Harley Quinn (TV series): Difference between revisions
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In the main plot, Harley has broken up with [[The Joker]] for good, formed her own gang (consisting of herself, Poison Ivy, Dr. Psycho, Killer Shark, Clayface, and Sy Borgman) and is now dead-set on making a name for herself as a unique individual and leader in Gotham’s underworld - only to quickly find that there’s a "glass ceiling" among such villains.
The cartoon stars [[Kaley Cuoco]] (of ''[[Big Bang Theory]]'' fame) as the title character. It was among the first DC Universe animated shows (along with [[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]], [[Titans (2018 TV series)]], and [[Swamp Thing]]) available for DC's streaming service, and has a creative team headed by [[Justin Halpern]], [[Patrick Schumacker]] and [[Dean Lorey]] (who previously worked on the short-lived ''[[Powerless]]''.) Its first season premiered on November 29, 2019 and ended on February 21, 2020. Season 2 premiered in April 2020.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTTeK_f-arY A trailer has been released] for Season 3, suggesting appearances by Amanda Waller, Firefly, and the Court of Owls.
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** Two-Face is often depicted as a once-good person who was driven insane through the marring of his face, but a flashback episode in this version shows Harvey Dent was a [[Corrupt Politician]] to begin with. Harley claims she called him "two-faced" upon seeing his hypocrisy, an [[Ironic Echo]] of his future identity.
* [[Affably Evil]]: Harley, every member of her gang except Dr. Psycho, and quite a few other villains. The biggest surprise is Bane, who seems a very straight example of this Trope.
* [[Ambiguously Brown]]: [[Catwoman (comics)|Catwoman]] is of Italian and Cuban heritage in this version, a clear [[Shout-Out]] to the [[Eartha Kitt]] version in the ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' series from the 60s.
* [[And I Must Scream]]: In the first episode of Season 2, Harley is frozen by Mr. Freeze, who gives her to the Penguin to display like a trophy in the Iceberg Lounge. She’s like this for two months before she is rescued, and is just conscious to remember being mocked by the villains when freed.
* [[Anyone Can Die]]: One major theme of the show is that Harley does not have the moral qualms against killing that Batman does, but opposes the same enemies he does, with the end result being established DC characters being murdered, often horribly. {{spoiler|As of the
** Downplayed, however, in that [[Word of God|Executive producer Justin Halpern]] has stated that three characters - Bane, Poison Ivy, and Harley herself - have immunity to this policy, and will not be killed off.
* [[Artistic License Chemistry]]:
*
** Possibly a nitpick, but if Poison Ivy is truly impervious to poisons and toxins (something she boasts about in many continuities, including this one) it should be impossible for her to become intoxicated. Despite this, it clealry happens in the episode "It's a Swamp Thing".
* [[Ascended Extra]]:
** Sy Borgman has, to date, appeared in only one issue of Harley's solo comic title; he's a regular in this cartoon, with much more of a backstory.
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* [[Axe Crazy]]: Joker, of course, but Queen of Fables can challenge him for title of "most insane killer" here.
** Also, in a flashback showing when Harley and Poison Ivy first met, Ivy seemed on the edge of falling into bestial rage out of hatred for everyone, the episode strongly suggesting that Harley kept her from going over that edge.
* [[Back From the Dead]]: {{spoiler| Harley kills Nightwing in season 4 (by accident) and at the end of the season, Talia steals his body and revives him using the Lazarus Pit.}}
* [[Bad Boss]]:
** The Joker, naturally. This guy actually sends a henchman to deliver Harley a message, that ends with said henchman blowing up, his blood and guts splattering all over Harley and Ivy. He also {{spoiler| murders his accomplice - the Scarecrow - over rage when they discover Batman's identity - wasn't the Scarecrow's fault, he was just angry and had to kill ''somebody'', Scarecrow being unlucky enough to be there.}}
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** In "Dye Hard", {{spoiler|Dr. Psycho does not use his mind-control on Harley - which he uses on Killer Shark and Clayface - because he wants her to suffer. Naturally, she escapes.}}
* [[Character Development]]: ''Everyone'' gets this, even [[Joke Character|Kite-Man]], of all people.
* [[Corrupt Politician]]:
*
** Downplayed with the Joker, Gordon's opponent for mayor. His platform promotes free health care, education reform, and taxing the "one percenters", quickly making him a [[Villain With Good Publicity]]. (When a reporter remarks that it sounds like socialism, [[Take That|the Joker blatantly admits it ''is'' socialism]].) The only corrupt part was that he funded his campaign by robbing banks, claiming he hated negotiation with "big money donors" and decided to skip a step and just take it from them.
