There’s a great lead up to that story that we’ll be starting in the mean time (while we wait for all the issues to arrive here), so we all have the background. Im very excited to read it w/ a group and FINALLY get to discuss all of it.
I certainly enjoyed it. These two, no matter how they’re written, are fun together. Mischievous, yes, but they give each other a whole different layer. Ivy is steely as always—even a little extra grumpy in places, but you know she’s got a heart. Harley is…well, Harls. Weird and a total sweetheart.
Ps. I’ll still never quite understand how some people didn’t always see these two for what they are, but #queercoding I might not have known the words, but I knew something was up even when I was a kid
@Mae Im intrigued. Can you elaborate a touch? Ive never outright asked anyone how they saw these two back in their early days. Maybe now as an adult, I notice more, but honestly, even when I was a kid, there always seemed to be more there. I compared them to me and my twin sister (who are Lucy & Ethel when left unsupervised ) and we do not act like this. She’s my BFF, I tell her everything, but we don’t do a lot of this stuff. (I’m also thinking more of the animated series as opposed to this run…)
@Razzzcat@Mae I really do believe that the portrayal of each individual participant and their relational dynamics strongly influences all audience’s emotional affect, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. I’m a straight cis young man, yet I was so eager for Harley and Ivy to mutually declare each other girlfriends throughout the Harley Quinn animated series. The show is that immersive in how it portrays Harley and Ivy’s deepest desires which is why I spread their ship all over the boards.
Agree. A person either has empathy for someone who isn’t like them or they don’t. Some people, despite a story being told right in front of them, refuse to see what’s happening. We saw it w/ S2 of HQ. (You remember ) It was beautifully developed, yet some people were shocked. So looking back at older versions of Harley and Ivy, I guess it’s just more pronounced. Though, I DID always find them “different”
And thank you for your service @NCharles39 The world is a better place when we let love be.
I pretty much agree with you, @Razzzcat. Even thinking back to their animated origins. Like you wrote in the other topic earlier, some write Harley (or Harley and Ivy) better or worse, but I think the one constant has been true pretty much all these years. There is definitely a romantic love there and it seems like most people either don’t pick up on it or they don’t want to. You mentioned queerbaiting earlier and that’s certainly a thing. When it’s done with good intentions, when it’s queercoding instead of queerbaiting, it’s working around the established rigid norms to tell a queer story disguised as something else. That’s how I feel with a lot of Harley & Ivy stuff. Having them actually sleep together and kiss on the Harley Quinn show was such a breath of fresh air. Hopefully this leads to them becoming a permanent and healthy couple in mainstream DC canon.
I don’t think of them as bait tho. They are the definition of queer coding, as far as I’m concerned. Even Paul Dini admitted it. Harls was designed to be the definition of “queer” and she is.