This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Working Title: Taking The Kids: From YKTTW
Unknown Troper: Batman The Animated Series has an episode where an ex-con, after getting out of prison, has discovered that his ex-wife has taken his daughter and now has a restraining order out on him. Driven to desperation in order to see his daughter again, he steals an invisibility suit from the technology company where he works and pretends to be his daughter's imaginary friend, and steals diamonds to give to her However, he's still broken the law, so Batman has to hunt him down. In any case, by this point, you're probably rooting for the guy, but, course, he's up against Batman, so no amount of hope will stop him from being caught. At which point we're given a Tear Jerker scene where he's unmasked, and his daughter completely rejects him because her mother told her all these years that he was a monstrous boogeyman. Despite all of this, he's never treated by anyone as anything but a complete out-and-out villainous scumbag, and we even get a feel-good ending where the wife is glad that the daughter isn't talking to him anymore.
Paul A: Speaking as somebody who's just rewatched the episode in question, this is not an accurate synopsis. The episode is not subtle about taking the side of the ex-wife and the daughter against the ex-con, but it's not unclear either: there is no indication anywhere that the guy's reputation and restraining order are undeserved. The guy may have a nice line in self-justification, but he's running on selfish motives throughout. He steals much more for himself than for his daughter, and in the process delights in assaulting and insulting people when he could just walk invisibly away. His attempt to get his daughter back is all about what he wants, with no reference to her or her mother; his reaction when she rejects him, in that purportedly tear-jerking scene, is very revealing on that score, and I had no sympathy for him at all.
