Long before Suicide Squad was extremely popular, Harleen Quinzel was a popular character. Now days, you can easily see Harley prancing around any convention. This beloved character has a blessed place in my heart for all of eternity. When people ask me why, I usually just reply simply with, "because I relate to her a lot", a simple humble answer. I haven't sat down and really written out how we are similar, so, this is what this blog post is for.
Harley is fucking crazy, we can't deny that. She's scheming, devious, and very out there. She is a strong character who knows her faults but truly embraces them. She's a crazy bitch but she loves it. Harley has fun with her insanity, she goes against main stream morals and easily switches sides to see whatever benefits her the most.
She's incredibly intelligent as well. Harley has a very strong feminist appeal because she's independent and can exist on her own without the Joker, but she's a hopeless romantic, much like me, who will go to the end of the world for her Puddin'. Even if he repetitively keeps throwing her away.
She has this undeniable ambition to search for herself, even though she doesn't completely know what she's searching for. Harley wants to create order because growing up her life was very chaotic, which I can myself highly relate to as well. So, she pushed herself through college and to work in Arkham. She changed herself into her alternate persona, Harley, for the Joker. "I loved flushing away the control. The goals. The regiment way of life I'd had. I was finally free. Free to forget. To play for fun. To play crazy."
Harley has a strong sense of compassion towards people she cares about, but if you don't fall into that category, she often doesn't care.
Harleen continued with a life of crime that she didn't feel was right, but forced herself to become so that the Joker would love her the way she loved him, which I can strongly relate to as well. Once Joker steps back and stops controlling her, she hits a new identity crisis. Exactly where I am in my life, actually, currently.
Harley uses obsessions to help define herself, it creates who she is. Harleen builds these personas, similar to the ones in the Harley Quinn comics. She meets Power Girl after she has a spout of amnesia and confuses her into thinking they are best friends. Something, I myself would do.
In the end I can mostly relate to her passion. She's passionate about change and going against societies norms, she only feels free when she feels as if she can do anything she wants. Her actions cause chaos, so many people write her off as just a "female joker", which simply isn't true. Harleen is constantly trying to figure out who she is and what her role in the world is.
