Batman: TAS Favorite Two-Face episode

[Greg]

When it comes to the characterizations of Batman characters, the DCAU worked wonders. Among the top were how well they wrote Two-Face. Batman: The Animated Series captured the essential essences of the character perfectly, from him being the D.A. in the first episode of the series to being a best friend of Bruce's, a tragic villain driven insane, and battles against himself. And who doesn't love his interactions with the other Bat-Rogues? Which was your favorite Two-Face episode?

Pretty Poison: When district attorney Harvey Dent collapses after a meal with Bruce Wayne and his fiancee Pamela Isley, it transpires that he has been poisoned. Batman must find the culprit and discover an antidote before Harvey's time runs out. Not a Two-Face episode, but this episode first showcased the friendship between Harvey and Bruce which developed more in later episodes.

Two-Face, Part 1 and 2: Harvey Dent, campaigning for a re-election, vows to rid Gotham of Rupert Thorne's crime and corruption. The tables turn when Thorne gets a hold of Dent's psychological records and discovers his alternate personality: the violent Big Bad Harv. Thorne attempts to blackmail Dent with this, and the following fight in Thorne's chemical plant hideout results in an explosion that scars the left side of Dent's face, despite Batman's attempts to save him. Now known as Two-Face, Dent starts a rampage through Gotham to get his revenge on Rupert Thorne, eventually finding Thorne's records of past crimes. Two-Face also tries to reconnect with his fiancee, Grace, but Thorne's men get her first, and Two-Face is forced to hand over the records, although Thorne prefers to kill them both. Batman intervenes, and Thorne and Two-Face are captured and sent to prison. Batman sadly wishes his friend good luck for the future.

The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne: After a prominent judge is injured during a struggle with some thugs demanding money from her in exchange for a strange tape, Bruce Wayne decides to take a trip to Yucca Springs, a resort where Vargas visited, and consulted Dr. Hugo Strange, a psychiatrist. Trouble is, Vargas was not the same since her trip, and Strange's relaxation methods are not what they seem, especially when the Joker, Two-Face and Penguin arrive.

Almost Got 'Im: Two-Face, Joker, Killer Croc, Penguin, and Poison Ivy all meet at a poker table, each telling a tale of times when they almost got Batman.

Trial: Gotham's new D.A. is out to capture the Bat, but ends up captured by a gang of criminals instead. She and Batman are later put on trial by judge Joker, Harley, Two Face, Scarecrow, Ventriloquist, Poison Ivy, the Mad Hatter, and other criminals. If the defense (Batman and the D.A.) can prove that Batman is not the cause for everyone's turn to crime, they will be set free. While the jury gives the verdict of 'not guilty' the bad guys don't want to follow through on their deal...

Second Chance: Just before he is to undergo the operation that will restore his face, Harvey (Two-Face) Dent is kidnapped by a mysterious villain. Batman and Robin split up to nab the criminal mastermind behind the scheme. Is it the Penguin, Rupert Thorne, or someone with a more personal reason for hating Harvey Dent?

Sins of the Father: Young orphan Tim Drake becomes Batman's new ward when he becomes involved in one of Two-Face's deadly plots.

Judgment Day: Batman investigates the sudden appearance of "The Judge," a faceless vigilante who battles Gotham City's supervillains with lethal force. His next target: Two-Face.

 

[The Batkilt]

Cool of you to post this thread, I've been re-watching a lot of BTAS episodes recently! Judgment Day was one I'd totally forgot I'd ever watched and only began to suspect it was Two-Face during the final confrontations.

I really like Two Face Parts 1 and 2 as the origin of the character, and like that he'd been shown prior to that and established as Harvey Dent in his own right. I was tempted to say I'd look at this as more of an origin story rather than a great Two-Face story but thinking about it more that'd be total nonsense. I've never understood the idea that just because his face was scarred that he'd develop the Two-Face persona, ala the Burton/Schumacher films. This is, personally, my favourite handling of how the actual Two-Face persona came to be - I prefer it to The Long Halloween and The Dark Knight. Both of those are great but watching these two episodes back to back doesn't seem like watching forty minutes or so of my favourite cartoon, it really is like watching a film.

Trial is another favourite of mine as it dwelves into his split personalities, but other than his origins episode Judgment Day is my personal favourite. I know they don't show a lot of Two-Face but the aspect of another personality developing kind of reminding me of A Serious House On Serious Earth in showing just how fragile his mind really is.

 

[Greg]

Heh, I've shown the Judgment Day episode to many people and I love seeing their reaction to the end. I do agree that Harvey didn't have as much episodes as much as the other rogues and it's a little disappointing given how much of a great character he is and many people agree that next to Joker, he's one of Batman's best foes. I do love, though, that he's included in a few episodes where he gets to interact with together rogues, I always find the lines between them to be rather funny.

Two-Face: (resentfully) Poison Ivy.
Poison Ivy: It's been a long time, Harvey. You're still looking... halfway decent.
Two-Face: (glaring) Half of me wants to strangle you.
Poison Ivy: (smiling) And what does the other half want?
Two-Face: To hit you with a truck!
Poison Ivy: (aside to others) We used to date.
The Joker & The Penguin: (catching her drift) Ahhhh...

Haha! Who doesn't love that? t: And his anger that the Gotham Mint let Batman keep the giant penny is a riot.

I honestly can't pick a favorite for me, although it'd probably come down to the origin and Judgment Day. But damn... decisions, decisions...(flips coin)

 

[The Batkilt]

Haha! That exchange was excellent! My favourite thing about Almost Got 'Im...other than Killer Croc's story!

 

[The Joker]

Second chance.

