Glad there is someone with braincells talking about this show honestly. Its like waaaay too many sweaty nerds freaking out about the wrong thing and not just analazing the show for what it gave us
Fr, I tried looking for other reviews but all I keep seeing is "THE WOKE GOT BATMAN" and this channel has been the only one I've seen that actually says something when they talk. The others just talk to talk.
While that’s true for the most part, there are plenty of reviews who get to the real heart of the matter- Batman is hardly in the show, and when he is, he is kind of stupid and weak. The other characters are simply not interesting. I guess if you liked Gotham (a Batman show without Batman) then you’d enjoy this.
You underestimate Standards & Practices at the time. While syndicated shows weren't quite as restricted, in general you still couldn't have things like on-camera direct punches to the face, consumption of alcohol, or even characters crashing through windows. Heck, BTAS got a win just for being allowed to use actual guns with actual bullets as long as they were antique weapons like tommy guns.
I think it's fine, makes the mature rating more earned, as darker tone seems more deliberate and more serviceable to the stories. I hated the Flashpoint-era DC movies because you could just see the sex and the violence were unnecessary and gratuitous, you could literally scrap them and the story would be the same (then again, all you'd left with would be terribly lazy scripts). The "Tera" season of Teen Titans was leagues better (and scarier) than the "judas contract" adaptation in which they set out to be faithful while adding stuff that was completely stupid.
@@jiggusfiggus I think the ultra-violence made sense for the Flashpoint and Apokolips War movies myself, given the premises of both (one a dystopian alternate timeline, and one a "the bad guy has won" scenario). So I wouldn't say none of the 2010s DC Animated movies used violence effectively. With that said, yeah, some instances definitely felt gratuitous. But then, if I'd been forced to restrain myself for years and years because of over-sensitive S&P restrictions I'd probably want to cut loose too.
@@daniellauricella5132 The S&P situation is worthy of discussion. I mean, I see your point, but those restrictions brought us some of the mos shocking scenes in BTAS, like the Grayson's death and the Batgirl fall. I always picture the writers should have the wiggle room to do what they want, but without a wrangler to keep them honest, the whole thing becomes a shit show. Ren and Stimpy, Steven Universe, I think even Adventure Time's creator lost control of his own show to his writers. Regarding the Flashpoint movies, here's the thing: It doesn't feel like the writers wanted to cut loose, it's more like the edge felt dictated by WB's executives. IIRC there was this whole 'synergy' between the movies and the comics, that's why there were a bunch of movies straight from New52 stories. I always assumed it was a case of, "hey Batman is super edgy in the comics, so be edgy here too, very edgy! Teens love edgy!", so James Tucker felt stuck between a rock a hard place, specially considering he's a big Dick Sprang fan and loves Silver Age stories.
As i understand it, the reason this can't happen in the 90s is because of the portrayal of the police force here. They don't want kids to have distrust for the government
I appreciate the fact that Caped Crusader is not afraid of Having Batman fight ghosts unlike the live action films that insist on being "realistic". I am not a fan of Harvey Bullock being depicted as a unrepentant monster. I know he was initially a corrupt cop in the pre crisis comics and I do not mind Bullock being more flawed in an adaptation but turning him into the shows version of Bowman from STAS is a,step back for Me. Bullock is many thing but he is no monster.
Their version of Harvey Bullock is very different to what we've seen before, but there are some very powerful moments involving him. I do think that some fans will be horrified at his actions and it may upset some people. I'm looking forward to seeing the conversations that come up as a result of this though!
This review is the only one I've found that criticizes based on what the show wants to be, rather than what the "true fans" want it to be. The show wants to tell new stories with the ideas of classic batman, and that requires imagining new interpretations of many characters. In many cases, I think the differences in these new interpretations are quite clever when you realize those differences are supposed to create narrative parallels or inversions that the audience finds ironic, something you normally only see in one off episodes where characters travel to an alternate universe.
I'm new to Batman. My old brother has always drooled over Batman's adventures, comics, films and videogames but when I was younger I wasn't that interested. A few months ago, I started watching The Animated Series from the 90s and I was shocked how cool the series was, the thriller, Bruce Wayne, the villains... I LOVED IT. This new series couldn't come at any better time because I went to my brother's house to watch this new series aside from playing videogames and we've loved it so so much. I love how much protagonism other characters are getting aside from Batman. This series only heightened my newcomer thirst for Batman.
I'm actually happy it's quite tame. Restrictions, even self-imposed ones, encourage more creativity. A darker and more mature tone is a great thing certainly, but I am happy to hear they haven't gone to extremes.
I think we have enough dark and gritty themed Batman already. Nolan did it with the Dark Knight trilogy. Snyder did it with the DCEU. Then we also have The Batman that also did it. I understand that Batman is naturally dark, but the comics and the animated series had ways to balance out dark and gritty with silly, goofy and light-hearted moments.
@@Compuclesi find it hard to believe a single season of a show single handily ruined a character thats been depicted in various forms of media for decades, but sure….
Hey, I really appreciate that you put captions in your videos! I don’t always have my earbuds on me, and I often watch videos a lot of the time while waiting for appointments and stuff like that. So I really appreciate it when creators take the time to provide full captions! Thanks for that!
I'm not the biggest batman fan, but I do like the idea of using a 40s astetic but not being in the 40s for many reasons 1, you can be more creative with characters 2, there is just something about old knives, 1911s, tommy guns, 1940s rifles and shotguns that are visually appealing 3, the cars look better (in my opinion) 4, to me it does have a unique level of charm
WHAT? REALISM? NONSENSE I'M GOING TO PUT FLINTLOCKS IN MY SPACE OPERA! haha but for real though I do like that they are trashing some of the harsher parts of the time period so that the team and us can just have fun with a cool aesthetic.
@@10000eyes so I don't know which is funnier that I got a reply or the fact that I've made some pieces of writing I've done I've had flintlocks be used along side 1911s
Another thing I like is the low Tech elements that this series has as I do feel like more high-tech adaptations of Batman kind of makes the detective stuff seem trivial. Batman has to actually go through libraries and secret documents in order to obtain information since he doesn't have a fancy bat computer. It's also why I don't really like shows like Bones or CSI as the technology really makes the investigation feel more trivial when you can just enhance a low res jpeg
@@gabethehalfling5253 Yeah, but it would work pretty much the same with 1980s level technology. Plus, some of the tech they do use is rather advanced for the 40s, like the mini transceiver Batman planted on a character at one point. There's no way that works without a transistor, which didn't become common until the '50s, and even then the transciever is questionable.
Also due to the lack of surveillance Technology Cisco can establish a level of secrecy that isn't really possible in stories set in the present! Like how the penguin can shoot people for weeks on end with a giant as Cannon without anyone noticing!
Were people upset when Jeffrey Wright portrayed Gordon a few years back? If they were I can’t remember it. My favorite version of Gordon is the world weary good cop in a bad town whose personal sense of honor has always been more burden than blessing. Wright depicted that so well he became my favorite Gordon.
@mikejames1956 I hate it when they blackwash decades-old comic book characters when they do live-action adaptations instead of creating new ones like a black Gotham Chief Of Detectives played by Jeffery Wright. Pathetic!
@@terrywalters4917who tf actually cares, when was gordon race a integral part. If we can get Gods of Egypt, then bear with it. Interpretation is changing because a whites only major US port city makes no sense.
While I like the idea of making most of the villains unsympathetic as opposed to BTAS, I am feeling really skeptical about them doing the same for Dent. Duality has always been the entire point of his character, and Harvey has always been at his best when going with the more sympathetic route. Also, as much as I like the idea of a Badass woman as a mob boss, randomly switching the gender of an iconic character such as the penguin will always feel incredibly cheap to me.
There's a specific crime she commits that wouldn't have landed the same way if she was male, simply because of how certain women are placed on a pedestal in society (sorry for being vague, trying not to spoil it!)
This. I know some people might not like this but with the exception of the Joker, the majority of Batman's rogues should be tragic figures. I understand that making Harley Quinn her own person unrelated to Joker is very empowering but that kind of takes away the weight of the character as now she's just a less crazy Hugo Strange. Same with making clay face happy about his new form. It just makes them into monsters. The cgi is also jarring to me. I know it's cheaper but it just makes me think of Jetix shows from 2002.
@@IsaacVizasLurie I honestly don’t mind it with most of the rogues. To be honest I’m getting kinda tired of the trend of needing all villains to be sympathetic. As long as they are well written, evil characters are just as fun. I think the majority of Batman’s rogues should be allowed to be horrible people in some adaptations, to spice things a bit. I just don’t feel like it works in Harvey’s case.
my favorite is when batman's rouges differ when it comes to their motives from absolute monsters like Joker and Black mask to poor souls gotham damned like Mr freeze and Two face. it works best when cast is so difrent from eachother if villians of caped crusader are all physchopaths who kill just for fun, i dont belive it will be the next BTAS as everyone hoped.
@idkwhattonameopentosugge It is not trying to be BTAS. It should be allowed 2 to its own thing. If you do not like it just watch btas. That said I am not a fan of turning Penguin female. I do not mind change and I am no sexist but this change feels like it was made to appeal to 3rd wave feminists.
I did get to see the episode and without giving much away, I will say one of the favorite aspects art-wise were the backgrounds. They were in that film noir style but with bold colors that reminded me of stuff like the “Nighthawks” painting. It felt really distinct from the Animates Series while still being within the same vein, which I liked.
I can't wait to see you dissect the villains from this show against their 1997 counterparts!! I've been hyped for this show since the trailer dropped, very happy to see you get early access! You definitely deserve it
I had never watched the orignal Animated Series before watching this. I enjoyed Caped Crusader so much that I'm definitely going back to watch it. Hoping there's a second season because this was definitely a strong opening.
Personally, I wouldn't say that anything from the show sounds that impressive or innovative, with many of the ideas seemingly being just re-do's of ideas or concepts from earlier Batman cartoons (BTAS and TBaTB just to name a pair), with the only major differences and new ideas being the ethnicity-changes, depicting Dent as already corrupt and depicting Bullock as a "corrupt monster". However, that is just my own opinion and I haven't seen the entire series yet, so I'm not going to say "tHis WaS tERribLe!!1!" or "ThIs waS gROunDbRAkiNglY GoOd1!!1" before actually getting to see the whole picture. Who knows? This might actually be one of the few really good things to come out of the DCCU in the latest decade.
I'm also a super fan of the animated series, as well as batman beyond. I was happy with caped crusader, but I feel like Batman's voice could have been a bit more emotional. He doesn't have much depth here, and it comes off a a bit less natural, like he's trying to sound like batman... I like his Bruce Wayne, but I don't see much of a difference vocally speaking. There isn't a huge contrast, but the animation and writing were pretty solid.
Fun fact! Hamish Linklater’s mother was a very prominent vocal coach, whose technique is used by many actors today!! So it’s no surprise to me that Hamish is so good at taking the role of Batman!! 🥰
If Batman's villains aren't generally sympathetic, that can work---but he still has to try to save them or it will fall flat for me. I have no interest in a Batman bully.
I’d argue it’s not even being a “bully” to not waste compassion and sympathy on those who plainly don’t deserve it. But it’s a moot point here because yes, Batman does try to save at least a few of his enemies.
