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The story of Harley Quinn from the Batman: Arkham video game series.
Meeting Joker[]
Harleen interns at Blackgate Penitentiary and is finishing up her Psychiatry residency but is assigned to the Joker after Batman captures him. During his psychological profiling, the Joker describes the encounter between him and Batman and states that it has changed the way he thought but never specifies that he's talking about Batman. Harleen therefore thinks that Joker is talking about her, so she grows an affinity towards Joker. She is then seen again at the Blackgate riot later that night where she is held hostage by a group of escaped prisoners. Batman quickly intervenes but she shows no hint of any form of gratitude towards her saviour, nor does she show signs of shock from being almost killed.
When Batman asks if she is alright, she replies "What's it to ya?". Harleen walks away from the Batman as he states that "You were almost killed." She then replies back "Eh, occupational hazard." and reveals that the Joker is located inside the panopticon, and that he is waiting for Batman's arrival. Harleen is finally shown at the end of the main story escorting Joker to his cell with a group of guards.
Assault on Arkham[]
Sometime after the events on Christmas Eve, Harleen Quinzel goes as far as to become Harley Quinn for her love for Joker and joins him in his criminal pursuits. At some point after however, Harley Quinn breaks up with the Joker after being thrown in front of a car during an escape attempt and strikes out on her own. She is later forcibly recruited into the Suicide Squad by Amanda Waller along with several other criminals to find a bomb that the Joker has hidden inside Gotham. After breaking into Arkham Asylum where the Joker is being held, Joker begins to taunt her. Angered for what the Joker had done to her, she grabs a gun and attempts to shoot him. However, due to the bulletproof door, Joker is unharmed until Harley places the gun inside one of the air holes and continues to shoot. The bullets ricochet through Joker's room but miss the Joker, but the bullets manage to damage the wall inside Joker's cell.
Later on, during the assault on Arkham, Joker manages to escape his room, by hot-wiring the circuits to open the door. He then comes across some security guards, and kills them so he can "put on something more comfortable, without being seen". After putting on his casual outfit, he comes across "Batman" and decides to sneak up and gun him down. Just as he is about to kill "Batman", "Batman's" head blows up in front of him and Joker quickly realizes that is is actually Black Spider of the Suicide Squad. As he examines Black Spider's head, Joker hears several others being electrocuted by Ol' Sparky. Joker quickly makes his way to the Medical Center, when he discovers the real Batman, along with Deadshot, Killer Frost, Riddler, Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, and a dead King Shark. Joker attacks Batman, as well as unleashing a large number of explosive marbles. All of the members of the Suicide Squad manage to escape, and Batman escapes as well but Joker manages to shoot Batman in the shoulder and the side of the stomach.
Eventually, Joker comes across the members of the Suicide Squad who he threatens to kill, especially Deadshot for being Harley's new "boyfriend". However, Harley manages to convince him that she was using the Squad all along to break Joker out and surprisingly Joker forgives her and chooses to let her live. However, Joker is still mad at Deadshot for touching his "stuff" and decides to kill him. Just as he is about to kill Deadshot though, Deadshot plays head games with Joker as he says that there are no bullets in the gun. Joker tries to prove that there is at least one bullet left but wastes it by shooting at the ceiling. Deadshot attacks Joker, but Joker, along with Harley manages to escape via the laundry chute. After successfully escaping the remaining members of the Suicide Squad, Joker demands Harley give him her hammer and it is revealed that the bomb was always inside Harley's hammer. Once he activates it. Joker makes contact with Batman, announcing that the bomb has been activated and, to make sure that Batman doesn't come after him, Joker sets free all the inmates in Arkham including Scarecrow, Two-Face, Bane, and Poison Ivy.
