Newsgroups: rec.arts.animation
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 10:29:26 -0500 
From: "Kevin J. Chen" <kc2w+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: BTAS: Characterizations (was: Harley and Ivy)
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Excerpts from netnews.rec.arts.animation: 18-Jan-93 Re: BTAS: Harley and
Ivy (n.. Paul M. Minutillo@uxa.cs (1405)

>The comic book Joker is clearly insane--BTAS's Joker has shown virtually
>nothing in my opinion to qualify as insanity. The only times that jump
>to my mind are the fish episode (which could be dismissed as an extortion
>scheme) and the time he paid to have the pudgy guy fly to Gotham simply
>to open a door. Yet the Joker has been shown tied up in a strait jacket
>on more then one occasion. I agree that Harley showed no mental disorder
>other than bad company. Did Mr. Freeze go to Arkham? I would say he
>was completely normal--he did what he did simply to get revenge.
>Harvey Denanis the only one I can safely say should be in Arkham--on a side
>note, it is disappointing to me that he is now simply a criminal where 
>before he was sort of a vigilante trying to get revenge on the mobster who
>disfigured him. 

I think the Joker has been portrayed as somewhat loony, rather than the
homicidal maniac that we all know he is; for the most part, I think this
is a concession that they're making to the young audience of the series.
 I wish we'd see a more dangerous Joker, but I don't think the one that
we've seen is necessarily a poor representation of his character,
either.  Ya have to admit, roasting weenies over an electrified Batman
doesn't strike me as horribly normal.

As for insanity -- I think most of the characters portrayed so far have
displayed sufficiently obsessive habits and lifestyles to be considered
insane.  Poison Ivy certainly falls into this category, so do the
Scarecrow and the Riddler.  I'm not so sure about Mr. Freeze, and I
certainly don't think Harley Quinn is, but then the TAS Arkham Asylum
seems less like a true asylum, and more like the penitentiary for
super-powered criminals that Belle Reve is.

Excerpts from netnews.rec.arts.animation: 20-Jan-93 Re: BTAS: Harley and
Ivy (n.. Samuel D. Crider@cup.por (767)

>Aside from various interpretations of the Joker...
>Anybody else bothered by BTAS's version of Two-Face (apologies if this has
>come up before). He was always my fave bat-villian. He was an embodiment
>not of evil or insanity (like Mr. J) but of randomness. Fate dealt him
>a meaningless, random disaster and he became obsessed with the duality of
>good/bad luck. The Big Bad Harv element worked into his BTAS origin made
>him a lot less interesting IMHO. Now to tell the truth I don't get to
>see BTAS all that often -- so tell me, has there been an episode where
>Two-Face has done his "flip coin: marred side, do evil; unmarred do good:
>routine? I love that when I was a kid reading Batman and Batman reprints
>in the late 60's.

They've shown Harvey as being pretty dependent on his coin.  In the
second part of "Two-Face", he has to flip to decide whether one of his
goons can keep a gold ring that "wasn't part of the plan".  Of course,
we've only seen Harvey four (five?) times, so it's fairly difficult to
say.

Kevin.
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