I love the whole battle of the dual personalities there, with Two Face kidnapping himself because his Harvey side was going to have plastic surgery done on the scarred side of his face, thus destroying the Two Face persona.

 

[ronny]

The best episode is Two-Face parts 1 and 2. Even if the design of TAS' Two-Face is flawed everything else, especially the voice acting, works. His whole plot of revenge against the mob is more in character than later renditions of him as a clear cut criminal and the whole tone is suitably dark.
If only they could have been more faithful to the comics and shown a few deaths.

 

[BlueLightning]

I voted Second Chance, I never saw that episode when I was younger, my first viewing was when I bough all volumes of the series. It surprised me a lot, I nere thought this episode would end like that, the climax was intense and very well written.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Two-Face Part 1 and 2. Great, great episodes! The day before TDK came out I watched my favorite episodes including the ones with Joker and Two-Face. Does the soundtrack during the title card creep anyone else out?

 

[BubbaGump]

Two Face Part 1 (not a big fan of 2, though it was good, don't get me wrong) and Second Chance are my favorites.

A shame Dini didn't write the Two-Face origin two-parter though. I wonder what that would've been like.

 

[Two-Face=Badass]

Second Chance for me, a vastly underrated episode the explores his personalities even further than the origin eps. It also explains how he became a criminal after his origin eps too, how Two-Face gained more and more control and led him down the dark path even further. Out of all the rogues, I'd say Two-Face got the best episode average, that is to say, he was not like the Joer in which half his episodes were only okay or plain bad. He had Two-Face part 1 and 2, Second Chance and Judgment Day. Not to mention the producers realised his ties to Robin and extended that to Batgirl, I love how he was behind the creation of both of them (obviously the Robin I'm talking about is Tim Drake).

 

[Asteroid-Man]

As much as I liked "Two-Face" I loved "Judgment Day" way more.

 

[The Batkilt]

I wasn't a fan of the drawing of the characters in The New Batman Adventures - save for Two-Face, The Penguin and Harley Quinn, and she wasn't really changed - but Judgment Day was one of the better episodes. I've watched and re-watched the entire four volumes of BTAS/TNBA recently and while it's good they ended with a strong story, it's a shame that it was the last. Generally I didn't think the story standards of TNBA were always up there with BTAS.

Looking through that list though...he may not have been used as much as I would have liked but at least Two-Face was featured in some great episodes.

 

[Greg]

I wasn't a fan of the drawing of the characters in The New Batman Adventures - save for Two-Face, The Penguin and Harley Quinn, and she wasn't really changed - but Judgment Day was one of the better episodes. I've watched and re-watched the entire four volumes of BTAS/TNBA recently and while it's good they ended with a strong story, it's a shame that it was the last. Generally I didn't think the story standards of TNBA were always up there with BTAS.

Looking through that list though...he may not have been used as much as I would have liked but at least Two-Face was featured in some great episodes.

Sadly, I forgot to add another episode "Shadow of the Bat."

 

[Greg]

How do you guys feel about Bruce and Harvey being best friends? This was something that seemed to only have developed in the show and their friendship only appeared in the recent Two-Face: Year One that came out not too long ago.

 

[The Joker]

How do you guys feel about Bruce and Harvey being best friends? This was something that seemed to only have developed in the show and their friendship only appeared in the recent Two-Face: Year One that came out not too long ago.

I think that was a substitute for Batman and Harvey and Gordon working together to clean up Gotham. They never had that in BTAS. But they wanted Harvey's change into a villain to still mean something to Batman personally.

I think it worked very well.

 

[Finlandman]

Second chance. But I like Two-Face part 1 too.

 

[Two-Face]

I like all them, but Harvey becoming Two-Face is the best.

 

[Bat Attack]

Two-Face, Part 1 and 2. Great retelling of Two-Faces orgin, plus the animation is fantastic on those particular episodes.

 

[TLH]

Two-Face, Part 1 and 2. Great retelling of Two-Faces orgin, plus the animation is fantastic on those particular episodes.

Same for me. Some chilling moments as well.

 

[RoboAmish]

Two-Face (part 1 more than part 2). Exactly how an origin story should be done

The character kind of lost it following the two-parter. Bar the odd episode (such as Second Chances), he reverted to being an unoriginal, cliched mobster as opposed to the conflicted pscyopath he was first portraed as. The rest of his episodes are still superb, especially Judgement Day and Almost Got 'Im (Gah- love this episode so much. Gotta love Dini's darkly comic script)

 

[Kevin Roegele]

Anyone notice how similar Two-Face sounds to Bale's Batman?

 

[Bat Attack]

Really? I don't hear it.

 

[Greg]

Eh. It's not really there, but I think it's due to both being gravelly. I actually wondered if Two-Face in TDK would have had a gravelly voice, but Harvey's voice did change a tiny bit, a lil' deep in a way when he got extremely depressed and angry.

 

[Darkness Falls]

two face 1 2

also The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne:

simply because of the following exchange

2 face: get outta my face clown
joker: which one

two faces looks shocked

talk about getting OWNED

 

[Greg]

two face 1 2

also The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne:

simply because of the following exchange

2 face: get outta my face clown
joker: which one

two faces looks shocked

talk about getting OWNED

LOL! I love that scene also. I loved in the Almost Got 'EM episode when they started to speculate who Batman really was and Two-Face was about to talk about his theory that Batman was more than one guy and Joker says, "Ah, you're always seeing double." t:

Also,

Joker: Sure, he could be all gross and disgusting under that mask! Uh, no offense, Harv.
Two-Face: Just deal.

Haha. They need more moments like this in the comics.