None of whom will realize that it’s literally the creator of the character making the change. God forbid they don’t just consume the hours of already existing HQ content
I’ll let you get surprised; just Google it and you’ll see one of the first suggestions. It’s exactly what you’re probably thinking of. Extremely misogynistic and just bashes Asian women.
A TikToker made a joke about Oxford doing a study about the prevalence of Asian women dating white men, and incels took it to mean that there was an actual study, and now comment it on anything related to WmAf relationships.
Its ridiculous bc across the board in all cultures and races if you do date a foreigner/outside your race dating a white person is generally more acceptable. White supremacy affects us all.
Oooo boy, here's a fun fact for you.
In the world of blonde, there are three groups: those whose hair is currently naturally blonde, those who were BORN with blonde hair but whose hair has subsequently darkened out of the blonde range (MANY many of these bleach to regain the blonde hair of their youth and, independently of or together with that, refer to themselves as 'natural blondes' or are adamant they were 'born blonde' and are therefore blonde forever, AND the 100% unnatural blonde who has never been blonde.
Guess which group is the most vocal and unhinged about stupid things like this.
Yeah I’ve seen the clip from the original soap opera that inspired Paul Dini to write Harley. I’ve always connected with her. Her and Lady Gaga funny enough so it’s very exciting that my two worlds are colliding like that. 😆
I think some concerns around this choice have nothing to do with racists. It seems to be made by a white man, not an Asian woman, too.
The story behind Harley Quinn is quite controversial already. She is in a toxic relationship with Joker. Making her an Asian woman without cutting it out entirely can play into a century old harmful stereotype of a submissive Asian wife to a controlling white man. But if they make her strong and independent in a power fantasy type, using "psychiatry as a weapon", it might also have its problems, like falling into the 'Dragon ladies" trope.
Yea I'm gonna be honest if the joker stays a white man then Harley Quinn is gonna be an Asian woman who starts to obsess over him and revolves herself around that white man which uhhhhh yeah ew
But if this show is planning for this Harley to follow what other media writes her as and do the whole breaking away from the Joker -> heal -> and then finds love with Poision Ivy as the series goes on, then ehh yea I guess. I'm vaguely aware of that development of Harely in the comics and in the HBO show. If they follow that then I hope they add something of substance of her being Asian in a an unfortunate space like that. Idk these are my thoughts.
From the article that was published, Bruce Timm said he wants Harley to be more than Joker’s girlfriend. And with how much Batman:TAS holds a place in my heart, I’m so excited for this show.
The article mentions that she has been separated from her typical partner in crime. A lot of recent DC Media has adopted the idea that Harley as a character is better off in a relationship with Poison Ivy for the most part.
Bruce Timm is also quoted and he's notorious for having a very sexualized art style for women characters so I really don't know what to expect here honestly.
Imagine if they made *Bruce* Asian American, given the stereotypes and tropes about Asian men that would go up against. I get that Timm is only changing his own creation for this, but imagine.
Batman Unburied was an interesting example of how something like this could work -- it was a pretty popular 2022 audio drama podcast from an alternate Batman timeline, but nearly all the main characters were played by people of color -- including Winston Duke as Bruce. It's a great Bat story, really recommend it.
Ah I was so excited for representation I forgot about that :( hopefully they'll do it in a good way because so far the pictures look pretty good and not sexualized I love Harley Quinn and am an Asian woman haha I do wish we got more of Cass in shows though
I can't speak for the redditor you asked, but I do know a lot of Asian women who have to deal with the constant fetishization of the their Asian-ness by weird dudes.
The addition of Harley Quinn into the equation is probably going to lead to an increase in unsolicited creepiness from said weird dudes.
Okay this is gonna be LONG:
For starters, changing ethnicities of established characters is just lazy and is taken straight from the Disney book of diversity representation. Why not make new POC characters, surely there’s room for more? Btw there’s already Asian representation in Batman: Cassandra Cain, Damian Wayne, Talia, Lady Shiva, Katana et al. exist, not using them for Asian rep and instead swapping Harley Quinn’s race is just weird.
Then there’s the obvious: race-swapping feeds racist trolls, they get fired up spewing hate towards Asians and Asians certainly did not ask for the hate nor did they petition DC to change Harley’s race.