Joker and Harley make their escape on a helicopter that Deadshot uses to escape Arkham as well. Joker appears behind Deadshot, pointing a gun behind him. Before he shoots down Deadshot, Joker mentions that Deadshot has a cute kid and that she won't be dismayed when she becomes an orphan at a young age. Enraged, Deadshot confronts Joker, while Harley is trying to control the helicopter and, whilst Batman chases the helicopter. A helicopter crashes into a nearby building, resulting in Harley fighting Batman, and Joker fighting Deadshot. Joker proves to be a deadly opponent, as he easily gains the upper hand. However, a wounded Deadshot manages to throw into the damaged helicopter and then processes to toss two knives onto Joker's shoulders. The Helicopter then loses balance and falls out of the building but, despite falling to his "demise", Joker begind to laugh out loud. The helicopter crashed to the streets of Gotham and explodes with Joker laughing down but, despite the helicopter crashing and exploding, Joker's body is nowhere to be found, confirming that he somehow managed to escape the helicopter before it explodes. While this is going on, Batman manages to knock out Harley and eventually disarm the bomb.
Pre-Batgirl: A Matter of Family[]
The Joker resurfaces sometime later, and is soon incarcerated at Arkham again where he and Harley mend fences and become partners again. When Dr. Penelope Young refuses to help the Joker with his Titan project, he and Harley escape Arkham to advance thier own plans with the latter developing a gruge against the psychatrist for spiting her "puddin'."
Batgirl: Matter of Family[]
The Joker and Harley Quinn then kidnap Commissioner Gordon and several other police officers so Batgirl and Robin go to rescue him after the Joker threatens to kill Gordon if Batman arrives. He also takes hostages and plants bombs around the oil rig which Batgirl and Robin have to save and disarm respectively. Eventually, Batgirl and Robin confront Joker and Harley near the top of the oil rig. After a battle, both are defeated, but Joker holds a gun to Harley's head and threatens to kill her. He then jumps off the oil rig and opens a parachute as he descends. Robin states they will track him down later as Harley is captured by the G.C.P.D.
Batman: Arkham Asylum[]
| “ | Come on in! | „ |
| ~ Harley Quinn welcomes Joker at the Arkham Asylum. |
Ten years after the events of Christmas Eve, the Joker decides to take over Arkham Asylum to finish Titan himself using Dr. Young's notes. As such, Harley likely gets herself arrested and incarcerated whilst the Joker takes the Mayor hostage but breaks free unnoticed soon after. Whilst waiting for the Joker to be arrested, Harley finds Bane's under the Medical Facility and sedates him to keep him quiet when the "visitors" arrive. Afterwards, she somehow manages to enter the Penetentiary unseen and make her way to the control room of the main cell block where she waits. After the Joker escapes in the Intensive Care unit, Harley opens the adjacent security field so he can escape and opens all cells in the building; allowing Joker's Gang to take over the entire island. After Batman defeats Victor Zsasz, Harley reveals that she has taken Warden Quincy Sharp hostage, taking possession of his decorative cane as well as wearing his warden identification card.
She claims that the Joker is now in charge of the island, that she is substituting for Sharp as warden. and that Joker is having a homecoming party with Batman as the guest of honour. Batman gives Harley one chance to surrender, which she refuses before smashing her monitor with Sharp's cane, cutting off the feed.
When Batman makes his way to the elevator shaft, Harley appears, stating that the Joker doesn't need to see Batman just yet and proceeding to blow up the elevator cord, causing the elevator to crash to the floor below and sending herself to the top, nearly killing a security guard had Batman not saved him. Harley then regroups with Frank Boles, who had taken Gordon hostage and they proceed to secure the front entrance of the Intensive Treatment Center and kill the guards with an army of Blackgate prisoners. After Boles has outlived his usefulness, and because the Joker knows that Batman can trace his alcohol, Harley kills him and continues with Gordon.
Quinn, with Gordon, makes her way to the Batmobile first, ordering her goons to break into it and then moves to the Medical Center where she sits at the main entrance with Gordon tied to a bench by her, relaxing during her "me time." Batman eventually tracks Gordon to the entrance and finds Harley humming to herself, but is unable to reach her due to an energy security gate blocking her. Spotting Batman as he walks in, she tells him to scram and taunts him when he asks where Gordon is but Gordon replies instead so she throws a glass mug at him. The Joker contacts Harley via monitor and asks why Batman is in the Medical Center, as it is "too early" but Harley apologises and kisses Joker through the monitor, asking him not to be angry with her so he forgives her. Harley then tells Batman that he needs to find another way in and bids him farewell, cartwheeling out of the room. She takes Gordon to Bane's holding area, given orders by the Joker to kill Gordon if anyone spots Batman nearby. Batman follows a trail of tobacco left by Gordon to the Medical wing, defeating Harley by crashing through the glass ceiling above her, and rescuing Gordon. However, the Joker then revives Bane using Venom and Harley manages to reawaken and escape as Batman fights him.
