I love Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. I think she's perfect for the role because she seems unusually empowered.
But I heard that she almost didn't take the role then changed her mind when she learned about Stockholm Syndrome. Much to my disappointment, like most of the world Robbie seems to assume that Harley Quinn is the victim of the Joker.
My understanding is that the character Harley Quinn was introduced on Batman: The Animated Series and the character was created to give a role to an actress who asked to be on the series. So it was probably supposed to be a one-off appearance and the character of Harley Quinn is apparently based on the character of the actress who wanted the role and, like Margot Robbie, that woman was unusually empowered.
Harley Quinn first appears sort of randomly on September 11, 1992 in an episode called The Joker's Favor and the origin story was apparently made up after the fact and was told in a graphic novel in 1994.
There wasn't originally a backstory. The character was not conceived of that way.
With the origin story, you get the name Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel as her supposed "real name" but it is my understanding that it, too, was invented later as part of an origin story that didn't originally exist. This character was NOT created with a backstory in mind and was simply written to please the actress who wanted a part and was written to fit her personality, from what I gather.
If you actually watch Batman: The Animated Series, Harley Quinn in no way behaves like she is the victim of the Joker.
So it's probably reasonable to assume that the origin story we have been given is sort of a retcon. It's a revisionist history that doesn't actually make any sense and doesn't really fit the character.
The entire world has agreed that only a crazy lady would get involved with the Joker and has made up an explanation for the character that fits with this assumption. In spite of all the evidence that Harley Quinn adores the Joker and is there voluntarily, the world assumes no woman in her right mind could possibly love the Joker and assumes she has no agency.
In the opening credits of Batman: The Animated Series, we see Batman do incredible physical feats and get ahead of fleeing bad guys. And, yet, Harley Quinn can outrun Batman plus she casually does gymnastic moves.
Batman's sidekick character, Robin, is positioned as the child of circus performers to explain his physical ability but we have no real explanation for Harley Quinn's incredible physical prowess. I propose she must have been a serious student of gymnastics in her childhood and her mother is a foreign-born retired circus performer.
This could be how Harley manages to get ahold of pet hyenas. Thanks to her mother, she has connections to the circus industry.
That would make much more sense than Quinn being a young genius with a PhD gone mad due to the head games of the Joker.
Violent criminals tend to have a much larger sense of personal space than normal. You find that people who feel that, say, thirty feet in all directions is "my space" will start fights with someone who entered the same room as them over what seems like some ridiculous excuse to other people because the room is less than thirty feet across, so this person is "in my space" and has done something or other they didn't like.
You also find that violent criminals tend to be dangerous to all adults but they are fond of children and pets. They don't trust anyone who is an adult and so children are the only people they will let get close to them without their hackles getting up.
This combination of feeling a right to take control of everything near them and their fondness for children means that some of your worst criminals are, in a strange way, very protective of children. This is likely why pedophiles have to be kept away from the rest of the prison population: If they aren't incarcerated separately, they tend to have themselves a deadly accident in short order.
Batman calls Harley Quinn "Ms. Quinn." He seems to have an affectionate relationship to her, to know her personally and to genuinely respect her in some sense.
This is unlike how he interacts with other criminals. It also implies that her name actually is Quinn, not Quinzel.
I propose an alternate backstory for Harley Quinn that goes roughly like this:
Harley Quinn is the only child -- or perhaps step-child -- of a corrupt businessman in town. He moved there from New York, thus explaining her New York accent (which actually comes from the original actress for the part).
He is also taking advantage of Harley. The Joker learns of her abuse and when Harley's attempts to leave home are foiled by her father, the Joker decides to extract her.
Perhaps the Joker stages a bank heist and takes Harley hostage in the process as a cover story for extracting her from the clutches of her father, then gives her money taken from her father and tells her she can go anywhere she wants. As far as he's concerned, she's free.
For a time, she stays at the mansion of the Joker and as long as she is there, she is safe. Her father can't touch her. The Joker is a more powerful crime lord than her father.
But there is no place else she can go on earth that gets her out of reach of her father. And she already knows the ropes for how the Joker makes his money as she was involved in her father's businesses and her alter ego of Diamond Lil is a well-known card dealer or card sharp, which is where her harlequin outfit and persona come from.
The Joker has been the proverbial perfect gentleman the entire time she has lived with him. With living with him and under his protection, she develops a genuine fondness for the man and one night she initiates a sexual relationship with him though she is, say, just eighteen and he is probably more like thirty.
She decides she wants to stay with him as living with him is the only place on earth she will ever be safe from her father. She convinces the Joker he is obligated to accept the arrangement because if he doesn't she simply isn't safe and if he turns her down, it will be like he never extracted her.
