escritorzuela (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
queenslayerbee) wrote2023-08-21 10:50 pm
queenslayerbee) wrote2023-08-21 10:50 pm
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Harley Quinn - season 4 (so far)
It's been four seasons and somehow I keep missing its start & having to catch up while it is a few episodes in (I think the only thing I watched right after it aired was the sex pollen valentine's day special. and I don't care AT ALL for the sex pollen trope lol. Not the way it's often used to, at least).
I got caught up today and-
Part of what I like about this show is its irreverence. Towards comics canon, towards itself, towards its audience even. I don't always like the paths the story takes* but I respect the hell out of that. And, at least on that basis, I don't object at all to Dick's/Nightwing's death.
It could be taken into interesting really interesting places, IMO. Are they going to make it a fakeout, like in the comics? Is the Court of Owls going to be involved somehow? Like, at this point it would feel... odd, if there wasn't some twist, but I acknowledge some part of that are my own expectations when it comes to deaths in DC & among bats.
Buuuuuut. I'm hardly holding my breath because Dick's writing has been fucking atrocious before his death (and during his funeral), to be quite fucking honest LOL. The fact that the show made "Dick letting Tarantula kill Blockbuster" canon, and therefore, more than likely, Dick's sexual assault afterwards, doesn't help (ETA: although they letter backtracked it and changed it to Vigilante, it doesn't make it much better). Each time he was overtly sexualised and dumbed down my whole skin cringed tbh. Ironically, I found the villains' celebration of his murder far, FAR more respectful of his character -recognising him as a threat, for one.
So, yeah. I'm hardly hopeful. I hope I'm wrong. But eh.
*one of the things that have bothered me the most was Joker's ~redemption (HA), which this development SEEMS to have undone (unless it's all a fakeout planned by... DJ Bruce. which. I don't think I'd like either). I was particularly wary of the redemption if they brought Jason to the show, which seems likely given that they've referenced him more (Red Hood is in Harley's contacts, the Joker mentions his murder alongside Dick's when he says he's brought back "one of his classics" by killing one of the bats), & that this storyline would be... something weird for him to ignore tbh.
Despite my disappointment on this front I'll definitely keep watching. The show remains entertaining; the episode where villains & co went to a tech conference in the moon was PRICELESS. And, unexpectedly, I LOVE how the show portrayed Talia?? Who would've thunk, given how dirty DC does her sometimes... but despite the fact that yes, she's an antagonist, and yes, she's a shitty mother... I love the more corporate, #girlboss turn they've given her. At least for me, it neutralises a lot of the orientalist bullshit that tends to occur whenever a particular 'verse villainises her. The problem, for me, is not that she's shown as morally grey or bankrupt: she is, period, that's not something you can argue against in most canons, AFAIC. But there are maaaaany ways you can portray such a character as less than perfectly sympathetic without falling into racist stereotypes. Not everyone will love it, and they have their reasons, but this one time, it's worked for me
I got caught up today and-
Part of what I like about this show is its irreverence. Towards comics canon, towards itself, towards its audience even. I don't always like the paths the story takes* but I respect the hell out of that. And, at least on that basis, I don't object at all to Dick's/Nightwing's death.
It could be taken into interesting really interesting places, IMO. Are they going to make it a fakeout, like in the comics? Is the Court of Owls going to be involved somehow? Like, at this point it would feel... odd, if there wasn't some twist, but I acknowledge some part of that are my own expectations when it comes to deaths in DC & among bats.
Buuuuuut. I'm hardly holding my breath because Dick's writing has been fucking atrocious before his death (and during his funeral), to be quite fucking honest LOL. The fact that the show made "Dick letting Tarantula kill Blockbuster" canon, and therefore, more than likely, Dick's sexual assault afterwards, doesn't help (ETA: although they letter backtracked it and changed it to Vigilante, it doesn't make it much better). Each time he was overtly sexualised and dumbed down my whole skin cringed tbh. Ironically, I found the villains' celebration of his murder far, FAR more respectful of his character -recognising him as a threat, for one.
So, yeah. I'm hardly hopeful. I hope I'm wrong. But eh.
*one of the things that have bothered me the most was Joker's ~redemption (HA), which this development SEEMS to have undone (unless it's all a fakeout planned by... DJ Bruce. which. I don't think I'd like either). I was particularly wary of the redemption if they brought Jason to the show, which seems likely given that they've referenced him more (Red Hood is in Harley's contacts, the Joker mentions his murder alongside Dick's when he says he's brought back "one of his classics" by killing one of the bats), & that this storyline would be... something weird for him to ignore tbh.
Despite my disappointment on this front I'll definitely keep watching. The show remains entertaining; the episode where villains & co went to a tech conference in the moon was PRICELESS. And, unexpectedly, I LOVE how the show portrayed Talia?? Who would've thunk, given how dirty DC does her sometimes... but despite the fact that yes, she's an antagonist, and yes, she's a shitty mother... I love the more corporate, #girlboss turn they've given her. At least for me, it neutralises a lot of the orientalist bullshit that tends to occur whenever a particular 'verse villainises her. The problem, for me, is not that she's shown as morally grey or bankrupt: she is, period, that's not something you can argue against in most canons, AFAIC. But there are maaaaany ways you can portray such a character as less than perfectly sympathetic without falling into racist stereotypes. Not everyone will love it, and they have their reasons, but this one time, it's worked for me