14 Simple Fixes That Could Have Made Suicide Squad Awesome

The Problem

The Joker and Harley Quinn's relationship never quite rings true: it feels half-developed and full of half-ideas. This is probably in no small part down to the fact that the edit apparently cut out some pretty key scenes between the two establishing their abusive relationship, explaining why Harley is as she is and furthering the image of the Joker as an arch-controller.

Without those, he just looks like an emo puppy dog in love.

The Solution

It might be controversial, but the film was missing an explicit portrait of The Joker's abuse of Harley Quinn (and before her Harleen Quinzel of course). That is a massive part of their dynamic and it's the only way to make the tragedy of Harley's backstory actually sing through. Without it in Suicide Squad we were presented with the idea that Dr Quinzel - a professional - simply got a crush on The Joker and didn't fight it.

There was no conditioning, none of him showing his evil genius, it just sort of happened incidentally, and that is catastrophic for his image. And so too is the removal of the volatility of their relationship: he's a monster, not a romantic, and his striving to get Harley back should never, ever have been about loving her. He needs her as a symbol of his control, a play-thing that he's angry at losing ownership of.

That won't jive with outrage over the portrayal of destructive relationships, but it would address the fact that this Joker is just about the most unJokerish Joker there has ever been.