"Harley Quinn" Season Three Talkback (Spoilers)

Rate the third season of Harley Quinn

  • *****

    Votes: 1 25.0%
  • ****1/2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • ****

    Votes: 1 25.0%
  • ***1/2

    Votes: 1 25.0%
  • ***

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • **1/2

    Votes: 1 25.0%
  • **

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • *1/2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • *

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    4

Peter Paltridge

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Kudos to Ivy for taking the high road on that one. Most TV characters would have used that twist as an excuse to milk easy drama out of it. I can barely think of anyone on any other show who's done the right thing in such a situation.
 

PicardMan

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On the topic of Harley's transformation into a hero, it seems like the show is glossing over Harley killing the Mad Hatter this season and a bunch of villains in the second season. I'm not so sure that the Harley being hesitant to kill the Joker is solely based on a changing moral compass because no previous episode established her gaining a reluctance to kill. Just in the previous episode, Harley was upset there were no lethal weapons to kill the zombies. Yes, she did think that stopping the zombie apocalypse was a step too far, but most of Batman's rogues would probably be against Ivy's plan, so that's weak evidence of her becoming heroic. At best, she seems like the kind of person who'd with the Red Hood (who we still haven't seen in this cartoon, is he going to make an appearance in season 4?) rather than the Batfamily. Don't really buy that Harley becoming a bat family member. Also, the whole plot of Harley stopping Ivy from mutating everyone into plant people was recycled from the Batman and Harley Quinn direct to video. I did have a lot of nitpicks about this season, but I still had fun with it. Solid if quite frustrating and flawed.
 

Yojimbo

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I think it was more along the lines of Harley didn't agree with Ivy's plan of taking over the Legion or killing Joker but went along with it like how Joker pointed out she does but this time it was more apparent she was sabotaging herself - forgetting the bat, the weak knot - either consciously or subconsciously. I don't buy she's a hero, she's admittingly hero-curious but I think by the end of season 4, she'll choose end up choosing anti-hero - or in other words, she'll save innocent people but will still kill villains like Penguin or Mad Hatter who piss her off.
 

Fone Bone

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Harley Quinn "The Horse And The Sparrow"

Okay, you can say a LOT of bad things about this show, but I believe it has hands-down the most interesting version of the Joker in ANY Batman continuity. Literally out of all of them. The shocking thing about the Joker is that his plans as Mayor are not just beneficial to Gotham. He actually believes in going after the 1 percenters and making the tax code fair. And it's not actually a put-on in hindsight with the show pulling the rug out from under us in the finale. Joker says people can be two things at once and actually means it.

Mark Hamill gives a better Joker performance than Alan Tudyk does. But I think Tudyk's Joker is far more interesting than the DCAU one.

Him knowing it's Lex behind the death warrant and being utterly pissed off because it's such a stupid, tiny small tax percentage for him, is interesting as hell. I'm sorry, it just is. The idea fascinates me.

How great is it that Joker has no idea Bruce Wayne is Batman, but has him arrested for tax fraud, no doubt flagged for his secret Batlife tech and vehicles? And Bruce can't exactly explain those discrepancies, can he? Messy as hell. Just the way I like it.

I am not on-board Harley deciding to be a hero yet. Because it's what I want. And I don't trust myself for wanting that. I don't believe I want that for the right reasons. I want that because heroes are easier protagonists for me to root for. And maybe it's not in this show's best interest to make that easy for me. I'm glad she's joining the Bat-Family, and think it's probably a big mistake at the same time.

Her scenes of therapy with Bruce were great. I think she actually cares about him. It's not just because of patient doctor privilege that holds her tongue. She cares about young Bruce Wayne in a way she never did Batman. It's not Batman's secret she's protecting. It's Bruce's.

If you gave me the fates of both Young Justice and this show, and said I could only keep one, this is the one I would have chosen. I'm not actually surprised things worked out the way they did there. *****.
 

ABrown

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Mark Hamill gives a better Joker performance than Alan Tudyk does. But I think Tudyk's Joker is far more interesting than the DCAU one.

