Boomstick: Jinx, the loose cannon of League of Legends.
Wiz: We live in a society that adheres to strict laws and norms, but these two ladies turn that system on its head with their wild enthusiasm for destruction and chaos.
The ninth season of Death Battle begins with a duel between two psychotic and enthusiastic women who love to blow stuff up.
[this episode recap is a work in progress; apologies for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience]
We open in a creepy abandoned fairground where Harley Quinn has won a teddy bear after successfully completing the "Test Your Strength" challenge. As she's about to leave, however, a flock of crows flies past her before they get blown up by a rocket that was fired by Jinx's Fishbones rocket launcher. As she tries shooting more crows, one of her missiles ends up hitting Harley Quinn's prize. After both girls state that they love making stuff blow up, Harley Quinn decides to kill Jinx by trying to shoot her head off with her popgun.
FIGHT!
Jinx and Harley begin shooting at each other with their weapons, with Jinx managing to kill another crow with her rocket launcher, but Harley manages to shoot a cork that rebounds off the "Test Your Strength" bell and hits Jinx in the back before exploding, sending her towards the mad psychiatrist. Harley capitalizes on this by hitting her blue-haired opponent into the ground with her big mallet. Before she can smash her again, though, Jinx uses her teleporter to warp behind her.
Jinx pretends that Fishbones is on Harley's side and warning her that her opponent is behind her. Harley is grateful for the warning until Jinx fires another missile at her, which she narrowly avoids before chastising Fishbones for the sudden betrayal. Harley swings her mallet at Jinx some more until it's taken away from her. She then puts on some Groucho Marx glasses and asks Jinx if she can light her cigar, which is actually a stick of dynamite.
Jinx obliges and fires another rocket at Harley, who uses the flame to light the dynamite in her mouth. She then takes off her joke glasses and sticks the dynamite into Jinx's mouth before kicking her away. Jinx, still holding the dynamite in her mouth, laughs and swings Harley's own mallet at her until she kicks it upwards. Annoyed, Harley Quinn uses her gun to trap Jinx in some confetti that ties her up and then regains her hammer, which she uses to knock Jinx into a merry-go-round. Jinx gets back up and, still tied up, manages to avoid Harley's hammer strikes which end up hitting the horses.
We then see that both girls are running anti-clockwise on the merry-go-round and getting nowhere fast. Jinx eventually bounces off one of the horses and knocks Harley backwards, then uses her Phantom Dancer to free herself from the confetti and then fires her Zappershot at Harley. Dodging the shots, Harley tries to attack Jinx with her stretching boxing glove, but Jinx avoids the glove and places the stick of dynamite that she has been holding in her mouth into the glove. Harley's boxing glove returns holding the dynamite, thus bringing it up to her face.
The resulting explosion destroys the merry-go-round, but Jinx escapes by riding Fishbones through the air. She lands in a rollercoaster, only to find Harley Quinn sitting next to her and holding onto her teleportation device to see if it has any games on it. Angry about her save files being tampered with, Jinx begins to fight with Harley over the device, causing it to send them to many different locations until they return to the fairground where their rollercoaster is launched up into the air. Both girls find themselves suspended in mid-air with most of their weapons flying away.
Both Jinx and Harley Quinn end up falling into a tent which houses the Hall of Mirrors where Jinx sees a large box that is filled with the Joker's laughing gas which instantly makes Jinx remember her past as she punches a mirror that resembles her sister, Vi. Jinx pulls out her Pow-Pow minigun and uses it to shoot the mirrors that Harley runs around to hide behind. The Joker's lover tries to attack Jinx from behind with her baseball bat, but Jinx grabs the bat and, with her Quicksilver Sash cancelling out the effects of the gas, knocks Harley backwards and unloads her minigun into her chest before kicking her out of the tent and into the hammer game.
As Jinx approaches her downed opponent, Harley prepares her joy buzzer and tries to convince Jinx to get in closer to try and savor her emotions before her death. Unfortunately for the psychiatrist, Jinx is not interested and instead opts to shoot her with her Super Mega Death Rocket. The missile carries Harley Quinn high into the air where it soon explodes, spelling out the message "Get Jinxed". Jinx does a peace sign at the camera as Harley's head manages to ring the "Test Your Strength" bell.
KO!
With Harley Quinn's destruction, the hosts prepare to talk about the first post-fight analysis of the season. Harley did have more experience fighting superpowered beings as well as superior training, but Jinx's physical strength and wide array of weapons and gadgets gave her the edge. While Harley Quinn was able to lift 1,200 pounds, Jinx is almost on the same level as Vi, whose gauntlets weigh 8 times Harley Quinn's tree-lifting feat. Even though Harley was more acrobatic, Jinx's Hextech and intangibility easily countered her mobility, especially as Jinx can use her teleporting tablet to warp herself and Harley just about anywhere in the universe. Also, while Harley Quinn does have a healing factor, she has never been able to regenerate entire body parts, meaning that a big enough explosion would definitely kill her, and Jinx had enough firepower to do just that. Lux's magic explosion would have required a yield of about 20 kilotons of TNT in order to destroy 13,000 tons of rock. Harley and Jinx were both intelligent women, but Jinx is less likely to trust people she has only just met, meaning that Harley's mind games would likely not have worked on her as Jinx is more likely to shoot people before trusting them. Finally, even though Harley had a wide arsenal of chemicals like the Joker Venom that would kill most opponents in minutes, Jinx has built up a bigger tolerance for poison than any normal human being due to living her life in Zaun, as well as the Quicksilver Sash that can simply end any sort of poisonous effects on her.
