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I want you alive so I can see the look on your face when I'm runnin' this town.
„
~ Harley Quinn
Harleen Frances Quinzel, commonly known as Harley Quinn is the titular main protagonist of the 2019 adult animated series Harley Quinn and she is Poison Ivy's eventual girlfriend.
She is voiced by Kaley Cuoco in her very first villainous role.
I'm not great at having people who are actually good to me in my life.
„
~ Harley Quinn
Harleen Quinzel was raised in a dysfunctional family, her mother Sharon Quinzel is alcoholic, her father Nick Quinzel is a criminal and gambling addict. Harleen herself was normal, albeit mentally unstable. Her mental instabilities first manifested as an obsession with actor Frankie Muniz, who she wanted to kidnap and have a child with via lying about being on birth control. Eventually his family placed a restraining order on her, which she ignored, so she was sent to juvie.
Later, she was named Valedictorian at her high school, but angrily denounced her entire school administration for not helping her and for ogling her. She then went off to college to become a psychiatrist, and her dream was to win the Olympic championship of gymnastics. She nearly succeeded, but her father insisted that she "take a dive" so that he would win a long-shot bet to clear his gambling debts. Harleen eventually relented, and failed on purpose, but snapped when her father joked that there would never be a woman president (her dream), so Harleen viciously assaulted her father in front of everyone. The acrobatics skills she gained as a gymnast served her later in a life of crime.
After graduating from university, she became a psychiatrist and started working at both Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Penitentiary. During her tenure at Arkham, she met Poison Ivy and helped her deal with her mental problems and was notably the only one who successfully got through to her. She and Ivy would eventually become friends. Harleen later met the Joker who slowly over the course of several months brainwashed and manipulated her into believing that she had fallen in love with him while she tried to treat him, eventually becoming mentally unstable herself. She willingly jumped into an Ace Chemicals pool, bleaching her skin pale white, and took on the mantle of Harley Quinn to act as Joker's sidekick and girlfriend.
Personality
Harley's psychotic personality was ingrained from her childhood and deepened when she met the Joker, forming an unhealthy attachment to him. However, she gradually realizes his abusive behavior towards her, and with coaching and time, begins to understand that she has to be independent to be healthy, manifesting as a desire to join the Legion of Doom to become the Joker's "equal". This eventually causes her to distance herself from her allies until they all abandon her, prompting her to finally sever all emotional ties with the Joker and to rekindle her friendships. All throughout this progression, however, she remains psychotic, only limiting herself from killing random innocents.
Trivia
Her current outfit is a reference to the movie Suicide Squad.
