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Suicide Squad: Kicking Open The Door For Female Villains

Have you ever noticed the way female villains are presented in movies? Firstly, compared to their male counterparts, women with nefarious agendas are few and far between. Secondly, while male villains can have motivations that range from simple to complex, female villains tend to be mentally ill, or suffering some kind of deep-seated, ‘a-man-done-me-wrong’ kind of emotional damage. Rarely, in cinema, do we see a female villain who is driven purely by a desire for power, or money, or non-romance-related revenge.

The Female Villains Of Suicide Squad

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Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) sets the whole thing in motion, and is the omniscient puppet-master determining the fate of her Task Force X. She is formidable, ambitious and in pursuit of nothing but greater power and influence. She has a past and – while comic book fans will be aware of what that entailed – for the purposes of this movie, we are not privy to the details. They are entirely irrelevant. There are certainly a number of hints dropped – particularly by Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) – but all we need to know is, this is a dangerous individual. In a film that is specifically about villains, Amanda Waller is the worst of the worst, by far.

Then there’s Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), who initially seems to be the gold standard in ‘woman driven to evil by romantic pain.’ She’s the abused girlfriend of The Joker, so it all makes a twisted kind of sense at first. But, we soon discover a little more about her former life (through flashback) and see that, in fact, The Joker was just the psychopath she was looking for to appeal to her own suppressed tendencies.

In discussing the relationship between the two disturbed supervillains, Amanda Waller states that Harley Quinn is “crazier than he is,” and Waller is not wrong. Harley Quinn is mentally ill, and her illness is exacerbated by the ever-increasing trauma she experiences at the hands of her beloved Mistah J. But, at her core, she is simply an individual that needs to feels that she is a part of something bigger than herself – whether that is an unhealthy relationship with an infamous criminal, or a task force of baddies sent into places nobody else wants to go. That is the need that drives her, and often causes internal conflict, as other opportunities compete with her secret wish to settle down with the Clown Prince Of Crime.

Moving on to The Enchantress (Cara Delevingne), we find the epitome of evil. She is literally a malevolent sorceress who is deeply resentful at having been imprisoned by humanity for centuries. She is a powerful female, raging against the arrogance of those that sought to confine her with limitations. She formulates a plan for world domination, and puts it into motion. While she co-opts her brother and some faceless minions into helping her make her desire a reality, Enchantress is recognised as one of the most powerful beings in existence.

She seeks neither permission, nor forgiveness from those around her, but in the final confrontation, asks Katana to kill her so that she can join her deceased sibling. She frames this as an act of mercy, and Colonel Flag stops Katana from committing the act. Enchantress then gets what she wants by challenging Flag’s masculinity.

katana suicide squad

Lastly, there is Katana (Karen Fukuhara) whose serial killing use of a soul-taker sword is motivated by the murder of her husband – which, in itself, is a beautiful subversion of a narrative usually played out by a man. We have, for decades, watched male character after male character take up arms in response to the murder of his nameless, idealised spouse – to the extent that it becomes about the loss of a favourite possession. Here, we have an intimidating, highly skilled martial artist, spurred on by the unjust ruination of her life, through the killing of the man she loved.

All of these women are criminals, and each of them rack up a sizeable body count throughout the film. They are also the least sympathetic characters in the film, because none of them show remorse or hesitation. Even El Diablo, who murdered his wife and children, is a sympathetic character – because for most of the proceedings he refuses to use the powers he employed to kill his family, and eventually gains redemption in the end by saving the squad.

The female villains, on the other hand, don’t seek redemption. They simply seek the freedom to pursue their respective goals.