'Gotham Knights Harley Quinn'

 'Is a very interesting case study'

Revolving around the types of circles that I do on the Internet, it's inevitable that the same stories are going to float your way every now and then. But the wide and vast world of entertainment is so ever changing that I never really let it annoy me, because I know that story is just a spark on the stove shimmering for a little longer than it's peers. In basic: It'll be gone before I have a chance to care about it. But thanks maybe to Youtube Shorts, or the fact that the Internet seems eager to push this on me, I've seen again and again that snippet from the developers of Gotham Knights trying to big-up their own design team work to the point where's it's actually become something of a headache. How many times do I have to hear the words ''Gotham Knight's Harley Quinn is a very interesting case study in..." before I lose my mind and explode? Turns out that threshold has already been reached because that's what I'm talking about today.

So Gotham Knights is already a game I have a bias against thanks to the nakedly misleading marketing in it's naming convention as well as the game not really being what I want out of a Batman game. If it's your jam that is entirely fine, I don't think there's anything inherently distasteful about the game they're making, it's just not my ideal Batfamily scenario. But it's because of this that when I first saw and was introduced to their new reimaging of Harley Quinn, alongside the various other villains, I squashed my gut grimace and did my best to try and accept these new iterations. It's not that I have an aversion to reimaginings, I think the Arkham series has consistently pulled off increadibly cool reimaginings time and time again. it's just that what Gotham Knights has feels... dull and not very creative. Mr Freeze has robot limbs now? Okay. Not sure what that really adds to his character but sure...

But Harley Quinn in particular is the one that the team is trying to push the hardest, probably due to the popularity of the character and their staunch belief that this is the magnum opus of their 'taking a character you know well and reworking them' ethos. Afterall, they're so insistent about how 'interesting' this 'case study' of a character design is, why shouldn't they shout their creative successes to the rooftops so that all the world can become bored by them presently? They need you as the viewer to agree about how clever their decisions were and why this Harley is definitely not a dull cookie-cutter fan edit, and they're willing to start fights to prove their point. But you know what? The more I see of her, the more I find myself underwhelmed by a new look that seems about as creatively vibrant as a photoshop colour swap.

Okay, I'm being a bit melodramatic there; it's not quite that basic; but the Harley Quinn redesign for Gotham Knights seems focus on three central points that I feel are mostly all underexplored. First, they wanted to show off what Harley looks in post her love-affair with the Joker, commenting about how we've seen her go from that world to an independent confidant of heroes, what would we see if she had instead leaned the other direction and became a villain? Secondly, they want to highlight the 'independence' angle of that split. Losing the Joker as a source of influence has allowed Harleen to blossom as a villain in her own right with her own motifs exemplifying what she brings to the table as a super villain. And finally, they wanted to depict an older Harley Quinn who wears those years of experience on her as a confirmation of talent and resourcefulness. Which basically means no more pig-tails; after a certain age that's just sad.

So let's take a look at the 'Harley after the Joker' side of this equation. Harley Quinn was invented to be a foil for the Joker to play off during his scenes in the animated series, a reoccurring thug with a bit of a personality around her that evolved into something of a sensation. We've seen in other stories what it looks like when she breaks free from the Joker and in all of those stories she is still, fundamentally, the same person only without the crushing pressure of being obsessed with pleasing a megalomaniacal sociopath. She's pretty much still the over-the-top garish person even without the predilection to cause harm upon innocents, but the Gotham Knights team seems to believe that isn't the case. I think justifying a radical shift in personality is really going to come down to the method by which Quinn split from the Joker. Unless it was a really shocking affair, such as his violent death at the hands of a lethargic Batman or something, the drastic change is going to come across as forced and inorganic.

Then there's the independence angle. They wanted Harley to be her own villain, finally free to do her own brand of evil. Now how that actually shapes up in the whole 'evil schemes' category is yet to be seen until we get our hands on the game, but we can see this philosophy painted over her face. Literally. The team's idea to symbolise how distinct Harley now is to her abusive Clown Prince is to keep the white face paint and just put a Club over her face. As in, the playing card Club. Umm... wasn't the playing card aesthetic literally the basis of the Joker? I know there's the court jester interpretation, but he was never far away from playing cards either. That was his calling card once or twice. I get the idea of showing her past on her new form, but the way they've gone makes it look like Harley has become so drowned in that past that it's washed away all her individuality and left her looking like a generic Joker henchman. She doesn't even standout in colour or style to her new crew, she looks oddly uniform.

Which brings us back around to that final point; depicting her older age. This one I can actually see very abundantly and justifiably within their redesign. Harley has put away the provocative fancy dress and a more lean power-suit that demonstrates a shift from what I can assume were her carefree twenties to her responsible thirties. Maybe mid to late thirties. The duller suit, toned down hair and generally monochromatic colour scheme depicting the distinct drain of personality and vibrancy that hits all as they sink deeper into adulthood and lose touch with that light of happiness. Life becomes monotonous, they become monotonous. Or at least... that's what I got from their redesign. Was that what they were going for? Kind of a morose direction for a superhero character to evolve in but, you do you Gotham Knights.

I'm not going to tell you that Gotham Knights Harley is bad... just that she seems far enough removed from her source material that without a name tag you'd probably be forgiven for mistaking her for a low-effort replacement character thought up over a weekend. And I'm imagine the original Harley was conjured up as just as much of an afterthought, but I think it's clear the minds working on that show were a damn bit more expressive and fun than that dour heads knocking about on this upcoming game.  And I don't want to sit here dissecting the dull muscle man that Red Hood has been turned into, or the equally generic faces of Barbara and Nightwing, partially because I think their blandness is due to engine limitations but partially because I don't care about design when the whole package should come together to sell it. I just can't have another week of IGN trying to gaslight me into how 'interesting' and 'inspired' this deviant art-level redrawn of an iconic character is. Miss me with that crap.