Without a doubt one of the most tragic characters of all time 😔

David Agudelo yeah

@@theangelbelow88 And one of the greatest turn arounds. He was a legit joke when he was first thought up. His name was Mr. Zero for starters. Just a gimmick villain. This cartoon came around and turned him into a sympathetic character that has stuck around since.

and the woman was like dating him but like "you want him autopsied now? cool"

TheBlues32 yeah a mad scientist who just robbing banks back then

I was a kid when I last seen the show but imma definitely gonna rewatch the entire series. God damn that’s cold tho (no pun intended) he cured her and she left him?!?!

@@issicbahena828 yep

While that part *definitely* sucked for Mr. Freeze, I vaguely remember that he effectively gave them his blessing when the two left Gotham as his own body was basically gone by that point. So it's not like he saved Nora only for her turn to around and cheat on him. Sad as it is, it shows that Mr. Freeze had more integrity than most characters since he always stayed true to his ultimate goal of wanting to save his wife and have her be happy. He just didn't get to be happy with her (or anyone else) in the end.

@@MusicoftheDamned yes but it's still a shitty thing to do

The Damned damn that sucks for mister freeze man.

It was kind of like watching a combo of Grimms fairytales and Tales from the Crypt. So many villains taken by their own tools.

I was surprised to not see a mention of that guy with the intangibility device, that by the end of the episode becomes permanently phased out and falls through the ground, and according to Bruce he most likely will keep falling until he reaches the center of the earth and stay there until... whatever happens to a guy who doesn't have any matter on his body. Can he die in that state? Will he keep living in the center of the earth for millions and millions of years? Many questions, and all of them equally horrible.

Great series

Walter Lucero Good thing it was all just a dream.

Wait that's not here?!

Well, it had a good ending though

"Over the Edge", one of the first files I got from Limewire.....

@@amanzeihedioha This is dark endings, not dark episodes. The ending was pretty uplifting, with Barbara getting ready to tell her father the truth, but he stops her...suggesting he already knows and is trying to avoid confirmation.

I WAS THINKING THE SAME THING. Definitely thought this would make it in the top 3.

Tim going from laughing maniacally to crying after firing that gun, was both sad and chilling.

But that was a movie and not an episode

@@ahmedansari759 yeah but the list is just about ends of characters in general in that universe. The title doesn't specify tv or movie. So in that universe, that was how Joker and Tim were wrapped up.

But doesn't it make it a happy ending? As this ended with Terry saving Tim Drake from the Joker by destroying the DNA tech

While that was tragic, there was a glimmer of hope as the people in that world were ready to rebuild. Still hurt when you saw how hurt Green Lantern was at the revelation though.

Tse Shaun it’s quite the ending when they phase out of existence.

@@tokyosmash yeah and even if they were just projections, their heroic ideals stood strong. Damn, Justice League was something special.

My favorite episode, also consider how it was a dedicated to one of their first writers

@@esteecarrasco2216 oh it was? I didn't know that!

Spoiler Warning, but I think both are great touches. Tim Drake, who became Joker, knows that Bruce Wayne is the Batman, and all the other adoptees become part of the Bat Family. Therefore, such a psyche would see Terry as a second Nightwing more than a second Batman.

Yeah I just mentioned that good one

That was a very dark ending to that episode

Now THAT was dark. The way he starts laughing and crying at the end, his mind just breaking under the strain of his fate.

Yeah that one was fucked up, condemned to die of thirst and hunger while slowly sinking all the way down to the center of the Earth.

What episode was that?

Yeah that was really heart rending. :/

Yeah, his last words to Terry really hit you.

Freeze wasn't like the Riddler or the Penguin. He really did deserve a successful "retirement", so his death really was tragic.

@@johnburt7935 Heck Riddler and Penguin have both put their talents to good use on occasion. They just need the right motivation.

Same ):

The worse part is in the shows he actually managed to cure Nora and she left him.

Whoa, yeah that was tragically dark😕

That shit still hits 😭

Yeah that one should have made the list.

That was more really sad than dark.

Or Solomon Grundy's original death. "Grundy thinks he is going away now..." AND JUST LIKE THAT YEARS LATER I'M BLUBBING LIKE A DAMN BABY AGAIN

Milestone Media.

Aaron Leverton it's still a part of the full universe, and one that's often forgotten.

@@aaronleverton4221 Yeah, Static Shock is still part of the DCAU. The openers for seasons 2 and 3 were BTAS crossovers, switching things up for season 4 with Batman Beyond, as well as other crossovers with STAS and Justice League. Even JLU's "Once and Future Thing" had Old Guy Static as a Leaguer. And hey, say what you will about STAS being underrated, but at least it wasn't internally sabotaged like Static was.