Harley makes her way back to Warden Sharp and follows Batman to Arkham Mansion where she finds Batman stunned on the floor after the large explosion in the Warden's office that killed Dr. Young. She makes an empty remark of pity and expressing how Joker "hates a squealer" and then takes the tape off of Sharp's mouth and smacks him around with his cane, accidentally breaking off the jewel tip of it after aggressively striking him on the head. She leaves a few goons to take Batman to 'the party', but he defeats them and uses the Warden's DNA traces from his severed cane tip to follow Quinn who makes her way to the Penitentiary with the Warden, forcing him to read a variety of threatening statements written by the Joker over Arkham's intercom system and torturing him when he hesitated and insulted her.
After locating the Warden locked up in an abandoned control room, Batman sees Harley on a nearby monitor, passing Poison Ivy's cell where, despite Ivy not being on the 'party list', the supervillainess convinces Harley to let her free to save the plants. Batman follows Harley and surpasses a variety of her traps until there are few goons left standing. Harley even electrifies the pacification system on the asylum floor to the maximum power to stop his advance, electrocuting a security guard as a demonstration. Batman eventually gets past this obstacle and fights his way through the remaining Blackgate convicts and escaped mental patients before cornering Harley and the fifteen remaining thugs in the Extreme Incarceration cell block.
After they are defeated, the Joker removes Harley from the "party list" because she has failed him too much and abandons her to Batman. Enraged, Harley attacks him with her acrobatic skills only to be restrained, have her "party list scanned" and get thrown in a nearby cell. Distraught over her failure, Harley accidentally reveals his locations before breaking down and being left in her cell by Batman. Due to her failure, she is left in that cell by the Joker's men until the end of the takeover where she is recaptured by the GCPD when they storm the facility and sent back to her cell.
Pre-Batman: Arkham City[]
Within the next six months, the injuries the Joker received from the fight coupled with the Titan side effects are revealed to be indeed slowly killing him, giving him an estimated six more months to live and confining him to a wheel chair. Devastated by him slowly dying, Harley becomes his personal carer obsessed with helping him come back to health. During the Joker's takeover of Arkham Asylum, the Asylum was destroyed so it is shutdown and abandoned six months later in favour of a new prison named Arkham City. As a result, all of the criminals in Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison are transferred there which includes the Joker. Instead of being brought to the transfer buses to take him there however, his escort guard has other plans in mind, plans of vengeance. The Joker is brought to a medical lab so that the guards can exact their torturous revenge slowly in retaliation for the deaths of all their friends caused by Joker's plans in the Arkham riots. Unfortunately for them, the ever loyal Harley Quinn overhears their conspiracy, escapes confinement, knocks out a female guard, takes her place, brutally murders the rest of the guards, and finally rescues the Joker and brings him to her prepared escape boat.
Joker and Harley escape the island, leaving Scarface behind, and proceed to sneak into Arkham City after a deadly encounter with Batman, who destroys their boat but fails to capture them. Being the first inmate in the city undetected, Joker plots to become the "Mayor" of Arkham City and establishes his main base of operations in Sionis Industries, one of Black Mask's former company properties.
Over the next several months, Joker begins renovating the factory into his classical "Joker-ized" style, complete with a roller-coaster death trap meant as a sadistic recruiting test to weed out the inmates with the best reflexes (those that jump from the coaster before the death plunge). Whilst Clayface joins the Gang, Harley takes over the Joker Gang whilst the Joker leads in absentinia. However, none of the gang only respect her because they see her as a windbag whose only claim to power is the Joker and think that she would immediately crumble if given true power.