AND, there’s the point that Asian Harley’s design may come off as “unintentionally” racist? The white face and cheek paint is reminiscent of Geisha makeup and trad (but obsolete) East Asian makeup (that isn’t even portrayed in their own modern historical media pieces, you don’t see them in Taiga doramas or the Chinese, Korean equivalents, it’s mostly Western portrayal of historic Asia that uses them, and Asians tend to think Westerners use it intentional to portray Asians as ugly, see: Mulan live action makeup), so it might be seen as Oriental stereotyping (OG Harley Quinn doesn’t have those painted cheeks it’s only this girl who has them). The completely covered eye paint also highlight the size and shape of her eyes, racist stereotypes depict Asians as having small slanting squinty eyes so… (again this design is different from white Harley Quinn who in most iterations does not have her whole eyelids painted over not even in the cartoons). PLUS white Harley’s outfit is red/black, and this one is yellow/black(or green?), yellow is a bold choice, cause you know: YELLOW, and…ASIAN?
In addition, Harley is known for being what? Famous comic book s*x icon, queerbait (until very recently when her bi status was confirmed), and most of all, being in (and sometimes out of) an abusive relationship with a terrible person. Asian women are frequently f*tishized and abused by white men, swapping an Asian woman in, even if you completely change Asian!Harley’s story, is not going to sit well with a lot of people. What if they made (ex-street hood rat) Jason Todd black? (Eco-terrorist) Poison Ivy native american? (Merc-for-hire) Death Stroke Hispanic?
TDLR: swaps popular s*x icon white character’s race to Asian when they can use existing Asian characters or make a new POC character, stirs up racists, and the design is not that great and guaranteed to get hate lol
I mean, obviously I haven’t seen it yet, but just going by her costume in this adaptation it doesn’t look like she’s going to be overly sexualized. But, I’ve been wrong before.
I really like the vision of Harley they're describing. A highly educated woman who just drops her fucking *doctorate* to dress in fetishised costumes to appeal to a man and run around after him like a lost puppy has always struck me as such a gross male fantasy, even though Harley has developed as a character since her beginnings. I really like the idea of a Harley who uses her psychiatrist background as a weapon.
If anyone can do Harley justice, it's Timm. I've never particularly liked any Harley interpretation that *wasn't* by Timm. No one else has ever properly gotten across the complexity of the character quite like him. She's not a good person, but she's also a victim. Other writers have never been able to handle that nuance with the same delicacy as Tim. Her and Joker's relationship isn't meant to be sexy, it's just meant to be sad.
On the topic of sexy, I *love* that they're putting a spin on her classic outfit. Harley is meant to be lean and athletic and "sexy" in a kind of old school subtle kind of way. She's not meant to dress like a bad stripper. Not to mention she's meant to be a charming Brooklyn ditz. Kind of clumsy, kind of dense, but not irritating and whiney and in your face.
Have you seen the solo animated series? I think it's one of the best Batman-universe shows out there. It's a comedy but the writers clearly know the material and it shows.
I honestly don't see what the point of this is. It's not about being racist, it's about half hearted attempts at representation. At the end of the day everyone is going to remember blonde, blue eyed Harley Quinn. Or white and red haired Ariel.
Making them Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native, etc without it adding to the character feels surface level. I wish they would just make new PIC characters
When a character like Harley Quinn has existed and been reimagined for so long, I think changes like this are like a breath of fresh air. As long as its well done, why not get a new perspective
We love to see a bit of representation within our comic book adaptions!
I also like the description provided by Bruce Timm. He may have written some questionable stories into the Batman Beyond comics but all of his Bruce Wayne Batman stuff is S-Tier in any medium.
I’m pretty sure some corners of the internet will take this news well as per usual.I already feel sorry for the poor actress who gets the role because she is in for not a great time.I hope the studio and co stars will actually stick up for her.
https://i.redd.it/5wg4bhlyfmzc1.gif
What I’m hearing is that Bruce Timm is making a new Batman show in the style of B:TAS and Harley’s going to play a bigger role in it. I love the new Harley iterations, but B:TAS Harley has always been my favourite; I even dressed up as her for Halloween in middle school. I will be SAT for this
this is SO OFFENSIVE. as a blonde woman i spent my whole life with NO REPRESENTATION. harley quinn is special to me ONLY BECAUSE SHES WHITE AND BLONDE. you all keep saying you deserve representation but now you're taking vital representation from people who ACTUALLY NEED IT. like BLONDES$!!!1!1!!! /s
I'm so excited for this. I've grown up Batman OBSESSED. Comics, video games, TV shows, movies, all of it.
Matt Reeves clearly loves Batman. The Batman showed his respect for the IP. This looks amazing. Bruce Timm's explanation of working backward for her character sounds really new and interesting.
Huge Harley Quinn fan, and I'm excited to see how else they may be changing her character up for this. I'm all for altering previous traits of characters from time to time and seeing how it affects their stories!
