Harley thread

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d.aisuke

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I often read post and stuff on pkmn sites about Harely. He's either described as "gay(as in a homosexual)" or "probably gay". It irritates me, because He's obviously not gay, and while he does do things th at girls usually do, I don't think that qualifies him to be gay.

What do you think?
 
I think Harley wants to be with both May AND Drew.

This guy clearly has a thing for them. Even the Japanese think so.
 
d.aisuke said:
It irritates me, because He's obviously not gay, and while he does do things th at girls usually do, I don't think that qualifies him to be gay.
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While it's true that you can't always tell, how do you get "obviously not gay" out of it? He very well could be. He might not be, but he might be too. Or he could be bi, or even pan for all we know.

(I also swear that the dub implied that he and Solidad used to date. Was that in the original too?)
 
Why does it have to "irritate" you? There's nothing wrong with a majority of the fandom believing he is gay, especially since they embrace it. If Harley wasn't written the way he was and displayed with a vast amount of androgyny and effeminacy, I don't think he would've have been so well liked. But we all adore him. :p
 
xdeadpan said:
If Harley wasn't written the way he was and displayed with a vast amount of androgyny and effeminacy, I don't think he would've have been so well liked. But we all adore him. :p
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No kidding! From what I've seen (and I'm one of these folks), most fans who like/love this guy do so because of that.


...I have to say, I keep laughing whenever I read that he's "obviously not gay", because he could very well swing either or both ways. XD But I can't see how he's OBVIOUSLY not gay.
 
... I pair him with guys, gals, and Pokemon, so I can't really say anything about that.

But yes, most people adore him for his over-the-top exaggerated femininess. He's such a fun character!

And no, Blackjack, from what I remember, there was no Harley/Saori implications in the original, but it was a popular little pairing, so I guess the dub added just for fanservice.
 
I don't think even the dub stated outright that Harley and Solidad had met before. Solidad knew of Harley, and I guess the way she spoke about him made it sound like they were familiar with each other, but Harley never spoke to her throughout the Grand Festival, so the impression I got was just that Solidad admired his style.
 
I forget the line without looking back on it, but in Japanese, I think Saori described Harley as a unique person when Haruka asked if she knew him (which I think was after she said something along the lines of "he's going for a cosplay this time").
 
Doesn't most of the Japanese fandom also think he's gay?

Since they obvious interpet the characters better than we do since they speak the language and notice certain customs that we may not, what do they think?
 
Harley's the gayest gay in the history of gaydom to have ever gayed his way out of the gay closet and into the arms of his gay lover while gaying up everything in his path with gay eye beams of gayness.

And he's super special awesome because of it. :D
 
Umm.. We all know Harley acts gay but is he? Even though in an episode (forget what it's called) Harley dresses like May and May was in total shock, but he could just have a VERY strong girly side. Maybe he is gay. I don't know why the writers or whoever made that character was intending him to be gay or to act gay but I think it's because they want to show kids that there are real people that are out there like him.
 
Doesn't he use the first person pronoun atashi in the Japanese version? I've heard that only gay men and girls use that pronoun...
 
Kasumi said:
He also wants Max, Brock and Norman.
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Undeniably true. End of story.

Anyway, to other responses here:

A lot of fans were under the impression Harley was gay waaaaay before the episode premiered where he cross-dressed as May. Don't forget--that episode didn't premiere until almost the very end of Battle Frontier, and Harley had made many appearances beforehand. So, no, it's most definitely not construed simply just because of the cross-dressing. Cross-dressing does not mean someone is gay. Harley is construed as being gay because he is written and displayed as a stereotypical gay male. It's not just a matter of "oh, he's feminine and he cross-dresses, therefore, he's gay" (e.g., some views on James). Harley's one-time cross-dressing moment was just another example of how feminine he could get.

I perssonally think it's pretty silly for someone to deny that the writers wrote him with this very particular intention, because, hey, they obviously did. And we all love Harley for it. <3
 
pinksmear said:
I don't know why the writers or whoever made that character was intending him to be gay or to act gay but I think it's because they want to show kids that there are real people that are out there like him.
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Because he's an amazing rival? It's not as if having a gay character in an series is going to ruin it . . I personally think it helped boost the popularity of the show, or at the very least, contests. He added interesting dynamics between characters and he was just really fun to watch.

And about the Saori/Harley thing, in the dub, Saori merely said that she was very good friends with him, iirc she also said something like, "Yeah, Harley's my buddy, I really like him." You could pull two things out of there, that they're just friends, or that Saori has a crush on Harley. Personally, I never thought of the latter until it was brought up here. XDD
 
xdeadpan said:
And we all love Harley for it. <3
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well, not "all", sadly... there are the homophobes, after all. For instance, Squirtle007 (for those who aren't familiar with me on SPPF, he's a little fucker I argued with who outright said that Harley's a bad rival just because he's gay... then tried denying it, and proceeded to further push himself into a corner and lose what little respect he had from everyone there like the asshat that he is XD).
 
Blackjack Palazzo said:
I thought it was an example of how far he'd go to embarass May.
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That, too, most definitely. But I think you have to consider his willingness to cross-dress, too, but you're right--I think it was more about humiliating May than anything else.

Blackjack Palazzo said:
Could we ever see his ears before then? Because as May he had earrings, and I don't remember ever seeing those before.
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I always wondered about, too.

Yamato-san said:
well, not "all", sadly... there are the homophobes, after all. For instance, Squirtle007 (for those who aren't familiar with me on SPPF, he's a little fucker I argued with who outright said that Harley's a bad rival just because he's gay... then tried denying it, and proceeded to further push himself into a corner and lose what little respect he had from everyone there like the asshat that he is XD).
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Those people are morons. And little fuckers. ;p
 
I don't think its just his mannerisms that made people like Harley, its his unique personality and his "villain" side. He's the only rival not to "play by the rules." While Paul thinks Ash is pathetic, he's not really doing anything wrong, he's just harsh with his Pokemon and releases the weaklings.

Harley on the other hand tries to manipulate his opponents, teams up with Team Rocket, he cheats during the appeal stage to try and make May lose, and he has a real amusing dynamic with May/Drew. And Harley's team of Cacturne, Banette, Octillery, Ariados and Wigglytuff are arguable some of the best Pokemon the writers could have given him.

I really don't think the writers can possibly create another rival like him, and judging Dawn's rivals which are Zoey and Kengo, neither of them are as interesting as Harley either.

Lastly, I'm glad that both dubs, 4kids and PUSA, handled Harley really well. He had an appropiate voice in both, and both dubs arguably made him even more gay than he was in the original. 4kids has Harley refer to May as, "Just you wait till next time, girlfriend," and PUSA has Harley call May his "little sugar muffin" and says that Ash/Max/Brock were May's "boytoys."

To this day I'm amazed that such a character was created in Pokemon no less, not to mention him NOT being toned down in the dub, but made even more flamboyant in the english versions. Amazing.
 
I said he obviously not gay , because, even though he is very feminine, Harely doesn't hit on, or seem to be attracted to any males. Most of the stuff he did was to harass and embarrass Haruka/May. I want to see him in Hoso episode.

Personally, I see him as a metrosexual.

BTW, The Japanese think of Gay males, as men who want to be women, (the Anime Companion 2) so in their eyes, they probably see him as Gay.
 
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