Batman TAS - The Forgotten

[Archanubis]

X-Men TAS being unanble to even say "die" or "dead" and having to use "destroy" was painfully wince-inducing, especially given that Transformers a handful of year prior was not only saying this stuff, but actively killing characters off. Nevermind Star Wars or anything, so regularly on the telly.

(Heck, in UK, it was acceptable to have characters killed on screen in, of all things, a Cosgrove Hall (i.e. the people behind Dangermouse) Fantomcat.)

Hell, the Transformers series that aired during the X-Men's last season or two was doing the same thing. Towards the end of "Spider's Game," Tigatron is practically beaten to a scrap pile by the Predacons and his tiger parts actually look like they're bleeding. Granted, Beast Wars could get away with it because they were a syndicated series, but still...

[cdrood]

I've always hated it when people say Batman is out for vengeance on criminals. That's The Punisher. Batman is about no 10 year old children having to watch their parents gunned down. It's why he'll let the Joker escape to stop a mugging, even though pure numbers say Joker is going to kill a lot more people than the mugger.

[cdrood]

The 80's is when cartoons became seriously edited on violence. It's why G.I. Joe had M-16's that fired lasers and every plane shot down showed a guy bailing out with a parachute.

[Nealithi]

The 80's is when cartoons became seriously edited on violence. It's why G.I. Joe had M-16's that fired lasers and every plane shot down showed a guy bailing out with a parachute.

And even anime was given rewrites so what was being killed were 'robots'.

[Robovski]

I was rewatching the first episode of Thundarr The Barbarian again yesterday (got the DVD set for Christmas) and they establish that the knights Thundarr had been fighting were robots before he literally runs one through with his Sunsword. Because it's 1980 and running someone through with a sword is a violent act we can't do to humans, only human-like robots. This is at a time when you could still watch Errol Flynn and others run people through with swords on TV but in black and white, but it's not acceptable in cartoons because cartoon.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I've always hated it when people say Batman is out for vengeance on criminals. That's The Punisher. Batman is about no 10 year old children having to watch their parents gunned down. It's why he'll let the Joker escape to stop a mugging, even though pure numbers say Joker is going to kill a lot more people than the mugger.

It's not as if he always chooses to just let Joker run away in order to save people. The debate has to do with whether or not he should kill him, period.

[FaxModem1]

The bigger issue is what they have Batman do when he's not investigating or stopping a crime. Is he roaming around the city looking for more purse snatchers to stop, or is he stopping a sizable amount of potential purse snatchers by giving them a chance at a better life through jobs programs and homeless shelters?

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

The bigger issue is what they have Batman do when he's not investigating or stopping a crime. Is he roaming around the city looking for more purse snatchers to stop, or is he stopping a sizable amount of potential purse snatchers by giving them a chance at a better life through jobs programs and homeless shelters?

I'm going to take a loose stab on it and give the benefit of the doubt with respect to superhero narrative. In Gotham he has developed a reputation around every district that heightens the stakes greatly for any auspicious street crime guy. As he goes for the bigger and bigger fish, he just sweeps through the different areas one by one along the way and it keeps his rep secure.

[TrueMetis]

The bigger issue is what they have Batman do when he's not investigating or stopping a crime. Is he roaming around the city looking for more purse snatchers to stop, or is he stopping a sizable amount of potential purse snatchers by giving them a chance at a better life through jobs programs and homeless shelters?

For the past couple decades? Both.

[Becca]

Nice to see the warm reception The Forgotten has been getting. I prefer the earlier batman episodes over the New Adventures ones. They lean into the atmosphere and melodrama a bit more- a lot like an early radio serial.

And I kinda like goofy bits. (which- if you’ve listened to early radio serials, could also be incredibly goofy) Alfred flying the bat plane comes off as silly, but from that we get that nice moment where Bruce playfully punches his arm as they both lie back relieved they’ve found one another.