DC Youngverse/Tropes


 * Adaptational Badass:
 * In this version, Harley Quinn is shown to be an athlete in addition to her skills as an aspiring therapist.
 * This version has the Joker taking the Man-Bat serum, making him a far more physically imponent fighter.
 * Adaptational Intelligence: While still pretty much The Ditz, Harley is smarter than most versions, mainly due to her failing in love with the Joker due to a facination with creepy clowns instead of believing bullcrap from him, and being able to see the monster he is far sooner than most versions.
 * Adaptational Nice Guy: While Harley Quinn still has a crush on the Joker, she ultimately chooses her friendship with Barbara Gordon over him, to the point of helping her defeat the Joker and becoming her crime-fighting partner afterwards.
 * An Aesop:
 * If you wanna change the world, do it in a way that both is morally right and ypu feel comfortable with.
 * Nobody tells you who you are.
 * When it comes to choose between someone you have a crush on abd friends who truly love you, choose wisely.
 * Author's Saving Throw: Similar to The Lego Batman Movie, the film avoided protests towards the Bruce/Barbara ship by explicity showing them in a mentor/mentee relationship, to not to mention the age gap between both being too high for even supporters to support it here.
 * Awesome Moments: The film's potrayal of Harley Quinn can be seen as one from a meta perspective. The film potrays her as a Nice Girl who becomes Batgirl's crime-fighting partner and even fights against her pudin, The Joker. Yet the entire creative team and Genesis Rodriguez neverthless kept everything audiences love aboyt the character, from her wacky actitude to even her crush to Mister J. That's good writing.
 * The Cameo: Detective Candice, Rupert Thorne's assistant in Batman: The Animated Series, briefly appears during a poker game with the Joker where she tells him about Batgirl during a conversation. She later provides information on Batgirl to the Joker in exchange of survival.
 * Catharsis Factor: Given how horrible the Joker treats Harley in most media, seeing her actually beating the crap outta him can be very satisfying from a meta perspective.
 * Character Relaiment: A franchise-wide example. The film potrays the Batman mythos closer to their pulp science fiction potrayal from the comics, something only The Lego Batman Movie has shown in theatrical Batman films, and avoiding the Badass Normal potrayal shown eber since The Dark Knight Trilogy.
 * Composite Character:
 * This version of Batgirl is level-headed like lost of her potrayals, but occasionally shows a Genki Girl actitudes closer to her 2019 DC Superhero Girls self.
 * This version of Harley Quinn has her usual Ditz/Genki Girl aspects, is best friends with Batgirl like her 2019 DCSHG self, and is a more heroic person much like her New 52 self.
 * This version of Batman is more akin to the Burton version, but his reasons for retirement are similar to those in Batman Beyond.
 * Dating Catwoman: A "crush" variant; Harley Quinn still has a crush on The Joker even while fighting him. Also lampshaded and discussed when Batgurl expresses surprise that her friend crushes on their enemy, only for Harley to say: "So? Bruce loved Catwoman even when she was a thief".
 * Disney Villain Death: The Joker dies by falling from a plane into Gotham City while trying to catch a Batarang Batgirl dropped.
 * Fridge Brilliance:
 * The filmmakers admitted The Joker turning his henchmen into the Man-Bat Commandos was a deliberate Ass Pull. Which is something totally in-character for The Joker! After all, he does have a reputation for doing things in a whim!
 * Its already fitting that the song that plsys duribg the Joker's raid on S.T.A.R. Labs is "The Joker and the Thief". Its also fitting that the song playing right before is the song "Born to be Wild", performed by the band Steppenwolf.
 * Funny Moments: Harley and Joker's fight. The fact that these two are really nuts and wacky as hell means that seen them both fighting equals a lot of Toon Physics, funny dialogues between boths, and even a few jokes that are straight out of Looney Tunes.
