History YMMV / BatmanTheAnimatedSeries

** The "Legends of the Dark Knight" episode included a homage and mockery of the Batman [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] style. A few years after B: TAS ended would come ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'', a series entirely in Silver Age style.

* VindicatedByHistory: The villainess Red Claw was not liked very much when the show was on the air, which was one of the factors why she took so long to become a CanonImmigrant in the comics. These days, she has become an EnsembleDarkHorse of sorts, partially due to her [[AffablyEvil likable personality]] and [[AmazonianBeauty lovely body]].

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: While the show is generally family friendly and was marketed towards kids when it first aired, the show features a lot of FamilyUnfriendlyViolence and was darker than even other Batman works at the time, to the point that it briefly aired on primetime television for a couple of years alongside shows like ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. The creators even confirmed in an interview that they were not making a kids' show and said they just needed to make sure not to exclude any appeal to the kids they were asked to make the show for[[note]]Hence, this is why Victor Zsasz could '''never''' be used in this show or any of its successors, as he was a full-blown SerialKiller that by all rights is not suitable for children[[/note]]. They said the same thing about ''Batman Beyond'' and ''Justice League''.

** About the only villains in this series that ''don't'' elicit sympathy is a [[Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau Dr. Moreau]] {{expy}} (though his creation ''did''), the Sewer King, Red Claw, Kyodai Ken, Boss Biggis, Rupert Thorne, Roland Daggett, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Ferris Boyle]], Vertigo, The Mad Bomber, Tony Zucco, Jazzman, [[spoiler: Gil Mason]], Grant Walker, Farmer Brown and Emmylou, Thomas Blake, [[Main/StalkerWithACrush Firefly]], Killer Croc[[note]]Deformities aside, he has had a few opportunities to give up crime to be with people who accept him as he is. Each time, he has proven to be an irredeemable, selfish dick ([[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE9LoveIsACroc something which poor Baby Doll found out the hard way]], [[Recap/TheAdventuresOfBatmanAndRobinE1Sideshow as well as a circus troupe whom he pretended to befriend in an earlier episode]]).[[/note]], [[PsychoPsychologist The Scarecrow]][[note]]Perhaps with the sole exception of how terrified he is of Lyle Bolton "Lock-Up", but one could easily argue that it's well-deserved karma.[[/note]], Bane, Ra's al Ghul[[note]]While he has understandable goals, his extreme, psychotic methods and his treatment of Talia make it too hard to sympathize with him.[[/note]] and last, but certainly not least, The Joker.

** Likewise for Creator/RichardMoll as Two-Face, who is seen by many as the gold standard for Harvey Dent/Two-Face. It also helps that he was the first screen adaption of the character ([[Film/Batman1989 at least as Two-Face proper]])

** To elaborate, Hamill and Moll’s performances as Joker and Two-Face respectively were so influential, that many later voice actors to play these characters would often adopt Hamill’s manic inflections and CreepyHighPitchedVoice for Joker and Moll’s GutturalGrowler tone for Two-Face.

* FairForItsDay: The show's portrayal of sexual harassment can come across as quite mild today, as there is no way Batman would be able to say "[[MythologyGag Quiet, or papa spank]]!" to Catwoman in an aggressive tone today. However, whenever a villain, or a generic mook, tries to sexually harass Catwoman or another female villain, they are clearly portrayed as in the wrong, and they often suffer a serious beating at the hands of the said victim[[note]]Including one instance in which Harley ''blows up the offenders' car''[[/note]], which was quite rare as sexual harassment was not a known social issue.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Mr. Freeze is given an extra dimension by giving him a wife with a terminal illness. Said illness puts the said wife in a coma, so she gets no characterization outside of giving Freeze a reason to be miserable. The comics then took [[StuffedInTheFridge this particular trope]] and milked it dry.

* EvilIsSexy: Ivy, Quinn, Selina, Talia, Red Claw, etc. Y'know, it'd be easier listing the female villains who ''don't'' qualify.

** In "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE53PagingTheCrimeDoctor Paging the Crime Doctor]]", Rupert Thorne needs heart surgery. His actor, John Vernon, died in 2005 of complications from heart surgery.