What about the Zeta project?

Only thing static had going was a couple of racial references

Don't forget Superman's cry of anguish and taking his rage out on an Apokaliptian tank. "MURDERER!"

He was a real Mensch. Hearing the Rabbi chant in Hebrew at the end really hit me, even more so the next time I saw it knowing the ties to Jack Kirby.

Broke my heart!

@@danielseelye6005 Fun fact. They got a real Rabbi to record the chant. Originally folks like Stan Lee were going to be among the mourners, but it was decided that it was too much of a legal hassle.

@@Bluesit32 That's what I loved about the DCAU: their attention to details and the impactfull stories that didn't talk down to the viewer, no matter their age; physical or mental. There are things you didn't get as a kid that scream out to you watching them again 20 years later and make it still feel fresh and relevant to you.

Tbh

Your comment is so true lol

"The old days back then cartoons were not afraid to cross the the line". Meanwhile, Disney got away with this in one of their more recent cartoons - kzfaq.info/get/bejne/btOfpdmWl9qsYY0.html

I mean, Batman The Animated Series was notable in that most superhero cartoons that went before it were super tame and often wouldn't even mention the word 'kill' or 'die', much less include genuinely dark themes. It's not 'the old days'. 'The old days' were worse.

Agreed. I miss the old school cartoons that pushed ideas, boundaries, emotions, etc.... I was happy to see some of the newer cartoons sneak in some adult humor/jokes, but those are becoming a thing of the past now with these helicopter parents and SJWs watching cartoons like hawks then squawking when something is "wrong" to them.

poor Annie poor Tim, I liked Little Annie

Annie are you ok, are you ok Annie? (Couldn't help myself)

broke my heart even as an adult viewing it

Yeah, you can't help but feel bad for Tim in that episode, especially when he loses it after she "dies"

Did they take this storyline for Harley Quinn ? The episode where clay faces hand and Jim Gordon become friends?

And that's facts

Look into Justice League Unlimited. You will love it (if not initially, you will eventually) just as much. Unlike the DCEU, like Batman Beyond, that loves the DC canon.

Agreed

Yeah really, Bisexual Ichigo. Batman Beyond is one of my most favorite cartoon series of all time. I have read at least once somewhere on the Internet long ago where alot of people hated the fact Batman Beyond did not simply resume Bruce Wayne's Batman. I was like "What?! You fools do know that Terry is a completely different dude, right? That he is in his high school years attending his high school. It makes perfect sense for him to "level up" his Batman Experiences as it were starting with his own set of villains and super villains. He will eventually become as bitter and dark as Bruce Wayne. Until the animated series abruptly ended he was shaping up to become as great of a man as Bruce Wayne had become.".

everyone was quick to jump on the hate train for robert pattinson being batman but I thought he would kill it if he played as terry mcginnis in a batman beyond movie @_@

Yeah that was a good one

She is only the daughter Ras al Ghul and wife of Batman and Mother of Damian Wayne

@@syedshehbazjilani4486 yeah and Ra's sacrificed her to save his own skin without hesitation, the bastard.

Well to be honest Ra is a type of guy that would pretend to be your friend and then transfer yourconsience into him if that makes sense lol

@@syedshehbazjilani4486 I'd say you got that backwards but yeah he's a monster.

Yeah, that was sad. He tried but some things can't be changed.

Amanze Ihedioha plus, the metahuman that gave him that opportunity essentially commits suicide at the end of the episode.

That one hit hard, but it also gave Virgil some closure after his Dad told him what his mother had told her colleagues. He was her hero that night.

@@nicholasfarrell5981Didn't she just go back to the big bang and make sure she didn't get powers? That's not necessarily suicide

@@pekularity8690 stopping herself from getting powers erased that version of her from existence. So yeah, I'd call it suicide by temporal paradox.

For the Man Who Has Everything.

A very tragic episode. Superman saying good bye to his fake son is beyond tragic but Batman’s fantasy left me in tears

I feel that it wasn't mentioned since it was a cartoon adaption of a popular Alan Moore comic.

Yh that episode was sad

Oh, no, no, no. It was an alien flower. A "Black Mercy". The alien starfish is Starro. It showed up in that episode of Batman Beyond where Superman comes to invite Terry to join the new Justice League.

While tragic, that episode did have an uplifting, hopeful ending.

It showed a side we already knew existed in Batman, but was very rarely seen.