 * Heartwarming Moments: Barbara and Harley's friendship in general is this! Even througth the two are fans of arch-enemies and Harley is in love with the Creepy Clown, the two are with each other througth thick and thin, to the point that not only Barbara admits her secret to her right after becoming Batgirl and approaching her as a confidante, but Harley is very supportive of her, delivers sweet and sound advice, and is generally geniunely happy for her friend.
 * And even througth she spents part of the film torn between her friendship with Barbara and her crush on the Joker, Harley ultimately chooses to actively help her friend by fighting the Joker. She even does the failing-to-cge,ichals thing just so she can be in the same state of mind as Mister J and be able to fight him in equal grounds. Talk about true friendship!
 * To top it all off, when Batgirl is forced to kill the Joker to save her own life, while saddned, Harley dosen't lash out at her, understanding that the circunstances forced her to kill him,
 * He Really Can Act:
 * While no one doubted Genesis Rodriguez would have the comedy chops required to voice Harley Quinn, she also manages to deliver some surprisingly heartwarming lines while still feeling pretty much in-character gor Harley.
 * Everybody agrees that Mark Hamill's vocal performance as the Joker is one hell of a Tough Act To Follow, but it is unanimously agreed that Tom Hiddleston more than managed to live up to the task by providing a performance just as creepy and entertaining as Hamill while giving the character a level of eloquence that allows his interpretation to stand on his own.
 * Hilarious In Hindsight: Loki's boast in his self-titled series' fourth episode of having lost track of how many times he died becomes a lot funnier now that his actor, Tom Hiddleston, appears in this film as the voice of The Joker, who has defied seemingly-impending dooms so many times he even had an entire trope about that named after him.
 * Nightmare Fuel: Not because is one of the Lighter and Softer versions of the Batman mythos dosen't mean its not terrifying. Its not the 60s, you know!
 * The Joker. He is as much of a Creepy Clown as he is in the comics. And Tom Hiddleston's lines are both eloquent and truly wild, making up for a truly chilling performance.
 * When he learns of Batgirl and Detective Candice says she'll only give photos of her in exchange for money, the Joker resolts to brutally beat up a man until leaving him fatally injured to steal his wallet. If most of the beat up wasn't shown offscreen, then the film would have gotten an R rating for sure.
 * The scene in which Batgirl and the police attack what appears to be the Man-Bat. The filmmakers admittedly drew inspiration from the equally terrifying bottle factory scene in The Incredible Hulk, and it really shows. The scene becomes even more terrifying when its revealed kt wasn't Langstorm who attacked, but The Joker himself, having taken the Man-Bat serum. And unlike him, he's perfevtly aware of what he's doing and enjoyed it.
 * And right before leaving, he drops a captive Langstorm to his death cackling like hell. And after his henchmen congrakute him on killing him before he coukd provide the heroes with a cure to the serum, he asks: "Wait, do you really think he would've give them a cure?". The fact that his voice tone is completly sincere manages to mame the line even more chilling.
 * His plan this time? Combine the Man-Bat serum with his Joker Poison and unleash it on Gotham City. But he firsts tests it on a civilian. And tp the results are creepy would be an understatement. The victim starts to painfully turn into a mindless monster while laughing uncontrollaby, and all that's left is a dead giant werebat with an offputting smile. And he plans to do it to all of Gotham.
 * Right before his final clash with Batgirl, The Joker chooses out of nowhere to turn his henchmen into the Man-Bat Commandos with the remaining of the original serum. And the scene is predictably horrifying, with tons of Body Horror to spare. Even worse is that this is followed by the Joker unleashing them on Batgirl wkth a delivery of the line "Fly, my pretties. Fly. Fly" that would make the Wicked Witch of the West proud.
 * His death isn't that pretty either. Failing in an attempt to catch a Batarang wnd unable to fly dye to being injected with a cure, The Joker is reduced to a laughing madman before impacting on the ground onscreen. Safe to say, the scene is quite unsettling.
 * The film dosen't even try to sugarcoat how Gotham City is a lawless hellhole. Most of the city's design looks straight out of a zombie apocalylse movie. Also, police sirens, gun shots, and even screams can be heard in the background. Thank goodness Batgirl managed to correct that by the end of the film.