Things will go back to the way they were, only worse because now her father can make Harley even more his prisoner: He can hire bodyguards and otherwise tighten security on her in the name of protecting her.
Perhaps the Joker never expected to find love and has mixed feelings about the whole thing, but feeling obligated to protect her would explain why he is both seemingly very committed to her and also behaves like the beleaguered boyfriend. Him being her real life hero would also explain her over-the-top affection for him and willingness to enthusiastically support his criminal career and sort of laugh about quirks of being involved with him.
I propose that Bruce Wayne knew Harley socially before she became involved with the Joker. Wayne is also a businessman and would have dealings with other businessmen in town, such as Harley's father.
Wayne knew her socially, he became aware she was likely being abused by her father and when he goes to save her from her kidnapper, Harley recognizes that Batman is actually Bruce Wayne. She insists he turn around and leave and manages to convince him he needs to cooperate in letting the Joker extract her from her abusive family situation or she will out Bruce to the papers and let them know he is Batman.
Thus begins this bizarre, politely affectionate relationship between the career criminal Harley Quinn and Batman, local vigilante. Bruce has an unresolvable conflict: He can neither condone her criminal activities nor find a better solution to protect her from a worse fate.
I don't think of Harley Quinn as insane and I don't think of her as the victim of the Joker. I think she is an unusually empowered woman who must have some kind of insane life situation that the Joker makes sense as her personal adored hero, protecting her from worse things.
I propose that the current origin story can be explained away as a cover story. She already knew the Joker and got herself a job at the insane asylum with a ridiculous made-up name and ridiculous made-up credentials to help him escape.
Bonus points: It fits the Joker's odd sense of humor for people to believe that and it serves to obfuscate the truth about Harley, which helps protect her from her father while she hides in plain sight right in his backyard.
But I heard that she almost didn't take the role then changed her mind when she learned about Stockholm Syndrome. Much to my disappointment, like most of the world Robbie seems to assume that Harley Quinn is the victim of the Joker.
My understanding is that the character Harley Quinn was introduced on Batman: The Animated Series and the character was created to give a role to an actress who asked to be on the series. So it was probably supposed to be a one-off appearance and the character of Harley Quinn is apparently based on the character of the actress who wanted the role and, like Margot Robbie, that woman was unusually empowered.
Harley Quinn first appears sort of randomly on September 11, 1992 in an episode called The Joker's Favor and the origin story was apparently made up after the fact and was told in a graphic novel in 1994.
There wasn't originally a backstory. The character was not conceived of that way.
With the origin story, you get the name Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel as her supposed "real name" but it is my understanding that it, too, was invented later as part of an origin story that didn't originally exist. This character was NOT created with a backstory in mind and was simply written to please the actress who wanted a part and was written to fit her personality, from what I gather.
If you actually watch Batman: The Animated Series, Harley Quinn in no way behaves like she is the victim of the Joker.
- Though he has no affectionate nicknames for her, she calls him Puddin.
- She orders his henchman around as if she is his partner, not his abused personal possession.
- He constantly rolls his eyes behind her back like he is some kind of beleaguered boyfriend putting up with her antics and afraid to say anything to her.
- She has pet hyenas that she calls her babies and the Joker and everyone else is terrified of them.
So it's probably reasonable to assume that the origin story we have been given is sort of a retcon. It's a revisionist history that doesn't actually make any sense and doesn't really fit the character.
The entire world has agreed that only a crazy lady would get involved with the Joker and has made up an explanation for the character that fits with this assumption. In spite of all the evidence that Harley Quinn adores the Joker and is there voluntarily, the world assumes no woman in her right mind could possibly love the Joker and assumes she has no agency.
In the opening credits of Batman: The Animated Series, we see Batman do incredible physical feats and get ahead of fleeing bad guys. And, yet, Harley Quinn can outrun Batman plus she casually does gymnastic moves.
Batman's sidekick character, Robin, is positioned as the child of circus performers to explain his physical ability but we have no real explanation for Harley Quinn's incredible physical prowess. I propose she must have been a serious student of gymnastics in her childhood and her mother is a foreign-born retired circus performer.
This could be how Harley manages to get ahold of pet hyenas. Thanks to her mother, she has connections to the circus industry.
That would make much more sense than Quinn being a young genius with a PhD gone mad due to the head games of the Joker.
Violent criminals tend to have a much larger sense of personal space than normal. You find that people who feel that, say, thirty feet in all directions is "my space" will start fights with someone who entered the same room as them over what seems like some ridiculous excuse to other people because the room is less than thirty feet across, so this person is "in my space" and has done something or other they didn't like.