Agreed. I don't necessarily fault the DCAU creators though. I've always felt that the DCAU was very limited in what they could do with him, since it was a kids cartoon. The only times that they were really able to use Joker to his full potential was in the Mask of the Phantasm and Return of the Joker movies.
 

Frontier

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I know there are probably those who feel that Harley heading down a heroic path, or at least a less villainous one, was always the plan and a natural progression of her character development...and maybe it is in some respects. But at the same time, a part of me just can't buy it :shrug:.

It's just...I can genuinely believe Harley isn't a proponent of the nuclear option, but in the past it's always felt like there was a self-serving aspect to it because it involves risking people she cares about and herself rather than because she cared about the general populous. And she's never seen a proclivity for wanting to save people. I mean, okay, going back to her psychologist job it seems like part of that was because she wanted to mend the sick, but she's strayed so far from that (willingly, I might add) and committed so many crimes and killings as Harley Quinn that's it just hard for me to feel a turn to doing good is genuine. I mean, it's not like the show was ever going to give her a proper reckonings for all the crimes and murders she committed, so it feels like it's basically just giving her a pass for that stuff because now she wants to be a different person :mad:.

I can believe the people of Gotham are dumb enough to go gaga over Harley because she saved them, but I'm just really tired of Batgirl being a Harley fangirl :(.

I love how Ivy is keeping her villain look and people can't help but notice how great she looks, and the three compliments thing. I do find it kind of funny how both her and Harley embracing their inner, independent, Supervillain lead to them wearing skimpier outfits :p.

I...did not expect Lex Luthor to admit he @$%^ himself after seeing Ivy's villainous plan come to fruition. Or doting on his pet :sweat:.

I mean, there's got to be some strings attached to Luthor putting Ivy in charge of the Legion of Doom. I can't imagine Luthor would put someone else in charge of his organization without having at least some plan in place. Maybe season 4 will address Ivy having to contend with that as she learns to be a leader and full-time Supervillain :evil:.

To be honest I don't really see Harley personally objecting to killing Joker that much unless that's supposed to show how far she has come from her old days...or maybe she didn't want to deprive the kids of their father? But honestly it really doesn't feel like Joker is someone she'd object to helping kill to me :knd1: .

It was surreal to see Joker and Ivy talking about Harley as a love interest, and Joker making Ivy realize how Harley had been acting. I know one of the criticisms of the HarlIvy pairing is that Harley still ends up deferring to Ivy and going along with her like she did Joker, so it seems like they wanted to address that here :oops:.

I haven't been the biggest fan of Harley and Ivy as a couple, but I appreciate that the writers committed so much to building them up as a relationship that they weren't going to just unceremoniously break them up again or do typical relationship drama, instead they actually behave like mature adults in a relationship. Granted, I still don't think the situation warranted them taking different career paths, but I guess the writers just couldn't resist that plot hook for season 4 ;).

So Selina does care! Except it seems like she was just after his mothers' pearls...only she leaves them with him before he's carted off! So I guess she does care!? Man, it's hard keeping track of this womans' feelings o_O.

I'm genuinely surprised they're still pushing Swamp Thing and Nora Fries as a thing considering the main twist of the episode where they hooked up was that Nora wasn't serious and was treating it like a fling, which is why Swampie freaked out :melissa:.

So we've got Daniel Cassidy (Blue Devil) as Joe Chill...Rita Farr (Elastigirl) as Martha Wayne...and Garfield Logan (Beast Boy) as child Bruce Wayne...and I think I saw Jonathan Lord's name in the credits? Although it looks like Rita wore her Martha Wayne costume to the premier :rolleyes2:.

Joker arresting Bruce for tax evasion...what!? Like, how are we supposed to regard this scene? Joker has his own police force of clowns now and, knowing Bruce's identity, basically busts him on trumped up or unnecessary charges as whatever tax crimes Bruce committed were in the service of others because Joker is running on a socialist platform? And Bruce is okay with going to prison and leaving Gotham because he feels like he needs the time to himself and to pay for helping cause the zombie attack (even though it's not like Harley and Ivy ever really face justice for the stunts they pull)? Like...why are people accepting this as okay!? Joker just took down Batman and sent him to prison with his own law enforcement group. None of this sounds like a good thing yet it feels like the characters are just brushing it off as no big deal. Are we meant to accept it because of how much the season (and people in real life) criticize and complain about the rich :eek:.

