In the original ending, I believe, Animal Mother takes the machete he's been carrying the whole film and hacks off her head and holds it up triumphantly. That would've been dumb and way over the top.

The whole film Joker has a jones to be "in the shit" and "see some action." Animal Mother puts him up to it when the time calls only after he fucks up and cowers when a fifteen y.o. girl practically has him in her clutches until she fucks up. He got his wish of "being the first kid on his block to get a confirmed kill" that will haunt him for the rest of his life much like the entire experience will.

That was a good write up.

I agree that the second half gets a lot of undue hate. And it's not even a half it's like three quarters of the film. They were trained for anything and still got caught up in casualties for a semi-combatless portion of the film (if we're talking about one remaining sniper against the whole squad). And it's not just the sniper having good aim, it's a calculated move injuring Eightball to lure Doc Jay before attempting to lure someone else one by one to pick them all off. The sniper, a child, was trained too.