I love Selina's personality in her focus episode, would not mind a happy endgame for her and Bruce down the line, but knowing how Timm productions are, that won't be in the cards. Still, I was a bit irritated that the episode could have been Over in five minutes had the police and the courts not been so corrupt or self-serving
Edited by Zarius on Aug 2nd 2024 at 7:10:04 AM
I'm that far myself. The stiff animation took me a bit to adjust to, but I'm really enjoying it, especially the nods to genre fiction. For instance, the Penguin's floating club and general role made me think of Eddie Mars in The Big Sleep (although she's way, way more evil than he is).
And there's definitely some nods to House of Wax (1953) with Clayface in terms of showing the real, disfigured appearance lurking and swinging from buildings and then separately showing them in mild-mannered civilian mode. I even noticed that Karlo has a poster of Mystery of the Wax Museum. Honestly, the overall episode plot is quite close to those movies too.
Also, it's partly because of Bruce's voice, but I get some vibes of Sterling Archer in his relationship with Alfred. I like the take of "Batman as the real identity" being used to show Bruce as ill-adjusted and needing therapy rather than giving him cool points.
Edited by Hodor2 on Aug 2nd 2024 at 8:12:58 AM
@Big Bad Shadow 25 Thorne implied he would reward them if they kept their mouths shut and use his lawyers to get them off the hook.
By the way, the first episode ("In Treacherous Waters") is free to watch
on Amazon Freevee, their free streaming counterpart to Prime Video.
I also finished the first season last night, and I really enjoyed it.
I've seen some people complain that Batman feels like a Decoy Protagonist in his own show, in service to the GCPD characters ("Gotham, but animated" as the closest example).
I feel like, much like the reactionary backlash to secret identity relationship drama in superhero shows, some people think that writers are out to devalue heroes, even when using age-old themes and tropes in service to them.
In this instance, I never got the impression that Caped Crusader doesn't know what to with Bruce/Batman, and find writing cop drama to be more interesting. Not only is the noir setting increase the focus on that type of specific drama, but it's equally important in showing how Batman's increasing presence is affecting Gotham's systems and confidants over time.
Edited by XMenMutant22 on Aug 3rd 2024 at 12:02:58 PM
Finished the whole season, great show, looking forward to next season.
Fun Golden Age pulp adventures, I think my favorite villains include Clayface and Gentlemen Ghost. The former made for an excellent murder mystery and the latter made for a really crazy adventure.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."Honestly, we already got a cold-hearted criminal Mr. Freeze with The Batman. But there has been a particular Franchise Original Sin regarding Mr. Freeze's backstory and that's Nora Fries.
For all the praises BTAS gets for reinventing Freeze, it really failed in the department of developing Nora Fries as her own character, instead making her a literal prop to motivate Freeze's villainy. It's not helped by the fact the writers and creators of Nora prefer her to be dead rather than actually alive, cured and explore her own feelings regarding Victor.
Considering the fact that we never see Nora Fries be awaken or even speaking once, it's really a good opportunity to actually make Nora Fries into a real character with her own agency.
And considering they already Gender Flip the Penguin, it actually would make sense if Nora Fries ends up being the one afflicted with a condition that forces her to live in cold temperatures due to a freak accident with the cryogenic tube... and Victor gets a Surprisingly Realistic Outcome in that he actually dies from the chemical lab accident thanks to Boyle's meddling. We can even establish that Nora Fries is an accomplished scientist herself and actually consented to being cryogenically frozen, which would explain how she would become a real Mrs. Freeze.
Edited by Shadao on Aug 3rd 2024 at 4:38:48 AM
That could be an improvement from Harley Quinn cartoons take on the character where she lives instead of Freeze, only she becomes a one-note hedonistic party animal, primarily serving as a joke to see which random character will she sleep with.
Edited by slimcoder on Aug 3rd 2024 at 4:45:05 AM
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."Ferris Boyle, the Corrupt Corporate Executive boss of Fries, shuts his research down, has Victor killed, and dumps Nora's body down, but Nora revives from the treatment Victor had given her. But since it was incomplete, she returns insane and with out of control ice powers, going into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Boyle, but also basically every other executive in Gotham, being unable to tell who was in the plan. So Batman has to stop her or else!
Please remember that, ultimately, fictional works of entertainment are just that.Comics Freeze generally hits "same tragic backstory, much less sympathetic" fairly consistently, mostly by having him be miuch more violent and outraged against the world to the point of caring nothing about the innocent people and destruction he wreaks in the path of getting what he wants.
Some stories, like the story that Under The Red Hood was adapted from (which originally had Freeze in it) paints him as basically having descended into becoming a spree killer in the wake of having lost everything (that was a time period where either Nora was thought completely dead, or he cured her disease but the cure drove her insane and evil, I can't remember which, but he didn't have Nora any more and was in a completely dark place).
So, not Caped Crusader related in particular, but I was thinking, if you absolutely had to join a gang in Gotham City, what gang would it be? Because I'm thinking about Two-Face flipping his coin to decide who lives and dies, and the Joker just being, well, Joker, and I wrote those two off right away. Penguin is harder to pin down. Animated Series Penguin seems like he'd be an alright boss, relatively speaking, but then you've got the version from Caped Crusader who is as bad as any Joker.
I mean, I don't see why Nora Fries needs developing. They were created to be a died-in-the-backstory character, no different from the Flying Graysons or Thomas & Martha Wayne.
Comics Riddler would treat you like a neanderthal all the time but he probably wouldn't kill you. Depictions of Riddler as murderous (at least, to people who aren't his enemies) are relatively rare. He's also not generally the gang war type (with some notable exceptions) so you're less likely to be getting shot at.
Comics Penguin would be relatively fine until you accidentally say or do something his insecurity construes as an insult and then oop, there go the lives and livelihoods of you and everyone you've ever considered a friend or loved one.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Aug 3rd 2024 at 7:48:04 AM
An idea for changing things up with Freeze and Nora I've been daydreaming about lately is to have them be working together as a sympathetic Outlaw Couple: Nora's still sick, but Victor has his accident (caused by Ferris Boyle of course) before he can use his cryogenic chamber on Nora. The two go on a crime spree—Victor being the "muscle" who carries out the heists while Nora is the "brains" who plans them out—to acquire the resources needed to rebuild the equipment to save Nora as well as to get revenge on Boyle for causing Victor's condition.

I’m curious to see if Bullock and Flass are going up the river for their actions or if Thorne saves their sorry hides.
You’re Gonna Carry That Weight.