You also find that violent criminals tend to be dangerous to all adults but they are fond of children and pets. They don't trust anyone who is an adult and so children are the only people they will let get close to them without their hackles getting up.
This combination of feeling a right to take control of everything near them and their fondness for children means that some of your worst criminals are, in a strange way, very protective of children. This is likely why pedophiles have to be kept away from the rest of the prison population: If they aren't incarcerated separately, they tend to have themselves a deadly accident in short order.
Batman calls Harley Quinn "Ms. Quinn." He seems to have an affectionate relationship to her, to know her personally and to genuinely respect her in some sense.
This is unlike how he interacts with other criminals. It also implies that her name actually is Quinn, not Quinzel.
I propose an alternate backstory for Harley Quinn that goes roughly like this:
Harley Quinn is the only child -- or perhaps step-child -- of a corrupt businessman in town. He moved there from New York, thus explaining her New York accent (which actually comes from the original actress for the part).
He is also taking advantage of Harley. The Joker learns of her abuse and when Harley's attempts to leave home are foiled by her father, the Joker decides to extract her.
Perhaps the Joker stages a bank heist and takes Harley hostage in the process as a cover story for extracting her from the clutches of her father, then gives her money taken from her father and tells her she can go anywhere she wants. As far as he's concerned, she's free.
For a time, she stays at the mansion of the Joker and as long as she is there, she is safe. Her father can't touch her. The Joker is a more powerful crime lord than her father.
But there is no place else she can go on earth that gets her out of reach of her father. And she already knows the ropes for how the Joker makes his money as she was involved in her father's businesses and her alter ego of Diamond Lil is a well-known card dealer or card sharp, which is where her harlequin outfit and persona come from.
The Joker has been the proverbial perfect gentleman the entire time she has lived with him. With living with him and under his protection, she develops a genuine fondness for the man and one night she initiates a sexual relationship with him though she is, say, just eighteen and he is probably more like thirty.
She decides she wants to stay with him as living with him is the only place on earth she will ever be safe from her father. She convinces the Joker he is obligated to accept the arrangement because if he doesn't she simply isn't safe and if he turns her down, it will be like he never extracted her.
Things will go back to the way they were, only worse because now her father can make Harley even more his prisoner: He can hire bodyguards and otherwise tighten security on her in the name of protecting her.
Perhaps the Joker never expected to find love and has mixed feelings about the whole thing, but feeling obligated to protect her would explain why he is both seemingly very committed to her and also behaves like the beleaguered boyfriend. Him being her real life hero would also explain her over-the-top affection for him and willingness to enthusiastically support his criminal career and sort of laugh about quirks of being involved with him.
I propose that Bruce Wayne knew Harley socially before she became involved with the Joker. Wayne is also a businessman and would have dealings with other businessmen in town, such as Harley's father.
Wayne knew her socially, he became aware she was likely being abused by her father and when he goes to save her from her kidnapper, Harley recognizes that Batman is actually Bruce Wayne. She insists he turn around and leave and manages to convince him he needs to cooperate in letting the Joker extract her from her abusive family situation or she will out Bruce to the papers and let them know he is Batman.
Thus begins this bizarre, politely affectionate relationship between the career criminal Harley Quinn and Batman, local vigilante. Bruce has an unresolvable conflict: He can neither condone her criminal activities nor find a better solution to protect her from a worse fate.
I don't think of Harley Quinn as insane and I don't think of her as the victim of the Joker. I think she is an unusually empowered woman who must have some kind of insane life situation that the Joker makes sense as her personal adored hero, protecting her from worse things.
I propose that the current origin story can be explained away as a cover story. She already knew the Joker and got herself a job at the insane asylum with a ridiculous made-up name and ridiculous made-up credentials to help him escape.
Bonus points: It fits the Joker's odd sense of humor for people to believe that and it serves to obfuscate the truth about Harley, which helps protect her from her father while she hides in plain sight right in his backyard.
Footnote
I originally wrote this up elsewhere as a multipart fictional piece. Upon rereading it, I feel I left out a key detail.
My original version has Harley run away from home one or more times prior to being extracted by the Joker. Thus she knows from firsthand experience that her parents WILL find her and come get her no matter where she physically goes in the world.
It's a key detail because real world abusive parents or other abusers frequently really will try to control their victim and not allow them to simply leave. Merely physically leaving often does little or nothing to protect the victim.
The way you escape people like that is by finding a scheme of this sort that puts up invisible social barriers they dare not cross.
19 November 2024