Harley Quinn: fake news and rant about Screenrant

 So - spoiler alert - ScreenRant isn't exactly the headquarters of factual information but they do a lot of clickbait and are allllways at the top of any search for general pop culturey stuff, which I know because I make an effort to avoid clicking on their articles. Today though, they got me. 

I was curious about the tattoo on Harley's back so I read this article by a Thomas Bacon (1/9/2020) in which he states it says property of no-one, which is a throwback to her 'property of Joker' jacket from the first Suicide Squad movie. While I wish we could see this relationship actually play out on the silver screen, Mr. Bacon portrays these tattoos like they're a full relationship run-down and all we need to know. 

But attentive viewers will have noticed a subtle change in Harley Quinn; specifically, her tattoos. Most of these were supposed to have been made by Harley herself, while she was languishing in prison, bored out of her mind. But there are a couple of exceptions, ones in places even the uber-flexible Harley couldn't reach. And all of these conveyed a sense of ownership, suggesting the Joker had branded Harley. One on Harley Quinn's back literally identifies her as "property of Joker." It's easy to miss, but this has actually changed in the behind-the-scenes footage from The Suicide Squad, suggesting Harley has had someone paid to alter the tat. It now reads, "property of no one.
It's a subtle detail, but a great visual way of reminding viewers of Harley's character arc. It suggests Harley Quinn is following the same journey she did in the comics, where she learns to define herself as an individual rather than by her relationships. While she no doubt won't stay single - Birds of Prey subtly set up the romance between Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy - she will never again allow herself to be drawn into the kind of unhealthy, obsessive and abusive relationship she had with the Joker.
All this means Harley Quinn is more than a Joker abuse victim. Rather, she is recovering from her time with the Clown Prince of Crime, getting on with her life, and in so doing presenting a brilliant example to viewers. Superhero franchises rarely explore this theme, tending to show healthy relationships and present idealised views of love and romance. But Harley Quinn is far more real, meaning she has one of the best arcs in the DCEU to date. This tattoo confirms that arc will continue in James Gunn's The Suicide Squad.

I was curious about the 'subtly set up romance' thing because if there's one thing DC doesn't do well in it's films it's.... ok, well, one thing among many is that they ain't subtle. 

The link is in the paragraph if you wish to read it yourself but be warned, it's nothing to do with the movie Birds of Prey.

10 Things DC Wants you to forget about Harley Quinn!

Oh no, another Youtube based post! When will I ever learn? Well, The Key of Awesome is on hiatus, so is Epic Rap Battles of History and A Dose of Buckley, and I'm all caught up on pretty much everything else I care about on Youtube so here we are.

Here's the video.

Here's me.

Here's my post where I ramble on for hours on end about why I agree or disagree about the dot points.

Watch out for the random ambiguous point! There's one in every post! ...Apparently.

#10 Harley Quinn was only meant to be a cameo

Uh.... yeah. I don't think anyone's ever tried to hide that.

One of the first parts under her Wikipedia page reads:
Harley Quinn first appeared in the DC Animated Universe's Batman: The Animated Series episode "Joker's Favour", in what was originally supposed to be the animated equivalent of a walk-on role; a number of police officers were to be taken hostage by someone jumping out of a cake, and it was decided that to have the Joker do so himself would be too bizarre, although he ended up doing it anyway. Thus they created a female sidekick for the Joker; she would become his love interest.

From the IMDB page about the episode in question;

Originally, the script called for the Joker to appear in drag. The writers decided this was out of character for him and created a one-shot female character to fill this role instead. The character became extremely popular and was soon upgraded from one of Joker's goons to a major player in the Rogues Gallery: Harley Quinn.

VERDICT: UNSURE

I agree with the statement that Harley's character was initially supposed to be a cameo but I disagree that this is something DC is trying to hide. 

#9 Harley Quinn is a relatively new character

What? Confused here. Why is this some scandalous secret that DC is trying to hide from us? I would say the vast majority of Harley fans already know she was shown in 1992 - the rest are the couple of fans of Harley from the Suicide Squad movie who seem to believe that monstrosity was the first incarnation and everything else is some archaic cartoon for old timers.

Besides, how exactly is DC trying to hide this when you can easily see it on every Wiki about her and it often comes up as a 'fun fact!' about the character. It's pretty iconic how she became the first cartoon character to jump across to the mainstream comics in DC barely a year later.

Video/OP need to elaborate here. If DC was trying to insinuate that Harley was a part of some classic Batman stories like the Killing Joke, A Death in the Family, The Man Behind the Red Hood etc or films like The Dark Knight or Batman (1989) for example when she wasn't even in continuity then - well yes this would be some dodgy business.

Verdict: UNSURE 

As above, need more information. Are they hiding her big production year or trying to say she was always there from the beginning? An example of this would maybe be in White Knight when she was there during Robin's torture.

Top 10 Weirdest Harley Quinn Ships Pt 2

Hey - remember that video I just covered on Harley Quinn ships?
Remember how I mentioned some big names that I thought would have been in there for sure?
Remember how I mentioned these videos would be scraping the barrel?

Yeaaaaah.... about that. There's a part 2.