@@daniellauricella5132 it's less of an argument over wether someone deserves kindness or compassion because everyone does! It's more of a question on wether or not you should waste it (and your time) on someone who doesn't appreciate it-
Would like to see Hugo Strange, though I imagine they may have to reinvent him at least a little given how much this version of Harley has in common with Strange.
Ok look I personally don't mind female penguin, its a fun idea, but you cant act like people who dislike it are being completely unreasonable Since usually when changes like this are made its most of the time followed by a not very well written story/ character
It is unreasonable if they haven't even seen the show. If they come back after watching it and decide that they don't like her, that's fine, we all have our preferences. But I'm so sick of the reactionary shrieking.
Just finished S1 of Caped Crusader this evening. I would agree with your assessment of most of the bat-villains it portrays, but Harvey Dent definitely comes over to me as the most tragic figure among them, particularly in terms of his final fate. I found his story arc just downright depressing. And I so loved the catwoman episode - it's now on my repeat-watch list. I hope we see more of Selina Kyle in the next season - there might be potential for character development there. She's suffered a crushing defeat, after all.
I have faith that it will be incredible, but honestly I'm a little disappointed because what I was most hoping for was to have a context from the 40s that had references to the situation in the world at that time, even if it was just an Easter egg, and also a black and white episode in the same way from the short film strange days, I hope they do something similar in the second season
Not actually setting this in the "real" 1930s and having the cast the way it is actively hurts the show in the long run. It's indicative of poor writing and world building. Literally set dressing. You have story potential walking around but you actively refuse to address it because you just want the costume.
Scarecrow's sinister origin story is that he turned from villainy to SUPERvillainy because he was super mad Clayface 'stole' his costume idea by having a face that looks like that.
This show sounds good, though I'm going to miss some of the more visual feats presented in BTAS. They really conveyed an emotion. However, this show seems like it's going to be solid.
to me, mask of the phantasm is what really made TAS for me. there will always be a part of me, no matter how many batman universes pop up, and how old i get, that wishes Bruce and Andrea could have had the happy ending they both deserved. instead they were both prisoners in their own heads, to their tragic pasts, and died sad and alone.
Given Amazon Prime's recent streaming output like The Legend of Vox Machina, Hazbin Hotel, and especially The Boys and Invincible, Caped Crusader may stick out like a sore thumb since it seems to be not as adult than any of those shows. But then again, it was supposed to air on Cartoon Network before it was almost turned into yet another tax write-off and then picked up by Amazon alongside Merry Little Batman. So nobody should go into this show expecting we'll get anything like the train scene from Invincible at some point.
the only thing I really dislike about this show is how some female character designs are soo similar it kind of annoys me. im obv not against diversity i actually love it here but damn do harley and renee look too similar to be distinctive and memorable characters
Bullock was one of the things that I wasn’t the greatest fan of, however I think I see seeds for a potential partial redemption. Not to be a good guy as such, but to become the mildly unsavoury character of B:TAS fame. A lot of this show has to do with the origins of characters, including Batman himself, and if the show goes on I could easily see them use the relationship he had with Flass to force Bullock into a hard bit of introspection, where he ultimately rejects criminality in favour of trying to be better, with Flass as his foil choosing the opposite.
An honest review. I'll definitely be watching on thursday. If its great imo then i hope itll get a 2nd season. I'd at least want 5 seasons. Then I'll just have a batman marathon of this and the classic btas 💯
well the good news is that they're already hard at work on season 2. I'd love for this show to make it to 100 episodes if they're able to maintain the same level of quality.
It's good to know that the series doesn't make a big deal about the gender and/or ethnicity swaps. Though i believe a good majority of everyone's issue on it was, why did the press and online media journalists make a big deal about it?
I only had issues I had with the use of diverse ethnicities twice, and I think for good reasons 1) There is a really annoying trend of turning characters with red hair into black characters. As someone who has Red hair as a family trait, we find it very annoying that many of our old characters are being ripped from us in the name of diversity. At least in this, they kept Barbra's hair reddish. 2) Harley and Renee looked too similar. They have the same skin color, hair color, and pants coat color. From the front the eye are different, and from the back the hair styles are different, but I mixed them up more than once.
I for one think it's an absolute waste to not fully use the 1940s era to it's fullest potential, and only use it as an esthetic. The stories that could be told properly using the history of that time; they could've added nazi villains as spys, crazy german scientist experiments that managed to find their way to gotham. I mean come on who wouldn't want to see batman fight nazis. They could've had an over arching story about villains working with nazis to undermine and sabatoge gotham.
The thought process begins Caped Crusader Clayfacs is the same as The Batman Mr Freeze "We can't compete with what came before so we're just going to drown this villain in so much of our style they'll be our damn mascot"
I think my biggest problem is the "Fuck the rich" pandering thing. I hate them too, I think most of them are cowardly, vapid and self-centred in their own world of finance. But the core issue in real life is the system, not just the people. And I see a lot of series/movies trying to pander to lower class spectators by going "Eh? See? They don't like the rich too!" But without giving any sort of interesting conflict based around that sort of dichotomy or anything insightful. Did Batman really need to? I guess, Batman IS rich and theoretically Wayne Industries contributes to the system. But maybe it does not. There's no Proleterian Batman. Maybe there'll never be. But at the same time, I don't want a situation like the Incredibles 2 with Violet saying that the villain will only get a slap on the wrist as punishment because she's rich and then do nothing with that. So I hope this series is not like that.
Batman as a rule is always hating on the wealthy. Literally anyone rich who is not secretly a superhero is most likely greedy, corrupt, stupid, or some combination of the 3.
Have you seen the original Batman the Animated Series? I’m Re-watching it, and it isn’t shy about the fact that rich villains get away with a slap on the wrist.
There's also the worries of "the government being the antagonists once more with unsanctioned NSA/CIA ops that the hero should stop" storylines. Am getting tired of such a backwards and overcynical trope, that.
I thought classism was always a huge theme in Batman? Tbf I’m not a mega fan so maybe I don’t know, but I always linked “classism” as a theme with Batman, or atleast, GOTHAM is always linked with classism.
While I agree with you that the diverse cast isn't a big deal, I will say I am a little disappointed that the show apparently just uses the 40s period as set-dressing. I'm about as much of a history nut as I am a superhero stan, so I was sort of hoping for the show to have some topical references to the period (references to famous actors of the day, references to WWII, etc.). But your review here indicates that the show has basically no such references. It's not anything that ruins the show for me, but I would have definitely liked the show to have made more references/allusions to the period it is supposed to be set in, rather than the 40s just being an aesthetic and little more.
Finally some guy who gets this... Seriously I looked a bit through the discourse of this series and it only made me wonder why those people have a voice.
I also love the POW joke that ends the Onomatopoeia fight. It’s an obvious reference to how old comics and the ‘66 show. My other favorite part is the 4 Children in Nocturne all being named after various Robins.
The time setting is unspecified, but it's full of anachronisms, much like the original Timm series. The fashion, cars, and edifice designs are all late 1940s, the social mores are implicitly early 21st century, but the technology is vaguely 1980s, i guess? Whenever it's supposed to be, cell phones are either nonexistent or not commonplace. This might be unpopular, but i like that the villains are not tragic or sympathetic. That's one theme that's been played out for at least 10 years. Villains don't need to be sympathetic. They just need to be interesting. They need a motivation that's believable for their character.
I think I remember saying in a Facebook comment that the ethnicity of Gordon, etc., wouldn't be an issue if they borrowed a trick from BTAS and used the aesthetic of the 1930s and 40s but kept the time period vague. I'm glad that they ended up taking that very approach. (I could joke that they took my advice, but the reality is probably that given what BTAS did, and what comics in practice have done for a while, keeping the time period vague was simply an obvious choice.)
In this case, I think it's more of an alternate history than just being vague, which is perfectly fine and makes even more sense why some things are historically inaccurate.
I wasn't happy with this adaptation of Bullock either, but it definitely felt like he was more influenced by Flask than anything else. I guess it's just a way to show how corruption can spread even within the law enforcement of Gotham
@@gabethehalfling5253 Agreed. I feel he has at least a small chance at redemption, or betraying Flass at least. It seems Dent did put that seed in the back of his mind anyway near the last couple episodes when he pointed out the power dynamic between Bullock and Flass. Unlike most others I'm not as angry with the change, it caught me off guard at first, but then I went "This is actually pretty fresh, I can roll with this." since I actually found myself enjoying that I was caught off guard by the slight change in character. Not the first time it's been done either, the Gotham show did it as well(even if it was only for the first season where he was fairly corrupt), so that softened the blow for me a little as well. I kind of view this as a Bullock who didn't have Jim to bring back his goodness within, and rather just persisted in being corrupt as Flass got to him first.
Please Do Videos Talking About The Villains Of Caped Crusader Like Two-Face, Clayface, Onomatopoeia, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, Firebug, Nocturna And The Gentleman Ghost
My only complaint is they made Henry a corrupted cop, even though he supposed to be the opposite he supposed to be a real stickler for the rules and get angry towards Batman?
I would like to raise a point, you said it correctly that most of the villains in this show are not tragic figures. However sometimes the show treats them that way despite it clearly not being the case
@@mrfilmreviewcriticman4110 Harley Quinn for example, she kidnapped and tortured several people yet the show tries to paint her as someone morally grey character. Those things do not add up
I was surprised by some of the character changes but i didn't mind them. I could see how some people could find it a bit distracting or something but i felt it was executed very well. I can really respect work that focuses on the entertainment instead of pushing divisive messaging (like Velma for example). I liked 'The Batman' animated series that also has some new/altered characters like detective lin and Ethan Bennett so it was enjoyable to watch. The art style was very reminiscent of the original for me. I'd be interested to see what a season 2 would look like.
i loved this but i wish harvey had a better ending. i’m tired of “ooooh harvey’s going to get help and he’s going to be more of an ally isn’t that exciting” and then he just. ends. i’m not pleased with that since it was such a predictable outcome. overall? FANTASTIC show. loved that they committed to gentleman ghost be an ACTUAL ghost. also having diedrich bader voice harvey was such a mindfuck since batman: the brave and the bold was my gateway to dc comics
I personally wanted a more faithful adaptation and I've been waiting to see a Batman set in the same time period when the comics started (I'm always going to love Golden Age comics for this reason). I'm going to give this a watch to see how it goes. I appreciate your take on this.
Seems like they did try to diversify just about any positive role model they could, I mean not a dealbreaker but I feel like race swapping and gender swapping is a bit forced in today's world. Btw I'm not talking about Harley being homosexual since that's been a thing for a while now. But just like "My Adventures With Superman" it's become a thing where our antagonists get to stay white and male but there's a tendency to switch out the protagonists. I want to be clear I do not care about race, I only ask why race swaps exist under these circumstances.
I saw Batman The Brave and the Bold mote than BTAS. The animation for this could have been used in Invincible, my favorite Amazon prime show. Who's your fav Batman?
Its really cool to see some of the less famous villains and new takes on some of the original ones, Harley Quinn and the gentleman ghost comes to mind. Overall the show just feels good to watch
Mind you, I liked the character writing for the race swapped characters and none of it was done in a stereotypical manner so I personally didn't mind it but I am not gonna straight up accuse someone not fond of the race changes as being racist.
7:11 Well, I'm uncomfortable with the fact that many characters who are turned black happen to be redheads before. It's happened so often across so many things that it's made me raise eyebrows at what the hell is going on. I don't care about the rest one way or the other, but there's a clear pattern that I don't understand.
