The Batlord

Well they're on Daily Motion at least. And I have no qualms about gushing for a bit to someone who won't care.

House and Garden: Poison Ivy is a character who is probably only as popular as she is because B:TAS did as good a job with reconciling her inconsistent characterizations as it did. She had about six comic appearances in nearly thirty years before the show, with her second being over a decade after her first issue, but afterward she was in a movie. A bad movie, but still an actual movie. Easily my second fav Batman villain if you don't consider Harley a true villain, and this is by far my fav anything with her in it besides maybe that Neil Gaiman written appearance in Secret Origins (if he ever wrote a full arc or series with her I would **** my pants).

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x50oqsa


Mad as a Hatter: Not quite the tippy top of Batman villains and I never really see this at the top of anyone's lists of best episodes, but Hatter's descent into madness as an obsessive stalker combined with the bizarre Alice in Wonderland imagery make it almost literally magical. One of those episodes that brings a villain to life by making you hope it all works out for them even though you know they're far too gone to ever be anything more than an Arkham patient. Some of the best B:TAS episodes aren't even about Batman but about a story featuring him. The writers aren't so much concerned with writing a good Batman story as they are with writing a good story period.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4z1jjn


Heart of Ice: Everyone now knows Mr. Freeze as the frozen guy obsessed with saving his wife, but before this episode he was a worthless Z-grade villain. Then this series ignored his entire history and built him from the ground up along with his now famous origin. This is the kind of heartbreaking episode to make a grown man cry and that ****ing Schumacher movie was a slap in the face to the brilliance of this episode. There's a reason this won an Emmy.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5zxu83


Almost Got 'Im: I think this is often regarded as the best episode and with good reason. The structure is creative and a lot of fun: Poison Ivy, the Penguin, Two Face, Killer Croc, and the Joker are playing poker and exchanging tales of how they almost killed Batman for the sake of bragging rights. Each story showcases Batman at his most entertainingly campy without being cringey, and the ending is incredibly charming. The Killer Croc "story" is also the funniest moment in the series.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x55fqza


Robin's Reckoning: It's a two-parter but if you've ever rolled your eyes at Robin's lameness then this is the episode(s) to make you re-evaluate his worth as a character. Probably the most touching and emotional story of the entire series and that one ****ing scene at the end of the second episode makes me cry every single time without fail. This is the Robin story which really rams it home that Dick Grayson is Bruce Wayne's son first and Batman's sidekick second. Pretty sure this won an Emmy as well.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x50oeyw

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x50oeyx


The Man Who Killed Batman: I know I said five but I don't give a ****. I don't know how they pitched this episode and just how everyone else in the writers' room stared at that guy after he was done talking but the very concept sells itself: a basic scrub wannabe gangster who is Woody Allen in all but name supposedly kills Batman and gets all the respect he ever wanted but then it all goes south for him. Another story not actually about Batman that also features one of the all-time great Joker appearances that is both freaky, kinda scary, but also hilarious ("Well that was fun, who's for Chinese?"). If you want an intellectual Batman episode then here you go.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x55mfs5


Harlequinade: If you never watched this series then you could be forgiven for not understanding why Harley has slowly but steadily risen in popularity to the point that she's now a legit household name, but this is one of the episodes (**** that it's THE episode) that built up her myth with the fanbase to an extent that had it never been written it's anybody's guess where she'd be right now. It's a brilliant odd couple story where you get to see Harley being Harley in close proximity to Batman who's reluctantly teamed up with her to stop the Joker from nuking Gotham. It's hysterical, there's a brilliantly morbid musical number that I can still quote at least to some extent after two decades, and... god I love Harley Quinn. So. ****ing. Much.



https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x50oqsc


Over the Edge: LAST ONE I SWEAR! I could go on and on and still feel like a traitor for leaving episodes out, but this still needs to be mentioned. It's one of the later episodes when the art design changed for the worse but was still better than 97% of cartoons you'll ever see, and the focus switched from Batman as mostly a solo hero with occasional appearances from Robin to a series that was about the Bat Family in general. It's hard to talk about this episode without giving away way too much since even the beginning is meant to keep you in the dark about what it's even about. But... god damn it if you're still watching after all this time then I shouldn't need to sell you on it so just ****ing watch it. It's amazing and will **** with you.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x50ozgq

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