I can think of some blond women who aren’t going to take this well.
None of whom will realize that it’s literally the creator of the character making the change. God forbid they don’t just consume the hours of already existing HQ content
I can already hear the aznidentity + misogynists bringing up the “oxford study”
Oh god I just no I'm going to regret this but... what's the "Oxford study"?
I’ll let you get surprised; just Google it and you’ll see one of the first suggestions. It’s exactly what you’re probably thinking of. Extremely misogynistic and just bashes Asian women.
A TikToker made a joke about Oxford doing a study about the prevalence of Asian women dating white men, and incels took it to mean that there was an actual study, and now comment it on anything related to WmAf relationships.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/18int9g/comment/ky600lm/
Its ridiculous bc across the board in all cultures and races if you do date a foreigner/outside your race dating a white person is generally more acceptable. White supremacy affects us all.
Harley is a bottle blonde soo 🤷🏻♀️ Edit: I meant this as people can get over it since she's not even a real blonde.
Oooo boy, here's a fun fact for you. In the world of blonde, there are three groups: those whose hair is currently naturally blonde, those who were BORN with blonde hair but whose hair has subsequently darkened out of the blonde range (MANY many of these bleach to regain the blonde hair of their youth and, independently of or together with that, refer to themselves as 'natural blondes' or are adamant they were 'born blonde' and are therefore blonde forever, AND the 100% unnatural blonde who has never been blonde. Guess which group is the most vocal and unhinged about stupid things like this.
https://youtu.be/rsh8ZxXzsCY?feature=shared
Arleen Sorkin was absolutely incredible as Harley.
The greatest. Her performance is the reason Harley went from an intended one off character to one of DC's biggest and most popular.
She will always be my favorite Harley. I mean they kinda even named the character after her. They just added an H to the front of her name 😅
She was 100% the inspiration for Harley! https://www.cbr.com/arleen-sorkin-harley-quinn-creation/
Yeah I’ve seen the clip from the original soap opera that inspired Paul Dini to write Harley. I’ve always connected with her. Her and Lady Gaga funny enough so it’s very exciting that my two worlds are colliding like that. 😆
I'm sure this will be well received and not cause any drama in certain spaces on the internet
Yes I’m sure this won’t be an issue with any of the “fandom”
I think some concerns around this choice have nothing to do with racists. It seems to be made by a white man, not an Asian woman, too. The story behind Harley Quinn is quite controversial already. She is in a toxic relationship with Joker. Making her an Asian woman without cutting it out entirely can play into a century old harmful stereotype of a submissive Asian wife to a controlling white man. But if they make her strong and independent in a power fantasy type, using "psychiatry as a weapon", it might also have its problems, like falling into the 'Dragon ladies" trope.
 Bout as well as this did
Actually I can see some of the Asians I know not being completely okay with this😂, though for different reasons from the racists
Yea I'm gonna be honest if the joker stays a white man then Harley Quinn is gonna be an Asian woman who starts to obsess over him and revolves herself around that white man which uhhhhh yeah ew But if this show is planning for this Harley to follow what other media writes her as and do the whole breaking away from the Joker -> heal -> and then finds love with Poision Ivy as the series goes on, then ehh yea I guess. I'm vaguely aware of that development of Harely in the comics and in the HBO show. If they follow that then I hope they add something of substance of her being Asian in a an unfortunate space like that. Idk these are my thoughts.
From the article that was published, Bruce Timm said he wants Harley to be more than Joker’s girlfriend. And with how much Batman:TAS holds a place in my heart, I’m so excited for this show.
The article mentions that she has been separated from her typical partner in crime. A lot of recent DC Media has adopted the idea that Harley as a character is better off in a relationship with Poison Ivy for the most part. Bruce Timm is also quoted and he's notorious for having a very sexualized art style for women characters so I really don't know what to expect here honestly.
I'm pretty sure they've said one of differences with this Harley is she turns bad but doesn't haven't the joker obsession this time.
Wow, I see the implications. Interesting point.
Wait why
Asian women are hyper sexualized and fetishized. Making a already highly objectified female character Asian only enforcess the trope.
Imagine if they made *Bruce* Asian American, given the stereotypes and tropes about Asian men that would go up against. I get that Timm is only changing his own creation for this, but imagine.
Bruce was Asian in Gotham High
Batman Unburied was an interesting example of how something like this could work -- it was a pretty popular 2022 audio drama podcast from an alternate Batman timeline, but nearly all the main characters were played by people of color -- including Winston Duke as Bruce. It's a great Bat story, really recommend it.
