When Talia al Ghul tells Batman that her father Ra's has been murdered and usurped by Deathstroke, she reveals the existence of their son, Damian. Damian wants revenge, while Batman wants to mold him into a crime fighter — the new Robin. When Deathstroke kidnaps Talia to lure Damian into a final confrontation, Batman must go after Damian and stop Deathstroke.
A 2014 movie in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line and set in the DC Animated Movie Universe, it's an adaptation of "Batman and Son," the arc that started Grant Morrison's Batman run. Voice actors include Jason O'Mara reprising his role from Justice League: War as Batman, Stuart Allen (Transformers: Robots in Disguise) as Damian Wayne, Morena Baccarin (Firefly) as Talia al Ghul, Thomas Gibson (Criminal Minds) as Deathstroke, and Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad) as Ra's al Ghul.
Here is the character sheet.
Tropes:
- 555: Ubu has such a number scrawled on a napkin. In a bit of Shown Their Work, Commissioner Gordon identifies a valid use for it: a phone sex hotline. Granted, it should be a 900 number, but perhaps Ubu didn't bother with that part.
- Absurdly Sharp Blade:
- During the attack on the League of Assassins, Talia manages to fire an arrow clean through a helicopter's armor and kill the pilot. Later on, using a gatling-style automatic crossbow, she shoots down another helicopter.
- Swords are also routinely shown to cut (and in one case, stab through) just about anything but each other.
- The Ace:
- Damian has been trained since birth to be Ra's heir. As a result he's as much of a badass as his parents.
- Batman and Dick Grayson as well, the latter of which beat Damian in a fight even though Damian had a sword, and the former of which... well, is Batman.
- Adaptational Heroism: Talia al Ghul, who fits more in her traditional Anti-Villain role than the outright villain she was portrayed as in Morrison's run in Batman's titles; she was the Big Bad of this arc in particular.
- Adaptational Jerkass: In the comics, Nightwing is open to Damian becoming Robin and gladly supports and guides him even before he got the mantle. Here he's a rather standoffish jerk who would prefer to avoid Damian if at all possible and is vehemently opposed to Damian becoming Robin. Damian didn't exactly make the best first impression, though, so his attitude is understandable.
- Adaptational Villainy: Ubu, who is usually portrayed as a loyal servant to Ra's al Ghul, here betrays him and works with Deathstroke. We never find out why. Then again, as there have been multiple Ubus, maybe it's just one who isn't loyal.note
- Adaptational Wimp:
- Slade Wilson, a.k.a. Deathstroke, compared with his comics' counterpart and another incarnations. He's an even match for Damian; against Batman he doesn't score a single hit.
- Talia isn't quite as tough either. She gets taken out by Deathstroke almost immediately when she invades his stronghold.
- Adaptation Expansion: Deathstroke and Nightwing didn't appear in the original comic.
- Adapted Out: Once again, everyone in the Bat-Family is removed from the story except for Batman himself, Alfred, Nightwing, and whichever Robin is the center of the plot (in this case, Damian Wayne is the plot-important Robin, with Tim Drake once more being omitted).
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: Ra's al Ghul approached Dr. Langstrom to use his research for his own purposes, and as Langstrom points out he's not the kind of man you say "no" to.
- Barehanded Blade Block: Damian catches Deathstroke's sword. Partially justified since his gauntlets are shown to be armored.
- Beast Man: Ra's al Ghul planned to create an army of man-bat ninjas, using Dr. Langstrom's genesplicing research. Dubbed "Project Airstrike" by him.
- The Berserker: Damian's a snobbish, if somewhat surly young lad most of the time. When the fighting starts, he becomes practically feral.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Mooks are routinely killed in bloody ways, Damian is stabbed through both arms and gets one broken, and others are bloodied and bruised through various beatings. Fitting, as Justice League: War didn't shy away from this kind of violence, either, even if aliens were the primary victims of it.
- Blood Knight: Damian Wayne is a barely contained bottle of violence. He gets better by the end.
- Body Horror: After Killer Croc is captured, he starts going into withdrawal from the mutagen steroids that gave him his new tail and strength. His scales are flaking off and his tail is so decayed that Batman just rips it off with one good tug.
- Boom, Headshot!: Deathstroke threatens it on Talia, noting that the Lazarus Pit would not be able to heal it.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Damian Wayne, as is tradition.
- Brick Joke:
- Nightwing's fight with Damian happens offscreen. When the credits roll, a few stills are shown from it.
- At the end of the movie, Damian still wants to drive the Batmobile and his father still refuses. Also counts for the next movie which starts with Damian stealing the Batmobile off dad.
