SERIOUSLY THOUGH SHE WAS MY FAVORITE BATMAN VILLAIN
Her physical condition didn’t allow her to age
No one took her seriously as an actress
And even when she was trying to get into a happy romantic relationship (albeit with another villain) he still couldn’t take her seriously as a consenting, sexually active and romantically interested adult
That’s a lot of blows to someone’s psyche
and Babydoll is both a sympathetic villain and a formidable one
I remember this episode fucked me up a a kid.
And man, do I wish we could see this Batman again: the Batman that consoles his villains, because the majority (if not all) of them are mentally ill people. And Batman knows this and wants them healthy again, not punished and GOD definitely not dead.
Baby Doll is so underrated as a Batman villain
but her episode was perfect
Batman: The Animated Series
The story of one fucked up, traumatized little boy, doing his best to help other fucked up traumatized people.
The Batman that cares about the inmates is my favorite. He doesn’t put up with their shit, but he does try to reach out here and there and he’s as human as he can be to them.
When Harley was re-institutionalized, he got her that dress she wanted.
In the comics based on B:tAS, there was a time during Christmas that there was snow and it was Mr. Freeze’s fault, and he was making it snow because Christmas was his anniversary with Nora and she LOVED it when it snowed on Christmas, so Batman let him finish mourning before calmly taking him back to Arkham.
He never, ever gives up on Harvey possibly recovering.
Sure, Batman is going to throw punches and do what it takes to take these guys down when they’re hurting or threatening people. And he’s not going be a complete bleeding heart; he has to protect the innocent. He’s going to take them down and take them back to Arkham, but it doesn’t mean he’s incapable of being a bit human to the ones who deserve it.
Batman needs become human again
Because it needs to be here:
Remember that time a young girl with near god-like psychic powers threatened to destroy reality and the only one that could stop her was Batman because he had a previous encounter with her and was tasked with killing her to restore reality.
But instead, Batman sat with her on a swing and kept her company as the girl’s psychic powers slowly killed her.
“Never again. No more obsession. No more craziness. No more Joker. I finally see that slime for what he is. A murderous, manipulative, irredeemable… Angel!” -Harley Quinn
gaaahDAMN
I think the thing I loved about the whole Harley and the Joker dynamic was that few writers ever tried concealing how fucking unhealthy their relationship was, or romanticizing it in anyway. When the reader/viewer sees their relationship as a third party, and how the Joker is constantly harming her and how she keeps returning, the reader/viewer wants them to split, for her sake. It’s an excellent portrayal of an abusive relationship and how the abused party can actually want to stay with their significant other despite the shit they go through, and it’s a great way for pop culture to help others recognize the characteristics of such a relationship.
I mean look at this. He pushes her out of a window, and she still feels attracted to him nevertheless. Think of how frustrating that is, that she’s still completely blind to how terrible he is. Imagine how different things would be if, rather than glorifying unhealthy romances, the media continued to show things like this and instilled the same kind of frustration in mass audiences. I imagine that complacency on such issues would drop quite a bit.
GOD BLESS YOU when people romanticize their relationship my soul dies a little
I love these character dynamics, I love them both for being SO damaged, you can obviously see the abuse but you can also see the futility in trying to take her away from him. There’s no help for her and that’s where the sadness comes from her character despite the fact she’s obviously a villain and has been warped to enjoy everything she does if it makes the man she loves happy.
God I love this show.
Entertained as a kid, makes you think as a semi-adult.
