes after the Riddler, who has been reimagined as a fictionalized Zodiac Killer, the other notorious serial killer who was never caught.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • For many, it's clear that after coldly killing Sister Leslie, who seems to know who he is and gives him her forgiveness as she faces death with dignity, the Ripper is far beyond redemption at this point.
  • Harvey Dent crossed it by throwing his "friend" Bruce under the bus when the latter was framed as the Ripper, simply out of petty jealousy when Selina takes an interest in Bruce.
• Narrowed It Down to the Guy I Recognize: Given the DC Animated films' penchant for casting celebrity voices, it's pretty easy to determine that Gordon is Jack the Ripper, as he's the only possible suspect to not be played by a professional voice actor.
• Newer Than They Think: Batman uses his mansion's attic as his secret headquarters instead of the Batcave in this movie. Interestingly, the Batcave did not appear in the comic books until Detective Comics #83 in January 1944, and it's a Canon Immigrant because it made its first appearance in the Batman movie serials from 1943, and later in the comic strips before its proper debut in the comic books.
• Older Than They Think: Jason Todd is a redhead in this movie. Fans tend to forget that Jason was originally redhead in the Pre-Crisis continuity of the comics and at some point he dyes his hair black to emulate Dick Grayson (something that Grant Morrison rescued during his run in the Batman's titles, but later writers since rescinded).
• The Scrappy: Harvey Dent. While he's meant to be a deliberate Hate Sink for all the dickery he is involved in, the fact that he manages to get off scot free from his petty acts and that he is usually portrayed as a heroic and/or tragic figure before his Two-Face's transformation rubs people the wrong way.
• Signature Scene: Selina dancing and singing "Can You Tame Wild Wimmen".
• The Woobie:
  • Pamela Isley. She isn't even a super-villainess here, but only a normal belly dancer who is constantly harassed by the masculine audience and is brutally killed by The Ripper.
  • Sister Leslie. She is one of the few Gotham's authority figures who genuinely cares about the dispossessed and people in need, including the prostitutes who are being killed by the Ripper. Some of the murdered girls were orphans formerly under her care, like Pamela. And she is ultimately killed by The Ripper for this reason.
  • Even with that aura of moral ambiguity and overall creepiness, Hugo Strange is just genuinely trying to do good, making his death all the more painful.
  • But of course, Batman and Selina Kyle take the cake, mainly in how things seem to always go wrong around them, whether through poor treatment from others, or they were unable to stop innocent lives from being taken.
  • Barbara Gordon. Being tortured both physically and psychologically by the Ripper —presumably for years— has left her mind completely shattered, to the point that she truly believes that all the murders that her husband commits and even his mistreatment are good actions.

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