This was incredible! You developed Harley in a way that fit the Nolanverse perfectly and in turn maintained an essence like the one you could see in the animated version.

I have been slowly introducing myself to stories about the Joker and Harley. This is undoubtedly one of the best I have read.

Great story! Love your writing!

I gotta say, after reading your other series with Emma, I was on many occasions completely fed up with Harley and her submissiveness... :D

This was really well done! I binged it in two days. I really appreciate how you stayed in character and made them both so believable. The pacing was excellent. Not too rushed, not too wordy. I never saw Nolan's Batman a world where Harley Quinn made sense, not with Heath Ledger's Joker, but your story has made me a believer! Seriously, kudos and bravo and hats off, and all the many accolades. You deserve 'em!

Hey!
Do you know Wattpad? Your Fanfiction is great and I was wondering if I could translate it because I am French, with your agreement of course!
Wath do you think? Let me know if you agree.
Bye!

OK, so from the beginning, we already knew Harley would go insane, and it's finally happening now. The way she's talking, the way she's acting, they way the story is being written, she is going over the edge.
"Madness is like gravity. All it takes is one little push."

Oh god! That last chapter got my blood pumping like none other, and this ending! Can't wait to see what happens next!

Oh my gosh, this is so good! The best fanfic I have read in a year! Seems really professional. Keep up the good work.

Oh hey I remember when this chapter actually showed the guy hitting on Pam and her insulting him. I think I like this change, though. I mean, tbh Pam was in the right, legally — he attacked her first, and even though she probably wasn’t actually scared, a good lawyer could definitely argue that for women having a guy pissed at you for rejecting his advances is a dangerous situation to be in and acting to prevent that danger counts as self-defense.
Kind of miss Harley referring to Pam as a queen, though.

Okay, in retrospect I misread the review a little bit. And to clarify — I’m not saying it’s somehow weak or lesser to lose yourself in infatuation or to have your personality compromised due to abuse and manipulation. I’m just saying DANG Emma has a solid core of STEEL for being able to keep those aspects of herself even while the Joker was poking and prodding at her.
Also... could Emma have been more badass than Harley if she’d reached her full potential? Hard to say. Emma starts out with more talent than Harley at the murder-y business, but Harley works hard at it, and ultimately any fighting-related activity is less about talent and more about how much work you’ve put in. I can’t really see Emma putting work into murder. I do see her becoming a vigilante, though, or a criminal who only targets skeezy English rich bastards. So maybe if she really applied herself on that side of the heroes/villains equation, she’d catch up to Harley. I still don’t see her surpassing Harley, though, if only because Harley’s identity is more intrinsically tied into all *gestures vaguely* this, and possibly the fact that she starts out in better physical shape and is continuously training. But I can definitely see them being equally-matched antagonists. Though Harley would also have an advantage in being better with human psychology and reading people and all that. Hmm. Odd thought. Mayyybe if Emma ever went back to Gotham she could be Batman’s partner and Harley would be obsessed with her.
Okay, long tangent. I guess ultimately though from what I hear talent only counts for so much. Emma has the talent, and she’s younger than Harley so she has time, but maybe the question is whether even with hard work she’d surpass Harley, or if Harley is at sort of a pinnacle of badassery and dangerousness.

Gonna have to disagree with all the reviewers who keep insisting Emma is more badass than or a better fit for the Joker than Harley.