* [[Country Matters]]: Dr. Psycho uses the word on nationwide TV in reference to Wonder Woman - no surprise there, as he's always been a chauvinist. Poison Ivy remarks that he is now the least employable person on the planet, while Harley comments that if Psycho had henchmen, they might have advised him to instead use the "B-word". Later, Psycho's inability to keep himself from using the word becomes a [[Running Gag]] until Season 2, where he seems to have kicked the habit. Ironically, this is the only cuss word that is bleeped out in the show's dialogue.
* [[Deadly Change-of-Heart]]: {{spoiler|The Joker, of all people. Once his villainous personality is erased, he actually becomes a decent person, getting an honest job (as a bartender) and a girlfriend named Beth. For a while, it seems his evil persona is truly gone and he is actually happy. Sadly, in order to save the city, Harley needs Queen of Fables book, Joker is the only one who knows where it is, but only in his villainous identity, so Harley is forced to restore him to normal. Oddly, however, this doesn't seem to hurt his relationship with Beth.}}
* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]:
** In one episode, the Penguin enters the Iceberg Lounge and many of his employees warmly greet him ("How ya doin' tonight Mr. Penguin?" "Hey, Mr. Penguin!" and "Good to see you Mr. Penguin!") and he replies politely. Then, however, when the elevator operator says it, the Penguin shoots him, saying "Okay! That's too many people sayin' hello to me, it sounds disingenuous." Notably, this is the episode where his [[Karma Houdini Warranty]] expires [[Cruel and Unusual Death|in a rather brutal fashion]].
** Harley kidnaps Amanda Waller in season 3 when Waller insults Ivy by saying "she hasn't done anything evil in years", intending to torture her once they get back to the arboretum. She doesn't know who Waller is at the time, but when she finds that out, it doesn't change much.
** Bane ''lives'' this Trope. After getting a sports trivia question wrong, he grumbled about blowing up Gotham Stadium. Later, he tries to kill a barista - Todd - calling him "Bang" instead of "Bane"; he convinces Killer Shark to help plant a bomb at the coffee shop, but after Shark botches it and is injured, he discovers [[Epic Fail|Todd wasn't there at the time - wasn't his shift]]. In season 3 he wants to blow up Harley's strip mall headquarters because Ivy won't return the pasta maker he gave her for her (cancelled) wedding to Kite Man. His plan to do so is foiled (Ivy blows it up herself by accident) but he still wants it back, angrily mentioning it [[Running Gag| every time he appears.]] He later gives up on this after Harley saves his life.
** When the Joker becomes mayor of Gotham, Lex Luthor wants Ivy to kill him (to seal her position as leader of the Legion of Doom) because he is upset about his new Evil Lair Tax. Even though the tax is only a 0.5% increase and the proceeds are going towards college tuitions.
* [[Dumb Is Good]]: Clayface; there is no easy way to say this, he is a ''complete'' idiot in this version, even dumber than Kite Man. And among the bad guys, he is the least evil and least dangerous, only an actual threat when [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] in one episode.
* [[The Gadfly]]: Catwoman. Selina in this version is something of an instigator and gloryhound and often steals things as a jest simply to prove she can, like how she takes Ivy's jacket and puts it on before Ivy realizes it.
* [[Good Costume Switch]]: A variation, as Harley never truly stops being evil. She starts the series still the Joker's "hench-wench" and wears the jester outfit from ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]''. However, after forsaking him, she regards this costume as a slave-garment, and switches to a different outfit with a halter, short-shorts and no mask to prove she's her own villain.
** [[Evil Costume Switch|Very Evil Costume Switch]]: Harley gets a change of wardrobe again in Season 2 when she pretty much becomes [[The Dragon]] to Darkseid himself, getting her own version of Granny Goodness' costume. However, it doesn't last long.
** [[Good Costume Switch|Genuinely Good Costume Switch]]: In season 4, after ascending to anti-hero status and joining the Bat-Family, Harley starts using a new costume while with them, that seems a cross between her regular costume and Batgirl's, with pink and blue highlights and an exposed midriff, though she still uses her villain costume when "off duty".
* [[Easily Forgiven]]: Batman himself is willing to give Harley a second chance and even let her join the Bat-Family after she helps him with his "issues", despite the numerous murders she commits in seasons 1 through 3. Also, while Nightwing and Batgirl do scold her harshly after she kills Professor Pyg, they are willing to give her a second chance.