After deconstructing and making fun of him for most of the season, and then this...honestly it feels like to me the writers really wanted to write Batman out of the series and this was their way of doing it. Well, at least they had Harley justify her status as Bruce's psychologist again instead of leaving King Shark to keep giving Bruce pep talks :french2:.

I guess we have an inkling of Clayfaces' season 4 arc now that his impersonating Billy Bob Thornton actually worked, but so much so that he can't take credit for it. He seems really bummed out about it so I wonder what's next for him :raven:.

I will say Babs looked amazing in that purple dress (wait, was she Bruce's date?). I just wish she'd grow her hair out a little :).

Is Batgirl really the best choice to lead the Batfamily in Batman's absence? Like, I'm not doubting Barbara Gordon's enthusiasm or leadership skills, but...you're putting the person with the least experience as a vigilante in charge of a whole team of them? Whose only accomplishments you could cite were beating the Mad Hatter (which honestly doesn't sound that impressive and she still needed Harley's help) or leading against the zombie invasion (to be honest it didn't feel like she did that much leading)? It just didn't feel natural to me :confused:.

And it feels like another slight against Dick. Like, you have Nightwing, your oldest protege and partner, who was part of the Titans, and is generally regarded in the comics as one of the greatest leaders in the entire DCU...and he's not even considered for the job. To be honest I just don't get the sense the writers think that highly of Dick beyond his prominence in the franchise and the butt jokes :rolleyes:.
 

The Overlord

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Harley Quinn "The Horse And The Sparrow"

Okay, you can say a LOT of bad things about this show, but I believe it has hands-down the most interesting version of the Joker in ANY Batman continuity. Literally out of all of them. The shocking thing about the Joker is that his plans as Mayor are not just beneficial to Gotham. He actually believes in going after the 1 percenters and making the tax code fair. And it's not actually a put-on in hindsight with the show pulling the rug out from under us in the finale. Joker says people can be two things at once and actually means it.

Mark Hamill gives a better Joker performance than Alan Tudyk does. But I think Tudyk's Joker is far more interesting than the DCAU one.

Him knowing it's Lex behind the death warrant and being utterly pissed off because it's such a stupid, tiny small tax percentage for him, is interesting as hell. I'm sorry, it just is. The idea fascinates me.

How great is it that Joker has no idea Bruce Wayne is Batman, but has him arrested for tax fraud, no doubt flagged for his secret Batlife tech and vehicles? And Bruce can't exactly explain those discrepancies, can he? Messy as hell. Just the way I like it.

I am not on-board Harley deciding to be a hero yet. Because it's what I want. And I don't trust myself for wanting that. I don't believe I want that for the right reasons. I want that because heroes are easier protagonists for me to root for. And maybe it's not in this show's best interest to make that easy for me. I'm glad she's joining the Bat-Family, and think it's probably a big mistake at the same time.

Her scenes of therapy with Bruce were great. I think she actually cares about him. It's not just because of patient doctor privilege that holds her tongue. She cares about young Bruce Wayne in a way she never did Batman. It's not Batman's secret she's protecting. It's Bruce's.

If you gave me the fates of both Young Justice and this show, and said I could only keep one, this is the one I would have chosen. I'm not actually surprised things worked out the way they did there. *****.

Actually Joker knows Bruce is Batman when Scarecrow unmasked him in season 1.

The thing is Joker is usually presented as a Michael Myers unknowable force of evil and choas, more a force of nature than a character. This is more of humanized Joker. I like the pure evil Joker, but this is nice change of pace.
 

Yojimbo

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Actually Joker knows Bruce is Batman when Scarecrow unmasked him in season 1.