Arkham City[]
| “ | It would be a shame to get blood all over my new outfit. What do you think Bat-Brain, like it? What am I saying? Of course you do! Who wouldn't? | „ |
| ~ Harley Quinn, during her first encounter with Batman in the Church. |
On the night of Protocol 10, Harley Quinn attacks the Church and Medical Center to kidnap a doctor to help the Joker and ends up taking Dr. Stacy Baker. When Batman arrives thanks to tracing a remotely controlled gun to the Church, Harley agrees with thier death threats by claiming that she doesn't want to ruin her new outfit with blood before leaving but not telling her goons to shoot Batman if he moves. When Batman arrives at the Sionis Mill, Harley's voice is heard sometimes over the loudspeaker where she can be heard demanding that the armed guards kill Batman and keep thier hideout safe. When Batman enters the main hall, she tosses down a young doctor who failed to help Joker and calls in the one armed thug as entertainment for the clowns.
As Batman rushes to save the doctor, at the last second as Baker is going to get crushed, Harley tells him to stop, saying Joker wants her to suffer a bit more while demanding the thugs go capture Mr. Freeze, who apparently has a cure for the Joker. Baker is dragged out and Batman makes his way out. When in the main area, Harley angrily yells down at him saying "what the hell are you doing here, your supposed to be dead. Well there's no way your going to get Mr. J, we're safe and sound up here, you can just stay down there and BURN!!", closing the metal doors of the foremans office. As Batman walks away, through the walls, you hear Harley exclaim "Oh Mr. J! You look perfect! ...Oh....its not really you, is it?" and Joker shushes her.
After finding and saving Stacy, Batman breaks through the doors of the facility with a crane hook, but is stopped by Mister Hammer as Harley angrily tells Batman to leave Mr. J alone. After Batman beats Mister Hammer and several other thugs, he hears Harley scream in anguish as he grapples up, finding her by an apparently dead Joker. Shoving her aside and scanning Joker, she asks why he's so mean, leaving him open to a knock out gas attack of Joker. As Batman reels from the gas, Harley approaches with a baseball bat, saying "Batter up!" and knocking him out.
As Batman awakens, Harley reaches for his mask, but Joker tells her "get back here Harley" so Harley complains that she wants to know his identity but Joker makes it clear that he finds it too fun to find that out so easily and she waits. Later, the cure for the Titan disease is stolen by Harley and Batman chases after her. However, when he finds her in the Sionis Steel Mill, she is taped to a support pole and gagged with duct tape, no cure in sight. When you pull the tape off, she angrily complains, saying she won't talk, especially about a set of Freeze's stuff Joker stashed in the boiler room. She is later revealed to have been tied up by Taila, who stole the cure back from her. Later on, Harley and his thugs are outside waiting for Joker to become immortal, but they find batman carrying Joker's dead body and the horrified Harley Quinn falls to her knees, mourns his death, and plans to avenge the Joker.
In the game when you're in the Joker's hideout, Harley's old outfit from Arkham asylum hangs on a pole. Below the outfit is a positive pregnancy test that can be seen. At the end credits Harley sings "Hush little baby don't say word, momma's gonna kill for you the whole damn world", implying that she may be pregnant with the Joker's child, or that she has already given birth.
Harley Quinn's Revenge[]
After the Joker's death, Quinn becomes even more psychotic and fierce, managing to strike fear and respect into the Joker's old henchmen, who previously saw her as a useless bimbo. She is shown to be constantly mourning, donning a darker outfit and frequently crying with her bursts of anxiety leading her to kill henchmen at random and, instead of becoming annoyed at the henchmen when they make a pass at her (as she had usually done prior to Joker's death), she becomes infuriated and murderous, declaring that they should not try to seduce "a widow." Inside the Manager's office in the Steel Mill, a crib with the Scarface puppet inside it can be found. Scarface is dressed up and painted like a baby Joker and he has a positive pregnancy test in front of him. Surrounding the crib, however, are a dozen negative pregnancy tests. A box is lying around nearby which reveals that some pregnancy tests can show false positives. It is implied that the discovery that she was not pregnant with Joker's child is what finally drove Harley over the edge and made her more vicious.
Weeks after the Arkham incident, Harley breaks out of the holding facility she's in and hatches a plan to kill Batman and avenge the Joker. She reforms the Joker's old gang and despite initially meeting resistance from Mr. J's old crew, her new, more vicious and more psychotic personality convinces them to join her. As part of her plan, Quinn kidnaps several police officers and locks them away in the old Steel Mill. Batman gets sent in to save the hostages but is captured by Quinn, who locks him in a giant statue of the Joker inside the shrine she'd built for him.