*** Harley beating [[spoiler: the shit out of him for ditching her after he inherited millions and leaving her to rot in Arkham]].

** [[Characters/DCAUJoker The Joker]] is Batman's ArchEnemy. Before becoming a MonsterClown, the Joker was a mobster and hitman who murdered Andrea Beaumont's father, Carl, over money owed to the latter's employers; a murder he committed even after the debt was repaid. This set in motion Andrea becoming the supervillain [[WesternAnimation/BatmanMaskOfThePhantasm Phantasm]] and took away Batman's one chance of a normal, happy life. Following his transformation into the utterly psychotic Joker, he now commits crimes more often for fun than he does for any profit. Samples of his crimes include repeatedly abusing his girlfriend Harley Quinn; trying to bomb a child's birthday party; setting up Catwoman to go through a grinder; psychologically tormenting Charles "Charlie" Collins for two years, before using him in a scheme to blow up much if not all of the entire Gotham Police Department, which would kill Charlie as well; murdering countless people with Joker venom; [[Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E21And22WildCards using Ace]] in an attempt to drive 70 million people insane; attempting to nuke Gotham City; and going on a rampage with a KillSat. Perhaps his [[WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker most infamous crime]] was when he brutally tortured Tim Drake into insanity and implanted a microchip in the child so that the Joker could take over Tim's body and perform a PostMortemComeback.

--> ''' Harvey Bullock''': Come on, he was a demented, abusive, psychotic maniac.

** In "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE42TygerTyger Tyger, Tyger]]", Creator/JimCummings voices [[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooOnZombieIsland a]] [[WesternAnimation/CatDog cat]] [[WesternAnimation/RoadRovers monster]].

* AntiClimaxBoss: While ComicBook/MrFreeze is more than a match for Batman throughout [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE14HeartOfIce "Heart Of Ice"]], after a brief fight during the climax, Batman quickly defeats him by spilling a thermos of hot chicken soup over Freeze's containment suit helmet. The massive temperature difference cracks the glass and leaves him powerless, struggling and gasping for breath on the floor.

** The show's TragicVillain reimagining of Mr. Freeze became so popular that it resurrected the character from his C-list status and was incorporated into nearly all later versions, to the point where fans will feel conflicted if there's a Victor Fries whose origin ''doesn't'' take after or reference "Heart of Ice" in some way. The ComicBook/New52 Freeze being revealed as a delusional obsessive who had fallen in love with a long-comatose stranger he believed to be his wife was especially disliked.

** Fans generally consider Creator/KevinConroy's interpretation of ComicBook/{{Batman}} to be ''' the''' voice of the character and hear just about any dialogue from Batman in Conroy's voice. The same goes for Creator/MarkHamill, whose interpretation of the [[ComicBook/TheJoker Joker]] has been universally acclaimed and seen as defining, to the point of Hamill playing the Joker multiple other times outside of ''B: TAS'' media.
** Likewise for Creator/RichardMoll as ComicBook/TwoFace, who is seen by many as the gold standard for Harvey Dent/Two-Face. It also helps that he was the first screen adaption of the character ([[Film/Batman1989 at least as Two-Face proper]])

** Add to that Creator/LorenLester as [[ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} Dick Grayson/Robin/Nightwing]], Creator/TaraStrong as [[ComicBook/{{Batgirl}} Barbara Gordon/Batgirl]], [[Creator/EfremZimbalistJr Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.]] as Alfred Pennyworth, Creator/BobHastings as Commissioner Gordon, Creator/DavidWarner as ComicBook/RasAlGhul[[note]]Which likely might have to do with the fact that this show was the first ''Batman'' adaptation to feature Ra's[[/note]], Music/PaulWilliams as ComicBook/ThePenguin, Creator/AdrienneBarbeau as ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}, Creator/MichaelAnsara as ComicBook/MrFreeze, Creator/JohnGlover as ComicBook/TheRiddler and Creator/DianePershing as ComicBook/PoisonIvy. The show was so full of iconic voice acting, it might be easier to list the ones where they didn't become "the voice".
** Somewhat complicated in the case of Creator/ArleenSorkin's voice for ComicBook/HarleyQuinn, since the character was created for the series and based on Sorkin, to begin with. Still, it is interesting to notice that the subsequent voice actors for Harley since Sorkin's retirement clearly can't unhear her voice.