I only found theories and they come from Reddit out of all places. So take those with a grain of salt, since I just copy n' pasted a bunch of stuff from other people without fully reading it 1- "It's probably because finding ginger actors is harder, since they are a huge statistical minority (2% of the human population has red hair according to Wikipedia and they are mostly in Europe), so if they are going to race swap someone anyway, they can kill two birds with one stone." 2- "Representation, in the past they wanted to increase the representation for red haired characters because they looked somewhat exotic while still being something not out of the norm either like an blue or green skinned alien with feelers on their head would be. And of course the Gingers would be happy. Nowadays it is still about representation, except no one really cares about a non-vocal 2% of the population and they don't want to create new characters for whatever reason." 3- "You notice it more when it happens to gingers because how few of them there are. There's tons of white/male characters being changed to not-white/female characters for whatever reason." 4- "Because gingers are the minorities of white people"
I'm black and I've noticed it too. They've done this a lot. Even as far back as the early marvel movies. Idris Elba is nice but Hiemdall is a red headed man in the comics conviently replaced by a black man in the movie. Its kinda weird. Like its rare we replace blond character but we seem to always replace a red headed character.
One of the reasons that the original is better is that Limitations force you to be more creative in order to work with them while limitless creative freedom can live you aimless
I can’t believe that they made Penguin as woman because I would have expected that Penguin was going to be like Blofeld from James Bond or even the Mandarin from Ironman 3
She fulfills the same role. I really don't want to spoil it, but there's a violent crime that she commits that wouldn't have hit the same way if she was male, partly because of how society views women. I will talk more about it in the Penguin video next week.
@@SerumLake My literal only problem with the Penguin is her name... Oswalda... As a trans person, I absolutely detest "Female versions of names" where they morph the existing name to create the new one. They should have named her like... Olga or something. That and she still looks nearly identical to the previous Penguin. It literally looks like they're depicting Oswald Cobblepot on HRT if maybe a little taller...
I was surprised with how different this show turned out. I didn't enjoy absolutely everything about the show, but I loved it's originality, character placement (check out the Nocturna episode, and you'll understand), and the story arch. I can understand why the changes make others uncomfortable, but this show is actually thought out. If it were a revamp of TAS, I would have been less intrigued, mind you I still would have watched it tho. I'm more of a casual TAS fan, so don't come at me; I personally draw closer to the first Lego Batman game tbh. 😂 Anyways, props to the creatives, animators, and actors for giving a fresh and slightly darker tone to animated Batman. (P.S. I want to see Man-Bat in this show, so I'm hyped to see what kind of interpretation they go with.)
I actually walked away a little disappointed which shocked me considering the talent involved. I had just finished rewatching TAS and I think I was expecting too much. It suits the tone of the show but I think it could have done with a more dynamic opening credits and I also think we spend way too much time with the GCPD. A lot to like but I think I expected too much.
I have been pretty tired of people constantly obssessing over tragic, sympathetic or noble backstories and motivations for villains to the point that they try to turn every villain into a tragic figure with once noble goals even when the villain is a personification of pure evil fueled only by pride, malevolence, greed, envy, powerhunger and hate and grudge towards anything that is an affront to their beliefs or towards any obstacles in their path. Like these people misunderstand that the humanity these villains recieve from the writers is not to make them look like a sad character that needs a hug, it's to make them look like a terrible selfish person who only cares about themselves and their world view and will stubbornly stick with their beliefs and behavior until the very end. The humanity is supposed to make us understand them, dislike them for who they are and to make us look forward to their defeat. Like you said their suffering and struggles is because of their own behavior, desires, delusions and actions. It's nice that we get more of the vain selfish villains in the caped crusader.
Eh, I disagree with you. When BTAS made Mr. Freeze more tragic, it clearly WAS to make him more sympathetic, not to make him look more evil. When they made Magneto a Holocaust survivor (something he was not initially confirmed to be), the goal of making him more sympathetic was clear. So actually, when writers give villains humanity it often IS to engender sympathy from the audience. I also don't see that as a bad thing myself. I've got nothing against a good pure evil villain, but I don't agree with this trend I've been seeing online of people actively hating sympathetic villains and just wanting 100% monsters 100% of the time. I was always under the impression that moral complexity and nuance are considered aspects of good writing/more interesting characters, rather than everything being so simple as "you're either 100% good or 100% evil, and nothing else". And as an aspiring writer who honestly prefers writing sympathetic villains, it's not exactly comforting to think that my tastes and sensibilities are out of fashion right now. Basically means I'm pursuing my passion at the wrong time. TL;DR: Pure evil villains are fine, but so are sympathetic ones. I don't think there's anything wrong with either approach.
@@daniellauricella5132 I was not bashing on the sympathetic or tragic villains, I was simply talking about my frustrations with the people who want to change the characters that are meant to be irredeemable unrepentant monsters like for example Ganon or Darth Sidious. Ganon was only sympathetic in one game but he was not a tragic villain or a villain with a sympathetic backstory like some people believed(mostly because they misunderstood the meaning of the text or were using mistranslations), he had fallen from grace twice, lost his purpose, felt nostalgic for the past and grasped at straws to justify why he is doing what he is doing(his justifications are however weak because his wording shows his selfishness, jelousy, greed, bottomless hunger for power and self importance and he never did anything for anyone other than people who are exactly like him) but would do all his evil deeds again if he got the chance and regrets nothing and feels no remorse. Even in his final moments he remains bitter and sticks with gis stubborn beliefs and his grudge while lacking energy and desire to continue fighting as it was his last chance to get the demon world he desired. He never had any desire to help anyone other than himself, he only truly cares about himself, the witches who raised him and his ideals about survival of the fittest, might makes right, divine right to rule, conquer and oppress and he wants a world where people constantly live in fear unless they use violence to take power from others. His entire character doesn't benefit from a sympathetic backstory because he was always meant to be a menacing threat and a demon king(evil/darkness incarnate, obstacle to enlightenment, source of evil and representative of the three Buddhist poisons: Greed, hate and ignorance/delusion), he is a vain and entirely selfish villain (as well as the big bad of the Zelda series and the only demon king with the title of Great demon king) who wants nothing more than to subjugate all of creation to his cruel and insane law and he enjoys all the suffering he causes because he likes violence and the use of destructive power. The appeal of his character is that he is an evil irredeemable asshole who doesn't feel conflicted about what he does and themes in the stories he appears in is him vs kings with ideals that are an affront to his ideals or him vs light or his greed and darkness consuming others. Roberto Rastapopoulos from Tintin financially drained his other family members when he was a boy, hated his father for choosing to become a sponge fisherman and he didn't want to become a nobody trapped on Leros for his whole life. In his last appearance he has comedic scenes that emphasizes just how pathetic he is, he's gone bankrupt and is not in a position to make any complex schemes so he tries to get the password to a millionaire's bank account instead. Mr Freeze's btas backstory only worked because his character allowed room for it the original Mr Freeze was a generic gimmick villain(and also two different villains back in the day) who steals money and makes ice puns. There was barely any background for him other than him becoming turning into an ice villain because of a lab accident and deciding to commit crime. Ferris Boyle's role in the backstory is to be the evil, selfish and cruel poison that put Freeze in his current life situation. It isn't exactly quality writing to make every villain into someone like Freeze where there is always a bigger darkness that needs to be overcome but that big darkness also has it's own bigger darkness etc. etc. Some villains can get a sympathetic backstory just like Freeze or their own unique backstory but if the villain is someone like Ganon or Sidious you kind of take away the menace by introducing a sad backstory and introducing a bigger bad. Clayface is complicated because we had multiple different characters who got the clayface name. Original Basil Karlo was a narcissistic irredeemable serial killer who desired to kill the cast and crew of the remake of one of his movies where he starred as the villain and for making him a consultant instead of casting him as the villain again due to some of his scandals but later versions flanderized him and turned him into a tragic sympathetic character despite the fact that there already existed Clayface characters who were tragic and sympathetic, they kind of mixed parts of the other clayfaces' characteristics into Basil Karlo when they started to use him as the main Clayface. The issue is that the villains have something that makes them iconic and unique(what gives them their identity) but removing that makes them them lose what made them who they are in the first place. Giving a tragic, noble or sympathetic backstory to some of these villains goes against their fundamental role(and thematic role), purpose and inspiration as a whole while for other villains there is room for it because their fundamental purpose and role might not be pure evil incarnate and great evil that willingly corrupts, drains and slaughters those around them. Some villains have a privileged background and are ungrateful for the power and wealth they were born with and may hate some family members for not seeking power, wealth and greatness. Some villains can't be reasoned with while other villains can be reasoned with. Sympathetic, tragic and noble backstories or sympathetic, tragic and noble villains is not a sign of good writing and neither is unsympathetic irredeemable pure evil villains a sign of bad writing. Good writing is the quality of the story which depends on how the characters and items and world history are used, written and executed. It has nothing to do with sympathy, tragedy, morally good motives or pure evil, grey, complex morality and pure good.
@@carljohansson3512 I can see where you're coming from, though I would point out that no one at Lucasarts or Disney has ever, ever tried to make Sidious sympathetic or tragic. As for Ganon, I can't really speak to that one as much, because my knowledge of Legend of Zelda is limited. Though I will say that in A Link to the Past (one of the Zelda games I know a bit better), he seems pretty thoroughly evil there. I would also say that, there is such a thing as reimagining/reinterpreting. And Adaptational Villainy and Adaptational Sympathy are two of the ways one does that. Does it mean every instance of it lands? No, but I think it does work some of the time. I think the Telltale Batman games did a great job giving us a more sympathetic Joker, for example, and assuming X-Men '97 makes Apocalypse more sympathetic (which I think may happen based on how the first season ended), I don't think it will necessarily be a kiss of death. A lot will come down to the execution. So again, I get where you're coming from, but I think there's a place for versions/takes on a character who are maybe more (or less!) sympathetic than the original take. And such reinventions I think are one of the things that justify telling the same stories with the same characters multiple times.
female penguin is a very dumb choice, a stain on a maybe perfectly done revival with something new. Oswald is a monster inside as more is outside as well as his look and attire could make the character not very seriously considered by his adversaries... and thats could be their great mistake. "he dresses well... VERY well... but at the end he is just only a small mass of fury and hatred towards anyone who is tall, beautiful, better than himself". That's what Oswald was and is... just makes him a Nun so, if you wanna do a parody changing his sex. Dumb decision at its finest on something probably very well done. A minimal error is also the switch side of disfigured face in Harv.... Paul Sloan had that look... but compared to Oswalda is just a nothing.
I think you should wait to see what this Penguin does before dismissing it. There's a hideous crime that she commits that wouldn't have hit the same way if she had been male. Two-Face's disfigurement being on the opposite side is a very deliberate choice to illustrate that Harvey Dent is the bad one, not his wounded personality. Sorry to be vague, but I don't want to spoil the show for anyone that plans on watching it on Thursday.