Soo.... this one is the same channel but has a different presenter and she objects to the term weird ships. But see.. these are weird ships. Half of them are people just saying "Well, person A and person B BOTH exist in this video game universe/unrelated movie franchises/comic books as a whole - LET'S SHIP THEM!!"

I understand her aversion to people crapping on fanships.. but the whole idea of fanships, surely.. is that there is SOMETHING there, some kind of sign, a look, a compatibility that then sparks the flames of a romance.. or at least something similar in the hearts and hopes of fans.

For example - Taiora from Digimon Adventure.

This one is my own weakness, I'll admit. While I appreciated the friendship these two had, my little heart thought they could be so much more. They understood each other, they trusted each other, they genuinely cared for each other, they were cute together and they both knew what needed to be done even though they had different ways of going about it.

So when Digimon Adventure 2 snuck in a romance between Sora and Matt (Sorato) I was horrified. These two barely had much to do with each other in the first season apart from being physically attacked by depression then getting over it fast. Matt was constantly too cool for school, had the crest of friendship but was always either snarking at or physically attacking his 'friends' and hey, remember that time the abandoned his really young brother in the Digiworld? I sure as heck do! He did it again later as well. Sora never seemed the type to moon over a "rockstar/astronaut" wannabe (that was so stupid) and I especially don't see her (who is generally the 'mom' of the group) putting up with someone who doesn't care about his own family. It was just weird, especially when they pumped out some clone children with the exact same Digimon as their parents. Umm.

Then we got Digimon Tri where they're always putting Sora in the middle of a Tai/Matt situation and forgetting she's a person too, who may or may not have her own life/hobbies. Maybe.

After all - Sora's relationship woes were just getting in the way of the biggest ship in Tri.

credit

I may have gotten off topic there but what I was trying to say was people either saw points for both Taiora and Sorato, or both. However, there was reasoning behind it and there were definite, deliberate parallels between Tai and Matt. People weren't just shipping Sora with say, Ken or Gennai just because they "happen" to inhabit the same universe.

Although there probably is a ship for that now. Thanks, internet!

Top 10 Weirdest Harley Quinn Ships

So this one shipping ship I saw at the biggest quay in Austral--- oh wait, wrong ship.

*record scratch*

Talking about this video  from Top 10 Nerd. Didn't look as clickbait-y as the other videos I've seen on the topic (a few just went in depth with Nightwing, others focused on how many Harley had shagged... y'know...) so I thought I'd give it a go and see if I agreed.

Now they mention at the start that they've left out Joker and Poison Ivy as the two most popular and canon ships. OP states that the Joker is toxic, but does not mention the literally toxic Poison Ivy.
I've explained my feelings about these two being similarly toxic suitors for Harley before, as well as my opinion that Harley and Joker were in a mutually abusive relationship and it was not one sided.

Still, I agree with leaving the main two candidates out as much as I am concerned that we will be scraping the barrel for possible love interests without them.

DC Universe Harley Quinn #54

The main cover isn't horrible.. but it does kinda defeat the purpose of the last issue being spent on ruining Harley's faux-Youtube career. Variant cover.. yeah, it's nice but apart from making me think they ran out of time to finish the colouring in, it gets me rolling my eyes at the 'pumpkin spice' mallet.

I live in Australia, where the only pumpkin flavoured things are our pumpkins, pumpkin scones, pumpkin soup and so forth. One time, I saw a pumpkin spice body spray and in the more American themed coffee shops they do a random pumpkin flavoured thing but it's not very big here. Still, you get the memes about everything being pumpkin-this or pumpkin-that that the mallet being named pumpkin spice is kinda cringey.



Anyway, back to this comic about people (apparently everyone everywhere including Martian G-D Manhunter!! Is it THAT boring in the Watchtower???) watching online videos.
Yep. Groundbreaking stuff alright.

Minor Disaster switched Harley's delete and upload video, so now Harley is ugly-crying in an alley being filmed by said Minor Disaster.

Told ya. 

Harley gets mad, and forgets to use English correctly.

"Ain't nobody with a loser name like Minor Disaster can bring me down low!" she yells, defiant of the fact that she just used a double negative and also that she has an appropriate villain name and has just called the kettle black.

Then she gets super mad about being called a lame Joker rip-off, but I mean you can't deny that, especially if you're keeping the skin bleach.

The Ten Worst Things Harley Quinn Has Ever Done!

On a similar note to the "Top Ten Worst Things That Happened To Harley Quinn" post, this time I'm going to have a look at "The Ten Worst Things Harley Quinn Has Ever Done!"

The title is unfortunate, I would have removed the 'Ever' part of it, seeing as how this video was posted back in April 2017, and the poster clearly underestimates how badly Harley can be written.
There are a lot of similar videos and posts out there too.

Let's get stuck in, shall we?

Top 10 Worst Things that Happened to Harley Quinn

Today I gave in to the click bait and watched this WatchMojo.com video titled "Top 10 Worst Things that Happened to Harley Quinn" so I thought I'd go through it here to see what it was all about, what I agree with, what I don't and what I thought overall.

After all, there are so many different versions of Harley Quinn and they've each had different experiences.. Is it going to be fair? Is it going to be mostly classic Harley, or newer Harley? Are video game versions excluded? What about TV and movies?

Let's dig in.