A Cartwheel of Contradictions: Who Is Harley Quinn? Part Two "The Loneliest Number"

[lovedatjoker]

Second in the series of meta-articles I and some friends began last month, exploring the psyche, persona and nature of everyone's favourite henchwench, Harley Quinn!

A Cartwheel of Contradictions: Who Is Harley Quinn?

Part Two: The Loneliest Number

Co-Authored by:
lovedatjoker
zhinxy
itllcometome
benicio127Harley's appeal as a character has an obvious effect on the audience: we want

Comments

[starwriterlv]

Hi I just wanted you to know I willl still make your Joker icons. Life and work got in my way...but I finally have sometime...I just don't want you to think I forgot about you.

[alocin42]

Whoops your formatting has gone kinda screwy - looks like most of it has been posted twice?

I certainly agree that having Harley go solo longterm wouldn't seem to work too well without quite dramatically changing her character, because what would her motivation be for anything much more than watching cartoons and eating cereal? Trying-to-go-straight-Harley gets you Harley's Holiday but not much further, and if she's still on the lam once she's pulled a few heists and got some spending money there's not much driving her to keep robbing banks or whatnot. Her gregarious nature inevitably ends with her hanging out with >insert character here< and helping with a spot of plant-themed chaos, whatever the hell was going on with Countdown, assisting the Batclan or, most perfectly, henchwenching it up with her Puddin'.

[itllcometome]

Harley Quinn is not, nor has she ever been, a henchgirl. She is THE Henchgirl. The one who is at once everything a henchgirl should be and who also exceeds, and even at times, defies that. She's better at this than anyone else in the entire DC Universe and that insane skill that so bamboozles and confounds the other characters at the same time it supports and truly assists them is a big reason why we love Harley Quinn.

I really love this paragraph, ; )

This was beautifully put. Strikes at the heart of what the ever present trip up to Harley's solo arch was. So much of her characters expression comes through feeding off and into her players. Without any grounding she was like an untapped battery. So to move plot along they just gave her a plot device personality and used it like a remote control. But fans couldn't recognize her and the Harley 2.0 didn't encourage many others onto its band wagon.

But not just any henchgirl. The henchgirl is itself a trope tied to institutionalised sexism and the very fact Harley, with her broad,

[gemfyre]

This repeats itself about 2 3rds of the way through. And I think a paragraph is repeated early on. Might wanna check that. ;)

Origins Project

[productionbunny]

I've heard whispers in the production community that a team is working on a retelling of Harley's origins...I worked with a woman who was a story consultant on a film a few months ago who use to BE a psychologist in a Maximum Security Prison, she mentioned she had been hired to help write an "accurate origins" script on the "DC character Harley Quinn" - she was telling me that Harley IS an independent and intelligent woman who "needs the Joker" to be able to "let go of her need for control that is eating away at her psyche" - we had a great coversation.

Re: Origins Project

[lovedatjoker]

hmmmm that sounds interesting indeed... and an interesting analysis too! I would agree with it in many ways. Any more info?
Intriguing, also... is this for a new movie? Or what??