Web Animation / Batman: Broken Promise

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Batman: Broken Promise is 2022 fan-animated short by YouTube user Trumble Animation.

Batman is investigating the overdose death of a CEO and the trail seems to lead him to Scarface and the Ventriloquist. But appearances as they say, are often deceiving.

Can be watched here.

This film contains examples of:

• Arc Words: Promises.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: Harvey says he doesn't hate Batman any more, but then adds in his Two-Face snarl, "That having been said... I'm not crazy about you either!"
• Berserk Button:
  • Two-Face absolutely loses it when Batman steals his coin; and goes crazy trying to get it back, even attacking his thugs so they can't shoot Batman before the coin makes a 'choice'.
  • Scarface also has his traditional button: when people talk to the Ventriloquist instead of him, he's the one in charge, not his dummy.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: While fighting against the Ventriloquist, Batman actually gets the drop on them by distracting Arnold with ventriloquism, throwing his voice opposite to where he was and calling out the Ventriloquist. Giving him the chance to grapple him and begin interrogating Arnold.
• Bittersweet Ending: While the Ventriloquist and Two-Face are both apprehended, Harvey is still a shadow of his former self but Batman still has hope for him. On another note, the Ventriloquist is now free from Scarface, although it's likely he'll just end up making another like every other version of the character.
• The Cameo: Renee Montoya and Harvey Bullock appear at the start of the short, investigating the overdose death of the CEO.
• Car Fu: Batman takes care of Two-Face's goons by remote controlling the Batmobile.
• Color Contrast: A gorgeous red and blue color pallet is used for a lot of scenes, mainly the later half of the video, when Two-Face is revealed.
• Corporate Samurai: Two-Face’s henchwoman Sticks certainly dresses the part and even carries a katana.
• Disposable Vagrant: A homicide team is investigating the death of a Gotham CEO, while in the street below Batman finds several vagrants killed by the same spiked drug, without even a patrolman turning up in response.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Two-Face’s plan basically amounts to kill half of everybody regardless if they’re rich or poor. For that matter, his gang consists of an equal number of street thugs and sharply-dressed Corporate Samurai.
• Face–Heel Turn: As is always the fate of Harvey Dent. A tape of one of his speeches during his campaign to become district attorney is shown in the first half of the short, showing him calling for the end of social divides and promising to hold the upper classes accountable for their actions. But when he appears in the present day, he's completed his transformation into Two-Face and is planning to hold criminals accountable using far more extreme methods.
• Facial Horror: While Two-Face was never really a looker to begin with, here his scarred side is even more grotesque, looking more akin to a zombie.
• Fauxshadow: When meeting with Scarface, Two-Face's henchwoman Sticks tells him that she'll see if she can "scare" up her boss. This, along with the Scar drugs being poisoned with an unknown substance, might give the viewer the impression that another Batman villain is working with Scarface. Of course, shortly afterwards it's revealed to be Two-Face.
• Futureshadowing: Harvey Dent begins his campaign speech with "This city is polarized" and makes numerous references to divisions and there being two sides. He'll end up that way himself.
• Guns Akimbo: Two-Face attempts to do this as he's fighting with Batman, however because he's trying to unholster his other gun while he's in a fistfight with Batman, it ends up being more trouble than its worth.
• Heads or Tails?: Batman interrupts the coin toss by pulling the coin into his hand with a magnetized gauntlet. After an epic brawl with Two-Face the coin finally hits the ground... and comes up on the undamaged side. Two-Face placidly surrenders.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: A video tape shows a handsome Harvey Dent in his heyday, giving an idealistic campaign speech calling on Gothamites to cast aside their cynicism.
• Kill the Lights: After Batman is thrown into the midst of Scarface and his thugs, he smashes the neon bar light to plunge the room into darkness. Later when Batman is interrogating Arnold, Scarface shoots out the light so the two of them can flee.
• Kirk Summation:
  Batman: I made a promise too, and I have to make it over and over, every time I go out there. Killing with your eyes closed isn't justice, Harvey. That coin isn't freedom from choice; it's a surrender. All you've done is democratize your own hate.
• Knight Templar: Two-Face’s plan is to poison half of Scarface’s drug shipments so that everyone from the rich higher ups to the lowest of lows and everyone in the middle would have the same chance to be poisoned and die as a form of equal justice.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: The reveal of Two-Face as the Big Bad of the short is a major twist, though in the years following its release, he's been prominently featured in promotional images and the like surrounding the animation (such as the page image).
• Lightswitch Surprise: Batman turns on the blue light and discovers that Two-Face—as well as scrawling his insane graffiti on the walls—has poisoned exactly one half of the drugs being manufactured.
• Meaningful Echo: "No double standards, no half measures, no compromises." Harvey gives this line for a Rule of Three; first during his political speech as Harvey Dent, promising his tough fight against crime on all sides. Later, as Two-Face, explaining the motivation behind his extremist plan to kill anyone who takes the poisoned drugs. The third time is when he's brawling with Batman—and because Two-Face refuses to compromise his own standards, he doesn't kill Batman when he finally has him dead to rights, because the coin ends up on its undamaged side.
• Motive Rant: Two-Face gives an epic one.
  Two-Face: Everyone says they want to fight the War on Drugs, no one tries to win. If I can’t control the crime, I’ll control the punishment. And in my solution there’s no hypocrite law makers, no corrupt judicial system, no mass incarceration economy. My gangs sell to the whole city! The high and the low, yuppies and junkies alike. No more 1%, no 99% just a fifty percent chance… you won’t wake up. The nuclear option. I’ve done what the authoritarian fascists and limp dick bleeding hearts never could! Take over the swamp and poison the water. And once I had the idea, you know I didn’t have a choice.
• The Mole: Scarface finds out too late that Arnold Wesker was in with Two-Face to poison half his drug shipments.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The scarred side of Two-Face looks akin to his portrayal in the The Dark Knight, being mostly composed of burnt and exposed muscle.
  • While fighting Two-Face, Batman briefly holds the cowl-over-face pose used for promotional material for Batman: The Animated Series. The final shot of the video recreates the end of the series' intro, lightning bolt and everything.
• Noble Demon: Even with how far he's fallen, Harvey/Two-Face adheres to his promise of making "no compromises." When his coin lands good side up in his fight with Batman, he somberly chooses to spare him and surrenders.
• Oh, Crap!: Scarface realizes how screwed he is when he deduces that Two-Face's man on the inside is the Ventriloquist.
  Mr. Scarface: What the hell does that- (Realizes it) Oh no…
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Batman lays into Two-Face for allowing his coin to control his decisions, informing him that he hasn't freed himself from choice—he's made himself a prisoner.
• Room Full of Crazy: Under the blue light in Scarface’s hideout, we see disturbing drawings and rantings of Two-Face.
• Verbal Tic: Scarface here is unable to articulate his b’s properly, instead replacing them with g's, much like he did in the comics.
• Waistcoat of Style: Instead of wearing a full suit, Two-Face dons a rather snazzy asymmetric waistcoat with one side glowing red under bluelight.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After Wesker shoots Scarface, Two-Face has his goons aim their guns at him. While he's willing to leave his fate up to a coin toss, it's clear he doesn't really care much for what happens to him. When it seemingly lands on the scarred side, his thugs open fire but luckily Batman intervenes to save the Ventriloquist.