Spoilers for the Pastimes series below
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For one thing, it’s like the summary says — Harley is the only one who can actually survive the Joker long-term. We saw in the last part (and tbh in part 2 as well) that Jokes was always planning on killing Emma eventually because he thought it’d be funny to have that happen to a Survivor TM. Even if he secretly loved Emma, she was always a toy to him that he’d one day have to discard. Whereas Harley is a partner in crime that he might put aside when he’s annoyed with her, but he’ll always go back for her without really realizing why.
There’s also the fact that Harley eventually gets with the program and embraces all the murder and chaos she and J can cause together. They even (spoiler for Ringmaster) start going on murder dates together so they can kill bad people for sport. Emma was never really at that point; she’d kill people out of necessity, but she never gets to the point where she actively enjoys it and is willing to team up with the Joker to make that happen more often. They have a really interesting “neither can live while the other survives” dynamic where they’re fundamentally opposed to one another but still heavily attracted — neither of them can change who they are to actually be able to fit the other, but they also can’t seem to stay away from each other, which makes them very destructive and fun to watch together but ultimately it’s unstable and can’t possibly last for long; either they need to break away or one of them needs to die.
Meanwhile Harley starts out as arguably a better — or more conventionally “good” — person than Emma, but she’s pretty soft and malleable, and J molds her easily. Emma’s some sort of flint — she might be cold and hard, but she has a bottom line and J isn’t going to manage to chip that away. She still gets nauseous when J kills a couple for her; Harley would’ve just complained about the cleanup. Harley’s freakouts over the murder and shit go away pretty early on; Emma never loses that. Harley eventually learns to embrace madness and mayhem and feels completely at home living with the henchmen and partnering up with J; Emma never, even at the end, actually feels at home. Even though she liked J, she still gets the creeps from being around all the henches and is always on her guard against any of J’s acquaintances. It’s why she ultimately says she wishes that she wasn’t what she was and Joker wasn’t what he was and they could have something — because she loves him, but their natures are too incompatible, and she sees that even if he doesn’t.

Regarding the badassery... I think the Author writes an excellent note — in one of the stories? Or was it on tumblr? — where Harley is a sheep in wolf’s clothing while Emma is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. And Emma definitely starts out more hardcore and ruthless than Harley does, but she doesn’t actually have that lust/thirst in her where she wants to be in control and make people fear her. She mostly adapts out of necessity, but she’s more or less fine living without that much bloodshed in her life. Harley doesn’t start out with any of that hardness/killer instinct, unless you count competitiveness from gymnastics, but she LOVES the thrill and embraces it with all four limbs until she changes entirely into something almost demonic, actively learning to fight and kill and building weapons onto herself until she’s like that horrifying robot sheep with laser eyes from that political campaign ad. Which makes her the perfect fit for J, ultimately.

There’s not really a way to rank who’s more badass; Harley ends up as the better fighter who’s a lot more comfortable with crime and criminality, while Emma never loses her discomfort and squeamishness — but Emma manages to retain those aspects of herself and her morality, and break away from the Joker entirely, while Harley never does. So... I guess personally my assessment would be that Harley’s more of a badass externally while Emma definitely wins internally.

Omg I remember I first found this fanfic at like 2 am one school night and stayed up the entire night trying to finish it, then realized there was a part two and additional stories, and so I pretended to be sick so I could stay home from school and finish both of the stories. I was so beyond obsessed. Still am, ngl.

Hello, hello!

My name is Hannah and I'm rereading this for the 3rd or so time and I just

I fucking love your work. So I wanted to put together all the songs from your fics (it'll take a while) so I could listen while I read. I just wanted to let you know that I'd be doing that, do what you want with that information ;)

thanks for doing such great work :) :)

user/1238592925/playlist/5SIVuNc2pDNgU6dfL44wtl?si5lnz5F1NTYuEfK4AVSWynQ

Okay so, I found this fic like 4, 5 years ago and absolutely ADORED it. It inspired me to write when I was stuck on my own stories. I was lucky enough to stumble upon it again while searching for inspiration (I'm rewriting a story I've already rewritten once before) and I fell in love with it all over again. I'm really glad I found it and have added it to my favorites so I never lose it again. I'm excited to see your other works, thanks a bunch for your wonderful story!

Great story!

I spoke too soon. If Emma Vane rose to her full potential, she'd be leagues more badass than Harley Quinn. But. It's not happened yet, and with the Pastimes series on It's final book and the constantly implied eventual death, the possibility of that even happening does not seem likely.

* Sigh *

If only Harley wasn't so rose-tinted naiive, because right now, her level of badassery is just through the roof.