 * Meaningful Echo: Upon being given the mantle of Batgirl, Barbara exclaims "I'm Batgirl!". She later repeats these words after choosing to make the world a happier place and do things her way, when a poor man asks her who she is.
 * Mythology Gag:
 * Before fighting the Joker, Harley Quinn says "Hey, Joker. You wanna get nuts? Come on! Let's get nuts!"
 * Harley's entrance at the climax causes the Joker to ask Batgirl "Is she with you?". The shot also resembkes the scene in which Catwoman met Batman and the Penguin in Batman Returns.
 * Shirley Walker's The New Batman Adventures theme appears througth the film.
 * At one point in the film, Batgirl says to Bruce that he should have tried with contacting Wonder Woman if he tried go fight Kryptonians due to their weakness to magic.
 * This version of Harley uses a javelin to fight as well as her maze, a nod to her being given one in The Suicide Squad.
 * A joke at the start of the film has Gotham Vuty being referred as "the one place worse than Corto Maltese",
 * Barbara's school is called "Faust's School for Gifted Young Minds", a nod to 2019 DCSHG creator Lauren Faust.
 * Barbara's room has posters with nods to Batman composers from Shirley Walker to Michael Giacchino.
 * The Joker's death scene was done as an homage to Two-Face's death in Batman Forever (1995).
 * Once again, the Joker attacks the Batcave of an elderly Bruce Wayne and destroys everything.
 * During the end credits, Batgirl and Harley can be seen fighting alongside Bumblebee, Jessica Cruz' Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Zatanna; all of them starred in the 2019 DCSHG series alongside Batgirl.
 * Upon learning of Batman's retirement, Joker says that "without Batman, crime has no punchline".
 * At one point, the film recreates the Joker's dance in the stairs from his solo film.
 * Joker's appearamce before learning of Batgirl is similar to that of Heath Ledger's potrayal.
 * The scene where Joker learns of Batgirl while playing poker with corrupt detective Candice is an homage to an episode of Batman: The Animated Series.
 * Role Reprise: Michael Keaton reprises his role from the Burton films and The Flash as the voice of Batman.
 * Take That!:
 * After the Joker is done dancing on stairs, he starts dancing on the ground in a manner simikar to Emo Peter's mementically famous Spider-Man 3 dance... only that this clearly is meant to be intentionally ridiculous.
 * At the start of the film, while mocking Batman due to his age, Joker says he "kinda looks like Iron Man".
 * Tearjerker:
 * The opening scene is heartwrenching to its core. A shot even shows tombstones revealing that everyone Bruce was clode with, from Selina Kyle to Alfred, ended up dying eventually. The following shot is of Bruce sitting in solituded until the Batsignal appeared ála Batman Returns. However, whereas that was an awe-inspiring if solemn image of Batman waiting for duty to call, thus one is a downright depressing look of a man who's job is practically the one thing he has left.
 * And then there's the moment he is forced to retire as Batman. First, we get a look of the citizens of Gotham grieving over the loss of the one shiner off hope in such a place, then Barbara watching in sadness how the Batsignal - a reminder of her personal hero - is destroyed. And then yhere's Bruce putting his suit back in its place for the last time, and, with it, the only thing he had left.
 * Barbara giving up being Batgirl. While serious, she was still an upbeat young person who felt she was meant to be the new Batman, so seeing her giving up and falling into a Heroic BSoD just because she wasn't able to be like Bruce is truly gut-renching,
 * Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: While the film is relatively lighthearted, specially for a movie based on the Batman franchise, it neverthless dosen't sugarcoat how much of a monster the Joker is, being as every bit as terrifying as always.
 * Unexpected Character:
 * To see Detective Candice, a minor character from Batman: The Animated Series, have a role at all in the story was quite a shock to many.
 * Man-Bat surprised auduences by actually showing up here. Ehile in the actual film his alter-ego dosen't habe a big role, at least the serum does.
 * On that note, nobody expected to see the more unknown Man-Bat Commandos making their theatrical debut here.