* [[Evil is Petty]]: The Joker, of course; to give just one example, the reason Todd continues to call Bane "Bang" while serving him is because the Joker is paying him to do so, simply to troll Bane. When he finds out Bane is planning to ''kill'' Todd over this, [[Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor|he finds it hilarious.]]
* [[Good Is Not Nice]]: Batman and the Justice League push the limits of what can truly be called "good". Batman seems to think Harley has crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon]] by taking the Batmobile for a joyride. Even worse, in one episode, the League is intent on banishing Harley and her gang to the Phantom Zone for releasing a mob of killer trees without any attempt at due process. (And for the record, the Scarecrow was responsible - Harley and her gang were attempting to stop the trees.) At the very least, they stand down once Poison Ivy pleads with Wonder Woman to use the Lasso of Truth on her to confirm her story.
* [[Handicapped Badass]]: In a clear reference to ''[[The Killing Joke]]'', Babs is shot by the Joker in season 4 and, as of the end of the season, is wheelchair bound. While not referred to as Oracle yet, she seems to be heading in that direction, using her hacking skills to help Harley and Ivy bring Luthor down in the season 4 finale.
* [[Hero Antagonist]]: Batman and the Justice League in this case, as well as Batgirl
* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|Sy Borgman does this in "Dye Hard" to allow Harley, Gordon, and the amnesiac Joker to escape Riddler and Dr. Psycho. However, while his body is destroyed, he survives by transferring his consciousness into a bionic eye he gives Harley, which she later downloads into her television.}}▼
* [[Hero with an F In Good]]: In season 4, Harley makes a "professional" [[Heel Face Turn]] and joining the Bat-Family, but can't shake her old ways, killing Professor Pyg. She does at least try to do better.
* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]:
▲*
** In season 3 {{spoiler|After realizing that Poison Ivy's (now-successful) plan to terraform Gotham into a [[Garden of Evil]] results in civilians being painfully transformed into mindless [[Plant Person]] [[Slave Mooks]], Harley exposes herself to the chemical herself, hoping her own death will convince Ivy to call it off. Note that while Ivy does call it off and aborting the plan [[No Ontological Inertia|cures and saves Harley]], Harley did ''not'' know that would happen. As a bonus, this convinces Bane to forget about the stupid pasta maker.}}
* [[Hoist by His Own Petard]]: The Joker falling victim to his plan to "erase" Harley's identity.
* [[Huge Guy, Tiny Girl]]: Dr. Psycho - a [[Depraved Dwarf]] - seems to have a fetish of sorts involving women much larger than he is. He brainwashed Giganta into marrying him and even sired a son before the brainwashing wore off and she left him. (Poison Ivy asks him in one episode [[Improbable Species Compatibility|how it was even possible]].) In a later episode, Poison Ivy drinks some formula that makes her grow to giant size, and Psycho quickly starts gawking at her.
* [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy]]: Initially, Harley seems willing to abandon Ivy, even volunteering to conduct her wedding to Kite-Man herself after gaining certification to do so. {{spoiler|However, Kite-Man applies the Trope himself, realizing Ivy would be much happier with Harley.}}
* [[If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him]]: {{spoiler|''The Joker'' of all people gives Gordon this speech in season 3. After Two-Face has double-crossed Gordon ''for the third time'' and has kidnapped Joker's adoptive son, Gordon is about to blow his brains outs, but Joker stops him, saying that nobody wants Two-Face dead more than he does, but Gordon is supposed to be the hero here, and this is not what a hero does. Of course, this may be the Joker's attempt to show that, while he is ''not'' a hero, he is also not the hypocrite Two-Face is.}}
* [[If You're So Evil Eat This Kitten]]: A variation in season 2 - Harley and her crew steal Mr. Miracle's boom-tube device in order to travel to Apokalypse and petition Darkseid for their servitude in exchange for an army. Darkseid considers it, but wants to test Harley's ''competence'' as well as loyalty, and thus demands she fight Granny Goodness. (Dr. Psycho was given the same chance earlier, he claims, but this is where he chickened out.) While Harley wins only because Psycho cheats (Darkseid specifically says she has to do it herself and Psycho buffs her using telekinesis) Darkseid either doesn't notice or doesn't care.
* [[Impossible Thief]]: While [[Catwoman]] has always been a master thief, this series pushes the boundaries of belief. In the first scene where she appears, she waltzes into a restaurant - in full costume - and casually lifts the jewelry from customers without being noticed. Then she manages to steal Ivy's jacket and put it on before Ivy notices. At the end of the episode she steals a ring from its box which Kite-Man has in his pocket - ''without even taking the ring box'' - and Kite-Man doesn't notice until he opens it.
