http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE30PerchanceToDream
Bruce Wayne wakes up and discovers his parents are still alive and he's not Batman. Everything seems perfect, but is it all too good to be true?
Tropes in this episode include:
- All Just a Dream: Bruce Wayne wakes up in a world where he isn't Batman. He eventually realizes that it is a dream (because some people's dreams work in such a way that they can't read anything in a dream) and ends it by jumping off the clock tower. Apart from the reading issue, wish fulfillment dreams don't work on Batman; a world where Bruce Wayne is happy? His subconscious knows that's impossible.
- Artistic License – Biology: Batman figures out he is trapped in a dream when he is unable to read the books or newspapers; he later explains this by saying that the parts of the brain responsible for dreaming and reading are on different hemispheres and that it's impossible to read in a dream. This is a myth—the brain is far more complex than that, and it is entirely possible and completely commonplace for people to read in dreams. However, if you read in a dream, the text on the page rarely stays the same between two looks. So given "realistic" limitations on the dream machine, he could very easily have found out almost exactly the same way in real life, too—it just wouldn't be quite as obvious. For a twenty-minute cartoon, the way they did it is a reasonable shorthand to save time and simplify it for the target audience.
- Berserk Button: Mad Hatter's scheme hit this for Batman. When the latter wakes up, he's so unbelievably pissed that he looks like he's about to strangle the poor bastard, before Mad Hatter's Villainous Breakdown left him too pathetic for Batman to even bother.
- Bittersweet Ending: Batman escapes the dream world and the Mad Hatter is arrested. However, the experience leaves Batman bitter as he returns to his reality of life without his parents, a fiancee, and being free of the burden of his crusade.
- Blank Book: Some books are blank, others are just full of gibberish. This is because reading is a function of the right side of the brain, which is inactive when sleeping.
- Cuckoo Nest: Bruce Wayne wakes up in a world where he isn't Batman and nearly gets institutionalized by his parents and fiancee (Selina Kyle) for maintaining against all evidence that he's a superhero. He spends the episode evading the police until he gets into an altercation with Batman. Of course, this is all a dream created by the Mad Hatter to trap Batman.
- Dream Emergency Exit: Bruce realizes it's All Just a Dream when he finds he can't read any books (based on the idea that the left side of the brain, which controls the interpretation of written words, is mostly dormant during dreaming), though it takes him a bit longer to figure out how to free himself. Bruce gets out of the dream state unharmed by "dying" in a fall. Judging by Mad Hatter's reaction, this is the only way to get "out," and he's shocked someone would willingly end what should be their greatest fantasy.
- Dying to Wake Up: Once Batman figures out it's All a Dream, he realises there's only one guaranteed way out, and jumps to his simulated death from the bell tower.
- Fate Worse than Death: Bruce jumps off the clock tower rather than stay in the dream—either he wakes up or he dies, avoiding the worse fate either way.
Bruce: NO!!! I won't live a lie! No matter how attractive you make it!
Mad Hatter: It's a moot point, my friend. There's no way out of this.
Bruce: Tell me how to wake up or I'll... !
Mad Hatter: Ah ah ah! You can't hurt a dream, my good fellow! And you
can't wake up! Stop fighting it! See? In a moment the police will be here. Do you want to spend the rest of your dream life in Arkham?
- The Final Temptation: Batman is caught in a virtual dream world by the Mad Hatter (who fortunately cannot observe the dream itself) living a life as playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne, with his parents alive and well (and thus he has never become Batman). In the dream, he is engaged to Selina Kyle (who is not Catwoman) and the mysterious Batman is someone else who has just shown up in Gotham. His friends and family in the dream almost have him completely convinced he has created his real life as a delusion to escape his feelings of not having accomplished anything on his own, but the illusion falls apart when he discovers he can't read anything.note Trying to read something in a dream is a trick used by lucid dreamers to detect whether they are dreaming. Unless you have a photographic memory, your brain will have some trouble trying to remember or imagine a page full of text. Suffice to say, he does not appreciate the Mind Screw when he wakes himself up.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Just before picking up the newspaper and seeing that the text is illegible, Bruce comments to Alfred that his new life is the greatest dream ever dreamt.