@@SerumLake Ohh i'll watch it, as i usually do, no doubt about that. Never judge a book by its cover is the right way.. i'm just annoyed by the design itself that is basically classic Ozzy with betty boop hair and a lipstick. That is the real stain. Do you wanna do something REALLY different? Just make The Penguin a VERY attractive and cruel lady... non Ozzy with lipstick and fake boobs. Like they did with the ventriloquist for example in the comics after Arnold's passing or Joker Martha in Flashpoint. Or just leave Oswald as he is and always been, even more cruel if you like, instead that pointless change, or do it totally different like Telltales.. That's what made me sore.. Yeah i was sure Harv was the evil side in the end, no surprise about him after all beside Sloan, his duality can be used just in.. well, 2 ways after all.. We will see i suppose. For sure thanks to that my interest is lowered a little. But again, we will see, there and here also with your videos
I havent finished the show, but it seems good so far. i like that the villains are that, villains. they are horrible, greedy, and selfish people. i like the tackling of batman's trauma. i honestly really like the harley redesign. she's a psychologist, she should be smart as hell. penguin's changes were fine and worked. people are going to cry over the diversity, but fuck em. its good so far
2:04: I'll prolly try. 3:53: Wait, they're actually not a show thing? I'm somehow bummed. 4:17: Eh, I still love 'em. Brings into mind certain good anime like Neon Genesis Evangelion, and they do help the occasional dubbers. 4:41: We've come a long way since flying the Canadian X-Men: The Animated Series cast for the United States Spider-Man: The Animated Series two-parter crossover, and it's a shame only Storm's VA was financially available in the later "Secret Wars" three-parter on Season 5. 5:21: ...What the? 5:28: "First time?" - Catwoman from The Batman 2004 (To clarify, that iteration NEVER got caught and brought into bars.) 5:40: Now this gonna lead inevitably to heated debates. Anyways, there goes my expected foreboding of the coming storm that is WW2 in the story, and newspaper hints of heroes who'll become the Justice Society of America, and also the likes of Ted Kord Blue Beetle and the Question (basically, the original basis of the Watchmen characters). I somehow don't mind an evil Bullock. You should see The Dark Knight's Renee Montoya expy Anna Ramirez, who's responsible for Harvey Dent's fall and Rachel's death. I can say this, this sure is a worthy review. Sorry, IGN, but I'm skipping your review and not gonna bother reading it because, well, it's IGN. Anyways, will see how IMDb is gonna score this show. Would be problematic if it's less than 7.0 (but no, review bombing doesn't count). Also, TV Tropes' YMMV page.
Glad to hear your opinions on the show! I was worried it would disappoint me (not because it looked bad, but because I thought I might've gotten my hopes too high), but from what you've said here it seems pretty good! I am a little bit bummed that most of my favorite villains aren't in the show, but that's not too big of a deal all things considered.
The idea of Batman Caped Crusader is great while some parts of it aren’t the way I would go with. Such as the black Gordon family or female penguin. Race, sexism, etc is always going to be a factor.
I don’t understand why writers or producers feel the need to change the race of existing well known characters. People feel attached to certain characters and remaking them just seems lazy. Nobody has a problem with cyborg or blue beetle or wonder woman because they weren’t existing white dudes that just suddenly turned into a minority or woman they were always their own original characters. And I think people would react very differently and not as dismissive if minority characters and women were all the sudden white guys. White cyborg or blade or a man as starfire or something. People would be rightfully questioning what the purpose of changing these well established characters is.
@@markrogers1786 Because making a new character who serves the purpose of an existing character pisses people off and leads to calls to bring them in instead of the replacement (see Ellen Yin being booted in place of James Gordon in season 2 of The Batman, or anytime Punchline shows up in the comics)
@markrogers1786 Why do you think creators keep making April O neil black? Because it is easier to change the race of an established white character in the name of "diversity" than actually creating a new original character!
@@jordanloux3883 having Ellen Yin being an original character is a million times better than if they kept her character but decided she IS commissioner Gordon or Harvey bullock or something. That would be terrible.
5:43 - 5:55 albeit incredibly vague… I’m pretty sure that ghost cowboy was rac!st. They didn’t lean into it much, but the undertones were there. They were shying away from the reality of that time, but at least they made an attempt with that episode.
Yeah bullock was the only thing I didn’t care for just because he is undoubtedly the most loyal cop under Jim Gordon in the comics and 90s show. But you know it doesn’t break the show or anything
They know why that is. These people are never shy about why diverse casting bothers them, and most of them feel emboldened to just come right out and say it.
Honestly, the only thing I find weird about this is that Harley Quinn exists without The Joker. I’m not saying it’s bad or uninteresting, just that why is she dressed like a jester without his influence? Unless Joker is there, and you don’t mention him.
She adopts the Jester theme because she targets people who act like kings. In the medieval times the Jester was the only person that could speak the truth to (and insult) the king
You Should/Please Do Videos Analyzing The Villains Of The Batman 2004 Like The Following 1)Joker 2)Penguin 3)Riddler 4)Hugo Strange 5)Ventriloquist 6)Killer Croc 7)Black Mask 8)Firefly 9)Clayface 1 And 2 10)Poison Ivy 11)Harley Quinn 12)Killer Moth 13)Man Bat 14)Bane 15)Mr. Freeze 16)Catwoman 17)Cluemaster 18)Rag Doll 19)Gearhead 20)Spellbinder 21)D.A.V.E 22)Terrible Trio 23)Wraith And Scorn 24)Maxie Zeus 25)Cosmo Prank 26)Rumor
You know, I actually enjoyed Batman: Caped Crusader! There's so many things I love in that show especially how the new voice actor of Batman did a great job voicing him and he replicated Kevin Conroy's voice a little bit. Also the female version of The Penguin threw me off a little, but I still really enjoy that little change. Overall, I think this Batman Show is amazing and hopefully we'll see what The Joker would look like in this show. Well at least I hope so.😁😅🌃🦇
Really excited to see this show for myself, from what you've said it looks like I'll be a little let down by the visual style of the show, but pretty much everything else looks set up to deliver a fun, new, authentic Batman experience.
Really happy to hear you enjoyed it. Can't wait to watch the series for myself and to hear your in depth thoughts. By the by, would you be interested in analysing BTAS's depiction of Maxie Zeus?
I'm sure the episodes are well done, but after Kevin Conroy and Arleen Sorkin's passing away, I just don't have the heart to watch new episodes without them.
I didn't even get to most of the "controversial" stuff. I disliked Bruce referring to Alfred as Pennyworth and Dent starting as a borderline corrupt politician. I simply didn't see any interesting story telling in the opening episode and my attention wasn't grabbed. I want to give it another shot though, I hope the show can make up for a weak start.
Dc comics need to stop focusing on Batman all the time. There other DC characters they could use for animated series. Yet, they always pick Batman because he's a cashcow.
@@dragonhead99 If they want to make their money back? No. Because comic book fans are the minority of the audience for these shows. Nobody cares who Booster Gold is if he isn't cracking jokes with Superman.
6:48 Because this show was on Amazon Prime, I was disappointed that they didn't have the show go all the way with the 1940s idea. We could've had a more fascinating period piece with Bruce's attitudes towards the stupidity of racism, sexism, and homophobia being ahead of its time. We still get a little of this with the attitude of Gentleman Ghost. Still for what we get, we get one of the better Batman series of the last few years.
Thank God, a f'ing sane review of this show. It's not 1940, and all the characters act as themselves. Well done.
Why we will always love BTAS it's important to evaluate a Batman show on its own terms rather than a comparison.
Such as it is a rule ever since Batman Beyond or The Batman 2004 first showed up.
@@michaelandreipalon359Batman beyond was fcking phenomenal i loved that show as a kid and still watch it often now.
Glad there is someone with braincells talking about this show honestly. Its like waaaay too many sweaty nerds freaking out about the wrong thing and not just analazing the show for what it gave us
Fr, I tried looking for other reviews but all I keep seeing is "THE WOKE GOT BATMAN" and this channel has been the only one I've seen that actually says something when they talk. The others just talk to talk.
Hi
While that’s true for the most part, there are plenty of reviews who get to the real heart of the matter- Batman is hardly in the show, and when he is, he is kind of stupid and weak. The other characters are simply not interesting. I guess if you liked Gotham (a Batman show without Batman) then you’d enjoy this.
I was actually shocked how tame it was. It totally could have aired in the early 90s just without the actual deaths
You underestimate Standards & Practices at the time. While syndicated shows weren't quite as restricted, in general you still couldn't have things like on-camera direct punches to the face, consumption of alcohol, or even characters crashing through windows. Heck, BTAS got a win just for being allowed to use actual guns with actual bullets as long as they were antique weapons like tommy guns.
I think it's fine, makes the mature rating more earned, as darker tone seems more deliberate and more serviceable to the stories. I hated the Flashpoint-era DC movies because you could just see the sex and the violence were unnecessary and gratuitous, you could literally scrap them and the story would be the same (then again, all you'd left with would be terribly lazy scripts). The "Tera" season of Teen Titans was leagues better (and scarier) than the "judas contract" adaptation in which they set out to be faithful while adding stuff that was completely stupid.
@@jiggusfiggus I think the ultra-violence made sense for the Flashpoint and Apokolips War movies myself, given the premises of both (one a dystopian alternate timeline, and one a "the bad guy has won" scenario). So I wouldn't say none of the 2010s DC Animated movies used violence effectively. With that said, yeah, some instances definitely felt gratuitous.
But then, if I'd been forced to restrain myself for years and years because of over-sensitive S&P restrictions I'd probably want to cut loose too.
@@daniellauricella5132 The S&P situation is worthy of discussion. I mean, I see your point, but those restrictions brought us some of the mos shocking scenes in BTAS, like the Grayson's death and the Batgirl fall. I always picture the writers should have the wiggle room to do what they want, but without a wrangler to keep them honest, the whole thing becomes a shit show. Ren and Stimpy, Steven Universe, I think even Adventure Time's creator lost control of his own show to his writers.
Regarding the Flashpoint movies, here's the thing: It doesn't feel like the writers wanted to cut loose, it's more like the edge felt dictated by WB's executives. IIRC there was this whole 'synergy' between the movies and the comics, that's why there were a bunch of movies straight from New52 stories. I always assumed it was a case of, "hey Batman is super edgy in the comics, so be edgy here too, very edgy! Teens love edgy!", so James Tucker felt stuck between a rock a hard place, specially considering he's a big Dick Sprang fan and loves Silver Age stories.
As i understand it, the reason this can't happen in the 90s is because of the portrayal of the police force here. They don't want kids to have distrust for the government
I appreciate the fact that Caped Crusader is not afraid of Having Batman fight ghosts unlike the live action films that insist on being "realistic". I am not a fan of Harvey Bullock being depicted as a unrepentant monster. I know he was initially a corrupt cop in the pre crisis comics and I do not mind Bullock being more flawed in an adaptation but turning him into the shows version of Bowman from STAS is a,step back for Me.
Bullock is many thing but he is no monster.
Their version of Harvey Bullock is very different to what we've seen before, but there are some very powerful moments involving him. I do think that some fans will be horrified at his actions and it may upset some people. I'm looking forward to seeing the conversations that come up as a result of this though!
@@SerumLake Is there any foreshadowing of robin in this series?
@@Diego-rt2ot Robin? No. Dick Grayson, and Carrie Kelley (plus a few other potential Robins!) are all in it though!
2024, a white hetero policeman won't be portrayed positively.
@@SerumLakeis there a reference to Joker
This review is the only one I've found that criticizes based on what the show wants to be, rather than what the "true fans" want it to be. The show wants to tell new stories with the ideas of classic batman, and that requires imagining new interpretations of many characters. In many cases, I think the differences in these new interpretations are quite clever when you realize those differences are supposed to create narrative parallels or inversions that the audience finds ironic, something you normally only see in one off episodes where characters travel to an alternate universe.