- Boomstick: Harley clowned around only to get her bell rung by someone out of her league!
Wiz: The winner is Jinx.
Harley Quinn vs Jinx contains examples of:
- Bait-and-Switch: At the end of the fight, once Jinx has Harley cornered, it seems like she's going to pull off the same trick that Joker pulled on Sweet Tooth and shock Jinx to death with her joybuzzer. However, Jinx doesn't take the bait and kills Harley right then and there.
- Bookends: The fight animation starts with Harley ringing the bell of a "Test Your Strength" Game before fighting Jinx, the fight ends with Harley's head ringing the bell again after she was blown up.
- Breaking Old Trends: Neither rundown ends with the combatant in question delivering a notable quote and/or performing an impressive feat. This is justified as the YouTube release of the previous episode, Saitama Vs Popeye
was blocked prior due to copyright so after that was rereleased without the end of analysis quotes, this would apply for all future episodes. - Broken Win/Loss Streak: This is the first matchup between a DC character and a non-Marvel character in which the DC character loses. This is especially notable as the streak has been going since Season 1 thanks to Goku Vs Superman.
- The Bus Came Back: A meta example. In the post fight analysis, a card showing the fighters advantages and disadvantages shows up, something that hasn’t been seen since Wolverine VS Raiden, all the way back in season 2.
- Call-Back: A wounded Harley tries to manipulate Jinx into getting in close to try and set up a killing blow, much like her ex did with Sweet Tooth several seasons ago. Unlike Sweet Tooth, Jinx doesn’t take the bait.Harley Quinn: Don’t you wanna get in close and savor my emotions as you deliver the final kill?
Jinx: Hmm... nah. Bye-bye! - The Cameo:
- While fighting over Jinx's teleporter, the two are transported to the skies over Mikasa and Blake's battle. The two can be seen for a split second before they teleport again.
- Vi briefly appears in a mirror during Jinx's hallucination.
- Clothing Damage: Harley's jacket ends up destroyed during the climax.
- Fanboy: Ringmaster turns out to be a hardcore League of Legends fanatic, and takes over part of Jinx's analysis to explain the items Jinx has at her disposal... as well as shill the game a little bit, much to the annoyance of Boomstick (who apparently had a much less pleasant game experience).
- Fighting Across Time and Space: Harley and Jinx unintentionally do this while fighting on a roller coaster over Jinx's Hextech tablet, warping through several places, including the town where Blake and Mikasa fought, and a world that's just a constant TV test screen.
- Friendly Enemy: Despite Harley's declaration that she'll pop off Jinx's head, both women have a lot of fun playing off of each other's oddball behavior, up until Harley gives Jinx a dose of Joker Venom.
- The Gloves Are Off: For the most part, Jinx is content to playfully screw around and generally treat the battle like a fun game. Once the Joker Venom-filled hall of mirrors mashes on her Trauma Button, however, she goes completely ballistic and begins fighting to kill Harley as violently as possible.
- Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: After struggling with each other on a rollercoaster, the rollercoaster derails, and Jinx and Harley find themselves floating in the air with a long drop below. They both fall into a tent laughing the whole way down.Jinx: Well, that's unfortunate.
Harley: [nods] - Ham-to-Ham Combat: As expected from a battle between two eccentric Genki Girls, Harley and Jinx are clearly enjoying themselves throughout their clash.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Harley tries to do this at the climax of their fight, but Jinx keeps her distance and finishes her off.
- Mood Whiplash: From the moment Harley's prize is destroyed by a stray shot from Fishbones, the battle is a combination of fast-paced action and Looney Tunes-esque comedy. That is, until Jinx's psychosis kicks into high gear, and she wastes no time slaughtering Harley in a frightening fit of madness. Her voice even goes from cheery and mischievous like Sarah Anne Williams to menacing and deranged ala Ella Purnell.
- Oh, Crap!: Jinx, while the Joker Venom made this difficult to see, warns Harley to run before she fully loses it, meaning she knew that she was going mad and couldn't stop it.
- Symbolic Blood: When Jinx is gunning down Harley, we see red feathers fly out of the latter, referencing Harley's hallucinations in Suicide Squad (2016).
- Sound-Effect Bleep: While Jinx and Harley are fighting over Jinx's Hextech tablet (which Harley is using to play video games), the two are rapidly warping through different dimensions via rollercoaster, leading to Harley dying in the game with this going off.Harley: You made me die! You- (Cue them entering a TV test world with an ongoing beep censoring her insult)
- Take That!: During Harley's rundown, Wiz delves into her background as a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum analyzing the Joker, where she learns of his "horrific, unspeakable history" as both a homicidal clown and Jared Leto. Cue a shot of Leto screaming as the Joker.
- "Test Your Strength" Game: Since the fight takes place at an abandoned amusement park, Harley obviously uses her hammer to ring the bell on a strength tester game, which she does at the start of the animation. The fight ends with her severed head falling onto the same machine and once again ringing the bell.