- Broken Ace: Damian lacks emotional tact and the ability to interact with other human beings, mainly due to being groomed to one day inherit the League of Assassins.
- The Cameo: When Batman visits Croc in Arkham he passes by The Joker and Two-Face's cells. All that's seen of Joker is his shadow in a convenient lightning flash and an Evil Laugh, while Two-Face is flipping his coin in the shadows.
- Combat Pragmatist: Deathstroke and his branch of assassins don't mind using guns in addition to melee weapons. Damian isn't above fighting dirty, either, more so once he's under Batman's wing.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Thomas Gibson seems to be channeling Ron Perlman as Deathstroke. Which actually isn't that fantastic, as Perlman did voice Slade, the Teen Titans (2003) version of the character.
- Composite Character:
- Due to Tim Drake's absence in the movie, Nightwing fills in for him as the main target of Damian's insults.
- Deathstroke, being given Talia's Big Bad status from the original comic book story arc, also gets a chunk of her original role.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Batman against Deathstroke is so one-sided that the latter can't even land a hit.
- Curse Cut Short: Nightwing tells Damian to "go f—" before Alfred interrupts.
- Demoted to Extra: Talia al Ghul is the Big Bad of Batman and Son in the comics, but her movie role is quite smaller. Much of her original role is given to Deathstroke in the film.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: The backstory includes Talia al Ghul drugging Batman and making him have sex with her. Any of Batman's objections are brushed off and it's all but directly stated that it doesn't count because he enjoyed it. Nightwing is also unsympathetic to Bruce over the matter, as he grumbles about the lectures Bruce gave him over safe sex, completely ignoring that Bruce was drugged against his will.
- Dramatic Unmask: While attacking Deathstroke's mountain hideout with a team of Assassins, Talia does a dramatic reveal of her face and cleavage because well, why not?
- Entitled Bitch: The scene where Talia tells Batman about Damian essentially amounts to: "Hey Bruce darling, remember that time about ten years back when I drugged and raped you? Ah, good times... anyway, well, you kinda got me pregnant back then, and a bunch of psychotic assassins are coming to kill our bastard child. Mind taking care of him for a while? Wonderful. Toodles!"
- Expecting Someone Taller: Damian thought his father would be taller. And that the Batcave would be bigger. And that he'd have more servants.
- Eye Scream: Damian manages to gouge Deathstroke's eye out, which fuels his vendetta against the boy. Damian also performs a Goomba Stomp on Ubu, right in his eyes. During the climax, Damian also nearly batarangs Deathstroke's one remaining eye out, then spits in it just to spite him. Damian just seems to really hate eyeballs.
- Fan Disservice: Talia's cleavage doesn't really combine well with a face bloodied and bruised from constant torture.
- Forklift Fu: Batman uses this against Killer Croc. It pins him for a bit, but Croc eventually uses his tail to lift it off the ground.
- Freudian Excuse: It's implied that his grandfather's murder is why Damian is particularly confrontational during the pursuit of Deathstroke.
- Good Parents; Despite only just learning about him, Bruce tries to be this to Damian, showing empathy and understanding for Damian's childhood, and trying to break through to him. He ultimately succeeds.
- Gilligan Cut: When Damian slips out on Bruce in London, Nightwing points out that he can hardly swim out to the oil rig that Deathstroke is using as his offshore base. Cut to Damian doing just that.
- Glorified Sperm Donor: Batman to Damian, and Deathstroke even calls him such but it's clear he's saying it out of bitterness.
- Healing Spring: The Lazarus Pit, naturally. Deathstroke plans to sell dips in the pit to the richest buyers.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Talia takes a bullet for Damian, but since the Lazarus Pit is literally right next to her, it's taken care of pretty fast.
- Hookers and Blow: Ubu's lifestyle and perhaps a reason why he was susceptible to Deathstroke's temptations. This a sharp contrast to his usual status as The Fundamentalist and Undying Loyalty. A Justified trope since there's been hundreds of Ubus over the centuries.
- Gatling Good: During the assault on Nanda Parbat, Talia takes the handcrank of a Gatling gun that fires arrows. Cool as it is, you'd think a modern Gatling gun would have done more damage.
- I Choose to Stay: Damian decides to stay on as Robin after everything is said and done, though he was ready to go with his mother when she asked him to.
- If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Damian Wayne outright rejects this philosophy when Bruce tells him. He believes it doesn't make you like them, it makes you better than them. However, he does later decide that killing people isn't the way, though he never explicitly states that he now believes that killing him would make him just as bad.
- I Have Your Wife: Deathstroke tries to force a one-on-one between him and Damian by threatening Talia.