I'm new to Batman. My old brother has always drooled over Batman's adventures, comics, films and videogames but when I was younger I wasn't that interested.
A few months ago, I started watching The Animated Series from the 90s and I was shocked how cool the series was, the thriller, Bruce Wayne, the villains... I LOVED IT.
This new series couldn't come at any better time because I went to my brother's house to watch this new series aside from playing videogames and we've loved it so so much. I love how much protagonism other characters are getting aside from Batman.
This series only heightened my newcomer thirst for Batman.
I'm actually happy it's quite tame. Restrictions, even self-imposed ones, encourage more creativity. A darker and more mature tone is a great thing certainly, but I am happy to hear they haven't gone to extremes.
Yeah, as interesting as the "Harley Quinn" cartoon is, I couldn't stomach watching past the first season. Plus, it ruined Commissioner Gordon.
god you're so lame
I think we have enough dark and gritty themed Batman already. Nolan did it with the Dark Knight trilogy. Snyder did it with the DCEU. Then we also have The Batman that also did it. I understand that Batman is naturally dark, but the comics and the animated series had ways to balance out dark and gritty with silly, goofy and light-hearted moments.
@@Compuclesi find it hard to believe a single season of a show single handily ruined a character thats been depicted in various forms of media for decades, but sure….
I think TV-Y Deadpool is funnier and more entertaining than Rated R Deadpool.
Hey, I really appreciate that you put captions in your videos! I don’t always have my earbuds on me, and I often watch videos a lot of the time while waiting for appointments and stuff like that. So I really appreciate it when creators take the time to provide full captions! Thanks for that!
You're welcome!
I'm not the biggest batman fan, but I do like the idea of using a 40s astetic but not being in the 40s for many reasons
1, you can be more creative with characters
2, there is just something about old knives, 1911s, tommy guns, 1940s rifles and shotguns that are visually appealing
3, the cars look better (in my opinion)
4, to me it does have a unique level of charm
WHAT? REALISM? NONSENSE I'M GOING TO PUT FLINTLOCKS IN MY SPACE OPERA! haha but for real though I do like that they are trashing some of the harsher parts of the time period so that the team and us can just have fun with a cool aesthetic.
@@10000eyes so I don't know which is funnier that I got a reply or the fact that I've made some pieces of writing I've done I've had flintlocks be used along side 1911s
Another thing I like is the low Tech elements that this series has as I do feel like more high-tech adaptations of Batman kind of makes the detective stuff seem trivial. Batman has to actually go through libraries and secret documents in order to obtain information since he doesn't have a fancy bat computer. It's also why I don't really like shows like Bones or CSI as the technology really makes the investigation feel more trivial when you can just enhance a low res jpeg
@@gabethehalfling5253 Yeah, but it would work pretty much the same with 1980s level technology. Plus, some of the tech they do use is rather advanced for the 40s, like the mini transceiver Batman planted on a character at one point. There's no way that works without a transistor, which didn't become common until the '50s, and even then the transciever is questionable.
Also due to the lack of surveillance Technology Cisco can establish a level of secrecy that isn't really possible in stories set in the present! Like how the penguin can shoot people for weeks on end with a giant as Cannon without anyone noticing!
Were people upset when Jeffrey Wright portrayed Gordon a few years back? If they were I can’t remember it.
My favorite version of Gordon is the world weary good cop in a bad town whose personal sense of honor has always been more burden than blessing. Wright depicted that so well he became my favorite Gordon.
@mikejames1956 I hate it when they blackwash decades-old comic book characters when they do live-action adaptations instead of creating new ones like a black Gotham Chief Of Detectives played by Jeffery Wright. Pathetic!
@@terrywalters4917who tf actually cares, when was gordon race a integral part. If we can get Gods of Egypt, then bear with it.
Interpretation is changing because a whites only major US port city makes no sense.
While I like the idea of making most of the villains unsympathetic as opposed to BTAS, I am feeling really skeptical about them doing the same for Dent. Duality has always been the entire point of his character, and Harvey has always been at his best when going with the more sympathetic route.
Also, as much as I like the idea of a Badass woman as a mob boss, randomly switching the gender of an iconic character such as the penguin will always feel incredibly cheap to me.
There's a specific crime she commits that wouldn't have landed the same way if she was male, simply because of how certain women are placed on a pedestal in society (sorry for being vague, trying not to spoil it!)
This. I know some people might not like this but with the exception of the Joker, the majority of Batman's rogues should be tragic figures. I understand that making Harley Quinn her own person unrelated to Joker is very empowering but that kind of takes away the weight of the character as now she's just a less crazy Hugo Strange. Same with making clay face happy about his new form. It just makes them into monsters.
The cgi is also jarring to me. I know it's cheaper but it just makes me think of Jetix shows from 2002.
@@IsaacVizasLurie I honestly don’t mind it with most of the rogues. To be honest I’m getting kinda tired of the trend of needing all villains to be sympathetic. As long as they are well written, evil characters are just as fun.
I think the majority of Batman’s rogues should be allowed to be horrible people in some adaptations, to spice things a bit. I just don’t feel like it works in Harvey’s case.
my favorite is when batman's rouges differ when it comes to their motives
from absolute monsters like Joker and Black mask to poor souls gotham damned like Mr freeze and Two face. it works best when cast is so difrent from eachother
if villians of caped crusader are all physchopaths who kill just for fun, i dont belive it will be the next BTAS as everyone hoped.
@idkwhattonameopentosugge It is not trying to be BTAS. It should be allowed 2 to its own thing. If you do not like it just watch btas. That said I am not a fan of turning Penguin female. I do not mind change and I am no sexist but this change feels like it was made to appeal to 3rd wave feminists.
I did get to see the episode and without giving much away, I will say one of the favorite aspects art-wise were the backgrounds. They were in that film noir style but with bold colors that reminded me of stuff like the “Nighthawks” painting. It felt really distinct from the Animates Series while still being within the same vein, which I liked.
Oh, yeah, "Nighthawks". I still remember that diner in The Tick cartoon with the same aesthetic as the painting at times.
"No police blimps" - That's a deal breaker :|
Did they ever manage to actually catch someone with that thing?
@@jordanloux3883 That was never the point of the blimps.
@@jordanloux3883Yes. The turtles in Batman vs. TMNT
Same
Imagine being tailed by a police blimp.
"Oh look. It's an undercover police blimp".
Tbh, lack of orphan chunks is just a plus to me. It's way too over-saturated in most shows today.
Orphan chunks?
@@daniellauricella5132 Violence that results in body parts and/or organs going flying everywhere. What most cartoons consider "mature" nowadays.
@@daniellauricella5132 With the "orphan" part of it being a meta joke, since a suspicious amount of characters in all media are orphans.
@@Kattlarv Ah, I see.
@@Kattlarv We got it, it’s overdone nowadays lol
something something grrr female penguin something something
I mean, Oswald's kids are in the current Tom King Penguin series.
They made the penguin a woman?*rubs forehead* Ho boy. I'm gonna be hearing idiots screeching the word 'woke' with vitriol.
Next thing you know the joker will be the WOKER and use his woker toxin to give the people of Gotham genders
Grrr wonke leberal gendered pronoun my pengwin!!!!!
Oh my god!!! :D
I can't wait to see you dissect the villains from this show against their 1997 counterparts!! I've been hyped for this show since the trailer dropped, very happy to see you get early access! You definitely deserve it
1992 you mean.
I must say my curiosity is peaked.
I hope you enjoy it when you get around to watching it
@@SerumLake Me too. I've always enjoyed Batman.
I had never watched the orignal Animated Series before watching this. I enjoyed Caped Crusader so much that I'm definitely going back to watch it. Hoping there's a second season because this was definitely a strong opening.
Tbh i like the ausency of complex shot/animation in this show
It helps with the vibe of watching a 40s movie
Personally, I wouldn't say that anything from the show sounds that impressive or innovative, with many of the ideas seemingly being just re-do's of ideas or concepts from earlier Batman cartoons (BTAS and TBaTB just to name a pair), with the only major differences and new ideas being the ethnicity-changes, depicting Dent as already corrupt and depicting Bullock as a "corrupt monster".
However, that is just my own opinion and I haven't seen the entire series yet, so I'm not going to say "tHis WaS tERribLe!!1!" or "ThIs waS gROunDbRAkiNglY GoOd1!!1" before actually getting to see the whole picture.
Who knows? This might actually be one of the few really good things to come out of the DCCU in the latest decade.
And there are upcoming seasons, so perspectives will change highly when the show possibly starts "Growing the Beard" at those points.
@@michaelandreipalon359 Well, you're right about that. Let's just hope said changes will be positive or at the very least innovative.
When the writing is this good, it doesn't need anything too innovative to still be a great show.
I'm also a super fan of the animated series, as well as batman beyond. I was happy with caped crusader, but I feel like Batman's voice could have been a bit more emotional. He doesn't have much depth here, and it comes off a a bit less natural, like he's trying to sound like batman... I like his Bruce Wayne, but I don't see much of a difference vocally speaking. There isn't a huge contrast, but the animation and writing were pretty solid.
Fun fact! Hamish Linklater’s mother was a very prominent vocal coach, whose technique is used by many actors today!! So it’s no surprise to me that Hamish is so good at taking the role of Batman!! 🥰
If Batman's villains aren't generally sympathetic, that can work---but he still has to try to save them or it will fall flat for me. I have no interest in a Batman bully.
You’ll be happy by the end of it then!
I’d argue it’s not even being a “bully” to not waste compassion and sympathy on those who plainly don’t deserve it. But it’s a moot point here because yes, Batman does try to save at least a few of his enemies.
@@daniellauricella5132 it's less of an argument over wether someone deserves kindness or compassion because everyone does!
It's more of a question on wether or not you should waste it (and your time) on someone who doesn't appreciate it-
Lol Batman was a bully and a thug early on.
Hopefully this is a success and the next season is renewed with bigger budget and hopefully Hugo Strange.
Would like to see Hugo Strange, though I imagine they may have to reinvent him at least a little given how much this version of Harley has in common with Strange.
Nothing will ever compete with the TAS. Nothing. RIP Kevin Conry
You sorely need to watch the rest of the DC Animated Universe, Teen Titans/The Batman 2004, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
@@michaelandreipalon359 brave and the bold 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
Buddy, this show literally has only 10 episodes.
You are gonna have to wait for a long time to make an ultimate comparison.
@@totalstrangerthing7419 What does that mean?
@@michaelandreipalon359 batman brave and the bold series is disgusting
Ok look
I personally don't mind female penguin, its a fun idea, but you cant act like people who dislike it are being completely unreasonable
Since usually when changes like this are made its most of the time followed by a not very well written story/ character
It is unreasonable if they haven't even seen the show. If they come back after watching it and decide that they don't like her, that's fine, we all have our preferences. But I'm so sick of the reactionary shrieking.
Just finished S1 of Caped Crusader this evening. I would agree with your assessment of most of the bat-villains it portrays, but Harvey Dent definitely comes over to me as the most tragic figure among them, particularly in terms of his final fate. I found his story arc just downright depressing.
And I so loved the catwoman episode - it's now on my repeat-watch list. I hope we see more of Selina Kyle in the next season - there might be potential for character development there. She's suffered a crushing defeat, after all.