Days later, Robin goes into the Steel Mill to look for his mentor. After finding his discarded utility belt in the smelting chamber, he goes to the Shipyard, where Quinn is holed up. There, he finds Batman in the Joker statue and discovers that he needs Harley's access key to free him. Robin finds Quinn and defeats her henchmen before fighting her. Though Quinn proves to be a tricky adversary, Robin ultimately defeats her and takes away her access key before leaving her hanging upside down from a catwalk. After Robin saves Batman, Quinn unveils her plan: a suicidal bombing of the Shipyard aimed at killing Batman and Robin and "reuniting her with dear Mr. J." She triggers the explosives but Batman manages to defuse them before they go off, while Robin frees the captured policemen. A furious Quinn reveals her fail-safe; a hidden bomb in the Joker statue. The mad woman then activates the Mechanical Guardians in the shrine and unleashes them upon Batman while taking into sniping position. Batman destroys them and grapples his way on top of the Joker statue, where Harley is, and takes away the detonator from her, but fails as he tries to use it to deactivate the bomb. The bomb sets off, but Harley's plan fails when the Dark Knight leaps out of a window, carrying her with him.
A tearful Harley yells at Batman that he should have left her behind but Batman tells her to be quiet as he realizes that Robin is nowhere to be seen. Suddenly elated that she managed to kill Robin, Harley mockingly tells Batman that now he knows how she feels before trying to stab him in the head with a concealed dagger. She fails, since Robin appears and knocks the dagger out of her hands with a shuriken. Harley Quinn is subsequently arrested and taken back into custody.
Pre-Batman: Arkham Knight[]
However, Hugo Strange's mass murder of prisoners during Protocol 10 violates thier constitutional rights and the GCPD are forced to release all of the prisoners which includes Harley. Within the next nine months, she consolidates her power over Joker's Gang but becomes a fairer gang leader due to not randomly murdering them so she gains thier true respect. Although Harley becomes a formiddable gang leader, she still loves the Joker and still bitterly hates Batman for what she percieves as murder. As such, she happily accepts an offer from Scarecrow to join an alliance to kill Batman, destroy his legacy and divide Gotham up amongst the various gangs.
Sometime before the events of the game, Harley attacks the Bludhaven police station under orders from Scarecrow to break out Harley. Her actions lead to a mass murder of policemen and the escape of Poison Ivy but evidently thier relationship has soured since she has no apparent reaction to Ivy being taken prisoner by the Arkham Knight's Militia.
Arkham Knight[]
| “ | Look who's too late to save the day. How's it going Bat-brain? It's been awhile. | „ |
| ~ Harley Quinn communicating with Batman from Panessa Studios |
Whilst Batman is busy trying to stop Scarecrow, Harley breaks into Panessa Studios, locks Batman out, and frees the three people infected with the Joker's blood. Since Joker's blood is mutating them to be like the Joker, Harley wants to join up with them and in a way get back what she lost. However, Batman and Robin work together to defeat the the three mutated Jokers, and return them to their cells until Harley and her gang corner Robin but and Batman sneaks under in the grates, and takes Harley out with a single take down. After he and Robin defeat her thugs, Batman carries Harley to lock her in a containment unit.
When they get back, they find the other three mutated Jokers have been murdered since Henry Adams, who had been previously unaffected, is now mutating as well and is also the one who brought Quinn in the first place. He gloats that he killed the other three "to purify the gene pool", and tries to get Batman to lock himself and Robin in cells, even holding Harley hostage. However, he realises that Batman holds the real Joker personality inside him so kills himself to purify the gene pool further, leaving Harley to mourn over the loss of potential Jokers. Robin then picks Harley up and locks her in a containment cell. She later appears in a fear-induced hallucination caused by Batman in an attempt to stop the Joker once and for all, where she is the only one attending the Joker's funeral and wake, not to mention crying. She is also alluded to in another part of the same illusion, where a newspaper article states that no one cares that the Joker was dead and reveals that Harley Quinn not only married the Riddler, but is also expecting a child.
What happened to Harley Quinn after this is unclear as she stays in her cell for the rest of the night but it's likely that, she gets transferred to the GCPD after the night is over. Given how deep his psychosis is, she was then sent to Arkham Asylum after it reopened when she will spend the rest of her life.