{"id":51464,"date":"2026-08-21T08:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T13:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=51464"},"modified":"2026-08-21T08:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T13:05:10","slug":"batman-caped-crusader-tf-did-alfred-do-to-deserve-all-this-disrespect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=51464","title":{"rendered":"Batman: Caped Crusader \u2013 tf did Alfred do to deserve all this disrespect?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When it comes to mediums outside of comic books, it\u2019s no secret that DC Comics has struggled bringing to life most of their property, regardless of how iconic, how much potential and how much of a layup it really should seem.\u00a0 Fortunately, James Gunn and John Cena seem to be on what I think is a positive direction with a potentially entertaining DC Cinematic Universe akin to what Marvel has accomplished, and I love the idea that Peacemaker, that John fucking Cena seems to be the lynch pin that could be the basis for it all, much like Robert Downey, Jr. did as Iron Man for the MCU.<\/span><\/p>\n

Animation, has clearly been the strong suit for DC, and they\u2019ve done a pretty good job of bringing stories to life in animated form throughout the years.\u00a0 The whole saga starting with the Flashpoint Paradox was pretty enjoyable, and of course, a lifelong top-10 possibly top-5 show for me was and always will be, Batman the Animated Series<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems kind of surprising that it took nearly two decades for a proper spiritual successor to Batman TAS to come out, but then again, TAS holds up so well that it really didn\u2019t need any successor, but all the same, Batman: Caped Crusader<\/em> on Amazon Prime has been doing an adequate job of spiritually succeeding TAS, as far as I\u2019m concerned.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t hurt that Bruce Timm is back in the driver\u2019s seat, along with JJ Abrams, one of the lord of the nerds who has a knack for breathing love into projects that many might think would be too lofty of endeavors.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if I would go so far as to say that it\u2019s remotely close to bettering TAS, but it has still been a refreshing watch, and at the time I\u2019m writing this, I\u2019m over halfway through S2, but felt a compulsion to write about it now and often times I have to strike when the iron is hot, but it\u2019s been good.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think S2 has been as good as the first season was, but I imagine it will conclude with a massive upshot, considering what the show has obviously been doing throughout the season.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it has done a good job of partially recapturing the magic of TAS, no doubt due to the completely lifted character design and complete auditory homage to the original, but they gain a little distance by going a little further back in the Batman timeline, as well as taking a much more adult theme, clearly intending this show to be nowhere near the after-school FOX Kids lineup or anything like it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Batman is undoubtedly nerfed, seeing as how he\u2019s earlier in his crime-fighting career, and definitely takes his share of getting damaged, but most of the differences are very heavy handed throughout this universe, primarily with the mass re-imagination of just about everyone from the series, in various ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jim and Barbara Gordon are now black, Harleen Quinzel appears to be possibly Asian in appearance, Selina Kyle is now raven-haired, the Riddler has been made to be more of a bruising gunman, and the Mad Hatter is now a woman.\u00a0 Renee Montoya is getting a ton more screen time now, but she\u2019s also been made to be kind of fridge build Latina<\/a>.\u00a0 Harley\u2019s also been thicc\u2019ened up, deviating from her lithe petite pixie stature of TAS.<\/span><\/p>\n

I can imagine that there\u2019s a lot of discriminative takes on the massive wave of changes in CC from those who were passionate about TAS, or just traditional source material.\u00a0 I notice all the differences, but when the day is over, I really couldn\u2019t care about a lot of the characteristic swaps made throughout the cast, except for one: Alfred Pennyworth.<\/span><\/p>\n

For some reason, Caped Crusader has decided to make Alfred fat, and look more like \u201cMean Gene\u201d Okerlund<\/a> than most traditional variations of Alfred, who is usually of a medium-to-lean, unsuspecting build, which is perfect considering the history of the character was that he was basically an MI5 espionage spy in his younger, active days.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why CC decided to make him fat is completely beyond me, and one of the few things about the show that I really can\u2019t stand by, and get triggered every time I see him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To make matters worse, the show has made the younger Bruce Wayne more of an asshole, pretending way too hard to be a pretentious womanizing socialite billionaire playboy when he\u2019s in his alter ego, but the behavior doesn\u2019t seem to end when he\u2019s back under the mask.\u00a0 Primarily the fact that he only refers to Alfred as \u201cPennyworth\u201d like he were the senior jock quarterback of the school while Alfred were some sniveling maggot freshman, lucky enough to be in the stratosphere of Bruce Wayne.<\/span><\/p>\n

The severe disrespect for Alfred Pennyworth throughout the series is the only true serious beef I have with Caped Crusader.\u00a0 It\u2019s otherwise a very good show, and an adequate successor to TAS, but it annoys the piss out of me whenever Alfred is disrespected so flagrantly. \u00a0Seeing as how I haven\u2019t finished S2 yet, I hope this course corrects at some point, and we get back to an Alfred getting a modicum of the respect that he is deserving of.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to mediums outside of comic books, it\u2019s no secret that DC Comics has struggled bringing to life most of their property, regardless of how iconic, how much potential and how much of a layup it really should seem.\u00a0 Fortunately, James Gunn and John Cena seem to be on what I think is … Continue reading Batman: Caped Crusader \u2013 tf did Alfred do to deserve all this disrespect?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[140,100,129,83,99,69,146],"class_list":["post-51464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-comics","tag-comparison","tag-nostalgia","tag-observations","tag-reminiscing","tag-television","tag-triggered"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51466,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51464\/revisions\/51466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}