I have faith that it will be incredible, but honestly I'm a little disappointed because what I was most hoping for was to have a context from the 40s that had references to the situation in the world at that time, even if it was just an Easter egg, and also a black and white episode in the same way from the short film strange days, I hope they do something similar in the second season
Not actually setting this in the "real" 1930s and having the cast the way it is actively hurts the show in the long run. It's indicative of poor writing and world building.
Literally set dressing. You have story potential walking around but you actively refuse to address it because you just want the costume.
To me, when you were talking about Clayface, he almost looked more like Scarecrow
I'm really looking forward to talking more about him. His episode was fantastic, and completely different to what we've seen before.
Ok curious but did youtube delete my reply about Female penguin?
@@tayojones9460 I don't see it anywhere, so maybe?
That's how the very first Golden Age Clayface looked. No coincidence he and Scarecrow were designed by the same comiocbook artist.
Scarecrow's sinister origin story is that he turned from villainy to SUPERvillainy because he was super mad Clayface 'stole' his costume idea by having a face that looks like that.
This show sounds good, though I'm going to miss some of the more visual feats presented in BTAS. They really conveyed an emotion. However, this show seems like it's going to be solid.
to me, mask of the phantasm is what really made TAS for me. there will always be a part of me, no matter how many batman universes pop up, and how old i get, that wishes Bruce and Andrea could have had the happy ending they both deserved. instead they were both prisoners in their own heads, to their tragic pasts, and died sad and alone.
Given Amazon Prime's recent streaming output like The Legend of Vox Machina, Hazbin Hotel, and especially The Boys and Invincible, Caped Crusader may stick out like a sore thumb since it seems to be not as adult than any of those shows. But then again, it was supposed to air on Cartoon Network before it was almost turned into yet another tax write-off and then picked up by Amazon alongside Merry Little Batman. So nobody should go into this show expecting we'll get anything like the train scene from Invincible at some point.
quite right, and I'm glad that there's nothing as extreme as Invincible in this Batman show!
Meantime, I really hope Invincible doesn't stray too far as the years go by, a la Young Justice.
Hazbin Hotel? Isn't that a web show?
@@VicerimusMortem It was given a chance to be on HBO, making it a full fledged series
@@michaelandreipalon359 I wanna see the r**e scene don't you
the only thing I really dislike about this show is how some female character designs are soo similar it kind of annoys me. im obv not against diversity i actually love it here but damn do harley and renee look too similar to be distinctive and memorable characters
Bullock was one of the things that I wasn’t the greatest fan of, however I think I see seeds for a potential partial redemption. Not to be a good guy as such, but to become the mildly unsavoury character of B:TAS fame. A lot of this show has to do with the origins of characters, including Batman himself, and if the show goes on I could easily see them use the relationship he had with Flass to force Bullock into a hard bit of introspection, where he ultimately rejects criminality in favour of trying to be better, with Flass as his foil choosing the opposite.
An honest review. I'll definitely be watching on thursday. If its great imo then i hope itll get a 2nd season. I'd at least want 5 seasons. Then I'll just have a batman marathon of this and the classic btas 💯
well the good news is that they're already hard at work on season 2. I'd love for this show to make it to 100 episodes if they're able to maintain the same level of quality.
If it ends up real good, it sure deserves 40-50 something eps.
This is a great review so far!!! I haven't watched much of the show but I'm happy other people like it as much as I do.
It's good to know that the series doesn't make a big deal about the gender and/or ethnicity swaps.
Though i believe a good majority of everyone's issue on it was, why did the press and online media journalists make a big deal about it?
Because "controversial" headlines make more money
bingo.
'Instead they focused in clarity" that is such a bummer
Thank you for not making this a 45 minute video
Hehe, true.
We have Totally Schway for that 😂
I only had issues I had with the use of diverse ethnicities twice, and I think for good reasons
1) There is a really annoying trend of turning characters with red hair into black characters. As someone who has Red hair as a family trait, we find it very annoying that many of our old characters are being ripped from us in the name of diversity. At least in this, they kept Barbra's hair reddish.
2) Harley and Renee looked too similar. They have the same skin color, hair color, and pants coat color. From the front the eye are different, and from the back the hair styles are different, but I mixed them up more than once.
I for one think it's an absolute waste to not fully use the 1940s era to it's fullest potential, and only use it as an esthetic. The stories that could be told properly using the history of that time; they could've added nazi villains as spys, crazy german scientist experiments that managed to find their way to gotham. I mean come on who wouldn't want to see batman fight nazis. They could've had an over arching story about villains working with nazis to undermine and sabatoge gotham.
The thought process begins Caped Crusader Clayfacs is the same as The Batman Mr Freeze "We can't compete with what came before so we're just going to drown this villain in so much of our style they'll be our damn mascot"
I think my biggest problem is the "Fuck the rich" pandering thing. I hate them too, I think most of them are cowardly, vapid and self-centred in their own world of finance. But the core issue in real life is the system, not just the people. And I see a lot of series/movies trying to pander to lower class spectators by going "Eh? See? They don't like the rich too!" But without giving any sort of interesting conflict based around that sort of dichotomy or anything insightful. Did Batman really need to? I guess, Batman IS rich and theoretically Wayne Industries contributes to the system. But maybe it does not. There's no Proleterian Batman. Maybe there'll never be.
But at the same time, I don't want a situation like the Incredibles 2 with Violet saying that the villain will only get a slap on the wrist as punishment because she's rich and then do nothing with that. So I hope this series is not like that.
Batman as a rule is always hating on the wealthy. Literally anyone rich who is not secretly a superhero is most likely greedy, corrupt, stupid, or some combination of the 3.
Have you seen the original Batman the Animated Series? I’m Re-watching it, and it isn’t shy about the fact that rich villains get away with a slap on the wrist.
There's also the worries of "the government being the antagonists once more with unsanctioned NSA/CIA ops that the hero should stop" storylines. Am getting tired of such a backwards and overcynical trope, that.
That movie made me hate Violet.
I thought classism was always a huge theme in Batman? Tbf I’m not a mega fan so maybe I don’t know, but I always linked “classism” as a theme with Batman, or atleast, GOTHAM is always linked with classism.
Cracking review Señor Serum! Can't wait to give the show a watch myself
Not long to go now, old chum!
It’s so good.
While I agree with you that the diverse cast isn't a big deal, I will say I am a little disappointed that the show apparently just uses the 40s period as set-dressing. I'm about as much of a history nut as I am a superhero stan, so I was sort of hoping for the show to have some topical references to the period (references to famous actors of the day, references to WWII, etc.). But your review here indicates that the show has basically no such references. It's not anything that ruins the show for me, but I would have definitely liked the show to have made more references/allusions to the period it is supposed to be set in, rather than the 40s just being an aesthetic and little more.
Something I just thought about and it really surprised me was that there was no Joker mentioned.
I actually expected it.
There is, he's just teased at the very VERY end.
Finally some guy who gets this... Seriously I looked a bit through the discourse of this series and it only made me wonder why those people have a voice.
I also love the POW joke that ends the Onomatopoeia fight. It’s an obvious reference to how old comics and the ‘66 show. My other favorite part is the 4 Children in Nocturne all being named after various Robins.
The time setting is unspecified, but it's full of anachronisms, much like the original Timm series. The fashion, cars, and edifice designs are all late 1940s, the social mores are implicitly early 21st century, but the technology is vaguely 1980s, i guess? Whenever it's supposed to be, cell phones are either nonexistent or not commonplace.
This might be unpopular, but i like that the villains are not tragic or sympathetic. That's one theme that's been played out for at least 10 years. Villains don't need to be sympathetic. They just need to be interesting. They need a motivation that's believable for their character.
Great review! There so much to unpack in the show. Cant wait to see where it goes in the future!
I think I remember saying in a Facebook comment that the ethnicity of Gordon, etc., wouldn't be an issue if they borrowed a trick from BTAS and used the aesthetic of the 1930s and 40s but kept the time period vague. I'm glad that they ended up taking that very approach.
(I could joke that they took my advice, but the reality is probably that given what BTAS did, and what comics in practice have done for a while, keeping the time period vague was simply an obvious choice.)
Of course, a vague time period would become problematic in case we get sequels that need chronological clarity.
In this case, I think it's more of an alternate history than just being vague, which is perfectly fine and makes even more sense why some things are historically inaccurate.
Bullock wasn’t a bad cop. Just dirty and grumpy but to make him corrupt is just. Wrong
Womp womp. You’ll be okay
I wasn't happy with this adaptation of Bullock either, but it definitely felt like he was more influenced by Flask than anything else. I guess it's just a way to show how corruption can spread even within the law enforcement of Gotham
@@gabethehalfling5253 Agreed. I feel he has at least a small chance at redemption, or betraying Flass at least. It seems Dent did put that seed in the back of his mind anyway near the last couple episodes when he pointed out the power dynamic between Bullock and Flass. Unlike most others I'm not as angry with the change, it caught me off guard at first, but then I went "This is actually pretty fresh, I can roll with this." since I actually found myself enjoying that I was caught off guard by the slight change in character. Not the first time it's been done either, the Gotham show did it as well(even if it was only for the first season where he was fairly corrupt), so that softened the blow for me a little as well. I kind of view this as a Bullock who didn't have Jim to bring back his goodness within, and rather just persisted in being corrupt as Flass got to him first.
Please Do Videos Talking About The Villains Of Caped Crusader Like Two-Face, Clayface, Onomatopoeia, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, Firebug, Nocturna And The Gentleman Ghost
I am going to do a weekly Caped Crusader villain video, starting next week!
So cool that you got early access! Thanks for this analysis!!
My only complaint is they made Henry a corrupted cop, even though he supposed to be the opposite he supposed to be a real stickler for the rules and get angry towards Batman?
I would like to raise a point, you said it correctly that most of the villains in this show are not tragic figures. However sometimes the show treats them that way despite it clearly not being the case
Maybe firefly? I don’t really know who u mean tbh
@@mrfilmreviewcriticman4110 Harley Quinn for example, she kidnapped and tortured several people yet the show tries to paint her as someone morally grey character. Those things do not add up
I was surprised by some of the character changes but i didn't mind them. I could see how some people could find it a bit distracting or something but i felt it was executed very well. I can really respect work that focuses on the entertainment instead of pushing divisive messaging (like Velma for example). I liked 'The Batman' animated series that also has some new/altered characters like detective lin and Ethan Bennett so it was enjoyable to watch. The art style was very reminiscent of the original for me. I'd be interested to see what a season 2 would look like.
i loved this but i wish harvey had a better ending. i’m tired of “ooooh harvey’s going to get help and he’s going to be more of an ally isn’t that exciting” and then he just. ends. i’m not pleased with that since it was such a predictable outcome. overall? FANTASTIC show. loved that they committed to gentleman ghost be an ACTUAL ghost. also having diedrich bader voice harvey was such a mindfuck since batman: the brave and the bold was my gateway to dc comics
If its meant for 18 plus i hope we see the scarecrow and the mad hatter so we can get a more arkham series scarecrow and mad hatter
it isn't rated 18+, it's intended for a young teen audience.
@@SerumLake oh thanks for telling me
Please no Scarecrow, but Mad Hatter sure is welcome.
I personally wanted a more faithful adaptation and I've been waiting to see a Batman set in the same time period when the comics started (I'm always going to love Golden Age comics for this reason). I'm going to give this a watch to see how it goes. I appreciate your take on this.