- Implausible Fencing Powers: Ra's and Damian can both deflect bullets with their swords; the former while surrounded by mooks firing at him with automatic rifles!
- Improbable Age: Damian makes some rather questionable boasts, such as hacking NORAD at the age of six or mountain climbing at four.
- In Name Only:
- Deathstroke has almost nothing in common with his comic counterpart aside from his name and design.
- Ubu's only characterization is Undying Loyalty and being The Brute in the comics. So, one may argue this since he's a traitor. But hen again, as pointed out, there's been more than one "Ubu" in the comics...
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique:
- Batman rips off Killer Croc's tail while interrogating him, then switches tactics by offering to give him pain killers since the Arkham staff are too terrified of Croc to do it themselves.
- Deconstructed with Damian. He tries to do this to Dr. Langstrom, but just winds up alerting Deathstroke's men and starting a huge brawl.
- Jerkass: Damian, full stop, though near exclusively to Nightwing. Aside from trying to kill him when they first met, Damian insults his former Robin costume as "effeminate" and tells him to remember who the blood son is.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Damian does get better at the end.
- Job Title: Son of Batman.
- Killed Off for Real: Ra's al Ghul is permanently killed by Deathstroke, who lures him into single combat then has his men launch a missile at their location. The blast consumes Ra's and gives him some pretty horrific burns, and the trauma is such that he dies before he can get into the Lazarus Pit. The extent of his wounds are said to be beyond the Pit's ability to heal.
- Last-Second Word Swap: When Lt. Gordon begins to identify the phone sex hotline number, he realizes he's in front of Damian and changes it to "chat".
- Leeroy Jenkins: Damian isn't exactly one for planning ahead and has a habit of rushing in and using force rather than using stealthy approaches.
- Made of Iron: Damian and Deathstroke. See Curb-Stomp Battle above; Deathstroke just walks it off, no worse for wear. And in the climax, Damian is impaled through his forearms and keeps going.
- Male Gaze: When Talia is bound in chains, she makes an... "interesting" pose, and the camera pans so we can see it.
- Mama Bear: Talia takes a bullet for Damian.
- May–December Romance: Implied with the Langstrom couple. Francine is noticeably more youthful than her husband, Kurt.
- Ms. Fanservice: Talia al Ghul fits this role perfectly, her normal attire is a Spy Catsuit which shows off her well endowed cleavage and voluptuous figure. After saving Batman from Killer Croc, she is seen in a lovely red dress with a Navel-Deep Neckline to boot.
- Mr. Fanservice: Nightwing wears a tight black suit that shows of his ripped build and gets a scene where he just wears bandages on his top half after fighting with Damian.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: Ubu is a heavy construction vehicle in the form of a man. Damian is a preteen boy. Damian not only wins the fight, but is able to hold a blade lock with Ubu despite being maybe a quarter of his size. The same with Damian against Deathstroke, which would be amazing if Deathstroke had his enhancements (in the comics, both Damian and Deathstroke have enhanced strength, which isn't established here).
- Mythology Gag:
- The Batmobile's design heavily resembles the one from Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
- The display of Batsuits in the cave includes the original Bob Kane design from Detective Comics #27 as well as the Animated Series version.
- Arkham Asylum's design is the same as the version in The Batman.
- Navel-Deep Neckline: Talia's outfits, body her Spy Catsuit and her red dress have necklines so low they reach her abdomen.
- Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: Deathstroke's mooks, armed with automatic weapons and using helicopter support, inflict a disproportionate number of casualties on the League of Assassins than they received in turn.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Man-bat ninjas, as part of Ra's plan to take over the world.
- No Social Skills: Damian, due to being raised with a focus on martial ability with no regard for social abilities.
- "Not If They Enjoyed It" Rationalization: It's all but stated that Batman only slept with Talia because she drugged him and "it made him do what she wanted". Despite the circumstances, Batman admits the sexual experience wasn't so bad. This is different from the comics, where Batman is understandably outraged.
- Not in Front of the Kid: Gordon is about to tell Batman that the phone number Ubu had is for phone sex, but he looks down at Damian and changes to phone chatline. Damian is annoyed, clearly knowing what Gordon was going to say.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Nightwing interrupts Damian's attempt to kill Ubu. Damian furiously charges at him. Cut to Nightwing suddenly calling Batman to inform him that he has Damian, who is now gagged and suspended from a streetlight while Nightwing is covered in cuts. The credits show a few pictures snippets from the battle.