There's another list of the saddest moments. Ace and Grundy belong on that one.

Devillin you have the same profile picture as the guy above you

Nothing shameful about it. The fact you remember that story is what counts.

Oh, that sounds nice. Hm, The Riddler as a tailor. Neat.

Drugs? I thought it was a device slipped into the brim of the hats.

@@Bluesit32 yeah I was thinking of other versions.

They are still being continued to this day via comics

Add Xmen TAS and Xmen Evolution. And you got yourself the top 4 cartoon shows of all time.

@@alissa6 static shock? Xiaolin showdown. Lol. Top 6 right there.

Agreed

@@alissa6 jackie chan adventures would like to have a word. not to mention the long line of good cartoons that have come around. you should go explore some more. not saying by any stretch these shows are anything below awesome, but, there is so much more up here.

Yeah the origin of Terry McGinnis... yikes... that was dark to be sure. You left out how Terry is biologically Bruce's son because the McGinnis couple were chosen because they went to a fertility clinic. So Waller created a cloned embryo that's biologically the son of Bruce and Mrs. McGinnis!

These were good ones nice comment

@@marhawkman303 yeah it’s seems kinda strange

Or the Return of the Joker, Robin's "transformation"

@ULGROTHA It is Both, being her Loss of Childhood, and they Expected the Batman to Execute her.

I was stunned by the absence of Ace's death. One of the most heartbreaking scenes in all of animation, but so beautifully executed.

I agree with you 100% despite ace only being in 1 episode and a half I felt more for her than most cinematic deaths

@@AndreNitroX Yes. If it were Joker, the response would be "Finally!" Ace did Nothing to Deserve what she Got. She Knew why the Batman was Coming, and if he Intended to Use the Device, she could have Stopped him in a Literal Thought! She had No Choices, No Way Out.

That was one of the things that made it great

Because unlike the DCEU they have good writing

better than now 100 times

These days people are too weak to make serious kids shows like these. These were brilliant and perfectly child friendly while still being real. These days they’re trying to hide children from reality and it weakens children to the point where they grow up wheezy when they see a paper cut.

meelis juhkam Exactly!!! 👏👏👏

Straight up screamed at my TV when Annie charged at Clayface to save Tim. The next few seconds were nightmare fuel, because we are Tim: we want with all our hearts to help but there's not a damn thing we can do.

Same! Me watching this list, "Wait, what about that one time when that girl that came from Clayface...Ah, there it is."

They revisited that recently when they decided to continue the series in comics. A guy that I'm fairly certain is Jason Todd pays Clayface to approached Batgirl and Robin as Annie. This Jason Todd is clearly more like his pre New 52 self, wanting to inflict pain on his replacement.

Ace's ending wasn't dark it just sad AF

The Baby Doll episode ending is just goddamn tragic.

I came specifically to the comments to see if anyone mentioned Babydoll.

Yeah baby doll was dark

He even showed a bit of it in the video, but NOOOO.

That was sad, but it wasn't dark. If anything, it was uplifting. He wasn't able to save her, nothing could, but he was able to help her by letting himself be vulnerable, by showing his humanity and empathy. That's not a dark ending, just a very tragic one.

I totally expected that episode to be the top one. But I guess that was more depressingly sad than dark.

New stargirl episode in 2 hours and it has her dad in it sam kurtis who is part of the royal flush gang

@@yotsuya67 Well there's the fact that Ace was scared that her powers would go nuts when she died and well... kill the city.

@@marhawkman303 and the government wanting to kill her before that happened. Also dark.

This is pure facts dude

Javier Patag all flash?

Agreed. Now it's just Batman getting owned by all the villains and rescued by Catwoman. SMH.

I've seen a few people mention Return of the Joker.....I'm assuming this guy didn't mention that cuz its not an episode but a movie

@@Tony-fq5bn even so the title is the 10 darkest endings in the dc animated universe, it didn’t say it was limited to non movies in the title.

This is just me being pedantic but it the royal flush gang

Nobody ever mentions what she's dying from or what killed her. Which I think waters down how tragic it is, the causes of death in the shows and comics add a lot to a character's arc. So can anyone actually talk about what was wrong with Ace?

@@alecdickens1042 Yeah they do, it's an aneurism. That's what she died from.

@Profit Glutton Second That. It was a little deus ex machina but it explained why luthor healed from his cancer.

Yep, those two cartoons were back in a time when cartoons were not afraid to take risks when it comes to such content.

@Profit Glutton I think they meant it as being disturbing. I mean, his flesh basically moves around and a metal skull forms on his abdomen.