Batman might not kill but he doesn't bat an eye at vehicular manslaughter
The animation was a let down for me…TAS was just fantastic in terms of animation and it’s hard to trump that
Seems like they did try to diversify just about any positive role model they could, I mean not a dealbreaker but I feel like race swapping and gender swapping is a bit forced in today's world. Btw I'm not talking about Harley being homosexual since that's been a thing for a while now.
But just like "My Adventures With Superman" it's become a thing where our antagonists get to stay white and male but there's a tendency to switch out the protagonists.
I want to be clear I do not care about race, I only ask why race swaps exist under these circumstances.
Detective Flass, one of the most corrupt cops, is African American in this show. So it's not just protagonists that are changed.
@@SerumLake All's fair then.
I saw Batman The Brave and the Bold mote than BTAS. The animation for this could have been used in Invincible, my favorite Amazon prime show. Who's your fav Batman?
No definitive Batman for me, but in my opinion, the DCAU, The Batman 2004, TbatB, and Arkhamverse iterations rule in their own way.
Old man bruce from Batman Beyond is pretty cool
Its really cool to see some of the less famous villains and new takes on some of the original ones, Harley Quinn and the gentleman ghost comes to mind. Overall the show just feels good to watch
Mind you, I liked the character writing for the race swapped characters and none of it was done in a stereotypical manner so I personally didn't mind it but I am not gonna straight up accuse someone not fond of the race changes as being racist.
7:11 Well, I'm uncomfortable with the fact that many characters who are turned black happen to be redheads before. It's happened so often across so many things that it's made me raise eyebrows at what the hell is going on. I don't care about the rest one way or the other, but there's a clear pattern that I don't understand.
I only found theories and they come from Reddit out of all places. So take those with a grain of salt, since I just copy n' pasted a bunch of stuff from other people without fully reading it
1- "It's probably because finding ginger actors is harder, since they are a huge statistical minority (2% of the human population has red hair according to Wikipedia and they are mostly in Europe), so if they are going to race swap someone anyway, they can kill two birds with one stone."
2- "Representation, in the past they wanted to increase the representation for red haired characters because they looked somewhat exotic while still being something not out of the norm either like an blue or green skinned alien with feelers on their head would be. And of course the Gingers would be happy. Nowadays it is still about representation, except no one really cares about a non-vocal 2% of the population and they don't want to create new characters for whatever reason."
3- "You notice it more when it happens to gingers because how few of them there are. There's tons of white/male characters being changed to not-white/female characters for whatever reason."
4- "Because gingers are the minorities of white people"
You're not suggesting they're erasing redheads characters all across media 😂
@@krasykay2294 I'm just saying, we need to keep an eye on Archie...
I'm black and I've noticed it too.
They've done this a lot. Even as far back as the early marvel movies. Idris Elba is nice but Hiemdall is a red headed man in the comics conviently replaced by a black man in the movie.
Its kinda weird. Like its rare we replace blond character but we seem to always replace a red headed character.
One of the reasons that the original is better is that Limitations force you to be more creative in order to work with them while limitless creative freedom can live you aimless
I can’t believe that they made Penguin as woman because I would have expected that Penguin was going to be like Blofeld from James Bond or even the Mandarin from Ironman 3
She fulfills the same role. I really don't want to spoil it, but there's a violent crime that she commits that wouldn't have hit the same way if she was male, partly because of how society views women. I will talk more about it in the Penguin video next week.
@@SerumLakeright and speaking of the Ninja I think he appeared in the comics as a cameo
In short, any new Penguin take that isn't as average as the DCAU's is welcome.
@@SerumLake My literal only problem with the Penguin is her name... Oswalda... As a trans person, I absolutely detest "Female versions of names" where they morph the existing name to create the new one. They should have named her like... Olga or something. That and she still looks nearly identical to the previous Penguin. It literally looks like they're depicting Oswald Cobblepot on HRT if maybe a little taller...
@@DisKorruptd Oswalda is a real name. Doesn't mean it's not lazy but they didn't just append an a onto an existing name to make a fake one.
I was surprised with how different this show turned out. I didn't enjoy absolutely everything about the show, but I loved it's originality, character placement (check out the Nocturna episode, and you'll understand), and the story arch.
I can understand why the changes make others uncomfortable, but this show is actually thought out. If it were a revamp of TAS, I would have been less intrigued, mind you I still would have watched it tho.
I'm more of a casual TAS fan, so don't come at me; I personally draw closer to the first Lego Batman game tbh. 😂 Anyways, props to the creatives, animators, and actors for giving a fresh and slightly darker tone to animated Batman. (P.S. I want to see Man-Bat in this show, so I'm hyped to see what kind of interpretation they go with.)
I actually walked away a little disappointed which shocked me considering the talent involved. I had just finished rewatching TAS and I think I was expecting too much. It suits the tone of the show but I think it could have done with a more dynamic opening credits and I also think we spend way too much time with the GCPD. A lot to like but I think I expected too much.
Really liked the review. Thanks will be my weekend watch all 10 episodes.
I have been pretty tired of people constantly obssessing over tragic, sympathetic or noble backstories and motivations for villains to the point that they try to turn every villain into a tragic figure with once noble goals even when the villain is a personification of pure evil fueled only by pride, malevolence, greed, envy, powerhunger and hate and grudge towards anything that is an affront to their beliefs or towards any obstacles in their path. Like these people misunderstand that the humanity these villains recieve from the writers is not to make them look like a sad character that needs a hug, it's to make them look like a terrible selfish person who only cares about themselves and their world view and will stubbornly stick with their beliefs and behavior until the very end. The humanity is supposed to make us understand them, dislike them for who they are and to make us look forward to their defeat. Like you said their suffering and struggles is because of their own behavior, desires, delusions and actions.
It's nice that we get more of the vain selfish villains in the caped crusader.
Eh, I disagree with you. When BTAS made Mr. Freeze more tragic, it clearly WAS to make him more sympathetic, not to make him look more evil. When they made Magneto a Holocaust survivor (something he was not initially confirmed to be), the goal of making him more sympathetic was clear. So actually, when writers give villains humanity it often IS to engender sympathy from the audience.
I also don't see that as a bad thing myself. I've got nothing against a good pure evil villain, but I don't agree with this trend I've been seeing online of people actively hating sympathetic villains and just wanting 100% monsters 100% of the time. I was always under the impression that moral complexity and nuance are considered aspects of good writing/more interesting characters, rather than everything being so simple as "you're either 100% good or 100% evil, and nothing else". And as an aspiring writer who honestly prefers writing sympathetic villains, it's not exactly comforting to think that my tastes and sensibilities are out of fashion right now. Basically means I'm pursuing my passion at the wrong time.
TL;DR: Pure evil villains are fine, but so are sympathetic ones. I don't think there's anything wrong with either approach.
@@daniellauricella5132 I was not bashing on the sympathetic or tragic villains, I was simply talking about my frustrations with the people who want to change the characters that are meant to be irredeemable unrepentant monsters like for example Ganon or Darth Sidious.
Ganon was only sympathetic in one game but he was not a tragic villain or a villain with a sympathetic backstory like some people believed(mostly because they misunderstood the meaning of the text or were using mistranslations), he had fallen from grace twice, lost his purpose, felt nostalgic for the past and grasped at straws to justify why he is doing what he is doing(his justifications are however weak because his wording shows his selfishness, jelousy, greed, bottomless hunger for power and self importance and he never did anything for anyone other than people who are exactly like him) but would do all his evil deeds again if he got the chance and regrets nothing and feels no remorse. Even in his final moments he remains bitter and sticks with gis stubborn beliefs and his grudge while lacking energy and desire to continue fighting as it was his last chance to get the demon world he desired.
He never had any desire to help anyone other than himself, he only truly cares about himself, the witches who raised him and his ideals about survival of the fittest, might makes right, divine right to rule, conquer and oppress and he wants a world where people constantly live in fear unless they use violence to take power from others. His entire character doesn't benefit from a sympathetic backstory because he was always meant to be a menacing threat and a demon king(evil/darkness incarnate, obstacle to enlightenment, source of evil and representative of the three Buddhist poisons: Greed, hate and ignorance/delusion), he is a vain and entirely selfish villain (as well as the big bad of the Zelda series and the only demon king with the title of Great demon king) who wants nothing more than to subjugate all of creation to his cruel and insane law and he enjoys all the suffering he causes because he likes violence and the use of destructive power. The appeal of his character is that he is an evil irredeemable asshole who doesn't feel conflicted about what he does and themes in the stories he appears in is him vs kings with ideals that are an affront to his ideals or him vs light or his greed and darkness consuming others.
Roberto Rastapopoulos from Tintin financially drained his other family members when he was a boy, hated his father for choosing to become a sponge fisherman and he didn't want to become a nobody trapped on Leros for his whole life. In his last appearance he has comedic scenes that emphasizes just how pathetic he is, he's gone bankrupt and is not in a position to make any complex schemes so he tries to get the password to a millionaire's bank account instead.
Mr Freeze's btas backstory only worked because his character allowed room for it the original Mr Freeze was a generic gimmick villain(and also two different villains back in the day) who steals money and makes ice puns. There was barely any background for him other than him becoming turning into an ice villain because of a lab accident and deciding to commit crime. Ferris Boyle's role in the backstory is to be the evil, selfish and cruel poison that put Freeze in his current life situation. It isn't exactly quality writing to make every villain into someone like Freeze where there is always a bigger darkness that needs to be overcome but that big darkness also has it's own bigger darkness etc. etc. Some villains can get a sympathetic backstory just like Freeze or their own unique backstory but if the villain is someone like Ganon or Sidious you kind of take away the menace by introducing a sad backstory and introducing a bigger bad.
Clayface is complicated because we had multiple different characters who got the clayface name. Original Basil Karlo was a narcissistic irredeemable serial killer who desired to kill the cast and crew of the remake of one of his movies where he starred as the villain and for making him a consultant instead of casting him as the villain again due to some of his scandals but later versions flanderized him and turned him into a tragic sympathetic character despite the fact that there already existed Clayface characters who were tragic and sympathetic, they kind of mixed parts of the other clayfaces' characteristics into Basil Karlo when they started to use him as the main Clayface.
The issue is that the villains have something that makes them iconic and unique(what gives them their identity) but removing that makes them them lose what made them who they are in the first place. Giving a tragic, noble or sympathetic backstory to some of these villains goes against their fundamental role(and thematic role), purpose and inspiration as a whole while for other villains there is room for it because their fundamental purpose and role might not be pure evil incarnate and great evil that willingly corrupts, drains and slaughters those around them. Some villains have a privileged background and are ungrateful for the power and wealth they were born with and may hate some family members for not seeking power, wealth and greatness. Some villains can't be reasoned with while other villains can be reasoned with.
Sympathetic, tragic and noble backstories or sympathetic, tragic and noble villains is not a sign of good writing and neither is unsympathetic irredeemable pure evil villains a sign of bad writing. Good writing is the quality of the story which depends on how the characters and items and world history are used, written and executed. It has nothing to do with sympathy, tragedy, morally good motives or pure evil, grey, complex morality and pure good.
@@carljohansson3512 I can see where you're coming from, though I would point out that no one at Lucasarts or Disney has ever, ever tried to make Sidious sympathetic or tragic. As for Ganon, I can't really speak to that one as much, because my knowledge of Legend of Zelda is limited. Though I will say that in A Link to the Past (one of the Zelda games I know a bit better), he seems pretty thoroughly evil there.