** "[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE20GirlsNightOut Girls' Night Out]]", the episode of the Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse featuring Comicbook/{{Batgirl}} and Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} squaring off against Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Livewire is commonly thought to be a ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode, but in reality is officially a ''The New Batman Adventures'' episode. It appears as such on Creator/DCUniverse and iTunes, as well as the ''Batman: TAS'' Volume 4 DVD rather than Volume 3 of ''Superman: TAS'' (which included the last third of the series, including Supergirl's debut). The confusion is understandable, however, given that [[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS2E16To18WorldsFinest the]] [[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS3E2KnightTime other]] [[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS3E11TheDemonReborn three]] crossover episodes between the two shows were all ''S: TAS'' episodes.

** In "[[Recap/TheAdventuresOfBatmanAndRobinE19DeepFreeze Deep Freeze]]", Mr. Freeze is horrified by Grant Walker's desire to be like him, knowing that while he desires only to revive his wife, all Walker cares about is his warped idea for a perfect world. Then came ''ComicBook/{{New 52}}'', a contested reboot of the DC Comics universe where one of many controversial changes made was that they retconned Mr. Freeze's origin so that Nora was never his wife, rendering him just another psychopath with no redeeming qualities. What's worse is that Mr. Freeze's wife Nora originated in the DCAU before she was incorporated into Freeze's backstory in the comics, so the New 52 Mr. Freeze having that aspect of his origin stripped of its humanizing qualities can be seen as a slap to the face of the incarnation that made Mr. Freeze a popular villain in the first place.

** "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE53PagingTheCrimeDoctor Paging the Crime Doctor]]" ends with Bruce asking Matthew Thorne to [[TellMeAboutMyFather tell him about his father]]. [[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS3E11AncientHistory Several years down the line]], he'll return the favor when ComicBook/{{Hawkgirl}} asks Batman to tell her about hers and Green Lantern's son from the future.

* HoYay: Matt Hagen and Teddy Lupin in "Feat of Clay", two friends who are definitely AmbiguouslyGay with all of Teddy's fawning over Matt's violent mood swings being very much like an abusive relationship.

* LesYay:
** Batgirl and Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} in "[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE20GirlsNightOut Girls' Night Out]]" become extremely close very... quickly, and in the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' Christmas episode, they are absent 'on a skiing holiday together'.
** During the same episode, Livewire's interactions with Poison Ivy are laced with flirtation and Livewire even remarks that Ivy made her blush with a compliment.
** In "Eternal Youth", Poison Ivy sits on a petrified fat rich widow's behind.
** Veronica Vreeland acts quite flirtatiously with Selina Kyle in the episode "Catwalk" and seems much more romantically interested in her than she is with Bruce. Even calling Selina Bruce's "[[EvenTheGirlsWantHer Attractive date]]".

** ComicBook/RasAlGhul is an [[WickedCultured urbane, sophisticated]] rival of Bruce Wayne. aka Batman, and acknowledged by the latter as his [[WorthyOpponent greatest and most deadly adversary]]. Forming the worldwide, powerful League of Shadows, Ra's secretly tests Batman with a series of clever plots to determine if he is worthy to be his heir in the League and inherit Ra's own wish to [[WellIntentionedExtremist save the planet]]. When Batman refuses, Ra's decides to enact a plan to wipe out most of humanity for the betterment of the world, and each time returns to drive Batman to his limits. Even after his seeming death, Ra's survives by ordering his daughter [[ComicBook/TaliaAlGhul Talia]], Bruce's onetime lover, to allow him to possess her body, so he may rejuvenate and possess Bruce himself in the future. Time and again, Ra's shows exactly why Batman himself calls him his greatest enemy.