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* [[For Want of a Nail]]: Harley's childhood may have been troubled, but she at least tried to turn it around, pursuing athletics with dreams of competing in the Olympics and using it as a springboard to run for political office. Had she succeeded, her future - and that of Gotham as a whole - might have been very different. However, her asshole bigot of a father convinced her to throw a gymnastics competition after betting against her; that one event ruined those dreams, causing her to switch to pursuing a degree in psychology...
* [[Friendly Enemy]]: Many:
** Harley seems to be this to Batgirl, in both her civilian and heroic identities. Batgirl for her part tries to warn her about her father coming for her, but Harley is too [[Drunk with Power]] to consider laying low. Season 3, however, the "enemy" part is more pronounced, Batgirl regretting befriending her after Harley leaves her to die in the Mad Hatter's trap - until Harley [[Conscience Makes You Go Back|changes her mind and goes back to save her.]]
** The whole Bat-Family seems pretty amiable with Harley's crew when the Riddler places all of them in a [[Death Trap]].
** Poison Ivy and [[Swamp Thing]]. She seems to realize she is an [[Evil Counterpart]] to him, but he still considers her an ally due to mutual connection to the Green.
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* [[Mama Bear]]: {{spoiler|Amazingly, Harley acts like this towards Bruce Wayne in the episode "Batman Begins Forever"; or rather, a child-version of him, during a [[Battle in the Center of the Mind]] scenario.}}
* [[Muggle Born of Mages]]: The source of Kite-Man's "issues" and why he tries so hard to be a super-villain. His father has ice manipulation powers, and his mother can fly; both were rather disappointed to have a son with no real powers. They warm up to the idea of him marrying Ivy ''very'' quickly when they see she has actual super-powers.
* [[Never Gets Drunk]]: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ABiHXeZzRI Nora is a Type 1]. Her tolerance is higher than that of Harley, Ivy, and even [[Hellblazer| John Constantine!]] And after drinking him under the table, she was still wide awake, alert, and with no sign of any hangover.
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]:
** Barbara's attempt to warn Harley that her dad is coming for her only encourages her to expand her goals, petitioning Darkseid for an army of Para-Demons, which he provides. ''Then'', her attempt to warn her father than Harley is forming an army causes ''him'' to form an army of his own. The carnage that follows is only stopped when Harley comes to her senses.
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* [[Race Lift]]: Queen of Fables is changed from Caucasian to black; Catwoman is changed from Caucasian to Cuban/Italian, possibly a [[Homage]] to the [[Eartha Kitt]] version in the live action ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' series.
* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: Harley is Red to Ivy's Blue.
* [[Rogues Gallery Transplant]]: Many villains on the show have previously had little, if anything, to do with Batman. Dr. Psycho is a [[Wonder Woman]] villain, and Dr. Trap was from the short-lived ''[[Chase (comics)]]'' comic. Characters like [[Lex Luthor]] and [[Darkseid]] seem to be clearly in [[Hero of Another Story| Villain of Another Story]] territory when they appear.
* [[Self-Deprecation]]: The show has gotten a lot of guff due to Sy Borgman being a stereotypical old Jewish guy, but a quick look at the credits shows quite a few Jewish names among the writers, suggesting this Trope.
* [[Self-Restraint]]: In "Riddle U", Riddler takes over Gotham University, providing electricity to the place by forcing students run on giant hamster wheels; Harley and Ivy capture him and subject him to his own medicine, using him to power the mall they use as a hideout. The next episode, Riddler shows he can escape easily, but decides to stay because Gotham is in a state of anarchy, and by staying, he gets fed, gets ''lots'' of exercise, and best of all, gets "free entertainment" watching Harley's gang squabble amongst themselves.
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** Kite-Man's mode of transport also becomes very useful when the earthquake destroys Gotham's infrastructure and there's no mass-transit.
* [[Through the Eyes of Madness]]: Possibly the reason for the show's [[Denser and Wackier]] content. Similar to her solo series in the comics, the viewer sees it from Harley's side of the conflict, and Harley is clearly nuts.
* [[Too Dumb To Live]]: Gordon, especially in season 3. What was he ''thinking'' trusting Two-Face, a villain whose very name suggests betrayal? Two-Face himself calls him out on it, ''twice''.
* [[Took A Level In Badass]]: After running on that treadmill so much, the Riddler becomes fit and muscular, able to use more than lame riddles against his foes.
* [[Traumatic Toggle]]: The Joker's plan to "erase" the identity of "Harley Quinn" by giving her a second dunking in the vat of chemicals that gave her that identity. [[Hoist by His Own Petard|It happens to him instead.]]
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