@@FutureMan420Blazer Oh, I don't know. It was a brilliant piece of storytelling in regards to how it went all the way back to the Superman Animated Series. It answered a question some (including myself) didn't think to ask. How did Lex survive getting blasted? Years later, the answer is revealed. I wonder who came up with it?

Many people think all Superman is dumb and only good at punching things, that's why I liked that episode showed how clever he was letting the killer think the assassination attempt was successful.

You underestimate how awful that Dan Turpin kill is to be hit by Darkseid's Omega beams is worse than death its eternal torment in an infinite series of ever worsening personnel hell pocket dimensions where in his life will play out worse and worse always ending increasing drawn out and torturous deaths. That is his reward for saving the world.

@@Terminalsanity Raven has created a pocket dimension that's where she imprisons trigon there in she created dimensions within her soulself that her father even darkseid have no knowledge in fact she was able to hide from the anti monitor who's above trigon and darkseid couldn't find her during his rampage Raven is omniscient she has awareness of each souls in every dimension and existence in the DC multiverse both known and unknown that's why she's called the nexus of all souls in DC, she even can break the 4th wall she is aware of what other alternative versions of herself do.

@@Terminalsanity she can actually free his soul the soulself is a pretty broken ability more than the omega beams in fact she herself created it

@@eivor3975 Didn't bring that up as flex for Darksied and his Omega Beams, I that brought up because of how f_cked the fate of Dan Turpin was...

Which one?

Mark Molino oh, Feat of Clay for sure.

@@normandale1987 ,Yeah ,that's my favorite as well.

I don't blame you.

what about robot batman scary to think your an android....when did i last have a good steak...I DON'T REMEMBER lol

Dude I love that episode

@@-Teague- the superman episode?

@@AH-is5yg yeah it's my favorite in the superman show tbh

@@-Teague- super and Batman the TAS series are great. Batman Beyond is kind of underwhelming because the villains used sci fi tech and bio mutations. Super man villains and the original Batman TAS villains are humanize and we learn more about them. Superman rarely had human villains that are just humans and his cases involves murders and clearing a death row inmate's name is what made it so amazing for a superman cartoon.

Oh that one where a paparazzi uses some machine to turn himself in to a wall-phasing ghost, but it ends up making him permanently insubstantial and he falls into the core of the earth. I forget what April Moon was all about.

Yes Sneak Peek has a dark and chilling ending. April Moon too

@@BronyNumber4096 April Moon was about a doctor who was forced to give 4 young hooligans prosthetic upgrades because they kidnapped his fiance and were holding her hostage to make him work for them.

@@BronyNumber4096 And the ending for April Moon has some pretty dark implications, but I won't spoil it for you. It's good. 👍

Yeah, April Moon fucked my head up too. 👀

Absolutely. The ending was really dark with the doctor extracting revenge by torturing and killing the gang leader, but the moment I found particularly horrific was when Terry defeated the chainsaw cyborg. Imagine your arms and legs just popping off, leaving you a flopping limbless torso on the ground. That's nightmare material right there.

A bit of a shame they didn't. They focussed a lot on the body horror episodes and while they all were dark and grim, they are pretty much dark in the same way. "April Moon" 's ending to me was more surprising in its darkness without coming out of nowhere. It is just not something you expect to see in a kid's show.

Batman Beyond was extremely dark, it should tell you something when the ending of the Joker isn't even considered extreme for the show. And he was shot through the heart by a brainwashed Robin, with one of his own guns that shoot BANG flags.

@@javierpatag3609 Yeah, the chainsaw guy losing his chainsaws and limbs creeped me out too the first time

@@MyRegardsToTheDodo Actually, in some releases they figured that ending was TOO dark and replaced it with one where Tim throws away the gun and pushes Joker so he slips on a puddle into some wires and accidentally electrocutes himself.

Good enough research too....not like the other lists WCC spits outs

Yeah I really like him

"No holding back."

I just watched that one. Fucking nightmarish.

Huh?

Ehh...the end shows she is very much alive, just as Terry predicted.

TheBlues32 yeah, but she was dissolved by HER OWN DAUGHTER. Her own kid killed her

@@ebany2244 In fairness, she had never laid eyes on her mother until that day. Why would she feel anything for the woman who abandoned her? Besides, this video is about dark endings. The ending to that episode is...a bit grim, since it's implied Inque is going to have her revenge, but given who she's going to have her revenge on...not quite "dark" enough for a top ten.

TheBlues32 Very good point.