3. Continuity
Tell me if this sounds familiar: you are watching your favorite cartoon (or live-action show for that matter) and a character falls off a cliff. Next week you eagerly tune in to find out what happened to your favorite character, and it turns out that it is as if the incident never took place. We were used to this in animation, but the Timm/Dini-verse changed everything. The events of one week impacted the world around the characters to create a continuity that rivaled the comics. The impact could be felt the next week as well as in the overall future of the show, a rarity in animation. This idea was seemingly tested in the successful redesigns, beginning with Batman TAS. In addition to a new animation style, the narrative jumped ahead a few years. Dick Grayson was returning from his travels abroad to become Nightwing. He had a falling out with Bruce over his behavior as Batman, which was explained in my personal favorite episode titled, "Old Wounds." A new Robin was being trained at Batgirl was officially part of the team. The characters grew and evolved, just like they would in real life. The pattern continued in, if not led to the creation of, Justice League. During the finale event that changed everything titled "Starcrossed," Hawkgirl's people invaded from their home planet of Thanagar but were eventually stopped by the Justice League. The effects of this were immediately addressed. She no longer had a relationship with Jon Stewart, the League expanded, and Hawkgirl had to redeem herself in the eyes of her friends and the people of Earth. Once again, there was a time jump between JL and JLU to show the clear repercussions of these events leading to fantastic character and story arcs. But perhaps the most satisfying aspect of this is the sense of closure. Batman Beyond was tied up in a JLU episode titled "Epilogue" in which we discover that it was truly Terry's destiny to become Batman and that the events in his life were manipulated by Amanda Waller. These season and series long arcs elevated the show to something more special than a children's cartoon.