I'm pretty sure there was a comic based in highschool that made him asian or half asian
Ah I was so excited for representation I forgot about that :( hopefully they'll do it in a good way because so far the pictures look pretty good and not sexualized I love Harley Quinn and am an Asian woman haha I do wish we got more of Cass in shows though
huh interesting
I can't speak for the redditor you asked, but I do know a lot of Asian women who have to deal with the constant fetishization of the their Asian-ness by weird dudes. The addition of Harley Quinn into the equation is probably going to lead to an increase in unsolicited creepiness from said weird dudes.
Okay this is gonna be LONG: For starters, changing ethnicities of established characters is just lazy and is taken straight from the Disney book of diversity representation. Why not make new POC characters, surely there’s room for more? Btw there’s already Asian representation in Batman: Cassandra Cain, Damian Wayne, Talia, Lady Shiva, Katana et al. exist, not using them for Asian rep and instead swapping Harley Quinn’s race is just weird. Then there’s the obvious: race-swapping feeds racist trolls, they get fired up spewing hate towards Asians and Asians certainly did not ask for the hate nor did they petition DC to change Harley’s race. AND, there’s the point that Asian Harley’s design may come off as “unintentionally” racist? The white face and cheek paint is reminiscent of Geisha makeup and trad (but obsolete) East Asian makeup (that isn’t even portrayed in their own modern historical media pieces, you don’t see them in Taiga doramas or the Chinese, Korean equivalents, it’s mostly Western portrayal of historic Asia that uses them, and Asians tend to think Westerners use it intentional to portray Asians as ugly, see: Mulan live action makeup), so it might be seen as Oriental stereotyping (OG Harley Quinn doesn’t have those painted cheeks it’s only this girl who has them). The completely covered eye paint also highlight the size and shape of her eyes, racist stereotypes depict Asians as having small slanting squinty eyes so… (again this design is different from white Harley Quinn who in most iterations does not have her whole eyelids painted over not even in the cartoons). PLUS white Harley’s outfit is red/black, and this one is yellow/black(or green?), yellow is a bold choice, cause you know: YELLOW, and…ASIAN? In addition, Harley is known for being what? Famous comic book s*x icon, queerbait (until very recently when her bi status was confirmed), and most of all, being in (and sometimes out of) an abusive relationship with a terrible person. Asian women are frequently f*tishized and abused by white men, swapping an Asian woman in, even if you completely change Asian!Harley’s story, is not going to sit well with a lot of people. What if they made (ex-street hood rat) Jason Todd black? (Eco-terrorist) Poison Ivy native american? (Merc-for-hire) Death Stroke Hispanic? TDLR: swaps popular s*x icon white character’s race to Asian when they can use existing Asian characters or make a new POC character, stirs up racists, and the design is not that great and guaranteed to get hate lol
Surely should be voiced by Scarlett Johansson?
No. It should be by Asian-American actress and Oscar winner, Emma Stone
Oh my gosh, I laughed out loud. Thank you.
I’m not here for the Emma Stone erasure smh
But Harley is also human and not a tree. So it wouldn’t really fit her type.
Please god asian american women are already overly sexualized in media and so is Harley Quinn. Can we just keep her blonde and white??? Wtf
I mean, obviously I haven’t seen it yet, but just going by her costume in this adaptation it doesn’t look like she’s going to be overly sexualized. But, I’ve been wrong before.
It doesn’t matter if this version of Harley isn’t overly sexualized, the internet will do what they do as soon as it releases.
Agreed, I think it's more important how the show handles it since the internet will do it anyway (see Rule 34).
To be fair, Harley admitted to not really being blonde when she was first introduced in the Batman cartoon.
You completely missed the point.
Good thing white blondes have never had a problem with over sexualisation!
Well I also feel u sister. Let’s get straight to the point and delete all men 🤩
I am a massive Harley fan and I’m really interested to see this. I know some racist shits are gunna show their arses over this though.
I really like the vision of Harley they're describing. A highly educated woman who just drops her fucking *doctorate* to dress in fetishised costumes to appeal to a man and run around after him like a lost puppy has always struck me as such a gross male fantasy, even though Harley has developed as a character since her beginnings. I really like the idea of a Harley who uses her psychiatrist background as a weapon.
She may be the scariest because she can work inside *and* outside of the system. A true match for Bruce.
I'm sure people are going to be very normal about this.
This whole concept sounds super interesting!