** Like ComicBook/HarleyQuinn? Fine. That's normal. Shipping Harley and the Joker? Somewhat less normal; might trigger some awkwardly intense conversations, but still, fundamentally, fine. You ship what you like. Modeling your romantic relationships on Harley and the Joker? ''What the heck is wrong with you''? You're crazy and you know it.

** Baby Doll's assistant Mariam is voiced by Creator/TasiaValenza whose nowadays best known for playing ComicBook/PoisonIvy in video games.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: While the show is generally family friendly and was marketed towards kids when it first aired, the show features a lot of FriendlyUnfriendlyViolence and was darker than even other Batman works at the time, to the point that it briefly aired on primetime television for a couple of years alongside shows like ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. The creators even confirmed in an interview that they were not making a kids' show and said they just needed to make sure not to exclude any appeal to the kids they were asked to make the show for[[note]]Hence, this is why Victor Zsasz could '''never''' be used in this show or any of its successors, as he was a full-blown SerialKiller that by all rights is not suitable for children[[/note]]. They said the same thing about ''Batman Beyond'' and ''Justice League''.

* WTHCastingAgency: It may seem impossible now, but Creator/MarkHamill was originally a voice actor playing an extra, and he was only offered the role of the Joker because Creator/TimCurry (the voice of villains everywhere) wasn't working out[[note]]Or, as the legend goes, was working ''[[NightmareFuel too well]]''[[/note]]. Hamill himself was convinced that casting Luke Skywalker as a villain was a terrible idea and that the producers would kill the idea before it ever hit the screen, so he [[LargeHam just went nuts and had some fun with the character]]. The resulting interpretation became a legend and ended up launching Hamill into a very successful voice-acting career.

** Series-original villain Harley Quinn is now generally regarded as being as crucial to the franchise as the Joker himself, if not the DC universe as a whole, and has received an enormous amount of spin-off media.

** The Mad Hatter, when he's either at war with himself or prior to his spiral into madness. Tetch had some incredibly adorable moments of complete social ineptitude in his office; talking to people, especially pretty people was not his forte. It didn't stick.

* AudienceColoringAdaptation: This series ''redefined'' Batman for the 90s and its influence is still felt to this day, with later entries in the franchise more often than not using the show's gothic neo-noir tone and "Dark Deco" aesthetic as the building blocks for their own interpretations. Among other specific examples, the show's TragicVillain version of Mr. Freeze got so popular that it was incorporated into all later versions of the character, series-original villain Harley Quinn is generally regarded as being as crucial to the franchise as the Joker himself, and both Creator/KevinConroy's Batman and Creator/MarkHamill's Joker are still the yardsticks by which later actors in the roles are compared.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Specific examples are tricky to pinpoint being heavily tied to an episode's overall composition, but it is sufficient to say the series is unique in having a completely symphonic score in each episode. The movie-quality music played a large factor in the noir aesthetic, a feat that sadly has never been repeated save for a select few in modern western animation.
** Of course, if you want one simple and indisputable single example, you cannot go past [[https://youtu.be/rrmUk2YUm14 the iconic opening theme]].

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: The show was darker than other Batman works. The creators even confirmed in an interview that they were not making a kids' show and said they just needed to make sure not to exclude any appeal to the kids they were asked to make the show for[[note]]Hence, this is why Victor Zsasz could ''' never''' be used in this show or any of its successors, as he was a full-blown SerialKiller that by all rights is not suitable for children[[/note]]. They said the same thing about Batman Beyond and Justice League.

** Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, just like the comics. WordOfGod confirms that the two are in an on-again-off-again relationship whenever the Joker is out of the picture, but the show itself "merely" lays on incredibly thick subtext whenever they're in the same room together.

*** Also in that same episode, Ivy was inexplicably barefoot in the flashback. Now it's perfectly normal for [[DoesNotLikeShoes her to be barefoot]].

* HypeBacklash: A very downplayed example, as the series is universally respected & widely beloved across the Batman and DC fandom. However, much like the DCAU as a whole, there are those who are exhausted with the notion that every other adaptation, often including the source material, must constantly be held to the standard of the Animated Series and placing the show on such a high pedestal does a disservice to what other interceptions of Batman have to offer.