Batman: The Animated Series/Nightmare Fuel: Difference between revisions

* Clayface is certainly a terrifying character already. His introductory episode was [[Transformation Trauma|bad enough]], but there's a follow-up episode that had him creating a little girl out of his substance to act as a "lookout" to see if it was safe for him to come out of hiding. She acquires a self-identity and tries to escape and befriend Robin. Nevertheless Clayface ''reabsorbs her'', to her terror.

** NOTHING says "Don't Do Drugs" like after Mr. Hagan is forcibly overdosed and left in the backseat of a car in the back alley. He starts to ''melt.''

** Kirk Langstrom's [[Transformation Trauma|transformation]] scene in "On Leather Wings". Mostly because of how well it's animated. It looks like something out of a werewolf movie, and combined with the sound of his laugh degenerating into a hypersonic bat screech, the whole sequence tends to stick in the mind.

** The scene where Langstrom, creepily calm, explains that he's addicted to the Man Bat formula and then transforms right in front of Bats. The episodes [[Animation Bump]] doesn't really make things less nightmarrific.

** There is a followup episode where someone has managed to duplicate the ManBat formula, and all clues point to the reformed Dr. Langstrom. [[Fridge Horror]] kicks in as you realize Kirk truly has reformed and is starting to wonder if he is simply unaware of his [[Enemy Within]]. Even worse, it turns out the new ManBat is his wife, who had absorbed some of the formula through a wound she had while she helped him destroy the formula. That ep launched Kirk straight into Woobie territory.

* ''Anything'' to do with Scarecrow. (Except for the episode that introduced him, which had bad animation and gave him a very un-creepy booming voice.) As befitting his name, he is [[Nightmare Fuel]] incarnate, exposing people to their greatest fears which end up terrifying the audience as well. His image-upgrade in ''The New Adventures of Batman'' from a skinny dude with a stupid mask to ''a corpse with a rope around its neck'' certainly doesn't help matters. Nor did getting [[Jeffrey Combs]] to do the voicework.

** The Scarecrow himself was actually kind of cartoony during his first incarnation in ''TAS'', but his redesign when it became part of ''The New Batman/Superman Adventures'' is bonechilling. The fact he's voiced by [[Jeffrey Combs|Jeffrey "Dr. Herbert West" Combs]], that just goes beyond the pale.

* The episode "House and Garden" features Poison Ivy with a husband a kids that turn out to be plant-based clones she created. We find this out when several pods in her basement hatch babies, who, while calling for "Mommy" grow into hideous monsters in a few seconds. Sadly, this was closest Pamela could get to [[I Just Want to Be Normal|being normal.]] No wonder she got so bitter later on. (See below)

** Crossing into [[Uncanny Valley]] was the episode ''House and Garden'' when Poison Ivy creates children out of plants. First, Batman and Robin end up in her basement, saving her "husband" who was in a huge vat of water, and then they hear children saying, "Mommy...mommy," they turn, and see ''children'' coming out of the plants. It's hard to explain on the page, but holy crap that was scary...

* Ra's al Ghul's [[Psycho Serum|Psychotic reaction]] after being put into the Lazarus pit, and nearly throwing ''his own daughter'' into the pit!

* "See No Evil". A psychotic man used an invisibility suit to secretly trick his daughter to leave with him. The man in question was {{spoiler|an ex-con whose wife had divorced him, and judging by the restraining order and her violent reaction to his company, he was most likely abusive. He becomes invisible in order to pose as his daughter's imaginary friend, steals expensive jewelry for her, and finally attempts to kidnap her - but is then exposed. Bats intervenes, and the episode ends with the little girl telling him that she and her mother are going to move away, "somewhere Daddy will never find us"}} - it's not just scary, it's a [[Tear Jerker]].

* In "Wolf's Moon" the thought of Romulus presumed to be trapped as a mindless [[Wolf Man]] because he was ''prevented from getting the antidote because Professor Milo dropped the antidote when werewolf-Romulus got all snarly at him.

* The episode with the Sewer King and his underground child slaves. Thankfully, Batman took him down; in fact, Batman was so enraged that he was trying to prevent himself from crippling the guy on the spot - or worse - and made the Sewer King acutely aware of that.

* What happens when Bane gets a little too much venom.

* Batgirl's dream sequence death was particularly traumatizing, as she falls from a high rise, onto her fathers car. made even worse by a censorship edit that put the camera inside the car with Jim Gordon as his daughter hits his hood.

** Batman's implied change of policy in this episode.

'''Batman''': {{spoiler|"It makes no difference now."}} }}

* "Avatar". The immortal Egyptian queen, who at first looks beautiful to Ra's, then turns out to actually look... well, like a bazillion-year-old mummy woman ''should''.

** When Harvey Dent saw what happened to his face. His poor girlfriend wasn't the only one who screamed.

** The ending of ''Judgement Day'', as it ends with Harvey in his prison cell, playing out a trial in his own mind:

** In the origin episode of Two-Face, Rupert Thorn is trying to blackmail Harvey Dent (with the information of his split personality, pre-accident) into looking the other way, and offers him a trade. Harvey is getting visibly more and more pissed as Thorn details the trade, and then suddenly goes completely calm. "Sounds good, Thorn. There's just one problem." and then his face turns to sadistic evil incarnate and in his creepy, psychotic criminal Two Face voice says "You're dealing with the wrong Harv." and proceeds to kick the crap out of Thorn and his goons. It's not nightmare fuel due to gore or torture, but the sudden conversion from Harvey Dent to "Big Bad Harv", and the lighting and way his face contorts, is 100% pure grade A nightmare fuel to younger viewers.

** When he had the plastic surgery to get his face repaired. He rips half of his face off in that episode.

* In "The Demon Within", Jason Blood says that Klarion turned his parents into mice, and then we get a close-up on his [[Cats Are Mean|snarling pet cat]]. Nothing is stated outright; the audience are left to [[Fridge Horror|draw their own conclusions]].

* A brief segment of "Moon of the Werewolf", ending with the mad scientist threatening the guy with, "If you want the antidote, you're going to do everything I say."

* ...One shouldn't watch ''Mask of the Phantasm'' '''and''' ''Return of the Joker'' together. For the first time. Right before bed. You'll have nightmares about being stalked and chased by the Joker.

* Such is the power of B:TAS's Nightmare Fuel that it extends to the damn ''activity center'' based off of it. Never mind the creepy ambiance. Never mind that all the games set in Gotham pit you against such [[Blatant Lies|pleasant fellows]] as Two-Face and the Joker (the game set in the sewers implies that Killer Croc is there, making it even worse). Never mind that all that can be heard in Wayne Manor is that damn clock. If you try to continue a game, you'll first have to confirm whether or not actually continue it or start a new game--''on a blood-red screen of the Joker staring right at you, taunting you with the knowledge that whichever choice you make, you'll never catch him.'' Oh, and every time you exit back to Gotham, [[Hell Is That Noise|he laughs at you from off-screen]]. (There's apparently another edutainment B:TAS game wherein, if the cover art is anything to go off of, you have to stop the Joker from murdering Robin. It's probably even worse.)