- Foreshadowing:
- The main clue that the Mad Hatter is behind the events of this episode is the fact that his theme plays multiple times throughout the episode, including on the episode's title card.
- During the first appearance of "Batman," one of the storefronts in the background has a sign on it that's illegible gibberish. It could be just an artifact of being drawn by the animators as filler, but, in retrospect, it could be a subtle clue as well.
- A Glitch in the Matrix: The Mad Hatter traps Batman in a Lotus-Eater Machine where his parents are still alive and well, and some other guy is out there beating up crooks in a bat costume every night instead of him. The way he realized he was dreaming was that the newspaper he was reading was gibberish. Then he remembered that the brain hemisphere used for dreaming was not the one used for reading. While that's nonsense (both hemispheres are used for dreaming, and he got it the wrong way around about which is used for reading), it is true that some dreams typically failed providing readable text.
- Idle Rich: With his parents alive and the role of Batman taken, Bruce has nothing to do—while he runs Wayne Enterprises in theory, "Alfred" notes that Lucius Fox does the actual work. "Leslie" assumes Bruce's problem stems from disassociation—he's identifying with Batman because he doesn't feel he's personally accomplished anything.
- In-Universe Factoid Failure: Bruce explains to the dream version of Batman that dreams are mostly formed by the brain's left hemisphere while the right hemisphere is responsible for understanding written text. This is actually backward and a very rudimentary understanding of the brain's complexities even beyond that.
- It's a Wonderful Plot: Bruce wakes up to discover his parents are alive, he's engaged to Selina Kyle who isn't Catwoman, and there's even a Batman to fight crime. Sounds like a perfect life, huh? Like it says in the title, it's All Just a Dream and he's been put in a Lotus-Eater Machine by the Mad Hatter.
- "Leave Your Quest" Test: Batman is trapped in a Lotus-Eater Machine where his parents aren't dead, he's engaged to Selina Kyle, and someone else is running around Gotham City, solving crimes and fighting the good fight. Eventually Bruce Wayne starts to settle in and writes his Caped Crusader days off as a temporary illusion. Then, he realizes he can't read, and recognizes that it's because he's in a dream world.
- Literary Allusion Title: To Hamlet, more specifically the To be, or not to be soliloquy.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The Mad Hatter's device creates its victim's ideal world for them to stay content in. Since it uses the mechanism of dreaming, common irregularities of dreams such as illegible printed text act as A Glitch in the Matrix to clue the victim in to what's going on.
- Milking the Giant Cow: "Thomas Wayne" makes a giant swinging motion as he explains that he and "Martha" are going to go golfing. Evidently, the Thomas Wayne in this continuity really likes golf.
- Musical Spoiler / Theme Song Reveal: There's a modified version of The Mad Hatter's Leitmotif as a musical hint towards his usage of a dream machine on Batman that plays at several points throughout the episode.
- Nightmare of Normality: The bulk of the episode, with Bruce finding himself in his dream of an ordinary life.
- Pink Means Feminine: Selena wears a pink and lavender outfit.
- Parental Bonus: Pay close attention to Selina's actions when she offers to cheer Bruce up. She's taking off her gloves as she says it.
- Psychological Horror: Bruce fears to see Through the Eyes of Madness for all his I Just Want to Be Normal fantasy.
- Shout-Out: Although the entire series is heavily indebted to Film Noir, some of the most explicit references are found in this episode. The climax at the bell-tower is perhaps a nod to Vertigo and Batman directly quotes the final paraphrase from The Tempest in The Maltese Falcon in the end. The dreamlike nature of the storyline is very much in common with Film Noir. Interestingly, the climax also resembles the finale of Metropolis and Batman, in which Batman and the Joker face off in the spire of a cathedral.
- Shout-Out to Shakespeare:
- Villainous Breakdown:
- Whole-Plot Reference: This episode is one for the comic "For the Man Who Has Everything" (later given an Animated Adaptation in fellow DCAU show Justice League). Both stories are about a villain placing the hero who into a Lotus-Eater Machine and given a dream about regular life, their parents are alive, and they are happily married.