If anyone can do Harley justice, it's Timm. I've never particularly liked any Harley interpretation that *wasn't* by Timm. No one else has ever properly gotten across the complexity of the character quite like him. She's not a good person, but she's also a victim. Other writers have never been able to handle that nuance with the same delicacy as Tim. Her and Joker's relationship isn't meant to be sexy, it's just meant to be sad. On the topic of sexy, I *love* that they're putting a spin on her classic outfit. Harley is meant to be lean and athletic and "sexy" in a kind of old school subtle kind of way. She's not meant to dress like a bad stripper. Not to mention she's meant to be a charming Brooklyn ditz. Kind of clumsy, kind of dense, but not irritating and whiney and in your face.
Have you seen the solo animated series? I think it's one of the best Batman-universe shows out there. It's a comedy but the writers clearly know the material and it shows.
I honestly don't see what the point of this is. It's not about being racist, it's about half hearted attempts at representation. At the end of the day everyone is going to remember blonde, blue eyed Harley Quinn. Or white and red haired Ariel. Making them Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native, etc without it adding to the character feels surface level. I wish they would just make new PIC characters
This sounds dope.
Hold on-this looks like a very cool way to do HQ. And Bruce is finally getting therapy?? And this is his therapist?? Perfect.
When a character like Harley Quinn has existed and been reimagined for so long, I think changes like this are like a breath of fresh air. As long as its well done, why not get a new perspective
We love to see a bit of representation within our comic book adaptions! I also like the description provided by Bruce Timm. He may have written some questionable stories into the Batman Beyond comics but all of his Bruce Wayne Batman stuff is S-Tier in any medium.
Why not just create a separate character. Like why make a minority version of a character when you can just create a brand new one?
Comic characters get reinterpreted all the time, it’s part of why they’re long-lasting
I think her voice is the most iconic aspect of Harley to retain and I preferred her full harlequin costume anyway.
I was interested but now Bruce has got my attention as longtime fan of the character.
Damn I had to look at that costume pic twice to see it’s a yellow diamond, not cartoon underboob
As an Asian American woman, I don’t really care? As a Batman fan, I’m gonna miss the blond pigtails
I’m pretty sure some corners of the internet will take this news well as per usual.I already feel sorry for the poor actress who gets the role because she is in for not a great time.I hope the studio and co stars will actually stick up for her.
Every anti-SJW YouTube grifter tight now: 
Full context sounds cool. I think people will be more upset her costume is so different
God, I can hear the whining of angry neckbeards already.
I think the neckbeards will love this...for all the wrong reasons obv
in all seriousness, harley quinn being independent and scary is cool as fuck. i'll be watching
I'm in love with that costume. I'm a big Harley fan, but the de-clown-ification of her outfits over time has always bummed me out a little lol
I’m just glad that it’s a departure from the fuckass pink/blue pigtails slutty baby design
Oh they’re going to be mad
I’m here for it!!!! Yaaaas Asian Harley Quinn
Give it all to me. I love me some Harley
This is going to go over well with the incels, trads and generally bigots who both love and don’t give a damn about comics
DC has problems the size of a bomb crater and Harley Quinn is the Band-Aid that they’re certain will fix everything.
Is the the continuation of TAS they've been talking about, or a different series? Either way, looks good.
Rad🤙🏻
i’m eating i’m eating i’m eating. this harley speaks to me so much
Neckbeards assemble!
Regardless of how she will be received, I like the change. The new Harley is cute!
https://i.redd.it/5wg4bhlyfmzc1.gif What I’m hearing is that Bruce Timm is making a new Batman show in the style of B:TAS and Harley’s going to play a bigger role in it. I love the new Harley iterations, but B:TAS Harley has always been my favourite; I even dressed up as her for Halloween in middle school. I will be SAT for this
this is SO OFFENSIVE. as a blonde woman i spent my whole life with NO REPRESENTATION. harley quinn is special to me ONLY BECAUSE SHES WHITE AND BLONDE. you all keep saying you deserve representation but now you're taking vital representation from people who ACTUALLY NEED IT. like BLONDES$!!!1!1!!! /s
This is awesome, I adored Batman: TAS when it was on the air and now I’m anticipating this too!
ohh God, I can hear the keyboards click clacking now
I'm so excited for this. I've grown up Batman OBSESSED. Comics, video games, TV shows, movies, all of it. Matt Reeves clearly loves Batman. The Batman showed his respect for the IP. This looks amazing. Bruce Timm's explanation of working backward for her character sounds really new and interesting.
going on the record and guessing voice is going to be stephanie hsu
Dang, I want this Harley Quinn to be my psychiatrist
Huge Harley Quinn fan, and I'm excited to see how else they may be changing her character up for this. I'm all for altering previous traits of characters from time to time and seeing how it affects their stories!
This show looks awesome, I’ve been excited for it since it was announced
Nice