- Out of Character: A Downplayed Trope example. The Slade Wilson of the movie is certainly as skilled as the normal Deathstroke (albeit not to superhuman levels), intelligent, and cunning. He's also the kind of person who Ra's Al Ghul would look for in order to lead the League of Assassins. However, the comic Deathstroke is a Noble Demon who Would Not Hurt A Child and considers families sacrosanct. Not so much with movie Deathstroke.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Damian, naturally. He was trained by the League Of Assassins since he was four, and is able to beat up men several times larger than himself — including Ubu, who is at least twice as tall as Damian and probably three times the weight.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: Deathstroke doesn't have much in common with his comic book counterpart. His history with the League of Assassins is exclusive to this adaption.
- Prehensile Tail: Killer Croc has one, which Batman notes is a new addition. It's strong enough to lift a forklift.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Batman gives a harsh, but much needed to one to Damian, after he nearly kills Ubu.
- The Resenter: Slade's primary motivation stems from his resentment over the fact that he was passed over when Ra's found Batman. Had Batman never come into the picture, Slade would've been Ra's chosen successor and (according to his words) would've married Talia, meaning Damian would've been his son. He passes this resentment onto Damian because the inheritance passed to him after Bruce declined instead of back to Slade. Damian gouging out his eye with a sword certainly didn't help things.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Damian's primary motivation in the film.
- Rock Beats Laser: The League of Assassins manage to shoot down helicopters with catapults. While this would certainly work, it's highly improbable that they could be aimed so accurately.
- Sarcasm-Blind: Averted with Damian. He completely understands it, and isn't pleased when Alfred is being sarcastic at him.
- Servile Snarker: Alfred is just full of snark, which works rather well when played off Damian.
- Shout-Out:
- When Damian invades Ubu's place while two women are there, he turns to the women and says "Leave, harlots". Which is suspiciously close to "Bitches leave".
- The sword duel between Damian and Deathstroke in a hot, red-lit environment with narrow pathways and ending with the antagonist severely burnt.
- Alfred turned on the TV, showing "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery".
- Slasher Smile: Damian sports one just as he is about to try killing Ubu.
- Slipping a Mickey: Played with. Talia offers Batman a drink at one point. He refuses, since she drugged him the last time.
- Smoke Out: Deathstroke uses this on Damian, then Batman uses it, then finally Damian uses it while provoking Deathstroke to charge him through the smoke, not knowing that Damian is standing in front of an inspection window for a thick pipe of green fluid.
- Stealth Hi/Bye:
- Deathstroke and his men sometimes pop out of seemingly nowhere.
- Unusually Batman himself only does it once—to Lt. Gordon, who complains about it being a Running Gag in his case.
- Strong Family Resemblance: When Batman has a flashback to his childhood, his young self looks exactly like how Damian is drawn (sans Talia's green eyes).
- Supporting Protagonist: Batman. He's The Hero and Damian's father, but the story is about Damian taking revenge on Deathstroke for murdering Ra's and taking over the League of Assassins. Bruce gives him the mantle of Robin and does some light father-son bonding both in-and-out of costume, but Batman's story is about helping Damian.
- Teen Genius: Damian is an expert hacker, knows how to drive (not that Batman will let him), and breaks into Bruce's office at Wayne Industries to tell him that someone's skimming from the Argentina sector.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Batman, of course, and he tries to impart this ethic to Damian.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Slade keeps his promise to Dr. Langstrom and doesn't harm his wife or daughter.
- Tyke-Bomb: Damian has been raised to take over the League of Assassins, turning him into a brutal assassin with little regard for human life (and a severe lack of social skills). Batman tries to humanize him to correct for this.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We last see Ubu in the hospital.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The Man-Bats don't seem to be covered by the Thou Shalt Not Kill rule. Batman takes no issue with Damian using a sword on them, and he himself crushes many of them with falling debris set off by explosives. This is despite the fact that they can easily be changed back into humans once Langstrom creates a Magic Antidote.
- What Would X Do?: After Deathstroke is defeated, he tells Damian to go ahead and kill him like his mother and grandfather would want him to. But Damian says he's his father's son as well, and he wouldn't.
- Who Dares?: Ra's demands to know who's behind the men who dare to attack him in his own realm. Deathstroke soon makes an appearance.
- Wolverine Claws: Ubu fights with a pair of four-clawed gauntlets.
- The Worf Effect: Talia, who is very easily taken out to establish Deathstroke's badassery.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- Deathstroke has no problem killing Damian, partly because of the kid taking out his eye and partly because Damian was made heir to the League of Assassins when he was previously favored for it. Slade also has no problem threatening the life of Rebecca Langstrom if it means her father does his work better and faster.
- Ubu, when it's a child of his former master.
- The X of Y: Son of Batman.