The thing is Joker is usually presented as a Michael Myers unknowable force of evil and choas, more a force of nature than a character. This is more of humanized Joker. I like the pure evil Joker, but this is nice change of pace.
That's one thing I was waiting for Joker to acknowledge since he turned back but he hasn't. I'm wondering if he remembers everything or some things got lost during the 2 transformations.
 

Fone Bone

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That's one thing I was waiting for Joker to acknowledge since he turned back but he hasn't. I'm wondering if he remembers everything or some things got lost during the 2 transformations.
I had assumed that was part of his amnesia. Frankly his coincidentally going after Bruce because he believes he violated the law is a more interesting story point than railroading Bruce for something he knows he didn't do because he's Batman.
 

Frontier

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To be honest the show has abstained from having Joker and Batman interact for practically two seasons that I'm kind of surprised at how quickly the arrest scene played out and that they didn't really focus on the fact that this is really the first time they've interacted with each other since...the season 1 finale?
I had assumed that was part of his amnesia. Frankly his coincidentally going after Bruce because he believes he violated the law is a more interesting story point than railroading Bruce for something he knows he didn't do because he's Batman.
To be honest part of me assumed he even went after Bruce to begin with because he knows he might have cut a few business corners for Batman purposes.
 

Fone Bone

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I'm gonna tweet Schumacker on this Joker topic and see if we get anything definitive.
Please don't. This is the kind of unanswered question that should be left up to the fans to debate until Season 4 hits (when they obviously will answer it). I think if you asked, Schumacker would tell you, just because creators are more interactive with the fans. But wondering what the actual deal is for a year is the selling point of it not being clear in the finale itself.
 

Frontier

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Please don't. This is the kind of unanswered question that should be left up to the fans to debate until Season 4 hits (when they obviously will answer it). I think if you asked, Schumacker would tell you, just because creators are more interactive with the fans. But wondering what the actual deal is for a year is the selling point of it not being clear in the finale itself.
I mean, personally I'd like to know, but to each their own ;).
 

Yojimbo

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He answers what he feels comfortable answering. It's not a given there's an answer or y'know sometimes legally he can't comment on (i.e. like the season 4 ep. titles on EIDR). It could well be something they've left open ended/haven't firmly decided on like when Ivy and Frank first met.
 

Daikun

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Is the season over?
Seasons 1 and 2 were 13 episodes each. I've been waiting for an 11th episode to show up for season 3, but a new episode hasn't been posted in a couple of weeks.
 

Neo Ultra Mike

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Yeah season 3 was announced as only being 10 episodes instead of 13. I have a feeling (I could be totally wrong on this of course) that this was done because HBO Max gave them less money to make the season then they did when it was a DC Streaming series. So that meant likely having to have a tighter episode count and maybe scaling down occasionally on some of the fighting though for the most part they were probably given more freedom on what to do with the characters and stories. I doubt even if they could make it work the team would have been allowed to do with Bruce Wayne/Batman what they did in season 3 on like DC Streaming.
 

khuddle

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i watched Season 3 over the weekend and came away disappointed. It had a number of humorous moments (Bane and his credit card, Swamp Thing and his man-bun, Nora and her sexual escapades) but not nearly enough of them. THAT should have been the focus of the show, and not Ivy's silly "terraforming" plan. But the worst part of the season was the way they portrayed Batman/Bruce Wayne, essentially, a spineless wimp who completely fell to pieces when Catwoman rejected him. Batman is widely known as one of the most strong-willed members of the Justice League (that's one of the reasons he can actually hang with them); he would have never taken rejection that badly.

I'm done with this show,. If there's a season 4, I'm definitely going to pass.
 

PicardMan

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But the worst part of the season was the way they portrayed Batman/Bruce Wayne, essentially, a spineless wimp who completely fell to pieces when Catwoman rejected him. Batman is widely known as one of the most strong-willed members of the Justice League (that's one of the reasons he can actually hang with them); he would have never taken rejection that badly.

Unless he's written by Tom King, who also wrote a story about Catwoman rejecting him and him falling to pieces.
 

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