James Gunn's The Suicide Squad contains DC characters that are beloved, such as Harley Quinn, and mostly forgotten, such as Ratcatcher 2. Creating meaningful and tragic backstories for each character as well as making them all unique and relatable should have been a huge challenge, but the writing makes the audience care about even the worst villains of the DCU.
The tragic backstories give more depth to the characters and create sad moments that allow the audience to become invested in their journey. The dialogue also reveals a lot about the characters, such as Harley's desire to be in a normal relationship for once, and Bloodsport's protective nature over his daughter.
Harley's Red Flags
Fan-favorite character Harley Quinn is utilized well in The Suicide Squad, showing off her intelligence and resourcefulness when she escapes the palace compound. Her usual brand of humor is a great foil to Bloodsport's bluntness, but even the funniest characters have a sad side to their story.
Harley shoots Silvio Luna, a handsome dictator who tries to marry her, because he wants to send innocent civilians to be experimented on at the lab. She states that she'll kill any guy that exhibits red flags due to her traumatic past with the Joker, who abused her both mentally and physically.
Starro Was Abducted
A formidable villain in the comics, Starro the Conqueror almost beat the Justice League many times and is a threat in The Suicide Squad that the team must beat before he demolishes an entire country. However, there are many instances in the film where Starro is a victim. Starro was abducted and tortured for 30 years, and his final line is heartbreaking: "I was happy floating among the stars..."
The mini starfish that Starro ejects are all part of him, explained by the Thinker as an extension of Starro rather than offspring. Anything that happens to the bodies Starro controls, Starro would feel, including the Thinker's grotesque experiments and the implied sexual assault that the Thinker inflicted on one of the captured women.
Bloodsport Was Trapped In A Cage
Bloodsport's storylines in the DC comics have seem him go toe-to-toe with Superman several times in the comics, referenced in the movie as the reason for his incarceration, as a result of traumatic training that he received as a child. At first, Bloodsport's fear of rats is played for laughs, but then Bloodsport tells the story of how his abusive father trapped him in a cage filled with starving rats.
The story is both terrifying and tear-jerking, and it makes his character much more sympathetic for the rest of the film. Bloodsport is finally able to get past his fear by making friends with Ratcatcher 2, patting her pet rat, Sebastian, in the final moments of the film.
Ratcatcher 2's Past
Ratcatcher 2 becomes the heart of The Suicide Squad as the other characters grow to trust her and Bloodsport begins to see her as a sort of adopted daughter. She brings the characters together and even makes Peacemaker hesitate at the end.
Ratcatcher 2's saddest moment comes when she tells the story of her father's death, saying that she adored him but was powerless to prevent him from dying. Late in the movie, Taika Waititi appears in a flashback as the original Ratcatcher, giving his daughter advice and urging her to live, and despite Ratcatcher 2's tears at the memory, she presses on and saves the day.
Polka-Dot Man Wants To Die
Polka-Dot Man's entire character is sad. He begins the movie utterly defeated, being bullied by the other Belle Reve inmates for his polka-dot-themed superpower. During the mission, he wakes up in the night covered in horrifying glowing dots that obscure his face and has to leave the camp to expel them.
Possibly the saddest moment is during the initial mission briefing when Bloodsport says they all might die, and Polka-Dot Man replies, "if only," indicating his desire to end it all. In the end, Polka-Dot Man really does become a hero, helping to melt some of Starro's leg with his dots. He dies in action, but does so screaming happily that he has become a hero at last.
Polkadot Man Sees His Mother Everywhere
Polka-Dot Man reveals that because of the experimentation in his youth, he sees his mother everywhere, which is hilarious when he envisions Starro as a giant woman. It's also sad because he can never escape his abusive mother. The audience's knowledge of this makes all of his interactions with other people tragic, since all he sees when he looks at them is his mother. On first viewing, it might seem that Polka-Dot Man looks away from Harley because he's nervous around beautiful women, but in truth, he just doesn't want to see his mother in a skimpy red dress.
Polka-Dot Man is one of the most wholesome characters in The Suicide Squad due to his nervous nature. The audience almost instinctively wants to protect him, which is an achievement in the writing, seeing as he's actually a villain.
Bloodsport's Relationship With His Daughter
Idris Elba is a great actor when put into emotional scenes, and one of his best is at the beginning when his daughter comes to visit him at Belle Reve. The visit is sad because Bloodsport's lack of presence and influence has seemingly caused his daughter to rebel against her mother and lash out at her father for being absent. Despite his gruff exterior, Bloodsport is protective of his daughter, agreeing to go on the mission to prevent her incarceration.
There is, however, a nice moment in the end when Bloodsport's daughter sees him on TV as a hero. She acknowledges him as her dad and seems to be proud of him, indicating that there may be a reconciliation in the future.
King Shark Has No Friends
King Shark, or Nanaue as he is called in the movie, is a major villain who has appeared in The Flash TV show and many DC comics. Some of King Shark's best appearances in the comics have him in a terrifying hammerhead shark form, but the rounder face of the great white shark, as well as his dad-bod, makes Nanaue much more lovable.
In The Suicide Squad, Nanaue almost eats Ratcatcher 2, and Bloodsport has to shoot him to remind him that fish are friends, not food. The saddest thing about Nanaue is that he has no friends, and even when he makes friends with Ratcatcher 2, he is forced to sit in the van and wait for her while the humans work undercover at the bar. Even more upsetting is when he finally makes friends with the terrifying squid-fish and they turn on him, trying to eat him like leeches.
Savant Is Terrified At The Beach
The trained killer Savant kills a bird at the very start of the film, which is sad, but even sadder is his death when he runs away from the slaughter, terrified of the bloodshed. His death is kind of vindicating, since he killed an innocent bird, plus the birds got their own back when one of them lands on his body and picks at his corpse.
Savant's terror at the horrifying scene is played for laughs, but it highlights the horror of war as well as the power that Waller has over her Task Force. Waller's drive to succeed forces characters to make terrible choices, as seen in Peacemaker's final scenes.
Many Characters Were Experimented On
Many of the characters' sad backstories come from experimentation or torture that has been inflicted on them. Starro is tortured for decades, Polka-Dot Man is an experiment gone wrong, Bloodsport was abused by his father, and Harley is tortured by the Corto Maltese government. The people of Corto Maltese are taken from their families and experimented on by the Thinker in his lab, including children, which horrifies Rick Flag.
The Suicide Squad as a whole are barely more than lab rats for Amanda Waller's needs, regardless of how nonsensical or cruel her plans might be, having been injected with bombs and tracking devices that Waller uses to control them.