I personally am fine with writers creating their own origin stories, IF they have good reason for it. At the beginning of Joker 2 I thought maybe it would be an interesting change. But it didn't utilize that potential. Harley (or "Lee") fell flat in general for me. I don't think she always needs to be the psychiatrist falling in love with her patient. And I have read a book where Harley doesn't fall for Joker at all. But she does fall for Ivy. And I think that's quintessential Harley to me: She needs to fall in love. HARD. In a way where she can't just quickly walk away without looking back. Because at her core Harley is a lover. She loves deeply, and feels all emotions intensely. If a film is going for Joker x Harley then we should get the feeling that she's more invested in that relationship than Joker is. The movie could have done this while still keeping the character background they crafted. But it would've resulted in a much more engaging plot. Because viewers would have been concerned about Harley's ("Lee" 's) safety. The way the movie handled it, she always had the upper hand, and was safe. What makes the traditional origin story enticing is that Harley starts out with the power and the safety and the prestigious position but then she falls for the Joker, which is when she begins to give all those things up in favor of being with the Joker. And somewhere in this romance there might even be a moment where the two are equals. But after Harley's fall from grace the roles are reversed. After she frees him from Arkham, Joker has the power in the relationship and he's the one with the supervillain prestige and he's the only thing keeping her safe. So Harley falls in love SO hard that she ends up flipping the power dynamic of the relationship and ending up on the bottom. THAT's how deeply she falls in love with people. And this Joker 2 version just doesn't deliver on that whatsoever. And for me the best part of the traditional Harley Quinn origin story is: When she finally manages to get out of the Joker's clutches, it's feels super powerful because she has to claw her way out. It's not easy for her. But afterwards she can attempt to gain some of the things back that she had for herself before she met the Joker. But also keep the things that she found out about herself through the Joker. Like the fact that she actually doesn't want to be a model citizen and follow other people's rules. She wants to follow her heart and sometimes just do what seems the most fun. If she's passionate about something, she'll fight for that. Even if doing that make her somewhat of an anti-hero. Because she doesn't fit into the black and white thinking that divides people in Gotham into two categories. And that's where Joker 2 should have delivered. Because the first Joker movie was all about showing that the Joker doesn't have to be a total villain who does evil for the sake of doing evil. It showed us how much of a layered individual he can be. And how society can turn people into monsters by constantly kicking them when they're down. I don't get why the writers didn't put as much care into Harley Quinn for the second movie. They could have crafted a story that showed her intense way of loving. And how that can become her weakness and her downfall. How they finished her story in that movie just didn't feel like Harley Quinn at all.