Why Did Harley and Joker Break Up in ‘Birds of Prey’?

In the movie Birds of Prey, Harley Quinn tells us her life story, introducing us to her childhood, her unloving father, growing up with nuns, and eventually working at Arkham Asylum. She also reveals that she had a few breakups along the way, but nothing that could compare to the love story between her and the Joker, her beloved Mr. J. That’s right, this wacky duo is no longer together in Birds of Prey, and in this article, we will reveal why did Harley and Joker break up in Birds of Prey.

Harley and Joker break up because Harley is sick of living in Joker’s shadow. She was more intelligent than the Joker and often planned their major heists. However, Joker always took all the credit. Harley realizes that the Joker never truly cared about her and that she had been living her life for him, not for herself. She decides to take control of her life and break free from the Joker’s influence. However, breaking up with the Joker has consequences, as Harley loses the protection and immunity she had, making her the target of all the people she wronged in the past.

The relationship between Harley and the Joker is one of the most exciting and dysfunctional relationships we’ve had the chance to see in movies. Also, it is well known that all good things must come to an end, and sadly, their relationship also met its conclusion. We often look back at what we had only after we lost it, and Harley does the same in this movie. She explained why she and the Joker broke up. And further, in this article, we will share that story with you.

Why did Harley Quinn and the Joker break up?

Birds of Prey was a great movie because we had the chance to get to know Harley Quinn much better than we were able to in Suicide Squad. The reason for this is that Birds of Prey focused more on her and her storyline rather than on a large group of antiheroes, as in Suicide Squad.

Additionally, the movie is interesting because Harley spends significant time narrating events in the first person, providing us with a more in-depth explanation of the entire situation that unfolded, which all culminated because of her breakup with the Joker.

After a difficult childhood, Harley managed to put her life together, graduating and earning her Ph.D., ultimately becoming a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum. There, she met the Joker, her patient, and her life became more complicated. She gradually fell in love with him, became obsessed with him, and all of this led to her becoming one of the most notorious villains in Gotham alongside the Joker.

As she explains it, she fell hard for Joker, ”Out of an airplane without a parachute right on a dumb F face kinda hard”, to be exact. She had lost all sense of who she was and only had eyes for Joker, her ‘Puddin”. She helped Joker orchestrate many of his heists and often was the one who came up with plans. Basically, she was the brains of most operations, but Joker never gave her credit for that. At least he never admitted that to other people. So, little by little, all the small problems culminated, and Harley and Joker broke up.

According to Harley, she handled it really maturely, and the Joker was the one who was devastated by their breakup. She found herself a place of her own, reflected on her past mistakes, and was ready to move on. Of course, Harley sugarcoated all of it. She was heartbroken at first, but she got herself a pet hyena named Bruce to keep her company and indulged herself in alcohol and aggressive behavior to keep her mind occupied.

However, the only reason why everyone around Harley put up with her erratic behavior was due to the fact that they did not know that she had broken up with Joker. As Joker’s Queen, she was respected and feared by almost everyone, and that was mostly because the Joker always had her back, and anyone who would do anything to Harley, even looked at her in the wrong way, would often meet his end at the spot. And now, after the breakup, Joker’s protection was gone, but Harley was not quite ready to let that information be general knowledge.

Some people have Eiffel Tower and Olive Garden- Harley and Joker have ACE Chemicals

Breakup aside, what bugged Harley the most was the fact that people around her didn’t see her as an independent woman but rather as someone who was in constant need of having an alpha male by her side. So, to prove them wrong, she decided to cut all ties with the Joker and thought of a perfect way to show the world that their relationship was over.

While regular people have their places where their romances bloomed, like Eiffel Tower and Olive Garden, Harley, and the Joker had their own highly toxic (appropriate) place where their love bloomed. It was ACE Chemical, a highly toxic industrial plant. Their love began there when Joker pushed Harley into the container filled with toxic liquid with a simple question: ” Would you die for me?” as if that was not tense enough, he asked her an even more complex philosophical question, ”Would you live for me?”, and then pushed her.

Harley survived the fall, and the Joker gets his confirmation that Harley is the one for him. So, Harley thought it would be appropriate to destroy the same place that everyone knows is the symbol of her and Joker’s love. She stole the truck and steered it directly toward ACE Chemicals, which caused a massive explosion.

Of course, by blowing the plant up, Harley publicly announced that she and the Joker had broken up, which also meant that she was no longer under his protection. And as there were a lot of people in Gotham who wanted her dead, it was bad news for Harley. It took only six hours after her public announcement of her breakup, and every person she ever wronged started to come after her.

Nevertheless, Harley eventually proved that she is capable of taking care of herself without the Joker. She teams up with Black Canary, Huntress, and Renee Montoya to protect a young pickpocket named Cassandra Cain from the crime lord Roman Sionis, also known as Black Mask. Following the defeat of Black Mask, the four women part ways. Black Canary, Huntress, and Renee Montoya form a crime-fighting team called the “Birds of Prey.” On the other hand, Harley strikes out on her own with Cassandra as her sidekick, and they start a business selling stolen items.