I would also say that, there is such a thing as reimagining/reinterpreting. And Adaptational Villainy and Adaptational Sympathy are two of the ways one does that. Does it mean every instance of it lands? No, but I think it does work some of the time. I think the Telltale Batman games did a great job giving us a more sympathetic Joker, for example, and assuming X-Men '97 makes Apocalypse more sympathetic (which I think may happen based on how the first season ended), I don't think it will necessarily be a kiss of death. A lot will come down to the execution.
So again, I get where you're coming from, but I think there's a place for versions/takes on a character who are maybe more (or less!) sympathetic than the original take. And such reinventions I think are one of the things that justify telling the same stories with the same characters multiple times.
female penguin is a very dumb choice, a stain on a maybe perfectly done revival with something new. Oswald is a monster inside as more is outside as well as his look and attire could make the character not very seriously considered by his adversaries... and thats could be their great mistake. "he dresses well... VERY well... but at the end he is just only a small mass of fury and hatred towards anyone who is tall, beautiful, better than himself". That's what Oswald was and is... just makes him a Nun so, if you wanna do a parody changing his sex. Dumb decision at its finest on something probably very well done. A minimal error is also the switch side of disfigured face in Harv.... Paul Sloan had that look... but compared to Oswalda is just a nothing.
I think you should wait to see what this Penguin does before dismissing it. There's a hideous crime that she commits that wouldn't have hit the same way if she had been male.
Two-Face's disfigurement being on the opposite side is a very deliberate choice to illustrate that Harvey Dent is the bad one, not his wounded personality.
Sorry to be vague, but I don't want to spoil the show for anyone that plans on watching it on Thursday.
@@SerumLake Ohh i'll watch it, as i usually do, no doubt about that. Never judge a book by its cover is the right way.. i'm just annoyed by the design itself that is basically classic Ozzy with betty boop hair and a lipstick. That is the real stain. Do you wanna do something REALLY different? Just make The Penguin a VERY attractive and cruel lady... non Ozzy with lipstick and fake boobs. Like they did with the ventriloquist for example in the comics after Arnold's passing or Joker Martha in Flashpoint. Or just leave Oswald as he is and always been, even more cruel if you like, instead that pointless change, or do it totally different like Telltales.. That's what made me sore.. Yeah i was sure Harv was the evil side in the end, no surprise about him after all beside Sloan, his duality can be used just in.. well, 2 ways after all.. We will see i suppose. For sure thanks to that my interest is lowered a little. But again, we will see, there and here also with your videos
I really hope it will be available to purchase on digital when it comes out. I love Batman
I havent finished the show, but it seems good so far. i like that the villains are that, villains. they are horrible, greedy, and selfish people. i like the tackling of batman's trauma. i honestly really like the harley redesign. she's a psychologist, she should be smart as hell. penguin's changes were fine and worked. people are going to cry over the diversity, but fuck em. its good so far
2:04: I'll prolly try.
3:53: Wait, they're actually not a show thing? I'm somehow bummed.
4:17: Eh, I still love 'em. Brings into mind certain good anime like Neon Genesis Evangelion, and they do help the occasional dubbers.
4:41: We've come a long way since flying the Canadian X-Men: The Animated Series cast for the United States Spider-Man: The Animated Series two-parter crossover, and it's a shame only Storm's VA was financially available in the later "Secret Wars" three-parter on Season 5.
5:21: ...What the?
5:28: "First time?" - Catwoman from The Batman 2004 (To clarify, that iteration NEVER got caught and brought into bars.)
5:40: Now this gonna lead inevitably to heated debates. Anyways, there goes my expected foreboding of the coming storm that is WW2 in the story, and newspaper hints of heroes who'll become the Justice Society of America, and also the likes of Ted Kord Blue Beetle and the Question (basically, the original basis of the Watchmen characters).
I somehow don't mind an evil Bullock. You should see The Dark Knight's Renee Montoya expy Anna Ramirez, who's responsible for Harvey Dent's fall and Rachel's death.
I can say this, this sure is a worthy review. Sorry, IGN, but I'm skipping your review and not gonna bother reading it because, well, it's IGN.
Anyways, will see how IMDb is gonna score this show. Would be problematic if it's less than 7.0 (but no, review bombing doesn't count). Also, TV Tropes' YMMV page.
im kind of sad that it isn't said in the 40's. i was hoping that it'd be basically a animated adaptation of the bat-man first knight
Isn’t it set in the 40’s?
Tv is black and white, bats has no advanced technology. People listen to the radio for news…
I liked the show mostly, but I felt there were some heavy cons. Bruce's interactions with Alfred for instance, extremely disappointing.
Glad to hear your opinions on the show! I was worried it would disappoint me (not because it looked bad, but because I thought I might've gotten my hopes too high), but from what you've said here it seems pretty good! I am a little bit bummed that most of my favorite villains aren't in the show, but that's not too big of a deal all things considered.
There are more villains in it than they've announced, but they're mostly brief cameos, or mentioned in newspaper headlines
@@SerumLake Ah okay, that's cool- nice that they included nods to other villains somehow
@@SerumLakeAnd heroes?
The idea of Batman Caped Crusader is great while some parts of it aren’t the way I would go with. Such as the black Gordon family or female penguin. Race, sexism, etc is always going to be a factor.
I don’t understand why writers or producers feel the need to change the race of existing well known characters. People feel attached to certain characters and remaking them just seems lazy. Nobody has a problem with cyborg or blue beetle or wonder woman because they weren’t existing white dudes that just suddenly turned into a minority or woman they were always their own original characters. And I think people would react very differently and not as dismissive if minority characters and women were all the sudden white guys. White cyborg or blade or a man as starfire or something. People would be rightfully questioning what the purpose of changing these well established characters is.
@@markrogers1786 Because making a new character who serves the purpose of an existing character pisses people off and leads to calls to bring them in instead of the replacement (see Ellen Yin being booted in place of James Gordon in season 2 of The Batman, or anytime Punchline shows up in the comics)
@markrogers1786 Why do you think creators keep making April O neil black? Because it is easier to change the race of an established white character in the name of "diversity" than actually creating a new original character!
@@jordanloux3883 It's a lose lose situation. Make a new character, fan backlash. Try your own spin on an existing character, fan backlash.😢
@@jordanloux3883 having Ellen Yin being an original character is a million times better than if they kept her character but decided she IS commissioner Gordon or Harvey bullock or something. That would be terrible.
5:43 - 5:55 albeit incredibly vague… I’m pretty sure that ghost cowboy was rac!st. They didn’t lean into it much, but the undertones were there.
They were shying away from the reality of that time, but at least they made an attempt with that episode.
Yeah bullock was the only thing I didn’t care for just because he is undoubtedly the most loyal cop under Jim Gordon in the comics and 90s show. But you know it doesn’t break the show or anything
This is a great and refreshing take from Timm and the team. Really feels like a gothic noir!
They know why that is. These people are never shy about why diverse casting bothers them, and most of them feel emboldened to just come right out and say it.
Honestly, the only thing I find weird about this is that Harley Quinn exists without The Joker. I’m not saying it’s bad or uninteresting, just that why is she dressed like a jester without his influence? Unless Joker is there, and you don’t mention him.
She adopts the Jester theme because she targets people who act like kings. In the medieval times the Jester was the only person that could speak the truth to (and insult) the king
@@SerumLake That sound's weird honestly. New idea which is sorta cool, but it would've been better if it had been a separate character.
We finally know how Bruce's parents really died, Alfred ate them.😂
He was fat in the original comics.
This show is basic on the silver age..
Twat
For real, they made him THICCCCC
You Should/Please Do Videos Analyzing The Villains Of The Batman 2004 Like The Following
1)Joker
2)Penguin
3)Riddler
4)Hugo Strange
5)Ventriloquist
6)Killer Croc
7)Black Mask
8)Firefly
9)Clayface 1 And 2
10)Poison Ivy
11)Harley Quinn
12)Killer Moth
13)Man Bat
14)Bane
15)Mr. Freeze
16)Catwoman
17)Cluemaster
18)Rag Doll
19)Gearhead
20)Spellbinder
21)D.A.V.E
22)Terrible Trio
23)Wraith And Scorn
24)Maxie Zeus
25)Cosmo Prank
26)Rumor
it'll take a while for me to get around to them.
You know, I actually enjoyed Batman: Caped Crusader! There's so many things I love in that show especially how the new voice actor of Batman did a great job voicing him and he replicated Kevin Conroy's voice a little bit. Also the female version of The Penguin threw me off a little, but I still really enjoy that little change. Overall, I think this Batman Show is amazing and hopefully we'll see what The Joker would look like in this show. Well at least I hope so.😁😅🌃🦇
Really excited to see this show for myself, from what you've said it looks like I'll be a little let down by the visual style of the show, but pretty much everything else looks set up to deliver a fun, new, authentic Batman experience.
Really happy to hear you enjoyed it. Can't wait to watch the series for myself and to hear your in depth thoughts.
By the by, would you be interested in analysing BTAS's depiction of Maxie Zeus?
He is on the list, and should be done later this year.
@@SerumLake Thanks. Look forward to it.
Now at last, might Zeus is home!
A female penguin? Interesting, hope she is a good as regular ozzy or better
🦇🖤Finally, someone who has no hatred to say thanks!...honestly, it would be cool if she was Oswalds mother.🖤🦇
@@silascaceres4060 People that only hate for rage-bait, pay them no attention.
Beyond ‘woke’, a female Penguin is just _lame_ . . .
@@edwardcatt2399 Says Edward Catt, the man who disputes the sex of cartoon characters online.
Well, she isn't very bright that's what I noticed
I'm sure the episodes are well done, but after Kevin Conroy and Arleen Sorkin's passing away, I just don't have the heart to watch new episodes without them.
I hope they will make more original Villains.
I didn't even get to most of the "controversial" stuff. I disliked Bruce referring to Alfred as Pennyworth and Dent starting as a borderline corrupt politician. I simply didn't see any interesting story telling in the opening episode and my attention wasn't grabbed. I want to give it another shot though, I hope the show can make up for a weak start.
Dc comics need to stop focusing on Batman all the time. There other DC characters they could use for animated series. Yet, they always pick Batman because he's a cashcow.
No, they do it because they know nobody who isn't a DC fan cares about other heroes.
But, it's only Batman franchise stale if they keep using everywhere. Can't they take a break from it?
@@dragonhead99 If they want to make their money back? No. Because comic book fans are the minority of the audience for these shows. Nobody cares who Booster Gold is if he isn't cracking jokes with Superman.
They are using Superman for an animated series right now, and next they'll do one about the Creature Commandos of all people.
Lol we've just had Peacemaker and we're about to get Joker 2 and then Superman.
Your review is making me very excited to watch the show! Definitely gonna be binging every episode when it comes out.
6:48 Because this show was on Amazon Prime, I was disappointed that they didn't have the show go all the way with the 1940s idea. We could've had a more fascinating period piece with Bruce's attitudes towards the stupidity of racism, sexism, and homophobia being ahead of its time. We still get a little of this with the attitude of Gentleman Ghost. Still for what we get, we get one of the better Batman series of the last few years.
Caped Crusader reminds you to trust the historical dialectic.